Chocolate, cheese, mountains, banks, neutrality.

Watches.

Watches. If after those six words, you haven't figured it out, where Arpen is talking to us from today, there's nothing I can do about Nothing I can do for you. I am Marc-Antoine Godin, live from Montreal, and Arpen Bessou is in Switzerland.

I am in Switzerland, on the northern edge of Zurich, just south of Clotin. Obviously here to see David Rheinbacker and do a little reporting on him. I'm going to watch him play shortly. I'm going to watch him play tomorrow, again, in Ambre, against Ambre Piotta. It's So, yeah, eager to see him play. He's been playing better of late. I've had a chance to speak to a lot of people about him, but we'll talk about that as part of Future Friday. Towards the end of the episode. That's far. I apologize for the harsh lighting. This is the best I could do without I forgot my podcast light. So this is a situation of my home here in the north end of Zurich. But I think David Rheinbacker came up in the news this week for entirely different reasons.

Yeah, absolutely. So it was an old story that was re-harsed on the heels of Qatar Gaultier being traded from Philadelphia to the Anaheim Ducks. So the story goes back to last draft, basically. So Qatar Gaultier had been fifth overall pick by the Philadelphia Flyers in 2022, so the Yurai Slavkowski draft. And then a year later, knowing by then, the new administration, the new front office, knowing by then that Kader Ghodsi did not want to sign with them, were already shopping him. And the story came out from the draft floor that they had, at the very least, they had tested the waters and gaging the value of Ghodsi by asking the Canadians, Would you be interested in giving us your fifth pick in exchange for Gautie? In all likelihood, they were interested in drafting David Reinbacker in that fifth pick, not necessarily Matvei Mishkoff, which they did with the seventh pick. So the Canadian said no. So basically, the Canadians would rather have David Reinbacker than Kata Gauty. A few months after, I don't know if that equation, if that decision would still be the same. But what do you make of that little intrigue story?

Well, that was reported by our old buddy Charlie O'Connor, who used to be both of our colleagues at The Athletic, is now at a PHLY. I don't even know how you say it, but anyhow, It's, I guess, Philly podcast. And so, yes, he reported not only that the Flyers would take David Reimbacher because it would be a two for one for them because they knew that Arizona wasn't going to take Matt Vymichkow. They thought Montreal might take Matt Vymitchkov. So if they did get number five, and they knew Arizona would take David Reimbacher at number six, which I can 100% confirm. That was the guy they targeted. So if they were to be able to get this trade, they could get David Reimbacher, and they would probably also get Matt Vymitchkov at number 7. By doing that, they would eliminate the risk of the Canadians taking them, even though I don't think the Canadians ever really strongly considered taking them. So obviously, I did a lot of digging at the drafts in Nashville about the amount of trades offers that were made for this pick. So not specifically speaking to why they chose this, why they rejected this trade or not.

Generally, the sense I got from conversations I had was that Nothing that was offered. Everything that was offered either was problematic or did not meet what the Canadians believe David Reinbacker's ceiling to be. A reminder that at the time, speak again, speaking to some team sources, they looked at David Reinbacker as Noah Dobson. Now, that didn't sound all that outrageous or all that impressive. Noah Dobson was a very good player before now, but they saw his future as being someone similar to Noah Dobson, more so than a more insider, which is the frequent comparable. Noah Dobson is having a Norris Trophy candidate type of season right now. Yes. At the time, what I was told is Try trading for Noah Dobson, you won't be able to do it. Sure enough, right now, if anyone were to approach the New York Islanders and say, What do you need for Noah Dobson? They're going to be like, Yeah, I'll see you. This is not a conversation we're getting involved in. Listen, rightly or wrongly, the Canadians are very high and remain high on David Ryanbacker, and we'll get into his season later on in the show. But they were just as high on him at that time.

Other Some conversations I've had since then suggested to me that they see him higher than pretty much any defenseman available in the upcoming draft. And there's a lot of them. It's a defense-heavy draft. A lot of people are asking questions like, why did they take a defenseman when there's all these defensemen available this year? Well, in their eyes, they see Ryanbacker as having a higher ceiling or a better potential and being just a more scarce piece, I guess, is a right shot with this size and with everything. So Again, that's their opinion, and that's what they're supposed to do as a Hockey Operations Department. So I think they saw Cudegotier as the fifth pick in a weak draft and that he did not meet the value of the fifth pick in a strong draft. A lot of people disagreed with their pick Ryanbacker in that strong draft, obviously, because Mitchkoff went after him, Benson went after them. A lot of the people that made this draft as strong as it was went after they took Ryanbacker, but the Canadian see Ryanbacker as being that strong of a player. So not surprising to hear Charlie's reporting, just based on what I heard and what I talked to.

I mean, listen, the Askarov ask or offer was real as well. Predator is offering their first round pick, which Which was what? Thirteen, I forget. Somewhere in the teens. Yeah. Plus Askarov, who was a former first round pick. That was turned down. So the Canadians had a lot of offers for that pick. And I wouldn't be surprised if Some of them were even better than what we know about. That some of them were better than Cutter Goachee straight up. Some of them were better than Askarov and Nashville's first. There was a lot of demand. They were the definite pivot point of that draft because there was a clear top four. And let's be clear, if the Canadians had a top four pick, they would have taken one of those four guys. They would not have taken David Ryanbacker. They surely would have taken whoever dropped to them at four. But as holding the fifth pick, they were the pivot point of the draft, and they were fielding calls all over the place. So it's not surprising in the least to hear about Charlie's reporting. There were other offers made. They were pretty steadfast that they needed to be blown away to trade that pick, and they clearly weren't.

There's also a bit of recency bias when it comes to Kata Ghodsi, who all of a sudden is... Obviously, he's been shining at the World Juniors.

World Championships, too, last year. Well, earlier. Yeah, the '23 World Championships, playing But then he was excellent.

His pedigree is trending upwards, and Brian Baker will get to him later on, but seems to have, to a certain extent, an underwhelming season. But it's interesting. When you look at the needs of the Montreal Canadians, people say, Oh, don't draft for needs. And yet, a few months after when we discussed the hypothesis medical scenario of a trade that would, in a sense, would have mounted to Rheinbacker for Gautier, you also look at the fact that, yeah, Canadians are loaded with defensemen, but what they need is a guy who ultimately could complement their top six, who could play the wing, could play center- Who can score goals. Who can score goals, who's got a bigger body, which is also something that the Canadian's front office value. So even though that logic of saying, well, it was a fifth pick in the week of draft versus the fifth pick of a strong draft, do we still have to carry that argument And months after the draft, or basically once those guys are drafted, they should be put on the same scale and just determine, well, who are they today and how good are they and how good are they going to become?

Yeah, you should. You got to remember that at the time, Gautie had... Trying to think of the time. Yeah, he had not He had not played his freshman year at Boston College yet. He was still at the National Development Team program, had not had that World Championships that we referred to, had not had the World Juniors that we just saw. It's just like they were going on his body of work. Or actually, no, I'm sorry, he had played his freshman year at Boston College, excuse me. But based on the body of work at the time, they made an evaluation. Again, was it the correct evaluation? I don't know. But I think that's how they viewed it. I It's rightly or wrongly, the Canadians have invested a lot in this kid. I mean, that's the thing. And they were prepared to make that investment even before they made it, even before they made the pick. They were so hell-bent on taking this guy. And honestly, it's my impression that most of the trade offers they were fielding, I think I've said this before and I've reported it, it's most of the trade offers they were fielding were for teams who were trying to get Ryanbacker.

It was not teams trying to get Mitchkoff. It was really that was the focus of most of the trade conversations because everyone knew that Ryanbacker was not getting past six in Arizona. That was the most worst kept secret at the draft was Arizona, covereded David Ryanbacker to no extent, to no end, I should say. And so that's why Montreal's pick became that much more attractive. They were one before Arizona, so they were fielding lots of calls. But as much as many teams in the league covereded this guy, Canadians apparently covereded him more. We'll see if they're right. That's the thing with draft picks, which I don't like, is I get that it's a lot of people's livelihood to evaluate these kids in the public sphere, let alone the scouting community in the NHL and everything. And it's often black and white, and it's not black and white. And especially when you're talking about a kid like this who plays in a Not a common league for a draft prospect to play in, almost no draft prospects come out of the National League. And absolutely zero draft prospects come out of the Swiss League, which is where Riebeck was playing a year before his draft So it's not an apples to apples comparison.

So you really got to trust your gut and know what you're seeing and what you're talking about. And the Canadians are confident that they've done that, but it remains to be seen. I mean, it's There's no way of knowing who the better player is going to be right now.

No. You mentioned the offers that they fielded at the draft. Just going back to Nashville for a second, they had the 15th pick, not the 13 or 14, but the 15th.

Nashville, right.

Yeah, they drafted Matthew Wood with it. But I always thought that it was a bit odd that Askarov was in play then. He It seems to be still in play because they seem eager to resign Yusy Sarros, and he would be their guy. They're in a position where they could be rebuilding. They're doing better than anybody expected so far this season. But they're in a position where they could easily say, You know what? We'll clean the deck a little bit or rejuvenate our roster. And from that perspective, trading the old established a coveted, proven goalie for quite a big hole and turned to your former first-round goalie who's meant to be an excellent prospect, it's the thing that would make sense. So the reason why Barry Trotz is not going that way and has been considering to trade Askarov for many months now. I find it odd and a bit... It raises a red flag regarding Askarov as far as I'm concerned.

Well, not only has he been shopping him, but no one took him up on the offer. I mean, look at the league right now. How many teams need a goalie? And it's not like this guy is... Listen, he's played two games in Nashville this year, 1.47 goals against 943 save percentage, 33 saves, and it's two goals against on 35 shots in two games, 82 minutes. His numbers in the AHL is 18 games, 11, 6, and 1, 920 save percentage, 2.13. His numbers last season, which is the data set that they'd be going off of at the The draft, he played 48 games in Milwaukee, 26, 16, and 5, 9, 11, 26, 9. There's something going on with this dude, because honestly, this was another one of the worst kept secrets of the draft was that Jaroslav Oskarov was available. The Canadians are far from the only team who decides to pass on this guy. So the numbers would suggest that any team needing a goalie of the future, of the present, regardless, would be jumping all over him. So yeah, I agree. There are some red flags there that seem from both sides, from the fact that Nashville even wants to trade him and from the fact that they weren't able to.

Okay. So if we move on from the Cutter, Goethe, and Reinbacker thing, although I was told by someone that not only Gaultier did not want to play in Philadelphia, but he had a limited number of destinations where he was truly willing to play. I don't know if that's true, and I don't know if Montreal, he would have been comfortable in playing in Montreal. We'll see. We'll never know. But there are all sorts of reasons for players to look down on Canadian destinations, on cold weather, on taxes, and whatnot. If you're in a position like Gautsi as a NCAA prospect who, in a couple of years, could have the decision to become a free agent if he's not happy with the team that he belongs to, it's always something that you need to consider before acquiring a guy like that. If that holds through before the Canadians were to try to acquire him the way that Anaheim did, By giving up Jamie Driesdell. I'm not sure if the Canadians have a Jamie Driesdell in stores right now.

They have Ryan Backer. They have Ryanbacker, but still, Ryan Backer is not- That's what it would have taken.

Yeah, but Ryan Backer is not Jamie Dreisdell right now. Jamie Driesdale is already playing in the NHL.

I understand, but the Flyers clearly had interest in this player. They have him. That's the equivalent to Jamie Dreisdell in a trade that the Canadians would have had to give up, but they already said no to that. There was no point even exploring that because I don't think Caden Goolie plus plus was going to get it done.

All right. So if we move on from Qatar Gulti to another Anaheim duck that's been linked to the Montreal Canadiens in the past few days. I mean, a lot has been going on. A lot of shit has been going on.

Has he really been linked? I think people are linking him.

I don't know how linked he is. People are linking him because Trevor Zegres, it seems as though the Anahim Ducks are entertaining the possibility of moving him, which was already a little bit rumored while he was in contract dispute with the ducks.

I can't I can't wait for Cutter Goethey's contract dispute with the Ducks. That's going to be wildly entertaining. I'm looking forward to that. He's going to be like, What have I done? How did I engineer a trade to this GM? The most grindiest GM in the NHL. Well, have fun with that one, Cutter. I'm sure your Bridge deal in a couple of years is going to look great.

Yeah. So Trevor Zegres, I mean, uber talented. Everybody knows that. I'm always a bit hesitant to compare talented with excellent in the sense that you can be the most talented, but that won't necessarily make you the best because efficiency sometimes on the ice is one thing, and he's crafty. But again, we're talking about red flags with Askarov. Why a guy that's so skilled, so dazzling, would be considered by the Anaheim Dux as a guy that you could part with. And I think that the part of that answer lies in the fact that he's not exactly a 200-foot player. But let me ask you this question because so many people linked Trevor Zygrus to Montreal as a trade candidate, a trade target. Do you think that he would fit well under Martin Saint-Louis, on the Montreal Canadian top six, and that if the Anaheim ducks get, I don't know, greedy or they ask a lot in return for his services, do you think that he's the guy that you sell the farm for?

No, I don't think he's... Listen, the duck should be greedy. His first two seasons, he had 61 and 65... No, sorry, I shouldn't say that. His first two full seasons, he had 61 and 65 points. He's a center. He's incredibly imaginative. He's a highlight reel waiting to happen. He's the type of offensively creative imaginative player that the Canadians lack. He's tight with Cole Caulfield. There's lots of natural assumptions to make when it comes to Trevor Zegris, filling a hole that the Canadians quite clearly have. That said, a fully healthy version of the Montreal Canadians and Martin St. Louis given this roster with Trevor Zegris on it. First of all, does he play center? Doubt it. Would probably slot in on the wing either with Doc or Suzuki. But I've had multiple conversations with just generally NHL people, not Canadian people, but just people around the league talking about him. And there does seem to be just a general sense that he doesn't rub everyone the right way. And again, I think that's more of a them thing than a him Everyone in hockey has a certain vision of what NHL players should be like and what they should do, the details that they need to pay attention to, the 200-foot game that you mentioned.

Being complete, or at least trying to be complete, recognizing it-Of course, there's a saying to play the right way as if the right way was one thing specific. Exactly. The right thing is this defined, codified, black and white thing. I think there's a lot of people in hockey who don't think he plays the right way. I don't know how the Canadians feel about it, but for such a detail-oriented coach, and a coach who's trying to implement those elements into Cole Caulfield's game as we speak and has made it a priority, and that Cole Caulfield has bought into and decided that, yes, I need to make this a priority as well, which has maybe worked to the detriment of his offensive game, and he deserves credit for that. But I think the Canadians would see Zegris as a guy they would have to go through that process with as well. The red flag there would be, what if Anaheim has already tried and it hasn't worked and he hasn't bought it? Listen, I wouldn't bet the farm. I wouldn't sell the farm to get them, but I would make a competitive offer to get them. Listen, a competitive offer is going to include someone like Caden Gou.

It's going to include someone of significance that the Canadians probably don't want to trade and don't want to with because Trevor Zegris is a pretty special player. But am I convinced that that's going to happen? Not really. I don't think this Canadian's management team or this coaching staff would endorse, hypothetically, including someone like Caden Gouly in a trade for Trevor Zegris, even though that's probably a fair offer. Frankly, the Canadians would probably have to have a pick on top of I could easily see their first-round pick being in play this summer if they were to make a move on a young, up-and-coming star. Their first-round pick this summer, they wouldn't offer anything else. That would be it. That would be... Because their first-round pick is probably going to land somewhere between 8 and 12, maybe. Depending on how... If they keep playing the way they had the last two games, it could go even lower than that. But yeah, somewhere between 8 and 12. Trevor Zegrish was the ninth overall pick in 2019. That's a long time ago. But he's a guy who's already put up two 60-point seasons and is having a tougher time this year, has battled some injuries, also went through the Rinder with Padra Beak.

He'll be managing an injury for the next eight weeks, 6-8 weeks. He broke his left ankle. So it's not good. No. So he's It's out for a couple of months. We'll see how it does. The thing is, when a player who's out there trying to prove himself or needing to prove himself gets hurt, if the team does well in his absence, they can start seeing a life without that player. They're not saying, Okay, well, you know what?

I don't think we have any risk of that happening with the Ducks. No, I know.

Well, they've got... No, especially since They just removed Riesdell from their lineup for nothing.

They got worse in that deal, in the short term, at least. In the short term.

Yeah, for sure. But again, they've got Leo Carlson that started to play every game. He's getting more comfortable. Mason McTavish has taken a huge step forward this year. They're going to be really good. The problem is that Minchikov got hurt, too, on defense. And he's a guy that made the Dreisdell expandable because In terms of offensive defenseman, he fit the bill pretty well. But I think that this is a guy... I could see the Canadians trying to make an offer for Zygrus in the offseason, though.

I could, too. It's just that their willingness to pay what the Ducks would ask for, I don't think that it would be there. I just don't. Honestly, that's my own opinion. It's not based on any reporting I've done. I haven't talked to anyone in the organization about this, but my own intuition or feeling is that the Canadians would not be ready to step up to the price that Ducks would be asking for for a player of Zeegras' caliber. But I could be wrong. Maybe they'll prove me wrong. I don't know.

Again, it wouldn't happen very often that that skilled player becomes available, but that doesn't mean they would be the absolute best player that's available. You need to find a guy that's not only going to make your team better and more of a threat offensively, and that raises the level of talent, but I hope that the Canadians could find a guy that the other players could look up to and say, We're following that guy. Because, again, he plays the right way. The true stars in the NHL are not always the most skilled. They're the ones that also their teammates follow. Patrice Bergeron was not necessarily dazzling every time he touched the ice, but he definitely played the right way. When you have both, when you have a Crosby or a Nathan McKinnon type, well, then that's out of this world. But I think the Canadians, they just need to make sure that the day that they're going to go after a player that becomes available to them, they have to make sure that that player is going to help them win and not just help them make themselves more entertaining. You don't necessarily He wanted to have another Alex Kovalev.

For example, he was the most skilled guy on the team, but he was not on many nights.

He was not the best player of the game. Yeah, but he was a gamer. He was a gamer. When the chips were down, that guy played. But anyhow, I also don't think it's a given that the Ducks are going to trade him. I know that this is a natural inclination. They just acquired Cutter Goji. He's going to enter the group probably at the end of this season. They have Troy Terry, obviously, Mason McTavish, you mentioned. Ryan Stroms signed long term. They just signed Alex Kalorn, who is the type of player that you're just referring to. But Adam Hendrieke's gone at the end of the year. Jacob Silverberg could be gone at the end of the year. They already have, even without Jamie Driesdale, they have an embarrassment of young defensemen, of riches on defense in terms of their young guys. Minchikov, who you mentioned, is hurt right now. Jackson Lacombe has been looking pretty good. They got Olin Zellwiger, they They got... Who else? Tristan Luneau, Noah Warren just played for Canada. He wasn't the best, but still, young defense prospect who was drafted relatively high. They got guys. It's like they have... There's a pipeline there of players that They don't need to trade a forward for a defenseman.

It's not like they're completely... Frankly, they're going to be drafting in the top five of this draft where there's tons of great defensemen. They're going to add another one at the draft. I don't know if there's necessarily a need for the Ducks to trade Trevor Zegris to address a hole elsewhere. If they want to trade Trevor Zegris because they don't feel he's part of a winning mix in Anaheim, that's something completely different. But I think this notion that now that they have all these great forward prospects, they can afford to get rid of one in order to bolster their defense group. Their defense group is strong even without Trisdale. They have a strong young defense corps.

Well, not to Very similar from the Canadians in terms of pipeline.

No. I mean, they just lost the high-end guy. But I think Michikov in a redraft would be a top five pick in that draft. It's looking like a pretty big steal the Ducks got with him.

Okay. Hey, we've reached the midseason. The Canadians played on Thursday night their 41st game of the season. A lackluster loss, lackluster performance against the San Jose Sharks. Man, we've heard Martin St. Louis talk about when the team plays a bad game, it's, yeah, bad games will happen. It's how we respond. So they played a bad game in Philly. They got a point there, thanks to Caden Primo. But the way they responded against San Jose, that was not good at all. No. So you were right earlier to say, Oh, well, they could draft higher if they keep playing the way they did the last two games. When I look at the first half of the season, I don't see a team that's been this bad as the last two games for very long. At this time last year, at the same time last year, they had just finished a seven-game losing streak or a winless streak.

You can call it a losing streak. That's fine. Yeah, it's fine. I endorse losing streak. I prefer losing streak.

.

It's okay. Yeah, exactly. I've told them, I've told them, you're wrong on this one. This is bad. This is a bad take.

So this year, the worst they had, it was a four-game losing Street. They don't seem to me like a team that would fall in such an abyss that they would get into a prolonged slump. Unless, of course, injuries hit even more in all of a sudden, you got guys that are completely out of place playing prominent roles. But the current iteration of the Canadians in their current level of health, too, I think that they're gaining slowly but surely that level of consistency that Martin Saint Louis is looking for. The word of the year was progression, progress. Well, despite what we've seen the last couple of games, despite the fact that it's a team that's losing one, winning one, et cetera, and it's not hyper exciting, I still see progress from that team.

Well, yeah. And Marty says it all the time. And it's not to just echo what he says, but I think there's some truth to it is that everyone expects progress to be linear, and it's not. It goes up a fair bit, comes back a little bit, goes up. As long as the stock price is rising over time, the stock dipping, you don't sell the stock as soon as your stock goes down for a couple of days. You try to identify the trend in that stock, and then you hold on to it Knowing that eventually it'll write itself and it'll start climbing again. I think the Canadians, generally this season, their stock price is higher now than it was at the beginning of the season, in my opinion. I think in their opinion, too. I mean, these two games aside, if you take a global view of things, I think they are higher than they were at the start of the year, and I think they're higher than they were at the start of last year or even at the end of last year. There's progress that's been made. But we are at the mid-season point.

At the quarter-season point, we did an awards show of sorts, probably more entertaining than the Gloves & Gloves. We're going to try and up that again.

Back when it was Ricky Gervais, though, that was tough to be.

Well, that's it, but it's not anymore. So they're attainable. It's an attainable bar for us in terms of entertainment value. Let's see if we can get We had five questions that we addressed at the quarter season, Mark, so we thought it'd be fun to address them again. We're going to start with things we did not see coming. This is maybe more applicable to the start of the season, but I think we could still come up with something here. At the quarter-mark, I said Joel Armeya being in Laval. You said the three goalie rotation. Why don't you start on this one? Is there something going on right now that you did not see coming?

Jaden Straubel. That's a low-hanging fruit at this point. But honestly, I Gosh, I'm so surprised. He had a bad game yesterday. People will point to the fact that he made like he had a brain fart.

An awful turnover.

Awful turnover that led to a shark's goal. But It was not only that. He had a difficult game also because of how long his shifts were. So that's an issue. Look, his shifts yesterday, he had a 110, a 124, a 137, 114, 123, 201, 126. Those are long shifts. That's a lot. It's not as though he was on the ice a lot on the power play either or at six on five. He barely played in the third period, played three shifts. But so far, it's been the outlier. He's been so steady. I think that he comes as a pleasant surprise even for even for Kent Hughes, who knows him very well. Kent Hughes was on the the other day, and he said, I'm so familiar with Jaden Strobel. He was such good buddies with my kids, with my sons, that sometimes I would come back home and Jaden would be cooking eggs in the kitchen, but my sons are not home. That's how well he knows Jaden Strobel.

I would put my foot down on that situation if I were him. But anyhow. Yeah. Well, you know.

Yeah.

I'd be like, Those eggs are for my kids. Go home and eat your own eggs.

Yeah. Especially those hockey players who need their protein.

Who's probably cooking six eggs in the fricken in the frying pan. That's it.

That's a lot of eggs. I think it's such an exciting development that a young player rises up to the challenge, changes completely the order of the hierarchy on defense, and forces everybody to consider him and say, Okay, well, you might have thought that this would be the order for the next 5, 10 years. Well, you have to count with me. All of a sudden, the Canadians have more interesting chips to play with. I'm not sure that he would be in any scenario the odd man out because, again, some guys have a great first season, then they're play Dipp. Jacky early in the season is a good example. Other guys, they just keep building on what they've done so far, and they reach new heights. Caden Goole, even though he had his struggles temporarily, I think, follows that trend. Who knows what's going to happen with Jaden Strobel, what he's been able to show in terms of poise, in terms of reading the play, decision-making, in such a short order, arriving at the NHL level is quite impressive, and I zero saw that come.

Yeah. Just quickly on that, and I'm going to keep hammering this point home. Jaden Strobel is a perfect example why people need to stop. When are we going to trade a defenseman? When are we going to trade this guy? When are we going to trade that guy? Just watch what Jaden's Trouble is doing and be like, Oh, I didn't see that coming. You didn't see it coming. I didn't see it coming. Ken Hughes didn't see it coming. But he was a second-round pick for a reason. You got to give these guys some time to show who they are. It's going to be so important for the Canadians not to have an itchy trigger finger. Yes, if you have an opportunity to go out and get a piece that you're missing in your organizational flowchart, by all means, go ahead and do that. But to train a guy just because we have too many of them and the waiver eligible, we might lose them for nothing. You got to let guys show themselves. That's really what I think the Canadians need to keep in mind. I think James Trouble is Exhibit A of don't rush into decisions on any of these guys.

I'm going to say what I didn't see coming is the well-roundedness of Yureis Lafkowski's game. I saw coming that he was going to figure something out this year. I don't think I saw coming what he was going to figure out. Because listen, the points are not extraordinary. They're good. He's doing all right. But it's the complete- It's not about the points. It's not about the points. It's watching him night after night, playing on the top line, playing against tough opposition, and not just holding his own, but being a difference making player without the pot. I did not see that coming at the age of 19. And if he's figured that out at 19, and again, I think it needs more runway in that sense. It's only been 15 or so or 15 games or something like that that he's been playing on that line. And so he does need a little bit more runway. 17 games, sorry. But I didn't think that he was going to not just grasp, but fully grasp some of the things that you need to do without the pocket in order to get it back in order to maintain possessions and things like that.

Kudos on him, and he put a lot work on it. And it was him that wanted that work. He wasn't being forced to do anything. He wanted to improve. And he just gave a full buy-in on what the Canadiens were asking for him. And he found, I think, a happy medium between... Or actually had a good understanding of what they mean by he needs to be physical. I think a lot of big guys, they hear, Oh, you should be more physical. They'll start running all over the place just trying to hit everyone as hard as they And he's never done that. It's not who he is. It's not his game. And he could have taken those instructions and been like, All right, you want to see physical? I'll show you physical. He hasn't done that. He's actually done it the way they've asked him to do it. Just use your body to protect the put, to separate people from the put, to be effective on the forecheck, to be effective in getting the put back without necessarily... Win your battles. Exactly. Win your battles, battle in front of the net, be a presence there. He's doing those things.

And he's not crushing guys. He does on occasion, but he It does not seem to be going out of his way to do it. So good for him. I didn't see that coming.

I think I just- You didn't see that coming in the fact that it happened also almost like in a flip of a switch?

Or you didn't- It happened in a span of three weeks, man. In early November, he went from being a complete non-factor, an invisible player on the ice. I don't think that's exaggerating. Honestly, he had a stretch of four or five games. We're talking about Laval. We're talking about Well, because it was that bad. Within three weeks of that, yeah, it's about three weeks, he went from that to this. That's striking. We're going to have a most improved player category coming up, and this might have been a good pick for it, but to me, it's really something I did not see coming. Right.

Okay, well, let's move on to Team MVP. First quarter, Mark, you took Sean Monahan, I took Caden Gouly. I suspect that the names might be different this time around. Why don't you go first with- I got Mike Matheson.

That's my guy. I understand Sam Montemble is a strong candidate here, but to me, Mike That's him what he's doing night after night, the minutes he's playing. He has slowly moved out. He had a little stretch there where he was very mistake prone. I don't find him to be that anymore. At at least not for very long stretches. And with the minutes he plays, I think the potential for mistakes is much higher. So you have to live with some because if you're asking him to play 26, 27 minutes, it's impossible not to make mistakes, especially when you play the way he does. I think he makes the whole thing go. I think any Suzuki would have been a candidate. There's lots of candidates, but he is the guy... He's the most indispensable A sensible player on the team. That's how I view it. Most valuable to the team, you take that guy away and the defense is in tatters. Really, he plays penalty kill, power play, even strength, plays a lot of it, plays against tough opponents. And it makes a difference on the ice. I wouldn't call him a difference maker because that has a connotation of being a game changer of sorts.

He's not that, but he makes a difference out there. I think I think he's their most valuable player right now. The one guy they cannot go without would be him.

That's a very good argument. I think that the level of risk that he's got in his game that has caused turnovers and mistakes here and there, is that a level that Martin St. Louis seems to be very comfortable with? Because at some point, they were playing seventh defenseman, and his minutes were not going down. All the other defensemen, their minutes were going down, but he steadily remained at 24, sometimes 25 minutes. When you play 7D or when you think if you choose to play 6D, but you have a seventh one that is playable, well, that means that you have depth. That means that you could choose to play your third duo, your third pair, a bit more than just the merely 13, 14 minutes. I actually could bring more to 17 or 18. And then reduce probably the pressure on the minutes of a guy like Matheson. But that's not what has happened. So it shows how indispensable he is in the eyes of the Canadian's coaching staff, because no matter the situation, he's always there. I'm surprised, personally. I would have thought that they would find other solutions on the PK, that they would try to manage his minutes a little bit more, five on five.

But this is also a team that's been trailing games a lot. And he's the defenseman you want on the ice when the team is trailing, because you'll be more ready to accept mistakes if that means that it can generate more offense in return.

He's also on when they're protecting a lead, though. That's the thing. He's always on.

He's always on. So this is a perfectly good Good pick. Mvp, it's weird because he has not been their best player, but I think I have to go with Nitsuzuki.

Yeah, that's fair.

It's a bit meh. It's like seeing him go to the All-Star Game. It's like, Okay, yeah. If not him, then who could have been Matheson? But I mean, it's frustrating with Suzuki Because there's so much that's being asked of him. I just talked about the ice time for Matheson, the fact that he takes and he gives with such an ice time. But with Suzuki, I feel that lately it's taken really a toll on him. And Caulfield is having all sorts of struggles, scoring goals. Slavkowski cannot count on him as a 19-year-old winger to be the driver on his line. So I think that the lack of a second-line, a potent second-line, the absence of Kirby Doc makes it so that the fully expected pressure or additional responsibilities that were to be put on Suzuki, now you're seeing the way that it's got on him. But despite all that, he remains a guy that's a steady contributor. He's got 34 points in 41 games. His defensive numbers are really, really improved compared to years past. Expected goals against are better, even on the road, than they are at home. The whole line has improved. They're spending less time in their end.

Sometimes you have Caulfield and Slavkowski that will have the occasional brain cramp with missed assignments and being up, by the park. But for the most part, I think that this line is doing better in the defensive part of the game. It's not with tons of enthusiasm. I could have mentioned Montembeau, too, although He probably misses the cut because of the numbers of games played. But Suzuki remains, I guess, my choice through all that.

Just as a quick just add on to that. Since December fourth, which is when Suzuki first, well, not first played, but this stretch of games with Caulfield and Slavkowski began on that date. So he's played 17 games. He has 14 points in those 17 games, which is okay. However, over that same stretch, some of the other players who have 14 points in the NHL, and they don't all have the same amount of games, but they're pretty close. Chris Littang, Victor Headman, Kael Mekar, Ryan O'Reilly, Evgeny Malkin, Brad Marshan, Patrick Cain, Stephen Stamko, Chris Kreider, Clayton Keller, Nico Hichier, Rasmus Dallian, and Leon Dreisetel, among others. But this is the type of company he's keeping since that point. So yes, he's not a world beater, but he has a more than respectable point total. Basically, he's tied for 68th since then. But he's starting to find something as far as who he is and what he can ultimately be. And I think that's an encouraging sign for the Canadian Yeah.

As long as we don't have Doc around to alleviate the pressure and to put some inner competition between those two, we're not going to have a full picture.

No, that only adds to the quality of the performance, I think. Okay, Most Improved. I blew mine already because as the things we did not see coming, but I don't want to use It's Trubal, even though that's the guy I think deserves this. But I honestly think, and it's going to seem weird, but I'm going to give this to Brandon Gallagher. You Because the numbers aren't there. I get it. He went 24 games without scoring a goal. But I think his mentality has improved, where he doesn't allow have something like that to completely kill him. He can contribute in other ways, and he recognizes that. He recognizes the importance of that. So I think he handled that 24-game drought with a lot of maturity and still made contributions. I was looking at it the other day for another reason, and you know what? I'm going to pull it up right now. For another reason that had nothing to do with Brenda Gallagher, and I checked it out. And in terms of individual expected goals in the NHL, Brennan Gallagher... This is at five on five. No other filters. Brennan Gallagher is 16th in the NHL in individual expected goals.

9.76 individual expected goals in 41 games. You know who's 15th? Connor McDavid.

Wow.

He is just a shade below Connor McDavid in individual expected goals. He's ahead of Sydney Crosby. He's ahead of Nikita Kutrow. He's ahead of Alexander Barkoff, Braden Point. I mean, there's Owen Tippet, Jespery Konkinemi, he's 21st, for crying out loud. So maybe that will make you question the ball. I'm surprised Josh Anderson. The validity of this.

I'm surprised Josh Anderson is not ahead of Gallagher, though, by this time.

No, because he's tailed off. Even though he started scoring goals, and even though the breakways keep coming every game, he tailed off from the beginning of the season. I don't even think he's in the top 100. I don't think I can try to look for him. There he is. He's 34th. So he used to be up where Gallagher was. Even Caulfield is ahead of him. Caulfield is 30th at 8.87. So the point being that Caulfield has five goals at five on five, 8.87 expected. Josh has five at 8.74 expected. And Brandon has... What does he have? Seven? Six at five on five, 9.76 expected. But the 9.76 expected goals is 16th in the NHL. So I think he's playing good hockey. He's not being rewarded for it, but I think it's not going to come... He's probably always going to have more expected goals than actual goals. It's always been like that with him, but the expected goal number shows that he's making things happen. It's really indicative of a player who's being effective without it necessarily being rewarded for it. So Good on him, because I think one of our first episodes on this platform was devoted to talking about how worrisome Brandon Gallagher's play was.

That's true.

It was the first week of the season.

Yeah, exactly. We were feeling sad about it. I think he's been playing good hockey. So it's most improved goes to him based on that episode and this one.

All right. My most improved goes to Caden Primo. Because Caden Primo, first, a guy who... The goalies need to play in order to get better. They need to find their rhythm. And he's playing very little. And despite that, it's night and day with his performances from years past. I think that's even more impressive. He's played in nine games. His safe percentage is at 905. He's already stole probably three games out of those nine. So his safe percentage, 905, in all of the years past combined, prior to this season, his safe percentage was 871 in 21 games. He had a goal against average of 411. You take some, you leave some when it comes to goals against average. So he was at 411 in years past, so his career numbers. And this year, he's at 313. So he shaved off a whole goal per game. I think that the biggest difference is right now, he looks like an NHL goalie. When I say, you know what? Most improved from a guy who's... You could see The deer caught in the headlights. You could see his eyes behind his mask in the years past. That's how his body language was so freaking afraid or so it seemed.

It's body language. It was probably not reality, but it's what it looked like. And this year, a lot more composed. He gives up by goal. He doesn't get crushed by it. He'll rebound. All of a sudden, he looks like an NHL goalie. That has a snowball effect also on his teammates who all of a sudden have raised their level of confidence. And okay, whether it's Primo or Montembeau or Allen, even if it's the kid, we're still All good. He made so much progress. I keep hearing all the panelists on different TV shows, Oh, the three goalie system. Has it hurt this guy, that guy? Depending on your narrative or the day of the Week, it's going to hurt one goalie more than the other. But Primo has benefited from all this extra work that he has done with Eric Dremont, whether it's in the second sheet of ice on practice days, those 20 minutes that each goalie has by themselves with the goalie coach. I think that he's made a lot of progress there. He's made a lot of progress in the video room, too. And a lot of bad tendencies have been cleaned up from his game.

So he's 24 years old.

Still young for a goalie.

Still young for a goalie. So I think that holding on to him might have been... It looks like the wise choice, not just throwing away and giving it for free. So I think he's the most improved player on that team.

Yeah, that's a good pick. And again, I always go back to this. Sorry to hammer the same thing, but I was just going to check on Moneypuck where he stands in terms of his goal saved above expected per 60. You know who's second in the league right now and goal saved above expected per 60 is Charlie Lengren. Charlie Lengrit is a goaltender I never I thought was going to be an NHL goal tender. Full honesty, I did not think he had it in him, but I judged him too young, honestly. I thought the same thing about Caden Primo. And again, judged him too young. I'm sure the Panthers didn't want to lose Sam Montembeau, but I feel like they judged him too young. They figured he was going to slide through waivers, just like the Canadians are convinced Caden Primo is not going to get through waivers. And every time you watch him play, I thought they were out of their minds at the beginning of the season. Who the hell is going to pick up Caden Primo? What are you talking about? Who's going to take this guy? Every time he plays a game, I'm thinking they're right.

Obviously, they have information that we don't have, and they seemed quite convinced that they actually knew which team was going to take him. They did. I mean, in terms of goal saved above expected for 60, he's right there. Sam Multembo, among goalies, have played five games. Sam Multembo is 35th in the league, Jake Allen is 37th, and Caden is 39th. None of them are in the top 32, worth noting. But all three of them are bunched together. Basically, from that one metric alone, basically playing at a very similar level. His save percentage, he's basically playing as expected. Wins above replacement, zero. That's not a big deal. Save percentage on unblocked shots, 954, which is pretty good at five on five. Yeah, He's doing great. Really doing well. So good on him. And I think it's a lesson to everyone when it comes to goalies. Give him some more time. Okay, next category. Most worrisome trend.

Okay, I'll go first with that. Sure. It's a long trend. It's not just this first half season. It's been going on for years. But the PK is horrible. And it doesn't get fixed. Look, I'm scrolling. As I talk to you, I'm going back season after season. There it is. Here's the threshold. Since the 2017, 2018 2018 season, they're last in the league on the PK. Cumulatively, from the 2017-18 season to now, they're the worst team in the NHL on the PK. And this year, This year, it doesn't give any signs of getting any better. They're 73%. They're 28th in the league as we speak, so they're not the worst in the league today. But it's just that it It comes as though... I thought that it would be an easier problem to fix than the power play because it's reads and positioning. It shouldn't be just on sheer talent, but it just It boggles the mind how vulnerable they've proven to be night after night on the PK. That's a worse in trend because I don't know where the answer is going to come from. You can change your overall pattern, say, Oh, we're going to go from a diamond formation and go back to a square.

We're going to do, I don't know, one, one, two, whatever. But you need at some point to get results there on the PK, and they're not It's not necessarily a matter of this season alone. It goes way back. That's the worrisome trend for me because I don't know when this is going to end.

No, that's a good one. I got to agree. You know what I find weird? There was a point where, and this was under Marty, I think it was last season, where they decided to become really much more aggressive higher up the ice, try and make the entry more difficult. And they basically stopped doing that. And I don't understand why they would stop doing that because their problem is when the team gets set up. That's the issue. So yes, you got to fix that. But why would you not try to prevent the team from getting set up? And there was a time... Jake Evans was super effective at it. Dvorak had a stretch where he was good at it. Obviously, not around anymore. Suzuki is good at it. Army is good at it. They have guys who can do that, who can hunt down pucks by themselves, basically, and at least be disruptive on the entry. And for whatever reason, they decided to stop doing that. I really don't agree with it. If I were them, I would continue doing that.

The Canadians played the Philadelphia Flyers a couple of nights ago, and the Flyers have the second best BK in the league, but they are also the team that scored the most goals shorthanded. They've got 10. So maybe that goes to show that the other team that's got 10, the Calgary Flames are fifth. The team that's got nine is the Dallas Stars, they're fourth. Is there something there?

Aggression up ice. I really think it's something that can hide a lot of the warts on your penalty kill. The shorthand goals, I think, are a good proxy for what this does. But really, even if you don't score a goal off of it, it just means less possession time in your own end if you at least disrupt it and make them double back and restart their breakout or just some disruption to the way they come up ice. But if you watch them recently, they don't do it at all. They're just hanging back. Like, yes, they have a fort checker up there, but he has no real intent of being disruptive. He's just there. So I think that's something that the penalty kill could use. My recent trend, I mean, I don't want to make too much of it. But Kloakoffy's shoulder has me... I would be a little worried about... I don't know what's going on with him shooting the park. I just mentioned the expected goals number earlier. Well, when you're not a great finisher, your expected goals number is going to be higher than your goals number. So it's a good thing that he's still getting the chances, but Cole's finishing is not where it used to be.

And I don't know if you remember last year, I spoke to an orthopedic surgeon, just as Cole was ready to get surgery, and he pegged it at two years until you can get back to normal. Josh Anderson pegged it at something like 18 months, but said once it did come back, it It was great. Same surgery. I think what we're seeing is, the Canadians have to hope, is that Cole is just getting his shoulder back up to speed, which is expected with surgery of this magnitude. But his finishing skills have gone down. There's no denying that at this point.

No, because the rest of this game has actually gotten better this season.

Exactly, it's gotten better. His finishing has gone down. So let's see. Let's see if with more time, and maybe the shoulder is a factor, he refuses to admit it because that would be an excuse, and players don't make excuses, but it would be a legitimate reason as well. Let's see. But for now, it's not looking like he's the same finisher as he went before. It's funny because we- Maybe he'll prove me wrong.

We were discussing that in my other podcast Tellement Hockey, today at Radio Canada, and Martin Leclerc was mentioning- You have another podcast?

I do. You're cheating on me? Yeah, I know. I'm just Sorry.

Different language, though. Martin was mentioning how it's not necessarily a matter of velocity. It's really just the quickness of the release that seems to be an issue. There used to be a time where he was beating goalies because his release was so fast that the goalie would blink and the shot would have gone. Now there's a lot more hesitation. Controls the puck, tries to find the right angle, and the opportunity closes itself. You've got a body in front. The goalie gets better. He knows that he's going to try up and short side or that he's going to try some weird deviation from a bad angle, things like that. They've come to expect what he's going to try to do. I know I brought that point in a previous episode, but I think that despite his young age, he'll have to reinvent himself a little bit as a shooter and try to find new ways to score, A, by continuing to be a better passer because if he's not just a shooting threat, he's going to give himself more space because he's going to have the defense guessing, but also shooting from different spots, going inside more.

He had tried to do that once. Marty asked his to do so vehemently a few weeks ago, and all of a sudden, you see him starting to go back on the perimeter a bit much. So the shoulder is a good point, but I wonder if it's also just a matter of confidence where he holds on to the park a tad too long because the confidence is not where it should be.

I don't buy that. I don't think Cole Coffin has ever had an issue with confidence. I really honestly I don't think that... I personally, that's my opinion. It's not a confidence thing. I think there's a possibility that he just can't physically release it as quickly as he used to, which I obviously mentioned. There's also the reality that he's not cheating to get into scoring positions the way he did as much before because of the other areas of his game that he's trying to grind out. Then I think what you said about goalie He's figuring them out. That's a real thing. He does need to change his book a little bit, but I don't think confidence is an issue with him. I think there's one thing that guy knows how to do is score goals, and he knows it. He's just got to figure it out, so we'll see. But if it's physical, then we'll have to see. All right, final category. Let's go through this quickly. But which player has been most put to the test? At the quartermark, I took Monahan, even though he was my MVP, which I might wind up taking my MVP And you took Kovalevitch.

So which player you think is being pushed beyond his capabilities?

Well, I already said Suzuki, so it's tough to go back to him, although So yeah, I think in all logic, I would keep Suzuki there for the same argument as I said before.

Okay. I think Jake Evans. I'm going to take Jake Evans because Jake Evans is a fourth-line center, and it seems to me that he's never able to play fourth-line center. He always starts there, injuries happen, this, that, and the other thing. And he's a fourth-line center who kills penalties. That's what he does, and that's what he's good at, having him play higher up the lineup, having him play on the wing, even though he had some success there, it just seems like something that's out of his skill set, and it doesn't put him in the best position to succeed, but the Canadians don't really have a choice. No. I'll go with that.

I like his play, though. There are things that by playing him more, you won't get out of him. He's not going to become a scorer. There are things that will forever lack in his game. But I get that they keep thinking that there is more to him.

So do I.

Because you see it sometimes, but it's just I love the guy.

I think he's a competitive guy, and he's got more skill than he gets credit for. Marty keeps saying there's more offense there than you guys give him credit for, but where is it? Him starting overtime the other night. God bless the guy, but God, honestly, what are you doing? It's not who he is. Even if it was a face-off, get-off, it's just like, be who you are.

He would tell you that's not who he is.

A hundred %.

He must have been flattered.

A hundred %, yeah. It's absolutely... He's the most self-aware hockey player I think I've ever covered in my life. It's honestly like there's no illusions of grandeour in Jake Evans. I think if he ever got to play that role, I think he would thrive in it. I'm not saying he's played badly. It's just unfortunate that he's not able to play the role in which he would have the most success. That's all.

All right, Arpen, you're in Switzerland, and the good thing is I'm not going to ask you to talk about David Reinbacker for 25 minutes. You're going to save some for your articles in The Athletic. But tell me about David Reinbacker.

Well, I haven't seen him play yet. I watched him practice once. I met with him for a half hour the other day. Had a lovely conversation. I spoke to his coach. I spoke to a lot of people. And I guess the one thing I would say is that there seems to be a lot of concern in Montreal over how things are going with Clotin. Listen, they're not going well, that's for sure. David did not hide the fact that all the losing is weighing on him. But I think there's a process that he needed to go through. He's gone through. I think Ken Hughes mentioned the other day on L'Atchamb, where you mentioned the appearance he made. He said his impression was that when he went back, he's the fifth an overall pick. He wanted to show a lot more than that. When I spoke to Larry Mitchell, who is now his coach, who's also the general manager of the team who fired the previous coach, who was Jerry Fleming, said the exact same thing. I was like, I could tell you've been speaking to Ken Hughes because Ken Hughes just said that on TV. He's like, Well, yeah, I have, but it's just true.

And David didn't deny that. He did not deny that he came back. He felt he had something to prove, whereas in reality, he didn't. And so he realizes that. And I'm going to find out. I'm going to watch him play tonight. They're playing at home tonight. They're playing in Amory tomorrow, as I mentioned. I'm going to watch both games, see how... But the last few games, he's been really good. And he's paired with Nate Beaulieu, a funny story. I think only you'll find this funny because you've covered Nate Bolia. So I asked to speak to Nate Beaulieu after practice to their PR guy who's very helpful and wants to help as much as he can. And While I was talking to Larry Mitchell in his office, I got a text from the cloud and PR person said, I asked Nate if he could do an interview, and he said he didn't want to do the interview, and he left. The funny part about that is I told him I had told the PR guy that, Listen, can you ask Nate that I want to speak to him, but he's probably going to say no, and he's probably going to leave, but just ask anyway.

He's like, Yeah, no problem. Why would he say no? I was like, Well, go find out. Let's go see Sure enough. Sure enough, he said no. But Nate is David's D-partner right now. Things are not going as well as... Well, I shouldn't even say this. This is another thing is that I think there's a misconception over what Clotin was expected to do this year. Speaking to some other people on other teams, what Clotin did last year was the remarkable thing. It's very rare in this league, apparently, that the team gets promoted from the Swiss League and immediately enters the playoff conversation. Clotin made it to the play-in round, so they didn't make the play-off technically, but they were playing postseason games. Apparently, that's excessively rare. That just doesn't happen. So maybe Clotin being as bad as they are is somewhat unexpected, but no one expected them to make the play-off. You look at the preseason predictions from the Swiss media or the media who cover this league, No one took them to make the play-off. So maybe the extent of it is somewhat unexpected, but I think that everyone knew, including the Canadians, that this was probably going to be a more challenging year.

Clotin is a small market team, and there's no salary cap in this league. Some of the wealthier teams are perennially good. Some of the poorer teams are perennially bad. Clotin is one of them. But I know that Larry Mitchell, David is not one to speak about himself in these But he says, actually, David said himself, I feel like I'm playing more my game. I've gotten back to my game. He also had an injury that obviously derailed things. But Larry Mitchell is like, even now, last year was something. But now for him to be playing... He pointed out the last game, he played 24 minutes. And that's still rare in this league. You go to the Swiss League on Elite Prospects or whatever site you want to use, go through the rosters. And A, the good thing about elite prospects is you'll have the little NHL team logo on the roster to say that this player has been drafted by that team. Go look for drafted players playing in this league. Go look for players born after 2000 playing in this league. There's not a lot of them. It's an older league. It's a mature league.

They're men. They know how to play the game, and it's difficult for a young player to succeed in this league. And Grandbacker is doing that. I mean, even though he's had some difficulties, but I think he went through a necessary process to grapple with his newfound status, let's say. Listen, I spoke to him for 30 minutes in a bakery in Clotin. There's a huge puck in the middle of a roundabout just outside the bakery that has the Clotin logo on it. He's sitting there for 30 minutes. The place is packed. Not one person looked at him, talked to him, let alone talked to him, asked for a photo, nothing. No one even knew he was there, and he was fine with it.

Well, you should enjoy it because at the end of the season, it's going to be a different story.

It's going to be over. It's going to be a different story. There's a lot of processes that he's going to need to go through, but I think grappling with what he's become, a top five NHL pick is one of them, and he's coming out the other side of that right now.

You mentioned that he played 24 minutes the last game. His season average is 1820. He's got six He gets 19 points in 19 games. Actually, his production seems to be a bit down from last season. How does he view his-Look at how many goals Clotin has scored. Yeah.

You need to score some goals to get some They don't score goals. I think they've scored, I think, six in the last five, something like that. They don't score. I think you can make the argument, well, if he's so good, then he should be driving play and creating offense. But that's not the primary part of his game that's really of importance. I think that's not... His strength is starting offense. So he's not going to be a guy who's going to carry the buck all the way up the Nice. He's going to move it. He's going to join the rush. He's going to be part of the offense. But the key word being part, he's not going to lead the offense necessarily. He'll start it by winning the buck back in his own end, getting it up, and then joining the rush. But it's like when we talk about weak link and strong link games and how soccer, you require 10 passes in order to create a goal. And if one guy in that link screws it up, the goal is not happening. Well, With all due respect, there's a lot of weak links imploding right now.

The chain of offense is not really producing itself the way they would have hoped. So I think there is some context to his point totals. But again, that's why I want to go see him live and watch him in his environment. I will report back on that maybe next Friday.

Okay, let me squeeze one more. Has he expressed any regret or second guessing of having expressed his preference of going back to Switzerland? Because things could have been different.

He was disappointed to get cut. He was disappointed to get cut from the Canadians. He thought...

Okay.

But if he wasn't going to play in Montreal or Laval, I don't think there's anywhere he'd rather be than here.

No, I was referring more to Laval than to Montreal. I think there's no surprise that he was got from the Canadians.

Yeah, but I think- But even that decision was not his. That was the Canadian's decision. Maybe the Canadians regret it, but I don't think that's on David. Even if David said- You remember I talked to him at the combine.

He said, My preference would be to go back, finish my studies so that I would have one more year in Switzerland.

That's what I'm trying to tell you, is that that changed over the course of... By the time he had gone to training camp, he saw himself in that environment, whether it was in Laval or Montreal, because LaVal, you're a phone call away. You're on the doorstep of the NHL. I think part of his process at the beginning of this season was what I discussed, but also dealing with the disappointment of not being kept over there. But he legitimately wanted to try and make the NHL team. He was cut relatively early in camp. I think the Canadians wanted him to have this reset because the Swiss League was already started. If they were going to send him to Switzerland Switzerland. I don't know. I don't know what the reasoning was behind it, but I'm guessing that if we're going to send him to Switzerland, might as well send them now. They're already playing games. Let's let them get a season going there. But he admitted that there was a fair amount of... And I even asked him, Alex, your mind changed on that. I remember you telling us and others that all things being equal, I'd like to go back to club and finish my schooling, do this, do that.

And he's like, Yeah, I did change my mind. People are allowed to change their mind. I changed in my mind. I got there. I played in that game against New Jersey in the Bell Center. The place was packed. I was playing with NHL players, like some NHL players, at least. It was cool. I liked it. I would have liked to have stayed there, but it didn't work out that way. He was disappointed, but I think he quickly got over it. And despite all the losing and everything, I think he seems quite happy here. I know that there's been some speculation that fans are going to pull him out of here. I don't know if there's any truth to that. I didn't bring it up with him. I did bring up I'll leave you with this, but I did bring up the thought of, have you put any thought to perhaps go on a Laval or maybe even Montreal once your season here is done? And he immediately said, no. He's like, you know what? No, I'm here. I'm 100 % focused on my team. On this team on this season. If that happens afterwards, fine.

But I have put no thought into it. I've put no energy into it. This is where I am. That's good. This is what I'm doing. I'm in the present right now. So that's where he stands on that.

That's what you want players to do, be in the present, not project themselves, where they're going to be later, et cetera. It's just a task at hand.

Yeah, that's fine. That's what he's doing. So we'll see how this weekend goes. I'm excited to watch him play.

Awesome. Well, I'll be glad to see you back when you're back from Montreal. You still owe me a beer, by the way.

Yeah, don't worry. It'll be paid. It's okay.

All right, everybody. Thanks for listening. We'll be back on Monday for another edition of the Bessu N'Gwenin Notebook. Thanks for listening. Bye-bye..