Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek on the 32 Thoughts: The Podcast – Live from Victoria, It’s 32 Thoughts! episode on the Columbus Blue Jackets and their goaltending situation.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Marek: “Let’s get into goaltenders. Friday, March 8th is trade deadline.
Friedman: “Yeah.
Marek: “And the goalie markets hot. And by the way, Spencer Martin is on waivers (claimed by the Carolina Hurricanes after the podcast was recorded). So Jet Greaves is a pretty big prospect for them in net and that playing in the American Hockey League right now. Does his performance make it easier for that team to put someone like Spencer Martin on waivers?”
Friedman: “I think so. But also like this whole Elvis situation that blew up. Like Merzlikins admitted he asked for a trade. I don’t think that was a huge surprise to anybody in the league. I think everybody knew that Merzlikins was already available. But now if you’re like, to me, the simplest thing is there’s Merzlikins plays great, and they, they bury whatever’s going on here and they just say we’re going to continue the w ay it’s going.
Merzlikins is very hard to trade. He’s got three more years of $5.4 million and they’re. One of the great things I’ve learned in hockey is, there’s two ways to attack something. You either solve your problem, or you or you trade your problem. And the easiest thing always to do is solve your problem. Because trading your problem is hard. You’re dealing from a position of weakness. You’re putting yourself in a better spot to lose the trade.
To me, the so sensible thing is Merzlikins plays well and Columbus and him, they work it out. And I don’t know if that’s going to happen. But that’s the better solution for me for Columbus. And sitting him out and not playing him like they were before, that’s not going to solve your problem.
Now, the one thing about Merzlikins, it’s been really tough, and these are the dangerous places for me to go because I’m not there and people take offense to this kind of stuff and I understand why. I think there’s something going on in there.
Like Merzlikins, we had an interview with him. It’s one of the best interviews that we ever did. He’s a fiery guy. He’s a competitive guy, and I think it wore, when it wasn’t going well, it wore on some of Columbus’s players. Now that doesn’t mean you can’t fix that problem. But I do think that was part of the issue here.
So I think with Martin part of the issue is you’ve got to get Merzlikins to play and if you have three goalies there, you’re not solving anyone’s problem.”
Marek: “I wonder if it was him barking about being number three.”
Friedman: “Well, I…”
Marek: “That was a big, that was a big part of the, why I asked for a trade.”
Friedman: Well, if I got a third podcaster and made you sit off the side, would you be happy?”
Marek: “It wouldn’t surprise me.”
Friedman: “Do you think the audience would like it better?”
Marek: “Probably.”