(upbeat music) - This is a significant moment in the Edmonton Oilers offseason. We know when it comes to building out a championship contending team that they've already got the stars in place. It's also about finding the right mix of support pieces. Not only that, but these are two of the youngest pieces in the Edmonton Oilers system with a bright future that are close to or have proven to be NHL ready. Oh, by the way, yeah, this now jams up their salary cap in a significant way. I love this from a St. Louis Blues perspective. It's aggressive. It's not over the top in terms of the payments required to get these two players. It's just enough to make the Edmonton Oilers feel uncomfortable in both a cap situation and a decision making perspective. And these players happen to fit from an age scheme perspective exactly what the St. Louis Blues wanna accomplish. So for Stan Bowman, Jeff Jackson and the Edmonton Oilers now, they're in a spot where they've got some significant decisions to make. And not only that, it's probably a reminder of getting to the rest of the NHL to get your business done early. We're in mid-August. These guys could have been locked up. They lingered well into the summer. And if you don't become a restricted free agent, you can't be subject to an offer sheet. - Get your own house in order. Frank Saravelli says to the Edmonton Oilers, Oilers, a fan morning show. Frank Gunning Mount Marquesi, Frank, they were busy. Don't know if you heard of it. They played in the little thing called the Stanley Cup final last year. They even played seven games in it. I went out to Alberta shortly after that. The wounds were still fresh. I'm sure they still are. Now, obviously, they had a lot of time to take care of it. And they did not, it be in the offer sheets that have been levied at Broberg and a Holloway. Quick little rundown of what the offer sheet compensation are. 'Cause I think some people are a little confused. They don't always understand. So let me just run it down for you. - Quick Google search, you could probably figure it out, but friends can be a solid. - Let me Google for you. Please let me do it. So one and a half mill or less, you could just, you have no compensation needed. Anything from one and a half and a dollar to 2.29. That's a third round pick. That's where one of these guys falls in. 2.29 to 4.58. That's a second round pick. That's when things start getting pricey after that. 4.58 to just under 7 million. You're looking at a first and third rounder from 6.87 to just over 9 million, a first, second and third. This is when we start to get into the realm of offer sheets. We are the realm of offer sheets. We haven't seen in quite a while. We joke about this all the time, Marquesi, of the thing of, why don't more people do this? We've kind of had a few of them. I know it was the, the un-thawing of the, the Dundun and the Habs is kind of what, what led us here, but all of a sudden offer sheets, not completely off the table in today's NHL. - And thankfully for that. - Oh my goodness. - We're going to do a little history lesson here. - So drunk history or just coffee? - Just coffee, just coffee for now. I don't know. - I mean, there may be drunk people out there right now and good for you 'cause it's 704. But hey, that's only acceptable during the World Cup. I've been told. - Yeah. - And the Olympics are even done. So you can't even be like, what, I need it beer for my ski shooting watching or something. - As the late, great Jimmy Buffett would say, it's five o'clock somewhere. - So, could you take a guess at how, so the offer sheet came in in 1986? Can you take a guess at how many offer sheets we've seen since 1986? - The high end guess I would have would be 20. - 42? - Really? - Yeah, it's more than I thought as well. So 42 offer sheets since 1986, the first one was May belief, Kerry Nyland, who was offer sheeted by the Chicago Blackhawks. That was unmatched. Four, so 15 of the 42 have been unmatched. Four of those were not able to be matched because of a previous contract status. - Okay. - That was in the before times. - In the before 1995. - One of those 42 was invalidated. That was Craig Simpson. - Oh. - By the San Jose shark. - Always nice to be a part of history. - Yeah, and another one was dropped by the team. So they signed the offer sheet and they said, yeah, we're gonna think about it. - Okay. - And I don't think you can do that anymore, but. - Also just, maybe you're gonna correct me on this. I think this is a point of clarification. The Jay Feaster, Ryan O'Reilly fiasco, that was just regular contract signing. That was not an offer sheet. He just had to go through waivers. So I think people are going to lump that in 'cause that is one of our most famous weird contract status. - Well, I think that was up there. And the list that I was looking at, hold on one sec, I just have it all here. It's all here. Yeah, it's right here. So it was an offer sheet. It was two years, $10 million. It was matched. - But I mean, thank goodness it was, or else we would have to go through waivers and yeah. - The player has to agree to it, obviously. So only two offer sheets have been unmatched since 2006. - Wow. - Yes, Barry Kocken, yeah me. So the compensation for that was a first and a third. And the other, famously, Dustin Penner. - Yes, that's right. - From Edmonton to, I'm sorry, Anaheim to Edmonton. - Did we ever get the barn fight, that's the question. - We did not get the barn fight. - So many barns, they would have been competing to host said fight. - I know, well yeah, there would have been, there definitely would have been some value in that. The Penner compensation was a first, second, and a third. Here's what those compensations turned into, just for a reference point. - Yeah, please. - Dustin Penner turned into Tyler Myers, Justin Schultz and Mark Andre Bergeron. So three very viable defenses. Yes, Barry Kocken, yemi turned into Philip Bysted, who was drafted 27th overall in 2021 by Montreal. And Adam Engstrom drafted 92nd overall in 2021. So not a lot have gone unmatched, but we've also never seen two players from the same team in the same off season, off-recheated. Like this is a different world. This was like, I'm surprised it took this long, to be honest, but I'm also of the opinion that I look at this today. Doug Armstrong was sitting back in his chair and went, how can I really grease the wheels here and get this thing going? And he did. And now we're in a point where I like both players. I really do. Like Dylan Holloway ended up finishing second in the playoffs and hits, while only playing 11 and a half minutes per game. Like the only guy that was ahead of him was Sam Bennett and he was playing a hell of a lot more. - He feels like a guy that would have been on and not a like in the lineup in Penn Guy, but one of the 13 or 14 forwards for the Cup Champion Blues. Like he feels very much a part of that group which is nothing flashy, very little, sexy. Just gives you an honest shift. Will hit anything that moves. Like he feels much like very part and parcel of that team that Barouba built back when. - I like the, I think he would also thrive in more of an offensive role too. Like I think he's got a little bit of power forward with some scoring touch. And I think there is a scoring touch there. Broberg is the interesting one. - Yeah. - Because he played, he played very well coming in to the playoffs because Cody, they finally figured out Cody season stuff. - He was, he was a surprise. I think some people were surprised to see him come in and I want to say it was game six of the stars series. - Yes. - Or it might've been the Canucks series. I'm trying to remember. - I think it was the stars here. He ended up playing 10 games in the playoffs. - Yeah, but I remember that people were surprised that it was him going in- - He hadn't played. - 'Cause he hadn't been there in the playoffs. - Yeah, he hadn't played. And Vincent Dejarnay was not very good and now there was Cody CC. I mean there was- - Yeah, I forgot exactly what it was but Nablock made like four or five roster changes. - Yeah, and everyone- - Oh boy, this isn't gonna work. - And it ended up working. So he had two goals in an assist in 10 playoff games. He was a plus eight in those games. I know plus myself is not the be all end all, but that's still good. He's a former eighth overall pick and he's just 23. And St. Louis needs some help on the back end because Tory Kruge is likely hitting, well not likely, he's hitting the LTIR on the series, not playing. So I think both of these guys, as Frank Saravelli pointed out in the opening clip there, they fit what the St. Louis Blues are trying to do. St. Louis has a ton of prospect capital. They, and that's why I think it was easy for them to make this decision to part with draft picks. Because they have so many guys coming up in the system. They have trade, they have trade chips. They have guys that will make an impact in the lineup. And it's an opera sheet, like I love, we love this stuff. We talk about the drama, we talk about player movement and how exciting that is. And I know these aren't the two sexy names, but I think they're guys that can be very good players for the Blues, if in fact, the Oilers do not match them. But I have a feeling, and the way that the Broberg one is structured is so interesting because that's where Edmonton needs the most help. And that's the bigger contract. >> Yeah, so we heard from Frank Saravelli to kick this segment off. I want to hear from him on his thoughts on the likelihood that either of those guys end up being a blue. He joined Ivanka on Central last night. >> The consensus from speaking to General Managers around the NHL on Tuesday was that the St. Louis Blues are going to get one of these players. It's going to be extremely difficult for the Oilers to match both of these offers. And the consensus seemed to be that the Oilers would indeed keep Holloway and let Broberg walk. But as I just mentioned, I don't know if that's necessarily the right play and it's still too early to tell yet, but it's going to make for a fascinating next week as I'm sure the Edmonton Oilers are going to take every minute they can to make this decision. >> And they have seven days, as Frank laid out in the clip there, seven is like, I don't know, I thought Sesame Street had like a letter of the day, but we're going to do number of the day, seven, because that's the amount of million dollars. They're over at the cap as of right now. A big part of that, and I hate highlighting this player because God, one of my favorite Leafs. Big part of that's Connor Brown. He signed that bonus laden deal and hey, good on you. They gave it to him. Once he played the 10 games he immediately added, I believe three and a half mils who is bonus pool there. That's a big part of the reason why they're in this spot. They are now, but also them structuring the contract that way as part of the reason why they're able to make it to a cup final. Like you have to pay for success in this league. Very few teams win and are still set up to look the same afterwards. And I know they didn't ultimately win, but God, 29 other teams or whatever, 30 other teams would have traded, 31 other teams would have traded places with them for where they ended up. So I just think that this is part and parcel of it. Obviously it's not a spot the Oilers want to be in, but I think that this is, this is what happens when you have a talent laden team. As other team, other teams are going to want a piece of it. This is also what happens when you have bigger fish to fry. And they're there. I mean, all ducks are constantly being put in a row for Conor McDavid's extension two years from now, but they got to worry about dry settles right now. Now everybody tells me Frank told us yesterday on the show, calm down, relax, don't worry about it. I'm only worried about it actually getting done, not getting done, but it's going to be a done deal. No worries there. I don't know. And I realize dry settles money won't be on the books for this year. It'll be on the books for next. But how can you match or not match those offer sheets? So they're kind of tying all those pieces together. It's a lot of work for Stan Bowman who's been out of work for a couple of years now. And I mean Leon dry settle is going to make eight and a half million this year. And that number is going to go up to that's going to be the, he's going to have 13 five. Yeah, he's going to have Austin Matthews. Yep. And then Conor McDavid's going to set the market again. The year after that's going to be 14. Yeah. And the cap's going to go up. They've got this Evandercane thing hanging over there. Now Bob Stauffer reported that Evandercane is hurt and will probably start the season on the LTIR. I do wonder if that is a full year thing, which is maybe why they brought in Victor Arvitson who kind of fits that similar type of role. I love Arvitson. I really do. That was a guy that I was really hoping that the Mapleysha target, but he's also hurt all the time. He is. But there's like, there's some movement that needs to be done here because when I look at this defensive unit, it's going to be basically the same going into next year. And frankly, it's not good enough. You know, they have, they, they're still retaining on a James Neil buyout. They're going to be retaining on the Jack Campbell buyout. Like, there's some money here that they've, you know, they kind of put themselves in, painted themselves into this coronary. And it's not an easy spot to be in. And it's not like they're Toronto, where they have, you know, the four. Well, they have, they have four high priced guys. But one of them is darn owners. And you're not getting the value out of nine and a quarter here. You're also probably not getting the value that you want out of, you know, Ryan Newger Hopkins is fine, but he's a far cry from what he was the year prior, totally. And even in the playoffs, like he was good, but he wasn't the same type of player. So there's a lot of questions here with the Oilers. I do wonder if I know, Frank, like, I, I believe that they are likely to get one of them. And that's why I pointed out Broberg. I wonder if they get both here. I just don't see a scenario in which Edmonton can do this. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's jettison cap. It's L T I R. You do have the 10% overage to work with and in the summer. But I guess what we're going to be out of summer runway pretty, pretty soon here. I do want to kind of transition to next year and teams that could find themselves in a pretty similar problem. Oh, look at that. It's the Edmonton Oilers with Evan Bouchard. You want to talk about the cap circumstances they're in part of the reason they've been able to afford. The team that they've had is that they went bridge with Evan Bouchard and oh my God, that's going to be costly next year. Yeah, that's another one. There is no world where Evan Bouchard's number does not start with the 10. I'm sorry, folks. He's going to put up a pile of points on the power play. He's a young defenseman. He's hitting. He's hitting RFA at a time when they can not afford to let this happen again. But you know, another team that I think could be in a tough spot as well is the Rangers. I mean, they got capo and laugh for a year. Maybe those guys aren't as, you know, gaudy or as valuable a pieces at Evan Bouchard to some people, but they're kind of just better versions of the hallway in Broberg where you be able to get them for that first and a third or a second round pick or something in and around that money. And I look at the Rangers like having both those guys. And again, just to kind of pull or turn back the clock for people, that's a first and second overall pick they have in consecutive years. And they're both going to be RFA. If nothing gets done here, that is not an enviable, enviable position to be in. But in the cap league, this is the decisions you make is you got to bridge guys with the Oilers go back in time and give Bouchard the big banger right away. They probably would. But what would their team have looked like last year if they did that? Very different is the answer. Well, and not only that, this is something that we haven't even talked about yet with Evan Bouchard. What if Leon Dreyseidel says, I'm good, I'm going to play out this contract. I'm good. And then I'm going to hit free agency. What if Connor McDavid after seeing that says, I'm good, I'm a test free agency. Maybe I don't want to live in Edmonton the rest of my life. Don't tempt me with a fun story. And Evan Bouchard then says, I'm good. I'm good. Yeah. We're talking like, okay, not to besmirch the city of Edmonton, but Edmonton ain't. The Smurchin's about to go Edmonton, a la Edmonton, ain't New York. Evan does not Toronto. No. And it could be you could have been so much. It could be dad. It could be Dallas. It could be wherever, but Edmonton is not among the list of desirable destinations for players outside of Connor McDavid and Leon Dreyseidel being on the roster. Yep. No, you're 100% right. It is. It's a bit of a house of cards. Now, again, it's like, I, I too would like to build my team around Conor McDavid and Leon Dreyseidel. Yeah. It's funny. I just think the hockey man is too strong in McDavid that if Triceidel said he wanted out, that would almost further embolden McDavid of, I can't do this to the people of Edmonton. He already has given up what, what it worked out to be, basically six million bucks or, or what three and a half million bucks on the last deal that he gave up of just saying, okay, fine, I'll take 500 K last a year. So you all think I'm a good person or whatever. I guess what? Still a good person. If you want to take a 13 on the deal, I think I actually do look at it. That way. And I, you know, I'm going off what everybody says. They all expect Dreyseidel to get this deal done. And then McDavid, I imagine fall of suit right after that. But honestly, if Dreyseidel said, man, no, thanks, I'm going to go be a king or again, pick your team acts that I think that would actually further embolden McDavid to stay because you wouldn't want to be seen to be, you know, tuck a tail or leave an Edmonton higher dry. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Okay. So here's a, here's a very off the, the ball. So you knew you're going to, you're going to love this. Cause it's, it's fantasy trade nonsense. Leon Dreyseidel says not signing an extension here. Yeah. One year. I know what you're saying. You know what I'm going to say. Yeah. I know what you're saying. There's a deal to be made Leon Dreyseidel to Toronto and Mitch Marner plus. Yeah. Goes to Edmonton. Yeah. Like that's, could you imagine, do you imagine this Twitter app? If that were, it would literally explode and I don't, I don't envision a scenario on which it's going to happen. And people are going to be like, well, that sounds ridiculous. Well, it's not as ridiculous as some of the texts that we've been getting. However, there is a scenario in which Leon Dreyseidel says, I don't want to play here. I'll play out my contract and then I'm hitting free agency. That is very real. Yeah. I think, I think if that was happening, I don't think there's going to be something that happens in the early part of this season that is going to make dry saddle feel that way. And I think that if that is, that was the way dry saddle was going about his business, I think you would have talked to the front office about that. And then I think we have a completely different conversation surrounding the oilers. So I still do expect it to get done. Leafs are very much out of the kind of chief RFA worry period, obviously, you know, again, I'll go back to Cal Dubas, took care of the big boys early on. So there was no issue of that again, took care of them too much, entirely possible. Matthew Nice, he feels very much like a guy. This isn't to like start ringing the panic alarm here, but if Matthew Nice has another season where we all go, okay, that was good, showed some flashes, I got banged up a little, some missed, you know, 10, 15 games, the point total ends up at 45, something like that. He feels like exactly the kind of guy that a team would want to buy on, still going to be super young, Leafs are not going to be out of cap jail. Now the thing that's going to help them out here is that the Marner and Tavares money will be loose, whether it ends up going back to them in some way, shape or form, it'll be loosened up. So they'll have the ability to maneuver this, but I just pull up the list of restrictive free agents for the Leafs. And, you know, I'm like, I'm very sorry to Cade Weber, Roni Hirovine and Connor Timmons and Connor Dewar and the Hill to Beast himself, Dennis Hill to be, Nice is the only guy. You got to worry about that for next year. That's a good spot for the Leafs to be in, but I'd be lying if I, if I was some other team and I was, you know, sketching out all my future ideas for next offseason, I'd be putting a little star next to that one of them. Remind me, let me check in on Matthew Knight's, how's his contracts that is doing? Because he feels like exactly that guy that you could get for a second, a third, and quite honestly, if I'm looking at it from another team's perspective, that's a bet I would very much like to make. Yeah, he feels like a guy that's going to get extended on a bridge deal. In season. Doesn't it feel like that type of deal for him? So I don't disagree. Here's two things that complicated. One is who's he end up playing with, right? If he plays alongside Matthews for a good chunk of the year or quite frankly, alongside Marner for a good, or Neelander, there's a world where the numbers look really good. And his management team, his agent is saying, we don't need to do this now, trust me, we could talk. And then this is part of the reason why they went out and gave Bobby McMan the money before the playoffs. There is a leaf insurance tax that must be paid and that's exactly what that Bobby McMan contract was. Now, maybe that puts the impetus on to living and he's able to do something like that with with knives, but that was the thing I kind of keep coming back to is that's the reason they extended. That's the reason why they extended Bobby McMan right before the playoffs and that's the reason why they extended Simone Benoit right before the playoffs. They wanted both those players, but it was if this team even wins two rounds, those guys are going to be not one three, but one seven and Benoit is going to be two two or whatever it is. It's just that the price rises and you're seeing that with Edmonton. If they didn't have that run that they just had, I don't think we're looking at an offer sheet for Broberg. I'm definitely not him. Yeah. And we're probably not looking at one for Holloway. So I think that's the other thing is that's the scenario where it's like you have to pay for success in this league. Sometimes you got to pay for it before it happens, sometimes you got to pay for it after. But if you have team success, you have to pay the price and that's usually losing pieces off your roster. Yes. So in terms of Matthew and I specifically, I think his, I think he's played his best hockey playing with John Tavares and William Mealyander. Yeah, a little more grindy. Yeah. I think that that works. And then that allows you to play Max Delmi with Mitch Marner and Austin Matthews. And I think that's fine. And then you figure out your bottom six, whatever that looks like. So I think, I think, and with that being said, Matthew Nye's is, you know, he's going to score 20 goals this year. As long as he can stay healthy, he's going to score 20 goals. He has that in him. He could score 25 goals in this league. And so also maybe low key guy that could play on your first par player in front of the net, but whatever, that would also be more cookies and it costs you more money. That's the thing, right? It's the more success the player has, the more of a precarious situation you're going to be in. If there was, the good news is that if there was ever a summer where the Leafs will be in a position to avoid any RFA headaches, it's next year where again, they will, if they want Mitch Marner back, they're going to have to pay for it. But both those guys' money will be free and available to use however they kind of see fit. Wanted to, this Nick Robertson thing is super interesting to me too, because you talk about the RFA's that are available, like they got Connor Dewar deals done. I like the player. I think he fits with that bottom six. But the Nick Robertson thing is so interesting to me because I do wonder how he is viewed around the league because he's got an opportunities with the Leafs, but at the end of the day, he's not a, he's not a bottom six forward stylistically. No, he's got a top six skill set. He just doesn't have those opportunities because frankly, there's nowhere for him to play. Like he just doesn't fit anywhere. So I wonder if there is a team that thinks, okay, we're, we're kind of struggling to score goals here. This guy's an RFA. Not that I think that he's going to get off or cheated here, although it would probably cost like you could give Nick Robertson, you know, an off or sheet that it doesn't cost you much in terms of capital and even in money and the Leafs can't match it. Oh, if they give them one, if somebody wants to give them one five, I don't even know if it's a can't thing. I think tri-living would look at that as a great opportunity to say, yeah, here's a fourth or third round pick. We tried. Well, if it's one, if it's up to one five, it's no comp. No comp. That's right. So why wouldn't you? I think Robertson's home and this is like super unfair to the foot, the player I suppose, but hey, feel free to prove me wrong. He should be the pump and dump dream for some, for some middling team that lacks offense. If you're a team that is, you know, the blue jackets and yeah, you have some nice pieces up there. You like Ken Johnson, you like Fantilly, but you got a hole on the right side or you need a shooter on the power play. That's exactly what you should do. And then you know what in a dream world you do, I mean, you give them the chance to incubate with your core and maybe it all works out together and you got yourself an asset. But at worst case scenario, he should be the guy. You then go to some team and you go, you need third line score and look at this guy's goal per 60 numbers. He's done it in a big market. Go look what he did in Toronto. If you're a team that is in that mushy middle of we're probably not going to compete, but we have some young pieces, especially up front, we want some talent with them. Robertson is the perfect guy for that. I don't think he's a perfect player by any means. I don't think he's ever going to become anything close to his brother, but I think you also saw so many strides in his game in the things that they asked him to do, the stuff away from the puck, working harder, that he's not going to be some liability or a bad influence on your other young players either. If I was again, like the fliers, they probably have too much up front that they like that they wouldn't want to steal those opportunities from somebody. But somebody like that, again, the ducks, it's like all they have is young forwards. They're 21 years old. So not the, not the team, but somebody in that spot. Three teams and two of them, he won't be traded to because they're in the Atlantic. No, because there's connections, the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Calgary Flames and the Seattle Kraken. The Calgary Flames is an interesting one because that'd be like a great like a peace offering, if you will. Yeah. You know, I know we had it rough. You would like this young man. Here we go. We have no use for him here, but just ask us based on all the opportunities he's had. I think that would be great. The Kraken, I understand where you're at there with the connections. It's just so funny. No, not the connections. The Kraken is just more, they need, they need Middlesex going, they just don't have it. Yeah. They would be, they'd be a great, they'd be another kind of good fit for him. And I also just think if you've been living in the bubble of being a leaf for so long, like not that there'd be a problem with going to Calgary or something like that. But I imagine going and playing for Seattle, just as leaf legend Jared McCann, how freeing it can be, right? Yeah. That was, yeah. He would, he would look pretty good along, uh, Austin Matthews wing, wouldn't he? Yeah. Or up the middle, either. Either, either. Kind of a good player. Yeah. I would agree on that. Uh, from what I've heard, our next guest coming up here, Ryan Dixon, kind of a good player. Very solid beer league center from, from what I've heard, that's the scouting report. Okay. I'm gonna ask him about it. I got it. Oh, he won't tell the truth. I got it, I got it from none other than Sam McKees. You know, it's true. That guy is always scouting a beer league. Yes, that's true. We will not be talking to Ryan Dixon about his beer league abilities, but we will talk to him about his abilities to put together teams for the four nations face off and how excited he is that we have some hockey news with a captaincy and offer sheets, hockey news in August, Dixon next sports dev five night of the fan, unrivaled insight, analysis and opinions on all things blue jays, Blair and Barker, be sure to subscribe and download the show on Apple Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. The Leafs get the new captain today, offer sheets are in the air. I wore a hoodie to work two days this week. Ooh, fall is upon us, folks. I know. Sweater season. I like to hear that. But I do. Oh, me too. It's going to be time. I mean, for you, it's like even sooner. It'll be time for football. Oh, yeah. It's going to be time for hockey. And that means we're just really a few short months away from the four nations face off. I can't believe it. We have long rumored, had rumors of best on best hockey. And I'll be honest, like a small piece of me doesn't believe we're actually going to see it until I actually see it through to cancel the two weeks for a good guy. Yeah. You know what? I'm happy about that. We got to walk that one back. I can't take it if that happens. What I can't take. And I'm very excited about it right now is our next guest joining us, Ryan Dixon, senior writer for sportsnet.ca, you can check out Ryan's work on sportsnet.ca, including his latest series this week, projecting rosters for said four nations face off in 2015. Dixon. How you doing, bud? I'm doing well. How are you guys doing? Anytime I have an excuse to bother my hockey brethren in the month of August, I'm doing oh, so well. I mean, just this flurry of news, and I really like two things happen. The Leafs are changing their captain and there's two offer sheets going to Edmonton. But God, it feels like winter is, well, I guess it's not winter, but like summer is on thawing right before my eyes here, Dixon. It did feel like an exceptionally slow off season as well, I would say, because you know, July 1 this year was kind of like, oh, it's back. They were really throwing the money around with the cap going up. There was a lot of action on that day, whereas in the past couple of July, it kind of trick about over two or three days. This year it hit and then that was it, like for six weeks, really wasn't much to speak of. So you know what? You may not think of Robergan Hallaway or frontline players, but we will take it. We will take their offer sheets, the double offer sheet, as something to chew on. And obviously the least changing their captain as well. Another thing you could say, it's really just ceremonial, but you know what? After six weeks of really having not that much to chew on, it's pretty great. When Brent gets in here really early to get, because he's fired up above the Leafs' captaincy, then you know that we're in it. Only two things got me to work early and that's golf on my television really early or Leafs news. Yeah, that's it. It really worked in their favor. Another thing that I know Brent is very fired up about, as am I, is best on best international. No, no, hold on. We can't go right ahead to best on best. I'm excited to talk about Dixon's work, but you think we're going to bring you on here and you're not going to wax poetic about Austin Matthews becoming the 26th captain of the Leafs. You've got another thing coming. What did you make of it? You're right. It is largely ceremonial. Literally nothing changes. Him and John Tavares, I bet they still have the exact same stalls that they had last year. It feels very ceremonial. It also feels like a huge deal where where do you kind of fall on it, Dixon? Yeah. I mean, it's obviously something that he wanted that I think, you know, the first thing we were talking about was really more screaming about after the Leafs went out in the first round was obviously they've got to make huge changes, much smarter has to be traded. But as, you know, as the reality of that situation sort of sunk in with people and just how difficult that was going to be, you know, I think the calmer conversations then took hold and it was like, well, you know, are they good to do this with Matthews? Is this, you know, with one year to go for Tavares? Does it make sense to hand it off now? And I do think there was some notion that this could be coming down the pipe and lo and behold, it is, it is here. So I mean, look, it is, it's not like, you know, putting the sea on a player completely transformed who they are or their role on the squad and you don't want Matthews to change who he is. It goes out, of course, 59 goals, that's exactly what you want from them. But, you know, I think you're going to see a guy who's, you know, obviously beaming with pride today when they officially handed over and my understanding of Tavares is going to be there to hand it over and that's obviously the way you want these things to go. You know, there's an inherent or can be an inherent sort of trickiness to something like this and, you know, we saw it in LA with Dustin Brown giving it over to COVID-19, we saw it in San Jose with, I want to say, Thornton giving it over to Pabelski at one point and I think in both cases, things worked out just fine there because obviously you're not taking it off. Someone who is a huge respected leader unless it's for a clear and obvious reason because you've got someone who, you know, just so much hits the bill of the person who should be wearing that, that's me but, yeah, I think even both players are on board. I mean, the interesting conversation future-wise to talk about isn't so much Matthews, it's Tavares, right? Because he has this one year left and because it feels like, you know, is this the first step in him sort of redefining his relationship with the Leafs? And there's, I don't want to say there's an assumption that this will be it for him because it's cap-it so big but, you know, the cop I keep making with him is Jill Tavelski and a guy who, like Tavares, was never a burner but still, you know, such an effective player, such a good offensive player in Tavelski played great up until basically his 40th birthday and was a very good player until then. Is there a world where, you know, when you stop talking about Tavares as an $11 million cap-it and start talking about him in the context of what he might sign, you know, another deal to stay with the Leafs with or for, you know, is he then a player, all of a sudden you're, you're happy to have because he's on a quote unquote hometown discount. So, you know, obviously, today's all about Matthews but the next 12 months, it'll be very interesting to see, again, like I said, is this just step one in the sort of reshaping of the relationship between Tavares and the Leafs? It's going to be really fascinating to see what happens there and, you know, this Austin Matthews thing, it's really intriguing because, you know, as someone pointed out, like, could Austin Matthews really be the captain of the US team at the Four Nations Cup and not be the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs? That would be kind of awkward but I feel like we're kind of there and when you look at the potential for this US roster led by Austin Matthews among so many other great players, you know, the Hughes Brothers, J.T. Miller, Jack Eichol, we can go down the list. You know, the last time we saw that... You're on the Kachucks list now because you said the Hughes Brothers are not them so a good job, Matt. They are pretty good, both of them but I do look at this US team and the last time we saw Best on Best International Hockey, not that Canada was miles ahead but they were certainly further ahead than they were, than they are at this point now. Canada beats the US, won nothing in the semi-final in the 24 games and now you look at this US team and dare I say, not to put all the pressure here but the US might be the best team in this tournament from top to bottom, especially when you look at that back end and the goal tending. Is that how you see this as well? I think absolutely when you bring the goal tending in, it's hard not to say they wouldn't go in as the favorites. I mean, they could go down to their third, fourth, fifth option in goal and still look absolutely fantastic and you sketch out some lines for the team. You've got a 40 goal guy basically on every line, you know, and obviously in International there's not a true separation between first, second, third, fourth line but you can sprinkle players throughout all the way down who are guys who are capable of scoring 35, 40 goals in NHL. They have guys, you know, like a Dylan Larkin who can play two ways. Jack Eichl's two-way game obviously really came to the fore when Vegas won the Stanley Cup. I mean, Paige Thompson had an off-year and last year but if he bounces back, I mean he's kind of a singular guy with just how huge he is and with his shot and you know, you consider that there could be, like the thing with the US was obviously they always had great players but if you got a little further down the roster, maybe there were some holes to focus on. Some really good players are going to be less off this team whether it's, you know, Patrick Kane who, you know, still shown he can be a point-per-game guy coming back, you know, is he right on the cutting room floor as an older guy, you know, Brock Besser's huge bounce back, Clayton Keller toiling an obscurity in Arizona now maybe going to get a little more shine. So yeah, they probably are the favorites because when you consider you can throw Hellabock or Denko or Auttinger or Swamin in there, I mean if the champer in the US, then only one guy can play because that's really, really where their depth shines through the most is in the crease. We are such a, you're so right, we're like, and this is no disrespect to the player but we're a long ways away from Joel Autos on the US, on international teams, like even at World Championships and again, no disrespect to the player but we're talking about some of the elite of the elite and even, like that defensive unit, the four, like the forwards are going to get a lot of shine because they're so, they're so good. But when you look at that defense, like it could be, so Adam Fox is there, Quinn Hughes is there, Charlie Mcaboy, and then oh by the way, Brock Faber, Jacob Slavin, Coundray Miller, like that's, that's pretty darn good. And the one thing when we looked at Canada for the longest time was their forwards are really good. Yeah, but look at their defense and look at their goal-tending. Kind of like this has flipped the script here a little bit because I don't see a scenario in which Canada's defense is better than the US, their goal-tending certainly wouldn't be. And even the forward group, I think Canada has the more elite players because they have McDavid and they have McKinnon but, boy oh boy, the depth that this US roster has from top to bottom is pretty, pretty incredible considering where they were even 10 years ago. Absolutely. And you've just seen the skill development coming through the US national team development program. It just feels like, you know, like I've been in Buffalo the past three, four years for the NHL draft combine and it just feels like the guys that people are always talking about is just, you know, super skilled more and more than 10b guys who are playing in that US program and who are headed for NCAA college. And we're seeing more and more elite guys, even Canadian guys, obviously like Celebrini choose the NCAA rep that tells you how good that hockey is and how much better it's become and obviously, you know, it's mostly populated by American kids or largely populated by American kids. So yeah, the bar has just come up up and up there and yeah, boy, when you bring in the goal-tending into the question in terms of comparing Canada to us, I mean, just say there's no comparison is underselling it and it will be a fascinating subplot of the first four months of the season to see who among the Canadian goalies emerges as a front runner because man, it is truly wide open and there's just, it's not only that there's not anyone who's, you know, a superstar goalie right now, there's not even anyone with a resume where you're like, well, all being equal, we're going to default to that guy like, I mean, if St. Louis's Joel Hoffer comes out and puts up a 931 or 925 save percentage and his first 28 starts, like, he's probably got the inside track, you know, so it's going to be really interesting to see how that shakes out and who winds up being three guys and going there knowing that even in a short tournament that any one of the three guys is probably going to, you know, someone's fault is in the first game, you're just going to be like, boom, throw a guy number two in there because there's no one who has the pedigree to say, oh, well, we've got to ride with this guy, you know? No, there's nobody there. It's super telling one about Canada's goal-tending situation, but two, like what I do with my free time that I've had on more occasions than not this summer, just, you know, sitting around with some buds, having an orange crush or two and debating, oh, what's our team Canada look like? And when we get to the goalies, we got, eh, that's no fun. I guess Bennington, I don't know, let's just move on to something else because it really does feel like the hottest guy standing at the time is going to have as good a track or as good a chance at that number one job as anybody else. You mentioned a couple of the American goalies there. We saw the offer sheets come about in the NHL in the last couple of days. Now, this isn't completely unheard of, right? We remember the Canadians and Hurricanes beef and cock and yummy at the center of it and everything. Jeremy Swamin, a restricted free agent, Joel Adinger, set to be a restricted free agent soon. I, it's a little odd to me that there hasn't been more kind of chatter about those guys potentially getting poached just because of how quite frankly impossible it is to find a number one. And, you know, we can sit here and quibble about how big the list of number one goalies is in the NHL. It's like the old number one center debate or number one defenseman. But those guys are both on the list for me and Swamin and Autinger, I'm just surprised there hasn't been, and again, Autinger's a year away from this. So maybe it's a, it's a moot point. But you see, you see the Oilers getting put in the position there and boy, somebody could throw a wrench into Boston's plans by, by throwing an offer sheet at Jeremy Swamin. Well, two things I would say there and number one is, I mean, it's hard to know the exact particulars of the situation, but you do feel like both those goalies are in good spots. And Autinger is with the team. He knows has a great chance to win that drafted and developed him that he's already made a few playoff runs to the final four with. I mean, you've got to think, you know, if you're a player who wants to win and the money or 98% of the money you want is there, Dallas is the team, you're going to, you're going to try and make it work with him in obviously largely the same for Swamin and Boston, who's now going to truly step into the number one rule. You know, the other thing is funny. You mentioned Conquinemi is the last example of this, an offer sheet. And even if you go back to that, the first chapter that Canadian came to the situation where they went after Ajo, but didn't throw a, you know, a blow your socks off. Yeah. I do wonder if when you look at what we had yesterday, GM's who we always chastised for not using the RFA mechanism, the offer sheet mechanism or are realizing, well, look, if I have to throw a dollar figure out there where I'm going to lose, you know, three first round picks or it's going to be extremely punitive for me, I'm going to think long and hard about it. But if I can use it as a way to squeeze a team, not for its best players, but some players that we think, you know, have a chance to grow in our team like Conquinemi, like Robert, like Holloway, and we know this team is up against it. That's where we'll jump in and use it as a way to try and pride these guys away, not necessarily so much like, you know, the old Joe Sachek or Shea Weber offer sheet back in the day where you were just throwing an enormous dollar figure out there and forget what the cost is and in terms of compensation. Maybe it is something that we see actually use more on the fringes of roster building and targeting guys who, you know, in Carolina's case, I mean, granted it wasn't the actual contract, they signed Conquinemi Q, they signed them to a subsequent one, but you know, it's probably fair to say that hasn't worked out or he hasn't become the player exactly that they had hoped. But I certainly see why the Blues are targeting these two guys, and probably in particular with Broberg, they think there's a chance for him to become, you know, quite a useful top four defenseman, but you know, you get into those figures and I don't have the grid rate in front of you, but you know, obviously the more money you are throwing at a player, the more you're going to have to give up in terms of draft compensation. You can say, you know, screw that, who cares, let's just get the guy, and especially because if you're talking about RFA, you're talking about guys who are 24, 25, they're still young, but it's still tough to give up to resource round picks when even in a world where the cap going up, those draft picks are so valuable. So we'll see, maybe going forward when we do see it again, it is more of this situation where GMs are saying, well, I'm not going after the star, but I'm going after guys who we know it's going to be tough for the team to match, and we think this guy can come here and play a bigger role and thrive. Yeah, and you mentioned the thing about the money, right, like it has to be enough to kind of sway the player away from a situation they know, and what do we see in a cap league, right? It's the middle class that gets squeezed. So it makes sense that those would be the guys that would be maybe more open to the idea as well. Dixon, love getting on. I love hearing your voice, love chatting with you in the summer, man, and we're almost here, like we're going to blink and it's going to be hockey season. Yeah, basically, what, a month until training cancer, yeah, we're clipping along. Giddy up. There he goes. Ryan Dixon, senior writer for SportsNet.ca again, check out his work. He's doing preview series of the rosters for the four nations faceoff. He also had a great piece that led me to the question, asking him about Swamin and Auttinger there of what is a number one goalie? How many of them are there? Got to be honest, when I looked at the list, maybe more number one goal is that I realized that I actually give it credit for. It feels like it is, you're a definitive de facto number one or the biggest question mark that can possibly be had. And it feels like there's very little wiggle room, like even a few years ago, like the idea of like, eh, Cam Talbot and somebody else as a tandem. If you're that, you're a question mark team now as opposed to a team that has a solution there. And I'm, and I think part of what you're saying there is it feels like it's really foggy compared to what we used to know was the number one goalie. There was a time where it was Martin Broder, Patrick Waugh, Dominic Hoshick, Ed Belfort, Curtis Joseph, like there were five or seven really, really solid guys that you knew what you were going to get from them. This list seems to change almost every year because I look at goaltending much like I do relief pitching in baseball. Oh, okay. In terms of you have, you have the elite ones that you have, that you know, you're going to get three or four years out of. And then there's other ones, and it's very cyclical. Like one guy has a good year one year and then a bad year the next year. But I think, I think Brian's list is, is accurate. I did notice a few things. One, a lot of Americans. Yeah. On that list. Pretty much it's Americans and Russians. And Russians. And one, and one fan to hang out there as well. Not a lot of Canadians on that list. And there was a time where we didn't have that conversation now, you know, well, okay, you mentioned the guys. I think big part of it is that those guys, and this is just like, you know, life moves on kind of thing, and some players primes are long now. But how long was Patrick Waback guy for it? It wasn't five seasons. It was my entire childhood, right? Martin Brodour, exact same thing. You look at Belfort like a super long run of success. I feel like that's the difference now. You have the guys that have put it together in your Vacher left skis and Schusterken has been that guy for quite a while now. But even Sorokin. Okay. Like, and even Babrovsky, I don't think you can sit here and talk about sustained runs of excellence. He was kind of built to become what he is now. Bab has been the most like role of a dice guy heading into any given season. And hey, he gets a lot forever because he because he won the cup. But yeah, it's just interesting the way these things kind of go. God, we got to stop stumbling on these way too interesting hockey topics. Dixon brought up Dixon brought up the idea of NCAA and Canadian kids going there. And I had to like heal down boy. Don't go down that rabbit hole. Talk about something else because again, I could honestly do that all day long. I could also take a look at NHL futures all day long and that's what we're going to do right now. Because it's time for the wake and break presented by sports interaction, your homegrown sports book, 19 plus bet responsibly. So we mentioned it yesterday, Matthew's 10 to one heart odds. He has the third best odds. Only people ahead of him are the two guys that people were trying to give a two last year. And one of them got it and Nathan McKinnon, a plus five 50, Conor McDavid plus 175. Now if you want to look for a little value, I got a couple of names for you and they're both teammates. So the two guys who have the shortest odds. Leon dry saddle and 22 to one. I would never wish a Conor McDavid injury on anybody, but things happen. The second that happens, Leon dry saddle will probably have the third shortest odds for the heart. And again, you're not betting on an injury. I'm betting on a guy that's going to have a great season and we love a narrative. He's got it before. But as I said, we've got rid of all the guys who are supposed to have theirs. And then kale macar, yeah, 25 to one in a while. Once we've had a defenseman feels like it's been a hundred years and then we're going to do the thing where we talk about, you know, he shouldn't just have to. We love a narrative. We love to cook it up. If you're looking for some value, kale macar, 25 to one or dry saddle, 22 to one. Those are, those are the numbers I like. I like, I do like both of them. Car one stood out to me too as pretty significant value. I'll throw, I'll throw two more at you. Okay. I kind of like Jack Hughes at plus 1100 here. I think the devils are going to be a lot better. Yeah. As long as they can stay healthy, they certainly have the goal tending that, you know, keeps them afloat. If Dougie Hamilton stays healthy, but Jack Hughes, I feel like he comes into his own, like really well here under Sheldon Keefe. The other one, I think he's going to have a great year. I just think we're going to do the thing with him where we go. Not your turn. Yeah. It could very well be the case. The other one is, man, Nikita Kucharov, a very motivated right there last year. Nikita Kucharov at plus 2000 and no Steven Stamkos. I know they brought in Jake Hansel, but doesn't it feel like that's a very motivated Nikita Kucharov? Yeah. And very like, I know he does look unmotivated sometimes. He's still one of the, for me, top three forwards, four forwards in the entire universe right now. No question. As we saw last year, but boy, oh boy, a very motivated Nikita Kucharov is a scary thing for the rest of the NHL. Yeah. And this is just the number we have to highlight because it's probably not going to happen. But anything can happen. Oh boy. I think I just saw it. The most motivated man in the history of all time. His best friend just got named to the captain see the other winger on his team's got a big deal in the vault, Mitch Marner at 100 to one to win the heart trophy. Stranger things have happened. I could easily put up 130 point season and nobody else on the lease really jumps off. It could happen. Not calling it. But if you want some value, that's the value there was the line with the line from angels in the outfield. It could happen. It could happen. Oh God. Great film. Just came into Disney plus. That was a wake and break presented by sports interaction. Your homegrown sports book 19 plus bet responsibly. What happens when a team changes captains and how often to NHL do NHL GM's ponder offer sheets? You know who can answer both of those questions for us? Mike Fuda. Foots. He's going to join us next. Final hour of the morning show. Left.
