OverDrive - Johnson on Tkachuk's departure from the Senators, loyalty in sports and Eklund landing in Ottawa

Episode Date: June 23, 2026

TSN Hockey Analyst Mike Johnson joined OverDrive to discuss Brady Tkachuk's departure from the Senators, the notion of loyalty in sports, how Senators will perceive Tkachuk in his return to Ottawa, playing with his brother Matthew, William Eklund's trade, Jordan Kyrou dealt to Washington 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. Here's Mike Johnson, our TSN hockey analyst, joining us here on the Maple Toyota Hotline. The full Mike Babcock experience, right? They're 100% in on Mike Babcock, and I guess that's what they're getting.

If you're Connor McDavid and company is that actually, a good sign the fact that it doesn't sound as if he has changed in any way. Well, I tell you that Mike Johnson was not that impressed with that presser. Okay. Because Mike Johnson wanted more. He was expecting more and he wanted more and he didn't get it. Yeah. And if Mike Johnson got to commit to a press conference, he wants to hear what he needs to hear.

You're right. You're right. The thing is, guys, I get what you're saying. But you would have thought just for, appearance of sick. If you want to go back to being the same sort of hard guy, arrogant, whatever in the dress room, you want to grind on guys, you want to carve guys about this or that. If that's what you're going to go to because that's what you think you can do and should do,

I still thought day one presser. Like, I'm not asking for a full Mia Copa. Just a smidge of contrition. Oh, give me something. When it asked about Columbus, you know what? I should have handled that differently. Instead, Johnny, he said, my wife said, let's get out of here. It's just like, are you, yeah, we're not aligned. We're not lying.

Let's get out of here. No, it's what he said. He goes, I hadn't scratched a guy. I hadn't said a guy out. I hadn't done this. I hadn't done that. I could tell the coaching staff wasn't aligned. So my wife said, let's get out of here.

Like, are you kidding me, dude? You're like, that was a joke. That was a joke, that, that answer. Like, why not just say, you know what? You could have said. Go ahead. Do you have one here? Do you want to play it?

Do you got it? Let's play it. Let's play it. on the exit out of Columbus. Well, I chose to walk away, really straightforward, and I appreciate the question here, was it was very evident before the year started. I hadn't benched anybody, I hadn't talked to anybody,

I hadn't sat anybody out, and it was evident that we weren't together as a staff right from the get-go. My wife gave me a call, and she said, it's time to get out of there. I had been retired. I was pretty good at it. I got back to being retired.

That is the most ridiculous answer. Just a little nugget. Say, you know what? I did some stuff that I regret, and I got to get better from it, and it won't happen again. And I got to move on. I got a great opportunity.

I chose to walk away. I chose to walk away with a pending NHLTA, NHL sanctioned investigation. Like, come on. Come on. Don't insult our intelligence. Furthermore. You can say, hey, I didn't.

I didn't think I did anything wrong, Hazy, but like, don't act like it was a totally normal departure. 100%. It's like you're insulting the intelligence of the people watching. Yeah. And he wasn't retired. He was fired and still collecting money from the lease. Like, that's what he was doing. He didn't determine in 2019, I'm out of here.

They fired him. Johnny, I agree with you, too, because you had an opportunity to date. Nobody was, even if it was phony, nobody would have believed it. But you just go, hey, I'm worried about the Evanton Oilers. There's been mistakes in the past or whatever you want to call it. But I'm here to win. Like, you kind of could have prepared something and just said, you know, I'm not looking back. I'm looking forward.

Not how he operates. But that's just, but you come back. I called me. Got to get out of her. That's a weird one. But also, like, I just don't understand that. Well, okay. Didn't bench anyone?

Because you didn't get to the season. You didn't make it the training camp. What are we talking about? about here. On some level. Now, like, yeah,

go ahead. Yeah. And he can do the same thing in the, like, he clearly is unrepentant. He's not a change guy. He's a guy who thinks that the way he coaches is the way to coach, and there's nothing wrong with it.

And if people don't like it, it's because his tone is off because he speaks to like with a bad tone, like his kids hear a bad tone. It's not it. But what I'm just, and I want for the other players, like, has anything over the top

unpleasant about their experience of Mike Babcock. But guys, it won't take long. For one, hey, Jeff O'Neill, you are this. Mike Johnson, your family is that. Sort of off-sides comment, off-site, one call to the PA,

one investigation opened, and that's it. I don't know if he gets fired, but it'll undermine all of his authority. So, yes, he can go back and be the exact same guy, but if he crosses a line like he has crossed before and again this is not like criminal stuff he's doing he's just doing you know or relationship communication

whatever just being Mike Babcock you know he's being a jerk I'm going to say a different word being a jerk and if someone calls the PA about that they'll open an investigation so quick and he might have another forced retirement I just it was so easy to do something different and then do whatever the heck you want in the dress room.

Do what the hell you want to Connerick David open day at camp. But for this one day, he could have acted like a little, just fake it. Fake like you cared, what happened, and that maybe you shouldn't have done it exactly that way. He couldn't even bother with that, which tells you everything you need to know about how he's going to approach this job. Exactly the same way he approached every other job he's had. The trades are pouring in in the NHL right now. So the Ottawa senators have acquired William Eklund from San Jose. We don't know all the details of the trade,

but that number nine pick they got from Florida is going the other way, according to Chris Johnson and others. So I don't know what else. San Jose may be sent in to Ottawa. What else is a three-play or trade. Okay. Do you have the details? I haven't seen that yet.

Well, the Sends tweeted it out. Okay. So William Eklund, Casper Haltunan, and the rights to Brandon Svoboda in exchange for the ninth overall pick. Okay. So it's three players for the ninth overall pick. Johnny, where do you stand on that trade for Ottawa and for San Jose? I mean, I think Will and Ecclind had sort of fallen out of favor in that young collection of good talent. He is signed long term.

He's a dynamic skater. He's like a slightly better version of Fabian Zetterland, who they tried to acquire a couple years ago. and has it really pop there. But he will get them offense. He's a talented player and he plays with good players and he will in Ottawa. He is controlled. He's got five more years on his contract.

So that does matter for these teams right now. You know, they got the night. That's one piece of the Kachuk puzzle. So they replace some of the offense there. None of the physicality or grit or leadership. But, you know, he's a good player. He was one of the players when I was bandying about

outrageous trades for the second overall pick. If you're going to trade on Austin Matthews out there, you go give, you know, you get the second, you get William Ecklin. He would be the one guy who's a good forward, but you could get out of San Jose because of where he fell in the death chart and how much money he's going to be making.

I don't hate it. It's got to be one piece of like a three-piece replacement. Yeah. For Brady Chuck. Brady-Cachuk. But he's got term and he's got talent and he's not going to be going anywhere. All things that matter for Ottawa. Johnny, on our award-winning segment, confirmers and I,

Brian Hayes asked the question, if Brady Kachuk would be booed more than Mitch Marner would when he got, came back to Toronto. What's your confirm or deny on that one? Oh, I'm a confident confirmation that Brady's going to get booed much harder than Mitch Marner, much harder.

Yeah. Just because of the way this is down. Yeah, I mean, I think the Ottawa fans are more passionately fickle or sensitive about someone not choosing their market. I think, you know, there's, Nobody wanted Brady to leave. You know, that was, and no general fan felt like, oh, we can't wait for Brady get out of here.

I think there was some percentage of leave fans were like, okay, maybe Mitch Marner's thing has run its course. And the general politeness of the corporate crowd of Toronto was going to be polite to Mitch Marner. No, I think Brady gets it pretty hard when he comes back. You know, I heard you guys talking yesterday, Hayes he saw your take about it. Does semantics matter to you at all?

even if the sentiment in his heart of hearts was like, I'm going to go to Florida. If in that, whatever, the year end press, he's like, I've always been talking past tense, I've always been committed,

I've always shown my commitment to Ottawa, I've never said I want to leave. All stuff that you gotta say is true. Like, he never did talk about wanting to leave. He always did show a commitment to Ottawa. You know, like,

if he's talking past tense, yeah, I just, I don't, and if he didn't say, I want to be, traded hazy he just said they said hey brady what do you think's going to happen in two years he's like you know what i think i'm going to go play my brother or somewhere else that's where i'm leaning

right now does that change at all if he didn't say i want to be traded now yeah i don't i don't know i mean i i think again his approach with like he was frustrated that people keep asking him was would indicate i think the read from a lot of ottawa fans was okay leave him alone he loves it here you know what i mean like i think that's what makes this more scathing in a way is, is that it also wasn't, like, reported openly leading up to it. Hey, like, there were no breadcrumbs. Be prepared for this. I think he might be leaving. Like, Hellebuck, no one in Winnipeg will be shocked if he gets traded tonight. Well, now, because of his comments. It's out there. But also, it's being reported. Hellabuck, people are calling

on Hellebuck. Maybe he'd like a change. That didn't, it didn't get to that point with Kachuk. Right? Again, I think within the league, there were people that thought, okay, this might be something you want to be prepared for. That's because I come back to, like, he treated everybody really respectful, and he was respectful of that situation, even though he came back from winning a gold medal.

There were booze in that crowd. There was, you know, there were things that he had to kind of chew on. 100%. I will say this, though, and it was the same thing with Matthews here. Yeah. Which was garbage. True. But Canadians were not going to cheer because the Americans won.

That is absurd for any American player to think, why aren't you giving me a standing ovation? Like, they beat Canadian, Canada. But, you know, like, I get it. It was beyond that. It was more about going to the White House. Let's call what it was. A lot of Canadians took issue with the White House, with all of that, the state of the Union. And I agree. Listen, they're Americans. They don't, that's the reality. They, like, it's tough for us to understand that. They're Americans. They're not, they're not Canadians. They're not going to see the world

through the lens of a Canadian living in all. Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver, they're Americans. And that's just the reality. And that didn't change whether they won or lost to go. You said it yesterday, and Johnny, you can chime in too. But, like, fans have the right to be pissed, and rightfully so. Because these players have moved on. But, you know, the player also has the right to do what he wants to do.

Careers are short. And it's not like Brady put in two years there. What do you put nine, ten years in? Yeah, eight years, I think it was. So, I mean, at the end of the end of it. of the day, I feel bad for Ottawa fans because I'm, you know, a guy who covers the game. Yeah, and he, that's the thing. Like, he's the marquee guy, you know, and I do wonder, and Johnny, you can answer this if actually the experience Calgary went through with Matthew

and how eventually that turned into an absolute disaster of a trade because of one player, and we all know who it is, Huberto, if Ottawa said, we just want to. We just want to. pick so we can deter it like yeah you can't label that player X for Y exactly like do you think there's a chance they they looked at that and said maybe Florida put a couple players out I don't know maybe they say

you can have for Hagee and someone else if you want them yeah and they said no I don't know if we want to we want to go down the Huberdo road you think that's possible they learn from that experience well no because I don't think they're going to get a player perceived to be as good as Huberto was then they wanted Lundell

and Lundell's a known commodity they would been better off getting Anton Lundell than the 26th overall pick or the ninth overall pick. They would have been better served. So I don't know if that was the case. But I do think, guys, one aspect of this, because I don't, oh, you touched on it, Frank, I know people don't want to hear there's not a lot of loyalty in the game. I know people find that offensive. But if Brady Kachuk just said, I plan on playing out my contract to its conclusion,

as best I can, and then I will go wherever I want to go after that. that. Like, I don't, that's not a disloyal move. He's just buying out his contract. And where, and I'm just wondering, again, people don't care about this, but where's the energy to John Chica or Stan Bowman for asking guys who have negotiated and presumably paid for in cash, no move clauses? And they're like, now we're going to, we're going to not have you honor that. I don't see a lot of heat coming down on the GMs that they are character, flawed, quitters, running from a... Where's the loyalty? I earned it. I was traded three times. I didn't want to get traded on Toronto. Where was the loyalty I was supposed to be afforded?

It's not there. Nobody expects it to be if you didn't ask to be traded with time left on your contract. You just said, hey, when it expires, I'm leaving. That seems totally reasonable to me. Keep it the same way. It can't have it just the players are bad guys for wanting to move. Then players with no moves who don't want to go anywhere,

Morgan Riley and Toronto. then the teams are bad guys for trying to force them to move. It's the same thing. You can't have it both ways. Either you're offended by it or you're not. And I'm not offended by it either case. But if you are, Hayes, I think there's a comparison there. And the energy doesn't seem the same.

There we go. There's a couple things. One, first and foremost, fans are fans of the team first, not the players. That's fair. Every fan wants their team to do well, right? Reminder about loyalty then. They don't care about you. They care about the team.

Go ahead. Yes. But that's my point. Of course, my point is it's going to be imbalanced. Of course, they're going to look at the team and say, hey, that was smart because that helps me get more wins in the future, as opposed to looking at the player and say, I understand what you're saying because you want to go somewhere else.

Like, I think if you're looking at fans and asking them to be reasonable, that's your first mistake. I'm asking you to be reasonable. I'm asking you to be reasonable. But here's what I would say on that. If I look at a GM and say, you're disloyal, but you're also stupid. I'll come on the air and say you should be fired.

You can't fire a player. The contract's guaranteed. Guy signs an eight-year deal and doesn't pull his weight. So, Elias Patterson's incredibly loyal to Vancouver. You can sit them out? You can sit them out? You got no movement clauses, no trade costs. Are they getting paid? Do you get the money?

Do you get the money to use it on another player? Oh, do you get the money? DEMs get the money when they get fired. They don't lose the money. They don't get paid. It doesn't go against the cap, though, Johnny. I'm aware of that, but you're saying that there's no options. You can elect, if you don't like a guy, there are options, you don't have to play him. That's within the rules.

You're operating within the rules. Again, that doesn't help the scenario of whether or not the team's going to improve or not. But lastly on this, what I would say, again, this is not, again, it's more about the emotions of fandom. Every team makes trades. Every team is ruthless. Not every player is just thinking about himself and what he's going to do with his career. There are a lot of, you can say that, but

Sidney Crosby's like, I'm not leaving. I want to play in Pittsburgh. I'm going to play here my whole career. Jordan Stollagist. He had an opportunity his third year. Not the point. The point is, he's like, I'm not leaving. But he's like, there's an example of a player is like, I'm loyal to Pitt. I'm staying here. So obviously

other fans are going to say, man, that guy's amazing. Why can't we have that? Like, of course they're going to look at their guy and say, why do you think? He's loyal. Yeah, after 23 years, Johnny you think it's this, it's apples to Or like that's not apples to apples. So how many years are I have to play? How many years?

I don't have an... I don't have an answer for you on that. I don't have an answer. Well, you got to give me one. But I don't see it the same way you do. You're not convincing me. I'm not changing my mind on the fact that I think that there's a difference between a team operating and a GM operating

and players in the way the fans are going to approach their decision to jump or not and demand a trade. And furthermore weaponized the no movement. clause where they're only willing to go to one place. Let me jump in just quickly on this because, you know, the argument's good, but the one thing that's being pointed out, this is a business. Yes. And that's the one thing.

Like, this is, there isn't, you know, there should be loyalty, but there's not. Well, like, that's the one thing. I'm not naive to that. And let me, let me clarify here quickly, Johnny. Yeah. I'm not saying I don't understand it from Brady's. It doesn't mean I have to. like it, though. That's two separate

things. I'm not saying, like, it's his life, it's his career, he's made a decision. I, for one, think there's a chance he regrets this in the end. Like, I think he's jumped as deep into his brother's shadow as you can get. If he wins a championship in the next two years, I'm pretty sure that'll

all be erased. Right now, I think he's probably very happy. South Beach, Florida, good team. You know, they win at Stanley Cup. That's Barcove's Cup. I said a last line on Jay. I can name 10 players. that would be ahead of Brady on that marquee. 10 before you get to him and say he contributed to that. Because he's jumping on a train that's already going 100 miles an hour.

And I'm not saying today or tomorrow or at the cup party, he'll look that way. I just wonder in 20 years if he'll look back and say, I wish I didn't go there. I wish I didn't jump on that one. Totally reasonable. Yeah. Totally reasonable. Absolutely reasonable take.

I'm just saying there's a lot of people slamming Larkin, Brady, Zachorensky, whoever might be next up on the list. I want some, Connor Ellibuck, whoever. Brady specifically, I don't think he asked to be traded. He just said, I'm not going to resign. There is a difference there. I think he has to be traded. I think Steyos made it pretty clear

and you want it out. He may have wanted out, but he was going to, okay, anyways. Anyway, but that's important. He could have kept him for two more years. He could have kept it for two more years and said, you know what? like anyone who's contract runs its course, you're allowed to go elsewhere.

I guess I am sensitive to players as long as they operate within the rules in the CBA. And I don't expect fans to have you happy. They should be mad. They should boo. But the media attacking the people for making this call, he's operating within the rules. Yeah.

You know, is he a bad person? Is he a bad guy? Is he a loser? But it's not a person. Is he afraid of the heat? But it's not personal, though, Johnny. Like, that's not fair. Like, it's not...

Well, I'm not talking about you specifically. A lot of stuff I've read from professional media people are like, this guy's got no guts. And Stan the heat, he wants an easy life. I'm like, hang on. Maybe he just wants to live with his brother. Like, if I had a brother in the NHL, I wouldn't mind playing with them. That'd be pretty cool.

But can he not call up Matthew and say, come get traded up here? Is that just not possible? Or does he have to go to play with Matthew? Yeah. Like, does Matthew not have to, yeah. But then you answered your own question. Obviously, a part of it is, like, let's not pretend. Like, a part of it is in Florida, really good team, taxes.

Ottawa, Florida, living. Yeah, I mean, let's not pretend. Guys, I just want to let you know on the fly that after all of the speculation and all the talk on Jordan Kairu, I believe he's been traded to Washington. You're kidding me. I know, I'm dead serious. Okay. I think he's been traded to the Washington Capitals.

Wow. for who young young waiting for details waiting for the details the O desk the O desk strikes well Jordan Cairo

wow save this for next week no kidding exactly what the hell are we going to talk about well he's a trade though he's on a free agent I know these are all trades that are happening I get it but it just seems like there's a lot of business going on right now

do you think OV is like definitely playing next year what's your percentage jerry's percentage johnny that ovi's going to skate through the the doors in this might make me think that he says see you later yeah 30% okay because if he wanted a contract you could just get it done like give me 8 million bucks and whatever it is iru shoots right can play on the wing can play in the middle washington's going to be a team they got lots of young prospects i don't like what st louis doing then it's not let me let me give you this

details. It sounds like it's for Connor McMichael, Milton Gastron and the 16th pick in the draft. Okay. So, Cairo. That's... McMichael had 27 or something this year. Michael's kind of mid... Is he 27 years old, though? Like,

they're not going to... No, he's younger than that. Is he? I think he's 23. Okay. So then you're going younger. But I think you're going to see... Where's Robert Thomas then? Yeah. Like, I think you move away from Thomas then, too. So 25. He's 25 years old. I think you might see a pick of Ovi on the beach this summer that might be unflattering.

Does St. Louis not like, do they put the white flag up? Is Pareco next? Bennington in play? And you're just tanked. But Pereco has a no trade haze. That's right. How do you handle that? Not allowed to. Can't ask them. Wouldn't do it. That would be disloyal. Be against there.

I'd never expect anyone. Heaven forbid. Heaven forbid. It's a two-way street. It's a two-way street. Everything's got to be equal. I've always said that. No, but Johnny makes a good point because we're pissed at players that ask for a trade, but we're not pissed at management that go, get the hell out of here.

I'm pissed at everybody all the time. Like, if you think I'm not giving it to management type. And that's not an exaggeration. Yeah, I'm always giving it to the advantage. I misspoke. It's not Jerry's percentages. It's Fred's Perth's. Fred's percentages.

Johnny, did you hear the story of what happened today? Starting tomorrow, Fred's percentages. Go ahead. So we went for lunch with two wonderful people. Incredible people. Fred and Elizabeth, okay? And, oh, we got there. Hayes and I walked in, and O was already holding court with them.

He'd been there for 30 minutes, just yucking it up. We both got there 30 minutes early. And this guy's name was Fred. Fred and Elizabeth, they're wonderful people. Halfway through the lunch, O starts calling him Gary and then into Jerry by the end. So it's calling him Jerry. Like, just...

I don't know. Jerry will get to the alumni box this year. But Johnny, I'm sitting right behind... I'm sitting right beside Hayes at this lunch, okay? And Jerry at the time said something, and I was like, you're damn right, Jerry. Hayes could have easily said the guy's name's Fred, O'Dog. But he never did it. Just let it go.

Do you a text? Are you a text? You got her. I text. Anything. But Johnny, when I got there, he called them Fred. Yes. So I'm like, he knows his name's Fred.

Dude. We must have missed. He needs his nicknames. That's what I'm saying. We miss them establishing nicknames. I don't know. I honestly, I'm concerned about my brain functioning. Because as the lunch went on, I, by the way, I'm very fond of this guy.

He's old school. And I'm looking at him, and I'm just like, I kind of got lost for a second. and I just looked at it and I'm like, there's no way in hell that this guy's name is not Jerry. So I was like, you're damn right, Jerry. And Hayes kind of gave me a bit of a side eye. But you could have just said, his

name's Fred. Like that would have ended it, and I would have been like, I don't know what. You're right. It just morphed into it. You're right. The point where I started second guessing myself is when you come in with a wrong name with full conviction. You're damn right, Jerry. It wasn't like you didn't mumble it.

You were a full. committed because you knew his name was Jerry. I was. I was Mike Bathcock. I'm like, this guy's name's Jerry, so it's Jerry and we're rolling with it. I mean, Jeff O'Neill thinks you're Jerry. Jeff O'Neill's going to call you Jerry. That's right. That's what Jeff O'Neill does. As confident

as I've ever heard someone name somebody. And the handshake went out. A firm shake and a brook. Jerry, great to see you. He walked out. I was like, be in touch. Keep in touch. Be in touch, taking you to a game. Alumni box. Everything. It was wise.

It was. a wild scene. But shout out to Fred. We love Fred and we love Elizabeth. And Fred, I just want to tell you, I'm honestly really sorry because A, unacceptable, your name's Fred, and B, I apologize for my two friends because they made no attempt to correct me. It's completely on us.

The thing is, Fred is one of our favorite names. We love the name Fred. It's my cat's name. It's a great handle. I love it. Eddie, Chris Edwards sent me that note saying you've got to change it to Fred, so. percentage. That's a great idea. He's on the fly. I took a peek. I'm like, I'm going to give

it. Tomorrow at 530. Fred's percentage. I love it. All right, Johnny. Great stuff, buddy. We'll do it again later in the week. On the way out, guys, Fred's percentages, are we going to Houston? Are we going to Austin? I think 95% Houston. I say

95% Houston. But Austin... Let's just say this. We'd like to go to Houston, but we'd like to tee it up in Austin, too. Yes. Great idea. Great call. Great. There we go. All right, Johnny. Good stuff, buddy. We'll do it later in the week.

All right, fellas. There's Mike Johnson joining us here on the Maple Toyota hotline. It's time to Toyota. Check out the Toyota Tacoma, Toyota Tundra pickup trucks, both available as hybrids. Maple Toyota near Canada's Wonderland on the Maple Auto Mall. Pride is like love. You feel it in your heart.

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