Where are we at in society today? Come after me. I'm a man,
I'm forty. Go ahead, make my day every single week. I
put my freaking heart and soul into this. I don't go out there and
laugh. It's not funny. Nothing's funny to me. I don't wanna go
out there and get embarrassed on Monday night football fun of everybody. I think
this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. So I ain't nothing changed from
yesterday. Still the same person I was yesterday, and I got the same
thing for you that I had yesterday. You know why I'm here. You
play to win the game. You don't play to just play it. That's
a great thing about sports. You play to win, and I don't care
if you don't have any wins. Do you go play to win? When
you start telling me it doesn't matter if your retire, get out for the
matters the middle of the week, we've reached tompday if you will on a
Wednesday early in July. Welcome to ex'es and bros. Hey, good to
have you on board. I'm Matt Shephard and Trent Bally is our producer.
What's going on? Always welcome you and your thoughts whatever it is in the
world of sports to the Meyer Hotline eight six sixty eight three eight forty eight
forty three, or you can text sports radio to twenty one thousand. Busy
show today talking a lot of football, and we start with some headlines with
Tigers fall to the Twins five three. Let me ask you this, what
is it about Minnesota that is perhaps better than you thought it would be?
This? This is a team that won the division a year ago. I
think a lot of people felt like, well, now they're they're not as
deep, they're not as talented. When when you think of really good players
at different positions, how many Minnesota Twins are coming to mind? Are you
thinking of Royce Lewis at third base. I've always liked him. He's never
really been able to stay healthy, and he got hurt again last night on
an RBI double, kind of went limping midway through home played in first base.
Manuel Margo, the former Tampa Bay Ray I don't think so. Carlos
Santana has had a wonderful career and gets on base a lot, but I
mean he's getting up there in age. Ryan Jeffers No, Willie Castro,
the ex Tiger, who, by the way, he's bet in like two
seventy five. No, you're not. You're not thinking Kyle Farmer, the
former Red at second base. Either. There might be two guys maybe,
no, not Joe Miranda. It might be Carlos Correa at shortstop and Byron
Buxton in center field. And Buxton is not necessarily the same guy he was
when he first reached the majors. Now, really nice catch two batters in
last night in centerfield. Really appreciate his athleticism, his speed, his toughness.
For the most part, he gets hurt quite a bit. We know
that. But he's he's a real deal. I wouldn't take him over some
of the best center fielders in baseball. So let's not get let's not get
too crazy with it. But I do believe that Byron Buxton would be a
piece for a lot of teams, don't you, Carlos Correa without a doubt.
Outside of that, Seriously, there's not many, and yet this is
a team that continues to thrive. I gotta be honest with you. I
don't think Rocco Baldelli is this magical mystery man along the bench and in the
dugout So from a managerial standpoint, it's been impressive what they've done. And
I don't say that just because they beat the Tigers five to three in the
start of a three game series. Oh, by the way, they beat
Terrek Scuble too. This is the thing we fall back on, and I'm
guilty of it too. Hey, the Tiger's got Terrek Scuble going today,
so that'll put an end to it. At least we'll get a win tonight.
I don't know that in baseball, that's the beauty of it. Had
I told you before the game, it's Schooble against Simeon Woods Richardson exactly.
I'll let that sink in for a minute. Simmon Woods Richardson, who you
taking? Neither one pitched all that well, although school did have seven k's.
We're not gonna get caught up in that though, are we. You
see, the era is at two point four to five. It's really impressive.
Over the last four starts, it's close to five. Now, that's
nitpicking. It doesn't mean that I wouldn't take Trek's scuble. It doesn't mean
I wouldn't want him on the mound if I needed a win. It doesn't
mean I don't think he's an All Star. It doesn't mean that he shouldn't
still be in the Cy Young Award conversation. It doesn't mean I've lost faith
in them. I'm just telling you. In a baseball season, it is
exceptionally difficult as a starting pitcher to go out there and post every fourth fifth
day. That's all. It's when you when you see it, you know
it right, when you see certain when you see certain results, even before
the results. Let's let's put it this way, when you see guys doing
certain things during a stretch of a season, you look at it and you
go that is special. You saw it in Justin Verlander. We've seen that
before. We've seen it in Pedro Martinez. You and I didn't see it
in Bob Feller in nineteen forty, but Pedro Martinez and in nineteen ninety nine
when he went twenty three and four with a two point zero seven earned run
average, it's one of the best of all time. This two thousand season,
he had an ERA of one point seven four. That was pretty damn
good. I mean, we're talking about comparisons to Walter Johnson and Lefty Grove
Grove in the thirties, Greg Maddox, Remember Greg Maddox with the Braves nineteen
and two one point sixty three ERA, sixteen and six a one point three
six ERA. Those are those are some of the greatest seasons a baseball starting
pitcher has ever had. Derek Scubel, I'm not going to say he is
capable of that, but Derek scuble has good enough stuff to stop losing streaks,
be the ace, all that other stuff. It is so hard to
do what Roger Clemens did back in nineteen ninety He went twenty one and six
with an ERA of one point ninety three, had two hundred and nine strikeouts
that year and for the record, schools nine and three. Currently after last
night and Shep, I think this is what happens to your point, this
is what happens when you put all your eggs in one basket, so to
speak, when he doesn't come through. And that's been the one thing that
you're leaning on for much of the summer. It's amplified when you say you're
putting all your eggs one You're you're talking about fans, not the time.
Correct, correct, Yeah, that's exactly it. That's what we're doing.
We're taking a deep breath and saying, at least he dot dot dot Jack
Flaherty's got a miss his his neck start. Flarity's stayed back in Los Angeles,
got another shot in his back, and he's going to miss his start.
His next start is going to be the home stand against Cleveland in July
eighth. So Kaider Montero was starting tonight he makes his second start. Not
a good sign. My whole point was exactly what Trent just said. We
bank on one guy and even Randy Johnson in two thousand and two, for
as great as he was twenty four and five, lost five games. Our
phone number on the Meyer hotline eight sixty six eight three eight forty eight forty
three. Good to have you on board on a Wednesday morning. A lot
to get to, including your techs and phone calls here on exes and bros.
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Michigan Sports Network, I'll deliver huge opinions on everything you're talking about eighteen after
the hour. Welcome back, Exes and brow is Monday through Friday sixty till
nine here on the Michigan Sports Network. Don't forget on the Straight. Same
station affiliates The Huge Show Monday through Friday, three until six. I'm Matt
Sheppard. We welcome your phone calls on the Meyer Hotline eight six six eight
three eight forty eight, forty three, or we welcome the texts. All
you gotta do is text Sports Radio to twenty one thousand. So the Tigers
lose last night five to three to Minnesota shouldn't surprise us all that much.
We know this too. Casey May is placed on the IL a strained left
hamstring. I mentioned the Jack Flaherty news. Carrie Carpenter had a setback in
his rehab, so he's going to have to rest and rehabilitate a little bit.
More doubt he'll be back before the All Star break. Javier Baiez his
gun, his rehab assignment at Toledo. I wondered this and Ryan Kreidler had
hit a two run bomb last night. That's great. I like him.
I think he's gifted defensively. I don't know if he'll ever be an everyday
shortstop. I don't know if the Tigers are all to give him that chance
either. Okay, it's funny, it's my fault too, But when people
talk about the future shortstop position with the Detroit Tigers, Ryan Kreidler's name doesn't
get mentioned much at all any longer. People keep talking about Kevin McGonagall,
the young high school kid who was drafted a year ago after Max Clark.
Not many people give Ryan Kreidler much of a chance, and maybe that's because
his offensive numbers are not never have been great down in the minors. So
I wondered about this. You're probably gonna shake your head vigorously. And I'm
not saying I would do this, but I wonder if they're at least considering,
would you consider Tim Anderson. This is a guy. I mean,
he's thirty one. He was just released by Florida because he's been you know,
less than but he'd bet in two fourteen. Nothing special there, right.
If you think you could fix a guy, he's a He's a guy
who what about five years ago? Was it twenty nineteen? He led the
league in hitting three thirty five he hit in twenty nineteen, and he's actually
been a three hundred hitter every season since except for last season. In this
one, yeah, and last year was the year. It was early August,
August fifth, sixth that he and Jose Ramirez, it was really more
Anderson. Ramirez just decked him at second base. You remember that, Yeah,
don Rose Anderson. So I don't know if that completely changed everything but
it seems to have affected him more than many people would have originally thought he
was. He was he's never been a really gifted fielder. He gets to
certain baseballs, but his throwing is a problem. There have been times where
he was almost lackadaisical in his approach. How much of that was culture in
Chicago. I don't know. It could be part of it. You and
I watch a lot of sports. Did you see what happened last night with
Cleveland in Chicago? There's a flyball to center and Luis Robert is really good
man. I mean, I should say he has the he has the ability
to be really good. He is a dynamic athlete. I mean it's super
athletic. He can do everything when he wants to. He's a young guy
who's got great strength, great speed, can catch up to baseballs in the
gap, has a strong arm. What's the issue? He just doesn't seem
like he gives a damn. It's amazing Cleveland Chicago last night. Now it's
I'm not saying it's a big, big game, okay, because you've got
Cleveland on top of the division and Chicago is in the toilet. It's a
six to sixth game. In Cleveland, so it's bottom of the ninth as
you can figure out, right, And what are the White Sox playing for?
I don't know. I mean, I'm not gonna go pride and get
you all these cliches. They've only got eight road wins, so they're playing
for prime. My hope is that athletes want to compete for crying out loud
anyway. Michael Koppix on the mound. Bone Naylor, not Josh. Josh
is the one with power, plays first base. Bone Naylor's his brother.
He's a catcher. He comes in with Andre Simenez, who had singled to
start the inning and moved to second on a ground out. He went to
third on a wild pitch from Kopic. I mean, this is what This
is what happens with bad teams. It just spirals out of control. A
leadoff single, okay, no big deal, right, Suddenly a ground out
to first. Jimenez was on the run, so you're not getting the guy
at first at second bakes you're not going to cut down the lead runner.
Not ideal, right, okay, but maybe he can get by it.
And then a wild pitch and suddenly you're in deep trouble. This is what
happens. So anyway, bot Naylor hits a sacrifice fly to center. It's
medium depth, it's not shallow, it's not super deep. It doesn't mean
the game is automatically over. A guy who gets behind and Jimenez has got
good speed, but a guy who gets behind it with Robert's arm at least
makes a play at the plate, what do you get? You get him
backpedaling, not off balance, but he's sure as hell doesn't get his body
behind it. There's no momentum moving forward. Right in that situation, you
want to be coming towards the I mean you want to be coming towards the
plate because it's the game right absolutely everybody knows it. This is it right
here? I mean, are we going to extra innings or or are we
going to at least hold him at third base because there's one out? So
you're hoping you get this and you at least can get scare him back to
third base a little bit. And if Michael Kopek happens to blow it because
of another wild pitch, then so be. It wouldn't surprise you, I
suppose. But the bottom line is you want some type of well, feel
like there's a sense of urgency. I almost said leadership. But Luis Robert
isn't that kind of guy. No play at the plate, no throw at
the plate. You might as well have played him in just behind second base
and had that ball loop over his head. That was the feeling, not
a care in the world. And if this is true, it might even
be worse. But do you think there's any shot he thought there was two
outs? No? Well, I shouldn't have answered so quickly. I suppose
that's possible. You and I. Look, I've said this before. It's
not hard to figure out the count or the number of outs. Right,
it's everywhere. It is everywhere. Glance over your right shoulder, Look to
the right, look to the left, look right behind home plate. There
are ribbon boards, scoreboards everywhere in ballparks. Now, this is not back
at the polo grounds where men are putting up the situation with little signs.
Okay, this is automatic stuff. You can find out the launch angle of
a home run almost immediately they're at the ballpark. So don't tell me you
can't figure out how many outs there are. But let's just say, let's
just say he thought that he wasn't even in that great a position either way.
No, like usually what you do if there are two outs, you
just kind of drift under it. Right, He's undecided on how he gets
behind it. So maybe Tim Anderson was part of that culture. Is my
point? Would this culture change things? Is he better than your option?
Now? He could also play second base, by the way, not that
you want to move Cold Keith, because Cold Keith is, you know,
starting to hit the ball a little bit. It was just something I was
thinking about, not endorsing it. I'm just thinking out loud. Always appreciate
your thoughts on the Meyer Hotline eight sixty six eight three, eight forty eight
forty three Quick time out here on x'es and bros. Glad you're with us
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Exits and Bros. Throughout the great state of Michigan. On in Cadillac and
Brand, Rapid Flint and Grayland and Gaylord were up in Midland and Saginaw,
Bay City, Potoski, Charla Boy, Trevors City, all those areas obviously
read Max Boltman of the Athletic. If you want to know what's going on
with the Red Wings, that is where you go, and you can follow
him on Twitter on x at m Underscore Boltman. He joins us here on
Exes and Bros. Max. Thanks as always, appreciate your work, Appreciate
your diligence and your research and all the things that you've done. And I
was really taken in by your article yesterday about the Red Wings and the not
just the draft, but by the free agency and the lack thereof and your
honesty with it. How do you grade? And I'm not looking for a
letter grade. I'm just looking for your opinion. How do you grade what
the Red Wings have done so far, even though it's early on in free
agency. Yeah, I think if you look at the moves that they have
made, there's everything's pretty fine. I think it's like a solid you know
yet okay vision contract here, you know, little value here. But where
I struggle is when I zoom out, I just don't see really other than
goaltending, where I do think they got better. I don't really see many
other parts of the game where I look at it and I see a team
within a better spot in the standings than they were last year. Now you
may say, hey, big picture, they may call some kids up,
they may get some guys playing time, and that's the bettert thing. I
think that's a perfectly reasonable argument. But in terms of competitiveness and you know,
trying to improve on where they were at last year, where they were
at tiebreak earlier from the playoffs, I think a lot of their contributors went
elsewhere yesterday and I don't really see meaningful upgrades on any of those guys.
Shane Gosis theare walks away. He was their power play quarterback, he goes
elsewhere for a pretty decent deal. They replace him with Argustason, who I
think is pretty similar to Gostus Bear but didn't have quite as much offense.
Lose David Perron, huge leader, huge party of power, play, tough
guy, one of the best down low wall players and puck possessors in the
league. He gets out of town and I don't really see an obvious replacement
for him. So right now, you're right, it's still early. They've
still got lots of time. I think there's a few different areas of their
team where maybe you look like, well, did they really get much better?
What would you have liked to have seen them done? It can't be
just re signing Gosh, Despair and Perne, because you're basically bringing the same
team back. You don't want that necessarily. What would you have liked to
have seen them do to improve this team? Yeah, it's a great point,
and I think that that is important to not get lost year. To
me, I think what it comes down to is I would have liked to
see a a little bit more meanness, particularly on the blue line. I
think if they could have added a real shutdown d on the right side,
and maybe they still will on the right side to take some burden off a
more outsider to eat some of those defensive minutes. To me, I think
that's one of the areas they really struggled last year, was overburdening more excited,
was keeping the tuck out of their own net. And I also think
thank they I would have probably tried to go out and add a forward defensively
that could have given them a little bit more. You know, the number
that Alex Wenberg ends up getting is five million dollars at two years. That
is a little so I can understand why they might have wanted to stay away,
but somebody of his profile is kind of what I would have been looking
to do, and maybe they still will. I think, you know,
they needed to improve their team defense. They did that a little bit with
the goaltending, but in terms of the blue line and even the forward core,
where I thought that you know, a lot of the issues actually started
with having a bunch of forwards who weren't all that defensively responsible. I think
those are kind of the two areas that I point to. You can read
them on the athletic at m underscore Boltman, he's Max Bowman joining us here
on Ex's m bros. Knowing that and understanding about the defense. Like you
said, where does this team stand with the possibility of trading for that type
of talent that they couldn't sign so far in free agency? Yeah? And
I think that is kind of the key here is yes, free agency.
You know, a lot of the top names have kind of started to get
off the board here, but you still have time if there's somebody comes available.
Now. You know, the name that I think was out there and
a lot of reports was Jacob Truba. Is that going to happen now?
It sounds like reading some of those same outlets as the New York Post,
it has really heavily reported on this one, first kind of to bring the
trade delight and then to really downplay it. So maybe that one's not actually
as out there as it sounded like a couple of days ago. If not
that, where else do you look? I don't know the answer to that
question. So if it's not that, are there other ways they can get
better? Can they get a little tougher upfront? Can they try to replace
some of that on the wing where they had Bron playing. I think that's
all possible. But in terms of like throwing a real obvious name out there
for you right now, there's not a big one that's jumping to mind,
And I think that's kind of part of where you look at where they're at
right now and you say, okay, well we'll cante the device and then
do here to get the team at least back to where they were at kind
of entering the off season. What do you think it would take to get
Truba in a Wings uniform. It's a great question. I don't know.
To me, I think that the biggest question I have. He's got no
trade clause and he obviously has some control over his situation. I think the
biggest thing it would take is the New York Rangers retaining a lot of cap
space in Jacob True would be unwilling to come. I don't know the answer
on either of those two questions. I'm not saying that that that I do.
But you know, to me, he did sit a profile that checked
a lot of those boxes they've talked about. He's a great designsive defense and
he's one of the most physical players in the NHL. When his name was
out there in some of those reports, I think there was a real obvious
that, especially because he didn't come with too much term on his existing contract.
But I don't know if that is still on the table or if it
ever was. Frankly, so that's maybe that shift's kind of not sailing to
again. I don't know how real it was or not, but it's certainly
seeming like a likely avenue right now. What do you think they needed more
of scoring or defensive protection? It's a good question to me. The answer
I think would have been defense. I think you find others who would say
scoring. You look at when Dylan Larkin was out and how much they missed
him. I think that that's a reasonable time of the year where they could
have used more offense. But I think at the end of the day,
I still look at it and see they were the ninth highest scoring team in
the NHL, and that it was the defensive end where I think they really
got dead. So I think they ideally you want both, and you did
find the way to keep Patrick Kane if you're the Red Wings, so that
helps with the scoring. On the way to keep Christian Fisher, that helps
with some of the you know, the matchups. You hed a really nice
matchup player for the reverings. They probably needed it to improve both, but
I think the defense there was more room for improvement, and so I think
maybe that's why I stood out to me as the top need Max Bowman joining
us from the athletic here on exus and bros. Read who stuff on the
floor and make sure that you fall him on x at M underscore Boltman.
This opens the door for younger players, and I love what you rowe.
You basically said you can't have it both ways. You can't say, hey,
I want to see the young guys, but on the other hand,
I want to sign all these veterans too. There has to be a nice
mix, so it opens the door. Who do you think this takes advantage
of this scenario most in terms of the younger players with the Red Wings who
are vying for NHL playing time. Yeah, and I think we have to
see if the rest of the off season to play out to see if those
spots hold. But if so, two guys I'd point to, Carter Maser
and Jonathan Bergrin are both guys who I think are kind of at the fringe
of will they be ready for the NHL to start the season or will they
start the season in Green Rapids. They both I thought had really good playoffs
in the AHL this year, and they both have a little bit more of
that hard to play against the profile. They are rookies, so you don't
want to expect too much out of time in that way too fast. But
I think they're both tough kids. I think they're both smart kids, responsible
hockey players, and I think Maser in particular has shown some pretty nice goal
scoring. Issaman actually really praised his shot at his press conference a couple of
weeks ago before the draft. So maybe one of those guys is is a
guy who can carve out more of a role than we were maybe expecting.
And if that's the case, I think there's something to be said for that.
But they've also said they don't want to really leave spaces for some of
these kids yet, they want to make them bump somebody out. So we'll
see if there's any other moves coming and if those in main as clear a
path as they are right now. Yeah, Max, let me ask you
this pressure self induced, right, We all know that, but you write
about it. I talk about it in regards to Steve Eishman in the job
he's done. How much pressure, additional pressure, I should say, do
you think we'll be on the general manager going into this season knowing that,
sure they've gotten better in terms of pointints, and they're getting closer to postseason
play, but the East is so tough and especially the division. How much
more pressure does he? Do you think he gets from the public and from
you and your colleagues going into this season? Yeah? I see, I
think some now, you know, coming into April and May, I did
think it was possible for them that this would happen just because of the salary
cap. That the biggest obstacle of the other thing they're fighting right now is
that they have to get more excited Lucas Raymond two of their best young players
on new contracts this year, and those deals have not been done yet.
We know they're going to take up somewhere between ten and fifteen million more in
cap space, and those two guys counted for last year deals I think are
going to come in somewhere between like six and nine million for both of them
as well. I would ballpark right for each of them, I should say.
So it gets harder when you're concentrating that money there to also spend the
other places, and I think we do have to be conscious of that that
they are. Those are the realities of their cap situation. But when you
come within a tiebreaker of the playoffs, you expectations do go up, and
with expectations comes pressure, especially for a team that's you know, been after
this for a while and is seeing some of its young kind of core members
keep ticking up an age, right, Dylan Larkin is going to be twenty
eight this summer, and you know, you haven't been to a playoff game
since this first season with the Red Wings. So doesn't mean they have to
rush. It doesn't mean they abandoned the plan or anything like that. But
I do think that that's where the pressure comes from, is building a winner
on schedule to get the most out of some of their important pieces. What
do you like or don't like about their goalie situation with whoso lion now Talbot
and Campbell. Well? I like Talbot, especially in particularly the durability showed
last year nine thirteen save percentage for LA in fifty four games. You take
that all bait. That's an NHL starting goalie, So I like that edition.
I like the contract thirty seven, but he was thirty six last year
it was pretty good, right, So I'm not ready to write it off
just yet in terms of, you know, where's that age curve coming?
What I am still unsure about is they've now got a lot of money tied
up there and they have three guys tied up there, and it didn't sound
like that was their hope to have three guys in the NHL again next year.
Goalies don't always like that. It's hard to share two nets between three
guys at practices, let alone in games. We'll see what if there's something
else coming there, and my guess would be that there would be, especially
because they also went out and signed Jack Campbell. I think that one's more
of a number three. I'd expect that he's probably in Grand Rapids with Sebastian
Kosa. But there you got a lot of guys in the goalie room now.
So what I like, I think they got better. What I'm not
sure if I like is is it all too crowded there right now? But
they still got time. You brought up age, So I want your opinion
on this. How old is too old in the NHL. It's different based
on the sport you play. We've seen guys play deep into their late thirties
sometimes early forties and still be very successful and very productive. And the reason
I asked this is not just because of what you said about Talbot, but
also because of what Nashville did with Stamkos and Marshashall, who are thirty four
and thirty three respectively and signed long term deals. Yeah, and I think
that's the question that a lot of teams are trying to work under it.
I think some people would tell you that it's a little different bar for the
superstars right similar like Patrick Kane thirty five. I don't think there's any reason
to saint Patrick Kane slowing down in the next two or three years. Necessarily
he's he's got an elite hockey brain, he's got great hockey hands. Stephen
Stampcos has a great shot. These these are things that we don't expect are
leaving you with age, but it does come for everybody. And I think
probably even if it man have the exact same fairy person you are talking about,
kind of in that thirty five ranges where you start to get worried.
And if I had to guess, why did the Red Wings not give Steven
dan Post that same contract that Nashville did. It's the term factor. Will
be the first thing that I would point to. They got Patrick Kane on
the one year deal, and I think when you look at what they wanted
to do, that makes a little more sense for them. They give them
four years to Steven stamfos Let alone. If they got Caine as that's less
money. So I do think that that term factor, that age factor that
you're talking about, is probably one of the reasons why we didn't see the
Red Wings in on some of these top top names. And I think that's
a perfectly reasonable decision to make by them. It's just you got to find
another way then to get better if you're not going to do it by that
avenue. I don't want to say you were underwhelmed with their draft, but
I'm not sure you were raising the flag for the men they drafted either or
the boys, the eighteen year olds that they drafted. What was your overall
take on the hall that they pulled in on Draft day or Draft weekend?
Well, I really liked their first round pick, Michael bransic neguard Is was
one of my favorite prospects in this draft. You got some size that he
plays a real complete game. You'll get in on the four check. He's
a great defensive player, and he's got one of the best shots in the
draft. To me, that's a player that you can find a use for
in a bunch of different places in your lineup. I think the most likely
is in your top six. So I really like that pick at fifteen,
and I was impressed by Max plant their second round pick. He wasn't somebody
that was maybe as much on my radar at that spot in the draft coming
in, but after talking to a few people about him right after that pick,
I can kind of see what they're going for there. He's a playmaker.
He's a guy who's shown he's got a lot of offense, and that's
something that they lack in their system. In terms of being underwell, I
would say it's like a solid B draft. I don't think there's anything wrong
with it. Like you said, I do think you know, you're still
kind of wondering, can they find in the draft this guy who's going to
outperform where they were drafted. I think that that's something you need in the
NHL. If you're just going and you're hitting on your first round picks.
And you're not really getting a big find later in the draft, and I
think it's really hard to get better quickly. They have one of those guys
who I mentioned earlier in Carter Major. He was a third round take a
couple of years back, and he definitely looks like he's going to make the
NHL. He's going to outperform where he was picked. They got a couple
of defense and they've picked in the second round. I do believe we're going
to make the NHL, but I still think you're kind of looking for a
little bit more of that. But the deal with the NHL draft CHEP is,
you know this, obviously, it takes these guys so much longer after
the first round. Once you get beyond the first round, you're talking about
probably four or five years before you're going to see these kids in the NHL.
So I guess we're just going to have to kind of see where it
goes, all right. Lastly, real quick, overall NHL free agency.
You know, whether it be I don't care, Mantha going to you know,
where do you go to Calgary? Or whether it be Marciaso going to
Tampa or Gensel going or marshlso going to a Nashville or againstill going to Tampa.
What was your thoughts overall on the NHL free agency and the biggest surprise
perhaps, well, I think I saw that it was the first time that
a billion dollars was spent on July one and in total contracts, So that
was the one big headline a lot of term. Washington, I think was
a team that I didn't expect to go the route that they did. You
know, they were the team that got in the playoffs on that tiebreaker over
Detroit last year, and they brought in some win now guys and Jacob Chickrin
who they traded for at a pretty good price, and then Matt Roy who
was a defenseman. I think a lot of people saw as fitting that you
know, shut down right the role the Red Wings made it. He's a
local product. A lot of people thought that could be a fit. Well,
he got a whopper of a contract from the Capitol seven years and I
think it was five or five and a half dayable with the AAV so you
could see why the Revans probably wouldn't have gone to that that number with him.
But the Capitals all of a sudden and I spent you know, I
think what you will about piolist Dugois and they gamble that they make in trading
for him. There, they are a team that looks like they should be
better than they were this last year when they got into the play off.
So from a Red Wings perspective, I think might be take away with a
lot of the team that the Red Things are trying to catch to Tom make
it any easier to catch them. Well, threw a lot at you this
morning and you handled it all exceptionally well, no surprise there. Great stuff
with the athletic great stuff on x or on Twitter. Max, thanks for
the time today, Man, really appreciate it. Keep up the great work.
But I appreciate you listening and appreciate you joining us and educating our listeners
a little bit more. Hey, my pleasure, Matt. Thanks so much
for having me and appreciate your reach out. It's good stuff from Max Boltman.
It's a situation right now though with the Red Wings. And this is
the reason I asked him the question about Steve Eisaman and the pressure and it
does relate to our poll question that I'll get to here in a moment,
and that is that they really haven't made that quote end quote, big splash
that many people thought they were getting. So that leads us to the poll
question for today. Is it time to start questioning the iSER Plan? Yes
or no? And then we'll respond to and give you the final results of
yesterday's poll question which team had the better free agent signing period? Red Wings,
Pistons or neither? But we invite you to vote on our poll question
right now. Is it time to start questioning the iSER Plan? Yes or
no? You can do so on our Twitter feed x'es and Bros. Simply
yes or no, and you can vote as often as you like. We'll
give you the results by the time we check back in on Friday. Quick
time out as we reach the second hour of ex'es and Bros. On a
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