I know that some in our audience know the finer points of hockey. The Chris Johnston Show. We are your friends. The biggest stories bringing you inside the game. What did you hear? The Chris Johnston Show. What is going on? Here's Chris with your host, Julian McKenzie.

Part of the game. Leaps corner to start today, but we also have to touch on Cory Perry, Elvis Merzlican's, the Edmonton Oilers are playing really well. I have a question about two other really good Canadian teams, Shane Pinto, of course, and Ask CJ. If you want to talk about it, we will allow space for you to talk about it, CJ. You know what it means, right?

Yeah, I'm over it. No, you're not. No, you're not. Yes, I am.

No, you're not.

I am. When your team gets beat that thoroughly, when you come away from the game and there's no, Yeah, but, there's no, The referee screwed this up, or maybe they should have this play instead of that play. When they lose from top to bottom. I had mourned the season before the game was over, and I literally have no, Yeah, but, no, this should have been different. I mean, everything was in the Cowboys' favor. They had a home game. They hadn't lost at home in 16 games. Obviously, I expect it better, but tip your cap to the packers. I'm still in a spread pool with the hockey writers, so So I've got a reason to watch the remaining playoff games. And let's bring on a new head coach in Dallas.

Okay. Can I tell you... I got to tell you something I discovered yesterday with regards to the teams you have affinity for, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Dallas Cowboys. I discovered this yesterday, and I'm sorry I have to break this to you. So we started our podcast in September 2021. It was a great time. And you mentioned a couple of days ago, this is what the fourth different calendar year we've started a show. Your teams, if you combine all the playoff records between the Jays and the Cowboys, your teams are one in seven in the playoffs since this podcast began.

And I've watched all eight games. And I'm ready to be heard again, man. I'm not jumping off bandwagons or anything like that. Like, I'm still... Cowboys are my ride or die, but they died a pretty horrific death yesterday for the '23, '24 version of them anyway.

Okay. Let's not endure more pain. Let's not have you endure more pain when it comes to your team.

I'm telling you, I'm over it. I'm telling you.

Okay. I'm telling you, I have a lot of time and a space if you want to talk about it. If you say you're good, we don't have to go there. We could talk about a team that is, well, the Toronto Maple leaves yesterday, not necessarily going through the greatest of times. I mean, Ilyas Samsonov is back, but a lot of people, maybe more so our fearless leader, Steve Dangle, upset about the fact that they blew a lead on the Saturday against Colorado, and then they lose to a team that only got to the arena, what, 75, 90 minutes beforehand? It started to become one those little moments in Toronto where panic is setting in again. Maybe some of the best players aren't performing the way that they should, and people are wondering if Sheldon Keef is on the hot seat. We've navigated this before on this show. Let's make sense of this. After their overtime loss to Detroit yesterday. Where do we start?

Well, there might be panic. I wasn't online too much during the game yesterday because I was watching the Cowboys, but the Leaps won four games in a row, and then they just They lost three, one of them in overtime in Long Island, so they got one of the potentially six points. They've certainly been not as consistent as you'd like. They are firmly in a playoff spot still. I know now Detroit and Tampa are both creeping up on them, but they're third in the Atlantic. I think where we're at, basically at the halfway point of their season, midway point with 41 games down, they're a good team, just not a great team at this point in time. And I think it's right for people to say, Well, it doesn't look like this current version of the leaves is ready to challenge for a cup. But I mean, there's still half a season to go. So you won't get many bold takes from me on the leaves at this point. But look, there's no sugar coating that... There's been some ups and downs already this year, and I think defensively, there's concerns there. I mean, if anything, my takeaway Seeing Samsonov play against Detroit after two weeks of not playing and one week being off on his own to clear his head, I thought he was pretty good given that.

Certainly wouldn't lay the loss at his feet. But I don't know. I'm just more... I want to see more. I certainly don't think they're terrible. I can't take the temperature right now. I mean, it's minus 22 Celsius in Toronto today. I don't know I don't know what's hot around here. I don't know if people are freaking out or not. They were up 3-0 against Colorado. Colorado is one of the better teams in the league. They let that game get away. But to me, it's not like they're being thoroughly outclassed or anything like that. To me, it's not pound the panic button at this point, but certainly, they're not as good a team right now as they were last year. And last year, of course, they got to the second round and didn't get anywhere near winning the Cup that they're trying to So it's hard to point to any areas of improvement, which is probably a bigger picture concern if you're talking about, can this group actually go on a long play off run and win a championship?

So when you see people say that their upcoming road trip out West, They play in Edmonton on Tuesday. They're going to Calgary on Thursday. The Vancouver Knux are on that trip as well. The crack in two. So when you see people wonder if the wheels could fall off, how do you respond to that?

Well, it's not an easy road trip, right? I mean, you're talking about a team like Edmonton, the hottest team in the league. I know that they had to come from a long way back, basically almost at the bottom of the league. But it's been pretty clear for a while now that they're who we thought they were entering the season. They've really got things in a good place there. Obviously, Vancouver has been one of the great stories of the year. If we're looking for one team that is as hot as Edmonton, Seattle happens to be the other team. As we record this on a nine-game winning streak, I know they play on Monday afternoon, so it will be slightly outdated one way or the other. But certainly, they're either going to have won 10 in a row or nine and one in their last 10 after today. So, yeah, that's not an easy road trip. I got to say, in my years, when I used to cover the leaves on the road a lot, it was always one of my favorite road trips of the year. I mean, all great hockey cities is always fairly split crowds or at least a sense of two teams and two fan bases in the building the same time.

It might be just what the doctor ordered. I mean, who's to say? The least went to California. California is a different challenge these days. La have been struggling a little bit, and obviously, Anaheim and San Jose are off, but they won three games down there. When they were through California earlier in the month in a row. I can understand where the trepidation is. I don't think the leaves can... You're looking for them to win 60 % or more of their games, and they've lost three in a and they're going to play some tough ones. So obviously, it could get out of hand, but it also could be a turning point, too. And so we'll just have to see how those games go.

At least one person in the Ask CJ questions asked if you would be on the road in Calgary this week, which would mean an in-person show. I don't have the heart to tell them the bad news.

Yeah, I regret to inform you that's not the case. It's funny. I don't miss the day-to-day travel, but As I said, this was always one of my favorite trips, and I was even thinking this morning, it would be cool to be going out in the middle of January. I'm sure the weather... I was complaining about the weather here. I'm sure it's even colder in Alberta. Going to real Canadiana cities for games. I would not be complaining if that was my lot in life this week, but instead, I'll just be staying up a little later than normal to watch the games on television.

It could be worse. You could be following I don't know how much it could be worse, to be honest with you. It's a pretty good life you have.

Yeah, yeah. But no, I'm not, unfortunately, on the road. It's funny, too. You know this, but three of my best buddies, childhood friends, always go to the least game in Calgary because they live in the Calgary area and they're from Ontario, and it's one game a year, and they always make a point of it. So sad I won't be seeing those guys because I always, when I was out there covering those games, would have a chance to catch a dinner with them or a drink or what have you, depending on the timing. So, yeah, it's It's a big week, though. The temperature, I guess maybe what I'm not catching, the temperature is definitely up a little bit around the leaves. We saw John Tavares benched for a portion of the third period in Saturday's game against Colorado. Sheldon Keefe put his forward lines in a massive blender for Sunday's game against Detroit. Might have found something a little bit. Domi and Marner, in particular, had a strong night playing together. It's not something they've done much this year. They did it the one game, Austin Matthews was missed because he was sick last month. Maybe they've hit on a duo there, but it feels like they're searching for something a little bit.

Then you add on top of that, just a layer of the uncertainty with the goal tending, with Joseph Wall still being a ways off returning Coming. Martin Jones, maybe he had a great run. I'm not going to take anything away from the guy, but can he keep that going? Maybe we're starting to see some signs of cracks there. Samsonov, well, he did have a decent start against Detroit. Who knows what you're going to get? It definitely feels uncertain. If you're trying to look closely at the patient and be like, Is there issues here? There's definitely some issues. I guess I don't know to conclude how serious or not they are, whether they can be something that can be overcome or not. Then, of course, we've still got the specter of the trade deadline coming and opportunities for the Leaps to change their makeup, too, as with all the teams that have some ambition for this year.

In all seriousness, I completely understand why it's difficult to assess it because the Leaps could easily win four in a row on this road trip, and then everything is sunshine and lollypops again. Or maybe I shouldn't say that because at the end of the day, this is a market that it has become Stanley Cup or bust. But to go through the last two games with Colorado and Detroit, of course, you see a lot of panic for some fans, and the temperature is up and all that. But all you have to do is just pick up some wins, and It does shut a lot of people up, as some have said in the past. I can understand why it's a little difficult to assess that situation.

And let's not get past the larger point here, right? We all know that if the Leifs had another 115-point season, which it absolutely does not look like they're going to do with the way the first half has gone, no one was going to be saying, This is a different team yet. The other part of this, of course, you have to make the playoffs or else the whole point is irrelevant. But I think the Leifs are going to be judged by and large by what happens in April and potentially in May more than the regular season. I feel like you almost... Similarly, if they went on a seven-game winning streak, we'd probably be saying, Well, you can't get too high because there's still these questions. I feel like when they lose a couple of games back to back, they have leads in the games. The Detroit game, it was a one goal game with an empty net goal. Again, they're not losing seven-one to teams here. They're right there. I feel like, similarly, I don't want to start overreacting the other way just yet.

I think it's good and wise. It's good to know that someone keeps their head on straight around here.

Now, I don't do an LFR after every game. I feel like if you actually... Or I don't even write on every game anymore. I mean, that's the other thing. I feel like when it's your job to react to every single game, you end up riding the roller coaster more just because... I mean, again, if you're just talking about that individual game, I mean, there's some games that are exciting and great, and then there's other games you're like, Oh, wow, that was boring, and they didn't have and what have you. I do feel like when you're judging a team literally game by game by game, it's funny. Executives have told me this about their own team. Sometimes when you watch your own team so much, you end up almost being overly down on certain players. It's like you see every mistake or you feel the disappointments and you don't have the bigger picture that, Hey, literally every team struggles. Sheldon Keefe had some really nice words about the Avalanche's top players, how it's not the NHL level when you have Mekar and McKinnon and Devon Taves out there. He's saying it's something a little higher. But I bet if he was watching every Avalanche game live from the bench like Jared Bednar is, or watching them back on video, there's probably some nights he's like, I mean, these are great players, but they didn't have a great night.

We could say the same thing about Matthews and Marner and Neelander and the Leaps. Sometimes those guys have four and five-point games. Matthews said, I don't know where he's at for goals now, but he still leads the league. But then other nights, he wasn't as noticeable as you'd like. I think that's really what it comes down to. If you're really hyper-focused on any one team or one player, you're probably going to find some faults there. But you can't watch 32 teams that way. I mean, it just almost there's not enough hours in the day to do that. I think that's some of where the coverage of the leaves, that's why it is as it is. I mean, look, it's a passionate hockey market. I'm going to be on overdrive later today. I feel like that's always But I feel like that's always where I get the random sampling of what's the word on the street? What's the water-cooler buzz around the team? And I'm sure there's going to be an urgency to those questions there, too, because it's the middle of winter and people are worried.

Yeah, of course. Yes. Let's go to Cory Perry and the rest of our rundown for the CJ show today. You wrote a story on Cory Perry over the weekend. Nhl playoff teams could use Cory Perry, but how many will want to sign him? Last we saw him a couple of months ago in Chicago, his contract terminated after he was dismissed due to an incident. We do not know what the incident is to this point, but an incident led to his contract being terminated. And there were some people wondering if he would have to be reinstated in some way in order to come back to the National Hockey League. But it turns out there was no need for him to be reinstated because no Where it all existed in front of him. So he's free to sign with whatever team. Cj, can you break this story down? Where do you think he could sign? What's the latest you're hearing on Cory Perry?

Well, look, it's an unusual situation, right? And I think if we just look at this on the surface. A player with Cory Perry's experience, he's had almost 200 Stanley Cup playoff games in his career, obviously went to those three finals in a row. I know he was on the losing end of all three in recent years here and then won a Cup very early in his career in Anaheim. I mean, someone with his experience level, even look at his production in the 16 games he played for Chicago this year, nine points. Everything suggests that this is a player on a league minimum contract that could help teams that want to win the Cup this year, could be a boost to your fourth line. Again, you can add him for free other than a small amount of cap space at this point in time. But there's a giant but, and that's that he had his contract terminated in Chicago under somewhat suspicious circumstances or auspicious circumstances, maybe more correctly. I think that for some teams, that's just flat out my sense is they're just not going to go there, even while acknowledging that the player taken in isolation is probably someone that could help their program.

Obviously, there are teams that are interested, too. It's hard to weed through it all at this point in time. I certainly think that there's anywhere from four or five teams, depending who you trust, that have interest in Cory Perry. I do think you're going to see him back in the league because, as you mentioned, there's nothing that is stopping him from reentering the league other than the team signing him. He did have a meeting last week with Gary Bettman that was held at Cory Perry's request, basically where he wanted to update the Commissioner on where he was at. Since last we saw him on November 30th, he put out a statement after the Blackhawks terminated his contract and said That he was seeking professional help for some of his issues with alcohol. Obviously, he was very apologetic in that statement to the Black Ops, to everyone who plays for the team, to anyone impacted by his actions. He called his behavior. I don't have the words in front of me, but I know he was very open. Again, we don't know the details, but he certainly didn't defend himself. He's free to enter the league again.

I do think you're going to see him end up with a contender. I don't know where it's going to be at this point in time. There's a number of teams that they're looking for forwards in no uncertain order. I think you can look at Boston, Colorado, Vegas, Dallas, Vancouver, Edmonton. Just off top of my head, those are teams I think will add forwards in the lead up to the trade deadline. That's not to connect them all directly to Perry himself. I think that, again, that's where it gets a little tricky is just figuring out which of playoff teams is going to want to sign him. But I do think he's going to end up back in the league, Julian. I know there's been some talk about Toronto. I don't see that as a fit, quite the same. I mean, it could be taken by surprise, but my sense is that I don't think the leaps are among the teams that are really in there in a serious way, having those discussions. But keep your eye on a team like Edmonton. We saw them sign Evander Kane, for example, a couple of years ago after he'd had a contract terminated in San Jose, I think that's turned out to be a pretty nice partnership between him and the team.

Unfortunately, I think his play has fallen off a little bit since he had that terrible injury last year where he had his wrist stepped on accidentally in a game and probably hasn't performed up to the level he did prior to that just because he's lacking the ability to do so. But I think that they're a team that certainly will have some interest. Ultimately, it's going to be... I think Cory Perry is going to have a decision to make. I think he will We definitely have a couple of teams to choose from, and he's got to figure out where the best fit is for him and probably where he has the best chance to chase a Stanley Cup, because ultimately, at this stage of his career, that's what it's all about.

I have to just say here, I am not surprised. It's at this point with Cory Perry, where all these teams may be interested in him. I think there were people after late November who wondered if this was going to be the end of the road. Of course, we were still trying to figure out what this incident was, and we all remember the fallout from that.

But I don't know what you're doing. Well, keep in mind, there was no... It didn't cross a legal boundary. There's no charges here. I'm not trying to sound like I'm defending it because I don't even know what happened, quite honestly. I don't know the extent of what happened. Obviously, there's lots of rumors out there. But I think we have to be clear that there's no legal charges. Typically, it takes something like getting arrested for a team to terminate a contract. If you look back over history, that happened with Mike Richards in LA, Slava Voinov years ago. Usually, it's a pretty high standard to get to that. I don't want to say anymore, but this may not have been... This doesn't appear to have been as serious as some of the things that have happened in the past. In the case of, say, like a Richards, he did come back and play after that. There's certainly precedent for this. As I said, I want to choose my words carefully because I do think this is part of the conversation. A lot of these teams in their own front offices, they're obviously doing their own diligence to have a sense of what happened that led to the end of his time in Chicago.

I think that there's now teams thinking, Well, what else might be out there in his past? There's a whole can of worms here. I think that some of the teams thinking about signing him or at least having the conversation, should we sign him, are conscious of the fact there could be some blowback for doing so. That's part of the triangulation, I think, that everyone's walking. This is a little deeper than just, Hey, here's a player that we could add for 775,000 pro and he can help our team. I think there's a lot more to be contemplated there.

If the situation, and I want to be careful with my words, too, we've seen the team, we've seen Chicago say that it wasn't any criminal matter or anything like that. We've mentioned already that it's not a legal thing. But if you're Cory Perry and you had your contract terminated, and maybe you might feel it might not have been just, is there something going on where he might try to get that money back?

Well, It's actually, it's almost a totally separate conversation from the one of a team signing him. What's interesting is there's basically two weeks still left. It's a 60-day window from when a team takes a contract termination the way Chicago did, where the player and the NHLPA on his behalf can file a grievance. In this case, I'm not sure that Cory Perry wants to grieve it. I think that he's probably inclined to just move forward and find a new team and not leave it as is. But I think it's so important to all players, generally, that the NHLPA might end up pushing and ultimately filing a grievance on his behalf, not just about getting the money back, although that would probably be the outcome if the arbitrator ruled in his favor. He'd probably get basically paid the amount of money that he would have been paid had he been with Chicago the entire time. But it's more about preserving the idea that an NHL contract is fully guaranteed. It's one of the things I think is still... Well, the other sports are lapping the NHL. When you look at the way the top players are paid, there's a lot of areas I think that NHL players can look at their brother in the NBA or the MLB and say, Wow, we're really behind.

One area where the league does pretty well is it's hard for teams to get rid of a player. The contracts, by and large, are fully guaranteed. I think there is a world where this ends up going to an arbitrator, where there is a grievance filed. It might not even be because Cory Perry himself wants that to be the outcome, but I think it's almost about something so much bigger than him individually that it's probably going to end up there. That's my sense. Which, again, it's totally separate from the conversation about should another team sign him and what's going on there. But I do think it's an interesting issue because it's very important for NHL players to have those deals guaranteed. Obviously, it's a very risky sport. A lot of guys get injured. If the NHLPA, the Union on behalf of players, you don't want teams to maybe be able to find ways around the guaranteed deal, find ways to terminate a player that they're not happy with or what have you. Again, I don't think that's what happened with Perry. It's clearly there was an incident or incidents that led to this in Chicago. But I think it's an important line for the Union to defend.

Ultimately, who knows how an arbitrator will rule. I believe in the case of Evander Cain that I mentioned earlier, San Jose terminated his contract, Edmondson signed him for a lower dollar amount for the rest of that season. And then the arbitrator awarded in his favor, and I think he basically got topped up some of the money that was on his deal because it was ruled that that wasn't allowed. So, yeah, I do think this is going to be a grievance It's most likely, but broadly or ironically, it's not because that's what Cory Perry wants. I think it's what's best for all players to come.

Okay, we'll keep an eye on that. This episode of the Chris Johnston Show is brought to you by Babel. The best way to learn a language is through immersion. Living with a language is spoken and using it every day. But if that's not in the cards this year, you can still learn a language the second best way, and that's with Babel. I've learned Spanish and German through classes in school in the past. And you know what? I've picked it up over an app or two. I know now with Babel, I could be even better than the elementary school Spanish I learned when I was a lot younger. Babel, again, will be a big help with that. They have quick 10-minute lessons that are designed by over 150 language experts to help you start learning a new language in as little as three weeks. And they're designed by real people for real conversations. Here's a special limited time deal for our listeners. Right now, get 55 % off your Babble subscription, but only for our listeners at babel. Com/johnston. That's 55 % off at babel. Com/johnston, B-A-B-B-E-L. Com/johnston. Rules and restrictions may apply. Let's go to Columbus.

I'm very curious about your trade board that's coming out this week. And last week, we had a conversation about some of the goalies who could be available. We can add Elvis Mersleekens to that list, possibly. It seems as if he and Columbus could be near the end of their relationship. Mersleekens saying he did not ask for a trade, but there is a mutual decision made to pursue a new scenario. He's no longer the number one goal tender in Columbus. He does like the city. He doesn't like the idea of being a backup goal tender. What What would you make of that situation?

Yeah, it just feels like a relationship that's in its final stages where both sides... It's not working for either side. I think the biggest issue that's pretty apparent is that Elvis Mersleek has three more years after this season on his deal, and he's making 5.4 million against the cap. His performance has not been to that level. It's not to say he can't ever get back there. He's still relatively young in his 20s as opposed to his 30s. So there could be teams out there that view him as an upside play. But that's a big contract to add, both in the short term, just to get it under the cap for the season, but even to think about the commitment beyond this year if things don't go well. I don't know if Columbus is going to be able to move him. Obviously, they're trying. I know teams have looked at that situation, have considered it, contemplated it. At this point in time, I'm not aware of any one team that's pushing hard to get it done. But it's unfortunate in a way. So much of, I think, our trade conversation, Julian, in these next few weeks is going to surround the cap.

I know that's been consistent with previous years, but this year, there's just not a lot space out there. It's an interesting spot. They're going to put Mersleekin back into the net on Monday here. He hasn't been playing much since the end of December. I don't know where this goes. I think in a perfect world, of course, the Blue Jackets have a trade partner. They do right by the player. They move on from him, and everyone goes about their business in their way because they are carrying three goal tenders now. They have Spencer Martin, who they've picked up on waivers at the start of the as well. I think stay tuned, not to spoil the surprise for anyone waiting for the Trade Board 3.0, which drops Wednesday at the Athletic. But Elvis Merzlican will appear on that board. Still finalizing the exact rankings. But I do know he'll be a player that's on the board. There's a lot of goalies in play right now. You know what I mean? There really is a lot of goalies in play. But whether it's... Obviously, we talked about Jacob Markstrom a bit recently, John Gibson, and then you got the Peter Morazek of the world, goalies on expiring deals.

Jake Allen, his name has been out there, and he'll be pretty prominent, I would think, on the trade board as well. So more than usual, I would say that there are options for teams looking for a goalie, but it's a strange year with goalies. Every time we get in this conversation, I just almost want to wash my hands and be like, I don't know what's what. I don't know, up is down. We've seen so many goal tenders that have been consistent performers like an Ante-Ranta, fall off this year. Obviously, Jack Campbell in Edmonton, Samsonov. It's just hard to know who's good and who's not and what's what.

We live in a world where I mean, last I checked, it was the case. Maybe it's changed. I don't think it has. But Aiden Hill is the best safe percentage in goals against average of anyone. And that's how many months after he came out of nowhere and helped the Vegas Golden Nights to a Stanley Cup. If you're asking us to assess goalies, we are probably the worst people to do that because it's impossible to judge that position. You could literally come out of nowhere and catch fire, and then you're the guy.

Well, and the league average save percentage is down around 902 now. I'm old enough to remember when it used to be like 913, 914, 915. I think we almost have to recalibrate how we judge goalies, too, because what used to be maybe a middling save percentage is actually now pretty average or even above average. It also shines light on someone like Conor Hela buck, like how tremendous his season has been in Winnipeg, all the success the Jets have had because he still, I don't know what he's got today, but it's 920s anyway, say, percentage. The average performance is down, too, on top of everything else. I just don't know. It's hard for me to judge how that goalie market will shape up. The other thing is goalies don't typically bring back a lot in a trade. Historically, it's weird because as important as having a great goal tender can be, they're not usually the best way to extract the most from the marketplace. That's why ultimately, there's all kinds of reasons someone like Marksha might not move, starting with the fact he has a no-move clause and he might not be inclined to move. I think he really likes Calgary from what I know.

I think it's been really good for him and his family there. But on top of that, the Flames, even as great a goalie as he's been and the great resume he has, just might not be able to get that much for him where it's like, Why are we even moving him then? Before, again, not even factoring in his say in the matter. There's going to be a lot of goalies on the trade board, but ironically, we might not see a lot of goalie trades. It's what I'm setting this up for. We get here by talking about Mers Lekins because I just Well, he's a goalie that's held some promise. He certainly had some great stretches, even as an NHL goalie. It's a lot of money owing his way. And look at the other guy, Cal Peterson, for example, got the great Dnla, gets traded to Philly. Now he's playing for Philly's Minor League team. There's a lot of goalies that are making like three, four, five million bucks in the NHL right now. And so I think if you're making that Mersleekan's trade, you have to be at least concerned that you could end up in that spot a year or two down the road, too, if you're not able to rejuvenate his career.

At least for a guy like Jacob Markstrom, who has... If you look at his analytics for goal saved above expected, he's been among the best. And he generally looks different compared to last year or the 2021-2022 playoffs against Edmonton. You look at his play, and if you have to stomach $3 million off that contract, say the Flames retained 50 %, you can at least... He's actually playing well. Elvis Mersleek Michigan's not so good with the 3.25. And I mean, the same percentage is 907, but you got to really be careful with the money that you're adding. Again, you mentioned the cap. Some of these guys have have loaded salaries. They're bloated. There's going to be some salary retention, and some teams might not be able to afford that.

Yeah. And I should add on Markstrom, too. I was talking to a goalie guru over the weekend, and he was like, I can't believe that Calgary will trade him. He's like, There's just so few guys like Markstrom that have performed at his level as consistently as he has. I know last year didn't go great, but if you look at the larger track record, pretty strong for him. And again, as far as I know, I think he really likes living in Calgary. I just As much as there's some buzz there because I do think there's teams that are at least curious. And obviously, Calgary is in this phase where they're maybe going to detonate a little bit of the roster. So teams might be wondering if they might be able to shake him loose. I mean, ultimately, I don't know if it's going to actually happen.

I have not heard if he'd be willing to move his NMC on my end. Obviously, you would know, too. I would be very surprised if that happened. That's what as far as I would do. I'm not going to say no, but I would be very surprised if that were to happen. Anyway.

Maybe if it was a real cup contender, maybe if it was a team he really believed he could win a cup with. Yeah, that's true. But most of those teams aren't trading for a goalie either right now. So that's the other side of this.

No. But still be on the lookout for The Trade Board coming later this week from one Chris Johnston. You mentioned the Emerson Orillers, or at least they were mentioned at some point early in the show, we should be talking about the Edmondton Oilers anyway. Once upon a time, we thought they were done for, left in the Western conference basement. Why would anyone care about the Edmondton Oilers, you say? Well, they've won 10 in a row.

I think we were pretty good. My recollection is we didn't go as far to say as they're toast.

Okay.

I'm pretty sure. Obviously, we talked about their struggles early in the year. The fact they fell to the bottom of the league after three, four weeks of the season. No one imagined that happening. Our Cup final predictions were very much in doubt. Absolutely. We chronicled that. But I feel like we exercised some patience there. I know our 100 percenters out there will back us on this. I don't think we were ever like, Let's call off the parade entirely. It was not looking good. They make the coaching change. Even initially, even after Noblock came in and replaced Jay Woodcroft, it didn't go great immediately. But the underlying numbers now, it's not just the 10 wins in a row that I'm looking at. It's just all the metrics under the hood are looking very strong for the Oilers again. And that's what they had last season. Remember the second half of the year, they were the hottest team in the league, them in Vegas, basically. And we know how that went for the Goldenites. So, yeah, the Oilers are back to being where they thought they'd be. We just didn't expect them to travel this road to get there.

And what's wild, too, is it's one thing for them to pick themselves back up and put themselves in a wild card race. The Los Angeles Kings have lost eight of their last 10. There's a world where maybe this week, the Everton Orla's leapfrog over the Kings, and they're back to being among one of the top three teams of their division. That is incredible, the turnaround that they've been able to have.

Yeah. I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility they catch Vegas during this regular season. Remember, there was a point, I think it was 18 or 20 points, separating those teams at one point really early in the year. Vegas is dealing with a lot of injury issues right now themselves. That's a factor, I think, in some of their middling play of late. But it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility. Now, I don't expect Edmonton to win out the season here. They're probably going to go through a few dips of their own. Obviously, you're on pretty hot run. The last couple of wins, they won in Chicago and Detroit, close games, didn't blow those teams out of the water. Wins a win. But there's already signs that maybe that Everton is slowing up a little bit here. But yeah, this is a team we expected to be in the Cup race. They're very much in the Cup race. I actually feel like this year it's wide open when we're talking about the contenders. But certainly, I wouldn't I wouldn't name very many teams before I got to Edmonton when listing those that I think are contenders.

Don't ask me to do it because I haven't thought it through deep enough to give it a real college try here. But I'm looking at Colorado, Vegas, Florida. Then I get to Edmonton. There's a lot of focus with us living in Canada on which is the best Canadian team. Obviously, Vancouver, nothing to take away from them at all. But I feel like Edmonton, I'd put them ahead of Vancouver in terms of cup chances.

Oh, interesting.

I'm not saying way above. I'm not saying... But I think the fact that they... But they have a lot more experience there, right? And they've won playoff series. I just think that there's a benefit to being where the Oilers have been when it comes to getting back and trying to have a long playoff run. So, yeah, it's all as well in Western Canada. I I guess we don't put Winnipeg in Western Canada. It's more Central Canada. But the Jets are having a great year. Obviously, the Knucks are having a great year. And now you got the oilers, too. What's going on in Calgary?

Well, they're not as good. I was going to ask between Winnipeg and Vancouver, which team impresses you more. But I'm really intrigued about the Edmonton angle here because on one hand, you're right. They have that playoff experience. They have two of the best players in the world. On the other hand, with Vancouver, I mean, Thatcher Demko has been great this year. Their frontline pieces have been great this year. You want to see them play well in a playoff series, I understand that. But I don't know. That's a team that's gone through some things, a core that's gone through some things over the last few years, and maybe this is the year they put it together. Of course, you could say that about Winnipeg as well. That's a team that's a little bit more... That's older, more veteran savvy. Kyle Conner seems like he's on the way back from injury, too. Maybe this is the year they put together.

Yeah. I mean, you add it all together. It's interesting if you're a Canadian-based NHL fan, because there is a number of different options where things could fall into place. What I really like about the Jets team is defensively, how sound they've been. I don't know the exact number, but they haven't allowed more than three goals in a game going back to basically the start of the season at this point. I think long term, that's the way you see teams have success. They've managed to win with Connor out of the lineup. They've lost Shifley here recently. They've had a number of other injuries, but they've just found a way to keep it going. I mean, look, they even kept it going when Rick Bonus had to be away from the team for several weeks dealing with an issue with his wife's health earlier in the season. They've just been a resilient group. To me, I still think that they could shock some teams. I don't see Winnipeg as being this giant fluke or anything like that. You're right. Vancouver maybe has more, for lack of a better term, more sex appeal. I mean, they They got some players right at the top of the scoring race.

They got four guys going to the All-Star Game. They play all positions because Demko has been great. Quin Hughes could be in Nora's conversation. You've got Petterson. Jt Miller is having a fantastic year. Brock Besser is just filling the net. It makes a better high... From a high level, you're like, Wow, wow, wow, wow. Whereas I think the Jets are maybe just more solid top to bottom. Maybe not the same high, high-end, but pretty solid how play. And then obviously, Hela Bucks, one of the best goal boys in the league as well, which I think helps their cause. So, man, it's going to be an interesting from a... I mean, the fact that you have Rick Tucket and Rick Bones going to the All-Star game as two of the four coaches who coach Canadian teams. It tells the story of Canada's teams have been better than expected. And it's maybe not the two at the start of the year everyone would have talked about is Toronto and Edmonton. And it's actually Vancouver and Winnipeg that have had a stronger regular season through the halfway point.

Well said. We've gone in on all these really good Canadian teams. We should probably spend some time on a team that's not doing as well, mostly because one of their players is returning from suspension. Shane Pinto, on October 26, was hit with a 4:1 game suspension for activities related to sports wagering. And he spoke to the media recently, said that the suspension caught him off guard, broke his heart. But It looks as if he'll be making his return fairly soon, and it will be on a team that is at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings. It is not good in Ottawa right now.

Yeah. I was watching them play a little bit on Saturday afternoon against San Jose, and it crossed my mind. I'm like, Which of these two teams is actually having the more disappointing season? Despite where the Sharks are, despite the fact they're on pace for a '90s-era expansion team in terms of points, I think you argue that Ottawa's season is actually more disappointing because the expectations were so much higher there, that they fired their general manager, their head coach. They lost Pinto for half a season. I suppose this is a It's something nice on the horizon that he can return as soon as this weekend's game in Philadelphia in terms of his suspension being up. But it's been a pretty disastrous year, and I think especially with Michael Anlauer. And look, this is an owner in it for the long haul. The first four months doesn't really reflect on him directly because some of these things he just inherited, and this is where it's at. We're now looking at where his chosen man, Steve Steeos, who's the general manager and President of Hockey Ops. It's about the decisions that are made from this point forward. I think Ottawa is going to have an interesting trade deadline.

We're going to have a couple of sends now on the trade board, given that this is another lost season in Ottawa. I think it's no mystery here. Even though they had a number of games in hand, they just haven't been able to make use of that. They're still right near the bottom of the standings, and it's not going to be playoffs played in the nation's capital in Canada this year. There's some interesting decisions that I think will have to be made. There's obvious players like Vladimir Tarasenko, Dominic Kubalik, players that are on expiring deals, the players you expect to be traded. But you wonder, given how off everything seems with the sends, do they look some larger trades? I don't have that answer for you today, but I do think it's something to start thinking about to have on your radar, because I just don't think you can have as... It's been so long, Julian. This is the other thing, new ownership, new front office, and you're like, Well, why is everyone so frustrated around here? Well, it's because this has been going on for seven years. This quote, unquote rebuild, retool, however it was branded.

It was two seasons ago, I believe, where Pierre Dorian told reporters the rebuild's over. The expectations have been set where this is going to be a team with a chance to make the playoffs. They're just two years away from being two years away, it feels like. I think that it's going to be an interesting short term. Okay, you get Pinto back, and it's another nice young piece, and let's see where you can get. But I think medium term here, what can Steve Steele's do before the trade deadline? Maybe to shake up the roster, to position them a little better for future success. And ultimately, I mean, this as a team next year, we're going to be saying, Can they make that step? Because I don't think they can wait much longer.

Less than two months away until we figure out the answer to that question. And CJ wears sunglasses on The CJ Show after an exhausted trade season. We will get those answers.

I haven't done that for a while.

Maybe it's sunglasses. Maybe you're drinking a Moscow Mule on camera. Who knows?

Did I do that? No, I don't- I was going to say, I'm pretty sure I've never done that.

Did you do that? I don't know. I just mentioned a random drink.

No, but I like a Moscow Mule, but I just feel like I've never- I love Moscow Mules. I was going to say I've never drank one on camera. We usually record these at 10:00 in the morning, so I'm also not drinking Moscow Meals at 10:00 in the morning either.

It's five o'clock somewhere. That's what I would say. Anyway, It's time for questions. Ask CJ. Thank you so much to everybody who sent in questions. There were a lot of people. I know you're over it. There were a lot of people who did say, How about them, Cowboys? There were a lot of people who asked questions, wondering if it's fair to compare the Dallas Cowboys to the Toronto Maple leaves. I don't think we necessarily need to subject you to that today.

It's fair, though. I get where everyone's coming from. They're a team that gets your hopes up, and then the season ends in familiar fashion. Actually thought Blake Coleman, while he was not talking about the leaves, summed it up pretty well. I don't know if you saw his post on X yesterday.

Oh, I did.

But obviously, Blake being from the Dallas area, so I assume he's a Cowboys fan. But he's basically like, it ends the same way every year, but you're still surprised somehow. I feel like that's where you might draw the parallels. Obviously, massive markets, lots of media attention, huge fan bases. To me, that's not a stretch at all. I think it's a totally fair comparison.

Let's get to the questions here from Ryan on X or Twitter, whatever you want to call it. What do you think of 47-year-old Terry Ryan, suited up for the Newfoundland Growlers of the ECHL?

I thought it was awesome. I thought it was so cool. For those that aren't familiar, Terry Ryan, a former eighth overall pick of the Montreal Canadiens in 1995, had a long... He only played a handful of NHL games, had a fairly long career in the American Hockey League, basically some defunct Hockey Leagues like the old IHL, the ECHL. But he hadn't played pro-hockey in 21 years. On the occasion of his 47th birthday on the weekend, he gets a call because Newfoundland, where he lives out there in St. John's, was down some players. They needed someone to sign in a short term to play the next day. And he got into a game on Sunday and even got into a fight defending one of his teammates. Just a real heart and soul guy. I don't know if you know Terry at all, Julian, but I'm actually due to catch up with him this afternoon. Hopefully, we connect, and I'm going to write a story about his experiences for the athletic. But I thought it was really cool. It looked like he held his own a little bit. I don't think he had very many shifts in the game.

The ECHL doesn't make time on ice and that available in their stats, so I'm going to have to ask him about all that. But it didn't look like he played a whole lot. But the bit I saw, I mean, put it this way. Here's some perspective for you. His coach is Matt Cooke, a longtime NHL player. Matt Cooke is 45. Terry Ryan played for a coach that is older than him at age 47 in a pro-hockey game. I know it's two rounds down from the NHL, but still, That's pretty cool. I don't know if you caught the interview he did with the local reporters afterwards, but he was pretty heartfelt over 13 minutes just talking about what it meant to him. Clearly, someone who loves the game that a lot of players retire and players that have great careers and they just almost never skate again. But he still skates four or five times a week to stay in the shape where you could even jump into that game. I don't think it was done for a sideshow. It wasn't done to try to sell tickets. They literally just needed someone in Newfoundland at that moment who could play in that game for them, basically.

And obviously, that probably wasn't a long list of people. And so good for Terry. And pretty cool. He was able to have his daughter in the crowd and everything like that. It was the first time she'd seen him play pro because it had been so long since his actual career ended.

Well, I look forward to the story you end up writing on Terry and a very early stick tap to him for doing that. That sounds really cool. From ktown2272 on Discord, how long is long to keep your Christmas decoration up?

Well, my tree is still up, and it's January 15th. But it's coming down. It's actually coming down this week. I'm just I think we're at the point where this is about too long. I've talked on here, I'm a Christmas lover, enjoyer, reveler. I do think it's nice. Anything to brighten your day this time of year is fair game. But you're getting to mid-January, it's probably time to move it along.

I've seen Christmas tree stuff up in February. January 15th doesn't phase me.

No. I'll say I like it because sometimes I've been running out at night in my hood. I like that a lot of people still have their Christmas lights up. I actually think the lights are nice on the exterior of your house. Again, it's been dark and gray here, Julian. We actually have a little actual sunshine today, but sometimes just even having those lights It warms the neighborhood a little bit. So I think it's totally fine if you have exterior lights up right through the wintertime.

Next one from SoapDispenser on Discord. Talking about William Neelander's number more in terms of percentage of cap rather than the raw number? Could a contract be signed for a fixed percentage of the cap rather than a fixed number?

No. That's why we call it AAV. It's average annual value across the length of the contract. And so either way, no matter how the deal itself gets structured or what you do, a contract has to have a total value. It has to have a certain number of years, and then the cap hit is consistent across each of those years. And So that's the best way to get around any cap mechanics, anything that might jeopardize. I suppose the only way you could do that if your player is sign one or two year deals, like short term contracts, and then keep getting raises every year, which we see players doing the NBA a little more frequently, but not as common of a practice in the NHL.

Last one for you from Arrogant Madman, probably best suited for after the All-Star break, but here goes. Which NHL team could use a Ted Lasso inspirational speech to kickstart the second half of their season.

Well, we started with the Maple leaves. We'll end with the Maple leaves. Maybe they need some Ted Lasso in there. They need someone to put a believe sign up in the dressing room or what have you. Yeah, but there's a few. I mean, look, Vegas has struggled a little bit. I think everyone has to remember, even the bet, other than Boston last year, which maybe didn't struggle at all until they got to the first round and lost. Not to make light of that, but there's lots of ups and downs in a season. I think everyone needs it at some point. I wish we could go back and give the Cowboys that speech before they were playing Green Bay, but alas, that wasn't the spirit of the question. But I'll go with the Maple leaves just given the way we started the episode, and it feels like a nice bookend on the show.

I think so, too. We will be there for every peak in valley every NHL team goes through on the CJ show. That's going to do it for Monday's edition. Please subscribe to our show on Apple, on Spotify, wherever you listen to podcast. Early stick tap. We gave one to Terry Ryan, who will give it to the rest of the SDPN crew for reaching 100,000 subscribers on YouTube. But we still could use your fingers to click that subscribe button when you can, because every subscriber helps around here.

A hundred thousand is a big number, though. Good for the boys. That's a massive number.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Hopefully we could celebrate that for All-Star Week, if we're allowed to do something like that.

That's coming up, bud. That's coming up.

Anyway, we'll be back later this week with a new episode. Thank you all so much for listening to our American viewers or listeners. Happy Martin Luther King Day, a day on, not a day off. For CJ, I'm Julian. So long. Thank you.

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