The Hockey PDOcast - Episode 421: Answering Your Questions

Episode Date: November 24, 2021

Ryan Lambert joins the show to help answer your mailbag questions. Topics include: The Mount Rushmore of Bad GMs in the Cap Era What we were most wrong about in the preseason If the Ducks start changes their trade deadline plans More likely: 50 Ovechkin Goals vs. 150 McDavid Points Whether the Islanders can turn their season around The most chaotic potential PDO benders Which teams are due for some regression Goalies to keep in mind for the future If you haven't done so yet, please take a minute to leave a rating and review for the show. Smash that 5-star button. Each one counts, and helps us out greatly. If you're feeling extra generous, you can also leave a little note about why you recommend people check the PDOcast out. Thanks for the help! 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.

On a beautiful run through the park, on a pleasant day, you can easily get lost. No, no, no. She didn't kill him. Huh? In your true crime podcast. It was the pool guy. So obvious. Whatever motivates you works for us. It's all about letting your run be your run. And Brooks is here for every runner.

Doing the research and sweating the details to create gear that works for you. It's your run. Brooks, run happy. progressing to the mean since 2015. It's the Hockey P.DioCast. With your host, Dimitri. Welcome to the HockeyedioCast. My name is Dimitri Filipovich.

And joining me is my good buddy, Ryan Lambert. Ryan, what's going on, man? Oh, you know, getting ready for Thanksgiving. We have it in November. That's right. Also known as the day where I just watch a lot of football during the day. So here's the plan for today. We opened up the mailbag.

We got a bunch of great questions on Twitter from our awesome followers. They really came through. Sometimes it can be nervous. This time they really delivered. And so we're going to try to reward them for it by just getting to as many of them as we can here. Now,

for future reference, Ryan and I alternate writing the weekly mailbags at EP ringside. So if you'd like to send questions to get answered in an upcoming edition, please do so. You can tweet at us, but I think the best way moving forward is to email them. I believe it's mailbag at elite prospects.com. It allows you to go a bit longer.

without character restrictions. And it keeps them all in one tidy place so we don't lose track of them in our mentions. So with that said, Ryan alluded to it. It is Thanksgiving in the States this week. I know there's a lot of people who listen to the show that'll either be traveling to go see family or just going to have more free time on their hands than usual. And so hopefully we can keep them some company, entertain them here for the next hour. And let's right get into it.

So let's start with a real banger. We got a question here from B33 minus who asks, What is your Mount Rushmore of bad GMs of the cab era? And before, I'll let you take the floor here. But B33 Minus's Twitter name is quite fittingly. What does John Weisbrod do, though? And I'm not sure if you're familiar with John Wisebaud, Ryan, but he has a, his resume is something else.

I highly recommend a deep dive, whether it's just as rudimentary as Wikipedia or whatever. Like, you need the familiar. Am I, am I correct? and remembering he is the guy who went to the Quebec high school game where he saw Mark Jankowski take a bunch of kids who were never going to even play in the OHL school and I was like, we got to draft this kid. I feel like that was a Weiss broad move. Not only was that correct in your memory, but and that's what I associated with most because he notoriously proclaim that Mark Jenkowski was the best player in that class.

Yeah, that's right. Flames took him 21st overall. Now, that was historically remembered as a class filled with with busts and disappointments, especially at the top of board. It did also include like a handful of really, really good defensemen, Philip Forsberg, Kamash Hirtle, Andre Vasselowski, a lot of great players. So suffice to say Mark Jankowski was not the best player in that class. But John Weissbrun, here's a quick kind of notes version.

of what he's done. He was the GM of the Albany Riverats in the AHL. He was the GM of the Orlando Solar Bears in the IHL. He was the GM of the Orlando Magic where he traded away Tracy McGrady to the Houston Rockets. He was the Bruins director of collegiate scouting. He was the Flames Assistant GM when he had the Mark Janskowski saga. And he's currently the Canucks Assistant GM and vice president. And there's a running joke locally here where no one really knows what he actually does. He just kind of skulks in the shadows behind the scenes and people speak very negatively about them. And let's just say that after Jim Benning inevitably gets fired, I'm not sure how many more NHL opportunities John Weisbrot's going to have. But that's a story for another day. This is a fascinating

question. So where are you going with this? Because boy, we have a lot of, a lot of other choices. There were three that immediately sprang to mind and then I kind of had to fish around for the fourth one. And I think a lot of people would expect us to say like Peter Chiarelli, but I got news for you. That guy won a Stanley Cup in the salary cap era and made a lot of actually like pivotal moves to get them to that point. So like, believe me, I get it, you know, but I cannot in good conscience put him on there. The three that come to mind immediately, Jim Benning, of course. year 12 of the rebuild here.

John Chacon. Yep. And Doug McLean, those are the three that I was like, oh, I remember all those guys as being horrible. Yeah, Jim Benning's spending in free agency certainly

merits consideration here in year eight now, which makes him a top ten longest tenure at GM actively, which is just amazing to think about. Incredible. I would, submit Paul Fenton's 14 months with the Minnesota Wild.

That's a good, that's a good call. You know, when we talk about Hall of Fame resumes and candidacies, there's a question of peak versus longevity, right? 14 months, certainly it's, it doesn't have the longevity. But man, was that 14 months of supernova? I mean, pound for pound, I don't think any GM had more amazing quotes, hilarious jokes made about them. obviously the Victorask for need a rider trade was epic

unfortunately sadly wasn't long around long enough and he did get them Kevin Fiala on his way out so it wasn't like catastrophic clearly didn't set the franchise back by any means but I think I'm going to certainly fondly remember the 14 months we had with Paul Fenton. Yeah the thing that I always think about is when when Rousseau just put the boots to him on his way out the door and there was the revelation that he skipped, like, team stuff to go to the Patriot Super Bowl parade.

That rocks. That, you know what? Like, if I felt like I was getting fired anyway, and I was, and I had, you know, whatever, a job that paid me high six fingers, low seven figures. Ooh, this stuff I would be doing instead of working. What a, what a guy. I mean, the Matt Zuccarello quote about how he's like a lizard. Of course.

describing his experience on the draft floor as being amazed by the size of the lads who were walking up to the table that they were drafting. I mean, just good stuff. I had to look this up. So we're not including Mike Milbury, right? Because most of his damage came before the lockout. And honestly, like, he's in his own category here. It's not even a conversation.

Yeah, there's a reason Puck Daddy used to grade trades on a scale of one to five milberries. Yeah. Let's put it that way. I will say I do have Peter Shirelli on this. And I get it. I acknowledge the Bruins part of this equation. Certainly, I will say, though, I mean, his job with the Oilers, a quick rundown, was unemployed for nine days after being fired by the Bruins. The Oilers traded the 53rd overall pick in the 2017 draft to acquire his rights so they could employ him willingly.

he got to select Connor McDavid two minutes into the job, or two months in the job, it felt like two minutes. He traded the 16th and 33rd overall picks. 16th was Matt Barzell for Griffin-Rinhart, who played 29 games with the team. He traded Adam Larson for Taylor Hall one for one, hilariously, only for Hall to win league MVP one year later. Now, Adam Larson, especially towards the end of his Oilers tenure, was legitimately a good defenseman. So it wasn't like catastrophic, but obviously hilarious. traded Jordan Eberley. This is, I think, the most unheralded of the bunch. Traded Jordan Eberley, the one year when Eberley, a career 13% shooter dip below 10% for

like the first time in his career, traded him one for one for Ryan Strohm, who he then flipped for Ryan Spooner, who he then flipped for Sam Gagne. Amazing, amazing sequence. Gave Milan Luchitch, $42 million. Remarkably, made the playoffs once in four years with the best player on the planet. I really think it is a team sport, as we've seen. not that the Oilers have had outstanding success since, but it's almost impossible, and he did the impossible.

I think him just nuking the first however many years of McDavid's career is an embarrassment, and I think for that reason, he has to be on this list. Yeah, and the other thing to say is not only did he trade Taylor Hall, one for one, Sagan trade, Dougie Hamilton trade, Bill Castle trade, you know, like he traded all those guys. Now granted,

the Phil Kessel trade got him, got him Dougie in and Sagan. So I get that, but, you know, this guy just doesn't go, you know, 18 months without trading away a high first round pick for almost nothing. Yeah.

And what was that show that Brins did, behind the bees or whatever? Yeah. I mean, one of the best YouTube clips of all time. They're discussing the Tyler Sagan trip. Absolutely insane. and, you know, like, we actually recently had somebody ask a question of, like,

if you could change the outcome of one game or one series or whatever, what's different? And one of the ones that I thought of was, even if the Bruins win against Chicago in that they still probably trade Tyler Sagan because he didn't score any goals or whatever, you know? That's unbelievable, yeah. All right. Question two from your pal, Dan one, to differentiate him from all of other pals named Dan.

Who's one goalie sitting in the minors who you can see stepping in and grabbing a starters net the season. Now, it's goalies. So honestly, who knows? There's only 32 starting gigs to go around. It just comes down an opportunity, which mostly comes down to someone ahead of you gets injured. And who knows? But you're a big college guy. you've seen some of these some of these goalies who are in the minors right now maybe or have been names in the past.

Is there anyone that sticks out to you here that I imagine this is more of a fantasy hockey question in terms of someone trying to get ahead and stash someone before their league mates can do so. But are there any names you throw out there as like at least, oh, I'm interested in this guy. Maybe keep an eye out for him over the next couple years, if not this year. Yeah, maybe not this season. Like this season, I think the more obvious ones are like Stuart Skinner in Edmonton and Ugo Peke Luchanan and in Buffalo just because it's like, well, they don't really have any other options. And, you know, one injury and those guys are pretty good or have pretty good track record. So like one injury, they could totally wallie Pipp, you know, somebody. But more long term, to your point about college hockey, I've always felt like Caden Prymo is like there's a goalie who has it.

You know what I mean? Just really, really strong both of his years in college and, you know, obviously not great performances at the NHL level. But even in the AHL, he's been good to very good at a minimum. So I think that's like the goalie for the future in Montreal. Maybe it's not revelatory to say that. Yeah. My joke answer here is John Francois Baroupe, who people who have listened to. their show for years. One of these days, he's going to do it.

933, say, percentage in six games of the Blue Jackets, HL affiliate. What an all-time HL legend, John Francois Brupe is. Before the season, you know, you brought up Stuart Skinner. He's obviously played remarkably well since Mike Smith's injury. He's at like a 940, save percentage in five games or something. We'll see. I actually would have said, I'm not sure how familiar you over this guy, but Ilya Konovalov, who the Oilers took in the third round a couple years ago,

had awesome KHL numbers finally was coming overseas. I've got him stashed in a couple, a couple dynasty leagues that I play in. So I've been, I've been monitoring him. Now, it's been a bit of a bumpy introduction to North American hockey. He only six HL games hasn't done particularly well,

but certainly someone I'm keeping an eye on. I would have thought you'd went with, with Philip Lindbergh. Yeah. Well, that's a guy. I mean, this is his first year of pro,

you know? So what I'll say is, what I look for in questions like this is just past success at lower levels because that's probably as good of an indicator as we have. Although for goaltending, it could not necessarily mean anything. But also great environment, right? If the opportunity does arise, who do I have faith will put this young goalie in a position to succeed? We've seen the penguins promote goalies from Wilkesbury to immediate success in recent years. And he obviously, you never know how the transition from NCAA to pro hockey will go because

it's such a gap in style of play and talent level, but he seems to have been doing fine so far in his, so it might not necessarily be a this year type of thing, but considering how as good as Jari has been this so far this year, I'd say it's pretty open and they're a good defensive team. So that's something to keep in mind. And the other one is, uh, is Dustin Wolf. Sure. Who Markstrom's obviously great and assigned their long term. And that's, that's the reason I didn't say Dustin Wolf because I think Dustin Wolf is, you know, he's going to be a really good goalie for somebody. I don't know if it's going to be able to be Calgary just because of the margin contract. And they have, yeah, Lardis is playing a while there.

But like, man, he fell so far in the draft because people worried about his size. And all he does is just stop the puck said a remarkably high rate wherever he plays. And so I'm interested to follow his career. Gary 4Z, who is always sends me good questions and always checks him with the podcast. I wanted to give Gary a bit of love here. He asks, who's struggling right now that figures it out and or alternatively who looks good now but is going to come back down to earth. Are we talking teams or players? I go, I mean, you can take it either way.

I viewed it from a team perspective here, but I'm sure I could appreciate any, any choice. All right. So struggling teams that I, that I'm pretty confident are going to figure it out, like the two that spring to mind and like struggling being a relative term here, Vegas and Boston, right? Like those are two teams where with Vegas, you can say it's been a million injuries. And with Boston, you can say, you know, they're used to having borderline elite goaltending. And this year they've been average to even sub-average a little bit. Right.

You know, the thing with the Bruins in particular is I wrote about this on EP Rinkside last week, I guess, of like all the things that people said, ooh, the Bruins, I don't know. Like everything you could have possibly said was going to be their problem has been their problem. You know, Olmark hasn't been great. And Swamon maybe doesn't look like he's ready for prime time.

Well, I think Swamon actually looks fine. Well, right. But like, as a 1B option, he's maybe fine. Of course. But they need him to be. be better to justify taking Allmark's job and they just gave Allmark five years or whatever.

Well, no, I think that's the big question. Like, certainly you're not giving 65 games or whatever is Swayman this year. But with RAS coming back at some point conceivably, TBD question mark, just giving Allmark $20 million the way they did to be used this way is a bizarre allocation of resources for a franchise it obviously needs to maximize every single dollar they have at the moment available to them. So for me, that was just, that was just like a bad decision at the time and it looks even worse now. Yeah. And then the other thing, you know, again, like their decisions this summer up front in particular were weird where, you know, they got Eric Holla, they get Nick Bolino. they extend Taylor Hall.

And all of this, of course, is in the absence of David Craychie, where they go, oh, we'll figure out who our number two center is some other day. And, like, you know, you see it now. And like Taylor Hall, he's playing really well, but the puck's not going in for him in part because he has to do everything himself. Well, I think the bigger issue is, like, I think Charlie Coyle is fine, but it would, yeah, you're right.

Like, he now has to play. second center because they don't have anyone else. And if they did have someone, he'd be amazing as their third guy. Correct. I had this stat on a recent show where they, I think, without Bergeron or Coil on the ice, so basically their bottom six minutes, they have like, they had four goals and had their first 355 on five minutes or something like that. Like it's just unacceptable.

And yeah, you're right. It's like such an easy thing to see coming from a mile away and the fact that they didn't really do anything about it. We'll see what happens towards a trade line, but they have to address that, right? Yeah, but then I can't remember who their game on Sunday or Saturday was against. But at some point, over the weekend, Matt Porter from the Globe, tweeted out that guys not on the Berger Online had scored nine of the Bruins last 10 goals.

So if they can figure that part of it out, then there's a lot less to worry about. but I think they again, they should be in the market for a guy who's going to be a better center than Charlie Coyle in that part of the lineup. How many of those 10 goals were by sniper Derek Forbord? Derek Forbore, yeah. You bring a guy like that in for offense and finally he's delivering. It's good to see it happen. My choice here was the Seattle Crack and the key word being relative that you said earlier. Clearly an imperfect team.

you know, there's certain performance indicators you see with them, like they're 22nd on the power or something in terms of scoring efficiency. That's probably reflective of the way they built their roster, and I don't think we should expect them to be elite. They're probably not, also not a 5, 12 and 1 team or whatever. I started 4, 12 and 1. No teams giving up a lower rate of shots or high danger chances against. They give up the third fewest rush chances per game.

And now that of it mattered because they're getting 858 goaltending from Bill Grubauer and Chris Jigar right now, right? And so, like, they're giving up the 90 few as expected goals against, but the most actual goals against. And it's led to an interesting discussion where everyone's like, oh, well, of course, like Gruaura went from Colorado to Seattle. What did you expect? And it's like, well, I think there has to be some sort of a middle ground here, right? Like, no one, you can acknowledge that he wasn't. He wasn't deserving of a Vezna finalist nomination or $35 million contract he got this summer.

He's probably not like the worst goalie in NHL history. So I think some sort of a regression will probably lead to better results. And they'll turn this around at least to some degree. Like their underlying numbers have actually been pretty good since basically the court came back. So I don't think they're great, but I certainly don't think they're this bad. Right. What about teams that look good right now that you think that's not going to last?

Because the one that springs to mind for me is the Rangers, right? Like their underlying numbers are not good. They keep winning all these games mostly because of Shishirkin. I don't know, I don't buy it with them. Even acknowledging they have a handful of really good, exciting players. I don't think they're anywhere near this good. Yeah, all their performance underlying indicators scream regression candidate. At the same time, I'm hesitant to label them as such because Panera and Fox and Shisterokin

in particular are all so elite at their positions that I just, even though, if they fall off, like they're going to drag them to a certain baseline, right? So, like, each game where they keep banking points is, is huge for them. Because, like, I don't know. It just seems bizarre to me. Like, clearly the way they approach this offseason was misguided and short-sighted and they were nearly as deep or talented as they probably thought they were to justify those moves.

But at the same time, when you have those players, they're going to elevate your baseline so high that. Yeah, right. Yeah, I guess much like Seattle. We're talking about like regressing to maybe they're like the 15th best team in the league instead of the seventh, or wherever they're at right now. Yeah, I thought that that recent game they played against the Sabres was like the perfect

encapsulation, right, where it was just so sloppy and you could see the problems. And then at the same time, I mean, just certain it wasn't at the start that game, but at the same time, they just scored their way out of trouble. And at the end, like, their top players made a great play. And they snuck out the win. and yeah, that happens. Yeah. All right, let's move on.

Wildwing 89 here asks. Thoughts on the upcoming roster decisions for Anaheim. Are any of their older players worth hanging on to as I assume their new contracts will not be cheap? Or do the age curves not line up with a team trajectory even if they keep playing well? Yeah, I mean, you know, this is my longstanding thing. in regards to all hockey teams.

If you have a pending, if you're not particularly competitive for a Stanley Cup and you have a pending UFA, have a good one. Thanks for your service. You know, we're going to take some picks and prospects. And like the guys that are on the way out there,

it's like Ryan Gatslap, who you can probably get somebody to give you something for, but would you want to trade a career duck? I get not wanting to do that. But with like Josh Manson, Ricard Raquel, and Hamphus Lindholm, all those guys are going to be like 28,

29, 30 this summer. What are you keeping? Speaking of candidates to regress, the Anaheim ducks are not going to make the playoffs this year in all likelihood. John Gibson is playing out of his mind and it's nice to see him playing at that level again. But I think you trade everybody who's not mailed down.

And you maybe try to angle it so you can get some guys who are a little more NHL ready than picks for them. But like if someone calls me about Ricardo, Raquel and says, we'll give you a first round pick, I'm going to say, yeah, absolutely, you know. No, certainly. I've got a couple of ducks takes here. So what, they're 10, 6, and 3 at the moment with a plus 13 goal differential.

They just came off a 10 game point streak, which was recently snapped out. Of their nine losses, just one was by more than one goal. And like they're benefiting from a high shooting percentage. Most of it seems like it's just their power play has been insanely hot. Like their 5-1-5 numbers are certainly not great. I don't think they're okay. But they're a significant improvement from where they've been in the past. And I think that that relativity term here is huge because even if they are playing over their heads so far, they haven't been a mess.

And there's a legitimate reason to be excited. They've been fun to watch. And that's such a massive improvement over where they've been in the past. And I would say, like, this is a really tough thing to quantify, obviously. But having an environment like that is so important when it comes to integrating young players. just to ensure that they're not getting just completely crushed and having their souls sucked out of them on a nightly basis. Like every time they show up to the rink,

they're losing 5-1 in embarrassing fashion. I think having that type of energy is very valuable for the Zegris is and the drivesales of the world. At the same time, though, you're right. They hold the keys to what could happen at the trade deadline, right? Like imagine Lynn Holme, Rekyll, Manson, and Getslap are of significant interest to a lot of contending teams. And so regardless of how the next couple months go, even if they keep winning games,

they need to be proactive and pick a bigger picture of you of this. Getslav can kind of pick where he wants to go. And if he wants to go because he has that no move clause, if he wants to go somewhere to try to win a cup and then come back this summer and another one of your deal, sign me up. For the others, though, you're right. You have to trade them because you're not getting them long-term deals. It makes no sense for you to do so.

Yeah, it would be a huge waste of resources. It would be negligent. And especially, like, we'll see what the, market is like for them. But I remember in 2016, the Ducks really leveraged Lynn Holm and Raquel in terms of like they used their RFA status against them and got them into these very team-friendly deals where they're making much less than they're actually worth on the market. And so I imagine both those guys will probably want to at this stage of their career, age 29, 8, 28 and 29, give me, I'm going to go to the team that gives me the most dollars

no matter what, right? Like, that's probably going to be there thinking. So something to consider. All right, next question. From Z underscore A underscore Klein, what were you most wrong about coming into the season? And they know this question is for me because Ryan is never wrong. At the same time, though, Ryan, what were you most wrong about?

If you were wrong about something, of course. Yeah, I mean, this is the NHL. You're always going to be wrong about some team, right? So I think the obvious answer is Vancouver. I think everybody thought they were borderline playoff competitive instead of one of the three or four worst teams in the league. A team everybody was wrong about. I can't imagine anybody saw this one coming. The New York Islanders are awful.

They're really bad. Okay, well, let me tie this in then because Benny Profane, what a name says. The Metro is a division from hell considering American Thanksgiving is right around the corner. or do you see the Islanders continuing to underachieve and miss the playoffs? Yeah, I think because here's the thing. They don't even have to underachieve at this point to miss the playoffs, right? Like if they tomorrow start playing like what we think of the New York Islanders playing like, they're going to miss the playoffs because everybody in that division is like six or seven points ahead of them already.

Yep. You know, and, you know, again, like to the point about the Rangers overperforming, sure, but they have more than twice as many points with only three extra games played than the Islanders do. So like even if the Rangers come back to Earth and Columbus, of course, is going to come back to Earth. But like New Jersey maybe gets its act together a little bit or when Jack Hughes comes back, Pittsburgh obviously will be buoyed a little bit by Evgeny Malkin. And those are two teams that are well outside the metro playoff picture right now. So the fact that the Islanders probably need to play at like a hundred plus point pace the entire rest of the season when they don't, you know, under Barry Trots, like they're a pretty good regular season team.

But one that's always like, well, we did have a 13 game point streak back there. And then we're not going to talk about most of the rest of the season because the less said the better, you know. Well, they're 5, 8, and 2 right now. They've lost their last six games by a 27 to 6 margin. they didn't play a single home game before this past weekend. Right. And that is the other thing to say they have, you know, they started 13 games on the road. Also, I mean, their roster right now, especially the past couple of games,

it's just been devastated by COVID. Yep, absolutely. But again, like, if everything goes back to normal tomorrow, they have a huge, hold of big out of. Well, here's the thing. Last year, I actually noted this at the time and thought about it before the season started. Last year, their top four in the blue line played all 56. regular season games and then all 19 playoff games. And that is remarkably rare.

And not that, oh, they were due to be on the COVID list, of course, that no one's saying that. But that type of remarkable health isn't necessarily translatable from one year to the next. And Ryan Poolog's out for four to six weeks now. Pellick's in the protocol. They've just been had a year from hell and make matters worse. They're shooting under 7% across all situations as a team, which is league worse,

despite generating a decent level of chances. So really everything that could have gone wrong has so far, I still have enough respect for Barry Trots and the structure there that I could see them rattling off a good stretch once they get healthy. But yeah, it's it's tough because we note this every year. As the season goes along, leapfrogging teams become so difficult because they're all just playing each other every night. And there's so many three point games that gaining any sort of tangible ground, like it seems achievable where you're like, oh, we're only. only six points back, but you go 10, two, and one over a couple weeks, and you've gained two points because the other teams have also been squeezing out a bunch of overtime losses and stuff, right? So it's really difficult in this league once you dig a hole like this for yourself to

make up any ground. And you didn't mention the flyers amongst that list of Metro teams who are at least respectable. Like there's, if CBJ is going to be at least competent, there's just no weak link where you're just guaranteed two points whenever you play them. And so it's, it's really tough. Let's put it this way. In both, you know, just like the standings writ large and also points pace, they're behind the Buffalo Savers. So yeah. Okay. I guess I would have said the ducks being this exciting so far was something I didn't see coming. Well, we just talked about them. So I'll go a different direction. Carolina Hurricanes gold ending. Something I was like keeping the door open was the possibility that they made it.

overthought things this offseason when they didn't want to pay the Hedkovich and let Mrazzy go and then they just completely replaced them with Anderson and Ranta. And now as a group, they have the third best say percentage of five on five and second overall. And Freddie Anderson is just posting obscene numbers plus 12.5 goals they were expected in 13 games so far. So we'll see it's still DBD.

Obviously this team is going to be judged at this point based on how they do in the postseason and not regular season because they need to take that next step. but I look like an idiot, I guess, so far for questioning it because they seem to be doing perfectly fine. Yeah, I thought they, even in other position, you know, like replacing Dougie Hamilton with Tony DeAngelo as like their power play weapon. Yeah. Hasn't hurt him at all, you know. And the other team I thought would maybe struggle a bit more just based on the losses was Tampa. And they're like, yeah, we're fine.

Don't worry about it. Yeah. All right. From Harrison Brown here, what's more likely this year? 50 goals for Alex Ovechkin or 150 points from McDavid. 150 is so, man. I got to go 50 for Ovechkin just because we have proof of concept there. You know, like, what does Ovechkin do? He scores 50 goals a year. He doesn't do a lot of other stuff, especially anymore. But one thing he always does is scores 50 goals. He's got 15 already. you know, I can absolutely see him getting to 50 again, whereas, you know, 150 for McDavid, obviously well within reach, but. There's a tweet out there where he's a quote from Pierre McGuire. In 2013, he was asked if Alex Havichkin will ever score 50 goals again, and he said no. Yeah, sure.

And then obviously he did it a couple years right after that, but almost a decade later, still doing this thing. So currently they're on pace, 65 goals for Ovechkin, 154 points for McDiv. David, so they're both clipping over that. Now, Dom's updated projection has them at 56 goals from Evchkin and only 100, only 142 points from McDavid. Aesthetic. Now, that's assuming 82 games played for both, which obviously isn't a given in any

year, let alone a year where we're just seeing players going to COVID protocol and race games at a time. This is a tough one for me because I'm in no position to bet against McDavid. Like, he has a point in 25 consecutive regular season games dating back to last year. Every night he doesn't have two or three points. I'm surprised. So at that point, like, yes, I believe that he could very easily get over 150 points the way he's playing. 100%.

The thing with Ovejkin, though, man, the volume is just insane. Like, he's playing even more this year. They're using him, obviously, in scoring situations. but he's on pace for 350 shots again. So, like, hell of yeah. Here's the thing. Like, he just scored his first goal of the year on that patent at one-timer versus the sharks over the weekend.

So it's a big hit for all the people saying he's just a one-trick pony. Like, he's scoring in so many different ways. He's doing it without backs from around it all so far. And he's done it. You could even argue he's due for some positive regression. He's only scored three times in the power play, despite a league leading 64 attempts. So, man, I love so much.

Like, obviously the chase is remarkable, the fact that we're talking about a 36-year-old with nearly 1,400 combined games in the NHL. I love everything about this Ovechkin's story so much. I hope it never ends. I just, I'm honestly, like, McDavid's the number one player in terms of just watching and enjoying what he's capable of,

but seeing Ovechkin score goals brings me more joy than anything in the league right now. Yeah, that every time, like, even like if I'm not watching a Capitals game and I look at my phone and I see he had another goal. Like I feel like when, you know, like in old movies when a guy would be looking at a newspaper and like a horsey bet on wins and he's like he just like slaps the newspaper like how it worked. That's why I feel like every time I see Ovech and scored another goal and like that crazy son of a bitch, he did it. He did it again. I love it. So good.

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appreciation with custom ink. Outfit your teams with custom ink. Easily add your logo to your favorite products and brands at custom ink.com. Make custom ink your custom gear partner with great customer service, quality products, and all in pricing, along with personalized help, when you need it and an easy-to-use website when you don't. All backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Do it all today at customink.com. Okay, Tyler Bryant here asks, first it was Louis Erickson, then it was Sasha Barkoff,

but now who is the most actual, most underrated player in the league? You go first, because I have one guy I'm thinking of, but I don't know if you would say he's underrated or properly. Well, what I would preface this with, it's really hard in 2021 to actually be underrated because everyone is just aware of everyone. Like, we're not at the point anymore where people are like only watching their team because that's the only game being televised and they're like looking at the newspaper

to look at box scores to see how players are doing. Like everyone knows if you're a good player, regardless of which market you play in, you might not get as much coverage as if you play on the Leafs or the Rangers or whatever, but people are going to be aware that you're good. Now, with that being said, my pick here is Oliver Bjork Strand, who is a really, really good player who is scoring at a very high rate yet again, and because he plays on the blue jackets, and because he's kind of this quiet player who no one really would be able to pick out of a line

or ever gives any remarkable quotes, no one really knows about him. But, man, he's just been really good for a while now. So I think he's my pick for this. Okay. So then I think you would say that my choice is probably not going to be that underrated. But I put down Kyle Connor. I think he's remarkably good. Yeah.

And I just looked it up. Since he came into the league at whatever he was, like 19 years old or something, 20, I don't know. he is 27th in league scoring. I don't think anybody would have said that that was a possibility. And I would say he also, you know, like a lot of the guys on this list, it's like, well, Conner McDavid and Leon Dreissel, they play together. Nathan McKinnon and Miko Ranton, and they play together. The guys on the Bruins, they play together.

and Kyle Conner like obviously like Mark Shifley has also been producing at a pretty high level this whole time but like you never hear about Kyle Conner even out of the Winnipeg media right like they're all they're always all about Chifley and and and Blake Wheeler to a lesser extent and Kyle Connor is kind of just like oh yeah he's pretty good too it's also really tough because if you start producing at a certain rate like you instantly become a overrated or I guess over talked about right like it's like almost impossible to maintain being under the radar yeah and he has because because of the names around him yeah he's been insanely good this year um the proper answer probably here is like someone like Alex Iiafalo or someone random sure where like they actually are pretty good player but no one has ever had any conversations about them. Especially because, you know, like, Bjork Strand, at least has the capability of like,

oh, that's a guy you can put up big. Now, obviously he leads Columbus in scoring this year. Whereas, like, Alex Hayefalo, like, career ceiling is like fifth best score on your team. Yes. On the Los Angeles Kings, yeah. Yeah. I think that's, yeah.

Maybe, I'm not sure how many people are paying attention to the year, Timel Myers having maybe. You could be a good one. Obviously, people know him because he was a top prospect and killed it for San Jose during their playoff run a couple years ago. But, yeah, he's been very good. All right. I think, I had one other question here from Jason Gold, who was like, just pointed out that Johnny Goodrow has 22 points this season. Three are on the power play.

Sean Monaghan has nine points this season and seven on the power play. They play on the same unit together. How is this possible? And that's a fun stat. Obviously, it's random and not predictive. can easily flip. But I love that. Johnny Goodrow has been really, really, really good this year. Man, he, the game he played against the Flyers the other night was arguably one of the best games from start to finish that I've seen this year. Yeah, he, uh, it feels to me like this is a

very good player who is also in a contract here. If I had to, if I had to put my finger on what what might be motivating Johnny Goodro this season to go absolutely freak mode. I think that's it. But the other thing to the, how is it possible? Sean Monaghan kind of is a pretty one-dimensional player. And he's really good at that one dimension, which is putting the puck in the net.

And then a lot of the other stuff he does, you know, you live with it because he's good at putting the puck in the net. Yeah, they really missed, like everything has gone right for Calgary this year and they look legitimately good. Man, missing the boat on trading Sean Monaghan while they could for a good return was, is tough.

Yep. Yep. All right. Well, that's going to be. We had a couple others here, but I feel like we kind of cover the main ones. Was there anything else from the list of questions that you really wanted to talk about? Oh, I did like this one. Well, there were two left that I think we didn't cover. Is one, does Thomas Hurtle leave San Jose? Yeah, he does. Nothing else to say about it really. And then how about this one? If you could guarantee one one player this year would go on an absolute PDO bender, which player would make the most fascinating or chaotic scoring line? Luchich scoring 50, Scott Wedwood 15 shutouts, what do you got?

And my answer was, I'd love for one of the coyote's goalies to absolutely ruin their tank, like 950 for three months. And just like, well, we can't be last anymore. Or along similar lines, I would love it if Thatcher Demko just started playing out of his mind, got the Canucks this close to the play. You guys can't see it listening, but I'm holding my fingers really close together. Get them that close to the playoffs and then they still miss.

I think those would be the two really, like, truly chaotic runs that I would like to see a player go on. Well, I don't know how much better Thatcher Demko could humanly play than he already has. We'll find out. He's been good. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, Scott Wedger one would be funny.

I think it would be even funny if it was like Karel Vemalka just because he's young enough and unknown enough of a commodity that like they couldn't just necessarily punt him. Right. Like if Wedgwood got hot, they wouldn't allow him to get 15 shutouts. They would just trade him. But like just like the Sabres did during those tank years with like Chad Johnson and Michael Neuberth or whoever it was like they wouldn't allow that to happen. Whereas if it was Vemelka, they'd be like, all right, well, shit. We kind of, we got to need to see this through a little bit. and then you'd have Tyson Nash trying to make Correll the thrill happen and all this crazy stuff on their broadcast. So yeah, I think the only problem with that being the answer is any goalie having a like a chaotically good run.

Sure. It's like I think we've all as a society come to accept that as a possibility. Whereas like if a random player scores an insane amount of goals, that's like still even though people understand shooting percentage variance, it's still like tougher. to justify or you see all these pieces being like, well, he's getting to all the right spots or he's got a knack for converting. Jake Beagle's 60 point season then? Is that what you're thinking maybe? Yeah. I guess the right answer here is like any any impending free agent who actually isn't good doing the David Clarkson and then getting paid a lot. Yeah. For our purposes, that's the best

answer. Yeah, for sure. It just gives us something to write about in the summer. Can you believe they gave blank that contract. Okay, we're done for the day. This is crazy. It hasn't worked for anyone else so far, but for us, it could be different. All right, plug some stuff, Ryan. Speaking of writing and all that, where can people check out your work and what do you work it on or what have you been putting out or just give the people something to a look? Yeah, sure. E.P.ringside.com, me and Dimitri are writing there. Oh, so much these days. Wow. If you use the code, I love EP, all one word at checkout when you get an annual subscription. You can't try this with the monthly, but with the annual,

he'll get an extra three months tacked on at the end for free. So that's just something for you to think about. Yeah. And I will say to that point, like we do have other promos that come around every once in a while. I understand there's so many things to subscribe to these days and not everyone has the budget to do. So I totally understand when people are like, listen, I just can't justify it at this time.

But you can. I believe for free subscribe to this. the lead prospects newsletter or whatever, and then we just send you like a roundup of some free articles and links every week to check out as well. So I know they want us to plug that. So people can do that if they can't subscribe. See, I didn't get the memo that we were supposed to plug that or I would have.

But yeah. And then also, of course, the Puck Soup podcast. We're on Patreon. Just, you know, type that into Google. You'll find it pretty easily. And I feel like that's about it for me, plug-wise. So yeah, all right, well, I'll do my plugs. Go subscribe to your inkering side where both of us right.

That's right. The unique content up there is remarkable. And none of it is from the two of us. Like, just to say that, like the stuff people like Mitch Brown and David St. Louis are putting out where they're like film room sessions and scouts, notebooks and stuff like that. Like that is, if you're a hockey fan, especially if you're a nerd and you're listening to this podcast, so you probably are like you've got to be getting in on that. As we mentioned, though, Ryan and I are doing a weekly mailbag. that we're alternating.

So send us your questions at mailbag at elite prospects.com. And yeah, go rate and review the PDO cast. Go listen to the Canucks deep guy we put out recently, the watchability rankings, all that good stuff.

And Ryan, enjoy your upcoming Thanksgiving. Thanks for taking the time to chat. And we will certainly have you back on soon. All right. Have a good one, bud. The hockey PDO cast with Dmitri Filipovich. Follow on Twitter at Dim Philipovich

and on SoundCloud at soundcloud. dot com slash hockey pdocast