Chapter 1: What are the latest updates on the Maple Leafs' management?
Hour 2 Overdrive continues, powered by FanDuel. Bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score. Brian Hazio, Doug Jeff O'Neill, Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star. Leafs-Sharks tonight on TSN4. So we've got... Last time I did the panel, I'm on the panel with you tonight, O. I can't wait, Brian. It's going to be a lot of fun. It always is.
Last time I got to do a panel game, they were playing Schaefer and the Islanders. Tonight they're playing Celebrini and the Sharks. Nice. Right? So it's always fun to talk about these young superstars. And that's what they are. They're superstars already. Celebrini in particular. You play for Canada and do what he did at the Olympic Games and four points last night. It's incredible.
We discussed at the last hour, I mentioned the idea where the San Jose Sharks could be watching him with 13 or 14 goals kind of creeping up on 20, and they'd be like, We're happy with his progress. We think by year four, possibly five, he's going to be a man and he'll fill out and he might get 80 points. Guy's got 40 G's and 100 points. Same with Schaefer.
They could have drafted him and they could have thought about a different game plan if things weren't working out. Should he go back to junior? He's a stud in the NHL. One of the league's best defensemen already at 18. It's such a game changer as an organizer. That's why these guys are called organizational changers, man. Everything goes around them. They make you better immediately.
You think the New York Islanders or San Jose would even be remotely close to the positions they're in, if not for these young players?
No, clearly not. Celebrini's the most valuable player in the league this year. He is the most valuable player to his team, in my opinion, because they have been the worst team in the league the last two years by a country mile. Horrendous. The only reason they're a point out is because of him. Now, that doesn't mean McDavid wouldn't do it if he was in San Jose, but he's not, right?
Like, and obviously, McDavid is immensely valuable to Edmonton. Kucharov is to Tampa. McKinnon is to Colorado.
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Chapter 2: How is Celebrini impacting the San Jose Sharks' performance?
But what this guy's doing with that roster around him and just, like, the performance last night, that's one of the best games played by anyone all year. Maybe the most important one. Yeah. Divisional rival. They needed two points to stay in the hunt here. And he had four primary points. Two goals, two assists. 40 goals, 65 assists. I don't even care that he's 19. That doesn't factor in.
He is having the Taylor Hall season.
But he's better than that. You're right.
Dude, I totally agree. I'm talking about the comparison valuable to his team. Taylor Hall won the Hart Trophy. He had 42 more points than the next guy.
and every night he had a big goal, a big assist, and down the stretch, all anyone was talking about, because don't kid yourself, you might have to look this up, Doogie, but I think that year, like, McDavid was humming, and all the point-getters were right there, and this guy wasn't up there with those totals, but he won the Hart Trophy.
Right, and he was a winger, and I think he had some points in, like, the 90s, like 92, 94. This kid... If he stays out, like he could torch the Leafs tonight. Now, I know they played last night, but the way the Leafs have defended and been playing recently. Points night. They had their buildup against Anaheim. I'm curious to see what the Leafs have tonight. We'll see. Because they played well.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of the Sharks' playoff positioning?
They fought literally and figuratively the other night. Let's see what they've got. They've been in California. The season's over. Brace for impact, possibly tonight. But this guy, he could end up with 120 points. 120 points and 55 more points than anyone else on his team. And if they get into the playoffs, I get it that McDavid is going to end up with 140 points.
And McKinnon hit 50 goals last night. That was amazing. Like 50 snipes. It's incredible. Kucherov's been banged up recently, but his numbers are absurd.
But he's got 40 more points than the next guy on the Lightning. 100%. And the one thing about... Celebrini, guys. Do we take into account the fact that right now San Jose Sharks are right on the playoff borderline with 77 points in the Western Conference? The Ottawa Senators are on the playoff borderline with 86 points.
So that's a pillow fight. You're taking that away. It doesn't have to be taken away from McDavid?
I'm just saying. I'm just saying that it's got to be some kind of a factor that they are playing a pillow fight, literally.
Okay. So does it apply to McDavid, though, in your opinion?
No, but if you're a voter. But I'm saying, yeah.
They're playing weaker competition.
You're not wrong.
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Chapter 4: How does data influence NHL team management decisions?
But then why wouldn't it? So that's why I'm leaning Kucherov in many ways. Okay. In many ways, I'm leaning Kucherov.
That's fascinating. I love the idea of hockey people, smart people, writers, broadcasters. They all see it kind of differently, and I love that about it. I really do.
But I'm not knocking the kid. No, no, you're not.
By the way, our crack staff behind the scenes, I'm only referring to J.P. He just told me Taylor Hall was sixth in the league scoring that year.
So how many points did he have, J.P.? Just run it down how many he had and who was ahead of him.
No chance he knows that.
I didn't have it memorized. Sorry, boys. But Taylor Hall had 93. He was sixth. Nathan McKinnon had 97. Evgeny Malkin had 98. Kucherov had 100. Claude Giroux had 102. McDavid, 108.
Wow, Claude Giroux was second in points that year. Wow. So McDavid had 108. which now that you know what he's become, you're like, well, it was a good year, but he cruises past one away.
Hadn't found his stride yet.
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Chapter 5: What are the best building block players under 25 in professional sports?
just like Chicago Blackhawks with Jonathan Tays, just like Sidney Crosby or Kopitar in Los Angeles. If you get some goaltending and you put ā I don't know what ā I don't think it's a great free agent class, but you look at every way to make your team next year real deal Holyfield and just see what the hell happens. And then the talk of ā Because San Jose was miserable for a couple years.
Yeah, they were the worst team in the league.
Yeah, and that makes it worthwhile. But we've said it all the time. Jamie brought up a great point when Toronto was going through it, and teams do it. They're terrible for seven years, man. Like garbage for seven years. Like their draft picks don't work out, and then they cycle through another set of draft picks. Chicago's kind of... You've got to be careful, though.
It's interesting, because you're right. Your instinct might be, if you're Mike Greer, I've got to get crazy here.
Not crazy, but just, like, let's be making the playoffs, man.
Look at Montreal. Montreal's like, we're keeping our picks. We're drafting guys. Like, they're doing, not to make it about the Leafs, what the Leafs did. Like, the Leafs stopped doing that. It was, we're trading. We're trading. We're going. We've got our guys.
We're getting Tavares.
Yeah, Montreal's like, no, we got Hage coming, and we got Reinbacher coming, and we got other kids coming, and we're going to keep drafting, and we're keeping our first-round picks. Yeah.
Well, sooner or later you get to a point where there's not enough money because the years run out and guys that are out of their entry deals, and it's like, well, we've got to pay all these young guys $8 million at the same time? You've got to get different players.
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Chapter 6: What factors contribute to Celebrini's potential as a top player?
Is that something Pelley needs to give them that answer? You know what I'm saying? I want to know before I even accept it what's going on with this guy.
Well, you would definitely ask Keith Pelley if you're a top candidate and you're being offered the job as head of hockey operations. And maybe it's a little awkward that you go, all right, you're the president of MLSC, but I'd sure like to speak with Judd Moldaver even better. I'd like to have direct contact with Austin Matthews.
That's tough to do before you've actually signed the document, the contract, that makes you the head of hockey operations. But sure, you're having that conversation with Pelly, and you're trusting the information that he's giving back to you. Guys, what I can tell you is, you know, before Brad Treleving was let go on Monday, you know, he was engaged in conversations with Austin Matthews.
about what the future looks like. I don't think that he was looking for a clear path or an indication from Matthews, who, you know, has two more years after this year remaining on his contract, what his intentions are, but they were in communication, and Triliving was trying to explain
what he thought the fix would be to get this team back into being super competitive and a playoff-worthy team ASAP. Talking about the retool that Keith Kelly sort of alluded to on Tuesday. But there are no guarantees that Auston Matthews isn't going to have a change of heart. But you can guarantee that there is going to be a conversation with that new hire.
Because if Auston Matthews doesn't give you that guarantee and he decides he's going down the Quinn Hughes path of going, nah, I'm not so sure. And in fact, it's less likely that I'm going to extend. Well, that kicks the R word from retool potentially into rebuild pretty quick, I would say.
Darren, what was your overall impressions of the presser and the vibe it sent through the league? Just basically, what did people make of some of the comments about other teams, trains coming, people's prospects, your general thoughts on that?
Well, as Keith Jones once said to me, and I've warned this for quite some time, Dregs, it's not what you think, it's what you know. That's the insider's job, right? It's the motto that I live by. So what I know is that the teams involved weren't impressed.
Montreal and Buffalo didn't love that Keith Pelley, the president of MLSC, is talking about their players, specifically two coveted prospects, two pieces, one in Marcus with the Buffalo Sabres and, of course, Michael Hage with the Montreal Canadiens. I mean, these guys factor into being big elements of the success of the future of those two organizations.
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Chapter 7: How does the upcoming NHL draft impact team strategies?
So I'm going to talk about this coming up on Insider Trading. That wasn't just lip service. You could tell that Keith Pelley is passionate about it because as he explained in great detail, in his mind, it applies to the success of the other sports that he oversees in Toronto, right? So why wouldn't it work? you know, with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
And I know based on people that Pele has talked to that he is keenly interested in the management of the Toronto Maple Leafs being heavily influenced by analytics. Heavily. And, you know, I think that What people need to also understand is Toronto's analytics department is second to none in terms of the resources that are poured into it. Now, I don't know.
Chapter 8: What are the FanDuel best bets for tonight's games?
I mean, obviously, Brad Trilliving didn't utilize that information to the degree that Pelley and maybe others thought that they should. But I can tell you that the list that he's compiling of potential replacements for Brad Trilliving ā It's less about the experience of this person and more about how deep entrenched they are and what their analytics background is. I don't know how that flies.
I don't know how you can bring an inexperienced manager into a market and into an organization as rich and as deep as the Toronto Maple Leafs and not have hardcore management experience. Maybe you can surround that individual with people that do. That could be part of it. But I'll tell you what, the new hockey operations department most definitely is going to have a strong data influence.
Okay, I like it. Do we know if they have...
figured out whether there'll be a president and a GM like they don't know that and when are they going to figure that out like what is the timeline on that yeah well Pierre Lebrun is going to touch on this as well and first of all they've got to hire that search firm and they haven't done that and I don't think that they're expected to complete that process until later next week and you know but when you hire a search firm you give that search firm criteria
It's like overdrive AI, right? Here's the information, plug it in, and then you give us the names of the people, the list of 10 people that we need to talk to, right? So that's kind of the process that is going to unfold. They're going into it, I think, somewhat open-minded. I just described. why there needs to be the analytics influence.
I believe that they need a president of hockey operations. I don't believe that Keith Pelley feels the same way. And obviously his opinion matters more than mine does. So it sounds like right now, and as we're having this conversation, they're only interested in hiring a general manager.
And then flooding that general manager with, you know, maybe hockey experience and other pieces that are going to fill out the hockey operations department.
So 10, 12 assistant GMs, maybe we can get to 15, 20. The Leafs can break records when it comes to assistant GMs and people helping the GM.
Try to get to 20.
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