The Habs are in the middle of it all right now...

We have some absolutely wild trade updates including Elliot Friedman linking Nikita Kucherov to Montreal but also a new report on Dylan Larkin's trade demands. All of that coming up on this episode but not just that we get to dive into some current haves as well including one that has absolutely stepped up to an absurd level in the last few games and finally a note on Jacob Fowler's incredible performance and an award he just got that shows how insane his run Has been, yeah, a lot of crazy stuff happening today, especially with the Kucherov and Larkin stuff, mostly coming from yesterday, but we got to dive a bit deeper. There's been a whole lot of talk about the future of Kucherov. He lined up next to Stamkos at the faceoff dot last game. It was, it was a bit wild to watch, but the first things first, we just got to talk about our current guys because that is still right now the priority. Yeah, these trades are kind of wild, but everyone get to it. But Jacob Fowler, he's named rookie of the month. And it's still weird to me that like, I know he's a rookie. But he's just been through so much and it doesn't feel like he is. Yeah, honored with Rookie of the Month per NHL PR. And just a little sample. I just have his line. He went 7-1-0 in this month. But just his last seven games because it's a seven-game winning streak. For your guys' viewing pleasure, you can take a look at the save percentage. But just how insane has this run been? Rookie of the Week, Rookie of the Month. What's the next award he's going to win? I mean, realistically, we're talking. I mean, you mentioned Vesna before. I think it's just a matter of time before he gets some kind of major goaltending acknowledgement. Well, that's the third award for him this month. But what's really interesting to see, Josh, is everything that he's doing right now, he's done at those lower levels before, again, to echo the scouting team that selected him. Again, this is his second shutout, only 15 games into the season out of the share of what he's actually played from that. Again, he's done a lot of that. We're following Jacob Fowler throughout his career. In fact, it jumps out the most. Not only is Jacob Fowler good, he's shutout level dominant in games. And again, that's what's so powerful about what he's doing right now. Again, not exactly predicted because all the five goalies ahead of him that were experienced in the NHL. Meanwhile, Jacob Fowler, on the other hand, has 25 games now and obviously an absolutely stellar GAA here. So again, it really just underlines the fact of how Goalies can be such a powerful position. In fact, they can be the most important position on the ice. We've seen that. The eras of the Brodeur, the Patrick Roy. We don't want to get ahead of ourselves with Fowler, but... Can we just say that that's absolutely his aspirations? Yes, Price. We have to pay homage with that as well. Again, that's the type of guy Jacob Fowler believes that he can be. And the way that he's playing right now really backs it up. But the thing about goalies, we have to say, is the unpredictability. That can happen from time to time. But we have to say certain guys like Hasek or Patrick Roy or Brodeur. They were dominant because they just maintain a certain strong level of baseline play throughout the year. Certain goalies can do that. I believe Jacob Fowler, just that calmness that he plays with can provide that consistency he needs to become one of those elite goalies. Yeah, I completely agree. I think that the calmness is the standout factor for him. And it's something that brings those comparisons to these legends of the game that were able to... Even last game wasn't his best start by any means, but he still locked in later. Later in the, like, you know, there's. There's so much about him that just feels special. And just to highlight how special this has been as well, it's the Rookie Honor 7-1-0 in October. Seven wins, tied the NHL record for rookie goalie in October. First Habs goalie to win it since Carey Price in 2008. Third straight Habs rookie honor after Dmitrov and Hudson. It's incredible to see what Habs have been doing, what he has been doing. And also, I mean, we got to acknowledge the comments. We got Pascal Cormier in chat saying, we haven't seen this level of goaltending in Montreal since Carey Price. Fowler's the real thing. I will say, Dobesh has had his pretty good stretches, but there's something special about Fowler. But it's, you know, Fowler has been amazing, but we also got to talk about some other players who have stepped up in Nick Suzuki's absence. Fowler is the number one guy, but Eric Engels recently had an article too talking about Jake Evans, but we noticed it too. Everyone's noticing. It's hard not to notice. Jake Evans setting that standard without Nick Suzuki here. The Habs scores five straight wins without Nick Suzuki. It's pretty incredible and kind of insane that this has happened. Like it's. It's weird to say this. Don't look at the 4-3-2 with him, 5-0-0 without him. You know, this is, this is, correlation does not equal causation. This is like one of the prime examples of this. But what is true is that Jake Evans over this five game sample has been unbelievable. Two goals, five points, plus 11 rating, 55% on the dots since Nick Suzuki's gone down. And you can clearly see, Jesse, those five games where Nick Suzuki goes out. Look at the ice time jump for Evans. Now, instead of just about 13, 14 minutes a night, now logging 17, 18 minutes, most, nights and most recently getting bumped up to like the second line, right? Like he's he's been so impressive. Chris Kreider saying this after the game saying, hey, it's like he always makes the right play. He's helping mentor a guy like Owen Beck. It's incredible to watch what he's doing. He's one of the more underappreciated Habs, I think, the last few years, minus maybe around the deadline when, of course, everyone thought his value was up here when we thought Montreal would trade him. But he's been so, so, so good. And I cannot wait to see where he continues to go because his contract has already proven to be just a ridiculous burden. It really is. And the thing about Evans, besides really the bargain of the contract, of course, is the defense. We can count on Jake Evans for that all the time. He's been great on the PK in many ways. But at the same time, the thing that's different this year for Jake Evans is that that defense is now contributing to the offense as well. And we always know that it was there, right? But again, we just have to keep in mind that Jake Evans, he's just a team first guy. He's being asked to contribute a little bit more offensively, and it's been there. And he's just supplying that right now. But again, it's not just about him. We see how he's setting up Dano the other night. Another team first guy just to get him going. Because we know it's all about momentum sometimes. It's getting that first goal. But again, the Montreal Canadiens are just full of players like Jake Evans. Where it's just really all about the team. There's no other way to explain it. When we're losing somebody so important as Nick Suzuki. As Ivan Demidov. When this team is as young as they are right now. So we got guys. Like Jake has been stepping up right now. And that's been the key difference. Exactly. The depth has been amazing. And just to shout out another comment, because why not? We got a Benjou. It's a Benjou. It's a Benjou. 13, 13, five games without Suzuki Evans, five points. Caulfield for Dano for Hudson, for Anderson, three, Ghouli three, three, Kreide three, three, three, three, three, three, three, three, three, three, three, three, three, three, three, three, three, Like, just the depth has been absolutely incredible. And I think that really has started with Evans. And also, shout out Ghouli for cracking this list. Him and Hudson, the only defenseman there. And also, not to mention, another player that we... I know it's a defenseman, so it's not quite, you know, the same as saying without Suzuki. But no Suzuki, no Dmitrov, and no Matheson, really. He played, like, a couple games and then got hurt again. So, like, everyone being able to step up, Slafkovsky, is absolutely amazing. But still, Montreal is... Even though we're second in the Eastern points percentage, third in the NHL... We're still looking to maybe add some talent. We know Kent Hughes has looked around. These kind of trades, like everyone knows that that's just where he's working in silence. Kent Hughes is asking all kinds of teams. But we got some wild updates yesterday. We got to dive into them because Friedman straight up said that Kucherov absolutely would consider Montreal. And we have a little bit on Larkin too. I'm just going to start on Larkin because I still don't think this is as likely. But it is interesting that it's been Friedman. It's been Chris Johnson. It's been a lot of people throwing a lot of smoke between Montreal and Larkin. Friedman's saying, I think over the next 24 to 48 hours, it's possible we see that 10 team trade list altered, which is really interesting. We also saw this coming in saying, hey, some teams outside of Larkin's 10 team list remain interested, including Buffalo, Montreal, and Boston. So it is something interesting. Again, like I said, Jesse, I'm maybe less high on this. Again, there's some weird stuff going on with Larkin, but still interesting nonetheless that we're going to have to monitor if this list changes because we know Montreal absolutely is a team that could be the timing of this from Larkin potentially expanding his list here is absolutely suspect you have to keep in mind that Nikita Kucherov being out on the market now absolutely lowers the leverage that Dylan Larkin has again a player of just his gravitas the star player no disrespect to Larkin again that Kucherov is it changes the dynamic completely there so look for them to resolve this really sooner than later um just as a byproduct uh really evolved this year but again with Nikita Kucherov right like it's obviously like a thing where you got to feel like he's interested in coming you know to Montreal potentially right like he wants to go to a winner if he's leaving Tampa that's the goal you feel like that's going to be the mission one way or another here is just how how willing is Tampa really willing to do that what's the AV what's coming the other way really it's such a big thing for a player here who again in context and And while I can't use Absolutely is paying close attention to this. All the same here, is this a player again that has scored over 100 points? In his last four seasons, I'd say there's probably good money that he's going to do that again this year as well, even though maybe a slower start by his standards here Again, this is just a very interesting because this is just not a situation that comes up very often at all. Almost never And yeah, let's just take a look at Kucherov's career stats just because it's just because it's fun to look at unreal stuff, obviously And like some people were saying, hey, even if he drops off. 20, 30% overnight, this dude's still a near 100-point player. He is going to age, but you mentioned a very interesting point, too. Well, lots of interesting points, but the main ones, one, the package, because we're talking age plus maybe Jaroslawski, plus probably some good roster players, plus draft picks. The haul for Kucherov would be ridiculous. He is only on a one-year deal, but you would assume that any kind of trade would also involve an extension, and if you're going to give up a ton of assets, Or, like, he could also just walk in free agency, right? That's kind of the reason. But also, like, he's just, you're going to have a bidding war. Like, teams will line up to take him, right? Lots of teams with maybe shorter windows, maybe Minnesota, you never know. But the other important thing, what... Glitch in the brain there. The other important thing is the AAV for Nikita Kucherov because we do have this report here from Kevin Weeks saying, per sources, I'm told the first offer was around $13 million, revised to $15 million only after the Carlson offer sheet and Makar $20 million. So the Lightning did not want to go past $15 million for Kucherov in a market where Makar's getting $20 million, Carlson's getting $18 million. So it seems like they just didn't want to pay their franchise player. And this is a common thing for them. They didn't want to pay Stamkos when he was maybe over the hill. Didn't want to lock him up till he was older. They let him leave. Darren Radish last season, 70 plus points. They let him walk to Toronto. They brought in John Carlson instead. They didn't want to lock them up long term. It's continuing that pattern. But Kucherov is probably your franchise's greatest player. And it's like, this is happening. But Jesse, I mean, at this price, right? If he's ignoring 15 million, you have to imagine any team going to get him. He's going to have to offer 18 or 20 million. That's kind of the numbers going around, which makes this a lot harder to digest, right, if you're Montreal. I mean, we now have, you know, 3.8 million under the cap this year, but in the next few years, we have 29 million, I think, next year. But regardless, this takes a pretty big hit to your depth, which has been one of Montreal's strong suits. Yet many teams will be willing to pay this price for Nikita Kucherov gladly. Clearly, Nikita's hurt about what's going on. This is a player that commands a lot of respect in the NHL. So you have to feel because of that, this situation will resolve rather sooner than later here. Again, this is clearly like a player that if he's coming from a situation from Tampa where maybe this has happened a couple other times. Potentially, he is looking to a place, again, for Montreal in his own right, where he feels like he's got a good culture, he's going to be treated the right way. Again, we know how he feels about it. He would most likely want to come. It's really how Tampa wants to feel about this at the end of the day. Again, with what he's been able to do, It's kind of hard to question these players wanting to get paid relative to other sports and what they get paid. Again, they drive a strong argument in their own right. So I think that's a separate argument. But at the same time, again, you have to feel like Ken Hughes is looking at this situation here because speaking about the future and the present, right? I find that the Montreal Canadiens, it's not all these future assets that we truly have Now, if a team is looking to improve, even in the short term, again, Guys like Engstrom, guys like Kapanen, these are all young guys that can immediately impact your team in a strong way. Adam Engstrom is absolutely a top four defenseman here in the NHL for many teams going forward. You almost want to buy low on him now. He's probably going to be better than what we think he is. Again, just to give an example of so many other players, right, that we do have right now. So I think we do have what teams are looking for. That can only make things more interesting. Um, again, the fact this is very unexpected, you got to feel like if you're Tampa, you're trying to get them as far as you can outside of your division, you know, you're facing Montreal Canadiens, basically maybe. every single year in the playoffs for a good bit, unless things don't change. So again, it's very interesting to see how this will play out, but a lot of different factors at play, given that he does have some control over where he will go. He does, and yeah, like you said, I mean, Montreal's prospects, they're in a position where a lot of them, they're just blocked out by really talented players. And so you're right, this is the perfect opportunity for other teams to demand more. Like, give me more of them, because we value them lower, because they can't crack your roster. Anyway, there's a lot of nuance to this. And anyway, leave your thoughts on it down below. What do you guys think? Would you rather Kucherov? Would you rather Larkin? Or would you rather just neither? Let's stay the course. But at the same time, like, names like this, they don't come up very often. So if Gentius is out there trying to make a deal, I mean, who better is going to come on the market? But anyway, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you all for tuning in every single day. I'm Josh Goss, my host, Jesse Paquette. We'll catch you all in the next one.