Ivan Hlinka

Well, I mean, let's start with the Oilers and Babcock and the two crazy '80s games.

You know, Gretzky, Messier against Verdin, Smyl, and Ivan Hlinka-

[laughs]

... as it relates to those, th- those two games to start the year.

Maybe that's the coach.

Way back when, did Jaromir Jagr want Ivan Hlinka to be his coach because they were from the same country? Sometimes people assume that who are running the show, and maybe they shouldn't.

Maybe the coach is like, let's put the two Russian guys together.

They'll be comfortable.

He's got really good hands, and again, a lot of grease.

Like, the details are good here for a young player, and he was kind of on an island in, at the Hlinkas.

And his ...

And, and Boyce mentioned this when we talked about him, so I'll give him credit for that, but he looks better playing with better players, naturally.

He's a good player.

And I know that he has taken some heat for his Hlinka performance.

And just like the ebb and flow of his early career too, right? There has been some periods of struggle and then some periods where he stepped back up.

you know, we have this, we had this big discussion recently about, you know, motor and is, is, you know, motor a skill? Is that like part of your IQ and a player like, like Joseph gets ragged because he, he doesn't play with a ton of pace and a ton of urgency, but it's like, it's not a lazy player.

Scott's a real positive guy still.

No, I just, I just, I don't, I don't.

I know that it is, I'm a little surprised that some of the kids that played on that Canadian Hlinka team have not popped early on in a slightly younger CHL.

I did think that we were going to see similar things like what Dimas Jokin's doing.

And kinda the same thing here with Litvinov.

We are planning, because this is one of the games we don't actually have tickets for, and it's kinda the one game we're a little bit worried about getting tickets for, but this is at the Ivan Hlinka Stadium.

Uh, pictures-

Yeah

Like it looks amazing.

Yeah.

Uh, so yeah, look up Ivan Hlinka Stadion.

And yeah, we're seeing Litvinov that night, at least that's the plan.

Admittedly lackluster QMJHL playoffs and a bad tournament.

He had a bad Hlinka Gretzky.

He had a bad U18.

He needs to kind of get the tires moving this time.

You know, he's got that good motor.

He gets engaged.

I just, I worried about the, you know, I think sometimes we get a little bit of Hlinka, you know, the Hlinka, you know, people get a little, I don't know, excited after a Hlinka tournament, you know, people drop, people go up.

Brock England dropped.

Um, you know, uh, Weiszek being as high as he was.

You know, Sundstrom even being as high as he was after I'd say a bit of a lackadaisical Hlinka, a- and, and I thought that maybe his, his stock was gonna slip.

But, um, you know, among that top 10, you know, Zylka again a smaller guy getting his way in there, a, a little bit surprising too.

Uh, but again, it, it's September, and so we'll see how these guys feel again mid-season if, if they're still kind of on the bandwagon with some of these smaller players.

So, uh, a lot of those things were mentioned, a lot of positives mentioned about the player.

Just the skill level didn't put him in the same conversation as some of those players kind of in that top six or seven.

[lip smack] Yeah, I mean that, like that's the-- I think at this stage of the evaluation process, you know, and this is also, we were doing it a little bit closer to the end of the Hlinka.

Maybe that's a little fresher for teams-

I...

You know what? Right after Hlinka, I went back to New York, and the weather was, was really nice, so I was happy.

You know, but then now I'm ready to get going.

It's, uh, it's hockey season.