OverDrive - Pang on the Maple Leafs' offseason decisions, the Panthers' dynasty shot and Skinner's role in Edmonton

Episode Date: May 27, 2025

NHL on TNT Analyst Darren Pang joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the Maple Leafs' offseason choices and if the team should run it back, the Panthers' shot at a dynasty, the Oilers' journey to the Stanley Cup and Stuart Skinner's role in the crease and more.

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With the NHL and TNT and everywhere else he works. Here's our good friend, Darren Pegg. How you doing, Pegger? I have all the power in the world right now to step outside of this place that I'm in at the lake, go pot and then go on the boat. That's about as much power as I have right now. Yes, that's a lot of power, about as much powers i have right now that's that's a lot of power

i listen and nobody brought me a snack cider well it's disappointing said it to the group chat like is this uh... it's bad love in my neck of the woods right now i i want to be in the group chat i mean peanut butter and jam sandwiches something like that okay that would be good enough hanger all because you're not like that peanut butter you know i don't know how to get to know how to put her that's true

it's gotta be should be a reason yeah yeah there's a lot of considerations payer will live in a different world right now uh... you know it's wrong over or were wondering how different it could look at field a month and a half from our you embracing change or do you think there's a chance that we're not gonna see as much changes maybe some people are expected uh...

did as a major evaluation you know seen the seven games that they but for tickets are really good hockey club like a you know i mean changes inevitable when you don't win i think the leaves and i think the least fans and i think managers and even Shani to that extent they've all been very patient with the group that they've had and they've all gave them everything they've needed to be

successful so the problem with change is that you're gonna lose some good players and not get anything back for them there's no assets if you know what I mean that that that's the tough part uh... saying goodbye to some players but uh... i've seen many teams go to the same thing where they felt like a that's our rental we're gonna take a chance with that player was called mitch marner or john to various ufas and say we're gonna we're go forward this is what we're gonna do we're gonna be the tank we're gonna give everything we've got and it did they just didn't play well in game fives and seven at on home ice

and that that's the real shame because otherwise it was a pretty darn good season. A brand new coach, I mean by and large a new coaching staff. I thought Chief did a great job and I think they were starting to get what they have to do to beat these good teams like the Florida Panthers and now it is inevitable. And now if I'm not mistaken guys, there's only 32 or 33 contracts that they have of the fifty that you can allow as a pro hockey teams between the miners in any any child there's a lot of you know i hear london here uh... how old and what i do

well what would you be like leaning towards like or boy you've opened up a open commentary here at let's hear it we've been getting leaning towards like doing all-party you've opened up a open commentary here let's hear it we've been getting everyone's opinion today well for me i it uh... the way that coaches

uh... and i'm not speaking for chief but uh... a big move would be willie Nylander, to be honest with you. I mean, I know I said that last time, and I said, I think he's got to have a big game, and he did have a big game, and I think that might have been game six when we talked. But I think there's a style of play that's not working, and I think the guys that get the heat all the time, it's smarter.

He gets the heat. Well, I think he plays a get the heat all the time, it's Marta, he gets the heat. Well, I think he plays a pretty determined two-way game. You know, I don't see the same thing from Willie. You know, I see a guy that can skate real well, I can see a guy that can make a play, gets open, gets opportunities, like the breakaway he had in a key moment of the game. But, I mean, you wanna blow things up.

I mean, make a move that you can get one player out and get two players back. All the managers have done that over time. Lacking some depth in that top nine, you might not have John Tavares. You won't have Mitch Marner from the sounds of it. That's two pretty elite hockey players. You're talking about handing the keys over to Willie and you've got Austin and you've got Nice you better be careful about nice because there could be a team cherry-picking out there who's to say a team doesn't offer him a boatload of money and say you know what in a smaller version the Edmonton Oars got burnt by st. Louis because they weren't proactive in two players that happened so who's to say a team's not gonna do that What happens if there's no Matthew Nyes and there's no Mitch Marder and there's no

John Tavares and there's only Austin Matthews and Willie Nylander? I mean, those are ifs. Those are big ifs, but they're also probable ifs as well. So I think the time is now to, if you're going to make moves, you've got to make the same kind of moves that I thought years ago, Doug Armstrong did a really good job of. And that is he got it. He got a Ryan O'Reilly as a 27 year old. Yeah. He gave up a, you know, a guy, Tate Thompson that ended up being a really good player. He was a late draft pick.

He gave up a, he gave up a little bit in the first round pick and he gave up and he got to Braden Shen. How good has that been? I mean, that's a 26-year-old heavy player. You know, I mean, so maybe this is the kind that Brad Truelyvich knocks on a lot of doors and sees what he can get for a one for a two or a one for a three, you know, and make a wholesale change that inevitably leads to this being his hockey club and not anybody else's.

And this is the opportunity right now to make that move. And you've already signed a coach to a long-term deal. He's proven to be a terrific coach. and not anybody else's and this is the opportunity right now to make that move and You've already signed a coach to a long-term deal. He's proven to be a terrific coach he's proven to be a guy that loves Toronto and I think that you've got to work with him to find out the kind of players that they're gonna work with him and continue to Advance this team the way they did this year because I thought they had a heck of a year to be quite honest with you Yeah, well, they had a really good regular season. They did. I mean they won their division Which is something that they had

done it twenty five years here it's like it's been that long uh... one of our own a long time played real played well against auto-war and you know the issue of course is the end of the series against florida yet you know you look at at the panthers panger you know that the term dynasty it's thrown out i feel like it's been it's been modified a little bit over time because i don't want to get stars there are not You know the term dynasty gets thrown out and I feel like it's been it's been Modified a little bit over time because I too often it gets tossed out No, not not too often

But like a true dynasty like you look at the islanders in the early 90s like or early early 80s like that's a dynasty That's four straight cup wins and you go to a fifth one You know the orders went in I think four times in five years You look at the Steelers back in the day the house back in the day you know it's with the mighty my minor day dynasty be the black box and exactly i think so i mean that that's got to be the standard in which uh...

in which a team tries to get to it this particular point anyway pittsburgh for a little bit of time with two in a row but not enough to get the third one and i i'm curious what you think of florida's chances of having that conversation not only over the next month and a half you know years years beyond this like could we could we look back in the year twenty thirty let's say and

that look at them and say man they picked off like force delhi cops went to five of them is that possible with this group that's very possible with this group that's very possible with this group i mean very possible now keeping sam bennett is a big part of that equation uh... not not sure where aaron eckblad's going to be but you know they also backed that up by getting set Jones is proven to be a

a really good performer uh... under pressure set Jones you know he he knows how to play the game when it's under pressure you can speak out of traffic and what have you. A funny thing about Seth, we had him on TNT prior to game one and he said the first thing that the coaches said to him was get rid of the rocking chair, Seth. Start skating again. Get going.

We want our D to get going. But I mean, looking at that, so if they lose Eklatklad if they lose Sam Bennett I think there's still a whole lot of pieces right there that they can that they could continue on but the hardness in the way that Sam Bennett plays to me is that that's the engine for them so that would be real tough if they did lose him but let's just hypothetically say that they keep him and they lose Eklad my feeling is that they're going to make a lot of journeys to the Stanley Cup final i don't think they're done just yet yeah i think i'm not done this year now they're at their a deep team and and

you know it's not a last night it was a boring low event game but you know you you you had to feel at some point law of averages that carolina was going to get at least one and they did so we'll see what happens back in car but you slide over the other series panger what do you make of the goaltender battle I mean you had Jake Ottinger coming in and he had been the best goaltender in the playoffs coming into this series and Stuart Skinner has been much maligned Jekyll and Hyde and now you've got Skinner that's playing well and Ottinger looking to find his game and what do you make of that? Yeah very I mean I mean, really interesting, isn't it, Noodles?

Because you know, just when you think someone's got that rhythm and they're on a roll and they're just seeing the puck so well and it can be derailed so quickly and I've always been amazed that the greatest goalies in the world have been able to get their two feet back on the tracks faster than anybody else and it's and what made a lot of us marginal uh... you know not having the ability to to get back on track very quickly and you played with a lot of great goaltenders and certainly i've seen a lot of great goaltenders myself and uh... jake ottinger to me has that

uh... control delete button that's really impressive he's he forgets and that's great uh... the one thing that he does and I actually talked to him about this in the previous series was when he gets sliding, that's a reminder for him and Jeff Reese to get back on their game. Oversliding, pushing, sliding, pushing, sliding and basically in our conversation was it a matter of just taking things for granted? Was it a matter of of just taking things for granted what it was it a matter of fatigue uh... because you're not using your edges

uh... and and he thought it was a combination everything and sometimes just remind us stay on your blades a little bit longer stand your edges so i'm sure they'll be corrections design really impressed with jay conger and how quickly can correct things with stewart skinner right now i mean this is amazing uh... amazing that he won a game didn't get a shot at in the last month and i think it is a little bit of a there

can they would have a little bit of a lot all dot i think that's i'm convinced that the edmonton oilers don't give a hoot what's back there i swear to it i've never seen a team so resilient i don't know how they do it i mean cal Calvin Pickard, who doesn't love Calvin Pickard?

The guy is a gem of a guy. I can see how he endears himself to his teammates so well. Everybody loves the guy. I mean technically, we're not going to stick him into a goalie school and say, okay, here's how you're going to do it. But what you are going to do is you're going to say, here's how you take a character, you take a player that knows how to win over his teammates, and then, by the way, you throw in some gumption and some battle and survival mode, and he can somehow win his teammates over and make some saves.

Are they going to win with Calvin Pickard? You know, I don't know. They might. They might have to. They might have to go back to him again. But I believe basically, Oh, Doug, to answer your question, yes, I do believe they can win with Stuart Skinner. I believe they can do so because of what they did last year being down

three nothing how we played earlier how calvin had to come in they've done it again this year i don't think they care they don't give a rat's rear end as long as that puck stays out of the net and you don't give up that slimy greasy momentum sapping goal against that they somehow find a way to battle back despite what's what's in the net it's a it's pretty remarkable to me so yes my some sapping goal against that they somehow find a way to battle back despite what's what's in the net it's a it's pretty remarkable to me yes my answer is yes or not well we're talking about it

rules are not yet that's what you can get the big bucks for darren but i don't know but you know that i don't know like pickered has not lost a game and he's he's available tonight he's not playing you know people is that ever six of other like that and obviously you're not gonna plan of course you

can continue skinner's plan so well right now right cd s it was he did this sat in while cd is it's kind of cooking here a little bit and then it's the best it has a little wound off to the side we go let's move move the next guy in and and they don't seem to be bothered by it all they just need one or two really good saves early in a hockey game and they're off and running that seems to be the way it works they're paying with us Miko ranted and was so good early in these playoffs and everything he touched one in the net and now all of a sudden he's really cooled

off he's on a bit of a cooler their offense has been on a bit of a cooler do you is he the guy that you're looking at on the dot dallas side of things like randhan's gotta get chugging again for this this edgy engine in dallas to really rev back up you know i'd like to really add some action some salt is is jimmy benn uh... you know i think i think it's it's hard

i didn't later age especially if you're not a gifted skater, to get to certain areas. He's trying to get to these areas, but I'd like to see Dallas get pucks in against the right D, time it well, get him getting some skin early on in a hockey game, get that edge going back to the game. I think Dallas is lacking that part, but on the top line, I mean, Grandlin has played some exceptional hockey and that little like, wrister that he's got, that's like almost like a lacrosse kind of, you know, side wind and wrister that he's got that keeps fooling

everybody. Ranton, to me, takes up a lot of auction on that team in a good way. I mean, if they're going 7-11 like they've done a lot of times, he's the one that jumps out there and he gets on the fourth line or whatever line they utilize the extra guy with. And so I'd like to see him bowl his way right through the blue paint. I think a lot of times, especially if he plays a lot, I think there's a lot of deferring to the outside. I've often said not many guys can score with their

rear end against the boards like this guy can and still carry three guys on his hips. So that part's amazing, but man, why not go to the paint right off the hop and just get in someone's kitchen and rattle some pans around? That's what I'd like to see. Something greasy and ugly and battling and and drag Rope Hints into the battle as well. And I think they know what they're gonna get with Grandlin every single night. and ugly and battling and drag Rope Hints into the battle as well. I think they know what they're going to get with Grandland every single night. I know Rope Hints has got a lot of responsibility being a really great defending centerman, but I think there's more to that line and I think that grit factor is one area that

can really, I think, make a difference for that line, especially for Ran and get that big butt right going to the blue paint. Yep, big time. Always great catching up with you, P with you pay her what you get back out to uh... i don't know where you go on the lake you go in a roll pots what are you doing now yet i take those new york loves and i'm gonna go chip around out there

they've also but i got the party green at about a thirteen and a half on the step out there he's gone up for the u.s. open player they're getting ready for Oakmont. Yeah, Oakmont's got nothing on the rough out here. I love it. Enjoy yourself.

Thank you, Darren. We appreciate it, as always. My pleasure. Take care, fellas. There's Darren Peng of the NHL and TNT. 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.

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