Puck Soup - All-Star Tiers, Flyers Tears

Episode Date: January 10, 2024

Sean and Ryan put the All-Star picks into tears after talking about Cutter Gauthier and William Nylander. Sponsored by Gametime (download the Gametime app and use code PUCK for $20 off)

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I'm Sean McAnew from The Athletic. And this is, I would say, the rare instance this week where we can really tie together the elite prospects and NHL kind of world. You know what I mean? Yes, we can, yeah. I'm speaking, of course, about Cutter-Gotier being traded from the Philadelphia Flyers to the Anaheim ducks last night, even though.

he's not in the NHL yet. Yeah. Although I do have to point out, based on what I've been reading from Flyer fans, he's not an elite prospect. No, he sucks actually. He's bad. So. I guess we should say we're recording this on a Tuesday afternoon instead of the usual Wednesday morning, because I have stuff to do tomorrow.

So, you know, you're getting this the normal time, maybe even a little early. but this is all being recorded before all the Tuesdays games and all that kind of stuff. All that crazy stuff that happened Tuesday we are not talking about. Yeah, the guy who, you know, he brought a knife. Yeah. You brought a knife to attack Nick Cousins or whatever. Yeah. That's a different thing.

I don't really want to get into the Nick Cousins thing. Okay. We don't have to. We'll talk instead about this Cutter Goteer thing. So, all right, for people who don't know, Cutter Gautier just starred at World Juniors for the gold winning, gold medal winning American team. He is also a really, really, really good player at Boston College, where he's got 13 goals and 17 games so far this season, which is pretty good. And he was the number five overall pick two years ago, if I'm remembering right?

Right? Well, two drafts ago, the 22 draft. He's 19. He's really, really good prospect. And I got to say, I'm on his hockey reference page. Yep. Born in Sweden. Is that so? What are you guys doing? Yeah, look at that.

Your world junior victory is null and void. The whole tournament is now canceled. We had someone on the inside, it seems like. Fake. Fake. We had an inside man. Oh, yeah, his dad was a goalie in the Allsvenskine. That's fun.

Okay. Anyway, yeah, I straight up did not know that. That's crazy. His dad was a goalie who played one game in the NHL and made one appearance for the San Jose Sharks, face two shots, made two saves in three minutes of action. You know what? If you can retire with a 1,000 save for sent, in the NHL.

You didn't right for yourself. Yeah. But yeah, so the deal with Cutter-Gotier is if you are plugged in with college hockey at all, you kind of knew something was up this past summer because he didn't want to go to Flyers Development Camp. And I looked up some of the quotes at the time. It was a thing where he had just played in, played a full college season, played in World Juniors,

and had played for the U.S. at the World Championships. And he's like, I just got done playing a shitload of hockey all year. These are not direct quotes, obviously. But he was like, I wanted to take like a week or two off during the summer, basically, so I could spend time with my family. And the Flyers weren't really in face.

of that, it seems like, but they allowed him, you know, they can't force him to go to development camp, so he didn't. And it seemed like maybe that was the beginning of the end, because you started hearing about, like, yeah, I don't know, he might go back for a junior season. And this is a kid who is too good to play college hockey at this point, I would say. By the way, world championships last year played 10 games for the U.S. He scored seven goals. And this is against professional players, you know?

So he's just, like I said, 13 goals, 17 games. He's really good. Interestingly, he didn't score a lot of goals at World Juniors. He only had two. Did have 10 assists. But, yeah, he's just, he's one of these players where this happens every once in a while in college hockey, where you're like, no, his shot's so good that every time. he comes over the boards, I expect the puck to go in the net. Like, he can shoot it through a wall.

He's got a very accurate shot, and he just scores a ton of fucking goals. And you're, he's one of the scariest players in college hockey this year. But he didn't want to play for the Flyers, and so now he doesn't. And they're taking this very normally in Philadelphia, as you mentioned. Oh, yeah. Yeah. My favorite, uh, My favorite takes are the, like, hey, if you don't want to be a flyer, guess what? You're not going to be a flyer. And he's like, cool, thanks.

That's what I wanted. Yeah. Oh, yeah, you don't want to, you don't want to be my girlfriend? Guess what? Sweetheart, you just blew your chance. It's real, it's real, we want to fire you after you quit. It's the opposite of you can't fire me, I quit. it's uh yeah so as as we're recording this on tuesday yeah we do not know what his issue was

and at least according to the flyers they also do not know what his issue was yes so they are and it was interesting because the trade happened everybody like reacted with the eyeball emojis because this doesn't happen. You almost never see a trade like this in the NHL. And then immediately the flyers do like full court press.

They're on broadcasts. They're on, they're everywhere. Keith Jones, Danny Breyer, other guys that I didn't even know the name of. That's right. Are all out there

basically bang the drum that hey, if you don't want to be a flyer, you're not going to be we you know and and weirdly like patting themselves on the back for like the timing of this and how they kept it secrets so that the market wouldn't crater but also talking about how they talked to like 20 different teams so yeah man like here's the thing i i'm not like talk i you know i i i talk to people at college hockey games and stuff like that i i'm not like super plugged in with the n h like you know that there was nobody with an n hl team who

ever told me anything, well, you know, like scouts, I guess. But like nobody who is like an NHL front office guy didn't say a word about this to me. But I fucking knew about it. So like all these teams that did such a good job keeping it secret, you know, it's one of those things where you're like, for another good example of this was like the Jimmy Visi thing where all his entire last year in college, everybody's like, well, he's not going to Nashville. That's for goddamn sure. You know? Mm-hmm. And it's the same thing here, but you don't want to, like, there's nothing reportable there, right?

Like, it's just like, oh, you know, things are weird between the flowers and cutter goatee. Okay, well, that might mean nothing. So, yeah, it's very, it's just, it's so, it's so strange that it happened in there. And again, like you said, they're like, and we actually did a really great job on this one. Everybody knew that he didn't want to go to the flyers apparently. The other piece I loved was I did hear somewhere about, like, how it took months for this deal to come together. Right. It's one player for one player on a draftic.

Well, so there's no way that that took, there's no salary cap implications of any significance. There's no, like, it's one for one in a pick, man. Like, you could easily, an NBA GM could do that while they played, like, games on their phone. This is, this is, you know, the classic thing of like, ah, it's just so tough to make moves, right? Yeah. But also, the thing about it took months to come together is, is interesting because the latest reporting was that, like, the Flyers tried to talk to him at World Juniors, and he was just, like, like no. Now, see, that is, again, like an interesting part of the story that Danny Breyer and Keith Jones, I think, flew over to Sweden. I mean, they were going to be there anyway.

Like, let's not act like they went specifically to see Cutter Co. T.A. Well, I mean, it's, yeah, that is sort of how it's being sold. But you're right. I mean, it's, it's the world juniors. It wouldn't, it would not be unusual for NHL people to be there. But they go over and, and apparently are trying to meet with him and can't. Which could be as simple as they get there and they, you know, text the agent and say, we're here in Sweden. Can we sit down and the agent says no? Or it could be what I'm choosing to imagine, which is like a whole Benny Hill chase scene around.

Sure, yeah. The arena and nearby Swedish-looking locales. And that's being played off as like, you know, certainly on the, on the Philly fan base side, a big part of this story, right? Like, this guy didn't even, like, you know, they're all saying like, you know, hey, if you don't want to play,

that's fine, which it would never be fine. No, of course. You know, but, but at least sit down, look the guys in the eye. Yeah, okay, man. But, I mean, I get that. I get why, you know,

whether it's, it's Gojay himself or an agent or something, he'd be like, no, he's about to play in a gold medal game. He's not doing this. Will you guys show up unannounced, try to surprise him with a meeting? No. Again, I don't even think that's what happened.

I think that, like, again, they weren't trying to ambush him. They were like, hey, we're at World Juniors. Can we talk to this guy we drafted fifth overall? And they were like, you cannot, no. So what possible reason would he have? Because this is. Well, I mean, again. So there's the Kevin Hayes rumor, which is.

Which he said what Kevin Hayes said was bullshit. Somebody went on TV and said, and I don't remember the direct quote, but it was something to the effect of, I've heard this has Kevin Hayes fingerprints all over it. Right. And Kevin Hayes was like, that's not true. Yeah. Which even there, it's like. Well, so the connection would be Kevin Hayes played at Boston College. And also, speaking of, did refuse to sign.

with the team that drafted him. He was drafted by Chicago. Chicago, you know, there was a perception that they had treated his brother Jimmy unfairly. So he was like, I'm not signing with you. He went back for his senior year, played with Johnny Goddrow. The rest is history. Johnny Goddrow wins the Hobie Baker. Goes on to have a pretty good NHL career.

And so I guess the thinking is this is a guy who played at BC, who knows from being unhappy about the team that drafted them or whatever and could and recently played for the flyers and could provide some inside information. I guess that's the thinking there. Because it does like the story, at least as of Tuesday when we're recording this, is that this was, this is not like Cutter-Gotiate doesn't want to sign anywhere. He's going to, you know, evaluate his options.

He's going to maybe pull a. an Adam Fox or some of the other guys where he's going to control his And again, that is what Kevin Hayes did. But it just, they're making it sound more like he just didn't want to play for the Flyers. Right. And again, like, I'm not aware of any reason why, I guess I'm not aware of any reason why you would not want to play for the Flyers, but you'd be happy to go play for the Ducks.

It's a good question. It doesn't seem like it's an opportunity thing. It doesn't, you know, they're clearly rebuilding, so the opportunity is going to be there. Yeah. You know, it's not a money thing. There's not that that isn't a factor for these guys yet. Is it, you know, it's not like it's Winnipeg or Ottawa or something where he'd say, well, he's an American kid.

He doesn't, I don't get it. I think that's the next big part of the mystery to come out. Yeah. Maybe by the time people hear this, maybe we'll have, or at least there could be rumors out there because it's been all flyers telling their side of the story so far. The only thing I can think is he's going to be in the NHL at the end of this season and he doesn't want to play for John Tortorale. That's the only thing that would make any sense to me.

But like, could that really be it? You know, like, otherwise all things being equal, he would be stepping into a team that is at least pretending it's something. point this season, they're competing for a playoff spot versus that's not the case in Anaheim, obviously. I just, I can't wrap my head around why he wouldn't want to, unless, again, kind of the other side of it is, hey, you guys are kind of assholes about me wanting to not go to development game.

Could that be it? Could that really be it? I don't know. So in that version of the story, the development camp situation is the start of the fracture, not the first visible sign of a problem that was already there. Right. Because again, there's all these quotes. You know, when we drafted him, he was like, I can't wait to be a flyer, blah, blah, blah. You know, people are also pointing out that when they asked to, you know, like various guides or whatever asked him, like, oh, who's your favorite team growing up?

He says the penguins. But like, you know. I don't think it works like that. I really... Never has in history. No. You know, I... If, yeah, if this happened, this would be the first time, like, in the recorded history of the sport that a player was like, I refused to play for the team that I hated growing up or whatever.

Remember that time that Claudeaujuree jumped Sidney Crosby in the playoffs? Yeah. Payback. That's right. But yeah, I straight up, I have no idea. I can't wrap my head around why he would do it. And I don't, knowing how things tend to work in college hockey, I don't think we're going to hear from him on this anytime soon.

Right. There's just a level of insulation that players seem to have at the college level that, you know, he could buck the trend, certainly. but I wouldn't be expecting it. And again, by the time we hear this, you know, or like this gets out, you know, he will, I'm sure have written a full notes app thing and posted it all over. Players Tribune incoming. Yeah. Why I didn't want to play for the Flyers, who I hate, by the way, because I'm a Penguins fan.

But let's talk about the other aspect of this trade. seems like the ducks were maybe a little more willing than you would have thought to give up Jamie Drysdale now they're getting a great player back, a great prospect back. But, you know,

Drysdale hasn't really shown it at the NHL level like people thought he would. Yeah, partly because of injury, I think. Oh, for sure, yeah, of course. He's been good. It's interesting. Like I looked up the Corey Pranman's prospect list.

Yep. Well, it's prospects. This is from August, so the beginning of the season, and it's prospects and players under 22. So it has guys like, you know, Jack Hughes and that on him. And he's got Cutter Goce at 38,

one spot behind Capo Kako, and Jamie Drysdale at 34. Yeah. So Drysdale, ahead of Goetje a few months ago. Obviously, you're talking young players, a ton can change in that amount of time. But, you know, the same tier.

And now it's at the point where despite one team seemingly having to move a player, they get a draft pick and a pretty good draft pick in a... Yeah, sure. So that would suggest that Goetie's stock has been going up and Drysdale's maybe either holding steady or even dropping, but he's still, I mean, he's 21. These two guys are almost, you know, they're, what, two years apart as far as draft. But since one's a four and one's a defenseman, it's almost like for like as far as age,

in the sense that it typically defenseman, the aging curve is a little slower. So how about, I'll say this, though. Again, obviously injuries are the huge issue with Jamie Drysdale, right? But he's played over 100 NHL games. You don't think the Ducks have gotten a pretty good understanding of what they think he can be in the NHL. Plus, like, Pavel Minchikov is probably like, oh, yeah, we don't need Jamie Drysdale anymore. You know what I mean? Like, he's, Minchikov's been so good that they're just like, this makes Drysdale expendable, in part because he doesn't,

It doesn't seem like he can stay healthy. And when he is on the ice, doesn't seem like he's particularly, like, needle moving versus Cutter Gautier. Again, a guy who just, like, teleports the puck into the net. You know what I mean? Just, I think all things being equal, an NHL team would rather have a center who has a pedigree of scoring a shitload of goals at every. level he's ever played at than a defenseman with like 120 NHL games under his belt who can't stay healthy. He's played in parts of four seasons.

Yeah. Like there's like enough of a track record here that they can go, you know, we'd rather cut bait a little bit and sell as high as possible. The other team always knows the player they're trading. a million percent, yeah. And like, it's funny because I think it was Keith Jones last night, to your point about patting themselves on the back, was like, Cutter-Goti's value is never going to be higher.

Like, we sold high on this guy, whatever he said. Because it was right after the world juniors. And it's like, I mean, could be higher in like a year or two when he's in the NHL and he probably has like 25 goals or would it, you know? Let me just ask you this last thing on your game. Sure. Yeah. I heard you, you said you'd rather have a center than a defenseman. Is he a center?

Yes. Because there was some talk that the flyer saw him as a winger. And that was part of. Yeah, he's, I guess that you could say he's a left wing slash center. Ideally, he's a center. You know, it's one of those things where I don't think he comes into the league and he's a center. But like, I'd say that's more his quote unquote natural position if I had to, if I had to ballpark.

And I'll see if I can look at the most recent Boston College lineups here and see where they've been playing him lately. But, yeah, in my head, he's a center. Let's put it that way. Yeah, when I say, just to be clear, like when I say, is he a, I'm talking at the NHL level. Yeah, I don't know. On a first line somewhere, is he, you know,

in World Juniors or college, I'm assuming, I mean, if he's not playing center there, then he's not going to do it in the NHL. Right. Okay. It's a fascinating trade, man. This is, you don't see a lot of deals like this.

Even once in his most recent, all of his most recent games, he's been this. Yeah. So. And this will be one where we look back on it and years and years down the line. Yep.

And boy, he's going to get the absolute crap boot out of him in Philly. Which, but here's, Here's my last reaction to the Philly fan base is I think you, you I'm sure are aware of this, anyone who has any sort of like,

you know, platform, a social media or anything. If you make reference to Philly fans, Philly sports fans, and you say the word like batteries or Santa Claus, or Santa Claus, they flip out on you.

How dare you, sir? You know, years ago and come on, get some new material and all of this stuff. But like all last night, all I kept saying was people were like, man, we're going to go Philly on this guy. This guy, I got my batteries. I've got my, they're all, they're embracing it again. They're right back in. Like, yeah, you know what? We are, we are going to pelt this teenage child with garbage for not playing.

Oh, when he comes back to Philly one game a year. Yeah, you're right. Right. They're going to let them have it. I like how Eric Lindross was trending on Canadian Twitter last night. Yeah. It was just like, all right. Yeah, we... When did that happen, Sean? On top of your head what year?

32 years ago, I believe. Right. Okay. Great. Just perfect. Love to know that. A classic question. How many guys in the NHL were not born? Like what percentage of NHL players were not born when that happened? I don't want to fucking hear about it. Yeah, of course it is. A very, very large.

All right. Let's move on. I'm just going to wind Sean up, let him go here. William Neelander, your thoughts. Oh, did something happen? Will Nealander with the island? It's, boy, oh boy, did they, he got paid. I guess let's start there, man.

Good. Good for an NHL player. how many contracts get handed out in this league that you and I, but me especially, are sitting there going like, what are these players doing? Why do they, boy, players never seem to use their leverage. Well, William Nealander had leverage. To his credit, he went into a contract year and had absolutely the season of his life,

the half season of his life. And he got paid, big time. Yep. And I can't necessarily say that, you know, he doesn't deserve it in the sense that if he finishes this season and hits free agency, I mean, he's going to get a monster deal from somebody. It wouldn't be eight years, obviously, because of the CBA. But I'm just looking at it with the same reaction that I think a lot of people have, which is what, like, this doesn't even feel like it was an.

negotiation. This feels like it was a take it or leave it, and the Leafs took it. Right. Because you look at it, and you look at the deal that he got, eight years, a far higher cap hit than anybody had thought he was going to get up until recently when the numbers started leaking out. I mean, this was a guy that in September it was like, can the Leafs hold it to something that starts with a nine and then, you know, maybe, maybe it got up to 10. And now it's, now it's 11.5. He gets the full no move clause. He gets all the bonuses and everything that makes it buyout proof.

And you're just sitting there going like, okay, what were the demands that the Leafs talk down on? There couldn't be one, right? Like, that's kind of the point. Although, can I say this real quick? Yeah, go ahead. This makes that Elias Lindholm $9 million ask a lot more reasonable. Yeah, sure does. Sure does.

And it's... Now, Sean, go ahead. Yeah, yeah. I want to ask him, how many points out of the 54 he has through the first 37 games of the season, how many points of William Nealanders are on the power play? Oh, I don't... Three? 25 only.

Okay. Just 25. That's only like 45% of the total. Don't check the math on that. I'm ballparking it. He has until this year, and like I've seen people point out correctly, that he really, I think you could go back four years and say he's improved every year. Yeah, he's really, really, really good. But he had improved to like 30, 40 goal, 80 point guy.

I mean, those are his career highs, obviously, because this season's only halfway. He's on pace to smash those. Yeah. And he's 27. Mm-hmm. And it's just, you know, look, we can, all the, all the usual things, the cap's going up, you know, if you look at the percentage. I have heard that, yeah. But once again, the Maple Leafs pay at the very high end of fair value for a player.

Yep. And you're just, you know, you see all these quotes from Neil Lange, after the deal gets done where he's like, man, this is all I wanted was eight years, I never wanted to play anywhere else, and you're just like, so what was that negotiation? I would really love to know

how that looked. And it just comes down to, like, again, more players should do this. 100% more players should do it. Elias Pedersen should do it. Oh my God, yeah. Lynn Holm, Sam Reinhardt, like all down the list of guys.

But also the reality is players don't do this in the NHL, apparently on any team other in the Maple Leafs. That is the thing, right? Like, you cannot say to William Nealander, you should take a discount because Marner and Matthews and Tavares did not take a discount. Nobody on this team on the big names has taken $1 worth of discount. Right.

You could say Morgan Riley, but even that is questionable. And, I mean, it all starts with, and I like the John Tavares signing. But, you know, they sign him. He tweets out like the bed sheet photos of like, this is my childhood dream. And you're looking at. And yet he signed for like $2 million a year more than Johnny Godreux signed for years later. Guys who hit free agency with similar is resumes. Matthews and Marner

on their first contracts shoot for the moon and get it and you could say look Matthews won an MVP on that deal he deserved it he was probably underpaid by the end of it Mitch Marner was the first team All-Star a couple times

he at least came close to living up to that huge number he got Nealander he does his first contract ends up with a deal that probably, you would say, is team friendly, but goes up to within an hour of not even playing the season. So it's not like, you know, he didn't take a discount so much as that was maybe the one time. And even when that deal got signed, a lot of people were like,

the Leafs just gave $7 million to William Nealander. That's crazy. But he at least outplayed it. And now you've got this deal. And I'm already seeing people like, you know, well, boy, this is going to make that. Now they're going to have to be real tight with Mitch Marner because he needs an They're not going to be. Mitch Marner's going to ask for $13 million and probably get it from the, from.

Sure, yeah, absolutely. And, you know, again, like, it's, it reminds me a little bit of when, when Matthews and Marner signed their, you know, Marner especially, because his was in the offseason, and it was just such a crazy high number, 10.9 for a guy who had, had like, one good season. And at the time, you kind of went, well, I mean, this seems crazy, but, let's see. Maybe this is, there was a lot of talk at the time

that like second year contracts, players getting squeezed it on. It didn't make sense. This was especially for forwards. It was their prime. It was, this is when the players should be making the big money.

And Matthews and Marner should, you know, played it right. And now, you know, his brain point was going to be next. And I think Miko Ratnin, and it was sort of like,

let's wait and see what the market does. Well, what the market did is it went back to what it always was. which is second contracts being huge bargains for everybody but the Leafs. And now we're into, these aren't second contracts. Obviously, you're into UFA years and all of that,

so you'd expect them to be higher. These aren't always bargains for teams, but they're sure not, like, nobody is sitting there going, wow, the Leaf's got a deal on this Nealander kid. As I said on Twitter, anytime there's a deal like this contract, the question is what's the upside, what's the downside? For team or player, whatever perspective you want to look at it from.

Because you signed an eight-year deal, there's always risk. There's always risk on both sides because you can't possibly project eight years out on anyone in a sport that's this unpredictable. So what's the upside, what's the downside? And from a Leaf's perspective, I think the upside is that Neelander is worth the contract

and the downside is it's a disaster like the upside is you got you got a B minus you break even yeah you get an F I don't get it man and and yeah

the obvious counter is what did you want them to do totally no that's what makes it really difficult for the Leafs right is that they are in a position where if they let Nielander go just even to market, like and still re-sign him or whatever,

that number's not coming down if he goes to market, right? And they're in a position where they need to retain as much talent as possible because of this core doesn't, I don't even want to say win the cup because like that, it does feel like that that ship is safe. And maybe it hasn't, but like just vibes wise, you're just like, all right, the Leafs are kind of just very good and that's about it. But if they don't, if they don't like have a lot of postseason success with this group, that's what, eight years of the organization just flushed down the toilet? Right?

I mean, I wouldn't say flush down the toilet, but yes, like you're. Well, look, I mean, they got, again, they got out of the, they got out of the first round once. And so who cares? Like, with a handful of the best forwards in the league. And look, Morgan Riley's overrated, but Jesus Christ. This is where I would, this is where I will disagree a little bit in, in that, you know, this idea that the playoffs are all that matter. They broke all the records, all the team records for, you know, regular season. success and there's never been, they've never won more, they've never had more points.

They've got a guy won an MVP. But in the playoffs, of course, have to concede the point that they have done absolutely nothing. Now, I do have one suggestion for how Brad Trillivan can fix this. You call up a guy named the Guru Pitka. I'm listening. and you and you help him or you have him help

Austin Matthews, William Nielander just find that little extra something that they didn't have before. Little something. And it could be as simple as a mantra, such as Mariska Hargitay. But yeah, to me, it's one of those things where...

What would you've done if you're true living and you sit down with Nielander? So that is the other thing, right? demands and we are not going to budge at all on them. But that's the other thing is the psychology of the GM has to be considered in this case because this is the guy who lost Johnny Godreau and Matthew Kachuk for effectively nothing. But it's also the guy who signed Jonathan Huberto to the worst contract in the league. Yeah, no, he's a bad, he's not a good GM man.

But shouldn't that psychology play in of like, You know, where you sit down with the agent and be like, guys, I signed a, the last eight-year contract I signed was such a disaster. I'm going to have to go hard on this one. But apparently not. No, again, like, I think there's a reason that him being the guy who signed the worst contract in the league and hired a coach that everybody on the team hated and, you know, really shot to be like the seventh best place team in the West. every year. Like the fact that the GM of that team was out of a job for 45 minutes

really tells you a lot about like what conventional hockey wisdom is, right? Like, and so he was in a situation where he was like, I cannot get Matthew Kachucked on this. I can't get Johnny Goddrowed on this. I said effectively nothing earlier about the return for Matthew Kachuk.

That's, maybe not fair because of the perception at the time. Again, everybody was like, True Living did as well as he possibly could have in a no-win situation, which is probably true. Now, nobody made him sign those contracts, I guess is the larger point, right? But this is just like conventional wisdom of like,

well, what are we supposed to do? Let the guy leave. And I, in this case, agreed that they shouldn't let him leave. But. And if you try to trade him, you're the Jonathan Huberto return is like kind of a best case

scenario on it absolute best case because at least there they did it in the summer right you're doing this in the season or you trade them last summer which you know again

that would be it would be a disaster to do that and hey you want to talk about or you get him signed last summer maybe but then yeah from what I understand

the he was just never going to sign last summer. It was just not going to happen. He was betting on himself, as they say. It is, it's possible that the best option would have been for him to call their bluff and say, you know what, here's our offer, whatever the number is at eight years. You will not get this much money as a UFA because it can only be seven years. No one's giving you like $14 million as a free agent.

Right. So eight times our. number is more than seven times anyone else's. You keep saying you want to be here. You keep saying you love it here. Here is the number that keeps you here. It's going to have, we'll put in some trade protection for you, but it won't be full trade because we need to protect ourselves. We will put in some bonuses, especially earlier in the contract, but later, no, we're not going to make it buyout proof for you because that's, you make it bioproof by your play. And you, And you take it or leave it.

And if you really want to walk and, you know, go ahead and get offers from Columbus or whoever in the summer, then you go ahead and do that. And I got to say, that is the easiest thing in the world for me to say after the fact is a thing. It would have been flipping out if they had done that. And like you see, like, you know, Pierre reports, talks have broken off with the leaves and Dela was going to go to free agency. I'm on this podcast screaming about how Bradtree Living. can't make a deal. Like, I completely can see that.

My conception of, this is my conception of Brad Trill Living playing hardball on this contract negotiation. He's like, I'm going to make, I'm going to write the offer down on this piece of paper. And he writes it down. He slides it face down across the table. And William Nealander flips it over and it says, whatever you want. Yep. Because, because, because that's what happened with Jonathan.

Huberto. There were so many things in the season, Jonathan Huberto had the season before he got traded that indicated that level of production was never going to fucking happen again. Right? And he was just like, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to buy as high as possible. And that's what he, possible. Yeah, and that's what he did here, too. He's like, what's the number? Max Herm, no move, whatever. You want it, you got it.

And the only difference, the only thing that makes me feel a little bit better as a Lee fan is, Hubertoe, it was also, he was going to a new team. Sure. He was just all of that. Whereas with Nealander, like the proof of concept is at least there. Right. Now, I will say if Nealander doesn't get a point for the next week, it will be very funny. Sure, yeah.

I looked it up. the way, his on-eye shooting percentage right now, all situations, it's not going to shock you. It's the highest it's ever been, obviously. Yeah. But it's 13. That's the number. And if you look at, like, it's not crazy high. It's not insanely high, but let me just adjust for, like, minutes played here.

But, yeah, so. you know, there's a bunch of guys who are in the, well, there's a bunch of guys on the Canucks who are in the like 16, 17% range. So again, that's, that's coming down. And then there's a bunch of guys on the Rangers who are in the 14, 15 range. And then, you know, 13 is 24th in the league this season among all players. So the odds are, like you say, that's not crazy high, but that number is probably going to come down. Maybe not a lot, but some. And again, like, maybe William Nealander is legitimately one of those players who didn't peak at 23 or 24 or 25.

Right. The way the vast majority of forwards do. Maybe he finds his peak at 27 and stays there into his early points. That has happened in the NHL. It certainly has. But it hasn't happened often. Right. He would be an outlier.

Before this season, his career average all situations on ice shooting percentage was 10.7. So it's much higher than it usually is. And that's going to come down and that's going to make everybody go, hey, wait a minute. He's not like a 120 point player? Yeah, no. You don't need to be a genius. Yeah, you don't need to be a genius to know that he's not going to meet this level of production. And so to your point, and just to wrap it up.

this number was never going to get higher than it is right now. And Brad Drill Living was like, yeah, we'll take plenty of that. Thank you. And honestly, like, I have, there is no funnier take on any of this than the one I've seen a few times from people who are like, oh, boy, like, you hate to be Mitch Marner right now because there's not a lot of cap space. When you sit down, Mitch Marner's going to get whatever he wants. And first of all, Mitch Marner is not going to, he's not going to. but he's certainly not going to take less. You know, I've seen also that take.

We're like, oh, yeah, he's the hometown kid. If he wants to be a hero, man, if he comes in low on his next deal, all the fans are going to love him, he is not going to. He is going to sit there. He is going to start, like the Nealander deal is the floor for him. The absolute floor. and he's going to want significantly more. Maybe Matthews is the ceiling.

Maybe. And by the way, I believe he has full no trade protection, so it's not like the Leafs can even turn. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe they've got until July 1. But it doesn't matter. They won't do it. They're not going to make the tough call on that.

They're going to pretend to play hardball and then give him whatever he wants. Yep. All right. Why don't we take a break? We'll come back. do all-star tears. This week's episode is brought to you by Game Time.

I'm sorry if I sound distracted while I'm doing this ad read. I always open up the GameTime app and sort of see what's new, what's coming to Ottawa, so that I can make timely references. And apparently, the Price is Right is coming to Ottawa. I didn't know that was the thing. Is there like a touring price is right where I can go and buy tickets and watch people play and maybe get picked to play? Because if so, I might have no choice but to do that.

I'm a little thrown off. I did not know this was a thing. But if I do decide to go, boy, you know what, I should not have to worry about that ticket buying experience. And that's where GameTime comes in. They're the fast and easy way to buy tickets for all the sports, music, comedy, theater, and apparently traveling game show events near you with killer last minute deals, all in prices, views from your seat, and the best price guarantee. game time takes the guesswork out of buying tickets.

It's right. When it comes to pricing, save your guesswork for the price is right. See how I did that? I just thought of that on the fly. I'm very, very proud of myself. This is an A plus ad read. See the view from your seat? I already said that.

You know exactly what you're going to expect before you arrive. And the all in prices, this is a nice thing. It shows you the total upfront. We've all bought tickets and thought we were getting a good deal. and then suddenly a whole bunch of numbers start adding up at the end, and it's not what you thought. Nope, not with GameTime. Shows your total right up front.

You know you're getting a great deal before you check out. And by the way, you can buy those tickets in just a few seconds with a couple of taps in the app. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with GameTime, download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code Puck for $20 off your first purchase. Turn supply, again, create an account, and redeem the code Puck, P-U-C-K for $20 off,

Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, we're back. And just like we did last year, we're going to take the 32 guys. The NHL said, these are the all stars. What are they? Eight more coming in as fan votes, or is it four? 12 more. Wow. Wow. But anyway, we're going to take the 32 they named, and we're just going to say what tier they belong in. you know, S-A-B-C-D. And this is, you know, I think we said this last year, but this is the reflection of their quality, not as a player writ large,

but as an NHL All-Star. Like if you looked at, you know, 20 years from now, you go back and you look at the list of guys who are all-stars, this guy should be on the list. Like, yes or no, what tier do you put that in? You know what I mean? That's right. So we'll go in alphabetical order by team.

How does that sound? Okay. Okay. Number one, Frank Vitrono, this is his first All-Star game. You know what? I'm going to start off being a little generous. I'm going to say a C. You could make the case for D, but I thought the little video with like his baby with the,

my dad's at All-Star shirt moved him on my grade. I like that. Show me a fat baby busting out of a novelty T. shirt and I'm on board. Right. I understand that. And I will go with a C tier as well, but because he's having the season of his life right now, right? He's got 18 goals in 39 games.

That's really good. You know, that's got to be at least like, you know, top 15 in the league or something like that right now. Isn't it? Probably. It could be Certainly could be I don't have that page open

Yeah I'm not But like he's having a really nice season And if they didn't want to send Troy Terry They sent Terry last year right Am I remembering this correct? That it probably was And you know

They can't in good conscience Send Trevor Zegris who has four goals this season Is that all? Yeah He's been hurt He's only played 19 games, but he's got four goals this year. Troy Terry was their representative of the last two years. Last two years, even better then.

So you're not going to send him. He's having a bit of a down year. You got to send somebody and you're not going to send like Cam Fowler or somebody like that, right? Yeah. So I think this makes all the sense in the world. And again, he is having a good season by not just like his standard, but I would say any standard. But yeah, let me just triple check on this point or this goal total thing here.

Yeah, he is currently tied for 20th in the league with Jack Eichel, Leon Dreisidel, and Jake Gensel. That's good company to be in. That's not bad. Take that. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know what?

I'll give him a C for that. C too. What about Clayton Keller? I'm going to go C. I feel like we may have done giving him the D last year, but at this point, this is his fourth all of start. game. That's, to me, the C is a, is a floor for a four time also. I'd go high end C, maybe even low end B, again, just like, who else are you going to take from Arizona? Yeah. Without,

without, without the answer being Conor Ingram, I guess. But, you know, they're full up on goalies. David Pasternak. A. A tier. Legit star winger, 60 goal guy. Exactly the sort of winger I want to be paying 11. something million. That's right. Because he's proven it repeatedly over and over again. Right.

Easy A. Again, I would go high end of A tier, but I could be talked into low end of S tier because he's been an MVP candidate multiple times in addition to. I think he's an S tier, but he is. Yeah, like I could be talked into it, but I would say it's an A. Rasmus Dahlene, remember him? Yep. I'm going to go B on that one.

I think he's, you know, I don't know that he's quite done enough to get into my A tier, but he's a legit star and also fun player first overall pick. Yep. Probably high B. I'll go mid-tier B, but yeah, sure. Elias Lindholm out of the Calgary Flames. Now, where's Jonathan Hubertow? That's what everybody says.

Yeah. Well, I mean, after they trade Linholm before the All-Star Games. that'll see. Yeah, I don't think he's done enough to get into the I would go, I would go even low-end D honestly. Really? Okay.

Or low-end C, high-end D. Like, this to me is like, look, we got to send somebody who, I have no idea who from the Calgary Flames you are sending. Maybe Markstrom, but again, there's just only so many spots. I'm kind of looking down the list. I'm not going to have a ton of D-tier guys,

so yeah, I, I, I'll stick with C, but it's... Let me hit you with this horrifying fact about the Calgary Flames. And this is all you need to know about their season. Blake Coleman leads them in goals and points. Blake Coleman does. Blake Coleman, I... Yeah.

And you want to talk about a D-T or All-Star. That you cannot send Blake Coleman to an All-Star game. It's not allowed. That's right. Now, Nazan Khadry. He's also got 30 points, just like Blake Holman. I was half wondering if he would get it partly. He probably said no thanks, right?

But, well, I see, I don't think he would have because it's the former leaf factor, right? It's in Toronto. The NHL All-Star game always ends up being more about the local team than anything else. So I was wondering if they would get a guy who, I think, would get a very warm reception from leave fans now. Yeah, probably would. Oh, well. Instead, it's Future Leaf. That's right. Elizabeth Lujan.

Sebastian Aho. Almost the poster child of a B All-Star. I almost said the exact same thing. Yeah. Like you look up B-tier All-Star in the dictionary. There's a Sebastian Aho waving at you. Yeah. Doing the finger guns.

Yep. Now, one of the guys they named, and we'll talk about this in a bit, is Connor Baderd from Chicago. Yeah. He's not going to be playing in this one. So Connor Bedard would be an S tier and he will be replaced by a D-minus tier because there is not anyone else. If you replace him with a Blackhawk, there just isn't. I don't think they will, right?

Like, what would- I mean, what's the point of saying you're going to name one guy from each team at this stage? If like four weeks before the All-Star game. The entry list for this team is insane. Yeah. It's going to be like Jason Dickinson is going to be the All-Star, which would be, I know we said we're not, like, that's F-tier right there. Yeah, they don't have a tier for what that is. No.

That's, you know, sub-basement. Yeah, the only other guy who's healthy right now, it's either Courish of or Ryan Donato. What? I'm going to say the NHL, like, ah, I, I. They can't send another Black Hawk, but it's Chicago. Of course they're going to send somebody. Oh, who are they, legitimately who are they going to send? Nikita fucking Zytsap, man?

There's nobody that is even possible to defend as an All-Star. But I'm saying it's Chicago and it's like, what are they going to send Connor Ingram from, let Arizona have two guys so that, and nobody from, what you have to do is you have to beg Connor Bedard to like go to the All-Star game and be like front and center and you have to send him to like a less developed country and get him an experimental stem cell or that injection but I'm saying I'm saying you send him there not to play but to do all the red carpet stuff do everything and and quote unquote represent like have him be like between the benches during the broadcast can I put him everywhere now it is possible that he may

have his jaw wired shut that's what I was just going to say the guy the guy's going to look he'll still be more interesting than 50% of can i say though yeah i think it's living dangerously 1999 saboo with a broken jaw has a no holds bard match against taz okay i i'm just going to say we need we need the guy who's suicidal homicidal and genocidal we need him showing up and and getting conor bade through this i He wrestled a whole match with his whole jaw taped up. Come on. I'm an NFL fan.

One of the great stories of the NFL this year is that they have, they passed a bunch of rules about trash talking and what you're not allowed to say to your opponents. And so one of the wide receivers went and learned sign language so that he could trash talk, the cornerbacks that he scored on. I mean, if he could do it, like Connor Bedard could learn sign language. We've got three and a half weeks to make this happen. or have him be sign guy

Have him be like Have him be Sit there with gritty And hold up signs Or something I don't know There's got to be Some way to incorporate him

That doesn't involve Somebody on the Blackhawks Yeah you're You're having him do You know Sign guy That's one of the Dudley boys We're we have a very ECW

focused Uh Gimick for For how we're getting Conner Redard there. But yeah, this is insane how nobody else on this team even remotely deserves to go. It's crazy. You're right. It's going to be Jason Dickinson if it's somebody on the Blackhawks. How's that possible?

It's terrible. Meanwhile, you know, the Canucks, we traded an All-Star for nothing. You know, it happens. I'm trying to think the worst All-Star in history. and I feel like this would clearly be in. This would absolutely. Although, we got a couple coming up.

The Jason Garrett's story would be there. Like he was when they named a Canucks goalie, and then the Canucks golly got hurt the day before. So they had to name the other, the Canucks backup goalie. Oh, I, yeah, okay. Won the MVP or whatever. All right.

Nathan McKinnon. S tier. Easy call. Mega star on a crazy heater. So yeah. Yep. What about Boone Jenner? That's Sadiq here, right there.

Oh, yeah. And also, I think he also has a broken jaw. I don't know if he's going to be able to play. All right. Here's, we send him out there. Am I wrong about this that he's hurt? Both with their wired up jaws. And then they smash into each other and get tangled up like a couple of 1980s teenagers trying to make out.

Well, okay. How about this? they just have to each be yeah they just have to be each on a different team then each team has a guy with a broken jaw it's fine there you are i mean there's four teams so or are they doing four teams or they doing two see i don't even know yeah i have no fucking idea they changed the format on me i think they must still be doing three on somebody should get a professional hockey writer on this show the answer to these questions they can't change the format every two years and expect me to know what the fuck is going on.

You know what? That's fair. But, okay, if there's four, we're just going to find some, Taz comes in, he breaks two other guys' jaws. We're all set. Next up is Jake Ottinger.

Another guy who I think is hurt right now. Four teams. Jake Ottinger, I'll say B-tier. I'm not going to put him on my A-tier goalies, but a really good goalie. And he's certainly going to, he's on a track. to be A tier very soon, but I'm going to say B because I'm a hard marker.

Yeah, I think broadly speaking, you would you would say B tier, but A tier for among goalies, which I kind of almost judge it in like a whole separate category at this point. Okay. But again, he, as of December 15th, he is out week to week with a lower body injury. He might not be going. Now, Dallas, they have no shortage of guys that you could take very, very. plausibly. Here's Joe Pavelsky.

Everybody's like, yeah, this rocks, you know. Yep. Alex De Brinket. I'm going to say C tier. Yeah, I think that's right. Hey, remember when he was shooting like 45% and everybody was like, Detroit's making the playoffs, baby, here we go. I haven't checked.

I'm assuming that lasted, right? Uh-huh. Well, I mean, he still leads them in goals and points. Like, you know, we don't have to get into the Detroit thing. The problem is goaltending, obviously. Yeah. Larkin de Brinket, these good players. But yeah, C-tier is correct.

Connor McDavid S-tier next. Sam Ryanhart. Yeah, for sure. He's a first-timer, but, you know, I kind of want to go C-tier. Yeah, I think that's right. He's going psycho this year, though. Talk about guys going psycho in contract years. 28% is what he's shooting right now.

I can't wait till he signs for $5.5 million, and then I got to hear about the tax rate in Florida. Florida for the next three years. Now, I guess the only thing to say is if you're picking someone from Florida, I have to assume Sasha Barkoff was like, no, thank you. Or Matt Kachuk, one of the two. I mean, yeah. Cachuk obviously had a slow start, but he's gotten very hot lately. And he is an all-star in every sense of the word, except for.

He's not having a great year. Remember last year in the playoffs, people were like, it's. it's this is Matthew Kuchuk's league now. Yes. He is the bar key player. Now he's not even. Well, again,

that's just that's just goldfish brain and we're obsessed with going like, who's, you know who's not the best player in the world is this guy who's obviously the best player in the world? This is, this is the NHL. We do it every fucking year. And,

you know, the way things are going right now, they're going to do it twice in like six months between him and Nathan McKinnon. So. Yep. But yeah. I'd say C for Ryan Hart.

We'll talk about the Panthers in a minute. Cam Talbot in L.A. I'm going to say D-Tier. With all due respect to Cam Talbot, not top three among guys from the Kings you would take right now? No. But you need goalies. And he's having a great year and it's a good story. But this is a guy who was.

Yeah, I will say, you know what? I'm going to bump him up to sea just because I say it's very funny that there are two guys the senators traded. away in the off season or let go in the off season, which I believe is twice as many All-Stars as the Ottawa Senators are going to have. So that's, that is amusing. Yep. Carol Caprizov. I guess you have to go B because he hasn't been great this year.

But, you know, Star Power is right up there. Speaking of best players in the world, Nick Suzuki out of Montreal. This is his third trip to the All-Star game. Can you fucking believe that? What a stunning indictment of the Montreal Canadian. that, C, I guess. Yeah, I'd even...

I'd even... I'd even go D, honestly. Yeah, I was waiting for you to push that, and, you know, I could certainly... At least Cole Caulfield's the small goals boy, you know, like, he's got a brand. Nick Suzuki's brand is people going, oh, right, remember when everybody thought

he was going to be the center of the future in Montreal? That's like his brand is people going, ah, come on, man. I'm going to challenge you on your use of the past tense there. Fair enough. Yeah, you know, that's tough for me. Jack Hughes, speaking of guys who probably heard. We missed Philip Forsberg.

Oh, we did miss Philip Forsberg. Who I think is C tier. Like, I feel like at a point in his career he was B and maybe he's dropped down to C. But, okay, I could do B. He also was having a really good year this year. Yeah. Jack Hughes.

Assuming he plays, A tier. Now, will he play? What's the latest on him? I know he didn't play the other night. I think he was, yeah. I had not heard anything about him. Long term, yeah. Okay, good.

So, a tier. We love Jack Hughes. We do. Great player. Matthew Barzal. Yeah, it's another guy. He's like Forsberg, to me, he's in that like B to C. Middle ground.

I would say pretty solidly a B-tier guy for me. But like on the lower end of B-tier. So I don't know. It's tough because, again, like, Sorokin's just not having his best season. He's been pretty good and not unbelievable, which is his standard. And so at that point, like,

I don't know if you saw this. Like, people are talking up no Addo. for, for, like, Norris and stuff like that. Oh, he wouldn't obviously win, but he'd be deserved to be in the top three or five. And it's like, I mean, maybe, I guess he's playing a lot of minutes and he's got a lot of points. But like, are we going to pretend Noah Dobson's one of the best defensemen in the league? Like, come on, man. Can we just point out, like, and I got to say, I did not clue into this until you sent me this entire list of all stars.

Yeah. there are two defensemen in the entire league on this list. Is that true? I didn't pick up on that. There are Rasmus Dallin and Quinn Hughes who will get to are the only defenseman. There's four goalies and whatever is left, 26 forwards. That's crazy. So maybe it should have been Noah Thompson, but man, I don't.

How's that possible? Well, because it's a three-on-three tournament. So, who cares? Sure. And it's fake hockey and, you know, nobody, most defensemen are pretty boring. And Kail McCar's spot went to McKinnon and, you know, a handful of other guys. But yikes.

Okay. I just found that odd. Yeah, I didn't make that connection either. That's wild. Where, Igor Shisurkin. I'm going to go A tier. Yeah, that's right. I think you could even maybe go S, but.

Yeah. I don't know. He wasn't unbelievable last season. And the real problem for him is that, like, they literally had to put out a video going, like, here's why the better guy on this team isn't on the All-Star team. Don't get mad at us. Right. So I can't put that guy in the S-tier where they had to put out a video of, like,

let me explain why this guy's the All-Star. So that's all. Brady Kachuk. I, again, see with Gust's up to B, we're now into, like, I like that, yeah. Like year nine of him being a 30 goal scorer who gets 80 points and gets treated like a 110 point guy. Well, you don't understand. If one of the four teams in the All-Star game goes down like two or three goals, he might try to fight someone.

Yeah, make it look like he's doing something. Yeah. By the way, did you see that there's a movement in Ottawa to stuff the ballot box for Shane Pinto as an All-Star? I think that's hilarious that's so funny that is simply epic to me uh uh we're really well cutter gochey that's a little awkward yeah

Travis connectney I'd say maybe I'd say maybe even D tier honestly you could but yeah he's having a good year like who else are you gonna send I get all that but like yeah Sean Coutier would have been a fun selection as well. That would be a much more plausible C-tier guy for me. I'd be like, oh, this is like a high-end C-tier. There's not really an argument for him in terms of points

and Connect Me has 21 goals, so I get all that. But like, I'd go upper end of D-tier. Look, we're going to get to some real D-tier in a minute here, but Sid Crosby. That's an S. I'm going to go S-plus-plus. Tomash Hurdle. You know what?

Boy, we talked about the Blackhawks with Badar. Keep Hurdle safe, please. Yeah, we must protect him. Because if it's not him, it's probably Michael Granland. And that would be, actually, that would be quite funny. I'm going to pull up their stats right now. I'm going to go B tier on Hurdle. I'm actually a little surprised only his second time.

I agree. Yeah, I guess Brent Burns would have eaten up a, a good chunk of that that opportunity and then Carlson Carlson last year, yeah. Yeah, I'll go like low end of B tier. This is one of my favorite players in the league.

So, you know, I'm biased, but yeah. Oliver Bjork Strand. I mean, that's... Based on that video, he would put himself in the D tier. Yeah, that's... He's D tier, for sure. That video was insane. Okay, I don't know what video you're talking about.

Okay. Oh, my God. Okay. So, everybody's doing their cute videos. Ah, this guy's an All-Star. Here's how we found out. Dave Haxstow calls him into his office and they have some Go-Pro's set up around the room to surreptitiously film this very important thing. So he's like, hey, what are your plans for All-Star break?

And he's like, oh, me and my wife. We got, we're going to San Diego for a few days. We're going to have a nice time. And he's like, well, you're, you're going to, you're going to, you're going to, you're going to, you're going to Toronto. Blank stare. Because you're an all star. Oh, okay. I guess we'll cancel that then.

The, the thing I said was he responded with the same enthusiasm as if Haxstall had said, we don't have Coke as Pepsi, okay? Yeah. Yeah, I guess. Sure. You're really painting me into a corner here. I love that they did that given, like, I'm assuming you've seen the NFL ones where guys are, like, being told they're pro bowlers and they, like, cry and hug the coach and everything. Yeah. Clearly going for that.

Bjork Strand, honestly, I'll put it this way. On Instagram, like, later that night or the next day or something, he posted a screenshot of, um, of like the canceled Airbnb, like order, basically. And, but he was like, I'm not good at reacting to things. You can ask my wife, she gets mad at me or whatever. And it's like, yeah, okay, man, that must be what happened. Sure, clearly. If you say so.

So he put himself in the D-tier, I would agree with it. Robert Thomas from St. Louis. Is that D-tier or can we go see? This is a tough one. You can say D. I think I'll go see. I think I'll go see. I am more of a Thomas head than a Cairo head.

I will say. He's a young guy, you know, offensive player. That's, you know, I don't, I feel like. Wow, he's gotten to 20 goals once in his career. He's been in the league six years. C minus. I'm shocked that that's the number. But, yeah.

Cairo had 37 last. year. Maybe I should switch to being a Kairu head. Maybe. This is rough. Nikita Kuchrov, out of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Easy A tier. Yeah, sure, why not? He's having a great season. Might be starting to push towards

S-tier. You know, if he didn't do it now, I don't know. What's his cap hit? Probably $12 million. 45, yeah. Austin Matthews, there's an S-tier guy. There's an S-tier guy.

especially with it being in Toronto. And by the way, what other, like, can we just preemptively tell people not to bother getting mad when, like, three other Leafs get named to the team? Like, the game's in Toronto, man. We all had to pretend Ryan Johansson was the MVP of the All-Star game in Columbus,

however many years ago. Like, this is, don't get mad when Morgan Riley or whoever is on this team. It's going to be very funny when Nealander gets named and then Matthews like doesn't pick him for through like, keeps picking every other winger in the league.

They're like, you know, Nealander, he's like, no, no, I know. I'm aware. Quinn Hughes. Quinn Hughes. A tier pretty easily. For everybody who's listening in Vancouver, S tier for everybody else A tier.

That's right. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah, I don't, maybe we shouldn't be talking about what tier Quinn Hughes is in. That tends to be. Gets people a little grumpy. It's a little fraught, yep.

Jack Eichol. I'd say A tier. Yeah, I think that's right. Okay. One of the best centers in the world. Tom Wilson. Tom Wilson, making his second appearance, which surprised me. C or do you want to go D on him?

I'm going D. Like, you know, height of his powers, I'd have gone C, but we're a long ways past that, I feel like. the number of goals he has this season is 11, which is like a respectable number. The number of points he has. I feel like he's only, well, let's see, if he's got 11 goals, what's he got, 12 points? No, he has 19 points. I'm going to say he's there. I mean, obviously Ovechkin didn't want to go with that.

Yeah, he said he wants to focus on getting ready for the second half. Salute. Good luck with that. I feel like Tom Wilson was picked because that's, That's your guy for Brady Kachuk to fake fight. Sure. Yeah. Yeah, I have to assume John Carlson also was like, I'm not going.

That's the only thing I can think of. That would pretty much be the list, I guess. And your last All-Star named so far is Connor Hellebuck. Connor Hellebuck. I'm going to go A-tier on that one pretty easily. Triple S-plus, obviously. No, obviously. he's an eight tier.

He's, man, he's having a fucking hell of a season, though, isn't he? He's up to 921. His backup's 920, which is crazy. Yeah. But you know what?

Let's talk about the Winnipeg Jets now. I have not looked at the standings today. I don't know if they're still in first place in the entire league. But I'm realizing that I sent you this, they are first place in the entire league right now. I realize, I sent this to you in the outline and I didn't mean to do it. But how many teams have been in first place in the league this season?

Yeah, I was surprised. It's because you did send me the answer. Yeah, it's very stupid of me. The answer is five. And I don't think you would be super surprised by how many or by which teams they are if you heard it. The answer is Vegas, Vancouver, the Rangers, the Bruins, and the Jets. Right. Vegas started off 7 and 0. Yes.

And they were, they spent more time than you would think being the first place team for how little we talk about it, I would say. Yeah. And the flip side of that is they have been more mediocre since that opening month than you probably think when you, you know, you look at their record and you go, oh yeah, they're still chugging along at 650. Good team. They've been like 500-ish for a while. now. Yep. And in fact, they're three and seven in their last 10. But yeah, Jets's a great story, good team. I finally caved and put them in my top five this week. I think you have to, right? Because I just didn't have a great argument against it, you know, like they've got a great

goaltender, everything's clicking. They're scoring, yeah. And like all their underlying numbers, they're not like top 10, or no, I should say, they're not like top five in most numbers, but like they're solidly top 10. Solidly top 10 and pretty much every underlying number you want,

except goals four percentage where, of course, they are first, at five on five at least. And yeah, I mean, look, like, the stat that everybody's throwing around is three goals or fewer

in 29 straight games. That's a streak extending back to November 2nd, which is, you know, less than a month into the season. That's crazy. They haven't allowed three goals in regulation since November 30th. The last time they lost two in a row was, let me do the math really quickly here, 17 games ago. They are 14, 1 and 2 since then, and they have points in 12 straight.

I mean, the only negative you could say is that they're maybe doing that whole peaking too early thing. But man, right. I mean, since this streak started, they are shooting 11.4% and they have a 931 team save percentage. But, you know, I don't know if people remember this. Hallibuck actually started badly. Like he was like 880 in his first five starts or something like that. and people go, oh, this contract, you know, whatever. But now he's Connor Hellebuck again.

And so one can maybe expect that save percentage to even come up a little bit, possibly. And at that point, you know, we're having an MVP-style conversation about Connor Helleb. And, you know, how many teams do we look at in halfway through a season? You say, well, the goal tendings been great. So, yeah, but they have arguably the best goalie in the league. So, yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I just.

To me, I've seen a lot of stuff lately from various coaches whose teams are playing well, where they're like, we really figured something out, we cracked it, and then you look it up, and it's like, well, they've gotten 950 goaltending for the last month. So maybe you haven't figured something out. But with Hellebuck and with the high-end talent on this team, I think that, like, they can keep scoring a lot on the power play, which honestly, they haven't done so much this year. But if, like, the power play gets going a little bit more, I think they can score more goals to make up for the outsized results at five on five so far, let's say.

They're just a very good team. I cannot imagine them being in the top five at the end of the season, or your top five, I should say. But yeah, they're a good, solid team. I had them as like a fringe maybe just in the playoffs team at the start of the year, if I remember right? I can just pull this up really quickly. At the start of the year, I had them 19th, actually, so just out of the playoffs. But, yeah, I think it's kind of undeniable that when they get contributions from the people up front and Connor Hallibuck plays as well as he has been, they're going to win a lot of games. I don't have a ton else to say about it.

Yeah, I mean, that's it. Your jets are good. Yeah, that's right. But here's another team that's playing really, really, really well that I feel like fewer people are talking about. I just wrote about this over the weekend. The Florida Panthers, they've won seven straight. They're 13, 5 and 1 since American Thanksgiving. Mm-hmm.

It doesn't, you can't really ask to go any better than that over like a month and a half, right? And the thing with them is that they're doing. this without Matthew Kuchukh playing particularly well, although again, like I said, he's picked it up lately. They're doing this with Sergey Babrovsky is their goalie. He's having a good year overall. They're doing this, you know, what are they like fourth or fifth in the league right now, I want to say? Let's see here. They are sixth in the league right now by points. and they did that with they didn't have their two best defensemen for the first few weeks of the season. Like the only other stat, this is the stat that I wanted to say.

If you look at all the underlying numbers, goals four per 60, goals against, percentages, whatever the number is, there's one in which they are not top five in the league, and that's goals four per 60. That's the only one in all situations. this is just a great fucking team. Yeah. And we saw the playoff run last year, which came after a very underwhelming season.

Yes. Sort of a classic team that, you know, clicked at the very last moment, but just in time. Yeah, they're scary. And they absolutely could still catch the ruins because that, for first in that division. Well, the other thing.

just get you a matchup with the devils in the first round. Right. The other thing I guess we should say about the Panthers is that, like, last year they were underwhelming. You're right about that. But all their underlying numbers, except, again, goals for percentage was lower or was like borderline elite and then goals four percentage was lower than it, quote, unquote, should have been. And if you want to say that's because of who their goalie was and they had like a 900 save

percentage last year or whatever, you're right. you know, but I guess my point is if they're getting not even, that doesn't even have to be like an elite season or anything, but if they're getting like a good to slightly above average season out of Bavrovsky and he's been, I would say, a little better than that so far this year, they're going to be a problem for anybody in any round of the playoffs. Yep, I agree. Again, like Matthew Chukh is off to a slow start.

Everybody agrees. And he's got 34 points in 39 games. Yeah. And how much are you willing to bet that he's going to stay medium, warm into the playoffs? Totally. Like I said, he is heating up. Let me pull up what the stat is. In his last seven games, he's got 12 points.

So it's very, very plausible that he, uh, he, has figured out whatever the problem was and he's ready to go apeshit as we all know Matthew Cichuck can one of the best players in the league when things are going right for him and why wouldn't they be going right

you know so yeah Florida is just like I've seen a lot of Jets praise and rightly so I but I did want to shout out how well Florida is going as well boy Matthew Chuck 100 point season the last two years.

That's crazy. He's probably not going to get there this year unless he really goes. Unless he really goes crazy down the stretch. But man, he's really, really good. One last thing. I do want to talk about the Connor Bedard injury a little bit more. We obviously gave it a lot of runout and talking about the All-Star situation. But like, can you muster?

Like, I'm a guy I don't think there should be checking in the game, basically. I cannot muster the slightest bit of upsetitude over him getting his jaw broken. I just can't do it. Like, you're upset that the guy gets hurt. Well, sure, of course. There's nothing on the hit. No. It was a standard hockey hit.

Luke Richardson kind of nailed it. Like, he, it was a standard hockey hit that ended up being a little more dangerous because it was, Brendan Smith, who hit him, I think, kind of came from behind somebody else. Right. So, yeah, it's a standard hockey play. If you're going to have hitting in hockey, that happens. I don't have an issue with Nick Folino and whoever else,

you know, going after guys because that's your franchise player. But, no, there's no, I did see, like, some stuff on Twitter. Like, oh, what a cheap hit, this guy's garbage. No, no, it wasn't. It was, it's just an unfortunate thing. And yeah, it sticks, because this is one of the best, you know, the greatest stars in the league. Yep. You hate to see it.

But just real quick, we just had this come across the wire. Jack Hughes's absence is considered a matter of weeks, not months, Lindy Rough says. The team is aware he will miss time and Jack will be evaluated week to week to see how he progresses. That's from Amanda Stein. And so, yeah, the devils have to find a new... A new All-Star, basically. That's rough. Good luck with all that.

Let me say this about the Connor Bedard thing. The only thing this really does, like it does, it affects Chicago, obviously, but like mostly in terms of selling tickets, I would say. You know, it's not going to affect them on the ice because, like, even when he was good, you know, they weren't winning a lot, right? right? It's not a bad thing for Chicago to get worse in the standings, is I guess my point. It sucks for him to lose two months of what has been a fun and really cool rookie season. But like, you know, I don't want to sit here and say like we've never seen a rookie season like this or anything like that. You know, like there have been better rookies of late. I don't know that there have been many better 18-year-old rookies.

But, yeah, obviously you don't want to see a guy get hurt. And what this really does is allows all the Minnesota fans to be like, see, Brock Faber. Yeah. And you're like, okay, man. Sure. You're right. Now, you were saying that like two weeks ago when Baderd wasn't hurt. Yeah.

But. I guess that's the point, though, is that this is the only thing that was going to make the rookie year race interesting. And now here we are. Yep. Now we got it. I just want to say also that after you said that and you sent me to Twitter, I see that somebody else responded to the Drysdale GoJ trade by saying this trade is. is cut and dry. And I'm furious that I don't know what with that.

It's ruined my whole week. And I don't even really want to do podcast anymore. Yeah, you're not, you're not going to do any better than that when it comes to wordplay. I let everybody down. I mean, this is, this is what I'm here for. It really is. Like, I don't know what to tell you, man.

You know what? Look, we're all getting older. We're all losing our fastball. I saw the, uh, the lineup for the big local, Boston Music Festival that they do every summer. And the number of bands I've never heard of is growing at an alarming rate. Leaving aside how bad the lineup is this year, like Ed Shear in his headlining, like, what are we doing? You know?

But yeah, I was just like, yeah, I haven't heard of most of these bands. This is becoming a more frequent occurrence. I don't like it. I don't like it. But, you know, the rest is just kind of like, I have heard of it and it sucks. Yeah. There are a couple bands. Blonde shells on there.

She had a really good album last year. But, yeah, anyway, we don't need to get into my thoughts on that. I wouldn't have heard of any of them other than Ed Shearer. No, like The Killers is on there. Trey Anastasio from the band Fish is on there. You've definitely heard of a lot of these people. Or at least a lot of that, like, you know, the majority of the headliners, I would guess. But again, is that a mark of their quality?

I would say no. No, that's a strike against them big time. Yeah. So, yeah, we're all getting older. It happens. You know, Sydney, Sidney Crosby is one day going to find out there's guys who can do stuff he can't do. You know what I mean? So that's okay.

You didn't, you weren't first to that, that pun? It happens. that's all thanks man appreciate it my pleasure so yeah why don't you hit them with the plugs and we'll get out of here

find me on the athletic as well as on Twitter where I will be tweeting out a cut and dry joke and passing it off as my own work imminently my work here is done yeah

oh wow your your plugs are done that's it sorry I don't really have any anything specific my stuff is just all it's nothing but fastballs. Steady diet of fastballs right down the pipe. Great. It's just, it's fantastic.

Hey, speaking of Twitter, I just saw that they're making a Mandalorian movie now. That could be good. It's called The Mandalorian and Grogu. Straight to the point. Yeah. And look, the last time they made a Star Wars movie about like just a guy, and it was named after that guy,

everybody loved it. Famously went really well. Yeah. Exactly. My plugs are EPRinkside.com, sign up for an annual subscription. We still have a lot of World Junior coverage that, you know, you can sift through, I guess you would say. You know, stuff about your favorite team's prospects is guaranteed to be in there pretty much. So you can find all that.

Use the code, I Love E.P. When you sign up for an annual subscription and they will tack three months onto the end for free. and so that's 15 for the price of 12 and then head over to patreon.com slash puck soup where we're doing bonus episodes and all that kind of stuff all the time in fact tomorrow night Wednesday night

I guess tonight as you're listening to this we will be on our discord me and Sean and maybe some other guests from the puck soup family taking your calls if you're a subscriber we will do a call-in show and if you can't listen

live, we'll post it on the Patreon later than that. So, yeah, head over there and check all that out. And a big salute to everybody who's signed up for all the stuff we do. Thanks for listening, everybody. I have no more Star Wars news. Goodbye. Bye-bye.