The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Jet Greaves

Episode Date: August 1, 2025

Jeff Marek is joined by Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Jet Greaves to reflect on his incredible season and the journey that made it all possible.#TheSheet #JeffMarek #JetGreaves #WorldJuniors #StevenEllis #NHLProspects #ColumbusBlueJackets #ConnorMcDavid #StanBowman #NHLTalk #HockeyPodcast #HockeyNewsShout out to our sponsors!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼 Simply Spiked: https://www.simplyspiked.ca/en-CAReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Flames_Nation🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode of The Sheet is sponsored by the OCS summer pre-roll sale. Sometimes when you roll your own joint, things can turn out a little differently than what you expected. Maybe it's a little too loose. Maybe it's a little too flimsy. There's a million ways to roll a joint wrong, but there's one role that's always perfect. The pre-roll. Shop the summer pre-roll and infused pre-roll sale today at OCS.ca and participating retailers. Pleasure to welcome aboard for the first time here on the show.

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

they could be playing with two blockers. There are very few goalies who know how to catch the puck. You know how to catch the puck. Do you have, I know you have a tennis background. Do you have a baseball background? Yeah, thanks for having me, first of all. I'm excited to be here and talk with you guys. Yeah, I grew up playing a ton of baseball.

For me, it was kind of hockey's in the winters and baseball in the forever. So I love playing baseball. Well, you know, I'll tell you what, Chad. I remember having a conversation about 10 years ago with Felix Potfan, former Maple Leafs Net Minder. And he was a goalie coach in Quebec. And he was like, well, what's the one thing that you notice about goaltenders now? And he said, no one knows how to catch anymore.

He said, you know, when we played when we were kids, we played baseball in the summer, we played hockey in the winter and everybody knew how to catch. Now goaltenders just block the puck with their catching hand. But that's one of the things that really stands out about you right away is your glove work and your glove play. Do you consider that to be one of your, one of your signatures in your game? How about that? Thank you. Yeah, I really appreciate you saying that.

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

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

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

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

And then we had, that was the year that got cut short at the end of the season with the COVID shot down. And then the next year after that, we had no season in the OHL. So it was just kind of playing on outdoor ranks, you know, all year like we did, like we did when we were kids. That was the only spot we'd play. We have a friend of ours, they have like a pond in their back. So we would go there and skick.

We would, we always grew up having a rink in our backyard here. So my dad kind of built the rink again. And my brother and I would just skate out there all in there. So now that's what we. Yeah. Yeah, for, please, please, finish, finish, please. No, so I was going to say that. So that's what we did that year.

And then from there, I end up being fortunate to be able to, you know, I was still talking with Columbus and we had actually a showcase. I don't know if you guys ever heard about this or remember. it but at the Mark Hunter one it was called the PBH showcase it was in Erie a buddy of mine Andy Perraud him and a couple friends started it oh yeah Nathan's yeah Nathan's kid yeah yeah yeah Nathan told me about this yeah yeah yeah yeah I remember that yes Andy and I had knew each other for a long time since we were kids and he started that just for you know ohchel guys and guys who didn't get seen that whole season just to play some competitive hockey and they brought

a ton of NHL teams there and Columbus, you know, man, he came to that. Brad Tieson, who's our goalie coach in Cleveland, he came to that as well. And then shortly after I signed an AHL deal with Columbus, or with Cleveland, sorry. And then I started in Kalamazoo the following year was kind of up and down between Kalamazoo and Cleveland and then just kind of built from there over the last few years. There's a lot in there that I want to sort of pick up on. First of all, with the Barry Colts, I really have a lot of time for Dale, the late Dale Howard Chuck. I think it was, A, one of the best centers I've ever seen, and B, just a tremendous coach.

And anyone who's been coached by Dale Howard Chucks, whether it's, you know, Mark Schifley will talk about him. Andrew Mangeapani will talk about anyone who's been coached by Dale Howard Chuck sort of sings from the same hymn book. Do you have a thought on being coached by Dale Howard Chuck? I don't know how much direct involvement he had with the goaltenders, but do you have a thought or two on Dale Howard Chuck? Oh, it was so awesome. It was like, like you said, I think everybody who's who had the pleasure of being around him has only good things to say about him, you know, as a coach and as a player,

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

And just the value in that, I think, like, you see it with someone like, Mark Schafe, just how passionate he is about the game. And so many of the guys, like, even Tyson Forster, him and I were rookies together in Barry, and he just loves hockey so I think there's so many so many guys that came through there and Barry that Dale kind of instilled that love of the game for us

so it was awesome to play for him and get to know him and the one thing that I like to tell people is I truly believe it is he would play three on three with us and he was like always always like one of the best players out there even at he's still

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

And the guys were like, go on, take a draw against Howard Chuck. Take a draw against Howard Chuck. I'm like, oh, God, this is going to be so embarrassing. And, like, all, of course, all game long, even 1,500 points in the NHL Hall of Fame. Of course, he gobbles me up at the dot. And I say to him, I pull up to the dot, like, you get up me win one. And he goes, no, he goes, watch this. And so the referee's about to drop the puck.

Jet, I'll never forget, I remember being like, oh, my God, what just happened? He smacked my stick, flipped his blade over, and the puck landed flat on his blade. He held it up to my face and skated backwards laughing. Like, you want to talk about, like, being humiliated at the face off dots? That was, that was, that was, that was, that was, that was, that was, that was, that was, that was, that was, that was, this episode of the sheet is sponsored by the OCS summer pre-roll sale. Sometimes when you roll your own joint, things can turn out a little differently than what you expected. Maybe it's a little too loose. Maybe it's a little too flimsy.

There's a million ways to roll a joint wrong. But there's one roll that's always perfect. The pre-roll. Shop the summer pre-roll. Fused pre-roll sale today at OCS.ca and participating retailers. So, you know, you've had a lot of success early in your career. I know you've earned it. You've worked hard for it, as you mentioned, undrafted.

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

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

time playing hockey together. heard about, hang on, hang on, hang on, I've heard about you and Kai. I've heard that like you compete, like, I've heard like the tennis matches are insane. Now, your brother's a defenseman, I believe, at Princeton. Am I correct on that? So I've heard you guys compete like everything and these legendary tennis matches are only one. Like, the way it was told to me is like they'll compete with anything, including like eating. No matter what it is, these two guys will compete. Is that true? Yeah, we've just, I don't know, we've just grown up that way. We've always been, he's two years younger than me. So we've always, you know, been close

in age and had a lot of the same friends. We just spend so much time around each other. And even, you know, with our buddies, we're always active or playing basketball or tennis or whatever it is. And for whatever reason, Kai and I are always on opposite teams because we just, we love competing against each other. And then we come home and we're finding something to compete at there. So we both kind of have that competitive spirit instilled in us just from the relationship we've had. It's so fun. I love it. I just love it. Okay, so let me ask you about this. So your agency, CAA, there are stories out there about this legendary speech that Jim Hughes gives, which involves, do you live in box one, box two, or box three? Now, Jim Hughes, for those who don't know, is the father of Jack, Luke, Quinn, the Hughes boy. And he works as CAA. What can you tell us about the legendary story of do you live in box one, two, or three. What's that all about? Yeah, I remember the first time I heard that kind of that speech

was when I was probably 13 or 14 years old at the camp that Jim was speaking at. And I had known him for a little bit at the time and kind of saw, I'd gotten to learn everything that he was about and just, you know, what it takes to become a professional hockey player and to play at the highest level. So you kind of always, he's the type of person that anybody who knows him, you know, respects anything he says. And you're always kind of sit up straight when he's speaking can see us here. Taking nose and trying to look at the lectures.

But yeah, I remember he talked about you know, the biggest thing that he kind of instilled and that I took from it was he says like there's so many, at whatever stage of your career you're in, there's going to be things where you're thinking about something that happened the night before, whether it's, you know, a good game

or a bad game where you're thinking about. That's box one. That's box one. The past, right? Exactly. Box one is the past. Then there's box three, which is kind of anything in the future where it's like, what you want to do next game or where you want to play or think you should be playing or what what you think should be happening et cetera and he said there's box two though which is box two as the present and that's where your feet are and he said as long as you're always in box two and kind of being

where your feet are as much as you can and that's that's what you need to do and that's what's going to give you the best chance at success and that's something that I've taken with me it really kind of stuck with me then when I've heard it and I've held on to throughout my career to this day is just trying to be where my feet are, whatever the situation is, just trying to be present in the moment and enjoy it and get my best in the moment. It's such a great line. And what people have told me about you, too, is like you are that guy. Like Jim Hughes, you know, we'll go around asking, you know,

where are your feet right now? Where are your feet right now? And what I've heard about you, Jed, is like, if there's one, like, if there's someone who lives, like, you're the one guy that lives, like, right in the present every single moment, which is really, like, the wisest way. they can't do anything about the past you can't predict the future

you live where your feet are otherwise you can have a life full of anxiety were you always like that or is that 13 year old Jetgreaves heard that from Jim Hughes before a tournament with Jack Hughes and it always stuck with them like where did what do you get that from

I think just there have been so many experiences throughout the way and so many people that I've spoken to that just try to learn as much as I can about, you know, what's the right way to do things. And I think that's something my parents have always instilled to me from a young age is just controlling what you control.

It's not about what else is going on or what you think the situation should be or whatever it is, but just enjoying the moment where you are and working hard where you are and just controlling that and trusting that the results will take care of itself. And then I think just being able to have so many different experiences, I've kind of, for me, I feel like learned the value of that and been able to, experience that, which I think just instills it even more. So what does your summer look like? Like, what is, like, this is, this is a big summer for you.

This is, you know, next season is going to be a big one for the Blue Jackets. As I said, I'm sure everybody in the organization felt, you know, the outpouring of love and affection, even if you're not a fan of the Blue Jackets, you had to cheer for the Blue Jackets last season. You picked up a lot of fans along the way. And I think the Blue Jackets turned a lot of heads along the way as well. And I'll tell you what, I thought of you right away. when Don Waddell made the move with Florida,

sending Danil Terrace off to the Florida Panther that said, okay, maybe the blocking is done here. This is the open lane here for Jet Greaves. What's your summer like right now, knowing that, there's that spot right there for you? Yeah, I think for me, like kind of going back to our last conversation, you know, things like that happen. But for me, it's really my summer is always just about, you know,

preparing for the upcoming season and just trying to develop my game and everything I'm doing in life really around the game. So I'm back home in Cambridge, Ontario, where I kind of always spend my summers with my family and friends here. I've got my goalie coach, Matt Smith. He's been my goalie coach since I was 12 or 13 years old. So just spending time skating with him and spending time in a gym trying to, you know, just prepare my body for the season upcoming and just really just enjoying the process of improving. I think that's, such a fun part of the game is learning about what you can do to get better and just try to make those steps every single day. So just really trying to be grounded in that process, I guess.

Last one for you. How is the how is the training changed? And I want to frame it in one very specific way. For the longest time, goalies had the advantage in hockey because they spent the summers working on being a goaltender. And the players, Lifted. That was it. Get strength back. Get strength back. I remember Elaine Vigno. This is all under the, when the conversation was happening about the goalie's equipment is too big and we need to make the nets bigger, shrink the equipment. I can't remember the last time I had a conversation with anybody about needing to shrink the equipment. To Elaine Vigno's point, he always said, listen, if the shooters want to score more goals, they got to learn how to shoot better. And now we know a lot about pre-shot movement by the puck and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And right now it seems as if the advantage has started to swing more towards the players.

Now they decided we should probably lift less and work more in our game more in the offseason. So how is your training changed to sort of understand the new reality that it's not just one or two guys on a team that can shoot anymore? It's everybody. yeah i think it's it's a fun uh you know it's a fun game like you're talking about between the players are always getting better and the goalies are always trying to get better that you know the defenders are getting better so i think it's yeah it's really cool game to always be evolving like that and i think to answer your question it's for us just a lot of you know watching a lot of video and understanding where the game is where the game is going you know how how how the

goals are going in whether it's on myself or on any goalie in the nai shell or whatever level it is and also looking at guys that are having success and what what are they doing that's making them successful so i think it's just just that process of learning is as much as we can about the players you know asking talking to players asking you know what are you what are you looking at and just trying to prepare in every way for those situations whether it's through video work or on the ice or off the ice or mental work just trying to be prepared for every situation. Okay, I lied.

I have one more. Favorite goalies, either right now or of all time. I'm always curious about this. Oh, there are so many. One that comes to mind right away is Carrie Price. He was kind of, when I, so good.

The story of me starting to really play goalie was kind of two things came into play. One, my dad was playing goalie and his hockey, so that was always, I kind of wanted to be left. And the other one was my brother and I, during little juniors we would always like watch it and then play mini sticks at the commercials and during the game would just kind of pretend to be the players but i think it was the uh the 2007 world juniors carrie price was a starting goalie for canada and they did kind of a segment on

him before the game and just showed him like walking through the streets of sweden or something like that that got to just saw like his demeanor and how calm and composed he was and then we watched the game and he was amazing and canada won and then after that it was a goalie and any sticks and I was begging my parents to let me play. You know what always impressed me about, I'm glad you mentioned, like, his demeanor. The thing that always impressed me about Kerry Price is, post-game interviews,

if you didn't know the final score, you would have no clue if Montreal won the game or lost the game. Highs weren't too high, lows weren't too low, just even, like the entire time. Again, like, if you're a goal, man, I'm sure you've seen plenty, maybe you've been this guy in the past. if you're a goalie and you ride the wave oh man it can be a really long season if you if you don't sort of have that at least resembling a sort of carry price attitude right yeah absolutely i think that was something that kind of always picked up the same way watching him and watching his interviews and even just the way he played was that you know he never really changed you know what no matter what happened he was very very steady and very composed so i think it was so awesome you know being able to watch him growing up i was watching him a lot i was watching hendrick lunk

I've always been a huge fan of his. Obviously, yeah, he was great. And then even Bob as well, obviously, it's cool that he was in Columbus before me, but I've always been such a fan of him. And even now it's cool to see, you know, just how the career he's putting together. It's awesome. So much fun. Listen, I don't know whether it's a big tennis match with Kai after this interview here

with me today, Jep, but whatever is next for you, we wish you all the success. And look forward to seeing you with the Blue Jackets next year. Thanks so much for joining me today. Thank you. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. It's me, myself, and how this is going to be fixing my mind. I do want to back in it. I turned on the music.

I do want to beg her. I turn on the music. Fixing up, help, I don't get you sometimes losing. Have been on the days that we're wrong.