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Welcome back to another edition of the Tell It Abs It Is podcast on the hockey podcast network. I'm Griffin Youngs joined by Christian Boulay as always, still the off season. There's only so much you can really say at a certain points, no new avalanche news really in the market. At the moments, the conference finals still going on, the stars are up two to one and the Rangers are up two to one and their respective series, but as we focus inward in the land of Denver, we have to look at what is upcoming for the avalanche because it's hard to think about during the playoffs, but free agency is like a month away. There's going to be trades coming down the pipeline here pretty soon. The draft is like not that far away. You do kind of have to start looking at what this team might start to do in free agency and in some trades. The most immediate businesses, the abs have a couple of upcoming UFAs on their books. Some of them we've talked about at length, some of them not so much, but we're going to at least start today be looking at some of the unrestricted free agents that the avalanche have coming up. In terms of restricted free agents, the only ones Casey Middlestadt, who I'm sure we will talk about at length during the off season. So we're just going to be focusing on the guys that do not have a deal and are not guaranteed to be back. There's one giant elephant in the room. That's Jonathan Drew and he is the biggest unrestricted free agent on this team. We're just going to go ahead and tackle him first because I think this is really how we're going to define this off season as to whether or not Jonathan Drew comes back and if he doesn't, what's going to be the plan otherwise? I'm still of the mindset that he's not coming back. I know we said in his season and in availability, they want to come back. There's a difference between want and that you actually do. I'm like 95% sure Nazem Kadri and Andre Verkowski said the same thing like they want to come back. But when you take a chance on yourself like he did last year and prove that you can still be a quality NHL player if you're playing with good talent, you want to get rewarded for that. And I think he's going to get rewarded for it. It's just going to be, I think if it's over three and a half mil a year, the abs are out. Yeah. And even then that might end up pushing it because I think I'm in the opposite boat, but like cautiously so. I think Jonathan Drew and is going to come back to this team. I think he does mean a lot. I think he means a lot to McKinnon to have on the team and I think he was just an overall good boost. It's just such a natural fit that I almost feel like you find a way to keep a guy like this. It's just how much of that is in their control to begin with. Because obviously the story with Drew and last year is he signs at under a million bucks, eight hundred and twenty five thousand dollars and total wild card coming into the season. Could have been a total bust or could have been what he actually was with the abs. He puts up 19 goals, 56 points and 79 games. The best season he's had in his career, just period career high in points, only behind in goals for one season. That was his third year in the NHL and he had 21 goals. He finishes with 19. It's just such a natural fit that I think there's going to be some give on both parties to make it work. Yeah, but like what's your comfortable like paying him? What do you comfortable paying him? I think you have the right price range. I think anything above 3.5 I think is my ceiling. I think you start to get above that. You start to get a little uncomfortable. I think 3 is pretty much in that ballpark because I don't think this is a super long deal. No, it's going to be a two to three year match. I think this is a two to three year contract that nets him probably three. If I just had to give a prediction, I think it's a three times three. If I had to just guess because Drew has made money in his career before he had a six year contract, a five and a half that he signed with the haves in 2017. It's not like this will be his first big contract, but it is important though this will be his last big contract more likely because he's 29. He got to forget that sometimes that Jonathan Drew had is about to be 30 in the NBA. He's in the prime of his career right now, just had a career best season and it's important to note like we discovered before the show can totally forget about this. His agent is Alan Walsh, who is not necessarily known for subtlety or for teen friendly deals for the most part, but it is most important to know that the agent goes off the wishes of the player. If Jonathan Drew Anne is willing to take a team friendly contract, he will. I hope he does. I just don't want to get my hopes up for it because I had the same thoughts with Evan Rodriguez and he ends up signing last year, what was it, three years, three and a half with Florida? Yeah. I think it was. And granted, it's three and a half in Florida is different than three and a half in Colorado because of no state income tax, but I saw that and I was like, damn, that's that seemed pretty feasible. And I worry that's what's going to happen with Drew Anne. And I hope it doesn't, but I'm also just doing this from a place of I don't want to get my hopes up just to be disappointed that he leaves. He deserves to get paid out for the season he had. He deserves to. He absolutely does. I mean, there are hurdles here that have to get done. And there are questions with Landis Gog and Nachushkin that have to get ironed out before you can really let the ink dry on a contract like that. And let's just say Landis Gog and Nachushkin play in the regular season next year. And that's the plan going into the off season. Someone has to go out in order to make this work. You can't afford even Jonathan Drew in it, two and a half, three million dollars. You're going to have to move money out the other way. But I almost think they're willing to do that. I think there would be a willingness in the front office to maybe move out some money to make something like this work because we're not talking about Drew Anne at like five or six million dollars. This is a guy that if you continue to, if you get that production again from him, let's say 50 60 points, let's say three year contract for over the course next three years, you get 50 to 60 points in that range without injuries or anything like that. For three and a half million dollars, let's just say that is that's pretty well worth it. That's a pretty cost effective contract, which a team like the avalanche at this point in their contention window does need. No, they don't need it. I'm looking up this. I was looking this up and I was just really confused. There's no way this is right. I imagine I was going to see what Brian Russ's salary is, but it's saying he only makes $665,000 and that's just wrong. There's no way. Probably what he made in the league when he started. Brian Russ's salary right now is 5.125. That's a lot. Take that comparison out because I was thinking maybe he could make Brian Russ money. If he makes that, then we're screwed. But I don't know. If it's right around the two and a half to three and a half million a year for like two or three years, I think you can make that work. Like you said, if you're getting that production from him and he's worked so well with McKinnon and Branson and you add back in Landeskog or Nachushkin, your forward course set. It's good. But the problem with this team wasn't the offense. It was the defense. It makes you wonder what they're going to do. I imagine they'll still prioritize bringing Drew Ann back, but I think they have a pretty hard floor of what they're going to pay him and if he wants to go even above that, they're just going to tell you, sorry, man, you were great, but we can't afford that and we wish you the best of luck going forward. It's the business side of the game, unfortunately. There is going to be the same. There's a ceiling with absolutely everyone. If you go into negotiations with... Well, maybe not Kilmercar and maybe not Nathan McKinnon. I mean, the ceiling does exist. It does, but it's a usable limit to what you cannot be. There is a salary cap ceiling. But with Drew Ann, even with the stuff with Landeskog and Val, you almost are more incentivized to keep him just in case as insurance, where if they both are back on the team, that's great and you have Jonathan Drew in there too. If one of them isn't, you kind of almost need Drew Ann, in this instance, to be able to fill that gap in the top six where you were able to do it last season in the playoffs because you had a Zach Parisi who was able to, at 39 years old, step into the top six and do a decent job, at the very least, where unless you feel really, really strong about Kovalenko playing top six minutes at a consistent point next season, it's almost becomes... You kind of have to because what's the alternative? Right. I mean, I trust Chris McFarland and Joe Saki to find those hidden gyms. They've done it two years in a row with Rodriguez and Drew Ann. I think they can find them. It's nice when there's one who is best friends with your best player and worked really well playing with him. It's nice when you already have that in the building. Evolved so much as a player because you rewind back to the offseason last year and the biggest concern about Drew Ann's game is like, offensively, he's fine. He's a good playmaker. This isn't a guy who's going to not be in the league by the end season, defensively, the guy's a fucking mess. And you get to the end of this season, he turned into one of the better defensive forwards on the entire team. And that's the kind of thing where I really do think they're going to try to make this work because you were able to see the offensive production there. You saw the chemistry slowly build into what it was with McKinnon and also without McKinnon. He did just fine without McKinnon. Obviously, he's better with McKinnon. I'd be better. Who is it? Yeah, who is it? You put him on any other line. It really all just clicked for him in a way that sure, you can let him walk, I guess, and try to replicate this with another low cost signing with a guy who's probably going to be okay. Again, I agree with you. I trust if Drew Ann walks out the door, they're going to bring in another guy who's an option to play in the top six, might not be as good. But that's also the point where Drew Ann is a known quantity. And he does all the things you want out of a player in that position. And if the ask is in the $3 million range, that's really hard to let walk out the door because, sorry, the money just doesn't work. I think, obviously, what's going to happen with it is they're going to plug away at this. And they're going to be talking all summer. And then when free agency rolls around, it wouldn't shock me the least if nothing's been announced. And they let Drew Ann test the open market. And then he kind of gets some offers in the app, see if they can match it. Obviously, they want to try and do it before he hits free agency. But maybe it's a situation where the free agency market isn't that hot form. And he comes back and goes, okay, this is really what I'm willing to do. Because, like you said, Alan Walsh is the part that scares me. Yeah, Alan Walsh, in general, is just a wild guard. Right. You just scared me. You've never really know what you're going to get out of that guy, where sometimes, I mean, some of the contracts he has is pretty reasonable. Sometimes he tweets out a fan-made picture of his agent or his client being stabbed in the back by a sword, because his client's unhappy. He's a kind of a weird guy when it comes to stuff like that. And with Drew Ann as a whole, I think there is desire on both sides. There's a fit here. There's his best friend in McKinley. There's a lot of reasons for both sides, like you say, to plug away at this and figure something out. Because again, with Drew Ann, he has made his money before. He's not one of the richest players in the league, but he had a pretty solid contract at the decade with the Canadians. And there might just be something to this. I want to be here, or at least I'll be happy. And like, I was happy here. And for that entire six years in Montreal with that pretty nice contract, I was never happy. I hated it there. Like, notably, I don't want to put words in mouth that he hated it there, but there was a lot of rough patches in Montreal that just never happened here. That he was just the whole time smiling, the media loved him, the team loved him, the fans loved him. I think there are some brownie points with stuff like that. And I just really hope it works out with a guy like that. And if it doesn't work, if it doesn't work, I hope there's a good reason. Yeah, how cool would baby just signs like two years, two million? That would be sweet. A two year four million dollar deal, call it good. I do think this is going to be a long drawn out one. I don't think this is going to be resolved before free agency kicks off. I really don't. It's just the kind of thing where they need answers on some things. And I'm sure they're getting more answers on Landis Gogg. Well, don't you think the middle stat situation kind of ties into it too? What does Casey Milestat's going to get paid? Because that's a big question mark what he's going to get. I mean, it definitely does too. But how much of a difference are we thinking here? Because like Casey middle stat, we're thinking is in the five range, anywhere between five and six. Yeah, I think five and six is about right. I think five is the low end. If he gets five, I'll be ecstatic. Yeah. And like, if he gets six, I'm fine. Yeah, because it's going to be a bridge contract. Like it's not like it's going to be an eight year six million dollar deal. We're talking probably three years, six million. Yeah, like three or four year contract. You get above six for a contract like that. It starts to scare me a little bit. But I think with middle stat, I'm sure they're at least they have some notion of what he wants. And they're going to factor something like that in. I mean, I'm sure middle stats camp is coming in high. If it gets to arbitration, I'm sure we'll see him come in at like a seven million dollar ash that everyone's going to freak out about. But that's how negotiation works. They'll meet in the middle probably somewhere around five. But ultimately to the point, I think the middle stat stuff like there's the decent idea of what he could get on a deal. I don't think it's such a wild card that they couldn't do it. His agent is Neil Sheely. Sheely. I don't even know who that is. I'm sure he makes a lot of money. Yeah. Wow. He was only, he was only making 2.6 this year. Oh, that's funny. Yeah, I do think that plays in the factor, though, too. How much money is Casey Milstek going to command? And obviously, a center is more important than a winger. So, you want Casey Milstek to stick around. He's going to stick around. Like the people who think he's not going to be on the team next year, just it's not a question of if it's just how much is he going to work? I think it's going to be, that one's going to be drawn out more than it. Where we might have an answer on Joanne. Actually, we will probably have an answer on Joanne before we get an answer on middle stat, just because UFA versus RFA, unless they're just really prioritizing and getting Casey Milstek done right now, which I think comes after Joanne, honestly, just in terms of importance. But, Joanne as a whole, I don't know what more you could have asked from him. The guy took a really unlucky skate to the leg on the final game of the season and missed most of the playoffs, came back, still had three assists in the Star Series in three games. Makes you wonder what he could have been like if he was healthy the entire time. And the point is, it's just a really unfortunate stroke of bad luck that came at a really unfortunate time for him. And I really hope that's just not the last we see of Joanne in Colorado. I hope so. I hope he comes back, but I like I said, I'm not getting my hopes up just because I've been burned in the past with wanting something so bad when it comes your players stick around and they just leave. So I don't know if it's healthy to do that, but I'm just going to impair those situations though. Burakovsky was a younger player that was coming up. I'm not paid yet. Like just several bridge deals where he had a really good breakout year that year, won his second Stanley Cup. There was really never any chance of that working out. He goes and gets himself a pretty comfortable contract in Seattle. And with Nazem Kadri, the guy got a lot of money. Well, the thing that just sucked is it got drawn out for so long. I think if he would have signed down the first day of free agency would have been like, hell yeah, because it got drawn out for like a month. And you're just like, maybe, maybe. Well, until like August. Yeah. And he got a lot of money for a lot of years and you knew that was going to happen. The guy was almost 100 points if he didn't get hurt in the regular season and was a obviously a huge reason as to why the apps won the cup that year, just money wise. That was a pipe dream. It was impossible. But with this, we're talking under four probably for a guy who gave you, who's probably going to give you 50 to 60 points a year in that range at the very least. I think if it's anything over three and a half the abs, like that's, that's not going to happen. But if you can keep in that three and a half range, you'll be happy. Yeah. Ultimately. Yeah. I think that's how I am with it. I'm reasonably hopeful, but there are roadblocks here. Big roadblocks. But again, that's why the people with the abs are paid a lot of money, they'll figure it out. And that's why me and you are sitting here talking on a podcast. Yeah. There are people in the organization whose entire job it is to make sure that the money works, who do all the math, all the future calculations and just figure everything out as we go. But moving on from Jonathan Drew and we're going to keep it on the offense to a pretty long tenured app at this point, probably the longest tenured app who's a UFA right now. And I guess second longest. But this one, Andrew Kogliano, I think is going to be an interesting one to keep track of because Kogliano, it's his third season with the team, obviously got the trade deadline when they won the cup. His first Stanley Cup after a long career, he sticks around for the next two seasons. He's been a real solid soldier for you the last couple of years, but you could see towards the end of the year that the minutes were starting to wear on him. Yeah. I mean, it's a tough situation you have to talk about because he had, he's one of the leaders in the locker room. Andrew Kogliano is so valuable. I think Evan Rawal wrote about it today with him and Jack Johnson, which we'll talk about here in a little bit. He's 36 and he looked kind of at a place near the end. Like his foot speed had always stuck around with him like when he first came. And even the year after he was pretty solid. But this year, you just kind of noticed like you're like, Oh, Kogliano is just not as effective as he used to be. And I think it's going to be a really tough decision. But also at the same time, I think you can find a fourth line penalty killing guy on like a PTO, kind of like they did with Katie Ron to this year. Yeah. And I think the key word there is the penalty kill where that's supposed to be his whole deal. And once you got down to it last year, he was just not very good on it anymore. He was a big reason why they needed to rework their penalty kill at the trade deadline and bring in a whole bunch of new guys. And in the playoffs, it got pretty apparent at a certain point that he was just having a real hard time keeping up with the rest of the penalty kill, where they're saving grace to coming back. As if they do come back, it's probably league minimum contracts. These guys are probably not going to make that much more, if anything at all, than league men. Well, like you said, there's going to be guys that are maybe a little faster and they're just maybe a little more effective on the penalty kill. It's just how much is that locker room leadership going to be value going off season? Because it's nice to have, but also you do have to play the guys at a certain point. And Kogliano is out there a lot. And if he can't keep up, that's just not, I don't think that's something this team can really deal with. If he was the 13th forward on this team, I'd take him back and heartbeat. But that's the thing. You know, Kogliano has never been that role. He plays every game because he's a fucking Wolverine bionic human. He doesn't get hurt. And even when he's hurt, he plays through. Like if he could come back and he wants to be the 13th forward and he plays 40 games, I'm fine with that. Like that's perfect. But if you're asking him to be in your fourth line every single game, I just don't think that's feasible anymore. Like at a certain point, farther time catches up with everyone. I think you can really have the same conversation with Jack Johnson. We can tie him into the same one as well. I think they exist in the same boat like Evan was writing about here. And I think we talked about it during the season and I think it applies to both. If they come back, I don't think the plan can be that they're everyday roster guys. I think you do have to take the load off their plate and play them as 13th forward 7th defenseman because I think they were just really worn down. They're in their late 30s. I'm almost 30 and I get tired from having an exhausting day. Like these guys are playing a professional sport and training at the highest level. Like I do still think they can play in the NHL. I just don't think they're everyday players anymore. Right. It's there comes a point like again, solid players, really good popular locker room guys. But I think especially once you took O'Connor out of the lineup and the minutes just increased ever so more for Kogliano. There just came a point where it's like, the guy just can't keep up that much anymore. And I would like to keep him around. But I just think there needs to be a better plan in place at this point now that we have two full seasons of him and you can see each year's just seems to just be a little less. And especially when you get to the playoffs. I don't know if you can have a guy like that because you got it. If you're not going to be producing depth wise and you're having a hard time keeping up, you got to be really good at the your your thing, which is penalty killing. And he wasn't really struggled on the penalty kill in the playoffs. And you got to be able to do something well. Leadership is a thing like that is a known quantity that Kogliano brings to the locker room and without Land of Skog and without Eric Johnson last year. That stuff is important. But you do have to play them. And if you're looking for low AAV guys, there's going to be guys like that out there. I'm not opposed to bringing them back. I just think there needs to be a plan in place and you have the same conversation about Jack Johnson, where every time he's on the ice, the abs are getting caved in in terms of you look at a lot of the numbers, at least they're not good. He does things well. He's not a total anchor on the defense. But again, that should be reserved for a seventh where it's like, okay, someone goes down. Jack Johnson go in there and just don't fuck up. That's what Jack Johnson does. Just don't just don't fuck up. Just get the puck out. Don't do anything stupid. That shouldn't be your six. There needs to be like Kogliano, a plan in place that that's not an everyday guy. Like maybe it's just the best of both worlds. You keep both of them around, but they don't have to play every single game. I think that's if they're going to be back on the team, that has to be what they do. We love Jack Johnson. We love Andrew Kogliano, but they're just not everyday players anymore. They just aren't. And that's not a bad thing when you're respectively because Jack Johnson's what, 39? Yeah, 37 at this point. 37. You have Kogliano's 36. I think it's 36 and Jack is 37. There still can give you some minutes, but they can't play every night. They just can't. And that's not a bad thing. It's just, I think there's, especially for Kogliano's position, a fourth-line winger, you can find those everywhere and cheat too. I just, I think with the way this team is going, they need to be able to bring in guys in the depth who can move. And I think this team needs to focus a lot more on the pressure aspect, where if you can't rule out the best depth in the NHL, it needs to be something that is annoying to play against. Kogliano, he's a bit physical. He's a solid player, but there's just nothing in particular that made him dangerous to the depth, especially once the penalty killing and the defensive play started to go. He had his moments. He's a solid player, but I think some of the guys they need to focus on for that bottom six should be a guy we'll talk about, like a Brandon Duhain type, a guy who's younger, maybe a little faster, a little more physical. He was like, not a super skilled player, but does Kogliano's job just a little more intensely? Well, you think about with Kogliano too, all of his great moments came up early in the season. When I get felt, he just got the workload, got to him a little bit at the end. And it's nothing to be ashamed of. He's 36 years old. He's played over what do they say on the ground. Almost 1,500 games in the NHL. Eventually, right now he's played 1,294 NHL games. That's crazy. That's a lot. It's a lot of mileage on your body. And he's gotten just destroyed in the three years he's been with Kogliano, like almost had career Indian injuries every game. Like the one positive thing from Andrew Kogliano this year, I don't think he had like a career Indian injury that he came back from in this one. Well, he did a couple. He did a couple. A different definition of career endings for Andrew Kogliano. Like he didn't get shot. So he played again. But that's just where it's at. Wouldn't shock me in the world if they come back? Both of them. What I think there has to be plans in place for them to almost like load manage them. And because I do think if Kogliano is fresh in the playoffs, he can't keep up. But when he's played 82 games, it's just it's impossible for the guy to keep up. And when you're already having the conversation, like it's May, we're not even in free interest yet. We're already having the conversation of, well, you're going to have to load manage these guys. Is it worth it at that point? Like that's ultimately what I go back to is like, is it worth it at that point? If you have to plan on not playing them every night and you have the option of not signing them, is that the smartest thing to do when there is an entire crop of free agents coming your way that might be able to just do that job a little better? Again, I love these guys. Kogliano, him winning a cup with the abs is just one of the most feel good moments in NHL history with this team. Just a veteran who's been around for a long time came close, but finally wins the cup. And he's done his job over the last couple of years. But it's just it's the business. He can't keep every player you like. I love Jack Johnson. I want him to stay. It's it's all come full circle from when they first signed him to that PTO and I was like, you've got to be fucking kidding me with this. I'd love for him to stay, but there's just there's a certain point where you got to look for some upgrades here and some cost effective upgrades. If there are none, okay, we'll see what we can get out of this. But I just I think there needs to be some time to move on. Agreed. Agreed. But that's those two. You want to just talk about Brandon Dohame next? Since you already brought him up. I mean, we can just talk about the trade deadline guys all together. The guys expiring Dohame, Jakob Trenen and Sean Walker, we'll focus on the forwards first. I think Dohame makes sense to Keena. He's not the cheapest option out there, but we're talking difference of a couple hundred thousand dollars at this point. Because what does he make this season 1.1, I think? Yeah, 1.1. I think that's pretty in line with what he should get. Like maybe he gets a little bit of a bump, like 1.25 or something like that. But he's a pretty effective player where he does a lot of what the abs like to do. He's a good skater and he can play on the penalty kill. They were not afraid to bump him up in the lineup if they have. He's to me like a little bit more skilled version of Curtis McDermott. If he comes back, he's the mean guy. They need a mean guy and at least Dohame can skate and not be a liability out there. I think it's exactly that. I think Brandon Dohame is everything they wanted Curtis McDermott to be. Where it's like he can play forward. If you need a guy to go be a heat seeking missile and go tear someone's head off for hitting Kalamakar, Dohame can be that guy. He's not afraid to go scrap and get into fights. And you know, he's not a guy you're going to miss a ton if he's in the box for five minutes or get some self thrown out of the game. Like, yeah, you want him to play. But you can do that with him. Where I think that's just exactly it. They kept trying to make Curtis McDermott into Brandon Dohame. And that just wasn't his thing. So instead, you can just use Brandon Dohame in that role to play fourth line minutes and play him more than three minutes a game. Maybe we shouldn't say he's like Curtis McDermott because McDermott got kind of paid, like he gets a pretty fact object from the demos. Well, because what did McDermott get? It was like 1.3? 1.25? Where is this? Yeah, but Dohame's better and like that's what kind of concerns me of it. McDermott got 1.15. If Dohame gets that, I'm totally cool with that. I'm cool with that. I'm cool with that. I mean, that's a $50,000 bump for him. I'm totally cool with that. Do name signs that contract. Good for Curtis McDermott, man. I missed that guy. Oh my God. Yeah, we're going to get distracted here for a quick second. Hey, Curtis McDermott just continues to get it, man. I love it so much. There's value in being able to punch people in the face. So I good for Curtis. I salute you, my friend. Okay, so the next three years, does Curtis McDermott play a playoff game for the first time in his career? I mean, with that contract, you would think he's going to because when he was with the ads, he wasn't making less than a million. Yeah. So I mean, with that contract, it sounds like he's going to be an everyday player for him, which that's great for Curtis McDermott, man. God bless him. And God bless Sheldon Keefe for trying to find a way to make that work in the devil. Yeah, I mean, that's going to be, I mean, good for Curtis, man. That's my king. I miss you every day, still come on the podcast. You should play hockey, man. You're taller than Curtis McDermott. You could have made some real money. Yeah, but I don't like being punched in the face. Okay, well, you could have gotten over it. And just maybe you could have gotten millions of dollars. Yeah, probably, probably. But who knows? He's getting straight away when you're a kid, man. My parents like basketball, let's just do that. Get you some basketball shoes and you're good to go. But there's there's a market inefficiency in hockey. All the tall people go into basketball for hockey, curse, David, six, five. And that's the end of his list. But he's just got a three year contract for over a million bucks a year. Yeah, but if that's what do him signs, I'll be happy with that. I do think he's just a more effective version of Curtis McDermott. So I think he's, if you're asking me of all the UFAs that I think are going to be back with the abs, that's the one I'm like most about this brand and doing. Yeah, at very least of the trade deadline, guys, like, I just think it makes sense. He's not expensive. And he was good for you in the role that he played. And he's, I think he's everything that the abs like in a bottom six guy. And I think there's a little bit of upside there. But I think there's a little bit of offensive upside there. We're like, like 10 goals maybe isn't totally out of the question for a guy like Brandon Duhame. It's going to be a reach, but that's what I mean. Like, I think there's a little bit of potential there, a little reton. But like, I think if he has a real good season, he could hit 10 goals. Agreed. Agreed. But I think he's coming back. And then the last two you brought from the trade deadline position, Jakob Trennan, I'm going to say right now, I would love for that guy to be back. There's a reason the prince traded him. And that's because he's going to ask for probably 2 million. And for a fourth line center, that's just very rich in the abs and not afford that. I would love for Jakob Trennan to be back on this team. Of all the guys not named Jonathan Drewann on this team, I want Trennan back more than that, honey, because I love him. Fans using him on our team would just be gross. But I just, there's a reason national traded him. And they were a playoff team. He wants a lot of money. That trade never made sense when you look at just pure production, because good player. But just the money would have been too much for Nashville in a contention window. And for the abs, they're even more capstrapped than the predators are right now. Like, I'm concerned what the conversations were with Nashville, because they have like $26 million in cap space this season. So what was Trennan asking for that made them just go, we'll send you to a division rival while we're in the middle of playoff race. Like, we could have very well played Nashville in round one. Dude, Trennan would have really helped the Preds in that first round series against the Canucks. But it can't be over 2 million, but he's a fourth line center. You'd think, right? You'd think. I mean, Daniel Sproung got 2 million last year, and he had 20 goals the year before. But Trennan's one of the best penalty killers in the NHL. I agree. I don't disagree with you. It's just, I would love for him to be back. I just think there's like a 0.01% chance he's he's going to resign with the abs. If Trennan is back on the team, we got a definitive answer on Landis Gogg or Nachushkin that like you all know about and they're just spending that money. Yes. When they bring back Trennan and just have a center depth of McKinnon, middle stat, Colton, and Trennan, they're fine. Pretty good. Yeah. Like all this under your center depth is just not a problem anymore. And then you can kind of pick and choose some wingers. Right. It is like you can find bargain barrel wingers for under a million dollars to plug into your bottom six. But if you have a center depth like that, you're feeling fine at that point to try. Or I could see Trennan going, Chicago. I could see Chicago blowing out like three, three years, three and a half for him. Yeah. Like it is a team that just genuinely needs to reach the floor. Right. Needs to keep some goals out of their net. Like he's not a guy who's going to play with the dart or anything, but they don't have players on their team and Trennan, like he might be a weird one, right? I agree. Like he might sign like a three million dollar deal with a really bad team and just meet that contract. I mean, because he's a good defensive player and then like get traded somewhere at the deadline, half retained for like a second round pick. Yep. I can see that. I really like Jakob Tren. I really like how he played here. And I think losing him in the Dallas series. I think there's there was a loss there in the bottom six. Right. Granted, it was only it was game in half, essentially, because he missed. I mean, well, it was two games. He played like one period in game five and they got hurt. But I mean, like in a game that went to double overtime, it would have helped a guy like Jakob Trennan. Great. I think he's a kind of guy where he's built for real solid playoffs and just a really solid depth performer in the playoffs. I see very little downside in keeping him for the right money. But it's the Drew and conversation on steroids because if Drew and does come back, you are pinching every single penny. You are already pinching every single penny before Jonathan Drew and comes back. If you are, you're you're splitting those things in half of the buzz saw and Trennan just might not fit. That's kind of where my thoughts are with it. But I'd love to have him back again. The salary cap fucking sucks. And that's probably gonna be a cap casualty. Yeah. And the guy who I think has the least chance of coming back, Sean Walker. Yeah, this one stinks, man, because he came in with such hype. And I felt kind of bad for him because he got strapped with Jack Johnson. So I don't think he's a bad player. I don't think he was bad when he was here. It's just he was playing with Jack Johnson. And you're going to get caught in your own zone a little bit. But I agree with you. I just think he's going to re or he's gonna sign somewhere for four and a half, five, probably like a Josh Manson type deal. And the app's just simply can't afford that. Yeah, I think it's a double whammy of he's a good fit here. Like the way he plays is a good fit. But he just disappointed. Well, here he didn't reach the expectations I had from. And he's going to be too expensive. He's he's probably going to get probably close to what Josh Manson gets. I think so. And also he's 29. Do you want to sign a guy who's about to be on the wrong side of 30 kind of say, like there's there's a lot of things he's striking out on here. Unfortunately, I'd be okay with keeping him. I think he needs a better partner than Jack Johnson. I don't think that helped him very much because I think he does fit what the abs do. I think he's just too expensive. What if you so would you take him back? But if Sean Walker's back, I think Manson's out the door. Yeah, I think that's the only way. If Josh Manson gets traded and you're able to get Walker, like is even at four million, I think that's still like that's not much of a difference at that point, like even $500,000. That doesn't solve any of your problems. No, I agree. I really would be shocked if Sean Walker is a member of the abs starting next year. I would be really sure. Like something would have to happen at that point. And he he's capable. He proved to him, Philly. He was playing top four minutes with them. He showed what he could do in top minutes. It's just the abs when you have Kilmer car to volunteer of Sam Girard. You're already just fighting for fourth. There's going to be a lot more teams and free agency that are going to be more willing to throw money at a white hole in the defenseman who's incredibly mobile and is good at moving the puck, like just a lot more willing than the abs. Not saying the abs won't do it, but a team, I don't know, like the capitals who need like a lot more speed, a lot more puck moving on their back end are going to be more willing to throw that kind of money on a strong walker. I think there'd be a massive market for Sean Walker. I think there should be a very big market. I think we're going to be like not surprised because I do think he's going to end up in that four and a half to five and a half AAV. But I think there's going to be a lot of teams fighting for him. Where it's just like even like the abs traded a first for him. And I think a lot of people were surprised by that. I think the money he gets, people are going to be surprised by that. Yeah, he's a good player, but you're going to look at the contract. He eventually signs and go, yeah, the abs had no chance. He was a rental. We knew that going in and I was definitely rental. Kind of disappointed near the end, but I'm not going to blame too much of him. He was playing with Jack Johnson. So that's tough. He took a lot of dumb penalties and just was not what I thought he was going to be wasn't bad. He had his games like he had a couple playoff games where he probably was one of the best defenseman on the ice. He had the Edmonton game in the regular season where he scores the the two goals. He's good player. Just it didn't it didn't work out the way. I don't think anyone envisioned it here. And he was he was brought in to be a replacement for Bobarum. I thought he was better than Bobarum from what Byron had given us in the season. And now you have to go into the offseason and try and find a new replacement for him because I do agree it. I think the market for him is going to be a lot larger than we're thinking. Yeah, I think there's just a lot of teams that are going to be willing to throw close to five at him to put. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised by the right-handed top four defenseman who's mobile where it's I don't think it's a super long contract mind you. I don't think he's going to sign a six, seven year deal. But if he's like a four year deal. Yeah, he sounds a three four year contract at five million bucks. I think that's pretty in line. I think there's a lot of teams that are going to be willing to do something like that. Yeah, agreed, agreed. But yeah, that's pretty much all the free agents. Is there any other who were missing? I'm trying to remember off the top of my head any of the massive ones that we need to get here. I mean, there's a Freddy and Tufti. Yeah, well, there's KV Ronta as well. I mean, you have the group of former stars in there too. KV Ronta, I think, comes back. I think that's a guy who's going to get under a million dollars again who in the playoffs, I think, saved his NHL career. Yeah, there's this in the regular season. He was okay. He didn't do a lot in the regular season, but in the was exactly what he was in Dallas. Yeah, in the playoffs, he stepped up his game. And that makes you money. That keeps you your NHL job where in the regular season, you just have to stick around. You just have to not be sent to the minors. You just have to stick close to the lineup. But in the playoffs, they needed him. And he, for what he's capable of doing, I think he won 100% did his job. He's agreeing. Like, especially as the Dallas series started to unravel, like, you could not point to you. I'll keep you Ronta and say, well, what can you be doing more here? Like, he did everything that was asking me, even if it's Winnipeg, he's outstanding. It was great. He got hurt, which kind of sucked. But I think KV Ronta's coming back Tufti and Olafson. Yeah. I think Olafson's going to Sweden. I think I saw he's going to the SHL. But I mean, good for him. I mean, that's a replaceable player. And Tufti had a great pre-season. He had a good HL season. He didn't do much with the abs and just an HL guy you can find. Yeah. It's the kind of thing with Riley Tufti is, what do you do well? Riley Tufti just does a lot of things. Okay. He's not a bad player. It's just, he's not an elite penalty killer. He's not great defensively. And the at the HL level, he's a solid scorer. Like, he does a couple things offensively. Just it doesn't translate very well at the NHL level. And you know, like, that's fine. Like, it just, it happens for guys like that. And not every first round pick pans out that way. Everyone's all up. Dallas has asked for their drafting. This was the first round pick less than 10. Oh, he was the 25th overall pick in 2016, just six, six guy. And he had 45 points with the Eagles. Like, I would be surprised if he signed a minor league deal. If he's still in the abs organization, like, him at certain points next year, he might, he might sign a two way. Do you know who he kind of reminds me of? Remember this guy TJ Tynan? Oh, yeah. Kind of reminds me of, like, it's like, he would just be dominating the HL and they come to the HL and it's tough. Like, him and like Rocko Grimaldi, like those players. Like, there's a, there's a lot of guys like that, that are the top scorer in the HL. You wonder why they don't get called up. It just doesn't translate to the NHL. There's a, there's a big difference between a HL goalies and NHL goalies and the difference between the top of the, the, the league and the NHL and the top of the league and the HL where you're going up against McKinnon and Panera and McDavid, like the best of the best. It's a different world in the HL and just, there's some guys that are just really built to dominate that world. Yep. Get called up and it just doesn't work because they're used to getting top line minutes and if they're not playing top line, they, they're just, they don't adjust to a fourth line role. Yep. It's tough. So, we'll have to see, but those are kind of it. We'll talk about a lot more of the free agents as it gets closer, but I, I thought this was a good little opening for where we're, where we're going to be at for the rest of the summer. Yeah. And then what, another guy you could talk about for like a minute here is Brad Hunt. I think we'll bring it back. Yeah, he's captain. Yeah, but probably for the same role he's been playing the last couple years, he doesn't play a game with the abs last year, which I was a little surprised by that they did. Well, I think it was just because Malinsky came up and he was so solid that it was like, oh, Brad Hunt's like the ninth defenseman now and yeah, Caleb Jones, like it was, it was pretty, it was pretty evident that he was going to be in the HL and I don't think he mines the HL. Yeah. I mean, he's the captain of the team. Like, they didn't want to upset that order and then that Brad Hunt deserves to be there and the, the year before when the abs of all the injury stuff, like the Eagles were really affected by stuff and I'm sure they were not happy about how much their season got upended because of all the abs problems. I mean, that's just the name of the game of being an affiliate, but their season got really fucked up by all that. So I think putting people in front of Brad Hunt was, it wasn't the number one reason they did these things, but it also just was a favor. Yeah. You can keep your captain for the whole season. We'll call him up if we need to, but he got called up once he didn't play though. Yeah. He got called up. He just didn't do anything. He didn't play. And again, this defenseman got 49 points in 70 games in the HL. It's a really good HL player and a fringe NHLer. Yeah. Like just a guy like, I think they'll give him another year, stick him around the HL, let him captain the team, just be a good, good option to have around if you need them. I mean, you've seen him in the HL. He's fine. It's not special. He's fine. He does that. Wait a minute. He's fine. Not a total liability, which for fringe NHL guy might as well be an A plus. Yep. So that's all the abs, notable free agents. No, so I have been pros with Todd, who I think is going to the KHL. Yeah, I thought that was already announced that he was going to the KHL rumored at least, but yeah. Hey, good for pros for tough, go get paid, go back to home and you'll be good. So I think that's pretty much it for abs talk. Let's talk about these conference finals. They've been great TV. Like every game has been awesome. Let's do what we're about to see puck dropping game four of the Panthers and Rangers as we are recording the series and you texted me this on what was that game Saturday Sunday Sunday was game three after the Rangers won your like the Rangers are just this is their year like they did not deserve at all to win that game against the Florida Panthers and they still won. They still like the Panthers were so much better than them in every aspect and they the Rangers still want it might just be the year they're undefeated in overtime in these playoffs like we I think being you have just started to accept that the Rangers are probably one of the companies here. Yeah, what's going wrong for them right now? Nothing. They're getting bad series from Panerian ends of Ben and John and they're still up in the series at one point from their top line. They're in their negatives. They're up to one. They're going to get they're going to get it at some point and it's just going to start their power play. It hasn't scored all series but they get a shorthand goal in game three from Barkley Goodger who's shooting 47 percent right now and now scoring his regular season. They're winning. They're winning. I've seen I've seen this for 10 straight years teams that get shit like this. They win. They win every time. It sucks. It sucks because every game's been awesome. Like outside game one game one kind of stunt because the Panthers just kicked the shit out of them. But games two, three and four or two and three have been great like both over times and I envision the Panthers winning tonight. I think they're going to win. I can't picture the Panthers losing three games in a row. No matter how they get the Rangers have been, I can't picture them losing three in a row and then two at home because if that does happen, the series is over. Yes. The series is on the line tonight. If they if they lose this one, it's over. Schasturkin's been great. What was it? The Panthers in game three had 103 shot attempts. Yeah, close to the Rangers. Did they even have 40? I don't think they had 40 and you had Loffernier score some beautiful goals. Barkley Goodger had a goal. Who scored the game when a wind bird gets his first? Yeah. And it's a millimeter away from going off his hand, but it hits the shaft of his stick instead. Like it's just everything's coming up Rangers right now and it pisses me off, but I think I just have to accept the fact that it's going to be Ranger Stars in the Cup Final. My nightmare scenario, that's what it's going to be. I mean, either way, Rangers Weber comes out of the West as my nightmare star. I mean, my literal nightmare bracket was Rangers Oilers and might be getting saved by the fact that's the fucking stars instead. But like the Rangers, what do you say? They're just getting everything you need from a team that goes on to win where I don't want to count the Panthers out because they're a really, really good team. But the Rangers are using up all their luck for the next 10 years. They're getting everything you need right now. They're just they're the vibes team. And it's bullshit. It pisses me off and it pisses me off even more than everyone, just to suck in Peter Lobbielet's dick thinking he's this great coach and just forgetting the past like 10 years of him as an HL coach where he kind of fucked up the caps. Like he wasn't great with the caps. Where was he before that? Carolina, Philly, I can't remember. And you live now for a really long time. Yeah, like it's just everyone's just being he's such a great coach. It's like, why has he been fired seven times? Like he's I mean, this is what Lobbielet does. Washington was an exception where he didn't take them on a super deep run early in his tenure. Like in Carolina, he won the cup. The Flyers went to the final. I think it is one of his first two years. Nashville went to the final. I think in his second third year with the team. And he's there for a long time, gets fired. I mean, the caps did well for a minute under him. They didn't go anywhere in the playoffs. And now the Rangers, they're probably going to get their finals run out of this. And then they're going to start to crash back down. That's that's the Lobbielet timeline. They're going to yeah, they're going to settle. Like everyone's just feeling he's such a great coach. Like look, when he gets out of his way, it's like shut the fuck up. He's a great coach right now. Yeah, again. And when he gets fired in two years, we'll be like, Oh, I can't believe it like that. Great coach got fired again. I answered it drives me crazy. It's the whole coaching thing right now. Every coach is great until they're not. Yeah, it's such a quick thing to let guys get fired. We're a guy like Jared Bednar is an anomaly. We're teased the second longest tenure to our third longest tenured coach in the league right now. Because half the league has fired their coaches in the last 12 months, essentially. And it's you're in a weird place right now. And you have guys getting hired like Biosma getting hired in Seattle. And I mean, you had Shelton Keefe go to the devil's, which I don't hate. But you have that Lindy Ruff going to the sabers Travis Green somehow got a job again with the senators. Where you look at the lot of these hires, like, aren't any of these guys lasting three years? Maybe Keith. I think Barouba could last in Toronto, just because I don't think they're going to I don't think they're going to be any rush to fire any coaches anytime soon because they've already used that bolt on Keith. And I think Keith, if he works, could stick with the devil. I think he's just in a better situation in New Jersey than he is in Toronto. But like Biosma, I'd be shocked to be last the year in Seattle. Like, I think the abs could be like the only notch on the Kraken's belt for the next five years, if this is the way they're going to go. And Lindy Ruff, you already did this. Yeah, we've done this before. He did this already. He's another guy who was just like, how does this guy keep getting a fucking job? Like, does he just have like dirt on every single fucking GM? It's not even the fact that he got another job. It's that he got it in Buffalo. Right. Where's like, okay, he was the coach there for a long time. But like, do you have no creativity whatsoever where a guy like Jared Bednar was not an NHL coach when he was hired. But it was a guy who had won at every other level at that point. And John Cooper, the same way. Yeah, John Cooper, the same way. Mike Sullivan was not an NHL coach for a guy hired. He was the HL coach of the Wilkesbury Scranton Penguins for a long time. And maybe it's time to start looking like outside of just retreads at a certain point and start trying to find good hockey coaches rather than guys who are like, well, it didn't work for them. But it might work for us because we're different. We're better. We pay them more money. We're healthier. Or is it all these justifications fall flat on their face? And it's a revolving door. It's the state of coaching right now where it's just a happy merry-go-round for everybody. And that's what leads to half the league firing their coaches and no one able to set anything up because there's no patience for anything. And also the guys you're hiring, you're not hiring to build long-term success. Are you telling me you hired Lindy Ruff for long-term structured success? You hired Travis Green for the next five to eight years of this team. You hired him because he's probably your friend or something. It's, I don't know, the whole thing is just it's not built to long-term success. You don't see teams just cycle through coaches and do well a lot of the time. No, they don't. Yeah, that's coach stock. Before we moved too far past the Rangers Panther series, Jacob Trupper committed another almost attempted murder and only got a two-minute penalty out of it. Have you seen that they totally picked his pockets with that $5,000 fine? Well, we did get fine for it. I didn't even see you got fine for it. Yeah, he got the hefty $5,000 fine. The maximum, let me stress, the maximum allowable under the CBA because that means a lot. The thing with it, dude, is it's just like you watch the video and he clearly sticks his elbow up. Like there's no, like, like say what you want about the Jamie Ben hit on Devon Taves. I didn't love it, but compared to what that was, like that was more of a five-minute penalty than what Jamie Ben did. Like, it's just you can clearly see in the slow-bow that he picks his elbow up. It's right into Rodriguez. It's like, it's not even just that. I've just never seen a player who just actively uses his elbow. Right. Much is Jacob Trupper. Like it'd be a different thing. It's a flashback to the 90s. Like he's a 90s hockey player, but the thing is, is everyone else has adapted to the new rules and Jacob Trupper just has it. It's just, I've never seen someone who just throws the elbow like that. It's so blatantly, it'd be different if it was the first time. Is that even the first time these playoffs that he's almost, who do you almost kill? What was it? Natchets in the Carolina series? In the Carolina series, he almost killed himself. That hit. Just throwing the elbow out there like that. You can't look at that and tell me there was any other intention, but trying to decapitate Marty Nages play. And Evan Rodriguez, like that one could have been a lot worse. He caught him like on the lower part of his head. But what is he trying to do here? What's your in goal here, Jacob? And that's the thing that pisses me off most about it is I guarantee you, if that's a regular season play, that's a five-minute in a suspension. But because they're just too chicken shit to make those calls in the playoffs, I will never understand it. I will never understand why we're too chicken shit to call a five-minute major in the playoffs. You know, and I think it shouldn't be up to anyone. It should just be a rule that if you land an elbow to somebody's head, you're done. You get five minutes. And you land an elbow to somebody's head that is not connected to your body. Your elbow is out and you hit someone in the head, two-game suspension automatically. You do it again, four games. You do it again, eight games. It shouldn't be up to peros or any ref for situation room. It should just be built in. You elbow someone in the head by. It shouldn't be objective or we're losing the integrity of the game. It should just be a rule. Yeah, like, it's just, I don't know, it was really confusing to me. And I tweeted out, I mean, if Nazim Qadri does that, he's suspended for the next 20 years. But I think that's just, that's the truth. Like, Nazim Qadri, that one he laid on, Justin Volk, just as bad as that, what Tuba did, in my opinion. And would that even rank in these playoffs so far with the kind of shit that's been getting away with? I still think just because they hate Nazim Qadri, it would have been. Yeah. But like, in terms of like the, like, the really bad hits that have happened, these playoffs, I feel like that one was just pretty run of the mill. Yeah. Well, maybe this is like the big brain by the angel. Yeah, the Rangers may be worse with Jacob Truebo on the ice. Like, if Jacob Truebo came off the ice, it probably would make the Rangers better. So maybe it's a big brain. Oh, you can't help but take himself off the ice. The guy's a healthy box four times a game. He's been bad. He's been bad. But that's your Mark Messier leadership award winner right there. Okay. We need to talk about that. What the hell is this award? Mark Messier just gets to decide his favorite player. Does that how it works? Yeah. Mark Messier just picks. There's no process here. Mark. I think Jacob Truebo deserves this award. And you just kind of as if there is no way that could be infallible or something. That's kind of awesome, honestly. Like, that makes it even better that he wanted that. Mark Messier is just like, yeah. But like, you see what winning in New York does to you, they just give you an award to hand out all by yourself. Because while you want to New York, so you must be the best leader the sport has ever seen. I like that. I kind of like that. That kind of rules. I'm not saying to get rid of it. I'm saying it's ridiculous, but it's the funniest thing ever. I totally want that kind of rules. I like that a lot. I really like that a lot actually. Yeah. I hope the Panthers win tonight and they keep the series going. It's been good hockey. Like, it's been fun. It's been fun games. So I just hope the Panthers keep it going. Just a neutral perspective like for you and I don't like the Rangers. This is a good series. I don't want it to be 3-1. I want this to go back to New York tied and at very least get a game 6. This is a fantastic series between two great teams. Like, 100% you're rooting for the Panthers to win this game. Like, you're going to know by the time you're listening to this. But I really hope the Panthers end up winning this. Yeah, you too. But let's quickly, well, not quickly. Well, let's talk about the Western Conference final. I don't think there's much that needs to be said. Like, the Oilers are hanging in there, but the Stars are just better. Like, they're just they're the best team in the West. They are. It's it's a pain in the ass to admit. It sucks to admit, but the Stars just are really fucking good. They're a good hockey team. And the Oilers came out in game three, taken early to nothing lead and in the blink of an eye, it's three, two stars. And it's Rope hence is back. Jason Robertson gets a hat trick. Like, they're just a really good team. The Stars just have way more ways to win than the Oilers. Like, because I think the Oilers, they played fine. They started really strong. They really had Dallas on the back foot, but Dallas just has so many more ways to win that series. And they don't have anchors on the ice. There's a big difference that the Oilers play Darnell Nurse and the Stars do not. Darnell Nurse sucks. I don't think there's ever been more on display right now than in these playoffs. Darnell Nurse is fucking terrible. It makes nine and a half million dollars and starts Skinner. I didn't even feel like it was terrible. But that game winning goal he lets in is awful. That's brutal. It was brutal. But he made the big saves in a second. Like, I don't think Stuart Skinner is the one to blame. You do have to make that save. At this point in the conference file, you can be really good. Jake Ottinger is not letting that in. No. I mean, Jake Ottinger has been great. Like, they're basically just repeating exactly what happened in the app series. They lose game one in overtime. And they'll probably win game four and be up three, one and then lose game five and then go win game six. I would not be surprised the stars just wrap up this series in four straight games and just win in five. They're just better than the other games have been good. Like, they've been competitive games. It's just when it comes down to it, the stars are the better team. And I don't know what the Oilers are changing other than they just get monster performances from McDavid and Drycidal and Hyman that change this series because they've got too many questions and net too many questions on the back end. Like, they just can't defend against the stars team forever. The stars are relentless. And it's just kind of like the top line with Hint's out was kind of bad. And then Jason Robertson gets Hint's back and it's no coincidence in game three that he has three goals. And I think he ends up with four points. But it's just Robey Hint's is good. He's good. And Jason Robertson's good. And they were still finding ways to win without those guys. So they're just a good team. I hate to say it, but I do just think the stars are better than the Oilers. And it looks like we're on a collision course that could change in the next couple hours after this Panthers game. Looks like we're on a collision course for Dallas, New York. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that sucks. It's been an evil sports year. You got the Celtics going on the final in the NBA. You got the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl this year. I mean, you're asking me to pick between really anyone not named the Panthers at this point, winning the Stanley Cup is just a really shitty year, like would not be stunned if the Yankees win the World Series. Yeah, we don't need that. We don't need to put that in the universe, but they're already out there. Like it's already happening. The wheels have already been set in motion that just it's the worst possible results in all leagues this year. Agreed. But overall, man, I'm ready for some playoff hockey tonight. I don't think there's any other NHL news. We covered those. I don't think we have anything else, man. We're coming up on game time right now. Let's give you an idea of when we're recording, but we do have some mail bags. That's right. Yep. We got the mail bags. We do have some mail bags stuff to get. We got three mail bags here that we're going to get to for today. First one coming from Katie asking, do you think it would be better for the apps for Renton and to play the majority of his five. The majority of his five V five time on a line with McKinnon or on a line with middle staff for the future. If you're asking me in an ideal world, I would like for it to be with middle staff. So you can disperse the talent. But I don't think that's how it's going to work. I think he's going to play with McKinnon. And that's what it's going to be. And it works. He's a hundred point player 50, 50 goal. Well, he didn't have 50 goals this year, but a hundred point player. Yeah. I mean, it's the guy who last year, it's okay to be frustrated with Meeko Renton. That's perfectly fine. But you also do have to acknowledge that he had a second straight hundred point season and had a hundred and four points 42 goals. And I always play altitude 14 points in 11 games. And yeah, he could have been better. There were games that were very frustrating for him. But with a guy like Meeko Renton, you take the good with the bad with a guy like that. Because again, I've seen the trade Renton and stuff getting thrown out there. Like guys, come on, you got to get a grip on this one. That's not going to happen. Meeko Renton, unless he doesn't want to sign or is asking for $15 million is going to this team. He's not going to get traded. You don't win a Meeko Renton and trade. You're not getting closer to a cup by trading a guy like Meeko Renton. And you just don't. You simply just do not do something like that. It's a dumb thing to do. Trade a guy like that. And I get we're all still frustrated at the playoffs. But it's pointing the finger at Meeko Renton in particular and get this guy out of here. It's not going to solve anything. I know I didn't answer the question I'm going to, but even still, my ideal world is you have drew an online with McKinnon and probably with Laconan as well slash val pending things. And then your second line is Landeskog, middle stat, Renton. And if you want to load up the top guys and put them with McKinnon, you do that too. But if you're getting Landeskog back, I don't think it's a bad thing to put Renton with middle stat. Honestly, I liked how they looked. No, I did too. I did too. I liked how they looked at points in the playoffs. I think that's the final form of this team. If everything goes right, you carry that into the playoffs. You split up McKinnon and Renton and then just spread out your dangerous talent a lot more. And when you need to late in the game, you put them back together. Yep. I think that's the ideal world. In a perfect world, that's what happened. Is that what's going to happen? No, because Jared Benaro has no problem just changing things up in the middle of the game. So. Yeah. And also, to finish on the Renton and trade stuff, like, Oh, they're not going to be able to form. What do you think he's getting? They think he's getting probably what post or not got, which is like in between post knock and knee lander. Yeah. He's like, Oh, he's good. He's going to get paid. He's a good player. He's over a hundred points. He scored 55 goals last year and had over 40 again this year in a quote unquote down year. You get locked in Meeko Renton and you're talking about like he could get 110 plus. Oh, dude, if he doesn't get a contract extension by this year, we're going to see Meeko Renton out of the pair this year contract year. Maybe you just don't sign it and just get full all in Meeko Renton 130 points and whatever he ends up putting up in the playoffs as well. You don't trade guys like that. There's there's no trade package out there that the abs win or the realistic one, at least, right? That's my soapbox on Meeko Renton. And for right now, I'm sure I'll have plenty of other points in the off season to get back on that with the amount of frustration directed right now. I'm frustrated at Renton too. He was not fantastic. The solution is not get this guy off my team. Right. Anyway, not a breath from that one. Moving on to our next question from Jake, asking any names catching your eyes on the low AAV free agents list per McFarland. Dare I say a Tyson Jost reunion? Not really anyone catching my eye. There will be as we find out. You brought up a good point. We still don't know the guys who are not going to be tender. So that's going to be huge. I would love a guy like David Perron, but I think he's going to be way more than what we can afford. Not a low AAV guy. Not a low AAV guy. Yeah. I don't really know. I mean, Tyson Jost is Tyson Jost. I don't know. I think it'd be tougher when we come back here because we still have the we picked him 10th overall. That'd be tough. I mean, Eric Johnson, maybe. But I really haven't looked too deep into it yet. I mean, there are guys out there that'll be interesting options for low AAV contracts. I think what you said is also very true is just we don't know the full UFA class right now. It was like two years ago Dylan Strom just didn't get qualified by the Black Hawks for some reason. You might just have some really stupid decisions by general managers to not sign guys and you can find some maybe younger guys that you can sign for like a million bucks or something like that to give him a chance. But outside of that, I mean, I'm not thrilled about this one, but like a guy like Victor Olafsson, who just completely fell off in Buffalo. The Buffalo Reclamation thing is a thing that works. Like, you saw it with Casey Middle Stat here. You see it with Sam Reinhardt and Brandon Montor in Florida. Depending on what he wants, I'd be willing to give a Victor Olafsson a shot to see you can get back to his like 20 plus goals scoring form. Like a guy like Dominic Kubali, who was a call their finalist a couple years ago, just hasn't clicked over the last couple years in the NHL at 15 points last year with the senators. Like, that'd be an interesting name to look at. Like, you need reclamation projects. I know those names aren't exciting and there's a lot of risk attached to them, but that's the point. That's why they're going to be cheap, because if they didn't have those things, they won't be cheap. Jonathan had a lot of risk attached to him when the app signed him for cheap. It just happened to work out, but I think there'll be some some names out there the deeper we get into it before anyone brings it up. Max Patrick ready is not an option. I watched the whole experiment last year. No, no, hard, hard. No, he will be a member of the apps by the time that I don't think I can think of a worse fit on the mark than Max Patrick ready. The guy can't move. He can't move and he doesn't score anymore. So I don't see what the fit there would be. So before anyone brings up, what about Patrick? No, you're good. Absolutely not. It became a running joke in the cap's fan base that Patrick is finally going to have his moment. Never happened. The guy is not very good, but I like a cast very cap and even. That's a reclamation project for sure. But like there are those kinds of guys out there like you've seen stuff from them in the past. There's like is Jacob Vrana is a UFA. I've seen there's a lot of talent with a guy like Jacob Vrana as well. There's a lot of stuff there too, but I think they already have enough with Bao. I don't think they need to add another one into there. Yeah, but I'm just saying like that's what you got to look at here. Yeah, you know, kind of names the kind of reclamation projects that you might be able to sign for cheap. And there is upside there, just not everyone's Jonathan Drew and where just you put him on a team with his best friend and he breaks out for almost 60 points. There's a lot more Thomas to Tars out there than there are Jonathan Drew and I don't even know if Thomas Tars gonna be in the league next year. Yeah, we'll see. Yeah. What's the last one? The last one coming from Alex Martin saying, Hey fellas, glad to see a mailbag tweet here got me stoked for another episode. Not here for a question, but more so just wanted to say thank you bros for all of your hard work. You made the season so much more fun and exciting. I love your insights and opinions as well as just listening for abs comfort. You guys do a great job. And I know diehards like myself really appreciate all you do. Your show has become a staple in my morning routines and or late night drives home from work stoked for next season. Thanks guys. Go abs. Thank you man. That that stuff really does mean a lot to me. Yeah, no, that's uh, I actually did. I did not see that one before we did the mailbag stuff. I just clicked right over to that. I don't even know how to respond to that other than thank you. We appreciate it. And that's kind of the whole point of why we do that. We want to feel like you're just hanging out with two dudes talking some out of hockey. That's the whole mission of this. We have a really good time doing it. Griffin and I have become friends after this and we've become good friends with everything going on. And it's I just look at it as me and you were just two buddies talking about hockey. And then if you're listening, we hope that you feel like you're welcome into that too. So it is nice to hear that we are our mission behind the show is affecting some people in that way. Yeah, I at the end of the day, the number one thing I want is I don't want to put myself above anybody. Like I don't want to ever come off that like I'm some kind of expert on some kind of insider that just knows more about hockey than you when that's why you listen to me. I just want this to be fun. I just want this to be a place where we can all have conversations and share our opinions and all just feel like we're sports the end of the day are supposed to be fun. I feel like that gets lost a lot because at the end of the day, we're supposed to be enjoying ourselves. The results might not always be fun, but we are supposed to enjoy ourselves at the end of the day. The whole point is sports is camaraderie and fun and just watching real-life superheroes do crazy things and just reveling in that together. So I do appreciate that from you, Alex. I mean, that stuff does mean a lot to me. It also just is still surreal that people listen to me at all. The fact that even five people listen to me, let alone the for some reason, the hundreds that do is, I don't know if that'll ever properly sink in for me, but again, I appreciate stuff like that. Yeah, I mean, just we're just two idiots. We aren't smart. We're dumb. We just have fun talking hockey and we do it for free and kind of do do it for free, but it's a good time and it's just two bros, two good friends talking hockey and we're glad that you feel like we invite you in because that's the whole point of the show is to make it feel like you are just sitting around the circle with us talking to Matt Psaki. Yeah, if I ever become a clickbait hot take machine, you guys are fully welcome to give this one star and tell me I've lost the plot because I despise that more than anything. The amount of like 30 second clips of everyone's hot take of why Mecal Rantonin should be traded and why if you don't agree with that, you're stupid. That's just the kind of sports media that I don't like so I think is as if we're being not like I don't think there's a lot of that even in the apps community. I really don't think so. They're really like we have a lot of good stuff with VR and guerrilla sports and locked on like we have a really good community of of abs content, especially the stuff that Evan does at Colorado hockey now. It's just a feels like a pretty healthy community. Yeah, it's a normal sports media. Like I really don't think there's that many hot take people on in the apps community. I feel like we exist in the like almost the perfect bubble where the ads are not a small market team, but they're not like massive. They're not the least. They draw so much external attention to the point where you just get a bunch of people that don't know what they're talking about talking about the team. Like I feel like everyone who covers this team is very plugged in and just it's not oversaturated. I think is the word I'm looking for you just the stuff you get is very good and then shout out to everyone who makes abs content. Like I know some people look at it as like our competition. I've never seen any one at DnVR or locked on or guerrilla sports or anyone like Evan is like competition. They're I learned from a lot of them. I listen. We're being honest. Like a lot of those people that's their job. For me and you, this is just a hobby. Yeah, technically they're competition. We both say with airports, but them as more as just like like people I follow. So the fact that I'm even mentioned in the same sentence as people is absurd to me. Like I just I genuinely listen to almost all of that content so learn all about the ads and get more perspectives. So yeah, we do got one. I think we've had like every single person on from every like podcast. We got to find out because the locked dog guys follow both of us and they like some of us. So we probably got to get one of them on during the summer. Yeah, we'll make we'll make that a goal. We'll get some more crossover's cooking for the rest of this. But yeah, thanks, Alex. Appreciate it, man. I appreciate stuff like that. I also too want to say I was not lining up to end this show with a super shouting us out. That one came in during the show. I thought there was only we started here, but that was a nice little surprise to see right at the end. So we appreciate that, Alex. Thank you very much for that. But I think I'm ready to end this on a real positive note. Yeah, but it's not a positive note. We'll call where we start like whining about the Rangers and Trooba again. I think we're content to to end this one here. So again, thank you all so very much for tuning in to another edition of the Teledabs of this podcast on the hockey podcast network. You can use promo code Teledabs it is on SeatGeek for $20 off your first order of $50 or more. In a follow us on Twitter, you can follow me @gyoungs in a shell. You can follow Christian @Christian_ballae, and you can follow the show @teletabs it is. But again, thank you all so very much for tuning in, and we will catch you all next time. But until then, let's go apps. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
