Guest: Tyler Yaremchuk with the Nation Network

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, folks, welcome to the what the. [00:00:03] Speaker B: Futures podcast, your quick guide to better farming decisions. [00:00:15] Speaker A: Alrighty, folks, we have Tyler Uremchuk with the Nation Network Daily Face Off. Keep going on and on. Tyler, what else are you part of here? The list is massive. [00:00:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I'm trying to cut down a little bit, as weird as that sounds, but mainly now Oilers Nation Daily Face Offs did a little bit with Blue Jays Nation. Our friends over there with that coming to a close over the weekend, but yeah, buzzing around a lot lately. [00:00:40] Speaker A: So let's talk Blue Jays right off the hop here. So you're a die hard Blue Jays fan. You have, you have like a routine. You have, you know, you're, you're. I don't know if you're superstitious, but you got your certain things that you do at certain times in the game. Like how, how, how did it. I thought it, I thought the Jays were going to pull. I had positive vibes the entire time. Like, how were you feeling in the moment? [00:01:00] Speaker B: I mean, all I know in my sporting life is heartbreak. So I really try not to allow myself to like, ride the highs too much because I'm like, man, I'm going to get let down at some point here. But like, man, when it gets to the top of the ninth and there's one out and they're nine hole hitters up, that's when I kind of started to be like, okay, they're two outs away from winning the World Series here. Like, it still felt so surreal in that moment. And then it all comes crashing down and you're, you know, sitting and then they load the bases. Then Ernie Clement hits one and you get high again. And Vlad, even when they're down a run in the 11th, Vladdy slaps onto the gap and you're like, okay, they're gonna find a way to like, pull this off. Like, we're gonna get a crazy World Series moment. So it was a lot of heartbreak. I, I'm a die hard Jays fan. Like, I've watched thousands of Jays games in, in my life. I'm one of those people who like, watches 140 to 150 of the regular season games. Like, I love it. So, I mean, when you invest that much time in a team and the team is just so damn likable and they play such a fun, lovable brand of baseball. Like, it's this beautiful blend of like, old school scrappiness, power of friendship with a front office that puts players in the lineup in a very analytical way. Like, they were just a Great blend. And it was a really special team. So to see them lose out on Saturday, like, it sucked. I honestly think, like sitting here four days later, it's, it's still really hard for me to think about it. I think it hurts more than the Oilers losses do for me, honestly. [00:02:23] Speaker A: Yeah, I was wondering about that because that team, that chemistry, the, the positive vibes, everything going, even my wife. I don't watch a lot of baseball. My wife doesn't watch any baseball. She got into it, of course, in the last couple and she was rooting for players and she's like, look how happy they are. Look at the jacket they're passing around. Look at, you know, everyone's into this. [00:02:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:44] Speaker A: So I, I don't know, I just. The better team didn't win. The Dodgers have a heck of a pitcher in Yamamoto. Incredible what he pulled off. But the, the better team didn't win this one. It was, I don't think. Anyway, it just, it was the darn Dodgers. The, the big payroll ended up getting it done. So. [00:03:02] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, it was, it, it was heartbreaking. And like, again, like, Amber, my wife, got super into it as well. She's always been a Jays fan. But like, it hit another level during this run and like, you know when, when the Oilers go on their runs and, and whatever, this is not all about me, but like, I'm so into it work wise, right? Where it's like, okay, I'm in the press box down in Florida. I'm on a million flights going back and forth through these series. I'm traveling. Like, I don't have time to like, really sit back and just like, have fun as a fan. And like, that's why I really bought into it this year. Like, I had my, you know, my stress baseball and I had my game day routines and like, not that I obviously believe I have any impact on anything. I'm not superstitious in that sense. But like, yeah, superstitions are fun in sports because it makes you feel like you're a part of the thing. Right? So I really had a lot of fun during the run. That might be some of the most fun I've ever had being a sports fan. And they were, they were one, one base hit. They were one sack fly away from winning the World Series. There's not a lot of teams I can say that. [00:03:57] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. All right, one last one on the Jays. So now you're looking at all the, the players, the jerseys, like, what are you going with for your next, your next Blue Jays jersey here, your Next sweater. [00:04:10] Speaker B: There's one option for me and I was about to pull the trigger on it. When I was in Toronto after the ALCs, I didn't because the lines of the J shop were way too long and I wasn't going to wait. And if they won the World Series, I was going to get a World Series patch. Trey is savage. Like this guy is insane. What he did this year that would be like if the Oilers or any team made the Stanley cup final on the back of a goalie who like started the year in college, basically. Like the fact he went from low A to high a, double A, triple A, MLB to making three appearances in the World Series. It might never, it's never been done in the history of the sport. It might never be done again in the history of the sport. Like he's a special, special player and. [00:04:50] Speaker A: Under team control for a little while. Right. Like I would think, yeah, you can. [00:04:53] Speaker B: Make the investment in the jersey and in a guy like that who isn't a free agent for like eight years because that's how baseball works. [00:04:59] Speaker A: Yep. Yeah. What else do we have for turnover on the roster? I think I saw Bichette was up. Anything else? [00:05:05] Speaker B: Bo's the big one. The other one that was stunning yesterday and honestly kind of it got me back excited. Shane Bieber opted into his contract. So the way like baseball contracts can work a little bit differently than hockey contracts where you can give guys player options, there can be team options. And Shane Bieber coming off Tommy John gave the Jays some really good starts in the playoffs. And I think the projections like Baseball America had him projected for a five year deal at $150 million, like three, $30 million a year, projecting him to be like a number two starter that teams would pay for. He opts back in for one more year at $16 million. And another layer to this is that if he would have opted out, the Jays actually would have owed him a four million dollar buyout on his opt out. So he's basically coming back for $12 million when he easily. Even if that Baseball America projection is high, I think he could have gotten like three years, $75 million. Like he left a lot of money on the table. And granted if he has a big year, he might be a 250 million dollar arm next winter. But like he left a lot of guaranteed money on the table to come back and try run this back with Toronto. [00:06:11] Speaker A: Maybe some good vibes after the playoff run. Right? Maybe some good vibes. [00:06:14] Speaker B: So just get both signed and I'll be Happy? [00:06:17] Speaker A: What, what's Bo's projection? Do you know that off the top of your head? [00:06:20] Speaker B: I think it was something like 6 by 200 or 6 by 180 or something like that. So it's high. I mean, he's a really good player and I was reading some reporting about it that like he does genuinely want to win with Vladdy and the Jays would probably get a chance to match whatever offer another team throws him. So again, good vibes coming off the, off the run that they had good stuff. [00:06:40] Speaker A: All right, let's turn our attention now to hockey. I have been like checked out from hockey. Like I, I don't know what it is, but my, the Oilers, my Oilers are just playing like 500 hockey. Not really giving us a reason to get too excited yet. So I've been checked out in the first month of the NHL here. What are the surprises that you're seeing? [00:07:02] Speaker B: I mean, just quickly on the Oilers, they're in a bit of a malaise as they usually are. But I will say the nice thing if you're an Oilers fan is that in years past you'd sit here in November and be like, God, they're struggling. And they'd be sitting with like a 400 points percentage. And we'd always have the joke on the shows that like, hey, they're an eight game heater away from getting back into it. And then of course the Oilers always go on their eight game heater. The nice part about where they're at right now is like they haven't played well, but they've picked up four loser points. They've got a couple of wins that maybe they didn't deserve. If they win eight in a row, they're going to go on it. They'll be sitting at the top of their division. So again, if they can go on their usual mid season run, they'll be fine. I think the surprises are honestly kind of more in the East. Like every team in the Eastern Conference has a points percentage of.500 or better. Like it's crazy how tight the east is. And the team that's in dead last right now is the Florida Panthers. And listen, it's November, it is still very early and the gap from worst to first is very, very small in the East. But when you look at some of these teams like Washington won the, won the conference last year in the regular season, they're in second last right now. Then it goes the Rangers and then you have some, you know, I'll call them scrappier teams like Buffalo and Ottawa and like, even the Islanders, with Matt Schaefer, who has been unbelievable this year as the first overall pick, like, every team in the east seems to be really competitive. And that's kind of got me looking at the Capitals and Panthers, who are sitting. Sitting at the basement right now. And I'm like, man, if you don't figure it out in the month of November, like, putting yourself behind the eight ball through October is fine. Putting yourself behind the eight ball through November as well is, like, all of a sudden it's a task, especially when the conference looks as good as it does. Also, the Penguins are somehow the best team in the Eastern Conference. That's the other big surprise. Sidney Crosby and Evgenie Malkin totally turned back the clock, which is fun to see. [00:08:48] Speaker A: And they're getting some goaltending, too, I would think. If they're winning games, I didn't look. [00:08:52] Speaker B: But, yeah, Jari and Sea Loves have both been pretty good so far. That's the one thing where I'm kind of like, they might fall apart because, like, I don't think Tristan Jari is going to keep having that kind of a year. But Sea Loves, they took a gamble on. He's just the kid from Vancouver that the Oilers ran into in the playoffs a couple years ago, and he's been good so far. So again, like, I always laugh first month of the year, the bad teams are still in that, like, scrappy mindset, right? Where, like, yeah, they're. They're coming, they're celebrating every point. Yeah, yeah, they got young guys who are just excited to be in the league. They haven't had their spirit broken yet. So some of these good stories I'm waiting for, like, you know, the end of December, January, when, like, it's the dog days of the season, and all of a sudden the. The league gets a little bit tougher. [00:09:34] Speaker A: Yeah, fair enough. And in the west, it looks like we've got Colorado, Winnipeg sitting at the top here. Dallas, which beat the Oilers last night in a shootout up there as well. Flames at the bottom end of the league. Anything else surprising you in the West? [00:09:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, a couple of teams with young cores that seem to be taking steps forward. Anaheim, 8, 3 and 1. So the fact that they have eight wins in their first 12 games, they're not one of those teams that's just scooping up a whole bunch of loser points. And they have this kid, Leo Carlson, who is. He was the third overall pick a couple of years ago, and he is putting together an unbelievable season. If you go back to like the halfway point of last year. He's been a point. He's been better than a point per game player over that run. So he's huge. He's 6 foot 3. He seems to be like growing in to his body a little bit here. I think he could be like a Ryan Getzlav 2.0 for the Ducks. So he's headlining a young team in Anaheim that is looking like they're ready to take the step forward. And then there's Utah, who's kind of like everyone had them as like, yeah, fun, sexy playoff pick this year or living up to the hype 9 and 4 on the year. Dylan Gunther, a good Edmonton boy who, I mean, if you were in Edmonton hockey circles five, six, seven, eight years ago when he was like 13 and 14, you were hearing about Dylan Gunther and he is, he might have. He might get 40 goals this year for Utah and he's one of five or six young forwards that they have that are just on unbelievable runs right now. So Utah and Anaheim are the two teams that I'm looking at being like, okay, if you can get through November, like I, I'd be willing to say that you're legit. Nice. [00:11:06] Speaker A: All right, sounds good. What about from the trade side? It's obviously, it's a quiet time generally, and for trades in the league, you don't get a lot of action right now. But is there anything rumbling, I guess Crosby's not going to get traded right now if they're leading the conference over there. So anything else on the trade front or anything Oilers related on the trade front? [00:11:26] Speaker B: Well, so the Oilers are going to be facing a roster crunch at some point here. They activated Alec Ragula off of IR yesterday and they're still fine for right now. Zach Hyman should be back at some point in the next seven to 10 days is what we're thinking. Matthias Yanmark could be back in the next seven to 10 days. So when one of those two comes back, Kasperi Kapadan goes to LTIR when the other one comes back, you either need to make a trade or you need to send someone down to the minors. So I don't know. There's some rumblings that one of Troy Stetcher or Ty Amberson could go just because they're carrying eight defensemen right now. I would put my money on Stetcher being the guy that gets traded out of Edmonton, but again, I could also see the Oilers just sending a forward down to Bakersfield and trying to just buy themselves a little bit of Time because you don't want to lose that depth on the blue line. And then the one thing that I think maybe some casual fans might notice this year is that I don't know if there'll be as many trades. I think this could be a quieter trade deadline. And the reason for that is the NHL with the new CBA that kicks in next season, they actually took a couple of elements of it and kicked in them in this year. And one of them is the always popular double retention move where you take a guy, you know a selling team at the deadline has a player who's making $6 million, they trade them to someone who keep or they keep 50%, they trade them to someone else who keeps another 50% and then they trade him to a contender for 25% of his capit. It allows contenders to accrue cap space throughout the season and then go and get a good player for way cheaper than what his actual cap it is. The NHL's kind of closed up that loophole and said you can't do double retention anymore. And again, so many contending teams like the Oilers are right to the cap ceiling if you can't do double retention. Like the Oilers wouldn't have been able to get Trent Frederick last year and like that wasn't even a sexy flashy at that was just a guy who was going to play in your bottom six and they needed the double retention rule to bring him in. So the NHL closed that loophole and I think in a way they might have kind of killed the trade deadline, which is heartbreaking for a guy who needs to do a five hour show every trade deadline. [00:13:28] Speaker A: Yeah, you might want to. May want to shorten that one up this year a little bit. Tyler, you could always extend it, right? All right, man. Final one for you. Are you going to dial into the CFL playoffs now? I think we've got the Riders in the west final. I actually don't know if B.C. or Calgary won over the weekend, but any pick for the Great Cup. [00:13:47] Speaker B: I love that you say that you don't know B.C. or Calgary one because it made me feel way better. I always feel like such a bad Canadian when people are like, did you watch the CFL games? And I'm like, damn it, I forgot. I'm sorry. But it was B.C. who won, so. B.C. saskatchewan. I think the Riders have been like pretty consistent. Corey Mace is their head coach and, and I like him a lot. 12 and 6 on the year. Saskatchewan, Hamilton, Gray Cup. I feel like that'd be a nice little not throwback matchup, but a good like classic CFL kind of. Two good CFL towns going head to head in the great cup. That'd be nice to root for. [00:14:19] Speaker A: Yep, for sure. I'd go with that. My father in law was very happy that BC1 because Calgary had Saskatchewan's number all year, so he was quite thrilled. All right, man. Thanks for joining me this month. Look forward to having you back here in early December. Take care, Tyler. [00:14:32] Speaker B: Beautiful. See you, Ryan.