The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Latest Around the NHL ft. Caleb Malhotra, David Pagnotta, & Andy Strickland

Episode Date: December 5, 2025

Friday’s edition of The Sheet is loaded as Jeff Marek unpacks the Toronto Maple Leafs’ renewed identity after Matthew Knies’ power-forward finish and a bottom-six that finally looks like a true supporting engine. Jeff and David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period go big-picture on the Dallas Stars post-Tyler Seguin injury landscape — from LTIR leverage to potential targets like Rasmus Andersson, Blake Coleman, and Nazem Kadri — plus how Jake Oettinger and Jason Robertson shape the West’s Cup race. Later, top 2026 riser Caleb Malhotra of the Brantford Bulldogs joins to talk development, pressure, and growing under the guidance of Manny Malhotra. We close with Andy Stricklanddiagnosing a bruised St. Louis Blues roster, schedule drag, and why teams like Utah and Seattle lurk for top-six star upgrades.SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Bauer: https://www.bauer.com/👍🏼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/@FNBarnBurner🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Okay, here we go once again. Welcome to the sheet for this Friday, December the 5th. Jeff Merrick along with you today. Twitter, which was the name that X was assigned at birth, is not being our friend today. You're getting the same thing, Zach, when you rely so much on your life online, essentially being everything for you. Moments like this, eh, let's see if this works. No, not happening.

Yeah, I'm having issues. It doesn't make it any better, but yeah, I'm having issues. What kind of God would allow this, Zach? What type of God would allow this? Anyhow, we'll cross our fingers and hope that everything works out. Hey, your team is hot, but now you have no goalie. Zach? Now it's time for the Hilda Beast.

The future. The future is here. Yeah. Yeah, I'll tell you what. Like, I know we've spent a lot of time roasting the Toronto Maple Leafs. We're going to get to the rundown here a second. We've got three huge guests coming up in a couple of moments. I know we've had a lot of, we spent a lot of oxygen on the show this year,

taking rips at the pinata that is the Toronto Maple Leafs. They looked really good last night. They looked really good last night. I got to give it to them. They look really good, especially Matthew Nyes. On that move to the net on the goal. That's big boy hockey. Cannelly, Kevin Stevens.

Rick Tocke it. Like, that's like Peter Forsberg. Classic power forward move to the net. Some would say Matt Sundeen, which is why he was always miscast as a center and should have been a winger.

But nonetheless, I digress on all of it. That was an impressive win by your boys last night. I got to hand it to you. Yeah. Not that you had anything to do with it, but I got to hand it to you. Well done, well done, Zach. First sip of coffee.

to you. The credit should go to Rosie. He called the bottom six on Friday, a bunch of warm bodies. And since then, they've had three straight games where they've looked like they have an identity, to say the least. So credit goes to Rosie for that. You know what the big insult is, though? When you want to wake someone, when you want to wake someone up? You know what you call them?

What's that? A jag. Just another guy? Just a guy. Just a guy. How's your bottom six? A bunch of jags. Just a guy.

Just a guy. Just a guy. Yeah, that's a tough one to hear. What kind of player is he? He's a jag. Just a guy. Just a guy. Kind of just in there, just doing his thing.

Just a jag. Just a guy. Anyhow, we got a lot of heavy hitters here coming up in a couple of seconds, so let's let you know what's going on. We'll start it off the way we do each and every program here with the blueprint. And the blueprint is, of course, powered by. are friends at Fanduel. Download the app today and play your game.

Check out this lineup and check out some of the topics who are going over to wrap up your week and get you set for the weekend here on the sheet. Dave Pad Noda is the Daily Faceoff Insider from the fourth period. He will stop by. I look around the NHL. I think a lot of people are curious what the Dallas Stars are going to do with some newfound cap space here.

One door closes and other opens. You feel awful for Tyler Sagan, but that does afford Jim Nell. opportunity to do some things. Caleb Malhotra is a name you're going to hear a lot of leading into this year's draft. Caleb Malhotra, I would imagine, may follow in the footsteps of Beckett Seneca and maybe Brady Martin, guys that may have started their draft season outside the first round.

And by the end, you find out that they're top five. Do not be surprised if Caleb Malhotra, the Bannford Bulldogs, yes, he's. He is the son of Manny Malhotra, if you don't know already. You will be well acquainted with the Malhotra story by the time the season's over. That's his dad. So second generation player, Father Mani, we'll talk about, we'll talk with Caleb coming up at the bottom of the hour. And Andy Strickland will stop by. It's always good to zip around the NHL with Andy, but more pacifically, as we say in the Atlantic.

We'll talk about the St. Louis Blues. Why? Because they have the worst goal differential of any team in the NHL at a dash 20. And coming off a big loss against the Boston Bruins. They travel to Ottawa now. In the meantime, Dave Panyoda joins me every Friday here on the sheet. This week, no difference. And with that, we welcome our DFO Insider from the fourth period of Dave Panyoda aboard.

Dave, how are you today, pal? I'm good. I'm good. I'm out in L.A. The weather's a little better than Toronto. You know what day it is at the Merrick household? It is rinkliner day. And it is freezing.

like let's say the stars are at dash 29 we're not quite there yet on the Celsius I think is closer to dash 21 but today is a day that's uh that we brave it and we freeze our knuckles off and we put the liner on the pool but here's the way it's got to be done like you're all over the place and I know your home base is Los Angeles bricky and I were talking about this a couple weeks ago I like cold I really do like I like I know maybe I'm in the minority amongst a lot I really enjoy cold. I was like, oh, when you retire, you're going to move Arizona, Florida? No, I'm staying here. I enjoy the cold. I enjoy the cold, Dave. I like to visit cold because I know I can leave cold. So that's my preference. I, you know, I go to ski for the Aparais ski primarily. But I go, I know I can go there and then I can leave after. So that's my, yeah, like that's my thing. I love to hit the pond, go on, you know, hit the ice, get out there. Because you know, your body's warm, you're feeling good. And then, you know, you're a couple days later, you're like, well, I'll see you later. Yeah, I'll check you out. Love grandkids because I can leave kids.

No, you know, it's, uh, you got to stick it out for the long haul. Why are you banging your head against the wall, Dave? Well, because it feels really good when I stop. Um, all right, so a few things from around the NHL. I just want to tease the Dallas stars a couple of seconds ago. I got a couple other things on the laundry list here for a just throw around discussions, getting people ready for the weekend feel awful for Tyler Sagan especially coming off of what he came off of last season with hip surgery

and now this it didn't look good when it happened it sounds even worse afterwards your gym nil you bite down hard on your mouth guard and you do what Dave you go look to see what areas of your team

you can you can solidify and improve. Like this was a team and Jim Nill was going to be looking anyway. He was already kind of just poking around and just seeing what his options were going to be available to him later on. They've got about three, three point one in current space right now, cap space. So he was already doing his due diligence to see what was out there. We know about obviously going back to last season, the connection to Rasmus Anderson

on the back end. And Raspus's willingness to sign an extension in Dallas. That's one of the top places that he'd love to. go and then you know going out there just seeing what the options are and at the same time now just having a proper understanding as to what that timeline is for second realistically the initial is six to eight months but what does that mean is that yeah possible he comes back in the playoffs is he done for the duration and and that's what they need to figure out is that's going to give them the ability to utilize if he is shut down for the full season including playoffs

9.85 million dollar cap that they can now add and and and well to their advantage add to their advantage plus that three the interesting thing that I find here Jeff about that situation and then the Anderson connection they've also had some interest I know cadre's name is out there a little bit with connection to Dallas but also Blake Coleman for sure I think we might have mentioned this a couple weeks ago too it wouldn't shock me now if they do shut down sex for the rest of the season and playoffs and have that space. Could we see an Anderson-Blake Coleman combo?

I would be very curious to see if the, because the stars are not afraid to go and take a big swing here and address multiple areas like they did last season with San Jose. Remember, they got Granlin and Cece in that one deal on Feb first. I could certainly see something happening along those lines here, and Calgary makes a lot of sense. And we'll remind our audience that Blake Coleman was born in Texas as well. so the local boy goes home story is always one that gets fans excited.

Like, yeah, I'm with you. And I've felt this way, I mean, honestly, I've kind of felt this way a couple of years about the Dallas stars that, and it's not for lack of trying, but certainly last year, and you're right, they pivoted to San Jose. But they could have got most, if not all of their shopping done. I mean, Rantan just kind of happened. But they could have kind of got all their shopping done with one team, the Calgary Flames. and to the primaries just still sit there and Cadrean Anderson

and they want to get they want to get aggressive by bringing in guys that have that jam that have that little extra bark and spunk in their game and I mean both those guys

obviously fill that they fill that without question they both have rings they both have championship pedigree they both have that muckiness that they're willing to bring and go into the gray areas the corners in front of the net, all that stuff, and throw the body around.

Coleman, Cadry, certainly. Now, obviously, the difference there is that it's a significantly bigger cap hit for Codry, and he's got multiple years left on his deal, whereas Coleman has one more year on his contract after this season. I think it's $4.5 million. But that possibility, Rasmus Anderson possibility, that connection there, I could certainly see something like that happening. At the same time, they have certainly options, and you go to the usual suspects,

the St. Louis is the Nashville's right now and see, you know, can we pluck a couple guys there? But the Calgary one for me is, it just makes a lot of sense. Maybe it makes too much sense that it's just not going to happen. But I just think there's an avenue there. And I think Dallas understands, even with Sagan out, that they've got a great opportunity to pounce here this season. With how well Colorado is doing, they've been sticking up with that. race at a couple pieces like that man that would be that would make them that much more dangerous

especially if ottinger can really get going here well and that's and that's the key right there is is jake ottinger you know funny talking with uh with jason gregor on the rundown for for mondays mondays drop last was this past week and we're talking about you know who would you like in that series the colorado avalanche or the dallas stars like right now and by the way congratulations new york islanders we haven't seen a team handle colorado look quite like that's good on the Islanders man like they put the boots to Colorado something fierce last night but you know the the question becoming who do you like in a seven game series provided that both teams are healthy do you like Dallas or do you like Colorado in that fight we all are marveling of what

Colorado's been able to do and we're giving Nathan McKinnon the heart trophy and kale McCar getting the the Norris trophy and Jared Bettner might finally get his Jack Adams trophy, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But could you not make the point that when you look at depth and you look at balance and now, Nill, with all this new cap space to play with, to reinforce all of it? Could you not make the case strongly that maybe like Dallas in that fight? Yeah. And then you still have a Miko Ranton-Avalanche chip on his shoulder.

Big time. Without question, you got that. I'd argue you've got like ottinger's got a chip on his shoulder too with what happened in the playoffs last year and how things ended I think it's coming into this season with that and then going into the playoffs and just showing look I can hold my own here I can carry this team guys are doing whatever they got to do up front but I can carry this team in net and hold the fork down I think you've got that you've got the ranton in equation you've got just how well Robertson and Johnson have been playing whatever they ask because they're going to, it's going to make them that much more fierce. I think I'm leaning in your direction right now.

Now, depending what Colorado ends up doing, do they create some space and whatnot? But I like, I mean, this is just going to be a shot-for-shot series whenever they do meet in the playoffs again, just one after another, just a full-on seven-game brawl. Give me it, make it best of 11. I don't want best of seven.

I don't want best of seven. I want, just like, let's just do a one-off here. NHL, best of 11 between Dallas and the Colorado Avenue. And everybody will say, well, you know, playoff format complaining about this, that, and the other, at least we know that this won't be a first round matchup. So we got, take that into a bit. Yeah, that like, I'll tell you, man, like you, boy, it's, we've talked about this with other divisions before with the Central, like right now, it's like, hey, if you're

in Minnesota, like, that's awesome. you're getting there, but, like, look what a waste. Look what, look at a weights. Holy geez. Okay. You mentioned Jason Robertson a couple of seconds ago. So I was talking to someone not too long ago who was making the point that like, hey, listen, if, you know, Jason Robertson wants a Thomas Harley deal, he can have it.

I don't think Jason Robertson wants the Thomas Harley deal. And I'm pretty sure that the Dallas Stars don't want to pay Jason Robertson more than Miko Ranton. But I'm trying to figure out, like, where does this thing saw off? Or maybe I should be saying to myself, who blinks first in this one? Now, the caveat is he's a restricted free agent at the end of the year. Having said that, I don't know that Dallas wants to take it to that outcome, right? I mean, you don't want, I mean, he's a restricted free agent with arbitration rights.

I'm not so sure that Jim Nell wants an arbitrator to decide his salary cap. do you have it because I keep going back and forth in my brain on where this saws off and every day that goes by is another deal that another day they don't have a deal how do you see this thing ending up because this one's a pretzel in my brain it yeah I mean the the final number for me is where I can't I can't draw that definitively because I think yeah I think you're right like there's no way they want to go past or prefer to not go past the Rantaninan dollars. But I think they're getting to a point now

with other guys getting deals and with the cap going up and all that stuff that everybody knows about, I don't think they're going to have a choice. And it'll be a lower number overall like Ranton and took because of where they're playing. Sure. Tax-free state, we know that.

But it's still going to be equivalent to 15, 16 million per year, which probably takes you in that 13 plus range and makes him the highest paid player on the Dallas stars. I think that's where it ends up. If you're going full term, that's probably at least where it ends up with his production this year. He keeps it up. The longer this goes, the number just keeps going up. The one caveat that I have to all of it is I'm sure that Dallas would blow right through their internal salary cap if they win the Stanley Cup.

and he's the Consmite Award winner. Yeah. Yeah, well, yeah, at that point, you're like, you know what? Yeah, you win. You win. You win. We'll just do it. Sign here.

Yeah. I could, yeah, that, but you know what? I mean, I don't know if they want to get that far. I could see something like, like we've got a trade freeze at the Olympic break, but we don't have necessary, like you can still negotiate and do your work and whatnot. Yeah. Exactly. We've talked to some different GMs and whatnot. Waddell was on the Insider Edition last week saying,

I'm waiting for that time to get my contract situation sorted out with my pending RFAs and UFAs. I think that's, if nothing happens in season prior to that, I think that's a good window for Jim Nill and Peprizant to sit down and say, all right, let's try to hammer this out. But again, like, I think he will become the highest paid player. on the on the stars to what extent we've got to wait and see and yes i think there will be some type of team friendly discount but i mean you're talking about you know six figures not not anything

more than that speaking in contracts and i want to sort of dovetail this next point into a bigger discussion about tampa uh Ryan McDonough who will be 37 when his three-year contract extension begins i was always under the impression well first of all Ryan McDonough wants to be there period Tampa wants Ryan McDonough. It is clearly obvious that they see him as the one guy who can't get away. You know, every year Tampa would win a Stanley Cup and the snake would shed some skin. It just happens in nature of the salary cap,

especially a flat one. But he's the one guy that they realize, ooh, won a Mulligan on that one. I always thought it would just be an evergreen deal for McDonough. One year, one year, one year, one year. Were you surprised to see three? Are you surprised to see term? A little bit.

But I think we're seeing those types of defensemen. Their longevity is longer. They've been, like those kinds of guys, they're playing into their late 30s comfortably and are still being able to shut down and still play that type of role. Obviously, you're going to lose a little bit of foot speed, after year, but just with what he brings, the stability that he brings on that back end,

what he brings in that room, the professionalism on and off the ice, et cetera, et cetera, I think the value, they just see that being there. And it's like, why mess around and go year by year if we feel, this is the notion that I got after the fact, but why go that route when we just know we're just, we're going in this direction anyway? And this kind of happened pretty quickly. I think McDonough even admitted that publicly as well. other day saying like we sat down we started talking we had a good idea and it just came together

pretty quick um like you said he loves it there he wants to be there they love him the fit makes sense and i think those caliber like you're seeing some of these guys like bernsey's 41 and he's he modified his game significantly but he's still rolling out and he's averaging just under 20 minutes a night with the abs i think he's in the 19s um so you're seeing these kinds of guys going into their late 30s, even some like Berns in the early 40s, and they're still producing at the level that they expect to produce and the team now expects them to produce in terms of modifying their game. So I think they just said, you know what, we know where this is going to go.

We know what you bring. Let's just lock this in for probably his last contract. You know, Burns is going to be fascinating. It's coming down here to Brent Burns and Corey Perry, who will be the last man standing for the 2003 drive? draft. Who's going to win this draft? Anyhow, how frisky will Tampa be do you think for the remainder of this season leading in the deadline? Yeah, they're an interesting one because now they've got a little more cap space to play with than they normally do. And it's not significant.

I think they're just over a million, 1.2, something in that range right now. That'll continue to accrue. But as we've seen Julianne Breezebaugh in the past, he's not afraid to make those type of move. Now, I think this is going to, like, I'm not anticipating big impact type additions. This is going to be adding the complimentary pieces like he's, like they've done in the past, like Coleman in the past, like when they brought in Goodrow. They paid a premium for those guys, but those guys were integral in helping win the Stanley Cup. And they made a shrewd move last year by not only getting Gord and then eventually signing it, but also bringing in, like in that same deal, I completely blanked on the, on his name. Oliver Bjork Strand. Yes, thank you. And he was

under contract for an additional season, which is now. So they kind of thought ahead a little bit in that regard, but I could see them going out there and making that type of move. You know, they're always lurking. They're always looking around. And I would be a little bit surprised if they don't do something by the deadline in terms of just adding that quality depth piece, that intangible piece that they've done in the past because it's worked.

Why try to mess with that? Is Utah too quiet for you right now? Utah is a team Look, I think they would love to make noise and would have liked to make noise by now but they're a team and Bill Armstrong is a team, a GM that has been given the green light to add something significant to his roster.

Now it's up to him to find out when that is and who that is, but I just mentioned Tampa kind of lurking. Utah is doing the same, but for the big guns. Like they want to add another star power to that lineup to help complement the Keller and Cooley and et cetera group, which is still interesting to me because they have Nick Schmaltz who's been playing great this season, but is a UFA. And we touched on it, you know, earlier on in the season.

They had trade talks in the summer. They weren't able to come to a contract. I don't think there's been much progress. So they're also thinking a little bit ahead with how they're going to utilize that cap space that they've got not just this year but next year and on but this is a team that i could definitely see going out there adding a very big impact piece um again they'd love to do it now they'd love to do it in season they are the mischiffy quiet type right now um but i think that's like toy you phrase that yeah they're they're just looking they're looking and they'll cause it if they can

They've done deals with the Buffalo Sabres before, Dave. You always look for general managers that are comfortable with one another, Dave. Yeah, yeah. Are we talking about that guy with T and T? Is that who you're referring to? I don't know. I could see a lot of teams. I could see maybe a team like, oh, I don't know.

I'll just throw a dart. Philadelphia may be interested in that. T, T, T players. as well but like as that's right up there alley that and what are they looking for number one center like bam there there you there you go um i i i do wonder if you know if if buffalo makes that decision but then again you know what the thing about buffalo is though dav this is why i keep coming back to if buffalo makes that decision i don't know that it's kevin adams that makes the deal i i was going to say i think those types of moves like Alex tuck right now uPL right now those

Byram, like that world, I think Adams, Yarmow, that combo is, I think there's enough confidence, I guess, in making those caliber moves. But if we're talking about Thompson, Dahlene, even Owen Power, I think that's something that they wait on because of that reason. Like, do they really, are they moving full? Because there was, there was talk last season at the beginning of last season, especially, we're going back to that point of maybe contemplating a change at the managerial position. And then it quieted down. They went on a bit of a, they piled up some wins and then we saw how things went. And then this season, they bring in Yarmo, they brought in Eric Stahl. I think they want to wait for those caliber deals. I haven't gotten the sense that

that's even under consideration right now, even though teams continue to be like, what do you think? but that one's the interest those caliber pieces those are the interesting ones for me exactly to your point is it going to be this group the guy at least at least Adams at the helm that's going to make that decision right and of course everything needs to be run by Terry Pagula at this level anyhow so there's another sort of wrinkle in all of it okay a couple of teams we got a

couple seconds left with you one what up with L.A.? what's their next move I'm guessing trying to find someone that could score, and I do want to ask you also about a couple of other teams if we have time. But really quickly, Los Angeles Kings, what's next? Yeah, yeah, scoring. There are guys, there's a secondary guys haven't produced at all this season. Phil Dono's got four assists on the year.

His special team's ice time has almost non-existent because of his five-on-five play. Andre Kuzmenko has not produced at a level they thought he would, based on how he played when he was with them last year. He's got three goals on the season. Trevor Moore as well, even though he scored last night. they'd like to add offense. They've got three plus million in cab space. I don't think they're against moving a roster player either.

And I think it's premature right now because I think they're just starting to go through that process. But if Kenny Holland can find himself somebody else that can help supplement some offense and be a secondary scoring type guy like Trevor Ward more used to be, at least prior to this season, that's what I would not be shocked if the Kings pull something like that off at some point this year. You know what I wonder about with Philip DeNone? And maybe you might say, oh, it's just the easy, the easy, obvious answer to all this. Could you see him back in Montreal?

Not exactly as a secret that they need help down the middle. Yeah. Look, there was some chatter a couple weeks ago, a few weeks ago, that maybe that was something that would be a possibility that the Kings might explore. There was even some talk that there were some rumors out there that he had asked for a trade. That's not true.

That hadn't happened. But that would be an interesting one. You know, certainly for me, he's, his two-way ability is still there. You know, he still sound up the middle in terms of like the defensive side of the game. Yeah. And he really, he had an off year last year too, but he turned it up in the postseason. This year, it's even worse from an offensive side of it. But he's still very capable at that position.

I think perfect world, you're looking at a 3C now, but a shutdown 3C that you would put up against any team's top unit. I mean, that would be interesting from the HAB side of things. I think they want to go a little bit more for a guy that fits their core unless it's an expiring deal. But I think right now it's more so for L.A. Just looking at how do I add somebody who can put this puck in the net? Because they are, I mean, seven regulation wins so far on the season.

though they're holding third in that division, if they can add some type of piece that can help add some punch to the score sheet, I think that's what they want to do. They've had to adjust. People are complaining here that, well, they play such a defensive structured game and this and that. It's boring hockey. You have to adjust when your guys aren't scoring. You have no choice but to go to what has worked. And until they add that, that's the type of hockey they're going to play. You know, have you, let me close on this. Have you heard anything about Seattle? And the reason I ask about Seattle is like, you know, listen, they're a great story to start the season in a playoff spot.

They've now dropped three games in a row. Got absolutely hammered last night by the Edmonton Oilers. Shane Wright's ice time is still, you know, sort of consistently around the 13 minute mark, which I think considering where he's at in his career, mind you, he's had three different coaches so far in his career in the NHL. It has to raise some eyebrows as well. So I don't know what's going on there.

Have you heard anything at all about it? vote Seattle? So they just had their meetings this week here in L.A. Some of their quartermarked preseason or pre-scouting meetings. This is another team that I put into the Utah category of looking, of being there, being present, and wanting to add a star power to their lineup. That's what Seattle would love to be able to do. They tried doing it in the summer.

They tried doing it around draft. We heard Jordan Kairu's name at that time. That's the piece, that type of players is what they'd love to be able to add to that group. Now, they've got some guys that are a little banged up, and some of those guys are on expiring deals. And I think this is another team that looks at the Eberleys and the Schwartz's and the Alexiacs and so on, Mason Marchman as well, and have those contract talks in February, unless they completely fall off. And then you have to escalate those to potentially sell. But this is another team that be it now or be it in the summer,

I think they were going to make a big swing at some point or take a big swing at some point for someone in that top six. And if they can land a top line guy, I think they'd love to do that, that TT guy. I wonder if there's a connection there for them because that would be perfect for the caliber that they're looking for. Tax-free state? Tax-free state?

You know what? I'll tell you just that we talked about Jim Nill earlier. You know what I really thought going back to last summer that Nell, when he traded Marchman, really did him a solid, trading it from a tax-free state to another tax-free state so he didn't have to take a pay cut.

Like, that's a wrinkle in all of this, right? I think we've talked about this before, whether it's, you know, Nashville is an obvious one. Like, if you're Steven Stamcoe, okay, I'm going to waive my no-move clause and you end up going to New York or Philadelphia or wherever. What you're saying is, I'll waive my no move and take a pay cut. And take less, yeah, exactly.

And like some guys, like, sure, just get me in a winning environment. And others are going, wait a second. Hold on. I'm losing how many Ks a week, a month? Yeah, that's a factor. It is. It really is.

All right. You're the best. Thanks, as always. Enjoy your weekend. You be well, Dave. You too, buddy. The great Dave Panjota from the fourth period. Daily Faceoff Rundown Insiders Edition.

Do not forget that. Three o'clock Eastern here on our Daily Faceoff YouTube channel on Wednesdays. Dave alongside Erf and Gaffar. You can read him at the fourth period as well. Dave's a really busy guy. Someone else who's been very busy as well. It's someone we've wanted to get on for a while here, and it's a last name that you know well.

But normally we hear the name Manny in front of it. But there is a new Malhotra that everyone is going to get to know very well if they don't already, and that is Caleb Malhotra, the brand for Bulldogs of the OHL, and he joins me now. Caleb, first of all, thanks so much for joining me today. how are you today young man thanks for having me good just a regular day

getting ready for a game against North Bay tomorrow that's awesome so describe like what a regular day for a highly ranked prospect in the 2026 NHL draft no pressure does for a regular day what do you consider normal uh yeah

usually we'll come in around 830 due school till 945 and then we're in the gym 10 15 to 11 them we're on the ice 1115 and then practice is usually 45 minutes then a lot of guys stay out for hour long after and that's kind of the whole day then we got to find something to do after the ring um there's a the whole bunch of different places i want to go with you here but i think for the purposes of of the audience that that just wants to get to know who you are um

at what point did you realize like a like your father is manny malhotra and that brings along with that opens a lot of doors in hockey. I remember talking to Stan Bowman a couple of weeks ago and he was his father's legendary coach, Scottie Bowman, and he would come home and there would be like, NHLers just hanging around the house. And he just thought, like, well, everybody has that, right? And then he realized somewhere down the road, like,

oh, no, my dad's probably the best coach in the history of the game. Like, at what point did it dawn on you that not everybody has the opportunity to have a dad who's playing in the NHL and how cool was that when you made that realization? Yeah, I was kind of later, honestly. I was probably around like 13, 12, 13, when I realized, well, like, not everybody has this.

Like, when I was younger, we'd be, when he played for the Canucks, I'd just be in the locker room, playing when he six after with the other kids and just kind of seeing, like, Roberto Longo and, like, Alex Burroughs and guys who got just walking around, like, well, that's normal. Those are just, they're just going to. And then I realized when he started working for the Leafs and he was a coach, and I got to go to games and I got to see kind of what he had to do every day. the privileges that come along with that, I was, I was kind of like, oh, wow, this is,

this is a bit special. Not everybody gets to experience this and have this resource. You know, it's, it's so cool, you know, growing up in in that environment, I wonder, you know, like, who had, and we should throw in as well, like, your uncle is Steve Nash. Like, we should throw in, like, there's, like, elite level athletes all around you. Who had, from an athletic point of view, who do you think had the most influence on your, on your career? yeah probably a dad mom or even yeah uncle uncle stephen like he said there um they're all just kind of watching them more they they talk about how much it takes and and how much they put in but then you you see it and how consistent they are and everything yeah i know even even outside

of working out and stuff that just getting up early to do video staying up late doing video getting to the rink it early to get a workout before he gets to work you know just kind of things like that i see every day and then the stories i hear from other people about how much they've done it so it's it's a real privilege to kind of grow up around that you know and i've heard um i was talking to someone this morning about this like at how much that has rubbed off on you whether it's something as simple as like you know helping mom with the other kids get the kids to to hockey packing bags cleaning up like all of it like i can't help but you know hearing you talk and thinking that's right from watching you know the example of of your dad manny and how he's

always conducted his life is that accurate yeah for sure how like just disciplined he is and how he managed to keep up trying to discipline us and then support mom even though he's not home all the time mom was a huge part of my life him being away on on road trips a lot of the time she had to kind of muscle down for weeks at a time kind of taking care of us and making sure we get to all about our activities there's i have three younger siblings so it's it's not easy with with that many kids in the house. Last year for you was what was interesting and challenging, whether it was, I think you had an ankle issue,

maybe a shoulder issue as well, that you had to sort of work through throughout the season. And then maybe this is, and this is obviously more mental, watching, because you played in the BCHL, like watching some of your teammates and other players around the league, go to the CHL and take another route. And you didn't.

Like, you stayed. Like whenever I would check, it was always like, nope, Caleb's made a commitment, and he's staying. Committed for the season, he's staying, he's not going to leave. Was that difficult for you watching some of your friends, other teammates, other players leave? Yeah, for sure.

Just watching guys, like, growing up, playing with, playing against, going high in the draft, and then playing for their teams and doing very well dominating even. So it was tough to watch seeing, wanting to compete with those guys and be better, but not being able to prove it in a different. league and not having the kind of year I wanted to have. So it was definitely difficult in the mental aspect.

Okay, I do have to ask you, Caleb. You know that you're a real buzz player right now. Like there's a lot of noise around your name amongst people that follow the prospects, right? It's like Hotrizer, Hot Riser, Hot Riser, Watch Malhotra. Do you follow that? Like, is that something like, would your teammates, like rankings come out? Like, do you go to the Bulldogs room and someone's got that? like stapled up at your stall with your with your name circled around it like how does it work

for you do you pay attention to that stuff no personally i try to stay away from that kind of stay off the instagram rankings and the twitter rankings i think it's just whether it's a it's a good ranking or a bad one it kind of gets to your head either way and i don't want it to really affect me day to day and guys guys always joke about it you're always gonna you're gonna see that stuff regardless with how much you try and keep it away. But for me, it's just kind of just not taking it to heart regardless of kind of what the ranking says or who says what. Would you talk like, I mean, your team, it's like, you know, whether it's in O'Brien,

Merrick Vannecker, like you've got players in your Ben Danford comes in. Like, you've got a lot of players in that room that have gone through it and been drafted. Is that ever a point of conversation for you guys? Like, hey, what's it like? What's draft year like? What's draft season like? Does that happen?

yeah for sure i i asked them all the time kind of probably bugging a bit too much about like what they kind of went through in their draft here what what helped them out with uh you know seeing the rankings or whether it was kind of competing just little little details on or off the ice i i live with jake o'brien actually in our real house so i i get to talk to him about that quite a bit he's uh he's really good uh but your whole team is really good and it just like it keeps on improving. And like just when we had Spencer Hyman on the show last week and it's like just when you think like, okay, the Bulldogs are done now, it's like, bam, here comes like

another elite level player. What does that do for you? Because I know you're someone that like, you know, prides himself on development and also winning. Like what does that do for you as a player in your draft year when you see that this team is trying to, I don't know, create like a traveling. All-Star team. I don't even know how to describe the Bulldogs at this point.

What does that do for you? It excites me. It shows how we're all in this year, how we want to win the whole thing, everything. And when you see guys like that come in, it's another opportunity to try and prove yourself against those guys night in and night out trying to be the best player on the ice. And then utilizing them as much as you can, you know, playing with guys that you know you can trust to make an elite play to either give it to your either checking someone and getting the puck up the ice you know those those kind of players you can really rely on so

it's it's exciting and when your coach when jay can trust you to to play in different situations even with all those guys that he can use it's kind of a boost of confidence let me ask you about jama keyer coach because um i don't know that it's any sort of secret but like this guy's on an an NHL path like he's it's going to be an NHL coach you know probably probably sooner than later what's your relationship like with him what's he like as a coach I remember listen I'm old enough to remember watching Jay as a player and he was like Caleb I don't know if you if you know much about how Jay played but he was like the most fearless shot blocker in the NHL and we're all like super thrilled when he got like this really great contract from the St. Louis Blues

because when you're a shot blocker like that's the way you make you're like you're like one shot away from being injured, and he got through Buffalo, blocked a ton of shots and got this great contract at St. Louis, and everybody was really happy for him. Like, he made his money the hard way in the NHL. What's he like as a coach? He's really intelligent. He knows all the little details in the game.

Obviously, been in the game for a while. And I've heard about how he played, and it's pretty cool when he talks about that. But you know you can trust what he's saying, and he knows what he's talking about. And especially when everyone knows he's on the NHL path. Everyone says he's an NHL coach in the CHO level. So when you have a guy like that, learning from him in little details

and how he coaching, how he coaches his coaching style is unique. It's good. He doesn't kind of bark at guys or yell. He's really calm and composed on the bench. And you can, you feed off that energy. When you're down, you're not too down. but when you're up, you're not too up. He keeps everyone at the level, and it's really good to feed off of them.

How often, it's like a couple with you here, how often would your dad check in? And not just like, hey, how you doing, son? But more like, does he talk to you about hockey, or is he considering he's a coach himself? Does he say, I'm not your coach, Caleb? Jay McKee's your coach. You talk to him.

Like, what's the relationship now with dad? well i i talk to him every day i call him once or twice a day just to see how he's doing and talk to him and then he's dad first that's that's his thing he's always been dad first and then when i asked for he he's coach which is it's really nice when he's not overbearing and it's always about hockey he can take a break from it and when when i asked for he'll he'll put his two sensitive he'll he sends me clips and he'll call me about certain plays and then just talk me through kind of what what I was thinking, what he thinks I should do. So when I get a resource like that,

that very few guys get to have, it's a way to elevate my game. It's super cool. Okay, we're going to let you go on this one. First of all, it's been a real pleasure talking to you. I'll let you go on this. From now until the end of the season, playoffs, I mean, top team in the CHL right now,

I'm sure in the back of everyone's mind, people are thinking Memorial Cup. Colonna is lovely in the spring, as I'm sure you know. What's the goal for you? Just like you said, Memorial Cup, our team lost to win an O'SL Championship in a Memorial Cup. And Spencer has made that very clear in the room, especially with all the movement he's had and all the trades he's made. And everyone in our room's bought in. So we know what our goal is.

We wish you all the best. And we'll watch for you, even though you will ignore it on all the, the draft rankings online or otherwise. Best of luck the rest of the season. It's been a pleasure catching up with you. Thanks for joining me today. Yeah, thank you for having me. There is, Caleb Malhotra of the, the Brantford Bulldogs.

Mature, beyond his years and has the absolute luxury of having Manny Malhotra as his father. It really is interesting, too. We talk so much about second generational players and the advantages that come along with it. And the obvious one, whether it's, you know, Max Domey with the Toronto Maple Leafs and his father, or pick a second generation player. There's no shortage of them in the NHL. They just sort of know how to do everything instinctively, you know?

And there's no like breaking of a habit in order to learn a new habit. It's all like, you know, all the protocols. Like the hockey is the hockey. And that's like part of the game. And then there's the how you build relationships, how you relate to people, how you talk to people, et cetera, et cetera. it's just baked in the pie for someone like Caleb Malhotra. And as I was mentioning earlier,

here's someone who was probably when you look at the draft rankings and Stephen Ellis, who does a lot of it for us here at Daily Faceoff, is like all in on Malhotra now and rightfully so. When you look at the beginning of the season, it was someone that was maybe at the bottom end of the first round, probably in the second round. And he's that one guy who's slowly, and steadily climbed and climbed and climbed.

And it's going to continue. And depending on how successful the Bulldogs here are in the OHL, and right now they've been for a while now, the top team in the entire CHL, his star is just going to rise along with it. Wish him the best. Real nice young man, charming kid, everything that I've heard about him,

all checks out, you know, a wonderful young man, great kid, polite, all of it, understands, you know, protocols and all different situations. And, oh, yeah, he just happens to be another elite level hockey player with the, with the Brantford Bulldogs. A couple of things here that I want to get into.

And Andy Strickland, we're going to be getting on the Bard Cat. Oh, he is. We got already got Strick. Okay, here we go. We got him all lined up. He is in Ottawa. St. Louis is coming off a tough loss against the Boston Bruins. Andy Strickland joins me on the sheet, someone we haven't had on for a while. but let's remedy that now. Andy, how are you, pal?

What's going on there, Jevi? All as well, man. You're right. Tough loss last night. And they're on the ice here today in Ottawa. I feel like every time they're playing, it's always three games and four nights. The schedule's been crazy. So Ottawa tomorrow, then Sunday in Montreal.

Does it kind of, it's funny, too, you know, every team right now, you know, with a condensed schedule, Olympic break and such. Normally, like, four game weeks are usually a freak around the energy, like, oh, yeah, we got a four gamer this week. Every team has like four gamers, like almost every week. It almost feels like this year, and maybe this is why we see

more injuries, it feels like this is closer to an American hockey league schedule than we've seen I don't know, maybe some Sochi. Yeah, but at least in the America League, for the most part, they get off during the week. You know, they play like three and three or whatever it is or they play a lot of weekend games.

But, you know, I was talking to Brian Burke about that this morning. I mean, he thinks for sure it's led to the injuries. And listen, you have some freak injuries, you know, the blues were in Boston. You know, obviously they didn't have, you know, Charlie McAvoy in that game. I think he took a puck to the face. So maybe that's a little bit of a freak situation. But, you know, they didn't have posture knack.

He wasn't playing. I mean, I just feel like every time there's a game, there's some significant players who are missing who aren't playing. And the blues are no different, you know? I mean, sure you have the off-eye situation with Alexei Torchanko, so that's a freak incident. Nothing crazy happened, but total random accident that led to his injury. But, you know, Nathan Walker, I mean, that's wear and tear.

I mean, he's out for eight months or eight weeks, I should say. Jimmy Snuggaroot, six-week injury. And you can say, well, Nathan Walker, fourth-line guy. But you know what? He's one of the more physical players that the Blues have on their roster. And Torvchenko is a physical player. That's two-thirds of their fourth line, which kind of helps create that identity for this team. That's not a very physical team.

They don't play overly hard. and so when you miss those players, it takes a toll, man. I mean, it's hard to replace some of those guys, even though they're fourth-liners. Yeah, it is. And listen, it doesn't help the St. Louis-Blu's cause when all of a sudden, like, Alex Stevens

is just, like, going on, like, this massive heater now. For the Boston Bruins, it was, like, a total castaway with the Toronto Maple Leafs, like living life at Coca-Cola Coliseum playing with the Marley's, and he's up with the Boston, he moves in the Boston Bruins, and now it's like, what is it, five goals and five games for Steve's, like just popping, and the Morgan Geeky story continues to be one of the best stories in the entire NHL, but circling back to St. Louis,

I think the question that a lot of us are sort of, you know, wondering here is, so what happens now, right? Like, it's a team that we thought was going to, I don't think a lot of us hoped, was going to carry that moment, from last season, you know, the surge at the end, get into that first round series against the Winnipeg Jets, totally stretched them, totally scare them, take it to a game seven.

We thought, okay, you know what? The blues are back. They're going to bring this into this season, and bam, hit a wall right away. So what's next for this team? You know, it's a good question. And listen, that's why I think this season in general, Jeff, I feel like the organization is almost in a state of shock

right now that they're in this spot because of how they play last year after Jim Montgomery took over. I know there's a lot of focus on how they played coming out of the Four Nations, but it really began when he took over. It's always interesting. You see coaching changes and how well teams tend to play nowadays when that in that initial phase of a coaching change. I was talking to Jim Montgomery about this the other day because, you know, Boston's similar situation. They had a historic season and all that. And then fast forward a little while later, He's fired and he's out of a job. But they had a lot of turnover on that roster.

This one's hard to explain because they've had very little turnover. I think they have everybody back except three players from last year's roster. So this one is tough to explain. But what's next? I think everyone's just kind of sitting and waiting to see how that plays out. You know, I think with the change in the CBA, Jeff, with the inability to just bury players a long-term injury and then put them back on the roster when you come,

to the playoffs and now you're playing with a $100 million plus payroll. I think, listen, that's out the window now. So you're going to see more and more teams really get out in front of the trade deadline because that's no longer as much of an issue as maybe as it was before. And I've talked to a lot of people about that. I mean, I would assume that teams are going to want to get a lot of deals done sooner than later. You've got the whole month off of February.

If you can get some of those deals done before then and allow that time for players to adjust and move and get kids schools and stuff like that in the event you want to move your family i mean you're going to have that opportunity to do so but listen we all know the names on the roster that have been rumored to be moved from st louis yeah we'll see how it plays out a lot of these guys have some no trade protection and whatnot and they're going to be able to dictate where it goes um but i'm like you i think a lot of people are anticipating what that next move is going to be when will it be yeah i know there's been a lot of focus on jordan vinton and Evanton. Listen, I think

Evanton's on Bennington's no trade list. It's got a limited no trade list. So I know they scored nine goals last night, but again, their defense really hasn't been much better than St. Louis. And so I don't think he's jumping to go to Evanton right now, even though they've got the two-headed monster and they've been to

the Stanley Cup final the last couple of years. But we all know the names that are interested to other teams around the league here in St. Louis. We'll just have to wait and see what happens. So let me get even as we like to do, Andy, when you and I get together, let me get even further ahead of ourselves here and talk about next year. And the plan for, you know, the passing of the

torch from Doug Armstrong to Alex Steen. And the belief was always, you know, Doug Armstrong is going to leave this organization in a great spot. So the transition for Steen is going to be like an Olympic diver into the pool, no ripple, nice and smooth, everything's clean. Alex Thin takes over. Has this season complicated that at all? Given the, the struggles out of the gate? Like, could we see maybe, you know what, maybe Doug Armstrong, he's like, you know what, maybe one more year as the general manager before he hands it over? Like, how do you read this? Well, I don't think you'll see that happen. But this is what people need to understand,

Jeff. I didn't expect just a drastic transition. This isn't a, you know, a new president elect who's moving into the White House and the old president is moving out. Okay, this is a situation where Doug Armstrong has it in his contract. He's under contract for two more years as the president of the Blues. So you have Alexander Steen, yeah, his title is changing and he's going to be the general manager, but he's still going to be working side by side with Doug Armstrong over the course of the next couple of years. So I think initially people see that and you're thinking, okay, well, this is going to just quickly turn over to Alexander Steen's theme, but they're still going to be working together, much like they are right now.

You know, Alexander Sina is on the trip right now. This guy's heavily involved and will be heavily involved in any type of decision that is going to be made. Like, I'm really excited about him taking over eventually. I think he's going to do a hell of a job, Jeff. Like, he's such an intelligent hockey person. You know, he's been around the game for so long. He just kind of has that calm demeanor about him where he just makes you kind of feel like everything's going to be okay or he's in full command. So, yeah, you're going to see some moves and whatnot.

But again, you know, as somebody told me a long time ago, Jeffrey, it's like any general manager can make a bad trade. Making bad trades is pretty easy to be able to make. But, you know, make it a good trade. I think that's the challenge. And so, yeah, you have some pieces that, like I said, other teams have interest in that you can move on from. But you're going to really want to make sure that whatever decision you make,

if you move on from some of these guys who are character players, who have a lot of success, and I've been a big part of the organization for a long time, you're going to move these guys, you're going to want to make sure you're making the right move and the best move that's really going to set you up moving forward. You know, and there's, you know, listen, he's a second generation guy as father,

of course, legendary Winnipeg, Jet Thomas Dean, and he's sort of grown up in and around hockey. I think that Alex Steen was, you know, one of those, always like one of those like underground sort of stealthy, salky candidates every year. It wasn't at like that, that high end, like, oh, Yuri Lennon wins this thing again. And then, you know, Patrice Bergeron goes on his run,

et cetera. Louis Erickson deserved. But the way that you mentioned trades, like the way the deals are done now. And this is like, when you think of like what the art of the general manager is now, it's having enough relationships, positive relationships. You can have the conversation. Brian, you mentioned Brian Burk a second ago. I'll tell you quick Berkey story in a second.

You know, you can have the conversations where it's like you know what someone else needs and you can sort of massage in your version of what they need based on your relationship. But it's almost as if, Andy, like, general managers don't want to burn each other anymore because they always want to be able to do business. I'll tell you, you know, Brian Burke, I remember I asked him like, what was it like when he first started like in Hartford when he was a GM there? He said, you know how we would, you know how we would evaluate trades? I said, how's that Burke? He goes, we would evaluate trades like this. If the guy that you made a trade with got fired, it was a good trade.

you really got that guy oh yeah like how many like how many notches do you have on your belt like that's how you and that those days are gone right like now it's like what do you need what can I help you with what are you looking for what's this down the road and everybody wants to sort of keep their relationships really nice and friendly which is why and this is where I'll circle it back to Doug Armstrong which is why a lot of guys don't like offer sheeting each other because they don't want to shut down a relationship that somewhere down the road could pay off for them. And that's, I'll be honest with Andy. That's why I applaud what happened two summers ago with Doug Armstrong.

He just said like, F it. I got a chance of bringing in two quality players at low cost. I'm going to do it. If I'm going to scotch a relationship, so be it. It's in the CBA. But you know what? Yeah. And I hear you on that.

And you know what's interesting about those offer sheets was that that completely changed the trajectory of where this organization thought that they were going. You know how general managers meet with owners, and they map out the three-year plan, the five-year plan. This is where we're going to be two years or now, a year from now, three years, four-year, five years. This was the season, Jeff, that Doug Armstrong told ownership, we're not going to be very good, and we're going to be struggling, but it's a part of the bigger picture in our

rebuild or retool or whatever term you want to use. but the offer sheets changed everything. They weren't anticipating signing these two players to an offer sheet and getting a Philip Broberg who's been, this guy's unbelievable, Jeff. I think he's going to make Team Sweden. I know they're loaded on the left side on their D, but from what I understand, he is right there.

This guy's been an absolute horse. He can play big minutes, and he is really good. I mean, you watch the blues. I don't know how many teams are really watching them, but he is so good. Again, I hate to always bring it up. I can't believe Evanton will move on from them. And Dylan Holloway, obviously.

We all know what he can bring to the table. And his season, you know, has been a little bit slow here at the start. You know, he had the injury, the core injury at the end of last year. It wasn't available in the playoffs. So maybe it's taking him a little bit of time. But this guy is a legit player too. So you get two first round picks. So that completely changed everything.

All of a sudden you get Philip Roberg. And now it's like, whoa, now we're competitive all of a sudden. They made the coaching change. Then they go out and get camp power. They make that trade for camp power last year. They don't ever make that deal if they don't sign those two players to the offer sheets. And I think this is the expectation coming into this year. Hey, we're not going to be very good.

Well, then they got ahead of schedule, right? Make the trade. Now you extend Cam Fowler coming into this year. They fully expected to be a team that would surely compete, not just for the playoffs, but maybe slide into a top three spot in the central where it wouldn't be a stressful season. You know, last year it was like, hey, can we play meaningful games down the stretch and compete for a playoff spot?

Maybe get into a wildcard spot and compete down the stretch and play meaningful games into April. I think this year the mentality was, hey, can we truly have a chance to get into that top three when you get into April. And it's so interesting outside of Colorado and maybe a couple of other teams. Nobody's really pulled away. Certainly not the Eastern Conference, and Dallas is obviously a great team. But the Western Conference, so the Blues won a couple of games over the weekend after Thanksgiving. And all of a sudden, they felt great about their game. Now they lose a couple of games.

And it's interesting. It's like Toronto, man. They wanted to fire chief a couple weeks ago. And now all of a sudden, all of as well in Toronto. Oh, I know. And Matthew Nyes is the new Cam Neely in the NHL. I know, I know. I've heard it before.

Okay, before I let you go, I do have to ask about your jacket. St. Louis, the St. Louis AAA Blues. Now, when I think about youth hockey in St. Louis, you know what I think about? I think about your podcast, your podcast co-host, Cam Jansen. And I remember when Cam came into the OHL command. I mean, like there's always been a really good pipeline between St. Louis and a couple of teams specifically, probably most knownly the London Knights. But I remember when your co-host came into the OHL and he took on all comers and didn't bend a knee and it was like, holy smokes. But there's always been a great pipeline of talent that's gone through St. Louis to the OHL.

What is that program like now? Because it was, say, the St. Louis AAA program was always considered. elite from all of us up here in Canada. Yeah. You know, our midget minor team right now, they're ranked number two in the country, which is the most heavily recruited birth year, really, or age group, right?

Midget minor, I mean, sure, now, you know, Banna major and Banna Minor, I mean, kids are getting scouted at a much younger, earlier age, getting a lot more exposure and attention. Whether you like it or not, that's happening. But still midget minor. I mean, that's the cream of the crop. That's the best, you know, amateur hockey

at the youth level here in the States. It's minor level, obviously, in Canada. And, you know, so we're ranked number two in the country. We've got a really good team. We're going to have a player on the World Junior Team for Team USA, Shane Bansaghi, who was a draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers. So, no, we continue to pump them out, pump them out. You know, it's interesting, I'm here in Ottawa.

So Brady Kachuk, obviously, I mean, one of the pillars of St. Louis hockey. Yes, of course. And we'll go down as one of the greatest players to ever come out of St. Louis. Clayton, Keller, Matthew, Cichuk. I mean, you've got so many, Paul Stasney. I mean, Ben Bishop, you can go on and on and on, Patrick Maroon. And there's so many great players that have come out of St. Louis. And we continue to put him, pump him out.

And now my kid, it's interesting. I've been involved with the program for so long. And now my kid is his first year. He's a 2016. He's young. He was up in Whipy last weekend. I know playing in the Silver Sticks last year. Last weekend, I'm sorry, last weekend up in Toronto, up in Whippy.

So now he's part of the program, which is great, man. It's always been so close to my heart, man. I love the program. I love the history. and hopefully we can continue it. So at the U-16 level that you're talking about, you know, and this is the first time it's ever happened at the Silver Sink, this is a big deal.

So the final was Upper Canada College, which was kind of a shock, but like, great program. But you know who won the whole thing? Little Sears, maybe? Who won it? No, Little Sears got knocked off. Honeybeak. Honey-Baked.

Little Seasers got knocked off by UCC. Honey-Baked. First time ever. You know, HoneyBake is making a resurgence. You know, back when I was younger, I mean, Honey Bake was a great program, and they were for several years, and not that far back either, but Bell Tire had a great program. Oh, yeah. Compuware was just a great program coming out of Detroit. And then Little Caesars, you know, it's kind of had the pipeline the last several years.

A lot of former NHLers have been a part of that program. And you're seeing, even at the younger age, Nathan Kirby's done a great job with his 2016 group, which is my son's age. I mean, they are an absolute wagon. That's great. But, you know, Matt Cullen, you know, he brought his son and a few other kids down to Honeybeck. And now, you know, that program is turning around. And at our age group, too, with the 2016, is at the younger age groups, you're seeing a very competitive Honeybeg too. So, you know, Cesar's kind of controlled that area the last few years.

But now you're seeing some of these other programs step up. I'll tell you what. You mentioned Pat Ruin a second ago. I'll end on this one. I remember watching Pat play with the London Knights. And honestly, nothing like you saw in the NHL. I got so much respect for Pat for how he realized. Like, you know what?

The way that I play, and he was a great roller hockey player. So I remember I used to go to the NARCH tournament every year. That great roller hockey tournament in St. Louis. But Pat, when he played with the London Knights, if you looked at him play in London and looked at him play in the NHL, you'd be like, that's not the same guy. He was like so, his hands in the OHL level, and he were filthy.

Like some of the best hands in the OHL could breeze. through guys. It was like night and day. So when I think of Pat Maroon playing youth hockey in St. Louis, I'm like, I bet he was the same way there. I just bet he was the same. He was dominating. I was talking to Jim Montgomery yesterday about players who are great

picking the puck up off the wall. Hard of skill. Hard of skill. He says Bradman Shann is one of the best he's ever seen to it. Obviously is. But, you know, Pat Maroon came into the conversation too. And I'll give a shout out to Anthony Maroon, his son, who just committed to Western

Michigan. He's playing in the O.A. Hey, he's committed to Western Michigan. So, yeah, the pipeline continues. And it's funny because I broadcasted a high school hockey game when Pat Marum was a freshman at Oakville High School in St. Louis. And I knew who he was much prior to that. He's playing under Jeff Brown, part of that great 1988 birthday year here at St. Louis. But it's just funny, I did the game with Tony Twist. And I just be like, this guy's a man child. He's a man child. He was a freshman, you know, but you couldn't get the puck away from him. So, yeah, I mean, unbelievable hands. And, you know, he played with Connor McDavid.

Like, he always had the ability to play up the lineup. And I think the other season there in Edmonton where he scored 28 goals, something like that. Yeah, yeah. So he could play, man. I mean, he didn't have the quickest boots, but, you know, you look at Matthew Kuchuk and some of these guys. They're not the fastest players, but they're so smart. And all the St. Louis kids, I mean, Luke Cunning's another one. I don't want to leave anybody out, man.

been so many great players who come out of St. Louis and Dakota Mirmus, who plays in the least right now. One of my favorite kids to ever come out of St. Louis. His dad was a coach, Joseph Wool, who's obviously a goaltender for Toronto. Like, all these guys kind of had the same mentality. You saw Mermis throw down a few weeks ago. Like against, uh, on the weekend you did. On the weekend. Florian jackeye. Look, what are you doing? By the Wi-Fi's brother. Yeah. Yeah. But these guy, everyone, you know, from Luke Cunning on down, Brady, Pat Maroon, all these guys, they have that same mentality when you come out of St. Louis. Cam Jansen, he's the first one

to ever make it to the national hockey they got to St. Louis. They're tough in St. Louis, Jeffie. Dude, he's scared. He terrified guys in the Ontario League. They were terrified of Cam Janssen. Anyhow. All right, you'd be good. I enjoy the game against the Ottawa Senators.

Cam's, he's just a gentle teddy bear. Don't let him scare you, Jeffie. He's just a night. I'm scared just watching them on your pod. I'm terrified. I know. Just Cam Jansen, Jesus' Cam Jansen, keep your head up. Thanks, pal, you'd be good. That's so funny.

You're the best, Jeff. Take care. Thanks, man. Andy Strickland from the Camin's Strick podcast. Fan dual sports covering the St. Louis Blues. I'll tell you what, you know what's interesting. Zach, you can weigh in on this one. There was, it's funny that Cam mentioned picking up pucks on the boards,

which as a winger like that is like one of the hardest things you can do. Wingers all hate it when defensemen just want to get the pucks off their stick and just like hard rim to try to get it. I was like, oh, thanks for handing me the grenade instead of you trying to figure out this problem. There was one thing that Mark Savard did. That was better than anybody I ever saw in my life. Now, for people that only know Mark Savard as a coach,

that's really too bad. Because as a player, Mark Savard, outside of Joe Thornton in his era, was the best passer in the NHL. And some might even say, even with Thornton in the league, because they overlapped, that Mark Sovarred was still the better

passer. Now, he never, I don't think he ever made a pass along the ice. Every pass was saw, saw, saw, say. Every, it's a hilarious savvy. I watch him play with the in the OHL, I watch it play in the NHL, like every pass, like, saw, sauce, sauce. But there

was no one that I ever saw better at one very specific scale it was incredible when he played with Boston you could throw like a hard rim to him he'd pick it up on his backhand spin

and sauce pass it to the slot consistently and honestly like dude effortless I remember watching it going like how are people not talking about this more this is like one of the most incredible things that happens consistently in the end

are we just like numb to how sublime a playmaker Mark Savard is I'm telling you hard rims backhand pick it up spin sauce to the slot

just like you could That's why when I play Menzily you guys say keep me in the middle of the ice I don't want to be on the boards anymore keep me away from there no in seriousness I think it was

and correct me if I'm wrong if you know what I'm talking about I think it was the video of Nikita Kuturov where he stands on the wall and he angles his is skate, that's the furthest skate up the wall, the closest towards the blue line, slightly not perpendicular to, uh, that's the word, uh, 90 degree, not 90 degree on the wall, but just slightly towards the blue line. When the rim comes around, it just hits that

skate and he just grabs it with his stick right there. And I watched videos of him do it over and over and over again, just practicing that motion and nailing it down. It's nuts because it's like as soon as it hits his skate, it's not like, it's not like, a grenade coming out where he's like trying to grab it coming out it's just hits his skate he knows exactly where it's going to be the speed it's coming out at based on how it's coming around the wall like that is such an underrated skill too especially to make your defenseman's life a little bit easier because now the coach doesn't go to them and go what the hell were you doing throwing those things around like that and it also makes it

easier because they don't have to try to make you a perfect tape to tape it also makes the centerman's life easier because in a situation like that with a guy like you don't, it's little things like you don't have to go two steps closer to them to maybe support the play if the puck's coming around on a rim because it's Nikita Kutrov, like you're going to get a normal breakout pass from the guy and you could take off up the ice.

It makes life so much easier when those things happen. So Andrew Brewer, okay? I'll get Andrew back on the show. I think we had him on last year. So Andrew Brewer is a long-time video coach. And one of the more progressive coaches I've ever spoken to. He's a great guy to talk to.

Like, really, he's a guy that's after my own heart. Like, really curious, interested in different things, doing things a different way, doesn't get married to ideas, always looking for a different way to do things. And he has, when he was with Toronto, and this would have been when Babcock was coaching, had this whole plan for how to do a proper warm-up. Because, you know, guys do warm-ups now. It's essentially as a glorified rip shots at the net. work on your hands, have a little twirl

and then get in. But his whole thing and he mapped it out for me and he emailed it to me. And it's fascinating and it is things like that. Like actually warm up by working on skills that you'll do in the game. For example, considering how important they are in the game

during warm up why aren't the four centers taking faceoffs? Everyone's just coming in, ripping shots. Yeah, when have you ever seen anyone in warm-up practice a face-off? Yeah. Yeah, never.

He has like this idea of like all these different areas on the ice of guys doing these different skills to actually, to actually properly warm up. And there's one area where someone's just dropping bucks and winning back, back, back, back, back, back. Center is just taking face-offs as part of their warm-up, considering it's part of the huge part of the freaking game. All guys do is warm up, just come in and like, I'm going to go bar down. interesting Brewers like that but it's all like all the skill-based stuff that you do during a game

that he tries to work into this pre-game warm-up I would love to see it I'd love to see a team do you want to see something cool here before we wrap up the week I thought about it when Strick was talking and you guys are talking about St. Louis the minor hockey

so one year my dad was the GM for our team this is the team I played on with Robert and De Silva and stuff and I remember That's how you got on the team, right? Yeah, that's how I got on the team. I remembered a few years ago I had gone through some of the old game sheets that he had, and I took photos, and I just went back through my phone while you guys were talking to see if I could find it. Take a look at this game sheet.

For people watching on YouTube, I can read it out. This is who you played against? So Joe Wall was the goaltender. Trent Frederick was on that team. Logan, oh man, Logan Brown was good. Brady could shock. Yeah, Jeff Brown. And then look at the assistant coaches.

Keith Kachukh. Keith Kachuk and Jeff Brown were the coaches of the team. I just thought it was funny. You guys were talking about that. I played against them in the tournament. Hang on. What was the final score? I think that one was 8-1.

I don't have it on the photo, but I have the game sheet. So I think it was 8-1 for St. Louis. Wow. Look at that team you played against. That's amazing. Yeah. Who is the best player? The one that I remember the most is Logan Brown

was really good man Logan Brown was incredible And I remember watching him play And he was the first round draft pick too Like don't forget And I remember watching him play Watching him play And every now and then you got the flashes

Of like ooh That's why this guy is like so seductively good And why wouldn't you want to draft this guy And the first man And that's Jeff Brown's son So everybody knows And not that he got on the team because he's Jeff Brown's sons

because he's really good, not like, you know, Philly getting on the team because dad was coach. But I digress. How did Robert Thomas do against those guys? To be honest, I think he assisted our only goal. I got to look at the sheet again to check, but I'm pretty sure he assisted the only goal, yeah. Okay, so here's what I always love.

I don't know, did you guys make videos back then? I know he didn't have like Live Barn back then, but did you get any of the parents like recording any of it? No, nothing that I could think of, not at this point. I remember one year I have footage of us playing against Little Caesars and Sean Day, but I don't know where that would even be. So that's the only ones that I could remember. Wow, that is, that is so cool.

I'm glad you found that. That's, uh, always, uh, kids gather around. Grandpa Philly's going to tell you who I played against. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, I just, you guys were talking about it. I saw it on his jacket. I'm like, damn, I got to figure out if I can find these

because they're probably on my phone somewhere. And then I found that one. Was that Silverstone? That one was in, no, that was in Detroit. That was in one of the Detroit tournaments that they used to do. Yeah, we did it every single year. It was like one of the earlier tournaments you do in the season. Please tell me that team won the tournament.

Well, I can't even say that because that tournament for sure would have had Little Caesars with Sean Day. I would have had Chikrin on one of the teams. Like every time you went to those tournaments, those kids were all there. I think it was Compuware. I think Chiquin was Compuare. Okay. Yeah, because I remember at some point he ended up playing for Honeybaked, I think.

If that makes sense. Maybe it was honey baked. And then he went to the GTHL and played junior Canadians and looked like he was like 15 years old. It looked like he was 25. When the first time I saw him play, I'm like, give me a break. If this guy's Russian, we're like, we're tearing up the birth certificate. Yeah, like, not a freaking chance. This guy's 15 years old, but sure not if he was 15 years old.

I was like 5 foot 4, 120 pounds, and he came in, and he could have had a wife and kids. I'm like, what the fuck is happening here? Putting out a cigarette on the bench. Okay, oh, over the boards. Where's my car keys? Here, hold my car keys, coach. All right, a couple things to get to here.

Crave the stats, which is a presentation of our friends at Uber Eats. Uber Eats is enabling fans to maximize their fandom all season long with exclusive game day deals on the app. From Game Day Eats to paper plates and napkins if you're hosting to all of the ingredients you need to make your favorite game day dip. Before or during and after the game, Uber Eats is assisting every fan's hockey experience all season long. What do you got today? This one, no board. I have a video to play for people. And this one I know is something you love and I'm pretty sure people.

on our chat will love here as well. But it was tweeted out earlier today by Mike Camito. On this day in... Hockey 365. Great guy. And Boston Bruins jersey wearing in his profile picture, Mike Camito. He's got the new book. No, he's got the new book, Bruins 35. I've got to get him on the show to talk about it, much to your chagrin.

Yes, yes. I know, I know, I know. I'm just playing. He says, on this day in 1993, hockey's first ever teddy bear tossed was held by the Blazers. Brad Lukawicz scored the goal to trigger the teddy bears, and here is the footage. Wow. So this is 93.

Here we go. Brad Lukowicz scores. And for the first time ever, here come the Bears. Which is something that hopefully every single hockey fan gets a chance to experience. I haven't gone yet. It's funny. I was at my kids' game on Sunday, and he got a text from someone,

a scout with an O'HL team saying, are you at your annual Oshawa Teddy Bear Toss game? I said, no, I'm at my kids game. He's like, oh, the bears just hit the ice and the games. They're not going to get the bears off the ice until about midnight. There were so many of them that were on the ice. So it's right before Christmas time, the teddy bear toss tradition,

and all the bears go to kids' hospitals, which is absolutely fantastic. So that goes back to 1993. Spot quiz for you before I tell you the origin story of the teddy bear toss. Who assisted on that goal? One of them played for your team. Was that like Tucker? Oh my God, you nailed it.

Darcy Tucker got one of the assists. Good for you. Who is the other one? Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, flex. All right, Darcy, Doc, good for you, Zach. That's good. Againla? No, but that was part of the line, though.

Good, yeah, Shane Donne. It was Brad Lukowicz from Shane Donne and Darcy Tucker, the line was, of course, think about this as a junior hockey line, just throwing up game sheets. Shane Donne, Darcy Tucker, Jerome McGillan. Darcy Tucker was a center. Is that any good? One of the best lines in the history of junior hockey.

So the way this thing started, the Camloops Blazers marketing director, guy of the name of, I got rid of that, Don Larson. So it was a longtime marketing director for the Camloops Blazers was sitting in his front room of his house. And on his mantle was a teddy bear. And a big truck drove by and rattled the house and the teddy bear fell off. And a light went off in Don Larson's head. What would it be like if we did a game when we threw teddy bears on the ice? And it was all from that one truck rattling the house, forcing the teddy bear to fall off the mantle.

It's as simple as that. If that truck doesn't drive by Don's house, and if there's not a teddy bear sitting on that mantle, we're talking about sliding door moments, if there's not a teddy bear sitting on Don Larson's mantle, we don't have the teddy bear toss. Take it a step further. If that truck doesn't drive by and rattle the teddy bear off, we don't have Wyshinsky. spending five minutes on the show yesterday talking about diving into underwear. Diving into dirty underwear, yeah, which is somehow some like weird perverse dream that Wyshinsky has.

Seriously. We'll let him and his therapist figure that one out together. I'll tell you, man, he ever gets in the chair, he ever gets on the couch, he's going to put some therapist on the map, earning someone an international reputation. The therapist is going to need a therapist. No, the therapist is going to, like, move into a corner off. It's like, my reputation is made. My reputation here is made. I get to crack into this guy's skull.

So there you go. So Don Larson, marketing director of the of the Cam Loops Blazers. That's where all of it came from. And if you get a chance this year, it really is one of the great traditions. And it's not just junior hockey. It's not just CHL. Like pretty much every league does their own version of it. Stoville, we just had ours with the Stovil spirit not too long ago.

the only place they don't do it is the NHL. Which if they did it, well, you know, I mean, you can understand why because I get why. The games are televised and, you know, television time is very expensive and you can imagine, you know, like 100,000 bears hitting the ice and how long that would take to clean up and anyhow. It would be cool if the NHL could do a teddy bear toss or a version of the teddy bear toss. but the demands of television and the expense of television time preclude it but it is a great tradition I absolutely love it

all right let's see what you got man I enjoyed getting that text from you yesterday about Scott Lott for those of us who were with us yesterday Philly trying to make himself a couple of bucks here so it doesn't have to show up to work

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Philly? Old players you played against your YSE days? No, how do we want to do this? No. Okay, watch this. We're going to piss off Lazz here and we're also going to walk a fine, fine tight rope on this one and you'll see

it. The process should make sense so we're going to get right game for the Colorado Avalanche. So what I'm thinking is we're going to go The Aves, this is tomorrow, by the way, for clarity, not in tonight's games. I know there's a bunch of tonight, but it's for tomorrow. The Aves win by two or more. The first game on the sked.

The play in the Rangers tomorrow afternoon. Okay, got it. Correct. They win by two or more against the Rangers. They score more than three and a half goals, so be four or more goals, but the game total is under five and a half. So basically what we need here is for nothing, for one, 5-0 would do it as well.

You are threading a fine Needle here To finish off the week Yeah I'm getting cocky with it I got one through the uprates last night I said I bet one of the three About all three

Don't bet them together whatever Scott Long scores would make money We're going back at it tomorrow with I don't even like this is an Olympic balance beam act here That we're trying to pull off $5 wins you 40 yeah Big Bal, okay

well that's a tricky one the sights of Zach Phillips and a leotard I'm sure dancing through everybody's head now that's what people want on the balance beam yeah that's right

get ready for your weekend everybody two Fridays every Saturday have two Saturdays that's the old standby one thing we want to remind you up before we

before we depart and that is a new show that we have for you here on the nation network George Springer was on this week how hot is that

are you the kind of Toronto sports fan who rides every high, Zach, curses through every low, and still shows up for more, oh yeah, that's Zach. Then you need to check out off the roster,

your new must listen to Toronto Sports Show. Cabby, Lindsay Dunn, and Dan Riccio bringing the energy, raw, unfiltered, and packed with fresh takes and everything happening in the six. From the big plays to the wild trades, to hockey, to baseball, to basketball storylines, Toronto sports fans obsess over

they're all over it as well. They honor the history, we live the iconic moments, and still keep their eyes locked on what's next. The next championship run, the next blockbuster move, the next superstar Toronto is about to argue about. Toronto Sports isn't just something to watch, it's a culture. And off the roster is tapping directly into it. Catch the show live every weekday morning on the Nation Network YouTube channel.

Check that out, the Nation Network YouTube channel, and anywhere you stream your podcast. podcasts this week on the show Jason Blake former Trina Maple Leaf and Blue Jay Hero Dare I say he had a comeback season for the Jays for the ages

George Springer Hot show Yeah I think that's fair Tune in he was great Yeah And thanks to you for watching Thanks to you for listening Philly thanks for producing

and coming up with with video and game sheets That's above and beyond young man Well I put a little some We'll pull some extra in your envelope for that this week, young man. Don't forget, I got Tucker right, too. I knew Tucker. Oh, geez. And you nailed Tucker from the 93 Cameloup's Blazers.

Like, I thought you might go like, Neidemeyer would have been on that team too. Like, yeah, this guy doesn't fake the funk. He knows where his old Maple Leafs were. Great job this week, Philly, as always. And thanks to, we had three guests today. Thanks to Andy Strickland for stopping by the program to talk about St. Louis AAA minor hockey slash youth hockey.

and also the St. Louis blues. Caleb Malhotra was an absolute delight. Remember that name. Mani Malhotra's son, his name will be called early. The 2026 NHL draft playing with the Banford Bulldogs, who are an absolute wagon of a team in the OHL, favorites to win the Memorial Cup, even though I'm sure they'll downplay that, but nonetheless. And we kicked off the show today in what seemed like a million years ago, but it's been one of those programs with Dave Panjota,

DFO Insider from the fourth period. And don't forget to check out the Insider Show. DFO Rundown Insider Edition Wednesdays at 3 o'clock right here at our daily faceoff YouTube channel. And wherever you get your podcast, you can also hear and listen to this program in the exact same places. Thanks for joining us. We have a couple of announcements, show announcements coming up next week.

So stay tuned for that. A couple of different things planned for you. So stay tuned for that. In the meantime, enjoy the action all weekend long, three full days of NHL action to say nothing at PWHL Action, Division. Action, CHL Action, enjoy as much of it as you can, and we will regroup on Monday at 1 o'clock Eastern. Have a great week.

I said 16 hours last night, every day this week, every day this week. I can't get out my head, lifestyle, ambitious day-to-day, because I can't call it right. I went to the dark man and tried to give me a little medicine. I'm like, no, 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 didn't want to back. I turned on the music.

I didn't want me back. I turned on the music. It's enough. If you're sometimes losing I've been on the days that we're wrong