Puck Soup - Best/Worst and McDavid Stays

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

Sean and Ryan talk about the McDavid extension, all the other new contracts around the league, then say who they think will be the best and worst bad, mediocre, and good teams in the NHL this season. Sponsored by Raycon (buyraycon.com/puck) and Mint Mobile (mintmobile.com/puck)

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I'm Sean McNeu from The Athletic. And folks, hockey starts tonight. They're saying that the preseason is over. They're saying everybody on the Florida Panthers has been suspended for 14 games. It's really, you know, you thought the Barkov injury was bad. Everybody's in trouble down there now as well. The whole state.

Pretty much. I can't think of an anything. NHL player in the whole state that isn't in some kind of trouble these days due to what happened in those playoff or preseason games. There were playoff games. It would be crazy if that was a playoff. They had a playoff atmosphere. They didn't.

You would know better than me. Has there ever been a playoff game with whatever it was, 320 penalty minutes or anything close to that? I imagine there has a day. There have been bench clearing brawls in the playoff. playoffs, but not for a very long time. Like, I'm thinking of the, the, uh, the, uh, habs and flyers in 87, the, uh, where they had a brawl before the game even started and had to lock rock ex still in the dressing

room, stuff like that. But yeah, it has been a long time, I would imagine. And if there, if there was, like, don't, don't bother sending me like, well, actually there was, uh, 200 penalty minutes in this game because the refs gave 20 misconducts at the end. Right. just because they had little, you know, panic attacks and just kicked out everyone who might do anything. Yeah. Again, this is a game where there were like three skaters left on the bench for one of the teams.

And another guy got an assist on a goal after he had been thrown out of the game. And they were like, actually that goal didn't happen. Never mind. I have never seen that before. I have, I had no idea that that was a rule or that was something they can do. and I'm not completely convinced that it is. I think this might have been like it's preseason. We're just going to sort of take the goal off the board and that'll be that.

But I have never heard of a goal being taken off the board after playing time has elapsed for any reason. Yeah, it was it was something like six or seven minutes of playing time, but like 40 minutes of real time. And I mean, it was, it was. It was, you know, 8-0 or something like that. So it didn't, and it's a preseason game. Who cares? So it was the least meaningful goal in history. But as far as precedent or whatever, I've never, I've heard of guys getting kicked out of games and not knowing and still being on the bench or whatever, but I have never heard of it leading to a goal coming off the board.

That was extremely weird. Yeah. Only one real NHL. Like Scott Sabrin got four games, I think. Who's the guy from Florida who got two games? I thought it was all Tampa that got the suspensions. Oh, maybe you're right about that. Yeah, you are.

And nevertheless, I'm still blanking. But, yeah, I didn't watch that game live. I was... Oh, really? You didn't? You're not doing a lot of preseason live? Let me ask you this. Okay, hold on.

the way it was it was jay-j motion that's right um let me ask you this and then we'll stop talking about this completely irrelevant no we're doing an hour and a half on well you would think the way people were talking about it you would think they got to do something about the preseason right this is fucking insane that it's like yeah you're just you're just gonna play the team you hate three times in a row right before the there has to be a rule of like you can only play each other once let's be serious uh well i mean hopefully next year we will not have have to deal with this to the same degree because there were preseason games, which in theory makes each preseason game slightly more important, or at least, you know, there will be

actual roster spots maybe as opposed to this game that meant absolutely nothing. But, but right, I have a question for you. That's very important to me. Okay. Have the Florida Panthers in any way indicated whether they're, whether they're, apologizing? And if so, who are they apologizing to? They're apologizing to the good people of Florida for besmirching this great game of ours. Oh, okay. I'm assuming. I mean, what else could they be, could they be indicating publicly an

apology one way or the other? That's, that's all I can think of. I need a, uh, I need a, uh, I need a check here from you. Okay. Because I find I, when I see like an opinion forming on social media, I tend to be on board with that opinion because I've, I don't follow people whose opinions I don't like. So generally it's it's only smart people like you and a handful of others. Wow. I saw a lot of stuff yesterday about how cool the Florida Panthers Stanley Cup rings.

Yeah. Please tell me I'm not the only one who thinks that these things are lame as hell. For people who didn't see it, on the inside of the ring, I'm going to say worse, worse language than the black speech of Mordor has not graced a ring in a long time like this. It said, no apologies or something like that, or sorry, not sorry, like that kind of lame bullshit thing. I believe it was we apologize to no one. Cool, man. Awesome. Why don't you get a hat that says,

I heart my haters while you're at it, you fucking geeks? This, thank you. This sucks, man. Thank you. This to me is the pro professional sports championship ring equivalent of like the comedian who puts out an album where he's got like duct tape over his mouth. You can't cancel me.

And it's like, all right, cool, man. Yeah, look, I get it. If you are an extremely successful team, look, they are, the Panthers are so good at what they do that people are going, we have to change the rules of the sport to account for the unfair advantage they have that people want to sign with them. Right? Like, I get that aspect of it that they're just like, fuck you. We, you know, you got a problem with it.

Try beating us. How about that? If they put that in the ring, I would have been on board. I get, I get that. But like, look, I live in New England and there's the New England versus everybody shirts. And actually, I was just talking about this. My girlfriend, not a big sporto, right? She's just not really into it.

She has, you know, a vague understanding of a lot that goes on probably, only because of me. But she's just not into sports. That's fine. And yesterday, or the day before, she was talking about, whoa, did you see what happened in the Yankees series? And I was like, I mean, I saw that they lost two games. And she's like, they gave up more runs than the Yankees have ever given up in two games

in the playoffs. And I was like, that's crazy. And the reason she was. She, I'm sure someone she followed just like posted this or retweeted or something. But even she knows it's fuck the Yankees like it doesn't matter. Everybody, we all agree. Fuck the Yankees. That's fine.

Unless you're a Yankees fan. Let's put it this way. There's nobody who's neutral on the Yan. I could leave her take the Yankees. Yeah. You know? And so she just inherently understands that there are sports teams people are going to hate because they're extremely successful.

The Patriots, the Chiefs, the Yankees, like go down the list. Now the Florida Panthers are on that list. And so I get why those teams are going, fuck off. Mm-hmm. You know, we win. That's your problem? Is that we're better than you? I'm all in favor of having a villain.

Yeah. In fact, I have written, I think, a couple years ago before they won their first cup, I wrote about the Panthers being the new villains and, you know, this is good. But be like, be cool villains, please. Don't be dweeds about it. Well, again, this is... Can we not... It's just...

It's just the thing of, like, the Panthers are making their haters, their waiters at the table of success. You know what I'm saying? Like, you can't have like little phrases and sayings like that. That, it just... It's not even about, like, winning with grace. Like, I don't care if you,

if you, like, rub it in in a way that's annoying to people. But don't make it annoying to me. You know what I mean? Like, have it a way that's cool. and not a way that it's like... I don't know if you saw this. Did you see that on a t-shirt at the mall? Yeah.

They also had, in addition to the lame slogan, they listed the four teams that they beat crossed out. That I'm fine. I could see that being a tradition. That is kind of cool. But, yeah, we apologize to know. Okay. Like I said, this is just something you see on a,

like on a t-shirt on the boardwalk. at the Jersey Shore. You know what I mean? Yep. Oh, the next year when they win, when they inevitably win the cup again, maybe the insides can say, I drink and I know things. Grow up. Anyway, that wasn't the only news yesterday, as a matter of fact.

There was, so I'm driving to the movies yesterday to see the smashing machine. Oh, okay. And it was only okay. I'll be honest with you. Great performance from our boy, D. DJ, though, I'll tell you. Anyway, I get the little pop-up notification, like my phone buzzes. I'm like, okay, what is this?

And it says, McDavid Extension Imminent or something like that, you know, whatever it was. And then it was like, I stopped to get lunch and I'm looking. And this is how the texts roll out, basically. extension imminent short term oh interesting under caprisov okay that makes sense yeah he's trying to keep that team together that was always the expectation makes perfect sense to me under 15 whoa that that's crazy interesting under 14 huh 12 and a half i'm like that's not even a raise he just extended his current contract another two years he didn't deserve a raise you know what is he really accomplished No, you're right. I mean, they lost... Bum. Yeah, they lost in fewer games in the Stanley Cup final this year than last year.

Lucky he didn't get a pay cut. It's true. So... At what point did you drive off the road in any of these? No, I literally was like pulling into the Wendy's parking lot when I got the notification. All right. Like I was at the light across the street from Wendy's. And I was like, okay, here we go.

You know? This is perfect timing for me to just sit there and watch these tweets from various insiders roll in. I mean, I guess the answer here is he did what he said. You aren't kidding. This is the ultimate you have three years because it's a two-year deal plus this one last year that's already on. You've got three years to prove it. and my my first thought is this is amazing for oilers fans you've got to be doing cartwheels

my second thought is also if I'm an oilers fan the clock is now ticking very loudly and I can't imagine anyone's going to blame this guy if he walks in three years if they scrolls up

like this is he's got, I wouldn't say a free pass out the door, but if he wants to go play for the Rangers or whoever's good, but it's kind of free pass though, you know. It kind of is. It kind of is. You can't ask a guy to do much more than this. No, for sure. Pressure's on Stan Bowman and friends, but.

That was my immediate thought as well. It's like, man, he's giving Stan Bowman the ability to spend an extra, whatever it is, like, four, five, six million dollars a year. Like, he's trusting Stan Bowman to do... Now, I guess the thing is he can't, like, trust any... Like, well, you know, I say that. This guy's basically going to get the LeBron James treatment of like, Hey, Connor, we're, uh, we're thinking of trading for this guy, and he's going to go,

I don't know about that, and they don't do it, you know? We're thinking of giving this guy this contract. Well, I don't, you know, like, he's... He's going to have say-so on all of this. Look, he already did. His junior coach is their coach. Got a big extension just the other day. His old agent is the president of hockey operations or whatever.

Like, he's already signing off on a lot of stuff in the Oilers organization. So it makes sense that he's taking a discount to stay there. But at the same time, it is, you know, unexpected, let's say. that he again, no raise at all, which in a, you know, rise in cap environment. This clearly is a blank check situation and he chose to take a lot less. And look, I mean, yeah, his last contract was $100 million. Dude's not eaten ramen noodles. We all get.

Yeah, for sure. And there is, like there's part of this that is, you know, when you get down to some of these in, in all sports. Like, you're going to spend that extra million? You're going to spend that extra? But for a lot of these guys, it's not just that. It's the pride. It's the, you know, I don't want to be seventh on a list of highest paid players if I think I'm the second or third best player.

Right. And he obviously was able to put that aside in a way that most other guys do not do. We've seen guys take a little bit less, but I've never seen anything like this. Like the closest would be Crosby with some of his deals, but I think this one is even more. Right. Yeah, because when Crosby committed it was for his second 8.7 forever contract, that was at least like it's long term.

The cap definitely wasn't going up. I don't remember what it was at the time, but it definitely wasn't going up at the level that is a close. expected the next two or three years, right? And I think that's an important aspect of all this, honestly. Oh, yeah, really smart of me to say is like, I think it's important that the cap is going up. Yeah, no shit.

But, like, A, this walks him to a point where the salary cap is going to be $120 million and he's going to be like $31, I want to say. And he'll be able to go, okay, now it's $20 million to whoever. he ends up signing with. So I think that is definitely a part of it. This more aligns him at a time when Austin Matthews is hitting

the free agent market, right? Like, there can be a bit of a bidding war and, you know, two guys can write 20 plus million dollar AAB tickets and all this kind of stuff. That all makes sense to me. But I just, you know, let's, okay, let's,

Okay, let's quickly talk about this. Jake Walman gets seven by seven. Yep. On the same day. Like minutes before the McDavid's extension, they say Jake Walman's getting $49 million, which Jake Walman's a really good player. And seven years from now, it's probably not going to matter what Jake Walman is making when he's, and this is the important thing, 37 years old.

Right. It's win now for the oil. in a way that it has never been win now for any team, the NHL, I think. Yeah, I mean, they're certainly right up there. And yeah, you're right. It's in three years, you're either going to have McDavid or you're not. And in either case, Jake Walman's probably not somebody you're super focused on, unless you're Steve Eisenman. But.

So, but to that point, this is, this is McDavid saying, whatever. He was never going to make $20 million, but he could have easily signed for 1617. And Ann said, I'm taking a discount, by the way, and everyone would have said, we agree. You know? And so with that in mind, that's the thing that I keep thinking of is he goes, I'm giving you $5 million to spend that should have been going to me. How are you going to spend it? And they go, what if we extend this 30-year-old defenseman for seven years? And it's like, yeah, I guess it's better to have Jake Wallman than not have him, I suppose.

Yeah. But I don't, did they pay market rate for Jake Walman or did they overpay Jake Walman? I feel like that's in the range of market rate. Yeah, I, right. I think it's about right. But I'll put it this way. Jake Walman didn't take a fucking discount like Connerick David did. Oh, he's not a chump.

Jake Wallman earned his raise. I totally agree. I've been a huge Jake Wallman guy forever. So that's all fine with me. What I'm saying is there's no trickle down of McDavid going, I'll take less so we can, you know, be more competitive. It's a very strange dynamic. And again, this is the Stan Bowman thing of like,

oh, we got this guy on a good deal. Let's give this other guy all that extra money, you know? Yeah. So. Who do you think? was the maddest about this. Not counting fans slash media in every other market who now have to put away their

Connor McDavid 2006. Sure. Is it like, who does this cost the most in terms of other players? And is it Jack Eichael? Was Jack Eichel like the one guy and obviously we don't know what his situation is and what he wants, but assuming he wants a significant contract,

probably should have signed it in between Caprizov and McDavid. So here's the thing. I think this is just another contract where everybody's going to go, that's not what the market is. Because you can't, McDavid's the only guy taking dramatically less money, right? And especially in Vegas, that's just not a thing people do. Everybody gets their market rate, even if they all want to play there.

And somehow it all works. You know what I'm saying? Maybe a little less, but not. Yeah. I think the baseline is now dry-sidal. Like, I think everybody will kind of look at the Caprizo situation the same way as the McDavid situation. Like, that's actually not market-defining. That is the other thing.

Like how long now is it going to be until somebody passes Capriza? Is it McDavid in three years? I'd have to look. I don't have the Puckpedia open in front of me, but I have to imagine there's maybe one or two guys that can get in that conversation, if not. Who would it be? Because, I mean, there's not any young guys coming up that are like,

you know, like Celebrini is not going to get 17. on his second deal. No, no, no, for sure. Quinn Hughes might be the one guy. That's the guy I'm also thinking of. Because that would also feel a little capriza V in that, like, we have to keep our guy. Yes. Sort of thing.

So maybe that's the one. So let's see here. I'm pulling up who the free agents are for. That's a year away from an extension, two years from. Right. Right. When's a macar up? That's got to be soon.

That's going to be pretty soon, right? I think that's also two years. Okay. I'm not getting to it quickly enough on Puckpedia right now. But yeah, to your point, there are two or three guys. Quinn Hughes is the one that jumps off the page to me is that guy has to get all the money in the world from Vancouver. Yeah. But also, if he's going to New Jersey, he's probably taking a discount.

So I don't know, you know. And speaking of that, Luke Hughes, seven years, nine million bucks. Somewhat surprising, is it fair to say? I mean, it's... It's only surprising in that this is what everyone has been agreeing is probably the number for... It feels like months. I feel like we talked about this over the summer of like, they're really going to give him eight or nine million dollars, huh? Yeah.

And then they did. And look, for a good young defenseman, if you... This is the, you know, if you really feel like he's about to pop, this deal could absolutely work out great for, for New Jersey. But yeah, I think he's a good player. Has he shown enough to make this sort of commitment? I don't know. Put it this way.

My reaction when I saw this was not my typical, oh, here's another young guy locking in for way too long. And I was like, good job, Luke Hughes. Sure. And I did. If he's Luke Smith, is this? Well, so I did see the argument that someone was like, well, look, like, now the Hughes family is being fairly compensated. Like the two brothers as a whole are being fairly compensated for their collective value. And it's like, that's probably true, parentheses, if Jack can stay in the lineup, close parentheses, you know?

Yeah. But I don't, maybe I'm crazy. I don't think it should work that way. Yeah. You know? Jack probably doesn't think that either, but, yeah. Well, I'll tell you. Maybe Jack does.

If he's like, okay, they're screwing me a little bit on $8 million, it turns out. But, hey, that's just a lesson to you young kids out there that are, you know, borderline elite NHL players. Don't sign long-term contracts. Do what Connor McDavid just did. Three years, two years. Make it easy on yourself. Get a raise every few years. But yeah, you want to talk about knock-on effects of a contract.

Jackson Lecombe, eight years, nine million bucks. Yeah. That one is a, I mean, that one's the Luke Hughes deal even more so. And not just because it's the extra year. Like, this is a guy who, I mean, a year ago, what percentage of hockey fans even knew this guy's name? When this contract got announced, people on the Puck Soup Discord, these are people who watch a lot of hockey. They're like, who the fuck is this guy?

Yeah. And, I mean, if you did know his name and, you know, you're not a Ducks fan, chances are you knew him as the guy who was really good, really cheap. that, you know, was kind of hidden away on this rebuilding team. And he might still be really good. But he's not really cheap anymore, which can change the equation. Now, how old is he? He's 24, 25? 24.

So, I mean, for a defenseman especially, like, still young, still some ceiling left to read. Sure. but I guess we've we've kind of found our setting for good young defensemen who are not at that Norris level at all yet. Yeah, I think this is just like what number two defensemen cost now. Yeah. In the in a cap situation where it's like over $100 million. The one thing I want to say about this really quickly is again, like people going, I don't know who that is. sure, you didn't watch a lot of Ducks games last year.

I don't think you're alone in that. But if you look at the splits from when they traded Fowler to St. Louis, like before and after, they were just like, okay, we got to run this kid out 25 minutes a night and he did really well. If you, I want to say they traded Fowler like mid-December or something like that. It's either mid-November or mid-December. and right after that, Lecombe's minutes go up really fast to the point where by the end of the year, he's logging over 25 minutes a night and again, playing well doing it, which can't be easy on a team like that.

You know, a team that traded away all its veterans obviously doesn't have a lot to play for, so maybe you're not getting the hardest level of compete from your opponent every night. But, like, he just acquitted himself really well. And from that point of view, it's easy for me to see why the ducks were like, yeah, eight years, this is our guy. But he did it for half a season when it didn't matter. So you'd like to see a little bit more of it, but this was the duck saying, we don't want him to go play 24 minutes a night and look like fucking Victor Headman out there on a better team than we had last year. And then we're going to pay him $12 million. So let's just give them nine now.

I get that aspect of it from the ducks for sure. But there's room to grow. Or to prove something, I suppose. Another defenseman extension, Niko Mekola, eight years five million bucks. Sorry, not sorry. We're the Florida Panthers. We just get these guys freaking cheap as hell. They've got to be sorry.

No, they don't have to be. I really thought there was going to be an apology on that ring. No. Oh. No problem for me on this contract. No problem. It's just, it is a little weird to see max length deals for like very middle of the lineup amounts of money. It can make perfect sense for both sides.

He's a middle of a lineup guy. It just is, you know, kind of interesting that we saw us a few years ago where a handful of guys are getting like eight times 3.5 and you're like, right? And that's kind of the equivalent of this. but it locks in both sides everybody knows what the number is and uh sure

yep I believe they didn't apologize it's like they fake me out they said we apologize and I was like here it is to no for nothing oh for nothing

oh geez um doing they're out here doing breadhard 1997 promos well I was going to say that's uh that's it's the Nathan for you joke. I hope you're hungry for nothing. That's right. Or call an ambulance, but not for me.

I do. Phil Augustivson, five years, 6.8 million. It's a little bit of housekeeping, it feels like. Again, I think we talked last week, the week before, about Yesper Wollstett. Sorry, kid. Oops. Well, he really seems to have fallen off as far as hype isn't the right word, but just excitement over a young goalie.

Sure. I mean, Philip Gustafin is very, very good recently enough that you can see why Minnesota wants to do this. Every goal of contract is a question mark. But I guess this one's fine. Where does that rank him cap hit now for me? Oh, geez. Gotta be in the top 10. I shouldn't close that Puckpedia window.

So, yeah, Puckpedia says not including Cary Price, he would be 10th. He would slot in behind UC Soros, who's at 7.7. So there's a pretty big gap, and then it drops down to him at 10, and then right ahead of Lucas Dostel at 6.5. Right. And when the contract kicks in next year, price is gone, but, uh, Dustin Wolf and Dr. Demko come in, so he's still at 11.

So yeah, right outside the top 10, I guess that feels about right because there's just not a lot of established goaltenders that you necessarily trust. I mean, I'm looking at the guys below him on the list and nobody is really jumping out. Jordan Bennington's deal will be up, but nobody is really jumping out as,

oh, this guy is a huge value. So I guess it's about right. Every goalie contract scares me, every single one. Yeah, of course. But this one, I suppose, is okay. Yep. I don't have a problem with it. And again, this is just like, I'm assuming part and parcel with getting Caprizov to stick around meant we also got to resign the goalie who's good.

We can't have that like up in the air for the next. four or five years. And I mean, if Esper Walshstead has a fantastic season, I guess that falls into the nice problem to have category. Yep. Figure it out. Oh, no. It's crazy.

No teams ever want to trade for a good young goalie. Yeah. Luke Evangelist to two years, three million bucks. It was always going in this direction. I don't know why it took so long, but we did it. and who cares? Correct. Okay, great.

And finally, I like to see this one. Matt Reslick signs a one-year, one-million-dollar contract with Chicago. He's a good player. He's going to be of help to them. Somewhat surprising, because he was PTO, and I think people were somewhat surprised at that because you look at his numbers from last year,

he probably should have had a deal. Yeah. I think he was in the 40s at least. Like, this is, and Chicago's a good opportunity. So he'll take another swing at it next summer, I suppose. But yeah, this is good value and either helps Chicago or gives them a really nice trade ship for down the line.

Could be both. Yeah, could be both. Jack Roselvic, by the way, still no contract. It's insane. I don't know what goes on. What is happening with it? Like, this, I feel like it crossed into weird a little, while ago, but...

Well, I mean, there's only one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten teams with at least five million in cap space. You can't find anybody who's going to... That's only a third of the league almost. I mean, is it, is today the day? Like, is it one of these things of, you know, day one salary cap, you file a little bit of the and then we do it, or... It's so weird.

Yeah. Like, I'm looking at the signings on Puckpeda right now. Connor Sherry got a, got a league minimum contract. Now, maybe Roslifix going, I don't want to play for league minimum. I want to play for $3 million. Mm-hmm. Which, you know, that makes sense. He wouldn't want that money.

He's worth probably about that much. If Luke Evangelista can get $3 million bucks, I think Jack Roslick should get $3 million bucks. That's my take. But yeah, just kind of strange that that's still ongoing. Speaking of cap obligations, the San Jose Sharks, not content with having just gotten Carey Price, have also taken on the Ryan Ellis contract, which somehow is still going for this year and next.

These guys are going to be so good in 2019. It's crazy. Ryan Ellis last played four games in the 2020-22 season. Yeah. It's surprising that this contract is still going, and yet here we are. But as we said when they got the carry price contract, this just gives them extra flexibility to trade people at the deadline if they want to, because they will be well above the cap floor as a consequence. They, in fact, only have $2 million or so in cap space right now. But listen to this.

almost yeah more than 6.9 in buyout money uh flasic martin jones nikolai nizhov yeah i think that's how you pronounce that um and uh Lucas carlson who i'm not really sure who that is is uh on season opening i are so they're carrying a little bit of money on that as well they also have two retained salary contracts Eric Carlson and Tomash Hurdle and Carrie Price and Ryan Ellis both like LTIR retired and their combined cap hit is

almost $17 million. So sharks are carrying a lot of dead money. Oh, and Logan Couture. I forgot about this. Logan Couture also $8 million. He's not playing anymore. So a lot of dead money on the books there.

It ends next year as well. Much like the, well, no, the price one ends this year. So much like the Ellis contract. But yeah, like $25 million just in LTIR retired guys. Jeez. So yeah, again, this is just all about having cap flexibility at the deadline to trade guys without worrying about the falling below the cap floor or anything like that. It's going to be a weird year. San Jose.

Finally, this is the end of extension talk, thankfully. Knoblock, three years extended in Edmonton, I think we mentioned that already. And if not, you know, well, isn't that weird? It lines up almost exactly with the Carr-McDavid thing. That's crazy. But Ryan Huska gets a two-year extension in Calgary. And we now have, according to Pierre, exactly one coach in the entire NHG. show who doesn't have multiple years left on his contract.

Did Pierre say who that coach is? He did. It's Lindy Ruff in Buffalo. It's the only guy. Sure. Because, as we all know, as I think we have discussed previously on this show, it is impossible to coach an NHL team with only one year left on your contract. Players just don't listen to you.

they give you the you're not my real dad, I rule. Right. Whereas if you have two years, then they're like, yes, sir. Absolutely, sir. Yeah, this is good stuff. This is how it works. Yeah. But yeah, you know, whatever.

Huska seems like he's got a good head on his shoulders up there. He did about as well as he could with that team last year. Yeah. I mean, and again, like some of that was the whole like just tell, and Wolf to make a bunch of saves, but... So the thing is they have, like, good players up and down the roster, but not enough of them for me, you know? Okay. Like, there's a bunch of guys that if, if Blank hit the trade market right now, there'd be four or five teams that are like, we'll take them, you know?

Cadry is the obvious one. But, like, Weeger is a really good player. a dozen wills, a really good player. Haven't traded Rasmus Anderson yet, which we're all, we were all told to expect, and now maybe not. Yeah. But teams would want to take a crack at Blake Coleman, I think, you know. Yeager Sharon Govich, like, these are good players. Not good enough, but that's not the coach's fault.

He did, again, he did a good job last year. They were a pretty good team last year. Five more points than two different playoff teams. Can't say it better than that. Why don't we take a break? We'll be right back and we'll discuss what we always do right before the season starts are tiers of the best and worst of every level of quality in the NHL. This message is sponsored by Raycon.

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$45 required, equivalent to $15 a month, limited time new customer offer for first three months only. Speeds may slow above 35 gigs on unlimited plans, taxes, and fees extra, see MintMobile for details. All right, we're back. And like I said, right before the break, this is something we've We've done, I think, the last two years before this one, where we talk about the best and worst, bad team, mediocre team, and good team in the NHO. And I was listening back to see exactly how we formatted it, because I never remember this kind of thing. And you had said to me last year, how did we do with these predictions last season? And I was like, and I said on that episode, I didn't write it down. I don't know.

But because I was listening back and I was in front of my computer at the time, I did go make sure that I got all that information written down. So who do you think we said was the worst bad team last year? Oh, boy. Did we, hopefully we said San Jose. We both said San Jose. We're so smart. Yeah. That was.

Don't get that inside anywhere else, guys. We were the only ones were on that. Who did we say would be the best bad team? And this is two different answers. Okay. Did either of us say Montreal? Yes, you did. Well, well, well, all right.

What did you say? I said the team that finished right ahead of them in the standings, the St. Louis Blues. Both teams made the playoffs last year. That's a big oopsie from us. What about worst mediocre team? Again, two different answers. Worst mediocre team. Who did people think?

I'm trying to put myself in the headspace of who people thought would be mediocre. Because I was going to say like a team like Columbus, but I feel like last year everyone thought Columbus was going to be terrible. So I'm going to say the penguins. You said the Flyers. Okay. And I said you.

I would say probably the flyers were a little worse than mediocre. Yes. Utah at 89 points feels like maybe they were a little too good to be the worst mediocre team. But they were, that's not a bad thing. They weren't good. Yep. No. Who did we say was the best mediocre team?

L.A. Kings. No, you said Vancouver. and I said, I don't know what I was fucking thinking, I said the Tampa Bay Lightning, the 102 point Tampa Bay Lightning. Okay. Although if we had said the Kings, they had 105 points.

So standings isn't always, you know, the, anyway. Who did we say? How many, yeah, not great, but what would have been the best? Like, I feel like, what, Calgary's probably would have been the best point? Montreal or Calgary feels like a good pick there. Okay. Who did you, who did we say, we both said different teams for worst good team.

Please tell me somebody said Nashville. You said Nashville. So, I mean, here, obviously they weren't good. So on some level, that's a terrible call. Right. They were 30 points away from good. But they also were considered a good team last year. So to say that they're the worst of the teams considered, I don't know.

I'm confusing myself here. What did you say? I said the New Jersey Devils and I feel like I nailed it. Honestly, yeah, I think that is the right answer. So because listen to this, 16th in the league by total points, 91 from 82, that's fine. But they were a plus 20 team and that was with Hamilton and Hughes missing a bunch of times. So I'm happy to say they were good last year, but they weren't like that good.

So there you go. Who did we say, and we agreed on this one, was the best good team? Did we just chump out and go Florida? No, we said Edmonton. We did the very brave thing of saying, I think the other team in the cup finals is the good one this year. Not the team that won 16 games. The team that won 15 is. the one year. That's right.

So let's do it for this year. Who do you think will be the worst bad team in the NHL? And so this is not out of teams that are necessarily considered bad right now, but teams that are at the end of the year. Okay. The worst bad team. I will go, you know what, I'll mix it up from San Jose and I'll go Chicago. That's who I have as well.

Who is the best bad team? I'm going to say, see, I don't. Okay, so my thought process here, I was going to say Anaheim. Because I've sort of even gone out and said, I think they could make the playoffs. I agree. Does that make them better than a bad team? I have them as a mediocre team.

Okay. So you know what? Let me go with Boston. I think people are writing off the Bruins a bit too much. I also have them as a mediocre team. Okay. So I get why anybody would say they're not going to be that good. Ryan, can I just tell you something right now?

Yeah, go ahead. I apologize to not you. Oh, good. Oh, that's a huge relief to me. Thank you. My best bad team is the Philadelphia Flyers. Mm-hmm. I don't trust that goaltending, man.

I don't know what they're doing. There's a lot of talent on that team. If you told me at the end of the year, hey, we ran the numbers that came back 875 for the year. I'd go, yep, that checks out for me. Okay, no problem, you know? So there's a lot to like about that Flyers team, but the most important position on the ice by far is like a black hole.

So that's why. Mm-hmm. Who do you have as the worst mediocre team? I'm going to go with the New York Islanders. Partly because I think with a new GM, they, I'm not saying they want to rebuild, but I don't think Matthew Darsh would think it's the worst thing in the world if they ended up having not a great. So what I guess I'm trying to say is if they don't have a great first half, I think the second half could be, by design, quite bad.

Sure. Yeah. I wonder about their goaltending situation here as well. Like, obviously, Sorokin can be great, but they used to have very reliable backup the play, and now they don't, I would say. And that division's really weird, and they do. They have some good players, for sure. Same with Calgary.

They don't have enough of them. but I have them as actually worse in the standings than Philly. Wow. Okay. In part because of, I think, what you're talking about. Like, my expectation is that they will be moving guys if they can. They're one of those teams where, like, you look and you go, he has a full no move clause? Yeah.

Oh. So maybe that's a thing. But my worst mediocre team. How bad, yeah. Yeah, you've got a no move. over and no trade. How many people are like, no, man, I want to, I want to play for the islanders come hell or high water. Yeah, that's a, it's a good question. I don't, I don't know what the, I think there's just a lot of people really like living on Long Island. That must be it. Yeah,

I've heard, I've heard great things. Um, but man, okay, how many guys have some sort of trade protection on the islanders, do you think? Uh, well, geez, I mean, it was Lou Lamarillo. So you would assume it's low because he was supposed to be such a hard ass, but he wasn't. He would always give these ridiculous long-term deals because he clearly knew it wasn't going to be his problem. So I'll say, um, geez, seven guys with... The forwards beat that number.

There are eight forwards, three defensemen, and two goalies with movement protection. Okay, I don't love that. No. you're not going to like that very much at all. And like, what that doesn't include, uh,

Romanov, who's no, uh, trade clause, or full, no trade clause kicks in next season. Oh, good.

We love you, Lou. Sean, you said seven. Yeah. That's how many guys have some form of movement protection in the 2930 season. Okay.

What a team. Have fun, New York. My worst mediocre team is the Nashville Predators. Okay. I can... It's an upgrade from last year. It certainly is, but like, I don't know what to make of UC Soros anymore, I guess, is my thing. Like, it wouldn't surprise me at all if they were perfectly, like, you know, playoff competitive this year.

Because in theory, they have one of the best goalies in the league. He hasn't been that good in two years, though. He was 9.06 two seasons ago, which is good but not great. It's certainly not elite. And then last season, he's 895. If he can be back to like 920-ish, which he was like three, four years in a row, we don't have anything to talk about here. This is one of the one of the, this is a definite playoff team.

If Soros is old Sorrows. But it's been two years, so I don't know. he wasn't their only problem last year for sure you know they had they had a lot of problems last year but yeah i i don't know what to make of them so i'm i'm airing on the side of they'll be better but still not very good um who's your best mediocre team my best mediocre team i am going to go with the la kings who i as we mentioned we're better than you think last year during the regular season. They're a good team, 105.2.

They're a very good team. Does their GM know that? Has he mentioned? It's never come up. But I, so I think they have, I think we all enjoyed dumping on Ken Holland in the off season. And rightly so, I think he made the team worse. But they, they can be a fair amount worse.

and still be solidly mediocre team that finishes third in the Pacific and then gets crushed by the Oilers. I have them 17th in the league. Does that add up to a playoff spot, like the way you've got the conferences? No, they're behind two other mediocre Pacific teams. I have Calgary and Vancouver ahead of them. Okay. In the 15 and 16 spots, to be clear, like not very far, like, you know, a mile ahead of them. But my worst mediocre team is, or sorry, best mediocre team is the Washington Capitals.

Okay. Yep. And for all the reasons, I think anybody could guess. I have them 14th in the league. That's good. That has them in the playoffs comfortably, I'm assuming. Although, you know what? That actually looks like I would have them as maybe the eighth seed.

Let's see here. Which is what they were two years ago. And then last year they were second best record in the league. And that actually would have them seventh. I have, God, I have the Bruins as one of the playoff teams. I don't feel great about that. Okay. As the 18th best team in the league, I'm like, yeah, yeah, the East sucks.

I guess that's me saying the East sucks. I wasn't thinking about it in those terms, you know, when I just did one to, you know, it's just the thing of like, is this team better than this team? You move them up and down the spreadsheet. And the Bruins settled at 18. Mm-hmm. So who's your worst good team? Give me the Winnipeg Jets.

Totally makes sense to me. I just don't fully trust it. Similar to L.A., I mean, they were so good last year that they could take a bit of a step back. Yeah, they really scan like the Rangers this past season. This to me is the year that Dallas and Colorado both kind of get serious during the regular season and go, we're tired of playing each other. So let's... Right. I see Winnipeg finishing a strong third in the central

and then not really being anyone's playoff pick. I have them fourth in the central behind Minnesota as the third thing. Yeah, I thought about putting Minnesota as my good, mediocre team. Yeah, I think Minnesota could be... The full season of Caprizov there in business. Yep. That doesn't happen as often as you'd like, of course, but that's a different story. I have the St. Louis Blues as my work.

good team. I think that I really like their coach. I really like certain players in their lineup. I, you know, again, depth feels like an issue and maybe, maybe some of the younger guys step up a little bit and, you know, a full season and a half under Jim Montgomery and all of a sudden we're rocking and rolling. That all makes sense to me, but I do have them fifth in their own division, so maybe that's not, you know. I wouldn't have them as a good team, so that's, That's, despite you calling them the worst, you're higher on them than I am. Hmm. And finally, who do you have as your best good team?

Give me Vegas. That's who I have as well. Okay, then I'll change. Give me... You don't have to. If you say Vegas, it's Vegas. That's fine. Give me Colorado.

Okay, great. Crosby and McKinnon. Yeah. You know, I really thought about all. all that kind of thing when I was when I was placing Pittsburgh. I put Pittsburgh 30th. And it really depends on when and who they move out. You know what I'm saying?

Like if they if they find a buyer for Carlson in November and like I don't even know who their number one defenseman would be at that point, I'm going, uh-oh, that feels like a problem, you know? I guess it would kind of technically be Chris LaTang But actually you know what? I'm looking at this. Latang played more minutes last year than Carlson did. I wouldn't have guessed that.

Neither would I. Anyway. Yeah. Like if they move out Crosby or Carlson or Rust or any of these guys, obviously it's a different discussion. Yeah. Yeah. I don't.

really have a ton to say about why I think Vegas is going to be good. They were really good last year, and they added Mitch Marner, without really losing very much in the summer, quite frankly. Yep. So that, you know, with, with, I feel like, I feel like the Central is going to be a bit of a knife fight. Like, you tell me Colorado, okay, sure. I think Minnesota's better.

Okay, sure. You know, Dallas, yeah, obviously. Full season of Ranting and the coaching change could go in a few directions. It's hard to say. That's why I'm a little, I was hesitant on. I still have Dallas two in the league. But if you told me Glenn Gulletson, it turns out isn't a good coach, it's like, well, I've seen it before. And that checks out for me, you know.

So that's why I couldn't go. So we're both leaning on the west if we had to pick on the east, who's your? I have Carolina four. Yeah. But I also have Tampa 6. I would think Tampa is, and again, part of that is Florida with the injuries. Part of that is just nobody gets any credit for picking the two-time champ. So, you know, we're all going to nudge Florida down our list just for that reason.

And part of it's because they didn't apologize to me. Super rude. Sure. I have them, the Panthers eighth. Most, you know, if everybody was healthy, I would be. Which is what, third in the, third in the east? That is one, two. Yeah, third in the east, that's right.

Where do you have the Leafs? The Leafs I have 12th, which is fourth, sixth in the East. Okay. Honestly, sounds about right. Yeah. I'm really curious about what they're going to do this year because first of all, full season without Barner,

that doesn't feel like it's going to help them. But also like their goal tendings really weird this year. I don't know what's going on up in Toronto. It's crazy. Yeah. Oh, speaking of injuries to the Panthers, apparently Barkov met with the Miami Heat,

and he was like, yeah, I'll be back in five or six months instead of seven to nine. What? And how are the Miami Heat getting? getting injury scoops here. Well, the crazy thing is then, like, there was a quote from Bill Zito the other day that he's like, he's off crutches next week. What? This guy blew out.

Apparently, he said he could be the fastest guy ever to recover from blowing out his ACL and MCL. Sure. Why not? I mean, great news for them. And I know everyone's going to make the LTIR joke, but that's not how it works this year. so it doesn't, wouldn't help them. It doesn't help them at all to not have him, yeah. Do you have any thoughts on the Bruins announced?

They're retiring Zedano Chara's number later this season. Yeah, no surprise. Yeah, I mean, I really have nothing to say on it other than. I've been looking at that list because until that announcement, Federer was the only. guy this year. Feels light. Feels like only two. I'm surprised the Bruins didn't just say,

oh, you know what, in Bergeron, too. I guess, you know, get two nights out of it. That's what I kind of figured, but maybe they're waiting until next year. Because after that, who else would you really retire? David Craichie, he's among the leaders for them

in basically every offensive category. I can see them eventually retiring his number. Do the Bruins only do Hall of Famers. That's a great question. I think they're one of those teams. No, because like Terry O'Reilly has his number. Yeah, okay, so there you go, yeah.

They have 12. Charra will be the 13th. Only 12. Presumably. Wow. Yeah. Shore, Hitchman, Or, Clapper, Esposito, Neely, Bucick, Schmidt, Middleton, O'Re, O'Re, O'Re,

O'Reilly Bork. Hmm. Okay. And now Chara. But, yeah, then you get, then you get Bergeron and, you know, next November or something like that, and you're off and running.

Yep. It's fine by me. Certainly one of the best defensemen of my lifetime. Absolutely. It's crazy. Yep. Finally, I wanted to talk about

this. This is so sick. me. The San Jose Sharks, and this is the headline on their website, sharks announced new song, perks, and partnerships. And one of the thing that you get for, uh, for a partnership, I guess, is on opening night, fans will experience a new aroma with an SAP center as the sharks introduce quote, shark take scent, the official fragrance of the show. sharks. With fresh notes, inspired by the Pacific and a subtle saltwater undertone, shark tank scent will create an immersive first impression the moment fans walk through SAP Center's doors. Shark tank scent will be available for purchase in the Sharks

pro shop in the future, giving fans a way to bring the game day experience home. I'm still not convinced this is real. Like, what? Do you want your house to smell like a fucking, like, hockey rink? Yeah. There's no, if there's anything that we associate with wonderful smells, it's hockey. I'll say this. I hope the sharks get in touch. I hope they send me some shark tank sent candles or something like that. Yes.

I'd love to smell it and report back. This is the thing that I don't understand. Inspired by the Pacific and a subtle saltwater undertone. The Pacific is saltwater. Yeah. How is it both? How, you can't say both of those things. Sure, you can.

So what, so what is inspired by the Pacific then? Uh, this one smells like a sea lion. What are we doing here? That's right. It'd be sick of it dead. Delicious and, uh,

well, don't eat the candles. This is, this is a, just fantastic way for, like, my first thought is, this is fake. My second thought is I'm somewhat shocked that other teams haven't

done. this before. Selling cents. Just blast people with a stench when they walk into your building and then sell them that. You love this shit, right? Yeah.

Remember that time that you're the team won and you were happy? I don't know if this is the ideal team to do it with, but this will be our new Guardian project, a cent for each team. I'm going to tell you right now, listeners, do not put that in as like the bonus episode. No, no, no, we're not doing. Because it'll just, we're not doing 32 variations of, oh, yeah, this one would be poop.

This one smelled like. And then, okay, sure, we said Chicago, poop, the penguins, do-do. Yep. You know, I don't know that, you know what, there probably are 32 synonyms for poop. I would pretty much guarantee. Is it, 32 feels like a lot. Maybe this is a bonus episode. Hold on.

The bonus episode is just me saying 32 synonyms for. for poop. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. And like repeating them in like the pronunciation guide. Caca. Caca. All right. Why don't we,

won't we get out of here? You can do some plugs. All right. Find me at the athletic. We are back tomorrow with the athletic hockey show with me and other Sean and Frankie Corrado is back. got the lots of content going up

including this morning we get the annual oddly specific predictions that's always a favorite and if you're listening to this and it's not 5 o'clock yet on Tuesday you still have a chance to enter the prediction contest

I was getting worried because the numbers were low but apparently everyone just waits to the last day as if new information is going to break so get in there now don't leave it Well, Sean, this is me entering the prediction contest. Let's go.

All right. Do you have the questions in front of you? I'll get them, yeah. Here we go. Okay. All right. Are you writing this down? I'll write them down.

I got it. Okay, great. Give me up to five teams that will definitely make the playoffs. You know how this works, right? You get up to five, but one wrong answer. You're out. You're out for that question. For that question.

Now, I'm going to tell, I'm going to say this. right off the hop. I answered the full five for every single one of these because I'm not a coward. Not a coward. So the five teams that are definitely making the playoffs. Carolina, Tampa, the Rangers, Vegas, and Edmonton. Like the Rangers in there. That's spicy. That feels like a fucking tap in for me. Seattle, Chicago, San Jose, Buffalo, Pittsburgh. San Jose, Buffalo, Pittsburgh. Give me up to five teams. that are going to finish in the middle of the standings, the middle of the pack, between 9th and 24th. Boston, Calgary, L.A., Vancouver, Ottawa.

L.A., Vancouver, Ottawa. I think you're 15 for 15 so far. I agree. I simply have to agree. Five coaches who will not be fired this year, not including any of the recent hires. Cooper, Knoblock, Maurice, Huska, Brindamore. Noblock. Maurice.

Rindamore and who is Ryan Huska. He just got a big extension. I feel I feel pretty good about this. All right. You'll notice I also had Knoblock in there for that reason. I did, yes. All right. GMs, same question. Breezebois-Garren, Hughes for Beek-Briere. All right.

Up to five goalies who will start at least 50 games this season. Hellebuck, Shisterkin, Ottinger, Swamen, Saros. Helbert Shisterkin, Swayman, Saros, and Ottinger was the other one? Correct. All right. Five rookies who will finish in the top ten of Calder Trophy balloting. Demidov, Leonard, Snuggaroo, Niketian, Boeum.

Leonard. And who was the fourth one? Niketian. Nikitin, Nikitian from Carolina. All right. The confidence you're rattling these off with. Five defensemen who finish in the top ten of Norris validing. McCar, Hughes, Morrissey, Dahlene, Slaven, and obviously Hughes is Quinn, not Luke.

I don't know. All right, I'll put a little cue there. Up to five players who will finish in the top 15 of hard voting. McDavid Kutrov, Drysidal, McKinan, Caprizov. Austin Matthews, that's fine, do we note it. Five players from the NHL who will score at least one goal in the Olympics. Matthews, McGrath. David, Eichel, McKinnon, Crosby.

And the last one, the optional bonus question. Which I, of course, answered due to no cowardice on my hand. 15 points for getting it right, but wipes your whole entry if you get it wrong. Name one player who will finish with at least 45 goals who is not Austin Matthews or Leondry Saddle. Connor McDavid. Yep. I feel like that's the right call there. All right.

Yeah. Dude, spoiler. Like, if anybody out there wants to absolutely. Absolutely copy and paste that in. Like, that's the winning entry, man. We just gave it to you. For free. There's never been a perfect score in the contest.

I feel like it's going to happen. Trend in that direction for sure. All right. And then for me, Elite prospects.com. You head over there. You get all kinds of college hockey takes for me all season. NHL stuff too, obviously. And, you know, now's the time to get dialed in.

We're doing more content than ever over there. I think I saw that there's an article somebody else is writing about Gavin McKenna's first two college hockey games where he looked quite good for Penn State. I guess we didn't talk about that. That was such a big deal. The NHL put it on their YouTube channel and the NHL network, just kind of like announced the day before. And it was cool. He had two incredible assists that he made look. super duper easy. And then the next night he had a ridiculous goal.

As the Penn State Nittany Lions swept at Arizona State, it was a really exciting, fun, fun a couple of games there. So yeah, lots of college hockey coverage for me this year. And I'm very excited. It's going to be a good season in the NCAA. And then head over to patreon.com slash puck soup, all kinds of bonus episodes, including we're about to do a mailbag. We're probably going to do a bonus episode this week. You know, all kinds of bonus stuff over there all the time. Stick to sports.

Meazin Pod. You name it. We do it. So, yeah, that's it. Thank you for listening. And if I can borrow a phrase from the AEW and Ring of Honor announcer Ian Rickabon. He always says, happy wrestling at the end of every show. Season starts tonight.

Happy hockey, folks. Happy hockey. This is what it's all about. Have a good one. Bye. Bye. Thank you.