The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Mikkola Locked Up, Huska Extended & NHL Insights ft. David Pagnotta & Greg Wyshynski

Episode Date: October 2, 2025

The latest episode of The Sheet with Jeff Marek and Greg Wyshynski takes you deep inside the NHL’s contract season. The guys kick things off by breaking down the Florida Panthers locking up Niko Mikkola on an 8-year extension worth $5M per year and what it means for their blue line. They also examine Ryan Huska’s 2-year extension with the Calgary Flames and revisit Greg’s thoughts on the Luke Hughes contract extension with the New Jersey Devils. Jeff and Greg don’t stop at contracts—this episode also tackles ESPN baseball analyst Ben McDonald’s on-air comments dismissing hockey entirely, dissecting what those remarks say about the NHL’s ongoing battle for mainstream respect. Later, David Pagnotta joins the show to share inside scoops from around the league, give us a first look at his upcoming show launching on the Daily Faceoff YouTube channel with Irfaan Gaffar, and break down the flurry of deals from the last 72 hours. From long-term commitments to ripple effects on the next wave of UFAs, Marek, Wyshynski, and Pagnotta cover it all.Shout 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.

Hey there, it's Jeff Merrick here. You know, my wife and I both have countless memories from spending time discovering Canada. Well, I always come back to the summer of 2005. We were staying at a cottage on Lake Joseph here in Muscoca, watching the Live 8 music festival in Barry on television. My buddy Jeremy Taggart, former drummer from Our Lady Peace, dropped by after his band's set and stayed the rest of the weekend at the cottage after the band's set and told some incredible backstage stories about some amazing Canadian music icons.

I will never forget that. And fast forward to today, I'm a hockey parent, and I feel like I'm always on the road with my family, whether that means traveling across southern Ontario hockey ranks during the week or overnight at tournaments on select weekends. But what makes our hockey experience even more special is booking a place on Airbnb when we're on the road for overnight tournaments. All of this traveling got me to thinking, my home's just sitting empty when I could be hosting it on Airbnb instead. I'd simply put up my house on Airbnb, pre-select dates that I want to host, bam, it's practical, easy to manage, and it enables people like me to make some money while they're not at home.

Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca slash host. Welcome once again to get to the program. Welcome to the sheet for this Thursday, October the 2nd. Glad to have you burnt today, as always. You might be in the chat. You might be watching on YouTube. You might be listening on your favorite podcast platform. No matter how you consume this, we appreciate your time.

And we'll try not to take advantage of it. I kind of halfway mean that, not 100%. We'll start the show off today by waiting, by waiting for Greg, who's in New Jersey right now. He's waiting for Luke Hughes to emerge so we can finish his piece on the newly minted Luke Hughes of the New Jersey Devils for ESPN.com. So we're standing by for Greg. It shouldn't be more than a couple of minutes here. Dave Panyoda is going to stop by a little bit later on from the fourth period. Also, from a new program, he will be co-host.

here on our Daily Faceoff YouTube channel with Erfang Gaffar. We'll get into that coming up with Dave in a couple of moments. In the meantime, there's something, and I want to get into this a little bit later on with Greg and maybe with Dave if we have time. There is one of the most interesting dynamics in a negotiation playing itself out right now. This is one of those really, really behind the scenes, really, really behind the curtain kind of moments that you don't really necessarily get a chance to think about or we don't really get a chance to discuss much here because we just focus on, okay, how much is the player

going to get paid? But every contract negotiation is a very interesting dance between the general manager, sometimes people above them, and the player's agent. And in the Lane Hudson situation, speaking of Luke Hughes, because that contract does do something to the contract negotiations for Lane Hudson and that extension with the Montreal Canadiens. The dynamic playing itself out there is Kent Hughes,

General Manager of the Montreal Canadiens, Kent Hughes on the one side, and then Sean Coffey of Cortex on the other. The interesting part about this is Kent Hughes was the mentor for Sean Coffey at Cortex. he was, you know, the, the wise agent that acted as the mentor for Sean Coffey, who is going to be, if he isn't already, a major player in the agency, in the agency battles. So that dynamic is intriguing for a lot of the obvious reasons, too.

And throwing a, I don't want to say wrench into this, but throwing another log onto this fire, I use that analogy way too much, by the way. But throwing another log onto this fire is the fact that Luke Hughes just signed a $9 million AAV contract, which if you're Sean Coffey, agent for Lane Hudson and Cortex, you're saying to yourself, okay, that's the absolute floor. That's the absolute floor. If Luke Hughes is nine, what is my guy going to be at? and everybody when they change jobs has a different personality and a different role, obviously. But this one is intriguing because Hughes was a guy that brought him in, got him into the agency world. And now this is a big time conversation with huge implications, not just for, I'll go ahead one more.

It doesn't just have massive implications for Lane Hudson. But I think we need to get our minds wrapped around something that's really been obvious, but we never really talk about a whole lot. And that is everything is connected. Like the Luke Hughes deal is connected to this impending Lane Hudson deal and the Lane Hudson deal whenever that gets done. And there's no real hurry to get this thing done until next October, really. But this one's connected to someone like Zeve Boyum of the Minnesota Wild. I don't talk about it a lot, but the dynamic between Kent Hughes, formerly of cortex, and Sean Coffey now of cortex, is an interesting one to think about.

Let's bring aboard Greg Wischinski from ESPN and ESPN.com. Did you get your moments with Luke Hughes? No, I didn't. Oh, no. The problem is that when you have missed all of camp, not only have you missed time preparing for the season, but you've also missed. all the photos you have to take for media day, all the little video things that you have to do to get on the Jumbotron and all that other stuff.

And he couldn't even do that. Yeah, he couldn't even do that at all because he was also recovering from shoulder surgery in May. So like me and all the devil's media are just sitting there standing outside the locker room. And all of a sudden they're just like, hey, he's got to go do all this nonsense. So I figured I'd talk to you while I waited.

I did talk to Jack, and Jack said, I said, do you have any advice for your brother during the contract negotiations? And he simply said, you know, just make sure you're happy with the contract that you get. And I do wonder ultimately how happy he is. Here's the thing. From the outside looking in, Merrick, we're all like, why not take five years? Five years is what Jack has left on his contract. Five years for Luke, you both can leave at the same time. You can go wherever Quinn ends up.

you all go complain in Detroit you could all be free agents at the same time and become three little LeBron's having your big decision like there's a million different ways that you can go but he signed for seven and is he happy at seven is the question I think that we're all asking about right now

see my the cynical side of me looks at that comment from Jack Hughes and wonders is Jack Hughes happy with his contract well Jack he signed his contract but he's never how could he How could he be happy with this contract? He signed it at a time before we knew that the cap was going to go up to like a hundred and eight million next year. No one had that kind of foresight.

I'm fascinated by the signing. If you were going to play this out and say that the Hugheses aren't going to unite in New Jersey, and I still am not convinced that they won't. But if you wanted to play it out and say that they're going to unite somewhere else, well, now the devils have done themselves good because, Even if Jack leaves after five years, and by the way, it's still five years of Jack Hughes that you have here in New Jersey. Then you've got Luke for two more. So if you're the team that's lucky enough to unite the Hughes TriForce, then you've got to do business with the devils to figure out how to get Luke out of there to go be with his brothers.

You know, one of the things, I was mentioned this before you came on, one of the more interesting dynamics here in the NHL when it comes to general manager, agent conversation. is what's happening right now with Kent Hughes and Lane Hudson. The agent being Sean Coffey of Cortex, Kent Hughes, of course, of the Montreal Canadiens, their general manager brought Sean Coffey in. And this is like a mentor-mente relationship, always has an interesting sidebar dynamic to it. And I'll be honest with you,

part of me wondered if the New Jersey Devils and Tom Fitzgerald were just sort of waiting to see if anything could get done early with Lane Hudson. no i mean i i think it's a separate negotiation though don't you like it is but they're all linked though because now lukews his number is linked like all so many of these deals are all linked to a point though merrick because the the the number one center on the montreal canadians is not nick hudson okay like in new jersey there's a guy named jack hughes the same jack hughes that is probably the reason why luke hughes is going to play pp1 instead of ducky hamilton this year. I asked Sheldon Keefe about that and he sort of punted as to what the team's

power play plans are. The same Jack Hughes that let's not forget also insulated his brother from criticism when he wasn't playing well during his rookie season. And instead of him being the healthy scratch, it was Simone Nemich that ended up being the guy that took the blame for rookie mistakes. Like the dynamic here because his brother is Jack Hughes is a unique one. And it speaks to the contract negotiations. It speaks to the AAV on the contract for a guy who probably hasn't necessarily earned that number yet, but the hope is that he will. I know what you're saying as far as like the dollars and cents and how there's a domino effect

with whenever there's a new contract signed. But much like we talked about earlier in the week, like what Kril Kaprizov gets doesn't necessarily impact what Connor McDavid ultimately does with Edmonton. I think the situation in Jersey is unique in the sense that it's his, older brother that stirs the drink here. Okay, let's see what's coming up on the program today. Daily outline powered by Fanduel. Make every moment more with North

America's number one sports book Fandual. And Greg O'Sheanski as a board, you just saw him taking time out of chasing Luke Hughes around the rink. Dave Panyota from the fourth period is going to stop by. We're going to talk about Ben McDonald at some point as well today.

We will talk about Luke Hughes. We'll talk about Nico Mikula. We'll talk about Ryan Huska and his new contract with the Calgary Flames and the Luke of Angelisa situation playing itself out with the Nashville Predators right now. In a couple of moments before Dave comes on, do you want to have a, do you want to have a swing at this Ben McDonald thing? So for those who don't know, Ben McDonald is a, you know, a commentator, baseball color analyst, former MLB player. Well, I mean, let's, I mean, you know, to try to put it to hockey terms, the Alexander

Dague of the Baltimore Orioles, I think would be how I would phrase him. Wow. but go ahead. Okay, very good. So we're not, I think we know what perspective Greg's coming at this thing at. So there was a moment in the Padres game the other day where they ran a promo on the screen promoting opening night and the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers facing up against the Chicago Blackhawks. Do we have the clip so we're all on the same page here, Zach? Can we roll that one now?

And the Blackcox returned to the ice next Tuesday, NHL opening night against the defending champion. Florida Panthers at 5 Eastern 4 Central on ESPN triple header that by penguins rangers avalanche kings Ben I know you got to pay on this panthers three p this year what do you think if you say so I mean good luck to him are you asked me if I'm going to be watching no I know you'll be watching of course because you work for his Ben you'll be watching there tonight there is zero chance I'll be watching I'm just going to be honestly where will you I will be somewhere, but there's zero chance I'll be watching. All right.

Thanks, Ben. We'll be watching. Thanks for the meeting. The problem there, too, is Ben brings it up himself. Like, he wants to go there with that comment. Now, hang on, damage control, and, you know, part of it is the piece in the athletic with Rick Garoli and Rob Rossi was also. Oh, yeah, I didn't know.

I didn't see the, the. piece in the athletic about what the baseball man said. Yes. What did the athletic have to say? So if you would like me to grab it here. Did they interview him or something? Yeah, I believe Britt Corolli spoke with him. Great.

He said, and he said, let me do, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. Well, you're vamping. Go ahead, sorry. No, shoot, I'm going to find it here. I'll find the exact quote. Well, you're vamping. Like, he did say on, on FS1 this morning that he,

didn't realize that ESPN had the NHL rights, which is a problem in and of itself, but also one where I got to tell you, if I'm sitting next to somebody and they're doing a promo read and at the end of the promo read, it says on ESPN, my ears might perk up and say, oh, goodness, this thing is not ESPN, isn't it? But even if they're not, like at that point, it's like someone is doing the business work for our company right now. So here's the quote, McDonald says to the athletic. This was a joke.

I respect the hockey players. I love them. It's not a joke. Dude, so here's the thing. I don't care if Ben McDonald watches hockey. I mean, it's his loss at the end of the day. The company part of it aside, which is, again, you don't, you don't, you know, diminish programming that you're promoting on the air on the network that pays you. I think that goes without saying.

The thing that really triggered me about this is we've often talked about on the show. You're in Canada, it's a different vibe for a Canadian hockey fan than it is for an American hockey fan here, where it's a constant uphill climb to get your sport recognized, to get your sport talked about in a positive way by people who don't normally cover hockey. and the climb just gets steeper when the sport is dismissed as being beneath someone because he happens to be a baseball commentator. And so that's the triggering part of it. I mean, I don't care if he says he's joking. I don't care if it was a situation like he said on FS1 where he's thinking about, what will I be doing that night?

I'll be watching baseball. So, of course, I won't be watching hockey. It's the dismissive nature of it that renders our sport as being a punchline. in your I don't care about that shit kind of improv moment and it's it's something that we constantly deal with

it's it's the joy that people take in saying that they don't watch a sport and before Caitlin Clark came to the WMBA and it became a real point of discussion for people because of the dynamics

between the players and the officiating and the commissioner that's how people used to talk about the WMBA they used to take glee and talking about how much they don't want to watch that sport. It's always been like that with hockey and mainstream commentators. And so whether he meant that or not, you know, and he probably shouldn't have said anything obviously because he's working for a rightsholder.

It's that moment that American hockey fans all recognize, which is that gatekeeping, you are lesser than the things that I like moment that we hear on sports talk radio locally and newspapers locally, on television all the time. And it was just another log on the fire last night. And it sucks. One final thought here that I just want to add to the conversation. This might be a little too, pardon the pun, but inside baseball, inside broadcasting.

Dave Peno, standing by here in a couple of seconds. I want to get to Dave after I make this one point, one of the rules that I've always had with my career is, and this is for anybody else who wants to have a career behind a microphone, I don't mess with sales and marketing as long as, like the handshake deal has always been, I will not mess with sales and marketing. you don't mess with editorial. The sales and marketing for you, editorial is for me.

And I don't, and I don't ever blur those lines. I don't ever mess with like a sales read or a marketing read. I'll not dump all over them just as I would expect my employer not to put the thumb on the scale when it comes to editorial. That is the agreement that I have with people who employ me. Like I don't want to, I don't want to like,

bone the point. I mean, we both work for the same company and like I don't want it to to be. Like Bucci, God bless him last night, you know, through a haymaker at Ben McDonald on Twitter. And I thank him for that. I think he was speaking for a lot of people. But again, like, for me, the grander point aside about like how it makes me feel as an American hockey fan, there's like a lot of people that work really hard to bring the sport to you on a nightly and weekly basis during the season. And for it to just be like, man, I'd never watch that kind of

kind of attitude. It hurts a lot of people that work really hard to do that sort of thing. So I don't know, man, it was, it was a bummer. I'm, I'm sure he's, he's justified it and apologized or what have you. But in the moment, it's just like, God, again, you know, it's, it's, it's the plight of the American fan, as we've talked about in the show a lot. All right. Let's park that conversation. Although maybe Dave Panyoda wants to weigh in on this one. Let's bring Dave aboard now from the fourth period. And from a new property, we'll be launching soon here on DFO, the DFO Insiders program with Dave. I know, right?

Is it going to be every Wednesday you and Earth? Every Wednesday, that's right, yep. Starting. Next week. On the eighth. Okay, what could we expect from the Insiders Edition of DFO? Probably inside of info. Yeah.

Good call, wish. There you go. That's he's bang on. Get you on there to talk about some stuff too. go. Ben McDonald's conversation with Wish. Here we go. Inside ESPN, let's go Wish. Yeah, that's. Yeah, just a lot of the, a lot of the conversations that are going around the league. We may not, you know, necessarily break news on the, on the program, but a lot of conversations that I'm sure we're going to dive into some of it later on here, but a lot of the conversations going around the league and a lot of the chatter that, you know, teams are

looking at and some stuff that happens, some stuff that doesn't happen, some stuff that fell through and all that fun stuff. So we're looking forward to it. Awesome. I love the idea. One of the things that I was mentioning out the top of the program, because everything, no one signs a contract and no contracts get done without there being a cascading effect elsewhere, whether it's Caprizz off and how that's kind of cascade to everybody else.

And we think of Michael and Kyle Connor, et cetera. But then Luke Hughes signs this deal, which is a whopper, 9 million AAV. We wonder what that means for Lane Hudson, and then when Lane Hudson does a deal, we're going to wonder what it all means for Z-Boyum, and off we go to the races. Which one do you think has the bigger cascading effect in the NHL? What we saw out of Minnesota or what we saw it in New Jersey? Honestly, I don't want to cop out on the answer, but I think it's a tie, because I think they're both going to have significant effects and impactful effects in both cases.

I know for the wingers that are out there that are in their expiring year that they wouldn't waiting to see what Caprisop was going to get, that the anticipation was he was going to be the first one to sign and now my $11 million ask maybe 12, my 10.5, maybe 1175 and so on and so on, 12 maybe 13 and whatnot. From a winger's perspective, I know this is going to impact the Kempe's, as you said, the Connors the tucks, etc. Penarin to a certain degree in terms of longevity of his career and so on. But with the numbers going up, without question, that's going to affect

things. I had one agent tell me that in conversation with one of his clubs, for one of his players, that they're just waiting to sit back and see how the team digests the information and the new contract that Caprizov signed in order for them to continue their negotiations. So without question this is going to affect things and I think from Luke Hughes's perspective and some of the young D I know the Canadians and and Lane Hudson have been going back and

forth for some time and the hope was to get something done by the start of the regular season I think they were kind of also waiting at least his camp was to see what that Hughes number was going to come in at and without question in my mind it's going to affect the rest of the conversation Hey there, it's Jeff Merrick here. You know, my wife and I both have countless memories from spending time discovering Canada. Well, I always come back to the summer of 2005.

We were staying at a cottage on Lake Joseph here in Muscoca watching the Live 8 music festival in Barry on television. My buddy Jeremy Taggart, former drummer from Our Lady Peace, dropped by after his band's set and stayed the rest of the weekend at the cottage after the band's set and told some incredible backstage stories about some amazing Canadian music icons. I will never forget that. And fast forward to today, I'm a hockey parent, and I feel like I'm always on the road with my family, whether that means traveling across southern Ontario hockey ranks during the week or overnight at tournaments on select weekends.

But what makes our hockey experience even more special is book. a place on Airbnb when we're on the road for overnight tournaments. All of this traveling got me to thinking, my home's just sitting empty when I could be hosting it on Airbnb instead. I'd simply put up my house on Airbnb, pre-select dates that I want to host, bam. It's practical, easy to manage, and it enables people like me to make some money while they're not at home. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca Flash host. Fall is here and everybody's getting back from vacation,

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That's a whole lot of good. Bombas has a 100% happiness guarantee. That means you're covered for life. Reach out to their happiness team for easy returns, exchanges, or replacements. Go to bambas.ca slash the sheet and use code the sheet for 20% off your first purchase. That's B-O-M-B-A-S dot CA slash the sheet and use the code the sheet at checkout. The Kyle Conner negotiation is fascinating to me because you had two guys in Shifley and Hella Buck for whatever. I mean, maybe it's loyalty.

Maybe it's also a little bit of market effect and how many teams are. going to pay a goalie that much money. But, like, they both signed for a reasonable amount of money in Winnipeg. Connor doesn't need to. Like, Connor can hit the market. He's a goal-scoring winger. It doesn't play a lick of defense, but who cares and he can put the puck in the net. Where do you think that ends up?

Because he's not going to take the same level of discount as the other guys will. Where do you think they're willing to go with him? And where do you think he wants to go with Winnipeg? Well, there's, I mean, there's mutual interest, obviously. I mean, he's genuine in staying there, but to your point, he wants to have that market value contract. I see him in the 12 to 13 range. I think he's going to end up there if he goes full term, probably somewhere in that vicinity, give or take a few hundred thousand, but you're probably looking kind of in that 12 plus range. I think the initial conversation, like I know at least at the start of the summer, start of July, some of the asks, at least or excuse me, some of the discussion points began.

in the 10-11 range. Kempay, I think, started at 10. I think Connor started at 11. And then as things progressed with term and obviously structure and bonuses and all that fun stuff, the numbers kind of have adjusted considerably between, you know, now or going back to July 1st to now. So I think with Winnipeg, I think they understand he wants to stay. He's willing to stay.

But this is also, I put him of the similar mindset of Caprisov, wanting to stay, in Minnesota, but also trusting his agent to get him that fair market value, not now, necessarily, but in years two, three, four, and so on of that contract. Can we back up to Hudson for one second? I just want to make one sort of point here. I'm curious your thoughts on it. Pierre LeBron at The Athletic has a piece in it. He references an interview that Jeff Gordon gave going back to last July where he's talking

about, you know, agents come in now. And all they want to talk about is percentage of the cap, percentage of the cap, percentage of the cap, percentage of the cap. And, you know, he's talking about the dynamic of the room and Nick Suzuki makes this much. And if someone comes in and just negotiates percent of the cap, what does it do with the dynamic, et cetera, et cetera. But here's the money line where I kind of think that he gives away the game in a lot of ways. Gorton says, so when agents argue for percentage of the cap, percentage of the cap, percentage of the cap, it can be a little too much for me. here's the line. Generally speaking, that is an argument for the better players,

i.e., there are numbers for certain players, and then there's percentage of cap for your superstars. Do you read that the same way? Because I'm kind of looking at this going, like, this percentage of the cap for the stars, everybody else just gets a number. I fully agree with that, because based on the people that I've talked to,

they bring up percentage of cap or it's brought up in conversation and the exact same response has been given to those talking points on the agent's side or player's side yeah percentage of cap my player made this or my player achieved these numbers were formed at this level for you but these guys got that percentage of the cap last season the teams will go that's cute

that's great here's where we see this guy fitting it it's the big boys it's Gordon's accurate and And he shares, I believe he shares the same sentiment as top tier management of the other 31 clubs. The big boys will get their percentage of the cap because it's in the CBA. It's agreed upon. And eventually you're going to have to dish that out, which we're seeing. But everybody else will be in that different tier where that isn't even part of the negotiation process, at least the conversation.

Now, with Lane Hudson and the Canadians, I do believe no adopt. and took a little bit less than they were originally looking for in order to sign with the Canadians because of guys like Suzuki, Caulfield, et cetera, taking a little bit less on their deals. I suspect that Hudson's willing to do the same, but we're not talking millions and millions of dollars here. We're talking about 250, maybe half a mill per year, but he's going to be in the top tier class of young defenseman. And Luke Hughes's contract, kind of solidifies that to a certain extent, at least the argument from his side of things.

The other fun thing happening with agents right now, by the way, also is they are negotiating against a cap they believe will exist next year while teams are trying to point to the piece of paper the NHL put out to say, no, it's 104. The agents are like, yeah, it's 107, it's maybe 108. All the agents are negotiating against, yeah, they're negotiating against the cap that they know it'll probably end up being,

and the teams are trying to adhere to what they know is the cap. for the following season. Jack Eichael, nothing yet, as far as that contract goes. I've heard eight years 14, something in that neighborhood, maybe something in that neighborhood. Where do you think that ends up with Eichol, and what do you think

the hang-ups been in Vegas? I think the hang-ups been term. I agree with you. I think the number is going to be in and around that 14 million mark on if they go full term. But what I was told earlier this week was that those conversations have been relatively slow. Unless

they've had a tremendous conversation in the last 24 hours, I anticipate that still being the case, he's going to be the highest played night once all is said and done, just to what extent, that's kind of what, I mean, everybody's kind of waiting for. Now, this is a different scenario.

And Capri So, Capri so he's going to affect the winger market a lot more than just forwards in general, with Jack Eichel being a center and what he can do at both ends of the ice. The arguments there a little bit different. And I'm not suggesting he's asking for anything in that world. But, you know, 14 million in Vegas in Dallas, in Florida is the same, is not the same

in Minnesota. It's not the same in New York and Toronto and all that. So, you know, 14 million there is 15 and a quarter to 16, depending on where you're playing. And I think, again, the way that the market's going. and the way that the cap is going and the numbers that the agents are arguing based on that cap number

I fully expect it to be in that 14 range I think it'll probably start with a 14 you know what I've been curious about that negotiation do you think I mean obviously we know that Eichl would like to stay there I think that's probably his best option right now considering you know where the ruins are probably headed I think that might be the only other place

he'd consider but I you know I think he's he'd want to stay in Vegas I wonder if McCrimmon and then bought up hey buddy uh we let you have surgery like like we did you the solidest solid which is to give you the thing that you needed to get healthy i wonder if they ever bring that up during the talks on with hekel oh that would be that that would be an interesting tactic um i mean i'm sure i'm sure they they may say look we've we've we've tweeted you well wink wink allowed you yes yes exactly how's that neck feeling pretty good yeah how's how's things going jack

everything good i can see the negotiation kelly mccrimmon just coming and going yeah yeah neck's feeling good today yeah how's yours jack you feeling good yeah how's that neck and then good up and down and oh yeah that's great yeah neck looks good yeah you know it would be great that that 12 and a half million dollar brace you could have had no way um they're gonna yeah i mean i think i think that's I think, I mean, from their perspective, if they brought something like that up, and again, we're treating you well, we'll continue to do that, we got your back, if anything comes up again, and so on and so on. But I think both sides are comfortable with the relationship.

I think both sides would like to extend it. It's just a matter of what extent. And again, because the market is shifting significantly, in which you're talking about the numbers being, you know, the projection is 104, but, or 104.5, but whatever it is. There's 107, 108 being discussed as a possibility. And then 113 the year after could be 118, are we going to 120 that quickly? So all of that is certainly being factored into to a certain extent. I think a percentage of the cap applies to a certain extent a little bit here with respect to Vegas and Eichol.

But remember, with percentage of the cap, it's based on the number of this current season. So they're basing that on 95.5 and then how that's going to accrue moving forward, which is, I think, part of the argument that Diofanos had in getting Caprice off that extra mill up to 17. Real quick. A couple of things. Lucas Reichel, the latest. Luke Evangelista, the latest. Rikell, yeah. Well, with Reichel, I mean, those trade talks, they're continuing. I don't think it's any secret that Chicago is actively trying to move him. Um, I throw teams like, like, uh, uh, Vancouver, uh, San Jose, Edmonton, Detroit in the mix. Um, I think the wings, I think Eisenman and a couple guys were in Chicago the other day, um, taking a quick peek. Um, so I throw them in the mix. He's only one point two. I wondered about a team like Florida and then I remembered he doesn't play defense. So that's going to be a bit of a problem for Paul Maurice. Um, but a $1.2 million cap hit, you know, is that a,

a significant risk for a lot of teams that have space. I don't think so, but it hasn't happened yet. But, I mean, they're still trying. In Nashville, this one's a head scratcher for me, guys. I don't get it. As of, you know, 20 minutes, half hour before coming on with you, no update, not expecting a deal as of, again, 20 minutes ago, not expecting a deal today.

And my understanding right now, it's simple. It's one or two options. It's either you sign them to a deal that starts, with a three and likely on a two-year contract, three AAV plus, or you trade them. And there have no trade requests have been made to this point, but there is starting to, the frustration is definitely boiling over.

And it's starting to become, again, a frustrating point for Luke and for evangelist in his camp in trying to get something done. You look at the player, you look at what he's done, you look at some of the other contracts that have been dished out, you know, putting him in that $3 million range on a couple of years makes sense to me. I've asked other people around the league. They've seen that that number is reasonable and fair.

It's not like he's going out there asking for, you know, $4 million, $5 million on a two, three-year contract. But no progress as of, you know, $12.30, $12.45 Eastern. And I don't get the sense unless something changes this afternoon that we'll get a contract done today or we'll see a contract done today. and I don't, I mean, again, I think if this continues to drag out going into next week, I think some teams are going to be a little more interested in giving Nashville a call this evening prime out of there. Let me close with this one. It's such a confusing negotiation.

Like, that team needs more than anything to hit the ground running at the beginning of the season. He's a great, he's a very good player. I mean, he gives them a lot of things that they need. and the idea that they're going to nickel and dime it and bring this thing as close as it as it is to opening night is just maddening to me. I don't know. You're not the only one.

I don't get it either. So I can imagine their frustration. But I don't, this is a head scratcher one for me, guys. I don't understand why it's taking this long. You know, maybe some people are asked, well, okay, McTavish signed, Luke's going to sign. Is this Luke going to lock in? Is there any

is it pushing the needle? Are we getting closer? And everything, again, that I've been told the last little bit. Absolutely not. Awesome. Let me close on this one, Dave. I mean, it's the big one. Are you surprised that here we are, October 2nd, as we have this conversation live at 134 Eastern, that there would still not be a McDavid extension? At the start of September, going back to the start of September, not overly surprised, going back to July 1, surprised.

But everything that I've been told, and every indication that I've been given is that he's going to re-up at some point. Again, I still think it's going to be on that shorter term mid-two, three, four-year kind of range simply because he wants to know what the longevity is of the Oilers. That narrative hasn't changed.

And the Oilers are sitting back going, okay, you let us know when you're ready. They started the conversation with Jake Wallman's camp. I believe they started the conversation with Mattia Sack Holmes camp as well. There's other orders of, business that need to be taken care of in Edmonton, not only to fill a roster next season, but also to show their captain, this is, hey, this is direction we're going, and we mean

business, want to keep this going. But, yeah, I don't get a sense that anything has changed for the negative. But, again, a week to go or less than a week now to the start of the season, it's entirely possible that, Luke, excuse me, that Connor just wakes up and says, all right get it done but every day that goes by Dave but every day that goes by oh yes

but every day that goes by Edmonton fans are very very passionate does that sound like them no no I guess not sorry my mistake my mistake everyone can be calm

it's a calm calm market yes let's not get ahead of ourselves and chicken little this thing yet. Dave, great stuff. Looking forward to the new program starting next week. You and Erfine Gaffar, DFO, DFO, Daily Faceoff, Insiders Edition. Very much looking forward to it, pal. Same here. Thanks, boys. There is. Dave Panyoda, the fourth period, and DFO Insider Edition. Hey there, it's Jeff Merrick here. You know, my wife and I both have

countless memories from spending time discovering Canada. Well, I always come back to the summer of 2005. We were staying at a cottage on Lake Joseph here in Muscoca watching the Live 8 music festival in Barry on television. My buddy Jeremy Taggart, former drummer from Our Lady Peace, dropped by after his band's set and stayed the rest of the weekend at the cottage after the band set and told some incredible backstage stories about some amazing Canadian music icons.

never forget that. And fast forward to today, I'm a hockey parent, and I feel like I'm always on the road with my family, whether that means traveling across southern Ontario hockey ranks during the week or overnight at tournaments on select weekends. But what makes our hockey experience even more special is booking a place on Airbnb when we're on the road for overnight tournament. All of this traveling got me to thinking, my home's just sitting empty when I could be hosting it on Airbnb instead. I'd simply put up my house on Airbnb, pre-select dates that I want to host, bam. It's practical, easy to manage, and it enables people like me to make some money while they're not at home. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca slash host.

A couple things of McDavid. First of all, first of all, there are... You don't want to, you don't want to have Ben McDonald that one and say like, well, I won't be watching. I won't be watching for that one for a day. You want to have McDonald this one? No. Well, I don't, I mean, I wouldn't be watching anyway because I don't watch any of any other hockey content other than the one, the stuff you make. You know that. Oh, bless you.

Oh, by the way, that's going to be an awesome show. I'm glad Earth's doing. I'm sure it will be. It's going to be good show. Yeah, it's going to be awesome. So as Dave kind of mentioned, there are no talks. I think we should probably like spell that out. There are no talks between McDavid and the Oilers at the moment.

it's a matter of him signaling that he's ready to talk yeah um the two things i want to mention first of all if it does get past opening night it does not mean he's leaving um no everything that honor said over and over again is that he needs time to process this to to get a sense of what the future looks like some of that is going to be in the first few months of the oiler season to see what howard and savoy look like for example and just to get a sense of of how things are feeling and so if it gets past opening night it doesn't mean he's leaving the other thing too and and dave mentioned this in a sort of a very brief way i i kind of we've we've talked about three years as being the term for what a short-term contract for connor would look like and we've talked

about three years because if you head to puckpedia and you look at the oilers roster you could see that you know bouchard's up in three uh i'm sorry bouchard is up in four and nougan Hopkins is up and four. So the end of the Connor McDavid three year extension would be the end of a significant amount of contention window for the oilers. I think it could go too. I really do. I think that, you know, a two-year deal with a high yield but not too high would give him, you know, get him to UFA status a year earlier. He'd be a year more in his prime and would also give them, again, a three-year run of this season plus two more to try to win a cup. And I don't think, I'm, I'm a little bit more curious if the term ends up being even

shorter than three years than I was maybe like a month ago. I wonder how many teams think that they have a shot right now, that they're counting the days to and saying, it's October, he hasn't signed. I really wonder about that one. Obviously, they can't do anything about it. But I just wonder how many teams are saying, no, he has made up his mind. Well, I wonder about it too because the conventional wisdom across the league, the matter who you ask, is that he's going to stay for at least a couple of years.

And so, I mean, is there anybody out there? We talked about there earlier this week with Ikel. Like, you know, is Vegas going to keep their powder dry to see if maybe he wants to come there? I don't know. But like the thing about if he leaves is he's going to leave for a place that not only he can contend now, but has stuff in the pipeline where he's comfortable that they're going to be in a contention window long term. For a long term, yeah. And so, you know, where's that going to be?

I don't know. I mean, wherever he decides, they're going to clear the decks and make sure that they're financially able to get him. I also wonder what the ultimate number in Edmonton would be if he does stay. because we talked about the fact that the Capriess of contract is sort of separate to what Connor is probably going to sign for in Edmonton. You know, like, is the number 15? It's a million more than Leon and still would give the Oilers the flexibility. Like, he's clearly going to make more than dry-sidal. The question is, how much more will he make to be happy with his contract, but also give the Oilers the flexibility to build around him and the time he's there?

Just as an aside, and this is part of a bigger conversation about the nature of the salary cap itself, two things have happened here. Okay, two things have happened. You know, since the passing of former NHLP executive director Bob Good now, a lot of people, myself included, have gone back to look at 2004 to 2005, you know, the lockout that changed everything in hockey. So a couple of things happened. Right. One, the NHL Players Association accepted a salary cap. but then something else happened along the way too and it happened very slowly and it happened very quietly i would argue but here we are at it and that's why what we just saw with carol

caprisoff shocked a lot of people you know what's happened along the way what players somehow think it's their responsibility to take care of the salary cap it's not It's not. But you see this every time because part of their conversation is leaving enough for blank. Again, I'll come back to why should players feel a responsibility

to manage the salary cap? This is how, like, it's, again, it's been very slow, but we're at the point now where players feel it's part of their responsibility in their contract negotiation to help manage the cap. why and that's what made caprizov so fascinating capyloz said no caprisoff went colvichick and said i don't care

taking the most i can get 16 try again come back yeah come back he's the he's like well he's one of the first guys to say i'm not going to manage your salary cap i'm going to manage my business do you think but here's the question do you think that changes if the wild played for the cup last year. Because when we talk about managing the salary cap and in the examples that we have over the years, it's teams that are on the precipice of winning, or teams that have won

in the case of like the Penguins for example. I do wonder if there's a bit more pressure to manage the cap if you are somebody who is, like in Connor's case, he's recommitting to Edmonton because they've come close twice and he's staying

because he wants to see it through and win a championship there. And so if you, if that is your modus operandi, then you've got to manage the cap in order to allow them to do the things that you believe they need to do to win. Yeah. In Caprisop's case, I don't think,

I don't, he's not signing with a team that's on the precipice. He's signing with a team that can now say, here is how much our best player is making, and we can fill in around that. Yeah. Essentially, what I'm getting at is there used to be much more

of an acrimonious relationship between the NHL and the players association, but it seems like everybody in the players association now is just, well, like completely neutered. since that lockout of 0405 and are just fine with the way things are going. They've just become fine.

They just become fine with everything. They're all getting paid. And they're all getting paid to the point where they're feeling good about life and they're getting paid enough where they aren't considering, as we look at the Sportico valuations of national hockey league teams,

they've been propped up by a cap league. They're not considering how much more they could make. They seem pretty happy with the stuff they got. And so because the owners aren't trying to claw back anything else, because they're obviously doing pretty well, too, according to the Sportico team valuations. Oh, yes. Both sides are pretty content right now.

There's no reason to go to war. The reason you go to war is if you're the players and you say to yourselves, my God, those franchises are worth a lot of money. Why can't we have more of it? But then that would jeopardize you not being able to play hockey. And as we've seen time and time again, Merrick, When you're jeopardized with not being able to play hockey, you have a funny way of bending to the whim of the owners.

Because it's happened over and over and over again, which is why we're still coasting on the fumes of 2005. One deal that we should talk about in a couple of moments, how are we doing on time? Before you do that, if you hear some vibrations, if you hear some music, I don't know if you can. I mean, kind of a hermetically sealed conference room, and thank you to the New Jersey Devils

for providing it to me. There is a K-pop concert here at the Prudential Center. There was one last night. There's another one tonight, I believe. And when I arrived, there was a line of probably about 200 people that were trying to get into the building to buy shirts. Oh, the concert's not happening. They lined up at like, buy shirts.

9 o'clock in the morning, there was a merch drop for the K-pop band, and they were all lined up to buy the merch. that's great man that's awesome i love where we are right now as a culture where that is how ubiquitous k-pop has become where people are lining up outside a prudential center i mean it is yam kippur here in the states and the kids are that's cool but uh but they're lined up 200 deep before the doors open to just get a shirt that's awesome gotcha may you live in interesting times i'm sure we did listen i remember camping out for like outside of uh 7-11 for rolling Stone's concert tickets because there was like

a ticket master booth there in Kitchener like sleeping on the sidewalk, steel wheels tour, in living color opened up. It was a great show. The only reason I got tickets is because I lined up as well I was living in Kitchener. This would have been 89 and slept on the concrete.

Ticket concert tickets. My favorite staying out early for ticket story was when they re-released Star Wars with the special, the new special editions in the late 1990s, with the souped up special effects. Obviously, we hadn't seen the original Star Wars on the big screen a very long time.

The uptown theater in Washington, D.C. was the big screen, the big theory, theater you had to see a movie in. And this is before online ticketing. So you had to get there early to buy your tickets for the shows that night. We get there at like five in the morning. There's already a line around the block. People are trying to find whatever is an open coffee place. But the thing I'll always remember. You're familiar with the Imperial Walkers, Merrick.

the empire strikes back the big steel empire was the one that resonated with me the most that trounced the snow on the icy planet of hoff somebody in line decided to dress up like an imperial walker and the way they did this is they found a refrigerator box and they spray painted it silver and them and their buddy two people both got inside the refrigerator box and then one of them had their hand out the front to be the head of the impeller walker and while everybody was in line to buy tickets that day they were walking up and down the line like almost like a big you know two-person cow costume uh pretending to be in a real walker it was one of my favorite memories of of staying out for tickets brilliant and an easy transition between that and nico

micola of the four panthers who side is a very smooth transition there america uh eight years deal. Five million A.A.V. The Carolina Hurricanes, I don't think that there's any team that shines up defensemen better than Carolina. Yeah. They shine up their deal like nobody else. That's why I think a lot of us, myself included, are very curious and interested to see what happens and what they can do with K. Audrey Miller this year. But a close second, even maybe even challenging for first. When you look at all the defensemen that have gone through there and how different they look

when they play with the Panthers. And the defense coach there, as we talked about him before, Sovan Lefev, who's done such a great job with OEL and Brandon Montour and Nate Schmidt and Gustavre Foresling, who's probably the best example as a waiver wire acquisition. You can even make the argument also Seth Jones and Dimitri Kulikoff looks like a different guy. We'll see what happens with Jeff Petrie this year. I don't know. He's made himself a better player, I think.

He's like, Sovan Lefebvre's made everybody a better defenseman there. Like, I don't know that you're, how they, or if you're allowed to or what the CBA says about exchanging money between players and coaches. But if anybody should shave off part of their salary and give it to their coach, it's defensemen on the Florida Panthers with Solvan Lefev. I like that. You know, the thing about Michela is such an incredible job. Like, he did not look at this in St. Louis in New York. He did not. This is a different defenseman.

Yeah, the two things I'll say about Mikola. First of all, obviously, like, kudos to Bill Zito. Now you have your top two pairings. Because Mikula and Seth Jones was the best pairing that they had in the playoffs last year. They were better the neckbladder enforcing last year. Now you've got those two pairings locked up for a while, and they're going to play 55 minutes a night. So now you can kind of fill in the blanks, you know, when Nate Schmidt leaves. Like, you can fill in the blanks on that third pairing and feel pretty good about life.

The other thing, too, is, like, the most impressive thing that the Panthers have done is unlock this guy's offense. Now, he looks like a draft when he's skating down ice, and it's a very north-south game for Nico Mikola. I was waiting for a-shell Samuelson reference there. I was disappointed he didn't know for it. Well, I mean, I think he, and that's not a bad comparison, too, because he's got a little but of the samuelson oh yeah the bite comportment as well yes um but like but like they've unlocked a bit more offense in this guy than i thought the i mean when the rangers had this guy they never thought he'd be a competent offensive player like he is in florida and so like

that that pairing becomes even more dangerous with with a bit of offensive upside to tinnikola to go with what you know you get out of set jones i mean look man the the panthers again they know their team better than anybody they know what they they've got they want to lock it up long term. They've done a great job here. I don't think that the, the AAV in a rising cap league is all that bad. And again, the foundation is so sturdy in Florida because of these kinds of deals. Yeah. A couple things here. You ever thought this happened yesterday while the show was on the air? Eric Johnson retired. 2006, first overall draft pick, wonderful defenseman, part of a very famous two in the morning trade between the St. Louis Blues and the Colorado

Avalanche, which is why now everybody in hockey doesn't turn their phone off no matter what time of day it is. I remember when I used to, back at hockey night in the CBC days, working with Mike Melbury, we were out for dinner one night and he wouldn't tell me which year it was, but he told me that while he was there, there was one year he offered the St. Louis Blues every single pick the Islanders had for their first round pick. I always assumed it was Eric Johnson, but I think Milbury was was fired before that draft.

Doesn't say that you couldn't have made the offer before, but nonetheless. He was one of those guys that was, because he went first overall that year, that's 2006 Vancouver draft, was really aided by a great world junior tournament. And as Scouts will always warn you, it's a two-week slice of a player's career, right? You can make the argument, Casey Middlestat was helped by it too.

but Eric Johnson really like it was after that world juniors specifically all of a sudden most agencies and most teams had Eric Johnson as their as their first overall pick yeah what thought on on the career that was Eric Johnson golf cart that's my thought on the career very Johnson he will always remind it will always be I mean like he suffered a season ending injury golf cart when his foot got stuck under a golf cart i think it was and yeah don't golf man you know for a while in the early years of the internet merrick i don't know if you remember this

but uh people would make a lot of jokes about players there used to be a website uh that was sort of based on the goofier lighter side polka stick in the ribs to hockey kind of what was there the guy the guy with the cigar that guy there may there may have been a Eric Johnson golf cart driving school Photoshop here and there in a contest that we had on Puck Daddy But that was like that for a long time

That was actually how he was Defined I think was one of the more freakyer injuries That ever happened And then later in life he became kind of an important elder statesman For teams like the Colorado Avalanche And I think that was a nice coda to a career that I mean would you would Would you say he lived up to the potential of his draft?

Probably not, right? First overall pick, no. But that's not a knock because, like, first overall pick, you have sort of lofty, lofty expectations for him. But I always find it hard specifically with defensemen. And, you know, here we are with, you know, the Islanders and Matthew Schaefer, first overall. Man, so much can happen. And it's such a hard position and a hard position to transition into in the NHL. Do you find that there are not more misses with defensemen than there are hits?

And I'm not saying that Eric Johnson was a miss because he wasn't. It's a really good defenseman for a long time. But like when you draft someone first overall as a defenseman, like you're saying yourself, okay, I know we're not going to get Lidstrom, but how close can he get to being Lidstrom? You go first overall. The expectations are sky high. Sure. It's not his fault.

It's the player that he is. You can't choose. You want a headman. You want a pronger. You want that kind of player No, you're absolutely right Look, I think he had a really good career Best of all, like he's also going to have a great

second career, which is that he's one of the more personable personalities that we've had, I think, come through the league in the last 10 or 15 years, and so he should be fine. He'll be popping up on your television screens somewhere, I'm sure. Jackson Lecombe, according to Elliot Friedman, has signed an extension with the Anaheim Ducks.

Eight years, nine. Nice little. I was going to say nice little nice little bow wrapped around this edition of the sheet where we've credited off talking about

the Luke Hughes effect and lo and behold a guy who many believe is going to be one of the next great defense one of this league signs an eight year deal so one year longer than Luke but at the same AAB yes and the interesting thing about

about this one was too because it seems that Pat Rebeak was very comfortable with the number seven as far as compensation for players. Luke changed that, but I think maybe the bigger thing was that Jackson Lecombe had arbitration rights in the offseason. Here's the most important thing. Don't want to get into the room with numbers that Jackson Lecombe is going to have. I got Lecombe in my fantasy draft, and I'm so excited about that. He was in my cue.

He was in my cue. I'm like, who's going to be smart enough to steal them from me? Real brief, here we go. Pasternak, Brat, Keller, Tuck, Jarvis, Zabanajad, Harley, Lecombe, Dun, Doughty, Tofoli, Perfetti, Shay, Vaslussky, Decord, Lingren. That's my fantasy team and the Puck Soup Discord Fantasy Hockey League. I'm not thrilled with it, but I do think there's high potential for it to be good, is the way I see my fantasy. team. You mentioned a name there.

Alex Tuck. Yeah. Dude, I wrote about him in my fantasy Plant My Flag Story for ESPN. I was shocked he was still available. 30 goals, a bunch of blocks, and a bunch of hits. I know. I should go like first overall in a fantasy.

What are we doing? Excellent player, loved by teammates, quite outspoken, so maybe not loved by, you know, management. But he's a fascinating case right now. Like, he looks to me like he's the guy that's like, okay, I want to see if this year's any different before I make my mind up. As far as his goal output? No.

Oh, oh, you're saying his approach to the Sabres. Correct. Okay. Yeah. No, without question. Like, I think there's probably a few players that are like that. Like, I, like, put it this way. A lot of teams need to have a good start.

I think the Vancouver Canucks need to have a good start. But there is no other team, I think, that needs to have a good start more so than the Buffalo Sabres. And hopefully, like, Ukapakalukin and, you know, left the game yesterday after 20 minutes. We'll see. Hopefully that's just precautionary. But if the Buffalo Sabres have a really bad October. I would probably throw a team in Western Pennsylvania. on that list as far as teams that could use at least a promising start in the first two months of the season

so as not to make things too awkward with the future of their star core players i have no idea to what you are referring yeah the other and you mentioned like you mentioned like with mc david before like how many teams are keeping their powder dry for him like how many teams are wondering about that tuck situation in buffalo you talk about like last piece of the puzzle type of player like i ain't mac david i'm not trying to say he's mac david but i'm saying like for the kind of the kind of hockey that he plays yeah oh my god like if you're if you're if you're a cuff contender and he and he can be shaken loose add that to your to your top six let's go if you're a if you're a because his his his family is well his his wife's family and all him his family now um

based in in in western canada i mean if you're a team like the vancouver canucks it's just such an obvious one is it is it is it is it is it is it not or maybe i mean it Vancouver is the one maybe Edmondson like if you're looking for that last piece and the buffalo sabres have an awful start we'll say back to Vegas you know what's interesting about that the mushy middle in the Atlantic is I've had more than a few people on the analytic side tell me that their projections for the Detroit Red Wings are a lot higher than people think the Red Wings will finish, which I find interesting. I don't know if that's the John Gibson effect or what it is, but I have, I mean, I've yet to cement my standings.

I've yet to cement my my playoff outlook, including the debates that we've had about the Ottawa senators. I think they'll make it, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to commit to that. But I mean, I don't really have Detroit as being that team this year, but a lot of people,

smarter than me, kind of do. There is, so, a couple of things always happen. One, there's a team you don't see coming that just shows up, bam. And they're there. And by the way, again, the caveat, it's the preseason. but we saw this at the end of last year too

Marco Casper looks really, really good. And if all of a sudden, and you have Larkin and Casper up, they got one too, that eliminates a lot of problems. Some of the other youngans have good seasons, you know? 100%. And there were a lot of people in an organization,

some in key positions, who penned the woes of last season on goaltending. That what happened last year was because of the goaltending. So that's why all of a sudden, you know, John Gibson is the most important performer on that team. If he can give them goaltending, then it's a different story for Detroit.

And then you factor in McClellan, get in the full camp and stuff. That guy just makes the playoffs. Like, that's all his teams do is make the playoffs. So, I mean, they don't do anything when they get there, but they make the playoffs. So I don't know. I'm giving Detroit a second look thanks to some people kind of being like

you might be a little bit low on them. The team, the breakout team, we just talked about them in the context of Lecomas, the ducks. Like, I, I, if you're talking about a mix of veterans and a young core and a guy in Quinville that can maybe figure out the structure that those young players need to be something more than, you know, the chaotic defensive team that they've been. If Dostal is Dostal, like, that's, that's the breakout team that. I've been trying to figure out. My bold prediction was that they'd be in the wild card race by the end of the last week of the season, the fall short. But, I mean, if guys like Leo Carlson make the leap and guys like Colcombe make the leap,

that could be your breakout team in the West pretty easily. Yep, absolutely. Those games could be really fun to watch again. The other thing that always happens, one is a team that pops that you don't see. And the other thing that happens is there's always a team that has 100 points that misses the playoffs to next year. And I think we're all wearing with Los Angeles Kings. You think it's the Kings, really?

Yep. Oh, interesting. Why are you down on the Kings? Blue Line. Because Jim Hillary's a terrible coach? No, Gavrakoff. Without Gavrikoff and Spence. I think Gavacoff and Spence.

Yeah, that's a good point on the D. We're big losses for them. That's a good point on the D. You'd think they'd celebrate Anjay Copartar's finally year in this league by missing the playoffs? I don't know if they would have a choice. Now, what would be the desperation move for the Los Angeles Kings should they miss the playoffs this year? Is there anybody that might spring available

where they could maybe reshape their franchise in his image? 88, Bruce McNall, I think Crucial Nisky was in that deal. Let's say that there's a player with remarkable on-ice skills, but his wife needs to run a business someplace. Does Los Angeles have a lot of real estate and business opportunities? Haven't spent a whole lot. You're the American. You're the American authority here.

I spent some time after high school, plumbing up and down the coast and went to Arcata, and it's lovely and spent some time on the campus at Stanford and really enjoyed San Francisco. But, you know, you're probably more of an authority on California than I am, but having lived in San Jose the time that you did. yeah but that's norcal i'm not i'm not a student of of living in los angeles one of the greatest cities in the world where if you become a star and win there then you become legendary

and gave the entire league a lift in the process do you think that they would have shohay otani like as part of the recruiting pitch for connor it's a great question it's a great because it would be goofy if it ever happened. Like I would love to see the recruit. Just like I want to see all like the recruiting videos and all the pitches when, you know, everybody was lined up at the offices of Newport trying to get Brad Richards.

Do you remember how much we were like, this is horseshit when the penguins got Sid? Like, you've got to be kidding me. Like twice in the same lifetime you're going to get this guy for your team. Like, can you imagine how much this is horseshit would exist if

the Edmondson Oilers saw another their generational talent leave for the Los Angeles Kings. Can we pause? The one thing, you've heard me ask about this before and it's never been answered. So when the Pittsburgh Penguins won that lottery, it was between Pittsburgh and Anaheim. And in the room, you can audibly hear Bill Wirtz, the late owner of the Chicago Blackhawk, saying, justice, justice, justice. Right. No idea what he meant.

I've wondered if he was just ordering a scotch And he was trying to say just ice And it came out justice I don't know But there's no words yelling justice justice justice Justice I don't know

And why why? I don't know why justice I don't know I could only assume it's Brian Burke related Right I don't know At the end of it Isn't it all Brian Burke related

I've asked Berkey about it before And he says he doesn't know And then there was Let me hang on Hang on. Let me take the conspiracy theory a step further. That one year that the Pittsburgh Penguins, remember they all had those, those t-shirts that were made for their playoff run.

And you remember what it said? Out for justice. What? Out for justice. So out for just us. So the, um, just ice. We did a bonus episode on, on Puck Soup recently on the Patreon. And I, I only bring this up because it was an episode where we flip,

flopped the first and second picks in each draft and we were talking about like what that would have meant historically for the league. The senators get pronger? If the ducks had ended up with Sid yeah first of all better than good chance

he wins a cup as a rookie because they made the conference final that year yeah second of all this thing we just saw the Florida Panthers do and may continue to see them do this season. Yeah. That That's the Ducks with Sidney Crosby, with a young Cory Perry, with a young Ryan Getslap,

with Scott Meuterbier joining his brother in Anaheim, with John Sebastian Jaguer as your Sir Gabe Brobsky. The Ducks probably win multiple Cups in six first five years in the league based on how much they already had on the roster if they add Sidney Crosby in that draft. Without question, they win at least a couple with him on that team at that time. Oh, by the way, he would have been he would have been threading passes to a plucky young winger named Tim Usalani. That would have been his job. Yeah, that's that's a recipe for multiple Stanley Cups, absolutely. Anything else before we wrap up here? Oh, by the way, Gavin McKenna and Penn State on NHL Network and YouTube at ASU this weekend.

That's fun. It's all right. Oh, yeah, that was one other thing. Did we talk, no, I talked to, oh, yeah, I was talking to our friend, Chris Peters about that, actually, about Penn State. Isn't it kind of crazy that at this point, Arizona State University has produced more National Hockey League talent than Penn State has? Then Penn State has, yes, I know. Isn't that wild? I was told, like, last, was it April or something like that?

Penn State, like they have a war chest because their big thing now is we got to get players. not just like a player to the NHL here and there, but like stars to the NHL. And that's why even though Gavin McKenna's probably going to be one and done, it's a massive shot in the arm for that program. Gordon of the Frozen 4 last year was a massive shot in the arm

for that program. But just having him there and choose Penn State is massive for recruiting. Joey DeCord and Josh Donne are your sun devils that have made the show. Yeah, again, like at the end of the day, the coolest thing ever for Penn State is like wherever, I mean, McKenna will be known as a Penn State guy.

And then, you know, the logo will be next to his name on the, on the draft or all those other stuff. Like, it's going to be great. But, but, you know, it's not like he went to Michigan, but, like, it's not like he's surrounded by NHL level prospect talent at this point with Penn State. But he'll, I mean, it's kind of funny to think about ASU and, and they're, they're placing in the, in the world from an NCAA perspective, and they've produced more players than than Penn State has so far.

We'll leave you on that thought. Good luck finding Luke Hughes. Are you still on the hunt? He talked. He talked while we were on the show. That's all right. What did he say? I'll be able to go back and figure out what he said and craft some sort of narrative

to tone that you'll be able to read on the SPN. Oh, one thing we didn't talk about on the SPN, you can go read my story. Did he say that Jackson Lachombe sent him a thank you text after he signed? I don't know if he said that. I don't know if he talked about the five-year contract that was rumored that they were asking for that no one will now admit was ever talked about, either his camp or the devils. I don't know if he talked about that.

I will say, though, the one thing we didn't talk about that I wrote about last night, you can find the story on ESPN.com, is the latest trademark issue for the Utah hockey team. Yeah, you got a couple moments on that one real quick. Draw people to the ESPN.com for this one. So they couldn't get Yeti because lo and behold, there's a company that makes coolers that are quite popular named Yeti.

And they were like, we call those, hey, we call those hockey mom, hockey mom wine glasses. So we said, say, hey, Yeti, how about we just strike a deal? We could be the Utah Yeti and you could be the, you could be Yeti. And they're like, absolutely not. And that's why Yeti was not the name. They held a contest. Mammoth won over Utah Hockey Club and the Utah Outlaws. And now we come to find out that there is yet another trademark dispute.

there's actually a company called Mammoth Hockey. If you're a player, maybe you know the name. They're a Portland, Oregon-based company that makes hockey bags. They also sell T-shirts and water bottles and hats. And so they originally were like, hey, this is really cool that you're going to name this team the Utah Mammoth. Where are the Mammoth? Isn't that fun? And then they started reaching out to Utah Mammoth.

And they were like, hey, maybe we can kind of like work together or whatever. And nothing really came of it. And then they're like, actually, maybe, maybe you should kind of like work with us because we had the name first. And then they send up a cease and desist letter. And then what happens in August is the Utah mammoth, they're like, we're going to nip this in the bud. We're going to, we're going to file a motion to determine what exactly is the trademark situation between our team and this hockey bag company. And so that was filed in August. And then on September 25th, the hockey bag company.

files an injunction in U.S. District Court in Utah to say, actually, you're not going to, we are, we are the mammoth. You are not the, we are the mammoth. And so I think ultimately where this ends up, Merrick, is that you have a company that believes that they've had the trademark on mammoth hockey, uh, since 2014, and they want to be compensated as such. And we'll see where it ends up. But yeah, it's, it's in the courts now as far as, who can be the who you know does this this hockey back company have a claim against this NHL team that when they named themselves the Utah mammoth said that they felt they were free and clear of any trademark issues and now they're right back in a legal fight over the name of the team would have never happened if they were just the Utah hockey club which would have been a great name but another trademark fight for the NHL's team in Utah it does sound very much like this ends up with someone writing a check. You just got to get some lawyers.

Just got to get some lawyers rich first. Like let's get some lawyers rich first and then we'll write a check. The funny thing is, so Utah, I give mammoth hockey, the hockey back company credit because they put out a big press release that was like, we are going after the mammoth, after the mammoth were the ones that went after them. But they also said something in the press release that I thought was really funny, which was preying on the loyalty of hockey fans being like, Like, if you're a Red Wings fan and you want to use our hockey bag because you like it and it says mammoth on it and every time you look at it, you just think of that team in Utah and you're like, I don't like that team in Utah because I'm a Red Wings fan.

Well, how could you force someone to use a bag with the name of an NHL team they don't follow on it? I'm just like, all right, we're getting really in the weeds now. Just say how much you want and we can make this all go away. But just give us the number. Just write the number on a piece of paper, put it in an envelope and hand it to us. That's it. Yeah. That's it.

Just what's the number. So that's the latest is another trademark dispute for Utah, the Utah Pocketing. All right. All right. We will follow that one closely. All right. You be good. And we will chat next week.

Greg Woshensky. ESPN. Find the lays on the trademark issue with the Utah mammoth and mammoth hockey bags. Okay, want to respect your time, as always. We want to hustle. The sheet is powered by Fanduel. Thanks to Greg for stopping by. As always.

He's here twice a week. The sheet is powered by Fanduel. Home of the same game parlay. Make every moment more on Fandual. Fandual, proud to connect fans to the major sports moments that matter to them. You've existed only as a rumor today until now, Zach Phillips. Oh, there you are. Your mother and I were quite concerned about you.

We hadn't seen you for a while. There you are. yeah it was a good show today glad to get Dave on here and excited about I'm looking forward to that show that's going to be great should be good yeah

and that's Wednesdays that we should mention that's Wednesdays at 3 o'clock Eastern starting next week yes correct correct it's going to be a good show it's being good I mean hockey's back all across the network morning cup of hockey 9 a.m. Eastern time

daily face off live noon Eastern we're coming up at one those guys daily face off rundown Mondays and Fridays lots of programming is back it's been being great um but uh during this segment just going to take a quick moment to remind people of the big day coming up tomorrow here on this channel it is fan duels fan dual futures day we're doing a special show right here on the sheet at one eastern time it's just going to be what do you what do you want to call this i don't think we put an official name on it just the bold predictions

Bold predictions. Ball predictions. Stupid predictions. Goofy alien predictions. It doesn't matter. So just anything and everything up for grabs. Yes. Shoot.

Until tomorrow show, tweet at us at the sheet hockey. Email us the sheet at the nation network. Dot C. Or the sheet at the nation network.com. Sorry. Email us there. However you want to submit them in. Your bold predictions for the year.

We'll go through them. But just a reminder to people. Eastern time here on the channel. Shana Goldman coming up 105. Johnny Lazarus, 120. Tyler, your M-Chuck,

135. Doing quick math there in my head. What the same increment was. Hit me on a little pause. And then I believe we have Megan Chica closing the show after trying to work something out right now, myself with somebody else to maybe throw something in there with us. Oh,

we'll see about that. What you're saying, up for tomorrow what you're saying is i'm not picking up my kids from school on time tomorrow because tomorrow is going to be like a marathon predictions show it shouldn't be that long based on how i tried to yeah yeah yeah schedule okay okay boss i'll see i was born at night not last night yeah yeah yeah okay all right or the sheet hockey on social media send your predictions but i just wanted to use this that's great now to remind people of that it's a big day it'll be fun it'll be more of a we've done very newsy shows this week if there's news to cover the news

let's yeah let's uh call what it is but tomorrow i think we'll just be more of a fun show with a bunch of people come through with bold predictions love it okay so and we'll uh we'll remind you again on the socials uh about tomorrow and how you can be part of it and uh use your creativity like honestly like i want the goofy ones i want like the goofiest predictions and when i so when i started in the industry this was all sort of sounds so old when I say it pre-internet and we were always told don't let your audience

write your punch lines and the internet has proven that completely wrong that the people watching and the people listening are way more entertaining than you are so use that to great effect show is based on that it's me and the chat yeah it's good

when are you back up by the way when are you hot again tonight tonight first one for preseason yeah i got to get back into the rhythm here we're switching over are you serious you're doing it for preseason all right that's cool all right get back in the rhythm get people back i get it talking about everything they're the leifs fans are sickos man and the people in our chat here as well who show up all the time respectfully also sickos good and uh so people are looking for more hockey content so i'll be live after the game tonight got I've got to get myself back into the rhythm somehow.

So show one isn't just a complete nightmare. Well, I understand that. It's preseason for all of us. It's preseason for players, for officials, for coaches, and preseason for broadcasters as well. So excellent stuff. Look forward to that. And don't forget our special tomorrow here on the sheet.

It's going to be a lot of fun. In the meantime, thanks to Dave Penaulta from the fourth period, and DFO Insiders Edition, which debuts next Wednesday, here on the network at 3 o'clock Eastern, alongside our fan Gafar. Thanks to Greg Wischinski, who stops by a couple of times a week this season from ESPN.com. Tip that Zamboni driver of yours. As we'd like to say, thanks for the buns and the use of the hall.

We appreciate your time today. And we'll talk to you again tomorrow, 1 o'clock Eastern for more of the sheet. Have a good afternoon. this month I can't get out my head lost all ambitions day to day because you can call it all right I went to the dark man

and tried to give me a little medicine I'm like no 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 to go on the back I turned on the beach.

I turned on the beach. Hey, I've been on the days of where I'm wrong. Oh, I'm in the dead dark night. Hey there, it's Jeff Merrick here. You know, my wife and I both have countless memories from spending time, discover in Canada. Well, I always come back to the summer of 2005. We were staying at a cottage on Lake Joseph here in Muscoca watching the Live 8 music festival in Barry on television. My buddy Jeremy Taggart, former drummer from Our Lady Peace, dropped by after his band's set and stayed the

rest of the weekend at the cottage after the band set and told some incredible backstage stories about some amazing Canadian music icons. I will never forget that. And fast forward to today, I'm a hockey parent, and I feel like I'm always on the road with my family, whether that means traveling across southern Ontario hockey ranks during the week or overnight at tournaments on select weekends. But what makes our hockey experience even more special is booking a place on Airbnb when we're on the road for overnight tournaments. All of this traveling got me to thinking, my home's just sitting empty when I could be hosting it on Airbnb instead. I'd simply put up my house on Airbnb, pre-select dates that I want to host, bam. It's practical, easy to manage,

and it enables people like me to make some money while they're not at home. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca slash host.