OverDrive - Dreger on McDavid's future in Edmonton, Ehlers' preferred options and Canadian teams seeking moves

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the offseason in the NHL, Nikolaj Ehlers' future in Winnipeg, the Panthers seeking to sign their star free agents, the Oilers' future and Connor McDavid's deal in Edmonton, Vancouver and Montreal making moves, teams getting in the mix and more.

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Includes auto-pay credit, conditions apply. Visit a Virgin Plus store or virginplus.ca for details. Here's Darren Dreger, a T.O. Sunhockey insider. Nikolai Ehlers, when you hear that name where where do you where you go first regs well i think we're pretty good you know what they would love to retain the collie elars uh... and and what's

the cost of the uh... yes we don't know the specifics of that tell you fully assaults with market is but we don't appreciate what nick eunice went healthy can bring to a lot of teams you know there's been a fair bit of speculation around the Carolina Hurricanes what they might do how a player like Nick Eli Ehlers might fit into that dynamic and I can see that he's good defensively again he's got that speed factor there is a question mark because he is often hurt. I checked in one of my Winnipeg sources a couple of days ago and was told that there's nothing new on

that front and look I mean Eelers because he's earned his right to free agency he's a different personality like he's a cool cat he's excellent in the community he's really good in the room he He's good with the media. He takes a lot of boxes, but you know, there's a sense with the others that he'd like to go to a place that's pretty quiet. And when I think of Winnipeg compared to Toronto or Montreal or New York or any of the big markets, Winnipeg is small and would be pretty quiet.

So if he's looking for more privacy than what he might have in Winnipeg is small and would be pretty quiet. So if he's looking for more privacy than what he might have in Winnipeg, then that might be a challenge in terms of many that dip their toe into the market. But he'll have a strong audience if he gets to July 1. Yeah, well, that's ultimately the question here is how many of these guys get to July 1st? Sam Bennett, Aaron Echblblad Nikolai Ehlers You know, I'm sure there's a long list of guys who are ufas Do you get the impression that we could hear some news over the next you know few days of?

Teams locking in their ufas before they even get to July 1st. Yeah, but I you know Brian I don't think that we're talking about the heavier hitters here But I you know Brian. I don't think that we're talking about the heavier hitters here Now I say that and and you know you guys probably watch some of our post game last night and Bill Zito of the Florida Pathers just flat-out said he intends on signing all three of his pending uf8s I don't know where all that does that mean though drags Is that just kind of half of the bag kind of post-cup talk or what? Not from Billy Zito. I mean this guy is, you know, I think we should acknowledge the work of the two general managers in Florida the last half a dozen plus years. You know, Julian Breezebaugh and Tampa Lightning, when they're

winning Stanley Cups, he'd go out and trade that line and he'd make a significant trade. You know, a trade that brought in pieces that made Tampa Bay better. Likewise for Billy Zito and the Florida Packers. So I mean, when he said it, automatically, I got numbers screaming through my head. And I'm trying to think of how all of this is going to work because, you know, what was it? 10 days or so ago, you guys had Chris Johnson on and he talked about Brad Marchand wanting four years at eight plus or around eight million dollars okay well you know what Sam Bennett's going to want and then on top that you've got Aaron Antwine so I don't know

how it works but if there's a GM capable of making it work it's Bill Zito so you know you've got to create some room and move some pieces that I think that he's going to do that. You know, now it's up to the negotiations take place. And then when you get to closer to July 1, you decide, okay, well, it's either going to work or it's not going to work. And look, right now, maybe deservedly so, Florida has the market somewhat cornered, don't they? Like Toronto wants to change the DNA. They would love to get their hands on Sam Bennett. Brad Trueloving, Greg Borubey, they all love the idea of Brad Marchand. They don't get a swing out of them.

I mean if those two guys stay in Florida, that tool gets pretty shallow in a hurry for a lot of the contending teams that are hoping that the UFA market is strong. So, Drex, you know, we talked about Florida, you know, on the other side of the coin, the Edmonton Oilers, how active do you think Stan Bowman will be, you know, with his current roster and maybe not reconstructing it, but looking to tinker and then add to the group given that they fell short? Yeah. instructing it but looking to tinker and then add to the group given that they fell short yeah well they're gonna have to add and you know then the postmortem in Edmonton would be fascinating to be a fly in the wall

you know do they look at goaltending the way that the rest of us look and it was a real tough comparison you're talking about an elite level proven goaltender and Sergey Brabovsky and two guys that you know are okay and you know Skinner and Cal Peckert but I still maintain that Stu Skinner is not the reason why the Edmonton Oilers didn't beat the Florida Panthers in the Static Cup final. There were multiple layers to the reasoning behind that but goaltending for me has to be an area that they find a way or look to upgrade.

They are working on a contract extension with Trent Redrick. He was real quiet and has been real quiet in Edmonton since arriving from Boston. You know, you wonder if that high ankle sprain that he had when he arrived in Edmonton, you know, hampered him throughout the course of the postseason because he's got more grit and more upside than he was able to Show for the winners, but that's gonna be a big deal Like it's gonna be eight years and you know around three eight four million dollars per it's not done yet

But I do get the sense that it's getting close. So now you're in the tinkering stage, but again beyond goaltending Looking at a guy like Frederick doesn't feel like they've got to add more pop like scoring and otherwise And by the way, we haven't talked yet about the contracts that they're facing in extensions to McDavid and Bouchard You know, there's there's rumblings around Evan Bouchard. This guy is going to command upwards of 11 million per. How do you pay two defensemen 20 plus million dollars in Darnell Nurse and Evan Bouchard with all the other areas of concern that you're going to have to wrestle with? So, Stan Bowman has got a long list of needs and wants. Darren, I know you talked about Mitch Marner

possibly waiting until he kind of visits and does whatever he does. We were talking earlier about July 1st coming around in the McDavid extension. Like, where would you see that? Would that be something that would be done immediately? I think Dry Cytle Doogie sent a note that he signed in September. Right. Is that urgency stuff or is that something that'll get done down the line in your estimation? Yeah, I wouldn't say it's urgent, oh. I think that Connor is going to want to take some time to decompress. Now as I was flying back this morning, I was going back in course with

another number of people around that file and because it's still heat of the moment and the disappointment is significant, there is that sexy side to this story. What if he waits? What if he just says, I want to take a better look. I want to wait until the off season. I'm going to give you my thoughts as part of our exit interviews and then let's see what management does with that. How is this team going to be different

in training camp and better in training camp than the one that lost in a 16 series to the Florida Panthers? For me, I mean I hope that happens because then no different than Leon Reis have, you get towards September now we're starting to wonder, okay, well maybe they don't get it done. But that's dismissed pretty quickly because we know that Leon Dreisle and Connor McDavid are joined at the hip. These two are very, very close friends.

And even though you guys will tell me that, you know what, it's a business, and you want to worry about the business side and winning and all of that, you know what, it's a business, and you wanna worry about the business side and winning and all of that, I think that does matter. And I think that that is a primary factor for McDavid. But I'm also then open to the possibility. I believe he's staying in Edmonton, so we're not gonna be talking about this in fall.

But what intrigues me is, what is the length of that contract? What is the term? You know, would he go three, four years? Or is he just going to saddle up and take as much money as he can on an eight-year extension? That's where it gets, again, more intriguing and nobody seems entirely sure as to what that possibility looks like. With Darren Drager at TSN hockey and solder So, you know in terms of of the ufas down in Florida you mentioned you guys spoke with Bill Zito

And he's gonna do what he can to keep them But let's let's say they all get to July 1st. That doesn't mean that they won't resign in Florida or whatever But let's say they're all there Bennett heck blood. Yeah, Marcian Let's put the Leafs in focus there Bennett, Eckblad, Marshann. Let's put the Leafs in focus. How many of them do you think the Leafs will call and how many do you think will answer the call from the Leafs and be willing to listen to them? I think all three if they get to free agency would be willing to listen. Why wouldn't they? You know again, when you get to July 1 you've earned the possibility of having as many offers on

the table as you can attract. And Toronto has publicly stated that they're going for a different look here. And again, Toronto was pretty aggressive at the trade deadline. Use some quality assets and now you've got to be careful on the trade deadline. Use some quality assets, and now you gotta be careful on the trade front. Sure, you could move out some guys under contract. Some of them are problematic. I think of Domi, who's got a modified no trade.

I think of Morgan Riley, who's got a no-move clause. All that stuff gets prickly, doesn't it? If you're hoping to go down that path, and I'm not saying they are, but when you swing and miss in free agency, if Sam Bennett doesn't wanna play in Toronto, or he's now committed to staying in Florida, and sure sounded like he did, again,

he's almost intoxicated both by what's going on in the consumption, but also in the moment of winning his second consecutive Stanley Cup of the Florida Panthers he made it abundantly clear that's where he wants to stay so then you look at Brad Marchand and again all the contending teams are going to be in the mix and Brad Killeving as we know historically is the manager who gets his nose into everything everything like he's talking to everybody so I don't doubt for a second that he's going to be keenly interested in all three of those

guys so drags we talk about the Leafs a lot Ebbinson obviously and Is there any other Canadian team that you should say to keep an eye on like for me? I circle circle Vancouver, but is there somebody that we should be watching that Maybe proactive on a Dumping player scenario or being proactive bringing in players I would look at Vancouver here right noodles, but I would also Focus on the Montreal canadians. I I think that that can't use and the Habs feel like they're in a real healthy place and Look, they're not going to abandon the notion of further developing their young players especially on the blue line but they look at the stride that they took you know in doing what they did in the second half of the season they got a taste right so i think that

they're going to try and improve either their two three centers in Montreal if they can and add a little bit more scoring punch and maybe that position covers both of those scenarios. But Kent Hughes is open for business. And when you look at the Montreal Canadiens and the capital that they have as trade bait especially, it's interesting. It is. And the other team that I,

I mean there's lots of teams that we can look at and talk about here, and non-Canadian, but weirdly I got a feeling Columbus Blue Jackets are going to do something. I'm not saying they're going to land one of the top three agents. I think it's a stretch given where the Blue Jackets are, but they have an abundance of cap space, so maybe they could be a big game player on the trade front as well. But the two Canadian teams that intrigue me the most in adding especially is Montreal and Vancouver outside of Toronto.

Yeah, it's gonna be interesting to see what teams in the East in particular do when it comes to the benchmark that is the Florida Panthers, because you can't just bow down to them every single year. No. They're not gonna win every year. It feels like it right now. It's just that's not reality, that's not sports. They're not gonna win every year. It feels like it right now. It's just that's not reality, that's not sports.

They're not gonna win forever. And what I'm intrigued by is how many teams try to find a way to mimic them or get their players and how many are like, I gotta do it my own way here. Move it forward. So here's the thing, Brian, and I don't know if you guys have talked about this since the end of the Leafs season, and it doesn't always have to come back to the Leafs, but in this

case, you're talking about three very dynamic and I'll call them superstar players, and Matthew Zylander and Marner. Yeah, it seems likely, more likely than not, that Marner is out the door. But we just had a front row seat to watch the Florida Panthers in pure display of sacrifice and commitment, right? And every player after wasting that cup last night talked about, God, it's not about the individual stats.

It's about playing a certain way to win the Stanley Cup. And they're not looking down at their stats line. And they're not coming off the ice disappointed pissed off because they didn't get a pass here or there I mean I'm sure there's some of that but it's more positive than it is negative and I can tell you from firsthand knowledge that you know right from training camp there was an internal competition statistically between Matthews, Nylander and Meier.

Well, that's a tough way to win. It's a tough way to win. So when you hear Brad Trillin talk about the DNA change, automatically again my mind goes to okay, well is that culture? Everyone players included who watched Florida do what they did to a really good team, absolutely stymied the two best players arguably in the game in McDavid and Dry Cytle. How do you not figure that out? How do you not go, okay, I understand.

It's not about me, it's about us. And I think that's one of the hurdles that the Maple Leafs are going to have to try and overcome here. Well, and listen, if Marner leaves, he leaves but that these in the lander still there you know so everything you just said is pretty fascinating because of its you know i gotta beat this guy or that goes yeah like with the like marter may just leave and okay that's fine but the other

guys are still there they gotta learn it and i gotta figure it out yet yet they've been in the league for a long time. I don't know if they can. I don't know if it's reasonable to expect that they will. Yeah, that's the thing. We're not going to get answers to this until we get to next playoffs, ultimately. I know this is looking ahead, but if we had to do just on the fly, like a mini Jare, is there going to be an offer sheet?

Do you think there's a chance there's an offer sheet just because of CopyCAD and what happened? That was a perfect storm what happened to Edmonton. Do you think that there's at least maybe the workings of potentially? Before you go, Dragg drags i'm saying a hundred percent i'd have a look at that i i was once a lewis did last year and all of our guys have been saying about how everybody is uh... excited to kind of add and there's not really a lot of dollars right now well guess what it's not exactly a

cream of the crop reagent, so what's another avenue? These guys are stupid for not utilizing this tool earlier in their campaigns. You look at the players that you could have put a team in a real bad spot. Anthony Cirelli comes up and is an example with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Somebody could have put the screws to them and had a great guy on their roster, but they just, oh, we don't do that. Well, enough for you. I'm with you.

I'm with you. I mean, it's a tool in the collective bargaining agreement that has just been misused. It really has. And there's somewhat of a gentleman's agreement that, I mean, I throw it out the window. Like, come on. And Doug Armstrong did.

He 100% did. And let's go back along with you know I don't Pete Cirelli's hands were all over this from a st. Louis perspective because he works closely with Doug and you know he's a sharp sharp dude so he was heavily involved in this but Edmonton was so vulnerable a vulnerable. And I think that that's the lesson though, that comes out of losing those two good players, was that every cap team went, oh, all right, I guess there are teams that are willing to do that.

So we better make sure that we're ready to go. And that was a big part of the motivation for Chris Dury, sending Chris Schreider to the Anaheim Ducks. You know, I'm not buying that somebody was going to offer sheet Matt Rempey, like I think I read that on X earlier today, like come on. But I do know,

and I was told by the New York Rangers in fact, that that was a big part of their motivation for dumping that contract and not retaining money, was so that yeah, they could be active in in free agency but to also protect themselves in the event that somebody came targeting one of their RFAs so I'm hoping for it too man it just juices up the offseason it does but I'm also skeptical yeah well that's it man I mean it's been available to them for 20 plus years and it's barely ever happened. So we'll see All right Drake's. Thanks for doing this. We'll do it again soon

Okay, guys have a great night Darren Drager at TSN hockey and Saturday Remember when your biggest problem was who burned the best mix CD relive those glory days at all your friends fest Presented by play Ojo casino empowered empowered by iHeartRadio. It's going down June 28th and 29th at Burles Creek with Avril Lavigne. Rise Against, Simple Plan, Under Oath, The Veronica's and more. Camping, parking and limited tickets at allyourfriendsfestival.com. Don't miss the party your teenage self always dreamed of.