Puck Soup - The Awards Race Heats Up

Episode Date: March 26, 2024

Sean and Ryan talk about 50-goal scorers, awards favorites, and more. Sponsored by Gametime (download the Gametime app and use code PUCK for $20 off) and Express VPN (expressvpn.com/puck)

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I'm Sean McAnew from The Athletic. And Sean, I broke this news to you mere seconds ago. We don't have to worry anymore, folks. Everything's right in the world. The Yarmir Yager bobbleheads have been returned to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Yeah. And the thieves have been compromised to a permanent end, or is that...

It seems like the thieves have been compensated for the return of the... Oh. So that's almost compromised. Crime paid. Yeah. This is from an article by Gorp Wisniewski on ESPN.com. According to Penguin's president of business operations, Kevin Acklin, the team was notified

last week that, quote, a special cargo recovery team negotiated the turn of the stolen property to a secure warehouse located in Ontario, California. Now, I guess it doesn't say that they, like, you know, transferred some money to an offshore bank account or something like that. I don't know what negotiated the, you know, special cargo recovery team. This could have been a SEAL Team 6 scenario. Seal Team 68. Okay. And then they did a big salute at the end.

Yeah. So we don't have to worry. I heard they negotiated the, they traded them for a bunch of Anson Carter bobbleheads. then yeah now they're going to go from a secure warehouse in Ontario, California to a secure warehouse in in Dallas to a secure warehouse in Florida to a secure warehouse in Calgary I'm actually happy to hear this news legitimately because I had when everyone else was having fun with this I just assumed it was a stupid marketing yeah I did as well you're Right about that.

So this suggests that that is not the case. Here's the thing. Prove to me that it's not. You know what I mean? It could still be, oh, the special cargo recovery team and then they release a funny video three weeks from now with like Sidney Crosby and like tactical gear. Yeah. Because that's what we all want to see from the Penguins right now.

A little bit of a little bit of sketch comedy. Yeah. You know, it's all going great out there. Actually, you know what? Okay. Let's actually talk about that. I had this on the outline for a different team, but let's talk about, so early in the season, I'm sure people remember this. All the local, man, maybe they don't, I don't know, all the local beat writers in Pittsburgh are like, this team is fucked.

They are so bad. Holy shit. And we're all sitting there going, ah, they'll be fine. Look, they got Cindy Crosby, they got Eric Carlson, getting Malkins on that team, Chris LaTang. What's not to like? Look at all these all-star. Turns out those beatwriters were correct. Very interesting turn of events.

Usually my take on when like, you know, we're 20 games into the season and beat writers are panicking about how bad the team they cover is. I'm just like, whatever, we can write this off. And yet, here the penguins are. Yeah. They stink. They are not good.

And they have been significantly not good over the last month, right around the time that Kyle Dubas was like, you know what, they're going to tell me what to do with the deadline. They told them. They were like, Kyle, FYI, buddy,

we're absolute garbage. Five games above five, NHL 500 at road, at home, five games below it on the road. They're 30, 30 and 10, 70 points from 70 games. Dead even 500.

Hard to be in the NHT. Dead even fake 500. Hard to be. The Calgary Flames are 507, you know. The Buffalo savers are 507. It's brutal, man. I don't know what they do. Well, that's the question, right?

Like, what? Yeah, of course. What do you do? And there was, you know, there has been, I would say, you tell me if you disagree, but I would say very muted, very half-hearted, like, oh, should Sydney Crosby go somewhere else, takes from around the hockey world, but nobody seems to actually buy that. Yeah, I mean, if you do that, like Rob Rossi is going to mail you a picture of your house, right?

Like, you're just going to be like, I just know that you, I want you to know that I know what's going on. Like it would be, like, it would be a Sydney Crosby call. Of course it would, yeah. But even then, yeah. No, I don't think. And Rob had a piece just a couple days ago where he was like, look, it's not happening. Fun to pretend, though, isn't it? It is kind of fun to pretend.

Just, you know, in much the same way, the Stamco's sweepstakes of a few years ago, and I guess we'll get it again this summer maybe. But a few years ago, the whole, more than a few years ago, maybe like almost a decade ago now that I say all this. The Stamco's like, oh, he might, he might leave Tampa. You never know. that was just fucking so fun to think about because superstar players don't move in this league. You know? Just, you know, the line of teams around the block

that gets fucking Sydney Crosby. Well, a lot of people are saying like Colorado would be such a great... Well, yeah, I mean, that's where his friend from home lives. Yeah. But, no, it... Assuming that's not where you go. Because obviously, if you move Crosby, you just strip it down to the studs.

Obviously, yeah. But since you're not doing that, you're right. What do you do? I guess I don't know what the answer is. What is the path to this team being better than it is this year? Forget about cup contending or whatever else. Just better than right now. They have...

They have a little over 72 million committed to the salary. cap for next season. What did they say the cap's going to be? Obviously, it's not finalized. It's like 87 and change, right? Something like that. I don't remember the exact number, but yeah. So, leaves them above $15 million and the only guy they have to, well, I guess they

have to re-sign Jansen Harkins. So there you go. There's your $15 million. And Alex Nadelcovic, or, you know, a backup goalie. So they have money to spend. Now, you know. Do you think any of that gets spent on bringing Jake Gunsel back? Yeah, I wouldn't do it if I was them.

As much as obviously Gensel rocks, like he's a really good player. Look how he's doing Carolina right now, you know. But you're going to be like, let's bring back the 30-year-old. Let's make it happen. Like, they might not have a choice. And he's obviously, I think, pretty clearly the best, the best free agent on the market this summer. But I don't know how you bring him back.

Would you move Eric Carlson if you could in the off season? If you could, maybe. But like, do you then have to eat salary? He's got a full no move clause. You know, like how many pass-throughs are we going to get before Eric Carlson's back in Ottawa playing for like $8.50 an hour, you know? Mm-hmm. It's Ottawa would be the

the destination and they would have to retain salary. That's, yeah. And part of what makes that difficult is if you're Ottawa because he would presumably want to come here here being Ottawa where I am.

Because he, you know, he likes it here. He still maintains a presence in the offseason and that kind of thing. And it, in theory, could make more sense for the senators from a marketing standpoint and a making the fans happy standpoint than it would, then simply what would happen on the ice, which means it might make more sense for them than any other team in the league. Sure. But if you make that deal, Pittsburgh retains, that's now two retentions on Carlson, which would mean,

if Ottawa were to want to move him at some point in the future, they can't slice it down anymore. Right. You should be able to retain as much as you want. Get a guy down to like $850,000. Like I said, like $850,000. Imagine what the deadline would be like then. It would be sick. We have eight breaking trades.

And it's all just one guy getting traded so he costs $125,000. That's cool. This is a good idea. We just go Zeno's paradox on. guy's cap hits until it's literally a fistful of change. Oh, is that the thing of like you can't divide a number down? That's thing where you keep going halfway, yeah. That's what, yeah, okay, that's right.

That is interesting. Not to be, not to be confused with Zadano's paradox, which is. You actually get to have the longest stick in the league because of how tall you are. Exactly. The rules don't apply to you at that point. I'm a big Fermi's paradox guy. You ever think about this one? Yeah, that's a tough one, boy.

Where are they? Where is everyone? Yeah, it's interesting to think about and not scary at all. No. No, no, no. But yeah, you know, the problem with trading Eric Carlson is, okay, what do you do with that money? Obviously, you're getting stuff back for them, but not like anything great, I wouldn't think. No, I wouldn't imagine.

I would put it this way. They didn't give up very much to get them in the summer. And I think it would be even less to flip them now. Yep. Again. Aren't they talking about like, oh, we got to make some changes in the offseason in Ottawa? This is kind of beside the point of what we're talking about here. Stability, man.

That's what they need in Ottawa. I'm not joking. It ain't broken. Didn't I see a report that somebody's got to go there? Like, they got to make some changes. I feel like I saw something about that. You could see that view out there. I haven't heard it as something that is likely to happen other than they probably

move one of the defensemen because they've got the three guys on the left. Yeah. Carlson's a righty. He is. Now, look, I mean, it's going to be hard for him to break into a lineup with Travis Hamannock is like the third best. Well, that's it. I mean, it is, on paper, this Ottawa team is phenomenal.

And I don't know if you saw it, but they won two games over the weekend. So they're pretty strong. That's right. They're beating some good teams. They can build on this. Hold that football in place and I'll be on the way. The team that I wanted to talk about when I was talking about, like, panicky beat writers and all this is the Boston Bruins. I wrote about them over the weekend.

Like, they lost, they, I think they lost two in a row, and I don't know if they've played since I wrote about it. I'm not remembering off the top of my head. They have not. Yeah, I didn't think so. Okay. They've got Florida and Tampa tonight and tomorrow. Yes, that's right. But, you know, it seems like the Bruins kind of suck, too, man.

Like, I know they have 97 points. Yeah. You know? But, like, again, like, all the, all the locals are just like, oh, this is. team kind of doesn't have it. And you're like, could that possibly be true? And then, you know, you watch them, the results keep coming in. And you're like, oh, yeah, I guess they go to overtime more than anybody in the league, basically.

There is that, right? And in fact, I'm heartbroken to report that they're, those two straight losses were in regulation, which means they now have more regulation losses than overtime losses. Yeah, they are six and 15 after regulation. Yeah. So what does that make them in regulation? Because isn't that what we're, wouldn't that? Oh, wait, no.

I might have done the- I might have done the math wrong on this. Not nine and 15. I wasn't counting shootouts. All right. As we should not. Well, sure. It's different discussion.

But yeah, I mean, like, it's so funny because it's like, well, they're plus 41. in goal difference, right? So, like, even if we're saying, look, they're playing a lot of games with, like, a one goal or zero goal margin, you know? Mm-hmm. When they win, it seems like they win five to two, and every other game is a one-goal winner loss.

Yep. They've got, well, so they've got Florida, Tampa the next two nights. Yep. Then, and this is all on the road. then Washington, who are warm lately, Nashville who are red hot, then Carolina, then back home for Florida and Carolina again. And that closes out the regular season?

And that takes them almost, and then they finish with Pittsburgh, Washington, Ottawa. So, I mean, we'll have a pretty good sense in another week and a half of where they are. But they're going to play in the first round, so. Yeah. Who are we kidding? Well, the thing is they're tied in points with Florida.

And so in theory, they could finish first in that division, then get one of the wild card teams. But, yeah, it seems like the most likely matchup is with the Leafs. Yeah. And I don't know. That's another team where I'm just like, eh, they're not like that. Like, they're good.

Mm-hmm. But let's be serious here, you know? The Leafs have spent, like, the entire year being the 11th best team. That's what I mean, yeah. Like, they're a good team, but, like, it depends on how you define good, you know, like in the grand scheme of things. I don't think anybody thinks either of these teams

is a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. You wouldn't put the Bruins on your list of... No. Legit contenders? No. Even with the goaltending, even with... Well, I, you know, with the caveat that... Sure, yeah, of course.

Even with the caveat that any goalie can get hot and they have two of the best goalies in the league, I just The idea of Stanley Cup winning number one center, Pavel Zaka, I just can't see it, man. You know? That is fair.

Yeah. And look, we knew that was the problem in fucking August. We knew that was the problem in November. We knew that was the problem with the deadline. They didn't do anything to address it. And they don't really have the assets to do it. I get it, but, yeah. Can we just talk about the very tip-top of the NHL standings as we record this?

Number one team in the league right now, New York Rangers, 98 points, Canucks, 98 points. Panthers, 97, Adams, 97, Carolina, Dallas, Boston, all 97. There are seven teams within one point for the president's trophy. A regular season award that we all agree means nothing and treat with basically contempt. But that is still pretty ridiculous. Who you got? Of that group? Out of that group.

I mean, I haven't looked at like schedule. It feels like schedules are going to make such a big deal, like strength of schedule remaining or whatever. But which team do I think is the best of that group? is probably Florida. Yeah, I would say so too. On paper anyway. In actual practice, this is me saying, and of course I expect Sergei Bavrovsky to hold up

for the entire rest of the regular season. I know it's only 11 games, but, you know. Carolina looks like they could have really straightened things out here. And Colorado and Dallas are both very, very, I mean, Colorado's 1-9. in a row. Dallas is keeping pace, which has sort of pushed Winnipeg into that dreaded three spot. Yep. I look, I mean, it's kind of a thing where I look at all of these teams and go, pretty obvious fatal flaw on this one. You know what I mean? Um, like last year with the Bruins, you wouldn't have said there really was a weakness in their lineup. You know, everybody,

if everybody's healthy and all that. Great. You know, really good number one. center, pretty good number two, two great defensemen, two great goalies, you know, elite wingers, that kind of thing. Okay, great, you know. Obviously, they still lost in the first round, so who gives a shit about like being good on paper. But with the Rangers, I can point to problems, the Canucks problems, Florida, the fewest problems probably, Colorado, Carolina, Dallas, Boston, all, like, you know,

depth issues at various positions, that kind of thing. Every single one. Absolutely. This is... What I would love... The NHL. What I would love, three-way tie for the president's trophy. It's very possible only because all the teams you mentioned within one point,

there are four within one regulation win of each other. Yes. Yep. And I know there's probably other tie. breakers that I'm not remembering off the top of my head right now that would separate them. But I want like four teams with like 112 points. Everybody gets a third of a banner. That's what I'm saying.

That would be cool and sick. Yeah. I'm sure there it's like, well, now, okay, now we got to look at your record in road games on Tuesday. And it's like, okay, well, the Canucks are in trouble here, you know. Right now, the league leader in regulation wins, the Vancouver Canucks and the Winnipeg. and the Winnipeg Jets, you just mentioned them. Isn't that crazy? 39 apiece.

Yeah. Hey, while we're talking about the standings, you know it's a pretty big game tonight? Caps Red Wings. Mm-hmm. Caps, one point up with a game in hand. But if they lose, uh-oh. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I haven't seen yet. The, like, this is the time of year where you start seeing the, like, if this team wins the odds shift this way, if that team, I would imagine this one is probably the biggest of the year so far. I know last night, Vegas, St. Louis was another one that had a big swing, but this would kind of be, well, not it because islanders and devils are still hanging around. But a Washington win in regulation.

Caps are really rooting for a for a Rangers victory tonight because the Rangers are playing the Flyers Yep that's right I keep forgetting the Flyers spot is very much up for grabs They are two points ahead of like if the capitals win tonight and the Flyers lose the capital They are tied I don't know it's all it's all pretty interesting in my opinion I'm uh I saw somebody May have been dumb

last night towards the end of that Vegas St. Louis game when it was tied in regulation saying the blues should pull the goal

at the end of regulation and go for the regulation win. They didn't. But are you, like if you're a coach in the NHL are you starting to

think about stuff like that because it feels like we almost never see it. We had, was it Minnesota a week or two? I don't think we got to talk about that. he's died.

Yeah, pulling the goalie in. Gone. Yeah. Pulling the goalie in overtime to get the win that would help in the tiebreaker. I don't know. I wonder if we'll see it. Detroit, Washington maybe feels too early for that.

If you're, you know, if you're Detroit, obviously you want to win a regulation and move past them, but I don't know that you risk the free point by doing that yet. We're getting close to that time of year. I wonder if that's going to be the next thing we start seeing coaches do. Yeah, the thing with the blues, like, just trying to go for it because they're five points out with an extra game played. Yep. Like, yeah, it makes sense, but if you do it and you lose on an empty netter, it makes the coach look like an asshole and he's like kind of playing for his job, you know?

Yep. Yeah. I mean, they ended up losing in overtime. So, right. They got the point out of it. They got one more point, but really didn't. I mean, they're all but done now. Right. But yeah, you're right. It's one of those. But I mean, they were all but done two weeks ago. Yeah. We just, because Vegas had all their injuries or whatever, and now they've won three straight, I think.

We at least had to pretend like, oh, you know, the blues in the wild are in it. And over the next two weeks, the Blues in the Wild were like, we're actually not. So hold on. Are we getting the R.L. I've seen enough. On the Western Conference? Yes, absolutely. I think we're done here. All right. I just can't see St. Louis making up five points on even an injured Vegas with an extra gameplay. It's, that's a huge. Again, you get to pretend it's close. It's not that close. I will issue no such proclamation about the Easter conference though. Although we could be getting close on that.

Yeah, but only because of the flyers. Everything else is like, you know, pretty settled. Again, Tampa's up six points on Washington. Yeah, Tampa's in. Yeah, I think I saw the odds this morning and they were like 98% or something. So it's it is this weird thing where you've got kind of two spots up for grabs, Philly and Washington. But Detroit can only catch one of those teams. Right.

Whereas the Islanders and I guess devils have both those spots to hang it. It's true. Right now, Philly 87, this is according to Money Puck, Philly 87%, Washington 59, Detroit, 3%. God, that's got a, man, if you're a Detroit fan and all year you were just like, they're going to make the playoffs. Holy shit. Fides were so good. Sorry, man, we're still the Red Wings at the end of the day.

If they miss, does, like, I feel like we say this every year, but does anything blow back on Steve Eiserman after essentially taking the deadline off? I mean, what, what are they going to do? fucking fire Steve Eisenman? I'm not, no, obviously not, but is a single Red Wing fan out there going to express any doubt? I have already seen...

I've already seen like months ago. Like, what are we doing with this fucking Eiser plan here? Okay. You know, I've seen it already and I do feel like he caught maybe a little bit of flack at the deadline, but at least then

you could say, well, when Dylan Larkin comes back, dot, dot, dot. And, you know, he helped for a minute there. But, you know, I just think the sands kind of running out of the hourglass for these guys. It hasn't yet because the team in front of them is the Washington Capitals, right? But I mean, look, my thing, my big thing is we should just decide this all on goal difference. Like the fact that a minus 27 team right now is, is in a, a plus. playoff spot is a fucking joke.

Okay. But they're never going to do it on just goal difference, right? So we don't have to... Well, it would be fun to watch, like, teams try to run up the score on it. That's what I mean. Like, we want to talk about, oh, let's, let's do scoring, let's boost scoring. Do scoring. What a stupid thing to say?

Let's boost scoring. Mm-hmm. It would be a great way to do that. It's like, if you go like, hey, Edmonton Oilers, you know, really hell, hell, is if you ran your number one power play unit the full two minutes every power play all season. You'd see a lot of goals that way. You would.

We'd have to take the empty netters out. I don't think so. I think that's part of the calculated risk. Yeah, but then what happens when a team pulls its goal and gives up like four empty net goals and those four goals help that other team make the playoffs over somebody else? That's hockey, baby.

All right. I'm in. You got me. All right. Hey, speaking of goals, Zach Hyman and Sam Reinhart both hit 50 goals over the weekend. But let me start you with this stat. I saw Austin Matthews scored an empty-neck goal for his 58th of the year the other night. Did you know that's his first empty-neck goal of the season? I did because I had seen that like a couple of days ago. Someone had pointed out that he had no empty-neck goals.

and then he immediately put an end to that. But yeah, it's impressive. Well, I mean, it's all, it is impressive, but also it's like, I need this guy out there, like he's not going to get to 70 now, and I'll put, and I'll just go, well, you only scored the one empty net or all year. Alex Ovechkin knows, you know,

go pop like four or five into an empty net. Dude. They all count the same, you know. That was my, uh, I don't remember. I remember what video game it was that, like, was the first that I played where you could control your own guy. Yeah. But that was basically, I just sat on the bench until my team was up by a goal. Yeah, you hit Y for putting me in coach.

Yeah. Then you jump over the boards, demand a pass. And, uh, yep. I think I got to 50 goals that year. Didn't. No problem. Yeah. That's right.

That's right. Um, but yeah, Hyman and Reinhart at 50. Never thought I'd be saying that about those two guys. No. 50 goals for those two. So everybody wants to know. Fake?

I don't know if the word is fake. Okay. With Hyman, it's like, well, look who he gets to play with. You know what I mean? It's the same thing. Is it fake that all these guys who played with Joe Thornton scored like 40 or 50 goals? I don't know if that means it's fake. it's definitely

I don't know if you know this in like marathon running if the wind is at the runner's back for the majority of the race they say it's like a wind assisted time I think it's kind of like that you know what I mean like I'm not going to say he didn't run that fast but I am going to say look the Zephyrs were really stepping up to to help him out here

I got no problem with it that's fine look anybody scores 50 I remember an era early in my in my NHL watching days when like the Rocket Richard Richard winner had like 41 goals. Yeah. Is your buddy Rick Nash? Was that the year? It was Kovilchuk Nash and a Ginlaw at once?

Yes, that sounds right. There was a three-way tie the one year. Yeah. Pretty cool. Again, I like when there's a big tie at the top of the standings, you know? But. But yeah, Sam Reinhardt, it's just like, I'm not going to be, like, mad at the guy for shooting 26%. You know?

But does, if I, if my team signed Sam Reinhart in the summer going, look, we just got a 50 goal score. It's like, did you though, man? I don't, like, you could say that, but I don't, I don't know. Yeah, I know, I would, I would agree on that. And some team will, because this is, he's having the mother of all contract years. Yeah. great for awesome for him he deserves it why not you know if you if you can trick one person into giving you like an extra two million bucks a year more than you deserve that's the that's the

greatest trick you're you're ever going to pull in your entire life mm-hmm you know um only two other maybe three okay mckenon Posternak and Panarin 44 or 43 goals each I guess it 50's in reach for those guys But I, you know, they'd have to pick it up a little bit maybe. Possible for sure. But yeah, so to celebrate our friends, Zach Hyman and San Ryan Hart getting to 50, I had asked Sean to pull a list of one-time 50 goal scores in the cap era.

Yes. Well, what I've got is I've got the list. the entire list. And then we'll just go back as far as you would like. But I can tell you, according to hockey reference, I just found this interesting. There have been exactly 100 50 goals scores. Ever in the history of the league?

100 players, including Reinhart and Zach Hyman, who have scored 50 goals at least once. So 100 different players. Okay. Would you like to care to guess how many of those did it multiple times versus how many are one-timers? I'm going to guess 35. For 35 multiples or 35 one-time? 35 did it multiple times. There are 47. It's almost a 50-50 split.

47 players have done it at least twice. 53, my math would say, have done it once. And of those, I'm going to, you said the cap era. Yeah. There would appear to be an even dozen players. A dozen in the cap era. So to be clear, this is guys who scored 50 goals once in their career and it happened in the cap era. So not guys who scored 50 multiple times, but only once in the cap era.

Right. There are 12 cap era 50. 50 goal scores. And there is a, I would say, a vast range of fakeness here on. See, that's what I'm here to talk about. Yeah. This is what it's all about for me. All right.

We just talked about him yesterday. So this is kind of top of mind. On the bonus episode, we mentioned Chris Crider. I know that guy's only got the 150 goals season. He does, yeah. He is. Hyman and Reinhart, obviously, is one. Hyman and Reinhardt are two of them. Of the other 10, Chris Kreider is one of them, yes.

Okay Jonathan Chichu He only did it once Yep Did he get to 60? I sort of alluded to him I think I want to say 56

Still a good number Especially in those days Simply click on the link And see it Yeah 56 League leading 56 Hey speaking of the early days

Of the cap era I think Yager got to 51 time Um He may have but he would have had other ones. Oh, sure, of course. Right. Yeah, what am I saying?

He has three in his career, the most recent being in 2006. So he did do it once in the cap barrow. Yeah, but what am I saying, of course, stupid, stupid fucking thing for me to say. Anybody else really springing to mind? I know Crosby had the 150 goal season, but I'm not. Yeah. I'm not sure if I want to commit. Okay.

You can commit. Sydney Crosby has only 150 goal season, that. It was one of the guys on this list that I would consider a surprise. Yeah, I just remember there was like the one year he did score 50. I believe he won the Rocket Richard. And it was a thing where they like all summer people were like, Sidney Crosby has determined that he will be scoring 50 goals this year. Yeah.

And then he did it, which was pretty sick. Like they were just like, all he did all summer was work on his shot. And I was like, uh-oh, bad news for everybody else. Sure. I'm trying to think who else. There were four guys last year who scored 50 goals, and it is the only time in their career that they've scored 50. So far, of course.

Okay. I know Rantanin got to 50-something last year. Yep. Rantanin is one of them. Um, um, Pasternak? I know he got to 60, but is that the only... So I'm, that's the only one of his career. I just realized what I was thinking of.

He was very close to 50 when they shut the season down for COVID. Okay. Yep. I'm pretty sure that's what I was thinking of. Yeah, that sounds right. Surely did McDavid? Was that his 150 goal season? It was, yep.

That's the only time he is done. And by the way, Posternak had 48 in the COVID season, won the Rocket Richard that year because obviously nobody got to 50 because of the shortened season but yeah McDavid is another one and then the other guy from last year is a guy I gotta be honest I completely forgot this guy

hit 50 I see his name I go yep I remember that but no real recollection of it okay dry saddle's done it more than once for sure um give me a hint uh center

which is Okay. Rare. Not helpful, but there's a lot of centers out there. Well, there's a lot of centers, but not a lot of them that score goals. Would not be considered the best offensive player on his own team, despite being a 50 goal score. Has passed 40 this year, so not... Past 40 this year. Okay, well, I was just looking at the list of guys who are over 40. I'm turning away from my screen where the tab is still open.

Over 40 or at 40? He is, I believe, over 40. Allow me to click on him again. He is at 41 on the season. Has never had 100 points, which is kind of interesting, both as a guy who scores a lot of goals, as a center, usually they're... Sure, yeah, a lot of us is. And also, given his reputation, I'm a little surprised that he's never had 100 points,

because he's a guy? If he's not, because I had just seen the list and he's not the best the best offensive player on his own team and it's not Leon Dreisdell. It's got to be Braden Point. It is indeed Braden Point. Good player. Yep. But I think the reputational thing there is that he scores a lot of goals in the playoffs.

I was about to say that he is a reputation as a playoff performer. Well earned, by the way. Of course. Goes without saying. There are three other guys, and I'll just kind of real quick. One of them, I would consider a very big star in the league. I'm a little bit surprised that he only has the 150 goal year. Really?

Really? Not one hit wonder, but a classic, like, Chris Kreider style. Everything came together in one year. And then the third guy, it's from 2007. I did not remember that this guy ever got to 50. He was a good player. But. Am I remembering right that Eric Stahl had a 50 goal season?

I don't believe he did. No, he is not on the list. He had 100 points season, which I think. Maybe that's what I'm thinking of. Oh, I bet he got to like 40 and 100 or something like that, and that's why it's standing out in my mind. Okay. Oh, 7, everything came together for him.

Is that what, am I getting that right or is that two different guys? I would say two different guys, although this guy is not necessarily far off. This guy, 2007, he was actually the Rocket Richard winner that year. Okay. Had a very weird career. Weird career. I would just say in terms of ups and downs, not going to the Hall of Fame, a guy who would probably be considered a

disappointing career, but also had some big seasons. Had some big seasons. This was his one and only Rocket Richard. It was his best other year was 40 goals. He had that the very next year. I'm thinking back through Rocket Richard guys. Kind of peaked.

and then sort of fell off a cliff after this. Well, that's harsh, but... Did Vinnie La Cavillier have a win-in-Rachard? Yeah, I do seem to recall that. 52 goals. He got to 52, good for him. Yep. He scored 420 goals in his career, but fell short of 1,000 points.

You know, number one overall pick, never won an award, never, yeah. Yeah. Dicey. Yeah, the other guy is caught up with him, right? You just kind of, am I right about that? That was part of it, yeah. Got bought out, of course. Yeah, the other two guys, a guy, both of them are still active today.

Okay. Both of them scored their 50 over 10 years ago. Okay. Yeah, one of them's like, I mean, this guy's even more of a Chris Crider, I would argue, because let me see, this guy, what, his other career high. He had one other season where he got to 40. Okay. And there is something else about this season that is probably even more memorable than the 50 goals.

He scored 50 on the nose, by the way. Okay. I mean, that doesn't help me, I guess. Let's see here. Something he did this season that was notable? And he scored 50, 10 years? No, I was saying there was something, the season, that he scored 50, although he has had a notable year this year as well.

Oh, I see. Notable year this year. The season he scored 50 was notable for something beyond scoring 50 goals? Yes. What could that mean? Give me a division this guy was in. At the time, the team at the time was the Pacific Division. I can't even remember what the division alignments were back then.

Okay. Most associated with a Pacific Division team. Most associated with the Pacific Division team. And Marlowe never got to 50. Thornton obviously never got to 50. I wonder what Joe Thornton's career high in goals is. Like 35 maybe. I will look that up while you continue to struggle with that.

Who else is in the Pacific? Vancouver. I don't think they've had a 50 goal score in in recent years. Oh, one of the Sadiens might have. Is it a Sedeen? No, it's not. Okay. But you're getting warmer. Getting warmer. By the way, Joe Thornton had a 37 and a 36 goal season, but both with Boston. He never got to 30 goals in San Jose. I seem, you know, when I really started like coming online as a You know, like as an NHL fan, I do seem to recall Thornton had like that one really big season in Boston, like 105 points or something like that.

And I think that's one of the years he scored a lot of goals. But anyway, okay. Another 50. Did Getslaff score 50? No. Don't believe he did. Who the hell is it? Stars of the Pacific Division.

And you're right Now I'm struggling to remember Who would have been in the Pacific Apart from the three California teams Half the listeners are screaming right now And the other half are frantically Well I'm trying I'm just same as you

Because Edmonton and Calgary used to be Or I guess they still are in the Pacific But like I can't think of anybody from Calgary Besides Ginlan obviously he did it more than once And nobody from Edmonton besides dry sidel and McDavid. I'll tell you, you've already hit this guy's team and moved past it. Okay.

Well, that doesn't. Now I've named every team in the Pacific, so that doesn't actually fucking help me at all. Don't think you're in Vegas, actually. Oh, that's true. And no, I don't think anybody from Vegas has ever had a 50 goal season. Okay, so I don't think Pavelski or Kuchur ever had it, had 50. I don't, I'm almost certain no one from Kopitar, no? Nope.

Oh, I got it. It's Corey Perry. It is Corey Perry. Yep. That one year where he... He won the MVP. Won the MVP, which was the more notable thing and won it from a Cedine who was more deserving. That's why you said I was warm.

Okay. Yep, yep, yep, yep. There's one more. One other guy, a teammate of somebody we've already talked about on this list. A teammate of someone we've already talked about. of a guy who has just a 150 goal season? Yes. Okay, so Braden Point.

Viniel Callier. Martens San Luis didn't do it. Did he? No, I don't believe he did. Who else? Who else would be on this list? Marshand never got there. No one on the Bruins ever got there besides Pasternak, I don't think.

Oh, is it Malk? It is. Yeah. There you go. We did it. One year. Just to throw out some other names of guys who only had one 50 goal season that surprised me. Paul Correa.

I wouldn't have guessed that he even got to 50, so good for him. He had the one in 96. Sergei Fedorov, Mike Medanel, both in the one-timers club. That's shocking to me. Yeah. Mike Gartner, somewhat surprising as a guy who, you know, famously scored 30 goals each and every year, but only got to 50 once. Dale Howardchuck only once.

Mark Messier just once. Wow, that's shocking, given the sheer volume of points he had. Mark Messier did it once, and it was 82. So, I mean, and in fact, I want to say that was back when he was a winger. And maybe the most surprising of all, although it makes perfect sense when you actually think about it, Rocket Richard Richard himself only ever got there one time. Well, there you go. There you go.

A little 50-goal trivia for you, folks. Yeah, and on that note, won't we take a break and we'll come back and we'll talk about some other stuff. This week's episode of Puck Soup is brought to you by ExpressVPN and folks, going online without ExpressVPN? It's like changing while leaving your curtains wide open. You might not have anything to hide, but why give random creeps a chance to invade your privacy? When you go online without a VPN, internet service providers can see every website you visit, every single one. Can you believe that? And then, this is the messed up part, they can legally sell that information without you signing anything or any of that kind of stuff,

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dot com slash puck PUCK, and you can get an extra three months for free. ExpressBN.com slash puck. This week's episode is brought to you by GameTime, our good friends at the GameTime app, my favorite app for finding and buying tickets to sporting events as well as comedy, shows, concerts, of course, any number of things. I'm heading to Toronto this weekend and was scrolling through game time just the other day trying to see

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Download the GameTime app today. Last-minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. All right, we're back. And, hey, we were just talking about the Rocket Richard and all this kind of thing. So let's talk about some other rewards in large part because over the weekend, I saw an article saying Artemi Panarin deserves to win the Hart Trophy.

Now, did it say he deserves to win or was it one of these he deserves to be in the conversation? You know, let me... Yeah, let me double check on that. The time of year when people begin to lobby for their player to finish like fourth. Rangers Artemey Panarin more than worthy of NHL's top honor, says the headline. More than worthy. More than worthy, but then other people are also more than worthy. That is the core of what the Hart Memorial Trophy is awarded for,

and that is why the Russian Star Wing, the Star Russian Wing, should be the front runner for the honor. Okay, there you go. That's, was that Larry Brooks or someone else? That was Molly Walker. Okay. The front runner for the award. We're definitely in lobbying season.

We had a big, we had another Calder piece on the Athletic today. Yeah. I'm sure you can't guess how that went. One guy was like, the guy I cover should be the winner. And then the other guy was like, no, no, the guy I cover should be the winner. Is that, am I getting it pretty much correct? You got the gist of it. Yeah, that's exactly.

Yeah. Points aren't everything, obviously. But Artemi Panarin has 24 fewer points to Nikita Kuturov. You know? Mm-hmm. he's the guy who's third in the league, this guy Connor McDavid, yeah, he's 18 points ahead of Artemey Panarin. And it's one of those things where like the Rangers are the better team. So I mean, does that make Panarin more valuable, but also take Cochreve off the lightning.

They probably missed the playoffs, whereas the Rangers would not. So I'll split the difference with you and I'll say Nathan McKinnon has 122 points. Yeah. It definitely feels like it's McKinnon. It does. I'm shocked. I really thought, like, they, it seemed like a lot of the PHWA people were like McKinnon's award this year. Lock it in.

We're done. Back in, like, December. And I was like, let's give McDavid the runway on this one. You know what I mean? Like he's going to, and I mean, he has mostly made up the gap, but just not. And here's the thing. He's five points back. Two good Connor McDavid games and we're like, wow, they're tied.

Yep. You know? And obviously, I think, you. you know, narratives come into play in this a lot of the time. And McDavid being like, oh, I played the first 12 games or whatever, injured. The coach got fired. I turned the season around by going fucking psycho from December on. You know, I think there's a really good case there.

But the McKinnon, you know, he's had the narrative push from day one, basically. Yeah. And there is sort of a feeling of, is this guy due? Is he, you know, all of that nonsense. It's, I mean, you could, I feel like if I had a ballot, I don't know if I'd do this year or not, I feel like it'd be McKinna McDavid or almost neck and neck for me right now. Kutrov's right there. Panarin, eh, sure.

Matthews has fallen off. And then you get into like the goaltending and defensemen who technically are allowed to win this award. Yeah. And Connor Hallibor. would be probably the prime candidate, although... Well, it would be Helibuck and Quinn Hughes would be the only two non-forwards I'd really give serious consideration for. I think that sounds right. And I feel like earlier this year, there was a decent amount of Barkov.

And, like, there was a point where I would have straight up argued Barkov deserved it. But obviously, he just hasn't kept pace with these other guys. Yeah. And he's already got the same. Selke. I mean, he's got the Selke's sewn up, man. Yep. Lock it in.

Although, we'll talk about that in a minute. But, yeah, I'm really interested to see how these last, whatever, 12 games go just because McDavid and McKinnon, by points they're not that close. By points for a game, I'm sure they are quite close. I guess that's something I can look up very quickly on NHL.com slash stats. but let's see here. Points per game. The leader is Kucharov at 1.76, but McDavid is ahead of McKinnon by 0.03.

So there's an argument to be made either way. And this is a classic, usually I'm like, you can't, come on, you can't give the award to that guy. Not a bad answer here between the two of them this year. I'd say. Nope, I would agree. But yeah, for now, I think, you know, barring McDavid going psycho down the stretch, which, again, extremely in the round,

and it's just as likely that McKinnon does the same thing. It is interesting that like both of those, I mean, I guess Edmonton is going to potentially have a bit of that, well, we wouldn't have made the playoffs if it wasn't for our guy. That's what I mean, yeah. Both McDavid and McKinnon have got teammates having monster seasons as well, which in theory is...

And so does Cocherov, to a lesser extent, obviously. To a lesser extent. That's like, I mean, McKinnon's got not just Kill McCar, but Miko Ranton. Obviously, oh, I was thinking of Rantan, and I didn't even, it didn't even occur to me about Macar. So, yeah. Plus, Zach Hyman, whereas Kuturov, like, you do have to scroll a little bit to get down to, to break. Oh, yeah, he's got 43 more points than... that is going to win the wild card.

So there's a case to be made if you're a lightning fan, especially that, hey, based on how this award is usually voted for, Koocherov should maybe be the frontrunner. Totally. Yeah. Like I say, I think it's between – I'd be – I'd look at the Kuturov win a little askance, honestly. But nothing crazy versus, you know, McKinnon and McDavid, like happy – you know. This is, if I may analogize it to the 2007, the cinema of 2007.

This is there will be blood versus no country for old men. And then like Nikita Kutrov is Michael Clayton where I'm like, yeah, but Michael Clayton kicks ass too, you know? Sick movie. What am I going to say? But, yeah, I got nothing bad to say about anyone in that top three. I do have a little bit to say about Artemi Panarin. It doesn't deserve it.

Insane take. Are you saying not the front runner? Not the front runner. I'm going to be bold enough to go out on a limb and say the guy who's a distant fourth behind the top three in scoring doesn't deserve it. It shouldn't be the front runner. If you give him a top five vote, you know, go with God. That's fine by me. But, you know, at that point, what about David Pasternak?

Mm-hmm. who is tied with Panarin in points and has more goals. Just something to think about. Anyway, I mentioned it earlier. It feels like the Norris is the one that's really sewn up. Yeah, I mean, it's sort of been the two-man race all year, but it does really feel like it's a one and two. Not a one.

One gap two, yes, absolutely. And then gap three, where the three starts. getting interesting and is it a Bouchard, a Dodson, like, some new names start filtering in. And that's fun. I like that. I got an idea for you, though. Victor Headman. He's only having like one of the worst seasons of his career, but you got to think how valuable is he, you know?

What about Drew Doughty? Okay. A second career achievement. I mean, look, the number of years he played before he won his career achievement award has more than elapsed by now, I think. You know what I mean? Like he played what, seven, eight seasons before they were like,

what, we got to give it to this guy. It's been more, it's been probably about the same amount of time since he wants. So he's due. But yeah, it's got to be Quinn Hughes, right?

I would be very surprised if it was not. Yeah. Cam Robinson. As would Canucks fans, I'm sure. Cam Robinson, my colleague Italy prospects, had a very interesting note

about, Philipronic, speaking of Canucks' defensemen. It was like plus 32 in his first 36 games or something like that, and then plus nine since then or plus one or something. I don't remember the numbers now. But it was just like a precipitous drop-off over his last like 30 games. Mm-hmm.

Very interesting. I don't think he's winning the norms. No, I don't think so. But I mean, again, it's just a function of like how much Quinn Hughes was dragging him along early in the early in the run there I feel like Yep But yeah I

To me it's a it's a slam dunk for For Quinn Hughes Do you think there's any We talked about Hella Buck In the heart race Do you think there's anything there for him in the In the Vesna Like to get challenged

Boy Let me My initial answer is no But let me jump in here and I mean, you want me to hit you with some stats real quick?

Yeah, go ahead. Third in the league in minutes played according to evolving hockey. Mm-hmm. On an adjusted basis, he's faced the sixth-most shots in the league.

He's faced the fourth-most expected goals in the league. He's allowed the, well, let's see here. Among, like, heavily used goalies, he's like 12th in goals against this season, but again, he's third in minutes and all this kind of thing. In games played, he's also third.

That shouldn't be a surprise. And in goals saved above expected, he's plus 35.22. And the next closest guy is Jacob Markstrom at plus 31.22. Wow. Okay. What site are you looking at for that? This is evolving hockey. Yeah.

Because Moneypucks numbers are significantly different, which is a case. Yeah, they... But still, Connor Hallibuck in top spot. I had a Hatcher Demko. But... Yeah, they have Demko fourth in G-Sax. Markstrom, Bennington, then Demco. Yeah.

So, I mean, I'd be very surprised. Because the thing you... Very often with the Vezina, we come down to some of the more modern stats versus the old school wins and games and minutes and all that. But in this case, it certainly feels like both of those are converging on the same guy. So it would be a surprise. Yep. And given the Jets like season is a totality, I think there is like a real case.

He will never win it, but I think there is a real MVP case. He's going to be on some balance. Yeah. No, he often is. I feel like he'll get a you know a handful of fourth and fifth place votes and then the rest is like well I mean forwards though you know

I'm going to just look really quickly and see where he has finished in heart voting sixth in the heart voting a few years ago 2020 19th won his Vezina yep 19th the following year and 11th last season

third in the Vesina last year three times Vezna finalist, one time winner, probably, definitely on the way to a fourth finalist, probably a second win. How many goalies have won two Vezna's? There can't be that many. There's, I think there's more than you think. Really? But it is, it's a pretty elite group. Interesting.

You don't get a lot of, like, you're well into the. slam dunk hall of fame type guys. Yeah. With the exception of Tim Thomas, I guess, would be the one. Sergei Birovsky's on that list as well, which is potentially interesting. But yeah, it's not... Looks like 21 guys have won it more than once. That sounds about right.

And that includes a couple of guys where the Vesna, remember, was basically the Masterton. Right, yeah. Bunny LaRoc did not win for Vesna. as the best goalie in the league. Yeah, Tiny Thompson I'm seeing here, probably. Tiny Thompson may have been, but way back then, because, I mean, that was back when goalies couldn't stand up. I mean, this is.

Couldn't legally, as opposed to you just couldn't do it like they couldn't in the 80s. Yeah, I mean, Tiny Thompson, the last year of Tiny Thompson's career was the 3940 season. So, you know, they weren't voting on it. And you know what's funny about Tiny Thompson? is actually one of the tallest guys in the world. He was 510, and his name was tiny ironically, because he was such a monster. Towered open. I'll call him tiny, this guy who's a 510 goaltender.

That rocks. Hell yeah. So, yeah, you know, again, feels sewn up. The Calder, do we want to get into it? We can. I mean, the push is coming. hard for Minnesota. Are you buying this at all that Connor Bedard has any sort of thing to worry about?

I'm buying it insofar as I think him missing the games hurts him, for sure, right? But, you know, if it's just purely, I don't know, this is a who is the most outstanding rookie? Yes. Right? Not the most valuable and not who will have the best career. Obviously not, yeah. So which means it's also not like, who would you trade for who?

No, of course. You know, Connor Bedard is the first pick if we're drafting rookies, redrafting them this year. But Brock Faber being the other guy that we're talking about as a candidate. Yeah, I think. I mean, I hate this because it gets, because it's a Ford versus a defenseman, like this is where all the, well, if you actually watch the team.

That's exactly right, yeah. But Brock Faber's been fantastic. Yeah, of course he has. But I still... No one is arguing to the contrary, despite what some people might have you believe. But, yeah, to me, like, who is the most outstanding? With the understanding that I consider staying healthy, even if it's like a freak accident, has to be kind of considered a skill

because we talk about it with like, oh, he would have been a Hall of Fame or if he hadn't, you know, had all those knee injuries catch up to him late in his career or whatever, you know? Yeah. So I think you do have to consider that a skill a little bit, but with that having been said,

who's the most outstanding rookie? I guess the guy who rocks and like is the only reason Chicago has won any games at all this year. Yeah. I will say, That's the other thing. It gets into the, like, the talent surrounding him and, you know, a lot of people are pointing out that Conor Begards, basically playing on a glorified H.L team.

Whereas the Wild are a playoff bubble team, and then, of course, it flips too, yeah. But would they be if they didn't have this kid playing 25 minutes a night on the blue line? Here is how I know that all the Brock Faber arguments, like, and the people making them know it's bullshit. Okay. Carter's a minus 37. Uh-huh. Yep. Sure is.

I'm going to hit you with this one, man. Shut the fuck up. Like, that's ridiculous to say that shit. It's so stupid, and you know it's stupid, because you only use plus minus when you know the argument is bullshit. Or you want to bolster a bullshit argument is maybe a better way of saying it, right? Yeah. Because we're going to, look, does Connor Bedard, he's not going to win the Selky, obviously, right?

Like nobody's saying, like, he's actually a really elite defender and, you know, things have just broken against him or whatever. Like, I'm sure his fucking on-ice save percentage is 832, right? I mean, what are we talking about here, right? But at the same time, it's just like, come on, man. You know, again, anytime you say plus minus, you have to couch it in. Look, is that a real stat that counts? No. But in this case, I'm going to actually pretend it does.

We should point out, like, Bedard's numbers are not, they're not so great that he does run away with this, I don't think. Like, he's not at a point of game. He's not at a point of game, although he's getting there. He's having his best month of his career right now, which may be a kid. case of just sort of running away from the pack at the end. But we'll see. But I can already tell that a lot of Minnesota fans have already made up their minds to die mad about this one. Of course.

And again, how you know the plus minus thing, I think I just said he's a minus 37. 11 of those goals were seemingly like empty netters or something like that because at five on five, he's quote unquote only a minus 26. It's still bad, of course, obviously. But like, am I sitting there going, and obviously that's his fault? You know, I mean, come on, man. By the way, I just looked it up. 879 is his on-issave percentage.

Yeah. Well. Let's get that up to 900 and see how things work out. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. I just think Like I say I just think if you're being like look at his plus minus You know the argument's stupid

You're just you're just being like but the guy I like though Yeah I would agree So It'll be interesting I can see it going either way But yeah anyway Selke I think Markov's going to win but this is This is the time of year where

There's usually one player, sometimes a couple of players, emerging as like the consensus, I guess I would say narrative-based favorites. And then at the end of the year, a lot of people start putting out like a deeper dive into the numbers. And sometimes that shifts views around. Well, to that point,

I just sorted by defensive goals above replacement from evolving hockey. And again, like, is that a hard and fast stat? but it just is like summarizing a lot of bigger numbers to one single one, or more disparate numbers, I guess you'd say. You know who is second in the league in defensive impact among forwards? I do not. Jason Robertson.

Ooh. There's a guy, now this is a guy who also has a ton of points. Interesting. Yeah. By total. Not a name I've heard. I don't think it. Any point is a...

Yeah. I'll just read you the top five in... We can go beyond that if you want. The top five in defensive impact among forwards, Joel Armea, Jason Robertson, Tyson Forrester, Sasha Barkov, Jordan Martinuk. The thing with this award is, they give it to guys who have a lot of points, right?

Tyson Forrester, last I looked, not exactly lighten it up out there. So if you want to say it's down to, to Barkov versus Robertson. You know, obviously Barkov has the inside track reputationally and also because he's a center and wingers tend not to win this award. But Jason Robertson's making a case for himself in a way that... He might be making a case for future Jason Robertson. That, I mean, what do I always say about this award?

There's like a two or three year lag time on it. Did you deserve this two years ago? Here it is. It's all yours. Mm-hmm. And so Jason Robertson... Congratulations on winning the 2026 Selke Award. My hat's off to you.

And look, if Barkov wins it, I'm not going to be like, this is bullshit. Yeah. You know, he's fucking Sasha Barkov. That's all fine by me, you know. I am curious, you know, who the other finalist is because name brand players who are actually good all 200 feet of the S, like, Connor Garland is seventh. Do you think they're going to give, like, Connor Garland's going to get Selky shine this year? Not this year.

No. Not much of it. No. And then like guys who don't have like negative offensive impacts like Garnet Hathaway. Basically there's a lot of Philly guys on this list. And I wonder if they would do anything to just be like, Sean Couturier, come on down. I know you were a healthy scratcher a little while ago and we're all mad about that. We already did the Sean Couturee.

Look how that worked out. Yeah. He got healthy scratched. the most illegal thing you can do to a hockey player. I don't know. That to me, I was just like, we really have to care about this? We have to have like a national conversation about healthy scratching Sean Couturee? Absolutely.

Yes, we do. Okay, let's do it. I don't care. Next question. Good chat. Thanks. And then we'll wrap it up with what I think is honestly the most fascinating awards race out of all of them. the Jack Adams Award.

Yep. This could go like eight different ways. I think we talked about this earlier this season, but now that we're into the home stretch year, it's like more interesting somehow. Yeah. The torterella push is interesting. I wonder if the coulder anything hurt him more than it helped,

not that he would care, of course, but. Of course, yeah. I think that sort of put a lot of people into the bat. Well, I'm saying a lot of people, it's the broadcasters on this one, right? That's true. It is a media. It is a narrative-based thing. I still think if Philly makes the playoffs.

I mean, that really feels like to me that, if Philly makes the playoffs by one point versus misses by one point, is all the difference on Tortorell being a candidate or not. Oh, I think he's kind of a candidate regardless. Whether he went, but here's the thing. What if the Washington Capitals finish ahead of them? Yeah. A team that was dead in the water earlier this season.

A lot of people having to look up who the coach of the Capitals is right now. That's what I mean. And it's a first year guy. They love giving it to first year guys. Or like maybe first two years or something. Yep. They do it a lot. Especially first year guys on teams that nobody thought were going to be good.

Because we can't all be wrong. There's no way. No. We're so smart. It just has to be that the coach did a phenomenal job. I could see an argument for Paul Maurice if they win the president's trophy. Chris Knoblock will get some votes. Speaking of first year guys, Peter Lavillette.

Peter Laviole, we'll get some votes. For sure. It would have been interesting if the Islanders made the playoffs to see if Patrick Guad got... Yeah. But obviously... Bad news. Yeah.

If they don't make the playoffs, it's a non-factor. Yeah. I think whoever wins the West, like, their, you know, their coach is going to get a lot of shine. Rick Tocke, obviously, regardless of whether they win the West will get a lot of votes, I think. trying to think if there's anybody else. I'm just thinking like whoever wins the you know it would be an interesting candidate

Andrew Brunette. They're going to make the playoffs. Nobody, nobody, I shouldn't say nobody. A lot of people didn't think that, including me, didn't think the predators were going to make the playoffs. And if they did, it would be kind of sorrows-based. Especially coming, screaming down the stretch, the way they are. That's what I mean, yeah.

Yeah. And like, but my point is, Saros has been very good. He hasn't been like a Vesna guy, you know? And I just kind of thought if they were going to make the playoffs, he'd have to go 920. And yet here we are. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. So pretty cool, in my opinion, that there's legitimately like seven different coaches where, again, I'd just be like, got to hand it to him, you know?

What about Sheldon Keefe? You're going to. I'm going to say probably not. Oh, that's interesting. I don't think so. Yeah, I think it's really cool. Next year in Pittsburgh, he might, but not. Oh, my God.

Can you imagine if that's the fucking fix for Kyle Dubus? What if we bring in some guys played for Sue, or coach for Sue St. Marie? What do we think about that? All Sue. That doesn't even work out for North Dakota anymore, you know? No, it does not. Speaking of which, more NCAA CHL news over the weekend,

as Elliot Friedman reported that during the GM meetings last week, was that two weeks ago now? Something like that. The NHL GMs were briefed on the situation with that by the league. For those who don't know or whatever, including I'm sure Sean, who doesn't care about this level of developmental hockey at all, fine by me. If my team ever has a prospect, I promise I will get back into this. There was a, you know what, let me actually look up something really quickly on that front

because I saw a college hockey stat. Okay, he is a Leafs prospect. I saw a college hockey stat about this guy. This guy, Vidi Mietinan. plays for St. Cloud. Played like 150-something games in his college career. Didn't take a single penalty. Like, by far the most games ever by a college player with zero penalty minutes.

Isn't that crazy? That is impressive. And, like, not a guy who, like, bottom of the lineup, he's playing 12 minutes a night guy. He was the best player on St. Cloud this year. Not a single penalty. You know what that means? Soft. Yeah.

Doesn't want it. Doesn't want it. Not going to the dirty areas. But yeah, that stat blew my fucking mind when I saw this over the weekend. But anyway, here and over there. NCAA, so when was this? Maybe like January, February, there started to be some rumors that the NCAA would in some way start allowing CHL players to

play NCAA hockey. They currently are not allowed to because the CHL is considered a professional league because guys in the CH are allowed to be sent to the CHL after having signed NHL contracts.

Does that make sense? You with me so far? Okay. And the big reason that people at the time, again, a few months ago, thought this was like a possibility or something like that was basically that a lot of stuff has changed in the NCAA over the last several years where, you know, guys can get paid or guys and girls, you know, shout out Caitlin Clark and all this, can get paid for like, you know, doing a local TV commercial or whatever. They couldn't, they didn't used to be that way.

They can use their name, image, and likeness to promote things, make money in a way that they couldn't before. Basically, the NCAA started losing a lot of lawsuits in the last few years is how this is all shaking out. And there has been some thought that the same idea would apply to CHL players that in order to get out in front of a lawsuit, the NCAA would just allow this change to happen. I did a lot of reporting on this. I talked to a lot of college hockey coaches over the course of a few weeks, again, back in like January and February. And the consensus that seems to have emerged among coaches I talked to, many of whom were in favor of such a change, fewer of whom were against it, was basically that this isn't going to happen this year, but it is going to happen at some point, again, probably because the NCAA. A's hand gets forced.

Okay. Do you have any questions so far? No, I'm furiously taking notes, but. So I guess I'll quote what Elliot said on, on Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday. The NCAA is actively considering removing all restrictions for CHL players to play in the NCAA after their CHL careers are done. The deal could affect a lot of things.

the NHL-CHL-CHL agreement. Also, for example, if you get drafted from the CHL, NHL teams hold your rights for two years. If you get drafted out of the USHL or NCAA, they hold your right for four years. So that would all have to be collectively bargained with the players. Yep. So they expanded on this on 32 thoughts yesterday.

And basically, they were saying, like, people like me, when I'm saying this isn't going to happen, that's because I'm talking to NCAA coaches only, and there are enough NCAA coaches who think it's, who don't want it to happen, that they're kind of like speaking it into existence a little bit. Okay.

Which is to a certain extent true. The vehemence with which certain coaches pushed back on this, though, made me go, oh, they really don't want this to happen. Now, I think, go ahead. like how much influence do the coaches have? Well, the reason that it hasn't happened yet is because the coaches don't want it to happen. My understanding is the NCAA is a little more hands off with hockey than it is with other sports.

And so it's kind of what it's always been is like you guys get to decide. If you don't want this to be, if you want to say this is a pro league, it's a pro league. That's we're not going to, like we, the NCAA is like highest ranking government. governing bodies or whatever. We're leaving that up to you. And what, you know, if there's a lawsuit, those governing bodies would be like, it's not up to you anymore is basically what would happen.

So my understanding is that the coaches are going to have another vote on. They vote on this pretty frequently and it's always a no. And what's interesting is, I think Marrick said it on 32,000. yesterday. It's only like 14, 15, 16 coaches who are like against it. But these are the coaches at the biggest programs that wield the most political influence. You know, your, your big 10 teams are broadly speaking, going to be against this. Broadly speaking, I didn't ask every coach in college hockey, so I don't know what their personal opinion is. But it's, again, it tends to be the

bigger schools that attract the younger prospects. You're, again, I don't know. I'm, I'm just going to say schools that get the younger prospects. I don't know how these individual coaches feel about it necessarily. I'll say I either do or don't know, but these are the kinds of schools we're talking about. Let's say, let's put it that way. Your BC, BU, Michigan, Minnesota, you know, that kind of thing. The guys that they get elite 18-year-olds or draft eligible players, those are the teams that would generally be against it. and the teams that recruit 19, 20, 21-year-olds, they would be for it.

Again, broadly speaking. But in the past when these votes have taken place, they usually get voted kind of along conference lines. So if you're in a conference with BC, BU, Michigan, North Dakota, Denver, etc., you just will tend to vote with those bigger schools. Now, there could be a break this year where the coaches at the other schools, they see the way the wind is blowing and they go, you know what, we're not voting as a block anymore. We're actually going to vote in favor of this. I don't, again, the coaches I talk to don't anticipate it happening this spring. If it's purely left up to a coach's vote, whether it does go through, I would think that would be the NCAA kind of leaning on the coaches a little bit if that makes sense. It does.

The other thing to say here is if I can say the quote that Elliot said again, he said that those players would come to the NCAA after their CHL careers are over. That's Elliot talking to CHL and hockey Canada people, in my opinion. Because if the NCAA says we're going to let junior player, major junior players, play here. What's going to happen is they're not going to be like, and it'll be certain guys, of course. It'll just be a blanket thing, right? CHL doesn't want to lose like 19 and 20 year old players

because those tend to be some of the best players in their in their rosters every year. You know what I mean? You know, guys that are coming off their draft year, for example, or maybe even two years removed from their draft year at 19. Those are the best players in the CHL on a, pretty consistent basis. And the CHL, of course, doesn't want to lose those guys to the NCAA, but the NCAA would, of course, want to get those guys because they're the best players.

You know what I mean? And at that point, to me, again, this is just my opinion, but we are talking about basically the CHL would just become kind of on the same level as the USHL. just like the Canadian equivalent of the USHL if that makes sense. And it would, I think, greatly diminish the quality of the CHL, which again, they don't want to happen. And so they're like, well, look, you know, maybe we could negotiate something. The NCAA would, again, just from talking to people,

I don't think the NCAA would be fucking open to negotiating anything. There's nothing for them to talk about in their opinion. it's either a blanket thing, all or nothing, right? And the only thing that this would do that could negatively affect the NCAA, in my opinion, again, is, you know, now a Macklin-Celabrini doesn't have to go play in the U.S.HL, he can play for whoever, Everett, in the WHL instead. I think we talked about this a few months ago. And if he plays a year or two years in Everett, suddenly it's a lot harder to leave Everett to go to BU. You know what I mean?

So that would be a negative thing. And that's what basically every coach I talked to brought up is that that's why the bigger schools are against it is like, we don't get no one power necessarily in college hockey. We don't get Macklin Celebrini. We don't get Adam Fantilli necessarily. The American players, they kind of think, would still lean the college route anyway, but with Canadians or Artem Lev Shunov, who is the best player for Michigan State and he's draft eligible and he's, as you can guess by the name of Russian. He probably goes CHL as opposed to the NCAA route if that's a thing. But, you know, it's all unknowns.

So I just wanted to, again, give that update because I know that it, uh, there's not really anything to update except that if the NHL is saying to GMs, you should be prepared for this. They maybe see the way the wind is blowing. Yeah. But again, one of the things a coach said to me, because I brought up the threat of a lawsuit, and he said, well, who's going to fucking do it? Well, he didn't say fucking. I said fucking. He's like, who's going to do it, though? Like, who's going to be the guy that sues us?

And what a friend of mine who is also a college hockey reporter said was basically like, it wouldn't be a guy. It would be like a class action suit. Okay. And like, for example, I don't know if people have been following. There's like a push to have like a, a CHL players union basically. And if that becomes a thing, that's who's going to sue the NCAA. Right. But that would be a little ways away.

Yeah. And so again, I don't think this is happening this year. Again, the fact that the NHL is saying, like, be prepared for it. That is something that definitely piques my interest and makes me go, maybe it's closer than I think. But again, a lot of the coaches I said, I talked to said kind of like, I don't think it did get voted through this year, but next year kind of like, you know, just the passage of time. The more time goes on, the more threat there is of that lawsuit coming to fruition from somebody. And so like the NCAA might just preemptibly get in front of it, which is definitely a possibility. but I think, generally speaking, I do still think they'd leave it up to the coaches for now.

Does that all make sense? It's a situation to watch. Yeah, no, it does. It would completely change the development system in the hockey world forever. Yep. I think it was Jeff said this yesterday. It would effectively put the NCAA as the number one development league in the world. You can make the argument that it's kind of.

to neck and neck right now with the CHL. If this change happens, no question, it's the NCAA. Yeah. Because again, it would just turn the CHL into a glorified USHL that you can send some signed players back to, which I don't think you can't. I'm 95% sure you can't in the USHL. So there you go. Yeah, I think so. And hey, if you like NCAA talk, we're going to do, I'm going to do a ton of it on the mailbag this week on the Patreon.

So, you know, you might find that to be worth $5. We got a lot of questions about it. So I'm going to do like an NCAA corner. And Sean can feel free to participate or sign off at his leisure. We lost Chris Simon since the last time we did a podcast. Tough circumstances. That news broke pretty much right around the time that we were... Yeah.

Had finished up the last one. Yeah. And not a lot of information quite yet about exact circumstances, but yeah, that's not good all the way around. It was only 52. Brutal. Family has confirmed that he is believed to have taken his own life. Ugh. And obviously the CTE discussion.

is springing up again, and rightly so, and the NHL continues to refuse to acknowledge. The science isn't in yet, you know? Yeah. Science has never settled until it says what the lawyers wanted to say. Yep. So, yeah, I mean, I don't think either one of us really have a ton more to add to that, but we did want to at least, at least,

mention it because we didn't get to talk about it last time and Chris Simon he's a hell of a player man fun player back in the day, yep and you know he was he was a he was a hell of an enforcer and that was his primary role

but he could play some too yeah this including famously 29 goals in a season which in the dead puck era that was no joke so nope good player playing a very tough role.

And yeah, you can just offer your condolences to friends and family and just a terrible situation all around. Absolutely. On that note, let's get to the plugs. Just let's do it. Yeah, you can find me at The Athletic, including my still newish podcast with Sean Gentilly. which runs on Wednesdays. And yeah, you can find my written work there.

I believe we have one of our occasional dollar month offers now. As always, it only works if you click on my articles. If you click on anyone else's, you get charged double. But I think I'm going to do a salary cap court tomorrow. I haven't done one of those. Hell yeah. So time to bring that gimmick back. Love salary cap court.

See where it leads us. For me, you know what it is at this time of year, folks. I am neck deep in NCAA tournament coverage. Tournament starts on Thursday. Do you have any questions for me about the NCAA tournament, Sean? No, I'm pretty sure I know exactly what's going to happen. Yeah, the number one Boston College Eagles are going to fucking annihilate everybody they play. Yeah, that does sound about right.

You nailed it once again. This is why he was one of the smartest guys in the biz, folks. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to it, of course. And over at E.P.Rinkside.com. I will have, basically, my boss asked me what the content schedule looked like, and I typed it all up. And I was like, oh, I guess I'm signing myself to write 18 articles in like a week and a half.

Oh, fun. Yep, really. And many of them quite long. Stupid guy. Don't. I always say it, folks. that if I were you. No.

Work smarter, not harder, you know. All this stuff about hard work is its own reward. That's bullshit. Yeah, nonsense. You know, it's its own reward. Sitting on the couch. That's right. You know what I mean?

So, yeah, go over there, check all that out. Use the code I Love EP to sign up for an annual subscription, and they will tack three extra months on at the end, absolutely zero extra dollars for you. So that's very worth it, in my opinion, especially with the draft coming up and everything. Even if you don't like my stuff, all the other very smart people who work for elite prospects will be working very, very hard in the coming weeks and months leading up to the draft. And then, yeah, head over to patreon.com slash puck soup. Me and Sean just did a bonus episode yesterday where we were forced to name one player from every team that we like and one player from every team that we don't like.

That's right. And wouldn't you know it? People were shocked. There were a bunch of teams where I was like, I don't dislike anybody on this team. Yeah, that was shocking. I had to like, I guess I don't like this guy because I think he's overrated or whatever. But that's the closest I could come on, I don't know, probably like half the teams in the league. Maybe more.

Mm-hmm. And you know why? Mr. positivity right here. That's it. You're just, you're a lover, not a fighter. That's exactly right. So, yeah, check all that. and we'll talk to you next week.

Have a good one. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.