Arena Renders, Hayton’s Progress, State of the Rebuild

Tyler, Grandy, and Matt give their thoughts on the brand new arena renders, Hayton’s progress and misfortune with injury, the overall rebuild, and Tyler’s Question of the Week!

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What is The Chirpin Yotes Podcast?

A Coyotes centric podcast made by fans for fans! We discuss all things Coyotes hockey, ASU hockey, and the NHL. A proud part of the Inside the Rink Network. New Episodes Weekly!

All right, and we're live.

Welcome to episode 70 of the

Trippin' Yolks podcast.

Look at us, two weeks in a row,

coming back at you.

We have a lot of things to talk about,

all the topics here to be talked about.

I don't know.

I blew that one, guys.

Sorry about that long day at work.

But I got the boys.

I got Grandy.

I got Matt.

Boys, how are we doing?

Just another day, man.

Just another day.

Not enjoying the Coyotes game right now.

Let's put it that way.

Yeah,

this Coyotes game got rough in a hurry.

um but yeah just doing good

excited to talk some hockey

with you boys let's go yeah

let's talk about a lot of

uh crazy bombshells all

over I know um we will go

to a bit of surprise this

morning let me get that

slide going for us uh I

guess I mean did these make

you let me scroll to the

stop so these are the

renders on the screen here

I'm about to show so this

is obviously the inside

bowl right here which I

think it looks pretty cool I like the

What do you call that thing?

That Jumbotron and all that.

Looks pretty good.

Looks pretty full to me.

Looks a lot more than 5,000 people.

Here's an external one.

I think this will make sense earlier.

It's like a bit of a canopy kind of thing.

Some digital screen, I'm guessing,

from the looks of it.

I'm really not too sure.

Here's it, I guess, with a concert.

I'll imagine it's Metallica or something.

This is the outside view.

So that little... This part,

I'm assuming...

It's going to be this right here.

And then so I'm thinking, so yeah,

I like that.

It says Arizona coyotes

facing the one-on-one.

That's pretty cool.

I like that a lot.

And here's the kind of overall general,

I believe you're supposed to be,

what do you say?

Like hotels, apartments, shopping centers,

things like that.

I think a movie theater.

So I'm sure Harkins or

somebody will be there.

But the best part and my

favorite part is it says

Phoenix right here.

So I'm guessing maybe

they're planning on

bringing back the Phoenix

Coyotes as God intended,

but we'll have to wait and see for that.

I think this is placeholder too,

but I can dream.

It's more just the city.

The whole reason for the

name change was to be more

inclusive to the state.

I can't imagine they go back to Phoenix,

especially considering the

land is technically right

there on the southern end of Scottsdale.

I can't imagine the name

change actually being going

back to Phoenix.

A man can dream.

I'm guessing this is the...

the practice arena I'm

assuming yep that that

would be my guess um yeah

that's what it looked like

to me so and then where the

logo is will actually be

their their home where they

play I like it I mean I

definitely think it's a

pretty good render but I'm

understanding that it it

just leaked out it wasn't

supposed to that I don't

think it was I think it was

on purpose personally I

know I call me a tinfoil

hat guy but I think it was on purpose but

I feel like everything

they've done has been an

intentional leak.

When you're this big as a

group and you're not

getting any talk from

Morello or anybody else,

I think anything that's

done is done intentionally.

anything that's accidental I

feel like the team would

come out and say hey we

didn't mean to you know

it's just kind of like oh

it's out there and then

it's not and they don't say

why to me that's

intentional yeah I think so

too I think it's a general

support yeah but they did

treat when the white

kachinas leaked early they

did treat it the same exact

way despite that being a

very obvious oops we

accidentally leaked this early thing

It could be purposeful.

I don't really think that matters, though,

in the long run,

if it's purposeful or not.

It is what it is.

We are going to see these

one way or another within the next week.

I just, man, yes,

these renderings look awesome.

I'm just really sick of

looking at renderings.

I think we have more

renderings than we do playoff wins.

I'm pretty sure.

Like as a, from 96 to now,

I'm pretty sure we've seen

more renderings of arenas

than we have seen playoff

wins at this point.

I mean,

I've seen renderings all over the place.

I'm sick of them too.

I mean, yeah, it looks cool.

I mean, like you're saying, granny,

it looks cool,

but I want to see shovels in the ground.

I mean, we haven't bought the land yet.

We haven't bid on the land yet.

So I don't know what the

point of leaking it now was, I guess,

to jump up

coyotes pack on twitter I

guess I don't know but I so

we talked about this last

show that the winning bid

doesn't necessarily reflect

the most amount of money it

has to do with having a

plan in place what the

land's going to be used for

those sort of things and I

would imagine that that

stuff all comes out and

becomes public knowledge

when bids are placed

So it doesn't surprise me

that we're seeing these

leaked renderings now just

because it's all going to

become public information

at the time of the auction.

So I think this is kind of just, okay,

we're maybe two months out

from an auction, um, or two and a half,

well, 10 weeks roughly, um,

from potentially seeing the

auction take place.

And I think this is kind of like, Hey,

I know things haven't been

great on the ice lately.

Um,

You know, there's been a lot of silence,

a lot of, you know, if this doesn't work,

relocation talks, that sort of stuff.

I think this was kind of like, hey,

we're going to leak this to

kind of try and, I guess, turn the image.

that is out there right now

for the Coyotes because it's not great.

It isn't.

Some of the things that even

that have come out from the

league about what happens

if this doesn't happen and

they're not as firm on

They're staying in Arizona no matter what.

They've basically said, hey,

we need a plan.

And granted,

we'll get a team back through

expansion even if it doesn't work.

But you want this to work.

You don't want to see this team go.

You don't want to be the new Jets.

Yeah.

Actually,

am I crazy or is that a Stanley

Cup playoffs icon right there?

It might be.

It looks like it to me.

I can't zoom in on this one.

It looks like it to me.

Real quick,

it's kind of funny listening to

us talk about, hey,

does this look like this?

This looks really cool as

we're talking on an audio medium.

This will have a video format.

Yeah.

This goes on YouTube?

Yeah,

this will be on the inside the rink

in our own YouTubes.

So anybody listening on

Spotify or whatever your

preferred listening application is,

if you decide to check out

our pod on YouTube,

all of this that we're talking about,

all these pictures are

going to be available,

as well as some slides that

we've got set up for later

in the show talking about

the rebuild and the state

of a couple of players on the team.

Don't worry, guys.

You won't see my ugly mug

because my internet is too

slow to actually render cameras still.

I really hope this

construction gets done soon

where I get faster internet.

He's the best part of the podcast.

His face, I promise you, fans,

when you get to see his face,

it'll be the best part of the podcast.

Your patience is worth it.

We'll be picked off of

YouTube the second that happens.

Get a ban right away.

Don't sell yourself short, Randy.

Somebody's going to shut

this off thinking they're

watching The Bachelor.

Exactly.

That's what I was saying.

Exactly.

You're exactly right.

ABC's going to call us right away.

For those listening to the audio version,

good point, Grant.

You didn't think about that.

Yeah, the renders, I mean,

you can see Craig Morgan's

Twitter tweet out the

pictures and some other

ones around there.

I know Cameron Cox from 12

News did as well.

But essentially, I mean, yeah, it's a rink,

obviously.

But there's like a little

canopy thing that kind of looks like,

I'm assuming it's indoors

or cooled off somehow.

But it has, you know, between the shops.

It kind of reminds me of the

old strip in Vegas.

Think about walking down the

old strip and you look up

and it's all enclosed,

but it's not enclosed by a physical roof.

You're walking under a

canopy and they light the

canopy up at night and that

sort of thing.

That's almost what that reminds me of.

Yeah, that's a good way to put it.

Are you really surprised

that a guy that owns the

Sahara in Vegas would do

something like that?

I will say I got

Very big Vegas vibes off of... Yeah,

it does.

I was just at T-Mobile Arena

a weekend ago.

It does look very Vegas.

Yeah, it does.

I definitely see the influence.

But I mean, T-Mobile Arena is great.

If you guys haven't been there,

it's a great arena.

So I don't blame them at all.

Take it.

I don't like most.

It's kind of just how... It

just seems to fit right

there in that corner.

What a good spot for it,

just based on the little render.

But yeah, let's do the bid.

Let's...

Get that process started.

I'm tired of talking about arena rumors.

Let's talk about shovels and

construction equipment next.

I'm still sitting though, boys.

When game one happens in the new arena,

we're definitely going to

have to have a trailer that's live.

Oh, definitely.

All of us in person.

Definitely.

In our new episode of The Bachelor.

Grand to be on The Bachelor

about three months after that.

Get your roses ready.

Yeah, almost almost a year ago to the date,

I feel like we were talking

about the Tempe project and about,

you know,

reminding everybody to go vote

and about how close we were

to to finally having something secure.

And here we are a year later,

same conversation.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised if,

you know,

if you're a Coyotes fan for 25 years,

that's it's not new territory.

That's kind of where I'm at

with these renderings.

It's the same song and dance.

Each rendering looks better

and more awesome than the last.

But to me, until this auction goes through,

that's all it is.

It's a rendering.

Let's get this in motion.

Let's win this auction.

Let's keep the coyotes in

Arizona where they belong.

none of us want to have, yes,

we're going to get an

expansion team if it happens,

but none of us want to have put the,

you don't want to go down that road.

You don't want to be that

guy that followed a team

for 25 years to lose it and

then end up with a new one.

Not just 25.

I don't even think I would be a fan too.

It's 25 years of pain and misery and,

with very few high points,

and the team is right on

the cusp of turning the

shoulder when we'd lose it.

Because they're still going

to be here next year.

That much was talked about

by Bill Daly and Gary Bennett.

Yeah, that was confirmed.

They'll still be here next year.

It'll be the year after,

if it happens that it happens.

We will be right on the cusp

of something great.

And this will get yanked away from us.

The most coyotes hockey way

to do it though.

I mean, so I,

I am curious what you guys

think would happen.

Let's say this doesn't go

through and relocation

becomes a very real possibility.

And then six months later,

Alex Morello is able to

secure a plot of land after

plans have been made for relocation.

And, you know,

he can start putting shovels

in the ground and,

do you guys think they would

still proceed with

relocation or do you think

they yank relocation from

whoever wins that bid?

I,

I could see relocation still being an

option in telling Morello

you'll get the expansion

team type type thing.

Yeah.

But would they at that point

tell Morello he's got to spend, you know,

$750 million on an expansion team.

Cause at that point,

If they relocate,

Morello's either got to

agree that he's going with

the team or the Board of

Governors would have to

force a sale at that point.

Which draws out the process, too.

If Morello has bought the land,

which they then break ground on,

and Morello's saying, wait a minute,

I bought land, I broke ground.

I'm going to have an arena.

You guys are trying to force a sale.

I might get 400 million for this team.

And then you want me to

spend 750 million on expansion.

So, you know,

there's a lot more that's got

to get looked at there.

You know, if this doesn't go through,

is that the end of Morello

looking for a plot?

I think this is his last chance.

If I had to just guess,

it's his last chance.

I think this is it.

I think the board of governors is fed up.

I think Bettman's on his last little,

using every squeeze of

goodwill he has at the board.

This is his last shot.

I truly believe that.

I hate to say it.

I don't want to be that guy.

I don't want to say, you know, oh yeah,

screw him.

But I mean, I think this is the last shot.

I think I feel very strongly.

It's the last shot for him again.

Yeah.

I don't know.

Maybe, maybe I'm a jerk for this,

but I don't think, I don't know.

I don't think we get a team

right away with expansion.

I really don't feel like we do.

I truly just don't feel that way.

I don't think we do.

I really don't kind of look

at it the way the NHL has

handled expansion in the past.

Like Seattle completely

renovated their arena

before they were actually

granted a team for expansion.

Seattle actually had to go

out and prove like, Hey,

If we're going to expand or

the NHL basically said,

show us that you have a

place to play if we're

going to grant you expansion.

And Vegas already had plans

in place and they had the

financial backing and the

land already secured to

build T-Mobile before they

were granted an expansion team.

So for Arizona to get one,

they're still sitting in

the same place where

they've got to have land.

They have to have a

developer and they have to

have an owner in place.

So even if Arizona – I agree with Tyler.

If Arizona lost this team right now,

I think Salt Lake City is

probably ahead of them.

Houston's potentially ahead of them.

Calgary.

Atlanta would be ahead of them as well.

I don't think – I don't know

if Houston would be ahead of them.

I think Salt Lake City gets the Coyotes.

In this hypothetical,

Salt Lake City gets the Coyotes.

Atlanta's ahead of us, and then I think –

we'd slot in there if we

have the owners come

forward that want a team here.

And then there's always the

potential of Hartford, too,

because the governor of

Connecticut has reached out

to the league as well on

multiple occasions and has

talked about how they

potentially have or could

have an NHL-ready arena

within a year if they were

granted the option to get another team.

And I have this to say, too.

The difference between

Hartford and Atlanta, Houston...

Hartford is a shared,

already has a team in that TV market.

And that's what I think the

league is looking at right

now is capturing these TV markets.

Exactly.

That's that whole tri-state area where

You're maybe not going to acquire new fans,

and it might be a similar

issue to what Quebec is

because you're not going to

gain new fans putting

another team in Quebec City.

But what it would do for...

division align or I'm sorry

conference alignment

balancing the east west

dynamic having a team out

there uh there's there's

reason to believe at some

point you know hartford

could be that fourth team

you know if the nhl really

does want to expand to 36

um I would imagine that's

too many probably that's

too many teams I don't have

I think 32 is the magic number

Really?

Well, and that's where we're at.

We're at 32, and it's a good number,

but I think what a lot of

people ignore when talking

about expansion,

because the biggest

argument against it is it

waters down the product,

but it also develops...

new players it brings people

to the game that never

would have played it

otherwise I mean austin

matthews is the perfect

example that gets used all

the time he he said

multiple times he'd be

playing baseball if it

weren't for the coyotes so

yeah I i do think it's it

is a big deal if you're

going to expand the markets

that potentially bring in

new players I think one

thing we saw the atlanta houston

And well, Arizona to me, that's,

that's the four markets.

Those three markets that

don't have teams right now

are going to be the first

three that get expanded into.

But I don't think the thing

I see as an issue too,

is the last two expansion

teams were on the West coast, right?

Vegas and Seattle.

So you're going to add.

So then you move.

Yeah.

No, I know,

but if you move – so say we

just – worst-case scenario,

nuclear option,

Cowboys move to Salt Lake City.

That means you have Salt Lake City, Vegas,

Seattle, Anaheim, L.A., Vancouver,

all the west side.

Why would you have another team there?

You have your desert team in Vegas.

You have Salt Lake City for the between.

You have Seattle,

and you have the California

coast in Vancouver.

I don't necessarily like

that argument if you

consider the fact that you've got –

Two teams in New York one in

New Jersey all playing

within 40 miles of each

other Yeah with the

populations a lot bigger though.

It's a lot more population wise out there.

That's my only argument

either Arizona is a crap

about California teams.

Oh,

I know that and I'm not saying that we

I know we don't I'm saying

the league from a league

standpoint not TV markets TV markets

It's why the NBA makes money.

It's why the NFL makes money

is they capture the biggest

TV markets in America.

And right now the NHL has

done a poor job of that.

I wonder,

I wonder if Salt Lake city would

bend laws, liquor laws on Sundays,

because I, if I remember right,

and I could be totally wrong about this,

but isn't the sale of

alcohol illegal on Sundays

in Salt Lake city?

Let's look it up.

Let's see.

Salt Lake City.

Liquor on Sunday.

Let's see what the old Google says.

But while Tyler's looking that up, again,

it's just that's the

biggest thing you have to

remember with any expansion.

It's always TV markets.

It's no longer a gate-driven league,

especially with all the

streaming platforms that

are out there to watch games on.

Why the NHL took so long to

come back from COVID versus

the NBA and the NFL,

who both boomed out of it,

was... Especially the NFL.

Holy crap.

The NBA and NFL has done a far, far,

far superior job capturing those markets.

Yeah, a big issue, though,

is that neither of those

leagues play in Canada.

And you had far greater

restrictions with Canadian

teams and what you were

able to do league-wide in

that scenario as far as

putting out a good product.

I mean,

we had an entire playoff that all

the Canadian teams played

against each other.

We were guaranteed one was

going to go to a conference

final because we couldn't

keep divisions the way they were.

So I think it was a little

more difficult for the NHL,

especially in terms of

navigating their way back to play,

because they're operating

across two countries.

They're across an

international border there.

But the NBA does, too.

I got my answer, by the way.

We have our answer for the...

Real quick,

didn't the Raptors and the Blue

Jays both play in Buffalo

when NBA and MLB returned to play?

I know the MLB did.

I know the MLB for sure did.

I don't think the NBA did.

I know for a fact.

The NBA also played in one

bumble down in Miami.

Well, that's true as well.

I do feel like when they

went back to standard play,

the Raptors may have played

a fair amount of their

games in the United States.

They didn't play in Toronto

very often at all.

So I, you know, for what it's worth,

I do think we're still

talking about one team.

You know,

you can get the Blue Jays to play

in Buffalo, which they did,

and you have no problem there.

But getting seven NHL teams

to play in the United States,

that would have been a

little more difficult.

I have that answer as well.

By the way,

the Raptors played the rest of

their home games due to

COVID-19 at the Amelie

Arena in Toronto or Tampa Bay.

Excuse me.

Yep.

Yeah, I was pretty,

I didn't know where it was,

but I was pretty sure they

did play out of the United

States because of that.

Players could come into the

United States without any issue,

but there was a two week

quarantine to go back into

Canada at that point.

So there was no way to play home games.

And then for your liquor,

it is pretty much just allowed anywhere.

It says retail products such

as beers and seltzers up to 5% ABV.

You can buy them at grocery stores,

convenience stores,

both on Sundays and holidays.

And you can go get a drink

as well on these days,

according to gastronomicslc.com.

So there you go.

There it is.

I was just guessing on that one.

Yeah, I mean, it sounded right.

I believed you.

I mean,

it sounded like something Salt Lake

City would have.

For a while,

there were some relatively

extreme laws that were religious-based,

obviously.

Texas has them, too.

You can't buy beer until noon on Sundays.

You can't buy liquor on Sundays.

You can only buy beer, and it's afternoon.

in Texas.

Yeah, I didn't know that.

A lot of people go,

I live in a military town,

so people came from all over,

went to go buy their beer before 12,

and these things are

blaring off like a whole robot voice.

You cannot buy this product or whatever.

It's a whole thing.

I was confused.

There's also no liquor at

the HEBs or grocery stores.

No,

here you can go get Maker's Market or

Fry's.

Interestingly enough, Colorado

Uh,

I had a friend who lived there for

quite a while and without

going to a liquor store,

you can't buy beer higher than 3%.

And certain beer manufacturers, um,

or brewers,

I guess they would actually

brew 3% versions of their beer.

They could be sold in

certain States like that.

But if you went to a liquor store,

you could buy the real thing, you know,

that it's, it's the same way.

It's the same way in Minnesota.

You have to buy all your

alcohol through a liquor store.

It's so funny because we'll

have gas stations that are

literally split in half

where you have one counter

servicing a liquor store on

one side and a gas station

on the other because that's

the only way to buy it at a gas station.

huh all right well now that

we're 24 minutes into a

yeah right that was

interesting yeah that was a

great conversation I

learned a lot today I

learned a lot let's let's

try and get back to hockey

uh well speaking of I guess

hockey culture I guess

there's something I i miss

this so granny I'm gonna

take the reels on this one

because I somehow I miss

this on twitter don't know

but uh god just take it away so

Veteran tough guy, Chris Simon,

and I apologize because I

am blanking on his name,

but an ex-member of the

Pittsburgh Penguins,

both took their own lives this week,

tragically.

And though, yes,

there is likely CTE involved,

I do just want to say this

as a reminder that if

anyone at home is feeling these thoughts,

feeling these urges, please

either reach out to someone

that loves you reach out to

someone that cares for you

or call or text 988 the

suicide prevention hotline

you don't have to do this

alone um but for our talk

on hockey culture I think

we're doing a little bit

more broader on this but

let's start on that subject of cte um

Matt, actually,

I would love to hear your

thoughts on that first.

So I think primarily what

needs to change is the

staged fighting in hockey.

I don't mind the scrums.

I don't mind guys protecting teammates,

that sort of thing.

But we saw the...

nick uh nicholas derdy um or

delorier sorry nick

delorier and uh ryan reeves

fight yesterday

um right off the the face

off it's center ice staged

fight they agree to it

before the drop um it's

still a zero zero game

there's there's no big hit

there's no retaliation

there's no protecting

anybody it's a simple we're

trying to fire the bench up

fight and I i think that's

something that's got to

leave the game because I

think that takes out the

I think that takes out

probably 30% of the fights.

And if you can eliminate an

aspect that maybe doesn't

play as big of a role in the game, um,

you're not necessarily

taking protecting your teammates.

You're not taking away

fighting from the game.

But if, if you make that a,

a 20 minute misconduct automatically, um,

I think that that might go a

long way in preventing CTE.

We know it's repeated hits to the head.

It's not, you know, you're,

you're more likely to deal with it from,

you know,

being punched than you are from

taking a cross check, taking, you know,

a big hit into the boards.

And we do know that those

things cause concussions,

but it's the repeated blows

that cause the long-term issues.

It's why offensive linemen

are more likely to have CTE

in the NFL than a wide receiver.

And a wide receiver will

always take a bigger hit

than an offensive lineman.

I mean, you see those guys get popped,

and they're out.

They stay down.

They end up with a concussion.

But it's still offensive linemen who,

on every single play,

they're going head-to-head,

and it's those repeated blows.

And it's when you're,

so I was a college lacrosse player.

I got a major concussion my first year,

big time.

Like doctor was like, Hey, you know,

you might want to really

reconsider playing a different sport.

Cause that was a big hit.

I mean,

you're lucky you didn't forget more

than you did play another year.

Of course you're 18, 19, you know,

My parents, world school parents, like, ah,

it'll be fine.

Go play.

You know, got another one.

A small one, thankfully.

Thank God.

But, you know,

I wish there'd be more protections, too.

I guess it goes into your

conversation about hockey culture.

Granted, we should make it okay to say,

hey, man,

it's okay to take a scratch if

you need to.

Because it's not worth it.

CTE sounds scary.

It sounds absolutely horrifying.

I mean,

I feel terrible for Chandler Jones.

I mean, Cardinals player.

I mean, it looks A-B.

I mean, how many players can you name,

right?

Yeah.

It sounds terrible.

It sounds scary,

especially when I've had a

couple knocks to the head

that are pretty good.

It's basically early onset dementia.

That's basically what you're

doing to yourself.

And anybody that's had a grandparent,

a parent, a loved one that...

has gone through dementia,

they call it the long

goodbye because you're not

the same person going through it.

And that's what CTE does to you.

It's not just some memory

loss or headaches or whatever.

It's basic deterioration of the brain.

And you need that.

I mean, you need that.

And it's like people say, oh, well,

they get paid.

Yeah, they got paid to do it.

But honestly,

if you could ask Chandler Jones,

would he say it's worth it?

I mean...

Just not to pick on him specifically,

but a person with CTE,

would they say it's worth it?

Just because it's money

doesn't mean it's always worth it.

Look at Daniel Carcillo.

He's out there massively

advocating for... He's

talked nothing more about...

man,

I would have never played if it meant

all of this went away, the mood swings,

the forgetfulness, the depression,

everything that comes with it.

He's gone out on a limb and said,

I would have never played the game.

There's plenty of NFL

players who are on record saying,

I won't put my kid in Pop Warner.

you know they're they're not

going to grow up playing

football I'm still playing

it you know but I i

wouldn't put my kid through

that that you know it's

just not a safe thing and

that's just it's a sad

reality of the sport right

now of both sports and they

have to find ways to deal

with this because you can't

keep watching your players

go through this no but back to what

the NHL can do.

I think Matt, you're absolutely right.

Stage fighting needs to go.

It just needs to go.

It doesn't serve.

It doesn't serve a purpose.

You can say, Oh,

well it can spark the bench.

Who's been, you know what?

It doesn't,

it doesn't even matter if you

could spark the bench.

You're talking about a

regular season game that

might not have any playoff implications.

Like who, who in October, uh,

that is fighting on a team

who's down five to one

who's going out there

trying to fire his bench up

in the second period what

what does that game mean in

the grand scheme of things

well verse that guy's

mental health later in life

look at look at matt rempe

and I'm sure he's gonna

bring him up I'm sure he's

loving all of what he's

going through he's having

the time of his life but

Look at his face,

and it is just a mangled

mesh every day because that

is literally all he does is

he goes out there and

fights these staged fights.

And it's like, man, have more of a career.

You're averaging more

penalty minutes a game than

you are ice time a game.

I was going to say, yeah,

you think he has to bring that set up.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure he is too.

Yeah, I was going to say.

So.

Just think of the long-term repercussions.

And this is a young kid.

His brain is still in

development at his age.

And he's doing this to this.

Yeah, I think that's the biggest thing.

You know, you got to take that out.

Additionally, I know maybe this leap is...

a little bit extreme, but, um,

with the NHL going to neck guards, um,

if you can add a little bit of, uh,

almost like, like a knee brace type deal.

Um,

if you can find a way to brace the neck

just slightly without limiting mobility,

uh, you know,

for guys taking big hits and

you can somewhat eliminate

the whiplash that comes with it,

that would go a long way as well.

I wouldn't push something

like that if it affected a

player's ability to keep

their head on a swivel

because being able to

protect yourself is the

number one way to avoid injury.

So I wouldn't want to take

any kind of mobility out by

making players wear neck

pads or something like that.

If they're going to go to a

mandatory skate guard,

could you find a way to

incorporate some kind of

technology to help minimize

whiplash in that as well to

add some protection to the brain?

Whiplash leads to

concussions and concussions lead to CTE.

Not to the extent of getting

repetitively blown in the face, but

To an extent, yeah,

it would go a long way as well.

Yeah, at the end of the day,

there's a reason we're

seeing most hockey players

that are dealing with CTE

being the old enforcers,

being Derek Brugard,

being all these enforcers

who have tragically taken

their own lives in one way, shape,

or form.

It's just... It's sad, and...

I'm not a huge fan of hockey fighting.

If I want to watch a fight,

I'll go watch MMA.

But I understand the need

for fighting to protect your teammates.

But this is just, yeah,

let's just get rid of the stage fighting.

Make it a game suspension

even if you have a staged fight.

It's, you know,

the thing to add to bring up, you know,

Daniel Garcia again,

it's like that man got to play in the NHL,

which is how many people dream of that?

How many, I mean,

all of us would take the NHL job, right?

That right today, today,

if we could get signed, we do it right.

This man took so much damage

to his brain that he

regrets playing professional hockey.

That's the level of things

we're dealing with here.

You know what I mean?

Just to piggyback on that

point earlier and also to bring up,

Hate to bring up the Cowboys,

but there's a player on

there who just retired.

He just was drafted like 2019, 2018.

Leighton Van Der Esch.

Yeah, he used to wear a thing on his neck,

on his back to kind of brace his neck.

He retired already.

And this is the level that we're at,

folks.

I mean, it's like, again,

I love the big exciting.

Everyone loves those big,

crazy Cronwall hits back in the day.

I mean, those things were awesome, right?

But yeah,

I think it is time to make some

kind of change,

some kind of whiplash

device or some kind of, I don't know,

travel pillow, something here.

I mean...

It's not even necessarily

all hits that need to go.

I think I think if the

staged fighting goes, that's that's a big,

big part of it.

And it really is the guys

like Liam O'Brien.

You know,

I feel like that guy's going to

deal with some of that

stuff in the future.

And it might not be, you know, extreme,

but it's always a risk.

And it's something you want

to see minimized if you can

without taking away from the game.

yeah I'm sure they can

figure it out I'm sure some

I'm sure how much a lot

better than they used to be

so hopefully we do start to

see some changes you know

I'm sure but yeah I hope

people like daniel carcio

keep speaking out I hope

they keep the pressure on

the nhl and get these

changes in because it's a

shame I mean these guys

took their lives again

maybe not all cte but still

the fact that it was even a

part of it is the problem

so hopefully we do get that addressed but

Well, sticking with hockey culture,

recently we had the Flames

relinquish rights to,

I believe it was a 2021 draft pick,

Toponyemi, second round pick,

who was sentenced to a year

in prison for a rape that

occurred while he was a minor.

um I i don't know what the

time served um aspect of it

was or how much time he's

actually going to spend in

in prison um it occurred

overseas again it occurred

while he was a minor um but

we recently just saw you

know five indicted uh as

part of hockey canada um

Hockey Canada has been the

center of accusations going

back to the early 2000s as

far as sexual assault.

We recently had all the

controversy about how the

NHL handled the Chicago situation.

This doesn't even begin or, you know,

this we're not even

including the racism issues

that are prevalent in hockey.

Just from a sexual assault standpoint,

what is going on with

hockey and why is it such

an issue amongst hockey culture?

You know,

what what is it about hockey

culture that influences it

and what what has to be

done to change it?

That's hard.

There's a lot.

I mean, like you said,

you look at Letterkenny, right?

The hockey players in Letterkenny.

I mean, they're a certain way,

but you see a lot of hockey

players in a way, you know,

obviously it's a stereotype,

but I don't know.

I think it's so deep.

I truly, I wish I knew.

I mean, it is shocking though.

You're right, Granny.

Sorry, I cut you off there.

The answer of why is

obviously a complicated one,

but I think a lot of it

does go back to the

And this isn't just a hockey issue.

This is young men growing up

issue where if you're

treated like... If you're

treated like you're special

because of your talent and

you don't have the right

upbringing behind you,

which a lot of these kids don't,

especially hockey,

because you're not living

with your family for 75% of your year.

You're living with a billet family.

And...

Yeah, it's just you get this idea that, oh,

this belongs to me.

I mean, again,

this could just be speculation.

It's 100% speculation

because I'm not part of

these locker rooms.

But how we can fix it,

it's going to be a process,

but it all starts with us.

It all starts with us

introducing more morals in our own

dressing rooms us being

supportive of each other us

just being the bare minimum

a decent human being just

set the example for others

that is that is that is the

only way we're ever going

to change this um and

obviously we're not going

to touch these locker rooms

in canada but we just got

to hope that there's other

people out there like us

that want to set that example there too

And I would like, real quick, sorry,

Topi Roney is the draft pick.

I'm sorry,

I got the name wrong there or

the prospect wrong.

Still 2021 second round draft pick,

I believe, defenseman.

Continue, Randy.

I did want to clear that up.

Yeah, no problem.

Yeah, it's just at the end of the day,

change really does start

with each of us and how we

approach it and how we

raise it.

I have a daughter and I

fully want to raise her around hockey.

In order to do that,

I want to be the example

that she sets around that hockey culture.

So, can I ask,

does this feel like there

needs to be a shift in

basically the boys club

that has run hockey for 40 years?

Is there too much of this

boys will be boys mentality

because it's what they grew up in?

You know,

do we do we need to see that type

of change where, you know,

we see a lot of maybe not

forced selling of, you know, CHL teams,

but basically just fresh

starts all around.

So just this has always

bugged me ever since I was an older team.

but the line boys will be

boys is always irked me

because to me that says, well,

we're setting a lower

standard for boys because reasons,

but yeah, absolutely.

I think that there needs to

be a major change in the old boys club.

I think there needs to be, I don't know.

I don't know if fresh blood

is necessarily what I'm

going towards there,

but I think looking no

further than Mike Babcock in,

after causing issues in Toronto,

goes into Columbus,

and before the season even starts,

causes massive issues.

That was crazy.

He was asking players to go

through the pictures on their phones.

And the claim was that it

helped build camaraderie.

But he was calling young

players into his office and saying, hey,

let me see your phone.

I want to go through your pictures.

That is a breach of privacy.

Whether... Even as...

athletes they're still human

beings even as though

they're paid millions of

dollars to play a sport

that we they love and we

love they're still human

beings they still have a

right to privacy that is

something very important

and just the feeling that

oh I can take this away

because they work for me is

that's that's so that's

wrong to me that just

strikes me as wrong as a basic um I i

I have my boss go through

pictures I take at work

pretty consistently.

And I have my own folder set

up to show her when it's that time.

It happens.

But that's something I do willingly.

It's not something I do

because I'm asked to.

I don't know.

It's hard because it's

something that is so...

I don't want to sound like

I'm making an excuse for it

or anything like that,

because obviously I'm not,

but I don't know.

To say it, how do you fix it?

It's like, well, I mean...

So when you see things like, oh, we hired,

you know,

this person to be in charge of

sensitivity training and, you know,

we brought in this person for, you know,

they're going to sit on the

board and and weigh in on, you know,

how to change this, change that.

Do you guys actually read that and go, oh,

good for them?

They're doing it right.

Or do you look at that and go,

that's a PR move?

think it's a mix of both

honestly there's times

where I can tell it's like

they are generally trying

to make it better and some

it's just like they got my

company I work for not the

best histories but you know

one of those things it's

just sometimes it is

sometimes I think it just

it just depends hiring feel

like they come right after

something exactly what I

was trying to say yeah

that's what I was trying to

say that's what I was going

to say exactly that's what

I was going to bring up

there if the if the hiring comes

Like the Blackhawks when

they did it right after the

Kyle Beach thing.

Well, come on.

You're just putting makeup

on a pig at that point.

We know what you're trying to do there.

But if a team does it and if

a team does it when there's

no negative press around them, yeah,

I would applaud them for doing that.

Because, again...

every little bit of change

helps to get hockey culture

to the place where it should be.

Do you think that the first

real change or real shift

in culture happens when a

player or a group of

players realize that their

NHL career is over,

regardless of how good they

are because of it?

And I'm not talking about

the five that just got indicted.

You know,

there's the Jake for Tannen thing

that happened yesterday.

um in vancouver and he ended

up in the khl but none of

these guys were major stars

for their team um you know

you look at montreal and

logan malou um they they

drafted a kid who said I

hope nobody drafts me this

year because I'd like to

take a year to reflect and

become a better person

Because... And his thing was

he sent a photo to the rest

of his team of a consensual act.

You know,

he didn't do anything

inappropriately to someone.

It was...

sending a photo after the

fact without consent,

which is wrong in its own right.

I don't let this come off as

sounding like I'm defending

him because I'm not.

But this kid said, hey,

I don't want anybody to draft me,

and he was rewarded by

being selected in the first

round by the Montreal Canadiens,

and the Canadians saying, yeah,

we don't care.

We're going to fix this.

I think that would go to the boys club,

I guess.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Wasn't that the pick two

where they had all the

women in the organization

go forward to make it?

I think so.

Holy shit.

Yeah, I think it was.

Yeah, actually.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, I forgot about that.

Yeah, you're right.

Yeah.

Yeah, you're right.

I mean, if you're...

If you're a player growing up and,

you know,

let's say you're 15 or 16 years

old and you're watching that on TV,

I mean, it doesn't basically say to you,

hey, it's okay to go out and do this,

but it does say, eh,

I'm not going to lose my

chance to make something of

myself if I screw up.

And I think the – I don't

want to say the fear of getting caught is

has to be there because the

reality is a good person

doesn't have that fear a

good person a moral person

understands that you just

don't do that um but I i do

think that the message that

sends is as long as you

don't screw up too bad

it'll be fine there's a

certain limit as long as

you're underneath this line

you're good yeah and I

think that line's set way too high

Yeah, there's some times where I'm like,

damn.

Damn.

This is nothing against Logan Mayu,

because I do feel like,

based on what I've heard

him say and what I've heard

that he's done,

I feel like he is trying to take steps,

and he is genuinely sorry

for what he did.

Again, I don't know him.

I can't comment further than that.

It's just what I've read and

what I've heard that he's done.

Because... Yeah, if you

Should this... That's where

the trick comes in.

This never should have happened.

It shouldn't be, does a player feel sorry?

Do they deserve to be drafted?

I think if you're trying to

change the culture,

you're trying to get these

things out of the game entirely.

Entirely, exactly.

So whether or not a player

feels sorry or is

remorseful of what they did,

And should they be drafted

or shouldn't they?

That's, I guess,

a different question

entirely than how do you

get it out of the game.

And I think I was referencing more,

does it take a team or the

league basically saying, I mean,

if this was Conor Bedard

who basically did what

we're talking about with Topi Rooney,

if that was Conor Bedard

and somebody drafted him,

and said,

we'll wait the year for him to

get out of prison, and the league says,

well,

he'd be good for the league because

he's a franchise generational talent.

You know,

I think that's where I'm wondering,

at what point does it not

matter how good a player is to say, no,

you committed a sexual assault.

You're not going to play in this league.

I think that's where it starts.

I think if some team were to, say,

take a level of a player of

that caliber and say, I don't care,

we're not drafting you for that reason,

and say it for that reason,

I think that will begin the domino.

But I mean, look at the NFL, too.

I mean, they're definitely not full of,

you know, I mean,

a lot of them still play, too.

So it's hard.

I mean, talking about this,

my mind immediately goes to Patty Kane.

And if the Blackhawks, if the Blackhawks.

And now Red Wings.

Go ahead, Matt.

Go ahead.

So I guess the difference there, though,

is Kane was accused but acquitted.

And I think that's – there's

a public opinion out there,

but he – By the laws, he's okay.

I mean, from a lawyer's perspective,

he's okay.

I guess we also all talk about the –

There's women out there and it's a very,

very, very, very, very small number.

But there are women out

there who have and stories

that are out there who have

accused men of inappropriate behavior.

And it's come out later that

it never really happened.

And I don't think that's

enough to – just an

accusation is enough that

it should put somebody's career on ice.

I do think Kane not being suspended,

still being in Chicago,

still being in the league,

I'm okay with that.

I don't have an issue with that.

He went to court and got acquitted.

My thing with it more, though,

is should he have been

suspended while the

investigation was ongoing?

No,

because I still think it's the same

thing.

You suspend a player, they lose their pay.

Their reputation is

tarnished beyond – because

now once you've suspended them,

you've punished them as a

league for something that

they haven't been convicted of doing.

I do think if there's

damning evidence that gets

presented to the league,

then the league can make their – I mean,

if somebody's got pictures

of something that happened

or a video of something that happened –

And their court trial is not

coming up for six months or whatever,

and the league sees this video,

and the league says, hey,

that looks terrible.

I'm all for the league at

that point stepping in.

But I don't think just an

accusation gets there.

I don't think it's enough, no.

You can use anything, really.

He's not that level of star,

but it's going to be

interesting to see how the

Carter Hart situation plays

out since he was one of the

biggest name on that list.

And I really should never

play in the NHL again.

Nope.

Nope.

If they're all convicted,

none of the professional hockey.

Really?

I mean, I don't think I had any league.

I had him.

I played dynasty hockey.

I'm in a couple of leagues

and I had them in two of my leagues and

And when it became clear,

because you could do the

math and it hadn't been

announced yet that he was one of the guys,

but you could do the math

and you could see based on

the statements that there

was five guys left who

hadn't made a state.

It became pretty clear then

at that point who had done it.

And right then I, I caught him.

I caught him from my teams

because I did not want him on my team.

I didn't care.

I lost a year of good play out of it.

It kind of should have been

a little – I think all five teams,

you know,

with the exception of – I think

Florida owned Hepa Niemi's rights.

Is that right?

I think they're the only

team that had a player that

wasn't in the NHL.

Oh, no, Ottawa.

Ottawa.

Ottawa.

Ottawa, okay.

So with the exception of Ottawa,

I do find fault with the fact that Philly,

Calgary, you know,

these teams didn't – when

all of this became

abundantly clear it was going to happen,

they didn't do anything

about it until just before

the indictment.

And granted,

they didn't – I'm not saying

that they should have been cut,

but as a team, you can suspend –

These players, if you'd like,

or you can make a statement

as a team that says for, you know,

whatever reason you want to

say this player won't be

with us this season.

I think Vancouver did a

great job of it with Jake for Tannen.

I mean, they basically said.

you know,

we're going to retain your rights,

but you can go play overseas.

If you want,

we'll loan you to whatever

team you want to go play for overseas,

but you're not going to

wear a Canucks uniform

while these accusations are out there.

So really quick going back to the five.

I mean, no, finish your thought.

Then I'll get them on.

Cause I have a rant coming.

I have a, Oh yeah.

I would have loved to have

seen that about Carter Hart.

I would have loved to have

seen that with somebody like Carter Hart.

Um,

You know, where they basically just say,

hey,

you can pick a team overseas that

will play you or you can

just sit out or you can

make whatever decision you want,

but you're not going to

play for us and you're not

going to play for Lee Valley.

So that would have been a

lot of kids growing up.

Yep.

I agree 100%.

And yes,

the Vancouver Canucks did right by.

did right with how they

handled the Jake Furtanen thing.

The thing that did wrong on

so many levels is the

Calgary Flames with the

Dylan Dubé announcement.

When Dylan Dubé stepped away from the team,

they announced it as he is

leaving the team for a

mental health break.

We have fought so hard to

get mental health treated seriously.

We have fought so hard.

for mental health to be

taken seriously in any

subject whatsoever.

To go out and say that this

fucking asshole who raped a

fucking girl is taking a

break from a team for

mental health reasons is so beyond wrong.

It is so beyond fucked up.

And fuck you, Flames, for doing that.

Just... It... I am... Yeah.

It... It is something that just still...

grinds me to no end that

they did that just and for

what it's worth I'm sure I

well for what it's worth

I'm sure there's things

that teams can't come out

and say they probably

couldn't come out and say

Right, exactly.

And that's fine.

But they probably can't come

out and say Dylan Dubé is

one of five accused of

sexual misconduct as part

of the Hockey Canada

investigation and he's

going to be away from the team.

I wouldn't ever expect an

NHL team to come out and do

that because at that point,

it potentially sways

innocence or guilt one way

or another when you have a massive,

massive organization like that

that speaks on behalf of

either a defendant or a

victim in that scenario.

So I do agree with you 100%.

Coming out and saying it was

for mental health reasons,

that's... I mean,

the flame should lose a

draft pick for that, personally.

I think that's an absolutely terrible,

terrible,

terrible way to announce

somebody's leave of absence.

And I agree with you, especially as...

despite the seemingly

overwhelming evidence

that's been lined up against these guys,

they haven't proven guilty yet.

We do have to remember that.

But, so yeah, for that reason, no,

they shouldn't have said, oh yeah,

he is being suspended because he is.

No, but just say personal reasons.

Just say personal reasons.

Yeah, exactly.

Anything but mental health.

Yeah, that was bad luck.

That was only, what, a month or two ago,

right?

That's right.

That was pretty recent.

Remember now that was yep,

and that all stands pretty room.

What was it?

2018 Yeah, it's my teen team.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

That's what I remember.

Yeah, that's right Yeah,

I remember them saying that

now until yeah,

I remember seeing that It's

shame because hockey I mean,

I'm a lacrosse player

saying this but hockey is

just one of the best things

on this entire planet I

mean it truly is just such

a wonderful sport community

for the most part.

I mean

It's a shame that we have

this cloud over us the last

couple of years.

Some of the nicest people

you ever meet are hockey fans.

I will say this too.

To piggyback on that,

the Knights fans that I met

when I was at the scene at Wings, like,

a week ago,

they were the nicest people I met.

I gotta say,

the Knights fans on Twitter

are a little rough,

but the fans in person, nicest people.

Oh, yeah, the best place over there,

that's a good place to get

the best pretzels,

the best alcohols over here.

Show me kind of where things were, like,

oh, that Top Rungs, that nightclub,

it was just great people.

I mean, it's amazing when you...

you're at a game and you see

just the families, the kids,

all that good stuff.

And then you have this,

this cloud just looming

right over our heads.

I mean, I hope we can fix it.

I don't have a solution myself.

I hope that we do.

I mean, we talked about,

so just to let you guys in

on a little behind the scenes,

look me and Tyler talking

about before the podcast.

Oh yeah.

We don't have a lot of subjects tonight.

I think that's what we've

done about a network.

Yeah, 59.44 right now.

And we've only talked about two.

I guess this would be a good time.

Well, yeah.

I mean, two fit one.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I guess now would be the

time to get to the coyotes

portion of this show.

Yeah.

If I can choose the right window to share,

I can pull that up for you, Matt.

Let me pull this up.

Give me one second.

Okay.

Look at me.

Look at us advancing.

So I did want to ask you guys, and by me,

I mean,

it was a topic we all chose to

talk about.

Stay the rebuild.

I know that we had that last

week we talked, we had a, you know, Oh,

which other be a fan of the

beginning part of this whole year,

whatever.

So how are we doing?

I have my two draft experts

here with me in the room.

So you guys tell me.

Matt,

we'll start with you since this is

your selections here.

Who do you want to start with?

The reason that I wanted to

speak on this topic a

little bit was because

there after the coyotes went

on the 14 game losing

streak there was a ton of

the rebuild is far from

over this team is still

horrible the the team is

going to have to change um

you know they they need

more picks they need to

continue to sell continue

to add so I i think that's

a little bit misguided um

I think the team has begun

to turn the corner,

or the organization itself, I should say,

with some of the draft

picks they've made recently.

What Tyler's been scrolling

across the screen, Logan Cooley,

Dylan Gunther, Sean Dursey, Yusuf Alamaki,

and J.J.

Moser.

All these guys are...

they're, they're super young.

They're a huge part of this rebuild.

And I think all of them do

what a lot of teams don't

generally get through the draft.

Um, they don't, or I'm sorry,

they hope they get through the draft.

They generally don't get

these impact players at such a young age.

JJ Moser is in his third

year in the NHL and he was

drafted three years ago.

Um,

Logan Cooley a year ago,

Dylan Gunther two years ago,

and these guys are playing impact minutes,

and they're not just out

there to get experience.

They are playing big minutes.

They are playing very well as well.

The 14-game losing streak

soured a lot of people on this season,

but I think what gets ignored...

about how successful this

season has been is that

goaltending was a huge

issue during that losing streak.

Connor Ingram fell off in a big way.

Corolla Vemelka hasn't

played very well this year either.

In the losses in that

14-game losing streak, the Coyotes,

as a team,

got 868 goaltending as a save

percentage. 868.

Ottawa is league worse this

year at like 889 or

something like that on the season.

So that tells you how bad

goaltending was during that

stretch of February.

Not to make it sound like

Conor Ingram was stealing games,

because he was,

but Karel Vemelka was also

losing games that we could

have won early in the year.

Through January 24th,

when the losing streak started,

the Coyotes got 909 save percentage.

Combined out of both goalies.

League average is 904.

They weren't far ahead of league average.

So where in the past Darcy Kemper, I mean,

he was known for stealing

games at the Coyotes.

All the time.

All the time.

Connor Ingram had a few

games like that earlier this year.

Currently,

he sits 18th in goals saved

above expected.

I mean,

that's middle of the road for a

starting goaltender.

Karel Vemelka is 56th in

goals saved above expected.

So you had a team that was

fighting for a wildcard

spot who may have had a few

games stolen here and there by Ingram,

had a few games given away

by Karel Vemelka, but

they were getting production

out of Sean Dursey, JJ Moser,

Yuso Valamaki, Logan Cooley,

especially early on,

even though a lot of it was power play,

but he's come on strong

late at 5v5 lately.

Dylan Gunther has been elite

since his call-up.

Maybe not in every single aspect,

but if you look at the box

at the top right there,

It shows his trajectory.

The numbers on these graphs

are three-year weighted,

but in the one year, this year,

he fits into the 80th

percentile amongst the NHL

in terms of wins above replacement.

That's fantastic for a 20-year-old.

That's unbelievable for a 20-year-old.

Logan Cooley has steadily

climbed in terms of war as well.

He was at like 20% at the

beginning of January,

and he's climbed up to the

53rd percentile.

His development has been very obvious,

especially in his defensive play.

He was a mess responsibly

early in the season,

and we've seen a huge jump there.

I'm not even talking in

terms of draft picks

because there's guys like Connor Geeky,

Simashev,

Daniel Boot that have some real

potential to play in the NHL,

play big minutes and play a big role.

I'm just talking about the

guys on this team.

When they get league average goaltending,

this team was fluctuating

on being a wildcard team.

And there was a lot of

optimism at the beginning

of the season because of

the signings of Zucker and Dumba and,

you know,

bringing back Bukestad and Kerfoot.

And Bukestad and Kerfoot

have contributed quite a bit,

but the guys that were

supposed to be big in

getting this team to the wildcard,

Zucker and Dumba...

They were just OK.

I mean, Dumba wasn't even OK.

Dumba was probably a bigger

liability than he was in

terms of helping the Coyotes win games.

The players that have since departed,

they weren't a big part of

the reason why the Coyotes

were eliminated.

bordering on a wildcard team.

We talked in the last

episode about our thoughts

on Andre Ternier and his

ability to make adjustments.

And I do think that's

something that he's got to

grow on as well.

It's part of learning as a

coach and he'll get there as well,

I think.

Or the Coyotes will move

forward with a different coach.

But I think the team is a

lot closer to having a

a lot of the core pieces together,

then they're not.

And I'm not saying that once

all the core pieces are there,

this team's going to be a winning team,

because you still do have

to grow as players into

physically mature players,

get into your prime.

The timeline of six to eight

years on a rebuild is still true.

I mean,

the Coyotes are probably still

three to four years out.

But the doom and gloom that

has been running across

Twitter lately I think is ill-founded.

Because I don't think

anybody that's watching the

development of these

players realizes how far

they've actually come in

terms of this team winning and losing.

And towards the end of that

14-game losing streak,

there was probably five out

of seven games that they should have won,

but got absolutely

atrocious goaltending and took losses in.

And those will happen.

That's the streakiness of the NHL.

But...

I did want to come out and

say I would like to see

everybody kind of pump the

brakes a little bit and

look at where certain

players are individually.

I have a question for you, Matt,

real quick, if you don't mind.

Sorry, Granny, before we get to you,

I just want to ask him one

real quick thing.

Just for those who are

watching the video format

and I guess the ones in the audio format,

Would you mind, just a quick brief,

what do these numbers and

percentiles actually mean?

Or if, Grandy, if you want to, either way,

why don't you just,

so those watching at home are just like,

percentages, numbers?

Okay, so percentile, I mean,

it's no different than you

go to the doctor and they say,

you're this tall,

you fit into this

percentile of all the

people in the United States.

The percentile is kind of the same thing.

It takes every player in the NHL,

and it's broken up

offensively and defensively,

forwards and defensemen.

And whatever percentile

you're in is basically

where you rank in terms of that category.

Um,

war is an accumulative number that

basically takes offense, defense,

power play, penalty kill, finishing goals,

assists, everything that's on that chart.

And it factors it in and you

get one number.

Offense, defense,

the biggest factor there is

expected goals for and

expected goals against.

It's not necessarily, oh, you know,

this guy's got this many

points and his plus minus is very good,

so he must be good at defense.

It doesn't account for that.

It accounts for...

um the chances that you

create uh via you know high

percentage or high danger

passes high danger scoring

chances created slot passes

um your ability to enter

the zone whether it's

possession carry uh dump

pass you know any any way

that you get into the zone

it accounts for that um

Basically,

these numbers are a

simplification of lots of microstats.

And they tell a story or

basically point to what a

player struggles at, is good at, where...

where they rank amongst the NHL.

On these particular cards,

they are Jay Fresh cards.

They are a three-year

weighted average for any

player that's been in the

NHL three consecutive years.

It's a two-year average, you know,

like in the Dylan Gunther

situation or example,

one year for Logan Cooley,

because that's how long

they've been in the league.

So Logan Cooley's number is

true to this year.

Dylan Gunther's number right now,

57th percentile.

That takes into account last

year where he was right around,

I don't know, the 20th percentile.

And this year he's around

the 80th percentile.

And he's, you know,

it factors those two together,

and it's a weighted average

between those two seasons.

Moser, you get three years where, you know,

his actual number's not that high.

But if you look at the final

year on his chart, it's a huge jump.

It's a huge step forward for him.

Sean Dursey,

50th percentile playing top pair minutes.

But that weighted average

includes last year,

which was a terrible year,

playing in LA.

He didn't play great and he

didn't see a ton of minutes

and a ton of opportunity there.

So, you know,

his offensive numbers were

down and that affects that

weighted percentile or that

weighted war number.

So keep in mind when you

read things like that,

that big number that sticks

out right in front of you,

that isn't necessarily

where they're at this year.

The most important thing to

look at is the graph on the right.

On the Sean Dursey one too,

specifically Sean Dursey,

because I do want to bring

this up because I was just

reading a thread on it today.

Sean Dursey was also playing

his offside last year,

and he is not one of those

players who is capable of

playing both sides.

He's just not.

His offense,

he needs to be on his strong

side for him to get the most use out of.

And that's why you saw such

a large dip from his first

year in LA to his second year in LA.

Interesting.

Well, thank you, Matt, for answering that.

But okay.

So I do think you're

underselling Ingram a bit

on the start of the year.

He was first in goal saved

against expected until

mid-December when he really slid hard.

He slid really hard.

It's like Matt crashed on us.

But beyond that,

I'm in agreement on most of it.

The timeline, I mean,

I've said this since the beginning.

I said this when we were winning.

You can talk to anybody in

our group chat about this,

but I said we're still not

at where we are,

where people are saying in the rebuild.

We have a couple more years left.

And that's like we said last week, too,

to bring up the Yizer plan.

is, you know, that either on, what,

year five, I think, four or five,

and they're just now starting to kind of,

if you want to call it that,

fight for a playoff spot.

So, yeah, I mean,

I think if we're going the

trick to the Eiser plan,

which it seems like we're

about the same formula,

not the exact same thing, but I think,

yeah, about the same amount of time.

So, they're a couple years ahead of us.

They have melded down hard because... Yeah,

goaltending.

Yeah, exactly.

It's that simple.

Grimers.

God-awful.

Well,

and losing Lark in your first line

center also is absolutely a huge blow.

But I digress.

We still need a couple pieces.

We'll get them.

I think if you're not

battling for a playoff spot,

you should still be looking

at selling at the deadline

because... Get those assets.

Just more to add to you later.

Everybody's looking at what

good does another draft pick do?

What good does more draft picks do?

What good those do is using

them to trade for active

NHL players in the

offseason like we have the

last two years.

Do you still like the Dersi

trade as it is today?

I love the Dersi trade.

Mine has not changed at all?

No, because he is what he is.

He is a high-risk offensive

defenseman who's going to

struggle in his own end.

He's...

He's going to get more hate

than he deserves because

when I talk about defensemen,

and I think we talked about

this on pod before too.

Ekman Larson.

No, not Ekman Larson.

Just let me finish my thought, please.

When we're talking about defensemen,

you have quiet good things.

You have loud good things.

You have quiet bad things.

You have loud bad things.

And what Dersey does bad is loud.

Turnovers.

They stick out.

You remember them.

Even if they don't have

quite as much of a bad

impact as horrible defensive positioning,

etc.

These stick in your mind.

They always do.

They did with Yandel.

Even though we haven't had a

guy that can generate

offense like Yandel until Dersey.

A large part of it is the

risk reward system that comes with it.

So no, I don't dislike the Jersey trade.

Just be patient.

Don't expect more out of him

than what he is.

He's not a first pairing defenseman.

He's not a number one

defenseman who's capable of

every single thing on the ice.

He's a power play

quarterback who's going to

generate offense and is

best on a sheltered second

pair with a strong defensive next to him.

All right.

That's something we don't have right now.

That is something people

also need to keep in mind

with the rebuild is we have

so many people playing out of position.

Um, Jersey, Moser,

these guys should be second

pairing guys and they're

playing on the first pair.

Hopefully you guys don't

hear that background noise,

but just want to make sure.

Sorry.

Ingram, the Melka.

These are both guys that are

probably best serve the second,

the pair or second pair.

Ah, backup goalies.

Sorry.

Bukestead is essentially

playing our first-line

center role because he's

playing in every single slot,

and the guy's best served

as a third line.

Hayton, when he's healthy,

is the guy that is playing

our first-line center.

And again,

he's best as a third-line center.

As the rebuild commences,

you'll see these guys slot into position.

And when you see these guys

slot into position more,

you'll start to see...

More fruits.

You'll start to see more success.

Is Matt back yet?

Not yet.

So I guess we'll just cover

the last topic we're

getting to about an hour 17.

So I guess Hayden,

what do you want to say

about Hayden before we go?

Or not go,

but... This is a bummer because

this one was another one of

Matt's ones that he wanted

because I know he

absolutely adores Hayden.

But I'll do my best and we

can kind of give Matt a brief

run down when he comes back in and let him,

let him answer.

But what I think about

Hayden is the guy is going

to be a fantastic third line center.

He is going to do everything

you want out of a third line center.

He is just horribly miscast

in the first line center role.

Not his.

Yeah.

So yeah, not as far as the play there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Of course not.

No.

we don't have that first

line center right now

because if you played

Cooley in a first line

center role right now,

you would break him.

Yeah.

Kills confidence.

Yeah.

So Hayton's having this,

having to play that role.

And when we get,

whether it's Cooley's ready

to take the reins or another guy,

try and get Matt back once.

I can't see if pull off here.

Yep,

I'll just keep going until we get there.

Yeah, no worries.

However it is,

when Hayton is playing that

third-line center role

where he can penalty kill,

where he can drive play on the third line,

where he can be the

defensive maestro he is,

it's going to be fantastic, glorious,

and beautiful.

We're just, again, not there yet.

Do you have anything you

want to add to that, Tyler?

Yeah, I like the kid too.

I'm a Hayden fan for sure.

The poor kid just with the

injury luck sucks this year.

But like I said,

I know when he gets his

role and he does play well,

he'll be fine.

I've always kind of liked him.

So I just hope that, man,

as much as I wish...

We would speed up the rebuild.

I know we shouldn't, obviously,

but I just can't wait for

more meaningful hockey in the desert.

Definitely just ready for that.

Let's see on Mets.

We're all ready for... So,

do you want to flash the...

Do you want to flash the

Hayton card so we can talk

about that a little bit?

Sure, yeah.

One second.

Pull that up.

I should have pulled another

card because there was a

comparison I wanted to make to it, but...

Oh, dang, it's not on this one.

Hold on one second.

I don't know why.

I must have forgotten.

I had the card on me.

Hold on one second.

Let me just pull that up.

But that's how it goes sometimes.

It's show business, right?

Yeah, right.

Gotta love it.

Let's see it.

Logan Cooley and Gunther.

You saw what I'm up here.

Patience, people.

Patience.

I know.

We're trying to do a YouTube

show and podcast at the same time.

For those listening,

it definitely is a lot of fun, though.

Thank you for being an hour

and 21 minutes into our podcast.

We got Matt back.

All right.

Let me see something.

Hold on one second.

Sorry, guys.

No idea what happened there.

Show business, baby.

We started talking about

Hayton and how I feel.

It's conversations me and

you have had before where I

just feel like he's best in

the third line role.

We've made all my normal arguments.

I don't have a card sent to me,

but I can do this for you.

I can pull up his hockey

database and we can go from there.

So we'll do that.

Okay, I thought we had a card.

I thought so too.

I swore we did,

but I didn't have one in

the text thing unless I

missed it somewhere.

I think it might actually be

in our Twitter chat.

Oh, is it?

Let me see.

I can check that real quick.

What is your thoughts on

Hayton and his role on the team?

You know what?

I think I've said this to you before,

Grandy.

If Hayton went somewhere

else and figured it out,

I think everybody would be

unbelievably disappointed

that they got rid of him

because what he does to

drive offense and play defense –

And how good he is at

creating and preventing

chances are unreal.

I do think he's most suited

to be a second or third line center.

He lacks luck.

If he didn't have bad luck,

he'd have no luck at all.

And Jesse very,

very strongly that he's a

much better player than his point.

Yeah,

he's a much better player than the

points this season.

A tribute to what he

actually does for the team.

If he got NHL average

shooting percentage

consistently and some of

the passes that he makes were.

They found their way into

the back of the net.

He'd realistically probably

be a 50 to 60 point guy consistently,

probably closer to 50.

But realistically,

he'd be the type of second

or third line center that a

lot of teams would want.

Yeah.

yeah I mean if the the j

fresh card since we've

explained that if you look

at what he's done this year

in terms of creating

offense and defense and

even on the power plate

it's there but the finish

just does not exist with

him right now and some

players have an issue with

it I mean some players have

an issue with it and it may

never show up for him and

it might be unfortunate

But he is going to create a

ton of chances for the guys around him,

and he's going to cover up

a lot of mistakes for the

guys around him.

Even if the finishing never dies,

I will die on the hill that

Jesse Poliarvi, who,

for all intents and purposes,

his stack card looks

identical because he does

the same things.

He drives offense,

and he is great defensively.

He just doesn't have the same luck.

But the one issue with

O'Yarvey that's different

from Hayton was the language barrier.

And I do remember that being

a story in Edmonton that

they couldn't figure out a

way to coach him.

And that's why he's bounced

around as much as he has.

It is a similar card, though, to Hayton.

It really is.

And it is a similar factor.

And, Grandy,

that's the perfect comparison.

Yeah.

Pauly Harvey is a really good player.

If you use him in the right role,

forcing him on the first line wing,

that's not the right role.

First,

just like forcing Hayden on the

first line center isn't the

right role for him.

He's playing it because we have no option.

Kind of went over that already, but...

He did well in it last year.

He did do pretty well in it last year,

but it really does come

down to the Coyotes need

somebody that's going to

finish what Clayton Keller starts.

And Grandy and I have talked

about this too when we talk

about State of the Rebuild.

I don't think Cooley and

Gunther are the two guys

that should be playing with Keller.

And I know that's probably a

hot take for a lot of

people because a lot of

people out there think

that's this team's future first line.

But I think Grandy and I are

in agreement on this.

Those kids play with a ton of pace.

And I don't think Keller

plays with as much pace.

Keller is a much more

composed play-the-cycle game,

the out-high cycle,

and create slot shots from there.

Whereas Cooley and Gunther

like to come in off of the wall.

Um,

and they generate a lot of their

offense down low.

So I, you know,

I know this is getting off

the hating topic a little bit, but I,

I really,

really think that a guy like

Lawson Krause fits

perfectly with those kids.

And in the future,

it's going to be Daniel boot.

I think he's probably the

guy that plays on the wing

with Cooley and Gunther.

So the Coyotes may not have

a center in the system

unless Connor Geeky pans

out to be that guy.

They might not have a center

in the system to play with

Keller right now.

I'll do it.

They will as soon as we win

the lottery this year.

Yeah, that's it.

Let's bank on the lottery.

Got a better chance to win

the lottery yourself.

At that point,

I'd like to see Celebrini

down the middle and Cooley

move to left wing and

Gunther on the right side.

Oh, my God.

Because that line would be

something special.

That would.

That would.

So I wanted to do something with you, Matt,

on the state of the rebuild.

I tried killing enough time

to get you back,

but it just didn't work out.

Yeah, I was like, come on, showbiz dance,

puppet dance.

We got to get him back on here.

So I want to run through our

free agents at the end of

this year and then again at

the end of next year and

see who you think is back in both cases.

You want me to pull anything

up on HockeyDB or anything like that?

You got it?

Okay, cool.

Yep.

Barrett Hayton.

I think,

so this is an interesting one

because I think he's going

to get a one-year deal.

He's an RFA this year,

if I remember right.

Yeah, you're right.

I just pulled it up a little bit ago.

Yeah, I had it pulled up.

Yep.

So I was going to ask that

to get a one year deal

because it's it's going to

be difficult to pay him based on two.

And he he should have

arbitration rights this year,

which don't necessarily work out for him,

because as of right now,

if he didn't play another game,

he's got 33 games this year.

I think he's at 10 points.

It's really hard to pay him

based off that.

But.

If you're Barrett Hayton,

you might go back and say, well,

I play – what did he play?

Like 65 or 68 games a year

before and had like – It

looks like last year he

played 82 last year.

He played 82,

but he played I think – 43 points.

The big thing was –

The big thing was... Yeah,

it's such a bad start to the year.

Yeah, of that 43 points,

I think he had like 35 of

it over the final 60 games.

And that might be a point

for him to bring up.

I think he's going to be back.

I don't think Armstrong's

ready to move on from him.

And I think they saw a lot

from him that they liked this year.

He'll be back.

It's just really hard to

pick the term of the deal.

And because you said one year out,

two year out,

That's where it definitely

gets a little weird with

Hayton because I can't see

them signing him to a

four-year deal coming off

of the way this year has gone,

which I think would have

probably been the target

range if they were

negotiating after last year.

So I do think it's going to

be a one-year prove-it deal,

and if he does well,

I think he'll get three

years to follow up that.

If he doesn't do well...

I think that kind of comes

down to where are Connor

Geeky and anybody else in

the system that might be

the guy that's replacing

him at that point.

Okay.

So these next three will be real quick.

Everyone's favorite coyote, Liam O'Brien,

UFA.

He's gone.

He's gone.

Nate Smith,

I think the Coyotes would like

to keep him in the system,

but I think that's going to

be a Jan Janik situation

because Nate Smith didn't

want to sign in Winnipeg,

which is why the Coyotes

acquired him in the first place,

because he didn't see a

role to the NHL in Winnipeg.

um it tells me that it's

pretty high on his list to

get the opportunity to

showcase what he's got in

the show and he might not

play a game in the nhl this

year so I i think we might

see a young unique

situation where that one

drags out for a while but I

do think the coyotes

qualify him at a minimum

and begin negotiating with

him on a one-year deal john leonard

I think he's another one

that you qualify and bring

back to Tucson.

I don't see him being a

long-term NHL or anything.

I think he's a good NHL call-up.

NHL legend.

Yeah,

I do think that the Coyotes

potentially bring him back,

keep him around in the AHL.

Now,

these ones are probably going to take

some more time again.

Sean Dursey, RFA.

Well,

you just gave up a second-round pick

for him.

He's your leading scoring defenseman.

I don't think that we're

going to see any kind of

eight-year deal signed by Jersey,

but I wouldn't be shocked

if we see something at a

minimum that looks a little

bit like the Matias Michelli contract,

which was like three-year, 3.65 a year.

Is that right?

Something like that?

I do think that's probably

the low end money and term

wise with potentially

something like a contract

that Nick Schmaltz signed, you know,

closer to five or six years, $5 million.

I think that's the range

that the team and player

are going to be negotiating between.

And I do think Jersey is

going to be back on a multiple year deal.

Josh Brown gone.

If he's not, if he's not,

it's going to be on another

lead minimum deal and he's

likely going to be the healthy scratch,

you know, for 55 games again,

kind of like the role he

played this year.

Yeah.

I don't think he's back.

Kesselring's back.

Yeah, I have Kesselring.

I think the Coyotes like

what they have in a potential number six,

number seven defenseman in Kesselring.

Probably a two-year, one-way contract,

maybe a million, 1.05,

something like that on the light end,

but probably a two-year deal,

I would imagine.

I like Kesselring.

I like Uso, too.

i this one's interesting

because they they gave him

that one-way extension

after he was a waiver claim um

And he played really, really well.

The offense was there.

The points are there.

And I think he's played well this year.

I don't necessarily think

the points have been there.

He had the puck to the face injury.

He missed some time.

He primarily played

third-line minutes this

year after they brought in Sean Dursey.

And he was a healthy scratch

quite a few times.

And I don't think the

healthy scratch was

warranted because I do

think he was playing –

much better than guys like

josh brown and travis

dermot um granted and and

far better than matt dumba

but I don't think you could

really scratch matt dumba

for a long period of time

because of what you were

paying him and the name and

everything that comes along with that

But I do think Valamaki is a

solid top four defenseman.

He makes sense as your number four guy.

He can play the third pair if you need it.

He can quarterback a power play.

You know,

he probably shouldn't be asked to,

but he has the ability to do it.

And he can kill penalties.

So I think he's a guy that

probably deserves a

three-year deal and

probably should be back.

He's young enough.

Um,

and he's shown enough that he can be a

key piece in a rebuild.

JJ Moser.

Another guy that you

probably look at a two to three year deal,

more than likely a three

year deal so that you can

cap one year of RFA

eligibility when it's over.

Um,

He's played very well in a

role that he probably

shouldn't be playing.

He shouldn't be your top pair defenseman.

He'll be a solid number

three going forward.

They invested a second-round

draft pick in him.

He played right out of his

draft year in the NHL.

I don't see a scenario where

he's not back on at least a

two-year deal.

And last name for this year

is Travis Dermott.

Gone.

I think they were hoping

Dermott would be the guy that,

if they were in a bad

situation at the trade deadline,

would bring something back.

He was actually a pretty

solid defenseman in Toronto.

He had the concussion issues.

He didn't play at all last year,

I don't believe.

And, you know,

this was kind of it felt

like the Shane Goss despair.

Are we going to get somebody

that can rejuvenate their

career here that we might

be able to flip the deadline?

I don't think he was ever a

guy that they were

expecting to be long term.

So now for the two years out, guys,

we're going to do this a

little bit different.

Let's say we are.

Definitely out of the

playoffs by the trade deadline next year.

Around the same place we are this year.

We just lost Tyler.

Anyways,

around the same place we are this year.

Let's say a little bit better.

Eighth in the league.

We're right around the eighth draft slot.

Okay.

So we're obvious sellers.

Nick Bugstead.

Keep or sell?

I think they're...

I think Bukestad's an interesting one.

If anybody that's been

following the team for a while,

think back to the 2013

season when Radim Vrbata scored,

I think he was at 22 goals

or 24 goals at the trade deadline.

And the Coyotes basically said,

we want a first round draft

pick and maybe a little

more for anybody that wants

to take him on as a rental.

And they didn't get the

asking price and they held

on to verbata through the

end of the season.

To me, I think that's Nick Bukestad.

If he's having another

season like he's had the

past two seasons here,

I don't think the Coyotes move him.

I honestly think that they

probably have a

conversation with him maybe

in November or December.

based on where the team's at, that says,

hey,

do you want to come back for another year,

another two years?

We like what you bring to the locker room,

the veteran presence that you are.

And, you know,

he's an Armstrong type player.

He's 6'5".

He's big.

He can score goals.

He can win puck battles.

He penalty kills.

I think if there's anybody

on the team that they

potentially don't trade

that would draw a lot of interest,

it's him.

Alex Kerfoot.

I think they'd be willing to

move Kerfoot if they're in that spot.

And I don't necessarily know

that Kerfoot would have a

ton of interest in resigning in Arizona.

That said, he did sign, I think,

with a 10-team no-trade

clause in Arizona.

So it's not like they traded

for him and he already had that clause.

He signed a contract where

he could kind of dictate

where he goes if he gets traded.

So that might make it a

little more difficult to move him unless,

you know,

he just he's not happy with the

way his two years went in Arizona.

But I do think there's going

to be interest for him if

the Coyotes are in that position.

And I do think he's a guy

that they would trade.

Another scenario where they

gave up a second round pick.

I think he fits the fourth

line role very well.

I don't think he has a

problem playing that fourth line role.

And I can't imagine that

another team's going to

come in and offer Arizona, you know,

better than what they gave up to get him.

he would really have to not

be part of their plans going forward.

And he's going to be an RFA

and he's still young.

I don't see a scenario where

they look and go, you know, we tried,

he didn't really work out.

I think his role is very

defined and it's very safe right now.

I don't think they move on

from him because honestly,

the return wouldn't be high enough.

So I want to give my

thoughts on that one too.

When I look at the team and

I think GMBA hockey, I think Jack McBain.

I think he's pretty much

locked in as the team's

fourth liner for years.

Anyways,

then the last name on the list

before we get to Tyler's

question of the week.

Carol Vazhmilka.

stays tyler jumped back in

just to answer that stays

um I you know goalies are

so voodoo that I'm a strong

believer in you either have

a top 10 goaltender or that

goaltender is available if

somebody's willing to pay the price

Um, uh,

you look at Darcy Kemper and what

he did for a couple of years here,

he goes to Colorado,

he wins a Stanley cup.

When he won his Stanley cup in Colorado,

he was average.

He had a great team in front of him,

but he played average.

He goes to Washington.

He's kind of below average.

I,

something about Arizona worked out well

for him.

And we've seen that in the past.

Um,

A lot of Coyotes fans

remember Louis Domingue.

Louis Domingue had one great

year here and then was so

bad that the Coyotes were

doing anything they could

just to offload his very,

very small contract because

they didn't have a spot for him to play.

Goalies flip so quick that, I mean –

I haven't seen enough out of Amelka.

I don't think anybody has to

say that he's a career

starting goaltender or he's

a career backup goaltender or.

you know,

he's lightning in a bottle when

you catch it, he's on.

And when you miss it, you know, you're,

you're playing with Swiss

cheese in your net.

So if a milk is just one

that I can't answer,

I can't even speculate on

because who knows how he's

going to be playing next year.

Let me ask you this next year matters.

Let me ask you this.

So he's a, he's two years out, right?

Grandy.

No, yeah,

so next year would be his last year.

Okay.

I was going to say,

so if it was this year as RFA,

what contract would you say would be bad?

But never mind.

Yeah, he has two years left,

or another year left, and yeah, screw it.

We'll ask that question next year.

Yeah,

and I think Matt Viata in Tucson has

kind of made Vemelka

expendable to a degree.

He could be the next guy up.

I think...

Honestly, so my thoughts on Vemelka, too,

is when you look at him,

the guy's never been top 18

in goals saved against

expected at any point in the season.

He's barely held a 900 save

percentage when he's been above 900,

which isn't that often.

He's replaceable goalie

written all over him.

But...

a guy in a very similar situation,

capital Kakanen just got to

move this off this trade deadline.

So you never know.

You got moved for another

guy who's a very

replaceable goaltender in a one to one.

So I mean, yeah, you could move in.

But if you're asking if

there's an asset coming back for him,

there might have been last year when

At the deadline,

he was playing pretty well.

I think now there's enough

out there about him that I

don't know that any team's

looking at him going, hey,

we got a starting goalie in this guy.

Let's go out and get him.

But that was it.

I just wanted to run through

those names at the state of

the rebuild because I think

those are the two years where

you're kind of starting to

see the core shake into place.

So.

All right.

Here's my question of the week.

We have a ton of cap space

this off season.

I think in terms, I,

I do think in terms of the rebuild though,

when you're talking about

players who are here,

who might not be here, um,

as we come out of the rebuild, I,

I think that's a,

a more important way to look at things.

Um,

And I think that's a topic for next pod,

maybe.

Well, so, I mean,

in terms of the questions

that you asked about who's

going to be back,

and we've talked about who

will still or who

potentially is coming up,

I'll keep it short.

I won't go into why.

Even though I've been a huge

proponent of not trading Nick Schmaltz,

I think when they come out of the rebuild,

Nick Schmaltz probably isn't here.

I still think he's good for

the team now and for the

players around him.

But, you know, he'll open up a spot.

I do think that O'Brien's gone.

We've already got a

fourth-line right-wing spot

potentially open.

Lawson Kraus should be a third-liner,

which in all practicality

opens up a second-line wing spot.

So I do think as far as forwards go,

there's three –

top nine spots that will

definitely need to be filled.

Um,

and we'll see the progression with

Cooley and Gunther and,

and I think geeky fills one

of those spots and Daniel

boot fills potentially one of them.

Um,

I still think there's one

guy missing there.

And then on the back end,

I think there's four guys

that they can move forward with in Dersey,

Valamaki, Moser, and Kesselring.

But Kesselring may not be an

everyday NHLer,

so there's at least three

guys that you need on that

blue line still.

And Simashev might be one,

and Duda might be the other.

But we'll see how they develop.

There's a reason why they've

still got a ton of draft picks.

Well,

there goes a whole topic I had for

next week.

Well,

it doesn't totally make it disappear

because there's arguments

for and against those.

And we've had some of those before,

especially in terms of schmaltz.

And there's a ton of

potential free agent signings,

especially since Tyler

talked about last week,

that most of the dead cap is gone.

And what do you do getting

back to the floor?

I'll miss Pavel Datsyp, though.

well I mean you've been

missing him for a while I

hate to tell you I can

still dream there's

definitely the potential

for who do they look at in

free agency so definitely a

topic that we can dig very

deep into next week so real

quick real quick because I

don't know if Tyler knew

this or not I just kind of

want to see his reaction on

pod do you know what that

Duke has been up to

He was playing for the KHL

last I checked in, but I don't know.

Hopefully come back to Detroit.

I don't know.

Last I had heard, he is... Oh,

he's a fisherman too, isn't he?

I know he likes to fish a lot too.

Last I heard,

he is living in like this

psycho conspiracy theorist

town in Russia.

That's like this commune in Russia.

Dude, that's fucking cool.

Is he like best friends with

Theo Fleury or what?

Jesus Christ.

That's crazy.

I didn't expect that.

I know you like to fish.

I know you like to play hockey,

but I didn't expect a commune.

That's something new.

All right.

Well, I mean, still got great mitts.

What can I say?

Still a magician.

All right.

Question of the week.

You boys ready?

Real easy one this week.

In the vein of last week,

if you guys are... So,

we saw the renders.

We talked about a secondary mascot.

So we all saw those renders.

It was gloriously shown on

our wonderful screen here

for those that are watching

the video version.

Excuse me.

What would you guys add to

the arena right now if you

got to pitch it?

They said, all right, Matt, Grandy,

what were we missing in this here thing?

What's going on?

What would you add to it?

Obviously,

we know there's hotels and movie

theater and the arena and

the practice ring,

but what would you make sure is there,

I should say?

Not like missing.

What would you make sure is there?

And you can't say a statue

of Gary Bettman.

Yeah.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

Cynically,

can you say a statue of Shane Dillon?

No.

No statues.

Cynically,

some sort of light-up sign that says...

you missed out tempe I like

it pettiness is good I like

that okay I'll take that

granny what are you cooking

over there part of me wants

to just say that this is uh

we gotta have uh oh no the futurama line

Fine,

I'll make my own with Blackjack and

Hookers.

Oh, there you go.

I'll take it.

Blackjack and Hookers.

Yeah, I mean, why not have gambling?

I know you own Sahara.

Why not put a mini Sahara over there?

I don't know.

I mean, how petty would it be if, like,

Alex Morello built his own

Tempe Town Lake?

That'd be fucking awesome.

That'd be fucking funny.

You know what?

There's room there.

There's still room to grow.

Yeah.

Because you're only taking a quarter of it,

right?

There's only, like,

30 of the acres or

something like that being used?

Something like that, right?

For the arena and all this stuff?

Something like that.

You know, I'm not 100% sure, actually.

I didn't look that far into it.

Because the picture,

I saw a picture where they had, like,

a big block,

and the arena was only in

this little side.

Well, so I like the arena and not, like,

all the housing and everything else.

Oh, yeah, maybe so.

Yeah, I don't know.

I want to say to the east and north,

and I can be dead wrong on

my directions here, it's empty land.

But then, like,

a little bit quarter mile to the east,

there's a big outdoor mall.

then yeah you're right yeah

it's the east yeah you're

right to the north to the

north is where all the

hotels and shopping

districts are so like it is

actually very beautifully

situated in an area that is

going to grow massively in

the next several years I

agree well mine would be a

little bit different but I

think a great idea nonetheless

I think we should move the

Rising into that little area.

Get some deal going with the

Phoenix Rising.

I think they deserve a good home.

Just took open championship.

Their current one is okay.

It's just a swap meet parking lot,

grass field.

But it's home nonetheless.

I'll be there Saturday.

Yeah,

I think having to deal with the

Rising or even trying to

lower the MLS gag would be

pretty good too.

Something to do during the

summertime when the Yotes

aren't playing just to have

some more revenue come in.

But something like that would be nice.

Maybe...

Have ASU have something there or whatever.

But just something to fill

during the summertime would be great.

So preferably the Phoenix

Rising could work a deal out.

We'll see.

I think they need to have a

deal with Phoenix to use

that plot on 38th and

Washington for another year or two.

So maybe.

We'll see.

That's it.

Anything else before we let

these people go on their merry way,

gentlemen?

Yeah.

So that kid from AZ scored

two more tonight.

We have an Arizona hockey player.

That's going to hit – that's

two goals away from 60 goals in the NHL.

Wait,

but hockey doesn't work in the desert.

That's weird.

Yeah, but did you know in the same game,

the greatest goal scorer of all time,

who's better than that Arizona kid,

scored his 22nd of the year

and is now just 51 goals.

Yeah,

I bet you can – I thought he was 50

away now.

Yeah, I thought – no.

I thought he was 52 away

coming into the game.

I could have sworn I saw a

graphic saying he was 50 away,

but I might be mistaken.

He may have scored two goals in that game.

I don't know.

Well, all right.

That's all we got, boys.

We'll plan on seeing these

people next week.

And from all of us here at

the Tripping Notes podcast,

have a good rest of your night.