The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: David Pagnotta on the St. Louis Blues, Nashville, and Vancouver

Episode Date: November 7, 2025

David Pagnotta joins to detail the growing pressure in St. Louis, trade buzz around Brayden Schenn and Justin Faulk, Vancouver’s unraveling, Nashville’s potential coaching change, the Stamkos situation, the Saros question, and the latest on Adrian Kempe’s negotiation grind. A jam-packed show covering every major NHL storylineSHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Bauer: https://www.bauer.com/👍🏼Uber Eats: https://www.ubereats.com/ca👍🏼Prime Video: https://primevideo-row.pxf.io/c/5560083/3303015/20020Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@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.

So let's get the proper answer from Dave Panyoda, Daily Faceoff Hockey Insider from the fourth period. He joins us now. Do you have a thought on that one, Dave? Is it the best player versus player rivalry in the history of the game? And we're going to see it again tonight. Alexander Ovechkin versus Sidney Crosby. I'm racking my brain mainly because the NHL previous to 2005 with this matchup

never went player versus player. They just always went team versus team. No, yeah, you're right. And Wish was saying that exactly to that point. like they never really marketed that it was always player to player or excuse me it was always team to team and i guess the other conferences like i thought remember the the hall and second draft like it was taylor taylor taylor taylor yeah was that going to be a thing i think the conferences play a big factor in this because in all of these ones that we're talking about ones in the east

ones in the west this one not only in the same conference same division so yeah it just added so much more fuel they played so many so so much more often than some of the other guys and to what you guys were saying, the league actually marketed it. So as a head-to-head battles. So I think that played a bit of a factor in it, like, can we get Bedard Celebrini if these guys start to further prop themselves up

because they're in the same conference now? Maybe that's a way to go in that regard to try to manifest that type of crazy rival between two rebuilding teams. I think that's a good point. And the other thing, too, Dave, It's like the NHL lucked out by having the caps and penguins having already been rivals for like a good 20 years. And so it's like if Iqa got drafted by the flames, right?

Like it's kind of like that between Crosby and Ovechkin and how much heat was already inherent between those two franchises. Yeah. Yeah. Look, it makes sense. I mean, what we need is basically Chicago and San Jose to have like a full out brawl in one game. and then just have these guys start popping in, like, goal after goal, just going shot for shot, and then just build it up that way. Can we figure that out?

Who do we talk to? We don't have roles now. We have scrums. We have scrums. The next great website is hockey scrums.com. Never mind hockey fights.com is your day was five minutes ago. It's hockey scrums.com now. That's the way they do it.

I was mentioning to Greg a couple of seconds ago, Dave, before you can came on that we had a very rare sighting today for the St. Louis Blues. Second half of a back-to-back, and it's a full practice before the game against the Buffalo Savers. We've seen Jim Montgomery just like change up pairs on the D, flip-flop with the goaltenders, can't seem to get a save. Those goalies are hard to hits. The lines are different. Bush Nevich is struggling. Jordan Kairu is certainly struggling as well. Robert Thomas came back in that game against the Oilers and looked good, but this is a team that's struggling for goals, saves, identity.

And I wonder at which point we start to say, I wonder where Braden Shen, Jordan Bennington, Justin Falk are going to end up come trade deadline time, you know? Yeah, it's interesting. I think Kyru and Sunquist are going to be scratched tonight. Wow. This is some message sending. That's big.

Certainly. Yes, this is message sending right now. because it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's not, you're not, you're not too far into the season where you can't fix this. It, it's not a, it's not a matter of, okay, we're 13, 14 games in, oh, whoa is us, like the sky is falling. It may seem like it, but there's a lot of runway left to get back into it. But at the same time, there kind of isn't, like you, you need to start to flip the script here pretty quickly, or you're in a heap of trouble the rest of the season. Um, and so I think, you know, full practice, that's,

a message sender. Sitting Sunquist and Cairo, that's a whole other one for a variety of different reasons. A message to them, a message to other guys on the team. You know, Bushnevich hasn't been that great and he's getting a bit of a buy right now in terms of being scratched. So we'll see kind of where that goes. But yeah, this all leads to when you're crap and you're not doing well, the vultures start to circle in. And there are teams that are very curious to see how much longer this is going to go and the longer it goes are guys like

Braden Shen Justin Falk and so on are these guys that have some no trade protection are they going to be available? Are they going to be available so there are some teams kind of poking around now

you know Shen was a guy that the teams asked about last season when he had his full no trade they went on that playoff run he didn't want to leave the team he wanted to stick with them so they you know he held on to that and I get that. I totally, you know, he wants to stick up, stick with his team and fight for them and with them. Um, different circumstance now. So if they can't kind of write the ship a little bit, there are going to be more teams that are going to be poking around on Shen,

who's got a 15 team, no trade list. Falk has a 15 team, no trade list. They could chalk this up as look, it's just a rough season. We're going through a few motions here. Um, we'll look to move some of the vets and keep some of the younger guys together because she, excuse me, uh, Kyrie was a player. about around the draft. Both the islanders and the Canadians had talks with St. Louis about Jordan Cairo. Dobson's name was part of that. There was even some rumblings of a potential

three-way, and then Dobson ended up staying in Montreal because the Habs weren't able to figure that out, and obviously the islanders didn't either. So do they explore that again? I think they're more inclined to hold on to some of these guys, some of the younger guys,

and right now look towards, and by right now I mean this season, look towards some of the Vets Benner, I don't see as a... Like, if Holfer had a different type of season to start, then I think maybe they look in that direction. But I think Bennington, I'd be a little bit surprised there, at least for this season.

Really quick on Kyra, just as a follow-up, there's one team out there that could really use him and his speed, but considering who the coach is, there's not a chance that's going to happen, and that's Toronto. That looks so slow, but I just want to be in the room. I just want to be in the room. to hear the conversation where Brad for a living says uh hey uh hey Craig we're

thinking about bringing in Jordan Cairo I just want to be in the room I just want to be in the room to hear I just want to hear that him in him and Tarasanko a twofer to play for Craig Ruby and uh yeah uh Dave I was I was curious about your take on on the national predators obviously this is going to be the other team that everybody's got their eye on as far as potential departures. The Stamco's thing seems to boil down to a couple of factors, including the fact that his family is fairly happy where they are right now. If you had to put money on which guy on that roster could get shipped out first this season,

if things continue to trend downward, who would it be? Probably Ryan O'Reilly. You know, even with, I mean, he unofficially has a no trade. He doesn't have one, but they're not going to do him dirty. They're going to send him somewhere if they do move him somewhere where it's going to be a contender. But he doesn't have the no-trade protection. It's a lot simpler, a lot less messy to just from a paperwork perspective to go in that direction. And there are a lot of teams that are going to be looking at guys like O'Reilly, like Shen,

to see, you know, are these guys available and can we make something happen sooner rather than later in terms of trade deadline time. Can we do something in January? Can we do something before the, you know, what, two weeks right after the Olympic break ends or 10 days or whatever it is? You know, can we do something sooner versus March 6th? The Stamco's thing is interesting. And yeah, he likes it there.

His family likes it there. Marsha so does as well. Same situation. I mean, everybody likes it in Nashville. If you guys want to go, we can book a flight right now. Like, I'll head over there. It's a great time. But we'll go to the pediota table at Tutsis.

Yeah, yeah, that'd be perfect. That'd be great. Every Friday, every Friday have two Saturdays, Dave. Every Friday have two Saturdays. It's always a good time out there. But with Stammer's situation, I think there's an, I think there's been some loose conversations just to say, where are we? Where are things going?

And what's the direction of the next few years here? He's got two more years on this deal after this season. I think there's a willingness to explore a legitimate cup contender, but there's so many variables in play. A, nothing's going to happen anytime soon. B, are we going to get to the point where you are asking him to consider his options because he has the full no move? And then C, realistically, how much is Nashville willing to retain?

Because nobody's taken Stephen Stancoast in an $8 million pot. So are they willing to eat too? million, three million, half. Half. And depending on all that, how much is that going to cost? What's the acquisition cost for the player and for the lesser salary, the lesser A.A.V? We're a little premature in that respect. There's a reason why these are coming up because it is a talking point and teams are curious. But I think this is a wait and see situation with Stamco's.

Despite all the right messaging in terms of liking it there and all that, I do believe if there's a legitimate opportunity to join a legitimate contender, not just this season, over the course of his contract, I think he would seriously consider it. I have two questions. I have two questions. I do wonder about UC Saros as well. If the National Predator is going to go through a rebuild,

I think you have that conversation with a goaltender and say, like, look, you've been here a long time. You've been through a lot of things here with you. We can't ask you to do this now. This wasn't the way things are going to go. And the other thing that I wonder about, too, is, you know, the, if you can't make a trade right away. As a general manager, you can do one of two things. You can make a trader.

You can fire a coach. And if they do go the route of firing Andrew Brunette, do you think it's Carl Taylor, who's the head coach in Milwaukee, who's been sort of the next man up or consider the next man up for a while or Barry Trots himself? I think with this team, I think if this trend continues in terms of their performance, one coaching change isn't going to change their season around.

You're looking at a change behind the bench and you're looking at making roster moves. And I think because of that, you don't need to change what's going on in Milwaukee. I say Barry goes behind the bench for the duration of the season, and then they reevaluate their options for a new head coach in the summer. Again, because you're going to have to make additional changes. This isn't going to be, you know, a scenario.

This isn't, this isn't Daryl Sutter coming into L.A., and all of a sudden the Kings go on a heater, and they win the Stanley Cup two or three years. There's a lot of, there's a lot more work that has to be done here in Nashville from a roster construction perspective by itself. They're not as deep as they anticipated being. And because of that, even if you make a change at the coaching position, you have to make additional moves along the way up until March 6th and on going into the summer.

So I think it might make more sense for them. If they do make a change and Burnett's out, Barry goes behind the bench, you let what's happening in Milwaukee continue to play out, and then you look at your and you reevaluate your options in the summer with respect to who's next year's head coach. How do you see the Adrian Kempbe situation currently in L.A.? With very foggy glasses, because I can't figure out why that hasn't been cleared up yet. Price keeps going.

No, no, no, that was yesterday's price. And this is going to be tomorrow's. I mean, who's going to be left for July 1st? Yeah, like I do think, I do think at the end of the day, they figure this out. But, I mean, I was told at the start of the season, when they didn't have a deal done at the start of the season, that this was probably going to end up being a bit of a grind, regardless of what happens. And then I thought, all right, well, wait a second, NACS signed. Is that going to escalate things? Is that going to speed things up?

And I don't think it has yet. I think, look, the lines of communication are open. It's not like anybody's pissed off at the other side. Right. But they just haven't been able to get there just yet. it's going to be in the 11s, by all accounts, if we're going full term. But how does that look? What's the final number?

And then how's it structured as well? I think that's going to be the other factor in this. And look, Kempe's been very vocal. He's been honest. He said it during the media tour. He said it started the season. He said it a few weeks ago. He wants to stay.

He likes it there. His family likes it there. They want to stay. And I think one of the things he mentioned during the tour, was I just don't want this to drag on, you know, around Olympic time because then you've got trade deadline and it's in the back of your head and you're worried and so on and so on. I think perfect scenario now for him, end of 2025, he gets into an extension. It starts the new year with a brush of fresh air in that regard because the longer this

goes, it is going to weigh on a player who wants to stay in that environment. So maybe that's LA's game. Maybe they want to wait them out and see if he'll. he'll say, you know what, forget it. I'll just sign for 11. Forget the rest. Let's just get this done. Maybe that's part of Kenny's game plan.

But we'll see. I mean, look, the old saying is one phone call changes everything. I just don't think they're there yet. And maybe someone happens after. Maybe it happened this morning. Maybe it happens after. But I just haven't gotten that sense yet. Do respect to Adrian Campa,

but what the hell is he concerned about with the Olympics? Like, they're obviously going to win bronze. Like, either Canada wins gold or the U.S. wins gold. Finland's absolutely boned without Barkoff, so they're not going to win anything. Russia's not even there. So what is Sweden even worried about right now?

I don't know if it's Sweden. I think it's just him personally. Like to have that lingering in the back of his head as he's playing, I don't know, Switzerland for bronze, like that's going to be weighing on him. So I get it. I get it. It's frustrating.

You're you guys, you guys are both. You guys are both wrong. you're missing what's going to happen. He's getting traded to Carolina and finishing the season in Dallas. We all know where this is headed. Oh, no way, he's Swedish, not finished. Never mind.

Scratch that. If he were finished, that would be the way it would go. Let me close with this. What's happening with Vancouver? What's happening with the Vancouver Conucks right now? Do you get a sense? Like, they just got waxed by the Chicago Blackhawks the other night five to two.

That's not going to look good on the resume. No, I mean, I was talking a lot of people at the start of the season about this team going, all right, the defense looks sound. Goaltending looks pretty good. They got both guys locked in. I guess they just got to worry about secondary scoring. And you fast forward 13, 14 games into the season, and they got to worry about everything. You can't have Horonic and Quinn not playing together because it just doesn't work. Marcus Patterson hasn't been very steady on that back end, you know, right now for them.

Goaltending's been Lankinen has not been anywhere near where they anticipated him being. And then they have their secondary scoring woes. So it's just a, it's a rough mix right there. Quinn doesn't look like he's, you know, just what he's made of. He looks like a different type of guy right now. I don't know if he's frustrated or if he's ticked off or what have you

if he's battling something because we know he was going through something a couple weeks ago but he hasn't looked fully fully ready to go PD hasn't blossomed and gone back to top tier form it's just a big mess

across the board right now for the Canucks and they're looking for consistency they're looking for stability you know Sherwood's been really the only guy that's kind of stepped up and they haven't taught contract there yet with them. They kind of want to wait. I don't know what's going to happen with this club right now.

We all know that Rutherford and Alveen don't like to wait. They like to make their moves earlier than everyone else. Yes. And I'm very curious to see how they approach this. They're only what, two or three points ahead of Calgary for last in the West. Like this is not gone the way that they've anticipated the first five weeks of the season. And they're going to be, for me, a very curious team to look at if they can't figure things out by the end of this month. Because you know that that Rutherford and Alvin, more jam, is kind of just itching.

The trigger figure is itching right now to try to do something to help this club right now. Well, I mean, you guys know how stressful house hunting can be. And the market in Jersey City and Hoboken is just on fire right now. So Quinn must be feeling a lot of stress. I was, I knew I was waiting for something when I brought him up. Hold on a second. Let's see, which is going to chime in for sure. That's good times.

It's interesting. It's, you know, we'll see. We'll see. Never a dull moment. Listen, always appreciate it. Thanks so much for indulging us early and then educating us later. Always appreciate it, Dave. You'd be good.

You got it, boys. You too. I spent 16 hours last night every day this week, every day 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 trying to give me a little medicine. I'm like, no, man, that's fine. I'm not against those methods, but new. It's me and myself.

and how this is going to be fixing my mind. I do on the backer. I turned on the music. I do want to back. I turn it on the music. Fixing up, help, and I don't get you sometimes losing. I've been on the days that we're wrong.