OverDrive - OverDrive - August 19, 2025 - Hour 3

Episode Date: August 19, 2025

Join Michael DiStefano and Frank Corrado for Hour 3 on OverDrive! Toronto Sun Blue Jays reporter Rob Longley stops by to discuss Tommy Pham’s bizarre antics. Al’s Brother gives his list of emerging talents on Canadian NHL teams and we give out our FanDuel Best Bets.

Claudia was leaving for her pickleball tournament. I've been visualizing my match all week. She was so focused on visualizing that she didn't see the column behind her car on her backhand side. Good thing Claudia's with Intact. The insurer with the largest network of auto service centers in the country. Everything was taken care of under one roof and she was on her way in a rental car in no time.

I made it to my tournament and lost in the first round. But you got there on time. Intact Insurance. Your auto service ace. Certain conditions apply. from tariffs to trade deals the markets are changing is your portfolio ready for what comes next for all your questions you need a money guy calvin the money guy will help you develop a financial plan that includes the right levels of diversity the best way to navigate uncertain times with strategic advice from kelvin you can not only protect your investments you can grow them don't wait call four one six 457 plan or visit ask kelvin dot Our three of Overdrive continues. Mike DeStefano filling in for Brian Hayes.

Frankie Corrado with me, Overdrive. Brought to you by Fandul, bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score. I have my best bets coming up in just a little bit. But I noticed something on Twitter here, Frankie. Typically, you know, you're looking at Twitter. There's a bunch of nonsense whenever you're hosting to Overdrive. Lots of stuff.

You get tagged in a couple of things and whatnot. try not to look at it, but I couldn't help but notice that I was tagged in a post that one Frank Corrado made on Twitter. What is this guy doing? Wrong answers only. And it's a photo for those who are listening on the radio of me on my computer on the phone. You got a big watch. Yeah. You're in a blue suit. Yeah. You're on the phone. You're doing something on your computer. I can assure you I was doing something that is not even remotely as professional as it looked in this photo. Not that it doesn't look professional or it does look professional.

It looks like you're a mob boss deciding what to do with someone who acted out of line or like owes you money and you're sitting there like James Gandalfini action. Yeah, that's what he said. Interesting. Beat him to the fish. Okay. Like that's kind of like it's your pondering what to do with someone. Someone who stepped out of line.

Maybe it was Frank. Maybe you were. Maybe I guess we'll never find out. We'll never know. But you can join the fun. go check out Frankie's Twitter. What's this guy doing wrong answers only? A couple funny ones.

A couple funny ones. Someone said he's taking a call from a mortgage client, which is interesting. We had Julian McKenzie from The Athletic. He's on the phone with DJ Callet. Never know. DJ Callet. I've had a couple people tell me that he's like a celebrity lookalike him.

I don't see it. No. Because he got a beard? He got a beard. But he's got like a long beard. That's not one that I've ever, that I never understand. No, you're Al's bro. You know what I get a lot when it comes to

to like celebrity lookalikes? You know the guy who plays Silent Bob? I don't know this. Should I know? It's Kevin Smith, I think, is his name. Okay. Well, he's like Jay and Silent Bob, the movies? No.

Yeah, Silent Bob is. I wish I could help you with this. That one I kind of get. Okay. I do kind of get that a little bit. But, yeah, we'll look them up in the, at some point. I don't know, man. You look like a guy that, like, you shouldn't cross that guy.

You know, that's what I was looking at. Someone said you saved 6% on car insurance. By switching to Geico? That's funny. That is funny. All right. The CPKC Women's Open is coming to Mississauga Golf and Country Club next week. Here's your chance to win a pair of tickets to the penalty box on Friday, August 22nd,

a semi-private box located right by the 10th hole. Text us right now, 1050-50 into overdrive your name and your email. address and number. Your tickets will include access to the suite, food and beverage, and private bathrooms. Plus, first up will be broadcasting live from the open on August 21st and 22nd. So make sure to stop by and say hi

if you're at there on the course. See, Carlo brought his fishing rod to the course. Have you been there while he's tossed a rod into the lake or what? Yeah. Yeah, I've experienced it. How embarrassing is that? I like to play quick. Like, if we're held up on holes,

Like, I don't really appreciate that kind of golf, but at this point in my life, I appreciate any golf. So just getting out there. So I was listening on the morning show, actually, that had Dylan Strome on, and he apparently hit his first ace a couple of days ago. Oh, no way. Yeah, recently got a hold of him one. Apparently there was a big celebration. He started texting all his buddies, little post-golf meet up at the Strome household. Everyone's celebrating the whole in one.

Like, have you had this experience here, Frank? never had an ace, never had an ace. Since we're doing, I don't know why we're doing hole in one shoutouts, but Laura Dykin recently had a hole in one. Really? Shout out, Laura. Yeah. Let's go. So, yeah.

When people talk about their holing ones, though, they talk about, like, the way that I was listening to Dylan Strong this morning, speak of it. It's almost like when they talk about one of the greatest days of their life. Almost as if they asked, like, if I were to ask you what the greatest day of your life is frankly, what would you say? My kids were born. The birth of your children, right? That's normal.

My wedding day. It's usually what people say. What people want to say, those who have had hole in ones, they want to tell you. I had a hole in one on a par four. The thing that's even, on a par four, the thing that's even more annoying is when people say like, yeah, that's my third ace. Like they have like multiple aces. Get out of you. And there's some people that play golf for their whole lives and then they never get one. I never had a hole in one. Not that anyone cares, but training camp in 2016, 2017 with the Leafs, we were in Halifax, and we're staying on, right on the water, and 50 yards out from the water, there's like this little island green,

and basically you pay like 20 bucks and you get like 10 balls to try and get a hole in one, and if you did, you win like $500. And I don't know, people win throughout the summer. So I did it, because I had some time to kill one day. and I was with a few of the guys and I'm just, you know, shot, shot, shot, whatever. Literally get to the 10th ball and plunk it, right in the hole.

That's not a hole in one, not on a golf course, it's not a one on a scorecard, it's only 50 yards, that's the only thing that I could say, but it's not a hole in one. But that's the closest. And we were jumping around, we were having a great time.

Yeah, no, I mean, I will never, I already know this. I will never have a hole in one. I can't even hit the ball straight. I'm that guy who goes to the range and everything, everything slices to the left. Every shot I take. Are you a lefty?

I'm a lefty. Yeah. So it all goes left and I can't figure it out. I can't figure it out for the life of me. I don't know. You got your whole life to play golf. Golf's a sport for life. You can pick it up any time.

Well, possibly, possibly. Try doing it now because once life goes on, you can't. Once have kids, far less time. Far less time at that point. How much golf am I playing? Is that what you're going to ask me right now? Well, yeah, not much. Yeah, not a lot, eh?

Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, we can move on from the golf conversation if it's, one day. If it's scarred to you for you. Go to the CPKC Canadian Women's Open this week. It's going to be awesome. Absolutely.

It's going to be great. Hopefully, Brooke Henderson, the Brooke Brigade. Yeah, the Brook Brigade. We'll be back in action, I'm sure. Rob Longing will join us in just a couple of minutes here. There are some updates on Vladimir Guerrero Jr. who left yesterday's game with the left hamstring tightness. They said he would undergo an air.

MRI today, and it sounds like just inflammation. Just some inflammation. He's considered day to day, not in the lineup tonight, expected to be in the lineup at some point here. So it's not a long-term injury, but not there tonight, probably not tomorrow.

They had an off day on Thursday, so we're targeting possibly Friday as the day that they can get Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Back into the lineup. To join us and talk about that, give us an update and tee up the game tonight. against the Pirates.

We are joined by Jay's Beat Writer for the Toronto Sun. Rob Longley. How's going, Rob? Hey, pretty good, guys. So, Rob, we were just talking about the update here on Vladimir Guerrero Jr. It sounds like it's just inflammation as opposed to anything super serious. Is this a dodged bullet for the Blue Jays? Yeah, I think it probably is.

But, you know, I've learned to the more I follow this team, the more I've learned that let's wait until he's back in lineup and performing at the level that he's been performing at before we get too carried away because it seems to me anyway that anytime somebody heads to the injured list, they stay there for a little bit longer than that has been expected. And I'm not saying that Glad's going to the injured list right now that Blue Jays believe that he's going to avoid that. But, you know, we've certainly seen Dalton Varsho fall into that wasteland. We've seen Anthony Santander gone and out of sight for so long. Jimmy Garcia as well. So it's just, it's the kind of thing with injuries, you just never know.

I mean, obviously, the Jays are very hopeful, and the fact that the MRI didn't expose anything, that everything is okay, but hamstrings can be funny. And I would expect that they wouldn't rush him back. I wouldn't think you would see him play at all tomorrow, and then with an off-day Thursday before they resume play in Friday, I think that would be sort of the wisest and the best-case scenario for Vlad to be back in.

Would you be okay with them taking a little extra time? here, given the fact that the Jays have a five-game lead over the Yankees and the Red Sox right now? Yeah, for sure, Frankie. I think, you know, they've got to start thinking in those terms, especially when, you know, every time they lose, it seems nobody makes any ground on them. And I talked to pitching coach Pete Walker about this the other day, and there really is some value in having a cushion. You don't want to abuse it and take anything for granted, but when you have an opportunity to rest a pitcher, say, or a couple of starting pitchers. You do that. When you have the opportunity to give position players an extra

day off, you do that. And when you have the opportunity not to rush somebody back from even the most minor of injuries, you take it until you really need to win games again. You know, definitely exercise some caution in this because they've earned that, right? They've earned that position. And this is the time of year. I mean, John Schneider mentioned it today in Pittsburgh that, you know, everybody's body is a little bit cranky at this time of year when you're, you know, 40 games away from the wire in a 162 game season. It's, you know, the grind is officially on. So, yeah, take that extra time if you can do it.

And then, you know, the rest would probably hurt gladden in a number of ways, or help glad in a number of ways. Yeah, and I mean, when you look at the pitching rotation, everyone's about to get an extra day. Shane Bieber going to be getting into this rotation on. and Friday, sounds like he's going to make the start against the Marlins. What expectations do you have for Bieber in his opening start at the Jace? Yeah, I think Mike, I think it's really exciting to see what he's going to deliver

because anybody that I've talked to that have seen him in his rehab games, they basically are raving about him. They're saying that everything about him from his velocity to his location to his, you know, all his breaking pitches and stuff is vintage Shane Bieber. like the type of performance that could be elite level starter and you know that was the that was sort of the rationale behind this trade it was certainly a high risk trade but the benefit of having a high reward upside to it and everything they've seen so far against triple a hitters you have to make sure that you realize what it was suggest that he is he is the Shane beaver that they attempted to acquire and you know in a number of ways the beauty of it is is he's going to make that first start on whatever it is the 22nd of August. He's got a month had changed to get ready for the postseason and that means five or six starts. And if they get peak Shane Bieber on October 1st, it's going to be one of the better trades in the Ross Atkins era.

So if they get peak Shane Bieber, of course, it's going to be a great trade. Where do you think they're at with Max Scherzer? Not, you know, we know he's available right now, but where do you see his game at when it comes to being peak Max Scherzer? Well, Frankie, to me, I see these guys as number one and number two for games one and game two of the postseason. I mean, obviously, the asterisk is there for Beaver because we don't quite know what he's going to be like against a big league hitting, even though his pitch count has been up and he's done well in AAA. But I think what we've seen from Max Scher, and we're going to see him here in a little bit again tonight, but I think what we've seen from him over the last three or four starts is pretty split.

special. You know, you can see that he is not bothered by the thumb anymore. He doesn't even seem to be thinking of it. And I think that's a huge weight off of his shoulders because essentially it's been in his mind for almost three seasons now. And then you look at the fact that, you know, he's such a competitor. And his arm is going to be, I know it's a 41-year-old arm, but it's somewhat fresh because he really hasn't had to use it a whole lot in the last couple of seasons. And I think the prospect of having those two as a one-two punch heading into the playoffs has the potential for being something special. And probably Kevin Gosman as your third guy, any order of those three guys,

the rotation could be a real strength heading into the playoffs. And one of the guys that you, I guess, didn't mention there would be Jose Barrios. And he's seen a dip quite significantly, since July 1st. She's got like a 568 ERA, the VLOs down. Is there concern about Jose Barrios here down the stretch? I think there has to be. I mean, I think there has to be some probably fairly soon, some difficult conversations with him because, I mean,

they love everything about Jose Barrios. They love the competitor in him. I mean, his nickname is La Macina, the machine. He just, you know, he takes the ball every five days and gives you his best. and one of the hardest workers and one of the best teammates in that clubhouse but his form has definitely been off for a good chunk of this season

and when you have the luxury of six starters you're looking for I mean how do you navigate going forward with that group and certainly for Burrios to be in the mix of the top four which is essentially what you need come post season he's got to change his form somehow between now and then

maybe he's the candidate for a bit of a breather. Maybe you find a mystery I'll stint for him. You know, he's really driven to make those 30-plus starts every year. That's a real goal for him going into every season. But Brillo's even after his last start sort of hinted at it that, yeah, somehow the hitters seem to have an edge on him, and that's almost in the admission of defeat from a starting pitcher. He's well aware that he's not going to stop working.

But he's well aware that his stuff isn't at its best right now. Last night was a bit of a weird one for the Js. They lose to the pirates. There's some errors. There's some pitching that goes awry. And there's an incident with Tommy Fam at home play. Would you make of that whole sequence and some of the comments from Fam, I guess, afterwards or today, when he spoke to the media? Well, Frank, it's pretty on brand for him, right?

He's got a career littered with these types of moments, but it was certainly bizarre in the moment last night the reaction after that walk. I mean, even if he heard Tyler Heinemann mutter something about the call, I mean, that happens all the time between umpires and catchers. Like, just get on down, get your butt down to first base and carry on. But the real bizarre part about it, and Frankie, you could speak to this, is like, why do you go on to social media?

responding to stuff in basically the middle of the night, and then call out at Blue Jays player for allegedly using steroids. Oh, it's crazy. That was nuts. Why would any professional athlete do that in this day and age? I don't know if you like, if you're bored or you're so enraged by it, but I don't know. I found that to be bizarre, A, the fact that, like, he tweeted off of Keegan Matheson's

tweet that he wasn't tagged in. So he obviously either sought that out or someone sent it to him and then went on the Addison Barger thing. Like, just play baseball, man. You're on a team that's 20 games below 500. Like, just, I don't know, just play baseball. Yeah, it was strange. And, of course, he's not in the lineup tonight,

which is probably no surprise. But, I mean, at some point, like, when does the rage end? Like, it sort of, if you watch it last night, but when he was on first base, like, it kept going for another five minutes, at least. And clearly, he carried it into the night. felt the need to go see what social media was saying about it. And, yeah, like, hey, he deleted the tweet, but, I mean, it's out there.

And people had to ask him about it again today. Like, it's a story that's going to have life for a week if he, if he doesn't let it go. Does he go back in on Wednesday? It'll be interesting to see. I suspect probably, yes. But we'll see what happens in tonight's game. If there's any sort of, if there's any hijinks or any fireworks, I wouldn't think that there would be. But I would think that Blue Jays would want to get as far away from anything in my

like that because the last thing you want to do against the last place team that's going nowhere is suddenly offer up some incentive for them to get fired up. I mean, let's try to go quietly into the night here and take two or three from them at least because this is an opportunity for them to keep building on that cushion that we were talking about earlier. With Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun and you put out an article recently with Pete Walker, he had a one-on-one with him. What stood out to you about what he had to say about this year's Toronto Blue Jays?

There are a number of things. I'll obviously talk specifics about the pitching staff and how he feels that the rotation can be his strength. But what I found interesting, he's the longest-serving coach on the staff there, and so he was around in 2015 and 2016, and he sees some parallels with that 2015 team, not so much in personnel.

But in the sort of the excitement around the team, I mean, these guys are loving seeing the Roger Center full. I think it's like 16 games in a row now that have been sellouts. And Pete Walker was talking about how it, you know, it really resonates with everybody. The players feed off of it, the coaches feed off of it. But he is seeing the same sort of passion from the fan base that we saw in 2015, which was the first time people in Toronto had seen it for decades, right? because there were so many bad teams and so many bad teams in that era for the Blue Jays. So it's sort of reliving that moment for Pete.

And he's noticing it on the streets as well where people are talking Blue Jays and wearing Blue Jays skier all the time. And it just so I found that interesting that he sort of channeled those vibes because like I said, he's seen a fair bit. He saw that team bring the passion back to baseball in the city with what they did in 2015 and 2016. Then he saw the sort of the start of the Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette era and the great expectations that came with that and, you know, a lot of excitement for a couple of years of that, then through COVID. And then you saw the bottoming out last year when the team was finished last place. So to see that surge again and to see the fan base respond to it, I think that resonates with everybody on the team, Pete Walker included.

Yeah. I mean, everyone's kind of excited about what's going on with the Blue Jays. I know I was down there for that comeback on Friday and that place was rocking. And it will continue to do songs as they continue to put up wins as we crawl to the end of the season and the postseason begins. Rob really appreciate the time. As always, Powell, we'll do it again soon. Sounds good. Thanks, guys.

Absolutely. Rob Longley. Jay's beat writer for the Toronto Sun. Yeah, man, the city's behind the Jays. It's a Jays town right now. When the Jays are hot, let me tell you. Like, there's no other team, I feel, that has such a hot and cold fan base in the city of Toronto than it is the Blue Jays. Like, the Leafs doesn't matter what they're doing.

People are always interested in the Leafs. I think the Raptors have kind of gotten to that point, too. But the Blue Jays, like the last couple years, there wasn't a lot of Blue Jays hats in downtown Toronto. This year, trust me, I'm walking around, doing my rounds, walking, going for dinner, going to patios. Everyone's got hats on. Jay's, hey, it's everyone. of Jay's hats on this year. I'm out in the burbs now, so I don't have a feel on it. Yeah. Like the last time the Jays were like 2015, 2016, I was living downtown. You could feel

it, right? Like the city's coming alive. Playoffs were coming. Team was on fire. Yeah. I feel like once you get a little bit out of the city, you're removed from it. You just whatever you see on. You're not walking around, right? You're not doing the walk around downtown like you were once before. I'm happy you're doing it though. Hey, you're keeping tabs on everyone. Oh, yeah. You got your spots. You go to. Yeah. Yeah. patio guy. I love a good patio.

You got some patios. Yeah, love a good patio. You go, sit down, have a beer, watch a Jay's game. You know, it's a good. It's a good feeling. It is a good vibe. Yeah. The King West vibe is...

Your King West guy, is very nice. Yeah, I mean, it's... In the summer, it's hard to beat. It's hard to beat in the summer. Go down to lake shore. By the water, you walk around there a little bit? Well, that's my spot. That's right where I'm at.

I walk down there by the water all the time. All the time. It's at Coronation Park. I think it's down that way. Oh, yeah. I get spotted there all the time. Yeah, people are like your Alisbrough? All the time.

Really? All the time. What do they want to ask you? Do they ask you about football stuff? First, it's Hayes is the fraud. It's usually the first words that come out of people's mouths. And then it's, ah, you know, the guys are they beauties? And then, yeah, it's right into, no, you know what it's usually ends up with?

The first thing people say, Hayes of fraud, followed by, dude, that 40 meter dash. Yeah, that's legendary stuff. Like that, that's typically what gets brought up right away is the 40 meter dash. The 40s legendary. Sometimes go on YouTube. I'm sure, like, you do the same thing, and there's your homepage, and for some reason, there's like, it's up there a lot.

It pops up from the time. It's in the algorithm. I got to go, I got to go see this again. Like, I've checked in on that thing multiple times over the years. And it's still to say, like, it still puts a big smile on my face. It's still hilarious stuff. Yeah, well, it's funny. Like my girlfriend, her family, big overdrive fans, her dad watched the show.

and when I went to go meet the parents for the first time, her dad's, you know, I'm introducing myself, Hey, Mike, and introduced myself to her brother. I'm like, eh, Mike, has it going? He's like, no, no, no, you're Al's brother. And you can't run off 40 to save your life. And I just started laughing. And I'm like, all right, it's going to be this type of relationship.

Okay, it sounds good. That's all right. Ease the tension, baby. Yeah, no, it was good. It was good. Nice. And it's been a lot of moments. We've got the football season coming up, though.

So it'll be some more clashing around the corner. Got an email today. we're starting up our that's hockey stuff soon. Oh. So we'll be back to spitting hot takes. All right. The 6 o'clock sports center. We'll tell you what, Frankie.

Let's come back because I got a hockey hot take as well. I got A.B's list, NHL, emerging talents in the Canadian teams. I love it. That's coming up next. You're on overdrive. Claudia was leaving for her pickleball tournament. I've been visualizing my match all week.

She was so focused on visualizing that she didn't see the column behind her car on her backhand side. Good thing, Claudia, is with Intact. The insurer with the largest network of auto service centers in the country. Everything was taken care of under one roof, and she was on her way in a rental car in no time. I made it to my tournament and lost in the first round. But you got there on time.

Intact Insurance, your auto service ace. Certain conditions apply. Welcome back into Overdrive, Mike DeStefano. Filling in for Brian Haines, the captain. We'll be back next week. Got Frank Corrado in with me. and got A.B.'s list upcoming. And you had your list earlier.

Yeah. We talked about snubs from the USA's Olympic camp announcement. I got a couple honorable mentions that maybe we'll do on the back side of this. Okay. A couple honorable mentions. I like it. I like it. A couple guys.

So my list is top five emerging NHL talents on Canadian teams. So we're keeping it. Keep it national. Yep. With the teams on the Canadian. Canadian side of the border. Coming in at number five. I've got Cole Perfetti of the Winnipeg Jets coming in at number five.

You know, he just got a nice little contract. Nick Eeler's gone. There's a spot for him to jump up as one of their best players. And I think that they need that to happen if they're going to stay in contention as one of the best teams in the country. He had a nice step up last year, got to the 50-point plateau. I think he's got another step in him to become one of the, you know, it's going from good to Great. You know what I mean? Like to go from a good player to a great player.

That's kind of the step that I think he can take. There's going to be more opportunity for him. He plays on a good team. The power play was cooking last year. I think it makes sense that he would take another step. Right. And when Ealer's gone, that opens a door for a little bit more minutes for him to come in and do some damage. All right.

Cole Perfetti coming in at number five. Coming in at number four, sticking out West. How to get a gold tender on this list? Dustin Wolf. I've got Dustin Wolf coming in on my list. You know what this guy's accolades were in the minors? Like this guy, Goal of the Year, two years in a row.

Two-time HL goal of the year, won HL MVP as well. And I get it, the size thing was a big concern for a lot of evaluators when he came to Dustin Wolf, whether or not he was going to be able to do it at the NHL level. Well, he's now here, and he's arrived. Last year played 53 games for the Calgary Flames, establishing himself, as their number one goaltender. A 9-10-safe percentage, 264 goals against Average, finished second in Calder Cup in Calder voting to Lane Hudson.

Dustin Mulf is going to be a star goaltender in the National Hockey League out in Calgary. He's really good. I would say he arrived already. Like, he's here. He was a big reason why, and the main reason why Calgary was even sniffing a playoff spot, he was so good, he won the starter's job. he's actually one of my

snubs honorable mentions for snubs for team USA because he's American goalie right but another stud American yeah he's a stud American goalie that's what he is man need one in Canada gotta get a Dustin Wolfe so you have him at number four you have three guys higher than him yeah I've got I got dozen more I'm gold thing is really good

he is really good and I think he's going to be you know a star the problem is goaltitting is one of those weird you know when you're when you're putting goalies in a list you're going to have this problem when you've got to put together your top 50 list for the NHL. Like where do you slot goal is? Because they're not everyday players.

I know. But they're important. They're important. Right? So I thought, you know, number four, maybe it's a cop out

to put him in the list, but he belongs on the list. He's athletic. That's always going to work for him. Right. He's not just, exactly. He's not just like a big blocker.

He has to be able to move. And he's lightning quick. Yeah. Great. Great young goal tender. All right. Okay. Dustin Wolf's at number four.

Coming at number three, going local. Matthew Nyes. Like Matthew Nyes comes in at number three. I think he's one of those guys, too, that goes from good to great. He had a big year this season, kind of a breakout, 29 goals. I think he can get even better. I think Matthew Nyes, what we've seen from this guy in the postseason,

I think he's ready to establish himself as a top line player in the NHL. Now he's got full-time up on the top line with Austin Matthews. That's the duo, Nise and Matthews, that Arizona connection will be there, that desert line connection is going to be a thing. And now with Mitch Marner gone, that also opens up a little bit more space for him to maybe control the puck a little bit more. Does it worry you a bit, though,

not having Mitch Marner playing with Matthew Nyes? Because I feel like that helped his production last year. The only, I think Matthew Nyes. He wasn't on the top, but he was on the top line for the entire season. No, he wasn't. He worked his way up there. He did because he was at the beginning of the year. It was kind of inconsistent.

Third liner at the beginning of the year. It wasn't always smooth sailing last year. it got to the point where it was like this guy's a fixture on the top line and he's not going anywhere and he's a difference maker and I think a lot of that had to do with getting him minutes on the power play as well because when they went with the five forward unit, Matthew and I became the net front guy and all of a sudden now it's like you have an important role, an important spot and you're getting puck touches and you're feeling confident and sure enough everything kind of followed but like he's for me I want to see him do it now without Mitch Martin.

Yeah, there's going to be more of more onus put on him to kind of be a little more of a self-driving force, if you want to call it that. And when you're getting paid, you know, in the $8 million range, you definitely are going to have to do a little bit more of that, right? So I think for sure, like there's, there's going to be question marks there, but just the way that this guy's played, I mean, last year, you could argue, it was the best forward up until he got hurt, best forward that the Maple Leafs had in the postseason. Yeah. Like, he's just such a force, absolute force. This guy, I think that he can get three. 35 to 40 goals this year with the Maple Leafs. Now he's got people one time the whole time. He's a 75 point guy, Matthew Knight.

Yeah. We had 58 last year. You get up to 70, 75, 35 to 40 goals. Like, that's another leap. That's putting yourself into top line. Big boy. Great player, big boy status. And he was invited to Team USA's camp.

He was not snubbed. He was invited. He got the invite. The next guy on my list, though, was snubbed. Lane Hudson. Okay. Lane Hudson coming in at number two. Great rookie season, 66 point rookie year for the month.

Montreal, Canadians, but he could definitely take more steps. I mean, to go 66 points of your first year in the NHL is unbelievable. But we were talking about him. He could get to 100 points at some point. He could elevate himself into that Quinn Hughes, Kail McCarr status when it comes to the production that he can have on the offensive side of the puck. Defensively, there's some things he's going to clearly have to work on to get into that upper echelelon of being considered the number one defenseman

in the world like Kel McCar. or Quinn Hughes. But in terms of offensive production and becoming a star in the NHL, I think that Lane Hudson is definitely on his way to doing that. I got him at number two. You know what he's got going for him? He's super competitive.

Yeah. Like really competitive, almost to a fault where early in the year, he didn't pick his spots as much. So he wanted to do everything every time he had the puck. It was like, you know, to put it in baseball terms, he had to hit the home run every time. And as the year went on,

made some mistakes doing it that way. right you get caught sometimes and as the year went on he did such a he did a better job of kind of thinking things through being more calculated and okay this spot i can be flashy right here i'm just going to keep it simple now going into year two he should have that pretty much mapped out right from the gecko right from the gecko so that should help the other thing have have people figured out lane hudson i would say it's going to be hard to figure him out Dude, that shifty? Like, is that shifty?

It's so hard to stop him. And, and, okay, so you talk about defensively, I think the fact that he's as competitive as he is is going to lead to him continuing to be better defensive. Did you see growth? Did you see growth throughout the season? 100% I did. I'm pretty sure he was top five.

It may have been top five for NHL defensemen when it came to takeaways last year. There you go. So, like, and that's a guy that is not six feet. Not big. No. Not a big dude at all. And I, you know, being down there,

you see him after morning skate. Like, this guy could be the stick boy. That's what he looks like. But he's super, super competitive. So he's always going to have that edge where you're like, this guy wants to be better at something. He will be better at something. Yeah.

I think he's going to be an incredible player for many, many years. Coming in at number one on my list, Frankie. Jake Sanderson. Talk about Lane Hudson being a stud defenseman, up-and-coming star defenseman. Jake Sanderson, who took a big, leap last year, right? He did take that leap becoming a 50-point defenseman.

But Jake Sanderson, what this guy is able to do on both sides of the ice. And that's why I gave him the tipping point over Lane Hudson is he's already established himself as like a shutdown type guy, like a premier two-way defenseman. But he's got another ceiling, I think,

that he can get to offensively, which put him at number one on my list. I like it. Yeah, he's, you know, last year with Jake Sanderson, almost a little bit like Lane Hudson, but in a different way. It felt like Sanderson was carrying the weight of the world in Ottawa, where, you know, top five on five minutes, power play, penalty kill, goalie pulled, shut down. It felt like he had to do like a lot of everything at the start of the year. And as the year went on, I found he just started

to play. Like, you know, when the four nations kind of happened and that that team was, was named, it just, everything felt a little more easy for him. But he's, you know, he's very positive. in the way he plays the game. Yeah. He's very, very polished, very refined. He's going to have another big season for sure. And he's just scratching the surface as far as how good he can. And that's what I mean.

Like, he had a big leap from, you know, the year prior to this past season. And there's another gear that he can get to, to being amongst one of the best defensemen in the national hockey league. I think he's that good. He has that much of a 200-foot game where he can put himself into that echelon as one of the top-tier defensemen. and he was invited to this camp. Like he's going. He's going. He's going.

He's going to make the team. He's going to make the team. He's on the team. Same here. I think Jake Sanderson is one of the six, seven best, eight best defensemen that the USA has to offer. If they take eight, no, no, no question. Even if they take seven, he's on, he's on, he should be on the team. Jake Sanderson or Brock Faber, who's got a brighter future?

Uh, it's, I think there's a higher offensive upside with Jake Sanderson. Yeah. I would agree. Yeah. I would agree with that wholeheartedly. So, all right. There's my list. I love it.

There's list. Jake Sanderson at number one, Lane Hudson, number two, Matthew Nyes at three, Dustin Wolf at four, Cole Perfetti at five. The one that I really struggled with at the end, it was Perfetti and one other guys. There's someone you are looking at that might be considered a snub. I'm curious if you can come up with something. There's one guy specifically. One guy. Is it Uri Slavkovsky? No, it was not Slavkovsky. I'm still like, I'm still curious about Slavkovsky. I think I need to see a little bit more from him. Eastern and Western Conference. Western Conference. Is it not someone in Vancouver? No.

Started to really emerge toward the end of the year. And I think that he's ready to pop. Ready to pop. Thinking it's a Calgary Flame. It is a Calgary Flame. And is it Matt Coronado? It is Matt Coronado. I'm a big Coronado fan.

Big Coronado fan. Good player. I like the way he plays. Another guy who's like not overly big but plays a downhill physical game. but he had 24 goals last year. He's not big, though. No, it's what I mean. He's a goal score.

Like, yeah. He can put the puck in the net. All right, I got one name for you. Any team. Breakout candidate this year in the NHL. Oh. Breakout candidate in the NHL doesn't play for a Canadian team. Doesn't that picking this to be the guy that like arrives this year.

That really arrives Logan Cooley. It's a good name, but I'm not going with Logan Cooley. Okay. Adam Fantilly. Yeah, yeah, that's Adam Fantilly. I think this could be, like, it's his third year in the league,

you know, he had some injuries the first year, played a full 82 last year, Columbus is kind of like, I like Columbus. They got some firepower, they've got the coach there now again for like a little continuity.

Yeah. I think Fantilly pops off this year. I like Fantilly a lot. I think that he's someone who definitely has an opportunity to establish themselves as one of the premier 31 goals in the NHL. 31 goals.

At 20 years old. Yeah. Like, and at some point, they could have, like Columbus could have Fantilli and Caden Lindstrom as their two,

their two top centermen at some point. That's a really, that's a good young team, that could be dangerous for a long time. That's a good team, Zach Wrenski on the back end. They can figure out their goaltending. And that Kent,

uh, Jack Reeves. Jack Reeves. Yeah. Unreal. He had like a 936, say percentage in the last 10 games of the year. It was a small size,

right? Tiny. But it's like, all right, we saw something. Yeah. So if he can replicate that, along with what we saw offensively, because I think the blue jackets, like a top five or six team in goals last year.

They were. They were scoring. They just couldn't keep the puck out of their net, and they were terrible on the road. They're really good home team. Anyways, that's my top emerging talent in the NHL prime for a breakout year, Adam Fantilli. Really quickly, before we get to your honorable mentions on your snubs list, there is one guy who I do find is a very polarizing player heading into year three of his career. Carter Bedard

worry out with Connor Bedard into year three I think Connor Bedard is a really good player and is going to have a a good year but I think it's going to be tough for him to really pop

the way he should with not as much help around him as he should have Is that what it is though? Is it that he was so is it more so that you believe he may have been a little

overhyped as a prospect as a generational talent or is it that they haven't done anything to support him? I think it's somewhere in the middle Was he truly Crosby-McDavid-esque generational? Probably not, but in fairness to him and in fairness to people that were making those evaluations, his numbers said he was going to be.

So how do you argue that when we haven't seen anyone do what he did at the junior level at the world juniors basically since the biggest names to ever play? So understanding that and then realizing, you know, Chicago tried to do the mentorship stuff, with Nick Falino and Corey Perry, and that was all probably good, but he needs guys that can play, you know, to his level. You know, in San Jose, Macklin-Cellebrini gets Will Smith, and he gets Tyler To Foley, and, you know, they've kind of got some pieces coming up. Connor Bedard doesn't have that.

But I think he makes improvement this year, but I think that improvement can only go so far without, you know, the pieces in place. And we'll see, like, that Frank Nazar, who plays for Chicago, got invited to USA camp. Right? He's there. Lane Hudson had more assist than that guy had games played last year. So they obviously think very highly of him. Yeah, it's funny.

That was a name where it's like, that's interesting. Like the guys you said who missed, like Brock Bester, are going to invite Frank Nizarre over Brock Bester. Alex Blassick got invited. Alex Backeg was a defenseman. I like Alex Blassie. He's a very good defenseman. He's a sneaky.

He's a good defense. Okay, so if you look at it, but Dard got invited to Canada. Celebrini. who do we just talk Nasar. Nasar and Vlasik got invited on the American side. They're like, okay, they got some pieces.

They just got to put it all together. Right. My honorable mentions were, one was Dustin Wolf. And a buddy of mine who's a Wings fan texted me, he's like, you forgot Alex De Brinket. And it's not that I forgot Alex to Brinket. What I was thinking is, well, they invited

Cole Caulfield, so how many small goal scoring forwards are they going to have? Was he on the Four Nations? Was he on? I don't think he was there. I can't recall if he was there or not, but yeah, when you're putting together a lineup like that. I don't know, I'm going to blame JP if we're wrong, but I don't think De Brinket was there. Yeah, I don't think he was either.

But yeah, like De Brinket had a good year. He did, he did, but you're right. Like when you're putting together a team like this, I mean, how many of those guys do you need, right? Like, you still have to find, you still have to get some role players that are going to be on the team. Remember who the GM is of that team? Yes. Correct. Dougie Armstrong.

No. Oh, the American, Billy Garrett. The American team, right. American team. Billy Garrett. Yeah. It probably doesn't have a lot of room for, you know,

small guys, 10 forwards. So that was my reasoning on that. Cole Coffield's invited. You're probably not going to invite two of those guys. Yeah. Yeah. No,

I completely agree. It's a bit of a, it would be considered a little bit of a snub. So there it is. There's my list of top emerging talents on the Canadian team. Again, that was Sanderson, Lane Hudson, Matthew Nyes, Dustin Wolf, and Cole Perfetti coming in at number five. Dylan Sandberg was a name that I also considered in this little list.

He's very good. He's very good. He's a little older. So I kind of was like, I think he arrived last year. If you're being like a top four guy. If you watch the Jets, you realize that he arrived, but if you don't pay attention to the Jets, it's not a household name. But over the course of the season, watching him. Very good defense.

Yeah. And, like, really good. You're going to munch big minutes, a big frame. He moves the puck well, good decision-making. They kind of struck gold with him. And they got him at a really good cap hit for the next little while. Yeah, they got him signed to a very, very nice ticket. All right.

On the other side, we get the fan duel. Best bets. You listen to Overdraft here on TSN 1050, TSN2, and on YouTube. Claudia was leaving for her pickleball tournament. I've been visualizing my match all week. She was so focused on visualizing that she didn't see the call. column behind her car on her backhand side. Good thing, Claudia, is with Intact.

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parlay in seconds on the Fan Duel Sportsbook app. They got a little three-legged baseball parlay tonight. Tariq Scoobal. He's pitching for the Tigers. I like them on the money line tonight against the Astros. That would also certainly help out the Blue Jays. I like the Milwaukee Brewers on the money line, but one of the best teams in baseball.

They're taking on the cubbies, and I like Andrew Vaughn to get two plus bases in that game. He's been one of the best hitters in baseball over the last month as well. You parlay those three together and get that at plus 447. Today's best bets powered by Fan Duel, the first inning means as much as the ninth when you bet baseball on the Fandual Sportsbook app. Please play responsibly 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. All right, Frankie.

All right, buddy. Good stuff. We're getting close, man. Like, I feel like NHL, I don't know, everyone's starting to get the itch. Only a few weeks away from training camp. That's a little more. We're like, what, a month away from NHL camp? Yeah, probably, yeah, about a month, about a month.

I think I saw a couple PTOs are starting to trickle in. Land Loo Cheach. PTO to St. Louis. How about that? Yeah. I thought... Brendan Smith is going on at PTO to Columbus. A couple other PTOs have been signed. Yeah, I thought I saw one other one over the weekend, sneak in. It's PTO season.

You know, the Leafs are going to get involved. They're always in the mix for PTO. Yeah, they're always in the mix because I feel like they were so top-heavy for so long that they needed someone to come in and take a $750,000 deal. I wonder how involved with the PTOs they're going to be this time around. Yeah, it's a good point. Changes now that they're spread out differently with the money. Well, a name that continually came up a lot at the end of the season of whether or not he would return to Toronto or not was Max Patch Ready.

You heard anything about patches? Nothing, man. Like another guy who could be PTO. There's too many guys right now on the Leafs roster. It feels like something's got to give with everyone that they have. So I don't know if they're going to be in a position to bring in PTOs until they're, they decide to make trades or else why even if you're a player

why would you waste your time going to a place on a PTO where they have roster decisions to make already? Yeah, multiple decisions. Yeah, maybe it doesn't make sense for other teams to get into that mix or the players to get into that mix. They already have too many guys. Like

we might see a trade before now in training camp. You're a big Kelly, your crook guy, right? I like you. I like Cali. I think he's a great fourth liner. A little too much money, but Yeah. They got the space, though. But they got the space now.

But David Kemp makes too much money for a fourth line or two. Yeah. But now that you've got Nicola Waugh and Scott Lotton involved, Camp really, to me, is irrelevant on the roster. Well, he's the guy that you would like to move, 100%. Yeah, you would like to move him because he's a fourth line center that makes $2.4 million, but he's got... He's going to be in the press box, though.

He's also got some kind of muscle he can flex. Right? He's got like a 10 team or an 18 team. Yeah, for some reason. and they decided to give him a 10-team no trade clause. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not quite sure why. That's the case.

But anyways, speaking of, we were doing the doppelganger thing earlier. My uncle texted me. He believes that my doppelganger is Todd McClellan. Oh, yeah. He says he sees a little Todd McClellan.

All right. Once you go gray. If I go salt and pepper, I think we'll have a little bit better of an understanding if that's, if that's real or not. But apparently Todd McClellan is my hockey doppelanger. Who's that?

Oh, that's Kevin Smith. that's the guy I was talking about earlier actually from Jane Silent Bob the guy on the left they say A lot of people say that's the guy that I look alike Some guy tweeted though like yikes You don't know who that is like I don't know man It's a pretty great movie man

Jane Silent Bob That's not like a yikes though Like not knowing dumb and dumber is a yikes What movie? Okay I think we're done Frankie it was a blast It was an absolute blast buddy

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