OverDrive - OverDrive - July 17, 2025 - Hour 2

Episode Date: July 17, 2025

Join Bryan Hayes, Frankie Corrado, and Jason Strudwick for hour 2 of OverDrive! MLB Network analyst Jim Duquette joins the show to discuss what the Blue Jays should add at the trade deadline. Hayes reveals his power ranking of Canadian NHL Teams, and we continue to break down the Dakota Joshua trade.

Unmistakably Canadian. It's the music that raised you. The artists raising the bar. Hi, this is Bryan Adams. Hey, my name's Brett Emmons. I'm from the Glorious Sons. Hi, I'm Nellie Furtado. Made in Canada.

The station that champions Canadian music. Loud, proud, and all yours. No passports required. Just press play. Tap into Made in Canada now on iHeartRadio.ca or the free iHeartRadio app Overdrive continues powered by FanDuel bringing you everything from the opening line of the final score Brian Hayes Frankie Corrado Jason Strudwick Jay's back in action tomorrow night. We're only a couple weeks away from the trade deadline

We'll continue that conversation here in a few moments We're only a couple of weeks away from the trade deadline. We'll continue that conversation here in a few moments. A recap in day one of the open championship over at Royal Port Rush. And the Maple Leafs made a trade about 20 minutes ago, acquiring Dakota Joshua from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a fourth round pick in 2028. Like that's how old we are, man. They're trading 2028 picks now. You know, it's kind of crazy.

But I guess now the way, one way you can look at it, and the off season is not over. I still think Brad Tree Living is going to be kicking tires at making more moves. And I would not be surprised at all if he made another move or two between now and opening night. If he made another move or two between now and opening night, but it's effectively Marner out Michele Nicholas wah Dakota Joshua in and Possibly Easton Cowan if he can make the team, right? So that's Basically what they've done here, you know, and again, I I don't think it was ever going to be

About one guy, you know with M't think it was ever going to be about one guy with Marner leaving. It never was going to be a one for one maneuver. That wasn't going to happen. And when we discussed this forever about trying to spread the wealth out, I don't know if Michelli is capable of being an impact player.

I'm somewhat skeptical. Why would Utah move off him if he was so good in this untap skill set that's just going to explode, but we'll see. He'll be playing with better players than he ever has in his career, clearly, if he gets a chance to play with Matthews or Nylander. But you know, Nicholas Wah, Dakota Joshua, those are quality, you know, depth players and they're each going to make three million, three and a half.

And that's kind of what it is right like yeah Instead of an eleven million dollar guy you're gonna get three or four guys that are making three or four million And the way the Leafs roster, you know the money had been allocated for so long It was the haves and the have-nots like you never had your Leafs version of Anton Lundell making five million dollars You just couldn't have it so at least they can spread things out a little bit now, but this really does feel like or Leaf's version of Anton Lindell making $5 million, you just couldn't have it. So at least they can spread things out a little bit now, but this really does feel like Brad Treleving

putting his fingerprints on this team as far as what he wants them to look like and play like. Every acquisition now has a little bit of that just like feistiness or abrasiveness to it outside of the Michelli one because at the end of the day like you still do need to have skill like the Florida Panthers are a hard team to play against they're also a very skilled team like they have guys on their third line that are skilled enough to play on first lines around the NHL we can't forget that but yeah like

this is it's it's starting to really take shape here differently than how it has looked, I guess, on paper in the past. And that's a challenge. Like Florida is the team. They have three, you know, almost first lines down there. They have so much talent. It's incredible. So you're trying to compare yourself, you know, your Leaf lineup or your Bruins lineup or whatever lineup to that group and everyone's left wanting because they are really good. That top nine is really, really good. You're trying to do it piece by piece. You're trying to add and be able to compete with them with size on the wings.

I think size on the wings does make a difference. I think it does help in a playoff series to have that. It doesn't mean unskilled fridges. I'm talking about guys that can skate, get to the net, make plays, those types of things. So you're never going to win, I don't think, right away when Marner walks out the door. But you add pieces that come in and shape your team to look more like you want to be over the long term. Because Marner will go to Vegas, he'll do well. I mean, if he's playing with Eichel, Eichel's a really good player. The challenge there is that there's two righties, and it's a little harder to pass on your backhand to

Marner than it is on your forehand. And I said it the other day, stand by it. Vegas losing their number one D-man is not as good as getting Marner. I'm sorry. I'd never make that trade. I'd never trade if I was my number one D-man for Mitch Marner, ever. I would never do that if I was a team with the number one D-man. It's a good point. But he's going to help. It's a good point though, Stretty, because fans of certain teams will pipe in and say, well, we don't have a number one D-Man, so we can't win. If you look back at all these teams that have won Stanley Cups, oftentimes there is that number one guy, that bonafide guy,

and Vegas is not gonna have that, but it's not really, like to me it's not really about Vegas versus Toronto. Vegas is gonna be good. I still think Toronto's gonna be a good team. Like, they're in a very difficult division in the Atlantic. Ottawa's not going anywhere, we know Florida, we know what Tampa's trying to do. Montreal should take a step or be what they were last year.

Like, this Atlantic division is gonna be an absolute gauntlet this year. Not to mention Detroit trying to take a step forward. Who knows what Buffalo is. And Toronto, with a different landscape of what their team looks like, is going to have to navigate that. Even with the Atlantic being strong the last few years, you kind of knew what Toronto was going to be about. Good power play, Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Tavares could take over games and you get

yourself 100 plus points every year. I don't think you can road map it that way, but I still think they're going to be a good team. Yeah, no, I agree. And again, they haven't touched their goaltending, they haven't touched their defense. The Leafs, they still have Stolarz and Wall, which was one of the best tandems in the league last year. And they got six defensemen who, you talked about it the other day, Struddy, puck movement's

important and it's lacking. But the six of them collectively are veterans, they're big, they defend pretty well. You got a full year of Carlo back there, it's kind of like Scott Lott and the same thing, although Carlo played really well, almost from the hop. Like his numbers were very strong and, you know, him connecting with Morgan Riley. But if you're the Leafs, you know, you're a veteran team. You need to be a predictable, hard-nosed team. That's what Craig Barube is looking for because Ottawa is still young, Montreal is still young.

You know, that's the kind of separator I I think you're right about the division and the assessment of it, but Florida is a veteran team, Tampa is for the most part veteran, Toronto is veteran. They're used to winning and they have a winning culture and a winning pedigree in terms of the regular season. I think that's still here even without Marner and you know, Nicholas was a vet who's one Joshua's 29 like you're not you're not turning it over to kids but it's gonna be interesting to see you know who is now on the the peripheral of the roster like if you're Nick Robertson I'm not sure you're loving this acquisition of Dakota Joshua and what it what it means for you again if you're Easton

Cowan I think it's gonna be very difficult to make the team. Maybe they don't want him to. Maybe they want him to start with the Marlies. I'm not sure. I'm not convinced Bobby McMahon is locked to play every night. He did not have a good final month of the season, did not play great in the playoffs. Steven Lawrence, maybe is the 13th forward now. Like there's going to be, it's up for debate, you know, what they're going to do. If they're going to try to keep adding bodies to the bottom six, you're going to, someone's going to be, it's up for debate, you know, what they're going to do if they're going to try to keep adding bodies to the bottom six. You're going to, someone's going to lose a job and a couple of guys are probably going to have to go, most notably Camp and Yarncrook in particular. But more on that and what could happen with this trade in the fallout, not only in Toronto

but also in Vancouver a little bit later in the hour. But trades are coming in Major League Baseball You can bank on it and up here in Toronto people are waiting for it, right? Everyone's waiting for Ross Atkins to get the mix and go out there and find pieces because as of today Jays are the top seed in the American League American League East anyway, here's MLB Network Analyst former MLB GM himself joining some of the people to the hotline is jim duke at a to jim and with the back good afternoon away yeah i do very well uh... if you're ross ackens

and you're on the ship here in in toronto what uh... what do you need to do between now and august first uh... well i you know i'm glad by the way just uh... to uh... of notes and then got back from Atlanta, a lot of talk about the trade deadline. He, his name and the Jays, they come up often as one of the more aggressive GMs out there right now.

Obviously nothing's happened, but nothing's happened around the sport either. So I mean, he's trying, but you know, if I'm, if I'm in his shoes, I'm looking, I mean, he's trying, but if I'm in his shoes, I believe they could use a starting pitcher and an offensive piece of some kind, and they're going to need a nice bullpen piece. I'd like to try to go one of each, but that's really difficult to do in this environment because it's a seller's market. I mean, each piece that you p two requires can be pretty expensive so by was looking at one or maybe it's a two pieces i'd like to go might go to bullpen pieces if

possible to generally there's more bullpen up arms in any of the fact the move but i think they're good they've shown they're good enough uh... for you know for a postseason run uh... if they could take up the bullpen in my mind yeah well like Hoffman's an interesting one because you know he's third or fourth in the league in saves but he's got an e.r.a. up over five which is crazy for a closer you know

do you would you trust him in that closing role when you say bullpen do you think you need a guy that can can close things out the ninth so i i would you know you need a guy that can close things out in the ninth? Yeah. So I would, you know, there's a couple guys, um, in one in particular that would fit really well there in Carlos Estevez. If Kansas City decides to move him, which I think they would, who can do, he can, he can do both. They could do a co-closer type situation, right? So they could, they could keep Hoffman in that spot and, and, and, and, and, and included

Estevez. They could put Hoffman in the high leverage. A lot of these teams will use their high leverage relievers earlier in the game. And you could have Estevez close. You could do Hoffman there. They would give you a lot more flexibility. John Schneider, a lot more flexibility to do both if he could get a guy like Estevez, a Kenley Jansen.

The Angels right now are on the cusp and they're arguably in it. I expect they'll be aggressive if they're in it in another week, but I think he's another guy that could be available. So somebody like that I think would be a perfect fit to kind of share the duties there with Hoffman. Jim, early on you mentioned offensive piece. So where would you see, let's put the cost of acquisition to the side. share the duties there with Hoffman. Jim, early on you mentioned offensive piece. So where would you see, let's put the cost of acquisition to the side.

Where would this offensive piece fit in, the lineup, if you could wave your magic wand type situation? Well, yeah, I think the hard part there to me is finding the, like, you know, I know they're waiting for Varsha to come back. I don't think he's back yet, but I'm not waiting around. So there's, Cedric Mullens is gonna be a guy that's available, was getting a lot of attention with teams like the Mets who could use an upgrade.

I think they, to me they could use some kind of upgrade in the outfield, you can even put Mullens in left field. So, and then he's a guy that would give you versatility depending on, you know, a right-handed batter. You could hit him towards the top and against the lefty, you put him down, you know, in the seven hole like he's been doing with the Orioles, that kind of thing. And he's a really good defender, which they get, which they value. And so for me, a guy like that would be ideal, you know, in that type of situation.

So that's the kind of in that type of situation. That's the kind of guy that I'm thinking. Again, they may decide not to go that route because of the expense and just go pitching, which I would totally support as well. How much of what the Jays should do is predicated on what the Red Sox or the Yankees might do? Does it become an arms race in the AL East because all three of those teams feel like they really have a shot at it? Well, I think you have to keep an eye on them.

Let's just say that the Boston or the Yankees or both are more aggressive out of the gate and make a deal here in the next couple of days. That adds added pressure. You have to at least keep up with what those two teams are doing. Ideally, it'd be better to be more aggressive. I made this point the other day in my show that the one issue you have with being aggressive now is you don't know

what's gonna be available later. So we think that Arizona might sell in another week or so, but if you go out and get a, let's say a Mullins, but you really would rather have You know, let's say a Merrill Kelly is a starting pitcher, but you're not sure either you're gonna be available like it's you know Being aggressive isn't always the best thing because you're you're jumping the you're jumping the ship a little bit early Without understanding you know, you're having to give up chips for that that might get you somebody better if you're willing to wait a week to 10 days.

With Jim Ducat, MLB Network Analyst, former MLB GM, and you mentioned with Varsha in particular maybe not waiting until he gets back into the lineup and going out there being aggressive. Then there's Anthony Santander who's who's on the 60 day I'll at this point isn't even swinging last time Schneider gave us an update So who knows when he could become a factor, but I'm curious as a GM like how you juggle You know those balls in the air where you're looking at, you know, maybe a power bat that you could everyone wants a power bat clearly But like what if you think barshell will return what if you think some time there will return

like how do you how do you formulate your plan with kind of these unknowns work if they are healthy you know they're gonna play in the making a lot of money in they're good players you know the open in in writing and then you know getting a bat the chip that you have to give up, if you know that they're going to be healthy, you'd rather use it for something else. And in some ways, that's a little bit of a roll of the dice.

If you have those position players back and your medical team's telling you, listen, they're going to come back, we're just going gonna be a little more conservative with it, then you kind of make that decision. Because of the three needs that I was talking about earlier, you might decide, well, listen, I don't have any, like Alec Manoa, he's coming back. Well, I don't trust that move. So I would go and get us a starter,

or I don't have any relief helping in the system move. So I would go and get us another starter, you know, or, you know, I don't have any relief helping the, you know, in the system or coming back from injury. So I'll put my chips in that area and then hope that the, that the offense comes back. I, that's a very real conversation. And it, you do have kind of these finite resources to go out and get, um, you know, upgrades and talent. So, you know, that very much, very well might be the the move that they take

and i don't only to run take a but you we have to have if i was in their shoes we need time time there to swing the bat the way he is you know what i would see what they gave the money for well the other wild card could be mac scherzer who uh... you know is now had a few starts in a row and his last outing he looked closer to kind of prime Scherzer and in terms of his I think body language in terms of what he was throwing in terms of just right feeling comfortable But that's you know, that's an extreme wild card

Isn't it Jim like what what are going to expect from Scherzer? It just feels like he's a start away from saying, I can't do it anymore, basically every fifth day. Yet, if he's anywhere close, if he's 90% of prime Mac Scherzer, he's better than anything else you got. How do you handicap the chances of him actually being a real factor for them in September and maybe into the playoffs? Yeah, that one's the most difficult one because as soon as you bet against a guy, he proves

you're wrong. You'd rather it that way, be proven wrong than the other way, which is like, hey, I'm buying in and he's the guy and he disappoints you. That one's a really, really difficult one to kind of figure out. That's why in my overall general feeling was, go starting rotation. You can always flip a guy into the bullpen if need be,

but that gives you the best protection for any type of injury or re-injury, a re-injury to Scherzer in that sense. So, and Lauper has been so good, he's pitched well above what you could have ever expected. He would be the guy that you might, and you might go with six starters if you went out and got a starter for a period of time, just to buy yourself a little bit of time. So, you know, to me, that would give them the most flexibility. It's also gonna be the most expensive.

So, you know, that's, you know, and for me, the guy like, you know, you got the Yankees for six games in the second half. That gallon is a Yankee killer. So if you have a chance to go get him, I would do it. That would be the number one. There's certain fits that you look at and you go, okay, that one's the right one. Gallon would be perfect for the J's against the Yankees. And he's been pitching. His numbers don't look great, but he's been pitching better here

his last few starts. Now, if we talk about a power bat, one of those power bats already lives on the Toronto roster and it's Vladdy who's having an okay season but they don't pay Vladdy to play okay. You know, 12 home runs is not what you pay Vladdy for, especially when you see guys like George Springer has 16, Addison Barger has 13. You know, it goes without saying they could really benefit from Vladi having caught fire here after the All-Star break, but how optimistic are you that that will happen coming out of the All-Star break?

Yeah. I always feel like... We've had this conversation in the past too with Vladi and the numbers in, I'd say in the first month or first half, and I don't have his second half... I didn't get a chance to look at his numbers in the second half at all. I don't know if you guys know, but I always feel like at the end of the year, Fladi is a guy who ends up with the numbers, you know, it somehow ends up where you where you need him to and expect them to. And there are some signs, you know, just talking to a couple of people around the Jays that that it seemed like, you know, he was going to be

trending in the right direction. There's no guarantee, obviously, but usually you bet on the stars of the game figuring it out and producing at the level that they need. So you kinda go through these checklists of, all right, who am I concerned about in one, two, three? He's down on the list. Do they need him to get going?

Absolutely, but I always feel like he's a guy that you can more more often than that count on As a project a good, you know first half of the year Do you expect the lead to catch up to him the second half of the year? Have you seen that with other rookies similar to the way he plays? It does happen, you know just the length of the season You know is something that you something that you have to be concerned about with young hitters. Having said that, up until this point, he's made some adjustments too along the way. The league these days catches up with you and finds your weakness a lot quicker than

back when I was in the front office, when we had scouts, you know, seeing you every once in a while you're advancing and you're like, oh, wow, this guy's, you know, he's got this hole or that hole. Like they find it the next series. So the fact that he's been able to produce like this, uh, I feel pretty good about, um, the, the second half for him, having said all that, there is the, the fatigue factor you have to keep an eye on that. That would be my only concern with a young player is Is you know that that grind of of a full season that that really catches up with some of the younger guys

Well, it's it's go time tomorrow night and we were asking you know Different guests yesterday. We were talking about it You know the the take of where the game is today compared to where it was ten years ago in the swing off of the All-Star Game, which I thought was great theater You know pitch clocks and all these different You know the ABS system all this kind of stuff and it just feels like it's gonna keep evolving and evolving and evolving Do you anticipate that Jim that there's no reason to believe Manfred or whoever the commissioners gonna be in the future is going to stop the the kind of evolution of the sport and implementing new rules

you know it it's funny i'm i'm glad you brought that up so we including myself we had a chance to talk to manfred on tuesday before the all-star game and i brought that up in particular the rule changes the a.b.s. system is definitely coming Tuesday before the All-Star game, and I brought that up in particular, the rule changes. The ABS system is definitely coming next year probably. They're working on the technology to evaluate whether you made a check swing or not, whether

you actually went or not. I haven't seen the tech on that, but they're going gonna, I think, unveil it in AAA next year. It's very promising. And the other thing that I asked them about, and this is, I don't, the answer, the short answer on this is it's not gonna happen in the next year or two, but there has been some talk about repositioning the outfield and not allowing the outfield to be as deep as they are playing right now. I don't think they'll go that far.

That might be five years from now, but there's a lot of data that the outfield has obviously gotten a lot better improved positioning is the big reason why I am more athletic, I think, as a sport, and they're playing guys deeper, so we're not having as many extra base hits so that's something that I know has been talked about from you know within the league offices but you know the long-winded answer that that part of the rule change isn't going to happen you know in the next couple years anyway you if we

see it we might see it in year three or year four. Okay, yeah, there's certainly more to come. I don't think there's anything denying that. He is Jim Ducat, MLB Network Analyst, former MLB GM. Always great catching up with you, Jim. Enjoy the second half and we'll do it again soon. Yep, same to you guys. We'll talk to you soon.

You got it, joining us here on the Maple Toyota Hotline. Drive the built-in Canada fuel-efficient, fun to drive Toyota RAV4 gas or hybrid models available visit mapletoys.com Listen, they eliminated the shift like they've proven they're willing to do that like put rules in place that are going to effectively You know determine where you can stand on the field you know that one seems extreme like not allowing like outfielders to stand towards the you know warning track or whatever it is i i don't know how you legislate that but

i guess they feel they can and and again again comes down to the the data that they have they know where balls are landing they know you know the likelihood of hits and the likelihood of you know if a player standing here But like that's what the shift was all about. It was just data everyone knew kids

This guy's gonna pull the ball like there's no point even defending down there He's not gonna hit it there So just put someone over here and there's you know, there might be some goofy stuff that gets talked about But I will say like a lot of the stuff that they've done. It's been good Right, like the bigger bases the the pitch clock you name it talked about, but I will say a lot of the stuff that they've done, it's been good. The bigger bases, the pitch clock, you name it, they haven't really missed with what they've been doing as far as changing the game. How can you argue if they're going to take a look at something?

Chances are it's probably something that could help based on their track record. The one you talked about about allowing the outfielders to have to be a certain distance in or away from the wall, I actually have one for hockey. And that is forwards can't skate backwards through the neutral zone. I think that prevents a lot of the stuff we see with kind of trying to play the wedge and all that and make guys attack, make you skate forward. So that's something I think the league should talk about and look into. Make teams be aggressive.

With aggression you get opportunities both ways ways offensively and fortunately defensively yeah yeah I kind of like sometimes when the forward skate backwards because a lot of them don't even know how to do it after practice you ask one of your one of the forwards skate backwards for me let me see how that looks again Yeah, it's awful. Well, it's look bad. Listen the NHL did it with goaltenders like keeping them You know in the crease effectively like you can go behind you are keeping them out of the corners I guess is what they did with the trapezoid or whatever

But that was that was a rule change that at the time Was criticized and thought it was, you you know unnecessary the goalie union was going nuts you're talking as you're taking this away from us uh... and uh... you know the reality is it's on the league to determine what's in the best interest of the sport what customers want you know what your fans want like they want action they want you want the ability for a four check to play out

you want scoring opportunities So you're right. It does seem like in the NHL, you know, they've they've gone they went a certain distance with Review processes and the goal and the you know goalie interference and blue line and offside review and all that But it's been there hasn't been much in recent years that I can recall that you would consider extreme, you know, like an extreme change. And that would be one. That wouldn't be noticeable really to the blind eye. Strudy, I don't think a lot of people sitting in their seats would be like, oh, that guy, you know, he's skating backwards or whatever. But it may have a truly tangible effect on the outcome of games. And

if it's positive one then why not look into everything. I'd have one because so many people talk about eliminating the shootout and we just now that we're going to an 84 game season we can't play continuous overtime we can't have 10 minute over times it's the star players who are out there already playing 25 minutes some guys and they're getting worn out, and this year especially with the condensed schedule with the Olympics. So I would like to see three on three, no offsides.

It's just the ice sheet is there for you. You can do whatever you want, you can go wherever you want, and if we're worried about these overtime games going to a shootout, I can guarantee you they're not going to if there's no offsides. I can live with that one. If we can add this one, I'd take it a step further. You can't play the same player twice in overtime. Is that what fans want though? Imagine, how McDavid gets one shift.

He's a five minute shift, he's not getting off the ice. He's just five minutes. Well, I guess he could just stay on the whole time, but... So like you could start like the middle of your lineup, right? Like your 7-8-9 forwards, let's say, or whatever. We've got Adam Henrique out there to start overtime. Right. Did he come over the top with the big guys? But then you might have some weird matchups. Like make coaches coach instead of just open the door, here's our three best players, here's

our three best players. Like I want to see, make me think a little bit, make challenge me a little bit to be a better version of myself as a coach. Well, from a coaching perspective, I'm with you. I wouldn't want to lose a player that I want to see on the ice. That is a part of the experience I think in overtime, like with Edmonton's a great example, like McDavid and Drysot will start and they They have this unbelievable shift multiple two-on-ones and they hit the post twice And they get to the bench and the clock starts because you're like get them back on the ice Like I want to see that again. I wouldn't I wouldn't want the like them on the bench like all right there out

We got to try to recreate this with someone else that doesn't have that ability But I kind of like the no offside, like you gotta keep icing, because you want to, you don't want to give them the opportunity to just dump it out. Not that you would three on three. But yeah, no offside's an interesting one,

because you get guys, like William Nylander would just cherry pick the whole time. Like Willie would be down right in front of the net, just saying, you guys win three on two battles flip it high and I'll take it from here. Gone. I'm fresh. Even if someone like Willie just takes off now someone's got to go with him.

Now all of a sudden 80 feet of ice just opened up and it's like you walk in do what you want. There's no way we're going to a shootout as often as we were. I love this idea. If guys are just skating wherever they want. There's no way we're going to a shootout as often as we were. I love this. Guys are just skating wherever they want. I, you have my full support to table that idea. Full support. Yes. It's that, that one would lead, that would lead to some chaos, man. No offsides and overtime. You're already doing something that's abnormal. Anyway,

we're already playing three on three. It's already, it's already goofy. We're playing three on three on 200 feet on 3. It's already goofy. We're playing 3 on 3 on 200 feet of ice. It's already goofy. And the goofiness of like possession now, the importance of possession in overtime, where guys they go in, they don't like what they see, they all come back out, they throw it back to their goalie, you know, that's another thing that would probably come to an end if the blue line doesn't matter. There's no need for you to swing all the way out and let guys tag back up.

I kind of like that idea. There we go. We're cooking. Yes we are man. We're cooking with gas now. The Leafs have acquired Dakota Joshua from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a fourth rounder in 2028. We'll get back into that.

I have a couple of rankings for you guys that we will get to. We've got Dave Naylor coming up, the nail gun in just over half an hour. Our best bets still to come as well. Overdrive continues. TSN 1050N on the TSNM. The biggest songs in the world. You've heard them countless times. Now learn the details of how they came to be. this time. Now learn the details of how they came to be. Join Ruby Carr for Encore, the stories behind the songs you love. New interviews and newly unearthed archive footage make for a fascinating weekly deep dive. Stream Encore, the stories behind the songs you love on iHeart Radio or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, Dave Naylor coming up in about a half an hour. Bunch of CFL news, NFL camp starting up. We're talking about, you know, you guys preparing for NHL camps.

We had Luke Wilson on Monday and Luke said this would have been around the time when he would be basically sweating profusely because he would know he's seven, eight days away from arriving at camp and it's the VO2 test, it's testing, it's putting pads on, it's, you know, the NFL is intense, man. Every league is intense, but the NFL is a crazy, crazy scene. And if your contract's not guaranteed or you know you're in a position where they could cut you Like that's that is living dangerously man. It's tough that weight room different is that that weight room experience is vastly different Than the the NHL weight room experience like I've heard those NFL rooms when it comes to testing they're yelling They're screaming guys are like trying to put as much weight on the bar as they possibly can. NHL weight room, it's like, oh, Strati's just doing the bench right now, I'll hop in after

him. Meanwhile, those guys are just, they're animals, man. They're absolute animals. Going crazy in the NFL. I worked out this guy, Ian Danner here at Edmonton. He was a great trainer and we had this one guy that didn't really try. He worked out with us kind of and he didn't really work out that hard all summer. So he was, you know, like Luke, he was like, Oh man, I'm so nervous about the testing. And

our trainer is like, don't worry about it. You haven't worked all year. Just relax because from now till that testing time, it's not going to change at all. So just enjoy these next seven days because you haven't prepared. And he just walked off and I was like, he's so right. He's like, there's nothing you can do about it. No, and I'm not suggesting Luke wasn't in shape, but you know, if you haven't put the work just walked off and I was like he's so right He's like there's nothing to do about it No, and I'm not suggesting Luke wasn't in shape But right, you know if you haven't put the work in for the last three months Just enjoy the last week because might as well change Yeah

Don't crash diet and get into shape over seven days like if you are what you've done the last you ever you know 12 weeks if you didn't make the playoffs that is yeah, exactly. That's a good point by then It's over man. Like it's already probably been determined. You're either ready to go or you're not. So yeah we've got NFL training camps starting up real soon. We'll catch up with the nail gun in about a half an hour on that and more. So the Leafsons and the Canucks made a deal today.

Dakota Joshua on his way to Toronto who was a Maple Leaf pick originally in exchange for a fourth rounder. We've discussed kind of where Joshua could fit in. You said Frankie, when he was at his best last year, he was playing on the left side. That's probably where he plays. Maybe it's him, Nicholas Wadden. I don't know who else would be on that line, but maybe that's your third line. Maybe Lawton's up the middle and Wad and Joshua on the wing and that's your identity kind

of third line that Barube's been looking for. That's the case. I'm not sure what the fourth line would look like. But from Vancouver's standpoint, I'm going to get to my rankings here halfway through July like the Canadian teams ranked one through seven, their off season has been tough. I mean, it started really with Rick Tuckett saying, thanks, but no thanks, I'm outta here. I'd rather go to Philly.

So Adam Foote ends up moving up, assistant coach into the head coaching role. This Quinn Hughes stuff, they just can't, they're never gonna escape it. Like, what is his future gonna look like? Is it just inevitable? He's going to team up with his brothers. And if so, we all know it's likely to be in Jersey It's not gonna be in Vancouver. So that's gonna lead to a lot of anxiety the alias peterson story

What does he look like once he gets there now they got Besser back, which I think was a win for them You know, he's when he's healthy good player could score goals big win. That was a surprise. Yeah, that was a win for them you know he's when he's healthy good player could score goals big win that was a surprise yeah that was a surprise but now you've traded Joshua for nothing like where where is Vancouver going here what what is what are they what do they have up their sleeves that you're just dumping a player again for a fourth round pick it's salary dump yeah yeah they're not a better team without Dakota Joshua. It is a salary dump. They needed the flexibility.

So they must have something up their sleeve because there was even talk that they were interested in moving on from Teddy Bluger. On the surface, Teddy Bluger makes under $2 million, useful center iceman, kills penalties, blocks shots. So they're in the mindset of they're trying to do something maybe aggressive that they need a little more flexibility to to to do so now they got three point two five off their books in joshua

and we'll see what they can do with that but i'd like looking at that lineup today they're not a better team without joshua toronto better team with Joshua and it's not like listen it's not like they've got some monumental piece now but they got a really good depth piece who plays a different style of game who is gonna fit a role and fill a need for them so that's that should be considered a win for Toronto especially considering the the price that you paid to get him is only a fourth round pick right you know in three years. Yeah just to follow up on that, I think what you're talking about, Frankie,

is an upgrade. They upgraded their bottom six by getting this player. On the flip side Vancouver, I think we've got to give them a break. I think that they believe Evander Kane is an upgrade on him. Which is true. Like if Kane's healthy, that's valid 100%. Yeah. So the money isn't that much different. I think it's a million, oh is it two million dollars, Evander is at five million maybe and Dakota is at three million. I think Evander can score more goals.

I think that he is more of a hard guy to play against consistently over his career than Dakota has been. So I think there's an upgrade there. But the problem is you want to have more than one player like that. We talked about that earlier, right? So Connor Garland, I love him, but he's a very small player and he can chirp and get into people's faces, but he's not physically dominating people even though he's a hard player to play against. So be interested in what comes next, but I do think this is Kane in Dakota out Yeah, that's that's a good point and you know, they acquired Kane really for nothing either because yeah, they didn't need any money

You know like that was Edmonton just wanted out of the salary and they did that so, you know that that has I guess has been evident here like if you have money to play with You can take advantage of teams that are looking to get rid of players who have value but they just know they can't have them anymore based on the numbers crunch which again is unique to Toronto because they're never in a position to do this you know, no kidding. Like over the last handful of years they've never been able to just

pluck a guy because he's available you know they've never had the money to do it or flexibility to do it but they've also again from a leaf perspective filled up a lot of that flexibility like uh... michellis what is michellie making four million or something like that three three chalice that he's at three point four okay so he's at three point four nicholas was at three and uh... josh was at three point two five so but between the three of them

you're talking almost ten million nine and a half Yeah, you know like that's that's a lot of like the the 11 million Marner going out. They've Effectively filled with those three guys. Well, if you look at the the Leafs on puckpedia, right? You have two guys one makes thirteen point two one makes eleven and a half Then it goes down to nays at seven, and there's, you know, I'm just talking about the forwards, like Morgan Reilly is also a seven million dollar player, but there's no one in the sixes, there's no one in the fives, then it goes down to the fours. So

they're still trying to repair this cap structure so that they could make it a little more gradual, and it doesn't just fall off a cliff, but it still does It says you can't you can't do that in one year Even though Marner's gone and now Tavares is off at 11 and he's in you know The low fours is just it's gonna take time for them to really get that nice even Gradual cap structure where you can have a six a couple six million dollar players on your books, right? And those guys have value too, right? Those are good players.

You're not getting them for a fourth round pick. If you want to get a guy who's making six or seven and is worthy of that contract or can exceed it based on his production. But yeah, I think from a lead perspective, I doubt this is a finished product. But as of now, we know Knives, Matthews, Michelli, Domi, Tavares, Nylander are going to play Joshua's going to play, Waugh's going to play, Lawton's going to play and then you got McMahon, Lorenz, Robertson, Yarncroke, Camp, possibly Easton Cowan up front like battling it out to see how else you know the two or three other spots

that are available in the lineup every night. That's for Boruba to figure out, I guess, once you get to camp. And then if you acquire anybody else, and maybe they will, maybe they won't. Maybe this is an acceptance from the Leafs that it's not going to happen over the summer. They're going to have to wait until the trade deadline to try to acquire somebody else. And they don't have that many assets. They don't have a ton of picks moving forward either. I've been thinking about our conversation the other day about the D-Men. And Frank, let's get your insight on that.

There's no doubt that the 60 that the Leafs have are good. They're good at what they do. I think they need to add something different. So can we see a hockey trade? And I don't know which one's going up. But a name that pops in my head, and just as an example, but a Shane Gostaspierre, a guy that moves the puck, transports the puck. Again, it doesn't have to be him, but that's the vision in my head, Frankie, of what I

think they need to pair with someone else. Again, it doesn't have to be that player, but just moving the puck beside someone who's a little bit more stay at home to get that puck going up the ice quicker to those forwards. Yeah, I don't disagree at all. You know what's crazy about that study is the Leafs could have had Shane Gostaspierre the last three or four years. Like he's been on one year tickets, right?

Like he was on a one year ticket with Detroit and then Carolina. And it's like those guys, it felt like Toronto, it felt like Toronto had that already. And they were like, we need the tree trunks. We need the guys that Vegas had because we got to clog things up a little bit more and now if you look at it it's like you got Tana McCabe good shutdown pair Carlo Riley well you added the the big presence with your puck mover and then you know OEL

and then why you look I look at it and I'm like OEL is on the third pair he was on the third pair in Florida when they won so chances are he's slottedotted right. So I don't, I get what you're saying about, you know, having a guy who's like a slick puck mover, but it feels like they've almost tried to like overcompensate for thinking that way for so long that they just said, we just need, we need to try and get the mutants and it's tough to get those guys. But yeah, like why not have someone who breaks the puck out pretty well? What about the power play this year like Mitch Marner was running the power play last year? He was playing the point because they didn't think Morgan Riley could do it or they didn't think OEL could do it

Marner is gone now Someone's gonna have to run that power play because that's a strength of the team and so you know where does that? Where does that go to now who gets that positioning it's a good question and again we don't have the answer in the middle of July but you're right they were doing you know the five forward power play into the playoffs last year they were committed to that so you know I don't picture that happening again I think they'll go with Marner gone they're gonna go back to a conventional four and one. Maybe Riley gets another opportunity there. I think that would benefit him. Again,

trying to get some cookies on the power play and feel like you're contributing a little bit more in areas where you're comfortable. But that's why I think it's an unfinished product. Maybe we're looking at the forwards and it could possibly be Tree Living trying to find a puck moving defenseman or two. All right we'll come back with our rankings. I'll have my rankings you guys tell me where you stand on that. Canadian teams one through seven. Dave Naylor on the new week in the CFL starting up his take on obviously Chad Kelly's return and what's up with your Alks man they stink strutty the Alks are brutal out there in Edmonton there them and the Argos both have two points you know like it's not going well

so we'll get you an update on that as well from the nail gun as we get closer to that in about 20 minutes overdrive continues TSN 1050 and on TSN 2 unmistakably Canadian it's the music that raised you. The artists raising the bar. Hi, this is Brian Adams. Hey, my name's Brett Emmons. I'm from the Gloria Sons. Hi, I'm Nellie Furtado.

Made in Canada, the station that champions Canadian music. Loud, proud, and all yours. No passports required. Just press play. Tap into Made in Canada now on iHeartRadio.ca or the free iHeartRadio app All right, July 17 struddies birthday Happy 50 at the strud spending it with two guys in Toronto and he gets to hear my list One through seven the Canadian teams as they currently stand

I think you're gonna be happy once I get to number one here strud for your birthday I'm gonna make sure you're happy with this list so I'm going at number seven Calgary I get the Calgary Flames they almost made the playoffs now Dustin Wolfe was so good last year like he almost won the rookie of the year and he was like getting some Vez votes, that's how good he was. I still, I can't figure out their plan. I think they're building for the new rink. I think that's the plan still a couple years from now. But they got some older guys on long-term deals

that I could see them shedding. It's not a full tear it down, blow it up rebuild. And I understand why Conroy and company don't wanna do that. But I still think they're gonna make some moves and I don't expect they're competitive this year. I got Calgary at 7 but a good team. Sign of the Canadian hockey right now that Calgary is 7. Vancouver at 6. That might be surprising.

I got Vancouver at 6. I'm worried about them. I'm worried about their goaltending. They've committed to Demko What's gonna happen with Pettersson? It's Quinn. He's Quinn Hughes when he's healthy is gonna play and he's one of the seven or eight best players in the game But what his future hanging over things you got Adam foot now rookie head coach Your Vancouver at six. It's all about 40 like it what what is 40 gonna be because if he plays like a 50-point player They're going nowhere. They just they don't have the pieces underneath him to prop him up

He's got it. He doesn't have to be a hundred point guy, but he's got to be like a guy at least not far off He's got to be a superstar This one might surprise you and I might be getting a little carried away because it's summer I get Ottawa at five get Ottawa at five Who you know they they haven't been overly active like I think they're waiting now a full year with Dylan cousins They bring Jaru back year two of Travis Green made the playoffs for the first time in a long time But with Ottawa at five, I got Montreal at four Like I got to get the halves at four. I like the Dobson deal

Like you talk about puck moving defensemen strut They got Hudson on one pairing Dobson on the other. I Like the way they played coming down the stretch man. I love Nick Suzuki. I like the way they're set up I think the Habs are still gonna be active too, right? They're gonna keep pushing Whole year of Demidov. Yeah, that's right. That's gonna be pretty cool to see what this really looks like They could have back-to-back rookie of the years. that's right. That's gonna be pretty cool to see what this really looks like they could have back-to-back rookie of the years That's right Hudson into demedov demedov is a heavy favorite to do it So I got the Habs at four I got the Leafs at three the Leafs at three

The Jets at two and your Edmonton or there's still at one I got to pay respect to the team that's been in the cup final two years in a row I haven't loved their offseason strut. I years in a row. I haven't loved their off season strut. I gotta be honest. I haven't loved their off season, but if you got McDavid, Dreisaitl, I mean, Edmonton's still number one. Yeah, I think that makes sense. I actually, I did a list similar to yours, but mine had the Jets and Oaters flipped.

I like the Jets. I think that the addition of Tays, I don't think he'd come back unless he knew what he could do. I don't know that he's a second line center, but I'm pretty sure he'd be a third line center. So, Lowry's out for a while, when they come back that gives Taze a chance to play up, can he play up or not if you need to address it later. So I like, I'd go with the Jets at one, Frankie.

Okay. The Ehlers' loss is significant, but it's not going to cripple that team. It's not not it's like it you'll be a lost a good player i think they're still enough around them that makes them difficult to play against their just there they're very good team up and down the lineup i don't i don't disagree with that yet regular season is not been the issue for them to the president's trophy last year and and that is very valid i just

you know trying to mix the playoffs with the regular season and trying to rank these teams. But there's, there's, you listen, seven good teams in the country and it's going to change a lot. This time last year, Montreal was my clear cut number seven and look at the season they had. So, uh, things can change, things will change. There's going to be more movement with all seven teams between now and opening night.

But there you go. Little mid, mid July check in for hazy's list. Hour three coming up, Overdrive continues. TSN 1050 and on TSN 2. The biggest songs in the world. You've heard them countless times. Now, learn the details of how they came to be. Join Ruby Carr for Encore, the stories behind the songs you love. New interviews and newly unearthed archive footage make for a fascinating weekly deep dive. Stream Encore, the stories behind the songs you love on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.