The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Connor McDavid Extends in Edmonton ft. Colby Cohen, Andrew Raycroft, and Bob Stauffer

Episode Date: October 6, 2025

The newest episode of The Sheet on the Daily Faceoff YouTube channel, hosted by Jeff Marek, is dominated by one story: Connor McDavid’s new two-year deal with the Edmonton Oilers at $12.5M AAV. Marek breaks down what this contract means for the Oilers’ Cup window, the ripple effects across the NHL, and how it reshapes superstar negotiations moving forward.To go even deeper, Bob Stauffer — one of the most plugged-in voices around the Oilers — joins the show to give his insider perspective on what this deal says about McDavid’s future, Edmonton’s roster-building strategy, and how this extension impacts the team’s short- and long-term outlook.And while McDavid’s deal is the headline, we might also get to the other big stories: the fight-filled preseason game between the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning that racked up 200+ penalty minutes, Zdeno Chara’s number retirement in Boston with Andrew Raycroft’s reflections, and Gavin McKenna’s NCAA debut with Colby Cohen. But make no mistake — this episode begins and ends with McDavid.#McDavid #Oilers #NHLContracts #StanleyCup #HockeyNews #NHLDiscussion #NHLHighlights #ZdenoChara #BostonBruins #Panthers #GoBolts #FloridaPanthers #TampaBayLightning #CollegeHockey #GavinMcKenna #PennStateHockeyReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Flames_Nation🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey there, it's Jeff Merrick here. You know, my wife and I both have countless memories from spending time discovering Canada. Well, I always come back to the summer of 2005. We were staying at a cottage on Lake Joseph here in Muscoca, watching the Live 8 music festival in Barry on television. My buddy Jeremy Taggart, former drummer from Our Lady Peace, dropped by after his band's set and stayed the rest of the weekend at the cottage after the band's set and told some incredible backstage stories about some amazing Canadian music icons. I will never forget that.

And fast forward to today, I'm a hockey parent, and I feel like I'm always on the road with my family, whether that means traveling across southern Ontario hockey ranks during the week or overnight at tournaments on select weekends. But what makes our hockey experience even more special is booking a place on Airbnb when we're on the road for overnight tournaments. All of this traveling got me to thinking, my home's just sitting empty when I could be hosting it on Airbnb instead. I'd simply put up my house on Airbnb, pre-select dates that I want to host, bam, it's practical, easy to manage, and it enables people like me to make some money while they're not at home. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca slash host.

So I guess for everybody who said, well, if Connor McDavid wants to win so much, he should just sign the same contract for a couple more years. Connor McDavid, surely before the show hits the air, signs a two-year contract, a V-12.5. for both seasons. Cap space galore left for Stan Bowman. Quick peek at Puckpedia. And we'll try to get Hart Levine on

the conceptual genius behind Puckpedia on the talk about this contract. Projected Cap Space next year for the Edmonton Oilers, $29.7 million. Projected cap space, $27,28, $48 million of cap space

you know it was going to be an interesting one from the get-go and it got as we talked about over the course of this summer and we've got a lot of guests coming on if we can and we're trying to line up a guest here right now doing this on the fly it was an interesting one all summer long as we

wondered you know what the deal was going to look like for Connor McDavid if there was going to be a deal for McDavid what kind of comparable would there be for Connor McDavid and Zach do you have that Jeff Jackson clip lined up here because I want to do our Daily Outline here presented by Fanduel. You know, it's on the program, but I want to have that one teed up

because there's a couple of points that I want to make about it, and it's a conversation that I had with Jeff Jackson as part of the On the Road series in Muscoca earlier last, well, last two months ago now. Daily Outline is powered by Fandul. Make every moment more with North America's number one sportsbook. That is Fandul. Today's program is essentially going to be brought to you by Connor McDavid and the contract extension.

Coming up on the program, Colby Cohen from Morning Cup of Hockey. We'll stop by. We'll get his thoughts on the Connor McDavid deal. Bob Stoffer from Oilers now, noted Edmonton Oilers commentator and the topic de jure at 97 or should we say 12.5. If you're going to add a fourth and fifth note there, Zach, it would be 97 and then 12.5 because that is the AAV as announced by the Edmonton Oilers themselves on their social media. Zach, do we have the Jeff Jackson?

clip queued up here before we get to Colby Cohen. I just want to play this really quickly so people can get a sort of sense of how at ease Jeff Jackson, who is, of course, his former, Connor McDavid's former agent when he worked at Wasserman, how at ease he was about the entire

Connor McDavid situation. Here's Jeff Jackson from this past August. Here than Connor's been, which is, which I never would have a little bit, but I tried to tamp that down last June when we were in the finals, I know there was like, you know, if you don't get him signed right away, you're going to have to trade him. I was like, well, I don't sure what you're talking about.

Like, he has another year. He loves playing in Evanston. And sure enough, we, you know, we got a deal done early September with Leon and I'm super happy about that. So I sort of feel it's the same with Connor. It's not going to be a long negotiation. And it's sort of when he... How quick is that phone call, by the way? Or how long is that, how quick is that conversation? I think that it won't be, it'll be unlike any other sort of negotiation because it's not really. And I think that when Connor's ready, like we'll have the discussion and we'll get a deal done. You know, looking back on it now, that is the site and the sound of, well, Jeff Jackson, the CEO of Hockey Operations for the Edminton Oilers, but someone who was confident from day one that Connor McDavid was going to sign an extension.

Now, it might not be as long as some Oilers fans may want, but nonetheless, you know now that you're getting Connor McDavid for three more years. And you're getting Conner McDavid for a two-year contract extension as we bring on Colby Cohen from Morning Cup of Hockey. You're getting Connor McDavid, Colby, at 12.5. To me, that was the massive news. It wasn't all the announcements of everyone saying it's close, as close as happening. It's the 12.5. And, you know, there was one agent that I talked to a while ago who said, you know, why doesn't Connor just come in? like under market value, but then announced to the league basketball style that after this deal,

I'm only entertaining 20%. So if you're New York or Boston or L.A. or whatever, it doesn't matter. I'm only interested in 20%. Anyhow, Colby, welcome back to the program. And initial thoughts on what's been a very strange and interesting last, I guess, 45 minutes in Oilersland. Listen, it's great for the Edmonton Oilers fan base and it's great for the Edmonton Oilers. it is terrible for every other player in the national hockey league for Connor

McDavid to take the contract that he did and listen he's the best player on the planet he gets to decide what he wants to do everything is personal to every single player okay so I am not attacking Connor McDavid personally if anything the guy's a hero to his hometown team well not his hometown team but where he is is a player and and the city that has rallied around him and been a part of his journey to be a superstar. But in my opinion, he heard every other player in the National Hockey League by taking this contract. He just gave every general manager in the NHL leverage to say, look what Connor McDavid did.

There's a number of other players that are looking for contracts right now. Jack Eichol comes to mind as one of them that you're now giving every other GM the talking point of, well, look what Connor McDavid's contract says. These guys all love to use cap comparables when they can, when it favors them. And they will tell you cap comparables don't matter when it doesn't. I'm a person who always sides with the players in these types of situations, Jeff. And I just think as the best player in the world, to take such a steep discount like that, now everybody else is going to be asked to do that.

The one area that I'll disagree with you on this one is, first of all, I will agree with you when it comes to restricted free agents. then all of a sudden, like the situation with, you know, Kent Hughes and Cortex over Lane Hudson. Okay, like finding comparables there, like that is very much an issue. But when it comes to unrestricted free agents, like if the Vegas Golden Knights want to look at the Edmonton and say to Jack Eichael, we're not going to go above 12.5. Jack Eichael can say, okay, there will be a team that will do that. Like that's where I'll push.

Like when it comes to UFAs, like once upon a time, and we just don't, the NHL world, a lot in the NHLPA world, just lost Bob Goodnow. Like, Bob Goodnow would have been horrified at this deal. Like, there's no way. Our top guy gets the top dollar, raises everybody up, period. But that was all pre-salary cap. I look at this one, and I've said it from day one. The McDavid contract was going to be the trickiest because he's going to thread the most interesting needle here.

That's what he was trying to do. One, get enough money so he takes care of himself and feels respected by the Ed and you know, others, but two, leaves enough money, and this is the second time he's done this because he left money on the table, and had to go back and renegotiate his deal to leave money for Leon Drysidal. The first time he did his extension, so he's now done this twice, leave more money for Stan Bowman to go out there and compliment this team, maybe find someone else for Connor to play with, maybe find another goaltender. All of a sudden, and then in the back, what you're talking about, the pressure of being the top player in a sport and knowing

that a lot of guys would be looking at you to take the big dollar here because it's going to raise everybody else up but to the point about other free agents if Jack doesn't like it

and Vegas wants to hold at 125 Jack can say fine I'll go home to Boston I'm pretty sure the Boston Bruins will go over 125 that's where I'll push back on that one and listen

and for sure I think the Bruins would move mountains to get Jack Eichel to come play you know in the West End and in the

great city of Boston. But, you know, look, I look at this situation and, you know, one of the things that we've talked about here is as these salaries go up, do we lose the middle class, right? Is it the $17 million cap, yes, a $7.75, you know, lead minimum. Like, do are we? That's where this, that's what this has been going from day one. The first thing that people said about the salary cap was it puts player against player, absolutely. And two, this is going to lead to the diminishing of the middle class. I agree with you completely on that one, Colby. Absolutely.

But I just look at, again, I'm looking more at how fan bases so quickly turn on players and say, well, you should take less. And I look at all these other situations. I saw the report that, you know, David Penaata said on your show, actually, where no adoptsin decided, I want to make it work here,

so I'll leave money on the table. I know they're asking Lane Hudson now to do the same thing and say, well, you might be worth X, but can you take a little bit less to fit everybody else? And I will continue to sit here and I will continue to say, why not have a luxury tax? Why not find a way to make these contracts a percentage of the cap as somebody tweeted to us? And we feature that on our show this morning, morning cup of hockey. Like get creative here, move away from a triple hard salary cap and stop asking players to take less money. And I have a question for you, Jeff, because I assume you would have a much better idea of this than I have. What are Connor McDavid's endorsement deals like?

Do you have any idea in the range of how many millions of dollars he earns in endorsement deals? I don't know an exact number, but there are plenty of, like here in Canada, there are plenty, whether it's, whether it's banks, previously with a significant gaming company, like there are a number of endorsements that Connor McDavid has here in Canada. Now, it pales in comparison when we look at other sports. And we look at football or we look at baseball or we look at basketball. It pales in comparison. But yes, Connor McDavid is featured quite prominently, specifically with, you know, with one significant bank. But yeah, there are. Is it fair to say that is it fair to say he makes $10 million a year in endorsements?

I don't know. I don't know about 10 million. That one, that seems, that seems rich to me. Again, I don't know. Right. And I don't, I have no idea. Like, I didn't, I don't know if it's a million or if it's 50 million. Like, I have no concept of what his endorsement deals are like. And the reason I'm asking you this is because that's a thing. Like for him, if he is the highest paid endorsed hockey player in Canada, that would, again, I'm guessing here, it affords him the opportunity to take a little bit less money and still be well taken care of and his family and his next generation, his next generation. I don't know. Like, I've been yelling and screaming that players shouldn't take. less. Owners should pony up more dollars. And I'm going to stay firm with that. And I just would have liked to see him take more money. That's all. So a couple of things there. One, I don't disagree with you. One of the things that I really don't like, I was saying this on the

show last week, Colby, two things happened coming out of the 2005 lockout. One, the players accepted a salary cap. And two, somewhere along the way, all of a sudden, they've decided as well, and I don't know how they got hoodwinked into doing this, that it's their job to manage the cap too. It's not your job as a player to manage the cap. It's your job to play, get as much money as you can. Now, having said that, I don't like telling people and perform. And I don't like telling people what to do, though.

If Connor McDavid wants to go in at 12.5 and he's good with it, I have a hard time sitting here saying he shouldn't have done that because Connor McDavid has his drive. Listen, he's going to the Hall of Fame already. But in his mind, he's still fallen short because he hasn't won the same. Stanley Cup and he's giving this team the best the best possible chance with him in the lineup to win the Stanley Cup and even now that I think about it he's also given himself something here and that is an exit strategy that nobody can criticize yeah and I just want I came in under value I came in under under market value to give us a chance to win you

could be three more swings at the at the at the ball here with Connor McDavid at the plate I'm coming in way under market value and then after that all bets are off. But he's given himself an opportunity to have a graceful exit. I just want to repeat it just because the pitchforks

will definitely be coming for me. I want to just repeat it. I didn't, when I started this whole thing, I said this is the best player in the world on this planet. He deserves to do whatever is good for him and he deserves to call

whatever shot is good for him. all I'm saying here is like I'm like I'm agreeing with what you're saying he gets to make a decision we don't get to decide what anybody else does except for ourselves we obviously those of us who have children we we get to make decisions for them to a certain extent we have our families where we come together we talk about things but we don't get to decide what's good for anybody else and I am respectful of that in the in the fullest manner but I also get to come on here and have my opinion and my opinion is is this contract is bad for other players right both of those things can be true i respect the hell out of this guy for the warrior and the the athlete and the

ambassador and his skill and his talent but i still can come on here and say i don't like the contract i don't like what it does to the to the other players i don't like the pressure it puts on other players now because fan bases turn on players so fast before they turn on owners whenever the contract negotiations get sticky and players want a little bit more and they hold out or whatever the fans come for the players throat so quickly look with how they treated jeremy swam in last year when he held out for a little bit look how the organization treated him the things that they said all of the above are true so i just feel like all this does is give more leverage to that crowd to those managers than i would have liked to have seen right so both of those things i feel could be

true, but I do want to, I appreciate what you said and that I led me back to reiterating the fact that he got to make his decision and I respect that wholeheartedly, but I just don't, but I just disagree with it. It's a contrarian view from Colby. What? Here on the sheet. Oh my goodness. It does a morning cup of hockey as well.

Glad to have you back. Listen, it's, tomorrow's going to be a spicy one on your, on your show, I'm sure. I'm curious what, I mean, your point is very well made. I'm curious what Lazz has to say about this one as well. I'm sure he had fantasies of 97 dancing to the New York Rangers on July 1st. And Zach, Zach Phillips heart broke, probably a little broken today as well. Oh, Nick Elberger, keep going. He had the countdown going like all the least nation crew, like all of it, 100%.

The thing that I find curious about it. I mean, essentially, Connor McDavid came in and said, give me two more of the same. Give me two more years at $12.5 million. I know that everyone's, you know, journey for their contract negotiations is different. Everyone has, you know, different side roads that they go down when they do their contract negotiations. I'm just curious about how this one went down.

And if it was exactly as, I'm not sure if you saw the Jeff Jackson clip before you came on, but essentially Jackson was saying, like, it's not going to be a conversation. And like there's how many players in the, history of the game that don't negotiate. Like, Connor McDavid doesn't have to negotiate. Connor McDavid will tell you what he wants. And if you don't want to

pay that or agree to those terms, then okay, there's no Connor McDavid. You can count on one hand the amount of players that can do that. If at the end of it, it was 12.5 times two, why did it take so long? Like, I have no theories about this other than

Edmonton just waited and Connor wanted to be in a place right before the season. I suppose, wanted to make sure that everybody was cool with this, whether it was his family, whether it was his agency Wasserman, which is a whole other kettle of fisher too. When you talk about, you know, raising the, raising the tide for everybody here, there's also the agency side. And I made a lot about how agency, like, you look at CIA, I'm sure they weren't, you know,

thrilled that Nathan McKinnon was the best value contract for the longest time. And right now, Jack Hughes, maybe the biggest value contract and leaving money on the table, et cetera. Maybe it's just kind of wanted to make everybody in his orbit comfortable with all of this. And then that's the reason why it took so long. It's the only thing I can come up with. Listen, not only did I see the clip you played, I remember when you did that episode during the summer with that series. You know what I mean? As you were kind of moving around and you kind of were giving sneak peeks of all the different conversations that you were having on the on the road series that you did. And it's a bold strategy, though,

Because you saw what happened in Minnesota where an owner came out and said, it's really whatever he wants. And how much did that paint Bill Garan into a corner when we finally saw the number that Karil Kaprizov got? Right. So it really is an interesting way. You really have to know a guy and know their core values. And obviously, Jeff Jackson has that rapport with Connor McDavid. But it's a bold strategy to go about that in any type of negotiation. And it doesn't always work.

But here, you know, checkmate for Jeff Jackson, he knew what he was doing. And ultimately, you know, the Edmonton Oilers and Connor McDavid now, they look like superheroes right now. That is such a great point, Colby. You know, we were looking at it up until, it was 20 minutes into this conversation. We were looking at it in terms of like, what is this going to mean for Jack Eichel? What is this going to mean for CalConnor? What is this going to mean for Adrian Kempe, like, et cetera, go right down the list. Maybe one of the more salient points is here,

what does this mean for the Minnesota Wild? In one very particular way. You had two teams that had pretty much the exact same strategy. You're right about Craig Leopold last year. No one can pay him more, and we're going to, paraphrasing Craig Leopold, but that was the vibe that he gave about Karel Caprizov. And I know I'm talking about both sides of my mouth here

because on the one hand I'm saying, good on Caprizo for doing that because it's not his job to manage Bill Garin's cap. It's not his job. Nowhere in his contract does it say, oh, and by the way, you have to help me manage the cap. I assure you it says that. It doesn't say that anywhere in his contract.

But here we are with the Edmonton Oilers and Jeff Jackson, CEO of Hockey Operations, essentially saying the same thing. Whenever Connor is ready, he's going to tell us what he wants. What does this say about, is there any blowback now to Minnesota and what happened there? Or is it just a study in two different players

who wanted two different things? They're so different. The situations really are so different, even though there's shades of similarity in the way that the sort of negotiation or as Jeff Jackson said in that clip, there is really no negotiation here. I also think as good as Carill Caprizoff is,

there's only one Connor McDavid. You've said that. We all say that. He sits on the throne and then everybody else is somewhere below. And you can argue who's two, who's three, then who's four and five and these little clusters of superstars.

But McDavid is truly, the best player on the planet his situation had to be handled differently i personally believe that um he just like everybody said he woke up today and just decided i'm good with this i'm not going to go long term and i don't want to talk about this now for more than the next day or two with everybody else this is the quintessential superstar hockey player um you know whatever's bigger than a superstar whatever the next word would be but this is hockey in a nutshell you have players that are thinking we not me it's what sets us apart from all the other major professional sports and all the cultures and all the other major professional sports is that you are a we culture you are not a me culture and connor mac david

with the ultimate we move leaving hun you know tons and tons of money on the table that he'll get right I mean, look, could disaster strike? It could happen to anybody, right? We don't expect that to happen. But ultimately, I think many things can be true, Jeff. By the way, the beard and the whole goatee set up. Like that? It's working for you big time.

I'll throw that out there. My wife calls my wife calls a chick repellent. Well, that's probably a good thing for her, right? I mean, she's probably, you definitely, maybe some gym teacher vibes I'm getting here. Yeah, totally. Oh, yeah, especially the salt and pepper too. Yeah, that's good. I am gym teacher vibe. Let's just say that. We're talking gym teacher at a private school, not a public school. Okay. But anyways, this is a, it's, it's, it's certainly giving us a lot to talk about here for the next couple of days. And again, like, does everybody now freak out? And does the Ikel thing now sort of like, does the timeline get slower or does it speed up? Like, what domino's fall from. this and what type of connection and fallout come from this.

And that is what's going to be fascinating to see here over the next, maybe even 12 hours, Jeff. That's a great one. Here's another one. Did Connor McDavid, because right away, I got the text, I'm sure you got the text to then your timeline on social media is filled up with it as well.

Did Connor McDavid just did he just sort of start a clock on him? with this one. And the default answer for a lot of people not in Edmonton are saying, yeah, there you go.

There's a Connor McDavid countdown clock. Again, we don't know it. I think a lot of people feel it because he's come in at such a deep discount. But does it feel to you like Connor McDavid has started a countdown clock? It actually doesn't. Like I have seen that now all over social media. That's like they have three years to win a Stanley Cup. I don't believe that to be true because if they go out and they build really good teams over the next couple of years and they're competing for a Stanley Cup every year, I think Connor McDavid will turn around and sign another extension.

To me, this does not make it more likely that he leaves Edmonton after three years whatsoever because I think ultimately he's going to continue to call his shots, he's going to continue to assess the situation, he's going to continue to be the best player in the world. And he's going to be continuing to work alongside partners, right? How often is a player an actual partner with a GM or an owner? And Connor McDavid is a partner for these guys. You're not going back and forth. You're not talking down. You're literally working with a partner. And very few players in the National Hockey League have ever achieved that status.

Probably will ever achieve that status. I think you see it more in other sports because these players go back to Tom Brady or go look at some of these quarterbacks in the NFL that make $65 million a year, whatever the number may be, Jeff. So I don't think there's any clock here. I think all he did was said, you know what, comfortable with three years. I'll reevaluate in a year and a half, two years, see where we're at, see how Stan Bowman's doing, and we'll continue to move from there.

But I do not believe anybody has any room or reason to worry that it was only three years if you're an Edmonton Oiler fan. I really don't. I don't think the time of the contract will dictate that whatsoever. Hey there, it's Jeff Merrick here. You know, my wife and I both have countless memories from spending time discovering Canada. Well, I always come back to the summer of 2005. We were staying at a cottage on Lake Joseph here in Muscoca, watching the Live 8 music festival in Barry on television. My buddy Jeremy Taggart, former drummer from Our Lady Peace, dropped by after his band's set and stayed the rest of the weekend at the cottage after the band's set and told some incredible backstage stories about some amazing Canadian

music icons. I will never forget that. And fast forward to today, I'm a hockey parents, and I feel like I'm always on the road with my family. Whether that means traveling across southern Ontario hockey rinks during the week or overnight at tournaments on select weekends. But what makes our hockey experience even more special is booking a place on Airbnb when we're on the road for overnight tournaments. All of this traveling got me to thinking, my home's just sitting empty when I could be hosting it on Airbnb instead. I'd simply put up my house on Airbnb, pre-select dates that I want to host, bam. It's practical, easy to manage, and enables people like me to make some money while they're not at home.

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too, which is just always awful. Just the way the things ended in Detroit, how things went, you know, going from San Jose to the Edmonton Oilers organization, and you're to the Stanley Cup final. But right now, the Edmonton Oilers with these last two contract signings, they haven't improved as a team today.

They've extended their winning window, but they haven't improved today. As we stand right now, we haven't dropped the puck on the regular season yet. Where do you see the Edmonton oilers. Like, there's a lot of momentum for them, obviously going into the season because of the McDavid extension. But man, Vegas is going to be a problem this year in the West. They

are going to be a big problem. Colorado and Dallas are going to be problems. I know the Winnipeg just lost Eilers, but still, they're probably going to be a problem. Kind of McDavid's be up for two more years, but the Western Conference is looking like it might just be the better conference again. A hundred percent agree with you. And I'll tell you why I'm, you know, I look at this, this roster and, and there's so many people that are like, well, Savoy and Isaac Howard are the keys to the Edmonton Oilers this year. And I'm like, well, geez, like, I don't know how fair that is to look at two guys with, you know, little to no NHL experience and say that they're going to be the keys. You want to know what the key to the Edmonton Oilers is going to be? It's going to be the health of their superstars.

They're going to win with their superstars or they're going to win. let's remember okay at home injured last year missed a lot of time late in the season missed a bunch of time in the playoffs um they had the goal tending situation going where you know you get a good regular season and then a not good regular season and then a good regular season and a not good regular season so that's going to be to me the biggest question mark i think do i see them winning their division probably not because i don't think that that matters to them this is a team that wants to be playing well late in the year okay and you have Connor McDavid who has talked all summer in all of his media addresses about shooting the puck and scoring more goals that is a scary thing for the rest of the national

hockey league that this is a motivated Connor McDavid to score more goals everyone is on notice I think this team will be fine I think Stan Bowman is not a guy who sits on his hands so I think they will continually look at opportunities to improve this team I do think at some point you'll get some level of contribution from Savoy and Howard, whether that comes early, medium, late, we'll take a look and we'll monitor that situation. But my expectations are when you've got Connor McDavid and you've got Leon Dry Seidel and you've got, you know, Bouchard and Ekholm and Walman, this team is going to ride or die with the health of their superstars, Jeff.

And if it's healthy, expect to see them playing late into the summer. When you look around the rest of the league, and this was something. supposed to be the year. And there was some turnover. Like Mitch Martin to Vegas is the big one. A lot of players stayed in the same place. Hockey is a very conservative place. People don't like to move their stuff. You know, my stuff is here. I'm going to stay here.

You know, when I used to work with Bob McCowan at the fan, he used to have the he used to have the great saying and I talked to him about contracts and what to do and grass is greener here and all that. And he'd always say the same thing. Don't fuck with happy. If you're happy, find a way to stay. If you're happy, find a way to stay.

That was always Bob McCowan's advice to every to everybody at the station. But are there teams for you really quick? I want to get thoughts really quick on Gavin McKenna before I let you go. Are there any teams that you look at and say they significantly improved? Like on paper, I mean, I don't know. Like Montreal, you add Noah Dobson, who I'm a huge believer in. So you add a bona fide top four guy.

You're a team on the rise. but it's really one massive, you know, ad. I mean, Bullduke certainly helps them get better. I love that move. I love that move, Colby. I love Bulldoch. I think that's a sneaky great move. He's almost a 20-goal rookie season, right?

And with somewhat of a limiting role, no, that's the thing, Jeff. Like, nobody went out and did anything crazy. The biggest addition to another team is Mitch Marner, right? And me personally, people are asking me this question. Is Mitch Marner going to win a Stanley Cup before the Toronto Maple Leafs? Yes, I believe so. I think Bruce Cassidy will get Mitch Marner into his orbit and they will figure out a way to get what you're getting out of Jack Eichael

and the gamer that Jack Eichael has become under Bruce Cassidy with the accountability that Bruce Cassidy holds players to. I think we're going to see a whole other level of Mitch Marner this season. And this is a guy who had 102 points last year, not some schlub that can't play hockey, right? So other than Vegas, like, who did anything earth-shattering? I don't think so, right? So that's why I think Edmonton is right in the mix to continue the path that they've been on. Okay, Gavin McKenna, we are all watching this weekend against ASU.

That first pass that he made on, again, in front of the net, draws everybody in, freezes a defender, freezes the goaltender, and then slides it over is a thing of beauty. The one-timer was gorgeous. You were talking about that today, the second one. But you know, I looked at that one, Colby, and I said,

some players do well with more time and space. Some players do well when they just react and don't have to think. And like, I remember I would think about someone like Rafi Torres. Like when he played, if you gave Rafi Torres time and space, he

couldn't be as effective as he was when he was just relying on his instincts. And then he was really good, like in a crowd, a lot of bodies around. McKenna does both. McKenna does both. And we saw it against ASU. Yeah. It's, it's, uh, that's the thing to go right into the highest danger area in your first game. And what makes that play that he had on his assist on the, on the second assist that he had.

It wasn't a second assist. It was just his second assist. to the game. What makes that play so special is that you're surrounded by sweaters from the other team, okay, in a league that is going to be a lot more physical than what you've just come to, right? So right then and there, you have a player that you know has courage to go into the hardest area of the ice and perform. The puck is bouncing, okay? He is a type of player that knows where all other skaters are on the ice at all times. have the hockey IQ to make that play on a bobbling puck in high danger when every,

I'd say 99.9% of the players in the NCAA or even the National Hockey League shoot that puck. Okay. But not him. He knows where everybody is. He's got eyes in the back of his head. He's surveying the ice and processing the game at such a higher level than everybody else that he just puts that one on a tee. I think it was for Serato on the.

that play. And it looks so easy. And I bet a lot of people just kind of thought the other one was the more highlight real play. That play right there was a holy shit moment for me for Gavin McKenna. Now, I just want to say one other thing, Jeff. His debut, two assists minus one, I believe, played a bunch of minutes. They win the game. I just want to throw this out there. Macklin Celebrini, one goal, one assist plus player and his debut at Boston University. I just want to throw that out. Oh, he's got a big up to be you guy. Yeah, yeah, I get it. Just deal with it.

Penn State's a hockey school now. Here we go. Come on. I just got to deal with it. I love it. I love what Guy Ginooski is doing. It's unbelievable for the game of hockey. What Guy Gaginowski and Penn State are doing.

They play this Thursday on the Big Ten Network. So if you've got the Big Ten Network, you can watch Gavin McKenna play this Thursday as well against Clarkson, which is going to be a big, strong, heavy team, not as ASU, but it's going to be a big, but it's going to be. going to be a team full of 24, 25-year-olds who can skate. It'll be physical, but it'll be at in Hockey Valley, at State College. That place will be sold out to the brim. Get Big Ten Network if you can get Big Ten Network in your streaming package and watch this

guy play for Penn State. Special, just special. All right. Boy, doing double duty. Welcome back to the network. I know you're on last week and now right back at it with Morning Cup of Hockey. every morning, 9 o'clock Eastern, Johnny Lazarus, and our guest, Colby Cohen.

Thanks, bud. Great hat, by the way. You're the best. Yep. Can't wait to watch Bob Stauffer on here, by the way. I'll be sticking around. He's coming up here in about 20 minutes time. In the meantime, we're going to shift gears a little bit here

and talk to Andrew Raycroft from morning from morning brew along with Billy Jaffe. Also, a hockey analyst from Nesson. I want to talk about Zadano Chara. But Andrew, as we bring you on here quickly, the big story of the day, Andrew Raycroft joining me now, the big story of the day is the Connor McDavid contract extension. On the one hand, once upon a time,

the biggest stars better to have the biggest contract. Connor McDavid said, nah, I'll just take the same money for two more years and keep this window extended here. A quick thought on what we saw this morning from Connor McDavid, best player in the world at 12.5 AAV razor. Bob Goodnow rolls over in his grave.

My first thought, Jeff. My first thought was Bob Goodenow. And what it would have been like had Wayne Gretzky signed a deal like this in 1997 and the heart attack, you would have, you would have nulled and void it. It just wouldn't happen. But any, different times, different place, different world. I think last week was pretty telling with the signing of Carrille Caprice of, I was on NHL network, work with Cooley. And the light bulb came on in my head that this is why Connor was waiting. that Carrillo was getting close,

that Carreel was pushing the number for the national hockey league. He was going to let him do the work, him get this salary up, and then Connor would come in behind before the season started, take the hometown discount, make it nice and short, make a push for the Edmondson Oilers for a few years, and go from there. And that, for me, explained why Connor was slow playing this a little bit.

It's an interesting, like I'm of a couple of minds here. I don't like to tell people what to do with their business. Cona McDavid wants to come in in 12.5. I don't have a fainting couch about that. Like, he wants to do that and go for it. If Carl Caprizov wants to shoot for $17 million, bless you. It's not your job to help Bill Guerin manage his salary cap. It's just not.

The thing that impresses, I think impresses a lot of people about McDavid, though, is that we've always known that the superstars put the premium on winning. And I'm sure you've talked to a lot of people. people who have said the same thing that they have told me, which is, well, if he really wants to win, just take the same contract and leave money for other players and other winger for him. Is he going to get his Yari Curry? You know, is he going to get his Grant Fuhr? Is he going to get his goaltender? And he can do that by leaving money on the table. So seldom does it happen, though, Razor. And there it is. No, and because even, you know, and I guess for me, I always,

I see Connor looking at Sid or Patrice Bergeron for that matter more so than the other superstars. It's different. It's a different superstar. I don't know what the next word up from Superstar is. You're much better at words than I am, Jeff, so you probably have one. Super duper star. There you go.

That's why I called on you. It's the Super Newper star. That it doesn't, money's irrelevant. It's completely irrelevant. And that's why had he signed for $25 million, Jeff, it wouldn't affect the rest of the league either or $5 million. Or like Sid's not even a number, right? No one compares themselves to 8.7.

And now no one's going to compare themselves to 12.5. So couldn't agree more. These players are entitled to do whatever the heck they want to do. Their careers are short and they can get as much money or as less money as they want. When it comes to the super duper stars, their thought process is on a whole different level. Well, we're talking about greatness here. I want to pivot away from Connor McDavid. Bob Stauffer is coming up from Oilers now coming up here.

And a couple more minutes, we'll get back on the 97 page with a two-year contract extension. You know, going into today and today's show raiser, I thought, okay, there's two big topics. One, there's what we saw between the Florida Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning. All of a sudden, that's off the menu, but Chara still is. And the Jersey retirement. I have the softest spot in my heart for this guy. I have all the time in the world for Zadano Chara, both the player and the person as well. and let me shoot you one of my crackpot theories.

I always felt that the trophy that Zadano Chara never won, that he should have won, maybe every year, was the Lady Bing. Because if he wanted to, he could have destroyed this league. But this monster chose not to. If that is not the definition of the most gentlemanly player in the NHL, I don't know what is. I could destroy every player on every team. I'm choosing not to.

That, to me, gets you with the Lady Bing and Chara for all those years was ripped off. Agree or disagree? I do agree. I hadn't thought about that. I thought, honestly, I thought you were going to go to MVP. That too. Playing against...

Go ahead. I was going to say, the reason I would go that way is because he sets a work rate, much like Crosby does, that everybody on the team, and bridgewined do the same thing. Sets a work rate and a pace and the tempo that I don't care if you're a rookie or if you're a veteran,

you're embarrassed not to at least try to hit. You know that. You're in the HR for a long time. 100%. And being back in Boston around those guys quite a bit. And Bergey will be the first to tell you that he learned a lot of that from Z. Bergey was still just 21 when Z showed up.

Of course, 37 caught up real quick and was keeping pace with the big man. but it was Zadano that brought that to Boston and that free agent signing but just to go the dominance of Zadano Chara the MVP there is no way there's a

Stanley Cup in 2011 without Zadano I mean that that Vancouver team the shutting down of the twins the shutting down of that entire offense was was nuts how how much he dictated play you just brought up what energy he brought to his team but also what he

could do in a game, let alone the culture that he built, but the culture during a game, how he could change that with deciding to grab somebody by the throat or with his shot or with him going to the front of the net. He just, he evolved his game in such an amazing way. He, he really will continue to get better as his career ends. I think we'll look back and it'll be Lidstrom and Zadano at that era of the top defenseman from 2003 to 2013, like that era was, it was all about Lidstrom and it was all about Zadano. Yeah, a couple of really interesting points about Chara and Bergeron specifically, that 2011 team, I can't remember the numbers specifically, but I think it was like something

insane, like 70% or something, the possession, like when Bergeron and Chara were on the ice together the possession numbers were like we've never seen like razor nobody else touched the puck like no but like those two guys could play with no one else came near touching the puck the other thing that that always uh as kind of interestingly stood out to to to to uh about chara to me is as dominant as he was shift in shift out um it was like a couple of times a year he just had to get a fight out of his system. Like, you remember when Dave Lewis coach and Dave was like, no,

you're not fighting? And, like, Charo was like a different guy. He just, like, needed to get it out of his system. Like, just let me have one or let me have two.

You know, much of the chagrin of the David Cochies of the, of the NHL, which was just absolutely horrifying. But he just, like, it's like, okay,

I got to get this out of my system. And then I can go back to playing hockey. Like, he had that side to him. Like, just let me cleanse myself here with the scrap. yeah and i think he did it also just to make sure everybody knew this was possible as well he wanted to keep the league on edge every couple of months i stood poor skillsy my one of my

best friends in the world i stood five feet away from from z and and skillsy going at it in the in the old fleet center one afternoon and when when z was still in ottawa and and skillsy had to do it because they were the same height but but had no chance and um you know we laugh about it now he laughs about it now but but that's what that's what zadano did he he dictated um the league and put everybody on point uh by doing that every couple of months yeah he uh interestingly enough he never got more than never got 60 points never got 60 points in his season you know like tory careug would be on the blue line of the brun he'll get 60 points down and then but charra who's like so incredibly dominant well here's another one like you watched him come through

whether it was islanders whether it was senators he hit his stride with the Boston Bruins and like he started to really distinguish himself as like this is a guy that's going to be an all-star every year is going to win hardest shot and he's probably going to go to the hockey hall of fame.

I remember talking to people in Prince George, Stan Butler, who is his coach and Stan saying to me, I have no idea what I'm going to do with this guy but I'm scared to let him fight for what he could do, but he is like so raw. And we just watched a guy

I go through an NHL career and kind of figure out how to play in the NHL. Because if you saw the guy that played for the Islanders, that's not the same guy that lifted the Stanley Cup for the Bruins. We watched them all grow up. We watched them all. No, and that's what's so, I think, endearing. And so as a player playing in the league and knowing how hard it is to evolve,

just how much respect he gets because of that. because it wasn't it got hard to play at that size too right jeff like in the early in the 2000s before the lockout you that was a real benefit um but as his season or as his career progressed that got harder and harder to to keep up but he did and his footwork got better as he got older his his ability to close plays his reeds got better his stick got better so um yeah again i played against him when he was in the islanders when he started to bloom in ottawa with the leifs we played each other eight times a year and then boston and ottawa eight times a year and then you're right when he came to boston he took over the sea which was part of the deal of him coming here he got out of

the marian hosa the wade red and spotlight and it was him and he got to push the pace here and and it turned him into a hall of famer but it was his perseverance and his his evolution as a hockey player that got him to this point. Were you on that Maple Leafs team? This is one of my favorite highlights that I've ever seen. No, I wasn't. That was Eddie.

I know you're going. The timeout where he just skated in the middle of it? So the Maple Leafs call it timeout and they're over by the bench and Charger just skates into the middle of the Maple Leaf Circle and nobody does a thing. What are you going to do? I'm going to stand here.

So what are we talking about here? Honestly, it's the funniest thing I ever saw. That goes to your lady. point, because instead of that night, he wanted to push the pace, he wanted to enforce himself, but he decided not to beat anybody up. He decided not to grab caber that night. He just decided to do it that way. I just wander right into the scrap, but that's hilarious. Closing thought, and by the way, Zadano Chara, Jersey retirement, January 15th against his Seattle Crack and 33 goes to the rafters where it's, where it well belongs. How do you see

the Boston Bruins this year? I know it's a big question from only the couple of minutes that we have left with it. But like, how do you see the Boston Bruins? Everyone's, oh, they're out of it. They're on the decline. And look at Swainman's going to have a bounce back season. Charlie McAvoy is still elite. David Pastor, not we all know. And I say, like, yeah, there are there issues down the middle, but you're closer to it than I am. How do you see the Boston Bruins? Oh, that's, that's the way I see it as well. I think, I mean, it was so bad at the end of last season. But what gets lost in all of that was they were in the playoffs the two days before the Four Nations tournament started, before Charlie McAvoy got hurt, and that was without

Hamas Lindholm for 30 games. And they had the same, you know, Elias Lindholm did not hit the ground rubbing last season. They had issues up the middle, but they were kind of hanging around. So I see it again that way. I think what, what makes it hard for me to really predict is I'm not really sure what the, I know the Atlantic Division is supposed to be really difficult, but I'm not really sure what it looks like. Now with Florida, Barkov, Marner's not there. Is Montreal really better? Are they more, you know, take a step?

All of these teams. So, boy, in relation to the Bruins, it comes down to three things that weren't very good last season that are synonymous with the Bruins and why Marco Sturm came back to bring it back is special teams. From the time I've covered them, they've been in the top five in both power play and penalty kill last year in the bottom five in both. That should get better. defensive zone neutral zone structure they have worked so hard on that in camp they are so much more organized and structured than they were coming out last season i think that's worth a few overtime points because they were giving up points by not keeping things tight last season and then that all parlays into goaltending you just said swayman should bounce back corpusallo should play

a little bit more with the the way the season structured the schedule is so um those are the three keys if they get, you know, depending on, if it's 10% better, I think they get in the playoff. It's 5% better than they're right in the mix for the wild card. And if it's 2%, then they might not score enough. So if you're watching and listening to us live right now, we're 10 minutes away from finding out whether the Edmonton Oilers hit the trifecta today, the extensions for McDavid Walman and claim Michael DiPietro off waivers.

Do you think there's any way he gets to Providence? goalie not with well i i do yeah i think he does because the two teams that you're kind of sir connor ingram going to edmonton right now that that puts a crimp in that the tampa bay lightning picking up phoenix coffley those two teams seem like the ones the other thing with with mikey's contract it's two years one way that's typically not something that gets picked up on the waiver wire at the start of a season now there could be a team later in this season that sees them as an option next year it's just really hard to to plan your goal tend for 12 months out.

Your third goal tender, 12 months out. So I think he's done a great job, but I think the Bruins are going to get lucky at this point to get him through. I'm just glad that his career is alive and well. I remember watching him Rod on the Taxi Squad with the Vancouver Canucks and saying, like this guy does, I get the NHL paycheck,

but you're killing this guy's development. I'm just so glad that he was able to turn it around. And he's such a great kid, right? He's such a nice kid. Yeah, they love him here. Him being a pro and him figuring, it out last season and going on the run and now having that deal and having some security

couldn't. He's another he's a good guy. It's a good guy. Good story and he's going to get a chance at some point. He will. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. We'll see what happens here in exactly nine minutes if you're watching this live. Thanks for hopping on today. I know I was

even, I was going to ask you about Florida and Tampa and that's got to park for another day or so. You'll be well. Say hi to Billy for me and we'll catch up soon. Thanks, Jeff. Always a pleasure. Great hat, by the way. Holy smokes. I love that cord downy hat, baby. Love it. Love it.

Hey there. It's Jeff Merrick here. You know, my wife and I both have countless memories from spending time discovering Canada. Well, I always come back to the summer of 2005. We were staying at a cottage on Lake Joseph here in Muscoca, watching the live. 8 music festival in Barry on television. My buddy Jeremy Taggart, former drummer from Our Lady Peace, dropped by after his band's set and stayed the rest of the weekend at the cottage after the band set and told some incredible backstage stories

about some amazing Canadian music icons. I will never forget that. And fast forward to today, I'm a hockey parent, and I feel like I'm always on the road with my family. Whether that means traveling across southern Ontario, hockey rinks during the week or overnight at tournaments on select weekends. But what makes our hockey experience even more special is booking a place on Airbnb when we're on the road for overnight tournaments.

All of this traveling got me to thinking, my home's just sitting empty when I could be hosting it on Airbnb instead. I'd simply put up my house on Airbnb, pre-select dates that I want to host, bam. It's practical, easy to manage, and it enables people like me. to make some money while they're not at home. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca slash host. Thanks to Andrew Raycroft Razor from Morning Brew

and Hockey Analyst on Nesson for stopping by the program here today. We're standing by for Bob Stoffer, just getting his camera set up. We're going to get back on the Cond of McDavid page. today signing the two-year contract extension at a whopping AAV of squint's really hard and doesn't believe what he sees

$12.5 million. You want to question Connor McDavid's desire to win a Stanley Cup? Don't. Okay, really quickly. Our DFO Survivor pool. The Daily Face Off Survivor Pool is officially live and if you think you've got the hockey knowledge to go the distance, this one's for you.

It's a game of elimination, strategy, and a $2,500 grand prize. for the last fan standing. Here's how it works. You start with two lives. Each round, you pick one winner from the slate of NHL games. But here's a twist.

You can only use each team twice throughout the entire contest. Get a pick wrong. That's one life gone. Lose twice, you're out. The pool runs until there's just one person left standing and that winner takes home $2,500 bucks.

So, are you ready to outlast the rest? Sign up now at dailyfaceoff.com or hit the link in the show notes. may the best fan survive. You know, if you would have told me that on this day, Monday, October 6th, after what we saw on Saturday, October 4th between the Florida Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning, and it would take us almost a full hour to mention a single thing about it, I would have said, no chance, something monumental must have happened in hockey.

and the thing that we're all waiting for all summer long happen today. And we talked to Colby Cohen about that earlier. We're standing by for Bob Stauffer from Oilers Now, noted Oilers analyst, long-time Oilers analyst, who's seen many players come and go and many contracts come and go and many teams and managers and coaches, etc.

Come and go. The contract extension for Connor McDavid, two-year, $12.5 million. Bob Stoffer from Oilers Now. And Chad joins me now. Noted Edmonton Oilers analyst, Bob Stoffer, joins me now. Bob, first of all, were you surprised that it happened today? And were you, I don't want to see surprised, stunned, shocked, gobsmacked.

I don't know what the word is to find out that the compensation was only $12.5 million, removing all doubt about this player's desire to win a Stanley Cup. Jeff, first of all, my apologies on the technical challenges. I got a new computer. Oh, no problem. And I always as illiterate as there is with it. So I'll put everybody a favor not having my face out there. Well, Bob, everything I do is technologically perfect.

So, yeah, no problem. Everything I do run smoothly. What did you make in the deal? Well, I never pivoted off of, you know, I'll be honest with you, the start of the summer, like coming out of a Stanley Cup final, which was a disappointment. And the others were all played in the final four games. and we don't need to revisit it.

Florida was just better in the final four games of the series. I did envision a long-term deal at that time. However, I repeatedly mentioned to our listeners that, remember, Judd Moldaver had Austin Matthews, you know, five-and-four-year deals in Toronto. It is a possibility that's going to be a shorter-term deal. And probably in the – I did the show from until about the middle of August. And I think in early August, I mentioned 102 percent he resigns.

And I gave the number 102%. I never wavered on that. I thought it was a distinct possibility it would only be a two or three year deal. Did I think he'd come in at $12.5 million? No. Am I surprised that he's, I mean, the guy's got to be worth.

I've seen, you know, guys like Don Lucission from the athletic who I really like. You know, see he's worth $18.5. 19 million bucks. This doesn't surprise me at all. And Connor's a level of engagement. He's watching everything.

Okay. and he's he's well aware and well versed and frankly you know is communicated with in some of the significant moves that happen in the organization from a player perspective so you guys were talking about connering or you can be well assured that that's a conversation that stan boleman likely has with connor leon so no i'm not surprised in the term yes a little bit surprised in the price point and it's certainly i mean you could do the math if they just matched right settle at 14 instead of doing the 12.5. That million and a half dollars, if you pro-rate that from day one at the start of next season, that's about five and a half to six million dollars of salary spaces as it accrues during the year for the trade deadline. So these things matter. And so anybody that knows him knows how focused he is on winning at Edmonton. And I think that desire has never stopped. And I think there's been a great source of frustration that they haven't been

able to, now they've played an absolute wagon the last couple of years. Like, we might look at this Florida organization as, you know, a modern day dynasty. Like, they're pretty good. But the orders have been pretty good too. And, and I think Evanton's poised to have a really good year. So not surprised at the term, a little bit surprised at how low the AAV came in at, and not at all surprised that he's fully committed to winning here. You know, part of me looked at this, and I'm glad you took us to the, to the Florida

Panthers here. Not that I want to measure up, you know, every conversation about the Oilers with the Florida Panthers, but, you know, we all know what's happened the last couple of years in the Stanley Cup final. You know, one of the things, and it's going to change this year with the salary cap in the playoffs, but we've looked at the Florida Panthers and essentially said, you know what, they've been afforded the luxury of one extra top six forward just because of the state tax. And it's almost as if it feels like this is Connor McDavid. And again, like I don't want to get, you know, too into the weeds about the motivation here. But You know, if I look at this situation, I say, one, it's obvious that Cona McDavid is, you know, desperately trying to win a Stanley Cup here with the Edmondson Oilers.

He feels this is his best chance to win a Stanley Cup. But two, it's almost as if Connor McDavid is saying, okay, you have your no state tax. You also, here in Edmondson, I'll come into the deep discount. Because what he's done is he's afforded Stan Bowman now a luxury that other teams that, don't have state tax has at the same time. Oh, you can bring in another top six forward, no problem? Yeah, Edmonton's getting a, I think you know what I'm going at here. Edmonton's getting Connor McDavid, the best player in the world, at $12.5 million.

What I'm saying is I wonder if part of the motivation the back of his head is I'm going to use my contract to try to level the playing field. I don't know if any other players done that. Yeah, well, and it's funny, right, because people said, oh, McDavid has an obligation to the N. HLPA. No, you don't. Where was that obligation with Bennett and Marchand and Eklad?

I mean, Marshawn said it afterwards. Gary Bettman can say what he wants. But, you know, Radmarshan perhaps saw things differently. We're allowed to have different opinions on things. I won't even get into, you're well aware of how revenue generation

and revenue sharing works in the league. And most of your viewers right now are probably aware of the fact that the orders have been significant contributors for a while. now obviously go back to back Stanley Cup so that's going to continue so the owners are a half franchise this is not

I used to talk to Cal Nichols almost every day when he was with the Evanton Investors group there were challenges back then they're simply at a different place and yeah this is one way to level it and the others have you know they're going to be moving picks out so they've got to be

better in Europe and better especially now with the changes to major junior NCAA better in the NCAA and there is no salary cap on R&D in research and development. So Stan's building out a team in that regard to help support finding better players. And we're seeing that come to fruition just with what we've seen so far in training down preseason. So look, I might be the eternal optimist, but I do see it the same way you do, Jeff, in terms of what McDavid did here.

It's intriguing. A quick peek at Puckpedia as well. Projected cap space, you know, this year they're right up against it. But having said that, next year, projected cap. Space $29 million, $27, $48 million here. Yeah, well, and they're going to have to sign a goalie next year because Skinner is up and so is Pickard. And they're going to get an opportunity here this year.

But I'm going to tell you right now, I expect this team to be better in the regular season than they were last year. Connor and Leon in the final 14 games, the owners didn't have, it wasn't one game where they were both in the lineup. And that, you know, dropped on from November 7th to February 7th last year, Jeff, the voters had the best record in the NHL. They're a pretty good team. And it's funny, I'm going to go back to the athletic. They ranked Evanton number one. They predicted they'd finish with the most points. And they said the orders had the best defense in the league, best top four in the league.

Well, we never saw a healthy top four in the playoffs because Zepcom missed, you know, all but, you know, the final game against Dallas and Walman, who might be literally signed within officially during the course of this interview, let me just check to see if this has come across yet. I mean, it is going to get announced today on Jake Walman. So, you know, he was dealing with a groin issue last year going to the playoffs. So this is going to be a good team. No guarantees to get back to the final again.

It's hard to get there. You've got to have lots go right. But the energy that Connor is going to provide to his team to start. That was the other thing. He wanted to start the year better. That's part of the reason why he's playing with Drysaddle out of the gate. Two poor starts in back to back. back seasons. They don't want to be chasing from day one. They want to have a better start

to the year. And this will provide a little bit of positive energy going to the regular season. And they've just announced Walman right now. Yes. I was going to say if you're watching listening live right now to what Bob is talking about with Bob's offer here, noted in long time oilers analyst. And of course, we listened to him on chat as part of Oilers now. Jake Wallman, seven year contract extension, AAV of $7 million. That was flat out one of the best deals of last year flat out full stop kind of like ken holland picking up matthias at home the walman deal was fantastic well i guess what i would say with with ken is he had been a reluctant participant in the trade deadline before uh but he executed a brilliant trade because there was three

years left in the term for at home even got nashville to retain a bit cost them a couple number ones we'll see how they pan out uh one of those number ones was a kid named reed shafer who was a 30 second overall pick and then conversely on this trade with walman as you No, nobody had Walman. He was not, like all of great trade insiders that, you know, yourself included that you've worked with over the years. Walman's name was not out there a lot. And so the orders, what, and I will give you a harbinger of what might happen carrying forward. So Stan traded a second rounder to get Frederick signed into an eight-year deal.

He traded a first rounder to get Walman and has now signed him to a seven-year extension. I fully believe that the order is 2027, number one, will be in play right from day one this year. Oh, yeah. It'll probably be for a top six forward at some point. They're going to obviously give Savoy an opportunity out of the gate and Isaac Howard. But I could foresee a scenario where that pick is in play at the deadline for a top six forward that's got a little bit of term or a guy they think they can extend with a little bit of that cap space that you referred to earlier today. when you know let me um i got a couple of minutes left with you here uh let me ask about the nature of this deal

and when i spoke to jeff jackson in our you know muscoca on the road series you know he talked about essentially this is it's not it's not going to be a it's not going to be a negotiation connor mac david is going to tell us what he wants and throughout the entire summer and certainly throughout that entire interview like and we all know the background with jeff jackson and conan mc david obviously but jackson just seems so at peace with all of it. Now, Jack's is a pretty even keel almost like Zen-like figure

now for a lot of people and for himself. He's pretty laid-back guy when it comes. But like, considering the stakes of the McDavid deal, to me that was a real tell. Just how calm the CEO of hockey operations, Jeff Jackson was when he talked about all of this.

I don't know how many times, if ever you've ever seen this, Bob, but you can count on one hand the amount of players that can say this is no negotiation this is the number and this is what i want and this is what we're going to do he's the only one guys yeah he's the only one it's the only one jeff and i'm not surprised that jackson felt that way and stan beauma did too and we live in the same building now in downtown evanston so i do see him a fair amount uh but i just he knows he knows what he won three different yes he had a core in chicago but he had three three very different teams that ended up winning

And, yeah, I don't think there was any, some people say, well, you've got to sign them to an eight-year deal. Why? It's, if anything, we're not sure where the cap's going to be three years from now. But David has extended a courtesy in a window, and it's incumbent upon Jackson and Bowman to build a team around them. But they've been really close the last two years. And, you know, again, you can get into injuries a year ago, a bounce the year before that, whatever the case. they're going to be right there again this year they're going to have a really good team not surprised

and if anybody was going to have a read on Connor McDavid you would think it would be his former agent who's probably next to his parents had the longest adult relationship of Connor's life and to close the point that I was making with Colby Cohen I'm curious how you see all of this like the timing of all this like it's Monday October the 6th they're about to drop the park on the new NHL season it sounds very much

to me like McDavid wanted to get through the summer. He had this in his mind, him and Judd Moldaver, his agent at Wasserman, and wanted to make sure that everybody in his orbit was comfortable with the decision that he was going to make. Number one, of course, family, agency, team, everybody else around him before he put pen to paper. Is that, based on what you know, is that accurate? Like, that's why it took until October 6th. Take it one step further. I don't think it's an accident. accent that walman has signed a seven-year extension either if you don't think jake walman didn't talk to connor but david about what his future plans were okay i know you got to look after yourself

but wait darn it who represents jake walman i'm sure at some point jake needed to find that information out this a two it's a two-year deal for now go take your run have had her see if you can win the cup in the next couple years and then reassess when we have a better idea where the cap's going to be in three or four years now but i can tell you an oil country today when it came in under 14 million people were in shock. They were stunned. I know. Right?

They realized what a solid Conner did for the organization. And I'll tell you what, and in a lot of ways, the shock framing was all done by Carol Caprizov, who turned down the 16 and then signed for the 17. I think everybody, when you're closer to it than I am, obviously, everyone in all the country said,

uh-oh, if Caprizov's 17, what's our guy worth here? Yeah. Well, he could have gotten, you know he could have gotten 19 you know that oh yeah he's chosen he's chosen a different path brian lawton uh i'll leave you with this brian lotton i know you like him you've had him on before yeah he said in march 1st of 24 dry settle would be uh 14 million times eight years now

that's octagon bryan start you know was with octagon yeah cleod's one of his buddies march first this past year 25 he said bob there's no negotiation on macdavit it's gonna be it's gonna be up to what connor that agency want to do that's the reality of the situation and it's probably going to work out better for you guys than most people realize he's right he's right he's right uh as are you uh bob always a pleasure uh be well enjoy the day that is uh the mac david extension day in edmonton we'll catch up soon thanks jeff see up bye bye there he is the great bob stopper uh from oilers now and noted analyst uh for the edmonton oilers going back a number of years uh so that was a lot on connor mac david and and

and rightfully so, and we'll still have more conversations about what this means, not just for the Edminton Oilers, but for the entire Western Conference, what it means for that fan base, what it means for the rest of the NHL, because a move like this, specifically coming in as low as Connor McDavid has come in at, does have a cascading effect on other players and other markets as well. You know, the pressure now to, I don't know, but do what McDavid did or at least demonstrate an ability or a willingness to come. come in at such a low number based on how great a player he is just to win a Stanley Cup.

Again, like, folks, this doesn't happen very often, if at all. We got a lot to get to. A couple of things here, Chris Johnston of TSN reporting. Caden Primo has been claimed off waivers by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Leif's also claiming Sammy Blayoff waivers from Montreal and Coldon Ellis, claimed by the Buffalo Sabres from the St. Louis Blues. We are still scanning and waiting to see any information on Michael DiPietro to see if he has been claimed by anybody.

We will stay tuned for that. Hey, Zacharoo, quite a show so far. A lot to get to. Yeah, it has not really anything going on today. It's been an easy one. We haven't talked about the Panthers, the tapibate lightning once. I know. And we're not going to have a time

We'll do it tomorrow We'll do it tomorrow with Wish We have a couple more things to get to here Before we, before we did you good day One, Ninja Crispy is back And this time it is the Ninja Crispy question of the day, Zacharoo

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Check out the link in the episode description or go to shark ninja.ca. And this time around, for our friends at Ninja Crispy, we are doing the the Ninja Crispy question of the day, which got blown up because of the Connor McDadeo contract extension. So what do we got today, Zach? Okay, so I changed it up quickly on the fly. That's what they pay me for here, Jeff. That's why you make that long,

long quiet money you have in your jeans. Not that noisy stuff. The jangles around my pockets. You got the long, quiet rain, son. That's good. That's good. So we switched this one up, did it on the fly here. Ninja question of the day, how do you feel about the Connor McDavid extension with the Edmonton

Oilers? Surprise, surprise, that that's the direction that we went in here. Put it out on social media. Just a quick note for people in the future. If you do want to participate in these, we'll put them out during the day. You can fire off your answers, your thoughts, whatever it may be. So for today's question of the day, we received a couple responses. And I just kind of thought they were interesting like a little thought provoking here jeff so the first one comes in from j rock everyone said mac david is a one of one situation yet he has a responsibility to the other players that makes no sense same people also say that caprizov is greedy but yet he doesn't get credit for raising the bar for the other players it's a double standard that makes no sense just like that

Freeze off is not greedy, and I don't understand the criticism of McDavid needs to do what's, quote, unquote, right for the Players Association. Again, I'll go back to something that I said earlier. I really don't like telling people what to do with their own business. It is our business to follow and use the information as discussion points and all that. But essentially, if Connor McDavid wants to sign for $12.5 million for the Edmonton oil with the Edmonton Oilers, who the hell am I to tell him he shouldn't do that because he needs to do what's right for checks, notes, Jack Eichel? Or he needs to do what's right for checks notes, Adrian Kempay. If he wants to do that to get what he wants, which is a Stanley Cup, and he figures that the Edmonton Oilers provide him with the best opportunity to win the Stanley Cup,

who am I to step in and say, think of your union. brethren. And think about raising the tide for all ships, et cetera, et cetera, insert cliche here. Really uncomfortable telling people what to do with their own business. McDavid-David wants to do that. More power to him. Caprizov wants to sign for 17 million AAV and say too bad and you don't lean on me to manage your cap, Billy Garan. Fine. Good for him. All within their rights under the CBA to use. You want to try to squeeze every tiny nickel out of your career. You have the right to do that. and I understand careers are short

and you want to try to grab every dime that you can, every quarter under every cushion. You want to use it to say, you know what, I'm well compensated. I have, quote, unquote, enough money I want to win Stanley Cups. Do it. That's your thing.

I'm fine with both. I'm fine with what Caprizov did. I'm fine with what Connor McDavid did. I don't like telling people what to do other than you. That's fair and expected. Also, Jay Rock says in the chat, Colby has been banging the NHLPA drum, not you, Jeff, just so we are clear.

I know, I understand the PA point of view. But that was like, that's the old PA. Like, that was the combative PA. Right now you have like, you know, with all the respect to the NHL Players Association, a very neutered PA, like we're, oh, we're very comfortable with everything. And you saw this play itself out over the CBA negotiations,

which got done relatively quickly because everyone just said, yeah, we're fine. Just rubber stamp essentially what we have. like we'll massage a couple of things and change a couple of small details, but we're not going to take any big swings here. We're fine and we don't have any appetite to fight because we know we can't win. It is a very, in that way, very neutered players association.

So the only thing I would say, even for the player, like outside of the players association, the only thing that I wonder about is on a national stage, which we can debate this and whatever, have this conversation. It's a little bit of a ridiculous one, but the respect that you get from people outside when you say, like, hey,

the best player in this sport is being paid NBA bench player money or less. Because the only thing is $12.5 million for McDavid, Jeff, is that number is so low. You know what I mean? Like when I was with you when we found out that number and like just peek behind the curtain like your face, like your eyebrows raised when you saw it.

Like stunned. And so was I. when I saw the number two. Everybody is. And I think a lot of people are, it's so low. And if he did $14.5 million, nobody bats an eye. He's still doing the same thing. I'm not, and this argument, by the way, I'm not saying he should have done that.

I'm just kind of getting to the point here of when people outside of this look at it, it's almost a little bit like, like the NHL, it's still like Little Brother League. Like their best player makes $12.5 million. There's no pushing the boundaries of that. like people outside of the NHL are not being like oh yeah that caprisov guy has 17 million like that goes under the under the table no one knows about that it's the McDavid 12 and a half outside where you're like some eighth so now on the Toronto Raptors makes 12 and a half million dollars the hell are we doing it to me that's a comment on on where hockey's at and the nature of the salary cap and the 20% in the triple cap league and all these types of that I don't think I don't I don't think it's conna McDavid conna McDavid's obligation to be a wing of the marketing department into the NHL. If that's how they want their league perceived, then that's fine.

Keep cost down. If they wanted to have, to what Colby was mentioning, when he was on earlier. And that is, if you're so concerned about, you know, the financial well-being of your athletes

being part of the marketing division, have a luxury tax. But the Rangers and the Maple Leafs and the Chicago Blackhawks and the Kings and everybody just like, build their brains. And that's fine. Detroit Red Wings and we'll go back to where we were before.

that's and that's and and that's like I am again like I'm for a league like the NHL I still do think like they need to have traveling all-star teams that are hated around the NHL like they need a New York Yankees like they need a team like that that everybody hates that just spends a cajillion dollars every year trying to buy Stanley Cups I think it's healthy to have a team like that specifically in hockey but you're not going to get it with the salary cap with the salary cap later But, again, I come back to the same thing. Gary Bettman has one job and that is franchise value.

And these things are all worth $2 billion now. Mission accomplished. As somebody very smart once told me, what's that? It's time to take the training wheels off the salary cap. Take the training wheels off the salary cap. That's right. Another smart person also told you.

Get off the table. Mabel, five bucks is for the beer. I take. Someone smart, tell you that one, too. All right. All right. And what else do we have on the show today? Well, I'm glad you asked.

We have a reminder of our favorite people around these parts, and that is our friends at Fanduil. The sheet is powered by Fandil, home with the same game parlay. Make every moment more on Fandual. Fandual, proud to connect fans to the major sports moments that matter to them. Games tomorrow, Zach. Games are tomorrow. Where are you going today?

games tomorrow because i don't want to be a little premature on the games tomorrow so i'm just going to get extra premature here okay staying on the topic of the edmonton oilers connor macdavid stanley cup odds for this year jeff mhm would you look at that the florida panthers still on top plus 750 the doubt how can you have the panthers on top with the bark-off injury i don't know but they are still getting the respect nothing has changed since the walman extension since the McDavid extension still tied for second the Edmonton Oilers

and Dallas Stars plus 850. Again, like, to the point we made earlier, the McDavid and Walman extensions haven't made the Oilers better. It's just expanded their runway. That's all, but still, you went to bed last night, woke up this morning,

going through your day, both these things are now part of your hockey discussion points, but nothing's changed. they just have longer term on their contract now. But it's still the same team. Yeah. It feels different because there's a real momentum

because, holy smokes, look what McDavid has afforded us the luxury to do with this contract starting next year. But still the same team right now. Yeah. And it's good to get that one done for the oil. I don't know about that one. But then again, like look at number two, the Dallas Stars.

Like, man, and I say it every year, although this year I picked Vegas. How many times have I picked the Dallas stars to win the Stanley Cup more than I used to pick the San Jose Sharks? The Thornton, Marlow, Pavelsky, Boyle, all those guys were in their prime? I don't know. But Dallas is still right there,

and they still might win it. All the necessary ingredients. Why not? Yeah. Anyhow. All right. Well, we sucked up a lot of oxygen, by the way. What's that?

Leafs got their guy. Leaves got their guy. Tammy Blazers or Caden Primo. Both work. They got their guy. I'm not worried. You feeling good about it? Your team is a more well-balanced team, Zach.

I will say that. I agree, I agree, I agree. It's a more well-balanced team. I was just making a joke? Yes. I heard, was it Colby Colne this morning on a couple of thoughts that the Maple Leafs will still win the division?

Yeah, I think so. I think Tampa. I don't feel good about that. I think Tampa wins the division. Tampa 1st, Leafs 2nd? Tampa 1st, Montreal second? Hmm. Leaves 3rd, Montreal, Toronto, first round matchup.

Can your blood pressure handle that one? Oh. I only became a sports fan to see how high I could get my blood pressure. That's what you have to understand here, Doctor. That's the only reason I'm a sports fan. Yeah. All right. The producer works as Tampa Stakes.

Tampa looks good. We didn't even talk about that game. You know, I talked a lot about it with Jason Greger on DFO Rundown. That one's available now in your favorite. Your favorite's pod platform, podcatcher. Listen, thanks for joining us here kicking off the week with the McDavid contract extension. We'll talk more about the extension tomorrow with Greg Wischinsky of ESPN, who stops by Tuesdays and Thursdays this year.

On the program, we'll get further thoughts. I'm sure Wednesday from Brian Burke when he makes his regular Wednesday appearance on the sheet, so we look forward to all of this. Thanks to Andrew Raycroft for being very flexible. Going into Zach and I talking this morning, today's show was going to be about the Chara, Jersey retirement, and it was going to be about Florida and Tampa. And Razor was like completely accommodating with his schedule.

We got Colby on, and we did half an hour on McDavid, and that was fantastic. And then Bob Stauffer graced us as well towards the end of the program. So we thank all those three gentlemen for stopping by today and sharing their expertise on things that they are expert about. Most notably, hockey. Bless them all. Thanks to Zach for a good job pretzling yourself for 45 minutes.

Just so you know, Zach, like that was fun from my little perch to watch, to watch you go into conyptions, you know, 15 minutes before the show goes to air and the McDavid contract drops. And all I text, blow up the show, Zach, and there's so many different things that Zach is responsible for that if I were more talented, I could probably take some of the workload off his plate, but I'm not. So, Zach, once you put the show up and get all the social media clips and everything, all that done, take the rest of the day off.

Oh, thank you. Appreciate that. Now, I will say it was a fun one today, having to do that, move that quickly. It was fun. Just ripping around, basically, for like an hour and a half straight. It was a lot of fun. It was a good time. Thanks to everybody in the chat today.

As always, as always, we encourage you to, Subscribe here to the YouTube channel. Subscribe as well if you're listening on Apple Pods, Spotify, et cetera, your favorite podcast platform. We appreciate all the interaction and the subscriptions. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We are back tomorrow with the sheet, 1 o'clock Eastern. Don't forget morning cup of hockey in the morning. Johnny Lazarus and Colby Cohen 9 a.m.

It is DFO Live as well at noon Eastern with Tyler Ehrmchuk and Carter Hutton. Excellent show that that is. And then our little chimp act here from 1 o'clock. to 2-ish Eastern and don't forget Wednesday Daily Face Off Insider Edition. Erfan Gaffar and Dave Panyo. Looking forward to that one this Wednesday that goes to 3 o'clock Eastern. Got it? Good.

Tip the Zamboni driver. We're back tomorrow. I said 16 hours last night every day this week, every day this month. I can't get out my head. all style ambitions day to day because I can call it all right I went to the dark man he tried to give me a little medicine

I'm like now and that's fine I'm not against those methods but new it's me and myself and how this is going to be fixed in my mind I'm going to break it I turned on the music I do want to back Yeah, I'm in the dead dark night.

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