Top Three Stanley Cups Since 2000, Trades Galore, and World Cup (Show 12)

Sean is here to breakdown his top three Stanley Cup Finals since the year 2000. Did your favorite make the list? He also discusses the major Brady Tkachuk trade, as well as, other big trades and signings. Which teams make the smartest moves? Lastly, he briefly discusses the World Cup action that is keeping the summer even more entertaining. It's Biscuit Breakdown! Consider yourself served!

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Transcript

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It's time for biscuit breakdown, where hockey is the only thing on the menu. And welcome back, whoever you root for, wherever you live, whenever it is. Thank you for tuning in to Biscuit Breakdown. I am your host, Sean, and holy cow, have there been a lot of trades and action ever since the end of the Stanley Cup final. We had the draft. There is a lot going on, and free agency is starting tomorrow at time of recording. So we'll see who else moves to a new team. Before we do any of the breakdowns, you can follow me on Instagram at Biscuit Breakdown, Twitter, Biscuit Breakdown without the O in the name, or Gmail at Biscuit Breakdown Pod at gmail.com. Before I talk about any of the trades or the draft, I want to quickly do a little bit of wrap-up on the Stanley Cup final. Obviously, the hurricanes took down the Knights in six games. It was a pretty good series, especially through the first three or four games. It was madness, and then the hurricanes really just kind of settled in, and the Knights really didn't have enough of an answer. But if you want to hear the full breakdown of that series, you can listen to the previous episode where I talk about all of that and how John Tortorella really burnt the biscuit in terms of not being willing to adapt and uh switch out the goalie and maybe hope for a spark there, or you know, a couple other methods that he could have done a little bit better. But what I wanted to say about the Stanley Cup wrap-up was if you listen to Matthew and Brady Kachuk's podcast called Wingmen, uh more on the two of them in a little bit, um, they were talking about their top three Stanley Cup final matchups, um, and they wanted everyone to comment on their Instagram about their top three matchups um since the year 2000, and I went to their Instagram page and replied to or commented on the post, and I put the 2019 Stanley Cup final between the St. Louis Blues and the Boston Bruins. That was an epic final because the Blues were on a magical run. They were in last place that year in January, and they had a red-hot spring and got all the way to the Stanley Cup final, and then in the final they go up three games to two by winning in Boston. They head home to St. Louis to try to close out the series. Boston has a major performance really in game six, wins on the road to extend the series, bring it back to Boston, and the Blues, with Jordan Bennington, their goalie as a rookie, totally unfazed, just go into Boston and they win game seven, shock the Boston TD Garden, and ruin the night of all the Bruins players and organization and fans everywhere, and they get the victory on the road. Um actually, funny story about that game, I didn't really get to watch any of it because I was playing men's league hockey, and we actually had our championship that night, and someone had their phone on the bench and was like streaming the game, so we were kind of keeping up with it, but I didn't really get to watch it. I was just kind of hearing updates and kind of you know tuning in every time I came to the bench to catch a breather. Um but yeah, so fun night. We did end up winning our championship that night as well. So um, yeah, good night all around, uh, I guess, for you know, the fact that I won my game and my league and uh, you know, saw the blues with an epic Game 7 victory. And then in the second place slot on that post uh of the Wingmen podcast, I put the 2009 Stanley Cup final between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings. That was an epic final because it was a rematch of the previous year's final between the Penguins and the Red Wings, in which the Red Wings won. That 2008 Red Wings team was an absolute wagon. Um lot of Hall of Famers on that team, really tough to beat. Um Sidney Crosby, I think, was in his third year overall. You know, he was a very good player, obviously, but still improving upon his um abilities. And so the Pittsburgh Penguins lost in 2008, and they got their sweet revenge in two thousand two thousand nine, where they won in game seven in Detroit. Um I'll never forget it. I don't know, maybe I don't know, I'm just gonna guess here, maybe like five seconds left on the clock, and Detroit wins the face-off in Pittsburgh's end, and they get it over to Nicholas Lidstrom, who tries to one time it in to tie the game. Um, but Mark Andre Fleury dives across from left to right and saves it with his right shoulder, and that was the game. The Pittsburgh Penguins were champions in 2009, so that was my number two spot, and then in my number one spot for most epic Stanley Cup final since 2000, I had the Florida Panthers against the Edmonton Oilers in 2024, the first time the Panthers won against them, because that was an absolutely bananas final. We had the Florida Panthers basically impose their will on the Edmonton Oilers those first three games, and they took a three to nothing lead, and then they got nervous. They knew they were one win away, and they just really just gripped their sticks too tightly and fumbled around and just almost had an epic collapse that would have never been forgotten, really. And they ended up losing game four in Edmonton. They got their doors blown off. I think it was eight to one, if I remember correctly. Then they go down to Florida for game five. We're thinking, alright, home game. They got the jitters out of the way, perfect time to win the series. Nope, they lose after a pretty shitty performance. They gotta head all the way back to Edmonton for Game 6. That was Connor McDavid's famous saying, we gotta drag them back to Edmonton. Well, they did just that, and the Oilers won game six to force a game seven. The Panthers always sit around and say, oh, we were never scared, we never really panicked, we still believed, which maybe they did, or maybe that's just the cliche thing to say, but the teams flew all the way back to Fort Lauderdale and played game seven, and it was a nail biter all the way down to the wire. Um I forget who scored the first goal of that game, but I remember Sam Reinhart uh put the Panthers up 2-0, and then Edmonton ended up getting a goal, or no, I think it was 1-1, and then Sam Reinhardt scored and made it two to one, and it was just super suspenseful, chaotic, crazy, edgy your seat type stuff, you're living and dying with every ice clear, and then you know, they had Connor McDavid all alone in front of the net somehow, um, right in the dying seconds, and they couldn't get him the puck, it was trapped in the corner, and just like that the Florida Panthers became Stanley Cup champions for the first time in their history, and then you know, next year after that they went on to beat the Oilers again to become back-to-back champions. So those were my top three. We had the Blues Bruins in 2019, Red Wings Penguins in 2009, and the Panthers and Oilers in 2024. I would love to hear your top three if you could um you know reach out on Instagram, Twitter, or email. I would be happy to share some results on the next episode. Alright, let's change it up here and let's get to the trades, the trades, the trades. Holy cow, the trades. I have never seen a um basically a week of craziness like we had this year when we didn't even get to the NHL draft yet. It was before the draft. Teams are trading picks, major stars, um, you know, prospects, shits flying everywhere. And now that the dust has settled a bit, we've had all these trades. We've had the NHL draft, and now, like I said, the free agency period is tomorrow for anyone who's still not signed to a team. They can start talking to any team and figure out where they want to play next for the right amount of money. But obviously, the biggest trade, in my opinion, that went down was Brady Kachuk being traded to the Florida Panthers for three first rounders, two first rounders this year, and then a first rounder in the future. I believe it was 2029, and a second rounder, I think, in 2028. Um, you can fact check me on that if you really want to get into the specifics. I'm going off of memory here. But that was a crazy deal, obviously, because it unites the Kachuk brothers. Now people are calling them the Katchuk brothers. It unites them in South Florida. It makes it known that Bill Zito, the Florida GM, is really pushing all his chips into the center of the table to try to bolster the team and make them a true wrecking ball, a true favorite heading into next year to win the Stanley Cup, because he knows that he has a lot of superstars on the team currently who are all signed to good deals. They're in the prime of their careers, and the time is now. There's no time to be sitting around and hoarding draft picks and prospects. Um he wants to get a star player who is also in their prime that can help them right now and make them a more formidable opponent, and I believe he excelled at that. Um will things suck in the future when we don't have a lot of young, good talent coming in because we've traded away so many draft picks? Probably. But you know what? The future is not right now. All we have is today. So Bill Zito goes out and makes a huge splash. This fucking guy did a cannonball from the 30-meter, you know, platform and the Olympic pool. There's water all over the pool deck, people are soaking wet, towels are no longer dry, people are pissed, all the other GMs are sitting there thinking, Jesus. Now I have to contend with the Florida Panthers that have Barkov, Bennett, Kachuk Brothers, we got Lundell, they got Verhage, they got Reinhardt, they got Brad Marshan. Now they potentially have Radko Gudis. They have all of these people that are ready to take your head off at any moment and can also put the puck in the back of the net. So it'll be um very interesting to see and exciting to see um how this all turns out. And as far as the Ottawa Senators, you gotta feel bad for the um those fans because they're losing Brady Kachuk, their captain, when he's only 26 years old, but it was clear that he didn't want to re-sign there, so at least they got something for them. Uh, and then they ended up flipping those picks, and they got another player from the Sharks, William Eklund, and they are trying to continue to build their team because they don't want everyone else on their team to jump ship. So it's a tough, it's a tough thing these days. GMs um have a hard job to try to make the team attractive, to make the location attractive. People online are complaining like, oh, it's all the no-income state tax teams that are getting all these players, which could be true. Um it's definitely a factor. Obviously, if you're making a lot of money and there's no income tax, you're gonna take home a lot more of that money, which does play a role in people's decisions, I'm sure. So, you know, did this to the non-state income tax teams have a bit of an advantage right now? Yes, I would say. Um also a lot of them are in nice weather, so that's another plus. Um will there be some sort of leveling out of the state income tax teams and the non-state income tax teams? We'll see. I feel like that'll be pretty tricky to pull off, but um time will tell. Um let's get into some of the other trades because there was a lot of them. We had Bowen Byrum of the Buffalo Sabres defenseman getting traded to the Chicago Blackhawks for the number four overall pick in the draft, and uh another player, Crevier. Um it seemed like an overpayment. Not sure why Buffalo went and did that. Um well, I meant to say Chicago. I'm not sure why Chicago traded for Byrum. He's a good player, he's good on the power play. He's not exactly a number one D-man, at least he hasn't been to this point in his career, and now you're bringing him in to be the number one guy when he hasn't really been the number one guy. So kind of an interesting decision there. We'll see how that pans out. Um, another thing I wanted to talk about was the Washington Capitals signing Alex Tuck to an eight-year deal worth ten point five million dollars a year. I think that is a big overpayment. I mean, the guy was a ghost this playoff season. He didn't do jack shit. Part of the reason why they lost, I guess, to the Montreal Canadians in the second round. Uh so you know when the lights were brightest, he was nowhere to be found. He had a pretty good season um and a few good seasons for Buffalo. He's a big player, but he's an um I'm talking about physically big, uh, but he's age, you know, he's an aging player, and you're gonna give him 10.5 million a year. I don't know. Not really sure if that makes sense. I would say he's more of like an eight million dollar a year player, and you know, we'll see how it works out for them. Alright, going through some more here. Gonna try to go quickly because I know we are uh, you know, we're all trying to keep up with daily life, and you might not have time for a super long episode. Let's see here. William Eklund went to the Senators. Um seems like a good young player. I think that's a good move by them. They ended up giving up the the Senators gave the Sharks the number nine overall pick, which they turned that into Keith Keaton Verhoff, I'm pretty sure his name is. One of the top-ranked defensemen in the draft. They also got Ivar Stenberg, who is the um some people ranked him as the number one prospect. They got him at number two after Gavin McKenna went to the Maple Leafs at number one. So the Sharks really made out with an excellent draft. Got two young, good players that will help build their core. Um Jordan Kairu goes to the Capitals in a trade for Conor McMichael, Milton Gastron, and a first round pick. Seems like the Capitals, it seemed like a fair deal, actually, because Cairo signed for a few years. Seems like he has more to give, so we'll see if that works out with the Capitals. I already talked about the Byram trade. Uh talked about Alex Tuck. Buffalo signed Zach Benson to seven years, 7.5 average. That's a nice deal for him and the team. So that's a win-win. Um here was a bit of a head scratcher. The Panthers acquired Garnet Hathaway from the Flyers for a fourth round pick and a fifth round pick. They're basically paying him pennies, but I don't know why they went and did that. But he's just another bruiser, brawler type player that's gonna be on the fourth line, um, you know, just kind of banging bodies, which I guess is good because he's gonna fill the role of AJ Greer, who went to the Anaheim Ducks in a trade for the rights to Radko Gudis, who will probably sign with the Panthers, although it hasn't happened yet at of time of recording. Let's see, we got some other action here. Um the Colorado Avalanche send Valerie Nechuskin to the Columbus Blue Jackets for a second round pick, third round pick, and fifth round pick. Um seems like a pretty fair deal, I guess. Um has had some issues off the ice, but when he is playing well, he can really fire the puck into the net. Um so it could definitely benefit the Blue Jackets, and it seems like the Colorado Avalanche are trying to just basically clear up some salary cap space. Mason McTavish was sent to the Blues from Anaheim. Let's see who else. Uh Brett Kulak re-signed with the Avalanche, five years, four point five million. Brent Burns, one year deal, eight hundred and fifty thousand to stay with the Avalanche. He's only fifty-six games, I believe, from breaking the all-time Iron Man streak for most games played in a row without missing any time due to injury. So totally incredible, especially considering that he is a defenseman. So he's got to get to like 1,000, I don't know, 50 or 1082, something like that. So hopefully he can do it. That would be cool to be able to uh witness. What else? Oh, the Utah Mammoth sent JJ Petrka to the Bruins for a first round pick. Um interesting deal there, but it will help the Bruins and their scoring needs. Uh what else? What else? Oh, Pavel Dorafev was traded to the New York Rangers and then immediately signed a seven-year deal worth eleven million dollars per year, so obviously a nice chunk of change for him, and Vegas turned it into three picks, so good on them if they knew that they didn't have enough money to sign him. Let's see what else happened here. Oh, I thought the um Anaheim Ducks really made a good trade. They sent McTavish to the Blues, like I said, but they got two first round picks for him, and they were in this year's draft, so I think that's smart by the Anaheim Ducks. They weren't playing McTavish much. I think he still has a bright future. He's young, he's still got to learn a bit, but could work out all around for both sides. What else happened? The Florida Panthers today, at time of recording, acquired Jacob Markstrom, the goalie from the New Jersey Devils, in exchange for Evan Rodriguez. So that was an interesting trade, and it basically proves that Sergei Babrowski will not be re signing with the Panthers, which was surprising to me because I figured at this point in his career he's in his upper 30s, he's already made a shitload of money, he's had success with the Panthers, obviously. Why would he want to move? Um, but I guess the two sides could not come to an agreement, and he's gonna be playing somewhere else next year, so that's interesting. Um we'll see how it works out for both sides. But now the Panthers are moving forward with Jacob Markstrom as their starter, and they also got Akira Schmied from the Vegas Golden Knights for a third rounder, so they have a new goalie room in Fort Lauderdale. What else happened trying to find a couple more big acquisitions? Uh let's see. AJ Greer got a four year deal for. From the Ducks four point two five million per year year. So nice deal for him. There is a rumor that Zach Werensky, the defenseman on the Blue Jackets, who just won the Norris Trophy for best defenseman of the year, wants to go to the Lightning. So we'll see if he gets traded there. And lastly, the Devils have signed Arsene Gritsuk to three years, three point two five million per year. That is a nice deal to get done. He is a good young player for the Devils. And I think their new GM, Sonny Meita, made a nice move right there by signing Gritsuk to three years, 3.25. Little bit of a bridge deal for him. Obviously, if he plays well over these next three years, which I think he will, he will get a huge pay raise when that deal is up. Tomorrow starts free agency, so we'll see what kind of chaos that brings. I know it'll be exciting either way. It's always, you know, sort of a exciting, interesting time, even when the season ends, because you always want to see who's going where, who gets traded for who, and this year we had a lot of action. We already had a lot of signings even before free agency. Um it could potentially make free agency, quote unquote, kind of boring, but you know, time will tell once again. We'll see who goes where and how the cards stack up once the dust settles, and teams just kind of really head into summer and do their development camps with all their new draft picks and young players try to keep building for the future. Um in other news, obviously the World Cup is going on, and I'm rooting for the USA, of course. In the other matches when I'm watching, I'm always rooting for like the underdogs, you know, the small nations. I'm rooting for Cape Verde, you know, just a little tiny island. Uh they have a tough matchup, obviously. I think they play soon one of these days against Argentina, so that's going to be tough. But, you know, you always root for the underdog. You never know what could happen. Last night, at time of recording, Morocco beat the Netherlands in penalty kicks. That was an exciting game. Um it's crazy to me how nervous some of these guys get when they go to take a penalty kick because they're pretty close to the fucking net, and the net is pretty damn big, and the goalie just has to kind of guess where it's going. Sometimes they can fake them out, psych them out, wait 'em out, and dive and get a hand on it, and make you know awesome saves, but sometimes the kicker just really does does themselves in and either hits the post or misses the net completely because they're trying to get too cute. Um so, you know, while we don't have any hockey action, tune into the World Cup action if you haven't been yet. It's been pretty exciting. Um obviously I wish there was some more scoring, like an NHL game, but beggars can't be choosers in the summer. If you enjoyed today's episode, please make sure to follow the show wherever you get your podcasts, and please rate five stars and leave a review. I would really appreciate it. Please send this show to a hockey friend in need. We all have friends out there that might be interested in the game of hockey, and uh you could send this to them, get them caught up on the action, uh send it to a family member, a friend, a colleague, anyone out there that you think would enjoy the show, and I would really appreciate it. You can follow me on Instagram at biscuit breakdown, Twitter, Biscuit Breakdown without the O, or Gmail Biscuit Breakdown Pod at gmail.com. This has been Biscuit Breakdown. Consider yourself served.