The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Larkin Requests Trade, Leafs Almost Moved Knies, Canes Even Series ft. Steven Ellis & Gerard Gallant

Episode Date: June 5, 2026

Jeff Marek and Zack Phillips kick off today's episode of The Sheet by diving into the biggest NHL stories making headlines, including the stunning news that Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin has reportedly requested a trade and what it could mean for the future of one of the league's most iconic franchises. They also break down the trade deadline deal that nearly saw Matthew Knies sent from the Toronto Maple Leafs to the Montreal Canadiens before ultimately falling apart, examining how different both organizations could look today had the blockbuster move gone through. Later, Daily Faceoff prospect analyst Steven Ellis joins the show to discuss his latest NHL Draft rankings and mock draft, identify risers and fallers ahead of the NHL Draft Combine, and spotlight the prospects generating the most buzz heading into one of the most important evaluation weeks of the hockey calendar. Then, longtime NHL head coach Gerard Gallant stops by to share stories from his coaching career, offer his perspective on the Bruce Cassidy situation, discuss the challenges coaches face when changes are made late in the season, reflect on his experience coaching in Shanghai, and explain why he's eager for another opportunity behind an NHL bench. All that and much more on today's edition of The Sheet with Jeff Marek.#TheSheet #JeffMarek #NHL #Hockey #DylanLarkin #DetroitRedWings #LeafsForever #GoHabsGo #MatthewKnies #NHLDraft #DraftCombine #StevenEllis #GerardGallant #DailyFaceoff #NHLRumoursSHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼 Canadian Blood Services: https://www.blood.ca/👍🏼 Ninja: https://www.sharkninja.ca/ninja-crispi-pro-6-in-1-countertop-glass-air-fryer-rose-quartz/AS101CRS.html?utm_source=Meta&utm_medium=Paid+Social&utm_campaign=H1NinjaCrispi&utm_content=NinjaEN&dwvar_AS101CRS_color=cdb9b8Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@FNBarnBurner🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoffReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So if you were doing, how should we describe it, topic triage, how would you do it today? Welcome to the sheet for this Friday, June 5th, Jeff Merrick along with you. We have an absolutely packed one here for you today. If you are going to choose the biggest stories of the day, I suppose it would depend on where you are regionally. If you're a Carolina Hurricanes fan, we know what the biggest story is. If you're a Vegas Golden Knights fan, we know what the biggest story is. If you're a Montreal Canadiens or Toronto Maple Leafs fan, you know what the main story is.

And if you're a Detroit Red Wings fan and considering that it revolves around Dylan Larkin's trade request, I would also say if you're a fan of any of the 31 other teams in the NHL, you'll probably say the Dylan Larkin trade request from the Detroit Red Wings and how it got there and how it got that bad between the captain and the the team and the general manager, that's probably your lead story. But we'll see. Zach and I are going to throw it around, chop it up a little bit. So let's bring you what's on the show today as we broadcast once again live,

if you're watching us on our daily face off YouTube from Dishon, the coolest place in Buffalo. One of the coolest places I've been. This is an absolutely amazing shop. All right, the blueprint is powered by Fanduel. Download the app today and play your game on Fanduel. Coming up on the program today, we have a number of guests. including Stephen Ellis here at the Combine, has his draft list out right now.

Check that out at daily faceoff.com. Gerard Gallant will stop by. NHL slash KHL coach, former NHL player as well. We'll get into it with Gerard. Again, the Dillen-Larkin trade request. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about the Matthew Nyes, Montreal deal that fell apart between Toronto and Montreal

and what happens next. Oh, yeah, the Carolina Hurricanes, even the season in the Stanley Cup fall in another banger of a game. Well, do I say banger of a game or a banger of a third period of a game and draft rankings? We'll get into as well.

As we bring a board, before we get to Stephen Ellis and Gerard Glant. Zach Phillips, Philly, you would love it here, by the way. Like, every time I walk in here, I've come here three days in a row, I'm like, this would be like heaven for Zach and he would not want to leave.

And he'd walk away with a bunch of skate skins, and they got stick wraps too, and they got great hats. and like the whole deal, man. It's a really cool place and a bunch of great guys here who all love everything about hockey. So I walk in and right away, it's a 15-minute discussion on everything. But as we sort of chop up the sort of main stories of the day, I'm going to let you do triage on this one.

So you're like the first nurse that we get to as soon as you walk into the emergency war. There's a whole bunch of different topics. What do you want to get to throw them out? We'll chop them up. Okay, I'm going to be selfish. Very selfish. And you know where I'm going with that. Matthew Nyes.

Let's talk about what the hell happened with the Matthew Nyes deal that didn't happen as our guy, Dave Penauda, broke yesterday. What is going on in Toronto for that to take place? How do you get to a point where that deal is even agreed to? Because I have not been able to wrap my head around it since it broke yesterday. So it's Alexander Jarkovsky, who is a second round draft pick, highly-toated prospect. another defensive prospect, I believe Bryce Pickford from the Medicine Hat Tigers who just had an unreal season for Med Hat and two first round picks.

To which I say a couple of things here. One, if you're spending that much futures, if you're the Montreal, we'll focus on the Montreal Canadian side of things here for a second. If you're spending that much future capital, I'm kind of surprised we're not doing it on a center. First of all, like if you're spending, if you're spending that much, you're using up that many resources if you can't use, I'm kind of surprised that it's for a winger, albeit, you know,

great young power forward. But that to me sounds like what you're using when you're going fishing for a center. But nonetheless, if you're the Toronto Maple Leafs, so we've heard all, and no one has really gone on the record about what happened specifically in the Toronto Maple Leafs trade deadline. war room. We've heard a lot of rumors. There's been a lot of talk about how frustrating it was for Brad Trilliving to do his job that day. So part of me says not surprised that this one

didn't get done by three o'clock. But the other part of me that if I'm a trying to make a police fan, I'm saying to myself, if you're going to market, if you're going to market, if you're going to market with Matthew Nyes, you just dodged a bullet. Yeah. You just dodged a bullet. Like you can, like there are teams that can do better than that, hands down. Like, I know, it's like, oh, but there's two first round picks.

Those are a low first round picks. Montreal is a good team. They're not picking in the top 10. Jarkovsky is a really good looking prospect. Bryce Pickford is a really good looking prospect. But none of these guys have played a single shift in the NHL. and two of these guys haven't even actualized as human beings yet. So if you're going to market,

like I look at it from the Toronto point of view, and it looks like they dodged one here by this one, not getting in by the 3 o'clock Eastern deadline. How do you feel about it? You're a Maple Leafs fan. How do you feel about it? Well, it's not a one-to-one comparison, but it starts at this for me in that,

have we not learned the lesson from the Nazim-Cadry deal? Like, did we not learn the, You don't let the dogs go, a sentiment that he put out after he won the Stanley Cup because the day they lost Nazim Kadri, they spent every minute after that day looking for Nazim Kadri. And in essence, they kind of found one in Matthew Nyes. He's 23 years old right now, 24 in October.

Like, he's a young guy to half. Then, as you just pointed out, I'm not going to rehash it, but the package that you get back, I think you can get back better. and the final point that I want to make on this, Jeff, is, yeah, what the hell are you doing calling the Montreal Canadians to make this deal? I'm sorry, but if you think you're going to be competitive in any sense in the future here within even like the next four to five years, let's even put it at that. Let's skip past three.

Let's throw three away. Let's say four to five. I think the HABs are still going to be a really good team then. Guess who still will be under contract based on his new deal he signed last summer, Matthew Nyes with the Montreal Canadiens, which would then be a team that you would have to go through. And oh, by the way, you just messed up a deal in your division with the Boston Bruins and Brennan Carlo and Fraser Minton.

Like, are we not learning from these deals that you've just made mistakes on and then looking at teams that you have to play numerous times a year for the next however many years and saying, yeah, we'll make this deal. What? that's the the other part of this too is and we'll move off this one in a couple of seconds but the other part of this too is from the montreal point of view you bring in a premium young cost controlled asset five more years 7.75 million dollars a very reasonable a v for a power forward um and you don't touch a single piece off your roster you don't touch

anything off your roster you can understand understand why Kent Hughes would be miffed that this one didn't go down or this one didn't get this one didn't get in the queue by 3 o'clock Eastern that is that would have been a whopper for the Habs. Hall of Fame fleecing like a Hall of Fame fleeting. I know Marco says they don't put statues up for people who don't win Stanley Cups. They might have to make like some type of exception to pull like a plaque on the wall. Like the day Ken Hughes stole Brad Tree Living's, not just his fingers off his hand.

but his hand off his arm. Like he would have taken the whole thing. That one would have been a banger. That one would have been a massive deal for the Montreal Canadians and one of those slaphead moments, I think, for the Toronto Maple Leafs. By the way, this segment is a presentation of Canadian blood services who invite you to experience what giving feels like in a world that can feel isolating and divided.

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what you get when you give. At a moment when many Canadians are looking for positive ways to show up for each other, Canadian blood services are issuing an invitation to new donors. Fill every donation share in the country this summer. Book at blood.ca through the Give Blood app, recall 1-3-8-2-Dunate, 1-8-888-1-8-8-8-8-9-2. donate. The other one really quickly, Stephen Ellis standing by, I want to get to him in a second here, really quickly, the Dylan Larkin trade request as well. My main question, Zach, through all of this is, how did it get this bad to the place where it ended up getting public? To me, that's the big story in this one. This is your captain. This is your franchise. This is your player that we all look at playing in international hockey and say, oh, get this guy in the playoffs. He's fantastic. This one, to me, the story here is

the complete botched relationship between Steve Eisenman, general manager of the Detroit Red Wings and his captain Dylan Larkin and his representation at CAA. That one to me is the story here. Normally when this happens, it's okay. We're going to do this. We're going to keep it quiet. We don't need the noise around this one. This is all noisy, all noisy here.

And the obvious teams will pop up. We'll wonder about the Florida Panthers. We'll wonder about the Tampa Bay Lightning and we'll wonder about the Vegas Golden Knights. We should probably wonder about the Dallas Stars through all of this. Maybe because Pat for Beaks Association in his previous employment with Detroit, maybe we should look at a team like the Anaheim Ducks. But now that it's public, there's no way to go back. That's pretty obvious.

And you've kind of forced Steve Eisman into a corner here. Do you have a quick thought on that one before we get to Stephen Ellis? The only thing I would say is it's not surprising. You kind of laid it out. The relationship was a little rocky publicly. We saw the comments about not getting support and the team not being good enough from the Eisenman and the pushback there. So you could kind of see that one coming in the Emist of playoffs here yet again.

So not overly shocked. The one thing that I kind of have in the back of my mind here, Jeff, and I'm sorry Ottawa Senators fans, You're not going to like to hear this, but I'm wondering how many of these guys over at the Olympics this year were having conversations. I wonder if Larkin's over there and he's seeing Hughes and he's having a good time in Minnesota

and they're talking about how good it is. And remembering Hughes didn't get traded to Detroit because Isamond didn't want to pony up the package it was going to take. You know, like those kinds of things. And I'm wondering if we start seeing more dominoes fall because these guys, they got in a room together. And they all started talking about how much they love playing in the place that they're in. And some guys looked around and went, I don't really have that.

We shall see. I don't think this is, again, like I really do believe this will be the summer of trades and is kicking off now with the trade request by Dylan Larkin. By the way, there was a hockey game last night and the Carolina Hurricanes in a great third period at a great overtime, pulled even with the Vegas Golden Knights. We do, by the way, have to get to this because this should be the headline story. but there's the combine and the prospects. Dry Gland's going to stop by in a couple of moments,

and there's the Nye's situation. And as you just mentioned, the Dillon Larkin situation, as Bob Cole once said, everything is happening. And so we'll try to squeeze it all in here to the program. Stephen Ellis joins me now from Daily Faceoff, and the mock draft time is finally upon us here. And Stephen, first of all, thanks so much for popping by again.

And before we get into the mock draft, I want to share a couple of things with you. So at the combine, always interested in the questions that teams are asking. You know, questions to trip to trip you up. Last year, I think it was St. Louis that did the picture of the kids sitting in a chair in the field and the prospects were asked to give us the story how this kid got to sitting in this chair and every kid had to make up a story about it. So what Nashville did, I thought this was interesting.

What Nashville did is they were asking the kids to stack golf balls. They gave them two golf balls, and said stack one golf ball on top of the other golf ball. And the reason why was to see how long they could focus on a single task before getting frustrated or just abandoning it altogether. But here's another one, Stephen Ellis, that I'll present to you. The New York Islanders were asking prospects what they would do with something. And they would put before the prospects a brick.

Here's a brick. What can you do with this? And then the kids had to say what they would do with a brick. I don't know what you do with these things. I think it was Nashville, too, that would ask, like, one of the questions was, would you rather have a four-year career and one Stanley Cup or a 10-year career and no Stanley Cups? And my thought was, and one of the players that I talked to said they just answered,

yeah, the four-year career at the one Stanley Cup because teams want to hear. hear that you're focused on winning the Stanley Cup for them. I talked to another team and brought up that question, and they said, I'd rather hear the 10-year career because that means that you love hockey. And we want guys that love hockey. You don't just want the cookie. You want to play hockey. We want guys that love playing hockey here.

So it's essentially a no-win situation for a kid in some people's eyes. Do you ever thought on these goofy questions at the Combine, Stephen Ellis? I was on off the roster yesterday and they asked me if I'd rather like stab somebody or shoot somebody. It's like that's a question that's asked in the NFL. It's like what in the world? Yeah. I guess you're trying to find out the psyche of a player. Like for me, I would love to know which players are like utterly insane.

Like which guys are out there trying to go out there and murder guys in the future. But, you know, hey, it's for fun, right? it makes for good talking points to get the players loose and up like, yes, I don't know. I've never had like a good answer for this. There was one. I'm going to, I'm going to, hang on. Let me just find his name really, really quickly here.

There was one player. Oh, Henrik Borgstrom. This is back in 2016. He ended up going to the Florida Panthers who just had like terrible interviews. Like they thought, I remember one team said like, they thought that he was like falling asleep during the interview. This is like the president 2.0.

And there was one team that actually had to bring them back for a second interview because they couldn't believe how bad the first one went. So like I as we continue to look for other ways and especially on on digital media to present like the behind the scenes of what happens, there's some of these interviews that just must be slam dunk crazy. like just off the charts anyhow I thought I'd soften you up here to start our conversation

with a couple of those so this is what your Gavin McKenna's are being asked mock draft is out shocker you have Gavin McKenna going number one Evar Stenberg going to Chase Reed right hand shot from the Sioux going three Caleb Malhotra

Brantford Bulldogs at four Keaton Verhoff at five do I have this do I have this right or am I going off. Might be a different list here. No, you know what? Hang on. I got this,

already I've got this wrong. I pulled up your wrong list. So let me hang on. Let me get this. Let me get this one right. Go over your top 10 here because I think we've built a board for it. Here we go. Mock draft time.

There we go. Now I got your mock draft. So hang on. Maple Leaf's taking McKenna. Sharks taking Chase Reed. Malhotra going to the Vancouver Canucks. Stenberg going to the Blackhawks. Carl's to the Rangers.

Verhof to the Calgary. Flames and other D. Vigo Bjork to the Seattle Cracken, Albert Smith, the left shot defenseman from Latvia, going to the Winnipeg Jets, Wyatt Cullen to the Florida Panthers, and Tyne and Lawrence, the center from BU going to the Nashville Predators. Where would you like to begin on this one?

You know what? Let's go of number two, because that's where things kind of get interesting. Like, I think if you watch Stenberg, you have to have a very good argument to pass on a guy like Ivar Stenberg. I think, with his talent, what he's been able to do this year.

And he was having like a New York historic first half of the year in Sweden. And he trailed off a little bit, but then he came back alive at the World Championship. I think that really opened some eyes there. But Samozerre really needs a defense. I think the big question here is do the sharks, do they believe that Chase Reed is a number one defenseman in the NHL? And then the argument is, does he need to be a number one defenseman in the NHL? Not every team has a true number one bootliner. But what he could go out there and be

is be this all-around impactful guy that does so many different things at both ends of the ice. And I'd say, yeah, you know, he checks the most boxes as the best offenseman in this draft. But then you're leaving some talent on the board. And that's a question.

I know a lot of Sharks fans are like, oh, well, we don't need another winger. We don't need another forward. It's like, well, the argument is you can have a lot of one position. That's okay because your needs are going to change. And if you have a lot of good wingers, you can start trading them off.

offer if you have a lot of good centers, start moving them to acquire some more immediate help. So I think it's something where you look at that and say, like, you're still going to pick best player available. If I'm number two, I understand the idea for Chase Reed, but I pick Yvars Stenberg. It just doesn't feel like that's the way it's going to go. And then Vancouver, you know, they just hired Maney Mahalter as a coach. Do they draft his son? Do they put that pressure on him?

That's something I personally would not want to do because that's unfair to the player. It's unfair to the coach. what happens if, you know, what happens if Manny gets fired in two years? It doesn't work out. And they're like, will there be some bad blood for the guy they drafted third overall a couple of years ago? Like, that's one where I just, you, it's a great prospect. I love Caleb Malhotra.

I know you love Caleb Malhotra. But just given it's Vancouver at number three, then that pressure, like, it doesn't make sense. And if he doesn't go to number three, does he go to four? It's, this is about as open and wild of a top 10 as we've seen in recent memory. I was going to say, and does, could you see anybody else

other than the, some of the obvious names, Stenberg, Malhotra, Reed, maybe Carl's slipping into the top three. Essentially, what I'm asking is,

do you think there's going to be, do you think there'll be shocking news up at the top? And by the way, one general manager that I talked to yesterday, because there's all kinds of speculation about San Jose is going to trade this pick

and Chicago's going to move all that. He said, I'm not expecting, any of it. We're going to do what we always do. We're going to go and we're going to make our picks. And that's going to be it because that's how we do it in the NHL. But do you see any shockers? Like, Vigo Bjork goes third.

Do you see anything like that? I can see that. You know, would Wyatt Cullen going high this year be surprising to anyone given the way his season went? I don't know. At this point, I think, you know, I've been asking around a bunch of different scouts. Who's the first defense when you take?

And Chase Reed's name was number one, but it wasn't overwhelming number one. Carl's name was there. Some have Verhof, some have Smits. Got some Rudolph's names in that conversation there too. I think Rudolph could definitely go top five. I think people are really kind of ignoring his true potential. And you could say he played on a good team this year in Prince Albert, but he was the best

player. And when you're a 17-year-old guy, you're the best player on a top major junior team, like, that means a lot. And I think, you know, it's, it's, I don't know if we're going to see anyone go crazy. like when Beckett Seneca went up, third overall that year, he was shocked. There were rumors about that for a week that he was going to go number three. I guess he ignored those pretty quickly, but I think it's one where that one was still surprising.

Obviously, it worked out quite well for Anaheim, at least in the short run here, but I don't know if we're going to get that this year. Maybe we'll get up a defenseman. Maybe Chase Reed's not the first defenseman off the board, and maybe it's a Gallic Smith. Maybe it's someone like a Daxon Rudolph, but, you know, I'd also watch off for Wyatt Cohen. that's a name that's going to throw around a lot as a potential top five pick. What happened to Keaton Verhoff here through all of this?

Like, Keaton Verhoff could have stayed in Victoria in the Western Hockey League and just dominated the league. He would have been right there with Daxon, Rudolph, and Prince Albert and Carson Carl's and Prince George, as one of these elite defensemen coming out. Instead, he went and played at North Dakota, challenging first half of the season. When you're playing against competition like that,

lot of your flaws get exposed and highlighted quickly, I would have to think that you would temper evaluation, negative evaluation about him based on the quality of competition that he played against, like i.e., playing against much older players on a consistent basis. Why is there not more noise around Keaton Verhof? He's got the size. He's got a bomb. What am I missing? I don't think it's necessarily anything about him.

I think there's just a lot of other defensemen that have kind of shown up and maybe proven that could be, you know, slightly better skaters, better under pressure type thing. But I think with Verhoff, if he went to the W.HL, or staying in the W.L. Like, he could have probably got 30 goals this year. He could have put up, like, Sam Dickinson level numbers, what he was

doing in the O.HL a few years ago, and everyone would be like, whoa, okay, this is really fun. But it wouldn't be better for him as a player. Just like with Gavin McKenna, they needed those flaws to be exposed to make them a better player. And that's a thing, like, whether he gets drafted, you know, fourth overall or drafted,

10th overall or 15th overall, it's not really going to change much about him because, you know, there's still so much development room here. And it feels like a guy like Chase Reed or Albert Smith, they're probably more like NH already at this point. They probably are more well-rounded. But with Verhof, he's still got a lot of room where if he figures out how to just improve his skating, be a bit quicker, a bit more mobile, I don't think we really have any concerns about his game at that point.

So if that's all it takes, well, guess what? That's one of the easiest things that an NHL coaching staff or a skating, coach can work on. So that's a good thing. It's not like we're talking about like hockey sense necessarily being something they got to rework here or the physicality or the size. He's got that there. It's just for me, a lot of it's just he's not as great of a skater some of these other guys. I think he should be in that conversation for the top five.

I just think a couple other guys are a bit more refined at this point. And that's probably where they're talking about Verhock. He's still very raw, but he is still one of my favorite prospects in this draft. And he is also like super smart kid. He knew like it sounds like he was like the one who really wanted to. make sure he was going to the NCAA and taking the next step forward. And I think he's going to be totally fine. Gavin McKenna.

So John Shaker today saying that it looks like the Maple Leafs are keeping the pick. I mean, everything is always for sale for the right price. But it sounds very much like the Maple Leafs are going to make the pick and they will take Gavin McKenna. There's a theory out there that he should go back to college for one more year and not jump into the NHL. Are you one of those people that's subscribed? to that? Not at all. Not at all.

I think, you know, if you're looking at Toronto, one of the reasons why Easton Cowan stayed in the NHL for the whole season when he probably could have played a lot more in the H.L. Was because he got to learn from guys like Austin Matthews, John Tavares and guys like that who could be these big leaders in the room. And I think with McKenna, going and playing in the NHL, you're not expecting, you don't necessarily need him to go out win the Cullter trophy.

It's actually quite hard for a first-year player to do it. Matthew Schaefer is one of the rare exception. in recent memory. But I think when you're looking at here, go and learn from those guys who've been through the journey. Like Matthews was obviously a very highly sought up the prospect. John Tavares was an exceptional status player. Like they know how to handle the pressure.

And I think that's something where learning from those guys right away is very important. And like I think he can play a top six role right away. Let's also not forget, you know, he didn't go out there and put Macklin Celebrini numbers up on the board this year. But his second half of the season was still one of the most productive second half we've seen in the NCAA by a draft prospect of all time. So, and I think I saw a chart where he was like literally number one in the second half of the season. So I think you look at that, you see what he did at the world juniors.

You see his elite playmaking, his elite thought process out there. Like, he should be in the NHL next year. And I'm always on the board of if there's any doubts, don't rush the guy. I don't, I don't have any doubts in his, in my mind that he's going to be an impactful guy right away in the NHL. I think you could put him on the top line. He can kind of fill that playmaking role that, was gone after Mitch Marner left, and maybe that finds a way to get that spark of Host and Matthews,

and then, hey, all the rumors of what's going to happen with Matthews and Nylander going forward, those disappear. Let me throw an aim out at you here, who had a tremendous U-18 and is sort of in the spirit of, can you see someone jumping up earlier to grab him? And that's the defenseman, Maltagostovson, who as we get closer and closer to the draft, more people are talking about how good this kid is.

What should we know about Malte Gustafson? He's a big guy and he's not flashy, but it doesn't matter. He's very refined already as a defenseman. And then watching the U-18s where he showed a lot more power of the puck, a lot more poise, we showed that he can stick handle and make these high-end passes very consistently. He could run the power play. Those are things we just didn't necessarily see from them all year long, but we're so intriguing.

And that's a guy that at this point, if you told me he's like the second defenseman off the board, I wouldn't be surprised. And I think I got him like, you know, somewhere in the 13. Top five? I think you have him at 14. Like you could see him going top five, Maltay Gustafson. Like that could be the first shot in the draft. That's a name that's been thrown up much higher than I think probably should happen. Like I think a lot of it is recency bias.

I think part of it is, you know, he had a good tournament. But he was a big part of why that team won. of metal. Like, Sweden was looking really bad. They lost, like, 92 or something in, like, the pre-termine or 7-2 against Canada. They got crushed by the Americans, and then they had to win the whole tournament. And I think what we saw from Gustafsson was when they needed him to

really show up, he did in a way that no other Swedish player was doing. And yes, like, I think, would I take him at the second or third defense mouth the board? Probably not, but I can see the argument because he's a mobile defenseman that really came alive in that second half, and he's got the big frame. So

it's kind of a perfect storm there. Is there anything, we'll close on this, Gerard Gland is standing by, is there anything that you look for at the actual combine itself when the kids are doing the V-O-2 Max and the force plate and the chinnies and the sprints and all that kind of stuff. I remember talking to Matt Nicol, who now works with the Ottawa Centers. This is years ago where the combine together to say, like, what is interesting here for you?

Like, what's the main information piece that you take away? And he said, for me, the main thing is, I want to know where players are pre-disposed to having an injury. I just looking for like, show me where the weak spots on all these players are. But is there anything? We'll close on this, Stephen. Is there anything that you look for specifically at the actual combine itself? I think from a very base level, I want to see which guys have grown over the last couple months.

Like just seeing like, like Will Horcoff grew like a tremendous amount last year and added a lot of muscle and a lot of weight. And he was flying through all those physical drills. you know from a mindset perspective i think the one thing i'm always looking for is like the detail the players give you in an answer when you're doing the media interviews because this is when they're at their most relaxed point they're done they don't have to do any more crazy drills they don't play any more games they're not going on a road trip like they can actually relax a little bit and they open up a little bit but i'd like to find out the mindset of a player and one of them that was very interesting was actually um mckelly eager off got drafted by the new jersey devils a couple

years ago and he's one of the top goalie prospects in the world right now and i asked him like how do you stay focused? And he said, like, he goes onto Steam, like the video game platform on a computer, and he goes and looks for indie, like independently designed puzzle games. And I'm like, okay, so why? And he says, because for people to want to buy these games, they got to come up of creative ways and creative thought processes behind, like, why you should buy this game, but also what makes this puzzle game unique. It's like, okay. And he uses those games where he studies them, how they're built and things like that as a way to kind of just think outside the box and not, you know, just to be more of a creative person or more of a

creative player. And, you know, for a goalie, that's quite interesting. But a mindset is everything for a goalie. Like, you can have an outstanding goalie that lets in a bad goal and get stuck in their head and then their game's over. And, you know, I think that's something for a guy like you grew off to see just how mentally strong he is. It's like, okay, that's quite interesting. So it's looking for little tidbits like that. Like what makes a player think the way they do to get creative? And that's to me the most important part. You can see Stephen Ellis's mock draft available right now at DailyFaceoff.com.

kicking off with Gavin McKenna, number one, to the Toronto Maple Leafs, going all the way down to Maddox Dajunay to the Ottawa senators in this mock from the Quebec ramparts. A lot of rumors around him. Stephen, always good for you to be on the program. Thanks so much for joining us to share your expertise today. Thanks, pal. Draw the Combine. Thanks so much.

Thanks so much. There is Stephen Ellis from Daily Face Off. Let's jump right into our guest who's been waiting patiently and standing by. There was no Combine in 1981 when he was drafted, but nonetheless, we'll get his thoughts on some of the kids that we're seeing now. He is Gerard. Gellard, it's Jeff. How are you?

Good to see you again, pal. Good, Jeff. I'm well. Hey, what do you? I always like, I was saying I was talking to Dave Gond. yesterday with Wasserman slash the team and some of the kids were there and I was asking about his draft

and his experiences back then and how different it was. I was talking to Don Waddell yesterday. He said he didn't know that he was drafted by the Kings until three days later he found out. What was your draft story from 1981? The infamous Dale Howardchuck draft. Yeah, no, I mean,

I had no idea the draft was that day either. I'm a little bit like Don Wadale. I found out later that afternoon. My mother-in-law said they got a call from Mr. Skinner with the Red Wings at the time, the GM. And I was laughing. They were saying, well, the draft's not until tomorrow. So she said, well, they told me to tell you to call this number. So I called the number.

And sure enough, it was Detroit Red Wings. They said they drafted me in the sixth round today. So I was pretty excited. But, again, it wasn't that big a deal back then, you know, because you didn't pay attention to the whole draft. And, you know, you just hope to get your name called. when you when you see like what it's become now with like I mean even just the combine like I remember what then you do too like it just used to be like you know one day at a hotel hall like near the airport in Toronto and it was in and quick and do a couple of pushups and bench press and then and then off you go now it's a week long event and the interviews continue to get at times more bizarre and more bizarre um all the time and it's uh it's it's become like its own sort of separate beast that runs alongside the NHL

season. And Gerard, you've been there to see all of it. Like, what goes through your mind when you see where the draft has gone now? Yeah, it's incredible. It really is. The work that the guys put through, I mean, watching the players so much and watching them everywhere in the world. But you get to that week like you talked about, and I sat in on some of the interviews as a coach and didn't ask questions. You're just listening. And I'm listening to some of our scouts, And I'm saying, you can't ask that question.

You can't ask that question. That's a stupid question. But they're doing it for a reason. You know, I found that out after. I said, why would you ask that question? And he said, Turk, we just want to see the reaction of the kid when he asked him something stupid. So it was funny.

And I'm just here saying, we're embarrassing ourselves, but I understood it after quite a bit different way after the scout tells you, this is why we're doing this and this is why we're doing that. That's hilarious. Gerard, we're going to ask you to reconnect your audio is a little bit off. So we're going to applaud you down. If you could give us a buzz back, I'm talking to Gerard Gallant, NHL coach last year in the KHL with Shanghai,

former NHL player, was that combination of toughness and skill, which, and we'll get into this with Gerard in a couple of seconds, seems to be really coming back in the NHL. And I've got a great story. that I want to share with you, and it involves Gerard Gallant when he was coaching with the Florida Panthers, and it involves a second round draft pack.

And in a lot of ways, like when I think about Gerard Gallant, the coach, I think of this tiny little story that one second round draft pick told me about being on the bench with Gerard Gallant in a really tight game with the Florida of Panthers and how he said something to him that always stuck with him. And it, in a lot of ways, just shows you how much of a players coach Gerard Gallant is and has

always been. And we'll probably continue to be so as well. So we'll get more with Gerard here coming up in a couple of seconds. Again, the headline story is just to reset for the day. More details emerging on the botch trade between the Montreal, Canadians and the Toronto Maple Leafs involving Matthew Nyes. We talked about that a little bit earlier in the program, but speaking of trades, it's rare to see a superstar player request one, even more rare for a captain,

a long-time captain of a team to request one, but that's where we're at right now with Dylan Larkin and the Detroit Red Wings. As Elliot Friedman reported yesterday, there has been a trade request made. I don't exactly know when, but there has been a trade request made between Dylan Larkin and his camp and the Detroit Red Wing. So that relationship headed for a divorce.

I'll tell you, one of the things, and because right now what everybody is doing is trying to create their own mock drafts for their mock drafts for their own team. And when someone like Dylan Larkin appears on the market, everybody gets pumped for it and like, okay, can our team do this, regardless of who you're at

and where you're at in your winning cycle or in a lot of ways, like whether Dylan Larkin has you as a team that he'd agreed to be traded to. One of the things that someone asked me yesterday is because there are a number of teams in Philadelphia and Boston would be a couple of them. And specifically the Boston Bruins,

how much sweeter would it be if the Boston Bruins included the Maple Leafs unprotected pick? More on that one coming up in a couple of seconds. Gerard, I just teased the story a second ago. and I don't know if you'll remember this. It was a tiny, tiny little moment in your life. In your life, this moment took about 15 seconds, but it meant the world to one player.

So you're coaching the Florida Panthers, and John McFarland got called up, and he's on the bench, and it's a tight game. Now, John only played a couple of games at the NHL level, played a lot in the minors. He does coach in the GTHL now. He's sort of on that coaching path too. But so I was talking to him after he got sent back down.

And he said, I just had the best experience with Gerard Gallant. And I said, what happened? He was I was called up and I'm on the bench and it's a tight game and it's a third period. And I know I'm not getting on the ice. Like there's no way that Turk is going to throw me on the, I know that. But he said, you went over to him and you didn't have to do this. you went over to him as a rookie, a kid, the kids barely played the five minutes in the NHL.

And you went over to him and you said, you know what, kid? If I was a better coach, I'd put you on the ice. Problem is, I'm not a good coach. Hang in there, kiddo. And he's like, that meant the world to him that you would take like 15 seconds out of a TV timeout to just go over to him

and make a joke about yourself to make him feel better. I don't know if you remember that moment. You probably don't because you've had it a million times. I just think that it's important to tell people when they've had effects on people's lives. And that 15 seconds, I can tell you for a fact, meant the world of the world to a young John McFarland.

Yeah, and, you know, he played pretty well that night. And like you said, it's a tight game at the end of hockey game. It's getting tight. And, you know, you want to play everybody. I'm the type of coach that plays everybody they give them heavy opportunity to play. So I don't remember that total, you know, with incident, but I remember the kid when he got called up.

But, you know, you want them to play. You want them to be involved in our game. And whether it's their first NHL or early in their careers. And, you know, I like the kid. He played hard and he worked hard and he deserved a chance. It's just like whenever people ask me about you, I always tell that story. I'm like, this is a guy that went out of his like, everybody on the bench.

Sure, you know, Barkoff's getting attention. All these other, the stars are going to get attention. and he took time out to talk to, to talk to McFarlane. First of all, Gerard, how's the health? How are you feeling? 100%. Yeah, much better. I wasn't feeling too good in Russia, obviously, when I come home there and I resign from the team in Russia.

But that was in mid-January, and I've seen some doctors down here and everything's back to 100%. So feel real good. And there's a bit of a scary time over there with the health. but like I said, once I get back to Canada, everything straightened away and feel great. So it's a clean bill of health, ready to coach again. We're all on the same page about that,

ready to coach again and looking forward to that opportunity? Definitely, yeah, definitely. How do you think you've evolved as a coach as the years have gone on? I mean, players have changed, teams have changed. Everything has changed, and you've watched all of it. Everything's changed in the NHL. But what are the things that stand out for you and how do you think you've changed through it?

No, definitely big changes. I mean, I first started coaching, obviously, with Columbus Blue Jackets, when Doug McLean gave me the opportunity to coach. And Columbus is an assistant coach with Dave King and those guys. So there's been big differences. I mean, when you're a young coach, you don't think experience means a whole lot. But once you get the experience and you go through a lot of different things, you know, playoff hockey, 82 games, I don't know,

if coached 7, 800 games, and as a head coach, somewhere in that area, So the experience and going through these little things and, you know, makes your decisions a lot easier. I mean, I remember my first experience going through with Columbus and being the head coach. And every day you're making some different decisions about should we practice tomorrow, should we give them a day off? And, you know, they really warn a coach. And now the more experience you get, you don't worry about those situations. You make your decisions and you live with them and you go on. So, you know, like I said, as a young coach, I was a worry.

about that all the time. But you just get more experience and you feel more comfortable. And you know, that's the biggest thing with me. When I look at your your resume, like it's a, Gerard, it's really impressive. I'm not going to lie. I guess it's a really, really impressive resume. How active, I'm curious, like, how active are you in sort of calling out or do you wait for calls to come in? Like, how does it work? Some guys really go out of their way to market them. themselves, other guys, just, you know what, I'm going to wait and the calls are going to come in. How would you describe yourself? Well, I'm a quiet guy.

I've waited for three years now. And I really waited and it was hoping something to come up by now. And it's been real quiet. Besides a couple of general managers who reached out to me two years ago, you know, with, you know, Bradtree living as one when they're getting ready to hire Barrowe. And also Kevin Adams and Buffalo and they were talking about Lindy rough. I mean, both of those guys give me a call on the phone. and explain, you know, we're pretty sure we got our coach, but if we don't, you know, you might be a good option for us.

And, you know, they're up front and they were honest, and it was a 30-minute call, and it was great exactly how you know, expected things to go. And, you know, I knew both of them and both of them told, without saying their names. I knew, you know, that they were close to getting their coaches. But at least they reached out and at least they were straight up and honest with me. So that's all you can ask as a coach, you know. Sure. I always, I'll be honest with you, I always thought that, and I think you might have been

close back in 2017. I always thought that somewhere along the way you were going to end up in Dallas with Jim Nell. Was it ever close in 2017 with you? Was it? Was it like right there? I was like, Gerard's going in here, Gerard's going in here, and then they went Hitchcock. Yeah, no, it was real close.

I mean, yeah, we talked a lot. Obviously, the Vegas thing was going on. But there was, I play with Jimmy Nile. We were a good friend. We played a couple years together. And there was some definitely conversation. So there was some close to go in the Dallas for sure. Yeah, that was, like, when you look at how it all comes together,

so much of it is, you know, people that you've known in the industry, maybe guys that you played with, like, what's the dynamic like from a, from a coach's point of view when, like, say, a new general manager goes into a place? Like, is it that that manager, like, right away looks for, associations from before like everybody looks for like okay so who's got the inside track who's who's got the edge is like is that the way that it generally works like when new general manager takes over or someone gets dismissed you're like okay I know this guy from this team this guy from that team and that's the way you get in I think a little bit but honestly I think

when you're getting a new general manager job when you go into an old organization you want to do what's best for that team I mean you want to keep your job And sure, you might have some friends that you know are pretty good coaches and that. But at the end of the day, you're going to pick the guy who's going to fit your team the best. And, you know, obviously when, you know, me looking around and then open the opportunities, and you see some general manager and say, well, you know, George connected to him or, you know, those guys are connected to certain people. And, you know, you definitely think, especially the media, they think out loud and say,

well, there's connections there. That's going to work out. But like I said, some guys, they have trouble. hire some friends at times. You know, you're trying to do the best for your older. And you're going to hire the best guy. And so I don't think anybody's going to go out there and hire a friend just because he's a friend.

He's got to be a good coach. He's got to be the right fit for them. You know, I always, like many people, sort of find it odd. You know, stack up back-to-back hundred point seasons. And then the phone stops. Like, what's gone through your mind the last three years? Like, why not? Yeah.

That's the funny thing. Like, I mean, the Rangers thing was a, for me, it was a very positive, very good success. I mean, you know, when I went to the interview for the Ranger job, we talked about, the rebuild was just over, and they thought they had a pretty good team, and really we thought we were probably going to battle for a wild-car spot in that division. You know, we ended up finishing right behind Carolina. We had 110 points and went three rounds in the playoffs and lost the defending champs in Tampa Bay in six games. So very successful first year, went for eight.

And then the next year I thought it was outstanding also. We had 105 or 107 points. I can't remember what it was. And unfortunately, Jersey finished a point or two out of us. They had home ice and they beat us in seven games. We got off to a great start in that series. And we're up two games and none on the road and we come back home. We just didn't play the same way the rest of the series.

So, you know, we had a tough seven or eight days. And at the end of it, I paid the price. And then I really haven't had much opportunity since that. So that's the tough point. The disappointing part is I thought we did an outstanding job for those two years in New York. And then since then it's been real quiet. So I heard it finish some days, but you move on.

I get it. Would it only be a head coaching position you'd be interested in? Or could you see yourself as an assistant coach or an associate? I don't see myself being an assistant. I mean, I'm not saying if somebody calls or we talk to the right person, but right now I want to be a head coach again. Was there, let me, let me circle to your playing career really quickly. I love asking players this.

Was there a team, because maybe growing up was your favorite team, was there a team that you always wanted to play for, but didn't get a chance to? I mean, I was thinking a Canadian team, you know, you watch Toronto, April League, you watch Montreal Canadiens every night in the maritime when you're a kid growing up, that'll be seen the most of those games. But honestly, I used to cheer for whoever of a P.E.I.

played, like Rick B.I played for Toronto and Errolson played in Toronto. So I cheer for those guys. And then when the New York Islanders were winning their cups, Billy Macmillan played for them. So it was, you know, it was easy to cheer for them. But I never really had a team where you say, that's my team. When you look at, I want to ask you about a couple of teams your coached previously. And right now we're watching the Vegas Golden Nights in the Stanley Cup final.

Like what goes through here? I'm like, I'm always curious, like, looking at other players that you coach. You talk about like, you know, you wanted to watch RV with the Maple Leafs. Like, do you get that way about players that you've coached? Like, are you watching the Stanley Cup final going like, that guy, that guy, that guy, that guy. Oh, McNabb, got a shot in the face. I feel bad for him. One of the OGs, like, do you watch it that way?

You just watch it through the players that you had? Definitely. You know, a lot of those guys, the four misfits that are still there that are our first year with Vegas. You know, seeing McNabb get hit last night. I mean, I keep waiting. Should I send him a little text just to wish him well and hopefully he's okay? So it goes through your mind all the time. And those, you know, those four guys are a big part of our group back in 2017.

We went to the finals and real good people. And you're very happy for those guys, definitely. I feel for Riley Smith right now who's having a high can't get in the lineup. Yeah. Like it's, like they almost got an embarrassment. Yeah, you keep winning. What's that? What's that?

You keep, they'll keep winning and then Raleigh's a good hockey player and I'm sure Torts doesn't want to change the lineup. So what do you do? It makes it tough, but you're in the finals. And, you know, somebody goes down.

I'm sure you'll get back in because he's an outstanding player, smart two-way hockey player. Let me ask you about John Totorel. This is an interesting situation. I mean, we've seen this before. We saw it with Lou. We saw it with Larry Robinson.

Like, this isn't new. It just doesn't happen very often, and taking a team over that late in the season. It's not like he can do a whole bunch of different systems work with a team, but you have a thought on how Tortorella has done this with this team to focus it to the point where Vegas will have split in the Stanley Cup final. I think he's done an outstanding job. And he said it best just to get out of the way.

Like I don't think he's going in there saying, we're going to do this, we're going to do that. I mean, I think the systems are the farthest thing from the issue. I think he went in there and he said, you know, guys, let's get back out of here. Let's do a little, but nothing. I don't think anything's changed. And Torch said that a few times early on in his interviews. He said, you know, he's a veteran guy and he's been a serious guy.

And he went in there and, you know, give him a little pat in the back. We'll give him some motivation. But I don't think he's changed the whole lot. And I think he's been, you know, it's a great job for him to go in there and do what he's done. So credit for him just to get out of the way and let them play. And at least that's what he's saying. And I believe exactly what you're doing. Let me, before I close, Gerard, let me ask you about your experiences.

I know it was cut short, but your experiences in the KHL, like are there stories you're taking away from it? What are the stories that you'll tell for the rest of your life? We've heard a number from various players that have gone through. Like, how would you describe coaching Shanghai and the dragons in the KHL? It was very interesting, obviously. I mean, the city in St. Petersburg, our facilities in St. Petersburg, the arena, it was first class, second and none. I mean, we had an NHL arena. Our travel was very good. The city in St. Petersburg was excellent. You know, and the hockey's, it's the second best. There's no doubt in my mind it's the second best league in the world. I mean, they've got some very good talent and they're skilled players. And who I enjoyed, for the most part, until I got sick, I was really enjoying myself over there. It's not for everybody. You know, I mean, I don't know how long I would have done that if I wouldn't get sick.

But I enjoyed my experience and they treated this well. But the only thing that I thought very was negative is I think they put a lot of pressure on people. And they want to blame somebody every time you lose. They got to, they're blaming that. They're blaming that. You know, coaches get fired. We think it's bad in the NHL while it's twice as bad over there. They're firing coaches all the time.

assistant coaches. It's almost like they're trained assistant coaches all the time. So, you know, but overall it was very good. And, you know, I was glad I had the experience and, you know, I'll never forget it. So that people were good and the organization

was good. Let me, let me close on this because I hope to see you back in the NHL. Like the NHL is always better when people like you are behind benches and are involved in it. A team wants to hire Gerard Gallant. What are they getting in this coach right now?

Well, they're getting an experienced guy. That's, I mean, every team I've got, and I hate pat myself in the back, they're trying to, you know, but every team that I've coached, for me, I come into Florida and the Panthers run a very good team. And we improved by 25 points the next season and missed the playoffs by one point. The next season, we finished first in our division, and we, you know, made the playoffs first time in a long time. Then I go to Vegas, and we all know what happened to Vegas.

I mean, again, it's, you're going to be a lot. and it was a dream season for us. But the three years in Vegas was excellent. And with the Rangers, I thought I had two good years. So I think I'm an experienced coach that gets the most out of my players. And I've made the playoff seven out of eight years. And in those last nine years that I've coached, eight years that I've coached. So it gets frustrating after a while, but I totally understand the situation.

You know, there's a lot of good coaches out there. But, you know, I hope I get one more crack. You've got the track record. And it's the envy of a lot of people in the coaching fraternity. Gerard, I certainly wish you the best. I'm glad I got a chance, face-to-face, sort of, to share the John McFarland story with you because it's one of my favorites. I was like, this is Gerrari Galant.

This is Gerard Gallant. Thanks, pal. We'll catch up real soon. Okay, Jeff. Thanks very much. There he is. Gerard Gallant, NHL coach. Hopefully NHL coach again.

Like, I say that legitimately, Zach. Like, it is better. The league is better when they're, people like Gerard Gallant involved in it. Okay, this segment is a presentation of the Ninja Crispy Pro countertop glass air fryer. Get faster, crispier results at home or on the go with legendary Ninja Air Frying Power. Prep, cook, serve, and store in non-toxic clean crisp glassware. Get more out of your air fryer with the Ninja Krispy collection.

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information on the Ninja Krispy Pro, visit the link in our description, or go to shark ninja.ca. Let's spend a couple of seconds here at least because we really didn't give it. It's proper. I suppose by talking about that game last night. And the first game was wild. The first game was just fun. It's three three. It's four four.

I guess it was two two, two nothing. Like that was just a flat out fun game. yesterday was was different and just as an aside man watching braden mcnab take that eeler's shot right in the face i know nobody wants to have this conversation but somewhere down the road this sport is going to have mandatory face shields or mandatory cages it's going to happen just like it did with helmets just like it did with visors because there's just way too much at risk. And now with defensemen and just players from the point in general,

shooting higher than before, like now the shots from the point are at the hip because you tip a puck from the hip, it can either go up, it can either go down. You don't know. So more shots are coming in hip level, which means some of they're going to get away from the guys

and they're going to go even higher. I don't know, man. That one was a frightening one to watch. that one was flat out scary. It was, I don't know if you have a thought on it, but I think that, like, again, it might not even happen in my lifetime, but somewhere down the world,

there's going to be mandatory face coverings for hockey players. Yeah, eating that thing square on was, I think, the scariest part of it, right? He's just standing there watching this puck come in, and you could see his face kind of squint as the puck comes through. I think it caught him on the bottom of the visor. I don't even know if you should say luckily, but I think that probably prevented a little bit more damage than if it had been a little bit lower down on his face

or if had had gotten up underneath it. But yeah, it's a scary moment. I mean, the quote that they brought up on the broadcast here in Canada of him, I did think was kind of hilarious. I don't know if you caught that, but he said, okay, he said he'd rather, paraphrasing, but he'd rather be hurt from the puck, essentially. he'd rather feel the pain of the shot block. This is prior to the game, let's be clear on this.

But Bryn McNab had said, he'd rather feel the pain and the sting of the shot block than the pain of watching it go by him and into the net. And I was thinking, well, that's a timely quote, given what just took place here on the ice night. Good timing. You know, it's one of those ones where a hockey player is never going to say, yeah, I wish I didn't get in the way of that one.

But today, he's probably feeling like, I wish I didn't get in the way of that one, especially given that puck was going maybe three to four feet over the net. But I don't know, man. I don't know if I'm, I don't know if we're going to see the mandatory full shields that soon. I don't know if it's going to be that soon. I don't know if it's going to be soon.

I don't know that it's going to be soon, but everybody grows up playing with it. Yeah. Everybody does. I switched back, by the way. You put the cage back on? Yeah. Or are you going quarter-vise?

So you switched. Cage back on. You have to do it, man. You have to do it. Trust me. I didn't want to do it until I got that Sean Cullen slap shot in the face. 35 stitches outside the nose, upper lip, inside the nose. I was like, what am I doing?

So you'll be mad at me, but what happened was want to draw back to the corner. Defenseman went to clear the puck hit me in the side of the face. And I just went, that's it. And nothing happened, no damage. And I went, that's my sign. That's Jeff giving me. you know, a little slap across the facing, put the thing on. Yeah.

My buddy Jay had something had something similar. He was like the quarter visor guy the whole way. And he played pro in Germany and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he got so messed up with a shot in the mouth that it was two and a half, I think almost three years of dental surgery. Just back in the chair, back in the chair, back in the chair, back in the chair, back in the chair. Or you can put on a cage. or put on the fish bowl.

What do you want? That's what I said. That was my warning. You got your warning. Put your cage on. That's good. Okay, so Houdin with a pair, and we're thinking like,

holy smokes, howden is like the new John Drews. That's for you, olds. And it's two nothing. And then the third period rolls around. Logan's stankhoven. A little bit of a lucky one,

but great forecheck to back off, to back off the defenseman. and then banks it off Noah Hanofin and Mark Jankowski. Like somewhere, Jay Feister smiles. That's the guy drafted in the first round. There was the coach's challenge on the Barbashev goal, which was waived off. Yeah, can we stop on that? You have a thought on that one?

Oh, the Dorofi, the Dorofi of play? It was confusing at the time. It was confusing at the time. Okay, so this is what I want to ask you. I don't want to ask you, should this have counted, should this not have counted? or whatever. I want to ask you, would you have challenged? Jeff Merrick is behind the bench,

tie game, third period, on the road. Does Jeff Merrick, the head coach of the Vegas Golden Knights, challenge this call? Yes, and here's why. We've already won the first game. If they would have lost the first game, because in some ways, the idea is, oh, we already got what we came for.

We wanted to split. Everything else is gravy. So at that moment, you're saying, I'm risking a power play to Carolina. I got it. But we've already got our game in our hip pocket. And we could go up to if it's successful. And there's a non-zero chance that I might get my way. So yes.

But I do wonder if Carolina had won the first game, if John Tudorella still would have challenged that one. Because you don't want to go back to Vegas down to Cobb. To me, it was all about where the series is at, as opposed to just that moment. I don't know if John Tortorella thinks that way, but that's how I would have thought about it. What about you? Okay. Yeah, no, that's fair. Taking that into consideration, I would agree with you.

That aside, just based on goal, no goal, I wouldn't have challenged this because a few factors. One, how emphatic and I'm forgetting the official's name, who called this here. Johnny Bear. Johnny Bear. Okay, thank you. He was emphatically calling this no goal. Yes.

And it was very determined that this wasn't. I believe the stat that they revealed on the broadcast was that 96% of challenges. When the call on the ice is no, they stand. No goal. They stand when they go to review for these instances. So with that in mind as well, I probably lean a little bit more towards not challenging. But even just the play itself, my personal opinion was Barbashev pushes Freddie Anderson to dislodge that puck. And therefore, I thought it was the right call that it was no goal because Barbershev's stick, Jeff, flexes.

Oh, yeah. He's moving something. And it ain't the puck from that spot on the ice. So I thought it was the right call. But given the context that you just laid out, you know what? I will walk back. Go for it. My thought, and I think that that is a good point that you bring up.

And that that's probably a pretty appropriate time to go gambling and say, hey, let's take a shot. We've got, first of all, Vegas's penalty kill is good. We've got a chance to go up to nothing here back in our barn. And, you know, we might just get what we want here. And if not, we can probably kill off. a penalty. We can, our, like, this is like one of those moments where we can probably kill this thing off.

But what a great tip I stall. What a great tip that was. And the place. Okay, Jeff. Yeah. Let's, uh, let's stop talking about the game for a second here. Unfortunately for everybody wants to talk about the game, because we have breaking news that just happened right this second.

What happened? The, uh, Nashville Predators have hired Rob Blake as their executive VP of hockey operations. Okay. So that's a name. Hang on. So that's a name that had been out there for a while. I was told a long while ago that he did not want to be a general manager again. So this one doesn't exactly surprise me.

There was some, it's interesting. There was some talk early in the Nashville process about Rob Blake going in this role alongside Brendan Shanahan. take that for for for for what it's worse so not necessarily a surprise here that was a name that that was one of the early names that popped up once barry trots decided to decided to step away but that would have been blake in combination with someone else shanahan and maybe somebody else ryan gettslav lives in uh it lives in Nashville George peros lives in in Nashville maybe those names pop up to but I don't it that that's not a massive surprise because he had he had been in there we believe early in the process

Yeah, fair enough. Do you think then And do you think then there's some more front office additions to be coming here to the predators that They're maybe not going to be like move the needle, But there's going to be some notable ads here to that to that group as we move forward. I think you add Farland, you add Rob Blake like what next? What's next to decide whether this is the coaching staff you're going with? Now, normally what a new manager will do is bluntly by himself time, right?

And every coach has a certain number of bullets until everybody turns around and says, now the problem is you. And one of those bullets you want to keep in the chamber as long as possible is a decision on the coaches. Because one of the things that a new manager comes in and says is, I need to get a good look at how everything works. And if you follow the belief that when a new general manager, manager gets a job. His first job is to keep his job. You try to stretch out major decisions for as long as possible. But I do believe a sort of decision on are they sticking with Andrew Brunette and his group

or moving on from them. I think that's probably the next decision and the next announcement, I would say, Zach, that we're probably looking for here from the National Predators. but it sounds to me just talking to people today like he's Chris McFarlane has already hit the ground running calling everybody right like calling everybody associated with the team either you know players or agents that have prospects on the team putting together plans for all of them

like communication plans and development plans like he hasn't come in here to sort of take a backseat or just like ah you know I got the draft and that's all I'm going to focus on. It sounds very much like McFarlane here has come in and hit the ground running, which is good for the National Predators, because that's what they need more than anything else. So I'd say, Rob Blake takes a position there.

Where were we? The Seth Jarvis overtime winning. You know what? You know what? Oh, yeah, the game. It's so funny, hey. I'll be honest with the NHL hates this. The NHL hates that right now there is so much.

talk of non-game issues around the NHL. Like in the NHL's perfect world, all we're talking about is the Stanley Cup final. All of it. That's why I don't think the NHL is too thrilled with Vegas's shenanigans or however you want to describe it with Bruce Cassidy because it distracts away from the game itself.

I know that they understand that hires are a reality that you have to do, always preferred. And if you look historically, when teams do them, hires happen on off days. Or big news from teams happen on off days with the understanding that business needs to continue, but at the same time, they don't want it to interfere with the games. They all have the attention on the game. So make no mistake about it.

All this stuff. Dylan Larkin, Bruce Cassidy, everything. Not loving it. You're the NHL, you're not loving it. The Seth Jarvis goal. Can I get there? I just want to make one really quick point. Can you call it up?

Because Shane Gostis Bear makes a beautiful play. Watch Gostis Bear fake a shot here from the point right there. He's lining up like he's going to shoot. And that freezes Carter Hart. And Jarvis has, I don't want to say an easy goal, but an easier time because he has more time to get that shot off because Carter Hart has to respect the shot from the middle of the ice and freezes. And Gostis Bear makes a gorgeous pass and a perfect sweet.

spot for Jarvis to one time that thing. But that was made by Shane Gostis Bear with the fake shot. I know if he could bring it about. Watch Gostis Bear drop in from the point. He pulls up his right leg like he's going to shoot. So everyone's got to respect the shot and then fires it over to Jarvis. It's a beautiful play by Shane Gostis Bear. He's looking straight at the net.

He's got the left leg cocked like he's firing this thing and then slides it over to Jarvis. that is an elite play by Shane Gostis Bear. Beautiful. Yeah. And then the place comes unglued. The other thing it just forces hard to do is he has to decide where he's going to try to look through that screen, right? Because as soon as Gostis Bear comes down, he's realizing, okay, he's coming across that way. I'm going to have to fight through the screen here.

Oh, and the Pucks on the net. Because it goes across to Jarvis, and it opens up that lane for him. Yeah. It was a, it was a unbelievable. playable play. This was the same day that on this program, Greg and I talked about how awful Jarvis has been. And then he goes out and scores like the biggest goal.

I text to Greg after him. I'm like, I'm sorry, man. Two things can be right at the same time. And by his own admission, like this hasn't been the best possible playoffs for Seth Jarvis. But happy for him. I'm not sure if you saw it, but it's a great postgame interview with Emily Kaplan as well.

And you can tell how that's such a relief off of him. And now game three, the venue shifts to Vegas. And we get Saturday night hockey, Zach. And that is going to be a lovely thing. This episode is brought to you by the good folks here at Dission. You know how most hockey gear and apparel all kind of look the same? Dishin decided to change that. They're a Buffalo-based brand clothing.

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Again, like I'll say it once. I'll say it again. Zach, this place is made for you. It really, really is. And it also is made for you. This segment. It's the NHL season and Fando is your home for all the action on the ice. From Blue Line to Batslip, we've got you covered all season with unique promos,

live offerings, and more features to let you play your game. Miss Puck drop, no sweat with the live same game parley. You can build your bets up until the final buzzer. Download fan dual sports book today and play your game. Please play it responsibly, 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor, free of charge, Zach.

Yeah, so I want to focus here today on one market that Fend will have. to update last night in real time and specifically surrounding one player i don't know if you know where i'm going with this jeff but the con smith award odds uh they changed drastically when one brett howden scored his second goal of the game last night so if you're looking right now on the youtube uh you'll see up the con smite trophy uh odds courtesy of fandwell if you listen on the podcast basically we have displayed here right now about 12 names up on the screen and it ends off at Keondre Miller, who's 175 to 1. Jeff, yesterday, before the game, I believe Brett Houdin was sitting there around 150 to 1.

So he was just ahead of the likes of Andre Svetnikov, Shane Gostas Bair, Carter Hart, and Kiannre Miller. Before the series even started, before game one, Brett Houdin wasn't even fitting on this list. There were about 15 to 17 players ahead of him. Now after two games, Brett Houdon at plus 1,200 behind only Mitch Marner, Freddie Anderson, Logan Stankovin, and Taylor Hall. Could you see a path, Jeff Merrick, to Brett Houdin, winning the Konsmite trophy? So you look at, just focus on those two goals that he scored yesterday. Like, that first one, he just, like, outmuscles Sean Walker.

Like, he's got Walker draped all over him, and he shrugs him off to score. And the second one is great how he stretches Freddie Anderson around the crease. So I think we marvel at the number of goals. But I'm always more interested in how they scored them. Like that's why I always considered, you know, Jeff Carter, you know, one of the great goals of his era because he scored so many goals, so many different ways. And that's not to take away from players who like, you know,

dine out at one-timers from the half-wall. That's cool. But to me, the thing that's impressive, too, about Brett Howden is the different ways in which he's scoring goals. It's not like he has one way to do this and he's going back to that all the time. Like, that first one was really impressive. Because that's just like, that's just like determination and hard work.

And the second one is like, is skill and patience. So like two distinct ways to score those goals last night. So is there a path? Absolutely there is. Like if this continues for the remainder of the series, he's already got 13. 13 goals in the play.

Brett Howden. Now, I know he's playing, you know, with some pretty elite company with Mitch Marner and William Carlson's the center there. Guys that make the game easy. But getting that round black thing over the red line, probably the hardest thing to do in the NHL and that one's going to better than Brett Howden.

So, yeah. Yep. Yeah. I know. I know the voters sometimes like, you know, the sexy names, looks good on the NHL when the big stars are winning it. I love it when guys like this win it.

Or like Sam Bennett, win it, right? So it's not always. Yeah, we don't need to just hand it to guys like to further fulfill a narrative or anything like that. Like we do not need to be doing that. You know, of all years, we don't need to do that, Jeff. I'll tell you that. 2010, I thought Duncan Heath should have won it. 2010, I thought Duncan He should want to Chicago Blackhawks.

And I remember talking to one of the voters and that person said to me, I'm not going to see who it was said to me like, yeah, but it looks better on the NHL if it's TAVs. Oh, oh, that's a real tough. You ever thought on that one? I would rather vote for the person who deserves it the most than the story that I think fits best. But I think that's, as somebody who's not a voter and as somebody who will be jumping over to Fandul and being a part of these things, that's something you have to consider. every time you're trying to predict awards or trying to bet on awards just to be blunt about it, because that's something that I try to do frequently and bring them up here on the show is,

what's the story? Sometimes it's not the best player. Sometimes it's not the best coach or whatever who's going to win said award. It's the guy who fits the narrative or fits the story. And I don't know. I'm with you, but sometimes it sucks. So you're like, ah, somebody should have wanted it. They did an unbelievable job and had an unreal year.

Have you done the whole, like, I'm sure you have because everybody has, where does Dylan Larkin fit the best and the most? Like, if he's going to Philly, is it Michikov and Ziegress that goes back the other way? What's the package from Dallas would have to include Jason Robertson, if it were Anaheim and Mason McTavish and Pavel Minchikov? Like, is there one that jumps out to you that's really, really obvious? Well, yeah, but the package, there's no package that I could see. fitting and it's the uh you know cue joe biden voice minnesota like where does he fit where how could he line up with a team's positional need that kind of stuff but i don't know what the package is that goes back the other way so that's the one that jumps off the page but i don't know how

minnesota makes it work i i don't i don't know like that's the obvious one to me but i see fire's fans have been in the chats they want where yeah Well, if you want to focus on Minnesota, if Quinn Hughes says he won't resign, is that how the Detroit Red Wings get Quinn Hughes? Okay. So tin foil hat in this. I said it a little tongue and cheek earlier when I was talking about the guys having conversations. But do you not think that part of this fallout here for Larkin requesting the trade

is that his boy, Quinn Hughes, wasn't brought to Detroit? and that Steve Iserman didn't go in enough to bring Quinn Hughes there and then I and I know that's the larkin side of things and my speculation but does that also involve a conversation from Quinn Hughes being like what the hell happened because I took the comments that he made about having balls to bring him in as a somewhat of a shot at Steve Iserman when he got brought to Minnesota um yeah perhaps perhaps I think that I think that the the the one of the main stories here with Dylan Larkin is, and we saw this erupt a little bit, not at this most, not this year, but last year, where Larkin wasn't shy about taking shots of Steve Eisenman

for not doing enough and not helping the team enough. And then Eisenman fired back and essentially said, you guys didn't deserve it. Like these are, I remember it happened at the time, like, this is going to play itself out bad down the line unless you dipped us in a bud right now. now. And that's why I thought it was so crucial for the Red Wings to make the playoffs this year. I mean, you're the Detroit Red Wings now, and you've seen, because I think a lot of this is just all about, like, Steve Eisenman's inactivity to move this thing forward quickly. You've seen Buffalo leapfrog you.

You've seen Ottawa leapfrog you. You've seen Montreal leapfrog you. When we were talking about these four teams and which one, as they were all rebuilding and which one was going to emerge first, did you have Detroit emerging last? because they're last. And who knows how they're going to be able to improve by getting rid of Dylan Larkin, regardless of whomever they bring it at this point. Like now everything changes for the Detroit Red Wings

because there's going to be a lot of teams that will be offering younger players or draft picks to the Detroit Red Wings. How are you going to make a trade that gets you the players that you want or the players that you need to stay competitive? as he can make it back into the playoffs next year. Things just got really, really harder with the Detroit Red Wings. Really hard.

Yeah, you guys have said a ton of times. I think you have brought up the phrase about you're no longer in the green banana business. It's time to get out. Yeah, they're not. You know what Dylan Larkin trade unfortunately kind of pushes you towards more green bananas in Detroit. Like you need to find a way to make it not green bananas. Elias Linholm. and the Toronto Maple Leafs unprotected first,

which may, which hang on, that, and I think the NFL still has to rule officially on who's getting the picks first. But if that's two years from now, unprotected, there's no guarantees that Austin Matthews is still on that team. So that unprotected first could very well be. Close your ears, Zach. The first overall pick.

No, they've got McKenna mania coming here. He's going to change the first. futures of this organization. No, but on a serious note. Yeah, okay. Okay. But like, does that satisfy what they're looking

for here? Because Elias Linholm, I love Elias Linholm. But it's like you're putting a band-aid on a bullet hole here losing Larkin and then bringing in Elias Lindholm and then you have to do major surgery around

around the team still here. Like, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's hard to say it's a short-term fix because you're getting a first-round pick that, as you did point out, which I would hate to admit, could be a very high pick. Let's just not coin it first overall. Let's just say it's very high. Let's, please take it easy on me here, but a very high pick. Yeah, that's great.

You're going to have that coming, but then, like, Lies-Lenholm, what does he have left in the tank? Now, you could flip Elias Lindholm at the trade deadline if things aren't going your way. But then that's also the other conversation of now things aren't going your way and you're having to look at the backup plan. Like that, it, Steve Eisen has got a tough job here. It's not good. Dude, it's bad. Like, that's what I'm saying.

Like, the more you talk about it, the more you talk yourself into these corners. I'd rather call Montreal. I'd rather call Kent Hughes. Does he go to Montreal? They need a second line center. They do need a second line center. It's a very good team. They will be in the playoffs next year.

I'm calling St. Louis nonstop if I'm them. By the way, can I make a quick point about St. Louis before you wrap up here? You can do whatever you like. They're too quiet. They're too quiet right now. They have a new general manager who's sat at the feet of someone who was at times quite aggressive with things like, offer sheets. We do believe that, you know,

they're probably going to look to move out a lot of veteran hockey players there as they redo this squad to reflect, you know, the emerging style of play and a new look for the St. Louis Blues. Am I the only one to think St. Louis might just do something massive here?

Like, really massive. Because I could see Thomas getting moved. I could see Kyra. were getting moved, conceivich getting moved, like Pareko getting moved, Bennington getting moved. Maybe the big movers in this off-season

will be the St. Louis Blues because they have a new general manager and when you're new in the chair, but you've been around a while with your organization, you've been thinking a lot about what to do with this organization when it gets to you. That's why I wonder if Alex Steen is a big mover in this one.

Yeah. I mean, I could see that. I'd start, if I'm in St. Louis, I'd start with Jordan Kairu, because then you see what the return is. And then I think that helps you determine where you go on a guy like Robert Thomas. You already have. Because I think you've engaged. Yeah.

You tested the marketplace at trade deadlines. You have a good sense of what's out there and what's available and what you're able to do. I don't know. I just want to make sure that we throw it out there. Like watch St. Louis here. Pay attention to St. Louis. For sure. For sure.

Okay, I got one question for you. I know we want to wrap. We've taken up a lot of people's time here on this Friday. But you guys brought it up yesterday, and I was thinking about it the entire time I watched that game yesterday. Freddie Anderson is not going to be the one to tell Rod Brindamor that he's tired. Rod Brindamor is going to be the one to tell Freddie Anderson that he's tired. Do you, and you guys said it would happen even a loss in game two going into game three. It wasn't a loss.

You want an overtime. Freddy starts game three. Freddie starts game three. How short is that leash? He made the saves he had to, but he didn't give them the saves that were above and beyond. He could have made some saves last night. And you know what? That game tying goal, I'm not a goalie expert.

That was a grenade he threw back into the slot. Like it's a soft wrist or through. Marner, I know exactly what he's doing. He's looking for a tip, a deflection, a rebound, whatever. Freddie punched that thing back out like he was trying to you know set the exit VLO record in the MLB this season

like that thing came flying off his glove there was no need for that at that point that could have just been like a soft deflection into the corner a nice easy wrap up and instead you're going to O.T. I mean if they're getting blown out in game three he gets the hook. Okay.

Like if it's if it's 3-0 on 9-0. shots in the first period, he's getting the hook. Like there were, those two Houdin goals after that second Houghton goal went in, everybody was screaming for him to get pulled. I think you're going, I don't want to say he going period to period,

because he has earned, he has earned some rope here. But if it's like three goals on nine shots, four on 12, you're probably getting him out of there. You're probably getting him out of there. Like that first 10 minutes on Saturday, can be fascinating because that building's going to be crazy

and they're going to come out full of energy and fly in. Carolina's got to survive the first 10. Carolina's got to survive the first 10. And Freddie Anderson's got to survive the first 10. But Freddie Anderson gets to study. Freddie. Freddie's got to survive the first 10, Jeff.

Look, man, I like Freddie and I don't want to disparage the guy here on this show to end the week. But I'm familiar with Freddy's game, Jeff. I'm familiar with the Freddie Anderson game. I know. This has come so far, though.

The finals then is on and the Nation Network all over it, every game, every storyline, every big moment, from pre-game breakdowns and post-game reactions to exclusive interviews, expert analysis, and the conversations driving the hockey world. The Nation Network and Daily Face Off are delivering wall-to-wall coverage throughout the finals.

This is hockey's biggest stage, and we're bringing you closer to the action every day. Like, follow and subscribe to the Daily Faceoff. YouTube and socials and stay connected to the finals from the first puck drop to the last game. Three is Saturday as the venue now shifts to Nevada. Thanks to Gerard Jarlant for stopping by the program today. Always good to catch up with the man they call Turk. Always good to catch up with Stephen Ellis as well as mock draft available right now at dailyfaceoff.com.

Zach, excellent work as always. Thanks so much for putting the finishing touches on this program. I know it was Dicey getting to air as well with various tech problems. so thanks so much for the efforts as always. Thanks for our friends here, addition for providing a really cool space to hang out here in Buffalo for the last three days. Thanks to you for watching.

Thanks to you for listening. Interacting on the chat as well. Thanks so much for being part of it. Please subscribe and please come back on Monday at 1 o'clock when we will talk about game three and preview game four. And maybe Dylan Larkin has a new home by then. We'll see.

The draft, by the way. way, just got that much more interesting, both because of prospects, where they're going, and also trades. Talked about the summer of the trade. This could just kick things off. Have a great weekend. Enjoy the hockey. We're back back.