Hockey Free For All

Episode 54 of the Hockey Free For All Podcast 06-28-2023

Hey Hockey Fans, Episode 54 of the Hockey Free For All Podcast has arrived quickly, topics of discussion include-
#1. First up is an organizational update from around the league such as. new assist coaches for the New York Rangers and the Calgary Flames and much much more.
#2. The meltdowns in Calgary and Winnipeg continue. But Winnipeg seems to be in a far better situation out of the 2 teams. Regarding Winnipeg, what about a trade that sends Mark Scheifele, Nikolaj Ehlers, Sam Gagner, and Blake Wheeler to the Nashville Predators in return the Winnipeg Jet’s receive, Winnipeg Native Center Cody Glass, NHL ready 20 year old Left Winger Zachary L’Heureux, NHL Defenseman Tyson Barrie and NHL Defenseman Mark Borowiecki?
#3. The New Jersey Devils are locking up player’s long term.
#4. Yes! It looks like Pierre Luc Dubois has got at least one foot out the door and is on his way to L.A. Best of luck, I hope he has a great career there.
#5. It’s come to this, that there are actually people who Montreal to bring back Max Pacioretty and Tyler Toffoli! What! Why?
#6. Take a breath and give Juraj Slafkovsky a chance, he’s only played 39 NHL games in his life and a total of 31 games internationally in his life, what is wrong with people?
#6. How about bringing back P.K. Subban as well. That way all of the locker room disruption, chaos dissension can return and completely destroy team chemistry as well. What the hell is wrong with people.
#7 There must be a lot of people who want to see and really prefer that the Montreal Canadiens remain, a league doormat team or cellar dweller team forever. This is just unbelievable.
#8. Interest now is squarely on where does Mitchkov fall to and does Montreal take him or do the Montreal Canadiens clean up with trades to the Philadelphia Flyers or the Washington Capitals?

Episode 53 of the Hockey Free For All Podcast 06-27-2023

Episode 53 Topics for the Hocket Free For All Podcast.
#1. The Pierre Luc Dubois saga continues. The L.A. Kings look like the clear front runners prepared to offer the most. But one can’t ignore what Boston and Pittsburgh are doing, perhaps they making room for him?
#2. There is 2 very toxic environments in Calgary and Winnipeg.
#3. How about Sending Mark Scheifele to Nashville for Cody Glass
#4. What about trading goaltender Connor Hellebuyck to the Toronto Maple Leaf’s for the 28th pick in the first round of the 2023 draft?
#5. Why not send Jonathan Huberdeau to the Pittsburgh Penguins who are in a win now mode?
#6. How about Noah Hanifan to the St. Louis blues for the 10th overall pick in the first round of the 2023 draft.
#7. Montreal does not need D’Andre Miller!
#8. David Reinbacher would not be the right or a good pick with the number 5 pick overall!
#9. If Matvie Mitchkov drops in Montreal’s lap, does Montreal make a trade with the Washington Capitals?
#10 What about Josh Anderson, goaltending prospect Cayden Primeau and the remaining rights to Johnathan Drouin for Philadelphia first round pick in the 2023 draft that is the 7th overall pick in the 2023 draft?
#11. If Montreal did make those trades with Philadelphia and Washington, they would then have 7th and 8th overall picks in the first round back to back and Montreal, could those positions net defenseman David Reinbacher and forward Oliver Moore?

Episode 52 of the Hockey Free For All Podcast 06-24-2023

Episode 52 of the Hockey Free For All Podcast is here. Topics of discussion include
#1. There is clearly a new plan and a new direction in Philadelphia.
#2. Clearly the time has arrived for more past players to get into management roles.
 #3. Has anyone else noticed that 63 million dollars over 8-years has become the go to, long term deal numbers for contracts or is it just me?
#4. The rumors surrounding the 2023 draft have reached the irrational Level.
#5. Here’s to hoping that either the San Jose Sharks or the Columbus Blue Jackets draft Matvie Mitchkov.
#6 If Mitchkov is there at the 5th pick, what about trading the 5th overall pick to the Washington Capitals for their 8th overall pick in the 2023 draft and their first-round picks in the 2024 and 2025 NHL Entry Drafts.
#7. It makes absolutely no sense to mortgage away all of your prospects to obtain a Conner Bedard or  Adam Fantilli , these Players need to be surrounded with talented players. It’s a team sport, it’s a 20-man roster. We’re not talking about golf here, hello!
#8. The 2023 draft has the potential of being the busiest draft in decades.

Episode 51 of the Hockey Free For All June 21 2023

Episode 51 of the Hockey Free For All Podcast Topics Include-
#1. Let’s talk Pittsburgh Penguins from the clubs new president Kyle Dubois, to newly Names Assistant G.M. Jason Spezza to Pittsburgh core 3 of Sydney Crosby, Kris Latang and Evgeni Malkin.
#2. The N.Y. Rangers have hired Peter Loviolette, he is the perfect coach for the New York Rangers right now
#3. All 7 NHL coaching vacancies have now been filled and there was not even a sniff of an opportunity for Patrick Roy. But Could Patrick Roy be a fit in Ottawa after the 2023 draft.
#4. I can’t help but think that there will be more changes after the draft is completed, and those changes could be at the moment the draft wraps up to the end of July or later, there just seems like there is unfinished business.
#5. Here’s the list of that the Montreal Canadiens successfully unloaded and said goodbye to by open night of the 2023/2024 regular season, starting with from the NHL roster Josh Anderson, Joel Armia, Johnathan Drouin, Christian Dvorak, Jake Evens, Brendan Gallagher, Denis Gurianov, Mike Hoffman, Rem Pitlick, Chris Tierney, Joel Edmundson, David Savard, Chris Wideman and Jake Allen from the NHL roster. The one and only name that I left off was Sean Monahan, and my only reason for doing that was if he can be signed at something like 1.5 or 1.7 million with a heavy bonus structure that is based around his health and performance type contract, then there is reason to hold onto him. If not or someone else makes a far better offer, then it only makes since for his own security and to let him move on as well.
From the Laval AHL roster, I would also love to see Montreal move on from Cayden Primeau, Anthoney Richards, Brandon Gignac, Danick Martel, Peter Abbandonato, Gabriel Bourque, Patrick Dube, Jesse Ylonen, Fredic Allard, Tory Dello, Mattias Norlinder, Madison Bowey, Corey Schueneman, Tony Sund, and Nicolas Beaudin and even goalie Joe Vrbetic.
There are even prospects that I would love to see Montreal clear out in this time period, these players include Blake Biondi, Alexander Gordin, Jack Gorniak, Oliver Kapenen, Jacob Olofsson, Rhett Pitlick, Ty Smilanic, Jack Smith and Dmitri Kostenko. Yes, that makes for a total of 40 players that I would love to see moved and all for future draft picks.
#6. If we’re going to kick around insane wants and trades from the 2023 draft, then here’s mine. I want to see Montreal walk away with center-Will Smith, Right Winger-Ryan Leonard, Left Winger Gabriel Weber and goal tender Michael Hrabal at the end of the first round in the 2023 draft. Montreal could actually achieve that by moving a combination of the players that I mention in topic 5, nothing more to make it happen, and it would be thievery.

Episode 50 of the Hockey Free For All Podcast 06-16-2023

Episode 50 of the Hockey Free For All Podcast discussion topics include-
#1. Calgary names Ryan Huska head coach. Sounds like the roster players love the hiring, my only question is what took so long to name an in-house candidate that Calgary could have named the day after the dispatching of Darrell Sutter?
#2. Best of luck to both Craig Conroy and Ryan Huska in their new positions, reviving the career of Jonathan Huberdeau, has to be at the top of their to do list?
#3. Not a surprising at all that the N.Y. Rangers have selected Peter Laviolette as the club’s new head coach, he is the right coach for the N.Y. Rangers.
#4. In other coaching related news, it would seem to be a very big day and time of change in Patrick Roy’s life, as not only has he officially stepped down as general manager and head Coach of the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL, but that there was not even the sound of a single cricket regarding any opportunity within the NHL of any kind, anywhere. It seems as though the only possible way that Patrick Roy ever gets back into the NHL in a management, or coaching role, is if the NHL puts a future expansion team back in Quebec City.
#5. After a very long, exhaustive, grueling, and thorough process Toronto Businessman Michael Andlauer has come out on top and is the new owner of the Ottawa Senators. Michael Andlauer will now have to sell his 10% ownership of the Montreal Canadiens which should contribute a sizable dollar amount to his purchase of the Ottawa Senators.  The big question now is where does leave Pierre Dorian and everyone else moving forward? One has to wonder if changes are on the way after the draft completes or after the initial free agent frenzy ends?
#6. Regarding the playoffs. Let me begin by saying, I have no skin in the game as they say. I am not a fan of either team in the cup final. However, someone please try to convince me that the hit on Matthew Tkachuck wasn’t a targeted, calculated and most of all excessively over the top hit with intent to have the exact outcome that it did. Please, I’m begging for anyone to attempt to even remotely justify or explain that hit with even a drop of ethics, integrity, professionalism, or sportsmanship attached to the argument. Make no mistake it was a calculated targeted hit 100% without question.  Anyone and everyone has clearly seen the effects of the hit on Matthew Tkachuk’s game, even if there are some who have chosen to turn a blind eye to it, the effects have been that obvious. Come on, his own brother Brady had to help him out of bed prior to games 3 and 4. His own teammates had to dress him for games 3 and 4, because of the level of pain he was in!
It doesn’t require anyone with an IQ higher than plant life to have taken note of the effects and obvious laboring of every shift Tkachuck has taken since. Though Las Vegas has won the Cup, they will never know if they were capable of beating Florida’s best. One can’t help but wonder what type of tone there might be in future games between these 2 teams, once the injured have recovered. So much for integrity, ethics, professionalism and sportsmanship, it would seem that these things in reality just fall into the 100% B.S. category and are nothing more than that.
If this strikes anyone as overreaching or over dramatic, consider this in your uncaring thoughts for a moment. If Matthew Tkachuck was your brother, friend of the family, or a friend of yours specifically, what would be your reaction then? Just the fact that he’s another human being should be enough for a society who claims to supposedly care such much with all of the social issues that are now front and center. Society is now on trial, let’s find out if there is even the tiniest remote amount of truth, ethics or integrity, or if it’s all for show, me, me, me, I just want my way, and nothing or no one else matters in the least. Let’s find out, for real, once and for all.
This speaks to words that used to mean something, and now are nothing more than buzz words. Accountability, Responsibility, Respect, Ethics, Integrity, Honor and Professionalism. So much for progress. I am willing to bet that absolutely nothing is even addressed regarding this, which speaks volumes. If it had to be summed up in a single word, that word is DISCRACE.
#7 Adam Boqvist to Montreal rumors. I would be willing to send prospects Jacob Olofsson and Ty Smilanic to acquire him or fellow Swedish defensemen Mattias Norlinder straight up, Boqvist, but absolutely nothing more than that.
#8. The 2023 draft.

Episode 49 of the Hockey Free For All Podcast 06-10-2023

Episode 49 of the Hockey Free For All Podcast
#1. Outrageous trace acquisitions for Pierre Luc Dubos, Carter Hart and Alexi Lafrenier. NO, NO, NO!
#2. The insanity of Montreal trading draft picks for any reason
#3. Very apparent short-term memory, as it will completely destroy the team’s salary cap structure again.
#4. The Montreal Canadiens would lose great young talent.
#5. Stop ignoring Jakub Dobes and draft Goalies with the Florida pick, along with the 2nd and 3rd picks in the 2023 draft, problem solved the right way
#6. Sam Montembeault had an outstanding world cup, Show cased his abilities on a very average, non-star studded roster, that the so called great goalies of past world cup had in front of them and has earned the starting goaltending job in Montreal for the 2023/2024 season.
#7. Montreal in the last 3 drafts has done a phenomenal job drafting and filling the organization with excellent prospects, stop trying to mortgage it all away people.
#8. Management and coaching updates from around the NHL
#9. Marner traded straight up to San Jose for Erik Karlsson?
#10. Does Toronto take a page out of the Vancouver Canucks past history, when Brian Burk was the GM and trade 2 out of the core 4, as they are being called, in separate trades to Columbus and San Jose, so that Toronto would then have back-to-back picks at 3 and 4 in the 2023 NHL draft similar to what Vancouver did when they drafted the Sedin Brothers back to back at 2nd and 3rd overall in their draft? I’m just asking the question and posing a scenario here.
#11. All of the ridiculous rumors and attempts to create chaos can stop. Michael Pazzetta signs a new 2-year deal at a very team cap hit and Cole Caufeild has signed a new 8-year contract. Another amazing job by G.M. Kent Hughes.  
#12. Patrick Roy thought he was more important the franchises themselves, how did that work out?  No player ever has been or ever will be bigger than or more important than any franchise. Montreal does not need him within the organization at all. Best of luck, enjoy endless golf.

Episode 48 of the Hockey Free For All Podcast 05-31-2023

To all the Hockey fans out there, here is episode 48 of the Hockey Free For All Podcast to listen to. Episode 48 of the Hockey Free For All Podcast topics include-
#1. Let’s take a look at management and coaching opening around the league.
#2. Record amount of NHL coaching vacancies.
#3. The pending sale of the Ottawa Senators
#4. Is Lou Lamoriello staying with the N.Y. Islanders.
#5. The complete in Arizona.
#6. Will Brendan Shanahan remains president of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Is George McPhee hired as the new General Manager? Will the existing coaching staff Remain in Toronto?
#7. Will the Toronto ownership group wipe the board completely clean, sweeping out everyone and  install either Gina Kingsbury or Emilie Castonguay as President, followed by selecting Cammi Granato as their General Manager and turn this chaos into being viewed as one of its model franchises of the NHL?  
#8. What is with the obsession that Patrick Roy has to rejoin the Montreal Canadiens in some capacity?
#9. The Pierre Luc Dubois dribble continuous. Now there are individual’s stating how that Canadiens should trade Kirby Dach for Pierre Luc Dubois, are you insane?
#10. The Montreal Canadiens have been looking for a big rangy center since the drafting of Doug Wickenheiser number 1 overall in the 1980 entry draft.
#11. The Johnathan Drouin experiment was a complete mess, do people love misery?
#12. Let’s talk playoffs, how can anyone call these playoffs boring?
#13. The league must be very, very proud of the success of their new markets.
#14. Let’s wrap up with the 2023 draft with a trade proposal that will blow your mind.
 

Episode 47 of the Hockey Free For All Podcast 05-26-2023

Episode 47 of the Hockey Free For All Podcast discussions.
#1. As much as just about everyone is going to want to blame and hang this on the league, I commend the league for trying to grow and spread the game into new markets. Let’s remember that first and foremost, that’s the job of the commissioners and the responsibility of the league to do so, for both the survival of the league and for the sake of the sport itself.
#2. Let’s continue to chart new ground and stray from the regular episode theme with a mind-blowing expansion team concept. Let’s address multiple discussion, desires and badly wanted changes that have been bouncing around for at least the last 15 years. Expand to a 42 teams league, that’s right I said a 42-team league. Let’s knock it down to 2 conferences, no more divisions. You have (2) 21 team conferences, an Eastern Conference and a Western Conference, with a very cut and dry and concise geographical split that leaves no team at a travel disadvantage.
All the political jockeying and leveraging gone.
The 21 Eastern conference teams are as follows-
Montreal Canadiens
New Expansion Quebec Nordiques
Toronto Maple Leaf’s
New Hamilton ONT Expansion Team
Ottawa Senator
Buffalo Sabers
Boston Bruins
N.Y. Rangers
N.Y. Islanders
New Jersey Devils
Philadelphia Flyers
Pittsburgh Penguins
Columbus Blue Jackets
Detroit Red Wings
Chicago Blackhawks
New Milwaukee Expansion Team
Washington Capitals
Carolina Hurricanes
Nashville Predators
Tampa Bay Lightning
Florida Panthers
                                                                                  
The 21 Western Conference teams are the-
Vancouver Canucks
Calgary Flames
Edmonton Oilers
Winnipeg Jets
New Saskatoon S.K. Expansion Team. This gives Canada just about an across the province representation. But if too radical or unthinkable, New, New Orleans
Seattle Kracken
New Portland Oregon Expansion team
New Salt Lake City UT Expansion Team
San Jose Sharks
New Sacramento C.A. Expansion Team
L.A. Kings
Anaheim Ducks
Las Vegas Golden Knights
Dallas Stars
New Houston TX Expansion Team
New Austin TX Expansion Team
Minnesota Wild
St. Louis Blues
New Des Moins IA Expansion Team
New Kansas City MO Expansion Team
New Oklahoma City OK Expansion Team
And this addresses something that the vast majority has repeatedly asked for. The top 16 teams for each of the 2 conferences make the playoff, thereby leaving only least 5 with the least amount of points from each conference not making the playoffs, which exponentially enhances the playoffs for the league and its owners, greatly enhances revenue for the league, its owners and its players, and allows the majority of the league a viable chance to make the playoffs.  Its league balanced, fair, opportunistic, levels the playing field, and creates both a rabis and exciting playoffs for the fans and league with no downside.

Episode 46 of the Hockey free for all Podcast 05-24-2023

Topics for episode #46 of the hockey free for all podcast include-
#1. How about the Toronto Maple Leaf completely clean house from the president on down and Appoint Emilie Castonguay as their new President and Cammie Granato as their new G.M. How’s that for impact, Professionalism, Quality, and leadership. Yes, it would create an enormous reaction, but more importantly it shut down all the chaos, power struggles and all other noise immediately, as well as aligning everyone in the organization on the same page from the moment of announcing it.
#2. What’s with the people thinking that Edmonton in any way needs to or has to make any management or coaching changes of any kind? The issues in Edmonton are specifically they need to change out their defense and goaltending, and a trade with the Montreal Canadiens might answer everyone one of their needs.
#3. What would be Going back to Montreal, 2nd, 3rd & 4th round picks in either the 2023 & 2024 NHL Entry Drafts or in the 2024 & 2025 NHL Entry Drafts.
#4. Who are these people thinking that Lindy Ruff should not or will not return as the head coach after the amazing job he very apparently did in the 2022/2023 season.
#5. Mike Babcock would be a perfect fit for and in Columbus. Babcock is exactly what that team needs. They have missed John Tortorella in many ways since the moment of his departure without question.
#6. Stop with the Pierre Luc Dubois obsession. Dubois is not what Montreal needs in any way. Montreal already has better and ready prospects to step in next season, starting with Owen Beck who is having an exception 2nd junior season, who’s a top 6 forward, solid 2 way center that can play it anyway you want to. Is a high face off percentage winning center, who could have made the Montreal roster out of training camp last year, after being the 33rd pick overall in the 2022 draft.
#7. What is with all of the ridiculous trade package rumors out there that are involve Arber Xhekaj and Jordan Harris. Are there really people out there that are absolutely 100% against Montreal having any success ever again?
#8. You want to trade defenseman, trade Mattias Norlander, Dmitri Kostenko, Daniil Sobolev, Joel Edmundson, David Savard, Corey Schueneman, Madison Bowey, Gianni Fairbrother, Chris Wideman, Frederic Allard, Nicholas Beaudin, Petteri Nurmi, Miguel Tourigny, and being quite frank here I wouldn’t even trade Sobolev, Nurmi or Tourigny either.

Episode 45 of the Hockey Free For All Podcast 05-21-2023

Topics discussed in episode 45 of the Hockey Free For All Podcast include-
#1. Management or more Imploding.
#2. Dubis and others are out.
#3. What’s the direction of the Toronto Organization Now?
#4. How about Cammie Granato as the new GM? She has more than proven herself with countless achievements. Does Toronto have the courage to do that?
#5. Or is the Toronto Organizations belief that they must go with a veteran G.M. like George McPhee to give a swift kick in the butt to roster, and that’s the only way to do that?
#6. After all of these changes, where does that leave Brandon Shanahan? Is he staying or after 10 years the ownership says, didn’t see enough, you’re out too?
#7, What do you do with the core 4?
#8. Now that the 2.3 billion dollar referendum has been voted down, what’s next, where do they go. The NHL’s dream and desire to keep the franchise in Arizona has got be over.
#9 Does the NHL relocate Arizona to Quebec? Even though Quebec V.s Montreal is the greatest rivalry in pro sports other than the Canadiens Vs. The Boston Bruins, Arizona probably does not get relocated to Quebec unfortunately, even though they have an NHL ready to arena, fantastic fans and solid ownership options.
#10. Does the NHL select Kansas City M.O. Again, it has an NHL ready to go arena and logistically would be by far the easiest relocation.
#11. Or does the NHL select Salt Lake City Utah? Why? Brand new market, hasn’t had teams before like Quebec and Kansas City, has a ready to go NHL arena, A solid ownership group in the entertainment group that also owns the Utah Jazz of the NBA and the Delta Arena, has equally and very hungry fans like Quebec and Kansas City, and can draw from not only its local and very rabid fan-base, but by nearby exploding markets giving very broad exposure to the league and long term stability.