Detroit Red Wings Season So Far Breakdown; Interview w/@HockeytownRundown Emmitt Finnie for Calder

Detroit Red Wings Season So Far Breakdown; Interview w/@HockeytownRundown Emmitt Finnie for Calder

Welcome to Undrafted Hockey Fan, I am Brad, and today we have two special guests from the Hockey Town Rundown Podcast. We got Carlo and Zach. Let’s start with Carlo. How you doing, man? Yo, what’s up, man? How you doing? Great to be here. Super stoked to meet you and talk some shop about the Red Wings, man. Nothing better to do on a Monday night when they’re not playing. Let’s get this party started. Let’s go, buddy. And Zach, how about yourself? You got a great background, by the way. You guys have both really great backgrounds. I got a green wall, and I got to wear the jersey to make sure everyone knows that we’re talking wings here. It doesn’t happen overnight. It’s one step at a time, one show at a time. Just slowly add to it, and you’ll get there. I feel like Carlo is trying to seduce me with the lights and the way they move in the background. It looks great. If you’re on YouTube, check it out. It’s working. It’s working. It’s working. I’m in the mood. I’m in the mood to actually talk some Red Wings. Let’s jump right into this. So I’m clear that you guys are your guys’ podcast. You guys do the rundown of Hockey Town. So I love that. I love the sign. I think you guys have a great – I mean, I see a ton of your guys’ content. So make sure everyone that’s out here, go like and subscribe to them, YouTube. Where can they find your guys’ podcast? Is it all around the place? Everywhere. Where can’t you find us at this point? Right, Carlo? I mean, you’re on or we’re on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. Find us on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Look at that. Go check him out. Make sure you give him some love. So anyways, let’s jump right into it. So again, we have some Red Wings news that happened today. And we have MBN. Sadly, you know, we saw his start and everything. He just got his first point recently in that very sad Islanders game, you know, seven to two. But we just saw him get sent down to Grand Rapids. Carlos, start with you. I mean, what are your thoughts? What are your impressions of MBN? And then we can kind of jump from there. For me, MBN, I love him, man. He’s one of the players that I describe on this team right now that plays with so much heart. I think the challenge that MBN had was his play with the puck. I don’t think he really had an issue with his play away from the puck. You know, you take a look at the hits he has. He was leading the Detroit Red Wings in hits. He still is. And he’s no longer with the big boy club. So his play away from the puck for me was awesome. It was tenacious. He had a great stick. He was always breaking up plays and he really wanted the puck back. And he made that clear shift after shift. It was his play with the puck that we saw, you know, quite a few turnovers, quite a few misplays, miscues, mispasses. Um, that probably led to the decision of him getting some more reps in, uh, in GR top six role, more minutes. And for me, the most important piece is playing with, with skilled players. I don’t want to throw too many shots at the players that he was playing with on the Red Wings up until this point, but. I mean, you’re playing with Kopp and Komfer. Those guys are checkers, man. There’s not a lot of skill there. And I just feel like it didn’t really give him the best chance to succeed offensively to the point where we would have liked to see him scoring goals regularly like he was doing in preseason. So that’s kind of my nutshell wrap up of MBN hot take for me is I think he’s going to be back. I think he’s going to get his tenth game. I think it’s going to be sooner than later. Um, But it is what it is. They have spots that, I mean, the team is pretty much still in a good space in terms of roster players. My only weird thing with this call or this drop is like, well, who’s the thirteenth forward at this point? And my assumption is it’s Patrick Kane. So maybe this is a good news on Patrick Kane. Maybe he’s closer than many of us think. So lots to break down with that one. But I’ll flip it to Zach. We’re back to you, Brad. No, Zach, go ahead. Yeah, what can I cover that Carlo didn’t? Yeah, I mean, I’m… Not going to say that I’m still processing it, but obviously if you go on Twitter on my account, I am very vocal about Michael Branson, Newgard, or Newgard, however you pronounce it. But I am very fond of him. Like Carlos said, that is a kid who plays with a lot of heart. He definitely brings the physicality to the team, much like how Emmett Finney does as well. I believe both of them are tied on the team with twenty eight hits. That’s something that Red Wings fans. Current and even in the past. say all the time, this team needs to be more physical. We look very soft out there. We inserted this young guy to do it. Now we’re taking him away from doing that. And I guess that’s fine. But now we get to hear more fans say, cry, complain, whatever words you want to use, that Michael Rasmussen now has to fill in that spot, or Elmer Soderblom has to fill in that spot, both of which you are not playing very well. Granted, the re-emergence, if that’s what you want to call it, of Jonathan Berggren definitely helps a little bit. Yep. So give him credit there. JT Comfort has been playing a little bit better. Totally. I do believe, though, that this wasn’t built by design, right? The course of Michael coming and only playing nine games, part of me wants to believe at some point Steve may have tried looking for a trade to move on a forward and one may have not transpired by that time. And unfortunately, NBN with a slide eligibility, he’s just the easy guy to pick on right now because everyone else would probably get claimed off of waivers. Yeah. I think, I think Bergeron would have, right? Like someone like, I thought he was a good candidate, good cap it, one year contract, prove it deal. I mean, you can see the guys like Soderblom, they locked up for two years and Aljo, he’s locked up for two years. So, you know, Bergeron only got one. And then Rasmussen, his contract’s a little bit longer, right? A little more expensive. It’s a little bit harder to trade that, especially with the value that, and my thought was that we were going to trade Rasmussen because the value we saw, like, it was like, it was last year even, right? He was playing, it was, was it last year or two years ago that his, he was so highly sought after on the team. They’re like, Oh, everyone wants to play with them. And I’m like, and he was, he was performing. And the thing is, is you can see it with Rasmussen. Like, again, the play has declined a bit, but he is, he is naturally has a mindset of where like he can be tough. You know, we saw, I mean, there’s the iconic, A picture with Jack Hughes where he knocked him down right in front of the net. He’s roaring. He’s basically doing his best. Who’s the guy that was on Florida that went to the end? It was Captain of the Anaheim Ducks. I can’t think of his name. Captain of Anaheim then went to Florida? no he was no other way around he was in florida and then uh he beat maybe toronto he yelled in front of the toronto uh goalie i don’t know if you saw that iconic oh i do remember that i can’t think of his name yeah they’re good yeah he’s a raccoon good expression which and so and then again you’re talking about zach about solder bomb like they’re asking him to be a little more physical he’s six eight but you just see it’s just not naturally his game um again he’s more of a skill guy we’ve seen his hand he’s got his hands are so dirty man he does a great job um especially for again how big he is in everything and you’re looking for guys to step up and when you’re seeing rookies take over these positions it’s hard to start to justify these guys um in their you know position i mean mfini i mean he’s taking that left wing uh spot and it’s been completely impressive he’s honestly i’ve seen so many articles from the nhl talking about this kid spitting chips let’s talk i mean every podcast is talking about how amazing mfini is um just Honestly, it’s like him or Matthew Schaefer and Demidov. You’re like two first-round icons right there, a fifth overall, a first overall, and then you have a seventh-round guy, like in the two hundreds. And it’s like, is this Zetterberg? And I don’t want to go too far, but everyone’s talking about him being Zetterberg, and I love that. Mind you, Zetterberg at the time, before he got on the Red Wings, he did represent Sweden. So that’s kind of another… little notch towards Zetterberg. But again, super impressive and everything. So kind of jump into the other. Now we’re talking about Finney. Zach, what are your I mean, clearly Finney’s done a great job. Let’s kind of let’s get your opinions on what you’re seeing, what you expect to see, kind of how this is all shaking out. This kid, he’s just unbelievable. All gas, all motor, no brakes, eight points and nine games played. I definitely didn’t have that pegged in him. Granted, I did believe that he would ride a little bit off of the coattails of Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond that’s obviously not the case he is able to get the scoring opportunities on his own by going into the right places at the right time and creating plays as well on top of that I honestly really didn’t know what to expect out of him going into the season obviously we saw what him and the NASP did in preseason You don’t know if that’s truly going to translate. Obviously, it has for this kid. Whatever he’s doing, it’s going really well. But what he is doing is going to the spots where he needs to be, being able to forecheck, laying out the hits. He is tight in hits on the team, leading the team in hits. And what he’s like second or third on the team for goal scoring as well. The sky’s the limit for this kid. And the fact that he’s made the jump straight from what, what league was he playing in the WHL or the OHL straight to the NHL as a twenty year old kid, give the kid the Calder. And I’m upset that I did not place a future bet on him. I know. Right. Carlo is more high on him than I am. So I think Carlo can speak a little bit more on Emma Finney. Well, his, his, his story is incredible. You know, he was a kid who was barely getting ice time to getting fourth line minutes when he was getting ice time to then injuries happening, crawls his way up the lineup and he starts just putting on a show. And it was perfect timing for Detroit because he, you know, he started doing that. Like, Right when the draft was like kind of getting hot and scouts were scouting and all that stuff. So, you know, I think Detroit got lucky with that one because I’m pretty sure I was listening to a podcast today with Shane Doan was on it and he was he was talking about Arizona and how all the players in Arizona were talking about this kid. Emmitt Finney, Emmitt Finney, Emmitt Finney. And, um, you know, Shane don’t remember. He’s like, yeah, I remember, you know, but when you’re in that moment or you’re in that zone of getting your draft notes in order, yeah, you kind of miss some things. And I’m like, yikes, sucks for you. Great for us. But, uh, you know, Emmitt Finney in the NHL, you know, what we’ve seen out of the last nine games. And there’s two things that really impressed me about this kid. Number one, it’s it’s how good and quietly he can get to open ice it’s like that stuff’s not taught and learned when you’re it’s taught but you don’t learn it right away like that takes time you know that takes reps the fact that he can you know just so sneakily and quietly find that open ice and execute to the point where he’s scoring goals and producing is incredible The second thing that really impresses me with Finney is his ability to manage his gas tank. You know, you, you can watch this guy go up and down the ice two, three times. He’s still got juice in those legs by the time that shifts over. Um, you know, Larkin is the only other guy that I think has the legs, uh, to get to the end of a shift or maybe play an extra ten or twenty seconds in fact the one goal that Larkin scored that breakaway goal he scored a couple games ago it was at the end of the shift he was gassed gets that break gets enough juice and he goes pretty confident Finney can do the same thing because he can manage his tank really really well and those are the big two takeaways for me on Emmitt Finney man what a story and what a player so far Yeah, and to me, one of the things I really like about him is just his tenacity. One of the players that I always talk about is like, it better be all gas. You better be putting your heart on the line. There’s no… there’s some guys out there that just kind of they glide right you know one of the reasons i like dan cleary again not a high skill guy but he is high effort you that’s the thing is to talk about he wants high compete guys two-way guys that will really are the high effort because to me that’s that’s the biggest thing it’s like um you think about miracle right you Hey, you may not be the best team out there, but you’re going to be the best condition because you’re putting it all on the line. And that’s what you like to see, guys. Burt was the same way. He was going out there, hair flailing. He made a lot of mistakes, but he was an energy guy in that sense. Yeah. So big, big fan. And by the way, yeah, you were right, Zach. He is second in scoring on the team. So he has four goals, or second in goals. Larkin has six, and then Edmonton has four, and then you have like Appleton has three, and so does Edmonton, which is wild that those are the, like, you’re like, oh, Edmonton just get two goals, no big deal. And then Mason Appleton, like at one point, Mason Appleton, I think one of you guys retweeted me, it was like Mason Appleton was on like a six-y goal pace, like at one point. You’re like, dude, like crazy. Um, but again, fun things to share, you know, like what if, what if Mason Appleton could get sixty plus points in the season? Look at Larkin right now. He’s got thirteen points in nine games. That’s like a hundred and twenty point pace. It’s around there. You’re like, dude, imagine that. I’ve talked about Larkin and Raymond being a hundred point guys. I’ve said it before. I’ve tweeted it multiple times. There is the talent there to be a hundred points. You need that third guy to be able to get to that spot. To me, I’m so excited about that. I don’t know if it’s this year, but it’s You know, you want to take advantage of Larkin while you can in this case. Yeah, for sure. No doubt. So, again, we’ll go on to the last rookie of this is Axel Sidney Pelika. So let’s go, Carlo, because you guys had Zach last time. So what are your thoughts on Axel? Like, I mean, some of the games, what do you see? What do you like? What do you don’t like? And I’ll start on this one, by the way. I think he looks really good. I think he is the third best defenseman on this team. Maybe he’s looking phenomenal. There are some rookie mistakes. I think he’s that I’ve seen, and that’s, it’s a little concerning, especially with his size and some of the ways that he’s, he’s a great puck handler. You know, you can see he’s got a lot of patience, but sometimes the mistakes are there. And I’m Nick, Nick was getting at me on Twitter. He’s I know from the hockey town West podcast. And he was saying, dude, you got a shot. This is rookie mistakes. I’m like, yeah, but like, come on, man. You know? And so I was just getting so frustrated again, but I think, I think it’s because I, you know, you put, I put Sandy on such a pedestal. I’m like, I’m like, this guy’s going to be a star. Everyone’s like, everyone talks about him so highly. And I’m like, And Sider, I guess, is the exception, right? I guess that’s my own fault for comparing a right-handed defenseman to Sider because he just had a phenomenal first year. It was a fifty-some points out in his first year. We just can’t expect that from Sandin. But again, I’m heavily critical, but still does not determine my excitement. I did have him going down. I thought he was going to go down. He did not. And he’s probably going to play this whole year. But he is arguably the third best defenseman. I just want to make sure that he’s… I’m so careful with his development. I kind of, I don’t want him to be down in AHL to kind of develop, but maybe this is, maybe this is the best spot for him. So Carl, let’s start with you. What do you think? Man? I mean, for, for me, ASP belongs on the NHL. There was a couple of videos that came out right before the season started. And this is what really kind of sold me on ASP, but he was, he was mic’d up during training camp and it was him, Shea Booyum and, And Dano, yeah, Nate Danielson. And man, the way that this guy communicates with players on the ice, whether they’re in play or if play’s stopped, I suggest everybody go watch to really get to know Axe. Dude, the way he communicates with people, it was incredible. And I’m like, okay, this guy gets the game. He’s a brainiac. He’s great between the ears. This guy’s going to play well. Now, you know, fast forward to the NHL. For me, he’s been playing well. His shot is ridiculous. I was reading earlier on some NHL stats. He’s got like a ninety seven or a ninety eight mile per hour shot like that. That’s nuts. And it’s probably easily the hardest shot on this team. And he uses it. I think he injured one player that we were a couple of games ago. He took a shot, player blocked it. I can’t remember who it was, but he hobbled off. And there’s been two shots now that he’s had from the point where he knocked the goalie stick out of the goalie’s hands. Um, it’s crazy. Like it’s a great shot. This is the thing with him though. If you expect him to be like this crazy defenseman, like this defensive defenseman, then you’re probably going to struggle to want ASP on your team, on your NHL team, in my opinion. That’s my fault, by the way. That’s totally my fault. No, no, no. The problem is he’s closer to Eric Carlson than he is, you know, like a… Hold on, Brad. I think it’s actually my fault because Carlo is coming from the question I’m about to ask you. Do you believe currently ASP plays better defense than Albert Johansson? I think no. I think Johansson’s better. There’s a reason for that. I mean… Okay, let me ask you this. Who’s a better offensive defenseman, ASP or Albert Johansson? I mean, Axel’s better on offense. I mean, I don’t know. They’re two different roles. I agree, but that’s kind of where I think, like, to me, I think it’s – I like Johansson and Edmondson because it was a guy who was – because Edmondson wants to take the puck up, and then you leave ASP in the back, and you’re like, okay, like, is he capable? And at this point, again, he’s making rookie mistakes, and I’m not saying he’s not going to be capable eventually, but to me, I was like, okay, offensive defenseman, defensive defenseman. Like, you want to, like, pair those up well. Balance. Yeah. Yeah. But then you can’t put like ASP on the third pair, I guess, because then you’re like, OK, who are you going to put on the left? You’re like Gustafson. You’re like, oh, well, that’s two offensive guys. Hammonick. Well, that seems silly. He’s a right handed offensive. I have two right handed offenses there. You know what I mean? So it’s just. I wouldn’t be surprised, man, if you see Edmondson insider and then Ben and ASP. Okay. I don’t hate that at all. I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve seen that. Last game, when they had Hamanick in the lineup, there was some really interesting pairs that were going. What I saw was Edmondson, Sider, and then I saw Ben and ASP, and then I saw Ben… and Hamannik, I want to say. And then I saw, because Edmondson didn’t play, Aljo, and I think it was Hamannik again. And it was weird, dude. There was like four different lines, and Ben was kind of playing with a couple of different people. But I think we might see, and I don’t know if we’re going to see this full time, but I think we might see, like I just said, the Ed and Mo top pair, and then Ben playing with ASP. So because I don’t think Ben really forces the play as much as Edmondson does or doesn’t really look for that pass that ends up kind of being a mistake, which is what Edmondson’s been running into. So I wouldn’t be surprised if we see that. And honestly, I think it could be a good pairing. I’d love to see that for a game or at least for a period to get a good judgment on it. But I think that could go well because we know we already know Ben or sorry, we already know Edmondson Insider could be a pretty solid pairing. Um, because if Edmondson is going to lead that, you know, lead that player, you know, kind of bring it up. Like you mentioned, we know cider can hang. We, right. We know he can hang back and take care of business at home. So we’ll see, we’ll have to see what the, what the coaches kind of line up. I’m really annoyed. They didn’t, they didn’t let us know today in practice what the lineups were on D I think they did that on purpose, but, um, you know, so it’s kind of a wait and see, but for me, like I was saying, dude, ASP is a lock. Um, I think he belongs in the NHL and he’s only going to get better. He’s just such a smart, bright kid, and that’s just a quick testament and shout out to Iserman and his drafting. He’s drafting some really, really high IQ people, and it’s really, really good to see. Well, and I think my issue is I just, I’m so afraid to spoil his development. And so I’m like, I’m just, I’m, I’m terrified that’s going to happen. That’s kind of where I’m, and I’m like, okay, just how can we make sure we, we have this nice boss, like this delicate piece of, you know, treasure. And I just don’t want to, I don’t want to lose it. So go ahead, Zach. I want to hear your thoughts. Yeah. And that’s kind of the weird murky middle that Steve Weissman, I guess you can say kind of created where he, You got some of the fan base saying, hey, we need the kids to develop more. Then you got some of the fan base saying, well, eventually we have to at least get them some NHL games. So this is the best way to do it. Then you got some that say, just throw all the kids onto the team. It’s you’re in that weird spot now. So I agree with Carlo. I think it was the correct time to insert someone like Axel Sandin Palika onto the Detroit Red Wings roster, whether if that’s the second pairing or third pairing. it doesn’t matter. He belongs in the NHL. And I think part of that too, is just, he is a very good player. Not to discredit him when I say it like this, but we had no options. Yeah. Fair. We’re not going to run back hall. Uh, Hammond, Nick being the seventh guy, if you want, I mean, Todd said that he doesn’t want to do the seventh D thing. He doesn’t, he, he, he doesn’t want to do that. He said that what the post game or something, or he mentioned it today. He mentioned today how much he hated it too. So, I mean, I don’t know what they’re going to do in terms of that. Yeah. I liked it. I liked the seven D I think they played really well. Well, you know who liked really playing that, that type of system was Derek Lalone. Yeah. It didn’t work out very well for the team. So Tom McClellan and his system, it doesn’t really fit that. But for whatever reason that day, he felt the message to sitting a player. Unfortunately, that had to be Raz. I think out trumped him having to then go with the seventh defenseman. Yeah, that’s fair. It got them to win. I’m behind. That was nuts, man. And you know what? They’re playing St. Louis again tomorrow. I kind of think they’re going to run it back with seven D as much as Todd may hate it. And this is just my own idea here. I’m not saying this is the truth or the reality we’ll find out tomorrow, but I think they’re going to run it back with seven D. MBN’s now with GR. Where are you sitting? Right. Yeah. So I wouldn’t be surprised if we see it again. And talking about that too, does that help ASP in a sense? Because he was logging a lot of minutes. It’s no secret. He has the worst plus minus on the team in seven, which is fine. You don’t have to put too much stock into plus minus it’s, but it still tells, especially more so for defensemen, I would say, because they’re out on the ice longer. However, however, He is still such a very skilled player, and I will not let that deter me, and it shouldn’t deter anyone else from his skill set and what he brings to this team because it’s not only just his offensive game. I do believe that he plays very well defensively. Obviously, there’s going to be lapses here and there, and that comes with rookies. We see it with veterans all the time. So the question bodes, do you want to see it out of a rookie who can learn from it, which ASP is clearly doing every day, or deal with a vet who’s going to make the mistake and then continue making that mistake because he can’t learn from it because he’s so far gone? yeah as i used to say jeff petrie giveth and jeff petrie taketh you know and again he was he was he was a great role model you know he was a good role model while i was here is he the son of dan petrie he you know it’s crazy he is you know the one that won the world series i can talk about now yeah no way right no way right okay right uh actually his day uh it’s actually jeff petrie twenty twenty seven stanley cup winner with the florida panthers uh you know That’s also like whenever Dale Muggan and Zach Boranski play against each other, they always bring up. Oh, they used to play together at Michigan. Yeah. Yeah. No, I hear you, man. So we’ll take a quick ad break and then we’ll jump into the next step. We’re just talking to the more wings and maybe some upcoming stuff. So actually real quick, because I know Carla, you’re going to have to go soon. Where do you have the Red Wings finishing in the seasons? You want the short winded answer or the long winded answer? I want the preseason answer. And then I want to see if you adjusted it. So preseason, I had them ranked. I believe I had them. I’d have to refer back. But Zach, keep me honest here. I want to say I had them ranked fifth in the Atlantic. We did do an episode on it. Yeah, we would have to revert back. Fifth Wild Card? I think Carlos said Wild Card. Okay, awesome. Me too, by the way. Wild Card. And then the season started. Well, the game one happened. Montreal happened, yep. Yeah, and then the season started. Yep. And I was really impressed with what we were seeing. The hustle, the tenacious play from everybody, the way they dictated pace. And I’m like, okay, they’ve done this for five games against the top teams in the Atlantic. In fact, the teams that we had above them. I had Detroit fifth. They did that against the teams that were fourth, third, and second, and first. I’m like, holy smokes. If they’re doing this right now, this is a great, great sign. So where do I have them now? I still have them wildcard maybe. one above being a lock. I think we need to see, like, I think I’d be more comfortable answering that question, like, twenty games in to give you, like, a definitive answer. Of course, but that’s too easy, though. I know, I know. We’ll touch base back in game twenty, but, you know. Yeah, of course we will. But I’m flirting. I’m flirting. I’m still not wavering from wild card, and I’m starting to flirt above that as possibly… Third in the Atlantic because I really trust Todd McClellan. I really think he knows how to squeeze the juice out of the lemons here and make some really, really good lemonade. But I’ll tell you one thing. These guys, I just talked about this recently on our latest episode. They need to do a really good job of adapting that racehorse mindset is what I’m calling it. And what I mean by that is they need to be very well aware of who’s right behind them and also who’s right next to them to keep them motoring and keep them going. Because the Atlantic Division is an absolute gauntlet and you cannot afford to lose a game, let alone two back-to-back. I mean, that’s four points. There’s other teams that are winning two games in a row above us, ranked above us, that they’re just going to continue to, you know, throw rocks in our face and next thing you know, we don’t see them anymore. So… This team can hang, I think. Again, I trust this coach like crazy, the Todd father in Todd we trust. I think he knows how to keep these guys going. Let’s just see if the players themselves can keep themselves going so we can see some goodness and get HockeyTown back into the postseason. That’s my wrap on that one, brother. Absolutely. Zach, we’re going to hit up your predictions after the break, and so we’ll catch you guys on the other side of the ads, so stay tuned. Hockey season is back, and this season, DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NHL, brings you all the speed, skill, and nonstop action you love. DraftKings Sportsbook delivers the unmatched intensity of the NHL right to your fingertips. From player props to the thrill of live in-game betting, every drop of the puck is your shot to win big. I’ll tell you… I’m wearing the Red Wings jersey. Do you got them going to the Stanley Cup? I don’t, but I think they’re going to be highly competitive this year, and I’m so excited for them to be in this. So again, make sure you go check out any props. Again, if you need this product, it’s what I’d use. So like the land all season with DraftKings, download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use the code THPN. That’s code THPN to turn five bucks into three hundred dollars in bonus bets if your bet wins. In partnership with DraftKings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem? Call one-eight-hundred gambler in New York. Call eight-seven-seven-eight-hope-ny or text hope-ny in Connecticut. Help is available for problem gambling. Call eight-eight-eight-seven eight-eight-eight-seven-eight-nine-seven-seven-seven or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Bootkill Casino and Resort. Pass through of per wager tax may apply in Illinois. Okay, and we are back with Zach. And so I just wanted to say, let’s kind of jump into this. So we talked about your Carlos predictions. So your preseason predictions. What did you have the Red Wings at? During preseason, based on… And we’re talking about preseason. Like, they already had some games in or pre-preseason? Before the NHL season. Let’s go with that. So, like, before, like, game one of NHL versus Montreal Canadiens. Because, like, there’s good vibes. You know, MBN was, like, a goal leader, right? So there’s good vibes, but, you know, it’s preseason. So before game one of the NHL. I would say that my take was, yeah, I hate to copy Harlow, but I would say, yeah, it would be very close. It would be fifth in the Atlantic. You make that wild card, so you make it interesting. But on the flip side to just playing devil’s advocate, it could have easily went the other way around as well. You’re inserting three rookies at that point. I probably would have already known that they were going to be ups and downs. Can this team carry this? don’t want to call it a burden but the vets on this team that have played you know more than just a couple of seasons can they carry this team you know you got players like albert johansson simon evanson uh then inserting players like asp finney mbn that’s a lot to carry that’s five players right that’s almost two lines that’s a whole entire forward line and a defensive pairing right there so Yeah. And now in the season, I’d still say it’s about the same. Okay. Based on… Yeah. And it’s only because… I like how Todd put it where I see this team more being the second half team than they are the first half team in that St. Louis Blues game. Okay. I believe him when he says that, but I don’t think that it’s truly enough to put them over the edge where Carlo’s a little more optimistic than I am. I don’t want to say I’m a pessimist, but I’m a little bit more realistic, I would say. Wow. Carlo, did you hear that? He gets it though, but you know, not trying to be that guy, but I do believe if Steve wants it to be more of a lock than what it’s been in years prior, I think it starts with an upgrade on the defensive end. Hmm. To me. I mean, so we, we, there was rumors about that. Like it was that he, I was, I was trying to do that. He was trying to get, you know, supposedly he put out a seven year deal for eight million dollars per for Ekblad of the Florida Panthers. So he tried to get him because he’s from Windsor. Of course, he decided to sign for eight years at like, like a stupid number, like, like six, eight per year, which is crazy. I mean, good for Florida to be able to keep the band together, but yeah, You know, so I mean, there’s nothing that he did. He didn’t try. You know, we know I was going to try to make good deals and everything, too. I I’m a pretty still stern believer in the ISA plan. I think I’ve always I’ve always mentioned it to you. Like you have to build to the draft. It is crucial. Right. And Red Wings and the last ten years, Red Wings have dropped the most draft spots of any team. And so, I mean, think about like twenty twenty, you know, they had fourth overall, they had Lucas Raymond, but they should have got first. Right. Like Sider, they were I think they’re supposed to go fourth. They had six. Like, you know, again, they probably have the second best player anyways. And I was done well with the players that he’s had. By the way, I was super skeptical of the Casper pick at the time. And that one really worked out really well. This is the reason I’m not a draft scour, I guess so. But again, the same again, I was also skeptical Danielson. He’s looking good. He’s looking good as well, right? Two points back after injury in his first game back in Grand Rapids. I think and I think I mean, again, I know we were talking about ASP to me. I’m like, oh, dude, like I was so skeptical of it. And I agree. It’s my own issue, my own issue that I’m skeptical of him. And I do agree with you guys. He should he deserves to be in the NHL because the problem is, is because there was no one else. Right. And actually, because the rookies made this, I actually had the same like gut feeling that Montreal had for last season. They brought in a bunch of young guys. It spurred the team into action. Right. And so to me originally, like I was recording and I was like, I got the Red Wing six and I was like, You know, in my head, I got sixth. In my gut, fifth. And I was like, I’m going fifth. You know, it’s like, hey, wild card. You know, because, again, retro doesn’t look super strong this year. But to me, I was like, yeah, I think I had to go. I’m going fifth. So I’m with you guys. Wild card, too. Ottawa lost their captain, right? Like Tampa’s a little struggling a little bit. You know, Toronto’s struggling a little bit. There’s points to be had. Again, like you guys talked about, like they won against some really good teams that I had. Certainly a problem. So I agree with you that just fifth looks good. Well, it’s just a really long season too, and a lot of these players, they haven’t played full seasons in the NHL either, right? And it’s you know, I’m at Finney playing on the top line. So Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond, how much better can Lucas Raymond be to last year where he was a point per game player? Dylan Larkin, it’s got somewhat of a monkey office back. If that’s what you want to call it, a burden lift off his shoulders. Finally being a girl, dad, I do think that that adds a lot to his mental state of the game. He can focus clearly on what his sole mission is. And it’s to, uh, help elevate this team as a whole as a captain of this team you know nine years of missing the playoffs i’m not saying that it’s all on him but and that comes to you know me mentioning i would love to see an upgrade somewhere and i love that you brought up you know uh draft picks are valuable and We need them as much as anything because that’s how you become a good team in the NHL now today. There’s too many teams going in free agency. They just get nabbed up by the teams that drafted them. Yep. So moving forward, that’s what you got to do. But in order to get players that you might not have in your system or that might not be ready, unfortunately, the route would be to go ahead and trade. And do that. Currently, I don’t think that there’s anyone in the Detroit revenue system, maybe outside of Mazer, maybe outside of Nate Danielson. I can see potentially making somewhat of an impact on this team. How much? I don’t know. We haven’t seen Nate Danielson play in the NHL. Carter Mazer. A period, a shift, I think it was. It was one minute and two seconds, I think it was. It was like crazy. Yeah, we saw him for a shift. So I don’t know what they’re going to bring. They both look really good so far. Nate Danielson coming back in his first game, two points. Carter Mazur, six points in five games, I believe it is, or five points in four games. Yeah, he’s killing it. Yeah, he is killing it. So yeah, at some point you can call up one of those guys, but… you would have to move on from a forward player on this roster eventually. I don’t believe that Kane is going to the St. Louis Blues game with the team. I think that was already announced, but maybe he is. I’m not sure. I know Carlo mentioned the thirteenth forward thing, but yeah, maybe for a little bit until he’s fully ready. And that gives Tom McLaughlin and Steve Eisenman a little bit more time to make a decision on what direction they want to go in with this team. Is it to keep some of the vets for, obvious reasons like injuries. And then eventually you call up the young kids or is it going to be the young kids next season? You have a lot of roster spots open and the blueprint blueprint of Steve Weissman is already in place. There’s what? Nine of his picks already on this team. Yeah, I believe it was nine. Yeah. So next season, it could be fourteen. Yeah, because Raymond, Elmer, Marco, Finney, Sider, Aljo, Axel, Evanson. So it’s eight, eight. So still, maybe I’m just misreading. But yeah, anyways, you know, I agree. Well, that’s something about next year too. I’m like, dude, because my concern is who makes it next year? Because you have guys like, again, I think you’re going to move on like Sherrod. Like, do you want Sherrod? He’s a great leader, right? Like, but there’s like, well, Linder needs a new contract. Like Kosa needs a contract. Mazer, Doucette, I think is gone. Hravlowski is gone. But how many is Lombardi? Does he make the team next year? Like there is that you could easily, I mean, look at Kosa, well, Linder, Mazer and Lombardi, that’s four rookies next year. You’re like, so you’re going to go with four rookies next year? And that brings up the point of what I made earlier was that there’s kind of three separate pools of Red Wings fans, and there’s a decent chunk of them that have been saying, we need these kids to get some looks so we know what we have. So that way, if we need to trade them, we can and get something out of them. Because that is a… I will give fans some credit that I think it’s a fair critique on Steve Weissman that he hasn’t been the greatest with asset management in terms of his players and then trading him. He has done well on some, but a good chunk of them have not. I mean, Jake Wallman, for instance. We don’t have to go into that, but then you look at Rasmussen. What, two or three seasons removed? A lot of fans were saying he’s the reason why we didn’t make the playoffs because he got injured. Down in Tim Berrigan, played with the team, then played in the AHL for a full season, then finally came back and really didn’t do anything. Maybe this is the season he finally turns it around. Yeah. Comfer, you can talk about the signings too. But a lot of people do forget about Buchelnikov. You got Trey Augustine. There’s a lot of players we haven’t seen yet that haven’t appeared for the Grand Rapids Griffins. So yeah, what you brought up, could we see four rookies on the team next year? Absolutely. We could. We really could. Well, that’s it, right? And like, so… Because to me, I mean, there’s some guys just haven’t worked out to the abilities that we expect them to. Like Kopp has not looked like the player that he was when we signed him. Kompfer has not looked like the player who was when we signed him, right? Ben Sherrod has been asked to do – I think Ben Sherrod has done – I think Beverly Sherratt was not meant to be a top line D. I think he was meant to be a stabilizer in the second and third pair. And I think he’s been asked to be, he’s given more than he was supposed to. And I think that the problem is that we’re asking more of him than he was tasked to do, right? He was tasked to be. a stabilizer right but um so i guess you can argue how you know how good has he been right and everything so um that’s and bringing up enshrat too like you you brought it up too is that a player that you want to bring back i mean you kind of have to pick because if you go into free agency players are probably going to be asking for more term than you want to give And more money than you want to give. When you have Ben Chirot, you could probably give him a one-year deal at four million dollars. Maybe even cheaper than that. It’s no secret the cap’s going up. There is a floor you still have to meet. And even talking in terms of players like Hop and Comfer, there’s a very good chance that both of those guys are still on the team next year because the only player we have to sign really is Patrick Kane and If we want to bring back Patrick Kane, but Simon Edmondson, there might be a couple here and there as well. But Sean McAuliffe, you still have to sign him, but he’s not going to get a big paycheck right away. But still, yeah, you have to have money on the books moving forward in the NHL. So we could see a world where all three of those guys, those veterans, they are still on the Detroit Red Wings next season. that’s kind of where, I mean, like you were talking about, like you feel like you really do need to trade somebody. Right. Um, in my opinion, like, cause you’re looking at the contracts of who you, who you might need to trade. Um, I would have liked, like at the start of the season, I was like, maybe a Nick Robertson on the Toronto Maple Leafs for Bergen, do a one for one swap. Both guys need like a change of pace, like some, some along those lines. Right. Like we’ve seen player for players, um, swap and everything. I I’m okay with something like that. Um, I could see, I’m like, how do you trade? I think, I think he would be good in Vancouver because he’s a BC kid and everything. You know, like. there’s a ton that needs to be done. And again, I just, I’m like, of course, I think the, the problem is with next year, you’re like, who’s, who might not make it out of the four rookies, right? Well, Linda or Amadeus Lombardi are like the, eh, like, are they going to make it type thing? And I would like, I just want Amadeus to, you know, I want him to come up, you know, even same thing with shy William too. I mean, if you think that it’s a little murky for someone like Wallander, it’s definitely murky for William at that consideration. Yeah. Well, I mean, the thing is they both had a pretty decent impact on the power play. I mean, I think Shai Booyah maybe has a higher ceiling given his brother, right? You see how well Zeev is doing with Minnesota. But thankfully, Shai does have another year left. But if you look at like last year, shy had twenty five points and sixty seven games in his first official year in the HL. So, you know, just years under half one per game. That’s what I’m expecting out of a player like a defenseman. Right. If you look at like Willender, he had nineteen point sixty two games. So like shy out beat Willender. So I would give shy a little bit more of an edge. and again well linder again he’s i don’t know if we’re going to sign him but i mean to me like and who are you going to move right i think a raz you could do he has he has no protection right um i think i think you want to keep soda bomb i think bear green could be moved um But I think you’re starting to see some of the, the nice thing about these contracts is, you know, there’s some that you’re kind of upset with, like, and not you in particular, like the fan base, Andrew Kopp, like, Oh, why’d you sign him for so long? Comfort, Sherrod and everything. And so, but some of these guys are starting to fall off. Like, like you spent Sherrod, like it’s last year. If he comes back at like two million dollars, are you mad? Like, no, no, you’re not. It’s a great, it’s a great little spot there. And again, I think you can’t rely on you on UFAs because, I mean, unfortunately, I don’t really trust Eisenman to sign a UFA well enough right now just because some of the signings haven’t been amazing. So there’s guys who are laying on your lap like Kane, but that’s not a gimme every year. Yeah, and the only reason why he did it for the players that we are speaking about is because he – He technically needed to, um, some of these rookies that are on the team now, and some of the ones that made the team even last year, speaking on like Albert Johansson and Simon Edmondson, um, you just truly never know how quick that these players are going to make it to the NHL. I think we’re very fortunate to see them progress at a very fair rate, considering where we draft them at. Um, uh, Moritz Seider, we would have seen him the same year that he was drafted if COVID didn’t happen. Yeah. Maybe more than likely. Same thing with Lucas Raymond, to be completely honest with you. But that’s not the same case. Not every NHL player that gets drafted has the same linear path. Everyone works at their own pace. Jonathan Bergeron took forever. He had quite a number of injuries. But where I’m trying to get at with this is that’s… Yeah, it’s… I don’t know, Brad. So one thing I think I was talking to for who I was talking to this, I think by bringing all the rookies up because some people are like, I was going to get fired if you make playoffs here. I don’t believe that. I think Eisen will leave on his own accord. If if the possibility of it was him being fired, it would be missing the playoffs this year and the following year. which I think this year by bringing so many rookies up, you’re allowing the development and you’re like, hey, you’re bringing rookies up. you might miss the playoffs. And that’s going to give you a little bit of a coverage. And then once you get to the followings, it’s starting to have a hard time having coverage, right? Because now, like you’re talking about, we have eight, nine guys that are Eisenman draft picks. And then the following, now you have, you know, you’re going to have even more of the following. You’re like, okay, this is very much an Eisenman team, right? You know, the only guys that weren’t drafted by Eisenman were Bergeron and weren’t free agents or signings by Eisenman. where Bergeron and Dylan Larkin, those are Holland era draft picks, right? Only ones you really can’t, like, I mean, and Dylan, of course, he’s better than fifth overall pick is where he’s picked. But everything else is, that’s your either Eisenman signings or Eisenman draft picks. Yeah, thank you for that, because you reminded me before I spaced out completely back there. That’s why I was talking about. Yeah, the only reason why he signed like the JT conference and cops on the shots, those long contracts is because he had to due to the situation of the team. I mean, you didn’t know when these prospects were going to be ready. So to that point. uh what you just mentioned now about steve eiserman if they don’t make the playoffs again could he get fired i don’t think that that is the case uh carlos said it best that he gets ten years not ten years of us missing playoffs he since he has been with the team will get ten years um i kind of stand by that as well personally to me only because yeah it Not even half the team yet, unless you want to count the UFAs. Yeah. Every single player on this team has his blueprint, minus I think it’s just Dylan Larkin now and Michael Rasmussen. Oh, you’re right. Yeah, you’re right. Raz, Berrigan, and Dylan Larkin were all Holland picks. So you are correct there. But he did decide to extend Michael Rasmussen. So he wanted to keep him around. And so… But yeah, well, and Bergen’s been kind of on that privy deal. So it’s kind of like, Hey, you know, but when you commit to a guy like Raz for four years, it’s like, you’re really hoping this guy stands out. And, and, and I think problem is, is Raz has, you know, he’s drafted ninth overall should have gone. Right. You know, was not picked at the spot of a ninth overall pick. But, you know, again, he’s had his flashes and everything. So, yeah, I agree with you. I think it’s unfair to assume because Eisenman’s going into his seventh year with the team, you know, brought in twenty twenty nineteen. It’s unfair to assume that, you know, all all the playoffs are his fault, right? Like, oh, it’s a decade outside the playoffs. It’s like, yeah, seven years were Eisman’s fault, but not all, you know, all nine to ten. And I think when I always emphasize that Ken Holland says a full blown rebuild takes eight to ten years and Eisman had had seven going on eight years, right? Like it’s he’s going on his seventh year because he’s brought in twenty nineteen. so you have to consider that like he the official rebuild i’d say because holland didn’t hit on you know zadina didn’t work out chelofsky didn’t work out valeno was trading didn’t work out who’s bought out by seattle right um again raz is not is a third a third line guy but he was drafted ninth overall that should be a top six guy right um you know just there’s certain things that didn’t work i get out again dylan larkin’s hard to beat this team but you know, Eisenman had to move contracts and there’s just a lot to it. And, and so I think again, and I, I always talk about if I was, if I was at a position in the NHL, I would love to be GM because this is the fun stuff. Right. And side note, I do think Eisenman was, was, There’s rumors that Eisenman had to sign with free agents because there was pressure from upper management and Chris Illich. I don’t know. This is not substantiated, but this is something that was mentioned before that there’s been attention to pressure about not making the playoffs in the building, which is why we saw a lot of those signings unhappy. I think it was eleven free agent signings and Traford to Brinkett. I was like, Jesus, why are we doing all this? It seems like a lot, right? Now a lot of those guys are gone, but you know, again, like you were saying, like, you’re not, you don’t know what you have in rookies. You had to start bringing up. And now these guys like, like, unfortunately, like Johansson, you had to bring them up. You had to sign them. You can’t waive them because it’s definitely gonna get claimed. Right. Like, so now we’re in a position again, where some of these guys are just going to graduate. You have four guys that are, that need contracts next year. Um, coast is going to make it right. He’ll be the, he’ll be your backup. Um, automatically. Oh, you don’t think so? Oh, maybe. Yeah. I mean, he’s looking good so far. We’re going to have to wait and see. Do you mean that maybe he’ll be traded? No. I mean, I wouldn’t really go that far because, I mean, what? It’s the same thing in free agency. Who are you really going to get? There’s no one on the market. Are you going to go and trade for another one? I don’t think so. Well, they have Trey. So the thought is that Trey might not sign because he went back to state. So he might try and do the Isaac Howard route where – he might not sign because Kosa’s blocking him, which I think is one of the reasons he stayed in the NCAA is because he’s like, why would I be the backup in an AHL when I can just be the starter in NCAA and run it back? And now with Kosa being, he has to make the NHL because I don’t think Trey Augustine would come to the AHL and play backup. Well, Steve Eisenman kind of touched on it where I think someone asked on what was the decision behind Trey going back to state and I don’t know if this is just the political answer, but it seemed genuine to me when he said we talked it over and he wanted to go back. And he said, okay, you can go back. The Red Wings now have Postava, who looks really good. There’s a potential maybe we see him as the backup. And then it is still Kosa and Trey Augustine in Grand Rapids. I don’t know why Trey Augustine would be upset about going to grand Rapids, whether if he’s the starter or not, and we’re seeing it now in, in the past as well, where they never just have one goalie as the starter. It’s always kind of been like a one, a one B situation. If you really want to call it, that’s usually just a tandem and they switch on and off. So I don’t know why Trey Augustine would be upset about something like that, to be honest. I think he sounds pretty excited about becoming a Detroit Red Wings, to be honest with you and staying within the organization. So I, But going back to the Kosa thing, I don’t think we would trade Kosa either, to be honest. I don’t think it makes sense for the organization, especially since we traded up to actually select him in the draft. So if you were to go ahead and trade him. Are we going to get back what we spent to get him? Then what is the point in trading him? Sorry. By the way, I’m not trying to say trade him. I’m not trying to be clickbaity. Oh, no, for sure. For those that might have that idea, because we’ve seen it out there, some people might want to do that because they might be higher on Trey Augustine and – You know, but it comes down to if you can get to the point where you can have two outstanding goaltenders. I mean, we saw it with the Boston Bruins and Swayman and Allmark for those number of years where they were a great tandem. And it helped out the Boston Bruins so much. So with the cap going up, it’s… I don’t see an issue with it where we could see two to three years from now where it’s Trey Augustine and, and Cosa as your tandem for the Detroit Red Wings. So again, I, I still think that Augustine is, or Cosa does make it next year, which is one of the reasons you have, because Talbot’s old. He’s been, he’s been phenomenal. Yeah. I don’t, I don’t think we bring back Talbot. No. Yeah. And so, and I agree, like, and I agree with Cosa, like, cause you, you traded a first, second, fifth round pick, which by the way, the first round pick at twenty-third overall was Wyatt Johnson. You’re like, Oh, Oh dude. I don’t think that second round pick ended up being anything though. Artem Grishinakoff. And that was the trade that was, he was trading the Tana deal from Calgary to Dallas. So, you know, so you got, you got a decent player out of, they didn’t end up working out. And, you know, I’m signing Toronto anyways, but. Yeah, and Kosta’s always been a project. He was a high, he was a boomer. Again, I’m not a prospect person, but the perception was Kosta was high ceiling. He’s either going to be phenomenal or he’s not going to hit, right? By the way, I was definitely thinking when they were going to go with Wallstead, you know, the Swedish goalie. Right, I did too. Yeah, you know, and everyone’s like, oh my God, they’re going to go Wallstead. And Kosta’s like… what and i was i was blown away so i think that was the that was the edison draft too um so It was a wild draft. So again, I’m, I’m, I, and I, by the way, I met Kosa a couple of years ago and he is so freaking tall, dude. He is. Oh yeah. He’s six, seven. You can’t, you can’t, by the way, he’s, I’m, well, you can’t, you can’t, uh, what was it? You can’t teach size. I think this is the phrase they use. You can’t teach size goalies, you know, like, so, um, so I, I know we’re kind of running out of time. Do you have, do you have time still for a question or two, or you get to head out? Yeah. Question or two. And then just one more thing about Sebastian Kosa. I mean, shout out to him and three starts. Uh, he just had a shutout too. And, uh, his goals against is one point six, seven. And the safe percentage is a nine four three and Sebastian Kosa. Um, I know he’s an easy one to pick on, but we’ve seen it in the past. I mean, he’s going to have a great story when he fully makes it to the NHL, and you look back at it. He started basically with the Toledo Walleye, made his way up to the Grand Rapids Griffins, got to play in the NHL for one game, and had that – what was that stat that he owns now – First ever goalie to come into relief and then winning it in a shot or an OT. Yeah, one of those, yeah. Crazy stat. So now going into this season with an incredible stat line to start like that, where he’s never put up more than a nine, thirteen save percentage between the Toledo Walleye and the Grand Rapids Griffins. So if he can continue at this rate. Yeah, I for sure see him with the Detroit Rebels. That’s the backup next season then. Yeah. Well, and side note, this guy’s played like impactful games. He won with the Edmonton Oil Kings. He won the cup in the WHL, the Memorial Cup. So like he’s been that guy who’s a gamer. He is. By the way, you talked to him. He has so much confidence. And I love that in the goalie, right? So real quick. So this again, I’m asking these questions because these are the things that kind of go across my mind. So again, I’m not trying to be clickbaity. No, you’re good. Go ahead. Just ask me. To me, I have a real concern that the Wings are going to have a hard time keeping Edmondson. And I’ll tell you why. Because you’re looking at… I’m looking at power play. So guys like Edmondson have been… Um, you know, they’ve been one of the best guys on their teams growing up. You know, they play really high in the SHL. And now you bring in on your PP one, you’re, you’re going to be playing cider, your PP two, you’re playing accessing Pelica. Normally you have a defensive power play quarterback and, And to me, when you look at Edmondson, you see the way he wants to carry the puck up. He wants to be part of the action, part of the offense. And so to me, I don’t know many successful teams that are running two-guy defensemen on their power plays. Maybe I haven’t noticed it yet, but to me, it’s usually one guy quarterbacking those types of things. So I’m curious on what your thoughts are on – Simon Evans in his position, again, because he is so good. I don’t want to trade him. I think you’re probably going to bridge him because you’re trying to figure out what his full-blown role is in the team with actually playing PP too. I think, or do you think, and again, my prevailing theory now is Iserman doesn’t want to play him on power plays right now because he’s trying to get him at a lower, potentially get him at a lower number for his side. Again, these are all, my ADHD lets me fricking run through all the scenarios and everything. So this is like, okay, is, is I, is I just been trying to like four D chest this thing? Is he like, you know, cause again, and so that’s kind of, we’re trying to find a position that Evans is going to be in because do we want to sign eight years? Absolutely. But to me, like, I don’t see him. If you sign him eight years, I don’t see him coming under nine and a half, not under nine. I think it’s gonna probably be closer to nine and a half. He’s out of eight years. So I think why a bridge makes more sense to kind of figure out his position in this team. But then you risk paying him a ton later. So what are your thoughts on Simon Evans’ position in the team? Yeah, I mean, he’s definitely a top four defenseman, whether that’s on the first pair or the second pair. You could really anyone could argue that really. I would love for him to be a top paired defenseman. Obviously, I think he could be. He is. You can’t distribute the talent, right? I mean, you can’t you can’t put all of it on the top pair, unfortunately. So, yeah. And unfortunately, I don’t mean to be a downer when I say this, but I don’t think that he is. maybe he won’t ever be the best defensive partner to pair up with Simon or more at cider. And that’s not to discredit what Simon Evanson brings, but you need someone who might be a little bit more mobile. And that’s not to say that Simon Evanson is a mobile, but obviously he’s, uh you mentioned he likes to carry the puck up um but we need someone who’s a little bit more better on the back skate back check type of uh areas because we see that with moritz cider where he he gets burned um but he’s always in those tough situations right so that’s not to discredit moritz cider either so that’s kind of where i come in saying yeah if we can find a defensive partner from our insider who can backtrack and back skate and be a little bit more mobile on the defensive end, like a pure defensive defenseman. Um, I see Simon Evanson as a little bit more two way, someone who could bring a little bit of offense, not too much. We’ve seen it. He can score goals for us, but if we can find someone who plays that solid defensive game, then I think that would be better suited for more insider, but talking about Simon Evanson and what he can get for his contract, um, If you do a bridge, I think it’s still going to be a pretty decent number. And at that point, you might as well should just rip the bandaid and give them the long term deal. The Red Wings will have forty two million dollars in cap space. I believe it is for next season just over that under forty three. So giving him and I mean, we’ve seen some ridiculous contracts being given out. And that’s just the reality of what the NHL is going to be. So it’s going to be anywhere between that eight and nine million dollar range. Term wise, it’ll be seven to eight years. I firmly believe that. I don’t think it’s going to be two or three, not even one or four. I think it’s going to be the long haul. You definitely want to lock up this guy as quickly as possible. And that brings up also what I mentioned earlier is there’s still a floor. You do have to meet it. If we’re talking about that, we don’t want Steve Weissman to go out and free agency and sign long-term deals, then you better start locking up your players that you’ve drafted for long-term deals. And that kind of ties in even to thinking about it, Emmett Finney and ASP. Well, Finney’s got three years, right? Oh, you’re right. You’re going to burn. You’re going to burn. You’re right. I think they already have, right? They’ve been nine games and they already did. So I didn’t think about that. So if they both pan out to, I don’t know what the ceiling is for. I mean, if I need to be honest with you at this point, we put out a poll asking everyone to vote. Majority said forty plus for this season. But what is it after that? Can he improve? We’re going to have to wait and see ASP. Everyone seems to be pretty high on him. You mentioned Eric Carlson earlier. If he becomes Eric Carlson, cha-ching, Brink’s truck backing up multiple of them for ASP. So Those kind of things go into play, I think. So a little bit, maybe, if you want to call it the four-D chess. But going back to Simon Evanson, I don’t think it’s really too much. I don’t think the power play thing really does anything. I don’t think that Simon Evanson really should be on the power play, to be honest with you. I think he’s more suited for the PK. But I actually did like seeing Simon… Not Simon Evanson. I always say… simon evans and why i mean more excited because they’re so gosh darn big and so yeah they’re beautiful they’re beautiful um my red cider and asp we saw that in preseason i actually really liked that i thought that was pretty cool then simon evanson gets down on the pp too there’s and nothing’s ever a lock that’s the good thing right and so if you make a suggestion um you know it you could you could do it for only a shift i made a call out i think in a group chat and i said you know let’s put appleton on the top line and then put raymond on the second line and then put nbn back on the third line because kane was out go back to that do it do it for a shift if it doesn’t work you can always change it back yeah i was like okay yeah yeah so try it out Right. Well, and Raymond is injured right now, right? Like we know he’s, he’s playable, right? But he is, he is walking with a limp of it or, you know, he’s not feeling a hundred percent. So you give a letter in the St. Louis game. He did know it, but he, again, that’s kind of where he didn’t look full Raymond status that, you know, a high caliber. So put him on the second line, you know, instead of playing, you know, he’s playing, you know, maybe like, or something like that, just slowed down a little bit. I’m still playing power play and all this stuff. So it’s, I mean, he’s going to get his minutes and everything, but. Um, yeah, I, I, yeah. So, um, and then I think, well, Casper doesn’t need a, Oh no, Casper has got two years. So we’re good there. So he’s got, uh, this year and next year. So we’re, we don’t have to worry about his contract. So, um, but anyways, um, I think that’s, I mean, we’ve been knocked out pretty much everything that I’ve been thinking. So I’m glad. Thank you for letting me just kind of, dump on you guys and just try to like get all my thoughts out because I’m trying to talk hey it’s it’s not dumping it’s just talking shop yeah exactly what Carlo and I do and we always enjoy bringing people on too because it’s you know it’s very easy to get stuck in your own thoughts and you know hearing from other people it opens up perspectives and it’s always good to hear from other people too and that’s why we’re so engaged online Carlo and I both if you guys are on Twitter that’s where we’re the most engaged so we would love to talk shop with really anyone that’s talking about hockey and Red Wings in general. It’s truly a lot of fun. So thank you so much for the opportunity to come on and talk shop with you about the Detroit Red Wings. Absolutely. So, yeah, I appreciate you coming on. So one more time, podcast is Hockey Time Rundown. Tell everyone where they can find you. Twitter, YouTube. You can find us pretty much anywhere. Where can’t you find us? Um, Twitter. I don’t think we have a blue sky. We don’t have a rumble. So those would be the two spots. Um, you have a truth social is what you’re saying. Uh, no, we don’t have that either. So that’s three. Maybe there’s something else too. We don’t have an only fans either. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Only Vans is just fancy Patreon. That’s all it is. We don’t have a Patreon either. So there’s way more than I thought that we didn’t have. So maybe eventually we will get there. But yeah, you guys can find us anywhere. Just type in at Hockey Town Rundown or Hockey Town R-D for Rundown. Shortened up there. And then for me at Zach Trathen, H-T-R-D for Hockey Town Rundown. I’m pretty much on all social media as well. Uh, but yeah, we’re on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, tech talk, YouTube, uh, Spotify, and then Apple podcasts as well. Did you know, uh, Brad, I don’t know if you knew this, but you could tell the folks that, like to watch and listen to you on their YouTube apps. If they are subscribed to you on your videos, there’s this really cool hype feature and it helps, uh, others get to see your platform that you give to them. I just, I just started seeing that. So I, yeah, I definitely make sure you guys go over there. So I’ve hit hype them up. I have other videos. So Brad’s video, not mine. No, you should go over there. It’s like I said, you know, do both. They got enough hype points, whatever it is. So, But anyways, so again, Zach, I appreciate you coming on. You guys do a great job. Keep the work, keep the engagement. You guys do so many good posts, which I come up on Twitter. And I appreciate you guys coming on, man. Thanks a lot. Thanks, Brad. Appreciate it, guys.

Video Notes:
– Detroit Red Wings preseason predication
– Emmitt Finnie, Axle Sandin-Pellikka, and Michael Brandseg-Nygard; how their seasons are going so far.
– MBN was send to the AHL to the Grand Rapids Griffins
– Lucas Raymond still hurt

Check out my socials for Undrafted Hockey Fan:
Twitter: @undrftdhckeyfan
BlueSky: @undraftedhockeyfan.bsky.social
TikTok: @undraftedhockeyfan
YouTube: Undrafted Hockey Fan

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