Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hour 2 Overdrive continues, powered by FanDuel, bringing you more ways to play your game your way. Brian Hayes, Frankie Corrado, Jamie Noodles, McLennan, Taylor Hall later in the hour, Mike Johnson coming up here in a few moments. U.S. Open continues down in New York. The Jays are getting pumped in Chicago, playing the Cubs. Vladi left that game injured, not a good sign.
And the World Cup continuing. You've got the Americans who continue to roll. Scotland's playing, which means, The scenes in Boston will be electric. Man, there is a chance Canada plays Scotland round of 32 in Vancouver. A distinct possibility that could happen.
What does Stevie Caldwell do then?
A couple of whiskeys and five or six beers.
Probably more than that. That will be electric. You want to see a guy in Stevie Caldwell... who maybe can't lose in a situation like that. I guess maybe that's the way you look at it. I'm not sure. But it's on the table. It's possible. So, yeah, Mike Johnson coming up here in a few moments.
And, you know, the Leafs made a sign and trade with Tampa today, acquiring Darren Radish, signing him to an eight-year deal at $8.5 million per. They made the Joseph Wall deal the other day. They hired a coach, Jim Hiller. It is nonstop. They won the draft lottery. They fired their old coach, old GM. The Leafs, they are a content-making machine. They are.
They never stop. You know what I really appreciate right now? And listen, there was a lot of skepticism around John Chayka and him being hired by the Toronto Maple Leafs. I have not heard the word kicking tires once when it comes to John Chayka. All he's done is pull the trigger. And I have a really... I have an appreciation for that, the fact that he's willing to pull the trigger.
He's not going to be half in, half out, and he's going to commit to something. Whether it's right or wrong in a few years, we'll know the answer, but at least he's going to go down swinging, and he's going to try and make some drastic swings and some drastic moves to try and help his team. I said it in the last hour, but... five years away in the NHL, it's a lifetime.
It might as well be a century. I don't know how you're going to clean up certain things. I don't know who's going to be there to clean it up, but you're living in this world right now, and as far as I'm concerned, he's not kicking tires. He is being aggressive, and I have an appreciation for it.
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Chapter 2: What recent signing did the Maple Leafs make and what does it mean for their defense?
Like they're going to have Matthews, Nylander, Tavares, Nyes. Let's say they take Gavin McKenna. Again, you've got to be reasonable with what you can expect out of an 18-year-old. That's a fair amount of talent. You know, like that's a fair amount of talent that you're working with. They've got to fill out the rest of the roster. They've got to get goaltending. They've got to play a system.
You know, sloppy at times last year, a lot of times. But this team is not going to be in a position where they don't have enough firepower, in my opinion ā to score some goals and to get a power play going. And if you do that in the regular season, you can win a lot of games.
Scoring goals wasn't the issue last year. It was how they defended. It was the inconsistency in net. It looked stale. It looked slow. But even with that being the case, they could score goals. And the crazy thing is they finished that year one of the worst teams in the NHL. They're going to pick first overall. They had really good puck luck.
So, okay, let's say their puck luck swips just a little bit. They're still going to score quite a bit. And you add Gavin McKenna, who's going to get better over time. Easton Cowan's another year older. How does Jim Hiller's coaching and communication and messaging, how does that resonate with Austin Matthews and William Nylander?
Because there's an established positive relationship already with those guys. And if he can get the team to actually defend the way they're supposed to... You're talking about a team that's fine. We'll be competitive. They're a good team, yeah.
And add in, and I want to bring in Johnny to it too, but add in, so they've got decisions to make on RFAs too, Michelli and Nick Robertson. Be interesting to see if they've bridged them, they signed them, or they walk away from them or trade them type of thing. There's big decisions because you've talked about it, Brian. Absolutely.
The top of the roster, there's guys there, but that 6-12, there's a lot of work to be done there, and it'll be interesting to see what his philosophy is and how he was going to fill that out.
Here's Mike Johnson, our TSN hockey analyst, joining us here on the Maple Toyota Hotline. Johnny, your reaction to Darren Radish, eight years, $8.5 million, Toronto Maple Leafs.
Surprised because, you know, a lot of teams might be interested in him. Surprised because he's a couple weeks out from July 1. Not surprised by the number. We've talked about this at length, right? Frankie, Noodles, Hayes, we talked about he's got to be 8-plus, 8-9, maybe 9-plus. So that's not surprising. We know what he is, and we know what he's really, really good at, right?
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Chapter 3: How does Darren Radish fit into the Maple Leafs' strategy?
feathery backhand slip pass under a stick. But at some point, Gavin McKenna is going to be there. How do you kind of juggle that at some point, Johnny? If that's the guy that they're going to pick, that he's working that position, is he power play two to start, then go into power play one? How do they work that ecosystem?
Frankie, you just said an ecosystem. You go in that room and tell me if Matthew Nyes is still on the team or John Tavares. Are you going to take them off the first power play so the first overall pick can go there? Or Willie or Austin? Or the guy you just gave $68 million to? I don't think so.
And if you're going to take John Tavares off the first power play, then you shouldn't even have... That's what he has to do. going forward for the Toronto Maple Leafs, because he's so good at it. So, yes, I think second unit, and I say, Willie can certainly open up avenues and become more of a passer if he wants to. Yes, he can still shoot it.
He might not be so pass-first like Kucherov might be, but they got guys that can throw it, you know, pass it around. Eventually, maybe, when John Tavares is two years away, and then Nyes goes to the net, and somebody else goes to the bumper, and McKenna's there, or if Austin Matthews is even here in two-plus years, you can figure that out, but I...
As great as Gavin McKenna is going to be, I don't know walking him into the first unit. I don't know. I don't know if you can even justify taking one of those guys off there in the short term, given how good they still are on the power play.
So, Johnny, we were talking about Radish's fit with this group. You said second pairing, whether it's first pairing, second pairing. He's going to play top four in top four minutes, right? Do you think Chayka's done on the back end? I don't think he is. I think there's one more move.
You obviously have to deal with Morgan Rielly, but if you move up Morgan Rielly, who would you like to see or what type of player would you like to see come in in replace of Morgan Rielly?
A steady, solid, two-way puck mover guy. Doesn't have to be an offensive guy. You want him to be able to defend. You want him to not be small, unless he's going to be elite, which won't be the case. You want a guy who can defend a little bit, pass the puck up the ice, and be counted on to be responsible. You want a young Frankie Corrado. That's exactly what I mean. You want that guy.
But you know what I mean? It doesn't have to be exceptional and everything, but good at the stuff that he's good at. Because I still see a lot of this hinges on Tana being healthy. And if Tanev is healthy, then you can put him with McCabe. McCabe's still on the team. And they're really good together.
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Chapter 4: What impact did Darren Radish have during the Stanley Cup run?
I was there when Jimmy was there. I spent a year and a half with him. I think it would be hard for us to find anyone in those locker rooms that has a bad thing to say about him. His working relationship with a lot of guys, mind you, as an assistant coach, it was really good. So I think the fact that that is your starting point for all these guys...
It's like, I think it's one of those things, Johnny, you know, when you see an old teammate and you just kind of pick up conversation where you left off and you're like, it's, it's just organic. It's nice. It's like, we haven't missed a beat. I feel like that's going to be the case for the guys. You know, there's not many, but you know, especially those two guys that were there.
And we'll see what that looks like to your point. Like they, he inherited a really good defensive team. Toronto's not a good in LA. Toronto's not a good defensive team right now.
I'm curious, if we're sitting here in a year's time and we're digesting the year that Darren Radish just had, and let's say it's 10 goals, 40 assists, how is that getting graded by Mike Johnson between the benches in the Leafs pregame show?
What's his defensive metrics? What's the style they play? What's his usage? Because I kind of expect him to get 10 goals and 40 assists. I think that would probably be a good year. I don't think he's going to score 25 goals. He might, but I don't think he will. That's what I'm saying. I don't think we can expect 70 points. He doubled up his career shooting percentage.
He doubled up his career shooting percentage. Is he going to carry that again on a different team in a new market without the same guy passing the puck? Probably not. But 10 and 40 would be fine so long as the other stuff makes sense as well. Frankie, you talked about it. The coach coming back in and... I mean, I think, like, when I went to Montreal, I was 33, 11th year in the league.
Guy Carbone was my head coach. It still took me two months to kind of get a working relationship and sort of him understand me, me understand him, because he's got a lot to do beyond taking care of, you know, me or whatever. So the fact that you can fast-track that kind of relationship with the two most important offensive players you have, that's a good thing. And you need those two guys...
Austin, Willie, to really buy in to whatever it is he's selling. They set the tone now. Morgan's going to leave. Tavares is getting a bit older. Those two set the tone for how everyone feels about everything. And we've all been in rooms. When your best player has a bad attitude about something... Everyone knows. Everyone can feel it.
And it sort of empowers everyone to second guess or maybe to be a bit skeptical or a little comment on the slide, talking about it at dinner. When the best player is the opposite, fully invested, fully on board, lockstep, then everyone else is like, hmm, I better be that as well. So it's really important that those two players have a good relationship.
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