Treliving To Maple Leafs Heating Up? | May 25, 2023

For the first time since 1996, the Florida Panthers advance to the Stanley Cup final sweeping the Carolina Hurricanes and one half of Chris Johnston's conference final predictions comes to fruition with Florida making the Stanley Cup final. How are you feeling on this Thursday morning, sir? I mean, I'm still trying to process this and full credit to the Panthers, but like you go back the last week of the regular season, they were not a sure thing to make the playoffs. They're down three one to Boston. They're one minute from losing game seven in Boston and get a tie and goal and win an overtime. And then they've now reeled off 11 wins and 12 games in the playoffs. They beat out three of the top four regular season teams in Boston, Toronto and Carolina by points. I mean, it's honestly a little bit storybook and that's not to like cascade it and say the Panthers aren't worthy. That's not really what I'm getting at here. But the fact that they, after their president's trophy season blowing so much up, having some struggle to get back to being a version of what they were and then to find it all at this time of year with a chance to win the cup. That's, uh, it's quite something man. And it's sort of fitting, right? Cause 1996 I would have been wearing like neon. What's one of those belts called around your waist? Fanny packs, like everything, everything that was in style in 96 is coming back around again now. That's all I'm saying. Wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's say, let's take a break in hockey talk to discuss Chris Johnston's fashion sense. What are you talking about for 1996? Fanny packs, the, what belt, what, what belt are you talking or pants or the zoom ass pants? I'm just saying a lot of stuff that was in style in the nineties is back again. I see the kids these days that I'm walking around. I'm like, I used to wear stuff like that. I get it. I mean, even Matthew could Chuck's hairstyle. That has not been in style since around that time. A little bit. He's got like the hair going like a little bit of a mullet action going on. How old were you in 1996? Were you at a point where you could like take girls on dates in 96? Or is that too young? No. Well, I was at a point where theoretically I could have, but I was certainly not doing that. Okay. But like if you, if you, if you were trying to impress a lady in 1996, what was the fit? What were you doing? Oh dude. I don't even, why do you have to invoke it like that? Cause I could not. You're a what? No. I just said, 96 was a hot time. I'm just, I'm just, I'm just playing with what I'm giving man. Right. But I am not at all pretending I was like this cool 14 year old man. I was still coming to my own in a lot of ways. I was probably wearing like baggy sweatshirts and Nike shoes. I don't know. There was no, there was nothing you would call a fit is all I'm saying. Like it would have been like whatever the hell clothes I had, I was putting on. What was like in it? Like I was two years old in 1996 and it was Colorado versus Florida and that Stanley Cup final that year. If you wanted to watch the Stanley Cup final that year, who had it? Like how were you watching? CBC in Canada. Yes, that's what I figured. It was Bob Cole and Harry Neal. I did watch that Stanley Cup final. I actually the clinching game. I didn't get to stay up till the end because it was triple overtime. When the avalanche won that cup, I think we group scored and triple overtime to win that cup. Yes, if I'm not mistaken. But it was that was kind of a fairytale run for the Panthers too, right? They were a third year team and the rats, the whole rat craze originally was going. You had Patrick Waugh like hiding in his net for all the rats rain down after a goal. As a kid, that was kind of a cool story. And I imagine for a new generation of fans as much commentary as there's been around this, I think that the Panthers are a great story for hockey. And as I say, I don't see it as a total fluke given the success. They had last year in the regular season. It's just, you know, it's a non-linear story in a sport that's not linear. And a camera report this out last night, but I saw it on Twitter that the flame said 93 points in Missile playoffs and the Panthers at 92 and they're in the Stanley Cup final. I mean, oh, I've heard that stat for weeks. You're more attuned to that, obviously living in Calgary. I wasn't trying to equate the flames in the Panthers in any way. But I mean, it's a great story. And this is, I suppose this gives rise to the narratives and things like this is why you got to stick with it if you're a team. I think we do have to acknowledge the playoffs are their own beast because it's a two month sprint versus a six month regular season, which is a little bit more like a marathon. Obviously, the style of play gets a little different. I mean, like lots of things go on, but we'll see. Panthers looks like we're going to get the Golden Knights unless you see an 0-3 comeback off the mat for the Dallas Stars. Doesn't seem that plausible. It doesn't seem like they have a lot of life or spark in their series in the Western Conference final. And so Dallas, Florida, just as we all predicted. No, yeah. Well, the Vegas Florida you made. Vegas Florida, sorry. Yes. But all that to say, like, you know, JB Ben doing what he did, we could spare a moment for that at some point, but I do want to ask a question about Matthew Kachuk because he finds a way to score three game winning goals in that series, two of them in overtime, and then the goal in game four with like five seconds left. I know Sergey Babrowski has one hand on the Konsmai trophy already, but is it time that we bring back the Kachuk for Konsmai and what does this do for his legacy as a player? Like I'm already thinking of him as a top five player in the National Hockey League. I get it. He doesn't have the same accolades as some other players in that top five, but he's on a roll right now. And I think he's going to be playing at that level for some time. Oh, he's definitely taken another step in the public consciousness. It doesn't mean he's necessarily any better. It's just you're going to get more recognition if you play all the way to the Stanley Cup final. I mean, this guy's going to be the toast of there's a big media day before the Stanley Cup final. He's going to be one of the most sought after interviews. You know, he's going to be featured on the National broadcast in Canada in the US probably elsewhere in the world too. The Finns come over and do it. There's a Chinese broadcast in the Cup final on site. So he's going to be at a different level. Look, he does have a hundred points. He's in the Sun as though this isn't totally out of nowhere. I just think he's taken a progression. And now you're seeing, you know, he's got Nick Cousins as one of his line mates. Like it's not as though there's no sort of yeah, buddy, plays with Johnny Goodrow or whatever about his production now. I mean, he's he's driving that. And then obviously you score these sort of clutch goals. I mean, that's that's narrative driving right there, right? To do what he did in the conference final as you highlight. Sure. I think it at least it at least gives us a conversation point heading into the Cup final that it's not Bob Roski's Consmite to lose. I still think it it is myself just because his performance has been so superlative. But you know, I've been a voter on the Consmite trophy in the past. Not sure if I am this year, you do have to consider everyone. And you know, he's clearly number two on the floor to side of the ledger as we look at it right now. I shouldn't say that it's like unanimous. Maybe some people out there have a number one. I just think it's impossible to ignore Bob's. I mean, what was his save percentage in that series? It was like 970 or something like it was really high. And like his goal saved up of expected is like almost 19 at least entering game four. Like it's nothing short of insane. I think with Matthew, look, I get it. Like we talk about players and we discuss the NHL trying to market their stars and how they don't necessarily do the greatest job at that. So I'm not going to hold out hope that the NHL is going to do that with Matthew Kuchok. But could be imagined a world where, you know, if they actually really did their job with this and I get that there's going to be the media contingent around them talking to them at the media day, but like, there's such an opportunity with not just a player who can can back it up with his play and do well, but also someone who has a bit of a personality that's at least for me, like I didn't get to cover him. You know, I came obviously after the trade, but like in just the brief time I got to talk to him, like in terms of his personality, like I can get why people would get behind a player like that. I get why people would get super annoyed by a player like Matthew Kuchok, but like there's a real opportunity to market a guy like it. Not off the ice. I mean, this guy is as genuine and real as they come. He says, what you see is what you get. There's no games. There's no image consciousness. He's just a real, you know, he's a real guy and he's grown up in the sport, obviously, with his dad. And there's all these photos from over the years of like young Matthew Kuchok and young Brady Kuchok with, you know, Sidney Crosby or whatever, you know, from NHL All-Star games, you know, when their dad was still participating. I mean, these guys, it's a great story. And he, I actually think he markets himself quite honestly. I mean, I find him compelling every time I see him in front of a microphone. You know, last night I watched him on the TNT broadcast. They had him postgame like, I love, you don't really know what's going to come out of his mouth. He's good, humored. And, you know, I think it's quite clear that his personality has actually shaped, you know, shifted things for the Panthers a little bit too. I think he's, obviously it's the goals he's scoring and the points he put up in the regular season were part of their success. But I think there's a, maybe an attitude or swagger, whatever you want to call it, that he's brought to the, that organization. And that's, that's been one of the less tangible things we can measure. But I think it's been a huge part of what the success has been. So yeah, I'm with you. I think, I'm a little less cynical. I think that that he will market himself. I'm not sure that you need to put him on a billboard. In today's day and age, I think that social media has such power. And because his interviews are so compelling, slash funny, slash, you just don't know what's going to come out of his mouth that that, you know, his, his star is very much on the rise. Are you going to the Cup final this year? I don't know. I'm not sure at this point in time. So. Oh, okay. I didn't know that. Okay. I mean, whoever will be, it will likely be Vegas and Florida. I mean, honestly, if you, I don't even if you don't end up going, you can take yourself some time to relax a little bit on the couch. You know what I'm saying? Either way, travel a lot these last few weeks, put it this way. Either way, I'll be watching what I'm in the building or inside home. Oh, absolutely. We'll definitely be watching the stay on the Cup final. We're going to do a really quick sports interaction segment. And then we will talk about Brad for a living and the chances of him becoming Leafs GM and a few other topics on the other side. You can bet that with David Bastol brought to you by sports interaction, get in the action and make a play 19 plus please play responsibly. Welcome to you can bet that. Remember to hit up sports interaction dot com slash SDPN for all of your gaming needs. The board for who could be the next head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs after Sheldon Keve leaves if that were to happen, you know, because he's still head coach as of right now. But the fact that we see a board here, you know, still pretty interesting to go through some of the names. Gerard Galant is now the betting favorite according to sports interaction. Andrew Burnett, second place, Joe Quenville behind him as well. Spencer Carbrie is there. Bruce Boudreau is there. Darryl Sutter has a stone's throw chance at this job, which still boggles my mind. Oh no, CJ. So what we did this on Monday, we pointed out the fact that Elliott Friedman was on the list and he had the lowest odds. He was tied for the lowest odds at that head coaching job with Paul Bissonette and Don Cherry. I'm here to tell you today, CJ, those the lowest odds now belong to someone else. Do you care to guess who is the long shot for the Toronto Maple Leafs head coaching job? Pierre Lebron. Pierre Lebron is not the answer. Yes, again. Steve Dangle. Steve Dangle is the answer. 205. Oh, Steve Dangle has a better chance at becoming Leafs head coach than you. That's weird. Imagine, imagine he was doing the LFRs like from the coaches room post game. Oh my God. He'd get millions of views on that. Yes. And he'd be fired the next day by his boss. The one would do what LFR. He would do precisely one and then he would be back to being just a Leafs fan doing videos. It is maybe not his basement anymore, but in his house, in the blue room. LFR season 17 live from the coaches room in Toronto. Steve Dangle just yelling and then the videos just cut off because Brendan Shanahan turns off the camera. I'll say this. There should be odds. There should be odds that Sheldon Keefe as a Leafs coach next year. I as much as often a new GM might want a new coach, I don't think it's impossible. He's back quite honestly. No, I at this point, like I have to admit, like a week or two ago, I was like, okay, like Sheldon Keefe is probably the sacrificial lamb. Now I have no idea. And I wonder if how that impacts a potential GM coming in, which we'll get to on the other side of his segment. But like, if he's still around, you know, this board is very much null and void. But hey, no, look, he's still under contract. He still coached the teams at 115 and 111 points the last two regular seasons. And a new GM might want to see what he has in them, especially if there's no, like I say this with respect to the candidates on your board, including Steve Dangle, there's no one that's clearly better who's available to work in the NHL tomorrow. I'll say that. I mean, obviously Joel Quenville's resume is what it is, but he's still not able to work in a league as of now. So I mean, the new GM might still keep him around. So on just just just dropping that little head depth, that's entirely possible. But yeah, still still, like I know I kind of went through that it's still very possible Sheldon stays. But definitely not insignificant in my mind that that is still something I guess you people can can bet on. I still have I've spoken my piece about Joel Quenville and and all that I still think it's really weird that he's included in such these in these things and even in these searches. But if we end up talking about that a little bit more, you know what, that's going to be another 20 minutes in itself. I will let that lay on on that as we wrap up. You can bet that don't forget to check out sports interaction dot com slash SDPN for all the best odds before game in game and the best props sports interaction dot com slash SDPN CJ, where in the world is Brad tree living? Well, I don't know where he is, but I know what he's been doing. And that's having some discussions with them. April leaves about their vacant general manager's job, which, you know, we'll come to no surprise to anyone keeping tabs on this. I think that that he was identified by me and others pretty quickly here is probably in the in the poll position, as we might say in the Leafs GM search, just given his his history where, you know, the fact he's available is notable and very experienced general manager. And and you know, it does seem as though the the Leafs process has started in terms of interviewing and and, you know, I think he's had some conversations with the team. Now, what's what's I think notable about the the Leafs GM search is, you know, you heard, for example, in Calgary, they laid out the process that led with Craig Conroy, becoming general manager, he'll starts with a wide list of candidates, you have a smaller group on zoom, you're, you know, going back and forth, maybe the NHL head office on candidates, you get it down to the the short list in their case, it was four. The Leafs are doing it a little differently. And you know, part of that is it's just a narrower field when you put experience as is basically the number one criteria, there's there's just less people you could be considering, just as a result of that. But it does sound like it's going to be a pretty small number of candidates the Leafs will end up looking at we know true livings one haven't yet confirmed anyone else. I mean, we know the list of other experienced hands include the likes of say Mark Burjame, you know, guys like Peter Schurrelli, Ray Schiro, Jason Baudrill, who I've mentioned. At this point, none of those people by me anyway have been able to confirm are truly candidates of the Leafs, meaning that I don't know, have any reason to believe or knowledge that they've been speaking yet to the Leafs front office. But my understanding of how this will go is that a few more candidates will be interviewed. And I think what the Leafs have done is they've left their mind open to maybe expanding the field even wider if they don't feel like they have the right fit in the smaller group. So they're almost doing it in the reverse order of what you see the other teams other teams take a wide list and continually shrink it down to their one. The Leafs I'm not saying I've started at one, but I think they're starting at a small handful of really attractive candidates and they're willing to go a little broader if they they're not totally sure that they have what they need. And you know, I don't think either is necessarily better than the other. I mean, I think some of having that wide swath of candidates, Pittsburgh's done this too, like Calgary, part of that is because they had time, right? I mean, they basically within days of the regular season, the Penguins had fired their GM Ron Hexthall, Brad Trilevin and the Flames had parted ways. And so, you know, they had two and a half months till the draft from that point. So they had maybe the comfort of time and like, why not have lots of conversations and see where it ends up. I think in the Leafs case, obviously, we recognize the time crunch. And I think that they have a very clear idea of what they're looking for. I think Brad Trilevin fits the bill. But we'll have to see, you know, I don't know how those interviews went. I don't know how he was perceived, how he came across. I'm sure those interviews include conversation points. Like, what would you do? You know, awesome Matthew says a contract coming up. How would you approach that? Well, you Neil Andrew might have a contract extension, you know, all those types of things, you know, how that would come across in an interview, probably affects whether he gets a job or not. So we'll have to see where it goes. But we do know Brad Trilevin is part of the process and the Leafs have started that process. How do you feel about Brad Trilevin as a general manager, just in terms of the moves that he's made, the experience that he has, we know he has that experience for sure. But in terms of just his, just you dealing with him and the moves that you've seen him do throughout his time as Flames GM, how do you feel about Brad Trilevin? Well, he's a bright guy. That's the first thing that pops out to me. Very personable, thoughtful, intelligent, he's a sort of person when you ask a question, sometimes he takes a second because he's really thinking it through, you know what I mean? Like it's not just can't answer, can't answer, can't answer. I agree. And, and, you know, there's something to be said for his experience. Like I know in, in, this isn't pursuing just to Brad, but in general, sometimes you go, Oh, there's all these retreads in hockey. Well, the truth is his experience can be a good thing, right? Because Brad Trilevin lived the Johnny Goodrow saga, we'll call it, or the Johnny Goodrow situation from start to finish in terms of dealing with his agent, going into that walk here, deciding not to try to trade him, you know, trying to negotiate a contract right to the 11th hour, seeing that kind of fall apart and lose him for nothing. And you can't tell me that if he was thrown into the awesome Matthew situation, there wouldn't at least be some benefits on Brad Trilevin's end to having dealt with that. And maybe some, some signs or what have you. And, and I'm not at all predicting it will end up in the same outcome for the Leafs as it did with Goodrow and the Flames. But I just think that he's been in the chair. He's made difficult decisions. He's made big trades. Like any general manager, we could go through the record of whoever you want. Even Julian Breezbois, who for my money is, is the best GM in the league. He's still got some misses on his card. Now he's got, he's got fewer misses than, than a lot of his colleagues. And that's probably why he's got a couple cup rings in his, in his possession. But you know, I certainly don't know how it's just hard to say how relevant, like I see people going through the drafting history of the Flames or whatever. I mean, you have to remember other people are making those calls too. Like Brad Trilevin's overseeing the operation. We don't know, we don't have full visibility into everything that was happening under the hood there. But I think that he's a smart guy. He's really, he's not that old. He's, you know, in his early 50s. I think he's got a lot of gas left in the tank. And I think it'd be fascinating to see what, how he would approach a new set of eyes on the Leafs situation because the Leafs are at this inflection point, right? You know, way back when, you know, Dale Talon was the Chicago Black Hawk's general manager when they were trying to on their way up and he got fired a year or so before they end up winning their first of those three Stanley Cups. I mean, sometimes changes needed around a team. Even Mike Gillis came in in the process. I know the Vancouver Canucks in Gillis has time never won the Cup, but you know, they were on the rise and he came in and changed some things and got them to win one game of winning the Stanley Cup in 2011. I mean, if you look back, sometimes this sort of thing can be helpful. And you know, let's face it, we're, we're days on now. There's no sense looking back and wondering what Kyle Dubas may or may not do. I mean, it's over for him in the Leafs, right? It's all about what can happen moving forward now. And so I think, I think Tre Living's an interesting character to bring in and I do think his experience is beneficial and that's why, you know, honestly, the only other person and I'm not sure he's a total fit that I look at those lists of those with experience. Like to me, Mark Bergime, I'd be intrigued to see what he could do with the team because I think he had such a strong trading record in Montreal. But you know, he also seemed like someone who was kind of burnt out of by a Canadian market at the end of his tenure with the Canadians. I'm not sure how much he would want to be here. I mean, obviously, I'm sure he'd take the call, but I don't know if this is what he wants, but just given his experience and the number of big trades that he pulled off and the way that if you look back, I mean, history will look kindly on the lot of Mark Bergime has trades he made as a Canadian general manager over 10 years. Not every decision, though. Like, thought to put it back here. But like, while there were, while there were some good decisions he did in terms of certain trades, there are a lot, there were definitely some really head scratching moves, whether it's going for these grit grinder guys to try to fill in in the lineup, the Logan Bayou draft, like, there's a lot of bad with Mark Bergime as well. And I think that if you're interviewing him, and I know you know this too, if you're interviewing him, like you have to be like, hey, how have you learned from all of those situations? Sure. Well, we all, man, we all need to learn like, I'm sure we're going to get into this. Kyle Dubas is moving on too. Like, he's going to have things to learn from, you know, this is nobody is beyond reproach, no, no general manager, even those that win a lot have made every perfect decision. Anyway, I think Bradchelor then makes a lot of sense and we just have to see now where it goes with the Leafs. If you know, how I'm guessing how he came through whatever the interview process is with, you know, his conversations with Brendan Shanahan, you know, I do see it almost as his job to lose. That might not be completely fair because I don't know. That's a thing like, we've spent the last couple days trying to figure out who is actually among the other experienced GMs, a true candidate and as of the recording, I can't tell you for sure that, you know, who one is, I could tell you who the other experienced GMs are that maybe in the mix, but you know, I haven't confirmed another person is being part of that process. I think it's going to be a very small pool though, ultimately, and we'll see who emerges. And is it kind of tricky to dictate a timeline as to how long it might take? It is, but I think it could happen within days. Like I, or a week say, like I don't see this stretching far, I don't see this stretching into June or too far into June, you know, which is a little less than a week from now. You know, I think that they're going to just, just by the necessity of their situation, I think they need to address it quickly. And I think they will. Unless there's a curveball or they really go through the first set of interviews and they're like, you know what, we just don't have the right person and then maybe they have to take a step back and consider some other options. Assuming there aren't any curveballs here, I think it could be done really quickly. Okay. What about Kyle Dubas and his situation right now? There seems to be some rumblings about him and Pittsburgh right now. I know that's been, it's kind of funny when that was first mentioned, I kind of just, you know, scoffed at that thinking there's no way Kyle Dubas is going to go to Pittsburgh. And on Thursday, May 25th, there are rumors going around that he's in Pittsburgh and he met with Sidney Crosby. What do you make of whatever is circling around Kyle Dubas right now? Well, here's where we started. Fenway Sports Group, which owns the Penguins and other entities identified Kyle Dubas as their number one selection way back in this process before he was ever available to speak to them. And so that's where the initial round of stories or speculation came from. Everything then fell apart last week and as negotiations with the Leafs, Kyle Dubas was ultimately fired last Friday. And what's happened since is Fenway Sports Group has had the ability to speak to Kyle Dubas. There was a story, as you mentioned, on Tuesday that he was in Pittsburgh meeting with Sidney Crosby that is the case. Okay. So Tyler Reber actually was the case. Yes. And so, you know, we'll see where that goes. I, the one thing is, I'll say this, Kyle Dubas is not commented that I'm aware of anyone, but certainly in my attempts that whether he wants to work again just now, like he has not said much. But I think the fact he's taking a meeting like that tells you something about where his mindset is at and what he'd like to do. And so, you know, I think that there's a lot of, there's a lot of reason to now link him to the Penguins. And here's an important piece of nuance that a lot of people missed or maybe just have misconstrued because they saw a Twitter quote and sometimes you missed the context. When he said that it was going to be, you know, I want to be the Leafs GM, you're not going to see me popping up somewhere else. It was in the context of him at that time negotiating with the Leafs. And I think he was saying, at least Lueye, I interpreted it, I'm not going to use other team. I'm not going to just walk away from the Leafs at the last minute and go work somewhere else. Well, guess what happened? He got fired. And I've seen even some people saying, well, he didn't get fired, they just didn't renew him. No, his contractor ran through June 30th and he was told no longer to come into the office. And so, that's a little different than him walking away from another team. The Leafs walked away from him. And so I think that that does change things. And, you know, clearly he's listening to the opportunity in Pittsburgh. You know, I've heard from people not directly involved in the situation that they believe it's like 98%. He's going to be, you know, taking a job there. I'm not sure if I could place my own percentage quite that high, but it seems like things are trending in that direction. And the mere fact that he's going through a process for his talking to the star player that the franchise icon, you know, would suggest he's very seriously at least looking at the opportunity there at minimum. And, you know, I think that ultimately, look, is without knowing, and we kind of got into the family stuff back at the time, without knowing exactly what went on there, assuming that's all well and good, which, you know, would seem to be because even Kyle Dubas was trying to maintain being a Leafs GM by late last week. You know, it makes sense for him to get back involved. And I don't think even when you're as sought after as he is, you can't pick and choose your teams, right, or your situations. I mean, we don't know what the next available jobs will be, what the circumstances will be. And if, you know, Kyle has a chance to go work for an organization like the Penguins, and I'll tell you this, Julian, I know this from other people they went through because they talked to a lot of candidates, much like Calgary, that the Penguins don't want to rebuild. Like, like, my understanding of the discussions that were had with Fenway Sports and the candidates, there was no talk of, you know, well, in two years we'll pivot to this or that. Like, like, they are only focused at the ownership level on extending the window as long as they can extend it with these players, a window of competitiveness, that is. So, you know, that's going to be a different kind of challenge. You know, Dubas inherited a young Leafs roster at a time, all his players, the top players were on entry level contracts. This is the polar opposite of that. The top players on the Penguins are 35 and above, you know, at least in Melk and in Latang's case, they're signed quite long term. And it's like how you've got very few prospects because obviously they've been trading picks for years and years and years trying to win. How do you try to get another banner up there? It's a different sort of challenge. I mean, ultimately it's the same thing. You're built, you're trying to build a great hockey team. You're looking for value on the margins of the roster. But, you know, if he ends up running that team, I think it'll be fascinating to see how he approaches that job. I just want to really quickly plug the article Chaos Lothing in the big three, how the Penguins unraveled at the athletic by Rob Rossi and Josh Yeohi, which basically details just the negotiations with with Geno Malkin and Chris Latang, bringing those guys back into the fold. And I'm not going to spoil anything for you from that article. But if you haven't read it already, it is absolutely worth your time. And I wonder after reading all of this, just, I mean, just first off, wow, if you get to read that article, do that. Again, not spoiling anything for you with that. But it is very detailed and very juicy. And the Pittsburgh Penguins are a very fascinating franchise for me right now. Very great. It does a great, that article does a great job of setting the stage how we got here, right? It really details and chronicles the Brian Burke Ron Hextel era, which was rather brief in Pittsburgh. And it gives you a good sense of what the direction the ownership family sports wants to go in. And it's the perfect appetizer for what I assume will be at some point here in announcement about where they're going next. I want to move quickly to the Calgary Flames. So we know Craig Conroy is the GM. They're going through their amateur scouting meetings. And the search for a head coach is underway. I have my thoughts on it, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on it first in terms of where you think they might go. Well, I think they're obviously going to go the opposite direction than Darrell Sutter, right? You know, this is that is sort of a strategy as old as time. You go with someone a little more lenient than you go with someone who's a little more hard. I think that that you're constantly trying to, I think that that's a pattern that's repeated itself over time. I mean, and it was a tough year. It's not so obvious. I mean, I saw a lot of commentary from myself, Julian and others at that press conference, like just hearing, seeing smiles around the flames, hearing some laughter and jokes. You know, it's not not been that kind of workplace for people that have been there. And so, you know, it does seem as though Gerard Glantz going to get a good look by the flames. He's known to be pretty player-friendly coach, obviously quite experienced through stops in Columbus way back in the day, Florida, Vegas, and most recently with the Rangers. You know, I don't know that. And I think there'll be other candidates to consider, especially someone like Mitch Love, who's worked internally there and had a great season with the American Hockey League's Calgary Wranglers, one of the coach of the year. I believe for the second time in that league, you can probably tell me for sure. So, you know, someone who should be on the radar, I think, as an up-and-coming NHL coach, whether it ends up being this time in Calgary or not. But either way, I think they're going to go with someone who has a little different working style than there, which makes a lot of sense. Look, there, Craig Conroy said they're going to introduce more young players to the roster. They want the stars to play more. I mean, I think it's going to be a more player-friendly environment. I'm confident of that. I can't tell you today who they're hiring, but I think that that will be an overriding theme of whoever fits the role for that job. Another name that I've heard danced out there is Alex Tangay, who is an assistant in Detroit. Obviously has experience playing with the Calgary Flames. I think coach of the power play in Detroit as well. Very interesting name to throw out there. Considering, I think he just feels like he just got that job in Detroit too. But it seems like he might have predated Lalon though, right? He was part of Jeff Boschel's staff, I believe. He might have been, yeah. I have to double check that. But he hasn't necessarily been there in that spot long. But just seeing his name be thrown out there, I consider Mitch Love in the same vein too. Whoever the Flames get, there's going to be, they have to have some kind of focus on the offensive. Like Mitch Love, I was looking this up yesterday. His last two seasons coaching in the AHL, top 10 offenses, with also, of course, looking after some of those younger players like Jacka Peltier and Connor Zare coming up. A guy like Tangay will obviously get a look because of the offense. Andrew Brunette, in the year that he was coaching the Florida Panthers, they get to the President's trophy, they're a high-flying offense. And they get Jonathan Hubertow going, that's what you didn't mention in all of this with Jorakolont too. He has that relationship with Jonathan Hubertow, dating all the way back to their days in St. John of the QMJHL. I don't think they necessarily want to go up there and say it, but there's no doubt in my mind that whoever ends up being the head coach of the Calgary Flames, Jonathan Hubertow has to be in mind. Even if he's not in the room doing the interviews with the coach, Jonathan Hubertow is very much top of mind when they pick out who the head coach is going to be. Well, if they don't say it, why can't we say it? Who's more important to the immediate future of the team? I mean, he's starting an eight-year contract, eight figures a year starting now. Last year was a disappointment for him and for the organization. But they're in a marriage here as much as any pro athlete could be in a marriage, they have to make it work. And so if it's a different coach, if it's different minutes or deployments, usage, systems, whatever it is, I mean, Jonathan Hubertow's had a lot of success in the league. There's a reason why he got the contract he did. And so I think they do have to make it work. And if again, I don't see anything wrong with somewhat catering to something that might work with him because he's a, they're not going to go anywhere if he doesn't become something like the player he was in the past. I mean, it's just, it's going to be hard for them. If he's, he's always said a 60 or 70-point guy, it's just hard to pay someone 10 and a half million to do that. They need him to be a frontline scorer. And he's done it before. I, you know, I'm not, I'm not down on him in the sense like I think he can do it again. But I do think that they should, they should exhaust any avenue to make that happen. CJ, I realized we're still on flames and I should have asked this when we were talking a little bit more about Brad triliving, but he's still under contract with Calgary until June 30th. Can we kind of clarify whether or not, whether he gets hired by the Leafs or somebody else, if that means he's eligible to partake in his new team's draft process. Right. And this came up right with the Pittsburgh Penguins requested initially a chance to talk to Brad triliving and were denied initially by Calgary. And I think the concern really was about the draft position. The flames and the penguins are both in the same range of the first round. You know, obviously in late May, the GM of the flames would know, you know, where Calgary was leaning in terms of their draft board. And you know, that could be information a competitor uses against them in some way. And so there is history for this. The last time I can remember it, Bill Armstrong was the St. Louis Blues assistant GM, ran the Ramacher draft. He was hired by Arizona, you know, shortly before the draft. And at that point, he basically had to recuse himself from the coyotes drafting process because of the information he had from St. Louis. Way back in the day, I remember something similar happening. Peter Schlele was an assistant in Ottawa, got hired by the Boston Bruins. He had to sort of sit out a drafting slash free agency period. And so I think that that would likely be what you'd see here. And I'm not sure it really is that significant at the end of the day. Like a lot of GMs obviously have a say in who gets drafted and what happens at the table. But you know, they're leaning heavily on the work of the amateur scouts who are out there watching 200, 300 games a year going to remote places all over the globe to see the prospects with their own eyes. And so, you know, and especially in the case of the Leafs, if Brad, your living gets hired by the Leafs, they own a first round pick, a fifth round pick and a sixth round pick. So unless they make some trades and acquire a bunch of draft capital between now and the end of June, you know, there aren't a lot of picks to be made in Toronto. But I think that that's what you would see happen if you were hired by someone. Again, we don't know if he's going to be hired. But I think that he'd have to take sort of a step back from the team's draft table just to not share his info from Cowrie. It's almost what we might call a gentleman's agreement. I mean, you might say, how can you ever enforce that? Well, you can't. But I do think that there's sort of a certain honor among everyone involved here. And, you know, I don't see it as being a major issue should tree-living fine work in Toronto or somewhere else. Okay. Last thing before we wrap up here, do you have a stick tap for this week? Well, I got a stick tap. Magic and Chuck, man. I mean, I'll take the obvious one, but that's that's quite a performance. What a cool thing for the seed to panthers. And I mentioned this, I was down there in a second round. Like I was really impressed by the level of excitement in the market around the team. You know, any jokes that are out there about them should be retired at this point in time. Like this is this is a cool run. And so I'll stick that, Matthew could check for for carrying his team to the Stanley Cup final and doing it in pretty dramatic fashion. I will give a cross check to the Dallas stars and their fans for game three. I mean, Jamie bed and the the week explanation on on the cross check on Mark Stone thought that was pretty weak. Then the fans throwing food onto the ice. My colleagues had use of who covers the team for the athletic thought was one of the most embarrassing things he's ever seen. And I have to agree with them pretty disgraceful on their part. And now they're on the verge of being eliminated and going out on a whimper, pretty disappointing to see from Dallas in a must win game in that situation. And we are getting one step closer to a Vegas Florida final barring a miraculous comeback. But yeah, game three didn't like the showing from the Dallas stars. So instead of a stick tap, I will give a crunching season. My man, we have not had a cross check in a while. I forgot that we even had the ability to to give it out. You're re you're retaliating to a cross check with a cross check. I now realize what I have done here. You're right. I am doing that. It works in this situation. We'll be back on Monday with a brand new episode. Get your questions in now for ask CJ just use the hashtag ask CJ, whether you're on Twitter, you could also send us questions on discord as well and subscribe to the podcast. However, you listen to the podcast for CJ. I'm Julian so long and we will see you all next week. Chris Justin Show. Thank you.