Charlie O'Connor

Everybody knows what kind of dig you're making at Mata Mishkoff by bringing that up on prompt, and I think there were things that he said that maybe went a little too far.

But

Mishkov didn't come to camp in great shape.

He didn't have a great summer.

And watching him in his rookie year, as good as he was, it was clear he needed to put on some muscle.

He needed to gain a step.

He needed to work on his endurance.

And it's abundantly clear he didn't do that.

And I got him off on the wrong foot with Rick Tockett, to be sure, because as you guys know, Rick Tockett really, really cares about guys being in shape and cares about what impact that has on the culture.

So I absolutely 100% agree with you.

I think the other part about this that maybe distinguishes it a bit from the Pedersen situation is that with Pedersen, by the time Tockett got to Vancouver, Pedersen was already established.

He was already a guy who, I mean, you can get older guys to make changes, but especially in terms of their spot in the room, there's not a heck of a lot you can do when a guy's already in the prime of his career.

Mishkoff's still young.

And I think Tockett's part of why he did what he did, and you can agree with it or disagree with it, was he was worried that if he set the standard that like, well, yeah, Mafe didn't come to camp in great shape, but it's fine because he's so talented and we're still going to give him all the minutes.

he was worried that it was going to cause a rift in the room and that Mishkoff would end up being on an Island because all the other players are looking at it as like, Oh, so you just, you guys just give him special treatment because he's the golden boy and talk.

It felt like this is still, it's a 20, 21 year old kid who,

I can avoid this being an issue two, three years down the road by cutting it off now and making it clear that, hey, this kid's going to have to earn everything that he gets, despite the fact that the fans love him and despite the fact that he's a top-ten pick and he's the golden boy.

So I think the distinction between the two situations is maybe Tockett felt like he maybe could –

avoid a Pedersen like issue in the future by going hard on him this year.

And look, we'll see how it works out ultimately.