0:00

I think Shane Doan's great. Let's bring in

0:02

Chris Johnson on that very erratic point that I just

0:04

made, our TSN Hockey Insider. How's it going, CJ?

0:07

I'm doing well, how are you? We're

0:09

great. We're having a little Friday, you know,

0:11

we're on the rails and off the rails. It's a Friday type

0:13

of show. Rate Shane Doan's jibs on a scale

0:16

of 1 to 10, CJ. Apparently Julian

0:18

thinks they're a 10. 1 out of 10. Aren't

0:21

they nice? I had a chance

0:23

to cover the World Hockey Championship a lot earlier in my

0:25

career and I was dealing with Shane there and you

0:28

know, his reputation certainly jibes with

0:31

my experience with him.

0:32

What do you make of the news yesterday?

0:34

Bradtree Living bringing him in reportedly.

0:37

It's not official yet, as his

0:39

assistant.

0:41

Yeah, I think that maybe some of the details

0:43

are still being worked out about what exactly

0:45

the role will be called and what it will involve,

0:47

but I mean, you know, you can't

0:49

have enough good people in your

0:52

organization, I think for Bradtree Living, obviously,

0:54

as

0:55

any new GM, you're gonna want to have people

0:58

that you're familiar with and that you've worked with in the past

1:01

and they did spend a lot of time

1:03

together in Arizona earlier in

1:05

Bradtree Living's career. And so, I think

1:08

that we'll probably see a number of changes

1:10

over time between

1:12

the league's front office, maybe people going to

1:15

work elsewhere and obviously hiring like this one

1:17

for Toronto. But, you

1:19

know, it's a big name in Shane Doan. It's

1:21

someone who has a lot of experience in the game and I think he's

1:23

someone who wants to be more involved

1:25

in the hockey operations roles than he's

1:28

had a chance to be in the past. Well, in a way,

1:30

does he kind of replace what

1:32

Jason Spezza, you know, with that

1:34

with him departing? Like, does he replace

1:36

that role as that former player,

1:38

decorated player in the front office?

1:41

Yeah, I think that that's fair. You

1:43

know, the difference with Spezza, of course, is that he played

1:45

with the leagues, you know, right up until joining

1:47

the front office last summer, so he had a lot of first-hand

1:50

knowledge of the dressing room

1:52

culture, you know, what some of the individuals would

1:54

be like. I mean, that's a little

1:56

different in this case, but, you know, I

1:58

don't think you really can.

1:59

to

2:00

have enough sort of voices and opinions.

2:03

And this era for the Leafs now,

2:06

moving beyond the Kyle

2:08

Dubis era, we'll call it is gonna be

2:11

about introducing new

2:13

people to what is a bit of a

2:16

Rubik's Cube, right? Trying to get this

2:18

roster in a spot where the Leafs can

2:20

get over the top to meet their objective

2:22

of chasing down a Stanley Cup. And

2:26

there's gonna be change. I mean, I think that that's

2:28

a reality in pro sports. Basically,

2:31

no matter what, but especially when your team hasn't

2:33

had the success that the organization expects, you're

2:35

gonna see new faces come in. And

2:37

Shane will be one that accompanies

2:40

Brad Treliving. And as I said, I don't expect over

2:42

time, he'll be the last, although probably

2:44

won't see a lot of hirings here in

2:46

the short term because there's a lot of league business going

2:49

on.

2:49

Well, it's been well documented that Shane

2:51

Doan was also a idol

2:54

of Austin Matthews growing up. He's

2:57

Mr. Arizona when it comes to the

2:59

hockey, like the guy played

3:01

almost 1400 games for Arizona, almost

3:04

a thousand points. Do you think that

3:06

this could have any influence on

3:08

Austin Matthews and his decision to

3:11

potentially resign here in Toronto?

3:13

I honestly think it has 0%

3:15

influence on that decision. But the

3:18

one thing I've unchanged on is I don't think there's any

3:20

real reason to worry about Austin Matthews resigning

3:22

with the Leafs. I've been consistent

3:25

on this. Obviously it's something I continue

3:27

to monitor. I don't think anything's changed there.

3:30

But I understand we're in this

3:32

weird window where he couldn't even sign a contract

3:34

today, even if the Leafs put something in

3:36

front of him that an offer he couldn't refuse

3:40

because of the league rules. And so we're at this time

3:42

where everyone's trying to see what

3:44

the weather patterns are in Scottsdale, is the wind

3:46

blowing in this direction. It's

3:48

Austin Stang. I mean, I can

3:50

say unless something was horribly wrong or something

3:53

drastically changes from where it's at today that

3:55

Austin will be staying. I think that the

3:58

more relevant questions are... what

4:00

does this contract look like and what's the timing of

4:02

that going to, how's

4:04

that going to unfold? And we don't

4:06

have the answers to that just yet. But

4:09

it's my understanding that the Bradshaw Living will

4:11

be going to have a meeting with Austin

4:14

at some point here in the next week or so. At

4:16

least that's how it sounds. I don't know that they've

4:18

locked in an exact time for that. But

4:21

basically that process is going to move forward. And

4:24

while it doesn't hurt to have Shane going around, the Leafs

4:26

don't need to hire this person or that person to get

4:29

Matthews to stay. He wants to be

4:31

in Toronto. He wants to win a Stanley Cup here. He

4:34

loves the city. He loves the experience

4:36

he's had so far in the NHL. And it's just about

4:39

working through a process together of getting to know each

4:41

other to see what the direction of the organization is

4:43

and then ultimately coming to terms

4:45

on what his next deal is going to look like. For

4:47

some reason I started to morbidly chuckle when you said

4:49

barring something drastic because I feel like we

4:52

saw the most drastic of situations

4:54

to display out in Toronto with the GM

4:56

exit. So it feels like there's an air for dramatics

4:58

here somehow with our GSN hockey insider,

5:01

Chris Johnston. So what does this tell us, CJ,

5:03

about the

5:05

state of the Arizona Coyotes? Or does it

5:07

not tell us anything? And this has more to do with

5:09

Shane Jones not being elevated in

5:11

that organization? And if that's the case,

5:14

why do you think he wasn't?

5:15

A lot

5:17

to unpack there. I mean, I think that the state

5:19

of the Coyotes is very much in flux

5:22

or in question, you know, ever since

5:24

this Tempe vote didn't go through and the

5:26

arena plans that they'd

5:28

been pursuing were kind

5:31

of left on the vine. I know that they're

5:33

now trying to find a plan B or plan

5:35

C or plan B or whatever we're on now

5:39

to secure the longer term state of the franchise

5:41

there. Obviously the NHL is committed

5:44

to trying to make it work there. But

5:46

it does feel like we're getting

5:48

to a point at some point where how

5:51

much longer can you continue? And we know

5:53

they'll play in Molotirina next year, but I

5:55

don't think you want a long, long term solution

5:57

where you have a team playing in a 5000 seat venue. you

6:00

as nice as it is for college games.

6:03

So, I think what it tells

6:05

us about Arizona is that, there's

6:08

definitely some uncertainty with that franchise. And I think

6:10

ultimately in the case of

6:12

Shane Donne, he's taking

6:15

an opportunity here. And that's

6:17

what I don't wanna go too far

6:19

into because I don't know the exact nature of his job. I

6:22

would suspect he'll be commuting here, but I don't

6:24

know that as a fact. And I think some of that

6:26

was still being worked out. And that's the reason

6:28

the team hasn't announced the firing just yet,

6:31

but this is a pretty cool opportunity,

6:34

even for someone like Shane to say he's worked

6:36

for the Leafs to have an ability

6:38

to work with someone like Brad True Living. And we obviously

6:40

shares a healthy and positive

6:42

relationship with. And

6:46

in Arizona, I think there's just a lot of question marks.

6:49

The players there are all wondering, how

6:51

long are we here? Is this

6:53

gonna be moved? And I just think there's still a lot

6:56

more questions than answered when it comes to the immediate

6:58

future of the Coyotes because they'd been

7:00

planning to be breaking ground

7:02

about now on a new arena.

7:05

And as it stands, they don't have anywhere to play

7:08

that's sort of an NHL size rank

7:11

for the foreseeable future.

7:12

Well, that sounds like a perfect transition into maybe what's

7:15

going on out in Ottawa. I'm not sure if you saw

7:17

the report from Bruce Garriak about 40

7:19

minutes or so ago. Looks like Steve

7:21

Apostolopoulos, who was

7:24

maybe one of the front runners to land the

7:26

Ottawa Senators. He was reportedly

7:29

ready to make an extremely large

7:31

bid. Says he's pulling out because the

7:33

gate negotiations taking too long.

7:35

Like why is this sale process taking

7:38

so long? CJ with the Ottawa Senators. I

7:40

felt like the first we heard

7:42

of it, it was like, oh, should be wrapped up in May. And

7:45

it was all right, should be wrapped or April

7:47

then May. Now we're into June

7:49

and we got people falling off here. Like

7:51

what's going on with this sale process?

7:53

Well, it's complicated, right? Because you're

7:56

having a team sold essentially by the estate

7:59

of Eugene Melner. And the way

8:01

states work generally is that they're

8:03

trying to get the most amount money for these, the

8:06

people that are due to inherit that

8:08

money. And so, you know, that isn't

8:10

always the case when a team sells. I mean, sometimes,

8:12

uh, you know, an owner for

8:14

white have his or her reasons to move on from a

8:17

team and they're not just trying to get the

8:19

highest price out of the bidders. Maybe there's

8:21

a certain person they want to see take over the legacy

8:23

they've built. I mean, teams get sold under

8:25

different circumstances all the time. And I think in this

8:27

case, you essentially have, uh,

8:30

you know, three sets of parties here with

8:32

the, the galleado sports group in

8:34

the middle, uh, you know, managing the sale, but

8:36

obviously the NHL and its board of governors on one

8:38

side and then the bidders and you know,

8:41

the timeline has been a little longer than I think

8:43

than some of those, those bidders have

8:45

wanted. And, and, and so I think that, that best

8:47

explains, you know, the

8:49

outside view of, of what's gone

8:51

on here. And, and you can understand, I mean, look,

8:53

the, the Remington group that had Ryan Reynolds

8:56

on board, you know, wanted to

8:58

get a window to start negotiating on a new arena

9:00

that didn't happen. And they pulled out, um, you

9:03

know, according to Bruce Keriok's report, now

9:05

you've had the highest bidder in terms of absolute

9:08

money on the table, pull out, uh, what's some frustration

9:10

about, uh, the way the process is gone.

9:13

And so, um, you know,

9:15

I think that that's, that's the easiest way to sum it up. As

9:17

Gary Bettman said last week at his state

9:19

of the union, it's, you know, a billion dollar franchise

9:21

sale, isn't the same as just going down the street and buying

9:24

a car. And, um, you

9:26

know, this, this is going to go down as there's the biggest

9:29

single sale in terms of value

9:31

for an NHL franchise. And it's, uh,

9:33

it's, it's taking its time and, you know, it's

9:35

still digesting today's news, don't know if there's a

9:38

way to, to get that group back in

9:40

the bidding or if it's a hundred percent done or

9:42

where it goes from here, um, you

9:45

know, but I do think that, that we are getting

9:47

towards the end of it. Um, but, but obviously

9:50

not the timeline, everybody at the table wants.

9:51

Yeah. Interesting to see how it's taken

9:53

so long to unfold, but hopefully we're nearing

9:56

an end. Do you think this would impact,

9:58

you know, what the Ottawa senators can do? this

10:00

summer at all if they don't have ownership in place

10:03

by you know July 1?

10:04

Well I think it impacts

10:07

just the overall view of the franchise

10:09

right I mean they've been running just

10:11

fine for the last year that they have a you know process

10:13

in place obviously they've been paying their

10:16

players and and you know have the sort

10:18

of mini board that Pierre D'Oriain, the general

10:20

manager answers to in the sort of middle

10:23

phase of the franchise but I think you

10:26

know when you look at something like Alex the Brinkett and

10:28

the possibility of extending him I think you know

10:31

part of his reasons for not wanting

10:33

to sign a long-term deal right now are the unknown

10:35

in terms of who's gonna own the team

10:37

what's gonna be the mandate is it gonna be a cap

10:40

team or not are they gonna be building a new arena are they

10:42

gonna be staying where they are I mean you

10:44

know when you're when you're a player like

10:46

the Brinkett who's you know in his mid-20s

10:48

or entering his mid-20s and

10:50

you're talking about potentially signing a seven or

10:52

eight year deal it's hard to do that when

10:56

you don't know exactly what you're signing up for and

10:58

so I think it is having some

11:01

some impact on sort of the

11:03

business of the team in that case is case

11:05

in point because you know now the the Senators are looking

11:08

to potentially trade his rights this

11:10

summer and I'm not sure that would have happened in a in

11:12

a world where this sale got done sooner

11:14

so you know in some

11:16

cases I think it's gonna impair

11:19

them but you know the good news is a lot of the

11:21

best young talent on that team may have already

11:23

signed long-term deals and are

11:25

committed to being there and everyone

11:28

just kind of waits for the for clarity in

11:30

the owner's office

11:31

okay a couple more off-ice things to get to

11:33

CJ before we can get to the actual hockey

11:35

game that happened last night some rumblings

11:37

about Luke Shen who quickly became a fan

11:40

favorite here in Toronto this morning

11:42

we did kind of a free agent priority

11:44

board the other day we were both saying how nice it

11:46

would be to get Luke Shen back in Toronto

11:48

and it kind of sounds like he's into the idea

11:50

too so what do you think a potential

11:53

deal for Luke Shen would look like if he were to remain

11:55

a Toronto Maple Leaf

11:56

well you definitely interested in

11:59

being here I think it was a

11:59

really positive experience for he and his family, kind

12:02

of getting repatriated to the organization that

12:04

drafted him.

12:05

Obviously he got a meaningful

12:07

chance to play a meaningful role in the playoffs

12:10

and to my eyes was one of their top

12:12

five or six performers just in terms of how

12:14

steady he was and not

12:16

a lot of bad things happened when he was on the ice, which

12:18

we couldn't say for the entire decor during

12:21

the two rounds of the playoffs this year. And so I

12:23

think it's still a matter of working

12:25

out the numbers and the like. I mean, he's been on

12:27

pretty bargain-based deals and

12:30

he's been under a million dollars the last few seasons. I

12:32

would think that he's probably looking at a little bit

12:34

of a raise there. I would think that

12:36

to get him to give up the chance to

12:39

hit the open market, you're probably gonna have to give him

12:41

multiple years. And ultimately

12:43

for Luke Chen, I think that he's gonna

12:46

want some sort of assurance

12:48

that if he's signing in a place

12:50

like Toronto or if it ends up being somewhere else on July

12:53

1st, that he's not gonna be looking

12:55

at another mid-season move because he's got a

12:58

growing family now with three kids and

13:01

understandably wants a chance to chase the Stanley

13:03

Cup and

13:04

play for the team where he signs. And so I

13:06

think that there's lots of paths there

13:08

to a deal. I don't have any reason to believe

13:11

that's imminent or that there's a lot

13:13

of action with

13:14

the numbers being exchanged and stuff

13:16

like that. So it's hard to say exactly what the contract

13:19

will look like but

13:20

I think there is mutual interest from the leap side

13:22

and from Luke Chen side to ultimately get

13:24

something done.

13:25

We're having conversation with Chris Johnson, our

13:27

TSN hockey insider. Columbus

13:30

continues to just disrespect the Stanley

13:32

Cup final, they say, I do not care,

13:34

we're gonna get some business accomplished here, made

13:37

a trade for Ivan Proverov early in the week,

13:39

now making another deal today, acquiring

13:42

defenseman Damon Severson from

13:44

the New Jersey Devils via sign and trade, who's

13:46

the number one player on your North Star big

13:48

board as well for free agents.

13:50

Like what does this say about the directive of

13:53

Columbus, making a couple of big splashy

13:55

trades like this. Are

13:57

they in win now mode with Babcock

13:59

in the...

14:01

Well, yeah, they're not heading into this year

14:03

worrying about the draft lottery, right? I mean, ultimately,

14:05

I guess it could still come to that. But as an organization,

14:07

they're not signing up for

14:09

a 10-year rebuild here and just

14:13

trying to hang around the bottom of the standings and get lucky

14:15

at the end of the year in April and draft

14:17

a generational talent. And so

14:19

I applaud the verve, and

14:22

I think it's been an interesting couple days

14:25

now for the Blue Jackets. It's not just

14:27

that they've lined up Mike Babcock as their next head

14:29

coach, but in bringing in Ivan

14:32

Prokhorov, Endaim and Severson,

14:34

look what it does to

14:35

the free agent market. I mean, you have Dmitry Orlov

14:37

now, who's

14:38

a pending UFA. But beyond that, you

14:41

don't have a lot of what I would call impactful

14:43

defensemen that

14:44

are going to be on the free agent market.

14:47

There's not a lot of other places for teams to turn. And

14:49

I think one of the places they might actually

14:52

turn is the Blue Jackets themselves. They have

14:54

Adam Boquist, Jake Bean.

14:57

And your Pete's a nice

14:59

home player. You know, they have those three players. I

15:01

think that

15:02

teams looking at the prospect

15:04

of overpaying potentially someone in free agency

15:07

have to at least consider now making a deal with the Blue

15:09

Jackets. And so I don't expect

15:11

long as to actually, I don't think that they're

15:14

putting their feet up and saying job done. I think that they're going

15:16

to continue to be aggressive.

15:18

And what's interesting about Yarmul

15:20

Kekkalainen, if you remember a few years ago to trade that

15:22

line, he kind of went all in. Remember,

15:24

he traded for Ryan Zingle and

15:27

Matthew Shane at the time and made

15:29

a flurry of moves for a team that was going to make

15:31

the playoffs. And ultimately they did get their first series

15:34

victory in franchise history that spring. When

15:38

Yarmul is motivated, we've seen him be able

15:40

to pull off a lot of moves in a short amount of time. And

15:43

so, you know, I sort of applaud him for getting ahead of

15:45

the market here because I do think all of a sudden if

15:47

you're a team that was in the market

15:50

to maybe try to bring in a top four defenseman,

15:52

you've seen, you know, Gavrikov this week, you

15:54

know, sign an extension in LA and now Diverson

15:57

comes off the board. And so, you know, I think we're going

15:59

to be able to do that.

15:59

and have a pretty busy trading period between now

16:02

and really the start of free agency. Yeah,

16:04

it's interesting you say that because I like I'm watching

16:06

the Cup Final. I'm seeing Vegas have so much

16:09

success and you know, you look and they've

16:11

got such a big hulking blue line

16:13

but it's just such a good deep

16:15

blue line as well. Like I wonder how

16:17

influential by watching the Cup Final like

16:20

these series of moves are where you

16:22

see a team like Columbus saying, God, we got to get better

16:24

on the blue line. We got to get bigger on the blue line. Like

16:26

how much more do you think we're going to see this

16:28

around the league with a bunch of

16:29

these, you know, defenseman being highly

16:32

coveted around the NHL and that being kind

16:34

of something that a lot of teams look

16:36

to do over the course of this offseason? Well,

16:39

I mean, it's hard to argue. Look, you

16:41

know, I love a smaller player. I was a smaller

16:44

player myself once upon a time, nowhere

16:46

near that.

16:47

But I'm not a tall guy. Goldberg legend.

16:49

Yeah. But you look at the teams that

16:52

have won a Stanley Cup, whether you go back to St. Louis

16:54

in 2019, even Colorado

16:56

and what

16:58

Vegas is potentially going to do. I mean, there's

17:00

just those teams haven't featured a lot

17:02

of players with a five at the start

17:04

of their height. I mean, it's usually six letters and above

17:07

playing the most meaningful minutes. And, you

17:09

know, I don't know that that's necessarily a new

17:12

thing, but I mean, it's certainly it's hard to ignore

17:14

it if you are watching

17:16

the playoffs and especially if you're watching at the end

17:18

point where we're at now where, you know,

17:20

it's such a grind and the physical aspect

17:23

of the game does does have an impact.

17:25

And we've seen a bunch of hits through the three games

17:27

of this Golden Knights Panthers Cup final.

17:29

You know, these teams are really going

17:32

at each other. And I think to withstand that

17:34

sometimes you're going to need some obviously some physical

17:36

players and big men to

17:38

in order to do that. And so if

17:40

you're if you can play the position

17:43

and you're confident that at end you also are

17:46

a bigger guy, I think it's probably bodes

17:48

well for you being in demand and

17:50

for earning, you know, nice contracts

17:53

because, you know, clearly teams understand

17:56

the value of that. And

17:58

I think that,

17:59

you know, just look at what's happened

18:01

in recent years. I mean, not

18:04

the hate on the Quinn Hugheses, or some of the players that

18:06

are a little smaller that are amazing

18:08

at the position themselves, but they're probably

18:10

more outliers than the rule, if

18:13

you know what I'm saying, when it comes to how

18:15

to have success on your blue line. Justin

18:18

Hall's gonna make a boatload of money this offseason,

18:20

isn't he? Just happens to be a big-bodied

18:23

right-hand defenseman.

18:24

It's just gonna happen. It's just gonna happen.

18:26

Maybe not as physical as some teams would want,

18:29

but yeah. He's gonna have a job

18:31

next year. I'm confident about that. Oh yeah, for sure.

18:33

All right, onto the Cup Final. There was a game last

18:35

night. It was an exciting one. The comeback

18:37

cats, CJ, they get their seventh OT

18:40

win of this postseason. Matthew

18:42

Kachuk was a beast last night. He takes that big

18:44

hit and

18:45

comes back to score the game-tying goal.

18:47

What were your, what was your kind of just

18:49

initial reaction to the game last night, and the cats making

18:52

it a 2-1 series?

18:54

Well, they were dangerously close to giving

18:56

us, not a lot of intrigue heading into

18:58

the weekend. Yeah. And

19:01

good on them. I mean, this is who they are, and it's

19:03

funny, because naturally when you see a team

19:06

win the first two games of any series, you're

19:09

doing hits like this one. The inclination is to write off

19:11

the other team, but

19:12

I really felt that the series was still out

19:14

for grabs

19:16

pending back game three, and I

19:18

come away this morning feeling the same way that

19:22

Florida's right there, and we just

19:25

have to kind of see how it goes. I mean, Matthew Kachuk

19:27

is,

19:28

win or lose for the Panthers, I think has totally

19:30

changed,

19:32

or at least partially changed the view

19:34

of him as sort of place

19:36

in the league, as being a really compelling

19:38

character off the ice, and I just think he's been exposed

19:41

to a wider swath of

19:43

fans by having this kind of playoff

19:45

run, and it's hard to ignore the nature

19:48

of the goals he scored. It's not just the number in the

19:51

column beside his name, but it's scoring

19:54

those late-time goals, or obviously a couple overtime

19:56

goals he said earlier in the playoffs, and

19:58

so he's kind of adding to the leg. here and I think

20:02

we're gonna have a real series which is which you know

20:04

for me is great I mean we're down to maximum

20:06

four games left in this whole NHL season and obviously

20:09

it could be could be two depending

20:11

on how things go so I'm excited to see

20:13

that

20:14

the teams are gonna keep playing

20:16

and and you know hope that hope it

20:18

goes six or seven games because I think it could be pretty

20:21

compelling ending you know if we get to

20:23

a game six or game seven situation yeah

20:25

Kachok clearly a guy who has made

20:28

a name for himself you know throughout these playoffs

20:30

but Brofsky you know rebounding

20:32

into his Vesna form but is

20:34

has anyone

20:35

seen their stock

20:38

rise more than maybe Jonathan

20:40

Marshall so has in these playoffs 13

20:42

goals less 13 games outstanding

20:46

yeah it's wild especially because you know

20:48

he got to the second round of the playoffs with zero goals

20:51

on his ledger I mean it's

20:54

funny when you think about how we talk about

20:56

players and obviously we do it a lot you know when

20:58

it gets to the Leafs you know this this we're three

21:00

games into the series and player X hasn't scored

21:02

a goal yet I mean we've had a lot of those chats guys

21:05

and you know there is sort of that proof if your

21:07

team can play long enough it gives

21:09

some of your top players an ability to change

21:13

the way things are going for the marshes so I mean it's unreal

21:16

how he just feels like he's good for at least the goal

21:18

game at this point in time and he has been

21:20

now going back you know two rounds plus and

21:23

you know put himself in the conversation I would

21:25

think for the cons might trophy you

21:28

know he's he's helped the stock

21:30

you know I think some like Ivan Barbashev has

21:33

really helped his stock too on the on the Golden Knights end of

21:35

things because of the way he's performing

21:37

the playoffs and just that he's coming up as a potential

21:39

unrestricted free agent I mean even Aidan

21:41

Hill in the Vegas net not

21:43

sure there would have been much hype about him you know

21:46

had had Vegas just say gone out in the first round

21:48

or even just if Lorraine Breslau was carrying

21:51

the mail through the playoffs and he hadn't come into

21:53

the series but now you know he's someone who's

21:55

also a potential free agent who's getting

21:57

to show his stuff so I mean this is

21:59

that

22:00

special time for some of those players that are maybe

22:02

gonna tie them up their next contract really well with

22:05

a strong put that strong spring. Where'd

22:07

you have Aiden Hill at on your big board CJ?

22:09

Did you get him, you end up pushing him up the board

22:11

a little bit?

22:12

Yeah I think I had him around 20th give

22:15

or take but you know

22:17

that's that's gonna you know I'm probably gonna put

22:19

out a new one next week or at least in the next

22:21

7-10 days and he's got room to

22:23

climb especially if he ends up pushing that stuff

22:25

in the short term. Absolutely and hey

22:28

it could happen as early as this weekend. It could happen.

22:30

I appreciate it as always

22:33

CJ enjoy the weekend we'll

22:35

chat with you again next Friday. Thank

22:37

you I'm heading out to the Canadian Open this half so I hope

22:40

you don't get him. Stop by and say hello to

22:42

the O-dog and the boys for me.

22:43

I think O-dog will be big time

22:45

if I show up at his booth there what do you think?

22:47

I just saw somebody's wearing a 92 Jeff

22:49

O'Neill leaf jersey at the Canadian

22:52

Open right now. Is it a plant?

22:54

Well no so there's the the rink hole

22:56

the hockey hole and they're like allowed to wear jerseys

22:58

so it was Mackenzie Hughes's caddy

23:01

who actually...

23:03

What's that? Wasn't his last name misspelled?

23:06

Yeah so O was telling the story yesterday

23:08

on Overdrive how he went to a cherry

23:10

game and he was given an O'Neill jersey

23:13

and it was misspelled. The I and E

23:15

were opposite so he's like

23:18

I guess Mack Hughes's

23:21

caddy asked him for a jersey and

23:23

he said here you can take this one and you can keep it because

23:25

I don't want this thing anymore in my basement. So

23:27

yeah he's rocking a Jeff O'Neill jersey

23:30

but it is misspelled but it is an authentic

23:32

O'Neill jersey that he wore in a charity game

23:34

so it's still a pretty cool story I'd say.

23:37

I love that. I agree

23:39

I think that probably adds more value to be honest

23:41

with you. Just the story that goes along with

23:43

it. Appreciate it buddy enjoy the Canadian

23:45

Open. You gonna catch the peas tonight? You sticking around

23:48

for that?

23:48

I am. Yep that's the plan.

23:51

Unless the sky has other things in

23:53

mind but I I'm planning to go there and stay there. Love

23:56

it love it well enjoy it

23:58

have a ball and we'll chat next week.

23:59

Okay, sounds

24:00

good. There he goes. Chris

24:02

Johnson, our TSN hockey insider.

24:05

Seems like the rain is supposed to chill. I'm just taking a gander

24:07

right now. I think the rain is behind us. Yeah, hopefully.

24:10

I'm going tomorrow. Hopefully. I

24:13

think we got a little rainy on

24:15

Sunday. Tomorrow's okay. Tomorrow looks good. 24, a

24:18

little some cloud coverage. Perfect

24:20

golf day, really. It really is. Especially if you're

24:22

going to be out there. Like, I don't know. I've

24:25

never been to a golf event. I'm not

24:28

a big golf guy to be quite honest with you. But I don't

24:30

know if I would. Like,

24:32

I probably

24:34

would enjoy it just because of the atmosphere. And I guess

24:36

it'd be a different experience. But like, you just

24:39

sit there and you're walking around all day. It

24:41

really doesn't appetize me all that much to be quite

24:43

honest. I know. You know how I love a walk

24:45

though. And I love a fun outfit. Yeah. And

24:48

I've been into the golf recently. I'm going on Saturday all day. Are

24:50

you going to be wearing golf shoes on the course? No.

24:55

So I had a,

24:57

my roommate was telling me that a guy at work

24:59

got tickets through the Canadian Open this weekend.

25:02

Yeah. And went and bought a new pair of

25:04

golf shoes to wear at the Open.

25:05

Good for him. Like, oh, this

25:07

is. Doesn't golf at all? I don't know. I

25:10

don't know the golfs at all. I don't know the guy. But

25:12

like, how do you, the Canadian Open's got to go

25:14

and get himself a brand new, you know,

25:16

some brand new golf shoes.

25:17

It's interesting the range of characters

25:20

at the Canadian Open. I went last year. It was a lot of

25:22

fun. That was my first time going to a golf

25:24

event. And it was,

25:25

it was cool to see everybody wandering around,

25:27

but it's also cool to see the range and outfits because you either

25:30

go for the business casual look

25:32

or the, I might hop in and play around

25:34

or a whole look. There's two streams

25:37

of thought and I go for the, I might hop in and play a whole.

25:39

The guys who walk around like glove

25:41

guy, they bring their glove out there. Not

25:43

glove guy. Oh my God. There's so, there's a lot

25:45

of guys in golf. That's, that is the funny

25:47

part. I've been really enjoying the guys

25:50

being down there though all week. They're

25:52

like, oh, I'm going to do a hoot. And absolute who the screaming

25:54

match that Hayes and MJ got into about

25:56

Matt, his contract yesterday. Boy,

26:01

was that just like a 20 minute smack

26:03

down between AZB and MJ. It

26:05

was hilarious.

26:05

I love the

26:06

heat there. I do.