NY Rangers Post Trade Deadline Show

0:00Welcome to another episode of Live from the Blue Seats, I'm your host Rob, joined this week by Dave and producer JL. We waited a day as this is a special trade deadline recap version of the podcast and we have some things to recap although maybe not quite as much as we as we thought we would. Dave, JL, how are you guys doing? Oh boy, that's a loaded question. I'm good, annoyed, but I'm good. I'm trying not to overreact the way, everything everybody else seemed overreact to today, especially you Tyler, all fans. Sorry for the all-out Tyler, shots fired early. I'm in a grim chest, I'm like holy shit

1:07dude, I have a beer or something. We'll get to that, we'll get to that, but yeah, I'm good, I'm good. Dale. I'm just messing around Tyler. Okay, I am okay, I am in the same boat as Dave, trying not to overreact too much, I kind of called it, but we'll see what happens in the summer, but I'm okay, not as freaking out as everybody else's. So, yeah, so let's, before we get into any specific discussion and we will start in depth with Tro Tech, let's just recap the business that the Rangers have done since this kind of trade window opened, right, which is over, back in January, that was the Carson Sucy trade, right, to the islanders for a third round pick. Obviously, the Artemi Panarin trade, we covered that in depth, but they received Liam Greentree in a conditional third. That was back on February 4th, fast forward a month after the Olympic break, and the Rangers made a flurry of three moves over the course of, oh, you know, about 16 hours, with Sam

2:08Carrick going to Buffalo for a third and a sixth, both 2026 picks. They made a minor league swap of Adon Thompson for Derek Pouliott. That's an interesting one for, you know, and deserves minor credit, I would say. And then Brennan-Othman for Jacob Bataglia. Of course, the news is the one big move that the Rangers did not make and were expected to make, which was trading Vincent Tro Tech. Everyone expected that he was going to end up in Minnesota, even Tro check himself so much so that he took a very funny slash, unfunny photo with the Minnesota Wild team delegation at the Olympics. We thought Detroit might get involved. We heard Carolina made a late push, and in the end, Tro Tech stays put. So you guys already referenced kind of the uproar from Rangers fans in the aftermath of this. Christchurch did do a brief media availability a few hours before we recorded this podcast. As you'd expect, said nothing of note. Just kind of said, you know, we're happy he's still

3:14a Ranger and we're not just going to make a deal for the sake of making a deal. So Dave, I'll start with you. Like, what do you make of the Tro check thing? And is this as much of a reason for consternation among Ranger fans as it has been in its immediate aftermath? So we'll never know what was on the table. And that's a huge missing piece to everybody's reactions. And I understand the frustration. I am definitely frustrated too. But my frustration isn't with the lack of the trade. I appreciate that jury has a price. I appreciate that he didn't take what I am guessing he considered a lowball offer from Bill Garan. Those are good qualities to have in your GM. They are objectively. This is what you want your GM to do. I have two issues with this. One, it's still Christian. I don't trust them. So there's

4:17that. And number two, and this is the bigger one. Tro check is a declining asset. And he's going to show that decline in his skill very quickly over the next 20 games because our Tammy Penaeran is no longer on his wing. And he's going to be playing with the best skill for where he's going to be playing with this maybe what? Well, Will Cooley, LaFernier, maybe, depending on yeah. Didn't LaFernieran's advantage? I look really good together last night. They did. And yeah, no, I'm just saying, though, you know, I mean, if anything, the top six for this team will not be set in stone at any point in the near future. So that's a good point. Yep. So like I'm looking at that and going, okay, Tro check the whole reason why you really look to move him now is without Penaeran, he's not a good player anymore. I mean, that the nicest way possible that he's he's what 32 now. And he's not going to get any better

5:23playing with people that aren't our Tammy Penaeran. So that's my issue is he is going to show that he is not a 70 80 point center. And he's going to show it over the next 20 games. I wouldn't be shocked if he has 10 points to finish out the season. Dale, what was your immediate reaction? In regards to Tro check, I kind of call it to a degree, even though there was a push to attempt to trick him, I still think that Jury was going to keep him in some form. You know, that was definitely on the table as, you know, the media reported. I don't mind it that they kept him. I really don't. Penaeran thinks that if we get into a couple days in the summer that Tro check's going to be on this team the next season. Honestly, to the consternation of many, that's not the

6:27worst thing in the world. You know, as much as he considered a depreciating asset and that is the case he is, he still has some usefulness to his play at least. I think a lot of it hedges on what draft pick they get and also if they make a move for another winger. So in this case that they end up getting, let's just say Gavin McKenna, you know, was, you know, speaking on the bright side, of course, or on a Stenberg. And then they go out and get a guy like Jason Robertson, let's just say through the RFA, which, you know, it's always up in the air. Then, you know, there is a way for you to keep him and still kind of keep the whole retool versus rebuild kind of thing. You know, we're never know what was offered for him unless somebody comes out and says it. So kind of getting upset on whether Dury made a trade or not is, you know, that's beside the point.

7:28I do like that, you know, like Dave said, objective of speaking, that he's not just making a trade to make a trade, you know, damned if you do, damned if you don't kind of thing. And I think that, you know, it's, it's something really to lose your head about because there is still usefulness of road check whether it's to a trade or whether it's, you know, part of this team for next season. So I'm not too, you know, I'm not too, you know, over the hill about it, you know, there's, however, Drew, it all depends on what Dury does during the summer, whether he's a draft day trade or he's a trade after free agency, depending on whether money kicks in or whatever, but, no, it's not as bad as people are putting it out to be because if you look at it, if you look at it, Trochek did it really want to leave, you know, just kind of the situation was just kind of thrust upon him. And, uh, you know, so I think they were saying, somebody was saying, oh, what's going to happen if the Trochek has to go back in the locker room after that? It's like,

8:31no, he didn't want to leave. It just just happens to be the situation. So I think it'll be fine. Just play the game, play it right, you know, try to, try to look like a professional team and go into the offseason, preparing for next season and if he's here, he's here if he gets traded, he gets traded, you know, now, yeah, the thing that Dave said real quick before, uh, you go on is, is that it's Christianry. So you don't know what it's going to come up with or how it's going to come out to be. What's going to happen? Who the hell knows? Um, that's the, that's my big point of consteration there. Right. And I think that a lot of Ranger fans and a kind of the prevailing and some of the questions even from the, the, the local beats during his media availability went this direction as well. We're basically so many of the effect of like, well, why did you release a letter when all you did was trade Carson Suci and our Temi Pinaran who were right and like, and, you know, look, if you want to look at that on the most cynical terms possible,

9:35it was, it was, it kind of does look like a transparent attempt to essentially get the fan base off of his back, right? And to sort of like head any negative feelings about a Pinaran trade off at the pass. Um, but this fan base isn't going to give up like they're going to keep chanting fire jury until the team starts winning games. So he just needs to be prepared for that and that's part of sitting in that seat and Glen say they're sat in that seat and withstood the pressure and, you know, again, by some strokes of luck, but by also some adjustments of, of his own and some smart, you know, hiring of key people around him, he ended up building the Rangers into a decent team for the better part of 20 years. So, you know, it's funny when, and I didn't watch the whole ceremony from Thursday night's game against the Leafs, but they brought say they're out on the ice and like he didn't get booed that badly. I may be a few people booed, but like, no, I was there, I was there. Right. And God knows it wasn't a big crowd either. But the point is is that, you know, he needs to reward James Dolan's patients here. Now I, and at the same time,

10:38the fan base is right to be impatient. I think people want to see this thing start to turn. So, at the same time, Dave, I'm with you and look, you know, you're right. We'll never really know. But I would say that Bill Garen and Chris Jury have both been pretty heavy handed in the way that they played this negotiation out through the media. And I feel pretty confident as somebody with zero sources and know NHL reporting experience saying it probably boiled down to Danila Yorav and Emily Kaplan basically said as much. And basically like Jury was like, I wanted Yorav, I want Yorav. Garen wouldn't move off of stramble. He didn't want to give up Yorav. And that's what torpedoed the deal. So on one hand, you could say, Chris Jury got tunnel vision, which Dave, you've, you've rightfully pointed out has been an issue for him in the past that he might have been so fixated on Yorav that it didn't enable him to look at Detroit seriously or Carolina seriously.

11:41And maybe he's underselling stramble who has, you know, kind of turned around in mediocre college career and had a very good senior season at Michigan State. But frankly, like the other hand is like, if he didn't want stramble and he doesn't think stramble is going to be a real thing. And if stramble is going to maybe be a free agent in five months anyway, why make him the center piece of your deal? And again, these things don't happen in a vacuum. The perception of the Artemi Penaeran trade is that the Rangers didn't get fair value. So now you've got added, the added pressure of that. You've got everybody, like, you know, we got Vince Mercogliano and everybody else that writes about the team saying, like, Jury has to nail this trade, like, this is the one. And he didn't feel comfortable pulling the trigger. And it does kind of remind me in a weird way how, and it is funny how it always comes back to this. And I apologize for bringing it up because I know people hate it when, when we do on all sides of the debate. But this is almost in some way is like a direct inverse of the Pablo Buccinavić trade where that very much felt like the

12:42Rangers making a move just for the sake of making a move. And everybody who was against that trade was saying, like, you didn't need to trade the guy. Yeah, he had him under contract for another year. He was, and he was an RFA, like, why did you do that? And it was because they kind of just arbitrarily wanted to change the mix. That was just Jury stepping in and saying, like, we need some new dudes in here. And so if you were unhappy that he did that, then maybe you shouldn't be unhappy that he didn't do that here, right? Because if you're just making moves to sort of, like, rearrange the deck chairs as opposed to, like, bring in a targeted player and get fair value for an asset that has high value and was very, very highly thought of around the league. I mean, Dave, I have to disagree with you. Like, he's not, Vincent Trocheck is a good player. He's actually, he's a, I never said he was a man. Just said he's not a good player anymore. I said he's going to get exposed. No, no, yeah, but yeah, but all right. So then, but he's a bad player. He's not, he's not Taylor. No, no, no, I think the point is, is that on a good team, he's like a good,

13:46he's a high end third line center, right? Like that's, and that's kind of where we're at. And so that also brings me to this brain Shen, who also is under contract through the end of the 20-28 season. Got a first, excuse me, a third, a conditional first, a third, a, a no name prospect. And Jonathan Truan, who is a flawed, but a legitimate NHL body. So. And Truan's 30, right? Truan's old. Yeah, yeah. No, yeah. He's not like a young player, but like, you know, he was, he was on, he was playing on Colorado's first line two seasons ago. Um, he is not a, excuse me, I'm getting over a cold, so there might be a couple of coughs here. No, yeah, he is 30. He's not a young player with upside, but the point is, is that if you look at just that, the, the value of the trade, like the pieces that were needed to get brain Shen, who I would argue is a worse version of Vincent Trochec. Frankly, uh, he got a first, a third, a real NHL player and a prospect, a prospect named Mark

14:46is Gidloth, who I know nothing about. So unless that deal was out there for Vincent Trochec, then Jury was right not to deal him, I think. Maybe I'm wrong. Is that not the comp or am I misreading that or is that the comp? I'm trying to find who the prospect was to get something on him, and I just don't know who it was. Um, yeah, I don't know who the prospect was. So the rumor that was out there was stramble and a fur. Is a stramble or is a stramble, by the way? No idea. So whatever his name is and a first and an additional prospect, whom based off of the fact that he was trading, I'm guessing was David Yurasek, because they held on to Spashek and they traded Yurasek. So my guess is it's not 100%, my guess is it's Yurasek. And honestly, I'm fine with that trade. I like stramble. I don't know much about Yurasek. I like stramble. The only thing that I don't like is that

15:51he needs to work on his skating, which seems to be what every prospect, the rangers, get it. It's got to work. So, and now, you know, it's funny, Rob. I'm actually going to come back and listen to the recording. See if I said that Trochec is a bad player because I don't think I did. Is he not excited on that? He's not good anymore. I think is what you said. I don't know, Jail, but did you hear what I heard? I heard Justin Jerry. Yeah. Maybe I'm going crazy, but I did hear that. Okay. I may have said that in anger. I don't, okay. He's not a bad player. I just think he's going to get exposed and he's going to, I don't think he's going to put up more than 10 points in the remaining 20 games of the season. He's shown that he's just not into it this season anymore. Or at least it gives that impression. That's not like the rangers have good players around him anymore. Yeah. I mean, I also, look, if you think about, I mean, look, it's, it's totally fair to point out like his scoring is going to decline.

16:54That is for sure. And I will also say that, and I've said this and I believe it. Like, I don't think his defensive game is as good as people think it is around the league. Like, I was not, it's not actually bad. Exactly. So, but look, I mean, look, he also has a 75 point season, a 77 point season. Like you said, this season, he's on pay, he has 39 points in 46 games, but he's probably not going to score at that clip the rest of the way. You're probably looking at, you know, he, he probably goes from, he was 59 points last year. He's probably going down to like 49 this year. Maybe he goes back up to 50, 52. Then he's probably in the higher mid 40s. Like, you're right. So, and that's just what happens with age. Like, your scoring goes down. So, but that, but that aside, he excelled in his role at the Olympics, right? He, he, he did play a checking role on a penalty killing role. Well, he does have offensive instincts. He's not going to be like a black hole offensively. And again, like, I'm comparing him to Braden Chen, who is a center under contract, a leadership level player with playoff experience like has all those things. And the islanders gave

17:59up an absolute hall to get him. So again, my point is, is like, if that deal was out there, and Christ for the Rangers from some other team, I don't think the wild, first of all, the wild don't have a 2026 first. And who knows how, how, how everybody else's prospect system kind of like shakes out. My point is, is that if that deal was out there and jury said no, then he probably had trocheque price too high. And that is his fault. And he should be blamed for that. So, let me ask you a question, though. If it is stramble in a first and another prospect, and let's say it is Euroseq, is that not the equivalent of a first, the third and this non-name prospect? Who's a goalie, by the way? So you almost throw that out completely. So I would value stramble, again, going with Euroseq as he was treated. And a 20, let's call it a 2028 first, because you'd give them something. Let's give them that. I would take that in a heartbeat for trocheque. I, at that point, the jury's price too high.

19:03Okay. And that's fair. And yeah. No, I was just going to say, I don't think that offer was ever really seriously considered, because I think someone asked Bill Garen today about, oh, well, you know, I figured, you know, since we, you know, basically paraphrasing here, but so basically, since we wanted gold, that he'd give me a bit of a discount. So I think maybe either that offer wasn't considered, or it was never put forth, you know. That's true. That's true. I want to say that as dense as Chris Dury can be, I don't think he would have turned down an opportunity to take that deal if it were presented to him. Or maybe he suggested it and Bill Garen said, no, it kind of seemed like with Carolina coming in last minute, they were really trying to see what they could put together, but all they could probably really put together is what Bradley Nadeau. Do they even have a first-round pick? And what, Chris Dury, Cokaniami, but even that would be still one of an underview, because

20:08to be frank, Cokaniami sucks. So I think he's not a defensively actually. He's not, he's not a black hole. He's the reverse face intro check. Yeah. You know what, at this point, if you're going to get somebody to fill that spot, you want to get something as big younger who can probably excel in both offense and defense. So I think it makes more sense that if, you know, I'm assuming Dury, my assumption, honestly, I think from Minnesota, he wanted either both of stramble and urov. I think that's what it want. I think that's probably what it would have been and probably a second. That's too high for Vincent True check. Yeah, I don't think you wanted both. I think you wanted urov instead of stramble and that's what killed Diel. But either way, one or the other, I think that whatever Chris Dury had put forth, whether it was one of those guys, two of those guys with a couple picks, Bill Garrett didn't want to pay the price, you know, and without having a first-round pick this year, I think that kind of really affected

21:10a lot of what they were trying to do, because it really didn't make sense without that first-round pick. I think Dury was looking for an extra third, not an extra third, third-first-round pick. Excuse me. And logically, I think if you're trying to chase that for true check, I think that's logical. Yeah, I wish I, I mean, this is also where it just comes down to what is the plan? Because if the plan is a true rebuild, like yeah, you definitely want, you definitely want three, like you would take three first-round picks in a heartbeat this year, right? I think if you're retooling, you could see, you want to prioritize high-end prospects and NHL-ready players and you're willing to punt on the draft picks or expect, except draft picks that are in from later years. Because you're going to end up in a situation where maybe you're contending and you want to have picks to deal in 2028, 2029, etc. But that's, and that really is where this comes down to,

22:13look, we can argue about all this stuff. And I think that like, you know, you can have varying takes and opinions on like what you think this team is going to look like on opening night next year. I think most people think they're not going to be very good. But this all boils down to like what the hell's Chris Dury's plan? It really is like, I hate to be so simplistic about it, but like, we're going to go into the draft, Dave, and like, all of this is on the table again. And that is a little bit exhausting, right? You're kind of like, all right, well, is it going to be a trocheque? Is it going to be Schneider? Is it going to be law for an year? Are they going to, now like, is Adam Fox happy? Like, there's just so much up in the air and there's no indication that there is any like cohesive vision for the Rangers moving forward. And Dury also shot himself in the foot again by releasing this letter. Because he got himself into a corner. We spoke about it with the penair and trade

23:18by saying you're doing this, all of a sudden people are saying, okay, we know that you're looking to sell everybody. We're not going to give you fair value. And the guys they want to move all have clauses. So there's some control there. And it's just like, Dury doesn't, he is so strict about the messages that get out of the Rangers, but he doesn't know what to shut the fuck up himself. 100% well, and I was going to say, Dave, like, that is like, you're right. Like, they're they're trying to sort of guard the corporate culture of the Rangers as they always have across that franchise and both Matt, you know, the whole Madison Square Garden operation is like that. And yet like so much of this has played out in public. Like, everybody knows like the TikTok of the penair and thing. And everybody knows about the Truba thing and everybody knows about the crowd. Like, there is a way to do this where like, no one fucking knows. And you just trade our

24:18tummy penair. And this is the other thing too. Again, I think because of the disaster that was the Barclay Goodrow, Jacob Truba thing with penair and in particular, they were like, we are literally going to cout out at every single one of his last demands because we just do not want the PR mess of him being disgruntled. And you know, essentially fucking us over not letting us trade them and getting nothing out of him when he walks in free agency. And but like what a normal team would have done is they would have waited till the trade deadline because you probably would have gotten somebody very desperate. And you might have had two or three teams that were very desperate. And you could have approached penair and said, hey, listen, we are happy to have you. You could stay here. You're going to play it out. We'll see what happens in the summer or team X that's a Stanley Cup contender like wants you. And you can go try to win and then still be a free agent like and your options will be wide open. And I feel like that's what often happens. I mean, clauses get waived

25:18all the time in the NHL, you know, as much as as people hate the no move clauses and they do make things hard, these clauses get waived all the time. I think brain and Shen had one and he waived it to go to the islanders. Like if you had it, if this, if blues fans that do a podcast like this, we're talking about brain and Shen, they were probably like, oh man, like he's not going to want to go there. Like he's got family here and blah, blah, blah, blah. And he's the captain and like these guys will waive their clauses if they have a chance to win. If they're excited by the prospect of joining a new team, all these things. So my point is is that you do not have to show your hand. And the last year and a half has been Chris Jury basically signaling to the entire league. Like I'm desperate as hell to turn my roster over. And when you say you're open for business, that actually just is a sign that says like it's a fire sale and people are expecting cheap, cheap goods. This is why I have so many concerns with not trading true check with waiting.

26:26It's just I don't trust the guy making the moves. It's just infuriating. And this has nothing to do with wanting to know needing to know the plan. I get that the plan's got to be kept close to the best because that's just how it is. But usually, and we've had this with say there, we had this with Gordon, we were able to see the plan through the moves being made. Yeah. From the start with Bootsnavich, which was actually the second trade. I think the first trade was how it in for a pick. But from the start with the Bootsnavich trade, we have not been able to figure out what exactly Chris Jury wants, other than quote unquote north south and tough to play against, which guess what? Everybody wants to be tough to play against. And everybody wants north south with some east west. We had a pot of talking about where you can't just have 100% north south or 100% east west anyway.

27:29So all teams want this. So what the fuck is he doing? It's like you walking, it's like when you get a new manager at your job and the manager, let's say you work in healthcare and the manager is coming from manufacturing. He's no fucking idea what he's doing. It's the same thing. Like what is going on here and how are we going to be able to figure out what the fuck he wants to do? This is why I'm so frustrated. It doesn't seem like there's a plan other than throwing shit at a wall and hoping something sticks at some point. So I think that when it comes to having an idea, I think he knows what he wants to do. They can't get paid enough to just do things on the fly. I think that they have an idea, but they just haven't executed properly. I think they've been won up and beaten by other managers and also just kind of beaten themselves at the same time. Because the way that I'm

28:30looking at it, just the going off of Mike Sullivan and how they want to build a team and some of the personnel they've brought, they're trying to build a sort of hybrid or a mix between the way the Panthers and the Vegas Golden Knights play. But the difference between those two teams and the Rangers is that they're allowed to play that style of game because they have high-end skill players to complement that style of play. In Florida, you have Alexander Barkov and you also have Matthew Kuchak. In Vegas, you have Jack Eichel. You have Tomasz Hurtle to a degree. Who on the Rangers outside of Mika's Abantage ad really could do that? Maybe JT Miller when he's healthy? Sure. I have to see when he's healthy to do that. But they need one more guy who can really fit that mold or maybe two. But they also just need to find a way to add more speed to their lineup as well. So I think they've tried to, there's been a couple reports that they've been in on certain

29:35players and haven't been able to finish the job. Like the 2024 deadline could have been much different if they were able to pull off a trade for Barabanov, if I remember that's his name correctly, because that's who he wanted to get over a Roslific. But he ended up having to pivot to Roslific because my career didn't have enough slots to retain money on that contract for the Russian player. So I think that's what he's trying to do. But I think the reason why everything comes off so mystifying is because he keeps getting beat, whether it's himself or it's through other GMs who won up him pretty much. Yeah, well, and that goes back to Eichel too. I mean, Eichel was always playing A, right? And that this was the whole, again, I know I brought up the Bucinavits trade and the sort of domino that was supposed to fall next to his Eichel, right? They were trying to create the cap space and that never happened. So he pivoted to Zabanajad and you know, look, again, like it's probably not worth it to, it's a separate podcast, let's say, to sort of relitigate all this. And maybe that's an offseason thing that we can really dig into like the

30:39how the hell did we get here? Because look, I mean, I agree with you, JL, like if you really want to take the most optimistic view on the roster currently, what my, here's my like very quick and then we can get to some questions. Here's my very quick proposal, I suppose, best case scenario to fix the Rangers like with this core essentially in place. You have to trade Braden Schneider and it's got to be for like a guy who can contribute. It's got to basically be like the Scott Moro trade, but the Scott Moro that comes is actually ready to play in the NHL, not the Scott Moro that the Rangers got for Canada and you're not going to get a first round pick, but that's fine. They are probably and I'm saying this like very tongue in cheek and I don't want them to do this, but like it's very, it's the most obvious thing in the world. Like they're probably going to sign Alex Tuck because he like fits their style to a tee and he's big and fast and he's essentially like CriterLate. And I would say if you really want to give it a go with this core of players,

31:41you should do what I've been saying to do for months now, which is move Noel out of the wing and lean into your three centers beings of Anagiav Miller and Trochek. And then you can backfill, you can find a fourth liner, you know, through camp, you know, a guy that you want to bring up for that role, or you can go sign another Sam Tarrick type for a million dollars, whatever it is. You move Lobba to the wing, you've signed Alex Tuck, LaFernier, who has 17 points in his last 19 games, has looked better and is, you know, maybe slowly taking baby steps into a larger role now that Panarons not here. Gabriel looks the part, let's be honest and we can be optimistic about that. He looks quite good, you know, not elite, but looks like a very good legitimate NHL top six player. And you still have cap space to make another move or two. So that's kind of like my, if you really put on the thickest pair of glasses on planet Earth, that's your best case scenario for the Rangers and like, what is that team? That team maybe has the eighth or ninth best record in

32:46the conference and it's not a very good conference. That might be what they're trying to do because they believe in Mike Sullivan, they believe in New Yorkshire Sturkin, they believe JT Miller has not been healthy all year, all these things, right? So now they also could just pivot to a summer trade of Tro check and then the retool is an actual retool, but it is very difficult to know what's going on because there is, there is a definite possibility, Dave, that they think they'll be better next year when everyone's healthy. And I don't know if that scares you as much as it scares most people. Oh boy. I think they might honestly think I didn't even think that that was a possibility because I'm looking at this. And I think we have to point out that Alex Yelafran here since our Tommy Penerin has been traded has eight points and six games and is very quickly turning a corner. So that's been good. He's been very good. The calendar year kind of,

33:47started with doing a classic. So he's been very good and get over the first overall pick people, like he's, if he's a 50 point winger that drives play and is defensively sound, that's a win. But if we're banking on L'Affranier, Zabana Jet and Miller and Parole being the top four, I, I'm almost for words. Yeah. How can you look at this team, even if you trade, even when you trade, Trochec, and you have to trade, Braden Schneider, because yeah, they have to. This I'm okay, say he is not a good hockey player. I would agree. Yes. Which I wish fully was. I wish he was. He said all the chances in the world, by the way, they've given him all the opportunity. So that's not the Rangers fucking up his development or not giving him chances anyway. Sorry. Sorry to cut you off. No, he played with Gavra calls,

34:51couldn't do shit. You know, Eric Gustafson, when Adam Fox went down playing with the corpse of Ryan Lindgren and still look good in that role. And Schneider was playing with one of the best defensive defensemen in the NHL and still looked like crap. So he needs to go. But if you're trading Trochec, your second line center right now, if you're trading somebody who's technically in your top four defense with really nobody other than Scott Mordor replacing him. And you're probably not getting young NHL players for either of them anymore. How can you, and look at the free agent class too, how can you possibly think this team is going to be better next season? If they, if they truly think that, that's a big fucking problem. And it shows that the tunnel vision is that I'm not wrong about tunnel vision because they have this thing. Let's say they get you're off in a first and then they trade Schneider to, I don't know,

35:56San Jose for column graph. I don't know, pick somebody. Yeah, that's still not good enough. Right. Well, think about it this way, Dave. I see where you're coming from, but also you can can't discount the draft deck that could potentially come through. If not your right. So if they, if they somehow manage to either go after Jason Robinson or even like Rob said, go after Alex Tuck. Okay, that's already an addition that's better than what they have currently. Isn't tough 30 years, but that has been three years before. No, they want to get younger and faster. Let's go get another 30 year. Yeah. Well, he's best. So let's, let's, you know, he's still fast. Yeah. And 30 is not exactly old Dave. So stop. Um, so, so, um, I point his window to win, window to win matters. Just because he's 30 and fast now, doesn't mean he's going to be 33 and fast when they're ready to compete. But he can still score,

36:57though. That's the thing. But the point I'm trying to make though is is that I think what really will make a difference is where the strangers will pick. Yes, it does. If they can get, if they can get something between one to four, because today they had this, you could tell this is, you know, good old Canadian bonus. If they had a mock trap on to SN and it just so happens that the Toronto may have leaves pick number one of their mock draft, all the Rangers, of course, shouting, I mean, come, come on. I mean, give me a break. You might as well just call TSM, the Toronto Sports Network at this point. Um, but, you know, if the Rangers get a one to four, then any one of those four guys who I can only really honestly name through off the top of my hand, I'm sure there's one more guy that will be able to fit in automatically. We'll be quick and we'll be fast and we'll be, you know, young and, you know, ideally, obviously, Stenberg, McKenna and Tyne and Lawrence, to me personally, I think if you can't get McKenna at number one overall, the best bet is Tyne and Lawrence from just Boston University or Boston

38:03College or one of those two. You know, they're going to pay them a whole true. I mean, he's not terrible, but I know. I mean, he's not a bad pick in like he's going to be a good, he should be a good player. But when you're trying to get younger and faster and elite ceiling potential, it's not my whole trip. Right. But, but either way, either way, you're still getting younger, you're still getting faster. So that also has to factor in as well. So if you look at the top six as is, which I think at this point, um, with Rob's idea is a good idea at this point, um, having the three centers down the middle with manage head Miller and Trollcheck, with Lobby to the wing, you know, you, you can really get a lot of mileage because, look, I'll say this gave you a pro. So I, I, I was at the Columbus game and I was also, I was also at the I was at the Columbus game. What was the game day, uh, before that where they lost, uh, the flyers?

39:04Yes, I was at the, I was at the flyers game, uh, when they lost it over time, I was at the Columbus game. I was at the Toronto game and every single one of those games coming out of the break, even the game that they lost after they came back, uh, against, uh, yeah, Gapero has looked fantastic. Like he looks like he belongs and, you know, with the more eight, with the more ice time he's getting, you know, he's going to fit right in and he's going to make an impact next year because, he, when he scored that goal to make it, uh, one goal game, uh, against Columbus, I was genuinely wowed at how NHL ready he'd looked and then not only that, but also with the game against Toronto, him and Lafernier were, I mean, you were seeing a lot of what Lafernier was able to do in juniors, because he was just so comfortable moving around. So if you add another draft pick, and even if you add Alex Tucker, let's say they end up getting at Jason Robertson, that's going to be completely

40:07different than completely having to rely on JT Miller and make a disadvantage out of front. That is legit firepower. Yeah, I mean, they need to definitely place a point. It does and it's fun. They, I mean, frankly, like, and I'm not, of teams just don't, certainly the athletes don't tang, but like, it really boos the Rangers to lose a lot of games here and increase their chances of a top pick, because you're right, JL, like, and I'm no draft expert, and you know, maybe we can have, you know, hope or will or someone come on, as we get closer to the draft. But everything I've heard is that this draft, like, severely falls off a cliff after the first like four or five picks. So, and you go from like, ready, made sort of like impact players to like pure dark throws and, you know, kind of like, can you fill needs further down your lineup as opposed to like, mechana, stenberg, tie and Lawrence, et cetera. So, look, you want to be in the top four. The Rangers are kind of right on the cusp of having very good lottery odds to be in the top four. So we'll see where that shakes out. All right, let's get

41:09some questions. Okay. Yeah, let's let's let's do it. All right, so first I'm going to start on the website because the ones on blue sky will save that for the end. All right, so first first question comes from Sposo and Sposo asks, where do green tree and Bataglia, who Bataglia was traded for, and if that was off the often trade, yeah, and the often trade, um, who where do green tree and Bataglia rank in their prospect pool? I green tree is certainly ahead of Bataglia. Yes. I think I don't I won't even pretend like I know anything about Jacob Bataglia, but he's another guy similar to green tree that's an offman that like they've been in the OHL for a long time, and there's kind of hasn't been that steady progression that you'd expect. That said, green tree's been really good since the Rangers traded for him. So that's at least something to be somewhat

42:09optimistic about. I mean, I think look, probably what's going to happen is green tree is going to get a shot next year to make the team, but he'll probably start in Hartford. And that's probably the right thing. And then you see how he doesn't Hartford, you know, his first season of pro hockey. So I think Bataglia will be similar, but he falls. I mean, my sort of read on it is that he falls more into the Brett Barard, Adam Sacora type of forward as opposed to green tree who is, you know, has the deal, the shops to potentially be like a legitimate scorer or Perot, who everyone knew was going to be a high end, a high end for it. So that's my read on it, but I'm no prospect expert. So we have to be very clear here. Just because of prospect ranks very highly in the Ranger system, doesn't mean they're a good prospect because the number four prospect for daily faceoff is bread and off. Number two is stop more. So based off of just that, if we're still counting

43:11Gabe Perot as a prospect, then green tree is probably number two. Yep. Where to like Emory and Fortescue and those guys come in though, because like I know that they're, their defense actually isn't that much of a train wreck. Those guys are just further from the NHL currently. Yeah. So spend, smell them. Spence is currently three. Way too early to tell. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It is. But each a Emory is five. And Harry Terrence is seven just to give you an idea of how bad this prospect pool is. Fortescue is nine. Right. So the Rangers don't have a good farm system period. Just based off of that, I'd probably put Pataglia. I put him at, I put him at number 10 ahead of Adam Sakura. Right. And then I put green tree at two on Perot. And Maro number three at that point.

44:14Yeah, it sounds right. I think Maro will have more of an impact that most people think. There was, there was a lot of parts of his game I liked when he was here and I kind of wish he was still playing right now because I think the more, the more for him, the better. But yeah. And I always, I Oreo is bad by the way. The guy who's playing is out of I Oreo is awful. Well, the thing about him is, I'm not meeting to pick on him, but just like, like, you can see why three teams have passed on red. Who is he on before San Jose? I can't remember. She's San Jose is not a bad pus mover or skater, but like he does not understand the physical part of the game at all. And you have to, we're not saying you have to hit people, but he cannot like angle guys off pucks. He gets his like stick whacked out of the way. Like he is bad. He's a bad player right now. Washington, Washington, which is funny because he's a big guy. You know, he is, but some guys, I mean Tyler Myers, Tyler Myers is enormous and does not like cannot play big. Rob O'Garrer. Yeah. Rob O'Garrer, he's more Rob O'Garrer than Tyler Myers is a legit NHL. I think

45:19Iorio definitely has Rob O'Garrer vibes for sure. Gosh, I still wanted to bring a full circle to Rob's favorite Ranger to the last. I've never forget being at Madison Square Garden where Jill Tullison said, starting defenseman, Mark Stahl and Rob O'Garrer. And who, and everyone's like, who is that? Who is that? Yeah. Funny story about Rob O'Garrer as a defenseman and 33 NHL games. He has as many points as, uh, running offman. I think you're going to be using that one for a long time. I just, I'm looking up Rob O'Garrer on Hoppy DB now. I'm like, wait a second. He has three assists, but an offman has a goal to assist. Yeah. I will say I am, you know, just as far, I can't really, as far as green tree goes, I think green tree is pretty up there. I think he'll be here next season, released to fight for a spot. I like this game. Um, I hopefully it translates

46:19into Hartford because I think he can be a very valuable asset if his skill settings are coming out. As far as Bataglia goes, it's just, I feel like that's just more of a lower bottom six body. Yeah. So you guys made the prediction on that. So I can't really speak to that. So let me read his scouting report. Excels in transition relies on impressive one touch and quick possession passes to the middle. This is from, I don't know where this is from. I'm seeing this on Reddit, slows down letting opponents charge at him and then slips a pass through them. Not a good skater, but he used to work on that has middle six potential. Yeah, fine, fine. You know, I mean, you know, considering he's three, he's what a year younger than Brennan-Ottman. He is young. He's young. Yeah, he's young. He's 19. Oh, Brennan-Ottman is like 22, 23. So, yeah, I mean, the fact that they

47:20turn Brennan-Ottman into something tangible is good. I'm going to give jury credit for that. I'm going to give him credit for the Derek Uliotraib, turning that into something tangible. Aiden Thompson is in his rookie AHL season. He may be 24, but they turned net zeroes into something tangible. Yeah, they may not turn it anything, but it's something. Totally. No, and I also look, I think he deserves credit for the Sam Carrick trade too. You know, I know some depth centers went for more, but he got, he read the, he read the room well there like knowing, okay, like there's centers are highly coveted and we can get a couple of, a couple of draft picks. And I think that was the right thing to do. So, it wasn't a total loss of the deadline. All right, next question. All right, next question. This comes from Ranger Fan 62. Once again, the Rangers screw up another first drum pick and trade offman. The Rangers have struck out on a lot of, on a heck of a lot of first drum picks. When will they wake up and see their scouting and

48:20player development needs to completely be cleaned out and remand? Yeah, well, listen. This has been, this is, this is their Achilles heel. They have, I mean, when Chris Crider was here, we often waxed poetic about him because he was maybe the single best forward they drafted in the modern era. You know, you don't really count. They'll count and show bears and stuff. Well, yeah, but JT motor didn't really, he didn't hit his ceiling here. And he had to be traded a couple, I mean, Tampa, Tampa traded him too. So I don't like blame the Rangers for that. I think he's just, he's got his personality issues and they, they affect his, they've affected his career output. But, no, look, this has been an issue and they, a lot of this stems from sort of the structural problem that is Christianry serving as both president and general manager. And they do not have

49:21like a, a serious head of hockey ops type person that can actually build out the scouting, the player development, the analytic stuff. And that people can scoff at it all they want. But all that stuff is really important. And the Rangers for a very rich and prominent and proud organization are not exactly staffed with the best people behind the scenes. They have a very good coach. They have great facilities. They always, everyone always calls them a first class organization, all that stuff. They're not, they're not cheap the way the Boston Bruins are cheap. But they are not leveraging their resources to build a best in class front office the way that the New York Knicks have. And that is the difference right now between the two franchises that the second Leon Rose took over the Knicks. He went around the NBA and was like, Oh, Utah has the best like draft guy. We're going to go get him. And this team has the best salary cap guy. And we're going to go get him like they went and plucked from other organizations. He didn't hire his friends. He hired some friends because everyone does that in these types of situations. But they built an all-star

50:24team in their front office. And we still have fucking Jed or Meyer and Tanner Glass doing player development. And until that changes, look, they may look into Gavin McKenna or Stenberg might be just great. And it won't really matter who's running player development. But the reason they, they have not gotten any real contributions out of anybody they've drafted in the last five or six years is directly tied to that. It's just not a serious operation behind the scenes right now. Well, I will say this too. This also doesn't just, this also doesn't fall on Christianry as well. I mean, he granted he was there. But um, this was also very prevalent during Jeff Gordon's time here. And I think I think we're kind of getting the hangover of that as well because a lot of the guys they brought into not exactly the best either. No Gordy Clark and Bob Robb and all those guys. Yeah, I can't recall if I think the only one I can honestly think of that came in during their time here was maybe Kandry Miller. But you know, just to name a couple

51:29off the top of my head, it nils Lundquist. Uh, even though they traded him was not the player that they expected him to be obviously fatali crats off. You know, you can, we can mull on that all we want. But, you know, he was given an opportunity to a degree to kind of play extended time and didn't perform well. And also the attitude, uh, the Lee is Anderson, you know, so there's something that it's been there for quite some time when Saither was able to step down. The only problem is at least Saither. They also kind of, you know, wasn't the statue the best on their part either. Like I think after I think Don Maloney left, they really haven't been able to get a lot of players to fill that roles, those roles because you think about when Don Maloney was there already up top my head. I think Brandon Dupinski, Ryan Callahan, Danger, Radiant, Henrik Lundquist. Those are all drafted in all drafted by Don Maloney or who went on loan, he was involved. And

52:30yeah, they've had maybe Chris Criter, you know, to a degree and maybe a couple of players who've been decent here and there, you know, you could probably make the case for Laugh for the air to a degree. But really, nothing has come out from that. And so this has been a problem for the Ranger, it's not just now, but we're talking going on the past maybe 19 years. You know, yep. For sure. Excuse me. Plus any other thoughts on that? Or no, I got nothing. All right, this next question, and this is probably my favorite account name, comes from producer Jail praise account. Okay, I'm going to have to do an IP check to see who that is because I'm willing to get it. Jail. No, it's not me because I don't even have an account registered on here outside of my work, my WordPress account. So nice try. I mean, sure, you would say that.

53:34Right. You robber you buying this because I'm not. I don't know. Why would I come off that shallow to do that on my own? Somebody actually legitimately likes me. Is that hard to believe? No, it's true. Actually, yeah, no, you're right. You're right, Jail. And you just sort of your flowers for sure. You're full of crap, Dave. Anyways, I didn't say, shit, you're the one that said it. You implied it. Anyways, producer Jail praise account. Thank you very much. And I hope you continue to comment more because I would definitely love to be reading that. They asked three people recently voted 10 in the confidence poll. Should they be placed on some sort of watch list in the interest of public safety? I so when I calculate the average vote, I just I remove those three. I never actually include them because I know it's some trolls. The same way when the Rangers were, you know, winning the president's trophy, we had a bunch of people voting ones. Right. Like I'm not including them either.

54:34There's devils fans. You always got like fans. This is like one of the weird internet behaviors of like our time. Is that people will troll? Like fans of other teams. Like I think I was watching like a Nick's post game podcast on on on YouTube. And like, you know, unfortunately YouTube, even if you don't want to look at the comments, if you're in a certain view, you'll see them. You'll see a few like highlights. And one of the comments that scrolled across the screen was from like a Celtics fan or someone like not Nick's and I was like, are you really like taking the time to seek out this podcast that is like built by and for Nick's fans? So you can like get on here and be like, LOL, you guys aren't that good. Like I'm like, man, people need hobbies. They really do. Like the internet, if you use the internet too much, it really is not a good thing. I could go on a ramp all day about this shit. I'm going to keep my mouth shut. Yeah, let's give everyone. All right. But should they be on a watch list for the interest of public safety? If they're spending that much time on the internet, probably. Yeah, that checks out.

55:40Next question comes from two line passes. Will it ever end? You know what I'm talking about. Okay. I'm assuming we're talking about Chris Drew. He's 10 years as Rangers GM and not the BDO. What is going on? What? Big beautiful obituary. Oh, yeah. Yeah, no, I'm sure he's talking about. Yeah, yeah, I know he's talking about. I'm just being an asshole right now because because people did not like our last podcast. So I just wanted to be a little bit of a dick and a troll. So sorry, we don't agree with you politically. Actually, not sorry. Oh, that's okay, by the way. Yeah, no, listen, it will end, of course. Like, you know, the jury hour will end. Although he's so young, like, at least like, say they're got old. Like, if say there was 20 years younger, he would have had the job 20 years longer. So that's, dude, dude, dude, dude, don't, don't, don't do that to me.

56:44Okay, don't do that to me. I can't do 20 years, jury. No, I can't do this. We'll be way too. We'll be senior citizens. That's scary. Please. In 20 years, I will be 62 years old. If jury is still general manager, when my oldest finishes elementary school, so she's going to be five, she gets into kindergarten this September. If five more years, if jury is still general manager and the Rangers are still this fucking bad, I don't know what I'm going to do, because I don't trust Dolan to get rid of somebody who's bad at their job. Well, it's like what Brandon said, if jury gets, if jury embarrasses Dolan enough, that's pretty much the only way to do it. If he embarrasses him enough, it just all depends on what threshold needs to be met for Dolan to be embarrassed enough where he has to pull the trigger. So what got Isaiah Thomas fired? What

57:47finally was the embarrassing moment? Rob, you, this is for you. Well, but that's the thing. If that was kind of like a slow burn, and then even after he left, he was still in these weird advisory roles, and a lot of Nick's fans were concerned that like Isaiah was essentially still behind the scenes pulling the strings. This is real, by the way, and Frank Isola actually essentially got kicked out of the garden and can't cover the Nick's anymore, because like, look, I'm very pro journalist, and I think stripping anyone of their credential is ridiculous if they're not like outright abusing people verbally or otherwise. But like, Isola got to a point in his coverage of the Nick's that he was like, it was almost like slanderous, like he was basically eating into these conspiracy theories that Isaiah Thomas was like, like basically like puppeteering James Dolan, and he was like actually running the Nick's. And this is after like when they hired Donny Walsh who brought in Stautamire and did the Carmelo Anthony trade at the best of James Dolan.

58:53So like things got marginally better for a few years there, and like Isaiah was like still around. So he eventually kind of like they kept getting him like cushy jobs, and they sort of like, you know, he like failed up and out of the organization. You know, I don't necessarily agree with Brandon's premise though, like the dark ages of this team, I know a lot of you guys are young enough to kind of forget like the dark ages were really embarrassing. The team was awful. Like, they were a laughing stock. They were never competitive. The building was empty. The player that their best player some years was Sandy McCarthy. It was that bad. Like it was, no, I'm not, but like you're laughing. No, I know. I know. I know. It was atrocious. Like at least this like look, Jury can easily walk in there and say like, hey, man, like Gabe Pearl looks good. Lafer near still here. We still have Fox and just like, we are nowhere near that. So saying that and like and but they're still not good. So like, I don't know. I don't buy

59:54that. I don't buy that this is like an embarrassment thing. I just think it comes down to like, frankly, like if you know how to work around the guy and sort of like stand on his good side, you probably keep your job. And you know, I also said this on a previous show. Like I think it also comes down to laziness. Like unless somebody like say there comes to Dolan and says like, hey, I can make a call to Shanahan and he'll take the job and you can get rid of Jury like, sure, maybe that works. But other than that, like if somebody does the job for Dolan of hiring a new executive, then he would do it. But like other than that, I think he's like, I trust Rory. He's a winner. He got us to two conference championships, conference finals, which is going to give him some leeway here. I don't think he's going anywhere anytime soon. Yeah, I didn't agree with. I didn't agree with Brandon on that either because this is going to be an age thing. I don't think, I think you have to be a certain age to realize how bad that 98 to 04 run was. Yeah, like,

1:00:56I'm telling you, it started like the 97 year was kind of like the 2022 season. They probably shouldn't have gotten as far as they did. And then they got absolutely trucked by a better team. But then it was just bad trade after bad trade, bad free agent signing, and it basically became a country club for retirees. Yep. And that's actually kind of what we're seeing right now. Well, minus the retirees, but wasn't there. Did somebody say it was basically a country club in the in the Rangers locker room for a little bit? Yeah. Yeah, no, yes. I think there are more similarities than people care to admit here. I also think that it's less of a country club thing or you could use whatever terminology you want. But the thing that kind of scares me about the current operation is how like USA hockey heavy it is. And even to the point you made earlier, J.L., where Bill Garen was sort of like tongue in cheek saying,

1:01:59well, you know, I thought my buddy might do me a solid and give me a discount on my trade. Like, I think J.T. Miller feels protected. I think Adam Fox feels not protected because he's like out of the circle. And I think that creates a toxic atmosphere. And if you look at their staff, it's all fucking USA hockey people. And like, you know, look, you're not going to get any diversity in the true sense in hockey. But like, even among the hockey types you can choose from normally when building out like a coaching staff and a front office, like, there's no diversity there among the Rangers. It's former players in USA hockey people. And it's very one track mind. It's very group think. So that does. That leads to that type of atmosphere where certain guys will feel welcome and protected. And certain guys won't. And you know, that leads to the type of shit you've seen from J.T. Miller, the type of stuff that you've seen from Trochek at times. Now look, maybe Trochek's attitude changes. He's here. He's doesn't have to uproot his family. His kids aren't going to be crying for two weeks because they have to move away from their friends. Like,

1:03:01these are real things. And I'm not going to. And you know, like, and I want to give Trochek his credit, by the way, for handling this in a professional manner because Jacob Truba didn't. And, you know, there's a big contrast there. Because this is hard. And it is, it is in the right of the team to potentially move you and Trochek handled it really well. And I think he deserves credit for that. And I do think he'll be a professional about it moving forward. Like, I don't see any potential issues for him walking into the locker room tomorrow and getting ready to play a game. So anyway, long-winded answer. But, but basically, yeah, it's, it is trending in that direction. And the team badly needs like a shot of actual youthful, like youthful talent. Because otherwise, you just end up with like the, you look up and say, name a card, these are your best player. And that's not where you want to be. So one thing that you said that really caught my attention was the groupthink, the team USA

1:04:01protected, protected feeling for Miller and Trochek and not Fox. That to me is the third thing that I'm seeing now that Fox is going to be traded in the offseason. I think it's possible. Yeah. I don't think it's possible. I think it's happening because it can happen. If you look at, it's not that Drew is going to look to trade him. I think Fox is going to request out because of that. And if you look at what he said, if you look at his body language and his eyes when he said it, he looks defeated. And now Rob, you've run up a very good point about the team USA groupthink. If he feels that he's not going to get a fair shake from his GM and two of his coaches because he wasn't on team USA, despite the fact that he should have been. And there's that groupthink now. And they have the gold medal to kind of, they're not going

1:05:04to rub it in his face, but they have the gold medal that's going through his mind too. And that like valid their own thoughts and process. Yeah. Yeah. It validates everything that they think they did. They use the wrong formula to get the right answer. And I'm happy that I'm gold. But for Fox in particular, he's looking at that for going, I don't want to deal with this shit. Potentially. Yeah. And I cannot blame him. It's going to suck to have to trade him. But if you're trading now, if you're adding Schneider, Tro check and Fox to off season deals, that gives you a one to two year turnaround. Objectively speaking, it gives you a one to two year turnaround. It sure means doesn't fuck up the trades. Yeah. That's the death. Like that's the sort of like the other side of the coin as sort of unpalatable as that seems. Like, look, you know, there's been a lot of nonsense about some of these Canadian American players in Canadian markets, whether that's Austin Matthews, Brady Kachuk, right dealing with some barbs from the media

1:06:06and fans. Some of it politically charged, but others just like sore loser Canadian stuff. Again, and I know I've said this before, I'm sorry to keep repeating myself, but Larry Brooks, from the grave right now is probably thinking like they're going to get Brady Kachuk. That's the move. And Adam Fox is the guy you used to do that. That's the only way you could pry that player loose, right? It's like, well, yeah. And look at this. But Fox doesn't have any movement movement, no move protection until you're two from now. So now he does. He does. Oh, he does now. Yeah, he does. He has a full no move this year and next year. Okay. Audified no trade in 2728, which is a 16 team happily. Okay. Right. So he, but if he requests a trade, then so then how does that work? Right. Does he wave it fully and then trade me where you want? Or, oh, I can see him stabbing Drury and going, you know what? No, you can only trade me to Dallas. Right. But then Drury might

1:07:08say, like, all right, well, then I, if I can't do a deal, like you got to play until until something shape, I don't know that that becomes very complicated. And that's it. That's again, another, that's an offseason pod. Let's get to a couple more questions. Yeah, because yeah. Oh, yeah, go ahead. I wanted to chime in on that real quick. I, I, I, I think it's just honestly, this isn't the first time we've seen consternation for Fox. I'm not trying to get in Fox's case because he has a very legitimate right here. But I think at the end of the day, though, I think he just kind of, you know, I think they need to kind of just talk to each other. You know, they're adults. They know Adam Fox is worth gold for this team. And, you know, I'm, I'm choosing to give them the benefit of the doubt to the degree that they did fight for him because Bill Garren does come off as kind of the guy where, you know, it's his, it's his where the highway kind of thing. That being said, one other reason why I don't think that they'll trade him is because who are they going to find a replacement? Yeah, you could trade him for a guy.

1:08:12But unless Thomas Shabbat is coming back, I don't think that's going to happen. It would just, it wouldn't, if they were going through a rebuild where they were selling off every asset, then yes, I can understand that. But I think it's just going to have to take some of where Fox and his dad, because that's usually where it's coming from, it's Fox and his dad have to talk to the Rangers in this interesting, listen, you know, I think, I know the Rangers want him here. You know, if they wanted to trade him, they would have traded him a long time ago, you know, before this coach. Yeah, it was talk. They would have traded him already, you know, if they really, if he really wanted to get rid of them, especially considering that they were not only going after Quinn Hughes, they could have just done it right then and there. They could have traded, they could have traded Adam Fox to Minnesota with a bunch of, you know, other players like Lafayette Schneider and they would have got a bad bad team to use as your example. I know, I'm just saying, I just wanted to call that out because I know, I know, I'm just,

1:09:14I know, I was saying though, if they really wanted to do that, you know, like if they really wanted to make a trade with Vancouver, you know, they would have traded Fox to Vancouver with a couple of other assets, you know, if they were really trying to, you know, quote unquote rebuild, but it's a re-tool. And Chris Dury and Mike Sullivan know that they need a guy who can anchor the defense next year and a year following that, unless they manage to get a guy who can do that in lieu of Fox, there's nobody from the systems coming in, unless it's either a four-discure or or or somebody else. So he's not that stupid. I mean, Morrow would be the guy, but because he's like offensive, but he's not Adam Fox, of course, no. No, but I mean, that that's kind of like, you know, and it's no offense to Scott Morrow, but he hasn't proved to us yet that he can hold that mantle. Good defenseman, he could be. Excuse me, but I just I don't think it's going to happen. I think I think this is a lot of media coming up and Fox kind of low-key airing his grievances through

1:10:14the media, which you know, it's not abnormal for a player to do. But anyways, got three more questions. Two of them are pretty brief. This one is from light the lamp and light the lamp asks now that the characterates solidify the team's future. Who is your pick to win the cup? The one has nothing to do with the other, but Carolina. Yeah, I'll go chalk Colorado. I think Colorado, especially they just got cadre somehow. I don't know how that fits in a salary cap, but I haven't had the chance to to look at that. I know they did dump some some money and Calgary's retaining, but I'll take Colorado. They win every game five one. Like every time I look at the score, they're they're winning by like four goals. It's ridiculous. Yeah, and their power plays bad and they're still they still win by five goals. Yeah, I'm going to pick Colorado. It's just Macar McKinnon are basically carrying ship again. So yeah. All right, so we got two questions on Blue Sky. These are more, I guess, kind of statements.

1:11:15Kind of sort of, but it'd be fun to read them. Pickle Rick one one three eight dot b sky dot social ask. What is the point? The Rangers are the Washington generals. Yeah, I burn the whole thing down. It's fine. But the Rangers will no longer play hockey. And we'll see if everyone's still happy about that. Yeah, go go to the islanders. That's the case. And then over macho Grande. Great name, by the way. Ask and I think this is actually kind of funny. We'll often get a video tribute when he comes back to Michigan. Why not? His one goal was a nice goal. So it was a nice goal. I was glad I got to witness in a person. Actually, I just I just remember I also got to witness Yara Slav Hemelosh goal in person too. That was fun. I happened right in front of me. Oh, yeah. That was a great moment. That was one of the better moments of the year and good for him. Right. This is this is this is how it's going to go. They're going to play some cheesy pop music. And often is going to be sitting on the bench, ejected. And it's just going to sound the screen. Welcome back. Brennan. Welcome back.

1:12:18Brennan. Offman, you know, Joseph Austin. And then and then you know, then it's going to be a game of cap or no cap. Yeah. It's up for debate whether he plays another NHL game. He just might not have it. And that happens. And you can go back along in a long line of Ranger draft picks. There's a lot of them throughout the years. And again, we don't need to rehash those names. But you just can. Okay. Exactly where my head was to jail. You just didn't do that. I have to announce it. Listen, hey, the trade deadline's over. But that does not mean there won't be stuff to talk about. The Rangers are going to wrap up this season. It is going to be a busy summer. I do think that in action today does not mean in action in June and July. I think the Rangers will be active in the free agency as well. And we'll try to get prepared for all that. We'll close the season out strong here. Guys, any final thoughts from you? Dave. Just remember. It's good to go

1:13:21outside and we have a good weekend for it. That outside. We're getting fake spring this this weekend Yeah. Yeah. We got fake spring coming up. We got like four or five days or 60 degree weather coming up before I think snow on Friday or some shit. But go outside and enjoy. Get away from the internet. Get away from social media. This is what I'm so thrilled about. But the trade deadline being done. I can finally just disconnect from Blue Sky. And just disconnect in general. I'm going to start deleting apps off my phone. Just I don't have to deal with this crap for a little bit. And I can actually start enjoying the weather getting away from all this crap and doing what I need to do. So go outside. Have fun. The Rangers will be there when you get back inside. Yeah, don't go back inside. So I guess just my quick closing climate is obviously playoff certain

1:14:24picture. So I guess at this point, if you really want to watch the team, just kind of take notice on some of the young players. Gait Barrow is a very fun player to watch. And he's getting better and better every single game. Alexi Lafernier has definitely amp has upped his game too, which is nice to see because you know, this kind of all stems on him playing well. And then also Will Cooley is coming a bit to life as well. Mika's advantage is also playing really well. Will they win every single game down the stretch, probably not. But it's still fun to watch. And if the last couple of days are any indication, they're going to go out fighting to a degree. How hard that remains to be seen, but they got a lot of guys here who want to fight and play for a spot. You know, I've actually trow checked being back in the mix might change certain things for some players. But now that everything's kind of past, then they can just kind of play hockey. You might see a more relaxed version of this team, and they might surprise you with a couple of wins. But just if you're going to

1:15:26watch hockey, pay attention to some of the young guys and then just hope for next season, everything turns out okay. Yeah. And they can win some games with not too many because I do want a high pick. But yeah, no, listen to everybody for listening. And we'll talk to you next week.