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But I don't know that is absolutely a shit eating grin. Yes. And just like the way he initially held a straight face and like pursed his lips and then just went into this grin, I don't know again, this is the dumbest. This is, I mean, yesterday we were breaking down the clothes on 19 year old is where this is going to be fucking silly until we have resolution here. But like, I'm feeling it man and he was feeling good vibes here. We were told, you know, and it was, we've heard in that article that came out months ago now at this point, like, you know, by the end of June, we'll have something from this. Yeah. And it was a good question by Jackie, the Inquire basically was like, is that actually the deadline? And Danny's point is like, I don't freaking know and he's right. Like, I think, I think the deadline, it's more self-imposed because like SKA St. Petersburg, they want to know one way or the other by the end of June whether this guy is going to be in the mix for them. Hey, you got that money? They, they want to know, I mean, I, from my understanding is that their training camp starts around like the end of July. So they would, they would like to have the knowledge of whether we have to find a spot for this guy or we have to work on a loan or whatever they'd like to know. That said, I don't think it's like, well, if it's not done by June 30, if it's not happening, like they could theoretically terminate the contract at any point. Ivan Fadotov's contract got terminated in March. Yeah. Exactly. They can terminate that contract any day they want. Yeah, as long as they are sufficiently motivated to do so, that's, and I thought you had a good kind of a, this was used, the follow up about you've navigated, you've navigated Fadotov. You're dealing with the Mijkov situation. You were not that worried about dealing with Russian players, basically. And Danny said, I think we've shown we're not. Yeah. Exactly. Hey, everybody. How you doing? Well, that's good. My name is Bill Matt's, I'm your director of Funny Games for the evening, joining me as always on this little bonus show, I guess we're going to call it, even though it's Monday and it would typically be our first show scheduled off day. So joining me on this bonus show is Charlie O'Connor, Mr. number one beat reporter. 24 hours later, how are we feeling knowing that we're going to be watching Mafe Mijkov come the fall? I'm excited. It's going to make this season a lot more fun. To be sure, no, it certainly increased fan interest, people who have sworn off the flyers for an extended period of time, I think will at the very least give them another look. That said, look, I still believe this is going to happen. However, I did not expect that by 1pm on Monday after everything that went down yesterday, that we would still be waiting on a final report from Scott St. Petersburg. I'm not concerned. I just don't understand why they haven't reported it yet. God damn it, Charlie. I know. No, it is, it is, I wouldn't say concerning, but it's like, all right, man, let's go. Like, I already, you know, we're talking about buying jerseys and designing shirts and stuff. And it's like, you know, I, I want to know what number this guy's wearing. It's like, well, you know, he still has to sign on the line. There still has to be the final, like, okay, contract is terminated. This whole thing's done. And then he has to get on a plane and come here. And then he has to sign is kind of like things still need to happen. But that clip we played the previously on to start the show. I do have to apologize to some for lying to the audience. I try not to do that, but it seems that I did in the clip, I said, this is going to be silly until we have some resolution. No, no, it's going to get far fucking sillier. This is Mitch Koff mania is already running wild. And like Charlie started the show saying, it's not even really 100% yet. Like, are we, you don't think we've jumped the gun and in a couple of days we're going to be doing a show where it's like, ah, fuck, do you? Well, look, I can tell you that if, if it doesn't go down, the flyers very much believed yesterday was going to go down. And the amount of national writers who at, like, at some point during the course of yesterday, ultimately, we're also able to get, I would assume was independent confirmation, like, I think it was LeBron who like seemed to have confirmation straight from Scott St. Petersburg, where he basically said that they are positioning this as, you know, we're doing him a solid because of his dad and giving him a chance to play the NHL. We talked about this about how they're, they're going to sell it in Russia as if they are the good guys here, giving this kid a chance. But like that struck me to something that they didn't get from the flyers. They got that from Scott. So it would shock me if this doesn't happen, we're so far down the road. You just wonder if like, there's a scenario where like one person didn't get their case of as much money as they wanted it. Like, that's what's holding it up. Like, I don't think it's not going to happen. It just, I'm a little surprised that we haven't gotten final confirmation from Scott St. Petersburg that the contract has been terminated and now it's all about signing the LCA. You just hope that like someone didn't get ticked off at the last minute and they're asking for a little bit more to keep them happy. We got to get Hilferty over there himself to run some fucking fiber optic lines, straight to whoever's house needs them, you know, do the stuff Comcast does. That's probably part of Spectacore's purview, right? It's always fun to like, conflate the two. But yeah, so I guess now with, honestly, I want to go back that the positioning by Scott, I find very funny because Mitch Cobb did not want to be sent, did not want to be loaned to Sochi because like, that's where his dad passed away and he just like, didn't want to go. And now, oh, well, yeah, we did that, but now because of that whole situation, we're going to let him go pursue his dreams because we're obviously this benevolent organization that cares so much about the mental well-being of this young man. I just find that, I find that positioning rather humorous, but you know, whatever the fuck gets him here, I'm cool with. So yesterday we heard a little bit about the timeline, Charlie. And we, during our show, we were like, oh, could he be here for development camp? That doesn't seem likely now. I have heard that it's unlikely, not that it's completely impossible, but that he is going to have to get through some visa things. And I had some people in Discord asked me like, well, don't they have lawyers? Can't they expedite it? And like, here's the thing, I guarantee you that once there is a contract in place and they have all of the paperwork proving that he now is employed by an entity in North America, I guarantee you that CAA, his new agencies, that's Pat Prasan and Barry, two of the power brokers, I guarantee you they and the flyers will have all that paperwork where it needs to be as quickly as possible. The problem is, is that like the whole thing with a visa is it just comes down to how quickly the people on the other side process it. And that takes some time, it took some time with Colossoff in particular. So it seems like it's unlikely that even if there's an entry-level contract signed, because he doesn't have to be in the United States to sign an entry-level contract. No, no, that's true. We had faxes what, like 50 years ago, now we have email, like, you know, it's not necessary that he has to sign this in person with Danny rear, he joins over his shoulder. He could sign it remotely. However, maybe they will want him to wait until he's here because they want the pageantry. I don't know. Yeah. If he does like a docu sign, there's going to be a fake fucking piece of paper that they have a picture of him signing. Like there's absolutely going to be, he can, he can, he could have already signed it. You know, guess what? He signed some sort of piece of paper when he gets here, Charlie, to make this thing official. And that's, again, I'm all for the pageantry, I'm all for the silliness. This is way cooler than, I was just thinking, like, talking to, I did the Gargano show this morning, Charlie, and I asked you, like, is this the biggest story you've ever covered? And you're like, that's the best positive story with the flyers. And I was just like, this is, I've been like happy, I guess, as a flyers fan a few times in recent years, like the Ryan Ellis trade, but we all know how that went. The lottery. We all know how that went. Great. And then there's, and then there's things like Chuck Fletcher getting fired, Dave Hacksall getting fired, Andrew McDonald getting bought out. Yeah. Those are all like, okay, good. They did something I wanted them to do, but it was all because of like, shit, that sucked. I would have much heard all those guys been a success and them still be here, but they weren't. And that this is such a big, good thing for the flyers that, you know, we talked about this a few weeks ago, like Claude Giroux by some might be underrated in this town, but he wasn't like a highly touted prospect. It was, oh man, we have this kidney's pretty fucking good. But like we got him in the twenties, you know, the Bobby Clark didn't know his name when he went up to draft him. And then all of a sudden he was here and he was really good and then he became better. There was no hype train. Like JVR drafted second overall was like, okay, he's not Patrick Kane. So cool. Like this is the biggest hype train sort of prospect since Lindross. And I hate to compare the two because Lindross was the next one, like he was supposed to be Gretzky and Mario. He's next. That's not what Mitch Cav is, but sort of like he's closer to that than just another okay, we got a guy. I think that Lindross absolutely and I didn't live through the Lindross hype train, but I've read a ton about it. I've talked to people who were involved in it. It's not to that level, because as you say, Lindross was view generational, like that he was truly supposed to be the next great player. And Mitch Cav people view extremely highly, but it's not like like the hype that the dark guy that would have been Lindross, the hype that even, I mean, it might have even been similar to McDavid, honestly, like just that same idea. And also there was just a feeling back then like, well, obviously all these guys pan out because we've seen Gretzky and Lindross become all time great. So whenever we're told these guys are going to be that good, they always become that good. There was an expectation, but what I do think makes this comparable in terms of the level of excitement from flyers fans is that the lean times leading into it have been longer. And there were lean times leading into the Lindross thing like, you know, after the 80s team kind of fell apart, they had those years where they missed the playoffs a few times that I'm sure people were very frustrated. But like 1987, 88 wasn't that long before it wasn't that long before when they got Lindross. They went to six cups in the previous fucking what, 15 years? We've been to two in our lifetime, Charlie, like, yeah, you know, that's what I mean for you. Like, it's a little, no, you were alive in 97. Yeah, I was not sure. Oh, no, he's not again. Oh, I think he's a 87. I was like, definitely not. I wasn't around for that when he is. So we've been to two cups in our lifetime. They went to like six in the previous 15 before Lindross, like, it's a little different now. And that leads me to the expectations. I don't know if you saw it, but right before we went live, I saw Mike Sealski put out an article that was just like, maybe chill out a little bit. But honestly, we don't have course like today, it's an emergency show. So I'm not going to tell people to chill. Like yes, expectations should not be that this guy comes in and scores 100 points. Like he doesn't turn 20 until December. This is a young kid who is nowhere near a finished, like a finished product yet. But expectations are incredibly high. What is realistic for us, Charlie, like, what do you think we should kind of maybe set as the bar? Like, do you think he wins the cold? Let's start there. Like, do you think he comes in and he's the cold or trophy winner? I'm not expecting that. It's not off the table, certainly not off the table. He is talented enough where he could, you know, put up 65 70 points in his rookie year and we're all like, Holy shit, this dude's already one of the best players, you know, on the team. It's not the best player on the team. That's possible. I'm not expecting it. It would be a nice surprise. I would say I'd be expecting something like, you know, in that like 45 to 55 point range, I'm expecting, you know, just because this is John's River Ella, I'm expecting some occasional clashes with Torz, I'm expecting, you know, some, some benchings, maybe not for a game, but maybe for a period, like I'm expecting that to be part of the experience because, you know, what, this is what we all signed up for when you go with the John Twitter Ella experience, you sign up for the John Twitter Ella being hard on the young players. There will be drama. Let me put it that way. I don't think there will be blood, but there will be drama because, of course, there is because it's the flyers. So I'm not necessarily expecting Mitch crop to be blow away good from the jump. There are some concerns about size there, some concerns about aspects of his game. He will have to adjust to succeed at the highest level of hockey, but I would expect him to be good. I would be disappointed if we get it like, I would be very disappointed if the first half of his rookie year goes like the way the first have a Nolan Patrick's rookie year went, where he just couldn't do shit. Then you're like, Oh God, I'm expecting him to flash, to flash the high end skill and I'm expecting his end of season numbers to look pretty good, but I'm not going in with the expectation that he's going to be a point for game right off the bat. Although that'd be really cool if he was. It would be. I guess like the torch stuff, it goes hand in hand with expectations because like one impacts the other tremendously. I will say though, like we put out the mad Russian T shirts and hoodies and there's still some of those left a PHL Y locker calm, more Mitch cob stuff in coming. Be on the lookout for Mitch cob merch. You want it, you're going to get it from us, but we do have some of the mad Russian stuff from when from when John Tour de Rella talked about the change that he implemented in the offense this year and we all saw it. Two seasons ago, this team was only concerned with playing defense. The offensive strategy was like, I don't know, man, go figure it out, but we need to like, we need structure on our side of the red line and especially our side of the blue line. We're not going to be able to do anything before we get that. Tour de Rella implements that and then last this past season says we need to open up this offense because scoring's already hard enough for us. We don't have very many good players. We need to make it a little easier to score and they implemented this rushed base offense and he himself, John Tour de Rella said, we need to be ready when the mad Russian gets here. He implemented a rushed base system. Now, yeah, it is a lot based on like, hey, we block a ton of shots. Let's turn our, you know, challenging at the blue line into chances the other way. Like that makes sense. But they wanted John Tour de Rella wanted an offense that suits the skills of this guy. Is it possible? He's going to be some sort of clash, like, because he's going to fuck up defensively. Everybody does. Sean, Sean Catourier made mistakes defensively sometimes, like, you know, that shit happens. But like, is his skill so high that maybe Torx is just like, yeah, what can you do? Like he told us he puts up with TK because he's the only one in the team that can score. This guy, you got to believe he has this high end offensive upside. Maybe he'll be a little more lenient than with, you know, a Morgan Frost who like, all right, man, he's a 45 point player at the end of the day, you know? I think he's going to be more lenient to be sure. And I think truth, like a lot of that probably will come from above, you know, like, like, for example, like, every time I spoke with flyers, people about some of the crazy moves that Torx made in terms of scratching guys in terms of all that, it was generally said, like, look, Torx is the coach. He makes the decisions. You know, are we consulted on them? Of course we are, but we're not ready to overrule him because we trust that he knows what he's doing. Mitch Cough's situation is different because number one, he is the guy, that's that's number one. And you don't want to ruin the relationship with the guy. Number two, and this is also a very, very key part of this, like, yes, they will have them under contract, that will be huge. They will have them on an entry level contract, but the Russian players still have the threat of going home and like the KHL team had taken back in a heartbeat and Breyer knows this. Like, if, if Mitch Cough were to just decide, I can't stand this coach, I can't play for him anymore. Like, yeah, they might just fire towards, but there's also the risk of then, if you do that, then does the, then does Mitch Cough then thinking if he can do whatever the hell he wants, because, well, I guess if I'm bigger than the coach, then I never have to listen to anybody. So I think the fliers will not necessarily treat him with pitfalls. I don't think they want to do that, but like, John Jordan relik could scratch Joel Fairby if he wanted to and Danny be like, yeah, it's fine. I do not think that the decision to scratch Mape Mitch Cough would come without every single person being like, okay, John, we talked about this a lot and you've done everything you can possibly do before making this drastic decision, and we're all confident that he's going to respond to this in a positive way, rather than a negative way. Like, those kinds of decisions will be group decisions in a way that towards this past season, I don't think had to necessarily answer to, like, Dan Hilferty, when he decided he was going to sit Morgan Frost for a game, like, with Mitch Cough, he very well might have to. So that's going to play into it, I think. But if I see this from Dylan Phillips, I want to get to this before I ask the next question, what if Maffe Mitch Cough is the key to unlocking Frost as a one C? I look at that possibility, the way I look at, and Morgan Frost is a better player than Michael Roffel, a better offensive player than Michael Roffel, certainly. But I look at that as, all right, we have Jake and G in their prime. So we gave him Roffel. It's like, hey, man, they got 21 goals out of this guy. Great job. Maybe that's the type of one C. It's like baseline, first line competence out of Morgan Frost, you would get playing him with Mitch Cough and let's say forester or tippet or something. Cool. That's the bare minimum. But like, imagine if you had a real one C, then you unlock both guys, like, imagine instead of the best goal score, Jeru playing with being Scott Hartnell, and he got him the 37, like, it's an actual goal score, and he scores 45 50, like, that's what I'm looking at. Like, I'm looking at those as similar situations. Yes, hopefully, Mitch Cough, and maybe not right away, but gets to a point where it's like, yeah, our two C has production like a one C because Mitch Cough is so good. Cool. Yeah. That means an actual one C would have production like a fucking superstar, even if he's just a, even if he's just a, like, couturier four years ago, one C. Yeah, look, I am totally fine with them going into next season with Morgan Frost as kind of a penciled in Mitch Cough first experiment because I do think maybe there's more there with Morgan Frost that, look, the puck skills have always been there. The problem with him, for the most part, has been pace and consistency. He's mostly fixed the defense to the point where, like, he is, I wouldn't quite call it a strength of his game, but it's not a weakness anymore. He plays faster and he's getting, like, you can't get harsher treatment than what he's getting from John Jordan. And for us is somehow hanging in there, like, you just, you can't, you can't kill this kid. He just keeps on coming back for more despite however much John Jordan wrote first and it would be nice if he got, like, there's, there's a part of me and I very much do not believe this to be the case. Like, I do not believe that the universe is fair and just. I think it's random and chaotic. But there is a part of me that really wishes it was fair and just. And it does seem, it does feel like justice if they're all the shit that Morgan Frost got put through the last few years of his career. If he gets the cosmic reward of getting to play with my, my mitch cough and having his stats then inflate it because mitch cough is just that damn good. It would feel like justice going into a contract here, like, he's do a, he's do a contract anytime between July 1st and a year from July 1st, like, he's going to be signing a contract of some kind playing with mitch cough would be, would be quite the reward for sticking it out with this team. I also think, I also think the door prize would be being part of the package that gets sent to Anaheim for Trevor Zegris and then him and cutter just get to sit there and go, Jesus, that fucking organization, huh, like, they could just like, maybe like, they could really bond over that and become a duo over how ridiculous they believe the fliers debate. This episode is brought to you by our good friends at NFL Sunday ticket on YouTube TV. I'm sure by now you've all gotten back into your Sunday routines, but they could be even better with NFL Sunday ticket and YouTube TV, you get the most live NFL games all in one place every game, every Sunday, and you can even watch up to four different games at once with multi view, one of my favorite inventions of this decade. It's exactly what you need to catch all the action. Make your Sundays more magical and also YouTube TV is great. I got it this year. It's awesome. Sign up now at youtube.com/BS device and content restrictions apply local national games on YouTube TV and a fel Sunday ticket for out of market games excludes digital only games. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. With the price of just about everything going up during inflation, we thought we'd bring our prices down. So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently a thing. Keep mobile unlimited, premium wireless, get 30, 30, get 30, get 30, get 20, get 20, get 20, get 20, get 15, 15, 15, just 15 bucks a month, so give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. That's a lot of fun. We go back to April 30th and we see all the things that have unfolded. It was the end of April when they when SKA president Medvedev said they're not ruling out the possibility of Michkov coming to a leaving and coming over to the NHL decision will be made. It will be made the end of June, then all through May, we get these little tidbits here and there, Danny saying we haven't talked to him since the draft, which was funny, then there's reports from Sports Express and Rottenberg saying, like, we just get all this and it really kind of started to dry up at the end of May and then we got a few more things happen as we made our way to the end of May into June and it was June where it really started to slow down, you know, it was, all right, we're supposed to hear something at the end of the month and most of the month has gone by and we've heard very, very little until we get to last Thursday, June 20th, there we go, yeah, so we had some Instagram posts. We had all the, you know, exit interview stuff and then on June 20th, on June 20th, Danny Brier's face, beautiful and then just yesterday, Charlie, I threw your tweet in there but obviously we need to credit hockey news hub, Anthony DeMarco, the national people, LeBron Friedman, whoever, but Charlie had this, you know, basically confirming the news that Mitch Cobb was going to be leaving St. Petersburg for Philly. This has been, I can't compare anything we've done to this. Look, there's been nothing, we've been together a while, I can't think of anything that was quite like this timeline of two to three months of craziness. But this is what it was always going to be when they made the pick. This was what it was always going to be because of how weird it is over in Russia. It was going to be fan scouring social media and his Instagram and trying to parse what the hat he wore means and it was going to be rumors popping up on Russian language sites and everybody's doing the crappy Google translate and then people freaking out because the crappy Google translate translated a word wrong like it was where they were like, if he's not on the first line, we're not going to let him go and reality was first team as in if he's not in the NHL, we don't want to let him go. This was always what was going to happen because that's the way it works with these Russian players, that's why there are a lot of teams that are hesitant to do it because it's the circus. It just is, especially now with the invasion of Ukraine increasing the geopolitical tensions and the memorandum of understanding being suspended between the NHL and the KHL. There is now no formal process. There is nothing. It just comes down to what happens, whatever the KHL team wants to do, whatever the NHL team can do on the side, whatever the player can negotiate with the team, it's basically like the Wild West, except it's the wild East. And it was always going to be weird. So while I didn't certainly predict the nature of the weirdness, I knew it was going to be strange. And the fact that these two must have been very odd, it shouldn't have come as a major surprise. Are you reading some of these comments, Charlie? Because they're very funny. Jay Money says, Jay Money says, Charlie is my MAFE, Mitch Cobb, and someone else, Nathan Smith says, Charlie is more like Gretzky. Everyone's in a good mood. When we're treating the journalists well, you know, everyone's in a great mood. Thanks, everyone. I want to talk a little about the draft and everything, Charlie O'Connor, McDavid. There you go. Before we get to the draft stuff, you mentioned like you think it would be a good day. It's a cosmic reward for Morgan Frost. And I don't disagree. He's the most skilled center on the team. So it makes sense to put him on a line with Mitch Cobb and try to maximize both guys. But who would you, who do you think, because you've seen, you've watched tape on the guy, you've watched him play. Who do you think are the best fits on the current roster to play alongside Mitch Cobb? I mean, the dream line I have in my head, I guess, in the short term, I would really like to see a line of Forrester Frost, Mitch Cobb, because I do think that they would need some size and some ability to drive play, some defensive acumen, and Forrester, despite being young, already shows that. I mean, he's strong along the boards. Tour de Raul has said multiple times he might be our best player along the boards all right, and he's only going to get stronger as he moves into his mid to late 20s. So having him provide that kind of support to Mitch Cobb, and then also give Mitch Cobb, because Mitch Cobb, well, I, and I've said this multiple occasions, I think Mitch Cobb at heart wants to score goals, that he is more of a pure goal score than a pure playmaker. But he can still make plays. He can still set up line mates. And Morgan Frost is very much not a pure goal scorer. Like he wants, he's a pure passer. It would be nice to give Mitch Cobb the opportunity to pass to someone who does have a nose for the net, and who does have a plus shot, who can turn some of his passes into goals too, because I'm expecting types of Forrester to think except for it, actually, I very much end. That could be a really fun line. Like my kind of dream is like you get a 1c, like a real 1c, and then it's then your future first line is Forrester, whoever that 1c is, Mitch Cobb, and there's your top line forever. Linden 49, Habs fans, I can speak, Habs fans are pissed, exciting time in Flyerland. Are they ever not mad though, I think they're especially mad now, but I feel like mad is their default, like that's their, that's their standing reaction. I am in a mode right now where I couldn't give a shit about any other fan base. Listen, in a few hours, one fan base in this league is going to be happier than any other. We're going to be a close second still, I think, but like if it's not like, I don't even care that they made the decision like thanks, like you can be mad. I guess that means you're upset with your own decision. If you're like, if you're mad at the flyer, like, okay, that means you don't believe in Reinbacher a whole lot, I guess, like they don't, Habs fans don't come to mind it all right now. I'm happy for us because it's been so long since we've had literally like anything good, Charlie. I do think the people who are most cognizant of how angry Habs fans are, are the people who are extremely online, because they've been fighting with Habs fans for the better part of a year about Mitchkoff. And this is like, this is the culmination of all those debates about he's never going to come over, you know, he's got character concerns that actually, I want to speak to the character concerns thing, because that was an interesting tidbit I thought in Kevin Kurz's article he did this morning, looking back on the draft pick. And a lot of it was stuff that, and this is to me, like, sitting on Kevin by any means, but like, because he wasn't on the beaten injury, like last year, and a lot of it was rehashing stuff that Oregon reported, but there were a couple tidbits that were legitimately new and one that I found really interesting, because I never had had dug this up or even really asked anybody about the specifics, but it does speak to a big reason why Montreal, I believe, passed on Mitchkoff, because they had heard what they believe to be pretty concerning stories about his character, specifically how he messed with his teammates. There were some stories around the draft that were some pretty big conflicts between him and his teammates that, like, there were some teammates he really, really didn't get along with it did not have good things to say about not being Mitchkoff in searching. And apparently the fliers had heard these rumblings too, unsurprisingly. And they apparently per the article, they grilled him about these things. And the answer that Mitchkoff gave, what Kevin reported in the story, was that Mitchkoff admitted according to the source that he needed to learn that not everyone was on his level, that his teammates inability to do certain things on the ice didn't stem from a lack of commitment or dedication to hockey. If there were ever feelings of frustration for Mitchkoff, they were simply born from his competitiveness. Now, it remains to be seen if that's actually true, like maybe in four years we're talking about how Mitchkoff failed because he's just a dick. But that is a very good answer and an explanation as to why those stories may have been true, but also don't necessarily portend that he is going to be a nightmare in the NHL as a teammate. And listen, maybe like you said, there's more to it than that and he's an asshole and it just, you know, whatever. But we've, I've said so many times, like about the locker room in recent, in the recent past, like, Hey man, we're all friends. We get along and like, you know what, no, Claude Drew should hate fucking everybody. They've always did his prime. He should be mad at everybody, but Jake Vooracek, because they all fucking wasted the best years of his career. And it's like he's nice. He's a good guy, like maybe he shouldn't be. I'm not saying that like, Oh yeah, he's, he's a leader. He's going to be the captain of this team. But I think you need a little bit of that. And the way that the flyers are, we've talked about this. They like everyone to be a little uncomfortable. They don't like, okay, we're going to have Kumbaya. We're going to have this nice coat. No, we're going to bring in John Tortorella, you know, we're going to do this sort of shit that makes everyone a little bit uncomfortable. And that's how you get better by exceeding your comfort zone. I'm in the, I'm in the afterglow of this thing now we're getting this great player. So I'm going to spin it to the way I want to. But the way I want to look at it right now is good. He should be yelling at the players who aren't fucking good because they shouldn't be around them. We should have nothing but good players and not a whole bunch of dudes wasting everyone's time like we've had for the last decade. That's how I'm looking at this thing. And I hope he's that way with this team because they desperately, desperately need it. The other part of this, Charlie, we're talking about these character concerns and fliers had no problem drafting this kid at seven. I mean, like, if he was supposed to go two or three and he falls to seven, like you take him and just cross your fingers, you know, but we're hearing similar things about the meat of maybe not character concerns, but all of a sudden it's like, Hey, there's rumblings about maybe he's not big enough. Maybe he can't do this or that. I don't know. Maybe the fliers are the team that are spreading these rumors so that they can get their guys where they want them rather than like having to tank to get them. Just a thought. I'm just saying, maybe we do this all again with the. I don't think so. I don't think so. My my understand I put out a mock draft at all PHLY.com for the first 16 picks. That's actually free for everybody. Tomorrow's second half will be diehards only that'll be picked 17 through 32. But based on what I've heard and also what I've been reading from people I trust, it seems like the top five is kind of coming together. Now the order might not be fully known, but it seems like the top five right now is looking it's going to be some order of obviously celebration is going to go one. It's looking like number two is either going to be left shin off or to meet off and if the meet off doesn't go to I don't think he slips past Montreal at five and then three and then three and four are looking like so I have and literature and you know, maybe maybe the meet off goes four to Columbus. But if he goes for four to Columbus, Montreal is taking Kate and literature at five. So it's looking like that's your top five in some order. Now look, is it possible that people freak out about to meet off for reasons, I guess. But number one, the size concern I think I've dealt with a lot when you went to the gold star camp last week and he measured in at six one. That surprised me. Yeah. And like he's not that's not huge, but it's not small suddenly he is an average size NHL player. So that concerns time about the window. Number two, I get the sense that he interviewed very well and he interviewed with like a lot of teams. So it's not like the Mitch golf situation where he really only talked to a couple and the flyers are the only one he visited. So a lot of teams just were kind of in the dark, like Arizona. He was from what I understand. He straight up told Arizona, you can pick me, I am never signed. So like they were not going to take him seriously and like understandably. So they ain't even in Arizona anymore. I get what I want to go there. So I get it. But point being is that I don't get the sense that Demedov has the same kinds of concerns. I think Mitch off ceiling is higher than the meet offs and I really like to meet off. I think he's going to be a really good player, but I like Mitch off skill set more. But I don't get the sense that there is the same consternation surrounding the meet off that there was surrounding Mitch off. Number one, not the same character concerns. Number two, he's bigger. Number three, and this is important. The Russian factor doesn't seem as daunting anymore because the flyers just got Mitch golf over most likely in a year. And for notes off is it isn't hanging out on an aircraft carrier anymore. He's over here too. Those are the two guys who everyone was like, well, don't take Russians. That could happen. And now it looks like the flyers might have both of them. So suddenly the Russian factor doesn't seem as scary anymore. No, that's like the reason Demedov might fall to them. They kind of ruined for themselves by solving the problem. If Fidotov isn't here and we don't have resolution on, on Mitch, like maybe Demedov does fall, but since both of those things appeared, I've gone the flyers away. Oh, maybe there's a little less consternation. Just real quick, this super chat from Ed Wright and then we're going to wrap it up, Charlie. Is there a path to acquire seventh overall without losing 12th? My answer to that is yes, it's Travis Connectney who I don't think they're trading. Yeah. And I don't even know if that would do it. Like I don't know it. I don't know if Otto would trade a seventh overall pick for Connectney. It would be a fair ask for the flyers to say, we'll give you Connectney if you give a seventh. I'm just not sure because I mean, that's more or less what Otto would just did a couple of years ago with Alex to break it, who was younger and one could argue better or at least younger and it blew up in their face anyway, he ended up not one mistake. So I don't know if Otto would does that deal. It's a fair ask. I don't think it's unreasonable, especially if Connectney reveals to them through back channels that he would be interested in signing a new contract with Otto, rather than just being a rental, but my view has always been, I think the flyers were going to resign Connectney. I think teams are calling on him from what I've heard. Teams have called on Travis Connectney. They are called up rear and have been like, hey, Danny, how's that contract negotiation going? If it goes south, let us know. We'd be interested, but I don't think they're at a point where they want to do it. And I think I've said this on the show before, generally speaking, and this isn't a hard task role, but generally speaking, when the team wants to resign the player and the player wants to resign with the team, generally speaking, a deal gets worked out. And I think that's the case in this situation. Yeah, that's, I mean, that's been our take on the situation for months now. I'm just looking at, is there a path? Yeah, I think so, but I don't think they're going to be taking it. Real quick, have you heard anything I just trending on Twitter, Zegris, Perfetti, Rossi, and who was the, who was the fourth one? There's another guy, whoever everyone on Twitter is talking about because we're bored. Any news on any rumors, have you heard anything about the tires being kicked on anything? Not really. I mean, the fliers are talking to a lot of teams. Yeah. It might be a popular one, a popular one going around over the last couple days, I think because Dave Pagnotta has been really pushing it, is that the fliers are shopping, Joe Farriby. I am not convinced that is fully accurate. They are certainly listening on Joe Farriby, but I, I kind of, I would question the framing that like, this is a, this is a Kevin Hayes, like we need to trade Joe Farriby, like they are listening and Joe Farriby is certainly available because I think there are some legitimate concerns that were raised, not necessarily in terms of the relation with Torx, but just some legitimate concerns that were raised in the organization due to his struggles over the final couple of months of the year, and I think that's fair, but I don't think the fliers have gone into the soft season with the belief that we need to trade Joe Farriby, and I don't want people to get that impression. I could see him get moved, but I don't think it's anywhere near circuit. All right. I think that will do it for today. We'll be back tomorrow with a full show tomorrow at 1 p.m. Thank you all for listening. Thank you for hanging out. Before we get out of here, Friday, June 28th, that's this Friday. It's the Mitchkov party. Listen, yes. Like I tweeted earlier, the fliers will make some draft picks at some point, but this is now the Mitchkov party, we're going to have a live show. It's going to be a great time. Kelly's going to be there, JP's going to be there. I'm going to be there. Charlie's going to be in Vegas, but the whole rest of the crew will be around for the draft party and Mitchkov celebration. This Friday, Chikis and Pete starting at 6 p.m., going to be freaking awesome. Make sure you come on out. There's going to be food. There's going to be drink specials. All sorts of giveaways, door prizes, a raffle of some kind. It's going to be a great freaking time. That's what I can tell you. So Chikis and South Philly on Packer Ave, this Friday, June 28th, starting at 6, Broad Street Hockey and PHly teaming up for the fliers party of the summer. All right. That'll do it before we go. Before we go, I just wanted to point something out because I have gotten some questions for people about this. Yes, we are aware that the fliers are having a party at the same venue. It is not the same party, but I suspect there will be spillover. You are correct to come to the Broad Street Hockey PHly party at Chikis on Packer, near the stadiums. We are aware the fliers are doing something. It seems like the fliers thing is much smaller, though, and it seems a little bit more focused on like season ticket holders or something, whereas we are open to everyone. Open every. Yeah, their thing is in play too. We're in the back bar, the book binders bar. So it's like there's an entire Chikis and Pete's in between the two parties, but it's going to be a fucking celebration. I bet you there's some spillover. I bet you some people at the one party and maybe some creatures of some kind of some kind, perhaps, are going to spill over. I mean, our fans are creatures, but you know what I'm talking about. Yeah, just come on out, man, whether you go to that party or party, you're just there to drink and watch the draft, whatever. Come on out. All right. That's it. My name's Bill Matts. That's Charlie O'Connor. We'll be back tomorrow at one o'clock. (upbeat music)
Twenty four hours later, Flyers fans are still celebrating the report that Matvei Michkov will indeed come to Philly two seasons ahead of schedule, terminating his contract with SKA St. Petersburg in order to play in the NHL this coming season. Charlie & Bill discuss expectations for Michkov’s arrival timeline, as well as in-season expectations.
Plus, the John Tortorella factor, potential linemates and much more! Happy Michkov Monday to all who celebrate!
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