Sharks’ Training Camp Reaction: Is Keeping Smith at Wing Right Move? How Does Misa Look? | EP 102

Sharks’ Training Camp Reaction: Is Keeping Smith at Wing Right Move? How Does Misa Look? | EP 102

Welcome to the San Jose Hockey Now podcast. I’m Shang Pang, editor and chief of San Jose Hockey Now. You can also find my work on Twitter, Shang_pang, NBC Sharks, NBC Sports Bay Area, and on Blue Sky, Shang Tang. And I’m Keegan Minnelli on Twitter at halfhole_hockey at my website half-whockey.com or in Mike Greer’s inbox where I have applied for the assistant GM position. I don’t think I’m going to get it, but you know what? You got to send it in there. You got to shoot your shot or at San Jose Hockey now. There you go. I’m Zubar. Uh you can find me right here or at San Jose Ice. I’ll be at the rink. And I’m Dan [ __ ] Boil. And for those of you bitching that my microphone wasn’t very good, I’m now using my daughter’s uh PlayStation headphones and everybody screenshot and make fun of Dan and this wonderful moneymaking machine that we got going here is going to buy me a new set of a headset and microphone for next week. I’m going to set up a link so somebody can donate if they have a machine yet. That’s [ __ ] the just position of the castle with the headset. Like I’m like I I have an iPhone SE. I have my computer’s 15 years old. I’m a even with my hockey equipment. I just I don’t I’m a I like things that just I’m comfortable with and sometimes they’re things that are out to or not current. There you go. I like what I like and sometimes it’s uh things that are not uh current. We’re gonna get you an Optimus Tesla robot first thing when it comes out just running around your castle with you. Right. Nice. All right. Well, let’s uh let’s get our reading. I see you got a Shangers. You got a little uh a little uh bring hockey back shirt on there. Oh, yes, I do. I’m sorry. Let’s talk about her shirts. Let’s talk about her shirts. We got a shorts. We got a green t-shirt. Shorts. Yeah. Keegan, what do you got? Nothing. I’m up in I’m up in uh Vermont. I’m you know Oh, okay. I got I got a Death Tones t-shirt for the music people out there. I’m going to start bringing out So, I don’t wear shirts with print on them. The only exception is band shirts. Yeah, that’s half my wardrobe. Yeah. So, I’m going to start busting them out. That’ll be fun. I like it. All right. Well, I have very exciting Bring Hockey Back news. Uh Bring Hockey Back has jerseys for all of us. all of us, including you, Zubar, and you, Dan. Um, anyway, bring hockey back. Bring hockeyback.net. Go there for custom hockey jerseys for any occasion, your beer league, for any corporate event or anything like that. Also too, awesome t-shirts like the one I’m going to get up again, like the one I’m wearing. So, this Sharks t-shirt. Also too, they have awesome uh Mlin t-shirt there. Uh, Jumbo Director of Vibes t-shirt is still on sale there. So anyway, coupon code San Jose hockey now for 15% off. Once again, bringhockeyback.net. Coupon code San Jose hockey now 15% off. Is the jersey all of us in the human centipede? I just we got to get that done. You know what? If if it’s not too late in the design process, like each logo should be a centipede link to each other. Yeah. Number one number one spot right here. Just remember that. No. No. Dan, you’re number 22. All right. Yeah, Danny’s in front just with the Staveley Cup ring on. Yeah. All right. Let’s go. So, uh, I went I got a haircut this week and, uh, I went in and I was like, “Give me the Mission Impossible one.” Show him a picture of Tom Cruz. Excellent. Mission Impossible One. Hit it. Right. Right. So you don’t you don’t drip sweat on the floor and trigger the the sensors for the the vaults or whatever. He’s like doing this. Dude, that’s so hard. Great movie. It’s great movie. All right, so speaking of great movies and great movies, uh one of our followers on YouTube asked us uh top three favorite film scenes of all time, which is a big ask. So let’s go. Favorite scene all time. Just one. [ __ ] She’s really a big ass, too. And honestly, could have spent more time on that. I really needed more time to prep this, but I’m gonna go off the cuff. So, all right. So, while you guys are thinking, three came to mind right away for me. You had three? Well, you’re going to say three. Wow. Intimidating. So, yeah, I’ll give him three. I He just literally So, first scene of Englorious Bastards. Uh, just like your heart’s the suspension buildup. Yeah, you can actually go two in Englorious Bastards, too. one in the basement like you know there’s two great ones in that movie. Um but the first one just the suspense the buildup his way the way he plays with tension Tarantino like I love that sequence um the first bowling scene for the big Labowski. Shut up Donnie. You’re out of your element. You’re out of like right like throw out like the film school stuff, the cinnaphile stuff. Just a everyone knows it. Great [ __ ] scene. And then I’d say Rushmore, Wes Anderson. Oh my god. Bill Murray when he jumps off the diving board into the pool. Single shot, right? And I think it’s the kinks playing and he’s just like he downs the beer. You know what I’m talking about? I’ve seen the movie, but god damn, no, dude. So [ __ ] good. It’s such a good sequence. I love a good single shot. Now I think about Boogie Nights. Uh oh. Like another one. Camera all the way through inside the house like that Los Angeles bungalow into the pool. Such Christ. Oh god. So So Zubar’s a huge cophile is what I’m saying. Wow. Who who wants to go second in this whole list? Because I can’t I can’t follow that up. Keegan, why don’t you uh why don’t you I’m not I’m not a huge fan of that, but I will go for a movie scene or I guess at least the vibe of a movie and I’m kind of like the uh I guess nerd. All right, the podcast. I love Star Trek. I love Star Wars. I love sci-fi. I mean, I love most, you know, movies in general, but it’s a trap. Anyway, so what I love is anytime the, you know, Harrison Ford in the original Star Wars like pilots the Millennium Falcon, it always feels like you’re trying to drive like a 1984 piece of [ __ ] car and you’re like just come on, hold the [ __ ] like at some point he says, “Come on, baby, hold together.” And like that coupled with, you know, when they’re like in those little those little like like uh I guess those little like laser shooter chairs and they’re trying to shoot down the tie fighters. That scene will be burned in my memory for all time where he’s just like trying to shoot down the TIE fighters. I think that’s my favorite movie scene of all time. And and then just reminding myself whenever I drive a piece of [ __ ] car, it always feels like I’m driving the Millennium Falcon trying to get it to keep going, you know? Come on, baby. Hold together. That’s my favorite movie scene is is Han Solo driving the Millennium Falcon in any scene. Okay, great. That’s great. Um, since this was sprung on us, by the way, that was sprung. This is This is live. No way I can measure up to those two. Two come to mind. I cannot say they are my favorite because I would probably go with a vanilla sky scene, but I’m gonna go a little bit uh sideways. Uh only because I watched it with my two teenage daughters a couple days ago. Not the guy. We watched Dumb and Dumber. Uh I mean there’s a thousand different scenes that are hilarious, but the one that I always loved and both of my kids reacted the same I did whenever I saw it many, many years ago. the same was the snowball scene when they go skiing and he just he just picks up a snowball and hammers it right at her face. Hilarious. Funny. Can’t say it’s my favorite scene. Yeah. Hilarious. Yeah. And then my other one that comes into mind and again maybe not like uh a very good movie. the usual suspects uh with Kaiser so you know I’d like a movie where at where at the end it all kind of comes together with this like twist i.e. Well, that’s why Vanilla Sky is one of my favorites, but with the usual suspects at the very end when it all comes together as he’s walking out. Not to give it away for those that haven’t seen it. It’s okay, Dan. The movie is 30 years old. So, the guys are so sane, you know, limping, walking out and then all of a sudden walking out, I would have to say that’s probably up there in one of the best scenes I’ve ever seen. All right, quick question for everybody. Uh, speaking of twist movies, favorite Mighty? Six Sense. Science. I love Six Sense, but science is like I love I’m a sci-fi guy. I love science. It’s great. No, Science sucks. The whole Actually, that should be the question. Not the best might movie. There’s only one really good might movie. Worst might movie. Oh, there’s a few. There’s a few of those. I need to look them up. He was just always writing on like the the the coattales of Six Sense. Mel Gibson was excellent in science. He’s like science was good. I’m looking too with with the alien in science was good. First time you see alien walking the whole movie. Yeah. The first time we watch the alien walking the movie may have like kind of been hit or miss but science was great. Swing away Keegan. Oh the village. I had to look it up. I really like the village. You like the village? Okay. Okay. I like the village because that had a little thing at the end. Had a thing at the end. But I like Unbreakable. So I don’t hate all his movies. Did we lose half of the people that listen to us right now? Are they still with us? Well, I’m about to lose you, Dan, because I’m gonna say this very quietly so Dan doesn’t beat me up. I just watched Millless Sky for the first time. I think I mentioned I’ never watched it. I think it’s a little dated probably. So, real quick, the people that are listening here, uh, we were supposed to do a 7:30 podcast, but Mr. Shangping had to take a [ __ ] nap. I’ve had a long day. All right. I had to get like I had to be at short size. I love the bath, guys. And therefore, we pushed back for like an hour and a half because Shang had to take a [ __ ] Well, okay. It is 8:30 now. So, so anywh who um yeah, so you saying the sky is outdated means very little to me. You still haven’t answered the question, Shank. Yeah. Was there a part of the sky? Yes. Okay. So, I am going off track, but quick recommendation for uh for Zubar and actually for all the cinnaphiles here. I’m watching the studio on on Apple TV. It’s great. It’s hilarious. They have a whole episode about the one shot, the wonder. Oh, sweet. You might like that one, Zub. So, Seth is hilarious in it. So, I like that a lot. Okay, so actually I do have three scenes actually. I don’t know if they’re my three absolute favorite scenes, but I love these scenes. Okay, so big sci-fi guy. So the end of Bladeunner nice Rucker how end right uh he’s again giveaway he’s a robot y all these moments will be lost in time like tears in the rain time to die maybe the greatest end cinema or greatest lines ever written to to end a movie maybe arguably um a little more esoteric maybe or around the same time period 80s sci-fi the end of Brazil uh end of Brazil um it it takes you It’s one of those like it’s a dream sequence kind of thing, but it doesn’t bother me. Usually that bothers me. That’s a copout, but the character, the the hero of the movie, uh, Jonathan Price, you think he’s gotten away with it, but no, it was everything. It comes out, uh, you think he’s gotten away with everything. He’s gotten away from the the man, the system, or whatever, but no. Uh they pull you away and it’s a closeup of him being examined, dissected by the doctors of the of We just lost all of our sponsors. Oh, that’s okay. I love I love [ __ ] you all. Is it time for our nap? Brazil is so good. All right, so no, I’m gonna I’m gonna fight with this. Great. I do also like and this is also another one that will lose listeners, too. I love Cloud Atlas the movie, but a lot of people hate that movie. Okay, one last scene that I love. Um, a little more classic. Casablanca, beginning of a beautiful friendship. Very simple. Love that. That might be my favorite overall movie. Can always watch that. So, those are my trying to gain back sponsors. Are we trying to win sponsors or lose? I don’t know. I tell you how I feel, Dan. I I’m feeling very very vulnerable now, Dan. All right. Anybody know where um the movie Dumb and Dumber is started? like in the beginning of the movie. Rhode Island. No, I want to say Rhode Island. Yeah, Providence, Rhode Island. Where aren’t they from there? Right. Story about Providence, Rhode Island. If you haven’t been to Providence, Rhode Island, um is that there is a on the highway a it’s like a I95 runs from New York to Boston. Also all the way up to Maine to Florida, but it runs straight through straight through Providence. And on the side of I95, right before you get into Providence, is a massive uh bug called the Big Blue Bug. And when I moved to Providence, I was like, “That’s a [ __ ] huge bug.” And it’s like basically like a it’s like a pest control company. And in the movie Dumb and Dumber 30 years ago, there’s the big blue bug. Like as soon as they’re driving out of this out of the city, there’s a huge bug. And I was like, “Oh my god, they’ve been there forever.” I was like, “That’s amazing. Are they from there or something?” Because me, myself, and I and Irene, that’s also set in Rhode Island, I believe. Am I wrong? I don’t know. I haven’t seen that movie in forever, but I I watched Dumb and Dumber like a year or two ago and I freaked out. I was like, I know these places. They’re filming it in Rhode Island. All right, don’t think too hard. Favorite quote from Dumb and Dumber. Oh god, Sam. Oh, that’s a tough one. Way off. There’s a lot. I like I like I mean Yeah, there’s too many, but Okay, I’m gonna take the easy one. So, you’re saying there’s a chance? I got that one. No pets head. I like uh Yeah, pets head. I like Are those your skis? Both of them. Both of them. [ __ ] that. Yeah. I love the our our pets heads are falling off. That’s my favorite. Yeah. But uh Usual Suspects. So I was obsessed with that movie like I don’t know this has got to be like 20 years ago now. And then um I discovered it later and then because I think it’s like Shanks said, like a 30-y old movie. But couple weeks ago, as you do when you’re my age, you I finished it like every night. I think even after this plot, I’d go watch like 20 minutes of it. And I hadn’t seen it in like 15 years. Um, and I still haven’t gotten to the ending, the best part. But my favorite character in that movie was always Bonio Del Toro because he has very little lines, but he like completely made up that character like that whole voice like I flip you. I flip you for real. that whole like thing that he makes up. He was like and no one knew who he was at that time because he was an up character and was like, “Let me do something weird so I gain attention with the little trying to cut that.” And uh yeah, and so everyone thought he really spoke that way that acted with him because he completely just made up that character. Um, so low-key, I think like probably one of the best uh roles in that whole film were him, even though he has limited time. Around that same time, too, he also did Fear and Loathing, which he’s incredible in. Yeah. Oh, I love him in that. He’s He’s having a little resurgence right now, too. W Anderson sponsors. Shang. Yes. Do you want to read our sponsor for today’s episode? I already did. So, I don’t know how how many drinks you are in. Did you read the whole thing? Listen, bring hockey back’s going to love it. Do it again. Run it back. Bring hockey back. Bring hockey back.net. For jerseys, for t-shirts, coupon code San Jose hockey now for 15% off. And I did read it earlier. Sponsor had a few drinks. Do you want I think this is Dan’s fault. Dan has influences badly for our news and notes of the day. Yeah. News and notes. Shang. News and notes. Oh, is it? Okay. I We’ve been talking too much about movies. We got to get Okay, let’s let’s get to it. Okay. So, before we get to the main topic we’re going to talk about today was is the first day of training camp. A lot of news related with that. So, we’re going to react to all that in just a little bit. But first, before we do that though, let’s talk a little bit about the rookie face off and just some of the the impressions of some of the guys there. And I want to turn this over to Keegan. So, what did you see in the rookie face off of the some of the Sharks kids? I love it. Um, couple things. I think before we talked last time, I wanted to single out Musty and Hosi or Hoshi Wang um as the two guys that I was like taking a look at and both of them had interesting um tournaments, I guess you could call it, or just two games. Um, Musty came out of the gate like swinging, right? Swinging away. That was the the Quinton Musty motto. He was like what we saw from um you know like Smith Celbrini in the past in these kind of tournaments where they’ve taken over. Musty was I mean he was one of the older prospects too, but he he showed out like he was physical. He was um bringing a lot of that Bame that we’ve talked about in the past. Blocking shots. Yeah. Yeah. Blocking shots. also inter intercepting passes, like trying to create offense from steals and stuff like that. Instead of just kind of like floating around the ice waiting for the puck to get to him, he was more active. Um, which is something that everybody has said about Musty that needs to improve. He was like, I’m going to do it. And he went out there and he looked like one of the best prospects in both those games. So, I was super excited about that because we didn’t really expect it. We we’ve seen Sherneshave kind of take over as that like winger prospect that is going to maybe make the Sharks soon and everybody’s kind of been like ah Shernov he’s got it. We kind of you know put Musty down a little bit because of some problems in Sudbury and stuff like that but he looks awesome and he looks awesome last year in in this tournament too. So wouldn’t put like an amazing amount of stock in it. I think he still needs to go through training camp and against men and all that but he looked awesome. So excited about Musty’s future. Um, and then Wang, I think the first game was was pretty rough to be honest. I think there was a lot of issues with uh controlling the puck, moving the puck as a defenseman. He just I think that part of his game is still developing a lot. Obviously, his size, his skating is excellent. He’s massive human being and he can move really, really well, but the moving the puck, trying to get out of his zone is like um kind of lacking. and he’s just started hockey like four years ago, so there’s still more to come. But the second game, he looked better. Like it’s just impressive that like even one game to the next, he looked like he improved. So I think he he also had a fight in that second game which was if you haven’t seen the fight, it was one of the most interesting fights I’ve ever seen. You heard about it? Okay, boy. Yeah, you should watch. Yeah. So I uh just to jump in here, so I had the pleasure of playing with Randy Han or golf. Uh we were in a golf tournament together on Monday. Yeah. Uh and he talked to me about um the game where you guys would know they were down five nothing and they came back. Oh yeah. He said five and then came back and won 84 or 85 or something like that. Yep. Um and he talked about the fights and that was one of the fights he talked about. He said that um obviously you know rookies and the rookie games they’re take it for what it is. it’s rookies playing against rookies or not playing against, you know, seasoned veterans. But, uh, he was very impressed with the fight of, uh, some of these young guys, meaning not the actual fighting, but the want, the will, the battle back, and and I guess there were a few fights. Um, and he was very impressed with what he saw. But that was one of the fights he mentioned that it was uh, unique, I believe, was the word he So, I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m gonna have to go check it out now. Well, I I can set you up here, Dan. So basically W actually the name is spelled Wang but it’s pronounced Wong. I don’t know exactly why. But anyway, so Wong takes takes the guy down or they fall together. It’s um I forget his his name on the Kings, but either way though. So Wong keeps well on him while they’re both down. And it’s it’s hilarious if you’re watching it from a sharks pitch perspective. because Wong’s skates are kicking up like he’s swimming as he’s punching the but it was happening to your team. You’ll be like, “You can’t do that.” And actually, they were both kicked out of the game. I know Wong was kicked out of the game for sure. But then the refs, they actually kicked him out of the game. He changed. He showered. And then they said, “Hey, actually, it’s not an automatic to get kicked out for that.” The refs there thought it was an automatic. And so they said he could come back into the game. Yeah. So, and so he changed, right? Give him credit. He changed and got back into the game. Yeah. Uh the Kings player, from what I understand, wasn’t hurt. Uh the theory, I’m not sure exactly what happened with him, but he might have changed and just been like, you know, I’m done for the night. Yeah. Well, two things. I think number one, even before the fight, he looked more comfortable with the puck, which was like what I wanted was a little bit more growth from him with the puck. And the second thing is I think uh Boiler could speak to this is like you got to kind of control your skates on the ice. Like even if you’re on the ground or even if you’re getting hit or whatever, like you can’t just fling your legs, like you can’t do it. I I haven’t seen the video, but the thought of the thought of what he’s doing. Yeah. He’s like he’s 6′ 6 foot he’s a huge guy and he’s like on the ground swinging his legs everywhere. You can’t do it. You gota you got to control your leg. You do. And and and to skate I mean they’re dangerous. I mean they’re they’re they’re dangerous. They can they’re blades. They’re literally you’re skating on blades. So you always have to be aware of that. And uh yeah, but like you said, I didn’t even know he So he just learned how to like started playing four years ago like Mhm. I think he started playing as a kid, but he started playing seriously like from when he was 14. So So he’s a very raw pro prospect and and skater. He’s a huge guy. He covers a lot of ice. So that’s why drafted him. It’s just like he’s got a lot of raw aspect which makes him super interesting as like a prospect because there’s aspects of like fundamental hockey that he doesn’t have to to to tie this in and whether or not it’s relevant I don’t know but um when I my first year in the miners um I was in Lexington Kentucky and there was a player on the other side that was huge but he was terrible and I’m gonna say this he was a bad player Zado. Oh, sure. Yep. Yep. I’ve heard that. Dara was bad. Was bad. Oh, no. That he was awful when he started. He was bad. But fast forward to a couple years later, handful of years later, Zedana was a tremendous NHLer. Uh, obviously won Norris Trophy, was the captain, and was a tremendous defenseman. So, not sure if that’s what’s in the wings for him, but you know, sometimes these taller players, they just got to find their way a little bit. And maybe that’s one of those guys he can kind of look up to as somebody that at the age of 20, 21 was still like, oh god. But, I mean, he was he was huge. He was huge. But I mean within five years, Sado obviously improved, worked hard probably and uh obviously became a you know a Hall of Famer. I I really like that comparison for two reasons. One, Mike Rar and in the scouting camp really talked about how they like his story as well. like you know he moved here basically left his family at 14 I believe from China to come I think his mom came too but oh his mom came too and like but still like to come here to play hockey Sure at 14 and moved to Toronto and and start playing it taking it more seriously like his love for the game is what they talked about and everyone knows he’s a very very raw and you saw that like Keegan was saying in the first game like he was raw out of position at times like but I what I love about this fight was the timing of it, right? Like charts are down four-0 and he found a way to make an impact and I forgot Shane you probably know someone said like hey that fight did turn us around. Was that both John McCarthy and Colin Graass said it they were actually were down four zero at that moment. Yeah. Um I think they were just I I imagine that they were just very amused by again some of the visuals of the fight that I mentioned and no one got hurt. If someone had gotten hurt from it then it’ be a different story but nobody got hurt. I think I saw it somewhere. He looked like Ray Gun. I don’t know if you guys remember the the break dancing Olympics Australian break dancer. Okay. Okay, there you go. That’s what I was like talking about. That’s funny. Yeah, that’s a good one. Yeah. So, he did look like that. He did spark the team a little bit there. Obviously, they have enough talent that they were, you know, they came back and they dominated right after that point. So, it was awesome to see like Misa, Dickinson, Musty, Graph, like pick up the torch after that fight and just like, you know, goal after goal basically. So, loved it. Um, even if you know, Wong needs a little bit of refining on many aspects, he’s still got like there’s there’s reasons why they picked him like right at the beginning of the second round. Like, there was going to be and people complained even they were like, “Well, he’s going to, you know, he was ranked at 91.” It’s like, well, if you look at him, somebody was going to pick him at 35 or 36, 37, because like he’s a 6’6, great skating defenseman. Like, he’s going to get picked. You know, even if you don’t ever make the NHL, there’s still development runway that like Mike Ger wanted to jump on. So, you know, he’s got a long way to go, but exciting to see from him. So, those were the two guys I wanted to look at was Misa and and Wong. And they both did great things. So, yeah, I agree with everything you said about Wong. My favorite Wong play was that uh he got a pass along the wall. He bobbled it. He probably shouldn’t have bobbled it, but he bobbled it right to a king and the king was right there. And so Wong just trucked him. Like, hello, [ __ ] And took the puck right there. So, it was just a kind of a perfect encapsulation of just his skating, his size, but also his his rawness. I wanted to also add too about Musty that Musty like you mentioned Keegan was great last year in a rookie face off and then there was a drop off when he got into training camp and the scrimmages and I will say watching the scrimmage scrimmages today and we’ll talk about it more in a little bit but I liked Musty in the scrimmage today so I want to mention that and overall about Misa I think Misa was excellent in rookie faceoff I did an article about that uh talking with Angel scouts about what they saw about Misa and just sort of his I think overall what you would say about Misa is just you could see how smart he was, how comfortable he was with the puck. He didn’t rush himself out there. And of course doing that at a rookie faceoff tournament is one level, but then we got to go a level higher to training camp. And we’ll I’ll talk about my impressions of Misa today at the scrimmage in a little bit, but I think so far so good with Michael Misa. Love it. Yeah. The um thing with Misa that stood out to me was just his his like puck reception. Like when he takes the when he gets the puck from somebody, he’s already kind of like grabbing the puck, turning and moving at the same time instead of like grab the puck, then I move or then I turn, then I move. He’s like doing it all in kind of one motion. He’s very fluid with how he moves in the offensive zone. And he showed that too in the the rookie face off. But I think it’ll be fine. like he just he’s going to be a little bit of adjustment, but I think he’s going to be fitting in the NHL lineup soon. I think the two things that stood out for me with Misa uh going off of Keegan’s point of what he saw too is his ability to roll off checks while controlling the puck. Uh there was that one play in in the Kings game where he rolled off in the high circle then went to the net, back door tappy, right? Like just beautiful play. He just he’s so low too uh to the ice. He kind of has like an eklland like 90° shin. Yeah, that’s what a scout told me. Yeah, that’s Yeah, he’s really low to the ice. He’s got a really good frame. The second thing that I noticed, his timing to the center of the ice is like impeccable. Like he gets to the middle of the ice, like the high slot at the perfect time. Um, I’m a little scared about that because of his frame right now, just being 18 in the NHL. Like, if he does that, like it’s gonna it’s you’re battling a lot harder. I don’t know, Dan, you might have something to say there, but a little scared for him, but he he he’s tenacious. He seems to to want it and go to the middle of the ice. Yeah. And um I think we’re going to talk about uh you know, being a center in the NHL uh versus a wing um depending on where they put him. Uh or do we know are we are they is he going to be centerman? I mean, I I’m the least informed person in this. They want him to be. Yeah. And and we’ll talk about this too. I think Smith what we’ve all talked about I think is is going to wing. So said the plan is to use Misat center throughout camp and just see how he does. Okay. So I mean obviously besides the faceoff face off I remember even Cabbrini like was just getting eaten alive the first month because there’s an art to it and even I can’t tell you how because I’ve never you know I was never a centerman. So besides the faceoff, I mean, usually centermen are going to be low uh in the D zone. They’re going to be the ones most of the time helping out the Dman in the corners. So there’s a lot more work for a centerman to be done than a winger. It’s a lot more effort, a lot more physical play as a centerman. Uh you’re expect you’re expected to help defensively and then you need to be the first guy to help out as well offensively breaking the puck out. And you are in the center of the ice. So, um, in the NHL in the center of the ice can be against some of the bigger boys are looking at, you know, you got to have your head on a swivel. Uh, you can’t be skating around in the middle of the ice with your head down, uh, thinking you’re in the NOHL because if you do, it’s going to be lights out at SAP and, uh, I don’t want to see that. Um, obviously, nobody does. So, um, it’s going to be a learning curve for sure. Um, you know, center the center position is definitely a harder position to play than, in my opinion, than a winger that’s normally just going to go to the boards. Yeah. Defensively, you know, he’s just supposed to watch his defenseman and very rarely will a winger have to do a ton in the Dzone. Um, obviously he’s got to be strong on the boards, but but for sure there’s a lot more work and learning curve as a centerman um than it is as a winger in the NHL. For sure. Yeah. We’ll see if he has that ability to because one of the things that is underrated about little unrelated but very related underrated thing about Mlin Celabbrini is that Mlin doesn’t get hit a lot because his head’s always up and besides his head always being up he just knows what’s going on around him. So you very very rarely saw him get for as much as he has the puck, as much as he has the puck in the middle, as much as he’s carrying the puck from blue line to blue line, he doesn’t get touched a lot because when the when the pressure is coming, he knows to give it up. And so Misa so far has been good at it. Even I’ll talk a little about it later, but the scrimmages today, but it’s still a very very low level. The scrimmages, there’s not a lot of physicality. rookie face off, there is physicality, but it’s much younger players. So, so far so good with with Misa in that regard. But when we get to a higher level, the exhibition games and actual NHL games, yeah, that’s going to be a if he’s going to the middle and he’s he’s getting he’s getting wiped out, you can’t have that for a 18-year-old. Yeah. Well, that that’s a skill, I think. Um spinning off checks. Uh you there you how do I say this properly? you have to be somewhat afraid. Uh what do I mean by that? Well, that’s a good point. Yeah. Um I remember Eric Lendros. Okay, I’m I’m myself a little bit. One of the biggest guys on the ice. Uh and the Big E, he wasn’t afraid of anyone. But unfortunately, by not being afraid to get hit some, he he had a lot of concussions because I don’t know that he had a lot of fear. True. And I I think there’s a skill there where you want to be afraid, but at the same time, the good players, their pulse is low. It’s like a It’s like a There’s like a calmness to being afraid, which is what I was. I was always freaking smaller than everyone else. But what I figured out is that I wasn’t nervous about it. I mean, I knew that I couldn’t go in a corner or go through the middle of the ice with my head down. So, I was technically afraid to get hit, but I learned to, you know, do it on a level where I was I was calm about it. pulse was low and uh they say ice through the veins was kind of one of those uh terms they use which is just about understanding the situation and and I think you know Mlin for sure has done a good job of understanding that and the wear and tear will allow him to play more minutes in one game and will allow him to play obviously have a longer career. Yeah, I think that’s a great way to phrase it. Uh healthy fear. I I I Yeah, you have to have some fear. If you are fearless, yeah, sure, that’s good. But we’re talking injuries. We’re talking uh I don’t know that that’s a a recipe for success long term. Yeah. Um unless you’re Alex Ovuchkin, which you can just be completely fearless. Yeah. whatever it was. I think there needs to be an element of fear. And I do mean that in the sense of like understanding that, you know, where and when you can be hit and just understanding your body and and the situation. And for those of us listening who don’t remember Eric Lindros, Lindros was the most hype prospect since Mariel Lemieux when he got drafted. If you if you do a list of the most hyped number one picks of the last 30 years, Lindros is is is up there with McDavid, with Crosby. Oh, yeah. Lemieux, too. And the problem though with, as you alluded to, Dan, with with the Big E, is that he just didn’t adjust how he played. He went went through the middle of the ice with his head down even after multiple concussions. And it was again, I was a Flyers fan. I remember when they traded for him, they gave up half their team. But I mean, uh, one of my favorite players was was was great to watch, but I think his his I think his career was cut short. Um, because I think he was fearless and and um, and again, I hope people understand that I mean that in in the proper correct way. There there’s there’s a way of understanding the game and when and when not to hit and how to protect yourself. I think there was like a I kind of had that feeling last year with Celibbrini because there was moments where he did look fearless going into the boards and then uh there was that one play where he kind of got hit from behind and he went to the boards. Who was that guy? Hit him like twice. Stenland but I don’t think that I don’t put that on celebrity though like the Stenland should have hit him there. So yeah, but I also but he but he was going in a little like a little fearless like if you’re going to the boards to Dan’s point and now you’re in the NHL you do like kind of reverse. He went in leaning forward where you’re going in with Stanley. You have that awareness like that healthy amount of fear where you go in in a right way to protect yourself like Yeah. Hey, this guy’s kind of an idiot. Like you know that like you know who you’re up against in the boards and you have that awareness of the league. Yeah. Go ahead. Yeah. No, you got to protect yourself. You’re right. I mean uh yeah, we want to block shots. you you want to make sure that you get the puck out. But what good is Mlin going to be to the Sharks if he’s in the rafters because he’s got a dislocated shoulder, you know, like there there’s a way of playing hockey where you’re a you’re a bulldog, you’re you’re a team player, you’re but you have to protect yourself as well. And learning how to go into the corners, learning how to absorb a check, knowing when to hit, when not to hit. Um, those are things that you learn kind of on the fly. Um, and especially as a smaller player. Um, you got you got you got to learn when to, you know, like I said, I mean, I I I made reference to a few bigger guys that there was no need for me to go hit Johnlair and Eric Lindros in the corner because that wasn’t going to do anything. So, why why even put myself in danger when u riskreward was was not very good. So yeah, this is tangential, but did anyone ever see the Thornton Lindros fight? Joe Thornton. Joe Thornton fought Lind. Oh [ __ ] Wow. No, I didn’t see it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sharks. How did he How did he do? I think got I think Thornton got knocked out. Oh [ __ ] Really? Yeah. I think so. I I sorry Jumbo if I’m wrong but I saw this a long time ago but I assume it’s when Jumbo was with Boston, right? Yeah. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he was with Boston. Wow. A lot of people would get knocked out by that guy for sure. Yeah, dude. Yeah. So, what made people speaking of like your ability not to get hit? That’s what made people um think that Ekan was for the NHL was because he was very slippery, right? Like he’s got the nickname slippery Pete on uh Instagram. I don’t know why. Shout out to my Twitter. Slippery Pete. I don’t know why I missed who we’re talking about. Ecklund William. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah, it is. Especially for the smaller players. It’s it’s a big part of again, not only do you want to last, you know, within a game itself, you the length of your career, every hit you absorb every year will will shorten your time in NHL. And that’s why some players that are 28 look like they’re they’re done. They’re they’re beaten up, banged up. And the players that usually tend to play a little bit longer, usually, not all the time, are the players that are a little bit smarter, spin-off checks a little bit. Obviously, some great skaters are going to be part of that crew, but um but it’s it’s it’s there’s an art to to understanding the physical play in the NHL. and and some of these young guys that are coming up from the O are going to learn that, you know, your your your biggest two, three, four guys in the OHL, there’s seven or eight on every team now. It’s not you’re not seeing them three, four times a year. You’re seeing them three, four times a period, you know. So, uh so it’s it’s it’s it’s a wakeup call. Uh I I just looked it up. You’re right, Zubar. Eric Lendros gave Jumbo a a broken cheekbone in the fight. Yeah. I mean, Jumbo held his own at the beginning of it from what I remember. Yeah. Yeah, it’s a good one. Uh, but respect to Jumbo. I mean, fighting Lindros. Jesus. No, Lindros could do everything except for look up in the middle of ice. If he did that, then Lindros would have double the points. Hey, hey, let’s just also be clear like he got lit up by Scott Stevens for one of the big ones, right? Yeah. For one of the big ones. He’s also like the probably one of the best ever to play the game to open ice. And also new rules. How many of his hits are illegal? That’s true, too. Yeah. No. Uh, Lendros would dominate today’s NH show. Dude, that Korea hit, that’d be Oh, Steven’s on Korea. Steven. Yeah, Steven’s on Korea. Like, that would have been out for today’s game like I think that was a good hit because I guess I I played in those days. Oh, yeah. That’s right. Yeah. I think there’s a responsibility on a player. Um, uh, anyone that’s bored, uh, Google, uh, Bruce Orpic on Dan Bole. I was with the Rangers and, uh, he hit me and I, I saw stars. I don’t think technically I had a but trainer had to come out. I was kind of like punching on the ground and everyone’s like, “Oh, he boils piss. It was a dirty hit.” He, you know, the the TV guys were like, “That’s a dirty hit.” I was like, “No, that was my fault. I didn’t have my [ __ ] head up. That’s on me. Or it was a big hit. It was semi dirty, but no, that I I took full responsibility because I put myself in a bad situation. So, um I think there’s a onus on the players sometimes to they need to be accountable for the positions they put themselves in. if you’re going to put yourself in a position to get smoked by Scott Stevens cutting across the ice again like you said maybe you know now they call that penalty but I I thought I think that was a good hit and the man responsibility too I love that by the way I I just Googled the clip it literally says got to see a boyc stars after that’s the title of the clip yeah it was a good hit there’s nothing I can’t be like no that was a bad hit That was on me, man. I I That was 100% my fault. Well, that onus on the player thing. I remember all the way through like the 2010s and stuff when they were doing the NHL player safety reviews of every single hit to the head or like every single blindside hit. Um it was always that like, well, did he think about like whether or not he was going to get hit? And nowadays, it’s like if you get hit in the head, it’s over. Like, you know, it’s a penalty. That’s it. Like things have changed in that way. Um just aggressor. There’s a there’s also like precedents, right? Like people who tend to hit people in the head get penalized more for hitting people in the head. So yeah. Yeah. Also just the Korea clap bomb comeback. One of the greatest moments in hockey history. If you can make that a movie clip. Excellent. Him on the ice with the fog against his visor. Yeah, that’s pretty good [ __ ] Chill. What if they remade it starring Tom Cruz? Who who plays Scott Stevens? That’s a good question. He’s a good villain. Oh, the the big guy who plays Jack Reacher now. Alan Richen Richson. Wow. All right. Good casting. Tom Hardy. Is that his name? Good one. There you go. Vulcan guy. Yeah. All right, Shane, fire off some emails. Let’s see if they’ll just remake that sequence for us. Tom Hardy. Tom Cruz. I I I have complete ability to be clear. Tom Cruz is Paul Korea, right? Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Tom Cruz has to be career. Like that’s he has to be right. Well, they’re about the same age now. So that’s true. Well, I don’t know if if with Dan’s perspective, that’s that would be Tom’s fault. So I don’t know if you could stick with that. That was Tom’s fault. We’ve seen Tom run a lot, but we haven’t seen him skate yet. So, this would be a departure. He is short. Tom is short. So is Paul. Paul’s pretty short. Yep. Pretty short. Good movie. We’re making a movie right now, guys. So, uh All right. So, Shang, uh moving on to uh Oliver Oliver Walstrom. What do you think? What are your thoughts? The Sharks brought in Oliver Walstrom, 2018 first round pick on a PTO. If he doesn’t make the Sharks, he will go to the Barracuda. So, couple thoughts on that. Number one, this is good for the Barracuda because the Barracuda do not have a lot of established scoring in their lineup right now. They let go of Andrew Padowski. They also let go of Denil Guushian, the leading Barracuda scorer all time. Shout out to Goose Keegan. and also Jimmy Schultz too, who’s not a big- time scorer, but important veteran player. So, Barracuda are going trending a little young this year. And anyway, I know that Walsh being a first round pick, that’s exciting for for fans, but I do want to caution though that and I spoke with a couple of scouts just sort of what happened with Walstrom’s career. Walstrom, just to kind of describe it, could never really stick with the New York Islanders, the team that drafted him. They let him go. He signed with the Bruins. I think maybe they traded him over there. I’m not really sure exactly what happened. They may have waved him. I don’t remember the whole whole course of how he got to the Boston Bruins and the Providence Bruins. But Walstrom is unfortunately kind of one of those guys that if he’s not scoring, he’s not really helping you kind of players, right? That’s that’s what I understand. And he hasn’t been able to do that a lot in the NHL. His career high in the NHL is 13 goals. So that’s for a guy that that’s his role. That’s not a lot. Um, also been mentioned to me that while he does have a definite fantastic NHL caliber scoring shot, that he is not a great skater. So, that’s a big part of it. And also, he’s been hindered by some injuries in recent years. And so, I think that that’s sort of why a guy comes to you at 25 first round pick. Actually, this you read the elite pro I love elite prospects, but if you read the scouting report on Walstrom on elite prospects, it’s gushing about him, talking about him like he’s Alex Ovetchkin incarnate. That’s why you got to be careful with prospects. Uh when you draft them and and how much you’re hyping them and I’m going to say this about Michael Misa, too, and guys like that, too, that they are what they are as 18, but they have to get better. You have to project them. you have to extrapolate. If they stay as they are or they can’t get to that kind of next level, they become kind of Oliver Walstrom. So anyway, good luck to to Oliver, but um yeah, it’s going to be kind of tough for him to make the Sharks, but he definitely can help the Barracuda. He definitely should be able to score a lot with in the AHL. I think one thing to point out is the uh what kind of player Walstrom is, right? Like he’s a he’s a sniper. Like that’s that’s how he was drafted. that’s how he was like developed as like a guy who’s got a great shot, that kind of thing. And a lot of those picks in the last, you know, like 10 years of drafting haven’t really panned out. Like guys that are primarily go goal scorers more than anything else. They can’t really contribute unless they’re shooting the puck. They don’t really pan out that much. So, just something to keep in mind for even even on our own team like guys like Halton and he’s got some other elements to his game, but you know, I’m I’m sure Bole seemed like a bunch of dudes with a great shot. Yeah. But if you don’t have the rest of your game, it doesn’t really matter. Like even if you have an amazing shot, if you cannot get to the right areas of the ice, if you can’t move the puck, if you can’t carry the puck at the right time, yeah, it doesn’t really matter. And that’s kind of what happened with Walstrom. He’s got a great shot, but not much else. and then didn’t really develop after his his draft year in 2018. So, right. Anyway, that’s kind of the the Walstrom uh tidbit. And yes, like Barracuda depth for now. And then it’s interesting the Sharks are kind of using that like he’s on a PTO for the Sharks, but they signed him to a atto for the Barracuda because they don’t really have contract space to kind of give him like a No, he signed at Barracuda. He has a regular contract, but they don’t have a they don’t have a pro space is what I mean. Oh, okay. Okay. Well, that’s probably why he signed so late because he probably was hoping for an actual NHL contract, but he couldn’t get it. And so, this is maybe the best opportunity for the Sharks, you know, still being a last place team opportunity for playing time. Yeah. And the Sharks don’t really have the space right now because they’re still trying to figure out the whole Dickinson and Misa thing, which Mike mentioned in his interview, is like, yeah, well, somebody’s going to be moved out if both Misa and Dickinson stay in the NHL. Somebody will have to be moved, right, from the organization. And if there is space, um, if they make space, it could go the way that Colin White’s a guy that they signed him to an angel contract in season. So Walstrom may have the same hopes, too, that that happened to him, too. Yeah. And then, um, who’s the guy that got who’s around for a little while, a couple years ago, signed an AHL to NHL deal. Oh my gosh, I can’t remember his name. There’s so many of them. There’s I know like LA or Anaheim. Shoot. I can’t remember his name. I’m gonna feel bad. Zingle. I don’t know. No, not to Zingle. He played for the Barracuda for a while until he got like an NHL deal. Good skater. Oh, Justin Bailey. Justin. There you go. Justin Bailey. Thank you. Thank you. All right. We’re there. We got there. And now I don’t feel bad for Justin. All right. All right. Let’s drive uh let’s dive into training camp talk. Uh Shang, you were there? Yep. Um yeah, walk us through it. I’m excited. Yeah, sure. Day one of training camp, a lot happened, so just kind of run through it very quickly. So don’t panic. Mlin Cbrini left right after practice. He was supposed to do media with us. I’m not sure if he ran away from media like Dan Bole might if he had to talk to Shang Pang. Yeah, [ __ ] that. I ain’t sticking around for Shang Pang. I’m out. That should be the highlight clip of the of the introduce the episode. I’m out. Can you do an interview? Sure. It’s with Shank Pang. No, [ __ ] that. No, [ __ ] that. No, catch me online. I gota c I gota cut my toenails. C catch me online. Um anyway though, we’ll see tomorrow. It sounds like it’s more along the lines of illness, but I guess we’ll see. You never know. You never know until you actually see him, but should be fine. So, not going to spend too much time on that. Let’s presume that Mlin’s okay and we’ll see him tomorrow. Uh the big news is that Will Smith tells us that he is going to play most of the year on the wing and this is actually big news because during Mike Greer’s exit interview in April, and I’m not holding Mike to this because a lot has happened since April, but Mike said that Will Smith was going back to center and that that would be a at least at that time that that would be what they would do from the beginning of training camp. and that made sense. And so we kind of made our plans around Will Smith going back to wing, but they had a change of heart. Probably has something to do with drafting Michael Misa. When we talked with Mike Greer in April, they’re probably still hoping to draft Matthew Schaefer. They were hoping to draft Matthew Schaefer with the number one pick, but they lost the draft lottery. I think also with Will Smith, and I’ve sort of mentioned this in previous episodes, that I don’t think Will has an issue with with moving to the wing. I’ve spoken with a few people about that and also too and it sounds funny but I think it really is true that Will I think realized that his best chance to play with his best buddy Mlin Celbrini was to play stay on the wing because he’s not taking a center job for Mlin. So I think it all kind of lines up. And also too of course Will Smith had a lot of success on the wing last year. I was going to say I called that. You did. very quickly though. We never we didn’t even get into October. Yeah. Yeah. Jar said it. He said the things he’s he’s practicing seem like wing um you know objectives, right? Like battling along the boards play from the outside to the inside, that kind of thing. And yeah, it was it was true. He did mention that he was like practicing faceoffs still, right? Yeah, there was a video of him doing that over the summer. But you know Yeah. I also like celebrating Smith. They kind of like I don’t know, peanut butter and jelly, right? Feels like a little bit like it just feels like they kind of go together every time they play together. There are two best forwards right now on the team like in terms of offensive. Oh, I don’t know about that. Will Smith is not the second best word on the team. Who? Will Smith. The second best word on the team. I think I think within the season I think Will Smith will be our second best. Okay. By the end of the season. Okay. if that is that with obviously is a great you know forward but I think if you’re talking about like pure offensive impact those two are going to be one a oneb or or one and two I would say okay that’s still pretty bold I would say because you still got Ekkan you still got the I think so I I mean I love Ekkund I’ve love for a long time but Smith’s slight trajectory is is pretty impressive and I think he’s got the skill to to keep up with Celibbrini in a way that not many people on on the Sharks roster have. So, it’ll be a bit, but you know, in the future, I think that’s what they want is that kind of Taves and Kane pairing. You know, something like that. Dropping another Smith can go to the center, but we also have Misa and other guys that can be center. So, yeah, let’s just hope it doesn’t turn into Brendmore and Lindross. Brenda and you got old. You got old. Uh, that’s a call back. And there’s anyone over there that I don’t know. Maybe Dan knows if it’s true or not, but I don’t I don’t rumors. I heard the rumors, but I have zero zero. They were best buds. Let’s not bring that into the conversation with with Juju. So, yeah, we’ll stick to the other comps. That’s what they’re trying to get is that like one two punch, right? And we we thought before we drafted Misa that Smith would have to be the number two seed to really form a Stanley Cup contending team, but Misa’s, you know, we’ll see, but hopefully he’s the number two C of the future. Yeah. Yep. And we’ll talk a little bit more about that, too. Just the center position because Ryan Morski did kind of um uh share a very interesting nugget about who’s going to be playing center uh kind of maybe throughout camp or I don’t know if it’s going to be all through camp, but the plan right now. And so gives you an idea of what the Sharks top four centers will look like when they start the season. But I want to ask you Dan that uh we’re talking about Will Smith here and just even though you play defense, just what are some of the the differences playing center versus wing that from your view as a defenseman, but just in general just in terms of how to do it competently? I I think I touched on it earlier. Um can you guys hear me? Okay. Yeah. How’s my uh how’s my PlayStation 200 You looking looking good, Dan? Looking good. Better than than before. My Air Canada. Yeah. Okay. Um I I I think I mentioned before, I think there there’s a difference between uh board play, which is what a winger’s going to see a lot of. Um but the centerman’s going to have the puck a lot more. Uh I think the centerman is usually the first guy I look for. Personally, when I got the puck, I I look to the middle of the ice. Uh, I think the boards are kind of like you get squeezed off on the boards. The board is maybe more of my secondary target. Uh, whereas, you know, I remember when I had the puck, I I would look to the middle of the ice trying to hit my centerman. So, the centerman’s going to have the puck a whole lot more. He’s got a lot more skating to do. I mentioned about helping out in the Dzone. Uh, your centerman’s usually going to be your down low forward that’s going to end up playing a lot of defense. So, it’s a lot more active uh position than it is, you know, playing at center. And, you know, as for Will Smith and his adjustment, I think he’ll figure it out. Uh but and and then as far as a def from a defenseman standpoint, I never saw like a guys coming down at me, he’s just he’s a forward. He’s not there’s no at that point, he’s not a winger or a centerman. He’s just somebody that I have to eliminate. So, um, didn’t really make much of a difference for me. But, um, I think more defensively, I think that’s kind of where the the difference is on the on the wing. You’re just kind of you’re playing the boards in the center. You’re you’re you’re playing in the middle of the ice and playing down low a lot more. Uh, going into that a little bit, um, if if you try to if you’re breaking out the puck and you try to move the puck to your winger, right? It’s is it usually a little harder to, right? There’s more kind of bodies along the boards kind of, right? And so and also less speed along the boards too, right? [ __ ] up. Yeah. I I I I never like it’s called handcuffing, which is like when you when you give someone a a pass and he’s there’s nothing he can do with it. I call I call that handcuffing, which means you’re you’re giving him a [ __ ] you sandwich. Right. Right. Right. Or it cost him a grenade, a suicide. You know what I mean? Like obviously you got to use your winger sometimes and usually it’s it’s him just trying to get it out at that point. So there is that is a play you have to do, but ideally I’d rather give the puck to a centerman that’s in the middle of the ice that can go left or right. A winger will have the boards next to his back usually most of the time and therefore his his options are limited. It’s kind of what I’m hoping for with some of the Sharks D this season is for the last couple seasons, we’ve had a bunch of high off the glass guys. It’s been pretty hard to watch. You know, you probably watch it get I I I listen, it was it was taught many years ago when in doubt, glassing out. That was one of those [ __ ] things. And some guys have to do it. And some coaches want the philosophy is get the puck out of your zone regardless and let’s let the other team make a mistake. Yeah. Um guys like Mlin and Jumbo and myself or Patty your pavs, we wanted to make plays and so for me going off the glass was my last if I was a quarterback that was my last option. Uh but unfortunately for for certain players it’s like their first or second which is which is not ideal but um you know it’s uh I guess it’s part of the game and t time of the period who you’re playing against comes into play there too. Obviously, if you’re coming around the net, there’s 30 seconds left. Uh team’s got to pull the goalie. You’re going to go off the glass then and there. But, uh, you know, 000 game in the middle of the first period, not not necessarily the play I want to see. Right. Well, you actually mentioned that earlier that that’s also a healthy fear thing, too, that you need to have a little bit fear of it. You can’t always be trying to get the puck up the middle. Every once in a while, you got to go off the glass. But in defense of the Sharks coaching staff that um I don’t think it was their option to to to go glassing out every coach last year. That wasn’t a first choice. No. Yeah. I got a lot of things going on in my head because I I I’ve heard it. I’ve I’ve been on I played 18 years. I I’ve heard, you know, there was set plays in the Dzone that was like off a draw I would have to go back and rim it around the boards. And I [ __ ] hated it because I knew I was handcuffing my winger. But sometimes you have to do what the coach wants and then sometimes you just say I’m going to do what I want. But yeah, you have to at the end of the day it’s about winning hockey games. So depending how the team’s doing and stuff like that, there’s going to be a balance between uh when to go off the glass and when not to. Ideally, I don’t want to see it early in a game. Sure. Sure. I also want to ask ask you too um also related to kind of uh early camp first day of camp. So speaking with Ryan Warski today and I mentioned this in a lot of my tweets about the lines to to take them with a grain of salt. It is the first day of camp, but they also kind of matter too a little bit too because the way I see it, like the coaches have had months to look at all these players and when they put out a line on the first day, there’s kind of like, hey, maybe it it it can work. And we saw that with Will Smith that I saw Will Smith on the wing two hours before he spoke and he was on the line with Mlin Celebrating and Jeff Skinner. So that clearly was tipping off what they kind of are hoping that can happen. Maybe not a line of Skinner, Celebriny, and Smith, but that Smith is on the wing. I remember with Bob Bookner when he was coaching the Sharks four years ago, first day of training camp, I think. I got to look at my notes, but the first the line was um it was Nedto, Bonino, and Kagglano. And that was the Sharks third line the whole season. Unfortunately, all all those guys were a little bit past it, you know, like if it was 2017, that would be a playoff Stanley Cup winning third line, but in 2022, maybe not so much. But that was his intention from day one and that carried over into the regular season. So anyway, Dan, I just wanted to ask you in general just that kind of the early camp, how much intention in your experience is there with that? Yeah. Well, coaches respond. The coaches are going to always say that, “Oh, don’t read in. Don’t read into this. That’s what they have to say.” Yeah. It’s like, if you’re going to be a coach, that’s one of those things you have to say. But no, they have every intention of the lines that you’re starting on, the partner you’re starting with, because training camps are getting shorter and shorter. There’s very little time, very little practice time. That’s what the idea is going into the season. That’s what you want. And as camp goes, as preseason goes, then you may make some switches here and there. But if your intention is to play Dan Bole with Douggee Murray, that’s who is going to play. That’s who’s going to be playing together in camp. You’re not going to go, I have the intention of playing these two together, but let me start this. You know, it may happen in a game where you’re like, okay, let me see for a period how this works. But no, I would definitely read into it, even though coaches are going to say, don’t. um their intentions are this is what we would like to see and it’s going to get tweaked over the course of a training camp, but um no, he’s uh the way that they started things and the way that they are in camp is is is the idea of what the team wants moving forward, but it will for sure change. But the idea is this is this is what we’re going with. All right. Well, next time you go golfing with Warzo, tell them to stop bullshitting us. All right. What I wanted to say about the the camp lines and and this kind of speaks to what Bole said is like we’ve watched a lot of lines in the past four or five years where the Sharks have kind of put out prospects and other guys from the Barracuda on different lines and I always remember like being a little sad when it’s the the the favorite prospect that you want to make the NHL is like on the sixth seventh line playing with a bunch of AHL guys or seemingly AHL guys and you’re like damn it if you could only get a which was super interesting this time where where Shang’s post had like Misa playing with Sherneshave and Ekkund. Misa and Shernish both rookies and then Musty playing with Wenberg and Tofoley. Musty also a rookie. So you’ve got three rookies playing with vets like Eklund to Foley Wenberg rather than like them playing down with Barracuda guys which was super interesting. doesn’t mean it’s going to stick that way. Obviously, like things change tomorrow, you know, next day or whatever, but like they started them with three rookies in the lineup at forward, which is super interesting to me. Well, let’s do a quick uh run. Oh, sorry, Dan. You’re No, no, I was just going to say that that to me that that’s like here’s your job. Here’s your job to it’s your you know, your job to win or lose. we’re going to give you the opportunity and and um depending on the the results of the preseason games and stuff then you take it from there. I just want to do a quick rundown of the significant lines that I saw today just so we we have it out there. Skinner celebr Grundrom which doesn’t sound significant but actually for Beastad that’s I think a statement that they’re you know uh hoping that that he might take take a little bit of a step here on defense lety and clingberg Dickinson and dehar so that’s a very obvious lefty righty um with Dickinson veteran paired with a big veteran so that makes sense ekan misa chernishoff musty one burkoi we’ve talked about on defense also saw Ferraro and LoRin which is a very NHL pairing they played a lot last year and also too Orof with Mukum Doulan and Orlof was on the right they’re both lefties but Orlof was on the right side today so I think those are speaking to what Dan is saying that these are these are pairings and lines with intention disrespect to Cole Clayton the AHL guy or he wasn’t playing with Orlock today. Yeah. Yeah. Those kind of seem like your four pairings right there that that might be your top eight, right? Like if everything works out. Yeah. Yeah. Near Or um Mugabul and Ferraro Lil Shagrin Dear Dickinson and then um where was uh where was our Luca? Actually Luca he was in the last group and so I didn’t see who he was with but it’s a statement that he wasn’t with with with Orlock. Not not a damning statement, but it’s like, hey, you want to play up with Orof, you got to earn it. Y for sure in the beginning, I think. I mean, that’s what I’m reading into it. Yeah. All right. And then, uh, Shane, you brought up a good question for for Dan on training camp as well, which is, uh, you know, how in shape do they have to be? Oh, yeah. We’ll talk a little bit. You want to also talk about the new fitness rule. So basically, yeah, just a general question for you, Dan, is first day of camp in your experience in your 18 years. Are your teammates usually ready for camp or do you have a couple guys there that think they’re going to work themselves into shape during camp? Uh, a lot changed in the 18 years that I played. Uh, I would say early on there was always three or four guys that you could tell probably took a little extra time off in the summer. Um, but you know, by my 10th year and on, uh, I would say everybody shows up in tremendous shape. Okay. Um um I I think we’re I think um you can Zubar you I know um you mentioned that with the new CBA um and you can talk about it because I heard um that they are going to do away with the testing. So is that correct before I Yeah, for the new CBA camp fitness test rules, they’re basically no more fitness tests. So all on ice fitness tests are eliminated during both training camps and regular season. And I think that speaks to your point where players now like it’s just a different NHL. Yeah. Right. And it’s been getting more regimented every year and people coming guys. Uh so a couple thoughts on that. A 98% of the guys are going to come into great shape. Um I think what the players wanted to do away with was Camp Torturella. Uh John John Tordella uh in 2004, five, six, I was with the Tampa for six years. Um he famously we would come in and on day one uh he would put cones or rope, I forget what it was, and we would have to do laps. Um, and I think they were like the three laps were like a 45se secondond burn, but we had to do six of them. And let me tell you, anyone’s like, “Oh, who cares? 45 seconds, three laps, big deal.” Okay, you do that six times, your legs feel they feel like they’re twice as big. I don’t know if that makes any sense, but they just it’s it’s a weird the lactic acid, the burn. Um, and then we would go to the track. And I mean, you’re talking they’re still doing your your your your stuff off the ice with with the bench and all that other stuff. You’re doing on ice testing. And then he would make us go to a track and we would have to run. I’m probably going to butcher this, but it was something like a three- mile run, and we had to be under 24 minutes, which, you know, you can say, “All right, that’s an eight minute mile or sorry, eight, you know, eight uh no, it was was eight eight minutes a mile.” Yeah. Yeah. Um and um but you do that one two days in a row like you’re freaking gassed. And I think what Tors at least it’s my opinion. He’s never come out and said this. It was it was not I don’t think he cared. Like guys like to see Dave Anderchuk run around the [ __ ] track is not pretty. I love Andy, but I mean it was more of a mental almost like military like I’m gonna break these guys down and I want to see what they’re made of. I don’t think he actually cared because we had some guys that would like come in and like be great runners, but they were horseshit [ __ ] hockey players, so they weren’t going to make the team one way or another. Um, you know, it was just more one of those things where it’s like a coach’s mindset of like I I want these players to a breakdown. I want to see them fight. I want to see them I want to see what they got and I want them to come together. I mean, we hated it. So, we kind of like came together. I mentioned that uh one of our podcasts how we come together in spite of the coach, not for the coach. So, um, one of those things that happens when you get that is you get injuries. So, very often in Tampa, every year we would have guys, you know, three, four laps in, boom, blow a groin, boom, next guy blows a knee. Um, so I think that’s where the players, I wasn’t part of the last CDA, but I think a lot of players wanted to fight back. Uh because it it it’s tough on the body and you got your anxiety. Then you you add in your your bikes with with you know they would strap us on with these these machines or you got to breathe through a tube. The VOX mask. Yeah. They want that too. The off ice training too or that’s what they’re saying. That’s I think that’s what that’s what they’re getting on ice and off ice. Okay. So you got the V2s, you got the on ice stuff, you got the track stuff, you got your bench. I mean, I’m not obviously Well, actually, obviously, I’m pretty jacked, but uh you know, I I don’t really want to walk fool you. I don’t want to walk into a weight room cold and have to put up 225 or 185 and see how many times I can do it. It’s It’s not healthy. And I think that’s what the guys are trying to do away with it, and I agree. Now, what I think will happen and which I’m sure will happen is they can’t test you, meaning they can’t do it. But when you have practice, they will make you, they call it a bag skate, they’re going to make, they’re going to skate the [ __ ] out of you in practice. So, the testing will be obsolete and gone, but guess what happens at the end of practice? Line up and boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. So, obviously, there’s a fine line between wanting to be in shape, wanting to manage injury and risk injury, um, and then wanting to build that team camaraderie. But um I think most guys come into camp in the shape. Uh this day and age you can’t afford to come in god knows 5 10 pounds overweight. There’s just no timing. It’s not the freaking 70s anymore where guys are coming in smoking cigarettes drinking a miller light. You know bring hockey back. Huh? Those days those days bring hockey.net. Yeah. So, so all the way, by the way, everyone, if you haven’t looked this up, Google Torrs rope tests. That’s what Boilers is talking about. Yeah. It’s kind of insane. I remember. Yeah. There were there were there were the quick laps on one day which were harder in my opinion. And then you had more laps. So, it wasn’t a three. It might have been 10, which I was better at because I could coast and I had a longer, you know, but but for some guys, but I just remember like locker room, uh, trainer room after testing, you’d have seven, eight, nine, 10 guys, bags of ice on their knees, bags of ice on the groin, bags of ice. You know, some guy, one of my old college, you know, partners, Todd Rolloff, uh, shout out Todd. um he fell, went into the boards and was done. So like um I think what’s you know what’s the point of that? So um but yeah, I think uh good job on the CBA and eliminating that, but good luck on your first four, five, six, seven, eight practices because you guys are gonna get [ __ ] skated. One more followup to that, Dan. So, it’s like Tortoella has been he’s said before in in and it’s in I think in that same clip I recommended the TORS rope test where he’s like I did that not for the physical part but for the mental 100%. It helped. Um I I think I I I didn’t realize that he came out and said that to me looking back there it it makes 100% sense. Um, yeah. Again, I think his coaching style was not necessary for us to come together to play for him, but to almost play against him or or in spite of him, if you will, which, you know, right or wrong, we won a cup. So, uh, who am I to complain uh and argue? Um, but no. Yeah, we would we would come together and then you would see guys, you know, as guys are struggling, you’re like, “Come on, let’s [ __ ] go. Let’s [ __ ] go.” and you pick guys up and you build this, you know, it’s a military mindset where you’re like [ __ ] you’re you’re bringing your slowest guy along and and you create, I think, camaraderie and and it’s it’s team building is what it is. Dan, if you put a gun to Torella’s head, would he come on the podcast? How much did he like you or dislike you? Can I pull the trigger first? Can we do it on air? Can we do it on air? He’d be like, “Fucking Sharks podcast.” What the [ __ ] Uh I Yeah, if if if we can get He’s not right now, right? If if if we can get uh 5,000 more listeners, I’m gonna get John Torella on here. Okay, let’s [ __ ] go. Sharks fans, how do we how do we gauge this? Like 5,000. Sh, you you you you have a count on listeners, right? Yeah, we do. We have we have a count on that. So, okay. Give me Give me Give me 5,000 listeners. We’re going to bring uh Tors on here and he’s going to have a couple drinks with us and Oh, that’s good. That sounds good. Yeah, we’re going to talk about his We’re going to talk about his rope test. Well, like he’s not coaching right now, right? I think he got like He’s got all the time in the world. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. He’s just sitting yelling in front of a mirror right now. Get your [ __ ] together. He’s doing a bag skate again. Yeah. Yeah. Who play? Oh, who plays John Tortoella in our movie? I have the answer. I can’t think of his [ __ ] name, but the F. The F. Henry Winkler. Henry Winkler. Oh man, I don’t I don’t see that nastiness look alike. They do look nice. They do look the nice version of Tortoella and Henry and side by side. How about JK Simmons though? I think that’s a little more of the actor. No, Henry. Okay, but Henry Henry Rinker goes off. Dark Side. You got you got He would love that role. Dark side. Henry Winkler. Let’s [ __ ] go. You know that. I just want to see him take down the entire Conucks. Is that what he’s in there? All right, guys. Next next podcast. Does Henry Winkler have the range to play John Torella? Riveting stuff. Do you Do you have the uh Maybe it’s Keegan. Can we pull up a John Torella and uh side by side? Do we have the the Do we have the Do we have the I do end the podcast right here. All right, hold on. I just keep talking. I’ll work on it. Oh [ __ ] Okay, you got a secret skill of like casting. He just drops the names quick and knows the role. Like what are you doing here? Like go work for go work in LA, move back home and uh become a professional caster. Well, I’m a very talented person, Zubar. So you are. I mean, we know that. I’ve always said that. I’ve never steal yours. I did not know. I am a man of range. All right. Unlike Henry Winkler, I am a man of range. You are the Henry Winkler of our generation. All right. Here’s JK Simmons. What do you got? Like a little tiny photo. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. There we go. Here’s John Tortoella. Okay. Wait. Isn’t that Henry Winkler? No, it’s not. Hey. Hey. And this is Henry Winkler. I mean, pretty close. Look at the one with black and white. Yeah, but you’re you’re take you’re taking Yeah, that’s that’s a bad Which one? Stash. Yeah. Which one is which, you know? Yeah, but you’re Yeah. I I don’t I’m casting JK Simmons. I’m sorry. I’m vetoing this, Dan. I’m sorry. I think from a I think from a like a visual perspective, pretty close. I see it for sure. I I I in terms in terms of looks, I got to go Winkler. In terms of character, Whiplash for sure. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. I have a question. Toella to have this mustache again because that is brilliant. If we get If we get 20,000 more listeners, 21,000 more listeners. You’ll wear this mustache. To come on and wear a stash, we could get hockey all around the world for that. I mean, I here. Pull that up again. Let’s see it. I It was just I just I just kind of had like this but it’s that’s pretty good too. It’s there. I think there there’s some similarity for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Let’s get back to But I also don’t think that like personalitywise Henry Winkler and No. Henry Henry Henry Winkler would have to like we’d really have to change channel his dark side. Yeah. Yeah. His uh Yeah. His drill instructor of some description. Never seen that. I just watched Henry Winkler in Parks and Recreation as the John Raphael’s dad. I know it’s very obscure for some of you guys not seeing it. He’s been in many things. Water boy. Water boy. Yeah. Another Gatorade. Gatorade. Another John Torella. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Yo, I we maybe we’re a little too drunk to talk about this, but I’m in the movie Water Boy. Oh. Oh, what? Yep. I’m in the movie. So, my father didn’t know this. Um, if you want to know, the film Water Boy was filmed in the middle of Florida. Um, and like one of the stadiums, one of the college football stadiums in the middle of Florida. And when I was six, seven, whatever the movie came out, um, took myself and my sister to the filming and put us in the stands. And if you pause the movie, at a certain point, you can see myself, my sister, and my dad in the stands of the movie The Water Boy. I am in the stands of The Water Boy. Love it. Nice. Which may not, you know, mean a lot to, you know, Bole who’s been on TV a 100 times, but for me, this is going to be on my tombstone. That’s funny. All right, Keegan. Right now, find it. We’re going to take 10 minutes to find this right clip right now. No, we’re not. We’re gonna move on to the next topic. Please, God. Well, we’ll move on. We’ll move on real quick. I was in similar situation, but Beverly Hills Cop 3. Really? Uh, Water Boy is way cooler. Beverly Hills. Water is way cooler. But yeah, they shot that at Great America and I got to go with my I got selected in my class and so I’m in there. Nice. [ __ ] You had me at Beverly Hills Cop, but then you said three and then Yeah, we got to move on, guy. Okay, so next topic very quickly. Uh, Ryan Rosski actually very interesting. So with Will Smith going to play wing, Michael Misa, Ryan Rosski says that the plan is to have Misa play center draw camp. So very clearly the top three centers presumed centers have defined themselves Minelbrini, Alex Wenberg and Michael Misa hopefully. So there’s a question then who plays 4C for the Sharks and a couple guys that are obvious from last year Patrick Giles and Zack Otopchuk. But Ryan Marski mentioned actually this is a little bit of a giveaway for what they might be doing. It surprised me a little bit because he’s got a little more goalc scoring chops than than a 4C, but Adam Godet. Adam Godet scored 19 goals last year. Also was on a power play last year for Ottawa. So that’s kind of interesting. So we’ll see how how that goes. But if it is indeed Celbrini, Smith, Wenberg, I’m sorry, Celini, Misa, Wenberg, and Godette. That’s actually kind of an interesting four centers there. So, Godette again is going to provide a little more goalc scoring punch than your typical center. So, I don’t know if anyone has any thoughts about Adam Goddet or if we move on to sort of thoughts about the scrimmage. No, no Adam Godet dots. No Adams. The the only thoughts I would have is I mean, doesn’t he doesn’t he get most of his points on the power play even even in Ottawa? So, how much goal scoring you think he’s going to do as a 4C? Well, he was playing fourth line last year for Ottawa regardless. So he wasn’t elevated that much. He played averaged about 10 minutes a night. So actually if you look at that 19 goal total, that’s actually quite impressive. I presume that they they would use him a little more on the wing this year. Maybe if Smith was a center that Godet would take some faceoffs for Smith. That’s that’s how I kind of thought they might use him. But also that would elevate God’s minutes and see if he could score 20 goals if he’s playing 15 minutes a night and a power play. But if they have him kind of on the 4C, that’s going to lower his minutes a bit. But if he’s on a power play, too, and he did score a lot, like you mentioned on the power play, that he’s a really interesting player just in the sense that there’s not a lot of players like him that a specialist at a power play specialist at forward that is kind of on your fourth line. Yeah. You know, Steph Mason is a guy recently who kind of did that, but there aren’t a lot of guys like that. So, he’s kind of interesting in that way. So I’m kind of interested to see what he does this year. A couple things is they didn’t they didn’t lead they didn’t lead out with like Godette on those lines with you know to Foley Celebrini Smith right right or Wenberg or yeah any of the obvious right so that is the statement too. So in the bottom six theoretically and then did you see where Kur Kishv was was slotted at all? No I didn’t. That’s the that was the group that I didn’t see. So I’ll see them tomorrow. They’re going to scrimmage tomorrow. That’s Mike is like a center depth option as well because I think Yeah. So, but I think God is ahead of him though because from the beginning they’ve talked of God’s ability to win faceoffs like from the moment that they’ve signed him. So, I think that as a center option that he would be ahead of of Courage and Godette usually plays the bumper on the power play, right? Yeah. Bumper or net front. So I I I could see him being on a top power play unit, but that’s another conversation for another another day. So Okay, cool. The bumper. Yeah, the bumpa. That’s the person in the middle. I don’t even know what that is. Well, just a high slot basically. Yeah, the Yeah, you got your like you got your like guy in the middle. I’ve never I have never even heard that term. What What do you guys call it back in the day? The guy in the middle. In the middle. So you got your diamond. Not Not Joe Thornton. I I I honest to God don’t even know what I would call him. You got your back. I think you had two defenseman up top, right? Most not a power play. We had uh I had uh Jumbo, Patty, Pavves, and Cooch. Logan. I was gonna say Logan. Yeah, that was pretty uh Wouldn’t Wouldn’t Logan be more in the in that in that kind of high slot area? Yeah, but it wasn’t we uh I don’t know that we had a a specific player to be there. It was kind of like whoever was there was there. Obviously, your netfront guy that’s kind of more of a uh specific, you know, or Ryan Clo or somebody Pavvelki was, you know, good at tipping pucks, but um yeah, the bumper guy, I can’t I can’t tell you that I oh that was him. You know, nowadays they use the bumper guy as like the guy who can either shoot the buck really quickly or move the buck really quickly because they don’t have a lot of time to do anything because they’re right up against the defense. They’re right in that that area. Well, I’m learning [ __ ] hockey. I’m learning [ __ ] on the San Jose hockey podcast now. That’s unbelievable. Learning hockey from us. Not a good thing. Not a good thing. Well, it’s probably the bumper. Honestly, I would say the bumper seems like a newer term because I don’t remember hearing it like 10 years ago. Yeah. No, I I know exactly the the location and the position of the player, but I’ve never uh I’ve never known that to be named something. I think it might have been the Capitals and Oshi that that would I I started hearing that more often around that time period. So, okay, gotcha. Good bumper guy. That guy super good. Got a great bump game. Just just like Zubar on Saturday nights. Hey, that was my nickname in high school. The bumper. The bumper. Austin the the bumper. You ding somebody else’s car. He hit my bumper. All right. What else? What else we got here? Where? All right. So, uh, very quickly, I wanted to kind of run through and this is something that, uh, you guys weren’t able to watch. Maybe Zubber can come tomorrow, but I I found the scrimmages uh training camp scrimmages to be kind of very instructive. Um, last year I mentioned this quite a few times on a podcast that when I watched the scrimmages last year, that’s when I and I told you guys on a podcast that that’s when I knew that Quinton Musty would not make the Sharks because he just wasn’t able to handle even though the scrimmages aren’t physical, which Dan you can speak to, but they are NHL speed. Even if the guys are at 80 90%, but it’s still AHL speed. Guys are coming at you with with speed and he wasn’t able to handle that. Yeah, there’s I mean there’s a huge jump from from the minors. You got your AHL, college to NHL or OHL to to to the AHL. You got that’s your jump. Then you have your jump from the AHL to training camp. You’re going to see a little more. And then you have your jump from training camp to the N to the NHL um level. Um you know, as for intensity, obviously you’re going to have four, five, six guys that are bubble guys that are trying to make the team. they’re going to give their 110%. If that person happens to be a third, fourth line guy that is an energy guy, he’s going to look to hit and do that kind of stuff. But, you know, for your guys that have been around for a while that are going to make the team, you know, you’re you’re getting into training camp to to get your timing in, to get your your your energy up, your your conditioning up. You’re not looking to necessarily bang and hit and do all those things. So, everybody’s trying to make the team, not trying to make the team, everybody’s got their own agenda, what they need training camp for. Um, but, um, for the guys that are on the bubble, trying to crack the team, that’s their opportunity, and they’re they’re going to give you everything they got for sure. But, I just wanted to pass on a few quick snapshots of the guys I watched out there. When I watch these scrimmages, I don’t watch everybody out there. Like, I don’t watch Mlin. I know how good he is already. He’s probably better than he was last year, but I’m not worried about him. So, I watched Misa, I watched Musty, I watched Turner, and I watched Dickinson. And it was a little hard to watch Turner because I was focusing a lot on Misa, but because they’re on the same line. But anyway, just really quick snapshot um thoughts about all these guys. So with Misa, I still saw a lot of what I saw the rookie face off, just his his pace, tape to tape passing. Um, very kind of deliberate in a good way with what what he was doing with the puck. Just comfortable with with pressure. Also moving the puck quickly when there was pressure on him, which I think is very important that maybe that healthy fear that Dan was talking about earlier. Uh there was a couple of things though that he’ll have to kind of kind of clean up in the coming during camp or whatnot. But there was a a neutral zone play if you guys were were were wa if guys listening I mean if you guys were were there where he kind of hesitated and he kind of went for that that backhand trying to come up the neutral zone and that’s not the play he should have made because that got picked off and that’s kind of a kind of rookie stuff that he’ll he’ll he’ll learn. Um, also too, there was a um, it was Clingberg. Clingberg erased him along the wall. And so that’s a that’s AHL guy there, 6’2, John Clingberg, 32, 33 years old. And so that’s kind of thing that that that Michael had to watch for. But overall though, I saw a guy that was pretty comfortable with with the pace. Uh Quentyn Musty, he is a guy that was not comfortable with the pace last year, but I was actually, and granted, Quentyn’s now 20, so it’s a difference from last year when he was 19, but he was a guy that was a lot more comfortable with the pace this year. And what actually I liked about Quentyn in the scrimmages this uh earlier today was that he didn’t seem focused on on trying to make that flashy play. Um that play that would maybe when you’re younger, you think is going to get the attention of the coaching staff. He just made the right next play consistently and kind of the offense will will come and he kind of played with with with that attitude uh today wasn’t wasn’t perfect but I liked him on the forche. He was a consistent presence on the forcheek which is a guy he’s 6’2 he’s fast. He’s not like the strongest guy. He’s not as strong as say Chernish off along the wall but with his speed and with his reach and size he’s got to be effective on the forche and he was that and like I said he didn’t he didn’t do anything off I mean I thought Misa was more impressive offensively but I don’t hold that against against Musty. I think he played within himself which is really important for a young player to kind of learn and when he’s on a higher line in the NHL when he gets there or with a barracuda the offense will come and so I like that about about Quentin. Uh Chernoff uh like I said I didn’t watch Chernoff as closely because I was focused a little more on Musty but Chernoff did impress me with sort of his his ability along the wall. He’s bigger than than than a Musty. He’s a guy that um projects as having a little more of a kind of a if he it doesn’t quite cut it offensively that he does have a little more of a third line, fourth line kind of kind of game. And so you could see that and so I like that uh like that about him and I want to watch him a little more closely. Maybe they’ll take him off of uh of Misa’s line so I can just kind of focus on him. But he he looked good out there. And uh finally with with Dickinson. Dickson is a guy I’m watching very very closely because I worry about his ability to kind of process at the AHL level on a consistent basis and he made a lot of good plays. He made more good plays than bad. But one play that caught my attention that you cannot do a level and so that’s kind of thing that he’ll have to cut out when he gets to this level I presume this year. Um there was a kind of a um the opposition was about to enter the zone. There was a flip a flip pass coming at at the toward toward Dickinson’s opposition. Dick Dickinson bit hard to try to block that pass or whatever was coming at him that flip at him and he he he missed and it became a twoon-one going into the zone and that that can’t happen. That that gets you benched as at no matter how old you are. So he he basically made he was very aggressive. He went for the the big gamble, the the big play there, the hero play. And I think he’ll need to kind of read read that better. And I think that’s consistent with some of the things that sort of in London uh that that he had had to work on. Uh but overall though, um obviously it’s only one day of scrimmages and I don’t want to read too much into it. It’s just one day. It’s non-physical. Not a lot of hitting going on. But those are just my my impressions so far of some of the key guys. Okay. All right. One thing that I I think was interesting about Dickinson was Greer mentioned also in his availability was when they talked about Vic and and the buyout and everything was that he watched Dickinson at different levels and kind of made the determination that Dickson might be ready for the NHL. So he had to free up a spot for him is what he not that he said in those exact words but he kind of intimated that right like like you said like you know you watch Sam at these levels and then you know our team had to make a decision about Blic which you know Blastic’s a left-handed Dick’s a left-handed D makes a lot of sense. So I wonder like has he already penciled him into the lineup in in a way that like you know we we kind of anticipate as well. I uh I’m gonna go on a limb and say he gets at least those nine games, right? Yep. Yeah, I think so. I think so. I think he starts the season with the team. And granted, I don’t watch any of the training camp like you do, but um I think they’re going to use that’s why that rule is in place so you can see what a guy’s going to do at the NHL level before you ultimately decide, you know, what his fate is. And based on how very little I know, which is very little, uh, sounds like he would have to go back to the O and he’s already had he’s already done everything he could there. I I can’t see him going back there and there’s zero for him to improve on from from the very little that I know. Well, let’s uh cut in there with a couple things really quickly and let’s not not spend too much time with them because we got to we got to get out of here. So, we’re almost at two hours here. But um so Sam Dickinson cannot play in an AHL fulltime this year. So we confirmed that with Mike. So that’s what you’re you’re referring to D. But he can go back to the he can go back to the O is what? Yeah. So it’s going to be basically rock in a hard place. NHL or the CHL and defense. It’s going to be hard. We’re I’m going to be curious, Dan, what you think if you watch him exhibition games or a little bit how you think he’s going to he’s going to do in the in in the NHL or his nine games. Regardless, I think Yeah, I’m gonna I don’t know that I’ll watch his exhibition games, but I will definitely watch the first 10 games of the year. Yeah. And um see where he’s at. I I I I can’t see them um returning him to the OHL where he’s got nothing to gain and learn and I I don’t see the point of that. But he’s got to be if he’s I mean this is a guy that actually I think you you missed but there is the worry of rushing a guy and the Sharks at least arguably did that with with Miracle Mueller right I think he’s a guy that came a year after you left but yeah um what I understand the thought is that the Sharks may have rushed him because he came right right in the 20145 season and I think it was maybe his second year and maybe they’re hoping he’d be like a Mark Edward Vassic well with with this new role in place. I think the perfect spot would be to have him up for the first 10 games, then you send them to the miners, which I think is a great stepping stone, but you can’t have that due to this rule. So, that’s where I think that do I want to put, assuming they’re very high on this guy, is he going to be a shark in two years? Yes. Okay. Well, then do I send him back to the OHL where he’s got nothing to learn, nothing to gain, and only everything to lose, and or do I keep him around all year and maybe he plays 30, 40 games, maybe he plays 75. I don’t really know. But let’s at least give him the opportunity um to learn and get better. And I am a big proponent on [ __ ] it, like give him the opportunity. and and I I I don’t that’s just my mentality. I I I just give him the opportunity and he will learn uh good and bad by playing in the NHL. I I don’t think there’s anything left to learn at the OHL. Um ideally you would put him in the minors for a little bit, but that doesn’t seem like it’s an option. So I think it’s for me it’s an NHL or I don’t know. In your experience though, Dan, have you seen a guy that maybe got rushed? Do you think a 18, 19 year old that maybe I I can’t even think of one person in particular because at some point it’s going to click and if it and if you know I don’t want to add space. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah. Um the Blackhawks two three years ago put Kchinsky in the NHL because he was kind of same vote as Dickinson where he was too good for his minor or his junior leagues and then they put him in the NHL. He stayed the whole year in the NHL did okay but then they the next year decided that you are minors eligible. They put him back in the minors for the next year which was kind of strange. is kind of like a weird development path to spend a whole year in the NHL and then go back to the minors. But like that is a possibility too where they decided that, you know, the the development wasn’t fully there um in the NHL from that year that they had him there. They had to put him there because he was too good for the for the juniors essentially and that’s where they put him. So all right. Well, my extra two cents now that I’ve had a minute for my brain to work. We all want the Sharks to succeed. If the Sharks are doing well, I still think you keep him around. He’s in practice. Maybe he doesn’t play a ton, but he gets to learn. He gets to be part of the team. Very important for the coaches to keep his confidence up. Build him up even though he’s not paying a lot of minutes. If the Sharks don’t do well, which none of us wanted to do, I you [ __ ] throw him out there. That’s my two cents. You You mean you play him? You play the [ __ ] You play the [ __ ] out of him. Yeah. Play the [ __ ] Doesn’t that kind of like for a defenseman though, you see that red light behind you a lot? I mean, I I think I think there’s a mentality there where um I can again a lot of what I’m bringing here to this podcast is is me using what I went through. Yeah, of course. I I was I wasn’t a pro a big prospect, but I was at the NHL level. I didn’t get a lot of minutes. Um, I I was fourthline winger. I I I was not coached properly. They didn’t do a very good job of of keeping my confidence up. And when I got to Tampa, it was one of those things where it was the worst team in the league. And they just [ __ ] threw me out there. They threw me out there. I wasn’t 19. I wasn’t 20. I was 24. But that’s where I where it clicked for me. It was it was an opportunity given and it was an opportunity that I took and ran with it. And that’s what I mean by if the team’s not doing well, so what if he gets scored on? Just give him the opportunity to figure it out. And uh better the better that than going to the OHL and and doing and and what I I don’t know. That’s so this is where this is where I think it’s really interesting because I think it I think it’s so personal to like the person’s own competitiveness and mentality and approach, right? Like you coming in as an undrafted Yeah. and then being like, “Give me that opportunity. I’ve been dying for this.” Versus like a high pick, right? Coming in and then to Keegan’s point, let’s say they run him on this track uh and they put him in the HL back. like that can mess with you mentally or to Shang’s point, the lights off in the background, right? Like it’s all about the the the mental approach to it and that personal approach to it. Yeah. You know, and I think that’s what you know, sinker swim. And we’ve um who is that guy that defenseman that we got from New Jersey in the team trade that we shipped off? Oh, auk. Yeah. And and they said a lot of the reason was he he didn’t deal well with uh all, you know, being [ __ ] horrible as a team. Oh, a failure, right? Yeah. Yeah. He didn’t handle it well. Yeah. Right. And I think that’s a lot of it. Like if some guys and it’s it’s that perspective like Dan said, like you came to it and you’re like, “This is an opportunity.” I I Yeah. And again, I’m speaking from my personal experience. Yeah. And and and I’m also a defenseman. I’m not a goalie. Do I think a goalie needs to get scored on five, six, seven goals a night? Do I think that’s good? Probably not. So, if he’s a goalie, maybe it’s different. But, um, but if this is a guy that you think you’re going to want on your team in two years, um, I I I I think you keep him up. All right. Well, my opinion, I think it also speaks I I tend to be very conservative with these kind of things. So, I think it’s better to to to shelter protect a guy. But, I understand your perspective, Dan. Just Yeah. Sink or swim. I’m not saying I’m right. I’m just saying that that’s, you know, I I if I’m a competitive and then you see what you got, too. I mean, if the guy full Yeah. Whatever. We’re gonna get All right, let’s boilers finger gun it real quick. Sh. Yeah. In or out all season. Well, I mean, we talked about this. I still think I need to watch him more in the scrimmages and the exhibition games, but I think that they they give him his nine games. I think that they send him down to AL for a conditioning assignment. Eric quotes conditioning his assignments. Yeah. And then and then roll juniors will will come around that time and space out his nine games too. So he’s not playing every game. Exactly. And get him to roll juniors and then after real world juniors send them back to London. So that is my prediction. I’m open to be being wrong but I think a lot of again defense a lot of that processing I just uh I I tend to be more more cautious. So but all it takes is one game. It can be one play. He can have seven shitty games in a row, but on game eight, he gets a goal and two assists. Then the next game he gets another goal, all of a sudden he’s got confidence. Yeah. Um, you can be like if had you given up on him after six or seven games, send him back to the O, you may miss out on that opportunity where again referring to myself where you get a [ __ ] player to just figure it out and and and find that next level and confidence and and so I I say [ __ ] they’re gonna I agree. I think they’re going to drag out his 10 games. I don’t think he gets 10 games out of the gate. I think he gets one or two. He gets scratched for a couple one or two. All of a sudden, he’s been on the team for a month, month and a half. Then they, you know, I we’ll see where the team is. We’ll see how the team’s playing. We’ll see how he’s playing. I think they I think they drag this as long as they can. Yeah, I think he stays up. To Keegan, to Keegan’s point, uh that you kind of referred to earlier, if I read between the lines of what Mike Reer’s been saying, I think he stays. Okay. I think he’ll have to carve it out for himself, but I think he stays. At least they’re trying to reserve a roster spot for him in some description. Certainly. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. So, they they he already has thought about the fact that he probably has to move somebody out to keep Dickinson in. So, unless that was Well, one person. Yeah. But if he keeps and Dickinson, he still has to move somebody out. Sure. Right. So, uh are people gonna listen for two hours? Is that Is that They will actually. Dave, listen for three hours. Dan, not to the advert. We’ll be done in just a sec. Yeah, Dan, if you want to jump off the week, we we can we can we can we can finish up too, Danny. I I don’t want to. No, I mean I uh Oh, [ __ ] 5%. My my 2015 laptops. Uh you guys I was at 100% when we started. Um Um Well, okay. Um Dan if you are going to be if your laptop is going to die uh let’s look over these topics and see if there’s anything that like we actually I want to jump to something that I do want your opinion on though if you guys don’t mind. So I think this one is a little more essential because other things we were going to ask you talk you about velocic and clo but we already uh we already uh talked about that recently. So uh a couple things that Okay, I’ll start over. Okay, so 15730. So, um, Dan, one thing I wanted to to talk to you about in particular is the improvements that they’re making at Shark Scise. And you haven’t seen them, but they have renovated the locker room. I’m plugging my phone, my computer. They’ve they’ve increased uh just general space in in the in uh uh in in the locker room, too. They’ve added a a dedicated video room for the for the players. Actually, was funny, the Barracuda, the Texas Tech Arena, they had a dedicated video room. Uh, I’m not sure if the Sharks had one. So, anyway, they have a very nice video room now for for the Sharks players. And I I as I asked Mike about this, uh, Mike Reer about this that I I feel like all this stuff is intentional in terms of they’re going to be renovating SAP centers soon. Um, they are in the upward trend of the rebuild with Mlin Cabbrini and Will Smith and Michael Misa. They’re they’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with these players that you want to set it up for San Jose, not just the city of San Jose in California, but also the Sharks facilities, practice facilities, SAP center to be first class and along with the team being better so you can attract free agents to play with Mlin and Will. But anyway, what I wanted to ask you, Dan, in particular, is when you joined the Sharks in 2007, uh, 2008, I’m sorry. How did Sharks facilities compare to the rest of the league? And what have you heard about it in the time since you left the San Jose, too, the last 15 years, basically? Um, I know they’re trying to improve, which I think I’m 100% behind. I I think uh in sports and in hockey, you’re you’re going to talk about little things and um improving your weight room, uh improving your amenities at a practice facility where you are so much of the time you’re spending I don’t know what the percentage is, but it’s a high percentage of your time at the practice facility. You want to make sure that that’s a place I talked about I think last time. We want to make a place that players are happy to go to, happy to show up. Um, you got your recovery stuff. Um, for the guys that do stretch and actually do recovery, unlike myself, but um, you know, there’s there’s important things that you can do, little things you can do. Um, you got, um, your meal room, which I know we had in San Jose, which was great. Uh, shout out to Miles if he ever listens. Uh the food was always phenomenal and that’s that those are like important things. Um as for how it compares to other teams, obviously I wasn’t in 26 of the other locker rooms, but um I I I would say it was probably an average uh an average place to play. 2008. Okay. Um, again, having not seen some of the other uh venues, you know, hard hard to compare without seeing them all, but um improving is always a good thing. Uh, again, it it may not make the difference as far as getting players to come. It may, but I think what it does is it keeps the players that you have happy, content, um, healthy. Um, and and like I said, I think I mentioned on one of our first podcasts, keeping the wives happy. Those are little things you can do. Bringing kids around, doing having places in the arena for kids to do things while you’re working out or whatever. Those are little things that you can do to create that family atmosphere and keep the players that you have on your team happy. And, um, I I don’t know. I’m I’m I’m I’m happy that they’re they’re going to renovate. I’m looking forward to seeing the renovations. And uh yeah, I’m I’m I’m I’m all for it. And uh Dan, also wanted to close out with you here too, just because we’re talking about camp. Just any any fun camp stories? Um you were there, you the Sharks had just acquired you, the infamous Jeremy Ronic, Deaguchi, Tory Mitchell, Scare Tactics, uh that’s August 2008. So just any memories of of that incident and any other camp stories? Well, we’re well, let’s finish on that. Um, we uh I was taking that story to my grave. Uh, I was not going to speak of that and then somebody went on spitting chicklets and just actually came out before that. Oh, really? Or let the cat out of the bag. So, yeah. Jr. So, that was my first year here and um the Sharks, at least when I was here, we always did a great job of team building and what better place to go than Vegas uh team building wise. And I remember it was my first night meeting, you know, all the all the guys and, you know, probably drank a little bit too much. Uh, so I, me and Brad Lucich, uh, came on the team. We were new. We were supposed to be the Marks. We were supposed to be the first people um to go to this thing that J.R. set up where I remember playing cards during the day and this guy at the card table invited us to this party at this mansion in Vegas. And I do remember that uh but which was you know that was already set up and um for those not you know for those that don’t know I’m sure you can look it up but there was a show called Scare Tactics where Tory Mitchell and Devon Sediguchi ended up being the first two to go to this mansion and it’s too long of a story to retell you can look it up anywhere online I think the maybe the highlight is Mitchell ran through the glass yeah basically they were forced to either eat a dead body. Uh, dead human body. A dead human body. I thought it was a dead human body. Uh, I mean, we’re talking we’re talking eyes wide shut type [ __ ] Yeah. Uh, Tom Cruz uh reference there. Um, but like people in masks and and and and it was the eyes too, like the pupil vampire eyes and some weird [ __ ] where uh you’re like, you got to eat this person’s intestines or die. What do you do? And oh, they thought that J.R. got killed or something like I think. Yeah. Yeah, that was that was another thing. Uh so he got shot and so you have your fight or flight and setto who I’m playing golf against tomorrow so I’m gonna have to go to bed here. Um uh we’re playing together against each other tomorrow in the tournament. Um but um Sto did the uh uh fight I guess technically by I think staying and and good for you set you know I think he froze more than anything. From what I heard, I wasn’t there. And then Tori did the flight, which is I’m getting the [ __ ] out of here. And also understandable. Again, I was taking this to my grave, but since it’s already out there, he jumped through a a a window slashd door slash um I don’t know what it was. And second floor, too, I think, right? Or something. I don’t know. No, it wasn’t a second floor. Oh, it wasn’t second floor. It was It was It was a It was a What do they call two paint or three? It was it was a thick and jumped through and had some cuts and and started running. Ran off into the fields before somebody caught and said, “Hey, like almost like you’re on candid camera type shit.” Anyways, it never saw the light of day. Uh I was taking it to my grave, but some people talked about it. JR was uh was responsible for putting it together. But uh let’s just say you get involved. Like what was your role? How come you I I was Oh, well I left that part. I was hammered. I was hammered. That’s your role was hammered. I was hammered. And no, I was they were they were going to do to they were gonna do me and Brad and then you know film cut and then bring in Sto and uh Devon or Setto and Tori cut and then you do like an edit and show both in your oneh hour show. Um, but because you and Brad were the new guys because Brad Me and Brad were new and then I was hammered. So they went with Setto and Tori first and then when Tori jumped through the window they just they shut they shut down all productions and um so um yeah so I was I was I don’t know what I would have done. I would like to say I would have eaten the intestines but um that’s easier said than done. I mean, yeah, I would have had to have been in that position to actually, you know, figure out what I would have done. But that’s that’s the short that’s the short version of a very long story. Well, from what I understand, too, that um did how did Doug Wilson, that was my question, react to all this, I think. No, he was not happy. Yeah, he was not happy at all. And uh that’s why it got canned. And I don’t blame him. I mean, it was it was a it was a joke kind of gone wrong. I mean, Tori cut himself up a little bit and uh it it visually or or you know, it didn’t have a very good look and uh that’s why it was buried. I was taken to my grave, but again, I don’t know who spoke about it first, but it’s all out there now. Did you guys watch the video at all? Never saw it. Never saw it. I s I saw a transcript of it, like literally a written transcript of and then, you know, this happened and this happened, but um as far as actual video, I’ve never seen it. What did Doug What How does Doug Wilson address the locker room after that? I What does he say? Uh I would be lying if I told you. I just remember I got It was like kind of one of those like we’re not going to speak of this. Uh he was not happy and uh it disappeared. Yeah. I don’t I don’t know. I don’t know. There’s a videoape somewhere in someone’s basement of this. Someone has been, right? Maybe that we need to find. I imagine that there isn’t a camp story that you had that can top that in your time with uh that was No, no, that was uh Well, I do, but uh you can’t you can’t tell us that one. No, that’s the after dark. We’re gonna need some more sponsors for that one. Or less. 5,000. Yeah. Well, we started with Interview of the Vampire and pretty much ended with it. Yeah. All right. Well, I don’t know who’s going to listen for two hours, but thank you guys for listening. I appreciate Yeah. And I guarantee people will. They will. Yeah. All right. We had fourhour podcast if you can believe it. By the way, all of you subscribers out there, tell other people we want John Torella with a stash on here. Gotta get 5,000. Yep. That’s that’s the challenge. So, subscribe now at us everywhere. Let’s go. All right. All right, boys. Till next time. All right, Dan. Uh, yeah, you jump off. There’s a few more topics if you guys want to continue on. I I’m jumping off. Yeah, Jan’s gonna play golf. I have a big golf tournament. Uh, and then tomorrow, uh, we have Devin Saguchi. Well, it he’s just in our foresome, but he’s obviously with paired with another partner and, uh, he’s gonna have some side action. So, I gotta be ready. Any any other star knows where the video tape is. Uh, in this one, no. Joe’s a member there. So is Logan, but uh in this particular tournament only Devin and I. Okay. Um and um yeah, I I in case you guys didn’t know, I’m a little competitive, so I cannot bring it on. I cannot [ __ ] lose I can’t lose to that guy. So, I’m signing off. Thank you guys. Until next week. Ciao. Thanks, guys. Uh let’s just wrap up really quickly. I just want to give you guys all the kind of uh first day training camp updates. So, okay, we didn’t get to talk to Dan about these couple of things, but we talked about it with him previous weeks and they kind of fell along the lines of what he talked about or what he thought then. So, we don’t need to keep keep him on on for this part of it. But, uh Mike Greer did respond to Mark Edwardic’s comments about the buyout. Just a little recap, Mark Edward was not happy about the buyout. He said that he felt like he was lied to and that he thought he was coming back. And Mike Greer was very careful in what he said. He was very respectful, I think, to Mark River, what he said and what he’s done for the Sharks. And they also played together, too. But I think the kind of the money quote of what Mike Reer said was that they had talked April exit interview and Mike said and I quote, I thought it was pretty pretty clear about the possibilities of things. And he also mentioned that he gave Vassic and his agent a heads up before the actual buyout. And I think also too, it’s very noteworthy that Vloic did not get a PTO uh at this point at least. And so I think that is a statement unto itself too, a different kind of statement about where where Velasic is in his career. But anyway, I don’t know if you guys had any any thoughts about that, but it does kind of, you know, sincere, I guess, is good way to put it. I mean, you guys listen to it. I Yeah, he sounded sincere. He sounded like he put like basically what I don’t know. It’s tough to say. It’s a he he like he even referenced it. It’s like a he said he said, right? He’s trying to avoid that. Yeah. Yeah. And I don’t know. Mike’s sounded since we gave him the options of what might happen. I guess maybe took it the wrong way and then he even said I watched Dickinson at X, you know, these, you know, tournaments and watched his play and was like, “Hey, I need to sign this guy.” So, or need to have this guy playing with us. So, yeah, I’m not I don’t know. It’s tough. Like, Blic is seemingly getting more angry the more he’s away from San Jose, but he I I just I don’t I don’t know. I The writing is kind of on the wall. I feel I felt like in a little bit. Yeah. So, maybe Mike could have been more clear. And Mike uses a lot of diplomatic language. I’ll say even his responses to the media. Maybe he was a little too diplomatic in his response to Blassic. I don’t I don’t know. But yeah, we don’t know. Yeah, we don’t know. Saying like, “Hey, I did nothing wrong.” That’s basically what he’s saying. Yeah. Yeah. He very stuck to his guns on on on his closing interview and and and with Floic. And I think he was very political uh when he spoke to him today, Shen. Uh but you know I was watching Couture speak about Greer with an interview he did uh recently and um was it the John Scott one? That was actually a very good interview if you guys should listen to it. Yeah, that’s the one I’m referring to. And and you know, he talked about how Mike Greer was like, “Hey, if you want out of here, um, just let me know when.” And and and you know, like, and Ger comes off like with Brent Burns and a lot of the players when he first took over, he seems to have very like proactive communication with the players, right? And he was a former player himself, long time, right? Veteran type, right? And I I feel like he even does that. I would say that’s a strong suit of his. So, if I were to think about it, you know, he was he was very kind, you know, hey, we appreciate Vloic for being a good mentor and showing up with a good attitude and and um yeah, it to me it feels like Floic didn’t like the decision, but it, you know, I would guess that Grrew was clear based on his his history. So, that was just my thought on it. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So, maybe we we close the the door on that. And like I said, I think it is really important to note that that Velocic right now isn’t playing anywhere. Again, that’s the Sharks needed a space. You can see obviously with their contracts uh how full of contracts they they are that they needed to kind of uh to get rid of a a contract. So, um so unfortunately Vassic for as great as he was the victim of that. Yeah. Um, also Oh, go ahead. That’s the way she goes. That’s pretty much So, another uh topic that we we talked about with Dan already, so um don’t necessarily need a run through with him, but the Sharks uh have not decided a captain yet. So, my career seems comfortable going into the year without a captain, at least that’s what he said. I think it’s interesting to note that San Jose and Boston are the only teams without a captain right now. But anyway, the quote from from Greer here is that it’s not something I want to rush or push. Hopefully, it’s something that lasts a long time, meaning the captaincy. So, anyway, um I wonder what you guys think then uh gun to your head that who gets named captain this year or nobody gets named. My my guess would be Ferraro as the right fit. But as we’re going to get into later, uh, you know, on the next point about just, you know, with being a little non-committal with Ferraro, depending on where the team’s at. I I think that’s the reason the only reason he doesn’t get it. Um, and then for me, I know a lot of Sharks fans are like, “Toi, T, is the guy.” Um, I think for the off ice stuff it’s there, but as Dan has alluded to, you know, it’s really about that work ethic and training camp and practices, first one on the ice. And um, you know, to me, Tofolei has just never been that person. Um, I think he he he works hard by all means, great player and all of that, but you want that guy who’s gonna, you know, be the first one on the ice like Pavvelski tipping pucks an hour before practice with Burnsy and and dragging people into more practices, not just, you know, things off ice. And I just don’t see that with Tofoi. So, I I think no captain going in my head. No captain right now. Okay. Okay. I’d still go to Foley, but I don’t know. He seems kind of non-committal. So maybe no captain. Okay. Okay. I am still going to say and it’s not what I like necessarily like want or I’m pushing for, but I think it could be a good draw. I think that he kind of has a little more of the obviously the the cup winning experience which has too but I think in Groto you have a little bit more of that grind that that kind of that that that that Dan was talking about that work ethic or whatnot. Yeah. And I know he’s not the popular choice by any means among Sharks fans. Well, I have I want to make it clear that that I’m not advocating for it, but I have a counter point. Okay, so first of all, like yes, Gdro been in the league for a very long time, been a very popular shark in the past. Good guy. The man has been on waiverss. Like the man like like you’re trying to prove to your young guys, this is a winning team. You have probably, and I love Gdro, probably the worst player in the NHL as your captain. What does that say about your team? And they know it too. But okay, he is though. Like he by by most definitions is probably the worst forward in the NHL. What does that say to Celibbrini and Smith and Ecklund and all these dudes that are better hockey players than Gdro at this moment? And Gdro, great guy, great leader. been a shark, been had scored one of the most impressive goals of all time. What does that say about your team? If you if you name probably the worst hockey player in the NHL, your captain. So, so to to answer that and play the devil’s advocate because I don’t all the fans are saying why everybody who ever says Shank is crazy for putting Gdro as the captain is also saying absolutely and I and well, I think if they were, let’s just say it happens, right? I’m not saying it’s either a good idea or a bad idea, but let’s say if it does happen, I I would think the logic to it is the same thing that you’re saying is like, hey, okay, you were way, you’re horrible, but you’re setting the culture and and what does Gudro represent, you know, in his work ethic, his grit, his tenacity. Uh, you know, he was he was dropping the gloves at the end of the season last season. So, I think it’s a cultural like a c you’re setting the the culture of the team. Um, and I think that’s why, and to your point, that could be a bad thing. Then you’re setting your worst player, right? So, it could be a bad thing, too. It could be a bad decision, but I think that’s what they’re saying. That’s my my car argument. It’s like, yeah, there’s a lot of like cultural arguments. There’s a lot of those kind of things, but they know it, too. Like, it’s not like Cabbrini doesn’t know that Gdro is not probably pulling his weight the same way that a lot of guys are on the team. Yeah, that’s true. I want to stress again uh that it’s not me advocating for this. So, it’s just me putting pieces together. Um so, I want to say that that part of it, but also too, I wanted to add too, I don’t want to argue the point about good drill whether or not he’s the worst player in the NHL or not. I don’t think he is. But I do want to say though that there’s plenty of examples of teams that have captains aren’t necessarily even close to being your first or second line. Actually, the first guy that popped in my mind that is in a similar situation as the Sharks are in now is I don’t know if you guys remember a guy named Derek McKenzie and he was a grinder-ish type. He was the captain of the Florida Panthers 2016 to 2018, couple years there. This is the Fuller Panthers team that Barkoff got drafted into and was the prelude to obviously I’m not saying that Derek McKenzie, it’s a very good point, was necessarily like pick a guy like Dave Anderchuk even if Bole is not Bo’s not here, but like pick a guy that like has benefit to the team. And wasn’t the best guy on their team. He was probably a third liner at the time that they won the cup, but he’s an older veteran. But like Derek McKenzie, did he prove to be anything for the for the Florida? Derek Mackenzie was a fourthline guy. He was a guy like like a good um he was a fourth line. He was a center. So I guess that’s slightly different than than good. But but I mean what what did Derrick McKenzie do for the Florida Panthers other than lead them for five more years of natada? He could have culture that that led to the future team. I mean, yeah, I think that’s really shortsighted to be honest to to not look at what a guy like a McKenzie or Goodro can do kind of off the ice in terms of just how he works and professionalism and whatnot. Like, everyone knows that, okay, you need a goal with a minute left in the game. You’re not sending Barkley Grover the ice. No one no one disputes that, right? And I’m not arguing that Barkley Gdro is the Barkley Barkley Gdro from a couple years ago, but he was actually one of the better bottom six players in the league. He was but but though like um a player that let’s let’s call Barkley maybe not the worst player in the league but let’s say that he is among forwards he is a kind of he is a fourthline forward right which is the bottom 10% of the league if you want to put it maybe yeah bottom five 10 20 whatever right in along those lines right but I’m not gonna sugar it chang I don’t want to like say like he isn’t or isn’t he had a very bad season last year and was on waiverss from the Rangers he’s not a good player in terms of his actual effect on the ice. He was he’s on the worst team in the NHL and was not a good player. He was he was not as good last year. He I think he still does things well, but that’s not the necessarily the the argument, but anyway, the the overall point, I mean, we can talk about he’s a good guy and I and I again, I’m a Sharks fan. I’ve been a Sharks fan. He’s a great guy. I do not believe in the fact that putting a good guy, a guy who may even not have actually wanted to come to San Jose in the first place as your captain who is not a good player at the moment as your captain makes any sense. Oh, can I can I ask you something then about I mean this is kind of wishful thinking from what what what Barkley we talked with Barkley today. Um but do you think it’s possible that he can be better this year? because that’s what he alluded to that he thinks that okay so if you get a better Barkley goodro whatever he was 5 10 again I the reason why I’m not trying to um sort of ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar arg argue like the exact percentage because I need to watch every fourth line forward to really determine where is Barkley good in in that sort of whatever that that spectrum. But I I agree that he was in the lower tier of forwards for sure. Very lower tier of forwards. And my overall argument is just that that can still be your captain. And if he’s better this year too, which he suggests that he is, he says that he feels whatever. I guess guys always say this, but like it is to in his defense to his point is that this is his first kind of season of of training without a long playoff like without a long playoff run. He says that that he thinks he’s faster and he’s whatever this year, right? And Warski said the same thing too without we didn’t ask about Barkley Goodrell, but Warski said the same thing today too. So if you get a little bit of that, you get a a better player too. Why can’t a guy like that be be your captain? Why does he need to be or why should he be other than being older? because Stanley Cups trusted on those Stanley Cup teams at the last minute of the game to close out games. He and also his last season with the Rangers. And look, I’m not defending him or taking his side. I I agree kind of with both of you guys here, but I will say the season the Sharks got him, uh I believe, my memory serves me correctly, and we’ll look this up later, he led the league in defensive zone faceoffs for the Rangers. Oh, yeah. His usage was pretty rough uh with the Rangers. really rough usage and and surprising like he did pretty well in that role. Like I think there’s a lot of uh like if you go into the deeper analytics like he’s not he’s he’s treated in really tough roles and I think culturally the concept of making him captain would be like hey under the stats under the hood these are the things we value as a team and and to kind of the point Shang made with the example with the Panthers like if you’re going to pass that torch on to Mlin next maybe you set these professional details that he can emulate. Um, and I think that would be the logic to it. I’m not saying I agree or disagree, but I can see the concept or the theoretical understanding of what they’re trying to do if that happens. I I I yeah, I think overall I would just present my my overall argument as that it’s not as outlandish as I feel like you’re presenting it, Keegan, is all. I’m not saying I advocate or support it, but I can You are though. You have said this for 100 times. You you you have said, “Well, maybe good. Maybe good.” Like I I But I’ve been very clear. I’ve been very clear saying that it it really is not me. Yeah. I I’m really I’m telling you this like on the air. I’ve said this like two or three times already that this is not me saying it. If I was advocating, I would stand up for it. I’m not af I don’t care about whatever people are saying like whatever. I’m out to lunch because I’m I’m not I’m really not. But but from I think it’s possible from Yeah, just things I’ve heard that it’s possible. I’m not saying it will happen, but that it is possible. All right, let also mention that I want this player to be around for a while or something like that. Um, I want him around for the duration of his contract. I have no issue with him being on say like I want this to be a long-term thing. Well, yeah, that’s true, too. And so, we’ll see what what that means. Like I mean Tyler Tvoy has one more year than Budro so I don’t know if that means in terms of that Tyler is a productive hockey player. Well, sure, sure, sure. He’s here. Sure. I I get that. But Gro is not, and I’m not trying to be mean to Guau, but the point is like he Gdro is is a at the time is not a not a very productive player. And if he didn’t have his contract, I don’t think he would actually be on an NHL roster. Maybe he would be on a fourth line somewhere, but if he didn’t, if he was a free agent tomorrow, would he have a a spot on an NHL team? Maybe. Well, I I I vastly disagree with that part of it because his contract was reason why the Rangers cut him. He actually was going back to Zubar’s point. He had tough usage in the regular season. Wasn’t very productive his last year with the Rangers, but in the playoffs, he was productive. You can say, oh, small sample size shooting percentage, but he was productive. And if he was making the minimum, the Rangers would would have kept him. I’m pretty sure of that. Like it’s his contract that got him got him got him waved, right? They needed cap space. And it says something that was from an eight-point season of 77 games for the Sharks. Yeah, it was I’m not saying he had a good season with the Sharks in any any sort of way. Not eight minutes. That’s 14 minutes a night. Eight points. I I I I he was also put like like very defensive. Yeah. And also like the shirts are brutal, right? Like he wasn’t playing with a lot. But yeah, I see I see your point. Like he he did he had a horrible season last season. There’s no, you know, he take responsibility for what it is. I He had a horrible season. Yeah. I’m not saying he had a good season. I’m I’m I’m trying to give context that the not good the horribleness of the season is not just all on Barkley Gadro being a bad hockey player. Yeah. And anyway, I again just a little more sort of historical sort of relevance to this too is Derek McKenzie was the captain of those Panthers teams. The next captain of the Florida Panthers was Alexander Barkoff. I’m looking at it right now. I’m just curious about it. And so Derek McKenzie the previous year or two. I’m just curious how much he played. So, um I I’m going to guess it was in the 10-minute area, so I’m just going to look really quickly. He averaged 1118 1118 a night. And so, I I’m going to guess I don’t know. I’ve never asked Alexander Barkoff about Derek McKenzie, but if you look that up, Alexander Barkov, Derek McKenzie, and what Barkov has said about McKenzie, chances are it’s going to be a lot of good things. And maybe he did pick something up from McKenzie even though he is McKenzie or I’m sorry Barkov is like five times the player that Darren McKenzie will ever be. I don’t know. So and Mackenzie had 14 points in 11 minutes at 37 where Bark Woodrow had eight points in 14 minutes at 32. Okay. Like the the point is like yeah like there’s a I guess the difference is but good row is not like even a Derrick McKenzie in terms of like longevity in the league is like a great player like or not even a great player but like a the role player that you want to win with I guess I I don’t know like good is a good player in the past and I don’t think that making him the captain really makes sense for the next part of the Sharks just because I don’t think he is even close to like maybe he has good habits and all that stuff and he probably does but there are other guys in the Sharks that that do as well and are going to be here longer and I don’t know it feels wrong to me to make that your captain but I’m not in the room so I have no idea. If you’re saying that that’s a possibility in like an actual thing, then okay. But my my gut reaction is it feels wrong to make a guy like that the captain of the Sharks. Again, I I again want to make this very very clear. I am not advocating this. I think when I said I think I was a couple weeks ago when we were talking about with Dan, it may have sounded like I was, but I I I I am not. I was not. But when the coaching staff does something though, I tend to I tend to think about why they’re doing something, right? And we we can agree with that, right? That I’ve always tried to do that instead of just like knocking it down like, oh, he he had whatever number of points and number of minutes or whatever. Oh my god, Ryan Wars is out to lunch. No, that’s not how I see it. I wonder why Warsoski made that decision. I wonder why GDR keeps playing even though whatever, right? that the a lot of numbers speak against Gadrill and I asked for Woroski about it and I think he’s given me valid explanations to it. I’ve written multiple stories about it and so the coaching staff I don’t thinks he is the worst player in the league. I’m pretty confident of that. I don’t think it’s one of those situations where they’re just carrying him because of his contract. I mean they just cut Velic, right? They stopped carrying carrying that guy, right? So there is sort of signed by Mike Ger, the guy that wasn’t like had any ties to Mike Greer. This was a Mike Gur decision. Well, yes and no. I mean, he played with Lasic, so it’s not like there is a zero kind of relationship there, right? So I feel like I I feel like I I feel like you can get Mike Greer on here or Ryan Wars on here or any of those guys and they can tell you what Barkley does. And again, I’ve put out stories about what they’ve said. If you don’t want to like if you don’t buy into that, that’s fine. You know, I mean, I’m not I’m not trying to convince you of it. But I do think they believe it though is my point. They’re not just trying to carry him just because of his contract or whatever. They believe he has a value. Okay. Right. So, I think he has some value. I’m not saying he doesn’t. I think he has a They believe he has value right now. I think he has a penalty killing fourthline player value. I also saw a guy that like when I saw Barkley Goodro score a goal or like do anything on the ice last year wasn’t even happy about doing it. I also saw a guy a year ago that like when Greer was asked about Goodro coming he was like I don’t even really know if he wants to be here. Like it was like a it was like a I don’t know like was unhappy about being waved from the Rangers and coming to the Sharks. Absolutely. Change abs. And maybe I don’t think the coaching staff to your point though I don’t think the coaching staff would even consider let’s just Okay, let’s just let’s just play this out real quick. Let’s say he’s named captain. Okay. the coaching staff. Like I have enough faith in the Sharks coaching staff right now that I don’t think they would make that decision unless there’s been some sort of acceptance on his part that now I’m a Shark because Yeah, you’re right. I mean, more than acceptance like Troy. More than right. And I think you started to see that just by like the end of the season like he was more he was he was dropping the gloves. He was sticking up for his team. He did play with a lot more passion. Sure. Especially the last 20 games of the last year. He had a fair high in fights. So, just to jump in on that, he had seven fights. I’m not saying fights are be all end all, but if a guy doesn’t want to play for your team and he just caring about he just cares about me and I, I don’t know if he’s doing that if if that’s really his attitude. So, he may have come in with a lot of unhappiness because of all the winning he did with New York and Tampa, but throughout the season, you’re not putting your head out there to be punched by whoever you’re getting punched by if you don’t if you don’t give a [ __ ] Yeah. I I don’t think so. at least. Yeah, I think in the beginning he was a little bit less he was apathetic. He didn’t want to be here. Yeah. And you’re right. I remember that interview, Keegan. Like he did he was not happy. Like of course he wasn’t. And I mean I could see his side, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean I think we all can, right? Yeah. I don’t know. Like unless unless like like I would want to make that guy the captain if he was every day coming out being like we’re going to be better. I’m going to be better. We’re going to be a better Sharks team. And I have heard zero from Barkley Goodro other than he’s a good shark six years ago. Like that’s well in fairness. Okay, so Barkley’s not the most expansive guy, so we don’t interview him a lot, but I heard that today from him. I we spoke with him for five, six minutes. He’s not again, he’s not giving the most cintillating quotes. He’s not throwing Mlin under the bus for for banning him on the on the grouse grind. So all that kind of stuff, right? That’s not Barkley’s personality. But again, I and to to to Zubar’s point that like if they end up doing something like that, like they’re not going to I don’t think that they’re going to anoint a captain that doesn’t want to be here. Of course, maybe he did not want to be here in July, last July when that happened. But things change, guys change, right? So So yes, I would like to see some more of that change. And that also includes being a a more productive player. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. And rather than just doing it because he’s older. Yeah. Or like I don’t know good has good habits like Yeah. Like all of these guys are in their 20s and 30s. Like they have habits that make them in the NHL. Demetri is probably a good NHLer because of his habits. Like you know the Foley is a good NHLer because of the way he comes and prepares and stuff like that. Like maybe he’s not the most vocal, but like I don’t know. To also could be part of a team that is actually competitive, whereas I don’t think that Goodro will be. Even if you even if like he somehow rebounded in a way his two years left on his contract, the odds are not good that a Sharks are going to be good in those two years and b that past those two years he’s going to be good to be on the Sharks. So I don’t know. That’s just my thoughts. I don’t I don’t I just don’t agree with that. Like a guy like like Radco Gudas, a guy like Derek McKenzie, a guy like I don’t know Dave Vanderchuk, like those are your bottom six, your bottom pairing, your leaders that even though they’re like not going to score you a bajillion points, like they’re the leaders. Like they’re out there. Like think of Radco. The dude’s the butcher. Think of Dave Anderchuk. The dude is the leader. Like I’m not saying that Barkley Goodro is the butcher, the leader, like the I don’t know. I don’t see it. So that’s just my opinion. That’s a good point. The the ethos that I think Goodro can bring is, you know, we talked about rookie face off. Not to say that that Barkley has anything to do with what’s happening rookie face off. He didn’t, right? But like, you know, how we were like, “Oh my god, Quinton Musty just like like threw his body on a shot like he was.” Yeah. Great. Right. Like that’s that’s what Gdro I think does still bring and I agree with with Zubar that it it everything except for the contract that Mariel Ferrar probably should be your guy he’s earned it whatever but I don’t know if Mario again is going to be here past March whereas whereas Barkley yeah two years not a long time either but still that’s still Uh there’s a certainty there where where where Barklay is going to be this year and next year and the only only other possibility really if you want term is really just just uh to Foley. Yeah. They’re not going to give the job to Eklan who actually does have the longest contract. Right. I think right right now not going to give it to Ascarov. I mean he has your I mean really digging like for anybody right is also UFA. So I I think there’s a possibility that they go with nobody over over I guess I would say that I would rank it as uh maybe good nobody or to Foley. Well, let me actually that’s how I rank the possibility. Well, now we now that we talk it through, let me just say this because you bring up a good point, Shane. And look, I don’t think they’re going to give it to Mlin next year either. So if if they’re going to pick a captain, if it’s going to be between ToFoley and Gudro, then why not make that decision this year because they’re not going to they’re not going to make him captain after this season. That seems weird. Oh, like with only one year or with only one year left. So I actually now that I think about it and the players that we’ve boiled it down to, I think they’re going to pick Guerrero Foley this year and and to that point, you know, well, I don’t think nobody’s an option then. Well, Zubar is changing. He thinks it’s more likely they’ll pick somebody now, right? Yeah, I actually think they will now that I think it through because otherwise it’s going to be, you know, they’re they’re thinking three years ahead and and and and if you look at it, they’re going to go no one this year, then make Mlin next year. I don’t think Mlin’s next year. No, I don’t. I agree. Not even. So, they need like an interim captain. You’re not going to go two years without a captain. You already basically didn’t have one last year with Logan being out. So, I I I don’t think Last two years. Yeah. Last two years. I don’t see that happening again. You need some direction. And and Shane brought up a good point about ethos. And that’s kind of what I was getting at. Like you make statements with who your captain is culturally. And to that I’ll ask what’s the statement that you’re making with tofully about the team. And actually I’m kind of on teamro now. Actually, I’ve kind of Keegan just jumped off. Yeah. Yeah. Right when I said my statement. Exactly. He’s like this part. [ __ ] it out. We’re fine. I’m back. Yeah. No, we’re perfect. Right. When when when when Zubar was like, “Hey, you know, I’m kind of seeing the good argument like you just like signed off or not. You signed up.” And I was like, I swear one more good positive. He’s like, I’m going to the docks. I’m out. I’m out. I’m out. No, my my computer like my stream just said like you’re you’re done. Refresh. And I was like, okay. So, what did you say? I guess we can. But yeah, so to pick up where where I left off, I was saying, you know, I actually see Gudro over to Foley. I’ve actually thought my way into it. I’m not advocating for this. I swear, guys. So I am. We’re not fighting for this. I was literally in the locker room last week and my my buddy Adam was giving me the exact Keegan thing. He’s like, “Worst player in the league. What the [ __ ] No way.” And I was like, “I see it.” But actually, when you’re making a cultural statement of what you want your guys to emulate, I would rather want my team like I’d rather go to battle like in a playoff series with a Guudro. I love Tofo. I love his game, but I want my team playing like Gudro. I don’t want my team playing like a Tofoi. I love because you’s game is so unique. finding soft ice, being calm, like he has that like swagger, you know, being able to to to I mean, his finish is ridiculous. He’s great off the ice, but I want dudes blocking shots. I want people willing to stick up for their team and and I think you want to build that. Um I think your your your your leaders know how to score. Our top six, Keegan, we’ve talked about this, are kind of laid out. Greers put a lot of competitiveness on the bottom six. those guys really need to know what they need to bring. And I think that’s what’s going to ultimately make the Sharks a playoff contender again is your bottom six playing like Gudro and and you really make a statement of hope and and and you set the ethos of the culture of like this is what you got to do. This is what we value and that’s the statement you’re making with Gudro as captain. I just want to jump in really quickly. I know you might have something to say to that Keegan, but I just want to say that I would go to battle with Tofoley. I don’t want to make this like a knocking tower to fully session either. Tofuli has won a Stanley Cup. Toli can can definitely win, but I do agree with the general gist of what Zubar is saying that I would just put it in again the blocking shot thing. The guy was going to put his face in front of a shot for this kind of interim period of two years setting up Mlin’s captaincy, which is what it looks like where it’s all leading to. Um I I don’t I mean I guess I am advocating for in that sense that like I can see it with Gdro I guess I I guess again the counterpoint is that Tofuli wanted to be here to a veteran a Stanley Cup winner a very good player in the NHL still probably for the duration of his contract hopefully he’s already shown that he likes being with the young kids and and like having a relationship with them in a way that helps them grow in a like a positive light as opposed to again a non-productive player that originally didn’t want to be here that if he was on any other team in the NHL might be on waiverss. So, and that’s not like a that’s not like a theoretical. That’s like a before he had eight points in 77 games was on waiverss. But again, that’s because Yeah. So, like look, I I would even say if heard if he was getting league minimum, I think the Panthers would take him. Probably. The Panthers took my favorite Luke Cunning, right? Yeah, they took your favorite Luke Cunning. I I I I think it’s valid to talk about his productivity and his declining productivity, right? No, I I I I I agree. I think that’s a valid point that you made. Valid a degree or two in a year when he wants to make a better team and good make 3.6. Well, no, but even not the better team part. We’re talking about the team right now. We’re not talking about the Sharks captaincy three, four years ago. We’re talking about right now, right? Sure. Next year, too. So, if Good gets worse, right? So, you can’t have a captain that is on the bench all the time, right? So you have your captain has to play even just to talk to the refs. So he has to be good enough to play on your four lines. Even though if that’s not the highest bar, but still he has to be that good, right? So I think that’s a valid point that if Gadro takes another step back this year, let’s say that last year with San Jose was a decline from the year before in New York, which was obviously a decline from the year before when he was actually pretty good for the Rangers. If that continues, then okay, maybe that’s a mistake to to name your name him as your captain, right? Can he hold? Can he get better? That’s probably the hope, right? Anyway, so I I think that’s a valid point. The thing that I think though, I feel like he had to let go, and I’m going to say this to when I say Sharks fans, and it seems like that’s a very unpopular phrase for me to say, but you had to let go that he didn’t want to come. You look at the circumstance when he when he when he got waved here that he had again remind everybody we’ve gone through this litigated so many times but he I think had six straight years in the conference finals or the Stan standing cup final. Of course San Jose is on his no trade. I mean why wouldn’t it be? He earned a no trade 15 team I think list right when he signed that big deal with the Rangers. Um and if you’re about winning then of course San Jose is not on your list. It’s not personal. He likes it here in San Jose. I don’t think he has any issue with the city. He has no issue with the fans. It’s just San Jose was bad for a long time. Sure. Yeah. So, okay. So, I think you had to let that that go because that happened. He was unhappy. Of course, he was unhappy. It was very clear he was unhappy. But a guy can be like, “Okay, well, I’m here now and this is the stage I am in my career and I can start to embrace it more.” And that’s the so that’s the one that thing that I I feel like your argument there’s I don’t think there’s anything there in terms of just I don’t think they would give the captaincy to somebody that doesn’t want to be here that you know can’t live with it. You know what I mean? And I think that I feel like if they did end up doing that that they’ve decided that that he’s come to that point where okay that that like I’m this is where I am in my career and I let’s do this. let’s let’s embrace this challenge. Whereas I had a challenge for six years running of trying to win a Stanley Cup, right? And that’s a big change to come here. So yeah, I think I think that’s that’s one where I think that just people have to let go a little bit that yeah, he didn’t want to come here at first. I think it’s understandable why he didn’t want to come here. But again, I’m going to say this for the sixth time because people are going to say I’m not advocating for for good drone. Not in a heart. I just I Well, then who would you have me? Ferraro, I guess. I have Well, you have to if I had to choose, I think it probably would might be good drill just because I would be Ferraro, but they just I don’t believe they’re going to keep him. I don’t, you know, which is I like Mariel, right? But like they’ve been trying to trade him for for for years. Mike Greer said today in press conference, oh, there’s a lot of interest in Mario. Well, there is, but not enough that you know, I reported I believe they’ve been looking for a first round pick for him. So, not enough interest in him. So, there’s a lot of interest in him. But, and to the quote from Greer, too, where he says hopefully it’s something that lasts a long time. I don’t think he’s like to to what we were talking about earlier, I don’t think that means like five years. I think he’s more more saying like, hey, people that are on their last year, I’m kind of ruling them out. And that’s where I’m like that’s where I think Ferrar it’s not one. Yeah, exactly. And that’s kind of what I mean. Yeah. So and and then when I if you know again boiler boiler finger gun I I kind of talk through this conversation I got to say good Keegan hate me I don’t sign I just don’t I do not I don’t see the argument above tool like I I really don’t okay like to quieter I guess and like no no Gdro is way quieter in the fully there’s no question about that I can tell yeah that’s that’s why you don’t hear the you said the face forward that’s Gdro is not his Gro is not his own best advocate and there’s all sorts of stuff that goes on behind the scenes that we just don’t know. And you know um last year I saw Gudro at the Couture Retirement. He was sitting next to uh to to Smith and and Cabbrini and he was like you know he was butting up with them. They were laughing. They were joking. They were having a good time. And you know I never saw that version of Gu. He’s always like kind of serious and whatever but you know just watching them they were like laughing like they were kids. And so all I’m saying is like there’s stuff happening in the background that that we don’t know and and so I I kind of like I like to think about the coaching staff and like these are guys that are professionals at this, you know, and so I think about like why would they do that? They’re obviously thinking about things otherwise. And then when I reverse engineer it, I’m like it’s it’s to Shang’s point like an ethos thing. Um I think like uh you know what’s that ethos that that that he would he would set as a statement to the culture. And so that’s all I’d say. But, you know, that I think is a good transition to Ferraro and Wenberg as UFAS after this season and Gers sort of comments on uh being non-committal with their contracts and uh extensions. So, Shane, you want to tell us what you you talked to Greery about? Yeah. Uh and I did want to I guess add one final point. I do agree with Keegan with with Gdro that there is a point where he’s his play is so bad that you you just can’t put him on the ice. There’s for for anybody. I don’t think he’s at that point with this team on another team last year. Yeah, sure. If he was on a better team last year, but anyway, so I I I agree that there is a point. So, but um in terms of Fel and Wenberg, um not that we expected that of Mike Greer to say, “Oh, I want to sign Mel Ferrell. I want to sign Alex Weenberg.” But anyway though, that it does kind of set up. I know that Mike Greer doesn’t want to think about he said, “Oh, I don’t want to be selling at the trade deadline,” but I mean, let’s be honest here with this team, right? Like, chances are that’s probably where we’re going to be. You wouldn’t take Carrie Price’s contract if that was the case, right? Things like that, right? No, he did he didn’t mention though that that carrier price contract is like a couple people a couple people have suggested that it’s a good balance to have that um when you do make trades around deadline the trade deadline that you have something over the floor but I guess that is thinking ahead to trading when Burkham Ferrar Exactly that’s my point so that’s a fair point excellent point there so um so yeah I mean I I don’t have the you know last year the the topic was Kyle Granlin and I thought the sharks should I still think so and I probably this argument about as a captain if I was telling Keegan uh or Yuzubar that ML Granland should be the Sharks captain we probably would be like okay that’s cool and we’re that’s a fiveminute conversation we’re done with it right yeah good right so yeah so blame blame my career for that one then all right so um but yeah I don’t I don’t I can see arguments for keeping both these guys but I also I’m not as Um I I I I I don’t I I don’t I don’t know if their influence is as strong in the room in terms of again with the granland consistent thing with his work ethic, right? Um and I think you hear that about Ferraro too. One is more I think along the Foley lines is just your pure professional. You know, maybe he’s not you know going to put his fa that very very beautiful face in front of a shot and that’s fine. That’s not his game. That’s all good. You know what I mean? So, but like yeah, so so for all Weber a little different that way. Um, but anyway, um, so I may change my I may hear different things. Um, obviously players can evolve as leaders, too. A guy who wasn’t as great a leader in his 20s, uh, might have evolved in in his 30s. I might hear more stories about Farrell and Weenberg as we get into the season. I might be like, I changed my mind. Actually, the Shark should should keep Wenberg. I would say that one thing I do hear about Wenberg to I guess if you did want to keep him is um uh I guess I would say that like like uh league league people they really talk about how one is really really underrated defensively that he just doesn’t get enough appreciation league leaguewide for that. Um, and so that’s something that is going to be a valuable element for the Sharks as they’re trying to get out of the the seller to have a guy like that. Obviously, then we talk about the duration of a contract for a guy like that and the AAV. So, but that’s one thing that I think supporters of Wenberg, I would say, around the league are very strong on just just how underrated he is defensively. better so than Granlin or you know anybody else that the Sharks have had recently. Nico Sturm, you know, in that specific defensive kind of role. It’s and I think to your point, I didn’t ever seen him till last year watching all the Sharks games and he plays under the puck so well. He does not cheat. He does not fly out of the zone. He is under every single puck in our zone and breaks out with the puck so well. Yeah, I love that. Right. Yeah. I don’t know. So great. Yeah. I sorry to interrupt. I’m just so excited about it that like one of my favorite one brick stats I found and I wrote about it this summer is his accuracy of passing which is a staff stat right and he he is just very careful with the puck and he doesn’t make mistakes with it and on a team like the Sharks where there’s so much pressure on him that he I think he was among the league leaders in in in pass accuracy among forwards I think he was like top 10 or something like that which I think is pretty remarkable when it’s the Sharks when you’re or are always being harassed to give up the puck, right? And when he when he passes, it’s usually tape to tape. It’s usually in the right place. It’s not as wild. I know Celbrini’s game is different than Weberg’s, but you know, Celbrini is kind of wild with the puck sometimes. And Wenberg is sort of the um the opposite of that, which is a good contrast to a celebr. Yeah. No, it’s a good point. And uh yeah, I think they end up like having to move him and that’s I mean good for him to to go to a contender. I think he would be a valuable like bottom six center for a contender. Yeah. In a way that would solidify a third line. A lot of times NHL teams have like one and two centers and then that third center spot is kind of filled in. And I think he would be the perfect kind of guy to to fit in there for an NHL team. But you know, we’ll see. It’s it’s means $5 million, right? The Sharks have a retained spot this year, right? Uh yeah, I think so. I think the Burn spot uh opens up. So, yeah. So, they can they can do that. Yeah. Yeah. What do you guys in a market? What do you guys see he would fetch? Trade down. Oh, in a trade. Oh. Um I think still thereabouts what he got when the Rangers acquired him. I think from the Kraken uh before the Sharks signed him. I think it was a second round pick. Um, I think, yeah, I think like like to Keegan’s point, Wenberg is sort of a perfect I’ve always had this, this is another podcast, but like in terms of like like building a winning team and building like sort of like what you need on your third line is a guy that can, you know, do a lot of the little things right, but also a guy that in a pinch you can play up and he could look great at it, right? So one is a guy that like every once in a while he’s going to pull something out of his like out, you know, he has that skill, right, that likes, wow, like why is this guy not a first or second line center, right? He just can’t do that consistently, right? But he’s good defensively and every once in a while he can he can have that kind of game or that kind of shift. And I’ve joked about this many times that like the first scrimmages I saw him with the Sharks, I was like, “Wow, he’s like AJ Copitar.” Because no one was trying to hit him, you know? Like yeah, he was he was [ __ ] ruling. He was ruling out there. Um, I forget who he had a one-on-one drill with today at at at uh, but he just he he dummyed that guy. I forget who it was, but he just like, yeah, it was kind of no contest. It might have been Musty or I don’t know who it was, but he had a one-on-one with them. But anyway, so the point point is that like, yeah, he I think is is is a really good kind of third line center type. He isn’t the I think ideally you want again that guy that’s going to put his face in front of shots, that kind of thing, right? I think that’s a little less his game, right? And so, so that’s kind of like, okay, if you’re trying to win a Stanley Cup, maybe that’s why we don’t kind of trade for a guy like that. But otherwise though, I mean, the Rangers when they acquired him, they were a cup contending team. They made it to the conference finals that year and so they identified him as a guy, okay, uh, we’re going to we’re going to pony up for him. So, I I don’t think it gets to a first. um he doesn’t have that kind of offensive upside that Granlin did to obviously get that first round pick but yeah so fair all right and then Greer also spoke on closed departure as well okay yeah I don’t know if we have much to say about about this but we Dan yeah Dan said it last week so just just kind of confirmed the point that um Mike did point out that while it was a surprise to us as media or fans because they just announced this just a couple weeks ago. That’s something that they’ve been uh that Mike Greer and Ryan Clo have been talking about for a while. Um Ryan Clo’s family basically stayed back in Florida as as as Ryan started the job with the Sharks. And so it’s as simple as six-hour flight from Florida to uh to San Jose or a twohour or so flight from Florida to New York. So, it’s I guess that pretty much that that simple for that. Um, Mike did say and Keegan does have hope here that there’s no plans to add a GM AGM this year and so yeah, he hasn’t received the email yet. It’s it’s I don’t know. Actually, the last hour, Keegan, was our audition. So, I’ll be sending this in to Mike. See see what he thinks. He may he may it’s kind of a you know he may go with a pro good anti-good or he may appreciate Zubar’s kind of levelhead of this like hey I might be in the middle we’ll let fans talk about it he also didn’t like say like there’s no like he didn’t say no captain he just said he’s thinking about it so I think they’ll go with somebody right yeah I think so I mean I don’t want to read too hard in everything he says too because Mike’s it’s not Mike Shaw’s to be job to be honest with us. He’s political. He’s very He’s very political about it. That’s very fair. So, but let’s Yeah, drop in the comments, too. I want to hear everyone else’s thoughts, too. And And uh it’s a good chat. And I think it’s clearly defined that we don’t have a clear-cut captain. Yes, that’s that that come out of this. [Laughter] So, yeah. I’m I’m glad that Dan that Dan dropped off after two hours. I don’t think he he would have liked this this last hour. Yep. All right, guys. Good session. And uh till next time, boys. We’ll see you next time. See you. [Music]

The San Jose Sharks have opened training camp!
 
Sharks legend Dan Boyle, insider Sheng Peng, prospects guru Keegan McNally, and beer league champ Zubair Jeewanjee react to Rookie Faceoff and GM Mike Grier’s training camp availability.
 
We discuss Will Smith staying at wing, Grier’s reaction to Marc-Edouard Vlasic’s unhappiness with his buyout and Ryane Clowe’s departure to the New York Rangers, and Dan shares how he avoided involvement in the infamous Jeremy Roenick “Scare Tactics” prank.
 
We also debate who should be the San Jose Sharks’ next captain, Barclay Goodrow or Tyler Toffoli.

Sponsored by Bring Hockey Back. Custom jerseys, hockey gear & tees for every fan. Use promo code: SANJOSEHOCKEYNOW for 15% off.

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Timestamps

00:00:08 Introductions, new mics & PlayStation headset jokes
00:02:05 Sponsor: Bring Hockey Back & “Human Centipede” jersey gag
00:03:46 Mission Impossible haircut & top movie scenes debate
00:09:12 Best/worst M. Night: Sixth Sense, Signs, Village, Unbreakable
00:15:09 Del Toro, Fear & Loathing, sponsor redo
00:16:57 News & Notes — Rookie Faceoff impressions
00:17:27 Musty shines: Physical play & offensive jump
00:19:21 Wang fight sparks comeback; skates flying
00:23:29 Wang big-body comp & long-term upside talk
00:27:02 Michael Misa’s poise; center vs wing
00:33:19 Healthy fear, Lindros’s concussions, Scott Stevens’s hits
00:39:00 Eklund’s “Slippery Pete” nickname & elusiveness
00:43:15 Paul Kariya moment & casting hockey movie roles
00:44:48 Oliver Wahlstrom PTO; Barracuda scoring depth
00:50:12 Camp Day 1 lines: Celebrini–Smith–Skinner; Misa w/ Eklund; Musty w/ vets
00:56:57 Will Smith staying at wing; “glass-and-out” philosophy
01:01:02 Why Day 1 lines matter more than coaches admit
01:05:02 D-pair looks; rookies with NHL’ers
01:06:53 New CBA: fitness testing scrapped; Tortorella camp tales
01:15:04 “Get Torts on the pod” goal; casting debate (Winkler vs J.K. Simmons)
01:21:51 San Jose Sharks’ center depth: Celebrini, Misa, Wennberg, Gaudette
01:25:00 PP “bumper” role talk
01:27:57 Scrimmage snapshots: Misa calm; rookie mistakes
01:30:58 “Welcome to pros” hit: Klingberg erases Misa; pace, checking
01:31:08 Musty year-to-year: calmer, nor forcing flash, strong forecheck
01:32:27 Chernyshov along the wall; clear bottom-six floor if offense stalls
01:33:04 Dickinson watch: good plays but one huge gamble → 2-on-1 (can’t happen)
01:34:30 Dickinson cannot play AHL full-time
01:36:53 Rushing risk vs opportunity; Korchinski example; differing dev paths
01:39:41 If team struggles? Play Dickinson a lot; confidence stories
01:41:54 Prediction: Stagger the 9 games, AHL “conditioning,” WJC, then back to London
01:45:46 Sharks Ice upgrades: bigger room, dedicated video space; why facilities matter
01:50:24 Vegas “Scare Tactics” prank: Seto/Mitchell saga; buried tape; DW not happy
01:58:02 Day 1 camp wrap: Grier on Vlasic buyout—gave heads-up; no PTO yet
02:03:02 Sharks captain: Grier comfortable waiting to decide
02:05:00 Candidates’ debate: Ferraro vs Toffoli vs Goodrow; what the “C” signals
02:07:03 Ethos vs production: blocking shots grit vs elite finish; short-term bridge “C”?
02:13:21 Goodrow discourse: waivers, usage, buy-in, late-season fights; culture case
02:21:10 Toffoli case: wanted to be here, Cup pedigree, mentors scorers
02:26:02 Tenure math: Ferraro trade chatter; why staff might pick someone with term
02:30:17 Consensus drift: Captain this year (Goodrow/Toffoli) vs. none?
02:37:31 UFAs: Grier non-committal on Ferraro & Wennberg extensions
02:39:41 Wennberg love: under-the-puck play, pass accuracy, ideal 3C; Trade Deadline value?
02:45:30 Clowe exit; family in FL; no new AGM planned
02:47:43 Sign-off & next-week tease