Let's talk about brisket and Day 1 of NHL free agency

This is my space where I can write about what I want, right?

Free agency can be divisive. Players get overpaid, GMs make bad bets and as one former GM told me, “we all rush to give bad contracts on July 1, thinking we’ll be smarter than the other guy.”

It’s a July 1 tradition.

So I decided to start another July 1 tradition, and figured I’d smoke a brisket while waiting for news to trickle out (and for Twitter to implode.)

So before, we talk about any hockey players, let’s talk about brisket.

I typically have a brisket or two in the chest freezer. When I find it a decent price I buy it and save it, and then about five days before the smoke I let it thaw in the fridge.

This one was about 14 pounds before trimming and probably about 12 pounds after. I’m not overly precise when trimming, I focus more on overall shape of the meat, trying to create a surface that will be well engulfed in the smoke stream, and trimming away some of the larger fattier bits.

Then I season it.

In the past I’ve always used a pretty simple seasoning for brisket, salt and pepper, that’s it.

Like a GM kicking the tires on an unqualified RFA, I took a low-risk bet today on making a slight change. Adding Kinder’s Hickory Molasses rub to my typical 1-to-1 salt/pepper ratio.

Upon tasting at the end, I think the risk paid off. My wife, who is a better food judge than I, agreed.

For the cook, I have an offset smoker and use cherry wood.

I’ve got a wood guy that will deliver me a face cord of cherry wood about twice a year. Twice a year he delivers the wood, we unload it, stack it in the garage and then say goodbye for six moths. It’s important to maintain a healthy relationship with your wood guy, we actually texted on Saturday to set up the next order.

Because I’m cooking with firewood and not pellets or something like that, my temperature isn’t an exact science. The heat points in the smoker also vary, so I run two thermometers — one in front of the meat and one behind it.

My smoke typically runs around 285 degrees. Sometimes it’s higher, sometimes it’s lower. But overall throughout the life of the cook, that’s the average temperature.

Once the brisket goes on I keep the lid closed for the first 3ish hours. This becomes a struggle when my dad is visiting, because he likes to sneak looks at the progress.

After three hours I start to check up on the bark and occasionally re-fill the water tray.

After about six hours I wrap the brisket in butcher paper and fire up the heat on the smoker a bit more. At this point the bark has been formed, wrapping it in the butcher paper helps speed up the finish and keep some of the juiciness in the finish.

(If you want the scientific reasons, go read a book about it. Remember I’m an amateur smoker, professional writer.)

After wrapping the brisket it cooks for about three hours, I pull the brisket based on feel at that point. Once again unscientific, but internal temperature is usually in the 190s when it gets pulled.

Once pulling the brisket I let it sit for about an hour, make some macaroni and cheese for the kids, grab some potato salad as a side, and then serve.

Here was the final product.

Anywho, you come here to read about hockey, not brisket. Here are some scatter shooting thoughts on moves from July 1 that I had while smoking a brisket.

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— JT Compher, as of now, is the Detroit Red Wings big buy on July 1.

Signing a five-year contract carrying a $5.1 million value.

While many players opted for one-year deals this summer, Compher decided to take advantage of the soft market to make sure his family had generational wealth.

The Compher signing feels like the Andrew Copp signing. A fine player, but unremarkable if you are looking to build a foundation around them as the franchise building block — and now the Red Wings have two of them, maybe even on the same line.

It feels like an overpay, but then again, almost every deal on July 1 can feel like an overpay.

— Players that didn’t think they’d become UFAs became interesting pickups for some of the readers of this site.

Daniel Sprong wasn’t qualified by the Seattle Kraken, and with a one-year deal at $2 million feels like a smart bet by the Detroit Red Wings. He produced well in a fourth-line role in Seattle, and I’m interested to see how he elevates in a lineup.

Matt Duchene was bought out by the Nashville Predators and a signed a one-year deal worth $3 million with the Dallas Stars.

Duchene at $3 million feels like a smart bet. He can fill in on the top-six, has some finishing ability, and most importantly the deal is short and doesn’t block the long-term progress of any prospects.

I know Stars fans are pushing and excited for Logan Stankoven, but I think Dallas needed a couple top-six signings like this — I’m including Evgenii Dadonov in this — who can give the leeway to allow the uber prospect to grow into a legit NHL top-six position.

I could see a top nine in Dallas that looks a bit like this.

Jason Roberton - Roope Hintz - Joe Pavleksi

Jamie Benn - Matt Duchene - Wyatt Johnston

Mason Marchment - Tyler Seguin - Evgenii Dadonov

Again, be patient with Stankoven. If he starts the season in the AHL, that’s ok. What Johnston did this season is the exception, not the rule, so it’s good to have one-term insurance policies like Duchene.

— Detroit signed Gustav Lindstrom and Klim Kostin as UFAs instead of RFAs, saving a little bit of money in the process on Lindstorm because his qualifying offer would have been higher than his $950,000 cap hit.

Kostin was seriously flirting with a return to the KHL, so getting to $2 million per season was important financial motivation to get the deal done.

I like the signing for Detroit, a team with oodles of cap space and the time and space to take some minor risks.

With Detroit’s signing Kostin and Sprong, I could see a Detroit forward group that looks like this.

Lucas Raymond - Dylan Larkin - David Perron

JT Compher - Andrew Copp - Dominik Kubalik

Klim Kostin - Michael Rasmussen - Robby Fabbri

Daniel Sprong - Joe Veleno - Jonatan Berggren

— The Red Wings worked on building their goaltending depth behind Ville Husso after Yzerman was disappointed with the play from Alex Nedeljkovic and Magnus Hellberg last season.

So they brought in James Reimer and Alex Lyon.

I don’t like the Reimer signing, I think it’s bad investment in a goalie that’s moved past his prime and struggled last season.

I do like the Lyon signing. Lyon stepped up down the stretch for the Florida Panthers and outplayed Sergei Bobrovsky. He’s not a No. 1 in the NHL, but he’s a strong 1B option that allows a team to better manage the starts for the No. 1.

Based off seniority, Reimer will likely be the back-up to start the season with Lyon in the AHL. It should be switched in my view, and maybe it’ll play out that way.

— Justin Holl signing seems a bit rich, to put it politely.

— That Alex Killorn deal with the Anaheim Ducks… smart of other teams to avoid that cap hit and term.

— For a stretch last season Colin Miller was the No. 1 right-handed defenseman for the Dallas Stars, rolling with Miro Heiskanen.

By the end of the playoffs, he was scratched and the Stars were looking to move him, eventually trading him for a fifth-round draft pick on Saturday.

Miller’s trade came in unison with Dallas re-signing Joel Hanley to a team-friendly two-year extension. Hanley had some other options from what I heard, including higher dollar amount, but wanted to return to Dallas and took a small home-town discount with the Stars.

The Stars defense now shakes out like this.

Ryan Suter - Miro Heiskanen

Thomas Harley - Joel Hanley

Esa Lindell - Nils Lundkvist

Jani Hakanpää is currently injured, but will step into that group when healthy.

— There’s a story I was reminded of this week seeing the Chicago Blackhawks sign Corey Perry and Nick Foligno to one-year deals.

A handful of years back in Traverse City, then Red Wings GM Ken Holland was explaining why teams need veteran players during a rebuild.

Holland talked about how vital it was to have veterans to act as the fall guys, the ones who have to face the media after a tough loss. He talked about Dylan Larkin early in his career was protected from having to talk after every loss by Henrik Zetterberg.

When things went poorly, Zetterberg would stand in and take the heat, protecting the younger players.

The Blackhawks don’t have a captain right now, someone needs to be called to the podium after each tough loss and setback, to help protect Connor Bedard in that way, before the Blackhawks inevitably name him captain are a couple seasons and things are formally starting to take a positive turn.

— With all due respect to my co-host at Spits & Suds, Gavin Spittle, why would anyone sign Ryan Reaves to a three-year deal?

I’m fine with Reaves as a 13th forward, good-for-the-locker-room-vibes signing, but a three-year deal?

To Reaves credit, with this deal he’ll likely reach 1,000 career NHL games now despite averaging under 9 minutes per game. Has anyone, since time on ice was an official stat, played that little in a 1,000 game career?

I thought Mike Johnson did a great job breaking this down on TSN’s show today. Reaves signing is great for a locker room, but it doesn’t make an impact on the ice. A guy playing 10 minutes or less a night, doesn’t stop anyone from hitting Auston Matthews.

And when it comes to playoff impact, Reaves didn’t have much of an impact in the playoffs against the Dallas Stars.

— I wondered during the Stanley Cup Final if Jonathan Quick would retire after winning the Stanley Cup for the third time.

Someone who knows Quick well told me I was adamantly wrong, that Quick would push to keep playing and that the former LA Kings goalie likely won’t retire by choice.

As I like to say sometimes: old goalies don’t retire, they simply get pulled from life.

That’s a BIG gamble for the New York Rangers. They need a backup that can play 20 to 25 games reliably, I don’t think Quick is that guy.

— The Nashville Predators may not be very good next season, but they are going all in on completely rebuilding the “culture” of the franchise after buyouts on Friday and signing Ryan O’Reilly, Luke Schenn, and Gustav Nyquist.