The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
The Hockey Show: Brad Marchand is a Florida Panther
Fri, 14 Mar 2025
You read that right: Brad Marchand is a Florida Panther, and the guys on The Hockey Show are still reeling from the news. They kick off the show by breaking down how they reacted to the trade and what the news of Aaron Ekblad's 20-game suspension means for the Panthers. Plus, they share their wins and failures of the week, including a superman punch, a guy trying to fight a mascot, and a goalie flopping on his face. Then, Emily Kaplan of ESPN joins the show to break down the aftermath of the trade deadline and where some of the top contenders in the league left off. Finally, the boys go over the week for the Florida Panthers, including wins over the Buffalo Sabres and Toronto Maple Leafs and a brutal loss to the Boston Bruins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who are the hosts of The Hockey Show?
Welcome to the Hockey Show. My name is Roy Bellamy. David Dwork is right here. He works for the Hockey News. Ethan is in that chair right there. And Rosie is on vacation. Steen.
She deserves that. Well, she's supposed to be Steen, but she's on the chat. She's watching the show. Because she loves us.
I don't see why, but she loves us. We have ESPN reporter Emily Kaplan on the show. And she will talk to us about the trade deadline and what's going on. In the NHL, if you want to watch that, for those who are watching on the DraftKings Network, you can see the interview on YouTube for the Levitar Show page. You can find our show on the Hockey Show Playlist folder.
Yeah, there's a lot of hockey shows in the playlist. Yeah, I counted. There was 55 in that folder. I can't believe we've done 55. That's crazy. That's a lot. That's a lot. So let's get started. Let's drop the puck and talk about the news that the Florida Panthers have been in this week. And it's been a long week. A little bit of news. Yeah, a little bit of news. Good and bad.
Chapter 2: What was the reaction to Brad Marchand joining the Panthers?
Let's start with the good. Brad Marchand is a Florida Panther now. And I swear to goodness, it's just weird to me. First, the news. We're at the practice facility waiting for Bill Zito. And then that news happened.
3.15.
Yeah, nothing. That's crazy, man. And then we're hearing.
And then, yeah, we're hearing.
Speculative.
So this was the worst part for me was I had to go get a haircut at 3.30 that day. You got to groom yourself. And my haircut place is in Aventura. So it's about 30 minutes from my house. So I had to leave at 3 o'clock. So I'm watching NHL Network. The clock strikes 3 and nothing happens. I'm like, okay, whatever.
I get in my car and I get a text message with Frege's tweet that Brad Marchand is going to Florida. And then an hour and a half unfolds where I don't know what the return is. And one of my friends had sent me a tweet that said Anton Lundell was going to Boston. And so I'm losing my mind. Losing my mind, freaking out, thinking, oh my God, we just traded for an injured Brad Marchand.
And we traded, or excuse me, the Panthers traded for an injured Brad Marchand. And they traded Anton Lundell for him. What the hell is going on? Then as it took longer and longer for the return to get out, I'm like... No way they traded Anton Lundell.
Remember our reaction when, because as this is all happening, I'm firing off text messages and I'm trying to find out whatever I can. And I actually got a text from a very good source that said second round pick. And I showed it to Roy. And we looked at each other like, no way.
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Chapter 3: What does Aaron Ekblad's suspension mean for the Panthers?
Yeah. Going to the bad, however, Aaron Ekblad was suspended for 20 games. He's 18 plus 2 in the playoffs. Yeah, 18 plus 2. So that's not good. So that makes the Seth Jones trade even bigger. Right. So, yeah, Seth Jones. Quickly, similar to how the Panthers are playing, he has done very well so far. He's just got to get used to his other pair.
And right now, it's Gus Forsling until the foreseeable future. Well, his minutes have gone shooting up. Yeah.
You can already tell, first of all, how much of an impact he's going to have because, like David mentioned, I think he played like 26, 28 minutes, something like that last night.
His first three games, 22 minutes, 18 minutes, 21 minutes. His last two games, 28 and 27, 57. Wow.
Yeah, he's been awesome, and at the same time, the Panthers really miss Aaron Eckblad. You saw what happened in Boston the other night, and then last night against Toronto, they gave up a goal, the first goal, that is just something the Panthers never do. It's a cross-ice pass through a wide-open lane to a wide-open shooter.
That was not good. That was a great pass by Nylander.
When the Panthers are blowing a two-goal lead in the third period and they're giving up wide-open passes like that, you know something's up. They're going to miss Aaron Ekblad. The good news is it's only going to be two games in the playoffs. But you better not fall behind 2-0.
You better not. All right. Let's get into the wins and failures of the week brought to you by Jägermeister. Serve it cold or don't serve it at all. Jägermeister. Damn, that's cold. For more, visit Jägermeister.com. Drink responsibly. David, what's your win?
My win is Simon Benoit of the Toronto Maple Leafs tried a Superman punch in a hockey game. Oh, wow. And he paid for it. Oh, my. Dude, but how cool is that? Like, that's something that you see out of, like, an MMA movie trailer. Like, that's what, like, Iron Man does to Thanos. Like, you don't see that in a hockey game. And, I mean, credit to Michael Kisseling from Utah. Like, he was pumped.
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Chapter 4: What were the notable wins and fails of the NHL week?
My win of the week is from Blackhawks Avalanche on Monday. Nathan McKinnon became the 100th player in NHL history to reach 1,000 career points. His 1,000th point came as a secondary assist on a drop pass. And the goal was by Arturi Lekkonen. He only gets 1,000 points this season. Yeah. He needs so many assists. So many Art Ross trophies, man. Good God.
Right now, the nearest active player to 1,000 points is Brad Marchand. 976 points. He will end up doing that next year. He's going to end up reaching that milestone next year. Whether it's with the Panthers or not, don't know. TBD, don't be surprised.
Don't be surprised.
Don't be surprised.
Yeah, exactly. Ethan. Nathan McKinnon, 102 points on the season. Boys, my win of the week goes to Linus Olmark. Did you guys see this save he made last night? Yeah, it's the best save of the season. Ottawa Senators, who are red hot right now, four in a row, maybe five in a row, playing the Boston Bruins. Look at this save.
What I love about it is he had zero time to push. He turned his head and just dove and plucked it right out of him.
My dad and I... My dad and I were watching NHL Network last night, and they showed this replay. And he thought it was a sick goal because the pass and then the shot by Lorai. Look at this save. And he goes head over, or heels overhead, whatever you want to call it there. Oh, my goodness. Just a beautiful, sprawling save like that. That, to me, I haven't seen a better save this year.
Superman punch and a Superman save. So it's him and it was Logan Thompson that made that save for the Capitals. Yes, it was. Yeah. So those are the saves of the year.
Logan Thompson, he kind of had a chance to turn his body and get a little bit of steam built up before he made that dive. Olmark was down on his knees. He basically had to fall. He had to use whatever core strength he had. That was such an impressive save. As if I needed a reason to love Linus Olmark anymore. That guy's awesome. Fails of the week, David. Fail of the week.
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Chapter 5: How did the trade deadline affect NHL teams?
And I remember when they got Patrick Kane, Derek Lulone, who was the coach at the time, told me, you understand what that did for the locker room when Patrick Kane had all these options and he chose Detroit and what a boost that was. And it accelerated their season.
And then to get to the trade deadline when you don't have anyone, like, yes, they got Peter Moore out of the field of goaltending help. Like, I just feel like that's just such a bummer for those guys because they fought so hard and built with some adversity. And it's like, OK, but the general manager is basically saying next year. So, you know, we'll see how it all shakes out.
But that to me is like a team that maybe could have used some kind of boost, an extra defenseman, an extra forward. Winners? Can I pick Florida? Am I being a bias here?
Please pick Florida. I'm begging you to pick Florida.
What a deadline.
You know, I just think, firstly, Nico Sturm, I think with this general manager and management staff, and really, when you start to understand the Florida Panthers and why they've become so good, it's because Bill Zito has surrounded himself with so many great hockey minds, and they have really...
like passionate debates and it's not all group think but what they've identified is a culture and a fit of player that can fit into that culture so like nico serm is a great example of like you see him in san jose and you're like whatever what is this guy you see him as a florida panther and you're like oh that's exactly what they needed he'll play his you know butt off i could probably say worse things on your show but oh yeah we have
Yeah, exactly. And he's going to be a great Florida Panther. But really, I'm thinking about Brad Marchand. And the fact that he got traded from Boston is something that I think we're all going to have to wrap our head around. So they don't need to relitigate these contract negotiations. But he's 37 years old. He's a franchise legend. Typically, you hold on to these guys.
And management's like, look, we've got a retool, and we only have so far we could bend. And when they decide to trade him, from my understanding, they had some advanced talks with some teams, specifically in the West. And Brad told them, my heart wouldn't be in it. There's one place I want to go. That one place is Florida. Guys, you've been in this market forever.
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Chapter 6: Who are the winners and losers of the NHL trade deadline?
Like, how do you assess everything that happened over the last month and a half with the Carolina Hurricanes and kind of say, did they come out good on the other end of this? Or should they maybe have just held on and gone for it with Rantanen?
Yeah, it's so tough to say. I think the situation with Rantanen, like, look, I think big picture, nobody besides maybe the Dallas Stars and definitely the Dallas Stars are happy with how this all shook out, right? Like, it became so public. It became such a distraction. Nico Rantanen's a guy that's, like, so accommodating to the media.
But, like, I know he didn't want his business all aired out like this. And, like, I think it was just icky and a little bit uncomfortable for everyone. From the Canes' perspective, we can get into this war of words of who knew what and when. Did they know? Did they believe? Who said that he was going to potentially want to sign there?
But the truth is, they're always going to be an aggressive franchise. They're always going to go for it and make moves that I think the rest of the league might be a little bit more hesitant to make. And sometimes those risks aren't going to work out, but you have to respect them for taking the risks. And I also respect people for cutting their losses, you know, too soon.
And I think, again, the situation might've just gotten too messy where like, yeah, you couldn't hold onto him for the rest of the playoff run, but like, it wasn't really a fit. You knew that there was kind of some noise that he didn't really feel like home in Raleigh or he didn't really like it. Like, do you want to carry onto that?
Or do you want to try to cut your loss early and see what you can recoup? Now, Mikko Rantanen did tell them at least a week before the trade deadline that he wasn't going to sign. So I think that we can have a conversation of like, yes, you have to go field your best offers.
But the fact that it got down to the absolute wire where you weren't able to flip those firsts, like maybe that's an experience that they can learn from. But big picture, like I think that they can go to sleep at night knowing that they're going to take some risks because they want to win a Stanley Cup. They need a game breaking talent. They got one who was available. Didn't work out.
They'll try again.
The New Jersey Devils beat the Edmonton Oilers, and the Oilers are – we're going to get into them in a little bit because they've been bad. But the Devils also have been mediocre. They've been hovering over 500 – around 500 over the last 16 games, and Columbus is trying to catch up with them. They're six points behind for third place in the Metro. They lost Jack Hughes for the season.
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Chapter 7: Which teams will challenge the Panthers in the playoffs?
I love watching Cornelius play hockey.
Yeah, it starts to read American Prince.
Yeah, absolutely. Fair enough. All right, Emily Kaplan, we are going to see you when you get down to Florida because, I mean, it's Florida Panthers. They're the defending champion. They're going to make the playoffs. Can't wait to see you coming back down here. It's great to have you on the show. Thank you, Emily.
Oh, I know. We've got a big game against the Leafs on ESPN sometime in April in Florida, so I'll look out for you guys. And I have a feeling I will be there May, June, lots of time for Lauderdale.
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