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Brogan Houston the Utah Mammoth's season, Falling to Vegas in 6 games, Who needs to be resigned in free agency + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

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  Speaker 1: You were listening to The Sean O'Connell Show from the
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Murdoch Hounding Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: to one a half.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Am oh happy singing to Mile here on the Sean
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: O'Connell Show.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: What a selection of grub from Big Willies. James.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Once you get me set up here with Brogan Houston,
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  Speaker 1: you got to come in and grab this giant plate
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: of food that Patrick and Michelle left behind for us.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: We've also got a taco party going on in the
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  Speaker 1: cantena out here at the radio station, so by the
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  Speaker 1: end of the day we're gonna be all tacoed out.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Big thanks to Gordy Chiesa who joined us, Big thanks
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  Speaker 1: to Patrick and Michelle from Big Willies who brought in
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: the food for the hot lunch, and a preemptive big
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: thanks to our next guest, Brogan Houston, Utah Mammoth Insider
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: stops by. I had to talk about the end of
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: this season, what's coming for this franchise, and of course
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: the remaining teams in the NHL playoffs.
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  Speaker 3: Brog and Houston, welcome back to the show. How are you.
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  Speaker 4: I'm doing well, I'm a little hungry. I wish we
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  Speaker 4: would have done this in person today.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: You know what, We'll save some for you. They brought
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  Speaker 1: so much down we'll just walk on in and you're invited.
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  Speaker 3: Sounds good.
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  Speaker 1: So we've got some more exit interviews we'll hear from
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  Speaker 1: the big bosses and such today. But your overarching thoughts
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: on the end of that series with the Las Vegas
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Golden Knights and the way this team should be processing
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: their performance in the series.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, Well, we talked to every player on Sunday and
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  Speaker 4: it kind of seemed like everybody had the right mindset
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  Speaker 4: of this, kind of like, oh, yes, this was the
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  Speaker 4: goal that we had set out to accomplish, that we
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  Speaker 4: make the playoffs and see what happens from there, but
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  Speaker 4: combined with the right amount of regret of like, oh wow,
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  Speaker 4: like there were just these couple of things that we
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  Speaker 4: could have done better to make it onto the next round.
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  Speaker 4: And so it's it's kind of that mix of like
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  Speaker 4: success and regret at the same time, which is I
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  Speaker 4: think exactly where you want to be, because you know,
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  Speaker 4: Under Attorney in his press conference after Game six, he said,
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  Speaker 4: like it has to hurt, right, Like you don't learn
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  Speaker 4: from it unless it hurts and it was clear during
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  Speaker 4: exit interviews that it hurts, but that also doesn't stop
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  Speaker 4: them from you know, believing that they that they were
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  Speaker 4: in the spot that they were supposed to be in
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  Speaker 4: and that they had set up to, you know, called
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  Speaker 4: the goal that they had set up to accomplish at
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  Speaker 4: the beginning of the year.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, I think that especially holding leads, and then
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  Speaker 1: the bright side is you held leads in those games,
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  Speaker 1: and then the downside, the more significant takeaways probably that
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  Speaker 1: you blew those leads. Third period leads are supposed to
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  Speaker 1: be handled by pushing through and maintaining and winning the game.
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  Speaker 1: And what was in your opinion, what was the I
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  Speaker 1: guess misstep or the issue or issues that caused this
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  Speaker 1: team to be oh so close and yet not being
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  Speaker 1: able to close those out.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it was a combination of two things.
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  Speaker 4: One is that Vegas is the best third period team
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  Speaker 4: in the league this year, so that's part of it.
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  Speaker 4: Like a lot of teams have given up third period
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  Speaker 4: leads to the Vegas Golden Knights was here, but you know,
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  Speaker 4: obviously the Nuns did it three times that they were
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  Speaker 4: leading in the third period and lost the game. So
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  Speaker 4: there's something that you know, you have to adjust and fix.
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  Speaker 4: And I think the thing that Anatmis struggled with in
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  Speaker 4: this series where they'd get a lead and then they
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: would defend as if they're on the penalty kill. So
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  Speaker 4: what I mean by that is that you know, you
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  Speaker 4: get the puck and rather than skating it down and
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  Speaker 4: trying to hold it in the other team zone and
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  Speaker 4: score another goal or or what have you, they would
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  Speaker 4: get the puck and they just ice it or they
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  Speaker 4: just you know, get to the red line and dump
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  Speaker 4: it in and and let the let the next group
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  Speaker 4: come and defend. And that works for maybe a few
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  Speaker 4: players in a row, but it's not gonna work for
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  Speaker 4: a fifteen minute block of time that you have to
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  Speaker 4: kill off the back. Like if you're just letting the
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  Speaker 4: other team have speed through the neutral zone, they're going
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  Speaker 4: to burn you every time. And then they they did burn
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  Speaker 4: them every time on those and so, you know, I
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  Speaker 4: just kind of think it was a lapse in system
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  Speaker 4: in this playoff series as well as just you know,
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  Speaker 4: you're facing a really good team that can really do
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  Speaker 4: good things, especially in this period.
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  Speaker 3: Who was the Mammoth MVP this season?
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  Speaker 1: There was you know, Cooley was injured for an amount
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  Speaker 1: of time Keller had he led the team in points,
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  Speaker 1: and obviously he overcame a lot personally, But.
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  Speaker 3: Who who's the team MVP?
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  Speaker 1: If you take the whole thing playoffs, regular season, et
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  Speaker 1: cetera into consideration.
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  Speaker 4: That's a really good question. I'm kind of split between
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: Dylan Gunther and Nick s malt, and I'll give a
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  Speaker 4: case for each one night. So Dylan Gunster obviously scored
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  Speaker 4: forty goals this year. Not every team has a forty
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  Speaker 4: goal scorer, Like, that's a lot of goals. He's also
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  Speaker 4: only what twenty three to twenty four years old right
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  Speaker 4: around there, so he's still got lots and lots left
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  Speaker 4: to learn and grow and get better. So you know,
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  Speaker 4: it's it's not unlikely that we see a fifty or
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  Speaker 4: sixty goal season from him eventually. And I think he
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  Speaker 4: has the capability to do that. And those those forty goals,
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  Speaker 4: a lot of them came in really big moments. And
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  Speaker 4: if you don't have Dylan guntherer, I don't think he
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  Speaker 4: makes the playoffs this year. Now, my case for Nick
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  Speaker 4: Malts is, you know, like you mentioned, Logan Cooley goes
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  Speaker 4: down and Barrett Hayton also was you know, out of
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  Speaker 4: the lineup at one point this season as well. Those
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  Speaker 4: are the two top centers from last year, and all
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  Speaker 4: of a sudden, Utah kind of needed somebody to step
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  Speaker 4: up and fill the first line center role. And that's
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  Speaker 4: exactly what Nick mall did. Like in the NHL to
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: this point, Nick Schmaltz had barely played center. He had
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: always been a winger. And for those who might not know,
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: tenner is a much more difficult position to play than wing,
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  Speaker 4: Like you have way more defensive responsibility. You're taking face off,
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  Speaker 4: you're doing all these all these extra things. Plus you're
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: you're playing a two hundred foot game rather than you know,
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  Speaker 4: like you're you're playing from one end of the boards
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  Speaker 4: to the other end of the boards rather than just
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  Speaker 4: kind of your little section of the ice that the
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  Speaker 4: wingers play. So a bigger responsibility. And Nick Schmaltz knocked
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  Speaker 4: it out of the park, like he you know, he
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  Speaker 4: looked like he was always a center, and he broke
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  Speaker 4: career highs, you know, as a center, like he broke
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  Speaker 4: you know, all of his career hiding goals and points
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  Speaker 4: and stuff. And then just the fact that you know
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  Speaker 4: he was also on the ice defensively in every defensive situation,
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  Speaker 4: like he kills penalties, you know, he is, he's on
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  Speaker 4: the ice when they are trying to defend the lead,
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  Speaker 4: all that kind of stuff, and so I think, you know,
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  Speaker 4: like I said with guns Er, I don't think that
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  Speaker 4: you make the playoffs if Nick Schweltz in Vintinia lineup.
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  Speaker 4: And for that reason, I even put him on my
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  Speaker 4: Selky ballot this year, which is for the two way
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  Speaker 4: forward of the year, because I just think he really
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  Speaker 4: deserves that. He's He's a threat at both ends of
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  Speaker 4: the eye.
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  Speaker 3: I loved his season.
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  Speaker 1: I echo everything that you just said, and you would
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  Speaker 1: say a lot better than I. But also it felt
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  Speaker 1: like he was there were certain games like he was
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  Speaker 1: timely with his best games in a lot of times.
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  Speaker 1: And whether that carried over to the playoffs, I guess
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  Speaker 1: can be debated. But you know, there was plenty of
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  Speaker 1: regular season matchups, especially as you're coming down to the
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  Speaker 1: down the stretch in the final twenty games or so,
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  Speaker 1: and you gotta, you know, you got to make sure
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  Speaker 1: that you're staying above certain teams or that you're chasing,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the right spot in those standings and in
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  Speaker 1: the wild card, and it felt like he was really
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  Speaker 1: stepping up and he would have a big game in
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  Speaker 1: those moments, or if Caller was being quiet, or if
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  Speaker 1: Cooley was out, or if Gunther wasn't having a goal
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  Speaker 1: scoring game, all of a sudden, it be Schmaltz that
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  Speaker 1: kind of stepped into that. And I think that's just
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: such an important thing for a team to have, because
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: you're always going to have your top line stars, the
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  Speaker 1: guys that you know everyone in the arena is wearing
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: their sweater and those guys.
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  Speaker 3: Mammoth have those guys and it's nice to see them.
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  Speaker 1: But Schmaltz felt like he was the glue and the
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  Speaker 1: bridge between when those guys were having great nights or
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  Speaker 1: were feeling all the way healthy and when they weren't.
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  Speaker 3: Does that make sense, Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, And I'd even extend it to the first line
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  Speaker 4: in the second line, And in this case, I'm referring
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  Speaker 4: to the first line as Schmaltz, Keller, and Kraus and
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  Speaker 4: the second line is Kuli gum Thro And at this point, yeah,
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  Speaker 4: in the motto that when the first line was not scoring,
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: the second line was, and when the second line was
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  Speaker 4: not scoring, the first line was, and so they always
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  Speaker 4: had one line that was very productive and for that reason,
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: they were very rarely out of games. And then every
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: now and then they'd have both lines scoring at the
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  Speaker 4: same time, and they'd put up seven goals on an
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: opponent and you know, not even have a chance of
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  Speaker 4: losing the game. And you know, obviously that's that's what
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: you really want, is for both lines to be firing.
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  Speaker 4: But when you can have at least one of those doing,
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: you know, like scoring two or three goals a game
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  Speaker 4: like that's that's, you know, a really good recipe for success.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: It seemed like in the series against the Knights, the
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: penalty kill got itself figured out and stepped up big
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: in a lot of moments, and then the power play
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  Speaker 1: became a weakness and even gave up short handed goals.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: What happened to that particular special team, What happened to
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: the power play in the playoff series against the Knights?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I really think it was a case of really
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: good game planning by Vegas's coaching staff. You know, they
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: recognized that, Like I said, Dylan Gunter and Nick Maltz,
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: they'll be the theme of this interview. I guess that
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: those two guys scored just about fifty percent of Utah's
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: power play goals this year, just between the two of them,
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: and so they made sure that they covered number eight
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: and number eleven, and then everybody else was kind of
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: just there. But because everybody's just looking for Schmalton Gunther,
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: you know, they had no option to pass to. And
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: you you saw every time, you know, after after the
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: first couple of games when Comesor burned them a couple
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: of times with his one timer, after that, they just
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: kind of realized, like, oh, we cannot leave that guy
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: open on the left wing circle there, And so every
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: time that he'd go to take a shot, there was
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: somebody there to block it. And I don't know how
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: many one timers he had blocked, but it was a bunch.
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  Speaker 4: And then nick son Walt's same thing. He stands right
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: in the slot, like maybe four or five feet in
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  Speaker 4: front of the goalie, and he stands there and kind
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: of screens the goalie, kind of tries to tip pots.
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: He you know, will get passes in the slot and
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: then just fire him straight in. And he did that
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: all regular season long, and he hardly had a chance
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  Speaker 4: to do that during the playoffs. And I think that
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: was just because you know, the Golden Knights recognized, okay, well,
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: their their power player operates through these two guys. So
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: if we always have a man glued to each one
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  Speaker 4: of those guys, they're not gonna be able to be
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: as effective. And it worked. They scored one power play
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: goal I believe it then the first or second game one
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: of those games, and after that they just didn't score
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: a single one. I believe they were one for sixteen
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: in the playoffs, maybe one for fifteen something like that.
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: But you know, that's that's really not a good number.
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: Like a good number is like twenty to thirty percent
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: kind of thing, and they were out about seven percent
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: something like that. So you know that's that's one of
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: the things that you can point to and say, hey,
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: if it had been a little bit better in this area,
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: maybe they would have won the series.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: Rogan Houston is our guest here on the Shuttle'connell shell
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Talk and Utah Mammoth post mortem after their season. He is,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: of course Mammoth insider over there for the Deserets Deseret Sports.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: There were a lot of guys that the Mammoth kind
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: of extended in these last two seasons to lock up
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: their core in the relative long term, and it feels
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: like all of those guys are happy to be here,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: excited to be here. Heading into this offseason, there's you know,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: questions about a couple of folks, and in the exit
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: interviews what I've been able to listen to so far,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: it seems like everybody wants to be here. And I
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: know that you know, you express gratitude for the situation
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: that you're in, but it seems like there's an authentic
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: desire for these players to try to keep as much
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: of this group together as they can and to be
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: part of this growth moving forward for.
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: In my opinion, obvious reasons.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Because they see, like, all right, second year here in Utah,
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  Speaker 1: we made the playoffs this year. Next year we can
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: maybe win a series or two. So with the guys
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: whose futures are kind of hanging up or hanging in
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: the air, who is the priority? What does this Utah
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Mammoth general management and ownership need to do to improve
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: this team but also to keep some consistency.
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I think the priority has already been accomplished,
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: if I can answer it that way. Just that, I mean,
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: Logan Cooley is on a new contract next summer or
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: next next season. So it was nix months and and
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: those two guys like going into the season, you know,
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: it was it was no guarantee that they would sign
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: long term extensions and and they got them done already.
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: And so in that sense, like you know, you will
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: you will not lose Nick months in the summer. You
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: will not have an offer sheet given to Low and
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: Cooley this summer. And so I think in that sense, yeah,
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: they've already they've already accomplished the big goal. So now
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: the players that are remaining that they need to sign
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: are I mean, Ian Cole, Alexander Kirkfut, Barry Hayton's a
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: restricted free agent. So you know, you've got a little
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: bit more leverage there as a team u V Tech Vanishek,
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: Nick de Simone. You know, these are all kind of
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: depth players rather than your your key, you know, core
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: players that are scoring every night for you. And so
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: in that sense, like you know, they may or may
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: not choose to bring back some of those guys or
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: all of those guys, like you know, they they could
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: let all of them walk and just kind of find
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: replacement players in free agency that will do more or
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: less the same thing those guys do. Not to say
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: that any of them are less important than you know,
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: those those players that they could replace him with, but
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: just that you know, those are those are death roles
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: that a lot of guys can fail, and so we'll
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: see what they do. I wouldn't be surprised to see
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: any of those guys come back, but I don't think
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: it's a dire need necessarily for them. Like I don't
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: think they'll fail in the offseason if they if they
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: don't bring back Ian Goal or if they don't bring
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: back Alexander Kurk. But like, if if those guys are out,
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: then somebody else can step into those spots and probably
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: do a similar job.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: You mentioned v Tech Banacheck, and he just he just
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: wasn't very good in a backup goaltender role. And I
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: think Vetchy excuse me, probably played maybe just to touch
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: more than would be ideal in that situation.
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: So is that a place that this team will pretend
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: make a change their second goaltender.
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: I would have to think so. But also I was
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: just looking at the market of unrestricted free agents in
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: in goaltending this year, and there's not a ton out
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: there that you can go and get. And so maybe
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: you do bring back Banichick because he's probably honestly one
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: of the best options on the free agency market, but
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: like you said, it just didn't work out here for
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: whatever reason. You know, he a backup goal usually played
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: a lot more games than he did, and I don't
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: think that like based on how he played, I don't
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: think they felt they could rely on him in big
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: games to get big wins for them. Lots of the
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: games that they played him like, they were kind of
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: these giveaway games of like, oh, we're not going to
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: beat that team anyway, or or oh it's a back
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: to back, let's let's, you know, give him the team
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: that we don't think we're going to beat so that
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: we can make sure that we get the game that
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: we can win. And so I think in that regard,
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: you know, you you don't necessarily want to bring that
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: back that specific player, but who out there is going
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: to be a better option. And that's kind of the
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: question that I have. You know, maybe it's a trade,
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: maybe it's a free agent signing, but you know, you've
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: got to think that they would at least try to
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: figure something out.
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: Is Bear Attorney safe.
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: I think, so, you know, that might be a question
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: that comes up that at I said, interviews today, we've
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: got we've got Tourny as well as Bill and Chris
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: arm Trungbull, So we'll see if they say anything on that.
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: That's the report earlier in the season was that at
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: one point the Mammoths were quite close to replacing Attorney
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: in the coaching position and that Pete Debor was going
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: to be the guy that came in. I don't know
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: how close that that got, but that was a report
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: for Elliott Friedman, who is like the insider of all
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: insiders in the hockey world. He's he never is wrong basically,
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: so I do believe that, you know, what he says
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: is probably true and and at some point in this
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: season that was probably what was about to happen. And
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: then you know the man that's kind of turned it
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: around and obviously got to the playoffs. And so you know,
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: the battle in my head with this one is Okay, well,
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: you know, he's the coach that got you there, so
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: you give him a little bit of run right right,
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: Like you say, oh, you got us here, Let's see
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: how far into the playoffs now you can get us.
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: The other half of that is all of his winning
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: that he's ever done is in international tournaments, which are
• 17:30
  Speaker 4: always you know, ten games or last kind of thing.
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: So he's never really had like a full, a full
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: playoff experience that he's won. Even in the junior leagues
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: that he coached in before this, like he had a
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: few playoff runs, but he never won any championships. And
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: I think it was fourteen years in the in the
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: junior leagues, never won a championship. And so we'll see
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: if he's the coach that can get you over the
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: hump or if he's just kind of this development coach
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: that you know, helps you out through the rebuild and
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: then you go and get somebody else. I believe he
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: still has one more year on his contract, so maybe
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: that factors into it as well. And I certainly wouldn't
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: be surprised to see him back. I think he's done
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: a great job. But you know, we'll have to see,
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: Like there's just so many factors that play into it.
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: As we head into an offseason now, and the draft
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: lottery is that tonight, yes to night.
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: So by the way, Mammoth don't have draft lottery odds
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: but they do have some capital. They could potentially move
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: up into a situation where they you know, they find
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: a partner who works out well in the draft lottery and.
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: They've got a nice little pipeline.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: We've talked about some of these players, the Agintla's and
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: the dano Ye's and some of those individuals simashevn Boot
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: were both given a you know a little bit of
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: a run with the big club this this year. Any
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: of those young guys you think become a staple on
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: the Mammoth roster for next season.
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: Think the closest one is definitely Dimitri Simachev. He played
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: maybe thirty games this year, roughly still played you know,
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: obviously limited minutes and everything, but he played well in
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: those games that he did play. Now he is still
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: trying to find his game offensively in the NHL. And
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: when he was playing in the minors this year, he
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: did have good offense, so he is capable of it.
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: But you know, if he wants to be a number
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: one or a number two defenseman in the NHL, like
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: you simply don't play that role if you if you
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: can't score kind of fifty to sixty points per season
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: at a minimum, and so we'll see if he can
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: add that aspect to his game at the NHL level.
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: But again, he's young. I think he's twenty eight years
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: old right now, so maybe twenty one, so you know,
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: he's still got a lot of time to figure that
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: part of it out.
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: But I do think he.
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: Deserves to be in the NHL, probably next season, and
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: I think he has value that he can provide. I
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: think Daniel boot could get there as well, but I
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: wouldn't be surprised to see him play, you know, maybe
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: fifty games here and thirty games in the AHL something
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: like that. Like, I still don't think he's quite a
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: full time NHL player, but he still is showing good
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: potential to get there. And then in terms of all
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: the players that are playing in the Canadian Hockey League
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: right now, that's Tiji Gemmla and Caleb dano A and
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: Cole Bodwin. The three of them are all eligible to
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: go to the American Hockey League next year, and I
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: think that they'll probably go there just based off of
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: how they all dominated this year in their respective Canadian
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: Hockey League leagues. But you know, we'll see, and those
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: guys all have the potential to play in the Memorial
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: Cup this year as well, which if anybody's not familiar
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: with the more Memorial Cup, it's kind of like the
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: National Championship in the NCAA, but the Canadian equivalent of that.
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: That's kind of the magnitude of it. And they say
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: it's the hardest trophy in hockey to win, Like a
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: lot of people say it's harder to win than the
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: Stanley Cup because you have to win your own league
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: trophy and then you essentially go to this champion league
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: format after that and go and compete for this trophy.
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: And so Tjigammas in Cobodwin and Kal dano Aa and
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: Gabe Smith, if their teams all win their leagues, then
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: they'll also be in it, and and they're all very close,
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: like they're all in the in the finals right now,
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: and dano Aa actually plays tonight for Game seven of
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: his conference final championship. So you know, those guys, you know,
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: we'll have a good chance to develop and get some
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: of these hard games under their belt, and you know,
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: maybe they're better off for it next season when I
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: think they would be playing in the AHL.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: So now that the Stanley Cup playoffs move on without us,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: without the Mammoth. You got Wild Avalanche game two tonight.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: The Vegas Golden Knights stole game one against the Ducks.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: How do you handicap those second round series?
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: Well, man, I think both of the games were close
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: in in very different ways, you know, And I'm in
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: Vegas was with a tight as a two to one
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: game plus an empty netter ray that's obviously very tight.
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: And and my understanding is that had a couple of
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: called gun the other way, you know, the Ducks probably
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: would have won that game. So that one, you know,
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: I don't think you can quite handicap it yet, Like
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: I think both teams are right there, the Wild and
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: the Avalanche. They had the opposite end of the spectrum.
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: It was nine to six, Like that's just when do
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: you ever see that in the Stanley Cup playoffs? A
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: nine to six game, especially between two teams that are
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: heralded to have some of the best defense in the
• 22:33
  Speaker 4: entire league, you know, And so yeah, well we'll see
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: how that one goes. But but you know, it was
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: it was kind of a back and forth effort, like
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: Colorado would take a multiple lead and then Minnesota would
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: come back and tie it up and then the same
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: thing would happen over again, and by the end it
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: was nine to six. But you know, if, if, if
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: Minnesota can get a few of their injured players back,
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: like kuel ericsonek Is is probably the prime example, Like
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: if he can come back during the series, I think
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: they have a lot better of a chance. But you know,
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: if I'm a betting man, I'd still probably put my
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: money on on Cale mccarr and the Colorado Avalanche at
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: this point, I.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Don't expect you to have any special insight on this,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: but I'm asking everyone in the hockey world because I
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: think it's fascinating the way that you know, Connor McDavid
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: played hurt through this series. After this year their season
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: was over, he talked about kind of lamented, you know,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: the fact that they've been average all year, and I
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: think did a lot of conversation about how they don't
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: have enough around him and maybe a ground swell of
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: support that he needs to get out of Edmonton.
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: Does he stay with the Oilers for one more year?
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: Well, he's still got two years left on his contract,
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: and he signed a two year contract earlier this season,
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: so he intentionally made it so that he would stay
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: for next season m the one after that. So for
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: that reason, I think he's probably going to give them,
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: you know, those those two years that he's committed to.
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: But then after that, I think that's where it kind
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: of becomes like, Okay, hey, I gave you the prime
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: of my career. Now I got to go and do
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: what's best for me. And so we'll see, we'll see
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: what that means. We'll see if that it is what happens.
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: But the fact that he signs the two year extension
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: this season, I do think that means that he will
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: probably come back and he'll probably stick it out. And
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: if they trade them. If they trade him, I think
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: it will be because they want to get something back
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: for him so that they can rest off the cupboards,
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: rather than him asking for a trade. And like you said,
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: I don't have any inside information on what Convict David
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: is thinking, but that's kind of the way that I
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: think of the situation that he's in.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: No, it makes perfect sense on both fronts, and that
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: it feels like that would be a wildly unpopular decision
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: for ownership up there in Edmonton if they decided to
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: trade away the generational talent that they've got on the team,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: But I also understand why you'd want to do it.
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: True, that's true. But at the same time, they traded
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: away winning Gretzky in the eighties and they went and
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: won the Stanley Cup the next year or a couple
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: of years after rather, so you know, they've done it before,
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: not necessarily, like it wasn't necessarily the pieces that they
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: got back to Wayne Gretzky that helped them win the Cup.
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: But you know, the team does kind of have that
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: history of, hey, we have the greatest player of our generation.
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: Trade them away, we can still be a good team.
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: We'll see. Like you said that, the Orders probably don't
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: necessarily have the death around Connor McDavid to win without him,
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: but you know there is a little bit of a
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: precedent for it there.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Brogain, appreciate your time, Enjoy the rest of the exit
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: and reviews today.
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: We'll pick your brain about those at some point I'm
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: sure as well. Thank you sounds good.
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: Thanks for having me on.
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: Brogan Houston DEAs News Mammoth Insider