A ‘real-life Ted Lasso' and a lawyer: Meet the MacDougalls, hockey's father-son, coach-GM duo

'A real-life Ted Lasso.'
That's the best way Andrew Brewer can put Gardiner MacDougall.
He's a coach. He has the moustache. Even at 65, he has the infectious, undying energy. He can talk to, motivate and connect with people. He's the ultimate recruiter. He can make anybody feel good about themselves. He's humble.
Advertisement
Like Lasso, he always has a joke lined up for a news conference. He'll tell you about the two ladies in his team's life, Lady Luck and Lady Mo', and that you need to find Lady Luck before you find Lady Mo' in the crowd. He shows up early at the rink every day to find them, he says.
He signs his texts with 'GMac @ Mct' (short for Moncton) and starts or ends every conversation with a stranger with a genuine interest in what they do, where they're from and who their family is.
According to those who've worked with him, he knows what his strengths and weaknesses are, doesn't try to be the X's and O's guy and surrounds himself with people who do what he doesn't.
'I have my efficiency chart. It's 30 years old, way before analytics,' he said on a recent phone call, chuckling, not because he has any disdain for analytics but because he has aged himself again.
'My coaches do more video than I do.'
But there's one thing MacDougall has on Lasso.
'He has had way more success,' Brewer said. 'He's better at winning.'
Winning seems to be all he does.
He became the winningest coach in Canadian university hockey history at the University of New Brunswick, where he captured nine national titles. Last year, in his final one at the helm of the UNB Varsity Red, he went 43-0. He then guided Canada to a perfect record at the U18 worlds, winning gold in a come-from-behind win against the USA. In 2022, when the Memorial Cup-host Saint John Sea Dogs fired their coach following a shocking first-round exit in the QMJHL playoffs, they asked MacDougall to fill in. He took over a team he'd never seen play and, in 39 days, turned them into Memorial Cup champs.
Brewer says the question was always, 'Is the schtick going to work in junior?'
This year, MacDougall answered it, leaving his beloved Reds after 24 years to take over as head coach of the QMJHL's Moncton Wildcats.
Advertisement
In his first season behind the bench, they won the QMJHL title, going 16-3 in the playoffs. On Friday, at the 2025 CHL Awards, he was named coach of the year.
This season, with another championship and another coaching award, was different, though: his son, Taylor, an up-and-coming mind in the game, was also the team's general manager.
The combination?
'It has proven to be pretty powerful,' Brewer said.
Gardiner MacDougall is in a Tim Hortons drive-thru.
'Small iced cappuccino with chocolate milk and that'll be all, thank you very much,' he says out of his car window.
He's on his way home from another day at a hockey arena. It's the week between the end of the regular season and his team's four-round QMJHL playoff run. He's going to win it, but he doesn't know that yet.
He's incapable of looking that far ahead. Gardiner is all about micro vision, his idea that if you have enough positive micro days that the macro takes care of itself.
But he can begin to reminisce on the late-career move he made from Fredericton and UNB to Moncton and the Wildcats.
UNB, Gardiner said, was his NHL when he got the job, and it stayed that way ''til the end' for him.
But his journey in Moncton 'has been invigorating.'
It started with a call from Robert Irving, the team's billionaire owner of New Brunswick's Irving family, who owns Irving Oil, potato giant Cavendish Farms (of which Robert is the president) and the lumber business J.D. Irving (of which he's the co-CEO).
Irving had known Gardiner for years, and after deciding not to renew the contract of his head coach, he reached out.
After an initial visit to the facilities to meet with Irving, Gardiner's decision was on hold because he had to go to Finland for the U18s.
Irving was willing to wait.
'He's a winner and his energy is second to none,' Irving said. 'It just says that we've got a winner, someone who knows the game very well and knows how to bring players along, and develop them, and coach them to be successful on the ice and off the ice. And he just brings an exuberance to everything that he does and everyone around him that we're here to win, and Gardiner's going to be the man to do it.'
Advertisement
Gardiner eventually told him that if he took it, he'd want to be in charge of personnel and to have people he knew be a part of it.
He wasn't thinking of his son when he said that, though. After calling Taylor on his way home to Fredericton and telling him that he'd have to look for a general manager because he didn't want to play that role at this stage in his career, Taylor said, 'Well, Dad, I'd be interested in that.'
At the time, Gardiner thought it was intriguing and told Taylor, 'OK, well I'll let Mr. Irving know and you can go meet him and see where it goes,' knowing that the general manager would actually have more day-to-day dealings with Irving than him.
Taylor, 35, was working for Roy Sports Group (RSG). He was the agency's legal counsel, handled all of the legal on their marketing side, did NHL contract research and preparation, recruited and scouted for them in the Maritimes and Quebec and was starting to negotiate deals. Allain Roy, the president and CEO of RSG, was grooming him to be one of the people to take over the agency at some point. 'And he wasn't very far from there,' Roy said.
Before being hired at RSG, he earned his Juris Doctor from UNB, his MBA from the Edinburgh School of Business, and played for five years in the QMJHL, five more years under his dad with the Reds, and briefly professionally in the ECHL with the Brampton Beast and EIHL with the Edinburgh Capitals.
Irving was immediately 'attracted to the father-and-son tandem approach, knowing that they'll be able to work very closely together and trust each other.'
After interviewing with Irving, Taylor was named the team's general manager and director of hockey operations.
Taylor just hoped he could 'be more useful to (Gardiner) as a GM than I was as a player.'
'That would be nice,' Taylor said, 'and not a high bar.'
Advertisement
As a player, Gardiner said Taylor 'totally bought in,' was a 'terrific leader' and 'played his role' on strong teams where he was often fighting for his spot.
As a manager, Taylor believes junior hockey's 'a beast of its own.' In pro, he says you can build around a particular vision for what a team should look like. In junior, you have to be more flexible.
From his dad, Taylor also knows how hard he works to build relationships with everyone in an organization, from players to rink staff.
Gardiner and Taylor both say they've found a yin and yang to their working relationship in the different strengths and experiences they have.
Gardiner grew up with three younger sisters in a Prince Edward Island community of a couple of hundred people called Bedeque. He started working on the farm and at the local hardware store at 12 and says his persistence, habits and love of community come from his old man.
His passion for coaching started with a passion for teaching as a physical educator in Norway House, Manitoba, more than 800 kilometers north of Winnipeg. He had a poster of Terry Fox, one of his heroes, in his office. 'Enthusiasm is contagious, catch the fever,' it read.
'You always want to be enthusiastic,' he says. 'I've always had energy, and you channel that.'
Gardiner says that goaltending (Kings prospect Carter George) and 'a guy from the Yukon' (2026 NHL Draft sensation Gavin McKenna) won him gold at U18s, and William 'Willie' Dufour won him that Memorial Cup in Saint John. He'd rather talk about being a product of the mentors he's had (Clare Drake, Andy Murray, Dave King), the books he's read and the people and places he comes from, than himself.
Taylor brought contacts with players, agents, scouts and executives from across the NHL and QMJHL. He knew the league and his contacts with prep schools and colleges across the United States had positioned them well for the NCAA's opening of eligibility to QMJHL players. Through his time as an agent, he understands now just what players want, but what parents do.
Advertisement
When Taylor was playing junior, Gardiner joked that he was his best recruiter. Once, when Taylor was 16, he recruited a 20-year-old for his dad, who went on to become an All-Canadian, asking Gardiner to give him the phone during a recruitment call.
'He has done an amazing job,' Gardiner said. 'You get a lot of opportunities through the years of going to pro, or major junior, or Europe, and at UNB I was the coach, I was the GM (and) you can look in the mirror and if you're not doing well the coach can say to the GM 'Get me better players' and the GM can say 'Coach, coach better' and I had those discussions with the mirror for 24 years. So, to have Taylor, I can see the significance of him and the cohesion between your head coach and your general manager is so essential.'
Gardiner also said his son's communication skills are 'top notch.'
'People say simplicity is the ultimate source of sophistication, and I think he has just a great way — and part of it is working with the law — of getting to the facts,' Gardiner said.
Roy is in his 25th season in the agency business and has known Taylor since he was 12 years old because he used to run summer camps for prospects out of UNB. Taylor later became a client and lived with Marc Lavigne, one of Roy's agents, in the Montreal area.
He called Taylor closer to family than a former employee. He describes Gardiner as 'a guy with a lot of panache.'
After taking the job with Moncton, Gardiner gave Roy the hard MacDougall pitch for one of his clients earlier this year.
'He was like 'You know what, Al, there was a kid once and I went to see him six times and you know what happened on the seventh time that I went to see him?' And I was like 'Let me guess, Gardiner, you got him to go to UNB?' And he was like 'Yep. I'm not going to give up,'' Roy remembered, laughing. 'He just lets you know that he's just going to keep coming at you, and I respect it.'
Advertisement
Meanwhile, Taylor was described as 'very smart' and 'a little bit more softly spoken.'
'I think (Taylor) will rise through the ranks of pro hockey very quickly,' Roy said. 'I think there's a bit of a misconception in the pro sports world that you can't be a good person and be a good manager, and I think he's that guy that will help break that trend. He puts the individual first, but he's not afraid to make tough decisions, not afraid to have tough conversations.'
In that way, Taylor reminds him of Hockey Hall of Famer Cliff Fletcher, who famously never had a negative conversation with someone (whether firing, trading or releasing someone) unless he could have it in person.
'That has always stuck with me because I'm like 'man, do I see the opposite a lot in this world now — people just afraid to communicate because of what's going to come afterwards (which is more communication),'' Roy said. 'Taylor's a great communicator, I think he thinks the game very well, he uses advanced stats but does not hide behind them.'
When Taylor first told Roy about the job, though, Roy had an honest conversation with him.
'How's it going to be with your dad?' he asked. He knew that Irving was 'a pretty intense individual,' too. But he also knew that Taylor would navigate it all. And after continuing to work with him in a different way this year because he has 'quite a few kids' on the Wildcats, Roy has seen both of them do just that.
'It's a hell of a start,' Roy said. 'If their record was reversed, maybe it would be a different conversation.'
Father and son are both thankful for what this last year has given them.
'We're wildly fortunate to have this opportunity. It has been a privilege,' Taylor said. 'There have been plenty of ups and downs, and there will be many more, but the one thing with him leading the charge is that there's always a lot of buy-in, and it starts with his passion and enthusiasm for the process.'
Added Gardiner of working with his son, for a rare moment losing the words that have always come so freely: 'It's been tremendous.'
In the Memorial Cup's tournament-opening news conference, Gardiner sat at the podium, cracked his jokes, and said, 'If you'd told me 13 months ago that this may be happening with your son, I don't know if even Hollywood could write that script.'
A few short days later, as he took the podium following a 3-1 loss to the Medicine Hat Tigers, Gardiner didn't have a joke to tell.
Advertisement
Instead, he said that about 20 minutes prior to puck drop, Taylor had gotten a call from the RCMP telling him that Pat Buckley, his father-in-law, had been golfing in Rimouski after driving up to the Memorial Cup from Fredericton that day, and had died from a heart attack.
'It's certainly a devastating loss. It's the hardest game I've ever had to coach,' Gardiner said, catching his breath. 'Pat Buckley was an unbelievable sportsman, a top-notch golfer, a former university hockey player. He was a second father to my son. They bonded like no other.'
In a moment of loss and grief, Gardiner was there for his son. All year, he'd asked his players to embrace one of his many mantras: F.O.E. (Family Over Everything). Now he was practicing what he'd preached, his humanity on full display.
Everyone who knows him has a story about that humanity, because he has made so many feel like family along the way.
The way Brewer's goes, he was a university student at UNB who'd done a marketing project about how the Reds could sell more tickets. As part of the project, he'd made a commemorative video of the national championship they'd just won in 2007. His girlfriend at the time, now his wife, was working for the athletic department and showed the video to her boss, who showed it to Gardiner, who asked if he could play it at their ring ceremony.
Time passed, Brewer graduated and took a job in government when another call came from Gardiner. He asked him if he could make another video for the start of their new season and told him that he wanted to start using this new video program called Stiva that some NHL clubs were using, but didn't know how, and wondered if he'd be interested in helping with it.
Brewer said yes and became his video coach. Seven years after Gardiner gave him his first job in hockey, Brewer was an assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs. In between, Gardiner helped him get his first video coaching job with Hockey Canada. Last summer, when he brought the U18 trophy home to Fredericton, Gardiner invited Brewer to the house to celebrate.
Advertisement
Brewer isn't the only one with a story like that, either. Lucas Madill and Ryan Hamilton, two sports psychiatrists who work with Hockey Canada now, were disciples of Gardiner's.
'I mean, I was a university student coming in and getting involved with a past national champion and big program and he made me feel welcome, he gave me a voice, he gave me an opportunity to be a part of the program, and then gave me more and more opportunity,' Brewer said.
Sea Dogs president Trevor Georgie has his own stories from the 39 days he spent with Gardiner en route to their Memorial Cup together. Like Brewer, he'll tell you of the immediate bond he formed with Travis Crickard, who was an assistant coach on that team and is now their head coach and general manager, and how Gardiner helped Crickard land his first Hockey Canada job as an assistant on his staff at U18s.
He'll also tell you how 'devastated' his team was when they lost in the first round that year, and how one by one, Gardiner turned each player's psyche around and got them to believe again.
Before naming Gardiner interim head coach for that Memorial Cup, Georgie interviewed multiple coaches. Gardiner was the only one without NHL experience. But Gardiner 'was really special.'
Waiting to hear back, Gardiner texted Georgie, 'It's a great day to be a Sea Dog.'
On their first walk through the dressing room, Gardiner talked to himself and said something along the lines of 'I think I can capture their hearts in here.'
His first day on the job, Georgie remembers the office was still waking up, with everyone grabbing teas and coffees, and 'Gardiner had already done like 10 kilometers and a million pushups and it was like 'OK!''
'He genuinely has that seize the day personality. That's just his way,' Georgie said. 'He is not letting a day go by. He is enjoying every minute. It's from the second he wakes up. It's really, really incredible.'
Advertisement
Though they're now rivals within the league, Georgie and Taylor are also close friends. Several of Taylor's clients at RSG were on that Sea Dogs team. They know each other's families and are both young fathers (Taylor has two kids, 4 and almost 1).
There's one thing that Georgie says everyone will say about the MacDougalls.
'They're really great people,' he said.
'They deserve to do really well.'
(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; Photos: Daniel St. Louis / CHL)

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Yahoo

37 minutes ago

• Yahoo

Korn Ferry Tour pro Myles Creighton shoots 59 with a bogey at the 2025 Wichita Open

A golf pro made history Saturday morning. Myles Creighton became the first Canadian player to ever break 60 on the Korn Ferry Tour. He fired an 11-under 59 in the third round of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas Wichita Open at Crestview Country Club. Advertisement Not only did Creighton shoot 59 — he did it with a bogey. The 29-year-old from Nova Scotia made 12 birdies and just five pars to go along with that one blemish on the par-3 8th hole. He played his final six holes 5 under. And to add to the drama, he needed this chip to fall in for birdie on the 18th to secure the sub-60 round. Oh yeah, and he made an ace Friday. It's already been a fun week for Myles in Wichita, but now he has a chance to cap it all off with a victory. Quade Cummins and Harry Hillier shared the lead at 13 under entering Saturday's third round, but before they could even tee off, they both found themselves two behind the new solo leader, Creighton, who started the day at 4 under, nine shots back, and finished 15 under to enter Sunday firmly in contention. Advertisement Creighton recently competed in his national open — the PGA Tour's RBC Canadian Open — where he shot even par through two days and narrowly missed the cut. This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Myles Creighton shoots 59 at Korn Ferry Tour's Wichita Open

Yahoo

an hour ago

• Yahoo

From High School Sidelines to Boulder's War Room

From High School Sidelines to Boulder's War Room originally appeared on Athlon Sports. June 20, 2012. For most, just another date. For Corey Phillips, it marked a moment of surrender, and divine direction. Advertisement 'I was a high school football coach and residential school teacher,' Phillips posted recently on X. 'My prayer was to get to the collegiate level as a coach. God saw it to be another route.' It wasn't coaching. But it was the start of something bigger. Today, Phillips sits in the middle of Colorado football's transformation, serving as the Director of Player Personnel under Deion Sanders. But his journey, rooted in faith, grind, and a tweet of gratitude, started far from the lights of Folsom Field. From Nashville Classrooms to Commodore Credentials Before he was scouting four-star recruits and managing elite-level rosters, Phillips spent nearly a decade molding young men at the high school level in Tennessee. As defensive coordinator at Brentwood High and previously at Father Ryan High School, he developed 14 All-Region selections and helped shape future stars. Advertisement But the collegiate door wouldn't open, until 2016. That's when Vanderbilt head coach Derek Mason offered Phillips his shot. '@CoachDerekMason thank you for my opportunity in 2016,' Phillips wrote, almost nine years to the day after it happened. 'Believe in His promise, and stay the course.' At Vanderbilt, he started humbly as an assistant recruiting coordinator, but it was enough. He was in the door. The journey had begun. SEC Pedigree and Next-Level Vision From Vanderbilt, Phillips continued climbing. His eye for talent and authenticity earned him the Director of Scouting role at NC State. There, he helped build competitive rosters in a brutally tough ACC landscape. Advertisement In 2022, LSU came calling. As Associate Director of Player Personnel, Phillips was instrumental in assembling a top-10 national recruiting class, ranked No. 6 by On3 Consensus. For a guy once diagramming coverages on a high school whiteboard, the ascension was surreal. But earned. Now in Boulder: Rebuilding the Buffaloes In December of 2022, Coach Prime tapped Phillips to help reshape Colorado's recruiting blueprint. His job? Simple, but seismic: find players who can run, hit, and believe. At Colorado, Phillips doesn't just watch film. He listens to stories. He knows what overlooked kids can become. After all, he was one of them. Advertisement His path is not traditional. It's transformational. Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver Omarion MillerChet Strange-USA TODAY Sports Building for More. Corey Phillips isn't the loudest voice in the room. But he might be the most important one. As Colorado pushes into a new era under Deion Sanders, Phillips' blend of football knowledge, recruiting skill, and spiritual resilience could be the X-factor. From praying for a chance in 2012, to changing the game in 2025, his journey is proof: believe in the process, and the promise will follow. Related: Colorado's Jordan Seaton Turning Heads with Stunning Transformation This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 21, 2025, where it first appeared.

New York Times

2 hours ago

• New York Times

NHL rumblings: Who was in on Toews, plus latest on Marner, McDavid, Tavares, Robertson and more

The Winnipeg Jets were the front-runners for Jonathan Toews from the get-go. His relationship with Jets chairman Mark Chipman was a big part of it, and Toews' desire to play for his hometown team was a natural allure. But that doesn't mean that his camp, led by agent Pat Brisson, didn't talk to other teams once it was announced May 29 that it was 100 percent Toews was coming back. The Colorado Avalanche, Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs were among the 15 teams that spoke with Brisson about their interest in Toews. Advertisement The Leafs are dying to find the keys to a deeper playoff path, and Toews would have been a wonderful addition from that perspective. It was a no-brainer for general manager Brad Treliving to poke his nose in there, but the Leafs got the sense early it was Winnipeg or Colorado for Toews. The young Habs could have used Toews' Stanley Cup-winning experience, too, to be sure. The Avs are trying to find their way back to another Stanley Cup, and adding Toews to that talented mix would have put him in a position where he didn't have to lead but could find a way to become impactful. Colorado was seriously interested and had a chance to talk directly with Toews and felt it had a real good role for him there — don't forget Charlie Coyle could have easily slid over to wing — but ultimately was the runner-up. The fit is similar in Winnipeg, where there's also a deep, talented roster. Toews doesn't have to be Superman there. 'When it comes to fitting into the lineup, this is more about where he will finish than where he will start,' Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff told The Athletic on Saturday. 'His contributions will grow as he becomes more comfortable with his surroundings. Every year, a team has to find out who they are and what each player brings to the collective group. That's why each season brings a new challenge and what drives each individual player. 'In today's game, it's not about jumping over the boards first, second or third. It's about how you influence the people around you when you are out there. JT could have chosen to just sit on the sidelines and watch time pass by, but he has chosen to embrace the new challenge of working with a group of guys to achieve something special.' If all goes well, and Toews rediscovers some of his old form after not playing for two and a half years, he could be the second-line center on a team that has one of the very best third-line centers in the league in Adam Lowry (when he's healthy again). Advertisement But what's clear from Cheveldayoff's comment is that Toews will have a chance to find his form. He won't be rushed into a role he might not be ready for. Here are more rumblings from around the league as we head into draft week. After making a number of calls around the league on it this past week, here's what I make of the Jason Robertson situation: The Stars aren't actively shopping him but are listening on him to educate themselves on the market and what teams might be willing to do at some point. Dallas correctly views his value as at its highest right now, given that he's still signed for another year at $7.75 million on the cap. At the same time, the Stars are also trying to gauge Robertson's camp, CAA and Pat Brisson, to get a feel for what their ask would be on the next contract. Robertson is set to be a restricted free agent on July 1, 2026. He can be extended as early as this summer. I do believe that if it's a contract that's fair, Dallas will extend him and keep him. But if the ask is perceived as too high without much wiggle room, it might get interesting as far as circling back to teams that have reached out. I think the market interest is already pretty robust for Robertson, as it should be. Either way, though, I don't see a quick resolution in the coming week or two. I think this is a slow-play situation where he's either extended by the end of the summer or traded in August. Connor McDavid spoke this week, and I think he was candid and clear: He's looking for reasons to stay with the Edmonton Oilers but also needs to have the team share its vision of what the next few years look like. Because winning is No. 1. All of which is why he's in no hurry to sign an extension right away when he's eligible July 1. How the Oilers front office handles the next few weeks will be important in communicating to No. 97 that they're still going to be an elite contender. Advertisement 'It's my job to connect with Connor in that way and demonstrate that that's what we're all trying do do,' Oilers GM Stan Bowman told Edmonton media members Friday. 'We all have the same objective.' So, message received. Leon Draisaitl didn't sign his extension until Sept. 3 last year, and people shouldn't freak out if McDavid still hasn't signed come training camp. It doesn't mean it will drag out that long. Perhaps something gets done swiftly by August, but the most important fact to remember is that there is no firm timeline his camp has declared as having to follow in this. Echoing what colleague Chris Johnston wrote this past week, I'm not in the camp of not believing McDavid will sign an eight-year max deal but rather a shorter one. Whether that's two years or three or five or six, time will tell. McDavid's agent is Judd Moldaver, who did a four-year extension for superstar Auston Matthews with the Maple Leafs two years ago. He isn't focused on eight-year max deals in all situations. And McDavid is still only 28. So a three-year deal, for instance, would put him back in an unrestricted-free-agent leverage position at 31, when he's still in his prime. Of course, there's always the small chance McDavid doesn't think the Oilers are set up to remain a contender and doesn't extend. I don't think that's the likeliest outcome, but it's not 100 percent off the table. Teams like the Los Angeles Kings, with former Oilers GM Ken Holland, are keeping a close eye. If and when McDavid ever leaves, it's a short list of markets that I believe would be a fit for him: L.A., the New York Rangers, the Chicago Blackhawks, the Dallas Stars, etc. It would not be a free-for-all, with 25 teams getting a chance at it. The rumor du jour — and it is very much that, as I've not confirmed it but have heard it now from two teams now — is that one option Mitch Marner is considering is a two-year deal at around $12 million to $13 million per year, positioning him to hit the market again when the salary cap skyrockets to $113 million or higher in a couple of years. Advertisement The risk is injury, of course, but at 28 now, he would be 30 when he is a UFA again if he went that route. The Vegas Golden Knights, the Stars and the Kings are among the teams that I believe are high on Marner's list. The Stars would be a long-shot fit given their financial commitment to Mikko Rantanen, but never say never. Sam Bennett's late-night declaration to fans at a bar Thursday was a clip that went viral. (I love how the Panthers celebrate Stanley Cups, by the way.) Bennett also made it clear on the ice Tuesday night after winning it all that he considered his teammates brothers and couldn't imagine being anywhere else. So we know Bennett wants to stay, and we know Panthers GM Bill Zito wants to make it happen. But there is still work to do to find a sweet spot on a deal. Somewhere between $7.5 million and just under $8 million on an eight-year deal seems like the spot, but will that be enough to get it done? Remember: Bennett was announcing his intention to stay late Thursday night, not an actual extension. I find it hard to believe the sides won't get there before July 1, though. Same as with Sam Reinhart a year ago. As colleague Frank Seravalli first reported, talks between the Calgary Flames and Rasmus Andersson's camp didn't go great recently regarding a possible extension that can be signed as early as July 1. The Flames still have Andersson under contract for another year and are comfortable having him play for them next season, but at the same time, my understanding is that GM Craig Conroy is now ready to listen on trade offers for the veteran right-shot defenseman. Whether that's a trade that happens this summer or waits until the deadline, both are on the table. There will be no shortage of interest in Andersson. Right-shot defensemen of his caliber are hard to acquire. He would be a great fit in Dallas, but how the Stars navigate that around their limited cap space is another matter. The Columbus Blue Jackets were among the teams in on Mason Marchment before Dallas shipped him to the Seattle Kraken. (About 20 teams showed different levels of interest in Marchment, but Dallas needed to move his entire salary and not retain.) Columbus has the most cap room in the league and is eager to add this summer. But the Jackets don't want to be a dumping ground for bad contracts. They want to add talent to a team that surprised everyone this past season and nearly made the playoffs. They thought Marchment would have been a solid add. They would absolutely enter the Mitch Marner sweepstakes if invited to do so. But unless something changes, I don't think the Marner camp has Columbus on its list of preferred destinations. At least not so far. It's been a strong couple of days for Kraken GM Jason Botterill, who basically swapped out the underachieving Andre Burakovsky ($5.5 million average annual value for two more years) for Mason Marchment ($4.5 million AAV). Marchment didn't have a strong playoffs for Dallas, but he's a more versatile player than Burakovsky in any universe and brings a different element to the Kraken. Marchment does need a new contract in a year, but he's an upgrade for Seattle by any measure. Advertisement There's still more than a week to go before July 1, but the Leafs and John Tavares' camp, led by agent Pat Brisson, still haven't found their sweet spot on an extension. Wherever each side is, it wasn't close enough as of Saturday. The stakes are high here. You've got a 34-year-old player who doesn't want to leave his home and a team that can ill-afford to lose a second-line center who just scored 38 goals and 74 points. Deadlines spur decisions. It's probably still going to get done, but it's a fascinating one to be sure. (Top photo of Mitch Marner and Connor McDavid: Dan Hamilton / Imagn Images)