OverDrive - Ferraro on Vegas' opening win, Marner's performance and the Maple Leafs' franchise next steps

Episode Date: June 3, 2026

ESPN Hockey Analyst Ray Ferraro joined OverDrive to discuss the Golden Knights' starting win against the Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Final, Vegas making a statement in Game 1, Mitch Marner's performance, the play of Carter Hart and Frederik Andersen, how the teams look in the series, Patrick Roy's possible role with the Maple Leafs, the direction of the roster in Toronto and more.

Catch everything soccer with Bell's game time bundle. Get 5 TV with TSN plus 5150 internet, all for $99 a month. Price guaranteed for two years with a two-year internet and TV term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for more details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. All right, let's bring in Ray joining us here on the Maple Toyota Hotline down in Carolina. There he is. Ray Ferraro joining us.

Ray, I guess, you know, you can answer that question. Just based on pure talents, who do you think is the best player in this series? Jack Eichel, I would guess. So that he was second overall. But look at some of these guys that have been amazing in this. Right? Like Mark Stone, he was drafted in the sixth round. He can't skate across the street.

And he's amazing. He's the, if I said in one of the games, if you had a skating race with 10 players, he would finish 10th, time and he would be one of the first two or three picks every time. Stars are amazing if you can find them, but you have to, this sport more than almost any other, you need a team, right? Wemby can change the whole game because he's got the ball all the time.

And in hockey, right, the guy, the best guys are out there, 25 minutes if you're a defenseman or 20 minutes if you're a forward. it's nice if you can have them, but the guys that change the game by themselves are very few, I think, in the league. Razor, Austin Matthews' agent, Hazy B., earlier in the show, was bitching and moaning about offensive zone times, and he's got to do this and get more opportunities

and get his offensive game flowing. And I brought up the player you just mentioned, Jack Eichel. What do you think the expectation is, for Jack Eichel as far as his play. Like what? Just his general, like, idea for Jack to, when he takes the ice, what his, what he's supposed to do or supposed to be? Tell me.

Well, he's a match-up guy. He's going to play against the other team's top guy. He's going to average a point a game. Yeah. And he's going to lead. He's going to lead by the way that he plays the game, like, all over the ice. I don't think Jack Eichael will ever be a 120-point guy. Because that's just not the way he plays.

And, man, I think he's a terrific player. Put it this way. He's got two goals in this playoff, and he's made significant impact to other players on his line, to the way that they play, to the minutes that he plays and who he plays against. He was way better than McKinnon in the series against Colorado. It wasn't even close. and I think Nate McKinnon is an amazing player. So, Ray, what did you make a last night's game?

Was it two teams trying to feel each other out early on, some mistakes, all of that type of stuff? But, you know, what was your biggest takeaway from last night? I think both teams were probably not thrilled with the way they played. They probably, the turnovers you mentioned, but, man, when they made a mistake, it was such a, a big one. Like I don't picture both teams making

those types of mistakes, yet they made 10 of them each. It was very uncharacteristic of both teams. Hell, we were, what were you? 25 seconds into the series, it's won nothing. And like you, I'm telling you guys,

I said in our game for just crowd noise, not effects pumped into the rink, I don't think there's any arena with more raw noise than Carolina. It was deafening when they scored. And then it's 2-0 and Torts calls a timeout

and they get the lucky one and then all of a sudden it was like Carolina lost their game. Vegas took it over. I think Vegas certainly has a way better game in front of them. And I can't believe Carolina will come apart like that like they did. In the second period it was like they forgot how to And I guess some of that goes to Vegas, right?

I think three other goals or four other goals came from a four check, created a turnover below the goal line to in front. And I guess if Carolina can't clean that up, then they're toast. What did you think of Mitch Marner in his Stanley Cup final debut? You say it's so sad, Brian? No, I'm just asking. I'm very curious. You've got to see it up close and personal.

I made a hell of a play on Carlson's goal. Yeah. Pretty quiet. Like I don't think he, you know, he didn't have the puck a lot. But again, their team is built in a way. Like, you know, I'm talking about Mark Stone earlier. I mean, that's a hell of a play. He makes out front to Carlson.

But Stone was no factor last night. He didn't even notice him. I don't know that I noticed Dorofia have a lot. He's got 10 goals. It's like every game, they have so many different ways to hurt you that everybody just has to really do their part. So, I mean, it wasn't a superhuman game for him, but he was good. He was fine and ends up with an assist. And by the way, he was not trying to block that shot.

Thank you. I was going to ask you that next. Was that a intentional block or a get the hell out of the way? Watch, watch his body. Watch. Oh, yeah. Like, look at his, he's right here. He's like, oh, my gosh.

I'm in the wrong spot. And I said it right in the game because I have a great, I have a great view of that. And if he was trying to block it, would you not have stayed square up to it? Yes. I mean, I don't know. I never blocked any shots. That's what Noodles was for. He had $10,000 worth of equipment on.

Stop the damn thing. but I was not like I'm looking at that and I'm like he was not trying in my opinion to block that it doesn't matter he blocked it he blocked it it it counts he's out there in the last minute and I thought it was really interesting that Nekishin was on there for only one reason and that was it like that guy's got a bomb yeah and they you know they they get it to him he shoots it it's like Heart's going to have to make a really good save. If, like, that thing's on. It's labeled. And Marna gets in the way of it.

And I think last night the best team won. Like, they won game one. And now they just have to play 500 to win the cup. I think, guys, the team that wins game one in the Stanley Cup final wins the series 75% of the time. Like, that to me is a crazy high number. Razor, Duky gives us a ranking out of five on every show. After the show, he sends us an email on our performance on a daily basis.

If you were going to give both goaltenders a ranking out of five for last night's game, what would you give both Carter Hart and Freddie Anderson? Hart 3.5 and Anderson 2.5. I thought they were both just I don't know which goal could you blame Anderson on but you know you probably would have liked the save or two somewhere in there Hart had a rough start

he made some really good saves late I thought he you know right before hurdle scored he made a great glove save on Seth Jarvis and that that probably in that moment was as big a as big a save as you could have made right he

otherwise Carolina is in front and they probably win the game. Yeah, I didn't love the goal, the Gossus Bear tying goal. You know, it's a missed assignment, I think, by Dowd. Okay, so, hey, hey, noodles. Yeah. Question. No, he got beat twice hop high on the blocker side. Yeah.

What, is that a hole? Is that just happened to be that night? You could see they're targeting. Yeah, to me it seemed like it. Yeah, but he got caught. If you look at it again, and there's a great camera. angle of it. He got caught moving because it's, whoa, this guy's

alone and coming downhill and he just tried to take as much ice as possible. But he gets caught moving and it opens up. I didn't love that goal just based on the timing of it because you're up four or three and you're like, you need that save. Now he makes the big save on Jarvis and the team bails him out. I didn't think

either one of them had their A game yesterday but Brian pointed out and rightfully so he was one save better than Anderson and that big save was the right time where they went down and scored on the hurdle play. You know, there's, in the Colorado series, in game one, it was scoreless for 32 minutes, and then Vegas scored twice in two and a half minutes.

In game two, it was one-nothing Colorado in the third period, and Vegas scored twice in two minutes and seven seconds. In game three, they were down three-nothing. They scored three straight goals. In each game, there was a moment, like a big moment. and Vegas won them all. And they did it again last night. And so now they've won seven straight.

And I think there's a, man, they must just be bubbling with confidence right now. They should be anyway. Yeah, you could see it after the game. Like the video of walking into the room and the connection that they all have right now, like you can tell they're Uber positive, as they should be with Ray Ferraro. So John Cooper wins the Jack Adams, the first time. in his career. And I'm curious.

Buffalo's on fire. Pete, that's what I was going to get to. Like, was this, is this a lifetime achievement award? Was it, like, where do you stand on this? Did he coach better this year than he did in 2019 when they had 62 wins or whatever it was? Why this year for Cooper? Well, I voted for them.

And one of the reasons I did was they used, I believe, 11 defensemen this year. They're one of the best teams in the league. point-wise, I don't see that team, roster-wise, as one of the best teams. I mean, you can look at Vasilevsky and Kutcher-off and you know, okay, these are great players. But Edmund did not have a very good year. Point had a terrible year.

So Gensel had a very good year. But where every team's got really good players, I thought he did an amazing coaching job around their defense and the fact that they were able to accumulate so many points with guys I'd never heard of Dastus until this year. Never heard of them. Have it. A really good year. And now everybody's like, oh, Darren Radd, she's our guy.

But a year and a half ago, nobody was saying that. Yeah. And Lilleberg, you know, Mosier turned into a top four guy. I think Cooper did a great job. I had Marty San Luis on my ballot as well, because. I did not expect Montreal to have as many points as they did. So I don't think it's a lifetime achievement award. I mean, I didn't view it that way.

But I voted for him because I thought he did a great job with a team that was limping along for long portions of the season. All right. So let me paint a picture for you, all right? You're sitting at home or maybe you're still in the road. Maybe you're in Vegas ahead of game six. You're in your hotel and you look down at your phone. you get an email and it says Toronto Maple Leafs hire Patrick Waugh as their next head coach. How would you respond to that email?

He fart himself. He fart himself. Go ahead, Ray. Patrick is a, I noticed a completely different person than the one we might think of earlier in his career. We got a chance a couple of times to do games or I did this year. I talked to him at the end of last year when he got hired. the guys seem to like playing for him. He is a, like he is not this emotional, you know, out of control at times guy that he used to be when he was behind the bench. I don't know.

It doesn't, I don't think anything would surprise me, but I don't know, like, what, have they really said what they're looking for yet? No. No one really knows. that means I wouldn't be surprised with anybody because it's it's not like Edmonton said we want Stanley Cup pedigree we want a guy that's been here before so hiring an untested coach would be a shock but in Toronto they haven't said that so I don't I don't know that I would be shocked with anything teams are talking to lots of people right now and every time someone gets out to an interview it seems like an agent or, well, an agent mostly leaks that out somewhere.

And now it's to be talked about. Sometimes I think they're trial balloons. Like a guy comes in for an agent and that name gets punted out into the universe. And they just read and react, not react, they just read and accumulate what everybody says. And then they have to make their own decision. But I, my, my guess. guess is that's like Patrick came kind of from left field here and that's probably, to me, it feels like a possibility.

Yeah. I'm with it. I mean, it would be incredibly compelling the idea of him being in Toronto. I don't, I don't picture it happening. It doesn't seem like it's going to move in that direction, but at this point we have no idea.

And the idea of adding, you know, Patrick Waugh, and let's say they take Gavin McKenna first overall, like this is not a market that needs, marketing. It doesn't need help with creating buzz, but man, would that do it, right? Like it would be a pretty crazy off-season.

It would, but just think of this, Brian. He took, you know, he gets Matthew Schaefer last year. And so he's just done the same thing. You know, a number one overall pick. Schaefer was like, Schaefer

was playing a pretty hefty role almost immediately. in New York. And we had him, it was in October, and I asked him, I said, who does he remind you of? And I think this is where I sense that he's changed. He goes, I want you to watch and I want you to decide yourself.

He goes, I don't want to put any more pressure on this kid. And I think in the past, he might have said, you know, pick a guy, whoever, you know, like Quinn Hughes or McCart, like somebody of that nature, if that's who he would have thought. But he didn't say that at all. And I thought he kind of quietly protected Schaefer. And then pretty soon you're watching, he's like, oh, he's 24 minutes again, 23 minutes again. He wasn't protecting him, playing him.

He was playing him. But he didn't over-hype a young kid who was just getting going. And obviously, Schaefer took the minutes and ran with him. The kid's amazing. Yeah, it's an interesting link I hadn't thought of, that he literally did. just handled and handled very well the first overall pick from a year ago. I can't imagine, you know, like if you're weighing, it's difficult. Like up here in Toronto, right, we're trying to predict exactly, you know, what the

priority list is for this new front office. You know, is it winning next year? Is it a three or five-year plan? Is it keeping Matthews happy? Is it making McKenna pop into a superstar? Like, how do you, how would you prioritize things if you were in Chikas' role right now? I guess through the viewpoint of hiring a coach.

Well, okay, but I'll say just in general, like just living in Vancouver and watching what happened in Vancouver the last 18 months, trying to make moves to placate your superstar is not the way to go. Because what if they don't work or you get stuck and you make bets on players that you might not, wouldn't have normally done? And the guy wants to leave anyway, then what? Yeah. Because I think there's a bit of a cautionary tale,

even though they're two completely different people, what Quinn Hughes went through and what Austin Matthews is going through. And I think if you're trying to do everything to make everything seem rosy for and around Matthews, I just don't think it works that way because, well, here's the thing. We're not in those conversations. Maybe he's given them a different indication. but Vancouver clearly, they signed Demco, they signed Besser, you know, they tried to bring in a veteran group around him, around Quinn,

and it didn't work. And then they have to trade them. And now you are basically near the baseline of a rebuild in Vancouver. And that happened fast. Yeah, big time. Like that's the one thing when you look at it is, I come back to what you were saying, Ray, like what is the Toronto Maple Leafs?

They haven't come out and said what we're trying to do. And I think we're just going to see that through some of the moves. And that was where I was going to go. Do you anticipate now with the cap going up with the amount of parity in the league and maybe the marching orders from owners, are you going to see, do you feel like all hell could break loose here at the draft and into free agency with teams maybe trying to jockey around and add players? the free agency thing i don't have a handle on because i i just don't see a lot of difference makers

in the group right that so there's money available like i don't know do you want to pay a guy worth three million four i mean there's money to do that but does that make your team any better i i think players will find more competitive offers so they're going to it's going to work out well for the players I do think, given the lack of free agent offerings, there will be, I do think some picks will get moved. For teams that think they're better or closer to getting better, I think they'll move those picks for players. And that will open up space for the other teams that are jammed up against the cap. Like there are some team Okay, well look at Vegas.

They got a sign Dorofaev, right? The guy got 37 goals. He's got 10 goals in the playoffs. He's an RFA. So I hear, oh, there might be an offer sheet. He's an offer sheet target. Or they might trade Aiden Hill. Well, who's going to pay hefty for Aiden Hill?

He makes $5 million. No one, right? But if you attach a draft pick to it, maybe there's something there. And so Vegas clears cap room, a team will get another draft pick. Like, I think the picks are going to start moving around. And I also wonder at the top of the draft, since there is no celebrini, you know, this year, like, do, like, it doesn't appear to be anyway. Would one of those first five or six picks get moved?

I'd love to see it. It never happens. But I'd love to see it. I love to see it. Razor, you look like you're doing something outdoorsy today. Do tell. Poorly, I might add. Where? Where?

A track that you may be familiar with Old Chatham. Yeah, a really nice spot. Have you played? Yes. Really great spot. A rather slow start to the round. It took me about four holes to realize the shafts of these clubs are way stiffer than anything that I use.

You don't know how disgust that I am that you wouldn't have brought your clubs. Like, that is, that's, like, you're going from North Carolina to Vegas. I am thinking of shipsticks on Friday into Vegas to, because I can't do this again. It was a debacle. And I'm checking luggage anyway. Exactly. Exactly. And these are great places to play.

light, man. The weather's beautifully. You can't beat it, right? You got to treat yourself, man. If you know Tom Barrasso, call him, and when you get to Shadow Creek, a red carpet will roll out, and you'll have a Ferrari cart ready for you, because that's what kind of treatment he gets there. Call him. I have never, I've never played there. I would love to play there, and that's kind of the goal, this trip.

But I do understand I would be hard done by to play more than you on a trip. Oh, dude, this guy was at a fantasy camp out of a lot. It was shocking that you got in any broadcast. I know. Who's playing tonight? Right, right, right. Hang on a sec. You should know this.

Out in B.C., my new home, they let you tip it at six. Yeah, at 6 a.m. I was on the T with Frankie at 6 a.m. Go ahead. It's light out. Tee it up. amazing places. That's a professional attitude. At 8 o'clock at night, Ray, he was Pete Rose.

You know one thing that I did learn, though? What's that? Sorry? And at 8 o'clock at night on T.S.N. He was Pete Rose on the panel, falling asleep. I thought I did a great job, to my gosh. He did a great job, actually. I don't know how he did it. You know what I did hear? I did hear this, that one of Canada, well, one of B.C.'s most venerable course is a traditional strong point course. They've shortened it to eight holes.

Oh, really? It's called Gallagher's Canyon. And I hear it's only eight holes for some of the players. Just a quick, quick jaunt out there and you disappear. Is that what you're suggesting? Yeah. Okay. Guys.

Play had slowed up to a point that the O-Dog was not happy. I'm out. There was more trouble before that. There was a giant sign. on the first tee that said no darts on this course, and I was completely rattled. We're trying to keep the province not on fire. That's not going to work in BC, man. It's not going to fly.

All right, Ray, good luck getting on Shadow Creek. Enjoy the Cup final. We'll do it again soon. There he is, Ray. We'll talk to you soon. See you guys. You got it. Join us here on the Maple Toyota Hotline.

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