The impact of William Nylander’s extension with Maple Leafs + PWHL’s dazzling debut | The Drop

Arda Öcal and Greg Wyshynski are joined by The Athletic’s Hailey Salvian to discuss the dazzling debut of the PWHL, but first the boys need to discuss the ramifications of William Nylander’s contract extension with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Lastly, Arda & Greg discuss all the storylines we missed during our holiday break!

00:00 Welcome to The Drop!
00:24 Nylander signs contract extension
3:44 Can the Maple Leafs win paying the Core 4 this much?
4:36 Can top-heavy teams win the Stanley Cup?
7:05 Biggest concerns with the Maple Leafs
9:38 Hailey Salvian joins the show!
11:11 Hailey and the boys discuss the beginning of the PWHL season
13:02 How does the PWHL keep the momentum going?
15:43 What should the NHL and PWHL relationship look like?
18:23 Who are some of the strongest teams in the PWHL?
20:50 What is the Flames outlook for the rest of the season?
23:26 Logan Paul mocks Vancouver crowd
25:00 Happy New Year! Things we missed during our small break
25:35 Winnipeg Jets are on fire!
27:37 NHL Mic’d up drama
30:09 Kevin Bieksa calls Panthers forward Nick Cousins ‘A Rat’
33:30 USA Hockey wins the World Junior Championships!
34:06 The Great Debate: Stanley Cup vs. Stanley cup

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Hey everybody welcome to another edition of the drop Greg wasinski ardal here with you twice weekly on Tuesdays and Thursdays wherever you get your audio podcasts as well the NHL on ESPN YouTube the first thing I’d like to do wish is I would like to thank the hockey gods for

Giving us the big news of the day before we record the podcast thank you hockey Gods you did us a solid you gave us the Wily neander news before we hit record we didn’t have to scr a previous edition of the podcast Everything is Awesome

Wish I’m so happy right now I know no no no dropin from future Greg and future Arta talking about something that happened hours after we closed the show no man it was great we were G to talk about it anyway because it seemed like it was trending in that direction

Regardless uh with Willie neander signing the eight-year deal worth 11.5 million against the cap which starts next season full no move Clause all the way through it was trending that way it was going to end up that way and all of the various Canadian insiders were

Telling us oh expect the contract to be done by today or tomorrow so we were pretty sure we were going to be able to talk about it but it is nice to have it signed sealed and delivered and that uh Willie Styles will be a leaf in uh perpetuity ARA your Canadian impression

Uh is very South Park oh how nice of you Rivals it’s like on sou Park bring the kids in from the pond give them hot coco willly neanders Leaf hey buddy um so the particulars as wish said 8 years 11.5 aav it is the richest contract in Leafs history remember

Austin Matthews signed a four-year contract it’s a higher aav but overall in total Willie neander Takes the Cake a couple of notes obviously a very topheavy team Matthews is at 13.25 Marner is at 10.5 to Veris is at 11 right now the cap is going up about 4 million next year to

87.7 with all of that information wish your initial reaction to Willie neander and the size and magnitude of this contract well first off I will caution anyone expecting the cap to go up as one of the reasons why this deal is good ask Kyle dubis about expecting the cap to

Continue to go up when he signed all these kids those big contracts and then Co happened and changed every everybody’s perception of those deals look this deal is slightly above where David Pastak ended up last year at the Boston ruins that’s to be expected look you know Willie neander is fourth in the

NHL in points per game as we do this podcast the man is a star like the last two seasons for nander he has arrived on the scene as a star player um and the Leafs frankly had the same problem that the Bruins had last year at paston where

The B Boston and Pastak champ were grinding away to number all season long and then the goals kept coming and kept coming and kept coming and then ended up at 61 so all of a sudden the math changed dramatically on pastx deal from the be beginning of the season to the

End of the season and he wind up signing a contract in March so no doubt neander number was adjusted a little bit thanks to the incredible career year he’s having this season listen I you got to pay your stars I think this is market value for the leavs no discount

Whatsoever the only thing I hate obviously is the no move claw throughout the entire deal I I it just you know when you look down the road at injuries or decline or anything like that you’re stuck with them but that’s Quin of the realm right now in trying to sign a

Young player to a long-term deal so you got to do it but that’s the only problem I have with it I think neander is a tremend by the way ARA on a team that doesn’t is not known for playoff performance one of the few guys that has

Come through for them in the postseason the one thing I also want to say is we are almost in unprecedented territory with the Toronto Maple Leafs franchise because there’s plenty of examples of Superstar players not necessarily wanting to play in the city of Toronto and now you have an overabundance of

Topheavy players of High contract players of Superstar players that want to play together in the city of Toronto but that leads us to the elephant in the room wish this is a very topheavy team financially there’s going to have to be some concessions made in the off season

And we’re going to have to look top to bottom to see overall if this is a Stanley Cup contending team with all of the superstars on top uh eating tens of millions of dollars of that cap space so what say you about the fact that top

Heavy teams even having any sort of run towards the Stanley Cup as it pertains to the Toronto Maple Leafs well being a a topheavy team is a long-term problem I mean I I I think what we’re seeing now in Tampa is the best example of it where

You know they were dedicating a great chunk of salary to a certain amount of players they won a couple Stanley Cups but then as time goes on you see the atrophy in the lineup you see the entire checking line have to go and two top six forwards and their second best

Defenseman and and so keeping your team together to me is the real challenge you can win a cup with a topheavy team I think uh but keeping that team together is the real challenge but look the thing about the Leafs and it’s kind of crazy is for all this talk about the

Percentage of the cap that Matthews is getting and that neander is getting that Marner is getting now and could get again uh and that Riley is getting they’ve got an amazing amount of cap flexibility ARA like they only have 12 players under contract for next season

Uh Taris comes off the cap in two years uh if he wants to remain a Toronto Maple Leaf it is going to be at a team discount it is certainly not going to be at the uh at the cety at now which is like 11 million okay Marner comes off

The cap in 2025 along with Taris now I’m not saying that the Leafs aren’t going to resign Mitch Marner they like him a lot he does some things that neander doesn’t do like defend that being said if the leaves find another postseason in which they do not find success this team

Will have the flexibility to reshape its roster this team will have the flexibility to take neander and Matthews and Riley and make that your core and then build how you see fit around them so for all this talk about the neander deal kind of being an albatross for this

Leaps team they’ve got a surprising amount of outs if they want to take them in trying to go in a different direction if they don’t like the way things are going in the postseason to Point Tyler berzi 5 a half million these are all ufas at the end of this season Tyler

Bruzi 5 a half million Max doy 3 million uh TJ Brody five million Mark jordano 800k and uh looking at Ryan uh yeah they lose like half their dber 4.15 million Matt Murray 4.68 million so yeah to your point there are a lot of multi-million dollar contracts that are up at the end

Of the year but the real key is though ARA is that like the these teams that were able to be topheavy and then win with a lot a few players earning the most money they’ve all been able to do it by having a Supporting Cast that is

By and large homegrown and this is my concern for the Leafs it’s like if they’re going to pay neander they’ve paid Matthews if they run it back with Marner and pay him you know and they have Riley still on the deal like there’s a there’s a huge percentage of

The cap that is being dedicated to these players the way you get around that is by having young cheap labor the problem for the Leafs is according to the Athletics pipeline rankings for this season they have the 27th best farm system right now you know they’ve had to trade away draft picks

They’ve not had great draft position because of their success in the regular season it all adds up to where does this Supporting Cast come from do they have enough people coming through the Marley’s and down the system to supplant the top tier players making that much

Money or do they have to go outside the organization to find cheap labor that part’s not impossible you could do it it just becomes a little bit hard harder when you’re not having your guys come through the development pipeline that say like the Penguins and the lightning

Did when their star players were making a good a chunk of change in those cup years I’m gonna print the shirts now the hild the Beast let’s get them out there now uh by the way this is also Brad TR living’s highest valued contract in his general

Manager career he also signed the uh Jonathan hubero contract at 8times 10 and a half uh which but which again again ARA cautionary tales do abound for a contract like this for for nander I mean you look at hubero that’s perhaps the greatest one I think change in

Scenery for him has been a problem but that’s a deal that was signed and and now it looks bad Jamie Ben signed a very similar kind of percentage of the cap deal with the Dallas Stars back in the day for a couple years it looked great

Now it’s one they maybe wish they could get out of even though he’s an effective player but not living up to the contract cap hit so again decline in stats health of a player there’s always a chance they’re gonna look back on this and be

Like GH what a what a contract if only they had didn’t have a no move clause on it but I think overall again you want to sign your star players you want to sign players that want to be there and uh you can either be the Leafs that go all in

On your high-end talent in the hopes that they can break through or you could be say like the Carolina Hurricanes and have a really good team that is Thrifty and economical but unable to score that critical goal in the postseason to get them over the top speaking of massive

Number that’s exactly what we saw in the professional women’s hockey league in their inaugural week here to break it all down Haley salvan a big week for women’s hockey the turn of the calendar to 2024 also brought forth the debut of the professional women’s hockey league two attendance records in professional

Women’s hockey history already broken uh very early on over 8,300 fans in Ottawa and then the state of hockey Minnesota north of 13,0 2.9 9 million Canadian viewers on New Year’s Day alone here to break it all down is women’s hockey writer NHL writer co-host of the athletic podcast

And athletic writer Haley salvian to break this all down for us Haley first of all thanks for joining us on the drop we love your work we appreciate you we appreciate you being on with us uh and let’s just let’s just talk about the week overall how what were the sequences

Of events and like the perfect storm that created such a great debut for the pwhl yeah well thanks for having me I appreciate that when you’re reading the intro I’m like I do I do too much stuff I’m feeling a little tired I shouldn’t you know be kinder to other podcast and

Radio hosts they don’t have to list as many things but thanks I’m I’m happy to be here and I think there was when you talk about the perfect storm like that’s kind of what happened here right and the lead up to this uh first season I mean I

Think a big thing for for the debut of this league has just been kind of the anticipation on on many fronts right like if you’re a women’s hockey fan who’s been wanting to see like a Mary Philip pulen or a Sarah nurse play pro women’s hockey you haven’t been able to

Do that for four years so there’s a lot of excitement for seeing players like that take the ice not wearing Team Canada or Team USA jerseys right and I think there was a lot of excitement for uh fans who were coming from the premier Hockey Federation they haven’t seen

Their favorite players play in several months right like we’re talking about really long off Seasons we just haven’t been able to see a lot of these players on a consistent way over the last several months so I think there was excitement from whatever different group of fans were talking about to finally

See these players again I think it’s just been a ton of anticipation I think a a huge thing too is just like actually having people who work for the league and work for the teams who are working on the business side and selling uh the marketing selling the game selling

Tickets you know gone are the days of Hillary Knight having to hit a ticket quota to get people in the building in Boston right she’s making the comic that went viral I don’t know if anybody ever saw that but there was a great ESPN piece about it um several years ago when

That happened so I just think it’s this perfect storm of of something new all these players being on the ice and and just how different this league is you covered the Canadian women’s hockey league I covered the nwhl when when those launched there was a lot of

Momentum too I mean a little bit smaller scale they weren’t like packing NHL Arenas or anything like that but um but there was excitement there was interest and that interest didn’t necessarily carry through the season uh their inaugural season and then in season subsequent then on into the phf as well

So the the question I’ve been trying to figure out maybe you can help us out here is like how does this league keep this momentum going through its inaugural season yeah I think it’s a great question and I think it’s like it’s an important one to have and like I

Appreciate that like I understand the question I’ve also seen so many people on social media be like yeah well it’s the first game like what happens in two weeks um and it’s one of those things like of course people are going to ask that question because as you said Greg

Like we’ve seen this before right the first ever nwhl game sold out it was at Chelsea Pier but I think it was more like 700 people in the building right like we’re talking about different scales and and I think some of the signs of showing that that momentum is going

To continue through the opening weekend is tron’s already sold out all their home games right like if you want to get tickets for next week’s game in Ottawa like you’re probably looking at the upper bowl like they’re looking at opening more uh seats in Ottawa they’re opening more seats in Montreal and

That’s week two that’s week three of this league so we’re already seeing that that interest is there beyond the first week I think the viewerships been there obviously the first game 2.9 Million viewers on Canadian TV and that didn’t include the streaming numbers on different platforms YouTube the American

Numers so I think the hockey’s really good um I think that’s going to be a big reason why it sticks around I’m not saying that the hockey wasn’t good in the phf or the cwl but it’s just different like you have all of these players in one spot like I can’t stress

Enough how important that is um because what’s been the problem with all those leagues is like everything’s been split right so all those fans who might have tuned in for the nwhl first game might have said okay like I watched it this is great but like not spooners on the fury

So I’m going to go back to watching the cwl and now that or cwhl fans are going to say well like I really like Madison packer we not going to see that anymore all those people are going to be in one place and I think that’s so critical for

The growth in success of women’s hockey at the pro level so I think what’s really exciting actually is I think the hockey is just going to continue to get better like all these teams are going to take some time to click at all cylinders and and once that happens like the

Product’s going to improve the games are going to get better and I think the eyeballs are going to stick around and and do better for it too I mean so new they don’t even have names yet haly that’s how new we’re talking about these yeah yeah um people keep don’t ask me

About it Greg I’m so tired I’m so tired that that that is a question we can certainly put to rest um here here’s my segue question because we do want to ask you a couple of NHL questions the NHL has been pretty vocal about their stance on supporting women’s hockey they wanted

One League they were waiting for one league and now there’s one League obviously there’s going to be a pwhl presence at the All-Star game uh as part of the All-Star festivities here’s my question though what in your opinion if anything what should a SYM otic relationship between the pwhl and NHL

Look like when the Canadian women’s hockey league launched like their whole goal like their whole business plan was to like let’s just do enough that we can grow the game and show that people care so then the NHL can just take it over

And make a w&l like we want to just be a vessel to become the WNBA one day and that was their whole plan and that was for a really long time what people thought women’s hockey would look like but obviously with Mark Walter this is a single entity ownership um structure for

This league the this is not the NHL’s business and I I actually really appreciate the fact that this league has a group of business people who are saying like we will take your support Gary bman and Bill Daly and people in the NHL but like we can do this on our

Own like this is our own thing this is not the NHL cutting a bunch of checks trying to make it work um so I think that’s kind of a unique and cool thing that’s happened with this new league but I think in terms of the relationship I

Think we’re seeing um you know a pretty good one right now obviously the NHL is providing a huge platform form for these women at the All-Star game with the three on- three that’s going to happen on the Thursday I remember the first time they did that uh in I think 2019

They did the three on three it was the Canada us and I remember like you know a lot of people watching being like wow like Alex Carpenter’s sick and anr bn’s like unbelievable and I think the NHL is going to provide another huge platform for these women to show out and again

That goes back to the momentum question Greg like people are probably going to watch that who maybe didn’t watch the first game or the first week of the season season and go oh like yeah Alex Carpenter’s sick like I’m going to go watch the New York game um so I think

That’s a great thing with the relationship with the NHL I think Gary Ban’s also been a really big supporter and just help of things like I think they know that it’s not their business they’re not running the show but they’ve been there for any advice or any

Questions that pwhl staff have to ask um I know Stan Casten said earlier last week um at the Ottawa game like that’s a big reason why they have a team in Ottawa because they were looking at different original six markets and Gary bman said like why don’t you look at

Ottawa like Gary bman was the one pushing for them to have a presence in in the nation’s capital so I think that’s a cool relationship I think eventually maybe we’ll see a place where NHL teams are more heavily involved in local markets I wanted to ask you one

Thing about the league before we get I bug you about the Flames which is you know uh one of the things I really hope happens with the professional women’s hockey league is coverage of the league coverage of the games coverage of the athletes and failing and many others

Failing to cover the business aspects of these leagues totally but not actually cover a lot of the day-to-day and game to game and especially in the playoffs uh your take real quick on the landscape of these first inaugural teams it would seem to me based on early results that

Minnesota is pretty darn good maybe one of the best go tending batteries in all of hockey how do you see these teams early on yeah I think Minnesota’s going to be great I went into the season thinking that they were going to have a strong team I had maybe some questions

About their Blue Line because they have Lee stline um who in my opinion is like the best defensive defender in the game she’s just so hard to beat she’s a really long stick like a very long reach she’s just incredibly annoying to try to get around um she’s such a disruptor in

The defensive Zone as a Canadian like she really annoys me but as someone who appreciates women’s hockey I think Lee deck Line’s great um but outside of Lee they don’t have as many you know maybe big name players but I think in the first few games uh their blue lines look

Pretty solid I think their goalie tandem has looked excellent as you said Greg um Maddie Rooney is a great story you know she played at Minnesota duth and she played in the pwhpa Montreal chapter and now she’s a free agent signing the number two goalie in Minnesota and she’s

Been kind of cut from the national team she was the star of the 2018 Olympics obviously she’s the one that back stops them to to a gold medal again that sucks as a Canadian but you know she was such a star for for Team USA and now she’s

Out of the fold and I think it’s great she gets an opportunity to go and you know get the first shut out for Minnesota play unbelievable for her pro team so I think that goalie tandem looks great I think the thing I like the most about Minnesota is their onew punch and

Their top six like Taylor heisy and gray swinkle are not on the same line so we’re talking about the first ever pick the first overall pick you know a stud in Taylor heisy um and then Grace swinkle is you know your second line option and she’s the one that gets the

First hattrick in league history and she gets the first hatti for for Minnesota and I think if you can have a top six that features those two players like you’re going to be okay right you’ve got two really solid scoring options and then obviously you know casually just

Throw in Kendall coin scoffield to the mix Kelly Panic um so they’re a deep team and they’re a Minnesota team too so I think they’re going to have a really specific and annoying but fun style of play um so I think they’re a team to watch for sure I still think Boston’s

The best team on paper like they’re just stacked um but they’re also funny enough the only team without a point so far with a 3-21 system um you know they’re the only ones that didn’t get a regulation win or overtime loss so I think it’s way too early to panic about

Something like that one question for you uh you covered Calgary for a bit uh they’re not doing so great 15% chance of making the playoffs a couple names that jump off the Paige Noah hanen Alias Lindholm what do you think happens with those players in that team they’re so

Interesting like I I personally think that they should be traded at the deadline um trade Chris tanov to like any unrestricted free agent I think that they should take the best offer um but I think what makes them so interesting is like they’re only two points out of a

Wild card spot right now so like we’re looking at a team that they lose to the Blackhawks uh over the weekend a very stripped down Blackhawks roster I might add like right like I’m trying to be kind like an million Camp yeah they they lost to the ice Hogs but sure yeah your

Words not M they lose to to pair down Chicago Blackhawks team over the weekend but they’re still only two points out of a wild card so this is a team that we looking at saying like they’ve been so bad like what’s going on over the last two years they’re probably going to miss

The playoffs again but they’re actually not that far out so they’re Craig Conroy is kind of in this situation of like if we’re by the deadline we’re still only two points out do we kind of hold these guys and hope for the best and I think that’d be really shortsighted um I think

This is not the Johnny gdo situation from two years ago I I know you look at that and say that they still lost him an unrestricted free agency um but like they were a good team that year like there was no question like they were going to make the playoffs they were

Going to do well in the playoffs and I know they only won one round but like you don’t trade Johnny gdo regardless of his contract situation in a year like that but like this it’s not the same there’s no gray area this is not a very

Good team even if they make the playoffs they’re not going to go far and they’re stuck in the mushy middle and they’re probably going to be in a situation where you know either they miss the playoffs so they make it and lose in the first round and regardless uh they’re

Going to pick like 13th overall in the draft again they’ve been in the mushy middle for so long and I just think the Flames almost need to like steer into the skid a little bit trade your unrestricted free agents get where you can and and retool on the Fly because

They’ve been in that spot for for way too long even when they had really good teams like this they just haven’t been able to to win when it matters um and I just I think that those guys should be traded like even if you can get Elias

Lindol on on a fair deal like what is that really doing for you in the long run so I I think that they should kind of take a step back I know they didn’t sign nzm cadri and Jonathan huberto to to rebuild but I just it’s it’s not

Working not working Haley you’re working you’re working a lot and you made some time to join us here on the drop and we appreciate it thanks for your time everybody read Haley’s coverage of uh the pwhl it’s awesome and we will talk to you soon thanks guys I appreciate it let’s be honest

Y’all thought a Canadian a Canadian could ever have the United States Championship the United States Championship Kevin brother you beating me for the US title is like the Canucks winning a Stanley [Applause] Cup no lies detected it’s never going to [Applause] happen thanks again to Haley for joining

Us on the show obviously this is our first real official official show of 2024 we had a couple in the can for you over the holidays so let’s play a little catchup on some news and notes throughout the most recent time span uh that we would like to touch up on the

Biggest news wish absolutely at the top Logan Paul disparaging the Vancouver Canucks how could he the United States Champion be sming Canada like that baby the best Heap the best heat is cheap heat and Logan Paul once again shows us that uh I love it what what a what a

Move to take a run at the Canucks like that if you’re Logan Paul absolutely and obviously this is a common place thing in pro wrestling cheap heat take a shot at the city that you’re in Ed and Christian did this very well during the Attitude Era I distinctly remember them

Doing their famous 5-second poses where one of them like Kurt Angle would be a golender and Edge and Christian would have like uh uh hated teams jerseys on and they’d be scoring on the home team and like it was hilarious so yeah this is a tight and tried tested and true

Method that Logan Paul’s also uh doing to a how about something that uh that’s something we could have predicted Logan Paul doing in Vancouver how about something we may not have predicted especially at the start of the season this is the Winnipeg Jets World Greg wasinski and we are just living in it

How did we get to this point man well I should say that this is predictable what the Jets are doing if we listen to our friends in the analytics Community uh stetes uh I reached out to them recently for a story and they said hey look watch

These Jets because they are an elite defensive team and lo and behold that defense has helped them to the top of the NHL in January um you know third and expected goals against and preventing Rush uh scoring chances from opponents uh they’re again they’re a great defensive team in front of arguably the

Best goalie in the world so you put that together you’ve got yourself a very s sound Foundation to build upon they’re getting goal scoring from throughout the lineup the one thing that they got to do area before the trade deadline I think is address that second line Center Spot

That’s been tried to be solved by committee behind Mark shley the loss of DUIs and the off season obviously open up that spot they can find someone to hold that down they could be a real contender in the west yeah absolutely and and what a turnaround in terms of

Storyline right winning cures everything we know this but at the start of the Season which we were talking about what’s the future of players like Connor huk do they even want to play in Winnipeg and now look at them they’re the top of the league everything is all

Systems go in the city Winnipeg we’re talking about um them being the best team in hockey like that is a full 180 so you got to give them credit absolutely and and full marks to Kevin Chev day off okay because he is the guy who decided he wasn’t going to trade

Shley wasn’t going to trade heluk signed them both long-term deals and then made the pr Luke Dubois trade with an eye towards the present versus necessarily the future I mean he goes and gets a a follow on that trait he gets valard he gets it’s not like a bunch of picks came

Back the other way from the Kings for pier Luke DUIs you got a bunch of players that could help them out now maybe he saw a window that existed that we didn’t see but lo and behold the Jets are uh are a cup Contender no doubt about it Winnipeg also in the news

Because they were accused of intentionally trying to injure kill capriso of the Minnesota Wild by Michael Russo of the athletic uh Minnesota forward Ryan Hartman claimed he did not admit to an intentionally High sticking Cole Peretti in the face the video clearly showed the high stick off a face

Off but he uh knew uh because he knew Peretti was wearing a live mic uh this is a crazy situation for multiple reasons uh this has been debated at length in the hockey community what are your thoughts I don’t I don’t buy that like Brendan Dylan is trying to

Intentionally injure Krill capris off I don’t I don’t buy that I know that he’s suffered a couple of injuries against that team I think the first one was a bit of a uh unfortunate series of events this one’s a bit more direct but I don’t think it’s a a head hunting thing

Against Capri off from the Jets the Peretti thing to me was one of my most favorite hilarious stories again they keeps the the old ad campaign AR was no soap operas Just Hockey it’s all soap operas now okay you literally had Ryan Hartman of the Minnesota Wild uh saying

That he did not admit to intentionally hitting Cole Peretti in the face with his stick as retribution for the caprisa thing because basically because he was wearing a wire and the thing he said to Peretti was I’m not going to say that it wasn’t on purpose that not being I did that on

Purpose is some pathetically pedantic uh defense from Hartman on that one uh what a what a weird wacky story I still don’t know if Peretti broke Kay by telling the media that Hartman said this to him on the ice but um I I just think Hartman was being a little ridiculous

Here and just for the record a lot of people are asking well why can’t we hear the audio that’s part of the CBA from what like 2005 that that would be inadmissible in situations like this so that’s why the audio hasn’t one one of the things I learned by the way is that

Although the audio can’t be used the the department of player safety who we’re going to talk about in a second um they they find Hartman but they can go back and suspend the guy after finding him I didn’t realize that I thought if you find the guy then it’s like what is it

Like double jeopardy if you go and suspended the guy after that but if you know they find a guy and they found out that like he’s part of like a bounty thing uh they can go back and suspend him but they clearly didn’t think that this play Rose to that with Hartman and

The uh accusations of Retribution from Peretti didn’t sway them either way the the quote I’m not going to say it wasn’t on purpose reminds me of that scene in The Simpsons with with Barton Lisa I’m going to swing my arms like this and if you happen if your face happens to come

In contact with my fist it’s not my fault that’s what it reminds me of uh speaking of the Department of player safety Nick cousins was not penalized or suspended for his hit on Arizona defenseman yamaki led to sports Nets Kevin bxa going off on cousins calling

Him a rat or that’s rat Behavior that’s a rat move saying that someone on the Florida Panthers should straighten him out or the NHL has to come down and Hammer this guy with a suspension uh like they did with Bea’s friend Rafi Torres your thoughts I was a little

Harsh on bxa I like bexa I think we’re we’re okay um on him evoking the name of RFI Torres during this Hockey Night in Canada rant like I think Nick cousins is a cheap player but I don’t think he’s rfy Torres and and if V ex’s point is

That the department of player safety should come down on cousins to try to change his behavior Rafi Torres is the single worst example you could use okay he was given a 21 game suspension for putting Mary and HOSA on a stretcher okay that should be your like come to

Jesus moment for for a guy hitting people in the head in the NHL instead he then hit another guy in the head Jared stall of the Kings and then he hit yet another guy in the head uh for a 41 game suspension that all but ended his career

So the idea that big suspensions against repeat offenders in in the case of Rafi Torres worked it didn’t um the second thing and more important thing about Nick cousins is this look again I think he’s a cheap player I think he’s a a guy who plays on the edge and goes over it

With frequency but if you want to throw the book at Nick cousins you have to have a reason to throw the book at him okay the reverse angle on the valami hit showed that he didn’t have time to adjust his approach and the velocity of the hit on valami wasn’t substantial

Enough to Warrant either a penalty or supplemental discipline from the NHL I think the Department of player safety would love to suspend this guy okay but you have to find a reason to do it uh it’s the same thing with Tom Wilson Tom Wilson was a repeat repeat repeat guy he

Played on the edge the department of player safety would have loved to taken number of different ones and throw the book at him but they had to wait until they had a reason and then when they had a reason they suspended him 20 games and what kills miarda is the people being

Like well Nick cousins did this give him 20 games he’ll learn his lesson those are the same people without question who talk about that Department of player safety being sloppy and arbitrary and doing things that don’t make sense giving him a bunch of games because of what you perceive to be repeated

Behavior on a play that didn’t even warrant a suspension I mean that’s the kind of inconsistency that should drive us mad but it’s the kind of inconsistency that a lot of people are calling for are you saying this is like you’re trying to arrest a member of the

Mob and you can’t prove it so you get them on like a traffic violation and give them life yeah exactly you got to wait until Nick cousins gets caught for racketeering that you’re waiting for it and this play evasion or something yes as bad as it looked go find the reverse

Angle of the play man it’s a different thing they show the same clip over and over again at the camera cutting quickly and it looks like he’s hitting him in the head go find the longer play and then tell me if you if you see that play

The same way that you saw it on the first clip somebody tells me this is not the last time we will be talking about this on this show I wish this was the last time we were talking about this on this show uh congratulations wish Team USA wins the world juniors go ahead

That’s right baby USA exceptionalism continues uh so proud of the red white and blue for winning World Junior Gold uh it will then lead into 2025 when we win the F the fake uh World Cup and then 2026 Olympic gold uh but again we’re gonna have Isaac Howard on later this

Week to hopefully to talk about World Juniors and the US winning and most importantly Arta to talk about the boys winning a year’s supply of Chipotle for their Championship imagine that that that would be incredible last item and this will lead to a sponsorship opportunity collaboration that I cannot

Believe has not already happened America North America is obsessed with another kind of Stanley Cup uh this was released on December 31st as part of targets galentine’s collection a cosmo pink and Target red tumbler made by Stanley the brand that creates uh mugs travel mugs Etc it quickly sold out online and in

Stores the demand is extremely high a recent video showing a crowd of people rushing to get the cups off a display Shelf at Target went viral on Tik Tok the big news to me here since the Stanley brand of travel mugs is in the Zeitgeist right now we don’t have a

Stanley Cup Stanley Cup collabor ation wish what are we even doing here I had so many texts from friends that aren’t hockey fans telling me that they were seeing all this Stanley Cup coverage and being extremely confused on my behalf so I think what we have to do ARA is we

Have to try for cultural reasons to draw a a line of delineation between the Stanley Cup and the Stanley lowercase cup for example you can’t put a baby inside the Stanley lowercase cup it would be have to be a very very small baby but you could put a baby in the

Real Stanley Cup as we’ve seen time and time again for example Arta the Stanley lowercase cup does not have white gloved handlers with bow haircuts protecting it at all costs when it’s put inside of a gentleman’s club I mean the the Stanley lowercase cup does not have that at last

Check there’s no Keeper of the Stanley mug or the I don’t believe so got it okay understood and then finally of course there’s only one Stanley Cup that Toronto will raise this year we’re not gonna mention which one it is you you had to go there didn’t you

You had to you you could have said there’s only one Stanley Cup a Canadian team will raise this year I guess and leavs we can always make that joke but seriously imagine a Stanley Cup molded mug with a handle and a straw on top and that’s your mug tell me that’s not lying

Off the shelves just like this collaboration did at Target would you have to call it the Stanley Cup Stanley Cup or would you just call it the Stanley Cup the Stanley Cup Stanley Cup you gotta say it twice I like it the SC introducing the Stanley Cup Stanley Cup

And we introduced the SCC on SC Sports Center there you go done see marketing department I’m available for all of your ideas and creative meetings okay I can’t and this is a great idea until Stanley pays like an exorbitant amount of money and then they actually skate the Stanley Cup Stanley

Cup instead of the Stanley Cup after winning the championship because it’s like a $ 202 million endorsement deal yes and and they send them to the players that’s just like the WWE sends like the championship belt whenever a team wins a championship Stanley Cup champions get Stanley Cup Stanley Cups

Oh we’re going downb hole now here you go hire this man feel free to send us your Stanley Cup Stanley Cup photoshops on social media uh but that’ll do it for us here on the drop we are back on Thursday Isaac Howard of Team USA World

Junior Gold Fame will be joining us as wish mentioned but in the meantime and in between time thank you very much for listening to our show whether you found us on audio form or at the NHL ESPN YouTube we will catch you on Thursday bye