Carolina Hurricanes, NHL Free Agency Has Begun

This is the best of the Adam Gold Show Podcast brought to you by Coach Pete at Capital Financial Advisory Group.

Visit us at capitalfinancialusa.com. Which I don't do. I'm just saying I can understand it. Yeah, the fried chicken from Chick-fil-A. Yeah, people put ketchup on that all the time. Don't look at me like I'm crazy. Why would you do that? More people put ketchup on a Chick-fil-A sandwich than they do on eggs. I guarantee you.

I guarantee you. That is appalling. That is not appalling. No, it's ridiculous. That's not ridiculous. You should be arrested.

This is the Adam Gold Show. Very hard hitting. Yeah.

Oh my gosh, very hard hitting. If you want to embrace debate, this is where you come. So it was brought to my attention yesterday because I was, we were all so wrapped up in the ketchup acceptable. And I had casually mentioned, I think it was all fair that ketchup was like the ninth best condiment.

You did, you said that to me. It's just whatever. I don't even know if I could come up with eight other condiments to be perfectly honest. But if you're going to put anything on a Chick-fil-A sandwich, and frankly, I don't think it needs anything. The Chick-fil-A sauce is better than ketchup.

Just the, whatever that, whatever, whatever that is. I don't know what that is, but as sauces go, as condiments go, it's pretty good. Okay. So, but again, I am, I'm chicken pickle bun.

Good to go. And I like the spicy spicy chicken. Good. It's my preference.

The spicy is my preference. All right, the yeah, we only tackle the tough subjects. It's true here on the program. I am Adam Gold. This is the Adam Gold Show. Dennis Cox is here. We're on television. If you care to watch us do this, and you can find us at WRAL Sports Plus. So if you are local to the Raleigh Market, you can find us on Spectrum Cable, Channel 1257, Over the Air Network, Over the Air Antenna 34.1, Fire, Roku, Android, Apple TV as well. You can also stream us at WRALSportsFan.com. There is so much going on today.

I mean, a ridiculous amount of things to get to. Today's the start of NHL Free Agency. Yes. We've got, by the way, yes, North Carolina. Adam Silver had a couple of things to say that I think people will be interested in hearing. Baker Mayfield met the media yesterday.

The Open Championship starts in just a few minutes. And I mentioned this yesterday. You might have thought I was kidding. I did say yesterday that, hey, if the Braves beat the Mets today, I said this yesterday, then I will give it the same treatment that I gave the Mets beating the Braves from Monday. And then I went, no, I won't.

And I wasn't lying. Yep. Braves 4, Mets 1, enough said. All right, let's get right to it because Free Agency has begun in the NHL.

It is a wild, wild day. We've signed everyone, right? No. No?

No. Look, I have not seen the first official signings, but we had a bunch of things that happened yesterday. But I can tell you that the Carolina Hurricanes are closing in on a deal that will bring defenseman Brent Burns from the San Jose Sharks to the Carolina Hurricanes.

There are apparently multiple players involved. There will be salary retained. Burns is 37 years old. That's old.

Still good, though. He has an $8 million average annual value on his contract. The money owed to him the rest of the way is not that much. The total money owed in his last three years, got three years left in this deal, total money owed is $16.5 million.

So that's, and part of that is bonus money. I don't know if they're going to get San Jose to play into the bonus money. San Jose will retain some of the cap in, which has to happen for Carolina to get this deal done and then to make other signings because they will have to make other signings. If Jake Gardner is off the books, then Carolina has roughly between $22 and $23 million to work with to get eight NHL players, three NHL defenseman. Now, maybe that includes Ethan Bair, who they did send off, make a qualifying offer to, but still three NHL defenseman, five NHL forwards. That includes two of the restricted free agents, Steven Lawrence and Martine Neches. That includes Jack Drury. Yeah. So if they re-sign those two and Drury comes up, they need two NHL forwards, which, okay.

Okay. But still, there's money going out for those three players, so that eats into your available cap. Whatever your cap hit is on Burns eats into that. If you have to, if you ultimately buy Gardner out, a million dollars of that is a buyout, so that eats into your cap. And now you still need the NHL defenseman. So you've wasted a million dollars.

You have one million less to play with. So anyway, there are a lot of things that still have to happen for the hurricane. So let me, before we get into who went where and what, I just wanted to get all of that out there. So here's the, we already went through the situation. Tony D'Angelo is gone.

They got a bunch of draft picks. That's fine. People have asked me about Vincent Trojcek and Nino Niederreiter. Trojcek looks like, according to Dave Pagnotta with the fourth period, they're a great source. He says that Trojcek's going to sign with the Rangers.

Boo! And that's fine. To me, Trojcek makes, is going to make way too much money for ultimately a third line center.

And here's why I say that. In the playoffs, and really all throughout the season, Sebastian Ajo centered their top line. Jordan Stahl centered, arguably, their best line.

Yeah. But what I will say is that Stahl drew the assignment against the other teams, at least one of their top two lines. All year long as, and especially in the playoffs, Vincent Trojcek's line drew favorable assignments.

They did not dominate at any point. I like Trojcek. He's going to make $6 million a year. I don't want that. Nope.

Nope. Not for, that should have been in the postseason. That should have been the part of the lineup where Carolina dominated. I will also say the same thing about the fourth line because Carolina's fourth line should have been more offensive. Kokoniemi or Domi or Neches. No, never happened.

Never happened. And I'm not blaming Trojcek, but Trojcek kind of was a little bit sporadic. He certainly was sporadic in the playoffs. He had some good, he had some very good games, but there were also a lot of empty nights. Can't have empty nights in the postseason. Even Carolina's best players who maybe weren't as productive, their worst games. I mean, Sebastian Aio had one dreadful game. I think it was game six in Boston.

Yeah, it's either game six in Boston or game six in New York. I forget which one. It was just mind-blowingly bad. But as it was told to me by somebody I trust, he wasn't our worst player. So he had company that night. But Aio, for the most part, while maybe not being as productive offensively, was a good player. Trojcek had just too many empty trips. And Nino Niederreiter, that number would have to be so low for me. Nino had his best playoff for the Hurricanes this year. He had five points in 14 games. He plays on one of your power play units. I mean, no.

He's got 12 points, seven goals and 12 points total in 43 playoff games for the Hurricanes. He can go do that somewhere else. For me.

I mean, I don't know what's going to happen, but he can go do that somewhere else. All right, so here's what has happened. And this is why I will use this phrase. What is our most precious commodity, Dennis? Gold. Used to be. 100 years ago, I would say, yes, you're right. Time.

Ah, yes. Time. And time is running out for the Hurricanes. Keep talking about a two-year window to win a Stanley Cup. For a lot of reasons, I think this is the window. Now, maybe another one will open, but for the current team, this window has two more years left in it. Adam Gold in studio with my man Coach Pete DeRuder with the Capital Financial Advisory Group. We are talking retirement. Coach, let's say I have more than a million dollar balance in my 401k. Congratulations.

Thank you very much. How can that actually come back and bite me? Well, because, and this is a thing that we, it's a mirage. You see mirages.

I've written in the desert before. You see what's water ahead, but it's not there. Well, your financial mirage is thinking that that total balance in your 401k or your IRA is yours. We have two people that want to get ahold of it. Two uncles.

Uncle North Carolina and Uncle Sam. Right. Both of them are going to do some damage to that balance. Depending on what kind of other income you have, you could lose 40% of your value. So if you're looking at a million dollar IRA, maybe it's only worth $600,000 to you. So how do we get around this? Well, you don't get around it because you end up in jail if you try to do that. But you can do tax planning to minimize the effect of taxation into the future. The tax train is coming, Adam. We need to make sure to minimize the effect of the derailment of our financial accounts. And for the next 10 people, we'll do it at no cost or obligation.

Put together your very own tax and retirement plan. 800-661-7383 or text ADAM to 21000 for coach Pete DeRuta. Penguins re-signed Chris Letang. Maybe they paid him too much money.

I don't know. They re-signed Evgeny Malkin yesterday. They re-signed Ricard Raquel.

Okay. So the Penguins are bringing back similar, a similar team as the one that I think finished third in the Metropolitan Division a year ago. And they, by the way, still have Sidney Crosby and Jake Ensel and Brian Rust, still a good team. The Senators acquired Alex DeBrinket. They traded for Max Talbot from Minnesota. So they have a legitimate number one goal.

He's not like a superstar, but he is a guy who can play 55, 60 times. So they got themselves a goalie. And I haven't seen any news over the last few seconds, but they are maybe the front runner for Claude Giroux. They actually did sign him.

They did. Three years, six and a half a year. Six and a half a year for three years.

He is 35 years old, but that's home for him. Right? There was some speculation Florida was going to try and keep him, speculation Carolina was going to go after him. But, okay, so all of a sudden the Senators, who gave Carolina trouble last year, by the way, Senators are just a little bit better and they're not done. They've got cap room. They're going to add another defenseman.

They are, I'm not saying they definitely will make the playoffs, but they're not going to be pushovers. The Rangers, again, will be acquiring Vincent Trochik. They're going to get better just by being a year older with Lafreniere and Caco and Miller, all, some of their younger players are simply going to get better with one more year in the NHL. And they have that goaltender who's pretty good. So, we know that the Rangers are getting better. The Devils added Eric Hallo, which may or may not be a positive in a deal with Boston, and they might be the front runners for Johnny Gaudreau from Calgary.

Only had 115 points last year. That's good, right? Yeah, and that's also a team with some very good young talent. We'll see how they're goaltending. They added what, Vitek Vanecek, I think, from Washington. Their goaltending is okay, but they're getting better.

You could see the talent. The East is getting stronger around Carolina. Carolina had 116 points last year. People forget that. Yeah.

But they are losing a lot and have a lot of work to do. Brent Burns, if they do complete this trade, I want to see what the mechanics of the trade are, how much cap room is retained by San Jose. He's an upgrade from Tony DiAngelo, but he's also older, and we simply do not know.

I do know this. He freelances a lot on the blue line. Yeah. He's a little bit more unpredictable than Tony or Dougie Hamilton, but we'll see how it works out. Playing with Jacob Slavin always makes you better. Talking about defense for Carolina, looks like Brendan Smith to the New Jersey Devils on a one-year deal, or sorry, two-year deal with a $1.1 million average annual value. Okay. And Ian Cole looks like he's agreed to terms on a one-year, $3 million deal with Tampa Bay. Ian Cole to Tampa. Yep. All right. Ian Cole, so now Carolina will have to replace both of those guys, but they probably figured to have to replace both of them anyway. Sure. And good for Ian Cole, good for Brendan Smith.

I thought they might try to bring Smith back, but a two-year deal is better than what Carolina was offering. I am positive of that. All right. $1.1 million a year as well. Yeah.

So you got to pay a bump. $300,000 raise from last year. I like Brendan Smith. He's not the greatest skater in the world, but he's physical presence. Carolina has to replace a lot with both of those guys gone. Cole was a big penalty killer for them. Good shot blocker.

So a ton going on. Brendan, they also scored big goals in the Ranger series. Game two. I mean, Cole scored the goal, the game-winning goal in game one. Of course, it was an own goal, but it was still, he scored it.

And then Brendan Smith with the shorthanded goal was just phenomenal. All right. Couple of more things. Coming up at the bottom of the hour, John Shire will join us, Duke's basketball coach. So last time we talked to him, he was the almost basketball coach, but he is now the actual coach of Duke's and we'll talk to John Shire in about 15 minutes. June 19th, 2006, but it all started May 6th, 1997 with the announcement that the Hartford Whalers were coming to North Carolina.

It's a story of transition, of heartbreak, of figuring it out on the fly. The Canes Corner look at the 25th anniversary of the move presented by the aluminum company of North Carolina. Listen now, find Canes 25th anniversary wherever you get your podcast. NBA age limit and other things as well have been discussed by the commissioner. I guess everybody's out at summer league.

So Adam Silver's talking about, I know there was a board of governors meeting out there. Adam Silver is not only talking about, but an advocate for lowering the age limit for draft eligibility from 19 to 18, which is essentially, you can go right from high school to the NBA, right? Right now, you have to be one year removed from your high school class graduating before you are eligible to be drafted into the NBA. That doesn't mean you can't turn pro. That doesn't mean you can't go to the G League. That's why there is a G League Ignite, right? I wonder if this would eliminate the G League Ignite. I think it would probably have to because anybody going to G League Ignite would probably just go into the draft. So there are ways for you to be a pro anyway. There's also like overtime, elite, things like that. You can play overseas. There's a lot of different ways for you to avoid going to college for the one year, if that's not what you want to do. Well, there are a couple of guys that, I mean, the guy went to Kentucky but didn't play like reclassified to basically graduate a year early, didn't he?

Reclassified, graduated a year early, went to Kentucky, never played, got drafted. Yeah. Shaden Sharpe, I believe is who it is. Yeah. Seventh pick.

If I'm not mistaken, like don't quote me on this, I guess I'm saying it out loud. I think he might've gotten hurt. I think he got shorter. Did he get hurt?

So hopefully he'll be okay. Anyway, but Adam Silver is an advocate for getting rid of the one year waiting period, if you will. And for the people who are anti one and done in college, and I am not one of those people, I wish that, first of all, I've never thought that, I've always thought you should be able to go right out of high school to the NBA. But I thought that the college game should have embraced, made it great for these players to come to college for one year, because even if they leave, you had them. We were all better off having watched Zion Williamson for a year. Oh, that team was fun.

Right? No, just college, let's just say you don't have a favorite team. College basketball and the television numbers overall bear this out. College basketball won because Zion Williamson played a year at Duke. I'll even throw another player in there who, while it wasn't the attraction, if you watched him play, you had a great time every time you watched him, Kobe White at UNC.

That guy was, I mean, a smile on your face every time you watched him play. One year player. College basketball is a better place when these guys are in it, even if it's for a year. But you know what, lowering the age limit will not stop one and done. It won't stop one and done. We're not creating the baseball rule where if you go to college, you got to stay for three years. That's Major League Baseball's rule. That's not the college game's rule. The reality is, is that unless you believe college sophomores never enter the draft, they do, then, like Mark Williams was a sophomore, he entered the draft, we'll always have one-year players, always.

This is not going to stop that. A couple of other things Adam Silver was talking about, or at least one other thing, well, they made the play-in, they're going to make the play-in tournament permanent, which I think is great. Again, I wish the NHL would go to that. I think the NHL would benefit from a play-in tournament. Expanding playoff opportunities, why is that bad? Why is that bad?

We're not diluting the product. The NHL was built on 16 out of 21 teams making the playoffs at one point. Before then, the original six, I think four of those six made the playoffs.

What are we doing? A play-in tournament would be good, but the NBA is also considering an in-season tournament. I'm fascinated by how this would be structured, because I do think for those of us who are long-time European soccer fans...

Yes, long-time supporters. Think about it sort of as a concentrated Champions League. All 30 teams in the NBA would be involved. You could have five groups of six teams, five group winners, the regular season would be shortened some games, but these games could essentially count towards stats and everything else. For the round-robin portion of this, you'd play every team twice, take the best team from each group, the team that wins each group, and the three best second-place teams, that's your knockout. You play a single elimination.

At most, two teams play three games. That would be fun. It would be something different. You win this mid-season tournament, what do you get? A, a trophy, and over time, it would matter. In year one, it's not going to have the same weight, but you play for cash. Seriously, just a big pile of money.

What's wrong with that? Million bucks. Split amongst the winner. Do you know what the NBA revenues were last year? A lot. Ten billion. Yeah. They got money. They've got money. That's why NBA players see what Karl-Anthony Towns is going to make?

A lot. Yeah. Karl-Anthony Towns is going to make $62 million in the third year of his, I think the third or fourth year of his contract.

What? He ain't that good. We all know he's not that good.

I'm not saying he's not good, but we know he's not that good. I'm just saying the NBA's got a lot of cash, so why not put a big pile of money on it and who knows? Maybe a team that isn't necessarily a championship contender wins.

That would be fun. In a way, I'm a huge FA Cup guy. Just saying.

Big supporter. Throw an incentive in there like you get the top pick in the second round or something like that, too. Throw an extra draft pick in there.

Yeah. I can see the front office being okay with the players. Front office more into it than the players, right?

One is a team award, which is fair. The other would be, do you want your players to go after it? Players would be less interested in that, but there's nothing wrong with that.

Throw a million dollar pot in there, a guy split it. This is not something that they're talking about, but what if you did this in the NBA? Because we're worried about tanking, right? The teams that missed the playoffs, you draft in reverse order.

Okay. So the team that is the last team out, so we have what? 20, because we have 10 teams in each conference. So the 21st team gets the first pick. Or you tie it to the two teams that don't make the play-in tournament, that fall out of the play-in tournament. So there's incentive to still play your way in to the playoffs, but if you get bounced, then you get the top pick. And maybe those teams are the only teams in the lottery. So in year one, the Premier Lacrosse League did something like that, where the third and fourth place teams got into the first round of the playoffs, but if they lost, they played each other. And whoever won that game played the winner of 5-6, and the winner of that game got the number one overall pick. So you still had a chance to win the championship, but if you didn't advance that far, you could still play for the number one pick. Right. There's only six teams, but you could do something like that. Yeah, what we're trying to avoid in all sports is organizational tanking, because that's not good for anybody. So if there was more incentive to put a credible product on the court, then that's a good thing.

And I think this would do that. This is the Adam Gold Show. June 19th, 2006, but it all started May 6th, 1997 with the announcement that the Hartford Whalers were coming to North Carolina. It's a story of transition, of heartbreak, of figuring it out on the fly. The Canes Corner look at the 25th anniversary of the move presented by the Aluminum Company of North Carolina. Listen now, find Canes' 25th anniversary wherever you get your podcasts.