OverDrive - Dreger on Stolarz's injury status, Robertson's stance in the lineup and the Sabres' possible changes

Episode Date: December 13, 2024

TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger joined OverDrive to discuss the biggest storylines around the NHL, Anthony Stolarz's injury status and the returning players to the roster, Nick Robertson's stance on the team, the Canadiens' and Sabres' possible changes, the Board of Governors' overview and more.

It's a brand new year. Time to review last year's financial decisions and set new priorities for 2025. Kelvin the Money Guy suggests the three-step approach. One, clearly define your goals for the new year. Two, create a plan tailored to your needs and ambitions. And three, make sure your portfolio is designed to serve that plan. Goal. Plan. Portfolio. Contact Kelvin the Money Guy and set your plans in motion. Call 416-457-PLAN

or visit askkelvin.ca darren dreger at tsn hockey inside what's going on dregs hey guys how are you a little crispy out there this morning just a nice canadian sort of day here as we get ready for christmas so no complaints on my end you You starting to flood the ranks yet or what? No, but I am getting the odd Instagram picture and X picture sent my way. And I'm bracing myself, as we know, annually I do the Christmas Eve marathon of backyard rinks and whatnot. And I don't know if there are less and less people doing it. Maybe less and less people who follow me.

So I'm a little worried. This here might be a bit lean. I'm sure everyone's going to, now that they know, it's a reminder. We just gave them a reminder to tag Dregs and he'll go on his Twitter tirade on Christmas Eve. So last night, the Maple Leafs, they get the win. They bounce back, played well last night, beat the Ducks 3-2,

but the story coming out of the game, obviously, was the injury to Anthony Stolarz. Berube came out and said, day-to-day, do you have any more insight into the situation for us, Drex? Well, no. I think he was pretty clear without being specific um i mean in that is good news right day to day as long as it doesn't linger uh in the way that perhaps other injuries have uh you know they feel like they dodged a bullet but i guess when i watched that

game closely and then of course as we all recognize didn't see him come in for the second period and you know then i thought the broadcast did a nice job isolating where they thought that he may have tweaked something. And that's exactly what it turned out to be, a lower body tweak. I mean, somewhere in the leg. How's that? But given the history of Anthony Stoller, it could have been much worse. But he was able to battle through the first period and stayed in the net until the conclusion of the period. So I think initially that gave the group some hope

that it wasn't going to be overly serious. But, you know, until you go through the process of the imaging and whatnot, you can't be certain. So I know the Leafs feel fortunate that he probably isn't going to miss more than a couple of games. But, you know, I think their primary focus is getting through the weekend. We know that Dennis Hildeby has been called up. Get through the weekend and then reset early in the week

and see where Stolarz is at that point. Greg, was this sort of a cautionary tale of the dangers of maybe veering from the back and forth, you know, Stolarz-Wall, Stolarz-Wall, Stolarz-Wall, as a tandem. I know it wasn't back-to-back games, but when he tweaks something, you know, after one day of rest and a very high workload game before it, do you think that raises any red flags in Leafland? Well, it does in Leafland, sure, Dave, right?

I mean, we all, you know, maybe weren't surprised, but wondered why you altered the rotation. But Stoller's was so good, you know, in his homeland there, of playing well against the New Jersey Devils, a team that Toronto didn't play well against. And I didn't love the game that the Maple Leafs played. I know that there are areas that they felt like they were better in against the Anaheim Ducks. But he was so good against New Jersey that I think coaching staff felt

like he earned it. And given the fact it truly wasn't a back-to-back, that he had enough time to reset, that why not ride the hot hand and give him another start? Now, I don't know how that also factors in to what they're looking at here in the games ahead and the workload that Joseph Wohl was going to take over, but now we know that Joe Wohl is going to have to carry the load, but I'm not one who looks back

and goes, you know what, as good as he played, as much as he faced in that New Jersey game, he probably shouldn't have been given the game against the Ducks. I think he earned it, to Jersey game, he probably shouldn't have been given the game against the Ducks. I think he earned it, to be fair. So this is just a bit of bad luck. We'll get a couple updates on the other injuries. Saw that Bobby McMahon and David Camp were both on the ice yesterday. We got any timelines for when those two might return? Yeah.

I mean, it's interesting. You know, again, sort of typical of how the Toronto Maple Leafs have managed things. You know, they're applying caution to all of it. McManus can tell you guys it's hopeful for tomorrow. And if he's not able to go on Saturday, then the expectation, of course, is that he would play on Sunday. David Kemp is looking a little bit longer, but not extended. Like, he's probably coming back at some point next week so uh at some point next week they're going to be as healthy as they've been in a long long time

well and it's kind of interesting because you look and let's hope everyone stays healthy you know sometimes injuries pop up and these questions i guess go to the wayside but when that happens there's going to be some tough decisions that the Maple Leafs might have to make when it comes to their roster, won't there be? Yeah, there will be, and automatically, again, I'm looking at Nick Robertson, who's been on the outside looking in, and coming out of training camp in the preseason, I think we all believe that Nick Robertson has earned a spot.

Well, he's still on the roster, and he can play his way back into the mix here and i think that that's why brad trilloming hasn't been hasty in in trying to move him out there's interest in nick robertson maybe more so given what people saw in training camp and what they saw in the preseason more so in the summer when it was acknowledged that there just wasn't enough to move Nick Robertson. Now he's got the one-year contract at a very affordable price. I don't think that tree would have any trouble finding a draft pick for Nick Robertson. But they've also gone through this stretch of a variety of different injuries. And you don't want to be too quick in moving out a depth piece like Robertson, who is hungry to find his game offensively,

and he just hasn't been able to establish that. But what if another guy goes down? Now, again, you feel the comfort in having Nick Robertson on standby or any of the other pieces. I think generally management is looking forward to, again, getting those guys back, getting camp back into the mix so you bolster what you've got in your four lines up the

middle. Getting Bobby McMahon back this weekend, and when you have to make that call, which inevitably Trillium is going to have to make because of roster spots, then you make that call. If it is Nick Robertson who has to go and there's a trade that makes sense

by a draft pick, then True Living will make the call at that point. But that point isn't that far away. Drex, how far away is it from somebody in Montreal making a call on something changing given what we saw last night? They lose 9-2 to the Penguins. Not exactly a juggernaut themselves. I mean, they've lost 8-2 to Seattle. They lost 7-2 to the Rangers.

They lost 6-2 to the Golden Knights. They got booed off the ice last night at the Bell Center after giving up six in the third period. What do you make of that debacle? Well, you nailed it, you know, in two words. Debacle being one and third being the other you know it was a 3-2 hockey game going into that final period and the canadians just let it go away and um you know you go to your leaders and post-game interviews and there's brendan gallagher and there's the captain nick suzuki and they were at a loss for words. You know, sure, you can pull out disappointment.

Embarrassing is another word that was used, and that fits. No doubt about that. But, yeah, I mean, how do you fix it? And there's really no quick method of fixing what's going on with the inconsistency here in the Montreal Canadiens. I think what would be most disappointing from a coaching and a management perspective is, of late, they felt like they were turning the corner. They got Patrick Laine back.

He was scoring goals, mostly on the power play, but a nice kind of injection of offense there. The problem is that the other pieces that they were counting on, like Kirby Dock as an example, and I'm not piling on him, but he came off an extensive injury, came into this season, and they felt like with a healthy Kirby Doc that that would be a real nice compliment. He could be a driver of a line,

and maybe it's the extension of the injury. He has not been able to do that. So, you know, that and other areas of concern up front have really put pressure on the Montreal Canadiens. And you know how there's talk in that market. I do Montreal radio twice a week, Wednesdays and Fridays. And this morning they were talking about, okay, well, there has to be a fix. Can't use general manager, can use, can you move out Matheson, can you move out Savart?

Well, yeah, you can. And those are valuable pieces, but they're experienced defense. And so if you bring up Logan Mellieu from the American Hockey League, and you've got Albert Jacquet, and you've got all these young, you know, Lane Hudson, another one, he's a dynamic player when you watch him. Their flashes are brilliant, but you got to insulate those guys too. So I just feel like this is going to be that year of inconsistency in montreal and when ken hughes starts trading it's likely going to be for younger players or draft picks and that's probably closer to the deadline with darren dreger uh another team that

sounds like they're making phone calls or at least taking phone calls is uh adams and the and the buffalo sabers who are going to be in town this weekend. Do you expect for them to do, like they've lost eight in a row here, Greg. Something has to change. Yeah, and Adams is one who continues to preach that the answer should be within. I know you told the media that a week ago, and they're trying to administer accountability, and they do that through the experience of Lindy Ruff, of course, back on the bench of the Buffalo Sabres.

And you can do that. You can bench Owen Power for, you know, a half a period or whatever it was. You can try and, you know, extract a pound of flesh from J.J. Paterka and go down the list here, right? At the end of the day, I think they're having a real problem identifying who the core is in Buffalo and if you don't know who your core is and that makes it real difficult trying to identify the pieces that you feel like you can move right so Jack Quinn again is going through an experience here at Top Love under the guidance of Lindy

so teams are calling. And Kevin Adams is basically saying, yeah, I'm willing to make a move, and I'm willing to make a move today that helps me now, but not at the expense of Jack Quinn or his younger players. And that's where it gets problematic, right? And I think of the trade that Bill Yearn just made with Columbus Blue Jackets acquiring David Gerachek. And it's a bit of a gamble on Minnesota's side. I mean, you're looking at a top draft pick.

You're looking at a 21-year-old defenseman. So why isn't there any room in Columbus, but all of a sudden, Yaron and company are willing to part with all the efforts they did to acquire this guy from the Blue Jackets? willing to part with all the assets they did to acquire this guy from the blue jackets um and garen will say well we we felt like he is a player that can help us not just in now in the future and to make it a fair trade for both we had to give up those assets so to come back to buffalo you know is kevin adams in a position where he's willing to give up the assets needed to help this team both now and in the future and we don't have the evidence to say he is. He says he is, but we don't know that he is.

And to the point, just to wrap up Buffalo here, where he talked about how, you know, they don't have palm trees and they don't have the, you know, the tax jurisdiction that's favorable in New York. I get all that. I get it. But the problem that they have is one that impacts teams like Ottawa and Winnipeg when they were going through tough times, and that is the lure of the free agent.

Or most recently, yeah, Buffalo had interest in Jake Truba from the New York Rangers, but Truba isn't going to Buffalo. So there's a lot of things that Kevin Adams is having to navigate to these days. Greg, I was wondering, when you had the sand between your toes on the golden beaches of Florida there, talking to all the movers and shakers in the industry, what kind of buzz were you hearing about the CBA talks and future salary cap numbers? It seems like there were maybe some discussions to that end down in Florida at the Board of Governors. Yeah, you're right, David.

But, you know, again, as you've experienced historically, a lot of this meeting is about updates. And, in fact, this is one of the rare meetings where there was no vote on anything. So that's what it was. It was a business update. It was projections. It was ideas on financial growth you know globally but you know

specific to the salary cap all of that is intertwined with collective bargaining agreement and you know Bettman and his deputy commissioner Bill Daley are confident that they're going to be able to engage in CBA negotiations Marty Walsh from the PA relatively soon I know that the pie in the sky expectation is that they can get something done as early as the playoffs or perhaps the Stanley Cup final if you want to push it a little bit further. And that's good news. I mean, the salary

cap is projecting to jump up to I guess, what are we at now? 98 million, so 94.5 something along those lines. Maybe it's 92.5. All these numbers are kind of going through my head.

Anyway, there's a 5% jump that is going to be meaningful, and it'll jump after that. But could there be something more substantive in terms of that salary cap growth as part of the CBA negotiations with the NHLPA? And therein lies the uncertainty. But there's optimism that we're not going to have to spend too many eye-glazing conversations going through every detail of the collective bargaining negotiations,

because it sounds like both Bettman and Marty Walsh are aligned that the labor piece is a good thing, and revenue growth is a good thing for both sides. So we'll see if both stay true to their word or someone throws an anvil overboard and see what happens after that. All right, Trex, we'll leave it there. Appreciate the insight as always, pal. We'll chat again soon.

Okay, guys. Have a great weekend. You as well. Darren Dreger, TSN Hockey Insider.