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00:00Hamilton, also a stately name itself, here with us now on the West Her Hotline.
00:07Paul, so it's draft weekend.
00:10What is on tap for you?
00:12Are you writing articles this week?
00:14Are you, I mean, do you have plans?
00:17Maybe you're meeting up with your colleagues around the NHL?
00:20I don't know. I'm wondering.
00:20You covered the combine already. We know that.
00:23Well, there won't be too many colleagues around because they'll be doing the same thing I am,
00:26hanging out with their team in their cities.
00:28The only people that are down in the arena are the players, like first-round players, and that's it.
00:33I mean, the teams are still scattered in their own.
00:36I mean, it's not a central location anymore.
00:39Last year was the first year of that.
00:41So I'll be down at the stadium, hanging out with...
00:47Oh, because they use the Bills draft room, right?
00:50Yeah, they use the Bills draft room, so I'll be down there.
00:54Brian Koziel will be live with Brayton Wilson down at the arena.
00:57Joe Calley will be down on the floor with the players.
01:01So we'll be around.
01:03But as far as a central location, that's no more.
01:07And I doubt we'll ever see it again.
01:09I mean, teams like the fact, even though last year was a complete and utter disaster,
01:14it looked like, you know, sixth-grade TV.
01:16Yeah.
01:18They don't care.
01:19They don't have to pack up their stuff and take it to some city.
01:23Owners don't have to pay for 9,000 social media people and their scouts and everybody on the road.
01:30So I would be seriously doubt we're going to go back to the old way.
01:34I'm curious to see what, if anything, they do.
01:37I'm sure they will be working to try to improve the television presentation because the television presentation was, I think,
01:45a laughingstock.
01:46There's one, I think.
01:47Oh, it was.
01:48It absolutely was.
01:48I was being serious.
01:50It was like a high school production.
01:51The only thing that could have been worse was just to have a test screen up there and nothing else.
01:56And I don't even know if that would have been worse.
01:57I'd watch that.
01:58But there's one thing, I think, as I remember it, that made it especially bad that you don't get with
02:04football.
02:05Like, all the football teams aren't at the draft either.
02:07Right.
02:08But you don't have this awkward conference call moment with every pick and the management team that just picked them
02:15in football.
02:16Yeah, and like a 15-second delay in between questions and answers, which made it more awkward.
02:23And they're like, oh, can you hear me?
02:25Right.
02:26It was an utter disaster.
02:27To the point where when it was the Bruins' turn, I was pretty sure they just pretended like their microphones
02:33didn't work.
02:33Because maybe they were watching it and just were like, let's just not.
02:37Smart.
02:38Let's just.
02:38You're breaking up.
02:40That's it.
02:40We're done.
02:41Smart.
02:43Well, it's because, too, the teams are not even really asking questions of the players.
02:47And, you know, many of the players, by the way, might not even speak English that well.
02:51So you've got.
02:52We're all just like, we're very happy to have you.
02:54And we've watched you.
02:55And we're excited to have you.
02:56Which all goes without saying, because they just picked you.
02:58Right.
02:59And, you know, if you just had the Susie Culbers of the world and whoever else working for.
03:04They may have that, too, in hockey.
03:06Sure.
03:06But, you know, that's where, I think that's really where it fell flat last year is the team part.
03:11Yeah, because they had, I think there was, I don't know if it was Leah Hextall.
03:14There was someone that was trying to be sort of the go-between between the person, you know, the player
03:21that was just picked and the management staff that was on the video call.
03:24Right.
03:25And it still just didn't work.
03:26Right.
03:26It just was very sloppy.
03:27I thought I heard they were going back to the old way, but no.
03:30Did you ever hear that?
03:31That they just were going to scrap it?
03:33No.
03:33That's what, of course, media people and everybody wanted.
03:36But the teams themselves, especially owners, I mean, they don't want to pay for all that stuff.
03:40There was, immediately in the aftermath of how sloppy this was as a TV show, there was talk about it,
03:47and then eventually they said, no, we'll, I assume they just said, we'll make the TV show better.
03:54But they don't want to go back to the other way.
03:56Well, whatever it is, Paul, the one thing we can all guarantee, Gary Bettman will say it was great, actually.
04:03No matter what it is, test patterns and whatever, he'll tell you it was great.
04:07And if you don't believe him, you're missing the bigger picture.
04:11And, of course, the playoff format's great.
04:13Everything's great.
04:14Everything's always great.
04:16Well, a lot of it is actually great.
04:17I mean, the league has done a great job.
04:19I think about this sometimes, that we kind of tend to rag on them all the time.
04:24And you've got a league right now that's pretty healthy and watchable.
04:28I am.
04:29And, you know, whether it's interference in the neutral zone or officiating consistency, if that's not the same point, or
04:37the playoff format,
04:38or teams in the Sunbelts, now everybody wants to go play in the Sunbelts.
04:43I agree with you.
04:44I think, you know, for all the, you know, focus that there can be on the shortcomings,
04:50Paul, I've been saying for more than five years, I think the sport looks better.
04:56Like, the gameplay, I think the sport's as fun to watch as it's ever been in my lifetime.
05:02And that hasn't changed with the Sabres.
05:05The Sabres emerging only enhanced that.
05:08I just thought, as far as the quality of the talent, the skill on display, I think the sport's never
05:15looked better.
05:17Yeah, and, I mean, we saw a lot of big comebacks in the playoffs, which were fun to watch.
05:22Look at the way the salary cap's going up, which is tied to revenues.
05:26Right.
05:27And that means revenues are going up at a big pace for the salary cap to be going up the
05:33way it is.
05:34Now, I don't think any of the teams are making oodles of money like they do in the NFL, but
05:41maybe they're coming close.
05:42If you get a couple of rounds into the playoffs, maybe you're coming close to breaking even, at least, whereas
05:47you're almost guaranteed to lose money before.
05:50So, you know, that's an encouraging thing, too.
05:55Well, speaking of the health of the league, Paul, what was your reaction?
05:58We'll get to the Sabres and everything, but the Brady-Kachuk trade was jarring when we saw it yesterday afternoon
06:07or early evening, whenever it was.
06:09Your reaction to what Ottawa was forced to do?
06:13Yeah, I mean, and he basically pounded the table during the regular season, how he's staying in Ottawa, and, you
06:20know, he was belligerent about it.
06:23And that's why when I hear the blues telling media people, well, now we're not going to trade Thomas.
06:30Yeah, right.
06:31Whatever.
06:32Tell me about it.
06:34Maybe you're not.
06:35Right.
06:35But don't tell me you're absolutely not, because you might be.
06:39And I just don't believe that stuff anymore.
06:42It's too many times, it's just smokescreen, and next thing you know, the player's gone or wants to be traded.
06:51And more players now, I mean, it's a different era now.
06:55Yeah.
06:55More players are using their right to get themselves to a team that they want to get themselves to.
07:01And they do that by telling the teams they're on that we aren't re-signing.
07:05We are going to unrestricted free agency.
07:10And tell the other teams we're going to unrestricted free agency, too, that you're going to try to trade us
07:15to, because that'll make it even more interesting for you to try to trade me.
07:20But, yeah, it's – and then it's like, well, in Kachuk's case, it was like he put out four teams.
07:27But come on.
07:29Yeah.
07:29Right.
07:30Maybe you did, but you were only going to one.
07:33Right.
07:33You were doing that kind of to protect everybody or whatever, but you were only going to one.
07:39This was to orchestrate a trade to the Florida Panthers.
07:44And, you know, what happens if Ottawa decides, oh, yeah, you're not going to tell us what to do, and
07:51takes it right up to free agency?
07:53Well, then he goes, well, now I'll go to the Florida Panthers.
07:57Yeah, I need to wait two years, but now I'll go to the Florida Panthers.
08:00It's like, I'm going to the Florida Panthers at some point.
08:02It's up to you how you want me to get there.
08:04And meanwhile, if you play hardball there, you're Ottawa, and somehow or another it comes out that maybe he was
08:13almost traded in June of 26, but he wasn't.
08:18And the questions about whether he wants to be there or not, he's the captain.
08:21You know, like, it would be untenable.
08:24Like, once the organization knows he doesn't want to be there, yes, you are within your rights to not do
08:31anything about that, just like Dylan Larkin in Detroit.
08:34You can dig in and say, yeah, no, sorry, we're not going to move you, but then you've got a
08:41player there who's in a leadership position that the whole team knows wants out.
08:50Nobody wants to be there.
08:51You know, the guys on the team, the other guys on the team don't want to be there with him
08:54now because they know he's not committed.
08:58So, it's a terrible situation, but when you've got a gun to your head, you've got to do what the
09:03person with the gun wants, usually.
09:05Like, it's very hard unless you've got someone barging through the door with another gun.
09:09And even then.
09:10Unfortunately, I don't even know if it was until, you know, it wasn't necessarily Team USA winning the Olympics.
09:16It was the political stuff, and the people in Canada were booing him mercifully.
09:21Even in Ottawa, he got booed somewhat, but he would go to other Canadian cities, and they'd be all over
09:26him for political reasons.
09:28And he didn't enjoy that.
09:31He didn't like that.
09:32And I'm sure that wasn't going to change anytime soon.
09:36So, that was, I think, one of the biggest reasons.
09:39Maybe he changed his mind.
09:40Maybe he was planning on doing this the whole time and was just, you know, lying when he was sitting
09:45there talking about it.
09:46I don't know.
09:47Well, the GM said he sensed a difference in him, in Kachuk, when he came back from the Olympics.
09:53Now, he could just be saying that, you know, to cover himself to some extent, like, to, you know, to
09:59make the point, look, I had no choice.
10:02You criticize me all you want, but I had to do this.
10:05But it's believable to me that that would have been the case, because that's when all that treatment would have
10:11gotten ratcheted up even more so, and here you are.
10:15It probably started with the Four Nations, but, you know, at least the U.S. didn't win the Four Nations.
10:20Canada did.
10:21So, nobody was that mad at the American players in Canada.
10:25Yeah, no, it's so, you know, but I just think you're seeing it more and more.
10:31It's just like, okay, you know, Bo Byram, now he was different.
10:35He only has one year left, but it seems like he basically has told the Sabres, you know, I'm not
10:41re-signing, and basically has told them, we're going to free agency.
10:45That's what we, but, I mean, the Sabres, I don't think there's any big shock to them.
10:50I mean, who's his agent?
10:51It's Darren Ferris.
10:52That's what Ferris does.
10:53He's got a rep for doing that, yeah.
10:54Sure he does.
10:55So, I mean, and Bo Byram wants to be a number one defenseman somewhere, and that is the role he
11:03wants on a team.
11:04He understands that it's not going to happen with Rasmus Dahlin here.
11:07He understands it wasn't going to happen in Colorado with Makar there.
11:11So, you know, that's what he wants to do.
11:14So, more and more players are now, more and more players are just, all right, I'll just re-sign with
11:20my team or whatever.
11:22Who knows what we're going to get in free agency.
11:24But now they are using unrestricted free agency to kind of put clubs over a barrel and say, this is
11:31what we're going to be doing, and your move.
11:34And hockey players traditionally have sort of, whether it's right or not, I think the cliche is like they don't
11:41want to put themselves out there that way.
11:43They don't want to invite that kind of scrutiny and be perceived as that selfish.
11:47But once a few guys do it, Reinhardt did it, Eichel did it, they've won cups, O'Reilly did it.
11:56I mean, sorry, I'm focusing on sabers, but I mean, the shoe fits here.
12:00Guys force their way out one way or another.
12:03I mean, O'Reilly didn't have a temper tantrum, but he said he lost his love of the sport, which
12:07might as well be a get-me-out-of-here call if there ever is one.
12:11And sure, maybe Jack Eichel gets booed when he's in Buffalo, but the other 363 days of the year, life
12:20is probably pretty good in Las Vegas for Jack Eichel.
12:23And I'll bet there's no regret that, sure, he poisoned the well in one city to some extent, and you
12:31can live with that.
12:32But really, it's like everyone gets over it, and your life will be better if you end up where you
12:37want.
12:38Yeah, I mean, he's won a Stanley Cup, he's been to the Stanley Cup finals, so he gets booed when
12:43he's in Buffalo.
12:44Oh, well.
12:46Right.
12:47Nowhere else.
12:48So, all I'm saying is more guys may feel more good.
12:52The more it happens, the more prevalent it becomes, the more prevalent it will continue to be, right?
12:57Because more and more examples of guys that did it, and guess what?
13:00Life goes on, and you're happy, you know, whatever.
13:03Family, whatever situation you're trying to fulfill here by moving to this other place, you know, if you think it's
13:11going to improve your life, maybe you're right.
13:13And the fans that you leave behind will, maybe they won't get over it, but you don't have to really
13:18care.
13:19It's not that big a deal.
13:21Exactly.
13:22No, you don't have to care.
13:23I mean, how many times is Vegas and Buffalo once a year?
13:27If you're Jack Eichel, you'll live.
13:2984 games, they're not adding that?
13:31Is that going to be more than one?
13:32Do we know what they're doing with the extra?
13:34What are the extra two games?
13:35Do you guys know?
13:35I don't.
13:36I haven't thought to look.
13:38Not just commissioners.
13:39This is my fantasy idea, where if I were commissioner of a league, I would pick the teams.
13:43Well, in the division, some teams you're playing four times, some teams you're playing three.
13:47All right, we're changing that then.
13:48So, you could make it that you're playing two more division teams four times instead of three.
13:55That's just an idea.
13:56I don't know if that's what they're doing.
13:57That would be it.
13:58They're not going to add to the West.
14:00They're still going to be home and away with the other guys.
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