OverDrive - Johnson on defending Stolarz in the crease, Kampf going on waivers and NHL Futures Day picks

Episode Date: October 3, 2025

TSN Hockey Analyst Mike Johnson joined OverDrive to discuss the approach around protecting Anthony Stolarz and the Maple Leafs' response, Scott Laughton's injury and David Kampf on waivers, Easton Cowan's role, the Lightning and Panthers' rivalry, the Futures Day picks and more.

The National Institute on Aging presents great moments in preventing dementia. Like eating well to help reduce cholesterol. And maintaining a healthy weight. For more simple things that can help make a big difference in preventing dementia, visit Small Steps Big Difference. Here's Mike Johnson, our TSN, hockey analyst. What's happening, Johnny? I think that could be a career for you, Aisy.

You could be like a narrator for documentaries. You're just, like, narrating the Leaf's journey, and that could be a nice little new side gig to go along with your baseball analysis and your hockey analysis and everything else you do. I like that idea, because what's the guy's name? Liv Schreiber or Schreiber or something? Yeah, he's been the voice of all that guy's making a fortune.

like an absolute fortune he does the Montreal Crave one or two I think yeah he does all rebuild one on Crave I think you might be narrating that one too so why not I why not man you know I met over the summer was the voice of EA sports like the guy who does it's in the game yes

yes really cool guy he's a Canadian guy he's a Canadian guy he's Canadians he lived in L.A. forever but I guess he's from Toronto and he's got himself a setup dude because he has it I thinking is deal where they have to continue to use them like it can't be a scenario where hey we had you say ea sports 30 years ago and we're just going to keep no i got i got to come back in the booth and i'm going to keep doing it and that guy just continues to get residuals and royalties and

repaid and what a life man being the voice of ea sports that's in my future not like that in real life no not really but he can put it on i think he gets bothered a lot for people to be like hey you're the EA sports guy, you've got to kind of give me an example of it. He's probably happy to do it. He's a millionaire. He's happy. He's fine. He's living a great life.

Bruce Buffer. Bruce Buffer is another one. There you go. Bruce Buffer. This guy, let's get ready to rumble. Made that guy $100 million. Crazy how much money is made. All right, Johnny.

So we're talking about that Leaf game last night. The protection of Stollars. Is this a story for you? Do you think it will be a story all year? Where do you stand on that? um i mean protection of him physically the guys don't let guys get around him yes i don't think it's any more a story for the leaf than it would be for any other team i think every team do this will say right you're you're trying to yeah protect your goalie from traffic from rebounds from

contact and i understand their heightened sensitivity given the the way his season last year ended where he's bumped into and he was hurt but he's also six foot six and 240 pounds like he's not a little guy in there and the Leafs have to do a good job in front of their own net to stop goals and to stop people from touching at these goals. I don't think it's a hot button issue for the Leafs like, oh God, we got a fragile goalie. We've got to protect them or our goalie is so great we got to protect him. I think they just want to do it the same way everyone else does. But I was actually down at the game last night, just doing a little bit of work. And hearing Craig Barubei talk after the game, the one way, he talked about the sort of puck decisions and puck movement and just,

pace of play and it was the pace of play that stood out to me because I know it's preseason and I know it doesn't matter and I know they have a veteran team that's going to be really good but that was the starting 18 skaters every single one of them that's starting 18 and they played slow and that we sort of touched around this topic with this team and yes they're bigger and they're more rugged but I think they might be slower because they're slower foot and the slower of mind and puck movement without, you know, martyr or whatever, that's a concern for me. And I'm going to be sure to see how that goes when the game starts for real if they can play faster, not physically escape faster, but just play faster because they played

slow last night and it wasn't great. Well, if you see it again, Johnny, then what the how are you going to do if you think that that's your starting rotation and your team that's going to start the season? And then all of a sudden you realize it's slow? Like, what are you going to do? It's kind of problematic, isn't it? It might be a one-off. They might have went out there and said, I'm not really into this, but what are you going to do? I mean, you just said it, it's problematic.

It's very problematic, and I think what you would have to do is remember and try to cater your game to sort of straight-line board play, right? Where you're not having to go up and down rushes and zone entries

more sort of chip it forward, get in there banging around, and maybe play a little bit more of a grindy kind of game but I think it's tricky because the NHL, especially in the regular season especially in the regular season it's just getting faster and if the game's getting faster

but you're getting a bit slower that's sort of headed in the wrong direction so I just yeah it would be a problem but they would have to kind of continue to work to work around if they can't you're not going to change the personnel so they have to change the way to play and use it so Johnny first and foremost

I heard it's the first anniversary of your 50th birthday so 51 today you old goat nice happy birthday johnny yeah thank you i appreciate to let everyone know just how old i am noodles yeah after 50 it doesn't even matter what birthday it is like there's no real big ones anymore so you get to be 100 so um yeah it's just another birthday yeah i mean i i i had two people reach out to tell them to make sure that i i set it on air so there you go you can thank sam cisterrello and garret cansford for you but uh you know quickly in In watching that game last night, and then you look at David Kamp on waivers and the injury at the lot, and what do you make, like, who do you think can play that fourth-line center

in their interim if either Camp gets picked up or they decide to put him with the Marleys? I mean, Max, I mean, Max is not going to go down there, but, I mean, Max has played in the middle a little bit. You know, could tell the yarn broke. He has taken some face off. He's a veteran guy. If you're going to sort of play position with hockey. the primary uniquely

sediment responsibility is face-off and the play right after a face-off and yard stroke might be just experienced enough to do that but yeah if Lawton's not good to go and Camp gets claimed although I don't know necessarily

if Camps will get claimed because it seems like they probably try to trade them throughout the summer to shed the salary and if no one takes them then I don't know if it takes them now unless there's another injury around league somewhere else but I guess it would be yard broke. It would be the guy to step in there and have to go

or you'd be sort of doing a makeshift. But not ideal because Scott Lawn is supposed to be more than just, you know, a airport's fourth-line center. But, you know, most teams got to be able to withstand around the league. Some of the injuries going along right now. If you've got to shuffle a fourth-line center position, that shouldn't be a massive problem in the short term.

Johnny, what do you think it means for Easton Cowan? Like, they kind of had some chemistry. three with Lorenz and Lodin and they were all talking on the bench and doing this and that and doing well like what do you think it means for Cowan and what do you think he needs as far as playing in the NHL if he does on a regular shift because he had some plays last night you got rocked a couple times he had a little silly back pass what do you think it means for him yeah you're probably right oh especially if he's going to play in that kind of role where he's further down the lineup which is where it looks like he's going to start it would be really

comforting for a young player, a rookie, to have a couple veterans that he has some rapport with that he feels are looking out for him, that are, they're sort of in it together as opposed to he's on this sort of journey in the lineup on his own, and if he loses that, he loses probably some of his comfort zone, and maybe some of the insulation he gets on the ice, and Scott Lawton's a good defensive

player, and Lorenz is a good defensive player. Then when he has some of those moments where he turns it over or makes a bad decision or your favorite all that little backhand path in his own end which was ill advised

then they're there to help clean up some of the mess he makes and so that that would be that would be preferable but it's not there

it's not there and again if you're Eastern Cowan you know you're a high high end player you're gonna play in the NHL for 15 years like you gotta be able

to be good enough to play the fourth line winger position with a multitude of options in the middle on the other side and still be

as effective as you can be so not ideal but it shouldn't be backbreaking to him and his ability to play in the NHL this year to start the season with Mike Johnson our TSN hockey analyst so it got a little bit crazy last night Tampa Florida and those two teams they don't do not like each other they meet in the playoffs you know a lot

and Florida's beating them up a lot you know Tampa last year I think a lot of people thought you know could get back to where they were a few years ago where they were the cream of the crop and Florida just dummied them in the first round. They didn't make a ton of moves in the off season. I'm curious

where you stand on Tampa, where you stand on Florida. I know a lot of fans up here, Toronto fans, Ottawa, Montreal fans, trying to figure that out. Like not overly concerned about Detroit or Buffalo, but it's the two teams in Florida and where do you stand on those two teams

going into the season? So, you're right. I thought Tampa was going to win last year in the playoffs. I was very wrong. But if you asked me who I have winning the Atlantic this year, I have Tampa again. And it's not that I think they're so great, but I think they're probably have gotten the least worse from last year. Like I think Florida obviously injuries age could shock bark off.

They're worse than last year in the regular season. I think Toronto until their departures, they're probably a little bit worse off in the regular season as well. And Tampa stayed, as you said, basically the same. and the reason I like Tampa in the regular season is because they can score and when you can score it makes playing in the regular season

a lot more sustainable you can win games 5-4 you can score your way out of some tough moments or where you're maybe not quite on top of your game whereas if you don't score as much and I'm not sure the least you're going to score as much

then you don't get the 5-4 game you have to weigh everything 3-2 and that's harder to do as consistently in the regular season. So I think Tampa will be good and that game last night that was really chippy and that was chippy in a little bit of a different way

than let's say the Montreal Ottawa won in that in the game in Florida and Tampa there was a lot of starting players in it like Kucharov was playing in Reinhardt and the best players were playing and it was those guys involved in it all but I think when you're Florida

and you are the school yard bully people are going to keep challenging you in that way. Across the league, everyone's like, we want to stand up to Florida, we're going to stand up to Florida, push them back, push them back, and Florida who does not care, they're happy to play in games like that. They probably will play in more

games with that sort of energy than anybody else because people are trying to answer the bell and the challenge that they present in the last few years. So maybe not surprising, but Florida, they don't care about it, right? They just don't play that way, day and day out. They're more comfortable in the alley

than you are, and they love going down there. If you go down there with them, then they are intent to be there with you right yeah it's going to be interesting to see you know how that how that goes because it's a different world it's a different game than it was a long time ago but it does have a broad street bully vibe to it to an extent modern era yeah modern era you know they're tougher than you they're they can they can meet you with talent they got a great goalie and yeah like like the old sand goes like they'll meet you in the alley on the ice whatever it is and who's going to take them down

And do they feel like, do you have to take them down in the same fashion? Do you outskill them, you know, like back in the 70s, it was the Habs, right? The Habs came in with all that skill, but I've heard, I'm sure you guys heard the same story. Larry Robinson beat the hell out of someone. And it was like, oh, oh, watch out, like the Habs can fight too. And next thing you know, they win all those cups. And around Montreal, that fight from Robinson, and even around the NHL history books, and we're all maybe even on my birthday, a little bit too young to know that,

but apparently, yeah, he fought whoever, one of the tough guys on Philadelphia, and it changed the entire trajectory of the league where it went, okay, you can't just fight and fugilist your way to championships, Montreal, Curseillae Robinson is going to stand up to you and then outskilled them, and that's basically what Tampa was sort of doing last night.

They made nice plays, and they scored five, and they won the game, but then they also pushed back. And that is a, you know, it's a uniquely hockey spirit where if you get challenged physically, your instinct is always to fight back. And not just, you don't want to just win the game, especially in the regular season. You want to win the at least physical confrontation

or the respect that you are willing to engage in it. And that's what Florida does. They just challenge you to say, okay, we're going to test you. And if you push back, well, good for you. But if you don't, then you're not going to have a very good chance of winning. So that's, you know, every team around the league is going to be doing that in the regular season and then even more so in the playoffs. So Tampa on Fandau right now, Pam, plus 195, the win the division.

Again, it's Futures Day on Fandau, the Fandau Sportsbook gap. Tampa plus 195 to win the Atlantic, Toronto plus 290, Florida plus 330. Then there's a bit of a drop-off. Ottawa at 7 to 1, halves at 12-1. There's some value there for Ottawa and a halves if you think they can jump all those teams. But you just said you got Tampa. Do you have any other division winners you like, anyone else that sticks out? in terms of point props or goal props or whatever you can supply for a futures day on Fanduil today.

All right. I mean, it took a little peek at it, and we got some of the stuff coming up in our season preview. But I think Carolina is a good bet. I think they are plus, I don't know, what are they, plus 800 to win the President's trophy. And Carolina, they churn out good year, you know, our regular seasons. Ron Brindamore, they got Nick Eilers. they're going to be really good, really good again. And I don't love the Metro Division.

So they're going to play a bulk of games against teams that aren't quite as good. So I think that's probably pretty good value as opposed to taking like a Dallas or an Edmonton or a team like that or in Vegas that might have a tougher run to go there. So I like that one. And I also like guys, I checked the Austin Matthews futures for goals total. Was his 46 and a half, 44 and a half? I'm taking the over. I think he's basically never scored less than that rate if he plays every game.

The thing that will stop him from scoring 47 goals is not him, it's his health. So long as he stays healthy, then I think he's going to get 47 goals. So I think that one is basically the money, whatever, minus 110, but I think that one is a pretty good bet as well. And the other one, guys, and took a look at this one, Hazy, the holder where Demadoff is a massive favorite who in the Calder. He's massive and there's a guy in St. Louis

named Jimmy Snuggarood. Great name. Dad used to play for the Buffalo Sabres. He's playing on the first line with Robert Thompson and getting power play time. If you play on the first line on that team with those players if it doesn't go great for Devadoff

is it out of the question that Snuggarood puts up you know 25, 60 or something like that which might be enough to get him right in the running if it doesn't go great. And he's plus 1100. that's good value to me because I get Demadoff's the most talented guy but we know that there's question marks about that second line I don't know if it's kind of worked the way they anticipated

he's not on the first power play Demidoff so in that sense I think maybe there's some value in the Calder play because some of those guys will further down if they're in the right situation then they can maybe be a threat like Snuggaroo is it's a great handle man remember Rick Jenette Jennerette calling out

Snuggarood like he just would go crazy with that name. He loved that name. All right, those are good bets, man. There's a lot of value there, and you're right. Like, you look at Demadov, it just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to put that much money on him. You know, he's a young guy, like all these rookies are going to be.

We'll see what Montreal does this year. If he's on the second line, he's probably going to get power, you know, PP1 opportunities, but there's so much hype with him. I just don't think that makes sense. Like, it's too much juice. he's incredible but he's not on the PP1 to start the season

they split the power plays and he's on the second unit so you know maybe that changes and he's crazy talented but I'm just like no matter how good you are it's hard to do it if you know I don't know if Kirby Docs the sentiment for him I just I just don't know

they'll have the puck enough to really highlight what he can do so yeah this is a value play like I would take Devadoff as the best rookie but I just don't know value-wise, I can go a different direction. I like it. I like it. All right, there you go. Future's Day on the Fandu's Sportsbook. Yeah, we'll have more future

picks later this afternoon, the O'Dog, myself, and noodles. Happy birthday, Johnny. Great stuff, buddy. Have yourself a great birthday weekend. Oh, yeah, I'm going to Detroit to cover the Leaf American League team tomorrow, so it's going to be a wicked birthday weekend.

Listen, Detroit's sneaky, sneaky good town now, man. Sneaky good town. It's too bad the Tigers aren't still playing. But, uh, sneaky, good town. We'll see what we can find. All right, buddy. Enjoy yourself down there. All right, boy.

We'll do it against some. Have a good weekend. Mike Johnson. TSN Hockey Analyst. The newest tracks and the next big thing. Look what we've found. And your first place to hear it all is Iheart, new music. Your digital station for brand new drops, fresh finds, and tomorrow's bangers.

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