OverDrive - Gorton on the Canadiens' season, the parity in the league and St. Louis' coaching impact

Episode Date: November 21, 2025

Canadiens President of Hockey Operations Jeff Gorton joined OverDrive to discuss the perspective of the Canadiens' season, the parity in the NHL, the team seeking to make deals, the performance under Martin St. Louis, Tom Wilson's hit on Jake Evans and more.

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Restriction supply ships registered in Panama and Malta. Joining us in Overdrive, here's Jeff Gorton. Hey, Jeff, how are you? Hey, gentlemen, how are you doing? It's pretty good. Excellent, thank you. Thank you for doing this tonight. We were talking about...

I didn't get the invite where we're on top of the league there. I got the invite where we're on the losing streak. That's Gord's Gordes. That was not my decision. I asked to get you early on, but they didn't do it. I think it was haze, and he didn't even show up. I think there's a good chance That's true

A very good chance that's true So the Leafs in town on a Saturday night What does that mean for you? I know O'Dog and Frank talked about it as former players I mean for you running the show in Montreal Having the Leafs in town on Saturday What is the buzz like leading up to this one? I mean Toronto in Montreal

Or I mean in Toronto It's always something Saturday night special I think both teams are not playing particularly well So it's going to mean a lot, right? Maybe it's something that can turn us around here. We're both going through a little tough stretch, so the game itself means a lot.

I mean, in Montreal, Saturday night, any night is fun, but anytime the Leafs come to town, it's a little more fun too. Gorts, what do you make of the wild swings this year, not just from your own club, but basically it seems like 90% of the league. It's just like there's

a two-week stretch where you're undefeated. It doesn't seem like too long ago. Marty was up on the podium talking about how proud he was at the group and then two weeks later it's a completely different scenario is that parody is that something that you just think is part of the game now with the way the league is set up the scheduling short training camp like what do you make of it well it's probably a little bit of everything i mean like you said we had a good start where we were we really a 10 and 3 team i'm not sure but i hope i hope we're not a you know oh and 5 team either but um yeah i i think it's a

A little bit of everything, you know, the games come fast and furious, and if you're losing, it's hard to get out of it. Whereas if you're winning, you know, you're rolling, you're feeling good, let's play every of the night. Right now, we're not winning, so it's like, how about a little week off here, you know? So it's a grind. I think the teams are all pretty close. You know, you're seeing a lot of these teams that have rebuilt come out and play really well and young and energized. You're seeing more teams like that that are coming out of that rebuild. So it's fun.

Listen, there's not too many teams running away in hiding. Usually we have a few teams by now that are doing that. It seems like Colorado is the only team, right? Gortz, you got some significant injuries now. Alex Neuha, Kirby, Doc, Patrick Linae, Kate and Gouli. Those are pretty big players for your team. I'm sure you'd want to see what's out there on the market. How quiet are things or how hard is it to complete a transaction right now

with everyone just kind of being jumbled up in the standings? yeah i think you hit it right on the head it's uh it's pretty tough because everybody feels you know they're one good week away from being in the right in it right so you know we've kind of showed both things you have a couple good weeks you're at the top you have a bad 10 days you're you're heading out so it happens pretty quickly so i think it's probably premature that you see too many trades uh you know we're all kind of getting a handle on what we are like around the league there's tons of injuries there's very few teams that don't have them um so so that means there's probably less players on the market because you know we're all dealing with injuries and

it's hard to get rid of players or to just mention trades like i was mentioning my frustration and i know that presidents and general managers they don't care about my feelings or brian hayes feelings but it seems like it would be so much better for the game if there was more kind of player movement and i know it's so difficult with the salary cap and the way contracts are structured and guys that have no movement clauses. But, man, it was fun during the day when it was like a team was struggling. You want a little bit of a shake-up. They went out and got a guy.

And not just a guy that was off the scrap heap, like a good player. It just seems like those deals are so hard to make and they never happen anymore. And I don't think it's good for the game. Yeah, I mean, I don't disagree with you. It's more fun and guys in my position to be able to wheel and, deal um but yeah there's there's a little less of that i understand it's cap related it's probably the fact that everybody's so close uh you know you could kind of throw a blanket over a lot of teams right so it's uh i i agree it's definitely more fun when uh there's some player movement um maybe

the players like it a little better they can go to bed at night knowing that uh you know you're not dangling that over their heads right Jeff Gordon's our guess you probably always played you always played better when we were hanging on that over your head right yeah that's well it wasn't around my head much but it was always out there Jeff Gordon with us the President of Hockey Offs for Montreal go ahead Jeff yeah sorry I was listening to O'Dog earlier he was talking about dumb it down I was gonna if he didn't have a Toronto Maple Leaf Blazer I was gonna have him speak to our team tomorrow

yeah yeah it's so true like it seems like we're in a day and age and I see these kids where they're like they have to be told so much about the details and the details about playing simple. I think it's from when they're younger, man, and they all think they're Connor McDavid, and they're wheeling a hundred miles an hour round, and they all think they're 50 goal scores, and they don't finish

checks, and they don't simplify, and therefore you get a team or individuals that make life difficult on themselves. Yeah, I mean, there's no doubt, too. Like, right now we're in a funk, right? We're not getting much of anything,

and we're just in it. And it just, it's like one bad thing turns into two, and, you know, you just got to get out of it. But you're right. You know, we're doubling down. You know, we're heading to the table, and we're going to get out of it. We're going to go rink wide, and we're going to try to make as many plays as we can. And, you know, other teams are shoving it down our throat right now. So I was listening to you thinking about two things.

One is maybe you can talk to our team, and the other is you can talk to my son, too. I tell them that all the time. Just go to the net, dummy it down a little bit. Yeah, maybe your coach will fall in love with you. Yeah, exactly. And the other thing, like, you're doing this with the youngest roster in the NHL, and one of the other things about dumbing it down is I find when it's younger players, like game management, managing the score, managing the clock,

like, oh, we've talked about that so many times on this show, right? Like, that's something that is just, it's not taught the way that it used to be because everyone's doing, like, the pylons and the YouTube stuff. Like, how do you guys kind of internally manage your, I don't want to say, expectations because you have high expectations for your group but like how do you manage the youth of your team and what you guys think you should be accomplishing on a night to night basis yeah i mean it's a good question frank yeah the thing is i think marty's the one thing he's always done is let them play you know and uh you know now uh as we're getting better um you know

there are those times where we're going to have to uh look in the mirror a little more and say, you know what, you can't just make plays anytime you want to make plays, right? Games are, we're always in one-goal games, or we were until the last week. So just staying on it, managing it. I mean, it's something you're right. These guys are coming in the league. They're so skilled, and they've never really had to play that way. So I don't know.

Some guys figure it out quicker than others, you know. Jeff, I promise I'm not trying to get you fined here. But I need to ask you about the Tom Wilson, Jake Evans situation. from last night. What's the latest on Jake and what did you make of the play as a whole? I mean, hopefully Jake will be fine. We'll find out tomorrow more, but you know, it's just a hard play.

That's, you know, Tom Wilson's been doing that forever. He's figured out where the line is, I guess, better than others. You know, most teams in the league would be happy to have a player that plays that physical brand of hockey and the impact he has. So I'm not naive to that.

I just think that he's somehow towed the line better than others and he's got a better understanding of what's okay and what's not okay, I guess. You know, I've been on the wrong side, a couple of his hits for our players. So it gets a little frustrating, but I understand what he's doing. I understand how impathly is. We played against him in the playoffs last year. So it is what it is, but it's a different era, I guess.

When you look at your roster, and I'm sure you're always trying to make improvements while allowing the players that are on the roster to prove themselves, do you see that and be like, you know, we could always use a forward who has a similar type of effect? Like someone big, fast, who's going to do those types of things. Like there's only one Tom Wilson, but like is that something that you look at with your group? And I'm in like, I would welcome something like that. Yeah, without question. I think all 32 teams would welcome a guy.

that can skate and has that kind of impact every night so um you know like i said we're not naive to it we all are looking for players like that but they are harder and harder to find right so it's when you get them you hold on to them like washington has i guess thank you for doing this tonight chef we appreciate it we'll make sure the o dog will be speaking to your son and maybe your team tomorrow night who knows well and when you're back and first you come back on the show yeah anytime anytime oh dog by the way i noticed i was hanging around here on the show i you seem to be way behind in these uh in this football bets it's surprising to me you know what it's very surprising to me as well gorts because like my partner is a former NFL player and i kind of lean on him

and he's really jamming me up in this situation so like a good afternoon i'm not taking response i i won't take responsibility. Thanks for doing this, Gorts. Yeah. All right, guys. Anytime. See it. Thank you. That is Jeff Gordon, the president of hockey ops for the Canadians. It's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas with IHeart

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