Brian Lawton

You can withstand at least one player, even if it's your star player, being a little bit injured, being a little bit off.

All the other teams go through the same thing.

Everybody knows it.

I know you and I talked about it multiple times in the middle of the year.

Got to get other players involved, got to develop them, got to make sure they're ready down the stretch.

There was a lot of McDavid and Dreisaitl this year, and

Unlike basketball,

It takes more than two players to win a championship.

I don't think it unsettled the team as a former player.

The important thing for a club is that there's a level of fairness in the club, but that doesn't mean everybody is treated exactly equal.

I think players recognize that

you know, Connor's going to get different treatment than the rest of the guys.

I thought Connor did an incredible thing, which he caught a lot of grief for and not, you know, pushing for the highest amount that he could have commanded.

And he did that quite simply for one reason.

He values winning over money.

I could go on a long, on a long diatribe in terms of how it actually, Connor sees himself as a champion.

He knows that in order to be stamped that, you have to win.

He's playing in a team game.

He's trying to do everything he can.

But at the end of the day, I've never asked him this, but I would imagine if I was as good as he was, which I never was, that winning would be a much higher priority than money.