Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek on the 32 Thoughts: The Podcast – Loser Thinking episode on.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Marek: Okay, you know, one thing that I found interesting that you mentioned this week, was Juuse Saros and the Igor Shesterkin contract.”
Friedman: “I actually didn’t think …”
Marek: “Hold on, I want to …. ”
Friedman: “… this was a big deal.”
Marek: “No, you know why this is a big deal, because you know where my brain flashback to right away? 2021. The summer of 2021 the Oilers were doing an extension with Darnell Nurse. I think they were looking, Elliotte, somewhere in the neighborhood of five times five. I think something, something like that.”
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Friedman: “Oh, and then all those other D signed.”
Marek: “And then, so that, yeah. So then in July on the 23rd, Seth Jones signed a deal. Eight years $76 million, $9.5 million. And all of a sudden this, the Darnell Nurse deal changed and it changed for a lot of defenseman, specifically.
That’s why I think this is a big story again, much like the way that the Seth Jones’s of the world changed the landscape for players like Darnell Nurse. Whatever ends up happening here with Igor Shesterkin, it’s going to, is going to absolutely impact Juuse Saros if he allows it to and doesn’t just rush to do a deal before Shesterkin sets a new bar. That’s why I think it’s a big deal.”
Friedman: “Okay, so this is one of those things. I do a weekly radio hit in Nashville, which I really liked doing like Caroline Fenton and Willy Daunic and Derrick Mason, I really enjoy talking to them. So Willy asked me , like do you think the agent for Saros, who’s Kevin app could wait for Shesterkin.
I was like, yeah, sure. I mean, absolutely could if that’s what he wanted to do. And this goes, I filed this other one of those things that you just never know, in the social media world, what’s going to take off? Like there’s things that you say, you think they’re wrong, they’re just normal, and they go kablooey and then there’s things say, Oh, this is gonna be a huge bomb and it goes absolutely nowhere. There’s no control over. And this is one of those things I said, this is perfectly normal. Like, of course, the agent could wait. And the next thing I knew I was going crazy. And I was like, wow, I didn’t think I actually said anything crazy here.
Look, I believe that. The one thing I say that I really stick to is that, one of the reasons I think Saros was named got out in the trade rumors around the deadline this year and at one time, I said I thought it was both 50-50, is that if the negotiations had gone really well, I don’t think there would have been any chance he was getting traded.
And I do think the Predators and his representatives met and they talked about him being a Predator for life. And then when the two sides started talking about parameters of a contract, it wasn’t in a place that Nashville was comfortable with. And it’s all negotiation and you know, you see what happens. And I understand that negotiations are rarely linear. So these things go on I tend not to freak out about them.
So when they brought up could he wait because Shesterkin’s gonna sign a big number? I’m like, yeah, absolutely certain it could happen. But again, just because that that is a tactic of the agent and what he should do, it doesn’t mean that that’s the way it’s going to end up.
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And, you know, that’s the one thing here, I, it sure sounds to me like Saros and the Predators would like to continue this marriage. You just got to get to a number and Barry Trotz even said at the end of the season, like don’t be surprised if this goes past July 1st.
So I think even he, like most general managers, is looking not necessarily where we are, but where we’re going. So I mean, I was a little surprised this, this one turned into news, but, you know, like in this day and age you, you never know what’s going to be big.”
