The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Tyler Yaremchuk on the Canadian Lineup, Who Starts in Net, and his Dark Horse

Episode Date: February 10, 2026

Tyler Yaremchuk joins Jeff Marek to discuss the Canadian lineup decisions, who was brought as injury replacements, which goaltender he would like to see in net for the the Canadians, and his dark horse pickLeave a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/TheSheetEmail us: [e-mail] TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Uber Eats: https://www.ubereats.com/caReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@FNBarnBurner🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoffReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!#TheSheet #JeffMarek #CassieCampbellPascall #TylerYaremchuk #MilanCortina2026 #OlympicHockey #WomensHockey #MensHockey #TeamCanada #TeamUSA #HockeyOlympics #DailyFaceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Okay, let's get on the men's side of things here. And also we should park some time to talk about the Oilers because when you have Tyler Yeramchuk aboard, host of DFO Live and Oilers Nation every day, you use it as much as you can. And you pick his brain about the Edmonton Oilers. But before we get there, anything jumping out at you from line combos that you've seen so far,

you know, speculate replacement players. Let's just sort of go like reverse pyramid. Big picture and then we'll narrow it down. Any big surprises for Tyler Uremchuk so far? Again, like with the injury thing, and I'm trying not to be an oil or homer and all this, but I really thought there would be a path to Zach Hyman. Again, I know that's kind of old news.

It's out of the news cycle now, but Canada very clearly valued bringing, or the continuity from four nations, right? Same eight blue liners. We've obviously known that for a little two replacement guys being Bennett and Jarvis. So, I mean, maybe I shouldn't have been surprised that they did that, considering, again, the blue liners and the fact that the first injury guy was Sam Bennett,

Jarvis being the next man up. I suppose it makes sense and it's consistent with their other decision making. I still think it should have been Zach Hyman. But for me, the big surprise is the fact that Macklin Celebrini is on that top line with Connor McDavid. I obviously heard you talking with Cassie there for a little bit. I really thought that they would maybe try to insulate Celebrity, Sydney Crosby. And like, it's so funny when you have to wrap your head around talking about best on best hockey. It's like, insulate. celebrate Celebrini on a line with Sidney Crosby, but that lines your third line.

But like, no, no, that actually does check out. But the fact, Celebrini is on that top line, like, that legitimately kind of caused me to go like, oh, wow, like they're throwing them right to the fire. Well, you know, the thing about, the thing about Celebrini not playing with Crosby, and Cassie mentioned it too. I mean, they worked so well together

at the World Championships last year. And we all thought, hmm, okay, so maybe that's a wink to the future. Didn't know it was going to be as quickly as, you know, this Olympics, but here we are. The one thing about a tournament like this, and this is true of every team, not just Canada, obviously. You need instant chemistry.

Like you can't wait to see if something is going to work. It either works or it doesn't. You know, you go back to, you know, the last time we saw Best on Best, you know, who's Crosby playing with? Well, it's Chris Cunits. Why is it Chris Cunits? Because they work so well together because Chris Cunitz. Like, it's the point that I've always made.

If you're going to play with Sidney Crosby, you have to be really comfortable on the wing with someone who plays on his backhand a lot. So specifically, if you're playing left wing, you've got to be ready for things where if you're playing with someone that's not Crosby, who's playing a lot on his forehand, you're not getting the puck. But Crosby's giving you the puck at all kinds of different places. And nobody read Crosby's backhand better than Chris Cunitz. It was that one skill. But the fact that Celebrating and Crosby works so well at the World Championships, I wondered if Cooper would be like, you know what? We don't have time to try things, especially not against Chequia, who can upset you.

I thought for sure that they would put Celebrini together with Sidney Crosby, just because they have that instant chemistry and they don't have to test it. You know what I mean? Yeah, I get what you're saying. And I guess to turn it into like playing with Connor McDavid, those comments, Corey Perry made some really interesting comments a couple of months ago when he was talking about, you know, how he's able, he was able to adapt to playing with Connor and Leon so well.

And he kind of said like those guys are three, four steps ahead at all point. Like if you're going to be on their line, you need to be at least two steps ahead to even have a hope of keeping up with them. You probably need to be right on their level of thinking how they think. So in that sense, maybe it does make sense to put Celebrini, a guy who does think the game so well with Connor McDavid, because another big part of it, and I've seen it obviously in Edmonton, and it's a little bit of an apples to Orange's comparison to sit there and go,

okay, let's compare like Edmonton Oilers regular season hockey to Connor McDavid at a best-on-best tournament. but we saw Connor McDavid this year is early on in the season. There was a month where they were throwing them with Mangiopani and Frederick and all these guys. And I think Connor McDavid took a bit of onus on like, oh, I need to get these guys going a little bit.

And his shot numbers were way down. He wasn't shooting the puck because I think he felt pressure to try distribute a lot and get everybody involved. So I wonder with putting a guy like Celebrini there who should be comfortable, who won't feel like, you know, Connor McDavid's looking them off or anything like that.

Like I wonder if Connor McDavid's, it'll be comfortable with Brini in the same way that when they put him with Nuggen Hyman, two players who are really skilled, who Connor McDavid can trust. You can look at the numbers. When they put him back together in December, Connor McDavid shoots the puck almost more than any player in the NHL when he's on the line, well, on a line with those two. So I think, again, putting him with players who I think he can trust a little bit, maybe brings the best out of Connor McDavid and makes Connor McDavid comfortable.

You know, Cassie is sticking with McDavid here. Cassie brought up a really interesting point and I don't think this is the sole reason specifically because I think last time around if the NHLers went I still think Tom Wilson is on the team just understanding you know understanding Doug Armstrong

and hearing how he always talked about Tom Wilson and valuing that type of play I think Tom Wilson would have been on the last Olympic team as well but Cassie brought up an interesting point she said you know think back to Charlie McAvoy on Connor McDavid at Four Nations and how that probably doesn't happen if Tom Wilson is on his line. Like that was big.

Like that was that was that was that was that was really big. And not that it's the sole reason, but having Tom Wilson play with Connor McDavid with again, eyes to the United States game, which you all think is going to be a gold medal game. Could that be a contributing factor here just because the last thing you want to do is someone take a run at, change momentum with a big hit on Connor McDavid? Yeah, I think even just in general to turn that into a bigger conversation, like the mobility and ability to move the puck on that U.S. blue line. Like you throw Connor McDavid up there and again, tie it back to something Zach Hyman does well.

He gets in on the forecheck. He pushes the D-Men back and he forces them into the other team's defensemen into uncomfortable situations. So if you're looking at this American roster and it's like, whoa, Wrenski and Hughes and go down the list, McAvoy and all these guys who are so talented. at getting the puck out of their own end and moving it up ice. Well, throw someone up there next to 97 who can maybe get in a little bit quicker and make a good check on or make a good play on the forecheck, and that can turn into zone time.

Again, Connor McDavid, for as much as the highlight reels of him are breakaways and these ripping up the ice with speed and all that, he does so much of his damage off the cycle in the offensive zone when he can get moving and wear down the other team and find that little seam that no one else can find. Like that's where Connor McDavid actually does a lot of his damage. So have someone who, when you're dumping the puck into the corner, can turn that little chip in to blow the goal line into extended zone time

and then allow Connor McDavid to really get to work. You know, one of the things that's got a lot of attention around Canada, obviously is the goal attending. And bluntly, Jordan Bennington's been hard to hit all season long. He's had a tough year with the St. Louis Blues. Now, he's not playing behind the team Canada defense. the St. Louis Blues defense has been abjectly awful all season long. But parking that, is Canada a team that needs elite level goaltending by way of making saves?

Or do they need a goaltender like Jordan Bennington who can handle the puck? One of the conversations we had of Four Nations last year was Canada is really efficient in their own zone because they have a goal tender who's really comfortable with the puck here. You know what I'm getting at? Like, there's an old carnival saying, what you gain on the roundabout? You lose on the swings? You know, okay, I'm making more money on the roundabout, but we're not making as much money on the swings.

So do you give up a few opportunities knowing that the bonus of it is you got a goalie that can handle the puck? It's, I don't know, I keep going back and forth on it. What do you think? Roundabout or swings? I still like, I don't think that's enough for me to want to lean on Jordan Bittington in this tournament. Like I agree with you that it's a positive. And again, if we're doing like a linear comparison to can't from Canada's blue line to team USA's blue line,

like there's one that can move the puck a lot better. So Bittington's going to help Canada's blue line overcome that deficiency a little bit, then I can see how there's a case for that. I just, I just think in a one in when we're going to get to a point in the tournament where it's one game determines if you're moving on or not, what has a chance? Like, is the positive side of some puck moving in a short one game against USA? Like, does that outweigh the possibility of one or two goals going in that shouldn't? Like, no, it doesn't. Like, for me, this should be Logan Thompson's crease from the jump. And again, he should have every opportunity to run with this thing through the whole tournament.

But again, the familiarity combo to go back to that. Like, do they sit there and go, no, no, the guys on this blue line have now played with Jordan Binnington before their more coming. with him back there and with his style of play and his puck moving. And does that maybe, do they lean to bidding in it? I don't know. It seems so obvious that it should be Thompson. But again, the familiarity thing maybe throws you off a little bit. Okay.

So hang on. I'm going to write this down here. So Tyler says, important to stop puck. Okay. This is good. This is, okay, I'm learning. Okay. I'm new to this.

I'm stopping the puck important to goaltenders. Got it. I know. I'm saying this all tongue in cheek. I know exactly what you mean. when it comes to that. To the point about Logan Thompson, let me just scare Canadians a little bit here.

So you sat down and done a number of different interviews with Olympians. The Rick Nash one was excellent, by the way. I sat down with Chris Pronger a couple of weeks ago, and we had this conversation about goaltenders, and I brought up Logan Thompson. Right catch goaltender, okay? Not a left catch traditional. And he said, that could be a tough adjustment.

And I'm like, for Chris Pronger, one of the best to ever play to say that's a tough adjustment. There's probably something there. I said, like, what do you mean? And he said, well, let me give an example. He said, players lining up for the one time we're in the OV spot. Okay, that's where a lot of power play shots come from. He said, as a defenseman, his job is a takeaway short side.

But that's with a left catch goaltender. He said, with a right catch goli, he wants to use his glove in that spot, which I would normally be taking away because with a traditional goalie, but he said, he's a left catch gole. that's short side. He said it's a slight difference and a slight adjustment, but in a tournament like this, if you hesitate for half a second,

that could be the difference. He said, and pucks go to different areas, two different places, rebounds, coming off a right catch goaltender. So like, I'm with you

that I think ultimately this is going to be Logan Thompson's net. I just don't know that it's as simple as, well, you know what, give Bennington the first game, and then after that

we'll get to the quote-unquote real goalie here. Because unless you played in front of a right catch goalie, you don't really know. And for Pronger to say that, I was like, ooh, this isn't like a third pairing defenseman on a 28th place team saying it's a hard adjustment. This is Chris Pronger. What do you think about that? I mean, it is hard to argue with Chris Pronger when it comes to playing defense.

So I like, I get it. And maybe another part of this too is like, you have three. round robbing games, right? The Chequia game, like, again, there are no slouches. They have a really good roster, and Lucas Dostle between the pipes could be a problem. And Switzerland's got NHLers too. Like, how do you divvy up? Because you can give this team a couple of games now to get, to get used to playing in front of Logan Thompson if you wanted to, but do you give him the Chechia game right out of the gates with all of that in mind, or is the safer play to go with Jordan Bittington, who everyone's comfortable with? And you kind of say like, hey, as long as we kind of bring our B plus level game, May minus game, like we should win this one regardless of who's behind us in net.

Or do you view that Chequia game as maybe your best test and you say, you know what, this is a really good chance to throw Logan Thompson in there because if he's going to be our guy in the medal round, we maybe don't want his only two games to be against Switzerland and France when he could face how many combined shots in those two games, 25 maybe in the two games combined? Like how they divvy all this up and how even they value the results of a game against Chequia compared to the results of a game against Switzerland. Even when it comes to like the chemistry in the forward lines to bring it back to our first topic, like if Connor McDavid and Macklin-Cellibrini don't look great against Chequia and you go,

okay, is this something we want to keep rolling with? But then they go out against Switzerland and they have four points. And it's like, okay, but you didn't do great against Chequette. So how do we value that? Like the way you go through this round Robin and how you sort of value and judge those results based on the opponent. That's really interesting too because again, we are going to blink and it's going to be metal round time. And those games

no margin for air. You know, we have a show coming out here a little bit later on today, preview show for the Olympics. And Pete Blackburn was playing the role of the American analyst on this one. Your partner with DFO Live

Carter Hutton taking Canada, the great Ufa Bodine handling Switzerland. And I asked Pete about Group C and whether it's a blessing or a curse. No offense, Leon. No offense, Tim. But it's Germany, Latvia, and Denmark and the United States. If anybody has a layup here, it's the U.S. in pool play. I said, Blessing or curse, and he said curse, because you're not really getting tested. Canada's going to get tested, right? Czechia is going to get tested. Finland's going to get tested. Sweden is going to get tested.

United States probably won't. And if they're getting tested in this pool, there's problems. I look at this one, I go, I think Pete's right. This ain't a blessing. This is a curse. Because A, if you struggle, you got real problems. And B, if you don't struggle, you're not supposed to struggle against these teams,

but you haven't learned anything about your team. And then to your point, Tyler, next thing you know, here come games account where you could be going home. At every one of these tournaments, there's usually something that just throws a total wrench into what we think. And we think that there's a path to it being Canada, USA in the gold medal game.

I mean, you go back to 2010 and it wasn't supposed to be Canada, Russia in the quarter final. That was supposed to be a matchup way later on. But Canada goes one one and one and it's shocking and stunning. And I'm saying all this because when our DFO big predictions article goes out on the site later, Jeff, you're going to call me crazy. Uh-oh. I'm going to say something crazy. What you got?

And I have my own money on it on a betting account. I have Germany winning the group just because I think the values. really good. I'm sitting there and I'm, okay, I love the high-end talent that they have. And I'm, this is now just me kind of talking as like a gambler. I'm curious about this. You have a team with Philip Gruber who's actually been one of the movies in the NHL this year. This is not Philip Gruber of the last couple of seasons. Leon Drysiddle last year, I think he should have won the Hart Trophy, but he was a heart trophy finalist. Mort Sider probably deserves to be more in the Norris conversation.

True. Norris trophy conversation this year than he has been. Tim Stutzla, like you kind of have a few guys there and i just think u s a might have their foot off the gas a little bit here they'll smoke latvia they will smoke denmark i think germany will also smoke latvia and denmark and i'm looking germany's almost to one to win this group i'm saying they're going you're giving me 10 to one odds on what'll basically come down to one game between these two teams i think USA might be thinking the same way that you kind of are and p kind of are where they're saying they're going oh god is this going to be too easy for us. No, no, no, like, you're going to have to play a German team that has some pretty good

players. It's my, listen, I might look like a dumbass if USA wins that game 8-1. And I'm used to looking like a dumbass, so I'm comfortable saying things like this. But I think Germany at plus 950 to win Group C, I think they might be the disruptor in this tournament. And I'm not alone because Marken has them going pretty deep in this tournament. I'll tell you what, it would be a lot of fun. And you know who would, you know who the biggest I told you so would come from?

Brian Burke. Oh? Brian Burke has been talking about, I remember when he, when he ran the Maple Leafs, I remember being at Rico Coliseum, now Coca-Cola Coliseum, and talking to Berkey. And he had a development agreement done and signed between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Mannheim of the DEL. And I'm like, you know, Bricky, this kind of came out of nowhere. And he goes, I've been thinking about this for the longest time.

it's a country that has probably needs to do something with their import rules to develop more. But it's an athletic country with an athletic culture. It's a winter country that has developed elite level athletes. And he said it's the next big country to pop. Like this is before Drysitlmania and all of it. He goes, he said, watch the future of hockey in Germany. It is going to be massive. have to fix their import rules, right?

Because it's just like four Germans and, you know, 18 Canadians, right? He goes, once they fix that, you watch how German hockey takes off. And it's taken a while, but you watch tournament, tournament after tournament. Like, Germany is that team that's turning heads. Now, on the U.S. side of things here, Tyler, I'm going to be mindful of your time. I need that stuff to do. One last question. On the U.S. side of things.

Last year at the Four Nations, I thought the best player in the whole tournament was Jacob Slavin. Incredible. I thought the second best player might have been Dylan Larkin. Every time he touched the puck, something happened. Larkin was amazing. I wonder if this tournament's version of those players, the player that pops where all of a sudden you understand how great this guy is, it's Matt Boldie.

If you're a Minnesota Wild fan, you know it. If you're in Minnesota Wilde fan, you know how great Matt Boldie is. Outside of Minnesota, who knows how great Matt Boldy is. Well, you might be able to find out. I'm with you 1,000%. I've been kind of saying it now for the better part of a year that I think he is in that conversation that like, you know, kind of like, maybe it was seven, eight years ago when everyone kind of went like, oh, Alexander Barkoff, most underrated player in the sport. And then it kind of got to a point where it's like, okay, we've said it enough that like he's no longer underrated. I think we're right at the end of that window here with Boldie where like everyone knows he's good.

and like he's probably, or he is, I think still grossly underrated. But I think a year from now, it's going to be like, this guy is a bona fide superstar. And I'm so excited for him to play with centermen who can also like get him the puck better and keep plays alive a little bit better. And that's no knock on really anyone they have. Like Joel Erickson, it's great and all that. But like we are going to see this guy play with some superstar high-end centerman and defense.

Like, I can't wait to see what Matt Boldie does. I love it. The only other name, like we know Tage Thompson is great because he scores 50 goals and all of that, but that third line that Team USA was running at their practice the other day of Kyle Connor, Dylan Larkin, and Tage Thompson. I was sitting there looking at that and kind of going like, who, as a Canadian, that is a line that strikes a lot of fear in me being as low on their depth chart as it kind of is.

Yeah, there's a few reasons to fear the United States. I do wonder, just like Canada, like who gets to start? Like the default, I guess, would be Halibuck, but hasn't had the best of all possible seasons. Do you go right to Jeremy Swamen? and that Ottinger guy in Dallas, who at last check is pretty good too. That's really going to be intriguing.

All right, you got stuff to do. Always appreciate the contributions. You be good. DFO Live back tomorrow. You guys are back hot. We are back tomorrow. Loved it. Missed it today.

So get back on the air. It's my noon stop Eastern. You be good. We'll check in soon. Okay. Sounds good. Thanks, Jeff. Kissing cow.