OverDrive - LeBrun on Knies' future in Toronto, the interest in an offer sheet and Tocchet's coaching tenure

Episode Date: April 10, 2025

TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the NHL, Matthew Knies' impending contract extension, the offer sheet stance in the deal, the Rangers' next steps on the team, Rick Tocchet's forward progression in Vancouver and more.

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Made in Canada, played in Canada. On the free iHeartRadio app and at iHeartRadio.ca. It's gonna get loud. Here's Pierre LeBrun, our TSN hockey insider. Pierre, how would you handicap mini Jerry here on the fly that the Nice Matthews Marner line is a thing for at least the next four or five years. Well, that's a sneaky way of saying what's happening with Marner.

Come on now. And Nice. And Nice. Nice is going to sign. I'm not worried about that. Although, CJ led our insider trading segment this evening with the little Nice item. Just talking about all this you know people around the league wondering if there'll be an offer sheet on Knives and CJ

poured cold water on that for a number of reasons. One, because the Leaks feel confident that they won't leave themselves open to that but the most important reason as CJ says is he doesn't think Matthew Knives is interested in going down that road. He just wants to re-sign with the Leafs, not interested in even going the offer sheet route, which is I'm sure good to hear for Leaf fans. But he's certainly doing himself a lot of good with his season. Having a great year and you know I think for the Leafs you got to figure out Marner, then you got to figure out Knives, and then you got to figure out Tavares in that order. That would be my order.

Well, and in order to do that, then you would have to trust that that is actually accurate in the truth. And I'm not suggesting that CJ is being inaccurate, but if you're going to sit on Nyes and say, hey, listen, you got to wait, then you're opening the door for other teams to kick tires. But that would be very relieving, I would think, if you're tree-living. If Nysen companies say, we're good, we're not going anywhere, we're not doing anything,

figure everything else out and come talk to us, that allows you to probably breathe a little bit easier. Yeah, and that's not to say that they can't sign them as the first item after the season. It's just that by then they will at least have an idea of where Marner is at. You know what I mean? All these conversations have to happen in sequence here after the season is over. And the bottom line is I know that everyone is getting excited about offer sheets because

the Blues pulled off the double whammy last summer. I'm not trying to say there won't be offer sheets, but I'm telling you when I talk to teams that everyone's saying, number one, the salary gap is going up in a major way for the first time in half a decade. We're finally out of the pandemic black gap environment. So the mere fact that teams have more room to maneuver makes it harder to slap an offer sheet on someone. Number two, you know the player has to be compliant in

wanting to do this and I think people underestimate that little part of it. Like you know when Sebastian Aho did the offer sheet with Montreal, I think it went completely under the radar that he actually wanted to go through that exercise even though he knew Carolina would match it. You know what I mean? Like I think it went completely under the radar that he actually wanted to go through that exercise even though he knew Carolina would match it. You know what I mean? Like it might be other markets where it's like dude what do you just do? You just sign with that team so you can get what you want and stay with our team? Like it's not everyone that has the frame of mind to want to go through this and it as it turns out Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg did because they knew that

the Orlers had no money left for them. I just don't think that many teams are gonna be stuck that way as Edmonton was last summer. Yeah. Yeah and it worked out beautifully I mean for St. Louis that's the amazing thing and like Holloway now though is week to week. Yeah I don't think he's gonna be I don't know what you're hearing on that Pierre but it's not good like talking to people in st Louis that that's you know, they're talking like they got to get through the first round type of thing Yeah, it's not short term and is all they would say right now

but You know, they've got a lot of depth though. I mean, I mean they were pretty healthy until that happens. So You know and and the interesting thing is too, is the matchup there in the West keeps changing. So Minnesota winning last night, they've got the tiebreaker on St. Louis. And I love every day watching at the different scenarios. I mean, St. Louis and Minnesota, you know,

are they getting Winnipeg in the first round or Vegas? Neither one's that appealing, but it's interesting every night seeing the matchups change. Not everything is locked in as you might think. There's still a week to go here. Yeah, no kidding. Well, in terms of jockeying for position, there's still some things that could change, but Montreal basically punched a ticket last night thanks to the Rangers just continuing

to melt. no one saw this coming I'm curious what we should be bracing for what do you think happens in New York with the Rangers? Yeah that's a great question I talked about it with you know right out earlier today on our early insider trading Brian because there isn't a lot of hard info coming out of New York right now but when you talk to people around the league about what they think is going to happen there a lot of people believe Peter Labillette will pay the price for this season he's got a year left on his contract and so that wouldn't surprise me I mean that's sort

of the low-hanging fruit I would say but I certainly hope that no one's looking at this season saying this was all about coaching I mean, this is way more deep rooted than that in my estimation like Yeah, someone said to me today you go all the way back to the way Barkley Goudreau was forced out in New York last June and The way that upset a lot of guys in that dressing room and then that was disgusting right, and then they almost basically did the same thing that Jacob Trubba during the season except it ends up being a trade not a waiver thing but I think my you know my sense is that has seeped into that room to some degree where a lot of guys are like what's going on here and and I think there's

been this malaise around that team all year that they haven't been able to shake and I know that's a bit, that's an intangible, it's hard to put your finger on, but you got to come up with some kind of answer for a team that won the president's trophy a year ago and is about to miss the playoffs. I mean, this is one of the biggest fall from grace is a long time in the NHL. I agree. I agree 100% because I don't think we were talking about in the last hour and I was saying was saying well if there was going to be five from the Atlantic well who the heck was going to come out in the metro? We didn't think twice that the Rangers were going to be the team that's coming out and

conversely Pierre, what do you make of Vancouver? You got Rick Tauke there who's lame you know, lame duck, is that what it's called? Is it, you know, you've got to believe his deal's up at the end of this year or an option, correct? Yeah. I don't know if I would call it lame duck and I'll tell you why noodles. Lame duck to me, lame duck to me is a situation where you kind of feel bad for the coach and it's like everyone knows he's 10 man walking etc this has as much to do with what Rick Tauke wants I think yes yeah okay like like his deal is up

there is an option on it Patrick Alveen made it very clear to me the gym meetings they're gonna do everything they can to sign him to an extension but then Rick Tauke a couple weeks later made it clear that he wants to wait till the year's over sit down with Patrick Alvina and Jimmy Rutherford and just discuss the future here and what's what. Beyond that we're all speculating but you know I'll just point this out I'm not saying it's not impossible to talk to a signed extension it obviously is possible that he might but I think you have to at least say to yourself,

if the extension has been there now for a few months, or the intention of the Canucks being willing to do that, and Brick Dock hasn't engaged, it has to give you the sense that he has pause for thought on whether or not he still wants to coach that team. And that's a big deal because, and again, I want to be clear, maybe by the time he decompresses and talks with Brotherford and Alveini, he's like, you know what? Yeah, let's do this.

I like it here. That may be, but if he doesn't, there are a lot of players on that team that absolutely love playing for that guy. And he would be a loss. That would be a significant loss, I think, for that team if he doesn't end up extending. Well, Pierre, Aze was talking about the one guy that spoke highly of Tocket. You've got Quinn Hughes sitting there.

Like, how much do they want to make that guy happy? Like, if he says, I like Rick Tocket, don't you just keep Rick Tocket? Like, that guy and his situation is coming up around the corner like that's gonna be a dicey one. Yeah so that's right. On July 1st, 2026 so you know a year a year plus from now they'll be able to extend him one year out. He's got two more years on his deal. He's the number one priority by far of that organization. It's all about

appeasing Queen Yous, making sure that he's in an environment and a setup that makes sense to him because they want to absolutely extend it forever when the time is right. And I'll tell you this, no one's told me this. This is just me reading between the leaves, the tea leaves here. Um, I think, you know, I think the captain's happiness is one of the reasons why they felt they have to trade JT Miller, not because Quinton Hughes had a problem with JT Miller. I don't think he did, but because the Miller Elias Pedersen feud was so damaging to that dressing room and to that team's day-to-day existence

that I think the organization's like, we got to clean this up, we got to do something because we can't have our players live through this, but especially our captain. I truly believe that. Well, I mean, at this point it's over in Vancouver. They were mathematically eliminated last night. But Vancouver, New York, I mean there's going to be a lot of eyes on both of those markets as we move forward. And as we get closer to the playoffs, obviously people are going to be focused on the hockey, but

there's going to be 16 teams that missed the playoffs. Out of those two teams or pushing those two teams aside, is there another one that you have your eyes on, Pierre, that will be particularly disturbed by what's happened or feel like they've got to change the most in the offseason? Yes, Toronto, if they lose in the first round. I'm just kidding. Oh, I'm just kidding, buddy. Yes, valid. 100% true there, Pierre.

You're right. A lot of jerk comment. Wow. Unhopeful but accurate. Wow. No, Boston, Boston is a team I raised on inside of trading tonight and the simple reason that we're sort of waiting to see what Cam Neely and Charlie Jacobs decide on Don Sweeney and which may be nothing. Maybe that obviously continues on as GM where he's been GM for 10 years,

obviously done an amazing job. But the reason I brought it up is that there's been no indication either way. He's entering the final year of his contract next season, so usually no matter what happened in your year, that's like a summer where you talk about things, right? And he's been there a long time. Obviously the season's been incredibly disappointing for the Bruins. Now, I thought he had a really good trade deadline as far as the return on his mini tear down that he did.

He was as busy as almost anyone as far as selling. It was the first time he had ever been a seller at the trade deadline in all his years as Bruins GM. But the bottom line is, I think there are people around the league curious to see this marriage continue for an 11th year or is there a change there? And I don't know that change is a warrant that, he's a guy that's really well respected around the league, but it's Boston and you know, they have pretty high expectations there.

Yep, they always have and that's a market where they're not going to let you off the hook for long, man. You don't mess around in Boston. All right, Pierre, we'll leave it there. Enjoy your weekend and we'll do it again soon. All right on, on my way to Scotia Bank Pond, game two of the U14 GTHL finals. Let's go Leeside Flames. Yes, go Leeside.

We love it. Take care of business tonight. We're gonna try. All right, boys. All right, buddy. There's Pierre LeBrun, we love it. Take care of business tonight. We're gonna try. All right, boys. All right, buddy, there's Pierre LeBrun, a TSN hockey insider. All new, all Canadian.

The best of our great nation, one song at a time. This is Justin Bieber. Hi, this is Terry Clark. We are Nickelback. Made in Canada, on iHeartRadio. Rock, pop, hip hop, and when it comes to country, it's the true north all the way. Loud and proud.

An all new digital radio station from coast to coast. Made in Canada, played in Canada. On the free iHeartRadio app and at iHeartRadio.ca. It's gonna get loud.