Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Between The Pipes: Adrian Denny on Utah Mammoth's free agency moves, Bringing in Vincent Trocheck and Anders Lee + more
Transcript
- 0:06Speaker 1: You're tuned to the Sean O'Connell Show for the Murdoch
- 0:09Speaker 1: Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred at ninety two to
- 0:13Speaker 1: one af M. Little update on the soccer.
- 0:19Speaker 2: They're in the twenty ninth minute, just after the hydration break.
- 0:22Speaker 2: Austria just about scored a minute ago and own goal
- 0:25Speaker 2: Hee Spain in Austria.
- 0:27Speaker 1: The first game of the day is still scoreless. Right there.
- 0:29Speaker 2: We're going between the pipes right now. Brought to you
- 0:32Speaker 2: by Aladdin Industry. It's your Vlux Skylight Dealer and of
- 0:35Speaker 2: course Valley Plumbing, Heating and Cooling. Looked for the truck
- 0:39Speaker 2: with a duck between the My first between the pipes
- 0:42Speaker 2: with Adrian Denny sitting in here today for Shad O'Connell.
- 0:45Speaker 1: How are you?
- 0:45Speaker 3: What's up? Bill? Thanks for having me in.
- 0:47Speaker 1: It's good to see you man.
- 0:48Speaker 3: It's great to be here.
- 0:49Speaker 1: Has it been great being back in town?
- 0:51Speaker 2: By the way, you've been back for a couple of
- 0:53Speaker 2: years now, yeah, I mean after living down in the
- 0:55Speaker 2: desert for many years.
- 0:57Speaker 4: It's been awesome. I don't think it'll ever sink in
- 1:01Speaker 4: like it's still it's it's still just a dream, it
- 1:05Speaker 4: doesn't it just doesn't like NHL and Utah and I'm here.
- 1:10Speaker 4: It's I just I just keep waiting for it to
- 1:12Speaker 4: sink in, and it doesn't. It's still that holy well.
- 1:16Speaker 2: It's so weird to me, having lived here twenty five
- 1:18Speaker 2: years now that we have an NHL team, and it's
- 1:21Speaker 2: been great. I love going to games, I love being
- 1:24Speaker 2: down there. The vibe is excellent. But it's just strange
- 1:27Speaker 2: to the NHL's in Salt Lake City.
- 1:29Speaker 4: Having the Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks and New York
- 1:34Speaker 4: Rangers coming in Salt Lake just as a as an
- 1:39Speaker 4: everyday things.
- 1:40Speaker 1: And not as an exhibition game.
- 1:42Speaker 2: You know, like you'd have the you'd have the you know,
- 1:44Speaker 2: the La Kings come in every year, or the Blues
- 1:47Speaker 2: or somebody would come in. But now, yeah, to have
- 1:49Speaker 2: them here is is great. And I was in Boston
- 1:52Speaker 2: earlier this week and last week and you tell people
- 1:54Speaker 2: you're from Utah and they're like, oh, you got an
- 1:56Speaker 2: NHL team there. Now people like recognize it's not just
- 1:59Speaker 2: oh yeah where the jazz and the Tabernacle choir are.
- 2:02Speaker 2: Now there's an NHL team here. When you go to
- 2:03Speaker 2: NHL cities, they know there's an NHL team in Salt Lake.
- 2:06Speaker 4: City, and words spread fast, I think amongst the players
- 2:10Speaker 4: in the NHL community, like, okay, this is this is
- 2:13Speaker 4: a spot. Like first of all, right, you know, the
- 2:17Speaker 4: Smith Entertainment Group just goes all in, all out on everything.
- 2:22Speaker 4: The Mammoth I Center is best practice facility in the NHL,
- 2:25Speaker 4: and everybody's taken care of. And then you add Utah
- 2:30Speaker 4: to the mix. Right, We're not sitting in traffic all day.
- 2:34Speaker 4: We're ten minutes away from being in the mountains to
- 2:37Speaker 4: the family aspect of it. So it's complete package. And
- 2:43Speaker 4: as we saw yesterday, guys are noticing and I think
- 2:47Speaker 4: the Mammoth won first day of free agency in the NHL.
- 2:50Speaker 4: San Jose may have spent the most money, the Mammoth
- 2:54Speaker 4: won the day.
- 2:55Speaker 2: Well, tell me how surprised you were about the trading.
- 2:56Speaker 2: Obviously you work for the team, so maybe you had
- 2:59Speaker 2: some insight or or had heard some rumors. But you know,
- 3:02Speaker 2: they trade for a really nice player in Vincent Trocheck,
- 3:05Speaker 2: a little bit older player, but still a guy that's
- 3:08Speaker 2: you know, been really good. Was you know the United
- 3:10Speaker 2: States played for Team USA last year, played for the Rangers.
- 3:14Speaker 2: You know, they gave up a little bit to get in.
- 3:16Speaker 2: But what did you make of that trade?
- 3:18Speaker 4: You know, at the trade deadline last year, he was
- 3:21Speaker 4: one of the top three guys. Yeah, that was coveted.
- 3:23Speaker 4: And the Minnesota Wild have been the team in the
- 3:26Speaker 4: last year or so that's pretty much, you know, gotten everybody.
- 3:30Speaker 4: Quinn Hughes, best best defenseman in the NHL. They got
- 3:33Speaker 4: him from Vancouver. They took some more swings in the deadline,
- 3:37Speaker 4: and they've been really, really aggressive. They spent a lot
- 3:39Speaker 4: of money. Coroka Preesoft's the highest paid player in the
- 3:42Speaker 4: NHL going into this year, seventeen million year. So Minnesota
- 3:45Speaker 4: has kind of been, you know that the team that's
- 3:48Speaker 4: been getting everybody, and Minnesota was, you know, reportedly at
- 3:51Speaker 4: the deadline and and after going into free agency and
- 3:56Speaker 4: starting things off for twenty six twenty seven, you know,
- 3:58Speaker 4: the prime location for for Vinny Trocheck, as you mentioned,
- 4:02Speaker 4: an Olympian, and you know he had had a no
- 4:06Speaker 4: trade trade clause and teams on that list and and
- 4:11Speaker 4: for for Utah to get him. When we woke up
- 4:14Speaker 4: yesterday read Mammoth Mammoth are very interested in Vinnie Trocheck
- 4:17Speaker 4: and Mike Fulton, my broadcast partner, on Hockey Night, Utah
- 4:20Speaker 4: sends me a text about this time yesterday.
- 4:22Speaker 3: He's like, I'm.
- 4:24Speaker 4: Hearing we're in on tro check. I'm like cool, and
- 4:29Speaker 4: you know it, it happened. And and so you get
- 4:31Speaker 4: a player like that, early thirties, three year left on
- 4:35Speaker 4: his contract, five point sixty five million a year. It's
- 4:38Speaker 4: manageable for the AAV. The Mammoth are actually going to
- 4:41Speaker 4: get a bargain out of it because he doesn't actually
- 4:43Speaker 4: make that. He'll make six million million this upcoming year
- 4:46Speaker 4: four point five million and four. So the way that
- 4:48Speaker 4: the deal was laid out, Utah is going to end
- 4:50Speaker 4: up playing less. So it's it's a guy they wanted.
- 4:53Speaker 4: But Bill, you look at what he does. He he's
- 4:58Speaker 4: just he seems like a perfect fit. He's urgent with
- 5:01Speaker 4: the puck, passing, shooting, he's got an instinct. But when
- 5:07Speaker 4: he doesn't have the puck, he's in front of the net.
- 5:09Speaker 4: And that's that's one thing I think you could say
- 5:11Speaker 4: about Utah the last year or so is Gosh, get
- 5:15Speaker 4: some more bodies in front of the net. We're gonna
- 5:17Speaker 4: score with so much skill just just kind of been
- 5:20Speaker 4: going to the net. By committee, Bill Armstrong saying yesterday,
- 5:23Speaker 4: you know, when you have guys like Finni Trochik and
- 5:25Speaker 4: andrews Lee the other big acquisition when they their instinct
- 5:29Speaker 4: their DNA is going to the net. Then you got
- 5:31Speaker 4: the two other guys on the forward line. They kind
- 5:34Speaker 4: of do their thing and not everybody's trying to get
- 5:37Speaker 4: to the net. So I think it's a huge acquisition.
- 5:40Speaker 4: He's great in the faceoff circle. He would have been
- 5:42Speaker 4: the best on the Mammoth and faceoffs last year or so,
- 5:45Speaker 4: so huge acquisition there. And then you know we're thinking, okay,
- 5:48Speaker 4: great day, got the acquisition of the day in the NHL.
- 5:51Speaker 4: And then andrews Lee, an eight year captain with the Islanders,
- 5:54Speaker 4: signs with the Utah a few minutes later, do a
- 5:56Speaker 4: three year deal.
- 5:58Speaker 1: Where's leif it in?
- 6:00Speaker 4: You know you could you could look at him with
- 6:04Speaker 4: Gunther and Cooley he wanted Yamamoto finished the year with
- 6:08Speaker 4: those guys, did a great job. Eorned a two year
- 6:09Speaker 4: contract earlier this week. He's another guy when we get
- 6:14Speaker 4: a guy. Obviously, just don't see a lot of Vinnie
- 6:17Speaker 4: Trocheck when he's playing for the Rangers and more in Utah.
- 6:20Speaker 4: And andrews leave even less playing for the Islanders, and
- 6:22Speaker 4: we're in Utah. We play those teams twice a year.
- 6:24Speaker 4: So you know, as a watching the NHL, you know
- 6:27Speaker 4: who the guys are and you know they're good and valuable.
- 6:29Speaker 4: But when you start watching you know their games and
- 6:32Speaker 4: their highlights, you're like, Okay, the way they score goals
- 6:35Speaker 4: is exactly what the Mammoth need. Like every single one
- 6:40Speaker 4: of Lee's goals that I watched, and he's got nineteen
- 6:44Speaker 4: or more goals in all ten full seasons in the
- 6:47Speaker 4: NHL that he's played.
- 6:48Speaker 3: He's in front of.
- 6:49Speaker 4: The net, he's tipping, he's crashing, he's banging, he's somewhere
- 6:53Speaker 4: around that blue paint. Because NHL goalies make make saves,
- 6:56Speaker 4: they deny the pretty plays. It's on second, third chances
- 7:01Speaker 4: where you can really make an impact. In last year,
- 7:04Speaker 4: Man's made a huge jump getting into the playoffs, getting
- 7:07Speaker 4: over three goals a game. That's that's you know, if
- 7:10Speaker 4: you're gonna look at one metric getting to the playoffs
- 7:12Speaker 4: in year two, that's it. Get over three goals a game.
- 7:13Speaker 4: They were they were under three in the first year.
- 7:16Speaker 4: So I think these two guys are really going to
- 7:18Speaker 4: add some jam. You know, eight year captain for Lee
- 7:24Speaker 4: Trocheck and alternate captain's been in the conference finals twice
- 7:26Speaker 4: in the last five years.
- 7:28Speaker 3: They both play.
- 7:29Speaker 4: You know, they're pretty durable and and you know Trowchick's
- 7:33Speaker 4: a guy that it's just kind of he's five foot eleven,
- 7:36Speaker 4: so it was a third round. That's why he wasn't
- 7:38Speaker 4: a first rounder. But he's he's just got the reputation
- 7:41Speaker 4: to just kind of being being a dog out there.
- 7:44Speaker 4: And Lee have heard nothing but unbelievable stuff about his
- 7:48Speaker 4: character and what a captain he was. And he won
- 7:51Speaker 4: the NHL award in twenty twenty four, the King Clancy
- 7:54Speaker 4: Award for leadership on and off the icen of the community.
- 7:57Speaker 4: So I think, you know when we went down the
- 8:00Speaker 4: ice Center last night and heard from President of Hockey
- 8:03Speaker 4: Operations Chris Armstrong and GM Bill Armstrong, pretty happy, pretty
- 8:06Speaker 4: happy guys.
- 8:07Speaker 2: So they make two big, big splashes on day one.
- 8:11Speaker 2: Are they done?
- 8:12Speaker 1: Do you think?
- 8:13Speaker 2: With big splashes? I mean, what what still are we
- 8:16Speaker 2: looking at right now?
- 8:17Speaker 1: Adrian?
- 8:17Speaker 4: So they add a centerman down the medal trot check
- 8:20Speaker 4: on one of the needs on the left side. You
- 8:23Speaker 4: could say, anders Ley fills avoid there looking pretty good
- 8:27Speaker 4: on forwards right now, we're not even talking about the
- 8:29Speaker 4: prospects coming up, the first rounders that are going in
- 8:32Speaker 4: camp with a chance to knock somebody out of a job.
- 8:35Speaker 4: Maybe if you're looking at something, maybe another defenseman or two,
- 8:40Speaker 4: and that could be coming up in the pipeline with
- 8:44Speaker 4: the player like Dimitri Simashev who started the year last
- 8:47Speaker 4: year and was kind of up and down between here
- 8:49Speaker 4: and the AHL and and the way things played. You know,
- 8:52Speaker 4: as the season went out, he was, he was in
- 8:54Speaker 4: and he is out. But I've heard great stuff about
- 8:57Speaker 4: his off season and what he was sent back come
- 9:00Speaker 4: to Russia with to work on. Nick de Simone is
- 9:04Speaker 4: utah seventh defenseman who you know was playing over veteran
- 9:08Speaker 4: d last year at points in the lineup due to
- 9:10Speaker 4: coach his decisions. But yeah, and and they signed a
- 9:14Speaker 4: depth D man yesterday to a two way contract. Zach
- 9:17Speaker 4: Jones played over one hundred games with the Rangers. You know,
- 9:19Speaker 4: you'd think, ticketed to the American Hockey League, he could
- 9:22Speaker 4: make the team. But but I think if you're if
- 9:24Speaker 4: you're looking, okay, what else could we use? Maybe another
- 9:28Speaker 4: or another right shot defenseman at one to two million
- 9:32Speaker 4: a year even three, just to stay keep, keep the flexibility.
- 9:36Speaker 4: But the A fifty and a sixty, I think the
- 9:39Speaker 4: two spots on the roster after getting the backup goalie
- 9:42Speaker 4: situation taking care of during the trade with uh with
- 9:45Speaker 4: or during the draft, I should say with Sebastian Coosa.
- 9:49Speaker 2: So relative to the to the to the Central and
- 9:53Speaker 2: in the West, it was a good year last year.
- 9:57Speaker 2: You took the Golden Knights all the way to the
- 9:59Speaker 2: very end. Where do you think the Mammoths sit now?
- 10:02Speaker 2: Are they in a better position than they were at
- 10:04Speaker 2: the end of the year. Obviously adding with the two
- 10:06Speaker 2: big ads yesterday, and as you mentioned some of the
- 10:09Speaker 2: things that you don't always necessarily talk about, and we
- 10:11Speaker 2: talked about this when the team came here two years
- 10:13Speaker 2: ago and even over the last year or so. There's
- 10:16Speaker 2: a lot of great young talent in the pipeline coming up.
- 10:19Speaker 2: So this is a franchiseness on the rise, albeit playing
- 10:23Speaker 2: in a very tough Western Conference, in a very tough
- 10:25Speaker 2: division with the Stars and the Wild and the Avalanche.
- 10:28Speaker 2: So tell me where right now, early on in July
- 10:31Speaker 2: you think this team sits right now?
- 10:33Speaker 4: I think the rest of the NHL yesterday is looking
- 10:35Speaker 4: at U. Tell them they're like, oh boy, yeah, wow,
- 10:37Speaker 4: they're serious. And the Minnesota Wild in particular, I can't
- 10:44Speaker 4: be real thrilled that the Mammoths came in and took
- 10:47Speaker 4: two guys that they wanted. Anders Lee is a native
- 10:50Speaker 4: of Minnesota. He's from a Dina, Minnesota, a suburb of
- 10:55Speaker 4: the Twin Cities, and the Mammoth gave him a presentation
- 10:59Speaker 4: that he couldn't turn down. Same thing with Benny Trochick.
- 11:02Speaker 4: The report out there is Utah just kept coming. They
- 11:05Speaker 4: just kept pushing and and and he said, yeah. So
- 11:09Speaker 4: I think from the playoffs to now you had a
- 11:15Speaker 4: chance to evaluate and say, okay, we lost to a
- 11:17Speaker 4: veteran Vegas team because dot dot dot their experience. I
- 11:23Speaker 4: think you can say, you know, a team making their
- 11:25Speaker 4: first trip into the Stanleyship playoffs, there's gonna be some
- 11:28Speaker 4: some lessons and you know, I don't think there's a
- 11:32Speaker 4: golden ticket that says, Okay, we just signed Benny Trochick
- 11:35Speaker 4: and anders Lee, We're going to the conference finals. Sure,
- 11:38Speaker 4: but it it just elevates you to a level where
- 11:42Speaker 4: I think you could take one of those three spots
- 11:44Speaker 4: in the central be it from Minnesota, be it from Dallas,
- 11:48Speaker 4: be it from Colorado. I think Utah goes right into
- 11:52Speaker 4: that mix where they're not necessarily you know, type cast
- 11:55Speaker 4: as a wild card team. And they they said yesterday
- 12:01Speaker 4: at the press conference, Bill and Chris like, yeah, we
- 12:04Speaker 4: we felled after watching that playoff series and digesting it.
- 12:06Speaker 4: We could use another guy like Denny Trochak and Anders
- 12:11Speaker 4: Lee with experienced leadership. It's just just some of that
- 12:15Speaker 4: that's uh, that bite that that you need in the playoffs.
- 12:18Speaker 4: And every game is two one, three, two, going to overtime,
- 12:21Speaker 4: going to double overtime, one goal games in the third
- 12:24Speaker 4: period that you can't hold on to.
- 12:26Speaker 2: Adrian Denny's in studio between the pipes with us today.
- 12:29Speaker 2: Mammoth Insider and Broadcaster are brought to you by Aladdin
- 12:32Speaker 2: Industries and Valley Plumbing, Heating, cooling, and uh more so
- 12:40Speaker 2: pretty well pretty well situated right now where things are
- 12:45Speaker 2: I just mentioned, is are there other places they could
- 12:48Speaker 2: look to add to either depth or frontline talent, any
- 12:54Speaker 2: other potential targets you could see them going after here
- 12:58Speaker 2: in the next week and days weeks to kind of
- 13:01Speaker 2: strengthen what they have already.
- 13:03Speaker 4: Looking at the free agents left right. Going from day
- 13:06Speaker 4: one to day two, you always got some guys left
- 13:08Speaker 4: that either didn't get what they were thinking right or
- 13:11Speaker 4: there might be kind of a liability on them. For me,
- 13:15Speaker 4: I look at the d that are still out there
- 13:18Speaker 4: in free agency and I see, you know, a guy
- 13:24Speaker 4: like John Klingberg who was in San Jose. There's a
- 13:29Speaker 4: couple others and they're strong offensively, but the defensive aspect
- 13:35Speaker 4: of them being a defenseman in the NHL is is,
- 13:39Speaker 4: you know, probably why they weren't signed yesterday. So I
- 13:42Speaker 4: think for Utah that you know, they they might find
- 13:46Speaker 4: another guy that could be a tweeer between the HL
- 13:52Speaker 4: and the NHL like Zach Jones, whoo they signed yesterday.
- 13:56Speaker 4: I don't see anybody still out there as far as
- 14:02Speaker 4: de gos in terms of free agents, just just in
- 14:06Speaker 4: terms of, you know, we need a D who's gonna
- 14:11Speaker 4: play D.
- 14:12Speaker 1: Right.
- 14:12Speaker 4: So that's that's why John Klingberg doesn't get signed. And
- 14:17Speaker 4: you can go down the list Logan Stanley who went
- 14:22Speaker 4: from Winnipeg to Buffalo at the trade deadline. There's they're
- 14:26Speaker 4: just not defensive defensemen and that's what you want. Five
- 14:29Speaker 4: six on your third pary. How do they feel about
- 14:34Speaker 4: goalie and depth right now? I think they feel great.
- 14:37Speaker 4: Sebastian Coosa was a first round pick acquired at the
- 14:42Speaker 4: trade deadline on Friday, or I'm sorry keeps saying trade
- 14:46Speaker 4: deadline at the draft on Friday, with one of the
- 14:49Speaker 4: picks that they used that they got in return for
- 14:51Speaker 4: for JJ Paterca. And he's a guy that I think
- 14:54Speaker 4: if they would have told him, hey, man, you know
- 14:56Speaker 4: you've been in the AHL for the last three years,
- 14:59Speaker 4: come compete for backup spot, will sign you to a contract,
- 15:02Speaker 4: he would have said sure. But Bill was pretty bullish
- 15:06Speaker 4: that he's going to be our backup starting with the
- 15:09Speaker 4: press conference after the first round of the draft, to
- 15:12Speaker 4: the point brings him into Utah, shows him around, signs
- 15:16Speaker 4: and signs him to a two year, two million dollars
- 15:19Speaker 4: a year contract. On Tuesday, introduced him to the media.
- 15:23Speaker 4: It's the guy that been watching for the last three
- 15:25Speaker 4: four years. Because it's funny, you know, when when you're
- 15:28Speaker 4: scouting guys like say, for instance, Dylan gunther A playing
- 15:31Speaker 4: juniors in Edmonton winning championship, his goalie Sebastian Cosa there
- 15:36Speaker 4: the GM of Edmonton who's now a scout for Utah.
- 15:42Speaker 4: That's another connection that you got there. Randy Hannish was
- 15:47Speaker 4: the GM of the Edmonton Oil Kings when Gunther played
- 15:49Speaker 4: there in Cosa was the goalie, and now he's part
- 15:51Speaker 4: of the team. Not to mention the fact that you know,
- 15:55Speaker 4: when you drafted Dylan Gunther ninth overall, you knew that
- 15:58Speaker 4: was your guy because all you did was watch all
- 16:00Speaker 4: all of his games, watch all of his tape, and
- 16:02Speaker 4: you might happen to notice that they've got a six
- 16:04Speaker 4: foot seven goalie down there who was also a big
- 16:07Speaker 4: part of them winning the league championship too. So a
- 16:11Speaker 4: guy that that they had been watching, that they had
- 16:14Speaker 4: been quote unquote hunting for a couple of years, and
- 16:17Speaker 4: they had an opportunity to to go in and get
- 16:19Speaker 4: him and build. Not to mention any names, but there's
- 16:22Speaker 4: just some teams out there in the NHL that you
- 16:25Speaker 4: just wonder what are they doing with their prospects. Like
- 16:28Speaker 4: their AHL team wins every year, their their AHL guys
- 16:32Speaker 4: have great numbers, and they keep signing veterans, other guys
- 16:38Speaker 4: journeymen to take spots at the NHL level. And Detroit
- 16:42Speaker 4: traded for for a veteran in John Gibson last year,
- 16:45Speaker 4: and Cam Talbot was their other goalie. He's been in
- 16:47Speaker 4: the league for ages and Sebastian Cosa was just kind
- 16:51Speaker 4: of there hanging out in Western Michigan. Mike might end
- 16:55Speaker 4: up benefiting the and and Bill said, he's proven, Like
- 16:59Speaker 4: he said, you've when you play in the HL for
- 17:01Speaker 4: three years like that, and you have the numbers he
- 17:03Speaker 4: does and the experience, you're ready to be an NHL backup.
- 17:05Speaker 4: Anything else surprise you outside the Mammoth yesterday. Around the league,
- 17:09Speaker 4: you always look around at teams that you know, have
- 17:13Speaker 4: a lot of money, have a lot of calf space,
- 17:15Speaker 4: and just it's burning a hole in their pocket. Santose
- 17:20Speaker 4: Sharks went and got two really high priced defenseman Jacob Truba,
- 17:24Speaker 4: who's in his thirties. They signed him to a long
- 17:26Speaker 4: term deal for over eight million a year. They needed
- 17:29Speaker 4: help on D so, okay, if they're young. With Maclin,
- 17:33Speaker 4: Celebrati and Will Smith. They got a lot of talent
- 17:35Speaker 4: up front. They're they're looking to add to the their D.
- 17:37Speaker 4: And then they acquired Darnell Nurse, making over nine million
- 17:41Speaker 4: a year with the Edmonton Oilers as another defenceman. Wow,
- 17:45Speaker 4: and there's no salary being retained by the Oilers. So
- 17:50Speaker 4: that's that's that's what I look at, Like San Jose
- 17:53Speaker 4: added to their d but they spent a lot of money,
- 17:56Speaker 4: and you know, Bill Armstrong's always kind of been a
- 18:00Speaker 4: nibbler when it comes to you know that that first
- 18:03Speaker 4: day of free agency, and he made some moves yesterday.
- 18:06Speaker 4: But the San Jose is kind of where the mammoth
- 18:08Speaker 4: of Ben in the last couple of years, kind of
- 18:11Speaker 4: just missed the playoffs this year, kind of ready to
- 18:13Speaker 4: make that move and you kind of wonder, oh, boy.
- 18:15Speaker 3: Did that did that.
- 18:20Speaker 4: Yesterday? Is that the best for them? Chicago Blackhawks another
- 18:24Speaker 4: team as well that that's that's on the up and coming,
- 18:29Speaker 4: you hear, and they spent over twelve million on Bowen Byram,
- 18:35Speaker 4: who's you know, probably a second pair d man in
- 18:38Speaker 4: the NHL, and they used a fourth overall pick to
- 18:40Speaker 4: get him last week and he was a restriction free agent,
- 18:43Speaker 4: so I had to sign him. So kind of looking
- 18:45Speaker 4: at Chicago, like Chicago like because because Utah's got their
- 18:49Speaker 4: model and we've seen it coming up every year. But
- 18:51Speaker 4: the team's like you're looking in the movie mirror on
- 18:53Speaker 4: Chicago and San Jose you're kind of wondering, Oh boy,
- 18:55Speaker 4: was was that the best day they could have had?
- 18:57Speaker 3: Yesterday?
- 19:00Speaker 2: Alexandrovitchkin coming back for twenty second year. I was at
- 19:04Speaker 2: the game when the Caps came down this year. He
- 19:06Speaker 2: had a hat trick. Yeah, he skated a lot, but
- 19:09Speaker 2: he had a hat trick.
- 19:10Speaker 3: That was.
- 19:11Speaker 4: That was a game that that for the Mammoth was like,
- 19:14Speaker 4: I don't want to say, a scared straight moment. But
- 19:16Speaker 4: they had a meeting after that that contest the next
- 19:21Speaker 4: day at the Ice Center and they're like, we haven't
- 19:23Speaker 4: made the playoffs yet, and this is what we need
- 19:27Speaker 4: to do to get into the playoffs. And they won
- 19:31Speaker 4: five straight games and clinched that spot.
- 19:33Speaker 1: But that game was a brawl too, by the way.
- 19:35Speaker 4: That was it wasn't wasn't what the Mammoth were hoping
- 19:40Speaker 4: right that it'd be, And and Tom Wilson got under
- 19:42Speaker 4: everybody's skin and then as he does, and the Mammoth
- 19:45Speaker 4: unraveled from a discipline standpoint, it just wasn't what you
- 19:48Speaker 4: were hoping for. When Alexandrovtchkin comes in on a Thursday
- 19:53Speaker 4: night in March and it's a huge game at home,
- 19:56Speaker 4: so to bring it around like, as you said, when
- 20:00Speaker 4: he's got the puck on his stick, he just he's terrific. Yeah,
- 20:03Speaker 4: he scored five goals in two games at the Dela Center.
- 20:05Speaker 4: So for however long that he does this, uh utah.
- 20:09Speaker 4: Fans have seen some pretty good performances from him in
- 20:13Speaker 4: his two games, and I'm glad he's back because he's
- 20:18Speaker 4: like Sidney Crosby. Yeah, it's it's not not one of
- 20:21Speaker 4: those guys where you're like, yeah, he's the best, but
- 20:25Speaker 4: nobody likes him like he's the best, and everybody loves it.
- 20:28Speaker 1: Correct.
- 20:28Speaker 4: So he's he's he's fun to watch on a random
- 20:32Speaker 4: night when TNT has a game on and we're not playing,
- 20:34Speaker 4: you just tune in to watch alexandrovtchkin and and and
- 20:38Speaker 4: kind of expected him to come back.
- 20:39Speaker 3: So I just didn't think. I didn't think he could
- 20:41Speaker 3: hang it up.
- 20:42Speaker 2: Yeah, he didn't really give any indication that he was
- 20:44Speaker 2: he was going to retire.
- 20:45Speaker 3: Just didn't think he could do it. Yeah, we need him.
- 20:47Speaker 2: I think the other thing that I saw yesterday that
- 20:49Speaker 2: caught my eye was Bobrovsky leaving Florida to go to Toronto.
- 20:53Speaker 3: I think that's really really interesting because.
- 20:56Speaker 2: He just seemed to be such a fabric of all
- 20:59Speaker 2: those great panther especially with what the Panthers did this
- 21:03Speaker 2: offseason bringing the Kachucks together.
- 21:05Speaker 1: It was just maybe maybe the offer was just too good.
- 21:09Speaker 4: You know, he made ten million a year on that
- 21:11Speaker 4: contract that just expired, which is a lot, and Carolina
- 21:16Speaker 4: and Vegas basically just showed that you can get to
- 21:19Speaker 4: the Stanley Cup Final with just okay goaltending and not
- 21:23Speaker 4: a star. And the NHL's a copycat league, so everybody
- 21:26Speaker 4: sees that, and I see it. You know, he's not
- 21:30Speaker 4: going to get ten million again. And you know what,
- 21:33Speaker 4: Florida's going to be offering him somewhere around six seven million,
- 21:37Speaker 4: which they just got a goalie they traded for that
- 21:39Speaker 4: makes exactly that. And so that kind of signaled the
- 21:42Speaker 4: end of Bobrovski and Florida. And I'm thinking Tuesday afternoon,
- 21:48Speaker 4: like this is so awkward because he's going to go
- 21:52Speaker 4: somewhere else and make six to seven million, and that's
- 21:55Speaker 4: exactly what Toronto gave him. But you know, when you
- 21:59Speaker 4: have a year of negotiations and you're you're just not close,
- 22:03Speaker 4: sometimes you know, feelings get hurt and there's emotion, and
- 22:08Speaker 4: it's just easier to go take the same salary somewhere else,
- 22:12Speaker 4: just to say I told you so. But I think
- 22:14Speaker 4: I think the Florida Panthers would have given him exactly
- 22:16Speaker 4: what Toronto got, but the the.
- 22:19Speaker 3: The boat had left the dock.
- 22:23Speaker 1: And so it had sailed. Hey, we've got a break.
- 22:25Speaker 1: It's great to see you.
- 22:26Speaker 3: Thanks Bill, Thanks for having me.
- 22:27Speaker 2: Thanks for coming in today and sitting in with me.
- 22:30Speaker 2: Sean's usually in here, but until full time said hello.
- 22:33Speaker 4: Mike's already said hello. And I didn't tell you. We
- 22:37Speaker 4: were just down at the at the mammoth Ice Center
- 22:39Speaker 4: for the development camp.
- 22:39Speaker 2: Screw by the way, I want to come down and
- 22:41Speaker 2: give me a tour, So you and Fold to give
- 22:42Speaker 2: me a tours. I haven't been in there yet. I
- 22:44Speaker 2: want I want to come down to Sandy and get
- 22:46Speaker 2: a tour.
- 22:46Speaker 1: One of these days.
- 22:47Speaker 3: We'll put the key card to work. See what it opens.
- 22:49Speaker 2: That's great. I want to get the behind the scenes tour. Adrian,
- 22:52Speaker 2: thanks for doing it. Thanks Bill, Go to grab a break.
- 22:54Speaker 2: We'll come back and wrap it up. A little topical
- 22:55Speaker 2: trivia next here on ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
- 22:58Speaker 2: one am