OverDrive - OverDrive - September 2, 2026 - Hour 1 - MacKenzie Weegar

Episode Date: September 2, 2026

Join Michael DiStefano and Dave Feschuk for Hour 1 on OverDrive! They discuss the Blue Jays' defeat to the Guardians, Dylan Cease's impact to Toronto's roster, Robert Thomas being named the captain in St. Louis and the Canadian captain's futures. Utah Mammoth Defenseman MacKenzie Weegar joins to dive into his role with the Mammoth, the Flames' experiences and teams departing markets in Canada and the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard's fines in the cap circumvention investigations in the NBA.

There's no shortcut for saving time, but saving money is simple. Just combine your car and home insurance with Bel Air Direct and save. Get a quote at bellair direct.com. This hour of Overdrive is powered by Fanduil. Fan Duel, bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score. Overdrive off and running. It's Mike DeSephano, aka Al's brother filling in for Brian Hayes. He got Dave Festruck of the Toronto Star, fill it in for the other two gentlemen.

and, dude, they're going to be back real soon. You know, they're going to be back real soon. The summer, it's coming to an end real quick. We've got three more days, and then we got Labor Day weekend. What a quick summer it's been. Crazy summer. Like, I just came out from, I just came in from the out. And we had, like, we had, like, ping pong size.

I mean, that ping pong ball size, but we had hail that was considerably larger than I'd seen in quite some time, Alas, brother. It was like you were a little worried it was going to crack your windshield kind of hail. Yeah, that's not ideal. Like that's the end of summer. Like that's, when you get in the, when you're getting the ice falling from the sky, it's the end of summer. Yeah, and it's muggy.

And yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it, I feel like you're ready for it once you get, get, get time. Like I texted O'Dog the other day. I'm like, hey, buds, how's your summer been? You have to get back at it. He's like, buds, I can't wait. So O'Dog's ready to get going after Labor Day. How long the excitement sticks around?

Well, I guess we'll, we'll, we'll see. Uh, fun show on tap today, though. We got McKenzie Weeger, going to join us at 425. defensive for the Utah Mammoth. Nick Taylor, freshly named to the President's Cup team. He's going to join us at 530. And Cody Decker is going to join us at 505,

former majorly ball player. And, you know, we watched the ball game last night. And I got to tell you, man, every loss is so magnified right now when it comes to the Toronto Blue Jays. Like, they could go out and win three games against the Mariners, and you're like, okay, they're doing something.

And then one loss, and it's like, yeah, his team doesn't have it. They're not a serious baseball club, and you don't feel good about their playoff odds. It's funny, isn't it? It is funny, but how can you feel good about a team that has no way of scoring on a consistent basis? It's brutal, Dave. It is brutal.

It's such a frustrating club to watch because you sort of, you're right. Like, there's moments of hope, right? And you're thinking, the American League is terrible. Like, all you need is one good run here, one good two-week stretch, and you can literally take command of the third wild card spot, right? And this is a team, you know, like you saw it. last year. Like much of the same roster had those runs last year, right? They were

on a bit of a magical ride as a Blue Jays team that went all the way to the World Series and nearly won the thing. And so you kind of you still sort of think like they're the same team. Like they could do that. Like you've seen them do it. You've seen the same bunch of guys.

A similar cast of characters do it. And yet you look last night and it's like another game where you talk about the pitching. Like, yeah, pitching wasn't great, but how many times are you going to win

when you score one? Not a whole lot. And it seems like, and for the team with the second fewest runs in Major League Baseball, who is playing, by the way, the Guardians who have the third fewest runs, not exactly playing the 27 Yankees,

some murderers row of, you know, fearsome batsmen, you know, you just kind of shake your head and say, is this really going to happen when they just never seem to pick up any offensive momentum? Well, and it just put so much pressure on the pitching, right? And much of the story last night, as much as obviously the cold bats,

like they had, what, three hits the entire ball. Credit to Gavin Williams. Like, that guy was pitching his ass off last night. Like, that curveball, he was unhittable. The gays were just swinging out of their shoes. But to your point, like, I think it puts an emphasis on how they handle the pitching in the bullpen. And that's where a lot of the conversation is today, what is Joe Mantiply doing in a one-run,

ball game against the Cleveland Guardians, the team that you're looking up at. They currently hold that final wildcard spot. This is such a massive series. This guy hasn't pitched in three months. And this is the spot you picked to throw them out there. And of course, gives up a two-round bomb and all of a sudden goes from a two-one

game, still very winnable to 4-1, and it was pretty much over from there because Williams was just a deal. Well, look, you can criticize that for sure. And I'm sure there are people out there that are furious that the manager of the bullpen went the way it went. but here's my thing else, brother,

like what's been the theme of these past handful of weeks? The theme has been the bullpins on fumes, right? So if they were trying to be... This guy wasn't on you. I know, but I'm saying, like, they're trying to be proactive and diversify the options out there. Yeah. I sort of see it.

Coming off, but the issue I have there is, coming off and off day should be fully rested, right? So fully rested off and off day, and if you're assuming Dylan's cease on the mound tonight, maybe won't have to use as much of the bulls. bullpen in the game on Wednesday, you should be able to use some of your more

higher leverage relievers in that game on Tuesday, right? I think Mason Flew Hardy would have been a guy who you turned to in that situation. But they always turn to him and maybe they're worried. There's a reason why they turn to him because he's running out of gas. But he's running out of gas. Well, at the end of the day, turning to Mantiply

wasn't the right decision either. Clear. You go to Lorenzen. In retrospect, you can't argue. I mean, it did go well. I hear you. But I sort of see I see why the impetus is, let's find another arm out there that we can go to, right? Even though you're right, you can say, well, is this really the time? And yet, on a night where you score one run, it really doesn't matter how you pitch, generally. This is true. This is true.

It's going to be tough to win. So, I mean, hey, like, who would have thunk? You know, when we heard Trey a Savage meniscus injury, we all kind of assumed we're not going to see him again. And yet he's going to be throwing a bullpen later on in the week. and they desperately need that. Well, it speaks how desperately they do need him, but they're willing to kind of vastly progress him through. Now he's still in a bullpen like you mentioned,

and I was listening to Kiga Matheson this morning on first stop, and he believes that if everything goes right in the rehab process, you could still end up getting a couple outings out of Trey's Savage. And Shane Bieber, someone in the similar mold, could potentially return. He's been on the IL for a couple of weeks now, and when he's ready to go, could maybe come back and get hopefully pitches, you know, picks up where he left off. And all of a sudden, okay, you got that starting pitching again.

And you don't have to worry about these bullpen days. And then all of a sudden you just have to worry about getting through the six, seventh, eighth, ninth if you're got your guys pitching, you know, really well. It could be a game changer if you get one or both those guys back. And yet, to your point, like, it does speak to the desperation, right? I felt like both those guys, if it was an ideal world, I'm sure neither them really want to pitch if they didn't have to. They'd rather take care of their bodies.

But hey, man, if you're... I don't know. If you're Shane Bieber, though, like that guy, keep of mind, he's going into another contract year, right? He's going to go into free agency last year. Because of the injury at the end of the season, he decided he was going to pick up his option and come back to Toronto. It looked like maybe he was pitching himself well, and he was going to have a nice two months to showcase himself.

He does a pitch between now and the end of the season. I mean, what's his stock going to be like in the summer? might be another situation where he just circles back to the Jays if he doesn't get back on the mound to prove that he has turned a corner. So he may want to get out there and pitch as much as possible to help his stock for the summer. No, you make a good point. I mean, let's not forget. This is a guy that the Blue Jays would have probably happily traded at the deadline. And there clearly wasn't a market for him, in part because of that disastrous start he had, you know, right before on the eve of the trade deadline with the six walks and not being able to get to the first inning, not being able to grip the

baseball. I'm sure it's sent some shockwaves through whoever was at least considering acquiring him, despite the Cy Young pedigree and all the rest of it. There's a lot of question marks about his health. And those question marks for me, right? I'm sure the Blue Jays have him.

And they know more about his health than anybody. But you're right, though, Al's brother. Like, if it's a just get-in mentality, do whatever it takes to get in. And it should be. You need both these guys as soon as possible, and your savages is clearly the one that's going to be, at least an option sooner rather than later.

Who else scares you in the American League, realistically? I think any of these six, seven teams that are battling for that final wildcard spot, the motivation of just getting in because at that point, I think any of these teams could go toe to toe with anyone in the American League. There's no clear-cut favorite in the A.L. this year. You know, Toronto, you look at how they played over the last couple of weeks here, they beat in Tampa. They beat in Boston, right? beat in Chicago. They've been, like, they have gone up against the Yankees and beat them when they're

here at home. So, you know, I think if you're looking around in your Toronto, you're thinking, we just got to get in. And I think they're saying the exact same thing, whether it's in Texas and Houston and Cleveland, obviously, because I don't think that it's just, yeah, we get in and then we get smacked to the mouth by the Dodgers or Milwaukee. There's a legitimate chance that whichever team lands that final wildcard spot, get going to run. And if you get hot at the right time, now is the right time to get hot. You know, this team has proven that they've got some gumption in the postseason. They showed it last year.

We haven't seen anything like that to this point this season, clearly. But how often do we see teams just kind of turn it on right at the end and kind of ride that momentum? And granted, again, the Js and their offense, we've seen nothing from it. I don't think we need to go down the conversation of, oh, Vladdy's got to turn. Yeah, obviously, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is one of those guys. That certainly has to turn it around to make that happen. I think he had like a 100 mile an hour fastball right down the middle last night, popped it up. Like that was something where last October, he was sending that into the seats, right?

Like this guy's heads, not in the right mind space. And it's just, you know, a testament to where the team is at. But it's still still in their grips, that playoff spot, still in their grips. And tonight they got Dillon Cs on the mound. Like this should be a game that you feel good about. Dylan Cease going out there. It seems like he's good for seven, eight quality innings. Like he has been over the course

the last couple of months, just dicing up the opposing batters. So tonight's a must win for me. It really is a must win to try and at least give you an opportunity to salvage of the series because, again, you're staring up at Cleveland. You've got to start rattling off wins against these teams

that you're chasing down. And Cleveland right now, they've got that spot. You've got to close on a team like this. These next two games, cease tonight, So Rihanna tomorrow, because he lost yesterday's game, kind of gave that one away. These are imperative games for the Toronto Blue Jays. 100%.

And you make a good point about just get in because you look at the matchups. Like if the playoffs began today, it's Yankees Red Sox in the one series, in the one wild card series. And then it's Houston versus the third wildcard, which the Js are going for. Right now it's Cleveland. But it's Houston. And look at Houston.

Houston is one game. over 500. It could be Texas, realistically. It could end up being Texas too. They're right neck and neck. So in a lot of ways, like the third wild card, the strange thing about the Major League Baseball

playoff format, I was brother, is that the third wild card is actually an advantageous seating. Yeah. Because you get to play that other team, right? Yeah, you stay away from the Yankees, essentially. Yeah. You stay away from the Yankees.

It's better right now to have that third wild card than it is the second one card. Because you play the third seed, exactly. So it's a strange system. So, you know, Tampa and the White Sox right now would be getting to buy, and it would be Houston having to play the third wildcards. So you're right. That's not a scary matchup. Even those teams at the top, like Tampa, I mean, look,

the Tampa Rays have always given Toronto, you know, some guff. But I don't know. Like, they're not the scariest team out there, right? Chicago is not a scary. You got to respect. You have to, obviously. The number one team in the American League. what are you going to sit here and tell me?

There's no chance that the Blue Jays could beat them in a three-game series and a seven-game series, five games. I don't know. If the Blue Jays have a fully competent and fully healthy pitching staff, I mean, I think they could rival any of those teams in the American League. Like, if they get you Savage back and they end up getting Bieber back, think about the rotation that they could roll out there, seven-game series.

You got Dylan Seas, obviously, and then let's throw it. Soriano will keep that going. you Savage and then you throw that into Beaver and if Mad Max continue to pitch the way they did the other night, I mean, there's, I don't know if there's a better rotation than the American League right now than those five right there. And what wins you in the playoffs? Pitching. Well, that's the thing. Let's just start, like,

since you Savage and Bieber essentially question marks, and you probably, you're not sure if you're going to be able to pencil them in even. But those three guys that you mentioned, it's Cease Soriano and Scherzer. Like, I take my chances with that against the Houston. in Astros, right? Absolutely. It wouldn't scare you too much.

So, no, it's, it's a lot of fun that they're still in this. I think expanding the playoffs, I think this is the fifth year of the third wildcard. I mean, it's, it's been great for the game because we wouldn't be talking about this. We wouldn't be talking about the Jays with this kind of excitement. No. If it wasn't for the expanded playoffs. And, um, well, yeah. I think there was, like five behind the, the Red Sox?

It'd be quite a ways away from it. It would be a distance, right? It would be a lot fainter. hope and almost impossible. And even now, it's not exactly anything close to a shoe, and you're still at what, a 20% playoff probability right now or something in that neighborhood,

whatever that means. Because clearly, you can race that very quickly with one or two good weeks, but they just haven't shown the ability to do it, and we'll see what happens, but, I mean, you're right. It's a it's an absolute... It's anyone's spot there at this

point. Yeah, it feels like it's the, it's a turtle race, right? Like, it really, nobody's, nobody's just sprinting in front. Like the, the pillow fight division from the, this year's Pacific, right? What McDavid called it the pillow fight division? It's the pillow fight American League wildcard race. Yeah. Right?

Just whoever gets hot and wins the final few games of the season might end up into the postseason. And we'll see what they do from there. We can get more into this when Cody Decker joins us at, at 5 o'clock. McKenzie Weig are going to join us at 425. sounds like things are moving and shaking in the NHL. GMs back from their summer hiatus, back from the cottage. We had a trade yesterday, Luke of Angelisa, going from Nashville to New Jersey, first and a second round pick and return.

The Blues naming Robert Thomas, their captain today. So Bobby Thomas, a friend of the show, he's been on the show a few times. He's now the captain of the St. Louis Blues. And I was looking, there's still nine teams without a captain. in the NHL right now. Nine teams still looking to name their captain. So I don't know. Canadian-wise, you've got the Canucks.

I don't know if there's really anyone who sticks out to me there. And we know that Ottawa is looking to name a captain. They're nearing a decision. I know that that report's been out there for a couple of weeks. Our boy, Bruce Garriac has been reporting that, whether it's Thomas Shabbat, Tim Stutzler, maybe Jake Sanderson. There's somebody who sticks out to you in Ottawa's Captain Material. Those would be the three that would be in the run, you'd think.

And Shabbat's what, the longest tenured senator, good guy in the locker room, so I've heard. The fact that they're naming a captain so quickly to me speaks volume. It's almost like a double bird to Brady out the door. Like, yeah, your leadership easily replaced. Because they took, what, three years to replace Carlson? That's good point. When they made Kachuk the captain, they didn't wait three months to sit here and make a decision. They're nearing it and probably just,

waiting for, I don't know, to start to camp maybe, or the night before camp starts, to name a captain. But, yeah, people want to make it a moment. That's a shot. You want to, you want to make it a moment, right? Yeah. I mean, I'm kind of surprised that St. Louis did it on a kind of a random Wednesday. Yeah, like, to me, it's an opportunity to make your social media presence felt and to

have, you know, a nice event around it. But clearly St. Louis didn't see it that way, which is fine. But, yeah, I mean, it's, it's fascinating that there's that many teams without captains. And I guess, I guess, I guess when you look at them, if they feel, fit a profile. A lot of them are sort of younger teams in transition, right? Or teams that have lost their captain recently, a la Ottawa, Boston, obviously since Brad Marchand left them.

That seat's been vacant. Chicago, so here's the T, the list of nine teams still waiting to announce a captain. You've got Anaheim, Boston, Chicago, Columbus, the Kings, the Islanders, the Sends, the Sharks, and then the Vancouver Canucks. Yeah. there's a couple that stick out as like obvious ones like i i would have matt like david pasturna for me for boston

i would think that that guy probably slapped the sea on the post then away you go yeah that makes sense i don't know though i mean i i never think there's any rush right like if we don't know the entire dynamic with of every team and and how they see the leadership uh sort of profile the guys like like you look at like the kinnocks are a good example of a team where why would you name a captain You're in disarray. You're in absolute disarray. You're in what you hope will be something of a rebuild situation eventually,

although I'm not sure I'm seeing much building there. Who knows what's going on with that organization. But I mean, it kind of reminds you of like they went three, what, the lease went, what, three and a half seasons without a captain after the enough. And they waited and waited and waited for the new youth movement to be ready to take the captain's and there was a chance that Austin Matthews might have had it, and then you know what happened down in Scottsdale, Arizona,

that precluded that from being a reality, and Tavares ended up getting it, but there was no real need for it here. No. When they didn't have one, right? And I think you can say the same about any team that's sort of trying to figure out who it is, and the Canucks probably are, you know, exhibit A.

If no one sticks out, if no one sticks out like a sore thumb, like why shoehorn it? Right. Right. And it's a situation there. whereas, I don't know, if you look at it, like the Islanders, for example, that's an interesting team, right? You think Matthew Schaefer, who, like, I think is the captain waiting.

What he just, go ahead and make him a captain in year two of the league? Like, that happened with, what, I think McDavid got it in year two, and then Jonathan Taze, but I'm not mistaken, got the seeing year two. Like, is Matthew Schaefer, you're ready, or he just maybe wait and pull the Maple Leafs where they waited a couple of years until they made that announcement? I don't know. You hear about this kid, man, and I know he's young, and I know he's one year-in. But everybody says, like, A, they can't believe how good he is, and B, they can't believe how good a guy he is. Yeah, wisdom.

Yeah, on his years. And so it's like he will be the captain of the New York Islanders. To your point, it's just a matter of when. And, you know, you never really know how organizations view it. There's been organizations that haven't minded, you know, putting that pressure on a young kid, you know. And there's been other organizations that have said, no, we need an older. guy doing that, right? So I think it's a young guy's league now.

It wouldn't shock me if he got the captain C, you know, first week of training camp or, you know, first, you know, right before the season starts, whenever they want to make that, make that announcement and get the jerseys ready to sell at the team shop. Yeah, I think he had Boudard, too, in Chicago. I think that's a similar

thing where it's, why delay it? He's eventually going to be the captain of the teams. You just paid him. You just paid him a lot of money. Like, you could probably put Leo Carlson in the exact same boat out in Anaheim. You paid the guy $18.5 million. You don't think that that guy is Captain Material?

Why did you make him to send in your franchise? Why did you pay that much money? They didn't really have a choice. Well, they could have said no. They could have said no. Was that really a choice, though? That would have been a tough one. I mean, that one is, though, that one is interesting

because it's like he's already got this incredible pressure of being vastly overpaid, right, as a 21-year-old kid. Let's not forget, he's a very young player. Very young. And do you really want to put the other you know, the other intangible pressure of wearing that C. So there's someone else or is that a you just wait and see situation?

Or do you just wait? Like, I'm not sure this kid needs any more pressure on him than living up to, you know, a contract that literally reset the marketplace. Or, hey, you got all this money. Go earn it, kid. You're the captain. Well, that would be one way to look at it. Pay for it in leadership.

That'd be one way to look at it. But I'm not sure. I'm not sure. You'd have to know the kid really well. You have to have the sports psychologist in there getting a profile of how he might react to that. I mean, you wouldn't want to make that decision hastily because that could go wrong quickly, right? Like, there's some guys that just don't react well to that type of pressure. There's, hey, you've heard guys who've been stripped of captaincies, guys who've had captainsies and then lost them.

Talk about how it, no matter how you slice it, I know it's just a letter on a jersey and there's people that say it doesn't mean that much. But when you've got it, there's a weight to it, right? It's not, you know, especially if you care about your job and you care about your teammates. You've got a responsibility there that goes above and beyond just being a good player. So we got McKenzie Weger going to come up on the other side. Cody Decker at 505. Nick Taylor, fresh off being named on the President's Cup team. G.oDS at 530.

And Mike DeStefano with Dave Festruck. Overdrive continues on TSN 1050, TSN5, and live up on YouTube. There's no shortcut for saving time. But saving money is simple. Combine your car and home insurance with Bel Air Direct and save. Get a quote at bellair direct.com. Behind every night spent making the kids' lunches, there's a lot of suspense.

Will they finally eat the veggies? Will the pasto survive the first bite? Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all? And will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers? Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay crumbes. Visit bell.za for details and to check availability.

Bell, connection is everything. Overdrive continues on TSN 1050 live up on TSN5. Mike DeStefano, filling in for Brian Hayes, got Dave Festruck of the Toronto Star with me. And we got some breaking news here in the city of Toronto. I guess in the basketball landscape. The verdict is in. The NBA has ruled on the Los Angeles Clippers in salary cap circumvention investigations on the Kauai Leonard probe.

And it sounds like the NBA stripping the clippers of five first-round picks, issuing a $30 million fine to Steve Balmer, and there are suspensions to Balmer, Lawrence Frank, and Gillian Zucker, according to Sham Sharania. Kauai Leonard will have to pay $700,000 restitution for improper benefits by the clippers for his uncle and former business rep Dennis Robertson. no contract void or suspension for Kauai Leonard, which means, I think the Raptors can greenlight this trade,

and Kauai Leonard can come to Toronto fleeing free and clear. Welcome to Toronto. Yet again, Kauai 2.0, baby. It's on. So what do we make of that? What do we make of that? Five first round picks and a $30 million fine and a suspension to Steve Bulmer.

And you know who got the longest suspension? Uncle Dennis. suspended or banned from conducting business or otherwise engaging with NBA teams for a period of five years. Uncle Dennis, five years in the doghouse. Which makes sense. And I mean, earlier this year,

we did see Kauai Leonard change. His agency was no longer represented by Uncle Dennis and obviously maybe they had a feeling that something was going to happen. So that's a slap on the wrist for Kauai. The Clippers, that's pretty big. five first round picks and their owners suspended what that means, I guess we'll find out. But that puts a conclusion to the investigation, right?

It happened before the start of the league year. And now we know and Kauai is here in Toronto. 30 million bucks for Steve Balmer is pocketlap. It's pocketlint. It literally is like car wash money. But you know what? You're taking away his toy for a year. He won't be able to sit in the building.

You won't be able to watch his team up close. It's all you can do to the richest man in pro sports. Yeah, yeah. All right. So we'll get more into that a little bit later on in the show. But joining us now is Mackenzie Weger, defenseman of the Utah Mammoth. Mackenzie, how's it going? I'm doing well, thank you.

How are you guys doing? Oh, we're doing extremely well. How's your summer been? You get up to the awesome this off season? It was pretty chill for the most part. Back home in Ottawa, up at the cottage a little bit, playing lots of golf. Probably the highlight would be one of my best buddies getting married in Halifax. So we went out east for a little bit.

Back to the old QMJHL routes. So got to hang out there a little bit, but for the most part, it was very, very chill. You had to have it while you were out there. Do you have time? No, you know what? A lot of the guys were, they wanted to go out there. We just couldn't get it done. And my guys from back home were not.

the most organized group of guys to get that all done. But hopefully in the future we can get out there for great things about that golf course. So it's on the bucket list for sure. So McKenzie, you just spent your first year with Utah Mammoth after being with the flames and the Panthers. I mean, obviously Utah market that is relatively new in the league. What did you make of your experience there? And how would you describe the market to people who haven't been there? It's awesome.

I got no complaints about Utah. I think, you know, if you look around the league right now, I think Utah's, you know, that new destination city that a lot of players want to go to. And I got to see it first to end last year when I got traded. Obviously, you know, at the beginning parts, you're just trying to get comfortable and fit in and meet a lot of the guys and stuff. But it's an easy group here, you know, starting from the ownership, you know, down to Bill Armson, down to the players.

It's a comfortable place to play. It's a great hockey team. and then, you know, going into playoffs, I wasn't really sure what to expect, but, you know, that Delta Center, that place rocks. So what a great experience that was. And, you know, hopefully in the future, we got many more, you know,

playoff rounds to go and, you know, hopefully bringing the big trophy there. But for the most part, it was an absolute blast to, you know, be a part of that series. Cam McKenzie, you just said something that Canadian hockey fans don't want to hear that there's another destination city in the United States. United States that hockey players want to play in

that of course is not in Canada obviously you're a Canadian guy you've played in both the states and Canada and we've been grappling on this station with the question of what does it mean that we've seen so many players so many star players leave Canadian franchises or demand to be traded from Canadian franchises

we just saw Connor Hellebuck issue a trade demand out of Winnipeg I mean what do you make of the landscape in the league and how it is affecting Canadian franchises Yeah, it's a tough question because as a Canadian-born player and to play in Calgary, for me personally, I had a great experience in Canada.

Calgary was an absolute blast to play in that city. And I think there's great things to come for that team, especially obviously everybody knows when that new arena is built. You know, they're going to be right in the sweet spot with all their prospects and whatnot. But it's a bit unfortunate to see, you know, players wanting out of Canada just because I know how passionate, you know, all the fans are there and, you know, all the citizens in each city and, you know, how much they love their hockey and their star players.

So, you know, you know, you don't like to see it, but at the same time, you know, there's, you know, there's a lot of teams, you know, out here and, you know, Utah, you know, there's a lot that, you know, has to offer a little bit more than you'd say in Canada, you know, but at the end of the day, I think we're all hockey players and it doesn't really matter, you know, where you play. You just want to play in the NHL. It's the best league in the world. And, you know, to represent any jersey that you wear, it means a lot and it's an honor.

But, you know, for me, I'm thrilled. I have a great opportunity here in Utah. And, you know, this city has a lot to offer, not just on the ice, but off the ice as well. So, you know, that's kind of my perspective on it all. With McKenzie Weeger, the Utah Mammoth, I mean, the Mammoth, I really started to take steps forward. And I think last year, getting into the playoffs,

getting that first kind of get your feet wet. What are the expectations for you in the group this year? Expectations are a lot higher for sure. You know, I just give you an example. You know, Bill Armstrong came down to visit me in Ottawa, you know, over the summertime and we had breakfast. And, you know, standards are a lot higher. The demand, you know, to get further in playoffs is, you know,

it's going to be harder for us. You know, I think we learned a lot against that series in Vegas. but I think, you know, we want to take that next step as a team. You know, on paper, I don't think we're a young team anymore. I think we're, you know, that mature team that has a little bit of young guys, you know, that older guys, we obviously picked up, you know, two great experienced veteran guys over the summertime. So there's no reason for our expectations not to, you know, have our eyes set on, you know, the big trophy. That's kind of where we're at.

That's our mentality right now. And, you know, we've got to get off to a good start here with that short and training camp. It's going to be a long road. but our expectations are going to be high. I am curious how that's kind of changing things. You mentioned a short training camp, you know, the games now starting late September as opposed to, you know, early to mid-October, adding two extra games into the regular season,

you know, shortening the games in the preseason. Like, how does that differ for you? Does that change your process to get ready for the year at all? Yeah, I'd say it changes a little bit. I'd say, you know, there's going to be a, you know, you know, a lot of onus on the captain skates before the training camp starts. I've obviously, you know, Andre Behr is going to have, you know, two or three days to get, you know, some high intensity practices going before we go right

into exhibition games. But I think, you know, I think everybody's talked about it. I think everybody nowadays shows up in shape, ready to go. And, you know, a lot of the older guys, you know, that vouch for this shortened training camp, you know, we love that just because you hate to see guys get hurt. in preseason and we don't mind playing two extra games during the season. You know, those two extra games could be, you know, a spot in the playoffs for some teams, you know. So, you know, I have no problem with it, but I think training camp is going to be, you know,

a big, big part of, you know, how you get off, you know, off the box to start the season. And it's going to be, you know, a key focus point for our group. Kenzie, you talked about Bill Armstrong, the Mammoth GM coming out and meeting you in the offseason in your hometown for a little meal and a chat. I mean, in your experience as an NHL or, I mean, how unusual is that? And what's that say to you? Yeah, it's a bit unusual for sure. I was, you know, I think it's, you know, I thought it was great.

I thought it was, you know, that when your GM's coming to visit you, taking time out of his summer to, you know, hop on a flight, you know, four hours and, you know, come meet you you for, you know, an hour of breakfast just to see how your summer is, how you're doing, you know, how your family is. It means he cares a lot. And, you know, that shows, you know, where this organization's at. I believe he went to go see Cooley, you know, after me. I think he saw John Marino, you know, after Cool.

So he wants to see how everyone's doing and he cares a lot about his players. So it was definitely unique. I think I was a little bit nervous for the breakfast. But, you know, it turned out that it was a little bit less stressful than I thought. And it was just nice to, you know, sit down one-on-one with Bill and, you know, talk about the season. and my personal expectations and personal goals. And, you know, it's good.

You always like to communicate well with your GM and, you know, to see where everyone's at. Well, that's funny you say you're nervous. I mean, I guess he is the boss coming from breakfast, right? Yeah, yeah, he's the boss. So, you know, I wore a nice collar shirt and I tried to look sharp. And, you know, it was good. I'm glad it was a good breakfast spot.

I'm not sure if, you know, he enjoyed it as much as I did. I think he wanted steak and eggs. and they didn't have it for them, but you know, next time I'll take him to a better spot. Awesome stuff. Well, McKenzie, really appreciate taking time out of your summer. I know there's only a few days left before we all got to get back to work and stuff. So I appreciate the time and best of luck this season.

We'll do it again. Yeah, thanks a lot, guys, and enjoy the season. Absolutely. You as well. McKenzie Weeger, Utah Mammoth defenseman. Yeah, I mean, that's a team that I'm expecting. like they're one of those dark horse teams that I think a lot of analysts are thinking, they could make some noise in the Western conference this year.

Yeah. Yeah, they've done some pretty good things. They brought in Vinny Trocheck, who's on the show yesterday. That's right. Back-to-back days, doogie going out, locking down some mammoth players. All mammoth all the time. All mammoth, might as well be a show before the mammoth here on overdrive. But, yeah, I think, you know, McKenzie Weger was a big pickup for them last year at the deadline.

It kind of shore up things defensively. You know, Vermilca turned into a pretty good staple. number one for them last year. They're also a dark horse team that I kind of look at, Connor Hellebuck for. And that's one of those teams where it's like, who's a goalie away, like a star goalie away?

And I feel like Utah's put themselves into that conversation. Yeah, another, well, as Mackenzie Weger said, it's, you know, Salt Lake is a destination city, right? Like, it's, and if you're an American guy, and you've been, you know, maybe a little bit tired of your life in Winnipeg as Mr. Hellegebuck seems to be. Maybe it is one of those places that you'd happily, you know, accede to a trade to.

Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. Why don't we take a break? We'll come back. We've got to get into this Kauai Leonard story. We've got to come back, get into the Kauai Leonard stuff. Nick Taylor still to join us at 530 as well. I'm Mike DeStefno with Dave Fetchick of the Toronto Star. You're listening to Overdrive on TSN 1050 watching on TSN5 and live up on YouTube. There's no shortcut for saving time. But saving money is simple.

Just combine your car and home insurance with Bell Air Direct and save. Get a quote at BellairDirect.com. Behind every night spent making the kids' lunches, there's a lot of suspense. Will they finally eat the veggies? Will the pasto survive the first bite? Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all? And will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers? Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month,

price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. Overdrive continues on TSN 1050 on TSN and live up on YouTube. Mike DeStefano alongside me, I've got Dave Festchuk of the Toronto Star. And if you missed it, the verdict is in on the whole Kauai Leonard Clippers probe. And the NBA stripping the clippers of five first round picks.

The Clippers being fined $30 million and a few executives, Steve Ballmer, obviously being the top one, suspended by the NBA. As for Kauai Leonard, he has to pay back $700,000 in restitution, but no voided contract or any other suspension as a result of this investigation. How about that? Kauai walks pretty much Scott free. And Uncle Dennis suspended for five years from basically they punted him out of the NBA space for five years.

Yeah. I'm not sure he'll be coming back after five years. Probably not. But who knows? Let's see what happens. And then Kauai, of course, issuing a statement that really points to the idea that we just talked about that the trade's on and he's coming to Toronto. Yeah. Because he talks about in this statement about how he's, as he moves on to Toronto, he wants to turn the page and focus on what he can control and close this chapter.

Basically, Kauai takes no responsibility in his statement. He says, I accept full responsibility for lapses in judgment by people within my inner circle. Yeah. Not by me. It's completely throwing Uncle Dennis under the table. Yes. And Uncle Dennis has taken it. Granted, he's taking it on the chin for nephew Kauai.

Yeah, and Mitch Frankl is the agent at the time. He's got a new agent now. Yeah. He threw the old leadership group with the old inner circle. out to pasture some weeks back, right? It's what we all assumed was part of, you know, a strategy to move forward from this scandal and a smart one, because you can't be tied to the guys.

You can't move forward there. You can't be tied to the guys who walked into the boardrooms and were asking for pieces of the Maple Leafs back in 2019. So is it a shock that he was asking for pieces of the Lakers and pieces? No, it's not at all. I guess the next question that I have in, And we are going to be joined at the top of the 5 o'clock hour by Law Murray, who is a great basketball reporter out in L.A. And I'm curious to get his thoughts on what he thinks of the severity of the punishment.

And there was a report that the NBA and the clippers were negotiating. Is this the negotiation? Is this what they agreed upon and there will be no further discussion? and this is an open-shut case. Because there is the appeal process, which is possible. Right. And the NBAPA, we saw the story a few weeks back. They shouldn't have a gripe anymore.

There's like little to no punishment here for Kauai. I mean, there were those in the NBAPA, and I know how hard line they get about getting into players' wallets that they would say $700,000 is a punishment and one that they might appeal. But to your point, you wonder if, and we haven't seen a statement yet from the Clippers or from Steve Ballmer. we don't know exactly, but you wonder if the NBA said, look, can we agree that this is going to be the punishment and we're not going to prolong this?

Because the NBA PA had threatened Al's brother to carry this on into 2027 with appeals and grievances and all the rest of the levers that they could pull to prolong this story, right, and make this a much more painful process for the NBA than the NBA would like it to be. I think the NBA wants this story to go away like today. Like they're hoping that people just, you know, Pablo Torre and the rest of the people who've been investigating this story, just stop investigating. It's an open-shut case and move on. I don't think it's going to happen that way.

It's not. It's not. It's because, like, not all parties got, you know, the flesh did not come from all parties. No. From that case, I think it's going to continue to be investigated to see, because I'd be curious to see what the max punishment would have been. Like if this is the negotiated punishment, five first round picks, $30 million fine, and a suspension for Steve Balmer, if there was no negotiation, like what would they have done? Like what was the original, hey, this is what we're thinking, and this is where they landed. Like, I'm curious where it started.

Yeah. No, it's a good question. It really is. I mean, there was speculation that Kauai would get hit harder, right? Yeah. That there would be avoided contract. That was the reason why the Raptors were so hesitant to actually follow through on the trade. just in case either game suspended or the voided contract.

Right. Right? Because they were told, hey, whatever happens from the investigation, you will assume those. Not that they were going to end up with picks or get fined or anything. Whatever happens to collide, the suspension or, you know, big, you know, time, voided contract that will impact you. Right.

I decided to wait and hold off. And obviously with this news today, I wouldn't imagine it would be too much longer before that trade is announced and finalized and Kauai Leonard is a Toronto Raptor because at this point there's no point I guess in holding off of making that deal official for the rapes. No, this is great news for the Raptors. I mean, this is the trade.

Terrific news for the rapids. The trade they wanted to make, this is the trade they were excited about. This is Bobby Webster's biggest swing by a mile. He did something that Messiah Jiri hadn't been able to do, which is sort of follow up to Kauai trade, one-go-oh, right? True, yeah, it was good.

I was like, wow, he did bring Kauai in his prime. Oh, he said follow up. Yeah, follow up. Like, Maasai spent, you know, all the years after the Raptors won the championship, after his master's stroke trade the first time around to get Kauai, he spent all those years trying to repeat it or do a reasonable facsimile that would put the Raptors back into playoff contention. Obviously, tried to resign Kauai when that didn't work out,

and that would have put the Raptors right back into contention for sure. You know, he cleared the decks for Yonis at one point. It didn't fall through, you know, took, you know, kick tires on Durant and Dame Lillard and all the other big names that came available on the market over those years and could never really figure one out, right? And never really did, you know, sort of make the trade that he wanted to make to reintroduce the Raptors to championship contention. And then he left, right? You got fired and moved on. And so now Bobby Webster's just doing something that was the goal of the franchise. all along since 2019, which was to make it happen again and put this team right back

into a spot where, hey, we are a legitimate NBA finals contender. It's so funny because up until this year, like the East was wild. Like I feel like now, and of course the Raptors find themselves in the arms race, the last couple of years, it's been open, right? Like, anyone could really took the mantle, and all of a sudden, LeBron ends up in Philly, right? You get, and Jalen Brown, and the Knicks emerge. as a big time team. The heat get Janice onto the Coupo and now you're looking around

and you're like, man, this is, this is a difficult, difficult, not only difficult division, that division right now that's, the Atlantic is a very difficult division to be in. So it's going to be tough night and night out but just the Eastern Conference in general. You know, like that's going to be tough

to go through in a playoff series. I mean, you got what, four or five teams in the East now that are legitimate contenders. Like, legitimate contenders. Oh, for sure. But I mean, like, The idea, though, Al's brother, I think none of them are kind of, they're not OKC San Antonio level, I don't think, right? Like, they don't scare you like that. Like the Knicks, I mean, obviously, look, give them respect.

They're the title holders. Yes, they're the title holders and they deserve that. I mean, but, you know, the championship hangover thing, there's been eight different champions now this past eight years. There's a reason it's tough to repeat, right? It's just very, very difficult to make it happen all again. So, you know, like I think it's, you know, when you look at this Eastern conference, I think the Raptors are right there. And in a lot of ways, because of the fact, I was brother,

they have laid the foundation for who they are. Like, I think they've got an identity like very few teams in the East. And the identity is we play defense. And they were the fifth best defensive-rated team in the league last year. And that was with a young team. That was with, you know, a lot of unproven guys kind of making their bones as NBA. players. And I think now, after you saw what they did in the playoffs

where they nearly knocked off Cleveland and would have knocked them off if they would have gotten anything out of Brandon Ingram. Yeah. There's no longer a Raptor. Yeah. What do you know? Well, I guess technically. The trade goes through, but no longer a Raptor for all intents of purpose. And no one's going to miss them. Probably not.

Nice guy, but, you know, I mean, you just couldn't rely on them when it matters. No. Kauai, on the other hand, he's been reliable when push comes to show up. As reliable as anybody. Absolutely. Final's MVP, a guy who, yeah, he's not, maybe he's not what he was in his prime as a defender. But I think, you know, with Kauai, it's like if you make second team all NBA last year,

still play at a very high level. I'm saying defender. I mean, I still gets to his spots and knocks down shots with the best of them. We all know that. But, I mean, yeah, you add this guy to one of the best defensive teams in the league. Like, they could be, they could make a case. They don't have that elite rim protection. They don't have the Wambi back there, swatting away, balls, you know, 12 feet.

in the air, but they do have, I think, a team that is going to be as formidable as they come in terms of just being very hard to play against. I'm excited to see what Darko can do with this group. You know, like, he's a coach that has definitely grown on me, right? Like, when

Darko took over for Nick Nurse, I mean, you cover the team on a daily basis. Like, he was kind of looked at as a, all right, patchwork coach, well, they try to rebuild, redevelop, but eventually when they're ready to take the next step, it's probably going to be a different guy. He's being given the opportunity, right?

I think he's deserved it for what he was able to do to develop the team to get him to this point. Now that he actually has all the pieces that he needs to actually put up, you know, to consider the team contenders, there's going to be a bit more pressure on him now, though, right? Like he was kind of, for lack of a better word, like punching above his weight class a little bit. But now that he's got the entire group ready with Kauai in the fold, Scottie Barnes in the fold, and I think that they, you know, there's going to be a lot of pressure on him to succeed.

I'm excited to see what he can do, though. Like, again, for what he wants to do, the identity wants to create with his Raptors team, Gawai Leonard's going to fail like a glove. Yes. I'm excited to see what it looks like. It'll be a lot of fun. I mean, you know, health permitting, and that's... Alex McKechnie, baby.

Yeah, you've got the MVP, the Silver Fox on the sidelines there, who's, you know, delivered... He's set together once before. Delivered Kauai to the finish line once before in very dramatic fashion. We'll see if you can do it again. Health is a problem throughout the league. I mean, the whole league's got an injury epidemic, so the Raptors won't be unique if they fall prey to that. But I like the chances, man. This is a really exciting, exciting group.

And to your point, like, yeah, Darko, can Darko deliver in big moments in playoff games with the right calls and the right strategies? You know, we'll find out. Like, that's a big, that's a big jump, right, from what he's done to date, right? And he didn't deliver against the Cavs and we'll see if he can. do it this year. All right, we'll pick up on this conversation on this side. LaMurray going to join us. We'll get into the whole Kauai Leonard Clippers investigation, which is now finished. So we'll continue this chat next. You're on Overdrive. You've been listening to Overdrive, powered by Fandual. Fan Duel, bringing you everything from the opening line to the

final score. I'm Cynthia Lois and I'm Josie Dye. And we're done pretending we have it all figured out. Each week we laugh, cry and talk our way through life's messiest moments. Things you think about but would never say out loud. The questions you are always too shy to ask. Relationships, regrets, awkward moments, and the stuff no one warns you about. It's honest, it's funny, and sometimes it gets a little uncomfortable. But that's kind of the point. This is Cynthia and Josie's Unmentionables.

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