The Athletic Hockey Show - Eichel follows McDavid's lead with bargain Vegas extension

Episode Date: October 9, 2025

Hailey Salvian and Sean Gentille, along with Dom Luszczyszyn, discuss Jack Eichel's long-term, bargain extension with Vegas, how new teammate Mitch Marner looked on his wing, the maturation of Quinton Byfield and Brandt Clarke for the Los Angeles Kings, and Morgan Rielly's statement performance for the Maple Leafs in their first post Marner era game. Plus Hailey, Sean and Dom give their picks for Hart, Norris, Vezina, Calder and Selke.Hosts: Hailey Salvian and Sean GentilleWith: Dom LuszczyszynExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff Domet Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. Hello, everyone. Welcome to the athletic hockey show. It's Haley Salvean and Sean Jind Lilley here with you for the first Thursday edition of the season. Our friend Dom Luce Chishin will join us today to celebrate another season of hockey here on the athletic hockey show. But first, let's say hi to Sean, who is in a very generic looking courtyard in state college. That's how you know hockey season's back. your favorite hockey writers are at some Marriott in some town with a hockey team. What's up?

What's the vibe in State College? You're there for Penn State, the coming debut of Gavin McKenna. What's the vibe? What's going on? The vibe is, yeah, it's, uh, I was going to say, like, everybody needs to get ready for video of people sitting in front of, you know, hotel beds and in front of weird, you know, completely generic art. Like, that's, yeah, that's where we're at. State College is State College. I've, I've been here, I've been here plenty of times. It, um, didn't seem all that much different last night than it, than it does on your

average, on your average, uh, fall Wednesday. But no, it's going to be, it's going to be fun. I'm psyched for the Gavin McKenna experience. Only more psyched after what we saw him do at Arizona State over the into it. So yeah, it's going to be fun. Coming into college hockey and showing immediately that he might not be like a very boring but good hockey player is very exciting for me. Doing Forksdown Selly incredible hater vibes from Gavin McKenna. I am very excited about him. For that reason. He hit it hard too. Like he wasn't, he didn't he didn't have fast. He finished the move. Yeah. It was it was it was planned out.

was executed very well. Like I said, my whole, my level of interest in the overall experience ratcheted up by a factor of 10 because of that. So yeah, let's go. Let's see what he does against Clarkson. All right. So let's bring in our friend, Dom. He's going to be with us for the entire show today.

We'll maybe bring him on more this season for the bestie edition of the athletic hockey show. We're in a little bit of a fight right now, though. So for some context, we started recording the show right around 10. That's when Blue Jays tickets went on sale. And because I'm being the dutiful host, I was getting everyone set up for the show. And I forgot to join the ticket queue. Dom was very silent in the early few moments

of lining up the show, was wondering what was going on. Maybe he didn't care. Turns out he was in the ticket queue for Blue Jays. They made the ALCS. I'm in the queue. There's 90,000 people in front of me in it. And it'll be fun.

We'll keep track of this. Will I get off the wait list? Will there be a single ticket left? There's no way. But we'll keep track of that. Dom, hello. Thanks for joining us. I hope you have fun at the ALCS, dude.

That's great. Thanks for having me. You don't even like baseball, man. That is, that is gone. Yeah, I'm wearing a Blue Jays hat. Like, what even are you wearing? I'm wearing my Maddie's Patty's hat because I love Toronto. And that is why I'm going.

I will openly admit that I am as casual. as it gets, but I will cheer loud for the city that I love that Sean is not from. He's a Pittsburgh. He's a Pittsburgh guy. So he loves baseball. I love Toronto. If we could combine, that would be great. I think the fact that there's,

the fact that there's playoff baseball five hours away from me is as good as it's going to get, I think. Yeah. It's because it ain't, it ain't come into the city where I live. I took my dad to the U.S. Open for Father's Day this year, and those tickets were incredibly expensive. And then we bought really cheap seats to watch the Pirates the next day, and he wouldn't shut up about how beautiful the ballpark was and how he had, like, more fun at the baseball game than the incredibly expensive U.S. Open. And I was like, this team is due to. Skeens wasn't even pitching.

And these tickets were $10. Don't say that to me. $10 is great for that, view. it's beautiful yeah so whatever it's fine Dom and I are in a fight I'll keep everyone posted on the ticket master line throughout the show

I think it's a great fit so the NHL season that's obviously the reason why we're all here officially started on Tuesday but I would argue the season really kicked off last night because it doesn't count there was no Canadian teams I was gonna I wasn't sure if you were setting yourself up for that one

because I was going to jump and be like, oh, yeah, it's because there were no Canadian teams to play. Yeah, that's right. The season started on SportsNet in Canada last night, which means yesterday was actually the official start of the NHL season. Tuesday was the soft open. Yesterday was the launch. Four Canadian teams in action.

There was four pretty good games. The first two were fine. The late games were unbelievable. Plenty of intrigue throughout the night, Leif's first game without Mitch Marner. Mitch Marner's debut for Vegas. We had a Battle of Alberta. What was the appointment viewing for you last night, Sean?

Let's start there. I mean, obviously made a point to watch Vegas, Vegas Kings for the, for the Marner. I'd love it all. But man, Quentin Byfield, like, that's the, that was the takeaway for me. Like, that game, to some extent, and what they got from him in it is the model that's, like, best case scenario for the kings right like that's the model that they need to follow if they're ever gonna drag themselves out of this one round and then you're out a circuit that they've stuck themselves in they need that guy to be really good and they need him to any good as he was

last year they need him to find another level beyond that too it needs a manifest itself in in production for him he's a play driver you know he's he'll go in spells where where he produces, they need night in, night out stuff from Quentin Byfield. And I feel like what we saw last night was a pretty solid example of that. Like that was, that was something we heard continually over the summer as we talked to people about Quentin Byfield. And as we talk to people about the Kings in the league, it's like that guy's, that guy's good. He's capable of being great. And that's the only thing that's going to help them, you know, get over the hump if and when it comes to that point. Dom, how important is a night like that for you?

when looking at Quentin Byfield in the future of the LA Kings. He was in Tier 4B in player tiers this year. Obviously he had a great finishing kick that resonated enough for you guys to have him on this list. And just how important is it to see a game like that from him? A goal and an assist.

He was driving play pretty consistently throughout the night. Important for the Kings, especially knowing that this is going to be the last season for Anzee Kopitar. Yeah, they basically need Byfield to Phil Copter shoes, which is a tall order, yeah, all-famed guy, obviously a tier one player in his prime. I don't know if Byfield has the tier one upside, but he's probably all they have in terms of guys who can be a tier two player and nights like that sort of cement his potential to be that. We saw a lot of it last year in the back half, especially when he played online with, I think, Kempay and Fiala, that line was unreal.

That I think should be their top line. It's just about repeating that, doing it over, and cementing it. It's sort of like, okay, we saw you do it for a little bit. Let's see how consistent you can be over a full season. Let's see you sort of raise the bar for a longer period of time. So obviously, the L.A. Kings, they rally for a 6-5 shootout win. They scored twice and under three minutes in the third to rally from a two. goal deficit. They tie the game up. The game tying goal actually came from Brant Clark, who

had the lowest ice time among King's defenders, despite the fact that he looked great. Like Cody Cici, Brian Dumlin, hey, go over the boards. Brant Clark, sit down even though you look great. He scores the game tying goal. Sean, I think Brant Clark was someone who stood out to you wondering when he'll start to play more than Cody Cici. It's one game in and I'm already annoyed. for Brant Clark. Is it when Jim Hiller isn't the coach anymore? Like that's my question. Does there need is,

does something need to happen there for Bram Clark to play more than 12 and a half minutes at five on five? Like that was one of the big stories coming to the season for the Kings is, you know, what kind of ice time they were going to get from Brand Clark, what kind of production he was going to, he was going to give them, even with the new group of players that they have, right?

We see him, yeah, you said Cici and Dume, one. I think we got a little bit of an indicator in game one how the initial plan is is to use Clark. Offensively gifted, you know, he did well in sheltered minutes last year and the way they used him last night suggests that, you know, at least for now, there's not really much of a plan to do it, to do things differently, which is as someone who likes watching entertaining hockey, especially when it's at the end of the night, and it's a West Coast game and whatever, man.

Give me Brant Clark running, like, running around out there. Give me him doing agro stuff in the offensive zone. I want more of that. And I'd certainly like to see him out there selfishly more than the Cody Cic season, Brian Dumlins of the world. So, yeah, his on ice results were really good. The Kings were better with him on the ice than they were with him off it. And then obviously we see the net crash and goal late there.

I mean, like, we know what this guy can do. He's offensively gifted and he's still super young. just need to just need to see him. We need more playing time for this dude. So Jim Hiller, if you're listening, please please just do us a favor and throw that dude out there a little bit more. It's a nice young duo for the LA Kings

and Brandt Clark and Quentin Byfield showing up in game one. But here's a cute stat, since it's the bestie hour of the athletic hockey show, we can stick with the theme of friends. Drew Dowdy and Anzay Kopitar won their 607th game as teammates in the regular season last night. That's now tied for fifth most by a duo in NHL history.

The only pairs with more wins in the regular season be Nicholas Liddstrom and Chris Draper, Henrik and Daniel Sedeen, Larry Robinson, and Bob Ganey, and Nicholas Baxter, and Alex Ovechkin. So one final year of the Dowdy and Kopitar show to see how far they can get up the list. Number one is Lidstrom and Draper at 660. So maybe the Kings will be way better than we all thought.

Just win 63 games. Maybe. Yeah. I think I'm all in on the Kings now. Norris finalist Joel Edmondson. Yeah. Let's make it happen. All right.

Let's move on to the Vegas side of the conversation. Obviously, the big story, Mitch Marner makes his debut with the Vegas Golden Knights after the sign and trade, this offseason. Dom, did you have some first impressions on Mitch Marner's debut to assist that Eichel, Barbashev, Marner line looks like it's going to be a problem? It sure does. It is always great to see, I think, two superstar duos, start two superstar players coming together and becoming this force that I think is better than some of its parts.

We saw that with Marner and Matthews for a long time, and now Eichael. gets that with Marner and Eichel looked unreal yesterday. Marner dished some great passes as we know he can in that line looks as you said like it's going to be a huge problem where I think the one takeaway with Marner is he looked more free. It did look like a weight has been lifted off a shoulder. He looks a lot closer to the guy he was when he came into the league. Obviously it's only been one game. You don't know what's going to happen through the run of a full season. You don't know what's going to happen in the playoffs now that he's being paid for a long time. I think we know what's going to happen in the playoffs.

Oh, stop. In terms of how he handles it in a different market. Because I do think he got beaten down a lot in Toronto. And he seems to be happier. And I am generally happy for him. and I hope it leads to a fantastic season with Eichol, and it sure looks like it started off well. A bit of news as it relates to this game as well.

Jack Eichael signed an eight-year contract worth $108 million earlier on Wednesday before puck drop. That's a $13.5 million a AV. He could have been a free agent on July 1st. He's now the highest paid player in Vegas franchise history topping Mitch Marner's $12 million deal in the sign and trade this off season. Dom, do you want to start? Do you have a thought on this contract and how this is going to work for Vegas and Jack Eichael?

Do you like the deal, so to speak? I do like the deal. I think a few years ago, I had some reservations about whether Eichel was this tier of player about whether he could be a top five center. And when he had this consignite run, I think those reservations were silenced a bit. And over the years, he's built it up over strong regular seasons.

With last year being, I think, his best one, he finally, like, really put a stamp on his ability to have strong offensive ability. His defensive game, I think, really improved in 2023, 2024. And last year, I think he put a stamp on that as well. And when you can have those consistent seasons at that level, I think you prove, I guess, you're bona fides of where you stand in the league. and Ikel showed that over the last two seasons, show that in the cons might run.

And I think over the next eight years, if he continues playing at that level, if he repeats what he did last season, it'll be in easy bargain in no time. And as we're talking about Mitch Martner's debut with the Vegas Golden Knights, obviously playing on a line with Jack Eichol. These two guys are now locked up long term.

It just completely solidifies the top of the lineup for this team. Tomash Hurdle is also a core piece. they have contracts running through at least 2029.30. Sean, what do you think about kind of the pecking order at the top of the lineup here for Vegas moving forward? It's set at the top of the lineup, but it's also set at the top of the payroll. Like, I think that's important. Maybe we're seeing Mitch Marner learning his lesson from the way things went in Toronto. Like Jack Eichael's making 13 and a half.

He's making 12. That's the way it's going to be for the duration of their primes. And I think that that's a good thing for Vegas, first off. Jack Eichael is a $13.5 million player. That's like what, that's the prototype. That's what a $13.5 million player does. Like we can use him as the, as, you know, the model going forward, is he's got the production, he's got the two-way game,

you know, he's got everything you could want from a dude who's in that echelon of salary. So we can check that box. but you can also say like he's the guy he is he's the he's the top dog in Vegas and Marner is as high end of a running mate as you could possibly have but he's the one beat like he's paid like it and it seems like the fact that they had that locked in relatively early in the game uh is it speaks well to the process I think over the summer for them I think it speaks well to the way things are going to go moving forward like that's that's Jack Eichel's team to some extent. He produces like it, and now he's paid like it too. So everybody can just move on.

We can get that out of the way and not have to deal with, you know, the Eichael contract thing lagging on and then it would turn into, I guarantee you we'd have speculation over Mitch Marner and his camp and his father and how much who wants to get paid and blah, blah, blah, that's done. And I think that's a really good thing for Vegas, not just now, but, you know, eight years from now. Yeah, we avoided a lot of the extra commentary that happened for years, which really kind of poisoned the well here in Toronto over the years with all the contract talks. It's not necessarily about Vegas, but I saw this. And it was just like a goofy tweet or a post on X, just someone kind of laughing about. You call it X. I was trying to, but I didn't like it. I usually

just call it Twitter, but sometimes people like, it's X. I don't know why I did that. It was a... It's a big Elon fan, are you? I called it a tweet on X. None of that made sense at all. I saw this post that was like just kind of laughing at almost, yeah, almost laughing at the Minnesota Wild. Just being like Bill Guerin, like watching everyone take like, quote unquote, lower market

deals after signing Caprizov to the biggest deal in the league. Does the Eichel and the McDavid contracts make you guys play a bit of hindsight with the Caprizov deal? Or do you still feel like, eh, he's worth it? I'm glad they paid it. Or does that make you think, like, I don't know, I can just imagine Bill here and being like, so everyone's taking a discount now? Wish this would have happened a couple weeks ago. I don't know if you can compare what happened with Caprizo to what happened with McDavid.

McDavid is a freak and could have asked for $20 million. And he's like, no, this 12 and a half is fine. I appreciated that he said his dog, Lenny, wasn't going to starve. I was like, that is the single best Connor McDavid quote, we've ever gotten. Possibly the best we'll ever get. I was shocked when I saw it. I crowbarred it into a story I wrote a couple days ago just because I thought it was funny. Like, thank you, Connor McDavid.

This is your gift of the world. Among many. No, just the one. Just the one. Just the one that he loves his dog. Big dog guy. Yeah. I don't know.

Capri Sov, I think the wild were in a tough spot because they were damned if they do, damned if they don't. They apparently had some tampering charges ready to go for some $20 million offers out there. And with how much cap space almost every team has, I think just the ability to keep Caprizov is the win. and if the cap keeps going up the way it's supposed to, they're already talking about it being $107 million instead of 104 next year. I don't think it'll be a huge problem. You just have to win your other contracts, and it helps to have Matt Boldy is one of the best contracts in the league.

Like I look at Winnipeg doing the same thing with Kyle Connor. I think that contract is probably in the same ballpark of overpayment as Caprisov, and they sort of had to do it because Kyle Connor is their top play. and if they don't sign Calconnor, why? Why bother? Yeah. Why bother, right? You have to.

And with how much cap space everything's going to have, I don't think it's going to matter as much as it used to or teams had to pinch pennies on a lot of deals. Kirill Caprizov is more important to the Minnesota wild than Connor McDavid is to the Edmonton Oilers. That was so funny. Yeah. that's actually he is very like interesting

I think if both organizations lose the other one they both do respect kind of stink of course they do but do respect to Matt Boldie man if Connor McDavid decided to go elsewhere

in some alternate universe on July 1 this year they'd still have Leon Dreisado like if you're if you're Minnesota and you lose Carol Capriazov you are in that's 10 years of darkness, like hit, hit the reset button. There's, there's not enough around him for them to be

relevant. Like, like, he's, he's, he's, he's the franchise for them at least equally to the degree that, that McDavid is, is in Evanton. That shouldn't even be a hot take. It's true. That's fair. It's sort of in line with how people argue the Hart Trophy race sometimes, where it's like, most valuable to the team. And Caprizo, I think, fits that to a T. I think if the, why Wild lost Caprisov, as you said, Decad of Darkness, they're like an 80 point team, whatever. If the Oilers lost McDavid, they'd just be the Wild currently, probably.

That's fair. And what's worse, really, you know? That's mean. All right, so we can't do hindsight. Does it suck for Bill Garan that he's playing his best player? $4 million more than... Right. Three and a half million dollars more a season than Jack

I go long term. Like, yeah, that's not ideal. But like, what was the alternative? Yeah. What was the alternative? It's either you go back into cap hell for a little bit, even though the cap is rising or you lose the best player. You let them walk and try to rebuild and then get fired two years from now.

Like, pass. No, thank you. I think one of the other things is, like, we had Caprisov and T.R. 1C., Ikele and 2A. There is a differentiation between them where I think Capri Sov should get more, probably should have been 15, not 17. But like at that scale, I think the differences become a lot more expensive as well. Like the difference between McDavid, Best Planet in the World and Tri-Syter-McKine is still probably like $2 or $3 million, which is just a wild thing to think about.

And it shouldn't have been three and a half between Capri Sob and Eichel, but we're going to start seeing those larger disruptancies for sure. All right. Let's take a quick break. When we come back, we can check in with Mitch Marner's former team. How did they do without him? Not great. They won, but I was bored.

I'm not going to lie. That's coming up next on the athletic hockey show. At long last, it's time to talk about Toronto sports on the athletic hockey show. Blue Jays win. The Yankees lose and the leaves beat the Montreal Canadians. Five to two, I couldn't bring myself to do the full. I don't think you're allowed to do that. She did the voice.

Yeah. The Yankees lose. Jeff can put the sound bite in there. Save me. Yeah, Jeff's going to put the sound bite in and then everyone's going to say, oh yeah, she definitely couldn't do that voice. Okay. lose.

Yeah. Well, let's, all right. The John of Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadians 5'2. Same scores as the Blue Jays went against the Yankees,

by the way. Not the prettiest game in Leafsland. It definitely looked like it was their first game back, kind of still preseason vibes. Some positive observations.

Morgan Riley looked great, but obviously the big question, and we'll start here with Dom. How did the Leafs look in their first game in maybe a decade? Is it actually a decade or just like nine years? I don't know.

It's been a long time without Mitch Marner. How'd they look? The first two periods, I thought, quite mid, bad, boring, bland. I was completely uninspired. I was completely uninspired. It was, the first two periods were a tough watch. I think that really starts with the top line.

as much fun as Mitch Marner was having in his first game in Vegas, it looked like Austin Matthews was having a really, really tough time without him. Machelli made some plays, him and Nyes got an assist, but Matthews, a year after looking not himself, looked not himself. And I think that's a huge concern going to the season, because if he's not Obetchkin times Barkov, What's the, like, they're not going. Yeah.

You love Ovechkin-Times Barkov. You love, it is, like, it really, I think, is the best way to put it. Because last year he was maybe just Barkov light, not as good defensively, obviously. But, like, that is what he was just a two-way player who couldn't score. Yeah. puts up his 85 point pace or whatever. He's Matthews when he's scoring at historic levels. And he, I don't think, really threatened to score once last night, which was, I

I think the most disappointing thing about the game. Everyone else looked okay, but if Matthews isn't going, the team just doesn't look like what they could be. Riley, though, was definitely exciting. A little lore from our athletic fantasy draft is I drafted Morgan Riley and immediately Scott Wheeler said that Riley was watched because he looked bad in preseason. I wouldn't know because I never watched preseason. Right. Why do you know that, Scott? Get a job. Yeah.

Take care of your kids. Morgan Raleigh is not, Morgan Raleigh's not some 17-year-old playing in, you know, Owen Sound or whatever. Yeah. He's out of Scott's purview. You don't know what you're talking about. He might have looked wash. I would, I will never know. I had high hopes because he'd have a power play one job. and it was a very nice surprise how fast he looked in this first game. He looked like he jumps in the play a lot more than last year. He was confident. He wasn't as tentative as he was last season.

He looked like the best version of himself. And the hope is that he can do that consistently because there are times where he shows flashes of that and then goes back to old habits. But he looked dominant yesterday. And the Leafs need that more than anything. How big of the concern would it be if like Austin Matthews needs Mitch Marner to get him the puck? Like we're used to Matthews being able to get himself open and get himself the puck in scoring areas at times, right? If he doesn't have a linemate who can tee it up for him, what's, what's that going to, what's that going to mean? Because Matias Machiazelli got the first run with him and Matthew Nyes.

And then eventually he got moved down for Max Domi. I feel like we're going to be seeing a lot of. of that. I know the Nealander, Tavares, Bobby McMahon line probably looked the best out of the top six, but part of me is just like just put Neelander up there. Because if he's going to need someone to get him

the puck, that's a problem. Because it's going to make that top six not as impactful. Because Machile is like Walmart offensively. He's Walmart Marner. That's like what they, that's what they got him. That's what they got it.

So it makes sense that they would give him early run there. He's like a pretty decent playmaker on the on the on the on the on the on the on right side. Right. That's that's that's he is. So like is that is that is that is that a dangerous comparison to like put those guys into even to even to even to say it in in a damning way like that probably because you know, mourner brings plenty plenty of other stuff to the table and when he's at his best. But you can see like why they were like yeah, let's see. Let's see. see if this works. Let's put them with a guy you can, you know, set him up from the wing.

Right, and he didn't do that. And he didn't. That's kind of my boy. Yeah, it's like, oh, maybe, okay, never mind. Yeah, I don't want to crash out over one game, but it wasn't a great, it wasn't a great look for the top line and the power play. Did not look good either. Obviously, that was something we talked about in our season previews of what are

the Leafs going to, what is Austin Matthews specifically going to do when he doesn't have Marner at five on five. And they also don't have Marner on the power play when they were doing the five-man power play unit. Morgan Riley being able to move pucks and have that jump that he didn't last year should help if he's going to be the power play quarterback this season. So, yeah, some good things. Bobby McMahon scores last night.

Maybe he'll score 100 goals this season. Everything will be great. but I think they're really the only positive from last night if we're looking for them would be Morgan. Other than the score would be Morgan Riley. Like that's the main reason to be optimistic because. I'd say like, how about this? This is like more of a question for Dom.

The past their last three years together. Like what percentage of Austin Matthews' minutes on the ice regardless of whether is it five on five or the powerplay came with Mitch Morner. Well, PowerPlay is probably like 100. I'm saying just like just like across the board. Yeah, I'm trying to do the math out loud right now. Power play is probably 100. Five on five, I would say like 70%.

And I think that's where I had some optimism about Matthews being able to do himself because at his peak, I don't know if he really needed Mitch Marner to get him the puck. Matthews got his own pucks. He used to be elite at takeaways, digging corners, getting into open space and finding those areas for himself. I think it was two or three years ago he was on a line with Domi and Bertuzi. And I think that's what really unlocked Leef's offense is seeing that they didn't need to put Matthews and Marner together and Marner can drive his own line.

And those three caught fire in a way that I think they thought could happen with Nize and Micheli or Nise and Domi and it's still early. It still could happen, but last year, last night was a very discouraging first look because it really falls on Matthews being the guy that he showed during his MVP form seasons. And he just didn't look anything close to that in his first game. And considering how good Tavares looked last year, I'm starting to wonder how heavy that sea weighs isn't made of lead. Is there something? to the letter on the jersey because it is it is wild how how different the two looked as soon as that changed hands.

Could be emulate related. I don't know. I never know. Anthony Stolars looked good in that, which is obviously going to be important. That was a, I didn't realize how big of a PDO team the Leafs were last year. Oh, baby. Oh, yes. PEO's good actually.

Hi, PEDO. I love PEDO. I did a little thing for the notebook and. Chris Branch, who does a great job with the newsletter, I should say. It's like, do you have like a spicy take you want to include in here? I was like, maybe the Leafs are going to have a big regression? No Mitch. And are they going to shoot 12% with incredible goaltending again?

I don't know. And then we had Jonas on for the preview. And this is probably the most pessimistic I've ever been about the Leafs team. And that's, you know, for obvious reasons. A lot of that has to do with losing. a 100 point player and adding the discount version of that onto the roster. We'll see. It's been one game, but wasn't a great start.

I mean, Matthews scored the MT Netter. He out hustled Patrick Line. Great hustle. Great hustle. Love that energy. Looking healthy. So we'll see. We'll see how it goes.

I just feel like this is going to be, it's obviously not going to be as sexy of a Leafs team without Mitch Marner. That's sort of like what is expected for. Ruby though. Sexy Mitch morning. Like, Barube with St. Louis was also sort of PDO team. Like he does some sort of witchcraft.

That's sort of the expectation. Yeah. It's a lot harder to be a PDO team when you lose a superstar playmaker though. Yeah. Yeah. Who is good at shooting the puck and good at creating good shots for other players. Yeah. We'll see.

We'll see if the addition by subtraction due to the vibes actually works out here. In Toronto. I've looked awful yesterday. There was no horror to that game at all. There was Blue Jay's chance going on in the building. It's baseball season. It's a baseball town. Apparently.

All right. Let's go. I don't think we need to spend much time on the Bruins. It's going to be Pastor Nack's going to cook. And like they won. They beat the caps. Swamen and Pastor Nack. That was the two big takeaways.

I feel like we all kind of had Washington dropping. based this year there's just no way they can replace every, or re, you had Washington being good, like really good again? Yeah, 115 points. Yeah. Bruins. You'll be hero in Washington if that happens. Oh, my God.

Tom, Tom Wilson, 87 points is. He scored. He scored last night. He's on his way. Alexi Protis, secondary assist. That's my guy in fantasy. I made a lot of very strange decisions. I'm going to keep.

gassing up the caps until they until they prove me wrong. No one's going to know if it's serious or a bit. But they lost last night. That's okay. They outshot them. The season is young. They outshot a team. That's good. Yeah. Yeah.

That didn't happen in the postseason. The Boston Bruins, they beat the Washington Capitol's big takeaway. It could be a big Jeremy Swaman season to Dom's point, 35 saves. That's going to be a Swamen and Pasternak. team, I think, as we kind of all expected.

Elias Linholm scored last night. Good for him. Maybe he could have another 40 goal season. The Bruins are just so, I don't know what they are. They're bad. They're bad. They're going to be bad. But they have some of the best players at each position, and yet they're still going to be bad. Like, that confuses me, and I don't want to go down the rabbit hole of, like, freaking out about the Bruins. I'm confused by them, and I want to move on. there are unfortunately 16 other players who typically take the ice over the course of an

I was trying to transition to the Battle of Alberta. Let's talk about the Oilers. Flames Oilers was the other game last night. Both of the late games went into shootouts, which is great, which is why I feel like I was all sleepy and missed my ticket window. I think there must only be 50,000 people left in front of me in the line. I haven't checked in a while. The flames end up winning. This is the first game of Connor McDavid after he signs the contract in Edmonton.

Boo-hoo. Leon Drysidal scores his 400th NHL goal. Shootout lost. The Flames, by the way, win 4 to 3. McDavid, 2 assists for Edmonton. Dom, this was a game that you, if we, Sean and I thought Kings, Vegas was appointment viewing. You were kind of locked in on the Battle of Alberta last night, right? My appointment viewing is that if McDavid is on TV, I'm probably watching it because I love watching him.

You're a smart guy. Yeah. I have to watch some bland leaps, wins. And then at night I get to watch McDavid, dry-sidal Bouchard play electrifying hockey. And then Skinner making it electrifying the other way. Both teams have a chance. It's great stuff. McDavid looked like he looked like a man possessed.

He looks like a guy who wants to score 150 points again. He looks very determined. He should choose to do that then. He probably could. He should simply score 150 points. If there's any player who could choose to do that, it is Connor McDavid, who has already chosen to do that. It was like two or three years ago. I wanted to do it again.

It'd be nice. David Tomasetch, Thomas Sack, I don't know. They sell on the broadcast, I'm like, that's not how I thought it was pronounced. And it is, he had a point. He had a nice little assist on the power play. He's on the top power play. That was a nice debut for him. But yeah, as long as Skinner's a net, it is a worrying time in Edmonton.

We got an all-timer reusable tweet from Blue Sky Post from Jesse Granger. I was not watching the game. I was paying attention to the Kings and also doing some recon work here in State and State College, Pennsylvania. I looked at my phone. I saw, oh, no, Stuart Skinner from Jesse Granger. I'm like, I think I have an idea of what happens here. Yeah. I think I know what precipitated this post from the J-Men.

So, yeah, I'm going to screencap that and just use it frequently. It's not funny, though, is it? It's actually, this shouldn't be happening. Do you say it's not? I think it's really funny. That's hilarious. We're going into a net. I'm joking, being like, it's not funny, though, is it?

Like, we're going into another season of Stuart Skinner memes. This is why Connor McDavid said I'll give you two years, figure it out. And guess what? They're back with Stuart Skinner. They lose to the flames. Oh, and they sign Jack Roslovick. Here you go. Here's some of that money back.

Yeah, Jack Roslick is moving to goal, actually. One point. Like, here you go. Here's your championship roster, Connor. We did a bunch of pre-writes to post whenever top free agent signed, you know, back in July. So there's been a Jack Roselvic, like, news posts for me, like in the hopper for, oh, how, however many months. Did you forget it? You wrote it at that point? You know what the, the one that's been written from all of us that hasn't posted yet,

if Gandy Kuznetsov. Someone's like, we should probably have this ready in case he comes back. I think that bird has flown. All right. Yeah. So the Calgary Flames beat Edmonton Oilers, Stuart Skinner was doing weird stuff again last night. As he does. As one does. We had fun with it. October Stewart Skinner, baby. October, October and June.

Yeah. Yeah, that's great. All right. Do you guys want to take a break? I think we've got a little draft that we're going to bring back the draft. Maybe only when Dom's on. I think that's fair. We don't need to do it.

Dom-only draft. Yeah, this is our little... Dom draft. Yeah. The besties are out. draft choose chishin that's coming up next all right

welcome back to the athletic hockey show we are bringing back the draft and we'll do this when Dom is here and we are going to draft major award winners today it's going to be five rounds we'll do the five major

player awards and we can pick in whatever order we want So everyone needs to come out of this draft With a Hart trophy winner A Vezna trophy winner A Norris, a Calder, and a Selke But you can do

Dom is the first pick Then it's Sean, then it's me And Dom can go heart Or he can go Vesna, he can go Norris Doesn't matter We just all have to come out with these five I think that's kind of fun Good idea Sean

It's better than Thanks Trying to pick a lineup And then forgetting Who we drafted And then never We're talking about it again. All right.

Dom's on the clock. All right. Here we go. Well, how long is the clock five seconds? We're trying to do a lightning round here. No, don't time me. Don't time me. Or I'm going to freak out.

Okay. I am going to start with Hart McDavid because he looked great yesterday. I think he's got one more in the bag. Okay. I think that has to be the first pick. But he hasn't won it in two seasons. Like whatever voter fatigue was taking, plays with him over the last little bit, I think it's, I think it's, I think it's pretty much

overweight. Oh, she win. I should have juiced it and given myself the first pick as host, whatever. Sean? To shake it up, we'll do first pick Yvonne Demidov. Oh. I was actually debating that first. That was my plan.

He's a lock like Montfei Mishkov was a lock. That's so annoying. Right? Yeah. And I'm not, and I'm not making that comparison because they're both Russian wingers. So get that out of your head. heads, but like we thought that he was the dude that was going to walk away with it last year. And then everyone realized that Lane Hudson existed, right?

So, yeah, I could feel better about this, but I think the value in getting and getting demit of is important. He's a high favorite is the way to. Yeah. Everyone's favorite problematic gambler, Domest Jish. I feel like those are the two where you could definitively, or more. comfortably predict what's going to happen, other than just saying like Hellebuck for best goalie,

but I'm not going to do that. I'm going to go Norris, and I'm going to pick Quinn Hughes. Oh, I love it. I love it. Because he was like MVP caliber good last year. You're kissing ass with Vancouver fans, but that's okay. I'll be in town in November if anyone wants to do a meetup.

I think that he was unbelievable last year, and if the team can be just like a little bit less chaotic, then maybe he'll get some more juice, be even better. Yeah, I'm going to go, I'm going to go Quinn Hughes there. Great pick. Thanks, guys. Oh, and I guess I get to go again around the snake here. That's fun.

I'm trying to debate if I go Selky or just like the next best heart contender. I think I'm going to maybe go Caprizov heart with the second tick and maybe that's crazy but I think coming off of that extension if he can stay healthy I thought he was like an MVP caliber player last year before he got hurt

and he's not going to have to deal with the whole McDavid dry side oil of it all like he doesn't have to compete with a teammate to win the heart maybe this is crazy but I can't decide on the Selki, I can't decide on the Vezna. I feel like Caprizov's maybe a bit more of a fun second runner up for the heart. Because I think we'll do,

we'll do like based on how many votes everyone gets. We're trying to get the winners, but we're trying to get who comes second and third with their picks. So I don't know, maybe that was dumb, but you'll get Rousseau's PR army behind you, which I think is huge for awards voting, because it is a campaign after all.

The Russo block. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. Got a lot of votes for favor one year. Caprisop was the favorite last year. And the Russo army is relentless. Yeah.

They're fierce. They're determined. Yeah. I just, yeah. We'll see how that goes. Sean, I think you're next. I'm going to buck the Russo Army here. I feel like we've, I feel like that's come into play for the Selkie at times with our man, Joel Erickson.

I'm not going to pick Joel Erickson. Oh, I was going to say, what are you doing? Why? I'm going heeshire. I think he's as close as there is to a lock left on the board. I disagree, which is why I didn't pick heeshire. That's fair. And I'm not going to say who the other guy is,

even though Don probably already knows. Yeah, that's fine. I think he's had the slow build towards that because Selke more than any award is reputation-based, and I think he's done enough over the last couple years to really put himself at the absolute top of mind for that. I think he's offensively productive enough to help because we know that that matters,

whether it should or shouldn't. You know, that's a whole other debate, but we know it's a lot easier to win a Selkie when you also rack up points. And Barkov's out, right? So I think he's next man up, and I'm comfortable with that pick. Tom?

Yeah, I guess I'll take McCar for Norris. I guess. I probably should have done that actually I guess I'll take him I really want to take someone else and I think Sean will take him because we both like him a lot but I I kind of have to take the car here

second pick I it kind of would be funny if I took Calibuck but I'm actually going to take Igor Shisterkin because I I see a bounce back after last year I see a lot of shots against in his future and I see

some saves so I like him I like him as my favorite for the Vesna, even though HALibuck's probably the smarter choice. So the wise move here is to take who I believe is going to win the Vesna Trophy. I'm going to take Hala Bucke. I don't love that. I think there is absolutely going to be voter fatigue setting in with him, but also their goalies, man.

And it's tough. It's just tough to rely on some. when being a healthy and be productive and solid enough over the course of the full season to the point where they can win that award. So I'm not thrilled about it, but I do think he's probably the best value left on the books. I'm going to go with a Selke here, and I'm going to go Anthony Sorrelli. That's why I didn't initially pick Selke, because I was like, I'll just let somebody else decide. Then I'll take the next. one on my list. I actually thought about Sam Reinhart for a second here too. Um,

not to give Dom ideas, not that he needs me to tell him what to do. But I think the idea that he could like step in and a more, you know, show off a bit more of that defensive side of his game without, uh, Barkov in Florida. But I think the, the center thing always ends up. Typically, typically ends up winning out and then there's also like baby Barkov Anton Lundell so I don't know I feel like Sorrelli

is a guy when we think of the Selke it's like when guys win their first Selky it's because they've been hanging around for a while at least when we had Bergeron and Barkov it was always like no no kids like wait your turn like the

like the veterans are doing this and I feel like Sorrelli's a guy who's been obviously in and around it for a long time like Nico Hesher So I'm going to go Sirelli, especially if we think that Tampa is going to be the top of the division this year. If you're Sam Reinhart and you're trying to play defense without Alexander Barkov, that's a good thing and a bad thing because you're the guy. You're not going to split votes anymore, but you're also not playing on a line with Alexander Barkov. So that's the choice there.

The field feels open for the first time in a little while. No doubt. I'll go Sirelli for SELC. the Calder's tough because Demidov seems like the guy and this is where I'm not totally sure where to go I feel like

Matthew Schaefer is not getting a ton of love for this award probably just given the Islanders aren't going to be very good and who's going to is he really going to put up points I kind of just want to pass I just want to let Dom go next. This is where I forget that Kit Katz exist, like the candy draft, and I freak out.

I can make a pick for you. I feel like I want to go Zeve Bouem, but is it just going to look like I'm picking Minnesota people all the time? I think I'm going to go with Zev Buoyam. I love the Wild and the Canucks guys. William's super talented and he's going to be the guy on that power play. I know. That's why I'm picking him.

He's going to rack up points, right? Don't mansplain my pick to me. I picked him, not you. Yeah, after trying to pass on a podcast draft. No, because I think Niketian's interesting. Schaefer was obviously the first overall pick. He made the team. But I just feel like the Miedov's going to win it.

So who cares? Points, points, points. But yeah, I'll go, booiam. Defense, why not? Rasmus Dahlene. let's do it let's do it like i like i can't he looked great in the preseason i can't pick hughes what's that i hear he looked great in preseason i can't pick mccar and hues there those are the two best defensemen on earth by a comfortable margin so i'll go with someone slightly slightly

out of left field as it relates to winning to winning the norris not getting votes winning He's as talented as, you know, as, as anybody else in the field. I think Buffalo's power play almost can't get worse than it was last year. So if they're productive there, his point totals are going to be higher. And maybe those other guys have some nagging injuries over the course of the season and only end up playing like 60 games apiece. Like that's what I'm rolling for. I feel like the number three, like who comes third in the normal.

Norris is actually quite more interesting. Because we feel like we all just know it's going to be McCar and Hughes. Dahlene had one of the banger. People love talking about him during player tears. And he had some of the most banger quotes imaginable. And one in one former player said very, very profanely, like that this guy has McCar talent in some respects, but he just plays, he plays for the Sabers. And direct quote, they eff and suck.

And he's got to, he's got to deal with a fallout. So I'm siding with my man over there And saying that they're good enough to get it done. All right, Dom? I really wanted Dahlene. I was hoping to leave you guys in the car and Hughes because I think this is Dahlian's year. I'm all in on the sabres, baby, loyal to the crest.

Yeah, you know, if you were that loyal to me to pick him, he's on my team. Well, Macar just fell into my lap at pick 10. So I just, I mean, yeah. Is it because I made a mistake? Who can say? There's no way to know. Sean was all in on.

That's why, yeah. Anyways, Sean was all in on Nico Hescher. It's all right. Yeah. And that's fine. I think what you guys said about Hesha and Srelia for a Selke makes perfect sense. I wanted to pick Seth Jarvis, but it is a reputation award and he didn't get nominated last year. Fulters are cowards.

Yes. So he's got to get his nomination first. He's got to earn his stripes. And for that reason, I got to go with Sam Reinhard. So, I mean. let's let's see what you can do without bark hove let's see how good you really are champ um i'm like trying to sniff out like narrative awards like before we have to see whether they play out or not because that's like we're human beings we apply narrative to to things to make sense of

stuff and reinhart you can imagine voters getting swayed by like well you know he did it but he's doing it by himself like he doesn't have a security blanket anymore that's compelling and i think that's i think that's a good reason to pick him yeah I think a fun story who has the best narrative going to season

Reinhard's good for the Selke I think Dahline is great for the Norris especially if the Sabers hang around the playoffs or even make it

and that does not segue to my next pick because that has nothing to do with the narrative I'll take Samarrenselle from Chicago I think he'll play

like 28 minutes a night for a bad team and that could be enough I don't think he just swiped him from me in her I think was it

was someone I was pissed Yeah, he, I don't even think he looked that great in night one, but he's going to get those minutes and it's a value pick of enough. Yeah. It's a value pick. Sean? With my final pick, this is this is MVP, Nikita Kuturav. I think I think by some, in the eyes of many, he's of a, of it, absolutely on par with the McKinnons of the world.

And I think there's people who think he got robbed of it last year, honestly. So I'm going to say that he produces similarly that dude is just such a fun watch. He's a one-of-one player in the league right now. We know that he's going to be productive if he's healthy because it's just impossible for him not to be. And I think that there's a world where people, you know, think about last year and the fact that he could have won it and didn't and apply that logic to whatever happens this season. So, yeah, I'll go cooch. He only got 2.9% of the votes in our athletic poll. He got the same amount of votes as Mitch Martner for the Hart Trophy,

which I just think is ludicrous. Like I know I picked Kriel Kaprizov, but it was down to Kaprizov and Kutrov for me for that pick. And he's just, I don't know, if we think Tampa is the team that's probably going to win the Atlantic be top of the Eastern Conference, they're going to win some major awards. because they're going to have guys who can do it in every position in Kutrov. Like there's a world where Kutrov has enough points this year to just, for it to be just completely understandable where people like, we can't. Like, we can't, we can't do this again.

Yeah. I think it's tough because there's so many weapons on Tampa Bay and that sometimes gets. Oh, they definitely cannibalize each other for awards for sure. That's what I was worried about that with Sorrelli, frankly. But yeah, they're, you know. And he's their best. High end pieces, for sure. Yeah.

Okay, so my last pick is Vezna. And this is again where I'm like, okay, do I want to go with a Tampa player? Like, do we go with Vasselowski because we think they're going to be great and win a bunch of rewards? I feel like I'm going to, maybe I'll regret this, but I'm going to go with Jake Ottinger. I have been all in on the Dallas Stars. You and everybody else. We all love our Dallas Stars. I still think I hate their blue line,

but I think this will be a good year or a big year for Jake Onger. So I'm gonna, yeah, I'm gonna go Onger for Vezna here. I see the vision. I feel like Vasselowski's probably the better. Yeah, like Vasselofsky's the easier pick, but.

I'm worried about Vasselowski's body holding up over the course of another full season. Yeah, so that's why I'm gonna go with old Jake there we go Would you like me to read out the rosters? I've been keeping track. So have I. I was going to read them out.

You're the host, that's good. Who wants to read them? How about we all just read our own picks? That's great. Lovely. Okay. Sean, you can start. I have Yvonne Demidov for Calder.

I have Nico Heshir for Selke. I have Connor Halebuck for Vezina. I have Erasmus Dahlene for Norris. I have Nikita Kujrov for Hart. Don? I have Connor McDavid for Hart, Kail McCar for Norris, Igor Shasturkin for Vesna, Sam Reinhardt for Selke, and Sam Rinsell for Calder. Okay.

And I have Quinn Hughes for Norris, Carrillo Caprizov for Hart, Anthony Sorrelli for Selke, Zeeve Bouillon for Calder, and Jake Ottinger for Vesna. Who's the best candidate that wasn't picked, period? Like, who's the most viable candidate that is off the board? I don't know if it's like the most viable candidate, but we obviously, nobody picked Matthew Schaefer, who's going to make his NHL debut tonight,

the first overall pick. Who was... Nathan McKinnon for Hart. That was a segue set up for me. Yeah. Thank you very much. Thanks, Sean. Good hosting.

Yeah, Nathan McKinnon for Hart. Obviously, a candidate. Who else? Jack Hughes. Say it. Jack Hughes. For heart? Say Jack Hughes.

For heart? I want to... I want to Donna do it. Jacques Hughes. I actually put Hughes down, and I was just going to say Hughes. And then you guys asked which one. Which I'd be like, yes. Yes.

Yes. Yeah, Schaefer, no McKinnon, no Vasilefsky for Vezna. No Kopitar for Selke. I feel like he's always like the easy one people. I almost, I almost want with that. Yeah, because it's his final season. If you guys went off like Buck Wild into Selkees early on, and I was left with third choice,

I was going to go with Copatar. Yeah. Narratives, baby. Yeah. Last season, he's going to be great and impactful in a way he always is. But I feel like Copatar is now the guy who everyone just puts like four or five on their ballot because it's like,

okay, here's who I think should win. But like, I'm going to include Anzai Copatar. I think that's just what voters do now. I think those are the main ones. Did we miss anyone for Norris? Maybe Amiro Haskinen, I feel like he probably gets hurt if Thomas Harley,

takes over on the power play. Because we know that unfortunately the defensive award looks at points. I think Zach Wrenski. I can see Warensky getting a lot of votes again this year. Those are probably the big ones.

Anyone else you guys missed? That we missed? No Dustin Wolfe for Vesno. Someday. He's got one coming. Maybe not. year, I think. I saw a lot of people in the ESPN.

ESPN does their poll. A lot of them picked Jimmy Snuggarood. Can I butcher his name? No, blues. Power play one as well. Yep. Power play time. I think the blues are sneaky good, too.

They're interesting at the very least. I think someone wrote a call about that. Despite what a certain statistical model tells me about them every year, I think the blues are sneaky good. I guess no, Bobrovsky. Nobody talked about Bobrowski for veterans. Hasna. Maybe he could have like some big year, given all the injuries. That's a narrative. Alexander to Keishan. Yeah. I feel like we got some good ones here. And we'll figure out. I think the scoring can just be based on like winners and points.

We'll figure that out. We'll figure that out. I'll juice. We'll rig it so. Everyone think of their own scoring system to see if you can rig it for yourself. And then you got debate why your scoring system's best. Yes. Perfect. That'll be. great and then we'll have something to talk about during awards week several several long months away only two days into the nchal season it's a long one uh 14 games tonight zero games on friday love that um and that's a wrap from the besties show thank you dom and sean and thanks everyone for listening to this episode of the athletic hockey show the guys in the prospect series have the next episode on friday sean and i of course will be back next thursday enjoy the hockey everyone happy Real Thanksgiving.

Go Blue Jays. Sean and Joy State College. Mm.