Larkin Trade Talks Escalating, Hughes Negotiations, Bobrovsky Crumbles, and more ft. Mike Russo

(upbeat music) - Sonny Mehta, do your thing. Coming to you from the Sports Interaction Studio. It's a very spooky day for Greg Woshinsky, nice shirt. Official Sports Benning Partner of the NHL, our Friends at Sports Interaction. Welcome to the program. Good thing we have Mike Russo on today. Originally, we were gonna talk about everybody's favorite Minnesota topic, but that is now expanded and escalated because now we are talking about Dylan Larkin, who if you miss the news and judging by the fact that you're listening or watching this program, you know the news and that is Dylan Larkin. We'll not play for the Red Wings tonight, against the Black Hawk, said, we'll not play until there is a trade. As Elliot Greenman mentions, the Red Wings expected to release a statement at some point about their center. Sonny Mehta, do your thing. Well, everybody's looking elsewhere. Well, let's go New Jersey. - Where is he playing in the lineup again? - Where is he playing in the lineup? - Brat and Jack. Brat and Jack and then. - We haven't quite worked that out quite yet. I'm just expecting this to be like, Sonny Mehta's calling card. Well, everybody looks for like five or six other teams and looking at caps and look at the wild and Montreal, Canadians, Sonny just comes in and goes, oh, thank you all, take that player. - Well, again, like it'd be hilarious if it ended up being the Devils because like they acquire Connor Hellerbuck who we find out is, you know, Lake Boat buddies with the Hughes brothers and then they go out and get, you know, D-Boss who's actually one of Quayne Hughes's best friends in Dylan Larkin. So I mean, that would just, again, this is becoming very insular. This is becoming like the Star Wars saga where everyone's related to the Skywalkers. Like I don't know, is the Hughes family now the pivot point for the entire league for every major history is related to that family? - We thought it was gonna be the Kochs, but no, it turns out it's Hughes' all these time. And you know what we're gonna realize? You know what we're gonna realize one day? We're gonna realize one day that, you know who controls the National Hockey League? - Ellen Hughes? - Yes, Ellen Hughes. She did it with GTHL teams when the kids were growing up in and around Toronto. There was one spring team. They always tried to get Jet Greaves to play on the team, but it never quite worked out. But it's a story for another day. Yeah, Ellen Hughes is a significant influence in getting her son the right gold tender. Is that what you're trying to infer here, sir? - All I'm saying is like, she's trying to get the gold tender before. All I'm saying is like, I just mean cheeky, that like a lot of the big power moves are all revolving around this family. Like to your point, that's what's happening right now. That's what it feels like. - You mentioned the jacket. - You mentioned the shirt. It's a jacket first of all. - Oh, I apologize. Let me move on. - I'm not on tomorrow. - Halloween is Saturday. This is a nightmare before Christmas blazer. One of the perks of being a Disney employee is I have access to the special store in your Disney land where all of the things that didn't sell inside of Disney land over the last year get deeply discounted and sold to the employees. This, sir, is a Halloween nightmare before Christmas blazer that I believe glows in the dark. We're not gonna do that experiment now on the air. - Oh, come on. - Flip the lights off. - I don't know if it's gonna work. - Turn off the lights, come on. - Everybody watching the work. - Everybody watching you say, I'm like, yeah, turn off the lights. And maybe we'll, let's try it at the end of the show. Let's not, let's not break the flow here. Let's try it at the end of the show. But that's the rumor is that it will glow. And by the way, since it's all studio lighting here, I imagine this thing's getting charged up like a nuclear reactor right now. So who even knows what it will look like if I turn off the lights? - All right, back to flow state. Sean Harkoff is expected to address the situation involving Dylan Larkin, who will not play against the hawks in his latest last game with the threat red wings. It feels like trade deadline time the weekend before where so and so will not be playing tonight for trade related reasons. Dylan Larkin, here we are October 29th, will not be playing against the black hawks for trade related reasons. - Yeah. And you guys don't need me to confirm nothing 'cause you've seen it all over the place. But I can confirm that it's for trade related reasons and I can confirm that it may not necessarily be something that is imminent that's gonna happen. It could be something that is still percolating right now. But Sean Harkoff has got two major trade chips that he's gotta have to figure out how to play in both Larkin and Simon Edvinson and determining what's gonna go on there. I did have somebody put a bug in my ear before I hopped on the air about the idea that we all know that the red wings would love to get a center to replace Dylan Larkin. Being that Dylan Larkin is so important that they have stumped having him in the lineup for 10 games while all of this has been going on to the background. Someone said, hey, what about the idea that Edvinson is the guy who gets the center back to Detroit and that maybe Larkin ends up pulling a defenseman in a trade versus it being center for center. I thought that was an interesting concept that I didn't think about and that might ultimately be how they approach both of these deals. Not a bad idea. Like I've wondered, like with centers, I think we've all wondered about Seattle specifically with Shane Wright and the trade request there. How tell you what, man? Berkeley Catten looks really good. I don't think they want to go off him in many years. I don't think he's going anywhere either, but Jared McCann, but he's not in NHL or Jake O'Brien, I mean, but he's not in NHL. - You're talking about if Edvinson ends up in Seattle. - Edvinson, if he ends up in Seattle, yeah. You don't wanna keep coming back to? - Again, you know me, I'm fascinated with the alternative universe and the National Hockey League and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. How different is all of this? If Eisman would have said, okay, we'll put Edvinson in the deal for Quinn. 'Cause that was the stumbling block through all of it. If you wanna go back to it. - Yeah, he didn't wanna do it. - About a year ago, he did not want to put Edvinson in the deal for Quinn Hughes, but what if Steve Eisman says, we'll do it? - What if, or more to the point, Merrick, what if Eisman wasn't a complete prick to Dylan Larkin because Larkin had the cajonays to say that the team didn't do enough at the trade deadline to help out, and then when it came to contract talks was trying to break the kid's spirit. What if that all didn't happen? And Dylan Larkin was still a happy camper in Detroit versus looking to escape by any means necessary right now. - Yeah, but what if he put Edvinson in the deal? (laughing) - What if, what if Larkin, what if Larkin won silver in Italy and never tasted the sweet success of Altwitch, Glorious, and then didn't have the hunger to leave Detroit after being stuck in a series of non-playoff seasons? - Or what if someone who may or may not wear number 29 could have just shot a puck into an empty net, how different is all of the, like I'm convinced like, and maybe it's you and me who knows, and maybe by that I mean me. - I just turn into like a modern day for us, Bozito, and no matter what question you ask, I end up talking about the Nathan McKinnon empty net, much like for us, Bozito, you ask him any question, and somewhere in the answer he references 1972, and the summit series. - What do you know? - It becomes a bee. - So what do you think about the Panthers this season? - Oh, you know, if McKinnon wanna hit the empty net, and Halaback would still be in a peckin' locker, would still be in Detroit. - It's gonna be me. - It's gonna be me one day. So candidates here, like landing spots. People have talked about Minnesota, that's an obvious one. Washington, we talked about last week, your eyebrows were raised when that team popped up on his expanded list. I was the same with the New Jersey Devils. Montreal is fascinating. You know, there's a, I talked to someone today who said, you know, Larkin makes a ton of sense right now for Montreal, because one of the things that people are missing on right now is, Montreal's window to win is right now. And it's correct. The next three or four years, because you have Nick Suzuki, just under $8 million right now. You have a gift, and you don't have the, this contract is going to damage our salary cap player, yet you know my theories on Nikita Kutraoff. But the time is now, and that's why I would imagine there's a full court press on from Kent Hughes. And the thing about Hughes is, that I think we've all learned by now, when he wants something, he's like super aggressive, to get it done, like it's like phone calls every single day, to the age and to other general managers. There's, there's, there's no, like, ah, I'm gonna leave him alone for a week. Like, when Kent Hughes wants to get something done, I know there are other managers like this, but he's dog on a bone. Pitbull and a pork jaw to pork jaw. That's what he is. Sure. Yeah, but I mean, it all comes back to whether or not Dylan Larkin wants to play in Canada, and there's been no evidence of that fact. And in fact, most of the board. He's gonna call Caulfield. Come on. Then I've had this that he's not gonna play in Canada. I'm very stuck in playing Canada. I mean, listen, we all know that the, the most logical trade fit, and then also opportunity for him is probably with the Habs, specifically because of one, two punch of Larkin and Suzuki puts them into pretty rarefied area in the conference. I was actually while you were talking, looking through the doubles, Puckpedia entry. I mean, I mean, you move 'em up to where Gritzik is on the top line with Jack and Brad, and then he takes more face-off than Jack does. I mean, That makes sense, I guess, in some ways, but the issue with the devils right now is they don't have any cap space. So you're gonna have to dump some money on Detroit to make this happen, and then you start wondering like what assets would even go back the other way. Washington made the most sense to me, again, because they have been hyper aggressive in acquiring veteran players from outside the organization that fit what they wanna do. I think Larkin and his contract status would be obviously a player that bridges not only this season, but then the post-Ovechkin seasons as well. Maybe you throw a storm in the deal. There's ways to make it happen if you're watching to me, and it seems like that would be an interesting fit. Pause on that for one second, because, again, visiting our friend, Heartliving here at Park Pedia, Dylan's storm has no trade protection, but there's someone else that can make this money work in this deal, and he does have trade protection, and that's Peter Luke Dubois. To go to Detroit. Man, I think that's just creating a problem for yourself, though. I think Dubois has kind of established himself in Washington. No, but I'm saying like, though, and he's kind of become the guy that we all hope to be after that playoff series for Columbus, and in the butter, which by the way, when I was going down the franchise history of utility for Columbus, I did forget that they did when a playoff series in the bubble. Did that count? Hang on, did that count? But did that actually count as a playoff series? Because it was like a playoff series. Yes, it was a playoff series, but it was against Toronto. Like, the new one, Sarah's first round versus opening round and we'll have you. Dubois, that was the moment where we all thought Dubois was going to end up being like Taves. Like, he was going to be a revelation. And he's been kind of close to that at times for Washington. I think defensively, he's been really important for them. So I wouldn't look to move them necessarily if I'm the caps and if I'm Detroit kind of like scared shitless about the way things have worked out for Dubois in every place but Washington during his career of being candid. I don't, again, like we're just trying to piece together if it is Washington, if it is New Jersey, if it is Montreal or whatever, like how you would make a deal work here. I wonder if that would be. And I think, I think that Draper was at that Washington Philadelphia game, again, already we're playing, we're playing the, okay, so who from which organization is watching which team, I believe Draper was there. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong. But I wonder if it's, it wouldn't just be pure Dubois. It would be something else of significance. And maybe it's one of the probably looking at Philly. I would be looking at with Philly. I mean, I know Philly's not on on Larkin's list though. Larkin, he's not, it's not on Larkin's list, but it's gonna go completely off the menu here. I mean, he's already expanded it to 10. I mean, granted, all 10 are in a much better competitive space than the Philadelphia fires at this point. One of the things that I thought of when I saw the expanded list, you think about, okay, so what are the reasons for expanding the list? Does that just mean we should disqualify the first three or four? Because it's clear like, okay, we can't get a deal done with these three, so now we need an expanded list so we should just punt on the original ones and just focus on these other teams. That's what makes Minnesota so, so weird is like, if it hasn't happened for them now, like when, when will it happen? I mean, and again, you talk about desperate time, it's called for desperate measures. I mean, we're gonna talk about this with Russo a bit later, but listening to Bill Garry in that radio interview yesterday, that's a man, that's a man, that's a man. - Bless, first of all. - Real awesome. - To push it more chips than the table for Bill and Larkin. That's what it seems like. - We'll play some of that a little bit later on. We'll talk about that. I don't know if we have the audio from that interview, but it was a great one from Bill Garry. All right, so we'll stand by to see what happens today with Bill and Larkin. If it, if it, if it's-- - Well, I guess the one last thing on Minnesota though, like do you think that they've pumped the tires on your off enough to like where Detroit will take 'em? Like they've been pumped, the tires on him are like the size of like grave digger or bigfoot at a monster truck rally. That's how much tire pumping has happened with this guy. And the first month of the season. - By Tim Thomas doing the pumping. 'Cause we know that's his job, we remember from 2011. They have done a job, they have done it, they have done a job. - The Boston, you bring up the Boston Vancouver, stay like a final and I, and reminded once again, we didn't know how good we had it. That was the most intense apocalyptic drama filled series of my lifetime, yes. - It was. Where do you want to go to next? We get a few things. Do you want to take a whack at this Devon Kool-E thing from last night in Colton Doc? - Tough, tough one. - It sucks. - I mean, it, it absolutely sucks, I think. There's a bit of an ESPN curse there 'cause we just ran a feature story on Devon Kool-E because he's been, you know, the NHL's leading philosopher through the first month of the season. But, what did you think of the play? - My first thought was, and I threw this out on social media, was I keep thinking that man, if this is 1983, we're probably still playing that game. And there's been multiple ejections and there's probably fights in the stands and Oilers fan, but the reality is. And, you know, Ryan Husker talked about this afterwards. God, we didn't feel like Doc ran into either netminder. - Right. - But once again, like this, this is a, like that was a tough one for your boy here because I've got sort of one foot in the old school and one foot in hockey right now. And I feel a thug. Like the old school part of me goes like, how is there no response? More into the knot, he goes to the net heart. Now you're allowed to go to the net heart, and we all understand that too, but also you wanna try to dissuade people from going to the net heart. And in this situation, Doc went to the net heart and there was a significant injury about it and then, even though he was pushed into him, he also hit Dustin Wolf later. - The thing that's sort of baffling to me is that if there's one thing that is kind of consistent in this league when it comes to fighting, it's the fights that happen after Big hits. And so, why don't you see them happen after open hits? - So was this. - Yeah, and not in a situation like this. I don't know. - It's very selective about what gets vengeance. You know, like I can, there's so many times where you see a player hit another guy in it. - Right, right. - So here's the play. He's going to the net heart. You are allowed to go to the net heart. Unfortunately, in this situation, there's a terrible outcome. Oh, that left leg. - Oh, that left leg. - Yeah, that is not where the leg should bend. - That looks just awful. But like, who's on the ace up? - Love tapped to the neck. Hey, buddy, we didn't like that. - But here's the thing like, okay, so like Morgan Frost is there beside the net. I don't think you know, when things say Morgan Frost is going to grab, but like Zach White Cloud, Jacob Middleton, I can make the right there. These are not shy hockey players. I don't know, how do you don't like run around? I just think like, if I'm a Calgary Flames fan, what do you expect of your team at that moment? - Probably more pushback than they had. - 100% you do. Whether it's quote unquote right or wrong, and he wasn't, he wasn't, he didn't mean to do that to our goal tenders or we're going to give him a free pass. Part of it too is like, this is going to be a tough season for the Calgary Flames. Here's one of the bright spots in Devon Cooley, whether he intended to or not, Colton Doc just ran him over. He's going to be out for a while, and we did nothing about him. (upbeat music) Now the takeaway last night for me was another round of hand wringing over attendance and Edmonton, sir. Battle of Alberta, attendance 17-03-2, and Edmonton capacity is 18-3-7-4, querying to bleed oil blue. Eric Francis, the sports net, took a picture of the ring, and there was a bunch of empty seats and says the new empty seat issue in Edmonton is very real, and it's a story that we're going to continually hear more of around the league moving forward. Again, I have a hard time panicking about a team that draws over 17,000 fans against an absolute dog shit rival. - Yeah, hang on a second, he has to hang on. - No, but this one's different. - I know what you're saying. - No, this is Calgary. - Look at the flames suck. - This is off the deck. - Sure they do, but it's still that team. Like that's one where fans will say, I want to make sure I'm in the building when that team comes here. - Sure. - Edmonton's like cup contenders, flames are awful, we understand that, and that's where all of his fans will be. I would imagine I want to see my team drown some in this building. - I say again though, 17,000 tickets distributed for a game on a Wednesday night against the last place team. - I know it's a real one. - No, against the Calgary flames. - Sure, it's the flames. - It's not 12,000, 17,000 tickets distributed. You're still doing pretty good for yourself. - No, I get it, this is the Calgary truck sucks. - Everybody's picked which money on playoff tickets the last three years. Like we all know that. Why is this happening? I understand. But the other reason it could be happening is because there are some Euler fans that don't exactly like the decisions made for this franchise. That is a factor. Species for moral ambiguity. That is very much a factor. I tend to believe it's a factor, but we haven't gotten that substantiated yet in so far as what's happened this season. But again, you're still pulling 17K for-- You know what? Don't shoot a team on a Wednesday night. But again, one man's ceilings and other man's floor. I get it. There are plenty of teams that are like, I'll take 17,000 over here. Thank you very much. Go put 17 here. We'll be totally happy. I get it, but there's different ways to gauge it. Again, this winks to the bigger point that I've been making all season long. For Canadian hockey fans right now, Canadian hockey fans feel like someone's hand is in their pocket every single step of the way. Whether it's buying equipment for your kids, for a minor slash youth hockey, whether it's paying-- whatever you pay for various subscriptions, and there are numerous subscriptions now. If you want to be able to watch your team play a full 84 games, whether it's exorbitant ticket prices themselves, exorbitant prices on in concessions, on merchandise, like hockey fans right now in Canada feel like we're being treated like walking ATMs. Yeah, we're walking ATMs. And there's no-- and the thing is, but the thing is, here's where I think it's an issue that hasn't been a cup in Canada since '93. There's no return on investment. There's nothing. There's nothing back. And hang on a second. And everybody has a line. Everybody has a line including hockey fans in Canada for their sport. And aren't we starting to see it now? Every Monday in Canada, look at all the mentions about-- premium subscriptions from Monday night games on SportsNet. How hard it is to watch the games now, yeah, for sure. It's become more difficult, it's become more expensive, and it's also become more expensive at the rank. And for what? For what? Well, it's funny because it feels like Canadian fans are kind of like the macrocosm of what you see in every arena around North America now, which is that the most dedicated and loyal customers are the ones to get blood out with all of these additional costs and things and tiers and pricing. And here, the food's better on this tier. So it's been $15 more ticket. Like, it kind of feels like you guys are the loyal customers. And now you've reached a breaking point of being blood dry by not only the teams, but also the media companies. You know what I think? What's next? You have to, when you enter the building, the only way they allow you in is if you have a family heirloom, pricey enough that you could surrender to the team, then they'll allow you in. On top of your ticket charge. Here's my grandmother's clock. Can I get a family for 200 years? We're really going to sacrifice this. I got, again, like 17,000 fans came to-- Yeah, but that's Canada. That's Canada's theory. I know it's Canada, but it reminds me of America. It reminds me of the last Avatar movie. It's Iron Ash made $1.4 billion in the box office. $1.4 billion. And you know what the reaction was? Are people sick of Avatar movies? Why did it only make $1.4 billion? No, but here's the thing. Here's the fear. It's indicative of the beginning of a trend. And if you don't do something to stop it now, then it catches momentum. And then what was an inconvenience to start the season by the end just turns into, well, we have a problem. All I'm saying is, I don't think that people that operate networks or operate teams can bear their heads in the sand about this one. Because this is how Canadian hockey fans feel. This is, but there might not be a silver bullet, because I do think that there's a combination of different factors in markets like Edmonton and Vegas that have contributed to a slight decline in what has otherwise been a glorious Scrooge McDuck money bin of ticket revenue for them for the last decade it has. Speaking of Canadian teams, you got a thought or two on Sir Gabe Bbrowski. Square four goals in a game. You should probably win, right? No, it's OK. We can skip this part of the show. There's Zach. Zach did like three hours on this on After Dark Yesterday. They've actually stopped going. Zach, what's your take on Bob right now? Is it that he's not a very good regular season goalie? Because no one said that at the time of the signing. No, it's that he's just not a very good goalie because he's 38 years old. He can't track books. He's giving up huge rebounds. And his glove hand is effectively non-existent. That's my take on Bob right now. And also Gus Forzling and Seth Jones and Niko Mikola and Aaron Eckblad aren't wearing blu-pajamas everywhere. I actually, it's kind of the issue too. Although I got a second to hang out that month. The last couple of like that Monterey goal can't go in of all of them. No, that's the game where like that Monterey goal can not go in. But that's a thing though, right? No. I'll give this back to you guys as you're showing on mine. But that's the thing that's in After Dark. The defense for the Maple Leafs has not been great, but they haven't been atrocious. Since the beginning of the season, they've cleaned things up to not be abysmal every time I watch the game. These goals that are being scored are very clearly like you need to save that. The fourth goal against Reykjavans, I think needs to be a safe. The first goal against Matt Baker Dean on Monday night needs to be a safe. Sure, but you're paid $7 million. You're paid $7 million. But to your point, if you score that many goals, you should win the game, right? Like that's the kind of bottom, yeah, you should win the game. Now, Moneypuck has them at exactly even Stephen Gold, save the above expectations. At 0.0, Blutarski's great point average, Merrick, is what Sergey Burbrowski is adding. Gold saved the above expectations right now. Okay. So I saw this argument online, like, oh, he's above Gold, listen. I don't remember anyone saying he's going to be above just slightly above average when they say, I don't remember that at the press conference announcing that Burbrowski, I don't remember, I was like, yeah, it's going to be an average goal tender. No, I don't remember that at all. He's going to be slightly above average. No, he's paid to be one of the best goal tenders in the NHL. I think you and I, the times that we were on together in the summer, talked about how that's going to be a stretch. That's going to be a tough one to sell. We'll see what happens. You know what's weird about that game last night? I don't know why. So obsessed about this one. So the final score was five before watching the game, those were like the only nine things that happened in the game. Like, when you talk about like, like, it was three back in hockey, baby. No, it was like the lowest event game, both sides. That's a late. That's a late Lambert team. Nine things happened and it was like, yeah, and they were all goals. Like group hour wasn't great, I don't know we're focusing on Bob. Group hour wasn't great either, but like, there were nine things and they all, like nine moments that happened in that game and they were all goals. And that's it. Rest the game. Watching a lane, Lambert gallery game. Watching a lane, Lambert team is like watching a low-budget action movie where they only have money for one stunt. That's it. The rest of the time it's people talking, like that's kind of how it feels, but on the Bob thing, by the way, so somebody point out like they're like, oh my god, maybe, maybe Bill Zito was on to something when he let him go. I'm like, yeah, no shit. Yeah, of course he was. The point of him letting him go is that they didn't think that he was worth the contract with what they were getting out of him in the regular season. The plots are a different story. I still think I would take Bob at a seven game series over half the goal is in this league, but from an 84 game perspective, Zito was completely right to not invest in this guy. We have a special guest standing by. Uh, quickly, this fan moment, oh, he is especially on a deal like this. This fan moment is a presentation of Coca-Cola, being a hockey fan is a commitment. The superstitions, the chance, the pacing, the standing through over time because sitting somehow feels wrong, whether you're making the climb to the nosebleeds, rallying your section to start the wave or keeping one eye on your game and another on the out of town scores, true fandom puts in the work. And every shift deserves a nice cold Coca-Cola fan work is thirsty work. Let's get to work with Mike Russo of the athletic who covers the sport nationally with a sharp eyes always on the Minnesota wild. Um, geez, we're to begin here. Oh, yeah, Larkin. Uh, what do you hear? What do you know, Mr. Russo, we've been trying to throw darts here at the 31 other teams in the NHL, whether it's Washington, whether it's Minnesota, whether it's Montreal. I still have my suspicions about the New Jersey Devils. What do you hear? Yeah, the Larkin situation. He's done playing as a Red Wing. Yeah, it certainly feels that way. You know, nothing imminent here right now. Um, you know, I think look, Bill Garen, when he does these, these trade offers, he doesn't come in slow. He doesn't slow play anything. He's made is what I think is his best offer. And it's a futures based offer based on what I think is a good, good young player, um, a contracted player that, uh, a veteran that that makes decent money, um, and multiple first round picks, um, and maybe somebody can beat that. I'm sure there are teams that can beat that with the while they're hoping. is that at some point Detroit changes its mind on the wild's offer. There's not much more than he could do to this offer. I mean they're not trading Eric Sinek, they're not trading boldly, they can't trade Burdiin now with Bergen and Faber out. So like the offer is the offer, Gustaf sends out to December. So like the offer is the offer and unfortunately we'll see if it, well I shouldn't say unfortunately yet, but we'll see if other teams could beat it. I'm with you, you know you just know New Jersey certainly around this. You just have a sneaking suspicion on Washington, Carolina, teams like that. You know I'm sure Montreal could do the deal right now and beat everybody out of the water. It's the question is whether or not Dylan Larkin wants to go there, but I think this is clear. I haven't heard at actually at all. So correct me if I'm wrong if Harkov's even spoken yet, but I what I'm guessing is this is a pressure moved by the Larkin camp. And this isn't the red wing, yeah this isn't the red wing is telling him you're not playing here anymore. It's them just saying enough is enough. You've had plenty of time to trade me and I think that he obviously wants out. He goes out on a high by tying the game in a minute, that was pretty cool. I'm like CAA's like we got you two points against McDavid, man now now you gotta do your part and get into the hell out of Detroit. By the way Russo, I love I love this all purple athletic thing you wear. I feel like I'm talking to Fran Tarkington over here. I was actually planning on going home, but there was a lot of news here at the ring today with a couple of injury updates. Oh yeah, so so I would have I would have definitely gone home to change into something cooler for you. No, it's a good look. I wanted to ask you about the ring today because you go ahead. I just say I love it because the most underrepresented color historically in the NHL has been purple anytime I see anyone wear it. I always say Manifique bless you with apologies to Los Angeles Kings. There's another underrepresented color I think people will be talking about. As wish could tell you, I like you know to stand out and wear hang on. Hang on. Hang on. People looking at me and all that crap stuff. Greg's about to say something about fanatics that he was not that he's I'd never get to say anything about the hometown remix. Okay, you're pretty too. I think it's have to say that maybe you should check out the Florida Panthers social media today. Saw that. Yeah, yeah, we're talking about. So tell us. I see. I can't wait to see these remixes because I don't think they were a hundred percent accurate like because you know, I think the wilds look of largely like they're going to look but I'm told there were many details in the tweet the other night that that weren't accurate. So so I can't wait to talk about before I talk about favor that stabs the point. I made this point on the show earlier this week. Reset like part of the joy of these jersey releases is that there's a bunch of Easter eggs and nuances and textures and things that a mock-up online doesn't capture and and I can't speak to the wild jersey but I know there's a couple of them that I don't think necessarily really captured what the jerseys look like all that well but you you know, you do get a sense of what they may or may not look like. Brock, they love the wilds. What is the up? You do you love the wilds? No, I love what at least what Jersey nerds put out. I think it's pretty close stacker but not a hundred percent and I just I don't know. I think they look sharp. I know Dallas stars fans are already accusing the wild of stealing their look again like they always do. What's the what's the Brock favor update? Good news today. I mean you know at some point he was going to be cleared for light exercise and things like that and the return to play protocol has begun like he is he's you know it sounds like he's going to start exercising here in the next little day it looks little while and then get on the ice some you know I still think they're going to be you know John Hines indicated today that he'll have a better timetable hopefully in a couple days on when he could potentially return. I still think that this is probably going to be a little bit. I think there are checkpoints that he's going to have to reach knowing Brock favor as well as I do. I'm sure he's going to try to as hard as to ramp it up as quickly as possible to get back in the lineup but I do think that the severity of his injury is one where the doctors are going to make the choices and I talked to John Carlson and Tampa about two or three weeks ago and remember he had the fractured skull and had a you know a burst artery and he said the toughest part of the return for him which was exactly three months was that he felt great but you know the doctors obviously are the ones that are making a significant decision and and so you know even a favor feels really well wants to start playing I do think that the type of injury that he has it's just going to be some checkpoints here from doctors coming up but we'll see. Cali have news as well. Yeah Elliott Freeman reported and it's true that the wild sign him to a PTO in Iowa. You know obviously he had 40 goals let the HL in in goals last year so we'll see if you know he can get up to speed and then if the wild need them they could always sign him he's obviously available to anybody to sign as an unrestricted phrase even on the PTO. So we'll see what happens obviously you know the wild have a bunch of Russians here you know we'll see I mean you know obviously I don't know all the ins and outs but Bolly Walker did an incredible job reporting that story a couple of years ago on on his office issues and that was step obviously what big reason why a 25 year old who fled 40 HL goals right now doesn't have a job so he wants to get playing and the wild are giving him that opportunity in Iowa and that we'll see if it amounts to anything whether it's here or elsewhere. All right listen let's get to the Quinn Hughes stuff. You are nothing else threw so away. I should have actually told I should have told Zach Phillips before this I am on a I do not talk about Quinn Hughes publicly anymore because all your devil's fans like to just radio me and take anything I say they're so nasty I just the first thing I saw here when I went to Twitter is I tweeted out a Spurgeon is week to week and first tweet back I see is nobody gives a shit so this is just general this is now. This is like devil's fans live on Twitter. This is the new occupational hazard like this is it. This is what when you get rid of all the all the safety protocols are all gone right this is like the the new administration comes in and just says do whatever you want do whatever do whatever feels good and this is just the new occupational hazard that I live with. Yeah no it's ridiculous and man right part of it is because on on Twitter if you have a blue check mark you get some money so people like to just take quotes put it into things get people to engage with it and then you get suddenly a paycheck and that's what all these clip farm people do now but devil's fans in general are just you know there's one guy that tweeted me other day and I ask rock how many times this guy's tweeted me in the last six months and it's 125 times 125 times. I mean talk about a loser you know like I was part of it. I won't fucking tweet you guys okay I'm sorry that I do I didn't mean to at everybody in Minnesota knows who that that guy is. Listen I'm let's let's leave let's let's just talk about Billy okay because I'm sure you listen to the Chad Hartman show interview and listen to Billy's comments you're you're a Billy Whisperer like there's part of it is very much kind of just what we've been hearing from him which is that I've done nothing to say and I'm giving Quinn his space and Quinn's gonna come back to me at some point telling what the deal is but his sort of like detailed answer about whether or not he's going to have to make a decision at some point about Quinn and you know clearly we're better with him but maybe we got him. Like that was the part that kind of peaked my interest is that he's at least had to mull that part over right. You were so close. I think he was close. Billy Garen just pulled the plug. That's it not get an answer. That's hilarious. But let me let me let me let me coach it let me coach it a specific way here. I would say that's the first time he's talked about it publicly that way. He's thought about it. Probably thought about it when he made the deal right I don't think you make a deal like that without thinking about okay so what is a potential exit strategy. I'm pretty sure that in the back of Bill Garen's mind he's been thinking about this as I think all managers think about you know okay I got to play our next matter in contact what if think like what if you go over a couple of scenarios right you say what if the best the absolute best happens with the situation and what if the absolute worst happens with this situation and as a team you've got to be ready for both that's it so here's here's here's the so Garen on on whether or not he might have to trade Quinn at some point at some point time where we'll have to try to figure things out and see what's best for the team I know one thing's for sure having Quinn on our team is what's best for the team I'll be completely honest with you I don't know I don't know what's going to happen I don't know what I'm gonna do there's no date what we're doing right now is focusing on our team and trying to win hockey games that's really it and I think some people want to make this more complicated than it really is being the media and it's not that complicated I mean you know what at some point I don't have to try to figure things out and see what's best for the team is to hell of a thing to say about a guy that you're hoping to resign I just So the point about it's not that complicated. I agree, I think it's as simple as this. Quinn Hughes wants to see how good this team can be. And wants to know if this team can be good for however long he's gonna expect to sign for. - I think if I-- - Or wants to see how many of his friends Sunday made it, can come on. New Jersey. - Look, that's part of it too probably at this point. - Ooh, he got working too, eh? - Oh, geez, hang on, okay, I think I got that. - No, I really, listen. - Like, if you woke up tomorrow and found out that Adam foot is now Sheldon Keith's assistant coach, like with that chalky. (laughing) - I was not ready for that one. I've known you a long time and I wasn't even ready for that one, that was a good one. Yeah, like, look, I think he probably does have an eye on New Jersey. But the thing is, that's what makes the comments the other day from Quinn Hughes kind of bizarre because it's, what was he saying, in a paraphrase here? But it's something along the lines of, I have both feet here in Minnesota. And I have both feet here in Minnesota. - And you might hear about something soon. - You know who else said he has both feet in Minnesota? Pat Brisson said that in a statement to the athletic and I was wondering who came up with the verbiage? Was it Pat Mirring Quinn or Quinn Mirring Pat? I don't know. It's one of the two. - Every player in their age and have a strategy. - Sure. - And that's why this one remains one of the most fascinating stories. Continues to be one of the most fascinating stories in the National Hockey League. And maybe this is just this slow moving train to New Jersey. And Bill Garen's radio appearance maybe moves that along quicker. Don't know, but this is the first time publicly that he said, yeah, you know what, I might need to start thinking about this. Knowing full well. Knowing full well. He's already thought about it. No one's gonna tell me that Bill Garen did not think once about what if he won't resign? 'Cause I'm sure part of the conversations were, I'll resign if these things happen. I'm interested in staying if these things happen. - The other thing he said during that interview on the Chad Hartman show yesterday was that, you know, what do you want me to do? Like go back home. Be like, please, please, please sign here. I'm like, yeah, it gave up a lot of stuff for him, man. Like maybe he needs, I mean, I know that ultimately maybe that doesn't move the needle, but I'm kind of like sure. Like do whatever you need to do to try to convince this guy to sign in Minnesota for at least the next three years beyond the season. You know, the thing is though, like when Quinn talks about how the things about Minnesota that he really likes from an on-ice perspective, I mean, it's hard not to at least think that he's paying mind to what the team looks like in the future. - He looks good. - He could pre-soft, you know, you threw up the stat yesterday but could pre-soft Eric Sinek and Boldy and how dominant that line's been in it. - Yeah, no one else touches that. - It's got that, they've got some stuff on the blue line. Like they're a good hockey team and they're a really good hockey team and Quinn uses there. - So I mean, you know, if he's torn, there's good reason to be torn, I suppose. - As you bounce around, we're crossing our fingers. They're just on a couple of different group chats here trying to get Mike Russo back on the program. What did you make of? What did you make of Marty Bordur's comments about having to convince Sonny Mehta to make the trade for Connor Hallibuk? - I didn't see the interview, but I will say this, like I want to, when Sonny did his post-Hellibuk trade in a press conference, someone asked about Marty Bordur's input and it struck me the way he discussed, listen, I don't know what the current dynamic is between Marty and the new regime in the front office, but like the answer struck me as being like, well, of course we asked the best goalie in franchise history, what he thought of the best goalie in the NHL, but the answer was very much kind of, it's not as if he was reliant on Marty Bordur to convince him to make this trade and I felt like that's kind of where Marty's comments went yesterday as far as what I read. I don't know how you interpreted it. - I mean, I watched the clip and it very much sounded like Marty was saying he had to convince Sonny to make the trade. He said something along the lines of like, "Wow, we all know how he feels about goal tenders." I don't know how much of it was tongue-in-cheek, but part of me is just like, I know it's Marty Bordur and there's probably different set of rules for Marty Bordur. My first thought was, this is why GM's don't let the assistant general manager speak. Having said that, Carolina, just that Tyler Dello, do a, did I did a few on the Puck Fedia podcast with Keith, which was great, it's awesome. But like, you try to have like the one unified message and like, okay, this is the message we're putting it out to marketplace. And then Marty came out and said, "No, I had to talk him into it." My GM didn't want to, I had to talk him into it. That's the way that it sounded. And I don't know, part of me is like, "Oh, I don't run over your GM." You know, it doesn't matter if you're Marty Bordur or someone else in the organization. There was an element of like, "Oh man, like, there's Skid Marks on Sonny Metta's back now from this one." - I'm not trying to say this to a doubles podcast, but they're a big name team right now. Listen, if this was Buffalo, it'd be Buffalo Sabers podcast. We'd be talking a lot. - I don't have any access to Cash Patel, like other NHL insiders do. But I do think that having to play back-to-back in Dallas and Colorado should be a federal crime. Like, there should be something on the books that says you don't make a team play back-to-back in Dallas and Colorado. Like, that is an absolute travesty with the devil said to play back-to-back in Dallas and Colorado. - Do you see the jets on McKinnon yesterday? - Yes, 'cause the devil's played Dallas the night before. You know, they're exhausted and they got to play McKinnon in the third period. - But still, hang on, do we have him? I think we have him. I think we have Mike back. First of all, I gotta give you the first star of this program because there would, I can take me forever to sit here and list off the guests that would have put up with a situation where you got frozen but you hung with it long enough to come back on the show. Many would have just punted Mike Russo, but no. - Well, I felt bad. I thought people were gonna assume that I did it intentionally after making the joke that it wasn't talking about Quinn. So, really fun. (laughing) - Good timing. - Good timing. - Good timing. - Good timing. - Good timing. - Good timing. - I don't know what happened. 'Cause the Vix Mill just seems to like, it wouldn't even let me back in it, just up this black screen. So, who knows, so. - Well, I'm in the back. - Let's get back on it. - Yep. - Quinn Hughes, Billy Garrett and Whisperer, his comments about having to consider what could happen if Quinn comes back and says he's not staying. Like, Billy hasn't talked a lot about that and what did you make of his comments on that show yesterday? - Yeah, I mean, it's certainly not on the record, he isn't. And, you know, what I, you know, made is that basically, you know, first of all, the one thing I'll say is that he has, which had Hartman and Tambor Earl, a fun back and forth where they, I mean, I remember this happened before. - They're so good. - Yeah. - As well. And so, like, you know, I think Billy likes to, Billy, we talked about getting radioed. Billy does not live his life on Twitter, so he didn't know, I don't think that, that this just doesn't go into the ether, that this is gonna be a big, big conversation. So, he says, candidly on there, you know, what am I gonna, please, please, please. And, to me, that was the quote that I just knew right away. I texted my colleague, Joe Smith. I said, well, get ready, because he's about to go viral for that, that stuff. Look, I think it's exactly what we reported for a while, is that, you know, at the beginning of the season, Billy, basically, said, I'm not gonna pound this guy, I'm not gonna put pressure on him. You know, right now, he wants to take his time and make a decision for his long-term future. But, you know, I will say, this isn't gonna go away, especially after comments that Billy made yesterday, but we saw it even before that. You know, I mean, it's now, you know, Spitt and Chicklets is talking about it, Jeff O'Neill, TNT, you know, a panel and things like that. This is just gonna become more and more of a thing until Quinn makes up his mind. And, right now, the wild are just twisting in the wind. What has surprised me about Billy's, you know, process throughout this, is it's one thing to be respectful and not talk to Quinn all the time about this and put pressure on him. But, the reality is, is that the other day, when Quinn said, and it was a surprise to Bill Garen, and certainly Pat Prasal, and when Quinn says, you know, you know, I'm sure something's gonna happen soon out in Seattle. - Yeah. - And after every single game that he's racking up points, he's just smiling as he talks about his love of playing with guys like Free Stuff and Eric Sinek and Goldie. Like, at some point, if you're Bill Garen, you should at least go up to him and say, like, "Are you sure you still wanna, you know, "do you want me to restart this right now "because we can get it done in two minutes?" And he hasn't done that. And I just think that at some point, Bill, he's gotta do that. But, I don't think that he is at a deadline yet, where he knows exactly what he's gonna do. Like, come the by-way, Foster Week. At some point, you've got, if this is still an ongoing process where Quinn isn't signed, you've gotta have that conversation. And then, as an organization decide, you know, are we gonna really try to trade this guy? Or are we gonna use him as our own rental and try to win a cup? because if you trade him. Um, you're obviously, in my eyes, punting on the season a bit and I don't know if that's a great, uh, message to guys that could freeze off a boldly at Eric's neck and favor and whilst that and and all these players that have invested here. So this is going to become, if he is unsigned, a real big delicate decision because you really are going to have to weigh what, what you could recoup in terms of assets, um, when everybody in the world at that point is just going to know that if you trade for coin, he's not signing there. You know, I'm, I want to swing back to what you're talking about, well, and it's too, that it looks like, you know, no jerseys you might be trying to, you know, reunite the gold medal team here, but we'll, we'll see what happens with Larkin. Um, I'll tell you what, like, Greg and I earlier on before he hopped on, we were talking about Kent Hughes and how he conducts business. And when he gets his mind on something, it's, I'm calling the agent every day, I'm talking to the player every day. I'm like, I, you know, you've seen it before with Ken Hughes, like, that's the way that he behaves. Bill Garan, like, is this, I'm curious because you have the thermometer here, not me. Is this the way that Garan works in general or is he laid back because it's Quinn Hughes? I essentially, and of course, it's going to be a different dynamic because he's dealing with a superstar. But profoundly, is this just how Bill Garan prefers to do business as opposed to Ken Hughes who's just going to be relentless until he gets what he wants? Yeah, I do think that. I mean, even this off season, you know, when, when he met with Quinn once in New Jersey and once in Michigan and when Quinn made it sound, you know, like, let's get together when the season starts, I think that he was willing to be patient. I think that even you asked Bill Garan, he'd be surprised that it wasn't done by the start of the season. I think he, I think every case with Bill is different. Um, you know, I will say a couple of years ago when Carole went down to the eve of the season, it was the same thing we're all summer. They weren't really speaking and that Bill decided, let's just get Carole back in town and we'll meet with him face to face with his agent. Um, you know, this one, obviously, Bill knows everything that's going on here, but I think deep down, if yes, Bill, I think that he's just fries that's gotten to this point. And now just wants to not put pressure on the kid. The team's obviously playing outstanding hockey, um, tied with the both points in the, in the Western conference, Quinn's gotten off to an incredible start as well as Carole Caprice up every next and Bolivian, I think he's trying to be, you know, respectful and not how and the kid and, and create distractions and put pressure on him. But the reality is is that this world now, you know, we just talked about social media. This is not like back when, you know, Bill Garan held out where, you know, the only, the only thing that you thought about that was in a newspaper on every other day basis. This is, this is, you know, this is a constant conversation with a lot of people that are, are, are, you know, speculating a lot of things and, and then next, you know, it becomes, you know, constant memes and even now, you know, what I would be concerned now is what, what message is Quinn seen from Bill's comments yesterday? And that's why, again, if I was Bill Aaron, I would at least go up and have a conversation with Quinn. Maybe explain him what he meant or what he did say. Um, and then I, I still think that as much as Bill wants to be respectful of his kid, I just think at some point you have to go to him and say, you know, Quinn, what is going on here? You're off to an unbelievable start, historic start, your best start of your career. Um, this, you're playing on a team with a top line that's as good as anybody in the NHL, if not better. And, you know, we, we could do some special things here if we just end this drama right now. And when Bill, when, you know, Quinn says the other day, I want, I think that it wouldn't shock me if something happened soon. That would have been the day, at least as my cue, that I would go up to Quinn or at least call Pepper Son and say, has something changed here if you want to get this done. Is there any world? I think we've all wondered about this. Is there any world in which, like, if Minnesota continues to play like this all season long, is there any world in which even if Quinn Hughes doesn't sign, they just keep him. Like this will be the conversation next year with Connor McDavid, right? Is there a, is there a, like, is it, do they have to trade him? If he was, is there a chance, it's like, we have, we have a shot at it. We got a swing. Yeah, I think you have to weigh what you're going to potentially get for him and then make that decision. So when Bill Deren said yesterday to Chad Hartman, you know, I don't know yet what I'm going to do. I think that is what Bill is referring to is that he's going to have to see at least what teams would give him. You know, if you're the devil's and you think you're going to get him free in July one without giving up assets, you know, why would you give the wild much if not anything? Like, if I'm, if I'm in Minnesota, you know, at this point, I don't, I don't do it unless you're saying, you know, I want Blue Cavendalee store or something, you know, I just don't know what at this point they could give. And then you've got a way, like if another cup contender comes to you and thinks there are a Quinn Hughes trade away from winning the Stanley Cup, maybe that team is willing to give you a lot. But to your point, you know, if you think that this team has a legitimate chance once favors back and what other business Bill does in advance of the trade deadline, maybe it's Larkin, maybe somebody else, you think you have a chance, a legit chance in this, in this conference in particular to get to the final and then actually win the cup. I think that you do take that, that chance and maybe that changes his mind. So I think that's what Bill says when he's like, I haven't wrapped my head around what I'm going to do yet. I think that he obviously doesn't want to get to that point. He knows that this team is better with Quinn Hughes on it than with Quinn Hughes not on it. You don't have to make a significant decision come, you know, really to me a month before the deadline on what the plan is going to be, if Quinn is unsigned by that point. Right. My favorite thing about the athletics piece on Quinn the other day was Quinn dispelling the notion of the minute the wild acquired Dylan Larkin, he's going to put pen to paper, which I think is like what a lot of us think. It's just like the middle. Oh, my butt's here. I'm going to sign with the wild now. I know like his, I thought that was good that he addressed that one thing that Bill did yesterday. They didn't get a lot of play that I thought was the most interesting thing that he's at Hartman. When he said that only you know, I'm paraphrasing because I don't remember, but he basically said the only that you know, you can't get inside Quinn's head and the only person that knows what's going on is inside Quinn's head, which made me realize that this is something that even deep down he doesn't know what Quinn is thinking and the only thing he knows is that at this juncture he has not told him, I'm not coming back here. So you're to your point. I think we're making all sorts of assumptions because this is Quinn's life and he's not obviously being trained as trained. The only thing that Quinn and Jack and Luke have always been a transparent parent about is that at some point they want to play together. But they're not being super caring about this and so we're just assuming that if the wild trait Dylan Larkin at five o'clock today that he's going to sign at five o'one and you know, maybe that is just not true. We've made a lot of assumptions based on the fact that they're the same agent. They skate together. We know that Dylan wants to come here, but clearly I think Dylan wants to get out of Detroit more than he specifically just wants to come to Minnesota. That is why this 10G and listed suddenly became public a couple of weeks ago. And that's why he now suddenly he's not in their lineup. This is what I've been curious about with regards to Quinn. First of all, I know they all want to play together. But there's no question that if he comes to New Jersey, it's going to impact Luke. And Luke's playing out of his mind right now. He's like one of the best defensemen in the league this season. And so I've been intrigued by that so I'm glad you're saying that because every time I say it, it's like I've set fire to the, you know, cold mud in it. Man, that's so much fun. But you're right. I mean, I watched him on every day. Quinn has Quinn Hughes and he doesn't leave you guys. Quinn doesn't leave the ice from power plays. So it is going to impact Luke. The other thing here is that we all, but again, we're assuming that Sonny Metta even wants to unite all three on the same team, which creates other dynamics and things like that. Now maybe the owners do, maybe Sonny won't have a choice, right? So let's see. I mean, to me, if they get Dylan Larkin, I think we do know what then plan the third plan of that. Yeah. You know, I mean, Jack's walking right up to David Blitzman being like, "See this t-shirt with the three of us on it? You'll sell a billion of these t-shirts." Yeah. The views, boys. So like, but the thing I wanted to ask you though were so like, Dave Pignota and correct me from wrong, America. I think it was Dave. Yeah. Has kind of, so, and other people have put out the idea of he thinks he's going to resign. Quinn just wants to pull. Well, no, no, no. There's also been the idea of like, what if Quinn wants to just play near his brothers? Yeah. He doesn't want to like block the maturation and ice time of Luke. And he goes and plays for the Islanders of the Rangers, the Flyers or someone around the Devils. So they're all close together, but maybe not on the same roster. Do you think that's a possibility? Well, I'll pay it. I think it's for the season. We were hearing this before this season at least. We were hearing that there was a lot of truth to these Flyers. You know, obviously we were talking, you have this huge corporation there. It's a short train ride to Luke and Jack and all that stuff. If I was looking at the Flyers now and I was Quinn, I mean, any team with Quinn Hughes is going to be appreciably better, but still the Flyers right now, I don't know if you're Quinn Hughes and that seems as intriguing. So we'll see, but I do think there's, again, the only thing I'll say is that every everybody's speculated, you know, like, you know, this office is in the wild where convinced that this was not nearly as a tough, this wouldn't be nearly as tough negotiation as the curl pre-soft negotiation was last year, and yet the wild have offered him 20.8 million in the max he can get, and he hasn't signed yet. Remember next year he can get up to 22.7 million if he signs until I won, too, with any team, whether that's Minnesota or elsewhere. We'll see where this goes. So, you know, I have, I say, I have a lot of respect for David, but I think that he's speculating just like all of us, you know. And unless, as Bill Garen said yesterday, you're inside Quinn's head, Jack's head, Luke's head, Ellen and Jim's head, you know, you just, you know. Pat Prison, everyone at CAA, we've kept you a long time and stretched out your day. We appreciate the time and the thoughts and the expertise as well. Don't worry about it. There's a technical glitches here, I don't know. That's not, that's not, fray, listen, dude, like the block button, the mute button is your friend. Like, feel free to use it liberally, like if there's any way I could broken a piece from your life. A piece accord between the devil's fans that are mad at you and you being mad at the nascent devil. Well, they're family, listen, so I went to my nephews, Bar Mitzvah, this summer, and everybody there are the devil's fans and everybody was coming out to me saying, "Why the hell am I supposed to be the devil's fan?" I know, like stick up for you. Yeah, it's just, I don't know. People don't realize I basically grew up in summit in Verota. Yeah. Come on. Come on in the middlelands, you know. Has the thing that's been. Has the guy's. Has the guy's. Has the son he made a cheering on Greg Adams? They didn't even know it at the time. And, you know. And has the guy's with Greg Waschinski, like. I am a polter fanatic, so I have all the respect in the world of the GM. Mm-hmm. There you go. Yeah, back off devils fans, back off devils fans. Michael, thank you so much as always. Enjoy the rest of your. Rest of your Dylan Larkin, Quinn Hughes, Fuel Day. Yep, yep. See you guys. There is the great microphone from the athletic. You know, the idea of Quinn wanting to play close to, but not in the same spot as. The Brothers? Reminds me of one of my favorite jokes. Yes? What do you call a vegetable that is cool, but not too cool? What do you. What? Radish. That's a good joke. That's a good joke. You tell your kids that one. There was a joke that I heard on my life. There's a dad joke that I heard on Love Is Blind last night when I was watching the latest batch of episodes. Oh, yeah. By the way, the first episode in which everything kind of falls apart with one of the particular guys in Boston as an all-time classic in redeem the season. Hey, Hey, Merrick, did you hear that I named my horse Mayo? No, Greg. I didn't hear that. Yeah. No, it's true, yeah. And sometimes Mayo Nays. I don't know why he's a joke. Oh, my God. It's fantastic. It's amazing. It's fantastic. Shout out to Cam from Love Is Blind. Yeah, pretty good. That's good. That's good. You're not a Love Is Blind guy, are you Zach? No, no, I'm not. I don't watch reality TV. I've got too much stuff going on. Talky sees and Greg, like looking down your nose and talk as I watch Love Is Blind. Top chef. Mayo Nays. Mayo Nays. That's like the great Ikea joke. I can't go to Ikea anymore. Last time I was there, the woman I checked out wanted to have sex with me. And I said, no, I'm just here for one night stand. Wish. Wish. I was moving in my girlfriend and I were moving in together and I was at Ikea. Jeff calls me and I was like, hey, like I'm really busy. Sorry. And he's like, no, no, no, no. It's just one thing, one thing. I'm like, okay, what's up? And he goes, uh, so, uh, this, uh, I was at Ikea. I'm like, dude. I'm at Ikea. This is a great thing about working with Zach. Like he's younger than me starting his life. I'm in a torture room with all this stuff. This is so good. I'm just here. I'm just here for one night stand. Yeah. Come on, man. Yeah. That's right. Correct. Yeah. That's what I'm here for. So I can't go shopping anymore. All right. So, so as, as you know, Whisperers, because we've known Mike for years. He's, uh, he's the best. What's your, what's your take on his take? My take on, on his take is kind of the same one that I have. We're all, we're all playing this guessing game and trying to read clues into something that only, and maybe he doesn't even himself, Quinn Hughes. Nobody wants to do here. Like I really wonder how much, like I've, I've had moments like this in my life where I don't want to make the decision. I want someone else to make a bunch of decisions that force me to make this decision. Do you know what I mean? Like does, do you not feel like part of you feels that way? Okay. Well, if my brothers are in New Jersey and they got hella buck and now they got Larkin too and we want to get the gold metal band back together. Like I, I kind of have to do this. You, can I, can I just say something? Like you keep on kind of just throwing, we've got Larkin too into this mix for the devils. I expect something. Where's this cap? Where's this cap space coming from? Well, he's allowed, he's allowed to, he's allowed to trade players that have like significant salary cap too. He's a lot, I check if he's allowed to trade these, you're going to create enough space. I don't know what that trade that he has together on, on this one. Like if there is even a mantha back to Detroit. I mean, that's not going to happen. I don't know. That's not going to happen. That's 475. I mean, do you, do you, do you finally, I mean, I don't think they want to trade Duggy. They're not going to trade Luke. I'm not going to trade. I'm not going to trade Luke. Hey, Luke, we got good news and bad news. Good news. Your brother's coming to New Jersey. That was what I was saying when Quinn was available from Vancouver. Like the devils could do the funniest thing right now and just trade Luke out to Vancouver. You know, sorry, little brother. Me and Quinn are cool now and enjoy the West Coast. Sorry, you had to find out which brother I liked the best. I mean, the funny thing is, like Luke Hughes doesn't have trade protection. But he does. It's got to be a situation. It's like, you want to have the trade protection conversation with this deal? Nope. Don't, don't need it. I have trade protection. It's Jack. But like Rousseau's point, I think, is a salient one. Like I, listen, I've been a Quinn Hughes skeptic for most of his career. You don't think he's got that contract, which I really thought that he just got because of his brother. No, because he was, he was in that sort of like young offensive defenseman mold of, of making some really dazzling plays, but also just doing the dumbest thing you can possibly imagine, at least twice every game. And he's, he's cut down on those legs and his, his like upside has been, like his ceiling is higher than I ever thought it'd be this year. Like, he's been really good. Yeah. But he's not Quinn. Like that's the, like Rousseau said, like, if Quinn Hughes is available and he's like, I'd like to come play for your hockey team, then you are like, Luke, great dude. Love you, kid. PP2, buddy. Quinn, Quinn's on the top unit. Like, that's just how it's going to be if that's the case, because Quinn is, Elite, Quinn is all world in a way that Luke isn't quite yet. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nice problem to have for the New Jersey Devils. We'll see if it ever gets there. Yeah. Any other final thoughts before I wrap up here? Where are we going to? My final thought is this. Part of my job at ESPN is to often be the guy who writes the 5,000 word column, which I did today about 10 over reactions to the season so far. And also the guy who can make the funny funnies sometimes. So tomorrow, the power rankings on ESPN.com will feature me writing them and assigning a different horror movie to all 32 NHL teams. I'm halfway through it. I'm pretty impressed so far. The rest of it will probably not be as good. I've used up all my good ideas. The good ideas. But that'll be, that'll be tomorrow. And then follow below the fold. The next time we do the show, we'll be after the release of the hometown Remix jerseys. They're dropping on Monday at 10 AM. I will have full coverage of their inception and execution and everything. Full coverage of one of the jerseys that, again, if you go to a certain social media feed and see a certain color, you could probably glean that it'll be Florida. And then also, of course, a full ranking of all of the hometown Remix jerseys. From one to, I did like, I did like the Florida Panthers. Social media posted a with the briefcase opened. I've seen, I think I saw Vegas put out a. I haven't seen Florida's the only one that I've seen. Teaser, I think. Like, look, dude, I think this, I'm, I'm excited. And, you know, me like, normally I don't get too excited about things like this. I am legitimately excited to see what they are. And to see what they look like. Would you guys like to see the, my favorite reaction video of the day? Fanatics put out a tweet and it's, it's got, it's got one really, really, really, really fantastic. reaction from a player. And I think you guys will know exactly what it is. Would you like to see? Yeah. Have you seen this wish? Go ahead. Here's the video. Well, I see that. But I'm face blind. Who is that? Who is that, Zach? Mark Shafley. I don't know why it's not. Oh, Shafley. Yeah. Yeah, just yeah, okay. Which player are we looking for, bud? Well, it's Kale McCart. Yeah, it's okay. Cutter. Oh, Matthew. Everyone with the most amazing reactions ever. And then just one guy comes in and just, oh, wow. Oh, the most deadpan look on his face. Conor. Conor. Vegas has, I think, a teaser for the Jersey's and then Sinbin has a photo from the ice that gives you a sense of the color palette. I can't say much more about Vegas's, but I'll say more about it. I like, I'm going to really date myself here. That Conor McDavid reaction and wish you'll appreciate this is very Alan Alda-esque. Well, now I'm really curious. I thought it was very NHL draft lottery-esque. No, because there is some anger there when you walk down the hallway. Still one of the greatest of all time. It truly is. It truly is. Bigger, bigger, uh, bigger sliding doors moment, uh, McDavid going to Edmonton instead of Buffalo or McKinnon missing the open net against the US. I will always talk about that open net. I will always for the rest of my life. I know you're fascinated with, with the, um, with the draft lottery moment for Conor McDavid, but I'm, it's, it's gonna, it's gonna, it's gonna take me, it's gonna take me a while. For the, I mean, you've, oh, you can already say that him missing the open net led to all of the political aftermath, the gold medal win led to hella buck out of Winnipeg, led to Larkin out of Detroit, led to Brady out of Ottawa, most likely. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it is, it is, and led to the death of a stuffed animal. We can't forget that. Yeah. It led to the untimely death of a stuffed animal as well. Yeah. Did, uh, did Hens get a broken nose? No, I think McKinnon got him. It led to his own broken nose by Ruby Hens as he decides to take this out, take that moment out on the NHL. It's like, it's, it's like when we meet Wolverine in the X-Men movie and he's just like cage fighting. It's like Nate, it's like I gotta get through these feelings somehow. I'm just gonna start getting into fights. I'm just gonna punch my, punch my way through it. Okay, you, uh, enjoy Halloween and we'll talk to you Monday. We'll talk about it amongst other things. Maybe even a Larkin deal, uh, but jerseys and fanatics, so we look forward to that. We have a great weekend, pal. Nice, great Halloween, everybody, stay safe. Oh, oh, oh, hang on, hang on. No, turn the light out. Turn the lights out. Let me see if I can do it. Hang on. Let's see what you got. This is great for everybody listening. Hey, everybody, Spotify, Apple Pods, etc. Like I know this isn't exactly riveting conversation right now, but you can go back to the YouTube feed and find Greg Wushinsky. See if we can make his jacket shine. It's dark enough. It's dark-ish. It's not dark. You know, like dark, man. Nah. Close the blinds. He's talking to be dark enough, I think. Oh, oh, oh, oh, that's all right. Oh, I like the clean butt. You can see that, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that looks, oh, dude, you gotta see that it's a little big green. Oh, you better hope I don't see you on payday. Look at that. All right, there you go. Okay, very good. I like, I like, I like, I like, I like, I like. All right, well done. I like this lighting. I should just do this from that one. All right, let's keep it like the Phantom of Wushinsky. This is good. Happy Halloween, everybody. All right, there he is. Greg Wushinsky from ESPN and ESPN.com. We got a lot to get to. We really got hustle here on the program today. This segment is going to feature Zach and is brought to you by Sports Interaction, Sportsbook and Casino. Every game is your game when you bet with Sports Interaction. Bet the action on every period, every shift, every shot with Canada's homegrown Sportsbook, Sports Interaction. Ontario or Alberta only must be 19 plus in Ontario, 18 plus in Alberta. Please play responsibly. It's a busy Thursday evening as most Thursdays are Zachary. By the way, I know, I know, I know the game was late last night and you're up till the wee hours and got up to do something with me this morning around eight. You've had a long days and I hope you're going to get to bed early too. Hope you're going to get in the wrapper today and find out about your bets when you wake up in the morning. Well, we'll see. I got to go back to the office after this and help out with some stuff around the studio. So let's stick a broom in your ass and sweep up on the way out too. I promise. You say, guys, some time, all that. I'm going to be like, take out the dinner or something. Like, please. That's what the weekends for. We got work to do. It's hockey season. So, you know, that's what we get to the summer. Get to get to Sunday nights. Let's get to these bets for today. I'm going all goal scores on today's card. So for this one, head on over to Sports Interaction. I've got four different goal scores listed. We're going to go Logan, Stan Kovan, anytime goal plus 200 Patrick Kane against the Detroit. Anytime goal plus 250 Quinn Hughes, he has been, you know, it's the Dylan Larkin day. And yet somehow Quinn Hughes's name cannot go throughout all of this without being mentioned. For good reason, I think he gets on the board here tonight plus 400. And then finally, Olin Zellwiger. That would be a revenge game, Jeff. As we all call it, plus 50 for Olin Zellwiger to get on the board here tonight. Swords and ducks. Swords and ducks. Okay, every game is your game. When you bet with Sports Interaction, from puck drop to overtime, bet with live odds on every play with easy deposits and payout. Go to sportsinteraction.com/thesheet to open an account. Again, Ontario or Alberta only must be 19 plus in Ontario, 18 plus in Alberta, please play responsibly. And again, today we're talking about dusters to conclude the program. Time now for dynamic duo, a presentation of November. And we're going to talk about Eddie Shack in a second here. But first, poor mental health affects everyone. When a man struggles or dies prematurely, the impact affects families, workplaces and communities. In 2023, almost 75,000 Canadian men died before the age of 75. And Canada lost 12.4 billion to avoidable illness and premature death among men and boys. Healthier men help build healthier families and communities. So make a grow commitment. Challenge a friend, grow together, change men's health. A grow commitment is your commitment to take on November together. Grow a mo, move 60k, host something, or do it your own way. To learn more, please visit movember.com. Again, please visit movember.com. And Zack is where highlighting some of the great dusters throughout NHL history. Tuesday, we talked about Harold's neps. And man, that was always a beauty. So much so that you could not tell the difference. You could tell a profound difference, rather, between snaps with the mow and snaps when he was a rookie. They look like two completely different people. Today, I want to talk about Eddie Shack, who had one of the great dusters of all time. Eddie Shack started in 57, finished in 75, played with six NHL teams, the Rangers, the Leafs, the Bruins, the Kings, the Sabers, and the Pittsburgh Penguins. I knew him as a kid. Promotionally, he did a lot of stuff in Ontario, whether it was with pop shop. You're too young to remember pop shop. Although, I think it still exists as a brand somewhere. And chickraisers, where they actually got Eddie Shack to shave his minor pop shop. You know, it still exists, but like this was Eddie Shack. I don't know if Eddie owned a piece of it, or he just lent his sort of, you know, image towards it, but he was in all the commercials. And I remember, oh, what was the tagline? Because it was like cheaper pop. And there was a place on the lands down in Queen, you would drive through to pick up cases of it. I've got a nose for value. That's what I was. Oh, hey, Eddie, this pop is great. I've got a nose for value because the pop was cheap or whatever. Anyhow, that was Eddie Shack. He was a legendary entertainer and performer on the ice off the ice entrepreneur as well. You have a picture of Eddie Shack donuts. This to me, oh, like, first of all, look at the duster, like that is a legendary one and he kept it until he took his last breath in 2020. We lost, we lost Eddie then. But every time I would go through, look at that beauty, I went to that place so many times on Highway 10, Southwestern Ontario on in Caledon on the way to Orangeville. I'd always make sure to stop into Eddie Shack donuts. And the one thing that was that was kind of hilarious about it as I look back, but back then you just sort of shrug and go, that's just the way it is. There was one counter, Zach, you'll love this. We're good about to have a generation gap between us. There was a counter where you could buy coffee and donuts and there's a counter beside it where he bought smokes. Just to go and buy smokes. So it should be Eddie Shack donuts and smokes is really what it should I think there are a couple in Guelph as well. - Darts and donuts. - Darts and donuts. - Dude, hang on a second here. Hang on to that. - We got something, I don't be splashing that. Don't be splashing that out here for free. Quick, say trademark, quick, say trademark. - Yeah, trademark, trademark. - trademark, trademark, we're gonna have a, presented by the sheet. (laughing) - Darts, donuts, and dark coffee, presented by the sheets. - Here's one of the things that Eddie Shaq, maybe we've all seen the video. I think you've probably seen this before. January 12th, 1974. This is legendary. St. Louis Blue is facing off against the Maple. This thing Maple is one, four, two, or five, two. And this one, you can check the game sheets online. But Eddie Shaq was great at riling up opponents. And one of his, the main nemesis he had through his career was actually Rocket Rochard's brother, Henri Rochard. Eddie would drive Henri Rochard bananas all over the ice. They fought a bunch of times. He could get under pocket rocket skin like nobody else. But January 12th, the St. Louis Blue's all tried to kill him. You want to roll this viz here? This is an stoppage. Bob Cole and Bob Goldem were the commentators on this one. So Bob Kelly is 24, he goes after him. Bob Plager is number five. He goes after Eddie too. Eddie's like, I gotta get off the ice here because this whole team wants to kill me. And then Pierre Plants, who's wearing number 16, is gonna come in and also take a swing at Eddie Shaq, who just high-tells it to the bed. There's his guy, Kineer, legendary trainer for the Toronto Maple Leafs, whose son was a accomplished lacrosse player as well in Victoria. Anyway, that is one of the great scenes in the history of hockey. Eddie Shaq getting chased all over the ice and look at that duster along the way. Eddie Shaq is today's duster. We present as part of Dynamic Duo, the presentation of "Movember," again, please visit "Movember.com." - You know what I would do with my nautical duster, by the way? - Awesome. - And he kept it right, a member, 'cause him and Ken Reed, actually I got it right here. I will plug this book because of my buddy Ken Reed, who I saw Maple Leaf progress thing a couple weeks ago. Eddie Shaq, hockey's most entertaining stories with Ken Reed, it is exceptional. It's a fantastic book. You know what I would do if my name was Eddie and I was an entrepreneur and I wanted to open up a business and use my name for it. Maybe it's already been done before. - What? - Ed Aboles. - Ed, picture of Eddie Shaq's mustache. (laughing) - Come on man, these are million dollar ideas. You're giving away ideas here on the show. - Darts and donuts, how about Ed Aboles? Bad joke. - Bad joke, man. - One day on a sheet. - One night stand? - No. - It's a good one. - That's a good one. - That's all right. After last night's performance, in honor of Gabe O'Brovsky, I thought that I would go out and get a little mannequin of him. - Uh-oh. - So I went out and picked up this at the store. - Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. - Just fire and balloons. Just fire and balloons for me everywhere. How does that monitor the goal going? And they just made the big comeback. And I'm just like, ah, Zach's gonna have an awesome show. Leafy's are coming back. They're gonna throw in the overtime. Eastern Cowan's gonna score. He's gonna be a billion people. Now watch an after-die. Oh, this is gonna be awesome for Zach. And then, you wanna talk about old-time hockey? William Neelander last night was playing, like the blonde guy in Slapshot, who says if he gets hit too hard, he's gonna piss himself. That's how William Neelander was speeding around. - Brofie. - Brofie. - Yeah, Brofie. - Yes, Brofie. - Yeah, that was-- - Yeah, it was white boy. - His wife laughed at me. He's been drinking on the bus all day long. (laughing) Coach knows he's waiting, he's finally. (laughing) - Yeah, I got to hit too hard. - Look at this myself. - The guys from the bench, look at him. And they just goes up the boards really slowly. (laughing) - He's like crunched up together, just hobbling off the ice. - Get off the ice. - Get off the ice. - Get off the ice, Brofie. (laughing) - There. - Get off the air, American Phillips. Get off the air. All right, long one today. Thanks so much for being aboard. Thanks to Mike Russo for stopping by for the laughs and the entertainment and fixing the technical, what was wrong by the way, Zach? What happened, do you know? - I gotta look into that. 'Cause we were trying some, this is like behind the scenes of "No One Cares" but we were trying different links and nothing was working. So I made a different version of a link and it worked. So, listen, come on. - Good on Russo for hanging in there. Seriously, good on Russo for hanging in. Most people would have no offense to other guests. Probably the same thing to do is just like, okay, like this is done, they've moved on. But like, Russo hung in there, thanks man. And he was, - I will say it sucks when guest drop or cut or whatever. And obviously wasn't his fault. It sucks for everyone, no matter what happens. If there was ever a time for somebody to drop out of a call, that could not have been more perfect. - Hell yeah. - He just said he will not talk about Quinn Hughes. - So we obviously, Greg asked him about Quinn Hughes and he's gone. - Beat it up. - I started laughing. I'm like, I gotta get on this, but that was hilarious. - Perfect. - You made my life easy. - I don't know that we're gonna top that. Tomorrow, but we're certainly gonna try. It's a civilian Friday's with Brian Burke tomorrow, so join us tomorrow, 1 o'clock YouTube. And the show is finally done, we've run out of words. Join us tomorrow, 1 o'clock YouTube. - Thank you. ♪ I said 16 hours last night ♪ ♪ Every day this week, every day this month ♪ ♪ I can't get out my head ♪ ♪ I'm still ambitious day to day ♪ ♪ 'Cause you can call it all right ♪ ♪ I went to the dark man ♪ ♪ He's gonna give me little medicine ♪ ♪ I'm like, now I'm in that spine ♪ ♪ I'm not a guest, though ♪ ♪ I'm at this balloon ♪ ♪ It's me, myself, and how this gonna be fixing my mind ♪ ♪ 'Cause you wanna break it ♪ ♪ I turned on the music ♪ ♪ I feel wanna break it ♪ ♪ I feel it on the music ♪ ♪ It's an up and up and up, 'cause I'm trying to do it ♪ ♪ I've been on this, I'm where I'm at ♪