The Hockey PDOcast - Episode 377: 2021 Watchability Rankings

Episode Date: January 4, 2021

Jeff Marek joins the show for this year's version of what's become an annual preseason tradition for the show - the Watchability Rankings. We discuss what we're looking forward to watching, and rank all 31 teams based on the entertainment value we think they'll provide in the 2021 season. Topics include: How we put together our lists and tiered teams What we find entertaining and worth watching The bad rebuilding teams already looking to the future The good defensive teams that aren't especially exciting The teams that have a lot of brand new faces The teams we're particularly high or low on The usual suspects in the East The explosive Canadian Division If you're interested in the Blue Wire Hustle program discussed at the top of the show, you can submit your application here: http://bwhustle.com/join Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

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Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name is Dimitri Filipovich. and joining me making his triumphant, highly anticipated returns at a PDO cast. It's Uncle Jeff Merrick. Jeff, what's going on, man? Two things. One, I totally cheated on the assignment this week, Dimitri. And two, Haley Salvean's a jerk.

Where do you want to start? Either one. Both are good. No, you choose. You're the host. I used to always hijack this show and host over top of you. But I'm softening in my older age. Let's start with Haley, because that was the most recent video cast.

Haley Salvean's a jerk You know why? She doesn't even realize how good she is So I've been a fan of her I think like everybody else for a while Actually, here you want a little quick little factoid Back when she was the in-house announcer

I shouldn't say in-house announcer In-Stand announcer at the Oshawa General's games My first contact with Haley was she gave my son a puck At Oshawa Generals, I think Belleville Bulls game or Oshoa General's Windsor Spitfires game. That's where I first met Salvean. And then it seems like, you know, five minutes after that, she's a big star. And here's why I hate her.

Because she doesn't even realize how good she is and how good she's going to be like. That old saying, youth is wasted on the young. Every time that I read something Salvian writes or hear on, you know, most recently the PDO cast with you, I say to myself, like, there is a star in the making with Salvean. And then I'll, like, pick up the phone and call her. Like, I was listening halfway through your podcast with her. I called her up, and this is when she was talking about Eugene Melnick. And I called her up, and I'm like, hey, that's some good stick handling.

And she started talking. I'm like, you know you're really good, right? Like, it's oblivious to her, like, just how good she really is. And congratulations to Salvin on getting the Calgary assignment, which is a plum one for the athletic. And I don't know. I just, I look at people like Haley Salvin. I look at younger people in the industry that that write and speak much differently than I do or anybody else of my vintage. And I get excited about the industry again.

I was saying it's obvious in the day, because we're talking about her writing. And I said, like, you know, there's like an empathy that you have in your writing that comes through. You're oblivious to it. Like you're in the middle of itself. And you don't understand it. But there is an empathy that comes through in your writing that is. is really perceptible. I think by everybody,

except for you, do you understand how hard that is to do? And she's clueless. You know, it's even harder to do. The professionalism she showed,

she knew she was going out the door, wasn't going to be covering the senators anymore, and she still got her tongue and refrain from taking pot shots where they would have been highly warranted. Well, see,

I was listening to the pod and I'm like, I wonder if she'd take, because there's an easy way to do the, the Melnick question, right? Which is,

oh, well, you know, half the people in Ottawa dislike them and the other half hate them. Ha ha ha ha. And then you sort of have the conversation from there. But there was an interesting podcast he did with her about The Sends and you spent a good chunk talking about Eugene and I'm of a couple of minds on it. And the one is, you know, he's a throwback owner.

Like regardless of how he might embarrass the organization and how fans think about him, etc. I mean, he really is a throwback to a different era. Like I grew up in Toronto and I grew up in the era of Harold Ballard, who was one of, you know, the wildest, craziest owners, you know, the, the NHL has ever seen. And I always do sort of wonder, as the game becomes more corporate and more professional, to be honest about it, you know, it is, I wonder if we've lost something by no longer having that crazy owner personality in the game.

Like, there are still individuals that own. Jeffrey Vennick is a wonderful example. Congratulations to have to be a lightning on winning this. Family Cup. But I wonder if the game, it is something that's lost. I just wonder how profound the loss is. Like should we say to ourselves, okay, that's the byproduct of a different era. Let's turn the page on that. Or do you say, you know what, there was something valuable about having the crazy owner that you didn't know what he was going to do from one day to another, to incite his fan base. I don't know, Dimitri. We're off to a roaring start here. We're five minutes in and

We have not even introduced the concept of today's show in spectacular Jeff Merrick fashion. Let me tee us up and then we'll get into your second point there about the homework. So I haven't had you on in a couple of years now and I knew that to reintroduce you to the show, we'd have to do something special. We couldn't just have a regular podcast talking about mundane topics. And so it's more special than my personal favorite show to do every year, the watchability rankings where we're going to count down from 31 to 1. The team's based on entertainment value.

And so that's your cue here. How do you cheat your homework today? I cheated. And this is a wink at the conversation. I'll reference your podcast again, since this podcast is one of the ones that I never miss. Like there are a few, like whenever a new effectively wild podcast comes out, like I love baseball and I love that podcast. I don't miss that. Anything Dan Carlin puts out, I gobble that up.

Anytime Fred Kaplan is on a podcast, I'll listen, so I tend to listen to a lot of Slate podcasts. but yours is one that I always listen to, and I'll reference your conversation with Chris Johnson from a couple of weeks ago when you guys were talking about the Canadian Division or the North Division. And I understand that I say this selfishly as an employee of Rogers

who works at SportsNet in the hockey department. Every single game is going to be awesome. And not just the game itself, but the fan bases around it. And you guys talked a lot about Canucks Twitter and what Canucks Twitter is going to be like this season what oilers twitter is going to be like what leaf's twitter is going to be like like i don't know it's funny i was talking about uh hockey central radio producer that they met markeese

about this very thing that you guys were talking about on the pdo cast and that is you know how do you capture that's how do you capture that thing that's going to be the conversation around the games how do you capture that on radio how do you capture that on podcast i don't have an answer for it i have no idea. All I know is all these games are going to be emotionally charged. And whether the game is good or not, I think the environment around it is going to make them good. You know what I mean? Like history, history is kind to it. We just had the anniversary of the Red Army, Montreal, Canadians game. And if you go back and watch it, it's a good game. I don't know that I'd call the game necessarily great by how it was it was played.

I mean, they were great performances. Tretchjack was outstanding in that game. That is a command performance. Ken Dryden is quite average in that game. Like, it wasn't a command game from both sides, but everything around the game has made it large in life. And every rush, every rebound, became that much more emotionally charged.

And I think that that's what we're going to see with the North Division. And so I've lumped them all into one. So if I can start with the top, I'm going to put all of the Canadian division plus Colorado. Okay. Yeah. Well, that's going to be my stuff. So that's how I cheated.

I mean, I agree with you. And we're going to get into all that. We can break them down one by one. I think, you know, I want to start this off with a quick little thing about sort of our methodology or kind of what we're looking for to give people a behind the current look of like how we came across these rankings or sort of what we're favoring, right? And so certainly I think talent is relevant because, you know, that generally tends to lead to better more kind of efficient, beautiful hockey, and we're looking for that, and we want to see the best

players play. But I think being a good team doesn't necessarily mean you're a very exciting team to watch, as we're going to get into here, as we go along, especially if you're a more sort of defensively oriented team. But things I'm looking for are kind of like, you know, style, system, playing with pace, obviously personnel and the talent, team dynamics. And this kind of gets into what you're saying with the North Division, I think, sort of games of consequence or relevance, right? Like what people are going to be talking about, what every night people are going to be tuning into just kind of being part of that sort of virtual water cooler phenomenon, right? Where you just go on Twitter and everyone's going to be watching Calgary versus Edmonton.

It might not necessarily be the most beautifully, most efficiently played game. It might be sloppy. There might be a bunch of penalties. But people are going to be watching and people are going to be talking about it. And you can't kind of overlook that sort of element to it. One of the things that I wonder about, too, as we get into this, the game. are going to change and they always do all season long. Like, how many times have you, how many times have you watched a game, Dmitri, in January and said yourself, oof, that looked like an October game? Because to your point, oh, it's sloppy, a lot of passes are going off the heel and going

or off the toe, and it doesn't, oh, look at the breakdowns, look at the turnovers. And that can lead to, listen, a lot of excitement. That's, I think, one of the attractions about things like junior hockey, specifically because, you know, in an NHL game, you'll have, like, three major breakdowns. In junior hockey, you'll have 30. So I think that becomes more attractive. So a lot of this I think is speculation on where it's going to end up, keeping in mind we're not going to have a full 82 game season.

So we're going to spend about how many of you figure, Dimitri, 10 games each of some pretty sloppy hockey until this thing settles in. And we have a good idea of what these teams are really going to be about. Because let me honestly, no exhibition games. it was like five minutes ago they just you know wrapped up in the bubbles uh i'm not expecting quote unquote great hockey off the hop but that's okay because i still think it's going to be entertaining yeah i think it's going to be compensated for with sort of not necessarily passion because i think whenever you step on the ice then an NHL game there's going to be a certain level of passion but

maybe pressure or the inability to throw games away for a lot of these teams right we're talking about a 56 game season here it's not like the typical 82 game marathon where you can have four straight stinkers and sort of just write off a week long trip to Florida or something, right? Like in this case, each game is going to have so much more significance for the playoff picture. And so for a lot of these teams, especially in the middle there, like, you can't really afford to take any games for granted. And so while I normally say, yeah, it's going to be a sort of a slow feel-out period. And I think there's going to be teams with veterans that might be in a more comfortable position that are resting those guys or maybe sitting them on a

second of a back-to-back or managing their minutes like they do in the NBA. A lot of these teams won't have the luxury to do that, I think, unless they're really sort of rolling the dice or have the real kind of big picture of you in mind. That's a really good point. And I think that one of the things that I wonder about too is how players are going to treat this season. Like there are, like we all, like, I think it's folly to expect NHL players to be game

seven, 82 times a year in the regular season. I think we're all in the same. Like, you can't do it. Like, you need to pace yourself through a season. That's why I always talk about, you know, oh, he's hit the college wall in January, February, or, you know, it's a rookie season coming. He's not used to this pace for, you know,

sustain this long, and he hasn't been able to pace himself through a season. Now that we have a shortened one, and it is a sprint out of the gate, you know, are we going to see players, I mean, players we don't have the luxury in a lot of ways to paste themselves. Like there's one superstar player

who told me like, look, I would go up to my coach every year, and this is like high-end superstar and say that like 30 games of the year, I'm going to be the best player on the ice.

I'm going to look like I'm bound for the Hall of Fame. I'm going to have two goals and two assists. I'm going to be first star, all of it. Then there's going to be 30 games where you can't

find me except on the game sheet. And for the other 22, We're just going to see how I feel that day. And you don't like to hear that as a fan because, A, you're invested emotionally, and a lot of times you're invested financially. And you don't want to go to the game when the superstar player is pacing himself during the season, but it's a Tuesday night in whatever market. And he's just going to take it easy that game. I wonder if players, because there are plenty that do that, I wonder how players, or if at all, they're going to, pace themselves, through a season like this.

I don't know the answer. Thank you for sharing that beautiful conversation with Johnny Goodrow. I really appreciate it. It was not Johnny Goodro. It is someone who is no longer in the NHL. Good, good, good, good. Okay, so we're going to count this down. We're going to get into this.

So, I say this every year. It's a disclaimer. People will not listen, but it doesn't matter if a team is 22nd or 9th. It's much more important to listen to the actual. logic we present and also what we're looking for. And it's not necessarily correlated with being good. If we say your team is the 24th most entertaining team, they might be the seventh best actual team.

So the guiding principle here is we're sitting at home on a Tuesday night. It's a regular NHL slate where there's a ton of games on everyone's playing. You have eight games to choose from. Who are you prioritizing to watch? What team are you looking? What do you want to see with them when you watch them? And so we're going to use this as an opportunity to just talk about every team. So I'll give you the floor.

let's start us off with your list. Who do you have as the 31st team? I sort of have them in clusters. And the first cluster that I have is a combination. And this one team, I mean, things really changed at the World Juniors when Kirby Doc got hurt. And then Jonathan Tave said, hold on a second, I'm not coming. And the Blackhawks are in a cluster with the Arizona Coyotes and the New York Islanders for me. And this is to your previous point. Just because you say a team isn't interesting.

to watch doesn't mean it's not a good team because we all saw what the New York Islanders did last season. So not saying the Islanders are a bad team, but when you look at the style of play and now you've lost Devon Taves for salary cap reasons and Boychuk calls it a career and Matthew Barzell is, you know, the best person I probably compared him to is probably Denny Savard, the nature of how he plays and that water bug, excitement that he brings to the game. That's one of the reasons why you do tune in to the Tuna Islanders. The style is successful. I get it. Doesn't mean we have to like it. But I sort of clustered that first group as the Arizona coyotes who bless them. I mean, her. And there's

more pain on the horizon, too. And I wouldn't be surprised if they revisited an Oliver Ekman-Larsson deal at some point. I put that first cluster as the coyotes, the Blackhawks, who are just sizzled down the middle and the New York Islanders. Yeah, so what I did is I have about six teams, I think, here at the bottom, and I classify them as the bad teams. And I have the Chicago Blackhawks at 25 on my list, and they're part of that tier. And I think I actually surprised myself with that

because when I initially sort of made my first foray into this exercise and jotting down teams, I envision them being much higher because they're, you know, in theory, it's like, oh, there's some offensive skill on this team. they're so bad defensively. I think the past couple years, they've played a lot of very entertaining games where you look at the scoreboard and it's six five for whoever they're playing. You're like, okay, like I need to catch up on this. I need to see what happened. There's going to be some highlights here. But then I took a closer look at their actual current active roster. And obviously

it's unfair because we'll see what will happen with Jonathan Taves. Hopefully he'll be fine and he'll be playing back sooner rather than later. We know Kirby Doc's going to be out for a couple months with his wrist surgery. But you hit the nail on the head, especially down the middle. This is their current death chart. Dylan Strom, Carl Soderberg, who they just signed, Lucas Walmart, who they just signed, and Camp. That's it. That's down the middle. And then it's a team that also, you know, lost Corey Crawford and Robin Lender over the past year in net. You've got a combination there of Colin Delia and Malcolm Suban, who have played one NHL game combined since last February, a blue line that is very suspect and

I think they're going to be in some high scoring games but I think they might just be so bad that it won't be particularly watchable so I actually dropped them way down my list compared to where I had them kind of off the jump. Yeah, no, the hawks in a tough spot. Like it's, put it this way. They're in a tough spot,

but Dimitri, no one is going to listen to this podcast right now and feel bad at the Chicago Blackhawks as they flash their three Stanley Cup rings. No one's going to feel bad for that organization. No one's going to feel bad for Stan Bowman. No one's going to feel bad for any of the dynasty guys of future Hall of Famers on that team

because this is, it doesn't have to be, but this is generally the byproduct of being a very successful team for a very long time. This is pain and this is lottery territory, again, for the Blackhawks. And you do wonder at which, point, you know, the Blackhawks, because they've already, you know, written their Rangers note, you know, Stan Bowman has already, you know, done the media tour, you know, hey, we're throwing

in the towel, we're rebuilding here, we're redeveloping this thing, where, you know, keep as many people on the same page as possible, but you wonder at what point, you know, they've made painful cuts before, you do start to wonder at what point, whether it's Keith, who might be the obvious one, or may dare I even say Patrick Kane, at what point do you start saying, for the good of the franchise in the future, we need to do this? I wonder if this sort of hastens that along. Yeah, they acknowledge it with that note, but it feels like for whatever reason, and maybe the media is partly to blame here, but it seems like we keep expecting something different, even though this has been happening for a couple years now. I remember there was a stretch last

season where they rattled off a couple wins in a row and we're only like four or five points out of the wild card and people were like oh here comes chicago don't count out the hug it's like no i'm counting them out they're not good like if you look at the talent on this team it's not what it used to be and that's fine they won three stanley cups it's okay they should start yeah like i'd i'd actually rank them higher on my list if i had complete confidence that we're going to see a lot of adam boquist and he and mitchell and these young defensemen but you know they trade for nikita zidorov that duncan keith is still going to be on their top pair, at least for the time being. And so it's one thing to say, we acknowledge we're going to be bad.

But then when you have all these proud veterans who used to be really good, it's really tough to just completely turn that over, especially kind of on the fly in season like that. Yeah, it's tough to walk away. I understand it. But you know what it's like, too, because we've seen this going back to, I mean, what was the first collapse? The four-game sweep by Nashville?

That was when we said, whoa. And anyone who, you know, paid attention to 5 on 5 on a second here, you know, the Preds and the Hawks are more similar than they were different. This really isn't an upset unless you just look at it and say it's a one versus eight in that one. But that was the one sort of public, that was the public need that the Chicago Blackhawks would think. That was the beginning of it. And ever since then, it's just, you know, remove another brick, remove another brick, remove another brick, remove another. remove another brick. It's like, you know, you go to the zoo

and you see that kid that just, you know, lost his or her balloon and they do that thing where they gesture up into the sky trying to grab the string on the balloon, but you're just like, oh, a kid, it's gone. Like, it ain't coming back anymore. That's kind of like how you see the Hawks right now. Yeah.

Not there. Well, other than being really thin down the middle on the blue line and in that, I think they're a pretty complete team built on the wings. Oh, yeah. I had the coyotes of 29th on my list, similarly with those bad teams. And the reason why I had them that low,

so I only had the wings and the kings lower than them this season, is because I just can't think of a more bleak situation in the NHL right now than there. It's just purely from an asset perspective of what Bill Armstrong walked into and what he currently has at his disposal. If you just think about they don't have their first round pick this year. So I guess they're going to try to be good. But then their captain Oliver Beckman-Larsin looked like he was, like, I had one foot out the door.

last off season. And then now that's going to be hanging over their heads. And not to mention, they're paying him a ton of money. He's in a year or two of an eight-year deal worth a cap hit a north of $8 million. And he's turning 30

and his performance has been dropping the past couple years. They're spending real money. Like the sort of hidden subplot was they made that Derek Stepan trade to Ottawa because they had to because they have so many financial cap commitments, long-term ones.

They have to play the abs eight times after what Nathan McGinnett did to them in the bubble, that's not good. I'd say the Kachina jersey and also the fact that I think they're going back to that half moon as their center ice logo are like the biggest selling points for me tuning into their games.

And that's not a good thing when we're talking about it. Like they're from the personnel perspective, like I'm curious to see if Bear Hayden can become an NHL regular. Like there's a lot of stories, but every team has those types of situations, right? We can get into that with Detroit. They have a bunch of players where you want to see if they're going to stick in the league.

So it's just not enough for me to tune into Coyote's games this season unless I have to. The one thing that we saw with Chico was is when he identified a young player that he wanted, he locked him up long term. And a few of those, you know, you say to yourself, okay, I can, I can see that. Maybe you look at the chickering deal. You can say, all right, that makes some sense. But there are just, you know, too many, I mean, Nick Schmaltz is the one that really stands out at the 5.8 going through to 25, 26. I mean, that's a tough one. Clayton Keller's contract

is a tough one to swallow both in terms of the number and the term as well. There are good players on that team when you measure up what they're being compensated and for how long they're being compensated. You're right. This is, you know, this is, you know, this is, this is a tough, this is, this is that Gordia knot that Armstrong is going to have to undo here. Not unlike what we saw, you know, Bill Guerin walk into in Minnesota. Like how, like, no matter what you want to do, like, there's still like a lot of pain with contracts there that you need to unravel. It's not impossible to do it. It's just tough.

And especially now with a flat cap, which may end up just being the killer for the Arizona Coyotes. it's tough to undo these problems quickly when you have so much term attached to players that were identified early and compensated well for that length of time. I'm with you. It's going to be tough sledding for Arizona once again. Let's get into my worst team here to Detroit Red Wings.

Why do you have them as the worst? Okay, so a recurring theme for me, one of my guiding principles from my list was I typically need at least two to three, good above average NHL defensemen that can move the puck because my favorite type of hockey is free flowing five-on-five action where teams are just jetting through the neutral zone. And we know like Dylan Larkin can do that on his own. The issue is when you have defensemen who are constantly just going off the glass and out

or trying to make those passes and not succeeding, it just leads to ugly hockey and you're kind of constantly chasing the game. And I just don't see that with them. Like at least, you know, they brought in a guy like Joyce Tetra that will help so that Philip doesn't need to do every single breakout pass, but ultimately you look at this team and last year, they were one of the worst goal scoring teams in terms of creating offense that we've seen in the past 20 years. And they were also one of the worst defensive teams in terms of goal prevention that we've seen over the past 20 years. And it led to that historically bad goal

differential and win percentage. And, you know, there's things I'm interested in here, certainly. Like, I want to see if Philip Zadena can score a lot of goals. He's going to get the opportunity towards the end of last year he had some big ice time performances and it feels like they're finally ready to sort of give him a real extended look there. But I don't know what, maybe this is going to be a team where I'm going to watch them more in the second half of the season because if you look at what Steve Eisenman did this offseason, he added a bunch of players who are on expiring deals or can be flipped as veterans of the deadline.

And so I don't really need to watch, you know, the Sam Gagnets of the world and stuff. I'd much rather watch the young players to see what they have and kind of scout them. And so I think we're going to see a lot more of that as the year goes along. But to start, I think they're going to give some extended looks to some of these veterans to potentially feature them in trades down the line where they can add more second, third, fourth round picks. It's pretty obvious what they're doing. Yeah. I think this is completely transparent. I don't think that, you know, catch anyone in the organization and talk about the players that they have on expiring deals and talk about trade deadline, what that means for a player like Bobby Ryan, what that means for a Sam Gagne,

Gladna Mastikov's got an extra year on term, but you're right. They have players that would be desirable come to trade deadline time for teams that have playoff aspirations and maybe have holes to fill by way of injury or otherwise. But one of the curious names here, and when it comes to Detroit, like, I love Dylan Markin. We're all in the same. Anthony Manthas, just a wonderful player to watch as well. I'm really curious to watch more at Cider at the, at the N. HL level. And I'm sure you've seen all the viz of him playing so far and just rocking guys.

Like he's like the new Cronwall in some ways and and probably more skilled as well. I'm curious to see what Cider does on this team. Like that's the thing about Detroit. Like I don't think you're looking for wins and losses. When it comes to Detroit, this is a situation. And oh, by the way, I think you nailed it too with like if you don't have the defenseman to get the forwards, the pox, like all of a sudden, all the wonderful things you could see out of the forwards vanish. And that was the Euler story for the longest time, when it was Hall and Eberley and Ryan Nugent Hopkins,

and no one getting them to the puck, and they're out of the playoffs by Christmas, and all of a sudden everyone just quits and the season dies. And it's all predicated on, well, we don't know how good Hall is. We don't know how good Eberley is because no one can get these guys the pock. So we just don't know. I think you look at the Red Wings maybe and you say the exact same thing. But I think when you look at the wings, I think the only question you have when you watch them this year is, are the kids getting better?

Is Zedina getting better? Is Cider getting better? I think you look at, you know, even a guy like, Rob Fabry is only 25 years old. Like Robbie Fabry feels like he's been around forever. And it's still, like he's not an old player by any sort of the imagination. But I think that you look at a Detroit Red Wings game, I don't think you're going in there saying, hey, I want to see the Red Wings, you know, beat whomever. I just want to see are these players developing?

Are these players getting better? I don't care if it's a lottery team again, and it just might be. I just want to know if these kids are improving. Yeah, and then that's fun, just having that recognition that, you know, there's going to be a Moritz-Sider. There's going to be a Lucas Raymond down the road. There's going to be another top five. from this year. There's a lot of prospects you're watching the world juniors now, and it seems like

every other player is either a Kings or Red Wings prospect. And I think also the fact that they're in a different spot now than they were maybe two years ago where it's like you're looking at the uphill battle of man, we have so much future money tied up in aging veterans. And that's kind of a bleak situation to be. And at least now, moving forward, they're going to have a ton of draft capital. And they're going to have a ton of opportunity because they haven't clogged their cap sheet with all those old contracts are kind of expiring now. And so there's an opportunity there to add. I just think in terms of, especially to start out this year, I think it's probably going to be some pretty ugly hockey. And that's why someone has to be at the bottom of my list. And that's also why I have

the Kings at 30. So I have, so my next group, I have, my next group does have Detroit in it as well. Okay. I also do have the Kings. I've got, this is a bigger group. I've got the Kings, the Wings, uh, Devil's, Ducks, Cats, Wild, and I sort of have San Jose out on their own island. So I'll cap it at Minnesota right there. But that's that next group for me. Minnesota, Florida, Detroit, New Jersey, Anaheim, L.A.

Let's do the Kings, the Ducks, the two California teams and the Devils because they're still in my bad teams bucket at the bottom there. So with the Kings,

they're in such a better position right now than they were at this time last year. When I did this exercise, I had them as the 31st team last year, and I was like, I don't see how they get out of this because you looked at how much money

they had tied up in veterans. And now you look at it, and within the next two years, pretty much all those contracts other than Copa Tauty are going to be off the books. I think everyone universally agrees they have the best group of prospects in the league. They have a ton of assets coming. And I think there's also the fact that you watched it towards the end of last year when they started winning some games.

Todd McClellan kind of was implementing this structure where they had these really solid underlying numbers where they were playing much faster. They were playing better. They just kind of don't have the talent or the finishers necessarily yet. They can turn that process into results. But they could very well wind up being much higher on my list as the year. gets going because they actually were playing a fairly aesthetically pleasing brand of hockey despite not having kind of big flashy names yet. And that is, that's an organizational philosophy. You know, when it became pretty obvious that the Los Angeles Kings, like that dynasty where they won a couple of Stanley Cups, dynasty, that era where they won a couple of Stanley Cups, when that

was officially done and over, you know, we all looked at the Los Angeles Kings and said, wow, throwback wins. I mean, it was a straight line team, possession monsters, but they may have have been the slowest team. I shouldn't say it. They were the slowest team of the salary cap era to win a Stanley Cup, and they did it twice. And organizationally, the philosophy completely changed. And they went about, and maybe the one only deviation was drafting Gabe Volardi from the Windsor's Spitfires, who, even though he wasn't fast, dots down, there was probably no one stronger in his draft class. They went for speed.

Like, you look at every single move, every single pick, like all of it. Like, organizationally, it was bring in speed. More of the Adrian Kempis. Like, that was the philosophy. And you're seeing it now. Like, what's the most recent signing? Andreas Athanasiu, who straight line, you know, from red line to red line, may be the fastest player in the NHL.

Not necessarily with, you know, with the puck on his stick. That's Connor McDavid territory. But just straight line skating. Like just speed. Andrea Athanasiou might be the fastest skater in the entire range. Like that's what they have gone for. That's what the premium is right now with the Los Angeles Kings. So even though the talent might not be close to actualizing there right now, I'm with you.

There's still there's some reason now to be excited. Maybe not about the LA Kings this season, although I think in their mind their rebuild is over and they have the pieces in place for the future. But this is a team that in a couple of years is going to be, you know, right back in there for a playoff position. And it's because organizationally, they said, that's it. If you can't skate, you can't play with the Los Angeles Kings. Yeah, they're set up well, and they're going to be shooting up this list. It's just a matter of probably another year or two before a lot of those names do sort of funnel into the lineup.

Where are you on Doughty? Speed bump. He just hasn't been very good lately. And I get it's a different environment in the sense that the team around him got a lot worse. But since he got that big contract, he hasn't looked like peak Drew Dowdy. And I think it's weird that he's blaming the media on it recently. Like this isn't some sort of fabrication to create clicks and to get people talking. Like, if he played better, I don't think people would be knocking him for his play.

I think it's as simple as that. I don't think there's some sort of a hidden agenda where we all have a hockey journalist meeting. And we're like, okay, who are we going to target next? Hmm, that Drew Dowdy. Let's get him. Let's bring him down with us. And it's like, no, he just hasn't looked. He hasn't looked the same physically.

I don't know how much of it is his age. How much of it is all the bios he put on his body? How much of it is it's not as a competitive environment. So he's kind of pacing himself. And maybe once the team around him gets better, you're going to see him get kind of more re-energized and re-engaged. But he just, his numbers and his actual eye test have not looked the same as Drew Dowdy three, four, five years ago.

Yeah. Now that, the thing to me, Dimitri is now that he's acknowledged it publicly, he's put it on himself. Now he's drawn that. I'm curious to see the season that Doughty has now. Players have this and it happens. And last year, by any measure, like, that was a bad season for Drew Doughty. Like, we could all be on this.

And it happens. Players have in every sport. I don't know. It's one of those seasons where it just wasn't there for me. But now that he's acknowledged it publicly and has sort of indicated that he has a chip on his shoulder because of it, I'm curious to see the season that he has. Like, I always love athletes that do that. that will put that on themselves and say, really, you don't think that I'm about that anymore?

Let's just see. So now I'm curious to see what Doughty do. Because it's one thing to ignore it and just let it float out into the ether. And it's another to acknowledge it and make it part of your story. And no matter what happens this year, that is going to be part of Drew Doughty's story. Well, and he's stylistically a player that you think shouldn't have fallen off this badly unless he's hurt or unless there's a motivation issue, right? I think it's as simple as that and so he certainly has the

motivation heading into this year. We'll see. I still think the team around him will be much better. It doesn't sound like he has the torn motivator cuff at all. No. He is interesting too and we just saw this with Anthony Declare. We've seen this with Nick Baxter the phenomenon of the player that represents

himself, which I can understand why players do it although I do understand that a lot of general managers don't like it. And it flies sort of in the face of what you might think. Oh, get the agent out of the way and we'll just deal with the player.

Ha, ha, ha, ha. We can mess with them in the contract because, you know, here's a guy that dropped out of high school in grade 11 and, you know, I'm going to mess with them this contract. General managers like to have a buffer between the player and the GM. So if you want to give Dowdy a blast, you don't call Dowdy. You call the agent and then the agent massages it in. in a situation like this, and I know, there was a relationship

between the previous general manager, Dean Lombardi and Drew Doughty, and that's how it happened. And Baxterman has been with the Capitals forever, and there's a relationship there. Declare is different because he went to market without an agent, which is dangerous slash scary territory

for any athletes. So as it makes a declare situation separate. But I always wonder about that. Like, what are the effects when you don't have that buffer anymore? I don't know. Well, if you're Drew Doughty and your GM is Rob Blake, I think that GM is in a particularly unique situation where he can sort of has a like to stand on. He can evaluate your play as a defenseman. Well, as a Hall of Fame defenseman, Drew, can you hold this ring for me while I talk to you?

Yeah, Drew Doughty can't give him to watch the games or have you play the game argument. With the ducks, see, I'm torn between them because on paper you look at it, you go, and maybe this is me holding on a feeling. I had last year, but I'm interested to see Sam Steele, Troy Terry, Max Comptu, Max Jones. They have a lot of interesting personnel. I'm a bit worried about Bob Murray's offseason comments right out of the gate where he was like kind of didn't throw Dallas Eakins under the bus, maybe even threw himself a little bit under the bus, but basically acknowledged that they had too many young players and that he sort of, it wasn't an ideal spot.

And so now I'm curious to see what this season's going to look like for them, especially with Ryan Getslaff and during the last year. of his deal turning 36 we'll see what his future holds it seems weird to imagine him in a different uniform but um there's a lot of young talent there it's just there's also veterans and i'm not sure what their end game or agenda is now if we see trevor zegris step into his lineup considering how he's looked in the world juniors i will be definitely be tuning into ducks games but um we'll still see because it seems like there isn't there isn't a full appetite there to just completely hand over the keys, it feels like they're kind of trying to walk that fine line with

like on a middle ground there. But I like that though. Like I don't think, you know, what was that old saying in the oil there's room? Earned Not Given and then they handed all these kids, you know, long-term contracts and gave them spots. I still see value in putting hurdles in front of guys and making them take spots. And that's just nothing new in sports and certainly nothing new in hockey. I really, I like that.

I like the fact that just the minute you think you have a job, boom, the general manager signs a free agent, albeit to a one-year contract, and that is now the hurdle or that roadblock between you and that position. So to me, it's create an environment where you don't give someone a spot, but someone earns it and costs someone else, like an older player, his job there. But you're right.

Like there's, that is, if this program works, That is going to be one of the more entertaining teams to watch. And I'll throw another name at you. All those names you mentioned, I think we all anticipate being a long time at H.Lers. I love Isaac Lindelstrom. I think, like, like, Patrice Bergeron-Light, like that type of player who's going to, you know, play in the league and be a sneaky, you know, stealth, selky trophy candidate for years, not unlike players like, you know,

Cogliano and Salfa Berg were when Ryan Kessler was the headline. you look at, well, what about those other two guys? Last time I checked, like, they should probably be in that conversation too. Like, there's a lot of real good young players. To me, the story of Anaheim is, you know, what are they going to do by way of putting players in front of these younger players to force them to take a job? So they make sure that Trevor Zegrois doesn't just get handed a position, making sure that Troy Terry doesn't just get handed his spot. And you're right there. Ditto for Maxxiegers.

Jones or for Sam Steele. That to me is going to be one of the more curious things with Anaheim. And mind you, they have a goalie that's going to keep them in a lot of games. Yep. Yep. That's true. The Devils, I had them at 27 right ahead of the ducks here. I'm really curious to see what Jack Hughes looks like in a year or two.

He says he added 15 pounds of muslim. 17 pounds? He's up to 180. I get the idea of rolling your eyes because every player is in the best shape of their life entering the season. But when it's a teenager who desperately needed to do so and kind of the biggest knock on him was, is his body in HL ready, I think I will be watching for that because, you know, it was very telling you. watching him last year and he was he was the real deal he was as advertised in space right on the power play in transition creating breakaways when he had space he could operate when the game bogged down a little bit

when he was in the offensive zone that's when defensemen were able to kind of take advantage of him and so if he is stronger he still needs to work on his shot because i don't think it was a complete fluke that he shot 5.7 or whatever i think there's certainly something to that he's never going to be a pure shooter he's going to be much more of a playmaker but if he adds those elements to his game and he is stronger, I think his year or two jump could be pretty substantial. And that would mean a lot for this devil's team because they drafted him number one for a reason and they need that one two punch, especially, I guess now it's just the number one punch as we wait to see when his year is going to be playing.

Speaking of Salky trophy candidates in the future, Nico Heeshire is going to be in that conversation one day too. You're right. I'm curious about players, like I'm curious about Jack Hughes and players like him, players that break the mold of everything we believed. I remember talking to one scout, leaving the, uh, leaving the, leaving the draft in Vancouver about the draft. And we were talking about Jack Hughes on the way back to the hotel.

And he said, don't like the pick. And I'm like, okay, like if your team and their team was not close to selecting number one, like if you guys had the first overall pick, you wouldn't have taken Hughes. And he says, no, I would have taken Kirby Doc. And I said, why? He says, you name me all the centers in the NHL that are smaller than six feet tall. he said that's a position you have to have size and if you don't forget about it there's there's no way so i'm i'm always curious about break the mold players i'm always curious about you know can he

because whatever once part of time like you couldn't have you know the idea of like a five 10 defenseman in the nchel was foreign just like the idea of a six six goal tender you know like oh no that's too big can't move need to be smaller or more flexible. Now that's flipped between size of goaling and size of defensemen. The six six guy is now your goaltender. The 5-11 guy is now your defenseman. So I am like you, Dimitri, I'm

curious to see what Jack Hughes does. Great hockey family. No doubt the guy is high-skilled. And there's a big part of me that's pulling for the guy just for the break the mold factor. As the game around Jack

Hughes, I think it's safe to say like the game around someone like Hughes is leaning into his skill set more than leaning away. Like once upon a time, you know, that conversation with that scout going back to, coming back from the first round of the draft, like that was right. Like, no, you just, like the way the game was played, you can't have a 510, 511 center. But you can now.

And I think players like Hughes, players like Braden Point, go a long way to disproving that old adage and that old saying. So I'm with you. I'm not only am I curious, I'm actually cheering for the guy. So I let me see that mold broken publicly. And I think the strength is a much bigger component than the actual size in terms of height, right? Like if you have the leverage and you can kind of maintain that body position because you're just built like a tank and your bottom half, then all of a sudden it becomes much easier. And he's had 10 months now or so since we've watched him in NHL games.

So it makes sense that that would happen. He'll be armed with better wing talent, whether it's Cuseb or Andreas Yonson or Kaupomiery while he's still there. And listen, he's got a coach now in Lindy Ralph where I think there's a lot of defensive question marks, especially with the personnel they have in terms of how good they're going to be and how many goals they're going to let up. But they have Mackenzie Blackwood and Corey Crawford now in net so they can afford the sort of trade chances a little bit more than when they were relying on Corey Schneider. And I think that he's going to give these young players the creative freedom to try stuff,

even if it leads to puck's resulting in the back of their net. And so in terms of aesthetically kind of watching them, I think they're going to be better off for it because it feels like they're going to be more open to having these kind of track me type of games. You had a good podcast on this with Corey Massasak not too long ago talking about the devils and it reminded me about something that Justin Bourne mentioned

last season before the shutdown. And that was, you know, we're just having a conversation before one of the Hockey Central shows. And Justin just says, I don't know what it is, but I love watching the New Jersey Devils. And I'm like, why? And he says, there's always something in, again, every New Jersey Devils game with this era of Devils play, they're not going to win all their games, quite the opposite, as a matter of fact.

But you're going to come away with something from a New Jersey Devils game. There's going to be one period. There's going to be one power play. There's going to be something from every New Jersey Devils game that gives you cause for pause. And I think he's right about that. Like, I don't think anyone's expecting wins. I think people are expecting lottery again for the New Jersey Devils in a lot of ways. But there's always something in a New Jersey Devils game that leaves you walking away going,

yeah, you know what, that was kind of interesting. That was kind of neat. That was kind of different. Whether it's Jack Hughes on a, you know, five-on-three power player where he has room to wheel, or whether it's, to your point, you know, Nico Heeshire, you know, showing you that he's, you know, the next Sean Couturier or whatever it is. But there's usually something in a New Jersey Devils game that leaves you coming. There is some fly paper there that has you sticking to the.

the games. My last bad team here, we're like 50 minutes in and we've done the, the worst 10 teams on my list or so. So we're going to have to rattle through these. But, okay, it's the Ottawa senators. And I don't want to spend too much time on them. I know you have them higher with your North Division as you kind of cheated this assignment. And I did a full deep dive on them with Haley Salvia and then we talked about at the top so people can go listen for my thoughts on that. I think there's a lot to like here, obviously, right? I'm very curious if you told me that we're going I see a ton of Josh Norris and Drake Batherson and Alex Formington. I'd be like, I'm going to watch these Senators games.

I want to see what these guys look like. I'm worried, though. I'm worried that based on their offseason, either they don't think those guys are fully ready yet for prime time or because of this North Division, they're thinking, we don't really have an appetite to get embarrassed again this season. We are going to play Austin and Derek Stepan and some of these veterans and shelter these guys. And I know what you just said for Anaheim about making the young guys.

earn it and putting hurdles in their place. But at the same time, a lot of these players are, we're not talking about teenagers anymore. Like Tim Stutzel is a totally different story. With some of these other guys, they've been pros for a couple years now. They've already succeeded at the HL level. They're in their early 20s. I'm ready to see them stick as full-time NHL players

and see what they've got because this team still has a lot of questions about who their future number one center is going to be, kind of riding shotgun with Brady Kachuk. It's a great question. and I have my eyebrow raised about it as well. Like what do all these signings tell you about how the organization feels about Logan Brown? Like to me, that is a huge question mark right now. Like you look at the skill and I know everyone focuses on the size like, wow, it's six foot five, six foot six foot six center.

I know, two hundred and fifteen, two hundred twenty pound centerman. You know, second generation player, dad was a, a standout in the NHL for a long time. How does the organization feel about Logan Brown when you look at what's been placed in front of him now in a season where, you know, this guy's coming out of his entry level, as you and Haley talked about on the last podcast.

What does it mean about Josh Norris? You know, that these hurdles are put in front of them right now when they're this close to coming out of entry level. I still see the biggest question mark. around, and again, we're redoing the podcast you did with Haley, around the senators is the Brady Kachuk contract. And how good this guy can be? Like this guy, I don't know.

Like, I love the guy. I think he's just such a wonderful player in all regards. And given, you know, what they did with the Thomas Shabbat deal, is that something that Kach is looking at? Or does he say, no, you know what? I'll take your two-year deal and then I'm going to bet on myself and then I'm going to ring the bell and then we'll see how serious you are about paying elite level players. Yeah, he doesn't come from a family that necessarily needs the money right now.

I would say that he'll be okay for the next two or three years and I would certainly bet on myself if I were. I think we laid out of this case, but I mean, his underlying numbers in terms of the chances he generates like he's going to have a year here where he scores, he won't do it at 56 games this year, but he'll have a year where he scores 35 to 40 goals because he's just, living around the net, especially if he has that true number one center. I think Datenov's going to be a good winger for him. Yeah.

So, yeah, I'm worried, like, there's so much Nikita Zaita Zaitsev and Eric and Branson on this team, though, and we talked about defensemen that can get people to puck. If I knew there was going to be a lot more Eric Brandstrom, I'd be more excited. It seems like he's kind of on the bubble there now, too. So there's stuff to look forward to, but this is a deep league. There's a lot of good fun teams to watch, right? Like, I just had to put the senators down here because we have to make this list. but that really should be the baseline for all of this.

Like, really? Like, if you watch hockey long enough, I mean, you can take something out of every single game and say, okay, that was, that was, it's almost impossible not to be able to watch a hockey game and not be entertained or taught by something. I mean, even the worst players in the league in 2020, 2021 are remarkably talented. It's a much different landscape than it was 10, 15, 20 years ago. I always say it about hockey and it's the same thing for sport like boxing. You have to be so good just to be that guy that we point to on television and say, oh, this guy can't play. You know how good that guy is?

You know what the barrier to entry is like to the NHL? Do you know how good the worst player in the NHL is? It's spectacular. Trust me. Let's take a quick break here to hear from a sponsor, and then we're going to rattle through the rest of our list. Hey, everyone. I want to tell you about Blue Wire Hustle,

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All right. My next bucket of teams is the good defensive teams. So I've got the blue jackets. I've got the Islanders, who are you already mentioned. I've got the blues, the stars, the Bruins, and the Wild. And we don't have to get too much into the Islanders. I am excited to see what Ilya Sorokin looks like at the NHL level. You know, Matt Barzell is probably one of the top five,

definitely top 10, most exciting players to watch. I think the Islander's style, is going to be really interesting in this shortened unique season, because I think they don't have a lot of wiggle room with their depth in the players they lost in terms of injuries. Like if they lose an Adam Pelick or a Casey Sazikas again, like they did last year, I think they're really going to be in trouble. But in terms of grinding on teams and wearing them down

and also sort of going a max effort for 56 games as opposed to 82, they might in a weird way be uniquely suited to kind of jump on teams and right out of the gate. because I think that defensive element of theirs is going to translate very well, regardless of like it seems like they've already nailed it down to such a science that I don't think there's going to be a five, ten game stretch out of the gate where you're like, what are the Islanders doing? They look completely out of sorts.

Like I think they're going to come back looking exactly like the team that we just watched in the playoffs. Yeah. Anders Lee, Brock Nelson, Jean-Gabriel, Pazjo, like, you know what you're getting from these types of players. So the one guy, and I'm with you on Elias Rolfo, and I'm really curious to see, you know, here's another, you know, goly from the goalie factory coming into the NHL.

I'm curious to see Noah Dobson. Like that's, that's the one guy for me that I look at and say, all right, so they're down a couple of defensemen. Boychuk retires, as we mentioned, you know, Devon Taves, they lose because of, you know, salary cap issues. What does that mean for a player like Noah Dobson who, you know, the minute he turns out of. into that, you know, long-time NHLer may have the most unique skill set of anybody on that

blue line. That was like, there's sometimes you just watch a game because you like the team to your point, you like the style, you like the way the coach, you like the systems, and sometimes you just watch a team just to watch one player. And when it comes to the Islanders, depending on how, what is usage is like under Barry Trots, a former defenseman himself, Regina Pats represent. I wonder how they use Noah Dobson and how much they let this guy fly because he really can't if they let them. Yeah, and they have some opportunities there now, whether it's even up front for Wallstrom or Michael Delcoe.

We'll see. Like, there's young players there that have a chance to grow. The Blue Jackets, they lump in nicely here with these good defensive teams. And I think you have to keep them down just because last year only the Dallas Stars had fewer combined goals. or combined high danger chances in their games. Like they play a pretty low event game, and that's by design, and they get great results out of it, similar to the Islanders. They have players.

I like watching there, and in particular, I'd highlight Zach Wrenski-style. I had a podcast with Jack Hahn a couple, maybe a couple months ago now, and he had written about how he has this unique way of creating both defensively and offensively where he basically just zeros in on the middle of the ice, and he kind of uses it as a funnel where, offensively, in the ozone, He kind of streaks down to middle and receives passes and creates him there. And that's how he scored 20 goals last season. And then defensively, he like prevents anything from happening there and tries to intercept passes and lead breakouts through the middle.

And it's a really unique style in today's game for defensemen. And he's had great results from it. So if you're watching Blue Jackets games, I'd highly recommend nerding out on that because it's sort of this little tactical thing that it really gets me going. And you know that Yermokeleinen is still looking to pull the trigger on something. right like the pursuit of marner didn't didn't end up you know getting somewhere with with the with the with the Columbus blue jackets but you know they move Anderson and they bring in and they bring in Domi but Dmiti don't you get the sense that Kekhalan is sort of always on the verge of doing something big always because I do and I I still believe that you know heading into the season right now if there is going to be a blockbuster whatever I wouldn't be surprised of the blue jackets are all over it and bring in that one more at least one more big name player you know they tried with marty that didn't go anywhere with that offer sheet dance i have a hard time believing that they're done yeah and you know they brought in domi this off season i think he's going to go a long

way to where it's getting atkinson back on track from a goal scoring perspective we saw liam foodie had nice a nice little jump in the in the bubble um texier bamstrom like they they have fast they have pieces so quick yeah they have pieces but it is a John Torture-a-L-Tee, but you know that at the end of the day, they're going to prefer to win 2-1 as opposed to 5-4. So it's something to keep in mind when you're talking about from an entertainment perspective. Yeah, and that's all fair. All fair.

I'm, okay, on a scale of 1 to 10, how weird is it going to be to see Miko Kaui-Vu in a different jersey? So weird, but he's such a perfect fit for this team. Of course he is. Yeah. He's 100% great fit for the blue jackets. But that's going to be, and I will probably get a good fit for this team. to talking about chari here in a second of the cap's jersey but i don't know man seeing miko koivo in a different jersey i don't know that's going to be a weird one for me well i'll get used to it but

yeah yeah um the stars have a bit of slight fatigue we just watch them so much on the way to the final and i gain an appreciation for them i think not having sagan to start the year will hurt from a sort of offensive creation perspective we all know about high skin and skating klingberg walking the line keeping in the zone creating on the power play shooting high shooting high shooting high That secret's out now, right? Yeah, but good luck stopping it. It's so good. He's so good.

Oh, that's just it. Yeah. Nick Hague, by the way. James, okay, so you know the story about Klingberg's shooting high? So James Richmond, who's the head coach of the Mississauga Ice Dogs, sorry, Mississauga Steelheads, when dating myself, Mississauga Steelheads of the OHL was at a four nations. Do you remember how many years ago?

obviously before Klingberg joined, and there was one player on Sweden who kept, and it wasn't like hammering yet, but kept shooting high, and pucks would just find the top of the net, and it was John Klingberg. And so he's always waited, he's always wanted,

as he's coached the steelheads now for a few years, to find a defenseman he can do that with, someone who's comfortable enough, walking the line, as you mentioned, and being able to float pucks in high. And this is a curiosity that I will, look for because I saw it plenty in the OHL to see if this happens in the

NHL as well. The one defenseman he was able to do this with, and this is all based on on his viewings of Klingberg at the Four Nations. Nick Haig is that guy. Vegas Golden

Knights, second round draft pick, defenseman of the year, like, was a really good junior player. I wonder if we still see that Nick Haig that floats shots in high. And if so, that is a direct reflection of James Richmond, seeing John Klingberg do that at the Four Nations. But you know what else is part of the secret sauce there? It sees such a unicorn in the sense that, like, if you look at the work Michael McCurdy has done,

it shows that as the years have gone on, teams are either kind of going high or low. They've cut out the middle of the ice. There's a lot of shots from the point, and you're just basically shooting and have a hope and a prayer and you're trying to tip it in, right? And with, Klingberg, he takes it at the corner, and then he slowly walks the line to the middle of the ice, and he creates so many angles to either pass or shoot from or create better tips. And so that's something I love to see. And if I was a young coach or coaching young players, I would be showing them tape of John Klingberg and showing the reason why it's so important to get to that middle of the ice and

how it increases your chances of being effective. Lidstrom was the best of it. Yeah, so good. Shocking. Yeah, yeah. The best at everything. Yes, he was. Yeah.

other positives here are a bonus definitely the other thing about we're going to pause on Dallas Dennis Gurianoff Yes yeah I mean you would talk about guys that are poised for you know for star status In the NHL

Man can that guy skate Man can that guy play I think we're all looking now for For Rupert Hins To take that night We had Tyler Sagan on the 31 pod A couple of weeks ago And Elliot asked him

Who that next player That we're going to see you As a great personality that finally comes out and quickly he said Rupa Hins. Guys got crazy Euro style. You would never be able to tell. The English language brings a little bit of a barrier as far as comfort goes. He said this guy is one of the biggest personalities that nobody knows about in the NHL.

So heads up on Rupa Hins. Well, here's a fun stat for you. Hints and Guriana have led the team with 5-on-5 goals. They had 12 each. No one else in the team had 10 and that includes a team with Radjolov. say again, Ben, Pavellski. They were ninth and 10th in 5-on-5 ice time for stars forwards. And so I would like to see them get more opportunity this year.

And if they do, the stars can move up this list because they're really exciting players. And they're so different than a lot of their other forwards. Radjolov's kind of turned into a stop and start player for me. And I think for a lot of people as well, well, there'll be like that stretch of 10 games where, oh, man, Radjolov's a beast. And then 10 games where did Radjolov play? he's almost become that guy now has he but when he's on and when he's going hard to the net as he's seen before he's a force but he's become that stop and start player demetri i think for me what do we think about

the blues because last year they were the slowest pace team in the league in terms of a shot generation so they had some changes which i'm interested to see right replacing petrangelo with crook bringing in mike hoffman they have young players who are already in the lineup and can take steps. Oh, no, Hoffman's just a PTO. Yeah, we'll see where he ends up. No, it's just, no, just a PTO, Dimitriah, nothing on the... We'll see where that goes.

We don't know where he'll at. You know, I'm curious about there, Robert Thomas. Yep. Like, I'll watch the blues for a couple of reasons. First of all, I love Ryan O'Reilly. It would be a wish used to always just roast me about nonstop. Like, oh, here comes the Ryan O'Reilly. I love it and the old MBSW pod.

but still love O'Reilly. But I'm really curious to see if this is going to be the season where Robert Thomas emerges as that next level star. You want to talk about a player that can do it all at the position. I think Thomas is that guy.

Are they the fastest team in the NHL? Not by any stretch of the imagination. The loss of Petrangelo is going to be a tough one. I think that's, you know, That's more ice time, obviously, and more dynamic situations for someone like Colton Pereco. But I still find some value in watching a lot of St. Louis Blues games, whether it's the style, albeit, maybe the slowest in the NHL, but even just to see what's going to happen with Robert Thomas. That guy, to me, could be breakout start of this year.

I'd add Jordan Kairu to that list, too. I think he's got a lot of time. Yeah. When you talk about, he steps onto the ace. He's the fastest player on the Blues. He is. And there were, it was a good lateral for them when they lost Patrangelo and then he was out the door to bringing Krug because he's kind of a perfect fit for this team.

If you think about it, because they do have Golden Pereko, right? So either they can split those guys up and just keep Paraco and Scandella together and just give Krug more sheltered minutes and let him focus on the power play or they can potentially put Krug and Praco together as this kind of weird oddball couple. and see how that goes. Like, there's definitely personnel there to play with. And with Hoffman, similarly, you talk about oddball couples. Like, this team really missed some offensive pop without Teresanko in the lineup.

And I know Hoffman didn't really, you'd think he would have been great with Barkoff, for example, and they really struggled together two years ago. But if there's anyone that can cover for his defensive flaws and get him to puck in places to score, it will be Ryan O'Reilly. So if, you know, we'll see if Hoffman makes this team, of course, he has to try out and show himself well in camp. if he somehow makes the blues, that'll be an interesting fit as well. So there's stuff to look forward to here.

What do you make of Vince Dunn? I like Vince Dunn a lot. Awesome player. I just wonder if that's one of those players that's undervalued by the franchise that he's with or has too many players ahead of them. Because the Vince Dunn trade rumors, I mean, Demetri, you know,

they've been out there for a while. I remember it was like last Christmas. We were all like, So how much luggage did Vince Dunn take home at the Christmas break? I really wonder if that's going to be a piece that some forward-thinking team says, hey, St. Louis Blues, let me relieve you of this Vince Dunn issue you have. You just sort of kicked the contract down the road, another season signing him to the one-year deal, and this guy becomes a star somewhere else.

Yeah, he would have been a player I would have been targeting heavily this offseason. But as we know, no fun happens in the NHL and offer sheets are forbidden. So no point re-litigating that. The Bruins, let's quickly go through the Bruins here because it's kind of the classic. Like, you know, the Bruins, you know, we're going to get for them. And they have their positives. I think, you know, we'll see what the timelines for Pastor Eric and Marshauna when they come back. And I think that ties into one of the things I'm most interested with its team is one of the trends

the past couple years has been, and they've smartly progressively ratcheted down, Patrice Bergerleyn's usage, right? He never plays all the games anymore. His ice time has steadily been declining. If you look at the five-on-five usage, he played 12 minutes and three seconds per game last year, which was the lowest. He's played since 2007, 2008. That's like the same as Chandler-Stevenson to give you a comparison, and you would never put those two players in the same ballpark in terms of five-on-five usage. And that's smart. Like, they play him, they pick their spots more with him. They want him to be ready come to the playoffs.

If Pastor, Pashtrax probably going to miss at least a month, it sounds like Marshaun might actually come back for the start of the year, but without those guys, they're going to need to lean on him a bit more heavily, and we'll see how he holds up and what that looks like, but I think that's sort of this kind of sneaky little trend

to watch as the season starts for the Bruins. A couple of curiosities here. What type of season is Jake DeBruscav with the Boston Bruins? And the other one, when you consider, you know, this is now Charlie McAvoy's blue line, there's a lot of pressure now on Mac Griswick. Again, I think we're going to find out real fast

because he's going to get a ton of minutes and be put in a ton of great situations for himself is how good is Mac Grisleck? Yep. I think he's really good. How good can this guy be? We all suspect that this guy is going to be able to handle it. Well, now we're going to find out. But this is, like I know a lot of people

had had, I'm not sure if you had them on there on your ballot, but Maccoy was on a lot of people's Norris ballots by the end. I know that Elliot, I think Elliot had him in his, in his top five as well. But this is, this is Macavoy's blue line now. Like, this is now like, Char is out. This is, this is Macavoy's back in now? But how is, that's one of my weird questions. Like, how is Charlie McAvoy not more celebrated in NHL circles if you think about it? He's the number one defenseman. Oh, no. On an original six franchise and a big American market. He's American. He's young. He plays an exciting style. Like, you would think this would be someone in the NHL, especially in the States, would be really marketing as like one of our

stars. And who has Charlie McElroyd conversations? At every single level of his career, he's been a superstar. Like you look at like every year playing youth hockey going all the way up through the, through the juniors, like all of it. This guy's been an absolute stud and has been a, a total star. And that was, like that was a, that was a real, I remember at that draft, someone from the Bruins table telling me

that the decision they had to make, there was two defensemen. They were taking the D at that spot, and it was between Charlie McAvoy and Dante Fabro. That was a decision. And he said it was a pretty quick conversation, but those were the two.

Yep. I saw something for the draft geeks. That was a decision. the Bruins had to make. All right, we're inside my top 20. This is exciting. So I have the Wild at 19, which is arguably my most speculative pick. Where do you, you had them, right? You already listed them off on yours?

Yeah, they were still in that. In the 20s, right? Yeah. And yeah, still in the 20s for me. So here's my argument for them. I know they have this rep as the- Who's playing center? Who's playing center on that team, by the way?

Who's the first-line center on that team now? Well, I think they're thinking it's Marcus Johanson, in which 10 games into the season they're going to realize it's not the case. They have about 10 guys auditioning right now. Yes. Well, I think they're viewing Marco Rossi as that player down the road, right? 100%. But so they have this rep as the most kind of bland offensive team in the league, and deservedly so. This is year 20 of Minnesota wild hockey.

Gabrik, Parise, Stahl, and Zucker, and Brian Ralston are the only players to ever score 30 goals for this team. They have not had a lot of offensive talent. But you look now, Kevin Fiala, at end of last year, finally had the breakout we were all looking for. in the final 22 games of the year, which includes the series against the Canucks, he had 17 goals and 13 assists. Kiro Kaprizov coming over, he had the best 22-year-old season and a points per game basis in KHL history. Second is Alex Radjelov, 5th is Artemi Panarin.

He was right there with Vlad Tarasenko in terms of KHL production at the same age ahead of Vgeny Kuznetsov. You never know how players are going to translate coming over, obviously, but if you just look at all the comparables for Kaprizov and you just watch. and play. It's pretty clear the skills are very legit. It's not some random fluke playing in a different league. And so you put Caprizov and Fiala together. I don't care who's playing down the middle for them. Just get them to puck, get out of the way. And I think goals will be scored. And I can't believe I'm saying this. But I want to watch the Minnesota wild this

season. Yeah. This is the Vegas philosophy. Let's, let's heavy up on the wings in the blue line and have a good goaltender and at work. Everybody, you know, it's, you can see where they're going. Like, you see where Garron's going with this team. And it's a, it's a good. direction. Capriza is one of the reasons why you want to watch Minnesota this year just to see how good this guy can be. I do still come back to that same point, whether it's, you know, you mentioned Johansen, whether it's Benino or whether it's, you know, going back to Rask, whether it's Bukestead, who I still see more as a winger than a center. Joel Eric Sineck, who's been handed, you know, those top two centers positions at various times as well. Like I still don't know,

maybe even Nico Sturm that you can throw into that conversation. They have so many guys that are available for those first two center positions on that team. But you're right. Like Johansen, by way of veteran status and contract and all of it, seems to be the way that they're leaning. But I just don't know when you consider how important a position it is for a team like the Minnesota Wilde to have good centers. I just don't see anyone there that screams first line guy. Like, I think they have a bunch of centers that you could, you know, if you squint really hard,

kind of see a second line guys and your bottom two center spots. I just, there's no one there. Like, once they made that stall move, like, there's just, there's no one there that I can see grabbing that, that first line center spot. I am happy to be proven wrong on all of this. Like, I agree with you. I think Rossi is the guy they envisioned taking that spot. But I just don't see anyone there that's going to satisfy that first-line center hole at all.

No, I don't think you're wrong. And I'm not trying to make an argument, contrary, by any means. I do think that that Vegas model replicating that is interesting from the sense that they have a defenseman. They can clearly move the puck up the ice. And basically, I think the role of their centers is going to be much more defensively minded where guys like Garek and Benino can probably thrive. and you're basically just taking a lot off their plate and going, okay, there's two places in the ice. You basically need to stand.

Your list of roles is very limited. You just do these things well and let our wingers and our defensemen carry the puck and create offensively. And that's not a bad recipe. It's at least kind of a stopgap until Rossi comes up until they maybe draft someone else down the line. And so at least I'll be curious to see both if Fiala can carry over a success and be a legitimate bonafide superstar and what Caprizov looks like.

And I think those two are worth tuning in for. I hope Minnesota does well eventually, just because it's a great hockey market. And you always want to see great teams in great hockey markets. And you're right. Like there really hasn't been a ton to be excited. I mean, they're that, I mean, the classic mushy middle team, right? Just do enough. Get into the playoffs.

Get scotch in the first round. Wash runs repeat. Do it all again the next season. That's kind of what it's historically always been for the Minnesota Wild. And the fan bases create the state is. it's Minnesota like they have their own name for hockey pants like nowhere else the world

are these things called breezers other than Minnesota like they have a really unique and interesting hockey culture there's tons of great hockey fans there please give them a great NHL team I'm with you who do you have next on your list because I feel like we've been rattling through my list

and let's get back to yours a little bit where was I well I mean I'm we're probably sort of I'll go right above St. Louis here and we're getting into my sort of like getting good and interesting teams to watch. And in that one, Colorado is top of the list. I know I've excluded the entire north here.

But I've got that list of Vegas, Carolina, the Flyers, the bolts, and the Rangers, all in there with the Colorado Avalanche as well. And I wonder if this is the year where finally, and again, everyone listening to this podcast right now is going to say, but the goaltending is stupid. I just wonder if this is the year that Carolina becomes it. Yeah, I have Carolina at 7 on my list. They play with pace. Their games are fun to watch.

They're always a candidate. You talked about Kekeleinen and the Blue Jackets. I think the hurricanes are a candidate to make a splash trade just because of how many assets they have and how much flexibility they have. You know, I'm excited. Slavin and Hamilton are awesome to watch together. I think that top line of Ajo, Terabine, and Svechnakov,

which we saw like 300 minutes of last year was just unreal and I want to see a full season of them. Best line in the NHL when they're on when they're clicking. I know Boston fans. I know, I know, but they're fantastic. I have three teams here. So I don't want to spend too much time on the Panthers, Flames, Predators. I had them in my middle of the pack sort of because their teams that made big changes this offseason. And I'm curious to see what they look like.

Is there any of those three teams that interest you? Preds are always interesting because I keep sort of scratch the first. my head and trying to figure out sort of what's gone wrong and how it seems to be, I would seem to be expedited each and every season. And you look at them on paper and you say to yourselves, how can this team, you know, not perform? Like, where is this all gone? I mean, maybe you look at the entire forward group and you say, well, you know, this isn't a team that was drafted and developed and all, you know, grew up in the same organization.

These are all trades or signings, whether it's Johansson or Forrestburg or, you know, Dushane or like go right down the entire list this isn't a team that's grown up together and then you know you wonder about a couple of things you wonder about the aging out of Pecorane

and you wonder you know how long a team can trade so many elite defensemen and not have it finally catch up to them and I wonder if we're at that spot now with the Nashville Predators and again they can't score

goals. Well, here's the thing. We thought they'd go big game hunting. They brought back Granlan makes sense. They brought in Agricala. I think they're strong down the middle. It worries me because last year we saw when John Hines came in and coached his team, he was very into rolling lines and not playing favorites. And like Philip Borsberg should be playing more. I think the fact that he played the same amount as Rocco Grimaldi under John Hines is a travesty and that cannot continue. I think if he played his stars more, I know he plays Ellis and Yossi a lot, but I want to see Forresbourg get fully unleashed

because he's one of the most talented players in the league. He is, and he should be a perennial 40-goal guy. Like when you look at just pure skill on that team, like just pure skill, the conversation begins and ends with Forrestberg. Right? Yep. Yep, it does.

Okay, I'm going to rattle through these teams here. So I got the Sabres at 15. I've got the Canadians at 14. about the Canadians at 14, the sharks at 13, the jets at 12, the penguins at 10, or the Flyers at 11, the Penguins are 10, the Capitals at 9, the Rangers at 8, the hurricanes at 7, and then we get into that true elite tier with the lightning, the Canucks, the Knights, the Oilers, the Leafs, and the Avalanche. Do you want to talk about the North Division real quick here?

Like you said you lump them all together. I guess it's tough. I just think everything, I just think that every single game, no matter what the combination is, is going to be so emotionally charged if it's going to be. And again, I'm speaking as a Canadian hockey viewer. I get that. Someone right now in New York or in Denver or in Washington is saying like, hey, you know, like, okay, the Canadian flag, pour maple syrup on you, like, calm down here.

There are other teams and other divisions. I just think that this is for Canadian hockey fans, this is a gift in a horrible season in the middle of a pandemic. This is a treat because this is going to be a lot of emotionally charged games that have hysterical, as you all know, Dmitri, reactions to it on Vancouver Twitter, Calgary Twitter, Toronto Twitter, you name it. I think the whole thing is going to be fantastic. Yeah, even like the Canadians who I think people think of as this team that doesn't have a top gear or high-end talent, I just don't think that's true. right like you look at that top line of the tar denou and gallagher they've been one of the most effective five-on-five lines in the league their power play has just sucked the past couple years so they don't have

crazy point totals but like they can go toe to toe with all of these teams and so i have my reservations about a team like the canucks for example but when you're talking about elias peterson and quinn hughes on the ice you're going to be watching them and so with each of these teams there's like something you have to watch for my biggest deliberation was the top three where it was Toronto, Edmonton, and Colorado. And I was trying to like sort of, I knew I was going to have Colorado number one, because I would have watch every single one of their games this year. But between Toronto and Edmonton, where Toronto is obviously deeper,

but when you have a team with Connor McDavid and Leandro Seidel, and especially how much they play, like they're almost always on the ice. So you kind of have to watch that team. So it was tough for me to sort of pick between the top teams. But I guess people listening to this podcast are going to go, like, man, I can't believe these guys just spent 45 minutes talking about the California teams and the Detroit Red Wings and then they just glossed over the top five teams in the league. But what are we going to say?

Like, yes, Colorado has a ton of great players and must be watched. Everyone knows that. There's nothing very interesting for us to sort of unveil there. Look, Colorado is, the only question again is the goaltending. Like, that's it. Like everywhere else, including prospect pipeline. And here comes Byram and here comes New Hook. Everywhere you go, everything's coming up, Sackick.

The only question is the goaltending. Can it all be undone by questionable, if not, average or questionable goaltending? That to me is the only question about the avalanche. Like, this is a team that has, you know, made, you know, big money short-term offers to players, whether it's most recently, you know, Taylor Hall, of course, they end up going to Buffalo Sabres on a big one-year deal. but they offered like big money to Artemmy Panarin on a short-term deal before he signed with the New York Rangers. Like they know, like internally they know they have one of the biggest gifts in the NHL and that's Nathan McKinnon's contract.

And their time to win is now and they are going for it. Thank you. My only question about them is the goal tent. Like I'm with you. Like what more can we say about this team? What more can you say about the, or like how many times can you say, wow, it sure looked like they've thought they had Markstrom, and this was the fallback plan, was to go back to the same two. And here we are back with the same two.

I think the Oilers are a much improved team, specifically on the third line. And I don't know that I would want to play a team that faces off against a ticked off and maybe insulted in some ways, Connor McDavid, who is the best player in the NHL period. Yeah. It's crazy for the avalanche that they have this blue line of McCar, Gerrara. and go on tapes and then they're going to add Bowen Byron at some point

it's like the most mobile puck moving friendly blue line ever puck goes in puck goes out puck goes in puck goes out is there any team we haven't really talked about

that you wanted to highlight we kind of rattled through those top ones pretty fast you mentioned the Buffalo Sabres a couple of seconds ago I don't know I want to spend too much time but I mean I'm waiting to see Rasmus Deline take that next step

I love Jack Eichael I think we're all on the same page about just how great this guy is to me he's in that conversation of players and you mentioned Vancouver with Patterson and Quinn Hughes players you would pay to watch like just go to watch that one guy I'll go to any Buffalo Sabres game or watch any Buffalo Sabres game

just to watch Jack Eichel he's that dominant I'll be very curious to see what happens with him and Taylor Hall this season and where the Sabres are at they're in a real tough division I mean if you look at like big losers in the division shuffling. You know, in Buffalo, if you had playoff aspirations,

sorry about your luck the way that you've been shuffled here. But they have a lot of pressure. They need to have something to show for this season and how those two play off of each other and whether they're a long-term fit together or whether they're on separate lines is really interesting to watch. The Sharks were a team that I had no idea how to rank.

Like, I had them 13th on my list because you can see the scenario where they get healthy and there's a lot of star players to watch there. but it could also go horribly wrong very quickly. And so I'm not sure. Like they could either be the 25th most fun team or the seventh most fun team based on how their health turns out. Man, that is a real tough one.

I don't know what to make of San Jose. Again, you look at them and you say, how can they have this record when, and maybe you just say, well, you know, they got goalied. Like, it didn't matter what they do, they got goalied. At the end of it, that's what happened to them. but I'll be really curious to see what happens with Eric Carlson this season because I don't know, Dimitri, I don't know about you, but I don't know who Eric Carlson is right now.

Like, who's Eric Carlson right now? I don't know. I don't know who, there's a lot of players that I like on this team. And I think there's a lot of players that everybody likes on this team. But I wonder if this is, like, if it unravels again this season. One, if you're Doug Wilson, what do you do? Two, when you look at all the long-term contracts that you've signed, are you even in any position to do anything? When you look at the long-term deals, you have Kane and Cature and Carl's, like, all these players on all of a sudden now, Brent Burns and Vlasic are on long-term deals at big dollars.

Can you really do anything, even if you wanted to? Yeah, they're kind of in limbo. They're sort of held hostage by the situation. It's their own doing, so they don't have anyone to blame for about themselves. but yeah, like if they're healthy, they have upside, but there's a lot of question marks, and so it was really tough to rank them. All right, I think that's good.

Like, we went an hour and a half here. You want to do the thing on Vegas? You want to do Vegas real quick? Yes, I had them fourth on my list, and I considered cracking them to the top three. Just a clinical 5-15 team. I love watching them impose their style and will on opposing teams. Mark Stone's defense transcends the genre.

It's Datsuki and, just watch how quickly he takes the puck, but then immediately transitions into offense and does something aggressive with it as opposed to kind of kicking it back to a defenseman. I'm curious to see the fit between Petrangelo and Theodore there, how they divvy up those premium offensive minutes. But it's going to be a really fun team to watch with a ton of talent.

Oh, you always get Theodore or Patrangelo on the ice. Yeah. Like that's it. Like, that's talk about a luxury. You have it right there. Here's one thing, the game within the game. I wonder, I wonder, Demetri

as I get out my shaved ape hockey card I wonder as I am to collect hockey fight tapes for a living I wonder if this is the season

we finally a goalie player fight I know I'm sounding like Cro-Magnon man here discussing hockey fights You think Lennar's gonna put someone up? Well who do you think it might be?

Do you think we see Robin Lennar and a van der King. So I always love the Ryan Reeves, Evander Kane's type. Don't forget Leonard was involved in this as well. He's not shy about it. The last one, the last goalie player fight we saw

would have been Ray Emery and Andrew Peters, I believe. Do we see another one this time with Robin Leonard and Evander Kane? Well, it just feels like a lot of the time Robin Leonard just takes off his mask and stare someone down with those crazy eyes

and then people are just like, all right, the situation got diffused. So we'll see. We'll see. But yeah, it'll be certainly be interesting to watch. I wish we spent more time talking about those sort of Metro Division monsters. I guess there's no Metro Division this season. But, you know, with the Flyers, with the Penguins, with the Capitals, even the Rangers, there's so many storylines. What do you make of the Flyers saying, hey, Sam Moran, essentially, like, we're trying to save your career here. Do you want to play Wing? I mean, they had no other choice. He clearly wasn't an NHL defenseman. Wow. I mean, I remember watching him when he played Ramuski and he was big and he was the toughest player in the queue and all of that. And Paul Holmgren fell in love with surprisingly that player. You looked at him and you said that guy looks like a Philadelphia flyer. I just wonder how difficult it is mentally to have your organization come to you and essentially say if you want to save your job, you have to do you have to play a different position.

It's tough. It's tough. That's got to be so hard. But you're right. Listen, Rangers have some great stories. Like, are we going to see a goalie

win the Calder this year? No. Well, he could, but I think Caprizo has to be the favorite based on what we talked about. But yeah, I mean,

Shastarkin, I'm curious to see who's Lafranier going to play with. Ken Mika Zabitajad keeps scoring a million goals. Like, there's a lot.

If they knew they were going to get first overall, and of course they wouldn't have. Would they have re-signed Chris Crider? Yeah. It's a bit of a lot. blog jam there, but you can never have too many good players. I will say so...

That left side is stacked with the Rangers. Here's what I'll say to fans that wanted more on these teams. Go back and listen. I did a deep dive on the penguins of Jesse Marshall. I've got a deep dive of the capitals coming with the great Samantha Pell soon. We'll talk more about the Rangers, obviously, so no shortage of content on them. Jeff, let's get out of here. Plug a...

Can I do something really quick? We're talking about watchability, and I want to go outside the NHL really quickly. and something that just from a personal point of view, I'm really curious about this year. The women's worlds are still scheduled for Halifax in April. I think HACN has asked a double HF maybe to push it into May, I'm not sure, but that's going to be high watchability for me for a couple of different reasons.

One, Alina Mueller, who plays at Northeastern, she's Swiss, who is just this remarkable 22-year-old. like phenomenal young hockey player. So really excited to see her at the women's worlds this year. And Sarah Filier, who's a 20-year-old from Princeton, who is like, remember when Marie-Philippe Poulin, Dimitri was all of us becoming that next Canadian superstar? Yep.

And it was, you know, it was, you know, of course, the Olympics where she really made a name for herself. But Marie-Filippe Plann was back in like 2009. Sarah Filier is now. Like that's the next Canadian superstar women's hockey player to come. She is a complete force

and she's going to be and she already is just a dynamic, terrific player. So I just want to acknowledge if I have a little platform here, women's world championships, Sarah Filier for Canada, Alina Mueller for Switzerland,

two outstanding athletes, keep your eyes on them and fingers crossed the women can have their world championship and Team Canada camp opens up in Calgary 16th or 17th, I believe, later on this month. Awesome. Cool. Yeah, I highly recommend co-sign that.

All right, Jeff, plug some stuff. Where can people check you out, TV, podcast, all that stuff? Yeah, I'll be on the Magic Eyeball again soon as we get the season started. Other than that, it's Hockey Central Monday to Friday. It supports that 590 the fan podcast with that guy that I carry every week, Elliot Friedman. And who knows? And oh, the Hey Berkey animated feature that we have now,

which is a lot of fun. I look and sound a lot better animated than I do in real life, Demetri, as I've found, my wife always reminds me. You sound great. It's awesome to have you back on the podcast, Jeff, and we'll have to do this sometime again soon.

Have a go, I'm in. No problem. Thanks, Demetre. Always a pleasure. It's a must listen podcast. Glad to be on it. Cheers. All right, so that's going to be it for today's

episode of the Hockey Pedyo cast. Hopefully you enjoyed the 2021 edition of the watchability rankings. One thing, there's no doubt about, no matter what, is that Jeff Merrick was in prime forum with his random stories. And that's why we love him. And that's why he was one of the very best, and that's why I had to have them on the show.

So from my perspective, I guess I should have known in advance that we'd run super long when I scheduled them for this exercise. And it was 90 minutes, but honestly, it could have been four hours that we kept going on our early pace, and we got into everything that I had in my show notes for all 31 teams.

It was very ambitious. I got some into the conversation that at some point I remember looking at the clock and seeing we'd spend over an hour and we covered like eight teams. And so I knew it was going to be speed around style the rest away. But that's okay because I think it was a lot of fun. And I think we'll have plenty of time to talk about the other teams that we only skim passed in this one down the road. I know it's a little lot spending so much of the time talking about the bottom teams that aren't the most interesting by any means. But I figure that once the season gets going, we're going to be spending most of our time talking a lot. lot about the teams at the top that are winning games and have all the best players and are

sort of the usual suspect. So if you're a fan of one of those teams and you're coming away from this one bummed a little bit because we didn't get into a full discussion about them, I promise you they will make it up on future shows. I've already got some deep dive scheduled on teams like the Capitals and the Rangers, as I mentioned, and we've already done plenty of extensive deep dives throughout the off season on other teams like the Sabres and the Canucks that we've raised through. So if you haven't checked those out and you're wondering about them, definitely go back into our archives and catch up on that. We've got a lot of fun content coming in the next couple weeks.

We've got all sorts of preview shows to go along with the team deep dives. We're going to do a show about breakout players. We're going to do the usual position rankings. We're going to do team over-unders and awards and prop bets. We're going to do a fantasy preview. It's all going to be a blast. So in the meantime, you can help us out by smashing that five-star button and leaving us a quick little review.

It's super easy to do, and it's really appreciated, and it helps us a lot. If you're really busy and you don't feel like writing out a full review, just click the five stars, and that should do the trick. So thanks to everyone that's already done it. Thanks to everyone that's about to do it. And I hope you all have a happy new year. Thank you for supporting the show in 2020.

We're going to be back soon with plenty of other preseason content. So until then. Follow on Twitter at Dim Philipovic and on SoundCloud at SoundCloud.com slash hockeypedocast.