The Athletic Hockey Show - Which Metro Division teams are we buying and selling on?

Episode Date: September 10, 2025

Hailey and Sean tackle the Metro Division teams, what additions and subtractions were made in the offseason, and who will improve and decline as the battle for the Metro begins October 7.We want to hear from you! Please fill out our listener survey: https://forms.gle/CDbF51vAPngm2ZYS6Hosts: 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. What's up, everyone. Welcome to The Athletic Hockey Show. It's Haley Salvean and Sean Jintilly here with you back for another edition of buying and selling NHL off seasons. You didn't listen to this last time around. Sean and I are going to spend the next 30 minutes, 40 minutes, depends how much I ramble, deciding on whether or not we are buying stock in a team based on their offseason moods. or selling it off, essentially looking at which teams improve the most or decline the most over the course of the summer.

We already made some moves on the Atlantic Division. Sean bought so much stock in the Toronto Maple Leafs, a historic amount. He's all in. Matthias Machelli superfan number one. That's it. Send the jersey. Please. If you want to hear that, you can find it on the athletic hockey show podcast feed.

Apple, Google, Spotify, the athletic app, etc. wherever you get your podcast. So if you want to catch up on that, it's available to you. But today, we are going to get into the Metropolitan Division, which is looking a little bleak, Sean. I think our Atlantic Division app ran a little longer than we thought it was going to

because we found that we were more interested in those teams than we realized. There's some movement. There's some interesting topics, whatever, bits and pieces. is there, I don't foresee that happening with the Metro Division. Yeah, there's not a, not a ton of interesting moves. I don't think anybody got all that much better, all that much worse, but that doesn't mean we're not going to take a try at our little exercise here. Yeah, and I actually think the way that we can start this segment. So with the Atlantic Division,

and we'll do that with all them. We are doing all four divisions over the course of the several episodes that these are going to be releasing on. We do it in the reverse order of the divisional standings from last season. And we actually have a somewhat interesting team to discuss right off the bat. And that is the Philadelphia Flyers, a plus one net rating in the off season, according to Dom's model. Dom every year does a story about which teams improve the most this season. We can look at those metrics to guide us.

That's the fourth highest net rating in the division. 15th overall in the league. But I find the flyers interesting because they're not going to be better than last year. Like I don't think we're going to see some big jump out of the bottom of the metro or the bottom of the league's standings. But they might actually be fun or intriguing to watch. They trade for Trevor Zegris. They're a young team with developing players. You know, you have Zegris reunited with Drysdale, Tyson Forster, Matt B. Michigov.

These are fun young players. a new coach in Rick Tocket. Flyers probably aren't going to be good, but I am at the very least interested in what they're going to do this season and into the next couple years. Like I would probably buy on the flyers just because they've peaked my interest.

I think they're going to be better. I don't know how much. This is a 76-point team last season. Gold differentials minus 48. We're going with them first for obvious reasons because they finish at the bottom of the division. I don't think I foresee that taking place again for them just because of... I mean they're not going to take, make a run up the standings.

I don't think they're not going to be dead last, but in terms of meaningful competitive improvement, do you see that? Not really just because of their issues in net last year. I mean, I think Samerson is half decent, but they, you know, were submarine by a lack of NHL caliber goaltenders in that organization. And I don't know that Dan Vladar is a meaningful improvement necessarily on the guys they had there before. So I think goaltending is still going to be an issue for them.

And it's tough to forecast any huge jump for any team, really, if they're that much of a question mark in net. So I do agree with you. I'm not saying that the flyers are going to make like a wild card push or anything, but I think what we're going to see is some of the moves. of the last couple off seasons, some of the savvy, you know, we see, we, Daniel Breyer's first offseason is, is, is, uh, is, is, uh, is GM. He made some interesting moves in terms of acquiring assets using his team's cap space wisely. I think we saw that in, in a trade with Columbus,

you know, with, with it, with, with, with, with, with, with, pro rave on and on i think brier has shown in a little bit more than two years on the job the ability to get creative and get courageous i think with the kind of moves that he makes and i i'm on board with him and the job that he's doing and i think that's the biggest reason that on some level you know they're a buy for me like i like i like i like yeah i like dany brier as an executive and i like what he's done this far even though you know there's still some pretty serious strides to be made in terms of the on-ice product. I think he's done a good job. Yeah, I'm not buying because I think the flyers are going to be in contention for the playoffs this season. I'm buying

because they interest me and I'm buying into the plan, not to sound corny, but I'm buying into the plan that Danny Breyer is laying out. I think we talked about them this way last year. I appreciate that this is a team. It was, I guess, two years ago when they were relevant at the trade deadline and they still were like, we're not buying, we're rebuilding. Like, we're not going to, we're not going to see that we're in and around it and spend a bunch of assets. No, like, that's cool. That's awesome. We love that we're competitive. That's good for our guys, but we're sticking to the course that we've, we've taken. And I appreciate that from the Flyers and Danny Breyer in the front office. And yeah, I'm buying into what they're building. This is going to be an interesting year for the

flyers, an opportunity for Trevor Zegra specifically to prove, like is, was the hype around. him very early in his career, legit. Is he going to have an opportunity? Is he going to play better in Philadelphia? We should say their major ins, Trevor Zegris, Christian Dvorak, and Dan Vlodar, as you mentioned, Sean Vladar, not the number one

goalie option you would have hoped if you're a Flyers fan and knowing that they needed an upgrade at the goaltending position and the only major player out in terms of the off-season moves would be Ryan polling. So, not a ton of movement, but some interesting stuff, at least when we're looking at

Zegrores and the Young Corps that they have in Philadelphia. I think just the process of bringing in Zegris is one of those things that makes you buy stock in them moving forward. I think as an idea, it's exactly what you'd like to see because I appreciate the attempt. Yep. And it suggests that they realize that as good as Matthew Mishkov is on track to be, that they still need some talented pieces at the top and that you can't just rely on getting them in the draft, which I think as the on-ice product continues to improve,

like the flyers are probably not going to have, you know, barring a lottery balance that goes their way. They're probably not going to have a chance at drafting, you know, a high-end, top-tier franchise caliber talent again. So you got to get creative and you got to show some courage and maybe take some risks, which I don't even think Trevor Zegro says, by the way. I think the contract's fine.

I think giving up paling, you know, is fairly irrelevant. Worst case scenario, he's a middle six piece that, you know, let's say it's a second line winger who has power play utility. Best case scenario is, you know, you have, I don't know, two C, fringe one C, I don't know. Like, he's got the talent for it. And I think the fact that they went out and recognized that and added that and added that to the group is pretty impressive.

Yeah, I like the way things are trending for them. Yeah. I'm buying on the flyers for futures here. Number two, another kind of interesting team, but in a different way. It's the Pittsburgh Penguins. They were second last in the Metropolitan Division, a negative one net rating. That's seventh in the division, 21st overall. Some of the inns are the additions, Anthony Mantha, Justin Brazzo, Matt Dumbah, Parker,

Wetherspoon, Connor Clifton, Arthur Cilobbs, out, Matt Grislet, Connor Timmins. Nadelcovich. So quite a bit of movement there. For me, coming into this, and Sean, you can do some of the heavy lifting here as our resident Pittsburgh man. To me, the reason to buy on the penguins right now in 2025 would be if you think that they're going to get Gavin McKenna. That was my thought going into this exercise.

So imagine my surprise when I see they only had a negative one net rating. Now I'm like, well, I don't think they got bad enough. Now I just feel like this is a Penguins team who still has Sydney Crosby, who's still a point per game player and still has Malkin and Chris LaTang and a bunch of guys. And they might not be terrible enough to get the first overall pick. Do worse. Do worse. Get Gavin McKenna.

I think they can and I think they will. I think the odds of Brian Rust and Ricard Raquel and Eric. Carlson being on this team whenever the tank battle truly begins down the stretch in the regular season are are are are pretty slim so yeah the fact that their net ranking or their net rating hasn't moved all that much is um devastating it comes with a little bit of an asterisk next to it sure um and i think you know the the potential uh for them to be a legitimate bottom five bottom three team in the league outside of the sharks and the black cocks and the usual suspects there i think it's I think it's still very, very high because the ship has clearly chosen its direction.

I think it's, I think the odds of them having those guys in the roster whenever the chips are really down later in the season are pretty, pretty slim. And the rest of it, you mentioned guys like, you know, Anthony Mantha and, and players like that. Third rounder at the deadline, baby. That's what it is, man. Let's say, uh, we saw it with Beauvilliers last, we saw it with Bovilliers last year. Absolutely. Absolutely. Conditional second rounder, Anthony Manta or whatever.

He's going to have a chance. And that's what you do when you're icing a terrible team like that, is you sign a player like Manta who's shown really some offensive ability, some play-driving ability, at least the ability at times to coast on shooting percentage. You can help on a power play, whatever. If that dude shows up and knocks in, you know, 17 goals by February 26th or the Olympic break or however you want to define it, I think it will be a job well done for them. So if that's a standard, if that's the bar for success, I think, I think I'm buying it.

If we're trying to get worse and add assets and all that stuff. But the on-ice product outside of Crosby is going to be absolutely abysmal this year. I think that's, I think that's pretty clear. And I think that the net rating is, um, On some level, it's being kind to them and on another. I think it's just indicative of how little talent was there at the end of last season. Yeah, yeah, they didn't get that much worse by the numbers, but they were also pretty, pretty horribly bad by the end of all of it.

So I think for me, and I see the vision for what could be a bigger tear down, so to speak, or moving more players out, I think, obviously the conversation with the Penguins, the last couple of years with Kyle Dube. is taking over as GM and president of the team has been like, well, he's not going to fully rebuild, but like, or maybe he kind of is, but he's not saying he is. Like, I still feel like there's a little bit of that mushy middleness going on just because Brian Rust is still on the roster, just because Eric Carlson still on the roster. So to me, until I see those guys gone, I'm not going to buy on the penguins rebuilding. So for now, I'm selling my penguin stock. if we revisit this in the summer and they have the first overall pick and a bunch of those guys are off the roster,

then maybe I'd look at it a little differently, especially if we believe the hype about a Gavin McKenna being legitimately the best prospect since Connor McDavid. We've heard that before with a bunch of guys. We'll see how Gavin McKenna plays at Penn State next season, what the Penguins do. But for now, I feel like they're a pretty easy sell. What I'll say about the, have they chosen the rebuild direction or not? here's where I think the change is. And I know that Carlson and Rust and Raquel are still on this roster. The change now, I think, is that Kyle Jubis is holding onto those guys

because the potential of getting a higher return down the line is greater. Like that's why they're selling the team is because they're going to have more value moving forward than they did say at the draft as trade chips. I think last year there was still some degree of hope that those guys would be, is that you're holding on to those guys because you think they can be part of a quasi-competitive team. And I think that, I think that horse has left the barn. Yeah, they, the penguins showed dubus who they are last season. And now he can truly make a decision of like, okay, he wasn't going to come in year one. I appreciated the

attempt that coming in and trading for Eric Carlson. Everyone loved that move in the moment. Hasn't worked out. He gave them another year to check it out going, okay, yeah, I think this is done. So, but still, I'm still selling on, on the penguins at this point in time. Sean, are you buying yourself? Me too. Like we can sit here and joke and say that we're buying the tank job. And if they land the first overall pick, all's, you know, mission accomplished. We will do this exercise again after year and then we can decide.

Impossible to say. But like I said, the only the only asterisk I'll put on those guys still being around is I think they're there in the name of asset management rather than actually contending. Yeah, I don't think they're contending with those guys. Hell no. Not even close. All right, let's go to the New York Islanders here. A negative two net rating, a big reason for that is trading Noah Dobbson to the Montreal Canadians.

We discussed that in the last episode, looking at the Atlantic. The Montreal Canadians, by the way, had one of the biggest jumps in the NHL, largely because of adding no adopsin to their blue line. Islanders, negative two net rating, that's worse than the division, lower than the Penguins. That's 24th overall in the league. They add Jonathan Druwen, Emil Heineman, David Riddick. and again, they lose Noah Dobbs. And this is an interesting team in this sense that pretty good forward group still,

probably a better actual active roster than the penguins do right now. Well, unless, I mean, Sidney Crosby, if you look at everyone other than Sydney Crosby, they have a bit more than the penguins do, but they also have a ton of good young talent. They just drafted first overall, a bunch of elite players now in the system. They did just trade no adopts. And so they're in this weird middle ground of still kind of relevant guys on the NHL roster, but also an exciting young future.

Like the islanders are, they're one of the more interesting teams in the metro to me. Because I don't really know what they are right now, but I'm still looking ahead to the future for them. What do you think about the islanders, Sean? I think they're probably as close to a hold as you're going to find in this division because, I think they're of a type in some ways.

with, I think the job that Matthew Darsh has in front of them is similar in some ways to what Kyle Dubus is dealing with in Pittsburgh because you have guys like J.G. Pajot, like a potential who, he's a guy who, especially given the dearth of centers in free agency and just more generally available on the market, he's a guy that a lot of teams would like to have. And I think, my assumption is that Matthew Darch knows it. And that's why we haven't seen a J.G. Peugeot deal yet. Like, he can hold them. you wait until you get the offer you want for him. There's no pressing need to move him now. But I think there is, I think there is an element of like wait and see what happens with some of the guys that are currently on the roster. As constructed, I don't think they're going to win anything. Like I don't see them as a legitimate wild card contender.

But at the same time, Haley, you mentioned it. You talked about the talent that they added at the draft, not just Matthew Schaefer either. They had Hachshon Aitason and in Eklund there later in the first round. We talked to Scott Wheeler about this. They have five of his top 34 draft at NHL prospects, which is pretty impressive. So I think that is what pushes me a little bit closer to maybe understanding the long-term vision. But the fact that there's so many that there are still the Bo Horvats and Matt Barsals of the world,

these like win now pieces at the top. top of the lineup without necessarily being a contender. I think that makes me a soft sell on them. But at the same time, I think it's clear to see that, you know, there's some kind of groundwork being laid for whatever comes next. I know they're two totally different teams, but if we think that they have good young talent coming, but also good NHL players, why do you sell on the Islanders but buy on the flyers?

Just because the flyers have that more clearly defined plan with young pieces already on the NHL roster? It's too early to buy on the Islanders? For me, I think it's the Michigov factor. I think the Flyers, if you believe in him, I think you're probably more on board with the Flyers overall. I think they have that franchise caliber, young forward at the top of the lineup in a way that,

you know, for all Matt Parsow's talents, like I'm, I think moving forward, I would rather have Mishav than him. So I think that's kind of the, that's the defining factor and also, you know, they're just, they're further along in trying to plot the next phase of stuff for themselves. There's still a lot of variables for Matthew Darsh, even though it's been, even though it's been a pretty productive offseason. We do need to figure out what he does, you know, with some of those, some of those, you know, late, late 20s, early 30s

players that are, that are in the mix. So until I see what happens, you know, with, with some guys like that, I think they kind of have to be a soft sell for me. Yeah, if we're allowed to hold, I would hold just because I want to see, does Matthew Schaefer make the opening night roster? What does he end up being in the next year or two? But if we're looking at what the Islanders are right now, it is a little bit of a mix of like fine NHL roster, but exciting future. But that future, it probably isn't one year away. It's probably more like two. If I were more, if I were less like fundamentally opposed to prospect hugging and putting all your eggs in the basket of players who are 18 and 19 and 20, I think I would be a little bit higher on the Islanders.

But just I think as a rule, she was only 17. Yeah, as a rule, those guys make me nervous. So I, so until we see some development from them at the pro level, I got it. I got a hold. But I can imagine, I can imagine feeling much, much different about them a year from now. Yeah, I would probably hold if we're saying we're allowed to do that. And then I'll revisit next year. But if we can hold, I hold, if we have to pick one lane or the other,

I'll say soft sell with an asterisk. That's so mealy mouth and lame, but it's how I feel. You are the one that did that in the Atlantic Division. And I said, I think I hate the idea of holding. And you said, well, we should be allowed to. So I am playing by the rules that you have laid out. for this project. Yes, for this very important project that we were getting tons and tons of time until.

Absolutely. Those are the rules. It took me so long to write out all of these teams. Yeah, I know. I believe it. For your help, yeah. All right, let's take a break when we come back. We're going to take a look at the middle of the division.

That's the Columbus Blue Jackets, New York Rangers, and New Jersey Devils. That's next looking at buying or selling NHL off seasons on the Uth. Athletic Hockey Show. Greetings, listeners, we want to hear from you. Check out the link in the description to give us your feedback on the show. That means tell us the content that you've enjoyed the most. Tell us what you would like us to do differently next season. If you've got an opinion, we want to hear it.

So thank you for it. Thanks for your continued support. And we'll talk to you again real soon. Great. Welcome back to the Athletic Hockey Show, continuing to buy or sell on NHL off-season. two cells so far, one buy. We're buying on the flyers so far, nobody else.

Middle of the division. It's fine. Let's start here with the Columbus Blue Jackets and a reminder if you did skip ahead because you don't care about those first three teams. We're going in the reverse order of the standings of the division last season. Blue Jackets, zero net rating added according to Dom's model, fifth in the division. That's 18th overall.

they add Charlie Coil this off season, Miles Wood, those were in the trade with Colorado, major players out, James Van Riemesdyke, Sean Corrally, Jordan Harris, Deniel Teresov. A lot of pieces in and out, no big movement in either direction, as we see with the zero net rating added, Charlie Coil is at least a top nine center option behind Monahan and Fantilli. they also signed a big contract for Ivan Provarov, seven years, $8.5 million. I think for me,

I'm not, I mean, I'm not buying on the blue jackets right now because I see this as maybe a disappointing off season, Sean. They had money to spend, but didn't necessarily get better. And that's talking about a team that was at the bottom of the division.

What do you think about the Columbus blue jackets? Yeah, I'm with you on that. I think, the amount of money that they had to spend came at an unfortunate time because the UFA crop was was pretty rough. We saw them retain one of their own. I've had a pro-ro.

I've had a lot of people, a lot of people really didn't like. I think I'm a lot of people, me. We could say I'm in that group. I don't know if I was on the contract great on that one, but the fact that he got more to stay in Columbus than Vladislav Gavlov did on the open market to head to New York is wild to me because Garikov's just a flat out better better player than him. 8.5 million dollars to pro vera for the next seven years is that's is that's the kind of like premium

that people talk about to sign in a market that has been historically difficult to hold on to you face. I think so and I think Don Laudette was in a tough spot because it's like what do you do? You let him walk. You had a team that, you know, showed plenty last year and had a lot of a lot of younger players make leaps too right so so there's reason there's reason to try to keep things together they they retain dante fabro like i i get the logic there um and i also get the logic of going out and getting charlie coil because you need a center and they're just there's simply aren't that many but i i think you know this is it's a tough break because they had money to spend they had a real reason to try to improve and didn't have uh you know outside of you know

Mitch Marner or McLahillers or other other players that seem ticketed for elsewhere. Like, how do you spend that money wisely? And I think they kept playing their cap space, which is good. But I think some of the money that they, the premium that they paid on ProVrov, taking Miles Woods contract back with, with Charlie Coyle, I think, you know, their cap situation is not, they're in worse shape there than they were, say, three months ago. And I'm not sure that on-ice product is all that much better.

So I think, you know, I think they have to be for me a sell. Yeah, because there's just not, there's not much to get excited about. There's a, they're, they did well to keep the group together that they had last year, I suppose. But also they didn't really improve in any meaningful way. Because Charlie Coil is, he's an average, he's an average player right now. He's an average third line center. And those guys have some kind of value, but they're also not going to move the needle all that more. So yeah.

Yeah, I think that if you believe that there's going to be improvement from Kent Johnson, from Cole Cillinger, from Fantilli, like I like Fantilli as a player. I think they have good young players in Columbus. So there's reason to believe the blue jackets will improve next season, but it's not necessarily because of some big swing that the front office made. I feel like I never. totally know how to feel about the blue jackets. Like last year at around the deadline, you and I were both kind of all in being like go and do something fun. Like this team is playing

really well. Um, I think the organization even said like this player has shown us they deserve to be added to. So the blue jackets to me are at least interesting. I just don't know if I'm ready to buy stock in them at this point in time. Um, but maybe I'm being harsh because I, I understand getting Charlie Coyle. I understand wanting your young players to be the main central pieces of your core. So now I'm kind of talked myself into like, do I sell on the Blue Jax? I don't know. I feel like I'm constantly just like, I don't know.

That's the danger of the go do something mindset. And I both of us and so is. Now we're disappointed they didn't do something, but like maybe they didn't have to. Well, but they did, they did do something. They shout out a bunch of money to keep Prove Rob and Fabro. They trade for coil. They add Miles Wood, who theoretically is a bottom six piece moving forward, even though he's been pretty brutal the last couple years.

Like when the market isn't, it doesn't favor buyers or isn't stock the way that you want it to be come summer, that's the dangers of the go-do something mindset. Because if you're just dead set on doing something, you're probably not going to spend your money in the most efficient. and I think unfortunately for them that's a case of what we have here. Yeah. And I think if you were expecting some kind of summer makeover, that obviously didn't happen.

And I think that's what makes the offseason a little disappointing. Like we're talking about a team that was only two points behind the New York Rangers. Like they weren't, they weren't as bad as the penguins or the flyers. Like this is a team that could keep pace in the middle of the division next season, like fourth or fifth in the metro, maybe not push for playoffs. And that's what makes it disappoint. is they weren't that far behind, again, the Rangers,

and if they would have made some bigger move, maybe they'd move up higher. Is Charlie Coil going to be enough to make a move in the metro? He's probably going to play a big role in the team, but I don't know. And this is also, even tracking Aaron Portsline. Igor Shinikov,

they've requested a trade because of issues with the coach or misunderstandings with Dean Everson. So that's something to track with, the blue jackets as well, you know, a player who wants to play a top six in the NHL. Yeah. Somewhere else, but they're not really, it doesn't seem like they've been able to work something out there. Yeah, they, if Fantelli goes supernova and really takes another step forward, then they look a lot better.

And if Carol Marchenko continues, you know, to produce and if Sean Monaghan, you know, stays, continues to stay healthy, which like fingers crossed for him always, I think he's like a favorite of ours are around here. You know, things are going to look fine for them. But yeah, in terms of offseason addition, relative to where they were last year, man, it's, it's tough to, it's tough to go truly into buy mode for them. Yeah. All right.

Let's move on from the blue jackets. I'm, yeah, I'm a soft sell on the blue jackets right now again. It just seems like they struck out on bigger trades or bigger moves and just were like, okay, let's circle back to Provarov and Dante Fabro. Mm-hmm. New York Rangers, we just said they finished two. points ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets in the middle of the division. They have a plus three net rating this off season.

That's second highest in the division, 12th overall in the league. They add Taylor Radish, Vladislav, Gavakov and Scott Morrow out, Keandre Miller in a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes and Chris Kreider. Gavikov, true top pair defender for the Kings last season. He could look great for Adam Fox or drive a second pair to even out that top four. He would be the reason to be interested in the Rangers. this season. Their forward additions are probably more

fourth liners, which they already have a lot of. In New York, what do you think about the Rangers, Sean? The main reason I like them is because I still believe in Igor Shisterkin as one of the few best goal tenors in the league.

I think Mike Sullivan is a really good hockey coach. I think if you like... Yeah, that's a big addition that I didn't mention you, right? Well, he doesn't show up in the net rating. What can you expect? Um, yeah, I, I, I, but it is, it's, uh, they're, they're going to look, they're going to look different this year. There's, there's no Kreider. There's, you know, obviously no, no, no Andrew Miller. Jacob Trub has been a duck since the winter. So it is, we have seen a little bit of a facelift go on there.

I, I, the main reason to buy for them, and I think that's where I am is that it almost can't get any worse. The vibes at the garden realistically can't be any nastier than they were for the bulk of that season after the trade drama with Truba and Crider. You know, Chris Jury obviously made those guys available publicly, at least leaked publicly, pretty early in the season. That seemed like that nuked any real chance at them gaining any footing. We saw that Peter Laviole did affect petered out pretty quickly. Yeah. So I think that there's probably more meat left on the bone for some of those players. I think Sullivan's good at getting the most out of guys like that.

Not to say that the roster is particularly good. You can look down the middle and find some problems pretty easily, but I think things will get better from last season. I'm relatively confident in that because I really do like Vladislav Gavikov. He's been one of the best defensive Ds in the league for the last couple years. I think he's going to look great next to Fox. So, yeah, I think I'm a soft buy on them. But there are holes that are pretty plain to see at the same time.

Yeah, their forward group. I think if that's a much better top four. I think Kiannoy Miller has the potential. We can talk about this more. We can talk about the Kains. He could have a, you know, he could fit really well in the Kaine system, have a better season this upcoming year. But if we're looking at the output from last season,

Averkov is an upgrade to Miller on the blue line. So that's probably where a bunch of that net rating comes from. So yeah, I would soft buy on the Rangers. I don't know. Like, do you think they're going to be a playoff team next year? I think when we did our two early predictions, I did pick them. Have them in the playoffs. Yeah.

And that's because it's just circan and it's because of Mike Sullivan. And it's because, you know, players like Vince Trochuk and J.T. Miller and dudes like that, I believe in them as productive in NHL players. But yeah, the days of, also the days of me picking them to win the division. Yeah, to win the division or make true noise in the playoffs. I think those are, I think those are gone for now. Yeah, if they're not in the mix, that would be disappointing, which is what makes them a soft buy for me.

That's a team that I could see making, making a move up in the Metro, or at very least be relevant in the wild card race down the stretch of the season. All right, let's move on to the New Jersey Devils, a plus two net rating. That's third in the division, 14th overall in the league. Not a ton of additions. In Jersey,

they add Connor Brown and Fgeny Dadanov. They lose Eric Hala, Curtis Lizarre, and Brian Dumlin. That's really just depth to the bottom six. So if you're buying on the devils,

it's really because you believe in the core in that adding some depth pieces like that is going to help. Connor Brown knows how to be a debt guy on a team with this. I'm all in. Way to go.

I think in terms of buying or selling is maybe like a boring question on the devils. I think a more interesting question. And I'm saying this as someone who came up with the question and is asking it. So I'm just tweeting my own horn. Yeah. Do you feel like the devils needed more top end talent to become a true contender in the East? Or should that core, we're talking about Jack Hughes, Luke Hughes. We can add Nemich.

I don't know if you add Dougie Hamilton to that group anymore because the injuries and maybe where his game is at. But we got Jacob Markstrom, Nico, he's sure, Timo Meyer. Like, when I see that core group, like, is that a group that needed more top-end talent or should they already be there? I also see Dawson Mercer as their 3C. He was abysmal last season. I see Cody Glass as an option there too. André Palat is a big part of that top six still. I think that could be a problem moving forward. I do I like Jack Hughes, of course.

Do I, do I, you know, who doesn't like Nico He's here? I think he was my Selkie pick this year on and on. Like I believe in the guys at the top of the roster, but man, this stuff behind them, especially at Forward, is starting to get pretty fuzzy. And, you know, are we just dreading water and killing time until Quinn Hughes, joins his brothers in Newark. And I don't know. Maybe, maybe not.

That remains to be seen. But I really would have liked to have seen them. Got out and got some other bottom six option, particularly down the middle. And they didn't do that. Like Connor Brown, useful player, like, like you said. But I just still feel like. He's going to be on like their third line with Mercer probably. I still just, I still just feel like coming into a season where you're relying heavily on

Dawson Mercer, Ruff. The way he played last year is. is no bueno for me. And I think, you know, in a world where we look at the devils as, you know, a soon-to-be contender, I'm just not sure. I'm not sure I'm there on them. So, yeah, they're a soft sell for me too. I'm not crazy about their off-season. You think that it's more depth that they need than top-end talent? Like you didn't look at the Devils and say, I think they could use a legitimate top six piece. It was more, they need a three C. I think the fact that they're rolling into this season with, you know, hoping that

Dossomerser figures it out meaningfully again and then bringing back Cody Glass, who's the scrap heap guy has a, as an option behind him. I think, I think they just needed, they needed one more piece. And I'm not crazy about the work that they've done there, no. And probably the biggest piece that we need to talk about here is Luke Hughes currently has no contract. That is the probably, most definitely the single biggest piece of business for the devils is getting Luke Hughes under contract, 21 years old defender. Yep. Back to back 40 point seasons in his first two full years in the NHL still doesn't have a deal. Yeah. And depending on what that deal looks like, there goes the rest of their cap space. They've got less than $7 million in projected space

according to Puckpedia. I think it's very possible that whatever, whatever Luke Q's next contract looks like eats up a whole bunch of that. So I think this is the problem. I'll be why they didn't go out and get some big top six piece because you can't really go shopping outside of the bargain bin until you know what you have on the books for Luke Q's. And that's the problem, man, is that they have a lot of expensive guys at the top of that lineup. And when you're doing stuff like paying Andre Palat what what they are, you know, and you have a couple guys that are overpaid whenever you have even a contract as great as Jack Hughes.

Jack Hughes is moving forward, you know, you got to hit on the other pieces. And I just, I'm not crazy about the stuff that's surrounding, you know, the top four or five guys there right now. So you're selling on the doubles right now? I'm selling on them as a legit contender. Yeah, I think they, for now, I think they, I think, but I do think they make the playoffs. I, and I think they could easily make me look like an idiot if depending, you know, Jack Hughes stays healthy and in Luke, and Luke levels up and blah, blah, like everything will fall into place. But in terms of their offseason, in terms of the work that they've done to augment that core,

I'm not crazy about it. And that's what's making me sell. I probably soft buy on them because they got better last season, finished there in the division. I think they'll still, I like their young talent if Jack Hughes can stay healthy if you sign Luke. It's almost that they feel incomplete to me at this moment in time that we're recording this, but I'm going to soft buy on the Devils. I feel like I've been on the devil's wagon for a while. Maybe I'll end up regretting that.

There's just always, there's always something that goes wrong with. them and that's starting to make me nervous like yes jack got hurt and yes dougie got hurt and yes the year before that they've been they got nailed by goal tending and whatever but when you have these year after year after year where something goes wrong it makes me wonder you know what the future looks like so that's that's also a big part of it i don't like the supporting cast and i don't like the way the last couple seasons have gone regardless of the reasons for it yeah they made a jump from seventh in the division to third it's a but then the year before that they were what first in the division, second in the division.

So there's a big, like, yo-yo trajectory for the New Jersey Devils. If I could hold, I probably would. But that's kind of boring. So I'll soft buy, but it's not, but then I'm kind of breaking the rules because I don't love what they did this off season. They still haven't signed Lou Cues. I don't think they're better. I don't think they're better this year than last.

And to me, that's the determining factor. Connor Brown's probably better than Curtis Lazare. Yeah, but you could also. also say that Andre Palada may be trending pretty far downwards and makes $6 million a year on a team that can't afford to overpay role players. So that's the kind of stuff wrongly. They're selling this off season. I'm going to hold on the Devils. I'm sorry.

I'm doing it. I'm pulling the card. I'm holding. Yeah. But they're interesting. I would like to see what happens with Luke Hughes. Okay. Let's take one more break.

When we come back, we're going to take a look at the top two teams in the Metro. that's the canes and the caps on the athletic hockey show. All right, welcome back to the athletic hockey show. It's time to dive in on the Carolina Hurricanes. I don't mean to shock you here, Sean. Plus 9 net rating, first in the division, one of the most improved teams this summer, fourth overall. And that's after another trip to the conference finals.

Another failed trip to the conference finals, sure, sure. They weren't swept, though. And they add the most in the division. Nickelai Eilers, the kind of dynamic offensive talent that Carolina is needed for a while. We talk about it ad nauseum. They just don't have enough firepower oomph or whatever. Juice. Lame thing that Don wants to say in power rankings.

Whatever, whatever cornball line Don is pushing at a given in any given moment. Oomf vibe, whatever he wants to say. Our 32-year-old Gen Z-year-old. Gen Z girl. Gen Z friend Dom. So the Cains ad Nikolai Eilers, that's the big get, and Kiannoy Miller in the trade we mentioned with the New York Rangers, and they subtract Brent Burns and Dmitri Orlov.

Backends probably a bit harder to evaluate with Miller coming in, often not so great season in New York, probably doesn't grade out as well as Burns and Orlov did last year on the blue line. But I think that's just on paper in terms of the on-ice product. There's potential for Miller to be great in the Kahn. cane system. Nothing else. It's an interesting move by Tolski. Again, one of the most improved teams this summer. And they check a box that they've really needed for a while. What do you think about the cane? Sean, I'm an easy buy on the canes. What do you think? I'm happy for

Nikolai Eilers. He gets to maybe have Sebastian Ajo as a center after spending the last couple years with Vladislav Nemesnikov. I think that's a pretty serious trade up. I think what you're going to see from Eilers now is he's going to get the minutes that he deserved in Winnipeg, at at five on five for all those years. He's going to be playing with Aho or someone, someone a little bit more, a little bit more competent than most of the centers he got in Winnipeg, and he's going to get first unit power play time.

That's big. And I think that that makes the upside potential for that contract that he signed even greater. So yeah, I think, you know, would we have loved it if they would have, uh,

hung on to Miko Rentonan or signed Mitch? Martin, sure. But I think as a, if you want to call Nicola Euler as a contingency plan, I think he's about as good as it gets. He's a potential, you know, game breaker there. And that's, and that's big. And then, Andrea Miller, you know, I think he's the exact kind of player we've seen them go after in the past. I trust their their evaluations of defensemen and knowing how they're going to fit within their system. And the fact that they, you know, made that deal and sign of that extension is is good enough for me. Yeah, because you're still going to have the Slavin, Sean Walker, top pair.

Like, that's probably going to be the top pair. And then Keandre Miller on the second pair. It's not an offseason move, but do you think we could expect a full NHL season from Alexander to Keishan? Is that something to watch for the Keynes as well? Absolutely. I think, especially, we saw from him over the course of the playoffs. You know, Rod Brindamor talked about this.

Some of his teammates did as well. barely spoke in English when he came to the United States. That's what happens. He jumped from the KHL and had to basically come in midstream, figured out a ton of stuff. There was a bit of a language barrier that had even started to resolve itself, you know, as the playoffs kind of extended. I have every belief that, you know, that's the bad end of things.

He's only going to keep getting bigger. He's extremely talented. He's clearly a big part of what they're doing moving forward. The hurricanes certainly love him. And I think now if you want to keep him on the left side, you have the potential to play him on that third pair behind Slaven and behind Kandri Miller. And you keep him in a spot that's natural. You maybe ease him into some relatively low impact minutes and just help him grow because he really does look like a potential impact guy.

And I fully expect him to be in line up every day moving forward for them. I still don't love Yisperi Kockney-Mee as they're two-see. Like that's the one thing that you kind of keep going. going back to what that's like the B line with the Cains after saying maybe they don't have enough scoring. It's like I also think they probably need the better second line center, but they check big box. They make an interesting trade on the blue line. That is enough for me to continue to buy on the Carolina Hurricanes.

Yep. I don't know. Who is it going to be the two after they go out and get Nick Eilers probably run out of time on a two C. Potentially. Yeah. I'm, that's just maybe that's nitpicking the Carolina Hurricanes. team that has consistently been a contender. But I'm,

I'm, I'm easy buying on them. If I'm a Keynes fan, I'm much happier that they save their money and they save their cap space rather than going out and signing a spare part for the, for the middle six, just to, just to say you did.

Yeah, if they're only going to accomplish one of those two things, Nikolai Ehlers is the, the one that you want. That's the priority. And Tulski got it done. Let's go to the final team here. the Washington capitals, the team that won the division.

Zero net rating added that's sixth in the division, 19th overall. And it's because they didn't do a whole lot, didn't do much at all. They were in the mix for, for Eilers, obviously lose out to the Keynes, kind of appreciate them saying, like if we don't get the game changer, we're just going to stand Pat. Andrew Mangiopani goes, Lars Eller goes. They sign Justin sort of. Still need a third line center.

I would say that's your, that you would say, Sean. made this point. They still need a 3C. They're going to have to hope that Hendricks Lapier can be the guy after being taken in the first round in 2020. But yeah, not much. Captain, do a whole lot. Does that make you buy or sell on them or just hold? I think you almost have to hold. Yeah. I love that they were in on Eilers. I think that would have been a really interesting creative solution to their, you know, a little bit of a lack of depth down the middle because I think what you would have seen, I imagine, is that Eilers would have bumped up to the second line, played with Pierre Lutubois and Tom Wilson, and then you would

have felt better about dropping Connor McMichael down. He's a natural center who popped last year on that second line, left wing spot. You could have dropped him down and felt better about it. A real star of my fantasy roster last season. Oh my God, yeah, seriously, lots of power play goals too. We appreciate what Connerick Michael adds. I need a warm body on my fantasy team to like I can't not start Connor McMichael every single day.

Who knows? I think it's still like people talk about their fantasy teams. Now, you know, I think while you got to assume he's still an option to move to shift the center, you know, full time, it's something he talked about during the playoffs a good bit as well. Now the question becomes if you do that, who replaces him as your second line? left winger. And are you okay with Anthony Bavillier playing there over the course of a full regular season?

I would imagine you like him more on the, as more of a swing man option on the middle six, right? So would in a perfect world, if you're a Caps fan, would they have gone out and addressed either top six wing or third line center in a more legitimate way? Like, yeah, I would say so. They tried Hendricks Lafierre in that slot to start the last season.

Didn't work then. They ended up going out and getting Larzellar as kind of a fallback option. It seems like they're going to try it again with Lapeier. So we shall see. I think they're a good team, but I don't know how you can do anything other than hold their stock at best after the way the summer's gone so far. Yeah, I feel like my more spicy take is that. I just don't see a world in which they're as good this season as they were last year.

Totally fair. Even though it's the exact same group more or less coming back, I just, I don't know if everything is going to go right. It's a big ass. It's a big ass. And not to be the shooting percentage guy, but Strom,

Wilson, and Ovechkin all shot around 19% last season. I mean, last season, especially in the playoffs, So I was like, the Dylan Strom story is unbelievable. I love that. He's got a legitimate role here.

But they all shot above their historic or career average weight in terms of those top three guys. Conn-McMichael being a 26 goal scorer. I don't know if everyone saw that coming for him. That's quite the jump. Although it wasn't a big, his shooting percentage was around the same. So I don't know. I just don't know if everything is going to click and go right in the same way for them. Yeah.

I think that's a big ass to, well, is Alexi ProCos? Especially given what the Keynes did. For sure, for sure. I think they're a pretty well defined second place in that division for me. I still, yeah, I still think they make the playoffs. I still think they're one of the best teams in the division. And so for that, I can't sell on them. And I think that would be silly given that they were top in the division and didn't change in either direction.

So, yeah, I would hold or like soft buy on the caps. But I don't think they're going to have 111 points and lead the Metro and lead the conference. I think there's a lot of stuff that went into that performance for them that doesn't seem particularly repeatable. Like it's a big ask for all that stuff to go right again. He kind of limped into the playoffs too. Sorry to cut you off. Totally. After the OV chase, there was a lot of like, oh, are they going to be okay?

Yeah. And I think, you know, they're going to need more great play from Logan Thompson. And that's always a fair question to ask of really any goal tend in the league. Like can he follow up or full time be the guy that we saw in the first few months of last season? Like that's, it's fair. It's fair to wonder. is Tom Wilson's, you know, mid-career resurgence going to continue. Can Alex Oveskin produce and, you know, still do Alex Oveskin stuff frequently enough to, you know,

make up for what he takes, you know, it's, it's tough. Especially without the other motivation of a record. I think there's more questions about the caps this year. And maybe it, maybe I'm just being more poo-poo on them because they had such a fun off. the year before they were active in doing a bunch of stuff. So it's a bit of a letdown. It'd be like, oh, zero net rating. They didn't really do anything.

They didn't do anything, like a zero net rating to the team that won the East is not necessarily a bad thing. So I would hold our soft buy on the caps, but I'll be interested to see how they look next season. Still a good team, still plenty of like. But I think just based on all that stuff, they're a soft sell for me. You're selling the caps? In the sense that I don't think they're going to be the number one seat in the Eastern Conference again, yes. Relative the last season, they're...

I was saying that I was going to even sell and that would be a hot take and you're like, ooh, interesting. I didn't think you're going to be like, yeah, I'm going to sell. Did you just steal my hot take? There's no way to know. Who can say? I have to check the tape on that one. Interesting. All right.

Well, that's the Metro. Not a ton to love in the division. unless you're Greg Wyshinsky and you love the devils. I don't know. Who? Never heard of that guy. Oh yeah, he doesn't work here. I'm sorry.

Just bleep that out, Jeff. But yeah, that's the Metro Division. I thought the Atlantic was more interesting. We still talked for a while about the Metro, though. Thanks, everyone for listening to this episode of the Athletic Cocky Show. If you like the buying or selling segment, you can check out the Atlantic Division. If you miss that, this has been the Metro. And then Sean and I are going to continue this project

and take a look at the Western Conference, beginning with the Central as we continue to buy and sell our stock. The market is still open. We'll be back on the next episode of the Ethera Cockney Show.