Thomas Drance

Often a guy derided in New York for his hockey IQ.

And all of a sudden, you know, goes to Carolina where they play such a specific brand of hockey.

The man-on-man in the D-Zone, and very rarely are they carrying it up ice or trying to even skate over a single line on the ice with possession of the puck.

It's all punted.

And he looked great.

I mean, he looked like a star defender.

He was a star defender.

He was a number one guy for a Stanley Cup champion.

Why has the Carolina brand of stress hockey not caught on despite them...

you know, sustaining this level of success for the better part of a decade?

And they spent it on Trent Frederick though.

You know, like that's the, that's, that's what I'd be telling my client.

If I was an agent, Yannick, I'd be like, they're just going to misuse it.

Might as well be your money.

It's a fascinating dynamic with Carolina because you pointed out that they don't have any of those contracts that you look at and think are inefficient, right?

And yet, you know, when I think about why that's the case, like, Carolina, especially during the flat cap era, just never seemed to get attached to anyone.

Like, here's a quick list of UFAs that they just let walk.

They didn't even, like...

consider overpaying.

Dougie Hamilton, Vincent Trocek, Brett Pesci, well, Gensel they tried to sign, Niederreiter, Brady Shea, Tevo Taravainen, Dmitry Orlov, Brent Burns, and then a couple other guys who actually got paid in Brock McGinn and Jack Roslevic, who had a 40-point season for them.