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Lightning Prospect Watch: Sam O’Reilly & Jack Pridham’s Development in Kitchener | The Aud Pod Joins · Backchecking the Bolts

• Jason Linkes: Coming up, I'm back checking the bolts. Let's start with Sam O'Reilly. He's probably the Lightning's top prospect. He's leaped over Connor Geeky. Tell us a little bit about his game and what makes him special. I mean, we have to start with the face-offs. I mean, the face-offs is where we have to start. It doesn't obviously you don't win triple MVP in a season just by face-offs, but He took over five hundred draws in eighteen playoff games. That's not counting the Memorial Cup. And he won almost sixty percent of them. He the the the the quality of centerman in the OHL that where he plays, he is not low. Like centers are good in this league and face offs are emphasized. What else can we say about Sam O'Reilly? Yeah, he he's the he's always the smartest guy on the ice. That that is one thing about Sam O'Reilly. He reads the play extremely well. Welcome to Back Checking the Bolts. Back Checking the Bolts is your cup of coffee to get you the latest on the Tampa Bay Lightning. Join hosts Jason Lincoln 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. Welcome to Back Checking the Bolts. We know the season is over, but there's always Prospect Watch. And today we were joined by Andrew Merrigan and Justin Bourne. They host the odd pod which covers the Kitchener Rangers in the Ontario Hockey League. And for those who follow the Lightning closely, two of the Lightning's top prospects, Sam O'Reilly and Jack Pritham, both play for the Kitchener Rangers. We wanted to find out a little bit more about each player. What is going to be their impact with the lightning and where do they project their games in the NHL level? So let's go to that interview right now with Justin and Andrew. Here on Back Checking the Bolts, one of the things we really wanted to take a look at were some of the Lightning's top prospects. And we're asking ourselves, who should we go to to find out about Sam O'Reilly, the recently acquired Jack Pritham? I said, let's go to the odd pod. And we are joined today by Andrew Merrigan and Justin Bourne from the Odd Pod. Boys, how are you doing today? Congratulations on the Memorial Cup win. I think we're still floating about two feet off the air, yeah, off the ground in the air. ⁓ just unbelievable. Thank you for having us. We love talking to Rangers. ⁓ we're excited to be here. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, the Memorial Cup amazing. I I gotta ask you both. Kitchener, not a huge town, but I saw some of the clips on CTV. You guys had a huge turnout for the parade. Kitchener shows up for the Rangers. The Rangers are big in this town. They've been around for a long time. And ⁓ yeah, it's a community-owned team, and the community takes that very Very seriously. It's ⁓ it's pretty amazing to not have ⁓ you know, some sort of rich owner at the top making decisions. Everyone feels involved. It's a sneaky large area too, like like population-wise, because there's so many small cities kind of clustered around here. ⁓ it's like I think the tenth largest metropolitan area by population in Canada. So a little ⁓ misleading if you look at just the Kitchener size. So I people from from Cambridge. People from Waterloo, which is their two cities, like they call this the tri-city area. ⁓ the whole region really supports the Rangers. Yeah. I've spent a lot of time in Canada. I used to stay in Oakville, Hamilton. I'd been to Guelph. I've been to Kitchener before. For the people in Tampa and people not familiar with Kitchener, where is Kitchener? Well, I think we have to talk about it in in relation to ⁓ the where we joke is the center of the universe. ⁓ Toronto is about an hour to an hour and a half, depending on what you treat as Toronto proper. ⁓ about an hour and a half with ⁓ no traffic, so at three AM you can get to Toronto ⁓ downtown by about an hour and a half. so it's just a little ⁓ what do you call it, southwest, I guess you'd say, of ⁓ of and then Justin, do you know how far it is from like Windsor, Detroit area? I think it's I think it's closer to like three hours from Detroit. Yeah. So and and we're like two hours from Buffalo, so it's like if you sort of triangulate us there, yeah. We're in that weird southern southwestern Ontario that's below the forty ninth parallel, so it's like the only part of Canada that goes below the the latitude l latitude line? Longitude line? Whatever. We're not here to talk about geography. Now for the Jeopardy portion of the podcast. Hey guys, let's talk about Sam O'Reilly, Jack Prithum. They had two different routes to get to Kitchener. Sam O'Reilly drafted in the second round out of London. You acquired him via a trade this year. Jack Prittham committed, decommitted to BU, was a ninth round pick from Kitchener. Let's start with Sam O'Reilly. He's probably the Lightnings top prospect. He's leaped over Connor Geeky. Tell us a little bit about his game and what makes him special. I mean we have to start with the faceoffs. I mean the face offs is where we have to start. It doesn't obviously you don't win triple MVP in a season just by face offs, but he took over 500 draws in 18 playoff games. That's not counting the Memorial Cup. And he won almost 60% of them. He the the the the quality of centerman in the OHL that where he plays, he is not low. Like centers are good in this league and face offs are emphasized. ⁓ what else can we say about Sam O'Reilly? Yeah, he he's the he's always the smartest guy on the ice. That that is one thing about Sam O'Reilly. He reads the play extremely well. ⁓ he he's a two-way forward. when he wa you said he came from London, how that happened was ⁓ he was a he's an overager, so in the in the CHL or the OHL, ⁓ we can talk about what those leagues are if you want, but ⁓ sure overagers are overagers are ⁓ They're they're 20 years old. ⁓ you can only have three of them on a team. So ⁓ they're they're sort of that interesting place where you know they're they can't be really held on to if if your team isn't contending and you have a really good overager and you're not you're not gonna go for ⁓ a championship. You kind of try and offload them for w in this case, which was he came with a defenseman, Jared Woolley. ⁓ and they came with like ten picks or twelve picks or something. They'll be overagers next year. And and yes, and London knew that. So London is stacked, right? So ⁓ London, this is a down year, so they had to move them. Yeah, so so the the they had to move them. So Sam O'Reilly came over and ⁓ and and and it's amazing. London always competes. London isn't always a their perennial comp contender. They're always around in the in the heat of things. And Sam O'Reilly He wasn't necessarily known for his offensive play in London. He was a two-way two-way center. You know, he in in in London terms, he was very much like that Barkov style of player. And then he came to Kitchener and there was something about this team, the coaching staff that worked out that he just exploded for offense with this team. The players around him He he can put a puck in the net from literally anywhere. And we we didn't even know this when he showed up in Kitchener. We knew he was a great player, but he's but he's become a new guy. Yeah, and he was sitting at about a point per game. And this is in his 19-year-old season in London. And and ⁓ I what ⁓ how I'll relate this to what a savvy move by the Bolts is that Edmonton jumped up to get him and took him with the last pick in the 30 ⁓ in the in the first round a couple of years back, ⁓ with pick number thirty-two. And I thought that was a good trade, but it looked to me like a trade chip trade. Like it's like this guy, you know, he's primed to go first line center in London, which is just an NHL player factory. And they thought, I think they thought like he'll develop and we'll be able to get something for him. Unfortunately for me being an Oilers fan. ⁓ they moved on from him before the stock went through the roof, is the bottom line. And I I Isaac Howard that they got back. I don't think like I I don't want to ⁓ slag him whatsoever. Like he could still turn out to be a solid winger in the NHL, but it's like one of those things where like could you have not gotten Ike Howard and a pick? Like it's like that's how much of a season Sam O'Reilly had. When they acquired O'Reilly. Did he immediately play with Pritham? Because I know later on they played together. Did they start immediately together? So they s so so Jack started first line with well, it not so much. So when they first brought O'Reilly over, they kind of had this kind of like crazy line of five guys that they acquired basically at the deadline. And then Jack jumped up throughout the season and played with him. But I think the coaching staff like loves that balanced attack. So they had ⁓ on they had basically two top lines all year once O'Reilly showed up. So I think one of the things is is Jack had a lot of chemistry with basically whoever that you put out there and he scored forty six goals. But O'Reilly, I don't know, Justin, if you want to chime in on on like O'Reilly's chemistry with with players ⁓ early on. Yeah, he it was interesting because yeah, they they did try and ⁓ they did try and They put them together. there there was another player ⁓ acquired at the trade deadline, Dylan Edwards, who is also a phenomenal ⁓ hockey player, ⁓ who isn't in the Tampa Bay Lightning organization. Jack has really great chemistry with another player, Christian Humphreys. They they sort of they both came over in the NCAA, ⁓ so the CHL when they signed the agreement with the NCAA that they could go back and forth, both had been playing in different leagues, ⁓ so that they can c they could go and commit NCAA and go get the NIL money and stuff like that. ⁓ but then they both showed up in Kitchener around the same time last season and they had amazing chemistry off the hop. So they they kind of played all last season together. And then this season they had been playing together. And then all of a sudden these like this like a sloth of ⁓ players just showed up at the trade deadline. And so it took it probably took like two weeks, three weeks to sort of figure out what the lines were in the in Kitchener. And the coaching staff has never been ⁓ committed to one set of lines. It's never been like you are line one, you are line two. They roll four lines pretty consistently. And so switching guys up and down you know make makes sense to them. And Sam O'Reilly and Jack Pritham, they they both excel at sort of that changing landscape. It it gives them because they're such creative players and they're both able to work ⁓ and sort of see the play ⁓ that's coming at them. ⁓ switching up the lines means that they're a little bit less predictable and they can sort of do their thing and that thing is score a lot of goals. The the one place where they played together all year once they got together was the penalty kill. And let me tell you, we had the most lethal penalty kill. And I mean lethal as in shorthanded Sam O'Reilly had seven shorthanded goals, and I mean this isn't condensed, like coming over. And Jack Prittam seven with just Kitchener. Yes, seven with Kitchener. He never had a ⁓ power ⁓ shorthanded goal with London. He had six and then Jack Pritham had six on the penalty kill this year. they had thirteen shorthanded goals together, playing together. It was absurd. If you ⁓ Jack Pritham has the straightaway speed. And and Sam O'Reilly has the wherewithal to always be in the right spot. That is just a lethal combination. If that somehow happens in Tampa and you can develop these guys to be an NHL penalty killers, poo. Trouble. Wow. Yeah, this is that's this is the thirteen short minute. Holy cow. And they were they were trading them on the last the they didn't play the last game of the season. They played the sixty seventh game of the season. And ⁓ they both got a shorthanded goal. They were basically going for the record together and they were both like competing for it. They were. They were. They're games. Well, you saw s O'Reilly play in London. What surprised you when you had a chance to watch him play every night? I I think it was just that that offense, like Justin was saying. Like Justin, you mentioned it, so you can take the lead on this one. Yeah, the the offense came out of nowhere. Like we we knew that he was great at shutting down players. He's so good in the neutral zone. Like, you know, trying to get a pass by him, he'll he'll get a stick on everything. Like, you know, even if he doesn't st ⁓ completely take away the puck, he'll disrupt it enough that it will it will cause problems on line rushes, on everything. It gives He gives his defenders a great chance. That's what we saw in London. When he showed yeah, when he showed up in Kitchener, like Andrew was saying, like he's always in the right spot. That I I had no idea. He he's the sneakiest player. He's the guy that everybody expects to score points all of a sudden and and he's just ⁓ alone in front of the net. Yeah. He bugs in. Also in the board play, like he can I he's not a huge guy. Like he's a he's a you know, he's he's like an average sized player, but he's He's so strong in the corners. He always gets the puck out. When Sam O'Reilly's on the ice, it's like you've ne I've never worried about what's going to happen. He like never gets scored against. He's always a dog on the bone with that puck. What does he need to work on in his game to get to the NHL level? I mean, ⁓ after a year like that, I mean, I if if it you know, the people listening to this podcast may not know. He won OHL MVP and he wasn't he wasn't the leading scorer in the league. That's just how much respect the the two-way game gets from the media members and the coaches who vote on this. The the he won the OHL ⁓ finals ⁓ playoffs, sorry, the full playoffs MVP, and he won the Memorial Cup MVP. So basically the two postseason tournaments and the regular season. ⁓ it's hard to point at something that he could he could be better at. ⁓ like legitimately it was probably the most complete player I have seen out of anyone on any team in the OHL in the last two years. It's stratospheric ⁓ uprising of talent and game and ⁓ just like I mean I I just assume that like he is this type of player that you you brought him over to the best team in Canada and junior it best junior team in Canada and he became the best player. So like if I was really trying to like nitpick, ⁓ I know he's going to face more physicality, bigger guys. ⁓ maybe he's going to have to ⁓ be a little bit more aware of that once he's cause he he loves to go to the rough areas, the dirty areas, the corners. ⁓ that might not be so much of an option early on in his career. So he's gonna have to figure out ways to create ⁓ opportunities without ⁓ sacrificing his body. But like trying to fit find a hole, I don't know. I I'm I'm at a loss. Yeah. Tap is a pretty deep roster. Tampa's a pretty deep roster. It's gonna be hard for him to find top six minutes. Is he one of those players that's better off going to the AHL, playing top line minutes, playing power play, letting his game develop, or do you see him as a guy that you could throw on the third line, especially with his propensity to win face offs? That if you saw any of the Tampa Montreal series, that absolutely killed the lightning. The Canadians in the third period were winning every single draw known to man. So I guess my question is if you're developing Sam O'Reilly, do you give him a year at Syracuse or do you say, you know what? If that third line center, if it fits, we're gonna try him there. I I would say try him right away because he he is he's ⁓ y one thing about Sam O'Reilly, if you get to know him at all, he's like he is not a he's not a individual ego. He is like all about the team. And so Getting him in the locker room, getting him around those teammates, he will find his place. Like get him on that center, get him trying those minutes. as long as the coaching staff is willing to give him pointers and sort of like understand that he's still a young guy that has lots to learn. ⁓ he will learn those things. And he is like I said, he's such a smart guy that he'll he just wants to play and he wants to play hard. So as long as as long as he's being guided in the right direction and given the opportunity, I think he'll thrive. Yeah, ⁓ just to build off of Justin, I think exactly like I think you start with him. I absolutely think you give him the opportunity in Tampa. He had a great camp ⁓ last year. And I think that like he is probably one of the most competitive players that, you know, came through Kitchener in the last two years, and that's saying something because we had some dogs on these teams. But like He is just known for a competitive spirit and an intensity. And I think like he'll he's just the type of player who's gonna rise to the occasion. And and we we we really got to know like his family and he comes from really good stock and he's just like a he's you know, like his family's great. So like he's gonna have the support if it doesn't go well for Sam at the NHL level and you have to send him down, he is not going to be deterred by that. He's he's he's a gamer. Whenever we hear two line centers, two hundred foot players, Tampa, you think of Anthony Sorelli. Is there one guy in the NHL that you're like, that could be Sam O'Reilly in five years? I I th I on our latest pod, I said, if that guy doesn't win a Selkie in his time, ⁓ I don't know w I I they are not voting for the right guy. So like I I I it's It's ⁓ if I had to yes, I think Sorelli is a is a is a good comparison because I don't know how much offense Sam is going to be relied upon in the NHL. ⁓ he does everything well and he's in good spots and and you know he has a great shot and he's got really nice hands, but like that's not necessarily the elite part of his game. And I know in the NHL y you do what you're best at. Off the top of my head. I think of like a Mike Pekka. Like Mike Pecka was somebody who just dominated that two way play, never really lit up, ⁓ but was but was a captain of franchises and a leader of men, you know. And I just I like I think of Mike Pecka when I see him as that that hand eye and that smart play. Yeah, that's who what I I would compare. And I think that's, you know, he's a great player. I remember I remember watching ⁓ like Elias Lindholm when he was in Calgary. He was pretty pretty good easy with the Monahan ⁓ Goodrew line and and ⁓ he's got that style of play for sure. Like the yeah yeah exactly what Andrew said. Maybe not the high, high offensive end side, but definitely that that ⁓ you know always in that selkie conversation, always defensive defensively minded, even though he's an offensive player. Yeah, he's got that in him. Let's talk a little bit about Pritham. Lightning just acquired him for a third round 2027 pick from the Blackhawks. From what I've been reading, it sounds like he was not going to sign with Chicago. Why? For a guy who has been lighting up the OHL, was there some disconnect with the Blackhawks? Why was he available? Can can can I talk about the master class and leverage, Justin? Yeah, please. Okay. So so so I have a theory and we haven't talked to Jack to to, you know validify validity have any validity to this. And he probably would just I can't wait to hear this. But so Jack was playing ⁓ in the BCHL, ⁓ which is like an outlaw league that allows you to play in junior hockey in Canada but have a commitment. As soon as the rule change, he jumps to Kitchener because it's a great opportunity. Kitchener has, you know, a great storied history and and it's an upgrade on the BCHL. He has a great year. He fits in unbelievably realizes, you know what, it's probably a and everyone was saying it, ⁓ it's probably a good chance that I come back here and I could probably win the scoring title or overager of the year. Well, he won overager of the year and he was two goals off the scoring title. And if not for a little dip in his production at one point, ⁓ he would have won it going away. And he ⁓ he then leveraged himself with the Blackhawks because I think he still wanted to go the NCAA route. But if you sign that contract, you can't go that route. So he's going and he's going, he's on a trajectory like this. He's winning these awards. He dominated the Memorial Cup, led the scoring race in the Memorial Cup, won the Ed Chennow with trophy. And then the rights are gonna expire. Chicago is basically, for lack of a better term, over a barrel. You know, they don't want him to walk for nothing. So what do they do? They trade him to arguably, in my opinion, a better situation, ⁓ where there's, you know, ⁓ a realistic chance that there's gonna be more roster turnover because you know Tampa, although not long in the tooth, they've just they've they're kind of getting ready to reload here. And I don't think you're gonna see a Yeah, you're not gonna see a rebuild in Tampa. They're just too well run and that coach is too good. But like you're gonna see kind of a reload. And I think, you know, somehow, some way he ends up in that situation next to his buddy Sam O'Reilly. I mean, it's That to me was a master class in in leveraging and then ends up committing to Denver. And Denver, ⁓ the head coach in Denver is apparently an incredible ⁓ development ⁓ you know, just wizard. So this guy has just literally gone from good situation to better to better to better. And ⁓ you know, his his father, Brandon Pritham was the assistant GM of the Toronto Leaf ⁓ Maple Leafs up until, you know. ⁓ I think like what, two weeks ago? Yeah. Really? Three weeks ago. I didn't realize the connection. So so I believe I believe Brandon Pritham helped write the CBA. Like I I believe I believe he was a part of the collective bargaining agreement. He was attributed as the money guy on Toronto. So obviously he wasn't like making personnel decisions, but he was making the money work with those four players taking up like forty-two million or whatever it was. ⁓ so I attribute it to him. I think, you know, his dad must just be a whiz. And I think ⁓ Toronto probably could use a guy like that. Well considering it was Chicago, he was ranked roughly their 13th best prospect. In Tampa, he's probably gonna be top five. That's what happens when you trade all of your draft picks away. But from everything that I read about his game, it sort of fits that John Cooper. Coaching philosophy. Yeah. Tell everyone a little bit about his game. Jack Fredham's game is it's not that dissimilar from Sam O'Reilly's. Like they they complement each other really well. They are both 200 foot players. ⁓ but Jack is the sniper. Jack can put that puck in the net exactly where he wants it to go. He reads goalies so well. He he just reads plays and he understands what everyone's gonna do about a half second before they do it. And ⁓ and that's just enough to help him just put everything where he wants it to go. He's he's so smart. He never he ⁓ same as ⁓ what I said about Sam O'Reilly. He never fumbles. Like he's always just he's always just driving. ⁓ he's a great rush player, he's great on the PK. ⁓ even defensively, like he'll block a shot, he'll he'll lift a stick to make sure the puck gets away. He always wants to be driving offense. And if he's playing defensively, he will figure out how to make that happen. He's a he's a smart guy too. And and and wheels. Like wheels. Like straight line speed speed. Straight line speed is crazy. Like so they have they and they executed it a couple times, ⁓ especially with that ⁓ that that shorthanded goal record that they were gunning for, where they had a set play off the draw, far corner, back to the defenseman, defenseman wires it around the boards and Jack's already gone. And Jack picks up the puck in stride, going in over the blue line, and Jack When Jack's in the zone, Jack will bury it. Like it's it's one of those things where it was you got to be so confident that Jack Pritham was gonna bury that puck if he had an open look. ⁓ it was ⁓ yeah, it just automatic. ⁓ at least in the regular season. We can talk about like if you want to talk about like if there's a knock on Jack, is he might be a bit streaky. That might be the thing that we saw. ⁓ but That's kind of like when you have those, you know, we have fifty goal guys in juniors. That's kind of what they are, is they score in bunches. Very rarely do you get those guys who score like I score, you know, every game one goal, right? That's just not really how it works. Yeah. He also hit a Michigan last year. Yeah. Yeah. He did. He hit a Michigan from behind the net. It was unreal. Didn't didn't Jack have have ⁓ back to back to back hat tricks this season? Yes. Early, early in the year. Three in a row. Yeah. It was na gnarly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I always view goal scores sort of like baseball home run hitters. Baseball home run hitters get their homers in bunches. Hockey goal scores, I don't care if it's Ovechkin, Crosby, Lemieux, Mike Bosse back in the day, they get ⁓ in bunches. You get that two weeks where you if if you're not out of their way, they're gonna they're gonna light the lamp. And it sounds like he has that in his game. But I I'm going back to this. Why was he a ninth round pick? So what I will say about Junior is especially in the OHL and like the CH in general, we were noticing that like the the draft picks it is it has so much less to do. it's it's hard to project, guys. Like we had a guy ⁓ who got traded at the deadline for Dylan Edwards, ⁓ who was one of the offensive leaders on the team. Who was a first round pick and ultimately like didn't develop here, and it was by no fault of his own own. He had a terrible injury, and Evan Hedrick was traded to Erie going the other way. ⁓ it doesn't look like if I had to put my money on it, I don't think Evan Hedrick will be the player that Jack Prittum is. And it's just like, I think it's so hard to track what guys are gonna be when they're 14, like 15 years old being drafted. It's just It's one of those things that I think there's just such a huge like physical maturity jump that happens. And ⁓ like I think maybe also if they're talking to the player and he says, like, I want to go NCAA, then you're falling. I I think also we have to remember that when he was drafted, he was playing in the BCHL, which is it's you know, the OHL is is or the CHL in general is is well known for ⁓ NHL draft picks, but the BCHL, less so he's playing against lesser competition. He's playing against ⁓ teams that maybe aren't fully complete. So even if he has high scoring totals, it doesn't mean as much. Like the the the rate doesn't necessarily translate. I think if his rights on Monday had expired, ⁓ and he would have been put back into the draft, ⁓ like we were talking about he's probably like a late first round, maybe early second round pick now. Like that's where he's developed to. So It's it it is perspecti ⁓ perspective, it is also situation. And ⁓ yeah, I think Jack also sometimes gets a knock, he's a super smart player, he's a really lovely, nice guy, but when he talks to people sometimes and he doesn't know them, he's a little like quiet as well. He doesn't have a lot to say, and so sometimes I can see how that might be misperceived as like i in the wrong way. Right standoffish, which he's standoff, yeah. Yeah. Maybe not a team guy, but he's totally a team guy. Like now that we know him, he's totally that's what he is. Part that's just part of being young too and learning yourself, learning the game. I played college baseball, and I can say when you're twenty, twenty-one years old going up against eighteen year olds, it's a big difference. The game slows down mentally, you're more prepared, and it's you you're you're reacting and not thinking. And it sounds like that's a little bit of what happened with him. I'm gonna ask you about the NCAA CHL agreement. Now that just changed about a a little over a year ago. And this all happened with the NIL. Now you can go back and forth between the Canadian Hockey League and the NCAA before you couldn't, because in the CHL you get stipend. The NCAA, even when I played back in the NCAA, they said if you got five bucks, you're a professional athlete. Right. How has that changed? The OHL and CHL. I think it it it's a it's an interesting thing that we don't really know yet. Like we're so early into it that we we don't know. Obviously, the Kitchener Rangers benefited from Humphreys and Pritham ⁓ coming right away from whatever leagues they were in that and and they were intending to go NCAA, loved it and Kitchener, stayed. Now they won a Memorial Cup. Pretty cool. But like That's not gonna happen to everyone. We've seen another team, the Brampton Steelheads. They kind of got decimated. They're kind of well known for never having ⁓ fans show up to their games. They don't play in the nicest building. They had some pretty phenomenal talents on this team that everyone last season thought they were gonna be like a championship contender. They didn't quite make it, stuff didn't quite gel, and then all these guys just took off to the NCAA. And and that's that's partially it, right? Is like it's it's not a desirable junior hockey market. It used to be Mississauga, which of course is, you know, basically a suburb of Toronto. It used to be the Mississauga Steelheads. And then they moved to Brampton, which is w like a a even, I guess, less desirable suburb of Toronto in the sense of ⁓ geography and proximity of Toronto. And it like ultimately, like, unless you're a winning program. Guys who are top talent are gonna be able to just walk to the NCAA and they're gonna get that NIL money. And what we saw is is that we saw like Humphreys was ⁓ a a Michigan guy, it wasn't getting ice time. So he said, you know what, I'll just come back to I'll come back to Kitchener because they own my rights in the OHL and I'll play here. Well now he's off to Minnesota because his stock is he well he was the ⁓ not to take off you know ⁓ Bolt's prospects too much but he was he's a Colorado Avalanche prospect and last training camp after one year in Kitchener he was named the most improved prospect. So what OHL teams are going to have to do because we There's no way we'll ever be able to compete, especially with smaller markets, even smaller than Kitchener, with that NIL money. Is you're going to have to promise these guys that it's going to be an atmosphere where why don't you stay till you're 19 or 20, if you want to go for over age of the year or a championship or whatever, and then do what Jack Pritham did, do what Christian Humphreys did, and go and put yourself in an even better situation. Those guys. Are going to be so much more complete players going to the NCAA now. And they're not guys, you know, they're not guys who are gonna step into lineups. We love them, they're great prospects, but like, do I think either of those players are ready to play in the NHL? No. So you're now putting yourself in a position. We had a guy, Adam Valentini, that we had like, you know, was supposed to be the second coming, coming to Kitchener, and he comes out here and you know takes pictures and does the press conference. Well, it turns out that his agent was just leveraging us against ⁓ University of Michigan. And he went there because he had already he's only 17, he already had finished his school. So that was always the plan. So he got the commit from the school he wanted. He walked two weeks before training camp. It wasn't against Valent Valentini. We didn't yeah, he's a kid. But like there's a certain way I think that you can do things where maybe we don't have to do that, but it's a business and whatever. But he didn't necessarily have like he had a good year in Michigan. But as a 17-year-old, you're playing some guys are playing against the NCAA of 25. Like it's like there's like that's a gr I can I I can think about I'm not an athlete, but I can think about myself at 17, and I can think about myself at 25, and you know, outplaying street hockey, I can tell you who would dominate who. It's just that's just it's a different body type and it's a different maturity. And so I think everyone up here is a little like ⁓ no, you know, Gavin McKenna went to Penn State and ⁓ no. Like, yeah, the big guys are gonna go where the money is. But like we we're not just gonna become a sixteen to eighteen year old super elite league like so many pundits are saying. Yeah. Well well Gavin needs to bail out his mom, so that's why he needs the NIL money. ⁓ Yeah, we're about to now it all makes sense. Yeah, yeah. Well, if he ends up in Toronto, I assure you he's gonna have to put up with people saying mean stuff. So ⁓ yeah, might want to figure that out. Yeah. Yeah. Hey Andrew, real quick, show everyone the jersey behind you. Yes. ⁓ this is my my Jack Prittum jersey. And it's a signed Jack Printem jersey, if I if I am correct. It is a signed Jack Printem jersey right there. I don't know if you can see that right there on the blue. It's a little reflective, but it's there. That's s Jack is a ⁓ just a quality dude. He he embraced us right away. And ⁓ we kinda we kind of like to ⁓ brag a little bit that we got probably the best interview out of Jack. Jack is not known for giving long answers and And we got some really good stories out of Jack. So ⁓ just a good dude and ⁓ just ⁓ you know a supporter of the community and ⁓ we're we're we're gonna miss him. Yeah, for sure. Tell us about the run that Kitchener had this year. I mean, it's your third Memorial Cup. For the people who don't know much about the Ontario Hockey League, there's been some absolute studs that have come out of Kitchener. Scott Stevens, the master blaster, Al McGuinness, my second favorite Nova Scotian. Justin Justin, you're a Flames fan, so you have a special soft spot for Al McGuinness, but tell us about this magical run that Kitchener went on. I think this I think this magical run kind of started last year. I I I would say that the magic started last year. I give a lot of credit to the the general manager and the coach. ⁓ Mike McKenzie's the GM. ⁓ Yusia Hokus is the head coach, and then he's got the whole squad of assistant coaches, and they've just like There's something in the water with this team. Like there is there's something like you can tell they're all buds off the ice. You can tell that they just love playing hockey. And and there's some real personalities on this team. So, you know, we got Matthew Andonovsky, we got Christian Humphreys, we got Cameron Arquette, we got some of these big personality guys on this team. And and they really, they really like made this group like a special group. To to like watch and be sort of a part of their journey. So that started last year. ⁓ obviously, like last year the the media was all about, ⁓ Kitchener's rebuilding. Do we know if they're gonna make the playoffs? Whatever, whatever. It's a 68-game season. They got 100 points. They were the second team in the league. ⁓ they were unfortunately the second team in the Western Conference because the the top team was London last year. And so there was there was something special about this. And And we really got to see it. There's a there's another team called the Windsor Spitfires who are in who are in the OHL. And Kitchener has owned this team for three years in a row. They were ⁓ three years ago they were an eighth seed going into the playoffs. Windsor was the one seed, they swept them in the first round. ⁓ that that's never happened before. Last year, ⁓ in the playoffs, Windsor went up three nothing in the series. Kitchener came back, reverse swept them. ⁓ Yeah. And then game seven overtime reverse sweep was an absolute unbelievable moment for this this core group, I think, right? Like just to jump in there was it propelled it it propelled them into the next series, which unfortunately was against this juggernaut London. Also Sam O'Reilly and Jared Woolley were on that team. And they could not buy goals when they needed to. It was a pivotal game three. I I remember seeing the puck land on the line and it didn't cross over, and they don't win a a game after that and it doesn't it doesn't happen for them. But I think it motivated that comeback falling short against London. It motivated them. Now this run was crazy because the full first half of the season, it was kind of like well, we're trying to host the Memorial Cup next year. If if listeners don't know, you bid over a year ahead, you bid bid like cities bid on the opportunity to host the the the Memorial Cup just like the Super Bowl or or or a big event like that. And it's because it brings a lot of income. It's a 10-day tournament, lots of games. ⁓ it's not something you can throw together at the last second. So ⁓ the three the three champions from each league. Sorry, is that what you're gonna say? Yeah the three champions from each league is the the Quebec Maritime Junior Hockey League, the OHL And the WHL, which is the Western Hockey League, they all get to attend and they play the host and it's a four-team tourney. So Kitchener didn't get the and everyone thought Kitchener was gonna get it. Like it was like one of those like slam dunk years. The team is built for 2027. The the city we started the podcast in 2024, 20. Yeah, going into yeah. And we were reading things that like, ⁓ 2027, this team is about 2027. Well, you know, everybody has a plan until you get punched in the face. It came down. Kitchener didn't get it. Guelph, 30 minutes down the road, got it. One of our rivals. So we were salty. ⁓ there's an amazing clip online of Mike McKenzie being like we we licked our wounds. And then I called the COO of the Rangers and I said, you know, screw it. Let's go to Kelowna and get it this year. And then he just went crazy. He made a bunch of trades that were just unbelievable trades because everyone hit. There wasn't a single guy that didn't come in and immediately dominate. It was just a master class. And ⁓ this team just went to another level after those trades. Like it was like even the guys who were here played better. It was just unbelievable. We haven't talked about Cam Reed. He was a first round pick of the Nashville Predators. He is an unbelievable stud defenseman. ⁓ he's a guy that you're gonna see play NHL hockey and he's gonna have a good career because I've never seen somebody So sure that he's gonna have a good career? And not in in in the in the most humble way. It's just ⁓ a foregone conclusion that he's always wanted to do it and he's gonna do it. They hadn't they haven't lost since April 27th. They won ten in a row, including you know the Memorial Cup. So they won six out and ⁓ at the end of the playoffs and then four in the Memorial Cup against literally two of the best team or the two best teams in the country and ⁓ a historic Everett Silvertips franchise in the WHL that was like fifty five and eight. And ⁓ they they were t we were told that they were gonna steamroll us, beat ⁓ twice six to two. I mean, it was a master class. Yeah, the Rangers the Rangers won it's a four round playoff series, seven game series. They they won they were sixteen and two in the OHL playoffs. They They only lost two games. They swept they swept the final. They yeah, which was an incredible team that they played. And and that's the one thing that I will say that the OHL has going for it against the NCAA is the Rangers played ninety games this year. Sixty eight regular season games, eighteen because only had needed eighteen games because they went sixteen and two in the playoffs, and then four games in the ⁓ in the Memorial Cup. ⁓ That is just not something those those seven game playoff series. That's not something college hockey does. So you wanna get used to that. So I I'm a proponent of using both of these leagues. Like I'm I'm pro players. So like come in, get your money, like get your development, get your NIL money, and then sign your ⁓ entry level contract. And and that's generally speaking because like we know what's the percentage of guys who play more than three years in the league in the NHL. It's not high. Yeah. Most guys, if you're if you get a cup of coffee, you're lucky. Now, I asked this question to Eric Perrin the other day when we had him on the podcast. And I asked him, I said, in 2004, what was that moment where you're like, you know what? We really have a shot at winning this cup. And he said when they swept the Canadians in 04, what was that moment for you guys watching the Kitchener Rangers? Well, one of the moments is funny, it happened against Windsor. So the guy who scored the reverse sweep game seven overtime goal last year was injured basically the whole year and didn't get activated until game five, which was an elimination game. Kitchener's up three to one against Windsor. And believe it or not, Kitchener went down three-nothing in the first period to Windsor. And who scores the first goal in the comeback? Luke Ellenus, an Ottawa Senators ⁓ draft pick. He scores and begins the comeback. They win five four, ⁓ win that game and win the game in ⁓ win the series in five. I think it was that moment that I was like, I thought Windsor was gonna come out gunning and be a test because like like Justin said, those two years before, they kind of stole Windsor's stole soul those last two years. Like Windsor was gonna push us. The it was funny the w the captain of the Windsor Spitfires had an interview where he did he didn't mean to say it like this, but he did say, All I want to do this year is beat Kitchener. His only goal was to beat Kitchener and he only got he got one regular season game they won and one one playoff game you've done. So Yeah. But ⁓ yeah, no. Exactly. There was an incident in one of your games, Christian Humphreys. It was a pretty nasty skate stomping. I don't know how the best way to phrase it, but how is he doing? Is he healthy? Is he okay after that? Well I mean, we don't we don't know. We've heard speculations. The team has never said anything. So we we don't like to speculate on young guys and what they're doing. He did play in the final. It was ⁓ it was the last it was the last game of the round robin that this happened against Shikutumi. And and And so he left that game. It was it was in the third period, so he left that game. We didn't hear anything because the Rangers had swept the round robin, so they got a bye to the finals. So there was like five days without hockey. So we didn't we didn't see anything. We didn't hear anything about him. And then he played the final. ⁓ scored a empty nighter goal to to sort of seal it up. he looked he looked okay playing. He didn't play a ton of minutes, so it's hard to know how he's doing, but ⁓ I th Obviously played, so there was there was that we also saw him partying at the parade, so he's probably he's probably doing okay. He's okay. Hey, the dr the drinking age in Canada is nineteen, so you know you can you can have a couple extra pops and ⁓ and the injuries feel just a little bit better. I was gonna say I think the drinking age in Kitchener was probably seventeen during the especially after the OHL final. I want to ask you about your coach Yusia Hokus. I'm reading his name on the short lists of a lot of NHL jobs, associate head coach jobs. You hear his name a little bit with some possible openings. Do you think he's in Kitchener next year? I hope he's in Kitchener next year. ⁓ we love we love ⁓ Yusia Hokus. ⁓ he's He's the first ⁓ European head coach ⁓ in the OHL. And of course, then by way of winning everything, he's the first ⁓ European head coach to win ⁓ the OHL championship in the Memorial Cup. ⁓ it's unheard of, honestly, to bring in a guy from ⁓ Finland. got here and we sat down with general manager Mike McKenzie it right before playoffs started and he told us about how people people really had opinions about hiring him. ⁓ I think you have a very high chance of seeing him coach in the NHL very soon. Maybe it takes another year if he doesn't like his landing spot. but like bottom line is we're supposed to be now kind of in a bit of a down year because they they went all in to win. ⁓ if he were to stay here and the team is like decently competitive, like I mean, he turned the the The team was supposed to be rebuilding last year, like Justin said. ⁓ I think it's like we're we are not Leafs fans and we are scared to death that they might make an incredible hire off the board higher here and take our coach, which we know, you know, that would be incredible for Yusie's career. And he's the perfect type of guy to go to an insane hockey market like like Toronto because he just it doesn't bother him. There's pressure, you know, it doesn't bother him. He's He's very Finnish in the way that he communicates with the media and other people around. He is very straight to the point, no nonsense. We know that there's more sides to him than that. We've seen he he does love ⁓ coaching. He loves working with these young guys, ⁓ as he calls them the young boys to ⁓ to to develop them and and get them into a better place. He also I know he has a great relationship with his coaching staff and and that he really empowers them. That's one of his strengths is that he really empowers his coaching staff to do their jobs to the best of their potential. So he doesn't take when he coaches, he doesn't take everything on himself. He he delegates ⁓ appropriately and then he ⁓ is also super clear with his players like we we talked to Hunter Brustevich ⁓ who was sort of an all-world defenseman in the OHL ⁓ he put plays for the Calgary Flames now. It was his last year in the OHL was UC's first year in the OHL with the Rangers. And he said, you know, there was a language barrier for like one practice and then and then he got to business and we all just understood what we needed to do. He was really clear with with what our roles were. And ⁓ once it once it seems like everybody just buys into his system right away. Like there doesn't seem like there's any however he talks to these players, however he gets them to go, buy buy in is not a problem for him. And and that's huge in itself. So he he trusts his players, he trusts his coaching staff, and he gets buy-in. So it's it's a pretty lethal combo. He has what the kids call aura. He is a very he's a very intimidating guy. Like Justin said, we we saw him at practice laughing and joking. And so there's obviously that like dichotomy there with his players and stuff. But he has there's a moment in the in Memorial Cup final ⁓ where he gives this death glare to a referee because they're incorrectly going to put the face off in the defending zone and they made a mistake and it needed to be and the center ice and he just gives them this look and it's funny it just things got fixed. But ⁓ he ⁓ like honestly ⁓ you see in he he's he's put together the staff himself he's brought the staff along himself I'll be honest if if a place like Dallas which I I'm not sure if they're looking for a coach right now but it's just like a finish you know kind of haven't If they were looking for a full coaching staff, like we're gonna hire you and you can bring your guys, I think UC would go. He'd be gone. ⁓ I could see UC being hesitant to step into a situation where they're like, We're we're gonna call you an associate coach and we're gonna put together a a group of guys ⁓ I think it would have to be the right landing spot because he's also like a huge family man and ⁓ loves his family and ⁓ I think that's a priority too is he's got young kids and you don't want to be moving around too much. So a year of like I'm an associate coach, well I can just stay in Kitchener and maybe have another competitive surprising year with a roster that's not projecting as well and that can just bump me up to ⁓ head coach position maybe a year after, right? It sounds sounds counterintuitive to not jump while your stock is high. But I think like hockey minds know that like you're not gonna win it every year. And if you do well with what you have, then like, you know, there's obviously something ⁓ you're doing well. Good coaches know how to coach. He's won in Sweden, he's won in Finland, he's won in Germany, and now he's won a Memorial Cup. Good coaches just know how to do it. Guys, tell us about the odd pod. It's odd. Wow, we we can't believe we're here talking to you, to be honest. we ⁓ 100%. We started this as a way to get out of the house. ⁓ we both have small children and wives, and we gotta we were like, you know what? We need to do something creative because we both have a creative background, and we're like, we l both love hockey and we both hate each other's NHL teams. So let's let's bond over a local team, let's get out of the house and talk hockey. For an hour or two once a week. And now we are talking on a Tampa Bay Lightning podcast. You know, it's like ⁓ it's funny how it happens like that. ⁓ but we ⁓ Justin, I always attribute Justin as the mover and the shaker. I had kind of like the dream of making this podcast. Justin was like, All right, let's meet at the library and start recording. And I was like, Okay, I guess we're doing it. Justin, please tell Jason about how this community has embraced us. ⁓ it Yeah, the the community of the of the Kitchener Rangers is phenomenal. Like I mentioned earlier, they're a community-owned team. So everybody has that sort of feeling of ownership around the team. And we didn't know like we you know, we started this podcast. We're kind of new to the area. We don't we didn't really know anything about the OHL. We we kind of took the the stance of the podcast was we're gonna learn about the OHL while watching and cheering for this one team. And ⁓ the community just sort of like They got on board with the positivity. They got on board. They love supporting these guys. What what we learned that we did right, that we didn't know we were doing right was that ⁓ that being positive and giving a nice positive spin to all these games that we're watching ⁓ was really was something that they really wanted and needed. And they were they were just so on board. And because this community is so lovely and kind, that is what ⁓ sort of made the magic happen and now the community totally embraces us and and comes to us as authorities now, which is weird. Because it's Most of these people have been yeah, lots of these people have been watching the Kitchener Rangers for so many more years than we have. Yeah. And they've gone through the eighteen year drought that just ended and stuff like that. And we're like, well, we've been here two years, three years. So it's a little imposter syndrome, I think, for us a little bit. It's just been a a crazy ride because I what I'll tell you is we thought we were starting to like follow a rebuild last year. The first, I think one of the first games, it was the first game last season. We didn't know this. The whole team was extremely stomach sick, like brutal flu bug for the op game opener. They lost it was the worst our very first game recap was the worst loss in the history of the Kitchen Rangers. They lost 12 to 2. And we were like, we were like Okay, so this podcast is gonna be interesting. And we how do we spin this positively? We had the fun with it. Yeah. Right? That was the positive. We we made jokes about it. We had fun with it. We then eventually found out that it what became known as the Pooh game. And it was it was just ultimately it was something that kind of like in great like that was kind of like, ⁓ my goodness, like They're actually good. That was just kind of like a bait and switch. And very early on, players, ⁓ players, but also players family members ⁓ followed us and engaged with us and you know, wrote to us and been like, We love what you're doing. And and it when you have that kind of support from, you know, ⁓ Matthew Anonovsky was the the team captain last year. He left and went to Belleville AHL for most of the season when he came back. ⁓ he wasn't captain anymore. Obviously, Cameron Reed, as I I mentioned earlier, was the captain, but he's such a leadership guy in this organization. I think we had just I think we had about forty followers when Ando followed us and started engaging and like liking our content and stuff. And like for that, like I mean, he's you know, he's nineteen years old and like as the kids say, we're we're a couple unks. I don't know what that means, but I know that it makes us not cool, but that's not how these guys treat us. We were down on the ice and they were giving us hugs and high fives and stuff and telling us how much they love us. And we're like, you love us. Like no, what? You just won the trophy. Yeah, yeah. We love you. We ⁓ that's that's that's awesome guys. I d I don't know if everybody knows this, but like in I I don't know how it works necessarily in in other junior programs around the US, but in Canada, ⁓ you get drafted, right? So you don't get to choose where you play your junior career. So all of these guys are playing, ⁓ they they live with billet families wherever they are. And so I I think one thing that worked well for us with the odd pod was that we were a an another connection point for families to their kids, which is like sure. It's like, ⁓ yeah, you don't realize there's like That separation and the way that like cause a lot of these kids have been out of the house since they were like fifteen years old. There is a whole other aspect of this game that I had never thought about before and ⁓ and I've learned so much about and you know, the billet life is a is a whole thing that is there's so many lovely and wonderful billet families that become like family members. I know we in the NHL we saw Matthew Schaefer living with ⁓ who's he living with the ⁓ famous former hockey player and He's just like so embraced in that family and stuff like that. And that that that totally comes from the the his junior career too, living in ⁓ Erie and having a Billet family and yeah, all that sort of thing. So Yeah, long window families are important. In the early two thousands, I had announced a lot of June USA junior hockey tournaments. And I would get people emailing me. We had an email address during the broadcast. People would email and say, Yeah, I'm listening to my son. I'm from whatever town in West, you know, Montana, Wyoming, whatever. It's really cool to see, but we are going to put all of your information in the description. We have a couple graphics that have been going on in the show. Everybody's going to find out where to find the odd pod. We appreciate it. Guys, final question. Justin, I'm going to start with you because since Andrew has the Pritham jersey, I'm going to start with you, Sam O'Reilly. In five years, Sam O'Reilly will be finish the sentence. ⁓ I think he's gonna be the second line center on Tampa Bay and on the top power play. Andrew, same question, but with Jack Prithum. In five years, Jack Prithum will be ⁓ I think Jack Prithum will be Sam O'Reilly's ⁓ favorite ⁓ Place to put the puck. And I could see him easily scoring 20 goals in the NHL. ⁓ he's got that kind of shot. And I think those two have that kind of cut chemistry, and I really hope they stay together. Guys, first of all, I can't thank you enough. Thank you for giving us the insight on Prittham and O'Reilly, telling us a little bit more about the Kitchener Rangers run. We really appreciate it for everyone at home. Check out the odd pod. You'll definitely get ⁓ some insight on Canadian junior hockey. These guys see all of the prospects coming up from tomorrow. There's a lot of insight on the odd pod. Check it out. Guys, thanks so much for joining back checking the bolts. Thanks, Jason. Really, really love being here and thanks for having us on. Yeah. Any time I appreciate it. And it and if you don't watch junior hockey, but you've got a junior hockey in your community, they fight more, they check more, they're they and they're more emotional. It's a lot of fun. Go down and support your local junior team. Appreciate it, guys. Yeah. We'd like to thank both Justin and Andrew for joining us today. They gave us some great insight on Sam O'Reilly and Jack Pritham. You can read them at theaudpod.com. Their information is going to be in the description and in the notes. Meanwhile, over at Raw Charge, Justin Godfrey is still writing each and every day. He took a look at his preseason predictions. Was he right? Was he wrong? Or was he? He's gonna break those down, but also he's gonna look at Darren Radish, where he finished in the Norris trophy race. And John Cooper, of course, won the Jack Adams Award as the top coach in the NHL for the 2025-26 season. Justin's gonna talk about John Cooper's amazing season. Thanks for joining us today. Make sure to visit Rodcharge at www.roadcharge.com. I'm Jason Lincas. Please hit that like and subscribe button and go bolts. Thank you for listening to Backchecking the Bolts. We are free and available on all platforms, including Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Amazon, YouTube, and Deezer. If you enjoyed it, please be sure to subscribe and leave a review. You can follow Justin on Blue Sky at rawcharge.com. You can follow the show on X at Tampa underscore bolts underscore pod and on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube at BackcheckingTheBolts. 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.