The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Mid-Summer Catch Up ft. Jet Greaves, Steven Ellis, and Hart Levine

Episode Date: July 30, 2025

On this episode of The Sheet, Jeff Marek is joined by Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Jet Greaves to reflect on his incredible season and the journey that made it all possible. Then, Steven Ellis jumps on to break down everything you need to know from the World Junior Summer Showcase, including standout performances and top NHL prospects to watch heading into the 2025–26 season. To wrap things up, Hart Levine dives into the NHL's new CBA, how it affects the trade deadline, and more. All that and much more on this jam-packed edition of The Sheet.#TheSheet #JeffMarek #JetGreaves #WorldJuniors #StevenEllis #NHLProspects #ColumbusBlueJackets #ConnorMcDavid #StanBowman #NHLTalk #HockeyPodcast #HockeyNewsShout out to our sponsors!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼 Simply Spiked: https://www.simplyspiked.ca/en-CAReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Flames_Nation🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Art has power to inspire us, to unite us, to give us solace and courage when we need it most, to create important stories, lasting memories, a sense of belonging. Your National Art Center serves as a catalyst and communities across Canada, empowering artists, inspiring audiences, and bringing us closer together. Learn more at nac.c.c.c.a slash create in Canada. This episode of The Sheet is sponsored by the OCS summer pre-roll sale. Sometimes when you roll your own joint, things can turn out a little differently than what you expected. Maybe it's a little too loose.

Maybe it's a little too flimsy. There's a million ways to roll a joint wrong. But there's one role that's always perfect. The pre-roll. Shop the summer pre-roll and infused pre-roll sale today at OCS.ca and participate. Retailers. Okay, a few days off, and we're back out of here on the sheet. Thanks, once again, for joining me here on this Wednesday, July 30th.

We're going to go down to like a one, maybe two shows a week all through August, and then ramp back up in September. Those are all the janitorial notes. on to the program now. Glad to be back. Glad to be back in the chair. Glad to be talking to you, whether you're listening on podcasts, whether you are watching us on YouTube, either live or in the archives. We very much appreciate it as always. So here's the question.

Does this new CBA totally ruined trade deadline? It certainly dense it. I don't know if it wrecks it. Zach, I don't know if you have a thought on this, but Hart Levine's going to stop by from Puckpedia later on. And we'll talk about this CBA and what it has done to trade deadline. Now, it's not going to come into effect for another year, as we know. But one of the things we're wondering about is with the removal of things like double retention,

which everybody complained about. Looking for a problem because we have a solution here. Does anyone have a problem? Because we have a solution to say nothing of the salary cap in the playoffs as well. We're really wondering what this is going to do to trade. deadline you know look at how many deals were able to be made at trade deadline just because you know there was like double retention and there were things like ah salary cap in the playoffs no such thing let's get a couple of guys on lTIR and away you go make your trades it's exciting

it's fun like i don't know if it wrecks trade deadline but again like it's certainly densed it it feels like it's going to dent it yeah on a day that's already pretty quieted down it pretty much just absolutely killed it i'm interested to see what happens this year because it's going to be the last season before this is all implemented like GMs just go out and they're like this is the big the final shabang like let's go nuts here I don't think that'll happen knowing what the GMs do but that's fantasy land Carolina with with with with Jackson Blake and the and deferring of salaries it's like all right we've got one more shot to do this year let's start deferring all these salaries and get

the cap hit done yeah I don't know if the GMs decide like we're going to fill our boots here now with double retention and such. But that's going to be interesting. We'll talk to Hart Levine coming up a little bit later on on the program. Back from Mexico. And you know what I found? I could not find hockey. Remember how last time when we were together I said, you know what?

There's hockey everywhere. Oh, Zach, you just have to look. We were in Cancun for a weekend. And like there was one kid at the gym who I just think he was there with his dad who had a Philadelphia flyer shirt. That was about it. Okay. Did you look for hockey?

I did. Because you know me. I'm looking under under every teapot trying to find something that's hockey no nothing so is the land

hockey forgot what were you at were you at a resort no we're at a resort and my kids play a lot of golf now so I was a caddy for four days

okay yeah because you don't play golf I drove it no I told you man it's the best ball best two balls that hit is when I step on a rake

um I uh you love that line uh that sounds so bad It's good line, man. Come on, I bring up my good stuff here on the show early. Yeah, I couldn't find hockey anywhere except for one kid at the gym

wearing a flyer shirt. That was a bucket. And he was there for about 30 seconds. And they stopped him and say, hey, I've been looking for hockey. He said, get away from the old man. No, you know why? Because I think he was there with a bunch of his teammates because it was a bunch of kids. And they all got like matching shorts.

And so I think they were just looking for a change room to be honest with you because it was like made at the main resort area. and they're just looking for a washroom and get changed. So they use the gym washroom. I think that's all there is to it, really. Anyhow. All right, coming up on the program today, we've got a big one for you.

So if you've been waiting for a while, we've got a number of different guests to talk about a number of different hockey issues. Daily outline presented by Fanduel. Make every moment more with North America's number one sports book, Fanduel. And coming up on the program in a couple of moments here, we just mentioned Hart Levine from Puckpedia.

he will stop by. Jet Greaves, netminder for the Columbus Blue Jackets, who has an outstanding story. He's standing by. He'll be here in a couple of seconds. We'll talk about the World Junior Summer Showcase with our man, Stephen Ellis. A little bit more on the Connor McDavid extension

or lack thereof at this point. And if we get to it in an international deal with the NHL and the zone. So we'll present that for you coming up a little bit later on on the program. In the meantime, pleasure to welcome aboard for the first time here on the show. show someone with a fantastic story.

And I'm going to go hockey geek. I'm just going to say it right now. I'm going to go hockey geek and talk about catching pucks with Jet Greaves, Net Minder for the Columbus Blue Jacket. And first of all, Jet, thanks so much for stopping by today. And I set off the hop that I was going to go full geek on you. And I will because I'm guessing you have a baseball background. Because my main beef when I watch goaltenders now is they could be playing with two blockers.

there are very few goalies who know how to catch the puck. You know how to catch the puck. Do you have, I know you have a tennis background. Do you have a baseball background? Yeah, thanks for having me, first of all. I'm excited to be here and talk with you guys. Yeah, I grew up playing a ton of baseball for me. It was kind of hockey's in the winters and baseball in the forever.

So I love playing baseball. Well, you know, I'll tell you what, Chad. I remember having a conversation about 10 years ago with Felix Potfan, former Maple LeafsNet Minder. And he was a goalie coach in Quebec. And I was like, well, what's the one thing that you notice about goaltenders now? And he said, no one knows how to catch anymore. He said, you know, when we played when we were kids, we played baseball in the summer, we played hockey in the winter.

And everybody knew how to catch. Now goaltenders just block the puck with their catching hand. But that's one of the things that really stands out about you right away is your glove work and your glove play. Do you consider that to be one of your, one of your signatures in your game? How about that? Thank you. Yeah, I really appreciate you saying that. For me, I think it's, you know, it's been something that's been kind of natural, like I said, with that baseball background.

I always kind of had a glove on my hand, whether it's playing hockey or playing baseball. I think for me it's something that I've talked about a lot with, you know, with my coaches and just like talking to the guys, especially guys always talk about anytime we can get whistles and freeze-to-play it, you know, help. to kill the momentum the other team might have offensively. So I think it's just a big advantage anytime you can catch a puck and slow the play down. So for me, I just try to catch everything I can. But it's not maybe something I'm thinking about that much during the game. I'm kind of just reacting instinctively.

But when it works out and you get some more wrestles, I think it definitely helps. I don't know, man. You kill play fast. Like you really do like that glove. I know, like, does the equipment now help? Like, how long does it take to break in a goalie glove now? Um, I think it kind of depends one on the guy and then two sometimes in the glove, you know, sometimes they're a little stiffer, sometimes they're a little softer for me. Like sometimes I'll have a glove and use it, you know, in a practice and then use it the next day in the game. They can be super quick. And sometimes they take a little bit longer. But yeah, I think like you said, they do such a good job making the gloves now. Or if you get the puck and the laces, usually it's, they stick pretty good in there. So okay, uh, I want to get to your story because it's, uh, it's a great one. And I'm going to sort of bounce all around with topics with you here. in the time that I have with you.

But, you know, undrafted. You know, I watched you play, you know, years and years ago. Undrafted goaltender. I think you're on an ECHL two-way deal before rookie dev camp. Like, I'm trying to put my Jetgreaves timeline together. I know that Manny Legacy really went out of his way to make sure that you got seen by the Columbus Blue Jackets organization. Can you walk us through the Jetgreaves NHL origin story? Um, yeah, so I guess I'll start it when I was in junior. I played in, uh, Barry in the

LHL there. I was there when I was 17. It was my rookie year. And then I went undrafted that season. And then I went to Columbus's development camp after that. And that's where I first met Manning got to know everybody, you know, in the organization there. And I just had such a great experience with Manning. And I felt like I learned so much from him, even just in that short time. re-express so much belief in me, which also kind of in turn helped me believe in myself too. So he was such a big part of that. And then I went back to Barry the following year. And then we had, that was the year that got cut short at the end of the season with the COVID shot down.

And then the next year after that, we had no season in the OHL. So it was just kind of playing on outdoor ranks, you know, all year like we did. Like we did when we were kids, that was the only spot we'd play. that we have a friend of ours. They have like a pond in their backyard. So we would go there and skate. We always grew up having a rink in our backyard here. So my dad kind of built the rink again.

And my brother and I would just skate out there all winter. So now that's what we. Yeah. Yeah, for, please, please, finish, finish, please. No, so I was going to say that. So that's what we did that year. And then from there, I end up being fortunate to be able to, you know, I was still talking with Columbus.

And we had actually a show. I don't know if you guys ever heard about this or remember it but at the Mark Hunter one it was called the PBHH showcase it was in Erie

a buddy of mine Andy Perot him and a couple friends started it Oh yeah Nathan's yeah Nathan's kid Yeah yeah Nathan told me about this

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I remember that Yeah Andy and I had knew each other for a long time since we were kids and he started that just for you know HL guys and guys who didn't get seen that whole season

just to play some competitive hockey and they brought a ton of NHL teams there and Columbus, you know, man, he came to that. Brad Teeson, who's our goalie coach in Cleveland, he came to that as well. And then shortly after I signed an AHL deal with Columbus, or with Cleveland, sorry. And then I started in Kalamazoo.

The following year was kind of up and down between Kalamazoo and Cleveland and then just kind of built from there over the last few years. There's a lot in there that I want to sort of pick up on. First of all, with the Barry Colts, I really have a lot of time for Dale, the late Dale Howard Chuck. I think it was, A, one of the best centers I've ever seen, and B, just a tremendous coach. And anyone who's been coached by Dale Howard Chucks, whether it's, you know, Mark Schifley will talk about him, Andrew Mangeapani, will talk about anyone who's been coached by Dale Howard Chuck sort of sings from the same hymn book.

Do you have a thought on being coached by Dale Howard Chuck? I don't know how much direct involvement he had with the goaltenders, but do you have a thought or two on Dale Howard Chuck? Oh, it was so awesome. It was like, like you said, I think everybody who's who had the pleasure of being around him has only good things to say about him, you know, as a coach and as a player, but just as a person, he was just so kind and always there, you know, whatever you need and that I think you could see like in how many pros he's turned out

from from bearing this time coaching there, just the impact that he had in so many people. And, you know, the guys that went on to do so many other things from other than hockey, I've learned so much from him. I think the biggest thing that I always talk about, and he was really big on harping to us, is just, like, loving the game and enjoying the game and, like, make me a big part of your life and how you live. And just the value in that, I think, like, you see it with someone like, Mark Schaer,

just how passionate he is about the game and so many of the guys, like, even Tyson Forster, him and I were rookies together in Barry, and he's, like, just loves hockey. So I think there's so many, so many guys that came through there and Barry that Dale kind of instilled that love of the game for us. It was awesome to play for him and get to know him. And the one thing that I like to tell people is I truly believe it is he would play three on three with us. And he was like always, always like one of the best players out there.

He's still probably one of the hardest guys I've ever tried to stop. But he was, you know, however many years after he's been done playing, but he was still so good. I mean, you know, I'll tell you, I remember playing in a charity game once. And Dale was, as one of those events where, you know, every team gets an ex-NHLer. And I had, geez, I think it was Jeff Jackson, who's now the CEO of the Oilers, on my team. And Howard Chuck was on the other side. And the guys were like, go on, take a draw against Howard Chuck. Take a draw against Howard Chuck.

I'm like, oh, God, this is going to be so embarrassing. And, like, all, of course, all game long, even 1,500 points in the NHL Hall of Fame. Of course, he gobbles me up at the dot. And I say to him, I pull the other, you get up me win one. And he goes, no, he goes, watch this. And so the referee's about to drop the puck. Jet, I'll never forget, I remember being like, oh, my God, what just happened? He smacked my stick, flipped his blade over, and the puck landed flat on his blade.

He held it up to my face and skated backwards laughing. Like, you want to talk about, like, being humiliated at the face off. That was, that was, that was. was that was it for me. That's great. So, you know, you've had a lot of success early in your career. I know you've earned it. You've worked hard for it.

As you mentioned, undrafted. You know, you're one of those, you're one of those people that understands that there's no elevator to success. You take the stairs and you've very much taken the stairs your entire way. We mentioned Mani Legacy earlier. Who are some of the other people that? that sort of helped you along and helped get you to this spot right now

that you're at with the Blue Jackets. Yeah, I mean, there are so many people I can speak about. Speak about right now when you ask that question. Obviously, you know, my family, my parents have kind of taught me every I know from such a young age. My brother, it's like, my brother, him and I are so close and we've spent so much time playing hockey together.

I've heard about, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. I've heard about you and Kai. I've heard that, like, you compete, like, I've heard, like, the tennis matches are insane. Now, your brother's a defenseman, I believe, at Princeton. Am I correct on that? So I've heard you guys compete, like, everything, and these legendary tennis matches are only one.

Like, the way it was told to me is, like, they'll compete with anything, including, like, eating. No matter what it is, these two guys will compete. Is that true? Yeah, we've just, I don't know, we've just grown up that way. We've always been, he's two years younger than me, So we've always, you know, been close in age and have a lot of the same friends. We just spend so much time around each other.

And even, you know, with our buddies, we're always active or playing basketball or tennis or whatever it is. And for whatever reason, Kat and I are always on opposite teams because we just, we love competing against each other. And then we come home and we're finding something to compete at there. So we both kind of have that competitive spirit instilled in us just from the relationship we've had. It's so fun. I love it. I just love it. Okay.

So let me ask you about this. So your agency, CAA, there are stories out there about this legendary speech that Jim Hughes gives, which involves, do you live in box one, box two, or box three? Now, Jim Hughes, for those who don't know, is the father of Jack, Luke, Quinn, the Hughes boys, and he works as CAA. What can you tell us about the legendary story of do you live in box one, two, or three? What's that all about? Yeah, I remember the first time I heard that kind of that speech was when I was probably 13 or 14 years old at the camp that Jim was speaking at. And I had known him for a little bit at the time and kind of saw, I'd gotten to learn everything that he was about and just, you know, what it takes to become a professional hockey player and to play at the highest level.

So you kind of always, he's a type of person that anybody who knows him, you know, respects anything he says. And you're always kind of sit up straight when he's speaking to us here. taking nose and trying to look at the lectures but yeah i remember he talked about you know the biggest thing that he kind of instilled and that i took from it was he says like there's so many at whatever stage of your career you're in there's going to be things where you're thinking about something that happened the night before whether it's you know a good game or a bad game that's box one that's box one the past right exactly box one is the past then there's there's box three which is kind of anything in the future where it's like what you want to do next

or where you want to play or think you should be playing or what what you think should be happening etc and he said there's box two though which is box two as the present and that's where your feet are and he said as long as you're always in box two and kind of being where your feet are as much as you can and that's that's what you need to do and that's what's going to give you the best chance at success and that's something that I've taken with me it really kind of stuck with me then when I've heard it and I've held on to throughout my career to this day is just trying to be where my feet are, whatever the situation is, just trying to be present in the moment and enjoy it and get my best in the moment.

It's such a great line. And what people have told me about you, too, is like you are that guy. Like, Jim Hughes, you know, we'll go around asking, you know, where are your feet right now? Where are your feet right now? And what I've heard about you, Jed, is like, if there's one, like, if there's someone who lives, like, you're the one guy that lives, like, right in the present every single moment, which is really, like, the wisest way. They can't do anything about the past.

You can't predict the future. You live where your feet are. Otherwise, you can have a life full of anxiety. Were you always like that? Or is that 13-year-old, Jack Reeves, heard that from Jim Hughes before a tournament with Jack Hughes, and it always stuck with him? Like, where do you get that from? I think just, you know, there have been so many experiences throughout the way

and so many people that I've spoken to that just try to learn as much as I can about you know what's the right way to do things and I think that's something my parents have always instilled to me from a young age is just controlling what you control it's not about what else is going on or what you think the situation should be or whatever it is but just enjoying the moment where you are and working hard where you are and just controlling that and trusting that the results will take care of itself and then I think just being able to have so many different experiences I've kind of for me I feel like learned the value of that and been able to experience that, which I think just installed it

even more. So what does your summer look like? This is a big summer for you. This is, you know, next season is going to be a big one for the blue jackets. As I'm sure everybody in the organization felt, you know, the outpouring of love and affection, even if you're not a fan of the blue jackets, you had to cheer for the blue jackets last season. He picked up a lot of fans along the way.

And I think the blue jackets turned a lot of heads along the way as well. And I'll tell you what, I thought of you right away. way when Don Waddell made the move with Florida, sending Danil Terrace off to the Florida Panther that said, okay, maybe the blocking is done here. This is the open lane here for Jet Greaves. What's your summer like right now, knowing that, there's that spot right there for you?

Yeah, I think for me, like, kind of going back to our last conversation, you know, things like that happen. But for me, it's really my summer is always just about, you know, preparing for the upcoming season and just trying to develop my game and everything I'm doing in life really around the game. So I'm back home in Cambridge, Ontario, where I kind of always spend my summers with my family and friends here. I've got my goalie coach, Matt Smith. He's been my goalie coach since I was 12 or 13 years old. So just spending time skating with him and spending time in a gym trying to just prepare my body for the season upcoming and just

really just enjoying the process of improving. I think that's such a fun part of the game is learning about what you can do to get better and just try to make those steps every single day. So just really try to be grounded in that process, I guess. Last one for you. How is the training changed? And I want to frame it in one very specific way.

For the longest time, goalies had the advantage in hockey because they spent the summers working on being a goal tender and the players lifted that was it get strength back get strength back I remember elaine vino this is all under the uh when the conversation was happening about the goalie's equipment is too big and we need to make the nets bigger shrink the equipment I can't remember the last time I had a conversation with anybody about needing to shrink the equipment because to elaine vino's point he always said listen if the shooters want to score more goals they get to learn how to shoot better and now we know a lot about

pre-shot movement by the puck and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And right now it seems as if the advantage has started to swing more towards the players. Now they decided we should probably lift less and work more in our game more in the offseason. So how is your training changed to sort of understand the new reality that it's not just one or two guys on a team that can shoot anymore? It's everybody. Yeah, I think it's a fun. it's a fun game like you're talking about between the players are always getting better

and the goalies are always trying to get better the defenders are getting better so I think it's it's really cool game to always be evolving like that and I think to answer your question it's for us just a lot of watching a lot of video and understanding where the game is where the game is going you know how how the goals are going in whether it's on myself or on any goalie in the NHL or whatever level it is, then also looking at guys that are having success and what are they doing that's making them successful. So I think it's just just that process of learning as much as we can about players, you know, talking to players, asking, you know, what are you seeing? What are you looking at and just trying to prepare in every way for those situations,

whether it's through video work or on the ice or off the ice or mental work, just trying to be prepared for every situation. Okay, I lied. I have one. one more favorite goalies either right now or of all time i'm always curious about this oh there are so many um i've won that comes of mine right away is carry price he was kind of when i's so good started the story of me starting to really play goalie was kind of two two things came into play one my my dad was playing goalie and uh and his hockey so that was always i would kind of want to be like um and the other one was my brother and i during will juniors we would always like watch that play minissticks at the commercials and during the game

and just kind of pretend to be the players. But I think it was the 2007 World Juniors. Kerry Price was a starting goalie for Canada. And they did kind of a segment on him before the game and just showed him like walking through the streets of Sweden or something like that. That kind of just saw his demeanor and how calm and composed he was. And then we watched the game and he was amazing in Canada won.

And then after that I was a goalie in mini sticks and I was begging my parents to let me play. You know what always impressed me about, I'm glad you mentioned like his demeanor. The thing that always impressed me about Kerry Price is post-game interviews. If you didn't know the final score, you would have no clue if Montreal won the game or lost the game. Highs weren't too high. Loes weren't too low. Just even.

Like the entire time. Again, like if you're a goal, man, I'm sure you've seen plenty. Maybe you've been this guy in the past. If you're a goalie and you ride the wave, oh man, it can be a really long. season if you if you don't sort of have that at least resembling a sort of carry price attitude right yeah absolutely i think that was something that kind of always picked up the same way watching him and watching his interviews and even just the way he played was that you know he never really changed you know what no matter what happened he was very very steady and very composed so i think

it was so awesome you know being able to watch him growing up i was watching him a lot i was watching hendrick lunkwist i've always been a huge fan of his obviously yeah he was was great. And then even Bob as well, obviously it's cool that he was in Columbus before me, but I've always been such a fan of him, and even now it's cool to see, you know, just how the career he's putting together. It's awesome.

So much fun. Listen, I don't know whether it's a big tennis match with Kai after this interview here with me today, Jep, but whatever is next for you, we wish you all the success and look forward to seeing you with the Blue Jackets next year. Thanks so much for joining me today. Thank you. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. This episode of The Sheet is

sponsored by the OCS summer pre-roll sale. Sometimes when you roll your own joint, things can turn out a little differently than what you expected. Maybe it's a little too loose, maybe it's a little too flimsy. There's a million ways to roll a joint wrong, but there's one role that's always perfect. The pre-roll. Shop the summer pre-roll and infused pre-roll sale today at OCS.ca and participating retailers. Art has power to inspire us, to unite us, to give us solace and courage when we need it most, to create important stories, lasting memories, a sense of belonging. Your National Art Center serves as a catalyst and communities across Canada, empowering

artists, inspiring audiences, and bringing us closer together. Learn more. at NAC.ca.ca slash create in Canada. There he is, Jetgreaves, net minder for the Columbus Blue Jackets. One final thing on Dale Howard Chuck that I wasn't able to get into. Zach, you may like this one.

So I've had a couple of people who played for the Barry Colts tell me this story. So Howard Chuck would always try to impress on four words. So Shafley, Tanner Pearson, Mangiopani, some of the names. Jet mentioned Tyson Forrester. What he would always stress is at the NHL level,

you're not going to have a lot of time to get your shot off in the offensive zone. It's got to be on your stick, off your stick, on your stick, off your stick. And the thing about Howard Chuck was he wanted to make sure the players just knew instinctively how to shoot and where to shoot. That what he would do for a lot of these guys, have you ever heard of blindfold shooting? Do you ever do blindfold shooting? No, I didn't. Where is this going? During practice, right, like for set plays, put a blindfold on hockey players

or have them close their eyes, get the puck and shoot. Because he said a lot of times it's going to feel like you don't even get a chance to look at where the net is. You just have to know where to shoot. Because I think about Howard Chuck, and I've gotten to know his son, Eric, over the years and talking to the family number of times when Dale was young and he would shoot, he would spend a lot of time with his eyes closed shooting because he needed to know instinctively. where the puck needed to go and wanted to sort of, you know, challenge himself.

And it was always said, and I don't care if this is true or not, I love the story, and I'm going to keep repeating it, that Howard Chuck was able to tell whether his puck hit the post or the crossbar because they made different sounds. Someone told me that story a while ago, I'm like, oh, man, I really want that to be true. I really want that story to be true. It's like believable enough too Where it's like that could very well be true But it's Howard Chuck man

Like of course Why not? Yeah Yeah We had a lot of fun talking to Jack Reeves Speaking of a goaltenders We're going to talk to another gold tender Not an NHL gold tender

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no hang on get that right to camera that's nice give us the give us the the origin story of this mask so there's a place Padskins they're a company in Orangeville Ontario and they make like vinyl wraps and I like this one it matched a lot of the equipment I had

with color wise so it was like a whole team Canada style helmet and then the referee kept that I deal with a lot kept forgetting my name so I put my name on there so he knows who I am and then I just got a cat eye cage the ones that the NHL goalies use, but you'll never find any other goalie using it. And, yeah, so I had a big win last night

against my former team. So that always feels good. And, you know, I just got a text message about 45 seconds ago asking to play tonight, so it never ends. Wow, man, the life of a... Now, do you like, do you like, for lack of a better term?

Like, do you whore yourself out to, like, ball hockey teams? Like, are you that guy, like, yeah, I'll come in for 50 bucks. I'll come in for 25 bucks. I'll come in for a tin of beer. there's basically like I'm pretty sure in the GTA there's probably like six goalies that exist so it makes it really easy to get a corner to the market and it's been good too because it's like I only start playing in October but I've already won like

top goalie in two leagues so it's like here's the results bringing me there let's let's keep going um just talked to Jack Reeves a second ago with the Columbus Blue Jackets I don't know if you have a thought on him maybe you saw him and Barry maybe you saw him play Cambridge uh Hawks previously um you have a thought on on Jack Reeves because Because, you know, I mentioned this to him during the interview. The moment they traded Terrace off to the Florida Panthers, that was the moment I said, all right, now they're clearing the path for Jet Grieves full-time backup to Elvis Mers-Leakins. We don't know what the future for Elvis Mers-Likins is going to be, but the future for Jet Grieves is very much in the crease with CBJ.

Do you have a thought on Jet Grieves? Yeah, that's a guy that the more I watch them, the more I'm impressed I am. And you look at this past season, between the NHL, between the AHL, was just a guy that was just racking up wins, a time. And I think when you see a young goal, go to the NHL and be that successful, it's kind of like, okay, you've got to prove everything, but you also don't know what you don't know. And you'll see a lot of these young goalies that'll come to the NHL and they don't have a ton of experience planning some of these high-end shooters. And they're just like, I'm not going to overthink this. I'm going to go out there perform. And we saw the type of season he had. So the

Blue Jackets, I think it was clear a couple years ago. Merz Likins wasn't going to be the long-term guy. They needed someone to be that long-term guy. And I think when, by trading to make sure he was the backup next year for Jack Reeves, but then also not drafting or they draft the goalie and Andrea off, but some guy that isn't going to be there for four or five more years, that shows a lot of trust into him. So I'm really happy where his development is. Speaking of goaltenders,

anyone impress you so far at the Royal Junior Summer Showcase? Herman Liv. Yeah, Herman Live. Yeah, so Stefan lives son and small goalie. Sweden's had enough of those guys a lot. couple years. Havlid being the most recent one the last couple of years, but he's been really good for Sweden, played against the Americans two nights ago and was, like, unbelievable. Like, that game could have completely gone the other way. And Sweden actually ended up winning that

game because of his heroics, because it probably should have been more like a six, seven, three game than what ended up being. And Carter George was great yesterday in that intra-squad game. Like, I know it's kind of hard sitting there, six o'clock watching an intra-squad. controlled scrimmage where the second period is all about power plays and family kills. This is summer hockey, right? This is it. Like, I was at the hunk of camp. Like, I just got back from there just before I got here for Team Canada.

And I'll be at the next couple of days where they do a bunch of games. And it's, it's definitely summer hockey. But first of all, if there's anyone that's going to do that in the world, Stephen, it's you that are going to be that guy. So here's a question, and again, Nick, you're right, this is, this is, this is summer hockey. But listen, we haven't seen Matthew Schaefer play for a long time. What is, what does something like this summer showcase mean for the Allender's first overall draft back? I think 100% seeing him play yesterday, like he was not at full strength.

And I've always been on the camp of he should not be in the NHL full time this year. He just needs to play a lot of hockey. and that's what he could do in the oh-h-l in terms of how he looked yesterday better than i think i expected but also on top of that kaden lidsstrom a guy that missed most of last year was probably candid his best player and i say that knowing it was canada versus canada he was probably the best player in the entire game but seeing shaffer look as confident as he did with the puck and i think he got better as the night wore on because he looked just like okay i know this pace i know how to handle it i know how to control the play here once he started to get comfortable

bowl there. That's when things really looked up. Who's looked good so far? Focus on Canada. Who's looked good for Canada so far? Well, it's tough because they've only done that one controlled scrimmage, right? But they're going to be playing their second game tonight. But I thought Carter George looked really good. I thought he made some fantastic saves.

Michael Hage, University of Michigan forward, really impressive game. Merrick Vaneker was sitting with a scout with the Brantford Bulldogs. and we're talking last night. He's like, yeah, like, Merrick Vanekker's going to do something. Next thing you hear, and Vanekir scores. It's like, oh, there you go. So you look good. It's been kind of just not all the big stars going out there and shining, right?

And I think that's also what you're looking for in a tournament like this. And tonight we know when they play Finland, it's going to be the one where they're sending most of their best players. And then after that, a lot of those good guys, the guys who are pretty much a lock to make the team, they'll go home. Um, the United States has won two goals at the, uh, the world juniors back to back here. Uh, listen, Hagan seems like whether, whether it was, you know, at, at, at Boston camp, whether it's, you know, at, at this, uh, summer, uh, summer showcase so far. Like, he seems determined to sort of prove that he shouldn't have fallen in the draft like he did. And it should have been the conversation between him and Matthew Schaefer for first overall. What do you expect out of Higgins? I'm a big James Higgins fan, whether it be in college, whether it be him in the NHL potentially next year, which I don't think would be the right call, whether it be at the World Junior.

This is a guy that I get some of the concerns. He's not overly strong, but you see kind of how Jack Hughes's career is gone. And Jack Hughes has become this undersized center that players look up to because he can dominate in other ways. Granted, Jack Hughes has been hurt a lot. There's that. But when it comes to what Hagan says, I think he's just exceptionally. smart great with the puck can play with anyone like i think that when you look at what he who he could

play with you'd say okay well col iserman those two guys played so well together at a young age it'd be great to see those guys together but no it's watching him and teddy stiga and brodie zemer play together it's been fun to watch because they kind of all compliment each other and at the same time with haggins he's kind of that brain trust and i'm saying that is he just want a really nice face off right to my left um but he's he's just such a smart player can do so many things of both ends of the ice. Like, I'm not worried about him having a good career. He's going to be very good.

Thoughts on the coaching staff for Team Canada. U-20 led by Dale Hunter. Now, I thought it was going to be, honestly, I thought it was going to be Gardner McDougall. Now, he ends up on the bench anyhow, which is great. But your thoughts on Dale Hunter, the bench boss for Team Canada.

The fact that Gardner McDougall isn't the main guy kind of just shows you that just a scary, good coaching group. And you'll look at last year. You'll look at kind of just everything that went wrong with Canada. And a lot of people, myself included, will point and say, clearly they weren't put in the right line combinations. They weren't trying the right things. And I think

this case, I don't see that being an issue. Oh, and James Hagen is currently in a nice scrum. So, it's talking about him being not very physical. Here he is. Trying to put someone in headlock. Hockeyscrumbs.com coming soon to a website near you. No one fights anymore. It's just scrums.com. Here we go. My grandma just says,

Like every player hugs each other. But, yeah, like with, not wrong. Candidus coaching staff, like this looks like one of the better coaching staffs we've seen. And even if you don't have Matthew Schaefer, even if Michael Mesa is not there, Zane Perak, like this team is going to be deep. It's going to be really hard to screw this up. So it looks like the team to beat right now. I know, I know you laugh.

And it's like, well, we kind of know how this team plays, right? Yeah. I mean, the thing about, you know, specifically last year. in Ottawa, such a, such a disappointment for Team Canada. First of all, do you notice a change at all within Hockey Canada coming off of, coming off of the disappointment last year? Like, look, there's always been this idea that you have to be loyal to the program. If you don't go to all of the events and you're not going to be picked for the world,

your team, et cetera. I know that people at Hockey Canada deny it, but there's always sort of been that vibe out there. Does it feel different to you now? Like, nothing spurs activity in Canadian hockey quite like losses. And losses, the likes of which we saw last season, were spectacular. Do you sense, again, there's no sort of scientific way to determine this, but vibe check.

Does it feel different with Hockey Canada now? I still would have liked to see, like, a full-time coach, like some guy who was just dedicated to being the head coach of the World Junior team. But I think so, like, I think, by the way, I think before he got the Arizona now, Utah job, I think Andre Tourney might have been that guy, was going to be that guy. Yeah. And would have been a great choice for that, too. Like, that's a guy that has had to do a lot with a little in his early days of Arizona.

It's going to get better, hopefully, in Utah pretty quickly here. but I think with with the coaching staff like they went all out they they're they brought the best group they possibly can and there's all the talk about whether or not there have a selection camp in December like I think I was at that selection camp and I remember watching Zane Perreck and being very underwhelmed and thinking if he's going to miss this team it's because he did not perform well in this two day camp I guess it was three days but it's like that's way too short and if they get rid of that and they focus more and just taking the best players available from the entire season, they're going to be in better shape, but because that Canada was the only one that really does a selection camp like that. Like USA did some training camp drills, but they were only cutting like two players last year. So it's not exactly as big of a deal as Canada. But yeah, you kind of hope if you're a Canadian hockey fan that they can turn things around because on paper, with a talent they had available last year, Canada should not have been out

as early as it was. And this year would be an utter shock, I think, especially when Sweden's not looking as dangerous. Finland's not looking as dangerous. This is the year where Canada can kind of steal that spotlight back. And if you're hockey Canada, you've got to go all out no matter what. Last one for you. Speaking of Spotlights, is next year's Willard Jr. in Minnesota going to be spotlight on Gavin McKenna, period. You know, we've seen some hot and cold moments from him in international hockey, but the hot moments have been very, very good.

I was ice level when he scored all those goals in that gold medal game with the U-18s in Finland. Unbelievable performance. It's going to be the Gavin McKenna show. But hey, he might not be the only draft eligible player on that team. Keaton Verhoff, I think, could play key minutes right away.

I saw him this morning. Okay. Let me ask you this. Is there any chance that it's a real conversation by the time the draft rolls around next year? between McKenna and Keaton-Ferhoff. Is there a chance that it's a real convo? I think it's closer than most people would think.

Hey, here's one I'll throw out for next for 2027. I talked to a few people who think Alexis Joseph could be better in Lannon-Dupon. We'll see. Different positions, but Joseph's like 6-4, power forward, outstanding, pure dominance last week at the U-17 camp. I was at a game where his team won like 15 to 4 was a stupid game and he had like eight or nine points like he's just he is a dominant forward

I remember watching like Quinton Byfield do things like that at the same age so we'll see. Interesting. All right, let you get back to watching. All right, thanks so much for the information and the time and much appreciated and we will check back soon. August is coming so we'll bug you about Hlinka Gretzky so that's on the horizon too. Thanks, pal. You'd be good. Thanks so much.

There is ball hockey, Goaltender, Extraordinary, and lead prospect analyst for us here at Daily Faceoff, the one and only Stephen Ellis. Art has power, to inspire us and courage

when we need it most, to create important stories, lasting memories, a sense of belonging, Your National Art Center serves as a catalyst and communities across Canada, empowering artists, inspiring audiences, and bringing us closer together. Learn more at nacc.ca.ca.c.c.c.c.c.c.c. And from there, we go to, as we sort of bounce around the hockey universe, our good friend, the curator, the owner,

the meet behind the beat of Puckpedia, the one and only, Hart Levine. And Hart, thanks so much for joining me today. It's never a dull moment. I'm sure, like, after we finished texting, like two seconds later, Calgary announced the Pospicil deal as well, which, by the way, I think is a really good deal for Calgary.

For a third-line center at that number with that term, considering where the salary cap is going, like when sometimes like when you get this information art you look at yourself and say no no no no I'm not reading this right there must be more because that hospiceal deal looks great for Calgary like fantastic yeah I do sometimes I get that wait is that the the AV or the total what's going on here usually the opposite way but yeah I mean it's really hard to go wrong signing a young player for a couple years for a couple million right because if it doesn't work out you know you can bury them or

or someone will take a chance because it's not that big a cap it. So whenever you have a player in their early to mid-20s that you can get a few years, you know, at like $3 million or less, you should go for it. So one of the things off the top of the show, we sort of tease like you were coming on

and one of the things we wanted to talk about was has this new CBA, I don't want to say destroyed, but has it severely dented the trade deadline with things like the removal of, you know, you know, double retention on deals, salary cap in the playoffs. We always wonder about, you know, the law of unintended consequences. Is the unintended consequence here going to be an even more boring trade deadline than we've seen the last few seasons?

It's tough to make moves, but all of a sudden, you're more handcuffed than ever if you're a GM at trade deadline. Yeah, I think so. I mean, it'd be hard to look at some of these changes and come to any other. conclusion so yeah double retention has for once a player has been retained once you have to wait 75 season days before they can be retained again so that means like if you want to get a player at a quarter of their cap hit at the deadline they've got to be traded first like before the holidays i mean and then he's got to basically be rented on a on a broker team for 75 days that seems very unlikely to happen so and you look at the moves that happened um at the last deadline where

there's players coming in at a quarter i mean look at uh Trent frederick with the oilers right i mean it happens every year with one or two deals like that so you take that away the other one yeah with the playoff cap so one of the when we finally got the details and look through it we see that the playoff cap has no proration for when you acquired a player right so there's teams that are under the cap and they sort of like follow the traditional cap rules are not utilizing lTI at all they have some cap space to start the year they bank the space and and the way that the cap hits are prorated by the time they get to the deadline they can afford to player with a really big cap hit and they're only going to take up about 20% of that cap charge

to them because that's all the percentage of the season remaining and they bring that player in. So let's just say we have a player with an $8 million cap hit. He's really only going to hit their books for about $2 million for the rest of the season. But then you get to the playoff cap and there's no pro rating for when you acquired a player. So now you have to have room on your roster for that full $8 million cap hit. So, yeah, of course there's some other differences. like it's only the 20 skater player roster. But still, it's a big difference between, you know,

an $8 million player and a $2 million player. And so when teams that are like firmly going to be in the playoffs look at doing an acquisition, so they have to think now, well, I can afford them at the deadline and on my regular season cap. But boy, if we're in the playoffs, I might have to scratch him or someone else. Maybe I don't want to make that move.

So that was a surprising element of the playoff cap. To your point, I think between that and the double retention, There's no other conclusion to draw that it is likely to reduce trade activity, which is like, why do we want that? I mean, that's, that drives a lot of interest in the sport. There's people that follow like the soap opera of sports now and don't even watch the games as much as I like to follow the transaction. So it's a little bit, especially the double retention piece. It's like a solution that didn't have a problem. Well, that's, and that's what I wanted to get to here because I never heard, maybe you did.

You mean, you lived this. No, I did not. I never heard anyone complain about it. And all of a sudden it popped up and I did one of those like Don Nott's spit takes from Three's company. Boy, he's had a dated reference. But I looked at it and I went, what am I missing here? I have not heard one person ever complain about this or even raise this as an issue other than maybe like, okay, you know what? That's a really creative way to get some deals done here.

And I look at the original Mico Rat and a deal between Colorado and Columbus. It took Chicago to make the whole thing happen. And it happened, and everybody benefited. Everybody got something out of the deal. And fans had, you know, 24 or 48 hours of, you know, this to your point, the soap opera of an NHL trade. And now that's getting snuffed out. Yeah, the only feedback I had heard from people with teams

is that the administration of it was a pain because it technically, we call it like a three-team trade when there's a double retention. It actually was a series of three different trades, kind of all tied together and it was a hassle for central registry to process it and for the teams to like work out those logistics but that's like an administration problem that's not like a league like yeah so figure out a better system for doing that yeah exactly that i mean we could have helped them puck coulda could help them figure out how to process those trades um i don't think you should get rid of them because it's a little bit of an administration hassle i i completely agree that when i go through the

cba with with stakeholders especially um you know teams and agents we try to say like who won on this this change, who is this benefit. And we get to the double retention one, especially. It's like, who needed this? Who wanted this? Like I said, it's a problem that wasn't solving a, or a solution that wasn't solving a problem. It's just very shocking.

Anything else from the new CBA that from your corner of Puckpedia really jumps out as, well, you know, this is novel, this is ridiculous, or, you know, this is something pretty interesting here that I never thought about before. Like, what grabbed you, Hart? Well, there's been a lot of reporting about some of the key changes. So when we got the actual MOU document, one thing that jumped out that hadn't been reported was the change to the emergency exceptions.

So that's where when a team doesn't have enough cap space to call up a player, fans will be familiar if they play short for one game, then they can call up a player as an emergency and they don't count against the cap. That's how it's worked. Well, what they changed in this one was a little bit of like a give and a take. They gave in that the player that can be called up in the emergency can have a bigger cap hit.

It used to be the league minimum plus 100,000. now it's a league minimum plus 375 so you know you could get a player over a million dollars now to fit into that exception the difference though is before it didn't count against the cap now is actually quite punitive it uses up all your cap space for the that you have available even if you don't have enough for a full player let's say you have enough for half a player so you use up that that cap space and the amount of space that you are kind of getting for free because you're calling up the sky and the exception now it's a cap charge for the following season so it actually kind of works like the the performance bonus carryovers where yeah we're going to give you a benefit this year but now

there's an extra charge for next season so that's one where i see the it seems to me the motivation is we don't want teams doing this we don't like it we don't like teams that play short a player so to punish them more we'll it's not this kind of like free card to play where you get um a free player up it's going to use up your cap space that you have this year and a charge for next year but it's kind of the opposite of what we just talked about with the double retention that is a lot more administration to now track how much cap space was it for this season what's the cure rule for next season you know now you're going to see a team that you know they don't have the full cap space next season they're missing you know like 21 000 because of this is that really going to make a

difference so that's that's one where i see that okay they're looking to make it uh less common for teams to play short and then use this emergency exception because now it's more punitive what did you make of the idea that when you send a player down that player has to stay and play one game in the American League before. And the one that jumped at me for that one, and we're starting to see this trend. Like, listen, Vancouver's got their farm team in Abbotsford for a reason.

It's not in Utica anymore. We've started to see, I mean, San Jose's got the teams, but we've started to see teams bring their American Hockey League affiliate closer to the NHL team. And I guess this is just going to be further, you know, further fuel and ammunition for teams to say, you know what, we better have our AHL

team close. Now, having said that, teams travel. You might have send a guy down. You're sending him all the way across the country. But nonetheless, did that one stand out for you as well? It's not surprising because I'd heard that the league didn't like how it worked. I mean,

you know, the rule is like if you send a player down, even on paper, you're supposed to like try to get them to the airport and go meet the minor league team. But teams would play with it so that when they actually process it, oh, sorry, there's no flights today and oh, yeah,

now he's back up tomorrow. So I see with the league trying to protect the integrity of the salary cap but not having teams manipulate it, why they would do something like that? But from a player's perspective now, think about for a player that's on a two-way deal. Every day in the NHL is, you know, like, let's say it's league minimum, 775.

It's 775 divided by 192 days. That's a lot more than like 80,000 divided by 192 days. So you're potentially actually having players like stuck that extra day or two in the miners and it can cost them some real money. Again, maybe that's an unintended consequence. But, you know, yeah, if I'm a player that's on a two,

two-way deal. And now, instead of going up and down and I only kind of miss one day from an NHL pay, now I have to miss two, three, four days and ride a bus a little bit and all that. Like, it's actually, it does punish those players. But, you know, again, it does look a little funny. Players are getting sent up and down all the time. It does happen to other sports.

Like, look at, you know, yesterday with the Blue Jays or the double header, there's players getting sent up and down between games and they're not going anywhere, right? There's Baltimore trade. That was hilarious. Yeah. walk past the bullpen, see his old teammates, give away. So you see why they might want to do it, but again, unintended consequences. It's going to cost some players some real cash in their pockets and not millionaires.

It's costing guys that are, you know, in some cases, they don't have much money to their name. And so, yeah, it costs them several thousand dollars. You know, we're starting to see, you know, I've, I've, for the longest time now, talked about, you know, this, you know, the salary cap goes back to 2005 here in the NHL. and, you know, it's time to take the training wheels off the salary cap and maneuver a little bit, you know, baby's first salary cap. Oh, it's cute and all that, but it started 20, 20 years ago in 2005 here. Let's make some changes here.

If you were changing the cap, if you, you know, Hart Levine, owner of Puckpedia, were changing the way the salary cap was set up, administered, wanted to add something to it, wanted, you know, one of the, the, the, wanted the salary cap to get out of the stroller and start to walk around a little bit here, getting into the toddler years. What would you do? It's a good question. And your opening comment too there, I think is very true. Like, the NHL salary cap is far simpler than the other leagues.

And when people ask me why, I say it's because it's newer, right? The other leagues started likely simpler and they just keep getting more complicated over time. The couple changes that I would make, you know, actually kind of goes against that. And I think it needs to be even more simplified because the salary cap and the rules, that leads to a lot of interest in the sport and conversation and talking about it. I think the LTIR rules, they need to be simpler. It's too complicated. I have to tell you, there's a lot of people with teams that don't quite understand intricacies of it.

It's actually how you apply LTIR is not in the CBA. It's in a few memos. And you also have to go to Central Registry and sit down for a training course if you're going to be a team executive. That seems like that tells you right there it's too complicated. So I see what they did where they limited the benefit of it during the season. Well, now it's capped at basically the league average salary. But how you set your pool and how it functions, that's too complicated. The other part that I would change is that we have so many different definitions in the CBA for age and experience.

You know, a guy's a certain age and he's played a certain number of years. But depending on if you're talking waivers, arbitration, different elements, there's There's different ways to define it. That seems crazy. There should be like a, my platform, if I was running for mayor of the CBA as a simplified definitions for age and experience. And then I think, though, to your point about like taking some training wheels off, teams, it's good for sports when teams retain their star players, right?

It builds up loyalty with the fan base. And I do think there should be more of a benefit to a team to retain their player. They have one extra year that they can sign them. I don't think that's enough. you know if Gary Betman heard me say you should be able to like exceed the cap for signing your player

I'm sure he would shock my desk right now but some aspect of that where maybe retaining your player that's been with you or you've drafted you get like they don't all count against the cap or some discount some mechanism to reward a team that's drafted or kept a player for a certain number of years

and now he's going to resign with them because we're going to see with shorter contracts now both with the term limit but also with the cap jumping after we're seeing already players are sliding for shorter deals we're going to see way more player movement especially in free agency in the next few years and that's just it's exciting but also

it's not great for teams to not have those long long term players that the fans can build the relationship with you know the one thing that the NHL has outside of amnesty buyouts I suppose been really consistent with is no outside money

no money outside the system the money That's in the system is that that's the money that we're dealing with here, which is why I can lobby every time there's a new CBA for, you know, if you're going to ask a player to waive a no trade, that player, there should be a price tag that comes along with it. You're going to, you're going to waive your no move clause. You get $500,000 or a million dollars. That would be money outside the system. It doesn't count against your cap, et cetera. That heart is not going to happen. There's no chance because it's called a trade kicker.

I know, right? And I think as it becomes as trade deadline becomes more restrictive and there's so many players with with no move no trade clauses right now and players that don't want to like there's no incentive for them to waive their no trade clause. Give them something. Otherwise you're not proposing a business deal. You're proposing give me something in exchange for you getting nothing. That's not a business deal. That's not an arrangement. That's not a deal at all.

That's that's charity. something good for me. You suffer. I think it's related to the players. We've seen a lot of that lately with no trade clause. They go on waivers and they go to San Jose basically, right? Or Anaheim, right? Yeah. Yeah, I think

that, well, and this goes to a conversation, I'm sure you've heard from agents. I hear from a lot of agents, what did we win in the deal? Like, what did players get in this deal, right? They got a little bit of playoff money, which for most players, it's not like significant. they some of the like basically employer benefits that an employer should pay no longer counts against the player's share but that's a very small shift in the pie those are takebacks exactly so what did the players what did the players win and I do think they lost a few things right so I think that's a fair argument like there were some things that the players should have pushed for or could have pushed for I should just say and let's just say the NHL was firm and they were not going to agree to that that's I guess there's a there's a there's a thing there's a reasonable approach for Marty Walsh

to say, hey, it's too much damage to the league if we have a lockout. And so whatever gains we could get is not worth missing time. If that's your approach, that's fine. But you didn't have to sign, you know, right before the draft you could have signed this fall, next spring, right? You could still have that same approach we don't want to miss time while still like trying to create some leverage

and get a little bit for your players. So, yeah, I think it's fair to say that the players, There are some things that are pretty obvious, like, that could have been in there that they didn't get. I, you know, there was, I could not agree with you more. I've been saying this since, since it got signed and we found out what was in it. There was no pressure point there. There was no reason to sign. It's like even go back to 2005 when that, you know, the, the, the original, but this, the salary, the salary cap CBA, we'll call it.

We're signed in July. Why? Where's, where's the pressure point? If you're the Players Association, why at that point? And I ask this one, too, you have all this time. To your point, to try to create some type of leverage. Essentially what, and this is, first of all, from the NHL's point of view, masterpiece. Of course.

They played the NHL Players Association. They plucked them like a fiddle. And now what Batman and the NHL is able to do is go to market and look at two new expansion teams and $4 billion and say, welcome to the NHL. All the money that comes in is being spread out to our owners. The players are not seeing a dime. And we have labor peace.

And imagine you're holding that deal up, right? Like they know that there's expansion money coming, but you're holding the keys to that money. And you're saying, look, the only thing we want is you get a bonus if you get traded. You get, I don't know, a 10% discount on the cap if you re-sign a player that you drafted or whatever. And you can't lose a guy,

a guy can't go on waivers to a team that he's on no trade clause you really think that they were going to hold up like that pot of gold for billion for that like of course so you're totally right deals require leverage and pressure points the pressure point was that betman wanted it either for the playoffs or for the draft right good for him but that's like a nice to have not a need to have i i agree and and there's a lot of grumbling from agents that felt um sort of like cut out of the process um which is not like that's common in the cba like the typically deal with some players and not the agents and we could debate the wisdom of that but there's some grumbling about

they're cut out and again what did the players actually get and if this was the best deal we're open to that possibility but why did it have to be signed when it when it was signed it's it's funny too because I referenced 2005 and that one of the dynamics that play there very much within the players association was the rich winter group versus the Donmean group in that dynamic anyhow that's that that there should be more written about that but Anyhow, it's a side. By the way, last one for you, are you surprised

that Kerry Price's contract hasn't been traded? No, he has a big signing one is September 1st. So I think he will be, if he's going to be traded, which I think is a decent chance, I think it's going to be in September

or sometime after September 1st. I think if you look at the HAB's CAP situation, they are not set up for a team that is going to be using price on LTIR, not to get into the LTIR weeds, but to set your pool, you either want to be just under the cap or over the cap by up to that injured players cap it.

and they're kind of like right in the middle. So that looks like a team that is planning to trade that contract. And we see a lot of teams that are around the floor or at least have a lot of cap space. He has a very small base salary after that signing bonus is paid out. So I think that's a September, October, early October trade. I think, yeah, that's definitely a possibility. San Jose, York. It seems to be where everyone goes, right?

Hart are you the best? Continued success. We will check back soon, my friend. Thanks so much. Appreciate it. There is Hart Levine. The owner, the curator, the brain trust behind Puckpedia. Anything there, jump out at you, Zach?

Well, I liked the comments there about where you're looking at with rewarding teams who keep players. I think that that's always been a major frustration of mine. Fans want that. Fans want that. Yeah, because, like, you look at teams that all of a sudden start building guys up. Like, Tampa was a prime example of that for a while there, me where it was like okay congratulations you've drafted really well in rounds three through six but now you have to pay that guy three and a half four million dollars because he's so good

and because you did so good of finding the player developing the player you have to lose him's like well the hell's the point of this the fans fall in love with the third line guy but now he just priced himself out by this much like that that never made sense to me obviously that's not something we're going to get here immediately but like i i heard heart say that and I was like, wow, I'm vindicated for thinking and feeling the way I did. So I'm going to grab onto that. Hart's a secret weapon, man. That guy

is sharp. That guy knows the CBA inside and the salary cap inside and out. Okay, a couple of things here before we wrap for the day. The sheet is powered, as you know, by Fanduel. Fanduel, a home of the same game parlay, make every moment more on Fanduel. Fanduel, proud to

connect fans to the major sports moments that matter to them. What are we thinking today so um it's it's a little hard pickings here i'm just going to be real honest we're talking about it's july 30th come on we got to have something but i'm like i'm digging through and finding i'm trying to find some stuff and uh our friends at fanduel did have this market posted and it's following in line with what we had just before you left last week and that would be another head-to-head player matchup this one is on the

blue line it would be kale mccar against quince who has more points next season head to head between the two kill mccar favored in that one minus 150 quin hues plus 120 i think like the the way i look at this you tell me if you see it differently but i think that this makes sense given that uh we're all kind of under the for the most part here under the impression that the variables around kill mccar essentially stay the same and barring injury you're you kind of know essentially like a range of where you could get with kill macar the wild card in this is the queen hughes factor where what are the canucks what is a leas peterson and how does the season unfold for them given what we had just heard from Jim Rutherford, who answered some questions very honestly in the summer.

So I think those things are the kind of the factors that play in here for Quinn Hughes, where, like, this makes sense why Kilmacar is favored the way he is against Quinn Hughes right now. You know what would be a wild card third on this one? Who would that be? Jack Hughes. I see. Keel McCar, Quinn Hughes, or Jack Hughes, who has more points? Now, no one in the history of the New Jersey Devils, Colorado Rockies, Kansas City Scouts organization has ever had 100 points.

Quinn Hughes hasn't had 100 points. Kail McCar hasn't had 100 points. They've all been close. Jack Hughes, a couple years ago, had 99 points. have been the first New Jersey Devil ever to have 100 points. Jack Hughes stays healthy. He gets 100 points. Quinn Hughes stays healthy.

Can he get 100 points? 76 points in 68 games last year for Quinn Hughes. Right? Yeah. Kiel McCart 92 points in 80. To me that's like that. Remember there's that stretch where Quinn, there was that stretch, remember, where Quinn Hughes was playing like 30 minutes a night.

And if he wasn't playing, every shift, like the Canucks were not winning. did not have a chance. You and I were coming on here being like this guy, he's going to be hanging on for dear life if they get to the playoffs. Oh, yeah. It will be the only reason that they get there. He's just by the end of the season, he just can be ribs and teeth.

That's it. What's left of Quinn Hughes? A couple of ribs and some teeth. Like, that's what's happened to Vancouver's number one defenseman. I don't know. To me, to me, that's a, that's a pick-om. That's just like, stay healthy. Yeah.

I do wonder about Jack and 100 points, though. And I know that that shocks a lot of people when you say, like, the New Jersey Devils have never had a 100-point player. It's true. Jack came so close. So cool. Yeah. Well, I mean, would you say the bet, like, I mean, I guess it would be hard to argue.

But, like, the best years of the devil's franchise would have been the years that they were the most defensive. And they didn't. I'm going to say this where it's not right. But, like, they didn't do anything. You know what I mean? They didn't do anything. Yeah, that makes sense. That's the best way I could put it right now.

They didn't do anything where it was just like, yeah, we're just going to, like, beat the shit out of you, make you really mad and walk out of here and win two one because our goalie's really good. We're unbelievably, unbelievable defensively. We've got awesome offensive players, but like, we don't play offensive. We don't, we're not doing anything. That's a really disrespectful way to describe that team, by the way. Brian Gianta is going to score two goals. Bobby Holick may get a shorthy and we're going to win three to two. Yeah.

That's the game. Yeah. New Jersey Devils, baby. Okay, something for you and something that I want to mention. So usually, I'm such an idiot. So usually what I do in, as far as like hockey reading goes, I take July off. July is like the one month where I don't read any hockey books. I just like, I got to stop.

I've got to read something else. Like, Merrick, there's more to like life than just like reading hockey books. So as the calendar is about to flip here to August, something I want to draw your attention to, and I want to mention my good buddy Richard Chung, who's going through some health issues right now, and it looks like he's coming out the other side of it, which is great news. But I'm going to pick up a book that he actually gave me this year, and I've put off reading because I've had so many other things. You may want to read this somewhere down the road.

The Pepper Kid, the Life and... times of Ken Randall, hockey's Bad Ombre. So this, he played in the NHA, the National Hockey Association, and then the NHL played on that first Toronto team that won the Stanley Cup in 1918. He was the first captain of the Toronto Maple League. He was like, he wasn't tough. He was like, just bluntly like dirty, like stick swinging, like assaulting. He got fined $35. by the league in like 1921 which at the time was pretty sizable um and uh who was the official i think lou marsh was the official and he brought a big bag of pennies 35 dollars worth of pennies onto the ice in a bag and gave it to lu marsh and like dropped it on the ice and they had to like

go around and pick up pennies off the ice totaling 35 like ken randleman and he was like nuts and crazy, and his family believes that he was probably a victim of CTE at degenerative brain disease. He passed away when he was like 58 years old in 19, I want to say 47. But fascinating character was paired with another guy who you should know on that Toronto Maple Leaf's Blue Line by the name of Harry Cameron. Can you tell that I really want to do a history podcast? Harry Cameron, who was the first player to do what in the history of the NHL? Your Toronto team. Um, make, make something up fast, Zach. Yeah, I was going to say, use a curved stick.

No, that was Sydenny, who was the first to use a curved stick. Everyone else thinks it's like Bobby Hall or maybe Andy Bathgate, Dan McKee to know it was Sid Denny. He was the first recorded Gordy Howe Hattrick. So why don't we call it? Why don't we name it after him? I'm glad you asked that question. You know why? because nobody did marketing better than the Howes and the myth making around Gordy. No one did it better than the Howes. And this is not to knock Gordy.

This is like, I'm actually like, they did a great job of marketing Gordy Howe to the point where whenever I would, and whether he had something to promote or whatever, whenever I would interview Gordy Howe on the old Leafs lunch show that I used to do with Bill Waters, One of the conditions of the interview was that, I think it was either twice or three times when you reset, you had to refer to Gordy Howe as Mr. Hockey, Gordy Howe. Nobody did marketing like the hows. Harry Cameron of your Toronto Hockey Club recorded the first Gordy Howe Hattrick wasn't. Can we come up with something for you? I'm going to do that because you know how like I set,

you know every now and then I set you up for shows that you go on? Like when we go, you do a guest spot on something. I'm going to go and set it up and I'm going to put in their request that the producer calls you to the producer that the hosts call you something when they introduce you. Oh, that's great. What do we have that be? Like what would that be?

Mr. History, Jeff Merrick. Oh, God. Mr. annoying, pretentious hockey geek. Mr. knew too much about hockey when he was a kid, so he stayed single for a lot of years.

Because of all the time spent at the Hockey Hall of Fame, he was the man that women forgot, Jeff Merrick. The man that woman forgot. Yeah, that's a woman too. That's the winner. Yeah, there you go. The man that woman forgot. I'm going to have them call you that on Barnburner or suddenly the next time you join them.

The man, women forgot. Jeff Merrick. All right. That's it for us. Thanks, Art Levine, for stopping by. Thanks to the great Stephen Ellis. And thanks to the great Jet Grieves for stopping by the program today. Thank you, Zach.

Thanks to everyone who is in the chat. I know it's tough just to sort of drop in here in the middle of the afternoon on a Wednesday. we'll try to come up with a more consistent schedule. But for everybody watching and the archive here on YouTube, thank you for the attention and the time. Ditto to everybody listening on your various podcast platforms, Apple Pods, Spotify, etc. I appreciate the time.

Appreciate the thumbs up. I appreciate the faves and the subscriptions as well. We'll be back next week. I think Wednesday, I've got to stop giving out dates because they always change. Watch our socials, and we'll get the schedule in order. And to my buddy Richard, good news that you're on the minute, my friend. That's it for us here today.

Don't forget, tip your Zamboni driver on the way out. I thought he said 16 hours last night, every day this week, every day this month. I can't get out my head, lost all ambitious day-to-day, because you can call it a ride. I went to the dark man. You try to give me a little medicine I'm like now I'm in that's fine I'm not against those methods

but new it's me and myself and how this is going to be fixing my mind I do want to break it I turned on the music I do want to break it I turn it on the music It's an up

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