The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Tyson Barrie

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

The guys are joined by recently retired NHL defenseman Tyson Barrie, who reflects on playing with superstars like McDavid, Auston Matthews, and Nathan MacKinnon, what separates those generational talents, and his new ventures off the ice — including his “Chilly Ones” beer brand and stepping into broadcasting with the Vancouver Canucks. Barrie also weighs in on Connor’s decision, locker-room reactions to team-friendly contracts, and shares stories about leadership, rivalries, and Gabriel Landeskog’s inspiring comeback.Shout out to our sponsors!👍🏼 FanDuel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼 Simply Spiked: https://www.simplyspiked.ca/en-CA👍🏼 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/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.

Hey there, it's Jeff Merrick here. You know, my wife and I both have countless memories from spending time discovering Canada. Well, I always come back to the summer of 2005. We were staying at a cottage on Lake Joseph here in Muscoca, watching the Live 8 music festival in Barry on television. My buddy Jeremy Taggart, former drummer from Our Lady Peace, dropped by after his band's set and stayed the rest of the weekend at the cottage after the band's set and told some incredible backstage stories about some amazing Canadian music icons. I will never forget that.

And fast forward to today, I'm a hockey parent, and I feel like I'm always on the road with my family, whether that means traveling across southern Ontario hockey ranks during the week or overnight at tournaments on select weekends. But what makes our hockey experience even more special is booking a place on Airbnb when we're on the road for overnight tournaments. All of this traveling got me to thinking, my home's just sitting empty when I could be hosting it on Airbnb instead. I'd simply put up my house on Airbnb, pre-select dates that I want to host, bam, it's practical, easy to manage, and it enables people like me to make some money while they're not at home. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca slash host.

Someone we've wanted to have on the program here for a while, Greg, most recently retired to a lot of other business ventures, which we'll get in as well. He is Tyson Berry, and he joins us now on the sheet, whether it's beer, whether it's broadcasting, whether it's hockey. Tyson, first of all, thanks so much for coming aboard today. And listen, man, like heartfelt, congratulations on a really good career. When you look back and it's going to change because context, context, how do you feel a lot of it? about it. How do you feel about everything? Yeah, thanks for having me. Thanks for the congrats. I feel good about everything. First of all, I'd like to apologize for the lighting in my office here. I've been told it's horrible. I'm going to get one of those little

lights. But yeah, I feel grateful. I feel pretty fulfilled in the career that I had. And, you know, I think if I would have, you know, told myself at 16 when I started my junior hockey career that, you know, I'd be retiring at 34 with 800 plus games and, you know, a group of, you know, 30 to 30 of my best friends I'd meet and a beautiful family and everything. I think I'd be pretty, pretty shocked. So I'm super, super proud and grateful for the career that I was able to put together. you started in uh 2011 2012 and i wanted to ask you in your time in the league how did the position that you played change yeah um i don't know if i don't know if my position ever changed in the way that i played i always tried to be kind of offensive and jump in the rush and join the play and um run the power play that sort of thing i think the game changed a little bit

it. And I think, you know, when I came in, there was still, you know, McGratton and Bordolo and guys going toe to toe off opening draws. Great names. It was a great names, Tyson. Great names. Yeah, those were, you know, those were intimidating times. But, you know, I think, I don't know if the game changed, but guys, you know, in my position just got, you know, I was kind of a, not the start of it, but, you know, followed in some offensive of D-Men's footsteps. And then, you know, you look at the Quinn Hughes,

Kail McCars, Wrenskys. These guys have just kind of taken that position to another level and improved on what I was trying to do. And they've since left me far in the rear view. So I knew it was time to hang them up. But, yeah, I think, I don't know if, you know, I came in and tried to join the rush right away when I was, you know, 20 years old.

So I started my career like that. And, you know, I tried to finish it. the same way. I wanted to ask you about McDavid and what we saw, like there's a lot of questions that come out of it. But before we get there, speaking to Connor McDavid, you played on teams that had like three of the greats,

full stop. You played on a team that had Nathan McKinnon, played on a team that had Austin Matthews, and played on a team that had Connor McDavid. Do you see any similarities between the three of those players? Yeah, yeah. All very different people, different personalities. qualities, you know, but the same thing that I think drove all three of those guys is just to be the best player on the planet every night. So the similarities was they did everything they could on and off the ice to give themselves the chance and put themselves in a position to be the best player. And that's, you know, diet, training, everything, night before games, all that stuff. So just, you know, three guys probably, you know,

three of the best players or, you know, the best player in the world on any given night, any three of them are capable. It's, it's just the dedication. You know, there's other great players I've played with, but those three kind of really set themselves apart as far as, you know, preparation. Okay, Connor McDavid. So he'll be known for two numbers, one, 97, and the other, 12.5. What did you think when you saw the number yesterday?

I mean, we were all stunned. Like, you played with them, you know them, like you, like, same room. Like, did that surprise you? No, not really. You know, I think you kind of look, I know, people have probably talked about, you know, how Sid kind of, you know, did his money throughout his career. And, you know, I think with what Leon did and signing the eight-year deal, I think, you know, I'm just stepping into the broadcast world, but somebody asked me and I said,

I think he's going to do a two-year deal. And so I'm one and all. Congratulations. Retire now because predictions are a fool. his game, trust me. Yeah, I think he wanted to give that organization.

It's a great organization. They treat the guys really well there and give his best pal there, Leon, who's obviously signed up for a long time, a couple more kicks at the can. And money for Connor is, I don't think of the top of his priority list. I think he's aware of, you know,

obviously the more he signs for, the more of the guys down the road will sign for and stuff. I think that, you know, he was robbed of a few really good kicks at the can. Obviously, they went to the cup final, but just with COVID and the way the cap sat flat, you know, there was a few years where they really should have been able to add and bring in guys and they weren't able to. So I think him keeping in that at that 12-5 just gives them a leg up to continue to add guys. And, you know, that's a team now for the next three years that's going to be, you know,

I think they've got to get one. So I was not super surprised. And, you know, it's a two-year deal. And I think there's going to be 32 teams lining up to give Devo eight times 25, you know, on his next deal. So he's not, I don't think he's super concerned. And with Capriza, he's already pushed that cap. He's already pushed a playbook way ahead. So, yeah.

Sure. Well, Jeff and I were curious that, like, when you would talk to teams sometimes when you were kind of in your prime, how often did the cap come up in so far as like, hey, why don't you take a little level? and help us out build a winner around you, Tyson? Like, was that the hard sell you'd get from GMs? No, unfortunately, I was kind of, you know, I had the big deal in Colorado, and that was, you know, I wasn't their highest paid guy. We had better players than me, so it just seemed like a fair number. And then the only other time I hit free agency was a kind of a down year with the

Leafs, and then it was COVID. So, you know, GM, there was no money in the market. So I wasn't really getting sold on much. It was kind of, hey, there's no teams with money, so you've got to come here. So I signed with Edmonton on a smaller deal, on a one-year deal, just because there was no money in the market. And obviously I wanted to be in Edmonton where I knew I could, you know, they didn't really have a guy to run that power play. So, yeah, I was never, I was always a good player, but I was never the guy who was really moving the needle on the cap one way or the other. when you look at this Oilers team now I want to move off Oilers but another question about Edmonton since they are sort of the stars of the day a lot has been made now of okay so Cona McDavid left money on the table normally when a player signs a new contract and they come back to the room it's a celebration because they just rang the bell okay I guess you saw the Jackson Lecombe video in Anaheim that comes back into the room it's a $9 million deal and all the

guys are going, hey, that's, that's awesome. But when you sign for his deep a discount, as Cona McDavid just did, like what happens when he goes back to the room? Like, take us into like the mind of a player here. Is it like, hey man, thanks, you did one for the team?

Or is it like, man, like, where's the $19 million contract here? Like, how do players feel about this? I would feel two ways. I think that the obvious answer is I don't think there's anybody on that team that's played with him that doesn't understand how badly he wants to win. So I think that this is just another facet of that. It's something

he can control that will, you know, help them win. So I don't think there's going to be any surprises in that room. I think guys will just be super grateful that he's there for at least another three years. And then the second part is probably, you know, he's underpaid at this point. so you got to make sure he's still picking up tabs and hosting parties. You know, we can't be losing our highest-paid guy. I guess Leon's got us shoulder that now. Go ahead, Greg. You are, as you mentioned, you have moved over to the dark side.

You remember the media now. How dare you? Vancouver Canucks. Well, what was sort of your 200-foot view of Vancouver last season, obviously that Peterson and J.T. Miller's situation played out the way it did. And now that you've gotten inside a little bit, what have you learned about the Canucks this season? Yeah, I mean, I've only done the one preseason game so far.

So we're about to get started up here. But I think it's pretty impressive what they were able to do last year, even with, you know, you kind of alluded to the PDJT situation. I think that pulled a lot of attention from guys and was hard to kind of work through and they had some injuries. And I think it was pretty impressive how close, you know, it was so i i uh man i i'm optimistic i think you you have uh every you know start of every year you've you've got teams that all are shooting for the playoffs and i don't see any reason

the canucks aren't going to be right in the mix again and um you know i think anytime you have quinn hughes on your back end that's uh it's a heck of a start i've got great goaltending too i love i love demko and i love uh lanky's an unbelievable goaltender i got the chance to play with him in Nashville and I just really impressive. Hey there, it's Jeff Merrick here. You know, my wife and I both have countless memories from spending time

discovering Canada. Well, I always come back to the summer of 2005. We were staying at a cottage on Lake Joseph here in Muscoca watching the Live 8 music festival in Barry on television. My buddy Jeremy Taggart, former drummer, from Our Lady Peace, dropped by after his band's set and stayed the rest of the weekend at the cottage after the band set and told some incredible backstage stories about some amazing Canadian music icons.

I will never forget that. And fast forward to today, I'm a hockey parent, and I feel like I'm always on the road with my family. Whether that means traveling across southern Ontario hockey ranks during the week or overnight at tournaments on select weekends. But what makes our hockey experience even more special is booking a place on Airbnb when we're on the road for overnight tournaments. All of this traveling got me to thinking, my home's just sitting empty when I could be hosting it on Airbnb instead. I'd simply put up my house on Airbnb, pre-select dates that I want to host, bam. It's practical, easy to manage, and it enables people like me to make some money while they're not at home. Your home might be worth more than you think.

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You know, interesting with the Vancouver Canucks as well, and you don't want to ever read too much into preseason. and you know that better than Greg and I do here. And I don't think that it's a complication, but everybody that you had question marks about with the Vancouver Canucks going into preseason, like they all look good. Like Coots look good.

Mancini looked good. Lechromackie looked good. Pedersen look good. Philip Heidel looked good. So I don't know if you're like, if you're like me and you're more cynical and you say, okay, everybody looks good, this whole thing's going to fail. Because everyone's just looked too good in preseason for this to actually be true.

But like all the guys that we had question marks about, they all look good. No, that's great. I've been into camps and I've played a bad preseason. I probably didn't start great. You want to feel good. You want to look good. You want to have a good preseason. It's just good for the confidence.

It's good to get your feel. And the fact that all those guys, you know, look good and are feeling good is fantastic. You'd rather that than it sucks to start to see. season with your GM or your coach breathing down your neck because they weren't happy with your preseason that is mentally a beating you don't you're like even got started yet like leave me alone so the fact that they're probably not dealing with that is great I haven't been the playoffs like they need like eight things to go right this season including Heedles health and obviously Dempco's health and Quinn Hughes not wearing a jersey that has devil horns on it by February but like if all

that stuff happens like I see no reason why they can't be a playoff team in the west i agree with you man i think i think people are sleeping on how good they could be um yeah let's talk beer oh yeah for sure yeah you're like you know your hundred point guys aren't easy to come by you're not you launched your own beer yeah what's that about uh that was that was um something that i put it in my notes years ago when we were i was in edmonton and we were um we just called beers, chilly ones. It's like a cold one, but it's a chilly one. And it became a bit of a thing.

We'd all just be yelling chilly ones at each other. And it was kind of dumb, but it was funny. So I decided that I would start a beer company with all of my good hockey pals. And I think there's 18 of us involved. And it was a fun thing. And it's honestly, it's been really fun for me to kind of pursue. And it's an interesting, the beverage space, is interesting and if you do it properly you can you can make some noise so that's what

we're trying to do and we've got a great group of people behind it and it's something you know obviously in retirement i want to have a bit of a purpose and um you know it's giving me something to kind of lean into is the uh is the target market initially hockey people hockey fans like where where do you go with chili ones yeah it's a good question actually um so obviously we're We're silly to think that we wouldn't start in hockey just because of kind of the people who are behind it. But, you know, we don't see it as a total, it's not just a hockey beer. It's a bit of a lifestyle beer.

I played hockey, but I don't, you know, I don't identify as a hockey player. I've got a lot of other interests and like to live my life pretty casually. So that doesn't exactly go with the hockey rhetoric. So I think we're going to obviously build out from hockey, but we're, you know, we've got a a non-alcoholic beer, a lower strength beer. So kind of that healthy lifestyle. Yeah, we've got plans to just kind of grow. We're big into music.

We've got a lot of ambassadors in the music space. So it's, yeah, it's kind of built for everybody. Have you seen, because I've always sort of used this as a gauge. Like when you see a certain beer come out of a hockey bag after a beer league game, you know that beer has kind of arrived. Have you seen your. beer come out of a hockey bag yet after a game oh yeah yeah it's cool i've seen i've got to see people drinking them in the wild uh her her uh her son has a swim instructor and she showed up with a

four pack of chili ones and she didn't even know i was the founder and that was i was like oh no way went to the liquor store and like she's like oh yeah i love the branding and uh the lower strength and i was like oh sick the uh the lead singer for the lumine lumen lumenier's by the way, is wearing your hat these days. Oh, brilliant. Yeah, yeah, we've got him, we got him decked out. So he's, uh, um, he's spreading the chill. I want to go back to something you said, Tyson.

You mentioned that you didn't identify as a hockey player that you have interest that go beyond hockey. Um, I think we, we see you guys and we think these are all lifer freaks that have been playing, uh, since they were eight. And, and I was wondering in a typical dressing room, like how many, how many Tyson Berries are there like that that don't necessarily have this sport consume everything about them? Are you in the majority or the minority about that? I would say maybe somewhere in between. I think there's probably a 50-50. I think there's a lot of guys, you know, as you guys

know, as you guys know, the NHL is a very hard league to make. So by happenstance to make it to the biggest stage, you kind of have to let it consume you a little bit. And it certainly has at points in my life. But I think there's, you know, and then you've got guys like Connor and Nate and Austin who are, I always said it didn't matter if I worked out that hard, it wouldn't put me at the number one spot in the world. So, yeah, I think there's definitely a minority of guys who are less, you know, hockey obsessed and just happen to be really good at it.

Yeah. Maybe more so there is guys who are much more focused on it. I know some guys don't watch a single NHL game throughout the year and other guys catch everyone they can. So there's a bit of a spectrum. But there's so many personalities and interests and different walks of life in those dressing rooms. It's really fun to be a part of. Okay. Last one for me, Tyson.

I'm not sure if you saw it, but I'm sure you saw the clips and I've heard the commentary about what happens Saturday night between the Florida Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning. By the end, nobody's on the benches. There's 16 ejections, Sabrin got the four gamer, JJ Mosier got the two-gamer, and the war of words between both fan bases rages on. One, memories of playing in games like that. And what did you think about that in a preseason game where it was shades of, you know, 1975 and it's the Flyers and the Bruins all over again? I mean, I think it's, I think it's great. it says you know you don't want anybody getting hurt obviously especially your star guys but you know because it is the preseason you're not fighting for much there but I think obviously that rivalry is

alive and well you've got two of the best teams in the league in the same state in a non-hockey state and I think that just you saw kind of whether you like it or not and I know there's a lot of people who are leaning away from it but you know violence is a bit of a part of the game and you know fighting and um you know you you saw what happened at the four nations um i don't know if i don't know if the viewers have ever been higher so um it's it's a it's a it's a thing people like and it brings viewership to our game it brings new fans and um like i said i'm i wasn't the top guy in the world so um i can't really sit here and you know pretend like i was but i think it's good for the game as long as you know it's safe and done properly

Tyson, trust me, no fan has ever said, I can't wait to watch these two teams go out there and respect each other. I assure you, no fan has ever said that. Greg, you have a last one for Tyson? Yeah, I wanted to buggy about Landiscag. You played with Gabe for a bit in Colorado. Obviously, his story over the last few years has been insanely inspiring. A, your thoughts on him coming back,

and B, from a player's perspective, to see a guy work back as long as he worked back, what does that mean of players man i'm glad you ask i love Gabe he's uh he's one of the greatest people and humans uh teammates i've ever met um and to see what he went through and how hard that was on him and the family and um i got to see him a couple times throughout the process and you just you know you just felt for him he was off you know he was down wasn't himself and then i got to see him this summer um and he's been back. He is buzzing. He's having a good time. You can just see it in his eyes and he just

looks like himself. So for him to be able to get the chance to get back out on the ice where he belongs and lead that team and he's so important. He's such a great guy. So I'm just, and I know the sentiments kind of shared around the league and anybody he's met is rooting for him. So it's, yeah, it's about his feel good of his stories as you can have and just super super excited for him to be back out there. Thrill that he's back 100%. Congratulations again on the career. Best of luck in the new endeavors,

both here on the evil side of things in the media, analyst for the Vancouver Canucks, and best of luck with Chile ones as well. We could not be happier for you. Thanks so much for doing this, Jason. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

I said 16 hours last night, every day this week, every day this month. I can't get up my head Lost all ambitions day to day Because you can call it all right I went to the dark man He tried to give me a little medicine

I'm like now and that's fine I'm not against those methods But I knew It's me and myself And how this is gonna be fixing my mind I'm gonna break I turned on the page I do want to be a bad guess

I'm in the dead darker I'm in the dead dark here You know my wife and I both have countless memories from spending time discovering Canada. Well, I always come back to the summer of 2005. We were staying at a cottage on Lake Joseph here in Muscoca watching the Live 8 music festival in Barry on television. My buddy Jeremy Taggart, former drummer from Our Lady Peace,

dropped by after his band's set and stayed the rest of the weekend at the cottage after the band set and told some incredible backstage stories about some amazing Canadian music icons. I will never forget that. And fast forward to today, I'm a hockey parent, and I feel like I'm always on the road with my family. Whether that means traveling across southern Ontario hockey ranks during the week or overnight at tournaments on select weekends.

But what makes our hockey experience even more special is booking a place on Airbnb when we're on the road for overnight tournaments. All of this traveling got me to thinking, my home's just sitting empty when I could be hosting it on Airbnb instead. I'd simply put up my house on Airbnb, pre-select dates that I want to host, bam, it's practical, easy to manage, and it enables people like me to make some money while they're not at home. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca slash host.