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Tampa Bay Lightning Kucherov Contract, Point vs. Hedman + Hellebuyck Wants a Trade · Backchecking the Bolts

• Jason Linkes: Coming up, I'm back checking the bolts. Can you extend the Stanley Cup window by trading? It would depend on the return. I don't think you're going to win any kind of deal where you trade Nikita Kuturov. Can you get players that can help the Lightning stay in contention? You definitely get some young talent for it that maybe you don't stay in the immediate window, but you start building for another one a lot quicker. But I think if you trade Kuturov, you're pretty much conceding the fact that this window is closed and it's time to start building around some other players. 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. Hi everybody, welcome to our latest episode of back checking the bolts. is August the 30th. Some big news in the NHL. Kale McCarr signs his record extension. Connor Hellebuck is the latest player to ask for a trade. Will that happen? There's some burning questions with the lightning. What are they going to do with Jonas Johansson? They have a few options. We're going to talk to Justin about that. And finally, Nikita Kucherov has not signed yet. Will he resign? We think that he will. The question is, what does he want for a contract extension? And finally, the NHL is going to expand. We're going to tell you our thoughts on the NHL playoff structure moving forward. And now I'm going to bring in the managing editor of raw charge. is Justin Godfrey. can read him each and every day at www.rawcharge.com. Justin, you really dug in deep on that Jonas Johansson situation. What do you think they do? I think he ends up. Honestly, to tell you the truth, I think he ends up back in Europe. I think they go the mutual contract termination route. I know the European leagues have kind of started their season already started some of their training camps. It just seems to be the best solution. You kind of, you dig into it a little bit. Like you said, there are options. ⁓ When we wrote the post a few weeks ago, you look at the three big options are you trade him, buy out his contract, or you banish him to the AHL, right? And one of the nice things is. With the minimum salary cap hit going up, the amount of money you can bury in the AHL also went up. So you can actually cover his entire contract if you put him on waivers and he clears. That leaves a little bit of a crowded situation in Syracuse right now. They did sign the two netminders, ⁓ Olivia Rodriguez and Mad Sogard. So they do have two starters down there right now. You also have some prospects down there, Menagen, who you might want to get some playing time at the AHL level. So it makes things a little crowded. It does protect the Lightning in case You know, Vasileski gets hurt or Dennis Hildeby isn't quite as good as they had hoped he would be. if you keep them in the organization, you do have that, that kind of safety net, ⁓ trading him. You look around the league, there just isn't a lot of spots where he would be an improvement for a lot of organizations. ⁓ two that we kind of zeroed in on are a couple of teams that are dealing with injuries to their number one starters to start the year. ⁓ Elvis Merzlikin in Columbus and Dr. Demko out in Vancouver. They're kind of questionable to start the season. So could Columbus do something where they trade a late round pick or the good old future considerations to the Lightning for Johansson? Keep him as either a number one A or number one B for the first month of the season. And then once their goaltender is healthy, do whatever the Lightning were going to do with them. That's a possibility. I don't see him going anywhere to be a starter. I don't see him going anywhere to be a full-time backup, honestly, just with the way the league is going. Let's say Hellebecke is traded from Winnipeg. Now there's a big hole up there. where a veteran goaltender might go through and be important. Same thing in Minnesota, you know, if they trade one of their netminders in, say, Dillon Larkin deal, then maybe they need a little veteran help there. So they have options. I don't think it's anything pressing. Like I said, they can always put them on waivers. And if somebody claims on waivers, you know, good for them. So I don't think the Lightning are over too big of a barrel when it comes to Johansson right now. Let's talk about the mutual termination. If they do that, Do they buy him out in the typical standard that you would buy out any other contract in the league? believe it's just, you know, the, contract's done. It's terminated. ⁓ you don't owe him any money. It's not a typical buyout. It's just a contract termination. ⁓ the benefit for the player there is he's free to go wherever he wants. Right. ⁓ the, and then the freedom for the team is you don't have to worry about his cap hit at all. So yeah, it's, it's literally the, they did it with Connor Sherry, you know, a couple of years ago. ⁓ it's just both sides coming together and saying, Hey, this isn't working out. We're good to go. Let's, you know, cut ties and move on. for him, the big negative is going to be the money because the odds are you had mentioned, unlike Connor Sherry, who still found a job in the NHL, Johansson's prospects are not looking good. He's making 1.25 million. If he goes overseas, he's going to get a fraction of that. So 1.25 million. Do you think he would be willing to walk away from that? ⁓ possibly not. mean, that could be a reason why it has been done yet. He could be digging his heels in. mean, like, you know, you owe me this money. Come up with another solution. You know, this is part of the problem not being in the, in the GM's office right now is we don't know exactly what those conversations are right now. So we don't know if there's any animosity back and forth, you know, the Lightning have a really good reputation of working with players to get them where they want to go. You know, we go back to ConnoSherry again, you know, it wasn't working out. went to Syracuse. And then, ⁓ you know, they found a solution for him and, he ended up getting an NHL deal. You know, there's money to be made in Europe. mean, it's, it's a league that's getting better and better, especially if he wants to go to the SHL or something like that. So I don't think it'd be that big of a cap hit for him. ⁓ or I should say a checkbook hit for him. So, you know, he can still find his way into making some money over there. Let's talk about the Kale McCarr extension. The defenseman signs an eight year deal. He's making a lot of bread. He's going to be averaging $20.4 million a year. What does this do to Quinn Hughes, who's the defenseman for Minnesota? He's looking to sign a contract extension. If you're Quinn Hughes, do you say, Hey, I want the exact same thing? I don't know. Cause I don't know if Quinn Hughes wants to be in Minnesota for eight years. ⁓ I think that's the big difference between these two. I always felt like my car loves playing in Colorado. He loves being a member of the avalanche. ⁓ and it always sounded like there was going to be an agreement. I know a couple of days before the deal, somebody had asked Joe Sackick about it and he said, Hey, we're working on it. It's going to be done. ⁓ I think it's a little different with Hughes. ⁓ I think he's a little more inclined to stay there now after playing with him for a few months. ⁓ but there's always that draw of wanting to play with his brothers. So if he signs for eight years in Minnesota, you know, can he talk Jack or Luke into coming to Minnesota and, two or three years when their contracts are up, or does he take the three year deal? Maybe. leave a little money on the table so that he's a free agent at the same time they are, and they can figure out where they want to play together. So I think it's a slightly different situation. I still think his cap is going to be somewhere near where McCarr signed. They're the two most productive defensemen in the league. You can always say what does deserve got to do with it, but if anyone deserves to be getting $19, $20 million, it's, it's those guys because they're the best at their position as far as offense goes. in regards to offense, Nikita Kucherov was the MVP of the league. He has one more year remaining on his deal. $9.5 million cap hit. He's going to be looking for an extension. We talked earlier in the season. We thought that extension might be in the neighborhood of 12. Then of course, Philadelphia offers Leo Carlson who signs that offer sheet $18 million a year. Backland Celebrini gets a little bit North of that. If you're looking at the salary cap right now, it's the MVP of the league. And he's not old. He's not young. He's in his early thirties, but he's never going to be more marketable to the lightning than he is right now. He just had 130 points. Where is that number? Is it 18 million? Is it 19? Is it 15? I'm not sure, but I I think that's the burning question right now. Where is that number? Because I think it depends on do the lightning possibly entertain offers. Yeah. And I think it's, know, and I think that's the. biggest problem with this, you know, the contract and why it's not done yet is he's such a unique player right now. I don't think there's anybody like him in the league as far when you take into consideration his age and then his productivity. ⁓ there's nobody really putting points up like this. You do have some over 35 guys that are having great eventually and still scoring goals. Cindy Crosby still putting up points. ⁓ good. And it wasn't all on the power play. ⁓ so, you know, he kind of evened out his game a little bit. but you know, they're not putting up 130 points, right? ⁓ And that's what Kuturov is doing. And I don't see him slowing down anytime soon. So what do you put that number at? In an ideal world, he'd probably be about 18 million. Does he want to take that much and then kind of hamstring the lightning a little bit? Maybe, maybe not. That's not his problem to worry about, right? That's Breezewall's problem to worry about. So it could also be the length of the deal. We kind of talked about this a little bit before we started recording is how long does Kuturov want to play? Does he want to play six more years? Does he want to play four more years and be done? And then how do you make the money work over that time? The arbitrary deadline right now is that September 15th time where it's going to be the end of the current CBA, which allows teams to offer that extra eighth year, you know, starting the next day, the most they're going to able offer is seven years. And I don't think there's a big difference between Kuturov wanting to play seven and eight years, but there is a big difference when it comes to the money breakdown. If the light, do you have a lump sum in mind that they're pretty close with Kuturov on it? You know, how did they break it down over a couple of years? Do you do the Yanni Gord thing where it's a six year deal where you know he's not playing years five and six or, you know, is it a four year deal with a higher, you know, annual value to it that, you know, kind of ties up some cap money? I'm not panicked yet. I think, you know, we're in those stages right now where it's, it's not urgent. not like he's going to hold out. ⁓ you do have that September deadline. And then I think you start getting into, you know, ⁓ if he hasn't signed by December, then maybe the panic meter starts going up a little bit. And then if he hasn't signed by the trade deadline, now you're really starting to panic, right? Especially if the Lightning maybe aren't in contention for the playoffs. But at this point, I think we're still chilling at like, you know, a mildly, you know, intrigue that it's not signed yet as opposed to any kind of panic. Despite the fact that they have not made it out of the first round in the last four years, we both talked off the air. We think that the Stanley Cup window is still open. If you trade Kuturov and let's say he wants 17, 18 million, the cap's supposed to go up another 10 million next year, but that increase would basically erase any additional cap. Can you extend the Stanley Cup window by trading them? It would depend on the return. ⁓ I don't think you're going to win any kind of deal where you trade Nikita Kuturov. Can you get players that can help the lightning stay in contention? Maybe you definitely get some young talent for it that maybe you don't stay in the immediate window, but you start building for another one a lot quicker. But I think if you trade Kuturov, you're pretty much, you know, conceding the fact that this window is closed and it's time to maybe start building around some other players, you know, your Sam O'Reilly's, maybe your Jack Pridhams, the kids that are coming up. You keep some of the younger players like Dominic James, Connor Kiki and hope that they play pretty well. But yeah, I think trading Kuturov at this point would signal the end of the ⁓ Stanley Cup window. So I don't think they do it yet. I don't think they're there yet. Some of the big news that came out in the last couple of days is Connor Hellebuck, the star goaltender, the team USA goaltender, 33 years old. He requested a trade from Winnipeg. He was drafted in 2012 out in the fifth round. 345 career wins has won a Vezna trophy last year. was not good. 23 and 23 was his record save percentage below nine. We're starting to see a formula developing right now with players requesting trades. They're requesting trades when they have a full no movement clause. We've seen it with Hellebuck now and earlier in the off season, we saw it with Dylan Larkin. Justin, do you think this is an intended strategy to try to dictate where they go? Yeah, I mean, it has to be, ⁓ cause you don't do anything other than, you know, harm your, your GM's chances of moving you, ⁓ by announcing a trade that you want to be traded, right? I mean, if you can keep it quiet, keep it under wraps, gives your GM a little more flexibility, a few more outs, ⁓ when it comes to having to deal with them. But you come out and say, Hey, I want to be traded. Now all the pressures on your GM to, to move you. think it does. ⁓ It is kind of a strategy. It's interesting that it's another team USA player ⁓ making this call. seems like there's been quite a few that have asked for trades over the last couple of months. You know, starting with Brady Kuchuk, ⁓ Larkin and you know, Zach Warrensky, if you believe some folks, you know, for a brief moment, he wanted to be traded. So that's, know, you got hell of book. that's like, you know, there's a theme of developing here. It's an interesting situation for sure. I mean, you got one of the best goal tenders in the league who's coming off a bad year, but ⁓ Where does he go? You know, who can afford him? Who's going to make that deal, pull that trigger. And, you know, is with a peg willing to start a rebuild by dealing maybe one of the top five gold tenders in the league. think the one thing we're seeing right now is general managers are digging their heels in a little bit Detroit. Now they did let Steve Heisman go to another position within the organization. He's no longer the GM. They still don't have a general manager, but they haven't traded Dylan Larkin yet. The Winnipeg Jets don't have to trade Connor Hellebuck. They can just say, you still have five years left on a contract. You're going to go ahead and play. We don't care. Go ahead, represent us. If we want to trade you, we'll trade you. If I'm the general manager, I'm sorry. That's what I do. If I'm Winnipeg, you're never going to get fair value for Connor Hellebuck. You're going to get a bunch of first round picks. You're not going to get anything that's going to help you win. Now there's not a goaltender out there that you're going to trade Hellebuck for. That's going to put you in the same position or even remotely close. And from everything I've read, Winnipeg doesn't have that next up and coming goaltender in their system. If I'm, if I'm both organizations, I just say, Hey, tough luck. got to play. Yeah. And then now you get into, know, are you calling the bluff on the players? Are they going to be willing to not show up and. you know, sacrifice their contracts. I think it's more a sense of getting conversations kickstarted. ⁓ it does seem, it's pretty interesting that, you know, over the last couple of weeks, it does seem to be some cooling off of the Dylan Larkin is going to definitely be traded before the season starts talk. it sounds like, know, they're going to leave the deal, you know, the decision up to whoever takes over that role, ⁓ which they haven't decided yet. So whatever GM that's coming in gets to make the final decision and maybe the decision is, Hey, We're going to reset. It's a fresh clean slate for you, Mr. Larkin. You're still our captain. You're still going to be our number one center. And things kind of blow over like they did in the Wurzki deal ⁓ situation. Maybe this is a lot of talk about nothing. Hellebuck I think is gone. I think, I don't think he comes back. It seems like both sides are pretty set on moving him. But yeah, it's, it's tough once, the player comes out and says, Hey, I want to be traded. What do you do? You know, what's the locker room like when he comes back? If you're the GM and said you're playing until your contract's done. How does that gonna affect the locker room when the other players know the guy doesn't want to be there? So chemistry thing is always important along with production on ice. So it'll be interesting to see how both these situations kind of rectify themselves. The one thing I'll say is if you're a general manager and every time someone requests a trade you give in, you lose leverage every time that happens and you lose leverage not only with future contracts with players. You lose it with the team that you're trading because they know that you're just going to give in and you're going to dump that player regardless. Now, if Connor Hellebuck is traded, you and I talked about four possible destinations, Buffalo, Carolina, Vegas, and Florida. I think it's Vegas or Buffalo. Who do you think would be the one, the best fit, but where do you think he'll go? I think Buffalo, it just seems to be the right fit for him, honestly. They need a goaltender. They have some young talent that they can trade out that is NHL ready that doesn't set what a pig back as far as a kid who's still playing in junior hockey or a first round pick. Buffalo picks up Connor Hellebeck. And then I think they're far and away the private top team in the East, ⁓ with their scoring and their defense. I do. think they leapfrog Florida. after losing Alex Tuck. Yeah. Yeah. I think they're fine. I think they'll still find ways to score goals. I'm not worried about their offense. Okay. Yeah. I wasn't expecting you to say that. Yeah. Cause I mean, to me, if I'm hell a buck, I look at the fact that Buffalo, ⁓ they lost Bowen Byram, they lost Alex Tuck. Am I going to a better situation than I was in Winnipeg? And now Winnipeg, you and I mentioned that the division is a juggernaut. The central has a ton of talent, but I'm not sure if he's going into a better situation if he wants to win a Stanley Cup. Well, I mean, it's not like the Atlantic is any easier than the central. mean, if you look at the Eastern Conference, probably comparable, right? But, you you still have people who could score. Zach Benson had a really good year. They're betting a lot on him. Tade Thompson's a 40 to 50 goal guy. So there's still offense out there. Jack Quinn had a really good year. ⁓ Not to mention the kids they have on defense. So you lose Bowen Byron, but what was he a number five defenseman for probably this year? Or, know, number four? was better in the playoffs than he was in the regular season. So I think it's, it's another player you have to replace. Yeah. They'll be fine. We're going to be fine. J. So they still get to beat up on Toronto a couple of times a year. Hey, Toronto won't be as bad. I don't know, man. Like I see a lot of people talk about all of Toronto is going to be back in the playoffs and stuff like this. Not I'm not completely sold on what they did in the off season. I think they'll be better. I think they'll be better. I don't think they're going to make the playoffs. I mean, you still have to finish in the top three and after that it's a bunch of Plinko balls hoping that they land in the right spot. But I say the same about Buffalo. mean, I could see Buffalo being in the top three. could see them missing the playoffs. I think a lot of it depends on how they make up for all the losses they've had. It's funny though. The one thing I liked that what Buffalo did is you don't often see this with teams that are entering their competition, you know, their competitive Stanley cup window, if you will, is their willing. to move on from some players, you know, lot of teams that were in their situation would have signed Alex Duke for whatever the hell he wanted. Right. And then you get, that's how teams get old really fast. Like even Florida, you know, a lot of people love what Florida and I think that they're all saying they're going to be back. I think they're the Stanley Cup favorites, if I'm not mistaken. ⁓ they got old really fast, you know, and I don't think signing, ⁓ What's his name? Brady Kachuk. ⁓ Can't believe I forgot a Kachuk brother name. ⁓ You know, makes them a lot younger. You know, they, they let Samuskovich go, right? ⁓ So I kind of like what Buffalo's doing there. They, they took a look at their roster and said, Hey, this is what we want to pay you Alex. If you want to say no, we're going to try and replace you without it. ⁓ I do feel like they maybe missed out on a couple of deals they wanted to do. feels like, you know, they were kind of some cap money. Maybe Patrick Kane. ⁓ But again, that's what 50 points, you know, for if he's healthy, I think he's a good complimentary player. I don't know he's a good top line player, but, ⁓ yeah. So it's gonna be interesting see if it's successful or not for them. You know, is that strategy going to be successful? Cause we've seen Chicago, we've seen LA, we've seen Tampa, we've seen Florida go with the route of signing your veterans and keeping them there, keeping you, keeping the guys that got you there. And yeah, it's good. It keeps you in the, you know, in the hunt, but maybe you're not quite the top tier anymore as you're. contracts get too big as you age out. So I kind like what they're doing. We'll see if it works out or not. it's that that division is just such a mess right now. Because even Boston, you know, is Boston going to be in the top three conversation or are they going to be hanging around that four or five, six kind of spot fighting for a wild card? It's going to be another tough year in the good old Atlantic division. think of all the divisions, if you look at them, betting on the winner of the Atlantic is the biggest crap shoot of all of them. I think you could say in the central, it's going to be Dallas or Colorado, Vegas, most likely in the Pacific, the Atlantic. There's going to be a lot of Washington love out there after what they did in the off season. The Flyers might get a little bit of love, but you definitely have Carolina. The Atlantic could be anybody, but Justin, let's talk about some quick burning questions with the lightning. First of all, who did the bolts need a bigger rebound season from Braden point or Victor Headman? I'm going to go with Brayden Point. ⁓ When he's at his best, he's the number one center. And I think that's a lot harder to replace than, you know, Victor Hedman at this point. I love Victor Hedman. He's a future Hall of Famer. They're going to retire his number. Probably the best defenseman that's ever put on a Lightning uniform. But they kind of showed last year that they can succeed without him. And had they not signed John Carlson, I think it would be a bigger need for Hedman. But I do think they have protection. I don't even know if Hedman's going to be on their top pairing, honestly, by the time the season's done. I know a lot of people are, you when they're mocking up the lineup, it's Headman and JJ Moser at the top, but I would not be surprised to see come November, maybe late October, that the Moser-Carlson pairings get a lot of minutes. You know, Headman's kind of getting his minutes controlled a little bit. So we'll see. The good news is he's healthy. It sounds like he's in a great mindset. I know he talked with the nhl.com a couple of days ago for the Lightning Preview season. It sounds like he's right where he wants to be. ⁓ so that brings us back to brain point. I think he's kind of the key to the lightning offense. They weren't quite the same with him, with him not producing last year, ⁓ especially on the power play. When was the last time the lightning finished 20th as a power play unit under, I don't know if they've ever done it under John Cooper, ⁓ finished that low. So if you get him back, get him squaring on the power play back from that bumper position, it just opens up so much more for their offense. It makes Kutroff more deadly. makes the points. ⁓ the shots from the points more deadly if he's getting space. So I would love to see him back back as a number one center a hundred percent. And, ⁓ I think if they get that. Your lineup just looks a lot better. Cause now you're not worried about, does Anthony Sorelli have to play the top line center? Things get a little deep down there. Cause now you got maybe your second line center. ⁓ so yeah, it's going to be, ⁓ point I think is your, is your number one answer. The lightning defense is old. You have Carlson, have McDonough, you have Victor Hedman. Do you worry in an 84 game season that the Lightning defense is too old? Not really. ⁓ I think Cooper's going to be able to manage their minutes pretty well. ⁓ You know, just like I was mentioning, you know, you could have Victor Hedman as your third pairing. It's going to be interesting to how they deploy people with special teams. But if you can keep everybody around that, you know, 12 to 15 minute market at five on five, I think they're going to be fine. You have some younger players you can rotate in there if you need to. McDonough, yeah, he's old, but the man just keeps shutting people down. he may have one of the best contracts in the league right now. And I know he's making four something million dollars and he's 30 some 38, something like that. I don't think he's that old, but he's still old ⁓ by NHL standards. He's over 32, so he's an ancient man. But even with the style of game he plays, which is kind of physical. Like he had a good season last year. missed some time, but I think that's what you're to look at. You're going to look at, there's going be gaps where players are out five, maybe five games, maybe two weeks, you two and a half weeks. Do you have the depth of fill it? And I think right now the Lightning kind of do, it'll be interesting to see who makes the final roster, especially in that kind of, you know, six, seven, eight spots, who, who they try and sneak through waivers. Cause I think you're going to have some NHL caliber players that, that you're going to have to put on waivers. And if they clear, then great. If not. Things can get a little dicey, but I'm not overly worried about the lightning's defense right now. So, well, you know, I could come back that could haunt me later in the year, but as of right now, I think they're going to be all right. talked to Matt, Matt Savage earlier about Houston as an expansion franchise from the mission podcast, Justin, it's all but certain there is going to be a hockey team in Southern Texas, whether it be in Austin or in Houston. The NHL is not going to be done expanding. Eventually they're probably going to go to 36. Do they change the playoff format and should they change the playoff format? I think you have to, ⁓ at some point, I mean, they've gone from you having what? 60 % of your teams make the playoffs to remember back in the early nineties, it was 16 out of 21. Yeah. So, ⁓ now you're looking at 50 % of your teams make it. ⁓ I don't know how drastically they, they redo it. think someone was going to have to do with how they do realignment. ⁓ once the two new teams come in and I, ⁓ you know, if you had to put a gun to my head, I'm saying, I'm going to say it's going be Houston and Atlanta. ⁓ I do think Atlanta ends up being that, ⁓ 30, 14. Yeah. 34. They're also going to go back to Phoenix. think that's number 35. Yeah. And then you just got to figure out who 36 is. ⁓ you know, I was listening to Elliot Friedman was talking about it. It sounds like they want the two teams in before the U S TV deal is up in two seasons, at least announced. I don't know if they want them playing or not. They'll probably want them playing for that first year of the new deal. It's hard to argue when you're looking at TV markets for Houston and Atlanta. So again, right ownership. It'll work. ⁓ I liked, I'm intrigued by the idea of Austin. A lot of people have compared it to the NHL going into Las Vegas. I know you've mentioned it when you were talking to Matt. ⁓ you go into that market where nobody's at right now, except for an MLS team and you know, you get to put your brand in, show other leagues successful and kind of, you know, install your footprint there. That being said, Houston's just such a, such a huge Metro areas to not be in. ⁓ and they do have a lot of history with hockey down there. So it's not like you're going in stone cold or something like that. They're, gonna have fans showing up. It sounds like you got an owner that can. foot whatever, two billion, three billion or however much it's going to cost them to have an expansion team and hopefully, you know, still continue to invest in the team. That's another thing is that you get these owners, they pay the $1 billion expansion fee. they kind of, I don't know if I have enough money to actually put a good team out there or not. You don't want to get into that situation, right? So the NHL has had their, a lot of history of bad ownership choices over their time. If you question what I'm saying, Watch the ESPN 30 for 30 on the former Islanders owner, John Spano. God, I so definitely want to 30 on 30 on Art Williams. I don't know who we got to call over the ESPN, but an Art Williams 30 for 30 coming out of the, you know, questionable Japanese ownership group. That would be, that'd probably be like a 45 and 45 right there. I mean, you could probably almost do 90 minutes worth of material. Did you know that Art Williams owned the CFL team? Yeah. Yeah, look at his, ⁓ his like Wikipedia page, man. He's, did a lot. you know, he'll always be, he'll be okay. The Godfrey household, cause he took him out of bankruptcy. He bought up all their debt. you know, say what you will about his very, very short ownership and the chaos it was. If it wasn't for Art Williams, I don't think, ⁓ there's a Tampa Bay flag here. I don't think there's a Tampa Bay hat here. ⁓ we're probably talking. God, you're probably making me talk about the penguins or something like that. But I do think that would be great. But yeah, you're right. The ownership history in the NHL has some very questionable, moments. think they've gotten a lot better at screening their owners. ⁓ couldn't have been much worse. Yeah. is they would then. Yeah. And Hamilton, when he was, he, was making agreements for teams. then you also. Again, I'm going to go back to 1983, Ralston Purina sold the St. Louis blues to wild bill Hunter up in Saskatchewan. They almost went to Saskatoon and it really would have been, you know, we don't know if a Saskatoon can handle a market. You know, they're smaller than Winnipeg. Don't know why they still have an NHL team. I'm actually working on something for next off season about digging into that. And one of the things was air Canada. Bill Hunter actually worked with them. Air Canada was going to have direct flights from Saskatoon to every NHL city. Cause back then they didn't fly charter. They flew commercial. It's just amazing the support he got that, and what killed it was the other Canadian teams, Toronto and Calgary, Winnipeg and Edmonton. They were the biggest ones against it. And then once that happened, everybody said, well, Hey, we don't want to go up there. Yeah. Cause they were afraid that Saskatoon would win a cup before them. imagine, imagine a cup rating Saskatoon before, ⁓ Toronto. I just, the absolute shame. We have to fold that organization, man. Well, there was a lot of the whole Toronto story is I think it was Harold Ballard was the owner back then. And he was so resentful for the fact that Hunter was a part of the WHA and the WHA went with the Bobby Hulls of the world. through huge numbers at these guys and became the secondary league. And the NHL really had the fight to keep players. And it was one of the reasons why some of the NHL teams, like in Cleveland, the Barons went pretty much bankrupt. They couldn't field a competitive team at those salary prices. There was just so much resentment. They weren't going to vote for Hunter to get a team no matter where he put them. Even if he put another in Toronto. But, but Justin, let's talk about raw charge. What's going on over there? So we are smack dab in the middle of our ⁓ top 25 countdown You know going over that we're sorry top 20 countdown. We changed that this year. So going over the top prospects in the organization we knocked out the first five last week and We'll be working on numbers 15 to 11 this week ⁓ We'll mix in some other stories as well clock the calendars turn into September so we can start looking forward to some previews some position battles the roster may be pretty close to set but I do think within that roster, there's gonna be some spots available for players to fight for. And ⁓ so we'll kind of cover that. But yeah, we'll just keep you abreast of everything that's going on in good old Tampa. They just put the ice down on Saturday. So that's always a great milestone for the season coming back is there's actually ice in the arena again. But yeah, so that's what we're doing. When's the official start of training camp? ⁓ it's middle of September at some point. know, I believe it's like the 16th or 17th sometime around them. They haven't released the official date, but I know it usually starts right after the prospect tournament. ⁓ The Lightning are going to be up in Carolina this year ⁓ going against the prospects for the Hurricanes and Nashville. It looks like Florida, who's usually in there, is not sending ⁓ a squad this year. So that's what happens when you don't have any prospects, I guess. You can't participate. happens when your entire team is over the age of 35. Exactly. Yeah. So, ⁓ you know, that's always fun. ⁓ it's, fun for a lot of these, ⁓ young kids. It's their first taste of what pro camps, ⁓ like, especially with the recent draft picks. which surprisingly enough, not to give you any spoilers, ⁓ pretty good represent representation on the old top 20 countdown this year. ⁓ we've already talked to about at least one of them. And I think there's a couple more coming up, not to spoil it, but, ⁓ Yeah, so it's gonna be some exciting prospects for the lightning fans to keep an eye on. ⁓ We'll usually stream on the lightning's website the games that they play up there. They are during the middle of the week. So if you do work, it's kind of tough, but we'll have recaps and everything and ⁓ notes on players that shined. ⁓ So yeah, it's gonna be fun. And before you know it, you know, we're gonna be talking about. ⁓ Opening night against the Rangers. Well, Justin, it's October 1st when the lightning take the ice this year. You can read Justin each and every day at www.rawcharge.com for Justin Godfrey. I'm Jason. Like us. Thanks for joining us. Please hit that like and subscribe button and go bolts. Go bolts. Thank you for listening to Back Checking 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 bluesky at rawcharge.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.