Johnson on the Maple Leafs signing Raddysh, the boost for the team and Matthews' outlook

Bryan Hayes· Host0:00

Here's Mike Johnson, our TSN hockey analyst, uh, joining us here on the Maple Toyota Hotline. Johnny, um, your reaction to Darren Raddysh, eight years, 8.5 million, Toronto Maple Leaf.

Mike Johnson· Guest0:12

Surprised because, you know, a lot of teams might be interested in him. Surprised because he's a couple weeks out from July 1. Uh, not surprised by the number. We've talked about this at length, right? Frankie, Noodles, Hayes, we talked about he's gonna be eight plus. Eight to nine, maybe nine plus. So that's not surprising. We know what he is, and we know what he's really, really good at, right? Elite-level shooter, elite-level finisher. Actually a very proficient passer of the puck. Defends the blue line pretty well 'cause he's aggressive. He's not a great skater. What I'm curious about is that the stuff that he's good at, you can comfortably predict he'll be good at again. Like, he's not gonna forget how to shoot. Like, that's gonna travel from Tampa to Toronto.

Bryan Hayes· Host0:53

Right.

Mike Johnson· Guest0:53

Will, like, sort of the good possession defensive metrics travel from Tampa to Toronto? I, I... That remains [chuckles] to be seen, because that has a lot to do with the team that's gonna be around him. But as long as you're okay with understanding what you got. You don't have Cale Makar or Brock Faber or Quinn Hughes or Zach Werenski. You have a guy who's an elite-level p- offensive shooter who can play on your second pair. And maybe the, the luck changes this year and he gets 50 points and 14 goals, and if that's okay, then I think you'll be fine for the next several years on that contract. Maybe by the end it might not be your favorite, but whatever. You're not worried about that right now, it's so far down the road. The cap could be $140