Latest / Backchecking the Bolts / Can Tampa Bay Lightning Land Dylan Larkin? - 2025-26 Bolts What Ifs - Nick Paul on the move?
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- Jason Linkes: Coming up, I'm back checking the bolts. Braden Point fifty goal score, a couple forty goal seasons. He had a bad season this past year. I think he would probably even say that as well. You're trading a guy at his lowest possible value. Braden Point is a good player who just happened to have a a year full of injuries, bad luck, bad play. He just never found his game after that injury. I think you said it was in Philadelphia. Yeah. The one where he got The ankle injury, correct? Yeah, he got it got folded up underneath him. I honestly don't think he was ever 100% healthy coming back, even with the ⁓ Olympic break. I mean he just didn't move the same. He didn't have that same net front presence. Welcome to Back Checking the Bolts. Back Checking the Bolts is your cup of coffee to get you the latest on the Tampa Bay Lightning. Join hosts Jason Lincas and the managing editor of Raw Charge, Justin Godfrey, as they break down the Lightning's most recent games and go beyond the highlights, telling you what the box scores didn't. It's time to drop the puck. Hi everybody, welcome to Back Checking the Bolts. It's June the twelfth. Game five of the Stanley Cup Finals has concluded. Carolina with a 3 2 lead. They head back to Vegas with a chance to claim their second Stanley Cup in franchise history. And as always, I am joined by Justin Godfrey of Raw Charge. You can reach him each and every day at www.roadcharge.com. Justin, there's a lot going on in hockey right now, but first I want to get your thoughts on the Stanley Cup Finals. D do you think Vegas had their chance in game four going into that third period? They owned the second period and they just could not put Carolina away. Was that their chance? ⁓ you know, looking back, probably at this point, you know, now you got Carolina with, you know, basically what, two shots to to finish this thing off. I got all the momentum going. They got the one goaltender who seems halfway competent at his job right now. My money's going on Carolina right now. ⁓ But it's been a fun series. I mean, I I think after game three we're people writing off Carolina. So it's it's one of these kind of series that can flip based on, you know, the day of the game, how that how that particular game goes. If Vegas comes out at home and blows Carolina off the map and you know Bucy gives up five goals, then everyone's talking about, Hey, it's Carol you know, it's it's Vegas gonna gonna go ahead and ⁓ take the crown. So yeah, it's been it's kind of fun when the goaltenders aren't that great. So it makes for exciting hockey. Well, you and I talked. You actually asked the question to me. How many goaltenders will we see in the cup finals? You said three and a half, over or under. I said over. We're almost there. Exactly. Carter Hart just needs to implode. Come on. I mean, I I think any other coach, maybe he's already pulled. I mean, he's said a hey, he's a historic goaltender, not in a great way. I mean, first goaltender to give up four plus goals in what? Five straight games in the Stanley Cup final. So, I mean, the man's making history, but Tortz is kind of being a little stubborn. And, you know, good for him for showing faith on his in his number one goaltender. I don't know if it's the right thing to be doing right now. We thought maybe just give the guy a breather after, you know, game five, let Aiden Hill play a little bit, get some ice ice time on there, and just let Hart kind of clear his mind out. But Torts is he's committed to ⁓ Carter Hart and he's gonna go as far as he can with him right now to either. To possibly ⁓ Las Vegas' detriment. Justin, we talked yesterday and we were texting back and forth about the Conn Smythe trophy odds. And then this morning, before yesterday's game, Jordan Stahl was about eight to one. Now he is the favorite right now in the betting odds to win the Consmythe trophy. He has eight goals, six in the final series. But the first two series. Three series. He had two goals. Are we basing this just a little bit too much on his performance in the finals? Yes, Carolina wasn't tested in the first three rounds, and Jordan Stahl has been phenomenal in the finals. But this is the MVP for the playoffs, not the ⁓ VP for the finals. Yeah, I think I mean we talked about a little bit, like, especially with Carolina, is that there hadn't been anybody that really put themselves head and shoulders above anybody else on the team. So A strong series in the final could, you know, be the difference as far as winning the trophy. ⁓ one thing I think maybe we were looking a little bit, maybe too much on offense. I mean, George Saul's been really good as far as shutting down some of ⁓ opposition. I think he was matched up ⁓ against that Suzuki line against Montreal for a lot. So I think he helped shut them down. You know, he's played pretty well defensively, even in ⁓ if he hadn't been scoring the first three rounds. And now that he's putting the offense up, I think it really is a no-brainer. I think he is you know. Carolina's best player in this final, and I think that's gonna make a difference. ⁓ you know, you talk about it, you know, yesterday morning it was Aetha one. I mean, I looked, what was it, two days ago? He wasn't even on the board for the hard rock app. I mean, you couldn't even place a bet on him winning the con Smythe. We talked about it today. ⁓ he was, I think, a ⁓ plus one hundred or something like that. So he's really come out of nowhere. ⁓ I still think if Vegas wins, it's gonna be, you know, Mitch Marner who's you know had a solid series as well. He's kept doing what he needed to do, but they're gonna need him down the stretch. You know, over these next two or three games or however long it goes, ⁓ you know, they're gonna need Mitch Murder to start scoring. They're gonna need ⁓ Eichel to start putting the puck in the net. You know, he's again added some assists, but we still get that big goose egg next to his name and as far as goals. Well, today we're going to talk about the NHL awards. Three members of the Tampa Bay Lightning won league-wide awards. We're gonna talk about that. We're also gonna talk about some of the upcoming NHL free agents. Michael McCarron is off the board with the lack of depth at the center position with free agents. I'm going to ask Justin about Nick Paul. Is it time for the Bolts to move the big six foot-four center? Also, Dylan Larkin is out there. He put his trade request in to Steve Ezerman that Detroit initially he gave them three teams. Now he gave them six. Eiserman said, Hey, I need some more teams to try to leverage and try to get something for you. And Tampa is one of those. We're going to talk about the possible fit with Dylan Larkin in Tampa. So, Justin, let's start with the NHL Awards. John Cooper and a little bit of a controversial vote. And I'm not saying that he didn't deserve it, but there's a lot of people out there that felt Lindy Ruff should have won it from Buffalo for the turnaround that the Sabres did. And I have to admit, I was one. As much as you have to give Cooper credit. For dealing with the amount of injuries that he had and getting Tampa in second place in that division. Lindy Ruff, if you replay this season five times, I don't know if Buffalo makes the playoffs in any of those replays. Yeah, and they definitely don't win the division. ⁓ it's one of those, you know, awards are what they are. I think sometimes it's more fun to talk about the people who didn't win it. as far as, you know, those who did. We've had over a decade of talking about Cooper not having a Jack Adams, right? And it's all it's always been this the the story. This guy's gonna go into the Hall of Fame and he's never been the coach of the year. Well, you know, that storyline's gone now. He's got his award. And I do think honestly some of his past played into it in the minds of some of the motors. ⁓ like you mentioned the job he did with the ⁓ injuries. The the fact that they had three to four Syracuse level defensemen in their lineup for Long stretches of time is is just, you know, it's a really good job of coaching. ⁓ so yeah, should Ruffin have won it? Probably, you know, if all things were fair, but you never know how these voters are gonna go. ⁓ they start splitting the ballot out and start giving some pity votes to other people and all of a sudden the points add up the way they add up and Cooper gets his award. So should he have won it probably for the eighteen nineteen season? I think that's the one where we look back as lightning fans and say, How did this guy not win win that year? You know. And that's what Buffalo fans are going to do this year with Ruff is you they're gonna look at this for three, four years and be like, why didn't this guy win back in 25-26? So Ruff will get his. If he does duplicates it again, he'll be fine. You know, it's just it's it's it's fun talk when there's no hockey being played. Andre Vasileski won the Vesna for the league's top goaltender. Ilya Sorokin from the Islanders was second. Jeremy Swayman surprisingly got a couple first place votes. I didn't really understand that one. He finished in third, but the other really tight vote, and it came down to 10 points, was for the Hart Trophy. The league MVP, Nikita Kucharoff, edged out Connor McDavid by those 10 points. Justin, we thought that with Edmonton getting on a roll and Kucharoff missing a few games down the stretch, we thought that was going to derail Kucharoff's attempt for that second Hart trophy, but he ended up winning. A little bit surprised? Yeah, a little bit. And again, MVP last I'd say three or four years, I have absolutely no no problem with who's won them. ⁓ you've just had, you know, for the most part, three really good players. And it's been Kutarov, McKinnon, and McDavid every year. I mean, you it's hard to argue cases against any of the three. ⁓ I think McKinnon kind of fell off a little bit this year, not that much. Salabrini got a lot of the press. And if San Jose had made the playoffs, we've talked about this at length. If San Jose makes the playoffs, he probably wins, to tell you the truth. ⁓ but I also think that maybe there is a little faction that kind of put their votes, had their minds made up, you know, by the Olympic break that, you know, Kuchov was gonna be the MVP this year and didn't really think about things down the stretch, or kind of justified reasons why he, you know, he struggled a little bit as McDavid overtook him. But that being said, again, you know, I'm glad Kutrov got it. It would have been weird, you know, twenty years down the road to think that with the career he put up, he was only MVP once. ⁓ McDavid's gonna win his fourth sooner or later. It it's it you know, it's just gonna happen. The guy's too good. He's still too young. ⁓ so it's nice to see Kutrov get it. It's kind of funny that they were at the r the stadium and he's the only guy there. He's at the rank, you know, right where they knew he was gonna be. And ⁓ you know, he got the award. So I think it's well deserved. He had a great year. ⁓ you know, he carried the team for ⁓ long stretches of the time and and when you look at, you know, the points he put up when they won compared to the points he put up, I think he was less than a point of a game player what in their losses that he played in. ⁓ whereas he was over two points a game in the games they won. So yeah, that's a big pretty big difference. And that's kind of the heart of being an MVP, right? If you shut down Nikita Kuchov and you win, there you go. So glad to see him win. Vasileski one I think is your no-brainer. I think he was the best goaltender in the league this year over the course of the entire season. Good to see him win. ⁓ I don't think there's much argument out of anybody for that one. I know some of the Washington fans were talking about ⁓ you know, their net minders who had really good seasons, but you know, Washington kind of kind of underachieved, so probably why they didn't get the press that or or the votes that they needed. Vasileski, I still think can win more Vesnas down the stretch, down the road, I should say, because there's a lot more teams going to goaltending tandems as opposed to having one guy sort of the same way in the NFL with running backs. You see more teams having running back tandems in the NHL. You see a lot more teams willing to split the net, 40 games, 40 games, instead of letting that one guy go 65. The Lightning don't really have another goaltender in their organization. It's going to be Vasileski. As long as he's healthy, he's going to play a lot of games. I could see him being a contender for the Vesna for the next two or three years, if not more. But Justin, let's take a look at the other award winners. The Lady Bing was Cole Caulfield. The Masterson, Gabriel Landescog, the Calder, Matthew Schaefer of the Islanders. Nick Suzuki won the Selkie. Zach Werensky won the Norris Trophy. The Lady Bing. Did I mention the Lady Bing? Cole Caulfield? Yeah. Caulfield, yeah. Okay. So I did mention that one. Justin, the way they're doing it now is they just sort of give out the awards almost impromptu. Matthew Schaefer got his award on a talk show. Do we miss a little bit having the NHL award ceremony? I don't think so. ⁓ I don't think the players necessarily enjoyed it that much. I mean, if you're a Lightning fan, you know Dikita Kutrov, like I would I don't know the guy. I've never talked to him about it. But if my assumption is he absolutely despised the award show. ⁓ he did not look like he was having a good time out there. And that's a bad look for the league, honestly. And I just think it's one of those things where you got so much other stuff going on in the NHL. It's it's in that area where the Stanley Cup is just over. You got the draft, then you got free agency. putting on a show that didn't get really great ratings. I mean, your casual sports fan is not tuning into the NHL Award show. It's they're just not. So I kind of like the way they do it. ⁓ I didn't really care for Vasileski's trophy reveal. ⁓ you know, this day and age, you know, let's face it, he's not a native of the US and getting the police involved with suspicious ⁓ items in his car. little tone deaf in my opinion. some of the other ones have been really nice, you know, it's backyard barbecues, things like that, ⁓ surprises. ⁓ I thought the one they did with the Kucharov when I think it was when he won Lindsay last year was really nice. You know, if you can get the teammates involved, if you can bring the family involved, I think it's a little more personal to the players. And that's the edge the light the NHL's trying to go for. And I I do think it brings some creativity into it. ⁓ makes it a little different. Plus it gives them a news story, you know, throughout these ⁓ two weeks of the Stanley Cup. It gives them something else to talk about as opposed to putting it all on one night. So yeah, I don't have a problem with it. Justin, let's talk about the what ifs of the lightning season. What if something happened? So in your mind, I sent you the question that I was going to ask you earlier today. But Justin, what is Tampa's what if this season? If this happened, the season would have been different. Yeah. I know when we talked about it earlier, I had a couple You know, the game five one kind of sticks in your head is the most recent. You know, what if the lightning don't lay an egg in KM5 against the Canadians? Yeah, they probably win that series and move on. But the one that I keep coming back to is what if they had been able to finish above Buffalo? And then I boil that down to March eighth, Sunday. I believe it's Sunday. I don't know. It was a Sunday. Yes. So Lightning in Buffalo. It was that wild game. They ended up losing eight to seven, right? ⁓ they had a lead late in a game. Not only did they lose eight to seven, they lost eight to seven in regulation. If you flip that game, there's the four points the lightning needed to take first place in the division. If everything else plays out the same as it does from that point on, the Lightning end up with ⁓ 108 points, Buffalo ends up with 107, right? Lightning win the division. Lightning then get the matchup against Boston, which is a much better matchup in my opinion for I think they beat Boston in the first round. They get over that mental hump of, hey, we've lost in the first round the last three years. They advance in the second round. Buffalo and Montreal probably beat each other up like they did in the second round this year. The Lightning get to pick on, you know, that team. I think they match up better against Carolina in the Eastern Conference final. And I think they match up really well against what we're seeing out of, you know, Vegas. So I think it's a completely different story. That one game, and it's a game in March, right? You're not really thinking too much about it. You're looking forward to the playoffs. It was a fun game as a fan to watch, the penalties, the goals, everything that happened. But in the end, it's kind of one of those games that if it goes an another way and the lightning end up winning that division. And of course, we can go back over 82 games. You can point out three or four other games that they probably should have won where they could have got that point, those points. But you know, another aspect of that game is it was one of those games where they tried to be really physical with Buffalo. And kind of bully them around a little bit and it didn't work, right? You know, Buffalo kept coming back. They made him pay on the power play when the Lightning took the extra penalty. So, you know, as much as it would have been ⁓ good for the Lightning to win, Buffalo learned a lot about themselves in that game, right? You know, they learned that they could stand up to the quote unquote bullies of of of the Eastern conference and and come out victorious. So I think that's a big turning point. That's probably my twenty twenty five, twenty six what if moment. You know, what if the lightning had held on to that lead and and won that game? Justin, I want to talk to you about the person who was in the net that day. It was Jonas Johansson. It wasn't Andre Vasileski. They were coming off that was the second leg of a back to back. Now we had talked many times in the podcast that John Cooper always wants to win that first game. He had Vasileschi playing, and I forget who that was against. It might have been against Columbus, but it was against an opponent that the Lightning should handle relatively easily. Buffalo got a lot of momentum from that game. They all of a sudden were believers. Do you think it's time for Cooper to say, hey, I know my philosophy on the back to backs, but when you have a game of that magnitude coming up, it's worth it either to play Vasileski in both or to save him for the better opponent. Yeah, I don't I don't think you're ever gonna see him play Vasileschi in back to back back games unless It's absolutely necessary if there's an injury or something like that. it's something they learned with with Vass's workload, you know, when he went through those bat problems. ⁓ they think he was doing just a little bit too much, you know. And Vasilovsky's one of these guys who's never gonna say no. In fact, he's gonna be mad that he doesn't play 82 games a a year. ⁓ as far as your point in regards to, you know, better understanding the matchups, I could see that. Kind of I know they plan these things out pretty much pretty well in advance as far as the schedules for the goaltenders. ⁓ so I think sometimes they could probably tweak it a little bit more, maybe flip a start here and there, ⁓ like you said, and then go for the better matchups. Over the course of eighty-two games, you you hope that it doesn't come back to play. This just happens to be one of the the times we pointed out. ⁓ you know, it's and it's part of the problem the lightning not having a truly good, you know, backup. It you not having that, you know, tandem ⁓ situation that you talked about. You know, Johansson does what they need him to do. And he keeps him in the games. It's not always pretty. ⁓ it's never gonna be low scoring. I mean, always bet the other roof you want to see Johanneson's in the net. That's my that's my flaw. That's my betting. ⁓ I mean the lighting report, it's gonna be the same thing this year. ⁓ but you know, Bassi's gonna get his sixty games in no matter what, you know, and then two or three here or there. ⁓ it's gonna be interesting to see what happens. You know, you got the extra two games next year, but you also don't have any of these long breaks, right? You don't have ⁓ Olympics to worry about or ⁓ Four nations tournament to worry about. You it's gonna be I think the schedule's not gonna be quite as condensed as we've seen at a point. So I'm sure once it's released, Cooper's gonna take a look at it with Vasi, with Fran ⁓ Francine, the goaltending coach, and and map out a strategy. And maybe they will take competition into play now if you're going down the stretch against a division rival. Maybe he gets more starts against them than he does against a non divisional rival. But yeah, no matter how long you're in this game, you keep learning. And that's that's what Cooper does really well. When is the schedule gonna get released? It's usually like middle of July, right? Yeah. It's you yeah, after once you know free agency dies down a little bit. You start you get like the opening night schedule and then they kind of dull it out from there. So yeah, we'll know by July, maybe a little bit earlier this year, because the season does start, I think a week earlier. ⁓ so we'll see we'll see how it goes. Justin, let's talk about some of the free agents, especially at the center position. Michael McCarran re-signed with Minnesota six years, twenty million dollars. $3.3 million cap hit for a guy who's never had more than 22 points. He's a good he's good in the faceoff dot, won 52% of his draws. I thought that was a little rich. Minnesota is all in. They want to win the cup. But I'll have to say this Michael McCarron, nice player, but for a guy who is only going to be get you fourth line minutes, that's a pretty high price tag. And did he just set the bar? For guys like Boone Jenner and Eric Hallow for what they're going to get plus in the free agent market? I think so. I mean, if you look at it, you know, if the cap keeps doing what the cap's gonna do and you it's it it's expected to go up. You know, it's a hundred and fourteen million next year. I think it's supposed to be like a hundred and twenty three the year after that is what they're planning on, ⁓ based on the financial numbers. You know, three million, was it three point three a year or something like that? I called it I think I refer to it as But it's six years. It's six years for a guy who's gonna be thirty six at the end of the contract. So he plays three years and then you buy him out for a million and a half for the rest, you know, for six years. But you can only call it to so many guys. ⁓ so you trade 'f to somebody else to buy ⁓ out. It doesn't matter. I called it the Yani Gord deal. You know, it's the same thing with Gord. You know, I don't think Gordon's gonna see the end of his contract with the lightning. I don't think McCarron's gonna see the end of his ⁓ contract with the wild, but he's gonna play a role for him over the next two or three years. And you got him at honestly 3.3. This is not bad for a depth center. I mean it's not what Charlie Coyle signed. I what was he close to six or something like that? I'd rather have McCarron at ⁓ 3.3 than Coyle at six for over six years. But it is kind of setting that market a little bit. It's probably pricing the lightning out of some of these guys. ⁓ but we'll take a look, you know, kind of down the road what else they can do. But yeah, it's I don't mind it Like I thought he was gonna be honestly, I thought he was gonna be about four years, ⁓ closer to six million. I thought he was gonna be kind of close to what Coyle signed for. ⁓ he's got that big body, he wins face offs. I think on the right team he's gonna be a little more offensive, ⁓ than he was with Nashville and even down the stretch with Minnesota. Now that he's kinda comfortable in his role, I think he's gonna be ⁓ he's gonna put up a few more points. You know, he's not gonna be a sixty point guy or a forty point guy or anything like that. But if he gets between twenty five and thirty points, killing penalties, ⁓ you know, roughing people up, playing that physical game. I think it's gonna be well worth it. If he does, that's gonna be a career high. Yeah, good for him. I I it it can happen, but I'm just saying you're investing in a guy who's had a long NHL career that has never been that guy. Right. You're basically saying that we we've uncovered something in him that's going to allow him to become that player. But Justin, and when it comes to centers, Tampa has an interesting piece that could be Very valuable in the trade market, and that's Nick Paul. Prior to this year, he had two 20 plus goal seasons, 40 plus point seasons. This past season was, I don't want to say it was it was a disaster, but it wasn't good. Eight goals, seven assists, fifteen points. With the lack of centers out there, and of Genny Malkin re-signed with the Penguins, we talked about McCarron. It's basically Boone Jenner, Jason Dickinson, Eric Halla, Kevin Stundland. From Utah, there's not a whole lot else out there. Nick Paul could demand something in the trade market. And for the Lightning, this would allow them to be younger on their bottom six. Yeah. I mean, I think when you look at it, like you said, he's gonna have some value. I think it's gonna take a while. It's gonna be after teams figure out what to do with you know, Dylan Larkin, Vincent Trochak's still on the trade market. Once those kind of bigger names, higher point producer guys get off the market. The teams that miss out or the teams that are still looking for that kind of middle six depth, Nick Paul's gonna be an asset for for a team if he goes somewhere. He he's a Swiss Army knife kind of player. He could play up and down the lineup. He can play center, he can play wing. ⁓ he's a big guy. He does pretty good along the boards, kinda in the dirty areas. I know he gets some flack for not being more physical because he is six foot four, but there are just players, tall players who aren't physical players. It's just not their game. It's not Victor Hetman's game, right? He's not gonna go around throwing Kevin Stevens like hits. It's just not how he plays. They use their reach and their size for different ⁓ you know, different aspects in the game. You know, his Nick Paul's reach is extraordinary. He looks like a freaking pterodactyl out there sometimes. He can stand four feet wider than that and still deflect a puck home, right? Or if you're reaching for a puck in, you know, along the corners, he's he can kind of reach around a defender and poke it free. So there are aspects in it to his size that are really valuable to teams. Where he doesn't have to go knock over thirty five players a game ⁓ to make an impact. ⁓ I think injuries, I think he never really found his groove this year. ⁓ you know, he started the season off, he got hurt throughout the season, ⁓ missed a game in the again in the Montreal series, and then never really had a defined role. I I think one of the things with the emergence of that Yanni Gord line is it pushed Paul down to the fourth line, and they're still trying to kind of figure out what the formula was on that fourth line and never really found it with Paul. ⁓ I think he's a guy who can give you fifteen minutes a night. ⁓ he's gonna be that third line center on a on a good team. And I think there's gonna be some demand for him and like if the lightning do need to free up some cap, say they go after and they make the Dylan Larkin trade and need to build some room for next year ⁓ when they resign Kutchov, he's a good aspect. He's got that cap hit that's kinda affordable for some players. If he gets back to that forty point plateau, you know, twenty goal per to ⁓ plateau, that's a key asset for a lot of teams, especially rebuilding teams, you know. A team like Chicago could use him. ⁓ San Jose could use him down the middle of the ice. Even New York, like if the Rangers move on from Troch, they get a little weak down the middle. He'd be a nice fit in there for him. And also a trade chip down, you know, down the road if it doesn't work out there. So there is some innate value in him. And I and when you look up and down the lightning roster as far as players they may move and that they can replace, yeah, I think Paul's name really stands out. ⁓ we've talked about it before. Dominic James is kind of a similar player. He does it a different way, right? He He's more speed and getting the puck into the zone, but he can fill that third line center. He's got to work on his face-offs a little bit and you know start winning some more of those. But he's also a young player, and that that tends to come with age. so the big drawback for me right now as far as training Paul is you don't have that face-off specialist ⁓ to replace him. And that's something the Lightning struggled with last year. They struggled with it in the playoffs. They lost a lot of key face-offs against Montreal. And I think, you know, it's Julian's Brees Wall. So he's got plans A through, you know, double Z. ⁓ for you Canadians out there as far as, you know, what's gonna happen. So he's got a plan if he does trade Nick Paul, who he can bring in. You bring in Colton Sissons or somebody like that to to win those draws. But ⁓ it's a pretty bleak center free agent market. It's a bleak free agent market overall, honestly, ⁓ with the way everybody signed. ⁓ when you're talking Boone Jenner and Darren Radish, you I love Darren Radish. It's done great. But if you're talking about him as your, you know, number one free agent overall, pretty much everybody out there has a flaw, some sort of flaw. You're not Getting a you know a slam dunk, you know, grade A free agent on the market this year. You're just not. And that gives some more value to Nick Ball if the Lady do decide to trade him. And it could increase the value for Dylan Larkin for Detroit. Now, Dylan Larkin has asked for a trade. Initially, he gave Steve Eiserman, the general manager, a three-team list. That was Florida, Vegas, and Minnesota. Stevie Y said, hey guys, I need a little bit more. I need some more options here. So he gave them Anaheim, Tampa, and the Islanders. I don't personally think it's a great fit for Tampa unless you play him on the wing. But Justin, what's your initial thought and what would make sense for Tampa to give up to get a guy like Dylan Larkin? Yeah, a lot of it's going to depend on what Eiserman's looking for, right? I don't I I don't think he survives another rebuild. And that kind of plays to the lightning's favor because I don't think he's going out looking for San Jose's number two overall pick. I don't think he's looking for a first round pick and a young, you know, prospect who's still playing and junior somewhere. I think he wants an NHL already talent. I think he wants somebody who can help him. ⁓ so when we wrote about this, we kinda explored it in two different kind of ways. One is the one for one deal. And and we mentioned brain point. ⁓ of course, there's a lot of things You gotta gotta work around to make that happen as far as do trade point has to wave a no trade clause. Exactly. And and I think that was the big we had talked about it. We had chatted about it. The the big drawback to that is what's the incentive for point to go to Detroit, right? We could see why Larkin would want to go to Tampa. We could see why Tampa would want Larkin. We could see why Iceland would want to trade for Dra Braden Point, right? I mean he traded up for him to get him in the draft. ⁓ but the the the sticky widget, as the Brits like to say, is why does Point want to waive his no trade? ⁓ You know, and there's it was more philosophical than actual professional that you come up with, you know, hey, maybe he wants to step out of the shadow of the Steven Stampos and the Nikki Nikutrov that he's played under, you know, for his entire career. Maybe he wants to be the guy. Doesn't seem to be his personality from what we've seen over, but you that could be a deciding factor. Brees Walker would be like, Look, I'm gonna release you if I I'm gonna waive you if I don't, you know, or something like that. The ⁓ Ryan McDonough deal. ⁓ but I think that's kind of the sticky wigg widget there. And then the other way to look at it is prospects like a Connor Geeky, Gage Congressalve, somebody like that. These guys have shown that they can play at the NHL. They haven't quite succeeded yet, right? ⁓ but if you could get, you know, Connor Geeky, maybe an Eric Chernak to help their defense as well. now you're looking at Eisman being able to trade his captain but not fall off the cliff. Detroit, yes, they faded this year, but they've kind of been in the hut the last couple of years. I don't think he wants to take a tremendous step back. Yeah, dealing as captain. ⁓ he's pulled off deals like this in the past. You know, Lightning fans will remember Marty Saint Louis d demanding a trade and pretty much saying, I want to go to New York. And Iserman pulled off a pretty good haul for that. So he's done this in the past. ⁓ Jonathan Druin didn't want to play for the Lightning and he turned it into Mikhail S Sergachev. So ⁓ Iceman has has a history of being able to make this work, and I think he does come up with something ⁓ for Larkin. Does it involve the Lightning? You know. We'll see. Does it fix any ⁓ immediate needs for the lightning? I don't think so. ⁓ in a non salary cap world, I think this is sure, bring in Dylan Larkin. We'll figure it out later, right? ⁓ but in a salary cap world, and when you have some veterans on the team, where does Dylan Larkin fit? Who do you displace if you do get him on the roster endpoint still on your team? You know, do you move Anthony Sorelli down to the third line center? Yeah, great third line center, but you know, are you then getting the most out of Anthony Sorelli if you cut his minutes to, you know, ten to twelve minutes a game? Do you move Larkin out to the wing? I think that's probably what you would see happen if this deal happens. ⁓ it'll be Sorelli, Larkin, and ⁓ Brainerd Hagel with, you know, Larkin jumping in to take some face offs. But ⁓ yeah, I think it kind of creates more problems than it solves in a way, which is odd to say about a thirty goal, sixty point guy, but it would be fun, but I don't really see it happening. The one thing I would caution about trading Braden Point, Braden Point 50 goal score, a couple forty goal seasons. He had a bad season this past year. I think he would probably even say that as well. You're trading a guy at his lowest possible value. Braden Point is a good player who just happened to have a a year full of injuries, bad luck, bad play. He just never found his game after that injury. I think you said it was in Philadelphia. Yeah, where he he got the ankle injury, correct? Yeah, he got it got folded up underneath him. ⁓ I honestly don't think he was ever a hundred percent healthy coming back, even with the ⁓ Olympic break. ⁓ he just didn't move the same. He didn't have that same net front presence. ⁓ but yeah, you're right. You know, do you trade the guy at his lowest point? The other side of that coin is is it a one off year or is it the beginning of the decline, right? You're right. I don't think point plays a slight type of game that's gonna age very well in the NHL. He's not the biggest guy in the world. ⁓ he relies a lot on speed now. As these injuries kind of start mounting up, it's really gonna affect his game. He is still one of the smartest players out there. No, no lie about that. He knows how to get in front of the net. And he talked about it, you know, in his exit interview. He needs to get his shock back to what it was. He never felt comfortable with his shot this year. he saw it, he took it from farther away. It wasn't on target as much. It was blocked a lot more than we've seen in the past, so he wasn't getting it off as quick. ⁓ so I you know, he's kind of my most intriguing player for next year. You know, does he bounce back? Is he back to the 40 goal braid in braiding point, or is like I said, this the beginning of the end? ⁓ and you know, that's why guys like Brees Wall get paid the the big monies. You have to make that decision. ⁓ you know, to go over to the football world, you know, Bill Belichick was always famous of I want to cut a guy or trade a guy a year before his decline as opposed to a year after his decline, right? ⁓ and that's kind of where point could be right now with Brees Wap. Brees Wap could be like, hey, you know, he still has this track history. I still sell other teams on this was just an a you know aberration, you know, and still get pretty good value. I think, you know, you got 30 teams out there that would probably trade for Braden Point in a heartbeat. ⁓ so if you can work out a deal, I I think it's there to be had. ⁓ you know, I wouldn't be surprised maybe you talk to Minnesota. You know, if you are upset on trading Braden Point and you've made some of it they need a center. They need a center. I think they were the ones that wanted to draft him. That's why the lightning traded up to pass them in the draft. And I think he'd be a good fit there with the talent around you know, around him. I mean, imagine going from Kutrov to Capri Soff. I mean, and then you got ⁓ Quinn Hughes feeding you putts from from down low. I mean, you want somebody to wave a no trade clause or no movement clause. I mean, Minnesota's a pretty good destination, ⁓ to think about. So, you know, a lot of intrigue going on, I think. It's gonna be a fun summer for the Lightning and a lot of possibilities, especially when you write about a team and you can kinda, you know, play these things out. You know, it it it's good for us. So, ⁓ we're gonna have fun with it and and see where it goes. Well, Justin, I was just gonna ask you, what's going on at Rodcharge? You got the NHL draft coming up, free agency starts on July first, and of course the conclusion of the Stanley Cup finals. What do you have going on at Rodcharch? Pretty much we we talked about the Dylan Larkin trade. We also talked about ⁓ Alexander Took. ⁓ An intriguing player in Buffalo. I think we had talked about him all the way back in 2025 as a potential trade deadline pickup for the Lightning. And now it looks like there was always the assumption, you know, he's a Syracuse kid. He's upstate New York through and through that they were always going to find a way to re-sign in Buffalo. But now, yeah, a lot of rumors. I think Pierre LeBron was saying that it they're going to go to free agency now, that they're they're done they're not close on a deal. He's a very intriguing kind of ad for the Lightning. Can they get them under 10 million, which seems to be the the sticking point in Buffalo, according to LeBron? but yeah, it's gonna be interesting. ⁓ we're gonna talk about ⁓ so we'll talk about some more free agents out there that may make some fits, ⁓ some potential trades that could work out. ⁓ started doing a lot of research into the draft to see who the lightning get with their you know mid 50s pick. And there's a good chance they get a pretty good prospect out of this. So, or do they make any moves? You know, we'll we'll see. But ⁓ yeah, we're gonna focus on the draft and then move into free agency after that. Justin, with the NHL draft, is this considered a strong class, weak class, middle class? What do the experts say? I think, you know, at the top of the list, you ⁓ Gavin McGena, ⁓ Ivor Starnberg are gonna be your two top picks from the way it looks. Looks like a pretty solid, I would I'd probably call it a pretty solid draft. I I don't think outside of those two guys you're gonna get too many spectacular players. I don't think like your number ten pick is gonna be playing in the NHL next year. I I don't think it's as strong as last year's draft. ⁓ draft was, but there are some intriguing names. ⁓ I think there's gonna be some talent there at that fifty nine. I think that's what the lightning draft at. ⁓ they they kind of excel in that range too, could you get these guys that fall out of the first round for some reason and then start falling ⁓ and they pick them up. You know, they did it a few years ago with Dylan Duke, who's you know lit it up at Syracuse this year and then Ethan Cesta last year, ⁓ who just got traded in his junior league as ⁓ I think Gulf picked him up as Guelph is it cause they've you know they're hosting the ⁓ Memorial Cup. I know you talked about that with the boys yesterday ⁓ last podcast. ⁓ but when these teams host the Memorial Cup, you know, they tend to load up and ⁓ Sesto went for a a pretty big haul. ⁓ you always gotta love those junior trades with it. You know, they're they're basically trading twelve year olds now 'cause, you know, the the drop picks are so far in the future. You know, you get traded for you know like the twenty, thirty four second round pick or something like that. So ⁓ those trades are always fun to look at. But you the lighting do a pretty good job. of finding this talent in the in the middle round. I mean, if you go all the way back to to Kutrov, you one of the interesting stats about the Hart trophy, ⁓ that I was looking at in the past twenty years, how many players that that were drafted outside of the top three picks of their draft do you think have won the Heart Trophy? Past 20 years? The Heart Trophy? Yep. Well Taylor Hall was a high pick. I mean I'm I'm thinking of the obscure ones My guess is I mean Kutrov was a second round pick. Mm-hmm. So he's one of your My guess is it's probably just him. There's one other player and he was actually Dikit Kutroff's teammate this year. That one that one the heart. Mm-hmm. And he was a teammate Past twenty years. I think it just kinda slides into it. Corey Perry? You got it. Wow. And Ku Kutrov is the first guy not drafted in the first round since the guy he lost to, Marty Saint Louis. So ⁓ the Lightning have a pretty good history of finding re ⁓ you know, talent kinda outside the first round. And ⁓ so I think they're gonna do a good job this year as well. So there's your history, ⁓ your hard history ⁓ notes for for today. Corey Perry's one of those guys you just don't think of as a former league MVP. Yeah. I mean This nothing against Corey Perry, but it's just not one of the guys that comes to mind real quick. That's why when I was going through that list internally, you think Taylor Hall, a guy who had sort of a one off where Taylor Hall's a nice player, but he had one season with New Jersey where he lit it up and after that he's never been anywhere near a league MVP caliber player. Yep. That kinda shows you with the I it's such a center heavy award, those guys tend to get drafted in the top three, four selections. The fact that Connie McDavid's been winning them since he was in the league. Kind of cuts down on that number quite a bit. ⁓ same thing with like McKinnon, you know. ⁓ a lot of times and and that's I mean, honestly, that's great for the league. I love it when the best players are the best players. You know, we he kinda had that run, especially if you're an Edmonton fan, where you had, you know, Nail Yakup and Ryan Nugent Hopkins. And yeah, the Nug is great, but he, you know He's not a first round pick, right? You Taylor Hall pick. Taylor Hall. Exactly. You know. ⁓ even, you know, Tyler Sagan, you know, he went what second that year, you know. He's a good player, but is he not a superstar? Is he a generational pla ⁓ player? And I think we've kind of seen that over the last few years. We're starting to get back into that with the NHL. Bedard had that great rookie season, kind of drifted off, but I thought he looked good last year. You know, Macklin celebrating looks like he's the real deal. So, you know, these these are gonna be the guys we're talking about for You know, hearts down the road at some point, you know, once McDavid wins his cup and then disappears off into the Canadian wilderness ⁓ to live by himself. But you know, it's ⁓ it's it's fun, it's a fun time in the leagues. Well, you can catch Justin each and every day at www.rawcharge.com. We will be back next week. Looks like we're gonna have a very special guest that we'll put out on social media once we get everything wrapped up. For Justin Godfrey, I'm Jason Lacas. Thanks for joining us today. Have a great day. Please hit that like and subscribe button and go bolts. Go bolts. Thank you for listening to Backchecking the Bolts. We are free and available on all platforms, including Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Amazon, YouTube, and Deezer. If you enjoyed it, please be sure to subscribe and leave a review. You can follow Justin on Blue Sky at Rawcharge.com. You can follow the show on X at Tampa underscore bolts underscore pod and on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube at BackcheckingTheBolts. 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