Puck Soup - Nine-Plus Rakes

Episode Date: October 14, 2025

Sean and Ryan talk about the Sabres, surprising starts, new contracts, and milestones.

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I'm Sean McNeu from The Athletic. And look, okay, it's too early in the season to say anything, really. You know. Yep. All right, goodbye, everybody. We'll be back in January. Well, so, okay, I'll give you a great example of this.

After like two games, or maybe even it was just the first game now that I think about it. everybody in Detroit's like, we're a deep shit. This is going so bad for us. We're going to have to blow up this team. And now, like, you know, they're two and one or whatever now. And everybody's like, it's actually fine. We're great. Yeah, but they beat the Leafs twice.

So that doesn't. Especially this year. Yeah. I can tell you anything. Exactly. But, no, it's, I was just like, we're giving the, if these guys don't pick it up, I'm going to kill myself speech. Yeah.

Like, game one? Yeah. Okay. All right. But I've seen a, I've seen a graphic a couple of times so far this year of like, who's going to be the last undefeated team? And first of all, what a funny way to frame that, you know? It's like not even a week into the season. We're like, could be anybody.

It's like, man, not really. There are three undefeated teams still left in the league. Do you know who they are? I do because I have the standings in front of me. Okay. Well, it's Carolina, Seattle, and Dallas. They're all two and oh. I don't think we need to do a graphic for this every time somebody loses.

Yeah. Two of those teams feel a little different than the third team, but... Yeah, Dallas sucks. Yeah, that's it. I got to say, shout out to the one guy who emails me every time we talk crap about Seattle to patiently explain to me why we're wrong. It's actually good, yeah. And the Cracken are better than we think, better than we're giving them credit for.

And in fairness, we're not giving them credit for very much at all. That's exactly right. So, yeah, you're 80 games away from getting to send me the 82 and O email. You know what? You don't even have to wait that long. If it gets to 60 and 0, you can spike the football in front of me. You really could. Yeah.

We're going to have a lot to say. about all these teams. You know, once they get up to get up around the eight game mark, I feel like we'll feel, okay, we can kind of see at least a direction at this point. But there is one team, you know, you know, that we're all set. Dude, I put it on the headline of my first weekly ratings. I said it's too early to know anything at all except about this team. the Buffalo Sabres stink again.

Who saw this one coming? And by the way, I did not hear, like, I had been doing a thing lately where I don't always wait into the comments. Sure. And so I had somebody on Twitter or Blues Sky or whatever was, like sent me a reply, and they're like, oh, wow, based on the comment section, apparently 95% of your readers are Sabres fans. And I was like, uh-oh. Oh, the Sabers fans must be mad. Nope. It was just Sabers fans going like, yeah, this sucks.

We hated here. In fact, if anything, you're not being hard enough on this team. Yeah, exactly. They are 0 and 3 to start the year. And I'm just going to give you a couple of stats here. They've been outshot 101 to 88. That's not like terrible, but it's not what you're looking for. You know?

You don't want to be outshot by like four or whatever a game. But the real stat here, is they've bet I would score 10 to 2 in three games. And I can't, it's got to be so frustrating because, yeah, they've been bad for 14 years in a row. But then in the summer, they changed nothing. So like, this should have worked. I don't. Well, okay.

They've tried nothing other than trading one of their better players. Right. That's what I was going to say is they, they think, they hope they bought two nifes. for a dime, you know? Yeah. And I don't know if it's going to actually work out like that for them, but that's what they think. Part of the problem is one of the guys they traded for, Michael Kesselring, he's hurt. He hasn't played.

Zach Benson, he didn't play yesterday or a couple days ago against the Bruins with, it says here a face injury. I was at hockey games all weekend, so I didn't see what happened here. That's not good. But whenever it says injury type, face, that's bad, my opinion. I would agree with that. And then, I mean, the real kick in the balls here is Josh Norris. Seems like he hurt his shoulder again. Yeah.

Just taking a face off. That's it. And this is one of those things where it's like, injuries happen. They play a huge role very often, and we, we being media and fans and everyone who observes and comments on this league tend to maybe not give enough credit

to the luck of injuries or absence of injury. Oh, totally, yeah. But also, this is a guy who's the knock on him as he served all the time. That was why he was traded out of Ottawa. Totally. And the sabers knew that and went, yeah, but maybe it'll work for us. And then this happens.

This was not, like this was a foreseeable risk, let's say. For sure, but also like, specifically, again, it's a non-contact injury. He takes a face off and, like, slumps over and goes off the ice. Yeah. You know, like, it, it's tough because obviously, like you say, he has a history of this. I believe this is, if right now they're only calling it an upper body injury,

but like, let's be honest. Yeah, we don't know that it's the same injury as before because we never know anything, but yeah. I went and I looked at his injury history because I'm like, doesn't it, it's hard when you're a guy like me or you and you're going to keep track of like every single guy who gets hurt chronically and be like, is that the guy with the knee or the back problem or whatever?

So when he hurt what seems like his shoulder, I want, he has a history of shoulder injuries, right? He's missed time with four different shoulder injuries, not including this one, since 2022 alone. Or maybe not four different shoulder injuries, like individual injuries, but a shoulder injury has sidelined him for at least a little bit of time,

four different times since 2022. And that doesn't count a few upper body injuries that got listed in there and who knows, you know, maybe that one of those is a concussion. Maybe one of those is like an R, like, I don't know, whatever it is. But the point is this guy has a lot of upper body injuries. And it gets to a certain point where even if, you know,

they're saying like eight weeks or whatever the timeline is, do you think he's going to be like, and you know what? When I come back, can I please take a bunch of faceoffs? Yeah. You know, like how, at what point does it fundamentally change the way he plays the game? or they count on him to play the game. It's, yeah, it, it, I mean, I'll tell you, obviously up here in Ottawa, like, he was a well-liked player.

Everybody seems to really like this. You're rooting for him. Like, it's not. Oh, it's brutal, man. Yeah. It's, you know, injuries are never like a player's fault, but it's not even like you're looking at him going, like, well, he just, he plays a style that lends itself to, he's just had rotten luck with it.

with his body holding up. But also, this was a known risk when the Sabres went and traded for a guy with a lot of time left on a pretty big contract. Huge contract. Which, you know, obviously if it's LTIR or whatever, then you can live with that. But, yeah, five years left at $8 million. And, okay, the other thing you've got to say about this team is Ugo Beka Lukan and who's supposed to be their number one goalie in theory hasn't played. Yes.

As far as I know, no timeline on him being able to be in the lineup? Yeah, and I don't feel like that is no timeline in the sense of it being like a super serious injury. It's just. They just don't know, yeah. They don't know where they're not putting the information out there. Yeah, because I went and looked for that. and it did not seem to be out there. But you say that and you go,

well, surely they're 0 and 3, that means their backup goalie, who is Alex Lyon in this case, he's been a disaster. He's running at 9-19. He's doing everything he possibly can to keep these guys in it. And they're just like,

what if we scored two goals in one game, in three games? Sucker scored, Thompson scored, end of list. you know, like that's the problem is they don't have any offensive punch at all. And it's like I'm looking at their last season. Yep. When they start last year, now granted last year they had to go to Prague to play the Devils and that way.

So, I mean, not a great comparison. But they started last year, 0 and 3 outscored. 10 to 3 in those three games. Right. And it's like, you know, it didn't torpedo their season because they beat the Panthers in the next game, but then they lost two more and they just never fully got their head above water and then, you know, seemed like they had clawed their way back and then had the big losing streak. But that's one of those things where you look back and you go, we can't do another start like last year.

Oh and 3, that would score 10 to 3. All right. Well, they didn't. They didn't completely repeat it because they're down to 0 and 3 outscored 10 to 2. Right. The other thing to say about that, though, is they scored a lot of goals last year. I just clicked on it 265 last season. That's well above the league average.

And so the problem was defense and goal tending, which is part of the reason they made that trade over the summer, right? Like they trade Paterch away because they're like, we're full up on goals. right? So let's go get Michael Kesselring. That's a guy that is like projectable to us as a guy who can help us on the blue line and maybe shore up all these problems we have. And then like if Josh Done is 80% of J.J. Peturca, we'll take that. Again, it's two nickels for a dime is what they were thinking.

And, you know, Kessel Rings hurt. Don't You know He's barely He plays 15 minutes a night Uh To be fair to him He has eight shots on goal in three games

That's a pretty good number All right You accept that for sure You know Comparison Tage Thompson He has 18 So that's more

But you know You want that guy shooting the puck Um Anyway point being The The Sabers like you said earlier, Sean, they've tried almost nothing,

and they're way out of ideas. It's, and like normally... That's the one thing they did. It's crazy. When you get... When you're starting goalie, who is expected to be a strength, is out.

Most teams you go, all right, let's hit the pause button on actual evaluation. But the thing is, it's just the sabers, there can't be a pause button. They're the fucking sabers, man. You know?

Like, at the end of the day, you just, I'm sure you saw the video of the kid leaving the home opener? I did not. No, he's just, he's just walking down the sidewalk, screaming, the last time they made the playoffs, I was six years old, why the fuck did I come here? I could have been at home. It's really funny. I love it. Something like that anyway. Yeah, he was mad.

And here's the last thing I want to say about the savers. You, I get why that kid's mad. you don't get, you don't buy a Sabres home opener ticket and like hope for the best man. It's, you, you have to go into these games going, I wasted $80. And then if they win, that's like you were playing with house money all along. You, you bet on a long shot and it came in, you know? I just, if I were a Sabers fan, I just be like, who fucking, whatever. Like, I couldn't, I couldn't escape the apathy.

of it's 14 years no playoffs already trending toward 15. I'll tell you, man, if you're Terry Begouler or Kevin Adams or Yarmow or any of those guys, you better hope there's a lot more fans like that guy than there are fans like you because the apathy is what kills you. And you're right. Logically, there's no, I don't know, I think it's going to turn ugly quick in Buffalo. And again, like, Lindy Ruff's already, you know,

who could have told you that wasn't going to work out? Oh, everybody, right, exactly. Like, that's the problem. That is the problem, ultimately, is they make moves and you go, I get, I get why they would do this, but like,

how do they think this is going to be a thing for them that works out? Yeah. I mean, I can't say I hate it, the Lindy Ruff hire, but this, it was having it turned out that the guy had lost his basketball was not a super hard outcome to see come. And as soon as they did it, you're just like, this is so everybody remembers like 2007. Yeah. That's all this is.

It's not like you looked at Lindy Ruff and went, oh, here's a guy with answers coming in. It was 1999 more than that they were pointing back to almost. But they were good in the early days of the, they were really good in the early days of the cap here. They were. They were. And he was the coach. I hate this.

I hate like, is there, like, there's no fan base you feel more sympathy, empathy. I don't know. No, for sure. Like they're campy. They're good fans, man. Look, people are paying money to go to Sabers games in 20, 24, 25, I guess it's now 2025, period. Like, you can't say these aren't probably the best fans in all of sports.

They're like, yeah, I know we're dog shit. Like, when you walk in the building, you know how they do like fan giveaways? They hand you a fell forward again award. Like first 15,000 fans through the gates. you get a fell for it again award. And they're like, I love getting these. I get one every year at the first home game. The between periods promotion, there's a lady named Lucy.

She's holding the football. She can't wait for you to fucking kick this. That's right. Yeah. You get to come down on the ice and kick the football. All right. So where do they get their first win? Because they've got Ottawa tomorrow at home.

They've got the Panthers at home on the weekend. And they beat the Panthers. They got the first. one against the Panthers last year. Then it's at Montreal, then Detroit, then Toronto twice. So, I mean, they're basically doing the tour of the, in theory, vulnerable teams that they have to, if they're going to be in the playoffs, they've got to catch up to. So my thing is, this is hockey.

Any team can win any game, right? Like, it could be auto, like you said, they beat Florida last year for their first win. So, like, I'm, okay, sure. they'll beat Montreal two games from now. But like, if they don't, fucking, who's going to be surprised and who cares, ultimately? You know what I mean? Like, are we, I'll put it another way. What's their record at the end of October?

How many wins do they have? Two, three? How optimistic do we want to be? Are they a 500 team at the end of October? I mean, at the end of October, they will have played 11 games. So they need five wins. They need to go 5-2-1 to get to 500 by the end of October. That's a tough, that's a tough climb.

They're not playing any truly elite teams other than Florida, but that's a tough climb to get back to 500, which is not playoff territory. So, I mean, it's just your, do we think, does Lindy make it out of the? The answer is no, they're not going, they're not going five, two and one. all likelihood. Right? Like, hey, put it on the fucking bulletin board.

I don't think they're going five, two, and one in the next day game. Put a picture. Okay, here's what, if you're the sabers, you need to get a cardboard cut out of Ryan Lambert with, I guess, only eight pieces of clothing. Well, we said they have to win five. So five or six, five and a half pieces of clothing. So it's going to be pretty, but yeah, you tear those off as you win with a little, like, bubble that says you stink or whatever.

but there's a lot of people who think they stink, and it's not, does Lindy make it through the opening part of the season, given that he is, their owner is cheap, but also he's the only guy in the league who is on an expiring contract. The thing you always point to of like they have a few days off, they don't really have a few days off. Which I should point out never works for me. I'm always trying to look at days off

and I'm looking at a point in the schedule where they go from a bad, like they go from a bunch of bad matchups, which is to say good teams to like suddenly you get to play the sharks. And then you're like, oh, we want to, we want the new guy to get a win. Yeah, the problem is there's no good matchup for the Sabres.

I could see. Right, like they're looking across the ice at every single team going out, we're probably losing this one. Yeah. If it went really bad, the spot that I look at is that back to back on consecutive nights with the Leafs, where they're going to host the Leafs and then they go to Toronto. So if they host the Leafs and it goes bad and they get booed off the ice,

then you lose the next night in Toronto. Then you've got two days off before Columbus at home. Right. That would be the point where I get worried. But I guess, I don't know, we'll see. hopefully, like I'll just openly say, hopefully we're wrong. Yeah, I love to see the Sabres get back into this, but.

That's exactly right, because as much as it's funny to like laugh when teams kind of circle the drain like this, it's 14 years. I'm done laughing, you know what I mean? This is Homer Simpson falling off the cliff. Yeah.

In that one episode. And then, you know, like, whatever. I guess hiring Kevin Adams was when they loaded him into the ambulance, and you're like, okay, finally, we're all set. And then he slides out the back of the ambulance. Ah, who, he? Did you like...

Did Sid Show Bob even step on the rake 14 times, or did even that get cut after, like, 10 or 11? Oh, that's too many. That's a really good question. I'm going to Google this. How many times? I feel like that one even like... There's no way it's 14.

Yeah, I don't... Nine rakes. Nine rakes. Oh, God. You're already five rakes past the... Side Show Bob. You know what? I feel like that could be a really good sports rule.

That, like, anything bad that happens to a team up to nine times in a row is funny. And then after that, it's just like, I don't know that you can laugh anymore. On the other hand, the New York Jets exist. So I don't... I don't know. I may have to check in with Greg on that one.

He's probably not super busy these days, so I'll ask him what he thinks of that. All right. So it's not a surprise that the Sabre stink. Is there anything that does surprise you that's happened so far this year? I mean, there's certainly teams that are doing better than I would have expected. Yeah, sure. I don't know if that counts as a surprise because I don't necessarily believe that it's going to continue. But, I mean, like Boston and Nashville, both.

Yeah. Already at, well, no, Boston, 3 and 1, Nashville, 2.0 and 1. So, I mean, that's impressive. So I wrote, okay, hold on. I wrote down three teams. Well, I wrote down five teams, but I have three teams in my pleasant surprises list, let's say. Okay. That are in the same division as the Buffalo Sabres.

You know what I mean? That's a good. So it's like Florida, I'm like, wow, I can't believe they're 3.0 and 1 and 1 and 0, I should say, and they look this fucking good. They're really, you know, they look like the Florida Panthers. They've outshot their opponents, 124 to 89. That's really good considering who's missing. Kulikov, Kach, Barkov, they're all missing time. No big deal.

Who cares? Not a problem for us. Um, like you said, the Bruins, another team, they just look really good. Tampa, Tampa scored a bunch on them yesterday. And that's, that's not what you're looking for, obviously. But otherwise, like, you can't really complain about the start. They, they look very solid defensively apart from that Tampa game. And even then Tampa's going to score on you.

What are you going to do, you know? And then Detroit's another one. They start out stinky. And now they're, so this is. the thing, go ahead. I will say they you know, full credit for the wins, they got outplayed

for a lot of yesterday afternoon's game in Toronto. What was the final shots in that one? Like 40 to 20 or something? And it wasn't a... 40 to yeah, 15 to 40.

Yeah, okay, so they got outshot 40 to 15 and it was a close game light. it wasn't like a score effects thing where they went up big early. So, you know, a win's a win. But I didn't feel great. And the other thing with Detroit that worries you a little bit, I think, is, you know, game one, John Gibson starts. He gets shelled.

Games two and three, it's Cam Talbot, who is very, very good. Now, you know, you're happy to have a good goaltender. And if Cam Talbot's that guy, great. But John Gibson was supposed to be the difference maker, right? The guy that you went out and got. Well, especially early on, if you don't have like a settled number one goalie, I'm all in favor of the ride your guy. Like, oh, you won?

You get to go again. Like, that's totally, that totally makes sense to me. But I wanted to say, too, that like up until yesterday's game, they had broadly outshot their opponents. Part of that is the score effects from the Montreal game. but through two games their shots were whatever 66 to 40 for for for them and that look if they if they can if they can get a little more than 60% of the shots over every two games I think they're going to be in great shape um for them it's just like getting off to you know again if they can just win two out of

every three games they play we're good here you know um I don't I don't know how a sustain it is, blah, blah, blah, but, like, you know, they're a, they're an interesting thing. I didn't have them as a playoff team. And through three games, they're certainly, to some extent, playing like one. So I can't be, I can't be too mad about it. Obviously, Pittsburgh. They're winning games. That's nice.

A couple wins, yeah. I don't have, and again, they get shelled in their most recent games. So maybe who cares? Maybe we're over it. But, you know, just putting a big delay on that Sydney Crosby trade. And then... Knock that off. Yeah, just fucking trade the guy.

I'm sick of this. And then, like you said, Nashville. They're winning. I don't know that they're playing well. But here's what it really is. UC Soros is standing on his head for them after he didn't last. season. Yep. And that was always going to be the key. We figured, right? So, yeah, you want to talk a little bit more in depth about Seattle? There's nothing to say. Whatever, it's fucking two games. Who gives a shit? But like good for them. You know?

I mean, yeah. They beat Vegas and Anaheim, two teams in their division that feel like, at least with Vegas, you're definitely saying they're a playoff team. But Anaheim feels like a playoff team or at least a adjacent to it. And they beat them. So that's good. But, oh, it says here, their next six games are all on the road. And most of them are on the East Coast. So that's probably not that good for them. Anyway.

Why don't we take a break, unless you had any other teams. Do you have any other teams? Not at the top. Are we concerned about? any of the one and two teams or that? No. Okay, so there are only two winless teams, and it's the Sabres and the Islanders in the Islanders.

Right. I don't think that's a... The Islanders, the Islanders are tricky because they had the number one overall pick, which, by the way, Matt Schaefer looks good. Oh, my God. He looks good, he looks fun, even more than he looks good, which is not to say he doesn't look good,

but, like, I'm already in... on this kid. But they're not doing like the full rebuild thing, but I think they could. I'm telling you right now, man. I continue to sit there. I'm maybe on my own on it, but Ilya Sorokin is the starting goaltender for game one of the Oilers playoff run. I love it.

Beyond that, I mean, the Leafs and the Lightning are both one and two, but, I mean, there's certainly concern in Toronto and they play Nashville tonight. So if they're one and three after that, then, you know, we get into that. But I don't think the big stars aren't scoring yet other than empty netters. And you imagine they would. Tampa, I'm not concerned. Ottawa, one and two was Ottawa beat Tampa had a comeback. The concern in Ottawa is that Brady Kuchuk might have been.

Might have been hurt, well, was hurt. Oh, I miss this. Yeah, well, oh, you're not going to believe it. First of all, he started some crap after the whistle. And then he heard his hand, it looked like, and it wasn't really obvious what happened. But you could tell he heard it. This is going to blow you away. A Kachuk brother got hurt and, like, did like a whole lap around the ice, like, shaking the affected injury so that everyone knew.

Then he went to the dressing room, and this is going to blow you away. then he came back from the dressing room. Whoa. Is that true? But then he left again. But yeah, it's, yeah. It says here wrist, parenthesis, wrist. And, like, he was kind of, and again, it was strange.

It wasn't like he got, you know, he fell on it or somebody hacked him or whatever that I saw. Obviously, if he were to miss a significant amount of time, that's very bad news in, you know, Ottawa, but one and two. Vancouver's one and two. I think we can live with that. The Kings are one, two, and one, but nobody thought they would be good other than Ken Holland. I mean, I guess you also look at the Golden Knights, one win in three games. Yeah.

But I don't know. I'm having a very hard time digging up any serious concern over any of these teams. You know, I meant to pull this up because you mentioned the Kings and the Cody C.C. Brian Dumlin-Pair is going about as well as you would expect. Five on five, why don't you give me some guesses for their, let's start with their total goals four percentage. How do you, what do you think that is? Ooh, it's only four games in. This could be nasty.

33%. No, their goals four percentages. They've been outscored five to nothing. Okay. So let me run those numbers. Mm-hmm. What about expected goals percentage? So that should be better.

That should be, can that be 33%. Like, it can't be. I mean, it can be 33. It isn't. It's 28.9. But it can be 33 for sure. All right. Hey, you know what is 33 and a third?

Is their coursey number? Okay. Well, there you're cool. Shot attempts on the ice. They're getting one out of every three. That ain't bad. They've only been out attempted 48 to 24 when they're on the ice in 39 minutes of hockey. That's pretty good.

And then shots, of course, they're only minus 13 for four appearances here. We're rocking and rolling, baby. Only they had like a Gavrikov type guy. It's crazy. They could have locked it down a little bit more, in my opinion. But, yeah, it's tough, man. You know, it's the classic saying, my friends, the Zoob's always says. I hate to say I told you so, but I did try to warn you.

Mm-hmm. You know? Mm-hmm. If Ken Holland had called me and asked, should I sign these guys? I'd have been screaming, don't do it, Ken. It's that simple. Don't sign both of them. Maybe you can get away with one of them, but, well, anyway.

way. Yeah, why don't we take a break here and we'll be right back to talk about some big contract extensions that happened in the last week. All right, we're back. Now, Sean, I mentioned earlier. We're going to talk about some contract extensions. Do you want to go in reverse chronological order? No, I want to do Lane Hudson. Okay. That's reverse it is. Eight years, $8.85 million for Lane Hudson, signs a big extension in Montreal, that I don't know. It always seemed like it was coming, but it just was a matter of getting it done. Getting it done, but this is a remarkably low number, a remarkably team-friendly number. Is it not?

It is and it isn't. Because contextually, no player who's not even eligible for an offer sheet yet has ever signed for this much money in the history of the league. So there's that. Yeah. That having been said, if I'm Lane Hudson, I'm waiting until I'm eligible for an offer sheet

because I can tack an extra million and a half on that, no problem. Yes. Right. What I'm not doing is I'm not signing, and here we go again, a max-length contract for my entire prime in a rising cap world that pays me less than Jackson LaCom and Luke Hughes just got.

That's exactly right. Coming off a calder season, coming off, in theory, well, no, I was going to say you're as valuable as you're ever going to be. That's not the case. I mean, obviously he projects to be more. But he finished in the top 10 of Norris voting last year. This is not a case where it's like, well, you know, I sort of underachieve. I got a, like, I wrote about it in the newsletter this morning,

which should be in your inbox by now, assuming you're subscribed, which you better be. If you're not, you're not my friend. Like, any time you've got a guy who's got, especially one year of experience in the NHL, there's an enormous range of outcomes. And you've got to figure out how to spread that risk around between player and team. And I said in the piece, I said, Havs fans think this kid is the next Bob Yor.

Right. I think it's not impossible that he is the next Shane Gospier, which is to say a good defenseman who has a very good rookie year and goes on to be a good offensive player in the NHL who plays for a long time, but is not winning Norris trophies or whatever else. You look at the two rookie seasons. They're pretty comparable. Even then, though, like I struggle to find risk here for the habs, short of injury or off-ice issue or something like that.

I look at what feels like a reasonable floor for Lane Hudson. And I struggle to see a scenario where even at that floor, the HABs are like, oh man, we're kicking ourselves for signing this deal. Versus the ceiling, which is the next Kail McCar, the next Queen Hughes. I mean, that seems like a stretch. But if it's that, the risk is Lane Hudson just kissed away $30, 40, 50 million on this contract. Right. So the one thing to keep in mind about Lane Hudson's production is that they count secondary assists and primary assists the same, but they carry very different values.

I think that's pretty reasonable to say. And Hudson last year, he had 65 points. 34 of them were secondary assists. This year he has one point. It was a secondary assist as well. So you can call this guy Mr. A2, you know, like this is the guy, he's getting on the score sheet, but he's not the guy getting it to the guy who scores. And that's fine. Look, he's a, you watch the kid play. Unbelievably dynamic offensive player makes things happen.

Says here he had almost 300 shot attempts last season. That's fucking crazy from the blue line, from a rookie blue liner specifically. And so, like you say, Sean, you can. It's so easy to see the upside here. I'm personally saying I'd want to see it a little bit more, you know, before I, like you said, call him the next Bobby Orr or anything like that. I'd like to see a few of those assists be he got the puck to the guy, you know? That said, there's no downside here for Montreal barring catastrophe. And like even if even if I accept your point, right?

And I am on board the idea that Lane Hudson is not the lock that some fans in Montreal and beyond think he is to be a real, like an all-star level. Even like, okay, I can buy that argument. Why is Lane Hudson buying it? why is him and his agent going like yeah you know like like i can get why montreal is sitting in the office going like we we don't want to give this guy rasmus dahlin money yet yeah absolutely because of all of those things but then you know you pick up the phone to call his agent and tell him that and his agent goes yeah those are good points we'll take we'll take luke hues at a discount right i don't get And I did see, and again, this is the same caveat that we always have to give.

None of these guys are starving. You know, most hockey players are ultimately pretty simple guys. They, you know, they don't have, there's nothing that he wants to buy for $80 or $90 million that he can't afford now because he only got $7. he's doing fine. And I did see... This guy can't buy a damn island. This sucks. Yeah.

There's not like, you know, he... He can buy an eye. There's very few hockey players that have got their eye on that third yacht and, you know, now he's... Now he's not going to get it. And I did see, I think it was Frank Sarvelli said, like, there are some players who,

the pressure of playing for a contract all year long really weighs on them. It really matters. There is value in not having to worry about it. Sure. Because keep in mind, this contract doesn't even kick in until next year. So he's now nine years before he's got to worry about this. And I get that.

And he's absolutely, hey, it's not a bad, you know, give me 70 million and it's team friendly, and they can put talent around me, and it helps us win, and it lowers the pressure, and all of these things, and I still have $70 million, and I don't have to worry about it. See you later. Right. Everybody is saying, we love Lane Hudson for taking this contract. Thank you, Lane Hudson. You're a hero to me and my family.

That's like, how much is that worth in a city like Montreal? You know, and I'm not screwing up a dressing room where, you know, Cole Cawfield and Nick Suzuki have already taken similar deals and everything. And now we're looking around going, we're in a great cap situation. We made the playoffs. I get all of it. I just hope that mentally he's. prepared for the next nine years

to hear about how much money he left on the table. Sure. Because I feel like some guys are fine with it and some guys it seems to bother. Like it felt to me like it was real, like Nathan McKinnon was absolutely sick of it.

Yeah, of course. By the end of it. Now, it's not like it exactly ruined Nathan McKinnon, so maybe that's what you do. But it's just, it's like if you gave me a briefcase with a hundred million dollars in it and then

said, Sean, give me a quick second, turn around, and then handed me back a briefcase with 70 million. I'm still pretty happy to have the 70 million, but I just lost 30 million. Yeah, please don't bring the 30 million up to me. Could we, yeah, of course. So, I don't know. Anyways, great deal for the haps.

I love what the haps are sort of putting together there with all their young guys. And in team-friendly deals, that is a thing. Like, it becomes part of the culture that we do team-friendly deals here. I have heard there may be other teams in Canada where that is not part of the team culture and it turns into a bit of an issue. So good for Montreal for getting it all, all set. And the last thing I wanted to say about this is the aspect that is I think maybe being a little not even discounted necessarily, but just not brought up very much, is like if he waited

until he was eligible for an offer sheet, he could have signed one of those or re-signed with the HABs for fewer than eight years. He couldn't have gotten eight years. And so that extra year of security, yeah, probably the salary cap's going to be like $140 million at that point. But also, what's he like, 20 years old? Well, he'll be 30 when the contract expired.

Okay. So he will be able to sign another deal. But again, like, at the age of 29, he'll probably be like, I really wish I was a free agent this year. Sure. But, but, yeah, you see my point, though. Yeah. It is just, he's like, you know what, I'll take, like you said, I'll take the extra security, the ability.

Okay. So this is, this is the larger point I want to make on, on this week of signings. Everybody now is kind of looking at the Connor McDavid contract and going, and I guess I got to take less to. shit. I got to do it. I don't have a choice. Yeah. Because, okay, we'll go a little bit out of order here because the oiler signed Jack Roslavik one year, one and a half million dollars.

And that's, you know, that's fine. He's going to play next to McDavid, probably, maybe. And he's either going to put up points or he won't. But do you know the little provision in this contract, Sean? No. he after November 1st I believe can only be traded to four teams okay and they mentioned it on 32 thoughts but like he basically probably had only four teams that were besides the oilers that were making serious offers for him and if it doesn't work out in Edmonton Edmonton and him now have the flexibility to go well you just

go to one of those other teams. Okay. So there's like no risk here for the Oilers. Yeah. So not bad for not bad on that front. The other thing about the Oilers is Matissec Holm extends four years, three million bucks per. He took less money. Mm-hmm.

He's a little on the older side. So maybe it's the four years that you say they bent on and that, you know, again, three years from now, one way or the other, we're saying the Oilers are changing the the direction of the franchise a little bit in theory. Yep. So what do they care about the fourth year? But the two guys who took, I would argue, less money. First, Kyle Connor signs, I believe, like early afternoon Wednesday, last Wednesday,

eight times 12. And I saw that AAB and I said, that's it, huh? What did you think he was going to get? Kind of what Eichel got, like 13, 13 and a half. Yeah, I could see that. I mean, I think he's a real good player, but he's a 30-goal 80-point guy. Him getting the same contract as Mitch Marner, who's a 100-point guy without the same level of goal scoring. Yeah.

To me, doesn't feel unreasonable, even factoring in the man at total attacks. My thing is just kind of, well, the cap's going up, isn't it? You know what I mean? is it they haven't mentioned well I mean they've been talking about like it's at least come up that next year it's supposed to be 104 and that and that estimate might come into actually low it turns out you know what I mean and you know for him to get I think basically the Miko Rantanin deal right like eight times 12 is the Rantan deal another one yeah and like yeah rantan and like yeah Rantan had a few hundred-point seasons a few years ago as well, but I guess his last full year

with the avalanche, he goes 42 goals, 104 points, but you're saying, yeah, he plays next to Nathan McAnon, he's on that power play with Kail McCar, blah, blah, blah. Last year, you know, he played for three different teams, so it's a little hard to nail it down here, but he only had 88 points and 32 goals. and I don't know, is Kyle Connor doing it not by himself necessarily, but is that a little more projectable than Miko Rantman? I kind of think it is. Now, I don't, look, both these guys are like 20, 29, 30 years old, so I'm not sitting here saying

and they'll do it forever. But the point is, like, if you told me they had pretty similar production, over the eight years of their two contracts, that wouldn't shock me at all. You know? That's all. Yep, I would agree. So, again, a little surprised that he took that little.

But I was shocked that Jack Eichel, quote unquote, only took 13.5. I think it's going to be the second or, what is it, the third highest AAB in the league next year? Something like that. And do I think, Let me ask you this. Do I think Jack Eichel is the third best player in the league?

I don't. Do you? I don't. No. But of course, you know, that's not... That's not how it works, of course. It comes down to the timing and that. And also, I don't know how much further down the list you go before, at least as far as forwards, centers.

Yeah. He's up there. but also everybody seems to love being in Vegas yep certainly jack eichel has seen the other side of the coin as far as being in a situation where you're not happy they had only stepped on like 12 rakes when they traded them you know whatever that yeah yeah exactly

um so yeah it's a good yeah i i thought he would get a little bit more but i thought he was getting dry sidal money i thought he was going to say me and leon same number. And so, look, it's only half a million bucks, but they can go spend that half a million bucks on somebody else. I don't think they have a huge problem with that. So, yeah, I, you know, I'm not sitting here saying, uh, this is, this is a bad contract by any stretch of the imagination. I think this is about right at the end of the day. Like if you're saying, if he's saying, I'm not Leon Drysidal, I'm saying I simply have to agree with you, Jack, first. of all.

And second of all, I'm just like, you know, why would you, why would you rock the boat if you're, if you're happy in Vegas? You know, like, that's not a place where guys take huge discounts. But everybody takes a slight discount, I think you would say, right? They tend to, yeah. Yeah. So, again, you're just mostly feeling pretty good about that. And also, I don't know if people have seen this, Jack.

has seven points in his first three games here. So. Might have, maybe should have waited a week because. Yeah, that's right. Um, Dorofi have going eight shit.

He's got four power play calls all right. Mitch Marner looks good in Vegas, man. He is, he, he looks like he might have made the right call. He's playing almost 23 minutes a night, too. It's not like they're hiding.

No. And you don't need to with him. He's, uh, yeah, he's been real good. Right. He's actually the only two guys ahead of him in terms of time on ice are Hannafin and Theodore. That's crazy. Because, man, I don't think of him as like a huge, no, he played like 21 minutes a night.

He was a good, because he kills penalties. Right. I'm assuming he's doing that in Vegas as well. But yeah, he's one of those guys who can play all three phases. Yeah, what a player, man. I guess I don't have, you know, anything else on any of these contracts? There's not really... No other than I got to say, and I get it,

but it's made me kind of sad seeing people try to, like, still push the free agency class of next year. They're like, Adrian Kempe, and it's like, no, man, we don't have to do this. It looked good a month ago, it's let's just let's just remember that time and you know we just it's it's time time takes you by the

wrist and directs you where to go it's it's it's over between us and next year's free agent class we're not doing the adrian campy watch martin natius there's that okay all right hold on you know what it's funny i saw people saying how much money is Alex Tuck going to get? That's the way. I was like, are we having that? Are we having that conversation, man? That was, I can't be stuck in my mind, but that was, I remember there was one.

And yeah, Alex, uh, if there is, I tell you, man, all those teams that saved all their money for Carter McDavid are going to look pretty smart when they get Alex talk for 14.8 next summer. Can I quickly say this about, obviously, because of the. the way time works. This isn't, but imagine if there was five years ago, if there's a free agent class, Panarin, Ovechkin, Kopitar, Kane, Malkin, Giroux, Ben. You're like, holy shit.

But now all those guys are like 36 years old. That's a fun collection of names, though. Carlson, Zuccarello. what a crew but yeah now it's not so exciting Patrick Lione is a pending free agent wow

yeah tough tough luck for anybody that was saving their cap space for this summer is going to be the interesting one but he's too old to get like insane he's going to be 34 I think by the time summer hits yeah he's in fact he's 34 in two weeks So.

Oldest player in the league. A miracle. A miracle. That's right. But, yeah, again, man, you turn back time on that one. That free agent class is an all-timer. All right. Really quickly, I wanted to, I forgot to do this on last week's episode, and I want to, because at the beginning of the year, what I like to do is I like to look at all the upcoming milestone stuff.

I don't know why. I just love when guys had a big rounder. number like that. You know what I mean? And so I have compiled a list of, I would say, achievable milestone numbers that maybe aren't all guaranteed, certainly aren't all guaranteed. Let's put it that way. And I just want to hear from Sean, yes or no, do they hit it?

Okay. So, like, for example, Alex Ovechkin needs five goals to get to 900. in his career. I'm going to go out on a limb here. Yeah. Yes. And also he needs, what was the number? He's something like 40, no, maybe it's even in the 20s away from tying Gretzky for most goals combined playoffs and regular season, which I thought people were going to make a bigger deal about last year.

I think we had joked about like, as soon as he breaks the record, everyone's going to be like, you know, actually. But it didn't really happen. But that's, I mean, that's also a cool record because I have, it's funny, I have the feature in the newsletter where I say, like, send me your dumb questions. Yep. And one of the ones that has come up several times is like, why is regular season the number that we look at? Like, we act like the playoffs is all that matters. And yet when you talk about somebody hitting the 500 goal mark, it's purely regular season. And it's like, yeah, man, that's just kind of how the columns line up in the spreadsheet.

that's really it, but we probably shouldn't do it that way. But especially when you're talking about the greats. Like I can understand saying like, well, the guy didn't have enough talent around him to get in the playoffs or whatever. Sure.

Yeah. Ovechkin is 42 goals back of Gretzky on that front. I just had to click on a bunch of stuff. But yeah, 42 behind, 974 for Ovechkin, 1016 for Gretzky. So he's 42 away from, and 26 away from a thousand goals combined. I'm sorry, I literally just said the word a thousand goals and like my brain shut down for a sentence. No, I, I've said it before.

I don't care. A thousand times. This guy has shot a puck in a meaningful situation. And it went in the net. And it went in the net. Good Lord. There should be a federal law that compels Alex Ovechkin to play in the NHL until he hits a thousand regular season goals. I need to be the I don't make the rules guy on this one.

Sorry, Alex, I know you want to go back to the KHL or whatever, but unfortunately for you, you do have to grind out the last like five years of your career, scoring nine goals a season until you get to a thousand. It's not up to me. That's what I want to be able to say. Of course, in this scenario, it is 100% up to me, because, it's my idea. But that's what I want to be able to say. I just, I need to see four digits on that.

I have to. Um, okay. Nobody else is really close to like any kind of a, a fun goal scoring milestone. Crosby's at 626. I don't feel like he's getting 74 goals to get to 700 this year. I would imagine probably not. But. will Stephen Stamco score the 18 he needs to get to 600?

I will say yes and damn 600. Okay, that's... Yeah, he had 27 last year and everybody acted like he was a bum, so 18 feels very within striking distance. The only other like big ones that are out there right now, unfortunately, like that even seemed like vaguely achievable. Malkin is over 500, but he's 86 away from, from 600. So I'm going to go ahead and say that's not happening.

But Tavares and Kane are six and eight, respectively, away from 500, extremely locked that one in. So they'll both get there. And what is, maybe have this on your list, but where is Kane as far as passing Medano? Oh, for career? It was Medano and Brett Hall, which is weird, because now we have to do the whole, like, Brett Hall's American, right? But he's not, but American-born players, it's Madano and it's this whole weird thing. But, yeah, he is within range, I think, of both those guys for points.

For points, okay, give me one. I don't have points pulled up right now. So, Madonna is at 1374 and Kane is at 1347. So, yeah, 27 points locked that one in. we're saying it's happening. And then the only other guys with like a big round number ahead of them, Jamie Ben and Leon Dreisidel both tied at 399 and Posternox at 391. All of those will happen.

Jamie Ben, enjoy your final moments of being tied with Leon Drexie. Yeah, no kidding. So here's a question. Patrick Cain, we've been talking about him, he's 46 assists away from 900. I can't talk right now. Do you think Patrick Cain gets to 46 assists? What did he have last year? He had 38.

I don't, yeah, I don't see him. 46 is a lot. 46 is a lot. You know what, Crosby, I didn't actually. write this down, but Crosby's 37 from 1,100. I feel like that's also, that's doable for sure. I mean, that'll just post-post deadline with McKinnon. We'll get them those.

Yeah, and Copatar is 48 away from 900. Malkins 70, nope, 63. I don't think those are going to happen. But let me ask you this. Who gets to 800 first? Claude Giroux needing 48 or McDavid needing 76. McDavid. Yeah.

That's right. Do you think he gets to 76 this year? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I think so. Yeah.

He had 74 and 67 last year. He had 100 a couple years ago. But again, it all depends on what he wants to do this year. Mm-hmm. I saw somebody was and I may even have been off our show one of the listeners or was somebody on when we wrote about like the Rock of Richard odds and they were they had a quote from McDavid where he was like yeah I got to score more goals and it was like okay there you go there's your Rock of Richard. That's right. But I don't know with the new cut. I could see him being like this year being like I'm going to win the Selkie this year.

Sure. I know I know Leon's aren't. already kind of tried to stake that claim. Well, the thing with McDavid having to win the Selke is he would have to consciously score fewer goals. That's the only way people would take that seriously. If he comes down to like 104 points in the 82 games, everyone will go, boy, he locked down the damn defense, didn't he?

And everyone is agreeing and we're loving it and that kind of thing. I just don't think it happens if he's like 120 points. still. You can't be good defensively if you have 120 points. No, clearly. We got a few guys approaching the 700 mark. Eric Carlson is 30 away. 30 assists, not points or anything.

30 assists away from 700. That seems right on... What did he have last year? 42. Okay, yeah, so that feels about right. That feels... Yeah. The team's going to get worse.

he's going to get a little bit worse, but that's true. But that, yeah, that still feels manageable. Here's another one that feels pretty manageable. Nathan McKinnon to 48. He had 84 last year. I'm going to say this one's a lock. I'm going to go ahead and give a thumbs up on that one. Slightly, one assist back of old Nathan McKinnon here is Brent Burns,

who needs 49 assists to get to 700 in this career. That is not. going to happen this year. Probably not, unfortunately, for him. What did he have flash? He wasn't, wouldn't have been close. Yeah. Yeah.

And he's not going to get the power. Unless something happens to kill McCar and he dropped into the number one power play spot and then he went all Lane Hudson on the second assists. But even that, unlike it. Yeah, I agree. Here's a really interesting one. Nikita Kuturov needs 63 to get to

700. It's weird that Brent Burns has more career assist than Nikita Kutrov. Isn't that? Isn't that weird? I know obviously one of them is like 32 and one of them's like 42. I get that. But it is still weird. Yeah, Kuturav had 84 last year and 100 the year before that, so 63 extremely in his wheelhouse. That shouldn't be too difficult. Letang is three away from 600. I think we can pencil that one in. At his current rate borderline, yeah. It might be late February, but yeah.

Yeah. How about this? John Carlson and Artemmy Panarin are both 30 away. Yeah, let's give it to both of them, Panarin for sure. Carlson had 46 last year. Yeah. So. And is he playing for a contract?

too. I think he is. I believe he is, yeah. So there you go. You got the two big free agents who will be waiting to see where Alex Tuck goes. And then that'll be the domino. That's right. Drysidal and Brad Marshall are tied in assists, 558 for their career. They're both 42 away from 600. I don't think Brad gets there, but Can I say? But he's still got nine years left on his contract,

so he'll be around for a while. But what I'm saying is Marshan got 51 last year. Hmm. Oh, no, I'm sorry. He got 28 last year. I was looking at the points column. So yeah, you're probably right

that he doesn't get there, but two years ago, he had 38 on a worst team where he's probably going to get a lot of power play time on Florida this year. Just saying, you know? Jamie Ben's 43 away. I don't think that's going to happen. Here's an interesting one, though.

Roman Yossi is 64 away. Two years ago, he had 62. Last year he had 29 and 53. There is, I would say, an outside chance this happens. I think that's right. It feels unlikely, but it does not feel

out of the question. Yeah. I thought that was, I thought that was a really fun number. Like, ooh, that's exactly what I would be, I would be saying there's like a 20% chance that happens or whatever.

Okay, for 500, we got a bunch of guys who are within striking distance. Some more getable than others. Barkov is four away. Interesting now, does he come back in the regular season? And they did not put him on the season ending anything. That's what I'm saying. If his timeline is he's coming back before the end of the regular season, four is on the table. It is still very possible that it could make sense for them to hold them out until the start of the playoffs, but they gain less from that than they would ordinarily. So, yeah. Get him five reps before the

of the regular season just to see four assists that's on the table here's an interesting one Cory Perry does he get 13 assists this year I think so if he assuming he's back and you know if he gets 60 games in I think so he got 81 with Edmonton last year and got 11 really 10 the year before that I would have thought his numbers were better than that Okay, well, then I'll walk that back a little bit. He only plays like 12 minutes a night, man. Yeah. By the way, we didn't mention this earlier,

but how about Kings fans booing Corey Perry? That rocked. That was so sick, man. I love it. Nuge is 21 away. You think he gets there? Yes. Yeah, I agree.

Matt Zuccarello, 27 away. I don't know. Is he hurt right now? Did he... Has he been back? I know he was hurt, but... He has not played yet this season. Yeah.

That probably seems a little... He had 35 last year, though. Yeah. He still real good player. Yep, that's right. Shifley, 29 away. I think we can call that good. Taylor Hall, probably not getting the 44 he needs, right?

I would imagine not. Here's an interesting one. J.T. Miller. He is 49 away from 500 in his career. What did he? Yeah, I mean, he's done it, right? He had the big year a couple years ago, but... So the real question is, or the real issue here is, he had 48 last year and 72 games. And now he's no longer being bullied by Elias Patterson. That's exactly right. Put me down for a yes on him. I love that. That's great. What about Tyler Sagan needing 51?

I would love to see it. He had 12 and 20 all year. Yeah, I just, I'm... 51's tall order. I'm going to say no and hope I'm wrong. Yeah, it's a tall order. And then finally, David Posternak needs 55 to get to 500. That's probably not going to have...

Just because he's going to have to... He's going to have to not pass. Yeah, it'll be like, all right, here I come. I got five guys on me. Who do I pass to? Nobody? Okay. Well, you know what, Sean? We would have said the same thing last year.

How many assists did he have? For the second year in a row, we got to 63. He's so good. He's fucking awesome. He's so good. Damn. So yeah, you know what? I didn't realize it was that high.

I'll say yes. Coming down from 63 to 55, you're in great shape. Okay. Crosby's getting the 11 points he needs to get to 1,700. That's not a problem for him. is Ovechkin getting the 75 he needs to get to the same number, 1700. Ooh, that feels kind of like right on. What did he have last year?

He had, anytime the freaking page wants to look. He had 73. Yeah, I don't, if, but only in 65. He missed all those games with the broken lane. That's a great point. That's a great point. I'm, you know what? Put me down as a no, but I hope I'm wrong again here.

But. Yeah. I feel like, I feel like just that that kind of like post, right, like he was so charged up for the record. He had the chase. That's right. Just feels like it's going to, there's going to be that drop in adrenaline. Yeah, I think that's right.

Okay. Malkin is 49 away from 1400. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I think he should get that. I mean, geez, it's been fantastic early, right? He has, he has, he had 50 in 68 last year. So as long as he stays healthy, lock him in. But, you know, he's not, he's not a spring chicken anymore. So maybe, maybe he takes a few games off here and there. Who knows? The other interesting one, Patrick Kane needs 53 to get to 1,400. He had 59 last year. Yeah, you know, with, like, his record chase, which obviously won't be as big a deal as Ovechkin, but I could see him, I could see him getting there. Yeah, I agree.

Copatar needs 18 to hit 1,300. I think we're locking that one in. Stamcoast needs 9 to get to 12. We're locking that one in. Here's two interesting ones, though. Drew needs 82 to get to 1,200, and Tavares needs 84. I don't think either one of those is...

Really? Is going to happen this year. So, Drew, yeah, Drew only had 50 last year. Yeah, Drew is not that guy anymore. And Tavares would be closer, but... And maybe I'm a little bit overreacting the first few games, but he hasn't seen like he's got. He had 74 last season. Yeah.

That's a really good number, but at 35. It's a really good number at his age and all those things, but it's, it's, it's, it's, I think he will get there because he's playing beyond this year, but not this season. Yeah. 1100. This is mind-blowing to me. Connor McDavid is 15 away from 1100. Okay.

Makes sense. Yeah. No problem for me. I'm with you. That all checks out. He has been in the league. This is his 11th season. God, where does the fucking time go, huh?

So, I mean, he's... he's going to get to 1,200 this year. In all likelihood, that's true, yes. That's exactly right. But this is the crazy part. With a two-year head start and having the career he's had, Nathan McKinnon is 87 points away from 1100. Can you fucking believe that?

That McDavid blew by McKinnon so easily that, that we're saying not only is he getting 1100, he's getting he's getting 115 points minimum this year and you're like

oh Nathan McKinnon like a you know he's won the heart he's won the cup he's multi-time All-Star all this kind of stuff

and you're like oh yeah Colin McDavid just casually obliterated his scoring totals yep that's fucking crazy

man but doesn't have shouldn't have eaten that one slice of lasagna six years ago 87 points for mckenon we're saying he gets there uh i got i got three more uh locks for a thousand in their career kutrov marshand and dry sidel need four 16 and 41 no problem that's all extremely doable. Last one here, though, Jamie Ben needs 44 points to get to a thousand for his career. Does he do it? I don't. Based on last year, I don't think. Based on last year, he had 49 points. He's dropping. He's beat up. I'm going to say no. Okay. Yeah, he hasn't even played yet this here. So there's that.

44 points. That's half an Art Ross for him. That's. more than half, unfortunately. We only got a couple of goalies that are even approaching it with win milestones. Varlamov, who I don't know what his status is at all, but he's 11 away from 300 in his career. You hope he can come back, I guess, you know? But 11's probably a tall order as a backup on a team like that, even when you're healthy. So I'm going to say no.

Binnington is 26 away from 200. That feels doable, right? Mm-hmm. Yep. Okay. Should be. Here's two interesting ones. Shesterkin and Olmark are 34 away each from 200.

Yeah, I'll go a yes on both. I'm more confident on Shisterkin, just because Allmark doesn't, you don't necessarily get that, like, 65 game season from him is. Right. But Ottawa might need that from him this year. And I do think he'll win more than he loses when he... So, I mean, if he gets to 60 starts in Ottawa...

Yeah, he had 25 and 44 appearances last year. Yeah. So, yeah, he wouldn't need to play 60. They would want him. They'll want more from him. But yeah, yeah, it's... That's going to be a close one. Feel better about Shastarkin for sure.

So Shisterkin's career high is 37. So he'd need to be pretty close to that this season. But totally doable, you're right. And then this is the other one that is in play, but probably not particularly likely. You tell me, Jake Ottinger needs 49. I don't, like, what's the record is, I don't think anyone's ever had 50 wins. Oh, I'm pretty sure that's happened at least ones. Really? Okay.

Among active players, or no, not among active players, hold on. The single season, oh, no, you're right. 48 is the all-time record. So he would need to set the all-time record. But that having been said, Hellebuck got to 47 just last year. Okay. So basically you're saying the stars run away with the president's trophy. But here's the thing.

I could see that happening. Dallas is one of those, it's all about the playoffs teams. There's no way they run him out there 70 games. I just, I couldn't tell you the backup is in Dallas, but they're going to use. Okay. And then this is an interesting one just because shutouts is such a fucking strange category. Shutout leaders or shutout milestones, I should say. Connor Hellowuck is five away from 50 in his career.

Which it doesn't sound like a lot that's so many, man. That is, yeah. All-time shutout leaders, 50 gets you, well, no, but I'm saying 50 gets you almost into the top 30 all time. It's such a weird stat because I'm old enough that I remember when Terry Sawchucks 102, I want to say, was like, unbreakable. Like, it was, it would be like today being like, oh, oh yeah, Wayne Gretzky had 200 points four seasons in a row. And you're like, well, nobody could ever do that. And then things shifted and shutouts became a lot more common.

And even then Broder had to hang around forever to get there. But yeah, 50 is a good number and he will get it this year. Yeah, in all likelihood, that's true. What is funny is, but Brodsky is one away from 50. I didn't even write that down because it's just like lock it in. right? Yeah. But like Carrie Price is at 49 as well.

So Hellebuck is about to pass Carrie Price. I'm going to say no one carry price. Yeah, that's great. I think he comes out of retirement, plays for the sharks, gives up one goal. There are two goalies that are listed on hockey reference as active, one of whom I believe recently retired, like formally announced his retirement, who are north of 50. Can you name them? two active goalies north of 50

one of them I'm pretty sure just announced his retirement let me look that up actually who you got all right yeah that's right on July 18th

he announced his retirement after 17 NHL seasons so the guy who I think is the obvious one is Jonathan Quick correct he is the leader with 60

63, a crazy number. Is Vasilevsky up to 50? No, he's only at 40. Dead even 40 right now. Okay. So who would the other guy be? Yarrow Halak is the... Oh, yeah.

Get 53. You wouldn't have guessed that in a million years that he had more career shutouts than Kerry Price, two-time Vesna winner, Sergei Bavrovsky, Vasilevsky, Hellavok, Varlamov. He's blowing these guys out of the fucking water. And obviously, he played 17. years in the league, so that helps you get there.

But also, these guys play way more games for a year than him. And I'm looking at his stats now in like 5, 6, 7, 6. Like, he didn't have it. Yeah, he chipped away at it. Because I looked at it. I was like, did he have some crazy year where he had 14? No, he just chipped away. Yeah.

You're in and year out. Good for him. So Hella Bucket 5. Kemper is four away from 40. Darcy Kemper. Okay. What do you think? I'm going to say no on that because I'm not with that defense in front of him.

Mm-hmm. I get it. Here's an interesting one. Cam Talbot is seven away. That would tie his career high from when he played. Remember when Edmonton just like ground him into dust? They played like 73 regular season games. he had seven that year.

Do you think he matches that in Detroit? I don't, although based on over the weekend, he's looking good. I don't think he gets the opportunity to do it in Detroit after they spent to bring in Gibson. Yeah. He just looked good. It's looked good early. Yep, totally. And then a bunch of guys are within striking distance of 30, which to me is looking like, oh, you're a

a good goalie. You know what I mean? Like, Jacob Markstrom on this list. Jacob Markstrom is, we'll get to him. First, okay. Jake Allen and Freddie Anderson are both two away.

I'll take Freddie. Freddie had three last year, so, or no, he, he only had one last year, actually. He had three, two years ago. Oh, okay. Well, I still, I still believe in free. That's nice. That's nice of you.

Jake Allen, also two away. He had a career high four two seasons ago, or last season. He doesn't have one yet this year. And the year before that, he also had zero in 34 games. So. I'm going to say no one that one. You're going to say no. I'm going to say yes on Jake Allen.

UC Soros is three away. I'm going to lock that one in. I'm going to say we're all set. Sure. Now to your friend, Jacob Markstrom, your close personal friend. He and John Gibson are both six away. Last year, Markstrom had four, the year before that he had two. John Gibson had zero.

The reason I bring this up, if people are wondering why I'm making a big deal out of Markstrom, is he at one point held the record for the most games played without a shutout. He started his career with something like, hundred games without a shutout. He had 109 in the first six seasons of his career it looked like. Thank you. And then he got two in the same year in Vancouver. But obviously he didn't do it on fucking opening night in all likelihood.

He had it. So he definitely didn't because what happened was he had that record. And it was a record that he like, it was like Poki Reddick held the record. And Pocky Reddick was a good goalie, but he played in the 80s. Nobody got shutouts. Whereas here comes Jacob Markstrom in the shutout era. And he never had one. He had a bunch of games.

And the reason I know this is I wrote an article about how weird it was and how he had like lost shutouts with a minute left and all this stuff. And this is back in the Sportsnet days. And I closed the article with now that I've written this article, congratulations on the shutout tonight. And sure enough, he got his first career shutout that very night. And since then has been, like, he led the league, if I'm not mistaken, a few years ago. Yeah.

So he's actually really funny. Random-ass stat. So he, it's hard because like, you know, back in like the 20s, just guys were pitching like 15, 20 shutouts a year. It was actually not that difficult for them. But he had nine shutouts a few years ago when he led the league. And that is way up there in the cap. I don't have it in front of me now. But so to your point, though, by the way, for the record, it was 128 games before his first shutout.

His 129th was his first one. But then he goes two, then one, then two, then three, then nine, then one again, two, four last season. And so can he get six this year? Six is a lot to be clear. Mm-hmm. If you get six shutouts in a year, you're doing really well. I believe in my guy. Put me down as a emphatic, yes.

Wow. And then John Gibson is the other one. He hasn't had a shutout since the 22-23 season. I'm going to say it's a big no-thanks on that one for him. And then two more guys here are within spitting distance. Shasurkin and Sorokin are both eight away. I don't think that's for either of them. I'm going to see what their career highs are.

Again, like if nine leads, like that's getting into leading the league territory. Shisterkin, I could see it, but I don't think the Rangers are good enough. Last year, being bad, quite frankly, but that tied his career high, which you wouldn't expect. It's a quirk of the system, I guess. And then Sorokin's career high is seven, but that was just. several years ago now. That was, yeah, 7 and 52 is a really crazy number. But, yeah, I don't see eight for either of them, but that's it.

That's all the milestones. Nobody going to break the penalty minutes record? You know what? Tom Wilson is only 2,900 penalty minutes away from Tiger Williams. Yeah, I didn't like, I also didn't look at losses. I'm sure there were a bunch of guys that are like, damn, I'm so close to the, career leading losses. Probably, yeah.

Or whatever. Jonathan Quick is nine away from 300 career losses. Good for him. Can't tell but it's only five away from 200. Yeah, anyway. Why don't you hit him with the plugs? Let's get out of here. Find me the athletic.

The weekend rankings are back. The Monday mornings that has started up again. Sign up for the red light newsletter. Listen to me on the athletic hockey show, look for my content, all that stuff. And then for me, elite prospects.com. Got all kinds of coverage of all kinds of stuff. Yeah, I don't know. I'm on the NCAA beat.

I'm seeing all these kind of crazy games. Sean, you want to hear a crazy stat about the University of Michigan? I do. Great, because I have it for you. through their first four games of the season. They are undefeated, and they have outscored opponents, 26 to 3, which is a lot, obviously. But this is the crazy stat.

They have the same number of goals as their opponents when they are down a man. All games, all situations, their opponents have three. Short-handed, they have three. That's crazy. That is. impressive. They've outshot their opponents 157 to 72.

They look fucking unbelievable. I saw them this weekend. They look so good. So yeah, that's the big fun college stat for me. Yeah, head over there. I'm sure there's some kind of a promo going on. There always is. So just check it out and you'll find it.

And then go to patreon.com slash puck soup. We got all kinds of bonus episodes, including last week, Sean and I did some real guys, remembering, you know, with the concept of the Tanner Geno Shurzy, just if you bought a Shurzy of this guy and then we're wearing it like six, seven years later, would people be like, what the fuck? That's weird.

Like Tanner Janot in a Predators Shurzy. And then we're going to go record the mailback right now. So head over there, Patreon.com slash Puck Soup, all kinds of bonus episodes all month long, every month. And yeah, that's it. Thanks so much for listening. And enjoy another great week of hockey ahead. The Sabres firing the coach and GM maybe.

Who knows? We'll find out. Thanks again, everybody. Have a good one. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.