Nikita Kucherov's Trade Request Has Left Us Stunned

If Nikita Kutra I've wanted to say, I'm not going to resign after this season, that's fine, but it's the requesting a trade on October 30th that is the most surprising to me. Pete, we might be getting a run of MVP's just getting traded every year. Also, I'm seeing the R, I'm in an Airbnb. This stuff isn't mine. It's a really pervy Airbnb. But the MVP of two years ago was traded, Connor Halibuk, the MVP of last year. Now it seems might get traded, and let's be real. In a couple of years, there's an MVP that might be relocating, but we'll talk about that later. I would say out of nowhere, but out of Jeff Merrick a couple of months ago, apparently. Yeah, at least Jeff Merrick said July 1st. I don't think that anybody has participated in Nikita Kutra requesting a trade on October 30th of all things. Like the Tampa Bay Lightning are two points out. I think two points out of the Atlantic lead. This is the part that makes so little sense to me. If Nikita Kutra I've wanted to say, I'm not going to resign after this season, that's fine, but it's the requesting a trade on October 30th. That is the most surprising to me. So the Lightning have the best record in the Atlantic. They have the second best record in the Eastern Conference, and they have the third best record in the league, which is going to complicate the hell out of this. But yeah, Elliot Friedman reporting today and other people jumping out of it as well, that the Lightning and Dan Milstein have met and talked about it. And not only is Nikita Kutra of not resigning, he wants out and will do a couple of minutes on like where we think he goes, but there's such a big what the hell element to this. We've talked about the state income tax thing. You make more money if you play in Florida. I know that the Lightning have a history of taking their stars to the wood shed or whatever it may be at the negotiating table. Stephen Stamcoes ran away. Stephen Stamcoes almost ran away before eventually doing it, but like guys have resigned after being like, damn, that was a real doozy. You should probably take care of me better. And who knows if it's just a money thing or if it's a relationship thing, but he's told the team and he's told players like everyone on the Lightning now knows that he doesn't want to be there. I'm astonished by this because that place should be perfect for him. Yeah, I mean, I saw in Elliot's report that he's apparently asking for six years, $20 million annually. So I mean, money wise, if Tampa doesn't want to pay that and that's what pushes him and says, all right, well, I'm not going to sign trade me, but like again, it's the trade me element. If they're not going to pay you $20 million, why not ride out where your stuff already is and you're not paying the income tax and you've got a chance to compete and he doesn't even have full no move protection. So he doesn't have final say on it one where he gets to go. He gets to say, here are my 10 teams that I'm willing to accept a trade to, but he doesn't ultimately get the final say on where he ends up going. So that's really surprising to me. And if he gets traded wherever he's going to end up, he weakens that team. He's on a worse team than he would have been on if he just waited until free agency and signed with them. I don't know how the trade thing works because I just mentioned that Lightning have the third best record in the entire NHL. They're on pace to win their division. They're on pace to be the second best team in the Eastern Conference, which that's the Lightning kind of every year. They're always in that mix. There are there are a few teams that have the dough to just add Nikita Kutraov straight up with no retention. And then there's a few more Boston Winnipeg whatever that you could add in if they're adding him with half retention. But why would the Lightning? Like the Lightning aren't going to retain $4.75 million to trade Nikita Kutraov this year when they're one of the best teams in the NHL. I don't I don't see how a trade it will. I'm sure, but like I don't see how a trade happens. Yeah, no, I'm saying maybe they do if it maximizes the value of what they get in return, especially beyond this season. Like I could see if they get a really good young-ish player who's, you know, who's making, I don't know, six, seven million dollars, I could see them willing, be willing to eat money in order to kind of gain that security and maximize the value of the trade. I don't know. I find it very funny though that Kutraov set the franchise points record. And then immediately was like, all right, fuck you, Bozoz, I'm out of here. Gas up the bird. Exactly. I don't know. I have a list. I wrote down a list of teams that I would be very, very intrigued by. And I think that would make a lot of sense. And you mentioned Jeff Merrick earlier. He's been banging on the Montreal drum for quite a long time. And it makes so much sense when you consider that they've been going for a big fish offensive winger. And they've struck out at several different junctures with Matthew Nies, then with Kriel Marchenko. I mean, if you strike out on those two and then hit a home run before you strike out, third strike with Kutraov, I think you consider yourself a huge winger. Obviously, it obviously depends on what you have to give up for him. Montreal would be a really exciting one. How about the Chicago Blackhawks, man? Like if you put Kutraov on Bidard's wing and let them cook for the next six plus years, I think that that would be one happy Connor Bidard that, you know, then can maybe brush off a little bit of frustration and maybe get this team in playoff contention. But he trading cancer off to do it. That's the old Bert and Bernie trading the paperclip so you can get a soap dish for the rubber duckie when your boy traded as rubber duckie to get you a paperclip holder. Yeah, but I mean, I really like cancer off, but we're talking about Nikita Kutraov, man, if you get an extension in hand and you got the next six years of Bidard and Kutraov instead of Bidard and essentially a scratch ticket again, I really like cancer off, but there's a lot of reason to do it and push this thing forward if you're Chicago. And there's a lot of reason for Tampa to be like, well, okay, this is a really nice young piece that would make sense for us to maybe invest in. I'm not kicking it out of bed. Yeah, I mean, if I'm Chicago though, my favorite stat, guys, I want Kutraov just being added. And that would mean waiting till free agency or trying to just, or just like, like, fuck those picks. Like every year, well, here's a million draft picks. And you know what, we might stink. These might be good draft picks, but we just need more guys on our team. I love, I would love, I saw you tweet about Kutraov for Chicago when I was like, oh, baby, that would be incredible. Has anyone talked about the Red Wings? Yeah, I just talked about it for CBS. The only thing about the Red Wings, I think it would be a really interesting premise for two teams with, I don't know how disgruntled I want to call Nikita Kutraov. I don't think he feels things exactly disgruntled would require an emotion. That's a feeling. But these two, these two teams looking each other in the face and saying, we've both got a problem on our hands. What do we do here to maybe solve it for one another? That would be fascinating. But tell me, tell me the reason outside of just the extension, why Nikita Kutraov would go, yeah, Detroit sounds awesome for the remainder of this year. When, again, he could have just played this thing out. And if he wanted to go to Detroit for six by 20, they probably offer him that in the summer. Why, why then go now, not contend this year and then cost that team assets to go there and be worse off? Here's what I want. I want the Red Wings to announce they've made a trade for Nikita Kutraov until in Larkin's like, thank God. And the Red Wings are like, you're still suspended, brother. And he's like, what? I'm not on the team. We traded Edvinson for him. Get back to sleep or whatever the fuck you're doing. You're not going anywhere loser. That would be the best thing to show up in his key card not work and be like, no, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah, you know, your key card still works in Detroit. You are going to rot there and never play another game again. That would be hilarious. Red Wings was a quick one that comes to, or the first one that comes to mind because it's just two pieces that you're wondering if they don't want to be there. Where will they go? Kraken for me, a little selfishly because we just want the Kraken to get a star player. They've also got a ton of cap space. Wouldn't really make sense for them. Wouldn't really like, I don't know which team he's ending up on that is going to give him the situation he's in in Tampa. Like, I think that if Nikita Kutraov is relocating and granted, this is the reigning MVP, one of the best players ever. But he's going to be 34 next year. So we're going to start to look at like in year four or five or six of the six year contract that he wants. He's going to start getting worse. He hasn't started getting worse yet. But like, is the team that he arrives to? Is that going to be a perennial every year? You think think they're, they've really got a chance. The cup, he's opening up Pandora's box here. Yeah, I mean, it's tough to project six years down the road to ask Dylan Larkin and Connor Hellebuck, who asked out like four years into their contracts. Five minutes into their contracts. Yeah. Yeah. So you never know, you know, another team that I would look at and consider the New York Rangers, like they seem to always be in the market and they lost Panarin last year. Like they're always in the market for those those big names. And I mean, I mean, if we want to do the Russian thing, like the Russians seem to like the big market, it oftentimes were like, that's very, very appealing to them. I don't know if that's the case for Kutrov, but the, the, the Rangers could certainly be in the market for that splash. They're bleeding money. I don't know if you saw the reports that like the Rangers are absolutely costing James Dole in a ton of money. And he's, he's costing himself a ton of money by doing these fishing scams, scams that then has to get to pay three million dollars to get rings for all of his Nick's employees. So I don't know, the Rangers are an interesting one. And then the final one that I was thinking about was Washington, because Washington with Ovechkin out the door throwing, throwing Kutrov in there. And if they can get him in there this year and make a real run on it, a last kick of the can for, for Ovechkin in the final year, that could be fun. That would be amazing. I have no idea how you add even one. I don't know how you could add a like five pound baby to Washington. Like there is not room for one. It's like when you're pack, when you're, when we travel and we have to bring all of our equipment. And in order to check the bag, it's got to be under 50 pounds or something like that. Whatever the maximum allowable, like people and wingers situation is, they are every day they need to reway and remeasure to make sure that they're not over. They are so already loaded that yes, once Ovechkin's gone, but right now, I don't know what they would move out to make it fit. Obviously, having an earth, you're getting Nikita Kutrov. Another team that I have written down, hurricanes, I mean, yeah, always, they're always in the mix, always, always, always, always, always big game hunting teams with the most money million dollars. That's the thing, the, the thing about the hurricanes that they always get players under market value and they don't over commit on dollars are they going to be willing to pay Nikita Kutrov 20 million dollars for the next six years. Well, if we're talking about the Canadians getting in, it's the same exact story. That's how the Canadians have all this money because they paid Demadov way below what he's worth because they paid Lane Hudson way below what he's worth. So you do all that so you can then philosophically, I could see Montreal being more willing to say, okay, we've made all these savings. So then now we can go out and make this big splash because they've been trying to do that. Like they've been trying to go out and get a big fish. I think I more see Tulski and the hurricanes and I guess Tom Dundin being more frugal. I don't, they were going to pay Renton and they were going to pay Renton and they were going to pay Renton and like 12 million dollars, right? Back then. Yeah, back then, which is like top of the market and he wants top of the market. Pop-ish. No, seriously, he was going to, I don't know exactly what they were offering him, but they traded for him with the intention of we're probably not going to get a discount and resigning him, but we want the star player. We're going to do it. Like Tulski always, Tulski just has not gotten and kept the superstar, but his plan has always been good roster and then add the superstar on top, which right now the Canadians look like they're they also close to being able to do. They also have a disgruntled occasion, which is an obvious trade chip in that sort of deal. So I mean, that's fascinating. That would be scary as hell if he ends up in Carolina. Or how about another one? We talked about Quentin Byfield potentially being out the door in LA if they're trying to go big game hunting. Are Temi Pinaran and Nikita Kutrov on the same team? Oops, all really good Russian wings. And like no centers. Yeah, they would still miss the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, that one is less exciting to me, but I'm not willing to, I'm not willing to throw it off the table because I can't predict the LA King's next move. If this happens, if Nikita Kutrov has moved before Dylan Larkin, I mean, I'm rooting for that. I'm still, I'm still letting the shock hit me and trying to process it, but I kind of want a million unexpected things to happen before Dylan Larkin's very like organized high. Can you just please trade me ever happens? Well, this is as much mystery as we've ever had in one of these like big blockbuster things this year because with Hellabuck, with Kutrov, with Larkin, with all these other guys, we knew they at least wanted to go to an American market. We kind of figured where a couple of them wanted to go with Larkin, the Minnesota and his, his list was made pretty public at every step of the way. We don't know really why Kutrov wants out of Tampa right now. We don't know what he wants in terms of his next landing spot. We don't know who his 10, 10 teams are. There's so much mystery in this one. And it is just making my brain twist in a million different directions right now. I'm, I'm flabbergasted by this one.