Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
So what's it like driving with Sammy? It's aggressive. It's a little bit lower to the ground because I'm in my truck. So everything just seems like it's coming at me a lot quicker when I'm with Sammy.
I respect that, Sam.
I don't believe in amber.
Oh, the color?
Most everything is green.
The color or the commentator?
The commentator. What about him? What is it? The secret voice? What is he?
Oh, the anonymous... The anonymous, yeah. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by your Canadian Toyota dealers and the 2026 Tacoma. It's time to Toyota from Buffalo. Kyle, Elliot, and Dom, we're all together in person. This doesn't happen too often during the year, so we cherish the moments that do.
And it's a great time to all be together because when you think of what's happened this week already... I think of the scene from Anchorman after the big fight between all the networks and they're sitting in Burgundy's office and he goes, that escalated quickly. I mean, that really got out of hand fast. Here we are. We haven't even gotten to draft day yet as we record this.
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Chapter 2: What updates are provided about Jason Robertson's contract situation?
His father works for the organization. But I think that at the end, when it really came down to it, He just felt that the opportunities were better. Verbeek liked what was being offered more from St. Louis and the Rangers. Now, if Brady Kachuk had wanted to go to Anaheim, we might be talking a little bit differently.
Right, of course. Are the Blues and Doug Armstrong, are they kind of seen as one of the power brokers here heading into Friday night at this juncture with four picks?
I think there's a lot of them. I mean, you know, Blues, yes, four first-rounders. Um, San Jose has two in the top nine and they, and we'll talk about Byram. They tried to get Byram. Um, uh, I think, uh, well, obviously now you, Seattle and Dallas, uh, are, are, are really big ones. Um, Buffalo and we're interviewing Yarmulke Kalan and they've got four and four and 20. Um,
You know, the one thing that, you know, I was joking with someone. I said to them today, like, who's up, who's out? Like, are there any more names out there? And he said, it would be better if you just asked me who's not getting traded because there's like 25 players in the league. Jeez. And I know you guys are so funny. Like we say, oh, this could be a big summer.
And people go on social and say, these idiots say this every year. At last, we're right. We're like the people predicting the housing bubble. At last, we're right. Yes. It's crazy out there.
Yes, exactly. On the whiteboard, plus 800%. Finally, the big return comes your way. So, McTavish, all right, we'll see. Meanwhile, the first pick, as it stands right now, still belongs to the Toronto Maple Leafs. John Chyka on Thursday said that even at that point, they know who they're taking, that it's unanimous. And we'll get Jason and Sam's thoughts on that here in a little bit.
But that was an interesting thing for Chai to float out there. And then also when it comes to the futures of Matthew Nyes and Morgan Riley with the team.
Some cold water. Yeah, he, you know, he did the, the nice thing didn't surprise me so much because I know that they've basically set a very high bar and you know, whatever that was with Montreal at the deadline, they weren't doing that again. The bar is higher. And so they set a really high bar and unless you hit it, they're not doing it.
And as we've all talked about in Florida added Garnett Hathaway on Thursday, uh, Nyes, to me, is the kind of guy, unless you have a good reason, I want that guy playing against the Florida Panthers. You need him. The Raleigh one was really interesting because the thing about Chayka is he's not afraid to deal. He loves to deal. And the fact that he was out there saying...
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Chapter 3: How are the St. Louis Blues positioned as power-brokers in the draft?
Okay.
You know, getting into Brampton that's close by and then keeping an eye on video and watching highlight packs and so on and so forth. And... You know, on reading and making calls and emails, I, you know, I tend to lean a little bit more towards the anecdotal side of things because I like to try and tell the backstories.
And so since Books has come aboard with all of his hockey acumen, he kind of leans in that direction. I lean a little bit more towards the anecdotal side so we can tell all sides of the story.
One of the things we do together, though, I think you would agree, is that if I'm on the tour and I see something that pops and there's somebody that's on the periphery of Sam's interest level and he's building something in his first round, I'll share some of my video analysis. I'll feed him some files and say, listen, just so you know, this is what I saw out there on the tour.
for me at the pro hockey group, you know, I'm fortunate because I have 16 guys embedded around the world on my staff. So it's really like an NHL hockey operations department. I come into Sportsnet and I, you know, work occasionally on TV and studio, which I love. It's kind of gets me off the road a little bit, but, I've seen all the OHL, I've seen the Quebec League, I've seen the Western League.
I've been in the States and seen several college weekends down there. World Junior, overseas at the U18 World Championships in Slovakia. So all the really big events, I certainly want to make sure that I'm there, live and present. The thing about video is that it follows the puck, right? And it's a fantastic tool, but you need to be in the rink and you have to really...
get down to the brass tacks of what that prospect is all about. How does he warm up? Does that mean he starts on time in a game? You know, he gets benched for a shift or takes a bad penalty. What's he doing towards the coach or the official? Or how is he interacting with his teammates? All that kind of stuff. So it's really important for me.
So I was on the road probably, well, you know, I don't know how many games I ended up seeing. I can tell you that there's over a thousand game reports this year. So it gives you a little bit of an idea.
Where was the most remote place you guys went this year to see something?
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Chapter 4: What insights are shared about general managers standing up to owners?
Put both of those guys in the seat to pick number one and then tell me what happens. He might have pushback. He might not. But when the owner says, hey, tickets, jerseys, and it starts to go beyond the scope of hockey, that becomes a different conversation. So I think if you put him in that seat, I don't think there's any doubt that he would have pushback.
But I also believe that if Terry Bagula said, you're taking this guy, then he's taking him.
So that's not so much them having the stones as it's a directive from the owner.
Well, but this is the point I'm saying. You have to combat the owner. So what general manager is going to stand up to his owner in that regard? And listen, everyone, every single guy in that spot is going to tell you, there's no way. I'm on this job 24-7. We have a staff that we're paying millions of dollars to. But at the end of the day, when push comes to shove...
I don't think there's a guy in the league that'll do it.
So my big picture here is that this whole entire... As everybody knows, trust me, I've had enough people throwing rocks at my glass house since January. I've had Ivor Stenberg number one on my list for... since January, okay? And McKenna came on strong in the second half of the year in a bunch of metrics that I qualify him to be challenging Stenberg.
The fact of the matter is Stenberg didn't fall off that perch. So it would be irresponsible of me to switch it around because there wasn't enough of a gain and there wasn't enough of a fall off. Now, having said that, I think one thing that we're really disrespecting in this process is this. Stenberg plays in Sweden, guys.
So he's out of sight, out of mind to the North American market more than anybody else. When I start hearing things, and please don't take this the wrong way, Sammy. When I start hearing things like these guys don't have the stones or that it's going to sell jerseys and it's going to do this and that, to me that's disrespectful a bit to Stenberg's value as well.
Because, yeah, he might not be as marketable, but he's –
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Chapter 5: How do the hosts evaluate the top NHL draft prospects?
outstanding he's outstanding and when you're winning stanley cups or you're going deep in playoff runs does it matter then how many jerseys and hot dogs and beers you swallowed i'm with you a thousand percent like i remember remember i hate i don't like to kick a guy while he's gone but that's what happened with yakupov in the oilers jay got overruled and told to take right like
Again, Nelly Akopov, it's been a long time, but that's what I would tell my owner. I think I would hope that a GM would at least have the guts to say to their owner. And I agree with you. If you don't have the guts to say that, you shouldn't be a GM. But I would hope a GM would have the guts of the owner to say, hey, this is a situation where this happened. Do you want this to happen again?
Yeah, let us do our jobs.
I think every GM would have that conversation. I fully believe that.
So if you were the GM, if you were the Leafs GM, who would you take?
I would take McKenna. You would, eh? Yeah.
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of player trades and team strategies?
After all that? No, but part of the reason is like there's potential for a 90 or 100 point guy. And while Stenberg... How many guys had 100 points in the league this year? Seven. Seven guys.
Okay. Okay.
Mitch Marner, did I think when he came in the league, he was going to be a perennial 100-point guy?
Chapter 7: What lessons can be learned from the recent NHL playoffs?
I didn't think that. He turned out to be pretty good. Is this guy Mitch Marner? Well, he doesn't play defensively like Mitch Marner. But the point I'm trying to make is that when I look at the entire situation, and we know this better than anyone, like Rodgers is a business, guys. And so this has been hyped for how long?
And the thing is, it's not like you're going to take, I don't believe this to be a Yakupov situation. I believe that the high-end potential of this player is going to speak to someone who is going to give you more on that end than Stenberg's all-around game. Is it going to be a huge gap? No, I don't think so.
I think Stenberg is the better all-around player and will be the better all-around player for the length of their careers. But I really feel that the offensive upside that McKenna has is something that I don't want to miss out on. Who's going to Stenberg. Stenberg. You think so?
So I said on the radio the other day on Matty and Mike's show that I think Stenberg is going number two. And someone called me and said, don't be so emphatic. So I'm doubting myself. I'm gaslighting myself.
I wouldn't doubt yourself. I'd be very comfortable with it. And I'd actually still stand on that tomorrow. If it doesn't happen, the reasoning behind it, I would still stand on that. He's the second – I've been there.
He's so good.
I've, you know, I've, I've, I've done this and, and sometimes not very well, but I've tried my very, very best. And that's the cutoff guys. There's a drop off to the next guy. So when you start taking a look at the chase reads, let's, Take a look what Stenberg did. Again, I'll just bring it back. And I'm not sitting here to try and justify that I have a number one.
Because by the way, if I'm the Sean Maple Leafs, part of my reasoning, I'll answer the question. Yeah, Sammy, I'm drafting Stenberg. Okay, over McKenna. I'm drafting Stenberg. The reason is that I feel like they went through the rest of what you're talking about there, the business and all that. That's not my lane. Right. That's not my lane.
If somebody in the business office and marketing can't market our top, the first pick overall, whether he comes from the moon or Sweden or wherever, that's not my lane. I'm trying to do what's best for the organization. OK, so when I look at Stenberg, I feel the Toronto Maple Leafs in their last cycle of the retool rebuild. Let's call the rebuild. Here we are in Buffalo. Matthew's got drafted.
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