00:00And so there is a fantastic piece you've got to read in The Athletic
00:03on the return of Alex Ovechkin.
00:05It's really good.
00:06It says, Ovi and the Capitals decided to give it another run.
00:09It goes into details on some of the texts and phone calls
00:12between Chris Patrick and Brian McClellan, Alex Ovechkin,
00:16and honestly a very candid Chris Patrick talking about even being nervous
00:20about a conversation with Ovi, thinking he might want a ton of money
00:23that maybe they'd be up against the cap.
00:25And just really, really good insight into how this offseason came together
00:29and Barry Sferluga wrote the piece and did the reporting
00:31and he joins us now on the Rude Guest Hotline.
00:34Barry, I guess I just want to start with, I feel like the Caps hit a home run here.
00:38We'll see how it works out.
00:39You've got to go play the games.
00:41And there's a lot of things that could happen fortuitously and otherwise for them.
00:45But as someone who goes to a lot of games and cares about this team,
00:49you can't ask for much more out of the first few weeks of their offseason.
00:54No, and I think I had thought, and I think you thought this too, Grant,
00:58that they were going about it backwards or that, I guess I would say that maybe Ovi was making them
01:06go about it backwards
01:07by not telling them what his intentions were before the draft
01:12and when they were starting to do these trades and before free agency when they made a couple more moves.
01:19And as it turns out, I actually think they got the order right and they got it right in a
01:25way that makes Ovi look pretty good
01:28because Chris Patrick and Brian McClellan could go about and say, here is our checklist.
01:34They definitely wanted to add strength to the top six forwards.
01:38They thought they might be able to get one of Jordan Kairou or Alex Tuck.
01:45They got both of them.
01:47And they kind of put Ovi on the back burner and was like, you know what?
01:52We will have a roster that we can fit in the all-time greatest goal scorer in history if he
01:59wants to play,
02:00but we don't have to reserve so much money and so much playing time that we're prevented from making moves
02:10in building that roster.
02:13So I was really confused by the process maybe six weeks ago.
02:18Like, why isn't he telling them or why aren't they pressing him for an answer?
02:23And as Chris Patrick told me, you know, he just had two rosters, two lineups on his board, one with
02:31Ovi and one without,
02:32and it was going to work out either way.
02:35All that happens is somebody, some depth piece gets moved deeper if Ovechkin comes back and they end up,
02:42if you look at that lineup amongst, you know, the top 12 forwards, there's a lot of depth and a
02:48lot of versatility,
02:49not a 50 goal scorer, but a lot of guys who could get 30 and just balance and size and
02:55speed
02:56and a little bit of youth coming up with Ilya Protas and Ryan Leonard into his second full season.
03:03I mean, I told those guys, Chris Patrick and McClellan in reporting this out,
03:07like, if I'm thinking a lot about the Capitals in July, then they're doing some pretty interesting stuff.
03:13And I've thought a lot about the Capitals this July.
03:16Yeah, that's well put.
03:17Barry, reading this piece, I couldn't help but remind that, I don't know if you were struck by this at
03:21all,
03:21I know you were so close to this, the Harper leaving D.C. situation.
03:25That's all I could think about while reading this.
03:27Obviously, it's different enough.
03:28This one worked out.
03:29Happy ending.
03:29I think everybody's pleased.
03:31But remember, Harper got that offer.
03:33He and Boris are traipsing it around, showing everybody the, what does it do for my family,
03:37all that kind of stuff for months.
03:39Nobody's signing.
03:40And then he comes back and the team's like, yeah, we already moved on, dude.
03:43We got Patrick Corbin and the money's not there that we offered you before.
03:46And I was reminded of that with the, we can't wait anymore part of this for the Capitals.
03:52And I know there was two tracks, but we got to make the team better with or without you
03:56as long as you're taking your time.
03:57And I kind of couldn't help but be struck by the parallels.
04:00One, did that occur to you and be just kind of your thoughts?
04:02It didn't, it didn't occur to me, Danny.
04:04I understand what you're saying with Bryce.
04:06I think it's a little bit different because Bryce was determining at that time where he
04:12was going to leave the rest of his legacy.
04:14And that was not over a single year or as we've joked about, maybe two, but it was over
04:19as he signed for 13 years going down the road.
04:23So it was really like, am I going to be known as a Washington national or am I going to
04:29be
04:29known as something else?
04:31Also, Vetchkin is going to be a Washington capital.
04:33And this was really about a specific season and where he fit into a specific lineup one
04:40time.
04:40So I get, I totally get the comparisons and they are really, really, you know, huge figures
04:47in, in, in their sport.
04:49I just think that the way that this makes Ovi look good and the caps look good was like,
04:56we'll make it work either way.
04:58We're going to take big swings either way.
05:00And Ovi, it was really never about the money.
05:04And I know that Chris Patrick, as Grant referenced, was nervous about calling Alex that day at 645
05:12AM on July 2nd, as he was over in Turkey and thinking, well, geez, we just agreed to pay Alex
05:21Tuck $10.5 million a year.
05:24Is Ovi going to be happy with what amounts to $9 million, his same number as he previously made?
05:33Or is he going to say like, no, I'm Alex Ovechkin.
05:36I need to make the most on the team.
05:38Um, Ovi comes out looking good because he was like, look, the numbers are respectful.
05:43You can kick some of the signing bonus to next year.
05:45That's fine.
05:46As he said, it took 10 minutes to get done.
05:49Um, I think both sides come out looking, looking pretty good, both the caps plan and marching
05:54forward and being versatile enough to do it either way.
05:57And Ovi sitting back and saying, look, if I'm going to do this again at age 41, I need
06:04it to be with a roster around me that is positioned for success as a team and helps me help
06:10them
06:11play better hockey.
06:12There's for Luga of the athletic and check out the piece.
06:16I like the vulnerability of the honesty that was shown McClellan saying free agency was thin.
06:21We were a little worried about that.
06:22I mean, Patrick talking about after making one or both of the trades that they made, and
06:28he was waiting to see if Ovi was going to text him an emoji or something.
06:31But what I do find interesting is it seems like they kind of thought, like I thought
06:35all along, that he was going to come back.
06:38Do we really think Ovi was ever legitimately thinking about not playing?
06:42His end of season press conference, to me, was pretty obvious.
06:46He said he hoped he played, that his family wanted him to play.
06:50There was the descending the penguins off of the ice like he did.
06:54It just seems like, and maybe I'm working back from result, but there was never that much
07:00of an indication, other than just him saying he didn't know if he was going to play, there
07:04were no actions that made you think he actually wasn't, right?
07:07No, and I think everybody read into, and rightfully read into, him waving off the penguins at the
07:12last home game.
07:13He wasn't going to shake their hands in some sort of retirement ceremony that so often
07:18happens in the NHL.
07:19I do think there was some genuine indecision, and if Alex is saying that his kids were saying,
07:25are you going to play?
07:26Are you going to play?
07:27Are you going to play?
07:27Like, why would he hold it back from them?
07:29But I think it was indecision based on what kind of team am I going to have around me?
07:36We missed the playoffs.
07:37I don't find that fun, and I don't find it a good way to go out and kind of leave
07:44my legacy
07:44as like, oh, yeah, they missed the playoffs the last year he played.
07:47I think that really matters to him.
07:50So maybe it was just a challenge to Patrick and McClellan to say, and I know they talked
07:56about this before he left town, like, here's some of the moves that we think we can make.
08:01We think we can build a roster that is quickly competitive again.
08:04We're going to get Pierre-Luc Dubois back hopefully for 84 games or some version of 70-something
08:10games rather than 30-something games, and that's a huge piece, obviously, of their offense.
08:18So I think it was kind of a challenge of Ovi saying, I'm not going to say I'm going to
08:21play because I don't want to come back to a team that is rebuilding.
08:26I want one that is built.
08:27Those guys went out and built a team.
08:29And Brian McClellan told me very clearly, and I think he said this in the press conference,
08:34it's like, it is fun for Ovi to come to the rink at whatever age if he shows up that
08:41day
08:41thinking, we've got a really good chance to win a hockey game tonight.
08:45We're going to win a hockey game tonight.
08:47I've been in those caps rooms over the years where it's felt like that, and that was as
08:51recently as two years ago when they had the best record in the East in the regular season.
08:56That's what Ovi wants.
08:58It's not fun for him to come and play a season from behind and be out of the playoff picture
09:04trying to pick up points, scrap points together, and make it in on the last night of the season
09:10like they did a couple of years ago in Philadelphia.
09:13He wants a good team around him that's kind of in the driver's seat from the start, pushing
09:17Carolina for that top spot in the Metro, and the Caps think they delivered that kind of roster.
09:23What's his role going to be, Barry?
09:26You know, that one's really interesting, and I know they've had a lot of discussions about
09:31that.
09:32Spencer Carberry told me that everybody wants him to say, oh, did you tell him you're going
09:38to play X number of minutes, and that number of minutes is going to be 14, and you're only
09:43going to play one minute on the power play?
09:45And he's like, look, I'm not going there.
09:46This is all fluid.
09:48It's funny.
09:48I'm sitting here looking at what the lines could be this fall.
09:52We all know the lines change over a course of a season.
09:55They try to stick with hot combinations and move off cold ones, all that kind of stuff.
10:01I think we have to be prepared for kind of a fluid Ovechkin situation where Carberry's
10:09going to him when he's hot, when he's looking spry, you know, maybe less on back-to-backs.
10:15He is a guy who just played 82 games at age 40, so durability has never really been a question
10:20with him.
10:21I do wonder, is there a world where he's not skating two minutes on the power play, therefore
10:29his minutes go down, just because you cut that time in half?
10:32So that's, you know, on an average night, maybe that's three minutes a night less.
10:37But I also think that matchup-wise, now because they have such balance and depth, Carberry's
10:45not going to have to chase.
10:47In the past, I think he felt like he had two lines he had to stay away from in certain
10:51defensive
10:52matchups, and now maybe that's reduced to just one, maybe only Ovechkin's line, that
10:57he doesn't start in the defensive zone or he doesn't play against another top line.
11:02And that gives him more freedom, and Ovechkin's minutes can be reduced, not dramatically, but
11:08kind of gradually.
11:10So you're not, you just don't want him to be a player you're hiding.
11:14And I think given the structure around him, they're not going to have to hide him.
11:16Here's Ferluga over at Nats Park today, talking Caps with us.
11:21Check out the piece.
11:22It's the behind-the-scenes on the Ove deal coming together, and how the Caps went about
11:26planning without really knowing what he was thinking until the last week.
11:31Barry, thank you.
11:32We appreciate it.
11:33Thanks, guys.
11:34Appreciate you having me.
11:35Thank you, Barry.
11:35There's Barry Ferluga of The Athletic on Grant and Danny.
11:38We have not yet gotten into Brandon Ayuk's posts today, which don't make a lot of sense,
11:44because he's suggesting he won't do the thing he needs to do to get back into the league.
11:51That's next on the...
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