> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.pensionplanpuppets.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Friday's FTB: Find someone who stands up for you like Dan Milstein does for his players - URL: https://www.pensionplanpuppets.com/fridays-ftb-find-someone-who-stands-up-for-you-like-dan-milstein-does-for-his-players/ - Published: 2026-11-06T11:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-06T11:00:03.000Z - Description: He really means the We are Gold Star stuff. - Author: Cathy Squires - Tags: From The Branches This is a conversation you should make time to listen to. Overall, it's just very refreshing to listen to someone talk about hockey players as people in a positive way, that recognizes their uniqueness and who has no scorn for anyone. I'll put my bias upfront. Not the players-first bias, that can't be news, but I really like people who are as hardheaded and stubborn as Nikita Kucherov is, as Dan Milstein describes him. I loved his frustrated mockery of the skills competition at the all-star game. He takes the game seriously. He thinks the reason for all of this is playing hockey at the highest possible level. He is not here to act out tribal warfare or to have emotional tantrums on the ice. He isn't after money for the sake of money. He doesn't want fame. He is all business. The business of playing hockey. What's interesting about Kucherov is that he bucks entirely a particular view of sports that says the player is supposed to be doing it for love of the team. Love of the fans is implied in that. But Kucherov is doing it for his own sense of integrity, for his purpose, and the reason he is living his life the way he is. It really is all about him. And in this time where players are mocked and derided for wanting their due and every bad game is a moral failing, it's refreshing to focus on a star who is all business, no soap operas. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/34/01/3401a938-f468-4c02-a227-9bc4cc09bad4/content/images/2026/11/history-kucheni93.png) This level of play has to come from the individual. It has to be from within. No amount of coaches' admonishments or diagrams on a whiteboard can make this. It can't even unmake it very much. People like to call this skill that in innate, as if the will of the person plays no role, as if the work wasn't real, as if the bloody-mindedness that leads a person to the level of devotion required to perfect their skill isn't necessary. It's all just easy for him is a lie many people utter. I mean... I am not a Kucherov. I could never be in any field what he is. The NHL has traditionally handled players with this level of individual drive and determination very badly. The classic metaphor is an orchestra that subordinates to the conductor. But every orchestra has a soloist or two or three. Teams that don't, and the NHL has some, are always just a bit boring, and when the game needs to be broken open, they are stuck doing the same dance they always do. In Milstein's talk above, he returns a couple of times to the draft position of some of his star clients. He's on the hobby horse a lot because he thinks his guy should be first overall next summer. But the number of mistakes made before players like Kucherov were drafted, his story about Artem Zub almost never even getting a shot at an NHL game ever, they're worth listening to. It's worth asking why, and it isn't just about GMs not liking Russians. Also, he always seems to be speaking directly to Leafs fans, with his hand on the crank to wind us all up, and he does mention Zub is UFA this summer. You won't like some of the things he says. His story about Toronto signing Ilya Mikheyev is funny, but has the wrong person in the starring role. He likes the wrong kind of GMs. The throughline of all these bad sorts he likes are that they are straight shooters and often uncaringly unpopular. One of those guys is Julian BriseBois, who is not a guy who is going to trade Nikita Kucherov because the people who watch the NHL as a reality show think that's the correct plot twist. If Detroit can't find a deal for Larkin, how exactly are Tampa going to find a deal that doesn't nerf their team? So why, as David Pagnotta and Jeff Marek say here, would Tampa do a deal unless they are out of the playoffs? Detroit actually has a better option here, as the show mentions. They can trade Larkin for a defender and Edvinsson for a centre. Tampa aren't getting a 100-point player for Kucherov. Now where have I heard that before... I think it was true in the end. They cover the idea of a player "walking for nothing" and suggest that it's not nothing because they leave behind some cap space to be filled. I say it's not nothing because they played all those games. Which is the point of this endeavour, something those trying to win the asset value cup seem to forget. Should Toronto try to trade for Kucherov now? No. Later if Tampa sucks? Eh, not likely. Should they be there in July with bells on? You bet. I said – and this was before Kirill Marchenko was acquired – that John Chayka had set up a two-year experiment to see if the core of this team was good enough. That trade accelerated the timeline. Easton Cowan's play accelerated the timeline. Auston Matthews has put the pedal to the floor. Yes, this is exactly the time to try to be the best team possible. Also Artem Zub is a UFA... Also, how is this guy not speaking directly to me here with this debunking of the simple no-tax narrative? > Agreed. A dollar of cap space is worth the same in every market. Florida's tax break belongs to the player, not the team. > What surprises me is how nobody talks about the RCA. Canadian teams can put part of a player's salary into a Retirement Compensation Arrangement. Once he… [https://t.co/gjzkSlZSUS](https://t.co/gjzkSlZSUS?ref=pensionplanpuppets.com) > > — Dan Milstein (@HockeyAgent1) [November 5, 2026](https://x.com/HockeyAgent1/status/2118476669413458220?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=pensionplanpuppets.com) Milstein made some news in that podcast. He said outright that Demidov has a fractured ankle, and he broke the news that Evander Kane will be playing in the KHL. Oh, and Zub is UFA, just saying. --- [PWHL’s New Rules for 2026-27 Include Legal High-SticksThe PWHL announced its rule changes for the 2026-27 season on Thursday, headlined by legalizing high-sticking the puck. The full breakfown of changes:![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/34/01/3401a938-f468-4c02-a227-9bc4cc09bad4/content/images/icon/cropped-2018_SQUARE-Whistle-ba9418c2-fc43-42ae-93ae-af4a96bafe52.jpg)Scouting The RefsJosh Smith![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/34/01/3401a938-f468-4c02-a227-9bc4cc09bad4/content/images/thumbnail/2026-11-05-PWHL-Rulebook-6cdd6e98-a6d7-4ea5-95f7-4d4667612e96.png)](https://scoutingtherefs.com/2026/11/54438/pwhls-new-rules-for-2026-27-include-legal-high-sticks/?ref=pensionplanpuppets.com) > Hockey fans have often asked – would you rather have a penalty shot or a power play? In the PWHL preseason, they’re going to leave that up to the coaches in certain situations. > The league is using its 12 preseason scrimmages to test an overtime twist: when a minor penalty is assessed in OT, the non-offending team can decline the 4-on-3 power play and take a penalty shot instead – with any eligible player in the lineup allowed to take it. > Every scrimmage will play a 3-on-3 overtime followed by a shootout, regardless of the score. It’s a preseason-only trial for now. We’ll wait to see how it plays out. Playing the puck with a high stick being completely legal just seems sensible. There are a few other minor changes and another rewrite of the checking rules. [Insider Trading: Will Canada, USA have to wear generic jerseys at WJC?TSN’s Hockey Insiders on whether the Hockey Canada/IIHF jersey dispute will spill into the World Juniors, the struggling Sharks, the latest on Dylan Larkin and Simon Edvinsson, and if the Wild could be on Evgeni Malkin’s three-team trade list in January.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/34/01/3401a938-f468-4c02-a227-9bc4cc09bad4/content/images/icon/favicon-9753eeea-3470-4f79-868e-76abc4a01951.ico)TSNTSN.ca Staff![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/34/01/3401a938-f468-4c02-a227-9bc4cc09bad4/content/images/thumbnail/OC5I6SRR7FDN5JUJPBEKOJGQQQ-6977ebbd-f12b-46d6-b900-9b87451d3919.jpg)](https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/article/insider-trading-will-canada-usa-have-to-wear-generic-jerseys-at-wjc/?ref=pensionplanpuppets.com) That's enough for a Friday, have a good one, and remember Team Canada in the silly jersey is playing at 9 am today.