Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek on 32 Thoughts: The Podcast – Goodbye, Gabby on Vancouver Canucks forward Bo Horvat.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Marek: “Now, one of the players that we’ll have our eyes on as well, and who knows how long he’s going to be in a Canucks uniform here for Rick Tocchet is Bo Horvat. You talked about him on Saturday for those who didn’t watch Hockey Night in Canada, what is the latest with Bo?
Friedman: “I didn’t get the sense there is a deal imminent but we’re six weeks out from the deadline and I think the Canucks were trying to cull the heard a little bit. Like figure out who’s real and who isn’t, and I think they’re trying to get a better idea of that. One of the things I was trying to figure out was, okay, who is real and who isn’t?
I think we’re all wondering about the Bruins, and I think the Bruins are also thinking about left defense. But I think we’re all wondering about the Bruins.
New Jersey’s a team I wondered about because I think they’re going to add. But somebody made a good point to me, they said, you know they have (Nico) Hischier and they have (Jack) Hughes, and they really believe Hughes is a center. I mean the guy’s got 30 goals this year. You don’t screw around with his success.
So does Horvat make sense there? I think Meier is more likely New Jersey’s target than Horvat but I think they’ve kind of been around it.
You know the team I really wonder about here, and this is just my opinion if it’s true cause Steve Yzerman doesn’t say anything, that Larkin and Red Wings are having trouble closing the deal, I wonder if Detroit’s in this at all.”
Marek: “But that would have to be based on an extension as well. No?”
Friedman: “Yeah, and the one thing is, I don’t think Vancouver seems to be inclined to give permission.”
Marek: “Doesn’t sound that way at this point.”
Friedman: “We’ve reported the one team is San Jose. If they have a deal they like, they’re going to let people talk to Meier. Columbus is going to let people talk to (Vladislav) Gavrikov, but I don’t think Vancouver’s inclined to do it.
So what says to me one of two things. If, if, if, if, if, if, if, I don’t want to get radio’d, if Detroit is in this, either they do it earlier or Steve Yzerman takes his chances. Or you set up that game of broken telephone where my intermediary calls your intermediary and says, if you end up in a place in North America famous for building cars, would you be happy to stay there?
Marek: “What’s the word for that? I’m drawing a blank here Elliotte. Is there a word for that? A nasty word that people like to accuse other teams of but never themselves. What’s that word I’m fishing for?
Friedman: “I’m not familiar with this one?”
Marek: “Not coming to mind.”
Friedman: “There’s always teams out there that we don’t know.”
Marek: “Going back to the point about the New Jersey Devils and ya, Nico Hischier, who by the way kicked off this program delightfully a little while ago here and we thank him for that, and Jack Hughes down the middle and you’d say to yourself, what’s the point of Bo Horvat there. Someone had a conversation with someone on Saturday who said, listen, how many times have you ever heard anyone or any team say. ‘ya, you know the problem we had, we just had too many centers.’
Elliotte, I can assure you that sentence has never been uttered. Ya, we’ve had too many centers.”
Friedman: “I understand what you’re saying. I understand what you’re saying. But anyway, that is what someone did say.”
** NHLRumors.com transcription