The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Frank Nazar Shines, Bedard’s Next Deal, & CBA Chaos ft. Mark Lazerus & Anton Thun

Episode Date: October 16, 2025

People are awesome - and so was this Thursday edition of The Sheet. Jeff Marek opens with a viral moment featuring Marty St. Louis running the Bell Centre stairs, before diving into a jam-packed NHL slate headlined by the Chicago Blackhawks and Buffalo Sabres both dropping eight spots on their opponents. Marek breaks down Brady Tkachuk’s injury and what an eight-week absence means for the #GoSensGo, plus the Sabres’ bounce-back win and Jack Quinn’s resurgence.Jeff is then joined by Mark Lazerus of The Athletic to discuss Chicago’s red-hot start, Frank Nazar’s show-stopping celly, and how Connor Bedard and Nazar are shaping the future of the #Blackhawks. They dig into Jeff Blashill’s impact behind the bench, Spencer Knight’s emergence, and how Chicago’s rebuild has quietly turned into must-watch hockey.Later, former NHL agent Anton Thun joins to dissect the recent wave of long-term contracts, why players like Connor McDavid, Kirill Kaprizov, and Lane Hutson are changing the salary-cap landscape, and what the new CBA means for future megadeals. It’s an episode loaded with insider insight, humor, and perspective from across the hockey world.SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Bauer: https://www.bauer.com/👍🏼Shark Ninja: https://www.sharkninja.ca/ninja-crispi-4-in-1-portable-glass-air-fryer-cooking-system/FN101CGY.html?utm_source=Better+Collective&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=H2+Air+Fryer&utm_content=EN👍🏼Uber Eats: https://www.ubereats.com/ca👍🏼Prime Video: https://primevideo-row.pxf.io/c/5560083/3303015/20020Reach 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 friends, it's Nikaela from the podcast Side Hustle Pro. I'm always looking for ways to keep my kids entertained without screens. And the Yoto Mini has been a total lifesaver. My kids are obsessed. Yoto is a screen-free audio player where kids just pop in a card and listen. Hours of stories, music, podcasts, and more. And no screens or ads. With hundreds of options for ages 0 to 12, it's the perfect gift they'll go back to again and again.

Check it out at yotoplay.com. P-O-P-L-A-Y.com. People are awesome. People are awful, but people are awesome. I want to file a couple of things here under the category of why people are awesome. Okay, so before we go to the air, Chris Mason, like, love Chris Mason. Loved him as a goalie, love him as a broadcaster. So he puts up a video, Mace does.

We've got to get Mace on the show, by the way. Note to Zach. So Chris Mason tweets out, I know, but I want to get him this year again. Like, just because you have someone once. Like, it's the way media works. Like, people's thoughts evolve and they change perspectives on things and new events occur. And so that's why it's always good to have, you know, people come on more than once. Because people have new perspectives on things.

and current events and current events changed. My bad. I can't believe you said that. People are awesome. Okay, by the way, sidebar, let's go down a side word here with Zach.

You know there's dumb and then there's hockey dumb. Zach played hockey for a lot of years. All right. Compose yourself. I got some serious guests on the show here today, so put on a jacket and everything. So Chris Mason tweets out,

head coach of the Montreal Canadiens, Saint-Louis, running the stairs during Preds Morning Skate. And it's a video of Marty St. Louis, you know, running the stairs, not unlike we've seen other hockey players, perhaps most notably in the early 90s when Yager used to do that with a wait fest in Pittsburgh. And everybody went, he's ruining it for everybody else. Now we'll all have to be in shape. But I thought, okay, harmless little video, that's awesome.

San Luis is a machine. I remember being at the Team Canada orientation. camp when they did that ball hockey thing in Calgary some years ago on a panel with Doug McLean and Marty St. Louis was sitting beside me and I thought that I had seen the biggest quads of a hockey player when the first time I was in the Pittsburgh Penguins dresser

and I'm during the ringside with Montreal and Pittsburgh and I'm like, am I the same species as Crosby? Holy smokes, look at those quads. And then Marty San Luis sat next to me in these little shorts that he was wearing as they were doing the ball hockey. I thought, okay, Marty San Luis is going to give Crosby to run for his money for quads. Anyhow, oh, by the way, side note, biggest, I don't know about you, but the biggest calves I've ever seen on a hockey player, Tori Krug, just as a side note.

Maybe we'll do a show on hockey body parts one day. Anyway, I digress. So I put up the tweet, just a simple retweet, San Luis is a machine. And I figured it would be like a lot of Habs fans going like, yeah, there's our coach. Our coach is tougher than your coach. He can still play, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Daniel from at Bleed Blue Wonder where he's from

He's going upstairs Not climbing the side of the Empire State Building Let's all take a deep breath But then Bobby Says He's looking for a PTO Smiley Face To try to smooth

Everything out Anyhow, on that lovely note People are awesome and people are awful All at the same time Welcome to the program This is the sheet for Thursday, October the 16th Coming up on the program A number of special guests

And we'll talk a lot about the Blackhawks today. And we'll talk a lot about NHL contracts today. And I just want to remind everybody that, as everybody predicted last night, both these Chicago Blackhawks and the Buffalo Sabres, each put up eight spots in their games, commanding victories. With the Hawks, you look at it and say, all right, it's building block for this, you know, redeveloping team, this rebuilding team. For the Buffalo Sabers, you're left wondering, is this the beginning? of something new, or is this the dead cat bounce that we've seen before with a number of

different teams? Anywho, coming up on the program today, the blueprint is powered by Fanduel. Make every moment more with North America's number one sports book, Fanduel. And coming up on the program today, I mentioned a couple of really special guests and very much looking forward to talking to Mark Lazarus of the Athletic, the Chicago, him and Scottie Power, the Chicago Blackhawks power rankings. as they've listed on the athletic today, he will be dropping by the program shortly. Anton Thun, former NHL player agent,

who's been through like the CBA and the negotiating wars for a number of years and specifically, you know, contract negotiations. And I'm curious what Anton thinks of this recent phenomena of hockey players when they do their contracts keeping in the back of their mind that somehow they're co-general managers of a team because that's very much the way that it feels outside of Karil Kaprizov, mind you.

That's kind of the way it feels right now. Curious Anton's thoughts on that one because, you know, he worked pre-salary cap and, of course, post-salary cap in the NHL. We will talk about the Blackhawks. We will talk about player contracts. But before we get there, this news from Bruce Garriac, and I'm going to just grab, and like, Bruce has been around the Ottawa Senators forever. He is, you know, one of, you know, the authoritative voices and has been

for a long time about the Ottawa senators, both on the ice and off the ice. And here's a tweet that he put out just before 12 o'clock Eastern. Would expect an update on Brady Kachuk today and would be more surprised if he doesn't have surgery. This is on the hand slash wrist tangled up with Roman Yossi the other night. League executives have told me timeline is likely eight weeks if that's the case. Ugh.

One, sucks for the Sends. And they could have used him last night against the Buffalo Sabres, who looked like, you know, the Sabres of 75 with the French connection against the Ottawa Senators. Sucks for him, but also sucks for the NHL.

It's never a good time when, you know, both Kachuk brothers are out of the game, but here we are. You know, a lot of people have remarked that, you know, It shouldn't be any surprise that both Kachukes are injured, considering how they play. And I think there's some legitimacy to that one, but I don't think the Brady Kachuk injury, well, first of all, I know it's not from anything egregious by Roman Yossi.

It's just one of those hockey things that happened. But two months, if Gary Ock's executives that he spoke to, are right, two months for Brady Kachuk, if he has a surgery. That is no bueno for the Ottawa senators there. And as I mentioned, you know, massive win last night for the Buffalo Sabres. We're going to get on the Hawks page here with Las in a second. Massive win for the Buffalo Sabers yesterday. Was really glad to hear it. As you've heard me say numerous times, I don't enjoy watching anybody go through this.

I don't want to make a light of it. I don't want to, you know, pour gasoline on it. You report what's there and you talk about what's in front of you. Maybe speculate what the future means for the Buffalo Sabres. But I don't think anyone really outside of like a really, malicious and mean-spirited hockey fan and there are some of them are really enjoying

what Buffalo Sabres fans and say nothing of the organization right from the owner Terry Pagula all the way down to the peanut vendors no one's really enjoying what's happening to everybody right now in Buffalo. So it was good to see them win a game at home

in as commanding fashion as was yesterday 8-4 against the Ottawa Senators Zucker with a pair, Jack Quinn with a pair, Ryan McLeod with a pair. Jack Quinn is important here for the Buffalo Sabres because internally in Buffalo, and I don't think this is wrong thinking, although I don't know that everybody's on the same page about Jack Quinn necessarily in the organization, but there is a feeling that a healthy Jack Quinn

bouncing back can compensate for the loss of, was it, 29 goals that the team lost when J.J. Paterka was traded to the Utah mammoth. Zach Benson, a good sign. Welcome back. Three assists yesterday for the Buffalo Sabres. Next opponent, the Florida Panthers. So as I's yesterday was on Dylan Cousins, eyes will be very much on Sam Reinhart. And make no mistake about it, the Panthers have been bounced around here a little bit lately. And they're not too thrilled about that. We talked yesterday with Rick Tocket about the game against the Philadelphia Flyers and the Florida

Panthers. Panthers certainly sour about that one. We'll see what happens when they face off against the Buffalo Sabres. Another thing we should remark upon something interesting has happened here. Not only have the Detroit Red Wings won three games in a row, 4-1 yesterday over the aforementioned Florida Panthers.

Mason Appleton looks fantastic in that Mason-Raman spot. And somehow, again, falling under the category of A, it's early, and B, everybody predicted this, right? Cam Talbot is the go-to netminder here right now for the Detroit Red Wings, a save percentage of 932 after four games to John Gibson's, am I reading this correctly, Zach, 615 in his one game this year against the Montreal Canadians. The solution was in the house the whole time.

But nonetheless, great on the Detroit Red Wings. You know, that's one of the teams where, and first of all, it's been too long. I know, like, there was a certain time there where it's like nobody's going to feel, no one's going to feel bad for the Detroit Red Wings because of how many consecutive years they were in the postseason. And Ken Holland every year would trade everybody to make sure they got to the postseason. And he talked about, you know, the streak and we have to keep it going. And we're going to scotch first round picks. And we're going to send out prospects just to keep the, just to keep the,

playoff streak going that catches up to you after a while. And so nobody was going to feel bad for the Detroit Red Wings. But now you're saying to yourself, okay, it's time. It's time that the arena that we used to say was a new arena. It's no longer a new arena. It's just an arena now that hasn't had any playoff games in it. So good to see a good start by the Detroit Red Wings. And good to see a real fun start here, 2-2 and 1 by the Chicago Blackhawks.

8-3 over the St. Louis Blues yesterday. We are going to talk about the solo celly here, party of 1. Frank Nazar with our next guest. You read him in The Athletic. You can hear him on the Athletic podcast where he does excellent work. He is Mark Lazarus and he joins me now. Let's just get the first one out of the way here, Las. The solo Selly yesterday by Frank Nazar.

Like, first of all, he's been, as you've documented, fantastic this season. There's going to come a point where the conversation, and maybe it already has, changes from that's way too much money for someone who hasn't played enough NHL games two, man, that's one of the best value contracts this side of Karel Marchenko and Alexi Proto. This kid is flat out fantastic and we saw it again last night. But what did you make of the solo Selly after the goal? That whole goal was just a pure hit of Frank Nazar, right? You got the blinding speed coming down, the icy blows by two defenders. You've got him the skill to take off that shot. That's not an easy shot to get off. You got the recklessness of him

crashing into Joel Hofer. And then he got the pure comedy of Frank Nazar where he's He just gets up out of the scrum and just starts kind of dancing around by himself and taunting the fans. I mean, we're always, we do this too much in Chicago, and I'm as guilty of it as anybody. We're always looking for analogs to the cup years. But Frank Nazar has that Patrick Kane gene in him where he's a performer, right? He's got this inherent confidence. He's got a little bit of irreverence. He's not too big for the moment.

The moment's not too big for him, excuse me. And he just seems to revel in that stardum. Connor Bedard is going to be the face of this team for the next 10, 15 years. But Frank Nazar is going to be the guy who's the most fun to watch and the guy who's having the most fun out there. Is that going to be the, so he's going to be the cane to Bedard's Taves? Or am I really stretching things here? Because there is a serious tone to Connor Baderd.

I'm not saying that he's Jonathan Taves. Actually, I'm going to compare anyone of the Jonathan Taves in the NHL is probably Macklin-Colabrini. But as far as like temperament and spirit go, is that kind of what we're looking at? I think so. I mean, you can understand why Connor Baderd is a little. the more guarded maybe than most players are he's been interviewed every day since he was like 14 years old the hype he faced frank nazar didn't face that frank nazar's just a guy who went to

college and now he's in the n hl and he's kind of more of a you know quote unquote normal person because he hasn't lived under that microscope the way that badard's got a big personality you can see it when like the cameras aren't on every now and then you know you can draw a good quote out of him i like when he gets combative when he takes like an issue with your question he's not afraid to like kind of dispute you uh there's plenty of personality there, but he is a very serious young player who has been under a serious microscope for a long time so that it is. It's the cane and tase of it all. And there's more guys coming. We don't know who Anton Frundel is going to be. We don't know who Roman Canceroff is going to be.

I mean, there's more and more coming. But right now, it's Bedard and Nazar 1-2 in your lineup. And you've got to like that if you're a Hawks fan. You know, the thing about Paddard that's fascinating to me is, you know, a lot of players, you know, going through junior, you know, in a lot of ways when it comes to media interviews or are being grilled. A lot of them get a free pass, right? It's like, ah, they're, they're kids. But I remember Bedard specifically, and it was that last year when he played with the last year with the Regina Pats. And, you know, there's always a speculation, oh, he's going to, he's going to want to get traded to a Memorial Cup contender, a team that can win the Western Hockey League championship. How can they get them

to Camloops? And he kept saying, and no one would believe him. And John Paddock, who was, you know, running the team would always say, look, he does not want to go and I don't want to trade him. but everywhere Baderd went, he was asked about leaving Regina. And coming out of all of it, even though his team never got anywhere close to the Western Hockey League championships, the one thing that I kept saying to myself, Mark,

was that's got to toughen his skin a little bit, and that's going to be good for the next level, and because he's going to be going to it, we didn't know where he's going to end up, he's going to be going to a bottom feeding team that's rebuilding. And as you well know, if you're going to be on one of those teams, you need thick skin.

You need crocodile skin if you're going to survive. And I can only think that even though it was horrible for like a 16, 17 year old to go through that at the time, it kind of toughened him up a little bit. Like when he arrived, did he seem like a little bit like, okay, I've already got scars from how of what happened in the Western League. I'm ready for what you guys can throw at me here in the media in Chicago. A little bit. He was a little defensive early on, I felt. And I can understand that. But, you know, it's funny because like his rookie year as an as an 18.

year old is one of the youngest, I think it was the 13th youngest player in NHL history because he's a July birthday. He talked almost every single day after every practice, every morning skate, every game that he played a big role in. He talked, remember Austin Matthews was 19 and the Maple Leafs really

sheltered him that front year. That's how it normally goes. But, Lou, that was Lou. That was Lou. That was Lou. That was 100% Lou Lamarillo. There wasn't a Lou Lamarillo there in Chicago. And no one in the media is like, is like, oh God, Red Fisher of the Montreal Gazette

who would refuse to talk to rookies. That was his rule. The only rookie he spoke to was Patrick Waugh in 86. But that was it. Like Red's like, you're a rookie. I'm not talking to you. Nobody gets that grace anymore, last. Sorry, continue your story.

No, the Hawks put him right out there. Like, from day one, he was the focus of every Twitter post and every Instagram post and every interview, every jersey they sold. It's been bedard from day one. They have not sheltered him at all. And he is more than capable of handling that. I think that's clear by now.

Okay, so I love this power rankings that you and Scotty put together. And number one, Frank Nazar. And what a perfect time for this to come out, as you mentioned, in the piece as well. For those that don't know him, well, first of all, like last year of the World Championships, if you don't watch the World Championships, I highly encourage people to always have a peak. He was a star. Was it 12, 12 points, I think. Yeah, 10 points.

It's just spectacular, right? I remember hockey Canada took Jonathan Taves, you know, before he debuted with Chicago to the World Championships as well to sort of acclimatize them in that sort of competitive environment. But for those that don't know Frank Nazar and are just learning about him for the first time, fans from outside of Chicago

because people in Chicago know all about him. What should they know about him? He's the big night for him. He's the guy the Blackhawks traded Kirby Dock for, a former number three overall pick. They traded to Montreal on draft day during tank mode to take him 13th overall the same year they took Kortinski and Sam Renzel

in the first round. So he's been a big piece of this project for a long time now. He came into the league for the first time at the very end of two years ago. He played about 40, 50 games last year. You know, he came up around December and he instantly was an impact player, but he couldn't score, couldn't finish. He was all speed and, you know, all feet and no hands, which we've seen guys like that come through the Black Hawk system before. You're Victor Stalbergs or your Vinnie Hinnisroses. But then at the end of the year, all of a sudden the puck started going.

He had this run of like nine straight games with breakaways, he didn't score on them and he was like losing his mind over it and then all of a sudden the puck started going in the last like three or four weeks of the season he looked like a star absolute star the best player on the team and then he goes and and follows that up with the worlds where his team USA's leading score on route to a championship which is just does wonders for his confidence and he's just he's just this guy who's got this easy easy confidence about him he's always just been like i know i belong i'll be fine it's not arrogant he's just very comfortable in his own skin. He's very comfortable in an NHL locker room. He's comfortable with the start.

If you saw the TNT broadcast last night, they interviewed both he and Bedard at the same time. And Nazar was sitting in front, Badard was in the back. And Nazar is out there, you know, dropping quips and curses and stuff. Just he's so comfortable in that role. He's 21 years old. This is all pretty new to him. But he's really good at just the being a star aspect of Yeah. You know, I'm so glad that you mentioned, you know, the idea of speed and and no finish. and red line to red line great players super fast but can't get the puck over the red line there's another play on the Chicago Blackhawks

that always had that reputation and I used to always make the joke that, you know, McKayev is Russian for Grabner. You remember Michael Grabner who was like the fastest guy but like get their little round black thing over the red line, holy smokes. But all of a sudden now, Ilyaev is a dare we say significant piece

of this Chicago Blackhawks team, Mark? He was the best player on the team last year. I mean, without question to my mind, He was the most reliable, consistent two-way player on the team last year. And it's funny because Vancouver has become like this, like an AHL team for the Blackhawks. They just take on their cap-dums and turn them into great players. Jason Dickinson was getting Selky votes two years ago. He was a cap-dum from Vancouver.

And now, Mikhail, you're right. He is a core piece of this team now. Like, they're not going to let this guy go. He's a great skater. He's a fabulous defensive player. He's so good in his own end. And last year, the puck started going in for me. He had 20 goals last year.

He's got three goals in the last two games. He plays in the third line. He never complains. He kills penalties. Every now and then when they need a bump, they put him on Bedard's line and they work well together. It doesn't matter where you slot him in the lineup. He's been incredibly effective.

And it's just always amazing to be when guys struggle so much in one place and then just show up somewhere else on a worse team with worse structure and all kinds of chaos going on. And they just thrive. Fall is here and everybody's getting back from vacation, headed back to school. And you know what that means? Yep, it's time to slide into some bombas.

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My kids are obsessed. Yoto is a screen-free audio player where kids just pop in a card and listen, hours of stories, music, podcasts, and more. And no screens or ads. With hundreds of options for ages zero to 12, it's the perfect gift they'll go back to again and again. Check it out at yotoplay.com, y-o-t-o-p-l-a-y-com. You know, one of the things that I've always, and I want to sort of dovetail this into Spencer Knight, one of the things you always sort of wonder about too.

If they didn't make that trade, would we still be talking about? about the Chicago Blackhawks this way. Obviously, they'd still have Seth Jones. Not that they need another giant on the back end. I mean, everyone on this team on the blue line 6 foot 6 or 6 foot 7, 6 foot 8 massive back there. But the team wouldn't have Spencer Knight. If that deal, and there were a lot of people that you can't trade, Seth Jones. I don't care what Dallas is offering.

They're not going to be able to take the cap hit in Florida, et cetera. If they didn't make that deal, would we still be talking about the hawks the same way right now? Or was that crucial for this part of the rebuild? It was crucial. I mean, first of all, Seth Jones was good for the Blackhawks. People seem to forget that he was overpaid, but he was good. Like, he was a reliable, solid player for them. But if Seth Jones is on this team taking 24 minutes a night,

then Sam Renzel's not getting 24 minutes a night. And everyone gets knocked down a bunch, and the rebuild is kind of stalled a little bit. But yeah, if you don't have Spencer Knight, you probably have Arvid Soderbloom and maybe like another, maybe Peter Morazick's back, maybe Drew Commesso is getting a chance. But what Spencer Knight has done is he's really come in and stabilize things.

He doesn't have bad nights, right? He doesn't give up soft goals. There's nights where they're going to lose five to two because the defense is just atrocious. They have four or five guys, 23 or younger on the blue line every night. It's going to happen. But Spencer Knight doesn't really screw up out there. He's just reliable. And that's, you know, I talked to Paul Maurice about this when I was in Florida at the

beginning of the year. And he just put it perfectly where when you have Spencer Knight, it makes the gap that much closer, right like the talent gap he kind of draws it in a little bit more a close game becomes a win a blowout becomes a close loss and that's something the blackhawks haven't had since really since corey crawford and robinner were the duo mark and dron fleury didn't even bring that they've been kind of just cycling through guys and peter morazic did yeoman's work here behind an awful awful team that was actively trying to lose in the front office but uh what what spencer night is bringing it's been four or five years since they've had here in chicago

okay let me throw a dart here with you so i i had this conversation at the combine with an agent. We're trying to figure out where this is going to land. Now, it may just all be different this year based on performance. But stop me when you think I'm at the right number for Connor Bedard and his second contract. 10 million, 10 and a half, 11. Yeah, I think 10 and a half. I feel like I should start yodeling now.

I'm on the price is right. 11, 11 and a half. A little guy going up the hill. Yeah. I feel it's going to wind up like if I'm if I'm Connor Bedard I'm not saying he's going to do this yeah I want to take like a bridge I want to go old school bridge deal and take like a three year deal really get that 10 I'm just saying what I would do I mean I think all these guys should be doing that he should take 10 and 10 and a half million and then by the time that contract runs out he's going

to be I have no doubt that Connor Bardard is going to be a superstar in this league he is shown it time and time again there's I know everyone that there's there's a rejection of him people had him shoved down their throats at the young age and they want to see him fail and they want to elevate celebrini they're both great they're both going to be superstars and if i'm badard i want to be getting that 20 million dollar contract three or four years from now

but look they will pay him whatever he wants he is the franchise he is the marketable face of this franchise he is the most talented player on the team but it's going to be at least eight figures but the way the cap is going why would you ever take an eight year deal why would you

Nathan McKinnon yourself. There were years there where Nathan McKinnon was the best player on the planet. He was making $6 million a year because it took four or five years for him to become a superstar. If that's the path that Bedard is on and that's entirely plausible, then why would you take an eight-year deal now? That's just me. He probably will

because he's a hockey player, but I wouldn't do that. You'd take a three-year deal and then you get the big cash in a few years. I'll go back to the loyalty thing with Badard. That's always been him. Going back to like the first time I talked to anyone in his camp, playing in the Western hockey, the one thing about Badard is is highly skilled. disease. He's equally loyal. Like, that's the guy that wouldn't leave the Regina

Pats. Like, he's like, do you want to go to Canloops or host of the Memorial Cup? No, I'm going to get there in Regina. And it was that kind of loyalty that we all said is going to serve him very well on a rebuilding team because he'll be a lot of painful nights. So here, let me get ahead of myself again. Up to gut right now. Badd, Nazar, when Anton Frondell shows up. Who goes to the wing here because I don't think one of these two

are going to be third line. Thank you very much. I actually, I asked Frank Nazar that direct question last week. I said, you know,

you know that there's more, it's not just Frondell, there's Sasha Buevaire, there's Merrick Vanacker. I mean, they've got, they had 11 first round

picks in the last four years. That's what I hate tanking. I think it was gross what the Blackhawks did, but this is why you do it, right? And I asked Nizzer, I'm like,

would you rather be like on Connor Bredard's wing or driving your own line when these guys come in. He's like, I see myself as a center. He's like, I can play anywhere. I pride myself in my ability to do that. But he sees himself as a center.

The Hawks see him as a center. I think Frondell goes to Bedard's wing at the end of this year. When he signs after the Swedish league season ends, I'm sure he'll come out here for a few games. I think they put him on Bedard's wing and see what happens. Because the Badard could be the center, but Frondel can still do the two-way play. I mean, we've seen that before where the center isn't really the center.

It could be one of those kinds of situations. And we're all going towards positionless hockey anyway. So all of it's probably moved. interesting point there and you just mentioned this on your last pod too it's like Frankie Nazar just took Connor Bradard's wingers from last season thanks I'll take those Tyler Bertuzi and and Tevo Taravinen were signed when when Kyle Davidson couldn't land Jake Gensel he quote unquote settled for Bertuzi and Tara Vinen kind of overpaid a little bit for each of them maybe give him a little one more year than normal those are supposed to be

Connor Bradar's line mates those guys are locked in the Nazar's wing right that is the second line and that's not changing anytime soon. Real quick, I've got like 30 seconds left with you. And we haven't even touched the back end, although we've mentioned you know Renzel, who's been fantastic. Who's impressed you the most on that back end? Everybody's a giant.

Everybody's a massive. It's the giantest of them all. It's Louis Cravia. He was like 6 foot 8. 6.8. He was supposed to be the, he's a huge guy. He was supposed to be like the number 7 defenseman just because he's not waiver exempt anymore.

And he was going to be a guy who can scratch, but they're going 117 every night because crevier has been really good. He's got great reach. He, you know, someone hit, Cain Gully, hit Frank Nazar and Creevier pouncing. Jeff Blasch, you love that. Louis Creevier is making himself. He's covering himself out of roll here.

Never a bad idea to protect the young superstar investment for the team. Wise move, Louis. Wise move. Mark, listen, the power rankings are awesome. You and Scotty with a great job, doing a great job as well. Continued success at the athletic. The reads are great and the podcast is fantastic. We'll catch up soon.

Thanks, Mark. Thanks, I appreciate it. The great Mark Lazarus, joining us here on the program. You can read them in The Athletic and you can listen to them on the Athletic Hockey Show podcast, which is excellent. That was an interesting game last night. I'm not sure, Zach, if you check that one out at all, there was probably, like, there's probably too much conversation around the solo celebration. The one thing where I will give, because normally you want to, player to stay in the scrum and stay in the, the fight, so to speak,

he was pulled off by the official and sort of told to stay out of what was happening, even though, you know, Tara Vinen was getting dragged. Was it neighbors? It was dragging them. Neighbors kicked the whole thing off. I think it was Jake Neighbors that grabbed Nazar and then sort of dragging Tara Vinen around. But nonetheless, this is a Blackhawks team that's like, it's different. sure they're one year older

there's more excitement in their games this year they are starting to see some results I know Colby Cohen doesn't want to hear it he's going on about this the other day on morning cup of hockey but like you're starting to see some tiny incremental gains

like they've been in all their games and we saw this early we've seen this like all season long as short as this season has been so far a week and a half there haven't been those cringe moments that you saw with the Blackhawks last season or the season before. I don't know how many games are going to win. I don't think they're going to make the playoffs.

And I also don't think they're going to get Gavin McKenna. But at the same time, this is a Chicago Blackhawks team that's slowly but surely here is becoming one of the more intriguing teams to watch because you can see what this thing when it's finally actualized is going to be like. And the one thing, and Mark touched on this too, The one thing about it is, it seems as if we can say this, there's too many young players. Like, where are you going to fit all these guys?

Like Kyle Davidson and his scouting staff, like, Bravo. They've really hit it here with a lot of these players. Not just drafting, I should mention too, but the Seth Jones trade is already paying off and paying off big time with Spencer Knight and Net. It's it. And I think Blaschell has been and will continue to be an excellent coach,

head coach with Chicago and his second goal round as the bench boss of an NHL team. It's fun. Like, am I allowed to say the Blackhawks are fun to watch? Like, that was a fun game last night against St. Louis Blues.

Now, every time, and I'm from a certain vintage where every time I see Chicago and St. Louis get together, all I can think about is the Norris Division where if you had 60 points, you made the playoffs. I think about that for a side.

I don't know they're the last game. There are fewer games, but 60 points and you would make the playoffs in that division. But all those games took like four, four and a half hours. And each team had like four or five different sluggers on it. And the games were forever. But whenever I see St. Louis and Chicago,

that great rivalry that's kind of been lost and hope we can get it back. Like there have been a few rivalries that I think have been lost over the years. The New York Rangers and the Boston. in Bruins, a great rivalry, certainly late 60s, early 70s. That's been lost in the modern NHL, Montreal, Detroit. We're a great rivalry for a lot of years.

You hope that as those two teams continue to ascend in their rebuild, that we start to see, you know, those embers get burning all over again. I mean, Montreal and Detroit have been tied in with a couple of major, major events outside of, you know, competing for Stanley Cups in the 50s and 60s, the Richard Riott, that was a Detroit-Montreal game, and the infamous Patrick Waugh Knight at the forum. That was a game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Detroit Red Wings. That used to be one of the big rivalries in the NHL,

and as both those two teams ascend, and it's looking good right now, really, for both. And both teams are really fun to watch, too. You hope that that once lost rivalry in the NHL can finally come back. So we look forward to that. A couple of things still on the program today. We are standing by for Anton Fun, who you have seen and heard on the program before. You're going to be hearing from him in a couple of seconds.

He's in transit today, but he's being generous with his time. So we're standing by for Anton. And a couple of things to talk about with him. And the big one is the nature of the contracts that we're seeing right now. And perhaps, and we got into this a little bit yesterday on the show, why they're being signed now and why they're all sort of being signed at the same time and did it just need one domino I mean Anton has been at this for a lot of years doing contracts with players with M5 the agency that that he had with Kent Hughes now the

general manager of the Montreal Canadians but why now right like it seems as if maybe you look at it and say like where's the pressure point maybe you There's just a comfort point for both sides right now this early in the season. I'm curious about Anton's thoughts on why this is happening at this point. And the other one, which is everybody has a different opinion on it. And all are valid because it's just your opinion. I have mine. You have yours.

Anton will have his as well. Players that while they negotiate contracts have in the back of their head, I'm also the general manager here. And I'm going to help my team manage the cap. I know I've gone on about this a lot and I think maybe me and Colby Cohen might be the only two here at Daily Faceoff that are really on the same page about it. But I'm not so sure

and I don't know how it happened. I don't know how it happened that players went from accepting a salary cap to then taking the next step and accepting a new title on their business card which is assistant general manager and assist the team that's negotiating with them

to try to manage their salary cap. The only one that hasn't tried to help a team manage your salary cap is Carol Caprizov, and he might be the best player in the league right now. And when you talk about how important he is to the Minnesota Wild, by the very definition of what the MVP is, he has been that MVP. The definition of the Hart Trophy is the MVP of the league. He has been that definition for the Minnesota Wild.

And that's why, I know we all sort of look sideways, at it when Bill Guerin was saying like, oh yeah, I sleep well at night. He really does mean that much to the Minnesota Wild. He's an exceptional player and it's no surprise that they find themselves in the place that they are right now in their division and he finds his place at top of the goal scoring and points race. This segment, before we get to Anton, is a presentation of Bauer and the Bauer Pulse. The first Bauer stick to feature their latest kickpoint innovation power.

by two distinct energy zones in the shaft. The stick is designed to adapt to your game with loadability and precision of both a mid-kick. That's more for defenders. Shots from the point. And the explosive, unexpected release of a low kick, that's for your wingers. Catch cold tenders by surprise with a quick shot they'll never see coming or make dynamic plays in the zone that will have defenders scrambling. Combine all that with the new raised grip ink on the shaft and pulse.

will stay in your hands while you put the game in your hands. Exclusive to Bauer Hockey, the Pulse contains ultra-lightweight and rigid boron fiber material, which creates a high strength-to-weight ratio and optimizes energy storage and increases reactivity. Featured on 40 flex sticks and above the Bauer pulse launches October 17th. For more information, check out Bauer.com. I feel like I could have just sort of read that off the top of my mind

because this is the stick that both my kids have been talking. about non-stop. It officially launches tomorrow. With that, we'll bring aboard. Anton Fun, former NHL player agent who joins me now to talk about all things contract. But before we get there with Anton, first of all, good afternoon, Anton. Thanks so much for joining me here today. What was the, when you were playing hockey or when you've gotten the agency business,

do you remember what the big stick of the day was? Was it like the Sherwood 5030 PMP or was it something else? Do you recall going way back where your first real big, fancy stick was? I honestly don't. Quite honestly, I think it was a big tree trunk. And it was made of wood, for sure, obviously, as a tree trunk. And I can tell you, the first year I played rep hockey in my hometown of Thorold, I hated the stick that I got.

And I tried breaking it over the net multiple times and the damn thing. wouldn't break you know it's so funny too because i uh at a at a at a charity game years ago not that i'm any measure of a good hockey player but this was this was up in in uh and actually was in in yukon and we didn't bring our sticks and so someone just went out to the local canadian tire and bunch bought a bunch of wood sticks for us to use and anthony i hadn't used a wood stick in forever and i all i can remember was someone fired a pass to me and it hit my blade and it didn't bounce, it didn't wobble. The wood blade just sort of absorbed it.

And I had just forgotten, like, Anton, how nice it felt to absorb a pass with a wooden blade. I keep saying this to my kids. Like, guys, you got to try like a wooden stick. And not a chance, Anton, are kids going anywhere near wooden sticks? But man, when that puck hit the blade, it really was a great feeling. A natural feeling. Yeah. And it felt real good.

Okay. So here's what I wanted to talk to you about today. I mean, you're the, you're the veteran of a lot of these discussions, at times arguments, at times wars, between teams and players over contracts. And one of the things that we've been talking about, going back to Caprizov slash McDavid, which seemed to be the two touchstones, because both contracts are at loggerheads philosophically, somewhere along the way, after accepting a salary cap in 2005, players have also accepted a new responsibility and that is assistant general manager of hockey teams like somehow it's their responsibility to help with the salary cap of their teams when you look at what Connor signed for what Jack Eichel signed for Lane Hudson with the Montreal Canadians coming in

quote unquote undervalue as someone who's done this for a long time what went through your mind disappointing in all honesty and listen i think when i say disappointing i i i'm talking about the philosophy that you just described where players have um developed a belief system that has been created by management and quite honestly has probably permeated through the media and the fan base to almost create an obligation on players to to not get paid fair market value and so you saw Caprice off. Capri So, Capri Sov took big money.

Connor took much less than he could have earned. Lane Hudson, depending on whether you're speaking on behalf of his agency or on behalf of the club, either took more than he was worth or less than he was worth. And I'll let the public decide which is right. But the notion that the best players in the world in the sport of hockey, unlike any other sport in the world or any other business in the world should be held to account to take less than fair market value is nonsensical. It really is. And if the CBA said you can only take 15% rather than 20%, then go for 15%. The maximum is 20%. And for whatever reason, players and their

agents have decided that it's not their responsibility to get paid in full. And I think that's foolish. And the notion that is, I guess, the standard mindset right now in the NHL is, well, you've got to take less so you can build a team. You know what? The general manager is getting paid to build a team. Not you. You're a player. You're an employee. And if the general manager can't do it, then the general manager should get fired or the president should get fired. And I understand why Connor did what he did. And it's his absolute right to do so. The fact that the hockey world pressures players to take less than fair market value when if they were a basketball player, a football player, a soccer player, a tennis player, there would be no such

pressure is nonsensical. Hey friends. It's Nikaela from the podcast Side Hustle Pro. I'm always looking for ways to keep my kids entertained without screens. And the Yoto Mini has been a total lifesaver. My kids are obsessed. Yoto is a screen-free audio player where kids just pop in a card and listen. Hours of stories, music, podcasts, and more. And no screens or ads. With hundreds of options for ages, zero to 12, it's the perfect gift they'll go back to again and again. Check it out at yotoplay.com. Y-O-T-O-P-L-A-Y dot com. Is there a, I don't want to bias a jury here, so I'm just going to throw it out there. Is there a sense of, with the Connor McDavid contract specifically, that Connor McDavid internally feels he has to make up for the failing.

of his previous two general managers who weren't able to win with him at that decimal point. Well, I think that's probably a public perception and that may or may not be Connor's perception. I don't want to speak for Connor McDavid. I've never represented Connor so I can't speak to him. But it's not only him that seems to have that belief.

It's most players in the league and they are, I guess, prolonging this economic system that requires the drivers of the league, which are the top, say, 20 players in the league to be underpaid for the benefit of who? A fourth-line guy? Tell the general manager not to pay the fourth-line guy $4 million. and pay me because I'm the guy that's scoring 120 points a season. So the mistakes of the general managers are being excused and the elite players are being told they have to accept less.

You know, one of the, given that all, actually, let me back up one second. Do you have a theory or a thought on why these players are all signing right now? Like there are some players, and I believe Lane Hudson was one of them that didn't want this type of conversation around him in the public eye right now. He just wanted the conversation around him to be about hockey. And he didn't want any part of, you know, being someone who's going to get, you know, dragged through the media all season long about his contract extension, even though there was no pressure point for Lane Hudson. No pressure point for Lane Hudson until next September. but he just didn't want that conversation

about his contract to be as public as it was and he wanted to end it. But do you have an idea of why it seems like right now and we're expecting more to happen? All these players seem to be falling or signing rather domino style in the league right now. I honestly, listen,

I don't know the answer to that because I'm not as close to these players as I used to be. I think at the end of the day, the money that's being, offered to players who have never had money because they're coming out of, you know, let's understand the system that exists in the NHL is that the players who are signing in their second contracts are truly hitting their first home runs. The majority of other sports don't have as restrictive a system on signing bonuses and

entry level salaries as hockey does. It's a very extreme restrictive system where you're not making that much money when you're Lane Hudson or Connor Bedard or Adam Fantility or Leo Carlson or any of these star young players, Frankie Nazar, for example. And so that first contract coming out of the entry level system, when somebody's offering you $50 or $60 or $70 million, that's newfound money. other sports where when you sign your first contract in basketball and you're guaranteed $20 million already, okay, without having played a game, and the same thing in football

and the same thing in baseball, the second contract is a different negotiation than your first contract, right? And so in hockey, it's very, very tempting. And the Lane Hudson's and Frankie Nazars who are signing early are taking the money. Right now you have others. I think I mentioned Fantilli, Baddard, Neil Carlson. I have no idea what their contract negotiation status is right now, but they may not take that money. And they may play out the season and see what happens come at the end of the season.

And in most cases, I would recommend that they do that, because if you believe in yourself, the market's just going to change upward. And I think the other thing that contrasts Lane Hudson situation to some of those others that have not signed yet is as much as Lane Hudson doesn't want to be the focal point in Montreal and doesn't want to create noise in Montreal, there's noise. You know that there was noise all summer long, okay? And that noise was created by a multiple of factors, including agents, including the team, including Lane's dad.

The only person who didn't create any noise was Lane. It's a great point. Well, you know, one of the things that I'd be curious of, you know, because we could be heading here into us next summer where everybody has cap space, but there's no one really to spend the money on at the high. end. If you represented player X, and let's say player X is a point per game winger slash center, whatever, first line, would you be advising your client unless your team offers you just a home run, life complete, life changing deal? Go to market on July 1st because the big ones are gone. We all wondered about 2026. Oh, Connor McDavid is going to be available. Jack Eichael Crowell Caprizoff, all these guys are going to be available?

Well, they're not. Would you be advising your client unless you have something that's going to give you generational wealth? Hang on until July 1st. Yeah, listen, I think at the end of the day, if you are a young, talented player that does not have an injury history and all the cards seem to be, you know, turning up aces for you, just play. the market's going to go up. We've already seen the upper limit go up this year. It's going to go up next year.

It's going to go up the following year. It's going to go up by leaps and bounds because there's a catch-up that's taking place from the COVID season. And that catch-up is going to put money in the players' pockets. The teams are going to spend that money. At least most of the teams are going to spend that money. And bet on yourself. Bet on yourself. There's more than a few guys saying that to themselves right now.

Anton, I know this is a really busy day for you and you've squeezed in some time for me. I really appreciate it. Thanks for sharing your expertise and we'll catch up soon. My pleasure, Jeff. Take care of all the best of you and your listeners. Thank you, sir. That is Anton Thun, a former NHL player agent who's been, I used to love listening. I've mentioned this on the program before I think, Zach, one of my favorite, because I

I was a diet in the world, primetime sports listener. Always listened to Bob McCown. And when they would do roundtables and Anton Thun was on, a lot of it would have been around Lockout 204 or 205, just some of the most engaging, thoughtful, from the trenches kind of perspective. Like Anton was in the middle of so many of these negotiations. And that, we should point out too,

that agency, for those that don't know, that he owned by the name of M5, that was him and Kent Hughes. That was then sold to Cortex and then ended up going to the Montreal Canadians. And then, as we pointed out before, ended up negotiating against Cortex and Sean Coffey specifically in the Lane Hudson deal, which is a real interesting dynamic. And I've been racking my brain trying to find another example of it of a mentor negotiating with his mentee, which I assure you doesn't happen very often. But there it was, and Lane Hudson got his deal done. Anything from Anton or from Las that had a chance to talk to here yet, Zach?

Anything sort of tickle your chin at all with those two gentlemen? I mean, back to Las, just talking about who plays where when all these guys come in and everybody fitting in into centers and wings is going to be very, very... Everybody wants to be a center. Yeah, yeah. But you know what, how about that? Interesting situation, a stick handle. How about that?

When have you ever heard a team say? You don't know what a problem is. We have too many centers. I assure you the team has never said we have too many centers. Or we have, oh, we have too many goalies. What? What? I know.

I'm with you. I know. It's wild. That'll be an interesting one. All right. A couple of things here on the program before we wrap things up for today and want to be sensitive about your time. Greg Wischinsky does return. He says next week, he's only taking one week off.

Greg became a dad again. Like, Greg, take a couple of weeks off. Like, these are the most important moments with you and your young son. Like, just take it. But he maintains he's coming back next week. What? The way he just said that, I know what you're saying. You said he became a dad again.

You know what it reminded me of is like when guys say former first overall pick. And it's like, you're always a first overall pick. The guy was a first overall pick. He is a first overall pick. He is a first overall pick. He's like, he's still a dad. He became a dad again. Am I going to have to go over my pet peeve about slot area?

I hear it every single night. I watch hockey. Just like you, Zach, and everybody watching and listening to it. We all watch hockey every single night. This is my plea to broadcasters. This is my plea to play-by-play people out there. Pass this on to them. They don't hear it from my voice.

When I hear slot area, all I think of is, oh, you mean the slot? What is the difference between, oh, look, the goalies there in the crease area. What? Pass goes back to the blue line area. What? But slot area gets a free pass. Yeah. Yeah, I know, but I just became a dad again.

I could say that was the same path that I just went down in my head. Okay. I know exactly what you were saying. And I'm not, I'm just being, I'm being a dick by bringing that up. But that was what I thought about. I'm like, this is, this is Mr. Slot area. You don't say that. Not only am I, Mr. Slot area.

I'm Mr. If they're all joined together, why are they called Apartments Guy? I'm also that guy, too. And I'm also the... Yeah, but it's the same thing as like the drive on the freeway. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're driving the parkway, park on the driveway. The one that really makes no sense? How is it possible to take an elevator or an escalator down?

So you want a... How do you elevate downwards? D-de-elevator, de-escalator? Correct. The de-escalator would be... hilarious that's what you've got to start calling it now but like how is it the de-escalator yeah how is it possible i'll just take the elevator down what by definition it's elevating something i'm gonna take the escalator down you know what i'm with you there i'm with you there dumbest

dumbest language ever dumbest language ever somehow we're able to function and make it through a day but dumb, like the, the sounds that we agree to make to one another, yeah, the sounds we agree to make to one another could not be stupider, dislanguage, I swear, the worst. Yep, I would agree. Just the dumbest. All right. This one could be, this one's going to be fun here, I think. Okay.

So, how are we framing this one with the stats for Uber Eats? Let me get this one out of the way. So, crave the stats. okay, which is really going to sort of, I think, morphed to crave the stories, but here we go. Crave the stats, or as my kids would say, crave the snacks, is a presentation of Uber Eats.

Uber Eats is enabling fans to maximize their fandom all season long with exclusive game day deals on the app. From Game Day Eats to paper plates and napkins, if you're hosting, to all the ingredients you need to make your own favorite game day dip. Before, during, and after the game, Uber Eats is assisting every fan's hockey experience all

season long. You know whenever I hear like sports parties, my buddy Matt used to do, I think he still does it. Never tell you the story he used to do around the Super Bowl and the Great Cup? To have all of his buddies together? This would be great for Uber Eats to fuel. And they would put out, he had like 10 buddies, and they'd all

put in 100 bucks. And they had like the whole thing, like chicken wings and nachos and chips and like the whole beer. Like the whole all the stuff that you'd expect at a football party for the Super Bowl that would break up. What they'd do is they'd each throw in a hundred bucks. And before the opening kickoff, they'd all weigh themselves. After kickoff, they'd all start eating. And at the end of the game, they'd all get back on the scale.

And whoever's put on the most weight gets the pot. Okay. This is really stupid. And I'm going to keep note of this one and remind my buddies this year. And this might be something I do so that we can bring this back. and I can discuss results on the show. Oh, yeah. You would do that, right?

You're young and dumb enough? 100%. And you'd like, you'd like work it off. Young enough, I don't know. I'm going to feel like shit. I will say that because I'm starting to have that. Like I played hockey last night. I woke up this morning.

I was like, wow, my hip kind of sore. Oh, welcome to it, bud. Yeah. Dumb enough. Yes. Okay, little boys all growing up. That's awesome. All right.

So what do we have today then for a, crave the stats slash crave the stories okay so as you said they crave the stories um yeah i'm trying to find things that are interesting here and also will uh will you know tickle you a little bit make you happy because that's what i try to do every day a little bit at least trying to get through a day did did say some stupid stuff on the show today maybe bother you a little bit but we've had Chris Mason on the show. Whoops. He already talked.

He already says the words. Sudden why he won him again. He talked already. I figure when we do the Crave the stats, the stat of the day, we could try to pull something historical that relates to the day of. And I try to do that a little bit

with Thanksgiving one, and I'll keep going with that. Do it. Crave the stats. October 16th in history, I pulled three good ones here. I think you'll like a lot. Um, so quickly I'll just run through them.

1946, uh, Gordy Howe scored his first NHL goal in his very first game, three, three tie against Leaves. 1968, Leaves rookie Jim Dory, very popular figure on the show for the past two weeks. You know, I logged a memorable debut with 48 penalty minutes, four minors, two majors, two misconduct and a game misconduct. And then last year, uh, Sydney Crosby passed 1600 NHL points in overtime and Malcolm scored his 500th career goal. Those all happened.

on this day in NHL history. Let me color in the middle one there. 1968, Jim Dory, who's nickname, as we all know, we've been talking about this program, whether it was, well, yeah, you know, we're going with here, whether it was Calgary or Vegas. His nickname was Flipper. Now, Flipper, Jim Dory, just also happened to be one of the toughest defensemen in any league that he was in.

In the minors, in the NHL, the WHA, you did not mess with Jim Dory. I think his D partner was Brad Sellwood. A couple of players at a lot. escaped from your Maple Leafs to the WHA, along with other defensemen like Rick Lee, which pretty much guaranteed that your Maple Leafs were not going to win a Stanley Cup in the 1970s. Sorry about that, but, you know, Harold compete against the salaries from the WHA. So in that game, that was, so his first game, he's playing against the Pittsburgh Penguins. And here's how it all started.

It's a guy of the name of Ken Schenkel. And so Dory had, I think it was two minors or three minors already. and Schenkel deliberately stepped on Jim Dory's stick, dove, I think you admitted it later, I totally dove, drove, drew another penalty. And as he got up, he goes, ah, kid, that's your third minor or fourth minor, or whatever it was.

I guess you're going back to the minors on that one. There's no way you're staying up here. So, Flipper flips out. And he goes after him. Keith McCreary jumps in. Dory starts fighting him. and then fights a guy by the name of John Arbor, who was probably not the biggest guy on the ice,

but John Arbor was tough. He was part of that Niagara Falls, Flyers, Edmonton, Oil of Kings, brawl, 1965, the Memorial Cup, where cops actually hit the ice. I have the video, Zach. We should play it here once. Yeah.

It's with the Sanderson-Falkenberg incident, which is still the most vicious thing I've ever seen in hockey, but I digress. The other great Jim Dory story, so that's how we got all those pimms. He just fought everybody and took a bunch of minors and Ken Schenkel said it aloft by stepping on his stick and then mocking Flipper because of it.

And he was called Flipper because he could flip the puck higher than anybody else and got the puck out of the zone clear and I still don't know why more players don't use the space above on a more consistent basis, but I digress. You know what he did once in a WHA game? I think Dory would have been playing for Toronto at this point and I think Gordy machine gun Galant would have been playing with the Quebec Nordiques

of the WHA. But Galant had gone after one of Dory's younger teammates and his coach told him to do something about Galant. Now, normally a player would think, okay, I got to attack him, I got to fight him, I do something like that. You know what Dori did? He led a three-man rush through the neutral zone,

stopped at the penalty box, which was open in those days, not glassed in, turned, took a slap shot at the penalty box, and Gordy Galand. Galant got out of the way and it hit a cameraman. And Dory got fined like $10,000 for hitting a cameraman.

Can you imagine someone leading a rush, stopping at center ice, turning, and firing the puck in the penalty box. Jim Dory, baby. Jim Dory. So I can, and I won't say the guy's name. Someone I was good friends with had a switch growing up playing hockey.

He was playing AAA for one organization and got cut and went to a different organization. Fired on the back. At the coach of the former team. Yes. Yes. Missed them. So when you say, can you imagine, that's one. Rare occasion? Yes.

So here's here. I'm trying to find out where this game was. So if it was, if it was Toro slash Bulls, John Garrett could have been the goaltender. And so I sent Cheech a note about an hour ago saying, were you in the game where Jim Dory took the slap shot of Gordie Galant in the penalty box? And he gave me the most WHA answer of all time. I can't remember that one, but it's probably true. Most WHA answer ever from John Garrett. When I saw that one pop up on the rundown,

I'm like, oh yeah, we're talking about Flipper. I get my Jim Doher story out. That was, there's some other ones on there, like for today in history, and I was like,

okay, we can get to some of those. I try to grab some throughout time here. And I was like, that one has to be in here. You need to say something or see that. That one's on the sheet, and that one was something from today. So I think chat like this one.

I'm glad you liked that one. Something we'll try. I loved it. Slapshots in the penalty box? Pre-glass penalty box? Yeah, firepucks in there? All right. All right, chat, I'm doing that one for you.

More stories coming up as we do this. I like this feature. Let me gush out some history stuff. Okay, a couple of things here before you wrap things up. And I do want to play part of James Van Riemsdike on Morning Cup of Hockey, who was excellent. Justin Williams was on as well. Highly encourage you if you didn't watch or listen to it live to go to the archives and check it out.

It's great. The sheet is powered by Fanduel, 11 games tonight. Home of the same game parley, make every moment more on Fandual. Fanduel, proud to connect fans to the major sports moments that matter to them. What is jumping out at you tonight?

Other than the Rangers will score a goal because they're not at MSG. Insane that you just said that. Very insane here today, Jeff, because I always do the board and I do the games of the day. This one I very specifically did the goal scorers for the Rangers' Leaves game. I was like, oh, I'm going to change it up. No way.

Rangers can't score at home and they're playing on the road. I wanted to bring up the board and ask you. Well, cool, he's getting a hat-rick. But, like, who's scoring? Well, Coley's getting a hat-rick. Come on, yeah, right in front of all those guys from Wassman. Yeah, for sure. Well, Cooley, he's getting a hat-trick.

Yeah, it was kind of funny that that. ends up happening but yeah i just brought up this sheet i was like man the rangers can't score at home they're on the road somebody from the rangers is scoring and then i was looking around i'm like some of these are kind of funny like william nielander is like plus 180 you know you're getting a little bit higher on him awesome matthews plus 135 i thought both guys started to look a little bit better the other day i know who's in net for the rangers so let's let's make sure i'm we're clear on that but yeah especially that that empty netter by austin matthews was he like dying for that one.

You know, if you know you're going to score like 70 goals in the season, maybe you're not as aggressive as you were on that one, but that one just told me like, nothing's guaranteed this year. I got to get all the cookies I can. Well, as the boys on morning take pointed out, Matthews was, he scored

35 goals, I think it was the final number last season. He's on pace for 41 empty netters this year. So we'll take him where we can get him. That's awesome. Rosie wasn't too, uh, to, uh, too, uh, to, uh, to thrill the Frankie Nazar last night, eh? No, I, he did it in like the nice, most polite way possible, which was pretty funny.

I was watching least morning take and Alberg asked him about it and he kind of did the Rosie. He's like, ah, you know, it's a modern day player. You know what Alberg has got to start doing? Here's what Nick's got to start doing. I'm just going to give like Nick, like public advice. How to, how to handle Rosie in situations like that. Nick's got to say things like this. Hey, Rosie.

pretend you've had like eight beers right now and answer this question. What did you think of Frankie Nazar? That's one man, Selly, last night. Naizar party of one. Nazar party of one. What did you think of that last night?

Yeah. And that's when they're going to do the, the Mitch Hedberg Merrick search party of one. That's right. The Dufranes. Who can eat at a time like this? We have to find the Dufranes. The De Franes are missing.

What happened to the Dufranes? Yeah, there goes that, folks. I love Mr. who can eat? Who can eat at a time like this? Who can eat? People are missing. Yeah, Rosie was not.

Rosie was not. Let's just say he didn't love it. He didn't like freak out or anything, but he didn't love it. He did just land in Italy, though. He's there on vacation. Did the show from his hotel in the house? Is he there to inspect the rink that everyone's grousing about already.

Yeah. I did see that. I did see all that. Just me. You know what? It's been taking place. This happens every year. Because this was the, this was like the, um, this was the conversation too.

I'm not saying that it's not true. And who knows? Like it may just be awful by the time they get there. But, um, the, uh, the same thing happened in Sochi. Remember like, we're eight months out. The rink's not built. Like, this happens all the time. Yeah.

Yeah. This happens all the time with the Olympics. I do remember that. I do remember that. Also, like, this is, all right, here, ready, hockey dumb? Let's bookend the show with this. Oh, yeah, hockey, let's go. This is how my brain thinks about this one.

Okay. I understand the general concern. Like, I'm on board with that. I am on the same page. This is not a country foreign to ice rinks. Like, they have hockey rinks. They understand building them, and the severity.

They played pro hockey there forever. Ron Wilson used to play there. I think Minnesota Nurses hit him there for a year. Like, when the Oilers were hiding Rayo Ritzelan in Finland, Minnesota Nurse Stars would hide Ron Wilson all year long in Italy. I seem to recall. God, it's like 81. I didn't know that.

Yeah, and he'd play in Italy then come back for the playoffs. Okay, Lou, ready to go, bud. The same way Edmonton would do with Rayo Ritzelainen. Oh, yeah, but that's why they have the cutoff date. Pass which you can't play in the playoffs. Because of those donkeys doing that back of the day. Just hiding guys all over the world. Oh, yeah.

Go have vacation. You understand what I'm saying, right? Like, they're like, it's not like they're like, oh, we've never built hockey rinks before. Whatever shall we do? Like, I get the concern. I'm on the same page. But, like, I'm of the belief it's going to get done. It's going to be okay.

We'll be fine. If you're hosting the Winter Olympics, important not to lose the recipe for ice. if you're hosting the Winter Olympics. Yeah, you think that would be pretty important. You're not doing this in like Rio de Janeiro. What do we do for ice here on this one? Can we play the clip really quickly to wrap up with the program today? I just want to mention that he's going to be a regular on Morning Cup of hockey.

James Van Riemsdike made his debut today with our impact players, Johnny Lazarus and Colby Cohen on Morning Cup of Hockey. Here is part of the conversation. discussing his goal the other night against Zach's Toronto Maple Leafs. And I'm curious, because there is history, and I think at least you and Morgan Riley are pretty good buddies, if I recall, did you chirp him at all or talk any shit to him about that goal or have any words for him after that?

Because that was like a, almost like a duel between two friends that play. No, for sure. I think right when I got that pock back, saw the D kind of the other his D partner kind of fall a little bit and I was thinking past the whole way and just yeah it was a little cat and mouse I think as far as he wasn't sure if I was just going to try to take it right to the right to the net or make the play so I'll definitely have to let him know about that the next time I'll see him but but no I think the fact that yeah it was a little bit of that hybrid two-on-one game and just that extra

room and just yeah it's always any chance to get to score in that building to play in that building like it's yeah I just obviously you guys I think I've mentioned this before to you guys but just how much I loved my time there and it's always a special place for me to go back and play so to kind of have my first game of the season be in that building and to get a goal like that and a big win like that was

a nice way to get the year going and hopefully I can continue to kind of keep the snowball rolling down the hill from there James Van Riemsdyke of the Detroit Red Wings. You want to hear a great story about Van Riemsdike? Zach, of course you do. Yes, please. Everybody in the chat right now, everybody watching, everybody watching, everybody listening.

Want to hear a story about James Van Riezer? So he was traded for Luke Shen in that famous Toronto, Philadelphia trade. And that was the draft in Pittsburgh. That would have been 2012. I believe. And Berkey told me, he might have actually told this one on the show too, that there were a lot of Maple Leafs fans there

for that, like a huge section of Maple Leafs fans. So he said he wouldn't finalize the deal with Paul Holmgren until they left the rink. They weren't going to do it there because Berkey didn't. He said, I didn't want to get booed because Luke Shen was so popular and so loved in Toronto.

But they had a chance to get James. Van Reimsdike that he's like we did the trade in the car on the way to the airport because it didn't want to get booed in Pittsburgh that's why it did happen on the floor the other I don't think he's told it here but so funny I will ask him about it next Wednesday then about the about the James Van Reims like deal yeah he's like I don't I didn't want to get booed I didn't want to piss off all of our Mapleese fan so I just did it in the car and oh hey homer already do the deal now um you know what's great about van reams like with uh the Mapleley's like with uh the Mapleley's and other teams too. You'll know this as someone who played. The coffee boys will know this certainly too. One of the great things about Van Ramesdike was retrievals on the power play. When a puck misses the net on the power play,

it's going in the corner or it's going behind the net. Van Riemsdike was awesome at retrievals. I don't know how many extra shots he accounted for, but if one great retrieval can lead to like three or four more chances or three or four more shots as a coach or teammate, anyone in the organization you know how valuable that is?

Of course you do. I remember like Berkey telling me back then it's like this guy at retrievals is spectacular. He's like he's going to account for so many more shots on the power play and just keep our zone time hot and we don't have to worry about zone entries because this guy is dynamic at retrievals. Anyway, one of the little, that's, you know what,

something like that is something like Lazz and Cole. be spit out because they're like players and that's how they think and that's the nature of their questioning great puck retrievals that's what i'm adding to the conversation today and slap shots at guys in penalty boxes that's what i'm contributing to the conversation today jim dory uh it probably better than what i contributed the stupid comment oh chris mason you've been on i just just thinking i'm like i'm like i don't know maybe you're thinking like we haven't had i'm trying to remind you and then i realize as soon as it came out of my mouth that's not what was being said and I was like my oldest son he was first day at jk I'm like all right next

day is like all right you ready go back he goes go back I went yesterday what you mean go every day what what yesterday that's good that's good that's good and by the way you came really close to saying another pet peeve term of mine that we hear all the time is that general consensus as opposed to what other kind of consensus would there

be? I think of all the time I said general consensus. We're, our language has ghosts

Zach. Our language has ghosts. I can do a whole rundown of different goofy stuff tomorrow.

Why do we do that to kick off the show tomorrow? Dumb hockey terms. This is going in the book.

I'll make a list. You got to save this so that we make a list. I'll make a list of all the dumb hockey terms that just are so

empty calorie and ghost filled they just be like yeah we say some stupid stuff we really do it's kind of done this is going in the christmas book we're selling this year merikisms half of it is things it's like that and then half of it's things you hate like that yeah from the department of redundancy department yeah what's that who we got in the chat going omel ommle Zach we have a meeting right now wrap it up is he chirping you in the chat about getting to a meeting why don't i just stay on the air screw our boss you know all those bad air checks you gave me all those whether it was on 32

whether it was here you're just going to wait for your meeting with zach he's on my time right now what's your meeting about why don't we do the meeting on the air it's me me the producer's meeting yeah but it's just the three of us in toronto and vicks also in the chat so Oh, okay. I don't know. I don't know. Pretty fast and loose with your managers, but okay, all right. Let's Mike you to get off the stage.

Leave the stage while they're still clapping, Merrick. Leave the stage while they're still clapping. Thanks to Mark Lazarus from The Athletic for stopping by the program today. Thanks to Anton Thun, former NHL agent for stopping by the program today. And mainly thank you for being part of it today, either in the chat, watching live on YouTube, in the archives. Please hit subscribe. We'd love to have you subscribe here and part of our family at Daily Faceoff. and you know all the janitorial work to do

if you're listening to us on podcast, either it's Apple Pods or at Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for the buns and the use of the haul to your Zamboni driver on the way out. We're back tomorrow, 1 o'clock Eastern for the sheet. I said 16 hours last night, every day this week, every day this month.

I can't get out. head lost all ambitions day to day because you can call it all right I went to the dark man you 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 going to be fixing my mind I do want a bracket I turned on the music I do want to be able to turn on the music It's going to make it from the podcast Side Hustle Hey friends, it's from the podcast Side Hustle Pro.

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