Kucherov Trade Demand Puts Tampa Bay Lightning in Bind

I want to ask you about what's going on in Tampa because this story kind of popped, and I don't know how much love it's getting nationally, but Kucherov is an unbelievable player. He's a two-time Cup winner. He's got 415 points. That's more points than Connor McDavid has had since 2023. He has a partial no-trade clause. He wants out for money, and Tampa has no intention of trading him. How do you handle that going forward with Tampa with their best player being disgruntled? I got to be honest with you, and this is the way sports, this is it, Matt. Like, what has changed? What happened to honoring a contract? What happened to, oh, I don't know, we win the Stanley Cup a lot of the time. We have John Cooper, one of the best coaches in the league. We have great players around me. But no, I think I want to leave for more money. It's kind of disgusting, actually. And you know what? You start the party, you finish the party. That's the way I look at it. What are you going to do? Is Kucherov going to play us hard? I don't know. But that's the whole thing. And now you put this team at a position. They don't have any power now in a deal. That's what I hate about these stories, right, Matt? If everything went under the radar and Tampa Bay made a move, you know, hell, look at Boston. Like, surprisingly, they never get worse, or you know what I mean? Toronto would always want to be in the mix, but they're not there yet. But there's a lot of teams. Imagine this guy in Edmonton, but I digress. I'm going to tell you, it's horrible for the Lightning organization because now they have less leverage, and I think it's nuts. I just don't understand it. You get drafted by a team, and it's not like these guys are a bunch of slugs, right, Matt? They're the Tampa Bay Lightning. They've been at the cream of the crop with the Panthers for years, these teams in Florida. So I really don't understand it. I don't like it. But this is the modern-day world we're living in. This is the athletes we're dealing with. Nobody's playing their contracts out. But, yeah, so what are you going to do? Tampa Bay's not going to give Kucherov away for free, right, buddy? So he's going to play with them, and we'll see what happens. This team, it's blow-up time. It looks like John Cooper, he seems very disgruntled. Kucherov wants out. They're an aging hockey team. That's the way it is, right? Matt, what would you give, though, for a Stanley Cup? I'll tell you, Leaf fans would give body parts. So I'm going to tell you, like, you know what I mean? The Panthers and Lightning, they've been spoiled. Spoiled rotten with these players. But I just don't like where things are going. I'm with you. I'm with you, and I think it also comes down to. He sees the writing on the wall that Tampa is going to go through a rebuild and they're not going to pay him. So it's like, hey, man, we signed you to a contract. You're going to play the contract. And he's like, no, I'm not. I don't want to be here when we suck. So it's send me somewhere where I can play for a cup because you guys aren't going to be competing for a cup in the next year or years to come. And so this is my jump out opportunity. And I'm going to try to force my hand out. But I don't think your read is wrong on this. It's like you put pen to paper. You agreed to this. Play it out and then you can go and leave in particular because it's in season. That's what bothers me is if you want it out, make a big stink. Make a big stink in the offseason. Like, don't make a big stink now. Well, what... We're playing hockey right now. Like, how do you do that midstream? That doesn't work for me. And Matt, what are you doing with the rest of the team? It's a selfish move. Like, you know what I mean? Like, say we're working in a company together. Yeah, you know. Yeah, if I want to negotiate, I want to do it like during, you know, Thanksgiving season in the United States or Christmas or like a busy time. It's like, can't we just like work this thing out? It's nuts to me because a lot of those guys have been warriors for him. Guys like Hagel and all. All of these guys who were the Tampa Bay Lightning stars, you know what I mean? They've been with him the whole time. And what is that saying to them? Like, wouldn't you just want to ride it out? Like, you're not even that brutal about it. Like, what do you think of the Lightning? I'm not going to say they're going to win the Stanley Cup, but they're not a terrible hockey team by any stretch of the imagination, right? No. Yeah, they still have a lot of talent. And with Kucherov, I mean, they're really good. So without him, they're a much different team. But, you know, it's there.