Real Kyper & Bourne - Leafs Hour: Mehta Gaining Momentum

Episode Date: April 7, 2026

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee start with the news that the Toronto Maple Leafs have brought on Neil Glasberg's The Coaches Agency to conduct their GM search. They discuss the 'conflict of interest' for a coach/GM agent leading the search, Sunny Mehta's momentum in the market, and more. Jason Bukala joins the show (16:12) to discuss Mehta's potential fit in Toronto, why the team should prioritise hiring a President, and other under-discussed names the Leafs should consider hiring. Later, Nick, Justin and Sam assess the recently fired Tom Fitzgerald as a potential Leafs GM candidate before debating whether the Leafs should start pulling impact players from the lineup with five games remaining. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

All right back at you for another edition of Real Kipprenborn, Leaf Hour edition. We're live on Sportsnet 360, 590, the fan in Toronto. Streaming always on Sportsnet Plus, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube at your convenience. Nick Kiprio, Justin Barnes, Sammy McKee, Jake the Snake Shultz, Derek Brandeo, two solid hours. In about 15 minutes, we'll welcome in Jason Bucala, Pro Hockey Group. plenty to get into him, with him. And Reno LeVois will join us.

At the top of the hour, hockey reporter for TVA. In the meantime, the Leafs are moving towards a process. To Hamilton. No, no, no, no. Out of my life, hopefully? Would you like them to go to Hamilton next year? Maybe for a year. Just sit one out.

The Leafs are moving towards their process. of finding a general manager or president or both. We don't know. The Leafs have hired the coaches agency. Neil Glassburg is now part of the process. As reported by Sportsnet. Luke Fox. Luke Fox is on the scoop.

Here's the extent of what I know about this agency and what's happening. Frank Sarvelli does not like them. That's what I've learned just from Twitter today. Okay. Okay. And I have not seen any of Frank stuff, but I, let me guess. Let me guess. Conflict of interest.

Yes. That's the one. Okay. That's an easy one. Yeah. It's an easy one to pin. Maybe he needs a background on what's happening. Because he represents coaches, right?

Uh-huh. Assistant GMs. and for the past, I guess, five or six years, it's been his business. Yeah. So the feeling is if Sunny Mata's out there and he represents him, how can he search for a client of his? Mm-hmm. So that's, I think, the basis of Frank.

Can I read you his tweet? Frank's tweet? Sure. He says, text message from current NHL executive relieves hiring Neil Glassberg to conduct search. He said, one, get paid to run search. Two, search hires for your clients as GM get paid again. Three, client hires another client as head coach, get paid again. The only question is if Neil can hit the Superfecta,

search client president, client as GM, client as head coach. Now, I know nothing about the agency. This is just Frank Saravali saying he sees... I love it. The Superfecta is a funny line. I don't know anything about what's happening. I just know that that's what he's saying. Yeah.

I'm not anywhere near close. as offended as maybe this NHL executive or Frank on this. I know Neil. A lot of us know Neil, okay? Good guy. Everybody's friend in the hockey world, personable guy, just a local guy. And, you know, without getting in too much detail,

Neil and I, once upon a time, sold, water together. Oh, is that right? Yeah. What do you mean? Well, we were part of a... Selling cases out of the trunk. Yeah, we're selling cases of GP8 water.

Oh, is that a GP8? Yeah. Okay. So this isn't, this isn't, this isn't, this isn't Keith Pelly and MLSC going out and hiring or, or, or, hooking up with a multi-billion dollar search firm. Gotcha. This is just a guy who's in the business. who could perhaps drop a name or two

that they might not necessarily think about. Right. And go from there. For anyone to really suggest that Neil's going to come in now and manipulate this whole thing that I'm going to get a guy who's paying me 3 or 5% who's going to get another guy to get the 3 or 5% and I'm going to just,

cha-ching, chiching this thing right to September. is like, no, I'm sorry, it's not happening. His entire reputation would hinge on these hires. People would know he's involved. You would have to get the right guys. So I'm sure he wouldn't be that. This is now a company that arguably could be worth $15 or $20 billion. They're, MLSC.

They're not going to just let Neil come in here. Take his word. And go, whatever you say, Neil. Yeah. Right? It's not happening. Yeah. So I'm not,

I'm fine with it. They're going to recommend somebody. He's going to recommend somebody. They're going to go through an interview process. I'm sure Neil will be involved in the interview process. I don't believe for one second he's going to dictate this whole thing. And then Keith, Rogers,

their lawyers, their PR people, they'll all come to a rosy conclusion together and name their next guy. And that's it. Hmm. Yeah, no, listen, I think that all makes a lot of sense. And I think, you know, I don't know that the job itself is rocket science.

You know, like there's only so far outside the box you can think. You're trying to find people who are available, interesting, meet the qualifications of data centric, some AGM experience. You're making it someone's full-time job to present potential candidates. I imagine, Kip, that they have said what they need to be able to do. what the next person needs to be able to do is present information, like data-centric, they said, to the board or whatever, of why you want to do things. I'm sure it's the same for Neil.

Neil will have to say, here's why these are good people, and off you go from there. Interesting. I just, I get the push for the data. Maybe you could correct me or just tell me what secret sauce I'm missing here. But they have one already in Darrell Medcalf. Yeah. Okay?

It's still regarded as one. of the better ones around the league. I just don't know what firing Darrell Medcaf does when you go hire someone else to come in. And at the end of the day or after every game, the data is the data. It is. And everybody now has the same information, right? It's not discovering new data that other teams. have missed.

So it's just a matter of what you do with the information once it's presented. Well, I didn't get the impression that Keith Pelly said, we want to replace the people who run our data for the Leafs. He said he wants a general manager or someone in charge who considers the data. So I think what they're talking about is not getting different people to accumulate. You think Daryl Metcalf has a chance of staying and keeping his job? and the whole data is fine, we're okay with them? The next person to listen to it and care about it in some capacity.

Okay. You know, and I will say. I got the impression that he wants to clean house on that and start fresh. Hold on, can I just finish something while it's still on my mind? I think there's a big misunderstanding and actually somewhere, so this is something I think I do well, is a lot of people see this exact same data and they say, okay well what does it mean to me i don't sort of call him look at the number of the top and say that

guy's the best at it you have to consider you look at the data and say and look at context and say okay why is that guy so good okay well he's playing on a very good team with a good partner and he's on his strong side and they start him in the offensive zone and you consider things from the information i think there's a lot of people who just think a number's a number but there's a lot of also they think that's how you find an undervalued guy oh his numbers are bad but but But look at the context, the spot he's in. I actually think in a better situation, that could be a better player. Like the data is your fourth depth guy on the blue line cannot make a backhand pass.

Right? Yeah. Stop making a backhand pass. Well, how's that? But that'll show up in the number. If he turns it over all the time on retrievals. But everybody has the number. It's just a matter of what you do with it is my point.

And someone might say that guy can't make a breakout pass get rid of them. someone else might say, well, you got him on his offhand. What if we put him on the other side with someone where he actually can make a pass on his forehand because he can't make a backhand pass? What if we didn't start him in that end that much? What if we insulate him with a better partner who can make a good first pass? It's what do you do with the information? Because you're right, the data is the data, but it means different things to different people.

For sure. I brought this up to you the other day, Bourne. I don't know if I did this on air or not talk a lot to you about different things. But the thing that worries me about the data part of this and sort of like the classic battle of analytics versus hockeymen, I test versus the charts, whatever. Like, they clearly started one way with Lou and Lou and they kind of stout. It was more of a old school mentality.

And they swung really hard towards the dubus side of things. That was perceived to be super analytics. And everybody sort of was saying, all dork, dork, and now they've swung all the way back to Trilliving. That's like, we've got to have big, tall, long defensemen, sticks, got to go through a car wash, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Snot, DNA, blah, blah, blah.

I just, I'm worrying that we're swinging all the way back here. And that, like, I just really hope that in this process, they find some sort of middle ground in terms of team building as opposed to it just being one way or the other, because the swings concern me. I said this to you. If it's 18 degrees in my house and my wife is a little chilly, she'll turn it up to 26.

And then it's like, we don't want it 26 either. 21 is great. It's like, why is it so hot in here? It's like you need to set it for the middle. It'll get there eventually. So yes, I don't want to see it swing. When I hear the president come out and say like I was, you know, that he was in on some of the stuff which were living

and I don't know what he saw on those days. And then him talking about data-centric, just coming out with that. We're willing to say that at this, at this interesting. introductory press prompts or whatever it was. I just really hope that like Sonny, like people, the fans are in on Sunny Mata.

Like they have made up their minds. I sent her to tweet about Sunny Mata today about how it would be funny if Shannie got hired in in New Jersey and they swooped in and took him. I would just jokingly. People are like, that would not be funny. He's our, like people have made up their mind on this guy already. That's wild.

I just be careful. This is a big job. And I just want there to be some balance when it comes to team building. that's it. People got to understand that, like, Sonny Meta's, like, reputation now is just about the numbers. It's not anything else.

Yeah. Right? It's not. It's about the numbers. So when push comes to shove, is it, as Keith mentioned, just about the evidence that he presents on paper that will end up being, that's the buck stops with me on that. And it's like,

that to me is very dangerous. Yeah, he's been working with Bill Zito and working with a lot of other people and helping inform their decisions. Yeah, but he's not, he's not the main reason why they've won two Stanley Cups, which people have now made a, have decided, right?

He's the, he is the secret sauce. And to that, I say that if it was that crystal clear, I don't believe for one, second, Florida would let him walk out the door. Okay? And the moment that teams were starting to sniff

around Kelly McCriman when they won the Stanley Cup, you know what George did? He's like, he ain't going anywhere. I'll move up and he's sliding into my spot. But he is not leaving. Okay? Under any circumstances.

And I think Bill Zito could easily have that option. I'll slide into a president's and Sonny, you take my seat at the general manager's spot. And I don't get the sense that they're doing that. Yeah. I mean, we don't know that Bill Zito doesn't want to be the GM still, right? That's a big ask of someone to just forfeit your job.

But winning would help Bill Zito the most, not what's on a business card title. Yeah, I don't, to me, Bill has won two cups. He doesn't, he's, he wants to be the GM. But I get your point that he's valuable to that. And now that they, you know, they've hired, uh, Regan, Neil, your boy. Blasberg. They've hired him.

And the first thing I see on my news feed or on Instagram or whatever is a picture of him and like Sunny made a together, right? And you're like, okay, well, it just feels that we're just barreling towards this and people already made up their mind about that this guy's going to be the next general manager of the, the May police or whatever. And I just hope that people have an open mind towards this search. And they don't have their mind made up already at the sexy new thing. So if you worked with this Neil, then he must be a hockey guy in a serious capacity, and he must know. No. No, no.

He's a businessman. And I think he's got his opinions for sure. But if you're asking me if Neil's a hockey guy, the answer's no. So you're the hockey guy in that relationship, obviously. That's, yeah. And you know what, Neil would be the first person to say so. Yeah. So, you know, I would be curious to get your input on direction here with the Leafs

because I know like meta is probably not META is not your higher. Is it META? Is it meta? I go by Sunny Mata. Mata World Peace. Meta it is. Okay. And I could be wrong.

I've called them four different things. Yeah. And it absolutely not true. I would. I would, I've never. met him. Yeah. I hear great things about him.

Until he's a wonderful guy. I don't need to see much more than how Florida's conducted their business, that he wouldn't be a serious candidate for me. Right. I just don't know in terms of exactly what capacity or what the business card says. If he had a president over him, over him, that was more of a hockey guide. Would that appeal to you? I wouldn't leave him as the face of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Yeah. I would not do that to him. I think personally It's a big first thing. It's too big of a task for him at this point of his career and he's not ready for this market. Can I ask you something? Yeah.

Have they contacted you? Why would you ask that? Why would you ask that? Because on that 365 today you're plus 7,500 to be the next GM of the Leaf. I think you put that in yourself and you photoshopped it. I swear to God I did not. That's true. So I think thereby it is a legitimate question that we're allowed to at least forward.

Hold on. Bookes has got to hold on. Bookes, you can listen in for a second. Let's welcome in, Jason. What a boonkola from pro sports. Sorry to boo you, Boots. Where's Jason Buchalah on, bet 365? What are the odds?

Nowhere to be found, I hope. Nowhere to be found. Bookes, your timing is impeccable, my friend. The Kip has the same odds of being the next GM of the Leafs as Patrick Cantley has of winning the majors or the Masters. Patrick Cantley is very good. That's an incredible statistic. It makes me question what the hell is going on over there.

That's fascinating stuff. I'll tell all three of you, whatever loose change you got in your pocket, go for it. All right? If you're the next general manager, I'm the next free each boy. No chance. Kim wouldn't give us a drop. So, Bookes, I don't know, let's start with hockey guy or analytical guy. And, you know, where the Leafs are, we heard from Keith Pelley in his press conference.

Definitely, it's trending in a certain. certain direction. So where does that leave you with a guy like Sunny Meta? Well, I went for a haircut, Tony at Oakridge Barbers here in London, who's the diehardest of diehard Toronto Maple Leaf fans, is all over this about hockey guy or data guy. Everybody's trying to figure it out. I have to tell you here that the only way that a data guy works, data data, potato, potato, the only way that that works is if you're, you're, you, you are insulated with enough infrastructure in your organization to give you the options to do what you do best. And that's make decisions with live bodies or draft capital or just flat out prospects like infrastructure.

So if you take a look at a guy like Sunny Mehta, who's a genius, by the way, people can take the time to read up on this guy. He's at a fascinating history. but he will only be maximizing his potential if you hire a guy like this, if the hockey operations department has delivered enough infrastructure for him to work with. I'll give it, let me simplify it for you guys. A mathematician can't solve a problem if he's staring at a blank page, and there's no equation on the page for him to solve. And that's where we are with the Toronto Maple Leafs right now.

When Sunny Mehta went into the Florida Panthers, take a look at what they had. Just take a minute to take a look at how many prospects they, traded away to to improve the roster. Bill Zito did a hell of a job there with the help of his pro staff and Sonny Mata. But you had a ton of prospects. You had cap space. You had full board of draft picks.

You had all of it. Toronto Maple Leafs don't have that. So until they start to build that out, it's going to take time for a data guy to be able to maximize this potential because there's just not enough there. You might be able to make an NHL roster move. You might be able to pick up a guy on waivers. but you have to have the infrastructure to work with. Yeah, that's fascinating.

So you did work with Sonny. You weren't in Florida at the same time as him, if I'm not mistaken, right? You guys didn't overlap? No, I was on the way out the door and he was on his way in, yeah. And go ahead for you guys on. No, no. He had stints right in New Jersey as well, didn't he? Yeah, New Jersey.

He was in New Jersey for three years. And then he was also a consultant with Washington. and capitals for a year. So do you feel then, if you have someone like that with that kind of information that he has, and to your point that no one in his spot is going to have an equation to solve, like whoever comes in is going to have to write the new equation, do you feel like if someone is hired above him then that that works? I asked Kipa, Kipa similar question.

Just what is the structure to make it work with someone like that? And do you need to have someone like that? Do you feel like this is going, it just feels like to Sam's point, it's headed in the direction of a president hockey guy and analytical GM. Yeah, I think it's, so right now, if you take a look at what they have,

they got a plethora of assistant GMs, too many. There's so many cooks in the kitchen there in Toronto. But having said that if here, it's going to go one or two ways in my estimation, and both ways can work. The first one, though, if you are going to hire a president of hockey operations, that absolutely has to happen first,

because we have talked about this at length for several, several segments, guys, where the DNA of the team, the culture, if you will, is not where we need it to be as a fan base and an organization. I think everybody around the team would admit that we have to be better on our hardest days and we have to have a better culture that way. So how does that, how do you establish that? Well, that comes from the president and it trickles its way down from there. The president manages up to the ownership group and Keith Pelley, et cetera, et cetera.

but it starts there, it trickles down. If you do that in reverse order, if you hire a general manager under the nose of your future president, that is backwards and it doesn't work. That is not setting culture to me. That is setting things in reverse order to come back down the ladder. You don't climb halfway up the ladder and then go down and go back up. It doesn't work like that.

You go from the top down. Now, having said that, you could technically hire someone like a sony made it to do both, president and general manager. How does that work? That works only if you surround him with super elite hockey operations executives and you overpay for their slots. Those types of people aren't so much concerned about titles as they are the fact that they're going to have a ton of responsibility.

Call them an assistant GM if you want or an associate. I don't care what you call them. Frankly, if you really want to do this job in Toronto at the best of your ability, I don't think it's so much about the title because if you're really good at what you do, you're going to get paid a handsome amount of money to get it done. And I think a guy like Sunny Mehta or whoever the gentleman or the president ends up being, they're looking for those people to come in and, you know, check your ego at the door. We need to get this right.

The only way it works, you hire a president first. It trickles down. If you go to the world of Sunny Mehta and you do both, then you surround him with really high-ranking hockey executives to do the job and insulate him for the things that he doesn't do well. Or he hasn't proven that he can do well. He doesn't scout games. He's not going to be in Helsinki on a Thursday night. You know what I'm saying, guys?

He's not going to do that kind of stuff. He's going to expect you to deliver him options that he can make decisions with. Everybody's got a toll of the role, do what they do best, and deliver infrastructure. Just in terms of your hockey executive, if in fact you gave the keys to Sonny. Like, they'd have to really believe that Sunny would lean on them and actually take their advice or else it's it's a useless hire so if you prioritize books like the culture it's really hot it's really hard to tell sunny about culture and then have him implement culture in the organization sunny can do a lot of things but he can't fix culture in the city of toronto right now do you agree

Oh, I totally agree. The only way the culture will be fixed is by, so I'm talking about two different things here. I'm talking about establishing organizational culture and expectations from the top down. Whether people like the Shannaplan or not, that's not up for debate today. What's up for debate is how do you get it right going forward? You can't look in the rear of your mirror. But they need to get things more buttoned up as an organization from top to bottom.

This whole sequence over the last couple months has been disjointed or unusual. There's just been a lot of moving parts. So you need to bring that in. that's the one side of it I'm talking about for culture. The other side that I'm talking about culture, little kipper, is that the general manager or the president has to implement the staples that they're looking for in players and how they want to build out their roster and the type of personality you want to present.

Until you build out the core of your group with a certain type of personality, you can't take risk on the periphery to add certain skill sets or hit a home run and free agency, etc., etc., because if you don't build through a foundation of expectation, you know we're going to play fast we're going to think we're going to be a relentless competitive team relentlessly competitive team on our worst day by the way not our best day on our worst day to outwork our opponents and and we're going to persevere until you have all that that's when you start adding from the outside this isn't going to be a quick fix for me this is

going to take some time because they they don't have a lot of bullets in the chamber at the draft they really don't they don't have a lot coming from the underbelly for prospects through the american hockey league they have juniors who are going to meet some time in the American Hockey League and then you get to the NHL roster. And what are we going to talk about? We're going to talk about, well, I hope Chris Tanev is healthy. I hope that our goaltending rebounds. We've got three of those guys.

What are you going to do with Hildaby who you can't send down on waivers next year? There's just so much to unpack. I'm talking about two different types of culture when I say that, Keper. Okay. So when you're looking, you know a lot of people in this business. You know, obviously you're at a lot of the events and you've been in hockey for a long time. Are there any names out there to you that you feel like, hey, this is a guy that maybe either not thinking of, not talking about,

or even a name that is out there that you like in particular. Well, I mean, we've already gone on, I've already gone on a record. And I have a bias. So that's the unfortunate part of this. I'm trying to eliminate bias because I think that's really important. I guess that's why you hire search firms and everything else. But I got a guy in Washington, fellas, Ross Mahoney, I don't think that Ross Mahoney gets enough attention for what he does exceptionally well.

And what he does, look at the Washington Capitals over the last 27, 28 years under the leadership of Ross Mahoney in both amateur and pro scouting. They just turn over prospects year over year and that underbelly keeps on appearing. Even when they're good, when they're mediocre, it doesn't matter. They continue to have live bodies land in their program and he finds them later in the draft. I'm talking third round to seventh round type guys. I think Ross Mahoney, who's the assistant GM in Washington, would be a fantastic target from a hockey operations perspective. You know I'm on the Chris Pronger train.

I've worked with Chris Pronger. I'm reading all the same things you guys have read. I'm hearing all the same things that everybody's here. I'm really trying to get out of this rumor business. I really am. But I've been in the room with this guy. And I've heard, I've seen the presence that he carries in a meeting. I've seen him with our prospects on the development side.

I've seen him talk about numbers and business. And I've also seen him talk about, you know, team building and what he went through, you know, in his career and trying. It's just a big, it's a big presence. I'll put it to this way. When I was with at the World Juniors this year with Sammy Cositino, you know, we had a coffee and a lunch with Brendan Shanahan. I've never sat down at a table with Brenda Shanahan a day on my life. Anybody, whether you like them, love them or not, there's just certain people that carry themselves a certain way when you're in the room. And that's what Prongs is like.

Shanahan was like that as well. For better or for worse, there was structure. there. So those are a couple names that I would definitely go after and take a long, hard look at. I'm hearing a lot of these data guys and that's fine. I get that too. But, you know, Futes work with a guy in Los Angeles, Ianetti, who is Mike Ianetti or Mark Ianetti, who's a fantastic mine, and he combines the both. He runs up their scouting department over there. He's a hell of a scout. He would be another name that, but all these are going to get thrown into the melting pot and we'll see where it goes. The one thing I am curious about is the way that they're hiring this agency, this outside firm.

You know, this here is unusual only because it's a firm that represents some of the candidates that are going to be candidates for the Toronto Maple Leafs. And I hope that there's not going to be any bias in this equation. I hope they go through their process very thoroughly. You were just scared prongs is going to, like, step on your head if you didn't agree with them. No, I've been there. We've thrown stuff at each other. We've, listen, you held your own.

Is that what you're telling me? You held your own against Chris Bronger. No, you've looked at me face to face the person. Of course I haven't. He beat the tar out of me, but it didn't matter. I still showed up. I kept shopping at his kneecaps. Awesome stuff, bookes.

Thanks for doing this, pal. All right, boys. Have fun with this. Good luck. Talk you soon. Pro-havvy group. That's his company. Former NHEL scouting director as well.

First of all, the least have done it before. They've gone out and got someone exactly like Neil Glassberg. And that was Gord Kirk. Okay. He was in charge of eventually landing, if I'm not mistaken, in 2008, Brian Burke. And he was not part of MLSC. It represented a lot of people. over the years, including myself,

did my eight-year contract with SportsNet. Eight years. Yeah. That's why you had a golf simulator in the baseball. That's 3,000 years in the media world. And, you know, was the key guy with Eric Lendros in the Flyer Hayday. So it's been done before. I wonder if Patrick Burke would be a name that comes up.

I know he's in some DM combos. The thing you said that book said about Pronger is what's most attractive to me about him in terms of like when you're coming here, there are some hard decisions that you're going to have to make with real opinions that are going to have to be had and decisiveness and confidence in yourself to make those decisions. And when you look at a guy like Pronger, they're never going to have to worry about him going in there and be like, well, I don't know. like he's going to tell you, I mean, he goes on Toronto radio and tells him to tear it down to the screws. He's not afraid to say his opinion on this team. And I just... But the problem is now is that they're not going to tear it down to the screws.

No, I know. I know. But I'm just saying like Pronger isn't going to come in and tell them that. It's... When Brendan Chanahan was hired, it was like, this is what we have. Look at the cupboards, including our picks. And in a blink of an eye, you were staring at top 10 picks from Willie to Matthews to Marner Morgan Riley was a top 10 pick

and you had I don't know four or five years to really get this thing going Pronger doesn't have that I do think that you need someone with an almost sociopathic level of confidence it's just like this is what I'm doing I don't care you think but you're right so you think that a guy like Pronger is less likely because he would want to do something

more drastic than is being prescribed from up above. I hate that word. I don't know in terms of where Pronger's heads at, in terms of what the ask is and where it matches, where his expectations would be. He could go in there and say, I'll take my best shot at turning this thing around in 12, 18 months. And if it doesn't work, then I get to do the other thing. Right? Yeah.

Well, that's kind of, to me, that's how Darsh ended up firing Patrick was. Like, we want to fire that guy, but let's see if it doesn't work and when it doesn't, then I'll get to do the thing I want to do. Yeah, like, if you're a prospective candidate of this job, aren't you like, yeah, we can retool this off season? But if it doesn't work, guess what? I'm leading the thing out of it. We suck next year.

I'm doing the rebuild. So, I don't know. Yeah, it's an interesting thought. Are we going to go back to Kipperer or just move on? Oh, well, I think we'll just let it hang. Okay. Let's just let it hang in the air. So let me get this straight.

Okay. You wake up one day and you just see my name on this Bet365 thing. And now, like, you're looking at me a lot differently right now. Hold on. What is going on here? No, we just don't know anything really about you. Period. Yeah, like, we know.

What do you want to know? Well, you're an enigma. I enjoy fishing in the off-season. Do you have kids? I got three. Who do you talk to all there on your phone? Are we not golfing tomorrow? Well, we'll see.

We'll have a conversation out there. We are freeze our ass off. Forecast of zero feels like minus five. The boys are T-N-off. By the way, no show tomorrow. No show tomorrow. No show tomorrow. You're going to tell everybody that?

Or are they going to make them come and find us and then go, where are you guys? I think pretty happy to see Vladdy instead of our face, but maybe the Js have not been. I'll start for the boys. We'll go to break. Yeah, it's a season from hell. Everyone's hurt.

Oh, stop. been two weeks. You can't say that after nine games? I mean, Cody Ponds, one of their biggest offseason signings out for the year.

Whoa, Ponce's year? Yeah, you guys got ACL surgery, six months. Oh, they did ACL? Oh, man. Oh my gosh. Six to eight broken thumb.

Addison Barger on the D.L. or I. whatever it's called. Max Scher leaves after two innings. You got some guy I've never heard of pitching to the meat of the Dodgers order. The first batter that guy faced was O'Tonnie and he barely got a piece of the ball

and then he threw it into the fourth row. They got those guys that you write them off, they'll come back. Anyways, we got some, we'll go to break and we got a few Barubei clips from practice today that I found funny. So we'll play them. The current leaves?

The leaves. They have a game. Do they play tonight? Tomorrow, yeah. Tomorrow. We got some funnies coming up after the break. Funnies is strong. Okay.

You think I'm funny? Can't wait for this one. After the words of our sponsors. The best. Blue J's show out there, period. Blair and Barker. Be sure to subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome back to the program. Leave hour edition. Nick Kippreos, Justin Borns, Sammy McKee. So did Neil Glassberg and Frank get into like a Twitter war at the time four years ago, five years ago? In 2003, there's a daily face-off article where the two of them went at it. Bit of a spat, if you will. Yeah, well, Frank was just trying to highlight a conflict of interest,

and Neil was texting him saying, you're making something out of nothing, and they're going back and forth. It's all in Frank's art. Juicy. Very gossipy. Yeah. But Bill Daley is quoted in saying they have no concerns about a conflict of interest. Yeah, and they won't hear.

And again, like, say what you will. Of course, if you want to go down that angle of technically a conflict of interest, but just give MLSC or Keith. Pelley a little bit more credit than that. I agree. Like, come on. Another GM name out there. I guess we'll talk about this a little bit more in our national hour.

We'll get into it. But Tom Fitzgerald, let go in New Jersey. Is there any leaf connection or leaf interest with him, do you think? Why not? He's been good to our show over the years. If you're going to go down through a process, there might be some interest in talking to him. Play for the least, right?

He was a former leaf. Like if Sunny Mata is going to go somewhere else, why would it not be New Jersey? He grew up a New Jersey Devils fan. He was, like Boog said, he was like three years there, and they couldn't find him a desk further away from, like, the hockey department in New Jersey. Well, but now they've got that Josh Harris, Blitzer,

their very data-centric organization now. He stuck around for three years because that ownership liked his data information, but he couldn't crack the secret code to get in there and be more useful for them. Wasn't that years before that that ownership was in? Wasn't it under a different ownership when he would have been there? I think so, yeah.

I mean, I'm not sure technically if it's the same people as there now. But if Shanahan get hired there and then New Dubus comes in? Honestly, being just, the stone throw away from New York the Rangers and Brendan being a former New York Ranger and yet having so much experience with the league and

I just think Brendan's got to be one of their favorites right now in New Jersey as a as a guy that can add to that rivalry. Well it's such a great history you know him playing there. I don't know how long he played for New Jersey but I can certainly

picture it was early. Yeah I know he was drafted by them. Yeah. And then he got, I think, sent to St. Louis as part of the Scott Stevens signing. No, not a trade. Part of compensation. Oh, really? Yeah, because New Jersey signed Scott Stevens to an offer sheet. And back then you could pick players off your roster as compensation.

That was pretty good compensation. Yeah, it worked out well. Yeah, both teams did well. So Deleis did skate today. I put the lines on your lineup. All the guys in the American League are on, I don't know, Quillen got back in, thankfully. But they called up Luke Hames today,

and he's on the outside looking in. Bill and who's still on the outside looking in. Lots of Leaf fans are pissed. People are pissed. That those guys aren't in? Yeah. There's five games left in the season. Can William Neelander head to Sweden early?

Well, one thing, like, I want to throw out there And that I don't think people know is sometimes these guys on two-way contracts Who've been good soldiers, they just want to get them a paycheck. They just want to give them a pay bump. Say, hey, you've been great. Come on up and make a bunch of money for a few days, be around. That's not the world I know, man. They don't care.

I can't believe that they would have that kind of generosity between me and you. No, I've seen that. I've seen that where they're just like, hey, we, you know, good work. Well, just stroke me a check. and I don't have to go through the process. Just give me the money. They want to be there. They want to be around the NHL team and all that.

But this answer was interesting in that light. They asked, excuse me, I think it was Kevin McGrane that asked Brubay, should these guys expect to play? Like, are they going to, like, are Villeneuve and Haynes going to get into games? This was his answer, clip one.

What's the plan for Haymes and Villainoover? Are they, should they expect some actions? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I think we're just dealing with some, not injuries, but stuff where it could keep guys out. So it's nice to have them guys up here to get acclimated to things. And if we need them, we'll get them up here. So play that part again for me, Derek?

Just the answer. We need them. We'll get them up here. No, sorry, not that part. The part we're saying about guys. Stuff where could keep guys out. So it's nice to have them guys up here to get acclimated to things. and if we need them.

I think he was insinuating towards injuries. No, he said this. They're not injuries, but things that could keep them out of the lineup. Is the things that could keep them out of the lineup, Brandon Pridham? Like, are they like,

you're not playing anymore? Yeah. Well, this would be the smartest thing you could possibly do with five games left. To get into the top five? Yeah. There's still time, you think? Sure, there is.

But they're super close. There's two teams between them. I can't think of anything that would set them up to just, look even worse than to come out of. Kippa, we fans are dying for them to do this, man. It's too late. They should have done it two weeks ago.

Yeah, but they can still do it. They can still try. So someone talked them into it? Yes. That's what I think. They are currently three points up on fourth worst. They get a couple teams, two teams between them and fifth, who are, you know, they got 78 points,

the Rangers have 75 and the Panthers have 77. Five games left. Just do it. How many home games is it? That's a team that took a point Saturday night. Yeah, no, they've been doing it wrong. And guess why they took a point Saturday night? But now they woke up with five games to go and the light switch went off.

No, they fired the GM. Do you remember that? Yeah. That's exactly right. The guy that was. They fired them before Saturday night where you play Tavares 20 minutes. Oh, how do you do? Oh, you had a bunch of points in clear.

They've carried them to a point. Yeah, it doesn't make, it hasn't made sense. I assume now they're more empowered to make the good decision. Oh, gosh. Well, wait, why don't you just wait till there's three games or two games to go make the decision? I think it's as dumb as you. I wrote it in January. I just, there is so little time in this season.

There will never be fewer eyeballs on the Toronto Maple Leaf games from here until April 14th, which I believe is their last game of the season. There's never a better chance to just be like, Willie, have fun at Sugo. See ya. Nyes, go get that knee looked at. Johnny, enjoy your kale smoothie, buddy. They're not playing tonight. And you play Hames, you play whoever the hell.

You play Quillen. Vilnav. You got, just do it. What could you possibly take out the guys that can dictate the most for you, the goalies? Sure. Pick another guy. any guy then. You mean the pictures of health?

The two most inconsistently healthy goalies that haven't missed a game. Oh, they're just perfect. Last place. If you finish last in the NHL, you only have a 25% chance of picking first overall. So if you get down there, you're one of the teams who has as many lottery balls as anyone. You're just kind of in the mix.

Get as many lottery balls as you can. All right. What's the chief say about Ovi? Okay. That's not the clip I want to play. Okay, what do you want to play? Can I, before you do this, I need to make sure Kip knows about the line that,

the Leafs are going to see on Wednesday night. They called up Ilya Prostas, who is the other protest's brother. The line is going to be, they're going to play with Tom Wilson. Tom Wilson, 64-225, Alexi Protoz 6-6-250,

Ilya Pradesh 6-2-25. That's a big line. That's a lot of line. That's a lot of meatballs. Yeah. So we had the colors. Up against Max, Nick Roberts.

and Easton Cowan. And they're going to dump it in on... They're going to get a lot of knee and penalties. It's going to be against Tverberg and Heim's and whoever the hell else. That's who it's going to be against. William Villeneuve's first puck retrieval is going to be against that line. Hopefully he coughs it up and the cap score eight. This was asked, we had the conversation with Luke Fox yesterday about the potential of Craig

Brubet being back, which to my should agree. Okay, okay, hold on for a second. I did go back and watch Luke's answer, and I did go back and saw the expression on your face. And it was priceless when he answered. About he's giving it like a 10% chance or whatever he's answered. I was not. And like if we can run that clip and just for tomorrow's show.

We don't have a show. Okay, for Thursday's show, go find the clip. go find the clip and just zoom in on J.B.'s face when Luke answered that. It was priceless. Bad poker player. So anyway. That blinking meme?

So there's a conversation about him potentially to be here that we had yesterday. This was asked to him today at practice. And you make of what his answer of what you will. Clip four, please. Rubin, how much contact you have with Gerald Metcalfe in the research department, how much you might lean on them during the course of this season, what they provide.

I do. Yeah. We get reports every day, well, not every day, but every game day on different things. Our team, the other team, and we're in pretty good contact with them throughout the season. Good, good stuff. But I told you that.

But no, but like, good stuff. This guy, I'm sorry. They use it. They use it. I don't, maybe not enough. As a coaster for their coffees. He's like, yeah, it's good stuff. He's like, yeah, what's in there again?

There's numbers and data and other numbers with categories. Spoken like a man who watched his president's press conference. I love that. I love data. What, me? Old hockey guy, I love data. Anyways. Anything interesting on Ovi?

No. Play the Tavares clip. Tavar's clip's good on Tavares. Yeah, no, I think he's, he starts. started off extremely well this year. Obviously, I think, you know, everybody hits a wall at some point. At his age, that's going to happen to him. But he really knows how to deal with it.

And he keeps doing what he does, and he knows he's going to get out of it at some point, and which he has now. And he's back to playing at the level he was at the beginning of the year, in my opinion. So, I mean, he's the type of guy that, you know, He's got a love for the game too, obviously, and loves the Leafs. And so he works his way out of everything. That's how I view him. He works his way out of things.

And, you know, he just continues to do his routine and day in and day out. Nothing changes, you know, no complaining about this or that. He just keeps, comes to work and works his way out of things. Works his way out of things. Yeah. And that interesting. What does that mean? Just like continue to just,

be the exact same guy every day? I don't really understand that saying. It's, I think he's predictable. I think, yeah. He's just predictable. He's a pro. He likes his routine. He gets, he, he gets prepared.

He's consistent in terms of points. I know in the playoffs it has not bowled well for him. He's won two rounds. Three rounds. Three rounds total. Yeah. Right? but just unfortunately

I mean it's just never been as productive for him in the playoffs He reminds me of a golfer who is notorious for beaten range balls like just go work and grind and work on your craft He's going to end up falling into that Hall of Fame kind of great right or I mean

Did he get an Olympic ball? Gilles Jolbert Perrault Right? Marcel Dionne of course one of the greatest production guys and he'll just fall in that category of never winning. Unless he win. Where's he going to win? Unless next year with Sunny May to add to hell.

The Leafs make a miraculous turnaround. Built around left-winger Anthony Mantha. He could have had a chance to leave and chase a Stanley Cup. It wasn't a top priority for him. Okay. You know, there's some interesting, free agent names out there that aren't talked a lot because people are just kind of assuming

like Anders Lee from the Islanders, I don't know what he'd be You know, you can do what he's going to be 36 Yeah, no, I know, but he scored almost 20 this year And he punches people and sign him for two years I think he should be able to get maybe a two-year contract I don't know You guys like that out there People are like, yeah, he'll be signed

Should have moved them Oh yeah, they should have And you know if Tavars didn't have a no move You should have moved Tavaris this year Should have coulda. Should have coulda. Ifs and butts, we're candies and nuts. Every day would be crisp.

All right. Once again, solved nothing for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but we had a few giggles. Always good. All right. Now we go into hardcore around the National Hockey League. Renault, LeVois,

will join us from TVA. We'll get the scoop around the National Hockey League. That more as we continue. Go national. The Real Kipper and Boring Show.