The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Woll to Philadelphia, Tortorella OUT in Vegas, & CHL Season Recap ft. David Pagnotta & Dan MacKenzie

Episode Date: June 16, 2026

Fresh off the Carolina Hurricanes' Stanley Cup victory, today's edition of The Sheet with Jeff Marek dives into some of the biggest stories around the hockey world. First, Jeff is joined by Canadian Hockey League President Dan MacKenzie to discuss the current state of the CHL, the success of the 2026 Memorial Cup in Kelowna, the league's evolving landscape, player development, and what's next for major junior hockey across Canada.Later, David Pagnotta joins the show to break down the first significant move of the John Chayka era in Toronto as the Maple Leafs complete a trade with the Philadelphia Flyers. The deal sends Joseph Woll and Simon Benoit to Philadelphia in exchange for Emil Andrae, Samuel Ersson, and a 2026 third-round pick. What does the move mean for Toronto's goaltending situation, roster construction, and offseason plans moving forward?Pagnotta also weighs in on another major development around the NHL as the Vegas Golden Knights announce that John Tortorella will not return as head coach. What led to the decision, where do the Golden Knights go from here, and what could be next for one of hockey's most recognizable bench bosses?Plus, Jeff shares his thoughts on the latest headlines from around the NHL as the offseason begins to heat up.📺 Subscribe for daily NHL coverage, breaking news, insider analysis, prospect talk, and interviews from across the hockey world.SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼 Canadian Blood Services: https://www.blood.ca/👍🏼 Ninja: https://www.sharkninja.ca/ninja-crispi-pro-6-in-1-countertop-glass-air-fryer-rose-quartz/AS101CRS.html?utm_source=Meta&utm_medium=Paid+Social&utm_campaign=H1NinjaCrispi&utm_content=NinjaEN&dwvar_AS101CRS_color=cdb9b8Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!#NHL #TheSheet #JeffMarek #DavidPagnotta #TorontoMapleLeafs #LeafsForever #JosephWoll #SamuelErsson #EmilAndrae #PhiladelphiaFlyers #VegasGoldenKnights #JohnTortorella #CHL #DanMacKenzie #MemorialCup #HockeyReach 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.

Do do do do do. I am still waiting for that. A little extra. Stanley Cup playoffs. Bump. But we ain't getting anymore because the season's over and the off season has begun. How do we know that? Well, it's news, news, news, and trades.

The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Philadelphia Flyers getting together on a deal. More on that coming up in a couple of seconds. One thing that I just wanted to mention, we'll get into it in a couple of seconds after the intro here with the blueprint. And then we bring Dave Panjota aboard. The joint statement between the... the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Sportsnet about the end of the relationship between CBC and SportsNet. After a successful 12-year partnership, the two parties announcing the public broadcaster that is the CBC will no longer carry NHL broadcasts as it moves forward with a new sports programming strategy, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Watching hockey on Saturday nights is a time-honored tradition for Canadians. True Sportsnet privilege and continue delivering that tradition, etc., etc., etc, terrific partnership, blah, blah, blah, blah. Both parties look forward to continued opportunities to collaborate in the future. Okay, so what does that mean? So what that means is essentially there will still be Saturday night hockey, but it will be carried by Sportsnet. It will not be carried free by CBC.

That's it. Questions that I have is, what happens to the brand, hockey night in Canada, that is owned by CBC. I know while I was there, I always found it odd, that the CBC, handled the Hockey Night in Canada Twitter feed editorially, yet the Hockey Night in Canada brand itself was used

by Rogers for the Saturday Night games, playoffs, etc. Yet editorially, that was carried by CBC. So we'll get some clarity on that, I'm sure. But if anyone's thinking, okay, so that's it for Saturday Night hockey in Canada,

no, it's just only going to be on Sportsnet. It will not be carried. for free for Canadians, which I know was a major issue once upon a time in the bidding process for the national rights.

I remember talking to someone who was part of the bid for Rogers who, when it looked like, you know, the deal was going to happen, the NHL essentially said to Rogers, you might want to get to CBC quick and do a deal for hockey night in Canada. Anyhow, that relationship is now over.

That is a relationship that on television goes back to 1952, although the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was doing games on radio going back to 1933, and the name Hockey Night in Canada was not used until 1936. In 1968, Dolores Clammon came up with the hockey theme. That is the Hockey Night in Canada theme, which was sold by her and her group to TSN, I want to say, in 2008, somewhere in there. So anyway, so that's the very latest there. Now, away from broadcasting and onto hockey, we have a lot to get

to today. It is a massive show for some reasons, which we will document here in a couple of moments with Dave Panyoda. The blueprint is powered by Fandul. Download the app today and play your game on Fandil. Or moments away from Dave Panyota, DFO Insider from the fourth period. We'll stop by here

and we'll talk about a significant trade, which opens up some cap space and possibilities for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Dan McKenzie recorded an interview with him earlier on today. He's the president of the CHL. And one of the things that we talked about was not necessarily ending the relationship between the CHL and Hockey Canada, but having a special kind of relationship, which would see essentially, Hockey Canada treat the CHL kind of like college hockey, which would enable the CHL

to take whichever players they want, kind of like how, college hockey takes, whichever CHL players they want to take. No transfer fees, no releases, you just go. Mentioned the Philadelphia-Trono trade. We'll get into that with Dave in a second. John Tortorella, as we've been talking about for the last little while, out in Vegas. And we'll talk about Men's Health Week here coming up towards the end of the show as well. So lots to get to, let's bring our man Dave on today, who's a sort of last-minute

audible here. And Dave, listen, I really thank you for making yourself. available quickly here. A lot to get to, before we get to the Philadelphia, Toronto, I don't know if you have a thought on the big issue

in broadcasting and the CBC and SportsNet, that relationship over. There will, again, to clarify for people, there will still be hockey night games on Saturday. It just won't be carried by CBC.

It'll be carried by Sportsnet. And that's, so that tradition of Hockey Night in Canada, which on television goes back to 1952, is now over, Dave. Roger's 12-year deal Okay, we're going to get Dave down. We're going to get Dave to reconnect

you having a little bit of issue with his audio video. So again, I went over at the top. So that's the very latest as it relates to the hockey night in Canada situation. Again, my question is what happens to the brand, which is owned by CBC? Is Rogers still allowed to use that brand, even though it is owned by CBC?

I don't know. these things will all be revealed in due time. In the meantime, the trade that we've been talking about here, Joe Wall, Netminder goes to the Philadelphia Flyers along with Simon Benoit in exchange for Emil Andre and Samuel Erson, along with a third round draft pick in this year's NHL draft. When it comes to trades like this, I always take a wait-and-see approach. I know everybody wants the instant reaction.

And my instant reaction to this is, let's see what, John Chacon does with the cap space. Because this one to me just looks like a cap dump. I don't know they even qualify Samuel Erson. It looks like Dennis Hilde will be the backup for the Toronto Maple Leafs next season. This one looks like straight dump. And I would imagine Emil Andre, who's a 5-9 left-shot defenseman from the Philadelphia Flyers, will probably be an up-and-down guy between the Marleys and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

So this one does look like strictly a... a salary cap dump with the Maple Leafs opening up $5 million of cap space on that one. We've got Dave back. Sorry about that. Dave had some problems with the audio video. Quick thought on the HNIC situation. Yeah, well, you know, as you touched on, it's, you know, Canada, we're still going to have hockey on Saturdays. It's just not on CBC. It'll be on Rogers.

Yeah, traditionally, or tradition rather, gets pushed aside a little bit. but, you know, Rogers' new 12-year deal kicks in in a couple of weeks. And we're going to hear more, Jeff. We're going to hear more on the Canadian broadcast landscape. You've been all over. Yeah. Yeah, Amazon's renewing their package. And I want to tiptoe around some things only because nothing is done yet still.

And I don't want to piss too many people off beyond the ones I've already done. Only a few. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Coming here for the Stanley Cup final was fun, especially the first day. But there will be more. Amazon is renewing, and it looks like they are moving to Wednesdays. That's what they want, as opposed to Monday. And then there's still talk of Crave getting into the mix on the bell side.

If that does happen, it is the TSN folks. but on Crave, not on TSN. So if that does happen, that would be another streaming aspect. And then the French side as well needs to be renewed. And there have been a lot of hurdles there with TVA and SportsNet and trying to make this all work. So what was expected two weeks ago to kind of be firmed up has been faced with a lot of back and forth,

unexpected back and forth. And there's even some chatter that may. Maybe Rogers enters the French mix outside of TVA. So we'll see kind of how that all unfolds, but it's all coming together. And this is, I guess, the first domino with Rogers revealing that everything's going to be back on Sportsnet. And unfortunately, for those who love that tradition of CBC, Hockey Night of Canada, unfortunately, that chapter is now closed. Well, it gets your coverage all over the country for free. Like, I know this was a big one for the NHL and always has been for the obvious reasons.

you want to have your product available to as many households as possible. And CBC provided that going back to 1952. So from a distribution point of view, it's certainly different. And I don't think Canadians will be thrilled overall by this news. Like you're getting into every home. Nonetheless, we'll see how this one, by the way, this one took a while. Like we've been, you've been all over it so you know better than I do. this like the whole broadcast package in Canada.

Like once it was announced, a new 12 year package with Rogers for the Amazon's and craves and all these things. Like this one took a long, I don't know if you have a thought on it or if there's a reason for it. Yeah. This one took a long time, Dave. Yeah, it's still going. Like as of yesterday,

nothing's done. And you would anticipate, like I was told while I first found out all the info that we wasn't going to be anything done by the start of the cup final. but maybe draft or that last week of June, and that still seems to be the target, but there's still hesitancy there. Like there's a lot of back and forth kind of going on.

It's a big negotiation, and it's big money. So we'll see kind of obviously how this unfolds, but it does sound like a four-night week nationally for Canadians. Yeah. So which would mean that if the Amazon Wednesday comes to fruition that SportsNet would carry another week. I had heard Thursdays, or another day of the week, excuse me, outside of Saturday. I had heard Thursdays that still, it still sounds like it's going four days. But again, they haven't finalized stuff and things are going back and forth. Now, the

owners, the league had a quick update with the owners last week. I think on Thursday, just a call across the board. This topic was brought up just as a quick update. But it was more of an update session. and I believe there's a board meeting this week as well to keep everybody apprised of what's going on across the league. Gotcha. Okay. A trade, a trade, a trade. The Philadelphia Flyers in Toronto Maple Leafs to make a deal.

Here we go, Dave. The summer of trades has begun. So can we actually start to really call this thing? We had promised last year and we didn't get it, and this summer we were probably going to get it. Joe Algo goes to the Philadelphia Flyers along with Simone Benoit, Amel Andre, 5'5.9 defenseman played 60 games. Flyers last year, probably be an up and down guy

between the Leafs and the Marley's. He's a restricted Sam Erson, a net miner and a 26th, a 26 third round draft pick. Now, if I'm playing Crystal Ball here, I can see Emil Andre being a up and down guy between the Marley's and the Maple Leafs, and I can

see as cruel as it may sound Sam Erson not qualified. And this is just a move to open up cap space. That's what it looks, feels, walks, talks, sings to me, does it to you. Yes, freeze up right now about 5 mil in that range. Bang on, Jeff.

Yeah, I'm not expecting Eerson to get qualified either. I'd be surprised if that happens. Andre, you know, it's funny because Chica, John Chichen mentioned in his introductory press conference that they want to get more mobile on the back end. Andre does that. He's a puck mover. He's not your prototypical.

offensive-minded defenseman, but he does move the puck up the ice. He does get it out of the zone, out of the trouble areas. And that's something that they want. So yes, I could see a similar, you know, up and down situation there. And if he clicks with whatever the system is going to be under whomever the coach, then maybe he sees more time. But he's the type of defenseman, stylistically, that they are looking to reshape their blue line with organizationally too. So you move out money. If he does sign probably in the 1.5 range

so you're still freeing up around $4 million. You're sitting at around $28 million right now for the Leafs. And for a team that's covered isn't fully stocked, you get a second third round pick in this year's draft

this time out of Philly. So you've got first overall, you've got a second round pick, and now you have two third round picks. So let's see what else they do. The other thing, Wall, Benoit, Erson, and Andre.

Their names were bandied about the trade market going back to, you know, February March. So a change of scenery for everybody involved here. I look at this one and I know everybody wants instant analysis and hot takes and what does this mean? And thumbs up, thumbs down. To me, this trade will be judged based on what John Chaka does with the cap space.

that's that that's how that's how that's how I think that I think that's fair Dave that's how you judge this yeah because that's what this yeah was and they're the the the the smart teams are the ones as I was mentioning this well we don't probably have to try to get you back here in a couple of seconds with a connection issue the the the smart teams and nobody understands is probably better than the Carolina hurricanes who are not the cup champs smart teams look at salary cap space as a commodity they just got some thing even if they walk away from Sam Harrison as we kind of expect them to

the cap space is very much a thing like that's like that is how you evaluate this trade what does Cheik could do with this cap space simple yeah yeah I agree and I apologize the connection for some reason here the little Vegas 3am esk instead of

10 a.m. But my apologies it's your Wi-Fi hammer it's your Wi-Fi hammered you've all Wi-Fi is over-served? Yeah there's a couple bottles in the back there that maybe got into The damn rudder. I agree.

I agree with you. I think from Toronto's perspective, yeah, this is, let's see what they do with the money. Let's see, you know, who else they bring in. This is the first domino to fall for the Maple Leafs. The first trade under Cheka's slash Sundeen's regime. So let's, unlike you, I want to see what else they do with this. What happens with Morgan Riley? What happens with finding a 3C fixing the back, or excuse me, the bottom?

the fourth line is what I'm trying to say. What other moves on the blue line? What other additions? It looks like right now, this is the Stolar's Hildebee duo. So is that going to maintain? Is that what it's going to end up looking like? There's a lot more to happen for the Leafs.

And then from Philly's side of things, they've had interest in Wall for a little while. This goes back to last season as well. So clearly, Danny Breyer re-engaged with the Leafs under new regime here and got this done. And, you know, Benny as well. Simone Benoit is a player that a lot of teams were looking at because of that $1.35 million cap space

to have somebody a third pair defenseman that is kind of a glue guy, good guy in the room, and as well stable on the back end. I like the move for Philly, and that's something that Philly wanted to do. They wanted to shore up their back end as well. And with respect to the netminding, it looks like the platoon scenario is locked in

because they've got a five-year-old. extension around 5.75 million per in that ballpark for Dan Vlodar that'll be officially official as early as July 1. So you're going and he's got one more year on his deal. So you've got a Vlodar wall combo here that you're working with in Philly. So the new management team in Toronto, which as you mentioned includes Matt Sundin. The first move is they bring in two Swedes. What should we extrapolate from that? Uh-oh. Are you trying to insinuate that maybe the first overall I'm not saying nothing. I'm just saying like, okay, as we're going to do the Toronto thing and read way too much into all of this.

Oh, yeah. Oh, of course. Two Swedes in the first deal. Here we go. We know he's going to go first overall now. The other news of the day is something we've been talking about for a while here. John Tortoella, thanks. Thanks for getting us to the Stanley Cup final.

We wish you all the best in your future endeavors. John Tortoella, not back as head coach of the Vegas Golden Knights, all eyes on Ryan Craig, head coach of the Henderson Silver Knights, the HL affiliate for the Vegas Golden Knights, who has, by the way, we should point out, been an assistant previously on the Vegas Golden Knights bench.

Your thoughts on this one? I don't think it's a surprise. I don't think this one's a surprise at all. No, no, this was the plan. Come in, help us out a little bit, get us back on track, and then, you know, see you later in July. That kind of thing.

Now, let's see where this opened, does this open anything up for Edmonton or Toronto, we will have to wait and see. But yeah, you mentioned Ryan Craig, barring a complete out-of-left-field change, which it's Vegas, so it's done. They've done. It looks like he's the guy. He will be the guy.

I think there's already an understanding there that he will be taken over for next season. So again, barring something crazy. I fully expect that announcement to come in the not-too-distant future. and now for torts, he still wants to coach. He mentioned this when he was brought in to Vegas. He wants to coach. He wants to be the guy. And he's going to have this opportunity,

I would imagine elsewhere, when something, you know, kind of pops up. But I'm curious, does, if things with Babcock in Edmonton don't work out, do the Oilers shift to torts and go in that direction? They won't be able to talk to him for another couple weeks. Do we just assume, and I think we're safe to do so, are we just safe to assume that the Vegas Golden Knights

are going to eat the $4.5 million on custody and say it's a cost of doing business, we're keeping a good coach away from a Stanley Cup contender that's in our division in the Oilers? Looks like it. Yeah, looks like it. I mean, it prevented L.A. as well. And L.A. pivoted and brought in Peter Laviolette on a three-year deal, I think around $4 million per.

And I mean, unless Toronto, and I don't know if Toronto's reached out to Vegas, I haven't gotten that sense yet, but do they want to talk about Cassidy? And would Vegas allow that to happen being out of division, out of conference? But barring that, every thing that's been suggested to me is they'll sit on that, they'll eat the four and a half. And too bad, so sad, Edmonton. in that position I remember asking Bill Foley back on the old 32 pod how much you know if there was no salary cap how much we spend on players and he said without missing a beat he goes about $150 million so like the idea of like sitting on $4 million you give himself a competitive advantage at his marketplace shouldn't surprise anybody should not surprise they made it in their they made it back in at least what a game and a half of the Stanley Cup final yeah so just thanks towards pocket that one. I remember this would have been, we'll get the drunk Wi-Fi back up here in Vegas.

Speaking of Make Your Money back in the playoffs, Kobe Armstrong, who lives in Pittsburgh. I works with Pittsburgh Penguins, game notes, everything with checklets. He was telling me, we were in Windsor together for the Memorial Cup. And his old place backed on to the golf course where Mary Lou Lemieux and Pierre LaRouche played golf every morning. And this is after, this is Ottawa-Pittsburgh,

and Ottawa had won a game, so another game was coming back to Pittsburgh. And Mario and Pierre were playing through. And Colby sees Mario and says, Hey, Mario, Chuching, another home date, another home gate. Look at you. And Mario looks at him and just shrugs and goes, Ah, Colby, just another pair of shoes.

Just another pair of shoes. Just another pair of shoes. We got you back. One more thing, because you mentioned Mike Babcock there a second ago. I'm not sure, Zach, if you can fire up the tweet from Jason Greger yesterday, but this has been sort of a common theme in the last little while amongst agents. I'm sure the agents that you've spoken with as well, the idea that even if Mike Babcock gets, you know, so that a royal assent here and is allowed to coach the Edminton Oilers, there's a lot of agents that aren't exactly thrilled for their clients. This is Gregor's tweet yesterday from an agent asked about the Oilers coaching situation.

The opportunity to play with McDavid or Dreisdahl is diminished with the potential to be coached by Babcock. It is a valid concern voiced to me by a few of my clients. Like, I think the one thing that the NHL needs to decide here based on whatever gets presented to them. It's the way that I've been framing it, Dave. Let me know what you think about this. Is it creepy or is it disqualifying? like a lot of the things that we've seen are creepy and weird just to be blunt. I just don't know that legally they're disqualifying for employment.

But regardless, if it's just like, well, it's creepy and like, don't do this. Like, this is stupid and he gets the job. I don't think that ends it. Like, and now this is like this is a super sensitive time with the doomsday clock running on McDavid here. To be putting the eggs in this basket. What are the latest issues around this situation that you know? Yeah, well, it's, I mean, look, that the league wouldn't be doing this without Edmonton wanting to hire him.

Yeah. So effectively, they've done that with an asterisk pending NHL approval. There are a lot of uncomfortable people that have brought up concerns about Babcock behind the bench. I don't know what some of the other issues were because there was more than just the text message or not the text message, excuse me, the photos that they was going through every, yeah,

the picture is going through everybody's phone and you know, show me this, show me that. It was more than that. There were other things in Columbus that pissed off a lot of players and made them uncomfortable. And then of course we hear all the, you know, different stories from years past and in other instances of, you know,

verbal abuse and making guys uncomfortable and so on and so forth. How much of that information from Columbus has already been collected? Because there was a bunch that was in the hands of the PA. They turned that over to the NHL. I mean, what else are they going to drum up? And to your point, are these just weird, creepy things? Or does a breach of, is that considered a breach of privacy by using intimidation

to go through a phone and to do other? other things. And does that give them grounds to say, legal grounds to say, sorry, no, you're out. This is, if this were, a few people at the league put it to me this way. If this, or across the league, if this was done right, if this was a legitimate, full-on investigation, this is taking at least a year. Wow.

This, I know, going to hurry up offense now. I know this hurry up offense here. Yes, I get it. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, if you're going through a proper, full investigation of this magnitude, you're probably looking at 12 months. One of the things that I wonder about is, you know, for the people that they want to interview for all of this, who have had situations with Mike Babcock before is, you know, significant or trivial. What about people that don't want to be part of it?

Like, what if it's like, you know what? Yeah. I don't, you know what, I'm not going to go back there and rehashed everything with Mike Babcock. Like, good luck. I don't want to be part of it. Yeah, that's entirely possible. I mean, you can't force anybody into a situation like this. Well, that's it.

These aren't court proceedings. So, you know, if, hey, Boone Jenner, Adam Fantilli, Erica Branson, can you guys tell me what happened there? And they may all say, yeah, I don't want to, I don't want to. I don't want to relive any of that. Or I just have no interest in participating. That's entirely possible, too. the one thing on Edmonton side within their core group that's kind of I guess part of their argument is

you know, Zach Hyman had him in Toronto. He, in his rookie season and the following three or two and a half seasons, however long he was there, while Hyman was there. So he's got that experience and clearly that's been backed with their group with Connor and and Leon and Nuge and everybody. That part took in those conversations. And they went back and forth, as my understanding. It wasn't just to tell us your story.

It was they asked him questions and along with management and everybody kind of had an opportunity to grill him to a degree. And he was allegedly transparent. You know, how transparent, I guess that's what we're going to find out. Before I let you go, do you have a couple of thoughts here on what we just saw with the Carolina hurricanes? I'll let you go on this one. 16 and 3, man, just like a hog into truffles.

He just like went right through the playoffs, earned their rest. Freddie kept resting and didn't have. to play a million games and didn't end up with the bracelet until a Stanley Cup final. I don't know what lessons can be learned from Carolina. But when you look at the end of every Stanley Cup cycle, we say, okay, so what did everyone learn about winning teams and winning culture from the Florida Panthers or the Tampa Bay Lightning or the Vegas Golden Knights or the Colorado Avalanche, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, what do we learn from Carolina here?

my takeaway from all this i know a lot of people are going to put emphasis on analytics driven and and building a team in that fashion right um for me it's how well they married the two how well they married the analytics with the hockey eye test um and by that i mean rod brindamore system was phenomenal and has been phenomenal and it was a matter of finding the right pieces that fit within that system on the ice and then health slash physically, that everything got complimented in such a way that it worked. And Rod would say, I need, you know, management goes to him and says, what do we need?

I need this caliber player. All right, now it's up to the Tulski and crew to figure it out and to find the right pieces. And there was, you know, trial and error over the years. What did they need? They needed more offense. Okay, well, here's what they added to the mix. And you bring in, they tried for Gensel. They learned a little bit from that, tried from Rantinan,

immediately learned and pivoted from that. You bring in somebody younger with speed and eye for the net and stankovin. You need a little more offense. We need to kind of shore out our three lines here. Boom, Nick Eilers enters the mix in the summer. We need to be a little bit more mobile on that back end. All right, big move right after the draft. Bring in Kianne Miller.

They had other pieces that they had here. and it just finally all came together in a manner that that married the two in terms of how hockey is being evaluated now, from the eye test to the numbers. And for me, that's the biggest takeaway. You don't necessarily need to have a superstar-laden team. Sure, it helps. Sure. It, for me, anyway, emphasized how much taking both elements marrying them together in the most perfect of ways worked for this team. and, you know, having a hot goalie helps too.

But everything for this group. Being healthy, being healthy too. Yeah, well, yes, that's the other thing. They're the healthiest team. But that's also a testament to how well they train and what their regiment schedule is and system is on and off the ice. From what Rod and his trainers do and what they instill in their players away from the game, what to eat, how to work.

Like, their trainers played a huge factor in this on and off the ice in and out of the gym and back home too that they followed to a T. Gostis Bear made emphasis of that on Media Day of how important it was to be not just understanding and buying into the system and structure that Roddy put in on the ice, but also what him and the trainers, you know, put out there for everybody off of it. Can I propose a Carolina trade for you? Sure.

Okay. So yesterday on Sir Carson Price. The question of the day is, can Vancouver still? trade Elias Pedersen to Carolina, right? Before he signed the big ticket, that was a team that was looking at him. Now, I don't think anyone looks at Elias Pedersen and says, that's an $11.5 million hockey player. We don't. But would you look at Elias Pedersen and say, there's a $6 million hockey player? Would you look at that and say, that's a $6 million hockey player? Yes. Okay. Good. Okay. I know I'm leading the witness here. I know I'm curious. Yeah, I'm curious.

Objection you're on or leading the way. I can see it a million miles away because I'm with you. I see a $6 million player right now. Given that Jordan Stahl's got one more year on his contract and he's 37 years old, et cetera, et cetera. There's going to be a spot open in the middle. Did you do Elias Pedersen for Yaspari Kotkinemi Plus? I think they've tried that. I think they have too.

Yeah. And probably. Because they have the space. Oh, yeah. Oh, yes, they do. Yeah. So, intriguing. Because we know Vancouver is not eating that money.

They are adamant and have been, unless maybe now with RJ in place, maybe something changes. I don't think so. They have to know they're taking a bad contract on the way back. Yes, without question. Without question. And look, Kakenemi didn't play in these finals.

and he's got term on his deal. It's effectively dead money for Carolina. And we know how much, you know, the owner loves that. So can you move that out? And I don't mind that. And from Vancouver's perspective as well, you get out of that contract. There's less term on KK's deal.

Correct. You're not, I mean, they're still trying to move Jake Debrusk. you're still going through this rebuild. This is going to take a while. And who knows? Maybe Kakenei, more ice time, more responsibility, suddenly plays decently and you can flip them in a year or two. I don't mind that at all.

And I now understand where you were going to all that. Okay. So I was leading the widest, but it got us somewhere. I got some fertile ground. I like it. I was leading him totally, of course. Guilty. But I like it.

I like that motion because, look, they've had interest and the intriguing thing for me about the PD Carolina thing connection or whatnot. Yeah. Is that the canes have been poking at this for a little while. Oh, yeah. And if they're poking at this,

they clearly believe that under the system and a change of scenery would really work for Elias Pedersen in that environment. Will he wave? That's the other question for that. I would have. I mean, they just won the cup, so I don't know why he wouldn't. I was going to say like, just posing.

Yeah. And a quieter market. And a quieter market. Very. for Peders. Okay. Yeah. Well,

that was fun. Well, listen, it's trade season, man. It's trade season, man. We just thought Toronto, Philadelphia

get together on one. So, um, ladies and gentlemen, start your intub trade engines. Um, all right,

listen, uh, to you and your drunk Wi-Fi. Um, thank you as always for popping by. It was very last minute and I really appreciated. Uh,

when are you going, when are you going back? Uh, in about two hours. Oh, you're hopping on a flight. Oh, geez. Okay, you're in the Batmobile and you're after the airport.

Okay, you get going. Dave, you the best. Thanks, pal, as always. Be good. Thanks, buddy. See it. Dave Peno to DFO Insider

from the fourth period and you can listen to him and watch him on Wednesdays after this program right here on a DFO Oh, it's a DFO rundown Insider Edition.

It's on our daily faceoff YouTube channel where you're watching right now. All right, Zach, anything in there. I know you're the host of not just Leif's After Dark but Marley's After Dark. You want to tee that one up here as we are going to get your nickel and dime thoughts here on the Maple Leafs Philadelphia Flyers trade.

And after the game tonight, you're doing Marley's after dark. Look at you. Yeah. I did Marley's for two years. I did Marley's for two years when they first came over me and John Bartlett. Went from the Barry Colts to do Marley's games. Right. Now he's on whatever's left of Hockey Night in Canada.

So you're going to stop by tonight and relive those old Marley's days or what? Let me tell you about Brett Englehart and John Pole. the good old days of that. Greg Gilbert and Paul Maurice coached Marley's teams. Yes, I remember the fight. I'll tell you about Ian White on the Toronto Marley's once upon. Ian White. Let me tell you about Captain Mark Morrow.

Yes, I know. Yeah, Manitoba boy. Manitoba boy. Yeah, I'll be going live here tonight on the Leafs Nation 401 YouTube channel. Breakdown game three of the Calder Cup finals. The Marleys are up to nothing here right now over the Chicago Wolves. return home, which I also, I kind of like, I forgot that the AHL does it this way, two, three, two, right?

That's the split of the games. So I'll be taking on game three tonight. I was going to take calls anyways, but my night just got a whole lot more interesting with what took place here today because I imagine there's going to be a lot more conversation outside of what happened in game three of the Calder Cup finals. So it'll be a fun one. Make sure to stop by getting the chat, call into. show whatever you want to do here tonight.

I'm excited to get back in the mix because the Leafs gave me nothing to talk about in terms of post-game shows this year. So finally getting to do one. This is the American League. So it's not the NHL. Do you still do smelling salts, the American League, or do you just do like pepper? Is you like the HL version of smelling salts? No.

Yeah, like dirty laundry in my socks and that kind of stuff? No, I will be doing smelling salts tonight for every 50s. 50 likes. We got to bring back the whole show as it stands on a normal basis. That will be what's happening tonight following game three. So I'm excited. Quick on the poll on our YouTube. Who gets hired first John Tortorella or Bruce Cassidy? Do we have a winner?

I voted Tortorella just because I think that they're just going to sit on Cassidy. Yeah, that's where I'm at too. But 56% of the chat right now is currently on Bruce Cassidy gets hired first. Tortorella 44%. put that one up just before the show had started. That one was prompted by our friend. I believe it was Jeffrey Moron in the chat who asked me to put that poll up. I said, you know what?

That's a good one. Let's get that up. So keep voting and we'll see where that one's at by the end of the show. Okay, quick thought before we get to Dan McKenzie. The Toronto Maple Leafs trade with the Philadelphia Flyers. I don't know that the goaltender Sammy Erison gets qualified. I look at Emil Andre and say he's an up and down guy between the Marleys and the Maple Leafs, we shall see. Um, cap move.

I look at this and say, I can't, I can't judge this trade until I see what the Maple Leafs do with this cap space because that's what they traded for cap space. That's the biggest thing for me is what is coming next because just on the surface, do I love the move? No, I don't. Do I hate the move? Also, no, I don't. I see it very similar to how you do in terms of you're opening something up here for, a following move, whether it's by the draft, if it's at the draft or if it's in free agency, I'm not sure, we'll find out here.

But I don't think that this is John Chica just saying, that's my move, you know, I'm done, and there's nothing to follow on this one. The other thing I just want to point out to people here as well in the whole situation is Joseph Wall is a pretty injury-prone goaltender. Yeah. Anthony Stollers is a pretty injury-prone goaltender. and what the Leafs have coming through the system right now is Dennis Hildeby, who's not going to be able to go through waivers next season.

And a kid who seems to be pretty good. No, he said that loosely. He's older. No, hang on. He needs waivers. Like, you have to put him on waivers. It's not that he doesn't, he needs waivers. That's what I was saying.

He can't go through, like, cleanly. Yes, yeah, sorry. Thank you for identifying that. He can't just get sent down or be called up. Like, he's got to go through waivers. Right. And then the other thing is, this Archer Ahti Mov kid that they've got who's the starting goaltender right now for the

Toronto Marleys. They like them. They seem to believe they've got a guy there in him. You probably want to free up space because you don't want Hill to be just sitting around doing nothing with the Marleys and Actaem of playing or vice versa. And this opens up the opportunity for one guy to come up, the other guy to get playing opportunity and start to open up the pipeline for kids to come through. So that's part of the situation here. And I think that the biggest thing should not be, hey, they're opening up space for these guys and they got back this player because they moved out Joseph Wall. It's as you've outlined here throughout the show, they've opened up space to go and do something. They've opened up contracts.

They've opened up money. And now you're going to head into a period here where maybe you're going to try to make trades, whether that's with a draft pick that you've acquired, I don't know. or if you go and try to sign somebody in for agency, you've opened something up at least. Smart teams understand cap space is a commodity. Anyone today says, what a dumb trade by Toronto.

What an awful trade. They don't understand what cap space is. Smart teams are cap space as a commodity. I've pitched before and it always gets shot down, being able to trade cap space. Like take the next step. Yeah. I think baseball and basketball more or less do that, right?

Trade caps space. They trade money and cash considerations and stuff to teams because they open up spots and finances that way. I mean, this also just goes back to the conversation we have all year. Take the training wheels off. Like open things up. Oh, I know. Open things up. Oh, this trade, by the way, just for the sake of it, this trade looks really bad for Toronto.

If two things happen. One, if they don't do anything with the money, that's obvious. like that's thank you for telling us that if they don't do anything or they go and sign some ridiculous contract you know like hello darren radish we'll give you 12 million dollars i'm going to say john what the hell was the point of that oh you know but the other way that this doesn't work and it's also tied to the cap space is if joseph wall is just healthy for the rest of his career you can't think that way you can't you can't think that way exactly exactly and and And that's the other thing.

And I think that's also the Leafs being a little proactive here, recognizing that they've got a goaltender who has struggled to stay healthy, for the most part, throughout his young career here in Toronto so far. Okay. And cut. Okay. So that was a lot.

Like, we're supposed to have Corey Lavalide on today to talk more about the Carolina Hurricanes. We're going to go about getting Corey on the program. He's got to do hustles, man. And he's got a book coming out about the Carolina Hurricanes run. And so I want to make sure we can help the guy sell a couple books because he's a great guy. He's a great writer. And I can't wait to read that thing.

I want to let you know as well that Eric Tulski will be on the program tomorrow. So we'll record something with Eric. It's a busy time in Carolina. I'll record something with him tomorrow morning. And we'll have it for you here on the program. The Stanley Cup champion general manager of the Carolina Hurricanes. Blogger. Eric Tulski.

Blogger. Hockey blogger. Stanley Cup champion. Yes, I just freaking love it. So Eric Tulsi is going to be on the program tomorrow. In the meantime, so I sat down this morning with Dan McKenzie for about 20 minutes. And some interesting stuff in here that I think you'll find interesting, some interesting ideas around 19-year-old players going to the American Hockey League. That's been a hot button issue for a while around hockey circles. Looks like that is marching towards an inevitability.

I have some thoughts on that after the game. the interview. Also some thoughts on the reformatting of the Memorial Cup and what that may look like. And also the idea, as I mentioned off the top, of the CHL, not necessarily leaving hockey Canada, but having a sort of arm's length relationship with hockey Canada in order to free up the CHL's ability to essentially get players without things like, oh, transfer agreements. Those messy things.

Anyway, here is the president of the Canadian Hockey League who's been on the program numerous times. Please enjoy our conversation with Dan McKenzie. Dan, first of all, congratulations on a couple of things. One, the Memorial Cup in Colonna. And two, the CHL Awards. Maxime Massey picks up the Player of the Year, the Dave Branch, Player of the Year award.

Now that there's necessarily an off-season for you, but now that the season is wrapped up and you look back at it. What are your thoughts on what went through the CHL this year, culminating with the Memorial Cup in Colonna? Well, maybe we can start with the awards. I mean, it was yesterday. That event's always a great event to go through. It's excellent.

You've had the opportunity to be there. But I'm always struck by just the poise and the talent and how well-spoken our kids are in our lives. We had every single one of them. We have the opportunity to get up. We asked them questions about their experience and, you know, their team, their communities. And they're so good, you know, from Chase Reed to Tommy Blyle to, you know, Marcus Ruck to Maxim SSA. They're just so well-spoken.

And, you know, I think, you know, these kids, you really realize when you listen to them get in front of a microphone, like, they're used to doing this. This is part of their training that they get when they come into our league, right? They come as a 16-year-old. They leave home. They live with a bill of family. And over time, especially as they realize increasingly more important roles with their club, they get microphones put in their face more often.

And they're just so well-spoken and so appreciative. The families are appreciative. We had them with the Jays game the night before, so we were watching the Jays game with them. And it was just really nice. It's always just a nice reinforcement at the end of the year for what we do, which is develop great hockey players, which we all talk about. We all know the ones that we celebrate, but also just great people and great humans

and ultimately great citizens down the line. And between the families that are there and the players that are there, they just drive that home every single time. So what you're saying I heard echoed as we went across the country with our series this year, whether it was Kitchener, whether it was Brantford, whether it was Penticton, Colonna, everywhere, the same thing. The kids are so well-spoken. I can remember about I've been following junior hockey forever, as you know,

and it would be, and the kids at the OHL draft would have to make a speech, you know, and they would, like, stumble out. I remember talking Todd Warner about it once, and he was, like, terrified to make the speech, and you'd have a piece of paper, and you'd mumble out a couple of words. But here's my theory on it, Dan. Cell phones. These kids have no expectation of privacy.

They live their lives publicly and they carry a communication tool with them wherever they go. Like communication is baked into the pie now with younger people unlike how it was when you and I were kids. Like the expectation, like once upon the time the greatest fear was someone's watching me. Now the greatest fear for kids is no one's watching me. Everybody is living their lives publicly and communicating publicly. And I think that that is, I'm curious your thoughts on. this one. I think that's one of the reasons why we see these kids every year, whether it's at the CHL awards or doing walk-off interviews on CHL games. They're just much more

composed than they ever have been because they walk around with communication tools. Yeah, I think that's a fair point. I think you're right. You know, I think about my kids who are, you know, who are sort of of this generation and are far more comfortable speaking in front of, in front of a screen of some kind. But I do, I do. I also do think, though, that part of it is, I think, you know, I think social media training is something that our teams do with our players. Yes. And I think it is something that is an important part of being an athlete these days, you know, and that, you know, you've got to understand that you're, you know, you're a role model and you're somebody who, you know, the community looks up to and the community's proud of and that your words, you know, sometimes speak louder than your actions. And so I just think it's something that, you know, our clubs do a really nice job of with these guys.

And, again, at the CHL Awards, it was nice to see, you know, to see them there and to see how excited they were to be there. We also had Brendan Shanahan there, which was he gave a little bit of a hot stove. And it was interesting to hear him speak. I mean, he and I were of the same vintage age-wise and talk about for him how important it was. He actually talked about how back when he, the year, one of his greatest moments, as an athlete was getting drafted into the OHL, as what he said. And back then it was a live draft. And as you know, we went to a live draft,

the OHA went to a live draft this year. And he just talked about how, you know, important it was to him to be, and for his family to be drafted at that time. And he wasn't at the event because he didn't think he was going to get drafted in the first round. And so it was, you sort of happenstance that he saw the draft. And he was, but, but he just talked about how important it was to him.

And so he talks a lot about how the role that the CHL helped him develop in in terms of, you know, becoming a pro, dealing with dealing with, and he's really honest, which is dealing with, you know, the, the, the doubts that you have when you're, you know, you're 16, you're walking into a dressing room and you're the youngest guy and you're, you know, am I ready for this? And you learn to deal with the adversity. And then he talked about how that hits you again when you're, you know, 20 years old in the end. NHL and then when you're 25 and you got these young whippersnappers coming up trying to steal your job. Sure.

And it was just, it was interesting for him to talk about how sort of the, the environment that that, that, that, that he felt in London, um, really helped sort of test him and get him ready for that next level. And that's really what, you know, what, what, what, you know, our clubs and our leagues do is they try to get these kids ready for the next level, whether it's in hockey or whether it's in, you know, their next challenge. Um, first of all, great location for the Memorial Cup. Wonderful tournament, Kitchen Rangers win.

So the Memorial Cup stays in the Ontario Hockey League for one more season. Like every year, I think we all wonder sort of what the future is of the Memorial Cup. This is a conversation that has been going on for years and years and years as you well know. Some want more teams. Some want a shorter tournament. I've heard a conversation about having a number of, you know, specific areas that the Memorial Cup rotates through larger markets, which in some ways kind of defeats the whole sort of purpose of the Memorial Cup and

junior hockey doesn't matter if it's big market, small market, etc. Like there's a number of ideas that are floating out there. Is there any way that you can focus that lens and say like maybe, maybe this, definitely not that? Is there anything way you can sort of sharpen the pencil on the future of this tournament? And there's something to just say leave it. There's someone to say leave it the way it is. Well, and I think that's the one thing that we have to be, you know, cognizant of is this is our national championship.

It's our most prestigious award to grant to a team. It has a lot of history, historical significance that is really, really important, given how it was, how the trophy came to be. And so we want to make sure that we're sort of precious with it. And so I would say everything you said are things that we're looking at. I mean, we are. We've talked about coming out of this year, as we've had discussions about is there a way we could potentially tighten it? Is there a way? Should we have more teams? You know, but each, each thing you do creates its own set of, you know, implications. And you just have to sort of work through those and determine whether they're positive or negative and

then make the final call. I think probably the place to start is, is the tournament broken? And I think the, I think the answer to that is no. Can it be improved is a different question. And so that probably is one of the reasons why it drives us to if we're going to, you know, it's a bit of a slow process and we have to really do the analysis because we don't want to, you know, inadvertently break something that's not broken. As it relates to Colonna specifically, it was, it was a fantastic location to host the event given just the natural, you know, elements that are at play there. You know, you've got the mountains. You've got the golf courses. You've got the wineries. You've got the lake.

weather was fantastic. So for us, it's a real showcase for our partners, our sponsors, and our licensees and our broadcasters, and everybody was just blown away by, you know, what a great place it was. We had lots of partner activations that happened out there that were great. And it was really, it's very easy to get to as well. I mean, there's lots of direct flights from various parts of the country

and into Colonna, which was great. So that then leads you to a bit of a discussion about, you know, should you only hold it in a certain number of places that have direct flights and, you know, our, our destinational cows. But you sort of touched on it. And in these discussions, I get the benefits of that of having it in these destinational cows on an ongoing basis. And I think that's something we have to keep in mind as we're sort of crafting the bid guidelines. But I do think we have to be wary of the fact that, you know, junior hockey is,

its strength is in the communities, you know, small communities across Canada. And not every CHL team has the infrastructure to host a Memorial Cup. But what we've seen over the last few years, especially as we sort of changed the process for bidding, that more and more cities are choosing to bid. And they can, it's within, the guidelines are built in such a way that it's, it's within reach for, you know, a large number of teams. And we've seen in places like Saginaw, in places like Ramuski, the team able to leverage getting the Memorial Cup into significant, you know, upgrades to their arenas or their facilities, which in today's day and age, which I'm sure you're going to ask me probably about the NCAA, are really important. And so, you know, I think there's like it, like, and one of the things I've, you know, I've talked about this.

One of the things I've learned in this job is everything is interconnected. And so if you make, if you make one decision over here, it could have implications over here. So we're on the Memorial Cup. We're going to continue to work through it. We actually have a board meeting next week. We're going to talk about the format. And if there are things we should be considering. But again, I think we want to be cautious because we don't want to break something that's not broken.

The one thing, and I'm sure you've had this feedback as well, Dan. One of the feedback, like if you're a hardcore junior hockey fan, like you know what's happening. You follow, you watch every single game. You know what's happening in the tournament. And, you know, who's backs up against the wall. and is there going to be tie break Thursday and all these types of things. But for casual fans, like, I get a lot of, like, what's happening at the Memorial Cup? Like, I see that, you know, Everton Kitchener playing tonight.

What's happening with the other teams? Like, what should I pay? Like, is there, again, is there a conversation, I'm assuming? So conversation around the tightening up, but also maybe playing more than one game a day. Like, two games a day. I thought about this a while ago. I've had a conversation with someone. I'd never thought about it.

because I've just followed the tournament like it is, and every day is one big focus on one game. You could do. We have, that is something we've also considered, right? And that actually is directly linked in some ways to, to the number of teams, because with four teams,

you can play back to back on two days in a row, but then you have to take a day off, because in a national championship, you can't have teams playing three days in a row. So then you would, if you want to reap the benefits of a tighter window, making it shorter, then you have to bring in another team, at least one other team, right? So it sort of gets connected.

I, you know, and the idea of, I think the other thing, one of the, one of the things with the current format that is sometimes confusing for people is how the tiebreaker works. And depending on how, you know, how the round robin plays out, there could be a tiebreaker. And the way that that math is calculated is not simple. and so if we could simplify it into such a way that we could have it be clearer in terms of you know say one of the ideas that we're floating would be like a double elimination if you lose two games you go home that would make it easier for people to to understand right so but we'll see again we're we're looking at we're looking at everything right now um next year uh guelph and the storm or the uh the host city and team for the uh for the memorial cup okay so you mentioned ncdbara and

We've gone through one year of it. Main takeaways from your desk would be what? Now that we've gone through one cycle, and you mentioned earlier about how everything is connected, I would also throw in the law of unintended consequences. I want to get to a couple of them here, but one year into all of this here, what are we seeing? Well, I think it's sort of playing out like you and I have sort of talked about,

which is, you know, it's going to take time. time and we're one year in and it's not going to take one year for us to be able to have the answers. It's going to continue to take time. I think we've seen a few things. So I think like we've said right from the beginning, players have more choices now than they ever have. And by and large, we believe that's a good thing. You know, we think it's a good thing that these kids don't have to make life altering decisions when they're, you know, 14 years old or 15 years old anymore. So that's a good thing.

I think we've seen a massive, so because of that fact now, and players, as you know, there's always those two paths that players could choose. The group of players that would choose the alternate path to the CHL because they didn't want to lose their eligibility, what we're seeing more and more of is that class of players, and really the best players in that class are coming to the CHL. So we saw this year, you know, about 250 plus players who made that decision to come to the CHO. So that's one thing that happened.

And most of those players would be North American players, players who are either playing in Canada, in a junior A league, or in the U.S. in their system. And so, and probably more Americans than Canadians. But ultimately that, so we've seen a massive influx. And so when you have this discussion about the NCAA, there's this, you know, and then the other side of that equation is the players who left early. So Gavin McKenna, Keaton-Berhoff, you know, those guys. And what I sort of say in this discussion is you can't really have a discussion about Keaton Verhoff

without talking about Tommy Blile because they're flip sides of the same coin, right? if the NCAA eligibility hadn't changed, then Keaton Verhoff wouldn't have made the decision to go to Nodak, but by the same token, Tommy Blighal wouldn't have come to play in Moncton. Right. And same with Gavin McKenna, Caleb O'Hulloch, you can sort of pick your – and so I think on its overall balance, I think we've – the CHL overall – across all three of our leagues have been a net beneficiary of talented players coming in.

in. We've lost some talented players on the other end. But I think net net, it's been, it's been probably in year one. It's, you know, it's, it's been probably a net positive, like a net benefit on the, on the talent side. But I think what our focus really has to be, and has been and continues to be as we go forward, is making sure that we're a great place for, you know, 19 year old players to develop. That older age player in the CHL, you know, they come in at 16 and they, you know, they leave at 19 or 20 that we continue to be, you know, a great place for them to play and develop their skills and become or learn how to become a pro. And, and I think we've seen that this year in, you know, when you watch the league championship series, I mean, you know,

they're all on national TV. You know, I was always amazed to see, you know, a guy like Kay Sean Aitchison was the guy that I always talk about. Like, sure. That guy played big minutes. it's important games. You know, seven games to game. I was at game seven against Brantford when Barry won. Like he just, you know, he played the kind of role that those impact 19-year-olds play in our league. And, you know, and that's a unique, that's a very unique. First of all, he's not unique.

There were lots of you could pick. Sure. all the teams that went through the CHL playoffs that had those guys. But getting that kind of experience of playing a full season and then playing a bunch of seven-game series and then going to the Memorial Cup, like take Carter Bear as an example. Like he was on the ice a lot. And he was playing in every situation.

He was, you know, their captain got hurt. He had to play the captain's role. Like those are all, when we talk to NHL personnel people, those are the things they say, you know, are the reasons why they like to draft. drafting players out of the CHL and they send them back after they draft them because they, you know, they get those opportunities that are high pressure, high, you know, high stakes, big minutes, you know, be a leader, prove that you can dominate against your age group

because you're going to have to do that eventually when you get to the NHL. And so that's not to say that the other alternatives aren't great because we've seen other players, you know, use other alternatives to get there. but we know that our model works. And so what we're trying to do is improve on that end of the scale, improve on that model. So that comes into things like, I mean, last year we had about, I think we had 10 markets that that were redoing their facilities. I think you might have been to one of the. Did you go to Kitchener?

I mean, Kitchener's got a brand new facility. Oh, it's gorgeous. For their players. So, you know, that's happening across the CHL. I mean, and that's driven by competition. Our clubs know we have to make sure that we're providing these players with the best when it comes to strength and conditioning, nutrition, facilities, all that stuff. And so it's making everybody raise their game.

And, you know, we're already the number one development league in the world. I mean, 75% of the South American Central Scouting players are in our league. You know, we've got the schedule. We've got the coaching. But anything that we can do to become better, we're trying to do. And that's what we're going to focus on. So there have been, as you well know, all kinds of rumors the last little while about the idea of the CHL leaving the Hockey Canada umbrella. I've checked a lot on this one.

I've asked around, we had Brian Crawford on the show on Friday. I asked, you know, is this something that's under consideration? He talked about the wonderful relationship between Hockey Canada and the CHL and not a desire to leave. understanding that if you leave Hockey Canada, you can grab players as you see fit. The one thing that I wonder about is, is there a way to have a sort of hybrid relationship with Hockey Canada, whereby there is still a relationship,

yet Hockey Canada essentially would treat the CHL like college hockey. And wouldn't be bound by agreements between USA Hockey. and Hockey Canada. It's kind of like how college hockey, you want to take Porter Martone from the steelheads, you take Porter Martone from the steelheads. Could that be a reality here? Well, that's, I think, when we talk about,

you know, learn key learnings from the first year of this, you know, really first full year under the rule change, I mean, that is a reality that we're dealing with, is that, you know,

some organizations are, are, you know, are not part of the system. And so they can, they're not bound by the same rules. Right. And that, that's, like, let's be honest, that's an inequity. Yeah. That's a, that's an inequity. Yeah.

But it makes sense. It really does. Like from CHL's point of view, to me, anyhow. Right. And so, it makes sense to me, too. And so, and I think to our group. So I think what we're, what we're cognizant of is that we, we want to be in a world,

we want to operate in a world where there is respect for player movement and free player movement and contracts and releases and all those things. Like we have been the beneficiary for years of being in the system and we enjoy a great relationship with Hockey Canada and they are our most important part. Between Hockey Canada and the NHL are two most important partners. And so we want to make sure that we're,

a good partner in that in that in that really in both of those relationships but we also have to try to sort of set ourselves up in such a way that we can deal with some of the inequities in the system and so you know we're you know we're not anywhere I mean I think some of the reporting on it was probably a little drastic in terms of what's what are some things we're talking about but we are trying to try to sort of move into a space where we where we have some flexibility but also you know our good partner to the organizations that are really important to us. One of the things, again, under the sort of law of unintended consequences here, too, and I don't know how many people, if any, saw this originally when the landscape changed,

I've had so many conversations about NHL teams having a hard time getting players out of college because the NIL is too much. And the kids can make more money playing college than they can't. can at the American Hockey League. And sometimes players might be blocked. And you can make more money, as I mentioned, in college than in the American League. And they essentially say to themselves, I can make this much money playing college, as opposed to less money in the American League.

And at the end of my term in college hockey, I'm a free agent, which for some players is absolutely very attractive. Have you seen or experienced that scenario where NIAs, is actually hurting teams from actually signing players to NHL slash AHL contracts. No, I haven't seen it yet, but I wouldn't be the right person to ask. I think I'm not as close to it as the NHL clubs are. So I think that would be something that, you know, NHL GMs would be, again, in their first year of this, dealing with this, that they're going to have to ask themselves.

But it's not something that we've spent a ton of time on outside. of, you know, some of the discussions we've had with the NHL about 19-year-olds in the H.L. Dan, one final thought, and you're always generous with your time here. Very much appreciate it. Let me ask you about 19-year-olds going to the American Hockey League. How much clarity do teams now have about how this works? How many years' service? Do they have to be first-round picks, et cetera? How much clarity is there around this issue right now? Yeah, we're getting there. So we're, if we're, if we're, in a hockey game we're in the last minute of play. So we're still, we're kind of in final discussions

with Bill. So myself and the commissioners and Bill are having sort of just kind of going back and forth on some paper. So we're getting there. So I don't want to, I don't want to presuppose anything. So I can't comment on specifics. But we're getting close. I think the goal would be to have something a place for the draft this year. So so everyone knows. And I think the, you know, the, the, the NHL has been very good about, and their GM has been very thoughtful about how this is going to work and how, you know, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, um, what, um, makes sense for, for them, but also kind of, uh, protects their, you know, number one development pipeline, which is us. And I think the, I think the, um, the key message would be that, that the,

you know, there will be opportunities for some players. Um, it's probably going to be pretty limited amount of players who are ready for that next job. As you know, the HL, is a significant league to play in, tough league to play in when you're 19 years old. And so I think there might be, there'll be some players that will be identified as being ready, but it'll be the vast majority of 19-year-olds who are assigned players will likely end up back in the CHL.

But there will be an opportunity for some to, you know, to potentially have that experience. I know you don't want to give out any details. One thing that I, if I can nitpick, One thing that I have wondered about is reassignment. If it doesn't work out with 19-year-old player X and it's November and it's not working, is there an opportunity for that player to be reassigned back to his junior team or does the NHL team have the allowance to send that player to the East Coast Hockey League to the ECHL?

There are reassignment provisions that's related to us that we can, that we've talked about. But again, it's not fully done done, so I don't want to say too much. Gotcha. Yeah, I think we would love it to be in a scenario whereby if a player is not quite ready after a period that they'd have the opportunity to come back. Perfect. Again, generous through time.

Congratulations on a wonderful season through all three leagues and the CHL. Much appreciated, Dan. And we'll see you next year at the CHL Awards, Jeff. We've got to schedule it, so we're a little far away from that from the Stanley Cup finals. Get it away from the Stanley Cup. fine. Okay, thank you. Or the NHL can get out of June. Thanks, Dan. See you later. That's Dan McKenzie, the president of the CHL. So a lot of stuff in there and stuff that we sort

previewed as it relates to things like 19-year-old hockey players playing in the American hockey league. I think when you look at it, and Dan mentioned this too, it's not going to be a sort of volume of players that go, but they would be significant names. I think when you look at, you know, this year in the, in the Ontario League, for example, you would probably look at a player like Brady Martin, you would look at Cameron Reed, you would look at Cole Baudouin, you would look at Kashan Aitchison. At west it would be someone like T. J. Ginla in the Quebecli would be Caleb Dane Y.A. So significant names. I just don't know that there's the volume of player that we're talking about. I don't think that

leagues would compensate teams losing players by way of offering them subsequent extra first-round bics. There would be, I would imagine, money coming from the NHL teams to the CHL squads for that as well. But as the president, their Dan McKenzie just mentioned, they're getting down to the short strokes, but nothing has been affirmed up yet. I do wonder about drop-dead reassignment date and how close to a trade deadline that would have to be.

But all those things will be worked out, as you mentioned, probably before the draft. So a number of CHL issues continue and, again, falling under the umbrella of law of unintended consequences, whether it's the NIL issue and perhaps NHL team's frustrations in players just making too much and not taking contracts to go to the American Hockey League. Or that issue that just doesn't seem to want to go away, which is the idea of what is the relationship going to be between. the CHL and Hockey Canada, given the realities of securing players that want to go to the CHL but are still bound by contracts stateside, what happens there. And if they do end up leaving or having some type of hybrid model where there's a relationship, but are still at a certain arm's length away from Hockey Canada and get treated as BiosA Hockey and College

Hockey, for example, Is that a way for CHL operators to get teams outside of various agreements that have already been made between those players and those entities in the United States? All things still to be worked out here. In the meantime, so there's a lot there. Like, that's one of those things that are going to have to go back and I'm want to listen to what the president said a couple of different times and see what I put on my president of the CHL, the CFO ring and see what he's trying to tell us without telling us. and always appreciative of Dan McKenzie's time, and we thank everybody at the SCHL for making Dan available today.

Now, different page. This Men's Health Week and Father's Day, take one simple step for your health, because caring for yourself today means more time, more memories and more milestones. Healthy fathers help build healthier families. Get more time with the ones that matter most. Learn more at Movember.com.

With that, want to bring on the country director at Movember, Canada. Todd Minerson joins me here on the program, who's been waiting very patiently. Todd, thanks so much for stopping by today. And I got this great in the mail. It just showed up the other day, this sweet shirt. There we go. First of all, thanks so much for joining me here today. Much appreciated.

Men's Health Week, Father's Day as well. Let me give my background. My dad worked a lot, and my dad traveled a lot. And so I've sort of always grown up and I've taken this into my own career for better or for worse. This idea that, you know, being a man and taking care of your family means like working all the time, being absent for things. I don't travel as much as I used to, but I still do. And, you know, like as you get older, you prioritize things as well. And that's why I think that, you know, men's health week, certainly around Father's Day, is a good time to sort of maybe take a second look at what the most important.

things are here. You know what I'm sort of getting at here, Todd? Yeah, I love it. And thanks for making time for me, Jeff, as well. It's like post-finals and just before this season. So, great time for taking a little moment to talk about men's health. And, yeah, if I could take your point and maybe turn into a hockey, and hockey energy, sometimes fathering and fatherhood is like the best availability,

or the best ability is availability, right? Showing up and being there. And we can't show up and be there for our families if we're not taking care of our own health. And one thing that we're really learning at November is, you know, there's a two-edged story to this kind of idea of fatherhood and health. One is that fathers, especially new fathers, do experience a lot of challenges with their mental health, their physical health, prioritizing the things that are important. It can also be a really catalytic time for big changes in your life and that can bring on mental health challenges. But also, on the flip side, a healthy dad is like a huge asset for a family. It's great for the kids.

It's great for your partner. It's great for your own health if you can be an involved engaged early dad. So this year, Men's Health Week, we're trying to talk and link it a bit to Father's Day and ensure that, you know, we all get a little bit of extra time to spend with the men that we love in our lives. You know, I always wonder, too, like, again, like through everything in life, it's all about sort of striking that balance of being, like, I'm a father of three and you have to sort of balance, you know, the workload and being a work. role model to your children or sort of model, you know, professional behavior and how you work with your job versus, hey, dad, can we go play basketball in the driveway for an hour when you're in

the middle? I can't tell you. And you've probably had the same experience in many men watching this right now, getting dragged away from work and balancing that off. I don't know if there's any sort of magic formula other than you just got to kind of feel it out as a dad. But is there any way you can sort of any advice that you could share with our viewers slash listeners about it? I mean, that pressure to provide is something that really is instilled in men. And it's one of the key roles that we have, right? So anything we do to compromise that always feels like a challenge. It's the same for moms who have a lot of guilt around working

and not being there to be a parent full time as well. But I don't think anyone's going to go back, you know, in their golden years and say, I should have worked more and should have played less basketball with my kid. So, you know, it's a bit of a values-based question for me. It's a bit of a prioritization. And, you know, for me, work can come later on. You know, and I've got older kids now. My son just turned 20.

So sports and hanging out and watching sports and talking about sports and playing sports together is an avenue as well to talk about so many other important things. I know I can get a hold of him at university when I say, are you watching the game? And the game highlights would be just the door opener for a really good conversation about how you do. doing and how are things going and what's up and anything you need for me and can I help you?

And oh yeah, did you see that? Apparently that was that was complete crap. So, you know, like we get that conversation and work it in. But making that time, making that choice is good for you. It's good for you as a father and it's great for your kids. It's great for your partner. And it's great for their future as well. Well, what I've realized is when you're having sports conversations with family members,

specifically with young kids, you're not really having a sports conversation. Like, you know what I mean? Like, you could talk about, oh, yeah, they blew that call. And I can't believe they made that trade. But really, you're not talking about that. You know, there's a great book. You know, what I really, what I really mean when I say I'm going running is something completely different than I'm going running. Just like I'm watching the game and talking to my kids.

Like, this resonates with you, right? Like when you say, like, I'm talking about hockey with my kids, I am using the language of hockey, but we're not talking about hockey, are we? 100%. My daughter actually is only 50. and we listen to the sports radio shows in the morning on our drive to school. She's going to be a pundit someday for sure because we think it might be the first father-daughter, you know, co-host show around. That's awesome. That's great.

The thing is, it's not about the hockey. I mean, she's knowledgeable about the hockey and the talk and sports talk. But it's about the connection. It's about the time. It's about knowing we have that foundation if we need to talk about more important things, you know, that if challenges and questions come up. And like I said, it's like availability is the best. best ability, just being present and showing up is half the battle of being a parent. And if you can't

be healthy when you're doing that, then you're not, you're not like putting the oxygen mask on first to take care of yourself. Yeah. Why don't men ever get asked how they're doing? Well, we do, but we have a simple answer and it's the wrong answer, right? It's fine. And there's a lot of acronyms that that can stand for which probably aren't suitable for broadcast. But, you know, So it's a bit of a ritual that we go through, right? Like, how are you doing fine? Okay, let's talk about sports. How are you doing fine?

Okay, how's business? How are you doing fine? Not really. I'm not doing fine, but I don't know how to talk about it. So breaking the ice and having those conversations is so critical. A lot of guys haven't had the kind of role models they need to see in their lives to do it, which is another really critical role for fatherhood. Like you mentioned, showing that work balance, like how to be an ambitious.

professional but also a caring parent, if your kids can't see that, then they can't be it, right? It's got to be modeled to them. But those conversations and how we're doing and busting the ice, man, if men could solve that, we would be in a lot better place. And unfortunately, what we're knowing from the work we do at November is that men are still dying too young and for largely reasons that are preventable. And having these conversations, breaking down these stigmas and stereotypes is more than half the battle of getting us to longer, healthier, happier lives. How are you doing the wrong question to always ask?

Because it provides the opportunity for, fine, let's talk about something else. Essentially what I'm asking, is there a better question? Well, that would say you want to have a big conversation, do you mean? Yeah, yeah, I hear you. And you can't always go into it thinking this moment in time has to be the big conversation. but it's the how are you doing what's going on in your life what's keeping you up at night what's the last thing you did with your kid or your partner that made you feel really great I remember you told me about this it's kind of active listening and querying and not settling for

fine I think is what a lot of guys got to do and being vulnerable with your own story as well can be that opener you know back to our conversations about sports that aren't about sports with our kids Yeah. I know one way to crack that open is to share some of my own experiences and challenges. And I remember when I was in university exams, oh, I was so stressed one time, I was blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, all of a sudden, your kid's listening and they're going, huh, he lived this too.

He's not just some abstract, you know, guy that doesn't want to play basketball enough with me. Like, it's a chance to do that. So opening up and being vulnerable even with your buddies and being consistent and listening to them. and pushing a little bit, you know? Like, I'm pushing you because I care. And I'm seeing things that make me think you're not fine.

So I'm here if you want to talk about it. And I don't have answers. And, you know, at Movember, we actually have some really great tools, one called Movember Conversations, that can actually help you get through some of those sticky conversations because, you know, Jeff, literally a conversation can save someone's life if they know someone cares and really wants to know. Absolutely.

And listen, further to that, like the quote the meuse suicide. I shook everybody. And I think what made it so profound is everybody had seen him two days before looking, quote, unquote, normal and looking quote unquote happy. That was just stunning for everybody. And I'm sure it resonated with you and everybody at Movember as well. 100%. You know, condolences to the family and to everybody who loved and you quote. It is shocking.

And that's the thing about suicides. And that's why it's also a men's problem. You know, three out of every four suicides that are completed in this country are completed by men. And that makes it a gendered problem. That makes it our problem. And it is shocking when we see people in public portray that and, you know, carrying the flame out. He's at the pinnacle. He's being lauded and cheered on and adored.

Still something deep inside is not right. And unfortunately, he chose to kind of end the pain. And it's a tragedy that we got to work on. It doesn't, you know, by the time you get to that point, we call it the pointy end, the kind of crisis intervention end. There's very specific types of interventions that can help there. But getting open about our mental health, having these important conversations, building friendships and connections are the things that we have to do down at the bottom of the triangle, you know, to help prevent us getting to that pointy end.

And everybody can do it. It's just a matter of making it intentional and making the time. And, you know, that's one of the things that's one of the things that. we really try to push at Movember is just have those conversations, make those connections, and think about your health in an active way. We've got to break the cycle for guys so that our kids and the next generation as well aren't burdened with these kinds of stigmas and stereotypes. You're doing great work, really, on behalf of all of us here, like a sincere thank you, Todd. And more information, resources, et cetera, available at Movember.com. And thanks for the sweet shirt,

by the way. You got it. You look great in a mustache, Jeff. I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, it's, it's so bad. It used to turn red. Uh, and now that I'm older, it's just gray. Uh, more salt and pepper here, my friend, but yeah, you and be both brother. I'm a stash in November, so I hear you.

Uh, thanks, pal, always good to catch up. Thanks so much for this, Todd. I really appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for the time, Jeff. Appreciate it. There is. Todd Minerson, uh, is the, uh, country director at movember. Uh, com.

Okay, so smart enough up guy. Like it's okay to talk about your mental health, especially if you are struggling and there are a lot of resources that are available to you. Please, we encourage you to check out Movember.com, especially around Father's Day too. And there is a lot of, like, and fathers will express this. Like you guys know what I'm talking about. Like there's a lot of like paternal depression that's a lot of fathers go through as well. So resources to help you if you're going through that available at Movember. Thanks to Todd for stopping by the program today.

All right, Zach, time for you to shine again. NHL season. Fan Duo, you're home, all the action. On the ice. Right now, off the aites. We're talking about trades. From Blue Line to Bettslop, got you covered all season, unique promos, live offerings, more features to let you play your game.

If you miss Puck Drop, don't sweat it. Live same game parley takes care of that. Build your bets up until the final buzzer. Download Fan Dual Sportsbook today. and play your game. Please play responsibly 19 plus, 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. Well, there's no games on the ice. No. There's no NHL action anymore.

All done. But there's Marley's. But there's Marley's, and that's where we're going here tonight, Jeff. Oh, I thought so. Yeah. Yeah, the AHL odds up for tonight's game. Great.

As you currently see up on your screen right now, the Toronto Marley's, minus 122 at home against the Chicago, Wolf, Chicago, uh, minus 104. So this one is basically a coin flip here tonight in Toronto. I imagine some home ice advantage has something to do with that. But Jeff, what reason could I have for bringing this up? Well, because I'm watching the game tonight.

Okay. Yeah, it's right. And I'll be doing the post game show following. this one. So I don't over to Fandul, place a bet, get some action on tonight's game, and then join me on the Leafs Nation YouTube channel to break this one down immediately after.

But yes, no NHL action, you can still find a way to get involved in the AHL, which is still going on right now. Awesome. Toronto Marley's and the Chicago Wolves. Before I wrap things up, a quick message from our friends at Airbnb. Hey, Zach, summer's on the horizon,

and, you know, we've spent a lot of time on the road this year. But here's my question to you. Zach, what would your ultimate summer road trip be? Go. For me, summer is all about golfing, getting out on the course. So going back to places that we just went to and just visited like Banff and the Okinaugan. I think that would be the ultimate getaway with some of those incredible courses, beautiful weather, the scenery. It's some of the best that you can find. It's some of the best that this country has to offer. Now, for me, it's easy. New Brunswick. specifically St. Stephen.

Now, my background. When my family immigrated here to Canada in the 1800s from Ireland, that's where they settled. I went there earlier this year when you and I were in St. John and took a little side trip. It's gorgeous there. I spent the day. I could see myself actually living there one day. Now, after New Brunswick, Montreal. So here's the deal.

For me, Montreal is the one place in Canada where you wake up, you decide, what kind of day you want to have and the city allows you to do it. The festivals, the concerts, the patios, the people, the cobblestone streets of old Montreal, street performers, you name it, it really is the best. And honestly, those kinds of trips are exactly why I love booking homes on Airbnb. You actually feel like you're part of the place instead of just passing through. And that's when it hit me. While I'm busy blending in with the locals, why not let another travel?

traveler do the same. After all, while we're gone, our place back home is just sitting there. So hosting our place on Airbnb could be a way to make use of that space on our own schedule and maybe have a little extra coming in at the same time. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.c.ca.com. All right, wrapping things up here, Zach Roo. Don't forget, Zach is back on the air tonight. Marley's Afterdard. Marley's after dark. First time ever. First for everything, but I'm pumped up.

I just love it. It's going to be a fantastic. Smelling salts are coming. You should try to book some special guests. Go down the QEW to our buddy Mike in Buffalo, see if he's available for service tonight. Nick Al Berger will be on. Oh, is Alberger coming on?

That's awesome. Yep, he'll be on as well. He's going to like wander down to your place from like some local club in downtown Toronto. He's been known to fly by? No, he's going to be at the game. So he's coming right from the game back to his studio and then jumping on the show. So I'll open things up and then have Alberg on

and then I open things up to call. There is not, I love that rank. Not a bad seat in the house. I absolutely adore it. It is a fan of formerly Rico Colosseum, not Coca Cola Coliseum. Not a bad, not a bad. I love doing games from there.

Except when Milwaukee was in town because that's that color blue and the gray name bars. Again, like no one thinks about the poor broadcasters. couldn't see the names. Right. Made it a little bit challenging. Admirals were a tough look when you're doing play by player games.

They all blend. It's just like a smudge. Just like a smudge. But by and large, American Lockely's got great, great looking stuff. Anyhow, so check Zach out tonight. Thanks to a few people on the program today. I just heard from Todd Minerson a couple of seconds ago, Movember, Canada.

Movember.com is the website you should check out there. as we remind everyone, we remind Man Around Father's Day to check on your mental health and your friends as well and family members. Thanks to Dave Panyota for stopping by the program today talking about the Philadelphia Flyers Trade with Toronto Maple Leafs. More on that on tomorrow's program. Also Dan McKenzie, President of the Canadian Hockey League, thanks to Dan for stopping by two. Reminder, tomorrow on the program, we'll be joined by Eric Tulski, the general manager of the Carolina Hurricanes. Got it? Got it.

On that, we'll wrap things up. We kept you way too long. Enjoy the rest of your day. Thanks so much for watching. Thanks so much for listening. Thanks so much for everyone in the chat as well. Check out Zach tonight. Marley's After Dark.

Oh, man, I just absolutely. With Nick Alberga, we'll see about Mike in Buffalo too. Marley Mike in Buffalo. Enjoy the rest of your day. That's a bad point. Enjoy the rest of your day back on the program tomorrow. 1 o'clock Eastern right here for the show. Thanks.

Alright