The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Lane Hutson Signs Long-Term in Montreal ft. Hart Levine & Shayna Goldman

Episode Date: October 13, 2025

Jeff Marek dives deep into the biggest contract story of the week on The Sheet, exclusively on the Daily Faceoff YouTube Channel. Joined by Hart Levine, founder of PuckPedia, Jeff breaks down Lane Hutson’s new contract with the Montreal Canadiens — exploring the structure, bonuses, and cap implications, and asking whether it’s a byproduct of the new NHL CBA or fallout from Connor McDavid’s massive extension. They also dissect the recent Kyle Connor and Jack Eichel deals, what they signal about market inflation and player leverage, and the most important CBA and salary cap notes fans need to understand moving forward.Later, Jeff welcomes Shayna Goldman of The Athletic to analyze what Hutson’s extension means for Montreal’s long-term core, why the Canadiens’ contract strategy sets them up for success, and how it compares to other NHL rebuilds. Shayna also shares her major takeaways from the first week of the NHL regular season, including early breakout players, surprising teams, and key analytical trends that could define 2025–26.If you care about NHL contracts, the salary cap, and how the CBA shapes team-building, this is a must-watch episode of The Sheet with Jeff Marek.#TheSheet #JeffMarek #DailyFaceoff #LaneHutson #MontrealCanadiens #HartLevine #PuckPedia #ShaynaGoldman #TheAthletic #NHLContracts #NHL #Hockey #SalaryCap #CBA #ConnorMcDavid #JackEichel #KyleConnor #NHLNews #NHLHighlights #HockeyPodcast #HockeyShow #NHLAnalysisShout out to our sponsors!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Simply Spiked: https://www.simplyspiked.ca/en-CA👍🏼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 there, it's Jeff Merrick here. You know, my wife and I both have countless memories from spending time discovering Canada. Well, I always come back to the summer of 2005. We were staying at a cottage on Lake Joseph here in Muscoca, watching the Live 8 music festival in Barry on television. My buddy Jeremy Taggart, former drummer from Our Lady Peace, dropped by after his band's set and stayed the rest of the weekend at the cottage after the band's set and told some incredible backstage stories about some amazing Canadian music icons. I will never forget that.

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

So you know how Edmonton Oilers fans are crowing about what Connor McDavid did for them? Look at our guy, $12.5 million. He loves it here. He wants to bring a cup here. He's dedicated to the city of Edmonton and the Oilers franchise. All of that is true. and Oilers fans should feel that way about the best player in the world.

But if you're a Montreal Canadiens fan, you woke up and you're like, oh yeah, so that's what Oilers fans feel like right now. We're going to talk a lot about Delane Hudson deal, and we're going to have a couple of very special guests, talk about the contract itself, one person who specializes in such affairs. But we'll open it up with this wide brush observation.

As Oilers fans feel great about what Cona McDavid did for them and the organization, this is very much a player-driven decision for Lane Hudson to sign for that amount of dollars and that length of term. With that, we'll get into the show. Welcome to the program. This is the sheet from Monday, October 13th. And the blueprint is powered by Fanduel. Make every moment more with North America's number one sports book Fanduel.

And as I mentioned, plenty on the topic of the Montreal Canadiens and the Lane Hudson contract, which I don't think is as stunning as what we saw with Connor McDavid. But still, like your jaw should have been a little bit slacksy in this one. Hart Levine, the conceptual genius behind Parkpedia, we'll stop by here in a couple of moments. Shannon Goldman, towards the bottom of the hour from the athletic. Amongst other things we'll talk to Shana about is, is how about this one? Is Alexei Protis actually a Selky Trophy candidate? Should he have been considered one last year?

Should it be considered one already this season? And again, we'll talk plenty about Lane Hudson. We'll talk about the two fines that were levied on the weekend. Ian Cole and Tyler Myers, and we will revisit my campaign to have that, I guess the NHL Department of Player's Safety calls it a spear. It's not a spear. Ask any guy who saw that on Saturday between Myers and McDavid.

I assure you that is not a spear. My ongoing campaign to have that officially renamed the Cowbell. And we'll also get some really thoughts on what's happening this season so far a week into the season and a quick check here as there are games going on. It is still 1-0-0-Avalanche

over the Buffalo Sabres as everybody sighs deeply and tries to remind themselves it's early, it doesn't feel early for the Buffalo Sabres. More on the swords coming up in a couple of moments. In the meantime,

our good friend Hart Levine joins us from Puckpedia now to talk about Delane Hudson contract and maybe a sort of casual thought or two about the landscape itself in general. First of all, Hart, thanks so much for popping by today as a transplanted Canadian

now living stateside. Happy Thanksgiving. Same to you. It's a real happy Thanksgiving for Havs fans and for Lane Hudson's Montreal Canadiens teammates to say nothing of management and coaching staff. This is, I think the kids talk about it in terms of doing a solid.

Lane Hudson really did the Montreal Canadians a solid coming in under what Luke Hughes just got from New Jersey. Quick, wide brush. We'll start with a roller and go down to a tiny brush. Large, large swarth thoughts on what we saw from Lane Hudson this morning. I mean, definitely what I would think is a bit below market. I mean, you compared it to Conner McDavid.

I think the difference is Conner McDavid decided what he wanted to get paid, told the Oilers. I think in this case, Montreal basically grinded Hudson down until he just wanted the contract done and, you know, knew he didn't want to get paid top of the market, but whatever, just let's sign this paper and let me move on and play with my teammates. Yeah, it does very much feel like it's a, it's a player-driven thing. And I would imagine that sometime, you know, probably after the Detroit game, like young players don't want to read about themselves in the newspapers around contract. I understand it. Some players have the skin for it. Others just want their performance to be in the newspapers, although who reads newspapers anymore, be on their digital.

newspapers and be on their social media feeds, I really get the sense that Lane Hudson really didn't like this and wanted the focus to be on how he plays and how he's going to play for the Montreal Canadiens. You'll always hear the word distraction around things like this, but make no mistake about it. As much as as cortex, you know, work this one as much as they could, this very much sounds like lane hudson's just saying i just want to play hockey the money is good is that sort of act sympathetic to what you've heard as well for sure i mean ultimately the agents work for the client and the client makes the decision right and we've seen lots of deals like that in the past where um you know maybe on paper that doesn't seem like the most the player could get but

ultimately again they they serve at the pleasure of the of the player um and if the player wants to sign he wants to sign um you know sometimes you wonder though like especially a young player what does that mean later in his career? Like, do they have a different approach later when they feel like they, you know, we're team friendly and made a deal easy to get along with? But, yeah, ultimately, yeah, it's the, it's the player that decides and the agent just has to do the best deal they can. When you have a player that is willing to just kind of put it in the hands of the agent,

I think that's when you get like a Caprizov deal or even a Luke Hughes deal. We're willing to sit out. I mean, that gives the agent a lot more leverage when the player is ready to kind of hand it over to the agent and just do you know as as recommended you know that that's an interesting observation too um you know there have been plenty of players who a few years

into the into their contract for various reasons we can recall Luongo's deal which you know everyone said you know too too tough to trade and what was this line my contract sucks sucks you've heard other players who signed longer term deals for less money who towards the end or just spend their whole time at the ring

grumbling about their contract um like the one thing that that I take away from this with Lane Hudson. One, as I already mentioned, he didn't want this to be the story right now around himself. And two, and this is not, like, I remember I did a piece on Lane Hudson and the Hudson family on our Daily Face Off website last year. And the one takeaway that I got from engagement with everybody around the Hudson boys was,

they love Montreal. Like, I think that, you know, he would much rather. be compensated at this level playing with the Montreal Canadians on this team than being compensated at a higher level and playing on a bottom feeding team that's five years away from being competitive. Like I think a lot of this was, A, he loves Montreal. How can you not? It's my favorite Canadian city. I'm not sure where you're at on the city itself, but loves Montreal. Historic hockey city, obviously. This is a hockey family. And as Bob McCowne used to always tell me and anyone else when we, when we were,

work together with the fans so many years ago don't fuck with happy if you're happy find find a way to stay you know jonathan huberto with the the calgary flames he was so happy in florida how do you turn that down that money that calgary was offering but how do you put a price tag if you're not happy somewhere clearly lane hudson is happy in montreal yeah and it is a lot of money i mean who who wouldn't want you know 8.85 million a year for eight years the the question you know and even even if Montreal wanted that cap it, you know, to me, just looking at it again on paper without the emotions of wanting to be in Montreal, to me, that term on that AAB is more like six years, right? Because if you look at Luke Hughes, who is another 102C player, meaning

basically an RFA, but not eligible for an offer sheet, you know, there has not been players in that category that have signed for big huge deals, especially recently. And I think that's why Luke Hughes deal took a while. But then if you take Luke Hughes's contract, I mean, Lane Hudson has averaged more points per game. In fact, this season, as long as late Hudson gets 30 points this season, by the time his next contract kicks in, he would have a higher points per game than Luke Hughes. And let's say, you know, Luke Hughes is bigger and maybe better defensively, so you call them even, you know, Luke Hughes signed for seven years at $9 million. Next year, a $9 million cap it next year is 9.8 because the cap is going

up so much, right? So to me, that puts like, if you're just looking at it on paper, without like the intangibles of, you know, don't mess with happy. That should put Lane Hudson at seven years and nine point eight. So then now you're going a million less than that and you've added a year to it, right? So, you know, to me that's where like 8.85 would have been a great deal to me at six years. At eight years, that's where I think it's, you know, it's definitely team friendly. The one area that I look at here and, listen, Kent Hughes and the Montraughanians can't bring this up for that whole cap circumvention thing

but he's in a Canadian market and he's well loved I think Connor McDavid's endorsements heart are somewhere in the neighborhood I think it's like last time I saw on Forbes I think it was like between six and seven million dollars somewhere in there for

Connor McDavid he's already one of the most beloved athletes in in Montreal now coming on this deal he'll be even more beloved by Montreal Canadiens fans I don't know how much much he'll be able to recoup on endorsements and compensation outside hockey.

But I'd be willing to bet that it's not insignificant. Yeah, that's true. And in fairness, I mean, he did get better structure than Luke Hughes, right? And he got a lot of slanty bonus money, especially early on. And, you know, with the tax differences and that's a whole, you know, debate for maybe a less interesting talk show, I've got how you structure it for tax purposes. So, you know, maybe there's an argument that like net of tax because he got the signing bonus says he can he can do more with it than like elude cues and then you're right. You add in the endorsements.

But, I mean, I think that's interesting. You know, the top player in the NHL you said is six or seven million of endorsement deals. You think that the top player in other sports are getting a lot more than that, right? And it still shows hockey when you put that in context of the other sports, how small it is. And so you talk about like Stephen Stamco is coming to Toronto and he could get the, the, I. Canadian tire endorsement deal. It's still like kind of nothing compared to the overall contract amount, right? It's true.

I'm glad you sort of got us off. I want to circle back to the Hudson contract in a couple of seconds. But the idea of contextualizing hockey. And I know that it's like, I hate the analogy of apples and oranges because when you break it down, like apples and oranges are more similar than they are different. So I tend to use that. It's true. I don't know why I term apples and oranges are kind of similar than more similar than they are.

Anyway, the term that I like best is the British term chalk and cheese. Okay? So I know we're talking about chalk and cheese here when we're dealing with other sports and hockey. We know where the NFL is at, an NBA and Major League Baseball, et cetera. But after a couple of days of really thinking about the Connor McDavid contract, like I know you, like as a – you do nuts and bolts of all these things. I'm going to ask you something that's a little more philosophical here. So give it a good chin scratch as I get these – these words out.

I kind of think it's a bad look for hockey. I think it's a bad, the McDavid deal is a bad look for the NHL and the NHL Players Association. And most specifically, it's a bad look for the CBA, where the best player in the world feels is the only way he can mitigate the mistakes of the past

through Ken Holland and, and managers that have come before, Pete Shirelli, is to take a significant haircut. There's no other device or lever in this economic document that both the NHL and Players Association have put together where the best player in the world can be compensated properly. Make the argument. He left 60% on the table and still win. I think it's a bad look for the league.

I don't know how much I'd be puffing out my chest. Look at our guys. Coming in at 12.5 million is the best player in the league. Like once upon a time, there was like a chest puffing about, we pay our men here, we pay our boys, like we pay our players. Now this is all like, look what our guy did, like a much discounting. Ticket prices aren't going down. Parking prices aren't going down. Franchise values are going through the roof.

I know it's a philosophical question, but I think it's a bad look on the league. Do you? I think that's a fair point. But I would say it's more just comparing hockey to other sports. how the impact that one player has on the overall result is different, right? Like, you look at basketball, you can have a team that's two, three guys and kind of everyone else. And that's why you would have one or two guys making, like, what they call the max in the NBA, right? And we'd have to do some, some looking at it, like maybe the max and hockey should be less than 20%.

Maybe if it was 15%, you know, every team would have one or two max guys and it just would kind of hit there. But I think, you know, in hockey, I think in fairness, it would be hard to have a Stanley Cup. winning team if a player made 20% of the cap we've never seen it and that doesn't mean that it can happen but i think we need to see some evidence that you could do that and i think it's just a factor of you know in the NBA at the top players playing 99 to 100% of the the floor time and in hockey they're playing you know a third maybe half for a defenseman right so you know i yeah i i do think you're right there's something that feels a little bush league about you know our guy takes discounts our guys don't get paid enough or as much as they could be what a great game that is that is a little strange

marketing tool but i just think in terms of like the numbers it does make sense that in hockey a player you know shouldn't get it wouldn't take as much as possible as possible to to feel the most competitive team we'll have to say like what does minnesota do with caprisov now you know at the highest percentage that we've seen yeah but yeah i think there's some validity to your point there uh you know Kobe corn and i whether it's on his show my show on the phone by text the The one thing that we've sort of arrived to philosophically here, you know, going back to 2005 when the salary cap started to 2025 here, happy anniversary salary cap, coming to now,

something has happened along the way once the players accepted the cap in, you know, ever since 2005 slowly but surely, it seems as if, at least it feels to me, and I don't think it's right, but here it is. players carry with them this thought that they have to manage the cap as well and they don't they don't have to yeah they're the players it's not their job management should manage yeah but again like how many players I'm leaving this for someone else like it's not your job to manage the cap I don't know maybe just like too philosophical about the whole thing but it's sort of really I'm really

uncomfortable with it and when I see the numbers that are involved and what McDavid did I keep coming back to this is a league that needs a luxury tax Colby Cohen's point is the right one. This is a league that needs a luxury tax. A, somehow players have been lulled into this idea that it's their job to manage the cap. It is not their job to manage the cap. That's fair.

And it sounds like, you know, with Connor McDavid and Judd Maldiver, it sounded like they had like the, you know, beautiful mind drawing out different caps in areas for the oilers to figure out what he should get. And you're right, that's not their job. But the one thing that I take, I have a beef with that makes my ear steam is,

when they say, oh, you know, the, the PA is going to be upset that the player didn't take as much as possible. To me, that's not anymore. The players get 50%. The players get 50%. Now, Connor David took $8 million less than he should. That's $8 million more for everybody else. And, you know, I don't know if this has been reported, but players are getting a top-up on their pay from the last couple years because they didn't get 50%. So they're going to get a premium on what they paid.

So that gets distributed to everybody. So in a hard-cap league, there is no reason to try and drive the prices up. There's a reason to drive revenues up because then that will get everybody's contract up. But to say that, oh, that Connor owed it to the players or Caprizov really helped the rest of the league, I think is absurd because they're getting the same pain no matter what that one guy gets. That is, you're 100% right. And that is the sentiment from a bygone era. You know, Bob Good now recently passed, the former executive director of the Players Association. And when him and Ian Pulver ran the PA, I mean, you remember, I mean, July 1st was like, okay, this Domino is going first.

he's going to sign for this and this guy's going to sign for like that's the way it was and the big guy always set the marketplace and everybody came underneath to various shade and various degree that's gone with a hard cap you're right that that's gone your salary is here's the here's the document it's triple cap league here's how much max it can make and it it doesn't it doesn't matter how much how much one player signs for whether he's the you know the the top dog in the nchl or player number is 750. It doesn't really matter because the days of everybody comes underneath the superstar are long gone. The Jack Eichael contract is another one that we looked at and said, left money on the table, clearly. But to me, the mitigating factor here is, and I don't

think Vegas approached him with this idea or this, better phrased, this reminder. but I don't think players forget when teams do things for them. Like the Buffalo Sabres are going through a really rough time right now, and I don't think that it's lost on Razmustelli and how much the Buffalo Sabers helped his wife. Jack Eichl was in a really tough situation with his bodily autonomy and how he wanted his neck dealt with, right? ADR as opposed to spinal fusion.

How many times did you hear that discussion? I mean, I was right in the middle of it, covering it, and even by the end, like, I was annoyed at me for talking about it so often. But it was a big deal, right? And now, Vegas was a team that said, you're in charge of your body, we're going to support you. We believe in this. We know it hasn't been done in the NHL before, but we believe you should have autonomy over how you want your body treated. I can't help but think in the back of my mind.

Sure, Vegas is a great situation, loves it there, a winning team and all that. But part of that loyalty, like that loyalty is bought, right? That loyalty is bought by the Vegas Golden Knights for affording them that. And I can't help but wonder if that's not from the team, not from Kelly McCrimmon, but from Jack Eichols, point of view if that became part of the decision for Ikel to come in at 13.5 I think that's true I mean that's that's reasonable I mean we have a lot of evidence kind of on the converse when teams make a contract negotiation really difficult or do something to rub the player the wrong way the player remembers and they don't last long on that team eventually right especially when when the lever

changes I mean just look at Anaheim who's kind of got a reputation out for grinding there are RFAs to kind of dust and look at the couple guys that are gone now, right? Like a Jamie Drysdale and Azegas, right? So I think we know that's true. We can see that objectively. Like if there's a bitter

arbitration hearing, it usually ends a relationship a couple of years later. So if we know that's true, I think, you know, to your point, the opposite is true, you're right. And if the player, I mean, if the team goes over and above, especially, you know, we've seen things with ownership, maybe the owner sends a plane to do something for the family, right?

or really takes care of the player, it does make a difference. And it goes back to, I can look at my spreadsheet and see what players should get paid and everything. But there is a human element. There's a human element in the Hudson deal

where Ken Hughes is negotiating with his former colleagues, right? There's a human element to Jack Eichol and what that meant to him. And that's why the deals don't come out like what the model should say. Hey there. Eric here. You know, my wife and I both have countless memories from spending time discovering Canada.

Well, I always come back to the summer of 2005. We were staying at a cottage on Lake Joseph here in Muscoca watching the Live 8 music festival in Barry on television. My buddy Jeremy Taggart, former drummer from Our Lady Peace, dropped by after his band's set and stayed the rest of the weekend at the cottage after the band's set and told some incredible backstage stories about some amazing. amazing Canadian music icons. I will never forget that. And fast forward to today, I'm a hockey parent, and I feel like I'm always on the road with my family.

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

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And now, like, I wonder about Adrian Kempe. We all wonder about Martin Natchez. Like, go right, you can, you can, you better than anybody else, Hart. You can rattle off the list of guys that are up on your. July 1st, either unrestricted or restricted free agents. Do you foresee, I'm going to ask you a question about next July already, let's really get ahead of this. Are we, essentially, what I'm asking is, are we walking into a situation which we haven't

seen in the salary cap era ever, where everybody's got money in cap space and no one to spend it on? I, well, they'll spend it. The question is, who are they going to spend it up? Yeah. And I think, you know, do you mention like a guy like Kempai or Tuck, for example, like, another great one. Again, it's hard to dismiss, like, maybe they have a great connection with where they are.

Well, I don't know about Tuck, but maybe Kempay. But, you know, the couple guys that are like in the hall of really good players, not great, but really good players that put themselves out there until July 1st next year, they will get paid because, you know, the teams had a little bit of money this summer. And for the most part, though, there wasn't much, you know, big names to spend it on. and now we'll get to next summer and yeah these teams uh they've had a they have a lot of powder to to blow and um yeah so it'll get spent and the question is is it get to be like the kind of a minus guys or is it going to funnel down to the the the C guys and it reminds me of that um the two ufayers

like when luchich signed and a bunch of guys signed for like that six times six or seven times six deal mckenon poseo was in row right yeah yeah yeah and it's like everyone was getting the money because it seemed like the cap had gone up and there's money to spend and so what we look back on that is a class that was money well spent or a lot of buyouts like we did with that with that group, right?

And so yeah, the money will get spent next summer so some of these furs would be wise to let them be the ones to be the bell of the ball. Man, if you're Adrian Kempe, just like just sit, just wait. But why? Why sign now?

Why? What's the rush? Martin Nature. Same with the Tuck. Like, I mean, Tuck, you might as well go to the market. Even if you get traded, let's say he gets traded.

straighted and it's a nice fit as well. Go to the market, see what happens, right? And Artemmy Panarin, like, that's the one that doesn't get a lot of talk. He went to market last time and look how that worked out from. He was the highest paid winger for so many years off that UFA deal. So let's get to the market and see what the suitors have to say. And Colorado actually, it was a shorter term deal, but Colorado actually offered more to Panarin than the Rangers were.

Again, mind you, it was, I think it was a three-year deal Colorado offered, but the money was more. just Panera just wanted to go to New York, right? And that's going to be an interesting one too because, like, New York wants to go big game hunting always. And, you know, everybody had sort of eyes on, you know, the Edmonton to New York Express if Conner McDavid didn't resign. I don't think their appetite to spend money on players has gone anywhere. That's going to be an interesting one to follow.

And, like, let's, if they miss the playoffs two years in a row, like, should they be spending money like that? Like, when they went for Panarin, at least they'd bought them out and they'd had a few top picks. And they seem like they're on the way up. You miss the playoffs two years in a row. I mean, the Bill Parcell's line, you are what standing say you are, right? Like, are you a contending team and are you just like one big UFA away?

Now, if they rebound and their, you know, their playoff team, maybe it makes sense to keep adding to the group. But that's an interesting to want to watch. And then you mentioned Colorado, like, yeah, Marty Naches, he seems like if I had a candidate for who's going to sit and wait to July 1st, it seems like from what he's shown us in the past, he's the guy. And so you just have to work down this. Maybe he will be the top guy by next July 1st. Wild day. I think he'll be on that, right? What's that?

I think he'll be on that for agent list. He's shown that he's willing to go to market and bet on himself. Good for him. I do too. And listen, he may have a cup ring to show off for it come July 1st too. That's how good Colorado Avalanche are. Hart, always appreciate your time. Be well.

I know always busy times around headquarters there. And today was a massive one for Buckpedia. And there's probably another announcement coming out from somewhere in about five minutes. so we'll let your fingers get warmed up again. Thanks, pal. We'll talk soon. Thanks so much. There he is, Hart Levine, from Puckpedia, the curator, as we call him, the conceptual genius behind Puckpedia.

Shannon Goldman's going to be coming by here in a couple of moments. We'll get her thoughts on the Lane Hudson deal. And just a quick, this is not good for anybody other watching or listening in the archive, but quick scan right now because our games going on as we speak. First intermission, abs and sabres are all tied up at one. Nathan McKinnon and Tage Thompson. Your goal score is there. Lightning League, the Bruins won nothing.

Anthony Sorrelli with his first. Preds and Sins are deadlocked at Bagels. And Morgan Barron with his second goal this season has the Winnipeg Jets up on the New York Islanders by a score of 1 to nothing. We got 10 games on the go around the NHL today. It is an interesting one. coming up when this program goes off the air. Maple Leafs fans can see if what we saw in the first couple of games,

I'm curious about your thoughts on this one, Zach, as well, was legit or a mirage? The Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canes. The Maple Leafs lose at a Tread Red Wings. They'll play them here in about 30 minutes. The Maple Leafs in those two games that I saw look really slow. This team, they should not have won that Montreal game. game. Okay, leaf haters bring it on. And they got danced by the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday,

despite going up early in the game. They had no answer for my guy, Marco Casper, and his linemates, some guy Kane and some guy to brink it, who just killing it to start the season. But this Maple Leaf's team looks slow. You just got to call what's there. This team looks slow out of the gate. Yeah, the pushback for me in general, like I'm not going to try to sit here and tell you, no, no, no, they were fast. The pushback for me is I don't think speed is that much of an issue if your execution and intensity is there. And look, as I've been reminded over and over and over again by angry Leafs fans who are mad at me critiquing the team through two games, execution and intensity lacked through two games. so when your attention to detail is not there and you have five guys on one side of the ice and Patrick Kane Hall of Famer Patrick Kane is standing on the other side with a stick in the air

begging for a one-timer yeah they're going to bear you with opportunities like that but this is a little concerning where like the speed was even slower than I anticipated it to be so hopefully like the one thing jeff that i kept saying i'm not going to do after dark here on the sheet but like the one thing i kept saying was you need matthews and nielander to kind of drag you into it and say like hey we're not gonna we're not gonna you know stand around with our leg straight here tonight but when they are the leading culprits of the no sweat brigade you're kind of fucked like you're there's not much else they because everyone else is looking around being like, hmm, that guy makes $13.5 million and he hasn't moved his feet tonight.

Why the hell should I? You know, it doesn't work directly like that, but it's a piece of the puzzle. Easton Cowan makes his NHL debut with the Maple Leafs playing on the top line with Austin Matthews and Matthew Nyes. As the morning cup of hockey guys mentioned, like, the play is put him in where he can be successful. There's no point like six minutes on the fourth line. that's not working with this Cowan guy. No, that's not, that's not the play. This is the right play.

You know, I was having an interesting conversation with a coach on Saturday who brought up the point, we're talking about Toronto and just like how slow, it's right after the game, how slow they looked against Detroit after coming off that slow performance against the Montreal Canadiens. And his point was, you know, say whatever you want about when this happens, but it can be a real motivating factor, not just for the player or player. but everybody. He wonders, and he said, I've always wondered this.

What happens when you're a high-level team, but no one on your team is on an expiring contract? Everyone has their deals done. Everybody's comfy. What was the story about the Florida Panthers last year? All those guys are hungry. Eckblad is hungry. Brad Marchand is hungry.

Sam Bennett is hungry. All these guys. And he said, go look at the history of successful playoff teams. They have guys on expiring. deals. Now, I haven't gone and done that exercise yet, but it was an interesting observation that you need guys on expiring contracts to keep your team hungry. What's the old story? If you're not hungry, you won't eat. Okay. Let me think about that one, Zach. I, uh, I'll, we have to do some research here in some of the other teams that one,

because I'll give some credit to that argument in some of those. I'm going to stop that right away at the Florida Panthers because I don't think that it starts and stops with like Sam Bennett needs a contract so he's going to play well. Sam Bennett is going to rip your head off and then pull your guts out with his bare hands whether he's making $300 million guaranteed or is fighting for every penny of money that he's going to get. Like it's that those guys, I don't think it changes.

So hang on, hang on. I'll give some credit to that. That was the first time we saw Khan smite Sam Bennett. like that was the best we've ever seen sam bennett play we could be on the same page about that yes the best we've ever seen sam bett even at four nations he looked fantastic i just think it's an interesting interesting observation that for to keep a team hungry you have to have guys on expiring deals it's kind of it is an interesting concept though like imagine your jams like you think kent hughes is sitting there now and he's looking at

You know, Suzuki, Caulfield, Slavkovsky, Hudson, I don't know, name whoever else is on that list of guys who were locked up until 2030 and beyond. And he's like, fuck, no one's on expiring deals. No one's hungry here. Oh, no. No one's hungry. I just throw it out there as a discussion point and to understand that it might, it perhaps more than mildly annoys you. how about that oh is it too early in the season is it too early in the season um to have the let's remind everybody about goalie interference conversation i wonder maybe i'll bring that up with shana here

who's who's coming up here a couple seconds what you know the first thing i thought of and you did do with shana but the first thing i thought of what you're in the blue that's on you that's on you that's on you if you're in the blue that you because you saw that you saw that saturday and that went into your head and you went easy call it's coming back yeah you know The first thing that I thought of was, what the hell is Freddie Anderson doing, headbutting the guy's thigh? And then I was like, if you're in the blue, that's on you. In the blue, that's on you?

Just think in terms of liability. That's what it is. You're not supposed to be there, so your liability is sky high. All right, this segment is a presentation of Prime Video and Monday Night Hockey, your exclusive home to the NHL streaming games nationally in Canada every Monday. Prime Monday Night Hockey opens today, the 13th of the double header in moments. The Detroit Red Wings face off against the Toronto Maple Leafs, followed by St. Louis in Vancouver. Also, on Prime Video, face-off, inside the NHL season two.

Subscribe with a 30-day free trial to Prime Video to watch Monday Night Hockey and the new season of Faceoff. Download the app or go to Prime Video.com. Here to talk about all things headline and a lot of things geeky too, because let's face it, we all know Shane it by this point. She's part of the awesome trio that is a Too Many Men podcast. She now has blue hair. Congratulations, the blue is back. And you can read her on The Athletic as well.

She is the great Shannon Goldman. She joins me now. On a Monday afternoon where there are games underway where Colorado and Buffalo, as we sit here having this conversation, are still nodded at ones. All eyes on the Buffalo Sabres, Shannon will start there for the wrong reasons right now. I always remind myself, it's only two games. It's not two games for the Buffalo Sabers. It's 14 years and two games. that's where it's at for the Buffalo Sabres.

Yeah, sadly, that is exactly where it's at. I think their fans are feeling it already. And the injury luck is ridiculous already. You know, they're losing players. Now they're short-handed. And even with the lineup they have, I don't think they're maximizing it well enough. And then you see today this goal with Nathan McKinnon.

And yes, he's incredible. He turns something out of nothing. But you also start, you know, feeling back the layers and cope, well, that's some defense. you know, maybe he shouldn't be that undefended. Maybe four guys shouldn't be staring at the puck that Marty Natchez has. So, you know, it's a tough one. It's a tough one.

If we have time, we'll circle back to the swords. I always say the beginning of every year because I grew up in southwestern Ontario and it's like, you know, the French connection and it's Danny Gear and it's Jerry Korab and Larry Playfair and all these guys. I just have a down, Don Edwards and Bob Sovey Annette. I just have a real soft spot in my heart for, I spent for the Savers, I spent so much time at the old auditorium, you know, and I just hate what's happened to them.

Like I always say I don't cheer for teams, but then I find myself like cheering for the Buffalo Sabres to turn things around, and right now it doesn't look like that's happening, comma, again. But Lane Hudson, tell me where to stop. 10 million? 12 million? Like, how much do you think he left on the table here?

And this is like, it feels very much like this is a player-driven signing. that the player was, I just want to play, let's get this over with. That's a lot of money on the table. He's a great deal for the haves. Yeah, I get that it's tough to make such a massive commitment to someone when they've only played so many games and yada, yada, yada. But that's the way it's going in the NHL, right? We're seeing these big second contracts.

And when you have someone like Lane Hudson, you want to lock him up as soon as possible because you want to pay him for prime Lane Hudson. You want to pay for present performance, which is very good. and future performance, which is going to be star-powered. So I would say, yes, he'll have something on the table. I use McCar and Hughes as like these benchmarks of just what, like, what's that vibe check, you know, and he should come in right below that. So you look at their contracts and in year one, their cap hit percentages,

it would have brought somewhere between 10 and 11 million if you look at what both them made in year one and now compare it to a 104 or 107 million cap. And that's the range you get to. Do I think he's at that level? No, I think no one's at that level, right? Like, we did player tiers this year. They're the only two defensemen in Tier 1 for good reason, but I think you look at all the defensemen right below that.

That was Tier 2 defensemen and go, okay, their contracts are in that similar range, too. Do I think he could have pushed a 9 in this world? Yes. Could he have pushed a 10 in this world? Yes. If he signed for 12 tomorrow, would I still say it's a good deal? Absolutely. But he didn't.

So it works out really well from Montreal. Quick pause. Jay Rock in the chat. Shana confirmed Blue Jay's fan with the hair. Oh, my God. No. No. Oh, okay, go to Seattle.

I'm all in. Jeffrey Marin, maybe she couldn't get Merrick the chips, so she did the blue hair as a tribute to the Jays. I confirm or deny, Sheena Goldman. Deny. And let's tell the people, the chips are happening, and I said, I'll send them. Let me know when the same post, right, Ben.

And he goes, no, we're doing double and nothing. Yeah, we're doing double and nothing on the Olympics. Both of the women and the men, both. Yes. Both, both, both both. Which we're probably going to split. I feel like it's going to be like the men. then you'll get, and the women all get.

Now we're back at a draw, so who's to say? But no, the blue hair was out of sadness over the Yankee season ending because don't be sad, go dye your hair. And here we are. I think you had blue hair the first time I met you. I think that was when we first met, you had the blue styles. Okay, back to a serious furrowed-browed hockey. We're not here to talk about dill pickle chips and blue hair.

The Hudson deal is fascinating. as much as I was making this point off the top as much as Oilers fans love what McDavid did in a minor key Montreal Canadian fans should kind of feel the same way about Lane Hudson and the one thing that you do need to know about

and by you I mean like everybody watching slash listening is just how much this guy loves Montreal like there is a certain kind of P.K. Suban vibe about how much this guy digs Montreal. I can't blame him. Montreal is a glorious city it's gorgeous people are wonderful all of it's it's you know dyed in the wool hockey

um that to me feels like a massive part of this that we never really talk about a whole lot but it seems very much tax situation aside it very much seems like again player driven he wants to be there wants to get this out of the headlines doesn't like being talked about like this in terms of a contract and just wanted it over feel that way to you yeah and listen it's not like yes he left money on the table but it's not like he's going to be hurting after this and you know with the signing bonus structure and the way the deal set up like he's in a very good position and he's going to be just fine but having said all that we're seeing two very different strategies and it's funny how they get compared right because you have krill caprice off with you know

you could say an overpayment and you have Kyle Connor with the same but you also now have the Jack Eichols of the world and the Connor McDavid's right McDavid's the unicorn I'm throwing that one out we're not even talking about it because it's totally different here so let's go Ikel versus the others and I think Hudson now fits in that Ikel bin. The difference here is that Ikel has the Vegas backing behind him. This team won a Stanley Cup in the last five years. This team will do whatever it takes versus the Caprice and the Jets and the Connors of the world where you're on teams where if you don't have these players, you have nothing. And if you're the player, this team has something to prove to you too, right? Because Minnesota doesn't get out of the first

round. The Jets look like regular season contenders and then don't get to the level that you want from them either. So it's two different mentalities. Now, the Canadians aren't this playoff team, right? They're not this, oh my God, contender like Vegas, so it's a little bit different here. But if you see what they're building and you're going, okay, I'm buying into that. I understand

taking the discount of it, too, saying, I think this team is going in the right direction as well. So I'm not going to take a massive chunk of the books up, right? And you're going to get a team that's beneficial to you, beneficial to the team. Get it out of the way. Get it settled. Now you have two key pieces on defense.

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

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

Find out how much at Airbnb.ca slash host. I think that's a huge part of it. Like you look at the salary structure right now for the bunch of all Canadians. Everything is trending great. You know, blip on the radar against the Toronto Maple Leaf. played Toronto, probably should have won that game. This is an exciting team. Like the best game that we saw last week, I'm curious where you're at

in this one, Colorado, Dallas. And when these two teams get together, like, it's always that way. But for me, a close second was Chicago, Montreal. On Saturday, that's a total banger of a game. And a lot of, you know, young superstars on both teams. And if you're the Montreal

Canadians, like, and if you're Lane Hudson, you're saying, okay, here comes Noah Dobson. And I don't know if you've had a look at what, you know, Zach Bulldoch has done already early this season and I was going on and on about him all summer long after that deal was made like, oh, it's the best under the radar move made by any gentens already that one's paying off. Like, I don't know how good they're going to be this year, Shana.

I don't. None of us do. But I think we all know where this one is heading right now. And this is a team that's climbing up the Atlantic, clearly. Yeah. And they're doing it in the right way, right? Because how often do teams make the playoffs when maybe they're not. a true playoff team or a true contender right and they kind of use this as like false inspiration

to think that there's somewhere that they're not right think of the black hawks in the bubble a couple years ago they make it they go on a better run than anyone could have expected and they're like you know we're actually good now and it's like no you're not pump the brakes here and i think montreal handled it the right way because they're going well we still need to get better which they did but we're not going to now go for guys who are completely out of our timeline we're not going to go for all these big name free agents they're going to approach it differently and go for guys that match what they already have. So you can have this next wave rise up together.

And that's no Dobson, very, very good defenseman who I think is going to kill it there. And Bullduke, I hated that trade for the blues. I hated it so much for the blues. I loved it from Montreal. And you're seeing, you know, early returns on in. I'm sure everything, you know, don't get too excited. It's still early. But it's a player that makes a lot of sense for them for where they're out.

So they took this measured approach to their off season and you just see how they can rise up the rank. So they are contender this year? No, but could they go on a. nice playoff run and build off it for the next five, six years? I think so. Okay, one player that I wanted to ask you about specifically here, because I want to be sensitive

to your time. And by the way, Kail Makara has scored now, I know why I'm just doing Sabres watch here. It seems kind of macabre. We've all gathered around the bed and someone just called a priest. Kail Makara has just scored, it's two to one for the Colorado Avalanche, four and a half minutes into the second period. But I digress.

One player I want to ask you about, you and I have texted about this player back and forth, Alexi Protis. of the Washington Capitals. 6 foot 6, 250 pounds, can skate, can score, as we saw last year with 30 goals, is a good passer defensively sound as well. I know wing, and he's playing on this line with, you know,

Peter Luke Dubois and Tom Wilson, it's just beef, just throw it out there. I know we don't give the Selkie trophy to wingers anymore, even though the trophy was created for a winger, namely Bob Ganey. We don't give it to wingers for reasons. Should we be looking at Alexei Protis and saying he's going to be the new hotness when it comes to sulky trophy voting and probably should have been there last year? I don't know if I would have had him as high last year, but I see the trajectory to become that, right?

Like we're going to be talking about how Marner and Jarvis and Reinhardt deserve more dude just like Mark Stone always did. And yeah, I think he could be a name up there. To me, he has a rising star. Yes, the shooting percentage was really high last year. Do I think he can keep that up? No, it's not sustainable. But I just think that there's-

Alex Tongay. Yes, he's Alex Tongue and you know it, Shana. Break the rules. He's breaking all the rules, forget it, forget everything that we know. But no, like, there's so many other elements of his game that I look at him and I go, if he doesn't shoot at that ridiculous is how he's shooting percentage and comes back to Earth,

he's still going to be very productive. And he's going to be productive in different ways that maybe we didn't talk about enough last year because we were so focused on his goal scoring. Really, in general, the Ovecian Chase and just how good the capitals were and whether it was sustainable and this and that. And the other thing, and you just forget that he was a big part of it.

This is a really good two-way forward. He plays a really disruptive game. He has a ton of speed. He's so good at getting the puck out of zone zone. He's so good with defensive puck touches, puck retrieval, zone exits. Then he's also a really dangerous passer, which again, we didn't talk about much

because when he's scoring goals, like that, that's where your focus goes, right? Like goal scoring is distracting sometimes to all the other elements someone brings to the table. And he brings a lot to the table that when we did player tiers, we talked about him a lot because people were giving us kind of similar feedback of, is he going to shoot like that going to probably not? But I still really like him and think he's a player to watch.

A couple of more things here. And listen, I love protests. And we should mention, too, like the Washington Capitals also have his brother, Ilya, who played for the Windsor Spitfires, the OHL last year, who put in 50 goals and 124 points. And as a 19-year-old, he's playing in the American Hockey League with the Hershey Bears. So there could be another protist on the way to the NHL in short order. But I digress. A couple of more things here quickly, before we let you get on with watching hockey games. I'm really curious to see what happens.

with two teams that have been closely linked, and that is the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers. Last time we were on together, I know you were like throwing cold water all over the brawl game. That's all like nobody left on the bench and you thought that I was an idiot and enough, Merrick, like turn off the microphone, go touch some grass. So dramatic. So dramatic if I disagree with you. My goodness. And I couldn't sleep for days because, you know, I had an argument with my bud. But, you know, Jonah Gajovich signs a two years. contract extension right around the time that, you know, the Tampa Bay Lightning are thinking like, we're going to rely on Curtis Douglas here and he's six foot nine. He's pounding the crap out of

everybody here. Florida Panthers have had a banger of a start despite all of the injuries as well. Right now, the Tampa Bay Lightning, who haven't had a banger of a start or beating the Boston ruins to nothing. We'll see where the rest of the game goes. Is this the best rivalry in hockey right now. Ooh, it's definitely up there. Like, I was thinking about it. I love Colorado. Can I bias?

I love Colorado, Dallas. Every time these two teams get together, it's amazing. It's great hockey. But it doesn't have that Florida, Tampa thing. You know what I mean? Well, no. No, it has a totally different kind of drama, right? Like, I look in the West and if you're going, okay, if you have a seven game series

tomorrow, what are you picking to watch, right? Like, I want to watch them. Dallas Colorado. Dallas Colorado is up there. I'm also going to add Colorado Edmonton for different reasons. But then in the East here, it's one of the best matchups around. Like, I'm sorry. If a Colorado-Edmonton game is on the schedule, I don't give a shit what else is on.

It's one of the few times it's like, that is it. That's my sole focus. It's too good. But Florida, Tampa definitely is up there. And I think you could throw Toronto in there too and say like those, any combination of those three teams playing, I am very, very interested. But no, I think the Battle of Florida is definitely one of the better rivalries we have for all of the reasons, because at the end of the day, you do have that hate that you expect

from division rivals, in state rivals, you know, anything like that. But you also have elite skill going back and forth, right? You have Popovsky versus Vasilevsky. You can make a number of narratives. When they're fully healthy, you could go Braden Point versus Barkoff and Kachuk and Kuturov and Reinhart and Jake Gensel and Hegel's there versus Verhege. Like, you could just start going back and forth and being like, wait, this is actually sick. Here's two very, very star-powered lineup. who have had so many different playoff battles and the tide turned towards Florida the last couple of years,

but I'm very curious now as good as the Panthers have been, what's it going to look like this season? Because I think Tampa can make this more competitive than it's been when it matters most if things continue at this rate. So, yeah, definitely one of the best rivalries out there. I want to throw a couple of young names,

your waist, and these are all young defenders in the NHL, okay? And I'm curious, and they're all getting, like, significant ice time. There's one that I wonder about because this team doesn't let young players. I don't care if you're a defender or a forward or a goalie or a rover or whatever old-timey names we had for hockey players are. Matthew Schaefer. We'll start there.

Scores his first goal. It's nice. He's like playing pool and he's playing snooker and jabs it in. He talked about the Mighty Ducks and how he watched the Mighty Ducks and he wanted to score a similar goal. Congratulations, you got your first goal. So Matthew Schaefer, Sam Renzel, first pairing with Vlasic, and he looks fantastic. Great goal against Montreal Canadiens. Is Eve Boyam, who looks fantastic on the power play for the Minnesota wild and is going to rack up the points.

He's already getting over 22 minutes of ice time. Axel Sandine Pelica with the Detroit Red Wings is getting just over 20 minutes a night. Interesting about him, he's only played two games in Grand Rapids. last year. The thing about Detroit is, doesn't matter who you are or where they drafted you, you're starting in Grand Rapids, not so with Sandine Pelica. Of all these young defenders in the NHL, we'll close on this one, which one impresses you the most? Because is there one that really pops for you? Or do you want to pull the shoot and just take the cheap way out and say, Merrick, we're not even a full week into the season? No, I am very into this. I think,

Each one is interesting for their own reasons, right? Like I look at William and I go, he is the perfect defender to bounce out the top four in Minnesota, exactly what they need, opposite of Brock Weber, this could be perfect, I love it. Dean Pelica, I'm not a prospect person and I know about him and I'm pumped about him. So like, to me, like that says something.

And it's like, you know, that's exciting. Renzel, I think he was this like sleeper option for the year. Very cool to see him in Chicago. I think he is a rising star, but Schaefer is the most interesting. He is so good for the game. game. I can't stress this enough. He is so good for the game in all of the reasons from his personality. I love any media hit he does. I am, it's super intrigued by it because I think he gives you a little bit of everything, right? Like he rolls with the punches and makes jokes and

he can be very funny. But I also think he's this thoughtful guy. But then you watch him on the ice and you go, oh my God, he's so good already. And he's that infusion of skill. Any lineup would be lucky to have, especially the Islanders, especially after trading Noah Dobson. I still think they could have had both. But I digress on that. He is the way he plays the pace, the speed. I think it's so good for them. He has so much offensive ability. And I think that there's a guttiness to his game two. And I think you saw that with some of his passing in game one. I am so intrigued by him and what kind of player he's going to become because of the defenseman you named, I think that he is, you know, potentially going to be the best one out of all

of them. But I just think he is so exciting. And the Islanders need that. And I think retooling around him, you look at him and go, that that legitimately could be your franchise cornerstone he could be you know running a power play and playing top pair minutes and doing it on both ends of the ice i am very interested to see where he goes i don't imagine the islanders organization is you know happy about what players like lane hudson are doing with their second contracts when they're sitting on someone like matthew shafer they should be happy they should be happy oh could we potentially get him for nine instead of 12 13 14 where's the cap going to go from here right like we're expecting more growth expect more salaries to inflate and players could say

I don't want to sign long term because you know the cap's going to keep going up and I need short term because in three years I'm going to get a way better deal so they should be thrilled with what Hudson did excellent um thanks for joining me today on this Canadian Thanksgiving I will hope to reciprocate on American Thanksgiving when we can have you back and you'll just call it Thanksgiving um appreciate it I know you're sure and Until then. I need to cheering on the Jays to get back into the series with the Seattle Mariners. So I'll let you prepare yourself for the big game later on tonight.

Yep. Yep. Go Mariners. Have a great. Have a great Thanksgiving. I really hope it's a wonderful day for you. And the Mariners just make it quick and painless that you can just turn it off and spend time with family. It'll be hockey tonight.

It'll probably be, well, I'll probably watch all of it. I'm curious to see. I haven't watched a lot of mammoth yet. They've only had a couple of games. I'm curious there. I want to see Minnesota and Los Angeles. We got 10 games today, man. Like, we got, this is a great day.

This is how we celebrate Thanksgiving here up in Kinnockistan. We just fill it with hockey games and food and family. It's a beautiful thing. You should think about moving up here. It's beautiful up here. Yeah, I'll pass one up right now. We have room. You can come any time.

We'll roll out the magic carpet for you of the red carpet. Thanks, Shanna. You'll be good. We'll talk soon. Thanks for having me. The excellent, Shannon Goldman from the Too Many Men podcast, alongside her work at the Athletic. Always a welcome and delightful voice here on this show.

Glad to have her aboard as well. We have a new sponsor, and it's one whose app My Kids Live On. And so we thank them for being part of everything here at Daily Face Off. And that is Uber Eats. Cray of the Stats. All right, Zach, or stat of the day, presentation of Uber Eats. Take your pick. 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 favorite game day dip, before, during, and after the game, Uber Eats is assisting every fan's experience all season long. Crave the stats. Zach, what is our stat du jour, stat of the day? Stad of the day, we're going Canadian themed here. And for this one, which I was actually kind of surprised that there's such a small sample size,

but I guess it makes sense. Historically, Canadian teams are 2, 6, and O when playing on Canadian thanksgiving all time. Ooh. Is that because they're sour? I'm kind of surprised that there's only... They're sour, they're not able to be home?

It's all pissy about it? They're just full from Turkey from the night before and going in slow and sloppy. I don't know. I don't know what it is, but I was kind of surprised that it was, I'm not really surprised about the record. It's such a small...

I was surprised there was only eight games. I'm curious how Canadian players do on Thanksgiving Day games. Yeah. Pull that one up fast. So here's the stat. Most goals or points on Canadian Thanksgiving. David Pasternak leads. He has the most goals in a single game.

Four goals. Second is Patrice Bergeron. He has three. The third, and tied for third, I guess, is Pasternak, Eichel, and Lars Eller. So only Canadian who's at the top of the list of numbers of notable performances is Patrice Bergeron, yeah. That guy's all business. He doesn't care about bird and stuffing at all. I'm just here to win hockey games.

Thank you very much. Yeah, it doesn't matter. You take your cute little holidays. I'm just here to fill the net and pick up Selky trophies on Patrice Bergeron, ladies and gentlemen. And I'm Patrice Bergeron. Yeah. Quick, I'll score update for those with us live right now. Nino Nita Ryder has scored for the Winnipeg Jets alongside Morgan Barron.

They lead the Allender's to nothing. It is 2 to 1, avalanche over the sabres in the middle of the second, or halfway through the second, lightning up to Cobb on the Boston Bruins in the first intermission and the Preds and Sends, still looking for the, as Chris Cuthbert calls it after every first goal, icebreaker in the game in Ottawa. So that's where we're at there. In the meantime, the sheet is powered by Fandom. in the same game parley make every moment more on fan duel proud to connect fans to the major

sports moments that matter to them this one's juicy junior we got games all day yeah games all day obviously couldn't fit all of them on the card unfortunately but i did pick out some of the ones that were intriguing to me slash hadn't started yet because that is pretty important it would be a waste of time if i put up ones that have oh yeah uh so for today uh the ones that i grab As we look around the league There's five games there There's one more after this that didn't make it But Leif's Red Wings coming up right after

Leafs are favored heavily And honestly Jeff I don't know that that's right I don't know about that Hey look at that Philly Florida game for a second As many people have remarked and noted Things aren't going swimmingly between new head coach Rick Tockett and young superstar Matveh Mitchkoff benched in overtime on the weekend.

Limited ice time. Tuckett talking about needing Mitchcock to play more of a North style game. He likes to slow it down. He needs to push pace. We've talked about Mitchcoff's not the fastest skater in the world. But as many Flyers fans have already remarked, Rick Tuckett may have his first target here with the Philadelphia Flyers in, Matvey Michkoff.

Yeah, that's kind of interesting. Cidbar story to follow. Sidebar story to follow. How about Johnny Gajavid? I mentioned this with Shana with that Florida Panthers playing the Philadelphia Flyers. Johnny Gajovic signs a two-year deal with the Florida Panthers. He's another in a long list of great finds. After Ryan Longberg left the Florida Panthers to go to Calgary, it's like they still

wanted that element and wanted that toughness, but they always have to have players that can play. They just don't want one-dimensional and gunslingers. And so, you know, it's up to Bill Zito's staff to find that guy. And they found a gem in Jonah Gajovic, who looked, as you know, like look fantastic last year in the playoffs. You know, and he's not just there to be a face puncher. But I don't know, I think him and Curtis Douglas is going to keep each other in the division for a lot of years.

I'm kidding. Good for each other. Employed. Keep each other employed in the Atlantic Division in the state of Florida. face if you punch mine and we'll just get keep getting paid just don't it's it's funny too hey like what are we talking about last week uh i mentioned um uh kyle friedrick the monster tampa employed for like 15 or 20 games who just like terrified the nchl he would have been i think six foot six and now they come back with curtis douglas who's six foot nine yeah and just and just

mangling guys who how am I going to say this properly develop the ability to fight late like I remember he broke Jamie Devane's orbital bone in a fight James was a tough guy

and but that was at a time where I don't think that Curtis liked doing it but when he did it he would like win decisively right real real tough but he looks like he's really sort of grown into the role right now. And watching, obviously, a six-foot-nine guy,

Scrap, hello, Matt Rempey, hello, Zadain O'Chara is always interesting to watch. Those guys are interesting, Jeff. A quick note on, like, side note on it is like, you think about in the, let's call it the old days, which I know you're not going to like, but how guys would have to come through juniors and then they'd be like, oh, I can't score goals anymore.

I'm going to have to do X, Y, Z to stay in this league. Chris Barch. A lot of times it was fight. Chris Barch. Skill player in the O.HL and then got to NHL. Yeah.

Right. And they're like, how am I going to stay? How am I going to play in the NHL? Okay, I have to do this. And then guys now, it's like, the one that stands out to me and I've talked about it is Nick Robertson. It's like, okay, now you don't score the same. Now what is it that you do?

And sometimes these guys, it seems like there's a refusal. Like, no, I do this. And you're going to find a way for me to do this, or I'm going somewhere else. And then it's like a guy like Curtis Douglas comes along and he's like, oh, God, okay, I'm six foot nine. I guess I got a fight. I'll fight.

He figures it out. How am I going to make the NHL? No one's going to reach my face so I should be okay in most of these scraps. Yeah, exactly. That fight against Curtis McDermott, like, holy cheese. And McDermott's tough, but. Yeah. Douglas, man.

Who, new shark in the water here. Avalanche, by the way, Nathan McKinnow, the second goal of the game. Jesus. Say a prayer. By the way, James Van Riemsdike is scoring today. He's scoring. I don't do this often of calling it or ever really. Is that because he's going to be on morning cup of hockey?

That's because he's one of the new regulars on MCH. Let's throw that in there, sure. He's Detroit Red Wing playing in Toronto today. He's going to score. He's going to score. He's going to score. All right. Well, we'll see if you're leafy.

He's going to pick up their feet a little bit. After all that turkey and the 2-6-0 Canadian teams. Real positive, Jeff, feeling real good today. You're feeling good. You're feeling good about your squad. You're feeling good about Big Blue getting underway here in a couple of moments. Go Blue Jays. Scrooge Bank Arena.

Okay. All right. On that, we'll wrap things up, let you get on with your Thanksgiving. If you're watching us or listening in Canada, happy Thanksgiving to my friends and neighbors in my country. And thanks to everybody for listening slash washing the program today. Either on your favorite podcast platform or on YouTube, we thank you for your attention. Do all the janitorial things, the likes to subscribe, the subscribes. It means a lot to us.

So please, if you can spare yourself the click, we would love to have it. Thanks to Shannon Goldman for stopping by the program from The Athletic and the Too Many Men podcast. Also, Hart Levine, the conceptual genius behind Puckpedia for sharing his thoughts and expertise and some contacts too on the Lane Hudson deal with the Montreal Canadiens. Thanks to you for stopping by. Tip your Zamboni driver.

Thanks for the buns and the use of the hall. We are off the air. Back tomorrow, 1 o'clock Eastern for more of the sheet. Thanks for joining me. I spent 16 hours last night every day this week, every day this month.

I can't get out my head. I lost all ambitions day to day. because you can call it all right I went to the dark man and tried to give me a little medicine I'm like now and that's fine I'm not against those methods but I knew

it's me and myself and how this is going to be fixing my mind I'm going to back I turned on the music I didn't want to break I'm using It's an up, help out

And you sometimes losing You know, I've been on the days that we're wrong. Well, I always come back to the summer night. Well, I always come back to the summer of 2005. We were staying at a cottage on Lake Joseph here in Muscoca watching the Live 8 music festival in Barry on television.

My buddy Jeremy Taggart, former drummer from Our Lady Peace, dropped by after his band's set and stayed the rest of the weekend at the cottage after the band's set and told some incredible backstage stories about some amazing Canadian music icons. I will never forget that. And fast forward to today, I'm a hockey parent. And I feel like I'm always on the road.

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