OverDrive - Ferraro on the Panthers' back-to-back Stanley Cup win, the team's reigning dynasty and the Oilers' upcoming steps

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

ESPN Hockey Analyst Ray Ferraro joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines from the Panthers conquering a back-to-back Stanley Cup, the team's structure to win the series, the Oilers' performance and what led to the defeat, the next steps for Connor McDavid and the roster, the Panthers' dynasty progression and more.

Right now, Bell Blue Dot Days are on. That means the offers are hot, hot, hot at Bell. And these aren't just any Blue Dot Days. They're the first, the premiere, the debut, the start of something grand. So hurry in and get in on the great offers. Introducing Bell Blue Dot Days. Get over $1,000 off amazing phones with eligible trade-in. Switch to Canada's fastest 5G Plus network today.

Visit a Bell store or bell.ca slash blue dot days for details. Bell, getting a new phone just got better. Squinting through bright days? That's a no. Struggling with glare? Also no. What about sunglasses over regular glasses? Big no.

But prescription sunglasses from Pearl Vision? That's a huge yes. They're a must have for enjoying the sun in style. Choose from designer frames like Ralph Lauren, Coach, Michael Kors, and more. Arrange an eye exam at pearlvision.ca and get 40% off lenses. Some restrictions and exclusions may apply. See participating stores for details. Here's Ray Farrell from ESPN.

Ray, would you consider the Panthers a dynasty? Yes, because I don't know that I've ever really seen the official Webster's dictionary definition of what it is. It's three finals in a row. Like, you know, like, yes, I think so. And, and because it's kind of a made up thing, the way they've done it, I think elevates them over some of the other teams. Yeah. So like, what do you mean by that? The way that's. Well, noodles, you were there last night. Did that not look like a steam ruler? Yes.

They look like they could have put together whoever they wanted to play on, on Edmontonon and it was not there it wasn't gonna matter to you that i i i just think it's there's such an impressive team like the they win in a way that's familiar with the rest of the league

but they've got the they have stars of course they do what but look at the awards that they win. They win the Selkie. They don't win the top scorer. They don't have a bunch of guys all over the all-star teams. They're big and deep. I tweeted today, because it just came to my head, that's what I remember the Islanders like.

The championship, that was a dynasty. That was four in a row. head like that's the what I remember the Islanders like like the championship I like that was a dynasty right that was four in a row and I'm like it's the same sort of thing like they're just big and tough and skilled and I got a great goalie and a great coach and yeah I did that's why for me yes yeah I mean it I think Hayes makes a point even if we could call them the modern day dynasty with the cap implications, Ray Billy Zito said to us last night, he thought that there was a chance he could keep all three guys. Do you think that is, I mean, do you think he's talking out of the side of his mouth or do you think that there is a way that he could keep all three guys on that roster moving

forward? I don't know how, at the end of it, it's just math. And I'm like, unless he's got a hole that he's got some other nickels buried in, it's going to cost, what is Echblad going to cost? What is Martian going to cost? It's not what they're going to cost, Ray. It's what other, like, some other team might offer, like Aaron Echblad's gotta go to them and say, we'll give this guy, like, someone's going to give him

10 million or offer him 10 million. Okay, and what's a hometown discount? Is it taking 500,000 less a year, a million less a year, four million less a year? Like, someone's going to blow one of these guys out of the water. I think it would be really hard to be able to make enough room to get all three back. Like I would suspect they're not going to have a backup goalie making three and a half

million dollars next year. Like somehow that won't be the case. It'll be, they'll save a little bit of money there. How are you gonna fit, if Marshand, I'm reading this stuff four times eight, like how is that gonna fit for a third-line winger? Right. Like, how are you gonna do that? I would think in priority it's Bennett, Marshand, god I hate to to put Ekblad third like but it

kind of feels like the reason they got one of the reasons they got Jones was that they were gonna have to move past Ekblad at the end of the year like I felt that was a this year plus future trade and it certainly worked out like really solid I mean he was almost kind of reborn again to to play in a way that you know, I think we probably thought of Jones before he got buried in Chicago. Ray, people get on our case about talking about Conor McDavid and his

pending extension that can be signed on July 1st. pending extension that can be signed on July 1st. I'll ask you so we don't have to really discuss it, but do you think it's a slam dunk automatic that he signs his extension July 1st? No, not the first. I mean he's eligible right there. I don't know, I think there's a lot of factors that would go into him signing again for the eight-year term.

And as much as people can speculate, like what the hell do we know? Like who knows what he's thinking? Who knows if he and Leon have a thing that when Leon signed it, that kind of was, yeah, I'm signing too like you gotta think they discussed it right like how would they not it's um I I don't know I I wouldn't I wouldn't be in any great rush to sign if I had his ability his like what he what he is like he's different than everybody else so the cap goes up to what a hundred million next year and then it goes up and then it goes up again the next year right I think they've announced that

yeah so why wouldn't you wait until the next year you can't sign an extension for two years from now if you're doing it on a percentage of the cap, why wouldn't you wait until the time that you can maximize the percentage you're going to take? Say he's going to take 18%, not the max 20 but 18%. Well 18% on July 1st won't be the same as 18% next July 1st. And so again, it comes down to what he desires, like, you know, where he wants to live, where he wants to play, what he thinks the team can be and financially what he needs to make. And he's never said, Ooh, about this.

So he would be really the only one that could dive into it. I, if hell, I, if somebody offered me an extension one year out, I would have signed it at 12 or 1 a.m. I would have been all over that. He doesn't have to be. He can be as patient as he wants to be. Yeah, he can do anything. The deal is going to be there wherever he wants whenever he's ready to sign it with

Ray Ferro. Let's play his clip post game. Neil is going to be there wherever he wants whenever he's ready to sign it with Rafe Ferraro. Let's play his clip post game. Here's Connor McDavid on what happened last night throughout the series. I lost to a really good team. Nobody quit, nobody threw the towel in. They're a heck of a team. Neil is going to stand like a champions back to back for a reason. What's the difference in the series?

Obviously their foretrip was great. They tilted the rink. They were able to stay on top of us all over the place. Never really able to generate any momentum up the ice you know get trying the same thing over and over again just being a sense of uh... that uh... yeah

players coaches management who's he sending a message to uh... that's a big one is it like we said it kind of you know when you have to listen to an interview and then you sit up, that's what, that's what I felt like when I was listening to that, like the bang in the head against the wall thing.

Um, uh, in, in, I think they tried enough roster construction things that you could say, okay, they tried a different way, but they still get the same goalies. He's never, ever, ever going to come out and say that. But that's, they were the second best team in goal in the finals. Skinner last year in the finals was really good. This year, well, clearly he wasn't.

Is it maybe trying to attack a different way, a team that completely shut them down? Like, I don't know what you guys thought, but going to McDavid and Dry-Cytle that early in the game, given the finals that Nugent Hopkins was having, I thought it was a mistake. I'm like, who, if they don't score, now Florida for the most part gets a three minute break. Nobody else is going to score. And so I think there's a little bit of that sprayed around. Like we're trying the same things with the lineup where, but what else at a certain point, what else are you going to do? You don't have Hyman, so you're short and you're short, a really critical guy. They didn't get anything from their wingers

Like nothing I wish you know how to be high stuck a few more guys that would have been key for the Oilers well I thought he was their best chancel to replace Hyman because he's big and you know and That was a pancake in in the series. Like if we even go back like back a year to well basically a year here they decided to sign Ardvitz and Skinner on July 1st and they re-signed Henryk. Like I don't know would they have not been better not to sign any of those guys?

Yes. And maybe you've got Broberg and Holloway? Like, you would have at least one of them. For sure you would. There's no debate on that. Because St. Louis didn't prep that offer sheet and didn't offer it until the third of those three guys were signed. And then Edmonton was in the jackpot. So for McDavid, you know, the banging your head against the wall, maybe there's some of we're not better.

They feel I don't know what you guys think they feel farther away now than they did last year at this time and maybe that's because Florida was better or certainly performed better but it doesn't quite feel the same this year. Maybe that's just the fatigue of losing twice in a row or whatever but that's what it felt like to me when I watched certainly games five and six. Well what else can be done like this is for all four of us, but they've catered to McDavid a lot in a sense where it's,

okay, it's your agent took over as the president or whatever. What is Jeff Jackson's role? What is he president of the team? Yeah, president. President, yeah. Hockey ops or whatever, yeah. We got your junior coach, we got, you know, like, to me, like at some point, there has to be some moves here. Like I say, it starts in net,

because I think that you just need a different look. Okay, noodle question, because you know the goalie so well. How do you change that? They don't have Oodle in the cap space. Well, who the hell's out there? Who would you get? It's gotta be a trade for somebody,

but there's no free agent that's gonna upgrade that tandem. That's the thing. It's's got to be a trade for somebody but there's no free agent that's going to upgrade that tandem. That's the thing. It's going to have to be a trade and I don't know who's available and who's not. It seems like every team is a buyer according to our insiders. There's no team that is going to throw the towel in at this point. But I think it starts there but then you do have to look at roster construction, getting a little younger, a little quicker, a little bit different type of bite. Like,

you know, we always talk about in this city, right, like run it back because, you know, they made it to the finals or whatever. I think they have to have a different approach here. And, you know, it has to start a net just because that's a definition of insanity is it not? Oh for sure for I mean it's like the quarterback thing if you've got two quarterbacks that means you don't have one if you keep telling everybody we got a goalie tandem even though there are no Marty Brodeur or 70 game guys anymore but if you've got a tandem that you can't really decide who

you want to start, then you've got problems. Like somebody's got to be a standalone, you know, 55 game guy, and if you don't have it, you're probably second best in a lot of series. I think you can get through that way during the regular season because, you know, the way travel is and you can play a guy here you get a rest there in the playoffs it's the teams that just can't rely on a guy and Edmonton can't I think they're on a they're on their back foot a little bit you know you and we all know it just like it erodes confidence it really does you're never really sure what you've got. We've got these friends,

the guy is from the Netherlands. They spent a lot of time in Edmonton, he's a big Oilers fan. So we're watching game five, he goes, the one thing I see in goal with the Oilers is whoever's in goal, you want the other guy playing haha that's pretty good yeah that's well played how do you say it? Dutch yeah it is it absolutely is it's like whatever you got we want the other guy yeah Ray I was looking at like teams

like it seems like I don't know how Carolina vaults up there but people are always talking about who wins the cup next year Oilers are all like Hayes I don't know if you have the Fan Duel odds like for next year to win the cup but how. Oilers are all like, Hayes, I don't know if you have the fan dual odds like for next year to win the cup. But how on earth is Florida not at the top? Like I see them winning again next year. And I know I say some stupid stuff, but who the hell is going to beat those guys? Even if there's a couple pieces that leave?

Well, don't forget. So like if Bennett leaves or Echblad leaves or both of them, that's $13 million they've got to spend on cap space. And it's pretty clear they're going to trade every first rounder that they have for the next millennium because they're trying in there, in it right now. Like they'll find if Aaron Echblad leaves, and by the way, he had a really, outside of getting his ankles broken a couple of times, he had a really pretty solid series with four things, right? Like, really solid.

Crazy Ray, his transformation, how it was drafted as the number one overall pick, skilled, and then he's now just a beast, like competitive, big, nasty, power play, penalty kill, like what a transformation into like a complete leader and what you want when you draft a defenseman first overall. Well, and he had to, I think a lot of this stuff in Florida, it all came together at the right time. Like Paul Maurice came there for him, for Paul, at the right time. Ekblad was ready to transform his game, right? Because we all know, like, we get told stuff when we're younger and

we're not quite ready to hear it yet and then eventually you're like, oh yeah, that's the right thing and I think in Florida they got a whole bunch of guys that it was just the right time. Forzling, this is his fourth team. Like how the hell did Gus Forzling get through three other teams, including one on waivers? It was just the right time for him there. And then in their construction, like everybody, I think this is the most impressive part maybe. Nobody seems to care who scores or who kills a penalty. It's just the guy, whoever it is. They got all those guys nine forwards with 15 points, right?

Like it just somebody, somebody scores, somebody blocks a shot. Nico Micaela turns into a monster and you're like, well, where did that come from? Nate Schmidt got bought out. He was fantastic for them. In the role that they asked him to play. And they're, I think right now they're, to answer it, oh, I think they're about as perfectly constructed as you could be.

And they're going to have some challenges, right, to get everybody or mostly everybody back but I I don't think that we're gonna look at them on July 20th and go oh they're way worse than last year I just don't see it what do you think's running through Corey Perry's mind right now oh my god can you? This is a lot of games to never win. It's like a whole... Sickening. Five of the last six cup finals he's been in, he's never won any of those. At least he's won one though. Yes, he won in 07, so he has a ring.

But man, this guy could legitimately be Mark Messier. Like if he won all, he could be one of the old type like shantelle about types and it is going to be one of them that's what you know if you don't think he the lucky penny or the bad one right like every every like this year he was i couldn't believe how good he was but i think he was

fabulous and also okay so back to the noodles you mentioned it earlier about younger, faster. He would be best in a role like where Marshand is playing. Marshand, don't forget, like Brad's not the first line winger there anymore, like he was in Boston. He's not playing 21 minutes a game against the other team's best defenseman. He's in a position to take advantage of the matchups they have in front of him. And Perry, they're asking him to play with McDavid. And that means you've got a score at the rate of a winger that should play with the game's

best player. And he's 40, like he can't. I think he was unbelievable. I couldn't, if I were rating the Euler players or whatever, I mean like how could you ask anymore? But he wasn't in the right place. And some of that's Hyman's injury. But in my mind, they had a lot of people that were never going to score and they were asking people to do more than they had to do. And eventually the, you know, the magic dust runs out there.

Well now we shift to the draft and free agency and possibly all hell breaking loose in the next two weeks. Oh you got your two weeks of Mitch Marner? Yes. You guys will sort that out I'm sure in the next more weeks. Or more. Or more. You might do the tour and jump around and look at a bunch of places and you may not

sign for a while. I did have a thought about, you know, when I read about he might be holding like interviews on the first, second and third and all that. If that's the way it is and he ends up going somewhere else, is that the last step on the toll of this relationship being fractured? Like, they can't even trade them for a draft pick. Oh, exactly. Exactly. Like, I'm not even going to, don't trade my rights because it doesn't matter.

Like, it's, it is, when I read that, I was, like, it just, it almost fits around the circus that is and that's really important you'll go wherever he's going to go on yeah i mean there's lucky hell of a player but manages whatever went south or whatever left turn here is not going to continue to go that way it's not it's pretty clearly not a very pleasant ending doesn't sound that way

uh... which i can understand between mariner and and uh... It's not, it's pretty clearly not a very pleasant ending. Doesn't sound that way. Which I can understand between Marner and the Leaf fan. I don't really get it between Marner and the team. That's a different story. But ultimately that appears to be where it's going. Great catching up with you Ray. We'll do it again soon. Enjoy the summer.

I guess we'll talk before long. And noodles, that was a quick turn, right? Oh yeah. What time was your flight? Like 11 PM? No, we were on the ice still at 1 AM last night. So I... I had this thought. I thought it would be really funny to get ahold of James' phone once and turn it to Chinese because he's got all his notes on there. And I think that would just be fabulous that he looks down when he knows they're running B-roll and it's something he can't read.

Wouldn't that be wild if he changed the language on the phone? Wouldn't it be nuts though if he knew Chinese and he just rattled off? That would be amazing. That would be amazing. I turned it on you and asked the questions in Chinese. That's me and Amanda at the noodles. Yeah. We didn't put it past them.

We did have some technical glitches. As you guys know, live TV. They did a great job. I don't know if you watch any of the... We had some unbelievable guys come. We had Sam Bennett. He was our first guest. Yeah. He came right over. They were all happy to do it. Like Reinhardt, Seth Jones, Bill Zito, Nate Schmidt came over. We had some great guests

come over. I think it was Shog, Dreggs, everybody with Mike Lane, they were just pulling people. It was pretty cool. When you're just standing there and you turn around you're like, oh, hey, hi. Congratulations. I guess we're on. Awesome. That's awesome. Yeah, that's a cool night. Both dads do a great job. It really is. It really has crushed it, like always. Yeah, they do. All right, Ray. Thank you, buddy.

God, be well. Great to chat with you. You too. There he is, Ray Fro. Hey, this is Ruby Carr, the host of the podcast, Encore. Choosing the perfect song to release as the first single for an album is a crucial step for an artist. So how did the band Nirvana decide to release Smells Like Teen Spirit, a song that would become one of the biggest in history as the first single from Nevermind? We were asked what songs you guys want to put out first as a single, and we just thought about it. We thumb wrestle these two Teen Spirit as our first single.

Listen to Encore on the iHeart app or wherever you get your podcasts for stories behind all the songs you love. Don't make me thumb wrestle you.