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Chapter 1: What are the Maple Leafs' next steps for the upcoming season?
Hour 2 Overdrive continues, powered by FanDuel. Mike Johnson here in a few moments. We'll get into this Kawhi Leonard report later this hour. Get a consensus on that.
I can't believe you're even going down that alley. It's just so pathetic that you of all people are going to buy into him.
I have a take. I have a take on it. I'll tell you about my take.
It's leverage and it's a complete joke. You know that he's just trying to get in the Steve Baumler's antennas up to say, oh, that old girlfriend's over there and maybe he's going to head over there. And then he's going to pay them some more, and it's just so stupid and ridiculous. I can't even believe you would buy into it for a second.
Well, listen, I'm not buying in that it's going to happen.
Couldn't he have the decency to go to some other? Like, say the Lakers. Like, just leave us out of it. Have some decency. You could have said the Lakers.
Yeah, but what about the player? Would you take Kawhi the player?
Jamie, I know he's not coming here. I know this game. This game already happened once. I'll take the player.
Sorry, I like the player.
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Chapter 2: How is Morgan Rielly's future being discussed in Toronto?
But would I love to see him play here? Yeah, I think I'd be okay with that. I know. Yes, because you know what would happen? Here's what would happen. Because I am anti-retire the number. I'm anti-statue for Kawhi.
Oh, my God. Now you're going to go down the trophy lane?
If he comes back.
Sorry, the statue?
If he comes back and retires a Raptor and plays three or four years, they were a playoff team this year, right? It's not LeBron going back to Cleveland, clearly. It's not the same.
Ask Johnny what he thinks of this ploy because he's a smart enough guy he knows.
And it's being reported he wants to stay in L.A. So even if he did come to Toronto, people would be like, here we go. It's because you didn't get your way. That's why you just agreed to come here or you were forced to come here. So I don't even know how he would sell it. But I also know Kawhi doesn't care about selling it. Kawhi doesn't care what anyone thinks.
He doesn't care about selling anything. But if he came back for three or four years and retired a Raptor, pushed them deep into the playoffs... Number two's up in the Raptors.
Number two. Load management.
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Chapter 3: What insights does Mike Johnson provide on Auston Matthews' performance?
Oh, if there's OK, in my hierarchy of recognition, statue out front or Legends Row is the creme de la creme. Then Jersey. then Ring of Honor. I don't know if the Raptors even have a Ring of Honor, but if they did, oh, I'll give you that. I'll give you a recognition on the Ring of Honor. But he's not getting his jersey retired. He played 80 games.
I know they won their only championship with him, but there's just not enough time. His greatness and his role, it's just not enough.
You want to know how this idiot brought me into this show when we first started working together? He goes, this is Jeff O'Neill. His statue on Legends Row is in Barrie. That's how far away it should be.
I thought it was in Guelph. All the way down.
He said Barrie. Going north. He said Barrie. Going north. It goes up to 400. Yeah, I said you'd be around Barrie. That's when they get to your statue. And the team's been around for 100 years. But here's my last thing on Kawhi. You know why I actually am not jilted or bitter about this? Or I would not be bitter about him returning? Because he won when he was here.
And when you hear other players... We've had it with former Leaf players. Ah, this guy might think about coming back. How would you feel? And those scenarios, sometimes I'm like, I don't want that guy to come back. It's done. It's been buried. It didn't work. You didn't win when you were here. And you left. Get out of here. I don't need a redemption tour.
I wouldn't look at it that way with Kawhi. I wouldn't look at it like, oh, man, he's throwing us a bone because he left us. It would be like a continuation of the celebration seven years later. Like, hey, man, when you were here, it was incredible. You won. It was the greatest season in the history of the franchise. Come on back. That's how I would feel about it. Open arms for Kawhi.
Open arms for any player that will make you better. The thing about Kawhi, I think everyone came into the one-year relationship with their eyes wide open. He didn't pull the rug out. He might have been leveraging deals. Everyone knew he wanted to leave after a year, but he's going to play his butt off when he's here, and he did. You can't hate him because he was upfront about it.
I think everyone who needed to know was aware of what was likely going to happen.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of Kawhi Leonard's potential return to Toronto?
yeah it was quite a watch we were like scorned girlfriends watching like they and then he got on the bird and got the hell out of here and left and never came back so yeah i don't know there is that it was a rough way to go out like literally the first time ever i think a guy's won a championship and said we'll see you later
I'm out of here. It was a tough pill to swallow.
But he had the decency to go to a Jays game and act like he was all happy.
That was cool. Remember we saw him at Home Depot. A lot of people caught him at Home Depot, I think it was. He was getting boxes.
He had to pack his stuff. Do you remember the other one? His girlfriend or his wife or whatever, they were down at Niagara Falls taking in the falls.
That's right. Yeah, a little family trip. Nothing wrong with that.
I know how that combo went. He was like, we better go show the kid the falls before we get out of here, because we ain't ever coming back. Before we never go again.
Well, maybe they come back this time. Maybe seven years later, it's all good. Well, Johnny, we're trying to dissect the John Chyka presser today, where it sounds like Morgan Riley's going to return. Anthony Stolarz is prepared to start about 55 games next year. And Matthew Nyes couldn't possibly give up him. Obviously, smokescreens. Obviously, he's not going to lay out his plan publicly.
But what are you buying? What are you selling in terms of what is being reported in the rumor mill when it comes to the Maple Leafs over the next couple of weeks?
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Chapter 5: How does Landon Donovan's hair transformation relate to sports culture?
It sounds as if the Rangers are open to moving off him. He's got a new agent now, maybe trying to gain some control on where he could end up going. What kind of value do you see in him? Because the Leafs have been linked to that pursuit to an extent.
He's a good player, Vinny Trocek. I mean, he can do a lot of things quite well. And he has still three more years, right? At a very reasonable number. He is getting up there in age. What is he, mid-30s? 32, 33 now? So... He would be great.
If you're looking for a transition plan for a few years, to have Tavares be a 3C or maybe be a winger or whatever, Trocek coming in as your second-line center for a couple years with Austin as your number one. Very good defensively. Very good on face-offs. Plays well with other good players. Presumably had great chemistry with Panarin. Could he create that chemistry with Nylander?
Whatever it might be. But he would cost a lot. At 5-6 Hayes for that kind of player, Don't you think first rounder plus to get him out of there and have him agree? He has a modified no trade, so he'd have to agree to come to Toronto, which I don't know if he would. But don't you think he'd be first plus a pretty good prospect or something, a pretty good player to get him out of New York?
But he'd make your team better and he would make sense in Toronto.
Yeah, I mean, I agree. And small layer, maybe it's 5%, but you have to make sure the intention of an American player wanting to come to Canada, all that type of stuff. I mean, that has to be factored in nowadays, you know, given the temperature, and we see that. But, you know, Johnny, I wanted to more look at kind of the bottom of the roster a little bit.
When you think of a guy like Nick Robertson, I think he needs a contract. You look at, you know, situations like that, like... But what do you make ā like he's a real ā I think a fascinating case study for me because he's not 19 anymore, but when given opportunities, he has been able to show that he can score some goals.
Do you think it's just as easy to try and bridge him, get a couple-year deal and see what you have there, or would you move on from him?
It depends how you see your team look at noodles, right? Like if your third line is going to be an attacking sort of, we're going to be a good defensive line because we're going to have the puck and try to take advantage of premium matchups. Well, Nick Robertson has scored, even in his limited role, largely five on five, like a 20 goal a year pace.
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Chapter 6: What are the salad rebuild candidates mentioned in the episode?
Well, I mean, you've got Michelli there, too, right? What are you going to do with him? Do you want both those guys, one guy? Absolutely not. I mean, circus for him, personally, I guess, O. Okay, so if you're gonna get rid of Michele, then you definitely are gonna keep Robertson. You need offense. And while it's a circus for Nick, Oh, you played long enough, right?
I'm trying to think of a player, like a tweener player. Like he's not really a checker, but he's probably not quite good enough to be a top six scorer. And so he does a bit of both and sort of miscast in each, but still a good NHL player. And he's always sort of shuffling, trying to find, and maybe on a worse team, he gets that top six role, Bobby McMahon. But on a good team, he can't.
And then he ends up in Toronto in and out of the lineup, and it's hard on him. But I'm not going to give him away because life's hard on him. He's done well in that role. I'm going to challenge him to keep doing well, and I'm going to keep him around.
Yeah, like my assessment of him is that he can do some incredible things with the puck. He can fly down the wing and rip home a goal, takes incredibly stupid penalties, makes some really goofy decisions, like really stupid penalties. Like a minute left in the period of a 2-2 game, he'll slash somebody. I'm not going to get into the details.
And he has a difficult time contributing anything to the game if he's not scoring a goal. You know what I mean? He doesn't really get on his horse and get on the forecheck and cause turnovers, does not run anybody over. And at times, the decision-making in defensive play is gonzo. So does he score enough where he's a value?
I mean, is a swing guy like that that you can put in and out of the lineup in case of injury, in case of slump, in case of message sending worth having around? Part of it also might be if they get Vinny Trocek, then they got three scoring lines. If his center man is, you know, Bo Gru or Jacob Quillen, respectfully. you're probably not going to get a lot out of him in that role, right?
They're not going to generate very much. So maybe you're better off getting, you know, another more physical, traditional checker. It sort of depends on how you envision the third line playing, because that's where he likely will be slotted. And we never, ever talk about Michele, but they do have to sort of, I think he's an RFA, right? So they have to figure out what they want to do with him.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. They got to figure that out.
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Chapter 7: What are Bryan's FanDuel Best Bets for the upcoming games?
How much... How much is he risking in all of this?
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if that's the correct read, although I do believe if he said not a bloody chance on playing for Mike Babcock, he would not have been hired. Like, I don't know if he made them hire him, but he could have made them not hire him. And he said, no, no way. I believe that given how much power he has. The way Connor and I even think historically, like, let's say it. Lames out.
It goes awful. Whether the team does poorly, Honor ends up with 86 points and they don't do well, or worst case scenario, Mike Babcock doesn't make it through a whole year because something happens. Like, I think people will look at Conor saying he's and they will look at him through a positive lens in that he's so desperate to win.
He'll try anything, including hiring a guy that he knows is not going to be easy on him or maybe a lot of people who has a past that is checkered, to say the least. And he's willing to do that. And they look at him that way. He's like, look at how bad he wants it, as opposed to. Look at the bad decisions he's making because he wants it so bad.
Like, I don't think he goes down that road, but they are for sure linked. And whatever success they have or lack of success, it'll be sort of Mike Babcock, the coach and the leadership group led by Connor McDavid that wanted him. Yeah. And if it goes great.
they're geniuses if it goes poorly they got some egg on their face and and and some you're not explaining to do but whatever the fallout of that is and maybe that's connor leaving edmonton who knows but that's probably part of it too like he's like i got two years let's find out if this we haven't had something quite like this let's try it see if it works and if it does great if not i'm off somewhere else
Johnny, McDavid's got, you just mentioned, two years. Austin Matthews, two years. Like, do you think that both teams are just kind of rolling the dice with those guys? Because it seems like everybody else with two years, it's like, you think you're going to be signing next year? And if you're not, we're going to move on from you to optimize the value. Do you just think that, like...
How do you think things ā we haven't really heard from Austin Matthews. There was some noise about two months ago, and then it died down. How do you think the scenario is going to play out with 34 just heading into this season and in the future?
I think the Leafs are not going to go the Quinn Hughes route. Because I guess Austin didn't say I'm leaving for sure. So he's like, I got to figure out based on how we're doing, how I'm doing, what happens. And the Leafs are basically all saying, we're going to convince you to stay because we're going to be good. We're going to do the things that you would like.
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Chapter 8: How are the hosts wrapping up the episode with final thoughts?
Oh, specimen. Okay. All right. Well, then I think he's got to score 50 goals. He's got to be one of the top two or three goal scorers in the league. He's got to get 90 points. And he's got to carry play at five on five. I don't care who he plays with. I don't care what system they play. That's what he's got to do if he's healthy, and that would be a good year for him.
And if he does that, guess what? The Leafs are going to make the playoffs. Like, they will. With the changes they're going to make and better health from their goalies, they'll make the playoffs if he can do that. I don't know if he can do that. I'm not sure about his health. But I think there is, yes, the point you're making is a good one.
The onus is not just on the team to make changes, revamp the roster, change the coach, change the system. It's also on the players, led by Austin Matthews, to take all that stuff and maximize it by playing incredibly well. And he'll have to do that.
Just to clarify... You're saying if Matthews is Matthews again, they're going to make the playoffs.
Yes. Who's coming out of the playoffs in the Atlantic?
I think if you think Florida can take a step back. We're not looking at the negatives, Jamie. We're looking at the positives now, aren't we?
I love that take, Johnny. It's a great take. What's Tampa going to be? What's Tampa going to be? No Victor Hedman, you know. Like, a lot of things that went, like, even, I have said, like, re-rack Toronto's team last year as bad as it went. Put them right on the ice again, I bet they're almost an eight spot. And the fact that they mailed it in the last 20 games. They mailed it in.
Once they were out the last 10-12, no one goes 2-10 down the stretch, if it matters. They're out and they mailed it in. I think if Austin Matthews is a heart finalist caliber player, Hazy, Yeah, I think they make the playoffs. I love it. I love it. And if their goaltender doesn't, and if their goalie stays remotely healthy.
Yeah, for sure. You know what? It's a great thing, but I would like to see more D and defense and more players, too. It's not just Austin Matthews having a great season. They need a lot. What about the D-man? What about the D-man from Philly, Jamie?
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