The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Scouts, Injuries, and Trade Rumours ft. Ken Reid & David Pagnotta

Episode Date: November 21, 2025

Jeff Marek kicks off today’s episode of The Sheet with a hilarious cold open on Joe Veleno before diving into two of the NHL’s biggest quarter-season storylines: the youth takeover across the league and the spike in injuries impacting contenders everywhere. He breaks down early-season stars like Connor Bedard, Leo Carlsson, and Matthew Savoie while examining why veteran teams like the Winnipeg Jets are feeling the grind. Jeff is then joined by Ken Reid, who discusses his new book “The Next One,” shares incredible scouting stories, reflects on the legacy of Boria Salming and Jerry McNamara, and explains why finding elite talent is equal parts grit, instinct, and survival on the road. Later, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period joins the show to hit all the major NHL rumblings — from Alex Tuch’s contract situation in Buffalo, to Adam Fantilli’s extension talks in Columbus, to Jordan Kyrou speculation, Blues trade chatter, and what comes next for teams like Edmonton, Ottawa, and Anaheim. Loaded with insider notes, team analysis, and big-picture NHL insight, this episode covers everything happening around the league today.SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Bauer: https://www.bauer.com/👍🏼Uber Eats: https://www.ubereats.com/ca👍🏼Prime Video: https://primevideo-row.pxf.io/c/5560083/3303015/20020Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@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-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lainterner Alaino, Unlocked by the Montreal Canadiens by the Montreal Canadiens. Hi, thanks for joining us today and welcome to another edition of the sheet. You knew that was irresistible. One of my favorite things, by the way, Zach, is watching people retweet my tweet about Joe Valeno at the beginning

of the season where I said something along the lines of if Montreal can unlock Joe Valeno, look out. And so far he has not been unlocked. And so far that's on bad takes exposed or frozen cold takes or whatever it is. But nonetheless, for one glorious moment and an 8 to 4 loss at the hands of the hat-trick scoring Alexander Ovechkin

and the Washington Capitals, Joe Valeno was unlocked by the Montreal Canadiens. And you knew that I put it this way. You know that I am just trivial enough to lead the show with that one. So we'll just park it and we'll move on. But I do appreciate the tweets. And I get them every day. Yeah. Which I absolutely adore.

Like if you think you're irritating me, you're not. You're just, like, honestly, every time I see one, I laugh. So anyhow, Joe Valeno was scored, and he's been unlocked by the Montreal Canadiens. Welcome to the program. There's been two things, Zach. There's been two main stories, as I see it around the NHL at the quartermark of the season. One, the kids, and, you know, the takeover, you know, the celebrinis, and the Leo Carlson's, and the Connor Bedards and the Matthew Schaefer's, to say nothing of all the young netminders

around the NHL that we talked about yesterday on the program, your Lucas Ostales and your Spencer Nights and your Yaroslav Askarovs. But the other big story is injuries, which is massively up this year to kick off the season. Nobody quite has an understanding why. I look at it and I say, like everybody else, I don't know.

I'm not willing to say right away that it's compressed schedule because we're only at the quartermark here of the season. It's not like we're deep, deep, deep into the season and the body count is piling up. I would just look at it and say, it's one of those years. There's no real explanation. I can't see an explanation for it. Any explanation that I've seen seems on pretty shaky ground here.

So I'm not picking up what anyone's putting down about why injuries are so high. But for the Winnipeg Jets, I will say one thing. And this is we always have to keep in mind at the beginning, middle, and end of every NHL season. There's only one thing that's undefeated in this world, and that is time. The Winnipeg Jets are the oldest team in the NHL. That's something I'm always sort of mindful of and keep an extra glance at throughout the season. I hope for Connor Hallibuck's sake that he's fine and the timeline is accurate and it's only then. And I even say that as a Canadian knowing full well that the Olympics are on the horizon

and Canada will have to be facing Connor Hallibuck or Jake Ottinger, who looked great, by the way, last night against the Vancouver Connected. Holy Smoke. Some of those thieves were fantastic. But wish him all the best in his recovery. And this just adds to the growing list of players that have kicked off the season injured. And when's the last time you saw this? Many players on LTIR.

All right, let's get right to the program here today. Coming up on the show, as always, we'd like to remind you to kick off the program. The blueprint is powered by Fanduel. Download the app today and play your game on Fandul, Moron Fandul coming up towards the end of the program as we discuss amongst other things to kick off of season three of the PWHL. Coming up in moments, you will hear from the wonderful, the great, the dynamic Ken Reed

and is talking about his new book amongst other things. The next one, Kenny's written a ton of books, and they're all like, the thing about Ken is every book is different and they're all consistently interesting. I wish I could be like that on this show. The book is called The Next One Highly Recommended. Cracked it on the way back from Washington yesterday, and it is outstanding. our daily face-off insider from the fourth period. We'll be stopping by.

We'll talk about the future. If there is one for Alex Tuck and the Buffalo Sabres, what's up with the Adam Fantilli contract? And man, did he look good? Oh, sorry, Zach. Did he look good against your Toronto Maple Leafs last night or what? And other rumors around the National Hockey League with Dave. So that's a snappy show today.

We're cramming in as much as we can on the program. And our first guest, and we'll talk about sort of news of the day and the storylines of the day. And then we'll talk about his book as well. just a wonderful, wonderful young man. The Scouts say he shows a lot of promise. I'm trying to think of some of my favorite slap shot lines, Kenny,

because you and I admire the movies so many times. Ken Reed, author of the next one, available wherever you get your books, most notably online. Kenny, how are you today, buddy? Great, Jeffrey. You know what I wanted to call the book. Exactly probably what you would have called the book. Scouts. Scouts.

Scouts. And I'm like, how can I translate that so that it's, Scouts. You got to get a picture of like Paul Newman and that expression on his face where he goes, Scouts? You just got to have like the expression. Yeah, that's me. By the way, I thought of you last weekend.

So Gabby and I sat down and talked to Jerry Houser. Saw that. An hour and a half. Yeah. Man, if you just, he's one of those people where when you're talking to him, if you just close your eyes, you're right back in 1977 and slap shot. Like we've all gotten old, a little salt and pepper in the. beard but it's just like the the voice is still there the voice has that little bit of

innocence peppered into the voice as well anyway i thought i think about you often um when i'm doing anything with anyone from slap shot i enjoyed i saw it online the the lip how he had the fake prosthetic in oh yeah yeah shouldn't have said what he said to him shouldn't have what he said to him you coon yeah you and have recite slap shot for an hour and a half i mean killer's not my my my he's one of my favorite probably top five um But nonetheless, I digress. And I want to get to the book here at a couple of seconds. But the nice thing I'm having you aboard is I can go everywhere with you around hockey.

To me, the two stories, and I want to get the injuries in a couple of seconds, but I want to see your reaction when I say, North Vancouver is the new Cole Harbor. Why not? Holy smokes. Bard, Salabrini? I mean, is Bedard getting better by the game? Yes. I mean, I kind of, I don't want to say I wrote them off after last year, but I wasn't overly.

impressed. Like he wasn't what I thought he was advertised as. And now he's what he was advertised as. He seems to be, I don't know, using the guys on the ice with him better. And I mean, that shot. There was a move he did last night. It didn't result in the goal, but he basically broke a guy's ankles at the blue line. He looked like Denny Savard out there. Yeah. And he seems to be getting better by the second. And then every time you talk to a scout, you know, they're like, well, Celebrini, he's on a whole other level. And that seems to be true as well. And I, I guess it's the old, can you leave these guys off the Olympic team? They're kind of playing their way on it because any good scout will tell you,

I don't find players, players find me. And if you're scouting for the Olympic team, holy smokes. Youngest player ever, this is going to the NHL era. I'm talking to Sykeres and Price about this today. The youngest player ever, the team Canada, has brought to an NHL-era Olympics, is Drew Dowdy at 20 years of age. Are they going even younger? And then the other question, begins, are we leaving someone out?

As the Islanders come off, a six-and-one road trip from hell where they were fantastic. They're only lost against a Colorado avalanche, but they beat everybody. How do you leave Matthew Schaefer off? I don't know how you do. Remember the Big E was just a kid when he was invited to the 90, when he was on the 91 Canada Cup team. Yeah. And Keenan used, do you remember what Keenan did with him? What did he do with him?

Just used him as a battering ram. Yeah, I still maintain, like, some of those injuries that happened, like, later and later on in his life, the seeds were maybe planted in that tournament where Keenan was just out there saying if you want to take your stick out there, go for it, but we really don't need you to do anything other than just go out there and smash everybody.

Wow. When I think of the 91 Canada Cup, I think of Steve Lermer, but I think, like, how do you leave them off? I think what we've learned with Canada hockey over the years is you don't take the best players. You take the best team.

So how will these guys fit in to take the best team? I would be shocked of all three of them or on the team. Honestly, I would be, but I don't know how you leave these kids off because I guess you have to think of what kind of team do you want, right? It's going to be played on NHL size ice. So what kind of team do you want over there? You want to smash a team?

You want a high-skilled team. What kind of team are you going to design? So I think that factors into it. Listen, I wonder about a lot of players. I wonder about Tom Wilson and no Knox Jake Evans out of that game last night. because, like, there's no doubt that you run the risk if you bring someone like Tom Wilson aboard about penalties and how they can hurt you, but here's a guy that's pretty much, I know Vancouver Canucks, well, fans will bark about the Philippeal hit, but like, it's

clean hit. Yeah, on the line. Yeah, but it's the line. Clean hit. Like, if you look at how Wilson's behaved the last couple of years, to me, that's going to be a tough decision, too, especially, as you mentioned, it's played on the 200 by 85. If they can finish the rink, Kenny. If they finish the ring.

Hey, my dream is that they just scrap it and they play the games over on this side of the pond, but that's not going to happen. But, yeah, the Wilson hit last night at first glance, it looks like an elbow, but the elbow kind of came, I don't know, it was the line, as you said. Fine. But, I mean, when you're designing the team, what kind of goal are you going to have? Who's the goalie going to be? I mean, you looked at Armstrong the other night watching Thompson and Skinner,

and they showed him on his phone, and I was thinking, someone find me a goalie, because, I mean, Thompson was good. I think it has to be Thompson. But, yeah, to me, it's what kind of a team are you going to design? But you can't leave Salabrini and off at this point. I mean, I don't know. So here's what I think about the goaltending. I think that Bendington gets the courtesy first start for what he did at the Four Nations.

After that, all bets are off. And then by the end, when it's Canada, U.S. in the final, I wouldn't be surprised if it's Logan Thompson. Correct. But can you go in without a surefire number one? Can you do it? Now, was it 2002 where Kujo started and Luongo took over? I'm trying to do my math in my head.

Marty Bordura, and that was the friction. Yeah. That was that was the, that began some friction between the, the, the goaltender and the coach. Absolutely. Now imagine if we had that scenario to pick from all those guys now. It's crazy what's happened to the goal. goaltending position in Canada. It's absolutely insane. I have theories on it, but we know.

I have you, I know you have a goaltender, and you want to hear the theory on what's happening in Canadian goaltending? So here's why. I think there's a bit of put my finger up if it's the same as mine. Okay, so specifically here in Canada. And I don't know, the one thing that I can't explain is why this happened. But somewhere along the way now, and I maintain there's a special place in heaven specifically for goalie moms in Canada, but also goalie dads to a lesser extent. because they're crazy. Mums internalize everything and they feel every goal. Special place in heaven for the moms. So somewhere along the way, parents, and I'm guilty of it too, like I'm admitting I'm part of the problem here. Somewhere along the way, we stopped wanting our kids to be

goaltenders, whether it's too expensive, whether it's too much pressure, whether it's anxiety. I don't know what it is. But somewhere along the way, parents stopped wanting their kids to play the goaltender position. I was the same way. My kid, both my boys, both tried it. And it's a weird feeling as a parent to sit there and hope that your kid doesn't do well. But for both kids, I was like, I just hope that he gets pumped. I hope he gets like 12 put past him and he comes off the ice crying and says, Dad, I never want to do that again.

It's a weird feeling. But there's a lot of parents you'll talk to and say, yeah, I know exactly what you mean because we didn't want our kids to be goalies. And maybe it's the expense thing. I've mentioned this to people at Hockey Canada, too. As a way to get more young people to play net, why not waive the fees? You want to play net for Hockey Canada as a kid.

Oh, geez. Wave the fees. Equipment is expensive. Extra training is expensive. Wave the fees. If you want to do something about goaltending, that's my thought. Is my reason the same as yours?

No, it's not. My theory is when we were kids in a road hockey game, broke out. What position did everybody want to play? Goalie. Why? Because it was fun. It was fun. Paul Meteer was my guy. Yeah, and you got over on one side of that, you let the glove open. Look at the teeth behind me.

Shoot there. Beautiful picture by Danny Granger. Goaltending was fun. It was fun. It was for the athletic kid. It was for the big kid for a lot of times back in the day, but it was for the athletic kid. We have taken the fun out of goaltending. We are teaching six-year-olds, get in the butterfly, get big, come on, stop the puck. We shouldn't be teaching six-year-olds anything other than stop the puck and find a way to do it. Nobody told Dominic Hachick how to play goalie when he was a kid, but he found a way to stop the puck.

We have to bring athleticism back to goaltending. We have to leave these kids alone so they can figure their own style. They're all going to be butterfly just from watching the NHL. They're going to copy what they see. I mean, we all copied Patrick Waugh, we copied Mike Palmitier, we copied Grant Fier, and it was fun. We have to bring the fun back to goaltending. I think we are overteaching these kids, and we're locking them into a style that may not fit them.

My kid plays U-13. Is he the best goalie in the world? No. Does he have a really good glove? Yes. Why does he have a good glove? Because he plays baseball. He does other things.

He does other things. So I think we need to bring the fun back to goaltending and not try to make everybody little Dennis Hilderby, right? Because not everybody's six-eight. Not everybody's six-eight, right? I mean, there was a video went around last night of Gerard Gallant over in the KHL. His goalie came out to give the player the award.

And he had the, his, like, Greg Millen used to use a coat hanger to cheat. And this guy just was like this. I'm like, we're teaching guys to block pucks. We're not letting them make saves. Let the kids make saves. Bring the fun back to goaltending. you're not going to win every game let the kids figure it out if you do that i think we'll have some goalies emerge but if you want to box them all into the same butterfly block the puck rvh style

going down in the rbh is not fun for everybody anyone especially for you and i watch it at home it's an awful thing ban the rvh there's your first move whoa wait please merrick i love it this is like we're going back to like the the era of the nchel where goaltenders were not allowed to go down They had to stand up and stop every shot. And then the great line by Frank Calder, which we still bark back to this day, there was lobby from goaltender after goaltender, after goaltender, like, let us go down to make saves.

And they would kind of fudge it and go down on one knee and are they really down? And so finally, Frank Calder, former president of the NHL with the famous line, which we still use to this day, his line was, okay, fine, they can go down to make saves. It doesn't matter to me. For all I care, they can stand on their head.

Hey, oh, that's where it came from. And that's where we get the line to this day. Oh, the goalie stood on his head is from Frank Calder, just saying, okay, they want to go down fine. Stand on your head for all I care. And that was like 19. Yeah, let them make saves. Stand on their head.

Let it make saves. That's my thing. But I love your idea of waving the fees. I'd save a lot of money. As a goalie dad, yeah, sure. Keep some of those. Squeeze the beaver on the nickel till it squeals, Kenny. Keep the money in your pocket.

What is it? You see this quarter of my day. It used to be a nickel. There's another Joe McGrath. I see this. Yeah, it used to be a nickel. And I got a very. good price on those boys scouts say they showed a lot of promise and speaking of scouts let's use

that as a transition to the next one um scouts are some of my favorite people in the world i've always maintained as it relates to professional hockey they are or junior hockey for that matter they are the backbone of this industry they are as i've described them to various people they're the anthropologists you know like they go they go they're the ones that go out into the jungle They're the ones that, you know, wear the hula skirt and eat the can of worms and do all that stuff and bring back players and find players. And a lot of them remain very anonymous. A lot of it is by design because they all wear black and they stand in the corner. Colby Armstrong calls it the Scout fit.

As I'm sure you've heard you've heard before. I suspect there's some of your favorite people as well. Why a book on Scouts in finding the next great talent? So the idea came from Kevin Hansen, not one of the Hansen brothers, but he was the grand pooh-bah at Simon and Schuster. And I had finished up my last book, Hometown Hockey Heroes. He's like, you like telling stories, don't you? I said, yeah, that's, I'm like you, Jeffrey. I like telling stories sitting around and listen to stories.

He goes, I bet you scouts would have a lot of stories. And I said, I bet you're right. So he said, why don't you do a Scouts book? I said, well, I don't want to do a book on how to scout. And he's like, no, no, no, no, no, stories. And I'm like, well, these guys are on the road, what, 20 of 30 days? month. So you know what happens when you're on the road. You accumulate stories. And so I started calling up guys and then one scout would say, you got to call this guy. You got to call this guy.

And away we went. And honestly, Jeff, I know you're a wrestling guy. I'm a wrestling guy. Yeah. The scouting world reminded me of three other professions, pro wrestling, stand up comedy, and media from back in our day. Because when you start, you're making nothing. You're going way out in the to get your first gig. You don't know how you're getting there. Sometimes you don't know how you're getting back. You're going to Fairview, Alberta, for 50 bucks. And that's what these guys did.

The other one, let me, let me throw on one more thing, because I agree with you completely. The other way that it's, like, you know, musicians or media or professional wrestling, hockey is a winter sport and I always think of the scouts in the Western loops in the winter and the icy roads and the snowstorms and the squalls and I got to watch a period of this kid

play here and they got to drive for two hours to go watch two periods here and I think of like the stories that you know Adam Copeland used to tell me who wrestles his edge and he used to talk about those Tony Condello tours in Manitoba and it was like the white knuckle drives

in this like in a van with no snow tires and eight wrestlers in the back and all of it and driving over like, you know, frozen, frozen lakes and are we going to make it? Like some of the, and I always think about scouts. Yeah. Like making those, making the drives on the cold back roads to go see a kid play half a period,

drink a bad coffee, sniff some zamboni fumes, get to a cheap motel and then get back on the road the next day. Now, the one chapter that, and there's a lot in here that's like really rich and deep and great stories. but there's one because I just loved them. Like, I just loved this man. And every time I would talk to him, I'd come away feeling that I was smarter

and I felt great about myself. And I might just be because it was a big part of my youth, but I'm so glad that you wrote about Jerry McNamara. Yeah. Before he passed away, the guy that found Boria Salming and that revolution in the NHL. Absolutely.

By the way, great Copeland reference. He has the book. Shout out to Sexton Hard Castle. He also made his dues. The original Valvinus, Sexton Hardcastle. Do you know the story there? Do you know the story? The original, no.

So Sexton Hardcastle was a porn character that he played on the Indies. And when he got signed by WWE, he was too embarrassed to take a to Vince McMahon who would think that it was stupid. So he didn't. And then Boogie Nights came out. And like two weeks later, Sean Morley gets the Valvina's character, who's a porn star. And Adam's like, I love it. I love it. Yeah.

Yeah, he used to be in Atlantic Grand Prix. Shout out there's some of the Atlanta. Oh, I love it. Right there. But, yes, Jerry ran into him at Paul Patskue's alumni luncheon and met him around town. And I love that Jerry got his flowers. It reminded me of the, when I did the book with Eddie Shack, Eddie got a little nice send-off. But Jerry deserved his flowers.

Jerry'd never gotten his flowers. And Jerry's story so unique. You know why? You know why? Because, unfortunately, he had the shepherd. through the 80s. Yes. He was really horrible Toronto Maple Leafs team.

Did Ballard's dirty work? And did Ballard's dirty work and took the darts for it publicly? Yes, he did. And Ballard just stood back and just stood above the fray. And Jerry had to take all of it. Every trade, every firing, all of it. Jerry had to wear all of it and never complained publicly. What a man.

I never wanted to embarrass Harold or the organization. No. And, I mean, that's from a different arrow when Jerry was scouting. So think about this. People always say, you know, you and I can find Connor McDavid. We can find Sidney Crosby. It's not difficult. Jerry goes, he's hired as just kind of a wandering scout by the Leafs in 72.

And they said, why don't you go to Sweden? Okay. He goes to Sweden. He's the only scout there. Now, think about that. That doesn't happen today. He's in this wilderness of hockey, and second game there, he sees Boria, gives Borea's card, you know, eventually signs him at the World's, and brings him over and basically puts his reputation on

Boria and Inga Hammerstrom, and they're all sitting there at Maple Leaf Gardens go, you're right, Jerry. Well, he was bang on right. And I love the fact that I could tell Jerry's story. He got a kick out of the series with Brent. I'm thinking of 902 and O. He got a kick out of that. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jason wasn't quite as tall. But what a nice, kind man. I love that he, before he passed, he made good with the leaves. Brent Shanahan went out of his way, gave him the alumni jacket. He never had the alumni jacket. I know. And you know what the sweetest part was? Jeff, I was at Paul Pascoe's hockey alumni lunch a couple weeks ago.

And Jerry's wife was there, and I got to give her the book. So that was cool. That was like full circle. And I actually, I dedicated the book to Jerry and my kids Just because I think Jerry was, he was a link to the past And like, there's no such thing as a scout shown up now with nobody there. He was a link to the past. That was such a cool story to have in the book.

Kenny, both of our kids playing the GTHL. I got 2012, you got 2013. Yeah. Half the high-end players in my 2012 already signed. It's insane. Scouts are coming earlier and early. And every time I asked, like, I was at the Wendy Duffin, a few weeks ago with my 2012 and i saw a couple of guys i don't want to say the agency was a couple of

young guys from the agency and i'm like really like you're serious like you're going to babysit you're going to you're going to sign kids to babysit for three years before they see any kind of draft and he said everybody else's yeah everybody else's yeah it's it's it's wild it's a world but i mean that's the reality of it and my my message to parents would be after writing this book would be relax your kid's good enough they'll find them Like they're not, your kid's not going to slip through the cracks anymore. No, this is, and you know what, you know what, prove that? I'm so glad you got us there.

You know what proved that? Do you remember the show making the cut? Of course I do, yeah. There were, and I used to work at 640 doing Leaves Lunch with Bill Waters at that point. We did a promo with the show to help promote it, and I went out and escaped. I got cut right away. Kevin McGuire cut me right away. Kevin McGuire and the late Pete Zazzle cut me right, right away.

And it's right, but like I'm looking across the dressing room from me. There's like Nick Staj Duhar. of London, old London night. I'm like, the first-round draft pick of the Edmonton Oilers. What am I doing here? But I remember, like, at that time, and basically, for those who don't know, making the cut was a show that aired during the lockout of 0405, and what it was was the idea that there are some players that have slipped through the cracks,

and here's their chance to make it to the NHL. I'll tell you, a lot of scouts I talked to are pissed off at the premise of that show. Because they're always like, they're like, no, no, no, we don't miss kids. We don't miss. And there are a lot of guys doing, like, the Snoopy dance. when none of those guys ended up making it to the NHL. There's a couple of beauties in here. I love Grant Sonier.

And I love hearing Grant Sonia story, but how he got Daniel Sprong to the Charlottetown Islanders. You love that Daniel Sprong. I've always loved Daniel Sprong. Part of it's because I love the bio, love the background. I love Grant Sonia. And I love Jeff Toey too,

who now is coached with the Florida Panthers, now is the Stanley Cup champion, and was the man that brought Chris Pronger to the Peterborough Pete. So what can you share about these things? too fine, gentlemen. Well, Sonia, I mean, again, both of them paying the dues. Oh, yeah. Sonia's coaching the Somerside Western Capitals, right?

In the, I think it was even the PEI league then, back before it became, back before they merged with the Maritime League. And I think he got let go and he gets a call from his buddy, Doug McLean, who's in Detroit and, you know, Doug, there's a job in Detroit. And France, like, awesome. But it's not with the wings. Detroit. It's not with the wings.

it's with the Falcons in the United League. It's not really. Detroit. It's in a suburb. Grant takes a job as an assistant coach. And like any good student, no matter what profession you're in, if you get a break working at SportsNet or Channel 10 or at a plumbing company, soak it up. Don't just work your hours. See what else you can get from that. Well, would you mind if I went and watched that show and sat in on this?

So Grant's thinking, okay, the Detroit Red Wings are half an hour away. Dougie's in there. Well, do you mind if I come over and watch you guys practice? And Brian Murray, bless his soul, open book to Grant. Yeah, you can come. And so he kind of gets his graduate studies in coaching just by sitting there and soaking up this world of how Brian Murray's operate in the Detroit Red Wings. Eventually it turns into a job with Rick Dudley and the Detroit Vipers.

And eventually it turns into a scouting gig. with the Tampa Bay Lightning. He bounces around. He finally gets his cup with the bolts. And Tooie, the same thing. Paying the dues, right? Tuohy's first gig. He has to hitchhike to it.

He has to hitchhike to a game. And he was one of Rogers guys. He was a disciple of Roger Nilsson and the Peterborough Mafia, which you still look like, look all around hockey. And there's still all the, all the disciples of Roger Nilsen all over the NHL. Too, he's a great one to me. He is great. And if you hear pronger talk about him, it's glorious.

And Tui's in is, I love it. You're going to be the trainer. Well, I don't know anything about trainer. Well, we'll put you down as a trainer, fix a cut, and then go scout. What? So you just want to stitch guys up. Imagine being a trainer in the OHL in the mid-80s and not knowing how to do stitches. He's like, I knew how to took him out.

But that's his in. His in was to be the trainer. Like you and I, when we started in the media, my in was to be a breakfast writer in Calgary. Your in was what? At the fan in 1999, in 1994, producer, and I was the call screener for the Spider-Jones show. Exactly.

Fan 590, Spider-Jones show. Exactly. And 5-90, Spider-Jones. Yeah. And is that all you did? No, I bet you kind of hung around. Oh, hung around. Learned from like Stan Metecki and all these guys.

And that's when Elliot and I first met. And then ended up working within a year, I had a Friday night overnight show. It was me, Bob McQuitz and George Strombolopoulopoulos from one to five in the morning. And we got paid $30, not each. We got $30, $10 each. For the one shift, we said, who cares? Yep. We're on the air.

You're just like a scout, Jeff, because you knew that was your education. And if you don't quit, you'll get there. If you quit, you'll never get there. And these scouts, none of them quit. Tooie's hitchhiking to games. It's amazing. It's absolutely amazing. I am curious because you know so many of them.

And for the book, you had like, so many long conversations. and our guests is Ken Reed, author of the next one. What are they all other than, you know, pay the dues, have to love it. You know, the industry will get scouting, the scouting industry will give you a million reasons to quit. Like all these guys in this book have been given a million opportunities to quit and walk away. I always say the same thing, Kenny. Hockey will never love you back. It will never love you back.

Like you take out of it, whatever you can get out of it. It'll never love you back. What are these guys all have in common other than this, like, insane love for the sport and this gig? Is there any other thread that ties them all together? I would say if they're married, very understanding wives. Oh, amen to that. Yeah. These guys live on the road.

So the wives do all the hard work. Just shout out to the wives. The rule they all have pretty much, got to see a guy six times. Don't fall in love on the first date. You know, you can't fall in love with a player. They've all been burned that way. But what do they all have other than past? a love of the game

I think they have not only a love of the game but a love of people because I would say that's what they have. They have a love of people because their job is to not really become the player's friend but to establish a trust between

not a two-way trust but they have to trust that player. They have to trust that player to go that's the kid I recommend. So and Paul Henry in the book I had a great, somebody told me a great line on Paul Henry. He was this, he's the pipeline for the Halifax Moose heads to Europe.

Paul leads with empathy. Paul's the first scout that came up with the interview, the draft process interview. And Paul's background is in psychology. And he came up with it. He told me, and this part isn't in the book, but he told me this a couple weeks ago when I saw him. He said, I didn't come up with it to quiz the player on what he knew. I came up with it because I wanted to know if the player needed help. Like, is he from a tough background?

Is there a way we can help him adjust to the game? No way. So I thought that was really cool. I think these scouts all care. As much as they might look like heartless guys up with a corner and the scout fit. Just ripping kids. Just roasting kids. Just stoking a skater.

Can't pass. They care. They all have that in common. They care. Other than passion for the game, they care about the kids. One last thing. I'll share one of my favorite scouting stories with you. I remember being at St. Mike Serena.

Okay, Bathurst in St. Clair in Toronto. And it was O.HL Toronto, Toronto majors against the Barry Colts. And I remember talking to a Maple Leaf Scout. And we were blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And this is before the game even starts. And I wanted to see Brian Little. Barry Colts in town, I wanted to see Brian Little. And so did all the scouts there.

And before the puck drops, he folds up his paper is, He goes, well, I'm leaving. Yep. And I said, what do you mean you're leaving? He goes, our general manager just walked in. I've watched Brian Little for five years. He's going to see him once and make his mind up about him. What's the point of me being here?

Yeah. I'm sure you've heard that story from a lot of the guys. Oh, great, the GMs here. He's going to see him twice and have them all figured out. The best GMs listen to their scouts. The best GMs let the scouts have. It's the first say. And there's a great story in the book about that, about Rick Kinnickle,

just going up to David Poil and going, you've got to trade up to 90. Maybe it was 91 to get two to. You got to do it. You got to do it. And Poil trusted him. And what a player, the Predators picked out of nowhere. I wish we had more time. Kenny, I could do this all day, every day.

The next one, hockey scouts, remote rinks, and hidden talent, Ken Reed has been my guest. Listen, buddy, best of luck with this book. It is another home run. from you in this string of tape measure home run hockey books that you've written. So continued success and go DMF. Yeah, go DMF. Yeah, call me anytime, Jeffrey. I always happy to come on even when I don't have anything to plug.

You're always a great talker, Kenny. You've always had that gab. Maritime's bad. Glad I found a way to make a living out of it, as my father says. Beats working for a living, pal. Beets working for a living, pal. Sure does, buddy. You be good.

Thanks, Jeffie. There he is the great Ken Reed, who amongst other titles, that you might want to check out. Hockey Card Stories is fantastic. Hometown Hockey Heroes. I'm a big fan of One Night Only from Kenny Reid. One to Remember is a great one. The history of the other.

Players with one goal in their career and his latest offering, the next one. All right. And thanks to Ken Reed for stopping by that book. By the way, the next one available, wherever you get fine publications like this, and that includes online and Amazon. Prime Monday Night Hockey. This segment is a presentation,

Monday night hockey. Prime Monday night hockey streams all national regular season Monday night NHL games on Prime Video in Canada and is available free to Prime members in Canada. Stream Prime Monday Night hockey exclusively on Prime Video and experience thrilling goals and dramatic plays from the NHL. Monday nights are hockey nights, folks. Don't miss a moment of the action Monday, November 24th. Senators are out on the West Coast to take on the Kings. Puck drops there at 9 o'clock Eastern. Check out the link in our description for the Prime Monday night hockey schedule on Prime Video or go to PrimeVideo.com slash NHL. Also on Prime Video, face off inside the NHL season two.

Subscribe with a 30-day free trial to Prime Video to watch Monday Night Hockey and the new season of faceoff. Download the app or go to Prime Video.com. And someone who has been standing by listening to me blather on about scouts is the great Dave Panjota, DFO Insider here from the fourth period. Dave, thanks so much for being patience. and just to dovetail what Kenny was talking about Scouts are some of my favorite people in the world It is the lifeblood, the backbone, the spine

of the entire operation finding kids And listen, in your line of work, you talk to everybody from GMs to coaches to players to scouts to Zamboni drivers to peanut vendors to all of it on your ladder of like people you love talking to Where do you place scouts? Oh, they're up there.

Yeah, without question, because you get a variety of different things from them. You get the proper analysis when you want to figure out a player and figure out where they may fit. They provide that. They've got some great stories. You mentioned how much these guys

are traveling and on the road. A ton of great stories from these guys. I really enjoyed that when you just shared when the GM comes in. He's like, all right, well, that's it for me. No point me being here. Yeah. There's a lot of those.

But yeah, just, you know, these guys are road warriors more than anything. And, you know, just to get some of those stories and then just to get their interpretation and their analysis of some of the guys that are out there, some of the players may not even be, you know, ones that they're looking at. You know, obviously scouts have different jobs. Some are looking at other athletes. Some are looking at the opposition to, you know, report back to the coaching staff and so on and so on. But just to get their perspective on the game, I always love doing that. Yeah, there's some.

And you know, the great part about them is they love talking. They're on the road a lot. They listen to a lot of, like the number one, if you could break it down this way, like maybe the number one demographic for listening to hockey podcasts or scouts. Right. They travel a ton, right? And it's just like podcast, podcast, podcast. And they love talking on the phone.

Bless them. Bless each and every one of them now. And most of these guys can do that while they're going through their long drives because they're not booking flights everywhere. Oh, no, no, you're right. We're being strategic. You're in the car. Yeah, and they are, they're in the car, and they got time to kill, and they're only too happy to talk and complain.

Bless them. Bless each and every one of them. All right, Buffalo Sabres and Alex Tucker. I think it was a couple of times ago. You and I talked about the decision here, both for Tuck and the Buffalo Sabers. Where's that situation at now? Like we're, I don't know, man, this is like, you know, quarter of the season review here for Kevin Adams. Where the swords at on Alex tuck?

And where's tuck in his camp at? Yeah. Still, you know, the response that I get from both sides is status quo. But at the same time, we're getting further along in the season now. And, you know, the sabers have been up and down. They're at the bottom of the east again right now. they need to figure out what they want to do and what direction they want to go in here.

And that decision has to come sooner rather than later because you need to figure out when it's time to you know what or get off the pot here because you can't keep going through the same motions over and over and over again. And if there's the possibility of losing a guy like Alex Tuck who has expressed his interest in staying there, He wants to be there, obviously wants a competitive contract.

If the Sabres don't feel they can get into that, which is, I would imagine, in and around the, like, he hits the open market. He's, he's in the 10-11 range per year on a full-term deal. Do the Sabres want to go in that direction? It doesn't sound like it right now. And again, and I mentioned this earlier on in the week, too. This is in a scenario where they're seeing the phone ring and they're going, I'm just going to ignore Kevin's call or I'm going to ignore Brian's call or whatever. They're still open to communicating, but there hasn't been any significant progress in the last little bit here,

or really at all this season. So I think a lot of it has to deal with Buffalo just figuring out what they want to do and then what they need to do. And a lot of that will evolve around where Alex Tuck fits because if we hit January and they're in the same position, both standing-wise and with these conversations, Yeah. You got to look at getting a haul for him.

Do you get a sense that from the, because when you mentioned status quo, like status quo around Alex Tuck is different than status quo around like Jason Robertson, where it's an RFA versus a UFA. You'd look at, you know, status quo for Robertson and say, well, okay, so he's still under team control. I think it's still pressing, but it's not the same as Alex Tuck who can walk away on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on. July 1st. Exactly. Is there, like, to the best of your knowledge, like, is there a time, because some players will do this, like, look, at a certain time of the year, I am not, I'm going to stop negotiating.

Like, at a certain, at a certain point, I can't live with this every single day. Like, to your point, like, are we dancing or are we not? Right. Do we know if, like, is, is Tuck like that? Does Tuck have, like, a line in the sand or a drop dead date or a sort of target? here past which he'll just say like look um i i can't talk contract after the state you know check me out after we're after the end of the season or after we're out of the playoffs yeah i haven't gotten that sense yet that there's a definitive time frame there where where that's the case

like with adrian kempi for example he wanted to get something done by by the olympic break at the very latest like that was drop dead for him because you go past that you have the uncertainty of the trade deadline the uncertainty where the team's going to go the uncertainty of his future, he didn't want to deal with that. And he wanted something start of the season. Then he was hoping for, you know, between when he signed and the end of the calendar year. And so he had multiple different spots in the season. I haven't gotten that sense with Tuck.

And he may very well have that. And him and his camp may say, all right, by this day, that's it. Nothing's been relayed from either side with respect to that. But, you know, talking around and reading some of the tea leaves, I've got to imagine that, again, when you get it, get close to that halfway point if there's no real indicator that they can get something done and the sabres are still, you know, hovering around the bottom, I've got to imagine they start to seriously consider moving him because this should be a scenario where if we're building

and we're trying to insulate our team and we don't want to deal with the Dahlene discussion and the Thompson discussion, Tuck's kind of in that world too. You've got to make a decision and just say, look, we're going to lock this guy up and then figure out some of the other pieces here. But clearly that just hasn't been the case so far. All right, off of Buffalo to the team that Bill Simmons called Irrelevant, who, you know, went into Toronto and beat them three to two. And a lot of it at the hands of Adam Fantilli. Now, we've made a lot of O'Connor Bardard, and rightfully so. We've made a lot of Leo Carlson this year, rightfully so.

How about the guy that went third? Adam Fantilli, what's happening there? He was fantastic last night. He always steps up. He's got the family in town. The family is in town. They live here. Jack Reeves, too.

Yeah, yeah. Who's the other kid? Del Bellouz? Yeah, Luke at Del Bellalooz. Yeah, fantastic name. You know, half of Woodbridge and Nobleton. and Kleinberg were at the game last night, and they were all taking that in. And Ventilly does well.

He does well in front of the family. Look, he's been solid. And a little slow out of the gate, but really rolling, 16 points in 20, 21 games, whatever it is. My understanding, they've opened that line of communication. They've had that, and he seems to be a priority for the blue jackets in terms of, you know, next in line to get locked in. So they're going to have those conversations.

like you mentioned Carlson, and we touched on this, I think, a week or so ago, you know, nothing really going on there, but that's by design with the Ducks. They're not worried about it. And I think Pat Favik even said on one of the game broadcasts, the Ducks game broadcast this past week, that it's part of their plan. They're not rushing into anything. They're comfortable. They'll figure that out once they get to it later in the season or wait until the summer.

Same situation with Cutter Gochia. But with Fantilli, it sounds like there have been discussions back and forth between Donnie Waddell and his representation and trying. to get something locked in here probably looking i would imagine the team wants a full term go eight years on it and then they just have to figure out kind of the the dollar situation and how that's going to be spread out if his side is willing to go that that full term as well but it seems like that's a bit of a priority for Columbus obviously they have to deal with a few other things um like every other club but for them you know chinikov is still available they're still having conversations

they have a few other things that they're working on um as well but um you know certainly sounds like Fantilli is a priority with respect to the pecking order in Columbus. Anything with St. Louis, that's another team that in advance of the dreaded, you know, next Thursday and U.S. Thanksgiving, anything with the Blues. Things have not gone as planned or hoped. No, it hasn't by any stretch. And they're still very active. They're still having their communication, or excuse me, calls and discussions,

conversations, was what I was trying to say, with some of the other teams that are out there that are looking at multiple pieces. And it's the same guys that are out there that we've talked about. The Falks, the Shenz, Kairu is still a big part of the discussion point. I've heard some teams, there are a few teams in the Western Conference that really like, and I think a couple in the Pacific, that really like Kairu and have had that conversation going back and forth. We know Seattle has been one.

I'm really interested, we just touched briefly on the Ducks, and the Ducks are a team that willing to go big fish hunting to a certain extent. I wonder about them and Jordan Cairo. I know there's been some level of interest expressed in the past. So I'm curious there. But, yeah, with St. Louis, it's kind of status quo. The one interesting thing I started to hear this past week was, you know, Doug Armstrong is supposed to hand over the GM role to Alex Dean next season.

Yes. He'll be, you know, remaining as president and whatnot. Some people have been saying they wonder if that gets prolonged. If, you know, Doug Armstrong wants to lead. that role with this team in this current state. So I'm curious about that. I wonder if there's an extended stay at that level or at least within that responsibility. But first things first, they've got to figure out the rest of this season.

And they're fully engaged in an Army's fully engaged in a lot of discussions right now with teams trying to piece, trying to get some of those pieces out of there. I want to get a quick thought on the Edmonton Oilers. But before we get there, Lena Solmark is rolling. right now for the Ottawa senators. Are you hearing anything with regards to what Ottawa might be looking at? Or is this just a case where Ottawa is in a position right now where you're just letting everything marinate. You have this really nice hot house where all these players can just develop

and get better and better because all the bricks have been laid. Yeah. And it's been like this is another team that, you know, their GM Steve Steehouse would love to make a big impactful move. move, bring in another guy up front to help with this club. But that's the hockey type trade. It looks like he wants to go in that direction again, but he's not rushing into anything. So keeping a solid perimeter check, trying to see what's out there and when the right

opportunity is to pounce. But teams doing well. Brady's, you know, on the mend and whatnot. They're willing to be patient with it and just let things go. They certainly, you know, don't believe that last year was. an anomaly by any stretch. They want to build off that, and they feel they've got the pieces in place right now,

especially with Allmark playing the way he is, that they can maintain a solid, steady pace moving forward, and if the right pieces kind of come in. But he's, you know, stay house anyway, is the one that's kind of just lurking right now, and if the opportunity arises, he's not afraid to pounce by any stretch. So the New Jersey Devils have a lot of right-shot defensemen.

So here we go. Darnel Nurse for Dougie Hamilton. The Oilers, the goaltending. Darnel Nurse for UC Soros. Rumors everywhere, every game. Last night's not going to call... That's what happened last night. It's not going to calm anything down around Edmonton.

They got one more game on this road trip against the Florida Panthers. What are you hearing out of Edmonton? I'm just throwing a couple... Lobb in a couple easy ones that have just been sort of whispered over the last little while that would probably come from nowhere and may go nowhere. But I'm sure you've heard them all, Dave. Yep, yeah. There have been a few others.

There's nurse. there's that one too that's out there as well with some links to the Oilers and a guy like Owen Tippett but first of all with respect to Nurse he's got full trade protection and the captain really likes him they're buddies

so yeah like this is this is more than just a hockey there are multiple factors that are going to be involved here and I know that's the easy one because he's making what nine million and they have no cap space so if you want to do anything impactful you got to look to where can that money

go. I haven't heard anything concrete with respect to that. Now, that doesn't mean they're not going to have discussions later on because, you know, Stan Bowman and company may go, yeah, you guys want us to do all these things. We can't, somebody's got to go. And who's the guy that's going to fall on that grenade or that knife or whatever? It's going to be potentially that player in Darnell Nurse. But no indication from my side anyway that he would consider it right now and that they've had any serious conversations about it. I know the goaltending is always something that's being, you know, brought up consistently. Again, the answer I give is wait till the summer.

I'm expecting the Oilers to be very, very aggressive in the off season because they'll have roster and cap flexibility to do it. It might be if they do anything now, unless somehow they're making that elevated move, you're probably doing a little bit of window dressing the rest of the season. The, I don't disagree with you that that might be the wise thing to do. Like, I'm, it makes complete sense. The only complicating factor for me is, and maybe complicating for Stan Bowman as well, I just don't know how you go to Connor McDavid and say,

thanks for the deal on the contract. Now we're not going to really go for it this year. Like I think that Connor's sign thinking, we're going to have three swings at this thing, not two, not one. Which, like, that's, That to me seems like a comp, like, hey, you know what, we could make a deal for the goaltender right now, but, you know, we don't have a lot of cap space, and it's going to be tough. And I just don't know how you go back to Connor and say, yeah, we're not going to really go for it this year.

Like, it has to be a few go-for years. Yeah, well, look, I've got to imagine that conversation happened in the summer when they had this, the talk of what's the direction of this team? And I think it was relayed that this year might be tough or tougher to make improvements just, because of where we're at. You know, there's a reason why they did some, you know, they made limited moves in the off season. They didn't do anything overly significant. And then you have, you know, you start the season, you don't have Zach Hyman. And now Nuge is dealing with, you know, some, some complications as well. So they're not, they haven't been fully healthy. It's been a lot of hockey the last couple of years. It's going to be slow out of the gate for this club, at least in

that first half of the season. But I would imagine that the message was relayed that if we are going to do anything significant or impactful, it's probably going to have to be next off season because of just how handcuffed we are. I believe that part of that message at the very least was relayed to Connor and understood when he ultimately decided, okay, this is what I want to do. I'm going to do two years and we'll go from there.

Interesting. Interesting times. Listen, have a great weekend. Never a dull moment around your phone. Keep it charged. And we'll chat again in 70. Let me ask you a question. When's the last time you actually turned it off?

I know, like, once upon a time, we kind of felt we were allowed to. And then that 2 a.m. Eric Johnson, St. Louis, Colorado trade happened. And we all went like, well, never again. Are we turning our phones on mute overnight? Like, we got to keep these. When's the last time you actually turned it off? I don't, I honestly don't know. Even including summer.

Like, I know it died once on me in summer. And I was like, you got to be kidding me. Like now something is going to happen. Thankfully, it didn't because all the GMs took the summer off, clearly. But that was it. That was, in terms of actually turning it off,

I have no idea, Jeff, I don't know. Keep it charged, bud. Keep it charged. Thanks. All the best. Have a great weekend. We'll talk next week. You too, man.

See up. There is, the great Dave Panjota from DFO, Info Insider from the fourth period. We always thank Dave for his contributions here each and every Friday on the sheet. Wow, cloud through a lot of stuff there, hey. Zach, we just went through like a whole ton of stuff with,

with Reader, and then Dave just like crammed in. Like there's like the jug of orange juice and then there's like the can of concentrate and like Dave just like crammed all of that in as much as he, as much as he could in the time we had with them. So thanks to both those gentlemen for stopping by the show

today, but we still have more business to take care of and more things to talk about. And that includes the stat of the day, which is a presentation of Uber Eats. Uber Eats is enabling fans to maximize their fandom all season long with exclusive game day deals on the app from game day eats to paper plates and napkins

if you're hosting to all the ingredients you need to make your favorite game day dip before, during, and after the game, Uber Eats is assisting every fan's experience all season long. What do you have for us today on the stat du jour? That's stat of the day, by the way. Yeah, this one's a...

Yeah, this one's a... Exactly. This one is a newer one. this in terms of not digging as far back in history here so we're going to november 21st 22 kail mccar of the colorado avalanche became the fastest defenseman in n hl history to earn 200 career points doing so in just 1095 games the reason i more so went with this one i think we've talked about this twice in the last week and a half i can't remember exactly what the context was but this has specifically been brought up twice on the show and when i was doing my research for the stat of the day and looking at like today in history i was like well that's

convenient because i've now heard this for the third time and it's not new to anybody but i'm like just the fact that it happened today in history was the reason that i wanted to pull that up because it's just timely in terms of what we've brought up over the last little while are you with me that Kale Makar, with all due respect to Nathan McKinnon, for example, that Kail Makar so far has been the best player in the NHL this season. Or am I just being numb to how great McKinnon's been? I think a little numb to McKinnon, but I do understand what you're saying, and I can't poo-poo that.

Like, I'm with you on him. It's hard because I don't think either of them should take away from what the other one has done, think them being there naturally just does where it's like well macar's being so good so mcannon couldn't be the best player in the n h o and vice versa um no i'll go i'll agree with you on this one i think he's being the best player in the n hl this year you know and i think takes the top like to me like right now he's your heart trophy winner to me no one's done anything i know we've talked a lot about you know what shafer's doing and celebrini and bidar but those are all like the then leo carlson but those are all the uh the right now guys like wow this is amazing but like

what Kail Makar is doing as a defender. And I think one of the problems, and I'm guilty of this, I'm not putting myself aside from anybody else, is I think we have a hard time measuring and evaluating defensemen. And I think we always have. Like this is nothing new. This stretches back to like 1917 when the NHL started.

Like how do we measure defenders? I think we're getting better at it. I think we have more tools available to us. But as far as coming up with a consensus about what makes a great defenseman, I don't know that any of us or any closer to all being on the exact same page. But, and again, I will admit,

I always have a positional bias with regards to this position. But I think back to the last time a defenseman won the Hart trophy, is Chris Pronger. Yeah. Chris Pronger was the last one to win the Norris Trophy. 25 years ago and you're telling me that since then

there hasn't been one defenseman who you think is the best player or most important player or most valuable player to his team

for the heart trophy I know Connor is there a year I know Connor Hallibuck is the guy right now because it's last year's heart trophy but like

there hasn't been one really it's kind of taken on the form of like the heisman in college football where it's like it's a quarterback award essentially and it's not exclusively a forward award in the n hl um it but you know college football you basically look at it and it's like well here's the best uh quarterback of the season and he's the best quarterback on the best team that's your heisman trophy winner ladies and gentlemen like well what about the guy who did this and it just kind of gets excluded because there's also a, it's tougher to evaluate them if you can just look at some of these stats from quarterbacks in those situations. Question on this for you, is there a year that you could think of where you think that guy was robbed

defenseman-wise of winning the Hart trophy? You think the defenseman should have won it, he didn't, and you're like, that should have been it since Chris Pronger won it. Since Chris Pronger won it? Well, I certainly think that there have been some seasons where Kail Makar should have. There was, there have been a couple of seasons where I think both Drew Doughty and Alex Petrangelo or Eric Carlson, for that matter, in Ottawa. Well, Carlson was the best player in the world for like two years.

say a bare minimum, yeah. Okay, I'm with you there. Feathers, but there were, there were seasons where one of those three should have, should have won the Hart Trophy. You think of what Eric Carlson meant to the Ottawa Senators. Yeah. And how great he was and how he helped a lot of people sort of reevaluate how you judge defensemen and how you measure defensemen and their greatness.

But those, those are the three that really jumped to mind ever since, uh, proxie. longer in 2000. And now I just see it more with Kale McCar and just wonder myself like, okay, if anyone's going to break the mold, they're going to have to do something. Like, how are you going to be better than Kail McCar? And I even say that,

looking at Matthew Schaefer and project, like how good this guy is going to be. I don't know. Being a defenseman's really hard in the NHL. As far as like the greats go, that's why I look at what McCar is doing and say with all the respect to Nathan McKinnon, he's it, man.

He's it. He's the thing. By the way, and I know you saw this, but Matthew Schaefer, as you just brought up, he was added to the Olympic protocol for the drug testing, which would make him eligible to be added. You know, we call that the Dixie Cup. He got the Dixie Cup.

It's Olympic years. He gets a Dixie Cup. Here you go, son. Here's your cup, sir. Go give us your apple juice. That's right. Yeah, a couple quick squirts. Bring it right back.

Okay, you're good to go. You have to, off to Italy. Yeah, it's saw that. So that could be some good news. Hey, Mom, I got the X-Ego. Anytime I think of that testing, all I can think of is the scene in Austin Powers. I can't even explain it properly, but that's the only thing that comes to mind. Whenever I think of that, like the drug testing, I always think of WWE.

And when they had to, when the steroid scandal happened, and they had to, like, go through drug testing in all then-WF, Hulk Hogan famously used to have the ring announcer Howard Finkel piss for him. He's submitting Howard Finkel to your intent. I don't know why that's so funny, but it is. Howard Finkel would squirt for Hogan. It's good. Yeah, there you go. Let's get the table here on the Friday afternoon.

It's a Friday. Yeah, can you tell? Can you tell it's a Friday? All right, here we go. The sheet is powered by Fanduel play your Howard Finkel. Play your game with Fanduel. The PWH returns today, November 21st, and Fanduel is your home for all the action on the ice

until the Walter Cup is lifted. Can Minnesota do it three times in a row? From Blue Line to Bet Slip, Fanduel has you covered with the PWHL futures markets, game and player props, same game parles, live betting, and novelties. Download Fandual Sportsbook today and play your game. Please play responsibly,

19 plus, and physically located in Ontario. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling, 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. Wrap us up today, Zach. Yeah, we got PWHL games on the schedule tonight. We do.

We do. We kicks off tonight. So we have two tonight. A couple this weekend here as well. So looking over at Fandole right now, just some updated lines for people. The SEPTAs there against the frost in Minnesota tonight, plus 114 for Toronto.

minus 137 for Minnesota, Seattle on the road at Vancouver, plus 106, minus 128 against Vancouver. Then you look to this weekend, the charge, host the New York Sirens, New York plus 115, minus 138 for Ottawa. And then friend of the program, who we haven't had on for a while, but should have back soon, Aaron Ambrose. Yeah, on the road at Boston Fleet, Boston minus 102, Montreal, favorite on the road, 118. Jeff, by the way, I saw a promotional thing that was going around today for the return of PWHL, excuse me, and it was bar down, the bar down team, so credit to them. They sat down with the PWH players and did the same thing they do at the NHL where they asked them, not hockey stuff, like just ask them stuff, right? Which is awesome. They were asking them all, who's the most

famous person in your phone? Who do you think most of the PWHL players answered? was the most famous person in their phone. Marie-Philippe Poulin. Correct. It was. Yes. And I was like, you probably have technically more famous people, but I know exactly why you did that, and you are correct. MPP.

The player that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. wore her jersey. Game born, by the way, the game seven of the World Series. I'll tell you. I remember being at Team Canada orientation camp. This would have been for the 2010 Olympics. And the women were skated. This is when Marie-Philippe Poulin was like really young. She said, it's just a kid.

And I remember talking to Cassie before. I'm like, hey, who should I pay attention to with the young kids? And she's like, oh, you got to look, you got to see Poulin. You got to see Poulin. You got to see Poulin. This kid's amazing. And so I was, so the women were skating and the guys were just starting to come in from their skates in Calgary. And guys were starting to come in because they were skating afterwards.

And all the guys just come in, just ignore what's going on on the ice. And it was me, Steve Cooleus, and Craig Button. We're standing there. We're all watching 29. And Vinilla, I'll never forget it. Vinnie La Cavillier comes over and starts watching with us and goes like, who's 29? And I go like, oh, Vinie, like, Marie-Philippe Palin. Like, she's like the next big style.

Like, she's like phenomenal. And so he watches, watches a little bit longer. And he goes, that's a fucking player. and then goes back and then go back to him just like game knows game man like he can watch like five minutes and go like this one

I'll never forget that that's a fucking player that's a fucking player Fini La Caville yeah never forget that never forget that moment all right why don't you do this

why don't you take us off the air I like doing this every now and work on your chops kid I'll hand it over to you all the promos all the cliches all the whatever you got to do take us off the air

Zacharoo. You need something good at the end of the week. I saw your Maple Leaf's lost a tough one last night. We've ignored it. We've left it alone. Process. To the irrelevant franchise. The Columbus Blue Jackets getting the derision and the scorn from Bill Simmons and just right away took out all their frustrations on

your team. So finish us off today, Philly. Take us off the air. What a week? It's been here on the sheet. Thanks to everybody who tuned in all the way across morning cup of hockey. to Daily Face Off Live for the DFO Insider's edition. We appreciate you for watching, liking, subscribing to all of our content.

A reminder, if you haven't done so yet, make sure to do so on your way out. Enjoy the weekend, enjoy the games. PWHL action returns to your screens tonight. Thanks to Ken Reed for stopping by here. Make sure to pick up his book, the next one available wherever you get your books, as you see up on the screen there held up by the one and only Jeff Merritt. Thanks to Dave Peggna for stopping by. Providing insight from all around the NHL as he does right here on the Sheik once a week every Friday.

Thanks to everyone who watched. Thanks to everyone who listened. Subscribe on all your podcast platforms on your way out. Like, subscribe, do all that good stuff. Drop comments about what you liked about the show this week. We'll be back on Monday at 1 p.m. Eastern time. Myself, the chimp over Jeff's shoulder for this little act we call the sheet. Did you even take a breath?

Thanks for the buttons And the use of the hall Tipper Zamboni drivers on the way out Yeah Thanks everybody You take a breath now You think a breath now Phil I'm like

He's gonna start turning red You just turn him blue Never mind I kind of was I started going and rolling I don't There's a What are you doing

Now you're deep pan yoda on the screen Look at you You don't know whether A shit cry or wind your wristwatch Philly Holy smokes What's going on with you I was trying to breathe

And then hit a keypad On my thing Oh, man. Just press the button. Yeah, yeah. All right. But we did it. We made it.

We hit all the big things. We got it. No messing up this time like the last one where it was this Kong show on the way. I got to go do a hit in Ottawa. Take us up to you. All right. Thanks, everybody. See you on Monday.

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 and trying to give me a little medicine I'm like now and that's fine I'm not against those methods but new

it's me and myself and how this is going to be fixed in my mind to go on the back I turned on the music I do on the backer I turned on the music It's turned up there I don't get you sometimes losing

I've been on the days that we're wrong