The Athletic Hockey Show - Can Zach Werenski vault himself into the Hart Trophy conversation?

Episode Date: January 15, 2025

Sean, Frank and Sean discuss The Athletic's top NHL players and prospects under 23 list, specifically, the rankings of Habs defender Lane Hutson and Blackhawks center Connor Bedard. The guys take a closer look at Senators goalie Leevi Merilainen who has two shutouts in his last three starts and the NHL's Eastern Conference wild card race, which continues to be intriguing for the Columbus Blue Jackets, led by Norris Trophy favorite Zach Werenski.Hosts: Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoeWith: Frankie CorradoExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff Domet Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. What up, what up? It's the athletic hockey show Wednesday edition. Mack and Duke, Carado, Gentilly. It was a busy night last night, boys. We had a lot of action in the Eastern Conference. All of those teams in the mush when it comes to the second wildcard spot were playing last night. So we did have some movement.

We're going to talk about a lot of that. But right off the bat, I don't care that it's a day old. It was burning up. The comments section was on fire. last night and yesterday afternoon people are still talking about it today this is where we're going to start fellas the under 23 rankings for the athletic corey pranman made some made some interesting calls at the top people people were pissed it's fascinating stuff from from cori and that's where we're going to start frankie uh lane lane hudson tier five when it comes

the u23 prospects what do we think why you laughing why are you laughing about that let Let me just say this to start. I'm laughing. Listen, hold a second. I'm laughing because we all know Canadians fans, man. Oh, yeah. We're all, we've all been intimately exposed to them in one way or another over the years. They were taking it about as well as, as you would think.

Their boy, you know, low 30 is when it comes under 23 players in the league by, by Corey. Let's just say, let's just say there's going to be nothing average about this show today. We are going to have an all-star caliber. maybe even elite caliber show today and some conversation around Lane Hudson. Like, it is, you have to realize that's the golden boy right now in Montreal. They've never had a defenseman like this. I guess like P.K. Suban won a Norris. You know, Markov was unbelievable there for a long time.

They've had Shea Weber. But this guy's, like, he's different in what he does and the category of guys that he's constantly being compared to. like whether it's past or present. Anytime we pull up, you know, how many points does a Canadian's defenseman have through the, you know, the first 30 games of his career. And it's like, no, there's cellios.

And like, or when you do it in the grand scope of the league and all the players that have come before them, like, oh, there's, there's Murphy. There's Bork. And then, you know, on a day to day, what he's doing in the league, you know, whether it's whatever category you can, you can conjure up.

It's like Hughes, Fox, McCar, Werenski now, and he's doing it playing more than any other rookie. He's crushing other rookie defensemen. So guys that would be in the same category as him, it's just like when he's doing all that and we're seeing it with our own eyes, it's hard to argue. So I can understand why Canadians fans would feel upset at that ranking. And the term average compete level, which is something that Marty says, St. Louis talks about all the time.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard Marty asked, hey, Marty, what stands out about Lane Hudson's game that maybe people don't think about him? Oh, compete levels through the roof. Yeah, compete levels, you know, incredible. It's not quite average. It's also wild timing here, too, for Corey, because coming off a 5-3-HBs win over Utah H.C. Last night, I'm looking at the score where right now is Canadians at Club.

always makes me laugh. Hudson, Hudson, three assists, top game score, that's using Dom's model last night. Game score 3.67, that led all skaters,

a couple blocks, you know, more than 20 minutes, ice time, three assists. Like, he was, he was great last night too.

So, so this is, you know, Hudson came out and bet it back to Corey a little bit here too. People, people are not,

people have not forgotten this. We're 24 hours in and it's still, it's still going. Well, and all you see now on Twitter is people clipping Hudson clips, either from this season or from the game last night. And listen, like he's, you know, I get it. He's, he's five foot nine. He's light. Like, I've been in, in the dressing room after morning skate and I've,

I've seen the guy. Like, he's, you know, there's some days where if you took a quick glance, like, that could just be, that could be the stick boy. Like, he's, he's that small. But I think that in a way, the fact that he's that small in stature and he's able to compete against big bodied players that, you know, play the game hard and have speed and have those frames. Like I think that even just adds to his compete level more, doesn't it? Like the fact that he goes toe to toe to with those guys and he comes up with the puck and he's willing to embrace the body contact and the pressure and all that kind of stuff. So he's unbelievable.

He's a human highlight reel. And you can't have the puck on your stick as much as he does. And you can't get the puck back as much as he does if you're not ultra, ultra competitive. I think the only thing that can happen now is Corey has got to pull at Clarence Campbell and go to the next Montreal home game and sit in his little box seat and wait for somebody to come up and try to shake. his hand because this is i'm i'm in ottawa i'm two hours away from montreal i can hear the wailing and the screeching still all night kept me up and i got to say i just on behalf of the athletic i personally apologize to montreal fans who had to see one opinion all year that wasn't blowing smoke up this kid's behind i i am i am so sorry that it it the unanimous acclaim this

guy's been getting all year was sullied by one guy ranking him a little bit lower than you thought I eat let's all hold each other we can get through this and that's why I love it core is the counterbalance like like like I'm I'm I'm here for it I have all sorts of time for it I also just love I mean whatever I there's some there's some truth of the fact that you know I there's there's Canadians fans in the comments who act like it's some grand scheme because because people know that they get fired up overtakes or whatever. So it's like some kind of clickbait thing where

you know, you know if you slag Lane Hudson that people are going to, too, that's completely false. There's none of that at play, but I'm still enjoying it greatly. If this is, if this one needs to happen because it's true for every fan basis and it's certainly true for the Canadians, every single fan base

overrates their own prospect. And if this is what needs to happen to, you know, knock him down a peg. I'm here for it. But also, man, like, Lane Hudson looks like he's pretty good. I don't think there's, I don't think there's 38 players, uh, or, or whatever it is in, in the league who are,

who are 23 or younger and better than him. put it, put it this way. Like, Macklin Sellebrini was number one on that list. And that's fine. Like, he's, he's going to be a hell of a player. He already is. There's more than an outside chance that Lane Hudson wins the Calder this year. Like, it's, it's, it's creeping up. Like, the guy's going to have a legitimate shot. Right?

He's leading everybody in points. He's got more points than Celebrini. He's got more points than Mishab. He's got more points than all the... And he plays first power play. He plays first power play. He plays the first pair. He plays 22 minutes a night.

He's second on the team in Ice Time. And that's not to take anything away from Macklin Celebrini. But the discrepancy between one and whatever Hudson is at in the 30s is, you know, it's not exactly justified for me anyways. And the Calder race is going to be indicative of that. like those, you know, they're kind of going head to head. And Hudson seems to be gaining momentum. And it's not the celebrini's losing momentum.

It's just, I think that's, that's how good Hudson has been. And I will say this, when you make a list like this with all the teams involved and all these under 23 players, like, it's not something you just slap together and just say, there you go and hand it in. Like there's obviously a lot of work that goes into it. Like you have to watch a lot of these guys and you have to compare. a lot of these apples to oranges type things and put this list together. So, you know, I'm cognizant of that, keep that in mind, be reasonable, all that kind of stuff.

But Lane Hudson will continue to play the way he has been. And I'm sure there have been a lot of critics over the years, especially of a guy who's playing defense, that small. That small in stature. But he will continue to do what he's doing. And at some point, like, just like Quinn Hughes is or Adam, box like it's pretty it's pretty decisive everyone's on the bandwagon those guys are the best of the best Sean we had to vote on our midseason like we had to revise our predictions across the board right we did pick updated uh updated cup winners updated trophy winners updated playoff fields all that

stuff one of them was the Calder was we had to we just throw in our updated Calder pick uh did you did you involve yourself in that did you yeah did you vote Where did you go on that? Well, I voted Celebrini, but that was only because I wanted to fire up Canadians fans and get those clicks. Those hate clicks. That's what we do. Because I've never actually watched the game by it. By the way, that is, I got to say, Corey doesn't need me to back them up as far as his expertise on this stuff.

But oh my God. Could we get, could we somebody, some hockey. fan out there. Could we be exposed to one contrary opinion without immediately accusing the other person of having never watched? You've never watched my team. You've never watched this player. You've never watched

the game. Good Lord, man. You remember when you used to be able to just argue and be like, you're right, I'm wrong, whatever it was, without assuming that nobody watches your 11th place team every night the way you do. Also like the level of egotism that has to come into play to think that the decisions about posts like this are made solely to troll a fan base or or whatever like I bad news that's not the way it goes

cori's not thinking about that i'm not thinking about that like we're not we have we have our team meetings and it's just you know the first slide of the presentation is just a habs logo and then the second slide is that logo with a question of our goal right how do we get how do we tail all our coverage to the world's most important fan base. That's definitely what's happening here. It's not just that Corey, a guy with a lot of expertise and a lot of hours spent watching guys has a different opinion than so.

Well, I did vote celebrating, but it's going to be a three-way race. And, yeah, I can't pace yourselves, Habs fans, because, you know, don't, you're going to need some of this energy in a few months. worry about the wild card. They're in that race and Emil Heinen got hit by a car. Feel bad for him.

Apparently the car got the worst of it because that guy is a beast and a truck. So it's just he actually still leads the Canadians and hits because he got that hit. The reverse hit. Did he drop down and hip check the car? Yeah. No, I'm I'm joking, obviously.

Like I'm happy he's okay. but, you know, the Calder race is going to be interesting because Mitchcoff has been, like, he's very productive, goal scoring-wise. He's also been healthy scratched at times this year. So when you're voting for that, like, how much do you take that into consideration? Like, can a guy who's been healthy scratch? I know he doesn't really have control over that necessarily because it's a coach's decision. But like, how much does that weigh into your voting when you got two guys, one guy's the first line center plays every night? One guy's top pair defenseman plays 22 a minute and he's leading all rookies in points. And then the third guy, well, scores a lot.

He's going to be a very good player for a long time. Also, you know, at times finds himself out of the lineup. Like, I think there's there's a bridge to be, you know, gap there when it comes to that. But, you know, you talk about the list and, you know, how one fan base feels like it's inflammatory when their guy's lower. on the list. Well, I didn't see a lot coming out of Chicago when it comes to where Connor Bard is ranked on the list. And I didn't see a lot coming out of Ottawa of people praising the list because Tim Stutzla is number two. And Tim Stutzel is a hell of a player. Like he's a 90 point guy. He's going to be a hundred point guy. And he's, like, he's, he's been a dog this year for that

team, like really, really good and determined, like kind of has matured his game out. So he deserves to be in that mix, in that talk for sure. But, I mean, if we're talking about fan bases that would look at it and say, well, well, what's up? Where's our guy? I don't know, I don't know how upset Blackhawks fans are that Badard isn't one or two. First of all, Ottawa fans aren't going to praise the list because they're guys number two. They're too busy being mad that Ridley Gregg is in tier six.

Behind that, bomb lane hot. I mean, come on. That's not even, that's an insult. Corey's never watched the Ottawa Senate. That to me, honestly, was the bigger news from this, not news, but the bigger takeaway was Connor Bredard being third. Because to be clear, the list is, it's not simply based on who's playing the best right now in the NHL.

Obviously, Lane Hudson would be far, far higher. I mean, there are guys on the list who aren't in the NHL yet. It was more of a case that, you know, the way I kind of read it is, who would you take right now? If everyone under the age 23 got thrown into a draft, who are you picking? And the idea that Connor Bedard only a year and a half into his NHL career is no longer that consensus top guy is a little bit stunning to me. And I guess that is the bigger takeaway because we, I mean, up here in Canada for two years before he was drafted, We've been talking about Connor Bardard as the next truly elite generational McDavid Crosby level guy. A year and a half in, are we starting to think that he's maybe not that guy?

Maybe still a very, very, very good player, but not a guy who's going to transform a franchise the way that other superstars have come along and done. Maybe not going to transform a franchise the way that other guys have. have, but also has been put in a situation, which, you know, we can talk about more in depth, but there's just, he's doing it a lot on his own and just hasn't had the help around him. Now they're, you know, he's on his second head coach already. Like there's just, there's been so much that he's, he's had to work through. And give Bedard, like, you know, he's, he's played so much better recently.

Like, he's really come on strong here now. I would say the last 20 games or so. Like, Badaard's really kind of, not to say figuring it out because it felt like he had it figured out last year before he was hurt, but playing really good hockey. But you're right. Like, it's not, we talked about Bidadd in the same breath as Ovechkin, Crosby, McDavid. And might not be that guy, but is still going to be very, very good. and especially once he gets some pieces around him, we'll see what that does for his game.

But I don't look at this as some big indictment on Connor Bedard and that he's not going to be a great player. He truly is. It's just he's not going to be that, and maybe this is what you mean by that. He's just not going to be that standalone guy. That just does it on his own. Yeah, there's no shame in not being as good as Sidney Crosby.

Connor McDavid. Like that's true for 99.99% of the guys who've ever played, right? And if that's, if that's what his ceiling is now, like almost as good as those guys, but not quite. And by the way, I think it's fair to put him there.

Because in year two, Sid and McDavid were winning scoring titles and going to the playoffs. And they made that leap when they were out when they were Connor Bredd's age currently. So if that's the rubric and those are the guys that were grading him against, like it's fair to say that he's, hasn't quite lived up to it, but it's also not that fair of a standard because those guys are true generational players. And it's a term that we hear way, way, way too often. Like generational players, by definition, there's only a couple of them per generation.

Yeah, it's, it's, it's, Credsby, Mario and Lane Hudson are the only three that really belong. Ridley, Greg, the secret meetings at the athletic where you guys have the, um, the logo and then the question mark like how can we get how do we antagonize yeah where I work at TSN we have the same meetings but we just have the terms generational and then we just slap

them on like who's going to be generational this year right Matthew Nyes generational question mark Easton Cullen unfortunately has slipped out of the generational tier I think a lot of this I think a lot of our reaction of this to me and Sean

at least like I'm in Pittsburgh where there are no prospects. He's a least fan where every prospect is terminally overvalued. So like whenever we see a prospect that maybe is getting slept on a little bit, it's shocking. We don't know how to deal. I was an overvalued prospect for at least five years. Five straight years.

You're the most overvalued prospect on the 2016-17 penguins. You were on Prondman's list until you were 33. That waiver wire was shaking in its boots, man. Oh, man. All right. That's going to be it for segment one because we don't want to, we don't want to steal all the shine from Max and Corey. They have plenty to talk about outside of just one or two guys that we've zeroed in on here.

You know, it's a really exhaustive list with a lot of good stuff. And if they're going to talk about it in its entirety on Friday in the prospect series. So we'll leave the rest of that to them. We're going to come back and talk about some other results from last night in the way things are tracking, particularly in the Eastern Conference, because say it with me. Lots of stuff going on. Lots of mediocre teams fighting for wildcard spot number two. We'll talk about some of that in our next segment. Stick around.

All right, we're back. And as contractually mandated, we are forced to talk about the Eastern Conference wildcard race. Man, it's the most interesting thing in the sport, bar none. there's so many teams that are involved. It's a daily, a daily kind of thing. And I think one of the stories that come out of Tuesday's results,

Ottawa does it again. They're in there by points percentage. I think they might be in wildcard won by points percentage at this point. 2-0-win over the islanders. Levy Merlinen, 24 saves for the Sends. He's their backup goal tender. 2-0-1, like I said, over the islanders.

Interesting game from him. Frankie, what do we have in, in our guy Levy. Here's what we have. Okay, so it's his second shutout in his last three games. He's played well. He was not supposed to be in an Ottawa crease this year because you could make the argument that he was their organizational fourth, right?

You're going to go Allmark, Forsberg, Sogarde. And so now this kid's played and he's played well. And for me, my head starts to turn to what kind of side deals can this guy get? now that he's kind of caught lightning in a bottle here. And this is where, this is what I've come up with. Okay. His name is Levy.

And I start to think, oh, Levy like a Chevy. Oh, okay, hold on. Here's the ad spot right now. Drive a Chevy like Levy. Best in class.

Zero percent APR financing for a limited time only. You know, like that's, for well qualified buyers, of course. for well-qualified buyers. And every one of them demands something different from their Chevy truck.

But they all want the same thing. The most dependable, longest-lasting trucks on the road. So that's what he's got to hone in on this right now. Get the agent on the phone, call every Chevy dealership in Ottawa, and the slogan is drive a Chevy like Levy.

And it's somewhere in the ad, you have to work in best in class. We'll be continuing to focus on bringing forth the best in class product both on and off the ice for our team. Because that is the what is that, the motto that Michael Ann Lauer had when he bought the team.

What do you think? That's right. Great pull. Right? Best in class towing on all new Chevy Silverado, zero percent financing for 36 months. JD Power and Associates into that one. Do you guys have that in Canada?

Sean, do they have JD Powering Associates in Canada? I don't know that we have that. I would save it for the uh save it for the annual post. I, man, this is, this is good stuff.

I was just going to ask like what the finish equivalent of a hamburger is that that we could throw on the ice for this guy. But this is the year, you're thinking bigger. I like it. Yeah. If he, if he makes a push for the,

for the, for all the Hammond, uh, records, well, do we call it, do we call the record, the run at the record,

the levy chase? In one physical model of the universe, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line in the opposite direction, Danny. Unbelievable. Thank you very little. That's it. That's a chimm. There it is. Nice.

Yikes. Yikes. Nice. I think the Sends are, are they at the top of everybody's lists? Because it's going to change daily, I feel like that. I have been in the playoffs. I think the Sets are meek and the Pets. playoffs and this Maryland is a little bit, he's a little bit of the savior, to be honest with you,

because Allmark's health has been a question mark right from the get-go. And to his credit, like, when Allmark has been in the net, he's been very good. You just don't know when he's going to be in the net and how long it's going to take for him to get injured again. And this kid has, you know, played better than Forsberg for sure, has instilled a confidence in these guys that, like, okay, you don't have a guy behind you that's going to be leaky and let in the softies. And now the team can just kind of play the way they've played when they've been at their best, where they haven't scored all that much. Like they haven't overachieved scoring wise.

But, you know, they've improved so much defensively with Travis Green. And like this is, you know, this is the saving grace right now. The fact that this kid has come in seemingly out of nowhere and played as well as he has. And but that is like that is a key thing that I feel like some people maybe skip over when they talk about the senators. Their biggest offseason acquisition, one of their highest paid players has been injured and missing for, you know, for weeks now. And when that happens, especially with the goalie, you don't need somebody to come in and win the Vezina for you. You just need somebody to come in and keep you above water. which is, I guess for a guy named Levy is a pretty good maybe works.

You might be able to work that into the ad. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know what you do? You just, it's Michael Landelar. He's pushing the car down the road. And somebody says, what are you doing? And he says, I'm pushing my Chevy to the Levy. Because the Levy is driving.

I don't know how the levees is. So we're going to have to be in the back. Yeah. The classic. Mendez, call us. I was going to say, we got something, we got, I think I know a guy in the PR department over there. We can make this happen. If anybody from, if anybody from GM is listening to this, reach out to the Ottawa Center's

Communications Department. We have a cell phone available for you if you'd like to make that call at some point, at some point today. I wonder how much it costs to use when the levy breaks by Led Zeppelin. I'm sure it's not even that much. Oh, God. Well, I mean, that's what you play when you're the opponent and you put a few goals past this guy and you suddenly throw that up there.

Hey, since we're going full hot take here, here's my question. When, not if, when the Ottawa senators make the playoffs, who is the game one starter for the Ottawa senators? Do we have a controversy? I think we have to. I think you got to wave all mark, is what I'm saying. Well, actually, that's a conversation in Ottawa right now is that what do you do when Allmark comes back? Because you're going to have Allmark, Forsberg, and Marilina.

And like, I guess the easy thing is, like, you would just send Maralinen down. But don't you want them to play? The guy's been red hot. Like, why would you take him out of the net? Especially when we're talking about this wildcard race, every point is so important right now. Like, it's going to come down to the last game of the regular season. And I think that last game is going to implicate more than two teams. Like there's going to be big implications when we're talking about the last game.

So they're probably in a situation where when Allmark comes back, do they roll with three goaltenders for a little bit just because you want Maryland? I mean, yeah, I think like, and I know that for reasons that I've never fully understood and, you know, I've tried to have Jesse explain this to me. as soon as you have three goaltenders, it just becomes too complicated and their little tiny goalie brains explode

when three of them have to be on the practice ice at the same time. But yes, I feel like you if a guy is going to be this hot, you got to roll with them a little bit. I'm not saying he starts every game. I'm not saying Allmark sits on the bench because you want to get him back in.

But, yeah, go with three goalies for a little while. Or you just put him on the shuttle and take them back and forth and have him start HL games and work on Mark back in. Like, forget about, forget about Forsberg.

Like, whenever you need, if you have a back to back, you just bring, bring Maryland and up for that because he's, he's, he's safe. He's safe.

Isn't that, isn't that what Columbus was doing with grieves and not playing Tarasov? Maybe they, maybe they should have played Tarasov earlier. Well, hey, they got a, like,

they got a win with him in the net last night. Yeah, right. Exactly. They are, like, when, when it's all said and done,

and we look back at Columbus's season, and I hope they make the playoffs. I think it's such a great story if they do. They are the cardiac kids of the season, where they will score. They will fill the net big time, but man, they can give them up as well.

Like, it's just, it's such a eater-toddering effect with them, but they're fun and they're exciting, and they got another win last night. It's the craziest thing, and I read this on the side somewhere, and I can't remember who wrote it,

whoever the name escapes me. Uh, which is pointing out how, how the blue jackets have gotten is done despite getting, you know, we'll say, uh, slightly below average goal tendering,

poor goaltending at times. The fact that, that they're in this spot while, well, uh, well, while, well,

while, well, while, from, from the, from the guys there really until last night it, because terris, uh,

tear stuff was, was, was good. It's, uh, it's an indication of, of something positive, I,

I, think. If they can get a run of solid goaltending play, they're going to be even tougher to beat. Because they're, you know what, they are two percentage points behind Ottawa for a wild card too. Like those, those two are certainly, are certainly the two that are playing the best. And you know what's wild, guys, when it comes to Columbus, the names that are still not playing and like newly not playing. Sean Monaghan injured, he's on the IR, Danforth not playing. Good Branson hasn't been playing. Boon Jenner hasn't been playing Chinikoff.

You take away five guys of that importance and that significance to any team. That syncs them. Meanwhile, Columbus is just like, they're just kind of rolling along. They've won, what is it, five in a row now? It's unbelievable what they're doing. And I think a lot of that, like a lot of that has to, has to do with the guys that are taking the next step that finally it's happening for them where, you know, Kent Johnson or Cole Cillinger and Olivier's still having a nice year.

But Johnson and Cillinger specifically, at some point, those guys were going to have to take that step. And now there's no one in their way, right? They have to. It's out of necessity. And, you know, Coril Marchenko has been good right from the second he walked into the league. But he's more, I mean, he's more complete than he's ever been. There's really, really, he's been great with, he's been great with, he's been great with Monahan too. It'll be interesting to see what

Merchenko's production looks like with Monaghan on the shelf. I mean, it all starts for me with them and I know this is a bold take. We need to push Zach Warnenski to the top of the to the top of the Norris list.

Right, like he's... Is it the top of the Norris? Or is it, is he now in the heart? Is he in the heart discussion? As I've floated the idea until it, but when it was healthy, I was starting to float the idea of Sean Monaghan is a hard option. But maybe it's,

maybe it's Zach Werenck. 15 goals. He's got, he's got most goals amongst defense month 15. Tie for first in points with 50. There's almost 27 minutes in night. This is a fake stat, but we're going to use it anyway.

He's on his 17 game home point streak, which is tied for seventh longest in the history of the league. So on that list, it's Bobby O'R, Paul Coffey, Phil Housley, Brian Leach, Ray Bork, like these are, these are elite, elite, elite Hall of Fame names. And soon to be Lane Hudson. Maybe Lee Hudson, maybe Cole Hudson eventually. And they've won nine to 12.

Like, he's, he's been their best player. He's been one of the best players in the, in the game, really, since the start of the season. I'm just glad. I'm glad to see it from him because he had the toolkit. And Frankie, maybe you can speak to speak to this to some degree. health was always the issue for him. It was always something. He had shoulder issues.

He missed time, like, was hurt at the end of last year. It's been a while since we've seen a protracted, you know, long-term series of games where he's been in the lineup. And I think we're seeing what he's capable of now because he's still a young dude. You know, people forget he was playing when he was 18, 19. Like, he was in a league at a very young age. And the guy's still in his 20s. Like, he's got a lot of. a, there's a lot of runway ahead for him.

He's, he's doing it all, man. Like, and a lot falls on his shoulders. And it's funny how, like, you know, Nashville puts Fabro on waivers, because they don't think he can play there. Now he's playing top line minutes with Zach Werenck. Werencki and their teams winning games, Werenski's playing unbelievable. The, the one argument you're going to get from people when it comes to the Norris and Werenski is that Quinn Hughes's impact with Vancouver, if he's not on the ice, that team

is sunk, like completely sunk. Quinn is still, like, we had to, like I said before, we had to submit these new picks for all this stuff. He's still my, he's still my guy with the Norris, but like, I don't know, man. And that's going to depend on if Vancouver, I think, makes the playoffs or not, um, or what that looks like, but holy smokes. Like, that's a different, talk about difference. Like that Vancouver's a different team when he's sitting on the bench compared to when he's on the nice. And I think for Columbus and Werenski,

he's doing so much there, he's playing so much there in the grand scope of the league. Like he deserves, you know, he deserves his recognition, deserves his flowers. And he's just, he's just very, I don't know, very sure of what his game is now.

Like there's, you know, you talk about the injuries, but like, he knows exactly what he is as a player and he's not veering off from it in any way, shape, or form. not only has there not been a defenseman win the heart trophy since Chris Bronger in 2000, there has not been a defenseman finish as a finalist since then. That is messed up. Really?

I don't think I knew that. We have got to get more goalies and more defensemen on the heart ballots. It should be two defensemen and a goalie this year. It could be. It could be, especially given that you look at the forwards, a lot of them are guys. that have already won the award, you know, voters, we get a little tired, we, we like the narratives. And, hey, you want a narrative for the Zach Werenski case,

for whatever award it is you want to throw in there. Columbus, in a playoff spot right now, by virtue of winning eight of their last 10. Do you guys remember what game started that 8 out of 10 streak? Was the Patrick Liny game. Montreal comes to town. He runs his mouth a little bit. And then the next day, Zach Wrenski,

plants the flag and says not in our house. You're not coming in here and talking trash about this organization. And ever since the Columbus Blue Jackets have been one of the league's very best teams. If you want a narrative to latch on to, I mean, there's your. I mean, hey, I mean, we're, we're, we started off talking about this guy win in the Norris. Then we bumped it up to the heart. Let's go all the way. Let's bump it to the most prestigious award.

Is this guy our Mark Messier Leadership Award winner for the year just based on that? Presented by Mark Messier? The Mark Messier leadership? The Merciet leadership qualities is presented by Mark Messier.

Your gift is a trophy and also a Mark Messier jersey to the winner. And you get a bag of Laze chips. But it's a Canucks Messier jersey. That's right. Yeah, we got them cheap. Got a good deal. Frankie, what's up for?

you this week. What's the schedule looking like? Do you have any heinous flights coming up? No, actually, travel's been good. Sunday I'll make my way out to Montreal. We got a game against the Rangers. But today on NHL network in the States and TSN in Canada, it's the Champions Hockey League first leg of the semifinals. It's Geneva versus Zurich. And I don't want to make things about the leaps because we've gone through basically, you know, two segments and haven't done it. But Dennis Malgan plays for Zurich. Leif's legend, one of the greatest trades in Maple Leaf's history. And he is now playing for Zurich. And he is second in Champions Hockey League points behind Sven Andragetto, Montreal Canadiens legend and Colorado Avalanche legend.

This is remember some guys territory. I wonder what Mason Marchman's doing today? Well, well, Dennis Malgan plays in the, plays the Champions Cup. What tier would you put Sven in in that league? I think at some point Sven was on that list probably higher than Lane Hudson. Wow. I was joking. I don't know. And Sammy Vottenen plays for Geneva.

So any other funny names on that one? Oh, God. Tanner Richard plays for Geneva. I'm trying to remember off the top of my head. Oh, Auntie Ranta plays for Geneva. He's in that. Yeah. Yeah.

Someone, someone either tweeted me or hit me on blue sky, letting, letting, telling me to tell you that you are eligible to play for the Italian Olympic team. I am. Well, I have an Italian passport. Um, I got it. Yeah, I got it when I went over to play in Europe. My plan initially was to, um, leading up to the 2026 Olympics to play two years in, well, there's, there's two teams.

now in Italy that play in the Austrian League. So that's your 18 months that you have to spend living in the country and playing for one of those teams. So I was going to do that leading into the 2026 Olympics, but my body had other plans. So now I have this beautiful, shiny Italian passport just sitting around at home, doing nothing.

You can still make the push. It's not like you have anything better to do at home right now. You don't have your hands full at the moment. I think if I called Gary Roberts and I said, I need 12 to 16 weeks of training, I think I could do it if they waived the 18 month rule, which it sounds like they were thinking about doing. And they did it for Team China at the, was that 20, 22 Olympics? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they did it for them.

So they might do it for Italy. Honestly, there's a lot of guys that could go play. It would help out, like it would help out the Italian team just not to lose 16 nothing. Yeah. Right. You could lose whatever. You could shave that down to 15. Is that the idea? I think with me and a few of the fellas,

we could get that to like 8-1. Let's make it happen. Wow. Okay. Yeah, 16 weeks. I need 16 weeks in the gym and on the ice. The Vaughn All-Stars can head over to, can head over and fill out their roster.

All right, bud. Have a good week. I'll talk you next one of the. Okay, see you fellas. Don't miss the great content being produced throughout the Athletic Podcast Network. Until Saturday has you covered for the college football national championship. It's David Aubin. It's Chris Vinini. It's Damian Harris. And they're all bringing you bold predictions behind the scene access and exclusive interviews, including ESPN's Paul Feinbaum.

Guys are going to be in Atlanta throughout the weekend. They're going to have an instant reaction podcast on YouTube immediately following Monday's championship. So subscribe to until Saturday on your favorite podcast platform or YouTube. All right. Frankie's gone. We're back. TGB, what have we learned? What have we learned, Sean? I'm pretty excited. Because what I learned is, you know, I've got, I got Valentine's Day coming up.

I got some birthdays. And I think I learned that I got my shopping done because I got a text from you coming from the Pittsburgh area code saying that you've got a lead on some Stanley Cup rings that might be hitting the market soon. Three of them, in fact, yes. Wow. Yeah. The latest athlete breaking. Mm-hmm. Gennie Malkin gets three, gets his house broken into.

Mm-hmm. according to the reports and three Stanley Cup rings. This has to end with the Penguins making the playoffs and going for number four, right? Doesn't it? This is the narrative that can take over. Yeah, I mean, it would be a lot easier to latch on that if they didn't just blow a third period lead against the Seattle Cracken. And, you know, they lost the last three games or they dropped four or five on their last homestead, including the last three. But they've got a path.

And the path to the Stanley Cup is make the wild card, be the crossover team, and go over to the Atlantic Division. Oh, my God. What I want to know is how if there was any connection between the Yager Babelhead Heist and the Malkins. You know what? That's fantastic. We've got a crime ring, a Pittsburgh hockey, collectible crime ring. my gosh, what's going to be next? We're trying to connect this, Pat Mahomes and Kelsey and Joe Burrough and all these,

all these, all these, all these other athletes whose houses are getting robbed while they're out of town. I think we need to keep it a little bit more local. I think we need to look in the direction. They need to reopen the bobblehead case because as far as, as far as I know, nobody ever, nobody ever got caught for that as I, as I look over to a closet. it in this room that may or may not have as far as I know they never did. My phone hasn't rang yet. I mean, they haven't caught anybody yet.

Maybe that's it. Yeah, I'm with you on this. They're going to go in or run. They're going to cross over. They're going to end up playing the Panthers or the Leaves or something. That division stinks. I've been, as a Leaves fan, I've been watching the rankings. for first in that division because this is this is the Leafs thing right every year they finish

third start on the playoffs on the road and then we go oh how come they're losing that's crazy and it's like no the third place team is supposed to lose it's second place team finish first for a change and and they are in first place and it was you know today i saw our uh our buddy justin born was tweeting out some of the some of the numbers and it's like oh wait a second they're in first place, but that division stinks right now. Nobody seems to want to win it. I just want to have people who know me know that I've been waiting for years for a crossover team to win a division that they are not in. I want to see the Pittsburgh Penguins hang an Atlantic Division banner. It would. And just to use everybody. So maybe this is maybe this is the year. Maybe this is the division that's right for the picking. I just want one of these teams to start playing better.

Like to me, that's been kind of the drag over the last couple, over the last couple weeks, you know, Leifs went on a run. They've now lost three straight. Panthers just continue to seesaw back and forth. They're four,

five and one in their last 10. Tampa had a run when they were making up all those games. But even them, four or five and one in their last 10, that was my fault. I wrote about them being really good. And they lost four in a row immediately. We need to start.

I feel like you're on a tear with the cursed stuff this season in a way that we haven't seen from you in a while. Like, this is impressive work from you that as soon as you're sold on someone. And this week, I was pumping the tires of the bluejacket. So I almost, you know, I almost didn't want to do it. I get, I do get about once a week, some random fan will be like, hey, man, just quick note, you haven't written about how good my team is doing. Can you just continue to not do that, please? Because I've seen what happens every time you jump on a bandwag. There was definitely, there was definitely an overriding tone of, um, like you sounded apologetic that you wrote about the blue jackets at the end of

the last weekend rankings. Understandably so. I want to wish any more, any more crummy stuff on them. If Zach Werenzky can get them to survive the curse of me noticing them, then MVP for sure. MVP, Norris, and of course, the Messia, the most important award that anybody can win. A big one. All right, buddy, what do you have, you have something live on the, on this, on the site today. It's about, it's about Hall of Famers who, or no. This is, this is like, this is like, this is like, prime, this is prime mid-January DGB content right there. It is. It is.

And I've been kicking this idea around for a while. And the concept is just, look, for a lot of teams who played the most games for this team. Well, we know it's, it's Gordy Howe. It's Mike Madano. It's Ray Bork. It's the superstars. Usually it's the stars to stick around. So I went through each team and said, who's the of guys who are definitely not making the Hall of Fame,

who's the all-time leader for your team. And it's, it's, again, And like 80% of my content, it was an extremely thinly disguised reason to remember some guys. And that's what we're doing. But my challenge is go ahead and figure out who you think your team's guy is. Figure out, as you're scrolling through the teams, who you think each one's going to be. And do you know who the all-time leader is? Games played, no, I don't.

Games played of guys who aren't in the Hall of Fame. obviously right now it's Patrick Marlowe, but I do think Marlowe gets in. I think he's got a solid chance. And there are some other guys who are high on the like Yager's not in the Hall of Fame yet because he isn't eligible. But of guys who I feel pretty safe saying are definitely not going to make it, Shane Don't, 1,500 plus games.

Oh, man. The Shane Don't make the Hall of Fame someday. He can't. Shane Don't can't make the Hall of. Is he? All it takes is a couple good friends. on the election committee, brother. We know that is.

That is very true. My guess on the Penguins was wrong. I thought it was going to be Rick Kehoe. It was Jean Pranovos, who played 30 games more than Keogh did. That's a fun game. Like, that's reason enough to read this. Just think of whatever team you root for,

just try to think of it beforehand and then do a Control F. If Shane Don't makes a Hall of Fame, I just check Matt Cullen is next up on the all-time list. Shane Dode can't make the Hall of Fame. He's been eligible for four years now, so they haven't done it yet. Matt Cullen definitely can't make the Hall of Fame. And the one nice thing about Shane Done is he's the one guy who played 1,500 games for one team where I don't have to worry about that franchise's fans screaming at me because they don't have a team.

The jets don't. The jets don't claim them for whatever reason. Yeah, for whatever. And there's not too many furious Utah fans. Who are worried about coyotes erasure. Yeah, exactly. How dare you put Shane Doan in tier five of your Hall of Fame rankings, you utter moron.

I'm at number 34. You probably haven't watched a single coyote game all year. You got me on that one. Come back to us in four or five years. We might be watching coyotes games again. Okay. All right. Thanks, brother. We'll catch up again next week. Thank you folks for listening. As always, Haley and I have the next THS that's going to publish tomorrow morning. It's the Thursday show, of course. And Frankie Sean and I are back next Wednesday. Take care and we'll talk to you then.