Dallas Stars Trade Matt Dumba for Vladislav Kolyachonok | DLLS Stars Podcast

Dallas Stars Trade Matt Dumba for Vladislav Kolyachonok | DLLS Stars Podcast

Heat. Heat. All right, welcome back to the DLLS Stars podcast. Yes, I will say the same thing that I’ve said all week. It is Sam Nestler and it is Craig Lewig solo once again, perhaps for the last time. Lety, I know you got a lot going on out there. You’re talking about being on the boat concerts. What’s going on? Give me the lowdown. Well, in your intro, you forgot one important thing, Sam. It’s Friday. Friday? Yes. You need you need to lead with that. Uh, you know what? It it swear to God. I mean, I love it up here. The weather is, you know, a little bit better than heatwise in Dallas, but it is Groundhog Day. I mean, it every day you wake up and you do the same kind of thing. Yeah. So, I got a couple friends in from him and his wife are in town from from Dallas and so they’re out of the heat and a little dancing downtown last night and then uh uh today we’ll be on the boat for the next three days and we’ll hit the hit the hot egg the big concert biggest redneck concert in the country country in town. Yeah, I was out yesterday. I went to see uh Thomas Rat country music at uh at one of the venues I grew up going to here in New Jersey with Katie and my brother and his wife. And uh it was an unsamlike day. I’ll tell you. I was we were playing baseball, Flip Cup, can jam, all the stuff. I I was boozing Lutz. I was boozing yesterday for once for once in a lifetime. It was hot. We were sweating. It was a good time though. Very good time. So good to uh good to blow a little steam off. I’m glad you got you and Owen got to hang out a little bit while I was doing that. Oh yeah, man. I was rubbing my hands together when I heard that Sean wasn’t coming on at just me and the big O today. Yeah. Yeah. So, let’s let’s get right down to business. We actually have some stuff to talk about, which is nice. Uh we don’t just have to make things up here today. So, yesterday, uh it was I think Sean Shapiro was the first one to kind of find it. not sure what he was doing looking at random NHL rosters in the middle of a Thursday, but uh noticed that Matt Dumba had been moved to the Pittsburgh Penguins active roster. And then later yesterday, it was announced the Dallas Stars traded Matt Dumba and a 2028 second round pick to the Pittsburgh Penguins for 24y old defenseman Vlattislaf Kolia Chonuk. Uh this was one we saw coming in some way. Uh we believe that Dumbo would be the one they moved on from to get cap compliant. Um this basically takes his his cap all the way off. There’s no salary retained here and Kolia Chonuk makes the the league minimum 775. So I think it puts Dallas in a in a pretty good spot to have I I don’t remember the exact number 1 point something million uh above the cap or below the cap to have a little bit of wiggle room to now bring in a 13th forward and maybe even have a little wiggle room to do something else. So before we get into kind of the both players, what’s your overall take on the the trade and how they made this work? Well, if there was anybody watching our show right now, I got a feeling I’ll be saying bing bong quite a bit because I’m thinking they’re going to be kind of happy with the the move that happened. You know, it seems the sentiment around Dallas and from the fan standpoint was to to move Matt on. And uh but you know what I I look at it as it’s not a polite way to say it, but I mean it just if you’re calling it for what it is, there was an obstacle that had to be moved and you know and again it’s not necessarily that it’s that it’s about Dumba as the player. It more about you know the salary cap and what they’re trying to do and um it would have been nice if they got some kind of a a left winger back but that didn’t happen yet. So, I think this is kind of part of the process. You know, open up open up and, you know, get your pairs and from the defenseman standpoint, who’s going to look at who who’s going to play with who, get your numbers to the right numbers, and then uh I I do I don’t know if they’re going to be able to to do anything before uh or in the summer. I just think it’s going to end up being a trade during the season or something like that that they’re going to try to find that guy. Um, and I think what that also does, it gives some guys an opportunity to step up in that hole. You know, like you talked about um Sam Steel and maybe he gets that opportunity. Gully said, maybe he’ll use him there. Um, I’m thinking that if if there’s one guy that’s hoping that hole doesn’t get filled, it would be him, you know, and just say, “Hey, give me the chance. I I’ll show you what I can do.” So, yeah. Yeah. And you know what’s interesting is it felt like if you really step back and look at the trade, it felt like Dallas basically had to give that second round pick to Pittsburgh for them to take Matt Dubba. And that that that doesn’t sound nice, but Matt Duma didn’t do himself any favors this season with the the beret of injuries, the up and down play, and then obviously being a scratch throughout the entirety of the playoffs. That that’s not a high value type of target that someone’s going to go after and just take on that that salary. So, uh Dallas does give up another pick, which I know they don’t want to do. They they already are very low on picks anyway at the moment. So, um, but they do get back a player and we’ll get into the details of, you know, if he’s going to be on this team and all that kind of stuff, but just the player himself, Kia Chonok, I was I was watching some highlights. He’s a good player. I mean, he’s been on a bunch of teams. He he’s played, I think, 74 NHL games. He’s got 14 points with Arizona, Utah, and Pittsburgh. Second round pick for the Florida Panthers in 2019. Um, you know, he he’s got some speed. he can move uh and he jumps into the holes and is able to to kind of jump into attacks, has good vision, but the key here, LSDs, as we said, is is he a realistic roster player or is he someone that is maybe more suited in the AHL? Because if he is, they’re going to have to wave him here uh before the season. And I think Robert Tiffen wrote about this this morning. He’s the type of player that you’d be surprised if 31 NHL teams didn’t take a chance on a 24 year old that has proven that he has a little bit of an upside. So, what do you kind of see as his future here or him as a player? Well, can he can he switch hands? I know, right? You know, I I I think the situation that that the Stars are in um you know, anytime that there’s 31 teams and know you’re looking to move a certain player, it gets harder to move that player and they know that you’re in a spot and so they’re they’re they’re going to ask for more, which they did. They’re going to give you less. you know, they’re not giving away, you know, and I think probably Kyle Dubis, the GM now in Pittsburgh, probably thinks, you know, hey, I got a second round pick for him. And and who knows? Because the team that they have in Pittsburgh right now, that’s a it’s in a total rebuild there. So, yeah. Um whether Dumba can, you know, be a better player there or not, who knows? But I think for Dallas, it’s I don’t think it’s going to be the answer. I, you know, but but hopefully it’s a surprise. It’s just now what do you have? Five, you have five lefties, four lefties, five lefties. So, you got five left-handed defenseman for sure. Um, yes. You know, and and again, I I and I I look at that and say really you don’t because I think Mural can play the right side. I I think Mural’s going to play the right side anyways and I think he’s comfortable there. So, um we we’ll see how the pair shake out. Um wouldn’t it be something though like if there was some kind of move for Leouchkin and then all of a sudden the three defenseman that were brought in a year ago are all trying to get shipped out. Yeah. That’s that’s the weird part too, right? Like is does this feel like the the Dumbo move was a rare loss for Jim Nil? I mean, it’s hard to look at it and say that it was a a good move. It didn’t it didn’t work out and then it didn’t really get them anything in the in the end besides as we just said what we’re this trade is today. So Jim doesn’t miss a whole lot on the guys he signs. You know, people can talk about the suitors and things like that, but those are different stories. this was a who he thought was going to be someone not only to bring more physicality, be able to be established on the right side, maybe play with Mirro Hasten, but also be able to move the puck. And Jim Nil told me straight up on the phone after this after these deals right before the season, he said, “We think Dumba can refine some of the offense he had uh, you know, earlier in his career where he was adding some goals. He didn’t have any of that, right? And we know he he had injuries, so you can’t totally fault him for everything, but he just never really found his footing here. Yeah. And you know, is that all on Matt Dumbo? Did he get an appropriate amount of time on the ice? Did he get the opportunities to play? And and again, I guess you could say on the other side of the coin and say, well, the opportunities that he did get, he didn’t do what that was expected of him from from Peter Bor’s standpoint or or NASDA standpoint, whoever, you know, is making that decision back there. So, yeah, I you know, the thing is he’s a he’s a good skater. He’s got a physical edge to him. He doesn’t mind doing that. Um, but I don’t know if he was just trying to do more than he probably was capable of and trying to get back to that where, you know, he was in double digits the last time as far as goal scoring. So, I think that’s the guy they were hoping for. But that that shoulder injury from that fight that he had a few years ago, it just seems like that has really affected him. Um, but you know, I I want to look at it and say I I just don’t think he got a fair shot. Be totally honest with you. I I think that there were there was a stretch there where I thought he was better because he was just doing simple things, especially when he was playing with Vishel. They got the puck, they moved the puck, they moved it to a forward, he played physical when he did. Yeah. Did he get caught out of position a couple times by by that? But I thought as his his chances and his opportunities came along as he was trying to and I’m guessing that was a conversation, Matt, we don’t need you to do this. This is what we need you to do. If you’re going to be a third pair of defenseman, maybe you expected to be in the top four, but right now you’re you’re in that pair. And so what we’re looking for is we’re looking for a defenseman, the same thing with Bishell, is that move pucks, play physical, move bodies from the front of the net and just keep it simple, stupid, kind of one of those kind of scenarios. And and I think maybe there were times for him it was hard to reel it in and he wanted to do a little bit more. And that’s what, you know, I said this before, when you’re on the bench and you got players that make a mistake and then they come back to the bench, you put them back out and they make a mistake again, but they stayed out there an extra 10 seconds trying to make up for that mistake. They just dug the hole a little bit deeper where what you have to do as a player is when you go back out there after you know you’ve had a couple boooos in a row, your shifts get shorter and you go out, you just move it, get a hit or get a shot on net and you change. Then they do that two, three times and then the coach is kind of like, “Okay, he’s got it. he gathered himself back. But sometimes players do it the other way and now now they’re doing this kind of thing and you’re thinking we got to set him down, you know, we got to set him down. Little chill, little workout. So maybe that’s I just think part of his game probably that that wasn’t where it was supposed to be might have been from the from the shoulders up. Yeah. Do you think I’m curious? I just mentioned, you know, Neil telling me and other media uh during the summer that that was something they wanted was a little more of his offense. Does that is that something that he communicates to to someone like Matt Dumba if he comes in like, “Hey, we believe you can you can score 10 12 goals again for us and you can be a power play guy cuz remember he was on the power play a little bit here and there as well with the injuries.” So like is that communicated to a defenseman when he comes in? So they kind of set that expectation. It should be. I mean you’re gonna they come in knowing, hey, we want you to add this, we want you to add this. Me personally, I looked at all the times he was Minnesota. To me, he was a more of a pain in the ass than anything else to the opponent, to the Dallas Stars. And he was a physical guy. I mean, we we’ve we know about a couple of the hits that he laid on a couple guys. I that’s what I was expecting out of him is to be that kind of guy that disrupts a lot of things. And you know, you’re kind of when you’re a player like that, you want the other team to know when you’re on the ice because now you got to keep your head up and you got to look for them. So now you’re not completely focused on what you’re trying to do offensively because you’re kind of looking around. when you have a pair, if you would have had him playing that way with along with Bishop, you know, it it becomes tough to play against guys like that, you know, as a pair because you know that, you know, it’s going to be tough to get to the front of the net and they’re going to finish me in the corner and they’re going to have a stick on puck all the time just doing all the little things you’re supposed to do with defending and I don’t I don’t think that’s what they got. Yeah. Uh Elijah, can you throw up the comment from Adam Jennings right here on the right here? I just saw this comment. It was actually something I was going to ask you about. Um, Adam Jenny says, “Lowkey, I kind of wanted to see Dumba in the system. Goalie is bringing Goldson. Vibe I got from Pete is he didn’t care much for overall phys physical game, which is anti-dumba, but goalie wants to be more physical.” So, I was just thinking the same question. Obviously, the cap space was the the big reason, right? They they didn’t really have a choice here unless they found a way to move it otherwise. Do you think Dumba could have been a a far better player in the system that Dallas is going to play with a little more physicality under Glenn Goldson than he was under Pete? I think yes. I think he would have been um sometimes sometimes it’s just a new voice, you know what I mean? Like he had that one and it’s so hard for me to believe that Pete Dbor didn’t want a physical team, you know, became and I go back to that comment that he made halfway through the season where he said we need to be bigger on the walls. That’s kind of telling me we need to be bigger, stronger, harder to play against. Um, and I, you know, didn’t happen, but but I I just find it hard to believe that that that’s and but I again with Gully being there and the way that we saw that Edmonton play against the Dallas Stars in the playoffs, you know, I I I think that’s what he’s going to try to bring and bring out of some of these players here in Dallas. Yeah, absolutely. All right, we got plenty more. We’re going to talk more about the Blue Line and also a new coaching hire next on DLS. Butt cracks and grundles. your balls. Is that it? Do I got to do any more or am I done? Done. All right. And this is a read for all the people in Wisconsin here. 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Uh, use code DLLS at shopmando.com. Thanks, Les. You know that moment? The moment when you realize that you left your favorite pair of sunglasses at the beach on the roof of your car or at the concert venue from yesterday or when you realize I’m too scared to wear these to those type of places because I don’t want to damage my favorite shades. Well, Sadi Rays helps you with that because they change the game. Their sunglasses are made for real life. They are seriously good-looking, polarized, durable, and they’re not stupidly expensive. Plus, if you lose or break them, even on the first day that you own them, Shady Rays will send you a brand new pair. No guilt trip, just replacements. We’ve teamed up with Shady Rays to bring you an exclusive offer. Head to shadyrays.com and use code DLS35 for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated five stars by over 300,000 people. Shady rays. LS is still waiting on them. All right, LS, let’s let’s do this. Let’s let’s finish with the blue line here and then we’ll get into the coach since we’re already talking about the the blue line. So, you just mentioned the Stars blue line situation. It hasn’t changed a ton because we already kind of didn’t really have Matt Dumba slotted in into one of those spots. How do you see this position? I was talking on Edmonton radio yesterday and I was asked about the blue line and if they felt comfortable, not necessarily does this team feel comfortable going into this Stanley Cup playoffs with this blue line, right? Because that’s not where they’re at. Do they feel comfortable going into the season with the way the blue line’s lined up right now and then figuring out if they need to make adjustments from there? Well, here here’s what I think it’s going to be. I think it would be Essa and Miro. Uh Mero on the right side. Obviously Labushki will play the right side with Thomas Harley and then you got Nils Lungquist and Leon Bishell. I I’m guessing that’s the way they’ll they’ll start. And I I think that I and I have no problem with that being a not it’s not a top D. It’s not a top five defense core. You know, it’s in the top 10, top whatever. When you got Miro Essa, you know what’s funny? I saw I saw some rankings or ratings came out a couple I don’t know like a week ago or something like that. Mural was in the top five. Um Harley was in the top 15 or 16. Essa was over there on the other on on two pages down. It’s it’s just but but again I think that’s the way it’s always been for defenseman that are typically defensive defenseman. You know for me in all honesty I I put I probably put in in an importance way. I probably put Essa ahead of Thomas Harley. I mean, and I know Thomas Harley is good and he’s going to be a great defenseman, but Essa does. It’s kind of like when I’m when I talk about lines and there you talk about your top two lines. My my number two line is usually the third line, which is a checking line. That’s kind of gone away. I think that’s your second most important line and then your second depth line offensively ends up being your third line. So when it comes to, you know, defenseman like that, I just think that anybody that that leads the league year after year in penalty minutes, you know, on ice time every single year, um, he should be against top players. And if you’re trying to get Miro Hastin against top players, you know, for a different reason because what Miro does, Miro doesn’t necessarily have to shut them down defensively. He does it by having the puck. But I think then you allow Miro to go do what he does and you have a guy like Essa out there that can knows how to play a two-on-one and outnumbered rush because Miss Miro will be up in the up in the rush a couple times and there’s going to be he’s going to get caught which naturally happens. You may have a forward back there playing D at times which well we have forwards back there playing D a lot in the system that maybe not anymore. Yeah, maybe not anymore. Hopefully not anymore. So anyway, but when you’ve got those three guys and now we’re going to see the emergence of of Bishop, I think he’s going to take another step. I think he’s going to keep doing that year after year and the message is going to get out about playing against that guy. And if you’re going to go into his corner, you’re going to pay the price, which means that you have to have somebody that is a partner because plays will start going to the other side of the ice because they’re going to try to avoid it. I mean, it’s just going to be h it happens. They don’t want to get hit. I don’t want to put the puck in there. I don’t want to go get it, which is a that’s part of his MO. So that’s where I think it falls on Lquist if that’s his partner and he’s going to have to be able to play, you know, more plays coming in on his side of the ice. So, but again with Niels, it’s kind of been a question mark for me, you know, a couple times now why he’s come back and but I think you’re the one that said it. Jim Nil believes in the kid, right? And so, so, and that’s good, you know, and I think maybe this is another fresh start for Nils, too, because obviously going back a year, you know, when when D’Vor wouldn’t play him in the playoffs, I I don’t know, you know, from a mental standpoint and you can’t get out there and then when you do play games, you get two minutes or four minutes. You can’t you can’t play the game that way. It it just I don’t understand. Don’t even dress the player. Don’t don’t put him in that situation. So maybe with Gully here, I think Gully is going to probably roll through it a little little bit more and give guys an opportunity. Like I said, they always say you don’t get a second chance for may make a first impression, but here you do. You know, now with those kind of guys, especially Lenquist, he’s got a chance to prove to Gully and and Gully will go, why hasn’t this guy be playing more? Why isn’t he in the top? Can’t he be that offensive guy that carries? So, hope he does it. Yeah. And it’ll be interesting. You just mentioned kind that that’s the six we we think, right? That’s that seems like that would be the six they’re going to start with. Um then they have the the new guy uh that they just traded for yesterday. And then we’re looking at the roster. So they have seven defenseman. We don’t know whether he’ll stay he’ll be Kolia Chonuk will be on the team or not come start of the season, but they have uh 12 forwards. We imagine they’re going to bring up a 13th. Ritz Kovian seems to be kind of the leading man for that job. Do you bring up Petravic full-time as your seven? If Kol Chanuk, let’s say Koli Chanuk is waved or goes to the AHL, gets picked up somewhere else, whatever happens there, because Petravic’s been that in between, right? He’s not a guy where you just want him to come up as a young player and learn and play. He’s also not a a young rookie that you want to play games in the AHL. He’s in that in between. Do you need that security or do you just ride with the six and call people up at his emergency if you need it? I think he deserves it. I think he deserves a chance. We saw what he did a year ago in the playoffs. We saw what he did this year in the playoffs. And yes, there were a couple things that happened this year in the playoffs, but I will say it again, they happened when they went with seven defenseman. And when you go with seven defenseman, your number five and number six generally don’t get as much time. And two of the mistakes that that happened while he was out there, I I believe one one of them he had only played four minutes going late in the second period and the other one was like five or six minutes. So you sit on the bench, you’re cold, you’re not into the game like you should be. You try to, but you don’t have that kind of time. So, but I think that besides those those things and those two times when those two guys, him and Bishop were a pair, they played the way you’re supposed to play deep. Like they they played in front of their net. it was more difficult for forwards to get to the front of the net. Um, they just move the puck, you know? I mean, they they don’t and they’re not expected to do that kind of stuff. Again, I say it all the time. You got to be honest. When you’re a number five and six defenseman, part of your job is to get out there, have good, clean shifts, and you’re really giving a break to the top four guys so they can get back and get that’s what you do. And same thing with a fourth fourth line to go out there, you do your job, you try to get the puck to be at the other end of the rink as much as you can. you frustrate whoever you’re playing against and get up the hell off the ice so that you earn another shift and that’s how you keep on earning your shifts. So, but I definitely think that I would like to see Petro get a fair chance um this year and see what he can do and give him give him 10 15 games and you know rain from there. Yeah, same as Niels. They both deserve a long stretch of games versus the in and out back and forth kind of thing. I agree completely. So, we’ll have plenty more to talk about with the blue line and stuff as we get closer here, but the stars have their bench set in terms of the coaching staff. We have the final assistant coach hired today. Uh, it is a former Edmonton Oilers skating coach, David Peliche, I believe is how we are going to say it. That’s how Luds tells me it is for the the Quebec native. Um, he spent 11 last 11 years as the skating coach in Edmonton. Here’s the interesting part. In the release, he was he was labeled as the eyes in the sky. So, I I texted assistant GM Mark Jenko. He didn’t get back to me yet. I was hoping to see kind of what their expectations are. So, we’ll save that for a later show. But the the way it looks, they already have Luke Chilcott as their skating coach. So, he’s not coming in as the skating coach. That doesn’t mean he won’t help with that, but he’s coming in to be the eyes in the sky and be that extra, as Glen Goldson talked about, that extra Misha type of role that’s not necessarily the main player of the coaching staff, but is also not a skills coach. So, what is your take on his role coming in here? And how much is familiarity a big part of this with Goolison? Why do you want me to do this, Sam? I have to. You didn’t even talk about his background. Will you talk about his background? You’re right. You’re right. He is a longtime figure skater. Uh I believe plenty of Olympic medals. He’s in the I believe it’s called the Skate Canada Hall of Fame. Um he’s got all the accolades as a figure skater for a very long time. and he’s obviously worked as a skating coach and a figure skating coach as well. How’s that? That’s that’s good. Um, so listen, I’m not I’m not going down that road and saying that, “Oh my god, we got a figure skating coach. That’s the eye in the sky.” So even though that’s the first thing I thought of, I’d be totally honest with you. Um, because you’re the eye in the sky. You’re and that he can spot things. Gully’s going to tell him this is what we’re trying to do. This is where our system is. This is where I want these guys. he’s able to spot that and be able to say, “Hey, so and so keeps getting out of position in his own zone right here.” Or you look on the other side of the ice and this is what they’re doing on their forche. You know, those are simple things. So that regard you you could have a banker up there and could probably say the same thing. I’m just more worried about is he going to call down and say, “Well, because Gully wants 1% of physicality out of each player more this year, so I’m hoping he can recognize the one or two percent that a player is not giving at that point.” But if he’s been part of the Edmonton Oilers program, like I said, Just because he was a figure skater, I’m just joking about all that kind of stuff to be honest with you. Yeah. It doesn’t mean that he can’t be exactly what what he wants him to be. I mean, for a long time, Jeff Reese has been the eye in the sky. You know, he’s a goalie coach, right? So, and sometimes I’m like, well, I would rather have a Stu Barnes up there. right? I’d rather have a guy that formerly played and you can have a guy that played in the league and you can spot things and you can say but and because this game to me if you want to be a good player and especially if you want to uh be a good defensive player as a team and as an individual you have to find trends and you have to find characteristics of what their team is doing or their player is doing. How are what does he like to do? Does he like to get across the offensive blue line? And if he doesn’t get the middle of the ice, does he curl back? Or does he always want to come to the middle of the ice? Does he always fake a shot then make a little move? Those are the kind of things that you’re looking for. So you can relay that kind of a message. And there’ll be times when you can just sit up there and head coaches can’t see everything. All those are there’s all I mean they should. There’s four or five of them on every single bench, but but there’s times like when they talk about matchups, like listen, the matchup has changed. Now they’re trying to get so and so against you know, hints or whatever. Those are the little things you sit up there. And I will tell you that the game is so easy from up there. It’s so easy, right? And you’re up there and you can see it. I remember I still remember Army when Doug Armstrong was up there and I was sitting up there with Army, the general manager in St. Louis. And he was he was bitching about Zubie. What is he doing? Like how come he didn’t make that play? And I’m like I look at Army. I’m like Army, you got to chill out here. The game is really easy from up here. And if the one guy that you’re complaining about is one of the best sides in the league, Zubie knows what he’s doing. So anyway, so what I’m saying is I just think that Gully didn’t have a choice in those other coaches that are on the bench. Those were put here by Jim Nil, right? So I think it was, hey, we got to give him an opportunity to bring somebody in that he’s comfortable with and can do this or do that and that’s probably who selected. So you think it’s it’s more assignment based type of thing in that job where it’s where it’s here’s what we’re looking for and here’s kind of the things to look out for. Is that something that that you think the way they’re going to approach it is, you know, Golitin says, like you just said, you know, here’s the three things we want to focus on. We think they might do this, we think they might do blank, or here’s your your checklist. You know, are they matching? Are they uh putting this guy out after a certain thing? You know, the is McDavid and Dryside, are they jumping out after every penalty kill? Are those the kind of things that you’re looking for for that kind of role? I think that would be his list, but he has to be able to spot the other things that you didn’t talk about because there’s things that you can say because you can again, you play against everybody so much. Everything’s on video now. They they see everything. They they know breakouts and all that kind of stuff. So, you kind of have a thing. Okay, they’re doing this, they’re doing this. Just let us know if there’s a little change in that. But then all of a sudden, you have to say, oh, this is something we haven’t seen them do before. So, you have to be able to look and go, well, that’s different. And let’s see if they do it another time. Then he gets on the little the little lapel button or whatever it is and he calls down to whoever that’s going to be and says, “Hey, listen, you know, they’re changing this up right now.” And but that’s the way the game, you know, it’s supposed to be a bit of a chess game. It more more so in the playoffs as we know, which it’s for some reason it always seems more critical there. But I think that that’s something that you want to have somebody up there that’s really good at and can re relay those kind of things because you want to play those 82 games being able to have your 20 guys that are in the lineup knowing that they can make adjustments in in in-game adjustments and you can change from shift to shift and he just yelled down the bench now we’re going a one two in the neutral zone we’re going to go we’re going to push with two guy you know those kind of little things and I think you can throw you throw teams off that way but you learn about your team as you’re working your way to game 83. Absolutely. and we will we’ll talk a little more about the coaching staff as a whole and everybody’s roles and then we’re going to get into some stars players who could have elevated roles whether that’s a good or bad thing next on DLS. 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Head over to Saturdayon.com and use code DLLS for 10% off your favorite sign. All right, beautiful. All right, let’s talk about the coaching staff a little bit as a whole because now, as I said, we have we have the whole outlook. Um, what I’m really interested in is what Glenn Glen Golson’s talking about, which is giving his guys free reign for what they’re responsible for, right? He he’s talked about how when he was doing the power play in Edmonton, he didn’t he it wasn’t a half and half where he had to run everything by the head coach and get approval for things. He had free reign and if he needed help, he could talk to the other coaches. He could use, you know, knob block or anyone else. Golitin says that’s exactly what he plans on doing with this team. So the the staff right now looks like Glenn Gooson as your head coach. Ela Nazertine stays with the defense and the penalty kill. Neil Graham comes up from Texas as your power play. And forwards uh we have now I’m going to forget how to say his name. Jeff Reese obviously is your goalie coach. And then we have Peliche, David Peliche as your eye in the sky. And then we just mentioned obviously all those other uh we we have skills coach, development coach, Chilcott as your skating coach. But so if you’re looking at that LS, how important is that freedom as if you’re Graham or Nazerdine? Obviously for Nazerine, he’s he’s earned it. He’s got one of the best penalty kills in the league. He’s proven it over and over again. He’s got the experience. He was one of the final candidates for this head coaching job according to Jim Nil. But then you have Neil Graham who has earned it in the AHL. But that’s got to be tough, you’d think, to give a guy full reign like that. So, how important is it to know if you’re one of those two guys that your head bench boss is giving you the freedom to run your unit the way you want to? I I think all teams do that and I think you give everybody a responsibility and they’re I just think that they’re they’re more dialed in. You know what I mean? Like so and and it makes sense obviously for Nas to do what he’s done. Dallas has had a great penalty kill and so he knows what he’s doing there. Um but I I do think that hey everything begins and starts and stops with the head coach. So, if there’s something that’s going sideways or something’s not happening here, Gully will always have the the ability to walk down to NAD and say, “Listen, I I don’t want so- and so killing penalties. He’s he doesn’t have it tonight.” So, and that’ll be his call. And if you’re an assistant coach and you’ve got that you’re an assistant coach for a reason. You you can always be overruled and and Gully’s got that. Now, I think that we the way that Gully’s personality is that he’s kind of more calm and cool and easygoing. It seems like I I think that he’ll give those guys as as much rope as they need to to accomplish what he wants them to accomplish. And the other thing is that like it just takes there’s so much on a head coach’s plate anyways. I I think that to be able to put certain guys in certain, you know, roles and let them be in charge of that, you don’t have as much on you. You can just kind Sometimes Sometimes this game isn’t always about X’s and O’s. It’s managing the personalities and the players and being able to have a good open dialogue with them. And knowing that they ever want to come in and talk, the door is always open kind of thing. And that was again back in our day like you didn’t you never wanted to hear that because you never wanted to talk to coaches and they never really wanted to talk to you. They want you just go do your job and that’s it. It’s different today. So, you know, and so if if Graham is going to be the guy that maybe he’s the guy that has more of a relationship with the 12 forwards that are in the lineup and and what’s more important there, it’s the 13th or the 14th forward that’s not in the lineup. That’s where you your relation has to you got to be able to keep that guy engaged and all those kind of things. And the same thing goes, you know, for for what Naz does because we know last year there was a a particular defenseman that that never even talked to the head coach one time. You know what I mean? So I was just about to bring him up. Yeah. And so somehow but you know what even when that all happened and and you know Smith was a veteran guy, right? But at some point you’re like that dude’s got to talk to me sometime. You know what I mean? Like that that’s how you lose a player, you know, because he know and he did he lost him. There’s no way to to to defy that he lost. And and and the thing is and Naz can only say so much like he can only do too much and you can’t make up things because if the coach doesn’t want him in the lineup, he’s not in the lineup. NASA isn’t gonna go in there and say, “Hey, I think he needs to be in before Muriel Hayeskin and or whoever it may be because the head guys got that that authority.” So, I I just think that I think you’re seeing that a lot um now over the years in the NHL where all these guys get their but let’s not let’s not do the Steve spot thing where if the power play doesn’t work that we go and point at one finger because again it’s a it’s a committee. It’s a community and a lot of times the D coach should be as important as helping out the power play coach because as a D coach you see how they’re defending things and sometimes you know you don’t see that and as with a defenseman when you’re a defenseman you spot what what’s happening on their power play or what’s not happening on your power play those little and and that’s nothing new I mean these guys do they work together but they have their own little niches and I I think that’s the best way to go and give everybody a little piece of the job and feel more important and they got a lot of input and and I think in the beginning if if Graham wants to change up a couple lines, he has to have the freedom to do it. That’s why I’m here. I I I got a feel like maybe it’s not Robo if Robo’s here up on the left side up there. Maybe we need a Sam Steel like guy or maybe it’s Jamie Ben or maybe you got to take Rant and let’s try him on the left side and let’s put Wyatt up Wyatt on the right wing and let’s see what we got. and you know and and Gully in my opinion with me I go all right let’s give her a shot you know and I think that’s where the confidence and the camaraderie comes in between the coaches yeah and and nothing against Pete Dbor really we know we’ve talked all about his the way he coached his success he’s had a great record with this team but if there’s one criticism he constantly had it was his stubbornness and that can be a good thing you want your head coach to be confident in his own decisions and feel that he can put weight on his shoulders but you also want him to understand and listen and from what I gathered being around the team and from what I’ve heard, he really didn’t have a lot of wiggle room. When he made up his mind, he made up his mind. And that that goes with what you just said with the Brennan Smith. It goes with sticking with something that maybe wasn’t working or changing something that they thought maybe could work. It it just feels with this coaching staff, there might be a little more of what you said, that little give and take, that little bit of fluidity between them where they might try a thing out here and there. I mean, Mason Marchman, Matthew Shane, Tyler Sean line that was put together be on a whim because the other lines weren’t going, you know, throwing Joe Pavvelski up on that top line. Ding was again because they didn’t think they had someone that could get up there. All those little things come from trying stuff. And I just feel this staff is a little more open to trying things. And that’s kind of what we want. That’s what fans, I believe, want to see is them try new things. not not shuffle your every single line every game like we saw a few times in the playoffs, but to to not stick with the same thing. I mean, the amount of times that I posted, you know, the lines for a game or whatever and saw just comment after comment of, “Oh, we’re sticking with this again. Oh, this pairing again, when are they going to give up on this line? When are they going to give Wyatt Johnston some help?” It just feels like there might be a little more of that fluidity. And like you said, the communication is huge. I always go back in my head and think, what if they needed Brendan Smith in that Edmonton series? What if the series was, let’s say it wasn’t five games, you know, it’s two to two, and Brendan Smith has to go in. He’s going to go in and play hard, right? He’s an NHL player, but don’t tell me there’s not a little bit less motivation, engagement, and those things when he’s been checked out since January. If you have him constantly talking, you’re on the same page, you’re understanding. It’s not just you’re throwing him in when you decide to rest Lindell and Harley at the end of the season, he’s going to be ready to go and and ready to help you and your team any way he can. And I I just think the importance of those players, we’ve seen so many of those guys help teams win cups where they come in, they’re not a huge player during the season, and then that the Nick Pauls of of the world come and they score 10 goals in a in a playoff run and win a cup with with Tampa Bay. So, I always think back to that, and I think you’re exactly right. I think this should be a a more fluid situation. And then going off of what you just brought up, which is a perfect segue here, they’re going to have to take some risks because the roster doesn’t allow them not to take risks. They don’t have a top six straight up that you know is their top six, especially on that left side. So, if you’re looking at this roster, we know Sam Steel is a big topic right now on what we talked about with Glen Goen on the news on our show. If you’re looking at this roster, who are who are the one to one to three players that you believe either need to play in an elevated role or take a a big step in their play this year? Well, the first one that comes to mind is Maverick Cork, you know, and I think he’s going to get that opportunity. Um, and and I think well, and you mentioned it, Sam Steel, he just seems like the one guy that should because you watch him play like he’s got he’s got some skill that maybe he doesn’t get to use as much as he would like to because he understands his role. I think that he’s a guy that can can jump up there. Um, and I I just want to go back to to Smith for one second. When you bring that up, if if they would have taken, let’s just say, I don’t know, take Blackwell out or, you know, one of the guys on the fourth line, not Steel, but you put you put Smith in there. You don’t think that he would have been the first guy that he would have went after would have been Darnell Nurse. The second guy he would have went after would have been Bushar. He would have sent the message. Even if your head coach doesn’t want to send a message, but that’s what a head coach should do, saying, “Listen, this is the one guy that we know. not a heavyweight, but he’s there’s a little push back here, but if he didn’t want that, then that kind of tells me all we need to know. Um, no, I I just think that those two guy I mean, so those are the two logical guys. The number one guy for me is is Bour. I I think that, you know, if he’s not going to be part of a move and, you know, he’s a firstrounder and all this other kind of stuff, which doesn’t really matter anymore, but but they’re going to give him a chance. And so I think we want to see and I think every time I felt that the times that Bourke got an opportunity to get into the lineup and play, I felt he was trying to do everything he could to do what he’s supposed to do. And surprisingly, he I mean, he’s a little bit like Stan Coven. I mean, he he goes to the front of the net. I I know he’s a goal scorer. Um I don’t know if he’s better in the middle of the ice versus the wing sometimes, but I I think that like I say, they’ve got no choice to give these guys opportunities now, right? And so I think that he’s the one that probably where Gully is we got to give we got to find a spot for him, but give him a chance with some guys that can, you know, translate things in there. I that’s my big one. Second one definitely would be would be Sam Steel. I you know, again, we’ll see what he can do if that’s the guy. Who knows if that’ll be their left wing. There might be something that gets done before the season starts, too. But um those are the two guys I the other the other guys I think they are they’re where they’re supposed to be. Put it that way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and on you’re right, and I’m looking to lines. Uh Jamie Ben is the one that comes to mind. As Sean said, he might have to play an elevated role until someone pushes him down, but that’s not that’s not what this team wants. This team doesn’t want him as their second line left wing. But looking at the roster, I mean, you’re right there. If Sam Steel can’t play up there, which we we assume he can, but I’m just saying for the for the conversation, if he can’t, there’s really no other option besides Jamie Ben. And then if Bourke can’t play at least a third line consistent role, you got basically nine fourth liners on your team and nobody in that top six to nine. So these guys have to be able to do it. Borc has to be able to either center a third line, play on a right wing with Wyatt Johnston. He has to take a step here because otherwise they’re in a much worse position than they would be if he can play. And I and I saw it from him. I expect him to be better. He he got better as the season went on and as you said he I saw a shift both the way he spoke to me and the way he played the game going to the blue paint. He he started to just go there and post up there. He drew a couple penalties, scored a couple goals in that area. That’s what he has to do. He is not Wyatt Johnston. He is he has a a good ceiling. He can play a top six role in the NHL, but he’s not a superstar. I don’t believe he he’s going to be a superstar. I believe he if he plays that role, goes hard to the areas and plays a simple game, he should be able to step in. And it’s just funny looking at the way the lines line up here, they need someone to do it. They need one, if not two, to really take a step forward because otherwise they’re in a tough spot. And that’s a that’s a big question mark you don’t want to have going into a season. But from the look of the salary cap and the way the team is, I don’t know that that’s going to change. But you know, Sam, what this forces them to do, it forces them to play better in their own end because they’re not in a situation like last year, the year before, where they can outscore their mistakes. So, it might be a little bit tighter and you may not be getting four goals a game. It may be two and a half to three goals a game, but that means that you can’t be giving up those quality chances at the other end of the rink. Yep. Absolutely. All right, we’ll finish up with our last segment. We’ll talk about something to do with the NHL draft that we are not super happy about here at DLS and talk a little about some other trades around the league. Next, DLS stars. But first, as you know, we’ll talk about being die hard because we have all the reasons. We have the list. But ask any die hard this year. It was a great investment. It was a great time. We had fun. The Discord was so much fun. like the the Discord and Stars channel just goes off and not just on game days and during the middle of a game, but also in the summer I look at that thing. I write a message in there for a LDS discord or something and I go back and try to look at it and I can’t even get back to my message because there’s so much conversation in there and it’s, you know, there’s a little mix you can you can talk within the Stars channel. There’s talk about, you know, the Texas Stars, the Dallas Stars, some things that people are doing in their personal lives and then there’s also just conversation during games. And I I if growing up, if I had a place to just when a game ended to just get out all my frustrations, get out all my thoughts, that’s amazing. That’s that makes it worth it right there. But you also get 20% off apparel, 20% off events, including the DLS Vegas trip with the Cowboys crew heading to Vegas for Monday Night Football against the Las Vegas Raiders. Get to go to Vegas, hang out with that crew, go to the game, have a great time in Las Vegas. You get the the DLS newsletter, which is actually free. Uh you get it. We believe we do it five days a week now. Uh so you get the newsletter every morning. Gives you the stories, the most up-to-date stuff, links to shows, everything you could possibly want. Uh you get all the access to writing from every team we have here at DLS, including without ads. You also get Stars merch, which is the best merch around on DLS. Let’s just be straight up about that. We have the Jake Atoner shirt, which is still my favorite shirt. The one of our hottest sellers, the Finnish Mafia with the addition of Mo Rantin. We also have the Wyatt Johnston 16bit and the Mo Rantin the finisher shirt. And then of course our two big playoff shirts, the captain with Jamie Ben and the Moose. So plenty for reasons for you to be a diehard. And on top of all that, we have another ball knower bonus which is wrapping up this weekend. I think it’s on Sunday. play the MLB All-Star game, American League, National League. Pick the winner, make a purchase on our site, and we’ll give you a gift card so you can use that. Basically, get yourself some free merch if you get it correct. Be a diehard. All dls.com/dhard. All right, luds. This isn’t confirmed yet, but from all reports, it sounds like the NHL draft was voted by the GMs to stay decentralized, aka stay in the format that it was this year. I’m going to preface this. I’m going to qu ask you this question this way. How do you feel about the potential of us sitting in that studio at the end of June next year and doing another three, four, five hour live stream watching the what I can safely call a disaster that was the NHL draft. I can feel appendicitis coming on it. It was so miserable. It it’s funny though because this morning I’m listening to uh Kenny Holland who’s now the general manager of the LA Kings and that question was asked to him and he was like, you know, it’s so nice being able to bump into other GMs on the floor and you can talk to people and the kids all there, you know, the whole nine yards. And then next I hear Donnie Wedell talking. He’s a general manager Columbus. Basically the same thing. and and Wedell kind of said, “Well, you know, there are some of the younger guys now taking over and they kind of like, you know, that that whole setup.” I don’t get it. I I I just think and I look at the kids because, you know, you know, we talked about this a couple weeks ago about that. I I just look at some of these kids when they’re able to walk up onto the stage with the general managers and, you know, their whole entourage up there. They get the hat, they get the jersey, and they go through that whole thing. It just seems so big. um with everybody in the building, it makes for a better show. Um you know, that’s their biggest day of the year. I think the way that it’s been done in the past, I’m sure it stands out to all these guys, it’s one of their biggest memories of becoming a professional hockey player. Um, so you know, and again, just from the standpoint of being able to walk around and be able to see what’s going on on the floor and you see a couple general managers talking and you got a pick coming up in a couple rounds and you know that general manager steps up and he starts walking across the floor and now he was talking to he was talking to Kyle Dubis from Pittsburgh and so there goes Wadell walking across there and because it was Kenny Holland talking to him so but there’s a player that Waldell likes on the LA Kings too, you know, and so let Right. those kind of things that that I think is probably why those guys that are, you know, the old dogs, the the old tricks and things like that. So, for me and just from a standpoint of us having to sit in there like that and and I I felt bad for the for the kids. I really did. I mean, you don’t feel bad because they’re getting drafted, but you know, we’re used to the old the old school way. So, I hope it goes back to that, but from what I heard, the these guys weren’t very confident. They feel that’s going to go back to Oh, and I think it was Elliott Freriedman that said that too this morning. I was listening to it and you know Elliot, I mean he knows everything and he says they’re really leaning to going back at it again like they did this year. Yeah. And I think you’re right. I mean the big point you made that I like a lot is is the big moment for the kids, right? Let’s take away obviously money is the reason they’re doing this, right? The GMs like like somewhat like the idea to have everyone in their big room. They don’t have to worry about just flying a select number of people to with to the location. they can load it up in that big uh war room, but the money is the reason they don’t have to fly everyone there, don’t have to stay there, they don’t have to do all these other things, bring the PR team, all that stuff. But on the other side of it, the player getting their moment. I mean, it not just kind of taking away their moment, but on top of that, taking a making it uncomfortable. I mean, the way they did it, they might change it. They might fix it so that at least that part with the whole walking through the door and looking at the screen, maybe they’ll make that a little bit better. Um, hopefully they do. But the other part is a lot of these guys, less, they’re not going to play in the NHL. So, as much as you don’t want to look at it that way, this is their NHL moment. Hey, you know what? I was a professional hockey player. I was drafted in the second round by the San Jose Sharks. Got to go up. I got to shake hands with with the GM. I got to meet everybody. Got to get my picture. Now, it’s like, hey, you know what I got to do? I Yes, I got drafted in front of a half a half crowd. I got to walk up there and I got to shake hands with Gary Bman or Bill Daly or someone like that and then I got to do a Zoom call with the GM of the San Jose Sharks that I could have done from my own basement. It’s that’s not the same, right? And I I don’t like that part of it at all. Um but the other the other side that I I just can’t get over is that it was quiet this year. And I Jim Nil didn’t I I asked Jim Nil this question. I said, “Do you think it was more quiet in terms of movement, trades, all that kind of stuff you were just talking about because of the way they did and he said he he didn’t think that was the reason. I don’t I don’t think that’s true. You can’t tell me that the one time they did this, there were significantly fewer actual hockey trades, moves. Uh there all we got basically was like, “Hey, you know what? This team traded their third round pick for a third round pick in two years. That was like the best trades that we got to to get excited about.” I just wonder it makes it more interesting to watch for multiple reasons. everything you just said. Then you get, you know, Elliot Freeman or or Pierre LeBron, whoever re reporting, hey, uh, the the Islanders were just up over running over to the Blues table talking to to the AR. And it’s just it’s interesting. You feel like you’re part of it. You feel like there’s a reason the event is happening. Whereas this time around, it was like, let’s roll these kids up here as fast as we possibly can, have them get drafted, and let’s get out of here. And I I just don’t think that is how it should be done because the NBA draft, the NFL draft, most of those players, those guy, they’re going to play in that league, right? If you’re getting drafted, you got a really good shot of playing or at least being on a roster. A lot of these guys are going to go back to their junior teams, go back to play in college, and they’re never going to make it back to here. And I just I don’t like the idea of taking that away from them. Some of these guys are going to go to college and retire after their college career now. Exactly. Yeah. I’ll tell you what, the first one that you probably shouldn’t have asked about this was Jim Nil. Jim Nil is not going to ruffle anybody’s feathers. Like, he’s just he’s right down the middle of the fairway all the time. Get somebody that that isn’t afraid of Yeah, I agree with all that. It’s just I I don’t Again, that what they say is they’re going to go back to that same old thing. So, um I I’ll keep that date circled for sure next year. That’s one of the things I’m going to look at first and I will come up with something on that particular day. Let’s just leave Owen by himself in the in the studio. Let him keep let him keep track of scoring chances and high danger scoring rushes and all that other kind of stuff. Tracking how many players get to zoom with their GMs. Um all right, we only have a few more minutes here, lads. Let’s talk about a couple other trades uh that are interesting to me around the league. The first one was also yesterday, which was the San Jose Sharks acquiring Ryan Reeves for Henry Thun who went back to the Toronto Maple Leafs. curious your thought um on the trade itself, but also on Ryan Reeves as a player. I feel like he’s kind of an interesting guy who is one of those last remaining true grinder fighters. Does he still have a role and is that why he’s being shipped to a team like San Jose where he can be that role on a rebuilding team? Yeah, I think they’ve got some young kids there. They’ve got some young players that might need a bodyguard every once in a while. Yeah, I I hope he plays every game. He’s he’s 88, I believe, 88 games short of a thousand games. So, he’s obviously not going to get there this year, but I I think that would be a big benchmark for a guy like that that’s literally had to fight his way to play a thousand games. And he he still is a force. He’s still one of the bigger guys on the block, you know. Um so, I I just think when when they’re looking at their roster, what they have, and having some young guys there, there there can be teams that will take liberties. And so, we’re going to make sure that doesn’t happen. And I think Reeves just will thrive in that kind of a role. And again, he’s been in so many different situations. He’s got a good personality and things like that. So, I think you’re looking for him to be a bit of a role model, you know, a guy that that had to play a certain way and the hard work that he had to put. I remember a conversation I had with Hitch and when when Reeves wanted to come back and he told him what he what did he need to do to play the next year and you know, Hitch had a conversation with him said, “Listen, your big thing is you just got to work on your skating. Don’t do anything but go work on your skating.” So, um, but I think those little kind of conversations that he’s had with coaches, he can share with the younger player. Yeah. He’s he’s one of those players, too, like if you’re a fan of a team that played, especially in the division or anything like that, like you can’t stand the guy, right? He he’s big. He roughs up your your favorite players and he’s just jawing all the time, which I personally love because even though I’m very small, I talk more trash than anybody on our team just because it’s just the fun part of the game. I’m curious if you believe we’re seeing the end of that type of player or is there still going to be I know we’re not we don’t there’s not three on every team or anything like that like there used to be but is there still going to be one maybe one every two teams let’s say because the stars don’t have one right so uh is that is Kachchuck will still be around for a few more years you got two Kachchucks yeah you got two Kachchucks you got Bennett unfortunately a lot of these guys are on the same team um but I’m just do you think that this is something that is eventually in five 10 years going to completely phase itself out or is there still going to be a spot in here for those type of guys to at least be on a few teams? I think as long as there’s some old school general managers around there still will be because they still believe in that that kind of a role. But otherwise, I think you’re going to see it start switching to more more acrobatic things after they score. You know what I mean? Like the stick twirls and riding a stick, you know, they’re more showboating kind of things. It’s kind of their their personality. And again, you know, if that’s what the fans like, then let them give what the fans like. But yeah, one thing I know for sure, and with the whole fighting thing, it’s still regardless of if you’re a a fan of the home team or the visitors, when there’s a fight, everybody in the building’s usually standing up. So, there still is that. And um you know and again I I know that the league is trying to get away from it as much as possible because of insurance reasons and health and you know the concussions and all that kind of stuff which is fair but I just always think there’s going to be a role to have that kind of I mean we’re we’re we’re looking for that. I mean well I think we maybe I’m the only guy here looking for that but you know we’re looking for that guy you know who who that guy is. I I I heard Jack’s name mentioned in Montreal that may not be there at the start of the season. you know, I mean, there there’s a guy that understands his role and, you know, I don’t, you know, I think maybe Leon Bishell is that guy in the back end there, but they’re they’re throwing a few names around in Montreal that might not be there in September and there’s a couple of them that would interest me in that kind of a role. So, we’ll see. Yeah. And it’s interesting you say you bring up the fans because there’s not just that fans stand up and get excited when there’s a fight or a hit. It there are fans that only go to hockey games for that still. That that’s dwindling, right? some people people are starting to understand the game a little bit more and get excited about the fast plays, but for the most part, there’s there’s a ton of fans, especially football fans, I find uh you know, I see a lot of NFL players or former NFL players that go to a hockey game, that’s what they want to see. They want to see the big hit against the boards, the open ice hits, the scraps in front of the net. I mean, just if you just look took an overview look of a rink during a game and watched when fans stood up. Yes, during goals obviously, but then everything else is the little the little scrum by the net here, the little pushing and shoving behind the goal. It’s the physical stuff. And we can get into this for a full hour one day, but I just think that it’s a mistake to eliminate it completely. You can bring it to the middle a little more if you need to for concussions and health stuff like you just said. That’s a real thing, but you can’t eliminate that that completely. that that’s it’s it’s sim a similar boat to football. You’re you’re not going to play flag football in the NFL, right? So, you can’t play touch hockey or or threeon-ree European hockey in the NHL. It’s just not the way it’s built. So, we I’m sure we’ll get into this more at another time. But, I’m with you on that in terms of the old school stuff. And it is good to see Ryan Reeves do that. go to San Jose because I think the Celebrinis and the Will Smiths will benefit off of that to be able to play a little more free and worry about just developing their game and not getting head-hunted and taken out of games immediately because let’s face it, if you take those guys out, you beat the San Jose Sharks and even if you don’t, you probably beat the San Jose Sharks. So, it’s kind of a an easy game to play here. But Luds, I will tell you this, we did it. It’s Friday. You flew by an hour again. Been an hour. We the the one-on-one with LDS is a good time. You guys don’t realize this, but we’re just live streaming what we would talk about anyway when we get to their studio an hour early. So, it’s a perfect way to to do this. But great week. Thank you all for tuning in. This was a fun time. Luds, thanks for your help. Go out there. Enjoy your weekend on the boat. Get some sun. I might be doing the show Monday from Betty Ford, but I’ll be here. Can’t wait. We will see you guys next week for a full week with all three of us, plus maybe some Shawn dipped in there as well. for Craig Lewig, for Sam Nestler, and for our producer Elijah. Thank you very much for watching. DLLS stars. See you.

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On Thursday, the Dallas Stars made an expected salary cap move, trading Matt Dumba and a 2028 second-round pick to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for defenseman Vladislav Kolyachonok.

00:00 – Intro
2:30 – Matt Dumba trade
15:50 – Stars blue line expectations
30:50 – Stars Coaching Staff / Wyatt Johnston
46:00 – NHL Draft reportedly staying decentralized + NHL trades

#nhl #dallasstars #mattdumba #mikkorantanen #stanleycup #stanleycupplayoffs
#vladislavkolyachonok

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