The NHL Stadium Series in Raleigh was years in the making

I am so James Dunn was in studio with us six to seven. He'll be at Fan Fest tomorrow.

There should be a lot of really cool bands there. That's going to be a scene, an absolute scene tomorrow. And I can't wait. We'll be out there.

I provide this as something to do at Fan Fest that may or may not be of interest to you. Stop by and talk to me. Come on up and let's talk some hockey. Let's talk some Canes hockey. You can tell me the trades you want to see the Hurricanes make and I'll tell you the trades I want to see the Hurricanes make and maybe they'll be the same.

Maybe they'll be the same. Look, I want to be responsible about this, so I'm not going to like just throw out tons of different like, let's go get this guy. Let's go get this guy. Most of the time, the things that you want to happen don't or can't happen. But I will say this. The Hurricanes are in a position to do basically anything they want to do. Because they right now have about 10 million dollars worth of cap space based on about two, two and a half million before Max Pacioretti, maybe even a shade more and the seven million of Max Pacioretti. I think it's close to 10 million dollars in available cap space that they don't have to launder through another team.

Yeah. Everybody can get cap space as long as you involve enough teams to take money back. Now there are teams that have no cap space and I don't know how they're going to do it. But as long as you have a little, you can pretty much acquire anybody as long as you are willing to make multiple transactions in order to get that player under your cap. But Hurricanes don't really have to do that. So whatever the player is, for instance, the Hurricanes might actually, and I don't think they're interested in this player, but the Hurricanes might actually be able to afford a Patrick Kane without anybody else helping. There are no teams that have 10 million dollars worth of cap space.

Zero. So just again, I don't believe the Hurricanes are interested in Patrick Kane. Frankly, I'm not that interested in Patrick Kane. I don't think Patrick Kane is what they need. They need somebody with a little bit more weight in the pants than Patrick Kane.

Yeah, they have a lot. I don't have anybody as good as Patrick Kane. I don't think I would hate the acquisition, but I think Patrick Kane is similar, a similar player to what they have already. I think the Hurricanes need something a little different. Something somebody who operates in the middle of the rink as opposed to more on the edges of the ring. Does that make sense to you, Dennis?

It does. Is Alex Tuck available? No, Alex Tuck is not available. He is a Buffalo kid and he is the centerpiece of their rebuild, even though they have theoretically more talented players.

You know, the blue line with Darlene and Owen Power and some kids on the way. Alex Tuck, I think, and Tage Thompson is bonkers, but Tuck is kind of the centerpiece of their rebuild. Alex Tuck is a wonderful player and he's big. I know.

Big and fast. That's why I want him. Yes, I don't blame you. Oh man, Tim McCarver died. What? Oh wow, I just saw this.

Long time network broadcaster, but before then did games for the Mets and the Phillies. Yeah, passed away. I just saw that.

That is very much a bummer. All right, it's time for the Wall of Sound. I need to think about something else now.

The Wall of Sound is a function of this studio. There's no doubt about it. There's also the personal catcher for Steve Carleton for a long time. Stayed in the big leagues longer because Carleton would only throw to McCarver. Yeah, also caught Bob Gibson in 1968. McCarver was an excellent, excellent player who became a very good broadcaster, a very good baseball broadcaster. All right, let's Wall of Sound this bad boy up. It is mock draft season.

Yes, Dennis. Yeah, it is mock draft season. Guess who has the first pick? The Chicago Bears. Guess who took a quarterback two years ago?

No, last two years ago. Two years ago and doesn't need a quarterback. The Chicago Bears. Hey, Todd McShea, ESPN draft guru. What should the Bears do?

Personally, I would take Bryce Young if I was Chicago. I don't think that's going to be the decision that they make. I think they're going to move back and take advantage of the fact that you have Houston at two, Indianapolis at four, Las Vegas at seven, seven, I believe Carolina at nine. There's a bunch of teams that want to move up.

How far back do they move? We'll find out. But I would do it because I would want Bryce Young because I think he's an upgrade over Justin Fields and I want his rookie contract. So I have five years, but I don't think they're going to wind up making that decision, which means they're going to move back with one of these teams. Far be it for me to agree with Todd McShea.

But I think McShea is right. I think Justin Fields may develop into a good quarterback. He's not there yet. What he is right now, the way the Bears used him last year is an effective football player, right? I mean, his ability to run and create plays in the running game.

That's awesome. I think Bryce Young is a better quarterback than Justin Fields. But really, for the reasons that McShea laid out is that for at least four years, you get Bryce Young at a bargain rate. I don't know what you're going to bring back in a trade if you trade Fields, but you might be able to bring back all a couple of mid-round picks. If you could get a second and a third for Justin Fields, I mean, maybe you can get a first, but if you can get a second and a third for Justin Fields, I mean, that'd be a pretty good deal, I think. And then take somebody who's probably the better quarterback.

Speaking of Bryce Young, here is Todd McShea on a comp for Bryce Young. The biggest concern is can he stay durable and healthy throughout his career? But I think he's a smaller version of Patrick Mahomes. The presence he has in the pocket, the ability to feel pressure coming, the ability to see the whole field and make all the throws with really good touch and timing. He's different than all these other guys.

I sit here and I watch tape over and over again. And Will Leviss has a great arm. Anthony Richardson is the most physically talented. CJ Stroud had an unbelievable career at Ohio State.

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Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield is the trade name of Blue Cross Blue Shield Healthcare Plan of Georgia, Inc. I think he's the best quarterback in the draft to my only fear about him. I keep saying it. He I I'm afraid he is going to break. He's just small. I'm afraid he's going to break. I think he's tall. I mean, not a giant like 661. Yeah, I think he's about I mean, I could be wrong.

I don't know. But I just he's just not big. And you can you will take a beating in the NFL. Even if they don't hit you a lot, you'll take a beating in the NHL.

All right. Jalen Hurts had a breakout year. He was it was he was a monster. Patrick Mahomes won the MVP. But man, Jalen Hurts was right there.

I believe he finished second and they got all the way to the Super Bowl. And he's due a contract. You don't have to sign him to a contract this offseason. But next year would be the last year of his contract. Adam Schefter from ESPN on why he thinks the deal will get done. It would be an upset if that deal did not get done this offseason. And the advantage that the Eagles have enjoyed having Jalen Hurts under a rookie contract, minimum wage rookie contract is going to go away. And so all those free agents that you see out there are going to be more difficult to afford once Jalen Hurts gets north of $45 million. To me, that's the starting point.

And it may not even be close to the ultimate figure of where it ultimately comes in. He's proven himself as a top five quarterback in this league. Well, I don't know if he's proven himself to be a top five quarterback in this league. But there is no doubt that Jalen Hurts has proven to be a quarterback that can win you games. Like not a quarterback you can win with, but a quarterback that you can win because of.

And those are two very different things. I don't put him in Joe Burrow category. I don't put him in Mahomes category. I'm not sure I put him in Josh Allen category, but I don't think there's a tremendous drop before you get to Jalen Hurts. Would you rather, let me ask you this, Dennis, would you rather have Jalen Hurts or who's the guy from, am I drawing a blank on his name from Sandy from the Chargers? Justin Herbert. Would you rather have Jalen Hurts or Justin Herbert? Oh, that's a tough one. I see. It's not, it's not a tough one for me. See, I think Herbert's the product of bad coaching. Maybe. Because if I put Justin Herbert with Doug Peterson, maybe, maybe I'd rather have Jalen hurts.

That's fine. I think hurts here intellectually. Yeah. Is a better quarterback. I don't, I don't disagree with you on that. It could be entirely the product of coaching, right? I'm not, I'm not discounting that flip a coin.

I don't think you can go wrong really with either. And we won't know the difference because the chargers are way cheap and don't want to pay Brandon Staley to not coach way cheap. That's why we, when the whole Sean Payton thing was going on. Well, the reason he's not with the chargers is because the chargers ain't paying a head coach $15 million a year to be a head coach.

No way. That's what Peyton's getting at least in Denver. Charges are going to do that. They don't want to pay their players. You're going to pay the coach.

All right. Uh, two things real quick about the Panthers first from Keyshawn Johnson, from Keyshawn J. Will and max on ESPN radio, the impact of Frank Reich in Carolina. Well, I think it's Carolina Panthers and Frank Reich. When you think about some of the things that Frank has already done, he went out and got Jim Caldwell as a special assistant to the head coach. So he's kind of like a father figure hovering over Frank Reich. And then on the other side, they went, he went out and got Don capers, another trusted veteran, former head coach in the national football league.

So when you have that sort of brain trust around you, you can certainly delegate certain things, but it just gives you a little more confident confidence that you can do the job and get it done. And when you think about this football team, they were not far off. I mean, when they got rid of Christian McCaffrey a year ago, they still was competitive within a week division.

They fought all the way to the end until week 16, before they were eliminated mathematically from the playoffs. By the way, I need that music behind me when I try to make coaching points. I have no idea what Keyshawn was talking about there because I was listening to the music and that's probably what would help me. Here's the thing.

Um, I do think right now, right now that was some bump in, uh, you know, electric guitar. Okay. Yeah.

We're, we're basically trying to keep people in line at the down aisle for the supermarket right now. They might need that. Yeah, that's true.

That is true. Um, no, but Frank Reich obviously is a, uh, a known commodity as a head coach and a good one. The Jim Caldwell thing speaks to me because I think Caldwell is a really good offensive mind and I think he'll be very good for whoever the quarterback is for Carolina next year and beyond because Carolina is going to have to have, uh, they'll probably have four more quarterbacks before they get it right. Uh, but I like, uh, I like the fact that Jim Caldwell is part of it.

All right, one more thing. And this came from yesterday's show because if you look at a mock draft, almost every single one of them have the Panthers taking Anthony Richardson, the quarterback from the university of Florida. Uh, and it was Todd McShay that said that Richardson is the most physically gifted quarterback there. Ryan Wilson from cbssports.com pick pick six podcast. He is their mock draft expert and here's what he had to say about Anthony Richardson with us yesterday. So Anthony Richardson, some of the comps are Malik Willis. And by that it means he's, he's actually big arm, but he's four or five, six inches tall.

I don't know what we came in at. He's about six, four to 30 ish. And man, when you watch him play Adam and he's on, it takes your breath away. But you're like, Oh my God, this guy is special. And then you watch a little more and you go, Oh boy, this guy's been playing football for two days.

It's so up and down. And part of me wanted him to return to school and the NIL money sort of offsets some of the guilt I feel when I, when you want these guys to go back because now they're getting paid, but he decided to come out. I talked to folks in league to say, he's a great young man. The question is how focused will he be on getting better? Number one, number two, can he be in a situation where he's not going to be forced on the field? That was a conversation with Malik, right? Malik was forced on the field of Tennessee because of injury.

And it wasn't pretty. The problem, the disconnect is when you have a head coach who's playing for next year and you need three years to get the quarterback ready that they, the numbers don't line up and they ended up getting, getting rushed out there, but he could end up being the best quarterback in the strap class. If everything lines up now, what are the odds that happening? Yeah, 15% not real high, but if you love them and you think you've got the coaches, Frank, right. I can make it work. Jim Caldwell, then you might be onto something interesting.

Right? So if you draft somebody, here's the problem for the Panthers. If you draft somebody at number nine, this is pretty simple. It's clear that the Panthers are not just a quarterback away.

I, it's clear to me, maybe it's not clear to other people. I think the Panthers need a significant, I mean they, there's a lot of holes in the team, so they're not just a quarterback away. If you draft a quarterback at number nine and you're not going to play him right away, which they shouldn't, then you pass up an opportunity to draft a player at number nine who could probably plug a major hole in your lineup. There is the problem with drafting a quarterback who is a developmental player. So I'm not suggesting, if it were up to me, I would not draft a quarterback at number nine.

If it were up to me, I would build out my team and I would find a serviceable quarterback who could play. I mean Derek Carr kind of fits that description, right? I don't think Carr is amazing. He is definitely better than the guys you brought in, in the last few years. But I think you can get a couple of good years out of Derek Carr. He doesn't have to be amazing.

And then when the time is right, that's when you strike for the quarterback. That's the move for me, but we'll see how they do it. There is absolutely nothing going on with the Carolina Hurricanes of late. We have talked canes all week long and almost none of it has to do with the team that has the second best record in the entire National Hockey League. Chief Marketing Officer for the Carolina Hurricanes is Mike Foreman.

And I appreciate his time because again, I mean, you're just sitting in your office twiddling your thumbs at this point, right? Yep. Super quiet week around here at 1400 Edwards Mill. So I know it starts this weekend really starts tonight. And I don't know if that was by design or not to have the Hall of Fame, the first Hall of Hurricanes Hall of Fame ceremony. So close up to the stadium series game, but it really did extend the whole weekend.

Cam Ward goes in tonight part of the inaugural class. So just your thoughts on this particular evening here. Yeah, this is going to be, I think, really, really special, not only for Cam and his family, but the entire franchise and fan base, because it's, it's been something we've been talking about for years in trying to create a Hall of Fame.

Obviously we've seen what other clubs around the league have done, other clubs and other sports have done. And I think it really solidifies where our franchise is now. And the fact that, you know, we're creating it in the same season that we're celebrating our 25th anniversary year in North Carolina is special. And I think it shows that we do have the type of foundation and longevity now as a franchise that we can start recognizing players like Cam for their achievements on and off the ice. It's funny, I talked with somebody who at some point may be in this Hurricanes Hall of Fame as well.

And he said, I'll leave his name out of it because I'm not trying to put my thumb on the scale here, but he said it was great how the organization is starting to honor the people that made this organization. And Cam is one of them. I know Cam has talked glowingly about his good friend, Eric Stahl, who will be in, we don't even have to have a debate about that. Stahl would be in if he decided to not play this year, if he stayed out. That's a fantastic point.

He would have been in, but you know, he decided he wanted to play again. He's actually playing pretty well right now for Florida, but it is a really a, it's about honoring the players that came before the current group, the Ahos of the world. And it is, it's a great idea. Was it your idea? What did the idea come from on high?

No, I mean, this is an idea that's been discussed from, from Don and others in the organization, Rick Sondheim for many years. And again, it was just a matter of, I think the hardest part with it, with it all was just getting started. You know, everyone has so many other things going on and so many projects and things we're all working on.

We knew it was something we needed to get around to, and we were actually close a few years ago on launching it and then the world shut down and there were other things probably more important to take care of then. Um, but again, what, what better year to, to have the inaugural night than, than this season? Yeah. And again, a stadium game is Saturday. So maybe you're just saving people some, uh, some airfare coming in, take it, take this one in and, uh, and then hit the game on Saturday, by the way, before I get to the stating game, are there plans and I, there has to be for an actual devoted area with inside the arena, I'll just call it a brick and mortar hall of fame. Yes.

Yeah. That that's in our, our plans. And, um, obviously some of the arena renovations and enhancement plans that came out this week from the Centennial authority and others, um, part of our discussions with them is creating a more permanent hall of fame location. That's truly dedicated to that. Not a makeshift location. So, uh, for this year, you'll see a banner unveiled in the rafters tonight, which has been really special.

Um, and then in future years, we'll be building out a more permanent location to, um, kind of give it a do that it deserves. So I was asked this question today and Mike Foreman chief marketing officer for the Carolina hurricanes is with us here in the Adam gold show. And I don't know the actual answer here. That's a rarity, isn't it?

No, not really. Um, does when cam ward's number goes up, does that mean it will never be worn? No, this is not a retired Jersey ceremony. Um, I know there are a lot of clubs probably including ours have some kind of unwritten rules on certain numbers that, you know, might not be retired, but, um, people are made aware of that that number may not be available. Um, so, uh, unofficially, uh, the number may be available officially. I guess technically it is as it's not a retired number. Um, but again, that's the whole point of this hall of fame is, um, to make sure we're honoring players that whether they do or don't get their jerseys retired one day, um, they, they deserve and have earned a more permanent and honorable way to, um, always recognize them. It is no, uh, noteworthy that number 12 has also not been issued since Eric stall was traded.

And number 30 has also not been issued since cam ward played that one season in Chicago and then called it a career. All right. Stadium series game coming up on Saturday. When did you start your preparations for this? Uh, I'd say probably December of 2017. Um, probably before Tom Dundon officially became owner in January of 2018. Um, he was already involved in discussions. And one of the first things he said internally, and one of the first things we talked about with Gary Bettman and others with the league was, you know, we want to host an outdoor game. Um, and I know it's been said by the number of people, including Dahan and others that have been on, um, I think the NHL kind of balked at it a little bit. Um, at that point, you know, we were still in the midst of our, our playoff drought and attendance was picking up a little bit during 2017 18 season, but nowhere near where it's trended the last five years. Yeah.

Um, but that's where the discussion started. And from that point on, it's been, you know, us making a pitch to the NHL and, um, it obviously became a reality when it was announced in February of 2020 and the aforementioned world shutting down a month later, um, uh, through a wrench in those plans. Um, and then we had an opportunity, uh, less than a year after that to, uh, host the stadium series game last year in 2022. And at the time that we were being asked to make the decision, COVID cases were spiking back up and there was just a lot of uncertainty on our end of what the world would look like, you know, 12 to 14 months, uh, from that point when the game would be played. So we decided to pass for a season, which honestly, from my end, selfishly, and probably from our fans was not easy because we'd already been waiting so long and then we were making a decision to wait a year longer. Um, but I think it's all paid off and, you know, now that we're, you know, a little over 48 hours away from the game, um, we, we feel like we made the right decision.

Obviously we have a sold out stadium. Uh, the weather knock on wood is looking beautiful for, for Saturday. Um, so it kind of all has fallen into place and you know, the last year especially, um, has just been a ton of work from a lot of people in our end. Yeah, it's, it's, it's going to be a blast. I was over there this morning.

I picked up my credential. I got a view from where my kids are going to be sitting in section 10 and it's a really good view. It's a great venue.

Uh, you know, we, we, we, we like to pretend that, you know, we're the best at this, the best at that, the best at this. We have the loudest house. It's louder than anyone I've been in, in the NHL. Um, but I don't know that there's a better venue than Carter Finley stadium for a stadium series game, but as stadiums go, it's kind of intimate. And the, uh, the view from the upper deck, you really can see just about the entire ice. There are about eight rows up in section 10.

It should be an absolute blast. I remember talking to Tom Dundon about the decision to push it back a year because he didn't want to risk not being able to put 55,000 plus people in. He didn't want the lead to come back and say, you know what?

We can only do it half capacity. Uh, he goes, Nope, we're not going to do that because we know we're going to sell it. And frankly, I knew we were going to sell it. The, um, when we first started talking about this about five years ago, um, and I remember the pressure that Tom Dundon put on Gary Bettman at that press conference. He said it right out at the press conference.

I want one of those outdoor games. And Gary Bettman was a little shifting in his seat because he wasn't sure, but the league's got to be really thrilled though. Yeah, they're, they're so pumped for everything that's going on in this market. And, you know, I was listening to Steve Mayer yesterday.

He was on Cain's cast with our friends, Shane and Mike. And one of the things he said, which we've, we've said a lot of ourselves internally is, you know, they obviously do two plus two or three of these every single year. Um, and when they go into some of the larger markets, it's not that it's not a big event, but it's one of several big events going on. Um, I went to the game in Nashville last year and it was a great stadium series event and, um, they did a really good job with everything, but you go around the corner in certain parts of Nashville and it's still just a bachelorette city and country music city. And you'd have no idea that there was a big outdoor hockey game there later that day.

You go anywhere around Raleigh and it's all you see. It's all that anyone's talking about. It's the event here, not one of a few events. So between that, between the demand they saw on ticket sales immediately, which we knew would happen with what our fan base looks like on a nightly basis here at PNC. Um, we just, the NHL couldn't be more pleased with how everything is gone in our market.

Yeah. I mean, they are every time Gary Bittman comes here, he talks about how great this place is. And I mean, I'm sure he says it to a lot of NHL cities, but, uh, it really is.

It is. I mean, ticket sales are through the roof. Only one game this year has had less than 18,000 tickets sold at PNC arena. Incidentally, it was the capitals. It was like 16, four Halloween night. That was a, that was a lesson in scheduling there. 16 four.

That's the lowest that used to be the peak Mike Foreman chief marketing officer of the Carolina hurricanes. I hope you get a chance to enjoy the game on a Saturday. I know you'll enjoy tonight. Uh, and I'll see you soon. Thanks Adam. I appreciate it. The Jeep grand Cherokee four by E it's electrified so you can boogie, woogie, woogie into the forest boogie, woogie, woogie through the mud or boogie, woogie, woogie to work where you boogie, woogie, woogie down the hall to your boss's office to tell them you quit. Then you boogie, woogie, woogie to the elevator as he boogie, woogie, woogies after you begging, please take me with you. The electrified Jeep grand Cherokee four by E learn more at jeep.com. Jeep is a registered trademark of FCA U S