The Hockey PDOcast - Episode 387: The Rightsholders

Episode Date: March 11, 2021

Emily Kaplan and Chris Johnston join the show to help fill out midseason awards ballots. We discuss what we're looking for when making our choices in each category, the best candidates at this point, and storylines to watch for in the second half. Topics include: The Calder Trophy The Norris Trophy The Selke Trophy The Vezina Trophy The Jack Adams The Hart Trophy The best comeback performance The most underrated player The best offseason acquisition The player that's most proven they're legit this season ESPN's deal with the NHL CJ's new and improved Twitter strategy 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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My name is Dimitri Filipovich. and joining me is my good buddy, Emily Kaplan, Emily, what's going on? How much? How are you? I'm good. I'm good. You're probably a bit busier than I am today with some big news. But, you know, to keep this rights holders meeting going, I'm going to bring in the third member of this conversation, my other good buddy, Chris Johnson. Chris, what's going on, man? Rights holders, represent.

My God, what is the initiation? Can I, like, can you give me details? What do I need to know? Well, the first thing that you're going to learn is you're going to get a different pass when you go to a league event often. Oh. Sometimes you get like a different looking pass than the reporters and you can walk places up that they can't. Well, Chris, I've been doing that before, but now I just won't get kicked out because I'm allowed to. Exactly. You don't have to, now you don't, now you really don't have to worry about asking permission or anything like that. Oh, there's a brutal moment in the bubble where I stole Chris's perch and lighting and his camera guy was not too,

please but in true Canadian hospitality he turned around and lit the shot for me because he was a good guy and then he talked to I'll view behind your back which is all very Canadian like right down to it. Sorry. Passive aggressive.

All right guys so this is what we're going to do today. I gave you guys some homework. I thought it'd be fun to do our midseason awards ballot and it's crazy to think it's midseason already because it feels like just yesterday's siege that I was doing my preseason. Things were excited to

watch this year podcast with you. It feels like I was literally yesterday. And now we look up and you know, there's certain teams like the stars, I think, that still are a bit behind in terms of their games played. But for the most part, we are kind of approaching that halfway point where certain teams are getting up to 30 games played now. And it's crazy how this kind of just sped up in a blink of an eye. I'm very much here for it, to be honest. It's a weird year as someone who's going to a bunch of games. So I'm, I'm happy that we're getting closer and closer to getting back to the real thing. So I thought it would be a fun and useful exercise for us to go through our ballots,

acknowledging that a lot can change here in the next 20 to 25 games are still only in the first half, but it kind of gives us a chance to take stock of what's happened, highlight some notable performances, and get set for what should be an even bigger sprint in the second half of the season here. So let's just get right into it. We're going to do all of the main individual awards that you see every year, but we're also going to sprinkle in some fun ones that we made up, just to mix things up. But let's start with a Calder.

Emily, I'll let you go first. What are you thinking right now in terms of the most impressive rookie for you so far in the first half? So for a lot of the season so far, I would have said Kevin Lankinen. I just think he's been absolutely fantastic. I've used this analogy a couple times. But when I covered the NFL, there's this adage. If you have two quarterbacks, it means you don't have one quarterback. And I was like, damn, Blackhawks have three goalies.

That means they have zero goalies. Negative one goalies. Yeah, exactly. And this kid emerging has been awesome. But I'm curious to see if he hits the Ricky Wall. Someone I don't think is going to hit the Ricky Wall. And I'm guessing this guy is number one on both of your list. I love Tim Stutz.

I think he's been awesome. But it's Kareil Kaprizov. He has just changed the complexion of the Minnesota Wild. He frankly makes them fun to watch. I was in Moscow a year ago, January, right before the pandemic at the K-HL All-Star Game. like everyone I asked, I said, who's the next big thing here who's going to be a star in the NHL and every single person said, Carol Capri's off. He's got that it factor. Yeah, I think it's amazing that he came in with just unreal set of expectations.

Like obviously when someone like Alexei Lafranier, for example, gets picked first overall, everyone has expectations, but it is a teenager and they were playing against significantly different competitions. So you kind of give them a bit of time to get growing pains in. And we've seen other 18-year-olds have tough rookie seasons and then come back and, and, and thrive. But with Kaprizov, like, we'd seen him dominate the KHL, and it felt like people were waiting and kind of keeping tabs on him, and you were wondering, okay, what's this going to look like when he comes over?

And obviously, the comparisons to Panarin were obvious, but it seemed also kind of lazy to be like, oh, just two skilled Russian guys, they're going to have the exact same impact on the league. And, CJ, I think the only real pushback that I've heard so far or case against Kaprizo being the runaway favorite here is that he's not a quote-unquote true rookie because he's turning 24 years.

old here in a couple months and he's got five years of pro league experience already under his belt and it's kind of apples and oranges comparing him to a guy like Tim Stutzlow who's a teenager are we going to take Canarens award away from him is that what's going to happen we can't give that award back to him well yeah exactly and so CJ where do you stand on that argument and also just you know caprizab and everything else in this race well it's worth talking about because others are but I don't stand anywhere in it like to me under the guidelines are given to a vote on the award, he's clear. So he's winning it, I think.

He's certainly leading it at this point. You know, I understand what people are saying with that, but we can only vote based on what the rules are, right? I mean, it was actually years ago, Sergei Makrov won the rookie of the year, and that's when they put in, you know, the age limit initially, because he was, I think he was early 30s when he won it as an NHL rookie. you know this is a similar thing you know capra capra caprice have played six seasons in russia in the pro league before coming here but we're judging the best NHL rookie and it's pretty clear to this point

of season that's him well and also i think these are such i mean they're unique circumstances for everyone but like for a player like him who is coming from you know an entirely different league but also an entirely different culture and he's kind of trying to acclimate himself in north america here in this year where you're getting a short training camp, you're getting no preseason, getting thrown right into the fire. And for him to pretty much literally from day one, I mean, he had, what, three points and the overtime winner in his NHL debut and he's kind of carried it over throughout. And at the same time, like Emily, you bring up at Kevin Lankin, and I think Kevin Lankin's

like two years older than Caprizov. So certainly doesn't have the dominance in the pro leagues before. But listen, it's your first year in the NHL. And if you meet the age requirements, I have no issues with it. Yeah. Same there. Honestly, Stutzler is the only one, you know, because he's kind of coming on here. He had a bit of a slow start production-wise.

He's the only one that I think will make that debate potentially have more fired when it comes time to vote for real because, you know, there's a, there's a scenario here where he continues to produce and that the points are almost the same or the goals or what have you. And then that debate's real. But otherwise, I don't know, I think you got to vote for the best rookie. Dalla, Della Bill, Carol. I've got one dark horse, though. He's cockle cock and in a rookie.

He is. He's also older than Caprizov, though. He is. That's why I asked if he was a rookie, because he's been around, but he's had a real hot stretch lately. Like, if he, it would be tough because they're on the same team. But if he puts up the same numbers that he's put up the last week or so as we record this, I think he could walk himself in there. I think we have to, like, I think both you probably agree with this, but just beyond the on-ice impact,

like he, Caprizo obviously has the points and all that. but like he is single-handedly we talk about this is a team sport right he has single-handedly come in and just completely transformed an entire organization where people are watching the minnesota wild now they're talking about them you have idiots like me posting clips of him like it's it's just the one was the last time you had a a minnesota wild conversation in the past five years it didn't revolve around something wild paul fenton said like it's literally in terms of the on ice product it's been ages since probably since the peak marion gabber that we saw talent this dynamic in Minnesota, and for him to do that right out of the gate, I think transcends just the point totals or the underlying metrics or whatever you want to use in this argument. Right.

And narrative works here, you know, like I think if Chicago makes the playoffs and Lincoln finishes strong, like there's a world where he starts to get some support in that because I don't think anyone had the Blackhawks. I didn't see anyone predicting the Blackhawks making the playoffs this year. And he would have a huge hand in that. where maybe it gets hurt is I didn't see too many people saying the wild might be one of the best teams in the league.

And that's the way they're looking through half a season so far. So, you know, you're right. I think the wild fans deserve this. I mean, it's not the spirit of what we're talking about. But like, I've been to, it's such a great hockey market. And you're right. They've been starved for a talent. And this is real talent.

I mean, and just watching these games, like, you know, no disrespect the guys like Victor or Ask or Nick Bukstad or whoever. But like he's setting, he's like literally serving. he's like literally serving up these pucks on a silver platter for them to tap it in and they're missing sometimes and you think you know whether it's a marco rossi hopefully he gets healthy and he'll eventually be in the lineup or some of these kind of more dynamic players they've drafted or even potentially pairing him up with kevin fiala but you'd think as they surround him with more talent you're going to see the the actual numbers sort of reflect just how insanely good he looks because

like he's creating as much as anyone in the league right now in terms of like just high danger glorious looks night in and night out um um All right, let's pivot here since we seem like we're in agreement there to the Norris. I'll let you start this one, CJ. Where are you leaning with this one? I think it's got to be Cal McCar. And here's the thing. This stands for all the award discussion.

But this is a hard year to compare players across division, you know, strength of schedules. You know, in Kale's case, he's missed some games. And so it's already a short in season. he's not going to play 56 games because he's he's been out. But when I just look at the play driving metrics, you know, how much he suppresses what goes on in Colorado's end, I think this could be his year. I mean, maybe, look, I don't always vote. Usually the guy I vote for doesn't win.

I find most of these categories. I don't know if I'm too ahead of the curve or I'm overthinking it half the time. But to me, McCar would be my pick. but I do think this is one of the tough categories, and this is a particularly tough year to judge the best with all the sort of mixed-up schedules and everything. Emily, you were surprised there. No, I wasn't surprised.

I was just surprised that it almost sounded like it was, like it's got to be him. But then hearing Chris's reasoning, it makes sense. Honestly, the one thing I just wanted to point out here, and I'll tell you who I'm picking, but I think there's a sentiment of players in the league, and this is something that defensemen in the league, And they don't really verbalize because, again, hockey culture, they don't want to talk about themselves.

They never want to complain about anything. But they're damn set, like, fed up of the guy with the most points every year being a finalist and winning. And they're like, this is the best defenseman and why are we not looking at the complete game? And so when I think about that, and I think about, you know, what a lot of players would value in a defenseman, it does shift my thinking a bit. Charlie McAboy has been a guy that I've had my eye on for most of the year, just because of the role he inherited, like starting last year, he started to be really the number one, you know,

when he was doing playing in all situations, things that Z did earlier in his career and their roles were flipped. But this year, I just feel like he's taking it to a whole new level. He told me early in the year that his goal was to shoot more. And his offensive numbers are higher than they've ever been. So maybe he can walk himself into the conversation with other guys. The other one I would mention is Victor Headman. I mean, just night in and night out.

He's just really good. Yeah, I'm with you, CJ. I think in his 15 games that he's played or whatever so far, especially at the start of the season, I thought it was a no-doubter. I got to the point with Macarra where I wasn't even comparing him to other defensemen. I was comparing him to McDavid and McKinnon in terms of just how explosive he was and how much he was creating.

And it reflected in the underlying numbers. Any way you look at it, he was playing significantly more this season. They were relying on him much more than they were last year where they kind of eased him in a little bit in terms of usage. But he's missed a lot of time now. and we'll see how long he's going to be out. And in a 56 game season, if he winds up playing like half the amount of a guy like McAvoy or headman, I think in terms of the value they provide to their team,

that's a pretty significant disparity. And those are the other two names that I had on my list. I think McAvoy, I identified him like before the season in terms of like the Norris betting odds. I remember they were obscene. And it's like, he's the number one defenseman on an original six franchise. Like, how is this not, how does he not get more national attention?

feel like it's bizarre than no one seems to talk about him. It's because he doesn't put up a lot of points. And that's mostly just because he doesn't put up a lot of power play points. But if you look at any other play driving metric, and especially this year, how much they've relied on him without Kroog and Chara there. But then it seems like everyone they've played with him, whether it's Jeremy Lozahn or Matt Grisla at the start, keep getting injured. Now Brandon Carlos out. And so they're relying on him to such a large degree. And they haven't really experienced much of a drop-off defensively and he basically does the heavy lifting for them. So I know it's kind of tough to separate him from their system and from their top

forward line and kind of how inextricably linked they are. But I really do feel like McAvoy deserves more attention as being one of the best three to five defensemen in the league this season. Yeah, and like losing two of their top guys too. I mean, that's that's going to help his case, right, because he is, as Emily mentions, like he's being used in a different way. he's getting a new opportunity or an increased opportunity, I guess.

And, you know, there's been no slippage there from his performance. You know, I'm open to that one. And you're right, the missing game is going to hurt. I mean, what a freaking year. I don't know how we're going to do this for real, honestly. I actually like talking about it in this podcast format because there's lots of room to kind of like work around the gray. But when it comes time to like listing five players in order for each of these things,

like it's already giving me like sweats like thinking about how we're going to do this fairly and accurately and it's going to matter and you know some of these players winning these awards gets them into the hall of fame or not like it's literally gets when it comes to the end of their career like that's that's a separator um you know anyway that's a bit of a diversion but yeah i i i'm fine with mackapoy like certainly nothing negative to say there you know what tj i i'm sorry it's causing anxiety, but I really respect how seriously you're taking your responsibilities here. Because if you look at the annual voting, you can tell that there's some people that do not take it as seriously, and I've probably not given it as much thought.

So I understand it's kind of ultimately a silly thing. That's my HWAVP. I would expect nothing less. Exactly. It's a leadership role. You need to lead by example, and that's clearly what you're doing here, CJ. So kudos to you. Well, I mean, look, sometimes there's not a right answer.

Right? Like sometimes two very smart, dedicated people that watch lots of hockey can have a differing opinion on an award. I think, but it's important you're reflecting as closely as possible what happened that year. And, and, you know, that's why, like, last year I had Panarin winning the heart, right? He didn't win the heart. But that was my vote. You know, I don't think that's a terrible vote, even if he didn't win. Do you know what I mean? Like, it's not about being in the consensus. I think it's about, you know, being able to defend what you choose. And so I just think it's going to be very difficult to. season. I do wonder if Victor Headman is going to get more momentum as we go along here, especially if Tampa Bay keeps winning games at a ridiculous pace because he leads defensemen in scoring. He's over a point in game. He is playing more than he really, I think two or three years ago he played a bit more than he's playing so far. But his minutes had actually been on the decline just because they'd been trying to preserve him for extended playoff runs. And there was no need to kind of lead on him. And this year, he's playing like, I think, what, 25? 2546 per game, which is just obscene.

And he's the most commanding player on the ice, I feel, right? Like, it's, you feel so comfortable. Like, it just feels like it's going to be okay when Victor Hedman's out there. I know it's, like, not the most analytical sort of thing to say. But I like the game against Chicago Dother last week where he scored the buzzer beater. Like, he has the puck on the point with three seconds left and he's like moving away from the net. And I'm sitting at home yelling. like Victor, what are you doing? Shoot the puck. And he like loops around. I'm like, there's no way he's

going to get this off. And he scores with like 0.001 seconds left on the clock. And I'm like, he probably knew all along what he was doing. And not that he was expecting this score, but it's like he just has like ice, ice water and is running through his veins. And after the postseason he had, where I think a lot of people felt like he was Tampa Bay's most valuable player in that cup run. I wonder if there's going to be some more momentum here for him just to sort of solidify. that people do feel like he is the best, most impactful defenseman in the world. They've been,

they had a couple blue line injuries this year. I feel like their depth is being tested. They're clearly not really comfortable using Calfoot in a regular role. So if that continues to be the case, I would expect his minutes to stay just as impressive as they are. The one thing I wonder about Headman,

like I think there's like different plateaus, even for the elite players. Like I think Crosby kind of found it around 2016, being, you know, where it's almost like you have nothing to prove and it's just all gravy. Like that's, that's kind of like where I feel like he's at now. Like I know when he won the Norris a couple years ago, it was a huge deal for him. He'd been nominated. You know, then he gets his cup.

He wins a consmite me. Now it's just like, how great can this be? You know, if he doesn't do another thing in his day, you know, as a professional hockey player, he's going to the whole thing. And so this is where this can be like the stacking part of the career where it can get really interesting and you're right he's probably the favorite like if we were if we were working for a betting company just because of who he is what he's done recently the fact he's been there a little bit more than maca boy doesn't mean he's he it went it over mackaway but i you'd probably have to install him as the

betting favorite uh from the odds and now i'm talking myself into him after starting with mccar so we're hoping to provide more answers and clarity here cj not questioning your original thoughts um let's stick with the with the theme of sort of playing defense standing and talk about the because this is sort of the most, I guess the Jack Adams for me is very obscure in terms of how you define it and who the best coach is, but in terms of qualifying like who the best most impactful defensive forward is, usually that means who's the best defensive forward, who also scores a lot of points. And then you kind of like get into this gray area of, okay, like two-way ability. How do you weigh offense versus defense? And we get away from the actual original definition of the award itself. But Emily, I'll let you go here first and then CJ you can jump in after.

I'll tell you guys both my thoughts after. But how are you feeling about this one in terms of if anyone stuck out to you or just theory-wise, kind of how you approach this one? This is always my most, that's a lie. Lady Big is always my most difficult. I don't think that's something that writer should vote on. It's just we don't know. That's the most gentlemanly play.

And I feel like that should 100% be voted on by the rest. This is my second hardest, just because the criteria is nebulous. It's the best defensive forward, but like, does it mean the best defensive forward who also have to put up really good offensive numbers? Or is it just the best defensive forward, period? A couple guys have stuck out to me early. I don't know if people are watching enough L.A. King's games, but the veterans that they have kept around from the Cup team, the five that are left are all playing at a really high level. It really, really look good. And the guy I'm talking about here is obviously Anze Kopitar.

It's just damn consistent every night. And the fact that he's still able to do this at his age with his body frame. And just think how difficult that is, I'm just in awe of him all of the time. I think Sasha Barkov could get a good look here. He's someone who, you know, I think he's graduated from most underrated player in the league. We all rate him as he is. And the Panthers being so good. I, you know, I've really admired his work.

And then it's the usual subjects. You know, one guy who was on my ballot last year is Brad Marchand. And I always just find it so interesting that Bergeron always gets the last. love, but Martian is just as impressive to me. Yeah, CJ, what do you think? Good breakdown. I had Barkov is my number one this year. You know, just looking at his usage,

you know, compared to other pretty good offensive players, he's not starting a ton in the ozone. His underlying metrics are just ridiculous. He plays tons of minutes. I think he just clicks, you know, checks the boxes we're looking for here. And I agree with Emily because, look, it's basically, exclusively centers have won this award, which isn't an official criteria.

But then if it is, you look at things like face-offs, you know, we, you know, there's a debate, I think, about whether you have to kill penalties or how key of a penalty killer you have to be on your team. You know, I'm not sure the award's totally evolved with the way coaches use their players. But, you know, I think it's Barakov's award so far. You know, I got time for Mark Stone, too. You know, he's definitely, I can't. actually don't recall my ballot in order.

He's been on my ballot, I think, both the last two years, but I don't have it in front of me, and I can't recall for sure. But, you know, I think he's had a great season. But, you know, Barkov is where if I'm putting my chips down, he's who I'm picking so far. I agree with that. And I love this glow-up for Sasha Barkoff because he'd been one of my most frustrating players the past couple of seasons

because you could tell that no one was watching Florida Panthers games, and they were just seeing people. on Twitter say that he was underrated and that he was a good two-way player without actually verifying it or putting any work into it because if you took if you just literally opened up his natural statric page you'd see that the panthers were just getting caved in defensively when he was on the ice and that doesn't necessarily mean that a player is bad defensively it just means that they haven't performed well defensively up until that point and sometimes it's a simple like it was like david in the past i think where it's like he has to do all the heavy lifting offensively him

and Jonathan Huberto are probably cheating a little bit to try and get out on fast break so they can score because if they don't, no one else on the team will. And his defensive numbers suffered as a result. And this year, he's playing with Carter Verhege, Anthony Duklair, Frank Vitano, and putting up just ridiculous numbers where whether it's high danger chances or expected goals or any kind of quality metric, the Panthers are amazing with him on the ice. And so I'm happy that he's finally living up to the reputation. Because I think people used to look at him and you'd go, okay, he's skilled, he's big, he kind of moves around effortlessly.

Physically, there's no reason why he shouldn't be good defensively. But for whatever reason, the numbers didn't actually support that idea that he was good defensively. You know, it's interesting. And I asked Bill Zito about this, and he pushed back. But the caveat there is Bill Zito wasn't around last year. And I don't think Barkov was himself last year. And I've heard a lot of people talk about it. His gay wasn't there.

And I think part of it, honestly, with the stresses and demands of playing under Joel Quenville and him as a captain, it was really taxing on him. And I don't think it was the easiest transition. But this year, he just looks so much more comfortable. And just he's having fun. Hoover Joe, I'd say the same thing about. And yeah, he's making other guys great. Like, DeClaire is a guy that I look at.

And I know his production isn't there, but he's getting his chances. Like, he, they're, they're really generating a lot together. Yeah, they were. It seems to me too. I haven't actually looked at the numbers, but they used to play them too much, right? I don't know if his numbers are down in ice time. Maybe they're not. But I just remember every time I looked at him, he was playing like 24 minutes a night,

it felt like at the past. Yeah, no, he's playing like 21 this year. And I think that's sort of the right spot for him. Like, clearly physically he can handle it. But you're right. At a certain point, I think there is a kind of a diminishing return. and if you're just like, you have to kind of pace yourself because you can't go full blast every single shift.

Well, and you've got to be everything, as you're mentioning for that team. Like in the past, he had to score and he was relied upon for defensive things. And like, you know, I don't even know how much deeper they are. You know, I think I've got a few Panthers on my list to foreshadow what's coming. But like, this team is kind of interesting to me because I'm coming to the conclusion. They might actually be pretty decent that this isn't just a hot start or an unsustainable run. And I still don't have a great answer as to why that is, to be honest. Let's, yeah, you're right.

When we come up with some awards later here in the show, we'll get to that. The other guys I had on my list were Mark Stone, as you mentioned, and I wanted to give Joel Ericksonek a little bit of love to because he's been really good. Let's take a quick break here. We're going to hear from sponsor, and then we're going to do the rest of the awards. I'm turning 30 this year. And as I'm sure, as many of you can appreciate, once you reach a certain age, you tend to start to value things.

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That's B-R-O-O-K-L-I-N-E-N-com promo code hockey to get $25 off plus free shipping on orders over $100. All right, let's see the Vezna. CJ, T-S-up here. Well, you're giving me the easy ones. I like this. I mean, yeah, I have.

It's hard. It would be hard to build, I mean, I guess Mark Andre Fleury's got to say here, but Andre Vasselowski, to me, I don't, I don't even, I don't have anything to knock him down on. You know, the team is a little weaker in front of him. His numbers are tremendous. He's had, you know, quite recently here along shutout streak. You know, he's been in this conversation. He's won this award before.

If you were starting a franchise today, or if you had one game to win to save your life, he's the goaltender you're picking. I think he's been the best calling the league. And I think he's played a huge fact. And the reason no one is working too many narratives about a Stanley Cup hangover or anything like that in Tampa. Emily, it's unfortunately you have to make the case against Andrei Vaselowski here.

Okay, cool. He sucks. He's terrible. I wouldn't want him on my team. No, he's really, really good. I think he's the number one for me for sure. Mark Andre Fleury is number two. two. And then a guy that I find

interesting is Semyon Varlamov. He's making more starts than I thought he would. I thought it would be more of a time share with Ilya Seroken. And his numbers are pretty good. He's got three shutouts, a 929% of does we say that it says not quite as good as Vasquezlowski

and the flower, but he's a guy, I don't know if something happens and he plays a ton towards the end. Maybe he makes it run. I think the third spot. I don't know we always talk about the coach winning to Jack Adams because of his goalie. The goalies win the Vesna because of Barry Trots

or at least get the Lowe. It works in reverse in Long Island. Yeah, great point. No, it does. I do think there's going to be a lot of space on ballots for whoever the third goalie is. So that's totally fair. I think Filari's numbers are actually very

comparable and line up pretty well with Vasselievsky's. I guess I feel more confident that Vasselovsky's going to keep this up because he's not 36 and he doesn't have Robin Lennar in theory coming back here sometime shortly. and taking starts from them. I think what Vaslowski's doing is wildly impressive,

and I think sometimes it's easy to overlook it or kind of take it for granted because they're so loaded and they score a ton of goals, and he has Victor Hedman in front of them, and I think people kind of knock him for that. But I think what impressing me the most is a durability here, right? Where he's played 20 of the team's 24 games. He played every single minute of their 25 playoff games last postseason. If you combined the 35 games to end last year,

year. And to start this year, he played a 35 straight game streak for the Tampa Bay Lightning. And the reason why I find that interesting is because, one, a couple years ago when he kind of became the number one and he took over from Ben Bishop, he like very publicly spoke about how the fatigue of an NHL season took its toll on him and how he was struggling with adjusting with the workload. And he's clearly adjusted very well. And the second thing is they made this big investment in him. And usually I'm against paying goalies long term and especially at a high high dollar figure, but he's in year one of an eight-year dealer that's going to pay him $76 million. He's 26 years old. But if he's actually going to be able to play this heavy,

a workload without seeing his performance deteriorate, then that is incredibly valuable because then they can afford to basically just give Curtis McElaney $1 million every year to sit on the bench and look cool wearing a hat. And that's a luxury, right? Like assuming he can't do that because I think when Montreal signed Kerry Price, they were probably thinking he'd be able to do that too. And then all of a sudden, he starts struggling under the workload and they're making a big deal about trading for Jake Allen

and kind of giving him a backup goalie so they don't need to rely on him as much. And then you get into trouble with paying two goalies, 15 million or whatever combined. So assuming he can keep this up, and so far he has shown no signs of slowing down, it's an incredible luxury. And he might be an anomaly at the position

because he's certainly like physically, just a complete freaking kind of unlike anyone else in the league to plays that position. He's an animal. Honestly, like he's ripped. Not to say he's the only goalie in the league that's ripped, but he's a big, strong guy. You know, Tampa, like, what an embarrassment of riches in Tampa? Like, I think it's easy to forget. Because there's so many really good teams around the league.

There are. And you look at what they have, but most teams you go, like, yeah, they have this, you know, a group of forwards, but, you know, a little weak at this position. but having a headman and a Vasilevsky and the forwards they have, you know, maybe they're going to go on one of these these cup winning streaks that we haven't really seen too much in recent years. But, you know, to me, they have the team to do it.

And the fact that he's played so strongly to start this year is probably, that might be the most important thing of all. I mean, headman being great helps too. But if he was, for whatever reason, struggled after the short turnaround, I mean, they didn't have another answer, I would think. And there was no trade to save them. but he's the biggest reason I think they could win a second straight.

It's funny. I was just thinking about that as you were saying that, CJ, like what other team would even come close to them in depth? And there's really no one these days. Like, I think when we began the season, everyone was super high in Colorado,

but maybe it's their injuries that are testing them, but I don't think they're nearly as deep. Austin's not nearly as deep this year. Toronto, you could probably make a case for. Like, what are their teams out there? Vegas, maybe, but. Oh, Vegas, Vegas, Vegas, Vegas.

stuff. But Vegas maybe doesn't have the high end forwards when we're getting down to like the final four and they're in a conference final again. We saw the goals drop on them last year. Well, the Petruetti has been pretty awesome this year. He has. You know, I'm not, I'm not dogging them by any stretch. I'm just saying like we're comparing the top five or six teams in the league. You know, that's what I mean. The other teams I think there's questions about. And I don't really question anything about Tampa. I mean, you just, if you're them, you just hope that Kutrov comes back. he's healthy and get back to being who he is. And, you know, if that happens by the playoffs,

I'm not sure who I'm picking over them. Yeah, I thought Kuchrov was their best player last postseason. And so to remove him and not really miss a beat at all is ridiculous and unfair. The Jack Adams, Emily, let's keep the trend going of giving you the really difficult categories. Although I'm going to give CJ the heart. So that's going to be a very contentious one. Yeah, yeah. Jack Adams, go for it.

you know, I don't even know if this is that hard this year. They're like one guy to me that is just totally, to me it's always either the team, the guy that's led his team to unparalleled tights, the John Cooper when the lightning, you know, break all their records, or it's the team that no one expected anything of and the young plucky guys and the coach leads him to the playoffs. And for me, that's Jeremy Colleton. Like, as CJ said, you're such a homer.

No, and I'm really not because like, I don't even know Jeremy Colleton that well. We had one sit down. He's never really given me the time of day. He's a nice guy. But like, honestly, I'm just so impressed with the work they've done.

If you think of the hand they were dealt, how disengaged the fan base was after they sent out that ladder, how some of the veterans were pretty pissed off about it, how right before the season you find out you're not going to have Kirby Doc, you're not going to have your captain. You're not going to have Alex Nealander either. You trade a bunch of people. And the fact that they're as good as they are,

he wins it for me now i i agree with the logic but if kevin lankanin wasn't having a called her finalist season is this even a conversation like if colandelia is their starter um yeah you know he gave jm's jobs and gold tenant can win jack adams yeah cj what do you what do you what do you think where are you at on this one because i think it's wide open i'm i have like four guys that I think could very easily win it. I've got Joel Quenville, his Jeremy Colette's successor. But, you know, this isn't one that I, it's not that I think it's a bad choice, but I don't feel like he has to be it or bust or anything like that.

I just think how poorly it went last year for him is first year in Florida. The fact that, yeah, they brought a bunch of guys in, they made some trades, what have you, but I don't think any of those deals generated significant buzz in the hockey community to the point. and everyone's like, oh, yeah, you know, watch out for the Panthers. And they're holding their own that division. You know, I take him, you know, in the past, I've tended to back the coaches that have coached the best teams. You know, the guys that actually never win the award, but I think deserve it.

So I'd be open to like a Barry Trots too, you know, because I think the Islanders are legit again, even though no one wants to give them their love despite getting to the conference final. Death taxes and discounting the Islanders until they get to the conference final. Right. until they just bludgeon us with two one games all playoffs. But I'm going with Joel Quinn. The reason why I struggle with this award is because I do think such a large part of the gig happens behind the scenes or just not privy to it.

Like I think it's easy to see when a coach is doing a bad job because like players are just not being played enough or being missed, like not deployed properly or they're running a weird system. It doesn't make sense given the talent they have. But when it's a good coach, it's usually like, oh, it's either a great team and then you're not sure whether John Cooper is doing an awesome job or whether he has seven superstars or it's a team that comes out of nowhere and it's like, all right, well, they're probably going on a PDO bender, which we've seen in the past certainly with Patrick Waugh

and Bob Hartley and Paul McLean. The list goes on and on where there's so many examples of coaches that we thought did an amazing job. And then two years later they were fired. It's like how did they go from being the best coach in the league to all of a sudden without a job? And it's probably because we got it wrong. So that's where I struggle with it. I do, I want to see a coach, like I want to be able to point to certain adjustments that a coach made either in the offseason or in the season so that I can like kind of trace the job they've done, right? And that's why I like Quenville here, because you can make the argument that he really is getting the most out of the personnel he has where they let Dattanov and Hoffman go.

They replaced them with Alex Wenberg, Anthony Duclare, Carter Verhege and they basically get Patrick Hornquist back and turn in like a salary dump when they got rid of Matheson's contract. And he makes the risky choice, I think, of splitting up Hubert O and Barkoff who had played full time before in the past. And I don't know if a lot of coaches would have done that or had the power to do so. Maybe their GM or their owner would have been pretty upset if they had done so. But Quenville has the gravitas to be able to pull that off. And so now he's using Hubert O, Wenberg, and Hornquist in this super sheltered role where they're just out in the offensive zone, which makes sense given their skill sets.

And he's using Barkoff as a matchup center. And he's getting the most out of both of those lines. And so I do think that kind of answers your question of how this team that doesn't necessarily look deeper than they've been in the past is getting better results. And I think it's because they're being coached better to get the most out of their players. I love that. You know, I, I'm with you in that we don't, there's so much we don't know with that award. It's, it is a tricky one.

Yeah, Panthers are legit, eh? I'm all in for, I've just taken this conversation wherever I want, but Panthers Lightning Playoff Series, like I am all in for that. It's amazing. I actually want that to be a rivalry, like a real one. Their fourth,

I believe, in the league in point percentage, and two of the teams ahead of them are in their own division in Carolina and Tampa Bay. But yeah, I think they're good. I'm not necessarily sure they're a top four team in the league, but I certainly think they're better than they've been the past.

I have Brindamore, call it in, and I have Sheldon Keefe on this list because defensively, I do think they have made adjustments since last year, and we've seen them in certain games. And so Barry Trott's is the best coach in the league, though, right? Like if we're being honest with ourselves? I think so.

I didn't pick Sheldon Keefe because I didn't want to be the Homer pick like Emily. I don't know if you say it. I didn't even grow up in Chicago. I've lived here four years. Here's my thing, though. I always put these radio heads and people are like, oh, you must be sad about the bears this week. Sorry, go on, Jim.

Dimitius. No, I love this. I love every time you bring up a Blackhawks player, we'll make sure to circle back to it. No, here's the thing with Trots, though. There are too many more to bring up in the relevance of this conversation. No, no, that's true. Here's my thing with Trots. Like, yes, they made the conference finals last year, and they've been good the past couple of years, right?

But if you just looked, like, if you did a blind resume, if you just looked at their depth chart and their person, not to take anything away from those players because I do think individually there is talent there. But you probably wouldn't make the argument that they're going to be leading their division right now in a division with, like you'd say like probably, oh, the Rangers, look how much talent they have. Oh, the Penguins, they've got Crosby and Malkin,

oh, Ovechkin and Baxter with the Capitals, even the Flyers, look how good they were in the second half of last year. And once again, you've got Barry Chawts and the Islanders, top five in every single defensive metric across the board, Except this year, they're actually dominating at 5-on-5 in terms of possession. And it seems like they're actually controlling play quite a bit and kind of asserting themselves. And I watched that game last night against the Bruins where they wound up winning 2-1 in a shootout.

The Bruins had one high-danger attempt in the third period in overtime. And like, Thailanders were just like, yeah, we're closing this down. You are not getting anything. And sure, it might suppress some of their own offense going down their way. But they also have Matt Burzell, who out of the blue, can just create a goal individual. as we've seen number of times as Rasmus is in line and unfortunately learned the hard way recently. So it's given their personnel, like I know people begrudge them for, you know, sending hockey back 10 years and playing a boring style and no one wants to watch. But you can't argue with the results.

And if I was coaching this team, I would try to do the same thing because they're not going to win a lot of games playing 5-4 and trying to open it up like the Leafs do. And if it was easy, other under-talented teams would be doing it with somewhere, near the same effect and we just don't see that right i mean other teams overmatched are getting their their boots kicked in on this in this league so yep i'm with you i think i i think really high barry uh in terms of what he does and you know i just made that joke about two-one games because i was that too many of them um all right the heart cj connor mac david is this really that controversial He just didn't want to pick Austin Matthews because he is, in fact, a Homer and just needs

the mask it. No, no, that one I would tell you. If I, you know, I think Austin's in the conversation for sure. But for me, like, there's a danger, I guess, because we try to get cute on. Sometimes, like, we're wondering what we miss with awards. I think there's a danger of overthinking this one. And, you know, Conner's, this year does have a lot of the underlying metrics going more in his favor than other times.

He's outpacing the league. The Oilers still are just a two. star team. Honestly, I've watched a lot of the Canadian Division, the North Division, because I live here and I work these games. And so I've watched the Oilers a lot closer than I would have these past seasons. And I have, I would have hard trouble in being real with you guys and picking someone else. I mean, I think Vasilevsky could get some love. I think we can build a case for other players. But right now it's got to go to Connor for me. It's always interesting to me of the goalie for Hart Trophy conversation. Like last year, I could have

have made a real case for Connor Hellebock, and I think he might have even been on my ballot, just because he was the best player on that team and an elite player. Like, Basilisky is playing at such a high level, but he just has so much support around him that I probably would go with a skater for this. I really feel like I'm about to get attacked, and I'm like a little nervous to say this, but like, Patrick. Oh, my. How did Duncan Keith not come up on your Norris ballot?

He's number five right behind Dora, through Doughty. I don't know how I'm living in 2000. But no, Patrick Cain is just, look, he's dynamic. He's top five in the league in points right now, far and away, better than all of his teammates talent-wise. There's one other guy who I'll probably talk about later who is doing well for them. And I think it's all, like, for me, he's the Nathan McKinnon choice, the Panarin choice, where it's like, you are the far and above ahead,

the Taylor Hall choice of all your teams. Yeah, I think that's fair. To your point on the goalies, I almost like, whether it's right or wrong, disqualify them from even my thinking for this award because they play the most valuable position. So like Connor Hallibuck was very clearly

the most valuable player in the NHL last year because without him, they would have been atrocious. But all the goalies are the most, like literally for every team, their goalies probably their most valuable player because it's the most valuable position. And so once you open that door,

you can really talk yourself into the ballot just representing the Vezna Trophy ballad basically, right? So I struggle without McDavid is on pace for 137 points over an 82 game season. People like to make fun of them, calling him a power play merchant because all he does is score on the power play. He's tied for the league lead in 5-1-5 points as well. He's not playing with my side all at 5-on-5. I mean, he has in the last week, but like in general also. Yeah, CJ, and I think that's a great point because that was the one sort of flaw that I actually had time before you and I talked about this in the preseason, right? We wanted to see what would happen because I'm sure McDavid was paying attention to what people were saying about his defensive flaws and how that was the only concern in his game.

And he did exactly what I was hoping he would do in the sense that he got better at defense by just always having the puck. And it helps, especially in the minutes he's played with Nugent Hopkins and Pooley-RV because they've forechecked so well. but instead of just being kind of a one and done rush team where he either scores a highlight real goal or if he doesn't, the other team's coming back on a three on two and they might give up a goal, they're just having these extended shifts in the offensive zone where they're getting multiple looks and staying in there

and tiring out the opposing defense and not having to waste McDavid's energy chasing back on D because he just is the puck. And so it's really a pretty flawless candidacy in my opinion. Matthews' 16-game point streak there was, was pretty obscene because he outscored all of the, all the teams they played at five-on-five single-handedly 11 to 9 in those 16 games, which I just thought was my most hilarious stat.

But I think we're overthinking it if we go away from McDavid here, because do you guys agree that he's kind of desensitized us in the sense that he does something? And unless it's a goal, it's almost like not worth talking about because he just made it look so easy. whereas if literally any other player on the planet just had a coast-to-coast rush that he had and didn't even wind up in a shot attempt, you'd be like, that was the craziest play on ice

that I've seen this season, but he just does it like every other game, and so it's not even worth talking about. Yeah, and I think the fact that Dry Seidle's there, obviously, like, just by the strict definition of this award, I didn't feel like Drysidal could win it last year. Yeah. Because, you know, I'm not really taking away from his season, you know, because he didn't see, look, he's been a beast.

But, like, the player, most valuable to his team. I don't know how anyone is, I know you have your goalie theory there, Dmitry. In Edmonton, the goalie is not the most viable player. So, yeah, I think maybe he's hurt, though, because Dry Sottle is also an amazing player. And last year, he's basically at 50 goals and 100 points and they keep each of the last two seasons. It's hard to separate them sometimes and they miss a playoffs of one year. But yeah, I'm not saying he has to win this year, but to me, it's pretty clear cut at this stage of the season. Yeah, I agree.

How do you feel about not to get you in trouble here, but the North Division argument, where do you stand on that in terms of just whether it is inflating the offensive totals and whether, because you're right, you mentioned earlier, it's really tricky to just compare players in different divisions because they're literally not playing the same teams

if they're in different divisions. I actually think it's bullshit, the argument that that's that started to circling there's children listening right now what are we an hour in like if anyone we're drinking beers and we're talking about awards halfway through a season you can see whatever you want exactly we're this deep in you know you've signed up for this so you're going to get the odd cuss word but you know honestly in all seriousness if you look at this division off the top of my head you've had mac david dry sidel matthews

Marner, Sheifley, at minimum, I think Wheeler, too, have all been top 10 scores in like the last three years at some point, and in some cases multiple those years. So, I mean, you already just have a collection of what have been the best offensive players anyway, like in any division. And if you look at the goals per game for the teams, like it's not significantly inflated. I think all that's happening is that you've just combined most of the elite offensive talent in one division. But I don't think it's not all eight, seven, right? Like, I think that that's kind of the narrative that maybe is born out of this. But, you know, I think if you look at the numbers, it's not that crazy.

Basically, what I'm getting at here is I think all these guys would be up in and around the top scores in any division in any schedule format or anything like that. Like, I don't think they're significantly benefiting because, yeah, we can point to Ottawa, which is actually winning more games lately, but there's crappy teams in the other divisions, too. Like, a lot of teams feasting on Buffalo this year. Yeah. You know, some of these teams are getting to play the California teams, which still aren't fully out of the woods.

You know what I mean? Like, I guess my point is, is I think it's overstated how much it's being inflated. But I do think it's a factor in general with the voting. It's just, especially when you get to something like the Norris, like, because different defensemen are facing different level of competition offensively. You know what I mean? Like, that's where I find it harder. But when we're talking about point totals, I don't have as much time for that argument. I think one of the issues that I've heard come up for a couple of people is that writers who vote for these awards are disproportionately based in the North Division and therefore following the North Division.

And to that I say, well, like, what are we going to do? This is the hand we were dealt. And for our voters and Chris and I are proud members of PHWA, as are you, Dimitri. Yes. We just have faith in everyone that they're going to do their homework. and they're going to study up because it's a privilege to vote. This is serious stuff. It affects guys' careers.

It affects sign, you know, performance bonuses, things like that. And I don't think it's really going to sway. And if it does, it's an unusual year. Well, and again, the greatest comeback, of course, you know, I think there's probably more people based in Toronto or around Toronto area. Just it's the biggest hockey market in the world. It's not like the Leafs have had a run on award winners. I mean, now partially, of course, it's because they haven't had the players

too but like my point is i don't think that there's a compelling argument that that's affected at voting i mean yeah there's maybe been some mistakes made but i don't think it's out of like getting the local guy in award i think it's more you know different views on how these things go no one hates the leaves more than than local toronto writers based on some of the uh william newlander takes that i've seen over the years so um was the other day tj i was dying So here's the back story on that. I got, I was, I had to cover the Leafs road trip from my couch through Western Canada. So every night I'm up at like midnight local time watching a game on the couch, you know,

having to do a Zoom call after, write stories, do TV, whatever. And so like I just was bored, frankly, just like long days. And Neilander was having like a viciously good game in Vancouver, I thought. He didn't score or anything. But he just was like awesome. And I just said something like we could. heat entire countries if we just burned all the hot takes or something like that that have been written about them. And like multiple writers in the market thought I was like targeting that,

which actually wasn't really my intent. It's just we've gone through five years of like every time he goes three games without a point. Like it's got to be like this, you know, this whole, is he any good? Can they win with him? Like just it's just like, it's never just like, hey, maybe he had a couple bad games. Maybe he's not being deployed properly. Maybe John Tavares' center is not having the best season. It's never that. It's always with him goes back to like, can you,

couldn't this guy even be in the league at this point? And so like, anyway, I just, I was trying to be funny, but I pissed some people off, I think, and whatever.

Well, let me just tell you, CJ, I've spent many hours with you, especially this past year. We were in the bubble in Edmonton. And like, that's the funniest you've ever been to me.

I think it's always funny, CJ. No, that was really funny. It's a... I've decided in the pandemic, honestly, I'm just going to put myself out there more in stuff like this and just be more myself.

Because, like, that's something I would definitely say to my friends or text to Emily or whatever. But, like, I don't know. I feel like this, at the end of the day, this is still entertainment at sports. You know, we've been kidding around it, but like I'm sharing my running stuff, I normally would never do that.

You know, I'm just, I feel like why, why take any of this too seriously? It's been a hard year for everyone. Let's just be real. You're an absolute gem. And I honestly open Twitter every morning, just waiting to see which team you're going to pronounce is the next juggernaut. So I'm still waiting on that. And when would it be my Chicago Blackhawks?

I love the same. I love the blogger energy, CJ. Just like sitting at home, CJ after dark, just tweeting stuff to rile people up. That was me in like 2014. So this is great. Well, it's maybe because I've never experienced a season like this as a sort of quote-unquote working journalist, right? I mean, normally, honestly, I would be on that. road tripper. I wouldn't be working from home anyway too often. Not in the way that it is now,

like where I literally have to watch the game closely and like try not to get distracted, which is really hard. I'm not good at that. Like I find it way easier to be in the rink because like what else am I going to do? I'm going to watch the game, right? That's what I'm there to do. But at home, there's just, there's a fridge and just, I don't know, there's other things to do that could get in the way. But yeah, maybe I'm just letting it all ride, but I'm not stopping, honestly unless my bosses tell me I have to. I love it. I hope they don't.

All right, let's rattle. We did all the main awards. Let's quickly rattle through some of the made-up ones that I send you guys. So, Emily, I'll give you an easy one here. The Bounce Back Award, which player has bounced back. And let me preface this by saying the reason why I wanted to do this was because I always get uncomfortable with the Master N Award because it feels like people are just like arguing over which person has experienced the worst tragedy.

and that's like I just I don't know it seems like a weird thing to celebrate in a way so I would prefer to just like in terms of the on ice product like which player performance wise for you that had a rough year a rough couple years or whatever has has bounced back to a certain level well I said a rough couple years for me I mentioned them earlier it's just the kings it's the team that I feel like is going exactly according to plan or exactly where they want to be where they've got the young guys starting to contribute and then the old guy that they kept around are still playing well. Dustin Brown, like, leading that division in goals is just astounding to me. Maybe he'll slow down eventually, but I just want to give him a shout out here. Yeah. What's great about this one? I think that there's, like, legit 10 people we could.

Oh, yeah. Of course. Yep. This one, sorry, what were you going to say, though, Demetri? I was going to make a joke about, well, yeah, Dustin Brown's scoring a lot of goals, but he gets to play against the ducks and the sharks. so, I mean, are they inflating his totals? And he plays against the wild, everyone's favorite team.

That's true. They are good. I'm talking about the West Division being inflated. What's going on? CJ, who's your bounce back? I'll probably go Mark Andre Fleury. We've been over his season, but last year was a disaster. This year, this is unexpected.

You know, I had Alex Debrinket down, James Van Ramesdike. You know, Stephen Stamco's, his goals per shifter down since the bubble. but, you know, after the ballroom, he's having a pretty good season. But there's a whole host of guys. I'd probably go with Flurry if I had one vote to cast, but, you know, this is actually maybe what the MasterDen should be, honestly. I mean, it's not up to me to rework these awards, but I'm guessing every year there's a sort of hockey argument to be had around this.

I think it's much more interesting personally. Like, I understand giving people, like, some love for overcoming off-ice hardships and persevering. I totally understand the root of it, but the arguments the result from it are always so cringe for me. It's like, all these people have had a rough career. To bring one person's tragedy to another person's tragedy. It's not a good one.

I think it should just be something separate where we don't vote on it. It's just awarded and we can celebrate that person and their journey. Yeah, I'm with that. You had some great ones. I'd add Justin Falk, who I thought looked bad in his first year in St. Louis. And he was starting this mega contract this year. So I was like, wow, this is going to be. be a disaster and he's looked awesome.

I mentioned him earlier. Yesi Polly Arvi is my candidate here because I don't know, CJ, I don't know how many conversations you had about this or sort of what you know behind the scenes, but the sense I got was like, I wasn't expecting him to play in an Oilers uniform again. I understand it helps that they got a new GM and a new coach and certainly the opportunity to potentially play with McDavid or Joyce Idol is like a pretty good way to rebuild your value in the league.

So it makes sense from a business decision. But like it seemed like. that relationship had almost reached the point of no return in some sense. And I wondered whether we'd see him or when we'd see him again. And for him to be playing on a top line and producing and being one of the best net front guys in the league so far is an amazing reversal considering where we're at like a year ago with him. Yeah.

And the cool thing with Pooley-Arvue, when he went back to Finland last season, early in the year he had a pretty good points. And like he was among the leaders in league and goals and stuff. but he had like kind of a slow second half. And I heard a lot of people saying like, oh, this guy, you know, he can't even hack it in the finish league. He's not even starring over there. Like that's what I started to wonder what his future was.

And now it looks totally different. So I think you're fair to pick that. I mean, it helps that Ken Holland has been around too. He's a new GM, but he's also not, he's not an emotional GM as much as some others, I think. You know, when he has all those Stanley Cup rings in his safe deposit box, I guess he just can he can chill out a little bit more and not have to overreact to everything. And I think that his

guiding hand here helped you know, make this, make this right. All right. Well, give me your, give me your most underrated player, CJ. And if you say Sasha Barakoff, no, I hate this question. Give me, give me a player that you think nationally doesn't get enough love. Like, you watch them play

and you're like, why are people not more excited about this player? It can be a young player. It doesn't have to be a veteran. Sure. So I actually cheated on this one and texted a few people, like scouts and that. Flex. What? I did homework.

Listen, I talked to some GMs, some former Hall of Famers, and I came up with a good answer. No, but it's a problem is the answer that I got most overwhelmingly from them is one I know that you're probably going to pick. And it was Connor Garland. Do I know you've been tweeting recently?

Yeah. But he was the most common name to come back that way. I'll be full honest. I haven't watched the coyotes much, but I'm aware obviously what he's up to. But I haven't watched him a ton. You know, to me like, how do I pick this?

Because I don't know what you guys think of great players. You know, I think Michael Backlin and Calgary doesn't get enough love. I think Mitya Sackholm, to me, is like a little bit underrated. And he's obviously in the news a little bit more because he might be traded. I find this one challenging. But I'll say Connor Garland before you can, Dimitri. Yeah, I would say Backlund's teammate, Andrew Manjapani, underrated by even his own coaching staff or former coaching staff because he was not being played enough.

Garland, I know a lot of people don't watch Coyote's games. Go watch the two-minute clip I put up of him. Big time, Brad Marchand vibes, I think, without the licking and the shenanigans. Because, listen, he's like a short, he's undersized. He's not the fastest player. He doesn't have blazing speed. And usually those players get overlooked. And he was a fifth round pick who took three or four years to make an impact in the

NHL and he's 24 now. But he's just so nifty that he's like, in that clip, you'll see. he's going up against Colton Pereco who looks like an entirely different physical specimen than him and he's just like getting low and getting under Pareko and Pareko almost doesn't know what to do because he's like how do I like my body physically cannot bend that low on these skates and so he winds up like taking penalties and tripping all over him and like Garland makes him look silly and very few players in the league can do that to Colton Pereko and his sort of just ability to constantly make defenders look like they don't know what they're doing and like they're slipping all over the ice is

a really fun quality. So I agree with Garland. I'm glad that the scouts agreed, although maybe now I need to rethink him being underrated because it seems like he's being rated pretty highly. Emily, who do you have here? I just throwing Garland last year, and I just want to say, like,

he's a feisty, fun personality. And he also put in a ton of effort when he was in the AHL and his shot, which I think is really improved. I had a couple answers. I thought Hoover-Drow would be the obvious pick that everyone was going to go with because I feel like he's inherited the title

from his teammate, Garcom, is the most underrated in the league. I think Alex Debrinket I like where you put him DJ for Best Bounce Back, but I don't think people really give them enough credit just because Black Rocks have been irrelevant in the last couple years. But my answer here, I have watched one too many Detroit Red Wings games this year. This is what we're doing South the Border guys.

And every time I watch them play and when he's playing, Dylan Larkin is a monster waiting to be unleashed. Like his production is not there. I think it's a byproduct of the talent around him. I just think he does all of the little things really, really well, competitive as hell. Once the Red Wings are good, it's going to be start-up to him. I just hope they're good while he's still in his prime. Right, because he's had to come in in this weird vacuum, right, from what they were to what they're going to be.

Yeah, like he was there the last year of the playoffs, Therese. Right. Yeah, physically just one of the most gifted players in the league, I think. So, yeah, I'd love to see the talent around him get better and see what that does to. game. I lost track of whose turn it is to go first, but the best acquisition, I think it's you, Emily. I'll go, quick and easy. And I know it's not technically an acquisition, but damn, three GMs tried to get this guy to come over, and one finally did, and that's Bill Garan. And they brought over Creole Caprizov, and as we said, he changed the confection of the team. The fact that they got him

signed, I think he's the best acquisition. That's cheating. He was already on the team, I guess, in the organization. I'll say Tyler Topoli like the rest of you. All right. I got to poll. 4.25 million. He lasted into free agency. He waited around for Vancouver and nearly saw all his opportunity to dry up to the point that I think Ottawa might have been the only other real bidder for him

at the end by the time he was ready to sign because other teams had moved in other directions. 15 goals. I'm sure there's some shooting luck in there. I actually haven't looked into that, but it seems... Not too crazy considering how many goals he has. Right. He's a volume shooter, yeah.

Right. But, you know, I think for what Montreal needed that he's not on a crazy free agent deal, that's a great acquisition. I had to follow him, but I'll go with Carter Hagee just to keep my analytics hipster card as well as my pro hockey writer's decision card. He's been awesome playing with Barcove, scoring a ton. Just a really nice compliment to him. CJ, I thought you were going to go off the board here with the eventual top six wing or the Leafs are going to acquire. which one well i don't want to do your job for you i mean i wish i knew the answer it's like every time i do a radio hit in toronto there's someone else they're telling me they're gonna everyone's telling me coming here so

yeah i think alex i phallos actually might be the guy believe or not which is not getting much love but yeah we'll see i like him as a player i i feel like the kings are going to want to keep him but um yeah we'll see i i i'll see i i I think that I've seen people who probably have not watched him as much or don't have a good gauge undervalue how much it's going to take to get like Philip Forsberg or Ricard Raquel. Like I feel like Leif's fans are just like, oh, let's just go get him. And it's like, those are really good players that are that are signed. I feel like, you know, even though the Preds clearly are probably headed in a different direction here, it's like I wouldn't be in the process of giving away Forsberg just for the sake of rebuilding. So we'll see.

I think the price is going to be pretty, pretty rich. So I'm not sure if that's in the cards. But if you need something, like a complimentary winger that can play on the second line is probably the best need you can have because there are a lot of those guys to go around. Right. And a lot of them don't carry the name value of Forsberg, right? And probably the acquisition cost. But, you know, I guess if Tyler Tofoli is available, the Leaves could use them. Okay, the last one.

the best follow-up act, and the way I thought about this one was, like, a player who you watched last year, or you just looked at their numbers, and you were like, is this player actually this good? It seems like they've never done this before. And then this year, they're either following it up or got even better. So it could be a young player, but it could be a guy who kind of just came out of nowhere and is in their late 20s as well. So, CJ, you can go first on this one. Is there someone that came in mind with this category?

Yeah, we've got sample size issue here, but I'm going to go with, Chris Dreeger, I was just in the mighty Florida Panthers, who've gotten all kinds of love on this podcast, if we're being honest. Not as much as my Blackhawks love, but yes, they did get love.

The rights holders love the Panthers. You know what I'm going to tweet out? I'm going to tweet out, like, tune into this podcast to find out which top six winger the Leafs are going to acquire, and then it's going to be us being like, we don't know,

but here's 45 minutes on the Panthers. And I'm like, what the hell? Right. And so, you know, Dreeger had great numbers last. year, obviously Bobrovsky did not. He's followed it up this season. He's a UFA after the

year, which is kind of interesting. And yeah, it's only 12 games last year and 12 so far this year. So I could be very wrong on this, but he's starting to look like it might not be a fluke. The reason why it's interesting is because Sergey Babrovsky is making a lot of money and they invested high draft capital in Spencer Knight. So it seems like the odd man out there would be the goalie that's played the best for them. So that's an interesting situation to follow. Emily, Who's your best follow-up slash this player is totally legit nominee? So I kind of interpreted a little bit different, and I actually went with two old guys that these are just two guys

that I thought were washed up, and I'm like, damn, guys. One is David Perron. I keep waiting for him to regress, but he's still productive. And the other guy, and I'm curious to see what you guys think of this one, but Joe Pavelsky. And my thinking here is he's someone, I'm like, okay, they bring him, and just to be a playoff god and they don't expect much of them in the regular season

and he really didn't put up much production last regular season. And they're out, Tyler Sagan, they've been without Alexander Rogelov for a very long time. We know offense is a problem and he's just totally carrying the load and 13 goals through 21 games is not something that we should shrug off. So Captain America, I choose you. I love an old guy too well. And he's not old, but he's like, he's almost my age,

which makes him old in hockey player years. Yeah. I guess the only reason I didn't consider him is just because he was so good in the bubble. But yeah, you're right. I mean, based on his regular season last year. Yeah, so good in the bubble. We see him in the bubble again that good. But right now?

Yeah. No, that's fair. I have two. Emily, you're going to love this one as the newest King's Beat reporter. Cal Peterson, who is very clearly Los Angeles's best goalie. And I'm really curious to see. I think Quicks kind of day to date right now. might be a bit banged up but um i'd love to see him just just roll with him and see what you've got

because it's a small sample size but every time he's played he's put up good numbers and last year it was like a really small sample size but he was one of the best goalies and and once again he's following it up so i really like him and the other one is brian rust who 28 year old who just comes out of nowhere and is a point of game last year and it's like oh the penguins did it again who's this random guy and watching him a lot this year he on most nights he is Bitsberg's most dangerous player, which is remarkable to say, given all the talent they have,

but I don't know how they do it, but they uncovered a new guy and Brian Russ, so he's legitimately good. The last year and a half or two years of Penguins, like if you just see their line rushes, but never watch them play, you'd be convinced they're making up names. You're like, that is not an NHL player.

They just invent rosters, and now my former colleague Brian Berks in there, pulling strings. Nice. All right. That's going to be it. I think we hit all the awards. Let's plug some stuff.

Emily, what are you working on right now? Do you want to talk a little bit about the big news today? I'll kind of leave the floor here to you to just take it any way you want. I think I'm just going to be a lame duck until the beginning of next season until I'm a rights holder and I get all the access. So nothing I'm working on. I'm really pumped for this new ESPN deal, though. It's going to be great. Seven years.

It's just, it's good for the sport. if there's Canadians listening to kind of understand this, just to be in the ecosystem of ESPN. Like, there was a player who texted me today and he's like, I can't wait for Stephen A. Smith to start debating about Connor McDavid. I'm like, that's exactly it. Like, the visibility is going to

be awesome. So Stephen A, if you're listening, Hockey World's ready for you. I know. Just stir it up, man. I think we need more of that, honestly. Yeah. And like the way ESPN treats its properties, we love drama. We love pettiness. And we love stars.

And get ready because Austin Matthews has never seen what's about the time. He thinks he had Toronto media wait until the SBAM ringer. And honestly, the NHL needs this. Like, it's, we, I think everyone should want to grow the game and get more eyeballs on it and get more attention. And this is a good way to grow towards growing the popularity and having more discussions about it. So I am all for it. CJ, what, uh, what are you working on these days? You want to talk a bit about your running?

Not really. Thank you. I'm pumped. What the hell? What's the hell? I just say you're up there. No, I'm good.

Just follow me. I know. You're being nice. But it's nice to see Emily getting some spotlight too on the CSPN deal. It's much deserved. I think it's going to be great. I'm running a marathon April 29th, raising money for COVID-Conquer COVID-19, a charity here in Canada.

What I love about them, honestly, the reason I got, I'm on a long-running streak. The reason I'm on it is because I didn't know what to do. I was in a bad spot kind of in the start of the pandemic. I just focused on something small, which was running every day. It's become this. You know, those people literally were just, they're just normal people that, like, the minute the pandemic hits, they're like, what can we do? They start this charity.

They didn't wait for permission. They didn't figure out the perfect plan. And they've, like, raised $3 million in terms of putting PPE in places it hasn't been before at the start of the pandemic. Now they're focused on helping feed people in our community. that, you know, this has obviously exposed some issues in our society. I just admire their spirit of starting where you are. That's how I got on it.

And that's why I'm going to, for some reason, run 26.2 miles on April 29th, raise some money for them and, you know, hopefully earn the pizza. I'm about to eat here for dinner. Flex again. Jesus. I'm going to be techs and eating pizza. What a like to live. Too much.

trying to stay employed, too. It's a contract here for me. So I got to keep my hustle up, too, at the works side of things. Well, I'll deserve it. If you need anyone to represent you, I've got all sorts of analytics that'll talk CJ up. So I would be happy to do that. Thanks for taking the time. Both of you, I know you're really busy in your respective lives. And this was a blast. I'm glad we got to do this. And maybe we can circle back at the end of the season and see how things changed. Perfect. Would be fun. Thanks, Demetri. with Dimitri Filipovich. Follow on Twitter at Dim Philipovich

and on SoundCloud at SoundCloud.com slash hockey p-diocast.