because it's what they mean. Right? That's what they mean by that? No, I think game seven is usually what they're talking about there. Yeah. It's usually Pete DeBore right after he's won one of them things being like God, what a privilege that was. God, him and Paul Maurice, we got to get them coaching one of them one day. For sure. I know who I'm rooting for. And he didn't just win a cup. Let me tell you that. Okay. Yeah. Oh, come on. Really? Yeah. We're far enough away from that Marie speech now that I can go back to how I actually feel about him. Wow. Okay. No, I mean, look, just like coaching the Leafs division. No, we won't go. We won't go down. No, no, we will actually. It's like coaching the Leafs division and he's just like constantly thumbing his eye in Toronto. They're like, oh, five penalties to one. And I'm going to cry about it after and not get fined and then say like, and if somebody has to break the drought, I hope it's Winnipeg, even though I also coached the Leafs. So yeah, like get out of here. Take a hike. Great speech, but take a hike. Give me Pete DeBore seven days. Wow. I don't know. You felt this strongly about him. I like Paul Maurice. I've always had a soft spot for him. I always felt he was kind of done dirty when he was a Maple Leafs coach. You know, if you think about it, he was the closest for the longest time to actually get in that franchise back into the postseason and ending a drought and then they kicked him to the curb when his team wasn't very good. Yeah, that's just that's how I feel about Paul Maurice. Yeah. How I feel is I know you feel things a lot is how I feel, but so do I. So I guess maybe you should be my brother in complaining. If you met the guy, I'm sure you'd be like, God, he's such a great human being. Of course. Of course. How much I hated it. Oh man, of course. Of course. Oh my God. Hockey coach who loves to tell stories. Yeah. Something tells me I think I might get along. But it's like, I don't think that's going to happen either. So unless he's invited me to his cup party, I'm good. I'm good. But if he's invited me, then I take back everything. There we go. That's it. The floor is done. He's mugged. There we go. All right. Nothing about that. Okay. I think that was a bit of a detour. We're good. I know. No, I know. But it's like now I'm talking hockey. I got boo-colon. The brain is coming up. All right. Back to the topic at hand. Jim Bowden. I heard my James talk plus there yesterday. The conversation where we are now stuck in now, the good news is there is a definitive end date on being stuck in this conversation. I've laid out my case on on bow. If somebody wants to pony up and get stupid about what they want to offer you for Beshette, go for it. Have at it. Zero qualms with that. This is a player that I do still have belief that you can build around. Am I dying to give them hundreds of millions of dollars right this very second? Probably not. I still believe everything I felt about the player, but if someone wants to blow your doors off and give you a ton of prospects and you can reset the system, you should do that. I don't think that's going to happen the way he's performing. I don't even think a hot two weeks can change that. I'm just going to put bow to the side for now. This is about Vlad and it's about an extension. I think the idea of a Vlad trade, again, if somebody wants to completely blow their doors off and it is doing, it can do for the franchise what quite frankly the Soto trade is doing for the gnats right this very second, then you have to consider it. I also think we have to be pragmatists about what real life is and there's just decisions that are made and this goes back to what we talked about with Caitlin yesterday. When everybody who's still involved here goes back and they picture themselves at the beginning of it, whatever it was, for Vlad, it's maybe he thinks of that as Bluefield, maybe he thinks of it hitting the homer in Montreal. For Spyro and Atkins, it's when they first come in here. They envision one day handing Ladi Jr. a comically large sack of money for being the best player on their baseball team. That was the way everybody thought it was going to go. The fact that he is now showing you now, maybe not the heights. Some of us expected, but he's showing you that he is capable of being again, maybe not the Jordan Alvarez, but there's only four or five of them things in Major League Baseball. Okay. I'm showing you he's capable of that and the idea that the team is going to walk away from the vision they've always had for at least them and that one player, I just can't see it. I cannot see it. And that's why I think he's going to stick around. He's going to get signed. I don't think it's happening anytime soon, but I just don't see a world where it's anything other than Vladi with a long banger of a deal with the Blue Jays. It's amazing how the pendulum has steadily swung like if you think about pendulum, it's going right. It's going to sell it's up and down. Yeah, it's all over the place. I mean, have you ever seen that meme of like Baker Mayfield? Where are we on this? Baker Mayfield. Spoke on the wheel? Yes. It feels almost identical because when it comes to the conversation of Bowers Vlad or Bo or Vlad, who do you who do you pick to commit to long term? We went from it being undisputed Vladimir Guerrero Jr. as you just acutely astutely laid out here, the plan probably was, hey, we envision this guy being the face of this organization for more than a decade for the bulk of his career. And he's the son of a Hall of Famer and maybe that's in his DNA as well that he has a Hall of Famer resume that he can produce while wearing a Blue Jays uniform. And then slowly, gradually, especially in the aftermath of the 21 season where he finishes as the runner up for the MVP, we start sort of swaying our opinion towards, ah, you don't bow. Geez, but if you had to, wouldn't you pick Bo? More premium position, steady, consistent offensive player? You know what you're going to get? You can pencil him in to finish either first, second or third and hit in hits in the American League every single year, right? And now, now we're back in this camp of it feels like Vlad would probably be the most pragmatic and realistic and appropriate choice if you had to decide all along. And certainly this year, more than others, I've sort of now planted myself in this camp of I think you do have to pick one. You cannot afford to lose both or to trade both. I think if you do that, you're setting yourself up for a really, really, really long and potentially dark road ahead. There is no guarantee that you are going to find another player of that same ilk to fill what you're going. Guess what? You trade Vlad and his 25 homers, 90 plus RBI, you're going to be looking for exactly that the next day and it's not easy to find. So I point to that being my main thing here is one, you have to make sure you can retain one of them also for context. I think we should read the quote that sort of sparked more of this discussion that happened yesterday. >> Let me just quickly jump in on the bow and Vlad part of that. I think if the team was better, you could pay both. There's just no way you're signing up to hand dug dueling 10 year, whatever, cajillion dollar contracts to guys on this team. If they had proved to been the spine of a team that was going to go win minimum 97 games every year, very different conversation. >> But did it ever feel like they were in that position? >> No, it didn't. No, not even in the position of like being winning enough that they were going to have to the luxury of saying, you know what, maybe we should keep both. Because this is such an incredible winning environment. >> Exactly. >> Let's keep them. No, I think everybody, even like I know David Sampson was on with Blair and Barker yesterday and he's had this opinion for years now, no matter what, regardless of how this window turned out for the Blue Jays, they were going to have to choose. It was never going to be the option of keeping both guys. Okay, yeah, so back to the quote from yesterday. This was after the game and he was asked once again about his future with the Jays. This is the quote from Vlad. >> It was a day that I didn't know why, that's why somebody was like so contract. >> So contract. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Quote, man, I don't want to leave. I want to stay here all my life, but this is business, my time is going to come. I don't know if it's soon enough or not, but it's going to come and quote. That's what Vladi Jr. had to say. This would spark even further discussion about the contract. My big thing with, and in terms of the actual deal itself, because I think probably there is some natural appetite on both ends, Vladi and the team. >> Of course. >> To maybe go down this road at some point and have these material conversations and throw numbers out there and determine all this. I think the big question is, well, what does the deal look like? >> Yeah. >> How do you frame? What is the framework for this deal? And that's where it gets tricky, because precedent isn't really there for this kind of player. And I don't mean that in terms of the higher upper echelon of production. It's like, who else is in his general orbit when it comes to production at first base in this era of Major League Baseball? It's kind of tricky to pinpoint guys that you can say, okay, that's comparable, that's comparable. Maybe this, maybe you have to pay him slightly more than this guy, but it's hard to find those players. That's the tricky point. Another part of it is the age factor of it, right? It's like, we can go find a, we can't, and not really of recent ilk, but we can go find comps and you can do things of like, what was money then versus what's money now. And I mean that both literally of like inflation, but also just like NLP salaries, like there are formulas you can, you can use Lord knows I'm not capable of doing them, but people smarter than I can. >> Cack isn't there for a reason. >> The cack buddy, put them to work. What else are they doing around here? Certainly not fixing the baths. We've been down that road before. But yeah, I think you can, you can go and do that. It's the age factor that throws this in. The fact that Soto is going to get a massive deal that is just naturally going to raise the ceiling on that. And obviously he's not worth Soto money, just look at the track record of the player. It's not even lost. But that is naturally just going to raise the ceiling on that and people are going to say, well, why are they comps? They played it from position. Yeah, they do and they don't. They both hit the ball. That's like the what we're talking about here. We're not talking about, yeah, he's a corner out fielder. He's the first baseman. It's basically the same thing when we're looking at it. I think that's what's going to complicate matters. I think the other thing that has to come naturally to this as well, and this is where it gets to the personal part of this. And I don't say that to mean like there's animosity between the two sides, but I'm thinking I'm putting myself in the Blue Jays shoes. I'm sure there has been an appetite at various times to talk about a deal with Vlad. When there have been highs, there have been appetite about when there's been lows. There's still an appetite. I'm like, hmm, maybe I'll go a little bit on this here. It's got to frustrate the J's that that is only a one way street. Like there was not one lick of conversation about flatty extension until he starts performing. And that's naturally, right? Like we're not going to be sitting here saying, give them a million, give them hundreds of million dollars when he's not performing. But we're only having this conversation because it looks like it's certainly a good time to ring the bell. And I don't but grudge the player that that when he says it's business, that's what he means. He doesn't mean it's business if I might not be able to get the money. It's somebody's going to give it to me. It's just a matter of where it comes from. And I don't I don't but grudge him that, you know, like this is it is a business. These guys have to take that tact. But I also think that there is going to be an opportunity here. This offseason in particular for a fresh start, an exhale, a new chapter to begin. And I can't I cannot think of a better stand a better way to do that, both just from a setting the book standpoint and from a PR standpoint, then giving glad he is big extension. And maybe that's the first thing the new GM gets to do. Yeah, that would be a nice way to ingratiate yourself a little while. I mean, it wasn't. No, okay. It depends on what the pattern is for sure it's all dependent. But I do think, you know, if you're sort of indicating at least because right now it's everything's in flux. Doesn't it feel like that? 100% we don't know. We can see if we said, you know, okay, Brent, our best guess. Two years from now, what does the J's core look like? We could have a hundred different answers. Right? We don't know glad being there. And that's it. I'm with you. Yep. And even that though given it's not a guarantee, but if that were to happen in the offseason where they are able to have this nice fancy press conference and have him sit there and all smiles. And now if things are jovial for a moment and it feels like, okay, everybody can at least does you wear the jacket to the signing or new jacket for the signing? Yeah, I like that one. It's got to be. It's got to be something more, it's got to be even more lavish because it's got all the money now. He's got the money. Yeah. It's his own like green. There's a home run jacket. And then Vlad. He's got the Vladty jacket. He puts the Vladty jacket on. It's his own distinct thing. He's made of a hundred dollars. It's all green. It's just it's like not the master's green. It's got, I don't know, it's just green. But I think that is something that is an interesting thought because I do think it could at least for temporarily give the fan base a moment to exhale and say, okay, we kind of know what they're trying to do here at least in terms of vaguely understanding. They want to keep him in the picture and build around him. I did go deeper into the weeds in terms of the contract itself. So you mentioned Soto. There's no chance he's touching Soto's over and the Yankees are going to have an interesting decision. And I wanted to, you know, bring this up with that nam verk later actually, would you, if you're the Yankees, actually feel comfortable paying Soto more than you do judge? Like that is, that is a real conversation they're going to need to have. Vlad, he's far off from that. Yep. He's not testes. Right? Nope. He's not, he's not mookie bets. He's not Aaron judge. He's not there. But when we look at first baseman, let's break it down to first baseman Freddie Freeman Freeman currently has the richest deal in Major League Baseball among the first baseman in terms of AAV, 27 million dollars a year. Yep. Second Cody Bellinger, 26.7, thank goodness the J's avoided that one where they didn't pay him. Chris Bryant, obviously agent player terrible contract. We know that Albatross of a deal, Goldschmidt was really good. God is money deservedly so Bryce Harper, Vlad even today at 19.9 million is the ninth highest earning first baseman in baseball. Is it so unrealistic that Vlad would potentially be in the same orbit as Bryce Harper who's making 25.4 who signed his deal a few years ago? I don't think so. And the one guy I'm circling as if I'm the Blue Jays, I wait to see what his deal ends up being to make a decision, to hand out a contract. It's Piedalonzo. Piedalonzo is such an interesting case study to me because this is a guy that in a league right now, what is MLB, what a major league team's value in terms of offense? Hit home runs, hit for average, they don't care if you strike out a ton, right? It's all about are you doing damage? And Piedalonzo for throughout his entire career up until this point has done loads of damage. We're talking about a 50 home run hitter, a perennial 40 homer guy and yet the Mets are playing a hard ball with him on what his next deal could potentially look like. He's going to be 30 years old when he gets this contract in the offseason. I am very curious to see what his deal looks like, the term and the amount of money overall on an annual basis that he receives. Because that will then, I think in my eyes, if you break it down to batting average and on base percentage and OPS, they're him and Vlad are very comparable in a lot of those categories. Alonso hits for more power, but Vlad, you could argue, is probably an overall more well-rounded hitter. And I do think that is maybe the best parallel that you can provide at this particular point in time. Yeah. And it's so funny just because it's like they provide similar value, but just very, very different in terms of the way they go about it. And yeah, the age thing, I think, will definitely be something that plays into it as well. Like I said, we'll get into more baseball with Adnan, but we'll also get into more soccer in the eight o'clock out. We've got Sharman and Cloak talking about it as well. And like Adnan, how does he feel like double agent down there at the day after fourth and for why he's going to be cheering? I hope Canada and double agent will have to check in on him. But massive day, massive night, nine o'clock, late for me on a Friday night, I got no booze to coax me through it. No! No, I'm joking. I'm joking. I'll be fine. And I have stuff in my fridge, so it's actually okay people. Bye. Nice. Tonight, notte Jean Buchanan, although my understanding is he's made it back to the hotel to be with the boys. That's cool. Really nice. Who doesn't love hanging out with the boys? Just in general, like forget that it's like, you know, on the eve of the greatest accomplishment they could ever have outside of a qualifying for a World Cup here. What does it mean? Let's say there's a miracle tonight. And I don't know, maybe it's less of a miracle that I'm making out to be. That's question for Sharman and Cloak, but what would it mean? It was one thing to get through to the groups or get out of the group stage, but it is always a little interesting when it's not the definitive whistle goes, they did it. It's over. You know, there's still like days to play out. Who's the opponent going to be? This is much easier to digest Friday night, nine o'clock. It's win or lose. There's no middle ground. There's no draw. You should watch the Blue Jays, but let's be honest, the Blue Jays, the only thing they're going up against. Okay. So what would it do for Canada soccer to have another moment like this? I don't think anything can, I shouldn't say anything. They go win Cole, obviously we're going to talk about this, but I don't think tonight even would feel bigger than qualifying for the World Cup. The build up and the run up to that. I don't think it would have the same likes for me. Okay. What about you? Okay. So that is interesting because I would argue, I would submit to you, this is probably the biggest game in the history of the program to date. Let's go. Really is you want to know why? Because it's not sorry with all due respect to Jamaica and even the United States, Mexico. It's not, it's not a, it's not a concacaf country. Like they're playing real opponents in, in a major international tournament. They've never done this before. And at the World Cup, if they would have snuck out or win at the World Cup, undeniably, that would have been the greatest result period. Of course. You could not dispute it. No. Even if they would have like, even in this instance, they're through to a knockout stage, which is remarkable, even if they didn't make the knockout stage with a win at the World Cup, who cares? I agree. Yeah. That is the biggest thing. But this, this is a huge opportunity. You're playing, first off, you're playing at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys. The Dallas Cowboys, Jerry's World, in front of what, 80, 90,000 people in that building and on a massive standalone stage in an incredibly pivotal match at an international tournament. This is huge, also, after today, let's say, let's say, let's say they lose, they don't advance. Okay. After today, there will be no game more important in the next two years that they see. They will not, it doesn't matter. They're going to have Nations League. They're going to play friendlies. They've lined up some good friendlies, which is very important. But nothing will feel the same in terms of stakes for at least two years before game one of the World Cup rolls around. It is very important. I will say, here's where I, here's where I draw the line, though. I don't think there's pressure on them. There's no pressure. Yeah. Guess what? They're not supposed to be here. They lack quality in a lot of different areas. They're not at the level. Such a nice way to say not good. It really is. It's the soccer. No, I know. Right? It's the soccer. I know. It's trying to be very dainty about it. I know. But it's a great word for soccer. There we go. Thank you. Well done. Yeah. So that's where I fall on this. There's pressure. There should be excitement. The stakes are very high. But and overall, if they do come through this, it is the biggest moment in the history of the program. That's remarkable. I don't want to, I don't want to get too far afield from the conversation because I think it's an interesting one. But just you mentioned it, lack quality there. It is my favorite is when different sports just use terms in completely different ways. Like, so I was watching like a soccer highlight and guy was going off and the term unplayable was used. Like, he like you can't play against him. He's too good. And I've only ever heard that in a negative way. And I just I do love it. Like you pay attention to different sports. You hear things said in a way. I think the that's a good thing to point out that if this I just the when I when I mentioned that tonight to me wouldn't feel as big as the build up to the Olympics, or sorry, the Olympics, the World Cup, it's because there was the crescendo of moment. And I think with Copa, it is, I don't know, maybe it's the summer time of it all. And I know the World Cup happens in the summertime too, but qualifying didn't. It was in the winter. It just feels like the tournament and actually it's not the summertime of it all. It's that euros is going on at the exact same time. I feel like if there if Copa was two weeks apart, or if it's its own thing and it led into Euro or vice versa, that I think it would feel a little bigger to me because it just, I think there's a lot of okay, it's like it's soccer going. But when it was the build up to the Olympic, I keep going to the Olympics, when it was the build up to the World Cup qualifying, it's like, it's so easy to digest. They're going to play at minus whatever in Edmonton, like it's just the moments, the stage setting. And I, again, I do not want to diminish what this means. Canada wins a knockout round stage at a major again, like this isn't the gold cup even, right? A major international tournament, it would be massive. I don't know that it will have the same feel. I think it would then give the semi final, because again, just to lay it out for people. Here's the teams that are left right now. So Argentina advance yesterday. So it's Canada, Venezuela, Columbia, Panama, Brazil, Uruguay, like there's a world where Canada is left today round with, you know, Columbia, Brazil and Argentina. Just imagine living in that neighborhood for soccer for one second, half a decade ago, half a decade, not a decade, not, not 20 years ago. That one, our friend to the show, Atiba Hutchinson, who has come on this program was talking to me about the wars that this program had been through. Okay. In Honduras. Not that. Yeah. In Honduras. It's not that there's a world where you're standing shoulder to shoulder in the semis with again, Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, the greatest, the greatest player of all time. Yeah, the greatest player. That's what they're staring down the barrel of is if they come through this, they would play Argentina again. For the second time in this tournament, I do kind of wish it would have been Brazil. I just would like it. A little different. No, I like the narrative personally. Let's see if you can take a bite at the apple again and redeem yourself and see if you can maybe push something over the line and try and get a result. How about we get a result against Venezuela before we go? Well, okay. I only referenced that because honestly, Argentina, they played last night, they played Ecuador and man, it was really dicey. They went to penalties and they did not look very good. For the bulk of that game, Ecuador, now Ecuador does have a couple guys that are really a super high world class quality and are probably even better than Canada's best as a matter of fact. But still, nobody thought Ecuador had a chance and yet they went all the way to penalties with Argentina. So they haven't necessarily been in their best form. I think to encapsulate everything you said there as to the magnitude of the moment or how it feels different, geography plays a part of it, Connor. Yeah. Think of everything you just talked about. It's all about those moments occurred on Canadian soil in major Canadian cities in a real Canadian climate, as a matter of fact, as well. The ice taka, baby. And those are unforgettable moments. I do think though, when you flip on the television tonight and you see what 18T Stadium looks like and they've never played in a venue like that before, you're going to be probably looking at like, wow, they're there. That's pretty cool to consider that they're there. You mentioned this point. It's not like it's the Gold Cup or the Nations League. In the summer, there are three routinely major international tournaments that occur. The World Cup being the Holy Grail for sure. The Euros. Yep. And then it's Copa. Yeah. And they're in the quarter final. Insane. They're in the final eight. Yeah. One of the biggest, most prestigious international tournaments that soccer has to offer. That's a big deal. Wow. Can I ask you a really dumb question just quickly? Why did people talk about Nations League? Like it doesn't matter. If you just told me Canada played in an international hockey league against the other countries, that would be the most important thing in my life. Why don't people care about Nations League? You know what? I don't really know. Okay. It's maybe part of it is because it's like feels like it's a routine annual thing. Sure. It happens frequently. The allure of it is not the same. Okay. Like I know Italy plays in the Nations League every year, right? But it doesn't carry the same weight when there's a bigger goal at hand or there's like significant stakes attached to some of those games. So that's why even like the, as you put it, like the World Cup Qualifying Games or Euro Qualifying Games, they feel so massively bigger, right? Because you can't afford to drop points in those. Nations League is like, okay, we don't. It doesn't happen this year. Oh, it's okay. Next year, we're back in it again. Anyway. You hear that? The whole cup. Same thing. Yeah. It doesn't have the same effect. You hear that hockey? You can play so much internationally that people don't even care. And you're allowed to do it. You don't have to hold it like the holy grail that I got once a generation here and finally we'll get it. It's a big, big night for Canada tonight. Yeah, it should be fun. I'm going to be locked in. I cannot wait nine o'clock kick off again at Cherry's World. It's going to be quite a scene like, you know, the venue. These guys have all played in World Cup Games now, almost all of them at some point. So I think the mystique of it is kind of taken away. But man, if you're used to playing in MLS, which some of these guys are, it's got to be jarring. Like, you know, Davey's been here for him probably a little bit. Davey's the same. Yeah. I've been here before, but I mean, how about, how about Ishmael Kona? Totally, right? But that's a fairly decent, decently sized club in England, you know, but he's never seen that. He's never seen this. There are a lot of Jacob Schaffelberg playing a BMO compared to this. Come on. Maritine Messy still might be the, that's, that's in top five nickname I've heard in the last five years. Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. You know what else? I love talking hockey. Yeah. Jason Buchola. I'm going to join the snacks. Get into what's left on the scrap heap in free agency and where do the Leafs sit in the football pool? Buchola joins the snacks fan morning show with Gunning and Dan Yellie, Sportsnet 5.9 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. I'll save this for James Sharman, Josh Cole, later in the next hour, but guys, I just solved the Norwegian soccer team's problem. All right, just kick it up to all and I don't know why we're talking about that in the break. I got soccer on the brain. I'm a soccer guy now. Not really. I've ingest. My, my carry book soccer will end at, uh, well, let's see, 11, nine. Yeah, I was going to say nine, 10, 30, there's a halftime in there. Maybe some penalties. 11. All right. Joining us now to discuss hockey is I'm very excited to do so. Our friend and yours, Jason Buchola, Jason, always love getting on. Thanks so much for joining us, man. Good morning. Yeah. No problem. Hockey in the hockey in July. Just never ends. Yeah. No, it never does. I don't know. I don't know why you drew drew the short stick. I've been seeing pictures of lakes and cottages yesterday on social, it is my, it is my favorite tradition. It was second favorite. Like I do love watching the cup every year, but beyond that, it is hockey guys getting their business taken care of and then getting out of dodge. I truly love the way we have worked this sport and by we, I mean you. Yeah. Yeah. Well, no pictures by the lake quite yet, uh, maybe, maybe after today, maybe one more day. All right. All right, Jason. Hockey stuff before we dive into like free agency and what's gone on in that market, you were, I know you were at the draft last week, uh, the only hockey that is actually currently happening is development camp with a lot of these teams and the Leafs obviously have a few interesting names. One of them being their first round pick from this year and Ben Danford, um, you were present down in Vegas at the sphere, which looked pretty remarkable, if I may add, um, and I, I just wonder what were your general sort of observations of, of the pick, your take ways of the pick and, and potentially how this fits down the line for the Toronto Maple Leafs. So I, uh, I had been Dan for much later in my draft class. I had him ranked 69th in my overall final list, um, for perspective last year, Eastern Cowan, I think I had, you know, in the late 40s type of a thing. So it's a little bit, uh, it's a lot more of a reach, but, but I have to say this that there was a lot of parity in this draft class after call it pick 18, like literally between pick 18 and pick, I don't know, 45 or so, I was splitting hairs on the differential. There wasn't a lot of difference between players in this draft class. So as I digress and I start to talk about Ben, um, you know, what you get out of him is a kid that absolutely empties a tank every shift. There's no doubt about that. You know, he's not a, he's not a giant, he's six foot one, around 195 pounds. He's a shop blocker, um, you know, some depth offense is possible, not likely. Like you had one goal and I think 33 apples or something like that in the Ontario Oculic this year. My, my area of concern for him is I'm not so sure that his a game is, um, really top pairing worthy. I'm not even yet convinced that it's middle pairing. He's like a five. Maybe a four and a half of his ceiling, but I'm going to say a five right now. And, and for me personally, um, that's an NHL player and there's nothing in the matter with that, but it's a depth, right shot, the fence, and it's not a, a guy that I projected this point to be necessarily a top four. Now obviously they see it differently and, you know, all the power to them, but, um, is agility. He's going to have to work on it, fellas. So, you know, walking, walking the offensive blue line, like if he corrals the puck on his strong side, wants to walk in the middle of the net, the dish to the flank or open up a shooting lane to make a play, he's going to have to get there a little bit quicker. And you're going to notice very early on, even in rookie games, when I go to Traverse City, um, his small areas in the defensive zone, they're really good. Like because the game slows down in small areas, but in open ice track meets, he's going to have some work to do. Yeah. I think that seems to be the, uh, the prevailing sentiment, you know, it's, it's always interesting when you, and again, like, you know, the Leafs would probably, I imagine, view him mostly similarly, but everyone views these kids a little differently, you know, the name that was kind of jumping to me from like drafts gone by was like the least took a guy, Freddy Goce, 21st overall, 1st round. And just, well, how do you feel philosophically about the idea of, all right, this guy will play NHL games, but maybe the high end is in there, because I remember at the time, everyone's saying, this guy's going to be a good third line center for you. And at the time, I think, okay, third line center, that's good. You certainly rather have a good one than not, but at 21, maybe I'd want to swing for the fences a little more. How do you feel just philosophically about the idea of a safer pick versus somebody with maybe a way higher ceiling, but less likely to hit a floor that maybe somebody like Danford might hit? Yeah. No, that's not the way that I roll out strategy personally. I roll it out that, uh, you know, I, I'll give you an example. Like, um, Alphonse Fry and, uh, Saline Wallanias from Sweden were still on the board at that time. There's two like, uh, uh, the Stiga kid who's a forward out of the US national team development program. And, you know, a kid like that, um, Basha, even out of medicine had those guys are those, um, energizer type, uh, disruptors, if you will, who really play fast and they're in the grill of their opponent all the time, um, think about like, uh, Brendan Gallagher like that round of a player, you know, the guys that are in the fight. And then those defense one that I mentioned, um, their B game is elite skating ability. So, um, even when you're not physical in today's game, because let's be honest, between games one and 82, it's not a really physical league anymore. It gets that way in the playoffs, right? But during the regular season, it's just quick fast, a lot more skill, a lot more transition than it ever has had in the past. Those guys, they get the pucks really fast and they make plays in the quarterback power place. So, um, I didn't, uh, I'm not going to say it in sugar coated, like the pick's not for me. It's nothing against the player. It's just that there's better players on the board, in my opinion, and guys that, uh, that fit a different category with a higher A game and at worst an equal B game. It feels like Jason, that was a very, uh, Brad true living pick though, because if you look at what he's done in remodeling the blue line, clearly he values players of that ilk of that sort of profile in terms of what they bring to the table. Um, you know, we saw the Leafs be active, certainly at the onset of free agency and being aggressive and acquiring a couple of guys on the blue line, uh, probably most prominently. Of course, Chris Tana, what was, what, what are your overall thoughts as to how the Leafs have sort of, uh, approached the off season and the moves that they made to their roster over the first, uh, week of free agency here? Well, you know, obviously the Tana one is a significant upgrade, um, you know, provided he stays healthy and he has stayed relatively healthy in the last couple of years and he's an absolute warrior. There's no secret here. I mean, we know what he is, like he's, he's an absolute warrior and he's going to elevate people around them. Like people around them are going to buy in, even call it another 5%, 10% just because he leads by example and they're like, I got to follow that. You know, I can't be, I can't be left out on my own island here. I have to, I have to buy in a little bit more. Um, so, you know, that was, that was predictable in him arriving, especially after they made the trade to acquire his rights. The term is the term, it's, it's going to be too long. We know that. It's, uh, you know, this is a guy that after the next three years, he may be, you know, willing himself around in a, in a transportation device because like he just, we just empties the tank every night. I don't know how his body takes it. So, um, that was good. Um, I thought the little grin one guys was, uh, you know, unless somebody can convince me otherwise is QO was like, believe 1.5 something like that to double the salary. I don't even know if an arbitrator would have gone that high. So, uh, we'll see, you know, how that works. So, you know, Timothy, a little drink is polarizing. He, every time he, I believe he's taking a step, uh, when the games get high leverage late in the year, there seems to be a little bit of read, react. There's all this. Let me be clear about some Timothy little grants always been a fantastic skater. Um, his read react game ever since I started scouting him in Sweden. This is like, I feel like in a lifetime ago, his read react game is always with leg behind and that stands out in high leverage. So we'll see if, uh, if that goes to a different level, but the Anthony Stolar's one as I keep kind of talking here is, uh, the Stolar's one's a good one. I, I think that he can push for games, uh, to be at least a 50 50 guy if required. Hopefully Joe Wall stays healthy and it's not a 50 50, but rest assured this is a, this is a solid goaltender. Yeah. With Stolar's, it's interesting, right? I mean, and there's, there's two types of goalies that haven't had run. There's guys who, you know, get hurt, the Joe Wall of it all. And there's guys like Stolar's who just have, quite frankly, always been part of a tandem and haven't really been given the, the chance there, you know, goaltending in Toronto. I mean, it's, it's always been a topic of conversation. I mean, going back to like the, like Bell for kind of kujo days of like, when are they going to find a guy here? I mean, I guess they found it for a minute with Freddie Anderson in the interim, but it's always been a thing. How do you think that part of it will kind of go into the equation? If let's say Joe Wall, like, I mean, it's probably going to happen at some point in time. He's going to blow a tire. He's going to miss some time. How do you think Stolar's will handle the idea of even if it's only for a month? All right. I'm the number one guy and it's for the Toronto Maple Leafs, the, the mental aspect of it. How do you think he'll be able to handle that? I think he's grizzled by this time, you know, like he's 30 years old, so we're not talking about like a 25 or 26 year old guy. And we're talking about a guy that, you know, he's played in Philly, Anaheim, Edmonton for a cup of coffee. And then of course, Florida, you know, I, I, I think he's going to be fine. I don't, I don't think that the, I don't think the scene is too big for him at this point because he's been so much and gone through so much in his career. What I'm more curious about is what his threshold is going to be. So I'll give you an example, like Casey to Smith, when he had to find the net in Vancouver, historically Casey to Smith, his threshold was 28 games and anything over 28 games in the NHL, his numbers fell off dramatically. So I don't know what Stolar's threshold is yet and I guess that's the one thing that would concern me because if he's got to get to 35, 40 games, which will be more than he's ever played at this level, you know, where, where's the breakdown going to occur? I think the mental makeup spine, the, the veteran aspect of seeing a lot of things is in place. But the, the physical and then especially if we got to get into high leverage down the stretch, if Joe wall was out with injury, you know, which, you know, it happened even this year, obviously. So that's to be determined. So I'm more curious about the, the physical than I am the mental. We'll see. Jason, we were chatting with Nick Caprios yesterday and he had an interesting nugget in his weekly column on the Toronto Star regarding Yanni Hockenpaw. And it was as it pertains to his health and the idea that there's possibility here that he's got, you know, maybe some chronic issues with one of his knees where he's not in the best physical condition at the moment. And yet the Leafs obviously still felt strongly enough as opposed to some other teams that he would be capable of playing and factoring into their blue line this season and potentially beyond as somebody that's been involved in front office discussions and you've been privy to what goes into a free agency negotiation with players. Has that ever come up in your experience? Have you gone through sort of the process of maybe having discussions about overall comfortability, taking a risk on a player that has some red flags in that regard? Yeah, we have in Florida, we ran, I don't want to say the names because, you know, it's personal for them, but we have gone through it. I can tell you right now that the medical is extensive. So you would get, you'd get medical from his representation, generally speaking, you're not going to have any medical from the previous team because that's their own personal business. But you are going to get medical from the representation and he's going to show you he or she's going to show you, you know, what the process has been with the player, with the athlete. There's kind of reeks of John Klingberg a little bit again, like I find it hard to believe that Klingberg didn't have some sort of something going on before he came to camp last year and obviously we know what happened there. Yanny Akhenpuy, when healthy, is a very serviceable player. I mean, there's absolutely no doubt about that. He's a big body and he can play in the three hole and do a lot of things. But, you know, it's going to be interesting. It's almost like a risk reward where, okay, well, if he's too injured to play, here's the other thing now that I'm really thinking about it, who's ensuring the contract? That would be curious to me because when you sign a contract that's leveraged with prior injury, it might not even be insured. But if it is insured that there's somebody's green, given somebody a green light through the process here to say that there's a possibility he's healthy enough to play. Well, is that something where the Leafs, is that, like, is that an area the Leafs would potentially be flexing financial might? Like, again, like we're spitballing here, we don't know. But if the contract is uninsured, does that mean that the Leafs could, like, is there an NHL rule preventing an uninsured contract from playing, do you know, like that, because I hear that and I say, well, I can imagine a team like Dallas who didn't want to go down the road with them, but did like the player says, we aren't paying a contract that ain't insured. So, back to the Nathan Horton of it all is kind of the name that's jumping out my brain here. Yeah, no, that's, and, you know, David Clarkson, you know, different shows like that. Yeah, no, they are, my short answer would be yes, because they can afford it. So they're willing to take the risk one way or the other. And this is, I'm just going on the assumption, right? No, no, for sure. I can totally, totally. I can also assume that he is insured and it goes the other way. But the reality of it is that the way Kip writes it and, you know, other people have, you know, speculated, this is like a, almost like a bone on bone scenario. We're talking Bobby, or in the 70s, working, you know, you got to put him back together again. And I will tell, I guess, but there's a lot of moving parts there, including the financial might. Yeah. And just from the team's comfortability, not so much with the specific injury, but it feels to me like a very different risk one. I mean, there is term attached to this one. There wasn't with Klingberg, the dollar figures lower, but Klingberg was brought in to fix a critical issue for this team last year, the power play. And, you know, he seems so far removed from it, but that was the reason why they went out and did that on day one, a free agency. Hawkenpott feels like a guy who, you know, he's not there to fix any one issue. He's there to fit into a blue line puzzle. So if he doesn't pan out and there is an injury situation, it seems like it's easier to kind of pivot and find a solution there than the situation the Leafs found themselves in last year where all of a sudden they, sorry, Morgan Riley, had nobody to quarterback the power play once Klingberg was, was unable to do it. Yeah, that's 100% right. Cause what you're looking at trying to do is replace a, basically a shutdown D compared to a power play quarterback, power play quarterbacks, especially who are right shots. I mean, they're very hard to find for their unicorns, you know, so, you know, the flip side of it is on Hawken, like there's going to be somebody on the wire, a training camp, guys, I know a Greg or a type player, right? Somebody will be on the wire and, or there's going to be a veteran that's still looking at a, at a PTO. So I want to be surprised if we start to see something like that, a PTO type of scenario. And, and then, you know, but by that time, the physical would have been done and, you know, the limitation that, that Hawkenpott, the limitations of the Hawkenpott presents, they will be, you know, front and center at that time, they'll know exactly what they're getting into. So I want to be surprised if he's, if he's, you know, I know that, you know, he's, he lives overseas, I'm sure in the off season, but I'm sure he's going to make his way over here early, at least to try and give it the medical staff and, and try and make this right. Also, Jason, I mean, they've been very diligent in trying to build out the overall depth of that blue line. That's been evident over the, the course of the opening week here of free agency. They've made plenty of different ads to just bolster the overall depth because that was obviously an area. Last year where it felt like at times they were kind of grasping at straws for different people to plug in holes when there was an injury or whatever mitigating circumstance presented itself. Last one for you here, if this just kind of feels like an under discussed story in a sense, Sidney Crosby is eligible to sign an extension this summer with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He's going into the final year of a 12 year deal that he signed many, many moons ago, obviously. And you know, that felt like a piece of business that probably naturally would have got, got taken care of pretty quickly. And yet that hasn't happened yet. Are we to read anything into this? Is there more to this that we should be maybe dissecting as it relates to Crosby and the Penguins and what his future holds? Yeah, no, I don't think so. I think it's just timing more than anything else. It's the off season. They're getting through free agency. Sidney's not going to be, you know, pressing the hot button saying, you know, we got to get this done, you know, in the first couple of days of free agency. He probably actually values them taking their time trying to get other business done there in Pittsburgh because they're on the cusp of being in no man's land, right? But I just don't see that a generational talent like him and I say this, I think a stamp goes going in Oshawa, which is on a different level, but, you know, I totally understand the question, but I just think it's different here. I think this is a statue out front, the ring type thing. One stop like Steve Eisenman. Yeah, I wholeheartedly agree and let's be honest. For my opinion, anyways, as long as he never ends up in Montreal, I can swallow anything. Jason, thanks so much, man. I've enjoyed all the chats all year long. I'm not promising. We won't bug you throughout the summer, but I'll tell Jeff T's up now. Thanks so much, man. Always enjoy your chats. You guys are the best. Jeff saw some off stage there and I appreciate. I appreciate all the all the time you guys give me. So enjoy your summer. There you go. Jason Bukla, sports and hockey, central analyst, writer for sports at the dot C a founder, the pro hockey group as well. It is now time for the wake and rate presented by sports interaction, your homegrown sports book 19 plus bet responsibly. We got to start with Copa America, baby, big night for the program, big night for our nation and not nation's league and Copa America we're talking about here. In Venezuela, they are favored to win plus one 50 candidate to win plus one 95 a draw plus two 10 total two and a half over plus one 30 under minus one 82. I follow you, Danielle, where are we going on this, bud? I've been pretty steady in my belief, especially since stage on went down earlier this week. I've been saying it religiously here on the program into whoever I've spoken to Canada. Today is a massive day. Give me Canada in this match. Now for betting purposes, I honestly could see it being if you go the draw roots because I could 100% see penalties factoring in here. That being said, my heart tells me Canada, my head also tells me there's a pretty realistic pathway here for them to win a major game like this, Canada. Yeah, scoring's been tough for Canada in this one. You got to pay big on the under and who loves rooting for an under anyway. So go over plus one 30 three goals. I could see that happening a little to one action or if you'd like the draw to your point. That is where I actually think the most value lies plus two 10 and then plus we get to end our night with rowdy penalties. We got a hero. We get a villain who wouldn't love it. Give me that also. Taking a quick look at the Blue Jays. They are plus one 25 as they start up a series against the Astros, Gosman and Castillo, your starters, Mariners minus 149 and I'm going to do with the Mariners what I was doing with the after. I'm with you on the Mariners minus one and a half. You get them a plus one 45 there until the Blue Jays win a game or at least lose it closely. We're going to continue to ride this and I know it was close last night, but it's still hit. Gunner, it's Luis Castillo. The chase have proven time and again they cannot hit Luis Castillo. Yeah, it's as simple as that. There you go. That was the wake and break brought to you by sports interaction. Your homegrown in sports book 19 plus bet responsibly when we continue loaded final hour of the show. We have James Charman to fire you up. We have Josh cloak to give you well written perspective. We have Adnan Burke to find out if he's a double agent down in America after their birthday as Canada looks to move on at Copa America. One hour left in the show here. It's fan morning show Gunner and Dan Yellie on Sportsnet five nine to the fan.
