The Hockey Show: The Inferior Hughes

49m
We are under a week away from the start of the NHL season and big contract dominoes are falling. David, Roy and Ethan break down the Kirill Kaprizov, Niko Mikkola, Luke Hughes, and Jackson LaCombe contracts in preparation of the new year. Then in wins and fails, Roy celebrates the Panthers' new video board, David shows an epic hockey fight from Russia and Ethan calls somebody over a foot taller than him a dork. Then, Adnan Virk joins the show to tell us about Canadian Thanksgiving, share his thoughts on some of the big contracts signed, and gives us his World Series pick.
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Runtime: 49m

Transcript

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The regular season starts next week, and we start wrapping up the preseason right now on the hockey show.

That's David Drorka the Hockey News. Ethan's on the other side in the executive producer's chair because

Rosie, our lead producer, is still on vacation.

Yeah.

You need to come back quickly, girl, because

I'm not good enough for you, Roy. No, you're not.
This is the hockey show. My name is Roy Bellamy.
We have a YouTube page, ladies and gentlemen. Please follow us there at the hockey show DLS.

We also have TikTok at the hockey show 7 and on X, Instagram and Threads at Hockey Show DLS.

Now, we get into contracts discussions here because following the Karill Caprice Off eight-year $136 million extension at $17 million per year.

And by the way, that led to this funny exchange between he and WoW general manager Bill Guerin when they announced the contract.

Big chair, big chair.

Better be.

You should be changing.

Yeah.

You better be $17 million per year.

That sounds like when you take your kid to like the pizza place and they're like, I guess I'll have pepper. Yeah, you better be good enough.
Yeah, yeah.

Drag your ass out to Pizza Hut. You better like it.
The richest deal in NHL history. Yeah, you better like that contract.
All right. The Florida Panthers have also made a deal.

They have extended Nico Mikolis' contract. He's going to be making $5 million a year for the next eight years at $40 million.

Very good team-friendly contract that Bill Zitos signed.

They're not going to be able to do that

a lot further once the new CBA deal, once those rules start kicking the next season so i would say it's a great contract and probably the last one the panthers will be able to sign no guys can still take team-friendly deals i think the way that they the way that they structure the deals i think that's kind of where we're going to see a little bit of uh flexibility as uh you know bill zito he's as he did again with uh mikola's contract uh the base salary which is what gets distributed throughout the season is just like a million bucks everything else is paid out as a bonus uh obviously players are going to want to get a big chunk of money every July 1st as opposed to getting smidgens here and there.

So, a lot of the deals that he signed players to, I think they're pretty happy with it. But man,

when you compare the Caprizov deal with the Mikola deal, and you get like one guy who's making more than anybody else, and you get another guy who's like, no, I want less money so you can make the team better.

It's just like two different ideologies. And I'm sure we're going to get into it.
But man, Bill Guerin's probably just like, how am I just supposed to build the team when, you know,

such a big piece of the pie goes to one guy? Let's talk about Minnesota. So I was listening to 32 Thoughts this morning.
Their contract situation is pretty strong surrounding Kaprisov.

Boldy's on a really good deal. Faber's on a really good deal.
Eric Trigger's on a really good deal.

They're all young and they're all locked up pretty long term and on good deals with the cap going up. They'll be able to have some flexibility around Kaprisov.

And I think they already have a really good team. I'm actually really excited about the wild this year.
Like, I'm very excited to watch this team. I think they're going to be very interesting.

interesting. To me, the more interesting thing is, and Roy and I kind of touched on this in our reaction video, which you can watch on our YouTube channel.

You can watch, we did a quick video reacting initially to the news as it broke. David, we didn't get to hear your opinion, though.
How do you think this will affect the McDavid negotiation, if at all?

Because I kept going back to, well, Caprizov is more valuable to the wild than he would have been to any other franchise, and every situation is different. They had to keep this player.

Obviously, McDavid is more about win now, try and build a team around me.

Do you think this will have a big impact on the McDavid negotiation, or do you think it's just kind of something we should look at on its own?

No, I don't think it's going to have an impact because we already knew McDavid is going to get as much as he wants, whether that's max value for a contract or whether that's leaving a little bit on the table to make the team around him better.

I think whatever Connor McDavid decides he wants to do in free agency is what's going to happen.

So I think Kabrizov decided clearly, I want the highest contract I could possibly get, and that's what he got.

And I'm very, very curious to learn how it plays out for McDavid because I want to know what he wants. Is he going for the big payday or is he going for the Stanley Cup?

And based off what we've seen the last couple years, I would think that he'd be happy leaving a few million on the table to pursue a championship because look how pissed off and upset he's gotten.

And he keeps going back to, we have enough for this year. We have enough for 25, 26.

Beyond that, I don't know. Like, it's very interesting.
Roy, I want to ask you about something.

Do you think the Minnesota Wild kind of put themselves in a bad position here with their owner coming out and saying, nobody can pay Caprizov more than we will? And then kind of he was right.

I don't know that anybody would have paid Caprizov more than the $17 million they did.

I mean, I kind of, he's kind of showing his hand there. He's willing to pay for Caprizov in that situation.
So if you're Caprizov's agent,

I probably want my hand a little bit greased on that situation because it seemed like he had some leverage there. And he definitely took it.
As again, he is the richest

paid hockey player in the history. A little bit more leverage than Sam Bennett gave his agent.

Yeah, speaking of Sam Bennett, I want to get back to the Panthers here on players signed long-term on this club. They have 11 players signed through 2030.

Alexander Barkoff, Matthew Kachuk, Anton Lundell, and Seth Jones are signed through 2030. Brad Marchand signed through 2031.
Gustav Worsling, Sam Reinhardt signed through 2032.

Sam Bennett, Carter Verhege,

and Aaron Eckley signed through 2033. And Nico Mikolo with his new contract signed through 2034.
11 players signed long term. Seems like they've got half the roster locked up.

Yeah, and the cool thing about that, Roy, is they've got all those. It's not like just you mentioned any, those are like core players that are locked up for long term.

The salary cap is going to keep going up. Yeah, you got to remember.
It's up to 95.5 this year.

Next year, around 104. The year after that, around 113.5.
So that's two years from now, where Zito could potentially have like another 15 to 20 million dollars to work with. Yeah.

In addition to having all these guys locked up, that's got to be scary for the rest of the league. Connor McDavid, come on down.
Yeah.

I think, Jesus, I think the biggest thing is the Panthers have clearly established a window and they're not worried about what's going to happen after that window.

And you kind of look at the way these things are going to age.

They're going to have more and more salary cap space as these contracts age which means these guys will start becoming the veterans and some of the new superstars that take place that hit free agency those could be the guys that they bring in to extend the window around the core that they've had for a long time i don't know because uh i mean if you look down on the farm Yeah, then it drives up building the farm.

No, it drives up. And that's why they're going to have to go out and be aggressive in free agency.
It's just interesting to think about what it's going to look like six years from now.

But I think the biggest thing is just the stability is amazing. You look at the top top four.
Okay, Gustav Forsling is entering the first year of an eight-year contract.

Aaron Eckblad is also entering the first year of an eight-year contract. Then you go down to the second pair.
Seth Jones is entering the fourth year of an eight-year contract.

And Nico Mikola has one year left before starting another eight-year contract. So it's pretty amazing the stability the Panthers are going to have.

I don't know that I can ever remember if there's a precedent for a team having a core that's going to be together for as long as the Panthers will be. It'll be really interesting to see.

They like each other a lot now while they're winning.

And I don't want to say they're going to stop liking each other, but it's going to be really interesting to see a team staying together for this long because it just doesn't ever really happen, right?

You know,

I've heard of Core 4. Obviously, that's Toronto.
I've never heard of a Core 11.

I mean, I've never really seen a team that's been able to sign as many players as long term in a long-term contract as much as the Panthers have.

I'm trying to come up with something alliterative that goes with 11 that would fit that narrative. And to God, the evangelical 11, like, I don't know.
Magnificent 11 or something like that.

But it's got to be alliterative. It's got to start with an E.
It'll be the elderly 11 by 2030. There you go.
If we're being honest. But it won't matter.
For Panther fans, it won't matter.

If they get another cup after this or another cup or two, even. Who's going to give a shit what happens in 2032 if this team wins four cups in a decade? It's not going to matter.

Another signing that happened in the NHL this week: the Devils extended the contract of Luke Hughes. Seven years, $63 million at $7 million per year.
Good deal.

Not $9 million per year. Seven years at $9 million.
$9 million.

That's a bad arithmetic. That's a bad multiplication by means because, you know, nine times seven.

I was told there was

three. Yeah, well, there you go.

When asked about his brother,

his brother's playing with him, you know, Quinn's playing in Vancouver.

There's too many Hughes right now. Yeah, he's already playing with Jack, who's the devil's captain.

When asked about all three of them getting together somewhere, somehow, he said, I think the three of us would love to play together someday, but whether it happened or not, who knows?

I know Quentin loves Vancouver, and he's the captain there. We love being here.
You never know. So never say never.
Now,

Luke Hughes is set, you know,

set in New Jersey. And their defenseman, the defensive corps, is also set in New Jersey as well.

They got Dougie Hamilton, Brett Pisce, Brendan Dylan, Jonathan Kovacevic, Jonas Siegenthaler, and Siemens Casey.

So, yeah, that pretty much said. Obviously, what happened last year was, you know, they got hit with the injury bug and they bowed out

early last season to Carolina. Now, how do you think they're looking?

I'm...

I am excited about the Devils because of how excited you are about the Devils.

Like, I honestly was kind of looking at them as an afterthought almost, but you've reminded me, injuries decimated them last year. I like Jacob Markstrom.
I thought he was great for them last year.

They've got a lot of young, very high-end talent. I think like Timo Meyer is a good guy, a good veteran guy to have.
I don't know.

I think the Devils to be a playoff team.

Yeah, for sure. So Nico Heiser, I don't think we talk about Nico Hecher enough, to be honest.

The more I watch him, the more I'm impressed by his two-way play, by the little moves he can make with his hands.

I think a breakout year from Nico Hecher would be in the cards in the not-too-distant future just because he's, that whole team is like, yeah, the more I talk about it, the more I think that that team, yeah, it could be a breakout team.

Their forward depth is very top-heavy. Like, you look at the athletics season projections for them.
Four, their top five are the only players that have positive projected net ratings.

And Stephen Nason, Stephan Nason is just 0.07. Everybody else, Meyer, Bratt, Heischer, and Hughes.
Hughes leads the way with a 19.1. Hecher's projected rating is in the 88th percentile.

Like, this is a very, very top-heavy team. Things kind of get ugly in the middle and at the back end.

What I'm really intrigued by is to see they're paying Dougie Hamilton and Luke Hughes $9 million apiece now. They're kind of very similar players.

Nobody really knows who's going to be on PowerPlay 1, and it kind of seems like they've now made Dougie Hamilton expendable. A lot of people think that he could be moved here soon.

I don't know that that's the greatest idea because I kind of like the idea of two pairs, one with Hamilton, one with Hughes, and the other with Siegenthaler, you know, and then you have Siegenthaler and Pesci matching up with whichever guy you like better there because that's kind of an offensive guy and a shutdown guy that you can match together.

I think that can be the best way to line up. I wouldn't move Dougie Hamilton, but to me, the more interesting discussion here is...
Does Luke Hughes deserve this contract?

Because a guy we'll talk about next, Jackson Lacombe, got the same contract as Luke Hughes, basically, but he got one year more, the same AAV.

And if you look at the analytics, Jackson Lacombe is a much better player than Luke Hughes.

So my question is, with Quinn Hughes having two years left on his contract, Jack Hughes having four years left on his contract, or five years, excuse me, it's pretty obvious that the only way these three are going to get together is they come to New Jersey.

So here's my question for you boys. Does Luke Hughes get this contract if his last name is not Hughes?

Probably not.

It kind of seems like there's a bit of a tax here of we want to keep you around so that we can take a run at Quinn when he becomes a free agent in a couple years because otherwise this seems like a bit I know they expect him to evolve into a star but he's had two like 44 and 47 point seasons I believe like $9 million I know the cap's going up but man that's a big contract for this guy especially when you watch Lacombe who like I said is a better player get the same deal the next day yeah I doubt that he would get that contract if he wasn't in Hughes.

But you mentioned Jackson Lacombe. The Ducks also signed Mason Marchmont.
So they got marchment huh mctavish mctish

marchman's in seattle sorry about that uh mctavish

former panthers on the brain yeah i don't know what's going on they signed mason mctavish and jackson lacomb uh mctavish six-year extension lacomb eight year extension but the ducks played hardball with both of them i mean jesus like so i think the ducks are going to look better this season what do you think I think Pat Verbeek, we got to give him a little credit for being a little bit more hard-nosed GM than maybe we realized.

I don't know. The Ducks, I'm curious because we know they're young.
Obviously, you know, McTavish is awesome.

Troy Terry is a quandary to me. I never know what to make of him because I feel like he's a good goal scorer, but he's got his deficiencies in his game.
Remember, they brought in Chris Kreider.

They got Truba last year. They got a new coach this year that I'm sure we're going to be paying attention to how that goes.

Cutter Gauthier is fun to watch.

So I don't know. They'll be, I forgot.
Also, one of our favorite guys is in aheim to keep them on point, and that's Rad Godudas. Yes.
So, yeah, I don't know.

The captain.

Frank Vetrano signed a long-term deal there as well, former Panther. Yes, yeah.
Frankie had a good year for them last year, too. It's been a nice player.

It's interesting. Anaheim, you know me.
I'm excited to see both of the non-playoff Southern California teams from last year.

San Jose and Anaheim. Yeah, both could be vastly improved on this year.
But, yeah, I don't know, man. What do you think about Anaheim? Roy, do you have him as a perhaps playoff team? Yeah, I think so.

I think they might be close in contention for the wild cards. So we definitely will look forward to the end of the season and see where they are.

They're the hot pick. They're a hot pick to be the flames for a playoffs team.
Yeah, and they have a little more excitement than the Flames had last year.

And the Flames obviously took a run at it, just missed out. But yeah, I'm very excited to watch Anaheim.
I think they're going to be a really fun team to watch.

And I can't believe you didn't bring up Lucas Dostel,

Torky, your fraternity brother. Your goalie fraternity brother.

He was really good last year. His number underlying numbers are insane.
So that's a good point. We appreciate everybody who watches and listens to this show.

You guys can ask us questions on a vast array of social media outlets. And we have a question from At Ben from Wisconsin with Caprice all signing in with Minnesota.

Is he enough to entice bigger name free agents to come and play for the wild? Now, we mentioned that he is making $17 million and

with a cap situation. $17 million dollars is a pretty big.
I mean, that's like what 10%? That's a spicy meatball. Yeah, so that's they will they be able to afford big name talent to come in Minnesota.

That's the question is what else are they going to be able to do to build around Caprizo?

Like, obviously, if you have the opportunity to sign another big name or two, like you want to try to pull the trigger on that, but it's going to have to, that check's going to come due somewhere.

And if it's going to come in your bottom six or in your

final deeping, like that can really bite you in the ass when the playoffs roll around and that depth gets tested.

So it's going to be something to watch with Minnesota over the next few years for sure to see how that Billy Guerin and those guys play it out. Another question from Demon Hunter M-O-G.

Which team do you see as a pure bottom feeder going for the first-round pick in the draft coming up? And obviously, you know my answer to this. Yeah, I know your answer to this.

I don't know if you're going to like my answer to this. I think I'm looking at Chicago again as just another down year.

As much as I love Connor Bedard and what he did there, and he's fun to watch, there's not much around him at all, and they didn't do much in the offseason to add to that. So

good luck, Chicago. All right.
Obviously, my answer to that is the Pittsburgh Penguins. I mean, they're a terrible team.

So, yeah, look for the Penguins to be

doing what they did.

Actually, I think the league's probably going to help them out, too. I was going to say, like,

you think they're going to get that ping-pong ball to be? Yes, they are. There's going to be a folded corner on that envelope.

Exactly what they did for Sidney Crosby. I mean, that's how it goes, isn't it? They're going to try to save that franchise yet again.

It is time for Wins and Fails of the Week, sponsored by Jagemeister. Jagermeister, serve a code.
Don't serve it at all. Jaegermeister, damn, that's code.
For more, visit JagerMeister.com.

Drink responsibly. David, what is your win of the week?

I'm struggling right now because I'm picturing Gavin Matana in a Penn Wins jersey, and I'm like, just that right there is a little jarring to me.

Yeah, he went to Penn State, so I mean, that's a good point. We are

all right. My win of the week.
We got a goalie fight, and not only did we get a goalie fight, we got an

maybe one of the best goalie fights I have ever, ever seen. Uh, Adam Huska, he's a former Rangers prospect, he's wearing white there.
So good.

Uh, he plays for uh the Admiral Vladis, Vladis, Vladis Volski. Yeah, you buried the lead here, Dave.

We didn't just get a goalie fight. We got a KHL goalie fight.
Yeah, this is you buried the lead. This is great.

Wow. And then you've got Andre Misharov, who's playing for Avant-Garde Omsk, the home team wearing the dark.
And the footwork, the edge work, like their hands placement, and this fight's going on.

We've been watching this now for like 45 seconds. That's a maybe the best goalie fight of all time.
100% my win of the week. That was awesome.
Yeah, that looked like a legit street fight. Right?

Yeah, that was, it looked like boxes, like clitz go out there. That was, oh, I want to watch it again.
That was really good. Yeah.

So the Florida Panthers have officially unveiled their new scoreboard this week. It is rather massive.

And for those who are listening on audio, David provided the specs on his write-up about it on the hockey news. The scoreboard delivers a total LED area of 4,762 square feet.
That's 180%

larger than the previous scoreboards. That is a big-ass scoreboard, y'all.
They got four screens under the scoreboard. There's a LED halo above the scoreboard as well.

And the Panthers have added a second ribbon wrapping around the arena. So yeah, they have made significant improvements on the in-arena

entertainment area as far as the scoreboard is concerned. I took a video of it

during Monday's win

against Carolina in the preseason game.

Not only is that a great video of the game-winning goal on the ice, but then you immediately panned to the scoreboard and got the whole scoreboard reaction to a goal, which is something that we're going to be seeing a lot of fans for the first time.

So, like, awesome camera work by you here. Like, I thought this was an excellent video, start to finish.
Thank you. It was an Android.
And as you know, the Android cameras are better.

I'm not talking about the quality, I'm talking about what you shot. I'm trying to give you credit, not your silly non-iPhone.
Hey, listen, I'm a pretty good photographer. Thank you very much.

It's good work. Now, I mentioned all these improvements because the Panthers, according to Sportico, had their evaluation, the value of the franchise go up.
In fact, it's at $1.89 billion now.

It's gone up 51%

from last year. That's $1.89 billion with a B, ladies and gentlemen.

Now,

they've gone up nine spots from last year. So they're 17th now.
They're in the middle of the league since the president's trophy winning year. That's 2021-22.

The ticket sales have gone up 86%. Sponsorship's gone up 155%.

Revenue from events other than hockey at Emirate Bank Arena has gone up 45%. Team revenue

is at $290 million.

And 90% of the season ticket holders have renewed. Their value has gone up since the

President's Trophy winning year, 218%. That is the highest increase of any team in the NHL since that time.
So all is well in Sunrise. Ethan, you have win.
Yeah, my win of the week, guys.

I don't know if you were watching this live, the

baseball game that was going on at Wrigley Field. I think it was game one.
I saw yes. And they did the promo for the NHL, and there was the whole thing with this guy, Ben McDonald.

Yeah, blah, blah, blah. And he made a whole big deal about, oh, I'm so cool.
I'm not going to watch hockey. I got to watch playoff baseball.
Blah, blah, blah. Oh, Ben McDonald pitched you both.
Yeah.

So anyway, so that's not my win of the week, obviously.

My win of the week goes to our good friend, John Butchergross, who took to Twitter and dunked on this dork and said, zero is also how many postseason innings Ben McDonald pitched in his MLB career.

Score one for the hockey guys, Roy. I love it.
I love baseball too, but why? Why take a shot at hockey? It's unnecessary. First of all, it looks bad for ESPN.
It looks terrible. It is terrible.

Sure, their execs were happy about that promo. And it's just an unnecessary shot at hockey.
I thought it was lame.

You do realize that you just called a man who's six foot eight a dork.

You.

He shouldn't have talked shit about hockey. That's his bad, not Ethan's.

Look, I will get on Ethan's shoulders and we will take this guy down. Yeah, we'll take this guy down.
We might not even be taller than him still, but we'll take him down. Let's go Jewish guys.

Yeah, let's go, dworky. That's great.

Shinatuba. Six-foot person.
Oh, by the way,

I hope your fast was

easy yesterday and the day before. Thank you.
All right. Partake.
Yes, absolutely. You too as well.
Thank you. You're welcome.
Fails of the week. That goes to you, Dave.
Nightmare Fuel.

My win of the week was like goalie beautician. I loved it.
This is goalie nightmare fuel, my fail of the week.

The knacker rockers who play in Division II, which is the fourth tier of ice hockey in Sweden. So these are my people.

Last week, their goaltender, Adam Lindholm, received a scare that might cause some people to leave the sport completely. He took a slapshot to the mask that got wedged in his mask.
That's not good.

He's lucky he didn't lose it. That thing is so close to going through.
If you guys are listening on audio, check this out on YouTube or look up the video online. It's scary.
It's happened before.

I remember when it happened, like Brian Boucher, I think it was in a playoff game years back.

But this, it happens rarely. I've always made sure that I've got either double barred or just a little tighter cat eyes.

Not that I'm playing with anybody that could do anything like that, but good God, is that scary? So like I said, nightmare fuel. No thank you.
100% failed.

The Ottawa senators should know better than to mess with the Jack Eyes now. And obviously,

they're new to Florian Jack Eye, but Arber, I mean,

you need to do a better job than that. This week, the Canadians played the Ottawa Senators and felt the wrath of Arbor and Florian Jack Eye.
And Arbor embarrassed Zach McEwen.

I mean, just completely embarrassed him. I mean, look at it.
Oh, he got dragged. Jeez.
And Florian.

Yeah, of course he's pretty. He's like, put up a better fight.
Yeah. And Florian ended up ragdowing Carter

Yakimchuk. Yakimchuk, sorry.
I mispronounced his name. Yeah, he absolutely ragged out him.
And it's just, these two guys are going to be a problem for this league.

So my favorite of the week going to the Ottawa Senators for not knowing your opponent. Dude, that makes me think

if the Canadians get in the playoffs again this year, that could be trouble. Yeah.
Like that series against Washington last year was

chippy. That was fun.
That got chippy. So look out for Montreal.
Yeah, that's going to be more ways than watch. Ethan.
All right.

My win, my fail of the week, excuse me, comes from a preseason game between the Devils, who we talked about earlier, and the Washington Capitals.

Check out this breakaway by, I believe it's Chester Bratt and Luke and Jack Hughes. Three, four, five, six passes.
Five passes.

And then Charlie Lindgren with the save. One, two, three, four, five, and a save by Charlie Lindgren.
Somebody's got to shoot the puck and bury it before that. You got to go high.
You got to go high.

That's ridiculous. Why are you going low down? Too many passes.

If this is what it's going to look like in the regular season for the Devils, I don't know about how we're feeling about their chances to contend anything real. I know it won't.

If they don't clean this up, they're having a two-on-offs. I'm a little worried about that.

Yeah, I don't like this either, but man, they were just toying with Lindgren and they still couldn't get it past him. You got to score on that one.
You got to score on that one.

And he's a left-handed goalie, so he's not even windmilling the glove on that side. He's got a stick on that side.
And he shot it right into his paddy, didn't he? It's for it.

I'm saying go high.

Credit to the goaltender for being in the right position when he just had to go back and forth like five times in the span of a second but yeah get the puck off you guys i want to point something out uh the utah mammoth have reconfigured the delta center uh at least the ownership group has so yes yeah they've been posting videos all summer yeah and uh so the utah jazz and the utah mammoth uh gonna have some new sight lines in fact

The area which was you know obstructing, like there's an obstruction near one of the nets. Yeah, they've reconfigured seats there.
And as you can see, it is steep.

I mean, if you trip and fall, you are dead. If you are drunk, most likely you're going to trip and fall and you're going to die.
That's how high those seats are. I mean, it's like a mountain.
Like,

it's going straight up.

Like, that's what they have in Utah. So maybe

the people of Salt Lake City are like used to steep inclines and climbing mountains and stuff. So maybe that's just like the home field advantage.
The away fans, they're the ones that have to worry.

But the home fans, they'll be fine. Yeah, that's ridiculous, man.
But they got more seats in there now, so good on them. It's a little scary.
I'm going to throw up sitting in those seats, dude.

Like, my PhD is going to play

forward too. You're going to get Vodigos.

That's ridiculous. The Mammoth did have an interesting season.
I'm intrigued by the Mammoth for sure. There's a lot of teams out west I'm intrigued by.
Mammoth, Ducks.

I don't think the Sharks are going to come anywhere near the playoffs, but I'm excited to watch them at least. When the Sharks make the playoffs, I'm going to be celebrating like I'm from San Jose.

By the way, just to touch on one thing, clean one thing up on the wild.

They're going to have $23 million in cap space next year, and they really only have one UFA that you would be like, that's a hole you need to fill that you can't fill in free agency.

Maybe Sack Bagalushin is going to be. And then Terra Sanko, they have two forwards that they would need to fill.
So they're going to have plenty of money to work with to build around Terra Senko.

Excuse me. Yeah.

To build around

Neeshoff. I think they're going to be able to do a really good job building that team.

For those of you who are watching on DraftKings Network, coming up next, we have Adnan Verk from Prime Monday Night Hockey.

We are going to get into the storylines going into the regular season with him. Adnan Verk is coming up next.

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He is the author of the book Cinefile Interviews, Essays, and Tales from the Red Carpet. You probably saw him on Pitch Clock earlier with Jeremy Tesche,

representing the MOB Network. Now he's on our show representing Prime Monday Night Hockey.
He is the studio host. His name is Adnan Verke.
Adnan, what is your first assignment of the season?

Roy, it's great to see you. And David, let's get to this right away.
So I got officially the word that I'm going to the Major League Baseball winner meetings in early December.

Oh, right. There we go.
What this means is specifically for David to go ahead and get the Panthers tickets now because I said I need the earliest flight.

December 6th. I have a 7 a.m.
flight. I believe I'm landing in Miami around 10.
No, sorry. Shit.
Are we going to be able to make this work? I'm flying to Orlando.

Then I have to get the rental car and meet you guys in Miami. Three-hour drive.
Which day? Which day? December 6th is a Saturday. Yeah, but it's a 3.30 game.

Yeah, I can do it. Okay.

Land at 10 a.m. I'll get a rental car, drive right there, meet you guys for the game at Sunrise.
Perfect. It's going to be awesome.
We're doing it.

The arena is right by the turnpike, so it will make it happen for sure. Adnan, you do realize we're going to have to get you a credential, right? You're going to have to be in the press.
No, no, no.

Adnan's sitting with me. We're having beaters in the seats with you.
Who are you talking about? You and Adnan in the cheap seats.

But

I've never been to a Panthers game. I want to see the defending Stealing Cup champion with Bodowski, David, and Roy.
It's going to be awesome. Come on.

We'll go out after the game and have a drink together.

Well, some of us will have a drink. Well, maybe not too much if you're driving straight back to Orlando.
Drinking water. We'll figure it out.
This is going to happen. This is going to happen.

I think I'm going to try to do is this, David, do the hockey with you guys, book signing with Stu Godz afterwards, and then Orlando. That could be dicey.
Nice.

So what's your first assignment officially for Prime Monday Night Hockey at, Nan? Thank you, Roy. So I'll be on NHL Network next Thursday.

Can't wait, obviously, with the season kicking off on Tuesday, as we all know. So seven to nine next Thursday Thursday at NHL Network.

And then the first assignment for Amazon Prime Minute hockey back home in Toronto. Red Wings and Maple Leaves part of a doubleheader.
It is Canadian Thanksgiving, October 13th.

We also have the Canucks later that night. So I can't wait, man.
It's going to be a lot of fun. As always, these Toronto Maple Leaves fans are so delusional.
They always think this is the year.

So we'll get those fans fired up. It should be a lot of fun.
And as far as the Red Wings are concerned, still waiting for the Iser Plan to come to fruition.

We'll see what happens their opening night. It'll be fun.
So Thanksgiving in Canada, hockey. Like I'm trying to think of the American, you know,

equitable, right? So we football on Thanksgiving is like a religion here. Like people go to the games, it's Detroit, it's Dallas.
So Thanksgiving hockey in Canada, is it similar?

Like is Vancouver in Toronto?

Explain this to me because I feel like I should know this, but I have no idea. No, you shouldn't have to know it, David.
And honestly, it's not quite the same. I'll be totally honest here.

I'm not just playing to the American audience. Growing up, U.S.
Thanksgiving was better because we'd get football. So I would go to school and I'd come home.
I'm like, oh, Lions gave at 1230. Great.

And then I watched the Cowboys at 4.

And then later on, of course, now there's a third game being added which is nbc peacock or amazon whatever it is so uh yeah in canada thanksgiving i mean it's cool it's always the first monday in october it's to meant to signal the harvest and you know timing wise i would argue canada is better because it spaces it out with christmas but honestly you guys do it better because you get the football and the turkey and the shirock and then john madden getting after it so no hockey is not synonymous with thanksgiving i think amazon's making a ploy this year to do so but generally speaking it is not the case what do canadians eat on thanksgiving is it a typical thanksgiving like traditional american thanksgiving meal or do you guys have other things that you guys go to?

It is typical Thanksgiving meal, Ethan, but I'm telling you, you guys, you guys do it right. Like, I remember growing up, and my mom would get a turkey, and it was good.

Like, you know, I like the dark meats, great. Here, like, you go to someone's house, and it's like six different types of things.
You haven't had this stuffing, you're going to lose it.

Wait till you have the pumpkin pie with a vanilla ice cream. Oh, my grandma's pumpkin pie.
That's what I'm saying.

Americans in Thanksgiving, like get rivals Christmas or Hanukkah, whatever major festival you have. Like U.S.
Thanksgiving, that's like a number one seed for me. It's awesome.
Turkey's overrated.

You shut it. You shut the hell up.
Did I say that? How dare you?

You weren't here when I cooked my turkey. Oh, Roy, I've been trying to get my family to do a deep-fried turkey for years now.
I didn't do a deep-fried turkey. That was great.

Something different. We got to try something different because it's fine.
We're not like typical white people that don't season our turkey at all.

We season it a little bit, but I need something different. I need to try deep-fried or like Roy's got to make a bird for us, something like that.
Or we just go to ham and steak.

Or we just go to ham and steak next year.

What is happening? Thanks for watching. I'm done with turkey.
I'm over turkey. I'm over

it completely. Turkey is like the star, but it's not everything.

Correct. Thanksgiving is putting on one fork a thing or turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, veggies, putting it all in one fork and eating it at the same time.
And that is the deliciousness.

My mouth is watering. I can't even finish the sentence.
I'm just saying that we need a new star. We need a new star.

Speaking of stars.

I'm just saying. That's just poor coaching.
You've got a good player and you're just not coaching him up.

You haven't had my turkey.

I would love to have your turkey in the office. You can ask anybody in that office.
No, I would love to have your turkey.

No, you can ask anybody in that office because I cooked a turkey for everybody in that office how good mine was.

There is this citrus forward turkey. There's everyone in that office.
Everyone in the office. Nobody's here.
That is not a single story. Okay, speaking of stars.
Adnan had something, though.

Adnan, what did you have to add there?

I know what you're saying. Turkey, sometimes, if it's not the right, is too dry.
Like, the first thing you see is a guy adding ketchup. You You go, okay, clearly the turkey was not

adding ketchup to turkey? Yeah, no, cranberry sauce, if anything. Yeah, great Danny Canal.
I worked for the DSPM for many years. Proud Florida steak guy.
I've seen him add ketchup to turkey.

And I was like, wow. Clearly, that turkey is too dry.
That's almost as bad as putting ketchup on steak. Almost as bad.

That's worse. Yeah, it's worse.
But that's it. Ew, what are we doing? I'm speechless.
Ketchup to turkey.

Yeah. Well, he's offended.

Yeah.

Okay, so speaking of stars,

let's talk about the Kaprizov-McDavid situation here. Kaprizov's contract, he gets $17 million.
McDavid's still in negotiations. We think, we don't even know if there are negotiations going on.

Adnan, to transition finally into hockey, how do you think the Kaprizov situation is going to impact the McDavid situation, if at all? Yeah, I think it's fascinating.

I mean, listen, $17 million a year. I immediately said to my buddy Jason DeVurse on our podcast, and it's all unscripted, I said, is he overrated, underrated, or properly rated?

And he goes, he's properly rated. I said, okay, $17 million.
You think he's one of the best players in hockey?

Then he's like, yeah, at the age of where he is and the ascendant rise he's on, for Minnesota, it makes sense to get a superstar player. And I do believe he's a superstar player.
I said, all right.

And as it now impacts Connor McDavid, especially after next year's UFA, Kyle Conner, I mean, there's other guys now, you'll see that salary bump.

For McDavid, and again, I know we've talked to this before with you guys.

I still think the most fascinating situation is this, which I don't think happens, which is that he just plays out the entire year without a contract. Like, I think that'd be amazing.

Like, just a lame duck situation. He's like, no, I want to just finish the year and see.
I mean, he'd lose his mind with all the questions he'd be at. Every major city he'd be going to.

Connor, what about signing here? What about signing here? But I do think that the Oilers will sign a two-year deal, maybe a three-year deal, 18 a year. Can we do three for 54? Is that possible?

Something like that. I mean, I know they're up against it.
He's going to swallow the rest of the cap, but Capri Soft just made it that much more expensive for the Oilers.

But again, my wish fulfillment is just he plays up the year. It'll be a LeBron type saga.
I'm taking my talents to South Beach. I don't think it happens, but it'd be fun to see.
It's going to happen.

All right. Alexander Barkov

visited Miami Heat at their training facility. This was at FAU, and Miami Heat head coach Expostra said that he talked to Barkov, and he said that he will be back in five to six months.
Yeah.

I think it's way too early for anybody to know that right now. Like, he just had surgery a week ago today.

We're sitting here a week ago right now talking about how he was going under the knife as we were talking.

Until his knee heals to the point where he can, well, first he's be able to put all his weight on it, which he isn't doing yet. He's going to have to skate on it.

Then he's going to have to push off on it. These are all steps that are going to be happening as we get into like Christmas time and into January.
And hopefully like he's on schedule.

So nobody knows if it's going to be on the early side or on the late side. It's impossible to tell.
But let's be optimistic. I'm down for that, but we don't know.

But to David's point, it's one of my great frustrations in sports. What happens is a guy gets hurt and he goes, oh, that's four to six, or it's three to four.
I'm like, you don't really know.

And I'll tell you, in the baseball playoffs with the Blue Jays, Bobette went on the IL September 6th. They're like, oh, 10-day IL knee knee contusion.
I go, yeah, that's what you think.

But like, it could get worse. It could be worse than they're letting on.
Now it's Yankees, Blue Jays starting Saturday. It's been a month, and there's no guarantee Bobuchet's playing.

So I'm with David, especially with hockey and injury of that size. Five or six months sounds great because why? You say, oh, he'll come back in March.
He'll play like 15 games.

He's ready for the playoffs. Or he comes back in April.
He'll play five games. He's back for the playoffs.
No guarantee of this. Yes, fingers crossed.
We'd love to see Barcock back.

It's going to be a battle. It's a war of attrition for the Panthers every year to try to win a third straight cup already with a Ka-Chuck out till December.

But yeah, if Spo's an expert, let's hope he's back in five or six months. I'll take it.
All right, so Adding in, no Kachuk, no Barkov.

Are the Panthers still potentially a Stanley Cup contender with Reinhardt and Bennett and Marshand and Eckblad and Forzling and Bob? And they've still got a stacked roster.

Where do the Panthers line up right now today? Again, David, I still feel like no matter what, until you get beaten, I'm riding with the Panthers. But you're taking out two enormous pieces.

I mean, Kachuk, as I said, will be back. But as you said, right now he's not there.
And who knows what kind of hole you could dig the first couple months of the season?

I still think they have more than enough firepower and a staunch enough defense and a great enough goaltender in Bob that they should be fine. But we saw this last year.

Like, it wasn't so critical to win the division. It was more important for other teams to do so.
Leaves from the division, fine. Paul Maurice is like, okay, whatever.

It wasn't that they're playing possum. They just want to make sure that they're a healthy come playoff time.
And sure enough, it didn't matter if there's a home ice advantage or not. They could win.

I do think the road gets tougher every single season. Every other team is gunning for them.
They're the, you know, the hunter, not the hunted. So I do think the Panthers still have the team to beat.

But yeah, if you tell me Kachuk's injury is worse than expected and Barkov's definitely out for the year, that road becomes a lot much harder.

Another thing that I wanted to get to, and Roy kind of alluded to it before, and I think Ethan actually mentioned it too.

Are we going to get a Hughes super team in two years, potentially in New Jersey? Because that's where two-thirds of the Hughes are signed.

But is that like, I feel like we're kind of dancing around it right now, but are we lining up for a Hughes super team in the Metro New York, New Jersey area?

This Hughes, not Quinn Hughes, getting that kind of a contract. I'm like, holy moly, the devils are logging so much money into Dougie Hamilton and the Inferior Hughes.

I mean, the rumor has been for a while. The Inferior Hughes.

Inferior Hughes. Title of the episode, The Inferior Hughes.

All along, David, the rumor has been the Hughes all want to play together. And why not? I mean, I'd love to play with my brother if I was good enough at playing hockey.
That'd be so cool.

Family affair. I think the Vancouver Knuckles will do everything in their power to make sure that doesn't happen.
They'll offer Quinn Hughes moon.

He can have whatever mountain he wants named after him in Vancouver. Like, well, let's figure this out.
You are a franchise generational player.

Unless he says, no matter what, there's nothing you can do. There's no price you can pay.
I want to play with my brothers, period. It feels like I don't know that.
The passion necessarily for that.

It feels like that's the way it's leaning. Like everything that I've heard as far as rumors, innuendo, they want to play together.
That's their dream.

It's like Gordy Howe played with Mark and Marty Howe all those years later, you know, the Whalers.

So it feels like it's leaning, but again, Vinker will do everything in their power to make sure that doesn't happen. A little off from the moon.
Give him the Caprizov contract.

I was just going to say, I see Quinn Hughes like a Caprizov situation. They have to keep that player.
They

will not lose that guy. They will revolt in Vancouver.

I want to ask you off the Hughes contract. Another contract we saw signed the next day was Jackson Lacombe.
Same AAV, one more year.

A better player, like statistically, a better player, Jackson Lacombe, than Luke Hughes, gets basically the same contract. I want to ask you more about Anaheim, though.

They're kind of the hot pick to be a dark horse in the playoffs this year. We were talking about them earlier.
You agree?

Do you see that this team could really push for the playoffs under Joel Quenville?

Well, again, Ethan, your point, Lacombe, where he's at right now, I mean, 24 years of age, that's a good contract for a guy who's coming into his zone. I do think Mason McTavish signing was important.

Like, he didn't want any sort of dissension there. I think he's a key young piece.
They're clearly in win-now mode. I mean, you get Joel Quenville there as your head coach.

And I think, like, a Terry francona in baseball q comes in there that's going to improve that team i thought a year ago they were adventurous and on the rise now you trade ziegris which could be addition by subtraction because clearly he'd fallen out of favor there i think the ducks challenge for a playoff spot i'm not maybe as bullish as my buddy jason demers is he thinks they're a playoff team for sure but i think ethan milk and temp for a wild card definitely team on the rise a good coach good young team it'll be fun Are there any unsigned free agents out there that you can see being signed?

I mean, and that includes Carter Hart. Yes.
I was about to say, Carter Hart's the only one, Roy.

And it's like when this whole situation happened with Hockey Canada, you know, he's the one guy they go, dude, he's a good goalie.

Like at one point, they thought in Philadelphia, he was the franchise goaltender. And then I think he dipped a little bit.

But overall, it went from like Carter Hart's a generational goalie to he's great, to he's very good, to he's still good, to still now. I mean, he should have a job at the NHL.

If all things are being equal, Carter Hart can be a starter some places, can definitely be a backup for almost any team. And the one thought I had was, you know, Edmonton would make so much sense.

He's from Sherwood Park, Alberta. But I think because of the trial and the negative attention associated with it, it's almost like Carter Hart can't play for a team in Canada.

Whereas if he's playing for, I know the Dallas stars with Jake Odder, but let's suppose it was Dallas. It's like, well, who cares? They don't know what happened to this guy.

Oh, he used to play for the Flyers. He had some trials.
Something happened. Oh, he was acquitted.
Okay, whatever. He's our goalie.

I think in Canada, it's such a sensitive issue that entire trial faced so much scrutiny that I think it'd be a different story. So Carter Hart is going to be playing hockey.

I think Carolina Hurricanes are definitely in the mix. It was one of the teams I read.
Las Vegas is in the mix to sign him. He's a good goalie, and by all accounts, he's a good guy.

Again, I don't know what happened with that situation. Clearly, you know, his record has been tarnished, so to speak, but they've been exonerated for now.
He's going to play hockey.

He's good enough to play hockey in the NHL. So I want to talk to you real quick about something that I'm guessing you have some privy knowledge to, and that's the new

Anaheim. Anaheim.
Amazon NHL behind the scenes show that's, I think it drops today, does it not? That's correct.

So I was lucky enough to see a little bit ahead of time, as I'm guessing you have too, Adnan,

the Four Nations episode had me feeling like I was watching it for the first time again. I was like my heart was beating.
I was just like, I was so into it.

What have you seen? What do you think? And what should people be the most excited about? Yeah, David, I don't want to be a total company show, but it's outstanding.

And when we had the Amazon meetings in September in Toronto, they unveiled that episode you're talking about, and it was unbelievable.

I know how much you guys were into it, Ethan, Mike Ryan, everybody there in Montreal. I mean, just seeing the Ka-Chucks behind the scenes,

I can't get enough of Brady Kachuck. Yeah, that's right.
It was the Brady Kachuk episode that did the Four Nations. I'm calling it the Four Nations episode, but forgive me, Brady.

But Brady is like such a showman, right? He's just funny. He's

great for the game. And he lets you in.
Like there's nothing unvarnished about him. It's like, yep, this is who I am, love it or not.

And like seeing those fights unfold and seeing his dad, he could just watch in the stands and then telling his wife, don't worry, there's going to be more coming.

Like it was, it gave me chills watching it, man. It was awesome.
It's highly produced. It's really well done.
I saw a bit of the William Nielander episode as well.

But what I really want to see is stuff about Crosby because for a superstar, I know Roy hates him for good reason, but for a superstar, there's really not a lot we know a ton about Crosby, right?

He's from Coal Harbor, Nova Scotia. He's a nice guy.
He, you know, stayed with Mario Lemieux the first couple of seasons in HL. That's about it.
Like, you don't really know a ton about him.

So I'm hoping with this face-off series, he finally lets us in a little bit, lets us see what Sidney Crosby's life is all about. But the Brady Kachuck episode, fantastic, is what I saw.

Yeah, it's cool. Sorry, Roy, to cut you off.
I am not interested in Sidney Crosby, man. Anyway, go ahead, Dave.

No, what I thought was really cool about, because there was the, I believe the sixth episode is called like the Rat Kings, and it's all about the Panthers and the final and all that.

So we see a lot of the Kachucks. I love how the family dynamic works as they're all very, not very different, but they're all very particularly different.

And that, you know, Matthew's a little bit more of, I guess, like a wilder one where Brady's a little bit more reserved. But then when you get him on the ice, he's a madman.

And hearing Big Walt talk about them when they were at the final game where Taylor Swift was, where he's like giving his wife and his daughter shit because they're looking for Taylor Swift.

And he's like, I guess I'm the only one that's going to watch my son play hockey.

So it's just so funny to me.

I just love having those looks behind the scenes, even if one of them may be of Sidney Crosby. I'm sorry, Roy.
But I love when we get to see Behind the Curtain.

And this show has done such a great job of that. Did you guys get to see the Johnny Hockey episode? I heard that.

That was incredible. I want to prepare my, I feel like I need to be sitting in a dark room when I watch that.

That's going to be profound. That's going to be impactful.
Yeah, his widow has been so passionate and outspoken just about Johnny's impact.

And like, you know, sometimes in these types of tragedies, people just fade away, right? People don't want to deal with anything and just want to move away.

But they've done such a great job honoring Johnny's memory and being so forthful about it. I'm sure that's going to be a three-hank weeper for sure.
Yeah. All right.
The season starts on October 7th.

That is Tuesday. Tuesday.
And the Panthers will raise their Stanley Cup banner on

Saturday. By the way, at the sun, it starts on Saturday.
What's that, Ethan? The NLDS. The ALDS.
This is the hockey show we're going to do. We're moving into the baseball playoffs, baby.

Add in real quick. Who's your World Series pick? You know, I'm I'm calling Phillies Blue Jays.
Read that. Yeah, I like it.

Yankees. Let's go, Yankees.
Keep my

happy wife, happy life. Come on.
I think the Phillies are going to win the World Series as well. Though, I will obviously be rooting for myself.

Saturday, Ethan, which is where I thought you were going with this, is Kane Seminoles. Oh, who gives a shit about that? Everybody not from Gainesville.
I'm sorry, you guys.

College football is dead to me. Baseball is what I'll be watching.

Okay. All right.
He wrote the book CineFL Interviews, Essays, and Tales from the Red Carpet. You see him on MOB Network.
You see him on NHL Network. You see him on Prime Monday Night Hockey.

And you'll see him in South Florida at the beginning of December. 246 Panthers Blue Jackets.
Bill, I can't wait. This is going to be awesome.
Adnan Burke. Ladies and gentlemen, he is coming down.

We are going to parte or at least watch hockey. By the way, I love the hockey show, the name, but now that David mentioned the Rat Kings, it's a pretty good name.
Do you guys want to steal it?

It's taken, though. It's taken.

Can't you? Hockey show it is. Thanks, Adnan, for joining us and thinking thinking of a brand new name for this podcast, even though we are now two years in.

Thanks, guys. Appreciate you.
Thanks again to Adnan Burke for joining us. We are almost there, October 7th, Tuesday.

That's when we drop the puck on the regular season, and we're going to see the Panthers try to three-peat. And this one's going to be the toughest test yet.

They're not going to have Alexander Barkov, Matthew Kachuk. Thomas Nocek is not going to beat us.
The fourth line is going to get hampered a little bit.

So, yeah, it's a bit of an injury bug before they even get started. It'll be that much sweeter when they get it done.
Yeah, so we are looking forward to that.

For Ethan, for Danny B, for Jason in the back, for Rose, who is not here. That's David Dwark.
My name is Roy Bellamy.

We will see you next week, and that's going to be us talking about the first week of the National Hockey League regular season. We'll see you guys next week.

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.

Broximo, Cuervo.com. Please drink responsibly.
Cuervo.