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The Chris Johnston Show.

What is going on? Here's Chris with your host, Julian McKenzie. Part of the game.

Julian, this morning, I'm walking home. Went for a little run, was having to cool down, and I see one of my neighbors out walking with his young daughter. He said, CJ, great pod this week, but it was a day too early.

Right in the gut.

And I think he was right because we wake up from our summer slumber, we just pick a random date and time and record, and then the whole hockey world woke up right after us. And so all of our goofiness, our hot dog talks, our Taylor Swift concert reviews, our whatever.

We're talking about Leon Dreisidal.

Yeah, we did get into some hockey. All that was immediately less relevant given everything that happened. So we have to be back, I think, for a second show this week.

I just want to say, though, let it be known. You can scroll up in the group chat for this. I wanted a show on Tuesday. You did? I wanted the show to be on Tuesday.

You did.

And well, I just don't know everything else is going to happen, but maybe we would have been on top of a few things if we did.

Well, let's take our blessings where we find them. I'm actually excited because there's lots to talk about now. Lots of things have actually happened between whatever, August 13th and 15th.

We can even have a leafs corner today.

We definitely can. And I got to say, because I was down on Wednesday at the press conference where the Lefs formerly handed over the sea from John Tavares to Austin Matthews. I saw producer nick there. That was a nice highlight. But even just being around some of my media colleagues that I haven't seen for a couple of months now, team people that I know. There's a lot of folks out for that event. It was actually, as much as we do enjoy our summers and we hang up the gone fish and sign, it was nice to be back in the mix, at least for one day. Now, granted, I do plan on being pretty quiet the next two weeks, NHL News willing. But it was a cool event. It felt like a soft restart to our real lives our work lives.

Yeah. It's not quite back to school. It's the orientation session a couple of weeks before school starts.

Yeah. You know you're not getting any homework that night. You're not going to be... There's no test to fill out, but you You're going to go half through the motions, and then you know you're going to be able to chill again on the other side of it. So it was a good event, and it was nice to get up and go and follow the story for the athletic. Two this week, two pods. I did two TV hits for TSN. It is like orientation week. You're already back at work.

You're already back at work. This is supposed to be preseason, and we'll get into Austin Matthews. This is supposed to be preseason, but this is as close to a regular show as we can get in August. So let's get right into it. Can you tell us what you saw from the press conference? Your thoughts on Austin Matthews getting the C from John Taveras. John Taveras there to hand off the C to ensure a smooth transition of power. I would love to know your thoughts on how all of that went down?

Well, I actually think they pulled it off pretty well, is my view. I mean, look, there's no way around the fact it's a little bit awkward or it's certainly unusual. It's not unprecedented that a team changes captancy with a teammate that does remain with the team. But certainly, I don't recall seeing one throw a big press event. You had John Tavares, his wife, Aaron, his three kids, his parents there, obviously, Austin Matthews' former leaf captains, Wendell Clarke and Doug Gilmore, ownership. It was an event. Having it that play that way is what's unusual. I think John Tavares, for me, really handled himself with a lot of grace in that situation because there's no way to spin this, and I'm not going to try that he wanted this to happen. I think that clearly he's embraced the idea that it could be good for the organization, that it's what management wants, and that he still wants to be a maple leaf. I think under those circumstances, after this was brought to him, he's done exactly what you wanted to do. I mean, he went so far as calling it an awesome day yesterday. He was saying, Me and Austin are two of 26 players that have ever worn the seat for the Leifs because Matthews is just the 26th captain in Maple Leifs history.

I don't have any... I think everyone could look at Austin Matthews and say, Yeah, it makes sense that he would be the Maple Leifs captain. But it's just the machinations, what had to happen for it to be getting rolled out on August 14th with John Tavares entering the final year of his contract. That is a little bit unusual. But I think under the circumstances, it went as well as you could hope. I thought the event was great. Matthews came across to me as being legitimately psyched about the honor. It didn't feel like going through the motions. There was some There's a real emotion there. I don't know exactly how they got. I'm sure there's a lot of internal debate about how do we do this, but I think they did it pretty well. I think it's smart to do it in the middle of August because now, a month from now, when training camp opens, it's just done. It's not a question. It's not a storyline. I mean, certainly maybe there'll be questions about what's the leaves look like under Matthews as captain stuff, but it'll be less about how they got there and more about the Why would they do this now with John DeVaris still under contract and him being a free agent next summer when they could have waited until next summer, say they don't want John DeVaris back, and then they give Austin Matthews the seat?

I think the contractual status didn't come into it as much. I mean, look it. And this isn't not laying any blame solely on John DeVaris, but this team has not had the amount of success in the playoff that it's wanted. With all these players, the same guys that are still in uniform, it appears to start next season, the main guys, they've only won the one playoff series together. And so I think that in a world where they were looking for change this summer, I know there's a lot of people demurring about, well, how much change is there? I mean, if you're just changing a seat and you're changing a coach, and to be fair, they changed assistant coaches, too. The Blue Line, they've made some significant additions there. Let some players walk as well. To me, I think it was part of the larger theme of having to create a different dynamic around the team. The other part is that they just felt that Austin Matthews was ready for it, that Brad true living now has been on the job for a little more than a year. Last year was his first full season to get a look at how things work behind the scenes, not as just an onlooker from afar.

What he saw was a player in Matthews who obviously on the ice is extremely I think off the ice has a gravitational force around the team. Really, I think it's about transitioning into the next phase. If you're going to do it eventually, once you get that in your mind, you might as well just do it. I don't think you have to galaxy brain it. If you think that a change could be helpful, what I found interesting is there's no way tangibly for us to evaluate this. We don't know what's going to happen. We don't know, does this mean anything for Everything. The stuff that a captain does, what we see in our jobs, Julian, obviously, is just the media side. And that is a big part of the captain's job is speaking regularly, often speaking on behalf of the team, maybe in tough moments, sometimes in good moments, but being a face and voice of the larger group. But the job is things like planning off days and talking to the coaching staff about, okay, maybe the guys are a little tired right now. Maybe he's off on practice today. It's a lot of maybe picking up an An individual behind the scenes who's going through a tough time.

It can be things. To just bore off John Taveras' experience, he took a lot of the young leaves into his house. Matthew Nies lived with him when he came to Toronto. Fraser Minton did last year at the start of the season when he was in Toronto for a little bit. There's all sorts of things that you and I, it's really hard to gage what that impact will be. But what I thought it was interesting yesterday is there was a few mentions where, both from Tavares and Brad Treleving, where they feel that this will give Austin Matthews a to actually grow. Maybe he was held back in some way just because there might have been times he wanted to speak up, say. I don't know of any instances like this, but I think it's plausible, and he felt like, Maybe it's not my place. Well, when you're the captain, it is your place. It doesn't give you immunity to just be a jerk, of course. But I think that you have the one, for lack of a better term. You're leaned on to say things behind the scenes, maybe after a tough period, when they get into a tough game, when they get to the playoffs again, when they're having a meeting the night before a big game.

I mean, all these types of things are where captains, I think, tend to step up. And so why now? I think They just felt it was time. And from what I've been able to understand, the first conversation this happened right after the season with John Tavares in his exit meeting, Brad Treliving basically said, Look, we're thinking we're probably going to do this. It wasn't I don't think it was decreed that it was going to happen, but once you have that conversation, it's going to happen. Then over a number of weeks and months, everyone got more comfortable with the idea. I really have to say that John Tavares handled it pretty well. He was the one who phoned Austin Matthews to officially say it was happening. He phoned other teammates like Mitch Marner and Morgan Reilly to let them know, which when you think about it, imagine this was happening at your workplace, and we don't have a captain. Steve Dangle is our captain, I suppose. But you don't have this exact scenario played in a typical workplace. But you could imagine if this happened between two people you like, two friends, two colleagues, you're like, Oh, this could be a little awkward.

But when the one that's on the bad end of it, call it, is preemptively reaching out and saying, Hey, this is what's happening. This is why it's good for the team. I'm behind this. I just think in a tough moment, personally, John Taveras looked around and made sure everyone around him was taken care of and was comfortable. Really, that's what you expect out of a leader. It might be, and I don't say this with any malice, but the most memorable thing that happened during his captains' team might be the way he hands it off, especially if something good comes next for this group, and maybe this is part of changes that help get the leaves to break through or to find a little more success in the postseason. We might look back on it and say, his best move is captain. And I say this knowing he scored the overtime winning goal in the only series they won as a group so far. It might be just the way that he handled a difficult situation. I know the leaves appreciated. I personally am of the belief this might create a lane where he can stay on with the team.

Really? I'm not saying that wasn't going to happen, but in a way, he's Rather than him being seen as a roadblock now, he has stepped out of the way. I think he's shown that he can maybe be a contributor in other ways. And obviously, his next contract isn't going to come with an $11 million annual price tag. So he's going to be cheaper and more in with where his production is today than when he signed in 2018. I think that this at least creates that path where maybe he stays. I don't know if the organization ultimately wants that, but certainly that's what John Taveras wants and his family wants. And I think that's why he has handled this so well. That and really, he's always been a class act ever since I've been around him, which is going back a lot of years now.

To your point, I mean, I get that in the locker room, the C can only mean so much, and the veterans that are there will speak on certain things. And look, Austin Matthews is the franchise player. I'm sure he has enough sway in that room. But when you think of the day-to-day responsibilities of talking to the media and being the face of when the team goes well or the team goes bad, we all want to go to that person first to figure out what's going on with this team, to not have those responsibilities anymore. I could understand why John DeVaris would see August 14th as a good day because a whole weight has been lifted off of his shoulders. He's definitely We're still going to be a part of the leadership core, but we're not... I mean, you, specifically being in Toronto, you might not necessarily go to John DeVaris first to be like, Why is this team not playing well? Or vice versa, if it ever comes to that. I think of Austin Matthews in this situation now where him being so front facing as the franchise player, so much more pressure gets added with that C on his chest.

Right. And look at it this way. I mean, look, it appears that the core players are going to be back in Toronto, right? And so those Group of players, and obviously collectively with management, the coaching staff, which is new, but they're looking for a way to have a different outcome, right? They're looking to write a different story. They're going to be looking for a different way to do things, if that makes sense, because what they've done to this point hasn't led them where they wanted to go. I think there can be positives. Again, a captain, so much of what a captain does on any team, we just never get a sense. We basically see the games, we get to see practice, and then we talk to the players in a very controlled environment for the after practice. But there's a lot else that goes into their day-to-day lives, the way they travel, the decisions about days off, maybe team events. It sounds crazy that I'm bringing that up. I'm not saying the reason Leifs haven't advanced far in the playoffs is because the team events vibe was off. But what I am saying is that I think there is ways that a change like this can maybe create a different feeling around the group, or there might be some new ideas thrown in.

Look, ultimately, I don't believe it's going to be... I mean, first of all, I think it's earned. I think Austin Matthews, by no stretch, am I questioning his ability to perform the role? But at the same time, I don't think we're going to look back as the key move that knocked down some walls for the Leifs. The key moves are the ones they hope they made on July first when they sign Chris Tanev, Oliver Ekman-Larson. Key moves they hope will be maybe growth from younger players, whether it's an Easton Cowen jumping in the lineup, or maybe Matthew Nye takes a step this year. It's not just going to be one thing, but I can see that this will be a change. And I really do think you're right. It's a bit of a load off because it was going to become part of maybe... I don't know if it was the elephant in the room yet. It was certainly discussed around the team a little bit in the media and fan base and the like. But certainly by the end of next season, I think it would have been a major talking point. And you almost get ahead of it, rip the bandaid off.

Look, no one When you look at Sydney Crosby, I mean, Connor McDavid, the players of Matthews' Ilk or the conversation that he holds, the other guys that have won MVPs, most of them, I guess, other than Nathan McKinnon in recent years, most of them wear the C for their organizations.

Yeah, but they're still franchise players. They still obviously have a high level of responsibility. But for Austin Matthews, especially this year, a lot of pressure going to be thrown on him. And we've talked about in the offseason, this team needs to make some changes at the heart to get to that next level. I still don't think they've made some of those sufficient changes. We'll see how it goes for this year. But I think if this leaves If the team doesn't get it done again, then it's just more the bullseye for Austin Matthews just gets larger with this team. I think he deserves it, but it's just with everything going on with this team, that target gets so much larger for Austin Matthews, especially if he doesn't have himself a good performance in the playoffs.

100 %. I mean, the crazy thing about the Leaps, if you look at certainly this last play-up series of Boston, they follow a goal short. They lose an overtime of game seven. It's not like they've been far off in most of these series. I mean, they did lose in five games to the Panthers in the second round two years ago. But for the most part, they get to the big moment and don't push through. And so on some level, it feels like that isn't just team building. Obviously, there's reasons for that. Their power play went quiet. They probably could have had a goal there, maybe didn't get the best goal tending all the time. You can always point to a reason, but really, it does feel like they've just lacked finding the one moment in those big games. It's not as though they get to the playoffs and they're just embarrassed. It almost seems to get something from within that they have to draw out, or maybe they don't have it. And that's part of I think what's going to be discussed, and you're right, I think Austin Matthews now takes on... He's been such a focal point of the team, quite honestly, since his first year in the league.

They made the playoffs unexpectedly when he was a rookie. But I think it'll be more directed his way. He'll be the one speaking after every loss or leading into those series. I just think he'll bear more of the brunt of that, but he's at the stage where he can do it. I mean, this guy has been a multi-time, a hard trophy finalist, and he won one. He's been a face of the league. I think three times he's worn the sea, actually, at the NHL All-Star Weekend. Look, he's one of the most marketable athletes the sport has, but it's going to go up even a level from where it's been for him, I suspect now.

Anything else you want to mention about Austin Matthews before I ask about any other leafs tidbits you may have?

Well, the other thing that it was cool, and if you missed it, is John Tavares actually brought his kids to the... And they're quite young. His two boys were wearing Matthew's jerseys with the C, and I thought that was cool in the front row. John said it was the only thing he asked for. He was hoping to get a couple of those jerseys for his kids, have Austin sign them and join their collection. I really do want to hammer home that that could have been... I didn't know what to expect when I went there. How awkward is this going to be? Is it going to be clumsy? But I thought the way Tavares acted, the way that Tavares' family showed up, and I thought that that really made it It's not like the event it should be, which is a happy day, which is a positive thing for the organization, a positive thing for Austin. Brad Chliving did mention, too, Tavares will wear an A. It's not as though he's being wiped off the face of the team, but it's still not something we see a lot in the sport, frankly, and certainly, you don't see a day like that.

But kudos to the Taveras family for making everyone comfortable.

Okay. In wrap up Leaps Corner. Anything else? One particular note that comes to mind is Yanni Hakenpa, who in my head has been a Toronto Mapleleaf this whole time, but for whatever reason, he still isn't. What's going on there?

Yeah, he's still not officially a Toronto Mapleleaf. And you know, unusual circumstance, because if you remember back to July first, and a lot happens on that day, so obviously things get lost. But when Brad Sheer living was talking to the media about the Leaps signings that day, he He mentioned Hock and Pah and how excited they were to bring him in the organization, that he was going to need some time to get ready, but they saw him as being a help with the penalty killing and the like. And yet, after that, the leafs never put out a press release, never officially added him to the roster, haven't signed him to a standard player contract. I don't know where this is going to go. Brad Treleving was actually asked about this at the captain event, and he said, Look, I think there'll be some resolution, we hope soon, but this isn't the day to talk about it. From what I can gather is going on here is, Haukempa did finish last season with a pretty significant knee injury in Dallas, and he believes that he can play on his knee. But I don't know that there's unanimity in that opinion from those that are looking at his medical file and just concerns that essentially he's got bone on bone, that it's not a situation that could be terribly comfortable.

What's interesting medical-related issues is some players do manage to play through certain things that others can't. I mean, everyone's bodies are different, pain tolerance, what have you. I guess the X-rays themselves are black and white, but sometimes what they tell you, the information isn't black and white. This is an interesting situation. We'll see if he gets a contract. I don't know which way it's going to go. Don't have a terrible amount of insight into what the least medical staff might be saying. But obviously, there is concern there because I think we can conclude that given that six, seven weeks have passed and he hasn't yet signed a contract. But an interesting note, one of those things that If he doesn't end up signing, I think some fans will wake up and be like, Wait a minute. Didn't we sign that big right-hand shot defenseman?

Yeah. Why is he not here?

But I think it really comes down to the medical opinion, how much, I guess, risk the organization is willing to But Haukempa certainly seems intent on continuing his career, feels that he can maybe need some time off, but we'll be able to play ultimately on that knee, and we'll have to find out if the leaf feel the same way. And that'll be determined, I suppose, if he does sign a contract or not.

All right. And that's going to do it for leafs corner. Let's go to St. Louis. Not one, but two offer sheets, doled out by the St. Louis Blues for Philip Röberg and Dylan Hollowey of the Edmonton Oilers. Before we get into the nitty-gritty when it comes to those offer sheets, when you saw the news drop that the Blues put two offer sheets out there, what was your instant response?

Well, the first thing actually that I saw was they made a Picks trade with Pittsburgh-Yes, they did.to reacquire their second round pick from 2025, which if you just looked at the trade, you're like, This is a weird deal. But it made me... I immediately clicked and I was like, They need that pick because The compensation, the way it works when you offer sheet someone is you need your own draft pick. And so it did occur to me that it might be linked. Obviously, I didn't know what the offer sheet would be, and then those two dropped. So pretty interesting move. I had someone from another team say this was a savvy attack. Part of that is, look, everything lined up perfectly here to have this work. But I think the best way to get a player through an offer sheet, other than massively overpaying someone, which isn't necessarily a good strategy for the team that may get that player, is launching a dual attack in the sense that what St. Louis did with both Philip Broberg and Dylan Hollowway. The reason that is, is it really forces Edmonton into not just one, but it's multiple decisions.

They're cascading decisions. I do think it's likely that one or both of those players end up in St. Louis because of the nature of the attack. This lined up perfect, though. What you needed to have happen is, first of all, let's start at the obvious part. Players have to sign an offer sheet. Just because a team extends you one, maybe you don't, for whatever reason, maybe you're happy where you're living, you don't want to do that. So they found Two players with different agents, so it wasn't all just cooked up behind the scenes between a GM and one agent. Two players willing from the same team to sign an offer sheet. Two players that you could afford, but the other team really can't at the number you're signing them. Two players that are going to... If St. Louis gets both, they only give up one second-round pick and one third-round pick. It's not even really a high price to pay from the blues end of things in terms of the compensation going back. That is almost a perfect storm where Obviously, at this point, the oilers have a lot of contingency plans. They are looking at everything that might work.

Do we trade someone else, perhaps off the roster in this seven-day window to open up space? Do we just let them walk? Do we keep They're obviously considering all the different options. But the truth of the matter is, most of the options are not palatable. It's like choosing between what is the least poisonous of these poison pills. We've never seen this in the cap era. I know that there were offer sheets way back 30 years ago, and so I don't have perspective on those. It wasn't when I was around, and it was a different system. But in the salary Cap era, really, they're leveraging their cap position and the oilers struggles or the oilers tight cap situation to their benefit. And I do think that they're going to end up with at least one of these guys unless maybe Edmonton finds another way. But the oilers are now caught in a trap, right? Again, someone from another team put it this way. They're like a wounded animal in a trap right now. And so there aren't a lot of teams like, lining up to help them out of that trap. I mean, they might come over and help them now their leg off or something, but they're not going to There's not a lot of teams out there that are going to just take someone's contract on and not have it be priced at a premium.

So it's a difficult spot. Obviously, what an offseason at Edmonton. I mean, to basically play They're going to get Stanley Cup final right up until the draft and then go right into free agency without a GM because Ken Holland's contract expired. Obviously, they've since hired Stan Bowman, but that's a managerial change there. I think they just Obviously, they were aware of the possibility, but we haven't seen this before. And so it wasn't likely until it happened. And so pretty savvy maneuver by the Blues. And we have to wait to see what happens. I don't know which way Edmonton is going to go yet, and they still have a few days to play with to try to find the best solution for the organization.

Five days from this recording on Thursday, August 15th, the Edmondson dealers have to make a decision. Who's more likely to stay? Is it Broberg? Or is it Holloway?

It's tough to say. I think that Holloway's offer is much lower, so a team with a cap problem could probably fit him in easier. But Broberg plays what would be what we call a more premium position. And look at Philip Broberg. He's got roughly 100 games of NHL experience on his resume, spread out between the playoffs and regular season over the last couple of years. Hasn't really broken through. Certainly, all the tools are there, I think. But hasn't broken through. And Sroni can be an everyday guy on a team that has a chance to win the Cup. And he's got a four and a half million dollar contract. And the other part of this that is not insignificant is if the oilers choose to match these offers, they can't trade the players for a year. And so you're really locking into that player. And both contracts were two year contracts, so they cover this coming season, but also the '25, '26 season. And we know that because we went over it on our show earlier in the week, Edmonton has a lot of other business to take care of. Evan Bouchard is going to need a contract next summer.

He's eligible to sign an extension now. Leon Dreisaital, eligible to sign an extension now, and we'll need a new contract. I think you got to be really careful. I would say this with any move the oilers make this year, but they have to be really careful about committing next year's, that 25, 26 seasons cap space too early because you want to leave that open and see where your big dogs fall and where they land with their contracts, and hopefully they do sign them. So it's hard for me to handicap. I think it's easy to say, Well, you keep Hollowey because he's cheaper. But maybe if there's a trade, if you're trading away another defenseman, You want to keep Bouchard at his age. We did see him play his offside a little bit during the playoffs. Can he play on that right side? Edmonton's pretty locked in now on the left side of their blue line, but maybe there's an ability to do a series of moves that makes sense to keep him. But any way you slice it, this is not a good situation for Edmonton. They've left themselves vulnerable, and they got attacked. They got pounced on.

As we know, this isn't something that happens too often. There's been a handful of offer sheets in the last couple of years. You think of the Sebastian Aho one from Montreal. That led directly to Carolina countering a couple of years later and getting Yes, Barry Cotkenyemi. Probably worked out in Montreal's favor long term, but in the moment it didn't. They lost a player that played center for them. They've had to go out and make other deals for centers like the Borak in the wake of that. And that deal didn't necessarily work out for Montreal's side of things. So it just doesn't happen a lot. And quite honestly, with Doug Armstrong and Ken Holland having such a long history together and working, both being very involved with Hockey Canada over decades now, not just years, I can't imagine that this necessarily would have happened if Ken Holland was the GM. Because I think there is an element of that. The other part of it, though, that maybe gets overlooked when we talk about the lack of offer sheets in HL is very rarely are they going to work. The reason these are brilliant is because I think there's a high likelihood one or both of them actually net the blue as a player.

And obviously, in this case, they're young players, but they're players you hope are ready to step into a bigger role. And St. Louis can probably give them a bigger role than what they've had in Edmonton because they're They're retooling on the fly here, I'd say.

One more for you. Do you wish more teams used the offer sheet tactic? It's a nice conversation starter for all of us in the hockey world, especially in the middle of the summer when there isn't that much going on, plus just the idea of some GM taking advantage of another team's cap situation. I mean, it's devious, but that's smart. You're trying to be aggressive in that sense, right? I think it's exciting to talk about. I'd love to know your thoughts on Yeah.

I don't see a downside if you're not involved in these transactions. I mean, if you're just an onlooker like we are, why not? I mean, it adds a little spice and drama. No matter how this plays out, when St. Louis and Edmonton play a game this season. It'll be something people talk about. I think transactions and all this stuff help fuel the conversation around the game. So I would like to see it happen more often. I think we're going to. The The more that the league shifts away from being truly an old boys network or however you want to call it, I think you're going to get more people to just operate tactically, that look at the rules and try to use them to their benefit to the absolute amount. I think it's only natural over time, just given how I look at baseball in particular, the kinds of people that run teams in baseball aren't necessarily what you would call traditional baseball people. I think we're going to see more of that in hockey. We've already got Eric Tulsky now as a GM in Carolina. Not to put it all on Eric's shoulders to go out and offer sheet someone, but I'm just saying that I think that NHL teams over time are going to slowly move to diversifying their front offices, for lack of a better word.

And I think you'll see a little bit more of this. The truth of the matter is the hockey world is small. When you're hiring people that played almost exclusively, people play hockey, come from certain regions. Everyone knows everyone. It's just a fact of the matter. I think it can be a little harder to do this, to use these things when you know someone. As I said, part of it, too, is they don't always work. For example, Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider are both restrictive free agents for Detroit right now. So they could be offer sheeted, but Detroit has 17 or $18 million in cap space. I mean, yeah, you could do it to be a jerk. Maybe you give those players a bit higher of a salary than Detroit would want to knowing Detroit's likely to batch. But the Red Wings, it would almost be provoking the Red Wings. I won't say for no reason, but for little benefit. Whereas in this case, I do think St. Louis, I mean, either way, they're really going to handcuff Edmonton if Edminton matches both of those players. And if not, they're going to get a player for a second-round pick or a third-round pick, or maybe two players for only a second and third-round pick.

And when you consider what teams trade a second-round pick for guys who you've never heard of at the Trade Dead Line. So if you end up giving up a second-round pick for Philip Robert, who's what? 21, 22 years old, does have 100 gains of experience, does certainly have a tremendous tool set where you could see I'm becoming a regular everyday player for years to come. I mean, it's almost a no-brainer with the way this thing lined up. And I do think you'll see teams do a little bit more of it, but we'll have to wait and see.

Anything else you want to add before we go back to our respective summer vacations?

I don't think so. Have we missed any other stories? I guess there's a Cody Glass trade.

Yeah, I saw that.

Yeah. I mean, only takeaway on that one is Nashville needed to clear space. I mean, Nashville was one of the big spenders on July first, right? Getting braided Shay, Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marsha so, among others. And then they were in a tight cap spot. And so they had to give up a couple of draft picks. And Cody Glass, who was due to make 2.5 million this coming season, For essentially a minor league player that is just there to balance out the deal from Pittsburgh's end. So it's funny, the cap drives so many moves, right? The cap is what's driving the offer sheet. It's what's driving a trade like that one. And you need a calculator for this sport now, my man.

Thank God for calculators, because I am not good at math. And I rely on your brain a lot because I'm I'm not good at math.

I'm the weird sports... A lot of sports journalists, it's almost like a joke. It's almost like a meme or something we say. I was told there'd be no math. I'm the one person... I shouldn't say one. There must be others out there, but one of the few that always liked math. I didn't go into it. I think some people almost hated math, so they went down an English history channel and ended up doing this. I was nerdy in math. I wouldn't say I was the best at it, but I always enjoyed it, and I did do pretty well I got it.

A future episode, one of those drop-ins, maybe next summer, we want to see Jay's stories from his school days when he was a total nerd, totally into math.

I definitely was a nerd. Save it for next summer. I can't even pretend that I had a cool era when I was a kid. I had friends and the like, but I was never the...

Who cares?

Being cool is overrated. I don't care. I'm owning it. I'm just saying what it was. You should own it. Oh, no. Everyone should own it. I was a studious student.

Being cool is overrated, everybody. No one cares. It's all good. Just go about your life. Be yourself. Enjoy the people who are around you. Be a good person. Being cool is overrated as it gets. Or let people tell you you're cool and be humble about it. Don't try to be cool.

Can you imagine in the podcast world if we had offer sheets?

What? If Daily Face Off offer sheets us?

Yeah. Or Or I was thinking we offer Sheet Elliott Friedmann to come over to our podcast or something. I said, Friege is a buddy of mine, but I don't know if we could afford him.

I was about to say, I don't know if we got that in the salary. I don't know if we got that in our salary cap structure to afford Elliott Friedmann.

I'm just underlining how... Because we take it for granted, but how unique the business of pro-sports is. It really does not equate in many ways to the way most of us that watch it, that love it, that digest it. It doesn't equate to how we live our lives.

Could you imagine... I've talked about this with other friends before. Could you imagine if us I said, our jobs, in particular at the athletic, we sign contracts and they get announced formally. This writer has signed a four-year extension at $2 million. If there was more of that in Canada, I know in the States, there's some of it with some of the bigger name But imagine if your next contract extension was announced formally.

Yeah, it would be weird. I mean, I've seen some people say, I signed an extension. Some people do acknowledge they signed a new deal, but usually you're not getting the dollar. There's no salary cap. We don't have a Puckpedia for what journalists make, where it's purportive.

A Puckpedia for journalists' salaries? That would be game-changing. You have any idea how people would benefit knowing how much other people make in our industry?

That's the thing. It was just hard to get everyone's mind around it. The lesson is right in front of us, though. Nhl players 30 or 40 years ago, at some point, went towards where they went for salary disclosure. And obviously, unfortunately, some people then go like, Wait, I'm getting paid that, and this people are getting paid this? But what it does do, obviously, I think, is it creates a fairer market. But anyway, I'm not I'm the first that wants to put my salary out there either. It just seems a little personal.

I get that. And I can understand that some people do feel that way. I see the other side where, at least if you know some range and you can at least for yourself, understand what other people are making, you can at least make yourself competitive the next time you ask for money. I don't think there's anything too wrong. You know what? Obviously not publicly, like a Puckpedia thing, but I don't think there's anything with going to your colleague and be like, Hey, if you're comfortable with it, tell me how much.

It only depends what the language in your contract is. Some of the language says you can't share what you made. But I will say, I'm not saying I don't even know. I've had that in the past, not my current deals. The other thing is, I will say, though, in the last five years, without naming any names or locales or anything, in a social situation, I was with a group of reporters where everyone went around the table and disclosed it for the reasons you're saying, just that it can be helpful for other people to know.

I I've seen that.

We're all over the place.

No, that's fine.

Do you want to argue about mayo and hot dogs now?

No, I absolutely do not want to do that. I do not. If we start doing that, then this episode will go way longer than I intended it to. Then everyone will get mad at me that I made the episode go longer than it normally would. Everyone's going to get mad. I saw the Timer. I was like, It's going to be a clean 30 minutes. Adam Wilde is going to be happy. No, we did accomplish that.

I'll leave you with one thought. I'm going to be unavailable this weekend if you want to do another pod because I'm headed to a cottage and it has a sauna on the lake. So I'm just pumped to go in the sauna, jump in the lake, chill out. So I'm back on vacation.

You're not going to do an episode from the sauna? You're not going to have the camera with you? No, no chance. You're not going to have the mic with you?

No, although I saw the Cups spend a lot of time in finish saunas with all the finish players on the Panthers this summer. But yeah, so gone fish and sign is back up at C. J. House. As you were. Let's have a little bit more vacation before things get crazy again.

Sounds like a plan. C. J, great work on the Austin Matthew story, and of course, the offer sheets as well. Thank you to everyone who tapped in this week for our much sillier episode earlier in the week, and this one, which didn't feel like preseason. It felt like a good regular season episode for us. I thought we did pretty well, considering the circumstances.

It felt more normal, too, right? Because we're getting the reps back. I love it.

Exactly. Subscribe to the podcast however you listen to the show, and we'll be back whenever.

See guys.

The Chris Johnston Show. Inside the Game, twice a week. Follow Chris on Twitter @reporterchris, and follow Gillian McKenzie at JK McKenzie.

The Chris Johnston Show.