The Athletic Hockey Show - Brock Boeser's memorable opening night, Connor Bedard scores his first NHL goal and the Team Draft: Winner gets Steaks?

Episode Date: October 12, 2023

Hailey, Sean and Max share their takeaways from the first couple of days of the NHL season, including Brock Boeser's 4 game game in Vancouver, Connor Bedard's first NHL goal, the tribute to Chris Snow in Calgary, expectations for Adam Fantilli in Columbus, Ryan Reaves flashy debut for the Maple Leafs and Scott Laughton standing up and doing the right thing in Philadelphia, planning to use pride tape, despite the NHL ban.Plus the Thursday crew selects their top 6 teams in the inaugural team draft, the object of the draft, pick the 6 teams with the most wins in the season. Hailey gets first pick and rumor has it, hockey fans in Newark will be very pleased.Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is The Athletic Hockey Show. What's up, everybody? Welcome to The Athletic Hockey Show. It's Thursday. It's Haley, it's Haley, Sean Gentilly. A new season of the show, a new schedule. Ian and Julian, as you've heard, are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday this year. Thursdays are going to be myself and Sean and a new friend.

I'm the new friend. It's Max Woltman. How's it going, guys? Max Wollman's here. He's our third co-host. He's our new friend. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too.

He joins us from a hotel room, nicely decorated hotel in Newark on the road with the Detroit Red Wings. What's up, Max? How's it going? Welcome to the show. Yeah, no, I'm excited. I just got back from Morning Skate and was not sure that we were going to be able to fit this in on an opening day here. So really glad that it worked out. And I'm going to go try some local food wrecks once we wrap it up.

So it'll be a very fun day. Strong wreck for the popcorn at a Penn Station at newer Penn. It's delicious. Yeah, okay. I was there last night. I didn't see the popcorn. Maybe I'll have to swing by that. I'm being facetious.

No. It's there. It's there. The train station always smells like popcorn, though. Oh. Oh. What was the actual recommendation, Max? It's a deli called hobbies I've heard is very good.

So that's where I will be going at the conclusion of today's episode. You should go to Pizza Land, that place that plays in the credits of the Sopranos. I tried to go to Holstons, but it's apparently not that close. Yeah, that is true. Oh, like that was like an Uber, like a trek. I think at least, yeah. Shoot. Okay.

Well, this is the new lineup for the season. This is our new show. We'll talk about food often, it seems. And the Sopranos. Yeah, food and the Sopranos and a little bit of NHL. We're only two full days into the season. So it's not like we have a ton of games and topics to chew on. And it's way too early for major takeaways.

But there has been a couple games, some good games, some newsy tidbits and results. So why don't we go into like one big observation or one thing we liked about the first two days of the season to kick things off here? Max, we can start with you. What did you like from the first two days of NHL action? I like Brock Bessor's four-goal game. There's probably been nobody who's been the subject of more trade talk. And I'm sure there's been some tumult for him. And last year, down-year-18 goals.

So why don't we just kick 20, 23, 24 off with a four-gole game against one of the two or three top favorites to win the Stanley Cup? I think that was really awesome to see. And I do think there's a big year in store for Brock Besser. So it was great to see him get off to a great start. It's a dude that deserves to have a good year, too, just because of how things have gone for Vancouver over the last couple, the, you know, losing his dad. I mean, there's just like endless list of reasons to root for that guy. So to see it manifest itself on night one, loved it, man, loved it. Yeah, I think that a lot of the headlines coming out of it.

I mean, he got four balls. He got headlines. But a lot of the stuff coming out of it is about the, the, the. the calamity of the Oilers, but I felt like he was the absolute story of that game for me. I know we don't want to overreact after one game for the Canucks, but could they be a sneaky dark horse this season? Yeah, I think they could. I had them in when we filed our predictions.

I had them in until the hellabuck and Shifley signings came in. And then I ended up flip-flopping and putting Winnipeg back in just because I felt like, you know, that was going to be a big distraction and all that. And I ended up putting Winnipeg back in. I'm almost kind of regretting that, but it's one game. I stood firm, baby. Canucks. Canucks, right?

Yes, of course. You had the Canucks in the playoffs? Did you boot Calgary out? I like force myself to pick new teams, I think, to enter the playoffs, because my initial reaction was chalk, basically, in both conferences. I have Pittsburgh instead of the Islanders, and then I have Canucks instead of Jets. other than that, it's the same, which I felt horrible about, but whatever.

Brock Besser is the 10th player now. In NHL history, to score four goals in a team's season opening game. According to Sports and stats, two of which were also Canucks. So that's kind of a fun one. I think they'll be, I hope that they're a fun team to watch the season. Last year got really tiresome with the, it was just like constant negative storylines coming out of Vancouver. I hope it'll be a better year there. Thatcher Demko

Thatcher Demko left the game last night because he's been battling the flu He played really well until he threw up in his goalie mask And that's a week the game Wasn't a long ago situation Dude pooped his pants Max is like

We don't talk about poop when Corey's hosting I don't like this show already We've never I can't say we ever have before That is that is true Talk about poop so much That it just has to all get edited out Corey's big thing.

I was actually just trying to think of a cousin Greg from succession joke there puking in the mascot costume. Sean, why don't you go ahead with what you liked from the first two days? So we watched the Leafs Canadians opener last night. They're announcing the Maple Leafs

across the board, not just the new players. But Ryan Reeves comes out, does a little flex, points at his bicep. Camera cuts to Bradtree Living in his box at the arena, reacts like a child seeing the ice cream truck outside of outside of the house. Like, he, it was glee.

I've never, I've never, I've never, I'm not sure I've seen an NHL general. He was, like, doing the lean forward with, like, his hand on his, like, hand on, like, head on his hand, like, looking around and then Ryan Reeves comes out and he just, like, kind of, like, leans back. He was, like, a half step away from, like, clapping his hands, like, a little treat boy. you know, like watching, watch the ice cream, like I said. I love that for Brad Tree Living.

I hope he holds on to that feeling for the rest of the season. I hope that's not the last moment of joy that man has on the job as the Maple Leaf's general manager because we know that that's thankless to some extent. Like, I'm hoping for, I'm hoping

this is not the high water point of Brad Tree Living's tenure in Toronto is him geeking out whenever he saw, Ryan Reeves come out, come out and flex. I don't think it will be. Like, I do like the job that he's done. I like that team, you know, in a vacuum at least. But, man, it was, it was funny to see for, like, right out of the gatefront like that.

There was a moment in that game. They were down two goals with like five minutes left. I mean, if they, I mean, it's, again, we're going to say this all week or all month. It's, you know, one game. But it, that would have been a quick comeback down to earth on that one, losing to the team picked unanimously to finish last of the division on opening night at home. Yeah. And they lost to Montreal in the season opener last year, too. So it's not like uncommon ground for Toronto. That was a good game though. I know it wasn't like a great goalie game and I'm sure Leafs fans were annoyed and afraid for a little while. But I'm not going to complain about a six five game one. I thought it was fun. Austin Matthews hat trick. I just want like an uneventful regular season for the Maple Leafs. Like I don't want to have to do this stuff that we did last year when they start slow and everyone, you know, freaks out for a little bit. Yeah, fire shelter after 10 games.

And then that turns out to be a blip on the radar and nothing really worth meaningfully discussing for the rest of the season. Like, let's just cruise through. Let's get them to like 106 points. So we don't have to pay an undue amount of attention to them over the course of regular season. And we can get to the playoffs and we can hit the reset button and we can start, you know, having the same conversations that we've had about them for however long. But I need to just kick this can down the road as long as we possibly can't because the Leafs being like true top of mind unavoidable discussion you know for six months I emotionally physically I don't think I can handle it.

Do you know how many minutes Ryan Reeves played last night? They could just quietly win the Atlantic. What did you say, Max? I was asking Sean, do you know how many minutes Ryan Reeves played last night? Seven. Eight. Yeah. He got in a fight. It was the full. It was the full Reeves experience. He wore it he wore a pink suit to the ring, which everybody always always loves and freaks out about it because it wasn't just a boring blue suit like 99% of league wears. Yeah. Austin Matthews and his like sneakers and turtlenecks are quaking. He's like, oh, I'm actually gonna have to like wear a fit for people to say nice fit, not just like a t-shirt and jeans. Some people like, what? Came out, did the flex, made his GM smile and then ended up in the penalty box,

like right after that. That's like the Ryan raised trip with triple crown. So got a taste of it last night. Now, like I said, I'm just glad we can stick every bit of the Maple Leaf's discourse into a drawer for the next six months. I'm sure that's how it's going to work. So mine's a little bit less of an on-ice moment. I guess it was technically. But my kind of thing that I liked was the Chris Snow tribute yesterday in Calgary before the game. You know, Chris Snow was the Flames assistant general manager who died a couple weeks ago. He was only 42 years old. The assistant general manager of the Flames, who we all mostly know at this point, he was given a year to live in 2019 after being diagnosed with ALS. Obviously, I covered the flames for a few years. Chris Snow was a wonderful person. And I just thought the tribute was really beautiful. They had the rest of the Snow family there last night. Cohen was on the bench during warm-ups. He was, you know, dabbing all the players up after they came off the ice when they went on the ice. And then his wife Kelsey and kids, Cohen and Willa, did a ceremonial puck drop as well. And I just thought that was a really beautiful moment, a really beautiful tribute for Chris Snow. And that's just such a wonderful family. I can't even

imagine what they're going through. So that was just one moment I wanted to highlight and just continue to celebrate that family and the strength that they've showed. Kelsey is a wonderful person. She was actually the first person who kind of reached out to me when I moved to Calgary sent me like a really beautiful message. Obviously, she was a woman in a press box before and she was a really great resource for me, a really great person. So just wanted to highlight and shout out that family because they're beautiful people.

Yeah, that has been one of the most heartbreaking stories in hockey for, as you said, a few years now. And I've been blown away by Kelsey and how much she's been willing to make public and willing to share about what that has been like and floored almost every single time by that. I cannot even imagine. Yeah, it's just unimaginable amount of grace and strength it takes to live through that, right? And it was good to see. So especially the smile on Cohen's face, right, when he was getting some knucks from the players.

Like that's, you know, hopefully there's better days ahead for that family. Yeah. Michael Backland gave him a jersey after the game last night, signed it and said, and Michael Backland, I believe his wife's mother died of ALS a couple years ago, too. So they raised a lot of money for ALS. And Backlens are really big. He's really big in the community, him and his wife. And they gave Cohen a signed Backland jersey.

And it just said to Cohen, thank you so much for. being here as my first day as captain of the Calgary Flames. And it's just little things like that. You know, they're going through such a hard time. And the Flames are trying to make sure that, you know, those kids are happy and have things that they can remember. So I thought that was cool. The Flames also won the game.

I thought that was like an interesting opener as well, kind of juicy storylines with the flames and the Jets playing against each other, two teams who, for the most part, other than Calgary obviously changing their GM and coach, but for the most part, like kind of stayed the course after off seasons filled with trade requests and rumors. Flames beat the Jets on game one.

That's going to be two interesting teams to kind of track for the rest of the season. One final one that we want to mention too, and this isn't even an honorable mention. This is more of like an MVP of the week. It's Scott Lotton. He's kind of our Thursday

show MVP. We didn't. We couldn't make him an honorable mention and we couldn't have any of us individually take him because we all wanted to throw in on Scott Lawton like at the right at the right time. Yeah, this is our group project effort. We all wanted to give some snaps to Scott Lawton. You know, yesterday he said that he's essentially going to disregard the NHL's ban on cause messaging by using Pride tape. He said, you'll probably see me with Pride Tape on that night anyways. If they want to say something, they can. I just think it's great to see that there's pushback from players.

It seems like there's going to be pushback from teams. Ian Mendez had a great story that came out about that pushback. He talked to the people from Pride Tape and said that there's been an NHL team already, putting in an order to bring in Pride Tape. So I'm glad that there's people pushing back on what's a really story? stupid rule. Let's just call it what it is from the NHL. The pushback is great for a couple reasons. Number one, because it's a stupid rule. Number two, because the only thing I, the only reason I can think of that they would do this is a calculated decision that we're going to, you know, eat it for a week of headlines here when we make this decision and then not have to deal with it throughout the year as Pride Nights come and stuff happens and guys do or don't.

if guys like Scott Lottin do, it stays in the headline and it renders that very, you know, in my perception, cynical strategy, useless anyway. So I love it for two reasons. We love it, man. That's the only way to push back because this is a don't say gay, like, set of regulations, right? So for Scott Lotton just say like, yeah, fine me, I don't care. Like, I dare you. How about that?

That's effectively what that is because if push comes a shove, and Scott Lawton goes out there. By the way, hopefully not just Scott Lawton. Like, let's cross our fingers and hope that there's a fleet of players doing this because there's nothing else. There's nothing else to hope for as far as that's concerned. Yeah. John Merrill also said that he would use the tape.

Yes, that's true. Yeah, find those guys. So it's nice to see. See what happens. Like, like, let's see the NHL find those dudes for like for that and see how it goes. Like that's not going to go away. Like Max said, it's not going to be just like, okay, quieted down. You know, no one's angry anymore because it's just going to keep coming

up for them and it's going to put them in a spot where they either need to reverse that policy or not enforce it or take it on the teeth every single time they find somebody for trying to support pride. So good luck league. We love that from the players. A couple topics to hit before we go into a break. And then we're going to come back with a fun little draft that's going to take us through the season.

Connor Bardard, we don't need to talk about this too much because we've been talking about him for a year. But he played his first two NHL games. He got a point in the first game. Secondary assist on Ryan Donato's goal. I thought it was funny that nobody was talking about Ryan Donato. It was just like, eh, Connor Bedard point. I have the misfortune of playing against Ryan Donato in fantasy this week.

So he's filling it up. It's the Bedard effect. Thanks a lot. Yeah. Yeah. So Baddard gets a secondary assist in his first game. Played well. Good, like underlying numbers.

up and down the stat sheet. He played the most of any of the forwards on the Blackhawk, so he's getting a ton of opportunity, just a zone entry machine. That guy, we already knew that. And then, of course, he scores his first NHL goal against the Bruins on the second half of back-to-back last night. Looks good.

Prospect expert. Max Bolman, what do you think about Connor Begart? Tell us more about this guy who we don't know anything. I haven't heard much about him. What's he good at? Everything. like pretty much looks good I think sums it up. I just, to me, my biggest frustration through the preseason was I watched it.

Blackhawks played the Red Wings a couple times and so I watched him. He looks good, but it at times has felt in the preseason like people want to invent things to praise here just so they can praise. And he doesn't need that. He's so good. It's going to happen. It just happened in his first two games. He was really good.

I think it proves the point, right? Like, let's just let this kid be great, not need. need it to be everything immediately and all at once in every single aspect of his game. He's going to have, you know, mistakes. He's going to get, you know, punked by Mark Andre Flurry. Let's let that be what it is. Let's enjoy the whole experience. The kid's awesome.

Yeah. And we don't need to over to rush him to being a super duper star, you know? Let's just let that happen. It's going to happen. The hype and the press around him has seemed like, I know we always see that with first overall picks or like big prospects, but it feels. different this time. It feels like there's a lot more. And I don't know if that's just because social media is bigger, like more people are like loud and terminally online or if it's a

specific baddard thing, but it's felt different this time. And almost in an annoying way, it's like, okay, that's enough. Like, let's just, let's just watch it happen. Like, he'll be, he'll live up to the hype by the end of the season for sure. Like this, we know this kid's unbelievable, but let's just calm down a bit. It's because he's got bits of the ESPN machine behind him now. Yeah, that wasn't the case. It wasn't the case for us and Matthews. Wasn't the case for Taylor Hall,

wasn't the case for Sydney Crosby, you know, not any meaningful way for Sidney Crosby. That's what it is. And we'll see if that extends beyond game one, which is on ESPN against Sydney Crosby, all that stuff. It's one thing to gas up this kid ahead of that. We'll see how much that continues over the course of it. I don't think I'd sat down and watched 60 minutes of Connor Bedard until opening night.

Yeah. I heard about the shot, baby. And you watch everything else too. It's there. I wasn't watching the Blackhawks last night, but couldn't have been less surprised here that he found the net because he was such a, such a danger in that. And on a wrap-around, though, right? It was just a wrap-up. Yeah, which is so funny that his first goal isn't just like an inner slot shot.

like quick release top corner. It was just like, ooh, I'm going to clean this up. Watching the Penguins PK just completely key on him. Yeah. Any time the puck was in his general vicinity was so, so funny. And it's a level of respect that you don't see many players get at all, let alone a kid who was, you know, 17 a couple months ago. But that is why I think people need to be a little patient with it too,

because that's what we often see that fuels the sophomore slump, is that you start to get the respect that you maybe didn't get as a rookie. He's going to get it from day one. And it's going to mean that there are going to be games where he's not on the score sheet. There are going to be games where he turns three pucks over and maybe has like, you know, his fingerprints on a couple of goals against. It's going to happen because teams already know we got to pay serious attention to this kid. I fully expect that.

So I don't know. I don't know where I'm going with this. I'm not trying to. No, I mean, and that's why I should say, too, like, when I talk about the hype machine, I don't even mean, like, don't market the guy, like, don't have the ESPN machine behind it. Like, don't have commercials and stuff because I think growing the game and marketing the stars is important. I just more mean the, like, constant, like, oh, wow, he's going to be the best player ever. Or, like, ooh, wow, that's embarrassing.

Like, just, just chill. I mean, have fun, watch the games. But it just, everything around him seems different. but it might just be because he's that kind of player. Taylor Hall got hurt last night. I just wanted to say that. Like that's an important thing to note here too. He just lost a layer of insulation

against other teams game planning. Taylor Hall was penciled in from the start immediately to be his linemate, you know, every night in, night out. And Taylor was going to miss a couple weeks with an upper body injury now, right? So the degree of difficulty just somehow amped up a little bit more.

So everyone keep it. Everyone keep the expectations, at least at least kind of in check for when it comes to stuff like that. Yeah, Taylor Hall week to week, as Sean said. So that's one newsy bit that we should mention there. One final thing before we had to a break, I wanted to ask you this, Max, because we talked about Connor Bardard.

He's played his first two games. Another big prospect, Adam Van Tilly, is going to be making his debut Thursday night. That's something to look out for this evening, making his debut with the Columbus Blue Jackets. It's also his 19th birthday. So happy birthday, Adam, Finlay. The Blue Jackets made a really nice video.

So if you want to check that out, it's on their social feed. But I'm curious, Max, what does Adam Fantilli need to do in your mind to kind of bridge that gap with Connor Baudard? Because this is a really great prospect too. And maybe that's an unfair question. And maybe a better way to phrase it is like, is there any reasonable possibility that an NHL awards next year, like Adam Fantilli is the Calder trophy winner. Yes. I picked Logan Cooley to win the Colter this year.

Spice! West Midfland, Pennsylvania. Yes. Yes. Shut up, mute as Mike. But part of it is, is I think both Cooley and Fantilli are going into situations that I think are going to be more conducive. I think they've both played, you know, Bidar's played at really high level.

He's played at the World Juniors, all this stuff. And clearly, it doesn't look like he's going to take him forever to adapt against men. Logan Cooley and Adam Fintilli have played a season of college hockey and have played, you know, bigger, stronger players just more often, right? Like, I think, uh, I don't think that Fentili is going to put up the point totals that Baderd will, but I do think when I watched him at Traverse City, at least, you know, he, he looked really, really ready to make a full ice impact shift to shift. And so I expect Connor Bader to have a better season.

But if there's a path for, um, Fantilly to do it, I think it's going to be because he's a bigger, player, he's a, he has the experience playing against men. And I think he, he's a really talented player in his own right. You know, he's got a really good shot too, right? Like, there's, there's a lot of stuff to like about Adam Fantilli's game, great skater in his own right. And so, they're just going to be different flavors though, right? Like, I expect Badard to be, I hope that we don't have to compare Adam Fantili to Badd Arthur's whole career because I think we're going to miss out on if we do that, a really tremendous career of his own. Unbelievable in the NCAA last season, too. one of the most dominant and productive NCAA seasons since Johnny Goddrow.

Yeah. And like Jack, I call it now his teammate. So that's really exciting. I'm going to find myself watching the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight. We'll see how that goes. Let's take a quick break and coming up after. We're going to start a season-long competition between us three. We're having a draft with more stakes.

Will I freak out? Probably. stay tuned if you want to see that or hear that. We'll be right back. All right. So we wanted to put more stakes in the season by doing a team draft. That's what we're doing here. So this is something that our friends at the Athletic Football Show did this season.

I believe 32 Thoughts does something similar. But we wanted to have some skin in the game, some competition between us, something we can kind of come back to throughout the year. when it's, you know, the middle of February and we're all bored, we can just talk about this instead. We can just check in and see how our teams are doing. So the three of us are going to be drafting a roster of teams, teams that we think can win a ton of games this season and therefore win us this competition. We're going to draft six teams each. So we're going six rounds, snake draft. The order is Haley, Max, Sean. And the person with the most wins at the end of the regular

season wins. We're doing it as a regular season contest. I'm sure we can do like bonus points for having the president's trophy winner and maybe we can turn this into a new challenger survival pool, survival pool, excuse me, like in the playoffs in the last one standing, wins something else. We haven't decided what we're going to win. But I think the boys wanted to be something food related. I'm challenging I'm challenging Omaha Steaks to sponsor this because because of how hard Haley

hits stakes I said it too many times I think that's what we have to play for so Omaha Steaks we sponsor this challenge and give the winners a prize prize Poundaha Steaks the keg if we need if it needs to be Canadian Texas Roadhouse in the U.S. We can we can aim low we're not we don't need one of the high end high end spots

Texas Roadhouse, Longhorn, whatever. It seems like the losers have to buy dinner at the draft. Yeah, that's what's going to happen. And then they can be footing the bill for each other's food at some point. And then you can expense it. This is really just a contest to see who submits the expense report with this dinner on it at the end. That's the important thing. Yeah, it's going to end up being draft for Danielle.

I vote that President's Trophy is just a tiebreaker. I think track the wins. presence trophy is a tiebreaker. Keep it simple. Yes, I agree. And then when the playoffs happen, we can survival pool it. And your team just gets eliminated as they do and the last man standing wins. That's right.

Something else. I don't know. We'll figure that out in a couple months. It's a long season, folks. Okay, so let's start. We know the rules. We're good. I got the first pick.

I'm not going to panic. We're going wins, not points. Winns, not points. Win. In a period. Any wins. Great. the first pick. I'm on the clock and I'm going with the New Jersey Devils. Devils fans who feel like

the athletic hates them. No, we don't. I love you. I love the Devils. I'm very excited for the Devils to start the season tonight. I think they're fun. Sorry, that's a really stupid thing to say. I think they're so fun and I love Jack Hughes. No, I think they're a fun team to watch. I think they play like a different style. We're so used to seeing teams. Like, oh, they're really good defensively, or they're really structured and, oh, great neutral zone. I just think the devils play like a fast,

up-tempo, high-skill, exciting style. And I think they have a ton of talent at the top of their lineup. Just magically feel a little bit better about them now versus a couple days ago. Can't quite put my finger on why. Yeah. I'm a little mad. I made a boo-boo, but we'll just... The devil's actually a really...

projected to be the best team per Dom's model after he caught his boo-boo. Devils fan. And I actually kind of, when we audited Dom's model, I said the devils are too low. Turns out they were. Turns out they were. So I'm going devils. Did I steal that from you, Max? Yes. I'm in Newark right now. I was ready to announce the pick, walk outside to my adoring fans who were ready to get behind me. but I will instead go with the regular season team of our generation the Carolina hurricanes are going to put a ton of wins on the board for me, baby.

I thought you were going to say the Leafs. Regular season wins in zone time. That's what they're all about. That's what Raleigh does. Let's go. Some time in regular season wins and inflated point totals for defensemen. Let's go!

Sean? I'm going with the Maple Leafs. I hate to do it. I actually thought that was what you were going to say with that lead in there, Maxie. The best regular season team of our generation. Yeah. I think the Maple Leafs are coming for the crown for the canes. We talked about it in the intro when we're talking about the true living stuff.

I really do like that roster. I think it's a solid group. Am I going to pick them to win around in the playoffs? absolutely not. But over the course of any two-game season, hell yes, maybe. Give me all that.

They know they're very good in the regular season. All their players are very good in the regular season. I'm very excited to see Tyler Pertuzi on that top line also.

It's very good in Detroit two years ago without Austin Matthews as his center. So it should be fun. With my next pick, this is repulsive to the core for me

because I'm picking two Canadian teams. And I'm going and I'm going with a team that got their ass beat last night. Edmont's knowlers. I think that's I think that's the still the betting favorite for the top seed in the

Western Conference. It's tough to pick against those guys, even though Jack Campbell had about as bad a start as you could imagine last night. I'm still going with it. Not what they had planned. And it made sense for them to start him, right? You want to try to get him off on the right foot, regardless of how Bally the guy played last season. He's a $5 million goal tender. Like it behooves, the Edmonton Oilers to have him on track and also have another viable option, even if you think that Stewart Skinner's the guy. So start him in night, start him night one, hope he figures it out and it backfired in a pretty real way last night. But even still, I'm going Edmonton, baby. Friend of the show, Jack Campbell, we remember. Good luck. Max?

I'm going to go with Colorado. I like the cup hangover bounce back from the avalanche here. And they're still just way too good to get much farther than five here on our draft board. So I'm taking McKinnon. I'm taking McCarr. I'm taking the Fs. Shoot. That upset me a little. Okay. I've got the snake here, which is nice. So I'm going to go with my sweet Dallas stars, my favorite team. Their top nine rocks. I love Jake Ottinger. Not as much as I love Jake Ottinger. Sean loves Devon Levi American American

I know he's Canadian everybody calm down I said it once I'm actually a little bit torn here between the Rangers and the Golden Knights because I think the Golden Knights are just going to continue to demolish teams

but I do worry they've had such bad entry luck and the Rangers have Igor Shisterken so I'm going to go with the Rangers Maybe that's a spicy pick, but I'm going to take the Rangers here. I was going to take whichever of those you didn't. But I was hoping that you would leave me the Vegas Golden Knights. So I am thrilled to get the Cup champs and two years ago's Cup champs. We'll see if the lightning make it back to me.

Why'd you want Vegas over the Rangers, Max? Just curious. They're just so deep. And I think that the Rangers, playing in the East, I think you're going to get kind of just more. night to night where you're going to see a team that really scares you. Yeah. I don't know. What do you guys think about the Rangers vibes right now?

Not to make this too unscientific here. But no. I'm not as excited as I want to be. Me neither. And I might have fumbled the bag here. But I kind of just went with the Shisterkin part of it. Because I do think he will steal them some games. But I know that they're rated well by Dom's model.

They're top, you know, eight team. What, top seven? I can't count on the fly. But there's something about. the Rangers where I'm not, I'm with you. I'm not like super excited. It's because their best players are getting older and I think that's part of it. Like you look at Panarin and Crider and Sabina Jad and you're like, okay, these guys, these guys have been around for a bit and seem like they showed some signs of signs of decline last year. And the young guys are whatever, right? Like,

we just spent an entire preseason watching people freak out over Alexia Lafranier because he's understandably so, because he was just a, a non-factor. I mean, that's it. Like, the Ford group isn't that good. Like, it's, it's not rocket science. You love the goaltender. You love parts of the blue line.

You don't hate, you don't hate the forward group. But when you're talking about an elite, you know, top five or top six team, I mean, they just don't, they don't have the horses. It's not unreasonable. A huge part when, when the Rangers hype train was getting rolling a couple years back was the expectation that they were going to be this. And as soon as Crider started age and someone was going to step. One of those guys was going to step in. And I still think Caco has that leap. I mean, I'm not going to rule Lexila for a year out, but I think Caco has that leap coming,

but it's just not nearly the sure thing that I thought it was two, three years ago. I still think the Rangers are going to be in a battle at the end of the season to finish first in the metro between the Devils and the Cains. Like I think we're going to see another one, two, three between those three teams. The Rangers are probably the third best of those three, but they're still going to be up there, I think. I have the ninth overall pick and that sucks because that's where the drop-off happens. I think there's like eight teams that you can comfortably say are going to be, you know, let's 100 point caliber

and stuff gets dodgy for me. Maybe not 100 point caliber, but maybe not 100 point caliber, but like better, better picks than not to kind of hit that mark. Oh, brother, I don't love doing this, but I will go, I will go Bruins. I'm, and I'm already, I'm already regretting it, but they, I couldn't, I wasn't going to be able to, if I didn't pick them here, I would have had to pick them on the turn, right? I think McIndoo said it really well when you look at, you know, they lost Bergeron, even though they lost Crajeet, a team at 135 points or whatever was last season. Like how, like the margin for error and the margin for decline for them is still so, so enormous that I think it's still half decent value in this spot.

And then on the turn, I'm going to go Minnesota Wild. Oh, that's kind of spicy. The fan base hates the team, it seems like, in every single one of my interactions with them, which is fine. And they're certainly missing a top six center, if not two, which is fine. But given the competition, given the rest of the teams on the board, and given the fact that some of these teams in the Western Conference are going to have. have to rack up points, I think they're, I think there might pick. It all depends on how good Gustafson is, I think, in a lot of ways, but whatever. I'm rolling dice a little bit and I feel okay about it. I love that pick, and I love it because of Gustafson, who I think he takes the

step this year into that conversation of those top. That's interesting to hear, because I feel like I have no, I have no sense of, like, I know you look good from what I saw, but I'm, I don't know shit about goaltent, gullent, gullent evaluation in general, and I don't know. So that's, I'll take your word for I don't know anything about goals either I just I see the you know You do a 930 In 40 games last year Like playing a lot last year

I don't know if people realize how much Like he put a lot on the board last season This wasn't just you know 23 spot starts where he was great Like that dude played half the season And win was fantastic for almost all of it I'm taking the lightning I'm just going to collect recent cup champs

Till you guys stop Stop letting me I am scared about Vasilevsky I guess do I get the win that's already I get the win that's already on the board, right? Yeah, yeah. Beautiful. We love that.

That's, you know, one in the hand. But I still think they're just too good. They're just too good to drop off that much. They're going to have the best line in the league, I think, their top line. So I'm keeping it simple. I think people who write off the lightning forget about who's still there. Like, it's not like they just lost Braden Point or Nikita Kutra of this offseason. I was, I did a radio hit with a friend.

JD Bunkus in Toronto and he was like, I said that the Tampa Bay Lightning were going to be terrible this season, and then I watched them and I realized like, oh, Nikita Kutrov's still here? Oh, Braden points, not that old. Wow, I'm actually an idiot. Yeah, the Vasilevsky thing can be scary, but if they're going to let teams only have like two shots on goal in the first period,

it'll work out well. It's a great way to overcome their Jonas Johansson problem is by not letting other teams shoot on him. But, man, it's tough. Like, that shows you how well-regarded Vasilevsky is, too, where, like, they slick how far down they slid. And all of us are like, yeah, that's fine. That sounds about right.

Like, he's the difference between them being whatever. Second round pick for us and not, in a fourth or wherever we were, wherever we are. It's crazy. That fourth round, yeah. I'm done writing off teams because of injury early in the season. I talked about that last year a lot. that was my stupid preseason pick. And to be fair, with my Bruins pick,

it was like, the Bruins are either going to be awful and they're not going to get through this or Jim Montgomery is going to win coach of the year. So I was like half right and half really stupid because everyone came back sooner that we thought and they had more depth and everything worked out great

in the regular season for the Bruins. So I guess this is my pick now. This is where I start to panic. This is where things start to go wrong for me. Snap into Halloween. candy draft mode and take Skittles or something. This is where I free out. Skittles are our first round pick. What are you talking about?

Yeah, Sean's... Oh, wait, you have a... Don't you have a peanut allergy? Yes. Yeah, okay. There you go. You get it. I can't eat peanuts either. And I'm gluten intolerant, so like the Kit Kat just didn't come to mind because I don't eat them.

However, I did. Not on Maxi's level. I did make a mistake and I didn't... I've seen the peanut allergy in full effect. Yeah. We were very, like, carefully at five guys at the trap last year. I've stalled for you enough. I think everyone was in too much, too much pain to care about the peanuts around.

I had an exposure at training camp this year. Maybe. I couldn't, this was the most, like, two-year-old psychology thing of the world of me. There's, like, the Red Rings, like, have it at this community ring in Traverse City. And they, they have, like, donuts. at the concession stand that are just clear from like a local donut shop. Okay. And I knew that there were peanut donuts on the tray, but there was also a big cinnamon roll

that I really wanted. Oh, man. And I was like, it's probably fine. And I even saw like little flex flakes of like peanut on it. And I'm like picking off not just the peanuts, but like the parts of the donut that I saw touching the peanut things. Okay. I eat the cinnamon roll and I'm texting my fiancee five minutes later like, hey, I'm

definitely like, I'm getting allergic reaction right now. Any pen time. I don't have one. I don't own one anymore. Because I'm so good about it. As you saw it, five guys. And I just had like a complete two-year-old couldn't leave it alone thing. That still is not going to be that hot.

I can touch it. Did you have to go home? It was the last day. So I drove back. I had like, I took some, I had some like, you know, whatever. It wasn't Benadryl, but something like that. And then drove back and I ended up being okay. But it was a, it was.

When she heard how it happened, was she like, you freaking idiot. Yes. Probably a little something like that. All right. So with my fourth round pick, I'm going to go with the LA Kings.

Love it. I was going to be mine. Yeah, I think they're going to be good this year. They've got that right mix of veterans who've been there, done that young players. They've got some skill.

I like the Kings. I feel like they're a team and maybe it's the California thing, but I feel like they are a team that almost flies under the radar in terms of how good they are. They were solid last season, what, 11th in the league standings? Rolling the dice on Phoenix Copley, right? That's it.

You're rolling the dice on Phoenix Codd. That's fine. I mean, that's a reasonable call to make at this point in the draft. You're taking a playoff team that added Pierre Lippewa. It added PLD. I like it. All right, let's take a quick break. And yes, I am doing this because.

I've got the snake, but I'm the host, and we need to have an ad break. So we'll be right back. I'm still in a little bit of panic mode here, guys. Bear with me. We're at the point where, like, the top, top teams are gone, and now we're in like, okay, is this team going to make the playoffs? Are they a wildcard team? Are they going to make it in the division?

What do we think? Florida Panthers are still on the board team that made the Stanley Cup final last year, but they do have some injuries that worry me. at the top of their lineup. And I think I might do something potentially dumb again. Like, I'm going to go with the penguins here. So I know the penguins missed the playoffs last year, but they still had 40 wins.

They barely missed. They only had two wins less than Florida. Are you groaning? Because you were going to take the penguins? Yes. Oh, great. I love this for me. I know they lost to Chicago in game one.

Not great. But I feel like the, I like what Kyle Dubus did. I think Eric Carlson being on the penguins is like very cool also. Like the vibes are high there. I like it. I'm really on fire with my analysis. I really like the devils.

I think they're fun. Eric Carlson is cool. It's so cool. This is a high vibe draft for me. Let's be real. As it should be. And also like I, you talk about the loss. Like I especially do not sweat old teams losing early.

Like they got to get going a little bit. but they got to ramp it up and they're going to be fine. Like, I like that pick a lot. The amount of changeover that they had last season, even aside from Carlson, is just, it's wild. And it's certainly not something that's going to snap directly into place on game one. Like really the only grouping of players, if you look at the lines and the pairings,

the only one that we've seen before in any meaningful way has been Crosby, Genshold, Ryan Rust. Everywhere else, there's some major change. Chris LaTang is now with Ryan Graves. again you Malkin now is Riley Smith like up and down the lineup there's change change change so I think it's reasonable to expect to start to be a little slow

I like the pieces and I think Dubus has given them a little bit more depth too I think in recent years if there was injury the penguins are always that team where they'd call someone up and you're like who the heck is that and obviously that's been funny in a meme and that's how we found Brian Rust

and I'm not saying like these guys are world beaters but you've got Colin White you know you've got NHL players that you can slot in now if they run into injury. The one thing I wanted to ask Sean about the Penguins actually is this kind of surprised me because I assumed that Carlson would get a ton of five on five minutes with like if Gennie Malkin and Chris LaTang would stick with Crosby. But we kind of saw Carlson out there with with Cid a lot. That was kind of maybe a pleasant surprise, honestly. I think it's I think the the split for those guys among the top two

centers is going to be a little bit more even. Then we thought the really interesting thing to me, though, is that Carlson played a lot with Lars Eller. He played a lot with the third line forwards, which I think makes a ton of sense in the world. Because Dubas's clear plan to remake the bottom six was it just go all in on defensive ability, right? And those guys have it, to some extent, Lars Eller, Matt Nieto, Nolichari, guys like that. They're legit NHL players who have a defined skill set, but they don't give you any offense at all. That's it. Like, that's, that's the bargain that he made.

The way to counteract that is to take Eric Carlson. And the reason that adding Eric Carlson was so vital for that team is that nobody moves the needle offensively like him as a, as a defenseman, right? So you put him out there with Eller, you put him out there with whatever grinded out defensive forwards, you know, you want to rotate in and you just say like you're the engine when you're on the ice with these guys. You don't have to worry about incorporating Sid. You don't have to worry about incorporating Malkin.

You go out there. you handle business and you drive the bus whenever these guys are out there. So theoretically it makes sense. I don't know if the process seems sounds. I don't think the results against Chicago or where they want them to be. But it's an interesting thing to watch. All right, Max. I'm taking the Sabres.

The Panthers, as you said, tempting. They're coming off a cup run, but they're also banged up. And I just think one of these Atlantic teams, whether it's Buffalo or Ottawa, has to take a leap. And I have been on the Buffalo train. I actually really like their defense for as skillful of a team as they are. I think having the two horses on the back end and Dahlina Power, they're only going to get that much better defensively as they continue to grow.

And I think, yeah, at Connor Clifton, who I really like, I think the Buffalo is going to be the team that makes a jump. It wouldn't shock me if they end up with more wins than a team that I have picked ahead of them on my team. Huh. Damn. Sean, you were going to go Sabres? Yeah, just for the sake of fun. I'll go Calgary.

I think that's disaster potential on that pick. But again, I'm trying to find teams in the West that I think are capable of capitalizing on that being in the Pacific specifically. They can capitalize on that being, you know, I don't want to say mediocre, but I think there's a lot of teams in the same group, right? I think there's a lot of teams who are projected kind of similarly. I think Calgary at least has a chance of, you know, outrunning those. So I'll go with them. And then for my next one, I'm following Max's train of logic where you're like, let's just one of these Atlantic Division teams is going to pop.

Don't. Like one of the young ones. So I'm doing the Sends. That's so rude. What are you going to do? You're the one that made the draft order. You're the one that probably juke the draft order so you can make yourself first, frankly. Why would I want to go first?

I always panic and then I get screwed on the snake, so. Never know. I'm not inside your mind. Just think, again, think before you cheat. That's all I have to say. I don't cheat. I don't like going first. Even though this sends lost last night,

and even though they're historically horrific coming out of the gate under DJ Smith, which Mendez unfortunately broke down very well a couple weeks ago those are my guys for now would I rather have the sabres

yeah but you can only play the hand that you're dealt so they're officially my breakout team for the Atlantic Division all right I'm going to take Florida then just because

I feel like that's a pretty good value here we're outside of the first 16 picks so now we're just taking like they're not like long shots. We're kind of calling shots, and I might as well take the team that was won last year. I just wanted a team with upside, right? Because it came down to Ottawa versus Florida with me,

and like, God bless the Panthers, we love what they did. But it's tough to look at that defense and see them stacking points all that much for the first two months. Sam Bennett's out too. Maybe losing in the final makes them really hungry,

and they come out like wildfire. I mean, they could be the Boston, right? They could. Yeah, sure. Probably not. Yeah. See a lot of one. 140 point teams in the NHL happens all the time.

Yeah. Sam Bennett's not going to play opening night, but might still travel on the road trip. Don't tell me that. Don't tell me that. Do your homework, brother. Yeah. I told you after the fact.

All right. So let's just see who's on the board for the final pick. We've got Winnipeg, Vancouver, the Islanders, the Cracken. And then Nashville, Detroit, St. Louis, Washington, Arizona, Philly, Montreal, Columbus, Chicago. So basically it's down to Winnipeg, Vancouver, the Islanders, and the Crackin for me.

Hmm. I'm going to go with the Jets. Wow. Why? No, no, I think I'm going to go with the Cracken. Wait a second. Allow that. Are we going to allow that?

Imagine at the NHL draft. Let me tell you something. No, no, no. No, no. Half of a beak goes up there last year and goes Adam Fantilly. Well, Leo Carlson. You know what? Never mind.

Okay, who's the pick? Is it the Crackin? What, am I supposed to take Vancouver? No, we're going to roast you for anyone you pick. Pick, just pick someone and let us take Cucson. Don't yell at me. Yeah, I'll go with the Crackin. I'll do it.

Why? Sean shaking his head at me. I'm shaking my head at you because this is taking five minutes. Okay, sorry. I'll stick with the Jets. Just go back to my original pick. After all that, huh? All right.

I don't know. I panicked. I don't really have an explanation. I'm actually not going to roast you. I pick them to make the playoffs too, like I said. Yeah. I think they'll be fine. They're not a team that I feel excited about, hence the panic in the undue stress.

But they've got Connor Hallibuck. He's got a new comment. contract. You know, they were solid last year in the regular season for the first, what, two-thirds of the season? I think they'll start well. And if they flame out the end, they stacked enough wins for me and we try to talk yourself into this. Okay. What would you have done? Canucks. Yeah. Looks, they won eight one. Yeah. I would rather, I would rather go all in on something like that, at least have fun watching it than I have to pay attention to the Jets all season long. Well, that's kind of why I was going to go with the Cracken, but

none of the, nothing excited me. I'm sorry. The pick has been locked in. You may not change it again. Wait, I think I want to go with the Canucks. Nope. The case I feel like for the Jets, though, is that, like, does Valardi have to be that much worse than Dubois this season?

And then you get the development of Perfetti, you know. The Jets are fine. Yeah. I don't feel doom about them. I'm just not. No, they're, they're, you know, They were really good at the first half of the season last year. They're going to finish with 90 points or whatever.

You know what you're getting. It's just a, it's just. I know. That's why I picked them. But then you were like, uh, and then I panicked. Again, that was solely because of the amount of time it took you to lend on them, not necessarily the fig. Well, I almost went with the Canucks just because I like Quinn Hughes.

He always looks so scared and confused. I wonder why you relate. that's actually really rude so here's the so here's the final rosters here so my six teams are New Jersey Dallas the Rangers the Kings the Penguins and the Jets

Max has the Hurricanes the Avs the Golden Knights the Lightning the Sabres and the Panthers Sean has the league the Oilers, the Bruins, the Wild, Calgary, and Ottawa. Sean loves Canada. What the, I just realized that. Just give me a trade with a cracker or something.

A Canadian team's going to win the cut this year, baby. I got a lot of Atlantic. I'm going to have a lot of nights where I'm going to win either way or and lose either way. It might have kept my upside with that. That was my concern when I was thinking about picking the Panthers, honestly. I was like, you know. I went with the sounders instead and just duplicated the problem. I think I have a nice mix.

I think I have three metro teams. It's a lot riding on this. A dinner. Omaha Steaks. Hintzham sticks. The show is not sponsored by Omaha Steaks. But it could be. Yeah.

We're very open to having that conversation. That was fun. I wonder who's going to win. It might be me. I like that we, in addition to this, we also are all in that staff fantasy league. So we're just going to be. Yes. My God.

Hating each other by the end of the year. How's everyone doing? Miko Ranan was great for me last night. Yuck. I have Brock Busser. I do really well in drafts where I'm like not being recorded and I can just take my minute and make a decision. It's not the world. Nobody screams at me.

Yeah. All right. Well, that was our first show, guys. Max, it's going to be fun to have you here this season. Max will probably be in and out because he travels a lot. So there will be weeks where maybe Max isn't here, right? Yeah. Or did I just make that up and kick Max off the show?

There will be weeks where Max bothers us. Yeah, I'll go to Sweden at one point and that'll be tough. You're quarterly trip to Sweden? Yes. Yeah. I couldn't believe. that they let me go again. Could not believe it.

Yeah, me neither. What was your pitch this time? I know the... I didn't even make one. I was at... I was with... No, I haven't been to Stockholm yet. I was with a couple of our bosses at an event,

and they were just like, so are you looking forward to Sweden? And I was like, yeah. Yes, I am. Yes, I am. Yes, I will be there, in fact. That'll be fun. Well, if you can't, like, come on the show and be a co-host, we should, I don't know, try to record.

something postcards from Sweden from Max. I don't know. We'll figure that out. But this is going to be the crew for this year. It's exciting with the new schedule. I didn't mention it off the top, but I should say that the Prospect Series is going to be around this year too. That is not going away.

So Max is going to be around still with Corey Prondman on Fridays. And this week, it's going to be you, Corey, and Chris Peters. That's right. For another edition of the Prospect Series, the first one of the year. That's going to be great. Thanks guys for doing this. We'll check back in on the drafts and we'll be back next week. And just a reminder to everyone to subscribe to the athletics YouTube channel.

YouTube.com slash at the athletic hockey show. Don't watch this week. I just got my wisdom teeth taken out. I'm very bruised. I haven't brushed my hair. But next week, check it out. We'll be there.