The Jason Gregor Show - September 9th, 2026 - Hour 2

0:00or he should heed to stretch the field Cooper Cup can kind of worth the underneath area. And one little note for you, Greg, there was a Wednesday game during the COVID season as well. Ravens and Steelers. No, I was I was sitting in the studio by myself. I remember watching. I think this is so weird Wednesday football. I think it was an afternoon game as well. But yeah, I think for the Seahawks, I kind of like that one for Sam Darnel to try to just throw that move football around the field. Yeah. Okay. Well, well, look, should be fun. We'll check it out. So the Gregor Show presented by play Alberta. Let's get to the con man and a sports 1440 update brought to you by Sean Cunningham of Remax Real Estate. Get the home team advantage for your next move in the M to Nerry. If you're thinking about buying or selling a home, call our tech Sean directly 780 2650165 Conor Halle, Declan Cougar on a lovely Wednesday afternoon. Oh, there's so much going on in the in the sporting world as NFL kicking off tonight.

1:02The CFL's ramping up by Major League Baseball playoffs NHL rookies. Well, we'll go to camp on Friday. Main camp will start on ice a week today. They'll have a lot. They don't do many physicals. They do some but some testing and other things. You know, eyes and everything like that next Tuesday. And then they'll look at right after it. They will start the preseason on Saturday the 19th as well. Most teams around the NHL. Basically, most teams are going to play their four games in a span of eight days from Saturday the 19th through until Saturday the 26th and then boom. The regular season will start on Tuesday the 29th of September. And the orders will be involved on opening night. Of course, there'll be five games. The Panthers and Hurricanes is the Hurricanes will be the first game of the night as the defending champ. Then you have a Montreal in Toronto.

2:03The Rangers are in Boston. Vancouver's in Emton and the Black OX in Vegas. That Hurricanes game actually starts at three o'clock, our time, five o'clock Easter. And then it's seven o'clock for the Toronto Montreal game eight o'clock Eastern or six o'clock our time for Boston, Montreal eight o'clock for the orders and then eight thirty. So they're all kind of staggered a little bit. The two games are on national TV in Canada are the all Canadian matchups Montreal Toronto and the conucks and the orders sports and did make another announcement today. Yeah, Friedman's back, BX's back, which kind of assumed what happened. Colby Armstrong is also going to be part of their Saturday night crew. And they also did announce though that there are, there's going to be 150 more games that are nationally broadcast this year. That doesn't really impact our order games at all to be honest because you would see

3:07them all regionally anyway, but there'll be some other games that if you're interested that you could watch with your package. However, they also announced that you got to get sports net plus to watch the Monday night games. And if you look at the the oiler's schedule, doing quick looks Monday games. They have one in October. So that will be on sports net plus. That's against the Red Wings and they got a Ranger game in November that also will be on sports net plus. They have the Canadians game on the road on the 14th sports net plus and Washington on the 28. So that's four. You have the home game against Tampa in January, five. The senators home game February six black ox on the road, Colorado on the road, seven,

4:14eight in March. And then the flames game, the home game in April. So it got nine. If if you want to get that. So. Now, depending on Shaw, there are certain where it's part of your package already. But if it isn't, it's an extra like 1299 or 1399 a month. So there you go. I'm sure people will be fired up about that. Hey, you know what? If you hate it, you don't want to pay the money for those few games head down to first round or on the rocks. Great place to watch the game because they'll have the packages. So there you go, a 334 1114 483 411 1440. Hey, Gregor outside of the court case, everything else. So what do you think the major reason why the orders signed for minton is because they want their penalty kill to be better? I actually asked Ann Bowen. I have the, I got a quote. It's the audio isn't good enough to play on the radio just because it was over my phone.

5:18But I can read you the quote for and it will be up and at the DFO Minton orders nation in a sec. But we were set with our roster and tell us the boy got hurt and then around the same time we learn Jan Mark would be out as well as Anderson and Ruggula for them. We're not going to be ready for camp. We knew that savvy was going to miss some games, not just missing camp. So at that point, we started to look around at options on the penalty kill in particular because that was an area that we struggled last year. And Henrique and savvy were probably our two best killers. So there was a concern about how we were going to fill that void internally. We started to look around at players that were available. I called some teams about possible traits to see what the market was like for penalty killers and the free agents who are remaining. There are still a few guys out there, but really none of them are penalty kill guys. So we went through the exercise to see how we could help the penalty kill and it led to a lot of conversations with Alex and looking into his situation. And based on his profiles of player and his player type skill set, that's how we narrowed our focus. And after looking at other options, we didn't feel any of them were going to fit the role

6:20as well as we hope Alex will. So there's directly from the horses mouth, the GM stand moment. It comes down with a penalty kill. And really if you look at the orders penalty kill, if you take out 2024, the orders penalty kill has I mean good for for quite some time, right? Like 24 now it started terribly, but then it was unreal. Down the stretch in the 69 games when no block took over, they made a few little subtle tweaks to it. And then it was obviously out of this world good in the in the playoffs. And it was a major reason why they got all the way to the stand like a funnel. But if you look at their seasons on the penalty kill going back 79% in in 22, 77% in 23, 78% in 25, 77% like they haven't been over 80% since 2021. So the last five years haven't been good enough. Hasn't been good enough.

7:21And even in 24 where because it was so bad for the first 13 games that they still actually finished under 80% so if you look at it and let's just go after five years because after that it's probably a little bit too long. And if you look at penalty kill overall, all the franchises, where would the oilers rank in penalty kill percentage over that time? Well, they're not even average. They're not even in the top half or 20th, 78.4%. So over a five years man, and that includes the 69 games under no block where their penalty kill was like 83% and was top five in a leak. It still didn't get them over 80 for the whole year because they were that bad for the first 13 games. Now they were out of this world in the in the postseason of 24. However, if you look at what they were in the playoffs, guess what? They're still over the five year average in the playoffs, 78% and that includes when

8:24they were like 93% in 20, 24. Like look at I got to I got to get their playoff numbers. And I know it's a smaller sample size, but it's something to be laryf. They were 94% in 24 in 23. There was 75% in 25. They were 67 and last year was just an atrocious 50%. So I get why they said, Hey, you know what? Even if some boys only going to miss 10 games or how many games you miss is you don't want to be behind the eight ball. You want to have a better friendly kill. And that's why they signed up. So we'll see like, you know, when some boy comes back is going to be room for everybody. They got too many forwards. When some boy comes back, right? They'll have right now they've got 14. If you look at guys who played in the NHL and now include Howard in that list, but if you look at their forwards right now today, we go, McDavid, dry saddle pod Coleson, Howard,

9:25Diamond, New Jersey Hopkins, then they've got Dickinson, Capinan, Fredrick, Doc, Samansky, Joseph, Fomenton and Jones. Right. So 40 and that doesn't even include Savoy. When Savoy comes back, that's 15. So they're going to have to make some decisions. No question. And but obviously they feel that Fomenton offers things that some of the guys on their team just don't do. Now is Doc or Fredrick, you know, pot is pod Coles, like pod Coleson in theory should be a good penalty killer. Work ethic off the charts. Hustle good speed. Good. I'm kind of curious as to why he's not on there. Like, does he not adapt? Can you not make that quick second decision on the PK? I don't know, but he's a player that on paper should be a good penalty killer. Should he not Connor Halley? Like am I delusional on this? No, I mean, I think when you see him, especially kind of on the forecheck and how he's playing

10:27like that, like he's got that ability to move around up there, getting into shooting lanes, things of that sort, you think would kind of come naturally to him. Sometimes it doesn't work out that way. I don't know. It's a. Has he done that in the past? Have we seen him get a fair look out there on the PK? No, not really. Does that yeah, it doesn't. Yeah. It seemed like he's really got out there too often. And if he adds that element to his game, then we got a guy on one top of what you have already on the offensive side of the thing. Yeah. So I'm that to me is the one like when you look at training camp of things that you know, are up for grabs. Jason Dickinson is your number one penalty killing forward. No questions asked. I think Murphy and Shay are your top two penalty kill defenseman. And then you go down at comb, Walman, Emberson, Boo Shard, however they mix in, they mix in. But I think Emton's like we talk about the importance of a first unit power play and

11:31how it works. We'll get a first unit penalty kill. Have the forwards and the defenseman kind of work together because the year they were very good in 24, that's what they had. They had two units and they played them quite a bit together. Now, obviously it changes if one of those forwards or defenseman takes a penalty, sure, guy slides in. But they're not in the box. They go out like Chicago had the best penalty kill in the NHL last year and Dickinson and Murphy were half of it. They were together virtually all the time on the penalty kill. So if I'm Emton and I'm DJ Smith and DJ's pretty smart guy, I will guarantee you that Murphy and Dickinson are two guys on that first unit. I think Ryan Shay could easily be one. He didn't want to keep if Walman and Murphy are playing five on five. It's a little bit easier if they're a penalty kill unit. I get that. Or maybe Shay and Murphy will play five on five. Who knows? But that's where I'd go and Dickinson and Kaplan and when they killed together last year,

12:31they're pretty good. So I would probably start with that, especially with Savoy gone and Jan Mark gone and Henry gone. Ryan Newt and Hopkins. Does he have to be on the penalty kill? Like honestly. If you want to lower him some minutes and considering that the penalty kill has not been world-beater with them on it, could you not have Newt and Hopkins off? Maybe your second unit is formant and Joseph to start. Maybe it's pod Colson and somebody. We'll see. But that's what I'll be watching for closely in training camp is who's on the penalty kill and who's peaking with who. That to me is one of the big questions. Power play. Come on. We know he's on the power play. I don't think many of us are worried about that. We'll take a quick break. Your remtract joins us next on the Gregor Show, presented by Play Alberta Dotsie. Paulie Kruger sports 1440 sports 1440 Dotsie.

13:31It's a Gregor Show always brought to you by play Alberta dot C A where you can get in the game. Casino sports. Live either lottery instance all in one place at play Alberta dot C A time now to get to the oil report brought to you by go auto. If you're looking for a vehicle, look no further than go auto. Dotsie they had over 17,000 vehicles to choose from 31 brands 73 locations. The location near you and the vehicle you want at go auto dot C A as a Tyler your remtruck from the face off Emmington formula orders nation joins us tie. How you doing? Just watch the blue jays get shut out in Sacramento. Not great. Oh, dude. The like I and I said it earlier, man, like Vladikor arrow. Like God, the season can't end soon enough for him. Like I know he had one good game and hit a home run or whatever, but his ability to

14:34ground dribblers into double plays is unmatched this year in the MLB unmatched. I'm with you and I'm not a big fan of when you know, people just point to the highest paid player and go, well, he's the reason they're losing. He's supposed to carry the team like I think at times it's just low hanging fruit to just go, well, Vladie sucks. That's why the team sucks. But like, I mean, I was someone who came on your show in June in July and was like, man, look at the metrics. Look at the numbers. He's hitting balls hard on the ground. The luck will turn at weren't September now. Like there's no more doing the whole, his luck will turn. Look at the data. Look at the hard hit percentages. Like you can't say that anymore. Like it's clutch time. It's crunch time now. It's where you need those guys to be clutch and for him to come up in the first game with a chance to make a difference when they only lose by one can't come through. And then in this third game, first and third one out, that ball's going to be hitting the air like a truly great hitter. And at his best, he is this year. He's far from it. But like you need your big dogs to do something productive and not just hit a dribbler back to the pitcher. For a long time, I felt like it was unfair to put a lot of the blame on Valade.

15:36We're in the middle of September now. I think it's totally fair to point to him and go, man, if he was having even just an average season at the dish, this team's probably two or three wins better. Oh, God, easily, easily, I would think. So we'll see, there's still not out of it because it's a turtle, Derby, for the, for the final walk, card spot, but that was a tough loss. They have a day off tomorrow. Now they'll have to regroup as they get home for six games against, I think it's Baltimore and Detroit. So all the, the Emmington orders, you know, announced a, that Alex Formington was signed to a one year deal, $850,000. I did ask Dan Bowman, you know, why they signed him and he explained it to, you know, a lot of it had to do with Savoy injury. You know, Henry is not here. Savoy, he thought those were the two best penalty killers and neither one's going to be here to start the season. So they want a little bit more depth there. Obviously, I had to ask him about Formington's past and I said, of course, it was a factor. You know, they looked the fact he's being reinstated by the league by hockey Canada and they were close to the situation. So they said, Hey, we've given other guys a chance before to second chance.

16:40So they're going to do it again. What'd you make of the Formington signing? Yeah, I mean, listen, I don't love having to talk about it and, you know, and on one hand, you can flash up his stats from his last season in the NHL and go 18 goals on the year, trusted penalty killer on a team that was coached by DJ Smith in Ottawa, a guy who was, you know, 90th plus percentile when it came to max skating speed like all these things. He checks a lot of boxes or checked a lot of boxes five years ago that you'd go, yeah, that's the kind of guy the oiler should be going after. And on one hand, he's only 26 years old. So maybe he's still got some good hockey in him on the other hand. And I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I've watched him in the Swiss league, but I texted people today who are in the prospect space and then watch European hockey and one of them just said point blank, he's not an NHLer anymore. And part of that could be because of how the hockey candidate trial kind of derailed his career at one point. He was one of the guys who was taking a construction job over the summer when he was still, I think he was still the senators has rights or whatever. But you know, it's fair to say this derailed his career and while you can sit there and

17:43if you're someone who wants to, I guess, feel sympathy for him that his career got derailed by this and he was ultimately acquitted or whatever. I guess you can, but I don't know. I just don't understand why the oilers had to be the team to give him a second chance because when you look at those Swiss league numbers and you talk to people who watched him play over there, he doesn't look like a guy who's going to be capable of stepping right into the NHL lineup in the first month of the season. And that's when they're going to need him as to Bowman's point wins the boys out. So I just don't think it makes a ton of sense. Yeah. Well, could show maybe they're a little desperate. Maybe they feel like they just don't have a lot of options internally, right? Um, maybe, maybe the fact that, you know, the case is in the rear view mirror now. And you know what, maybe there's, there's a relief for him. You know, I got acquitted. He's, he's paid a financial price for sure. He's probably paid a physical price, emotional price, I'm sorry, not physical, but emotional and mental price. You know, it's something that's always going to be connected to his name forever because

18:44of the internet, right? It's not going to go away. So we'll see what he does. I think it's, it's more of the issue that the organization actually realizes like they have a penalty kill problem. Now they've had a Jason Dickinson last year. They had a Connor Murphy last year. They had a Ryan Shay. This year, those are guys who come with a pedigree of being good penalty killers. I guess you're on DJ Smith and maybe the combination of all of that because I don't think one forward is going to make that much of a difference, especially might only be 10 games and tell us the voice back, but it's clear the organization feels that their penalty kill is a major concern. Yeah. And you outlined all, you know, the players like having Murphy and Dickinson around for a full season, they were part of a really good penalty kill in Chicago last year. You mentioned Ryan Shay, obviously, and then the other part of it. And this is kind of a chicken and egg debate, but like how much of a role does goal tending play on your penalty kill, right? It's not a surprise that you look at the correlation of teams who are at the bottom of the league and penalty kill percentage or also at the bottom of the league when it comes to save percentage on the penalty kill.

19:44So hopefully, you know, Tristan, Jari bouncing back whenever you get out of Levi, whenever Anderson's ready, if those guys can be a little bit more reliable in your team sort of handed, because that's also another as much as it's a cliche, but it's right. You're a goalie's got to be your best penalty killer, but you know, hopefully the goal tending contributes to that as well. But yeah, you look at who their, you know, their most used forwards were on the penalty kill last year, so void 132 minutes, Henrique at 107 and then new, Mick David. And then he was actually Janmark, even though he only played 43 games, he killed 64 minutes last year. And then he was just playing three of your top five right out of the gate this season. So they obviously view it as an issue. I had, you know, hopes that Matthew Joseph and Matthew Joseph can obviously still make the team, but that's another guy who doesn't really do a lot at five on five, but he's a speedy penalty killer. So I don't know a little bit of extra insurance or depth with the formant and thing. And we'll see who else they lean on. Capiton was a guy who killed almost a minute of game when he was in the lineup. Maybe he steps into a bigger role. Trent Frederick over the offseason had a quote where he was talking about how he wouldn't

20:45mind kind of adding that to their repertoire. I thought it was interesting at the captain's skate that he was skating as a centerman. Maybe that's something he's had conversations with Babcock about already. So I think it wasn't a whole bunch of names. So go ahead. Sorry, but Dickinson wasn't there. So I wonder if that's why I've skated. Yeah. I also just kind of thought that maybe if that's the reason we haven't seen any insurance come in on the center front, like a PTO for a glendenninger Lazar is that maybe they do think a guy like Frederick and they obviously, you know, Noug could be moving over and playing in center. Maybe they do feel like they have enough internal options there to create some competition to not just gift Samanski a job. But yeah, I mean, the point I was trying to get out was like the Fredericks and the captain's all those guys. If in the preseason, you prove that you can be trusted to kill penalties, you are going to get a lot of ice time. You're going to have a regular spot in the lineup because it's clearly an area that they're looking for someone to step up and take hold of a job. Yeah. Well, that's fair. Like they're looking at opportunities and you know, Fredericks talked about being in the center before like, I don't know. Like I think Samanski Dickinson, Newgen Hopkins of McDavid will be your center to start.

21:45And I think dry subtle eventually be their second line center. I think they'll start McDavid and dry subtle for a bit. They want to get off to a good start. They've got a very favorable schedule with rest and days in between games and who their opponents are like their first date opponents were all below them in the standings last year. So, you know, on paper, it should be good. But they're penalty kills got to improve. No questions being garbage outside of one year for the last five years. So we'll see if it can get better there. The other interesting news today was the Chris Criter news out of Anaheim where Chris Criter and the ducks have mutually agreed to terminate his contract. Now he got a bonus at in July, but he walked away from $4 million contract to become a free agent. Now, I don't know if like there's our teams who have cap space, but you know, now Criter's made tons of money in his career, but it's interesting to me that Criter would opt to walk away from $4 million. Now, maybe the organization said we're going to put you in them. Oh, I don't even think I'd have to look if they gave him and do it, but it's unique to see this happen.

22:46And I wonder where he's going to sign now. Yeah, I, you know what? Like philosophically or everyone is it? I think a guy who's made almost 70 million in his career going, man, I really want to be back out of East and close to my family, $4 million in a heavily tax state like California. Maybe that's part of the reason he was he's like, you know what? Yeah, I really want to be back and close to home. He had a 15 team no trade list. It wasn't a no movement clause. They could have simply put them on waivers. So again, the mutual part of this, I think is actually probably pretty true. The ducks today, we're going to put you on waivers and you might get scooped up somewhere. You don't like or let's go this route. I'm sure Criter to walk away from that money is probably pretty sure he can get a contract somewhere. But yeah, when you've made $60 some million in your career, give up a couple million to go, be close to home and be happy. Like I actually kind of respect the move from Criter's perspective. And as for where he could land, I know a few people have speculated on this already. But I think the Boston Bruins are a pretty interesting fit for Chris Criter. It's an East Coast team. They could use a little bit of help with when it comes to depth scoring.

23:48So I think the Bruins would be very interesting. And then I also saw someone make the connection that him and Trevor Zegress formed a pretty tight bond during their brief time together. They have some connection from offseason training and all that. So I'm curious if maybe the Philadelphia Flyers put up their hand and say, hey, again, East Coast, not that far away from New York where Criter spent the bulk of his career. Maybe that's another team who'd look at him like he had 50 points last year. This is not a guy who was just like, you know, mailing it in. He should still be a pretty good player. And for the ducks, they've not lost McTavish and Criter from that forward group and have it like AJ Greer's the guy they got to replace him. I know it's kind of becoming the sexy pick everyone's doing. But they are far from a lock to be a playoff team this year. Oh God, no, the throwing their defense to right? Like their defense is younger like the ducks and they don't have cutter goch A signed yet. Although I would assume this Chris Criter news frees up the formula like they're getting closer. Troy Terry on on LTI R for the first two months. Like they have the room now to sign cutter goch A and go from there.

24:48But it is, it's an interesting offseason for the ducks. No question. They, you know, they they'll get their young guys signed, but there's some huge deals. And and have to get rid of some of their depth along the way. So the crime one is interesting. I'm sure when Pather Beak planned out his summer, like let's say all six and a half, they they can give goch A like up to 15 million now. I'm sure Pather Beak wasn't sitting there last March being like, okay, this summer I have to spend a combined 33 million on Carlson and goji. I don't think that was in the plans. Yeah, now I'd be curious. And I might have to ask cap all just because they paid out his signing bonus. Is that count against their cap or if they just get rid of the contract? I wonder how that works because they paid out that portion of the signing bonus, right? Like shouldn't that count against your cap? Yeah, that's actually I'm going to have to flip our good friend heart from puck pd a text because if they don't have to pay it, that could be in the future. Like teams could weaponize that. You could give a guy a veteran a two year contract and say, oh, yeah, the second year, it's however much signing bonus. And this little bit of salary.

25:50And by the way, once we pay that, you're going to go away, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. I'm really curious to see how that works. Just an interesting little side note that I just thought about on because hey, salary cap now at the cap going up this much, it might, it might not matter for a lot of teams anyway. But for the ducks for a team that needs all their cap space right now to sign goji, it is something that and that impacts the orders. The orders of course are playing the ducks early in the season, right? They've got them in that. The ducks are one of those teams in their first 10 games. And you know the orders, there's more rivalry now because the ducks knocked them out of the playoffs is just how it goes. And then again, the Himes are fourth game of the season. They'll have a few days of practice leading up to that game. Like, like, Hamilton, this, this is the weirdest early season schedule that I can remember for Emmington because so they play, they host Vancouver on the Tuesday, the, the 29th. Then they're in Vancouver on the, on the first of October. And they're back home to play Seattle on the third.

26:53And there's no real big travel to Vancouver, but whatever. Then they have three days off and then they go to Anaheim. Then they have two days off. Then they're in San Jose. Then they have two more days off in the R&L. I don't know if I've ever seen a three game road trip on the West Coast where they're going to play three games in a span of seven days with two games in between each game. It's wild. And you talk to guys who've been in the league and now we say that they love early season road trips because the group really comes together, right? Everyone's not just going to the ring can go home. You're forced to spend time together. So you combine multiple days off with a California trip and all of that. Maybe it'll be good for team bonding. You mentioned the week schedule. The fact that I think the presence of Mike Babcock and a new coach should have everybody kind of standing up a little bit straighter right out of the gates. Like, I think it's totally fair to put the expectation on this Euler's team that they're not just good and not just 500 out of the gates. Like, they should be, you know, first day games. I think it's fair to be like, you got to go five, two and one. Six and two like you're playing week opponents. Everybody should be dialed in. No more hangover from playing late into June.

27:55The rest and all of that is a factor. So yeah, I fully expect them to come out of the gates hot this year. Yeah. Um, how long do you think New York, Hopkins stays is the second line center? I look at that and I kind of just say it's until Matt Savoys back. Not that Savoys a center who's going to bump him around. But obviously, okay, Pug Coles and dry. So I don't make David Skated together today. Howard, Hyman, Newge. I'm a little bit worried about who's actually going to drive the offense there. But, you know, when Savoys back, doesn't it just kind of make sense to move Newge to the left side on the third line, put dry settle down the middle on his own line and Savoys playing in the top six where he belongs. I could be, I think a little bit odd if Savoys were to return from injury. Maybe early on they ease him into it and this is the case. But I think it'd be odd if, you know, long term, their vision for Matt Savoys to ride shotgun with Jason Dickinson, well, you know, Newge and Hyman playing the play on the second line with Ike Howard. I just think when Savoys back, everything will shuffle the kind of the way it was at the end of last season. Tyler Ramtrick, join us here. Sports 14, sports 14, 40, dot C, A. What's your expectations for Frederick this year?

29:04I mean, it's a fascinating question. And Liam and I did like 25 minutes on this the other day because you can look not that long ago. Talking about a guy in Alex Formington who hasn't played in the league in five years and people are wondering, hey, can he bounce back? You can look back two seasons and find a time when Trent Frederick was a hyper productive third line player for the Boston Bruins, scoring north of 15, five on five goals in a season. And granted he did that with line mates that were Charlie Coil and Taylor Hall and James Van Rames. So he was playing with some really good players. But I just look at a guy who's not that far removed from being such a good bottom six middle six piece. And I just go like, there's no way he lost it that quick. He needs to make adjustments. I was hoping that, you know, the tough playoff run when he was banged up. I was hoping that coming into last season, he'd be fully healthy and ready to go that obviously never happened. He never even really showed flashes of being the player he was in Boston. But like, you know that players in there, which is what makes it so hard to project because like four goals last year, I feel like a guy who scored 15, five on five goals in the

30:07past should be able to get you double digits, 12 goals a season. Like he should have that in him. But then I go, okay, but that's three times the amount of offense he had last year. Like it feels crazy to put that expectation on the player. So I'm so torn when it comes to Frederick because there's so much that I just want to like about the player. And I think about that goal he scored against Tampa Bay last year, where dry side of through it on a tee, he won. It was like a minute and a half in the game. He won time to bar down past Vashel Esti. And it was like, whoa, like where has that guy been at any point in his oilers tenure? Then you didn't see it again for like two or three months. However long it took him to score another goal. So I want to say he's capable of getting the double digits in goals. But I also think he's a guy big body who sometimes the physicality comes and goes. Sometimes the, you know, hustle and all that comes and goes. That could be a guy if he finds himself in Babcock's doghouse early. It could also get ugly. So it's a terrible answer for radio. But like, honestly, I don't know what to expect. Yeah, no, it's fair. I will say I watched Frederick very close today.

31:08He looked quicker to me, which is something that he needs. Like just coming in and out of turns and breaks, he looked a bit quicker. And that is something that I think he's going to need for sure. And, you know, the part that I, I, I, I saw about, wow, you know, geez, they played him for a game or two in McDavid. And then because he was put down to that rune, I'm like, it's two games. And then oh, by the way, in his fourth game of the year, he scored the breakaway goal against the Rangers to win in the game. Right. So one goal in four games, that's a 20 goal pace. Don't tell me that he had no confidence early in the season. I just, I'm like, let's just be honest here. He did not look comfortable virtually all year long. And it can't be because well, after two games, I didn't get to play the McDavid or Dry settle. When you scored two games later, it clearly didn't impact you then. Yeah, I, I'm with you on that. I thought it was a weird choice last year, but to pin his whole season on like, well, in training camp, they told them to do this. And then what he was just never capable of adjusting back to being a bottom six player, which he's been for his entire career. So I'm with you. I don't buy that either. The other thing I just want to see and it's a, it's a thing with a lot of guys, but like

32:11captain obvious, you got to shoot the puck to score. I always say this with Vasilie Pud Coulson, like for a guy who is a shot as good as Pud Coulson's is and a guy who works on it as often as pods does. Like, I'm stunned. He doesn't shoot the puck two and a half three times a game and he's not in that range more often. And Freddie's kind of the same. Like I talk about that Tampa game. You mentioned the game where he buried the breakaway goal against the Rangers. And it's like, man, when he shoots, he gets off some like really nice shots. It's like, maybe he just has to be in more of a shoot mode. And yeah, maybe 12, 13 goals does come back into the equation. Yeah. It's true. Quickly green and golden get the sweep. I mean, how can you like get that Calgary team, especially they now have to go on the road to Edmonton. If you get out to a quick start, I think you'll just totally have that Calgary team broken. They're that vulnerable right now. They're playoff lives, especially when you start to do the math coming off that loss. You start to do the math on Calgary's playoff chances. And it's like, man, if you if you get out of early, I think they're going to be, I don't think Calgary has a big comeback on the road in them the way that Edmonton did into that

33:12win on the weekend. Like, that's just that's what having like truly elite talented players on your roster can do. Justin Rankin was doing nothing that whole game. And then you blink and he's the headline because he rips off this beautiful touchdown run late in the game. So everything's clicking for them right now. And yeah, like how they got to be like eight or nine point favorites. And even at that, I'm feeling confident in betting on them because they should just be able to break this Calgary team spirit right out of the gates. Great stuff. Ty's always buddy. We'll chat with you next week during training camp. Sounds good. See you, Greg. There you go. That's Tyler Rempttrek from DFO, Edmonton, formerly, order station. Quick break. Well, we're returning to Gregor Show. Present about playoff. That's you happy hump day. Jason Greger Connor. Hally sports 1440 sports 1440 dot C a YouTube Facebook X and Instagram. Thanks for listening watching. If you're on YouTube, hit that subscribe button. Give us a thumbs up. Very much. Appreciate it. And the show always brought you by play Alberta dot C a bird tonight. Lotto six forty nine twenty six million dollars.

34:19Classic Jack water five mil. Get your tickets at play Alberta dot C. A. We got a lot of text flying in eight three three four one 1440 eight three three four O one 1440. Hey guys, I think Frederick should benefit from the coaching change more than anyone from last year. Never seem to get on page with the knob block. Hey, maybe you know what? Sometimes change can be good. We'll see how it works out for lots of players. I think also having a full off season of training will help any player in today's NHL. Like if you're not an elite player. If you're not able to train to your level and now you're starting below where you normally are, guess what? It's hard to catch up. Now if you're an elite player and you lose one or two percent or three percent or whatever it is, you're still better than most of the league and you can recover or you don't notice it as much. You're a third fourth line guy. You lose a few percent. Well, suddenly now you're borderline NHL. That's how close the gap is. So I think Frederick full health and more importantly, a full off season of training to the level

35:25that you want. And he got married, right? So you know what, maybe he's got a little good vibes there. Who knows, but we'll see kind of where that plays out. Hey, Gregor, I know it's a captain skates. Was there anybody who looked bad or anyone who looked like they lost a step from Jesse? Honestly, yes, you know what's funny about the skate today? So they played three periods, 45 minutes of stop time. Like they put themselves through the paces and there wasn't four lines on each bench. It was about three lines, four or five D. That was a pretty good pace overall. I didn't notice anybody who looks. Now there's a few guys not there. I didn't see Dickinson. Mattias Aqual wasn't on the ice today. So some guy, you know, like this is a mandatory guys have other things to do or maybe they're on in town yet for certain guys, right? Yeah, I didn't notice anyone, but I'll be honest, when I'm watching that, I'm not looking for anybody who doesn't look good. Like for a player to look that bad in an escape like that, it would have to be like a massive

36:27drop off. Because you know, obviously they're not going 100% the whole time, right? So if everybody's going 85 or 80, if you've lost a little bit of a step, you don't really notice it at the 85% it's, can you get to that top gear and you didn't notice that a ton. So it's I, I would say no, but also I don't think it's a situation where you can find out a some and I, to be honest, I would never based off one practice, say a player. Oh, just like, you know, guys who like because there's a guy, I'm not even going to name the players name who missed two breakways today. Does that mean that I think this guy's not going to score now? No, but I'll tell you during the season, if it's the same guy of all of a sudden, he's missing breakways, but he missed two breakways. So he didn't score, but guess what? Tristan, Jerry, stop both breakways. So maybe, you know, Jerry, I thought, as a goal tender in a situation like this, like it's not like you're playing lockdown defense by any stretch of the imagination, but I thought

37:28I thought, Jerry looked fine. Oh, Devon Levi looked all right. But they're, they're very similar in their setup of gear now. Like it took me a while. Like I was staring. I think that's Jerry. I think that's Jerry. Okay. And because Devon Levi to be honest, haven't seen very close, but Jerry, just in his gear and everything, it was hard for me. It took me a few minutes to figure it out on who was the actual goal in which it and it was Jerry at that end. And he stopped both breakways. So maybe that's, maybe that's the pause if you're looking for on that. Hey guys, his Frederick ever been on the PK from hacksaw. Very, very briefly. He said he'd like to do it because trust me, players, I think it'd be amazing at players willingness to want to do something. They want more ice time as they should. And if more ice time comes in the form of a penalty kill over power play, you'll take it. And the players who stay in the league a long, long time, they're the ones who adapt.

38:29Now some of them are just great. But guys, especially in bottom six roles, you're a bottom six player plays 900,000 plus games. It's because you've adapted and figured out how to because the gap between bottom six and HL guys is a lot smaller than the top six. Okay. And sometimes it's injury. Sometimes it's health. Sometimes it's coach who likes you. Lots of different factors. But the skill set can be marginal. But the biggest one is just consistency. And the guys who find that they stay there. So you know what, if you're given an opportunity to penalty kill this year, like if I was those guys in every meeting, I'd be like, Hey, DJ, I'd be texting DJ. Am I going to get some PK time? What do we do on the PK? I'm interested. I'm interested. Like almost to the point of being annoying because I'd want the coach to know that yes, I'm open to the opportunity. I want that opportunity. Just I think that's what you have to do it. Hey guys, I think sports and it's crap for charging extra. It's a joke. Well, welcome to the world in 2026.

39:29Unfortunately, there's a, yeah, like there's, there's lots of costs with lots of things. And so we're going to have to make choices as viewers to be like, well, do I want to pay that extra? You know what? Maybe I say, Hey, it's it's nine games a year. Some of them are at home. So maybe you're going to the game. If you're a seeding ticket holder or a friend, you're lucky enough. And some of the other ones maybe you're like, you know what? Three, four times a year. Maybe that's a good excuse with our fellas or our girlfriends. Get out there together and go watch a game. And you know what? I'll spend the 12 bucks on a beer or split some wings or whatever it is. So that's kind of where we see from there. Hey, Greg's you're bang on about Frederick. Last year he said he wasn't able to skate until mid August because of his foot. So skating all summer should be very good and hopefully a positive start for him from Trent. I think people because you don't see it, most of the work that leads to the success on

40:29ice happens in the summertime. It happens when no one's watching. It's those guys who are committed to putting in the time in the gym. And I know that sounds easy because everybody who doesn't work out for their job thinks it'd be easy to work out for their job and be like, nah, I can work out all time. No big deal. I don't I don't necessarily agree with that. Like anything, even if you love your job, there's days where you're like, it's a slog. It just is. Right? Working out. You feel tired. Your sore because it's not just going to work out to the level that most of us work out at. Okay. When you're training at the level of professional athlete, it's much higher and it's much harder. Just this. Right now that's part of it. Right. Every job has pros and cons. That's the con at times. Right. And I know that some of us, oh Greg, I just work out to be easy. Okay. But do you work out right now? No, but do you work out right now to your level? If you don't, you can't say, well, I could just do it. It'd be easy because you're not even working out just to stay in shape as an average Joe. Not guys who work out, you know, for multiple hours a day at high people performance.

41:32It's not that easy. Like anything, it can be annoying. It's fun. Don't get me wrong. You're in the NHL. If that's the worst thing, you have to do trust me. You'll still do it. If you had the ability, yes, most people would do it, but you have to have the ability. And guess what? There are people with that ability who can't find the commitment. And that's the reason why some of them are only in the NHL and other guys are in the NHL. That's a fact. You can talk to scouts and everybody galore. The difference between some guys standing in the NHL and not is their work ethic when the lights aren't on and no one's watching them. That's the difference. 358. But see, here's a Gregor pay me millions of dollars in all work harder than anyone in the world from Hock to a. See, you say that and it's easy to type it. But these guys start working out harder than you do when they're not making millions. You've got to start working out now. It's 16 17, eight, you know, making millions in. Right. You're doing it for the hope of it.

42:32So if you're only going to work out when you've gotten millions, guess what? You never would have got there in the first place. It's just how it goes. Let's get to the con man and a sports 1440 update brought to you by Evolve wheels and tires built on nearly two decades of wheel industry and professional motor sports experience. These guys know fitment. If you don't know what that is, you probably need to from custom wheels and tires, suspension and performance accessories get your right setup at Evolve wheels.