Landeskog To Undergo Knee Surgery, Will Miss 2023-24 Season

♪♪ Like I said back in April, you know, at that point, we come to the conclusion that coming back and playing in the playoffs wasn't an option and wasn't going to be something we could do. We continued exploring and done more study and in the last month than I have since high school. So extensive research on my end and with the help of our medical staff on the team and I'll talk to numerous doctors and medical experts. ♪♪ AKA, but as usual, you've seen a much temporary positive mindset and you sound pretty optimistic about this. I guess for that 85% success rate number that you shared with us, how confident are you not just in that number but in being able to make a recovery back to the level of play that you expected yourself? Yeah, I'm confident. I think it's an optimism and confidence that you need to have. And I think you're going to continue to explore options and stick to the plan that you put in place and really keep executing it until you get there. You know, I have spent lots of time thinking about it. And when you do come back, it's, you know, for me. I know it's not going to be perfect right off the get-go and you know, it's a long time away from the game, but I'm confident in the player I am, I'm confident in the athlete that I am. And I know that I can get myself ready, and I know, you know, where the right guidance and where the right people around me, I am confident that I'll get back out there and make a big impact on the ice, so I'm excited. ♪♪ ♪♪ Hey, everybody. Welcome in to another episode of Hockey Mountain High, J.J. Jerez on assignment. That's what a lot of times it makes it sound really fancy when we say that he's on assignment. My name is Nate Luddy. It's good to see everybody. That, of course, is Eryf Dean as well. If you're watching the video here or if you're listening to the podcast, I'm going to step in for J.J. because we had some breaking news this morning, and you just heard part of it just a moment ago with the captain Gabe Laddisgog. And we got a number of things out of the press conference, the little mini Zoom interview that he did with the media and kind of laid out what is happening. But because this is breaking news, I want to start there, Eryf. Let's begin with sort of what we found out this morning, some of the key things that you took away from the Zoom call, the presser that was held with the members of the media because, obviously, this is massive news for the Avalanche. Yeah, absolutely. Before I get into that, Nate, I got to tell you, the bosses at Mile High Sports are going to be pretty upset that you forgot to say that we are presented by Superbook Sports. Oh, they are going to be so mad that I didn't do that. Nick's sponsor. You're going to hear from them. You're going to get an email from them. I'm going to take it up with the management. I will write an angry letter to management. Yes, we are presented by our good friends at Superbook Sports. Of course, Kristen and Mike and the crew there are taking good care of you. If you don't already have the app, make sure you download it so that you can figure out how you want to bet on this team given everything that we have just found. Whatever this team looks like. Yeah, whatever this team looks like. With all of that in mind, let me backtrack now to what I said. Let's set the table here, Eryf, of what we found out this morning and kind of what you learned out of the initial parts of the media call. It all kind of went about exactly how I thought it would go. The news was announced. The Avalanche sent out a release to media saying that Landis Gog is going to miss the entire 23-24 regular season. They tweeted it as the entire season. A little bit of a question there. Then we started to do our own individual research. I saw JJ Jiraz had done a little bit of research. Mark Methought, former NHLer, put out a tweet saying that he had a similar surgery done and his never recovered to a point where he was able to skate at the NHL level again. JJ put out some videos of a doctor explaining the surgery and how it can affect an athlete. The success right behind it. It started to get a little bit of a doom and gloom, which is exactly what I thought. In Brent, my brain, I knew as soon as number 92 talks, he's going to make it a lot more optimistic. That's exactly what he did. One of the first things he said was that he studied more in the last month than he has since high school, basically saying that there is a lot of research that goes into this. This is his body, his life, his career, his well-being. He knows that this decision is not easy, but at the same time, you can't make a decision like this unless the outcome is what you're hoping for it to be. He mentioned that he spoke with Lonzo Ball, who obviously has my basketball fans and more you than me, Nate, would know that Lonzo had undergone a similar surgery here just a few weeks ago. They were able to give some feedback and piggyback off each other on what that sounds like and what that looks like. I guess the key points for me were one of the reporters asked him if he's contemplated retirement at all over the last 12 months, and he smiled and said not even a little bit, or not at all, or whatever the verbiage was that he used. He also mentioned throughout his informative part of the interview, he said that this kind of a surgery has an 85% success rate. I followed that up with how confident are you in not just that 85% number, but that you can successfully recover from this to the point where you can play at the level that you were before. In terms of the injury recovery part, he made it sound like he has full confidence. The part that he was forward with was he's going to be 31, next year, 32, the month after the 24, 25 season starts. It's going to take him a couple. It's not going to be easy, I think, was how he said it. It's not going to be a smooth process, but it's going to take a little bit for him to get his legs under him. Everything we're hearing from Gabe makes it sound like it's not a matter of if it's a matter of when. Maybe that's a positive and an optimistic mindset he has to have for his own mental health, but at the same time, it goes back to the press conference he had, the second last day of the regular season, that last home game the Avalanche had where he had that same level of optimism. He's upset that he can't play. He's frustrated. He's sad that he can't be on the ice, but it's not a matter of if he's back, it's a matter of when he's back. Yeah, and I remember that about the presser that he held there at the end of the regular season. He was very optimistic. I mean, look, neither one of us can necessarily climb inside Gabe's head, but I've got to feel like a lot of what we saw in that first press conference and a lot of what you saw and heard in the one that he had this morning. I really do feel like it's almost he has to convince himself or coach himself into that sort of positive mindset. And what's funny about it for me, and it is this to me is so perfectly aligned with why he's been the captain of this team for so long, right? I mean, he knows how to carry himself with the media. He's a very likable individual, but he's a leader and leaders don't spend a lot of time talking about doom and gloom. And so it doesn't surprise me at all to hear you say that that was his approach in the Zoom call today because we certainly saw it in that presser. So I think you're on to something, Eric, that there's probably some of this that is him actually keeping his own positive mindset going as much as it is him trying to say the right things for his team or his teammates or the fans. Yeah, it's that old school mindset that the leader of the pack shows no weakness. And that's what we saw in the end of the regular season. The one time there was a little bit of a glimpse of him admitting to it was when I asked him if he's going to be traveling for the playoffs and if he's going to be around the team, which he was, he wasn't Seattle. He was very public. Like we saw him often and there was after the morning skate of Game 4, I was walking in the hallway with Ryan Clark, who used to live here in Denver. And we walked by Darren Helm and Gabe Landeskog and Landeskog stood and chatted with us. Like he was very public facing and, you know, in good spirits as he was. But when I asked him if he was going to be traveling for the playoffs, he said, yeah, you know, be around the team, try to help anyway I can. And then he took a step back and smiled and said, and for my own sake as well to basically say like, I need this for myself. But, you know, that's Gabe Landeskog. That's the way he's always going to be. And, you know, we often talk about surgeries and how the average human, like you and me, it's different for us to recover from surgeries than a professional athlete. We've seen professional athletes have their careers ended by injuries and by surgeries and reoccurring problems. I mean, Peter Forsberg is one of the greats here in Denver that missed an entire regular season right after winning the Stanley Cup. And it's the same thing we just saw with Gabe Landeskog. But we often see that players can rebound from things like this. You know, Sidney Crosby in 2012, the concussion issues almost made it feel like his career was going to cut short. But here we are 10, 11 years later, he just played 82 games like and was exceptional in them over 90 points in the regular season. So you're kind of, there is that thought and that belief that he is being positive because he has to be positive because there's no other way to be with something like this. Why would you sit there and doom and gloom? But at the same time, there was a little bit of an informative side to the interview today and to the information he gave and the way he shared it where it kind of made it sound like, I'm not just doing this to hang it up and worry about my own life outside of hockey, which is a big part of this. But he also made it clear that like, this is part of my recovery to getting back. You know, we often hear football players talk about how they are choosing their life after sport and they want to take care of themselves and their well-being and worry about their family and their kids. Gabe didn't go that route. That part seems like he's got that figured out and that's going to be fine. But it was more of the recovery to get back to being number nine to be on the ice to playing out the rest of his contract and rest of his career. Do you think you talked about, I mean, he talked about the amount of research that went into it and all of that. Did you get any sense that he has some regret that it took this long to make the decision? So that's a good point because that's something I wanted to talk about. He mentioned somebody asked and it was a great question when he first was, you know, given this option and when this option was introduced, having the transplant, the cartilage transplant, in his right knee and he said it was September 2022, the first time he heard about it. Wow. He heard about it at the same time that he was given the option to do what he ended up doing, which is the rehab process of trying to get back. And he also mentioned that he doesn't believe they made, he said, quote, I feel we made all the right decisions along the way and it's basically, look, in hindsight, hindsight is hindsight. It's always going to be that way. But in that moment back then it was, do we do this surgery that, you know, is probably going to keep you out about 12 to 18 months or do we rehab it and hey, you know what, even if I'm out six months, I'll be back for game one of the playoffs and I'll feel fine. But at the time he didn't realize that the damage, like he said, the damage had already been done and that ultimately wasn't going to work. So you have two choices of which way you want to go. He took the one choice. He got to the end of the road. He exhausted that effort. He's now jumped to the other one after further research. So, you know, I do love the mindset that he hasn't that of, you know, hindsight is always going to be like, you know, there's a very weird situation going on with down the Chuchkin right now. It's very public knowledge. And right now you can sit there and just say, God, the avalanche are so stupid. They gave 49 million to Nichushkin instead of 49 million to cadre and how dare they do that. But in July of 2022, the obvious choice was to give Nichushkin the 49 and not cadre given the age and the points in their career. So I do appreciate and love the fact that he's not having that doom and gloom, even looking back to saying, I could have done things differently because he knows that had he gone that route right away in Benati or in a half, he's always going to have that thought of his mind of, did I just blow the entire 2023 season because I rushed into this decision? Well, and let's face it. I mean, he's he's able to have some of the positive spin on everything because they won the cup. I mean, let's be honest. If that if he had put his body through all of that at the end of the 21 22 season and they hadn't reached the mountaintop, he probably would he'd probably be pissed off. He probably wouldn't have the same kind of vibe that he does right now. But I he's I think he still recognizes that he put himself through all of that to help the team achieve the ultimate goal. And I think he's always going to be able to carry that and I have a feeling for me that that probably allows him to to to accept, if you will, the hindsight part of it, right? Because he he did it. You know, he hoisted the cup. And I think that probably plays into him being able to be as positive as he was. If I want to take us in another direction, obviously Chris McFarland was also a part of this call, the general manager. What kinds of questions and what kinds of comments did he make in terms of what this means to the makeup of this roster? And what kind of did he start to hint at or did he indicate where he is starting to put his focus now that he knows that Landis Gog is not going to be able to be out there on the ice next season. Yeah. So after he got through his intro of the very obvious, you can't replace Gabe Landis Gog. This is not a player that you can replace what he said back in the regular season press conference of Gabe Landis Gogs don't grow on tree. Like we've gotten don't grow on trees. We've gotten past that part. He did mention that, you know, and he kept using the word potentially, but the reality is he's not going to play the entire 23-24 regular season, even if he returns in the playoffs, which he left the door open for that. And I'm talking about Gabe, but not with the certainty that he can be back. He just said it's too early to tell, but the 23-24 regular season is 100% out of the question. But Chris McFarland did say it potentially opens up avenues that weren't available to us this past season. And ultimately what that is is Gabe Landis Gog, $7 million is going to go on long-term injury reserve. The salary cap is only going up by $1 million this season. The salary cap next year for the summer, the off-season July 1st of 2024 is going up by a heck of a lot more than a million because the COVID relief will have been paid off. The escrow will even out a little bit. The NHL will be able to make that jump and finally benefit from the Seattle expansion, from the ESPN TNT deals, from all the things that have drove revenue in this league over the last five years, despite the COVID pods. So with that in mind, he does have those extra avenues because, you know, last year, the Capitals didn't have Nicholas Backstrom for what they thought would be the entire regular season. He ended up coming back late in the regular season, but obviously they were able to offset it with other LTIRs. But when Backstrom was going to supposedly be done for the entire 23 regular season, all they could do is sign a band-aid and Dylan Stromb, one year, $2 million. He's a forward that's going to come in and be a centerman and give you a little bit of offensive production, but you can't commit to anything because once Backstrom comes back, there are salary cap ramifications. The Avalanche are kind of in a better situation that by the time Landiscock plays, if a regular season game again, the earliest it could be is October of 2024, when the salary cap has risen 1 million and then a bigger jump of 7 or 8 million. So you can now go out and commit to a player. You can commit to trading for let's say Nick Schmaltz, 5.8 million over the next six years or whatever his contract is. You can sign or trade for someone, not him specifically, but someone like Nazem Kadri, who's also under contract for $7 million long term. Because by the time Landiscock is back on the books, you don't have to do what the capitals did and have a band-aid where he's off the books and you're back to having Landiscock on the books. By then the salary cap will jump where this one year transition with a flat cap of only a 1 million jump is the year that Gable Andeskog is L-T-I-R. So he didn't mention that it opens up avenues. He mentioned things like, you know, when we are looking at the trade market, it's a matter of who's available, who makes sense, and what assets do we have to trade. And the Avalanche have a little bit of them right now. They have their first rounder this year and next year. They have players like Alex Newhuck if they want to move on from Sam Gerard who, you know, if Tyson Berry got you Nazem Kadri, what can Sam Gerard get you? So they do have a lot of avenues and I think it opens up, especially with the clarity of knowing Gable Andeskog is not playing the 23-24 regular season. Already going into this offseason, there were going to be changes. Already going into this offseason. McFarland needed to rebuild this team. Knowing that Landiscock is not playing a regular season game next year, it's just going to make it a lot more urgent and a lot more aggressive and I think we're going to see a lot of moves from the Avalanche. Yeah, it gives them knowing now, I guess, right? I mean, here we are sitting on May 9th and you already know. What you're able to do from a roster standpoint and you brought up some really good points about the dollars. You can plan ahead and think about 24-25 knowing that you're going to see that jump as you said and you're going to see the TV deals and the Kraken, et cetera. You're going to see all of those things start to kick in. So you're, I mean, if you were going to be strapped with something like this, this is the season of the season. You're going to see something like this. This is the season to have it happen, right? 100 years. This is, you couldn't ask, I mean, you don't want to wish this on anybody, but at the same time, if it were going to happen, this sure as heck is the right time for it to happen. From a business standpoint, this is 100% the best time for it to happen. You know, if the only time better, you know, what's the saying? The second best time to plant a tree is today, the best time was 50 years ago or whatever. The second best time for this to happen was now the best time was now the best time would have been knowing all of this information last year, knowing you're not going to have landers talk for two regular seasons so that you can plan ahead, whether it's cadre or another second line center, you could have done that move last year, but that information wasn't available. Right. This is the first year, the first off season where that information is available. You know what the situation is. You know when the cap is going to make the jump. It's all very much guaranteed at this point. And it's happening in May, less than 60 days out from July 1st, which is when all the action happens. About a month and a half out from the NHL draft where you have a first round draft, they're going to deep draft. And if you want to start making moves, you can. So it absolutely from a business standpoint, this gives the avalanche a lot of clarity and a lot of resources to move forward. Beyond the news with Landis Gogg today, Eref, what else was there? Were there other topics that McFarland addressed in terms of this team? You know, I mean, as long as we're here and we're doing the pod episode, I know this is primarily about Gabe, but are there any other news and notes, anything else that came out of this presser that you want to make sure that we touch on? Yeah, let's start with the injuries. He did mention, because the avalanche, they don't do closing exit interviews. They don't release injuries or anything like that publicly. So he was asked about that. He said that Kogliano, first starters, has a six to eight week recovery timeline from his neck fracture, which is a fracture that many of us thought, hey, maybe this ends his career, but knowing it six to eight weeks, knowing how good he played last year, well, now the idea of Kogliano returning is not out of the question. You know, whether it's to the avalanche or elsewhere, if he wants to play again, six to eight weeks isn't a terrible timeline for him to be healthy again. And, you know, guys like Eric Johnson certainly did slow down last year, Kogliano didn't. So that was the first one. Guys that are under contract, he said Manson had a procedure done last week, didn't specify what it was. Arturi Lekinin, who obviously broke his finger in Montreal a few months back, broke a toe in the playoffs. So that would be operated on. That was a report that we heard out of Finland a few days ago. It was obviously confirmed today. And Pevale Frans always had a procedure done on an adductor. And all of these guys, he said, are expected to recover, quote, here in the near future. Okay. So Franky Lekinin Manson, he didn't mention anybody else. Was having any surgeries at this moment. He didn't mention there would be any other injuries. Obviously that all snowballs into the big giant question mark. That is Valerian Nachushkin and that whole situation. And that was the last thing he touched on. Okay. So from that standpoint, obviously you had the story, the police records, all the things that were that were public. Do you think, you know, what kind of field do you think? What kind of field do you have, Erif, on, on maybe when we're going to know more or when there might be some clarity or, I mean, it, does that timeline even exist right now? Do we have any idea when we may start to know those kinds of things? I asked him for clarity on, on, if all, if he expects to have Nachushkin available for the start of training camp. And he says they can't comment on Val's situation at this time. Another comment he made was he was a very important part of our team in the future for sure. So that says to me that whatever is happening. So we've seen teams want to get rid of players because of something that happens privately. You know, we saw it with the San Jose Sharks and Evander Kane. We just recently saw it not as intense as the Kane situation, but the Detroit Red Wings with Jacob Verana, they ended up tossing him into the AHL. They tossed him aside. He's a guy that was scoring at a more than half a goal per game pace with them over three years. Obviously dealing with injuries as well. And then they traded him to St. Louis for seemingly nothing where he went on to score a lot of goals with the Blues as well. And he's under contract for one more year. So we've seen that historically, but the way he said we hope he's going to be a very important part of our team in the future for sure says to me that whatever the situation is, whether it's legal, whether it's not private matter, public matter, whatever the heck it is, it's a situation where if Val can tie his loose ends and figure out his own private matter, he will be welcomed back into this team. That's the way that I took it. I asked him if there was any murkiness around next season's salary cap, given the Neutushkin situation. And he said, no murkiness. We know who we have. We know who we don't have. So he could have been avoiding Val and talking about everybody else. Or he could have actually been answering the question. And if so, that says to me that, you know, they're not worried about when Val comes back or if Val comes back is just more of a challenge. So it's, it's all still a big question mark. We don't have any other information. I have no reason to believe that he's in Denver right now. Granted, I can't confirm that. But all we know right now is given the quote that he said of, we hope that he's going to be a very important part of our team in the future for sure says to me that the team wants him back. And if they can figure out whether it's a legal matter or a private matter, public matter, we can't do that. And so I think that's a good thing. The team wants him back and if they can figure out whether it's a legal matter, a private matter, public matter, whatever it is that's going on with Val. If he can tie up those loose ends, he will be welcome back in with open arms. Okay. Well, I mean, obviously there's a lot that they can't comment on. So I'm not surprised. You know, I mean, I wasn't expecting that we were going to get this massive amount of clarity instantaneously because there are a lot of, there's a lot of moving parts to this. I was just sort of curious what the, because sometimes you can, like you just hinted at it. Sometimes you can sit back and hear the words that he's saying, but you can also sort of infer a general mood, right? It's, you know, is it immediately depressing when the conversation goes that direction or does there seem to be some optimism? And it sounds like there's some optimism, but a lot of murkiness. Is that probably the best way to put it? That's a good way to put it. Either that or Chris McFarland just has an exceptional poker face and that's the case. Then maybe he does and maybe he's going to use that poker face to his advantage with, with some trade calls here in the off season. But regardless, it's, it's still to this point to not have any clarity on the situation where he is, what the deal is with him. The fact that the team is not commenting on it. It's hard to really figure out what the gravity of the situation is. Like how intense or how private a matter is this or is it just something that they refuse to talk about because you have an intro secretive with things like this. It's hard to get a gauge and that's, I guess, the most frustrating part, not just for reporters, but for public and for the public and for fans that just want to know if number 13 is going to be on the team next season. Like something as simple as that, we don't have clarity on. But it says to me that, you know, if he's not going to be a part of this team and if that was just an excellent poker face from, from Chris McFarland, then he's going to navigate the salary cap accordingly. But if he is going to be, he's also going to navigate the salary cap accordingly. It doesn't sound like he doesn't know. It doesn't sound like this is going to be a situation where that six plus $6.125 million against the cap is a question mark and he doesn't know if he needs to save it for Val or use it elsewhere. It doesn't sound like he's, he's, he's like stuck in limbo with that. At least that's how I took it. Okay. Um, from there, um, anything else that you took away that you want to make sure that we touch on on this episode? Yeah, it's just that it's going to be an exciting off season. I, I think this is going to be, you know, already heading into this, there's a lot of moving parts for the avalanche. You know, they have a Nathan McKinnon, a meeko, right in an Arturi, like in, uh, in your top six. The other three guys from the Stanley Cup are Landeskog who's out for the regular season, Nachushkin, who's a question mark and cadre who signed elsewhere. Outside of those three guys, and even if you want to include Nachushkin, knowing you have to replace two guys in your top six and Landeskog and, and, you know, what they did not replace in Nazemkadry last year. And then looking at the bottom six and the only two guys on there that are under team controller contract or O'Connor and New Hook. Obviously, I mentioned Kaggliano could be resigned. I mentioned New Hook. Hey, maybe they trade him. I mentioned, uh, you know, I didn't mention, but Darren Helm, maybe he wants to give it another go. Lars Eller, maybe he wants to sign as a fourth line center. There's already a lot of spots that need to be filled. There's already going to be a little bit of a makeover for this team. But in order to do that initially, and obviously Evan Rodriguez, who knows what happens there, initially it was already going to take a little bit of maneuvering and captain nastics to make it work. You got to trade probably a Sam Gerard to free up space for your forward core. Not trade Sam Gerard because people for some reason hate him. He's a wonderful defenseman, but because you have an excess of defenseman and you need to put that money towards your forwards. And that's the guy that makes the most sense to move. So it was already going to take a little bit of captain nastics to make it work, but there was already going to be a makeover. Now with the gay blandest dog situation being what it is, like I said, it opens up the avenues to trade for a player of a Nick Schmaltz stature who's under contract for 5.8 million long term. Now you can look at a UFA like I don't know a barbershever, Rhino Riley, like guys that are going to ask for a bigger number that you wouldn't have afforded if gay blandest dog was going to play this year. But when gay blandest dog plays, you'll be able to fit it in. So it just seems like there is going to be a lot of moving parts this offseason for the avalanche. The team is going to look different in the grand scheme of things from the one that won the Stanley Cup, but the pieces at the top, the main guys, the McKinney's, the Mikko's, the Leckenins, the Taves and Byrums and Macar's, those are going to be the same. But filling in the depth around them, which was the story against the Seattle Kraken of why they were unable to advance out of the first round, is going to look entirely different. And now with the Landescock situation, being what it is and having clarity on that, it's going to be an exciting offseason from that point of view, you know, not to turn the Landescock thing into a positive, but if you are for player movement and seeing things happen, all the best to the captain and hope he can be back in 12 to 18 months from now, but his money freeing up right now in this moment gives the avalanche the ability to make some moves. Yeah, it gives them a lot of, it gives them a lot of flexibility. Because as Eryph so rightfully pointed out, the bosses are going to be mad if I don't remind you that we are brought to you by our friends at Superbook. Of course, baseball season is going on, but you've got postseason with hockey, with basketball as well, even with the abs being done. We know that there's still plenty going on. So if you're looking for the opportunity to make it all count this spring, you can do that with Superbook Sports. They're the best wagering app around. They've got a direct line to experienced bookmakers behind the counter in Las Vegas. And right now you've got a $250 bonus when you sign up deposit and wager in the same day. So as we go through this playoff run, don't go without having the opportunity to win some cash with Superbook Sports. You can visit superbook.com, get all the terms and conditions gambling problem, 1-800-522-4700. Eryph, I will yield the floor to you here. Any final thoughts you want to do before we put a bow on this sort of special edition of Hockey Mountain High, reacting to Gabe's news? No, that's pretty much it. I appreciate you stepping in. Of course. Gabe D'Razz, obviously. He's on assignment. He's on assignment. That's what we... That's what we... That's what we... That's what... It just makes it sound so much better. Yeah. Little do we know he's just... He's his own babysitter and has to take care of his kid. But he's on assignment. He's on assignment. Let's see. Now you peeled back the curtain. Now people understand... No, we had no idea. We had no idea. In all honesty, he's doing what is the most important job, which is being a dad. So he is taking care of that. I was more than happy to be able to step in. You know, look, this is going to be a long process for Landis Gog. You know, we're probably not going to get a chance to talk about him a lot for a while. But going back to the point that I think is the most important one that Abb's fans can take away from this particular episode is if it were going to happen to the team, you couldn't ask for better timing in terms of what Chris McFarland can do. I mean, for me, that is my biggest takeaway from today and from this particular episode is recognizing that if it were going to happen, at least it happened at a point where the abs can make the most of it. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. The most important piece. They can't have this linger for two seasons and the fact that it lingered for one season, fool me once, you know, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. If it happened again, it would have been time to question the front office, but they got everything they needed to figure out before the draft, before free agency, before all the moves happened. So it's great for the avalanche for that. Obviously we wish Gableandis Gog the absolute best. There's no better time to talk to. I cannot wait for locker room access with Gableandis Gog. We haven't had that since March 2020, obviously, because of COVID and there's no better guy to talk to. There's no better human in that locker room, you know, that I've ever dealt with. And there's a reason why he's the captain. There's a reason why he's busting his ass off to get back. It's because that's why he does and it's the only way he knows how to operate. So, And folks that know me and know my background, know that I've been here for, you know, I've been in Denver for over 13 years. And I've lived all over the country. I've covered every sport I've talked to. I've met and I've been lucky enough to meet a lot of different athletes. But I will tell you there is there aren't a lot of Gableandis Gog's out there. He's one of my favorite people, let alone favorite athletes. So I just want to, I want to echo what Arif just said and wish him the absolute best on the surgery tomorrow. And then the recovery process because sports is a better place with Gableandis Gog in it, for sure. Absolutely. Without a doubt. For our friends at Superbook Sports, he is Arif Dean. Make sure you're following him on Twitter at Run Right Arif. Also make sure that you're catching all of the episodes of Hockey Mountain High. Get them wherever you get your podcast and do us a favor. Give us a rating or a review. If you enjoy the pod, do that for us. We always appreciate those kinds of things. JJ will be back probably when the kiddo is napping. That is when he will make his return. But for Arif Dean, I am Nate Luddy. Thanks for stopping by. I'm Nate Luddy. Part of this episode. What do you got? Let me go ahead and close it out the way JJ does. If you made it this far in the podcast, bless your pretty little heart. Let's make hockey for everyone. I mean, we out you. You're welcome. We're going to be watching you. Bye. Bye. Bye. .