The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Tyler Johnson Provides a Players Perspective on Offer Sheets, Trade Requests, and more

Episode Date: July 7, 2026

Two-time Stanley Cup champion Tyler Johnson joins the show to give a player’s perspective on the changing era of player empowerment in the NHL. Johnson discusses how players inside the Flyers and Ducks locker rooms might view Danny Briere’s aggressive offer sheet strategy, Leo Carlsson’s decision to sign, and what these moves mean from a player perspective. Plus, the guys dive into the latest around Brady Tkachuk, player podcasts, trade requests, Dylan Larkin’s reported preferred destinations, Zach Werenski rumours, no-trade clauses, and how much power NHL stars have in today’s league.SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Canadian Blood Services: https://www.blood.ca/Reach 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.

Tyler Johnson, former NHL or now NHL analyst, joins us on the sheet alongside Jeff Merrick here. And Greg Woshensky, Tyler, thanks so much for joining us once again. Man, like, we've seen some entertaining off-season. You know, when you're in the game and now that you're out of the game, I don't know, Tyler, that we've ever seen an off-season with drama like this. It's still not NBA. It's winking at the NBA, and it's kind of getting that way.

but it's weird because I'll just say it bluntly, Tyler. This doesn't feel like hockey. Like hockey's not supposed to be like this entertaining in July, but here we are, 11 every second of it. Yeah, it's been wild. I mean, you get the big offer sheets, you get the trade requests, you get, you know, guys moving left and right.

Obviously, the salary cap's going up, so teams are being a little bit more aggressive in that regard. I mean, you look at the east, they're loaded. I mean, every team is loading up, right now. It's going to be a battle. It's definitely interesting. It's a good time to be a fan. So one of the reasons I wanted to, I was hoping we'd have you on, Tyler, is that I want to know from a player's perspective a little bit more about what happens when somebody makes a trade request or trade demand. You know, we've all heard when guys are asking for a ton of money and it might

screw you against the cap, it's still a business, right? And everybody's trying to get theirs. And most of the players understand the economics of things. A trade request to me is a little bit different. There's always reasons behind it, but at the end of the day, it's, I don't want to be here anymore. Sorry, boys. How does, how does it work internally when, amongst the other boys, when one of the guys has said, I want to be traded? Yeah, I mean, I think it's definitely difficult. I think it depends on how it's done as well. You know, I know in my past, in my plane, the one that was a really big one for us is when Marty's saying, well, we wanted to get traded after the Olympics there.

And, you know, you heard a lot of rumblings. He didn't really talk to, you know, a lot of us about it. And then all of a sudden, you know, one game, he just said, hey, guys, like everything will get figured out. And, you know, I think the next day he got traded. So it's hard. I don't know what it would be like. You know, I heard you obviously talking about the Larkin situation.

And I don't know how that would be being on that team if, you know, you go into the season, you know what's going on. I'm assuming all the guys are still talking to him. You know, he has his reasons. I'm sure the team is well aware of those. And I also understand where Eisenman is coming from. So it's definitely difficult. I mean, it's a hard one to say because it's going to be a case-by-case basis.

But yeah, it's not easy. That's for sure. You know, one of the other things here, too, and this is, you know, speaking to Leo Carlson, because at the end of the day, he signed the offer sheet, right? It's both parties. You know, Columbus submitted one to Mitch Marner and he wouldn't sign it. He liked the money, but the idea of like, well, what if the Maple Leafs don't match? And it's like, well, yeah, that's the whole idea of the offer sheet.

That's the gamble, but you're getting your money here. So at the end of the day, like Leo Carlson signs this thing. And, you know, the one example that I've pointed to is when Ryan O'Reilly signed the Calgary offer sheet. When he went back to Colorado, it wasn't the guys all saying, hey, you know, we understand that that was business. you know, there were certain people in the room. They're like, you know, you tried to leave. You tried to quit. Like, you gave up on the team.

Like, I know you try, yeah, as much as you try to remove passion and emotion from all of it and everybody is a corporation and everyone's a businessman and doing what's best for themselves, there are emotions involved because you're part of a team. Like, that's always sort of looming in the background, isn't it? What's it going to be like if the team matches? And I got to go back to that room after signing an offer sheet that says, I want to go somewhere else. I mean, you can definitely look at it both ways. I personally don't see it as, hey, I want to go somewhere else. I see it more as, you know, that player had the opportunity to make a lot more money. And he feels that he's worth that.

And I, you know, throughout the years, I feel like the players need to get what they're worth. And there is something to it of trying to take a little bit less to, you know, help the team, try to, you know, be on a winning team or whatnot. But, I mean, with Anaheim, for example, are they necessarily a Stanley Cup favorite? If he takes three, four million off each year, is that going to make them a Stanley Cup favorite? I don't know. So for him, I mean, it might be an easier thing to say, hey, I only can play this job for so long, this career, you know, ends at some point, let me get my money. And we also don't know how

those conversations gone before with those, you know, contract talks and maybe they got a little heated. I know Pat Verbeek, he's a tough negotiator. So you never know how that, you know, situation was. But I think if the guy comes back, if Carlson comes back to the Ducks, you know, I guarantee the team's going to be excited for him. You know, everything I've heard about him is being just a great team player and, you know, he's really well liked in the locker room. So I don't see any issue with that if that's what they end up doing. But it definitely is a different thing. And you know what?

Offer sheet has been in our contracts for, you know, a while now. And they just never got used. It's kind of nice that now they're getting used because I know when I was younger, guys got pigeonholed a little bit because everyone was scared to use an offer sheet. So it's nice that the league's going that way. Yeah, thanks to Vegas being like. like F them picks and win a Stanley Cuff. It's really really helped people refocus about what first round picks look like.

T.J., you brought up Steve Eiserman. He was your guy in Tampa for a really long time. You know, you've obviously negotiated with him or dealt with him on the, you know, business transactions and such. Does any of this surprise you, the fact that Dylan Larkin begs out of a long-term contract and now to see how Steve has kind of reacted to it? Not at all. Steve, his entire focus is, you know, the Detroit Red Wins, whatever team he's a part of.

He just wants the best for that team. And, you know, I think Steve's a very loyal guy. He's always been loyal to me. He's, you know, amazing every interaction I've ever had with him. And I think for him, he, you know, gave him that no move clause, gave him that contract. You, you know, Larkin signed that knowing he was going to be a Detroit Redwing. And personally, I think if you want to get traded, That's fine.

You can request a trade. I don't know if you can just say, hey, I only want these certain teams. I think that ends up kind of screwing the organization over in the end. So to me, I kind of think if you want to request a team, then allow the team to trade you to whoever they want.

Otherwise, you can use your no-move clause and you can stay there like you negotiated to begin with. And I think that's a big thing because we see a lot of these GMs kind of going the other way where guys have no trade clause, no move clause, and kind of forcing guys, to move. And I don't think that's right as well. So, I mean, you negotiated something in your

contract. That's how I should stand. And I believe Steve would have been the first guy that said, hey, you have a no move clause. I'm not going to move you. I don't believe he ever would have said, hey, I have to trade you. So that's just kind of a different thing, you know, a different situation, I guess. No trade clauses aren't new in the NHL. Like, Greg always laughs when I mention this because it's so old. But the first one was in 1923. All right, like this is, this is new. King Clancy, like Ottawa Senators, 1923. Like this has been going on for a long time. There's been a, like no sports league, as I understand it, has more no trade contracts than the NHL. Like a lot of players have have no trades. And I think for a lot of fans, that can be

frustrated because, you know, keeping the, keeping the system lubricated means more trades and more activity and more things to talk about. And it's bluntly, it's more exciting. But this is something that players have fought to keep in the CPA and fought to keep in their contracts. And I always try to remind people, like, if you want to try to get rid of no trade clauses, no move clauses, that's fine. But what are you prepared to give up for them? Like, what would the players ask for to get rid of them? Maybe it's part of expansion money. Maybe it's part of franchise sale. All of a sudden, that conversation gets really quiet from ownership side. But like in your playing days like two players like how important are no trade no moves like

how sacred are these things to guys yeah they're huge and uh you know you always kind of when you negotiate your contract you always kind of have a dollar amount based off that no trade or no move so um for example when i signed my bigger contract uh we believe that the no trade clause was worth about 500 to 750 000 a year so if we didn't want to have no trade or no move, then I was going to have to make that much more each year. So it was kind of up to the team to decide. And because we have the salary cap, because the owners want that, you know, you have to take a little bit less money. And that's a way that the players kind of get that defense structure of saying, all right, I'm able to bring my family here, get my house here, get everything situated.

Because if you do get traded, do you get moved? I mean, you have to uproot your entire life. You have to change your family's life. You may have kids in school. You may have a ton of different things. So there's a dollar amount to all that. And, you know, I was kind of thinking about the other day. If you wanted to try to get rid of the no trades, no moves, maybe you can put that in a contract,

but then you can say, hey, I can do a buyout period to get that no trade out, you know, X amount of dollars. And if a team wants to do that, then they can just pay that extra money to you. And then it kind of makes it worth. But that's something that they'd have to figure out in the CBA. The one, again, like that's the key point. That's collectively bargained. So, you know, take the CBA to the beach, everybody, this summer and read all about, you know, how this, how this mechanism works.

But here's like the one, as long as there's like a disparity, and here I go again, as long as here's a disparity in things like state tax, no trades are going to be important because you can be, you can sign a contract in, I'll just take like Ryan Ellis's example. Ryan Ellis will sign a contract in Nashville doesn't have the no trade. He gets moved to Pennsylvania and Philadelphia. and because of the tax disparity, all of a sudden that trade means he's making less than what he's signed for. So that's where I think that no trades specifically are really important to guys. Of course, yeah. I think that's huge. I mean, for me, it was being in Florida, right?

So you have no state income tax. So you do when you do your contracts, you see how much, you know, mine was the $5 million, how much that $5 million goes to every state and the difference between each one. And, you know, I ended up dating trade to Chicago and I ended up losing money because of it. But, you know, it's just how it is. Everyone can say they don't like it and try to fix it and do all these different things. But until you actually change the CDA, it's just how it's going to be. And guys are going to continue to do that.

And, you know, it's just going to be a part of them to jail. First of all, Merrick, did they have limited no trade clauses back in 1923? The King Clancy would be like, you know what? trade me to four of the five teams that are in this league. It's funny because it's not like an official, this is so funny. And you can see this at the Hall of Fame or the Hall of Fame Resource Center on Clancy's contract, which is a one pager, it just has scribbled on it. Team not allowed to trade, sell, or do anything untowards with this contract.

Like it's not, of course, it's registered with the league, but it's like scratched onto the maybe Clancy wrote it on himself. I don't know. But it's the first example of a no trade. trade in the NFL. I assume 80% of the contract signed in the old NHL were probably on cocktail napkins. So I mean, you know, there was a Mahavala trade at the Royal York Hotel for a million dollars that got voided by the league because both the owners who did the trade were drunk. Anyhow, I digress.

Back to you, Greg. T.J, you were a member of the Chicago Blackhawks. Your pads crossed with the Badaard while you were there. Are you at all surprised that in 2026, they're kind of still mired in the, in the, rebuild that they're in while other teams in the west seem to have sort of cycled out of it? That's a difficult question. Obviously, when I was there, it was a straight rebuild, complete tear down, trying to lose every game actively.

It was not fun. So I think they're trying to win now. I think they're trying to, you know, do different things. They have a lot of good young players. You know, they got Blash as a coach who, you know, plays more of a system actually has, you know, the guys doing certain things. So I think that's going to help a lot. But yeah, I mean, it's tough.

They have so many young guys. I don't know if that's always a good, positive thing. I think the league is really hard to learn it. We used to say the NHL is not a development league. It's not meant for that. We had guys go down to the HL until they were overcooked because you can develop down there and you can learn a lot of different skills. And then you come up to the NHL and you're ready to go.

And I don't know. if they'd necessarily had that with a lot of their players. So I think they're still learning. They're still going through the trials. And it's going to be, I think it's going to be tough for them to kind of get out of that. I think it's going to take maybe a couple older guys to come in that maybe we're from other organizations that, you know, went through that to kind of change the culture, to kind of start, you know, that winning ways.

And, you know, like I said, I think Blash is going to do a good job there. He did a great job last year and he's going to continue to do so. So, yeah, it's tough to say, no, I can't see it coming by the same time. Yeah. That's a really good point about letting guys cook a little bit because, I mean, I think that's been one of the secrets of success for Washington for years, although they're kind of getting away from that a little bit with Cole Husson and Ryan Leonard. But like when you didn't, weren't you, yeah, weren't you Polat and Kuturoff all on Syracuse together before you came up to play with the late? championship with Norfolk too, didn't you? Before you got to sit before?

Or was it Norfolk? Where the hell were you guys in the NHL together? So my first year we were in Norfolk and we had a really, really good team. We weren't supposed to be good. Halfway through the year, I think we were about 8th or 9th place. And then that was the year that we ended up finishing season 28 game, win streak, ended up just cruising three playoffs, won that year. And you know what was amazing about that year?

And I'm going to bring up Steve for that is, We had some really good young players, but we had some really good old guys. And he actually brought us the young guys into the room and said, hey, you guys deserve to get called up this year. But none of you are going to get called up this year because I don't like the culture in Tampa right now. We're changing things. We don't want you up there to, you know, kind of get used to how it is. So we have to stay down there and it helped us.

Can I pause on that? Brian Brooke told me he did the exact same thing with Getslaff and Perry in Anaheim. He said, our dressing room is a disaster. I don't want you guys in here. And the analogy that he used, I've said it before, we need to shovel out the barn before we show the horse. And I'm shoveling out the barn so you two guys aren't coming in. I'm sorry.

Yeah. And it was nice for us because as young guys, we didn't expect anything, right? We didn't expect that we were going to get called up. And what we had to focus on was just, you know, our HL team. And we wanted to win. And the next year we had the lockout. We moved to Syracuse that year.

And as soon as the lockout was over, though, I think we had eight or nine guys all called up. Coup gets called up right away. So we basically took our culture from down there and then brought up. And I think that was huge for us. And that kind of established, you know, kind of where the lightning is right now, just, you know, because we had all that. Corey Conacher was on that team on that,

one of my favorite Cory Connaker stories. Maybe you know this one. Corey Connaker always said he was going to name his dog after the goalie that he scored his first NHL goal against. You know what his dog's name was? Do you know this one? Holtby.

Holtby. That's incredible. Connie was actually my roommate, so we were together, so it was awesome. A crazy story with him. He won the HL MVP that first year, but he was second team HL.

Explain that one to me. What? Yeah. What? It's pretty good. I don't know how that'll work, but yeah. Yeah, that's the impact you had. You think the hockey writers in the NHL get some things backwards.

Holy smokes, who are the guys voting on the American? How dare you? Oh, okay. You know, a lot of people think Obedgkin's a right wing. That happened once. Stop disparaging us. Oh, man, you'll never let that one go. Oh, it's a good one.

Never let that. We'll never live there. Let me ask one one here before I let you finish up with Greg. Like, where do you? you think right now all of this is headed sort of under the banner of we've seen this in other sports you know the idea of player empowerment like if you look at the sydney crosbie entry level contract after cid's ELC it seemed as if everybody in the league including crosbie and and the agents like they're involved in this too sort of took on this idea that they needed to be the

ones that helped manage the salary cap. Oh, I can't take this much because I got to leave this and this money's got to go. And we saw McDavid do it, leaving money for a dry saddle, et cetera. Like somewhere along the way, the NHL convinced the players that they were responsible for the salary cap. And I've always maintained, like, that's not on the business card for players managing the salary cap, right? Like, you're not in charge of Steve Eisenman's salary cap when you're in Tampa.

You're in charge of your own business and your compensation and taking care of your family. But here we are in this era of quote unquote player empowerment where guys are sort of, you know, using whatever levers and maybe like psychological pressure as well to maneuver themselves into places to where they want to go. Where do you see all of this headed? Because I refuse to believe that this is going to stop just once all the guys from the gold medal U.S. team get to where they want to be. I think this is probably going to continue.

Yeah, I mean, it's tough. You know, you mentioned trying to, you know, manage the satellite cap. And I remember when I was coming up, you know, your agents, your teammates, they all say, hey, try to take as much as you can for the next guy. So then, you know, they get more and it just continues to do so. And it's kind of been that way because contracts are getting so big. But at the same time, I remember Steve talking to us and, you know, Pauly and I were up that same year. So he was kind of talking with us and kind of said, like, hey, I could give you another $500,000 each year,

but what's that really doing your life? It's not going to change anything, but it may change the fact that we're able to do the Stanley Cup because we're able to do it. What? I mean, half a million dollars? In an athlete's life, Merrick.

I get it. No, no, in our lives, in an athlete's life. I get it, but even for an athlete's life, like, I don't know, $500,000. So, yeah, for sure. And it depends where you're at. But I guess my point being is if we would have done, done that. If we would have taken more, we might not would have won two Stanley Cups. And to be

honest with you, I would have been happy with my career. So it's a, you know, push and pull in that. So for that aspect, I mean, it is tough to say, how do you manage? What do you do? Do you want to leave money on to try to make your team competitive? But if that's the case, you have to have a lot of, a lot of, you know, assurance that your GM is going to be doing the right stuff trying to help you. You have the right, you know, pieces to fit. And, you know, that's, that's a tough thing to gamble on. But as far as players going to where they want to play, you know, some of these trade requests, you know, I'm all four guys letting out what they want to be or telling people where they want to be. But in my mind, that doesn't mean it has to be that way. I think if you have a no

move clause, like I said, it doesn't mean that you only can get traded to one team. And maybe if that's the case, but you also have to be happy with staying there. So it goes both ways. And I think with free agency, you're going to see a lot more guys going to these power teams because guys want to win. That's the most important thing. That's their culture. That's what hockey players are all about is we want to win. So you want to be a part of the teams that are doing that. Was there a part of you when Eisenman said that to you, oh, you know, $500,000, I could use that to bring in better players win the Stanley Cup, all these types of things. Was there not a part of you that said, okay, I'll go along with that, but I have to sign off on every contract that you sign

to make sure that you're not misspending my $500,000. The old Connor McDavid is Stan Bowman's Ombudsman theory. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that would have been nice, but I definitely would have done as good jobs he did anyway, so it wasn't needed. But, no, I mean, it's a hard thing to hear and even say because, I mean, like you said, that's a lot of money. That is crazy.

But at the same time, I was already making, you know, more money than I ever thought I would in my entire life. So in the end, yeah, when I win a Stanley Cup, that's what I really want to do. So it was a difficult decision that, you know, I don't think my agents were too happy with how we did everything. But it ended up well in the end. That's fair. I know you said that you shouldn't have just one team on your trade list. but what if your brother Matthew plays there and there's a bar called the elbow room that's right on the beach? Now, what if that's the situation? Is it different?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, again, I'm all four requesting that trade. I'm all four in trying to do it. But if the team doesn't feel like they're going to get the best reward out of it, then I think that's up to the team. But yeah, that's going to be a wild one. Florida is a wagon. It's crazy. Florida's a prison team. We all see what Florida is doing. They're playing in the penal league. This is a prison team. They're putting together here.

Last question for me. I was joking with Seth Jones. Oh, go ahead. Sorry. Yeah, I was joking with Seth Jones the other day. And I was telling him, it's like, it's going to be the first game. I'm going to see you where you're not playing scared. I mean, he's going to be buzzing around.

That's fantastic. I speak about the Kjucks and because I need to get the bad taste of last night's U.S. men's national team lost the Belgium out of my mouth. Oh, what happened? I missed that. Shut up. As someone who's worn the flag on his chest in hockey tournaments during your life, what did the U.S. winning goal that the Olympics mean to you? Oh, it was amazing.

I mean, won. The game was incredible. So that was just the icing on it. But the fact that, you know, USA hockey, we've always been good. obviously we've had the 1980 gold medal a couple other close ones but Canada was always the team that seemed to always come out on top

and then you got Sweden, Russia and these other ones and you know USA hockey kind of changed a lot when I was a kid they started doing the National Development Team program they tried to make things a little bit I guess better growing up in the sense and I think it's really paying off right now

you're seeing a lot of good players we've seen these guys really grow and play together their entire life so when you get into these tournaments. It's a very easy fix for them because they already, you know, have been on these teams together. So for us to win the goal, I think, one, it's huge being an hockey player, but, too, I think, you know, just growing the game in the U.S. is huge. And there's so many people that I talk to that I know never watch hockey. I know never even cared about hockey, but they were awake watching that game excited about it, you know, donning the white and blue because of it.

And I think it just kind of brings everyone together. And I think you're going to see a a new generation of a lot of kids that, you know, finally got into hockey, their parents got them in. And it's exciting to see where the game can go because of that. So it's, it's very cool. I still maintain, you know, going back to 1998, and we've seen times where, you know, owners have groused about sending NHLers, oh, there's no return on investment for us, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I still maintain that if the USA wins in 98 and then just starts to run the table, NHLers would have been going the entire time. because there would be no NHL owners in the States that would say no. I think that the success of the United States is very much tied to the future of NHL participation. So for the good of growing the game that way, even as a Canadian, I say, that was a great outcome for capital age hockey. That was a great outcome. Yeah. Yeah.

And I wish we would have been able to go to the Olympics every year. For me, it was only my first year was the only time that we had that opportunity. So it's something that you dream about as a kid, and unfortunately, we weren't allowed to do that. And, you know, we had to negotiate that in the CBA, and I know that was a dog fight. So if we were in, if we would have been able to get that in our CBAs before, we would have to give something else up. And, you know, escrow would have been more or whatever it may be. And I don't know if the game would have been where it's at now. So in the end, I'm disappointed that, you know, I never had that opportunity.

I was never able to do it. But at the same time, I look back and I see where the game's at now. And I think we're in a really, really good spot. And I think because of the Olympics this year, they realized how good it was, like you said. And I think they're going to continue to do so. I just think the one bad thing about it, the caveat about it is if you have any guys get hurt on playoff teams, I mean, that's kind of the nail on the coffin. And that's kind of what happens eventually.

And so, yeah. Hockey at the summer games, let's go. that's the original hockey was a summer game. That's the prime Birk dream. That's the dream, man.

You want to keep it away from playoffs and keep injuries away? Have you injured at the beginning of the season. Do hockey in the summer. There we go. Chop, chop. Beach volleyball,

right into the rink. There we go. We're watching beach volleyball, then we're going to the ring to watch hockey. There we go. We're happy. Then we're going to talk to the summer.

Yeah. Yeah. There is that too. There's been a lot of fun, as always. Thanks for sharing all of your expertise as a player. In a very interesting time

for players. We thank you for Thanks, Tyler. You'd be good. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.