Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to another edition of the Game Sports podcast powered by 91 Network. On tonight's episode, we got full reaction of the NHL Stanley cup final, as well as preview of the NHL upcoming entry draft and much more as free agent frenzy rolls near. And we will also be discussing the NBA and MLB. Let's go.
[00:00:24] Booyah. And it's time for the Game sports podcast. It is your host, David McCaig junior. Now, before we get into tonight's show, have a few housekeeping items I want to address. Firstly, we will have an upcoming special edition upload between yours truly and Brandon Prest. That upload will be available on the 91 network YouTube channel or on all audio platforms on July the second. So you want to make sure that you have that marked on your calendars. You don't want to miss that. Brandon Press was a great interview. Of course, we've done a lot of guest interviews here on the Game Sports podcast recently as well with Rod Black. Make sure you check out the Rod Black episode, all the other ones we have had, of course, but Brandon Brust, make sure you have that marked. You do not want to miss out on the great stories he had to tell as well as I want to make sure that I remind you in terms of our schedule, of course this is our first new show since June 6. Yes, it's been approximately, well, exactly 20 days now, depending on when you listen to this episode, of course. But we are going to be getting back to our regular rotation, which of course we are doing one show a week besides two that will be on Sundays will be available for your viewing or listening on Monday mornings. And of course after Labor Day, we'll get back to doing our two episodes a week. When football is back, NBA is back, NHL is back, and of course by around that time, the World Series and the MLB playoffs in general all going on. There's obviously a lot of sports to touch on so we do more shows. Then. However, we are down to our one show a week that we are doing and we will get back to our Sunday rotation as soon as the brand impressed episode occurs. We will get back to our Sunday editions which will be on July the 7th, will be the recording and available for your viewing on July 8. Now, if you haven't yet, make sure you follow the game sports podcast on social media such as Instagram, TikTok. We are on there and we appreciate the comments, we appreciate the likes and we appreciate the subscriptions, the follows, whichever, and don't be shy to get into it with us with discussion and your feedback. A lot of great clips on there for you to enjoy. Get caught up on as well. And while you're at it, follow on everything you know of the game. So there's my housekeeping items. Hopefully it's all caught up. Any concerns you can comment below, but as you heard in my introduction that we try to keep as quick as we can to definitely get that attention at the beginning. But just to give you a little bit of the outline without me having to talk about it in the introduction of the actual show, like I am right now, there is a lot to get into, especially when it comes into the world of hockey. We're going to get into as much as we can here. It is just going to be yours truly for the entirety of the episode, and we're going to try to keep this edition under 30 minutes for you, okay? Especially if you got to hear a voice for longer than 30 minutes. Okay? I don't want you to start turning down that volume. I want you to keep it up. I want you to keep engaged. And trust me, these topics that we're going to be talking about will have you engaged. And where am I going to start? Very simple. Okay. I'm going to start with the NHL. And of course, the time that I'm recording this was on June 26 is when I'm recording this at 09:20 p.m. to give you exact times, is when I'm pre recording this. The NHL draft hasn't happened. There's been no trades in terms of the ones that we have already read, likely on social media, unless one breaks while I'm here on the live recording. But of course, the Stanley cup final, there's news to get into that happened during the Stanley cup finals right after Stanley cup finals. And I'm going to give you reaction all that as best I can, but most of my feedback here in this hockey portion is going to be about the Stanley cup finals. And I'll be discussing the upcoming draft with a little bit of a prediction for you.
[00:04:01] Try to keep up with everything when it comes to hockey, but at the end, try to piece everything all together with the other sports that we have to touch on. As I touched on the beginning of the introduction, NHL playoffs overall in general, okay, it's been obviously since, you know, team 93 when the Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley cup, been over 30 years since the canadian team has won the Stanley cup and teams have made the Stanley cup finals. The Edmonton always a couple of times in Vancouver Canucks a couple times. Obviously, you've had Ottawa get in there as well. You've had Montreal getting there most recently before the Edmonton did. This year when they made it there in the bubble against Tampa Bay, you know, there. We haven't seen a canadian team host the Cup. I am 32 years old in my lifetime. I was only two years old when Montreal won it. I don't remember them winning it. I wasn't, obviously, around the eighties when Gretzky and the Oilers decided to clean up and win a bunch or when Calgary won, obviously. So I haven't seen a canadian team win. I've seen canadian teams come close. The one that I cheer for obviously has not really come close. They have only have never won more than two rounds in the franchise's history, despite having the second most cups in the National Hockey League history. But I digress. We're talking about Stanley cup finals, about how the Edmonton Oilers, against all odds this year, made the Stanley cup finals after having a season where they were in last place to begin the season. They were hot after that for the rest of the season, and each series that they went into, I would say, of course, as the, as the series went on, I think as soon as they got to the second round, that's where the feedback for the Oilers, we're gonna say this is kind of where that Cinderella story ends, right? But for those that believed, which I claim, that I was a believer of the Oilers, friend of the show, Luke Gazdek, you can check out his recent clips where he predicted the Oilers making the cup finals, but, of course, would have been against Carolina, not Florida, as was his prediction. My prediction was Oilers versus the Leafs. I must be crazy, but to be 50% right, I was happy. And the Edmonton Oilers making the run that they did, it was a great story this season. Last place, as I said, for the start of the year, from the beginning portion of the season, and they improved. They obviously had a coaching change, and the team just turned on a switch and got hot, and McDavid turned back into McDavid. The team was clicking. The whole Edmonton faithful, and fans were just re energized after such a horrendous start, and it all seemed like it was coming down after that loss against San Jose. Right. You said, okay, this season, something's going to happen here, but it happened early, and it was good that it happened then, because the team was able to pull together and they didn't get too far back like we, everyone thought that they were, but they weren't as far back, obviously, and they're able to get on a big winning streak, get back into it and make noise in the Stanley cup playoffs and never mind noise, make the Stanley cup final and force a game seven. Now that's what I want to say is I am giving kudos to the Edmonton Oilers for the season that they had got to give credit where it's due. Everyone rebounded. The system got boughten and Bouchard to seem to evolve as the season go on went on for the Edmonton Oilers. The defensively, the Oilers got better offensively. They added some pieces midway through, of course, through the year. Henry, Corey, Perry, they added pieces that were good fits to that team. McDavid doing McDavid things, Hymen having a storybook season, everything was just great for the Oilers. So I want to say despite the result that happened, wasn't what you wanted. It was definitely something to applaud for your team this year. They showed effort. Okay? And take it from somebody who sees a team that normally doesn't give that effort every night, to be honest with you, the Oilers did get, did give effort.
[00:08:03] Ever since that turnaround. From the beginning of the season, every game that they were in, they worked hard. It didn't take a shift off yesterday, lost games. Not every game was perfect leading up to the Stanley cup playoffs and up until then throughout the playoffs. But they worked hard. And going against Dallas, if you listen to previous shows, I had, I had my doubts when they went up against Dallas, but, you know, as soon as the Dallas arena decided to play La Bamba and thinking that that was a good idea, just again, you don't wake the bear and don't give motivation to the Edmonton or is any which way, don't count them out because when you least count them out, they battle back. So ultimately, I'm here talking and speaking for myself. There is a few Edmonton Oilers fans that are in the game, sports podcast, family and close friends of the show, and unfortunately, Dane is unable to join us tonight. So you're getting the other. Another hockey team that I cheer for is perspective, but obviously avid hockey follower and the I call this playoffs the one of the most exciting playoffs that I've watched in a long time. Is it the most exciting? I can't comment on. There's a few that I can touch on with that, but ultimately I consider this probably a top three, if not a top two, Stanley cup playoffs, in my honest opinion. A lot of stories, a lot of good teams battling and a lot of, you know, unexpected routes. But of course, some similar storylines, Toronto losing in game seven, for instance. So it had a little bit of everything this playoffs and I feel like we were put to a treat in these last few months just flew by and now the Stanley cup has just been presented to the Florida Panthers and now we're going to be talking about the NHL draft. That is unbelievable. Kudos again to the Edmonton Oilers for what they did. McDavid deserves a cup. That city deserves a cup. They will win a cup with that team. I'm excited to see about what they do in the offseason because it should be an attractive place to play. Seeing what those fans did. I had shivers listening to that anthem every night in or for the games. I should say for the Edmonton Oilers every time at Rogers Place, they, they had the fans sing in Canada. It was so great to see. It is awesome to see. That gives me chills and dedicated fan base and players should be considering to ensure to go play in Edmonton, especially to play alongside Conor McDavids. And now you're talking leon dry cytle contract that you're reading today. Look, obviously people are going to have rumors. Media is going to say what they want. Dry cell is going to want to go to California to play in LA or do this, do that. Look, the Edmonton or others have a good thing going. Why ruin it? And I certainly hope for the world of hockey as much as I'd love to see Conor McDavid wear Toronto Maple Leaf jersey, you know, I, my instinct is telling me that dry sound and McDavid aren't going anywhere, even though one of them I would like to leave to go somewhere else, not going to happen. And the big reason why I mentioned I think they are starting to they've made it to the cup finals. They've always had good playoff runs. They've made the conference finals. They've made it past the first round. They just haven't gotten the cup yet. And they're going to get there. These losses are going to be good. Growing pains for them to overcome in the future. Florida lost in the cup final to Vegas last year. Look, they came back to the cup finals and they won seven against the Oilers. The Oilers can get back there and get back there quickly to have their revenge. Now, the Edmonton Oilers go into the Stanley cup finals against a Florida Panther team that I thought perfectly built all around, and obviously they are, they won. And to anyone who going back me thinking that Toronto had a chance against Boston or to make the cup final, anyone thought Boston would make it on, I don't blame people for picking Carolina, but I guess I was a fool to think that the Rangers were jokes. They weren't a joke. But ultimately, I don't know how, going back on it, how I pick against the Florida Panthers, this is a team that is perfectly coached. Friend of the show Paul Maurice. We've had him on when he was coaching the jets, and, you know, it's great to hear his interviews. We'll get to Paul in a moment, but the Florida Panthers work their way through the Stanley cup playoffs and basically clean the clock on Tampa. Probably one of the worst series of the first round. Well, I guess I shouldn't say that the Edmonton LA series wasn't good and the Washington series wasn't good with New York. But ultimately, easy peasy for the Panthers. And then they go against Boston. It was a better series, and Boston, though, ultimately was unmatched. They were outmatched. Sorry. I feel Florida was a better teammate from the get go, despite forcing it to six. Florida could have won that series sooner, and people will say Boston could have won it sooner. No better team won that series. Carol and New York, I thought that would be Carolina meeting them there, but it was New York, and New York had a very impressive season. That is a team to Lafrenier is getting into his own. Panarin's looking good, just Durkin and that the Rangers watch out for the Rangers next year. They're going to have that taste and want for revenge. But the Panthers went through a lot of tough teams to get where they did, as did Edmonton, except the first round. So the Panthers and Oilers meet each other in the cup finals, and there's two different nucleuses of teams there. If you listen to my preview show, I mentioned offensively the Oilers having the advantage, but defensively, the Panthers and Annette, the Panthers. And if you look at the power playing PK percentage of the Oilers run, such a good run in the playoffs that the edge could have went either way. But in the regular season, defensive side of the game PK Panthers power play orders right? This series could have went in either direction. And I did predict the Florida Panthers to defeat the Edmonton Oilers in seven games.
[00:14:01] And there's two reasons why I said that. One, just because of instinct. I like to predict things, whatever comes to mind first, but mainly, and secondly, I was hoping I was wrong. I wanted the Oilers to win. I wanted the cup back to Canada in the worst way. And when the Florida Panthers were up 30, everyone in the hockey universe thought, oh, my goodness, this is the worst Stanley cup final ever. This is who's going to come back against a Florida Panther team like this. The way this team is built and come back and battle back against this team. And I remember one of the interviews from the postgames from Oiler goaltender Stuart Skinner where he said, if any team can do it, it's the oil. And I remember hearing that saying, hmm, man, I know you got to say what you got to say, but it's not looking good. Then you come out the next game, and you absolutely, you just absolutely clean their clocks and just absolutely blow them out of the building. Unbelievable statement game. Go back to Florida, win another hard fought game. Okay? And you just turn it on, and you go to back to Edmonton to the loudest I've ever seen an arena. 112 decibels. Listen, in my full time work, I can tell you from a health and safety perspective that can be dangerous for hearing if you're exposed to that long term. Okay? Now, 3 hours, you know, straight. It's not going 112 decibels. Okay? But the Edmonton faithful were loud. You could just feel the energy in that building. The Oilers were not losing that game, and they won that game entertaining. They made it. That being the Edmonton Oilers, from making it the worst Stanley cup final of all time to arguably the best that I have ever seen, that was the flip of that switch. That was the change. That was the Oilers effect. And that's the storybook on how the oiler season has been. Do not count them out. They have lost a three in a row, but they come back and wins three. 6910. They did that all season. It was impressive that they came back and forced a game seven after being down zero three to a team that is built as strong as the Florida Panthers.
[00:16:14] And that game seven was not an easy game. The Florida would have won. It could have went either way. You can see this call could have went there. This could have went there. They should have scored here. Skinner should have stopped that one here. Look, the end of the day, put the puck on that. Anything can happen. Florida did that. They got the lead, and they're able to contain that lead and drain out the clock. And Bobrovsky did well. He bounced back. There's a lot of question going into the last game. Is Bobrovsky going to be able to bounce back? Is Florida going to be able to bounce back? Who has the most momentum going into game seven? I thought the Oilers, obviously, the riding that high, but again, this is a team that was down zero three, comes back to make a three three, and is a one goal away from tying it and two goals away from winning the Stanley cup and being the first team since 1942. The 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs to come back down zero three and win the Stanley Cup. I was heartbroken. If you want to know where I had guests at my house, I even put an oiler jersey off the third period. I was wearing a t shirt that I was gonna show during this podcast, but I don't know where I put it. I wore this t shirt for game four, five and six and my friend, and of course ghost of the show Dane Hancho came over and ever since I had that shirt on and I sat on the corner of my sheds, it's an area of the couch. My Dane did not let me leave that area for game five and for game six. We had to stay there. The exact people had to come over. He had to sit in the exact same spot. We had to do a cheers at the beginning of each period, saying one period at a time. And as a leaf fan, I hope that everybody in Canada was cheering for the Edmonton Oilers. Maybe not the Calgary Flames fans, but you got to cheer for Canada. And I'm glad that I did that. It was a great moment. I would have loved to see my friend see his team win the Stanley cup. He wasn't alive when the Oilers won the cup last. Obviously I haven't seen my team win, but what I like to see was Canada did come together for this. They were supportive on the background of them coming back, except maybe Calgary fans. But again, it turned in from being the least exciting Stanley cup final to being the most exciting Stanley cup final that I have seen likely ever. It obviously wasn't the outcome that Canada or maybe a lot of fans wanted. Truly, I did want the inventor to win, just from a fan perspective and a canadian fan, that's no offense to Paul Maurice. Like I said, friend of the show, a native of Sault Ste. Marie when that that story would have been terrific. Ultimately, David wins the consmyth and people are questioning and Florida pan fans are booing McDavid. Look, I had a friend of mine say that he didn't like it. He didn't like it and I said, you're dumb. Like David had a such a fantastic playoff breaking Gretzky's assist record. The points that he got, he'd be the top five if not top three on some of the shittiest teams that were in the NHL this year. Chicago Blackhawks, San Jose Sharks. The list goes on. Even playoff was historic and it's something that will be talked about for years. And he deserved the cons. My did he get the trophy that he wanted? No, he didn't obviously. And him not coming on the ice, they say that's classless. You're nuts. It was not classless. If you look at videos, there's him supporting his teammates, being there for his teammates, being the captain, mourning the loss of the game seven Stanley cup finals with his teammates. He doesn't care about the hardware, about winning MVP. Sure, it's great. It's great to add to his trophy case, great to add to his resume. But his focus was what he just lost and that was the Stanley cup and he wanted to be there for his teammates. So what, he didn't do the John Sebastian Chagar and come out and get the cons might trophy, let it go. It doesn't matter. And people say to say that he doesn't deserve it. He did over anybody else in this playoffs, and I don't care what anybody says. Him six and seven, he pulled a Mitch Marner. Look, that's a name that we'll be talking about some and soon in this, in this, in this episode. He didn't pull a Mitch Marner. McDavid has been great all season. He was still effective in great in game six and seven from the defensive side, the puck making plays. Yeah, he didn't maybe contribute on the score sheet as those except would have expected, and it should be expected given what he's paid and what he is as a player.
[00:20:34] But ultimately, Edmonton has been able to pull together as a team, and there has been games this year throughout the season and playoffs from McDavid didn't get points, not really the playoffs, but where he didn't get points and the Oilers still won the Oilers show that they're a full team more than ever this year. But for those to think that McDavid shouldn't have won the cons might. You nuts? You're nuts.
[00:20:54] Don't agree with that, Paul. Maurice, look, I am going to do whatever I can in my power to with the show, and it may not be as hard as I think it could be because he's been on the show before and it was over a handful of years ago. Plus, we're hitting about seven years ago now. We've had Paul in the show, and I'm going to do what I can to get him back on the show because this guy in interviews, you know, he's always been great. But these interviews all season in the playoffs, Jeff's kiss, okay. And his last interview there, there's one where he got interrupted. He had to lift the cup. I loved it. But the one that he had on Sportsnet. Gonna give a shout out there to I think he was interviewing with Kyle Brachoskas and he mentioned his parents. He mentioned his brother. I know his brother. My father knows his brother too. But saying how his dad, the Maurice name, is now going to be on the Stanley cup with his heroes, Bellavo and so on. Such a touching speech. So genuine. Such a class. And speaking of class, he gives a shout out to the Winnipeg jets, saying that he hopes that they do it next. The guy is the coach for the Florida Panthers. I don't think he would mind winning multiple cups back to back to back with Florida Panthers, but for him to say that he hopes the Winnipeg jets can do it, that is peer class. There is somebody that spent a lot of time in Winnipeg and has moved on for his own reasons, went to Florida and this team has been built as a winner and they play for Paul. They love playing for Paul. And Paul's system works in Florida. He goes in, he puts the last cup on the board, but all the cups or all the pucks fall on the ground. It was a hilarious footage. Paul Maurice got emotional though, during that video mentioning his parents winning the cup. It was fantastic to see. Okay, if you don't love that or you don't love that for the sport, then what are you watching for? Despite maybe the team that you didn't want one, and maybe if you're an oiler fan you didn't want to see? Or maybe you didn't even watch the Stanley cup celebration. Look, if Toronto made that far and lost, I probably wouldn't watch the cup final celebration either, okay? But it was great to see Paul Maurice's speech, see him lift the cup. That's the only positive of that night. Other than that, I've watched Florida all season being the same division as Toronto and teams that we watch in the Atlantic, and I'll say it, they are damn good team. I've said that since day one and I'll continue to say it. And that is why they are the Stanley cup champions. But in summary, this is the best Stanley cup final that I have watched. Likely top two, if not the best David and the Edmonton Oilers bounce or coming back being down 30. Great. McDavid MVP deserved. No one else should have got it. Not Bobrovsky, not bark off, don't care McDavid and for those who say, hey, if you win the cup, that's who wins MVP, nah, nah. Change that narrative, change that thought. The best player in the playoffs should win, the Cons might. If you want to get a playoff MVP, then make another trophy and call it the Sidney Crosby MVP for, for goodness sake, once he retires and make it an MVP for the team that won, then if you think that's really necessary, best player in the playoffs was Conor McDavid, coming back down from zero three. So impressive, great final, great play, great effort from both teams. We couldn't have got a better cup final. And for those who say that Bettman got what he wanted, maybe Florida winning the amount of cups that they have had, I'm going to tell you right now, look, I know people say it's embarrassing for the amount of Florida teams that have won. Let's look at all the canadian guys that were on these Florida teams. Tampa, Florida. Yeah, there's some Europeans in there. Some. There's some Americans, you know, there's. But there's been a good corps, and I shouldn't forget Swedish or Finns. Of course, I said european, but good core of canadian players on both the Tampa Bay and Florida teams. Okay, I'll look at it from that perspective. Canadian guys and a lot of these players are interested in playing in Florida. That's tax free. There's a lot of advantages playing in Florida and in the hotter states, but yes, I would love to see some more passionate hockey states win the Stanley cup. But let's be honest, maybe I'm a fool to say Florida isn't a passion. Hockey state. They've won multiple cups in that state. The. These corporate sponsors have grown in Florida for the Panthers, and in Tampa it's been strong. So ultimately, this is a canadian group of guys in Florida that have won with a good mix around it. But I can agree that I would love to start seeing teams from other states, maybe get involved, but I would like to see the teams that are in provinces, if you know what I'm saying, start winning some more cups more frequently over 30 years. Enough is enough, and I'm telling that to the Oilers to come bounce back next year. If it's you, Toronto, if it's somehow you, if you can win more than two rounds the first time in your team's history, whatever it is, Vancouver, bring the cup home next year. Okay?
[00:25:55] That's what I want to see. But again, Stanley cup finals this year, Florida Panthers win the Stanley cup, their first in the franchise's history. Let me know what you thought of the Stanley cup finals, and once we do get Dane and even Alex back on the show, we'll get more of a late reaction from Dane after the dust has settled. It's only been just under a handful of days. I guess I can give a little bit of time to think about a little bit more. The upcoming draft is of course, it's Friday this week, the draft, and I'm not going to obviously be able to get into too much news because the draft hasn't happened. Some trades haven't happened. But Friday is going to be a busy day and this show is going to be uploaded on a Thursday, so the 27th. So. But between now and then, some trades may happen. But besides that, this is going to be a busy draft. I feel there'll be some moves. It seems like some teams want to keep their picks. They may not be as busy as we think, but there's going to be a lot of good players in this draft, especially from a defensive side of the puck. And if I'm a team like the Toronto Maple Leafs, hack, even the Montreal Canadiens, I am looking to see what I can do to try to get my hands on some of these defensemen. But a lot of these defensemen are going top ten. It would take a lot of value to move up in the draft to get that. But some of those teams, Montreal and Toronto, have some assets that they could move to look and move up to get some of those players. There is some big demand available. I like Antoine Silviev. I like Artuan Levshanov. I like those players. I think I'm a. I should say that I'm a big fan of building from the net out and from a defensive side. There are some players that are prizes here, including Sam Dickinson from the London Knights, but can't go wrong with some of the fours that you can select. So with the upcoming draft, what I'm going to do right now, for sake of time, because we're already hitting 25 minutes, I tried to promise you a half hour and there's still a lot of things to get to. So I'm going to try to go through this as quickly as I can. We're not going to be able to give you a redraft or a redraft segment tonight because I'm not going to do one by myself. Our next one is 1991, by the way, my birth year. But I am going to give you a prediction of what I think the top five picks are going to be in this year's NHL entry draft. Okay. And from that perspective, you can let me know what you think I'm going to go by based on what I think is best player to pick at that point and even team fit at that current point. But when you're at the draft, you should pick the best player available. I understand if you may need this, you may need that, but pick the best player available. With the first overall pick, I I predict the San Jose Sharks will select Macklin Celebrini for the second overall pick. I believe the Chicago Black ops will select defenseman Artyen Levna. Easy for me to say. With the third overall pick, I predict the Anaheim Ducks are going to select Kaden Lindstrom for a fourth overall pick. I predict the Blue Jackets are going to select Ivan Demidov. And with the fifth overall pick, I feel the Monchel Canadians are going to select Antoine Silviev. I that's what I think the top five is going to go. You can let me know what you think there's going to be for the upcoming draft signings and some moves that have occurred. Now look, Joseph wall apparently is, you know, getting a paid from Toronto. Casey milestack got paid. Dylan Demello got paid. This is going to be an interesting off season. You have Philip Peronick who got paid goodness contract and some money being thrown out, or thrown out just out the window. You see Millstadt over $5 million. In what universe? I know he had a good season, but you got to go by consistency. If I'm Tyler Bertuzzi, you know that he's not coming back to Toronto. If you got Casey Milstone making five, Tyler Bertuzzi is going to be jumping ship and getting paid. Players are going to get paid this offseason. That's the biggest warning you got to watch as a general manager, the signing these players to big dollars and big money and yes, the Caps going up. But, but my goodness, Casey Middlestat five plus. I couldn't agree with that. I am sorry, but some trades happen to Linus Allmark going over to the Ottawa Senators, Jordan Capra, Salo and a first round pick and prospect Mark Kelstick going the other way with retention to Jonas Carpus. Sallow 25% Linus all mark, you know, apparently Toronto's in that run. That was in that run. Then you got apparently Toronto was in Markstrom's run. But all these apparent rumors that this team's involved, this team's involved. This team's involved. Look, marks from going the Devils is the perfect fit.
[00:30:20] Knew that from the start. Called that a month ago. Perfect fit. Linus Allmark on Ottawa, though, was a. I did not think that was going to happen. I thought a fit happened between maybe Linus Almark and the Los Angeles Kings, but he ultimately waved to go over to Ottawa. He wanted to be in Ottawa. Seems like it's excited to be there. Maybe there's the goalie that Ottawa has always wanted. They have found it's a big Lincoln net that they have, that they have to focus on now they can build a little bit more out and try to make a good run to try to get back in the playoffs. They had a disappointing year. Watch out for Ottawa next year. If all Mark can be that guy that he's been on Boston. More trades going to happen. Let's wait and see. Is Mitch Marner going to get traded? Look, I'm going to make this prediction right now. I'm going to be bold and say it. I don't think it's going to happen. I don't think Mitch Marner is going to get traded. I don't know about an extension. I don't even want to predict an extension. I don't think it's there is going to be an extension. But I think they're going to make that absolutely bold decision to let them go into this year with a no contract. Play it out and see how it goes. Mitch Marner rumor getting traded to Utah or getting moved to Nashville or getting moved to Chicago, you know, for that top pick in the draft, whatever it may be. Look, as much as those trades would be attractive if you are the Toronto Maple Leafs, is Mitch Marner going to want to go there? Number one and number two, is it worth taking a risk on Mitch Marner on a contract here is going to give it all up for you so he can get paid and lose them for nothing? Or do you have a choice? They don't have a choice. Mitch Marner has, has to waive factors with this. And if it is true that he might go to Utah, love it at a conference, would love to see what that return would be. Are you looking at a Keller Sauderstrom or a Keller and Dursey in a pick? Are you looking at the top 6th overall pick in Keller? Or is that too much? Might be too much. Like what? What does that package look like for a star winger who hasn't played like a star in the playoffs this year? Look, if you know Mitch Marner is not going to sign extension now, and you know that he's not going to stay after next year and he wants to explore his options, you trade them. You trade them asset management. You can get a top six guy and get an asset for the future or an asset from a depth side, on the defensive side, a top 60 man that will be able to get the job done. Or better yet, look at a goaltending perspective to bring in a goalie and a defenseman or something to help you move forward in the right direction, not just for future sake, but to win. Now you move him if he's not going to stay, if he is going to stay, what does that look like? Anything north of ten, which it will be. Maybe I shouldn't say that. Anything north of ten from the realm of 10.5 and on, you send him backing out the door. You trade him and if he doesn't want to waive his no trade, then you let him play out this year. If it's him that's not letting him get traded, is it crazy to put that public? No. Say, look, we tried to move Mitch Marner. We tried to come to a contract extension. We couldn't get there. It seemed he is going to be interested to see how this season plays out and look at his options at the end of the season. You can word it that way. You can play whatever it has to be. You can be honest as much if because you're looking at moving Marner anyways and you don't want them there. Do what you need to do to get the best out of Mitch Marner next year. Whatever that is. Okay, but trades, more trades are going to happen. Some rights are going to get traded and I am very interested to see how the free agency window goes. So the draft on Friday is going to be a start of something big between a lot of prospects going, and I think the top ten can go in so many ways. It's so exciting. But trades can happen, movement can happen, and of course, discussions with players leading up to free agency frenzy. Speaking of that, Jake Gensle, Steven Stamkos available. There are players. Brett Pesci, defensive side of the buck, Nikita Zadorov being available. There are players that are available that can really help teams really add to what they need now. Defensively, offensively. It's going to be crazy. It is going to be crazy. Someone did ask me for two bold predictions. I will state one prediction that I already said before. Stam coast to Montreal was one of them, and I think Jake Genzel is going to the Vancouver Canucks.
[00:34:40] Those are my predictions now I will say finally, busiest off season that we'll see in a while. Why not? Let's be optimistic. Might not be as busy as I think on the draft, but I think there's going to be a busy summer and a lot of moves are going to happen. Caps going up. Teams need to make decisions. I think we're in for a while. A wild ride this summer, which makes for great podcast content. Now, hall of Fame inductees, I want to make sure that I touch on the hall of Fame inductees. And just so everybody knows, this is a commercial free segment you're going to give about. Now we're at 30 minutes. I'm going to try to keep this brief as I can. Hall of Fame inductees in the National Hockey League Datsuk Weber, Onik Chrissy Wendell Paul, Natalie Dorwitz and of course, Builders Colin Campbell and David Pool got into the Hockey hall of Fame. Alexander McGilney didn't get into the hall of Fame for this run and there has been multiple complaints online comments stating that he should have been there over these guys. I'm going to be honest with you. So I'm a fan of Alex McGillney. He broke the barrier for a lot of european hockey players. Barry Solming was the big key contributor that, especially from a swedish perspective. But speaking of Alex McGilney, this is a guy with over a thousand points. He should be in the Hockey hall of Fame. But does he truly deserve to be there over anybody that got inducted today?
[00:36:03] Can you sit there and say that he deserves to be there over anybody that's that got inducted into the class today?
[00:36:11] Despite what maybe Chrissy or Natalie has done or Datsuka has done or Shea has done, positions they are and what they are. People saying that McGillney was better than Roenick, look at the points, look at the effect on the player. I would have taken Jeremy Roenick over Alex McGillny just because of all around and my nuts for saying that maybe. But again, look at the players that got inducted. McGillney should not be there any more than those ones deserve to be there. The right decision was made for this class. He still has an opportunity to get in. He should be considered and he should be in the hall of Fame, though, may I add, he should be. But in this class, tough names to go up against. If you don't agree with me, I'd like to know below. I think it was the right call. Now, I've talked a lot of hockey. I've used a lot more time than I believe I would. I'm going to get into two other topics before I wrap up the show and it's going to be about the MLB and the NBA. Okay, I'm going to start with the NBA from the NBA. The obviously the Boston Celtics, old News, have won the NBA championship, have now surpassed the Lakers for the most in NBA history. Tatum and of course, Brown Horford gets his first title. Boston, of course, has had a lot of ups and downs the Celtics have in the playoffs. I thought that the Mavs, you know, we're going to have a chance to pull off a win here, but Boston was truly dominant in that final and we're able to contain Luca and we're really, just really strong on the floor, especially in the paint, capitalized on shots. It seemed like when Dallas able to get momentum, Boston was able to just sheltered them down and pulled them down and contained that pressure. Boston is a very good team. Were impressive to watch. And Tatum, one of the best in the league to date right now in the league, arguably top five, if not higher. This is somebody who has been through some playoff adversity, has played a lot of playoff games and didn't have success, and they got the success that they deserved for this playoffs. Oh, the right team did win. Maybe it's fair for me to say, even though I did predict the Thunder to win and don't trust me, the Thunder are going to win very, very soon. Some moves in the NBA have happened, obviously, Caruso and giddy getting traded for each other. You got LeBron James being offered a three year max deal. AJ Reddick is now the coach, my favorite player to ever come onto Duke, fun fact. And I like his podcast with him and LeBron. He is the coach of the Lakers now. The coach of the Lakers is JJ Riddick. LeBron James podcast Host is a coach in the NBA. And honestly, the NBA right now has had some great storylines in terms of, now you got Reddick, Bronny James is coming up in the NBA. You have players, okay, that move on from team to team bit more frequently. But it seems like the NBA has had a good turnaround this year. But think with Dallas, you know, Boston coming through, you got. Okay, okay. See, really coming into their own. It seems like even the, the, the Atlanta Hawks getting the first overall pick tonight. And I'll go through that very briefly before I go into baseball. There's been some good storylines in basketball, is what I'm trying to say.
[00:39:37] Honestly, I think that the NBA this season, it wasn't the best season it's had, of course, but there was a lot of good storylines. And one thing I will say, they gotta get rid of that in season tournaments. No, I'm not a fan of that. I think that's just absolutely nuts. I don't think that's a good call. What? Whatsoever. But this offseason is going to be interesting and look at, look at Bridges going to the Knicks. What so much I can talk about when it comes to basketball OG and will be being offered massive deal with the Knicks. The Knicks Bays will call them the Villanova Knicks because of the historic history that they have. But between LeBron, JJ Reddick going to be a coach in LA now, the giddy trade with Alex Caruso, the draft being tonight, storylines continue. The Knicks are looking like they're going all in. The Knicks want to win. They want to win one this, this upcoming season and they're going to be favorites to do it and they have a tough conference to do it in because you have Boston there and so on. This is going to be a very busy offseason. And to give everyone little recap of the top five picks in the NBA draft as I'm sitting here with the live updates, goes number one back to back years of french player gets drafted number one overall. Did not go see Atlanta Hawks. Alex, my favorite player in this draft goes second overall to the wizard. Seven foot big man. But for the Perth Wildcats, big guy is a seven foot four wingspan. This guy, okay, he's been compared to like Evan Mobley. He's had some comparisons. I'm a fan of Alex R third overall. The Rockets picked Reed shepherd, who played in Kentucky this year, and the fourth overall pick, the San Antonio spurs, who took Wembley last year. Devon Castle goes number four this year. Big good playmaker will be good to dish the ball out and be a good fit in the rebuild of San Antonio. The Pistons selected Ron Holland at five. Now, there's obviously a lot of piston followers on this show. For this show, I'll have to see if I get some reactions as the summer goes on to what they feel the Pistons offseason. But this is a guy who came out of the G League ignite, okay? He averaged 18 and a half points, if I read correctly prior, and just under seven rebounds. He had a good season. Okay, this was the first upset betting of the night because no one expected Holland to go fifth. The bet line had Holland plus 2000 to be in the fifth overall selection. Okay, and to round out other picks, you got saloon going over to the show. Charlotte Hornets, you have you come in Donovan Klingon who I think went a little too low to the trailblazers. Great moves there for some moves at the ten. Another surprise pick they go, Cody Williams goes ten to the Utah Jazz. One thing that I was surprised as well, Brazilius will definitely play a big role this year as he as he plays with the Chicago Bulls and of course OKC having a near top, top, top pick. They had the 12th overall pick, the Thunder going with Nikila topic at number twelve. Okay, so as the draft goes on the watch and the most popular watch right now is definitely okay. Those have seen where brawny goes in this year's draft. Will brawny be going second round? Will it be the Lakers? What will happen this draft? As I said here, it's 10:01 p.m. the draft is still going on. And at the latest and newest updates, the Dalton Connect was just taken from the by the Los Angeles Lakers. I was waiting to see if that was going to be brawny. It was not. So that's the latest pick going on the draft rate. Now at this time we'll have more reaction about the draft where necessary or if con content relevance occurs by that point. But I would love to get some piston fan interaction with that. Now the last thing I'm going to get to is the MLB.
[00:43:49] Look, the MLB Connor Henderson isn't here right now. So I'm not going to get into the full dissection of the league and get into each division talking about teams and of course really not. There's a lot to talk about. But I'm going to centralize this rant about the Toronto Blue Jays. As I sit here, Vladimir Guerrero jersey is right behind me or Olivia's Martinez, one of the prize prospects, gets to spend 80 games for, for dopey. And the Blue Jays this year have been an absolute dumpster fire. Okay, yes, they won nine four on on on Tuesday and the game tonight was suspended. You know, the Blue Jays give a chance to have a result tonight, but this is a team that lost seven in a row going into last night and this is team that is not swinging the bat while Springer is no Kevin Kiermeyer underneath the 200 average. Despite the defensive ability this team has, their bats are dead. The pitching has been fairly consistent the last couple of years. I don't have too much complaints about their pitching. Some what it's not as good as I feel it was last year, but there is nothing this hitting can do to make this team better. And last night time this recording, which would be on Tuesday, this game happened nine four win was, it was in Boston, was the, was a big step forward. But the game before that, losing seven six, losing six five these one run games. But then you have blowout games, seven one to Cleveland before, seven three to Boston before twice actually. And the Blue Jays this year have been disappointing. The 8th highest payroll in the MLB is not getting the job done. It is unacceptable. It's like the Mets last year when they spent so much money and they couldn't get nothing done. The Blue Jays have been unsuccessful. Springer has been a joke. Keir Meyer has been a joke. I'm talking about from a batting perspective. Laddie has had now some good spurts. David Schneider love seeing those guys in the lineup. Bo Bashett just getting healthy. Hopefully he can start swinging the bat more effectively. There's still time. If you remember, this was a team that was a game below 500 back in 2015. Couple trades, they go on a big heater and they give us the rest is history. Will that happen this year? For any chance for the Blue Jays to climb back, they're going to need to win this series against the Boston Red Sox. But guess who they have next? The New York Yankees for four games. If you can somehow manage to split that series, then go up against Houston, who hasn't been playing well, and sweep that or something, you might start to get respectful and start getting momentum to get back in the wild card race. But they are significantly behind and it's hard to come back in a season, especially in a division that is so challenging to come back from in teams that are so tough. I just don't see the Blue Jays living up to expectations this year and meeting those expectations. Now you have a decision to make at the deadline. Do you want this to be the management crew that makes the choices from a management crew that might be fired at the end of the year and a management crew that seems to keep gaslighting Blue Jay fans? This is not exciting baseball to watch. It's unbearable to watch. It's so sad to watch. And this is a team that, yeah, if you're a fan, you cheer, you try to move, motivate them from your couch. But the only way the Blue Jays are going to get better is if they can get better at bats, more effective at bats and win those tight ball games, get back into the race and get momentum. If they can get momentum, and before that they go into the all star break.
[00:47:15] If they can really pull, pull in some wins and win a couple series back to back, including the Boston series, maybe the Yankee and Houston series, and get back in the wild car race, it can rewrite your season where you're looking to buy at the deadline. Okay. But if you're still behind going into deadline and you can move out some assets to bring in some assets, consider it any type of blockbuster trade. I would hope that the Jays would refrain doing it and maybe just run it out this year. I don't like considering a year away because you have players like Vlad Bo, guys that are near, you know, at times in their career where they're going to be looking for bigger money in the future. But you can have just a quick retool at the end of the year and you can do it with a new manager in the dugout and new general manager and president of operations as well. But again, easier said than done. It's not always the top end people that get let go, it's the manager, and it looks like Schneider might be the first one to go. If something happens, you got to ask yourself, can this team battle back? Will they battle back? And if they don't, do you make moves this year or do you wait till the end of the year? Interested to say, I'll give you my opinion. I think they should look at making moves this year that are going to be smart asset management moves that will allow them a little bit of flexibility. Get some young guys in the lineup, keep Spencer Horowitz up and obviously keep Addison Barger up, keep some of these young guys up and look at retooling more in the offseason, be more effective next year. Just like how the Yankees did. They weren't successful last year. They had some key names. They bought some guys in the offseason, aka Juan Soto, pretty big name to buy, and they're able to right the ship this year and get back on track. The Blue Jays can do the same. And no, I'm not comparing the Jays to the Yankees.
[00:48:48] 41 minutes. I'm eleven minutes over my time, so I'm going to get to the wrap up point and I'm going to take a breath. This was a commercial free, no segment pause straight podcast for you with yours truly. Anyone that knows me knows I can talk a lot, and I did talk about a lot on this show, and I hope you're able to keep up and I hope that you enjoyed it. Let me know what you think below about everything that I talked about, from San Luca finals, from the NHL, from trade rumors to signings to free agents, to the hall of Fame inductees, the NBA and the MLB. I'm all about hearing it. Make sure you follow us on social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram. We're also on Tick Tock all at the GameSports podcast. And of course, we're powered by 91 Network. Head on over to 91 Network YouTube channel. Just remind you July 2, we will have an upload with Brennan press for a special edition upload and our next news show will be the Sunday after July 7 and for available for your viewing that evening or by July the 8th. And we will continue through our Sunday rotation of shows. Please note that we may have a week that one might skip. Please keep mindful of that. We'll try to keep you updated on each show, but we do have planned at the end of the mid August. Every year at mid August we have a vacation from our show. So we plan that to be after August 11, something I should mention beginning. But after August 11, the show will likely be going on vacation for two weeks after and will resume after Labor Day. Just so you all know, if you want to mark down your calendars, but one thing you should mark in your calendars is the Brandon prest upload. It's going to be amazing. You do not want to miss that again. Comment, react, follow, whatever you can do to support. We appreciate it. And of course, hopefully you were entertained tonight by hearing just my voice for 43 minutes now. And we'll be back with more, well, special edition next week, as I mentioned. But our next new show on July 8. Thank you for tuning in. I'm here to remind you, keep your stick on the ice, swing your bats, catch touchdowns during your threes and shoot your shots. Booyah.
