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Tampa Bay Lightning Recap vs Wild & Jets | Leafs & Sabres Preview + NHL Trade Deadline Talk · Backchecking the Bolts

• Jason Linkes: Coming up next on back checking the bolts, the Bolts are in a four game losing streak. We're going to go back and take a look at the Minnesota and Winnipeg games, but also look forward to the Toronto and Buffalo games this weekend. We're also going to take a look at the NHL trade deadline. Who's been moved, who hasn't yet, and what could the bolts be looking for at the deadline? All this and more coming up next on back checking the bolts. 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 host Jason Linkus 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. Hey everybody. It's Friday, March 6th and it's NHL trade deadline day, big day in the NHL three o'clock. You can't make any more trades. So teams are fast and furious trying to make deals. You are on back checking the bolts. Hi everybody. I'm Jason Lankes. And as always, I'm joined by the managing editor of raw charge. He is Justin Godfrey. Justin, not a pretty one last night. No, not really. Lee still. Fighting through it right now. They're up to a lot of four game losing streak. Yeah, there's a little discontent in Lightning land, I would say, but it's just something they're going to have to battle through. They've been a streaky team all year and they're just kind of fighting it right now. I thought there was a little bit more positive out of last night's game than some of the other ones, but yeah, it's just a tough stretch they're in right now. Well, we're going to take a look back at the Minnesota and Winnipeg games. We're going to look forward to the Toronto. And Buffalo games this weekend. play back to back on Saturday and Sunday. There was a lightning roster move as Curtis Douglas was put on waivers. I'm going to ask Justin about that. And finally, we're going to talk about all of the trades that have been made so far and who were the key names that are still available at the NHL trade deadline for those fans who are big Nikita Kucherov fans. are also going to be giving away a Nikita Kucherov lightning Jersey. compliments of the fine people at nurture marketing. We're going to be asking a trivia question. Just like last week, I asked Justin who held the record for the most consecutive road losses. And that was the Ottawa senators with 38 back in 92 93. I'm going to be asking a trivia question. All you have to do is answer that question. Send the answer to back checking the bolts at yahoo.com. And if you have the correct answer, that'll get you registered to win the Jersey. Okay, Justin, let's take a look. First of all, you got the Minnesota game on Tuesday, Winnipeg on Thursday. Let's start with Minnesota. That was again, not a great effort. The bolts once again fell behind. This is a pattern with this team. Even when they win, they do not score that first goal. Yeah, I was kind of thinking about this since, ⁓ I was thinking about this last night a little bit. I think the last time they led in a game was probably the Toronto win. I know they had battled back to tie against Carolina, but I don't think they ever had the lead in that game. Never had to lead against Buffalo. Never had to lead against Minnesota. Never had to lead against Winnipeg last night. So yeah, it's kind of a trend where they're allowing these early goals and then now they're chasing the game the rest of the night. So they're kind of out of their system. They're out of what they want to do. And yeah, it struck again in Minnesota where they give up those two goals early on. Like I said, they're chasing the game. It's just not. Indicative of who they've been for most of the year. They've been a strong first period team. Yeah, this latest run, they just don't look set, especially early on. So it's just another factor that's been kind of contributing to these losses right now. want to talk a little bit about the Minnesota game. It's a two one game. The lightning scored a pretty goal. The Kucherov goal, tick, tack, toe, Gensel, point to Kucherov. That was a thing of beauty. You thought the lightning, we're going to turn it on a little bit. And then Vasileski. He just muffed one. Yeah. was the on a trend and goal was Vasilevsky bad in that game. I mean, you saw the Zuccarello goal scored from 25 feet out. Quinn Hughes just made a great play to make it four to one, but I didn't think that Vasilevsky was sharp. The first goal was a ⁓ Flutter puck that went in even was it boldy who scored that goal? I was a Brock Faber. He has stepping in from the V1. Yeah. I don't think Vasilevsky has been sharp. I don't know if I'd say he was bad. He's been bad. He's been under a lot of pressure. know, there's a lot of shots coming his way. His defense isn't helping him out. I think we just have such a high standard of Vasileski that when he gives some of these goals up, it just looks like he's playing worse than he actually is. When you give up 16 goals in three games, nobody's playing well. So yeah, he's got to kind of eat his share of the blame for it as well. I thought he looked a lot better against Winnipeg. He did have, you know, fit 10, 12 days off. So with Vasileski, he's such a timing goaltender. It takes him a couple of days to get a couple of games to get back into his rhythm. And I think we started to see it against Winnipeg. Minnesota, I thought he played pretty well. You know, we see the goals that give up, but a lot of times in the highlights, you don't see the stops that he makes. And that was the kind of thing in the first period against Winnipeg. mean, the Jets had three or four just prime chances. Sheffley in front of the net had a couple golden looks that Vasilevsky was able to stop. So he seems to be coming out of this bunk a little bit. He just needs the rest of his teammates to do it. The training goal. That's just something that happens. You know, every goaltender goes through it. He tries to cover the puck up with his glove, kind of misses it and Trennan's there. He's the first one to jump on it and just tucks it around him. Yes, you can fault him for it, but it's just one of those flute kind of things. It's like when a puck hits off a stanchion and bounces off a goaltender or something like that. Those are going to happen over the course of the season. But the problem is it just kind of deflated the lightning, I think a little bit. And the same, you saw the same thing in the Winnipeg game. Point scores on the power play, cuts the lead to two to one. And then Nyquist comes down and scores. And that was kind of a bad turnover by, I think it was Holmberg in the defensive zone. And it's one of those shots that we kind of see Vasilevsky stop a lot. Nyquist cuts to the middle of the ice and he shoots back against the run-up play and it beats Vasilevsky over the glove hand. And it was kind of interesting in the press conference after the game, Cooper referred to it and he said he felt his team played a little fragile is the word he used after the goal. I think maybe it just, their confidence, they are an extremely confident team. to the point of almost being cocky. And I think, you know, they had fought so hard to cut the lead to one, and then they give up that goal. And it's just one of those things that, ⁓ I think it may be hurt their ego a little bit. So we'll see how they bounce back from it. You know, we got the Toronto game coming up and then Buffalo right after it. And the fact is right now, you know, there's, they're tied in points with Buffalo. They, the Sabres haven't stopped losing. They're starting to make some moves. So it's going to be an interesting weekend. Before we look ahead, the Lightning did make some moves. First of all, they put Curtis Douglas on waivers. Tell us about that. What was your thought? Probably a bit overdue. You know, I get why they went out and got him off of waivers from Utah to begin the season. They wanted to add some size and physicality to the roster. But the fact is the big guy just hasn't been playing. He's got 29 games under his belt, but only two of them since the ⁓ calendar turned to 2026. I think he played a couple of games in February. He's just hasn't been playing. And with the way Scott Sabarin has been playing since getting recalled, I think You kind have a little bit of redundancy there. For some reason, the Lightning really liked Douglas. I mean, he's a big guy. He's physical. They've probably been afraid to lose him on waivers and now with all the kind of the player movement going on right now, I think they're trying to sneak him through a little bit. So we'll see if he clears. If anything, I could see Utah claiming it back, but it's so that they can put him in the AHL. But yeah, I was kind of interested that they waited this long, especially with them being down forwards due to all the injuries. You know, they've been rolling this 11-7 roster for such, for such a long time now that I just don't understand why they kept them up. Be clear as he goes down to Syracuse, they open up a roster spot on the trade deadline day. We'll see if it's part of a bigger deal. had mentioned that John Cooper has gone with 11 forward seven defensemen pretty much since the Olympic break, if I'm correct, isn't it? Yeah, pretty much since that man came back. So that's a little bit before. Yeah, he's ⁓ it's something he's done in the past and there is a need for it right now Just with their forwards being hurt. We've got the unfortunate news Dominic James is gonna be out for ten weeks. So a little lower body surgery there, know We kind of talked about the injury last time we were on and he's gonna be out gauging consalves his day to day He should be back pretty soon. Hopefully so I think it's they've been going 11-7 more out of need than any kind of strategic decision it's still That defensive zone coverage just isn't there. So I think they're kind of still having trouble adjusting to having all these guys in. Meal Littleberg took a puck to the face apparently before the game. ⁓ So that's why he was scratched yesterday and they had Declan Carlisle back at the lineup. But you're having all these different defensive combinations right now. And I think they're having a little problem reading off of each other. You're still seeing some of those blown coverages in the defensive zone. I think the Quib Hughes goal in Minnesota was a prime example of that. They just let that guy skate. The best player of the ice. He just let it skate through the middle ice untouched. So yeah, they're still fighting through this. Like I said, I believe once comes, call base comes back, you're probably going to see them go back to 12 to six. Cause now you have a fourth line. can put Connor Gigi in the middle with, ⁓ the colleagues and Sabarin and it's a, you know, should be a decent line. So wouldn't be surprised to see them go 12 to six. Once he's back or Nick Paul's back. think there's any thought in Cooper's mind to go with seven defensemen? to try to keep some of the miles off of McDonough and headman. They've played a lot. They both played a lot of minutes over their career. They're, they're older defensemen. This is the dog days of the schedule. After Sunday, they'll have played seven games in 12 days. It's a lot. is, you also have to remember that both those guys missed a lot of time this season. Uh, you know, especially headman, he missed most of this whole winning streak. And then the drawback between doing that is now you're putting the mileage on your forwards. So now you got Nikita Kuturov playing 20 plus minutes a game, 25 minutes a game. You know, we got Brainpoint playing a lot. It's a pick your poison when you're doing it. They've been pretty even as far as the minutes handed out to our defense, the defensive crew when they've gone 12-6. So with the emergence of Darren Radish and JJ Moser's play, you don't have to lean on McDonough and Headbutt so much throughout the game. So it. Could be, and I think they are a little worried. Maybe Headman's not a hundred percent. So they're kind of protecting his minutes a little bit. So that could be why you're seeing it. But I still think it's just more, you know, they just don't have the forwards up, up on the roster right now. Well, this is NHL trade deadline day. The deadline is at three o'clock today. There's been a ton of moves that have happened already, but let's take a look at the team right now. That's in second place in the Atlantic division, the Buffalo Sabres. They're technically tied with the lightning for the top spot with 80 points. They're on fire right now. They have won five in a row. We've mentioned in previous podcasts, Buffalo has not made the playoffs in 15 years. They are going to go for it. Even though I don't, I'm not sure this roster is the one that can win the cup, but they are going to go for it. That being said, Justin Colton, Perenco for St. Louis, there was a deal in place. He actually used his no movement clause and said, I'm not going to Buffalo. Who are the next guys out there that you think the Sabres are going to look towards? I think we kind of saw it. I'll give them credit for one thing. They had a contingency plan in place. I actually really started with them going after Robert Thomas, the center from St. Louis. They couldn't work that deal. think there were some, basically St. Louis is holding out for. A huge package kind of a Quinn Hughes like deal for Thomas, who's their young center. He's still under quite a few years of control. And I don't think Buffalo was able to get to what they were asking for. They pivot to Pareco, which honestly on that defense, you know, we've talked about some of the players they've had in Rasmus Dahlien. ⁓ so they have a pretty solid blue line. So adding, ⁓ Pareco would have been a nice get for him. There's a reason these players have these no trade clauses and no movement clauses. And he just didn't want to go to Buffalo. So good on him. We saw something like that earlier in the straight deadline with Tyler Myers who used his dot to go to Detroit ended up going to Dallas. But Pareko could still be on the move. But as far as Buffalo, they did a really nice pivot and it kind of involved the team that the Lightning just played with Winnipeg. They go out, they don't get Pareko, so they go out, get Logan Stanley, they get Luke Chen. So they really still bolster their blue line. Are these the players that are going to put them over the top? It's hard to say. I do like what they're doing. I do like that they're going all in. They have the resources to do it and I don't think it really hurts their team that much. Isaac Rosen's a pretty big prospect for him, but I don't think he's their top prospect. Then they still have plenty of young forwards that they can roll into the lineup over the next couple of years. Stanley and Shannon are both free agents, so they're not committed long-term to him. And draft picks, draft picks are just lottery tickets. So if you can spin those for assets that can help you today, go ahead and do it. I've liked what they've done again. You know, it's probably not the best, you know, it's not the best they could have done, but the fact that they were able to pivot that quickly is really nice. that trade was the Sabres acquiring Logan Stanley and Luke Shen from Winnipeg for Isaac Rosen, Jacob Bryson, a second round pick in 27 and a conditional fourth round pick in 26. Justin, one of the things that we're seeing right now with many of the teams, they're valuing getting players with little term left on their contracts. You're seeing a lot of guys who are being acquired, who are either unrestricted free agents in 2026, or they have one more year left. And then in 2027, they're free agents that really spells doom and gloom for guys like Nazem Kadri, possibly Steven Stamkos, where teams who have guys that they're looking to move with a lot of term might have to take pennies on the dollar. in order to get them out of town. Yeah. And I think a lot of it is going to be, you know, the retention factor with the way the salary cap works out. If you're moving someone like cadre or you're moving someone like Robert Thomas, are you going to eat any of that salary for the next however many years are left on that deal? ⁓ that's kind of hard to convince a GM to do. They'd like to, they're going to, you know, cut bait. They're going to cut it all. So you're seeing the couple of things you're seeing. Like he said, ⁓ most of the guys moved have been short term. being said, know, Mackenzie Weger was traded. So guys with term can be moved. And I think today you may see a couple. do think Cadre actually gets moved at some point. think it's a true check gets moved. I just think we got to kind of let it play out right now. Not to say they're easier deals to go to put through, think, but I think guys wish shorter term. Once you figure out the finances of it, they are slightly easier to move. So that's why we're seeing those deals go down. It is kind of funny. thing that I found kind of funny is two days ago, you know, Elliot Freeman had mentioned it. think Pierre LeBron, or sorry, Stair and Drieger had mentioned it. It was a buyer's market. Everyone's saying, it's a buyer's market. It's a buyer's market. And then ⁓ Bill Guerin goes out and throws a second round pick at Michael McCarran. Now all of sudden it's a seller's market. And you're kind of starting to see that ⁓ some of the price tags for these players are starting to rise up. But then I noticed that a lot of these picks that are getting traded around, those are future picks. There's not that many 2026 draft picks kind of going around. A lot of these are 2027, 2028, think I saw 2029 pick in one of these deals. Most of the first round picks are the higher round picks that you see, they're bit conditional. People are putting their price tags on it. But again, there's a lot of conditions on some of these picks based on the success of how the deals work out. Those are kind of two things I've noticed so far. I think most of the people traded outside of John Carlson are probably those that we expected. So it's kind of. playing the chalk a little bit now. of John Carlson, the longtime Washington capitals defenseman. He's only been a capital throughout his career. He was acquired by the Anaheim ducks for a conditional first round pick in 2026 and a third round pick in 2027. This is a move that I absolutely love for Anaheim. Their power plays in the middle twenties or moving their way up the Pacific. This is the first year. That they've truly made that playoff run in quite some time. Joel Quinville has done a great job galvanizing the young talent on this team. They now have a veteran presence, a power play leader. Even at 36 Carlston still has 46 points on that blue line. He's going to end the season close to 60 Justin. think this is a slam dunk, but more importantly, I think this puts the ducks as the favorite in the Pacific. Yeah, think they're like a point out or something like that from the top. Kind of a surprising deal, I think, on both sides. John Carlson is just one of those players that you thought would be a cap for life. mean, it'd be kind of like the Lightning, you know, they were out of it trading Victor Hedman. Just one of those names that you're not expecting. That being said, he is a free agent at the end of the year, so he can always come back, resign with Washington if that's where he wants to finish his career. But as far as Anaheim, yay. Sometimes you got to reward the play for the youngsters. we talked about them, we talked about them over at raw charge a little bit. We'd mentioned that Ryan Strohm is kind of a player that may be looking to unload just cause he's a veteran center. He's not getting a lot of play in time, helping out that power play with Carlson. I think they're still in the market for another winger. So we posited the possibility of a Oliver Bjorks training for a Strohm kind of swap with some sweeteners thrown in there. I don't think Anaheim's done. They may have another move left in them. just to kind of strengthen, like I said, that power play unit. And some of these younger teams, know, Buffalo is kind of the same in the same boat. You know, these teams that haven't made it for a while, that has some youth on it, sometimes the GMs just want to reward them and say, Hey, you guys did a great job. Let's go ahead and see what we can do. What kind of noise we can make in the playoffs. So it's good, good for Anaheim. I like what they're doing. We'll see if it pays off for him. One team that worked their way back into the playoff mix. Were the Nashville predators. When we went to the Olympic break, there were a couple points out of the wild card. We looked at them and said, Hey, they could be a team that sneaks in there. There's a lot of veterans on there, but then they lost three in a row and all of a sudden general manager, Barry Trott said, you know what? Enough is enough. We are going to sell everything. There's rumors out of Nashville that every player out there is available. We've already made four deals and I'm just going to read them off real quick. Michael Bunning to Dallas for a third, Nick Blankenship, the defenseman to Colorado for a fifth, Paul Smith to Colorado for a third round pick and an AHL defenseman. And as you had mentioned, Michael McCarron to Minnesota for a second round pick. They basically said, if we have a bottom six forward, bottom four defensemen, we are going to look to move them. Who is next? have three big names, O'Reilly, Stamkos, and Marsha Show. Do any of them get moved or do all of them get moved? I think that's going to be the big question. And I'm not quite sure how they're going to be able to pull this off. It was interesting. I think the lightning were in on the Cole Smith deal before he went over to Vegas. I know that there been a rumor posted out there that ⁓ they were pretty close to signing him. ⁓ didn't quite come through and Vegas gave him a little bit more. Vegas probably just outbid him, would be my assumption. But I think Trotz has done a pretty good job. You know, he's announced the fact that he's stepping down at the end of the year. So he's kind of trying to put it together for the next GM, whoever takes over for him. I think O'Reilly is probably the most likely out of those guys to go, especially if retaining salary is a big deal today. I know a couple of the GMs have complained about the fact that the double retention. went away here as opposed to waiting for the CBA to actually kick in. think moving some of these players like a Stamphos or a Marchis was a little bit more difficult than they were planning, but I could see them blowing it up. Does it get to the point where Roman Iosi goes somewhere? It's hard to say. They still have a couple decent prospects as far as people they could trade. mean, Eric Hall is a free agent at the end of the year. Wouldn't be surprised to see somebody like him go. Nick Pervix, who they just signed, has been a solid defensive four. He's on a pretty low salary. signed through next year. So he gave me one to move. I think they kind of keep tinkering. They'll listen in on their big names. And if the right deal comes along and the players agree to it, then they could be out the door. I do think it's a total blow up for him. And then they'll just start rebuilding with where the new GM is that comes into town. our last podcast, we talked about face-offs and I had mentioned that four of the five teams that are likely to make the playoffs, and this includes the Lightning. Are in the bottom five of face-offs in the NHL. Well, a couple of teams decided to address that one. The Minnesota wild with Michael McCarran, getting him from Nashville. It's Sam Carrick from the Rangers to Buffalo. Carrick is about a 54 % face-off winner. That is a cheap piece for Buffalo, but a piece that I think is a good one. Are there any other guys out there? Sort of, I always call them the Yannick Perrotes of the world. A guy who keeps moving around the league just because he can win draws. Any other guys like that, that you see possibly getting moved? what is actually an old name and it wouldn't cost you any assets. The New Jersey Devils put Luke Lindenning on waivers yesterday. ⁓ so he's somebody that's if you're willing to take on his salary, what's remaining, it's not a huge salary. He's a, you know, a perennial perennial 50 plus guy. So. Uh, Carrick and McCarran were two guys we had talked about over at Raw Charge back in January when we were talking about some of the face-off guys they may be going after. You know, Cody Glass is another guy that maybe somebody could go after. One name that's kind of intriguing, I don't think it's going to happen because it appears Ottawa is going to make a run for it. But Claude Giroux was someone who a lot of people talked about, you know, he's up there in age, but the man wins face-offs. That's all he does basically. He wins face-off scores on the power play so he could be that kind of guy that a team could pick up. But like I said, I think he's probably off the market now. He loves playing up in Ottawa and now that they're making a run for it, I think he's going to stick around. But probably the big name out there still Vincent Trotschek. You know, he's a guy he does pretty well in the dot. But yeah, these are kind of the names that we expected to move. Like you said, people adding depth, looking for the face-off stuff. Noah Carey in Pittsburgh. I mean, he's a guy. When we looked earlier was around 55%. So if Pittsburgh blowing it up, he could be a guy that's coveted from a couple of different teams still kind of chasing these face off wins. still think Pittsburgh's going to blow it up? mean, I know Crosby's out. Malkin's probably going to face some kind of disciplinary action for the high stick that he had last night, but I don't see them being sellers. I think if anything, that's where I think Vincent Troschek is going. I think Vincent Troschek by three o'clock will be a pang. Because they need help at the center position since Crosby's out there winning 35 % of their face-offs. They don't have a center right now who is a good defensive center and true check. Is he the best defensive center? He's not going to win the Selke, but he's decent and he's a hometown kid. The contract. Yeah, it's not friendly. You're going to have to pay him for another couple of years at 5 million, but I don't see the penguins. After missing the playoffs the last couple of years, I don't see them saying, Hey, we're just going to sell again sitting in second place. I would say, okay, maybe not blowing it up, but still tinkering at the edges like Dubas has been doing over the last couple of months. I mean, if you bring Trocheck in, you know that you need to open up a spot for him. And even with Grosby, you know, missing a couple more days, you know, a couple more weeks, he'll still be back. Bring in Trocheck. If you trade out, you know, Akari then that's basically a $2 million cap. It can kind of help facilitate the deal. And then, you know, there's a roster spot for you. So I could see him continuing to play both sides of it. And then you never know, you know, sometimes if GM like him, who's on the edge right now between contending building for the future, if that true check deal falls through, say two o'clock this afternoon, does he pivot and become a seller later in the day? If he doesn't think he can add the pieces that he needs, does he go, does he roll with the roster he has? then like I said, kind of sell off some pieces. It's a very fluid day. I think. There's so many teams still on the bubble that things could change as the day progresses. And maybe some of these deals don't go through some of these bigger deals. Now, again, if you have pieces like Asheville or Pittsburgh, you sell them off for the best. now, you know, price for a carry may go up as the day continues. And like I said, some of these deals don't go through. So if you get a deal you can't turn away from, might as well take advantage of it. Let's pivot back to the Lightning. The Lightning have been quiet during the trade deadline. The last week you haven't heard much from them. The Curtis Douglas news was probably the biggest news that they had. What are they looking for right now? There's all kinds of rumors out there and I think they could be some Homer rumors about bringing back Steven Stamkos. If they're going to bring back Stamkos, Nashville is going to have to retain a large portion of that salary. But what do you think the Lightning are after and who do you think they're going to get? know, it's always going to be a surprise with the Breezebois. Usually 90 % of the deals aren't people were even talking about. know there are also been some rumors about them kicking the quote unquote, kicking the tires on Nazem Kadri. Again, that's one of those things is how do you make the money work? Is it worth what you're going to give up in assets? I think they end up kind of filling out defensively, maybe picking up a veteran, someone, you know, in the mold of a Luke Shen or Jeff Petrie who went up to Minnesota, somebody in that mold they go after. They could use the faceoff guy. Do they sign Glenn Denning off of waivers? I think he's only a million dollars. He kind of fits in their pricing scheme. It's really hard to say with him. I know they're shopping York Strand. That report came out yesterday. So that would free up some space. That's a $5.4 million cap it. wouldn't mind him seeing going after Taylor Radish is another name we posited over at raw charge. He's familiar with the system. He's having a decent year in New York for a bad team. He's stronger defensively than people give him a credit for, he could fill that fourth line role, give you some depth. So I'm leaning more and more away from a big, huge blockbuster, rich intro check on a deal to JBB, just kind of filling things out and trusting the roster that he has right now. had mentioned York strand. What is his contract right now? I know he's making approximately $5 million, but when does his contract expire? Uh, he's a free agent at the end of the year. So anybody trading for him is just looking for, know, you just got to fill out the balance of his salary. believe it's a $5.4 million cap hit, of course, prorated for the time left on the season. It's just, if you're trading for him, you're kind of hoping that what he's been through this year is just kind of an aberration and that he can pick up his scoring again. You know, his shooting percentage is way down. He's played a little bit better, I think over the last few games, he had a lot of chances against, uh, Minnesota. I he had a really good game. Gustafson stoned him at least three times. ⁓ I know once on the power play, he put one off the post and then, ⁓ there was a really good chance in front of the net that Gustafson stopped. Again, mentioned Anaheim, you know, team looking for a shooting winger could do worse than, than Yorkshire and honestly, and that would clear up some cap for, for Brizbois if he does have a bigger deal in place. had mentioned Brizbois likes to make some blockbuster deals. Of the lightning players that we all envision as untouchable, the points, the Gensels, the headmans. Is there a player out there that you're like, there's a shot that breeze ball could move them. know, I don't know if he's a hundred percent untouchable, but like an Eric Chernak, the lightning have some defensive depth right now. I don't think headmans going anywhere. don't think McDonough's going anywhere. So out of the big four, um, yeah, Moser's definitely not going anywhere. And if they got a home run deal for Darren radish, I hate to see it just cause he's having such a great year. But again, you know, if someone's dangling a couple of first round picks at priest block and use over the summer, ⁓ to make the team better. Does he take it? Who knows? ⁓ as far as the forwards, if Nick Paul is up there real quick, Justin. ⁓ If you get Stamco's now radish has had a ton of success because he has the one timer that he can get from Kucharoff. But if you all of a sudden get. the big shot for Stamco's that works a lot better with headman at the point. Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. If, if Nashville say, we want radish in this deal. I think it's a no brainer. He would include them in it because like you said, yeah, now you, now you got the one timer coming from the circle as opposed to the point, but you know, the theory is still the same. You still have that big one timer that people fear. So yeah, I would move them there, you know, in in a case like that, he's definitely one. I just don't know if that's somebody Nashville's going to go after if they're going to go after a pending. free agent, unless they have an agreement in place that they could extend them. would just think that Radish could be someone that you could move elsewhere because his value will be a little bit less. If Stamcoast is there, you only have so many mouths that you can feed on the power play and they're going to feed Stamcoast if they're going to go all in and try to get him with Radish being a free agent. And there's rumors out there that he's looking for JJ Moser kind of money. And if I remember right, that's what five and a half million against a cap. Six and a half, think, actually. It was eight years, and a half. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was six and a half is what he was at when he extended that deal earlier in the season. But again, you know, we're starting to get into crunch time here. So some of these, you know, chain deals, it's getting tougher and tougher to put those together. If I can pull off trade A, then I'll go to trade B with you. You know, that would have been something that I think you may have seen start yesterday if they're going to have these kind of back to back deals. So yeah, Moser's actually 6.75 over the next eight years starting next year. So yeah, I think that's a little too rich for the lightning's blood depending on how long, know, now Friday says I wanted three years at, you know, six and a half or something like that. I wouldn't initially dismiss it out of hand. Again, that's kind of a lot of money to be throwing at, you know, guy who is, you know, he's he is what he is, right? He's 30 years old. He's not going to change. You're not going to see a lot of room and improvement. And you just kind of wonder if you're buying at the peak right now and then his numbers declined over the next couple of years. So with Radish, I've said it before, I'll say it a thousand times. The price point isn't what I'm most concerned about. It's the length of the deal. So yeah, it's going to be interesting to see what Prespa does. As far as the forwards that you were mentioning, who's untouchable and who's not, I once you get past, I would say I'll probably put Hegel, Gensel, Poynter, and Kucherov in the 100 % untouchables. Any of the prospects. If Breezewalk thinks it's the right deal, the Connor Geekies, the Samuel Riellys, they're out the door. know, their status as potential cornerstones isn't going to stop him from including them if he can help the team right now. If he'd been healthy, think Nick Paul would be one of those guys. And I'd be interested to see what happens if we circle back this summer with Nick Paul. I think he has a skillset that is replaceable ⁓ within the organization. mean, I didn't want to say we jinxed Dominic James by kind of mentioning the fact that he's a Nick Paul replacement where we wrote about him a couple of weeks ago. I don't think it's a coincidence either that, you know, two days later he blows out his knee or his ankles. So the raw charge James is still alive and well over at the website. But, ⁓ you know, that's just kind of what I mean by, know, a redundant player is, Dominic James does a lot of things that Nepal does. So he's younger, more affordable. I think there may be some tinkering over the summer with some names that you may not expect. I don't think a player like Sorelli goes anywhere just cause he is such a prototypical John Cooper guy. These coaches. have their players where it's, they play their system and it's kind of hard for them to move on. I still, I'm leaning towards, it's going to be a quiet deadline for, for the lightning, but you never know. Well, we had talked about Darren Radish, how he's had his career season. One player who's jumped into the scene is Matthew Schaefer for the New York Islanders. And this is a part of our nurture marketing trivia question of the day, Justin. Matthew Schaeffer has 20 goals as a rookie, which NHL defenseman has the most goals as a rookie? know, I actually knew this two days ago when I, when I, when I was looking something else, go the way back machine. Yeah. Folks don't get old or else your memory will go. ⁓ I know it was, I want to say it was 23 goals was the number. That is correct. You are correct with the number. All right. So, ⁓ I'm going to say Kevin Stevens. No, not right. Damn it. knew it. Think, think old Patrick division and think East coast. I know it's an East coast team. it the Rangers? Yes. Yes. Why can't I remember? I can picture him and I don't know why I got confused with Kevin Stevens, but I off the top of my head, I'm totally blanking right now. His first playoff game was against the penguins. Okay. That doesn't, you know, that doesn't help me. That doesn't watch. I'm just telling you, mean, Hey, I'm talking back bedmails, you know, ⁓ you hadn't brought me into the cult yet as of yet then. So I don't know what was going on back then. ⁓ you want to keep going? No, we're to let the readers decide this. So I know, isn't it like there's four, but he was the Schaefer was the fourth player with 20 goals as a, ⁓ he's also the youngest cause he was the first teenager to do it. Right. Correct. So you're getting everything but the answer. Exactly. And we'll leave that up to our listeners and our viewers to come up with. Well, actually we will give them the answer so they can actually email us with the answer. The answer is Brian Leach. Like I said, two days ago, I knew that man. It may even be in one of our posts. I think I included that little bit of information in our daily news post a couple of days ago, but yeah, you know, I Schaefer is Schaefer your rookie of the year this year. Yes, 100%. He's been awesome. He's playing 20 some minutes a game. He's be him and Siroken are the reason the Islanders are where they're at. know Bennett Sennicki over in Anaheim is getting some late buzz just because he scored all those goals. But yeah, I mean, you're an 18 year old defenseman coming into this league and basically transform your team. You don't see it that often. I think it's going to be kind of weird that it's back to back defensemen for Caldera winners, but You know, it's just a position that it shows you how important it is. And they made a really great, ⁓ pick with him at the top of the draft. if you email the name Brian Leach to back checking the bolts at yahoo.com, you will be registered to win the Nikita Kucharoff Jersey compliments of nurture marketing. appreciate the people of nurture doing that. And we look forward to seeing you with the answer, but Justin real quick, one other tidbit about Brian Leach, his first playoff game. was also against another hall of Famers first playoff game. was Mario Lemieux. how about that? It took Lemieux seven seasons to make the playoffs. Leith made it in his rookie year. that's kind of funny. Like when, you know, people talk about like, you know, kind of Bernard being a bust or something like that. Some of these rookies, you know, if you look back, takes, sometimes it takes people a while to get to the playoffs. You know, look how long it took for Stamkos to have success in the playoffs. I mean, he struggled. You know, you didn't take him that long to get to the playoffs, but he's kind of struggled early on and then turned into a pretty good, ⁓ postseason guys. You just gotta stick with it sometimes, you know, instant gratification doesn't come along, especially if you're drafting near the top of the board. So it could take a few years to put things together. Dard, there's a reason you're the number one pick overall going to a team that is bad. It's going to take you some time to get that team. good again. It's I mean, for the penguins, what is remarkable is those penguin teams played in the division with only six teams, four made it so they could never even get in the top four of their own division. There was only 21 teams back in the NHL then. Now there's 32. Now it's only a 50 % shot. So it's, can understand why the guys like the Dard, it takes a little longer to get in the playoffs. It shows how bad some of those penguin teams were considering how Good Lemieux was exactly. And it's also kind of shows you that, know, like as important as Schaeffer is to the Islanders, it's not just one player that's going to turn them around. You know, even as the Lightning rebuilt, you know, they had a strong foundation with Stamp Ghost and Headman during those years, but still took a few more players. ⁓ you know, we still had St. Louis and LeCavier on the team and, it still took, you know, getting the right, the right mix of players to make a run. ⁓ so, know, you Toronto fans out there who have your issues with Austin Matthews, you know, just Have a little faith, you know, he's one of the best players in the league. He's going to be fine. Don't don't run the kid out of town just yet. you talked about the Islanders and we talked a few podcasts ago about the NHL betting odds and we're going to in our future podcasts, we're going to look at that a little bit deeper. Ilia Sorokin, the Islanders goaltender is starting to move up on the betting odds against Vasilevsky is Vasilevsky's had this little losing streak. Sorokin has still been playing good hockey. He's climbing up there and don't forget the fact that he is in New York. That's going to make a difference. No one expected the Islanders to be in the playoff spot. They all thought it was going to be the Washington Capitals. A lot of people thought the devils would elevate themselves. If the Islanders make the playoffs, don't forget about that New York presence when it comes to the voting. Yeah. And I think also it's going to be, you know, a recency bias a little bit. whichever the goalies kind of finish is strong, you know, you can say they've been pretty much equal up through this year. think Sorokin probably a little bit more consistent than Vasileski, but if Vasileski gets back to form, you know, and the Lightning ended up with 115 points or something like that. And he throws in a couple more shutouts and kind of gets back to his one or two goals allowed. Then yeah, it's going to be a close race, but. You're right. know, the New York voters probably could be able to have a little bit of a bias towards it as well, but we'll see. We'll see how it goes. I think it's going be one of the more interesting awards races down, down the stretch. Same, same to go with the MVP race. Kuturov has cooled off a little bit, but he's still, know, lightning arm scoring, but Kuturov is still getting, he's still involved whenever they do score. So he picked up another assist last night. So if he can chase down McDavid for that scoring race, now you're looking at, Hey, you know, does he finally get another heart, you know, Pretty much as Kutroff is gone, so have the lightning, you know, he's cooled off scoring. They start losing games. If he starts picking up a squaring, they're probably gonna start winning games. So that that should that could play a factor with Edmonton kind of struggling a little bit despite McDavid's numbers. So we'll see how it all goes. You know, I think some of your Jack Adams is probably cooled off. You know, you wonder if the Olympic loss hurts him in the eyes of some of the Canadian broadcasters, even though it's not supposed to factor in. But you know, It is what it is, right? Cooper not bringing home the gold. They're going to punish him by not making him Jack Adams again. You never know. That'll be my theory for the summer. We'll run with that conspiracy theory, but, Hey, I told you a few weeks ago, if Buffalo make the makes the playoffs, Lindy rough is going to get a ton of support. Yeah. think, I think Buffalo and then San Jose as well. And maybe even the, you know, Quinnville over in Anaheim, which will make for some interesting discourse based on his past. If he does pull off a coach of the year award. But it'd be interesting to see who the finalists are when everything shakes out at the end of the year. Justin, what's going on at raw charge? Just covering as much as this trade deadline as we can over the next couple of days. And then we'll be previewing, of course, the upcoming action. And then once things settle down, we'll probably take a look at a way too early preview of some free agency moves in the summer, just to kind of see what's going on after the fallout from the trade deadline. And then hopefully. You know, start covering some wins again. That'd be really nice. It'd be nice to recap a win. ⁓ something that we haven't done in what two weeks now. that is it today for back checking the bolts. You see the banner below. If you're watching us on YouTube, please like and subscribe to the back checking the bolts YouTube channel. Like the episode. We really appreciate it. We are going to be back on Monday. We're going to recap the bolts weekend in Toronto the next day in Buffalo. It's a big. time for them to get four points because the Sabres are right on their tail now trying to win the Atlantic division for the managing editor of raw charge. is Justin Godfrey. can see him at www.rawcharge.com. I am Jason link us. Thank you for being here today and go bolts. Thank you for listening to back checking the bolts. We are free and available on all platforms, including Apple, Spotify, I heart radio, 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 raw charge.com. You can follow the show on X at Tampa underscore bolts underscore pod and on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube at back checking the bolts. If you're interested in advertising on the show or partnering with us, You can find more information in the show notes or email Jason at backcheckingthebolts at yahoo.com.