The Athletic Hockey Show - The top 10 hockey stories of 2024

Episode Date: December 26, 2024

Hailey Salvian and Sean Gentille look back on another exciting season of NHL, international and women's hockey. Hails and Sean discuss the Panthers historic Stanley Cup win, Alex Ovechkin's assault on the NHL's all time goals record, the Arizona Coyotes relocating to Utah, the inaugural PWHL season, Jessica Campbell breaking barriers and the tragic, untimely deaths of NHL superstar Johnny Gaudreau, and his brother Matthew in the off-season. Hosts: Hailey Salvian and Sean GentilleExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff Domet Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. Hello, everybody. Welcome to a holiday edition of the athletic hockey show. It's Boxing Day, the day after Christmas for those who celebrate. It's Haley Salvean and Sean Gentilly here with you, recording the pod during the holiday season. It's the holiday season. Holiday season. But bupah, and Dickery, Doc.

But, bu, blah, bah. We're on the clock. because we're working on Boxing Day. Yeah. A gift. A gift to our dear listeners. We're recording this live. Yeah. Not last week. Not on December 20th.

What's up, Sean? Thanks for singing. How we doing? That song's always playing on a loop in my head. What is that? I don't know. Some stupid old time Christmas song. That in Palm O'Card. Courtney. Simply having a wonderful Christmas time, which I know was one of producer Jeff's favorites. I was thinking about singing that for him. Past. As a gift for producer Jeff, Merry Christmas

Jeff. As a boxing day gift. Yeah. An early Christmas present. All right. So Sean and I are here today to record a look at the biggest stories of 2024. We're a few days early. We're not quite at New Year's Eve yet. But we're getting close enough, and 2024 is drawing to a close. And this is a pretty natural time for us to reflect on the last 12 months in the hockey world. It's been a year filled with a wide range of emotions in the sport. The Florida Panthers win their first ever Stanley Cup. The Arizona Coyotes became the Utah Hockey Club.

Jessica Campbell became the first female assistant coach in the NHL. The PWHL exists. Hockey story, not just NHL story. And of course, the hockey world has mourned, but also really celebrated the lives of Johnny and Matthew Goddrow with

beautiful tributes across the league throughout 2024. There's been a lot. And Sean and I are going to go over the top 10 stories of the year. I don't even mean, I don't like saying top 10, the 10 biggest stories of 2024.

The 10 biggest stories. as a judge by Haley and Sean and Jeff, I think. Yeah. We need some wiggle room in case people get mad that their pet cause was left out of the, yeah. Well, I more don't like to talk about it, don't take it personally. I also don't like saying top stories because that almost makes it seem like it's a positive. True. Like the 10 most best stories, that just feels like a gross way to put it when we're talking about.

Certainly not the case. Yeah. The biggest stories, the stories that really marked 2024 in the world of hockey. Yeah. The things that we'll remember about 2024, five years from now. That was my thought when we're making a list. A couple years from now and say, what happened in hockey in 2024? This is the stuff that we're going to fall back on, I think. I think so. And we can start with the Florida Panthers. That's the big one. Florida Panthers win the Stanley Cup. After the 30 year wait, for Panthers fans really marked a huge rise for the organization if we just zoom out a little bit and then kind of look ahead too, right? They win their first playoff series in two decades in 2022. They reached the Cup final in 2023 and then win the Stanley Cup in 2024. Not to mention,

they look like a legit contender as the calendar flips to 2025, just a huge cup. A couple of years marked by a massive one in 2024 for the Panthers organization. Yeah. And to me, the thing about the Panthers rise, which continues, by the way, I think they're absolutely in position to do it again.

Watching them, it just feels like they've already figured out how to conserve energy and pick their spots and play well without, you know, empty in the tank in December. Sounds like you're talking about the Tampa Bay Light. I this is a

is it is it the 2025 panthers the 29th or 2021 yeah who knows so I I do think there's some shared DNA there but for me the thing about the panthers that struck me a couple years ago and certainly strikes me now is that they're a living proof that you don't need to stink to get better that you don't need to have uh you know you don't need to win a lottery or have consistent years of top five draft picks to get better.

That team was stuck in neutral and Bill Zito went out and did something about it. We hear over and over again that it's tough to get better and making trades is tough. And free agents maybe are looking elsewhere for reasons A, B, and C, that's all true to some extent. But at the end of the day, what Zito did because of a combination of guts, in owner buy-in, and savvy analytics is what stood out here. That dude went out.

And circumstance. I just want to say, not every GM has the opportunity to trade for Matthew Kuchuk. Yeah, but every market has advantages that it should be able to exploit. I mean, no, no, sorry, I didn't even mean in a tax way.

I meant like the timing, like the timing of everything that Bill Zito, it took guts, on everything like i'm not even saying like oh he got lucky but the timing of that with huberto and weger and being like i don't know if we're going to be able to resign both to then take an issue of how are we going to figure out the cap with these guys and turn that into matthew kachuk is unbelievable but some of that is timing like to have those guys as trade chips and also have matthewka chuk looking to leave and interested in your market like that is

That doesn't happen for everyone. Sure. But he did the best with the situation that came about. Like right when Kachuk came on the market and was interested in Florida, Bill Zito made it happen. And that's for him. Not every GM can do that. That's a 2022 story.

But like, I just want to say there's some circumstance there for him. And he worked it in this favor. And I think he's made it stand up over the last couple years, whether it's figuring out a way to extend Sam Reinhart, because there were cap challenges that popped up whenever they, whenever they brought on Kachuk. That cap situation is a challenge, right?

So I think the fact that he did add a premium item and still found a way to surround them with other premium pieces and continue to get better to the point where they've looked like a wagon in their last, and seven of their last eight playoff series, we will throw out the cup final in 2023. But that team's built for the long haul, man. And I'm just not, and yes, they got a little bit of a boost from Matthew Kachuk, but, you know, that's not, that, that didn't get them the entire way.

That's a really well-run organization. And I think there's a lot of other ones that are stuck in the mushy middle that should take notes, because that, because they're hitting on all cylinders. And the other element of that storyline, too, is, of course, Cona McDavid and the Oilers make the final. They lose after pushing it to seven games. I think the big story of that was like, I thought in the first, three games that series, I remember saying, like, I thought this was supposed to be a

good cup final, ended up becoming one, and Connor McDavid wins, the consmite. Number two, I think we can fairly keep this up high in the ranking, although this isn't a ranking, it's more of a list. Alex Ovechkin's goal chase. And the Cabs Resurgence, I think that's a package. It's not just Alex Ovechkin and a lifeless terrible Caps team. chasing Wayne Gretzky's record. The caps are good and they are fun to watch in the year of 2024 and likely 2025. But the big one, Alex Ovechkin, only 26 goals back of Wayne Gretzky's

goal scoring record. He's at 868. The record is 894 that has stood since Gretzky retired in 1999. And just to make the story even more interesting, I guess, let's throw in a fractured fibula for Alex Ovechkin, which he might return from. after the holiday break, Spencer Carberry said he's not going to be back until after that break. So we're recording this on December 20th. Full participant in practice cleared for contact today.

But the head coach did say, don't expect him back until after the break. So that's three more games without Alex Ovechkin. But when he's back, the race is back on. And Gretzky's going to be following him around, likely in 2025, until he breaks the record. And also the capitals are going to be chasing division title, Eastern Conference regular season title.

They were number one in the power rankings that were released on December 20th. And I think they deserve to be there. The important thing for the goal chase is that Alex Oveskin is walking right back into an atmosphere and into an environment where you can score a hell of a lot more goals, right? Because you have Dylan Strom who's still killing it, Washington's power play now that, you know, John Carlson's back to some to some, uh, to some to a very real degree is uh is is is dangerous again so yeah this is a really good team um that's capable of winning a whole bunch of games along the way so uh a huge story in 2024 certainly not deserves to be on our list here and i think they're going to keep being you know a factor in 2025 when we're doing this a year from now i would it would shock me if if there

weren't more caps in ovechkin uh flavor to the whole list All right. I think the next big story from 2024 is the Arizona Coyotes relocating to Salt Lake City. The NHL Board of Governors approved the transaction in April. Utah jazz owner Ryan Smith acquired the franchise. Kind of looking back when we were prepping for this, I almost forgot how much. stuff happened in the lead up to that. Like there was a lot of stops and starts of, you know, of course we knew that the coyotes were playing at Mullet Arena and then the owner Alex Murillo was looking for a new place and he's doing

land auctions and trying to find a new building. And then eventually, um, the NHL had enough. Ryan Smith buys the team. And now it's the Utah hockey club. And they had a very cool. quick run up. We got that team together. Mark Lazarus did a good story on kind of the mad dash of getting that franchise together.

That's one of the biggest stories of 2024. And there's so much that happened in the lead up to that. It was honestly kind of crazy to look back on how much happened. Just in 2024 in Arizona and then Utah. Yeah, I think for me, the big takeaway from the Utah, Arizona saga, You mentioned that the league had enough, certainly true. The NHLPA also had enough. And I look at some of the stuff that Marty Walsh said down the stretch last season.

You know, it was one of the first times we really saw him put his flag in the ground as the big boss of the PA. And frankly, personally, I think that was nice to see. you know, if you're someone who who cares about labor and, and workers rights and all that sort of stuff, I think that, I think that it was, it was cool to see from Marty Walsh. And it's something that's continued over the last couple months where we've seen

like a couple interesting initiatives for concussion research and whatever. So yes, this is about Arizona and Utah, absolutely. But a fun little satellite discussion there is the fact that, you know, you did have the PA say like, all right,

enough is enough. Yeah. we need to move on. Yeah. I think if we had more time, like if we were doing this in two parts or we could do a 90-minute podcast, Marty Walsh on his own, I think,

was on the short list that ended up getting cut down to an even shorter list here. It's kind of, we've actually been able to say like the NHLPA is doing a good job. Bring, keep bringing that energy, I say.

Me. Also, by the way, back to hockey as far as Utah and in Arizona, or Utah is not Arizona, just Utah. They're playing better. I thought at the start of the season, I thought they could make a legit playoff push, started slow, but we've seen some improved play from them over the last stretch.

So interesting hockey, some of the big splash moves that they may have paid off. Mikhail Sergichab looks like a number one defenseman. So like the on-ice product has been good too, and I think that's a nice little value added. for what's gone on there over the last few months. For sure. I think very quickly we can say,

so like a lot of the lead up to this, what caused this, Arizona becomes Utah in 2024, very quickly in terms of the timeline. 2021, the city of Glendale and the Gila River Arena choose not to renew their operating agreement with the coyotes. 2022, they move into Millet Arena.

2023, Alex Murillo's proposal to turn a Tempey land fill into a $2.1 billion arena defeated in a public boat. That's shocking and terrible for the franchise. Gary Bettman says it's terribly disappointing and says we're going to be reviewing with the coyotes, what the options are going forward. Coyotes fans, players, they're waiting to bid on another parcel of land near Phoenix for another potential new arena. And then while that's happening, that's when everyone kind of says, you know what, enough's enough. Yeah, deuses to to Alex Marulo. I think that's a,

that's a nice little byproduct of, of all this as well. Peace. But also, like, that's, it's devastating for, like,

good people in and around Arizona hockey, too. Yeah, sure. And, like, we hope that they, hope that they get another team and,

and whatever. Like, they're, they're going to have that, they're going to have that opportunity. But, like, the priority there is,

it to me was to just, like, something needed to change. Get that dude out of the league. eliminate him as an owner. And the fact that that happened is honestly cool to see. Yeah. All right.

Very quickly before we go to break, because there isn't that much to say on this one. In the year of 2024, we get the announcement that NHL players are back at the Olympics. We also get the announcement of the four nations face off, which Sean can never remember the name of. Five Iron Frenzy. That is a ska band.

And I, for whatever reason, that's what I always default to calling it. Okay. But the Olympics coming back with NHL players, I think in five years, we're not going to remember that it happened in 2024. And five years we're going to remember that there was NHL players at the 2026 Olympics. But it was significant news that when they came out and said, like, players are back. Because players were very pissed when they didn't get to play in the last Olympic cycle. It was a huge, huge thing for, as we mentioned, NHLPA for what players want.

And I'm excited for 2026. It's going to be great. In five years, we're hopefully looking ahead to many, many more years or many more Olympiads that involve the NHL. Because like this deal isn't forever. We should say that, right? Like, this isn't struck in perpetuity. Like they're going to have to, yes, it's settled for a nice chunk of time moving forward, but they're going to have to, they're going to have to, they're going to have to reaffirms. up it too. Like I see 2026 and I see 2030. That's great. But, you know, let's hope let's hope this is the

first of many. Absolutely. And then as far as as far as foreign nation frenzy is concerned or for, fornation face. That's it. Fornition face. As far as that's concerned, I'm more excited about it than I thought. I've said this on the show already. Like something about the roster rollout and in, in the, in the, in the way we talked about it. Maybe it could have just been because I had to write a couple stories about it and talk about it on the pod. I'm way more interested than I thought because a month ago or six weeks ago, I was like, this is store brand Olympics and I'm not interested in it. But here we are, man. It's December 20th. And I can feel myself getting gradually more psyched about it. It's going to be fun. Did you see those weird? Like, guess who the player is? And then it's Connor

McDavid being like, you're right. It's me. Connor McDavid. No, I have no idea what you're talking about. Jeff, I'm going to send you these and we can splice it in here because they're legitimately hilarious. And then there's one where it's like, you're right. It's me, Cindy Crosby. They're like even more awkward. What are we talking about here? I don't know where these were posted, but I've seen them on TikTok. They're incredibly uncomfortable.

People should watch the video, but I'll get Jeff to plop in the audio. I'm Quinn Hughes. It's me. It's Austin. Hi, it's me. Cindy Crosby. You guessed it. It's me. Connor McDavid.

While we go take a quick break, when we come back on the Athletic Hockey Show, Jessica Campbell, we could talk about that, more LTIR drama, because unfortunately, I think, 2024, we're going to remember that Mark Stone was put on LTIR again.

That's coming up next on the athletic hockey show. A little tease for our Golden Knights fans. We'll probably remember 2025 for that same reason, too. we'll be right back. All right, we are back on the athletic hockey show going over the 10 biggest stories in hockey in 2024. And I don't think we can talk about the biggest stories, biggest headlines, biggest news without bringing up the fact that in 2024, Jessica Campbell was hired to be an assistant coach, the Seattle Cracken. That is more history for somebody who had made a ton of it in her coaching career. no woman had ever coached full time in the NHL until Jessica Campbell was hired by Dan Bausma and the Cracken.

Of course, she worked for Bosma in the AHL with the Coachella Valley Firebirds, the minor league affiliate of the Cracken for two seasons. She made history there, made history as the first woman to coach at Men's World Championships. She was running skills sessions during the COVID bubble for NHL guys, like Lu Schen, Brent Seabrook, Weber. Like, this is an incredibly accomplished, qualified, impressive person. And she's made NHL history and she deserves to be there. And for Jessica Campbell, her whole goal is like, if I can come in here and do a good job, then more women are going to follow in my footsteps. And obviously, she wants to do a good job for the Cracken as well as they try to turn that team around. But there's going to be a ripple effect of Jessica being there and doing a good job because

she's qualified to do it. So that's one of the biggest stories the year for me. Yeah, that's well said. I'm not sure how much I have to add to that other than the fact that I read a really good story about Jessica Campbell that published around the time of her first game. It's interesting, engaging. Her story for how she, you know, ended up aligning with Bilesma is really interesting too because she i don't want i don't want to spoil it but if anybody anybody anybody who hasn't read the story seek it out school jessica campbell and then one of the co-hosts on this podcast's name uh and it's not mine don't chintilly uh no it's it's funny jessica dan balsma reached out to jess campbell through like the contact page of her power skating websites you know when you like

look up an optometrist you scroll down and it's like info at iwe wellness.ca. It's complete form garbage where you need to enter your name and type in a box and it gets sent sent off to someone who may or may not be a real person. So yeah, you're just like, hello, Jessica, this is Dan Balsma. I want to talk to you at a coaching opportunity. And she was like, what? There's no way that's Dan Balsma. Yeah. And it's also like, hello, this is Bart Simpson. I'm interested in signing up for, signing up for power skating classes. Like, it just seems like something that's this you know it's easy to assume that it's a prank because it seems like

that's the kind of space the kind of form that people actually do use for pranks nope very very real the actual dan bilesma and here we are a couple years later she's like i like what she did on the pk for germany at men's world i'm going to email her through her contact page now she's in the nishl it's very cool incredible nerd stuff from bilesma too if if you want to know what he was doing during his time as an assistant coach, watching Germany at the world's guys, that guy eats tape. You have one next, Sean.

I think one of the big stories of the year. And we've talked about it on the shows a lot so we can keep this quick. But like the amount we talk about it makes it one of the big stories is like, are rebuilds not effective anymore? Yeah. Yeah, like, what is the actual efficacy of doing the whole tank job, bottom out, hope you hit the lottery jackpot, cross your fingers and pray? Like, is that a viable, is that as viable a path as we thought? Is that the only way to turn into a big time contender in the NHL? You talked about Florida before. They showed that, you know, there's other, that there's other ways to get stuff done. But, man, you just look at, you look at what's gone on, but, and, you look at what's gone on.

gone on in Buffalo where that's just an ongoing train wreck. I hear from fans regularly now, because we've talked about it again on the pod. We talked about the Terry Pugula situation last week on the pod. So I've heard from plenty of Sabres fans about how demoralized they are and how bad the vibes are there overall. Like that's example A. Then you have Detroit where it's like is this, after all this, has Steve Iversman built a playoff, a playoff caliber team? And the answers are It's looking increasingly like no. So on and on, there's more and more examples of this. I think we're going to continue using those two franchises as a test case,

certainly over the next season or two to see if, to see, you know, the other side of the coin. For every team that gets Connor Bedard or Sidney Crosby or, you know, Connor McDavid, you know, there's a whole lot of, a whole lot of rebels that fail to take off where the juice doesn't, doesn't, uh, it isn't worth the squeeze. So we'll see. It's going to be a huge ongoing story.

It feels like something that's not just being talked about right now, but we'll be over the next chunk of time as well. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a big story for the year. And just something to look ahead to. Is the San Jose, like, is Macklin Celebrini going to help turn around San Jose sharks? You know, if we had more time, we could talk about him too. He's, the sharks have been actually like a fun team to watch this season.

and I think Macklin Celebrini and like Will Smith are just kind of tracking those their friendship has been a nice story. 24. Those two are everywhere hanging out together. It's really funny. And Celebrating's good. He's 18 years old. This is a guy who fast-tracked his way through college too, right? Or he went to college year early. He's been pretty good. Almost a point per game player, 11 goals. He'd be someone who we'd watch. So that's going to be a long-term viewing for when we're talking about rebuilds, do they work in the NHL as what the sharks are doing? Can the Blackhawks turn it around? I know in 2023 when Ian Mendez was here, he had,

Connor Bardard is one of the, who? They had Connor Bradard as one of the top stories of 2023 and Tellebrini could have very well been one for 2024. In the calendar year of 2024, so from Jan 1 to December, 31st. If you go by net rating, Macklin Celebrini is the shark's top top skater. Like that says a lot about how many games has he played. That says a lot about how good he's been and a lot about how brutal that

collection of talent on that roster's been for the last little bit. So it's fascinating. And I think one of the biggest stories and one of the most tragic stories, of the year is that Columbus Blue Jackets Winger, NHL star, Johnny Goddrow and his brother Matthew were killed in a crash. In Oldman's Township, New Jersey, they were biking home.

It was the day before their sister's wedding where they were meant to be groomsman. Johnny was 31 years old, Matthew was 29. It's been such a terrible story, but I think it's been so, beautiful to see all the tributes to both of them. Peter Ball did a wonderful story about Matthew Goddrow and who he was as a person. The tributes in Columbus, the tributes in Calgary, USA hockey, everyone's wearing helmet decals. There's been so many, like, celebrations of their

life, so many wonderful tributes. You know, Sean Monaghan has been remembering him and honoring him. Cole Coughfield changed his number to 13. You know, we see people with Johnny's like number on their sticks. It's been such a like horrific story. There really is no words to, to, there are no good words to use. But it has been, you know, Sportsnet did a beautiful job when the Blue Jackets came to Calgary for the first time. I'm Ryan Leslie sat down with me. Meredith Johnny's wife. He did a story on the family.

The family did the puck drop, you know, seeing Sean Monaghan like hold Johnny Jr. Like there's been so many like beautiful and deeply sad things that have come from this. It's just been, you know, the story that nobody wanted to talk about on a list like this in 2024. Yeah, I think the last few months, certainly from the start of hockey season on, think has been about, you know, we've seen example after example of, whether it's former teammates or friends or, of course, certainly family, you know, people just trying to forge on and been, you know, try to, try to bring something positive and try to, you know, just keep going in the face of an event that's just unimaginably horrific and tragic.

So the strength that we've seen, certainly from Johnny's parents, Jane and Dee and his wife, Meredith. Like those are the strength. Madeline, Matthew's wife. Madeline Matthew. Absolutely. Like the strength and, you know, the courage and the grace that they've shown over the last few months has been incredible. Because they've been on camera quite a bit. They've had to do a lot of public appearances.

they've had to, you know, participate in the public grieving of their family members. And to watch how they've navigated that has been really impressive and really remarkable. And I think that is, you know, if you want to try to put a positive face on a horrific event, I think that's something I'm going to remember forever from this year. Yeah, they had, and we'll always have every right to just grieve this privately. But the Goodrow family, even to like having the funeral live stream, like they knew how beloved their sons were and they let everyone grieve with them. And they did not have to do that. I know I would have just shut down and locked everyone out.

You wouldn't see me. But they've been going to puck drops. They've been going to games. They've been honoring their sons with the NHL community. and that's been unimaginably sad. But like if again, if we want to find some light in there, it's the way that they've been like sharing that.

And the way that everyone's, you know, responded with their love for the family and the boys. It's been, I can't even imagine what that family has been going through. And they're, they're wonderful people. It's,

I obviously covered the Calgary Flames. So I got to know Jane and Gee a little bit. would have covered Johnny. And that's just like the biggest thing is like how important family was to him. Like there is the Johnny hockey superstar that was the player. But at home he was just John and he was just a family man. And him and Matthew were the best of friends. So to see the way that the family has been together,

this is a really close-knit group. And I can't imagine how much they're missing them. but the way that everyone's kind of loved and supported that family has been really beautiful. Yeah, it's been the hockey world, you know, giving that family a sense of how much their, of how much their sons and husbands and brothers meant to them, right? And then that's been returned, I think, by the family, by, you know, being open enough to allow, allow the public, you know, to participate in that way.

And that's it. It's really impressive. and it's really graceful and it's a good time to remember all that, all that sort of stuff. Not that there's ever a bad time, but this is the season where that stuff hits even harder. And I'm going to be thinking of all of them. Yeah.

All right. On that note, let's take a quick break. And when we come back, we will go through the rest of our list of top stories. All right, welcome back to the athletic hockey show. We are counting down the biggest stories in the world of hockey. in 2024. We've only got a couple left. And I think we have to mention Stephen Stamcoast leaving Tampa Bay. This was one that stood out to me right away. Like we've said some of the things in the short list.

People disagree with this one. You can blame me because I asked other things. Like I don't care that Marty Walsh is doing a good job. Stephen Stamco's left the Tampa Bay Light. After one thousand, I shouldn't say that. He's doing a good job with like important stuff, especially when it comes to like CETE and concussions. Okay. That was in poor taste. Um, but Stephen Stamco's over 1,000 games, 1,082 games of the Tampa Bay Lightning, he's gone.

He's on the Nashville Predators. Did he leave the Tampa Bay Lightning? Or was he asked to leave the Tampa Bay Lightning? That's a big story. That was the story of the draft. That was the story of the draft for me, too. It was just like, that all came to. ahead in Vegas. We're seeing Julian

Brisebois, you know, walk around the floor, walk around the meteor riser at the sphere on the phone and then, you know, that was like the start of all the machinations for that. It's, it's been, it was a fascinating drama to play out in the off season. And it's really,

if you want to extend the the Stamco's Tampa stuff to what's gone on with Nashville, it only gets more interesting, right? Because we're looking at the Preds and they're, they're a disaster right now. So that adds another level of of intrigue to the entire storyline for sure. Yeah, I think the big thing too is Stephen Stamcoast himself called like the breakup with the lightning like puzzling and strange. And I think for us members of the media when we're doing our projections or free agent boards, like if anyone

says that they had Stephen Stamcoast going somewhere else on July 1, like you're lying. Like before some of these things started coming out. Like obviously Tampa then gets Jake Gensel and that was kind of what started a lot of this, right? But like that's, it was just crazy. The team that he captained

and played over a thousand games for. And then the Nashville Predators, yeah, if you want to zoom out, the Preds have been the big disappointment. Everyone thought they won the offseason and now we're learning. We already knew this. But like, that doesn't really matter. until you actually play hockey games.

And on the other side of that coin, Tampa Bay, they've been good. John Cooper, I think he had trucking on. I think that was one thing that I said in the preseason. I think I was more bullish on the lightning than you or Max were when we did a show, the three of us.

I was like, I think Tampa's going to be the team that I'm like really weird about this year. And so far, in the year of 2024, I have to stop saying that. I've been correct. Lightning's still good. Yeah, because I think the underlying, you know, reality here is that Tampa made the right call in a hockey sense.

Steven Samco's has 19 points in his first 30 games, just nine at even strength. Nashville's moving them back to center again. That's just wreaks of desperation and also poor roster construction in hindsight by them. In Tampa, yeah, they have, you add Jake Gensel and then all of a sudden you have two functioning lines because you can play Anthony Sorrelli and Braynon Hago together. You don't have to worry about making up for Stamcoast's decline at five on five. So you have five basically high end forward pieces, which allows them to have two really, really strong lines at the top of the lineup. And the end result is that Tampa is a better team than they have been for the last couple years. So, you know, quibble with the way. with the way the divorce happened. And, you know, I'm, I can't plan anybody for doing that. But in a hockey sense,

I think Julian Breezebois made the right decision. There's a, there's probably a way to keep him and Jake Gensel. It would, it would involve, like they have to do that, you know? Once they,

I don't know, I guess we should have expected it based on, you know, how Breezebaugh had been, like, pretty ruthless with cutting, They basically chose Ryan McDonough bringing him back over giving Sam Kos the money he was looking for. You know, that's it.

And locking in headman. It was like we're only going to lock in one old dude to a long-term contract and we're picking him and making him the captain. Bye-bye. Got to do what you got to do. And it's going to be fascinating to watch, you know, those two franchises kind of juxtaposed against each other for the next little bit. Yeah. Credit John Cooper. Canada's coach.

Always willing to credit John Cooper. He's Canada's coach for the face off, yeah. Cooper scanned as American for me. I don't know, it's because he went to law school at Hofstra on Long Island. He spent a bunch of time. How dare you?

You can't pick him. We'll take them. No, you can't. You actually can't. He's Canadian and he's the head coach in Canada. He'd be a really, really great top assistant to Mike Sullivan on the U.S. on the U.S. national team.

And the Milan Olympics. Yeah, whatever. So you can't have him. He's ours. We'll see. I'll see about that. I will throw hands for that man.

Anyways. You know what else makes people want to throw hands? Oh, that's a pro segue. That's a Frankie Carado caliber segue. It ruins a segue when we like pause to a posit. It's when the Vegas

Golden Knights put somebody on LTEs. I don't want to throw hands about it. They're just working within the rules the NHL has set. I don't think it's caps or convention, but it is a massive story in hockey. Every time that it happens, people continue to yell about LTIR. It's a big one.

And they continue to yell about, they continue to yell about the taxation issue with Canada versus the United States versus non-state tax teams like Florida and, you know, Tampa Bay and Dallas and what have you. It's aggravating.

I'm tired of hearing about it. I just did a rules court. You put it on the list. Listen, I just did a rule. I just did a rules court with McIndoo. That was like half the questions were from pissy Canadians who were trying to figure out a way

to negate the advantage that U.S. teams that don't plan income tax states have. I'm tired of hearing about it. But that doesn't mean that it's not important. So in a perfect world, this would just, this would vanish as a talking point. We don't live in that world. So you can just like add together all these salary cap concerns,

whether it's Mark Stone on LTIR, whether it's the taxation, issue, whatever. Lump those together. It's something that we're going to have to continue talking about because unfortunately people are obsessed with it. But that doesn't mean that I have to be happy about it. So it's on the list, but it's there with an asterisk.

It's just hope this one disappears. We do have like the, I do think that the tax thing and I think this it's not, it's easy to draw the line of like people are getting angry at things that happen to teams that are finding success, especially if a Canadian,

franchise is not right like it's easy to yell about the Vegas golden nights when they're making the cup final and winning playoff series like oh look at what they're doing with lTIR and now it's the tampa it's the tampa lightning or the florida panthers like being successful and having players want to sign there and it's like oh well it's because they don't have you know state income tax but like we do have to acknowledge like there is an advantage there sam ryanhart is going to make more money with the 69 million dollar contract in Florida than he would have if he signed in Edmonton or Toronto right like that is it is a thing yeah I don't necessarily

think that it's like the main thing like that's not the deciding factor Jake Gensel didn't sign in Tampa just because it's a no tax situation yeah you know there's more things that go into that these are also just good teams it's a weird kind of almost like a chicken in the egg of like did Tampa get good because players want to go there because they know tax and then no players want to they did not Matthew could Chuck liked Florida because he can wear flip flops 12 months out of the year yeah right so so in my opinion it should be illegal for panthers players to go hang out on the beach because that gives them an unfair advantage like what we should do actually to to negate the advantage

that players who are in canada have we should cap how many endorsement deals they get since since they're so much more likely to get those when they play for a canadian market. It's a joke. And it's sour grapes nonsense from a country that just is pissed because they haven't had a team win a Stanley Cup in 20 whatever years. Well, how often do you hear? How often do you hear about the like, oh, I'm going to leave some money on the board, but I'll make it back and whatever in Toronto or, you know, I'm going to go and play well in Toronto and get the back next year because everyone's going to see me. You know, there. I want to go or I want to go or I want to go play in a hockey market that's full of,

full of fans who care. And that's what's that? Typically, that's Northern cities. That's Canadian cities. That's a benefit that they have too. So when you start talking about legislating all the, all this stuff out in a CBA, in adding all these mechanisms to account for taxation and stuff,

I'm like, get that away from me. It's crazy. But that being said, that being said, it's going to be a discussion point, especially as CBA negotiations gear up over the next year or two. We are not done hearing about this as much as I wish we were.

Yeah, it's a big story. It'll probably continue to be, especially as the Panthers are good, and if another big free agent signs somewhere without stating contacts. It should be illegal for Florida teams to win the Stanley Cup, in my opinion. Why?

Why would happen? Yeah. because that's a couple degrees removed from the belly aching that we hear about the development state tax stuff. Sure, but like the last four Stanley Cup champions have been in like no tax date. So let's just like it's it's not like people are just poo-pooing over nothing. I'm not poo-pooing. Correlation is not causation.

Like the Edminton Oilers were a bounce of the puck away from, away from improving all that. When you put in, maybe it's more for Vegas. when you put in the LTIR of it all and the tax thing of it all, like, come on, like the Vegas Golden Knights aren't getting Noah Hanifin and Tomash hurdle without that set of circumstances. I think that's a more legitimate discussion to be had about like, do you need to be under the cap for the playoffs in terms of the roster that just that just that just announced. I think that's, I think that's a pretty easy and reasonable fix.

I think it's just those things together plus like Florida teams getting the big play. and winning now. People are just like, oh my God. And then, yeah, it's like Leif's fans like Jeff. Producer Jeff hates Florida. Just going to shut off the podcast.

This isn't going anywhere. Anyways, let's move on. I don't think it's like, I don't see that and say like, oh, they're cheating or this is BS, but is this certainly a huge topic

and it will continue to be. Okay, number 10. I'm bringing this up. At the end of the day, this is my list. In 2024, the PWHL officially launched. The first game was played. It's kind of crazy. We're like a few weeks into season two, but it's now, it hasn't even been a full calendar year yet.

January 1st, the first PWHL game was played. New Pro League for women's hockey. Within that, Minnesota wins, the first championship. The players are at NHL All-Star Weekend. Sarah Nurse is all over the place. I'm following her around. Canada wins, like, the craziest women's world championship I've seen.

We're getting closer to a 2026 Olympic. I don't know, PWHL, women's hockey, all the rage in 2024. We'll continue to be in 2025. I don't have anything to say other than, like, it's here and it's great, and I love it. And I can figure it all the time. It's very, very cool.

The inaugural PWHL game on. Jan 1 was hands down the coolest event I attended this year, hands down the coolest event I've attended over the last several. For the most part, they've kept that energy, right? Like, it's fun, it's fun to watch, it's fun to watch these games. It's fun to see the environment that they've, that they've fostered there, and it seems like there's, you know, bigger and better and more interesting things ahead. So, cheers of them for sure.

I was on the broadcast for that game. and it was like kind of wild sitting there in our little studio booth and watching like jana hefford who didn't make a dime playing pro hockey even though she's in the hockey hall of fame like she would have had endorsements or things from winning Olympic gold medals but her going out and dropping the puck with billy jean king who's involved you know what one of the cooler things that happened in 2034 my big women's hockey moment was watching stand cast and perhaps getting the Otani deal over the line while in Utica, New York. Do we know?

Friends of Chastin. Next time you talk to Stan, I'm sure it'll be relatively soon. You need to ask, like, by the way. Well, was that like, how, like, how close were you at that point? Was it 90%? Was it 95? Dotting eyes and cross and T's? Like, when did he officially sign that deal?

And when was I? It was close enough. Well, like, let's just leave it at that. It was it was close enough, close enough to wonder. It was kind of crazy. The preseason camp started like December 4th, and Otani officially signed December 11th. So I was definitely watching Showay Otani stuff there.

You should have passed on. I was live tweeting. the whole thing. Yeah, she'll pass some scoop along to Nesbit or one of the baseball writers. No, no. Listen in. Anyways, that's our top. Those are the 10 biggest stories in hockey in 2024.

Do we miss anything, Sean? Anything that I cut? Probably, yeah, but that's what happens when you cut off lists arbitrarily at certain numbers. There's going to be people out there that are bummed that their personal number. one didn't make it on the list, but. But I meant, did anything you personally wanted on the list, not make it? No. Not one thing.

The amulets. The amulets. Oh, my God. How about this? I don't think we've heard the last of the amulet. John Tavares or in the amulet. We need to watch out in wonder and just be cognizant of the fact that the amulet could rise again at some point during 2025. and maybe it'll be on the year-end list

a year from now. You never know. Have you ever actually provided context of like the amulet or D.U and Frank and Sean just yell amulet? Like I just did. One of those guys just referred to him as amulet on a record a couple of weeks ago. I can't remember which one. Oh, that's no.

Looks like Max Domi is the latest competitor of Aries Tech. Amulet protects you from Wi-Fi. Sure. Corruptible and corrupting signals such as those emitted by phones and Wi-Fi routers. It's a story to watch for 2025, like I said. Oh, can we do an athletic hockey show holiday party and get each other amulets? I'm going to get Frank Carrotto an amulet for Christmas in 2025.

Yeah, Frankie, Frankie's dealing with twins, so he needs all that help he can get. Maybe the emulet will help. I'll get him two baby amulets. There you go with that. Oh, I'm sure he'll appreciate it. Oh, that's great. All right, that is officially our list of the 10 biggest hockey stories of 2024. That is our final show of 2024 as well.

Thank you, everyone, for listening to this episode, but also to every Thursday edition of the show with Sean and myself. The Wednesday show, too, we'll throw them a bone. Thanks for listening to Sean, Sean, and, Frank and everything on the podcast network. Max Boltman, Corey Brom and Scott Wheeler, and Chris Peters have you covered with the 2025 World Junior Hockey Championships that gets underway in Ottawa. Sean and I won't be returning to the pod until January 9th. Until then, happy holidays.

Happy New Year. We'll see you in 2025.