• What little time I've spent at home the past couple weeks -- and there'll be even less in the next two weeks -- I've been thinking a lot about the NFL Draft coming to town.
If only because it's impossible not to.
Everywhere one looks in all directions Downtown, it's a construction zone, and a constructive one at that. Point State Park, our symbol to the world, has already been spruced up. Market Square, our historic heartbeat, is undergoing a massive makeover. The Cultural Trust's brand new $30 million park along Eighth Street's emerging from the ground. New businesses are filling close to 40 storefronts, some temporarily but some for good. The streets, sidewalks and alleys are spotless. The lights are all lit. We're even painting century-old train trestles on the last track that still cuts through the Golden Triangle.
And I'm not even talking about the North Shore, where the event will actually be held.
This is so fun. Those who haven't been here in a while will be floored.
• Kyle Dubassure sounded on his semi-regular, team-produced radio show last night like a GM bracing for a quiet NHL trade deadline. And that's fine, under the circumstances that he's already aced an uncanny percentage of his moves to date. (I'm still way out on Sam Girard.)
But that shouldn't mean he keeps himself from thinking big alongside big opportunities. He himself called the Egor Chinakhov trade "the template" on this program, and he's dead-on. So, for example, if there's an 80-point, 26-year-old, signed-for-five-years-at-$8.125 million-AAV center in Robert Thomas to be had -- and there is, per real reporting out of St. Louis -- I can't see any reason to not engage the Blues. Dubas and Doug Armstrong, both part of the Canadian Olympic operation and both having done deals together, shouldn't have trouble on this front, at least not unless Dubas is sticking a little too closely to the master plan that his current team's pretty much blown to bits.
Thomas wouldn't be a rental. He'd help for years. And he'd help at a position the two civic treasures won't be able to hold down forever.
• Dubas seemed to take exception to any characterization that he'd be disrespecting Evgeni Malkin if he were to wait until season's end to negotiate an extension, saying, "He's a franchise icon. He deserves to be treated with the utmost amount of respect, and we always want to handle it the right way."
Well, there's a pronounced difference between simply saying that and signing Geno without waiting to see how he performs down the stretch or, worse, if he sustains some major injury. There's a respect factor in that sort of thing, too.
• Now that both the Steelers and Aaron Rodgers have publicly acknowledged there's no deadline for the latter to decide if he aims to play in 2026 -- Rodgers said so yesterday -- can we strip all relevance from this concept, anyway?
If Rodgers doesn't decide by the opening of NFL free agency next week, then neither Omar Khan nor team owe him a thing. They're free to pursue and sign anyone they please, without explanation or apology.
He has his chance right now. If he doesn't take it, then he's tacitly decided.
• The more I think about it, the more I'm a buyer on Malik Willis. Within reason.
We all go gaga over the NFL Combine and college footage, but nothing compares to the real thing. What Willis put on display in the Packers' final two regular-season games was outrageous, tiny sample size and all. And he's only 25, still without his own offense and plan.
• What might that mean for Will Howard or a 2026 draft pick?
Nothing. Beat the man in front of you, as James Harrison once told me with a shrug.
• Jonnu Smith'srelease was painfully predictable. Came with his heart but not much else.
Still blows my mind that this didn't seem to be grasped at field level. Mike Tomlin and Arthur Smith probably wouldn't have stopped throwing his way until he was ... oh, 43 or something.
Really liked the guy, though. He'll be missed.
• For anyone who couldn't stay up, Australia took care of Chinese Taipei in the World Baseball Classic opener, 3-0, overnight at the Tokyo Dome. You're welcome.
• Happy birthday to the Boss!
• Thanks for reading this. I'll be right back at the rink tonight.
THE ASYLUM
Grind: No time for (NFL Draft) regrets
Good Thursday morning!
• What little time I've spent at home the past couple weeks -- and there'll be even less in the next two weeks -- I've been thinking a lot about the NFL Draft coming to town.
If only because it's impossible not to.
Everywhere one looks in all directions Downtown, it's a construction zone, and a constructive one at that. Point State Park, our symbol to the world, has already been spruced up. Market Square, our historic heartbeat, is undergoing a massive makeover. The Cultural Trust's brand new $30 million park along Eighth Street's emerging from the ground. New businesses are filling close to 40 storefronts, some temporarily but some for good. The streets, sidewalks and alleys are spotless. The lights are all lit. We're even painting century-old train trestles on the last track that still cuts through the Golden Triangle.
And I'm not even talking about the North Shore, where the event will actually be held.
This is so fun. Those who haven't been here in a while will be floored.
• Kyle Dubas sure sounded on his semi-regular, team-produced radio show last night like a GM bracing for a quiet NHL trade deadline. And that's fine, under the circumstances that he's already aced an uncanny percentage of his moves to date. (I'm still way out on Sam Girard.)
But that shouldn't mean he keeps himself from thinking big alongside big opportunities. He himself called the Egor Chinakhov trade "the template" on this program, and he's dead-on. So, for example, if there's an 80-point, 26-year-old, signed-for-five-years-at-$8.125 million-AAV center in Robert Thomas to be had -- and there is, per real reporting out of St. Louis -- I can't see any reason to not engage the Blues. Dubas and Doug Armstrong, both part of the Canadian Olympic operation and both having done deals together, shouldn't have trouble on this front, at least not unless Dubas is sticking a little too closely to the master plan that his current team's pretty much blown to bits.
Thomas wouldn't be a rental. He'd help for years. And he'd help at a position the two civic treasures won't be able to hold down forever.
• Dubas seemed to take exception to any characterization that he'd be disrespecting Evgeni Malkin if he were to wait until season's end to negotiate an extension, saying, "He's a franchise icon. He deserves to be treated with the utmost amount of respect, and we always want to handle it the right way."
Well, there's a pronounced difference between simply saying that and signing Geno without waiting to see how he performs down the stretch or, worse, if he sustains some major injury. There's a respect factor in that sort of thing, too.
• Now that both the Steelers and Aaron Rodgers have publicly acknowledged there's no deadline for the latter to decide if he aims to play in 2026 -- Rodgers said so yesterday -- can we strip all relevance from this concept, anyway?
If Rodgers doesn't decide by the opening of NFL free agency next week, then neither Omar Khan nor team owe him a thing. They're free to pursue and sign anyone they please, without explanation or apology.
He has his chance right now. If he doesn't take it, then he's tacitly decided.
• The more I think about it, the more I'm a buyer on Malik Willis. Within reason.
We all go gaga over the NFL Combine and college footage, but nothing compares to the real thing. What Willis put on display in the Packers' final two regular-season games was outrageous, tiny sample size and all. And he's only 25, still without his own offense and plan.
• What might that mean for Will Howard or a 2026 draft pick?
Nothing. Beat the man in front of you, as James Harrison once told me with a shrug.
• Jonnu Smith's release was painfully predictable. Came with his heart but not much else.
Still blows my mind that this didn't seem to be grasped at field level. Mike Tomlin and Arthur Smith probably wouldn't have stopped throwing his way until he was ... oh, 43 or something.
Really liked the guy, though. He'll be missed.
• For anyone who couldn't stay up, Australia took care of Chinese Taipei in the World Baseball Classic opener, 3-0, overnight at the Tokyo Dome. You're welcome.
• Happy birthday to the Boss!
• Thanks for reading this. I'll be right back at the rink tonight.
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