One thing is pretty clear on the defensive side of things, that's why I'm starting goalie out, is when Trelevin got here, it's very clear that behind the scenes, he looked at things and went, What the hell did you guys leave me with? He wanted size, and they needed some buck moving. Last year, they tried to get a little bit of both with John Klingberg, who's tall.

And moves the buck well. And moves the buck well, historically. And moves the fuck. He shoots from the point. When he doesn't have a hit, he has injury.

Yeah, when he doesn't have a hit, he shoots the point, which is something they do not have on the power play, which is still they still really don't have. What do you think about what Tanev brings? And then we'll work our way down to OEL and some of the other guys here. What's the... Tanev is the big one.

He's the big one because he's a right shot, which is what they specifically targeted, and he can soak up, I'd say 20 minutes. This is where it gets interesting. I've seen a lot of commentary like he's going to play on the top pair with Reilly. It's like, maybe. He's 34. I mean, I'm not aging him out here. He signed a six-year deal. But there's a chance he's playing on a second. We'll see how the coaching staff games it out, but maybe he's playing on the second pair, and it's more of a shutdown pair. So there's still a hole on the right side to me. Maybe it's Hock and Pah. If Hock and Pah is healthy.

Steve's going to lose it if it's Lilligran. No, that's not true. No, that's not true. Reilly Lillegren.

He'll be mad if they're scratching him in the playhouse. Yes, that it will be mad.

That it will be mad.

And there's still room for trade, maybe. Again, it's not all settled. But I mean, the Tanef signing, to me, it's smart. Where's the downside here? This guy is consistently, by every metric used to measure these things, the best or among the best defensive defenseman of the League.

And recently healthy.

Yeah, he had an awesome season last year. Unfortunately for Dallas, he was injured at the very end of their playoffs. Right. And that's the only real concern with him is that the way he plays, his style is not geared towards playing 82 games plus 24 more in the spring.

Listen, if Chris Tanev is hurt in the East final next year, I'll be okay with it.

But you'll be ruin that.

Well, I'll be ruin it, but the least will at least be in the East final. Then that brings us to the other bigger name is Oliver Ekman-Larson, who had a resurgent year last year. Sorry.

Sorry. I do want to hop on one thing. Go.

I thought you wanted to get in on Dakota Murmis. Yeah, me too.

Yes.

Thank you. Well, Well, and also Cedric Paré. No, something you just said is there could be a trade. And on a recent CJ show, you mentioned there's still a possibility for Lilligren to get traded. And that was one of the things that made me go, What? When I was listening in my car?

Well, they certainly listened to Trade Talk on him and included him in discussions. I think when they were still in talks to get Markstrom, I think Lilligren was a possibility in that trade, which, of course, the alternate universe that didn't happen because Markstrom ended up in New Jersey, where it always felt like he was going to go. But I think the Leaps had been opened to moving Lilligren. I think had they been able to get Matthew Roy...

Which they wanted, but I think Washington went the seventh year, right?

Well, and I just don't think the Leaps could do that financially. No. And good for him. That's crazy.

Why? But, yeah, make his money. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.

We're never far from the feeling. Getting a little...

It's just a question.

But I think they were priced out and then they signed... Because the least were scared or whatever, mindful, maybe a better way to put it, of the arbitration case Lilligran would have had. By signing him, didn't guarantee he won't be traded. I don't believe. Probably, again, more likely than not, he's going to be on the team next year. But it's still... I mean, it was a two-year deal, right? Yeah. It doesn't feel like he's our guy forever.

Certainly not. But I feel like a lineup with Reilly on the top pair, Ouel on the second pair, if Lilligrind is playing on the third pair. If Lilligrind is playing on the third pair- Where do you have McCabe on the third pair? Yeah, that's the thing, right? I like Benwa and McCabe. I feel like they should be the third pair, but the What I wanted from the leafs.

So Hakenpaw is scratch an opening night in Adam's world.

Same with Connor Timmer.

Oh, Connor Timmer is to the moon.

You don't sign Hakenpah to scratch him.

No, I don't think you do. So then maybe Maybe you signed him to-He might not be healthy, though. Yeah. Well, yeah, but you signed him.

So maybe he's not scratch. Ideally, he's like IR.

They needed Puck moving throughout the lineup is my point. So at least having... If Lilligran isn't playing, and it's Hawk and Pa that's in, At least you got two guys who are bona fide Puck movers back there. And I think the other thing that they really need to do this year is they need to spread the talent out on the power play units because loading up on power play one, as much as it's seen overall success, year after year, right around March, dies because teams figure it out. They make no adjustments, and the second power play unit stinks, and so they at least can't play them. If we create some competition here and actually have players going, You know what? Our unit's better than your unit. I feel like that might be a better solution for them long term. And they have the talent to do it, at least now. It can't be Jake McKeeve running a power play, right?

Well, I think OEL would be-That's my point.

They have that with him, and that's why I wanted to have him.

And honestly, even if it doesn't work with Reilly at on PP1. I think OEL could be that guy. Florida did that in the playoff. Why did they want OEL so bad?

I like the signing, to be honest, but I think some people do, some people don't. Why do you think the least like him?

Because he's a great skater. He certainly improved. Last year changed his reputation. He was a distressed asset, and he was healthy all year, played on a good team, great guy, and he was available. I mean, part of it is just availability, too, right? And they had to give them four years to get it done. But again, I've seen some people be all up and arms with this contract. I'm a little less worried about that term. I think you can get rid of them if you have to.

Yeah, four years, 3.5. Yeah, I don't like.

But two summers from now, if it's not working out, I think there's a way to... We've seen... I don't know.

He's not making 8 million bucks anymore.

Everybody's always a nervous spender.

I think it's because the leads have made some bad contracts. I think the David Clarkson thing undid a generation.

Yeah, but in the end, they traded him for nothing. Exactly. So it didn't really hurt them. It was not a good decision to sign him to that deal, but it didn't hurt the team's ability to build a team. They had bigger problems than just David Clarkson at that point in time.

Oh, yeah.

But I just think that it's at the time, the discussion about Hyman, if he stayed with Toronto, I was like, You can't give that guy seven years. I was like, You give him seven years. He's an awesome guy. He's a core member of this team, and you deal with the year five, six, seven if you have to. It doesn't look like you're going to have to based on what he's done in Edminton. Yeah. Just getting better.

Oh, man, it's crazy.

Adam was listing out the defense lines, and they have nine defensemen currently on their NHL page on CapFriendly that are signed. Three of those guys have to be a healthy scratch come opening night.

I don't think Capoy, they're going to have to send someone through waivers.

So Mermis is probably going to go down, I would assume.

No. I think Connor Tim is.

Assuming everyone is healthy because if someone's injured, you don't have to... But if they're They're not keeping more than seven on the opening night roster. Right. So Mermis and Timmins are waivers?

Mermis and Timmins. And then one is going to be your healthy scratch, right? Hey. It seems like they have too many guys right now, but that's a good problem.

I think it's good to have too many.

Why is CapFriendly still online?

I don't know. I'm looking at Puckpedia right now. They tweeted yesterday.

I'm not going to lie. The only thing I've even thought of tweeting in the last few days was I wanted to go take a picture of the dead URL and be like, Pour one out for CapFriendly. It hasn't been dead.

Every day, I go to like... Maybe they're just not updating it anymore.

No, they are, though. They are, yeah. I don't know.

They're still going. They can't go offline until the Yanny Hock and Pa deal.

Do I have to go every day to just try to execute this tweet?

Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I guess you do.

I don't get it.

So we have an idea of like, Mermis and Timmins are the odd people out?

Yes. And then your scratch opening night is probably one of Hock and Pa, Benoît. Probably one of those two.

Hock and Pa Benoît, okay.

Or maybe Lilligran. I don't mean, let's see how camp goes.

It would suck to sign your 25-year-old for $3 million for two years just to healthy scratch him on night one. That's the Lilligran situation I'm in.

Yeah. I don't think he's likely... That's what I'm saying. It's likely one of the guys making less than three million.

Years ago, the Leifs wanted Roman Polak. He was not good to go. And then they signed him to a deal after the season began. What are the odds they don't make the Hock and Put deal official until October.

I think they got to do it sooner than that. Yeah. I think there has to be some clarity here in the near future.

Okay. Well, I would bloody hope so.

I'm going to be in Amsterdam watching soccer, so I will not.

Oh, beautiful.

I won't be the one to tell you about it, but you can send me an email. I'll get back to you in August.