[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hi everyone, and welcome to another edition of the Game Sports podcast. It is your host of the Game Sports podcast, David McCague Jr. Tonight's episode will feature three segments. In the first segment, be yours truly riding solo, talking NBA and NHL expansion video game complaints and rule changes when it comes to overtime in the NHL. In the second segment of the show, I'll be joined by Dane Hantrow and Justin Heichel talking all things hockey when it comes to NHL. Great deadline in particular with all canadian teams, Department of Player safety and consistency, the 1984 NHL Redraft, and would you rather. In the third segment, I'll be joined by Connor Henderson talking all things in the world of baseball. As spring training is upon us and the baseball season is set to begin. We'll also be discussing players that are still available, and we'll be touching on expansion in that segment as well. Let's go.
Booyah. And it's time for the Game sports podcast. It's your host, David McCague Jr. The Game Sports podcast is powered by 91 Network. That's 91 n. 91 Network is a YouTube channel that you can check out today just by searching 91 Network. If you are currently doing a podcast or want to start a podcast, you can email 91
[email protected] today to have your podcast aired or help start your podcast today. Again, the Game sports podcast is powered by 91 n and as you heard in the opener, we got three segments coming and we're here in the first segment and we got a lot to get to, so we're going to get right into it. As I discussed, I want to talk about expansion. There's going to be a lot of expansion when it comes to this episode. It's just something that we wanted to touch on and that we'll probably touch on a little bit more regularly as leagues expand. In particular when it comes to maybe the NHL, if it's the NFL, if it's the NBA, whatever it may be, it's always a fun topic to talk about. And I'm going to start off first by talking about the NHL. Now, this is something that we touched on in previous editions, on previous clips. You can check us out. We are on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, just at the Game Sports podcast. We have a lot of interaction from our listeners and followers. If you have the opportunity, make sure you go to our profile, give us a checkout and give us a follow. We really appreciate it and we also appreciate the comment and feedback. But back on point, the NHL. When it comes to expansion, this has been a hot topic, especially when it comes to the Arizona Coyotes being in the mullet arena. You got the NHL who are apparently considering a return for the third time to Atlanta. Parr and myself, Alex Parr, who is someone involved obviously here on the games Bars podcast, if you know Alex, been around for a number of years and we talked about cities that would be a good fit for the National Hockey League. And as much as I feel that Quebec City deserves a team and to have it back, I don't think we're going to see it. But we did see it back in Winnipeg when we least expected it. So I'm not saying it's impossible, but I can see and if you are someone who follows the sport and are involved in the sport, you can see that they aren't really considering a return to Quebec at this time. And truly this may be an unpopular opinion. If you're going to return to Quebec, I almost would want them to look at going to Halifax or somebody else on the east coast other than Quebec City, and that might be an unpopular opinion. But unfortunately those cities are not in my choice for expansion. The NHL is going to expand and leagues are going to expand as obviously the game grows and as the league grows, especially when it comes to revenue, with an opportunity to gain more revenue. And what I'm looking at right now for the NHL expansion, and I'm going to go first. As I touched on in a previous segment, Houston, I feel like Houston is a very good fit. They have the market for it. It would create a good rivalry with Dallas and this is a city that I feel can house NHL team and get consistent attendance each night. How will they do if the team is on a rebuild or not doing as good? That's what may concern me, but when it comes to comparing them and lineup to other cities that have teams in the NHL, Arizona being included in that, Houston just seems like a realistic option for an expansion. The second option, and this is very much not a surprise, but Utah, I feel that Utah would be a great fit. They're already in talks with the National Hockey League. There's already developments on wanting to get an arena going, and that's where the Utah Jazz would maybe play. Out of all in one arena, it seems like a fit. Why not Utah? Those are my two favorites, but let me give you a spin. Why not Arizona, relocate to Houston, expand to Utah and expand to Kansas City? Everyone rolls their eyes when it comes to Kansas City because you hear about it all the time, especially on the news when it comes to football. But my idea in perspective is relocate Arizona to Houston, expand to Utah and Kansas City. Leave Atlanta out of it. If you are considering a canadian team, look at Halifax or secondly look at Quebec, Houston, Utah, my two favorites for expansion. But why not a relocation of Arizona to Houston and look at expanding to Utah and Kansas City when it comes to the NBA? My predictions when it comes to expansion, I think the NBA is going to be expanding more rapidly than people think when it comes to where they're going to expand. I think the NFL is going to be a bit more open about going over to Europe. But I feel like the NBA is really going to look at Mexico City. It's not a surprise there. The NBA is looking to grow its league and I think there's a real market that you can get in Mexico City. There's other markets, Las Vegas, Pittsburgh and also Vancouver or Montreal. In my opinion. If we have to nail it down to two, I think they should expand to two. And let's not forget getting Seattle SuperSonics back into it. But to expand into two right off the hop, Mexico City, Vancouver, let's go opposite sides of the spectrum and let's go in those two markets and then let's expand to Las Vegas and return back to Seattle after that. Four teams in the next ten years? Why not? It would be a good fit. Toronto is the main market when it comes to the NBA, just like it is with the MLB. And I don't think that's going to be for long. And you'll hear what Connor and I have to say in the third segment. But Canada's game when it comes to sports need to grow. Outside of hockey, it doesn't have that opportunity. In the MLB, it doesn't have that opportunity. When it comes to the NBA. It doesn't have an NFL team. Unless you want to go an hour and a half drive to Buffalo or you want to go over the border to go watch somebody. So maybe an NFL team to Toronto wouldn't be a bad idea if we're talking expansion, but we're not talking expansion with the NFL at this current time. We're talking NBA to start Vancouver, Mexico City. The game is not just within the USA. Canada has shown that an entire country can back up a team and they did that with the north. The Raptors winning a championship. Obviously player desires to play. There's been struggles when it comes to the Vancouver Grizzlies. Prior they were already there and here I am saying how it didn't work in Atlanta three times. Well, I think it would work and be different in Vancouver. This go around, it's because of the effect that Toronto has had in recent years and because of it being a market in Toronto that has worked in the NBA. With Vancouver being close to Seattle, having that supersonic team come back, it makes a rivalry. And the traveling down to California is very easy for Vancouver. And they can be in that division and be involved in a market that involves the Lakers, that involves maybe if you do some other realignments, but the Lakers, the Clippers can be near the warriors. It makes sense that they can create that market with teams that have a lot of money and popularity, such as Golden State and the Lakers, and it could help this market flourish more. The problem is, though, as I said a few moments ago, the talent wanting to play in Canada. A lot of players have said, hope it's cold, they don't like the weather. Look, canadian teams in the NBA. The Raptors built their success through the draft. They traded for Kyle Lowry. But there's development there with Bosch. There's now development there with Scotty Barnes. There was development there with Vince Carter before he got traded. There is opportunity to build a core like Golden State has through a draft. If you scout properly and if you have the right core of one star, two star guys, you can bring in players onto your team. And look at guys like Shay, look at Brooks, look at sharp guys that are canadian players, that are pivotal players on their team.
Canada's game involving basketball is growing. So grow the exposure in the country to continue to feed the market for basketball player and basketball development in Canada. It's an untouched market. There's growth opportunities there. You have a canadian rivalry between Toronto and Vancouver. Heck, even if it's Montreal, why not look at that? And as I said, when it comes to Mexico City, we are growing outside of Canada. Let's grow into this part of North America. And if that success works, grow more cities and maybe even grow to Europe in the near future. There is a chance where you're going to see five plus teams in the next 15 years join the NBA and join these leagues because of the rapid growth and in popularity and exposure that they want to the world. So again, Vancouver, Mexico City, top two for the NBA. Other cities to be notable, Pittsburgh, Las Vegas, and a return to Seattle needs to be in place. Five teams within ten years. Make it happen, NBA. Now I want to go back to the overtime changes. This is something I've also talked about on this podcast many times, in particular with Alex. And for many years we've talked about it the shootout and the National Hockey League. Look, I'm not going to go into this topic too much, but I liked having my own idea.
I liked the idea, sorry to have a segment where I had this to myself to voice this. As a big fan of hockey, I'm a fan of all sports. As you can see. I got a blue jay jersey behind me, a Steeler jersey. I got a leaf jersey with my own name on it. I got my own custom team men's league jersey. There's leaf jerseys in front of me here.
I got multiple jerseys here. I got, obviously soccer. I got a borrella jersey there. If you know Borrella, of course, if you follow soccer, there's a full time podcast as well you can check out. But besides that big follower of sports, and when it comes to the hockey overtime and the shootout format, the way it is now, hockey is my diehard sport. If I had one sport to live with and look at for the rest of my life, it would be hockey. And that's coming from a leaf fan. Wow. Now, the NHL, when it comes to the shootout, was great when it happened. I remember watching the first shootout between the Toronto Maple police and the Ottawa Senators and it was great at the time and penalty shots when they happened like, oh, everyone was so excited. Everyone was all about the shootouts and that has died down. And it's just like how three on three hasn't died down, but I feel like the shootout died down very quickly as it started to happen a lot more. And three on three is just so exciting. The back and forth, back and forth. Look, I am a big fan of the women's hockey league. I love the attention it's getting. It broke the record when it comes to watching game Scotiabank. Scotiabank has never been that loud since, unless it's playoff hockey. So little jab at my fellow Leaf fans to get a little bit louder when it comes to Scotiabank arena. But it was great to see the game is looking great. It's entertaining. A lot of great players to watch and be featured there and they have a very unique point system when it comes to wins, losses, ties. Do I see the NHL incorporating that? I don't think so. I don't think it's something that needs to be changed. But if they are looking at it, why not adopt a regulation win being three points, an overtime win being two with a loss being zero or even two 10, whatever it may be. To make it a little bit more complicating. You get a loss when you lose, you lose. You don't get a point. But if you win an overtime, look, you had to go the extra, you didn't get that win, right? Do you want to throw ties back in there? I think that's boring as heck. So don't get rid of ties. Point system? Sure, but I'm talking overtime change on here as I get a little bit sidetracked in my apologies. There's opportunity to change the game in a different way and I talk expansion. I could talk overtime change and that's what I'm going to say right now. But there's different rule changes that can make the game a bit more open. And when it comes to overtime, I've been a fan of saying to do this and it's not a popular opinion, but this is what I feel should be done.
Ten minutes of three on three then shootout. That simple. It should be ten minutes of three on three if that settles nothing. If you can't score ten minutes of three on three, I'd be shocked. Then we can go to a shootout.
If I can be greedy, I will say if you want to keep the five minute three on three, that's fine. Do a five minute two on two, then do a shootout.
Why not? Not a ten five shootout? That'd be too long. No, number one. It's either a ten minute three on three then shootout or number two. You do a five three on three. Five two on two then shootout. Let me know what you think. Comment below on what you think and let me know if you think there should be a different point system regulation. Win overtime win and zero for loss. Two 10.
Why not? Lots to consider.
Video game complaints look, I've went all over in this first segment, okay? And I find that I'm a bit more organized a segment because it comes with time constraints, but it also comes with being solo and where you want to go with it. And there's a lot that we touched on here. There'll be a lot of clips that are probably featured from the segment. So nonetheless, a lot of points and interactive opportunity for you here right off the hop here on this episode of the game. Video game complaints I'm going to table this a little bit more from we have Alex par on and we have Alex and Dane and myself together and even myself, Alex, Dane and Justin together. All four of us are individuals that are involved in the gaming world in some degree. Justin, a different angle, Alex, a different angle. Me and Dane as well. I'm a big fan of sports video games, but I'm a big fan of story mode games. My wife and I. My wife enjoys watching me play. The last of us. I've always been a fan of GTA. There's last of us to Detroit. Coming human. There's beyond souls. There's the Harry Potter game, of course, right? There's Hogwarts legacy. So there's a lot of games that are story mode that I am passionate about first. But my first love when it came to video games has been sports. And I've had every NHL game I have had since it was on Sega. Okay, since it was on Sega. When it came on pc, I converted from Sega to pc when you put the disk into the drive.
And then I converted over to PS one. And since PS one, I haven't looked back. PS one, PS two, PS three, ps four, ps five. Haven't looked back. I've bought it every year. There was a couple of years where I said I'm not going to buy it, I'm going to boycot it because I didn't like the changes, because it didn't do any changes. But what did I do? I caved. And I bought every year of EA sports every year.
And they've done changes throughout the years. Graphics, game modes. My biggest game, of course, when it comes to hockey, is the game. Sports podcast has a team. Me, Dane and Alex. We're very good at it. Just so if anyone wants to go against us, let us know. But I play franchise mode. I'm a big fan of franchise mode when it comes to sports games. That's where 75% of my dedication is. The other 15% is online play. I barely play, even be a promo. It might be a small percentage in there, but I am purely franchise mode. Love the idea of maybe winning Toronto a championship, sure. But just being involved and playing as the team that you make and the trades, it's very fun. And that goes for NBA, NHL, et cetera. This complaint is about when it comes to NHL since I am a very avid NHL player, meaning NHL video game player, and I play other sports games as MLB, the show, which is covered by Vladimir Guerrero this year. Very excited about that. Love MLB, the show and two K for example, which I bought this year. NBA two k 24. The franchise mode is spectacular.
The EA sports NHL game when it comes to Stanley cup celebration is fantastic. It's better than any other game to be honest with you, because it goes in depth into it. But there is an opportunity for a big gaming company, sports or not to look at taking a sports franchise like the NHL and making it on steroids, combining the Madden features and the NBA two K features and the current NHL features. And an enhanced celebration at the end and just combining a big monstrous NHL game with spectacular online play. If someone took that away from EA and no offense EA, I've been a fan for years, but I would be curious to see somebody like two k if they did NHL in a different way or if EA can get away from what they're currently doing and enhance the entire mode. Get rid of those glitches. Get rid of those contract glitches.
Make the Stanley cup celebration even more interactive. Okay. Give it the feel of that negotiations from free agency, those steps. Jersey retirements. How is that not a thing? Official jersey retirements. When you take over, we know the ones are there that are previous. Why not new ones?
You feel like you buy each game, but there's suckers like me that just go ahead and buy it anyways because we love it and it's our escape from reality work. My podcast, whatever it may be. The video game industry when it comes to sports, there's one franchise that I think does it right when it comes to franchise and that is MLB and two k. But what I don't understand is when you play Madden in comparison to NHL, same brand. NBA has invested more. FIFA's franchise. All they got the story. You got the meeting with the GM. We all know where EA makes its money and where it spends its money. It's quite obvious. But would it hurt to put a little bit more investment into better online play? Better be a pro story and an overall better interactive with franchise mode, it would just be better.
Come on EA, I'm a fan. I'm speaking from the heart.
Do something different when it comes to your franchise modes. That is my complaint. Be like two k. Be like FIFA, which is your same company as FIFA. Invest more.
It's time to protest as gamers when it comes to playing the NHL franchise in the NHL world, to make it better, they say they add these different skill sticks and different features. Where is it?
I see a different controller, how to control player and I disliked it this year. To start off the year I want to see more invested into their online gaming and to their franchise mode that allows the player to be more in depth.
Just saying maybe someone could take over and just put all the games together that people do good and be a dream miracle for gamers. But we all know that's not the case. EA has been around for a lifetime and no one's going to move over till somebody can beat them at that. Two k has their niche FIFA, Madden and NHL is its own niche. MLB the show is its own niche.
I would love for the EA World and EA Sports in general to just enhance make the gameplay better for NHL franchise mode.
That is sports talk. That is both gaming and sports talk all in one for you that you get the full enjoyment from yours truly when it talks everything. When it comes to sports and it comes to playing video games, I want to know what you're playing because if you're playing NHL, I want to challenge you.
The game sports podcast challenges you to play us.
We challenged Moon Empire. Everybody knows him. On TikTok. We had a human goalie, he had a computer goalie. He had a full roster guy. So did we and we ended up winning that game.
We're now trying to do a series. He wants more, but we want to welcome challenges to the Game sports podcast crew and to those who want to play us, comment at us.
We welcome all challenges like we welcome all interactions. And speaking of that, let me know what you think, if any way, how EA can make franchise mode better in NHL and a better experience for the gamer.
All right, we talk sports, we talk video games and all this first segment in the first 20 minutes here, I'm five minutes over my allotted time that I wanted. I'm going to take a quick breather.
I'm going to top up my show drink. And when we come back, segment two time, Dane and Justin will be joining yours truly talking all things hockey.
You don't want to miss it. This is Game sports podcast powered by 91 n all video platform. All video episodes available on 91 n's YouTube channel. All audio is available on Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Google, wherever you want to find us, we are there. It's so simple. And TikTok, Instagram, social media at the Game sports podcast. Look, I could pull up the stats and pull them up on screen right now. When it comes to TikTok and go over to the game sports podcast, you can see the views that are on the videos. Inconsistent. But our recent video with our redraft, over 3000 views on that. Over 80% of those who are watching over 75% of the full video, you have not hit follow on our content. You know you enjoy it. That's just a very small amount of what you'll see coming for the game sports podcast. So make sure you're hitting follow. We appreciate that. Support.
All right, I'm taking my break as I promised, for I ramble on to another tangent about how video games should maybe be better, another expansion city because there is more sports to be talked about here and I'm going to bring in Dane and Justin to do that with me. Don't go anywhere. And welcome back to the Game sports podcast is host David McCag Jr. Continuing to host you this evening, the Game sports podcast powered by 91 n. That's 91 network on all platforms, video and audio. I'm joined by Dane Hantrow and the return to our well proclaimed top Shelf hockey segment, Justin Heichel. You're a lot of Justin on the in the pocket segment, which of course is now taking a leave because football season's over. But I'm going to go over first to Dane because he also has a special guest with him. If you're on video, you get the pleasure of seeing who this guest is.
Her name is Ghost. It's a new puppy and it's a good mix. I believe it's lab, Doberman and Pitt, if I remember correctly. Awesome. That is an absolute beautiful pup there. Dane. How are you? And how is life with your new pup?
[00:23:57] Speaker B: It's been great so far. She was just gnawing on the leg of my chair right now, so I picked her up to mitigate that. But so far so good, eh?
No, she's been great so far. So she's tiny right now, but she'll probably turn into a big little monster here in the next two months and she'll be a handful. But so far so good.
[00:24:15] Speaker A: Still doesn't go downstairs, I believe.
[00:24:18] Speaker B: What's that?
[00:24:19] Speaker A: Still doesn't go downstairs, I believe. Right. You don't have her going down, not.
[00:24:22] Speaker B: Like the stairs yet. But I also don't bring her down there yet because there's carpet down there and kind of wait until she's completely potty trained. But no accidents so far today. So she's doing good for nine weeks.
[00:24:34] Speaker A: We love dogs on the game sports podcast. If all member we are very close. Well, working partners with northern critters in need, which is located here in the soon. People ask if we still do that. Yes, I still connect with them. I still work with them. We don't mention a lot on air, but there's a lot of involvement there and there's a lot of close ties actually because Dane and I fostered a dog through northern critters named Kendrick and obviously Kendrick still holds a close place. He is living life to the absolute fullest with his new owner that we got him placed with and it's fantastic. Puppies and dogs. Yay.
And cats and all pets. Justin Heiko, my friend, how are you now going to you.
[00:25:10] Speaker C: How's life back on? What are we here midweek again?
Just talking different sports. Good to be here and let's get her going.
[00:25:21] Speaker A: Definitely hockey, as I talked in the very opener, we already know what the agenda is, so let's go right into it, fellas.
I want to start first and obviously everyone's loving the redraft segment. It's had some great reviews and view counts on TikTok and Instagram. And I know people look forward to seeing our picks and if you want us to enhance our picks, make more picks, whatever it is, let us know. We love that. But I want to start off today with the trade deadline. All right. The trade deadline is very near. Okay. And it's going to be interesting deadline. You always get hopes up, right? You're always going to say, all right, before when we were in high school, I'm saying we because we're all in the same age closely now obviously in the workforce, a little bit challenging, but used to get a note from my dad to stay home to watch a trade deadline. Heck, I used to get my dad to write the trades on paper so I can go log on to my NHL eight, whatever the heck I was playing. Not eight because I guess I'd be 20 at that time, but NHL four, whatever it may be. And he would write down the trades so I can go make the trades on the roster on my video game so they would be the real rosters. I used to love doing that. Trade deadline is almost like a big holiday with free agent Frenzy and everything when it comes to the National Hockey League. And Friday, March eigth will be the NHL trade deadline. And there's going to be a lot of teams that are active. That includes most of if all the canadian teams from a buying and selling perspective. And you got some teams in America, all the other teams, every other team is from America. But a lot of buyers in the market, but as well as playful on the fringe, don't know what they're going to do if they're going to make the playoffs or not. And then you got the sellers and we all know the Pittsburgh Penguins seem like they're going to be sellers. Kyle Dubis'Pittsburgh Penguins seem like they're going to be moving some names out, but we're going to talk canadian teams for the most part here. We will dive into Dubas, as I mentioned a little bit in the opener, but we will talk about teams where we can. But I want to talk canadian teams in specific at this current point and I want to go first not to the Oilers, not to the Leafs. We'll save those teams for last because everyone knows we cheer for those.
I'm. We're not going to get each of us to talk about every team. I'm going to try to quarterback this as quickly and efficiently as we can, but I'm going to start with Montreal and I'm going to piggyback off Dane with this one with Montreal Canadiens. My opinion on Montreal is that this team is obviously still retooling, still rebuilding. They're in a positive direction. I love Martin St. Louis as the coach there. I think it's a great fit. Obviously Cole Caulfield, kids, a stud Suzuki. But I'm hearing there's a lot with Montreal looking to add, but appropriately add and some target names that we're hearing is with the Anaheim Ducks, with Trevor Ziegris. Think he would fit the bill quite nicely. Montreal, the type of forward and player that he is. But Dane, Montreal, I think they're in a weird predicament. Right? It's okay. You have some selling that you maybe want to do for asset management, but you're also a young team, so you don't want to get rid of these young guys for just other young guys. You want to just kind of stay on course and just add to it appropriately as you look forward into the future. But they do maybe want to look at moving some goaltending perhaps, but I'll just go off you first with Montreal. What should people expect from the Canadians?
[00:28:44] Speaker B: Honestly, I don't think that much. I think you kind of look at Montreal this year and they're making progress.
It's slow, but I think if you're Montreal, you kind of like what you see from Slafkovsky, especially the last 1015 games.
[00:29:02] Speaker A: Good point.
[00:29:03] Speaker B: The potentials finally showing there.
And yeah, they obviously got a bunch of really good young guys on the team. I mean, they definitely have some veteran defensemen they could move on from for some draft picks and that. But guys like that are good to have on your team to mold the players you already have. Right? So obviously they got free goaltenders that they're working with in Montreal. They could probably move maybe Allen out. I don't think they're going to get much anything over a fifth or a fourth round pick for that. But if a team needs a backup goalie that's going on a playoff run and they might be a little bit shorthanded in that department for sure. Could see that. But other than that, I don't anticipate Montreal being that busy especially in comparison to teams like, I mean, Calgary obviously seems like the team that selling wise will be the busiest this year if everything goes well. But yeah, I think, you know, a couple minor moves, nothing too big on the front.
[00:30:02] Speaker A: Now, Justin, you know, speaking of the Calgary Flames, there's a team that's dealt with them twice, and that is the Vancouver Canucks with Zidorov, who there's rumors going around and saying that that might be someone that Vancouver looks at moving now, which is you give. I'm going to give them a promotion here, give Calgary a call because they're selling. It's a distal, whatever the term is that you hear on the auctions on Facebook. That is really what's going on here with the Calgary flames. And they have guys on the market, Hanifin, Christiana. But we're going to go to Calgary in just a minute. I was going to target Vancouver here. Justin, with you.
They went to Calgary. Sorry, twice the Doroth and obviously with Lindholm. Vancouver is having a season that, let's be real, no one anticipated.
I don't know if you did. I don't know if. Dave, I don't mean to speak on behalf of you, but I know with me, based on what I saw last year, based on what we were watching in the bubble, based on things that was the headlines last year, look at friend of the show Bruce Brudrow. What happened there? Rick Talkett comes into Greyhound legend Rick Talkett, whose number is not retired in the rafters like par and I talked about last week. But anyways, Vancouver makes changes. Okay. Now they're in a contract year with okay. And Miller's. I love JT Miller. The guy's a fighter. He's also somebody who gets really animated, maybe a little too much. But Vancouver is. I don't want to say they're overachieving, but I think they're actually living up to the potential of what this team can do. We just haven't been able to see it. And they've added early and they traded a lot of pieces. Justin. And is it safe to say that maybe Vancouver's done? Are they not done?
Did they make these moves early because, hey, they wanted to get in on the action early and then add from you. What are you thinking with Vancouver? What are your thoughts with the surprising, let's just say canadian team, Vancouver Canucks?
[00:31:58] Speaker C: I think with the early trades, I think it's more of a, we saw previous eras, the Dubas era Leafs, kind of. They got in on the action early to see if what they were doing was going to jive with the lineup.
Even the Brian Burke Leafs did that.
Previous generations where he'd like to get guys in and see if they fit. I mean, there's no point in bringing a guy in 20 games for 15 games for the end of the season and seeing if it works before the playoffs. I mean, it's a smart play on Vancouver's part to be getting that action in there. And I think trading with Calgary, the canadian teams do have visa issues sometimes with players coming up from the states and stuff like that. So I think trading with another canadian team is just an asset for Calgary. It's not an asset. I mean, a matter of.
It's just. It's, you know, what? You know, the player understands how the canadian dollar works, how the tax system works.
[00:33:02] Speaker A: And you get a guy who understands the canadian market. Right. It's very od that. You see people change within a division, but Vancouver's done that twice. This.
[00:33:13] Speaker C: Mean it's easy to scout the players being in that proximity. You see the players quite a bit, and I think canadian GMs and not GMs, but team staff kind of gets moved around quite a bit. And so the staff knows the players. Players know the players and, yeah, let's give them a shot, bring them over. Let's give them a go. And to your point on maybe moving Zidorov, that's that we brought him in early and it's not working or there's a better offer out there for him to restock the cupboard.
[00:33:48] Speaker A: Yeah. And I'm going to stick with you, Justin.
Well, you know what? No, I'm going to revert.
I'm going to go back to you with Winnipeg, actually, first, before we go back to Calgary, because I wanted to touch on with Dane about the players that they're selling and seems like a lot of teams could be using that. But Winnipeg, I think that's a clear example of another team that I think has been good. Right. They have their core. They've had their Connor, their Scheifeley, their Morrissey, their Hallibach.
They obviously moved away from Dubois, which I think was a very positive move. They brought in some great pieces for that. Obviously, the Dubois tenure in LA has had a lot of questions. There's been a lot of acquisitions towards Dubois not being the best fit in locker rooms. I'm not going to use the term that I wanted to use, but fill in the blanks. The Winnipeg jets have stayed on a course. Right. Chevrolet day off has been there since day one. He has been there since day one. And each year you're like God, this guy doesn't do anything. The deadline.
He's always been conservative. Conservative, okay? These little moves, right?
These basic backup goal. He moved depth, forward, depth, defense. But he's built a team that has had a culture of that defensive game that can put pucks in the net. And I envy Winnipeg's defense. I'm a big fan of Winnipeg's defensive core. But are they an example, Justin, of somebody that maybe is almost like Montreal, where you maybe stay put and you only add or subtract? There won't be any subtraction in my opinion of Winnipeg, but subtract by addition basically, if it makes sense, right. Winnipeg has been a definition of bringing in players that maybe have term that will stay there because that's another problem in Winnipeg, right? A lot of people don't want to play in Winnipeg, but now they should start wanting to play there. It's a great city, know the city personally. It would be great to, I think to play there. But Justin, are they a team that would be looking at maybe minimal movement, get the deadline or are they going to be active than usual?
[00:35:50] Speaker C: I find the jets play a certain brand of hockey and the whole team kind of buys in and those gritty, miserable guys aren't easily available at the deadline or cheaply available at the deadline.
So honestly, to your point, I think Winnipeg just stays the course with what they there's.
I don't see them adding any sort of flashy scoring assets. I think defensively they're pretty set. Goaltending isn't really an issue.
I mean maybe some secondary scoring like some bottom six guy or something, but I don't see them doing anything. I think they kind of set themselves up with that steal of a trade with LA.
[00:36:35] Speaker A: I agree.
[00:36:36] Speaker C: And really I think that kind of pushed them a little further ahead this season than even what the GM where they thought they were going to mean maybe shovel day off, thought they were going to be in a position to add someone at the deadline. But he's looked at it now and it's like, you know what? Team looks pretty good. No point in messing with think. I think they stand pat and I'd be surprised if they did anything.
[00:37:01] Speaker A: And what I'll say about Ottawa quicks, I know we're going to follow our schedule as best we can here with time to say about Ottawa. I think that's a team that might look at moving Vladimir Terrasenko. I think it's crazy if they move chickren. I think that contract's too good. I think he's young. I think be patient with this team. I know they've been very patient in Ottawa, but it takes time. But Teresenko moving out seems like that'd be a good fit. Asset management bring in somebody. I think the Corpora Salah move was a bad move. I said that's from the start. I think giving him that term and money was a bad idea. But again, okay, if you're going to look at moving anyone to Ottawa, it is Vladimir terra Senko. Now, if I'm looking at the Calgary Flames, because I'm going to give most of this time the Oilers and Leafs a little bit. Tanev, Hanifin, Markstrom are apparently the three on the market. Dane, I think you'll agree with the three that I've mentioned there. I don't think Huberdau is movable. I don't think cadre is movable at this point in the year. That's like an offseason move. Mackenzie, Uyger, you're not trading. The guy's been a stud for your decor this year. There's obviously Anderson's been rumored to be on the market, but has a couple years left on a deal. But this is somebody that can be a top pairing defenseman. Those types of moves are very hard to make before a deadline. So I think the three guys looking at Tanev, Hannifin, and maybe Markstrom to look at getting moved in Calgary and obviously Toronto, Boston in on Hannifin. Toronto's in on everybody under the sun, but Tanev is also rumored there. Vancouver's back in those rumors as well. There's a lot going on in Calgary, and they're really going to be moving out. That's the team in Canada to be calling for subtraction, per se now, Dane, the Oilers, the team that you cheer for, the team that you for this entire year. No, I'm just kidding. Not the entire year. For half the year were like, nah, I don't really know if I want to do a podcast tonight. Nah, I don't want to talk about the Edmonton Oilers. But then they come back and say, hey, hold my beer. Here's a 17 game winning streak for you all. Okay. Then the all star break happens. Fucks up that chemistry. Let's just say how it is, right? Come out of the gates, and it's not as hot. But, hey, they're finding ways to win hockey games again. This team's exciting to watch. They're living up to expectations. What are you expecting for your oilers to add, I think it's fair to say that maybe the defense can use a little bit of an upgrades to maybe solidify or maybe goaltending. Backup goaltending might be a thing that you're looking at. Jake Allen might be someone, maybe Mark Andre Flurry. If that's going too far, what do you think the Edmonton Oilers should be looking at?
[00:39:36] Speaker B: I need to remind you, Empire, for the fifth time that I did do a podcast when they were like five and twelve and I talked all about how bad they were.
I think that we really don't need much. I mean, a backup goalie, I don't know if Picker's the guy. We still have Jack Campbell if know really turns it.
Yeah, solidifying. Maybe a backup goalie with a guy that has a little bit of experience, possibly a guy that's even played a couple of playoff games, would go a long way.
I don't think we're going to do much on the back end. The back end has been pretty solid and believe it or not, when you just play overall team defense seems to work. So when you buy, I'm thinking the Oilers are going big and I think they're really going to pull the trigger on Jake Getzel. They really want him. I think you go with what works well with your team. I think if you add another good offensive piece and continue to play the style of hockey that we did on our 16 game winning streak and having all five players on the ice playing a conscious defensive game in a system game, and then you have the talent up front to get those goals when you need them, right? Edmonton never needs to go out of their way to score. They just have guys that can score off, know, turnovers and rushes and stuff like that. So, yeah, we might flip cc to move some cap outs and then try to bring in another defenseman who I don't know at this moment, but yeah, Jake Getzel is a guy that we're pretty keen on right now, and obviously Pittsburgh would have to eat some of that cap space, but first round pick Philip Broberg, good young defenseman, eigth overall and I don't know, whatever, the 2020 draft or something like that. 2019 draft. Kid has potential. He's swedish, skates like the wind.
[00:41:41] Speaker A: Type.
[00:41:41] Speaker B: Of player that every team wants in a prospect, right? So he just can't crack the lineup with the guys that we have right now and he wants out of Edmonton.
And yeah, I think that paired with a first round pick and obviously maybe another prospect, I think Jake Getzel will be an Edmonton Oiler but as far as the back end, I don't imagine we'll do anything to the extreme, but if we do make a move on the back end, it will be Kulak or CC that will be moved out to do a little bit of an upgrade. But they're sometimes you make too many moves. We already brought in Perry, so it's not like we haven't done anything yet. And another smart move by know didn't cost us a thing. Just like Vander Kane and Corey, Perry already has two goals in five games and is exactly the kind of player that we want. Got in a fight the other night. Love it.
[00:42:39] Speaker A: Corey Perry, that's a very good point. Ken Holland is a smart individual. I've had the luxury of getting to talk to Ken Holland prior when he was on the Detroit Red Wings, and one of my last words to him was thank you for Mike Babcock because when I was a Toronto fan and he said Detroit will be fine at the time, and I guess he wasn't wrong about being fine without Babcock. That aside, the Edmonton Oilers, that Brent Dane, of course, overall sports analyst or not analyst, sports expert on the game sports podcast, obviously has a lot of direction towards the Oilers. If you want to listen to anyone for Oilers, that's your guy. If you want Leafs, well, there's a lot of people you can look at that, especially on this show. There's a lot of options.
Myself, Justin. Alex. That means Alex Parr. There is a group that you can look at here, and there's also a group where you can see the pain and emotion on their face, and you just never know what to expect when it comes to. Okay, is this move really going to help? Do we need this? Okay, well, we just speaking in the Leafs language. Oh, you just traded a first round pick for an expiring contract. Oh, how's the prospect system looking? Oh, very thin. Very thin. Oh, you've invested in this core. Great.
What's the success been got on the first round last year.
Fantastic. What happened before that? 7th round. Game set or 7th round? No. Game seven. Disappointment, disappointment, disappointment, disappointment. One player has been there since 2013 who arguably was one of the only players to stand up against, and he got suspended for his actions. Morgan Riley. Okay, but the thing is, the Leafs have went four and without Morgan Riley. And by the time this is uploaded, the game between Toronto, Arizona have already happened. So we're not going to talk about that. But the Leafs are successful without Morgan Riley. I believe the record is 16, two and one, give or take. Without Morgan, Riley in the lineup, give or take some wins and losses, and you have a thin defensive core right now. Okay. And they're doing good.
And it's like, okay, do we need to make moves? Well, when you match up against Vegas, when you match up against Boston, and when you match up against Colorado in the next coming games, and Dane, if you haven't yet, look at Toronto schedule upcoming. It's very funny. You got Vegas in there. You got Colorado. I think I should have got Vegas. Very near back to back, very close. You got Vegas, Colorado and Boston upcoming. Okay. Winning these four in a row for Toronto is a thumbs up. And if you can go 500, not including these Arizona games, I'm talking Colorado, Boston and Vegas games. If you can go 500 in those games, that is a win. Because with the defensive core that Toronto has is not a team that's going to win you a championship. I love this team as a fan, but I also don't like this team because I don't think it is good enough yet. And that's saying yet. And that's so unfortunate. The core is good, the forwards are good, the depth is not good enough, and the defensive core is not good enough to win, you give the Leafs a defensive core like Winnipeg. Let's say the same decor as Winnipeg, then this team is sexy. Okay. Then this team is talking top of the league. Okay. But I feel like.
[00:45:48] Speaker C: Name me more than four forwards on the Jets.
[00:45:55] Speaker A: Perfetti. I follow.
Scheifeley, Connor.
Let me.
[00:46:03] Speaker B: Hardly. Nina Ryder.
[00:46:04] Speaker A: Nina Ryder. Yeah. Thank you very much. Wrong guy.
[00:46:09] Speaker C: That's why their defensive core is.
[00:46:15] Speaker B: Don't. Brody and Giordano aren't the guys anymore.
[00:46:19] Speaker A: DJ Brody is a third parent.
[00:46:21] Speaker C: Their window was two years ago.
[00:46:24] Speaker B: Yeah, their window to retire.
[00:46:29] Speaker C: Those were like the guys where you brought them in.
It's kind of like when the Leafs fired cliff Fletcher in 2008 and then the 2016, it pans by the press box and he's still there. Did he just get lost in the fucking building? What's going on?
[00:46:48] Speaker A: He lives there.
[00:46:49] Speaker C: You finally fired him and he just got trapped upstairs.
I've been eating hot dogs for nine years. I just want to go home.
[00:46:56] Speaker B: But honestly, yeah.
[00:47:01] Speaker C: They just gave him one of those fake phones that you see in the telus or whatever. You go in there, the display model, make people yelling at you've got. They got some cap money with the Leafs is at a premium because of where we are with the forwards, we as a team, as a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
And so having money invested in guys like TJ Brody. That are mayor's third pairing out.
Even I couldn't name the third pairing on the Leafs.
Don't. The one guy was the guy.
[00:47:43] Speaker B: Dressed for you this year?
[00:47:45] Speaker A: Michael Rafai Vi. I can't say his name. I'm going to get butchered for that. But that's fine. That's the point. And Max Lazua Dane, you know where Max Lazua played before Toronto?
I don't know.
[00:47:56] Speaker B: The greyhound.
[00:47:57] Speaker A: Ottawa. Ottawa. Ottawa. But besides that. Exactly. Did you ever play for Ottawa? No.
[00:48:03] Speaker B: I know who you're talking about. That's the same Lashawa guy.
[00:48:06] Speaker A: It's the same lashawa guy.
[00:48:07] Speaker B: Did he have like a real hot, like 15 game stretch or something where he was averaging like a point per game and then fell?
[00:48:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:48:15] Speaker C: And then it was Ottawa and it ended.
But he looked pretty good against St. Louis on Monday. But that Monday is a pretty tricky game because it's the middle of the.
Some. Some guys are going to be good. Some guys aren't going to be good.
[00:48:31] Speaker B: It's crazy how similar Ottawa and Toronto are for.
Like, it's just Ottawa's just worse, but it's the same shit every year like that. Like, Kimmy Stitzel's been around the block for a diver, though. Professional diver Jake Batherton has been around the block for a bit. Thomas Shabbat, they have all these guys, like, the fact that they're at the bottom of the standings in the Atlantic this year. And I mean, mind you, tough division. It's the division from hell.
They have not improved with the same fucking team for the last three years. So, Ottawa, I'm trading one of the big boys and you're not trading Bathurston because his contract is way too good. Orcachuck, I don't think Teresanko is going to bring that much. And like, and these guys don't want to leave. And same with chicker in and they all have these weird no moves like clauses. So if you're going to make a deal, I don't know, do you trade Brady? Do you trade? Like, it's. They start out the year so bad, and then they come on at the second half and they just miss out.
[00:49:39] Speaker A: Are you saying the Leafs every year? Are you saying the Leafs to trade Marner? Because, you know, they're not trading Matthews or Neelander and Tavares isn't going anywhere.
[00:49:47] Speaker B: Mitch Marner for Brady could truck. If I'm the Leafs, I pull that.
[00:49:51] Speaker C: Deal ten out of ten times out of the team with on your team.
[00:49:58] Speaker B: You have no sandpaper, I read. Cross checking, buddy. Back of the head was the hardest thing the Leafs have done since fucking Gary Ross Colton.
[00:50:10] Speaker C: Yeah, the Bash brothers Coltonore and Frazier McLaren, which was the cat's ass, to be honest. Okay, so when that whole Morgan Riley suspension went down last week, there was a guy on Twitter or X or whatever we're calling it these days, who just started chirping George Peros's account and just kept posting the picture of, I think, Frasier McLaren standing over top of Peros, out cold on the ice in his Montreal jersey. And he just kept posting it like every second you looked at it. And there was like a hundred of these pictures and then all of a sudden it was like this account.
[00:50:45] Speaker B: George Peros is either like a puppet for Gary and Camel or he literally has CTE.
[00:50:53] Speaker C: Yeah, but that Shanahan was an absolute piece of shit when he ran the player safety department, too.
[00:50:58] Speaker B: But it's even worse now.
You can't cross check somebody in the back of the head, anything. The head.
But you got Jacob Truba, who fucking.
[00:51:12] Speaker A: Before we do that.
Before we do that, because I want that next to transition with Toronto quickly, they need defense and a bottom six guy. Brody's cap makes it a problem. David camp's makes it a problem. But you don't need to mortgage too much to make some moves, to get some depth in your bottom six and to your defense, not too much of your future. And there are some players out there, if Toronto is going to add, they're going to need to do it. Or you just let it coast into the playoffs. If you're going to try to win with this team, it's not good enough. But if you want to win a cup this year and you want to go in, I respect it, but you're going to have to bring in a defenseman. Or am. I am trying to think of names at top of my head. Matt, Dumba and Wa from LA. Those are two guys that I'm thinking are just top of my head. Maybe thinking of a bottom six forward.
[00:51:58] Speaker B: The three pussies on your team, Marner, Neelander and Matthews, actually fucking throw a body check every once in a while. Get in the corners, get dirty, fucking drop the gloves once, maybe get crazy.
[00:52:13] Speaker A: Go ahead.
[00:52:13] Speaker C: We got Bobby McMahon out there playing like we got to pay him $85 million a season compared to these other guys. We're going to have to trade the farm to pay Bobby McMahon next year.
[00:52:24] Speaker A: If we're rolling on this league, men, that's the guys. Just give heart. Okay? Toronto bottom six and two defensemen is what Toronto has to add. Is that realistic? You tell me now.
[00:52:36] Speaker C: 30 million in cap space.
[00:52:39] Speaker A: Trade deadline is upon us and we'll just talk canadian teams today. But I liked the topic about the department of player safety. And then I do have one question before we get, well, two questions before we get into our last two segments and wrap up. Department of player safety. Absolute inconsistent bullshit. I'll say what it. There's. I feel like there's hate on more teams than some. There's inconsistent. Jake Truba was a great example. Morgan Riley's was not five games. I know people are so passionate about being five games and I'm taking off my leaf fan here. I'm being honest. The guy's not a repeat offender. And Gary's appeal statement, I can just hear him talking. It makes me just shake. I can't understand.
[00:53:22] Speaker C: The whole vibe I got from that statement was like, hey, sorry, guys.
We kind of had this meeting Friday and then I forgot it was a long fucking weekend here.
The suspension is over tomorrow anyways, so I'm just not even. I threw the papers in the garbage.
[00:53:40] Speaker A: I don't care.
It's inconsistent. Dude. What is? The refs.
We can go back to Wes McCauley and all the nonsense there, the inconsistency. If you want to pull from a Toronto fan, everything with the safety and everything that leads to player safety with George Perez, it's inconsistent. And it seems like you got guys who repeat offenders that aren't getting Jack shift for suspensions and a guy like Morgan Riley. Yeah, the cross check wasn't a bad spot. He shouldn't have did it that way. I love that he did it, but there's a different way to do it. But I'm not going to sit here and criticize Morgan Riley for doing it because here I am as a Leaf fan and you, Dane, as someone who watches hockey saying the Leafs are soft, someone finally showed a little bit of nah, nah, nah. That doesn't fucking happen around here.
[00:54:24] Speaker B: I want the Leafs to be hard. You got suspended as soon as you show any emotion, literally.
[00:54:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:54:30] Speaker C: Morgan was in a no win situation there.
[00:54:34] Speaker B: You can't let a guy.
[00:54:35] Speaker C: Yeah, if he did nothing, we'd be shitting all over him for doing nothing. And when he did something, if the crossjack hadn't hit him in the teeth, it probably wouldn't really have been an issue. But once the Leafs do anything, it's magnified times 6000.
I'm going to do like the cardinal sin of our podcast here. And where EJ would boo me, but the same thing would happen to the Dallas Cowboys. In the NFL, anything that they do is absolutely magnified times a thousand. And anything that happens to them, everyone's talking because that's the thing that's on tv all the time. So the Leafs games are on tv. If that happens in a Arizona versus.
[00:55:18] Speaker A: Carolina game, does he get the same suspension?
[00:55:22] Speaker C: Well, eight people were watching it, so there's not like this huge audience of people that saw that happen. And in today's world, anything that happens in sports is egregious violence. And someone's out there trying to kill someone.
What was the poll on sue today the other day? Should people be charged for violence in sports?
You know what?
Think if you're on the Toronto Maple Leafs, you go into a situation like that knowing that you're going to have an example made you. And honestly, I don't think it's much different for any canadian team. I think had a player on the Oilers done that.
Cody CC goes out there and cross checks someone in the face who cares about Cody. We're going to suspend him five games.
[00:56:07] Speaker A: But if Connor McDavid does it. What about if Connor McDavid?
[00:56:10] Speaker C: But if McDavid does it, they're not going to. But if Riley did it, or if Matthews did it. Sorry, they're not going to either.
[00:56:16] Speaker A: Yeah, it's the same thing if Austin Matthews does. That guy who puts asses in seats, he probably wouldn't have gotten five games for that. Morgan Riley, he's also somebody who is like, he's a star, but he's not Nick David, he's not Matthews, he's not in the same stratus. No offense to Morgan Riley.
[00:56:34] Speaker C: I love Morgan Riley, but I think that to touch on Dane's point a little bit, I know I'm dying watching that, but to Dane's point a little bit, I think this is the league telling like, hey, Morgan Riley, you're not this guy.
We don't want you out there cross checking people in the face. Like, the league wants Morgan Riley to be this squeaky clean.
[00:56:58] Speaker A: Kind of should be this. Morgan should have this on his jersey. I've said that.
But the only guy that should have had this, the only guy that cried with all of us in 2013 and has been there.
[00:57:13] Speaker C: Yeah, but it also took him ten years to cross check someone in the teeth, so.
[00:57:17] Speaker A: True. Anyway, inconsistency is easy for me to say. Department, player safety. And we are using Toronto as example, but there's a lot of other teams that would have been in the same boat as Toronto, I feel like, but it's so inconsistent. But Toronto is more magnified because of what it is. Fellas, I'm going to go to two. I want to expand this a little bit more. We have the NHL redraft segment, then the would you rather segment. Okay, I know you guys haven't seen that would you rather segment? It takes seconds to do, but the two quick questions I'm going to go around the horn to ask Will Dubis trade Sidney Crosby? Not saying this year next doesn't matter. Will he be the one to trade Crosby in his tenure?
[00:57:57] Speaker B: Number two, Sidney Crosby is the one who trades Sidney Crosby. Kyle Dubas has nothing to do with it other than figuring out the logistics. Of course he wants to leave. He'll go to what team he wants to go, and he wants to probably play with McKinnon in Colorado. Or he'll just be happy with three Stanley Cups and retire as a pet. Has nothing to do with Dubas.
[00:58:18] Speaker A: Love that response. The second question on top of it is, would you take a chance on Patrick Lione if you were a GM? Dane, you've already answered about Crosby. What about.
[00:58:29] Speaker B: Take?
[00:58:30] Speaker A: You're the Oilers. Depending on your team, let's say you're the Oilers and lease. I'm going to make it a little bit challenging. You're the Carolina Hurricanes. Would you take a chance on Patrick liney?
[00:58:41] Speaker B: They put him back with aho. They made some magic in the, I want to say, 2014 world junior championship when they won their first gold medal. So I think the chemistry is there.
Patrick Liney is one of those guys that when he wants to go, he can go. But then there's times where he's invisible. Right? And Columbus is a weird, like, I, for the life of me, cannot understand why they signed Johnny Gudro to what they did.
Honestly, if I'm Columbus, I'm looking to move those two guys out. I think Gudro is obviously set up shop in Columbus, and I think he has a no movement clause, likely with the $10 million that he's making a year. But I just don't see how those two players benefit a team that have some really good young talent with Kent Johnson and all those.
Yeah, sure, a team will take a chance on them. But if you're a good defensive team that lacks some goal scoring and you need a guy to play the wing, to put the puck in the net, to be a complimentary player, Patrick Liony is your guy. And maybe it's a playoff team that would motivate Liony to kind of get back to that perennial 40 goal score because it seems like one year he's back, then he takes two years off and then he has another good year. And it's like, I think he's all.
[01:00:18] Speaker C: Up here with Linny. It's all his head.
I think he's in a locker room, and if the boys are buzing, he's into it. And you know what I mean? He really feeds off the energy of the locker room. And being in a place like Columbus, which is perceived as a pretty big debbie downer of the league, I could see why he's having an issue. Like, it's more of a job to him and know hockey seems like a.
[01:00:46] Speaker B: Great, like, I think the people, I mean, what else do you do in that state?
[01:00:51] Speaker C: I don't know. I've been to Columbus a couple times. It's just like a pretty, I've been there.
They're Ohio State or bus there, I think is the case. Yeah, we got some other sports.
[01:01:06] Speaker A: You got the Bengals, the red, you got the Cavaliers in Cleveland.
[01:01:11] Speaker B: Pretty sad franchises, aren't they?
[01:01:14] Speaker C: Yes. What you're telling me, though, is that everyone's out of town on the weekend.
No one's going to the Blue Jackets games.
[01:01:22] Speaker B: I feel like when they made the playoffs, like in 2019, when they somehow swept Tampa, it seemed like they were buzing pretty good in the rink there.
[01:01:31] Speaker C: Yeah, I think they made the playoffs.
[01:01:33] Speaker B: I feel like the Babcock thing, they just got rid of that GM that hired them, like, a couple weeks ago, but Yarmo's gone. I think there's players there to build something, but I do not think even for a second, it involves Johnny Gudreau or Patrick Lione.
[01:01:53] Speaker A: Now, Justin, for you, is Dubas going to trade Crosby?
Answer that question. Would you take a gamble on line?
[01:02:01] Speaker C: I would 100% take a gamble on Lione if I'm a team. Like, I don't even know what his contract is, though.
[01:02:11] Speaker A: Eight point for Lione or for Crosby.
[01:02:14] Speaker B: Four years, though, because I think he only signed like a three back.
[01:02:16] Speaker C: Yeah, I didn't think it was super long.
[01:02:18] Speaker A: He had a four year, 34.8 million for an average count, same as Crosby's 8.7. He signed it on July 22, 2022, so he still has a couple of years left at 8.7.
[01:02:29] Speaker B: Imagine paying a guy almost $9 million just to not show up for an entire season.
[01:02:34] Speaker C: I mean, if I'm the owner, I'm the one who's really burnt by, oh.
[01:02:40] Speaker B: The owner is the guy that hired Mike Babcock, the owner, is the guy that hired the idiot GM that told him to hire Mike Babcock.
He should sell the team.
[01:02:50] Speaker C: Yeah, it sounds like they're the Carolina Panthers there. Almost.
[01:02:53] Speaker A: But no.
[01:02:54] Speaker C: Honestly, if lining like a team, like if the Florida Panthers could get a guy like that and throw him in the mix going into the playoffs with that shit show they had going on there last year, you can't tell me a guy like Lionel wouldn't buy into the game because him and Reese have an issue in Winnipeg.
[01:03:16] Speaker A: Good question. Don't know that answer.
[01:03:18] Speaker B: What do you think the over under is on drinks thrown by the Columbus owner this season at fans?
[01:03:25] Speaker C: I don't know. They have a cannon there. So maybe he just puts him in the cannon, Joe.
[01:03:30] Speaker A: That cannon is.
[01:03:32] Speaker C: He just pours his drink in the cannon and gives the crowd the old Bukhaki treatment there.
[01:03:37] Speaker A: Oh, God.
Okay, I'll answer. I think Dubas, the Crosby trade will happen, but like Dane said, it's going to be on his terms and I think it's going to happen. Not this deadline. It's going to happen next year at a trade deadline type deal. When. If Pittsburgh is out again next year, which seems like they're on path to be retooling. And I think you're going to see Crosby go to Colorado. Very big surprise. He's going to be playing with Nathan McKinnon. And you know what I want to hear? I'm not going to say his name because I didn't get his permission and I want people to pump the brakes. Everyone loves Montreal and Crosby. I think that's also a good match made in heaven. But Crosby actually grew up a leaf fan. And fun fact how I knew that is he has Darryl in on his gloves. Fun little story. His favorite player was Darryl Sitler. So fun fact of the day, if you want to look and reach out to my fact, we can arrange that. But I'm not saying he's going to go Toronto because he's not for two reasons.
[01:04:30] Speaker B: Are you telling me Tsun's lied to us for the last?
[01:04:35] Speaker A: Do we call out?
I should honestly tag the person who knows Crosby that told me that I should do that and start a whole.
So secondly, Crosby is going to be.
[01:04:48] Speaker B: Trending on Twitter or pretty soon because we just broke the news he was.
[01:04:53] Speaker A: Not going to Toronto. Because it's just. No, it doesn't make sense. But two, because Dubas wouldn't fucking send him there anyways, so doesn't matter.
[01:05:01] Speaker C: I don't think Crosby would do it to.
[01:05:07] Speaker A: Stay there?
[01:05:08] Speaker B: For a team that's not going to contend for a Stanley cup, him staying.
[01:05:12] Speaker A: There is not a problem either. If I was him, I would probably stay there, but I kind of feel like they might move him.
[01:05:16] Speaker C: I just got with me. I just think he's like the captain going down with the ship kind of thing there.
[01:05:22] Speaker B: But that's so bad for the organization.
Malkin, Latang and Crosby, like right now, I mean, you could fast track your rebuild. Pretty mean. You're going to all those guys.
[01:05:37] Speaker C: No one's buying jerseys. No one's buying jerseys during a rebuild.
[01:05:42] Speaker B: Well, you're right. Pittsburgh almost went under the line.
[01:05:45] Speaker C: That's what I mean.
Play it safe a little bit.
[01:05:51] Speaker B: Kenny Pickett, throw a ball.
[01:05:54] Speaker C: Don't go to the Steelers.
[01:05:55] Speaker A: Not fair. The NHL Redraft segment, fellas. And then I got a quick would you rather segment. Then we're done in our little bit of extended show as part segment.
[01:06:05] Speaker C: Our 15 minutes segment.
[01:06:09] Speaker A: Now. The NHL redraft. Just remind everyone we do a redraft on every show just to tell you what it is. Okay. It's a great little segment that the fans seem to be enjoying of the game sports podcast on TikTok. A lot of views. A lot of views. But over 80% of you that are viewing that in length of over 75% of watching that video in full mind, you hit that. Like hit that. Follow. We appreciate that because our content we feel is great and we're a little bit biased, but who cares? It is sick. It's awesome. We talk every sport. We're a great group of guys. What can go wrong, right? NHL Redraft remind you where it is. It is us, the game sports podcast. Yours truly, Dane and Justin tonight who draft the top five in that NHL draft. Knowing what we know.
Very, very simple. Now, we may go from top to bottom or bottom to top, but I'm going to let Justin go first. I am throwing Justin under the bus first.
Who is your top five picks in the 1984 NHL Redraft? In any order you want. And then we'll go to Dane, then yours truly, Ango.
[01:07:16] Speaker C: So I'm probably keeping Mario still at number one.
I don't know why Pittsburgh would take anyone else.
[01:07:28] Speaker B: Arguably, if he played his full career, might be better than.
[01:07:33] Speaker C: It'S. So this is kind of like a redraft of two through.
I'm still. I'm pretty okay with Mueller at two going to the Devils where I shake things up a little.
Like Gary Roberts to the Blackhawks. I think I don't see Gary Roberts sticking around to the Leafs and then old Chuck drops down to the Leafs. And I still think our buddy Peter there stays at number five and Ally afraidy is the one that drops out of the top five there.
And I'm only basing this just looking at career numbers. I think Ally afraid he is the OD man out once you add Gary Roberts into the conversation.
[01:08:23] Speaker A: There you go. Top five from Justin his first time. Dana, top five.
[01:08:28] Speaker B: Yeah, mine's a little bit different here.
Justin, you threw me a little bit of a loop here.
I got Mario at number one. Obviously you might have not looked at goaltenders. Patrick Wa is also from this draft. So number two for.
[01:08:48] Speaker C: First. I just looked at guys in the first.
[01:08:50] Speaker B: So yeah, Brett hall, number three.
Lucky Luke Robitai was the all time left winger in points till Mr. Ovechkin got him in at the number four slot. And then I think there's about three players that are debatable for the number five pick, which is Montreal holds.
You got Gary Roberts and Gary Suter that are both very good quality players. But obviously I'm going to go with Kirk Mueller, helped them win a Stanley cup. The last canadian team to win a Stanley cup played a pivotal role in 1993 for that team and overall had a really good career and is now a coach. So yeah, Mario Wahol, Luke Robatai, Kirk Mueller. That's my top five in that order.
[01:09:38] Speaker A: Love that. And Justin, I threw you under the bus for your first segment.
You got your picks.
Those are your opinion. You got your picks.
[01:09:48] Speaker C: Those aren't asked me about basketball.
[01:09:50] Speaker A: So we're all good now. I'll do my usual with the stating of how I go from. I'm going to go from fifth to one. I'm going to take pars direction here and I'm going to say with the fifth overall pick, the Montreal Canadians are proud to select Gary Roberts with the fourth overall pick. The Toronto Maple Leafs are proud to select Brett hall with the third overall pick. The Chicago Blackhawks are proud to select Luke Robatai with the second overall pick. The New Jersey Devils are proud to select Patrick Wa. And of course with the first overall pick, no change. The Pittsburgh Penguins are proud to select Mario Lemieux. Those are the top five of mine, and that's me, Dane and Justin's top five for the NHL 1984 redraft. Let us know what you think below and if you agree and if you don't, add us and tell us why.
[01:10:45] Speaker B: Because we very debatable.
[01:10:47] Speaker A: We welcome those challenges.
[01:10:49] Speaker C: Mine's also debatable. All I did was the first round. I didn't look at anyone else in the fucking draft.
[01:10:55] Speaker A: We broke your card. When it comes to the redraft, you're good.
[01:10:59] Speaker B: Now reference. You can hit all the tabs, and I usually just click points or games played because sometimes you miss out on some defenseman that might be not racking up the points. Alice Scott Stevens a couple drafts ago.
[01:11:16] Speaker A: Now the would you rather segment to conclude the segment. Now, Dane doesn't know what this is, I don't think. And Justin does know what this is, kind of because we talked about it in the pocket briefly. But last week, par and I talked about the would you rather segment. Last week. We talked about would you rather go against one on one against LeBron James or Serena Williams, and you had to choose who you thought you had the best chance to beat against in a matter of your life. That's pretty much the example. Who would you rather play against? It isn't a fan thing. It isn't about who you want to meet in person. Who do you actually think that you might have a chance to beat more than the other person? And Parr and I both unanimously agreed on LeBron James because Serena Williams is the true goat. Just saying how it is and playing.
[01:12:04] Speaker B: More natural skill on our part, like shooting a ball into a hoop.
Tennis is hard.
It's hard enough to get a rally going. Never mind.
[01:12:14] Speaker A: It's so challenging.
[01:12:16] Speaker C: I barely have hand eye to use a fork.
[01:12:20] Speaker B: Just miss the playday.
[01:12:22] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:12:23] Speaker A: Now, let's make it a bit more fun and different, but we're also going to reference basketball and football here. Okay. Would you rather defend to stop the touchdown against Travis Kelsey? You gotta defend Travis Kelsey. Or number two, defend basketball player Luke Donic. Luka Donic.
Those are your options.
Now, again, this is the would you rather segment. And I said Luke. Donna, it's Luka Donovich on the Dallas Mavericks. Guy is unbelievable. So again, the would you rather segment. Would you rather defend and you have to stop Travis Kelsey or would you rather defend and you have to stop from scoring Luca Donitz? Dane, go.
[01:13:14] Speaker B: I've always wondered what it would be like for a man my size in football gear, on a football field with NFL players, just to see what it would look like. So I'm going to go with Travis, and then I have that small little chance to maybe meet my girls t. Swift there.
So I'll definitely go with that. I've heard the name Luca Donnish. I could not pick the man out of a room of maybe three even. He's a basketball player. That's all I know. So I'll go with Travis Kelsey. I think my chances of even having a remote possibility at stopping either is zero.
And I would say that, yeah, I guess football. I'm a little bit better at football than I am at basketball. So I'll go with Travis Kelsey. I'll just take him out at the knees and he can retire early and.
[01:14:12] Speaker A: Spend quality time with Taylor Justin.
[01:14:17] Speaker C: Well, I'm obviously going to take the Travis Kelsey one because Luca is like, top two white guys in the NBA.
[01:14:25] Speaker A: Sure is.
[01:14:26] Speaker C: Okay. Being top two white guys in the NBA is like, all right, so he's like, maybe top 500 players, maybe. No, he's like a top five player in the NBA.
[01:14:40] Speaker B: Let me guess, does he play for the Nuggets or the Mavericks?
[01:14:44] Speaker C: Mavericks. Yeah. Okay.
[01:14:45] Speaker B: 77.
[01:14:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:14:50] Speaker B: When I watch highlights, I have a weird memory.
[01:14:52] Speaker A: I know what you're talking about. Yeah.
[01:14:53] Speaker C: No, he's the foreign white guy, but he's not the foreign white guy who's upset that he can't go see his horses because he has to be in the playoffs.
[01:15:02] Speaker B: The Mavericks love that kind of.
[01:15:06] Speaker A: Luca Donovich.
[01:15:08] Speaker C: I will take the Travis Kelsey one simply based on the age on age matchup. He's a little older, like myself, and we didn't say who was throwing the ball, so as long as it's not Patrick Mahomes throwing the ball, maybe it'll work to my advantage. Or I'll just chirp his old lady, hope he gets into his head. Or maybe she'll write a song about it.
[01:15:30] Speaker A: I don't know.
[01:15:31] Speaker C: But honestly, I think I have a better chance of falling down and tripping him than I do of basketball in general.
[01:15:39] Speaker A: And you played football, so that kind of helps.
[01:15:41] Speaker C: Yeah, but I was defensive line.
It's a totally different direction of the field. I don't go back. You've seen this body. This body does not run.
[01:15:53] Speaker A: I'll. I'll say between the two, as much as I'd love to meet Travis Kelsey and T. Swift and love it all, I'm going to choose Luka Donovich. I want the guy who is well over 6ft, well as who is probably going to steamroll me. But at the same time, I'm just going to try to do a little trickery move and stick out my hand to get the ball, pick it from him and shoot a three and walk off the court. Because I beat Luka Donovich. I am taking Luka Donovich over Travis Kelsey. I feel like I cannot keep up with Travis Kelsey's tenacity, and it's just his animalistic attitude when he plays. Luca is so calm and collected when he plays, and he's so good. I'll take the Luca Donitz train over the Travis Kelsey train, and Kelsey be.
[01:16:36] Speaker C: Like, cool to throw beers down with afterwards.
[01:16:39] Speaker B: Let him run you over off an open ball, and then we'll go crush beers.
[01:16:44] Speaker C: I honestly think it would just be a better time. I think if you made Luca look bad, he's going to come in and just double you and shatter your orbital socket.
[01:16:53] Speaker A: Yeah, good point.
[01:16:55] Speaker C: You want to be smart guy? Here you go, smart guy.
[01:16:58] Speaker A: Luca Donitz, everyone comment below who you think, kelsey or Donitz, who you got in the would you rather segment, part two. A lot of clips in this segment, let me tell you. A lot of clips for the show, a lot of interaction, a lot of opportunity for you to be involved now. Dane, Justin, that was it for our agenda. We did plan not for this long, and I keep telling everyone that we're going to try not to hit this, and we don't say it on radio anymore or broadcast anymore because then we just look like fools because we can never stay within time. But we have fun. We got to meet officially. Ghost, we talked a lot when it comes to trade downline. Full coverage of the canadian teams, what to expect, and we'll talk more as we get closer to the deadline. The would you rather the draft? We talked Crosby, we talked Columbus. We talked department, player safety jokes. It was a fun time. Dane, thank you very much. And thank you for also bringing Ghost onto the show. If you're on video, you got to see ghost.
[01:17:54] Speaker B: Yeah, thanks for having me. She won't be a lap dog for much longer, so that might know. Only a couple more pods before I'll have to move the laptop down to the ground to see her. But, yeah, thanks for having me, Dave. Great show, Justin. It's always nice seeing. I miss you, buddy. We got to get together at the old watering hole there one of these nights for a couple of get the.
[01:18:17] Speaker C: Get the dogs out soon. Once she's got a little more size on her, we'll get the dogs out, and once we're out of mud season here.
[01:18:25] Speaker B: Perfect. Love that.
[01:18:26] Speaker A: And honestly, I got to come by and see before she gets way too big, which will be tomorrow. Justin, my friend now with football, taking a quick rest until the draft offseason news, if there's any, until next season, basically, there's only probably be a couple episodes of bonus uploads in the pocket segments until we hit the season. So we're going to see you around a lot when it comes around. Just basic sport chatter and talking hockey. So got to keep you busy, and I'm sure your wife likes when you keep busy as well, your partner.
[01:18:57] Speaker C: We're getting into juicy season here. We got the trade deadline coming up, NFL combine coming up. We got March Madness, the NFL draft. NFL draft is in playoff time. It's good.
Pitchers and catchers have been back for a while. It's.
[01:19:16] Speaker A: That's a great segue because that's what Connor and I are talking about next look at.
[01:19:23] Speaker C: The we.
[01:19:24] Speaker A: We.
I love that this has been the technically top shelf segment where we talked all things hockey. In particular, we talk about the NHL, obviously. Those who like to ask us about local the game sports podcast is located in Sioux St. Marie, Ontario. And I am going to give a shout out to the St. Marie Greyhounds, number one in the OHL power rankings this week. Got to give them love. We don't talk as much. We do sporadic news. We do talk about them where we can, when we can, but we talk all hockey, so it's always invaded. But we got to give love to where we watch our local hockey. And that is, of course, Sugreyon's number one in the OHL power rankings. But we talked all things hockey again, thanks to Dane and to Justin. I'm going to take a quick breather and in about 2 seconds, you're going to hear my voice again because we're going to be talking to Connor Henderson with strike zone and all things baseball. Don't go anywhere. And welcome back to the game sports podcast. David McKay continuing to host you this evening. I am joined by the man, the myth, the legend. We like to call him the rookie of the year, if you know, you know. Connor Henderson. Connor, my friend, we are back with baseball.
[01:20:28] Speaker D: Dave, the season's almost upon us. We're right around the corner. Pitchers and catchers have reported and Connor Henderson has also reported to the game sports show. After my time off, I'm ready to roll 100%.
[01:20:40] Speaker A: Good little vacation. Last time we had you on was we were talking about Shohei Otani and the disappointment that the Blue Jays fans had to face there. The expectation that close did not happen. Then, of course, we discussed Ron Soto. We're going to the pinstripes. But obviously that was then. We're in the now. And the pitchers, players, they reported getting all set for spring training, spring ball, and of course, here on the game sports podcast, we like to talk about Blue Jays and Tigers, but we talk about all the teams. But we'll give a little bit of love to the Tigers and to the Jays today. But we're talking about how baseball is back and there's a lot of anticipation going into this season. New faces in new places. Obviously, if you want me to name a couple, let me pull up my trustworthy list here, just to name a couple. Well, we all know where Shohei went. We all know where Juan Soto went. But let me give you some names you maybe didn't know about. Liam Hendrix going to the Red Sox, mid Rosario going over to Tampa Bay, Gary Sanchez going to Milwaukee, whit Maryfield going to the Philadelphia Phillies, solaire going to the Giants, Randall Gretchick to Arizona. The list goes on. You can just check out slash hot dash stove if you really want to get the list. And there's a big list, but on that list you're going to see an absence. Cody Bellinger, Blake Snell, Matt Chapman are still waiting for teams at this current time of recording. So as I mentioned in the very beginning of the show, what Connor and I are talking about for this segment, let's dive into that. Connor, there's three players that are still on that list. You and I can sit here, you and I can predict where they're going to go. That might not be relevant information, might not be relevant content within the next hour. 20 minutes, heck, ten minutes even. We do not know what's going to happen with these players. Okay. I have sat down and said, well, all right, Chapman resigning to the Blue Jays, that kind of does make sense. But does it make sense after they just brought in Eduardo Escobar? Okay, and you brought in IFK, right?
You bring in new guys to the team. It looks like these guys are moving out. Chapman had a desire, it looks like, to go somewhere else. Blake Snell, the guy's probably asking for King's ransom. Had a very impressive year, but again, he's been like this in his career, so I'm sure there's a little bit of hesitation. Cody Bellinger, same thing. The guy wasn't hitting like he was last year, every single year. Okay, so let me give teams an idea. Let me just shoot this out there for the fans and interaction. These players all performed on one year contracts. I don't care what anybody says. I think Chapman had a decent year last year. The guy is a platinum level defender out there in the field. He is. And his glove at third is an absolute weapon. That is a great weapon. To have in your arsenal in your infield. The guy can hit bombs. He'll hit you about 20 bombs a year. He'll get you about 70 plus ribies in a year, which is very respectable numbers. The guy's fielding percentage is out of this world, obviously.
Why not give him a one year? Give Blake Snell a one year. Give Bellinger the one year. If you're a team that was in on Shohei Otani, that was willing to spend, I don't know, $70 million on a guy, why not look at saying, well, cody, here's one year, 30. Oh, here, Matt, here's one year, 25. Here, blake, here's one year, 30, whatever you want to give. And yes, I kind of am pointing towards some teams in particular. There's one that I won't mention as I pull my camera over and stare at that jersey. But nonetheless, players are still available, Connor, and they still haven't signed contracts. And it's not like it is in the NBA. The NHL, well, the NBA is a little kind of similar sometimes. The NHL, where players sign like, right. The good star players are locking up teams early in the summer so they can put their feet up on the beach for the rest of the summer or on the golf course. Baseball players, it's different. They wait. We've had players wait last year, the year before, Shohei didn't really wait, as we know. But three guys still available. Connor, what are you hearing? What are you thinking? What are you seeing? Why are these guys still available? Let's give predictions where you think they're going. Floor is yours.
[01:24:52] Speaker D: Listen, I think Blake Snell is the most interesting one here because that guy has more swagger than any dude you're going to find on the mound. Left handed pitcher, dominated all the way through the minor leagues, has been a frontline number one guy, dependable.
He is looking for the big payday, right.
[01:25:15] Speaker A: And secure payday and a secure payday.
[01:25:18] Speaker D: And if we're talking one year deals for a guy like Matt Chapman, that makes sense. But for a guy like Blake Snell, like, you got to look for something with term, especially with how pitchers are nowadays where you can almost flip a coin and if it lands on heads, the guy's going to get an arm injury that year, and if it lands on tails, he won't and just pick any pitcher. And it sort of seems to work like that these days. So for Snell, he's looking for something massive. I'm really curious to see where he goes. For Chapman, I wouldn't mind him heading over to Detroit because the Tigers are in desperate need of a third baseman, especially one who would be more of a veteran presence on a young lineup and a defense that could seriously use him, especially now that Miguel Cabrera is retired, they'll be able to have a little more flexibility in their lineup.
[01:26:06] Speaker A: That's a very good point. And I was actually thinking Tigers are on that list, too, of teams that I think were a little bit more quiet, but we think of a team that's retooling rebuilding has those young pieces. Oracleson they have. Obviously Riley Green is going to a stud, right? You have good pieces in Detroit that maybe that you have the money as well to spend on that veteran presence.
[01:26:29] Speaker D: Dave, have you ever heard of the I might be jumping ahead of myself to Tigers talk here, but have you heard of the prospect named Max Clark that they drafted third overall in the draft this year?
[01:26:38] Speaker A: I actually know they drafted him, but I haven't done the due diligence of giving a full background. I'm sure you have, though, if you get the chance.
[01:26:45] Speaker D: This kid, he's a high school prep bat, left handed guy, like left handed throwing center fielder, five tools, super fast, but is very brand centric where he's got his own merch out of high school, he's got YouTube videos where he's working out and he's very in the modern era. His following count on Insta is super and it's one of those things where the Tigers draft them and I'm almost like, screw know. The fourth overall pick, Wyatt Langford, is carving up the minors and it's probably going to be in the pros next year, but this dude has mad swag and Instagram followers. So, like, I'm down for some Max Clark energy just to spice up.
[01:27:29] Speaker A: Not. Why not dress up like Slim shady and go to the ballpark and just be absolute swagger, right. Represent Detroit, represent the organization with pride. Right. And to have five tools, have a good throwing arm, speed every team covets. And you bring up a good point about the Tigers. We're going to let everybody know here. Blue Jays and Tigers are all going to be mixed with these free agent talks. It's like more of a banter back and forth. So you mentioned Chapman of the Tigers. That actually makes a lot of sense because when you have rookie guys, you have the money to spend. And why not a multi year deal, one two year deal on Chapman? Does Chapman want to win now? Probably. Are the Tigers a win now? No, but at the same time you go in as Chapman, you help lead and you help mold some young talent, and maybe the Tigers move you later to a team that maybe is a better fit and you get some assets in return. I'm a big fan of asset management. Doesn't matter what sport I feel asset management is really important. I can talk any sports, to give you example. I thought of one today, but I'll save that for another time. The Blue Jays on the other. Okay. If you're looking at them, they're in a little bit of a different situation. Last year's playoffs, I've had my nope. Just nope. We don't need to go there, and they need to take that step this and that that. I think they're at that point where if you can offer one year max to someone like Ballinger, you do it. You're not going to get Blake Snell, nor do the Blue Jays, for example, don't need Snell because their pitching was great last year. It was good.
They made some moves that were not too highly real, but enough moves to give that depth that the Blue Jays needed. But the situation was the batting this year, and you bring in Justin Turner, who's a clutch hitter. Why not look at bringing in dust. You bring in vogel back on the other side, bats the other side. The turner does. You have a platoon going on there with the DH. I see what the Blue Jays are doing. Okay. But I'm also one to say, hey, this guy's still here. We had videos of this guy and his wife, Cody Ballinger, in Toronto. Why were they there? Okay, what are we doing? We're thinking about spending 70 million on Shohei, if you're a team Tigers. Well, I don't think the Tigers weren't on showhay, but you have money to spend. The Blue Jays money to spend on. These guys do. So Blake Snell. I'll say about Blake Snell. Quick, my prediction, this guy is an ace. All right? This guy is going to be in the pinstripes. It just seems like all arrows are pointing in that direction. So, yeah, I'm not sounding like the most expert media person right now, but it makes sense. The swag, they need it. Yankees need it on the mound, and they have something called money. If you haven't realized, the pinstripes have money for a reason, Snell will get his term. He's pitched very successfully in the AL prior. Why not look at it. Snell to the Yankees just seems like a destined chapman to the Tigers. Never thought of that. I think I'm going to re choose everything. I thought maybe the Giants would look at him. Nah, tigers seems perfect. Blue Jays. I still think they're looking in on Bellinger. I have a feeling the Blue Jays still might make that splash. But what do you think below Snell Bellinger and Matt Chapman. Where are they going now? Blue Jays reported Vlad's looking thin. Not that he was a big, big boy. I'm just saying in shape, he's looking good. Players look like they're motivated. They look like that every year. If you remember last couple of years the movie line saying that this is the trailer. Now you get the movie. Just keep your mouth shut. This springs training. Let your bats do the talking. Okay. Vlad is on the COVID of MLB 24, which comes out March 19. You know, yours truly has preordered that. If you want to gain me on it or Connor, let us know. I'll get some balls out of this park against you. But players reported Connor, what team going in early is really. Do you have your eyes on that? You're like, you know what? Besides the Dodgers, let's say enough of the Dodgers, okay? I don't want to hear the Dodgers, nor do I want to hear the Blue Jays and Tigers. What team, outside of those three teams, are you like, all right, you know what?
[01:31:26] Speaker B: Oh boy.
[01:31:27] Speaker D: You stole all of the easy answers from me. Because the Dodgers are the super team. This right, like, they are the closest thing we have in the NBA. When all of the best players decide to squat up on Miami Heat or Golden State warriors or something to that effect in baseball. I think one of the ones that I'm really curious to see this year is the Baltimore Orioles, maybe. We saw a really interesting AL east last year where in most years you would see the Orioles and Rays in the four or five, the Jays in the three, and then the Sox and the Yankees in the one two. And then last year it was almost like we had this role reversal where it was just like a madhouse in the AL east and all the teams were basically just going for it. So I want to see how Baltimore does this year.
They're a smaller market, so it's usually hard to sustain year over year success. But they have a lot of young guys that are really talented and I'm curious to see if they can sustain some sort of push this year into the playoffs.
[01:32:38] Speaker A: Well, they have your cousin on that team, I think. Right? Just kidding. Gunner. Gunner.
But one team that I want to say because I feel like they overachieved and people are going to call me crazy with it, but that's fine. That's why I'm going to say it. Arizona. I'm curious to see how Arizona responds after such a successful playoff run and overall season last year. See how they do this upcoming season. And ultimately, if I had to give a notable too, I want to keep my eye on Mike Trout this year. My feeling the Angels, if they can take any advice, it's hard to trade a cornerstone franchise, generational talent. But look, you lost Shohei for you need to think future in this team. I don't think that has Mike Trout in it. May not like to hear it. Angel fans. There's no angel in the outfield with me here. Okay? It's literally time to move on. I think you can get King's ransom still for this guy. Despite an injury, his talent is okay. Any team would want this guy, and a lot of teams have prospects to give up. And it's funny you bring up the Orioles because I think that could be a good team for Mike Trout. Imagine Mike Trout on that team based on all the prospects that they have, despite what they could have already in the outfield.
Imagine the Orioles getting Mike Trout. It just seems like a fit for me. And I'm a blue Jay fan, may I remind you. So that would be a disaster in the AL east if the Orioles got it.
[01:34:13] Speaker D: But that's what, I like that a lot, Dave. I like that a lot. I think Mike Trout has been an angel his entire career. But this angel is in purgatory and we need to get him out because Jesus, if he goes through one more like 80 and 80 seasons, this poor man is going to need to seek counseling, get somebody free. Now, he signed the 400 million dollar contract, so, I mean, you kind of get what you get on that one. But if you're the organization and you're him, it's almost criminal how little significant baseball this guy's played in his career.
[01:34:52] Speaker A: You only can see it on video. Free trout. I started the paper. I got it written on my scrap here. Free trout. Okay. Hashtag free trout.
[01:34:59] Speaker D: Can you imagine all the fishing for trout like memes and headlines that we would get?
[01:35:05] Speaker A: All the gms are the rods and.
[01:35:07] Speaker D: You got it would be the GM and then his head superimposed on like a fish kind of.
[01:35:13] Speaker A: Speaking of fish, why not the Marlins? That's another team, too, but they're still on a retool, not out there. Connor, I know we're going a little bit over time, so I want to get to the last topics I was really excited to talk about as we get to the conclusion of tonight's episode expansion in the MLB. You and I are probably going to various amount of clips on this this year. Obviously Oakland going to Vegas.
Big surprise. So I want us to spend the next 60 seconds here talking about two teams, two places that would be good fits for the MLB to expand to. And this is in light of the documentary coming on Netflix about the Montreal expos. That's what sparked this. So I'm just going to say flat out, there needs to be a second canadian team. Love it. Would love the battle. Do I think Montreal is the place? No. Vancouver. I think Vancouver should get a team. Good rivalry with Seattle. Why the heck not? It just makes complete sense now. If I had to look at another team, people are going to be like, well, it might be a little bit crazy, but I think it's going to be a fit. Buffalo, Vancouver and Buffalo, you have the Sabres, you have the, you got, obviously you got New York around there, the Mets little rivalry. It'll be some realignment in the division. Why not Vancouver, Buffalo? There's other cities as well that can certainly be looked at. But Vancouver, Buffalo for me. Connor, how about you?
[01:36:38] Speaker D: I think Salt Lake City for me, Dave, is one that gets referenced every once in a while. That would be fun.
But just now that you've mentioned it, can't get over the idea of seeing the baseball fandom start a season with just a bunch of white fold out tables and Buffalo Bills fans smashing through on home plate from the upper deck of a baseball diamond there. That would be great to just.
[01:37:03] Speaker A: I can just picture it. I could just picture it. Great fit. And that's besides this Vegas stuff. Okay, just so everybody knows, we all know, Vegas is basically going to happen. These are two teams that could be considered. Other than that, let us know what you think. Love it. Another canadian team, baby. Give me another one of those, Connor. It's been good. We talked all over the place, the beginning. Baseball's back. We had a little bit of fun. Spring training. Everyone's reported spring training coming around the corner, games coming around the corner. Actually, to say it out loud, I think the first games are tomorrow.
While we're speaking here, February 22, the Dodgers play the Padres, if I know correctly here. So there's some action coming around in baseball coming nice and heavy for you here for spring training. Very exciting. A lot of big news headlines. Players still remaining, players in new places, new faces, as I said at the beginning. And Connor and I will bring you all summer long once a week if we upload once or twice a week following our schedule, a nice strike zone segment. I didn't say that at the beginning. That's my oopsie for this episode. The strike zone segment with myself and Connor and potentially guests if we can this year as well. But nonetheless, baseball is here. It's no longer near and we're very excited to get baseball underway. And teams, we can talk about every team, every preview, but there will be, if you know, the show, a season preview show. As we get closer to the regular seasons training, we just want to talk about everything. We're just excited. Okay. It's like a dog leaning out a window seeing a squirrel. You just get absolutely excited. That's where our minds are today.
[01:38:35] Speaker D: This is just the primer, Dave.
We're sort of just planting the seeds for what's going to be a fun season.
[01:38:42] Speaker A: Yeah. And I'm sure people have some expansion ideas and maybe they have some reaction about where people are going. Add us, talk to us. We love it. We challenge. We love the feedback. Connor. Thank you, my friend.
It's been great. First episode of the 2024 season. Yeah.
[01:38:58] Speaker D: I'll try to wear a nicer shirt next time. Dave, it's been a pleasure as always, and we'll catch you soon.
[01:39:04] Speaker A: All right, definitely. Connor Henderson, the one and only, the rookie of the year. If you know, you know and know he's not related to Gunner Henderson. That was a complete rumor that I made up, but he is just as good as him. He may not want to hear that. This guy knows how to play baseball. That is Connor Henderson. Again, I want to say thank you to everyone on the game sports podcast crew that joined me tonight. The usual crew, Dane, Justin, and to you, the listeners, and to you, Connor Henderson. But either way, make sure you like, follow and subscribe all platforms, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, at the Game Sports podcast. Simple like follow, comment, subscribe goes a long way. And also, thank you to our powered by 91 network, the YouTube Channel 91 network
[email protected] if you are currently doing a podcast or want to do a podcast, or if you just want to check out the great content on that that features us, the game sports podcast headlining that Spotify, Apple, Google, we're everywhere. Okay. Just that simple. Like and follow goes a long way and makes us feel very good when you interact as well. As I said, we welcome it again, thank you to everybody, especially to you, the listeners. And we hope the rest of your week goes well here from all of us on the game sports podcast. And I'm here to remind you, keep your stick on the ice swing your bats, catch touchdowns, join your threes and shoot your shots. Booyah.
