Puck Soup - Awards Season Begin

Episode Date: January 3, 2024

Sean and Ryan talk about the Flyers, awards candidates, the PWHL, and more. Sponsored by AG1 (drinkAg1.com/puck) and Raycon (buyraycon.com/puck)

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I am Sean McIndoo from The Athletic. And, Sean, I want to start off this show today. I don't know if you saw, like, baseball Hall of Fame ballots are coming out. Okay. Did you see how Rob Bradford, who's a Boston-based baseball writer, did you see how he announced his picks? I did not.

What did he do? He put out an immaculate grid of it, like, through the official immaculate grid. A plus. No notes. Awesome. Fantastic. Now, the problem is that people figured out that multiple guys who were on the ballot this year like work for a few spots. Yeah. And so people are like, do you mean like Mani Ramirez or like Bobby Abraeu here?

Somebody like that I can't remember what the exact questions were. But the first one I saw was like, I don't know what this is, but I figured out that one of them is Joe Maur. And I was like, okay, this rocks. That is fantastic. That is excellent. I was slightly terrified when you initially brought that up because I was very often the, let's just say the baseball guys can be a little weird, but that was very. Yeah.

I think they have something like 170 ballots out. I haven't looked at the latest numbers. They do, yeah. or not, which allows many fans to sort of start piecing together. It's like getting the early returns on an election. That's exactly right, yep. A much better system than hockey, even though it does rely on crusty old sports writers. That's right, yeah.

But yeah, I just thought that rocked. I have, I'm doing a puck doke doku later this month. Like, you know, I'm writing another point. puzzle basically. Okay. So that's fun. But anyway, we promised last week if the Flyers were still in a playoff position that we would talk about the Flyers.

Or two weeks ago, I guess that would have been, right? I think so. Yeah. As far as I can tell, the Flyers continue to hold down a playoff position. I don't know for how much longer. Yeah. Yeah. They are, they are,

currently seventh in the east by points, and, let's see here, eighth by points percentage. Just ahead of the Devils. Yep. So let's talk about the Flyers. They've lost the last few games. That's not good. Five of their last six. Yeah.

One regulation win since December 19th. Nope, December 16th. That's even worse. And that regulation win was against the Detroit Red, or no, they're, they, it was against the Canucks. Yeah. But all, but the one, the one before that was against the Red Wings on the 16th. Yes. No, the Canucks, they're an interesting team.

But, you know, we'll, we'll talk about them at a later date, maybe. But yeah, the, I thought it was funny. Well, got waxed by the Oilers. Well, got waxed by Connor. Connor McDavid. Conor McDavid went psycho last night. What can you do? I'm not holding a Connor McDavid's psycho game against any team.

No. I looked this up this morning. You know how he started out kind of slow and everybody's like, I, he's heard, he missed a few games, blah, blah, blah. Since the start of November, no, I'm sorry, November 15th, 41 points in 21 games. Feels good. Yeah, he rocks.

Yeah. He'll do that, you know. Anyway, we'll talk about all that All that kind of stuff later But yeah, the flyers So I did like, you know, in prep for this I just was like, I can kill two birds with one stone here I can write an article about this

And then like keep all the statistics in my brain, you know? And I think the thing That has a lot of people kind of surprised about the flyers Is that they're underlying not numbers are good. Yes. Right? They are not a PDO team at all.

They have like league average shooting percentage league average goal tending. And whatever the number, I don't have the numbers right in front of me right now, but it's, you know, 52% of the expected goals is basically like what they've been running for most of the year. They started out very, very hot. They, for the first like two weeks of the season, they were running like. 57% or something like that, which I think we could all agree, not sustainable, and that, you know, obviously has been proven out. But there are, I guess I would say there are two

major factors that I can point to that I would say this is why the flyers are where they are in the standings right now. Do you have a guess on what those are? I would guess that Carter Hart is one of them. Well, okay. Then three. Yeah, sure. Okay, I'll give you Carter Hart as well. Again, he's like been good but not unbelievable. Like, he's not having a Thatcher DEMCO style season. Like, we've all been doing this long enough that we know the obvious things to look for. Yes.

If we want to crap all over a fan base that is happy that their team is winning, which we do. It's one of the most fun things you can do. Yeah, and how about Canada do in the World Juniors yesterday, by the way? I haven't checked yet. I've got it. I've got a PVR, so. No spoilers. Smart. But yeah, like none of that with the Flyers is obviously jumping out.

So what are your two factors and are they both John Tortorella being a mad genius? I would say, number one, the return of Sean Kuturia who looks like, you know, he's not going to get the points to be in this conversation, but like in terms of the reason they are good, he should be an MVP candidate. It. Wow. Yep. Like 58% of the expected goals, huge positive goal difference when he's on the ice, all that kind of stuff. He's just the return of Sean Kutriere to seemingly full power, like cannot be understated. He's been awesome this year.

And, you know, it turns out when you have an actual number one center, the guy that you tried to make your number one center last year, and it didn't work, he can be an okay number two center. Now, when he's off the ice, you know, things are considerably worse. They're not like terrible, but they're not good either, right? But, yeah, he's been fantastic.

The other thing is they got rid of Tony DeAngelo and Ivan Proverov would basically be, those guys stunk last year. They stink this year, but for different team. Right. You know? both for a different team, I should say.

Their most common pairing partners last year, Travis Sandheim and Cam York, respectively. Instead, John Tortorello put those two together. They look pretty good. And then Tony DiAngelo, no, sorry, Proverov, when they traded him to Columbus, they got Sean Walker back, and Sean Walker was coming off like a down year.

He's been pretty good for the flyer. which is, you know. That's a huge improvement. That's a huge improvement from what they had on their second pair last year. So, you know, just like the shoring up of the defense and, you know, like Mark Stalls having a good year. You know, like things are just going very well for them on the back end plus a tutorial. Where are you on this topic? Where are you on the, I saw a little bit.

for a while there that Rasmus Ristelanin is is now good, or at least is now not the player that a lot of people were kind of mocking the flyers for going out and getting a few years back. Now, I guess the question is, what do you think is a reasonable amount of money to give up for a guy who is sometimes on your third pairing? Yeah. You know?

I guess it was at the point where it was kind of like, look, the ship has sailed on the contract, but now let's look at the actual player and say, Right. You know what? And I think it was less of a re-evaluation as, like, the player has changed, that he is now playing better that he was a couple years ago.

Well, he's playing on the third pair. Yeah. Right? And like, you know, a guy who has a big contract and sucks as a first pair defenseman, right? Like if you move him down the lineup, obviously that's going to make the contract look even worse. But he can play better against like third and fourth line guys, you know? And that's what's interesting is they've kind of cycled through three or four defensemen on the bet. Well, even more than that.

But like three or four main defensemen who have either been, you know, like the. the second guy on the second pairing or the third pairing. And it's Ristaline and Marksdal, like I mentioned, Yeager Zamula and Louis Belpedio, who, you know, you've never heard of that guy, right? Oh, 100%. But like, combined, those guys are roughly breaking even when they're on the ice. And if that's what you're getting out of your third pair, you know, obviously you don't want to pay a bunch of money for it. or whatever, but if that's what you're getting out of your third pair, that's fine. You know?

The other thing is Charlie O'Connor wrote an article the other day where they were basically a bunch of flyers were like, ah, the vibes are just better this year. And it's like, yeah, you don't have Tony DiAngelo on your team anymore. It's understandable. But, you know, and then like you said earlier, Carter Hardin has been really good. Yeah. So here's my question, and I asked this of Flyer fans a few weeks back in one of my columns. And I got a mixed response.

Is this good, given... The eternal question. Where this team is and what Danny Breyer seemed to be trying to do. And I hate that we even have to ask this. Like, oh, yeah, the team's winning more than expected. Is this good? But is it? because this was, this felt like it was supposed to be one of potentially several years

where they were going to sit back, work on, you know, get the habits right, develop the kids, but not worry too much about the standings and probably bank another couple of high draft picks. Yeah. And now it doesn't look like that's going to happen. Like ultimately is this progress. Well, look, I think that if you hire John Tortorella to be your coach, you are saying we really want to end up around like 18th or 20th place. Right. Like that is, I think, you know, they go to, I can't remember the number now, but as of the weekend, they were something like third or fourth in the league in number of games that went to OT, which sounds, you know, like John Tortorella.

The Torterella, yep. They have gone since November 18th, they have gone to overtime or a shootout. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten times in 21 games. That's John Torterella hockey. That's what you're looking for if you're John Tortorella. And this is a team that they were like, where are the flyers? We don't really tank. Sorry.

I think everybody wanted, like, you know, sports fans are getting smarter about this. I don't know if I mentioned this on the show, but a couple of weeks ago when the Patriots played on Christmas Eve or whatever, and they won on a last minute field goal. Like, there are a good percentage of Patriots fans who were mad about it, including my uncle, which is how I know about this. And he said that was the most devastating win of the season. And it's like, yeah, that's right. You know, fans are smarter about it's good to get good draft picks. Yep. But I just don't think organizationally they were ever going to allow themselves to go in the toilet.

Right. So is this better? I don't think so. But, you know, people are talking about how good the flyers are. Will they be talking about how good the flyers are a month and a half from now? I kind of don't think so. You know, like around the trade deadline, people are going to be going, okay, time to trade some guys. And it feels like Danny Breyer will do that.

Absolutely. He doesn't seem like a guy, you know, the Mitchkoff pick was sort of the tip off of where on the horizon he's looking. I agree. Yeah. But it's funny that Charlie O'Connor article had a quote from Carter Hart where he's like, people are coming up to me, like, at the mall and going, we should really be tanking. I don't want to hear that shit. Yeah, I understand.

Like, again, players and coaches don't tank. It's the team, like the organization sets them up to tank. Oh, I guess I should also say Travis Kinectney has been quite good this season, but he's, you know, I don't know. Like, he's on pace for something like 42 goals or something. I don't know that I see him getting there. But he's been really good this year. You can't take that away from him. So, yeah, I think my big takeaway with the Flyers is, like I said, they're at 52% of the expected goals.

But the first, like, 10 games of the season, they were 57, so they've been trending down for a while. And I would guess that they end up in the, you know, 50 to 48 range by the end of the year, especially if they do have a season. sell-off and all that kind of stuff. Which, again, that's John Tortorella hockey. They're never going to get like speed-bagged unless, you know, Tony DeAngelo and Ivan Proverov are on the team. But. You know what you have to do, Danny Breyer?

You're going to bring it back. Make the vibes worse. But yeah, I think they're, I think they're an interesting team. I think, you know, the younger guys on the team like Joel Farabee and, and, and, you know, And Bobby Brink and those guys, like they're, you know, they're coming along nicely. Those guys don't look, not that Joel Farabee's that young anymore. He's been in the league four or five years. But those guys are coming along.

And I think Tyson Forrester is a rookie this year. He's been pretty good. Like, there's reason to be optimistic for like two years from now, I would say. But, you know, all this stuff about like, ah, no one believed in us. It's like, well, I mean, let's get to game 40. and we'll see where we're at with all this, you know? That makes sense. Yeah.

They're good. Mm-hmm. Not that good, but they're good. Yep. You want to talk about all the goaly situations that are still happening in this league because everybody's looking at their problems and going, these are bad. Yep. And they're like, oh, what should we do about them?

We're at that point of the season where everybody who has a bad record is like, what's wrong? Oh, our goaltending. And then going like, hey, is Connor Hellebuk available? Oh, he's not interesting. Oh, darn. So right now, I would say the teams that, like, I still think of as needing a goalie.

Carolina, Toronto, New Jersey, maybe Edmonton, although Stuart Skinner's, you know, even if he's not standing on his head, he's been competent and that's really all that team needs. They're still not in a playoff spot, by the way. All this winning the Oilers are doing. They're still not in a playoff spot.

It's wild. Yeah. Like you said a week or two ago. When you start that bad, you've got to win two games for everyone you lose the entire rest of the way. It's not easy. And the Oilers were like, okay.

No problem. Thank you. So, yeah, I guess. I know you're not, so you're not putting the bad teams in there. You're not putting like a Buffalo or an Ottawa where we're just going to kind of say. Yeah, I think those teams are more in a position to, well, at least Buffalo is to give a goalie away. Yeah.

Let someone make that a reclamation project or something. But yeah, I mean, you know, why close the barn door now if you're Buffalo and Ottawa? The season's over. It's fair. So yeah, I guess we'll start talking about Toronto. Obviously they put Samsonov on waivers. He's going to be down in the HAL for a little while. He's broken.

Seems like. And it was like even it was kind of strange because he was he was good last year. Comes into the season, gets the one year deal. and even earlier in the year, like when he wouldn't play well or when he would have a game that, you know, was okay, like the quotes that he was giving were just very strange,

especially now in hindsight. Like at the time, it was sort of like, oh, he's being the funny, weird goalie. What a quirky character. Because, like, you know, they'd be like, hey, you gave up two goals tonight. And he was like, I'm going to go lay down in traffic. and hope that a bus runs over me

and everyone was like, oh, that's adorable. But as the season went on, like it became clear that like, just psychologically, he did not seem to be locked in. And the results the last few games were. Very bad. So they are doing the thing where they have sent him down to the miners,

but not to play in the minors. They put him on waiver. he obviously wasn't claimed, and now they have sent him away to work with goalie coaches and sports psychologists and all of that and try to reinvent him. Hey, it worked out great for Jack Campbell, you know? Yeah, yeah, it can't fail.

And the interesting thing about that is they don't have, like, another goalie to bring up. Nope. As far as, like, NHL guys. So until, you know, until Wall is back, it's kind of the Martin Jones show. They brought up the, what's his name, Hildaby, Hilderby? Hilderby, yeah. Who is a good prospect and also gigantic, which helps, but is not considered NHL ready.

Like even a week ago or two weeks ago, they were like, we really don't want to bring this kid up. It's not time yet. Right. But then they just really had no choice because the other option was you had to sit Sampsonov on the bench even and just even that didn't feel appropriate anymore. So they've actually,

Martin Jones got a shutout last night. They've got a game tonight. Do you know what Martin Jones' save percentages up to, by the way? I just pulled it up. Whenever it is, it's fully sustainable. I just can't believe. I don't think I've ever seen a number this high next to Martin Jones's name. It's 926 right now.

Yeah. Like, you know, there might have been a point where he'd started the season with a shutout or something like that. Oh, that's really high. But, like, nine games in, he's 926. I don't know that Martin Jones has ever done that in his entire career. Got two shutouts. He's playing great. He started out really good.

Shut out the Kings last night. And so, like, my guess is he starts again tonight. The dreaded back-to-back goal he starts. Yeah. Because I really think the Leafs are going to see if they can just not start this kid if they can at all avoid it. Do we have a timeline on Joseph Wall? No. The thing with him is it's been, it is, we were told it was a high ankle sprain.

Right. As I said at the time, I've never seen a high ankle sprain happening that way before. like without any twisting of the leg or anything like that. But they said high ankle sprain. And it feels like the last, like every week we get an update that it's three to four weeks. So and, you know, if you're a sports fan, you know, like a high ankle sprain is no joke. It's, you know, there is, you hear sprain and you think like short term injury, but no, like a regular spray. is a quick injury.

A high ankle sprain is a serious injury. But his return isn't imminent. Put it that way. And when he does get back, he was playing really well this year, but this guy who's played like 30 NHL games. Right. So it's not like they're waiting for some,

you know, some veteran established star to come back and then it's okay. So I don't know, man. I don't know what they do. I mean, short term, you've got Martin Jones who's hot, and you're probably okay. But I don't know. Like, fast forward to the trade deadline.

Are you going into the playoffs with Martin Jones and Joseph Wall as your two goalies in this yet another make or break year where? Yep. Now, the thing is, the thing is, They are pretty comfortable third in the Atlantic right now. They have roughly as much, they have a two-point lead on Tampa, but with four games in hand, which is nice for them. And so, like, I'm not super worried about them being able to weather the storm, let's say.

But as you say, like, they're not as far as missing the playoffs. Right. But as you say, they got a. They got to upgrade at that position. So this is the interesting thing. Another team where it's like they indisputably need to add a goalie is the Carolina Hurricanes who are like fourth in the east right now. Everybody's like, you won't believe how bad the hurricane's goaltending is.

886 is a team. Kochekov, the only guy who's at or around the league average. And, you know, what's the ceiling on Kochekov? probably at her around the league average. Well, I mean, they certainly didn't seem to think it was all that high because they, he'd look good for a while there, and Carolina was kind of like, yeah, no, we don't trust this guy. Totally. Anti-Rent is another guy who seems broken.

Broken. 855 through 50. Can you believe they gave a goalie with an 855 save percentage 15 appearances so far this year? That's crazy. Yeah. I mean, that's what. And then obviously, Freddie Anderson's got the medical situation. Yeah, we don't know.

Blood clotting. Whether, you know, if or when he'll be back. Right. So, yeah. So that's two teams that are legitimate cup contenders that need a goalie. And I would say, you know, again, sitting pretty in terms of their playoff position. Yeah. Right?

Yeah, I mean, Carolina's. Maybe not that pretty for Carolina. There's a lot of, like, teams you wouldn't think are good who are in the playoffs. Like, there are five metro teams in the playoffs right now, and it's the Rangers. Okay, they're good, right? Fine. Carolina, you'd say they're good, but the goaltending is unbelievably bad. Then the Islanders, the Flyers, the Capitals.

You're like, well, hold on. All those teams are in a playoff spot right now. That doesn't seem possible. And then the next three teams after that are Tampa, New Jersey, Pittsburgh. Right. Again, three good teams. Tampa, a team that always makes the playoffs, Jersey, a team that people were picking for the Stanley Cup. And Pittsburgh, a very flawed team, but one that's certainly in all-in win-now mode that a lot of us had as a playoff team.

They have a very high goal difference. People keep bringing this up. But they're one of those teams that put up like 10 on San Jose. So, like, that alone is doing so much for their goal difference. Like, that one game. Yeah. I mean, Pittsburgh has got... It's hard to...

Pittsburgh is two games back of Carolina in the games played called if they won both of those, which is a huge gift. But if they did, they'd be two points back of Carolina. So, like, that's... Mm-hmm. The level of safety is... Yeah, I overstated it. They're okay now, but it's one of those things where it's like one bad week

does potentially Remixings And that's where we have to bring up New Jersey obviously They're another team that The goaltending stinks 888 as a team That's not good enough

If you have any kind of playoff aspirations Yeah And I know like I've seen a few things Lately in comment sections And that sort of thing We're Devils fans or Matt Because they're like All anyone ever says about our team

is the gold ending isn't good enough. And it's like, yeah, I mean. Yeah, man, you have an awesome power play. That does feel like the main story. How is it not? Look, they score more goals than the average NHL team. And obviously, they spent a good chunk of the season without some really important players. And like, obviously, Dougie Hamilton's going to miss probably the whole rest of the year.

Tim O'Meyer's been off when he's been healthy. You know, there's a lot to kind of asterisk where the devils are. But, like, they're running their power play at like 30 plus percent. They're scoring more goals than the average NHL team does. And yet, they have a negative goal difference and they're not in the playoffs because they have 888 goaltending. It's that simple. if they had league average goal tending, they would be comfortably in the playoffs

and they would be comfortably like positive goal, you know, plus 10 or something like that, right? And we wouldn't be saying one bad word about the New Jersey Devils. Like you went into the season with Vitech Vannichek and Akira Shmead as your goalies. They just sent Schmead down the other day. probably just because, you know, he's waver eligible or whatever, I'm sure.

And not that he's been good or anything, but he's been better than Vanichick. And yet, you know, they have no choice but to keep rolling Vanichick out there. Try to be above 880 today, Big Dog. What do you say? And of all the teams, like New Jersey really felt like the one going into the season where you were like, this is a legitimate cup contender with the goaltending being. the big question. Totally.

The other team where goaltending was a big question was the Sabres but you didn't feel like the rest of the roster was as strong. Toronto, Carolina,

I mean, I think both you could see the potential for goaltending issues but you felt better about it. I think with New Jersey, Carolina and Toronto, you were like, well, the team in front of them

will play well enough that it doesn't matter if like the goalies are only average. Like, again, if all these teams had average goal tending, you know, there would be nothing to talk about on, like, with respect to them. They'd be, they'd all be, you know, three or four points higher in the standings. And we'd just be like, yep, the Atlantic stuff this year, you know, the leaves aren't like blowing the doors off anybody, but they're good. Carolina, yeah, they're right up there with the, they're right up there with the Rangers among the best teams in the, in the Eastern Conference, maybe.

the league. But because they don't have the goaltending, yeah, that's all anybody's talking about, because they should be better than this. I don't know what else to say about it, you know? Yep. So, who did these teams go out and get? Well, I mean, I guess the answer is whoever San Jose decides they don't want and Montreal decides they don't want, but that's only two teams, right?

Yeah. It'll be really interesting to see what Calgary decides to do. because, like, they're not making the playoffs in all likelihood. And Jacob Markstrom is having an unbelievable seat, like, kind of quietly. That team sucks, I guess you'd say. But kind of quietly, like, I just, I guess I have the tab open. Hold on one second here. Yeah, he leads the league in goals saved above expected right now.

Have you heard word one about Jacob Markstrom? And he's the best goalie in the league by G-Sachsac. that is very surprising to me and probably surprising to a few Flames fans. Yeah, well, he's, okay, so this is the thing. Again, the team stinks, and he's quote unquote, only 907 that's a little above the league average.

But because the team in front of him is so bad, right, he has more goals saved above expected than, say, Connor Hellebuck or Thatcher Demko, who I think are two and three. I just closed the tab. Those are two and three, yeah. then Cam Talbot, then Jeremy Swayman, which is interesting because he's only played 18 games. But yeah, it'll be interesting because they have Dan Vladar and like Vladar is what he is at this point.

But like I think some team would be like, oh, we can put him in the position to succeed. I don't know if you can, but he's just like one of those guys, I feel like, you know. So I'd be interested to see what Calgary does. and I don't know, there's going to be another team or two with like, hey, you want this goal? Again, like Ottawa, Columbus, like maybe we got a goal you want. You never know. But like, man, it's so. St. Louis.

It is so tough to trade for gold-hanting. Because, I mean, like, if the blue line isn't good, then you go out and you get a guy. Maybe you hope he slots in at number three. But if not, okay, you know, he goes to five or say he bumps somebody off. I mean, goaltending, you got most of these teams, two goalies. You're going to go and bring a guy yet? Are you sure he's better than one of those two guys? Like, are you sure that Jake Allen is really going to come in and be an upgrade on somebody?

You're not, but like, I think especially if, again, you're one of these, like, high stakes, Toronto, New Jersey, Carolina. One of those teams where, you know, us not just making the playoffs, but making a deep run is kind of what the expectation is. Maybe not in Toronto, but you know what I mean. You can't do nothing with what you got right now. So, like, is Jake Allen the solution? Fucking probably not, man. I don't, you know, what do you want me to say?

I'm not going to sit here and tell you Jake Allen's good in 2023. It's just like it's the opportunity. But you just can't be, you can't be this bad. You can't do nothing. But you go get, and I'm using Jake Allen as the stand-in for, you know, miscellaneous, not necessarily an upgrade goalie. Because, again, there's no Connor Hullabuck out there. So you go tray for that guy. By the time you've given him a few games and, you know, seen maybe he's an upgrade, maybe he's not, you're kind of, that's it.

That's it. That's your one move. A million percent. Well, again, that's kind of like the, the, like, the problem with everybody's just kind of sitting on their ass is like, ah, you know, we'll get around to it or whatever. It's like, do you feel like you have a lot of time here, man? Yep. That's the thing that that blows my mind is that just all these teams are like, yeah, we'll wait and see. And it's like, you know, we're getting, we're getting pretty close to 40 games like a,

across the board here. All right, I just pulled up a list of pending free agent goal tenders. It's not good. It's not a good list. I'll leave, like, the RFA's out of it. But Matt Murray, probably never going to play again. Peter Morazek, Samsonov. Right now, every Lee fan has turned the show off.

You started with those three guys. Yeah, Chris Dreger, Mark Andre Fleury, Capo Cacaninan, and again, that's like a guy, St. Louis, or San Jose, rather, is probably very happy to part with, you know. Pavel Frantos, who I think is not going to play again. Kevin Lankan, remember him. Eric Comrie, a guy Buffalo just put on waivers, nobody wanted. Casey to Smith. So you're going to get down to Casey to Smith in terms of like current salary. and you're like, yeah, we'll take a flyer on that guy.

And he's playing well this year, but, you know, Rousseau, Nadelcovich, James Rimer, anti-Ranta, Phoenix Copley, like, these aren't exactly like world-beating goalies, you know? No. No, the fact that out of all of those names that, like, James Rimer is the one that... Do not look up how James Rimer's doing this year, brother. He was... He started well.

He's 889 now. Yeah. He started. He started well, but he cratered. Which, yeah, look, he's 35 years old. I mean, the other name that really does stand out there is Mark Andre Fleury. Yep. Because of, you know, obviously the name value.

Because of the fact that Minnesota is, they're not out of the playoff race by any stretch, especially with the new coach bounces. Yeah, they're up to 500 now. Yeah, I mean, they lost their last. three, so they're fading again, potentially. But certainly some team out there could talk themselves into the guy who's won Stanley Cups, who's won, you know, however many games. Yeah.

That's, you know, it would be a very 200 hockey men move, but. I agree. You could see that. But I mean, all these headlines, you know, he recently won his 400th game or whatever. played his thousandth game. No, that can't be right. The winning thing. I think he's up to five way more, isn't he?

Something like that? He's at 550. Yeah. What was the big milestone besides? It was a thousand games last weekend he got to. No, but there was one like right before that too. I don't know, whatever. It doesn't matter.

A thousand games, by the way, can you name all three other goalies who have played a thousand games? There's only four of them now ever. Broder, Luongo, and Wa? Mm-hmm, that's right. Isn't it interesting, all four of them are from Quebec? Yeah, that's sort of the, and it doesn't feel like Quebec is, Quebec stopped making goalies.

Yeah, around 2003 or something, right? Yeah, like that's... I need to have one province not pulling their weight here on making Canadian international hockey teams. I saw a Canadian 2025 projection that had Aden Hill as the starting goalie. Oh, no. I don't close that window. Not think about it. Yeah, that sucks.

I don't like thinking about that, man. And by the way, Aiden Hill is the guy that you're going to think about if you're one of these teams going, maybe we don't do anything. Right. Maybe we just hope that magically we've, one of the two or three guys we have could get hot at the right time. Because Aiden Hill wasn't even the guy in Vegas going into the playoffs. Well, I almost said he's not the guy now, but I think he's hurt. Anyway, why don't we take a break? We'll come back.

We'll talk about some award stuff. This week's episode of Puck Soup is brought to you by Raycon and folks. You know what I know. The New Year's here. And whether you're making big changes or just settling back into a consistent routine, chances are you could use some audio accompaniment on your journey. New Year's resolutions, fitness, all that kind of thing. We're always looking for a good way to listen to our playlist, our favorite podcast.

I've been listening to an album by the metal band, Malius. The album is called The Fires of Heaven. It was my number one record for 2023. And you could listen to it in 2024 with Raycon, because the fact is a good pair of wireless earbuds is indispensable this year. For premium audio, at the perfect price point, you got to go with Raycon. So like I said, Raycon is like perfect for the gym because they have customized gel tips for the perfect in-year fit.

these earbuds are comfortable and they will not budge no matter what you do, you know, running, riding the stationary bike, whatever you're doing, these earbuds aren't moving. You can trust me on that. Plus, Raycons give you eight hours of playtime and a 32-hour battery life and Raycons are priced just right. You get quality audio at half the price of other premium audio brands. It's no wonder, Raycon's everyday earbuds have tens of thousands of five-star reviews. Now, you know me. I'm always saying I use my Raycons when I'm walking the dog. That's good because they have awareness mode for, you know,

when you're walking around busy streets and stuff like that, you don't want to get hit by a car. You got your awareness mode. It helps you keep your head on a swivel. But if you're at home, you'll listen to an audio book or a podcast. Maybe you'll listen to Puck Soup. You can turn on noise isolation. Just really get dialed in there.

And they even have tap functions on your earbuds so that you can, you know, change audio settings and sound profiles and stuff like that without, you know, doing too much fiddling. It's just all right there on your earbud. So here's what you're going to want to do. You go to buy raycon.com slash puck today to get 15% off your Raycon order plus free shipping. That's buyraycon.com slash puck to get 15% off in free shipping byraycon.com slash puck. All right, we're back.

Let's get some awards talk out of the way. I feel like January 1st is. the point at which people do start talking about it kind of seriously. You'll get like a little bit of discussion of like, oh, you know, this rookie's off to, you know, Cala Bardard's off to a really hot start. Is there anybody that can challenge him? You know, that kind of stuff. Yep.

But January 1 does feel like the first time people start going like, okay, let's really think about this, though. And what's interesting to me is that I feel like with maybe one or two, exceptions, I could be talked into any one of like four or five guys for most of the awards. Yep. Which is cool. And the other thing that's interesting is there was, when you read some of the pieces that have been out there, and then when you look at the odds that are still on the board, it feels like there's a little bit of a disconnect.

Yeah, for sure. is interesting to me because, you know, the people who set these odds are not dumb. And yet it feels like they're a little bit maybe behind, either they're a little bit behind current opinion or maybe a little bit above it in the sense of, you know, they're filtering out some of the noise. But let's go down the list. I want to find out who you got. All right. So for the heart

ballot, or the heart trophy, I should say. I think you can make a very cogent argument for Nathan McKinnon. I think he leads the league in points right now. Although, again... Absolutely psycho in December.

Although, again, it just does feel like Connor McDavid's just like, okay, we're done fucking around. We're going to go two points a game the rest of the window. I honestly, like, it felt like even you talk about like the New Year's everyone starts talking about like it feels like there were like a bunch of articles about Nathan McKinnon is the new Hart Trophy favorite and then Connerick David was like okay duly noted I'll just go out of my next game and just go

complete Harlem Globe Trouters on everyone and yep absolutely um I think that you can make a pretty good argument for Quinn Hughes for obvious reasons uh Ben Ben, been the best defenseman in the league. Although, again, Kail McCar feels like he's closing that. We'll talk more about that with the Norris in a minute. And there has not been a defenseman win the heart in almost 25 years now. Yeah. So tough.

So that's tough. Sasha Barkov, I feel like up until McKinnon, like, you know, the last week and a half of December when McKinon really went crazy. Barkov, I feel like was the, oh shit, like this guy could do it. Not that he's scoring a ton, but he's just, you know, playing like high level Patrice Berger on hockey where it's like you just don't get anywhere near his net. And also he will have 80 points at the end of the year, you know. But that doesn't feel like it's going to be enough for.

Probably not. But again, like Florida is way better than I think a lot of people expected. They're really, really good this year. And if they... And without Matthew Kuchuk being the guy he was the last couple years. Yeah, if they finish whatever, fourth in the league and Barkov keeps up this performance, I think he will absolutely get on a lot of ballots. I don't know.

I don't think he'd win necessarily. but I you know again the latest set of odds that that I got sent barcub isn't even on the on the board yeah he'll finish like fourth or something okay totally if this keeps up no problem there McDavid like I said like he it just seems like he's kind of decided okay that's enough fucking around yeah and the oilers are going to make the playoff so it does feel I think early in the years some of the some of him dropping was that was baked into the whole we know a lot of voters won't vote for a guy whose team doesn't make the playoffs sure um i i would listen to arguments for hellebuck

of course he's been probably the best goal in the league this season did you see that uh there's some stat that like the jet's current streak of giving up three goals or less is like climbing towards the top of like recent history like they they haven't given up more than three goals in like 20 games. Yeah, it's funny. I saw that stat last night while I was like watching their game. And there, I think, third in what you would call the, or I get in the cap era, I think they're third right now. Okay.

But like there was, I can't remember which team it was, but there was a team that did like 40 games in a row or something like that. I was like in the cap era that happened. Well, I mean, the cap era has also been the dead puck era. too, yeah. Yeah, you're right. But I don't know, it just feels like there's so much parody that it, that that should have been impossible. But here we are. There are a couple other guys I would hear, well, frankly, I mean, the guy who, I don't know if you know this, the guy who leads the league in war right now, according to evolving hockey, also plays for Edmontton.

His name is Zach Hyman. Yeah. He's been a really good this year. He's not going to get any MVP votes other than like two dudes in Edmonton who will be like. Right. But, you know, it's interesting. But yeah, you know, obviously if Vegas continues to be really good, Jack Eichael should get a lot of attention. Depends on what happens with Tampa, but like Kutrov's scoring a lot at the very least this year.

Is the guy who's leading the league in scoring right now. And yeah. Okay. So it's not. Yeah. He's, well, I mean like, McKinn's like right behind him. But it's,

yeah, like he is, and he's number two on the list that, that the odds makers sent that everyone's buddy Jimmy sent out behind McDavid. It's McDavid, Kutcherav, McKinnon, all very,

very close. But yeah, I mentioned Hella Buck. Obviously, you've got to mention Demco, Camp Talb. But probably. Connor Ingram should get a decent amount of attention.

Just, you know, I believe he still leads the league in shutouts, which he wouldn't have said about, was a possibility for Connor Ingram up until. No, he would not. Very recently. So, yeah, there's just, I guess my point is, going into the year, everybody would have said, Carr McDavid to fucking walk.

If he doesn't win it, you know, he got hit by a bus, right? Like, that's the only way. And, you know, maybe that happened in like September. now he's fully recovered, ready to go. Yeah. He looks fucking awesome. He rules. So, yeah.

The Norris... It does feel, though, a little bit, like, it's great that there is the race, but it does feel like we're kind of manifesting this where, like, you're going to get to the end of the year and it's going to be McDavid again with 90% of the vote. And we'll be like, oh, right? Well, I mean, the thing is, and we've said this before, in the ear of Sidney Crosby as best play,

in the world. There were a lot of hockey people going, well, surely it's not him, though. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Like, every year they were just like, you know who it probably is is Drew Doughty or Claude Jureu or, you know, name a guy, right? You got a fairly large number of articles over a four or five year period going, Sydney Crosby's not the best player in hockey.

This guy's the best player in hockey. And then Sidney Crosby would just be like, okay, but right, I'm Sidney Crosby, though, so. You know, and you end up looking kind of stupid. But yeah, I think there is that with Connor McDavid. Like people are just looking for reasons to not give it to him or not to not give it to him, but to give someone else the recognition that they deserve. Like Nathan McKinnons deserved the heart trophy for, for 10 years or whatever.

And it's like, feels like you would have won it if that were true. Yeah. You know, I hate this Lifetime Achievement Award shit. He's not 26 like Drew Doughty was when he got his lifetime achievement award. But, yeah, I saw someone yesterday. Oh, Nathan McKinnon's deserved it for several years now. Fucking no, he hasn't. Yeah, he would have got, he would have had votes.

And I'm sure he has had votes. I'll look up like his finishing positions, like over the last several years. his highest heart finish was two in 2718 or 1718 I should 2718 And then the next year he was sixth And then last year he was and yeah Then the year after that two

Three and then a couple years later five So okay But I mean like The two and one of the two is in the three Those were in what some are calling fake seasons that don't count for anything. Don't matter. Some.

Some are saying that. Hey, one of a lady bang one of those fake years. Good for him. There you go. That's as good as a heart. But yeah, to me,

I just, you know, I like how wide open it feels, but it's not going to feel wide open for much longer, I don't think. Let's do the Norris. Again,

you know, this kind of feels like a two-horse race between, uh, Hughes and McCar. Yeah. I think in Greg's piece he had Hughes and McCar and then the third guy was Noah Dobson. Okay, sure.

We can go ahead and say Hughes and McCar is going to be a great, which is great. It's like this is the, I love the long-term booking, right? We did the Calder thing with these two. Yep, that's right. Now we're bringing it back a few years later. Just going by war again, it's Hughes Burr. Mekar, Bouchard Chikrin, Gavrikov, Patterson, and then you get to Ait,

and that's where Noah Dobson comes in. Okay. And this feels like, it feels like there's a, a, like the stats argument is going to be close and there's half the season to play out. But it just feels like,

doesn't it feel like Hughes has an advantage in the sense of like, it just feels like people are, again, not tired of voting for Kel McCar, but. The Vancouver story is a good one, and, you know, Hughes has been so... I think his candidacy is entirely dependent on how Vancouver ends the season. Right.

If in the last 30 games, they kind of stop having a 108 PDO or whatever number we're talking about, then it's going to get down to, okay, we're going to really talk about this, you know? and McCar is just in an environment where he's more likely, I would say, to have long-term success, if that makes sense. Like, how do I want to put this? There are more good players with proven track records on the Colorado Avalanche than the Vancouver Canucks. And that allows Cal McCar to have a more, I would say, predictable second half of the year. The other thing I guess we need to say about this is like

Macar missed some time and so there's like a big gap in or you know like proportionally there's a big gap in games played it's like four or five games and at the end of the season you know the difference between playing 82 and 75 games or whatever the number ends up being for Macar feels a lot a lot more smoothed out than the difference between 37 and 33.

Right. Like it, it just gives McCar a little more time to make up that ground that, you know, may or may not be between them. And so, yeah, to me, I just, I think right now I would, like, you know, if I'm voting today and I hate doing that shit. But like, if you're voting today, it's Quinn Hughes, no question. But if you're voting three months from now, I don't know that I have the same opinion. That's going to be a fun race. to watch. Absolutely.

I'm very excited. Two studs that... Yep. Both those guys rock. Yep. The Vezna. Yeah, this one's... This is a very interesting one.

So, actually let me look... Oh, but I should say, since I was looking at the odds, that for the Norris, I'm assuming it's... Yeah, Hughes and McCarr, well ahead of everyone else, so with Hughes. As well it should be. Vesina. The Vesna. Not a long way to go, but does this feel like it's also starting to turn into a two-guy race? Well, I guess kind of yes and no.

Again, I think Connor Ingram has earned, let's say a top five finish right now. But yeah, to your point, like Hellebuck and Demko seem like the guys. Yeah. Right. And felt like it was a Demko, the Demko show for the first month and a half. And now Hellebuck's kind of going to say. The Undertaker behind A.J. Stiles thing. Yeah, that's what I was going to say is.

Hella Buck actually started quite badly, if people remember. Like his first like four or five games, he was like, 880 or something like that. He was like, whoa, is Connor Hellebuck like okay? Yeah. And then Connor Hellebuck was like, yeah, I'll go 930. I think I'm all right. I'm right.

I'm right. So, what it's a thing of Demko started so hot and Hellebuck so cold. Obviously, I don't think Hella buck is going 928 the rest of the way or whatever he's been since the start of November. But again, this is a goalie with probably. In this era of goaltending, is there one goalie with a better track record than Hellebuck over the course of whatever he's been in the league now? Vasilevsky would be the guy, but it's... Yeah, I guess I think of Vasilevsky as being, like, a slightly early, but they probably did come into the league around the same time now that you say that, huh? Yeah, Vaselovsky would be the guy, but let's not look up how he's doing this year.

Let's just put it that way. Whereas Demko, like, this is a guy where, you know, for 40 games at a time or whatever, you're like, damn, that's your Demko rocks. And then he's like, also I can turn back into a pumpkin at any time. And I don't know. Like, does that, again, it so much depends on just how the Canucks do down the stretch. Do we really believe in this team or not, you know? Yep. But yeah, I guess we got to shout out Cam Talbot, who's right there with these guys and on, I would say, a better team.

than both of them. So it feels like he'll be there at the end of the year. He's number three on the current odds list, but well back of Demko and Halibuck, who are pretty much connected. And then one other guy, well, I guess you can never count out the two New York golies, obviously. Those guys will be there at the end of the year.

Yep. And one other guy. Obviously being the guy. Yeah, well, who else could I mean? Yep. And then the one other guy I want to shout out here is Sergey Bobrovsky, who's having an awesome year in Florida. 9-11, something like that, 9-10. You know, they play a really good system in front of him, so his G-Sax number is 15th in the league?

No, 13th. Obviously, you'd like to get that up a little bit more, but they're just going to be in a position to make him look pretty good. it all year. Right now, like you say, kind of feels like a two-horse race, but there... Long way to go. There's a lot of guys around it, certainly. Jack Adams, now this one's really interesting. This one...

This feels like a nine horse race. Okay. See, because I was going to say it feels like there's... Well, it had... Okay, so the first two months it was the Rick Tocat Award. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Torterella is

Torts has to be in consideration right now No question about it I mean we just did a whole segment on like wow How are the Flyers actually good I mean And again He would deserve He certainly would deserve consideration

Under any circumstances But just the way this award has voted for Historically A million percent It's the team that all of us smart experts didn't see coming. And then we go, oh, okay, who's the coach? He must have done an amazing job.

Well, along those lines, like, how do you not mention Peter Levy-A-Let here? We were all like, what are they fucking doing hiring this guy? Yep. And they're, if not the best team in the league by, like, actual quality of the hockey they play. By their first or their second in points and points. percentage right now. Can't do any better than that, really. I guess you could be first, but, you know, the team that won the, had the best regular

season probably ever last year, they're in first right now. Right. And I'm a little bit surprised that, again, on the list of odds, I'm looking at Jim Montgomery way, way down the list. Yeah, you won it last year. You're not allowed to win this. You're not allowed to win it twice. Nobody's won it twice since Jacques Demers in the 80s.

but that doesn't make any sense. Like imagine if we just decided you couldn't be MVP twice. John Cooper has never won the award. Can you fucking believe that? That's surprising. Yeah. That's literally unbelievable for how good Tampa has been for as long as they've been. Good.

Jared Bednar and now we're just like naming really good teams, I guess. Are there any other like surprising? Tourney is the guy that I wonder. Tourney, yeah, of course. There's a great answer. Because again, that is the team that wasn't expected to be as good. And also, I mean, honestly, small market teams that people maybe don't see as much, you just kind of go, well, the coach must be doing a great job.

And I think he is. I think he's a good coach. Sure. He's of the odds list I'm looking at. He's the guy, he's fourth, but he's the guy who's made the big jump. 20 to 1 at the beginning of December. up to 8 to 1 now. So, you know, the momentum is there on him.

Let me hit you with another guy that I think is going to get some real consideration. Chris Knoblock in Edmonton. Dude, I think that when he was hired, I threw like some money down on him to win the Jack Adams. Because you could see the potential there. Yep. They get into the, I do feel like they would have to do. much more than get into the playoffs. Sure, yeah.

If at the end of the year, he's got the highest winning percentage of any coach, which is not impossible to conceive of, you'll get some votes. You know what? I just realized something. We forgot another guy

who started slow and came on strong for the Vesna. We have to be like a month away from going, like, why did we not say U.S. Osis Soros? Yeah. He's been awesome. awesome lately.

He's been, yeah, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's been fading in the odds,

but, yeah, and also we, congratulations to us, we managed to not bring him up during the, uh,

goaly trade, goaly market segment. Mm-hmm. As like the guy, like, surely the Leafs will pick him up. By the way, you know,

the Predators do want to rebuild. Our buddy Howard Berger wants the Leafs to trade William Nealender for UC Saros. In case anyone, from this, from the same mind that brought you,

Mitch Marner for Eric Carlson. And look how well it's going for Eric Carlson with his new team. Oh, boy. Bruce Cassidy, another guy, like, should be there. That's a really good division, and they're going to run away with it, it feels like. Well, yeah. Again, I feel like I'm just naming good coaches or coaches of good teams, certainly. And that's not how this award historically works.

So, like, Spencer Carberry has, like, the caps barely in the play. playoffs, but everybody's going to be like, well, well, great. If they get it. Yep. So, yeah, I don't know. I think, I think increasingly you're getting like pretty good team that overachieved, team that came out of nowhere, and coach of one of the two or three best teams in the league. Those are your three guys that are going to be finalists every year. And Rod Brindamor for some reason is the only guy that seems to do it.

Well, again. Because they'll be like, wow, with that terrible goal to. and he still weathered the score. Yeah, no, like their second in their division with some of the worst goal tending in the league. If that doesn't speak to the quality of coaching, I don't know what does. Yep. You're like, oh, who's the best player on their team? And you're like, I guess it's Sebastian Aho?

Mm-hmm. Well, again, maybe it's probably just Brent Burns, but we don't think about best players on teams that way. And, like, Ajo's having a really nice season. he's 43 points and 35 games next closest guy has 27 points on that team and it's Seth Jarvis wow but yeah like I'm not saying that like unbelievable like can you believe how like he's dragging a team full of bums kicking there's a lot of very good there are no like superstars on this team I would say and yet the results are there every year despite this year horrible goaltending yep so yeah I don't think it's like outrageous to say

And of course, you know, Rod Brindamore. But anyway. Let's do the Calder. Okay, let's do the Calder. I don't know if you're sensing this, but there seems to be some frustration in Minnesota that we keep saying that this is just... All right, go ahead, engrave it, Connor Bedard. Yeah, you're not allowed to say it. It's just one of those things where if you say that in, you know, the upper Midwest, you know, there's a hit squad coming to your house.

That's right. So, you're prospect guy. Talk me into this. First of all, no, I'm not. Really. I really, like, I don't know. Like, I watch World Juniors or whatever, and I just go, who the fuck are these guys? I don't know. Like, I've heard of the college hockey guys.

Stupid. That's it. You know? By the way, a lot of the guys we've mentioned for awards this year, college hockey. Cal McCar, Quinn Hughes, etc. But, like, yeah, Brock Faber, like, he's playing an insane number of minutes. Yeah. He's very, very good. Yes.

But, like, is he having a knock-off Connor Bedard-style year? No. I don't know. Probably not. And look, like, if you want to say, well, you know, people shouldn't be saying that, you know, Bernard's going to win it unanimously. Okay. Like, this is that kind of awards talk that I hate where people are like, okay, well, yeah, this guy should win, but you said unanimously and he should only get 90% of it. Like, okay.

Who cares? Like, Connor Bernard's going to win if he stays healthy. Yeah. I feel like Brock Faber's going to get a couple of votes, a couple of first place votes. from from people who again want to overthink it

the guy the guy look obviously this guy's the best rookie but is he the best rookie you know that kind of thing again the Sydney

Crosby isn't the best player in the world thought and just straight up enters into this and like again Brock Faber's

having a really nice year and it's not like you couldn't see it coming he was an awesome for the University of Minnesota last season.

Right? Like, unbelievable. He comes in. He's good, like, down the stretch and in the playoffs for them last year. It's not like this was impossible to see coming. But, you know, he's going to finish with probably 40 fewer points than Connor Bedard. And then you're going to enter, then you're going to get into the like, well, look, plus minus.

And it's like, right. One of them was on the fucking Chicago Blackhaw. this year, man. And, like, everybody on the Chicago Blackhawks is also getting hurt all the time. So the fact that Conrad is, like, doing much at all kind of says to me, he's probably the best rookie in the league. Like, the thinking that, like, Brock Faber should win the award is, like, when Barrett Jackman won it, where it's like, yeah, I mean, okay, sure. You really want to talk yourself into this? You know?

Yeah. That's like one of the famous things about it. And look, like I also get it because first of all, this is the whole awards debate thing. Hey, it's boring when there's no debate. So sometimes you got to go and find one. And fan bases are going to stick up for their guys. You want guys mentioned. So we're mentioning them.

Yeah. He's not going to win. How about this? Here's the stat for you. You know how people always talk about, like, oh, this guy who's like, you know, he had like 86 points, but the next closest guy on his team had 53. So that's how crazy it is that this guy, this guy should be an MVP candidate, right? Connor Bedard, 15, 18, 33 and 37 games as an 18 year old. Next closest guy on the team has 50% fewer points than that.

7.15, 22. It's Philip Kourishev. the next closest guy after that is Jason Dickinson. This is how bad things are in Chicago. Yeah. Like I went into the year going like, but Dart will have like 70, 77 points.

And that, you know, he's on track for being around there, certainly. Um, but it's just like, I couldn't have, I couldn't have guessed that the difficulty that he would face

in getting to those 70, 75, which again, like, Taylor Hall's done for the year. And, uh, I think Tyler Johnson is injured and Seth Jones is injured and, you know, like just the guys that were supposed to be like competent veterans on that team, they're all hurt unless it's like Nick Folign. Nick Falino. He's like mad after every game. Which like you should.

Just kind of his job. Well, and here's the thing. I get why he's mad because he's fourth on this team in scoring right now. 37-year-old Nick Folino is like, yeah, I'm, I'm, I shouldn't be fourth on a He should not be, yeah. He's right, he's right to be upset if that's the case. So, yeah, there's your carbon, uh, let's, I guess, wrap this up with some Selky talk.

Now, again, I, for me, I think this is a, uh, a runaway for, uh, for, for Barkov, right? Right. Yep. Because that's the full 200 feet thing. That's the, he's really good offensively, but no one gets near his net defensively. Yep. And this is, you know, obviously the Patrice Bergeron, retirement opens this up. And it was kind of like either we're going to have a wide open race again and or we're just going to pick like the new Bergeron. and I feel like

Barkov is pushing it in one of those directions. Well, so I want to say this. This is the only thing I want to say about that is it feels like the way he's regarded and for how well he plays all the time, he's just going to be the new version run insofar as like he's going to win like four of the next nine Selkees. You know, like it's just, it just feels like a more. to lock to me because, you know, you, you, they mentioned him last night. I don't even remember what game I was watching, but they were like, you know,

I was having a really good season defensively. Is that Sasha Barkoff? They, like, they weren't even playing the, like, whoever I was watching it, the Panthers weren't on that game. And they were just like, fuck man, this guy's so good. It might have been the Kings game because they were talking about Kopitar or something, but they were just like, damn, Barkaw, unbelievable. The only guy I could maybe see getting it, again, speaking of the Kings, is Kopitar just as like, again, kind of lifetime achievement award.

I don't know that he's necessarily really earned it. But the thing is that all the guys that are playing well defensively as forwards this year, with the exception of, like, one or two guys are just like, you know, your, your, your, uh, Armia's and your, uh, and your, and your, uh, and your Nick Waws. and all that kind of stuff, right? Like, guys that are good players, but guys that aren't going to, like, get the headlines, like Asa Sarsha Barkov. So I think it's his award to lose. But, hey, you've got to come up with five of them if you're voting on this.

And so it'll be interesting to see where everybody else lands, but I think it's Barkov's in a runaway if the season ends right now. I would agree. Yeah. So there you go. While we take another break, we'll come back with some new. news and notes and all this kind of stuff. This week's episode is brought to you by AG1.

How's it going with the New Year's resolutions if you do them? I'm not a big resolutions guy, but this is the time of year, whether you're into that or not. People tend to kind of take a look, take stock, figure out what you're doing, what you could be doing better. And obviously, taking care of your health is a big part of that. And taking care of your health is not always easy, but it should at least be simple. And that's why, as you know, I'm a big fan of AG1. It's a supplement you can take every day. No exceptions.

One scoop. You mix it in with water. Do it at the same time every day. And you're good to go. A little bit of extra energy, a little bit of extra, that knowledge that you've done something good for yourself. And you're ready to get out there and take on the day. Each serving of AG1 delivers a daily dose of vitamins, minerals,

and probiotics, and more. It's a powerful, healthy habit that is also powerfully simple. And that's always been the key for me. Healthy aging, shouldn't feel complicated. The thought of doing a whole bunch of different supplements at different times and mixing and matching and having some complicated schedule, that to me sounds exhausting. I know, even if I started, I would never stick with it. But one daily scuba AG1, that's going to cover your nutrient gaps, support mental and physical help without a lot of hassle. 60 seconds every morning, that's it. You're giving your body what it needs.

You're getting sustainable habits for the long run that you will actually stick with. There's one product I had to recommend to elevate your health. It's AG1, and that's why they've been a partner of this show for so long. So if you want to take ownership of your health, start with AG1. Try AG1. Get a free one-year supply of vitamin D3 and K2 and five free AG1 travel packs with your first purchase exclusively at drinkag1.com slash puck. That's drinkag1.com slash puck. Check it up.

All right. A couple last items here. Number one thing that I saw last week that really made me laugh very hard. Elias Linholm. Still not really clear whether he's going to stay in Calgary, but all signs point to him leaving because he still apparently wants $9 million. a year as his AAB. This is outrageous. Take it you're a no on that one.

Look, there was, what was it, two, three years ago now when he was playing on a line with Johnny Goodrow and Matthew Kachuk. And it's like, wow, he had like 40 goals or whatever it was. 40 goals, 82 points, point a game. And was the runner up for the Selke that year? He had an unbelievable season playing with two guys who should have been like MVP candidate level. players, right? Don't look up how Johnny Goodrose doing this year, by the way. I looked it up yesterday and got sad.

Although I believe he leads the Columbus Blue Jackets in scoring, but the number is depressingly low. Honestly, it's around where Elias Lindholm is. I want to say it was 24 or 25 points, and Lindholm has 24 right now. Yeah. But, like, yeah, you know, if this was two years ago, I wouldn't have been the one hustling to give this guy $9 million. But he scored 42 goals as a 27-year-old. If he's in the market then, yeah, absolutely.

Sure. I totally get why you would make that argument. Last year, he had 22 goals. That's a good number. But, like, you know, the team wasn't very good. And as we always say, someone's going to score for you, even if he suck. You know? And then this year, he has eight goals.

And, you know, obviously that's not like everything about a player. But also he is, I believe, 29 years old. So to me... Now, the thing that you saw, did it say, like, how many years he's looking for? Is this... No, I guess it didn't. I think it was an Elliot Friedman report. where he was holding firm on nine mill.

I mean, don't get, don't, don't, it might not have been Elliott. I don't want to get, uh, I don't want to get anybody in trouble here. But, um, some, some insidery guy, let's say was like, he wants nine million bucks. And I was just like, a year? Can that be right? Is an A.A.V? Mm-hmm. Uh, to me, you know, he'll, he'll be 30 in early December next year when this new contract

that he, Nine somewhere kicks in. What would the term have to be for you to give this guy $9 million? Yeah. That's like double what his current A.A.V. Yeah. And he's not going to, I would assume he wants some. I mean, look, this is, if I was playing for the Calgary Flames right now and I was six months away from unrestricted free agency,

I'd probably push my demand way up there. Maybe they give it to me, and maybe they don't, and then I get to see what the market gives. Yeah. I mean, what do you think he gets, if he hits, let's say he finishes the season roughly the same as he's played so far. He ends up being like a fit.

Let's give him 60 points on the year. Okay. What do you think he gets? as a free agent. Four years, seven and a half per, if I had to ballpark it. Yeah, that's not bad. And again, like, we always say this when it comes free,

like you only need one team. Totally, yes. To be like, to have the GM be like, you know, if I go six or seven years, I'm not even going to be here six or seven years from now, so who cares? Let's do it. Who indeed?

But, yeah. Okay. It's tough in Calgary, man. Because remember, they, Conroy said, I'm not, I'm not doing the Johnny Godreau thing again, where we lose guys for nothing. Which is always an easy thing to say in the summer, but. Yeah, I thought about writing about them the other day. And then I was like, didn't I just write about them in November and basically like,

everything I would say is exactly the same? Okay. Which is absolutely true. Yeah. I did do that. But they're just such an interesting team because it does seem like they're, you know, sticking their, they're like, you know, wetting their finger and sticking it out the window and seeing which way the wind's been blowing for the last three days and determining the future of their franchise based on that, right? Three points out of a playoff spot right now. So, you know, just got back to 500.

Not a great team. No. But also not so bad that you go, well, obviously you trade all these guys. Like, you know there's going to be because Noah Hannafin's in the same situation. And Hannafin, it seems like, wants out. Yeah. I mean, that famously the whole like putting the negotiation on pause thing. So, I mean, it seems obvious you trade both of those guys if you're not going to be able to sign them.

But then what if there are two points out at the deadline? I mean, for them, they're a team that it just seems like they're kind of, how do I want to put this? They're happy to like buy guys out, you know, Brad for Living, et cetera. But, oh, the reason that I was going to write about this is there was a fresh round of, oh, boy, Jonathan Hubertow sucks and so does that contract. Oh, well, yeah. Right. Like, and they're not lying, right? Like, that is the worst contract in the league.

It probably is. And I mean, the thing that I, that I almost wrote about the other day is like, and it's really funny that the guy who signed it was out of work for 14 minutes. Yeah. And then joined a team that has to figure out how to sign. Yep. two really skilled wingers in the next few months. Yep. But at least those guys won't be 30.

You know? No, there's that. Yeah. But anyway, it's just one of those things where, like, they go, oh, we actually, we won three games in a row to start the year or whatever. Might as well, resign all these fucking guys. And it's like, well, hold on, man. They actually make you play 82 of these. I don't know if you knew that.

Some of yours. Yeah. Not as often as. you might like. But like my point was earlier though the like the flames they are in the business of like

being one of those teams. It's like no, we need to get into the playoffs. And you know, kind of a lot of our whether we're successful on the ice is kind of secondary to get

three games of playoff gates. And maybe that's changed now that the team's in a kind of weird spot. But like, they, I think somebody pointed out last week, like, they never retain salary on trades.

They just don't do it as a matter of principle. And so, like, are you going to get like a one for one, like Lindholm, like, 4.85 out, 4.85 in. Same with Hanifin. 4.95 out 4.95 in.

I don't know how you work that. Tanev, same idea, I guess. It's tough, man. I don't know what you do if you're these guys. Well, I mean, I know what I do if I'm these guys. Yeah. But I, you know, the way this organization is run, I have no way of predicting what they're going to do.

I wouldn't have thought they'd bring back Michael Backland. And yet here they did it for two. years. Four and a half million bucks. Okay. The other thing, and I wrote about this on something that's going live any minute now, where I looked at like the worst. Today is, by the way, happy anniversary to blues fans. It's five years since they were dead last in the league. God, that was five fucking years ago. And then won the stand-in-man. And I was looking at like the bad teams this year and I was like, do any of them check any of the boxes of the blues? And the flames do.

not, now this is not saying the flames are going to win the cup. But of any bad team to, of any bad team that would go on a second half run, like Calgary is not badly set up for it. So that just makes, that, that just complicates it even more.

Right? I mean, like we said, what if there are two or three points out of the playoffs? What if they're two or three points in the playoffs by the deadline? Yeah, then I guess you're definitely not trading. any of those guys.

But I mean, you said you are not going to do the Johnny Godreau thing. You're not going to let now, and, you know, which is not to say that Eliza Linn home is Johnny. Maybe that's your exit, right? You say, like, well, he's not that level of player. So he certainly isn't. But, you know, you're not going to do the John Tavares thing. You're not going to do the, like, Panarin thing. Okay.

So here's the exact situation with a few guys. I don't know, man. I don't know. it's a really interesting team. I have no idea. Do you want to talk about the Cole Perfetti Ryan Hartman incident? Release the tapes.

Yeah, okay, I get that you can't use them in, you know, they're inadmissible in the, the Dopp's court or whatever. Yep. You can make them public. You would think. You'd think. Like who's the broadcast partner, TSN there, right?

I would assume so. So for people who don't know, this is the situation where Hartman, high sticks, perfetti, seems, you know, seemingly somewhat intentionally, like accidentally on purpose, off a face-off. And Perfetti after the game says, yeah, Hartman told me he was going to do that. It was retaliation for the, yeah, the capricum. Something else that happened in the game. It was from when Caprizov got. hit.

They would say illegally, although nothing came of it, and now he's out. Like, I think, I think Capri, speaking of this is an interesting story. Speaking of that, I believe Caprizov is week to week. That's a team that doesn't need that news right now. No, it does not. So Hartman apparently tells him, like, hey, man, I'm going to high stick you in the face right now. Or at some point, I don't know when it was alleged he said it.

He does it. And Perfetti's like, oh, by the way, I was miced up for the broadcast. So it's, we have him saying it on tape. But by the CBA, players that are miced up, that audio cannot be used in disciplinary action. Right. So Hartman gets a fine, where you would assume that somebody saying,

I'm going to high stick you in the face and then doing it would have been a suspension under other circumstances. Although, who knows. So what's interesting, thing is, okay, like, can they not at least consider that he said it to the guy? Like, okay, you can't, like, use the audio, but can't Cole Perfetti just go like, yeah, he fucking said it and they did it immediately?

And then Ryan Hartman says, you know, as for the rules of this hearing, I'm denying that I said it. Right. Okay, then you talk to the linesman who dropped the puck at that face off. I wish the linesman, if the linesman heard it, then, you. Yes, that should be allowable, but I presumably either he didn't hear it or, I mean, the linesmen are too busy trying to figure out how they can fake drop the puck 17 times. It's all about them. Give the fans what they came to see. Yeah.

By the way, I'm looking at the Minnesota Wilde's injured list right now. Brodine, Felino, Gustavson, Caprizov, and Zuccarello are all out. for at least a little while. That's crazy. That new coach should have told them not to get hurt. Yeah. Yeah, I guess a lot of these guys actually got hurt after they hired Heinz probably is just, you know, eyeballing it. But like that's a crazy rundown of guys who are hurt, that's for sure.

But yeah, I just thought that the, like Peretti just very casually, just like, oh, yeah, that's all. that's all on tape. Like you would, again, you would just think that like TSN would go get the audio and play it if it was a TSN game. I'm like, and that is where it gets like what is the agreement with the players on that? Because there clearly is some sort of agreement in place as far as what airs and what doesn't. Sure. You know, we've all seen, right? Like, hey, we've got this guy miced up and you go, oh, cool.

And then they show you 45 seconds of just him. grunting and saying let's go. My favorite is the guy sitting on the bench and a goal scored. He goes, ah, all right. Telling somebody to wheel, wheel, wheel. And then you're like, that's all that they said during the game. But in this case, it's newsworthy, right? Like, you have somebody saying, this guy said, like, I don't know.

Like, are they not playing it because they can't based on some sort of. of agreement with the players. Because again, the players don't want to bore these things generally. They don't want to get caught saying whatever they say during a game. So there has to be some sort of agreement that, you know, we're not going to broadcast certain things. But in this case, it's part of a legitimate story. So I don't know.

I wonder if it accidentally leaks out in some strange way. Yeah, I guess we'll see. While we wrap up with this, the P-W or P-W-H-L is off to a hot start. Selling a lot of tickets. The games have been fun so far. Yep. Well, I mean, I guess that opening game was fun right up until the third period. Got out of hand.

Yeah. But you've been watching it? You've been enjoying it? I did, yeah. I watched the Toronto game. They kicked it off. and the where it was out for dinner with the family last night

and the place we were at had the, uh, the Ottawa game everywhere on the TV. So, no, good start. Everyone, everyone seems happy so far.

Broadcasts have been good. Uh, up here. I know it's hard to see down there, apparently, but, no, it's all on YouTube down here.

Yeah. You can just pull it up on YouTube. And I think, I think somebody on the Puck Soup Discord said it, Uh, having every game on YouTube is probably better for visibility than putting it on like ESPN Plus or whatever. Right? Like just, yeah, maybe. I mean, the perception is worse because you're just like, okay, like, you know, Johnny dipshit can, can hop on, uh, and he's actually one of my favorite streamers.

Yeah, but he, he can, he can hop on YouTube and just say whatever about, you know, GamerGate or whatever. And so sharing a platform with them is maybe not ideal. But again, like more people have a familiarity with YouTube use it every day than ESPN Plus, which, by the way, sucks to use. So like, you know, I'm happy to watch, I watch at least parts of both games on YouTube so far. but like the New York and Boston teams are on their local, like they're on MSG and Nesson. I believe I read that some regional sports network around Minnesota and Wisconsin

is showing the Minnesota games. So like, that's all you can really ask for. It can't be better than that short of like, we're going to show this shit on like ESPN. They don't show it with the N. on ESPN most of the time, you know? So I think, I think that the, the way it's being broadcast right now is kind of working just in terms of, I'm seeing a lot of people talking about it. And like, you know, over Christmas, my parents were asking me about them.

They, they don't watch the NHL or anything. Like, oh, are they going to be good? And I'm like, yeah, the Boston team's going to be really good. Dude, I was on NPR yesterday. Were you really? Or Monday. I don't know. Someday. Yeah.

It was a very NPR interview, man. I don't know how they teach you to do that NPR voice, but... Yeah, I've... I'm going to start talking like that. Yeah, well, that and like NPR, you know, they're what I would call the... Their audience is what I would think of as, like, people who call it sports ball. Yeah.

Uh-huh. And, uh, and so I'm like... People who say their favorite sport is quidditch. Yeah. were they asking you like what icing is or how did that they were just asking more like you know why now how is this coming to play like it was it was they were informed they knew what they were talking about so okay they probably they probably found the one guy who's seen like a hockey game you know that's right yep um but yeah no like uh i i think this i think they're off to a great start

um a lot of fun i i actually had turned off the game last night by the time it went to overtime and everything, so I only saw the highlights of the winner there. But, yeah, what's not so like so far? Boston opens at home against Minnesota tonight. I have a bunch of friends who still live in Lull who are going. I'm going next week. I'm going to the Monday game against Ottawa.

But, yeah, I'm really excited for this season to kick off. Yeah. Do you have any winter classic thoughts before we get out of here? I mean, it was fun. You know, the leaned into the local element of it was cool. I mean, the location, you know, putting it in the baseball park was like whatever. But it seemed fun. Not a great game, but no, it's.

No, not a great game. That was a tough watch. fan, it's a fun one. Yeah, all they really want, I feel like, is, well, A, to turn everybody upside on and shake all the money out of their pockets. Yep. Right. But B, home team wins. And that happened.

And they got a shutout, first shutout ever in the winter classic. That's right. Joey DeCord, who. Yeah, we all pick to do it. Well, look, I was going to say, you know, if he keeps playing like this, like Seattle might worm their way back into the playoff conversation, at least. he's been awesome for the last month or whatever. But yeah, that's, you know, the one thing I thought was really funny is they had heart

as the musical act and everybody's like, oh, yeah, right, like all the great bands from Seattle over the years, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, yeah, they weren't going to get like foo fighters, man. I don't know what to tell you. Yeah. Who do you want him to get, Stone Temple Pilots? Soundgarden

This gentleman Mudhoney Yeah Like okay Right you can get Nirvana I guess Well bad news Right like Like

There are a lot of really great The one guy from Nirvana Who is in the NHL's price range Right Yeah It's Pat smear still with us Is that But like

It's not just that But yeah, to me it's like, okay, yeah, they could have gotten anybody, but the band that you're like, this is embarrassing how old these guys, the people in heart are. You know, and Gretzky being on the broadcast going like, I saw these guys at Toronto when I was 14 years old. And it's like, man, you're like 65. Don't say that out loud, man. Yeah. Like, please. Mm-hmm.

But, you know, all the bands, the. all these people are talking, oh, what about all these great Seattle bands? It's like, yeah, their first hit was in like 1989, man.

They're also an oldies act. The one that you think is like hip and cool or whatever, also an oldies act. I don't know how else to put it to you. This is starting to feel like a personal attack, but aren't, I'm in the same age range, right?

Like I'm, whatever, 11 years old when never mind comes out. So I can't sit here and go, like, I'm the hip young guy. I'm not, right? Like, I don't, I don't, I don't know any of this shit. But what I do know is that all these people being like, they should have got blank.

Oh, that other band whose, uh, whose first album came out 35 years ago. Yeah, great. Great idea. Anyway. Yeah, they were throwing the fish back and forth. Apparently those were real fish they were throwing back and forth. Hmm. Okay.

So that actually does make it pretty impressive that there wasn't a single drop. Because looking at it, I'm like, okay, fake. Makes it disappointing that there wasn't single fish-related incident. Yeah, you want to Ty Cartier getting concussed by a fucking salmon. I did. Yeah, who can blame you? Not Ty Cartier, right? Remember that?

Anyway. Why don't you hit them with the plugs? We'll get out of here. You find me at the athletic. Find my written pieces there and maybe something neat happening on the audio podcasting side that will tell you about at some point soonish. Wow. But yeah, then follow me on Twitter, blah, blah, blah. You know the drill.

Yeah, I wouldn't be promoting that if I were you, the Twitter thing. Get in there while you still can. That's right. another week. And then for me, elite prospects, EP rank side, all that, we're doing, as you might imagine, so much stuff. We set, or we came very close to setting a single-day traffic record, I guess, which never happens in the first week of the World Junior tournament.

So it feels like we're going to be going strong into the second week here. That's really cool. But if you're looking for World Junior coverage, there isn't a better place on Earth than elite prospects. And I say that as a guy who has nothing to do with the World Junior coverage whatsoever. So just a lot of smart people. We got a lot of people on site over there in Gothenburg. And if you want to sign up for an annual subscription, it's I Love EP.

They'll give you 15 months for the price of 12 and what a deal that is. And then Patreon.com slash Puck Soup, where there's all kinds of bonus episodes and that kind of thing. And next week on the Patreon, we will be doing one of our call-in shows through the Discord. So, you know, you want to talk to me and Sean, ask your questions. I can't promise who else will be there, but other people in the Puck Soup universe will probably stop in, you know, take that hint for what you will. And, yeah, we always have a blast doing that. So that's, I think, a week from today next Wednesday. So yeah, check all that out and we'll talk to you later.

Bye bye, everyone. Bye bye.