OverDrive - Hutton on Skinner's ceiling in Edmonton, the significance of a goaltending coach and Stolarz and Woll's tandem

Episode Date: July 8, 2025

SiriusXM NHL Radio and Daily Faceoff Analyst Carter Hutton joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the NHL, the tandem of Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll, the NHL CBA guidelines for goaltenders, Gavin McKenna committing to Penn State and the impact to the NCAA, Stuart Skinner's ceiling with the Oilers, the importance of a goaltending coach, Stolarz's contract number and more.

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The station that champions Canadian music. Loud, proud, and all yours. No passports required. Just press play. Tap into Made in Canada now on iHeartRadio.ca or the free iHeartRadio app. Joining us in the Maple Toyota Hotline is Carter Hutton, former NHL goaltender. Carter, welcome in and where are you on how the Leafs goaltending tandem stacks up in the NHL?

Honestly, in my opinion, you know, you can make that argument and I think, Feshek, you made a good point there. Just the fact that you can look at some other tandems, right? But there's kind of that 1A guy that runs with it that is like that outright top 10, top 5 guy that's a lot better. But I think for the Leafs, they're in a good spot here, right? Yeah, Joseph Wall, I still feel like has a really high ceiling and he can keep getting better. And then even you look back to the playoffs, I think losing Anthony Stolar's really hurt the momentum of

the Leafs in that series against the Panthers. So I do like where they're at there a true tandem where going into this year, you know, obviously you feel like it's Anthony Stolar's crease, but at the same time Joseph Wall is one of those guys. He's only gonna keep getting better in my opinion. Well how important is it do you think now at the NHL? Like this seems to be more the focus for teams. They're trying to build out a goalie department then there's a lot more tandems in the league nowadays than there used to be there's a lot less goalies you know encroaching the 60 games played mark and now with the NHL

adding an extra two games like does that even make it even more important to have two guys to share the workload it does it's so important right now it's something that started to really change too I remember fucking on my career when to have two guys to share the workload? It does. It's so important, right? And that's something that started to really change too. I remember reflecting on my career when I had a chance to, like I left as a free agent with the Buffalo and played some more games, but I remember that year Boston was trying to sign me as like a 1B to play more games because they wanted to try to rest Tuukka Ras because they knew that, you know, they were good enough to get in.

They needed him to be playing well at the right time. So I think teams are going to be more strategic in that sense where just the wear and tear of what goes on during a regular season. And the fact of the matter is with more games, there's not as much practice time. And what's nice in the CBA now is they've moved to the fact where they can have a full-time third goalie, which is going to be really big. Because we had that during the COVID year, remember, it was me, Linus Almark. We had Jonas Johansson who went on, he's had a great career so far.

But he was our number three, so say if I had strung a few games together or Linus per se, and then you're in a practice, you're in a pregame skate and you're trying to rest yourself and be strategic about how you platoon your energy getting ready for a game, you know, you had that third guy there. So I think for the NHL standpoint, that's really smart. And from a team standpoint, you guys know how it works now. It's all about sports science and they got us poked and prodded we're a bunch of animals out there but in that sense so that's what they're trying to

do set us up for success so at least they're given the tools to do it now well you bring up the the third goalie and and you know in the upcoming CBA it's going to be an emergency backup so they'll have an actual e-bug which will be essentially a third goaltender but like how do you expect that to work? I mean is it gonna be a veteran guy? Is it gonna be like if you're a goaltender I guess like if someone called you up and you were interested when you were still playing would you have interest in that role? Like you think other guys would rather play even if it's in the American League or you know as a backup but how do you expect this to really work out?

I think they're gonna find a guy that just wants to be there, that wants to be in that position, that is probably not a borderline guy, because realistically your number three guy is going to be your starter in the American league. That's always the fact where you want that younger guy playing. We kind of saw this year on Abbotsford with Arthur Shielovs, another great star in the NHL, goes down, plays a ton of minutes, and now he has a ton more experience. The Leafs actually employ a guy that goes out and practices. He's on the practice score. The Capitals have a similar player. They pay him I think 30, $40,000 Parker Milner, who was a former pro

who never really had a chance to play in the NHL. And he's a food critic. He has another career. So it could be something like that where it's just a local guy who's there for practice and for injured players, you know, when the team is on the road. So I don't look for that to be like your number three guy. Like it's not going to be Hildeby with the Leafs, right? It's going to be someone else that they've kind of hired on contract. The interesting part will be where that contract lies, right? Is it going to be league minimum?

Because hell, if I was on my way out, I'd take another year of league minimum to ride just to hang out and practice and, you know, make 800 grand. But but so that would be the interesting part I'd assume it'll be somewhere where they can pay a guy you know a hundred thousand bucks to come out and just be a practice guy and guys that play in the East Coast maybe in that transition period of their life would definitely jump on that opportunity. Hey Carter wanted to get your take on the big news around Gavin McKenna the presumptive number one pick in the in 2026 NHL draft. Every expectation that tonight on ESPN he's going to announce that he's heading to Penn State to play his developmental hockey at the NCAA

level and quite lucratively with a reported something in the range of 700 grand US NIL deal attached to it. A lot of people are calling this a real groundbreaking move. You're a guy who went the NCAA route in your career. What do you make of it? Well, you know what, Dave? Honestly, like, I went the NCAA route because I wasn't good enough to play in the Major Junior, right? By the time I got to 20 was my last option. So honestly, the new rules for a guy like me, it would have never been an opportunity because of what's happening now. I've had conversation with Norm Baz Basin who's the head coach at UMass Low where I went and they're looking for guys that are 1920 that have kind of you know

Overrun the OHL and their times run out and their goalies that are not really ready to make the jump to pro where you can Get them for a few years But for Gavin McKenna this kind of changes the lens right the fact that you can get paid and you look at some of the Other big sports and he's going to a big school right which can get TV deals which can have this team nationally televised so they're going to make money on him as well and I think it's great for the game right I think it's more opportunity for these younger guys who you know you always are an injury away from not making it or you know your career ending so more power to him if they're going to make money off of him it's good for him but it definitely changes the landscape which I think

is interesting because of the fact now there's no fear of where you're going to go, right? I remember as a kid, a lot of players having to make that decision at 15 or 16 years old. If I'm going to go major junior, those NCAA doors are closed, but that's not the case anymore. Well, and because the guy's going to be drafted first overall, and I think the deal is worth about 700K, that opens a big door, doesn't it? It does, it does. And then now you look at teams, right?

Like Penn State, Terry Pagula's pumped a lot of money into there, I played for the Sabres. This guy's looking to win wherever he can. And you start looking at a team where if you can get a guy for a few years, it changes your whole dynamic of a school. And that's the, I guess that's the interesting part with the NCAA, right? It's not really a pro run organization

where when I was there, you get a guy and you got four years, you're stuck with them. Where now with this landscape changing so much, you can really try to push to have a winning team. It will be interesting how it affects the players that are there. The players that if Penn State starts to load up and they start getting higher draft picks,

they're paying all these players. Now, if you're a player committed there and you have to leave and get pushed out, it kind of brings in that more major junior pro feel where guys are more of a commodity less than a commitment to a school. I mean, Carter, when you think about it, what do you think this is gonna mean for the CHL

and major junior hockey in Canada if this becomes a trend where it's not just one guy getting real NIL deals but there's a there's a series of guys getting real NIL deals has always been talked that you know CHL players should be paid more than they're paid currently which is not very much could you see you know sort of a reaction to this at the CHL level to to increase the compensation for players? Well you think there'd have to be, right? Because at the end of the day, you're going to start losing all your top guys, right? Now you start talking about a CHL that for years we've watched some of the best players

in the world come out of still producing a lot of guys, it's going to start to get watered down. If you take every top player off each team, it starts to filter down effect. Yes, there's going to be more opportunity, but I truly believe as it goes where even if you're going somewhere for a hundred thousand dollars or maybe you're a late second round pick and you can get some money out of it and take away that chance of you know not just getting your school deal right because majority of these guys that sign in the major junior they're just looking for a school package which can be minimum but if I

go to the NCAA and I can get a full ride and I can collect some extra money to put in my pocket it's a pretty good start to life without the worry of what happens in my pro career. I feel like there will be a response. I just don't know where that 700k or that amount of money is going to come from when you're trying to compete with Division I schools that have the alma mater, that have the sponsors, that have the people around it that want to have a winning program. We've seen it with football, right?

There's a lot of deep pockets. When you start talking about Penn State, then even get into the Ivy Leagues like Yale, and there's a lot of big money in these pockets of the players that have been there. And just students in general that love the program, they can pump a lot of money back into the program to support it. So elsewhere in the NHL, you know, a lot of heavy lifting has been done for a majority of the teams. The Edmonton Oilers are an interesting team. Obviously, they have to prove to McDavid that they can win.

He quite literally came out and said, if they prove they can win, then I'll sign. They also said they wanted to address the goaltending position. It's July 8th and they have not yet done that. Like how do you expect through Skinner to like, how do you expect things to play out in Edmonton? Will it you expect through Skinner to like how do you expect things to play out in Edmonton will still be Stu Skinner or is there something else someone else still out there for them to upgrade their goal-setting position honestly I don't know if there is right now and I think Stuart Skinner gets a raw deal a lot of the times right this is a guy that's been in the Stanley Cup

final twice and yes he's had tough goals and he's 26 years old right like where are you gonna replace him unless there's a guy that you can trade in like a sign and trade or somebody can bring in but they don't really have the guys to move out to make it happen right now so I do think the idea of matter here is like you're trying to replace Stewart Skinner I think when Gibson got traded to the wings that was a big guy that you that possibly could have fit that role. You've heard Bennington's name a lot. They talked about Joel Holford, possibly an offer sheet. It feels like those doors are closed now. So I think for them, the best thing they could do is not make a

rash decision right now and kind of let this play out as is. And I feel like they could just play without a goal and they'll probably still make the playoffs. This is how good this team will be. But that being said, I don't think when we look at next year by the time we get to the trade deadline, we're going to see Calvin Pickard and Stuart Skinner. I don't know which piece moves out because I don't think Calvin Pickard... I hate being critical of him because I love him. I played against him a lot.

He's blocky. He doesn't fit the modern mold of what we expect from an NHL goalie, but he's a gamer, right? And that's something that's so important. But we're also talking about the Edmonton Oilers who have two generational players on the team, and it's two years in a row they've got to the Stanley Cup final, and their goaltending has been the biggest difference. So that being said, I don't think we're going to see both those guys. I just don't know when the ball drops on that. So let's talk about the go-tending coach Dustin Schwartz is not coming back How vital is it to have the right goal-tending coach and how much blame does the guy get?

Well, if the goalie doesn't play well, it's an easy cop out, right? Like I feel like it's it's one of those things where a goalie coach doesn't matter unless I'm having a shit year and I could Tell them like hey, like this is the goal-tending coaches fault. He's not getting to me, right? So this is the fact where I think for them, I think there needs to be a change, right? Sometimes it can be a different message. And I think that's something that's so important for guys, right?

Because when you get to the NHL level, it's not necessarily about what are we doing on the rink? What are we doing day to day? Sometimes it's like less is more and it's almost the sports psychology of it. How do we manage a guy? How do we like compartmentalize his game? Where, okay, you've had a brutal game, like we don't need to sports psychology of it. How do we manage a guy? How do we like compartmentalize his game where, okay, you've had a brutal game. Like let's, we don't need to watch video on it.

We need to get away from the rink. You need to find a way to, you know, be healthy in the sense of how do you get away and come back to the rink refreshed. And that's where a goalie coach can be a big buffer zone. And by buffer zone, I mean, if he's been playing bad, what Stuart Skinner is going on and making it, making it fun for him, making him feel like he's a kid again, you know, around the rink. So I think that will be important in that relationship building. As for the excellent is always of goaltending.

Once you get into that part of the season, it's usually just little tweaks and it's a little too late at that point if it's not playing well. Hey, Carter, this there's arguments being made out in Edmonton that they need to not only fire this goalie coach, but really build goaltending department. Like a lot of the higher revenue teams, Toronto certainly has a handful of people in the goaltending department on the coaching level developing the guys in the minors as well as attending to the guys at the top of the food chain. You know, talk about the evolution of that from when you came into the league to where it is now and how you think that's affected things.

It's affected things a lot. And I think I'd be a good example of that because I came up with Mitch Corn with Barry Trotz and he was this guy and they brought me over from Rockford. So I was in Chicago's farm team and I had a really great record against Milwaukee Nashville's farm team. So that year during the 2013 Stanley Cup run Nashville kind of poached me over. I went over to Durnsbury Agency. I got to meet them all and they brought me in. And at that point, Mitch kind of had so

much control of what went on in the goalie department. And then Barry left. He ended up obviously in Washington. And then Mitch became like the goalie consultant because he got a little bit older and he's been around the game for a long time. Then they brought him in as advisor to kind of oversee all the projects that went on with goaltending. And that's what's so important in that situation is the fact where at times it's tricky just to go to free agency and strike, you know, get a guy and overpay and have it work out where for a few years there, we looked at that Bobrowski deal and we're like, the Florida Panthers ruined because they gave him $10 million.

And now we're looking at it. Now we're going, how don't we pay a goalie $10 million? So in that fact, the matter is, you gotta make sure that you have the right guys in the right place and you have a right standard too. So experience is something that's so important with goaltending. And that's why I was quick to defend Skinner,

because at 26 years old, like I made the league at 26 full-time. So I thought like my growth from 26 to 31, when I had like my top statistical year It changes mentally and you get exposed to more experiences and you kind of just add to your toolbox And as I look at guys is as they get better and I use this story a lot because it's something that hits home With me Mackenzie Blockwood who's from Thunder Bay who had a great year He told me something that I used to do a lot

He's like honestly, I've got so much better because I care less. And then you start to think about that, like, well, how do you care less? It's like, because you've learned that the stuff that doesn't matter, right? Where I'd be lying in bed Friday, I got a game Saturday night and I'm stressing over playing the Leafs on hockey night in Canada. Well, like, does that help me in this moment? But now I have the experience because I've been exposed to different stuff. So that's where having a good experienced goalie coach really pays dividends, in my opinion. So that's where having a good experience goalie coach really pays dividends in my opinion. So let's talk about tendons. I mean Edmonton Spins combined 3.6, the Leafs combined are

under 6. I mean this is like NFL running backs. At one time they were the premier part of the football team and now they're not. And for NHL goalies, it seems to me like a kind of a lightweight market in terms of dollars. You know what? I think people get scared at times now because of the fact where if you do sign a big goalie and it doesn't play well at the right time, it just kind of hinders you too, right? You look at even Conor Hellbuck. Granted, I think any team would take a chance on Conor Hellbuck, but his playoff woes have been concerning, right? For a Winnipeg Jets team who won the President's Trophy, now it gets to the point where who can be hot at the right time? And I think some teams strategically are thinking, well, if we can kind

of disperse that income over two guys, now we have at least two chances to have a guy who can play well and maybe carry the load for a bit of the playoffs. But that being said, you know, I think of maybe five guys in the league, six guys that are big time difference makers that you're going to take that chance on and pay that big money to. Other than that, maybe surrounding your team with like just bigger defensemen, better defensemen. I think the vaguest theory worked very well or Aiden Hill hasn't really been great since that playoff run. He's been off and on at times, but he's a big goalie. He takes up a lot of space, but their decor was big and protective and they spent a lot of money on it and then not

But kind of came the pattern now We're looking at the Florida Panthers who are who are deep in their third and fourth lines and what they have so it's always that Copycat league so it will be interesting to see how it goes because Bobroski's been so well But who could be hot the right time is always the main question for goaltending Yeah, Carter Well the Leafs were hoping it would be Anthony Stolar is hot against the Panthers and we all know how that went but as the tap man pointed out, he's on a very reasonable $2.5 million cap hit for the coming season and then he's going to be a UFA.

There's every expectation the Leafs want to extend him and should extend him. What do you think a fair number for Stolar's is given his injury history, the fact that really last year was a breakout year for him? How do you see it? dollars is giving you know the injury history the fact that really last year was a break a year for him uh... how do you see it i think for him honestly if he's in that like five six million dollars would be my ticket that that seems like a number that they're giving out to every goalie like you look at the lankan in deal you look at mckenzie block would obviously the ages are a bit different it seems the melka

out in utah he's a little bit older and i feel like if you dangle that caret in front of him right now with his injury history and with What's going on? He'd be pretty quick to jump on that deal and for me a guy who you know a different path But same idea, you know, I had my really good years in my early 30s And then I signed a three-year, you know starting ticket with Buffalo If I was during that year in st Louis if they would have dangled something on me when I was on a bit of a heater like I might have took it because I've

Always wanted that term. I've always wanted that term. I've always wanted the sure thing, right? I think that's a strategic point for the Leafs where they're at. But for Stolarz, are you betting on yourself? We see a lot of younger players now taking short-term deals, betting on themselves that the cap's going to go up and they can play well. But you dangle $25 million in front of them, $30 million. I don't see how he turns that down.

So free agent frenzy wasn't much of one. A lot of teams have money to spend. That leads us to trades. Do you see that happening, a lot of trades in the next five or six weeks? Yeah, I think at times some of these teams that have a lot of cap space are trying to weaponize themselves, right, as things go.

And you look at a market where, I think when the Marner ball dropped, right, that was obviously the big saga beforehand. And then the other one was obviously the Florida Panthers retaining all three players. Then after that, it was a little bit ho-hum. I remember working that day being like, it felt like everything was done beforehand. And now as these pieces start to drop, you know, where are the moves and where are they going to make? And I think, I guess my takeaway is we look at last year, and might be speaking wrong here But I think it was eighth and ninth or ninth and tenth were the Oilers and the Panthers going into the playoffs So now it's like how are we setting our team up for success here because we need to be good enough to get in

Right. We need to be offensive minded. We need to get points We need to win but where can we beef up around the perimeter? So when we get that third line matchup, we get that fourth line matchup and try to tilt the, you know, the edge in the series, you know, can we move in some guys because we have cap space, because we can make some additions to maybe a player on an expiring contract late in the year, where maybe he's going to demand a lot of money

from that team, but maybe we can trade a pick and pick him up to beef our team up. So I think that's where being smart about how you go about it, where, you know, getting Brad Marshawn from the Florida Panthers turn into a first round pick. It was obviously a conditional pick. But that being said, that was the turning point, I think, for the Florida Panthers season for them to push on and win the cup. Carter, thanks very much. Appreciate it. Hey, thanks for having me on guys.

Carter Hutton, former NHL goaltender, SiriusXM, NHL radio and daily faceoff analyst. Carter Hutton joined us on the Maple Toyota hotline. Drive the built-in Canada fuel-efficient, fun-to-drive Toyota RAV4, gas or hybrid models available. Visit mapletoyota.com. The biggest songs in the world. You've heard them countless times.

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