The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Playoff Races, Free Agents, NHL Expansion, and more ft. Brian Burke & David Pagnotta

Episode Date: March 20, 2026

Jeff Marek is joined by Brian Burke for a wide-ranging conversation that touches on everything happening around the NHL right now, from Burke’s latest experiences in the game to his perspective on the league’s biggest storylines. The two dive into the ongoing controversy surrounding the NHL Department of Player Safety, the scrutiny it continues to face, and how discipline is being handled across the league before shifting to a full breakdown of the latest NHL GM Meetings, including key topics, rule discussions, and what changes could be coming next. Later, David Pagnotta joins the show to explore the growing trend of NCAA players leaving school early to sign NHL contracts, which college free agents are ready to make the jump, and how teams are navigating that pipeline. They also examine KHL free agents potentially heading to North America, what to expect from top prospect Anton Silayev as he eyes a move to the New Jersey Devils, and why NHL expansion chatter is heating up again. Subscribe for more daily NHL coverage, insider analysis, and breaking hockey news.#TheSheet #NHL #Hockey #JeffMarek #BrianBurke #DavidPagnotta #NCAA #KHL #NJDevils #NHLDOPS #HockeyNews #NHLRumorsReach 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.

Okay, wrapping up the week here on the sheet for this Friday, March the 20th. Thanks so much for joining me here today. Glad to have you aboard, whether you are listening on your favorite podcast platform or watching us on YouTube. We thank you in this economy of attention for spending some time with us here on the sheet. Hope you had an enjoyable week. It was a pretty interesting week by way of hockey topics, most notably off the ice, rather than on the ice. And we're going to get into them with a couple of special guests here, Brian Burke, standing by, Dave Panyo at the bottom of the hour as well.

So we're going to sort of do a week in review and then have a look at what's ahead this weekend for the NHL and really hockey at large because there's a lot of other things happening away from the NHL, which affects the NHL, which we are going to get into right after we do this. The blueprint is powered by Fandual. Download the app today and play your game on Fanduel. He is standing by. Normally he joins us Wednesdays. We didn't do a program this week. So he's joining us on a Friday. and he seems to be everywhere. Today he's in Brantford.

He is Brian Burke. He will talk to us about the general manager's meetings. We will talk about the Department of Player's Safety with Berkey. He was the OG folks. He was the original and a couple of other things. If we get into it, maybe the history of manager meetings as well. Berkey had a ringside seat to a very interesting general manager meeting once upon a time. We'll get there if we have time. Listener questions for Berkey as well. I'll get them in. Dave Panyoda stops by DFO Insider.

We'll talk about college free agents. I'm really curious to see where T.J. Hughes ends up. We'll see if Dave has an update there. And with other college free agents as well, and NHL expansion on the horizon, Atlanta, looking your direction, Houston as well. In the meantime, he's a man that's worn a number of hats and a number of different times.

His name has been uttered because he was the first to wear the badge for the NHL heading up what we now know as the Department of Player Safety, joining us from Bulldogs Land in Brantford, Ontario. He is Brian Burke. Berkey, first of all, thanks for joining me. What are you doing? What are you doing in Spencer Heiman country?

Spencer Heimann, I've become friends with Spencer. I'm just kind of watching them play a few games. I've been to maybe half a dozen games. Trying to help out a little bit. Not really a formal role, just trying to help out. Well, I mean, that team, we were there a couple of weeks ago, and we were there for the Oshawa game, and Michael Ann Lauer's.

the inaugural entrant into the Bulldogs Hall of Fame. And it was a lovely evening. And they beat the Ashawad Generals. And, you know, when you look up and down, the lineup, and you've seen junior hockey teams like this before, Jake O'Brien, Caleb Malhotra, Merrick Van Acker, Adam Benach, Adam Uricheck, like Jet Lechenko. It just goes on, Jay McKee behind the bench,

one of the top coaches in the CHL. Like, it's a really impressive group here that Hyman's put together. It really is. They've got a really balanced team. They have lots of weapons. They've got good goal tend to get a good coach. So it's really fun to be around this group. Ben Danford should probably throw his name in there as well.

Maple Leaf Traffic. Really quickly, just because I'm a really big fan of Jay McKee. And Berkey, I think that one day he's going to coach in the NHL, whether there's a stop in between in the American League, maybe a stop as an assistant coach on an NHL bench. You remember him as a player, Buffalo. of Sabres, St. Louis Blues, he would do anything to win a hockey game, block a shot, get in a fight, whatever. Your thoughts on, on Jay McKee before he move on to more current issues.

I like the way they play. I like he's a real good coach. I think he's going to be an NHL coach if that's what he wants to do. I'm very impressed with his demeanor. He's low-key. He doesn't get excited, but he gets into the guy's heads the right way. I really like him. Okay, news of the week, and we'll get into the Jack Hughes-Puck story here coming up in a couple of seconds, and the story is starting to at least finally wind down. But there was a lot this week, and it bled right into the general manager's meetings, and we'll get into that with the Department of Player Safety and supplemental discipline. And Connor McDavid having a comment about process and Judd Maldaver from the team representation agency,

you know, talking quite openly and candidly of his displeasure about the five-game suspension to Radco Gudis for the knee on Austin Matthews. We've all had a few days to digest it and think about it. I've always maintained that there's no one better to ask about it than you, considering you wore the badge for a number of years in the NHL. What are your thoughts on what just happened over the past seven days in the NHL around suspensions? Well, what happened was the run-on-the-mill routine suspension to a star player was met with great acrimony and great bitterness by a number of people. I say that everyone, just step back.

The system works. It works well. I don't think it was a vicious hit on Austin Matthews. In other words, it was a suspenseful hit. I think he should have got seven on five. But we can quarrel about the number. that's that's that's that's George Perrose's job he's the best at it but it wasn't like he had on this guy

he lined up for a hit Austin Matthew Zing player stuck his knee out he hasn't been up in five years for suspension so to me taking a making a mountain out of a molehill it's unfortunate you can't say a molehill though this is a player of Austin Scalibur I love this kid but boy it's a big stink about nothing for me.

There was a lot of talk this week about, you know, process, you know, and that was, you know, one of the words that Connor McDavid did when he commented on it over the weekend. It's not as if there's a dartboard that the Department of the Player's Safety's just sort of throws darts at. And I've maintained this from day one. You know, there's history that they base it on. And it's not just George Peros waking up one. morning and saying this one feels like a five to me was you know there's there's people in the department that George talks to there's people around the NHL that George consults with

ultimately he does have the final say but it's not as if he does this in a vacuum and it's not as if he doesn't use historical precedent for the suspensions having said all that correct me if I'm wrong here, Berkey, but like they, if the general managers wanted to turn the heat up here and say, you know what, that five, next year,

let's make that a 10. Or you know that 10, next year, let's make that a 15. If the managers wanted it, like they could do that. I just don't think at the end of the day, and this is why I think this is going nowhere,

Berkey, I don't think managers look at this game and say, we wouldn't want a bunch of 10 or 15 game suspensions that are out there. We don't want our players out that long. I hear these idiots say, well, every knee should be 15 games. Yeah, you can do that. You can make it an automatic.

You can make it like a speeding ticket. Six miles an hour over. It's $100, right? You can do that except they're all different. You know, get rid of hitting at the same time. This is done not just a really good bunch of players, George Perraultz, Stefan Cantell. Colin Campbell did it.

I did it. Brandon Shanahan did it. I mean, Brian Whitney. He's all these key people, my son Patrick, all these people have worked on this with the union. Like, understand this. The union has a lot to say, too. They design the system.

So here's what I want to get to. I'm glad you got it to the union question, because the union here is in, as we've all discussed countless times. They're in a conflict of interest situation here too. Because, one, they're there to defend Austin Matthews, yet at the same time, still there to defend Radco Gudis. And I can't see a scenario where the NHL and Players Association sign off on a third party handling suspensions. This league and this players association doesn't want an outside agency deciding who's on the ice and who's off the ice and those off the ice.

They're going to decide how long they are off the ice. Like, honestly, Brian, I don't know that there's an easy way or an easy fix. I keep asking people, well, what should they do? What should be this new model? What should be this new process? And what I get back is, well, I don't know, but this one isn't working. Oh, that is working. It works beautifully.

It's just the odd one happens that people don't like. As their team and their star player, they say it's got to be fixed. It's got to be fixed. The fact of the matter is, the union has signed off on this back from when I did. The very first change we made at the NHL and the NHLP, was the Ryan on the audience to suspend guys. He fly them in for overnight and it's suspended for two games. So I said to Ian Pulver from the union, who was my guy at the union.

What do you want to change? He said, the guys hate flying in again two games. Okay. So if it's five or less, we'll do it by phone. That was the very first change we made, instigated by the union. And we set up everything. The first, the introduction at the meeting, you go into the, hearing and it says this is hearings can mean no other can the auspices of the

NHL and HLPA there are no rules of evidence player can have done any evidence he wants it's all based upon union in the league doing things together doing things sensibly no one's going to like every decision play goal interference no one can agree with everything but they do a great job uh when you were leveling out suspensions. What was your process? What did you do? Like, what went through your mind? I want to get to that Marty McSorley, Eric Lindrauss story in a second here, which was a fantastic one from your, from your history. But like, what was your process for handing out suspensions? Well, I sat down the impover and I looked at some tapes and said, what do you think this is worth?

And he wouldn't go first because he wanted me to go first. I'd say, I think that's worth five. So we get a tape who would come in and incident when coming from the league. We had four VCRs back that. Four VCRs taping league stuff. That was that. Someone would send me a tape. I could get a look at the tape. I'd call Ian. He wouldn't get the tape.

I'd say again, I think it's worth five. He'd say it at the words four. We'd argue about it and we'd decide. But there was a measurement. Like this is the elements. The hit itself, how bad it is, whether there's injury, whether

there's a repeat offender. There's a system to it and we come up with a number and it worked. The Marty McSorley, Eric Lindross story is one of my favorites to share. So long, a million years

ago, McSorley used to always try to get Eric to fight and listen, you're Eric Lindross, like you're under no obligation to do so, but I guess Lindross had scored a goal, Marty cross-checked him and Eric instinctively threw his gloves off. And I guess probably realized pretty quick, oh man, I'm in a fight.

with Marty McSorley. Maybe the last place you wanted to be after scoring a goal. And there was some concern that during the fight, Lindross had bit McSorley. And I can't remember the specifics of you called Marty

and you had either seen the tape or you hadn't seen the tape you had heard about it, a lot of reports about it. And what did Marty say to you when you said, Marty, I need you to tell me, Did Eric Lindross bite you or not?

Can you share that story? That's true. It sure looked like he did because he had his hand in his mouth. He pulled it away rapidly in great pain. He said, did he bite you or did he not? And he said, no, he did not. He said, you owe me one. Eric, Eric, you won me one.

He said, no. I had to not suspend him. So, see, that's fascinating. Like, that is from, like, that is from such an old school code of, I'm not going to, I'm not going to rat this guy out. Like, right now, people fall over themselves just to get other players suspended. Back then for Martin McSloy to say, nah, he didn't bite me and, you know, go tell Bobby Clark he owes me one. Like, that's from a different era, Berkey.

No, very different. But there was some, a little bit of a code there, a little bit of a little bit of a, honor there. Marty, Marty's a great guy. He was really good about stuff like this. General manager's meetings this week. I want to get to a couple of the issues coming out of it, but one of the more memorable, while we're on storytime here, one of the more memorable managers meetings ever, and it might have been Betman's first, was the one where Bob Ganey and Serge Savard mixed it up. And you were there as an employer. of the NHL.

It's not exactly a secret that Bob Ganey and Sergavard didn't get along when the Montreal Canasas were winning all those Stanley Cups. It happens. Not all players get along. And that sort of bled into both of the managing hockey teams at the same time. You want to go back and share that story with us? Yeah, we're at Dana Point in San Diego,

and it was early on, and Jeff Pash was still there. It was before Bill Daley took over. And these two guys that started pushing and yelling and screaming, and they were chest to chest pushing and yelling and swearing and Jeff passes

oh my God what are we going to do I said I'm going to move some chairs I want to make room for a fight and Gary Bevin said me you get in there and stop this so I wanted to have a good seat for the fight Bob Ganey versus Serge Savard at a manager's

meeting coming out of the manager's meeting this year and I'm sure like if the walls could talk at all these meetings. I'm fascinated with managers meetings. One of the things that brought up is, and this has been going on for a while, the idea of the playoff format and that it needs to be changed, you know, the idea of like you look at the central division, two of those three elite level teams are going to be out within two rounds of each other

when really you can make the argument, man, two of those two teams should be meeting for the Stanley Cup final. Do you have a thought on, because I maintain that even going back to 1967, there's always been arguments around how the playoff format should work. You know, the league doubles to 12 and, you know, the expansion teams are in one and the six established teams are in another St. Louis goes to the Stanley Cup final every year and doesn't win a single game. Problems with that. Problems when the Norris Division, if you made 60 points, you got into the playoffs.

well, none of these teams, Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, Minnesota, they don't deserve to be in the playoffs where all of these other teams that aren't making the playoffs. Dude, like, there's never been a time where everybody's been perfectly happy with the playoff format. But given the one that we have now, Berkey, A, do you like it? And if not, do you have another way around it? No, I don't like it. But I've been saying that for years. This is not new.

What bothers me is that you look at this horrible match. two and three playing each other in the first round, Dallas and Minnesota. And I was like, oh my God, well, it shouldn't be based on one playoff matchup. It should be based on the system. I think the system is not equitable. And I've said that for years. It should be one through eight, recede every round. I don't know why we're not doing this, but not because Minnesota and Dallas have a tough matchup,

because what's equitable and what's fairs. you should get the weakest team every time when you recede. A couple of other things coming out of this week as well. Eric Tolski with the Carolina Hurricanes, the reports are I got into a, let's just say, an emotional discussion with the commissioner about the NHL taking its foot off, the seriousness around headshots.

How often is it, here's my question, How often is it that managers are aggressive or challenge the commissioner in these meetings? I think it used to be a lot more common. I know when Glenn Sater and I and Lou Lomrella, we're in the meetings, we often had some spirited debates. I'm told that's gone by the wayside for the most part. I heard it reared its head again this week. That's not all bad when the commissioner or one of his designates. has a heated discussion.

That's not all bad. You guys have to see that Gary's got the temper too. And he got a lot to say. He's a smart, smart man. But I don't think it's all bad when a GM gets in it with Gary or Bill Dealey or anyone else. What was it like when you and Slats and Lou, et cetera, were at these meetings?

Can you sort of walk us through essentially what happens at these things? We talk about, you know, reality TV in the NHL. one, let me see an arbitration hearing, and two, let me see what happens at the manager's meetings. What's a manager's meeting like? Generally speaking, well, it's changed over time. When I first went to my first one, Gary, it just started my first meeting where we talked about rules, which is a March meeting now. It was Gary's first meeting, and so it's very different than it is now.

When I came in, Gary said, you run the meetings. You speak to Jerry, me and ran the meetings. on behalf of the GMs. And Gary said, no, you run the meeting. So I ran the meeting. One thing, Gary insists on his preparation. We prepared so hard for those meetings. We thought of everything they could go wrong,

every possibility. But they didn't get salty at times. Guys would tell me I didn't know what I was doing. You know. I remember Doug McLean, you might have been there as part of this conversation. When we all used to work together, I remember Doug telling me a story where one of the things that Betman did is, and they went alphabetically from Anaheim down, is Gary Betman had a slide with everybody's salary cap commitments, all the contracts up on a screen and sort of went through them line by line and asked the managers to justify every contract.

and I think he either open the meeting or close the meeting with these are all the mistakes you guys have made and now I have to fix them i.e., we're going to have to go through another lockout here because you guys can't behave appropriately.

Does that resonate with you? No, but I believe it. I don't remember that, but I believe it. We did make some horrible mistakes. I mean, I'm guilty as anyone. We made some horrible mistakes. The problem with the salary cap is becomes a magnet.

Look at all the teams, it was designed to be one-third at the cap, one-third at the midpoint, one-third below the mid-point. That was the structure it was set up for. It ends up being 80% of the are the cap. So it's been missed. That's why

there's so much escrow money involved. We never hit those numbers. But I wouldn't be offended by that if that had happened. I did. I wish I had a dollar for every mistake I made. as a GM, I wouldn't have to work. But that's the thing.

I always say this, and the same thing with, show me the perfect hockey player. It doesn't exist. Show me the perfect referee. Doesn't exist. Show me the perfect general match. Doesn't exist.

Nikolai Kulman scores 29 goals in Toronto. So I pay him like, okay, he's going to get 30 next year for the next five years. I pay him like a 30 goal score. Never saw 30 again. So I'm stuck with that one, right? and that's my mistake. But Nikolai Kulman was a great kid too.

We didn't mind paying him. But that's the type of mistakes you make. We all made them. We all make them still. Let's get a couple of listener questions here. Let's get to Little Willie's question here, Zach, for Brian Burke. This one says, I hope you're doing well. I'm reaching out because I'm interested in learning more about the mechanics of a trade.

Could you walk me through exactly what happens during the transatlantic? and how the various stages of the process come together. I would appreciate any insights you can share on how these deals are structured and finalized from some civilian named Willie. Okay, I like the call sign. Okay, so this could be a very lengthy answer. I won't give you a very lengthy answer. I'll give you a shorter one.

Some of these trades happen very quickly. Usually they happen over time. So I would call the other channel. Let's say a guy I like dealing with Paul Homer. I call Paul Homer in Philly. And I always lay out exactly what I would move. I'd say, here the drop picks I would move, here the left winners I would move,

here the right wingers I would move, here's the D I would move, here's the center of snow goalies. I don't have any goalies I can move. And here's what I need. I need a right wing who can shoot. I need some toughness. I need a D.

And see if there's a fit. There's a fit. we'd circle back. Sorry, let's talk some more. There's no fit we move on in four separate ways. But then if there is a fit, you say, all right, I'll call you back in an hour. Let me look at some of this stuff. See if there's a fit, move it closer, move it closer, get some contracts, sign a guy, maybe you need you to sign, whatever, and you get closer and closer to deal. And when the deal is done, the league has to sign up on it. So in these discussions, and I want to get to a Wayne Greskes conversation here in two seconds, in these discussions, how often do you strategically,

and maybe it just depends on the relationship that you have with the manager, how many times would you strategically want to talk about one player specifically, but you didn't want to bring them up right away? So you start by talking about a couple of other players. and then finally arrive at the player you really wanted to talk about. Does that happen often? That happens a lot, but not with me. There's no sense wasting time.

I think you can talk, you figure out right away. Out of 30 GMs, I know there's more than 30, we're out of 30. There's 10 you can make deals with 10. You can maybe make a deal with it. And 10, you have no chance to make a deal with. I would just focus on the first 10. So here's an interesting Wayne Gretzky's scenario. This is in Toronto.

Bill Waters told me the story when I worked with Billy years ago at a Toronto radio station. He said he remembers getting a call once from Wayne Gretzky's agent saying, you know, Wayne's always wanted to play for Toronto, close to his hometown. Well, where you are, close to his hometown, wants to play in Toronto. He'd be willing to play for the Maple Leafs for $1 million. dollars. And Bill said, this is incredible. So Bill takes it to Cliff Fletcher.

And Cliff says, don't call him back. And Bill's like, what are he talking about? It's Wayne Gretzky. He's going to come in for a million dollars. He said, what'll happen is we'll start negotiating with Wayne's agent. It'll get out to the media. Then everybody in Toronto will expect that Wayne Gratsky is going to sign with the Toronto Maple Leafs and $1 million will turn into $3 million because the market will

expect it. from a GM's strategic point of view, Berkey. Does that story surprise you at all? Or do you look at that and go, yeah, you know what? That's a dynamic we've seen before. That exact story happened with us when Wayne Gretzky went to L.A. Aquin called me and said, the word's getting out that he wants to come to Vancouver.

Got to pour some cold water on it. So the first guy that called me was Gordon Miller. He was working in Red Deer. I gave him the whole. I gave him the whole trade, so he's not coming here. And that was just to put cold water on it. We didn't want fans in Vancouver expecting to get Wayne. We knew it wasn't going to go.

Amazing. Speaking of Vancouver, I'm pretty sure that Pat, well, listen, Pat, the great Irishman had, I'm sure, a number of superstitions. And I'm always curious about superstitions either around the draft lottery or around the draft. or around the draft. Now, it's going to be May 5th for the lottery this year. What would Brian Burke, as far as lucky charms, go, have at the draft? I have a medal that was given to me.

I was blessed by Pope Paul. I have two loonies that I had in my pocket when I made the Sydney deal. I carry those. I had a couple other things. The three or four good luck charms, carry with me at all times on big days, including at the draft and free agency and July 1. So, yeah, I'm superstitious. Has it always been that way for you, Brian, or did you sort of accumulate more superstitions

along the way? When I played, I wasn't very superstitious. I just put on my right ski. I always put on the, I always tied the right ski, left skate first, right skate, second, whatever. Had a seven routine, but other than that, no, not very soon. last guy on the ice, last guy out of the ice. Taping sticks, heel to toe, gathers no snow, all those things we all grew up with too.

But very wrong in the middle. I play with some guys, they're really superstitious. Well, I mean, a lot of guys, like, you know, don't touch my sticks. That's a superstition. But can you think of, like, guys that were, like, above and beyond superstitious?

I love it. I play with Pat Lovett of Providence Scholars. He's a right shot defenseman. Pat Lovett would lay out all the stuff. He has sick on the one to put out his gloves and shin pads and then get dressed. If you touch any of his stuff, you're like kicked his stick or kicked his shin pet. He would go nuts. He would absolutely go nuts.

So, of course, we all tried desperately to kick his stuff. But he's the most... I love it. Great guy. He's still around. Most superstitious guy ever played with. Amazing. Listen on that, we'll let you go.

say hi to all of our friends at the Bulldogs, Spencer and Jay and Peggy and everybody there. And we'll catch up to you soon. I know you're traveling everywhere. Every time I mentions, oh, yeah, Berkey was just here. Oh, yeah, Burkey was just here. You've been everywhere lately, Brian. So we'll talk to you again soon from some other destination. Where are you off to next?

Off to Australia next Wednesday. A week from Wednesday. When's the last time you're in Australia? I've never been. My daughter is a semester abroad at Brisbane, so we're going to see here. That's fantastic. Have a great time and we'll hopefully catch up with you in Australia or when you're back here and we'll hear all about your Australian trip. Thanks so much for doing this as always, Brian. Thanks, Seth. There he is a great Brian Burke from Brentford, home of the Bulldogs. I know he's gone. Zach, I'm pretty sure that he went there earlier this year as well on a stuff. I don't want to say scouting trip, but just more like

Like the thing that you need to know about Spencer Hyman is a general manager and co-owner of the team too. Like he relies on advice from a lot of senior people around. And he has access to a lot of senior people, both, you know, through his brother, through his father. Like just the last name carries a lot of currency, obviously, in hockey circles. And so I think Berkey's been there a few times. And I think he's talked to the coaching staff a few times as well. So no surprise it ends up in Brantford. Yeah, I know for fact he was there earlier because there was a couple of times him and I had gone back and forth and we were arranging when and where he would be to join the show.

Okay. He was coming from Brantford or going to Brantford. So I knew that that was in there. And I think he told us a story the one time about him going out there. And he just, I think he loosely put it as scouting as you kind of just mentioned. He was out there watching games as kind of the wink that he had given to us when. I think he was just going out there and seeing what was up. Yeah, just going to watch games.

But, yeah, smart to have good people around you and in your organization. That was one of the things we knocked Kevin Adams for, and all of a sudden they bring in Yarmow. This guy starts slinging deals. Next thing you know, he should be winning GM. Hey, how about Sam Carrick with another couple of goals last night for the Buffalo Sabres? Right? Is he got four goals and an assist, right, since he's joined Buffalo. I think that's what the stat lines sitting at.

Love him in the room. Unbelievable. Like we're going to talk about like, a home run. Like, listen, I don't know how far the Buffalo Sabres are going to go. All I know is I remember talking to Scott Niedermeyer once, and I said, like, what was the moment, like, put you guys over the top in Anaheim? We were like, oh, yeah, we're winning the Stanley Cup.

And he goes, when Brian brought in May Day. When Berkey brought in Brad May, like, that was the piece. And it's not like, that's Scott Niedermeyer saying that. Like, that's Hall of Fame, one of the best defensemen of all that was, yeah, when they got Brian, when they got Brad May. That's who put it over the top. I ain't saying Sam Carrick's Brad May is going to bring a Stanley Cup to the Buffalo Sabres.

All I'm saying is, guys scoring goals, fighting everybody. You're getting, you're getting the itch here right now. You're not winning the Stanley Cup. They're not winning the Stanley Cup. You got to go out there.

You're setting your bar low so that you, if they don't, then you don't get a hurt that bad. You went out there at Buffalo. You got to see. You think the swords. You think the sword's going to win the cup. Look, I would say,

do I think they're going to win it? No, do I think that they have no shot of winning it? That's also a no. Like, the East is pretty open right now. Honestly, it would be. It would be an incredible story. First of all, it already is an incredible story. But, like, to get blanked for 14 years and then come back and win the Stanley Cup is, like, the most insane hockey story that we've seen in, I don't know how long.

That's a crazy. Yeah, it's a nightmare fuel for me as a Leafs fan, but great story in general. Oh, you got to do is missed a playoffs for 14 years. Zach, no, right? You'll be fine. No, right, but that's the playoffs for a while. Just get, listen, you're wearing a sea dog's hat. Just get really bad and get the first overall pick next year.

And take your boy from King John. Right? Yes, except the Philadelphia. Landon DuPont. Yeah, yeah. Kind of looks pretty good too. Except if you're, I mean, you are familiar, but if for other people aren't, that pick would be owned by what I believe would be the Philadelphia Flyers next year.

That is what should keep you up at night. It's a bit of a dilemma. Yeah, exactly. That is the one. that should keep you up at night, handing Landon DuPont to the Philadelphia Flyers. Yes. Take that.

That will make me sick. It's amazing. Are you superstitious at all, Jeff, by the way? Are you? No. No, I never really have been. There's one pair of socks specific. Actually, yeah, there is.

There's one pair of socks that I wear specifically for big events. But no, I don't think, like, other than that, There's nothing that I have to carry with me all the time I don't know you're you superstitious when you played or just superstitious in life Because there's a difference there's there's superstitious and then there's just all it's just a habit And they're not the same thing yeah That was what I was trying to distinguish in my head when you guys were having this the superstition comment Conversation because I think I had habit that turned into superstition if that makes sense like I would do things that I would do things that I

I knew I needed to do an order, whether it was the time I showed up at the rink to, like, when I went to the washroom, to when I did the warm up. And I know this is very detailed. But you know what I mean? Like get to the rink, change into my warm up gear, take a piss, go outside and do my warm up, come back and drink this water, go to the washroom again, get dressed, and then go for the warm up. Because it was less so about, oh, I think this is going to make me play good and do good things. but it was more like, this makes me feel comfortable and prepared for the game.

So it was more habit. But it turned into superstition when I was in playoffs. And what I mean by that is like, if we went to the playoffs and things are good, it would be, nothing's getting washed. Like,

anal about nothing's getting washed. Nothing's coming out of the bag. Or if something got washed and something went well, it's getting washed again. And it will get washed every game until this thing goes sideways. So like those kinds of things turned into superstition Where for the regular season or just regular life it's habit not superstition

So I am superstitious but it wasn't really like over the top until until it needed to be Luke Robitai would change his tape like the color of his tape every period I think it was like black white black or the opposite That was Luke Robitized that's weird thing So in the game he'd use like one period to be black tape white tape for two more periods. I'm trying to think of some of the other great superstitions that were that were out there. By the way, on the tape, did you see Carberry's comments about Cole Hudson's stick tape

and what he said about it? Black sock. Yeah, the sock. I don't get it. Oh, yeah. There's nothing. I don't get it. It does nothing.

It just adds weight to the stick. What are you doing? Yeah. You're correct. I don't get it either. I was texting with someone. I was texting with someone. when he made his debut with the Capitol,

someone in the Hudson orbit. And I'm like, what's up with the white stick black tape with the going all the way up the shaft? And he just wrote back, that's what the kids call drip. I don't know. I don't know.

No. I see, honestly, I look at this now and I say to myself, it's not for me, but like not everything has to be for me. I don't know. Does it look, would I do that? No.

But I'm going to sit here and cast a Spurson. I'm sure there's a ton of kids. Like my oldest kid looked at, that's one of the things. You see what he does with sticks? He's tape. I was half expecting to watch him, but see him show up with that tape job for his skate last night. But he didn't.

Yeah. But like, would you do that? No. What was your goofiest tape job? Well, the longer I played, the more I adapted to the thick tape because it meant less tape was on my stick, which

meant the stick was lighter, and I felt like I felt the puck better when there was that thick tape. So I would overlap it like a marginal amount, have really thick tape, and I wouldn't start it at the heel. I would start it about a third of the way up the stick. So there was just way less tape on it.

Did you ever use Gordy Howe tape? You ever use the two-sided tape, the Gordy How tape? No. We used to call it as kids the Gordia How tape, two-sided, have the puck stick on your blade longer? Then your blade- a million pounds by the time the end of the game. No, but when we were in midget, our, whatever it's called now, sorry.

You're 16, sir. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Our equipment manager got us this spray that was specifically meant for something that he was using like as a mechanic. And he gave it to us that we would spray on our tape and it would make the outside of the tape sticky. So it effectively was double-sided tape, but you sprayed it up. on and then the tape would be sticky. Yeah. And did you notice a difference?

Seriously? Did you? Um, no. No. Unless you went out for a warm up and then we're trying to do the Michigan for like the first five minutes and then after the day. Yeah, before I guys figured how to do the Michigan. Like, okay, I don't need this double-sided stuff anymore.

I can actually do this. All right. Let's get to Dave Panyoti here. He's been listening to this stupid conversation for far too long. So let's end that goofy conversation and bring on someone who's going to bring some serious information, DFO Insight. or Dave Pan. Do you have anything to add to that?

Either it's like the Cole Hudson stick with like the white shaft and the high black tape or double-sided tape or do you have anything to contribute to that conversation, Dave, or should we just move along? No, to that one, sorry, I'm muted. No, but having a mechanic try to find a solution to that makes that's 0% surprising, Zach. Yeah, no surprise there. We're having an issue with your video right now. We're going to get Dave back on.

Because he's kind of frozen there. Our friend Dave, we don't want to. I've always, anyone can take screen caps. Oh, there we got, we got, we got you back. Your video's good. Your audio's good. Your video's good. Your video's good.

Can you hear us? I hope so. There we go. Okay, we're back. Okay, so we've parked. I think so. Yeah, everything good. There is.

Yeah, everything's great. We parked the tape conversation. So to serious, to serious things around the national hockey league. First of all, let's start with something juicy. Atlanta, Houston, I believe, are destinations A and destinations B. Expansion on the horizon, Dave Pano. Yeah, look, it's no surprise that, you know, with NBA going the expansion with regards to Las Vegas and Seattle

and going through that process, MLB talking about expansion as well, no surprise really that the NHL is going to get back on this train. And this has been something in the works for a while. I explained it earlier this week. they're not going to go through an official and formal expansion process because that's going out and finding people that might be interested in the league and groups and markets and all that. They know what their options are. You just list two of them, Atlanta and Houston. So once the ducks are in a row, then they will start to move those closer to the goal line.

But, you know, look, Atlanta's building their facility now. They're building their entertainment district with Vernon Krause's group. all indications are that's the one that's that's ahead of the curve and ready to go once that is near completion. And at that point, they'll explore the expansion process on that end. Again, the league knows what their options are over there in Atlanta. They know they have options in Houston. Sounds like a couple. And they know they have interested parties in other markets as well.

So to go through a formal process isn't necessary. They're just going to sit back, wait. And when somebody's ready to cough up $2 plus billion, it might be a lot more than that, they're going to sit back and say, all right, now we'll take that call. It feels more like three now, doesn't it? That's, oh, two B.

That was the price five minutes ago, but now, now we're looking at three B. Thank you very much. Yeah, exactly. No, I think you're right on. I mean, look, with Carolina putting their valuation at $2.66 billion and selling 12.5%.

Before that was going on, at the start of the season, Vegas started the process to look for 10%, I looked to sell 10% of their club. At the time, it was 200 million. I'm not sure where that's gone. I don't know if there's already been an agreement in place. But if there isn't,

I've got to imagine that 200 million is going closer to 300 million to have a $3 billion valuation on Vegas's franchise. If Carolina is looking at 2.6, Vegas is at least three. So for an expansion side, yeah, you're definitely looking in that 2 to 3 range could certainly be closer to 3. year ago was 1.5, right?

Like, the way that the league is on the incline is tremendously impressive. And then you make the argument, well, okay, well, the NBA's looking for $7 to $10 billion for their franchise to go at least three on the NHL side is not out of whack by any stretch. A couple of the hot buttons. I want to get to, I want to get to Anton Zelaya here in a couple of seconds. But just a quick, I don't know if you have a strong thought or feeling on a couple of the hot button issues. from the week that was around the NHL. The Jack Hughes rake stepping, I want my puck back,

and then the subsequent damage control that was done on. Pat Brisson was out on chicklets trying to straighten things out of what my client was trying to say is. And I understand it. Like I look at that one personally, Dave, and say, you know, Jack Hughes,

whether it's GTHL or NHL has always grown up with, you score a goal, you get the puck, you get it, and there's tape on, and your trainer writes down what the significance of it is. Like that's just the environment that he's grown up in. And he doesn't or didn't obviously know that that is not player property, that that is property of the AAHF slash IOC,

an arrangement with the Hockey Hall of Fame. And that's where it is going to nest. And that is where it is going to stay. Do you have a thought? Like, was this the big issue that it should have been? Because this was an issue that sort of dominated headlines this week after the interview with Greg Wschinsky at ESPN, or was it just a tiny little mistake made by a player

who's just growing up thinking you score a goal, big goal, you get the puck? Yeah, yeah, I think it was more of that. I think it's been blown a little bit out of proportion. I get it. You know, you scored the goal, you want the puck. You hit the home run, you want the ball, you know, kind of thing. I get it. I understand that.

Now, you hit the home run. You may have to pay for the ball, but at least you can get the ball. You know, in this regard, it's not like it's going to go anywhere. It's not like he's not going to know where it is. You know, it's going to be in the Hall of Fame for however long. You know, I think Sid's golden goal is still there. So, yeah, so, I mean, it's there. I'm sure they can make arrangements after the fact for him to have it, you know, well down the line.

But I think it was just, yeah, look, this is what I'm used to. I score my first goal. I get the puck. I do this. I get the puck. So on and so on. And I think the way it was worded, you know, he may have wanted to do that a little bit differently. But we want authenticity from these guys.

And when we don't get it the way we want it, we bitch and complain about it. So, you know, you got to take both, you got to kind of take both sides if you want that realness from some of these guys sometimes. You know, I try to remind people, this isn't the first time that this has happened. I mean, I know in Canada we like to point, well, Sidney Crosby had to. no problem surrendering his puck and his gloves and his stick and his helmet or whatever to the Hockey Hall of Fame for the Golden Goll in 2010. Forgetting that, you know, we might have had like the OG big puck drama with 1972 in the Summit series and Pat Stapleton, uh, taken the summit series puck game eight, Luzniki Ice Palace and then denying that he ever had it until video appeared

of him actually fishing it out of the nets. And then he sheepishly said, oh yeah, I have it, but I just, you know, I was on the pond and I just fired it into a snowbank. Like that's a like, if there's a puck that belongs in the Hall of Fame. Certainly Jacks does. Crosby's does as well. But the 1972 puck should probably be in the Hockey Hall of Fame. And Pat Stableton, God rest of soul, stole it. And then bluntly, probably lied about where the puck was

and it never got to the hockey Hall of Fame. So it's not as if Canadians as much as we want to put ourselves on a pedestal here are bereft from having our own, can we please have the puck drama? I don't know. Right. Yeah, no, exactly. We're not all innocent in all that, certainly. But again, it was just like, he spoke his mind.

Again, probably if he had more time to think about it, probably worded it a little bit differently. Forget about getting coached by PR or the agent, but just in general would have probably just, you know, chose his words a little bit differently. But again, I think it's, I think, it's been blown a little bit out of proportion, because I understand his side of it,

but, you know, it is kind of what is. If he wants it, again, I'm sure he'll be able to get it down the road. Like, Sid can probably have his. I don't think, I mean, I'm sure he'd want it, but at the same time he understands, you know, where things are at. I think that's kind of what Jack meant,

but, you know, it's not what he said, but probably what he meant. I'm guessing that the NHL Department of Player's Safety and George Peros was pretty happy that this became a headline maker. because it kind of took their headline off the map coming out of the general manager's meetings and the process and McDavid's comments and the radical good is hit on on Austin Matthews and needing things to change. I kind of looked at this one and said, just give it time and this, you know, this fire will turn into a contained fire and then we'll burn out. And here we are heading into another weekend.

Has this story now fizzled? for now yeah for now i think this will be something that gets brought up a little bit later on again but for the time being you're right i mean this jack's situation took some headlines away from department of player safety it took a little bit away from and it didn't give i think the the the gm meetings um scurfuffles enough tension uh with respect to headshots with respect to gold tenor interference and things like that um you know the the the the Department of Player Safety obviously kind of surpass that a little bit, but then this buck thing kind of took over.

But I do anticipate, look, when Connor McDavid speaks up about something, especially this magnitude, it's going to garner attention. And it doesn't mean it's just going to get swept under the rug for the time being. It'll be maybe just pocketed for now. But this is going to be something that I've got to imagine. They're going to discuss in the offseason with respect to how to move forward, not just with some of the rules that are in place, but how they go about suspensions. how they go about the process and things of that nature.

Because there's obviously a little bit of a disconnect between what the Department of Player Safety feels is accurate versus what some of the players around the league feel is as well. Is the NHL about to get taller? We have, you know, Tyler Myers and Matt Remke, Matt Rempey and Soder Blom, etc. Is it about to get even bigger? What is happening with Anton Salia, first round draft pick, New Jersey Devils, 2024, currently playing in the KHL.

And his contract expires at the end of the end of the season in the K. They're in the playoffs right now. I think that starts in a few days over there. But the plan is for him to sign his entry-level contract with the New Jersey Devils and then come on over to our side of the pond. Now, not easy. It's not an easy process. There are a lot of hoops and all that to go through.

through the visa process in order to come over. It's going to take a little bit of time. So depending on how long their season goes, that'll dictate how long this visa process is going to kind of play out. Now, my understanding is the goal for the devil, for the player in his camp, is to be on this side of the pond

in time for development camp at the end of June after the NHL draft, end of June early July. So that's kind of the target to bring him over, sign, go through that, those steps in order to come over to North America and then be part of the Devils Dev camp, excuse me, once the draft passes. But that's the timeline. Every indication is he will be signing with the Devils. It's just a matter of his season having to end.

And then after he signed, just how long it'll take for him to get over here. Okay, college free agent season very much upon us. I really do wonder as many about T.J. Hughes of Michigan, who is that kind of rare player that you get is the quote unquote free player coming out of college. You don't have to pay a price other than the entry level deal. And with Hughes, unlike a lot of other college players, you're getting offense, which is rare.

We should point out too. But there's also Owen Michaels, et cetera, from Western Michigan. What is the latest for as far as that landscape goes, Dave? Well, with a few of them, there are a lot of teams that are looking to make, obviously, those types of additions. And when you've got, you know, certainly a shallow draft pool or prospect pool, sometimes that's a bit of a sell-off for some of these, you know, college prospects free agents, where the competition is going to be a little bit less,

which would suggest the pathway to the NHL is a little bit more vibrant, a little quicker. Obviously, no guarantees. You've got to play. You got to, you know, you've got to work at it. But, you know, just kind of looking at that. There are multiple teams, several teams, that would love to get their hands. on T.J. and go from there. Obviously, sign him and then bring him into camp and so on and so on, or have him start the season. But a lot of interest in the player, I believe, you know, Toronto's

always been a team that's kind of been looking around the college ranks for some time. And this is a team with a pretty shallow prospect pool. So there's certainly one of the teams that I've, that I've heard kind of poking around at some of the college free agents. But I would imagine others within that category kind of fit that would potentially fit that bill for him or for some of the others that are looking to take the next steps in their careers. All right. Excellent stuff as always. Always enjoy Fridays with you, my friend. Enjoy your weekend and we will touch base again next week. You got it, buddy. See yeah. The Great Day Panyoda, DFO Insider. Check out that show alongside Urf and Gaffar, Wednesdays,

live at 3 o'clock Eastern right here at our daily face-off YouTube channel or listen slash watch in the archive. Um, some interesting stuff there from Dave, some interesting stuff before from Brian Burke as well, including some great stories. Uh, anything coming out of Dave's report, uh, on the program there that spices your chili there, C dog. The, uh, college free agents I'm most interested in. I think that's the one thing here in Toronto that we kind of have focused in on over the last little while. I'm not trying to make this Toronto specific, but the more I've gotten into doing what we're doing, the more it's

interesting to see some of these guys coming through and the process in which they're taking to go and find teams and teams going to find them. TJ Hughes, I mean, we got to meet with him in Michigan. Oh, great kid, eh? He's a kid, 25. Great kid. Yeah. Well, yeah, true.

Great young man. How about that? It's two years younger than me. I can't really say kid. I think that probably goes out the window. But, yes, great young man. Great player. very intriguing to see just kind of these guys go through.

You get points. Like that's the thing about T.J. With a lot of college free agent players, like forwards, you don't get points. You don't get offensive production. Now, the three, I think it's top three. I was in this on Sycarus and Price the other week. The top three college free agents as far as like production goes. Adam Oates, number one, Marty San Luis, number two, Joey Mullen, number three.

So there have been some that have put up monster points, obviously, in the NHL. But as far as undrafted college players you get at the end of the season, generally you're not getting offensive production. But with T.J. Hughes, you are. Like someone's getting a real good player here in T.J. Hughes. Yeah. Edmonton. Edmonton, by the way, was in to see him a couple weeks ago at Michigan.

I just throw that out there for nothing. Yeah, for nothing. Just throw that one out there, a little side thing. just for people. Oh, and Michael's what? Well, also coming from a great program too, right? So that's the other thing under Brennan Norado. Yeah, I mean, the college free agents are all interesting at this time of year.

I think they're kind of fun because it's the one little piece of catnip that a lot of fan bases get at the end of the year as well when their team's not going to be in it. Free player. And we don't have the prospects and everything. Free players. The concept of free players. But the thing that most interested me out of the entire week to be. honest outside of the puck which I mean some people seem to be not that interested in

the thing that interests me the most is the playoff format and how stuck Gary was to the idea of keeping the playoff format the same and that's the one that I think could use the biggest revamp and I know what you think my conspiracy theory is setting up an easy win for the next commissioner Bill Daley set up an easy win and I think that that's a great

theory. I can't disagree with it. I just need to see it in action. Because I think we've gotten to a point here now where Chris Patrick was right yesterday. We've seen this problem before. It just never was made as big of a deal of when this has come up previously. But it's gotten to a point where it's like, hey, we've experienced this enough. It's a problem every time. We're all having frustrations with it. It's going to come through ahead. And I just want to see action take. taken on that. But I don't know, like, my question to you would be, what would you expand, what would you change the playoff format to?

What is your ideal playoff format if you change it tomorrow? You're the commissioner. You go in there. You are in charge of changing the playoff format. Do you change it? What do you change it to? It's all about what the fan base wants. It's all about, it's not about what I want.

It's not about because, listen, if you just want to have the, I'm, no, Jeff, I'm asking you as a. fan what do you want i i understand what you're saying i agree with you but i'm asking you what you want what i want is a shorter regular season and a longer playoff and some opening rounds that are best two out of three in the process as well that's what i want but then i catch myself and say you just want that because that's what you grew up with right like that's like when i was a kid for sort of fall in love with hockey like okay this round is two out of three um i always always always you're just like i always found interesting, although it's not great for rivalry.

1v16. That's what I find the most interesting. That's the one that interests me the most right now. I think it's more topical, especially considering right now. I don't know if you saw the screenshots people were putting out there. I know you know the results, but the screenshots in specific yesterday about the Pacific. I was fumbling on those words there and getting your saying mixed in my brain at the same time. to get that one out.

But the Pacific division, how they fared against the Eastern Conference. And then when you look at the Eastern Conference compared to the West right now and where they would stand, it would be kind of fun on some of these years to just have some of those teams all go together, go up against each other. Do you have it handy? I'm pulling it up right now, what the standings are, the league standings. I was trying to find that tweet. But like if you look across the league right now.

Now, your top teams would include Dallas and Colorado as your one and two, and then these are the teams you have after. Carolina, Buffalo, Minnesota thrown in there. So there's the third team. Those are all the central teams. And then it goes Tampa, Montreal, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Boston, Columbus, the Islanders, the Sends. And then it goes out to the west, the ducks, then the flyers, mammoth, oilers, and it kind of goes back and forth. But you look at those top teams right there. there are three teams from the central that fit at the top

and then it is all Eastern Conference teams the rest of the way now. Yeah, that happens. All right, let me get here. Some here. I'm getting like shut out of my email. Oh, man. Okay, I got to fix that.

Do you have the, the Fandual script for your segment handy? Yes, I do. Can you talk yourself in? Yep, I can do that. This is all going to be. The sheet is powered by Fandual. Play your game with Fanduel. It's the NHL season and Fandual is your home for all the action on the A's.

From Blue Line to Bet Slip, we've got you covered all season with unique promos, live offerings, and more features to let you play your game. Miss Puck drop, no sweat. With a live same game parlay, you can build your bets up until the final buzzer. Download Fanduals sportsbook today and play your game. Please play responsibly. It must be 19 or older, physically located in Ontario. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you,

please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. Good job, man. Jeff, your shine spots. Yes. No, this would be yours, shine spot. You've already queued yourself up quite nicely. And what do you have for us today, Middle Age Zach? Well, it's very obvious here that the Maple Leafs missing the playoffs

and the draft pick dilemma that we're facing right now. It's weighing on me, Jeff. It's been something that is just crushing me. And the weather being what it is, having to deal with the move that I just did, it was just making every day that much worse, that much heavier for me. me, but then over the last couple of days here, I've gone outside, the snow's cleared away, the sun is coming out, the sun is out longer in the day, earlier in the day, it's just a more enjoyable vibe.

Jeff, you know, seeing green, cutter through the frost takes the pain away from what the maple leaves are doing to me right now. Very good, very good. That's all this one coming a mile away. Ryan Green, cutter goat, Dave, Morgan Frost, who hails from? Aurora, Ontario. There you go. That's waiting for that.

It's a little bit long. $5 wins you $332. and 12 cents. Ryan Green, cut a go, J. Morgan Frost, find the back of the net, so Zach can make a couple of bucks for the weekend. Anything for you coming up this weekend, or is it more just decorating your new place?

Leafs and decorating. Leafs and decorating. We go one step forward, two steps backwards, in terms of clutter around the apartments. Like, well, we've built this, and now I have 17 boxes of things to take to the recycling. Great job, Zach. And more things show up and more things show up.

How many times have you and your girlfriend said we are never doing this again? Well, I told her definitively, I said the next time we move, we will be buying everything from scratch. Nothing is coming with us. We'll be leaving everything we own here. It goes to the next owner of the apartment. Oh, nice. Okay.

And we'll be in a new place with new things, yes. Because I'm not enjoying this. Okay. It's the bane of everybody's existence. Don't feel special. Don't feel special on that one. But listen, have yourself a great weekend. I like how you mixed up the Bulldogs and the St. John C.

Dogs will get you into a Western Hockey League hats at some point. Yes. Maybe even next week representing the O and the Q. We'll see about the dub. All right. There we go. Thanks so much for joining us this week. Really appreciate it.

always. It's going to be a little bit, I think we're pretty solid for next week. There's an outside chance we might be broadcasting from a different location Friday and Saturday. More on that coming up at the beginning of the week. But thanks to Dave Panyoda, DFO Insider for stopping by every Friday. Thanks to Brian Burke for pushing Wednesday to Friday. Today, thanks to Brooke you for some of the great stories and insights on running what we now call the Department of Player Safety. If you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, we thank you.

if you're watching us on our daily face off YouTube channel and have a subscribe, we thank you there. And if you haven't subscribed yet, please consider doing so. A lot of great offerings here. Not just our little act, but other programs as well, starting your mornings with morning cup of hockey.

To say nothing of DFO Live and to say nothing of DFO Insider Edition with our fan Gafar and Dave Panjota, our Friday guest right here on the sheet. Enjoy your weekend. We'll be back on Monday.