OverDrive - LeBrun on Toews' sweepstakes taking shape, the Oilers' search for a win and the rumblings from the league

Episode Date: June 11, 2025

TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the Stanley Cup Final, the Oilers looking to get back on track against the Panthers, Edmonton on the ice, Jonathan Toews' sweepstakes heightening, the CBA reaching an agreement, the rumblings across the league and more.

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Visit a Bell store or bell.ca slash blue dot days for details. Bell, getting a new phone just got better. Squinting through bright days? That's a no. Struggling with glare? Also no. What about sunglasses over regular glasses? Big no.

But prescription sunglasses from Pearl Vision? That's a huge yes. They're a must have for enjoying the sun in style. Choose from designer frames like Ralph Lauren, Coach, Michael Kors, and more. Arrange an eye exam at pearlvision.ca and get 40% off lenses. Some restrictions and exclusions may apply. See participating stores for details. Tia Sunhockey, Insider. Pierre, what are you hearing on Jonathan Taves and you know, who's in the mix to possibly sign him? Yeah, what I know is that when the news first got out a couple weeks ago that he was 100%

committed to coming back, I mean, the agent for Jonathan Taves by Bisson, it's more than exploded. You know, some people just want to know what's what, but what's happened here over the last couple of days is that Brisson has shortened the list to three or four serious possibilities for Jonathan's days. I don't know what all the things are on there, but I do know Winnipeg is one of them. Beyond that, I think it's possible Colorado is potentially one of them, but I don begs one of them. Beyond that, I think it's possible in Colorado is potentially one of them, but I don't know all of them. And at some point- You know we have to ask you, Pierre,

is Toronto on it? I don't know. I'm not saying they can't be, oh. I mean, listen, it actually would make sense to me when you're talking about wanting to change the DNA of some of your team and your broad tree living. But I don't know that Toronto is one of them. I just can't, I just can't answer that for sure for you.

Yeah, go ahead. I just wanted to follow up with the goings on today in Florida. Are you disappointed you couldn't write a piece today on an off day that the Edmonton Oilers didn't show up for the to speak to you It was I mean it was strange I don't think that I've seen that before in the Stanley Cup final I actually didn't go to the ring today because I

Made to I took a day today We should be calling out the athletic the day today. Maybe the Athletic, we should be calling out the Athletic and going, geez, you know, why wasn't their reporter at the rink there? You know, like... Oh, yeah, we had plenty of reporters there. We had Michael Russo and Chris Johnson and Dale Ligia-Ballman there. But I took a day to get up to date, you know, all the goings on around the league, because

I had a rumbling vlog going out on the Athletic this evening. Okay. So you needed to recharge too. Yeah, it's a busy time. Well, you probably saw some of my tweets. I also put out some news on the Penguins ownership front. That's the... Yeah. That sort of came out of left field with Merrill Lemieux and Ron Burkle and Dave Morehouse wanting to buy back the Peng penguins from and where i don't know if they're going to be able to but i know for a fact that the exploring it

uh... i would do why would they do that they just got out they just got all that money what because they've the penguins stink now like this can't continue and they're gonna have to pay a boatload more yeah well yeah it it's. Certainly I think that the fact that Fenway and its public, Fenway announced several months ago they were they were soliciting minority stake positions but this is not this. I mean they want to buy the whole thing back. I also hear there's another group that's

been calling so who knows where this goes. Yeah the timing is interesting but to answer the question, the reason all this is even potentially happening is because Benway seemingly wants out after buying the Seaman 2021. Hmm. That's interesting. Kyle Dubas and company would be feeling about that. That's a that's a bit of a different world maybe possibly moving forward. I saw you tweet that I guess the CB8 talks you know everything's all good the energy on the PA everyone's happy with each other yeah it's getting closer and closer they had another bargaining

session here today at the cup final I think what you'll see happen here over the next couple weeks guys is someone's just, well, it's done or it's done in spirit or tentatively done. And it's always hard to like, this is a complicated document that they're negotiating. The reality is, from talking to someone involved today, they are inching closer. And I think that the lead hopes to have a Senate of agreement to put in front of owners of the June 25th Board of Governors meeting here this month. So it really is getting there but it's just that they're still I'm told five to six issues of both sides still have to get through but they're not major ones. I mean they are really

getting through here to do a CBA agreement here before the end of month I think which is you know it's pretty unbelievable when you consider the history of liberal negotiations that, oh, when noodles would have been part of it players, but usually these things are this smooth between the NHL, HLPA. So honestly, I think it's a relief to a lot of people. How much of the language is regarding the state tax and the taxes? Everyone else talks about it, Pierre. How much is it going to be in this document?

I don't think it will be in it at all. You know, Gary Bettman and Bill Daley were asked about that right before game one of the cup final. And they basically said, yeah, that's not going to be in this thing. We're not addressing that. And it's because they don't think it's that big a deal

We could argue all day about that But I it is worth pointing out that before everyone wanted to play for Florida now No one wanted to play for Florida for about 25 years So I mean I think being a good team and and having chances to win is pretty important Not just the palm trees that i'm staring at right now outside my uh... window yeah it's fair i mean when you look at it here like i played there in oh six or whatever it was like a building was

pretty quiet unless it was an original six team and you know i always thought that they built the rink in the wrong spot that's you know it's out the sawgrass. Wow, they did. Yeah, they did. They did. They did. But they've made it work. You know, I played against the Panthers when they were in Miami and it had to be fenced in because it was in like one of the roughest neighborhoods. I felt like in America. It was gritty, very gritty.

I never went to that rink. Yeah, I remember that. Fight your way out of the rink. The rink really is in the middle of nowhere. But I don't know that they're going to find a better solution. Their lease with that arena is up in 28, I believe. And I had heard whispers that maybe ownership of Vinny Viola was thinking of maybe building a new NHL arena in Fort Lauderdale close to their practice facility.

But now I'm hearing that maybe that's just not, there's just not that much land in Fort Lauderdale near the ocean. So I think they're probably stuck where they are, I think. What do you make of where the series is at? I know Edmonton didn't speak today, but your sense around it, is there some panic? Is there frustration? Or is it poised and somebody's got to be up 2-1 in the series? Yeah, I don't think.

I don't sense panic, but certainly the Oilers are trying to find their way around the situation they're in now. I mean, they were almost up 2-0 in the series, one shot away from that, and now they just got clobbered and they're down to one I mean the entire series to me that inches on for more nights I mean I mean it has to win and then have to work three at home I don't know how they can go home down three ones but let me just walk you through the last couple days because I I wonder what you three think of it but you know originally they were gonna have a day off yesterday which is natural for when you have two off days

in the cup final and you play late the night before normally you keep the players off the ice the next day and then get back on the ice day after that right but they made a decision late Monday night after that loss to instead have a full skate yesterday, which by the way, I think was the right call. And part of what was explained to me behind the scenes is that, you know, I think there's some on the coaching staff who feel that they've just had too many optionals here during this playoff run and that they needed a real full skate.

And that's as hard, someone in the organization is going, that's as hard as they've gone. As good a practice as they've had as a bit of practice they've had in a month what they had yesterday and I think part of the concern with us I think part of the coaching staff is that they kind of lost their legs in the middle of game three like like they they they weren't where they should be physically and that's not shocking when it's mid-june and even playing for seven months I mean they played like a hundred what 101 games now, 102 games. But so part of going back on the ice yesterday was for conditioning.

And today was supposed to be an off day, as you guys alluded to at the start here. And, you know, 97 and 29 went on the ice for a surprise optional and a bunch of their teammates joined them, which I kind of see as a bit of leadership there in this crucial moment in the Stanley Cup finals. Let's get back on the ice. Let's get at it. And I think there'll be a full-scale training ahead of game four.

So just that whole sequence of events and the decisions that are happening behind the scenes, how they're treating these two off days after such an embarrassing loss in day three, I think is very interesting because that could have gone a different way. With Pierre Lebrun, our TSN Hockey Insider, so you mentioned the rumblings and we've discussed a few of those rumblings that you'll be writing about. Anything else we should be keeping an eye out for? Like what else is going on? You know, Don Cup final related

that has people buzzing down there. Yeah, well even just the general tone of what I've heard here over the last 48 hours as I dug in and talked to a number of teams and player agents, one of the fascinating things to me that's emerging, guys, there are no sellers right now. The Pittsburgh Penguins appear to be the only team truly selling, and what I mean by that is,

even the Chicago's and San Jose's of the world are selling teams, yeah, we're done selling parts, we wanna add, we wanna be buying some parts this summer. Montreal wants to add a piece. Detroit wants to add. Anaheim trying to complete a Chris Prider trade. Anaheim wants to make a bunch of other moves. Utah wants to be a serious bidder. So all these teams that add rebuilds or retools

or were sellers for a number of off seasons here are all trying to turn the page. But in the meantime, so are the usual contenders trying to buy. And so as a number of team execs told me today they don't remember an off season or at least a start of an off season where basically every team's trying to buy well you can't all be buying so if you're Pittsburgh I actually think there's some pretty good opportunity here with Brian ruts and the part for Carol Because for teams striking out in free agency You know the trade market is shaping up very strange work with so many teams trying to add so that would be one big

Thought right there that that is so different than what I've seen here in the last seven eight years Yeah, that's interesting like that might open the door for You know some quality teams to be sellers in a way that maybe you didn't see it coming. Like again, you think of the Leafs, you think of Dallas, you think of Carolina, like these good teams that are looking for this DNA change or something's got to give, you know, Jason Robertson's name is out there and, you know, the Leafs, they're not're not gonna trade I don't think one of their like truly best players but could there be someone in the middle that all of a sudden you want to trade that again is just about opening up

flexibility and maybe another team can swoop in and get them I don't know I mean you gotta be creative at this point you know what's crazy Hayes yeah guys think about the idea of keeping Ricard Raquel and Rust last year and then all of a sudden decided to trade them. Are they insane? Why didn't you trade them last year? I think personally, I'll let you weigh in Pierre, but I think it was the mandate. You do everything you can to try and make the playoffs.

They didn't do it. Now it's game on I feel like now you can open the the the floodgates and move everybody out that's I feel like the first two years of Kyle's contract was try and make the playoffs now they fired the coach and I think everyone's available outside of you know the guys with the contracts that that either can control their own destiny yeah I think that's bang on noodles. I mean, I don't agree with it and Hayes and I have been on the same wavelength at Pittsburgh for a number of years now. But I think, you know, Ron Exile got fired. He was hired by the previous ownership group to tear down

the Penguins and to rebuild them. And when Fenway bought the team, they told Ron Exile to get lost because they didn't want to tear it down. And you know, Kyle Dubas is just following orders. He got hired and the pretense was we're not ready to tear it down yet. I think it's ridiculous. I think the writing was on the walls and it's even more ridiculous when you consider how successful Washington's retooling has been when you talk about similar teams in similar eras but now yeah they're they're listening on everyone that aren't legacy guys I mean they're not you know they're not gonna move Malcolm or Frosby but there you know Russ is the guy that the one that teams are calling

on the most but they didn't decide to sell until really midway through last year when when the fight to look more to the stories of future here just before we get you out of here when you said you and Hayes were on the last year when we decided to look more towards the future. Piero, just before we get you out of here, when you said you and Hayes were on the same wavelength, what does that mean? What was the wavelength? Trade city? I think that we were on the Pittsburgh Nice wake up and smell the coffee train before

a lot of other people, I think. Oh, you guys had like private meetings? 100% factual. Private meetings? Well, we're just smart guys. Hey, I'm not allowed to dive all of my sources on my private meetings. Hey, I mean, smart. That's right.

Go stay private. You have no idea who I'm talking to, when I'm talking to people. That's my line. That's my line. And it sounds just as ridiculous coming out of my mouth no it doesn't because you have no idea who I talked to well I talked to Pierre and he and I we see we see apparently so we see the light we'll catch you down at the cup final enjoy tomorrow night hey by the way offline, send me a recommendation for a steakhouse

in Green Bay, Wisconsin. I got a buddy traveling there for work this week and I've actually never been, so I just want to send that along. Oh, there's some, there's a lot of beauties out there, believe me. Now that we're saying this on the air, you're going to get a million tweets. Check your Twitter account in like five minutes. You'll get some beauties. Hey, that's why I said it. All right. Exactly. You'll get some views. Alright buddy.

Alright, I said it. Alright. Exactly. See you there, yes. Pierre Lebrun, Tia Sennhecchi and Sadr. This Pride season, celebrate with the station that's as bold, vibrant and diverse as you are. I Heart Pride Canada, from dance anthems to pop icons.

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