The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Controversial Hits, Sabres Spiral, and What’s Next ft. Greg Wyshynski & Andrew Peters

Episode Date: December 9, 2025

The Quinn Hughes temperature won’t cool — and Jeff Marek and Greg Wyshynski unpack why the noise around New Jersey, Vancouver, Washington, and even Detroit keeps getting louder. From the captaincy question to the multiverse one-for-one hypotheticals, they explore why Hughes’ situation feels less like rumor and more like momentum. They also dive into whether the Capitals could weaponize Ryan Leonard and their shrinking Ovechkin window, and if Vancouver has lost the leverage timeline entirely. Plus: the biggest hit in Seattle Kraken history, the evolving line between celebrating collisions vs. acknowledging long-term health risk, and the All-Star chaos that almost cost Merrick his job. Andrew Peters joins to dissect Buffalo’s identity collapse, why inexperience at every organizational level is compounding, and why Lindy Ruff’s recent comments sounded like a fire alarm about lineup autonomy and development pressure.SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Bauer: https://www.bauer.com/👍🏼Uber Eats: https://www.ubereats.com/caReach 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/@FNBarnBurner🚨 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.

So Greg Wosinski, do you and Zach Phillips just want to continue your argument on the air here as we left off before the intro? Do you want to just lead that into the program? We're just going to leave that. Zach has an issue with the, you know, trying to have a conversation with you before the show starts because I have the audacity to join. join the stream roughly 45 seconds for we start. I mean, listen, I'm a very busy man. I have to field all of these texts and calls from people wanted to know what I know about Quinn Hughes and the New Jersey Devils.

I try to tell them, although I am a fan. You know, I have the hat hat. I got the hat hat right here. Love the hat hat hat. That, uh, I'm not privy to any, like, insider information. I'm not privy to, to things like, obviously. it's Simone Nemich and a couple of draft picks and maybe Dawson Mercer. Like, I don't know these things

for sure. I don't know about that. I don't know about that. If you're Vancouver, man, it's funny. I was talking to one manager in the Metropolitan and said, it better be Jasper Bratt. There better be Jasper Brad in this deal. It's not, it's not brat they want. You know who they want. They want Heeshire.

Of course they want Heesh. Yeah. Why wouldn't you want Heesh? There's a, there is a reality in the multiverse where we get a Bob McKinsey tweet out of nowhere that says, because Nico Heeshire for Quinn Hughes, the trade is one for one. But I don't think that that's the reality that we're living in because the problem with trading Nico Heeshire is twofold.

One, you will spend the majority of the Hughes Brothers time together looking for Nico Heeshire again, because I think at the end of the day, that's your captain-level two-way center that wins you a Stanley Cup. I think the other problem is that by trading away Nico Heeshire for Quinn Hughes, then you're stuck with an extraordinarily talented number one, Center who plays upwards of 60 games a season. And also Dawson Mercer. Like, it is nonsensical to make that trade.

Look, the, here's the thing about Quinn Hughes. Oh, here we go. For being honest. Okay, here we go. Being honest. Show has begun. Quinn Hughes is the second best defenseman in the NHL. I think we can all agree that McCarr is the best.

Yes. It does feel like there are times when it's teetering on the McKinnon-McDavid debate. where you could make the argument for one over the other. I think McCar is number one. Quinn is a strong number two. Correct? Okay, so fine. So anytime you get a chance to get the second best defenseman in the league,

that's a very exciting thing for your team. It means that you have something that no one except for Colorado has. But if you're the New Jersey Devils, the only reason you're doing this is because his two brothers are there and that gives you the password to the party. It gives you, it's Tom Cruise walking up to the door and saying Fidelio, before putting on his mask. Like you have a chance to get Quinn Hughes

because you have Jack and Luke, right? That's why they're interested in it. But in, in, overall, though, Merrick, you've got Luke Hughes. You've got Simone Nemich. You know, you've got a pretty good defense core. The ultimate need for this team may not necessarily be Quinn Hughes,

but the opportunity to acquire the second best defenseman in the NHL does not come along very often. Do you pick it up what I'm putting down? I am. You know what? And as I'm hearing you, hearing you talk about this, part of me thinks to the Vancouver side of things.

And, you know, I probably should have asked J-Pat this when I had him on yesterday, Jeff Patterson. Do you think Quinn Hughes can still be captain of this team? Oh. I'm serious. Do you mean in the sense that they feel like he's out the door? Well, I mean, that seems to be the conversation around all of it. Like part of being a captain is,

the NHL is one, you act as the middle ground between the players and management or the coaching staff, right? You're a sort of representation of the team in the room. But if you're a player who it seems as if as part of this slow parade heading to New Jersey, I don't know. I'm asking essentially, is there something there? And I'm asking as someone who never played in the NHL, and I'm asking it to someone who never played in the NHL. So maybe this conversation is probably for someone who

played in the NHL. Can Quinn Hughes still be captain of the Vancouver Canucks? First of all, I was on the 72 Golden Seals, as you know. Second of all, second of all, that was Craig Patrick. That wasn't you. Don't you think that that's

market forces and media speculation and everything determining what the team to do. I don't think Quinn Hughes, for all we know, is content to see something play out until he leaves the free agent, for all we know. Maybe he likes being there in the short term. Who knows?

I understand what you're saying, but I think that's the kind of thing that's resolved by a trade. It's not resolved by any decision before the trade. You're just creating more trouble than you need. Now, here's a thing. But hold up, by hand, pause on that for one second. as as this saga continues this is and i kind of related it to like hansel and gretel

with like here's a breadcrum here's a breadcrum here's a breadcrum here's a breadcrum here's a breadcrums here's a breadcrums along the way maybe queen hughes just says you know what it's not right that i'm captain here oh he gives up the captaincy maybe i don't know like put it this way considering going back to when rutherford's first mentioned this and the momentum hasn't stopped. It's gone away for a while, but the underlying momentum is always there for this story. And every now and then, it flames up again. And it did Saturday in the second admission of hockey night in Canada when the next shoe drops, which was there was a conversation between the two sides about Quinn Hughes. So that's like there's another

little morsel for everybody to gobble up. And now we wait for the next sort of dripping from the meat that is the Quinn Hugh story to come our way. I got to say. this i just like i gotta say because it's this is my only platform to say these things i really missed the boat on being an insider like like obviously there's a conversation between the devils and the canucks yes conversation does not mean negotiations correct conversation does not mean let's get down the breast tax if i if i could just i i've really screwed my career by not just simply going out and doing what eccland used to do uh 15 years ago and just say like someone's made an inquiry about Quinn Hughes.

Like, of course they do. Every team does. Everybody does. This is what I was saying yesterday. This is what I was saying yesterday on the show. Everybody is talking, all general managers talk. They have a group text. Okay.

Like, they have a group text altogether. So all the managers are talking. So next time you hear someone say, these two sides have spoken, okay? They're all speaking. Their job. You know, I texted with Wish earlier today, too. Me and Wish are speaking. I can tell you, I can tell you as a matter of fact,

I'm reporting this exclusively on the sheet. Oh boy. With Jeff Merrick. Stand by. The Nashville Predators have received calls on Ryan O'Reilly. I can confirm that. Okay. Put that out there, aggregate it.

They have received calls on Ryan O'Reilly. Are they negotiating a trade for Ryan O'Reilly? Who knows? Have they gone to Ryan O'Reilly? Who knows? But I can confirm that they have received calls in Nashville. Wait a minute. On Ryan O'Reilly.

So the real headline is there are 32 general managers doing their jobs as we speak right now. Who have cell phone plans. Who have phones that they can take with them wherever they go. And they don't turn them off. There are some teams that I believe do use carrier pigeons. Like there are some teams that are just really out of the loop and I believe they try to use carrier pigeons instead of using phones. the reason this flamed that was when your that was when your team was at the metal lands by the way it gets caught up in the ceiling the reason this flamed up with vancouver i think is because one

the memo that went out saying we're open for business which then turned out to be we're open for business as long as you're talking to us about our ufas that probably extends over to someone like connor garland but nonetheless and then two just like i don't know i mean i i feel like there's been kind of a shift in how Quinn's approaching all this, don't you? Like, I don't, I don't want to say that he's, he's just like at his wits end about having to address

this constantly, but it does seem like the last couple times we've heard Quinn Hughes talk about this, there's a certain exhausted nature of it. And the third thing, obviously, is that Vancouver sucks. Like, they're, they're playing, they're playing, uh, catch with the, with the National Predators right now in the basement

of the conference. And, but, but, but, but, but that's why I think this story keeps getting hotter and hotter with every loss. Because this was the, for lack of a better term, Greg, the audition year. Like part of this, we talked to this at the beginning of the season. Part of this feels like it's going to be the Vancouver Canucks auditioning for Quinn Hughes to resign. Quinn Hughes is a competitive player, wants to be in a competitive environment, doesn't want any part of any type of rebuild, wants to be on a team that's going in the playoffs and competing for the Stanley Cup.

So this was going to be the year that Rutherford, Alvine, et cetera, showed Quinn Hughes that that's who the Vancouver Canucks were. It's not where the Vancouver Canucks are. They're not. That's why this is not going away. And I know what you, I know, I think that the word you are looking for for Quinn Hughes, because I've felt it the same, is resigned. He feels resigned. He just heard about it on Saturday when he was asked about it. And everyone picked up on, picked up on him using the term Fitsy when really,

The thing that's stuck to me more is something along the lines of I'm going to butcher it, perhaps, but I'm paraphrasing Quinn Hughes, I'm not blind to these conversations. I'm not blind that these conversations happen. Yeah, that was the salient part. I will agree with my colleague, Great Barrow, that people do call him Fancy. It's like, it's like if someone was having a conversation with Quinn Hughes about a team that Brian Burke was the general manager and he called him Berkey. But you know what it is.

No, but here's what it is. he talks to his brothers every day. And whenever they record as a general manager, they call him Fitsy. So eventually in the conversation, everybody just calls him Fitsy, including the guy who doesn't work for Fitsy, but who's now just called him Fitsy because every time he talks to his brothers, they're saying Fitsy. That's it. So I want to bring up a really interesting wrinkle here.

We've talked to you and me about the idea that maybe it doesn't end up being the devil straight away, that it ends up being someone else that has pieces that Vancouver wants more than the devils. I think Detroit is definitely one of those teams. I think the devils can't offer up a Marco Casper and a Simon Edvinson. They could offer up someone like Nemich, who I think is probably

better than Edvinson as a prospect, but they certainly don't have a young center like Casper that they could offer up the Vancouver Canucks. Our friend, Rachel Christchek-Need-Dory, tweeted out this morning something quite interesting, which is, could the Washington Capitals be a fit for

the Vancouver Canucks? I think that is a very intriguing prospect. I also don't think that Rachel puts that out there willy-nilly. When you think about someone like Ryan Leonard's availability, when you think about what the capitals could offer up within their system,

and when you think about teams that wouldn't mind simply having Quinn Hughes for two seasons risking the chance that he could leave for nothing, I think that is the capitals to a T. They are trying to maximize their window to win while a Vetchkin is still on the team. and they could get Quinn Hughes for this season and next season bid adieu to OVie and then just hit the reset button when he leaves.

Or, or if you're the Capitals, maybe you can do a couple of things here. If, to Rachel's point, wonders about, you know, the Connor McMichaels of the world and the Ryan Leonard's of the world. And will that satisfy the Vancouver Canucks? I would still wonder if they would want another defenseman, Cole Hudson. but I digress I wonder if you could do the we're getting Quinn Hughes we're making a pitch for Quinn Hughes

thinking that we're going to take one more run on it here where Alexander Ovechkin might score 40 goals this season and he's got a chance is still relevant in the goal scoring category and then next year when he pieces out that we trade Quinn Hughes and we recoup this is a real time Pelican brief happening right now

I'm Julia Roberts, you're Denzel Washington. I think that we're seeing how this thing might play out. You got Ryan Leonard going to Vancouver. You've got Quinn Hughes coming to Washington. They take their best shot with Ovi. Ovi says, I'm good. And he retires. He goes to the KHL and scores 100 goals with Putin on his wing.

And then they turn around and trade Quinn Hughes to the devils for like Simone Nemich. Yeah. Oh, Jeffie. Look what you did. Come on. Come on. Again, again. Hansel and Gretel. Hansel and Gretel, it just breadcrumbs everywhere here. I do have to, as Greg Wyshinsky used to say on the regular, start the show proper, shall we?

Okay, fine. All right, here we go. So, as always, the blueprint is powered by Fanduel. Download the app today and play your game on Fanduel. Coming up on the program, I love when we have Greg Wyshinsky aboard, and the first thing on the blueprint is Greg Wyshinsky's name. Can you put my name on there too? Because I'm here too, Zach.

How come Greg gets all that? It's in my contract that I get in. We'll talk about hits. We'll talk about player polls. Andrew Peters will be aboard at the bottom of the hour. Oh, there we go. Whoa, why does he get all caps? What does he get all caps?

Oh, man. Your name is stylized like you're an indie movie title. By the way, Greg Wyshikin, Inquestionable Hits, that's every time I go on the radio, I believe, is the proper description. And we'll talk about the swords at the bottom of the hour who don't need to face the Edmonton Oilers tonight coming off that lost last night against the Calgary Flains,

but they will face the Edmonton. Oilers tonight who just by the way have discovered that oh yeah they're allowed to score nine goals a game and if they want they can they can score 10 yeah their power play is clicking it like over 33% right now it's they're they are they are fine you know it was kind of a matter of time before this happened they just needed to get healthy again they're missing so many guys um they get those guys back and all of a sudden the power play starts clicking and and they're rocking and rolling it's uh it's fun so you were going to make were you making one more point about the conspiracy Washington Capitals, Rachel Crouchag, Nadori.

No, I think, I think she's, I think she spelled it up pretty good. Again, I think the problem right now for New Jersey is that the one center that Vancouver won, if we're to assume, and I think that's the correct assumption, that Vancouver wants to bring a center back. I mean, that was the whole thing with the, that was the whole thing with the J.T. Miller trade. I mean, the J.T. Miller trade happens because the Rangers. really to depart with with heidel and obviously that's unfortunately heedle is who we thought he was um but if they want to center back i just don't think the devils have a center of the caliber that other teams could offer up in so far as like the age they're looking for like they don't have a casper

they don't have a ryan leon there there are teams out there they're going to satisfy what vancouver needs and then it's just a matter of whether or not those teams want to ante up for a short-term bit of queen hughes or if a team like detroit believes that there's a situation in which they could trade for Queen Hughes, have them signed long term, and then Jack Hughes joins him in 2030, which is the fear of every devil's fan. It's such an interesting situation,

and we'll see how it plays out. We got a few things sort of on the docket here. As far as Hitsko, it's funny, I was having a conversation with someone today in Seattle, who was bringing up the point that that Vince Dunn hit last night on Matt Socorllo. Now, there was a Tyler Myers hit on Maddie Baneers. But again, like I'm putting you totally on the spot here.

And I'm actually, I'm actually handing you a story idea, Greg Wyshinsky. Someone is going to do this. It might as well be you. Was that the biggest hit in Seattle Cracken, albeit young, young Seattle Cracken history? Is that the biggest hit in the organization's history? Just have a look here. It probably was. The wing, bam.

Vince Dunn. That is just like vintage, just 1990s. Rock and Sockham, shoulder to shoulder. That is cutting in, Duncatchez, um, closes, bam. Sending the Hobbit Wizard back to Middle Earth. Oh, my goodness. The biggest hit, the biggest hit. I got to make it sound bigger.

Is this the biggest hit in the history of the Seattle Cracken? Greg Wischitzky. I assume so honestly I got to admit I don't watch every cracking game I'll tell you but I'll go ahead and say yes I'll say until proven otherwise I'll say yes there's a free story idea 32 great hits the best hit in every team's history oh my god see this is a I agree with this this is a great story idea I think in a different world I'd probably be reading it right now but I do think think the problem you run into, Merrick, is that a lot of hits that we would consider to be the greatest hits of all time are also injurious. And in some cases, not a video. And in some cases, also contributing to the long-term detrimental health of veteran players. That's also the kind of tricky part about all this. It's the same, the same tricky part as, as celebrations of fighting these days as you and I are. There's your follow-up piece there. I'm going to do my low rent, Walter Cronkite. There's your follow-up piece there, young.

Cub reporter Waczynski, the greatest fight for every franchise. Are you man enough to write that piece? The proud of you write it to is that this person is people that are not necessarily in tune with how it used to be in the NHL of these fighting. I need to remind you that speaking of fighting, we need to talk about the John Scott thing, but we can do that before the end of the show, I suppose. We're packed We're packed but I'm happy to tell I mean I've told the story before But we can we can do that later on sure

Later on the show Yeah That was an interesting day Was me and PJ Stock and John Shannon All right Do you want to just tell it now before Peter stops on No it wasn't that No it's just like the whole John's car

I had like there's a just so everybody knows Like a little you know sort of peek behind the curtain When when you have quote unquote Talent who are on the air you do not try to contact them if you are their boss, for example. You do not send off numerous emails hoping that they will see it while they were on the air and it will change what they're talking about. But when USA Today came out with, this is going back to the infamous John Scott campaign.

When America and I helped get a goon into the All-Star game. And wrecked it. And wrecked it. And we wrecked it. We ruined it. We ruined voting. No one loved it. Everything we ruined.

We ruined it. No one liked it. Everyone hated it. That's right. It was all around. The ratings are terrible. No one was trying to make a movie about it for a few years. Like it was just a terrible, terrible.

Goofy podcast stunt. I was on, well, we dubbed the world's greatest pre-pre-game show, me, PJ Stock and John Shannon, Saturday afternoons. And we were talking about it because it had just been that the initial voting had just come out. and I was emailed numerous times by my boss to stop talking about this and come see him afterwards and so I did and I was read the riot act and I didn't understand why I kept coming back to like this is the voting that was just released of course I was playing you know dumb janitor because I knew that I had a hand in it along with you mischievous little child to help get this guy to the All-Star again.

And honestly, honestly, I thought driving home that day, Saturday night, driving home that day, I remember calling Claire and saying, I wonder if they're hiring at the post office. I hear they're busy in December. I think I may need a new job Monday morning. You thought you were going to lose your job over the John Scott thing. I did.

Yeah, I did. I did. I really, really did. Yeah, I thought going home. Because listen, listen, the NHL was hot about it. Yeah. My boss was hot about it. It ended up, I mean, the whole saga of like, you know, sending them to Newfoundland, trading them to the minors, like, all of it.

The very uncomfortable conversation about his kids, which really stiffened his spine about, no, I'm not going to, I'm not going to relent here. Yeah, I really thought that I was, that I was going to get punted. I really, really did. I mean, at the time that happened, that was at a time when the NHL really felt like it could make it go away. Like, they really thought that if they strong-armed John Scott, if they strong-armed rights holders. I was at Yahoo at the time, so we were just, like you said, a bunch of merry pranksters, just hopping around, putting up photoshopps of Gary Bettman without any rightsholder recourse. Those were the days. But you were working for a place where they could exert a little influence.

Yeah, I just remember talking to, to John and PJ on the on the way out and we're like well where are we working on Monday guys because we ain't working here after this one but um it all how did you know that you were okay then was it when was it when the John Scott stuff started to turn a little bit where public sentiment was behind him and and it was obvious that he was going to go or like did it just kind of go away it just kind of went away I just sort of kept my head down went went to work now mind you I was doing a daily podcast with you every day, which thankfully no one at my shop

listened to as I found out. Man, the amount of drug talk you and I used to do on that show. I used to get notes from people at HLT is like, is anyone in your shop listening to this stuff? I guess not. No, I think it's totally normal.

The guy at the eyed desk is also the guy licking a frog between my eyewitness segments. totally makes sense so yeah that's the nickel and dime story again like I just kind of went away I know that most of the people

watching the show or listening to the show probably remember the saga but it really was one of the most remarkable things I've ever witnessed usually when the NHL wants something to go away it goes away

because the NHL is very good at exerting its influence and getting people in line and getting people to kind of fall behind whatever effort they're looking to enact and in this case I don't recall another situation

but don't forget this was a very specific era this was the era of Boady McBoatface right if you put it out to the people they will treat it like a joke and they will do something

just to roast you just to roast you and that's where Bodie McBoatface came from and that's where in this campaign now I still maintain I can't talk about your motivation. But my motivation to get behind all of it was, that was a role that was in the

NHL for a long, long time, and it was evolving itself out of the game. And I wanted someone at the All-Star game as a sort of representative of a role that didn't exist in the game anymore or was phasing itself out. That to me was like tribute to all those other players that have done it for so long, whether it's Probert or Semenko or John Ferguson or, you know, take your pick, Orlin curtain bach take your pick that was part of my motivation for it we we've had john on the show i think since then right me and you yeah i know i know so like we can go back and listen to it i'm not gonna lie like there was a part of me that definitely wanted to see john scott take part in the skills

competition or or play in the three on three like that there was a certain amount of of of gleeful uh anarchy on my part but but to your point like there was never a time when we didn't think wow it would be cool for the grunt to get in i mean that was the situation to who was the cat before that where he made the all-star he was like leading in the all-star vote and then like there was all those accusations about the vote roy fitzpatrick so to me it was the same sort of vibe as roy fitzpatrick as yeah you know here's somebody that they probably don't want the all-star game but the fans probably would dig to have in the all-star game and it'd be it'd be interesting to see us pull it off now the other part of that too though your to your bode macboat

phase uh comparison yeah the two things that made the john scott thing the john scott thing were one the fact that they tried to kind of strong arm john scott to quote do the right thing and backfired you know for his family or whatever and it completely backfired and it made him that was that was that was not well advised but it also was to your point um like you there can be these kind of goofy votes but if they're within the rules you got to respect it and i think that was the part that really kind of got people behind the effort was when they tried to like for better lack of a better term ignore the world the will of the people in and having voted on scott in so it was a strange time but like i said i the one thing i'll always take away from that

besides you feeling as if you were going to lose your job for all of this was that uh it was one of the few times the NHL kind of couldn't stuff the horses back in the barn or the GV in the bottle or whatever and it kind of got away from them there was a there was a chance to that even when he made it in and was there that he wouldn't play in the game yeah because he had been I think over served the night before and almost slept to the point where he he missed the game I think it might have been yeah did I ever tell you that yeah he told me that one no I didn't hear any of this yeah after all of that if he would have just like like snoozed right through all of it.

No wonder they carried him out on their shoulders. They had to. They had to. He wasn't skating. I'm done. Pick me out, boys. God, what a time that was, man. That was a different, that turned into a longer conversation than, uh, then I thought it was

going to be. Uh, before we get to, and you're going to have to let me know when Andrew Peters is aboard, Zach. Uh, any player pull stuff real quick, because I only get a couple of minutes left to do it. Anything jump out at you? Andrew's getting set up. Give us like a hot two minutes on something that stood out for you from the Players Bowl. The Players' Poll that Merrick's talking about dropped on the athletic today.

They decided to divvy up the questions, making it much harder for me to find the thing I wanted to talk about. Here it is. Does playing in a non-income tax state actually matter? 117 respondents. 86.3% Merrick said that it does not. matter. Now, the thing I wanted to talk about here is something that you have bought up before. I'm going to read from the athletic here. Some players even wanted the NHL to change the rules to level the playing field. Quote, there's something I would love the NHL to consider.

Let's say in California, you have a higher state rate for your tax. You could have a higher salary cap, and those no tax teams would have a lower cap so it would basically balance it out. Now, this player does go on to mention there are things like weather and beaches and things that ultimately play into any decision a player makes. But at least one person out there does believe, as I believe you also think, Merrick, that there should be some sort of NHL-level tweak to the system to compensate for the non-income tax teams hoarding all of this talent. Let me throw one comment out and we'll pick it up after we talk to our next guest who is standing by patiently, and that is, here's the question you ask.

Do you base salary cap numbers on a player's gross or a player's net? Is that one way to go around the taxation issue? Bracket that for two seconds because we're talking about the Buffalo Sabres. With one of the co-hosts from the After the Whistle podcast alongside Craig Ravey. He is former NHLer Andrew Peters, who I used to watch on the regular playing with the Ashawah Generals. a million years ago in the O HL he joins us. I know one of those fun days back when I had promised baby

listen you were you were terrified you were terrifying when you play in the NHL but back in the OHL holy smokes nobody Andrew Peters wanted like who is the one guy because I always looked at you

playing when I go down Sundays to watch Oshawa and there was like everyone's terrified of Andrew Peters who scared you in the league before I get to the Sabers who scared Andrew Peters in the OHL any of my former oshua teammates were listening they would know that my answer would be john erskin um oh god yeah there was something about this guy that was he was in london nights and he was drafted

you know i wouldn't say for that reason but he was a rugged defenseman and that was and he loved to fight like that was the difference i mean when you have a guy that that loves to fight that and you're a guy that's willing to fight because you play a certain way and you might have to answer the bell because, you know, there is some kind of an honor code, you know, with how you play, then, but that's two different kind of guys. So, you know, I didn't want to have to go out there and fight John Erskin. You know, I thought I was more of a player than that. But people put me, they thought I was tough enough to do that. And I think a lot of times scouts and agents and teammates, and friends kind of want to test, want to see your medal as well. And, you know, eventually, you know, we cross paths a couple times in Junior. We had an amazing fight when I was in Kitchener. I just got traded to Kitchener. I just played in my first game and I beat up a guy that I used to beat up all the time.

And then John Erson came to town. And this was a different night. And we had a fight that was incredible. So he was a guy at that time in that league that was terrifying to everybody, more than I think I terrified people. They had him listed at 6-4 with the capitals. That cat always seemed like he was about 7-6. He was just so big, Erskine.

My God, what a good pull. Yeah, he was big. And I remember Tepo Newman. And when he first came to our team, he was with him in Dallas. and I said, you know, how's that Erskine? You know, and you want every guy to be like, ah, you know, he's not that tough, you know? And he's like, oh, heavy hitter.

I'm like, God damn it, yeah, you still got it, man. Yeah. He did it for a long time, and he turned himself into a player in this league. He did. And I hope he's doing well because, you know, I mean, there's been some news about some guys like that, but he was definitely one of them. He was.

And it's rare to find, like, one of the only guys I ever met or spoke to that loved everything about it was Tony Twist. A lot of other guys are like, I didn't like the sleepless nights. Oh, I couldn't have my afternoon nap. Oh, I just lived between my ears. There are very few guys that have ever met, Andrew, that loved every single aspect. I'll tell you another guy. Who's that? You know who they are.

You know who they are when you fight them, you know? And another guy that truly loved it was Eric Goddard. Oh, yeah. Like, absolutely, like, he was a rugby player from what I understand, and rugby players just aren't right to begin with. So, you know, and then you put him in the enforcer role in the NHL. But yeah, yeah, there were guys that loved it. Okay, let's get to the swords here.

And yeah, man, Eric Otter was raw bone tough. Let's get to the swords. I've tried this year, like, I've always maintained. One of the reasons why I've always loved the Buffalo Sabres is, and I don't really cheer for teens, but the closest I get is Buffalo. I go back to the French connection when I was a kid. Growing up, I was young, oh,

Schobero, this is amazing. But what I love about the Buffalo Sabres is, to me, the Sabres are the perfect, I'm from a fans point of view here. They are the one market that isn't just an American team or a Canadian team, they're both. Because it's not just Buffalo fans from Buffalo

that go there. St. Catherine's. It's Hamilton. I love Buffalo because it's a combination of Canada and the United States coming together, you know, two countries fan bases coming together with one team. We don't have that anywhere else in the NHL. It's one of the most

unique places and that's why I've always loved it. So to watch what's happened to this Buffalo Sabres team, which has always been near and dear to my hearts, is just awful. And every year I say, please just let the Buffalo Sabres be good this year. And for double-digit years, it hasn't

happen where do you want to begin well i okay so there's that there's so much in there but let me just start by saying this by by kind of uh validating what you're saying i grew up in st catherine's a lot of my buddies were sabers fans yep but not only that the sabers had a ticket office in st catherine's in the in ridley in ridley plaza so it's like you know they we used to do our training camps in st catherine's and i feel like i feel like maybe that was part of why they drafted me in the second round like i was rated there but i also came from st catherine's and they had a they had a heavy presence you know in in southern ontario yeah um so that i so i i think that's true um and and there you know here's the thing i'll say about

the sabers at the time like like i wanted to be drafted by the sabers i mean i was i thought i was going to be a first round forget about how my career turned out like i i thought i was going to be a first-round pick. And when I was, when the sabres were up, I knew I had a great meeting with them and I know they were close to home, but that was a team I wanted to get drafted by because I just remember going to games as a kid from the time I was 10 and the fans were absolutely insane, like insane. Because they're on top of you. Yeah, it was the old odd, right? Yeah. It was the old odd back then. And it was, but, you know, and it was such a great hockey market and La Fontaine and McGilney and I think the key word was was pride there was

so much pride surrounding the Buffalo Sabres like they were it was such a proud community with a hardworking team and somehow in the last 15 years and I don't know what's happened but this this fan base has died and kids don't even care that the Sabres are here they hockey kids watch McDavid and, you know, Eichol and Vegas and all these other teams. And it's sad to go back to your point. And so where does it start? Well, like, where does everything else start? Like, I think I kind of know why you guys asked me to come on today

because I think you probably know how I feel. And it starts at the very top. I mean, it starts with the owner. And, you know, I could come to his defense if, you know, if it really called for it, but he's not doing himself any favors here by having an inexperienced GM and the management staff that he's surrounded himself with

and the assistant general managers. I mean, it's just these aren't hockey guys. Like Kevin Adams has no experience as a general manager. You know, he showed it last year when they lost all those games that he sat on his hands and the owner said the answers in this room. And that's when you know that they have no idea what they're doing and then they they you know and the players know it so how does this translate on

the ice like i can sit here i can sit here for 30 minutes and rip on the upper management and all this stuff and and it's it's deserving i mean it's totally deserving um they all deserve to be shredded verbally and not only that they all deserve to be fired uh they don't deserve to be in their positions to begin with um but how does it translate on the ice um you know i think you got some young talent. I think you've missed on some draft picks. I think you've signed some guys to some contracts that are like Owen Power is just proving to just, he's just not a good hockey player. I'm sorry. You know, you can say that with confidence after watching him with all these years and they never should have rushed them and signed him to that contract. But I think Morala from the

player standpoint is at an all-time low. And, you know, it's very easy in a town like Buffalo when guys like me, you know, the media are all over them. We're all over them. We expect more. We have high expectations. And I think every time they turn a puck over, they can probably feel that. And they should because, you know, they're the ones on the ice. But, you know, their coaching staff is just, I mean, like Lindy was Terry's hire.

I think we all know that. I think Kevin Adams, like when he said double-digit candidates, he interviewed. I really, I mean, there's just no way. That was, we knew it was Lindy before it was Lindy. I mean, you know, it's, we know who's running this team and we just, we see how it's going. And so, I mean, you can't trade the owner. You can't trade the owner. I will say that zero one is a double digit, technically.

But it does. Yeah, I like that. So, I mean, basically what you're saying, Andrew, is that it's not about them not having enough. Well, actually, technically zero, zero, because he didn't interview him. Like, it was Terry's higher. That's true. He just got it installed. It's all right.

He just got to insult that fair. Insert any number here. Insert any number here and it's, it's still a lie. So it does sound like it's not just the lack of palm trees in Buffalo, which is good to know. But I guess the thing about Terry that bothers me is what is it about him, where they haven't had some, you know, like Jim Rutherford, Lou Lamarillo, guy who's won other places, ruler of all he's or vase type to come in there. I don't even mean it as an advisor, either advisor or just someone to be president of hockey ops.

It seems like the easiest thing for Terry Begoula to do is to throw money at somebody who's won before and then say, here's autonomy. It versus what he's done here, which is, again, like what we all said when Adams was hired, Kevin from, you know, business affairs comes over and takes the job and is basically a puppet for the Pagoulos. Listen, I mean, there's so much in there because, you know,

basically the end statement there is kind of exactly what it boils down to is you're dealing with a guy that is doing whatever the owner says. Like I was even told as recently as last week that he's actually in on scouting and drafting players. You know, like making decisions wants to know. Yeah, yeah.

And so, like, guys, we could shred this team all the way that you want. But until somebody like a Brennan Shanahan comes in or like you think it's Kekeleinen, I don't know. Like, I don't know yet. You know, they brought in Jordan Stahl. I mean, that's your special hockey advisor. You know, no experience there.

I mean, like him as a guy, he's a great hockey player. But they don't really have a doctor. direction. They don't have a direction. Eric Stahl, by the way. What did I say? Jordan Stahl? Yeah, he's with Carolina. That's fun. Sorry. We know you. There's like four of them, right? The other, the other captain.

As long as you, at least you didn't say Henry Stahl from Thunder Bay. As long as he didn't say the dad, then we're good, as long as it was one of the kids. You know, when I look at a team like the Seattle Cracken, okay, I say to myself, this looks like a team where there are too many people making decisions or there are too many people that have influence on decisions. And I think the Buffalo Sabres story, Andrew, is twofold. One, too many inexperienced people on the ice and to your point about Kevin Adams as well off of it that are rushed into either big positions in an office or big positions on the ice before they're ready for it. I think inexperience is a big one here. The other is

it feels to me again and I'm an outsider here Andrew I'm in the backseat okay I'm talking to shit from the back seat but it appears to me it looks like and feels like there are too many people of influence here making decisions for this organization there's not to your point there's not there's not like the one the buck stops here general manager or president of hockey operations it feels like there's a lot of different people tugging a lot of different ways with this Buffalo Sabres organization. It's the way it looks and that's the way it feels. Well, it's how the players, you know, look like. They look baffled. I mean, the players look like they have no answers. You know, you got an aging coach, you know, like who's also, I don't know if you saw this pissed off about Noah Ossling getting sent down.

So, yeah. Yeah, like they're starting to be, they're starting. to be a little bit of disconnect, you know, from what's going on because, you know, like, you're in the situation, you're in with the three goalies, so you don't want to send a goalie down in case you lose one. So you send Oslin down who the coach was happy with playing and, you know, is vocal about it. Um, like the, you know, everyone, everyone, sorry, go ahead. No, I was going to say, if we could just pause on that, on that Lindy Roughcom, I'm glad you got us there. Because that Lindy Rough comment, like, that to me is like,

That's where fire alarms go off. Because that to me was Lindy Ruff saying, I can't ice my best team. I cannot ice the team that I think gives us the best chance to win a game against the Calgary Flames. I can't do it. That to me is like, okay, fire alarm, fire alarm. Well, then on top of it too, like, you know,

maybe Lindy is at a point where he said the other day, like it's time for some kind of drastic, you know, shake up in the line. And if he has no Osloand who probably deserves to be in the lineup, if you're looking at the 13 or 14 forwards there. And you can take out a Jack Quinn and maybe, you know, wake him up and give him a poke and put him in the press box.

I mean, having a guy like Osslyn, a young talent always chomping at the heels of some of the guys in the lineup, you know, kind of makes them all a little bit honest. I mean, is Jordan Greenway? Is he 100% healthy? He's had a lot of maintenance days. Does that, does having Ossland allow you an opportunity? to maybe sit him out and rest him a day on the trip

on a back-to-back night because he's had maintenance days every day. I mean, I've never seen a guy. I play with Marty Breder in his late 30s. He didn't have this many maintenance days. Like, I mean, there's something going on there. So, like, it handcuffs you and it handcuffs Lindy and, you know, you just wonder, like, you said perfectly,

does it allow Lindy to coach the way he needs to coach him, wants to coach? So Dahlene's great, but he's great in service of a better team than the one that they have. Like it reminds me of like, headman's great, but headman's great within the context of a team that has Kuturoff and Stamcoast and all these others, right? power like you said hasn't necessarily actualized as an elite NHL player sometimes you get high draft picks and there isn't anybody there at the top of the draft for you but sometimes you get the second overall pick and you end up with Jack Eichol and so I guess my question is is the original sin for this franchise right now the absolute botching of Aichael's early years and B the surgery piece that that eventually led to him him being traded to Vegas, or would he have just left anyway at some point or asked out anyway at some point because of how bad the team is? He might have asked out the year before there were rumblings about that. Yeah, he did, right?

But however, before the ADR situation, he asked out, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But however, you know, like, regardless of how you feel about a team's right or not, players around the league are the ones that you're actually trying to send a message to with how you handle players and not just any player we're not talking a yeah yeah yeah we're not talking like an andrew peters we're talking about how you handle your star players uh all that stuff and so you know like when until like like that's a stench that's still going on and look at jack now Jack is, you know, Jack Talked Vegas real good, boys.

Jack Talk, you know, that's a, that's a, but you guys don't know that movie reference. You get a Meet the Parents reference. You know Merrick's not going to get to meet the parents reference. He certainly is going to get one that wasn't in the trailer. You dropped the Jack Talk tie. Talked High very well. And I'm going to get that, Peters. You know I'm going to get that.

By the way, I'm sorry for spacing on the trade request before you're right. He did ask out before the surgery. And then there was some thought that the surgery was a way for him to kind of like maybe. Well, you know what? I think Andrew's point is a great one. Because I was, listen, we just had Tyler Johnson on a couple of weeks ago. And one of the things I asked him was because he had ADR surgery as well. And Joel Farabee had it as well.

Like Jack Eichol was the test case in the NHL. Other MMA football, like a lot of other athletes have had it. And this was my point while it was going on the whole time. everybody's watching. Everybody's watching the Buffalo Sabres say, no, you're going to fuse your spine together. And Jake Eichael said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I want to be able to play with my kids and tie my own shoes and not being pain. Like, my dad had spinal fusion a couple of different times. And towards the end of his life, like, it was agony.

Like, I've seen it. And this is like Jack saying, I have autonomy over my body. I understand the relationship we have of their own team doctors here. But I think your point is the great one. That was a message to the entire NHL. that they're saying no to Jack Eichol having a surgery that he wants to have, which has been proven safe in a number of other sports. Other sports, which, by the way, as much as we all respect the physicality of hockey,

is more physical than the sport of hockey, football and MMA. And the rest of the NHL looked at that and said, what if that's me one day? Jack's not getting kicked in the head, you know what I mean? Jack's not getting kicked in the head, no. Jack's not getting kicked in the head. Um, yeah, yes. And then it's the management staff, um, you know, that, that, like, you can say what you want about the doctors. It doesn't come down to the doctors. The doctors can give their

opinion, but in the end, it ultimately comes down to the player. And, and what the player wants to do, it, you know, like it's, it's his body and how he wants to handle it. So, um, I think that stench still lingers the team that will, that follows Kevin Adams. And, you know, I, I will say, this, though, I will say this. I thought your conversation that I was listening to before I came on is fascinating. And I think it directly affects the Sabres. I mean, it's, I think it affects a lot of teams more than other teams, even teams in high market, and high tax bracket states. But I think something like that too does really affect the Buffalo Sabres, the taxes and the tax breaks and all that stuff. And we're going to see with Alex

Tuck and what happens with him you know, where he goes if it comes down. What do you think happened for the? I can't see it. Do you think they get proactive and trade him before he leaves? I can't see him staying. I can't. Why would he stay? Like at this

point, like does Dahlene not want out already? Does Tage not want out? I mean, you don't think that they go to dinner, the three veterans saying like you are so lucky. You are so lucky, man. Like it's like it's it's like the guy it's like it's like in the movie rounders when he wins all the smokes off the guy and he goes he goes let's go you're being processed he goes process yeah

I'm out of here he's out of here he's close to the gate and close to the gate yeah and they should move him I don't know where but I think you know I could find you five suitors that'll call for him in the off season probably right now so is there is there a chance that we're all being a little gun jumpy here like is there a chance that they could throw something together like statelets is the is the analytics company that ESPN uses and their their playoff projections i believe have the sabres a bit higher than a lot of teams and so far as their ability to still make the dance like is there a chance the season could be salvaged sure oh yeah i think i think i think what's

saving them right now is the fact that the Eastern Conference is incredibly tight, tighter than we've ever seen a season, 30 games into a season. I don't think there's ever been, you know, you could easily have all 16 teams be over 500, you know, in the conference, which is not heard of. So, you know, there's, I think there's seven points, eight points back today. I think we got the Olympics. You know, you got the two-week break. How many guys drink themselves out of the season, you know, over the break? I mean, do there, are there any injuries at the Olympics that affect other teams?

I mean, the Sabres were, were bombed by injuries at the start. Maybe they get healthy at the right time. Maybe they start, like, we just had Thomas Vanek on the pod today. And he said, he's like, after the Olympics, yeah, he's like, after the Olympics, he's like, he said, it's like a new season he's like if if a team like buffalo is seven points out after the Olympic break and they win their first two three games out of the gate he's like it's a whole new season for every single team so could they turn it around yeah yeah they probably could but I have I just I have no faith that they that they will because I just don't see it I don't see

the fire on the ice I think that's number one so don't see the fire on the ice okay let me close on the rest of the podcast trying to figure out I'm going to spend the rest of the podcast trying to figure out why Merrick and I just reacted like you had Sidney Sweeney on the podcast when you said Thomas. Thomas Vanek. And my last question, the last question of this interview is going to be about Thomas Vanek too. Watch this. So I thought about him on Saturday. I thought about him and I thought about Marian Hosa and I thought about Brian Rolston when I saw Scott Lott and take that slap shot at the hash marks on the breakaway. How, because Vanek was, Vanek would do too, the slap shot

on the hash marks. He'd also do that around the world with the puck and it freak goalies out and boom and Vannick would score. How is Thomas Vannick right now? How is he doing? What's the update

for a couple of old Thomas Vannick fans? Well, you know, it would be wrong for me to not say you'll have to listen to the show. Oh, come on. Good hook.

Good hook. She's in the trap. He's doing great. He's working with San Jose. He's doing. doing some scouting. Mike Greer has surrounded himself with some great guys there,

lots of veteran guys and experienced guys around him. And I'm going to tell you this. I was hoping somehow we'd be able to talk about Vanner today because he's just, he is one of the most intelligent hockey people I've ever listened to and spoken to. And he's just his perspective on things, his perspective on development,

My favorite Thomas Vannick's story doesn't even involve him as a Buffalo Sabre. It involves him as a father. And I remember I ran into him. He was, I had retired, and he was at Niagara University taking his kid to hockey. And I can't remember how old Blake is now. But Blake plays for the, what's the Wattachi out in the CHL? Oh, Wet Nachie, Wach. Yeah, Wet Nachie.

Wynach. Yeah. So Blake Vanek is Thomas's son. He was a fourth rounder by Ottawa. But I remember when Blake was a kid. He was at Niagara University, and I was there. I was doing color commentating for the Niagara University Purple Eagles game. And Thomas was there, and I walked in.

I was asking him about his kid, and I was like, what if he doesn't want to go? Like, does he love hockey? He goes, not every day. I was like, so what happens when he doesn't want to go? He goes, we don't go. That's awesome. I was like, so like your kid says, I don't want to go to hockey. And you just say, I don't go, even though you're a pro athlete.

and commitment is something that we're supposed to, you know, drive into our kids. And he said, he said, no, I want my kid to love going to the rank. And then when he loves going to the rank, he'll be committed to his craft or to his sport. And I'm just like, I've never forgotten that. And all these years later, we get to see Blake, you know, drafted in the NHL and Thomas working in the NHL. And it's just no, he'll be a general manager someday. You mark my words. he'll be a general manager he's just too brilliant and is the way he thinks about building a team

and culture and character and physicality everything he's just guys brilliant that's yeah that's fantastic great get a last good you asked about him yeah oh yeah yeah oh absolutely man we're fanboing here uh one last thing you mentioned the odd before what if you made about all of this uh consternation over the ice size for the olympics as someone who played at the odd okay so see I was a player rep, guys, so I always have wanted to think outside the box how to make the game better. And I think the league right now is too cookie cutter. The game was great.

When you had ranks that were huge, like, hey, we're going into the 200 by 100. But now tomorrow night, we're going into Buffalo, and it's 194 by 80. You know what I mean? And teams could build their, teams could build their rosters based around the ice surf. that they had. Like, I probably wouldn't have been a second round traffic in the NHL if I played in Belleville.

Like, they had the... Huge ice. Huge ice. But I played in Oshawa where it was a tiny rink. You know, the distance from the corner to the net, you could be robust,

crash and bang, take that puck to the net, and it wasn't... And your angles were different, and it was just, it was easier for a big guy. And I just think that, you know,

I remember watching Eric Lindros playing the odd back in the day, and I'm like, Jesus, this guy was built for a small rink. And, you know, like, I just, I like that. So I like players being out of their comfort zone. It would give a whole new meaning to home ice advantage. What, 100%, I love that we're all singing from the same hymn book on this one.

What kind of player would you have been? I keep saying last question. What kind of player would you have been if you played in Peterborough with those tight corners? Well, same as in Oshawa. But, I mean, Peterborough going into, I remember those corners, and if anyone doesn't know about the Peterborough corners, you've got to go look at them. It is like, it's like playing in a cardboard box. It's like you shoveled them out with, out of a corner.

But there was not much space in there. And the puck moved so fast around those boards. So, you know, when you're a winger and the, the defenseman rimmed the puck, It comes around so fast and you've got to be ready. And they had the higher board. So when you get hit, it would be your lower back too. And yeah, it was, that was a, I've missed those old junior ranks, man. It was a, they're all different.

They're all different. And you go to St. Mike's and it's 180 by 80. And you're like, this is what we're talking about. You build your team differently. I always played well in St. Mike's. I'm not like it's. Small Barn.

Amazing you say that. Yeah. Played well in St. MTS when I was playing in the MTHL for the North York Canadians. I mean, I always played well in a small rank because, believe it or not, I had really good hands. It was just, it was the mobility. So less space, good hands, you know, I was good in those areas. By the way, you just dropped an age indicator calling it the MTHL because I played in it when it was the MTHL.

Now it's, of course, the GTHL, the notorious. I love that one. Listen, we've kept you longer than you probably expected. Oh, it's awesome. Listen, thanks so much for stopping by. sharing your expertise and dropping some cool Thomas Vannock stories. You know, listening to that one, I remember some Matthew Barzell talking about that too. Like there were days where it's like, Dad, I don't feel like going.

I just want to go ride my bike. And is that I'd be like, okay, fine. Yeah. And how many other parents in the then MTHL, now GTHL would say, you made a commitment and you're going to practice and you're going to this game and you've got the silver stick coming up on the way? Ridiculous. Ridiculous.

I have a 12-year-old son. He'll be 13 in April. he's not a hockey player but every day that he talks about how he feels about his sports I think about what Thomas said and I always take it into account

you know what I mean? It's like my dream for him is maybe not his dream for him so I'll help him I'll guide him you know give him a little bit of expertise but I can't you know I can't force him.

Amen you're the best thanks so much for doing this enjoy the rest of your day thanks for stopping by yeah you too guys thank you There is the great Andrew Peters stopping by. Hey, we've got some bonus Thomas Vanek coverage on the show today. I know.

So two things on that. First of all, I just found a story. If you want to look it up, it's called, if you look up my last name and Mr. Trade Deadline, I wrote a story with Vanek in 2019 about how he had been traded at the NHL trade deadline three times in like the last five years. And then every other year he was rumored. And it was a story about how he finally had a no movement clause. And what that felt like.

for the guy who was traded at the deadline all the time. And the second thing is all this talk with Peter's about Vanek's kid and Peters's kid. I have been, I can't say enjoying because I really feel bad for her. But my oldest daughter is a huge sports fan. She's in particular a huge New York Mets fan. And I am experiencing for the first time in her fandom the pain of losing players in the off season. Edwin Diaz, the Mets closed. I've signed a three-year, like, a $69 million deal would be it with the Dodgers.

And I told her about it. I texted her about it once I found out about it. And her reaction is just like pure, pure, like, angst towards the Mets allowing it to happen. But more than that, abject fury at the Los Angeles Dodgers for getting all the things they always want. and as a sports fan watching her become like a real sports fan not just someone who take to the game wants like dipping dots between periods but a real sports fan with like skin of the game

has been an absolute joy for me mine was Lannie McDonald that was one where I was like I can't believe that Lanny McDonald is gone I hate you punch him lack that was that do you have one like that where you're like gut punch my guy just got moved

like it was Claude Lemieux it was like Claude Lemieux it was like claude lemieux was my favorite player growing up and then they traded him right the year after he won the con smith in 95 when the devil's won the cup for the first time they traded him away because he wanted i think to renegotiate his contract based on having been playoff MVP so they did that crazy three-way deal where claude goes to colorado wendell goes to the island islanders was it was the islanders and then the devils ended up with steve thomas was the deal and like in hindsight maybe you shouldn't try to negotiate your new contract if you have one based on how much you think you should be owed for being playoff MVP although they don't win the cup without him but yeah that was the first time that a trade really

upset me because I had the jersey I was a big Claude fan and then like they moved him but it was because he was greedy I have a hard time believing that your favorite player was an agitator that got under people's skin and piss them off on the regular. It doesn't seem like you would be attracted to that type of person at all, Greg Wyshinsky. He was a formative player for me.

Also, to know when to turtle. It's a turtle at Joe Lewis Arena. That's the greatest, that's the greatest lesson you can learn. Come through with a clutch for your teammates. I love them. Turtle when the heat gets too hot. Yeah, I absolutely love Claude Lemieux too. There was a time, we were talking about this other day.

Zach and I did an event a couple of weeks ago with Wendell Clark. And one of the trade we're talking about, and it was actually Red Fisher of the Montreal Gazette who shut this trade down. This is like, we talked about this when Larry Brooks passed, you and I a couple of weeks ago about how journalists, some journalists back in the day would have the power to actually cancel trades. And it was Shane Corson and Claude Lemieux to Toronto for Wendell Clark and Gary Lehman. And Red Fisher called up, I think it would have been search of art, the general manager of the Montreal Canadians, and said, if you make this deal, I will run you out of town. And the trade was called off by the Montreal Canadians. Because that was the kind of power that Red Fisher had at that point. Everybody read them in the Gazette.

Everybody, everybody, Red Fisher. I just, I literally just texted Fitsy about don't trade Nico Hesher. for Queen Hughes, one for one. He blew it up. Oh, you just blew it up? All right. You're going to run him out of town? Going to run them out of the rock.

We're going to run them out of the Prudential Center. Yes, that's me. The influence that I have in the Garden State, I'm going to run the GM of the devils out of town, out of Norque. All right. We got a hustle here. I got a couple of things to do.

You want to hang on for the, for the fan dual segment here? Yeah, sure. The close of the show with Zach Rousse. So this is Zach's spotlight. This is his shine time. He thinks about this all morning long. Just for this one moment where we do this.

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Please play responsibly, 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. Spotlight on Zach. Center ice fight. Clubs off. Bucket off. elbow pads off

stick down everybody's faded away the center ice is all yours what are you going to do with it Zach um at this point I should probably like start undressing like Ned and slap shot

and skiing and play music because every time I've stepped up to the plate I've got my ass kicked smash that like button if you want to see Zach to go

So last night, no good. We did the parlay in the Leafs Lightning game, and we didn't have a Nick Paul goal, a nice goal, and the score was 2-0, and we took the over six and a half. Blame your goalie. He was really good. The Hildebe was actually a lot of night. He's the future.

The Hildebeast. And we're going to try something new here today. we're going to go with, well, not new, actually, but we're going to try a parlay here with goal scores. We're going to go with the theme here again. This one, we have three goal scores. We're calling it Pukov. We're going to go with Nikita Kutrov and Ivan Demadov in the Montreal Tampa game.

Both of them to score tonight. I think we get maybe a little bit of Russian showdown. Kutrov plus on 70, Demadov plus 320, both to score in that one. and then we're going to go to the Carolina Columbus game. We're going to take Andre Svetnikov to score plus 170. That one is $5 to pay $122. Can we get some thoughts here on this other than the name? What do you think here, guys?

I don't know. I'm still back there on puckoff. That's really, that's that, that, that's really something. Would Sean Horcough qualified for this? Or is his off. A different off than these offs is the question. Okay, it's kind of funny you say that because I was thinking. about throwing Dora Fayev in there

and being like, oh, like, close enough. No, it's got to be the OV. It doesn't work, yeah. Yeah. Will Horcoughman. That's good. What do I think about this one? Yeah, what do we think?

I remember one of the, one of the most interesting things that I've ever experienced is doing the NHL Combine with Brian Burke when we work together. Back when we became friends again Because we weren't friends for the longest time And then we became friends again It's a long story

Maybe I'll tell it on the show one day We became pals again Ever since then we've been buddies Would you have a barn fight with him? No It was I knew what I was Put it this way

It was over a tweet Yeah, I have a couple of those It was over a tweet I knew I was being a jerk But I didn't think it would get to that level and then I remember Pat Park Maple Leafs calling me and saying Brian says never to call him again.

Like, oh, come on, Parky. He's like, he's serious. Anyway, along the long story, we've become great buddies and it's fine now and everything's, but I'll tell you what, I loved doing the combine with Berkey because it would be like all of us in this room

and they'd just be like, you know, cattle call of prospects coming through and you do like an interview just to get to know them before the draft. and burkey wasn't in like journalist curious mode burkey in that environment is in like angry gruff general manager mode I'm trying to break you down to see where you will break and I'm trying to find a place where you will lie

and I'm going to try to get a place where I can where I can trip you up and Andre Svetnikov wheeled through then playing with the Barry Colts and the Barry Colts are one of And I'm not sure whether this is still true or not. But at the time, they may have been the only team in the OHL that didn't have a gym at the rink. And so somehow the Berkey started the conversation about working out and how often do you work out and blah, blah, blah. And then Berkey slid in, where do you work out?

Thinking if he says, I work out at the rink after this kid, he was going to go like, bullshit Barry doesn't have a rink. And he goes, yeah. across the street from rink at L.A. Fitness. And Berkey's like, okay. All right. But it was like, honestly, like, I wish we would have recorded all of Bricky stuff then

because watching him interview prospects is the closest I've ever seen to being like in the room where the team talks to the prospects and tries to find ways to trip them up. It was, it was fantastic. And I remember I asked Brick. I'm like, why'd you ask? He goes, eh, Barry's like the only rink where they don't have a gym. I thought I could trip them up.

Good for him. It sounds like an episode of a law and order. Yeah, that's what it was. That's what it was. Berkey's, um, he told me like one of the trick questions he would always ask because it would make, it would make, uh, prospect sweat was what kind of watch do you have? Because right away, the prospect doesn't want to say like they have an expensive watch because they don't want to seem entitled and they don't want to say they have a really cheap watch

because they don't want to give the impression that. They're cheap. So he's like, when you ask the question about the watch, it always makes them squirm because in their head they're like, oh, God, what's the right answer? God, what's the right answer? What's the right answer? And he's like, come on, what can I watch you have?

This is not a hard question. He said, that's always the one that would trip up the prospects. What kind of watch do you have? Wow. Or what kind of dog did you have growing up? What's another one that he used? If they say no, if I'm a cat person. Well, then that's it.

Like, do not draft list right away. If you're like, caters and no way. Because you don't want to say, yeah, I was a small dog. So everyone's always, I got a German Shepherd. I got, you know, like there's, there'd always be that. But anyhow. They would lie about their dog? Oh, my God.

Yeah. Dude, like, you're just trying to impress a manager. Like, you don't think kids lie at their combine. Especially, like, in front of, like, people from the media. It's one thing, like, when you're in, you know, in the boardroom and you're talking to a team, it's different when you're talking to, like, me. You can lie to me I go, oh, okay, you had a German Shepherd.

I was like, I got a German Shepherd. Berkey's like, I've got a golden doodle. That's what I was looking for. I was looking for golden doodle. Underrate, pound for pound, that's the toughest dog. That's like the Gary Howard of dogs. That's a Dennis Polonich of dogs. It's a small pooch, but it's got a lot of heart.

It's got a lot of heart. I'll take that dog in the playoffs all day long. and some big German shepherd that floats all day long. I'll want that one. Anywho, all right. Well, listen, we didn't get much to the plater pole. Why don't we do that? We did one thing, I think.

We did one thing. We had a good time with Andrew Peters. That was good. You know, that's why people tune into a podcast in 2025. It was here Thomas Vanek Talk. But lo and behold, that's what we're going to give them. There it is. And you know what?

We're going to call San Jose Sharks To try to get Thomas Vanek on You go watch me and my boy Greg Genuflect And as you put it fan boy out At Thomas Vannick Like between the lines of Peters Like Mike Greer

Thomas Vannick Like these are players With some Sabers ties Of memory serves That are not in your organization You know what I can ever figure out about The not so much him But it was more about the Buffalo Sabres organization

With Thomas Vanek Remember when he got offer sheeted It's like a $50 million offer sheet from the Edmonds and Oilers, and Buffalo matched it right away. Yeah. I was thinking, why not freeze the Oilers for a week? Like, why make your mind up?

Because teams now will, like, they'll take their time on the offer sheet. We're going to keep you out of doing business for a week. Even if you're going to match it, you freeze another team out for a week. But right away, Darcylaber gear, it was like the next day, remember that? It was like the next day the Buffalo Sabers matched.

I'm like, what are you doing? Unless it was like a message to the marketplace, don't be nervous. We're keeping Thomas Vannick. But I can never understand, like, why you wouldn't want to freeze the wheelers out for a week. What year was this? Was it a situation where Buffalo, where Darcy was worried they might run out of money? It's not as good as possible.

Could have been. Actually, you know what? It could have been, Greg. Could have been a word. Our owner is going to get pinched by the feds. So we've got to make sure we get a check out of this guy before he leaves. That's awesome. Okay, listen, you have a great rest of your night.

By the way, Sabres are facing off against the Oilers. Probably the last team they should be playing right now. The last team that team needs for their fragile psyche, but nonetheless, we'll be watching that one tonight. You'd be well, and everybody watching and listening. Thank you so much for your attention, as always. Greg returns on Thursday, this program back tomorrow. One o'clock Easter.

Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. Thanks for the buns and the use of the hall. We've been enjoying the sheet. Go back tomorrow. last night every day this week every day this month I can't get up my head lifestyle ambitions day to day

because you can call it all right I went to the dark man and trying 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 myself and how this is going to be fixing my mind I do want to break it I turned on the music

I do want to break it I turn it on the music Wishing up there, up and you sometimes losing I have been on the days that we're wrong In the dead dark night