Puck Soup - Now We Know the Teams

Episode Date: April 14, 2026

Sean and Ryan talk about the potential playoff matchups, the lottery teams, and more. Sponsored by Mint Mobile (mintmobile.com/puck)

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I am Sean McNew from The Athletic. And folks, we know, as of last night, every single team that is going to be in the playoffs. That's right. You and I know this. Few others have clued in. Breaking the news today, must credit, Puck's who.

That's right. So as I'm watching these games last night, I got the little four games at once screen on ESPN Plus, which is so safe. And I'm really mostly clued in on this Flyers Hurricanes game. Because if the Flyers lose in regulation, that means that I believe tonight or tomorrow night's games. I can't remember now.

Washington, Columbus, and whoever the Flyers are playing would have been for the playoffs. Sounds exciting. It was right until Rob Rindamore put two. defensemen in the fucking shootout. And I was like, what are we doing here, man? Come on. Because, okay,

so obviously that game goes to a shootout. Even at that point, Washington is still live, as long as Philly doesn't win. And Rob Rindamore is like, I'm going to put two defensemen over the boards. Get a fucking grip, man. That sucks. I hear you.

Maybe he was scared of the capitals. He got to play the capitals in the first round. He got scared. I think that's it. he was ducking them. Mm-hmm. There's no two ways about it. Or also maybe the shootout sucks,

and it's just a complete joke of a way to finish a game. Yeah. No, I think it was the thing I said. Okay. All right. Yeah. But I will say this. So the Flyers are definitively in,

like I said, we know all the teams in the East and the West at this point. But this is what occurred to me, looking at the standings after last night's game. Buffalo Arguably Montreal Pittsburgh Philly Maybe you say

Ottawa given how things have gone this year Maybe you say Anaheim You definitely say Utah That's a lot of teams where it's like I don't think that's a playoff team in October Boston too No Boston's a great point Yeah of course

All those teams You're like Probably not a playoff team maybe a chance at being a playoff team? Mm-hmm. Who's going to win the fucking Jack Adams? You know what? It's a great question.

It really feels like, I think we did awards talk like two weeks ago, and since then, a lot of the player awards have really coalesced around one guy, maybe two. We did awards talk two or three weeks ago, and I believe we were talking about the Jack Adams, and I probably mentioned Patrick Waugh and he got fired like three days later

so I good luck I have thought about this though I know who I would vote for for Jack Adams and I'm a little bit surprised at where I've landed on this

now I don't have a vote obviously it's voted on by the broadcasters and I don't vote on we're going to get you into the broadcasting biz Might as well. Fucking.

There's an opening in Toronto. Joe Bowen is done. So, I don't know. Jim Ralph could give me a call. Let's do it. But until that... Here's the thing. Because I feel like there's sort of two sides.

There is still the John Cooper faction. Yes. And then there is the, no, we have to vote on this the way it's normally voted on, which is the coach, ideally in his first year on a team that surprises everyone. So that's Dan Mews, it's Marco Sturm, Joel Quenville, probably, Rick Tawken. I think those are the main guys. And then there's also the Lindy Roth factor where, you know, obviously that... You got the savers into the playoffs.

Exactly. You see what I'm saying? 110 point team savers, you know? The Buffalo Sabres. I'm not giving my first place vote to any of those guys. I love this. I've decided my vote goes to Martin Saint-Louis in Montreal. Okay, great.

For taking that team that, what have we been saying about that team for years? Okay. Good team, good rebuild, nice pieces, don't know about the ceiling. Is the ceiling going to be high enough? And he has not just got his team about. where we thought, but like individual players. Sure. Caulfield score in 50.

Nick Suzuki getting to 100 points. All of this stuff. Did it with goaltending questions. And I think he would be my vote. And I'm, I got to admit, I was, I don't remember my exact take at the time he was hired, but I don't feel like I was super stoked for that hiring. Well, he just had, like, his coaching experience was my kid's tee ball thing or some shit, right?

Like, he, like, walked in and was like, yeah, I've got six weeks of coaching experience with eight-year-olds, which, I mean, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, they're, they're, remember, like, they had just fired. Dominique Ducharm, which, man, the most obvious decision in the world. Doesn't that feel like we're talking about a guy from the 70s? Oh, yeah, that's a guy. That's crazy. Dominique Ducharm died in this spot. Yeah. 29 years ago tonight.

Why was he wearing a mask in all the clips when he coached the Habs 20 years ago? Well, yeah. But yeah, I didn't love the, well, put it this way. I thought it was a very high risk hire. And maybe it was. But sometimes high risk, high reward. So that would be my, I think that's my pick for if I had a Jack Adams vote, which I don't. Sorry, Adams.

I think that's all very well said. But the thing that I keep returning to, and you mentioned the John Cooper, like faction or whatever, is that I think it probably, because there are so many, like, classic Jack Adams style candidates, You know, they'll kind of cancel each other out. That is possible, yeah. There's going to be enough people who are like, it's Lindy Rough. How could it not be Lindy Rough? How could it not be Dan Mews, the one team we knew was tanking this year?

Mm-hmm. Making the playoffs fairly comfortably. You know, like, I think there's just enough of those guys getting Utah over the line, getting, like you said, the Bruins into the playoffs after they were so bad last year. all this kind of stuff, that I think the Bednar Cooper candidate that we get occasionally, every once in a while they just kind of go, you know what, you had 125 points you're in, you know? Yep.

And given the injuries in Tampa specifically throughout the year, and the fact that he's never won it and people kind of pointing. that out a lot for the last three months or whatever, I do kind of think Cooper is going to win it. I don't know who I would pick because there are so many factors involved, you know, and so many teams in the mix. But Cooper's as good to pick as any. He's a fucking great coach. Well, it is. I love that guy, you know?

Look, I think John Cooper is the best coach in the league. So I have no problem with the guy who's the best winning the best, whatever it is award. but just given how the award is usually voted on, it's going to be very weird if and when John Cooper wins it. It's going to be like, like, we all remember. Yeah, it's not his best season, et cetera. And there's so many other great candidates, right? Like, it'd be like the year that Drew Dowdy won the Lifetime Achievement Award,

Norris, when he was like 23 years old. Yep. But if, and Drew Dowdy is a great defenseman. Drew Dowdy deserves to have a Norris Terrible. Sure. No. But it'd be like if he won it the year that, like, Carlson had 100 points and Kail McCar... Yeah.

Was doing Kail McCr and Queen. And yet somehow, it just feels like we... We correctly, I think, started talking about John Cooper in, like, November. And then it's just... It's stuck. I'm very curious. I could absolutely see him winning. I could see him not even being a finalist.

That's what I'm saying. You could say that for like six coaches and I go, I totally agree with you. It's a funny award, like a funny not ha ha, you know, award. And that's in a year where there's like one came out of nowhere,

got like 920 goaltending out of nowhere team. There's like four this year. Dude, if you came, like, from the future in the first week of October, when we're doing our preview, what we're talking about, like, yeah, you know, Gavin McKenna is going to be a penguin. The legal rigate, but they might not even have to because penguins might finish dead last because they're, and you were like, no, actually the penguins. The only tanking team, yeah.

The penguins make the playoffs, comfortably make the playoffs. And you'd be like, oh my God, like, does Tristan Jarry just stand on his head? And no, he stinks and he gets traded halfway through the year. He'd be like, oh, well, Dan Muses is going to win coach of the year. There's no question. But. Yep. And he might.

He absolutely could end up winning it. But there's just so many other guys. It's, yeah. Yep. It has been such a weird season. Incredibly so, yes. It is, this has been the most bizarre regular season. as far as team results in that I can remember.

I certainly in like recent years. Yeah, the Buffalo Sabres made the playoffs. I can't stress this enough. And like only a little bit of a fluke. They're a good team. Oh, I mean, yeah, they won the division. Yeah. Imagine, again, like, if you had gone,

gone back and you could, if I was one of those high rollers who could like go to a sports book and be like, give me odds on a bet. Imagine going back in October and being like, I think Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia and Boston, make the playoffs, and I'm going to say New Jersey, Florida, and Toronto all miss. What are the odds on that?

They'd be like, well, give me a dollar, and if it comes through, you will own the casino. Right. And even then, I probably would have been like, I don't like, I'm going to keep my dollar. A dollar? I don't know. So, and the question becomes, given how wild and unpredictable, like, it feels like there's two, two doors we can go through now for the playoffs. One of which is the chaos just continues.

And we end up with, you know, the Trevor's egress Stanley Cup between Anaheim and Philadelphia, because who knows? who cares just absolute chaos or we steer in the complete opposite direction and you've got this

scenario where like it's the I've used this metaphor before but the classic have you ever heard of a show called The Simpsons

do you do is that to have that in states it's like it's an animated show okay for children but they had an episode where Homer has the softball team at the power plant

and the great scene where you have like all the players one by one being dispatched with but then Darrell Straber is like actually I'm still here I'm fine and you're like right I forgot about him that's the Carolina hurricanes in the east sure

they're like oh yeah we're the number one seat remember us we're like in the mix every single year. Always the number one seed. Always everyone's picked to win the conference. Yeah, we're the number one seed. We got home ice throughout the playoffs. We won our division by like 15 points.

Like, we could end up with Carolina versus Colorado. Yeah, and who's surprised. Because remember, like last year, I had forgotten about this until I was looking at something, but last year the playoffs went almost totally chalk the whole way. It was like, every favorite one, pretty much right till the end.

Maybe we get that again. I'm so confused, man. I have no idea with this league is up to. So I have an uncle who, not a big texter, but he texts me last night. And he's like, can you explain what's going on with this Bruins, Toronto, Philly pick thing?

And I was like, sort of. I can send you the screenshot breaking down all, like, I can't remember all the conditions. So I sent him the screenshot. Is your uncle Bradshaw living? Is he, uh, no, my uncle is, is unfortunately not putting together Canada's World Championships team. So. Wasn't that an interesting little news, because I got bad news. The, the world championship starts in a month.

Bradshaw Living can't do anything in his first month on a job. It's, we learned that in 2023. It's too, so I mean, he's going to be making phone calls the day before the plane leaves. That's. But how hard is it going to be to find 25, 34-year-old defensemen who kind of don't have it anymore? It's a good point. He loves having those guys. Man.

That's going to be a tough team to make because it's like every team that missed the playoffs is like a veteran cranky. Like, I don't think, like, is he calling up Leifes? Is he calling more? Like, is Morgan Riley getting like, what the hell? Bradra Living. He sees the caller ID and he's like, oh, fuck. Yeah. Yeah.

Just Bradshaw living calling up all leaves going, hey, man, you're going to get traded in the summer. You want to come get injured at the World Championships instead? You want to come blow at your ACL? And yeah, okay. Anyway, my uncle's like, so I send him the screenshot. And he's like, okay, got it. Like five minutes later, he calls me. Which I don't know that he's ever.

called me and he's like what the fuck does this mean? And I'm like, I don't, I look. I think what you're looking for here is you want the Leafs to finish like sixth. But who knows? Yeah. Yeah, he's, I'm assuming a Bruins fan. He is, yeah.

Tell him to just start looking at who's going to be available six overall. Yeah, that's what I, that's what I did. There is, there has never been anything in the NHM. more obvious. I feel like I've been saying it for three months now. The Leafs are going to finish fifth last and drop in the lottery. Yeah, I was looking at the odds last night, and I believe as of through the end of last night's games,

they had like a 55% chance to pick either sixth or seventh, and then obviously 45 to be in the top. They are very close to being locked into the five spot, which makes it more likely than not that one team, at least. behind them moves up. Yep. Will that team be the Florida Panthers? Yes.

Lock it in. Pretty much. Sure. But, okay, so we know what all the teams that are in the playoffs are going to be, but a lot of the matchups are not decided. Now, some of those matchups are like, which teams got home ice in their first round series against the other team, you know? Tampa and Montreal,

Pittsburgh and Philly, et cetera. Although, wait, no, isn't Pittsburgh locked into the two? I'm pretty sure they are.

Anyway. I don't think they are. I think they can still, yeah, the, oh, yeah, it looks.

No, they have the tiebreaker on the flyers it says here. So, okay. So what are some matchups you are hoping to see shakeout from the stuff

that is still up in the air? I would, I would prefer. Buffalo Boston. I agree. Why do you want that? I think they've got the history. And it also plays a little bit better into the like,

like Buffalo is such an easy team to root for. And I feel like Boston doesn't mind playing the heel a little bit. They're a nice story and all that. And also I think it's a more winnable matchup for the, for the Sabres. so who I'm openly rooting for to at least have some degree of success. And also Carolina, Ottawa allows me to continue to look smart from my prediction that the senators are winning the Metro. And I think that's, that'd be a great series too.

You know, Ottawa, Buffalo is sort of the two up-and-coming teams. I mean, Ottawa can definitely be heelish, so that still probably works, but I don't know if it works as well as the Bruins. Yeah, not hard to see... Great, by the way. Yeah, I agree. But I was going to say regarding the senators,

not hard to see Brady Kachuk playing the heel in one of these. That's it, right? That lets you... But, yeah, I mean, is... Tell me this from like an outsider as far as, you know, you're not, obviously here in Ottawa, you're not in Canada. Are we, are the senators now becoming like that so many people are calling them underrated dark horses that they're starting to get a little, like, have we tipped out to the other side on them or are we? Yes. Okay.

Have you seen their goaltending? Have you seen it lately? Yeah, but like. You know, Carolina's won a lot of games with their goaltending, too. You know what I mean? Like, we don't have to sit here and go, you know, you know, it's indicative of the next two weeks is the last two weeks. Yeah.

I don't know, man. With, like, I hear what you're saying, and obviously, yeah, I would never want to go, if you told me going into a playoff series, hey, your goaltending's going to stink in this series, I'd be like, well, no point showing up. But of all the problems a team can have, goal tending is the one that will just magically fix itself for a couple of weeks. Sure.

Like if you can't score, you're not going to suddenly score seven goals a game. If you're getting given up 40 shots a game, you're not going to suddenly figure it out and lock it down on the playoffs. But if your goal he stinks, he could get hot for sure. He could absolutely turn into Dominic Hasick for a week and who knows. And the thing with the senators is they've got everything else. Sure they do, yeah. Travis Green should get some Jack Adams votes too.

Speaking of hires, I wasn't super crazy on that. Yep. I worked out better. Yeah, I think I had, I mentioned them in that opening. There were like six teams in the East. But here's why I want Bruin's Sabres. This is very simple. I believe the year is like 2011, 2012, something like that.

Milan Luchich runs over Ryan Miller. This is the event that one million percent breaks the sabers psychologically for the next 14 years. Yep. We need that matchup. This is long-term storytelling, folks. This is, we're not just over it.

We beat the team that made us the biggest loser franchise in arguably the history of the sport. Or the Bruins can say, fuck off. You're still the sabers. You're still losers. You got swept in the first round. Eat shit.

You know what I mean? Like either way, awesome storyline coming out of the first round. And I think those are two teams that, like you were saying, can very easily find a way to get under each other's skin, find a reason to hate each other, blah, blah, blah. So that's why I'm rooting for that in the East. I really don't care about the other the other matchups at all, quite frankly, if we're getting Boston Buffalo. That is. They should do that. I'm assuming Buffalo will have, I don't know if the sabers do like the whole bang the drum thing before games or whatever.

They should definitely have Brad May show up for something like that in games one and two. And then Boston should definitely bring Milan Luchich back. I don't know that he's the most popular figure in the sport right now. Not necessarily. Ask his teammates in England if they like him these days. We want Boston to play the heel. There's your guy. Oh, yeah, for sure.

More ways than one. This is just upsetting me because it's making me feel like the only way for the Leafs to pull the Sabres is they've got to play Anaheim in the playoffs. Right. So now I, okay. Well, I'm now in favor of a one versus 16 format. Mm-hmm.

And then in the West, look, if you don't want Kings Oilers again in the first round, I don't even know what to say to you. I can't believe. I saw somebody, I think was Eric Stevens, posted, like, yep, that's still in play. And I was like, no, it's not. Colorado's going to be the one seed. You can't.

And then I looked and, oh, my, we're one. We need the ducks to lose. We just need them to lose. It's that simple. And, of course, the Kings to win. In fact, the Kings need to win with the ducks not even getting a point. Yeah. Ducks and Kings.

both have two games left. Yep. Kings are one point back and would not have the tiebreaker. So they need to. Kings don't have the tiebreaker. Yeah, it's weird because they have four regulation wins on the season. So. Huh.

But yeah, every result last night just shook out exactly wrong. And I was sitting there going, why am I fucking watching this shit? Get a grip. This sucks. But yeah, other than that, I feel like, you know, I don't care who Utah plays, you know. Utah, I mean, I think Utah Vegas could be fun. Sure.

That's an interesting. The two new teams, obviously, there's a slight disparity in the reputations of the two markets, which, you know, the quasi, not expansion, but, you know, the new teams. I don't mind it. I mean, I got bad news for Utah. Vegas is going to build and then destroy a mammoth, Zamboony as part of their pregame. Oh, yeah.

It's going to get run over by a monster truck. That's in the budget for sure. Absolutely. Wrecked. But I guess that one would be fun. I mean, it's still technically possible. If the ducks run the table and Vegas loses that Anaheim could finish first and give us Vegas Edmonton in the first round, which would be the best matchup the Pacific could offer. Now, am I willing to wait till round two?

Yeah. I can do that. Yep. But I also wouldn't hate having it in round one. Sure. And then the only, yeah, I don't think we're going to get. The one concern you always had with the West was that you were going to wind up with a matchup

that stinks where you're like, oh, I can't believe one of these teams is going to make it through to the next round. And I guess unless you get maybe that like Anaheim, Utah scenario, even that's not terrible, I don't think. No, not the worst thing in the world for sure.

So I think we can handle it. And then obviously, Minnesota's locked in is going to be great. and the avalanche if the avalanche play the kings cool get it over with nice and quick

no problem can you imagine if after all of this Colorado being like you know on pace to have one of the great seasons of all time and you know running away President's trophy in all of this

and they end up playing Edmonton in the first round which is still possible yes L.A wins their next two. Anaheim wins. Edmonton loses. Congratulations. Colorado, you get an angry Connor McDavid

as your reward for damn. Suddenly they're calling Dallas. Like, do you want to switch? What do you think? You know, this is a tale as old as time, but it would be fun if you could pick. If you win the president's trophy, you get to pick your first round.

own it. I've said before, if I thought NHLGMs would actually do it, I'd be fully on board with this. I think every NHLGM would be a huge wimp and just always picked the lowest team in the standings. Okay, even better fan vote. Hello. All right.

We figured it out. We cracked it. You got to release the fan vote and you got to release the percentage, too. Oh, yeah. Imagine that 85% of fans. Oh, man, really? Okay. Speaking of percentages, I didn't put this on the outline, so I apologize to you, Sean. But did you see this athletic agent poll yesterday?

I'm assuming you did. Oh, there was some good shit in there. Best run franchise in the NHL, okay, Tampa, sure, yep, that's fine. No problem. Yeah, it's crazy. It was all the teams that win a lot are really well-run. Worst run? you're never going to believe it.

It's the Vancouver Canucks. Man. Easiest front office to deal with is Minnesota, it says here. Okay, great. Toughest is Anaheim. Again, it feels like we knew all this, you know? Yeah, I hadn't really heard the Anaheim thing as much. Oh, yeah.

That's super difficult to negotiate with. Obviously, the- Specifically, it's Verbeek is like a real hard ass about everything. Yeah. Yeah. You're not going to believe this. Agents felt like players didn't get enough out of the, the league in the new CBA.

Mm-hmm. Blah, blah, blah. But the one that really made me laugh here, if we, if we, if I keep scrolling, um, was who is going to get like the next huge contract in the NHL? And Brady Kachuk was like the top answer. Now,

Brady Kachuk got one vote. Or he, yeah, right, right, right. That is one vote too many. I see the logic in a way. It's sort of the Karel Kuprizav thing where it's like, if they want to keep him, they're going to have to pay him insane money. But the fact that the article also didn't even comment on that, I know we're all looking at that going, well, that's Bernie Kachuk's agent who said that.

Of course. But I kind of think it was Bernie Kachuk's agent who said that. It had to be. Right, because it's, okay, so the voting breakdown is McDavid-13, sure. Celebrini 3, which to your point about like, they want the flexibility, maybe Edmonton can't give McDavid $25 million or whatever the number is. Or, I mean, maybe he doesn't want that.

Maybe he's so firmly in his, I mean, geez, by 2008, Connor McDavid might be making a million bucks a year playing for the Panthers because he's, we've broken his brain with this you have to be a winner thing and so he's done the Roger Clemens thing I hope he doesn't but yeah

but yeah Celebrini is like the first player to make more than 20 million dollars a season makes sense because the sharks need to keep him and have the money um McCar got two votes

again he's just up you know like he it's his turn whatever you want to say and then Caprizov and Kachuk get one vote each. And it's like, I said it before. I don't know how Florida is going to make that work for Kachuk, but maybe they will. You know?

I mean, Brady Kachuk is apparently going to be making $18 million in Ottawa or $3.5 in Florida. But Matthew has to pin up some Brady Kachuk memorabilia in the podcast studio. we'll get around to it. Also, shout out to the agent who, uh, cast a vote for not sure. Thanks, bud. I don't know. Thanks for coming out. I don't know.

I don't know, but give me a name. You know what? I'm not sure. The other 20 were sure. Yeah. They're completely positive. But this one guy was like, I just don't feel like that's, I don't feel like I can go there. Um, and then the other, the other funny one from this was who's the next commissioner.

Most people said Bill Daley or no. answer. And then Bill Zito, former agent, Ron Hainsey, number two at the NHLPA. You think number two at the NHLPA is going to be running the league in a couple of years? I think that's, the owners are going to be like, you know what? Let's bring them on down. Let's let the two top guys at the PA hash this out. You talk about a heel turn. That'd be pretty good by, like he tears off the shirt. The new revenue split. The new revenue split in the CBA is 100 nothing for the players.

That's crazy. Anyway, have a good one. That actually would be sick. But, you know, hey. Kim Davis, who's, like, pretty high up at the league and has been for quite a while. Mark Tatum, parentheses from NBA. I don't know who that is. I'm assuming he's, like, the number two guy behind Adam Silver.

And go outside N. Thanks. Again, the hyper specificity. I feel like that's the same guy from Nudge. I feel like there was one agent who just wasn't feeling the whole thing and was like. I'm going to see if there's any. There were a couple of answers for like, is the Department of Flare safety doing a good job that were like, yes and no? Yep, yep. Okay, man.

There was also one that they didn't say like, you know, give me a number. a firm number, obviously, but they said, what do Celabrini and Baderd get on their next deals? And a couple of the, couple of the agents were just like, they're going to get a lot of money. Yeah. Appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. If I'm a player, grow up. I'm looking at this.

And I'm looking at the fact that there's 27 votes for the questions about which teams are the best at things. And there's like 21 or 22 for which teams are the worst. So that means there are five cowards out there. Five for 80s. If I find out my agent is one of the cowards, he's fired. On the spot, you're done. My agent needs to be brave enough to crap on the Washington Capitals or whoever. And, you know, again, we're talking about keeping K-Fabe.

This one about did the players get enough in the new CBA? 12 to 10 was yes. Your job is to say no. My client actually deserves even more. than that. That's the whole point. This is the disqualifying question for 12 agents to me. What are you talking about?

We did. I also like that in the, who is the easiest for an office to deal with? There were two votes for nobody. I can't decide if I love that or hate it. Yeah. This is, every day of my job is just so difficult. I'm getting my butt kicked by every single, all 32 of these front offices. I read that as like, oh, don't make me choose.

I love them all. Oh, okay. Or is it just I hate them all equally? And I'm not going to say anything nice. Also cool. Which that I'm on board. Yeah, absolutely. Anyway, why don't we take a quick break here and we'll come back and talk about all the teams that aren't making the playoffs.

This week's episode of Puck Soup is brought to you by our good pals at Mint Mobile folks. I don't know about you, but I like keeping my money where I can see it. Unfortunately, those traditional big wireless carriers also sure seem to like keeping my money. After years of overpaying for wireless, I'm kind of getting fed up. These crazy high wireless bills, bogus fees, and free perks that actually cost more in the long run, if you're like me, you should give some serious consideration to switching to Mint Mobile. stop overpaying for wireless just because that's how it's always been. Mint exists purely to fix that.

Mint Mobile is here to rescue you with premium wireless plans starting at just $15 a month. All of those plans come with high-speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. You bring your own phone and your own phone number. You activate it with an e-sim. It takes minutes. you start saving immediately. No long-term contracts, no hassle. Ditch the overpriced wireless

and get your three months, a premium wireless service for MintMobile for just $15 a month. If you like your money, MintMobile is for you. Shop those plans at mintmobile.com slash puck. That is mintmobile.com slash puck. Up front payments of $45 for three-month five-gigabyte plan required.

It's the equivalent of $15 a month. New customer offered for first three months only, then full-price plan options available. Taxes and fees are extra. See Mint Mobile for details. All right, we're back. And now that we know all 16 teams that are going to be in the draft lottery, I went and I looked up when the draft lottery is. And if Bill Daly isn't wearing a sombrero on Cinco de Mayo flipping those cards over,

I'm going to be pissed. It's that simple. Let me put this out there, Sean. Tell me what you think. Okay. The draft lottery should be on the day, like, after game 82. Just like, let's get it out of the way. This is the – because isn't it the league ends on Thursday

and the playoffs start on Sunday this year? Saturday or Sunday, yeah. Oh, even better. Then it sounds like there's one day off. that they could make a whole big thing out of the draft lottery. I want to see those ping pong balls bouncing around. In fact, I want to see like novelty-sized ping pong balls bouncing around. Okay.

You know what I mean? I feel like there'd be a way to do that. Yeah. Do like drop them out of a helicopter or something and like whichever one lands in the golden chalice or something and that's your winner? Yeah. Just something. Get the dude perfect guys. They're.

They're not doing anything these days. Is that true? I, I, I, I, I, that's a name I've not heard in many years. They seem to make one video every two months. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When your favorite content creators slow down even a little bit, it really is disruptive to your whole life, isn't it? Yeah, that's why we'll never do that here.

It's our promise to you. Once a week's a good cadence, I feel like. And then sometimes not even that often. Good old R.L. Wait a second. Somebody named Sean will be. That's right. Here.

Um, but yeah, I, I saw that and I was like, that's like three weeks from now. What are we doing here? Let's pick it up, Bill. What's he got to do that's so fucking important? Anyway, do you want to start in the Eastern Conference or the Western Conference? Well, let's start in the West. West it is. Vancouver Canucks dead last in the league.

They have an interesting summer coming up. Okay. Did I make up that there was a thing going around that, like, they were kicking Rutherford upstairs and, Allveen upstairs and, like, hiring a new GM? So there was a reference to that that I saw. Yeah. What the fuck happened to that? And it wasn't even, if I remember right, I don't even think it was hiring a new GM. They were, like, promoting from within?

Yes. Which is, I mean, that's what you do after a 56-point season. You promote everybody. up that which first of all what are we even doing like how you can't promote

everyone that's just changing everyone's job titles then right like that's but yeah

apparently that's the big front office shakeup is going to be better titles and more money for everybody who brought you

a team that is going to finish double digits out of 31st this is rocks, man.

We had a question in the mailbag that I thought was interesting. That was basically like, what would the number have to be on salary retention for Elias Patterson to get him off the books in Vancouver? And obviously with retention, you're not getting him all the way off the books, but you're just not paying him anymore. Or he's not playing for you anymore, I guess, is a way to, a better way to put it. But I feel like that that percentage would have to be. Pretty chunky.

I'm telling you, man, they should have done it. Last year, they should have done it. They should have kept J.T. Miller. It worked out really good for his team. Should have kept them both. And just let that tension really let the rest of the team feed off of that. It's that simple. Yep.

They stink. Chicago stinks again. Yep. Are we like, is this still all part of the plan? Or at some point do we have to start being worried that should be? Chicago stinks year after year after year. Well, I think I said it a couple of weeks ago. Oh, you know what it was?

It was the bonus episode where we talked about like what's happening at this time next year, three years from now, whatever. And my prediction for next year was that the Connor Bedard is a bust talk starts up in earnest. Because I think they're not going to be good next year. I don't know what they could do to convince me this summer. they figured it all out. They pointed the ship in the right direction. There's no problems here.

I get that they're... Okay, so two years ago, when they were openly tanking for Badaard, they had 52 points. Then they improved by nine points, and with one game to left, they've improved by nine points again. So, I mean, they're improving.

But that... If you're adding nine points a season, you need... three more years to even get into the first round of the playoffs. That's right. And I'm not, I don't think Connor Bedard is a bust. No, I don't either, but like that would be the talk. I think Connor Bedard is not what they thought they were getting.

Yeah. Three years into this. Yeah, I guess it was three years ago that they were in the full tank mode. So three years of Connor Bedard, like, very good player. Any team in the league would be thrilled to have that guy. But we said it on that episode. Celebrini has like lapped him in a way that it's not even, it's not even close, yeah.

And that's a guy who's a year younger and came in with less hype. And the other thing is like, I get that some of this is based on pre-draft hype, which is not always accurate, obviously. Of course. But I've seen like some retconning from Chicago fans. who were like, nobody thought this guy was going to be like the next McDavid. And it's like, yeah, it kind of did. He was, you know.

Absolutely. He was, like, am I wrong to say he was the most hype prospect since McDavid? Yeah, he definitely was. There's no question about it. Even if you want to say he wasn't quite at the same level, like he was. And if he, like, he's not McDavid, fine. he's not Celebrini

he's not a McKinnon guy he's not a Matthews guy I'm not saying he's Ryan Nugent Hopkins but is he Jack Eichel yeah is he even Jack Eichael like or is this like

did they get you know it's the wrong position but did they get their Aaron Eckblad of like just a good useful player who will help you

but not the game changer they thought no look they are going to, I think, use a lot of rookies next season, which I would say is not necessarily a recipe for success, but they have a lot of young players that they're excited about and probably, you know, rightfully so, I guess you would say. But how much longer does everybody get a chance to keep this going in Chicago? A new coach. A real question. Yeah.

Like, I mean, this is the, and part of what is confusing to me is I'm not sure I completely know what the plan is there in the sense of like we've talked about it a bunch over the years where you see teams come out of a rebuild and the metaphor I always use is they finally take

the car out of neutral, put it and drive, hit the gas and the tires just spin and they don't go anywhere. And I'm just not like, has Chicago even tried to hit the gas? Did they

like give give it a couple of pumps and then like go back to okay well we're not there yet and you know there's some of that like there's decision making that has to has to happen where you have to be realistic about what's the right time but i mean this this team hasn't been 500 in six years now yeah um i don't know man like i also do not know at some point doesn't it have to involve some progress? You would think. And obviously, I mean, if they're, if they get Gavin McKenna, then jokes on us.

But I don't know, man. Yeah, is it though? You want to talk about like guys who got a little overhyped and then I obviously think McKenna's unbelievable as a prospect, but not like the kind of game changer people thought of him as, let's put it this way. He got, let's say, celebrini level hype as this is. a 17 year old playing his draft year in college.

He didn't come close to doing what Celebrini did. Not even close. At a less valuable position, by the way. Yeah. Not even a Hobie top three guy like, and obviously a lot of circumstances are different, blah, blah, blah. But

what I would say is look at what level of team like celebrini walked into versus what level of team McKenna walked into

Penn State made the Frozen Four last year. They were worse this year than they were last year in a lot of ways. So I don't know. Now did I, again, I didn't think Penn State was on it. Oh, we could talk about college hockey later.

But to me, I just, if you're counting on Gavin McKenna to turn your team around or, you know, boost you out of something I'd maybe dial it back a little bit. That would be my word of warning, but very good player. The Calgary Flames.

This is like the easiest one to talk about. Because it's like, yep, they wanted to be bad this year. Mission accomplished. The only thing that matters is what happens when they get the new rank. It's the only thing they care about. And I think that's totally fine. And I will give the, I don't know if this is giving them credit. But, like, I don't think they wanted to be bad this year.

Again, they had 96 points last year. But once they weren't good, they pivoted hard, and they did it early enough to extract value from this season. Yeah. They did not do what would have been a very predictably easy thing to do, which is go into, like, December and January still saying, no, no, we're, we just got to find the magic from last year. And everyone looks at Dustin Wolf and, um, but, but yeah. So Calgary Flames never had a top three draft pick in the history of the franchise. Isn't that weird?

Mm-hmm. Um, have had one top five pick ever. They picked fourth. They got Sam Bennett. I heard he won a consmite. I'm going to assume it was in Calgary. Great news. That worked out good.

And they're going to be third or, well, probably fourth, I guess. Yeah, my thing is. But they could still move up or down in one spot. Yes. My thing is, I don't know that I am super confident they're on track to be competitive when the new building opens. Yeah. But that's a problem for another day. All they had to do this year was sync, and they did it.

Congratulations. And they have an absolute trunk load of draft picks. Yes. Well, that's what I mean. With his pants falling down from all of these draft picks he has in his pocket. So that's what makes it interesting, right? Do you use all those picks? Or do you leverage them?

Or do you start flipping them as early as this summer? Because you want to be good for the new building. That might be an ownership call. Yeah. Well, speaking of teams that kind of have a deadline to get competitive here, The Seattle Cracken. Yeah. They're bad.

They pretended for a little while that they were going to be good. They were like, no, we're going to be really bad, though. They hung in the race for a while. We said it last week, these bastards all year long, we were saying they stunk. And they were like, yeah, but we're in the playoffs. And then the one week we were like, all right, maybe they're good. They're like, ha ha, got you.

We're going to go 0 and 50 in the rest of the way. Get tricked much? Yep. Got us. They got us. They got us bad. If they made a YouTube video of this, the thumbnail would be the Seattle Crack and doing the shush gesture at the camera because they're about to prank our asses. They got us.

That's exactly right. I don't know what they do. I mean, take the picks, like whatever. They're in a weird spot and now the NBA is coming. gone. I guess that was news this that was this week, right? Did we talk about that this week? I don't know. Who, who can say? Well, I mean, it doesn't, like, he wasn't the GM. So it's not.

Right. It's, if anything, it's kind of unusual for a team to part ways with their president. Yeah. And, and like, didn't he, it was a thing where he resigned. And I think the joke I made was like, this is like the fire chief resigning in front of the smoldering ashes of a building. Like, my work here's done, folks. Have a good one. Yeah, man, you ruined it. Like, this sucks. I had somebody ask me, like, how I would feel if the Leafs ended up hiring Kevin Adams as the GM and Ron Francis as the president.

And my answer to that is some things aren't funny. Yeah, that would be. Don't joke about stuff like that. You know what they should hire? It would be very funny. This guy Brad Trelliving. They should hire. It would be extraordinarily funny.

Yeah. The Winnipeg Jets. They gave it a run. They did. There was a really good post by Murat over at the athletic where he was talking about, this was when they were still in the race. And he was like, even if they do make it, this team has. got to make sure they don't, that they do learn the right lessons from this season.

Totally. And obviously now that's gone. I know there's certainly some frustration with Kevin Shevolde off. And I've seen it mentioned a few times that this team is too loyal to some of that, which I kind of get because it's, you know, we talk about teams like Winnipeg and Columbus and, you know, paying the tax of. Maybe you have to spend a little bit more to bring in players when you're not as desirable a market. Maybe you also need to have some more of that loyalty as well to the guys who do want to be there.

But, yeah, tough. I mean, President's trophy last year, so I don't think they're cleaning house. Yeah, easy for them to write this off as last year we overperformed. This year we underperformed. We're going to finish several points out of a play. playoff spot, which isn't like unbelievable. We had a lot of injuries this year. They can easily talk themselves into,

uh, it's all going to work out next year. And they're probably right in a lot of ways, you know, just because of the, they do have an undeniable level of talent on that team. And they're pretty locked into their roster. So,

yeah, they don't really have a choice, quite frankly. They, they might not. But there is like, man, that's a little tough,

hey? like two years ago we were great when our goalie won the MVP. He didn't win the MVP this year when we weren't great. I feel like two years ago was probably the real us. Yeah? Well, this is what I'm saying? What did they finish with last year? Like 112 points or something like that?

I think it was more than that, yeah. Let's have a look. 116, you were closer. Okay. But you went over, so price of right rules. Doesn't work out for you. So what I think If you take

116 and like let's say they get to 82 on the button You if you want to tell me that right in the middle of there is what their Their you know Overall number is I have a hard time arguing with that And I think they take that That puts them over 100 points doesn't it It's been in the playoffs and Yep

I'm gonna have to check the math on that I mean Connor Hellebuck is Is the guy to watch there. Yeah, of course. Does his game decline? Like, it really didn't this year. Like, he was, he got hurt.

Yeah. And then, you know, he wasn't, he's not going to win the Vezna, but he was still, he, this, like, I'm not coming out of this year going, oh-oh. Connor Hullabug has hit the decline phase, but it's coming at some point. Yeah, of course it is. Oof. Yeah, tough. The St. Louis Blues. Yeah.

Interesting. team big transition coming with Doug Armstrong leaving his GM. I don't know what they do because they spent all year either really trying to trade all their guys or bluffing about it. I'm still not sure which. I don't know. I don't know what I have no idea what their summer looks like. Yeah, it's really one of those that could go either way things.

Like they, I don't know what they think their long-term future is, but I think they realize they have to get better, if that makes sense. So what does that mean? I guess I don't know. I do not know whether. They're a very interesting team. Yeah. Can we just say this? If they go the summer and they don't trade Robert Thomas, Jordan Kairu, Jordan Biddington, all down the line, can we not?

Can we not, like, during the season, do that whole dance again, can we not fall for that? I can't commit to that at this time. There. The San Jose Sharks, let's keep it going, business as usual. We're killing it out here, boys, et cetera. Yep. That's all fine. And finally, the Nashville Predators.

They gave it a run. Can't say they didn't. They need a GM, we think. we do think that see about the coach uh weird team very strong guys um i'm not sure i would not want to be in charge of fixing that no scenario no no no no um yeah just a really weird situation for them in a lot of ways like older team i don't know i'd fucking trade everybody but you don't want to be the new GM they hire, or maybe they don't hire, and be like, yeah, I'm the face of the tear down.

That's a good way to get yourself fired in three years. Could be, yeah. Tough for them. I don't think they're good. So I know what I'd do, but nobody, they're not going to, nobody in the league has the balls to hire a new GM, and the first thing he does is trade everybody. It just doesn't happen. So anyway, let's move over.

to the East, the New York Rangers. Another kind of a weird one. That was a team that took some heat in that agent poll that we talked about. They did. In the first half, that there was a quote along the lines of, like, they forget that these players are human beings, which, yeah, I think lots of places are guilty of that in pro sports, but the fact that it gets called out kind of gives you a sense that maybe this is.

but it sounds like Chris Sturry is safe I guess the rebuild is on but good luck man it's hard to rebuild by trading guys with four years left on their deals

and the interesting one's going to be Vincent Trocheck because they didn't trade him at the deadline when you would have thought his value would be highest so totally do they move them if yes what do they get if no are we even doing a rebuild

Like if you've got If you've got J.T. Miller and Mika Zabajad and Vince Trocheck in the lineup next year, are you, is this a rebuild? Or are we just, what are we doing? You're kind of rebuilding as best you can at that point. Like, there's just... Yeah.

I know we say that like, no moves and no trades, all that kind of stuff can kind of go sideways on you, blah, blah, blah. That's all undeniably true. but at the same time, there's only so much you can do in terms of being a, like you can't, you just can't trade as many guys as they have

who have some kind of trade protection. That's all. Yep, that's fair. Yeah, the Toronto Maple Leafs. I assume you don't have any real thoughts on these guys. The Toronto Witch? Yeah, that's right. No, I'm not familiar.

here. Hey, hell of a game last night, I. It was, it was in one of the four panels I was watching, yeah. Up three nothing. Blow that lead. Score two goals. They're up five, three. They do a cheerful tribute to the beloved Joe Bowen, and then immediately give up three goals, losing regulation. Hell yeah.

You love this shit, right, Joe? Yep. Really funny. So the Leafs, the, the, the, the, The interesting thing for me on them is what happens over the last two games, because right now they're sitting in fifth. Yep. Fifth best lottery odds.

Theoretically, Calgary could pass them and they could move into fourth. That would be great news, but is very unlike. Calgary would have to win their next two games. And also, in theory, if Toronto wins and Seattle loses their next two, they could drop down to six, then just get the whole thing over with. Other than that, this Leafs team has,

like, they ran up the white flag hard about three weeks ago. Yep. As well, they should have. Yeah. But just saying, if I'm the Ottawa Senators and I'm playing the Leafs

the last game of the season, I have a chance to do something very, very funny. Absolutely. By having, by losing that game, having the Leafs drop down to six, then yeah. Just.

Yeah. To me, I mean, the move is you call up your entire ECHL team. Yeah. You boys want some game checks. Here we go. You know? Simple. I forgot to mention with the New York Rangers, Jonathan Quick,

retiring. Yeah. Hall of Fame are you think? You know, I saw a lot. I think the answer is yes. And I get why people think that. maybe not so much for me, you know? I think that's about right.

Like, he's in my list of guys where I don't know that he would get my vote, but I'm not going to be mad if he gets him. Yeah, especially with goalies, it's so weird. You know, it's less weird now than it was five years ago. The only thing I don't like on his stuff is when people are like, you know, he's the all-time leading American in wins. Okay.

Where does he rank all-time? time. Yeah. Who cares that he's... Follow-up question. Who gives a shit? Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Nash ranks among Canadian score. Well, okay. Neat, I guess, but that doesn't... Yeah. But it does have the two cups. The Consmite was legitimately elite for at least a few years. Yeah. The thing with Quick is, I feel like four years ago, we kind of had the conversation.

We being the hockey world when he was... He was done being a starter and he got traded from L.A. And it was like, you know, he might be just sure. And then, like, the fact that he hung around as a pretty good backup for four years seems to tipped his case over. And it's like, is that, should that, in the Hall of Fame, should your work as a backup really? Right. He was really good for that three month stretch. And, yeah, of course.

Yeah. Yeah. But, I mean, it did get him over the finish line on some of the counting stats. And when you combine that with. the elite peak, he's pretty close. Yep. And, you know, like you say, good player for a long time. Occasionally a great player, won the two Cubs.

The Cons Smythe is really like, when he won that Con Smyth, he was the reason they made the playoffs and won that cup. Yes. Do you award that to him for one season? I don't know what the answer to that is. I feel like I kind of do, though. Even the second cup. like he could have been, like, that was his peak.

Like that, sure. Those two years, and I think the, you know, the years around it, because it wasn't like he, he was junk in between, but. No, of course. Like, that 2012, if they gave, like, if they had three different consmice that they voted on, he would have won all three of them. Yeah.

So, I can't. Yeah. I think if, I'm a bit of a smaller hall guy, but I will keep my powder drum. eye on quick going in. Yep. I think that's about right. Who we got now?

Florida. That's a fun one. They're going to keep their pick. It looks, well, is that guaranteed? I think so. Their pick is top 10 protected. So I guess theoretically it looks like they could still drop into the 9 and 10 and then teams would pass them and all that,

but almost certainly going to keep their pick. Yep. So that'll be, I mean, they're going to come back reload it next year with a decent prospect in the pipeline and everyone's going to pick them to make the playoffs and hard to argue. Yeah, they were missing their two best players

for a huge chunk of the year. I mean... And then other guys got hurt. That's the crazy part. Yeah. And then when they realized they weren't going to make the playoffs, they just sent everyone home.

Yeah. It's also, you know, okay, sure. When you have an older team, fucking why not? Like,

why put those guys through the ringer? Let them... Sasha Barkov's been a guy who's been like the default Selky pick for a long time. He's everyone's pick

for like best 200 foot player, all this. But he seems like he's always been just short of that MVP tier. Now he isn't. This year should put him

in the MVP tier. Because if he comes in next year and is doing his Barkoff things again, 90 points, best defense player, and they're in the playoffs. Like, look at what happened

this year without him. That's exactly right. No, like, this is again, like someone asked in the mailbag, but like someone was like, I mean, he could get like, judging on how valuable he clearly was to the Panthers, is there any kind of a case to be made for the heart? And it's like, well, no,

he didn't play a single game. But I see what you're saying. Of course. It's he shouldn't get any votes this year. He should retroactively get them. That's a great way to put it. Previous years. Yep, that's right.

Damn. Because you would have said, like, two years ago, you would have gone well. Yeah, but his team is stacked around him. Mm-hmm. Are they? Kind of. Yeah. Anyhow.

New Jersey, we talked about last year a lot. I don't know what you do with them, but, like, are, sorry, last week a lot with Tom Fitzgerald being gone. Yep. I don't know what happens as Sheldon Keith. I don't know who they pick as GM, but we'll see. We will indeed. The Islanders, they already made their big change, it feels like.

And again, they got close. That's good for them. Yeah, we said last week, like, if they make it great, but even if they don't, this season's win. Like, the number one thing for the Islanders this year, would have been Matthew Schaefer how good does this guy end up being

well your grade on that paper is an A plus plus plus plus plus plus plus totally so that and Ilya Seroquan looking like a Vesina now that's a bit of a two-sided coin

because it also means you miss the playoffs with Vesna goaltending so how close are you really but I'm pretty I'm in a good play looking forward if I'm an Islanders fan, even given the disappointment of how they kind of plummeted down the stretch.

There's no question. It was right there for them. Yep. Totally. Columbus. Yeah, another time. I really wonder now what's going to happen with Rick Bonas.

I think it's a fair question. Yeah, of course. That's kind of what I'm wondering there. Other than that, I just worry that Columbus has hit their ceiling. You know what I mean? Of course I do. Yeah.

This is, they're a team that can be about a 90-ish point team. Maybe Gus up to 95 if Zach Werencky goes full Superman moan. Yep. And even then, he did that and they still got to, they're at 90 right now, 92 right now. I do like Jack Reeves if I'm a Blue Jackets fan. That gives me some hope. Sure. Because, I mean, how many years have they had goaltending be the question mark?

They might have their guy. Basically every year ever. Pretty much every year other than that one Steve Mason season. And even then. Yeah. You were like, the question mark was, is this for real? And the answer mark was no. Mm-hmm.

So yeah, I don't know. Like, will they make a coaching change? Will they make, you know, who knows? Yeah, because I mean, and if people don't remember, Rigbonis came on just for the season. as far as contract. So it's not like they would hire Rick Bonus. Like, do they bring him back?

Yeah, they could move on mutual parting away's. Rick Bonas might not want to keep doing it, or maybe he does. I don't know, hard to say. Yep. Finally we come to the, well, there's one team after them, but the Detroit Red Wings,

the team everybody's talking about. Man, I just, I don't know. I don't know with this team. The mix is not working in Detroit. I think that is fair to say. The coach, they've changed. And look, they got, they had that stretch that really started all their problems where they had all the centers get hurt in the same week.

And that stunk, but also. They were super healthy, other than that stretch of a handful of games. Like, this was, again, like, you've got to be careful talking about what's the team ceiling, because we talked in the first half. That was a concern about Montreal, and then Montreal kicked the door down on that ceiling. That metaphor doesn't work at all. But you know what I mean. Yeah, I do not even.

I don't, can you, if Dylan Larkins your best forward? Can you, like, I guess my question is, if I'm a Red Wings fan, what's my path here to being excited about this team winning a cup? Making the playoffs, sure. They're missing by a couple points each year. They're close. Fine. And maybe you just look at it and say,

why can't we be the next Montreal or Buffalo or the team that just leaps to a hundred plus? Yeah, maybe. but I don't know and this year felt like the year it was happening they were in first place in the conference in mid-January and everybody was like yeah but wink nudge

we know what happens in March and then exact thing happened yep it's brutal hey at least they got their own oh wait they don't own their own draft pick well at least the guy they traded it for you know unbelievable

you have a couple goals in that that one game. That one game, yeah. That one game. You remember? I certainly do. Yeah, man, it's difficult to say what happens with them. Just do they think they're on the right trial?

I don't know. Well, and who's even they? Yeah, right. Is it ownership? Is it, you know, would they move? Steve Isman, because I don't think anyone thinks Steve Isam is getting fired, but would they move him up,

make him kick him upstairs? Assuming they don't, does Steve Isman think they're on the right track? Is he still patient? Is he still committed to this plan? Or is he starting to reach his Brendan Shanahan moment of, wait a second, I got to start taking some bigger swings. And then what do those bigger swings look like?

Oh, it turns out it's giving up a first round pick for a 30 year old defenseman. Mm-hmm. You hate to say, you hate to draw comparisons between him and Bradtri-Living, but dot, dot, dot. You certainly do not like to do that.

The Washington Capitals. This is where we can talk about Alex Ovechkin, by the way. Yeah. That was weird. It was very strange, really strange. I don't, I don't get what the vibe was. supposed to be over that. So he goes

in the weekend. He's got two games against Sidney Crosby, except it's not, because the penguins choose to forfeit. Honestly, such a sick move. Then then they do the Sunday game. Everyone's treating it like it's

his last game, even though A including the capitals. And B, he's got to play tonight, but it's the last game of the, at home. Yes. because the schedule maker in the NHL could not possibly have foreseen that this could be Ovechkin's last, so he's got to finish in Columbus. He is just noncommittal about the whole thing.

And like really not noncommittal as in, oh, I don't have anything to announce right now. Like he just really seems like he doesn't know and he doesn't. Yeah, the best was the fans were chanting one more year. and they asked him about it after the game and he's like, yeah, we'll see. He really doesn't know. He doesn't seem to know. He doesn't seem to care.

He doesn't. There was the weird, like, the penguins like stuck around to shake his hand and he was like, no, don't do that. And even watching the game, I don't know if you were watching the, um, you know,

watching the game and it was the US broadcast, of course. And they're like, with a minute left, they're like, Alex Ovechkin is not going to leave the ice. He's going to soak it. And then they just show me. He just skates off. Just sits on the bench.

I'm good. So it felt like the fans really wanted to make it something, and it just didn't get to that level. And now he's going to be in Columbus tonight. The number one place for everybody to retire, you know. That was one of my all-time favorite. I do the annual gimmick of, of like this game changed the draft lottery results.

And there was one where it, like one Columbus game changed, cost them Alexander Ovechkin back in 2004. And without my knowledge, the hockey news put an image of Alexander Ovechkin photoshopped into a blue jackets jersey on that article. People like that. I bet they did. Washington fans were like, oh, yeah, that's humorous. and I will respond to it in the way it was intended.

I'm not going to overreact to this at all. I'm going to be cool. Chris Pronger had in the news this week, let's say. Turns out all these media appearances he's been doing for the last however many months is in anticipation of he has a book coming out, a tale is old as time, many are saying. Which is, you know, hey, I bet he has some really cool, fun, interesting stories, whatever you want to say. Nope.

No word of a lie. If I had to make a list of guys who I'd want to read an honest book from... Yep, totally. He'd be pretty high on that list, so... And he got the... Well, he got the interesting stuff. I'm assuming the honest stuff rolling. But he had an excerpt in which, after 20 years, he gives his...

version of the Oilers exit. What went wrong? And just, I feel a million years old having to do this, but for you kids out there, during the lockout, or after the lockout in 2004,

so now we've got a salary cap, now we've got all this stuff to level the playing field. And the first really big jaw-dropping player move that comes out of that is St. Louis trades Chris Bronger to the Oilers. Yep.

which is huge at the time because the Oilers were a small market Canadian team. They had basically become the expos. They were trading all their good players away. Couldn't keep anyone. And now they're going out and getting a superstar. Pronger signs an extension, plays one year, almost single-handedly drags him to the final. And then immediately is like, I want out of here. Everybody spreads rumors about his wife.

everything ranging from she just doesn't like it in Edmonton to much more personal, ugly stuff. And Progner says, I'm not, basically I want out and I'm not going to answer any questions about why or what the situation is. And he kind of held to that for years and years and years.

And now in the book, he has told his story. And it's sure something. You can't say it isn't. Yeah. Basically, what he says is when I signed that contract, I was drunk. So I regretted it immediately. Bye.

He says that he finds out he's traded while he's having a night out. So he's already got a couple of pops in him. And this is my favorite detail. It tells his wife, yeah, it sounds like I'm getting traded to Edmonton. They stop on their way home from wherever it was at a bookstore to try to find a book store. to try to find a book about Edmonton and then they head home and basically

his wife goes to bed, they agree that he's going to sign his one-year qualifying offer. They'll give it a year in Edmonton, they'll see how it goes, and then to be determined. She goes to bed. He starts, well, he resumes drinking, and hears from his agent

and his agent says Edmonton actually would like to do an extension and he according to Chris Pronger proceeds to negotiate and sign a five-year extension while under the influence without talking to his wife

who doesn't find out until the next morning that he went and signed this deal. I got to say, man, on behalf of people everywhere who have occasionally had a maybe a few too many and done something the spouse didn't appreciate, that's set in a pretty high bar. Exactly right.

I feel better about, you know, playing too much Fortnite or, you know, leaving the half-eaten bag of chips out on the table. That's husband of the year material. I never committed to five years in Edmonton. And so his version of the story is his wife. wife finds out she's furious which I think most of us would say right. Understandably so, yeah. I think she might have a point on this one.

I think the old ball and chain might actually have you on here. And he basically, they don't like it in Edmonton. And yeah, he's saying it, but look, it wasn't anything crazy. It was just, I screwed up.

I shouldn't And, you know, his version of it is basically, hey, I could either have everyone in Edmonton hate me or I could have my wife hate me. And I chose to, you know, not have my wife hate me. So I don't know.

I can say that I've seen some feedback from Oilers fans who don't seem to be fully on board with. They're not, they don't think it's as funny as, do? That's interesting. But that's his version. So a 20-year mystery solved, question mark.

Not bad. I would say, look, anybody can write a Hageo graphic biography, you know? It's not that hard to do. This one seems you wouldn't. If you were trying to be truly hagiographic, you would not admit to this, you know? Fair. Yeah. This is either the truth or the truth is a lot worse because...

That's exactly right. This is not like, this is not what you spend 20 years coming up with to make yourself look good. That's exactly right. Yeah. Yeah. Finally, I wanted to talk about the Frozen Four here. And I know people are like, oh, NCAA talk, we don't care. I think there's an NHL angle to all this that needs to be considered.

So people know Michael Hage, the Canadians first rounder. A lot of people thought all year he was going to sign with Montreal. He announces, I'm not doing that. or well, I guess the news just kind of came out that he wasn't going to go pro. And this is a guy who had 52, 53 points in 40-ish games this year, like a very good player who played injured for a good chunk of the end of the season. And so it's a little surprising that he's going back. Then, around the same time, Max Plant, who's a Detroit,

I want to say second or third rounder. Wins the Hobie Baker. He was the best player in the country for Minnesota Duluth this year. And he announces, I'm also going back to school. He didn't say also. But he announces he's going back to school as well. Part of that is his dad, Derek Plant, who played in the NHL. And his brother, Zam.

I don't know if Zam's short for something, but his brother's name is Zam. and they both already have played for Minnesota Duluth. Sam actually, his Max's line mate this year. And next year, his little brother, Victor, will also be getting into the family business and playing for Minnesota Duluth. So he's like, makes all the sense in the world for me to come back and not go pro.

I'm doing it. And so my thing is, I think this is just going to be a thing of guys who two, three years ago would have come out, played pro hockey already, gotten an NHL game or two in before the end of the season to burn a year off the ELC, I think they want to stay in college now. Because they can make just as much money, if not more, playing college than they can, you know, taking the bus from Grand Rapids to Rockford on a Tuesday night. You know? So I think. this is a very interesting dynamic that's been created here. Michigan also will be loaded next year.

Minnesota Duluth should likewise be quite good next year. So like they also have the opportunity to kind of find more on ice success if you want to call it that. And with Hage in particular, he wasn't even Michigan's number one center this year, T.J. Hughes, who just signed with Colorado was. And so you bump him one spot in the lineup. He comes back for a third season. They're going to be fucking awesome next year. It makes all the sense in the world that this is going to be a new thing that happens. It's just like, oh, that guy's going pro?

Oh, he's not. Okay, interesting. So there's that. The other thing I wanted to say here is people remember David Carl, the coach of Denver, who for like two years straight was just linked to every NHL job. And then he signed a big extension with Denver. So they won the national title. It is their third title in five years, all under David Carl.

And the thing about David Carl is he won't be 37 until like next November, I think, is when his birthday is. So three in five years, he's another three years for being 40, basically. Is this one of the greatest college coaches of all time already? is the question I think that has to be asked. I think the answer is maybe borderline Mount Rushmore shit, honestly. Well. Because they're just so good. They're going to be good again next year, like guaranteed, basically,

with the guys they're bringing back. A lot of their best players were like freshmen and sophomores this year. there's just there's a real lot to like here for his future and again I don't see him leaving Denver why would he fucking leave all they do is win championships

he makes a lot of money he's got young kids and if he decides 10 years from now oh I actually want to go coaching the NHL he can do that and he'll still be 46 years old

you know what I mean I've seen his name out there with like the Leafs and some of is there any chance before like

in the next short term that he goes back to the NHL or is I have I extremely doubt it I'll put it this way when people were asking him about it

at the Frozen 4 the last two years he seemed fucking fed up with the questions then like why would I leave basically I'm learning a lot I'm building relationships

but like Like, you know, I don't feel any real pull to leave Denver. I got a great situation here. Three titles in five years. And one of the times they didn't win the title, oh, they went to the fucking Frozen Four. He's just an unbelievably good coach. I don't think he has any reason to leave ever. But let me hit you with this.

So he's got three in five years. Other coaches with three national championships in their entire lives. Jack Parker, Hockey Hall of Famer. Herb Brooks ever fucking heard of him? Badger Bob Johnson ever heard of him. And then Scott Sandlin, who's the current coach at Minnesota Duluth and, you know, been there for a million years, great coach. The guys ahead of him, this guy Murray Armstrong, which was the coach at Denver in like the 50s and 60s. And he won five.

And then Jerry York, Hockey Hall of Famer. and then a guy named Vic Highliger, who was the coach at Michigan a million years ago. So what I guess I'm saying is we maybe have never seen a coach this successful this early in his career. It's crazy. Again, Go coach. Give it a decade.

Again, give it a decade. Maybe you'll come to the NHL. How many more titles does he have a decade from now? even if we're saying three and five years unsustainable. In 10 years, does he have the same number as Jerry York, the winning his coach in the history of college hockey? It's possible. Yep.

So I thought that was interesting. Yeah. I guess that's it. Sean, why don't you hit him with the plugs and we'll get out of here. Find me at the athletic. I'll be on the podcast tomorrow. Newsletter went out today. had the final weekend rankings on Monday,

so that's my top 16, plus the goal plan standings and all of that good stuff. Who's first in those goal plan standings? The Rangers ran away with it, because the Rangers have been winning a bunch of games lately. They have. It's really fucking up my Jersey Mike's picks. I keep picking against the Rangers and...

That's a tough break. Tough. But, yeah. This week we'll have going to have the playoff prediction contest is going to be back, probably launching tomorrow, I guess, now that we know the 16 teams. And we'll also have, I think we're going to have the bandwagon guide on Friday is the current plan. So if you're looking for a team to root for, I got your back. That's what's up.

And then for me, head over to Elite Prospects. I obviously did a ton of Frozen 4 content last little while here. But crucially, in the NCAAs right now, they have opened up the transfer portal, and there's something like 300 names in it already. And that's a pretty good percentage of the total number of guys in college hockey. You know, do the math. 26 guys a team, 62 teams, you know. I choose not to crunch the numbers.

I'm not doing. So we're going to have coverage of the transfer portal later this week. The top guys at every position who have committed, we're still trying to nail down top five, top eight, whatever it is. It kind of depends. And then the top five or eight or whatever the number is who have not committed to a new school yet. And guys are committing every day. Uh, yep, that's, uh, that's everything at elite prospects. And then you head over to patreon.com slash puck soup and you can get all kinds of bonus episodes.

It's going to be a busy week. I don't think we've done any except mailbags so far this month due to, uh, NCAA coverage, making my life very difficult to schedule. Uh, so a lot, three, maybe four bonus episodes coming your way this week. Stay tuned for all that. Uh, no defense. definitive plans. But yeah, that's it.

Patreon.com slash pox soup. Thank you for listening. And by the time we talk to you next week, playoff started. Sean, you know what? We know the 16 teams. Give me your cup final and your winner. Oh, boy. Oilers over lightning.

I have lightning over Vegas, so there you have it. We're both cowards. We both want to pick Colorado. I really don't. Really? That gold ending? You know, it's good. You don't like Colorado's gold ending?

I mean... It's good. But then why am I picking Vega? I get it, folks. You don't have to... Oh, right. Get off my phone. I literally heard everyone yelling in unison.

Yeah. But... You've... You picked a team with a bad goal... Oh, wait a second. What it really boils down to for me, by the way? That Central Division is tough, man. No, man.

I changed my name, Dallas over Carolina. Look, I'd love it if it was Dallas. That would be great, but no, I got a, I got to dance with who I came to the dance with, you know. So anyway, that's it for us. Thanks so much, folks. Have a good one. Bye, bye-bye. Bye-bye.