The Athletic Hockey Show - Auston Matthews is the fastest U.S. born player to score 50 goals in a season

Episode Date: February 22, 2024

Hailey, Max and Sean take a deep dive into Auston Matthews remarkable season, which has seen the Arizona native score 51 goals in 54 games. From how and where Matthews scores his goals, to if he can reach the 70 goal plateau and beyond, the Thursday crew argue the case for Matthews to win the Hart Trophy for 2024. Plus, Hailey, Max and Sean draft three forwards each, (not named Auston Matthews) who they think could score the most goals from now to the end of the season.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the athletic hockey show. It's Thursday. That means it's me, Haley, Max Bultman, and Sean Gentilei here with you for the next hour. So we'll try to keep it to a tight 45. Now that I said 45, we're going to hit the over, but that's all right. We're going to do our best here.

What's up, guys? How's going? Doing great. Not as great as Austin Matthews, but great nonetheless. What a good segue. That's really pro stuff from you. I feel like Mac should probably just start hosting the show. I can't come up with stuff like that. I can't do that. I can't do that.

But normally we'll do a deep dive episode. Today's a little bit of a mix of both because we're going to dive deep into something that was very topical on Wednesday night, the big story of the day this morning. Austin Matthews hit 50 goals in 54 games on Wednesday to become the fastest U.S.-born player to hit the milestone in the fastest since Mario Lemieux scored 50 and 50 back in 1995, 96. We spent a lot of time before starting the show, just going into some of the Austin Matthews stats that just, we'll get into some of them here on the show, but it is pretty wild.

The one for me, and it's not a fancy stat, it's not a big all-time number. All 51 goals that Austin Matthews has scored this season, because he added a second in the game, of course, have all been on a goalie. No empty net goals for Austin Matthews this season. 15 goals have been on the power play, but if you take out those power play goals, he would still be second in the NHL with 36 goals just behind Sam Reinhart.

Like, this guy has just been automatic this season. Which raises the question, why won't the Leafs trust him against an empty net? It's because he's such a poor five-on-five player. No defensive. That's a joke. He's a great five on five. He's,

he's, he's unbelievable. That, to me, that's my takeaway from that is like, they got to start patting this guy's goal totals. Throw them out, throw them out there with empty nets.

Nobody's ever hit any wild milestone and not had some, not had some cheap ones. Like, build up some multiple goal leads. Stop playing with your food. Stop struggling against, against garbage teams. We need this dude to get the obligatory five,

seven, an empty net goals that you see invariably with every wild, every wild goal total. It happens for everybody. Wasn't it Zach Hyman who had a ton of empty net goals a few years ago? Am I remembering that correctly? Yeah, because it wasn't that one, it was like, it came up whenever everybody was trying to figure out how much money you should get and blah, blah, blah. I was like, well, Zach Hyman scored 27 of his goals on empty nets.

We need justice for the empty net goal, by the way. Like there is a certain player type who is always getting, you know, diminished by this when really it is a reflection. And I was kidding about the Matthews thing. Obviously, the Leafs trust him. He's gotten sulky votes the last four years, all that stuff. But like there is a player type that so many of their contributions do not go into the box score, do not go into the things that you negotiate contracts off of. And one of the guys I cover in Detroit, Michael Rasmussen is a really good example of this. I was waiting.

I knew there's going to be some specific example. Like, who are you stomping for here? Well, he just got his extension. It's not even stumping. But it's one of those deals where I've always, people have always been like, yeah, you know, four or five of his goals are empty netters. But it's like, yeah, he's on the eyes with the empty net because he's really good. And he's really trusted. And for a certain player type, you got like, like, I think you have to reward.

It's a treat. All those little things. It is a treat. It's a cookie. That's the term, right? Get your cookie. So, yeah. Justice for empty netters.

All right. We love that. So Austin Matthews has 21 goals in his last 18 games. As you mentioned, he scored his 51st in the game last night as well on Wednesday. He's on pace for 77 this season. That would be the fifth highest in a single season in NHL history. If he hits at least 70, it would be the NHL's first since 1993. And this is, of course, his second season with 50 goals.

I think the goal that he scored to hit 50 was a pretty good example. of like it was kind of the perfect goal for Austin Matthews to score to hit 50 because it highlighted the fact that he can score goals from a weird angle right he can do it in a phone booth he can release the puck very quickly it looks effortless and I don't know how many guys could make a goal from that awkward of an angle look as easy as Austin Matthews did he's scoring from all over the ice this season I remember I almost said Austin Matthews I remember James Myrtle similar not Austin Matthews wrote a really great story a couple of years ago just about how Matthews became the best goal score of his generation.

And the reasons why goalies have such a hard time stopping him. And it was like, goalies have a good chance at stopping any puck that they can see before it leaves the stick. And the issue with Matthews is they don't actually know when he's going to shoot. Like he's so deceptive in his release that goalies just like aren't ready for it. the speed it's speed of the release and ease of the release and the power generated by the release too it's just yeah that to me i you know you mentioned the goal last night that's like the definitive matthew's goal totally i i totally agree with that is like you know he's so he's so strong too

and he can and he can generate shots when guys are hanging on them like i like i have y'arer Armary Yager on the brain right now, as I often do. But also, Sean's Roman Empire. Also more specifically in the last week, because we saw as Jerry's retired over the weekend and yada yada. So it's fresh on my mind. But like Yager's definitive trait was like the way he could shield how strong he

was. He could shield the puck and keep his legs moving and, you know, put himself in a position to fire some kind of shot, you know, even, even just arm strength like that you protected the puck like nobody i've ever seen still do is matthews in that class like i don't i don't know ness i i i tend to i tend to think he isn't but in that in that particular skill set but he's getting there like he does it so consistently where it's like how did this dude how did this dude put that shot on net at all let alone with you know the mustard kind of necessary to beat an nchel goal

tender in in uh in 2024 he's amazing i've got a question for you sean sure max what was life like in 1903 i just remember drinking crystal Pepsi and watching yarn ryeager highlights on the 11 o'clock news on k dkha in pittsburg reason i ask it because that's the last time anyone in this league scored 70 goals and haley and i weren't alive for it really like i'm like my memories are that honestly is right when I phase in in terms of remembering sports and stuff like that. So as a little boy growing up in Pittsburgh, I don't remember the 91 or 92 cup seasons. I remember them losing to the New York Islanders in 1993 and crying my eyes out and having nightmares about Kevin Stevens' face hitting hands. And you're a better man for it.

You're a better man for it. Yeah. So I can't claim those. I had to deal with having, with having, you know, the best player in the league on the roster. I watched from my entire childhood between, between Yager and, uh, between Yager and Lemieux and then, and then in the Crosby. So, yeah, tough times. Watching the Yager retirement, uh, or not retirement, well, I guess Jersey retirement,

number retirement, uh, watching that whole ceremony. It was one of those things of like, can you imagine being a Penguins fan? and having Lemieux, Yager, Crosby, Malkin, like for 40 years, 30 years, Penguins fans haven't not known life without one of the best players of all time. The most spoiled fan base in sports. Yeah. For sure. I hope you all appreciate this because my dad's been a Leafs fan for his whole life and it's been

very sad for many years. Until now, thanks, Austin Matthews. If only there was someone on this call right now who's, born in the 1960s and has been a Leaves fan for their entire life. If only there were somebody. Yeah, and we're wondering why Jeff is so cranky all the time. I thought we were talking about me. Max is actually 50.

I'm a 65-year-old Leaves fan. I was playing. I think Jeff might have been born in 70, so I take that back. Oh, Jeff just sent you with that. 72. Shit. You little shit. I was not born in the 60s.

My dad was born in the 60s, and he's been sad. Just in a very bad word to the... All right. Anyways, the one other point before we get to, I guess some more fun questions about Austin Matthews. I do think we should mention that he did this in Arizona. We know he grew up in Scottsdale. He had dozens of friends and family at the game.

They had an off day before. game and Matthews had everybody at his house, I guess, all the players. They went and hung out at his place and played in the golf simulator, da-da-da-da-da, like rich people and Scottsdale stuff. And they just, they charge for that for the hole at the golf course that all those freaks do at the at the waste management open that everyone's losing their minds over. They just did that, they did that ceremonially. Yeah.

I used to really want to go to the waste management open, but now I think it's gone a little bit too far the other way of like oh this just looks messy i don't want to go anymore the way it goes with the way's management the integrity of the game uh um but also matthews hits 50 and 51 in arizona we know that he's made a huge impact on hockey in the desert like he's somebody for kids to kind of look up to in a way that he didn't necessarily have we know that Shane donne was a member of the coyotes and he's an icon for that organization but he's also from alberta like there is a significance to a player being from being a superstar in the NHL, like not just cracking the NHL, but going from the desert

to arguably the greatest American goal scorer of all time. So it'll be interesting to see what this kind of next wave ends up looking like. We already get Matthew Nyes on the team. I know it's not the same. I'm not suggesting Matthew Nyes is going to be one of the best players of all time, but we're already seeing a wave of players who grew up watching Austin Matthews. And I think that's hilarious because Matthews, like, isn't old. So for Matthew Nyes to come in and be like, I grew up watching Austin,

I feel like that makes Austin Matthews sick to his stomach, too. And also, like, him doing it in Arizona just, that's the kind of thing where it makes you think that we're watching that, look, had he leveled up over the last couple weeks, yeah, the production is out of control. But that's the sort of thing that's happening where, like, this is, this feels like one of those years. Like there's, you can't, you can't quantify it.

It's not, it's not the most tangible of things. But the fact that that dude managed to score that goal in that city when they only play there once a year and he needed two goals they get there. And all these like weird. One one. Or one. Yeah. Cause I can you pass it. That's right.

Or did it with a two goal game is is the fair way to put it. It's wild. And it's the kind of thing that makes you think that, you know, you need, you need some weird. level of mysticism and some weird like this of this kind of ineffable thing that happens around these seasons when guys do something really remarkable and I think that's what we saw last night. It's also like imagine you talk about the family and friends in attendance there. There's no sure bet to do something like that. You always think about the guy goes to his hometown family and friends go and most guys,

it's it's, you know, coin flip at best, but more likely you got like a 25 to 30 percent chance to seeing them do score at all, let alone a milestone goal. If you're going to watch Austin Matthews play sitting on 49, you're pretty sure you're seeing 50, right? Like there's just nobody that you're that sure about in the league. Especially against a coyote's team that has kind of, I think they've lost 11 straight at this point. So it's kind of, yeah, we get probably expected to do something,

come back down to Earth a little bit. They've gone in the tank. They were like kind of a fun story until the last few. weeks and they're they're circling the train at this point. Yeah. We just got a note from producer Jeff as well, even though he's glad that he's still being nice to us, even though Sean offended him deeply. Three years later than I thought he was.

Excuse me. He was way older than he actually is. Matthews is only the second player in NHL history to score his 50th goal the season in his hometown. The other player was Jeremy Roanick, who scored his 50th goal in Boston. That's according to the Sportsnet Telecast last night. which is pretty wild. Let's go this way, Sean, because you just mentioned, like, when you're watching a player

just kind of hit all these milestones. I know this is crazy. Like, I know Myrtle makes the jokes all the time of, like, Austin Matthews is now on pace for 900 goals this season. I say he does it. Is there a world in which Austin Matthews actually hit 77 goals this season? Is it likely? No.

But has this streak of play that he's had over the last couple of weeks been, been, been likely either. No. And that hasn't stopped him from, he's got six hat tricks already this season. Like you can't assume that stuff like that will happen. Right? Like,

and I, it does, it's kind of dovetails with what I said with regards to Arizona. Like this guy is doing stuff that he shouldn't be able to do. Right. So should he be, by, by most,

there aren't a ton of observable realities where you're like, yeah, okay, he's going to score 70, goals in an NHL season in 20 in 2020. 24 right? But he's doing stuff that like he's already done plenty of stuff that that is that is wild and kind of kind of unimaginable.

So if he has another one of these stretches that he's in right now where it's like he has these little mini burst where it's like the dude will have 12 goals and five games, if he has another one or two of those like or whatever. Like it's not it's not. It's not great. It's 21 goals in his last 18 games to get to 50. Yeah, whatever. He'll have some streak where it's like, yeah, he had 13 goals in nine games.

12 and 5 is a deliberate overstatement. But like he's going on these runs where it's like, and he's close enough now because he's at 50 where it's like with another little burst like it's going to be within spitting distance for him, which is crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you go look at the worst per game scoring seasons of Austin Matthews.

career. I believe it's his rookie year at 0.49. If he dips to that level for the rest of the season, he's going to score 64 goals. He scores at the worst rate he's ever scored in his career for the season. He's going to score 64. And he doesn't need to do it on the power play either. He's not like a power play merchant. We pulled all these stats, right? Like, like before we spoke, shout out to Jeff Fayette for doing some of the legwork and God bless Jeff, but I had to like go back and make sure that it was that it wasn't like a filter error because some of them, some of them are so crazy, but this man is the best five-on-five goal score by a sight since he entered the league. And even going back before that, he can do it anywhere. It's possible. Is it likely?

No, but like I said, a lot of stuff he does isn't likely. And that hasn't stopped him. To hit 77, he needs to score 26 goals in the Leaf's final 28 games the season. It's actually not that crazy when you pare it down that much when we consider the fact that he's, he scored 51 in 54. It's frightening. I don't know if he's going to hit 77, but I think the big question is, if Austin Matthews scores 70 goals,

as Max said, that would be, we have not seen this. We were not even babies the last time somebody did this. 1993 was the last time somebody hit 70 goals. We weren't even babies. I mean,

that's true. I was not a baby. I was seven. Sean was in high school. He was a super genius kid. If Austin Matthews hit 70 goals, should he be the heart trophy winner? Max? This is one that I've had to reckon with a little bit because when he scored 60, I was one of the non-Matthews voters.

Oh, spicy. Why? And I've thought a lot about it since that vote. I voted for Shasturkin that year for two reasons. reasons. The first being, I thought that the Rangers were arguably not even a playoff theme without him. And he was that good. But part of it was that I had looked back at the time and thought, okay, who was the last guy to score 60? Did they win MVP? The answer at the time, I believe, was Stephen Stamcoast, and he did not win it. Obviously, Gennie Malcolm had an

awesome year that year. But I went back and looked at, okay, who else has had Shisterkin-like numbers and I found that his numbers were better than Carrie Price's and Kerry Price's MVP. It's not a perfect way to think about MVP voting because it's, you know, those two things didn't happen in the same season. We don't know how voters decided then. And also, we can't let voters from 10 years ago continue to decide, you know, whatever. But that's one way I think about it. And so I, I've thought about it a lot since then. I don't know that I necessarily regret the vote because I thought Shosturkin was exceptionally, exceptionally valuable to the Rangers. But I do think I got too caught up in benchmark numbers there.

And so I'm trying to actually think about it not as if he scores 70 he gets it. And if he's stuck on 60, he doesn't. Because I think already there's a really good case for him, even if he's at like we talked about it. If he scores at the lowest rate of his career the rest of the way and gets 64, got a really freaking good case. That's unbelievable.

That's unbelievable to me. Like I, that's such a great. That's such a great way to frame it. Right. If he's just, if he's as bad as he's ever been, he's going to have the, he's going to probably, you know, have as many goals. Because what? It's McDavid last year. That was the most since 1993, right? So it's worse, worst case scenario. He's tied for, for number one in the last, in the last 30 years. It's bananas. Yeah. I think one way to maybe frame this too is, okay, so we've pulled all of the, heart trophy winners or we pulled all the people who scored at least 60 goals and looked at if they won the heart right so Alex Ovechkin scored 65 and one Connor McDavid scores 64 he won

David Pasternak scored 61 and didn't win because he lost to Connor McDavid that year Austin Matthews scored 60 and won Stamco scored 60 didn't win because he lost to of Guinea Malkin when Malkin went off with like over 120 points without Sidney Crosby due to injury. So there is a case to be made for guys who are scoring that many goals and winning the heart trophy. I think the obvious point to discuss though is like what is Nathan McKinnon and in my opinion to a lesser extent Nikita Kutrov going to do by the end of the season. I just think McKinnon's more valuable to his team than Kutrov is just based on maybe where the abs are in the standings. I'll probably get yelled at for that.

But I think if it's down to those two, like if Kutrovs outscores McKinnon, like it's going to take something extra than just the point totals for me to vote for Kutrov over McKinnon, if that makes sense. So I think it just depends. Like, are those two guys going to fall off because they are on pace to hit over 130 points a season. And history would suggest to us that when a guy scores over 100. 120 points, they are also going to win the heart trophy. Recent history doesn't suggest us anything about a guy scoring 70 goals during the regular season because it doesn't happen. Like, there is no, there is no benchmark.

We're talking about benchmark numbers. Like, this isn't like, oh, these scores, this is, I think that is the way to frame it. Not that it's 68 or 66 or what it. It's that it's the most. And if he hit 70, it's going to be the most. by a lot by like a reasonable margin it to me if he hits 70 there's no chance that he doesn't win it because if he hits 70 that's going to mean that we've had multiple bursts like this over over the final six weeks of the season or however far out we are that is going to just

make it it's going to make it impossible to ignore like think of how much and part of this is because the media environment that he plays in because it's it's Toronto but anybody doing what he's done over the last few weeks should get a wild amount of attention. And if he makes it to 70, it's going to be because that sort of production continued. And I just don't see how there's enough oxygen unless McKinnon or Kutrov goes on some sick run of his own, which is certainly possible because those guys are unbelievable. If he hits 70, it's going to be because we are having the same discussion stretched out over the course of months. And once that happens, the narrative is set to a point. We always say, all three of us always say,

like Hart's kind of a narrative-based award like so many of these things are. It's impossible to imagine it not if he hit 70. One of the only times, oh, sorry, Max, I'm just going to, one of the only times that somebody who hit over 120 and did not win the Hart Trophy was when Connor McDavid lost to Austin Matthews, when Austin Matthews scored 60 goals in 2021-22. And that ain't 70. No. it's not but I guess when we talk about some of these like it hasn't happened how much do we

need to adjust for the fact that scoring is just up overall like we're we're talking about a number we haven't seen before it seems like almost every year whether it's goals or points the last five years at what point do we say well you know obviously we talked on the show about say leave safe percentages down too just offenses up in general of course we're seeing numbers we haven't seen before right yeah when do we phase into talking about this as like a as like a new era of because everyone lumps it together, right? Where it's like post lockout, that's just kind of the agreed upon, you know, delineation for, for what, for what we see now. At some point, we're going to need to move on from that.

And if we're not, if we're not there, we're close. But I think mindset wise among the voting, you know, population, among the, the, the media folks who vote on this stuff, I don't think we're there yet. I think, I think maybe we should be and we should certainly look forward to like flipping over that calendar and talking about moving into another era of league history. I don't think we're there yet, though. And I think that's part of the reason that, you know, this dude is going to win if he hits that number. Right.

I think we need to consider, to Max's point, the fact that like three of the highest scoring goal seasons in the cap era have been McDavid, Pasternak, and Matthews, which all came in the last three years, right? Like three guys have hit at least 60 since. 2021-22. And if he hits 60, and if he scores 66 or whatever, we can just ignore it and vote. I think he might, I think he might hit 70, though. I think he might too.

He only needs 19, he only needs 19 more goals in the next 28 games. Like, come on. What's, how's he not? Like, now I'm being fanatical. Like, I think he's going to hit 70. I'm relieved to not have to cast this ballot today. But if I were, if I were going through the ballot today, these are the argument. that I would make for the other guys.

And the guy that we didn't talk about is Hellebuck, who I think does belong in the conversation here. McKinnon is on a better, less disappointing team than the Leafs. We have talked about the Leafs as being a disappointing team almost all season. This recent run by Matthews has basically pulled them out of that, and that's a really good MVP case in its own right. But like for the year, McKinnon's been that dominant for a better team.

It's taken them farther. Kuturov is so far clear of the next best lightning score. I think it's like 36 points. That's like a huge gap. And if you want to talk about value to his team and propping up a team that, you know, I think we can call them disappointing too, but he's propping them up from being a washout this season. And three Hellebuck, like, I don't think any of us thought Winnipeg actually, one of us might

have actually. I forget where we were at Precies, but they have blown past the expectations and I have to think he's a massive, massive reason why goals are so hard. I mean, we all thought that Helibuck was going to be playing for a different team this season. That's right. 100%. So those are the cases that I think you can make. I'm not sure that any of them is a better case than 70 goals,

but those are the cases that you would go for, right? If you're filling out your ballot and you're thinking it through. And by the way, by the way, Austin Matthews did have a 12 goal and seven game streak this season. It was in, it was in December. Yeah. So he had that. And then from.

Didn't he have a slow start to the season too again, where everyone was like, is he okay. He had hat tricks and consecutive games. Oh, right. And then the other one, like since the other whatever streak that he's on here, since the start of the new year. 21 goals in his last 18 games. I've read that stat three times. 21 goals in his last.

Nobody listens to me. 18 goals in his last 15. 18 goals in his last 15 was what I was what I was filtering now. He can do it. 18 goals. that he'd get it, that'd get him the 69, 69 goals. He's right there. And he's done, he's done that in his last 14 games.

Yeah. You want a weird step? Yeah. How many games do you think Austin Matthews has scored in this year? Ooh. He's played in 54. I think he's scored in 42 games. Sean?

45. I'm going to say, I'm going to say that he has scored in, 29, 30 games. You just looking up? Yeah. Yeah, 30 games. There's 24 games. Why would you do that?

Got hockey reference open up there, co-host. Yeah. That shocks me. I would have guessed along the lines of Haley, like 45 games. Yeah. It shocks me. Which speaks just like, you know, just scoring in ball. Yeah, so that's a flip side.

When he scores too little. Yeah, he goes ice cold and the stretch wrong to be like, God damn it. We just spent 30 minutes talking about how awesome Matthews is going to score 80 goals. Delete this segment. Stupid. Yeah. Jeff,

delete this pod. I think in terms of the MVP conversation, I'm probably being unfair to Kutrov in the Tampa Bay Lightning because he has been, like the reason that team hasn't been more disappointing. And realistically, like the Leafs haven't been that much better than the Lightning. I think they're a better team than the Lightning. But like when we look at the standings right now,

the leaves have five points up over Tampa with their third in the Atlantic and Tampa's first in the wild card. So it's probably a bit unfair to Kutrov. I think when I struggle with MVP stuff, I always try to look at like which team would suffer most if they lost their MVP candidate. And I think that that that obviously puts Kutraa very high in that conversation because the lightning without him would not be probably where they are. Right. But I think Nathan McKinnon, Like that question is one of the reasons why I'm maybe more bullish on the McKinnon for Hart train and Connor Hellebuck. But also like if you take out Austin Matthews are the Leafs are the Leafs setting, this is the other stat we didn't bring out. This is ridiculous.

The Leafs became the first team in 20 years to not get shut out in 200 straight games. Do the Leafs have that stat without that guy this season based on the struggles they've been having? No. No. So I think it's a great MVP conversation this year. I do still think we're like undecided on if he hit 70. Is he going to win it? I don't know.

Sean's a lock. I think if he hit 70, I think if he hit 70, he probably has to win unless McKinnon or Kutraub do something insane. Because like McDavid hit the like otherworldy number. And I know McDavid hitting 150 is different than 70, but it's kind of not. It's like if he hits this benchmark,

He has to win. I don't know. Can I be a cap-friendly, like, nerd for a second here and just say, like, do we give, with McKinnon and Matthews especially, do we give the, like, where would the team be without them credit when it's, like, their enormous cap hit is a part of the reason that they're not as deep? Like, does that affect how we should talk about that? She's like, you're having, like. Are you suggesting that Nathan McKinnon shouldn't be paid?

No. No, but I'm just saying when we talk about the like, where would they be without him? It's like, well, yeah, because they couldn't pay Nazim Kodry. Economist brain nonsense from you. This is like when we did that weird fake draft and Max was like, wait a second, wait a second. A life regret my behavior on this call. Max is going to OCD himself into thinking that Austin Matthews is bad. Well, based on dollars per points, he should be scoring 70 goals.

based on his contract value. I'm waving the way flag here. I can't afford to pay anyone else. Yeah. I'm waving the way. That's fair. That's fair. All right. We're going to take a quick break and when we come back,

we're going to talk about the best goal scores, not named Austin Matthews. That's coming up on the Athletic Hockey Show. All right. Welcome back, everybody. We are going to bring back the draft in today's episode, because we want to get into the best goal scores, not named Austin Matthews.

feel like we talked about him enough. It was good. I'm glad he did it. He scored 50, 51. It's awesome. But I think today the goal of our draft is to draft three players all forwards. We're not letting de squeak in here. Three players who could score as many goals as possible like tomorrow.

So we're essentially just trying to get the top three players that we think could score us a goal if we need in one game. Does that make sense? Can I explain that properly? I think you did. So we did the draft order already. Max is the first overall pick, then me at number two and Sean number three. It's a snake.

I feel like this is always the draft order and Sean ends up doing very well on the snake and I get stuck in the middle and I panic and I freak out. Not just because I'm good at drafting things. Well, actually, I think I'm still winning the like team draft. We will revisit that soon. But Sean's, Some of Sean's picks were. Yeah, what the heck?

Why did Omaha Steaks not call us? I thought we made a really great pitch. I'm going to send a sternly worded email to Mr. Omaha. Yeah. Frank Omaha of Omaha Stakes. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so that's a draft order. The goal, we want three players who are going to score a bunch of goals for you in one game.

Max, first overall pick. And it can't be Austin Matthews. Let's make that clear. You can't draft Austin Matthews. We're talking about other people. I'm going to go with Poppy. Max. Not a lot of column, man.

Alias, it's an alias. No. No, I'm going to go with Connor McDavid. I don't know that the numbers would support that, but I do think in terms of go get me a goal. I'm just telling someone in the league, we need it right this second. He's a guy that can do that. you at any given second. He scored 64 last year. Numbers support that. So yeah, David.

I think that's interesting and worth maybe discussing a little bit because I do think like, if Austin Matthews was in the conversation, would you pick Matthews over McDavid first overall? Would you still go with like the best player in the world over the best goal score? Well, we said to get a goal and McDavid is like I feel like one of his best qualities is playmaking too, but I do think on a given shift, McDavid creates so many chances. I might take McDavid first to go get me a goal. But he has to be the goal scorer.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Not the seven-man. But if does he, you know, there's also like this kind of weird psychology of like, does McDavid know that he's playing that he needs to be the one to get me the goal and not just create it? Yet again, Max has psyched himself into making an upsetting decision. Sean, would you take Matthews? Yeah.

Yeah, of course I would. Obviously. It's like I just watch, just watch the dude. Again, watch that goal last, watch the goal last time. There's no one else is doing that. Okay. Second overall pick. Yeah.

Second overall pick for me. I'm going to go with David Pasternak. And this was difficult for me because I know I was just like Nathan McKinnon's number one fan girl in the first segment, thinking he should win the heart, despite Austin Matthews scoring 100 goals. but when you just look at some of the numbers, he has the third most goals per game over the past four seasons, and he's third in the NHL and scoring this year.

So he's got the goal scoring ability this year, but also the longevity of being one of the top goal scores in the NHL. I'm going with Basta. I mean, I'll make the other no-brander pick because I wasn't going to pass this dude. Three or four, I will go McKinnon. What is he? in our little, in our little, he's, he's seventh in goals per game over the last four season, which is

technically eighth, because I took out Matthews. Sorry. Technically, technically eighth. Okay. So he's seventh behind, seventh behind Matthews over the last four, over the last, uh, over last, uh, over last, uh, over last four seasons, uh, you know, he's another one. I, I think it's, that's, yeah, like the stats don't speak to McKinnon, right? He, he's just kind of like a freak.

He's a sicko. and you're like, go, go do something. And he's got, he's got that bone, right? Where you're like, we need you to do something. And then he's going to go do it. So I'm fine with that. So I'm going to go with Sam Reinhart. Oh.

He's leading the league in goals this year, which, you know, whatever, or leading the league in goals here. He's second in goals this year. Sorry. I took Matthews off all the rankings. Screwing everything up. I'm just barfing up, like, listed stats that we have here. But he's been, he's been unbelievable, a crazy good power play weapon for them.

The thing about Reinhart, that this isn't necessary, like, is he having a career year? Yes. But this isn't completely random either. Like, he's, like, consistently, like, 30-goal pace guy. And I think if we're looking, you know, for a dude who's going to do it today, February 27th, second, 2014, like, I'm taking him. He's just having one of those years. And I, and I think that's something you need to consider with the format that we've laid out. This is where I start to sweat. Yeah, you're going to take Twizzlers or something. I will never live down the whole Kit Kat fiasco of

2021. It's really embarrassing for me. Yes, it is. Make your pick, please. I think I'm going to go Kutraov over Drysidal. Yeah. I don't want to hear you're, is that stupid? I don't think so. I just put on Kutra for Hart too. I'm just trying to get the lightning fans to not hate me.

You're just saying, you're saying hater stuff because you were in the building when you went at quarter speed during the skills competition. That really pissed me off. Can I take dry silence instead? No, you may not. It's been entered into the dock. No, he's fourth in goals this year.

He's top 10 in goals per game over the last four seasons. Like Kutraub is an MVP candidate again this year. That is not a slight against dry sidel. I just, and maybe I'm being a hater on the whole, like, dry saddle scores a lot on the power play, even though we didn't say it has to be an even strength goal. But I think I'm going to go Kooch for this one. Ew, why did I see that?

Kuturov. I don't know. Why did I call him Kooch? I would have strongly considered the same thing, though. Like, I think it's a really similar argument to the McDavid pick. It's just like he can dictate so well that like. Yeah. Yeah.

So I will take dry saddle. I just think the gap there between the next best is huge. And then I think there's a huge cliff, guys. Like this is kind of crazy how it falls off from these like no doubt super elite. Ovechkin at one point would have been obviously in that group as well. Yeah. Don't think we can talk about him in that conversation anymore, although maybe you guys disagree.

Not if we need a gold tomorrow, I don't think, I think it would take us a while for somebody to pick Ovechkin based on his. Yeah. And I think like there's some, there's some good answers here. So after dry saddle, like, I think Kyle, if we would have done this two months ago, I think Kyle Connor would have been like before he got hurt. I probably would have been pretty high on Kyle Connor. He's been like, where do you go here?

Like, I think, I think it probably has to be rantanan. but there's a temptation for me to go with like a Crosby here or even like a Brock Besser who has been lethal this year. I think I'm going to take Rantan. Yeah. Kreider. Stop naming people. But what to make his pick. He's debating.

He's conversing with us. I'm taking Rantanin. But what's crazy is like, would you believe that Rattan? Is that Rattan? Is it really scored above 31 goals in a season twice? I know that. I know that because Rantanin was my preseason Rocket or Schard pick.

Yeah. He's on my fantasy team. Like, I think it was like, you were trying to gallagity. 85% of the staff picked or whatever. I think I was maybe the only person on staff who didn't pick. It was 3% of the staff, which means it was just you.

I'm taking Rattan, but it's, there's a huge cliff after those top five or six. Yeah. I'm going, Sydney Crosby. So I'm glad that you didn't and I'm glad that I push you towards Miko Ranton because I just feel like Crosby is one of those guys where yeah, he's another one like you need a goal in a big moment. If I go and tell Sidney Crosby, we need a goal today. Like there's a good chance to do it for me.

Personally. For me personally. So I'm going Crosby. I'm getting a guy who I thought about picking in the second round here. Elias Pedersen. Yeah. I do love him. He was my second round pick in our fantasy draft, which is one of the only things that

it's gone right for me. I made some other gambols that have not paid off. But I'm glad I've been, I've been like, he's not going to be a hard finalist this year, but I've been like kind of on that train where like we're going to have some breakout,

you know, super ultra top five season from him and we're close enough to it. I think he's got some of that Canucks shine on him for better or worse. You know what's really funny is if you sort goal scores in the league since December 1st. And even if you drop it down to five on five, there is just a preposterous amount of Canucks on there. They're huffing PDO and like, that is fine by me. Stop talking about PDO. Do you know who's, guess who's second?

I'm talking about hopping. Yeah. Spray pain. I'm doing shooting percentage whippets in the back. Ben there, brother. Jake, like, but like you're, you know, we're looking at, it's score at goal leaders. It's Miller, it's Patterson. It's, it's Connor Garland's up there.

Like that team is just, dude's rock. Just killing it, right? So I'm, so I'm trying to get some of that energy on the squad. Mm-hmm. did anyone consider caprisov yes i was looking at him but i felt like i needed the old man's strength of sinney crosbie what why did we not consider jason robertson did he have a great year right but like i think if we did this last season i think rob like when we did the we did a player draft recently and i think maybe i or somebody when we did the everything draft in the summer with max and

and Las when Max had his cat freak out like Jason Robertson was one of the top I forgot about that Jason Robertson was one of the top picks you got Robertson and can Chuck around the bend and none of us pick a Chuck or Robertson and maybe it's because we only did three rounds I had a surprise fourth pick

that I was ready to do we get what was it? I was going to take Kill McCar I said no D oh did you? If you wanted to you could like fine. Well, I just don't you think like if you tell us like he he's one of the few guys in the league at any position with you're just like we need a goal, go end to end and score.

Quinn Hughes. Quinn Hughes, I think is in that same category. A bit more of a playmaker. Yeah. But he can end to end guy. I said no D though. Yeah, I wasn't listening. Nobody listens to me.

I don't think I should be the host anymore. I need to give up my seat. I'm trying to get rid of your hosting. responsibility. Yeah, it's not going to work. It screams of you just like not wanting, you like want to take a break for a week or something. You know what had been funny? Panarin.

He's a shooter now. Pure goal score. Haley tried to lead me there during my, during my long deliberation process. I said Chris Kreider question. That's true. I love Chris Criter. Yeah, Jason Robertson. Frankie Carrotto on our show yesterday was like worst case scenario, I think, for, for your

Lofkovsky was like, what if he's like Chris Crider Plus? And I was like, if he's Chris Crider Plus, everybody should be psyched. I'll take, I will take Chris Criter. I'll take Chris Crider. No plus. Yeah. But not in this particular draft. Yeah. Jason Robertson after two 40 goal seasons is on pace for 26. There was a time this year where Neelander would have gone. Probably like second round picking this thing. Is Neelander? Is Nealander? Is he did. His draft at Christmas. During the era of is Neander the Leafs MVP? Yes, right. He was. He was. I know. He's not anymore, though.

He was. Ain't no more. People are going to come out of this podcast being like, oh, I think Haley might be a Leafs fan. I'm not. We're just talking about the Leafs. No, no comment. Haley is a Leafs fan born in 1960.

How many people do you ask, right? How many people do you think know that Joel Erickson act, by the way? Shout out of the Joel Erickson act, by the way. How many people do you think know that that dude is 14th and goals this season? I do because I wrote out the list. Easy scoring enough goals to win the Selky Trophy. Let's see. Yes.

Remember when he was the name that all the Canucks fans were wish casting to be their deadline upgrade? I missed that. This year? Was it maybe it wasn't the Canucks? No, this year, like there was definitely like, oh, Minnesota's falling out of it. What, pre-lin home? And yeah, pre-lit home. But maybe it wasn't Vancouver.

I think there was some fan base that was trying to like will Joel Erickson act to the trade block. In what world is he getting traded by the model? Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Did I miss something? He's like, he's in terms of contract efficiency, which is like what the wild need more than they were.

Good luck finding a better example of that. We're drafting him. I'll tell you that. Right. Wild. Manistota. How bizarre. All right.

So that's the draft. So Max's team to score a goal tomorrow is Connor McDavid, Leon Dry Seidel, and Miko Rantan. My team is David Pasternak, Nikita Kuturov, and Sidney Crosby, and Sean has Nathan McKinnon, Sam Reinhart, and Elias Pedersen. Should we see who scores the most gold by the time we do our next show? Just for fun? The winner can get a trophy, yes. the winner oh you know what sucks

since we don't get to go to the draft this year we can't go to Omaha Stakes why would we go to Omaha Stakes because we said whoever wins the draft has to buy like the loser of the first draft has to buy Omaha Stakes no they never called they never took us up on the ad opportunity

but now you have to pay out of pocket Omaha Steaks have like storefronts you just buy them through the mail they definitely have storefronts I don't buy them I think Okay. It's not a restaurant. It's not a restaurant for sure. Oh.

It's like a honey-baked ham situation where you can go into a, like, as, you can go into a shopping, like a shopping mall or like a strip mall and buy them and leave. Or you can send for them in the mill. Oh. That's why it was funny because it's a, because it's not that good.

We were going to just get some frozen steaks and make it at Laxas house. Yeah, right. Exactly. We go like Texas Roadhouse. We could still, we could still do that. So never mind. I don't know why I thought we would go for dinner. I guess I just thought we'd all hang out. The nearest Formaha Stakes from my house is nine miles away.

Kipsy mixed daggers. Yeah. See you there in the summer. I guess if we do want to have a little bit of bragging rights right now, even though it's unfair because we didn't say whoever drafts the most goals and the draft wins. However, my three forwards do have the most goals, 103. three. Sean's three forwards have 101 and Max's three forwards have 77. I got good. Good job. So that sucks. Max is buying me dinner. Sean's not invited. Because you got that bum Mika rent, then. Is that me, is that me being upset that he's not going to win the rocket Richard? But hang on, because we drafted for we need a, I think this should be. I know. I know. I know. That was a joke. I'm just trying to say that I won something because I never do. I did get cooked, though. Yeah, that's rough.

But it's fine. It's fine. All right, that's it. That's our draft. Let us know in the comments who you think wins. We can maybe throw up a bowl. Danielle always used to do that. I miss her.

But we love Jeff too. Maybe I shouldn't have been so mean to Danielle when she worked here. Anyways. Still works here. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Danielle still works at the athletic. She's just not on our show anymore.

She asked for not working me specifically. Oh my God. Okay, I'm going to end the show here. Thanks, everyone for listening to this episode of The Athletic Hockey Show. Please leave us a five-star rating and review if you're enjoying the show. And right now you can get a one-year subscription

to The Athletic for $2 a month when you visit The Athletic.com slash hockey show. The Prospect series with Max and Corey Pranman drops on Friday at The Athletic and wherever you download your podcast. be sure to listen to that one if you want to hear more about Corey's story that he had dropped today with Katie Strang about who will draft Trevor Connolly inside the NHL's evolving scrutiny of top prospects that's coming up on Friday here on the Athletic Coffee Show.