The core of the Stanley Cup champions was rocked a little bit on Friday when the caps announced they had traded Matt Niskin in to the Philadelphia Flyers of all teams.

And with it goes his two years remaining on his contract.

J.J. Regan, here we are a couple of days later.

And it's the beginning of the next phase of taking another run at it.

Yeah, as much as you'd like to keep a guy like Matt Niskin, the writing was kind of on the wall. You can't live in the past forever. You have to look forward. The caps did that, and they had made a move that they had to make. Brian McNally, he sounds like a guy who understands that this. We always quote the godfather. It's not personal. This is business. Right. No, I mean, look, in an ideal world, you keep guys like Matt Niskin in your room. He helped change the culture here. He helped play at a level high enough to help them win a Stanley Cup. That'll endear him to D.C. sports fans forever. He'll always be able to get a nice ovation. I'm sure he'll get another big video tribute when the flyers come to town the first time next year. So you give him credit for that, but it's a salary cap league. It's not an ideal world. And the caps had to make a tough decision and move on from a guy they liked. Matt Niskinan joins us on the Capitals Talk podcast.

I'm Rob Carlin.

The podcast starts now.

Caps have numbers here.

Three on two with Niskenon getting up.

Backst up for Niskenon.

He scores.

Fabulous.

One into the other Joe, just the way they're passing the park.

So on the day of the trade, Niskin and did his obligations with the Philadelphia media. He did, I know, with Grant and Danny here in D.C., he was on as well. And we were supposed to get him, but he was waiting for a phone call from his now new coach, Elaine Vigno. And for some reason, he waited and waited and waited and didn't want to take a chance.

So we finally spoke to Matt today, which is a couple of days removed from the trade.

And we'll play that in just a few minutes.

But, you know, it's interesting because he is such an introspective guy.

You know, I said now that you've had time for it to settle, he sounds exactly the way he did on Friday. Like, as much as you'd think, well, your head's probably swimming a little bit,

and you're trying to come to grips with everything that happens, he's so well thought out and

so kind of gets it that nothing's going to really rock him at this point in his life. It was

interesting to talk to him today and just hear how he understands what life is as a

pro.

...