The Hockey Show: Crosby, Hughes, Kaprizov OH MY!

Now's a good time to remember where tequila's story truly began.

In 1795, Cuervo invented tequila.

Cuervo.

What are you doing here?

Cuervo.

Anytime someone says Cuervo, I show up.

Well, I do know that to be true, but even during ad reads like Cuervo, I think you could lay out, especially for one of our great partners.

Sweet, delicious Cuervo.

Since then, Cuervo has stayed true to its roots.

The same family, the same land, the same passion.

Cuervo.

So, enjoy the tequila that started it all.

Cuervo.

Cuervo.

The tequila that invented tequila.

Proximo, eruvo.com, please drink responsibly.

Cuervo.

Are you coming off a losing fantasy week?

That means you're one week closer to losing your league, and that's pretty stressful, which can lead to nighttime teeth grinding.

Dentech's mouth guards help with nighttime teeth grinding.

Dentech wants to prevent teeth grinding while raising the fantasy stakes with a once-in-a-lifetime punishment.

If you want your league's last-place finisher to live in infamy at the 2026 Football All-Star Game, sign up for the Ultimate Fantasy Football Punishment at dentech.com/slash ultimate punishment.

No purchase necessary.

Open to legal residents of the 50 U.S.

states and D.C.

who are 21 years of age or older.

Contest ends on December 8th, 2025.

Voidwear prohibited.

For details and official rules, visit dentech.com/slash ultimate punishment.

Karel Kaprisov reportedly rejected the richest NHL contract in that sport's history, but the Minnesota Wild says that report is bullshit.

We talk about that with Greg Reshinsky and more.

This is the hockey show.

All right, we got David Druck over here at the hockey news.

Ethan is in the studio on the ones and twos, not the sticks.

Please don't ever say that again.

And Rosie somewhere, somewhere in America, somewhere in the, in the backyard brawl, in Buss Virginia, I believe.

She's covering football with Lucy.

This is the hockey show.

My name is Roy Bellamy.

Let's get into the news of this week.

The NHL has announced that Dylan Dubay, Kyle Foote, Alex Foremanson, Carter Hart, and Michael McLeod will be officially eligible to sign with any NHL team starting October 15th and will be able to play in the National Hockey League.

Starting December 1st, the five were acquitted of sexual assault stemming from their time on Team Canada's under 20 junior team in 2018.

Now, the league took into account that they haven't played in 20 months.

And with that, I expect to see the Edmonton Oilers probably try to sign Corner Hart because they need a goaltender.

But

I mean,

this is probably an insult to women who are trying to get into the game, trying to grow as fans in the sport.

I don't think they're probably taking too kindly to this news, David.

No, it's kind of like a no-win situation at this point because you're going to be upsetting somebody, whether you're upsetting people that want to see the game moving forward, whether you're upsetting people who are going to say, hey, these guys, guys, you know, they went through the legal process.

They were found, you know, not liable or whatever the term is up there, and they should be able to go on with their lives.

Like there are valid arguments to be made on both sides, and you're just not going to make everyone happy.

And, you know, as we've seen in the league right now, you got Stan Bowman, you got Joel Quenville.

Like, everybody's coming back.

So just kind of follow suit.

Yeah, it's just not a good look for this league.

And this league's had plenty of...

situations where they haven't looked good in the decisions that they made.

So kind of quickly getting these guys back into the league is kind of off-putting.

I would imagine that they're looking to get into like February, March, where this can all get, you know, swept under the rug and we can move on to Olympics and Stanley Cup playoffs and not talk about the blemishes on the league.

Yeah, and that's a kind of deal.

Make people forget, I guess.

Oh, yeah.

A suspension to me is an admission that there was wrongdoing here.

Yeah.

And if there was wrongdoing here, the suspension shouldn't only be until December 1st, considering the circumstances and the allegations within this case.

So that's really all I have to say about this case.

We know what's going to happen from here.

Carter Hart's probably going to be the next goaltender of the Edmonton Oilers.

And I mean, I just think the whole thing is a mess and really upsetting.

All right, let's go on to the other news of the week.

According to Frank Savarelli, Kareel Kapritsov, his representation,

has turned down the richest contract in NHL history.

It would have been eight years, $128 million,

an AAV of $16 million.

That would have been the richest contract in NHL history.

That's how you build a winning team.

Yeah, yeah.

You build about a quarter of the cap around one guy.

Yeah, that's how that usually works.

So that, you know what that tells me?

Apparently, he's better than Connor McDavid.

I was going to say, sorry, David, this is a fascinating situation to me because McDavid hasn't even signed his deal yet.

And if you're Caprizov, you're probably saying, I want to see what McDavid signs for, and then maybe ask for a little bit less than that, right?

Because maybe McDavid gets 19 or 20, and then you can ask for 17 or 18.

But what happens if McDavid takes 16 and a half because he wants a team-friendly deal?

And if you're Caprizov, you have to go back now and say, oh, about that 16.

Hey, how about that?

That's what I think I deserve.

And then the wild are going to be saying, should you only be making $500,000 less than

Connor McDavid in average annual value?

I don't know about that.

Or, or, follow me down this rabbit hole.

He wants to be traded.

He's driving up the price on the wild because he doesn't want to be there anymore and they're

forcing their hand to have him traded to another team.

What do you think about that, Dave?

I mean, he's going to be UFA next season, so there would have to be some kind of back channel talking, you would think, because a team's not going to pay whatever price you'd have to pay to get a Koreo Caprisov, even at a UFA year, without knowing that there's some future involved.

Like, that'd be one hell of a rental for the playoff run this year.

I don't know, man.

It's pretty crazy to think that, like, Minnesota's a good hockey town.

Yeah.

They got some good players there.

You know, Matt Boldy, Marco Rossi, like, they got some good young

young talent there.

Yeah.

I don't know, man.

It's, Where's he going to go?

Yeah, so a couple of things to add on here.

First of all, Elliot Freeman on 32 Thoughts report, his kind of suspicion was that if Caprizov is saying no to this deal, there's somebody out there that's telling his camp, we will offer him 17 million, 18 million, 19 million on the open market.

Because again, once he hits the open market, he's only going to be able to be offered seven years by any team.

So they would be able to give him a higher average annual value.

Now, Joe Smith and Michael Russo of the the Athletic did say in their article about this, about this, you know, the deal being turned down that he's told, Caprizov has told them he loves the area, but he's also said that winning is the most important thing to him.

Now, if winning is the most important thing, turning down $16 million is a tough way to sell that to any franchise because that's going to be a huge chunk of a salary cap that you're going to be taking up if you're going to be, you're going to want more than $16 million average annual value.

Well, according to local Minnesota blog, 10,000 takes.

you get it you get that pun that's a good pun there while general manager Bill Guerin is vehemently denying the report claiming that it's bullshit I know two things that info didn't come from us and it didn't come from Carrillo's agent I don't know where it came from so basically

well he but listen to what he said he's not exactly denying he said that info didn't come from us and it didn't come from them he's not saying the info is inaccurate I know we didn't leak it I know they didn't leak you know what like I feel like you've got to kind of read between the lines a little bit there.

Yeah.

And in this article from Smith and Russo in the Athletic, they talk to Bill Guerin, and he's basically admitting this happened, and we kind of have to reassess the situation.

And they still want to sign Kaprizov, obviously.

Their owner, Craig Leopold, has said nobody can pay him more money than we can.

Nobody's going to offer him more money than we can.

Where do they go from here?

I doubt they expected him to turn down 8x16.

So will that continue?

Will they be the team that offers him the most money?

That's a shitty feeling, isn't it?

Yeah, that's not good.

To offer somebody that kind of money, like you're going to get turned down, like we are doing such an awesome thing.

He's going to love, like, you know, to get Claire the best birthday present ever.

You're so excited to give it to her.

She rips off the paper and she's like, No, she likes the paper money, right?

This is arguably, this is also arguably the second best player in franchise history behind Miko Koivu.

Like,

you can't lose this guy if you're the wild.

And so, I think you have to be a little bit embarrassed if you're the wild of kind of a a bold statement.

We just got there, isn't it?

I mean, he could

deny it.

He could, let's say he could go down as the second.

He could even go down as the best player in franchise history.

So it's fascinating, and it's going to be fascinating to follow for the rest of the offseason and regular season.

We will talk about this more with ESBN.com, NHL writer Greg Rosynski in a moment, but let's get to our wins and fails of the week presented by Jeagen Meister.

Serve it code or don't serve it at all.

Jeagenmeister, damn, that's code.

For more, visit JagenMeister.com.

Drink responsibly.

David, what is your win?

Well, I actually have two wins this week.

We got two of them.

We got a late-arriving win right before we came on the show.

But my first win of the week win is Calgary Flames.

You win.

You know why?

Because he just locked up an excellent, excellent young goaltender, Dustin Wolf, to a very team-friendly deal, I think.

Seven years, $7.5 million for a starting-quality, high-end goaltender.

I think Dustin Wolf was a big reason why Calgary was even in the playoff race for as much of last season as they were.

He's definitely a battler.

He's so athletic.

He's got a great attitude.

I'm very excited to see what the future holds for

Mr.

Wolf and Calgary there.

And my second win, which we just found out like right before we came on to record the show today, one of my favorite goalies of all time, Mark Andre Fleury.

The flower.

The flower.

The second flower.

Yeah.

Coming out of retirement.

He's coming back to Pittsburgh on a PTO.

He's in a play in their preseason game.

I think it's the 28th, the 27th.

29th.

The 29th.

Okay, I think it's the home game on the 27th against Columbus, Ethan, that they're doing it in.

It's one of them.

Well, because they're doing it in Pittsburgh.

Yeah.

Of course.

It's going to be probably the most watched

preseason game of all time.

Like, it's standing room only for a preseason game.

But, I mean, could you, is that so cool, though?

Like, I'm tempted to go.

I'm not going to go.

But, like, the thought crossed my mind.

So it's really cool.

I mean, he's not coming out of retirement or anything.

He's just going to do this.

But hell awesome.

Even a one-day contract for.

Yeah, go out as a pen.

He never should have left Pittsburgh.

Like, what were you thinking?

Sending him to Vegas.

And then he did all that amazing stuff there.

So, but very cool.

Double wins.

Goaltender.

Yay.

My win of the week is the fact that South Florida now has a major league pickleball team.

Oh, God.

The Paul Meach Royals have launched.

And they have some big names who have joined the ownership.

Sipping the Kool-Aid, Roy.

The former North Carolina Tall Hill basketball players, Tyler Hansborough and Marvin Williams.

Okay.

Coach cornerback Kenny Moore.

I hated Marvin Williams when he was on the dude.

Tyler Hansborough, to me, is the worst.

That guy.

His fights with UD.

This is a hell of a group.

Tennis player Bianca Andrescu.

And the reason why I'm bringing this up is because Florida Panthers, Captain Alexander Barkoff, is also an owner.

He's a team owner, folks, in his second favorite sport, technically, pickleball, which is an offshoot of tennis.

So good for him.

Congratulations, Marky.

You are now a team owner, Ethan.

Just to add something, our buddy Dave Damchek from Football America messaged me just before the show and was like, the pens are bringing back Mark Andre Flurry.

Oh, it's only for a preseason game.

Dang.

So I guess the nostalgia tour is really revving up in Pittsburgh this year, especially if Sidney Cross is going to be out there going for Dave Damcheck.

Dave's a man.

All right, my win of the week.

Sam Bennett.

What a year for Sam Bennett.

Benny.

Married.

Cup.

Con Smythe.

New contract.

Benny's buddies.

What a year for Sam Bennett.

And he brought the cup with him to the Humane Society in Broward County, where he has Benny's buddies set up, of course, his adoption program for every time he scores a goal.

And he got to, some of the pups got to hang out with the Stanley Cup.

And I just love looking at puppies in the Stanley Cup.

It's beautiful.

It's in the background on my computer.

Dworky's background.

Dwerky's background.

Yeah, it's Show Dwerky.

His background is Benny with a cat in a Stanley Cup.

It's not even a cat.

It's a kitten.

It's a baby cat.

You had the kitten in there.

And scoop from our friend Jess Blaylatch.

He said both of the cats that were in the cup for Benny's picture, they've already been adopted.

Oh, that's amazing.

Yeah, Benny's the even at the score of goal for that one, either.

What a year for Sam Bennett.

David, what's your fail of the week?

Uh, my fail of the week: we're going back north of the border.

The Connor McDavid obsession is real, and it goes all the way up to the top of the political food chain in Canada.

We are in a crisis, the global trading system has been upended,

supply chains have been destroyed.

McDavid is unsigned.

This This is not a transition.

This is a rupture.

So that's Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney addressing the nation, apparently, on the importance of global trading, supply trains, Conor McDavid's extension at Edmonton.

And we know, Roy and I have been privied to just how big of an Oilers fan Mark Carney is.

It runs very deep.

So yeah, this is like red level in Canada.

This is toad red.

McDavid.

If Connor McDavid leaves Edmonton and signs with an American team,

it's going to be a mess.

That's going to be the Civil War that we're going to be doing.

Every time I want to take Canada seriously, they do something like this where the prime minister is up there talking about hockey.

No,

that's a Barack Obama-level joke there, where he just mixes sports in with humor.

So good.

Good for him.

Good for him.

My favorite week, the Hershey Bears.

Now, I realize that the Hershey Bears are the affiliate of the Washington Capitals.

They've been the affiliate of

the American Hockey League affiliate for Washington for the past 20 years.

And they're celebrating.

For four games this season, they are hosting Capitals Night.

And the fail is the jersey.

This jersey is terrible.

Oh, my God.

This is a 90s, 2000s era-inspired jersey.

Uniform, you know, the teal black, gold, and white jerseys.

Yes, the Screaming Eagle.

The Olaf Kolzigs.

Yeah, the Kolzig era.

Yeah,

this one is beige brown, black, and they call it the Screaming Bear.

It's as bad as you think.

I like it.

It reminds me of a movie that you can do.

You like it recently called Cocaine Bear.

That looks like Cat Bear.

Oh, like the Bruins Cocaine Bear.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Those big bloodshot eyes.

But no, like the Screaming Eagle works because eagles fly.

Eagles come swooping in.

Well, this one is a growling bear with one paw swiping on the front of the jersey with a kind of a modified chevron on on the bottom that says bear is on it, on the stripe.

So

unique, good colors, cool logo.

I like it.

Nothing to this, like you know what I don't like, Roy?

Your fail?

My fail of the week, yes.

That's called a transition, folks.

One of my uh great one of the things I love most on television is nerds on Jeopardy that don't know sports.

Oh, geez.

And we had another great instance of this.

Roll the tape.

Canadian girlfriends for 600.

Leon Dryseidel stars for this northernmost NHL team, but went to warmer, Spain, to propose to Celeste Desjardin.

Ian, who are the Winnipeg Jets?

No.

You know what?

Stacy?

Not a bad swing, though.

Edmonton is further north.

Ian, back to you, Stacy.

That's not a bad swing, because I feel like Edmonton.

It's not even the same province.

You know more about Edmonton generally than you do about Winnipeg.

Like, I feel like Winnipeg just feels like it's a more remote place.

This is not only not knowing sports, this is not knowing geography and not knowing that Edmonton is more northernmost.

It says northernmost.

Yeah, but at least he named a team.

You think the other one, they're pulling up the LA Kings.

Like, they don't know.

Well, at least Ken Jennings said dry saddle correct.

Right.

I was thinking the same thing.

Yeah.

Alex Trebek was like the master of pronunciation, though.

Well, he's Canadian.

DSBN.com senior NHL writer Greg Resinski is coming up next.

Howdy, folks, it's Mike Ryan.

It's also NFL season.

Lots of big-time matchups.

You know your boy's an NFL free agent, so he's looking all across that NFL schedule for the very best games.

And when I do, my very first and only stop is the Game Time app because the Game Time app gives the advantage back to the fans.

It's a hack for unlocking amazing tickets and experiences in just a few taps.

It's incredibly easy to use, and the Game Time guarantee means that you can trust that you'll get 100% authentic tickets on time and at the very best price.

Plus, fees are always included.

So what you see is what you pay.

You have incredible features such as zone deals.

You get to save even more when you choose a section and let GameTime choose the seats.

You get panoramic seat views.

If you know nothing about the venue you're about to buy tickets for, this is a huge tool.

Take the guesswork out of buying NFL tickets with GameTime.

Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code DAN for $20 off your first purchase.

Terms apply.

Again, create an account and redeem code DAN for $20 off.

Swipe, tap, ticket, go.

Download the GameTime app today.

This show is brought to you by BetterHelp.

We've all done this.

Gone to the wrong people for advice.

You've got real problems and suddenly you're oversharing with your barber, your bartender, maybe even a stranger in the bathroom line.

I know I've done this a time or two.

And look, they're great for small talk, but they're not trained to help you with anxiety, relationships, or depression.

That's the difference with therapy.

Therapists are credentialed, clinically trained, and actually know what they're doing.

Therapy isn't just for huge life crises either.

It's about learning coping skills, setting boundaries, and getting tools to deal with everyday chaos.

BetterHelp has been helping people find the right match for over 10 years, and they've got a 4.9 rating based on 1.7 million reviews.

With over 30,000 licensed therapists, it's the world's largest online therapy platform serving more than 5 million people.

As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise.

Find the one with BetterHelp.

Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/slash DLB.

That's betterhelp, h-e-l-p.com/slash dlb.

You know what nobody tells you about being a new dad?

It's not just the diapers and the wipes, that's obvious.

It's the hidden stuff, the baby swing after we already purchased the other baby swing, the bouncer, the pack and play, the 20 different bottles, because apparently my kid hates every single one, except the most expensive one, which is the glass, by the way.

Don't get me started on late food delivery orders with my wife, and me too tired to even look or cook or think about food.

I'm staring at my bank account like, where did it all go?

That's where monarch money comes in.

It's like a financial tool belt for everyone, not just dads.

You link all your accounts, your credit cards, investments, even the old stuff from jobs you forgot about, and it lays out in a way that even a sleep-deprived parent like me can actually understand.

Normally, money talks are stressful, but with Monarch, we can track everything together, set goals, and actually feel like we're on the same team.

Less stress, more clarity, and finally, a plan for our daughter's future.

Don't let financial opportunity slip through the cracks.

Use code Dan at monarchmoney.com in your browser for half off your first year.

That's 50% off your first year at monarchmoney.com with code DAN.

Greg Rashinski is a good person who deserves better than being on this show, but he's here anyway.

And we appreciate you joining us there, Greg.

Keep saying yes.

So

keep having him on.

I don't know why.

A month ago, you wrote about the Hockey Diversity Alliance.

It is their fifth anniversary.

In June of 2020, they started as a it started as a group text between current and former NHL players, and it turned into a full-fledged coalition

within the time of civil unrest.

This was the time of COVID.

This was the time that George Floyd was murdered.

So you wrote about the HDA.

Five years later, tell us how the group is doing and what it's been going through since their beginning.

Well, the exciting part is there's now like palpable results from the group's work.

Like they had a a huge hockey fest in Toronto.

They had one in the summer.

They had one in the winter.

They're doing a bunch of trying to get young, you know, diverse communities to try out hockey in the Greater Toronto area.

They've worked with some groups, I want to say Detroit,

maybe Chicago, maybe it was Chicago as well in trying to develop more youth hockey.

And I think that's really been the HDA's biggest influence in their time is working with these youth groups.

I mean, Anthony Duclair obviously has done some stuff, did some stuff when he was with the Panthers and continues to do stuff in other stops around the NHL.

And, you know,

I think Akeem Aliu and the folks at the HDA are finally kind of, you know, after

After a long time in existence and some stumbles, not of their making,

have started to get some salient results.

And the stumbles, by the way, are, you mentioned George Floyd.

Like when the HDA started, they had a flood of sponsors come and be like throwing money at them and we're going to, you know, sponsor this and sponsor that.

And then, as we all know, like the

public front-facing statements about diversity and inclusion

in the years

after the George Floyd incident, you know, kind of went by the wayside.

And so did the funding.

So they have a few sponsors that stuck with them.

They're obviously looking for more, but they kind of overcame that and are now, you know, really, really making

some important inroads in trying to create more opportunities in youth hockey.

Well, you mentioned

Akeem Aliu and how he was treated in Calgary and how that career went.

And

the banana that was thrown on the ice because Wayne Simmons played a preseason game.

These and many other incidents that has happened in the National Hockey League in the past.

We've gone from that to 2020 when Matt Dumba took a knee at Center Ice in an empty arena because of COVID and the NHL themselves creating a coalition, the Player Inclusion Coalition.

Has there really been any progress within the league to make the sport more inclusive, even after the aftermath of players bucking against wearing pride jerseys?

Has there been any progress made?

Well, let's not forget the NHL putting their own end racism signage in the arenas during the COVID games in Toronto and Edmonton.

Like, they were also kind of leaning into this too.

And then, you know, if you could look back at those games and those moments in the league, you also had

games that were postponed because of other incidents that happened and the players kind of banding together

and saying we're not comfortable playing a game under these circumstances.

As far as the things that they've done, and you're right, they do have their own diversity committee and initiatives within the league, and they don't work with the HDA.

In fact, one of the things that I wrote about in that story when I talked to Akeem recently was

maybe a willingness from the HDA to try to find a way to partner with the NHL at some point because that relationship is fractured and frankly, it's non-existent at this point.

So we'll see where that goes.

But as far as what they do, like I've looked into it, I will fully admit that I check in now and again just to see if that webpage is still there for their diversity committee, considering the way that things have gone with other leagues and other corporations in the U.S.

It is there.

And if you check out their social feed,

they do promote and mention some of the events that they've done.

Again, a lot of focus on youth hockey, a lot of focus on opportunity and things like that.

And it's, you know, they don't really blast it out there and it's not really front of mind.

But there are events that go on throughout the year that they are a part of.

And you can kind of like find that when you go on their website.

Greg, we got some pretty cool news this morning that Mark Andre Fleury was coming out of retirement to rejoin his good buddy Sidney Crosby in Pittsburgh for

one last hurrah.

It's going to be probably the most attended preseason game in NHL history.

I would imagine they're going to have standing room and they're going to bring in extra seats like they would at the Orange Bowl down here.

So the Orange Bowl.

Casting aside how cool it is that Mark Andre Fleury is making this comeback,

you know, how long do you think his buddy Sidney Crosby is going to keep that penguin sweater on?

Because I personally think Montreal, Roy, maybe Detroit, but certainly he's-I'm not saying anything, man.

You know, the writing's on the wall.

He's on his way out, right?

Yeah, it's Fleury coming back to Pittsburgh.

It's got real Steve Corell coming back before the office is canceled, Energy.

Yeah, I mean, listen, my take on Sid is this.

I had someone tell me

in the offseason that Sidney Crosby is going to play in the playoffs no matter if it's in Pittsburgh or it's somewhere else this season.

I asked Sid about that at the player media tour.

He didn't quite go as far as to say that.

I think he's trying to really keep an open mind about Pittsburgh trying to pull a Washington Capitals and surround the veteran corps with younger players and different players and seeing if they can maybe squeeze one last drop of juice out of this thing before the team gets blown up.

A lemon.

But I don't think it's going to happen.

And, you know, Sid himself said, you know, most of the punditry is going to pick us to finish last in the division.

So I think within the first two or three months of the season, I definitely think it could happen before the Olympics

that we could see Crosby go to the Penguins and say it's time.

I do think, though, it should be noted that there are people in Sid's life that I think would love to see him move on,

not only for the betterment of him, but also for the betterment of the NHL.

I mean, he is one of the most legendary players of the last 50 years in this league, and he is persona non grata at the most important time of the year, three years running.

And even before that, the Penguins weren't really a contender.

But then you have Sid,

who, you know, clearly has incredible affinity for the Penguins, I think has always fancied the idea of playing for one franchise.

And, you know, there is always the possibility that they could get good by the very, very end of his career.

But overall,

I have to imagine that

the time spent losing has really weighed on this guy and that he might you know go to them and say i'm ready for another opportunity is it crazy to think that mark andre fleury is going to be the savior in all of this and he's going to fall re-in-love with pittsburgh it's going to go beyond a preseason game he's going to take over for christian jari and archer siloves and he's going to lead crosby and the penguins back to the playoffs it's going to be the most amazing cinderella story that everybody but roy loves is that what's going to happen No, but he's better than the goalies they have right now.

It's like at the very least, maybe he does play another year.

Who knows?

But, you know, if he plays another year, does he have to give back all the gifts from from last season?

No, no, no, no, no, no.

In my eyes, yes.

If you do the retirement tour and you get a rocking chair and this and that,

rocking chair, don't retire.

You got it, yeah.

Like, if you're, if you're a, if you're a cop and you get a gold watch for your retirement, then you decide to still be a security guard somewhere.

You put

every year.

Yeah.

No, you, yeah, you put on a bus.

You turn into Dennis Hopper.

Yes.

That's right.

That's how you knew he was a cop because that's for the watch that they give you.

I love that movie.

Listen up, hot shot.

What do you do?

Tell that wildcat.

That wildcat.

That's right.

That's right.

Pop quick.

Drive around the airport.

That's the only way.

You drive because there's no, the copters can't go above the airport because of the air traffic control rules.

Brilliant.

So

you mentioned Detroit.

You mentioned Montreal.

I think both of those teams have something in common, which is

a lack of any guarantee they will be in the playoffs.

And I think wherever Sid goes, it's not going to be on the bubble.

It is going to be on a team that can contend where he can, you know, feel comfortable that he might have multiple rounds in the playoffs.

I mean, we all know the McKinnon connection from Coal Harbor and what have you.

And so the avalanche can't be ignored.

One thing somebody told me once about Sid that stuck with me is, though, if he goes to Colorado, is he taking a cut in minutes?

Yeah.

He's going to be on the dirt line 2C.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Is he 2C?

Is he not playing his spot on the power play anymore?

Like, you imagine if Sidney Crosby comes to your team you acquiesce it's like gretzky going to your team right no um no who knows i mean like maybe he's going someplace like maybe montreal is a cleaner place for him to go because you can go to nick suzuki and be like hey buddy uh Sidney Crosby's over here.

And all of a sudden, you're Nick Suzuki and you're playing second line minutes for a couple years until Sidney Crosby retires.

But

if he goes to Colorado, I mean, it is an interesting conversation to be had.

Like, does McKinnon move to the wing on Sid's line?

Who knows?

But that's

a different conversation to be had than, say, like Montreal or Detroit.

How dare you compare Cindy Crosby to Wayne Gretzky as well?

No, I'm saying

from a prestige standpoint, it is absolutely the right comparison to make a generation of players treat Crosby with the same

like a hockey deity, like all the people in Gretzky's era treated Gretzky.

I know he doesn't have the same grandiose stats because he didn't have the pleasure of playing in the 1980s where goalies didn't know what the hell they were doing.

But he's a pretty good hockey player.

And

I think he would be treated with the same reverence as Gretzky when he bestowed his glory on the St.

Louis Blues and New York Rangers.

Why didn't Gretzky go home at the end?

If we're talking, you know, if this is what Cross is...

Go back to Edmonton?

Canada.

Just go back somewhere in Canada.

Like from Alberta, Gretzky?

No,

he's about to go.

He's going back to Edmonton.

Yeah, going back to his original.

Yeah, yeah.

Anyway.

Why did he go back?

Why didn't he go back to Edmonton instead of spending the rest of his career in Los Angeles and New York?

Oh, St.

Louis, St.

Louis.

I still can't figure out that St.

Louis thing.

That was

a strange anomaly in the Gretzky.

It's like when my boy Brador entered his career in St.

Louis.

How did that not work, though?

Brett Hull, Grant Fjord.

All I know is it's going to be great when Roy has to root for Sidney Crosby to bring home the Panthers third straight title this year in the Brad Marchand role, and he has to do what Mike Ryan did with Brad Marchand this year.

It's going to be so awesome.

How

do you keep talking?

Like, how do they have the money to do this?

they'll figure it out

are they gonna give them a no-show job or something down there to make the money work for sid crosby's gonna take 870k instead of 8.7 million that's that'll be what it is

let's just hope there's let's hope billy zito knows a tree planting company down there that he can hook them up with we'll figure it out yeah wish uh you're you mentioned the lost the player tour in las vegas uh that you were just at and interestingly enough hockey players actually said interesting stuff this week i cannot believe it.

There were a few interesting storylines that have come out this week in the lead up to training camp.

I'm going to tee up two for you here, and we can attack both, but you can pick which one to go first.

The Hughes brothers, who you talked to,

in terms of them both kind of saying, hey, I'd really love to play with my brother, which we all kind of knew, but now it's out there.

And there was the Jim Rutherford comments earlier this offseason, so that kind of revs everything up.

And then Kigurill Kaprizov turning down the biggest contract offer in NHL history.

So you've got both of those options.

Which one do you want to go with first?

Well, I'll go with the Hughes first.

I was happy my colleagues in the media that were there at the Play Remedia Tour

got the most thuddingly obvious question out of the way so I didn't have to have to ask it, which is, would you like to play with your brother?

Would you like to play with someone you're quite fond with, that you grew up with, that you shared a life with?

I don't know, maybe.

Yeah, that guy sucks.

So with that off the table, I asked the question that

I was interested in, which is, like, what do these guys think when all of a sudden the president of the Vancouver Canucks is putting Quinn Hughes' business out on Maine like he did?

And Jack is like, I was a little surprised he did that, to be honest with you.

And, you know, he's like, I got no control over this thing whatsoever.

But if Jim Rutherford wants to keep on talking about my brother, you know, wanting to play with me and Luke, by all means, continue to do it.

And, you know, Quinn was a lot more political about it.

Like, he said, look, you know, I got all the respect in the world for Jim Rutherford.

You know, I'm sure he's got a reason for having said what he said, and he said, I'll leave it at that.

So I don't know.

The interesting thing I talked with Quinn about with regard to the Canucks kind of putting out, you want to play with your brothers, is,

you know, when

we've seen teams get ahead of free agency and make trades.

I mean, that is the reason Matthew Kachuk became a Panther was.

He communicated,

I'm not going to resign with Calgary.

Calgary's like, let's just get ahead of this thing.

Boom, the Huberto Uyghur trade happens.

So if like it's been established that Quinn's going to walk,

one, do they get ahead of it and just trade him?

And then two, like, what does that do for him in the market?

What is the reaction from the fans?

And Quinn Hughes told me, hey, like, it's entirely possible that things are going to get awkward because the fan base is now under the understanding that I want to play with my brothers and my brothers are not in Vancouver.

So that was an interesting conversation to have.

Let's go into the CBA really quickly here because they're trying to roll things out this season.

What are the immediate impacts that's going to be instituted with this section of the CBA going into the season and who is it going to affect the most?

Well, it is, they're rolling out the long-term injured reserve rule changes this year.

So basically,

you know, if you put a player on long-term injured reserve,

there's limitations on how much of that salary cap space you can use to replace them.

And more importantly,

you know, in order to open up all of that salary cap space, you have to declare that that player is not going to be playing for you for the rest of the season and the postseason.

So the whole sort of like being able to use all that salary cap space to overload your team with contracts.

And oh my God, Jesus has risen.

He's playing game one of the playoffs.

He's no longer injured.

That's not going to be happening anymore.

And then on top of that, another reason, another way they're trying to clamp down on this is they have created a postseason salary cap for the first time.

So the team that you put on the ice has to be cap compliant.

As an agent told me, you could have a team that's like $130 million payroll, but the team that you actually put on the ice, the roster that's playing that night, has to be cap compliant.

And, you know, I'm still waiting.

These guys are real smart in these front offices to see if there's ways that you can find loopholes for this thing.

But I do think that it's

the most intelligent way to try to attack what is perceived to be a problem.

I happen not to think it's a problem.

I think it's a genius way to get around the salary cap.

And you do suffer not having that player in your lineup in the regular season, by the way.

So there is a level of sacrifice.

But I've talked to a few players, Nazim Kadri being one of them, a few players to play a Media Tour, who are happy to see those loopholes closed because they feel like it does give certain franchises that know how to utilize that loophole a competitive advantage.

With a 84-game season coming next season, and, you know, they're losing a couple of preseason games and adding two in the regular season.

Are we going to start to look at teams going half speed knowing that they have a playoff spot?

A lot, a lot more teams doing that option going into the playoffs when they know they have a spot clinched?

I don't know, man.

Like, we've all talked about load management in the NHL in light of what we see in the NBA, and we've never really seen it manifest.

Like, the only time you really see players leave the lineup is in the very, very last part of the season when you've got a playoff spot locked up, and then

the last maybe two games of the year, you're icing an AHL team instead of the guys that usually play.

But I mean,

the 84-game season is a really interesting twist.

The players I've spoken to love it.

Mostly because they love not having to have a grandiose preseason, which they don't think they really need and don't want to play games that are completely meaningless.

I do find it interesting.

There wasn't like a whole hell of a lot of, hey, where's the bonus that comes our our way for playing two extra games on the regular season schedule?

The entire CBA negotiation was pretty much, we're all fat and happy and we're not going to really fight the league on a lot of stuff.

So I'm not surprised there wasn't pushback.

But overall, I mean, I think the players are pretty happy to have a shorter preseason, longer regular season.

So I don't know about you, Craig.

I personally have a hankering for something that hasn't been satisfied in like 20 some odd years.

And I really could use some more hockey in Atlanta.

I don't think.

Oh, for crying out out loud.

Are we going to do this again?

I don't think that two times was it was enough of a try to let it stick personally.

I miss going to games at Phillips Arena and how one side of it just kind of comes up straight.

Like, there's just so much that I liked about Atlanta, visiting the CNN situation there.

This all sounds like sarcasm.

Georgia Tech.

I do miss the Thrashers jerseys.

Yeah.

Oh, God.

They're not going to do that.

Remember that one time they made the playoffs and they had those baby blue powder jerseys.

Said Atlanta on the sleeve.

Yeah, those were us.

So anyway, sarcasm aside um greg to built the entire room with it man how close are we to getting a third hockey franchise in atlanta i liked the blue jerseys love

them the third jerseys they came out with right before they moved where it looked like someone like melted a box of crayons those were terrible but the rest of the jerseys were fine first of all you know keep in mind the winner in all of this is canada Because they're going to get another team eventually if we put another team in Atlanta.

Quebec.

They got Calgary.

They got Winnipeg.

Quebec City, you're on the clock.

It's going to happen.

The NHL believes a couple of things.

One, they believe that the demographic and business community changes that have happened in the state of Georgia and specifically around the city of Atlanta since they tried the Thrashers, what, like 20 years ago, I guess it is now.

They believe all those changes mean that that area is

much more favorable to the kind of demographics they need for hockey.

They're not going to build an arena in the same spot they built that ballpark for the Braves, right?

Just out of downtown.

Kind of.

Yeah, they're looking at the suburbs.

They're looking at Forseth County.

Of course, they are.

And they're looking at, I forget where the other one is, but it's like a former mall, I think it is.

So, you know, the Forseth County one is the one that has the juice right now because it's like a $3 billion project that's been approved by the county.

It's a mixed-use community with a hockey arena and a whole bunch of other stuff going on.

We don't know if either of these ownership groups really have have the scratch to pay for an expansion team.

The fee could be upwards of a billion dollars this time based on what franchise values are looking at right now.

And neither of them have presented a formal plan to the NHL.

And that's the takeaway from my conversation with Bill Daly at the Player Meteor Tour in Vegas is like until the NHL has something concrete from these guys, and it doesn't have to be shovels in the ground concrete, just concrete XYZ, here's how it's going to happen,

they can't go to the Board of Governors and open an expansion process.

So you have two groups from Atlanta, they're waiting for proposals on, one group in Houston, they're waiting for a proposal on, and then other places that have tried to make noise about hockey, New Orleans being one of them, and we'll see how it shakes out.

But I'd be shocked if there's not a team in Atlanta within the next three to four years.

Is it surprising, though, that at this point of the process that there aren't like firm plans and like these things aren't haven't already like all the I's dotted and T's crossed like well ahead so they can go to the league and say, hey, we've got all this straightened out.

We just need your go-ahead.

So I've thought about that.

And I wonder if the, and this is just my speculation.

I wonder if the experience in Tempe, Arizona has made the NHL be a bit

more

skittish and wanting to, like, don't even, you're not crossing T's and dotting I's.

You are using the Sharpie, the big fat Sharpie to dot the I's and cross the T's.

Presidential Sharpie.

Right.

Yeah, because of what happened

in Tempe with the coyotes and that arena situation and that ownership situation.

So I think they're doing their due diligence.

And again, like the money they're asking for is going to be enormous.

And I think that's also part of it, too.

Well, at least it's not like the New York Islander situation in the mid-90s where they just got a guy who just did not have the money.

Remember that 30 for 30?

Yeah, Kevin Collins.

Yeah,

oh, yeah, absolutely.

There's been, I mean, listen, listen, the guy in Arizona was a throwback because there was a time in the NHL where you'd have these stories once every five years of guys looking to own teams, and all of a sudden it becomes just a giant mess.

So it was it was nostalgic to have that situation play out.

Oh my god.

Wish I want to go back to the Karil Kaprizov signing that we mentioned earlier or the non-signing I should say.

To me, this is the attempt.

To me, this is fascinating.

He's one of the best players in the league, in my opinion, and he just turned down an 8 by 16 million dollar deal.

I think it could end up with him making a lot more money.

It could also end up with him screwing himself based off what Conor McDavid takes if he takes a team-friendly deal.

And it could also end up with him not in Minnesota at all.

So where do you see this playing out?

Because I think it's going to be one of the most fascinating stories to follow for the next

year if he ends up going to free agency next year.

Well, your last point, I think, is the most important one, which is that maybe he just doesn't want to be in Minnesota, which is kind of my takeaway from the whole thing.

I mean, if you go by the reporting on this, he turns down a contract that would have been the richest in NHL history, richer than the contract Alex Ovechkin signed with the Capitals back, I think, in 2008.

Okay, so he turns that down.

Well, maybe he doesn't want to go eight years.

That was one of the theories from Minnesota fans.

Maybe it was the years and not the money that was the problem.

Well, Michael Russo from the Athletic is like, actually, they've never talked about a shorter contract than eight years.

Okay, so it's not the years and it's not the money.

I mean, I ain't no math major, but putting two and two together, maybe you don't want to be in Minnesota is the situation.

See, I told you.

I'm not saying you're wrong.

I just, I'm very interested because, you know, there's reporting that he loves it there and that he, they've been working on a deal.

They're going to continue working on a deal.

But, I mean, when he turns down to 8 by 16, like, I mean, that's, maybe, maybe it still happens.

Who knows?

But, I mean, the bottom line for me is that you turn down that level of money.

You're not looking for anything short term.

What do you want?

You don't want more money or you've already gotten all the money, right?

You know,

I've read reports of like, well, his agent maybe knows that there's an even richer contract out there for Caprice Off.

Maybe there is.

He's a fabulous player.

He's a multiple 40 goal scorer over multiple seasons.

He's also a guy that has some health issues in the regular season.

But ultimately, it could just be that he wants to move on and that's why he's not taking that money.

And, you know, again, to put on Johnny Journalism hat for a second, I've been trying to tell people, just think logically where this news comes from.

Is it the agent or the player being like,

if I'm him,

I turn down down more money than anyone's ever made in the NHL before?

Teammates, teammates, it's me, Khrill.

How do you feel about me turning down more money than you'll ever make in your lives?

He was at captainating me?

He was at a captain skate when that report came out.

How do you think that went when that wasn't?

So I would, when you, again, I'm not saying I know this for sure, but I am saying that like we've seen it before where if a team feels disrespected in a contract negotiation, it's usually the team that's that's putting out that news to

the world that, hey, we did our best.

And sometimes that we did our best messaging comes out before

we have to trade him because we did our best.

It wasn't good enough.

Oh, boy.

Finally, what is the biggest story coming into the season?

Oh, that's a really good question.

I mean, from a player perspective, it's Marner in Vegas.

And when that return happens to Toronto, just because he's now ratcheted up the rancor since leaving and playing this victim card.

I didn't feel safe there, all this other stuff

and the debates about his legacy and what the leafs are going to be without him.

It could be on the level of the John Taveras return to Long Island, which is still one of my favorite games I've ever covered in my life, where they were putting his jersey in the middle of the parking lot and running it over with cars and throwing rubber.

throwing rubber snakes on the ice during the game because he left the Islanders.

So from that perspective, it's probably that.

I think obviously the Crosby situation and the McDavid situation, which we didn't really talk about,

are both going to play out in interesting ways.

Like does McDavid enter the season without a contract for next year?

Where does Crosby end up?

And then, you know, from a team perspective, we, and this is obviously salient to the folks I'm talking to now, we may be in the midst of a dynasty.

And

what is that going to manifest as?

Have the Panthers made a mistake running it back with everybody on the roster and not trying to maybe turn it over a little bit more?

Or is this going to be a third straight cup and a fourth trip to the cup final in four years for this team?

Scary.

That's it?

Scary?

I mean, not for me, for everyone else.

Oh, okay.

I don't know.

The cap's going up.

Like, they've got everybody locked up and they're about to get $10 million off their cap when Bob is off the books after next season.

So I feel like there's a lot of runway for the Panthers.

Yeah, but also then you have to replace Sergey Borofsky.

Yeah, and you can do that for less than $10 million, probably.

No, for sure.

I'll tell you, that kid they got from Columbus,

I'm bullish on that kid.

Yeah, Bill Zito once told me that he thought he was the most talented goalie that Columbus had in their system when Zito was an executive there.

And, you know, Columbus, for what it's worth, does not have a Department of Goaltending Excellence like the Panthers have.

And I'm intrigued to see

goalies.

Yeah, if they can unlock whatever has been locked up in this guy talent-wise, because I think he's really talented.

Greg Rushinsky from ESPN, He's writing about hockey and we're getting back into it, folks.

It's what, what, next week?

Next weekend?

We're back

preseason training campaign.

Thanks, Greg.

Anytime.

Thank you to Greg Reshinsky.

That was excellent.

That was real good.

He knows his stuff.

Yeah.

You think he likes us better than Merrick?

No.

I mean, we're not professionals like Jeff.

He tolerates us.

We're in the people.

We're in the professional hockey writers association, just like Jeff Merrick.

But

we just aren't professional like him.

They're professional like us.

Well, that's true.

All right.

I don't know who's in the video room.

I know it's,

oh, you know what?

It's Gino and Danny.

Danny's back there.

Yeah, Danny's back there.

So we'd like to thank them for doing what they do.

Ethan, thank you.

I didn't say thank you.

And I didn't say thank you.

I'm thanking you, Roy.

All right, I appreciate you.

In the back seat of a car in West Virginia somewhere, is she still logged on or not?

No, she left.

Good luck, Rose.

That's David Drork.

My name is Roy Bellamy.

We will see you next week.

Training camp starts.

Oh, my God.

And we're almost there, man.

Now is a good time to remember where Tequila's story truly began.

In 1795, Cuervo invented tequila.

Cuervo.

What are you doing here?

Cuervo.

Anytime someone says Cuervo, I show up.

Well, I do know that to be true, but even during ad reads, like Cuervo.

I think you could lay out, especially for one of our great partners.

Sweet, delicious Cuervo.

Since then, Cuervo has stayed true to its roots.

The same family, the same land, the same passion.

Cuervo.

So, enjoy the tequila that started it all.

Cuervo.

Cuervo.

The tequila that invented tequila.

Brooksimo, Cuervo.com.

Please drink responsibly.

Cuervo.

Hey, listeners, it's Mike.

Hey, Billy Gill.

Hey.

Hey, Billy, as a proud member of your inner circle.

Remember when we were hanging out last weekend?

Oh, yeah, fishtail palms.

Fishtail palms, the great memories we made, kids playing in the pool and in our hands, a nice ice-cold pan of Miller Light.

It was so hot out.

I know, but it was so cold in my hand.

We took that first sip.

It was crisp.

It was refreshing.

Oh, man, there is nothing like cracking open a Miller Light with your crew and your inner circle bones.

Hell yeah.

We fist bumped.

Whether it's, we actually really did.

Whether it's that touchdown.

It didn't make a sound, but it was just like BAM!

Boom.

Whether it's that touchdown you didn't see coming or just arguing about fantasy lineups, you and I did plenty of that.

Miller Light has been the taste that you can depend on for 50 years.

Brood for flavor with simple ingredients, rich toffee notes, and that iconic golden color.

And here's a kicker, Billy.

What?

It's just 96 calories.

What?

3.2 carbs carbs per 12 ounces.

The original light beer since 1975 and still hitting different five decades later.

Miller Light, great taste, 96 calories.

Go to millerlight.com/slash dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Light pretty much anywhere they sell beer.

It's Miller time.

Celebrate responsibly.

Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.