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00:03the best laid plans
00:08narrator there really was no plan this radio host really didn't know for sure what he exactly
00:13wanted to talk about until he opened his mouth at 3 0 2 p.m on this thursday in august
00:20good
00:21afternoon everyone i'm the bulldog and yes we have um we have reason to pull my saber line
00:28combinations off the wall we got we got reason to open up uh cap friendly doesn't exist anymore uh
00:35puckpedia cap cap friend i don't know there's hockey news and zach just mentioned it and that
00:43is where we are going to start today i know the bills are playing in a few hours we will
00:47have our
00:48game day coverage countdown to kickoff sale paul uh good timing i've got paul because of this
00:56this hockey news um we don't have a trade but we have something i we were kind of expecting this
01:05eventually right that at some point this summer before training camps got here maybe connor
01:11hellebuck the much talked about winnipeg goaltender hero of team usa's gold medal winning effort uh at
01:19the 2026 olympics um had quietly asked to be traded by the winnipeg jets in the summer uh we know
01:28that
01:28he approved buffalo as a destination at one point in the summer but what we don't know is what exactly
01:36happened to that trade i i happen to believe piecing some things that i know with some things that i
01:45am led to believe which you know can be subtly different things that they were very much in
01:52uh and very much interested in acquiring connor hellebuck this summer earlier around the time of
01:58the draft and leading up to free agency beginning so much so that they were vetting places um to fill
02:07in the lineup for players players they were vetting players to trade for to replace players that they
02:13were going to trade away in the connor hellebuck trade is how i have come to know it and it
02:19obviously
02:20didn't work out my working theory is that winnipeg waited until too late on july 1st when no trade
02:27clauses kicked in limited no move clauses that kind of thing and ukopakalukanen is one player that would
02:35have made absolute sense to be sent away in a trade involving a higher price goaltender than even
02:42lukanen himself almost double the salary i think lukanen is around four and a half or four seven five
02:46and hellebuck's around eight and a half um and i think that is what squashed the deal i don't i
02:52don't
02:53know specifically that that that happened but it it adds up winnipeg certainly it reportedly and just
03:00from a casual observer standpoint it would have made sense that they would have wanted
03:04um a youngish a younger goalie somewhat cost controlled and lukanen certainly fit the bill
03:13and i think that is where the thing derailed because winnipeg waited too long and then yarmo
03:20kekalainen got angry and held news conference four hours in the free agency and basically said we're
03:24shutting down for the summer and like that was you know they signed some guys but that was mostly it
03:29there was no big move and we were left waiting and maybe the next logical step in the progression
03:42of the connor hellebuck situation with the winnipeg jets was him doing exactly what he did today
03:48through his agent who posted on twitter i found this just seven minutes before this show started
03:55uh it was posted elliot friedman i think tim graham and brad mentioned it as they were on their way
04:00out the door signing off of their show getting ready for me to take over mike is off today by
04:05the way
04:05so you got just me today uh again lots of football on the way sal will be on twice today
04:11uh once at
04:12four o'clock and once at six o'clock and in between we will have paul hamilton uh on the
04:18show so the the
04:19football quota will be covered but he i just want to let you fill you in here's the news
04:24through his agent connor hellebuck has issued the following statement winnipeg has been my home for
04:29my entire nhl career and i will always be grateful for my time there i have never forgotten june 23rd
04:342012 that's the day winnipeg took a chance on a goalie playing in odessa texas in the null the odessa
04:42jackalopes owen played against the odessa jackalopes you know much later than 2012 anyway i gave everything
04:47i had from that moment to prove that the jets made the right decision several months ago i privately
04:53requested a trade i have tried to handle the situation quietly and respectfully while giving
04:59the organization time to explore its options with training camp approaching i felt it was important
05:05to publicly confirm my request my position has not changed and i believe moving on is the best path
05:13forward for me and my family i appreciate everything winnipeg jets fans have meant to me throughout my
05:21career and hope a resolution can be reached soon connor hellebuck so there's that how much more that
05:28ratchets up the pressure on the winnipeg jets you know we'll see i would think it does some like if
05:35you
05:36thought well it's been quiet since early july and i don't really sense anything coming and maybe
05:45maybe they've made up right maybe maybe winnipeg went to visit connor hellebuck at his million dollar
05:52cottage which i'm just assuming he has because he's a multi-million dollar professional athlete
05:57um it doesn't have to be you know maybe he has a maybe he has a condo in miami for
06:02all i know instead
06:03of a cottage on a lake in muskoka or somewhere um but anyway uh you know you might have been
06:09thinking
06:09oh well i haven't heard anything lately and it's possible that they they you know patched things up
06:16smoothed things over and that this will uh they will make peace and his career will continue in winnipeg
06:24um this today makes that seem very highly unlikely i happen to think it was highly unlikely all along
06:32um so here we are now hellebuck is saying publicly he wants out of there and again we know
06:39i i know i believe all right is that the safest way to put it um like the sabers were
06:47in on this idea
06:50i do think you know this i don't know but my guess is that the lucan in no trade kind
06:56of
06:56kiboshed it for the time being and i don't know how they work out a deal without
07:05uh lucan and being a part of it assuming you know that i'm i'm correct about there's no trade um
07:13but the the market for halibuck was always going to be pretty slim there you know there just isn't
07:22he wants to go to a contending level team
07:27obviously i don't feel winnipeg is that anymore and their last place or thereabouts finished last
07:32year uh might be reason to believe he's right about that that they they missed their window
07:37and so he wants to go somewhere else um and buffalo was he agreed to be traded to buffalo
07:48carolina was the other team that was often mentioned and that was pretty much it there was
07:55not there was not a long line now that could change i suppose maybe the asking price will be
08:02different now that the trade request has been made public uh i don't know like you you might be able
08:08to
08:08swing this deal for less than you could at the draft or before free agency opened and maybe that
08:16opens the door for you know i don't know a new a new team or two to get involved or
08:23more than that
08:24i don't know but it always felt like a pretty small needle to thread the number of teams again it
08:31was
08:31reportedly really buffalo and carolina new jersey was in the mix but then they did something and i don't
08:36remember what it was now but i don't think that they're in that anymore it doesn't make sense anymore
08:41for them and i mean carolina won the cup but they were interested look the point is the sabers i
08:47think still are front and center in any kind of connor hellebuck conversation that will be had in the
08:55days following his now making this trade request public i think the sabers should be at the front of
09:01the line they've got a deep prospect pool what they don't have is if i'm right about lucanen
09:07uh is they don't have a goalie that makes sense and maybe they have been working on this all along
09:17to see if it gets revisited upon and can find a way to spin lucanen off for a different goalie
09:26that they can include in the trade package um just to you know fill winnipeg make winnipeg hole if you
09:32will if they need a young contract somewhat controlled goalie uh in the trade um or maybe the sabers can
09:39convince ukko pekka lucanen that he should go to winnipeg uh again if i'm right about him not wanting
09:46to go originally being the reason why connor hellebuck isn't already uh saber because i i think that
09:51that's probably where we ended up but again i don't i don't know that what i do know is that
09:57they were
09:57looking at acquiring namely vincent trocek to i think fill a hole created by someone ryan mcleod is
10:05my guess who would have been involved in this connor hellebuck transaction um so you don't you don't
10:11have that option anymore either and maybe that complicates things but i would expect that as we
10:17get later here that you should not have to pay as much as you might have been expected or even
10:25willing to pay back in july just because time has gone by the the teams have got their plans made
10:34like
10:34they they they probably know what they are want to do in goal and uh and that includes the sabers
10:41you
10:41know maybe they're maybe they're of the mind to go you know what we thought this was gonna be it
10:45was a
10:45good idea in july but we don't anymore what do you think like how much i know again your mind
10:51was
10:52probably on me talking about can i walker uh today at three o'clock uh maybe some of you are
10:58going who's
10:58that and that that's fine with me uh one of the outside corners battling for a roster spot uh we'll
11:04get to that um what do you want to do here what do you want the sabers to do here
11:09do you want to put
11:11together a package my my sense is again that lucan in unless they could convince him i'm not going to
11:19just i'm going to live in this space here that i don't think lucan in is an option in this
11:23trade
11:23um that could change but at least to winnipeg i mean he only has a five team no move clause
11:31so he cannot control everything so if the sabers can find a way to spin him off
11:37and get what winnipeg needs in the deal make a three-way trade maybe that's where we end up here
11:44um but hellebuck has gone public he wants out do sabers fans want yarmo kekeleinen and the
11:52organization to jump at that i still think it makes a ton of sense it was never my favorite idea
11:59um going back to you know sort of bracing for oh well looks like alex tuck is gonna leave
12:07what are we gonna do i would have preferred to pool assets to try to find a veteran replacement
12:14for tuck um that did not come to pass they did not do that and as the summer kind of
12:20went on
12:20and we got past july 1st and into like to the point where we're at now it sort of became
12:29apparent
12:29to me the only move left that could in theory and hopefully in in practice in reality improve
12:36the sabers for next year is if they went out and got one of the very best goalies year over
12:44year
12:44in the league so you know june 26th through july 2nd this was not my favorite idea um age goalie
12:56volatility salary prospects going out goaltending was kind of a strength not even kind of it was a
13:05strength of this team last year uh but it was erratic in the playoffs with you know lucan and
13:11starting lying going in lying getting pulled lucan and going back in lucan and coming back out lying
13:15going back in and then lying going back out again and lucan and coming back in that all happened
13:19within 13 games of two playoff series that happened so what do you want to do here
13:26right which of the kids or and veterans like who to you can you live with being involved in this
13:37trade
13:37because there's to me no way i don't know what yarmulkekeleinen says when winnipeg calls now
13:45they probably have been talking to some extent um or maybe they maybe they left it for dead maybe
13:51yarmulke just said you know what i don't want to talk about this anymore i'm done and now maybe it
13:57picks back up again you know a month or more has gone by really it's more like a couple of
14:01months
14:02and maybe they re-engage and find their way to a deal that makes sense what for you as a
14:11sabers fan
14:12would make sense like and please just bear in mind that it's to me as much as i think the
14:20price
14:20should be down some there's gonna have to be someone in this trade that you're unhappy about
14:27connor hellebuck is one of the very best goalies in hockey currently still he's i don't think i would
14:35say he's he's at the tail end of his prime all right his prime was probably three four years ago
14:40um but he's still to me very capable of being a difference making player for the sabers and
14:49i didn't want this off season to come and go with them not really acquiring anyone that could move the
14:58meter and that is still where we are we talked some about this yesterday uh when mike and i got
15:04back
15:04together after me being gone for a couple of weeks they really you cannot with a straight face
15:10assert that this team has improved on paper sitting here today at any point this summer
15:16you just can't you know you can feel strongly that constant helen use is going to be a rookie of
15:23the
15:23year candidate and that noah ausland is going to be an outstanding add to the lineup provided they
15:29find a spot that makes sense for him in the lineup and that yuri kulik is going to pick up
15:33right
15:33where he left off at the tail end of the season before last when he looked like oh that could
15:39be
15:39their number one center moving forward but he missed a year with blood clots last year like you could be
15:44bullish on all of that happening and you could be right and that could make them you know i don't
15:51know
15:51to improve on 109 points in the division winning year is going to be tough uh but at least sort
15:56of hold
15:57their place maybe all of that clicks in and it all goes right but to me acquiring some veteran stability
16:07and in this case that ends up being in the form of a goalie has always made some sense and
16:13you know
16:14makes even more sense now so who who can you part with right i know you'd love josh norris to
16:20be
16:20included in this i'll bet i i say that um not with i'm not accusing you of being i would
16:27love for josh
16:27norris to be involved in this trade i don't know how realistic it is given his injury history and his
16:33salary but if i could offload him in this transaction that would be amazeballs to me like i mean that
16:40would
16:40just be incredible um like that's where i'd want to start but to me i think it's way more likely
16:47that winnipeg would go yeah we don't really want josh norris we'd like noah ausland or we'd like
16:53yuri kulik or we'd like constant helen use and that's where i think things you know are going to
16:58get tricky because it probably has to hurt on some level if you're going to acquire a player of this
17:05caliber um getting him free like your spare parts and the stuff that you don't really want to invest in
17:10long term probably is not realistic um i'd like to remove the probably but you never know uh you
17:19know with the pressure point of hellebuck going public now uh maybe you can really control this
17:24more than you could have in the summer uh so we'll see but we know that hellebuck is asking for
17:30this now
17:31publicly and really what i where i think we all we all come together is sorting out what we're willing
17:39to part with and how badly we want this do we think this is a good idea a great idea
17:45or a terrible
17:47idea those are your four choices that third one was that noise was a choice i you know sometimes
17:55you need a roadmap uh carl is first up this segment hi carl thanks for calling you're on the air
18:00here
18:00on wgr hey bulldog uh so yeah i i agree um i i think that we definitely need to make
18:10a move on
18:10on connor hellebuck i don't know what that price is going to be i was hoping it would be like
18:15a upl
18:15uh maybe that 20th overall prospect that we had in quinn uh i don't really know what they would ask
18:21for
18:22but as the the months roll on i'm sure the price can't be that steep um and the reason is
18:28i mean
18:28out of 15 years we've been good for the last four months of that or five months of that time
18:35frame
18:35um and we weren't good at the beginning of the season and i'm always curious like are we actually
18:40a good team or do we just catch lightning in a bottle for that small period of time like are
18:46we
18:46actually a real playoff game do we actually believe in that and with all this youth on this team and
18:52and yeah they've been playing well but we really don't know there's so much uncertainty and that's how
18:57we've felt for so many years now so i thought to say thanks all right thank you i appreciate that
19:02yeah we touched on some of that yesterday too um like how i don't know fragile is a give me
19:09a word
19:10that can set people off um like just just how yeah fragile though it fits how fragile is the fan
19:17base
19:17how much belief is there that they've arrived at a place where they'll just be a contending level team
19:25from here on forward i i i i think that that is not it's not an easy thing to get
19:35your hands around
19:35uh to me because the scar tissue goes so deep from the years of futility that like the caller just
19:45laid
19:45it out it's it's this pocket of a few months where they look like one of the best teams in
19:50hockey
19:51and you know the way they lost in the playoffs doesn't really change that um you know that's
19:58that's playoff hockey you know you're gonna get to overtime and it's a game seven and and what do
20:02you know it just it doesn't go your way um that to me doesn't mean they weren't a real contender
20:08it means they lost in overtime of game seven of the round before the conference final which
20:13you know don't you know hang a banner probably not but it still was an accomplishment and i think
20:20it's presently constructed without any improvements and the losses that they've incurred it's still a
20:26team that to me should contend for a playoff spot that's very different than contending with florida
20:33and tampa for the top of the division and i think a move for hellebuck puts my mindset right back
20:41into
20:42that space where okay you wanted a big move here's the big move we we did it and you know
20:51we know
20:51goaltending can be erratic is this going to be the thing that fixes it all for us you know jury
20:57will
20:57be out on that but if the fan base and or the team itself the players need some proof positive
21:08that
21:08it's a different day for the buffalo sabers a connor hellebuck trade is really the only
21:16piece left it's the only lever left to pull for the sabers this offseason the time has passed for
21:23the rest of the roster uh they're not they're not on the dylan larkin list and i don't know that
21:29they're going to be able to work themselves on to the dylan larkin list i've been highly doubtful of
21:33that all along uh so i don't think that's an option because that's still out there that's you
21:38know that's the same as this even more so because larkin was public about it right from the start
21:42um so this is the thing that yes the fans shouldn't matter as much to the team but i wonder
21:53about the
21:53team itself the players on the team tage thompson sitting wherever he's sitting this summer relaxing
22:00you know in between skates with the guys trying to get ramped up and getting ready for training
22:06camp for when it begins how does he feel about alex tuck leaving and them and bow and byram leaving
22:12and them using the fourth pick on a player that's not going to help them at all this year and
22:16maybe
22:16not even next year and drafting the 20th over not turning any of those futures into something
22:24to boost this team now i think internally from a player perspective could be viewed as a failure
22:32what are we doing here we were we were close we got to keep going and like you know a
22:38veteran guy on
22:39this team might very very well feel great about the development of these kids but i think it's just
22:47as likely that vets on this team are looking around like a lot of us have been looking around all
22:53summer going where's the where's the move where's the move and hella buck checks that box i mean in
23:01permanent marker if if they were to pull it off so um i don't know how eager are you out
23:07there sabers
23:08fans to part with one of the kids two of the kids uh you know murtka kleeberg these are names
23:19you
23:19barely even know probably right you know there are other there are other pieces that the sabers
23:25can trade that will have value in this scenario but i doubt that you can avoid to me the like
23:32those
23:32big the big three what i don't know it's coolie coolie's on a different level i think because of
23:38the injury uh the blood clots from last year but helen use and ausland i almost feel like one of
23:43them
23:43has to be involved in this if you're going to make this trade and can you live with that there's
23:48an
23:49there's an easy easy answer like it's not an easy answer but it's a it's an easy question to get
23:53your
23:53hands around you can you give up one of those guys helen use or ausland you're gonna give up other
23:58stuff too but one of those guys in this trade yes or no i'm telling you i can i don't
24:05love it
24:05but that's the price of doing business and right now i don't think i have room for everybody
24:11so i gotta do something i think and this presents itself today connor hellebuck has publicly now
24:19asked to be traded by the winnipeg jets so on a day that was arcing towards lots of football
24:25conversation which again we will engage in plenty of as we go uh we've got some sabers news you know
24:31sort of 803 05 50 is the number if you want to get in on this conversation uh we'd love
24:37to have
24:38you i've got the next half hour wide open so if you're out there going oh my god connor hellebuck
24:42demanded a trade publicly now yeah let's go get them i'm your guy call call us up 803 05 50
24:48is the
24:49number again lots of football as we go salad for paul at five sal again at six the bills and
24:55stealers
24:55play at seven mike is off today i'm the bulldog and this is wgr
24:59play at seven mike is off today and this is where we go to the top of the top of
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