The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Jonny Lazarus on Cooley and Harley's New Deals

Episode Date: October 30, 2025

Jonny Lazarus from Morning Cuppa Hockey joins the show to dive into Logan Cooley’s massive eight-year, $80-million extension with the Utah Mammoth, Thomas Harley’s long-term deal in Dallas, and what those signings signal about both franchises’ futures. The pair also touch on Matthew Schaefer’s dominant start on Long Island, the Rangers’ early offensive struggles, Jason Robertson’s next contract, and why Connor Bedard’s play in Chicago continues to climb another level. It’s a full-ice discussion spanning the past, present, and future of the NHL — only on The Sheet with Jeff Marek.SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Bauer: https://www.bauer.com/👍🏼Shark Ninja: https://www.sharkninja.ca/ninja-crispi-4-in-1-portable-glass-air-fryer-cooking-system/FN101CGY.html?utm_source=Better+Collective&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=H2+Air+Fryer&utm_content=EN👍🏼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.

Someone who also reads that. So our good friend Johnny Lazarus from Morning Cup of Hockey, who joins me now. Laz, how are you today? A great job this morning pivoting with the breaking news of Logan Cooley's contract extension and getting, as you call him Pags, Dave Panyoda, on the program to break it down. When you first heard it, what were your thoughts on this one? Good for team, good for player, good for both. Where did you land?

Well, let me get my marat glasses on here. to talk smart talk smart with you okay hang on hang on can i give can i give you a little tip i was taught this early in my career if you want to make someone look smart on tv put glasses on them and and put books behind them well the books i don't have my girlfriend's artwork but uh nice big willie did say it was dumb take wednesday this morning on our show so i thought it's sparting up for your show um appreciate it with the logan coolly news though i was surprised at the number Like $10 million for a forward for someone who's on their entry level contracts sounded like a lot. Obviously, I think Logan Cooley will be worth that.

But I don't know. It just, it just, I'm still adjusting to the number, right? Because obviously this day and age has changed. And for someone who hasn't really been around that long, 10 million just sounds like a lot of money, which it is. It is a lot of money. Yeah. But I think the biggest thing too. And, you know, I'm sure there's rumblings out there.

I feel like Logan Cooley was a guy who. has been very vocal about like how much he loves Pittsburgh right and and um you know how much he'd one day want to go back and play in his hometown yeah and you know i think that was probably something that Utah wanted to make sure they gave him his money's worth so that question or that thought is kind of off the table at some at some point right um or at least for the next eight years so you know i think logan coolly is one of the more younger talented players obviously on on that line right now with gunther um you know i i and i and Turca like those three are clicking really well and Maddie McConnell came on our show yesterday

obviously and said you know they're one of the most entertaining lines in hockey right now so for the mammoth to have you know I think six important players on their roster now locked in for the long term obviously that's a great direction for their organization okay let me play lawyer with you for a second yeah okay I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna try to lead the witness here okay is Logan Cooley the franchise center for the Utah mammoth right now yeah Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Like I was like we're all on the same page.

If you're a general manager, would you like to get your franchise player locked up at under 10% of the salary cap? See where that's the question, though. Is he the franchise player? You know, for me, for me he is. Over Keller, really. Yes.

More of a power position. I think Keller's the better player right now, But I think over the course of this deal, Logan Cooley is going to distinguish himself as not just the best player on the Utah Mammoth, but one of the best players in the NHL. That's how Hally I think about Logan Cooley. Yeah, that's my praise. The other part about this one is what Bill Armstrong has done here is he's created a ceiling now. Okay. And here's how it's going to get, here's how it gets reinforced.

Do you think the Utah mammoth under this eight-year deal for Logan Cooley are ever going to, are ever going to be in a position to draft high enough that they would have to pay someone more than Logan Cooley? What I'm saying is the days of drafting like second overall and third overall, they're done. They're done for Utah. And what Armstrong has done now is set a bar at under 10% for his. franchise center and that's going to keep getting lower and lower and lower and lower and lower. And he set that bar now

for everybody. And look, Tiji Gainla's going to show up and he's going to be really good for a long time for this team. But they're not going to be in a position where like, hey, look, we got Gavin McKenna. Now we're going to have to pay him more out of his entry level than Logan Cooley because, you know, I hate to break the news to Utah fans. He ain't getting

Gavin McKenna. You know, so I look at it's like, this is like they've identified the core and they've set their bar and you know what if someone pops what a great problem to have yeah like if someone does pop like if it's like simishav turns himself like one of the best defensemen in the n hl then wow what a great problem to have wow we got to pay someone because he's awesome now wow tough problem there bill armstrong i was just going to say simishov's probably the next man up but like their defensemen are even locked in pretty long term as well right i think um and what's their blue line right now

circuit shab's locked in for at least four more years i think after this year Jersey's got a couple more years on his deal from what I am looking at now on my screen to my right he's got two more years after this year Marino is up after next year but Mata and Schmidt are there for another two years too so their blue line is pretty much steady

over the next three four seasons so assuming Simashev let's say does thrive and excel like I think everyone thinks he will then you're looking at probably that 9 to 10 million even you know whatever range I still do wonder if if Bill Armstrong goes out looking for another right shot D.

I know first pairing right shot Ds are like good luck, good luck finding one of these. But I, like I've mentioned before, I thought that if Aaron Eckblad got to market, Utah would have been one of the teams. Yeah. And then you could have Aaron Eckblatt and Mikkel Sergachev as your top pair. Detroit would probably have something to say about that. But like, think about it, right? But that's the position they're in now. Like right now, they put themselves in a spot where everybody's locked up.

They're set for the future. And Armstrong can say, I got one target. and I'm going to wait to pull the trigger on it. And it's a right shot for pairing D. Yeah, no, it's a great point. You definitely have changed my track of thinking on it again. I let the witness. No, but your point about, like, they're not going to be drafting top five for hopefully

in the next eight years. Like, it's a great, it's a great thought. Yeah, I didn't even consider that. There's not going to be anyone that shows up that's like, bam, out of, out of nowhere here, you're a better player than Logan Cooley. Anyhow, Thomas Harley, the Harley deal is interesting because this is one where I think you look at, again, you look at percentage of cap. And I just mentioning this with Berkey and he's like, yeah, this is how managers talk. And he was saying that, you know, Miro Haskinen is kind of a bar right now for players, for defensemen anyhow, specifically.

When he signed his deal, it was 10.4% of the cap. Now, Harley's deal is more money, but his percentage of the cap is 10.18. So you make the argument that Harley, even though he's taking home more money, still signed as far as percentage goes, less than Haskinen. And when you're dealing with something like a rising salary cap as a manager, this is where Jim Nell is brilliant and really one of the smartest GMs. This is how you have to think. Sure, we're giving him more, but we're not getting killed in the percentages because he's

still getting less of a percentage than Mira Haskinen is or was when he signed his deal. That's where Dallas is at on this one. And then we wonder about the Jason Robertson question. Yeah. I also think of how many people praised the Noah Dobson, Lane Hudson, like one, two combo in their contracts. And I kind of think similarly with how I feel about Haskin and Harley. because they're both considered number one defenseman, right?

Like Thomas Harley can go to, let's say, 20 other NHL teams and be the number one guy. Do you agree with that? 100%. 100%. And I think people do feel the same way about Lane and no adoption. So having those two guys locked up as well for the amount of time that those guys are locked up, the term is,

again, like we talked about it this morning, I think Dallas and this like 2020 to 2030, let's say, window, So if they don't get one cup, massive failure, massive disappointment with how their team's been built. I think a lot of GMs, and even people like us, Jeff, you know, I think the last three years we've predicted, or at least I've predicted Dallas to be in the Stanley Cup final, if not Stanley Cup champions, Jay Gottinger to be a Bezna trophy winner. Same. Same.

And to be a Norris trophy winner. Same. You know, I think everyone has been saying this now for years. So it's about time that they do it. And they've been to obviously, you know, three straight Western Conference finals. Like I said this morning, they were in that cup final in 2020 in the bus. bubble like the time is now for the Dallas stars and a lot of the members in our chat were saying that it's very similar to 2010 to 2020 let's say San Jose sharks like that decade of the San Jose

sharks where they were always knocking on the door so that's what this feels like but again they've done a really good job at maintaining this older core of players in Ben Sagan and bringing in Duchenne but also allowing their younger guys to flourish as well and I think that's where a lot of teams or at least the team that I watch the most goes wrong you know because because you don't allow the younger players to overtake those positions from the older guys, although it is also on the younger players to go and grab it. Like, Wyatt Johnson has grabbed it. Thomas Harley has grabbed it.

These young kids have come in, and they've played well, and they've performed, and that's why they're given these sort of contracts that Harley has received. So what do you make of the Jason Robertson situation then? because that's not done yet now he's a restricted free agent yeah i don't know that the dallas stars want it to get that far i don't think in jason's situation specifically you want to go to arbitration with him so it's kind of incumbent on dallas to to either get this deal done or make a decision on what you're doing with jason and I'm pretty sure that they don't want his number to go higher than Miko Ranton or be at Miko Rantan.

I don't think it even should. Who would argue that it should? I wonder about the Robertson Camp. Yeah. If the Robertson Camp is looking at like crazy numbers flying around specifically in Minnesota, which I'm sure they're looking at and say, well, hold on a second here. Have a look at our guy. You probably want either equal to or more than Miko Rantan.

And I just don't know that Jim Nell is going to do that. Yeah. And it's funny. Like, Colby and I were talking about this today, too. And sorry to keep referencing our show. But he talks about, like, how, thank you. He's talked about how he always feels more comfortable in buying goals versus buying points. And with Jason Robertson, you are buying goals.

Like, he's a prolific at least 30 goal score. I know he's put up the 240 goal seasons. You know, there's been a bit of a drop off the last two years. and granted he had a slow start to the playoffs last year, but I know he was also hurt. But come crunch time, like this guy finds a way to put the puck in the net, at least in the early stages of his career. Like, he's still a young guy.

I mean, I think he's, what, 24 years old? 26, 26, excuse me, 26. 26, yeah. But even with 26 years old versus 24 years old, like it's still a guy who is probably just now or should be just now entering his prime years, right? Like, I think we'd all agree on that. But I don't know because Dallas is,

in this weird window where you need some sort of positive return for a guy like Jason Robertson, but you don't want this situation to get ugly and then end up coming away with nothing. And you would know better than me with these situations like arbitration and whatnot is not something that I have certainly learned a lot about over years and something. He's got great numbers for arbitration. I think that's what would worry the Dallas starts. You never want to put your salary cap structure in an arbitrator's hands, right? And all of a sudden, and that's why, I mean, every team,

we saw what happened with, you know, Anaheim and Troy Terry is it was a great one. Like they were like, as I understand it, like turning the knob on the door to like open the door to begin the army. And all of a sudden, bam, the Troy Terry contract appears because as an organization, you never want to throw or never let an arbitrator decide what your salary cap situation. Look at Montreal with P.K. Suban. They went in there. They had the hearing the next day the contract. appeared because they're like, oh, oh, that didn't go the way we thought. Yeah.

This could, this could really, this could really crush us. And, and Robertson, because of what you're talking about, about goals, and to Colby's point, how expensive goals are, he, you would have a great case for a massive number. I don't think Dallas wants to go there. I think there's a number they're really comfortable at. And I think the mitigating factor is it's a no-tax state. So if, you know, if Jason Robertson is looking at $10 million a year times eight, and he wants $12 million a year,

but that $12 million is in Anaheim or New York, that $12 million is not $12 million. That's an interesting point, though, too, Jeff, because I feel like the name that's been talked about a lot and not just by, like, us, by, you know, people I've seen online is Alex Tuck, right? And they're saying Alex Tuck is now in today's world becoming like that $10, $10 million forward.

And Tuck's a guy who, again, has put up like, you know, a couple 30-goal seasons, but Robertson you know this guy has a 109 point year granted that's like somewhat of an outlier because he's more in that like you know 80 mid 80s range but those are all goals like so if if tuck we're saying is 10 and a half and Robertson's number at least starts with an 11 at least depends on where it is yeah depends on where it is like a Dallas like 10 million dollars in Dallas is worth a lot more on your jeans than 10 million dollars in buffalo yeah it it just is that's that's admitting. Tuck's an interesting one, too, because, A, he still hasn't resigned with the Buffalo Sabres.

And his wife is from Western Canada, you know, I do, again, like, I wonder about if he, if he gets to market in July, I wonder about him playing with the Oilers. Really? Wow. Could you not see Alex Tuck playing on the Edbyton Oilers? That'd be scary. Oh, yeah. Like, you could, you could, you could see that. Um, but again, there's still a lot of, hockey and a lot of discussions to happen before that. But to me, Tuck's one of the more fascinating guys. On a day when another,

you know, one of the other Bartlett's other clients gets signed in Logan Cooley, we're still wondering about Alex Tuck too. There's a few interesting ones out there. Like what happens with Martin Natchez? What happens with Adrian Kempai? Like Kempay's number keeps going up,

up, up, up, up here with the Los Angeles Kings. And is Marty Nachis, the one guy that says, you know, I'm looking at July 1st. and everybody's got cap space everybody's got money and there's no one to spend it on spend it on me

I'll take all of the money that's what I would do if I were him you know again like there's there's so many teams that are who were to Chicago has 17 million dollars in capspace you know okay

insane yeah okay here's the question I asked off the top of the show then if Frankie Nazar is the number that he's at and Logan Cooley is the number that he's at. What's Connor Bedard's number? What is Connor, like, out of all of this, like they got the first overall pick.

You saw the hat trick last night. Like, they're building the whole organization around Connor Bedard in Chicago. They have all this cap space. I used to just look at this and say, oh, yeah, he's going to be $10 million easy. I don't say that anymore. I think north.

I think north of that coming out of his entry level. is it crazy again maybe i'll take the glasses off for this one this might be stupid oh romance time for johnny no this girl this might be stupid okay would it be crazy to say if if we're saying that kana bernard is this franchise piece you want him to be in chicago for 15 plus years spent his whole career there would you not just give him that like 12 and a half that kana macdavid got in edmonton and like let him be on par with McDavid. You know,

like, could you be comfortable doing that? Even though McDavid's is a bargain, while Bedard's would not be in the same breath. Yes. So that's a glass of a on take? I think honestly, I think so.

Remember having this conversation of the combine with someone. We were talking about like what the next Bedard deal is going to look like. You know, he's coming off his entry level. They're building a whole thing around him. He's one of the top performers in his eight bracket. And he's only going to be, and he's only getting better.

And this year, you know, I know we started off slow with the goals, but there was the hat trick last night. And you saw how he scored them, specifically that third goal, which was an absolute thing of beauty. The rush is the rush. But like how he is able to toe drag that and shoot it between the defender's legs with accuracy in the NHL level while there's bodies all around him. Like, I'm sorry, man.

Yeah. And the shift in attitude. What's that? And like the shift in attitude that he's brought this year. Like, you know, he's not taking any crap. Like, I don't know. This is just a different. It's a different version of Kana Bredard that we're seeing.

And I'm surprised I haven't seen the conversation yet today. It's like Celebrini and Baderd's era of the NHL is like forming right before our eyes, right? Because these two in the last week have been lights out. I look at the, I'm curious how you look at both of them. So I look at right now Badaard's, like what drops your jaw about Bard is the offense. Spectacular. like he hits the blue line that he gets in the offensive zone lookout whereas macklin celebrini even though you know we're talking about like you know hat tricks here and hat tricks there

to me he's he's a more offensively minded jonathan taves he's great in all three zones both ends of the ice defending scoring all of it and he's really smart and he's a natural born leader as well that's how i look at celebrini he's that kind of player so i always sort of fall fall short of like, let's do the comparison between Celebrini and Badar. They're two different guys. Yeah. They're two different players. Just because they play the same position, doesn't mean, and they're similar in age, it doesn't

mean that necessarily they're more similar than they are different. They're more different than they are similar. How do you feel about those two? Yeah, no, I completely agree. You know, with Macklin, there's just like that different sense of hunger, right? Like, he never is out of a play. Not that Badard, like, really is, but you know, Macklin could score 30 goals around a

blue paint. He could score him one-timeing a puck on his strong side flank on his off-side plank. He can score from anywhere on the ice where Bardard, again, like, I'm not trying to take away anything from him. It just looks different. It's almost like that Eichael McDavid, right? Like, where they get the same things done. Again, no one is in McDavid's league, but it just looks different even though the result is almost similar, if that makes sense. Like there's more flashiness and quickness to Macklin than there is just like grace to Bedard.

Like the way Bedard moves up the ice just like it seems effortless where Macklin looks like he's working 110%. Maclin looks like that difference. So Bedard is fast but Maclin is sudden. Everything he does is it's a sudden move. Like you look at that breakaway

the overtime game against Minnesota on Sunday. Like the minute that puck turns over, that's the first time San Jose touches the puck the whole overtime and it's a sudden burst and that's what I see from from celebrini everything is sudden it's not fast I mean it is fast but like it's not it's not you can't describe it as fast it's sudden because it just catches you how quick like he yeah how just how fast yeah elusive I guess too yeah and then he scored that that triangle goal that on the on the

shot like to have the wherewithal to hit that triangle while you're moving like the Zuccarello goal like holy jeez man like what a supreme player this young guy okay so one of the reasons why i almost had a time here give me give me like a hot minute or a minute and a half on what you saw from the rangers last night and i've told you before like sam carrick's family is like pretty much right in right in my backyard um what did you think of sam carrick my neighbors my neighbors hit yesterday on connor garland yeah again like this is definitely going to sound bias I know how I sound um you know like similar to the Wilson Heedle where like the puck is moved garland takes a stride and like in between his second stride he gets hit but like for garland it seemed

like it was a straight line path where heidel was like branching off to the left and that's when wilson got him so I think that's the difference there and I'm not trying to get into this conversation again um but sam carrick has been you know one of the most consistent forwards to the rangers all year long um you know has really stepped up and is probably if you if you talk about worth their dollar or above their dollar, like best contract in the NHL for what he's giving the Rangers at a million dollars. But the Rangers last night, you know, I thought they were much better defensively.

They didn't really allow any high danger chances for Vancouver. And again, like, we're talking about a Canucks team that is now missing Garland, missing for a lot of that game last night. Eight players. Yeah, like, it was a depleted Canucks team. So I do want to give the Rangers credit, but I also don't want to take away

context here from what the Canucks threw out on the ice last night. But that said, the Rangers needed a way to win. needed to find a way to win and they did and you know that's really positive but this team right now when it comes to goal scoring they are lost and i think a lot of it has to do with their power play their power plays four for 28 on the year um you know and this is something that that was their bread and butter for the past couple years so until they figure out this power play their offensive woes are going to continue i think did the penguins win the coach trade um no i it's a good question actually

It's a good question. They're supposed to say, oh, it's too early, Merrick. It's too early to tell. We still a lot of hockey to play. The penguins probably just needed some sort of change. That's true. You know, a different feel in the room. And the Rangers needed someone to tighten up their defensive structure, which they have.

Like, they've had four really bad games out of 11 games. Yeah. And the rest, they've played well. They just haven't gotten the result. So, like, I think Mike Sullivan has done a fine job so far. They're just not seeing pucks go in. But as far as they, like, the defense. of schemes and structure and all that.

Like when they're playing their game, they're playing well. So we'll see. Okay. Last one. What do you think of the reception for J.T. Miller last night? The perfect reception. You boom every time he has the puck. Then they give them the tribute and you applaud.

You say thank you for your time and we really appreciated what you did here. But you're now no longer at our team. So when you have the puck, we're going to boo you. And it's the perfect reception you can ask for. And your thoughts on the picture of him, Adam Foot, and Quinn Hughes having lunch and a beer together? What's wrong with that? That's amazing. Old friends catching up. I had no problem with it.

I'm happy to see Quinn Hughes out, having a good time. All right. It's very good. I was trying to get into some conspiracy talk. I get on the grassy knoll here with Johnny Lazarus. Great job putting on the glasses and sounding smart. Now you know all my old tricks. After that, I got nothing. Not even good looks or shallow charisma.

I got none of it. So you take all of it. Thanks, Johnny. Great job again this morning. That was really good. The way you guys pivoted for the Utah story. It was awesome. And I'll apologize.

I have completely stolen Steph Rosner from you. I know you had him on today and you always have him, but like that guy's the best. He's the best. Yeah, I love Steph. Thank you for your time. Zach, go Jays. Jeff, go Jays. I don't care about baseball, but I'm happy to see you guys happy.

Are you just, hang on, are you just happy to see the Dodgers lose? Like, yeah, because a lot of people that aren't fans of Jays, but just, like, want to see the Dodgers lose. I genuinely don't know more than two players on the Jays or the Dodgers. so I don't really care about baseball, I'll be honest. But Vick's in a much better mood in the mornings when the Jays win. So for my own professional reasons, for Vic to be in a good mood, I'm happy to see the Jays win,

and I want the Leafs to lose every game. So that's kind of where I'm out. Your morning mental health is tied into the Blue Jays winning, essentially is what you're getting at. All right. Correct. We'll let you get back to your girlfriend's very tastefully decorated apartment. Thank you. And we'll talk to you soon.

Continue to success. I'll be good. Thanks, guys. You too. There is Johnny Lazarus, the one of the one of the, Milton from the Morning Cup of Hockey, which you should be watching and listening, every single day. I spent 16 hours last night, every day this week, every day this month.

I can't get out my head, lifestyle ambitions day-to-day, because you can call it all right. I went to the dark man. You're trying to give me a little medicine. I'm like, now I'm in that's fine. I'm not against those methods but new it's me, myself, and how this is going to be fixing my mind I do want to back in the days, I turned on the days

I do want to bed again, turn it on the music fixing on music, fixing up, help, out, I don't think you're sometimes losing. In the dead dark night