Puck Soup - Didn't See That Coming

Episode Date: November 5, 2024

Sean and Ryan talk about pleasant surprises, the Habs' hot seat(?), Olympic 3-on-3, and more. Sponsored by AG1 (drinkAG1.com/puck), Raycon (buyraycon.com/puck) and Gametime (download the Gametime app and use code PUCK for $20 off)

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I'm Sean Magnu from The Athletic. And we're into November now, folks. We already know who all the playoff teams are. We don't have to watch this shit for the rest of the year. Yep. Go catch the NBA. The NFL's still going on.

You have a lot to be excited about it. You can check in in like February. That'll be trade season for you. That'll be great. But along those lines, me and Sean talked yesterday. We did a bonus episode, and we were talking about that, like, if you're four points out on November 1st thing, Sean, why you tell the people how many teams were four points out on November 1st? There were exactly two teams. And they were both exactly four points out.

That's right. And if you're like, wait a second, there's definitely more than two really bad teams in the league. You have identified the problem. Yeah. The problem is that there are like 12 pretty bad teams. in the league and nobody's separating themselves from that group. So, like, you have, I think it was, like, six or seven teams were tied with, like, nine points. Yeah.

Really stinking. This is Gary Bettman's dream season, man. It really is. Who's good? Maybe nobody. We love competitive balance. Who's bad? Maybe everybody.

Gary Bettman's just counting his money, you know? You got it. up in his ivory tower, these eggheads. But I wanted to talk this week about, I think the parody that we're seeing has led to a lot of teams being worse than we thought. We've talked about the Bruins and the avalanche and the predators, panthers are doing fine. But I wanted to talk this week about the teams where it's like, oh, we didn't see this coming. Good for them, you know. Okay.

and I think the number one team on that list probably has to be the Washington Capitals. Right? Like, what were they minus 38 goal difference last year? Get into the playoffs with like 91 points. Everybody's like, oh boy, these guys stink. Well, they had a good summer, but like they're not making up 38 goals of goal difference to even get back to zero, let alone into positive territory. And yet here we are, you know.

They are, I believe, sixth or seventh in the league right now in points percentage, goal difference, same thing. Like, it's going really, really well for them. And most importantly, they're not like, oh, yeah, we're getting 930 save percentage. We're shooting 17%. they're one of the best underlying numbers teams in the league in addition to shooting like 15%. So I don't know. What's your big take on the Washington Capitals?

I know we did this a little bit yesterday on the bonus episode, but bear with me here. I'm not at the point yet where I am buying into the Capitals. But I get why that would be frustrating to a Capitals fan who is sitting there going, like, we're a playoff team last year. It's not like we're trying to make up a 20-point gap. Like, that was our spot. And you and I talked about this yesterday. The caps made the playoffs last year. And everybody, I literally think everybody took them out of the playoffs this year going in.

It was like, we need the spot. We need somebody, we need a spot for the Senators, Red Wing, Sabres, and Penguins to fight over. And we are already giving the Islanders. spot to the devils. So sorry, Washington, you're out. And Caps fans are probably sitting there going, like, we had the spot last year and in theory we got better over the summer. So it should still be ours until we prove otherwise and we're doing the exact opposite. I'll say if they're in, if they get in or even stay really close, I think Spencer Carberry better be getting some Jack Adams votes because he's

proven a lot of us proven a lot of us wrong. It's a good story. They're a fun team and it would be cool to see a team have some success and then go, you know what? That's not enough.

We want to get better and be aggressive and be interesting over the summer. I don't mind seeing that. So I'm in some sense rooting for them. I'm just not quite a believer yet. I think the thing you're saying about like the Capitol's fans are, uh, is correct.

Like, in that they're going, what more do we need to show you? We're like a 59% expected goals team. You know, like all our underlying numbers are sick. If anything, the power play is underperforming, first of all. And, you know, I, I think, I think it's reasonable to say that they're not going to shoot 15% all year. I think it's reasonable to say that, you know, they're not going to be a 60% expected goals team all year. If you go back and, like, look at the history of advanced stats, like, since 07-08, maybe a handful of teams are in that territory and they're all like, oh, these are kind of like president's trophy style, like, cup winning all borderline dinette.

I'm talking about like the early 2010 sharks, the like 07-08 Red Wings who had like seven Hall of Famers on the roster, that sort of thing. And I think the caps are like I don't think it's telling tales out of school to say the caps were a step below those teams in terms of their roster quality in that thing. But through whatever 11, 12 games, they haven't shown me anything where I'm like, and they're going to be horrible for the last 70 games

of the season. Mm-hmm. You know? And of their wins, they have beaten Vegas, Dallas, and the Rangers. That's right. Yeah, they've played a really kind of difficult schedule, quite frankly. I mean, there's some there's some cupcakes in there, too. They've also beaten the blue jackets, the habs, and the flyers twice.

So it's... Right. They're in the Atlantic or the metro. You're going to play the flyers. Like, that's just how it works, you know. And to me, I say this about a... college hockey a lot because especially early in the season, like really good teams will play some really fucking horrible teams.

And people will go, yeah, but like, sure, they're supposed to beat them. And I think the capitals did to like the Flyers, for example, what I give good teams, any good team credit for beating a bad team. They didn't beat them. They killed them. They destroyed them. Right. And so like, you know, if they're winning these games two to one, three to two, and

shots are even or they're even getting out shot. That's one thing to me, right? But they're beating these teams' brains in. So it's like, okay, I don't know what, you know, they got to play them. They're on the schedule. So the best you can do, if you want to beat them four, five, six, nothing, great, good for you. You know, that's all you can ask of a good team playing a bad team.

They don't really have control over that. So I get why Capitals fans are kind of pissed. off at people for saying this. But at the same time, do I feel like they're getting out over their skis and like, you know, they're talking about like, we actually didn't get killed by the hurricanes the other night or

whatever. And it's like, I mean, shots in that game were like 44 to 25 or whatever they were. Yes, but do we know that, I mean, maybe Carolina was just lofting in shots from the red line. Did you think of that?

Well, I think we're just not accounting for the pre-shot movement, you know? The cap was had like 22 shots, but they were all breakaways. So maybe watch the game. Yeah, no. And again, it's just over the course of a big season, you know, yeah, you can look at an individual game and every shot's from the blue line or something. Like you want to say that shit, be my guess, whatever.

But we're talking about over the course of the remaining, it says here 71 games. What do we think is a reasonable outcome? I don't think they're going to be running 727 their points percentage all year. But they've banked. all these points, let's say they drop to 600, 550, they're still comfortably a playoff team. That's way better than anybody expected for them. And, you know, this is a team that, like, they have a lot of old guys on. This is a classic, like, not a good way to build a team roster for me, where it's like,

they have a lot of old guys who are good or, you know, or have the perception of being good, right? And they have a lot of young guys who are really growing into kind of like, oh, that guy could be pretty good two, three years from now. They're getting to that two, three years from now. You know, your protists and your McMichael and all these guys. And they don't have a lot of guys who are kind of in the middle of that. Like Dylan Strom, I think, is maybe like the one guy you would say is, you know, unequivocally having a great season and he's like 27 years old. Those teams typically don't like teams built like that don't typically have great playoff success. But we're talking about the regular season.

I think they can keep it up to some extent or another, you know, again, comfortable playoff team for me. I think that rocks for them. I guess the last thing I'd say on them is one month ago when the season was starting, they were way down on the odds makers lists. Yeah, of course. And I say that, well, I mean, I say that. I'm always kind of conflicted when I bring up the odds and, you know, Vegas says this and the book you say this, because I'm not trying to promote gambling here, but it's a very interesting and accurate way to capture like the general consensus of what are smart people who have money on the line thinking about this. And the caps were way down the list.

So if you're a Caps fan or you're just someone who's kind of watching them from a distance going, these guys are good, you might be right. But it's not like it was a small group that wasn't believing in these guys. It was quite literally nobody believes in us pretty much. So you get to play that card if you're the, if you're the Caps and play it and enjoy it because it can be a fun one. I literally got the Jimmy Shapiro email yesterday. Okay. And he just has like a...

Where is it at now then? Well, so he has a list of where it was on opening day and yesterday. Opening day was 75 to 1. Now it's 66 to 1. So just for reference. Yeah. If you're... I guess that's the other side.

If you're a Caps fan who is furious at us for not buying in, dude, go... Go throw a couple bucks on that and buy yourself a big screen TV and send me a photo of it with a picture of you, with a reflection of you in the screen flipping the bird. That's exactly right. That'll make you feel better. Yep. So, yeah, like I say, I think the capitals are trending in the right direction, even if they regressed to the mean a fair bit. I think, you know, they're playing well enough and they banked enough points.

Right now I feel pretty comfortable saying they're a playoff team, but also I just noticed this. they've played seven home games and four road games. Let's see that even out a little bit, and then we'll, you know, we'll circle back. Another team in that division that has to be talked about here. Third in the league in points percentage, the 8-2 and O, Carolina Hurricanes. I mentioned the capitals are, you know, they're like a 59, 60 point expected goals team. hurricanes up over 60 and both. Yep.

Both 5 on 5 and all situations. Oh, you know what? All situations is now 59.15. So still, it's like 62 and 5 on 5. And they look fucking great. And it's interesting because I don't think, unlike the capitals who are very active in the post, in the off season, I don't think you would sit there and say, oh, you know, well, the hurricanes, they, they added so many guys. They were so busy.

It was more about how much they could keep. That's exactly right. You want me to read you a list of just like guys the hurricanes brought in this summer? Sure. Tyson Jost, Eric Robinson, William Carrier, Jordan Martinuk, Shane Gostisbeer, Sean Walker, Jack Roslavik. I mean, that's a murderer's row.

And, you know, out of that group, some good players in there. Gospier has been really good. Oh my God. I looked it up today. Do you know what his underlying, like his expected goals percentage at five on five? I don't know, but I know it's quite good, I believe, because it's closing in on 75%, 74.6. Keep that up all year. 72.

Will carry a 71. Just like a bunch of the guys I said, Sean Walker, who I thought was like a really good Brady Shea replacement style guy. he's just under 70 and like I you know you want to say they're another team they haven't really played anybody blah blah blah blah again they're beating the shit out of everybody

they play basically right like they actually have kind of had a softer schedule Pittsburgh St. Louis I don't think you would call Edmonton soft on paper but like the way they played Calgary Seattle

Vancouver, Boston. Like those are all teams that are underperforming in the standings, but a bunch of those teams I just mentioned were on a five or six game road trip. Right? So like they hit the road, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Edmonton, Calgary, Seattle, Vancouver. That's a long road trip. They took all but one of those games. Yeah.

Six straight wins, even with their starting goalie out. Yep, Freddie Anderson week to week right now. Yeah, has missed the last few games. Yeah, good team. I don't know that it's a team that is shocking anyone by being towards the top. But there were, I saw some people predict the playoff miss for the hurricane. That's what I mean. Not a lot.

I don't feel like that was the consensus, but there were some people getting out ahead of the crew. A step back seemed what the big prediction was for them. And, like, I might have, like, overcorrected for that when I did the power feelings. I think I had them, like, second or third in the league at the end of the year, like, to win, like, be in the running for the Stanley Cup, win the Stanley Cup, whatever you want to say. And, you know, that felt like me just going, like, you know, for lack of a better candidate in the East, other than Florida, you know. Florida, frankly, is the team I thought would take a little bit of a step back just because that tends to happen when you go to a cup final and it's like a long summer. When does the fatigue kick in?

These guys have been playing hockey like full time for two years now. They're incredible. Time to get tired. They're so sick. Florida. Yeah. But again, like I don't want to talk about them. We didn't see the team that went to two cup finals in a row.

Nobody saw this coming. We didn't see them killing everybody. We didn't? Oh, okay. But, like, you know who's really like, you know, look, I'm not telling, again, I'm not like being a genius by saying this. But Marty Natchez, like, they handed him the ball and he, and he's going like, whatever, early 2000s Ladany and Tomlinson mode. Ooh. Nice reference. That is, the reason I know that, those were my fantasy football days when I was in college and stuff like that.

And for some reason, I just felt like I got Ladani and Tomlinson almost every year in at least like two thirds of my leagues. And so, you know, he made me a very successful man in these leagues back then, you know. So a big, all-time great respect to Ladani and Tomlinson, like the one. Dude, I got him in a keeper league, like the inaugural draft of a keeper league. And I were checking the results. How is this for Sicko Mode? on my honeymoon from like a dial-up computer that they had in the back of the office

in the Dominican Republic. So let's just say the connection wasn't fantastic and just waiting for that screen to load and seeing his name pop up. I think that was the last time sports made me happy. Yeah. Oh, and Priest Holmes too, I guess was another big. He was more of a touchdown guy than a yards guy.

You know what? Let's scrap the hockey. stuff and just remember some fantasy football guys. Remember Sean Alexander? Remember he would have 20 touchdowns a year? Oh, that was good times. I guess I don't. I'm just not a big football guy, I guess, you know?

I think we can pinpoint exactly. I think the day you didn't get Ladania Tomlinson in a draft, you were like, screw this. Fuck this, man. I'm out of here. The sport sucks. I'm going to try this hockey thing. Let's see where that gets me. But yeah, so like I think so far.

far, what you would say is every bet Carolina made in the summer has worked out to one extent or another. Like, Kotkin Niyami is kind of producing a little bit points-wise. And again, Marty Natchez, 18 points in 10 games. Like, he looks incredible right now. I don't think he's going to shoot 29% all year. That's just me. But Svetkov's still great.

Ahos still great. like, again, they said, like, we need you guys to really carry some extra water here and all their top guys were like, you got it, boss, no problem. They look great. There's nothing else to say, really. I'm with you. We'll do one more Metro team. And this is mostly me feeling a little bit nice, but also, like, it is very interesting that currently the fifth place team in the Metro division. vision is the 500 Columbus Blue Jackets.

Ahead of the penguins, ahead of the Islanders, ahead of the flyers. I took them out of my bottom five this week, which I did. I think it was something I was going to do all year. No. And I just wanted to shout them out. I don't think they're a particularly good team or anything like that. They've given up 13 goals in their last two games, the Jets and the Capitals. So.

And again, that's the real like, could team play a bad team, bad team should lose badly. But they, they smoked the Oilers. They certainly did. They beat the Leafs, pretty handily beat Colorado.

Got a point out of Nashville. So this is, this could be our, uh, San Jose who, uh, well, they had those three wins in a row.

The sharks are, sharks are motoring now. Yeah. Yeah. Celebrini's back tonight, I think I saw. Or is he back? Okay. I think I saw that, yeah.

Anyways, I mean, if you're not on some level rooting for the Blue Jackets to at least hang around the race, then I don't know what to tell you. Yep. I said I had Dean Everson as my long shot Jack Adams guy. I think he could get seven to five hundred. He should win it. If they're at 81 points at the end of the year. year, he should at least get votes. I know that that's not how it works and, you know, you've got to make the playoffs and

all that kind of stuff. But even 500 for this roster with not only like the tragedy of the Johnny Godreau death over the summer, but like multiple players, oh, he's done for the year. That's it. Bye, bye. You know, Boone Jenner, Kent Johnson, like, expected to miss like significant times. You know, just multiple guys who are going to be high up in their lineup. They're not going to be available to us for months.

And they're like, yeah, we'll be 500. I love that Sean Monahan's been good this year. Yeah, he's killing it, man. This is so fun. He's in so fun. Marchenko looks great. I can't, I can't see a way that the blue jackets keep this up. And by this, I mean, just kind of being respectable.

but it'd be great if they did. Yep. It'd be really cool. It's weird. It's weird. I guess having a coach who doesn't actively hate all your young players all the time is maybe good. I don't know. Yeah.

Well, I mean, Dean Evanson, he's known as being one of these soft. He's a very chill. Yeah. I mean, he's, it's like him and Bruce Brudrow are the two players coaches. Do you think Dean Everson's ever tasted barbecue sauce? I don't think he has. Yeah, never once. No.

Hey, speaking of Dean Everson, another team I wanted to shout out. His former team, the Minnesota Wilde, 8-1 and 2. They look fucking sick. Carol Caprizov obviously really making his MVP case. He is, we said it yesterday on the patron show. Like, he's got a, he really feels like an MVP candidate, not just in the sense of how well he's playing. and he leads the league in scoring, so I'm not going out on a limb in that sense.

But we said, like, voters sometimes get a little bored of voting for the same guys over and over again. And having a guy, like, he's the perfect guy in the sense that, like, he's an established star. So you're not, you know, you don't have to worry you're going to pull a Jose Teodor and vote for a guy that you look back in a few years and go, oh, that's a weird outlier. But he's also hasn't been right in the mix. so it's a little bit of that new car smell.

I don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but he's your clubhouse leader. He's only got 70 games to write out, and it's all his. Yeah, he seems like he's got it this year for what, you know, I'm sure if I looked it up his on-eye shooting percentage is like 30 right now or whatever. You can't really avoid that, I think. He's personally shooting 21%, which, is high, but also he is one of the most gifted players in the league. Yeah.

His on-ice shooting percentage at 5-on-5 is 15.3. That's too high. How about this? His on-ice save percentage is 950. Okay, well. But that also means, like, he's not getting scored on, period. So, again, that just, whatever. People want to say, like, oh, people will,

undoubtedly do the thing at the end of the year. Look, plus minus is a flawed stat, but he was plus 852 or whatever, and you're like, well, then I guess I have to vote for. Mm-hmm. You know? That could come into play, absolutely. But yeah, I mean, again,

they're just much like Washington and Carolina, unbelievable underlying numbers for this team. Yep. In addition to they have an MVP candidate. They have a goalie who, look, if Philip Gustafson keeps up what he's done this year so far, he's 924, the league average is like 895 or something like that right now. If this keeps up, and I'm not like confident that it will or anything like that to be clear, but if it does, how is he not in the Vesna conversation? He also scored a goal.

Even the fucking goal he's scoring goals for these guys, you know? He's been in a bit of a scoring slump, though. It's not cold off. He's not going to the dirty areas. He's become a perimeter threat. He's got more goals this year than, than Zach Bogosian. Tell you that. But yeah.

So again, like there's just, do we think they're going to keep this level of success up? Probably not. But banked points, playing great hockey. There's a lot of reason to. believe in this team. And again, like, they're doing this. The fact that they're doing this with like, oh, we got to carry $15 million in dead cap space or whatever is really fucking remarkable.

So. And by the way, this is another team that had like a long, a long road swing. They only had four home games so far. I'm really curious to see what happens. And again, we're, of course, getting way out ahead of ourselves. Can't help it in the first week in November. but if they get to the deadline and they're in the mix, because you always have to weigh future versus right now

and what's the opening now, what's the opportunity now? But I don't know that we've ever seen a team just with the way their cap looks given the buyouts and the way that comes out the books next year where it just feels like the launch pad is next year. Totally. they're they're so well positioned to to really take off uh next year so do you carve off a chunk of that future for this year assume let's assume for a rental let's assume you can't get a guy who's

gonna you know who's got a year left beyond this one yeah uh i don't know i i don't know what you do part part of me says like no you don't you've got a very clear starting line and it's next year so Anything this year, it's house money and you just, you know, you're happy for it, but you're not going to spend anything to, to add. And then there's the other part that says, hey, let's get a head start. Let's let some of these young guys go on a playoff run and see what that's like and what have you. It's going to be an interesting decision for Bill Garrett. Yeah.

And, you know, they're in a situation where they're not, even with that $15 million, or what it's not 15 it's like 14 and change 14.15. And like there's still be a million left but it's not. Yeah, it'll be 1.6 for the next three years beyond this one. But like they're not even at the cap like ceiling right now. They have a kind of a lot of cap space and there are not a lot, but like $2 million of cap space and they're accruing every day. so, you know, by the end of the season, if like, you know, things keep up, guys don't have to go on LTIR, that kind of thing,

by the end of the year, they could have like a pretty good amount of cap space. Right now, you know, the way things are trending right now, they could add $10.1 million in salary at the deadline, according to Puckpedia. And they have first round picks for the next three years. you say, like, are we going for it with this roster? You know, with like Matt Boldie kind of coming into his own and like, you're probably not going to have too many more years of a useful Matt Zuccarello. Although, again, you know, he's playing well this year and he's 37. But they could just use some upgrades up front, I think.

You know, I don't know how deep of a run you're going with like, whatever, Joel Erickson-Eck, who's a player I really like. But if he's like your third or fourth most effective forward, I don't know how. how far you're getting in the postseason going up against the, just the top of the central, you know, your Dallas's and your Colorado's or whoever you want to say. So, yeah, they're going to be a fascinating team. But so far, what could you possibly say bad about these guys? They look great.

One last team here that I think we want to talk about. And they're in a really interesting spot for me. because they are another team. This is the fourth place, expected goals team in the league right now, but not really expected to do a huge amount this season. The Los Angeles Kings. I wonder how much of them playing really well,

and their like seventh or eighth in the league in points percentage right now, is underperformance by other teams, in that division. You know? Yeah. The division has not been, has not been good apart from Vegas. And even Vegas,

like if you start poking around a little bit, they don't seem as impressive maybe as, that's right. As the record looks. Yep. So what are your thoughts on the LA Kings? This is another team I was very much not a believer in heading into the year. think I even had them outside the playoffs.

And I felt like, again, their best case was the same as it's been for three years straight now, which is make the playoffs and get your doors kicked in by the Oilers. Didn't really feel like a great path to success. I'm impressed so far. They're proven me wrong so far. But much like with Washington, I need to see. In fact, I would probably need to see even a little bit. more from the Kings before I'm buying in.

But yeah, let's have a King's Capitol's Stanley Cup final. The Pierre looked to bobble. What do you say? It would be, look, hey. Yeah, I wrote an article about... Assuming he's still on the Capitals by then and hasn't quit on them and... Traded once again. Yeah, they're a team where I wrote before the season, like, the regular season kind of doesn't matter for these guys.

Like we kind of are just writing in ink that the top three in that division is going to be, you know, Vegas, Edmonton and Vancouver in some order. That hasn't come to pass, obviously. In part because Vancouver, you know, they're okay. They're not like great or anything. Only four regulation wins so far in 10 games. You'd like to see that number higher, obviously. And Edmonton, obviously, their issues are well publicized. Although, look, Leon Drysidal, you know, he's going, fuck you, I'm doing it myself mode.

You know, I think he's got three points in every game since McDavid got hurt. So, yeah, he's doing it. But, yeah, you know, I think that, like, cracked open the door for the Kings. But I always kind of considered them, like, a playoff team and really, like, who gives a shit about what happens in the regular season. Yep. Because the problem for them is, they're kind of leafs west

insofar as they get into the first round and the same team beats them every year. Mm-hmm. You know? And... That was pretty mean. And yet accurate, you would have to agree. Sorry, King's fans.

It's... I know it stinks. But, like, so to me, it was always like, yep, they're good enough to be a playoff team. I'm not really interested in the 82 games that will happen between October and April. I'm really interested in what happens in the first two weeks of the playoffs, you know. But again, I didn't think they'd be this good. So I don't know how to, I don't know how to, what is it, circle that square, square that circle.

Like, look, if they keep this up, if they're at the end of the year, the fourth best expected goals team in the league, and Edmonton, you know, like has to play a little bit of catch-up, I can see a world where, like, that's actually an interesting matchup instead of me just going, okay, Connor McDavid and Leon Dreisidler are going to kill these guys, and we won't ever hear about the Kings again until October. But I don't know. you know, they're making a case for themselves.

And that's, that's really all you can do when you're just kind of like, well, hey, you know, talking about the Leafs. The Leaves aren't necessarily making that same kind of case for themselves. They are very much not. No. And the Kings are. And again, like, it's early November. What else can you really talk about or hope for with these guys? They've played great so far.

And they played four home games at a 13. Yeah. They started on a long, long road trip. Yeah, on a couple of other teams. And it's in the king's favor in the sense of what the rest of the schedule looks like. Yeah. Do you know Vegas has played eight home games already? Yeah, they're eight and O at home.

They've lost all four on the road. So that's another weird, another thing that makes it difficult to really judge how good they are. But yeah, Vegas flu is back, baby. That rocks. Should have gotten your booster, everyone. but yeah so yeah I think those are all the teams where it's like damn okay guys good for you you might have said that about Utah

if we had done this two weeks ago but not so much now Winnipeg jet fans are thrilled that you didn't put them in the well you know we've talked about that insofar as like nobody thinks they're going to be getting 11 wins out of every 12 games they play the rest of the season and nobody is surprised that like a lot of this does seem to be led by Connor Hellebuck, arguably the best goalie in the world over the last five years or whatever you want to say. But at the same time, you know, I think that it's, what did they have like 110 points last year or something? They had 110 points.

As I keep saying, they had the exact same win-loss record as the Florida Panthers. Right. So like I don't, much like Florida, I can't say they're overperforming, quote unquote. But I did expect them to take a slight step back just because I don't think you can be like, hey, you go out and be a Vesna quality goalie every single year all year. Maybe Halebuck's the one guy. I do feel like a lot of people looked at them and went, okay, Colorado, Dallas, top of the division, but, you know, maybe Winnipeg, maybe we'll let you back into the three-way race again like we did last year. Instead, they're like, how about one-way race? And then Minnesota was like, what about two?

And everyone's like, oh, man, what a weird division. We'll look back in a month and figure you out. Yeah, I think just broadly speaking, Winnipeg, you would say they punched above their weight last year. And, or, you know, it felt like they punched above their weight. Maybe they didn't. Maybe they're actually, they have it all figured out. but I'm just like kind of goes without saying

like oh this team that's 11 and 1 I didn't see that coming yeah no shit man you know there isn't there isn't a single team in the league including Florida if they were 11 and 1 I'd have been like whoa

that's not crazy at all to me that they're doing that anyway um by the way way we mentioned the Leafs just came across the wire here. No Austin Matthews tonight, upper body injury. Mm-hmm.

Not great. No, and a little bit of a mystery because he seemed fine in the last game. Yep. Against Minnesota, but I don't know. Day to day, so at this point. Maybe not a huge concern, but you don't want to be playing Boston if you're the Leafs short and Austin Matthews. You're telling me.

Anyway, one other team I wanted to talk about here, very, very newsy team the last little while, is I saw an article like the other day that was like, is Martens-San-Louis on the hot seat in Montreal? Is he? Could he be? I mean, there's like two views of that, right? Because it always has felt like he was being evaluated as a coach

maybe a little bit differently than other coaches around the league would be in the sense that you didn't just look at the win-loss record and say, well, overachieving, under-achieving. He was there without the same level of experience. So it was a little bit of a learn on the job and was there to sort of unlock the young players. That said, and he has to some degree. He had some success with that.

he's also very popular and, you know, all of that stuff. That said, the Canadians do not look good. They sure don't. And I say that even as someone who, you know, I think a lot of us had them penciled in for last place in the Atlantic. Maybe some of their fans didn't agree, but a lot of us were looking at it saying this is not the year for takeoff quite yet. but it feels like they've taken a step back in a lot of ways. Just, you know, the mistakes that are getting made, the sloppiness, the attention of detail not being there, which is stuff that often lands on a coach.

So if you were willing to consider a coaching change, that sort of implies we think this team should be doing better than they are. And, you know, you look at the roster and the one lost record, and I'm not sure you can, make that argument. But at some point, I mean, you want to see them looking better, even if they're losing. So, yeah. Hot seat imminent. I can't really see it. I think there's a very strong chance that he's not the coach going into next year if this season is going around.

Yeah, to me, it's just like, I looked at this roster coming into the year. And it's like, you had expectations for this team and this division. Like, again, as you say, they don't look good. Maybe not enough of the young guys are taking a step. But like, look at that defense, man. You're going to tell me you wanted them to be playing competitive hockey in March with that defense. It was just never going to happen. You know, I think a year or two from now we're having a different conversation about like what the makeup of the blue line looks like, you know, when they get some of their drafted guys.

more into the lineup on a on a consistent basis and and that sort of thing but like Matheson Savard those those are your veteran guys and we're and we're supposed to act like that's that's like helping you out I don't know man mm-hmm it's just not they're they just like Martin San Luis the team at large et cetera just not set up for success and the thing that's interesting about like is he on the hot seat He's like handpicked the guy. Like him and the GM came in at basically the same time, if I'm remembering right, right?

Yeah, close. Yeah, like it felt like Ken Hughes got the job and was like, and here's my coach, Margie San Luis. Right? It was, yeah. And it was a surprise at the time. Like, a lot of us were kind of- Kind of came out of nowhere.

Like literally, I don't know. I mean, out of coaching peewee hockey or whatever it was. That's, yeah. But yeah, like, you know, We're all excited about Cole Cofield scoring all these goals. And, like, Nick Suzuki continues to look pretty good. And Slavkovsky continues to look pretty good. And Lane Hudson's a defenseman you can easily get excited about and that kind of thing.

But, like, there was an article recently, I want to, it might have been in Eric Engels article, or it might have been in one of the Montreal papers. I don't remember. But they were like, oh, Brennan Gallagher is kind of breaking down right before our very eyes. And it's like, oh, a guy that plays like that who's like 30. years old is breaking down. That's crazy. I wouldn't have seen that one coming, you know?

And I think there's just like, if you look at the veterans on this team, the guys that have been in the league, five, six, seven years, look, man, I don't know who you're getting excited about there. You know what I mean? Like Christian Dvorak, listen to this. These are all the guys on the team over 28,

or 28 years old or older, basically. San Montembo, Christian Dvorak, Jake Evans, Josh Anderson, Mike Matheson, Yuel Armiah, Brendan Gallagher, David Savard. That's not like putting your, you know, doing the Chicago thing where we're going to surround our young guys with like useful veterans, guys who are going to like help them grow into the league and that kind of thing. Right? Mm-hmm. So the idea that like Martin San Luis should be in trouble, like I don't, I don't, I. I don't know that he's like,

I don't think he's doing like a great job or anything, but like who would? But it's, it's like anytime you get, you go down this path, it's like, all right, so what we're saying is the roster isn't good.

So maybe it's the GM who should be in trouble. And the GM is the guy who decides if the coach. Well, so. I mean, I just don't, I think all this stuff about like we want to be competitive and blah, I don't know where that's all coming from.

Maybe someone can dig up a quote from over the summer where Kent Hughes is like, look, we need to be better. Like, we need to finish around 500 or what, you know, we want to be playing meaningful games in March, whatever you say when you're in this position. I think they need another two, three years of the rebuild. And like always needed that. Maybe I'm crazy. But I just think the way, the way things are going and the way things are always going

like you just need, you need more, you need more horses here. Yeah. And even the young guys that we have, we've heard that they have, we've had the discussion about, is the ceiling high enough? By the way, you know how old Nick Suzuki is at this point? According to Habs fans, I believe he's 21. He's 25 years old. Like, I wouldn't have guessed that. If, you know, you say to me like, stop me on the street.

Hey, how old do you think Nick Suzuki is? 23, maybe, you know? But 25, like. By the way, don't stop Ryan on the street and say stuff like that. No, definitely not. He doesn't like. But, but like, I don't know. That's, that's, we're kind of at the, at the peak of what Nick Suzuki is at that point.

Like, you know, how aging curves work and things of this nature. Like, the odds that he's going to get better from where he is right now, not great. And so, I, I just don't know, like, what, what I would say to a Habs fan who's like, give me hope for the future. I don't know, maybe you win the draft lottery this year. That would help. That sure would. Hell, maybe you win it the year after that too. That'd be great for you.

But yeah, I just, all this, like, should he be on the hot seat? Who's doing a better job? Who's getting better results? Jay Woodcroft? Maybe. Does he speak for, how's your French, Jay? I mean, literally, that has to be a consideration. You always get into that.

It has to be. Yep. Yeah. So, like, that's a thing. So, like, we say that about, like, whatever, the Bruins. Oh, should they fire Jim Montgomery? Well, who's better than Jim Montgomery out there? He's averaging, like, 122 points a season or whatever with the Bruins.

Who's better? At least they can, like, hire anybody who's a coach in hockey, you know? Montreal can't. I just typed, is Gerard Gallant French into Google? And its AI popped up and said, no. Gerard Gallant is Canadian. Stop that, Google AI. You're going to get...

It's all in trouble. You're going to get this... This is not what we're looking for in this country. Knock it off. I believe that is like... He's not. I think he doesn't speak French. If I remember right, the last time this conversation came up.

Anyway, that's all I wanted to say on Martin-San-Luie. It's a tough situation in Montreal. I don't know what the fix is. but maybe there isn't one. And on that pleasant note, why don't we take a break? We'll be right back. This week's episode is brought to you by our friends at AG1. Have you been trying to find the perfect holiday gift

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Our next partner this week is game time. Folks, have you been to any live hockey yet this year? I got to tell you, I love sitting on my couch with a bowl of chips and a pop and watching hockey on TV. I do it quite often, but there's no better place to see a hockey game than live and in person. We all know that. You just get a better view, a different view, a better sense of everything. It's just a better way to watch the sport. And it doesn't just have to be the NHL.

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Terms apply, again, create an account and redeem code POC, PUCK for $20 off. Download game time today. What time is it? It's game time. All right, we're back. And Sean, you wanted to talk about a little bit of a goaltending controversy that arose out of Winnipeg.

Hey, we're just talking about them. Yeah. Golly interference controversy. Well, it feels, yeah, it feels like it's, they're trying to elevate this to the status of like, this is a huge fucking deal for the whole league. All I want to say, there was a, so if people didn't see it, there was a play in the game over the weekend between Tampa and Winnipeg in which a goal was scored against Connor Hellebuck, the Jets challenged for goaltender interference and were

unsuccessful. And I, of course, wrote a piece a few years ago where I was like, hey, here's what you need to look for on 80 or 90% of these interference calls. This play wasn't quite that. It was one of those, the pucks in the crease and everybody piles in. And, you know, Hellebuck kind of gets pushed back a little bit, but is. Yeah, he definitely did. Like, his, I think it was his right pad just kind of gets pitch forward into the net.

It's not my usual, like, just look and see if the guy's in the crease and strip out all the rest of the noise. It was a bit of a different play. I would say that I didn't see it in real time. Looking at the replays, I was a little bit surprised that it didn't come back. I thought Winnipeg had a very good case. But I don't think it was a completely, you know, the complete slam dunk that a lot, like, you know, anytime there's any one of these calls and you look at like through the comments

or the replies or whatever, it's always people saying like what they think the rule should be and then based on that, here's what the ruling should be. And it's, this is a gray area. I wasn't, you know, I was surprised, I guess that it wasn't overturned, but I wasn't shocked. And again, if the league seems to be,

over the last couple years, has been drifting towards letting the, call on the ice stand when unless there's a very obvious uh reason to to change it and they didn't feel that way this time end of the day no big deal except just for the record like this idea that connor hellbook's opinion on this is uh is is super newsworthy this is going to blow you away right uh connor hellabuck the goalie who gave up the goal He thinks it should have been no goal. That's interesting.

This is apparently big news coming out of Winnipeg that, you know, I've seen all these different tweets and stuff of like, here's Connor Hallibuck explaining to reporters why it should have been no goal. And everyone's like, wow, this is. Even Connor Hallibuck doesn't know what goaltending interference is anymore. And it's like. He's certainly pretending not to. It's like, dude, he's a goalie. No goalie knows what goalie interferences because they all think every goal should be no goal. Like there's never been a goalie who's like, you know what, no, that was a good one.

That should have. Yeah, he's going up to the ref after the game. Is he allowed to tip that in front of the net like that? That was on me. Right along the ice? So I get, I'm just saying, like, we don't need to ask goalies what they think of the goalie interference rule. Like, we don't need to ask defensive backs what they think of pass interference

because they don't think it's, they all think they have never done it in their life. Same with goal. This just amuses me a lot. And there was a quote in there somewhere that Connor Hallibuck said that he, like, he made a presentation or something for the league about goalie interference. And he's like, but I don't know what they did with it. And I'm like, I want to know more about this. Like, was he asked to do that? Or did he just, like, show up and be like, hey, guys, on my own, I made this little PowerPoint about all of these plays that should definitely all be no goal.

And the league was like, thank you very much. We'll take that under advisement. As always, with goalie interference, my rule of thumb is whatever ruling would help your team is the ruling that you want it to be. And that's it. And the rest of us, we can stop pretending that we don't understand or the rules too complicated.

No, man, you just, you're a Jets fan, you didn't want that to be a goal. You're a lightning fan, you did want it to be a goal. that's right you're a goaltender you didn't want it to be a goal because goalies hate fun and whimsy

and they ruin everything stop asking goalies what they think about the goalie interference rule that's the end of my stance on this play I think that I think that's a good

policy for us all to would be done would also be good these weirdos can't talk on game days so like don't go up to them

after the game and be like right would you think well you know it's crazy I should have a shutout tonight.

Should have had my 900th career shutout, but once again, ruined by the stupid rulebook. It's kind of the way she goes, I guess. The NHLPA, this is a bit of news, the NHLPA announced the formation of a CTE committee where they're going to learn about that, and it's going to have, like, I think, one representative from every team, basically. and they're going to learn all about how bad it is. This is good.

This is good news to get. I don't know that there's a ton to talk about, but I did want to mention it because I don't know. It just kind of seems like this is something that doesn't really get talked about in the upper echelons of this sport. Obviously, the NHL has kind of a vested interest in being like, I don't know, I've never even heard those letters. Yeah, you know.

Which is infuriating for everyone because even the NFL and at other leagues have moved more towards acknowledging the link. But, yep. The interesting thing about this is it's like basically it seems like it's going to literally exist to educate players about it and like the risks and all that kind of thing. but I don't it's funny to me because it's just like there's just going to be like a doctor up there going like don't get concussions and they're all just like writing it down on little note cards like don't do it okay got it you know um what the thing that I always get up like upset it maybe is an overstatement

but like I don't understand when people are like mad about the concussion spotter you know you see this every once in a while a guy gets pulled from a game and people are like, oh, the damn concussion spotter pulled them. It's like, yeah, that's like good. Again, we all agree that this should be a thing, except when it's your team's player. Yeah.

Yep. And I get to the players. They're mad too, right? Like, especially if you know, like, oh, I'm okay. But it's got to be done. You know, not to keep pointing back to it, but the NFL does this well. Any official can,

pull a guy off the field at any time and send him to get checked out and they do it right there on the field and usually within a few minutes he can be back um but you you you have to do this you can't rely on certainly can't rely on the players to self-report because hockey players aren't wired that way they will play through it and you can't rely on their coaches or trainers to always have their best interest in heart and to always see things that that might get missed and in the the speed of the game. It is, it remains weird that we don't really apply any of this to goaltenders. Sure, yeah.

I get it, right? I mean, taking a goalie out for five minutes is a much bigger deal than taking anyone else out where they miss a couple of shifts. But it is very strange that like the guys who get hit in the head with pucks and run into. and all of that stuff are seem exempt. They're not technically exempt, but they kind of seem to be. But yeah,

good for the PA to be getting involved in this, but let's see what it ends up looking like. Yep. I like this thing from the end of the quote from Marty Walsh, who, so the announcement was made at a, Marty Walsh got an award, Marty Walsh, the head of the NHLPA,

former mayor of Boston, got an award from the Concussion Legacy Foundation, which supports patients, I'm reading from the AP story, which supports patients and families struggling with the symptoms of traumatic brain injuries. And then this is what Marty Walsh said in announcing that they were working on getting this committee together. The committee will be guided by leading medical experts in this field to help players better understand CET. That's good.

That's not just like, you know, we're not doing amulet talk, I guess, is kind of, uh, because, oh, fuck, someone who's just talking the other day about, about this. And remember when, uh, was it Randy Carlisle was like, well, you know, the helmets these guys were that gets a head so heated up. So you got to think about that. We're, we're out of those days.

That was like a decade ago. More than that, probably. So that's good news. Um, but yeah, just wanted to, to highlight that. Mm-hmm. The other thing that is very interesting in the works, maybe. This is a tweet from Alan Walsh from yesterday, Super Agent Alan Walsh. Quote, I'm hearing the I-IHF is working on a proposal to include three-on-three hockey as a separate sport for the upcoming Olympics.

Awesome. Let's do it. I got to say, I was amazed. I had heard that this was out there, but I had not seen the Allen Walsh. Walsh tweet until he sent it to me. I was amazed at the number of hockey fans being very negative about this. And maybe I shouldn't be because

you know, the crusty traditional hockey fan is almost a cliche at this point. But I don't get why you wouldn't want this. This is not replacing five on five. No, of course. This is more hockey.

And like the thing that is interesting about this. So three on three basketball, they added it, I think, two Olympics ago in addition to regular basketball. And, you know, USA basketball has like LeBron James on the roster or whatever, like, you know, the best basketball players in the world. I'm going to read you

the guys that were on the three-on-three men's team. It's a four-man roster. Canyon Barry, Jimmer Fredet, Kareem Maddox, Dylan Travis. You ever hear of any of these guys? I've heard of Jimmer, but I didn't know

that still playing basketball. I'm going to look these guys up quickly on basketball reference, but I'm going to assume that the combined number of NBA games they've played is extremely not big. Career 241 for Jimmer. Okay, great. Kareem Maddox doesn't seem like he ever played NBA basketball. Who are the other guys I said?

Canyon Barry. It seems like he was drafted but never played in the NBA. Nope, yeah. He played for Charleston and Florida in college. So, yeah, like these are just like guys who are specifically tailored to play a very different style of basketball. And so the idea that like you'd be seeing Connor McDavid or Austin Matthews or whoever in the three on three, that's just not going to happen. They're going to pick like... Probably not.

It could. I mean, the thing is, we don't know what this would look like. Sure. You could do it as you could say, yeah, and it's got to be three guys off of your 20-man roster. And, you know, the same – and Connor McDavid could win multiple gold medals in the same Olympics. How often have we said, like, you know, if some swimmer can win 10 gold medals in the same Olympics, why shouldn't a hockey player have the chance to win? more than one. Or they could do it a different.

They could say, all right, we're going to send the B team. Basically, each nation's going to pick the 10 guys who didn't make the Olympics and they're going to go. Or maybe it's specialist. Maybe it's, you know, it could be like, you know, isn't it soccer where they have like an age cutoff? So it's like the younger guy. Maybe they say, you know what, 21 and younger.

Send your best pride and just let them fly around out there. There's a bunch of different ways it could go. How can you be mad about this without even? knowing what it would look like. My real question is, are they talking about doing, I mean, the Alan Wells quote is for the upcoming Olympics. So that would be like in whatever, two years. Not even, year and a half, right?

Because the 2026 Olympics would be in, in February or whatever of 2026. So like a little, like a year and a half, like I said, yeah. That would be so weird that they just were like, Oh, yeah, that's an Olympic sport now. Yeah. Well, especially, like, what are the rules? What are the, like, there isn't, like, well-established there on three hockey rules with apologies to the trillion-dollar league that is imminent. Yeah, it'd be a lot to figure out.

I'd be surprised. But you know what? Just extra hockey. Yeah, that's fine. Nobody's replacing the... And nobody's... going to be like, oh, well, this is, this three-on-three, this is, like, more important than the five. Like, you can still obsess over the five-on-five.

What this mainly does is it just gives, if Canada, if we lose to the U.S., it gives us something to pretend is better. It's actually more important. Yeah, that's what every sports net article would say. But, like, you know, I would love to see just, like, I looked up all these guys. They all played at, like, Princeton or, like, Florida or whatever, and, like, had good college careers, but they aren't Jim or Fredette where he played 200-something NBA games, right? I would love it if there was like one NBA or NHL.

This is getting all confusing. I would love it if there was one NHL guy. And then three guys where it's like, yeah, he was like really good for Western Michigan 12 years ago. And he's just kind of plugged away in Europe or whatever. You'd love that. Oh, man, this is, you've been training your whole life for random college guys. getting suddenly being in the Olympics. This is...

Fly my ass to Italy. I have a lot to say about these guys. But yeah, that would be... Look, like you said, more hockey. Sounds good to me, brother. I hope it happens. That's all. A couple other little pieces of news here

and then we'll let you guys go. The Colorado Avalanche announced that Valerian Natchewskii will play on the 15th, November 15th, I believe he's eligible to return on like the 12th or the 13th, so they're getting him back in the lineup pretty quickly thereafter. Yeah, there had been, it's funny, there had been like a lot of will he ever come back,

would they ever want him back, all of this stuff? I guess when you have like nine injuries. God, maybe it's a little bit easier to figure out. It's crazy how many guys, like the guys they've called up And it's like, who is that? Like, I feel like I'm pretty, pretty aware of most of the guys that, like, are NHL-ish, NHL adjacent, you know? And then, then you, then you read me a list of guys.

They've already used 27 players this season at various points. You know, guys that just like, that's a good number for a lot of teams over 82 games. And Colorado is like, yeah, we did that. We did that in the first month of the season. Their current injury list slash Valeri Nchuskin's not eligible to return yet. Ross Colton, Jonathan Druwen, Gabe Landisog, Arturi Lekinen, although he's supposed to be back pretty soon here, I think tonight maybe. Nichushkin, like I said, Tucker Pullman and Miles Wood all out right now. One thing of those guys have in common is, with the exception of Pullman, I guess.

guess, is those guys are all forwards. So they're really digging deep into that, that AHL depth. So, yeah, they, oh, shoot, what was the other stat? Nikita, I don't know how to pronounce this, Prishapov, I think. He was drafted in the seventh round this past season, and they had to call him up for a game. he was 217th overall and they had to call him up at age 18 or whatever. And I saw somebody somewhere. It might even have been in our Discord saying this was the third player from the draft to debut in the NHL.

It's been like the top two picks and then this guy. Him. Yeah. He'd a Prishapov. Definitely a guy everybody. Drafted so deep into the draft that you actually, if you're looking for a, other guys drafted that deep, you have to skip a few years because you... Yeah.

In the 30-team league, there wasn't that many picks. So you got to go back to when there were eight and nine rounds. Pretty wild. Yeah, one of the latest pick players to ever debut in the season, they were drafted. Everybody made fun when I picked him as my calder. He's right up there, brother. When I bet the mortgage on it, but now... He, uh...

And, you know, just to really clarify... things. He got into 13 and a half minutes of that game the other night. It's not like they were like, okay, we'll like put you on the roster, but we're only skating 11 forwards. They were like, no, we need you out there, Big Dog. And he's like, how does two shots on goal sound? And they said

sounds great, thanks. That's all you're looking for, I guess. So yeah, Natushkin back, you know, 10 days from now, whatever it is. And it'll be interesting. Like you said, there was a lot of talk about, like,

He might just be done with this organization. And now circumstances have converged to make it where we don't know what's going to happen. Yep. Got to love that. That's cool. The Leafs traded Timothy Lilligran finally to San Jose for Matthew Benning. Matthew, why did I call him that? It's Matt Benning.

Is he in trouble? Yeah. Me and his dad, Jim, only call him that when we're pissed off at him. Matt Benning, a third and a sixth. So not from a Leaf's perspective, big picture, not great asset management. This was a first round pick. Somebody they drafted, developed, brought along slowly, and then just seemed to sour on. Couldn't really get in the lineup regularly with Sheldon Keefe, and then new coach comes in. It continues. A guy that has a lot of the stats, people like him, a lot of the numbers folks think that, you know, there's maybe some more layers to this guy than the Leafs were seeing. But you can't say they didn't give him a chance. I mean, he was there forever. And as far as, you know, if you're going to dump a guy, they gave him a $3 million contract in the summer because it's the Leafs. And he won at one. So what else are you going to do?

if you're going to dump a guy who's barely playing for you and has a $3 million salary, they did okay, you know, to get a reasonably high pick. And, you know, Matt Benning is somebody they'll just bury in the HL probably and have a misdepth. You know, it's sort of a bummer of an ending to that long-drawn-out Leafs saga. But if it had to end in a trade imminently for cap reasons, I guess they did fine. Yeah. Let me ask you a question, Sean.

I don't know if you know this. Since the Austin Matthews draft, the 2016 draft, how many guys do you think the Leafs have selected in, from 2017 to present, who are still with the organization? Oh, boy. Or not the organization, who are like NHL players who are still with the organization. I mean, it's not a lot. That's why I'm asking.

I can't believe that this is. Despite the fact that, you know, it was Kyle Dubas for a lot of that time, and he's viewed as being a guy who's, you know, picking the young guys, and they didn't. They, they, what is there probably two or three, maybe? It's, let's see here. Pontus Holmberg. Yeah.

Nick Aberzizi, Nick Robertson, Matthew Nyes, and then depending on if you want to count Fraser Minton and Dennis Hildeby. Yeah. So, I mean, and out of that group, Nize is the only one that's really any kind of important piece beyond just interchangeable depth.

And Nick Robertson, they were hoping for more, but he hasn't provided it this year. So, yeah, it's a good... It's crazy. That's a good way to not supplement a super highly paid core is to just keep whiffing on draft picks. Yeah, and, you know, obviously they did have the one first round pick,

Rodi on Amirov, died tragically. Not that long ago, right? Like earlier. It was about a year ago now. Yeah, but, yeah. And like, so, you know, obviously they had high hopes for him. I can't, you know. horrible what happened, but, you know, they, we're talking about, what, seven years of drafting?

And, like, Sandine traded, Jersey traded. And now Lilligran, like, that's tough, man. Yep. It's not how you keep winning in this league, that's for sure. Finally, one last bit of a bit of like transactions news, I guess you would say. The Bruins signed Tyler Johnson to like a league minimum contract. He's going to be at the bottom of their roster. Fixed it.

Hey, they need, they need rings in the room, you know? That's right. Good for him. Yeah. Got a zip off to Chicago. You sort of forgot about him. He's healthy, ready to go. Yeah.

Yeah. And a classic guy where like, he. Yeah. He signed a contract. Like someone was like, do you want a little more than your worth? And he was like, yeah. And then like slowed down due to age. How old is, how old is Tyler Johnson?

I mean, he's got to be early 30s, you would think. Yeah. So it's, yeah, you're right. He's 34. A guy that makes a little bit too much money on the cap and that ends up sort of becoming his reputation, right? Yep. Oh, Tyler Johnson is bad. No.

Tyler Johnson, the asset might be bad because. there's too high a number attached to it, but it doesn't mean the player is no good. So, yeah. Yep. I think that's it. I think there's no more NHL news. Got it all.

We did it, folks. All right. Sean, why don't you hit him with the plugs and we'll get out of here? Come find me at the athletic. Listen to me on the athletic hockey show with Sean Gentilly.

Tomorrow, we don't have Frankie, but I think we might have Shana joining us. So that'll be... Wow. I will once again be the third smartest person on the show. Yeah, you can find my writing there. I don't know what's coming later this week. Probably Hall of Fame stuff.

Okay. You have the Hall of Fame induction weekend, so I think we will... I will be probably doing Hall of Fame stuff over the rest of the week. This is something I always forget. When do they announce the next class? So they announced the classes in the summer

And then they deduct them in November Right Okay So we got until like June In fact I think if I'm not mistaken this year Wasn't it like done Didn't they announce the class like at the same time Remember we had like the Stanley Cup final

The draft agency was like seven hours apart And they're like you know what Now is the perfect time To let everyone know who's in So yeah I'll be I'll be doing that Um, who's going in this year? I already forget. Sounds like you do too. Yeah, I, I kind of do. It's, uh, it's dad's soup is in, uh, Jeremy Roanick, uh,

Shea Weber on the men's side. I think that's... What a group. Uh, on the men's side. They did induct, uh, two women, Natalie Darwitz and Chrissy Wendell. And of course, Cole, of course, Colin. Yeah. the maximum amount of women that there can be. That's smart. Colin Campbell, everyone's favorite.

And David Poil. You've got to get him in there. David Poil, the winningest GM in the history of the NHL. Yeah. Well, there you have it. As good a group as you're going to find. Thanks to the Hockey Hall of Fame for all they do. And then for me, yeah, elite prospects, head over to EPRRingside.com.

Use the code. I love EP when you sign up. etc, et cetera, 15 months for the price of 12, annual subscription only, of course. And then Patreon.com slash puck suit where me and Sean just did a bonus episode just yesterday talking about various early trends in the league for players, for teams, that sort of thing. And on a scale of 1 to 10, how much we believed that was going to continue. We talked about the capitals. We talked about whatever, the Vesna race, these sorts of things.

a lot of fun with it. And people seem to like it. So it was a new thing we tried out. Seems like a success. So check all that out at patreon.com slash Puck Soup. Thank you for listening to this podcast. And we'll catch you next week for a bit of a different format because we have some scheduling conflicts for coming up the next few weeks.

And we're trying to work all that out. So, you know, stay tuned. And we'll talk to you later. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.