0:00

One of the best in the biz, it's our good friend

0:02

Darren Dregger, TSN Hockey Insider. What's going

0:04

on, Dreggs? Yeah, I'm doing alright.

0:07

Got back from Kamloops last night, settled

0:10

in on the Stanley Cup final now, and just

0:13

kind of pulled out of a hole this morning and

0:15

realized what's going on in golf

0:17

with the PGA and the live merging

0:20

and everything that's just erupting

0:23

on social media. I mean, we saw that coming.

0:25

Obviously the stars of the PGA Tour didn't

0:27

see it coming, but a fascinating story

0:29

to watch unfold. Absolutely.

0:32

You bring that up like I was on

0:34

my way into the studio and I was listening back

0:37

to some of the hits on First

0:39

Up, as I typically do, and immediately

0:41

I saw the news pop up and I'm like,

0:43

I gotta go listen to Golf Talk Canada and

0:45

figure out what the heck is going on here. And

0:47

yeah, that's a crazy, crazy story

0:50

for anyone. and PGA Tour

0:52

now merging as one

0:54

entity of some kind. You're gonna have to

0:56

definitely go check out the Golf Talk Canada

0:58

podcast to find out exactly what's going on

1:00

there. Dreggs, Vegas,

1:03

putting up a touchdown last night,

1:05

just put the pedal to the metal

1:07

on Florida. I mean, has the bubble burst

1:10

here for the Panthers, or are you more

1:12

of a believer that

1:13

series not quite over until the team

1:15

loses on home ice? Yeah, I'm

1:18

not convinced the series is over yet. I have too much

1:20

respect for the

1:22

work that's been done by the Florida Panthers and the momentum

1:24

that they rode right up to the Stanley Cup final,

1:27

but the task is obviously daunting.

1:30

And in some ways, it's

1:32

a bit like the Florida Panthers

1:34

are imploding and they've become their

1:37

own worst enemy, be it being undisciplined,

1:40

the penalties that they've taken, how

1:42

they were credited with having

1:44

so much structure through, I would

1:46

say, most of the playoffs. Seemingly,

1:49

they're lost. They can't counter what

1:51

the Vegas Golden Knights are doing

1:53

in Florida's defensive

1:56

zone. And

1:58

I'm not a goalie whisperer.

1:59

by any stretch of the imagination, but

2:02

I follow a few on social media, Mike

2:04

McKenna and others, and it was interesting to get there,

2:06

take on some of the goals that we saw scored last

2:09

night that ultimately

2:11

led himself

2:13

to Brabavski getting pulled,

2:16

and how many of those are clearly

2:18

his fault? Well, I think it's a combination

2:20

of things, but that was what was

2:23

so significant going into this series

2:25

was how well the Florida Panthers

2:27

played in all

2:29

zones

2:29

and allowed Brabavski

2:32

the opportunity to make the saves, and

2:34

he found another level. So now that Vegas

2:37

has gotten to Brabavski, gotten to the goaltending,

2:40

gotten to the structure of the Florida Panthers,

2:42

it's going to be a problem for sure. Well,

2:45

ultimately, I mean, if Brabavski

2:47

is coming down to earth, and we're actually going to have Mike McKenna

2:49

on the show in about an hour or so, we'll

2:51

definitely get his thoughts on this as well.

2:54

But if he is coming back down to earth, and I know

2:56

obviously the defensive structure in Florida has a lot

2:58

to do with it,

2:59

but does this team really stand a chance

3:02

here if he goes back to being just

3:04

a slightly above average goaltender, or

3:06

does he have to play out of his mind

3:09

much to the way he did in Carolina and in Toronto

3:11

for them to stand a chance?

3:12

Yeah, well, again, I give him a little

3:15

bit more credit than that, Mike. You

3:17

clearly need above average goaltending

3:19

to hoist the Stanley Cup. I mean, that's

3:22

far from breaking news, but you need help

3:24

along the way too. You know, it was

3:26

4-0, so it's not like the

3:28

offense of the Florida Panthers was

3:31

doing anything to help their goaltending, and it

3:33

seemed like they were a little bit in panic

3:36

mode at times last

3:38

night as well. So it starts

3:41

with that. I mean, I don't think

3:42

there's a question of trust though when it comes to goaltending,

3:45

be it Brabavski or Lyon, who relieved

3:48

him yesterday. I think everybody

3:50

that plays in front of the Florida net realizes

3:53

that their goaltending is fine, and

3:55

to this point has been one

3:57

of the main storylines. I mean, coming in with this

4:00

series. We soundly talk about

4:02

Sergei Borovski being a

4:04

top cons mic contender and

4:06

now we're shifting over and we're looking at what John

4:08

Marshall's doing and we're looking at what

4:11

Jack Eichel is doing and all those things. And I

4:13

bring up Eichel not just because of the

4:16

point parade that he's been on and how good he's

4:19

been both ways, both sides of the puck

4:22

but also that near devastating hit last

4:24

night delivered by Matthew Kachuk.

4:27

And man, Eichel, I mean obviously

4:29

he was stung but he looked hurt.

4:32

And as he described after the game,

4:35

he got absolutely flushed, he toe

4:37

picked, put himself in a bad spot, he

4:39

gets cranked by

4:41

Matthew Kachuk, gets winded on the

4:43

play even though it looked more heinous than

4:45

that. That could have been

4:47

a series turning point, right? I mean, taking

4:51

Jack out of the game for that stretch, you

4:54

know, that had to have given Florida a

4:56

little bit of hope that, hey, this is a window that's

4:59

opening for us and they didn't take advantage of it. Eichel

5:01

comes back and kind of picks up where

5:03

he left off. But if

5:05

he left the series entirely because of injury

5:07

and thankfully he wasn't hurt on the play

5:09

then maybe we're having a different conversation.

5:12

But Florida doesn't seem to have the right answer

5:14

to what Vegas is doing.

5:15

I'm not convinced he toe picked. To me

5:17

when I watched it and I saw it 15 times,

5:19

I was like, okay, I see this guy

5:22

last minute coming at me. How do I get off the tracks

5:24

and get out of the way? And then he got

5:26

blown up. But Dreykes, how surprised

5:28

were you

5:29

that Eichel came back in the game? I believe

5:31

it was four nothing at the time. And

5:34

in my mind, I'm thinking, okay, this game's probably

5:36

put away. Maybe give him

5:38

the rest of the night. You know, you

5:41

don't really, I mean, he came back and made an impact.

5:43

He had a nice assist, but why not just give

5:45

the guy another 20 minutes to breathe and move

5:47

on to game three?

5:48

Yeah, I'm with you. Unless, and

5:50

Peter, you would know this, unless the player just

5:53

says, forget it, I'm going back in and medically,

5:55

there's no reason I can't go back

5:57

in. And if that is the case,

6:00

I think that has to be the case. And kudos

6:02

to Jack Eichel because if

6:04

he doesn't come back in, then it becomes a

6:06

story. Right. And whether

6:09

he's dinged up or not, I mean, every player

6:11

is at this point of the playoffs. But in

6:13

Jack's case, it's extra

6:16

sensitive because of the

6:20

neck surgery that he had, everything

6:24

that goes into the year and plus

6:27

that Eichel has experienced. So I think

6:29

that that was a part of it. I think he

6:31

was obviously well enough that the medical

6:34

people for the Vegas Golden Knights said, well, if you

6:36

feel up to it, man, we don't have any reason to

6:38

hold you back and back in egos. So I

6:41

guess that's the type of player that he's evolved into

6:43

at this stage. Yeah, I agree.

6:45

From a former player perspective, coming

6:48

back into the lineup, it just gives your team a little bit

6:50

of confidence knowing that, hey, I'm all right, I'm here,

6:52

I can still play. So I think there's

6:54

something to be said for that.

6:55

What about moving on to Radko Goudes

6:58

and the Barbashev hit there? I mean, again,

7:00

just another big, big collision.

7:03

And tell me a little bit about your thoughts on

7:05

what Barbashev is setting himself up for following

7:08

maybe his next contract. Well, a

7:11

contract that Vegas isn't going to be able to afford.

7:15

They always find a way, they always find

7:17

a way. Well, they always do seem to find a way.

7:19

You're right on that. I shouldn't have been so quick

7:22

to get to that conclusion. But

7:24

at the end of the day, if the Vegas Golden

7:25

Knights win that Stanley Cup, he's

7:28

going to be a big part of it, because he has been to this point.

7:31

And if they can't afford or. Oh,

7:36

might've lost him there.

7:37

We definitely did. See if we can get him

7:40

back on the horn there. It

7:42

was like, goes like completely

7:44

dead. So I don't know if he's just gone or hung

7:46

up. Let's see if we can, yeah, we'll see if we can try

7:48

and call him back. Maybe he didn't like the question. That was it. He's

7:51

like, I'm out of here. Yeah, I mean,

7:53

it's a good question though. Like we were talking

7:56

about it last night the group chat was, man,

7:58

what type of contract is barbershed? have set

8:00

himself up for here. And I mean,

8:02

I think that he's going to make himself

8:04

a lot of money this summer. Is it UFA? Someone

8:07

who, you know, Toronto, I think would

8:09

maybe have some interest in like I think

8:11

there's going to be a lot of teams that have interest

8:13

in a player like him. I would imagine so. We

8:15

got you back, Drax. Yeah, sorry about

8:18

that. Um, so we were talking

8:20

about barbershop and, uh, I was

8:22

just finishing up my thought. I like he,

8:24

and this didn't come as a surprise. I don't think,

8:26

you know, he was.

8:28

Arguably the most sought after available player

8:30

in St. Louis prior to his deal to, uh,

8:33

to the Vegas Golden Knights, just because of everything

8:35

that he is capable of doing.

8:38

Um, so he's going to get paid whether they can afford

8:40

it, get creative enough. We're going to have to wait and see,

8:42

you know, Ray and I, Ray Ferraro and

8:45

I talked about this on the podcast, which we recorded

8:47

earlier today. Um, I don't

8:49

like that hit. I don't, I, and,

8:51

and Ray believes it's interference

8:54

all day long. I don't know what you guys think, but that

8:56

reverse hit. It's not

8:59

dirty or anything like that. I'm

9:01

not suggesting that department of player safety

9:03

should get all good. It wasn't that,

9:05

but it's a hit that we've seen many times

9:08

before the reverse. Right. And

9:11

it's, it's, it's borderline

9:13

dangerous, borderline dangerous. And in

9:15

this case, you know, Radco, Gouders took

9:17

the brunt of it, you know, only after he delivered

9:19

what two or three bone crunching

9:22

body checks in that game,

9:24

when he was somewhat of a question mark

9:26

going into game two because of his own

9:29

top health.

9:29

And so now if you, if you look

9:31

forward to game three, as we all are,

9:34

you got to wonder, um, you know,

9:36

he, the extra day maybe helps

9:38

the Florida Panthers, maybe helps Radco

9:41

Gouders, they're a different team when he's not on

9:43

the ice or in the lineup, there's no doubt about that. Greg's,

9:45

I respectfully disagree. I love

9:48

the head as a, as a former

9:50

player who

9:51

attempted a few of those at times and was the

9:53

victim of a few of those at times.

9:55

It's a physical game. You're in the Stanley cup final.

9:57

Well, it doesn't matter really what time of the year.

10:00

year it is, it's a physical game. You want to create

10:02

space for yourself. And quite frankly,

10:04

if you're the person in Gudas' position

10:06

there where you're going to make body contact,

10:08

you're preparing for a physical interaction.

10:11

You should be prepared for the other guy to defend

10:13

himself. And in the same instance,

10:16

it is Radko Gudas. You're expecting

10:18

to get hit and get hit hard because

10:20

he plays that type of game. And if I see Radko

10:22

Gudas coming, coming towards me to finish his

10:25

check, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to drop my

10:27

shoulder too, and make sure that I stand my ground.

10:29

So I don't have an issue with the hit. I

10:32

get, I get what you're trying to say, maybe a little

10:34

borderline, but I personally don't see it that

10:37

way.

10:37

No, and I guess I

10:40

don't want to be too specific to that hit

10:42

because, but that

10:44

hit in general, the reverse, I

10:47

think you could build a case, make a case for it being

10:49

an interference penalty. But

10:52

I also agree with you and it depends on

10:54

the players involved here. You

10:56

know, lower than his

10:59

share. So any player

11:01

out there almost automatically, you

11:03

know, instinctively, aren't you

11:05

thinking, okay, well, if I'm anywhere

11:08

near this guy, I got to be prepared to

11:10

get hit. So in this case,

11:12

it's, you know, it's the reverse. So for

11:14

me, generally,

11:15

generally that reverse hit is questionable,

11:18

but the league doesn't see it that way. And

11:21

as far as the official saw, it was a good

11:23

clean hit and everyone

11:25

moved on except for Radco Goodis. With

11:28

Darren Dreger. So how do you get it back on

11:31

the rails? If you're Florida, you're down to, oh, you're

11:33

going back to your home building. Like

11:35

what, what's the game plan have to be Thursday

11:37

night for them to get back into the series? Well,

11:40

I think they have to learn and get back

11:42

to taking advantage of opportunities. And

11:45

their power

11:45

play didn't look good in the first

11:48

game, early on in the second game, I thought

11:50

it looked pretty sharp. They had a few opportunities

11:52

there where they could capitalize on the power

11:54

play and just they couldn't find a way to beat

11:56

Aiden Hill and they had Vegas

11:59

on their heels. with the man advantage.

12:01

So you look at the game sheet and what were they both for four?

12:04

And I think Vegas was two for four. Well,

12:07

those are big goals, right? Those are big goals.

12:09

So maybe something like that. Florida

12:11

for the most part has been pretty opportunistic

12:14

to this stage, be it with

12:16

a man advantage or a timely

12:18

goal. I mean, go down the list. Carter

12:21

Verhege had a chance early in the hockey

12:23

game. They get one early. Maybe

12:25

that again shifts that momentum back on Florida

12:28

side and Vegas tightened up

12:30

a little bit. But Florida wasn't able

12:32

to do that. So I think it's just the simple

12:35

sort of routine stuff that you

12:37

need to be able to deliver on at

12:39

this point in the Stanley Cup postseason and

12:42

getting that early goal, especially on the

12:44

road, can make a heck of a difference.

12:46

Let's bring around the league a little bit here,

12:48

Dregs. You were just out in Kelowna watching

12:50

the Memorial Cup. Patty Woz, Quebec Remparks

12:53

came out on top and immediately

12:55

speculation starting to run rampant

12:57

with him and his future and potentially

12:59

getting back into the NHL with many vacancies

13:02

still available. Do you expect for

13:04

him to be coaching in the NHL next year? What

13:06

are you hearing about Patrick Waugh and his future?

13:08

Well, I know he wants to coach in the NHL

13:11

next year, but it's pretty quiet

13:13

around Patrick Waugh. I mean, we in the media

13:16

have speculated until the weekend

13:18

that well, why wouldn't the New York Rangers be right?

13:21

I mean, an enormous

13:23

market, Patrick Waugh can handle

13:26

all of the responsibility that goes along

13:28

with that. He's got the history with Chris

13:30

Dury, the general manager. They were teammates

13:32

on championship teams in Colorado,

13:35

but then the reporting out of New York, and

13:37

I'm assuming it's coming from sources within the

13:40

New York Rangers is that now they're not interested

13:42

in Patrick Waugh. He talked

13:44

to Columbus. It clearly

13:46

didn't go that far, but I think

13:49

he felt, they felt like it was a decent

13:51

conversation. So now you look

13:53

at some of the empty chairs and wonder

13:56

whether or not he could fit there.

13:59

Doesn't fit.

13:59

seem likely that he'd end up in Calgary

14:02

for me. So

14:04

then we look at some of the other spots.

14:07

Greg Cronin, named head coach in

14:09

Anaheim. Anaheim would have made some sense.

14:11

I thought so too. Young team, yeah.

14:16

I don't know what the relationship might be between Verbeek

14:18

and say a Patrick Waugh. You know Patrick Waugh

14:21

is a strong-minded dude. I don't think

14:23

that he's disruptive or needs

14:26

to run his own show or

14:28

any of that, but he's a big personality.

14:31

No doubt about that. And that may not be

14:33

for everyone. So he may have to be

14:35

patient, but let's see what the next several

14:37

days bring forward

14:41

and then we can kind of assess from there. But what

14:43

more can he do with Major Junior Hockey? I

14:45

mean, there's nothing more he can do. And

14:48

I'll tell you guys from having a front

14:50

row seat at the Memorial Cup, I

14:52

think many thought with the star power of

14:54

the Seattle Thunderbirds that they were gonna come in

14:57

and just run the table with the Memorial Cup.

15:00

And they pretty much did

15:03

until they ran into the Quebec Remport.

15:05

That team is as structured as

15:07

any good team in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

15:11

That's just how they play. So that

15:13

has to be a reflection of not only Patrick Waugh,

15:15

but the coaching staff of the Remport as well. So

15:17

he's ready to get back whether there's an opportunity

15:21

to wait and see.

15:23

Well, I think you said it well, that

15:25

what more can you accomplish at the Junior

15:27

Hockey level? And one of the things that I really

15:29

like to see as well when they did win was

15:32

going up to his players and the players going up to him

15:35

and just the bear hugs. And you could tell how much they just really

15:37

enjoyed playing for him. And so for me as a former

15:39

player and getting to share that with your coach,

15:42

that's a pretty special thing. And Dregs,

15:44

I guess elsewhere around the league as well, we saw Cole

15:46

Caulfield sign an eight year extension with the

15:48

Habs. Yeah.

15:50

How soon before we see

15:52

this contract, in terms

15:54

of looking like a steal, and maybe you could

15:56

also relate that to a potential

15:59

Matthews extension.

15:59

and potentially leaving some money on the table

16:02

there.

16:02

Yeah. Well, look, I think Polk

16:05

Offield got paid well. I mean,

16:07

just over 7.8 million annual average

16:10

salary, come on. I mean, that's a lot of money

16:12

over a maximum extension

16:14

eight years. He's a pure gold

16:16

score. That's what he is. There are parts of his game

16:18

that he knows he's got to work on. He's still very

16:21

young and to a point still underdeveloped.

16:24

And his comps to get

16:26

Tim Stuckelot, now it's probably

16:28

a little bit lofty. But I think that that is

16:31

excellent and fair value.

16:32

Brad Trilliving, he's

16:34

working it. I guarantee

16:37

you, he's had several conversations before

16:40

and since getting the job as general

16:42

manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs with Judd

16:44

Moldaver, who represents Auston Matthews.

16:46

Of course you would. There's

16:48

nothing more that Trilliving would

16:51

like to get done than a contract

16:53

extension with Matthews on

16:56

or around July 1st. As

16:58

we've reported on an insider trading, that doesn't

17:00

mean it's going to happen. Matthews

17:03

has a say in all of this. And even though

17:05

July 1st no move clause kicks

17:07

in, likewise for Mitch Marner, at

17:09

the end of the day, it's got

17:11

to be right. Everything about it, the extension,

17:14

has to be right. Maybe they get there. They

17:16

might. Again, Matthews has to be a

17:19

top priority for Brad

17:21

Trilliving along with getting to know Shelton

17:24

Keith to hit coach of the Maple Leafs as quickly

17:26

as he can. But yeah, some

17:28

of these deals happen, but if we look back

17:30

quickly to Caulfield, it's not like they got

17:33

that deal done at the last second. Ken

17:35

Hughes and Pat Prison have been negotiating

17:38

on Caul Caulfield for several

17:40

months to be fair. So

17:43

these things can take time. Yeah, and I

17:45

guess

17:45

coming back to the one point you made there, does

17:48

Matthews hold all the cards in

17:51

this negotiation with the Leafs? Or do the

17:53

Leafs have any leverage in terms

17:55

of working that AAV?

17:57

Yeah, not really.

18:00

But that's where Brendan Pridham, the

18:03

cap guru of the Toronto Maple Leafs is at his

18:05

finest. And he

18:07

would have multiple versions of what

18:09

a contract extension looks like ironed

18:12

out long before now. Right?

18:15

What's a five-year extension look like? Hey,

18:19

not to throw shade

18:21

at Kyle Lubas because he would have

18:23

had all kinds of input

18:26

from all the management types within

18:29

the Leafs organization, including Brendan

18:31

Shanahan.

18:32

But you can't be upset

18:34

with having to give off to Matthews potentially

18:37

another five-year deal when you gave him

18:39

one right out of the entry-level contract. Right?

18:42

Isn't it weird that Austin Matthews,

18:44

one of the best goal-scorers in the NHL,

18:46

is going to have two five-year deals and

18:48

not a max eight-year contract? I believe that

18:50

was by design by Austin Matthews though. I agree, yeah. Potentially.

18:54

Well, and that'll put him up in

18:56

position for another

18:58

contract, which will be yet another mega

19:00

deal. So

19:02

it's going to be what makes

19:04

sense to both, both in annual

19:06

average salary and in term. You know,

19:08

let's say the annual average salary is 13

19:10

fives. You know, okay,

19:13

well, that makes him the highest paid player in the game.

19:16

But maybe because of that, he's

19:18

willing to take less term. Or

19:22

he wants the 15 million or whatever

19:24

that number is, and you've got

19:26

to stretch that out over a longer term. So

19:28

there are many options that I'm sure Brad Treliving

19:31

has scraped holes in

19:33

his forehead trying to think about over the

19:35

last number of days here.

19:37

Really quickly before you leave, since we're

19:39

on the conversation of extensions

19:42

and whatnot, our burning question yesterday

19:44

that we've been doing had to do with us digging into

19:47

the goaltending situation in Toronto

19:49

next season. What do you

19:51

think a fair deal

19:54

would look like for Ilyas Samsonov next year? Like,

19:57

it's kind of one where it's like he's had...

19:59

breakout season I suppose and

20:02

but it's only been one year you ready to give

20:04

him some term just still kind

20:06

of see what's up there?

20:08

I'm not not unless you know

20:10

again the AAV is is

20:13

team friendly and what does that look like?

20:16

You know Samsonov may feel like

20:19

he's played enough played enough in

20:22

in Washington and then was

20:24

the starter for the Toronto Maple Leafs maybe he

20:26

feels that he's proved enough that he can get

20:29

a bigger deal than the one that I envisioned I envision

20:32

a shorter term in in the high threes that's

20:35

that's kind of what I look at. Like what

20:37

Merazics deal kind of ended up being? Yeah

20:39

yeah you get around four maybe

20:42

low fourth that's getting

20:44

up there that's getting up there so I haven't

20:47

heard a whole lot about that to be fair

20:50

but it's you know

20:52

put in situation into the same grouping with

20:55

the rest of these guys he doesn't get the same

20:57

sort of fanfare for

21:00

the obvious reasons but he's certainly deserving

21:02

of attention he's probably getting out already

21:04

from Maple Leafs management. Yeah

21:06

I'd assume he's down the list a little though an RFA

21:09

so they have after they just got to qualify

21:11

him and then they can figure it out at some point in the offseason

21:13

there's a couple more guys I think that that

21:16

are ahead of him. I'd expect we'll

21:18

hear some I mean some UFA's got

21:20

to get signed to in the next little bit so

21:22

hopefully we get some news that we can

21:24

break or break down next

21:26

week when you have you on again. Appreciate

21:28

the time as always Dregs. Alright guys have

21:31

a good one. You as well.

21:32

There he goes.

21:33

Darren Dreger TSN hockey

21:35

insider he

21:37

was it's

21:40

it's it is interesting because I find that

21:43

there's less love for Samsonov

21:46

than I thought. Mmm

21:48

like we were talking about this yesterday about whether

21:50

or not we were comfortable with the goaltending

21:52

situation going into next year if it was going

21:54

to be Ilya Samsonov and Joseph

21:57

Wall and it appears

21:59

to me just based on the conversations that

22:01

I've had with people. I had Dave Festruck

22:03

yet last week. We were talking about it. He's

22:05

not quite sold on Samsonov as a long-term

22:08

solution. CJ even said like,

22:10

yeah, there's still some question marks if you go in with that

22:12

tandem and Dregs didn't seem like he was

22:14

sold either. So there seems to still be

22:17

a little hesitancy for Ilya

22:19

Samsonov. And I wonder how much of that has

22:21

to do with the struggles that he had come

22:23

post-season. I think that must be it because

22:26

leading up to that point, it sure

22:28

felt like there was a lot of confidence. His numbers

22:31

after the regular season, and this is the problem with

22:33

Toronto. It's all regular season

22:35

success, but he was a top 10 goaltender

22:38

in terms of the underlying numbers.

22:40

You could argue he was a top 10 goal in the NHL

22:42

this year through the regular season. And

22:45

then the playoffs came and

22:46

he was a sub 900 goalie.

22:48

Yeah. But in the regular season, he was about

22:50

a 920 save percentage. He was good. He

22:52

was great.

22:54

Yeah. I think the Leafs had a lot of reasons

22:56

to believe that he was going to be there for them throughout

22:58

the regular season. And he seemed to prove that right.

23:01

So it's interesting how the narrative of sort

23:03

of shifted. But again, it's a performance-based business.

23:05

It's what have you done for me lately. And if we're judging

23:08

him off of his post-season playing,

23:10

then perhaps it's fair to be looking for a more

23:12

friendly number than perhaps may have been warranted if

23:15

we were only basing this off of the regular season. Yeah.

23:17

And look, I think because you're also

23:19

getting such a cheap deal in

23:22

Joseph Wall, like he's making, you

23:23

know, I love that contract. $775 grand

23:26

or something like that. $766. I think

23:28

even a little less.

23:30

You feel good

23:32

if you can get another goaltender at

23:34

under 4 million. And all of a sudden you're

23:36

like, we're under 4.5 basically

23:39

for tandem. Yeah. I think if you can

23:42

wrap up two goalies, so you have a lot of

23:44

trust and belief in for under 4.5 million,

23:46

I think you're doing really, really well. Well, it allows

23:49

you to address the other parts of the roster, right?

23:51

It allows you to maybe put an extra one

23:53

or $2 million into a top four defensive

23:56

end instead of having to go off the scrap heap.

23:58

Well, exactly. Well, depending where

23:59

Again, you can save your shekels. You can apply

24:02

them elsewhere to potentially a,

24:04

somewhere that has a little bit more of a need. So

24:06

I agree with you that

24:08

getting two guys on the back end, who you have

24:10

trust in, if one goes down, the other one can come in

24:12

less of an A and B and maybe more of a

24:15

one A, one B type situation.

24:18

I think that that just provides you a little bit

24:20

more flexibility. Yeah. And we saw

24:22

a lot of goaltenders last off season

24:24

who were in this similar situation

24:27

where they were tandem goaltenders younger. But,

24:29

you know, showed out, showed well,

24:31

you know, I'm thinking Georgiev was one of those guys.

24:33

Billy Huse was one of those guys and they

24:35

all got, you know, between three and a half and 4 million.

24:38

So I would think that that's roughly

24:40

the range that I would look at for Samsonov,

24:42

you know, a three year deal, maybe in the

24:44

three and a half range. And all of a sudden that's your tandem

24:47

going forward. You know, you've got

24:48

Joe Wall and, and, and you know, the Samsonov for,

24:50

for, you know, a few seasons and see

24:52

where that takes you. Yeah. There's the

24:54

other option of trying to get into the Connor

24:57

Helbeck sweep stage. But then one of the

24:59

different, that's a completely different conversation. And

25:01

it also involves moving some bigger pieces

25:03

as well, because you got to make room for him. Right. We'll

25:06

see. We'll see what happens. Lots of

25:08

stuff to get into this off

25:10

season. And I think that Samsonov

25:12

extension is probably far down on Brad

25:14

Chilivings list. Austin Matthews. That

25:17

guy is definitely high on the list. And that is

25:19

our feature question of our Leafs

25:22

burning question today, which we'll get to in a little

25:24

bit. We'll also be joined by Mike McKenna later

25:26

on today. I'm Mike DiStefano with

25:29

Peter Holland. You're listening to Leafs Lunch here

25:31

on TSN 10 50.