The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Brian Burke on the Leafs First Game Against Mitch Marner

Episode Date: January 15, 2026

Brian Burke joins Jeff Marek live from Las Vegas for a candid, wide-ranging breakdown of the biggest stories around the NHL. Burke dives into the Vancouver Canucks signaling a full reset, the dangers of announcing a rebuild, and how no-trade and no-move clauses can quietly sink roster flexibility. The conversation shifts to the Vegas Golden Knights hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs, with Burke offering sharp insight on Jack Eichel’s evolution into an elite two-way force and the growing spotlight surrounding Mitch Marner ahead of his return to Toronto. Burke also weighs in on front-office accountability, when a GM should (and shouldn’t) speak publicly, leadership under pressure, and why goaltending can accelerate — or derail — a rebuild faster than anything else. Unfiltered, insightful, and straight from the rink, this is classic Brian Burke.SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Uber Eats: https://www.ubereats.com/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/@FNBarnBurner🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the meantime, he is waiting patiently in a very quiet arena in Vegas. He is Brian Burke there to watch the Vegas Gold Knights face off against the Toronto Mapleys. First of all, Berkey, great to see you again. This is one of the places where you are most comfortable in a hockey arena, but I like the ambient sound of the pucks off the posts and off the glass and angry players calling their agents and people screaming. What is, I've always wanted to, what is your favorite sound at a rink? For me, it's puck sitting the post. What's yours?

My favorite thing about being in the rink is when I get there early. I used to my scout games, which was always my favorite part of the job. I would get to the rink at 5 o'clock, be with both coaches. And at 5.30, they would have their meeting. I would go up and just sit in the crowd. They were making popcorn. You hear the outshers yelling at each other. Very quiet.

The lines aren't up yet. It's my favorite time in fall. So you're in Vegas. I want to get to the Vegas game last night and the Vegas game tonight against Toronto Maple Leafs. But I know that every now and you and I, when we talk about other managers, we'll talk about George McPhee. Have you had a chance to talk to George yet? I'm going to see him. They played in L.A. last night, so I haven't seen him yet.

I will see him later today. I always say hi to George. George is a great guy. George is so good to my family, too. Three of my kids live with George McPhee's family while they were going to school. Oh, no way. I didn't know that. He's done more from my family than anyone else I know. He's one of, for me, one of the great gentlemen of the game.

And people that meet him off the ice have no idea that on the ice, pound for pound, Berkey, may have been the toughest to ever play the game. True or false. True. Scary middle weight. Scary tough. And fearless. A good hockey player.

It wasn't just a fight. but he contributed that element and he fought I was like him and Gary Howard and he jumped on probably probably three of the best middle weights ever that Howitt fight with Gary Sittler

where they started standing and then went down to their knees and kept going and then got back up is still one of the greats of all time before we get to the Vegas Golden Knights and the game against the Maple Leafs tonight and the subsequent Mitch Marner side show which is not

to be as big as it will be next week, but it's still pretty sizable. Yesterday, the Vancouver Canucks, I mean, Jim Rutherford sort of made the media rounds, essentially saying like, all right, we're waving the white flag on the season. This is going to be a rebuild. And we'll listen on anybody from like, you know, depth defenseman right up all the way to Elias Pedersen. Do you have a thought on what Jim Rutherford, Patrick Alvin, and the rest of the brain trust in Vancouver are poised to do with this team?

And what should they be aware of as they do this? Like if you were doing this, what are some of the potential dangers here? Well, I think any time you do rebuild, getting value is hard because this is a distress sale. I don't think they got full value for Quinn Hughes. I think they did a good job, though. I thought they got value given the circumstances. But the trick now is everyone knows you'll listen on anyone. That's when prices go down, not up.

There are a lot of... individual pieces that are certainly coveted by teams around the NHL. I know some may seem cost prohibitive to some teams, but nonetheless, whether it's Elias Peders, whether it's Philipperonek, whether it's one of the two goaltenders, and I know Thatcher Demko has the hospital bracelet issue, but nonetheless, on face value, it doesn't look like this should be a difficult job to tear it down because there are a lot of valued players out there. I know it's always easier to tear it down than build it up here. But there's like, if you're just breaking it down individually, there's a lot of good players

that could find new addresses if Rutherford slash Alvin get the prices they want, Berkey. If they can get waivers on no trades and no moves as well, a lot of their good players have no moves. And those are really dangerous for our team. So my guess is the first phone calls that are being made, our two players agents asking, would you waive your no trade? Right. And that's your best chance to get value. I want to throw Jake Debrusket to that conversation too.

I think that there's a lot of teams that value him. I do wonder about the Edmonton Oilers specifically. No trades, and we're going to get into this with the New Jersey Devils in a couple of seconds. No trades essentially means the player gets a chance to choose where he goes. You know, once a player understands that the team doesn't want him anymore, then you go into, okay, let's see what we can do with the no trade clause, and no move clause, and the player gets a chance to flex to say, okay, I understand that you don't want me here anymore,

but I'm going to be part of this process. Is that how you as a manager look at no trades? Yes, and also keep in mind they're struggling mightily right now. If you're in Vancouver Canucks, you might welcome a trade that you would have said no to a month ago. Right. There were a lot of these contracts that were signed based on the idea that the Vancouver Canucks were building and we're looking upwards

and we're going to build off playoff playoffs performances and it hasn't worked out that way at all. Could you see a world where the Vancouver Canucks by trade deadline this year move Elias Pedersen?

Yes. Absolutely. I don't think anyone's off the table now. Jimmy Roth is a serious guy. He's a really good GM. Patrick Alvin is a really good guy and a really good GM. They're not going to make poor trade they're not going to let no trades be the end of the story.

They're going to go to those players and say, how many teams will you accept the trade to? Right. So if you're the Vancouver Canucks then, how quickly do you think you can quote unquote turn this thing around? Jim Rutherford talked about, if we do it right, it should only take between two to three years,

whereas most rebuilds will take five to six, for example. How long, is the right answer in between there? Is Jim right on that one? how do you look at what Vancouver is poised to do? I think Jim is right on that one. I think that's the proper time frame. But a lot of teams have jumped a gun on that. They've done a lot quicker than people thought.

So much hinges on goalfinding. And you get a good goaltender. Thatcher Demko is a good goaltender. He's hurt all the time. You get a quality goaltending. You can speed that whole thing up. You know, one of the things that I think raised eyebrows for people was Rutherford essentially saying,

I'm committed to this next year. and then after that we'll just see. How do you see Rutherford's future here? Well, I don't think it's a real patient ownership group based on my experience, so that might be a realistic time frame. Jimmy Ruther's got three rings. He can leave whenever he wants. He's got a comfortable place in the Hockey Hall of Fame where he belongs.

I don't think he's going to put up a lot of garbage. They want to do this, I'm sure, as quickly as possible. You know, I wonder, you know, One of the interesting things too is I look at a team like the Detroit Red Wings and say to myself, you know, right now the guy they probably want back is Philip Hironic out of anybody out there. I know Rasmus Anderson is on their list and I mentioned Louie de Bruss. I mentioned Jake DeBrusk with the Edminton Oilers. I do wonder about Elias Pedersen because there was interest there before with the Carolina Hurricanes.

I mean, this is, this Vancouver team. We'll move off of this second, Berkey, but this Vancouver team could be the most interesting team come trade deadline time. That's how it's shaping up right now. I agree with that. The first player on the ice is Willie Nielander. So now I got your puck noise. Okay, so I want to hear some crossbars. I don't want to hear mesh.

I want to hear some crossbars out of Nealander there. Did you get a chance? Because I knew you're traveling yesterday. I'm not sure if you had a chance to watch Vegas play Los Angeles last night. Did you at all? Yes, I did. The one guy who, and every time, time I watch Vegas, he's the one that pops

to use a Brian Burke phrase, is Jack Eichel. Now, Mark Stone was excellent yesterday, absolutely, but to me, every time Jack Eichel is on the ice, something happens. Either offensively or defensively, he's turned himself into one of the best

two-way players in the game. Do you have a thought on what we saw yesterday out of Vegas overtime win for the Golden Knights? No one talks about his skating. He's such an effortless. compact skater. It takes these long strides.

Looks like he's not even moving. And he's pulling away from everyone on the ice. And he's got a really hard shot. I thought he was great last night. It looked like his back was bothering him for a while, but he came out of it. You know, Colby Armstrong and I, when we would all work together,

we would always watch Eichel, mainly when back then he was on the Buffalo Sabres. And Colby's point was always, he looks like, you know, when you see like a velociraptor dinosaur running, that's kind of like how Jack Eichel looks when he's skating. Like no one looks like that when they skate. It's almost like, remember in the 60s,

like all the guys would have like their straight backs, like the backs would be up, shoulders pulled back, chest out. Ico kind of looks like that as he strides. And then every stride is just, as you mentioned, super powerful. But you have a thought on Jack Eichol looking like a velociraptor as he skates. He reminds him of a great blue her. Great blue hair walks on.

takes one stride and he's moving slowly. He covers three and a half feet. That's what that guy reminds. One big stride, he goes 12 feet. He's unbelievably efficient. You mentioned the Maple Leafs are hitting the ice. Right now you're going to the game tonight. Maple Leaf is facing off against the Vegas Colden nights.

Next week, look, like next week in Toronto, it's going to be a circus when Mitch Marner is back in town. But how big a deal is this one for, not just for, Mitch Marner because it's against his old team, but how much is it a big one for his old team playing against him? I think it's a big deal for everyone. This is a

high quality player. Mitch Marner was a great leaf when he was here in Toronto. He was a great leaf. He's a great player. He's a good kid too. His tenure ended unceremoniously. I think people were not

happy with him at the end. But this is a great leaf. I hope he gets a nice reception when he comes back next week. You know, there's someone over your right shoulder right now has been Brad Trilliving who just popped by and then realized he was on camera and then just split. What do you make of his thing right now? I gave him the finger told him we get lost.

Beat it, beat it, Brad. First of all, just a thought on Brad Trilliving. You go back a long way with Brad Trilliving. Take us back to the Vancouver days, right? I invited him to training camp. I forget what year it was, but he fought Chino Ojic, which was a poor decision. But he was the only guy in the building that wanted to fight Chino Ojic, so I was impressed. Anyway, when I cut him, I called him in and said, we don't have anything for him.

We'll try and move you down back to a junior team or an East Coast League team. And Brad told me, he said, you're making a mistake. I'm going to play in this building. I said, son, the only way you're going to play in this film is if you buy a ticket. And how did he take that one, Berkey? He was not happy. It was not a good start. That's like telling someone,

that's like telling someone the only way you're going to get a name on the cup is if you go to Starbucks. Yeah, exactly. Okay, New York Rangers. I'm going to talk more about the Rangers, the bottom of the arrow with Vince McCogliano from the Athletic. But that was a tough one. The first period was a tilted rink. Ottawa's up for nothing. They stretched it out to 6-0-0 in the second.

You know, going into the first intermission, they're chanting fire drury in the stands. Things are not going. 8-4 was the final, but things are not going well with the New York Rangers. Bottom of the table in the Eastern Conference. I mean, this is a heritage franchise, one of the most important franchises in the NHL, certainly economically.

What do you do here, Brian? I know Panarin's on the expiring contract and he might be Exhibit A, but what does Drury do here? You know, James Dolan's already given Drury the vote of confidence. It's not just a rebuild. It's a culture rebuild. What do you do here, Brian? Well, Chris Surrey played for me. I've known since he played for him in the Olympics.

He's a quality person. I think if you go back, if people look at the post-mortem here of how they've gotten down this far, it would be three things, three player moves, and one coaching hire that have not born through yet. So number one would be Jacob Truva. Number two would be Chris Kreider. Number three would be J.T. Miller. Number four would be Mike Sullivan. Now, Mike Sullivan has two rings.

He's a good coach. He's a good player, a good person. I don't think it's time to point the finger at him. But the other moves they made, it took a lot of character out of that room, brought back J.T. Miller who runs hot. He's not always on the same page as everyone else. So I can go back. If they decide to make a change,

I don't think it's time yet. They do decide to make a change. You'll go back. The post-mortem will focus on those four things. See, the interesting thing to me about the Rangers' situation and what Drury can do here is having a conversation with someone

about this this morning is, okay, so it's not working out. You go to Artemey Panera and you say, okay, how do we work on this one and get you to a good place? But after that, what's the second act, Brian? What's the, you know, that's what this person says to me. It's like, you can do Panarin, but after that, what's your second act? Well, it might, there might be enough if you get enough assets for them.

I think it would be a better announcement to announce they re-extended him, re-sign them. I think that's what people are waiting for in New York myself. I think Chris Surrey should be given more time. He's a quality guy. Let's see if you can extend for there and not trade him. We're going to get in a couple of voicemails and emails here for you. We put out the call last night and some came in are pretty good.

Zach, where are we going first with Brian? Let's start with this voicemail that comes in from General Soreness here. Hey, Berkey, General Soreness here. A question for you. when you were a manager, what was your philosophy on speaking to the media? And did you feel any sort of obligation to keep the fans informed? And since you are no longer in management, has your philosophy on this changed? Thanks, Berkey.

That's a great question. I'm no longer in management. My view has not changed. I think when the GM talks a lot, the players get confused as to who's in charge. The coach should be the main spokesperson. Now, the times you talk are at the start of the year, after the trade deadline at the end of the year,

in between it should be very sparse. You shouldn't talk often. Now, if you have to come out and battle for your players, it's a different issue. Let me pause on that, because you've talked about this before. I believe you're, what's the phrase that you've always used? Get the flies off? Yeah.

player that's getting that's getting nag getting getting beaten down and we've all seen you do it before you'll you'll get out there and get in front of the cameras and and talk about it and and be confrontational and and defend your guy um but by and large generally you're saying if you're hearing from the GM too much than the game then the teams in trouble like I remember talking to to bill daily this would have been like 2005 and bill said look if you're here you're here. hearing from me a lot, then our game's in trouble. Did you feel the same way about your team, that if you're hearing from the manager a lot, that means the team's in trouble.

Yeah, and it also confuses the players. A player looks at the coach and says, why is Brian Burke talking? Why isn't, why is it, why is Paul Holmgren talking? Why is it Mark Romper talking? They get confused. Well, maybe Mark Roberts not in charge. Maybe Brian Burke is. And once you have that uncertainty, it's a mistake. So say as little, speak as little as possible, it's less frequently as possible. Well, you know, one of the reasons why that that voicemail is appropriate is, I know there are a lot of New Jersey Devils fans that were, you know,

counting the days that they hadn't heard from Tom Fitzgerald. And yesterday he addressed the situation with the New Jersey Devils and essentially said, what's happened is on my watch and I take responsibility for it and then went on to detail a couple of things most notably the Quinn Hughes situation. He talked about no trades

no moves and whether that hindered any deal for Quinn Hughes he maintains that it didn't is that something that you would have done? I mean it was pretty noisy in New Jersey. Now they did themselves some good yesterday by winning a big game but

if that were you would you have gone out there and said like Listen, I know we're struggling, and I'm going to fall on the sword here for it. You've got to stop the bleeding at some point. The media has to hear from you. The fans have to hear from you at some point. So my general rule of not speaking often, that goes by the boards when you have with this blood in the water.

You've got to say something to calm everything down. That's very different. No trades and no moves have really become more of an issue now than ever before, and a lot of it is because of Dougie Hamilton. refused to waive, according to Elliott, refused to waive his no trade for a trade to the San Jose sharks in the summer. A lot of New Jersey fans have wondered whether him not waiving his no trade, perhaps hindered any deal for Quinn Hughes. A lot of made the point that you look up and down that New Jersey Devil's roster. There's a lot of players that have a lot of control.

A lot of no trades and a lot of no moves there. What was your thought and what is your thought on no-mythews? moves and no trades. I've always been of the belief that if you're going to give one out, the player has to give a discount, but that doesn't seem to be so in a lot of cases anymore. Don't do them. That's my advice to anyone. Don't do them.

Do not do them. You should have one and full, no trade, no move on your team. Anyone else shouldn't be entitled to that level of protection. You should say we should be at eight teams. give the list of 18, and no flies zone of eight. I used to get mad

through all the Canadian teams were always on them. But I don't think I ever gave a full no trade, no move in my life. I'm pretty sure I didn't. If someone points out I'm wrong, I'll happily admit it.

But in general, I said, I'll give you some protection but not total protection. Don't do them. And that's the biggest problem right now. And Patrick Alvinz. It's,

I remember, you mentioned this to me once I'm actually probably a couple of times you'd be surprised Jeff how many Canadian players have all the Canadian teams on their no-fly zone how much did that shock you?

Almost all of them. They used to piss me off still does I'd be like I said that one time to one of them I'm not going to name him I said how come they have no trade no move like Calgary is such a beautiful place to live and work you should be honored to live and work here

He said, as my agent said, to put the ball on the list for tax reasons. Huh, good reason. That's interesting. You know, one of the, I was going to mention this a little bit later on, having a conversation with someone who brought up the idea of, and this goes back to Dougie Hamilton as well, if you can get him to waive,

one trade that might make sense would be Dougie Hamilton in exchange for Stephen Stamcoast. Stamcoast can go to New Jersey, play with all. Andre Palat is Tampa Bay Lightning former teammate and Jack Hughes in the middle. And Dougie Hamilton can go and live and play in a wonderful city like Nashville. Term is the same. Hamilton makes one more million dollars, but you can work all these types of things out. The problem is, if you're Stephen Stamcoast, by waiving your no trade to do that,

what you're doing is agreeing to a pay cut because you go from a no tax state to a tax state. I know various corners will say it's not a big issue. from the players that I talk to, they say it is. Do you believe it is as big an issue as we sometimes make it out to be? Yes, I think it's a comical when people say it's not. It's a huge issue. It's a huge problem. I think it's comical to suggest that it's not.

When I see that, people say it's not a big issue. It is a big issue. 5% or 6% issue. Okay. Before we let you go, and I know you want to watch the Maple Leafs work on their empty-net goals here and you're getting ready for the matchup tonight. I want to take a couple of moments to talk about a story that's huge in the NHL,

but also use it to talk about those that have gone before. Oh, is that Ryan Leslie? Beat it, Leslie. Ryan Leslie, you just cursed at me on the air. I'm shocked, Berkey. I'm shocked. Tell him Merrick is horribly offended. I will.

All right. The show Heated Rivalry. Before we get to that show and everything that's happened since, I do want to park some time with you since you've been an ally for a number of years. Before this show, there was Luke Procop, who came out. Luke is now playing in Bakersfield. There was Ben is, Bain Pettinger, the agent who has come out. Brock McGillis is another name, and your son, Brendan, as well.

I think that lost in all the discussion about heated rivalry and players now feeling more comfortable to come out, this isn't the first around hockey on the men's side of the puck. Do you have a thought on that? Yeah, I'm glad he said that, Jeff, because that was my reaction too, not to the story. The story is a positive story. A young man felt comfortable enough to come out, a hockey player from Minnesota. Good for him. It's a good day for our cause. We like that in the story. But I felt that the guy who wrote the story, not the, not the player.

The guy wrote the story didn't mention any of the building blocks that went beforehand. And I'm glad you mentioned that. Because Brennan and Bain and Brock and Luke especially, there's a lot of in my mind. They do. Like they were some of the earliest to come out and opened. doors for other people. The player you're referring to is Jesse Kortem, who came out and his statement was he felt more comfortable after watching the show heated rivalry. And I don't know what this is ultimately going to mean for the comfort level of NHL players or just hockey players

in general to come out. But I think anything that keeps the positivity around it open and provides a safe landing place or an environment where players can feel comfortable doing so, I think is a positive thing. Like, Brian, I think I've mentioned this to you before. One of the phrases that I absolutely hate in hockey, which I believe has contributed to keeping players in the closet is don't be a distraction. And how many times the players told all the way up, don't be distraction, don't be distraction, don't color outside the lines.

And players grow up with that and then think, like, I would love to come out and live my life, openly and honestly, but if I become a distraction to the team, what's that going to mean to my career? Thought on that one. Yeah. Well, I think you're right. Let's not quibble about how the article was written. Let's focus on the fact that a player felt comfortable enough to come out. And the notion that not be a distraction, be a distraction.

We all know those gay players in our league. Somewhere between 4 and 10 percent are gay. We know that statistically. So it shouldn't be as big a deal as it's been for players to come out But clearly there's barriers to be uncomfortable So be a distraction You can play on my team if you are I love it

We'll end on that one Berkey, you're the best Enjoy the game tonight It's the chumming of the waters for next week With Mitch Martin in Toronto And enjoy it, my friend We'll talk in six days now Because you're back on next Wednesday

Thanks Jeff I went to the dive.