32 Thoughts: The Podcast

00:00 By the way, Packers play tonight? 00:03 Packers play tonight? Oh, don't. 00:06 It's Thursday. 00:09 Sunday is one thing. 00:12 It's brutal. That's your go-to to everybody, whoever their team is, if they play. Well, they play today. 00:19 First of all, Kyle, I'm a Vikings fan. They are going to crush my heart in the most devastating way possible. So I'm getting it out of the way now before I have to eat it myself. 00:31 Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Happy Friday. We said on Monday this was a big week in coming, and it certainly has been. Elliot Friedman, Dom Schramatti, Kyle Bukoskis along with you. We saw your feedback with regards to a potential schedule change. Don't worry. We will get to that in the thought line. So stay tuned on that front. But first, Elliot, we will begin with the Board of Governors meetings. That's where you were down in New York the early part of this week. We will talk about the whole discussion around expansion in a bit. 01:03 But first, something that wasn't necessarily discussed publicly today. 01:08 down in new york the salary cap looking ahead something that you have learned we know the cap this year is 104 million we know the salary cap next year as it stands right now is 113 and a half beyond that We really weren't sure until something you have learned over the last little while. 01:32 What's going on? 01:34 So it's not unusual for it to take a few days for things to seep out of there. But one of the things they did was they gave a guesstimate that of what the 28 29 cap could be and i stress this is a guesstimate because it's not set in stone um three-year agreement that they made with the players association and we're in the second year of it as you said 104 this year 113 next year you want to take a guess at what they put up there or what they told people. 02:12 I don't know if it was like on a slide or they said it or what they did, but you want to take a guess at, 02:22 Just looking at your face right now, Elliot, I'm guessing we're well into the 120s. Am I close at all? Am I warm at all there? 02:30 That is an excellent guess. We are well into the 120s. The guesstimate was 127.5. And the interesting thing about that, Kyle, is that... If it was to be 127.5, that would be a $14 million raise from next year to the year after. And that would be the biggest single season raise since the cap came in in 05.06. That is a massive, in all caps, massive number. 03:06 So, well, it's funny you mentioned all caps because who is now the chairman of the executive committee? Ted Leone is the owner of the Washington Capitals. It was interesting listening to some of the things that he said. Like what? Well, when he said, right now we're a big public company and we have to act like one. 03:29 I thought it was really interesting. He phrased it that way when describing the league. And he himself said he's the visionary, the big picture guy. And when he was saying things like, look, you look at the company as $150 billion in value, and how do we go about doubling it? 03:48 It was quite something to hear. Look, we know we're heading into the dawn of a new era sometime soon. We know Gary Bettman's not going to be the commissioner forever. 04:01 We're heading into a new era, a new way of thinking. 04:06 Franchises have never been worth more, and clearly there is a push to grow those numbers well above... 04:14 where they are right now. We just had an unprecedented summer that changed everything by how we look at players' salaries. 04:22 Two record contracts. 04:24 Carlson, Celebrini, Makar... 04:28 We're going to get to Fantilli here in a little bit. You know, he just signed, just all of a sudden becomes the fifth highest paid player in the league this year. 04:36 It's an interesting thing to think about. And now the idea of a salary cap two years from now being $14 million higher than the previous year. 04:50 It feels like a lot very, very fast, but it sounds like that's kind of what the league wants here. 04:58 Well, it's what the league expects. I don't know if it's what it wants. It's what the league expects. 05:04 You know, I was thinking about it while you were talking there. 05:09 The original cap was $40 million. It's been... 05:14 22 years, 23 by the time we get to this new number and it will have more than tripled. 05:22 I don't know if this is what everyone expected or hoped for when we got to this situation. I mean, you probably sit there and you hope for it because it means your league is growing, right? 05:33 This is really fascinating to me because... 05:37 Look, people say it's 50-50. The players get 50%, the league gets 50%, and that's true. But not all franchises in that 50% are created equal, especially for those teams that are getting their revenues in Canadian dollars and paying in U.S. They're already looking at the numbers and going, oof, this is a tough bite. Some of the smaller franchises U.S. markets, they're going to look at this and they're going to say, this is a tough bite. 06:09 I guarantee to you when that number was said, and I'm always okay with people negotiating and arguing for their true market value, but I guarantee to you, Kyle, when that number was said or shown or whatever they did, there were some deep breaths taken in there. 06:33 One stomachs into the throat five. 06:35 That is a I didn't even know if I saw the day that we would see an NHL salary cap potentially there. And, you know, that's that's what we're looking at right now. That is, you know, this is this was a league altering summer. 06:54 And if you really think about it, like when Fantilli signed, I think there were a lot of people who've kind of adapted and they're like, okay, that's about what I expected. And then I, you know, I had people saying to me, yeah, that's the market, but I still have to get used to the idea of a guy who hasn't gotten 60 points yet, getting 13.75. You have to wrap your head around it. 07:18 And yeah, What this says to me is that we're going to have a lot more things to wrap our heads around over the next couple of years. It's not stopping. And what's really weird to me about it is Bettman made a comment about how things might kind of even out once they catch up from the post-COVID era. Not yet. 07:45 That's a... 07:46 That's a big hurdle. You know what would happen with me in that hurdle, Kyle? I would trip over it. 07:52 I could not jump that hurdle. 07:55 You'd run your waist into it. You know what? 07:58 I would probably dive underneath it. 08:01 That's right. 08:04 Just Pete Rose styles, head first right underneath. 08:08 That, well, I mean, for almost forever, the NHL was kind of looked at And I know it's it's all to scale, but it was kind of looked at as a mom and pop operation. You know what I mean? For the longest time. And then it kind of broke themselves away from that. And I'm sure from a players and agents perspective, when they hear that number, it's like it's about time and it's still too low. 08:35 Christmas came in September. Yes, yes. 08:40 Yeah, it looks like Christmas came early. Santa brought it early. But it still pales in comparison to the NBA, the NFL, Major League Baseball on average. We all know that. My only concern is, and we asked Bill Daley about this in Vegas not too long ago, was this whole reason for bringing the salary cap in. One of it was to ensure competitive balance. We all know about parity or guarantee. 09:08 Garrity, yes. As you introduced to the world last year. 09:10 Still my favorite line. 09:12 That's a great term. 09:15 I saw the guy who told me that. I'll never reveal who it was, but whenever I see him, I'm like, Garrity. 09:22 Garrity. 09:25 I can't help but worry, because of what you just said. Some of the smaller Canadian markets that deal in Canadian dollars or the smaller U.S. markets... 09:34 Do you start to revert back to where we were pre-salary cap, where some teams' internal budgets just can't quite hang with the heavy hitters that are, as the salary cap keeps going up, they're like, no problem. We'll keep hitting the ceiling. Bang, bang, bang, bang. 09:53 If you're in it to win it, Kyle, you're always going to go for it. It's the teams to me, like, for example, like Vancouver. You know, they're in a rebuild. Calgary is in a rebuild. 10:08 You know, Nashville is kind of an interesting place, and I'm curious to see what their year is going to be like this year. I think if you're one of those teams, you're saying, you know what? Yeah. 10:22 And that's the other thing. You have a floor, right? It's not like, you know, where Major League Baseball is where the differences between these teams is astronomical. You can't do that. You have to hit the floor. 10:34 So it's not quite the same. 10:37 But I do think, you know, you're going to see teams that aren't in contention that say, hey, this is not for us right now. But if you're going to win or you have a stud player that you've got to sign, you know what, Kyle? 10:53 you're competitive, you're going to do it. 10:57 I hear you. I hear you. But as the average salary continues to rise up, even if you're going, we're not at that stage yet, if you feel as a franchise, you still got to, to your point, Field a team. You've got to get to the floor. That's going to keep going up. It's going to be an interesting time for sure. It's just because it seems like it's all happening so fast. 11:20 Yes. 11:20 Right? We're all drinking out of a fire hose right now. 11:23 Yes. 11:25 That's part of it too. Ever since the Carlson offer sheet, like we said, We're all getting used to a new world. The other thing, too, one of the things that was talked about in the new CBA was the revenue sharing changed. 11:42 They guard this like the nuclear codes. 11:48 We do not know how the revenue sharing works. That's one thing I'd be curious about. How is it different? Those teams that kind of need help. 12:00 Mm-hmm. 12:01 How does it work under the new thing? Anyway, I mean, look, if your revenues are higher, as we've talked about, it's a 50-50 league. If your revenues are higher, that's the way it goes. 12:13 Your cap goes up. So on some level, you're sitting there and you're saying, great, the revenues are higher than ever. Bettman and Daly said this week, 8.1 billion expected in mixed currency, Canadian and US. That's what happens. But once again, I don't know if I ever thought, Kyle, we'd see the day where the NHL cap was approaching $130 million U.S. We're here. 12:43 That is a gigantic number. All right. Also at the Board of Governors, we went from driving a Ferrari towards expansion. 12:59 as soon as December to driving our first high school car clunker towards expansion. Who knows when we hit the brakes, hit the speed bump, hit a pothole, hit whatever you want to say. 13:23 And I don't think like, I really thought they were going to walk out of this meeting and and say, we're gonna vote on this in December. The next Board of Governors meeting is in December. I thought they were gonna walk out and say, we're voting then. 13:42 Now we don't know. 13:44 And, you know, we talked in the last pod about we knew there was some opposition, and Bettman admitted it. He said there are some owners who don't like it. There are some owners who do. But he said he didn't know the exact breakdown. 14:03 People are very careful about this stuff because, you know, they – They don't like the witch hunt that comes with it. Like, how does this stuff get out? 14:16 I would just think the safest thing for me to say is there was more opposition than they were expecting. 14:23 Is it unstoppable? Is it completely ruined expansion? I don't know that I would go that far, but there was more than they expected. I think that's fair to say. You know, one of the things that I heard came up was, if this is about TV, why are we even considering Austin? 14:44 If this is about TV, then it should be Houston 100% because that's the biggest market in North America that doesn't have an NHL team, and it's significantly bigger than Austin. 14:58 And that was one of the things that came up. I also wonder if some of it is, you know, Bettman has joked again, you know, Pierre Lebrun always asks him about his future. He always jokes about it, but he's admitted that it's getting closer. 15:14 Part of me is wondering if this is about, hey, the other owners would like more of a say now. 15:23 They want more of a say in... Bettman is a strong man. He has iron control of his league. We've talked about how there's no other commissioner that has the amount of control in their league that Bettman does of the major North American team sports. 15:42 You know, Bill Daley, who is his handpicked choice to replace him, Bill Daly can do the job easy. He could do the job blindfolded. He makes perfect sense. And again, we've talked about how I think some of these owners are okay with that as long as there's a search. They don't want it to be a coronation. 16:05 So I don't know where all this stands right now. And I think we'll get a better idea the closer we get to the next meeting in December. But I just think that... 16:18 These owners asked enough questions and raised enough concerns to say, we want more of a say in how this is going to happen, and we want more answers into how you see this unfolding. I think there are some owners who absolutely don't want expansion at all for some of the same concerns that fans have brought up, but I think there are other owners who are like, I want more answers before I vote one way or the other. 16:56 So we're kind of in limbo right now. 17:01 Listening to the commissioner the other day, I thought two things. I thought, is this his way of acknowledging the pushback without coming right out and saying it? Or was he trying to wrestle back control of how this process was being presented because there's too many of us out there acting like it's a fait accompli on the league's behalf? You know, it sounds like it was more the former. 17:27 I think he was acknowledging the pushback. Like there's no question if you listen to the interviews over the last couple of months and then listen to that one, it was very different. 17:35 The tone was completely different. So I think it was acknowledgement. Like one thing I think that's really important to know though. So Ted Leonsis is now the chairman of the board of governors. 17:47 And I absolutely think that that is something that Bettman wanted. 17:54 I believe that Jeremy Jacobs had indicated his time was coming to step down. And I had heard over the summer that Bettman really loved the idea of Leonsis taking over. 18:07 So to me, that's actually a good sign for Bettman that Leonsis ended up being the guy unanimously because he If he had to fight for that, then I think there would really be a problem. Like, obviously, there's something he has to navigate here and smooth over. But if he hadn't gotten Leonsis as the replacement... I had a couple of people told me that would have been a really bad sign for where things were. 18:40 And, you know, by the way, I really liked what Murray Edwards said about having a Canadian there as the vice chair. 18:47 I do think that's important that there was a Canadian voice there. 18:52 Leonsis has been a great owner. I think he's an excellent pick. 18:57 But I think it is important that there's one American voice and one Canadian voice, especially a smaller market Canadian voice with where we're headed into. 19:07 Right. And Murray Edwards has been doing that role for a little while now, right? Like it's not Yeah, it's not new for him. 19:14 No. He's just continuing on. Yeah, that was definitely confusing to some people. Understandably so. You know, the other thing too, Kyle, is that they do have to... The executive committee, the 10 owners... 19:30 They're going to have to replace some of these guys. Like Larry Tannenbaum is not an NHL owner anymore. And it's only a matter of time before Jeffrey Vinnick isn't the majority control of the Tampa Bay Lightning. So I'm curious to see what they're going to do with that. But, you know, the board of governors was it turned out to be very newsy, very newsy, much more newsier than we expected, especially with this news of the cap now. 19:59 Well, the same week that Ella Langley's Choose in Texas breaks the record for most weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart, suddenly it's not a total slam dunk. Are you serious? 20:09 How many weeks has that been? 23. 20:13 That's the record? 20:14 Yes, taking over Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas at 22. Are you serious? 20:20 Are you serious? 20:22 I never would have guessed that. I would have figured there would have been something there like Thriller from Michael Jackson that would have been there for 40 weeks. 20:32 It speaks to how tough it is to stay on top in that world. Congratulations to L.O. Langley. Yes. 20:40 Suddenly it's not a total slam dunk that the NHL does the same going forward. 20:48 Anyway, you want to get to Fantilli here? Sure, let's go to Fantilli here. Okay, so one of the few remaining RFAs, now off the board again. Six-year deal in Columbus at $82.5 million, as we alluded to earlier. The fifth highest paid player this season, Fantilli, suddenly becomes. As Don Waddell said after it was all done, hockey is a sport, but remember, it is a business organization. Also, took eight days into training camp slash preseason, but Fantilli is done. 21:22 Certainly won't be hearing him echoing any of the sentiments we heard from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. this week. This is a contract set up by the Blue Jackets with the vision of Fantilli becoming the game-changing number one stud center for that franchise going forward. 21:41 Didn't we all think this number was going to end up here after the way things unfolded, like it was going to be around this area? 21:48 Of course. 100%. Of course. First of all, it's a big win. Look, it's a big win for Fantilli. It's life-changing money. Congratulations. 21:59 But this is a big win for the Blue Jackets to get this player done. 22:03 Uh, I think there's a bunch of places this year where the pressure is really on to start well and make the playoffs or, and make a run for the playoffs. And Columbus is one of those places. I just think the sense of relief that like they need fantilly. They have some great players there. Um, But they need him and they need him to take go to the next level and they need him to help Zach Wierenski lead them. And I just think the sense of relief around Columbus when they got this guy signed and ready for the start of the year. 22:40 I think it was massive. So it's a victory for the organization in that way. 22:47 There was definitely a lot of talk over the past couple of days that they were inching closer and inching closer and inching closer. You know, one of the things I heard is that initially Columbus, they wanted to go max term eight years, seven years. They really wanted to do that. 23:03 Then after the Carlson offer sheet, it became impossible. I think Fantilli's side was always looking at five years, five years, five years. And that was one of the things I think that eventually ended up changing it was that they conceded on the second year. And, you know, it was interesting. I had one agent call me and after our last pod, we talked about how Gauthier at 13-5 was bad for Fantilli just in terms of stats and stuff like that. 23:33 And, you know, he said to me that if they go to six years and he had heard that that was what was going to happen, he turned out to be right. He said it was going to help Fantilli because Gauthier at five years is only one year of UFA and Fantilli at six would be two. 23:51 And I think that's kind of exactly what happened. I asked around after it was done, and that was exactly it. I think the reason he came over top of Goje was because he gave them two years of UFA as opposed to one. So 13.75 is the number. I kind of heard that in the last 24 to 48 hours, the... 24:12 the player was at, or as representation was at 14 and the blue jackets were at 13 and a half. And it, it kind of fits that they sought it off, uh, right in the middle. And, you know, that's, that's the going rate now. And like we said earlier, there's some people who texted me, you know, he's never had 60 points. He's making 13.75. Well, this is the new reality and everybody's got to adjust to it, but it was, uh, it's, It's a big thing for the Blue Jackets. 24:44 You know what? The player obviously wins because he's got a huge contract, but I think Columbus wins because... 24:54 It's not... 24:56 Sometimes as a team, you can take a hard line and say, if we start the season without you, we'll deal with it. This was not that time for the Blue Jackets. This is not... They need their team ready and going and starting on time. Now, Columbus has got another situation. We'll see what... 25:20 They're going to do here. It's Marchenko. 25:23 You know, I'll say this like Rick bonus is on them about culture, culture, culture, culture. And we talked about Marchenko and his video last weekend. And I had someone in the league say to me that and he said, this is not Rick bonus saying it. This is him saying it. He said that after everything that Rick Bonas has said about the team, he wonders if, like in Columbus, they're like, we can't have this. 25:55 We are trying to change the way we go about things. We're trying to change our attitude in the room. We have to cut bait as quick as possible. Then I've got other people saying, okay, I understand you might be mad at him, but he showed up ready to play. He's a 40-goal scorer making $3.85 million. You're starting the season with him. Now, I think teams have been circling around him. Montreal, everybody knows about the Islanders. 26:23 I mentioned a couple of pods about, I think, ago. Toronto, I think, has really tried to keep their interest secret, but it's... It's kind of seeped out. 26:34 You know, I think Winnipeg at one point kind of looked into it. I heard Boston made an offer at one point. I had some people say Vegas. I had some other people saying they weren't sure it was Vegas. I have to think Seattle is around this. 26:49 They've really been looking at it. trying to grab a top end player and they could make this deal. Um, number one, I don't think Columbus is really that interested in futures, but I think to me, the most fascinating thing that the blue jackets have to decide here is they just say, Hey, this is a good player. We keep them. We start the year with them. We go, or do they say we're trying to change our room and our group and, um, If the player doesn't want to be here, we move on. 27:22 So we'll see what Columbus goes, but there's no question there are teams circling around this guy. And the other thing we talked about was now they know Fantilli's number. Now they know their cap situation, and they know what they can do, and they know what they can't do. So we'll see. There's a lot of fascinating things that could happen in this league over the next couple of weeks. this is obviously one of the biggest ones. 27:51 And you remember, it wasn't that long ago for Columbus, they were in a similar situation with both Panarin and Bobrovsky in 2019. And they kind of knew that neither of them were going to resign. 28:02 And they decided to keep both of them at the deadline. And they end up Shocking the world. 28:07 They traded for Duchesne. 28:09 And added. Yeah. And ended up shocking the world, beating Tampa in the first round and gave the Bruins, the eventual cup finalists, everything they could handle in round number two. 28:20 Nearly forced a game seven there. I was just curious as Jackets fans who live that. And I did that second round series against Boston. Like that building was incredible. Yeah. 28:31 In the playoffs, the way that atmosphere was in there, if you go back in time, would you say, I still want to feel what that was like sweeping Tampa? 28:40 I supported them for doing it at the time, and my feelings have not changed over the years. 28:47 They had to do it. 28:50 I'm with you, but again, I'm trying to... Because sometimes we kind of lose... 28:55 what the average fan thinks right and the other how their brain i just i would be curious to say okay you can go back in time do you do that over do you hang on to those guys and say let's make a percent some noise live life looking forward no regrets kyle no apologies no regret regrets all right don't have to convince me i i loved it i really did love it well you're kind of a waffler I enjoy eating waffles. 29:23 Who doesn't? Yeah. Okay. So that's where it stands with Fantilli. That's where it stands with Marchenko. The two other RFAs, Edmondson, Niketian. 29:37 anything new with either of those two. 29:39 Can we do, since you mentioned Davidson, can we do Larkin first? Sure. Okay, so he's not an RFA. 29:46 One of the things I've heard about Larkin is that there are more teams that he's willing to go to than have been reported. 29:58 And I'm just as asleep at the wheel as everybody else is on this one. 30:03 But I don't think – like initially it was reported as three, and that was Vegas, Minnesota, and Florida. I think it's more now. Now, it's not like I think it's 25, but I think it's more. And I think some of the other teams that are there are Colorado – Washington, and I suspect in case people didn't know them already, Dallas and Tampa. So I don't know how big that list is, but it's bigger than it's been reported. 30:38 I think it's somewhere around eight. 30:41 So that's where that is right now. That's my lark. And I also should say, I don't think it's Canada. I think it's still the U.S., but I think have heard from several places now that the number of teams he's willing to go to is larger than have been reported at this time. And it's obviously teams he thinks can win. 31:09 The Edvinson one, I don't know. I haven't heard a lot, except I've heard that Detroit's preference is a bridge. 31:19 We'll see. 31:23 Who else did you ask? Niketian? Yeah. 31:26 So Niketian's an interesting one. Word came to me late on Thursday night that he has permission to talk to some teams. 31:38 I don't know who. I don't. I'll be honest. I don't know who. 31:43 I heard it late Thursday night. 31:48 I'll text people late on Thursday, but I'm not going to call them. So if you're sleeping and you missed my text, I'll talk to you on Friday morning. 31:58 But I heard he has permission to talk to some teams. 32:01 Now, this is when I start doing the Brian Windhorst finger thing, right? 32:11 What does this mean? 32:14 That one? 32:15 Kyle and I are doing it in this non-video podcast right now. 32:22 So one of the things we kind of know is that Carolina is interested in Hellebuck, and I don't think the Jets are interested in Niketian because I don't think he's going to sign there. 32:40 What if they're trying to figure out If there's a way to, because Niketian obviously is their key trade chip, right? 32:50 What if they're trying to figure out how to do either a direct trade for Niketian, but that's boring. 32:59 What if it's an attempt to do like a three-way for Hellebuck or something else? Because I don't think they've given up their hope to get Hellebuck. 33:10 And we know that general manager likes to get creative with these things. He does. Eric Tolsky. 33:16 Yeah, he does not like boring either, Elliot. No, he does not. So that would be right up his alley. 33:21 Which is why he never listens to this podcast. 33:24 That's true. Has anyone ever set themselves up for a better cell phone than that right there? 33:32 Yeah. 33:34 So I just think that Niketian thing is really interesting. Do you know, is he skating? 33:40 Is he in North America skating? I think he's in Florida. 33:45 Somebody said to me, and this could be completely wrong, which is a good thing for me to just blurt out on the podcast. Somebody just said to me he was like skating with Tarasenko and Patrick Laine in Florida. 34:00 And there's two other guys that Don't have a contract. Tarasenko, I've heard the Panthers and him have been kind of eyeing each other. Makes sense. He's played there. Yeah, won a cup there. Marchand is hurt for now. 34:23 I've heard there's some mutual interest between Tarasenko and the Panthers. I don't know about Line A. I'm still trying to figure out about guys like Logan Stanley and Michael Bunting. 34:34 Right. 34:35 Yeah, Stanley, that's an interesting one. Yeah. 34:39 So other than this possible what could be done with Carolina, is there anything else on Hallibuck worth mentioning at this time? 34:48 I don't... 34:51 I hadn't heard much more than that. That Carolina thing piqued my interest. 34:57 You know, I know there's people asking, you know, is there any chance he shows up for the start of the season? I'm not expecting that. 35:08 But, you know, I... 35:11 Let's just see where this takes us, if it takes us anywhere. 35:15 And, you know, Quinn Hughes, we'll see. I still think he's only going to sign short term if he does. And we'll see what happens by the start of the season next week. 35:29 All right. Well, you said this is going to be a big week, obviously, because preseason is so short this year for particular people, whether they're trying to make a good first impression or trying to nail down a spot. I mean, any names after watching some games? 35:44 Over the last few days, jump out at you? Well, first of all, I hope Philip Heedle's okay. I mean, that was... For heaven's sake. Like, just what a ridiculous fluke play. Like, hope he's all right. Yeah, clip and skate with Kelly Southern. That was terrible. Shoulder in the boards. Gosh. You see that Calgary-Seattle game? 36:05 I mean, the Flames essentially sent the Wranglers. 36:07 You figured that this stuff was not supposed to happen anymore, right? With only four exhibition games, they'd just be calm and relaxed and guys just concentrating on doing their jobs and getting ready. And those two teams wanted to kill each other. 36:22 That was wild. It was brutal. 36:24 Yeah. A couple of fights break out at the same time. Everyone pairs off. Chase Heron is running around, running guys over. It was something. 36:33 It's like the Iron League from Slapshot. 36:35 Yeah. Now, I saw Alex Lyon leave the Detroit-Buffalo game, and it sounds like I saw Lindy Ruff say they're optimistic. It's not too, too bad, but he was playing shoulder-shoulder. 36:47 That game got a bit ugly too. Yeah, it got me in the third period. 36:52 Delgazio threw a huge hit for the Rangers. Some mean games. 36:57 Really mean games. 36:59 And then there's Ivar Stenberg putting up a hat trick for San Jose and he 10-0. 37:05 And now that looked like that was practically the Sharks' opening night lineup and very much not the Anaheim Ducks' opening night lineup. So given how offensively oriented San Jose can be, not a surprise that that was the end result. But still, whenever you see 10-0... 37:21 I got to tell you something. Wow. I don't care who you're playing, Kyle. 37:26 You do not want to lose 10-0. 37:31 I totally get it, but... 37:34 I mean, for the James Hamblins, the Sean Farrells, the Cruz Lucius of the world, that was a tall task for them to try to handle that San Jose lineup, despite their best efforts. 37:52 One of my buddies, huge Leaf fan, he texted me and he said... 37:59 McKenna was better than this Stenberg guy the other night. I was like, come on. Like, what are you doing? It's the exhibition season. He goes, no, no, no. Like, people are going to look at this Stenberg guy tonight, hat trick, or whatever he had, three points. 38:16 He's like, no, McKenna's better. 38:20 Like, the season hasn't even started yet. 38:24 That's not a surprise, is it? So McKenna had the puck in the game against Ottawa on Wednesday. He had the puck in the offensive zone for a minute 21. It was the most of anybody in the game. 38:39 And I asked, I broke poor Mike Kelly's brain. I sent an email to SportLogic and I said, is that the most of any player in an exhibition game this year? Like, what does that rank? Just out of curiosity, I was curious. Yeah. He couldn't answer the question. Really? 38:58 He deactivated C-3PO in the Star Wars movies. I feel bad for Mike. I short-circuited him. 39:05 Oh, my gosh. Because he's always got an answer. 39:07 He's always got the answer. 39:10 Mike, I hope you're okay. Yeah. And, you know, I'll tell you, too, a guy who was in Philly said that Mishkov looked really good. 39:18 Really good. 39:20 Yes, that's a good sign. I was here in Calgary. I think a lot of relief seeing Zane Parekh early on. 39:29 Yeah, I heard he looks good. 39:31 Really, really good. Being in Tra-Riviere on Monday this week, again, we did it last spring for a couple rounds, watching Lane Hudson in person. 39:42 Ah, such a treat. 39:44 He looks like he's going to take the league over this year. 39:47 It was special. 39:49 Another rookie I heard good things about was Eklund in the Islanders. 39:56 He's given them a run to make that team there. By the way, we talked about Seattle earlier in that mean game. One of the guys who got right in the middle of that, Vince Dunn. 40:07 Yes, I was looking at this. 40:10 Vince Dunn might be the number one available defenseman next summer. 40:17 After Quinn Hughes. 40:21 Not a bad time to be that guy. Yeah. 40:24 That's pretty good timing. 40:27 There's a lot to like with Vince. I like the edge that he plays with. 40:32 No doubt Seattle's going to try to sign him, but I was looking at it. You got obviously Quinn's number one, but not everybody's going to get a shot at Quinn Hughes. 40:44 Number two, Vince Dunn. 40:48 He does a lot of things that teams covet. Don't disagree. 40:52 Also, I wanted to ask you, so we saw the news that came out Thursday morning. The Winnipeg Jets are getting the original Winnipeg Jets records. So all the statistical information attached to version one of the Jets from 79 to 96 is now being taken from the Phoenix Coyotes franchise and now attached to the Atlanta Thrashers slash Jets 2.0. Do you have any feelings on that? 41:24 I think it's the right thing to do. 41:26 This is the way it should be. This is the way it should be. I completely support this. The Howard Chuck Jets records should belong with the team. 41:35 Now, someday they're going to go back to Arizona. 41:39 And I believe that. They'll get a new building. They'll have a new team there. 41:46 And they're going to go back. 41:49 And this is what I would do if I was the owner. 41:52 Number one, I would say we're not naming our team the Coyotes. 41:59 It was a great attempt, but it's kind of synonymous with failure. It didn't work. 42:06 Despite whatever good intentions there were, it didn't work. We're coming in with a new name, a new history, and a new era. Okay? So you don't want that stuff anyway. 42:22 Except we're continuing to honor Shane Doan as our greatest player ever. 42:31 And whatever records we had created here, our players will break them. And if somebody says, well, you can't have Shane Doan's records with the Jets and the Coyotes. You know what I say, Kyle? Why not? Who cares? 42:47 If we want to break Shane Doan's records in two places, we're breaking them in two places. 42:53 So you're just going to make it up as you go? Yes. Who cares? 42:59 Well, there's some people in the NHL stats department that may have an issue with it. 43:06 They won't care about that. You want to bet? 43:09 Yes. Okay. 43:10 They won't care at all. 43:12 You know what? If you're going to pay, let's just say it's $3.5 billion for your team in Arizona between the arena and the expansion fee. 43:21 For $3.5 billion, you know what you can do? You can give me Shane Doan's records. 43:27 I'm not disagreeing with you, but... Yeah, I think that's how it should be. The Coyotes statistical information... 43:41 should then attach to, even if they're not called the Coyotes. 43:45 You don't have the Jets stuff. You just have the Phoenix stuff. The Phoenix hockey stuff. 43:49 Yeah. 43:51 But you're saying even Shane Doan's numbers when he was the Jets before they relocated to Arizona? 43:58 No, no, just his Arizona numbers. 44:01 Oh, okay. Well, now I don't have such an issue with... 44:04 point you're yes i agree because i also think if the nhl ends up back in atlanta for the third time if they so choose they go we want not only the atlanta thrasher stuff from the jets we want the atlanta flames i'm good with that well who cares it's part of the history that's right because now you set the precedent right winnipeg left they came back they get their stats back which i totally agree with too And so it should work in other markets as well, the same way. 44:35 Yeah, 100%. 44:37 Good. By the way, Mark Scheifele, so he goes into the season seven goals away from Howard Chuck's record of 379, 18 assists away from Thomas Steen's 553, and 22 points shy of Howard Chuck's 929. Yeah. 44:56 So, I mean, it could be November and he's already knocked all three down. 45:02 Yeah. You know what? And the fans, do you think they want to see that or not? Of course they want to see that. 45:08 Absolutely. 45:08 I think we're of the same vision here. 45:12 We have solved the issue. 45:14 Good. Good. By the way, Packers play tonight? 45:19 Packers play tonight? Oh, don't. 45:22 It's Thursday. 45:25 Sunday is one thing. 45:28 That's brutal. That's your go-to to everybody, whoever their team is, if they play. Well, they play today. 45:35 First of all, Kyle, I'm a Vikings fan. They are going to crush my heart in the most devastating way possible. So I'm getting it out of the way now before I have to eat it myself. But secondly, the great thing about ripping you about the Packers is that I can say... 45:52 They would be 0-3 if it wasn't for the even bigger loser Jets and rip Dom too. 45:58 I know, because they own our first-round pick this year. So, I mean, talk about a squandered opportunity last weekend for Dom's squad. Yeah. 46:12 Nice job, Dom. Yeah. It's all horrible. Thankfully, we got this to focus on instead. Yep. Okay. Why don't we get to the final thought then? So you talked about Mishkov looking good for the Flyers on Thursday night. 46:27 And we were talking on Thursday before the game started about one of the things you would learn of the league wanting to crack down on things like equipment being worn properly. 46:38 Visors, neck guards, and jerseys not being tucked. Lo and behold, Trevor Zegras gets called for illegal equipment wearing. 46:53 I couldn't believe it. It was just the timing was incredible. So I wanted to shout out when I was in New York the day after the Board of Governors meeting was at an event with Brendan Burke, the voice of the Islanders. Oh, good. And he is the one great guy, great broadcaster. 47:13 It was nice to finally sit with a great broadcaster and And he told me something I had no idea. He asked me, he said, have you heard about this crackdown? 47:29 And he told me about it, and I asked him, can I look into this? And he's like, sure. So I made a couple calls. I spoke to some people around the league on Thursday, and I will tell you that there was one official in particular who's like, zegras is a really mischievous guy with a bit of a twinkle in his eye and he kind of wondered if he was seeing would they actually call it was he testing them to see if he would actually get the call and the way it's supposed to work let's go with the jerseys first kyle if When you start your shift, your jersey has to be untucked. 48:12 If it rides up or gets tucked in during a shift, there's no issue. 48:18 And if you'll watch it, he's taking a face off and his jersey is tucked in. 48:25 And the way it's supposed to go is you get a warning. 48:30 And if it happens a second time and he got caught, he did say he was warned earlier because he started the game with it tucked in. 48:38 If you do it again, you get a two-minute penalty. 48:41 And then it's supposed to go misconduct, game misconduct. It was like, could you imagine somebody get – I started laughing. I was saying, could you imagine somebody getting a game misconduct for this? Like you look at like McDavid, Dreisaitl. Could you imagine those guys throwing out of the game because it gets – they tuck it in four times and they just forget it? 49:06 Anyway, so that's the thing with the – and the jersey tucking in, to be honest, like I'm the wrong guy for this. I do not care about this stuff. I think the jersey tucking in is kind of cool. It doesn't bother me. It's not the kind of thing I would worry about. But obviously the league has decided they are cutting down on the way equipment is worn. And it also goes – so neck guards now, Kyle – Every player with zero games has to wear a neck guard. 49:39 If it falls or becomes unzipped or whatever during play, you can finish your shift, but you've got to begin every shift with your neck guard being worn properly if you have to wear it. And again, it goes warning, two, misconduct, game misconduct. Helmets during warm-up. If you're a player that has to wear a helmet during the warmup and say, for example, you come out and you're not wearing it, you can start the game with a penalty if you don't put it on. 50:12 And there are exceptions. You know, I asked about players playing their first NHL game. Can you still go out there and do your lap? I was told yes. If you're playing in a Winter Classic or a Harrods Classic or a Stadium Series and you go out wearing toques, that's okay. But the other one, and this is going to be the interesting one, is the visors. 50:33 Now, if you do not have to wear a visor because you've been around long enough, this does not apply to you because you could just remove the visor. But if you're one of those players who has to wear one and you ride it way back like a lot of guys do, Again, you'll get the warning, then 2-10 game misconduct. So a number of these are obviously safety, making sure that equipment is being worn properly and players are safe. 51:04 And then there's the jersey one. So that's what this all is. And we got our first big warning. 51:15 example in that Philly game. So Kyle, in the post game, Rick Tockett said that Zegers is going to have to be given a tie down and they had to give one to Mishkov. 51:30 Same reason. And I did have a player reach out to me tonight to say that even though we wonder how seriously enforced this is going to be, said right now at least, Teams are being told they plan on being serious about it. 51:49 Okay. I believe it when I see it. And I think that's also, you talk about enforcing things. That's in the rule book, too, about jerseys are supposed to be properly tied down. Because every jersey has it. 52:05 Some guys just don't choose to... Attach it to the back of their pants. 52:10 I don't like any of it. So do we know why the jersey tuck is a rule to begin with? Like the neck guard stuff, the visor stuff, I can understand. That's a safety thing. 52:23 What's the deal? Because that rule has been in place, I think, for 13 years now. 52:28 Do you remember why it became a rule to begin with? Why the league has a problem with it? 52:34 I don't. 52:36 I don't. That's fine. 52:37 Now, I think it is like a look thing, like the NFL really polices what the players can and can't do, what they can wear and what they can't wear. 52:52 I guess, but part of that's also with the art of tackling and not having... No, a lot of it is they don't like messages there that they don't approve. The NFL used to have... 53:09 No, the NFL used to have the most authoritarian sock rule. I remember years ago that the socks, I think, had to be only one color. I think it was the Cardinals who wore like a half red and half white sock and they were forced to change. 53:27 Okay. I still, the other part of this is, like I said. 53:32 I'm with you. Like to me, eh, but. 53:36 You know, because the greatest player ever, Gretzky, it would be weird to see him affected by this. 53:47 Right. Like you mentioned, McDavid Dreisaitl. Dreisaitl, he plays with the jersey tucked, typically. That's part of his look. 53:58 I just think, too, again, this has been in place for 13 years. And the visor thing, I remember years ago, again, in the preseason, it was a similar situation of, oh, the league's really going to start cracking down on this stuff. And Leo Komarov was playing for the Leafs at the time, and he was notorious for... for having the visor tilted way up. Like it was just there for sure. 54:18 By the way, I'm glad you mentioned that because someone said to me, guess who was featured on the literature that was sent around the league? So I go, Komarov? I said, yes. 54:30 Yeah, he was a poster child for that. I remember all preseason, they were hounding him. Visor's got to go down. And then maybe the first month of the regular season, and then suddenly no one bothered him about it. The visor went back up and everyone carried on. 54:47 And Trevor Zegers, if you saw him in the postgame, he's played almost 350 games in the league. And he's going, I was just wearing the jersey how I've always worn it. And suddenly now it's a problem when the rule's been in place for 13 years. So as you know, I'm very early in my parenting journey. And one of the things we're starting to learn a bit more of now is how to properly educate your toddler, right? on understanding what things they can do, what things they can't do, right? 55:17 For example, you know, they like to climb up on furniture. All right. No problem. Climbing up on the stove, not a great idea. So how do you properly enforce that? Well, you've got to redirect them. But the problem is you can't only redirect them sometimes. Like if the oven's not on, you've got the parental locks on. You're like, well, he's climbing on it now. It's no big issue because the problem becomes it, Confuses them of like, wait a sec, sometimes it's OK, sometimes it's not. And any effectiveness of trying to hammer home what is allowed and what isn't is completely lost. 55:52 And I feel that's what we're at here with these silly rule enforcements. They pick these random years where they're like, we're really going to crack down. And then by November, we're all back to how it was beforehand. 56:03 You know, I was listening to your rant, which was, by the way, an excellent rant. And it reminds me that the person with the most power in your household is Berkeley, not you or Dana. But to me, it's probably along the lines of if you're going to enforce one thing, you better enforce everything. 56:22 It was stressed to me this is not a rule change because there's only been one rule change this year, which is the net guard. It's a rule enforcement. 56:32 And sometimes it's as simple as, well, how come you're enforcing this and you're not enforcing that? 56:40 We'll see. You know what, Kyle? The point you make, which is the fair one, is we'll see how long this lasts. 56:45 That's all I'm trying to say. We've been down this road before and it fades into the night before we know it. 56:50 We'll see. You know, we'll see if it lasts. 56:54 By the way, you know what? You talk about enforcing rules. 56:58 You're going to love this. 57:00 My son, Max, has begun demanding I become a more punctual person. 57:10 Really? Well done, Max. So tonight I said we're going to go for a walk at 645. I was on the phone. 57:18 He came into my office, started mouthing it's time, and he sent me a text 645. Good for you, Max. It's basically like, if you want me to follow rules, you have to follow rules too. And I expect you. He's like, don't be slow. Don't be lazy. Be on time. 57:42 My goodness. Yeah. He's parenting you. 57:45 That's awesome. We have an inversion of the relationship the way it's supposed to be. 57:54 Oh, gosh. Well done. Good stuff, Max. 57:58 Okay. Fun conversation. Good news block. 58:02 You brought it, sir. That was the final thought. And why don't we take our first break? When we come back, the thought line. And yes, we'll get into all your feedback over a proposed schedule change to this show. 32 Thoughts, the podcast continues after this. 58:29 Hey there, we're back. Time now for the Thoughtline presented by BetMGM. Make it legendary. And Elliot, the people have spoken. 58:40 I was surprised at how lopsided it was. First of all, Once again, proving what great listeners you all are and how lucky we are to have you. I was shocked at how many responses I got just to me. I don't know how many you got, Kyle, or the thought line guy. Okay, go ahead. 59:02 So Griffin begins his twice a week email with this. Well, that may have been our busiest thought line of all time. Really? Yes. 59:13 He tallied the votes just submitted to the thought line alone. 59:18 So to keep for Friday, by the way, in case you missed this, we opened it up to our listenership. Do we move our scheduled pods to a week from Monday, Friday to Monday, Thursday? Okay. So those votes to keep it as is. Monday, Friday, 37. And to move it to Thursday, 213. 85% say move it. And I think... 59:47 the percentage is pretty similar in the DMs you got, what I got, and what came in across X. The only pushback I got that made sense, that is worth considering here, is how often busy Thursday night is for games that we have to chew on right away. 60:11 That was, of all the people who wanted to keep it Monday and Friday, that was their number one argument, was that Thursday is such a busy night, and they felt that there would be a bit of a loss if we couldn't discuss all those games. 60:28 And if the margin was closer, I would have considered that. 60:32 But when the difference is this large and the victory is this gigantic, you have to give the people what they want. 60:44 So... 60:46 We're going to make the switch. We're going to give it a shot. We're going to make the switch starting next week. All right. The pod drop days will be Monday and Thursday. 60:58 And if you don't like it, feel free to email or phone any NHL employee you feel may be responsible for this. We got two words for you. 61:13 Yeah. Also, Griffin pointed out some of the people that wrote into the thought line from Europe said we would love Monday, Thursday because with the time difference, a Thursday morning pod is almost like a Friday morning pod drop for them. Therefore, setting their table for the weekend as opposed to getting it closer to Saturday the old way. So another reason to make the swap because we do value our listeners overseas as well. 61:41 We are big in Europe. I would just like to say that. 61:47 Yes. So a few people, I just wanted to read one that submitted making the case for Thursday. Chris, good morning. Putting in my vote for the Switch to Thursday episodes for purely selfish reasons as I drive to the office Monday and Thursday and love listening to you guys in the car. Puts me in a great mood to start the day. Shout out to Dom, my Slovakian cousin. Probably. Probably. And Kyle, my Lithuanian cousin, probably. Don't think I share any ancestry with Elliot, but sending love to you all from Pittsburgh. 62:17 Thanks for all you do. P.S. Heard you mention the Ball Hockey World Championships a couple of weeks ago. Lots of great folks in Pittsburgh are involved with that, especially at the youth level and with the National Ball Hockey League at the adult level, which just had its national championship tournament in southern New Jersey this past weekend. Not only a great alternative to ice hockey, which is simply too expensive for many people, ball hockey or deck hockey, as we've called it around here since I was a kid, is a legit sport in its own right. 62:48 Sure is. It was nice to hear it mentioned on your show. 62:52 I'm not going to knock ball hockey. It's a tough game. And as far as I'm concerned, anybody getting any a stick in their hand in any way is good for the sport of hockey. So I'm with you. I would bet, though, that you are not related to either Kyle nor Dom because both their family trees are a straight line. 63:15 We don't have, and we don't, we're not capable of speaking as well as Chris said, the way he put it. That's true. It does not run in the bloodlines. 63:24 That is true. Here we go. Actually, do you have any shout-outs first? I do. I do have a couple of things. First of all, I wanted to thank everybody who sent me a video, and there were a lot of you, about 20 of you sent it to me, the video of Kevin Bieksa wiping out in whatever game he was playing in last week. Rest assured, we will find a moment this season, probably more than one, where we can put that video to good use. 63:56 I wanted to wish congratulations to the under nine mighty majors red team in the Mississauga girls softball championships. They won the gold medal, a stunning accomplishment because Kyle, two people we work with were on their coaching staff. 64:21 Really? Yes. Mike Razzo and Rory Boylan. 64:27 Holy. I have to tell you, it is like starting a 100-meter dash with a 50-pound weight on each ankle. 64:38 To have those two on your coaching staff. The team manager is Tyler. That's Mike Razzle's wife. So they couldn't make the decisions. Thankfully, she was. But, you know, how would you describe Mike Razzle, Kyle? You regularly work with him. 64:55 What is his job? 64:57 So he directs a lot of our live events. For example, Craft Hockeyville this past week, he was directing in the live event truck on site there. So as cameras are cutting from one thing to the other, you're watching at home. He is in charge of making those calls. 65:13 And Roy Boylan is the editor of many of the hockey articles you read at sportsnet.ca. He edits a lot of my stuff. And like I said, Tyler and kids, it is an incredible victory. Congratulations. Made even more so that you overcame the questionable decision-making of both of these two people to win your championship. They are quite proud of you. They sent pictures of the celebration and video of the celebration. They are quite proud of the kids who won. 65:46 And I did want to congratulate them and shout them out to very, very proud dads and coaches. 65:53 A couple of other things I just wanted to mention. 65:57 I wanted to shout out. I was in New York this week for the Board of Governors meeting. 66:02 And the first night as I was going back to my room at an early hour, because I am nothing if not a responsible individual. I walked by the Canuck bar. There's two of them now in New York, but we walked by it the first night and we went the second night and I wanted to shout out Max, the manager, and Tracy, one of the servers. Great people there. 66:23 I met the father, I can't remember his name, of a 14-year-old goalie who plays for Nepean in the Ottawa area. Her name is Lucy. 66:34 Lucy, he was bragging about you. If that's you and I can't remember your dad's name, He was talking you up in a big way about how he wasn't sure about being the parent of a goalie, but he was praising your calmness and your ability to handle the pressure. So your dad's very proud of you and you're doing a great job. I had a couple of follow-ups to things we talked about in the pod. 67:03 One of them was the captaincy conversation. Yeah. 67:07 And Crazy James from Alberta wrote in. He said the best captain situation was when Jason Smith, good Calgary boy, was captain of the Oilers and Jerome Aginla, good Edmonton area boy, was captain of the Flames. 67:25 And there was another Instagram follower, and I can't find it now, but he wanted to point out if Toronto can claim like Spezza and Tavares and all those guys, then London should be able to claim both Joe Thornton and Boone Jenner as captains of their own. So they wanted those two players counted towards the overall London total. And I think that's everything I've got here, Kyle. 67:51 It's a good list. 67:52 Yeah. It's a good list. Yeah. 67:54 Okay. By the way, I'm just picturing on that softball team, like they show up for practice one day and they're like, so are we going to work on like infield drills today? And they're like, no, instead we're going to fill out predictions for the year. We're going to spend the next hour working on predictions. Oh my God. No one's going to have a ball in their hand today or a bat. 68:12 So what Kyle's talking about there is Rory, who's, like I said, the editor of hockey. At the start of every season, he sends out 55 emails. We want your top 50 players. We want your predictions. 68:27 We want to know what you eat, your top five meals during the game. We want to know. It's outrageous. Nobody can get any work done because we're all filling out stuff for Rory. So I'm glad you said that, Kyle. And I hope he listens. 68:45 It's all good. Okay, here we go. The thought line in earnest. Big T in PEI. 68:52 Whether it's the NHL, fantasy football, Sunday night cards, or life in general, we all know how much Elliot loves a good loophole. 69:01 So here's one for you. 69:04 Early on Monday's pod, you mentioned the Montreal Canadiens are considering moving Arbor Jackye to forward. Later, you took a third crack at answering that expansion draft question. With that in mind, here's my loophole. If the NHL expands again and a team doesn't have an eligible goalie to expose... Could they dress a skater as a backup goaltender for a few games late in the season solely to make him eligible as a goalie for the expansion draft? 69:34 To make it less obvious, they could have him participate as a goalie in practices and warm-ups, and maybe even give him a period in net during a blowout game. This would accomplish two things. The team wouldn't have to expose one of its actual goalies, and the player likely wouldn't be selected in the expansion draft. avoiding the disruption of being uprooted from his team and family. Sounds like a win-win to me. Does the NHL have any official rules, procedures, or paperwork governing when a player changes positions? 70:05 Big T, I love it. I love the way you think. I'd love to be in a fantasy league with you to see what you would pull off. Wouldn't happen. It wouldn't be allowed to happen. 70:16 Whatever rules there are or aren't, I feel very comfortable that the league could go to arbitration or something and win that case. But I love the way you think. I love the way you think. 70:30 Yes. Takes me back. Remember the image of Artem Anisimov when he played for the Senators? He was dressed as the e-bug that one game in Vancouver. The photo of him in the dressing room with gear on ready to go. 70:40 Oh, that is funny. That is funny stuff, man. 70:45 I love the idea. 70:47 Big T, we need more people thinking your way. 70:52 That's what we need. Hey, this was pretty good from Dave. Remember our conversation last pod about the Smashburgers? 71:00 Yes. 71:01 Dave says there will be plenty of smash burgers left as long as Dom doesn't get there first. 71:07 Excellent. 71:14 Oh, you're so funny. Yeah. Well, you know what, Dom? He's done it with pizza. He will do it with burgers. 71:21 Yeah. You know what, Dom? That's right. It's right. See, that's what happens, Dom. 71:26 And you know what would happen, too? There'd be like 37 Smashburgers there, and he would eat 32 of them. 71:32 That's right. For everyone else? 71:35 I only saw four other employees. 71:38 That's right. 71:39 Oh, gosh. Please forward all promotional coupons for hamburgers to Dominic Schramatti at rci.rodgers.ca. 71:48 I guarantee you, Dom, people are going to start sending them. You're going to get a few. 71:52 Oh, gosh. It'll be a Kickstarter. 71:56 Dom's name. Okay. Nick from Boston. Elliot, with some of the big deals recently, can you elaborate on how agent fees are paid out by players? Using Ryan Leonard as an example, the caterers negotiate them an $84 million deal. When is the player obligated to pay the agent? Is it right away spread out or is that part of the player to agent negotiation? Okay. Leonard receives $14.7 million in signing bonuses the first year. Easily make them all right away, but curious how this all works. 72:31 So, Nick, I have a bone to pick with you. 72:35 You gave us homework. 72:37 The season hasn't even started yet. Seriously, man, I'm trying to enjoy myself and have a good time. I ease myself like an old man into a nice warm bath. And so Kyle actually read this last pod and we said, you know what, we're going to take it down for an episode, and we're going to make sure we get this right. Because after it took me three times to get the expansion one properly, I could not screw up this one. 73:07 We learned our lesson. 73:08 We learned our lesson. So we did some work. We called some people. I know Kyle made some calls too. And we... 73:16 found out the answer. And it basically is on a case-to-case basis. Now, what some people wondered when I was talking about this was, does it not get deducted right off their paycheck? And the answer is no, it does not. That is between the agent and the player to set up the payment plan. Now, I believe in most cases, the percentage is 3% in the NHL. There are exceptions, but 3% is the salary. 73:48 Oftentimes if agents set up marketing deals or speaking deals or things like that for players, it can be between 10 and 20%, but 3% is for the negotiated salary generally. 74:03 And basically the way it works, I had one agent who told me that he has a player who pays him, he bills him every month, once a month. And if there's anything due at the end of the season and the way that would change is to make a long story short, escrow can change during the season. So it's not going to be happening now. It's not a factor now, but it has been in years past. So if they got to the end of the year and there was still some money due, the player would just make one last payment with the remaining amount. 74:37 There is another agent who told me that him and his player, they do it twice a year. He bills them half in the beginning part of the calendar NHL season, and after it flips, he bills them the other half. 74:53 Kyle, you had someone who told you that if they have a signing bonus, the player pays in full after a summer signing bonus, things like that. 75:04 3% of the signing bonus kind of thing. 75:06 Exactly. So the answer is, it's something like that, but it's between the player and the agent to set it up. And if there's any disputes, then the Players Association moderates it. Now, what I also learned is that in a lot of leagues in Europe, the team pays the agent fee, not the KHL. The KHL doesn't do that, but in a bunch of European leagues, because oftentimes teams are asking agents for players. 75:40 Do you know somebody who can come play for us? We have a hole. 75:44 And sometimes... 75:46 What they'll do is, and I know in business, I've seen situations before where example in sports media, someone negotiates with a company and the company has paid those fees too. It doesn't happen often, but I've seen it happen before. And apparently it happens quite a bit in Europe. Am I missing anything, Kyle? 76:11 No, I think that's it. That European thing is really interesting. The team footing the bill. And I guess that would primarily be for North American guys or players from outside of that league's country of, okay, who else out there could you possibly go find for us? 76:28 beyond kind of their own ecosystem of players? I think so. 76:31 I think so. It was a couple North American agents who told me that, so I would assume it's that. If wrong, someone will tell me and will try to correct it once instead of three or four weeks. Three times. But you know what, Nick? I do appreciate the question because it's something I wasn't 100% sure about and I like to learn new things. 76:55 Yes. Like performance bonuses, similar to like a signing bonus. If a player hits one of those, they get paid for that. 3% or whatever the negotiated fee is, then goes to the agent. All right, Elliot, one last one here. Courtesy of Brett from New York. Hello, Elliot, Kyle, and handsome Don. 77:14 Wow. 77:15 Don has friends in New York. Who would have thought? 77:18 What is this, the false advertising section of the podcast? 77:23 This is where the liars come out. 77:27 Just kidding, Brett. OK, last podcast, you guys were discussing Drew Doughty's new captaincy and other captaincies from his hometown. It got me thinking. Drew Doughty is a career king and has played many years before them, before being named captain. Does Drew Doughty hold the record for longest career with one team before being named captain of that same team? Love the pod, and thanks so much for your time. Let's go Rangers. 77:58 So... That's a great question. That is a great question. 78:02 1,279 games with the Kings, and now... Hold on. 78:08 So the first name that jumped into my head... 78:13 Was Nick Lidstrom. 78:16 It is a great guess. 78:18 I looked it up and he was just under 1100 games when he took the captaincy from Steve Iserman. That was my best guess. 78:35 Is there anybody else? 78:37 So Lidstrom is third on this list with, as you say, 1,096. 78:42 Dowdy is, in fact, number one. He's played the most. 78:45 So somebody else is second. 78:47 Yes. 78:49 What era? 78:52 We are talking 60s, 70s. He was named captain in 1975. 79:00 Several people over the years have suggested... 79:05 I look like this player. 79:10 Who is the ugliest player I can think of? 79:15 You are so mean. What is wrong with you? 79:21 Okay. 79:24 Dave Keon, that's too late for Dave Keon because I was thinking he would take over after George Armstrong, but I don't think that's right. 79:35 I think. 79:37 Beautiful widow's peak and big ears. 79:42 Great player, though. Great player. 79:45 So, I'm going to... What's that? That was my hint to you. Big widow's peak and big ears. 79:54 Well, I was going to say, who took over for Johnny Busick in Boston? 80:00 Whoever it was, not the answer we're looking for. 80:02 Not the answer we're looking for? 80:05 All right, who are we talking about here? 80:08 We are talking about the great Stan Mikita. 80:13 It was, eh? 80:15 Yes. 80:17 Stan Mikita. Because I would have figured around 1975 he was giving up the captaincy. 80:24 Slovak, yes, that's right, Dom. A great Slovak player. 80:29 That's a great question. 80:31 1,133 games. And... 80:35 Rounding out the top five, and we completely missed this one, Patrice Bergeron, 1,089 with Boston. Oh, right. 80:45 And Victor Hedman with the Lightning, 1,052. 80:48 Actually, Hedman was a guy who was on my list, but because I looked him up and he was behind Lidstrom, I kind of threw him away. I didn't realize he would have been that high. Yeah. 81:00 Yeah, it was right there, but Dowdy at the top. So, Brett, good on you for thinking of this one because you were bang on. 81:07 You know what's interesting? I was just looking up the Blackhawks thing. I completely forgot this because I was thinking Pierre Pallot was the captain of the Blackhawks in the 60s, another Hall of Famer. 81:24 I was thinking, how come Makita didn't get it until 1975? Who was the captain? And it looks like they had Pat Stapleton for a year, and then they had no captain for five years. 81:36 Really? I didn't realize that. 81:41 And he was still getting, like, Hart Trophy votes in that time. 81:47 Well, he's... In 1975-76... 81:52 He's over a point of game player. He's got 57 points in 48 games. 82:00 And at that time, he's 35 years old. 82:05 And at that time, 35 was like, you were basically done. 82:13 Right. For most guys. 82:15 He had the Slovak superpower. Right. 82:21 How come you never got that, Dom? 82:28 Brett, great question. 82:30 Obviously, it's not a universally shared trait. 82:36 No, it is not. 82:38 Great stuff. That was great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nice little thread from one trivia question to the next throughout the week. If you would like to submit your own or any other general inquiry, you can do so at 32thoughtsthepodcast at sportsnet.ca for email or you can leave a voicemail at 1-833-311-3232. One final break and we'll wrap up this edition of 32 Thoughts the Podcast after this. 83:18 So that's that. We've reached another end of another episode of 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Thank you, as always, for tuning in. We appreciate you taking some time out of your day to spend it here with us. If you missed it earlier, starting next week, the opening week of a brand new NHL regular season, we are adjusting our schedule moving forward. Instead of Monday, Friday, we will be Monday, Thursday throughout the season. Or until we decide it was a bad idea all along and we go back to Monday, Friday. But we think Monday, Thursday, the people have spoken is the path forward here this year. 83:54 Looking forward to it. So have yourselves a great weekend. We will talk to you again on Monday. And the goal, too, is by next week to have some Canadian music play out the end of these episodes as well. Talk to you on Monday.