Joining us right now in the program is Neil Smith, former GM of the New York Rangers who won a Stanley Cup, and of course he does his NHL Wrap Around podcast. Neil, Welcome to the program. I was a little nervous when I saw your name. It was giving me nightmares from my days of playing football in the NFL. I thought you were Neil Smith, who wore the breathe right, and he was a defensive lineman who tried to kill quarterbacks. So I'm so glad that it's the hockey Neil Smith.
You know what's funny is that I knew about that the whole time, and it was while I was GM. He of course he was with the Chiefs, and I actually spoke to him on Twitter. I think it was somehow I got to him, and you know, I got to sort of meet him through that. But yeah, you have to if you google me, you have to put Neil Smith hockey or else. Yes, it all comes up about that, Neil Smith.
Yeah. So Neil Smith and Derek Thomas were a formidable duo on the defensive line for the Kansas City Chiefs and then Neil went on for the for the Broncos. But what a great player he was in. So the trade deadline, NHL trade tread deadlines tomorrow at four pm. Anything new, anything in the in the works here with the deadline that we should be aware of here in the great state of Utah.
Well, you know, if Utah made a couple of trades already or made a couple of signings, I'm sorry, not trade signings. They signed a couple of their defenseman heam Cole and Alex and then Ford Alex Kirkfoot, and so they took them off the free agent market. But there's
been there's been a couple of trades, nothing major. But what's really surprising, Scott is that there was a major trade in the middle of the season when between Carolina, Carolina and Colorado, and Colorado traded Nico Ranton and who's an All Star, fifty goal scorer, great player. They traded him to Carolina and the reason probably that they did that was because he's an unrestricted free agent. At the
end of the year. They got back a real good player in Martin Neckish who's playing for them on Colorado and playing really well. But now Ranton and says that he's not going to sign until, you know, after the season. So that's scary for Carolina because they put out a lot to trade for him, right and he isn't going to sign. So now the rumor is, or the thought is, will Carolina turn around and trade him again so that they don't have him walking away for nothing. So that's
an interesting part of this trade deadline. Personally, being involved in this for so many years, I find it hard to believe that there'd be a taker for a guy who's, you know, is a UFA at the end of the year and is asking for a really big number. So I think he'll probably stay put in Carolina. But it's interesting anyway.
Yeah, that is interesting. It almost seems like why would you make that trade in the first place, if you if you were going to allow that or uh, you know, is there I guess, is there a way around it? Or could a team trade for him or uh and and signing it as part of trading for him signing to a long term contract.
Well that that's the whole thing, Scott. It's the same in all the sports. If you're you know, if you're trading for a guy who's unrestricted at the end of the year, you're going to make sure you got you can get him signed, right, So you're going to talk to the agent, You're going to talk to somebody, and you're going to find out what is it going to take to get this guy signed, because I don't want I don't want to give away great assets for three months.
But it's it's in this case. I mean the same team Caroline Hurricanes did it last year when they traded for canseil Uh and he finished the year, finished the playoffs with them. They did respect you know, respectively, but he moved on to Tampa when the year was out. He went and signed with Tampa. So they ended up with nothing for Danseil last year, and it could be the same thing this year now with Rantman so and those are heavy duty losses to cake for a management.
When you lose a player for nothing, you know, it's your job is to make sure that you maintain assets, and when you lose guys that are that valuable for nothing, it can really bite you.
You mentioned Utah, I see extending several players from either one year three. I think you know, a couple for one year, a couple for three, and then the goalie for five. What is that? What is that message? What's the strategy behind the differing times of extending contracts and what is all unwrapped that for me? Tell me what that all means.
Well, it usually goes by the age of the player. I mean with Vimlka, he's been he's come up to be their number one goalie this year. They did can start out that way. I don't think they expected him to be, but he's played his way into the number one role, so I'm sure they wanted to get him tied up. You know, with Ian Cole who they signed, who's a great, experienced, real veteran player, he's long in the tooth, you know, he's in his thirties, so they're
going to give him a shorter contract. With Alex Kirkfoot, he's been around quite a while, but not not the age of Ian Cole, but you know, so he would get maybe a little bit more time. It's all going to go on the projection, as it is in any sport, projection of how long you've got left in your career, and don't take a chance that you know, maybe we're going to be paying you in the future when we can't use you anymore.
So we live in a bubble here in Utah, we have our own sense of what's real and reality, and I think it's the high altitude that does that to us and the mountains. We're kind of secluded here. What is the rest of the world view about the Utah Hockey Club and this first year in Utah. What's been the perception of people and fans and everything in the NHL.
You know, the NHL has three categories of teams. So there's the teams that are you know, when training camp comes along that these teams are in the playoffs for sure, and it's just a matter of where are they going to be in the standings. And that's one grouping, both in the East and in the West. Then you have another grouping that's sort of the bubble teams. And by that what I mean is in the West it's Vancouver, Calgary, Utah, Saint Louis, Anaheim. Those are sort of the bubble teams.
They're trying to get up with that first group and break into that and be a for sure playoff team. And then you've got the third group, which is the you know, the more of the Chicago, the San Jose, the teams that are totally rebuilding and they're probably was never a thought that they were going to be in the playoffs right from the get go because they're in a total rebuild and Utah's in that bubble group. They're trying to get out of that, and this year they've
shown that they're knocking on the door. For sure. They're right behind Vancouver and Calgary, who are very good teams. But it's going to take about ninety three to ninety four points to get into the playoffs. And so for Utah to get there with only fifty seven right now, you can do the math, that's twenty seven more points they need and they've only got a twenty six games remaining, so they've got to go at a heck of a
clip now to be able to jump in. But the perception of them is is that they're a building team, they're a young team. They came from Arizona, and they have done a good job of staying in it the whole season and knocking on the door. And I think that that's what's important. So that with one or two good moves, with one or two great another draft pick that comes in that's real good, all of a sudden you look around at see Utah is there and in the playoffs next year.
It's interesting. And you mentioned they got to play at a high clip, right now, are they capable? I mean, what would have to happen in order for this team to actually make the playoffs? Is it?
Is it?
You know, they got to stay healthy, They got to have people really playing at their best. You know, the goalies got to get what needs to happen for this team to make it. Aside from they got to get the points obviously, yeah, I think I.
Think they got to go on a tremendous clip. But all those things you just said. The goaltender's got to stand on his head. They've got to get the goals out of the out of the goal scorers like Gunter and so on. I'll tell you the main thing that they have to do is they have five games left with other bubble teams, meaning other teams that are in the same situation. They're in two with Vancouver, two with Calgary,
one with Saint Louis, and one with Annaeim. They got to make sure they win those games because they've got to take the points off the table from away from those teams so that they can start to jump. Of course, they need a winning streak everybody that's in that bubble needs a winning streat. But particularly you can't lose points to Vancouver, Calvary, Saint Lewis and Anaheim because those are the teams you have to jump over to get into that eight and final spot in the playoffs.
In the West, We're We're a community that loves our sport. We really do. It's a very very passionate sports fan base here. They will show up, they will support. Uh. Folks are excited about this Utah Hockey Club and what you're a you're a former GM and you guys had success at that and one Stanley Copp and all that. And if you looked at this Utah Hockey Club, what what is the move you? What's your next move? What's
your move? You talk about getting into the playoffs next year and moving up in the in the pecking order of perception. How does how do you go from a bubble team to a playoff team? And what what's the what's the one move that that you see that the the Utah I see has to do.
You know, I really like Clayton Teller, who they make after this year's but he's a young guy, I think, and this is hard to do so, Scott, everything I'm saying isn't easy. This is none of this is easy. But if they could get a guy in that locker room that has some winning background to help those young guys know what it takes to get into the to get to the playoffs and have success in the playoffs, I think that could really help them. But again, it's
not easy to find that guy. They don't grow on trees. And other than that, they've just got to wait for the development of these young players. They've got some great young guys and they just have to work on that development. And I think they're going to be there. I like the moves that Bill Armstrong has made, and you know what, I think they're going to get there. They're just the fans and the organization are going to have to be patient because you came in as a non playoff team.
You've made some strides this season, but again, it's not easy to jump over all these teams.
Yeah, I'm really curious about you talk about these players developing. Is it just is it just a matter of playing? I mean, I know in my experience with sports, it was like there was no better teacher than than game experience and Is that all it is? Is that the thing that you just they just got to get game time. They got to get got to see those you know, plays and see how you know, just get a feel for the game and just play. And is that what
it takes. Are there are other things that they can be doing to develop these players, I think.
I think reps and that's what you're talking about. Reps like getting more repetitions and that means more games. I think if you look at their team, they've improved from the beginning of the season till now and they've matured. In the beginning of the season, they were taking a lot of foolish penalties. You're getting caught on the penalty kill all the time, and that was losing them games. They don't do that that much anymore. I think they've
got they've grown up in that respect. But they it is a matter of just being you know, playing more and more NHL games, and as you get older, of course, meaning you know, as you mature, all of a sudden you jump ahead of your competition. And so it's it's
the same everywhere. It's the same with you know, musicians, right, they've got to play a lot, a lot of places before they get on the big stage, and I think it's the same with these guys, and obviously the coaching will help them, but all the players stay in great shape year round. They work out really hard, they do whatever they can, and the teams are there to support that. So it is a matter of just the maturation process.
One last thing before I let you go here this Four Nations Challenge. I've loved it. I thought it was amazing. I'm so disappointed with all star games and showcase games in all these sports, and it just was exciting. And maybe it was accelerated because of the political climate that we're in right now. But is this something we should expect to see more and maybe expand it or you know what, what's your take on on what the NHL did this year?
Scott. To be honest with you, when when they announced that they were going to do this thing, I thought, oh, here's another money grab. You know, the players association in the league have got together to make a pile of money. But I got to tell you, I was glued to it. I thought it was fantastic. I really enjoyed it. I thought the players played really hard, and unfortunately a few got injured, so that doesn't help their NHL teams. But I think you're going to see this every every few years,
like meaning every three years or something. I haven't heard that. I just think that they'll do that, they'll take advantage of this. I I, like you, wish they would just get rid of the All Star Game. It's it isn't It isn't a game anymore. It's a you know, it's basically, you know, let's go out there and just you know, be soft on each other and just pee it up and laugh. And I just don't think it represents the game very well. So I wish they would just turn
to something like the Four Nations. Try to figure out what's the next thing they can do so that they can keep that time off and keep those best players playing and showing their best rather than showing just a skills competition.
Yeah, I agree, I love it. Hey, I really appreciate it. Spending some time with you today, it's been great, enlightening. Good luck to you and the rest of the day, and take care.
Thanks a lot, Scott. Nice to be on with you too. Good luck.
Yeah, thank you, all right? Do you have it? Neil Smith? Of course he does the NHL wrap Around podcast, former GM of the New York Rangers, Stanley Cup winners so cool stuff, and Yeah, I think our Utah HC is headed in the right direction.