Elliotte Friedman

So what all went on here?

It's a great question.

And you know what I'm thinking about listening to all of this, Elliot?

I mean, we waited so long.

And we were all starving for best on best international hockey, right?

And rightfully so.

It had been far too long, far too long in between.

And did it ever live up to the hype at Four Nations?

The Olympics were sensational all the way through to Jack Hughes' overtime winner in the gold medal game.

But I guess as we went through that,

I completely didn't have it on my radar, the almost trickle-down effect, or, to borrow a line from Colin Campbell, the law of unintended consequences, when you look back on the NHL front and...

How many more stories similar to this with Larkin will we see going forward, whether it's in the aftermath of the last Olympics or a World Cup in the future?

an Olympics in the future, you name it.

But a player that gets put in that environment on an incredible team around great players that know how to win, that haven't had that experience yet at the NHL level and deciding, I don't want to wait anymore.

I've gotten a taste of this.

We're in an era now where players are having more power as you laid out.

It's now for me.

I want to keep being in a situation like this moving forward where I'm around great players and we're in an environment where we've got a chance to do some special things and legitimately have a shot at winning a Stanley Cup.

You know, just those feelings that stem from an Olympic experience, for example.

I just, I hadn't thought of that until the situation we're looking at here.