Podcast Ombudsman Report for Blueshirt Bandwidth Ep. 97

Welcome back to the Blueshirt Bandwidth Podcast Ombudsman Report. Each week, Charlie Vidal will listen to the latest episode of the podcast and correct the record on anything Joe and Eric get wrong. If you aren't already, you can listen and subscribe to the podcast here.

Matt Gilroy Episode

With this being the Matt Gilroy episode, we obviously needed to revist the worst acting job ever when Matt Gilroy had to read everything, including “Hi, I’m Matt Gilroy,” off a script in an asthma PSA that aired in 2010:

We previously discussed this commercial in Episode 58 and the ensuing Ombudsman Report.

Halls of Fame

Joe said that he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. There is not a single Hall of Fame that Joe deserves to be in.

Eric’s First Appearance

Eric’s first appearance on a Blueshirt Banter podcast with Joe was calling in to an episode of Bantering the Blueshirts on the BlogTalkRadio platform in October of 2017. In April of 2018, he filled in for Tom Urtz, Jr. on a full episode. The earliest episode for which I can find audio of online is from March 26, 2019 when Eric filled in for Mike Murphy.

Joe and Eric are Old

When discussing how screwed Joe would be if he was tossed out into the dating pool, they began throwing out Gen-Z slang including “on fleek” and “slay.”

Urban dictionary defines “on fleek” as “on point or very good,” and “slay” as “killed it or succeeded in something amazing.”

Adam Fox

Joe and Eric spent some time discussing the ranking of defensemen that saw Adam Fox climb from 16th to 13th. Those were the NHL Network rankings of top defensemen for the upcoming season:

Fox was 16th in last summer’s list. Below is a table with Fox and the 12 defensemen ranked ahead of him along with their 2025-26 xGAR/60 (per Evolving Hockey) and their projected WAR% (hockeystats.com). Fox had the highest xGAR/60 of any defenseman in hockey last season, and is in rare company as one of only three defensemen with a 99 percent or 100 percent projected WAR going in to next season: 

Gabe Perreault Contract

Joe asked when Gabe Perreault is eligible to sign a contract extension and when he can be offer-sheeted. Perreault can sign an extension at any time as he is on the final season of his three-year entry-level contract. He is not eligible to sign an offer sheet until summer 2028.

McDavid Trade Proposal

A reader asked if the New York Rangers would repeat the Wayne Gretzky trade offer for Connor McDavid. Unfortunately a major part of the Gretzky deal was $15 million in cash, and the NHL collective bargaining agreement now prohibits teams from trading players in exchange for cash.

NHL teams first reported payrolls during the 1989-90 season, at which point Wayne Gretzky's Los Angeles Kings were the highest team at $8.3 million in total payroll. Conservatively estimating that the Edmonton Oilers sold Gretzky for approximately 1.7 times the highest team payroll, and applying that to 2026-27 salary cap of $104 million, that would mean buying McDavid for $176 million.