The Top Flames Stories After the Deadline!

0:00At the center, coming in as Lul, going back center that, at the scores! Standing in the middle. And over that flame fence, there's all three of excitement going on there. Score! Roll the highlight reel, six to nothing flame. Here, get put in the wind, bro! Yeah, baby, yeah, baby! This is Flames Talk, with Pat Steinberg and Logan Gordon. Brought to you by Mr. Loop, plus Tires. On SportsNet, 960 the fan. It's the change your oil, change your wipers event at Mr. Loop, plus Tires. Get an oil change at Mr. Loop, plus Tires, and get a pair of good year wiper blades free. When you download the coupon at MrLuba.com, it is Thursday, March 5th. And we are underway this hour on the program, with Logan Gordon. My name is Pat Steinberg, thanks for being along with us on Apple Spotify, Amazon, Seeker, or wherever you get your podcasts and live right here on SportsNet, 960 the fan. Hi, logo. Patrick.

1:00We are way less than 24 hours away from the trade deadline. It is coming up quickly. But as we're talking right now on this Thursday evening, no, nothing new to tell you about from a flame standpoint. Lots of deals from around the league, but nothing has happened from a flame standpoint here on this Thursday. So we'll see where that goes, and we'll see what we have got to talk about on Friday, when we bring you wall-to-wall coverage. Of the 2026 NHL trade deadline. It is, first of all, time to say welcome to the sports drive, brought to you by Smart Multi-Family from Access Control. And if I can turn the page here, that would be awesome. Let me try that again. From Access Control and cameras to smart suites, thermostats, and locks, everything runs on one seamless platform complexity out, simplicity in. So we have seen the flames roster undergo some pretty significant changes here over the last six weeks.

2:02Logo, we have seen McKenzie Weeger traded on Wednesday. That is the most recent one. Before that, it was Rasmus Anderson being dealt in between those two trades. Jonathan Huberdo shut down for the season, as he's gonna have hip surgery. Maybe we'll see another one or two, or more names traded between now and Friday. And Logo, this has been what so many people have been asking for. So many people have been talking about the flames need to be okay with tearing it down a little bit. They need to be okay with leaning into this being a lost season and leaning into a few years where maybe making the playoffs isn't the number one priority. But at the same time, as much as people have been clamoring for this for a long time, and some people for seasons, they've been hoping for something like this. It also can make it really difficult to get super invested in the games once the deadline's done.

3:04Like once we're passed Friday afternoon, and once we get set for Saturday's game against Carolina and the remaining 21 games that there will be after the train deadline, it's kind of like, okay, well, we know they're not making the playoffs. What do you have to sink your teeth into? And I've gone through it before. You know, two years ago, we went through it. I've done other seasons before where it is, you know, kind of a, it's less about results and it's more about other things. And so you don't have that excitement for every game from a standing standpoint because it doesn't matter as much. And yet, I think there are still things to look forward to for the rest of the season, which we will get into in just a second. I think those things are going to be really important for people to kind of keep in the front of mind as a difficult season comes to an end in the final quarter, which starts here over the weekend and wants the deadline passes.

4:05Yeah, it feels like there's, I don't know if the remind people or if it's just a good exercise for us, but, you know, these things go hand in hand, right? In terms of a rebuild and a younger direction, it sometimes comes with a not so great on the ice product every single time. And I think some people, you know, are going to be able to, okay, to live with that pad and understand that it's part of the process. And for others who maybe weren't on board and I'm not saying everybody was on board with this being the right direction, it's going to be harder to swallow for a lot of people. And it'll be harder to find the positives and this season and maybe next season is part of it, but I do genuinely think there are things to be excited about. You and me have been on the same page that this is the direction the team needs to go. So I don't think it's hard for you and me to come up here and give you topics because I think there are things that you can be excited about.

5:07You should be excited about. And I don't think that's a hard sell for a ton of people right now. Well, I hope it's not, but, you know, at the same time, I, there will be something. Logo, I gotta say, I've done this before. It can be, it can be a hard sell and it can be. And that's why I think a lot of these things are really important. And we've come up with a bunch of things. So let's just throw them out yet. Here are some of the, once the deadline has passed, here are some of the things to still sink your teeth into when it comes to the flames after the trade deadline. And number one for me is, and this has been one for quite some time after the Olympic break and more, but it's all, in so many ways, Zane Perrek is the number one thing that the closing to the season is gonna be all about. And I'm now really excited because I don't think any of us here expected Mackenzie Weeger to be traded. I'm really excited to see now how possibly,

6:08Zane Perrek blossoms a little bit with that much more of an open door and that much more of a possibility to play big minutes. He's now going to be the power play one quarterback. We know he's gonna miss some games for load management down the stretch, but when he's in, he's gonna be running power play one. And maybe it leads to more five on five minutes, maybe it doesn't, but running that number one power play just takes the reins off a little bit more when it comes to Zane Perrek, which I think is a really exciting thing to watch here down the stretch. Yeah, it's, you know, I think some of you would probably tell you it was always his role to lose, but it's his now. There's just, with all due respect to, I guess Kevin Ball is the next down the list that we've kind of seen in that. On the roster right now, probably Brestevich would be the guy, once he gets recalled, which we'll get to in a second.

7:09So yeah, like I, there was never a question really. His skill set has always fit this role. And I think that this was always something that Zane was building towards was to be this team's power play quarterback of the future. But right now, that future's here right now. Like whether you like it or not, Zane Perrek's gonna have every opportunity to start that part of his flames career immediately. I think they're starting Thursday against Ottawa. It's yours, take it, run with it. We know you're not going to be in an every single game. We've talked about that nauseam. And so we don't need to get into that conversation. But every time that he's in that, unless the shifting, you know, the time on ice thing works off strangely. And sometimes you have to start with your second unit. Every time the arm goes up for an opposition penalty, you're gonna see 19 hop over the boards and take the reins on that and really start to build this thing

8:10in the right direction. The power play's been a disaster at times this year. There's a guy that can change it. There's not really much of a fallback right now for the team. So I'm not saying that he's there because he's the only option because you can always make something work. You can go to five forwards for all you want if you really wanted to change it. But I think two things are true at the same time, Pat. He was destined for that role since he was drafted and the opportunity now sits there for him to run with it. Yeah, now there's nothing between Zane and the number one power play. Exactly, right? Like now this is his opportunity to really run with it. And I'm like, I don't know what the pairings are gonna look like here going forward. And there's still, you know, there's Braden Baha, there's Joel Hanley as potential guys that could be moved here between now and the deadline and that impacts what things look like that much more. But one thing that I think is very, very clear here

9:12is that we're gonna be talking about this guy quarterbacking the number one power play, you know, with Coddry, with Critton, you know, with the players that, you know, he should be playing with him in that regard. And I can't wait to start watching Zane on PP1 as early as Thursday night against Ottawa. And kind of part and parcel with that. And we'll see what happens between now and the deadline. But at some point, we're gonna see Hunter Brestevich back up here. And I think what happens between now and the deadline will determine how quickly that is. Like if Braden Baha gets moved, I think that Brestevich gets recalled right away and is probably playing a ton down the stretch because if Baha gets moved, now they're missing a right shot defenseman. Before, if you're a right shot, do you couldn't get into the lineup? And now all of a sudden you're talking about, well, maybe they might only have three right shots playing in the NHL. We'll see how that goes. But I do think Brestevich gets back in

10:15and is gonna get recalled at some point following the deadline. It all depends on, you know, all depends on how things look after the deadline when it comes to some of the moves made. But imagine that, imagine, you know, for say that the final 18 games, just say it's something in that range. And more often than not, we're talking about Zayn Perrek on one power play unit and Hunter Brestevich on the other power play unit. You know, if you're a flamespan, that's a pretty exciting prospect as well, I think. It should be. It's kind of, I think Rasmus and Mackenzie over the last couple of years, Pat, have done a serviceable job at being the power play quarterbacks for the main, for the most part, I would say. There's some exceptions mixed in there, but those have kind of been the two guys. The guards of the power play one, power play two, unit from the single defenseman perspective, they've been serviceable.

11:16I think there's a chance for Brestevich and for Perrek to be better than that. We're talking about two of the highest scoring defenseman we've seen in the OHL recently, who are gonna be one, two, running a power play unit. Now, there's lots that goes into that and a lot of it's gonna be on other players on the power play unit and how they all mesh together as a group. That being said, I still think that, you know, there's a good chance that this is kind of what these guys have grown up doing, right? Both of these guys shouldn't be, I don't think the moment's gonna be too big for them. I don't think the idea of running a power play unit is gonna be foreign to them. It could be where they excel most as pros. That would be really exciting if I was flames fan to go. We got two guys that can legitimately run a power play unit. Again, not the McKenzie and Rasp were bad at it. I think they were just okay at it.

12:17But to the level of a real number one, they weren't tailor-made for that role. They could do it, and I think both guys grew into it over their time in doing so, but they weren't tailor-made for it, maybe quite like a zane or even a burst of itch would be. Exactly, and I think that's gonna be, that would be a massive plus for me if I was a flames fan. I would also say for people who are excited to see this team get younger, friends, it's going to happen. So for instance, Jonathan Castagna, who was the prospect the flames brought back in the Weeger trade on Wednesday, is likely gonna play NHL games before the season comes to an end. I think there's a decent chance, very decent chance that when his season comes to an end at Cornell, that he signs an NHL deal. He's already played three years at Cornell, and so I think that the desire would be

13:20from a flames standpoint to sign the player and get him playing, and you know, you sign a player coming out of college at this point in the season, especially when you're a flames team that's gonna miss the playoffs. Usually you burn the first year and you get him into NHL games, and so I think that we could see a Castagna play. They need to sign Abraham Weeb. He could become an unrestricted free agent this summer if they don't sign him. And again, I think that from everything I understand, hey, I can tell you the flames really want to sign Weeb. They really want to get Weeb under contract and give him the opportunity to play some NHL games this year. And so I think that that's going to happen, and I think that at some point we'll get Weeb under contract and so again, he's playing at University of North Dakota and Castagna's playing at Cornell,

14:21and I'll just hold on a second. Let me get to the playoffs. I think those two guys you'll see in flames jerseys. I think Weeb, you have to, and I think that they would really like to, and I think that the desire would be and the chances would be high that Castagna signs as well. And then do not write off the chances of Cole Reshny getting signed as well. A teammate of Abram Weeb at the University of North Dakota. Of course, both guys teammates with Keaton Verhoff as well. Reshny's having a great freshman year and is playing some really, really good hockey. But I think that there is a stronger than, stronger than small chance. I think there is a decent enough chance. I think conversations have already been had with both sides about whether or not it's the right option. And I think that there's a, again,

15:24decent enough chance that we see Cole Reshny play NHL games this year as well. Again, any one of those guys you sign to get them into some NHL games before the end of the year. And so, imagine the excitement there. You've got Castagna who is a big part of the Weeger train. You've got Weeb who apparently all he does is win defenseman of the Week Awards and his conference. I think he won the month today, like that came out. Which would make sense. Because you won it every week in February. And yeah, if you win it every week in February. I think you should probably get off the month, yeah. And then to also have Reshny's have it like, if you could get all three of those guys in flames uniforms before the end of the year, that would be really exciting. I don't know. I still feel like the goal is for Wittenback to go back for a second year at Quinnipiac. But who knows where that could go as well. I mean, all of a sudden Wittenback sees some of these other guys signing. Maybe he and his representation are like, ah, wait a second. Maybe we want to go down that road as well. But I still think the plan there is for Wittenback to go back for a second year.

16:25But and again, none of these things outside of Weeb because he needs to sign. None of these things are guaranteed. But I think all of them have got decent enough chances to happen, Reshny, Weeb and Castagna to sign. There's three new players that potentially, you could be getting a look at between now and the end of the season. And from all three of their camps, Pat, I would imagine, you know, because part of the, part of this conversation is when you move out guys, opportunity comes knocking. You and me last week talked about Abraham Weeb and the kind of year that he's been having. And the run he's been on post getting traded into the flames organization. He didn't move teams. But the run he's been on has been unbelievable. Mackenzie Weekers gone. Maybe by Friday, if you talk about a pahal or a Hanley gone, like if I'm Abraham Weeb and his camp, I'm looking to Calgary and going, some opportunity to play some games there pretty soon. And they're going to be prioritizing young players, right?

17:25So like, 100% opportunity roster wise and opportunity period. We've heard from Craig. We heard from, I don't remember if Eric said it or not too, that, you know, I think part of it with Castania was, not sure he saw a lot of opportunity in Utah to get meaningful minutes going forward when he left college. I'd say it's on the table here in Calgary, same with Coloreshni, I would say, you know, opportunity to come in and play some pretty big games right away. And it doesn't mean that they're flames next year. We could very well be talking about two guys that are going to the Wrangler or three guys are going to the Wranglers. But still, to get NHL time, to get a head start on what your, you know, pro career looks like, and to be in a position where the organization gets a look at you at the NHL level right away, makes a lot of sense. You, you also are interested in seeing, you know, some of the other American league recalls. So the flames will have, they changed the rule. So it is five post deadline recalls.

18:27It adds one more to what you had before. Five post deadline recalls that you will have. And you're interested in some of the forwards. We talked about Perstevich coming back up, which we think is going to happen. Who else, who else intrigues you from the standpoint of some of the forwards that might get an opportunity? Well, I mean, the two guys that immediately come to mind have to be the two that have gotten NHL recalls but didn't see it a ton of time. Like that's got to be William Stronger and Rory Caron's territory written all over it. For both of those guys, Caron's especially going back to last year. Bad, I don't have to tell you, remember four points in five games? Had flames fans going ballistic about Rory Caron's and he's carried it over. And I can't imagine it's been easy at times for Rory watching, you know, other guys get called up and sometimes you keep waiting for your opportunity and it feels like it's never going to show up for him here in Calgary. I think there's an absolute chance that he comes up here and it gets an extended look

19:27based on all the good work he's done in the AHL and same with William Stronger. His call up was underwhelming for a lot of different reasons. A, he didn't play a lot. Like it was very minimal minutes on that call up when the team was out east, right? He got the call in Montreal, Bell Center, very exciting but he just didn't see a lot of ice time and I think for the flames and for Stronger and his development, it's important that he gets another chance to go and have the reins let off a little bit going forward. So those are two guys that I think absolutely factor in to after the season after the deadline that I think you should be excited about. I mean, Caron's almost point per game. Like in in the AHL and really just had a cup of coffee here this year, that's a guy you need to find out if he's got legit NHL potential. I don't think that question's answered yet. And for Stronger and this is a really important time in his development path, right?

20:28You need to start seeing him. He's made good strides at the AHL level. Can you start to make good strides towards being an NHL or on a consistent basis? The call ups great, but neither one of them have answered that question. Can post trade deadline be a time but they get a little bit more clarity on that? I think both of them should be in the mix. Yeah, I like to see both guys get, I mean, Stronger and the most time he played was 804. I'd like to see him come back and play a little bit more than that and have an opportunity to play kind of, even for a stretch of five or six games to play some top nine minutes. And yeah, your point is well taken on Caron's. And you know, the last thing that I wonder about is now that it's very clear that the flames are gonna miss. Now that it's very clear that the rest of this season is focused on younger players, focused on the big picture and focused on what's happening going forward.

21:29I'm just really excited to see like it does, and you brought this up too. And I've had it suggested to me that maybe this could be the case, like, would there be a world where maybe the brand of hockey, the flames play, opens up a little bit, like the way they've been playing with the group they had prior to the Anderson trade. Last year, this year was all about this team trying to win games to get into the playoffs. And they did that by playing a very, very buttoned up type of hockey defense first, not a lot of offensive creativity, all those types of things. And it was tailored to what the roster was. Well, now that the roster has changed and might change even more so, is there a world where maybe things could get a little bit more, the reins could be let off a little bit more offensively, a little bit more of a graphic, sorry, I saw a text come in from you.

22:29A little bit more of a, a little bit more of an open brand of hockey, is that a possibility? I'm wondering about as well. Yeah, it is interesting. And you know, Ryan was asked about it today on a game day about maintaining, you know, that you want to remain competitive and that any notion of veterans being moved out, changing, in terms of their wins and losses, was a big no-no for them. And I totally understand that and I totally respect that. Because I don't think you can ever ask these guys to go out and lose. But can you open it up a bit? Can you give guys a little more free range to do things offensively? It's a worthy conversation in my mind. So those are some of the things that you might see between now and the end of the regular season and some of the things that I think you could be looking forward to between now and the end of the regular season.

23:32So yeah, I know that it's not going to be as sexy maybe as a playoff run or a playoff push, but that doesn't mean there's not going to be some things to sink your teeth into between now and the end of the season. But first, the NHL trade deadline, which comes up on Friday, as we're talking right now, less than 24 hours away from the 2026 NHL trade deadline, we will have wall-to-wall coverage for you on Friday. Here on SportsNet960, the fan brought to you by our three great sponsors, including East Side Dodge, hurry into East Side Dodge or visit EastsideDodge.com to check out this month's incredible specials and tell them Lanny sent ya. Anything and everything Calgary Flames, it's all on Flamestock, SportsNet960, the fan. And Flamestock's brought to you by Mr. Loub Plus Tires. It's the Change Your Oil, Change Your Wipers Event. Get an oil change at Mr. Loub Plus Tires and get a pair of Good Your Wiper Blades free

24:34when you download the coupon at Mr. Loub.com. It's Pat Steinberg and Logan Gordon along with you on this Thursday edition of the program. Time out of say hello to our gold tending expert as Kevin Woodley joins us now from Ingoal Magazine and NHL.com in Vancouver. And we'll probably close on the Vancouver situation, which is gonna be really interesting in the next 20 hours or so, but between now and the trade deadline. Mr. Woodley, welcome back, how we doing, sir? We're good, we're good. We're eagerly like everyone else, he's really awaiting to see what happens. He said a hot button topic here in Vancouver where there is some nervousness about the sincerity of the efforts to rebuild. And a lot will be writing in terms of how this organization is judged on those efforts in the next, I guess, less than 20 to 20 hours here. So interesting times for sure. For a team that frankly has never really rebuilt on purpose like this and the market

25:38that has never had to react to those kind of moves. So we'll see how this goes. Well, we'll get there, but I'd be curious, if you have the opportunity, flames have now played a few games coming out of the Olympic break, they played three on the road, and then they started off a three game home stand on Tuesday against the Dallas stars, Dustin Wolf was outstanding in his first two starts, Cooley started one game, and then Wolf gets pulled on Tuesday and Cooley comes in the rest of the way, including a pad change between the second and the third period. But just if you have been able to get any eyes on the goal-tending performances, anything that stood out to you from either Wolf or Cooley in their work since the Olympic break. Well, I haven't had a chance to dig into the video as much as I would like Pat, so full disclosure there. But looked at the numbers and looked at some of the games and some of the trends there, and the one that jumps out the most is just, man, they're, you know, and this is to be expected,

26:38given some of the personnel changes that have occurred, but they're bleeding chances. Like you said, Wolf was outstanding, that's a stolen win for him in that first game against San Jose, not too bad, nine high dangers against, you know, 3.3 expected goals against, the Kings game they lose to nothing, but that's 10 high danger against 17 mids, four expected goals against, Anaheim game, 12 high danger, 4.6 expected against, and then Dallas, 5.6, 15 high danger, and they're not alone. The start came in and did that to the canox the night before, like just own them in every aspect of the game, and there's just, this is my fear a little bit for a young gold tender in Wolfs, and a young experience wise, relatively inexperienced gold tender in Kool-Aid is just their ability to stick with their game as the environment around them gets increasingly less predictable, less reliable.

27:40This will be something to keep an eye on and something of a challenge. Now, their results relative to that, even after Wolf gets pulled, you know, he's like plus 4% since the Olympic break, which, you know, just saving them four goals on every hundred shots, like to sort of put that in context, right, would rank top 20 in the league. Devon Kool-Aid is at plus 5.9, so even after getting pulled, I think what we're gonna have to be really careful of is to keep everything within the context of the environment. Like that's what's gonna have to do the message here. Like the fact that, you know, Kool-Aid got an 8.62 expected, Wolfs at 8.87, so again, like the first game wasn't as bad, and it got worse from there in terms of what's going on in front of him, and do you see them change the way they're playing? You know, and this is how it manifests itself as an example. Like on an odd man rush, not even an odd man rush. Do you see even a guy walking off the wall where you want to trust squaring up on him,

28:44but you know there's a backdoor presence and you got to trust your defenseman to take that away, and your job is to take away the short side. Does that goalie keep his shoulders and his chest square on the shooter? If he trusts everyone around him to do their job, or does he start to take that back leg and sort of pull it back towards the goal line, so flatten out so that his shoulders and his legs get a little more parallel to the goal line, but no longer square to the shooter, anticipating a path, hedging and cheating. And so like I just pulled out as an example, not that I saw it, but that's what you'll have to look for. Do you start to hedge? And sometimes that's a read. Like sometimes on an odd man rush, that's just like you're sort of hedging to be able to handle both and you have to at times. But within, especially within five-on-five play, when you start to see things get through the structure on a consistent basis, does the goalie start cheating towards? And that's what you worry about down the stretch of 20 plus games of an environment where like I said,

29:47you know, they're well over four goals against, expected a game since the break and getting worse with every game. And those are the kind of things you got to keep your eye on. And it'll be on Jason LeBarber and on the two goalies as individuals to make sure they stay true to sort of, you know, playing everything straight up for the most part. Kev, here we are, the eve of the trade deadline. And before we get into like any specifics on some of the moves that we may or may not see, I've always found the way that you talk about acquiring goalies at the trade deadline. And some of your analysis on it, I found it fascinating and, you know, the deal that we always go back to, that Ryan Miller deal with St. Louis from a number of years ago. But what is your kind of experience in, if goalies do get dealt here in the next day? Like what are the difficulties and why are deadline day deals for goalies sometimes really risky?

30:50Well, and that's why we've seen teams like Colorado last season, make their moves in December. I think that's why we saw it and said make their move. It hasn't really panned out, but make their move in December this year. Because the biggest factor is there's just not enough runway left. When I talk just about being able to read off your teammates in front of you, like systems are somewhat easy for goalies to figure out. There's not too many variations. Yeah, it takes some rep to sort of get comfortable, you know, and just sort of trust it and have your reads behind the system. Like this is how we play things. This guy's going to go here. That guy's going to go there. Takes a little while to make that innate and instinctive. But the bigger thing is tendencies within the systems of individual defenders and forwards. Who can I trust to do what? Who's going to pressure an odd man rush at the blue line? Who's going to make their move on the puck carrier at the top of the circle? Is anybody waiting till it gets down near the hash marks or the dots?

31:51And there are system designs within those reads and then there are individual tendencies. And the latter takes a lot longer to get comfortable with. Remember Ryan Miller? And he was the poster child for a lot of this. Not just the same Lewis thing, but after he arrived here in Vancouver, it was Nikita Triampkin. Was cut was up for the year. Big six foot eight Russian defenseman. We're like two thirds of the way through the year. And Nikita had started to play better. And Ryan was talking post game about his ability to read off him how he was finally comfortable getting comfortable reading off him. Nikita had become more predictable in what he was doing. And Ryan had become comfortable reading off him. And I was kind of blown away like, we're two thirds of the way through the season. And you're just as a goalie with all this experience. Now saying you're comfortable behind this defenseman. And I'm thinking to myself, how the hell is any goalie supposed to get comfortable when there's 22, 21 games for a lot of teams left after the trade deadline before the playoffs.

32:52And you're not playing them all, right? So that's part of it. There's just not enough runaway to get comfortable with those reads more so behind the individuals than behind the system itself. That's a the second box you look to check is how they ever done it before. And Miller became the poster child of this from Buffalo to saying Lewis, because he'd never been traded before. And so all those adjustments I just talked about, he never had to do it. He didn't have to, he'd never done it before and experience counts. Like one, I remember him telling me later in his career, he would have been totally fine with it after having done it a couple of times, but in that moment, no. And then one of the other ones is sort of the horses or courses, does the style of this goal tend to fit the style or strength of this team. And back in the day, a lot of that was this has changed a little bit. And a lot of in and out rhythm, pure feel, timing, goalies, like Ryan Miller was back then. And he played with a lot of movement in his game and a lot of extra motion and a lot of reads.

33:54And the way that the Blues defended just didn't fit that. And so he wasn't comfortable. I think there's things are a little more homogenous. Like there's, goalies are a little more similar than there's not the extremes that we had back then. As there are now, like most goalies play, I'm more familiar game to each other. And so that's not as big a factor, but there are still variations within it. And Jordan Vincdon is a prime example. Like you put him behind a St. Louis Blues defense, playing as aggressively as he does. And you have an 864% or so. Actually, he's actually played pretty decent since they've come back all the Olympics. But you have results that aren't flattering. You put him behind Canada where he can be at the edge of his crease on one side and not worry about that pass getting through on the back door or worry about a rebound to the back door. Because he trusts the Olympic caliber defenseman around him to take care of that. And you've got a guy that backstalk stops the team to overtime of a gold medal game. And so to a certain extent, you can measure those things.

34:58We can take a look at the strengths and the weaknesses, the weaknesses, weaknesses, our slot line plays, broken plays and rebounds. And you can see where does my team rank? Like there's the stats, the analytics. Do we give up a ton of those things if we do then we probably shouldn't be pursuing Jordan Vincent? And then there's the eye test up. Like, hey, like do we box out? Do we take care of the front of our net? Are we going to allow him to play at the top of his crease and not have to worry about pucks bouncing off legs and bodies and losing battles on the back door? Well, he recovers that space. And so the idea that he's just, hey, he's a good goalie and he's a good goalie there. He was a good goalie for Canada. And he won a Stanley Cup, so he's going to be a good goalie for us. Like to me, that's incredibly naive. We have so much good information now at our fingertips. I think, you know, I would hope all, but I think most teams, for sure, are looking at it with that type of contact. And at least cognizant that just being a good goalie on one team

35:58doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be a good goalie on another. We're chatting with Kevin Woodley from Ingoal Magazine and NHL.com. He joins us Thursdays here on Flamestock with Steinberg and Logan Gordon logo. Kevin, you mentioned Jordan Bittington there and we kind of asked you about him last week. I'd like to ask you about Sergey Robrovsky and some of the noise coming out of Florida's. Maybe it looks like they might not be a playoff team. Would you take a bet on a Sergey Robrovsky if you were a contending team looking for a goal-tending ad? It's a similar answer. So it's kind of a two-parter. Would I bet against Sergey Robrovsky, a guy who's headed to the Hall of Fame with multiple bezel trophies and cups? Probably not. Has Sergey Robrovsky been a below league average goal tender for multiple regular seasons and then gone on to win a Stanley Cup? Yes. Has his performance this season fallen off a cliff

37:00in much the same way, like almost to the exact same numbers as Jordan Bittington's had in St. Louis? Yes. And so there's some risk there, but I think the conversation is similar. Like how much of this is the injury ravaged and played a tonne, three straight cup finals, two straight wins, Florida Panthers, just not having either the personnel because of the injuries or the energy and effort because of all that hockey they've played to insulate him to the same degree. And so if you're going to put him on a bad defensive team, like say the Edmonton Oilers right now, the Edmonton Oilers, when they got the two straight cup finals, were not a bad, their defensive play was vastly underrated. Under no block that first year, they became a top three defensive team in the national hockey league. This year, and a lot of the same metrics that I think are key to play off success, they ranked between 30th and 30 seconds. Like the bottom has fallen out defensively.

38:03So do I think you could take Sergei Babrovsky and put him behind a team that defends as well as the Panthers did in their cup runs and probably get close to that version of him? Down the stretch, he's been traded before he's made adjustments before. Yeah, I think you would have a chance. I wouldn't promise it happening, but I think there's a good chance it could happen because of who he is and the work he puts in and you're gonna get that effort out of him. If you provide him that same environment, you'd be fine. But do I think just any much like the Bendington one? It doesn't mean that just any team can be like, let's get Bob and he's gonna be Playoff Bob because Playoff Bob existed behind a very specific defensive environment. Replicate it or come close to it. And yeah, there's a good chance you get that guy. And it wouldn't be the first time he's had a below average, not to this degree, but below league average regular season and follow it up with a Playoff Bob run all the way. But again, just assuming you can plunk him into any environment

39:04and get that version of Bob, I think again, naive is actually probably two week of word for it. Right. Kev, what and I know you've mentioned Jordan Benintin's name there a few times and there's lots of rumors about him potentially being moved out of St. Louis and Vegas has been the team that has been kind of attached to him most. Whether it's Benintin or somebody else, why for you does Vegas seem like a candidate to maybe make one of these deals for a gold tender? Well, there's a couple of reasons. One, they're Vegas. Right, so they're not a team that tends to sit on a problem. They try and fix a problem. And the truth is, this year, as full value as he was when he won the cup, this year, Aiden Hill's a problem. Aiden Hill's adjusted, say, percentage out of 91 goalies in the NHL this season ranked 83rd. Like he has struggled.

40:04And like to like again, like we're talking like worse than minus 4%, like out of every hundred shots. So so four goals worse than a league average goal ten or every hundred shots. That's what this season has been for Aiden Hill. So essentially he is costing you relative to even a league average goalie, a full goal of game on average. Sometimes more. And Vegas's defensive profile, they're underlying numbers are really strong. And it really has been largely a goal-turning issue. I don't know what the status is of Carter Hart in terms of his injury. Akira Schmidt has taken a step back. And it's interesting too, because when all the goalies tend to take a step back and the defensive numbers look good, I wonder if there's something I'm missing or something the numbers are missing about the environment, whether it's time in space or something it doesn't quite get quantified in it, because all of their goalies are struggling. And that's why the team that never hesitates to spend to fix a problem. It looks like goal-turning has been a problem. And you know me. I'm the goalie union guy.

41:04Like I'm waiting for the knock at the door to take away the card. I don't tip right, call it out to this degree. They've got one of the best goalie coaches in the league in Sean Burke, but it's for whatever reason. It's just not happening right now for them. And so we know they're a team that is proactive. So that's one reason. And then the other reason is, because I believe they were in last year on John Gibson with Yanaheim Ducks before the trade deadline. And then in fact, I don't know that Aiden Hill gets his extension if they pull that deal off and that what they offered the ducks in return. Anaheim wasn't happy with and it didn't happen and I was, he gives an ends up in Detroit. But if they make that move on Gibson, I gotta think that that's before the contract the extension for Aiden Hill that that wasn't either or thing like they were looking at a replacement there. And so if they were, it's a much harder to do now that you've signed Aiden Hill to the ticket, you've signed him too. But they're not typically a team that worries about that. If they identify a need that they need to fix

42:05and clearly as they were considering it at this time last year, then all those things add up to me. I mean, we talked about it at the beginning. Golees and trade deadlines don't often work out, but if there's a team that's gonna be aggressive, I don't think anybody would be surprised if it's Vegas and for some of the other reasons they check that box too. Good stuff as always, Kev, enjoy the deadline and we'll see how things go in your market as well with some interesting targets there for now. We bid you a do, have a great rest of Thursday, eh? Yeah, I'm hoping there will be riots here in Vancouver. It's not gonna be quite that bad, but if there's not some moves soon, it could be very interesting in this market. No doubt, no doubt. Thanks, Kev. Take care, guys. He's Kevin Woodley from Ingol Magazine and NHL.com. He comes to us on the Atlas Pizza and Sports Bar Guest Hotline, fresh Renault, same legendary eats. Atlas Pizza is your sports headquarters, 60, 60 Memorial Drive Northeast,

43:06Atlas Pizza, where every night's a big night as we start to wrap things up on this hour of the program. Logan's on Twitter at Fan960 Logan and our outstanding producers, Cam Hughes and Asim Ali Nanji. That will start to wrap us up this hour on the program. This hour of Flamestock has been the sports drive brought to you by Smart Multi-Family from Access Control and Cameras to Smart Sweets, Thermostats and Locks. Everything runs on one seamless platform, complexity out, simplicity in.