The Hockey PDOcast - Our Most Interesting Questions and Situations for the 2025–2026 NHL Season

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by John Matisz to go through their most interesting questions and situations for the 2025-2026 NHL season. 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.

since 2015. It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name's Demetri Filippovich and joining me for the first time this season, first of many. Surely he is one of our most frequent regular guests here in the program. My good buddy John Mattis. John, what's going on, man? What an intro. And yeah, it's nice to be back. And it dawned on me on my way into work today. I'm at the office that you've been regressing to the mean since 2015 or the show has anyways. So we're at 10 years, 10 years. Is it October, 2015? Do you remember?

Yeah, I started at the start of the 2015-16 season. So we're rolling on. Very exciting. It is the opening week of the NHL season. We're recording this on a Tuesday morning here at Pacific Time, and the games are going to start tonight, so we're going to have stuff to watch and talk about, and that's very exciting.

Busy day for me here. I just did a show with our pal Jack Hahn. as well that people can listen to. We broke down some power plays and tactical stuff across the league to watch for. You can check that one out if you aren't subscribed yet to the PDOCAST Patreon. Get on there. We're going to be doing a couple shows a week there for our sickle subscribers. And as you can expect more of that as we get going this year.

So check that out. John and I today are going to be doing something fun as well. to prep for the season, I thought I'd have you on to kind of take a look around the league and maybe go through our most interesting either questions or situations or stuff we're going to be kind of monitoring to see how it plays out because either there was off-season use that affected the outlook for these teams. It could be individuals. I kind of left it as a blank space for you to fill in whatever you wanted,

as part of your list. I've got a bunch of stuff here on my own, and we're going to kind of go back and forth over the next 50 minutes and break it all down. You're the guest. I will give you the floor here for your first most interesting question of the 25, 26 NHL season.

Yeah, like, I don't know if I put this at the top of the list as far as like, you know, the most interesting question, but I want to start here since it's a big market and a marquee player. My question is, which direction does Adam Fox's career go? And this can obviously take us down the rabbit hole, if you will, of the New York Rangers and what they look like

these days. But why I focus on Fox here is that I felt like I was going insane last year, listening to people sort of a rag on him and just really thought, oh, this guy is not a top-tier defenseman anymore. And by no means did he have a good year. I call it a quiet year versus like a down year. But now I'm thinking, you know, with the USA spot on the blue line, not necessarily locked up for him. There's that sort of pressure point on the Adam Fox story. And then there's the Rangers trying to get back in the playoffs. And so, you know, what do we make of Adam Fox at this point? Because I feel like it was, as this cohort of defensemen that are now in their 20s, as they have been developing, it's been, okay, Quinn Hughes and and Kale McCar are kind of in their own

tier. We've kind of figured out that they're operating in a different stratosphere. But then after that, there's just like 10 guys you could probably slot in there. And for a while, it was like Adam Fox is either number three or four or five, you know, Heiskenen or whatever. There's a million different guys you could throw in there. But I feel like he's completely fallen off the map just because of one, again, quiet season. And so I'm just curious. Like, is this a sign of things to come or did, you know, Vladislav Gavakov joining the fold here in the offseason via L.A.?

you know, him being attached to Fox? Is that the kind of Ryan Lingren replacement Adam Fox needs to truly excel? I don't know. So I'll throw it back to you in terms of what are your thoughts on me going in that direction. I think that's a very fair one. I mean, the Rangers are a big point of discussion, not only because of the market size and the appeal, but because they had just had such a miserable season last year

on so many fronts with players underperforming drama, make the JT Miller trade, wind up missing the playoffs after being kind of a perennial in the, in the mixed team for at least the Eastern Conference final, their over under this year is 95.5 for points, which is third in the metro behind the hurricanes and the devil. So ahead of last year's upstart capitals, they got about a 65% implied probability to make the playoffs. And so I think people are certainly expecting them to return.

to at least some version of their previous form. I mean, with Fox, it's important note to make, not only everything was crumbling around him, but the injury as well, kind of hobbling him and taking away some of that dynamic ability and mobility in particular in him having to compensate for it. I think that was huge. I think the addition of Gavikov, as you mentioned,

to play alongside him, not only just how reliable and stable he is as a defenseman, but all the little stuff he's going to kind of do to free Fox up a little bit to do what he does best, which is make plays with the puck. I'm curious to see how it looks under Mike Sullivan after the coaching change as well, because from his time in Pittsburgh,

and, you know, he had Chris LaTang kind of on the back half there for a couple years, and then Eric Carlson after the trade at a different stage of his career as well a little bit, but he's going to want the team to play much faster, right? Like much more deliberate north-south, make quick decisions, get the puck up the ice, and attack. And I feel like Fox isn't going to be one of those guys like a Macar or Hughes.

It's going to carry it himself and necessarily weave through the opposing defense in the neutral zone and do all of it on puck. But he's going to create a ton of it with quick decisions and efficient passes. And I think that's going to be a really nice fit for him. So I would expect to bounce back. And I do think the narrative on him in terms of his standing amongst those top defensemen in the league kind of went too far last year because of the circumstances and i would expect a full bounce back season from him so i'm not sure about the rangers as a team because certainly high on

on the hurricanes i'm expecting the devils now they're healthy to be a monster again especially defensively i'm probably higher on the capitals that i think people generally are because there will be a bit of regression and maybe we can talk more about it later but they just have so much depth and so few weak links across their lineup that I'd expect them to be quite good again. And so the metro is going to be very competitive. But yeah, it's going to be huge for the Rangers if Fox can return to that form of being a Norris caliber defender and driving a lot of those results atop the lineup. So we'll see.

The forwards are certainly still a question in terms of where they're at this relative stage of their career. And a guy like Lafranier bouncing back himself, whether moving Zabinajad full-time to a wing playing with J.T. Miller can get more out of them at this stage of his career, those are questions for me. But Fox, honestly, on the relative scale, is not one of the top questions for me on the Rangers,

because I just think he's really, really good. And I'd expect him to have a monster season with a ton of points and being considered a top five defenseman again. Yeah, I mean, he put up 61 points in 74 games while probably battling through an injury in some of those 74

games. That's pretty good. I mean, I think that was eighth in in defenseman's scoring. So his sort of quiet down year is that. I mean, you'll take that any day of the week, especially when he has good, expected goals, numbers, and whatnot. He's just kind of like, I don't know if he's, like, completely unique in terms of being like a slighter defenseman who's not super fast,

but there's not many of them, especially ones that actually pop, like they're obviously out there, but to be in the sort of conversation for, say, top 10 defensemen, he's pretty rare. And obviously we saw it the Four Nations face off. Maybe the action got a little too fast for him, And I just wonder how much of an impression that leaves on the Team USA management group because they have so many other options. I mean, Quinn Hughes and Charlie McAvoy have already been named. And then Zach Wrenzky and Slavin will be named.

So that's four spots. And then you've got like Fabers, Sanderson, Fox, Hanifin Jones. And that's not even getting to like the youngsters of Luke Hughes and Lachon. Jackson Lachoman there. Yeah. Yeah. So like that's so many guys. And, you know, Fox Mike gets squeezed out, which seems crazy because he used.

to be, I mean, he won the Norris like three years ago. So anyways. It's a good problem to have. Those are a lot of really good players at a very important position. Okay, here's my first one. Have the Winnipeg Jets lost too much? Now, I'm of two binds here because the bar is so high for them coming off a season in which they won the president's trophy with 116 points.

If there's a team metric from 24, 25, they were at the top of the league in it, if not number one. They were first in 5-on-5 goal differential. They scored the third most goals. They gave up by far the fewest. Their power play notably jumped from 24th in efficiency the year prior all the way up to first in the league, churning in 11 goals an hour or north of that. The biggest improvement for me, though, and why it's a question on the power play in specific was Nikola Eilers, who finally, finally got bumped up after years of us pleading for it to the top unit and about, went about as well as his biggest believers. I'm mostly referring to myself here, knew it would go for all those years,

like when he was just inexplicably left out of their plans atop the lineup. They put him on there. He, the three previous seasons had 28 combined power play points. He goes out for 22 power play points last year alone. The creativity, decision-making, dynamic ability with the puck. I think most importantly, like the quick-twitch kind of explosion that he had, on some of those retrievals in the offensive zone when the first shot wouldn't lead to a goal

or it wouldn't get stopped for a whistle, he'd be first in on the puck, retrieve it, get them set up again, and then make plays from there. And that's part of why they were so deadly. You're removing that now. And, you know, after he goes to Carolina up for the 51 million he gets in free agency,

the Jets go out and replace him with Jonathan Taves, Gus Nyquist. They bring in Tanner Pearson as well up front. And that list of names would have, been an awesome hall in 2017. Unfortunately, at this point, we're in 2025, as you mentioned off the top, and we've been doing this for a while, and those guys are 37, 36, and 33. And I do worry a little bit about the diminished pace and I guess foot speed for a team that

already wasn't, they were so precise and efficient with a lot of their passing last year. I think part of that was like the chemistry that they'd built up over the years with all those guys being on the team and just rolling it over and it finally paying dividends the way it did throughout the year where they won the president's trophy, you're removing a bit of that element now and then slowing down the actual individual foot speed of the players and you're in a division where you're going to have to go up against the likes of Colorado who plays at just this frantic pace all the time. Dallas, who certainly is a massive rush team that has a bunch of burners, even St. Louis up top, who are so good in transition. And so it's going to be a tall task for those guys.

And that's not even to mention the injuries to start the year, right? Adam Lowry is going to be out till sometime in November with the hip surgery he had after the postseason. Dylan Sandberg recently broke his wrist and he's going to be out for six weeks. Cole Perfetti now is out week to week with an ankle injury. And he took a big step playing with Eilers at 515 last year as a creator and just a guy who can make stuff happen for them in a secondary scoring role. And he's entering a big season for himself. Hopefully he can get healthy and get back to that level and even build on it because you know, they did that two-year bridge with him last year.

Now he's going to be back on the market. He's going to be due for a big payday. And so there's a lot of questions there for me. And I think the Sanberg one is probably the biggest one. We can speak more a little bit about him. I think we've already covered everything people who need to know about Dylan Sandberg over last season. But just removing him from that for even a month is going to be a very tall task for this team.

Now, they still have the top line intact. They still have pretty good depth in terms of guys who can contribute for a couple weeks. in a higher role, whether it's a need writer or an IAfollow have asked upon. They still have the top pair. They still have Connor Hellebuck, who is the best goalie in the league, and I think is going to erase a lot of mistakes. And if they need to ask more from him in terms of the workload, not from a starts perspective, but from a volume perspective in those games,

he's probably going to be up to the task as well as anyone could be. So there's enough infrastructure in there that I'm not like panicking necessarily. But I do want to see how this plays out. and whether they're able to replicate some version of what they were last year, it's going to be, it would have been tough regardless, even if they brought back the full team just because they were so good last season. But with all of these absences and replacements, I do wonder how they're going to look in that central division with our projections

for Colorado and Dallas in particular. I mean, they're kind of the capitals of the West in a sense that they overachieve last year and also didn't you have the playoff success? So you start going, okay, what's it going to look like? this year. I think it hit the nail on the head in terms of the lack of sort of dynamic forwards past the first line in Perfetti. So that's four guys. After that, I mean, it's very workman-like. I mean, I think that you would ideally have more skill and pop on that second line. But right now, you know, we've got Taves, Nyquist, and, you know, when Perfetti's healthy. So that's tough.

I'm a little disappointed that Shevled Day Off was not able to add someone to replace Luke Shen. I think Shen's fine is like a seventh defenseman who's sort of your, um, you're sort of like your insurance plan and obviously good in the room, all that good stuff. Um, but like the playoffs last year, it was it was blatantly obvious that the game has passed by in terms of his,

his feet. And he's obviously a great reclamation project story. You know, there was a time when he was in the H.L. All that. But I just, it was just so obvious that like, you can't have them out in certain situations in the playoffs.

and now they're just bringing them back, him and Logan Stanley, who also didn't have a good playoff. So that was something I was kind of looking at throughout the off season. Okay, do they address that? Do they bring them back? And I understand it's the third pair, but there were enough lapses in the playoffs last year that it made you wonder if there was something to be done there.

Now, just to go back to the forwards quickly, I don't even know what to think of Jonathan Taves. Like, obviously he's an NHL player if he made the team and was signed and, you know, reports out of Winnipeg are not. negative, but I, my expectations are fairly low in terms of point production. And I think he'll just kind of slide in as a, you know, below average second line center, above average third line center. And obviously when you marry that with Adam Lowry, when he's healthy, then you've got two like overqualified third line centers. So there's worse sort of situations to have if you go around the

league. But it's just easy to get caught up in the hype of Taves, but the guy is like 37, 38, I can't remember exactly. And he's been out of the game for over two years. Like, we need to cool our jets on the actual, you know, what we're going to see in the box scores. And then one last thing, and you kind of touched on it, the hella buck workload. Like, they got to keep him under 60 games. I mean, I don't know how they're sort of allowing this to happen year after year after year where he doesn't peak in the playoffs. And sure, you know, some of it might be just coincidence.

But I think there's probably a wear and tear element to it. So, you know, the way you put it, makes a ton of sense where it's like he's so important to the team that you can't just like eliminate him from the conversation when you're talking about the Jets and how well they'll do this season. But can they throw Eric Comrie out there a few extra games and bring hit, you know, Halibook's workload below 60 starts for the first time in a long time. Well, they didn't need to last year and they showed no interest in doing so. So under these circumstances, I'm not expecting that. You know, just quickly on the Sandberg effect, because he led this. team in PK usage last year. He was a big reason for Neil Pionk's individual resurgence and the reason why he wound

up getting that $42 million payday from the Jets. The splits for Pionk with and without Sandberg last year are about as massive as you're going to see. And I think most importantly, that pair, because of how well they played, really freed up Morrissey to just eat more offensively and not have to do everything for this team. And so now that's going to be put back on his plate. and you're staring down, as you mentioned, the barrel of a Luke Shen, Logan Stanley pairing, which in the postseason played 36 minutes together, 5-15,

and was on the ice for four goals against. So all that stuff is alarming. We haven't mentioned Kyle Connor is entering the final year of his deal. He's going to be a 29-year-old UFA this summer, and there's certainly a bunch of teams hoping he has no interest in re-upping in Winnipeg and using this vast amount of cap space that everyone has, I think of a team like Detroit who's like boys to have 40 plus million. in with the Michigan connection and the interest level there.

So we'll see how all that plays out, but you put it all together. And the jets have a 98.5 point over under a distant third in the central behind the abs and the stars. And that's a massive drop off from that 116 points they had last season. I want to see a couple weeks of it because I do think, like, just having so many of those guys still coming back and what they put on tape last year with the goaltending is going to be good enough for you to squeeze out a good share of wins. And even removing Eelers, the power play, I wouldn't expect them to be first in the

league, but I think it'll still be pretty efficient. And so there is a certain amount of room per error for them. But it is all kind of put one thing or two things would have been okay. And I think they could have made a work. You put it all together. And for a month or so, I think it could be a little bit dicey early on. So I'm really watching that. Okay.

What's next in your list? So this actually dovetails nicely with us talking about Taves briefly there. It seems like this year there are a ton of old guys that are going to be in the spotlight. So which old guy, and you know, 35 plus, let's just say, or old guys, plural, fall off. I mean, maybe they surprise us. Maybe it goes in the other direction. So I'll just toss some names at you and maybe you can sort of pick it up on the other side in terms of what you find interesting. But obviously in Pittsburgh, you've got Crosby.

I'm confident he'll continue to play at a fairly elite level. Like at some point he has to fall off, but it's one of those scenarios where I'm not going to count him out. I'll believe it when I see it. Tells us otherwise. Yes, exactly. Whereas you've got Malkin and Latang, okay, you know, is this the season that, you know, they really go in the tank? Or like, is this a season that Malkin sort of pops off again and he's a pending UFA and there's this like amazing storyline of him going elsewhere. And that's sort of the beginning of the end for the big three.

and Crosby feels more emboldened to go elsewhere. That could be really interesting. Ovechkin, the guy's 40. I may be in the minority in this, but I'm kind of high on him heading into the season, even though he's at that age. Long off season because the Caps went out early in the playoffs. He's going to have the Olympic break

because Russia's not going to the Olympics. That's like two and a half weeks. And I just think that Spencer Carberry has really figured out the ideal usage role. And Ovechkin on a personal level, he still has motivation to pile up those goals. Obviously, it's not going to be the same as last year, chasing that big 895,

but, you know, if he can get closer to 1,000, that would be incredible. Patrick Kane is actually a super interesting one. I did a 10 defining people of the season story to preview 2025, 26. And he made it because he only needs 32 points to pass Mike Medano for most points by an American. He needs eight goals to hit 500.

He needs 57 points to hit. 1400 and obviously he's in the top six of an original six team that's had this nine-year drought. I mean, there's a lot going on there in his sort of profile. And then obviously he's a long shot to make Team USA. But, I mean, if he has a strong first half and Team USA is kind of filled with Kane disciples, like it doesn't seem like a crazy thing to bring him as like the 13th guy or something. And then briefly just Kopitar's last season, Burns is in Colorado. I assume it's his last season.

he's in his 40s. So it's like for some reason this year, and maybe it's just like all these guys that I kind of grew up watching or when I started covering the league, they were at their prime. They're now exiting. Maybe it's sort of like a personal thing,

but it seems like this year, compared to previous years, there's way more sort of interesting storylines around these X stars or in Crosby's case, obviously still a star. Yeah, that's a good one. I mean, certainly that list you go through

is notable. I would say like the NHL while we do, like I'm in the same boat, obviously, like getting into this industry and really falling in love with NHL. Those guys were a big reason for it in terms of capturing your attention. The NHL is in as good of a place I think it's as ever been in terms of just like how much star talent is littered throughout the league. And this next wave of guys that already have taken the mantle in terms of being the most important players. but then the next wave as well that's already coming and we're just seeing like guys in the league are progressively just like younger and more talented

and more impactful early on as well. I had Macklin celebrating on my list that maybe we can get into later and put a pin in it here. But I think the NHL is in good shape. But yeah, especially like the Kopitar one you mentioned as well because I've got a lot of questions about the Kings. But while you could see in that series against the Oilers, like there were certain situations

and everyone's going to look this way against McDavid, but like when he's out there against him, just so much slower, maybe than he even used to be at getting to some of those pucks and winning some of the battles he used to previously. But the command of the game and the distribution skills and everything and playing with Kempay is still so high level that you want to enjoy it while it's still happening and him already announcing that it's going to be his final season.

It's kind of going to be a well-deserved tour around the league for him as a player who was wildly underappreciated throughout his prime. for what he did because he was just one piece in that king's machine, but he just had such a phenomenal career, and it's going to be awesome to see him get celebrated. So yeah, there's a lot of a lot of fun storylines there. Do you want to take our break here real quick

before we jump into my next topic? Because I think I'm going to spend a bunch of time on it, so I don't want to have to cut it short. Sounds good. All right, let's take our break here. You're listening to the HockeyPediocast streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network. All right, we are back here on the HockeyPedioCast, joined by John Mattis today as we get ready on the eve of

start of the regular season, bouncing around, talking about our most interesting questions or storylines heading into this year. Here's a fun one for you that's right up your alley, a team you and I have spoken about a bunch. I know you've written about them. You've visited them and been around the locker room and the rink and chatted about this. Can the Buffalo Sabres finally end their playoff drought after 14 straight seasons of Fallen Short? In 22, 23, they captured everyone's attention with that breakout offensive season, right? Tage Thompson just arriving on the scene and just becoming must watch TV. They were clearly a flawed team that was giving up as much as they were getting or offensively,

but they finished third in goals. They were so dynamic, fun and explosive. And I think we were all just filled with optimism of like, all right, let's scale this over the next couple of years. And we're really going to have something special to work with. They end that year with 91 points. Since then, they've gone backwards. They're at 84 the following year, 79 last season.

Now, the reason why I bring this up is because you look at a lot of the statistical models and projections, and they love them heading into this season. Dom has them at 90.1 points, which is 19th. Micah has them in 92, which is 15th. Evolving hockey have them in second in the Atlantic at nearly 99 points. Wow. The market hasn't been 85 and a half, about a 37% implied probability, which is still pretty high, I think, for a team that was very disappointing last year.

They make the big, Petirka trade at the start of the offseason. I'm very curious to see how this plays out because on the one hand, it was remarkable that they were as bad as they were in the standings last year, finishing 26th in point percentage, considering their 5-1-5 metrics. Like they were third in the league behind just Columbus and Washington in 5-1-5 offense. They were 16th in goal differential. Generally, while we can talk a lot about the postseason and how it's a different game and how you need to be at a certain level defensively to, keep advancing and win a cup, teams that are that good offensively are either around the playoff bubble or in the playoffs and then flame out quickly. Those sabers were so far away from that last year despite being as good as they were in that

regard. And so, you know, the special teams was a massive concern. They were 24th on the PK, 23rd on the power play. They were 31st and team save percentage. Only Philly got saves less frequently than them. So they were, those are the big reasons why. But especially atop the lineup, if Tage and Dahlian, can have healthy seasons where they play as well as they did for large stretches of last year,

if they can get more from the supporting cast, I wouldn't necessarily go as far as saying they're going to make the playoffs and answer my question by ending this drought. But maybe I'm a fool for falling for this again. But I do have a certain level of optimism heading into this season that it's going to be much more functional than it looked like throughout last season. All right, lots to unpack there. So, like, for example, the perkerka trade,

I wouldn't have done it just because I'm like really high in Peturka in his ceiling. But like I understand it from one, the player kind of forced himself out apparently. But two, like the sort of value that you get from Done and Kesselring, I think could outweigh Paturka. And they needed a little more depth, right? So I actually don't, I don't dislike it. At first I was like, what kind of trade was that? But I've really grown to like it.

Yeah, I mean, Thompson and Dahlene is your one, two. two punches, you know, it's maybe a top 10 duo in the league. I know that maybe seems hot takey, but like they're very underrated because they haven't been in the playoffs. They haven't been on the big stage. And they carry a lot of the load in Buffalo with little recognition. I, I, my main take, I guess I could, you could say about Buffalo heading in the season is that I'm confident that they'll be a good team and I actually like a lot of their individual

players. I find it hard to see what they're going to look like as a full team. That's been a huge part of why they haven't made the playoffs in the past. Good individual seasons, but they're not usually greater than the sum of their parts. And then so there's that sort of like I don't quite know what their ceiling is. And then the other part of it is the Atlantic Division. I mean, if you look at, so Tampa, Toronto up top, and then you've got, you know, Ottawa, Florida. I know they have serious injuries, but They're just so deep that they're going to be in the conversation for that third seed in the Atlantic, Montreal. So that's five teams that I would probably put, yeah, I would put ahead of Buffalo. And then you've got Detroit. Okay, what's the, who has the upper hand there going into the season? So that's seven at least like decent Atlantic teams, seven that have a legitimate shot at the playoffs. Okay, so let's just say that the way things shake out, three metro teams make it five. and the Atlantic make it, okay, like, is Buffalo one of them?

I just, I find it hard to put them ahead of, say, definitely Ottawa. Like, I feel like Ottawa has very much become very well built. I feel like they've plugged a lot of the holes that really brought them down over the years as they've built up this core. And I think they've just made a lot of smart moves lower down their lineup. I think that they have surpassed Buffalo and Detroit. and Montreal, as you know, they are a favorite of mine. I don't know if they're going to take, yes, they're right down.

I don't know if they're going to take a giant step this year, but I still think they're going to at least challenge for a playoff spot. So honestly, I'm less like skeptical of Buffalo and more skeptical of how they fit into the playoff race. The thing about them last year, and maybe this is on brand for the Sabres, but you look a little bit deeper at a lot of the splits. nothing made sense in terms of just what a bizarre year it was. And I'll start with this.

Like you look at their goals by period. First period, they outscore teams 92 to 68. They were one of the best first team periods in the league starting off hot. Second period, get outscored 107 to 84. Third period, get outscored 107 to 86. So they scored the most goals in the first. They gave up the second and third most goals the rest of the way.

They were 26th in percentage of game time spent in game scripts within one goal. So like they just like they were either just on fire and blowing teams out or just everything was falling apart. And they just could not play a normal, reasonable game like you'd come to expect from a typical NHL regular season. The top player, like the reason why you'd be high is the backbone, right? Like with with Tage and with Dali and like the players who matter, the drivers are clearly in place.

And that was the case last year. The issue was beyond the goaltending, the depth and the players on the margins just got cratered. And in particular, some of the depth defensemen, the fourth liners, they went out and added. And so I know Kesselring is banged up right now, but the idea of having him is a long-term fit with probably power to start, maybe dollying down the road,

depending on Byram's situation, that's very intriguing just because you're replacing minutes. There was such a massive liability previously with the Clifton's and the Brysons of the world. Lafferty was such a drag for them. They go out. They bring in as a bargain bin guy, Justin Danforth, Trance is a number one coveted UFC guy this summer.

They obviously bring in Josh Dohn as well, who I'm very high on, get a full year of Yuri Kool-Each. The big question is going to be getting a healthy season out of Josh Norris, right? Because they go out and they make that their cousin's trade, and he's played 56, 58, and 66 games the last four years. and the power play in particular, which was such a liability for them last year because they were so good at 5-15 otherwise offensively.

That's his bread and butter theoretically. And so if he can be there to help bring that up a little bit, that would go a long way. But you're right, there's a ton of questions. That's why I kind of found them interesting because I think opinions vary so much. We're doing the same song and dance as previous years

of being intrigued by them. I'm not sure how far it's going to go, but I will be watching to find out. Yeah, and like, I'm glad you brought up the discrepancy there with like the extreme results. Either they blow teams out or they get blown out. Like you can kind of feel it when you're around the team in terms of the weight of the playoff drought. I mean, it's an NHL record playoff drought.

It's at 14 years. Obviously, not all the players have been around. Well, none of the players have been around for the whole thing. A lot have only been for a couple years. But it just, it's one of those things where it's like, it's like a snowball effect where once things start going wrong, like they go wrong to a great extent. very quickly and that happens in games and that happens in seasons and you know whether it's a leadership thing or just you know turning over new leaves uh at each position over the years like

they will get out of it eventually is this the year i don't know um but that's something to consider too is like when things go south they seem to go really south in buffalo all right what's next on your list um hmm i guess let's stay in the atlantic division and this this could be a way to talk about the lightning a little bit. One thing I've been thinking about is like, is John Cooper finally going to win a Jack Adams? And I realize it's not this headlining award, but I find it to be, you know, an interesting way in to talk about the lightning where maybe this is his year because the lightning are not that shiny toy anymore. I mean, they've been a top team for literally a decade straight. It's kind of crazy. They made the 2015 final. There's a good chance they win the Atlantic.

is this sort of the season that a guy who's won two cups and been to the cup final another two times who's building an impressive international resume is this the time he finally wins it he's been nominated twice and it's voted on by the broadcasters who you would think would sort of be swooned by his charismatic personality

and maybe throw him a bone here and there because as we all know John Cooper can can sort of spin a yarn but anyways that's just a way to talk about the lightning who have this nasty top of the lineup but are sort of being forgotten about, I feel like, in terms of like the sort of inner circle

cup contenders. But I actually think they are like right in there as a top five team. Yeah, I mean, every metric for them last year suggested they were and then they just ran into that panthers, buzz saw right out of the gate and were unfortunate with some injuries along the way with Bjork Strand, never really getting to realize the vision there, Hegel obviously getting hurt early in that series. And so it just fell apart for them.

you're right if there's a team that's going to benefit from from florida potentially taking a bit of a step back at least through the regular season they'd be the one theoretically to capitalize on it and so i think that's a really good shout you know another team that's been in the mix for a while that i'm interested in is the colorado avalanche and my question is can they just have a healthy normal regular season for once where they're just firing on all cylinders because it's been a while they finished last year third in the central and that was in large part because they essentially she just punted the first two months with their goaltending with how dreadful it was. Then they go out and they make this series of changes leading up to the trade deadline.

They bring in two new goalies. They go out. They make the rant and nature's trade. They get Brock Nelson. They bring in Charlie Coyle. They get Landiscag back in the postseason. And it wound up, I think, really hurting them that they kind of gave away those first two months because they start off on the road against Dallas.

You have that game seven and it kind of just snowballs to your point in that third period with the rant and nuke and him just taking over that game in that series and winning it for dallas and that might happen anyways because i thought he was incredible in that last game that they played in that series in colorado but i think it's much more doable at home with the crowd going crazy and and just sort of that that whole mice advantage in 51 games they played post the the goalie acquisitions in particular bringing in blackwood and wedgewood there were second in points percentage and goal differential behind only winnipeg uh they used 43 skaters and six goalies last year, which is just unfathomable.

Oh, in terms of volume. Yeah. Landis Goggs back full time and just how cathartic that was for the organization with his return in the playoffs and now just having him back around every day. And part of the operation, there is the question with Martin Aitchis, in his $6.5 million expiring deal as he looks to hit the UFA market this summer as a 27-year-old and how that plays out. But despite a kind of disappointing postseason again, the 33 regular season, the games they played with him, he really revamped their power play, which had been a liability

earlier on. And they were tops in the league after his arrival. And the reason why it's a question for me is it's been eight years now since Nathan McKinnon exploded and became one of the best players in the league, right? After that awesome rookie season and then some hiccups along the way and the team kind of deteriorating around him as they transitioned, they've gone past the second round just once in that time. Now they won the cup the time they did so in 2022 and it had about as awesome to start to finish season as you're going to have in the NHL.

But since then, three post seasons, two first round exits, Jared Benner was the second longest 10-year coach there behind just John Cooper. And I'm not sure what the appetite is for doing that same song and dance again. If they kind of underwhelm a little bit, I really want to see them to start the year

all systems go and playing the way they were down the stretch and just overwhelming teams because they certainly have that in their bag. They're going to want to pace themselves, I think, for the playoffs because you want your best guys, especially McKinnan and Macarra, play so many minutes that you've got to be kind of careful about making sure you preserve them for when it matters most. But in this division, it's going to be really hardly contested up top and home ice is very valuable, especially for a team like the abs with how good they are at altitude. And so yeah, I just want to see them because the past couple regular seasons

have been so bizarre with guys in and out of the lineup and all these questions now with things sorted out a little bit I really want to see the peak version of them right from the jump in October. Yeah, I did a, as guys in my position normally do, I did a bold predictions before the season

I think it got published yesterday and I had McKenzie Blackwood winning the Kahn Smyth and obviously that involves the avalanche winning the cop and obviously Blackwood is more of the bold part because you know, you would think it's McKinnon or McCarrick. But, you know, Blackwood's this guy who the goalie community has been in love with for basically since he entered the league, maybe even as a prospect, where he's this massive dude. He's super athletic. He's super flexible.

He's, you know, got good reads and just kind of the toolkit is very tantalizing. So, I mean, here you go. Like, you got your long-term home. I mean, he's a little banged up right now, but it's not a long-term injury. What can you do with it, McKenzie, right? So last year was clearly some kind of transition year for the, the avalanche, even though they were still a top, top tier team in a lot of ways. But, I mean, they turned around a third of the roster in the middle of the season, not just

in the off season. It was kind of crazy. And now things have settled. As you said, the injuries are just not there. Like last year, last year, Lekinen was out to start the season. Nchuskin was out, Landisg, obviously all season. And I mean, like, how are you going to hit the ground running with three out of your top six forwards out like that?

So, yeah, I'm obviously quite high on the avalanche. And I think that it, I like also what's going on with, with the way that their centers are lining up here with McKinnon Nelson, Drury to start. I'm really anxious or interested to see what Drury can do with sort of like a more secure third line center role where he's given the reins a bit. and he's got a guy like Ross Colton on his left. This is according to Daily Faceoff right now and their lineup. And then Olyf's in on the right. That's a quality third line

in terms of being able to contribute at both ends. So I like their forward group a lot. And McKenzie Blackwood is this massive X factor. What's next on your list? I got two more that I really want us to get to. But I don't want to skip the line here. So I'll give you a shot to introduce another one to our list. Yeah, I mean, we can maybe keep this short.

but I'm curious who you think is going to be really bad. And that may seem like a strange question to start the season, but I wonder if we can set the scenes for the McKenna sweepstakes because just an unreal debut in college, like he did the whole Forksdown sort of disc celebration, love the skill set, lots of swagger. And there was like a tweet that there were 57 NHL scouts there, just the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in terms of like,

do you really need to see this guy, his first game, every single scout in the league. But anyways, I just wonder, like, I've got, like, Chicago and San Jose in their own sort of bottom feeder tier, and then it gets kind of interesting from there. I don't know if you disagree that those are the two sort of ones to keep an eye on in terms of how their season's going to go

in terms of the trajectory pointing the wrong way. What do you think? Yeah, I mean, that's certainly fair. I think it's going to be the usual cast for the most part. I think the penguins, I know they will. want to do a service to the end of Crosby's career and having them there, I think they would ideally like to be in that mix just to get a high-end talent like that into the system. The predators who once again made a bunch of moves but are one of the more strangely run teams

in the league right now under Barry Trots. And so I would throw them into that mix as well. And I'm sure there's going to be someone that has a season from hell. I think the Cracken are trying to be competent. they go out and they spend a bunch of money and Ryan Lindgren, they acquire Mason Marchment like they want to be respectable but

unless we see massive, massive strides and we saw a lot, a big step from Shane Wright last year, but I think there's a bunch of questions there in a Pacific where if the ducks take a step with the coaching change, there's going to have me to be someone who is really bad amongst that mix and so I think they'd be a good

candidate for it. I'm glad you brought up the sharks though because I had a question of can Macklin Celebrity become like a bonafide superstar in year two. And I think anyone that listens to the show and follows hockey already knows how highly touted he is and how good he was as an 18 year old rookie yet there's still like another step certainly part of that is going to come with the team around. I'm getting better and then playing important games and pushing for the playoffs in the future

and then getting on that stage and that's going to come with that territory. But he was just, he blew me away so much as a rookie with what he had to work with and just how refined his game already was and how he just dominated at times and made everyone around him better, that I feel like you almost need to throw out all expectations that you would normally have for a player of this age on a team this bad and just be like anything is possible with him. And the reason why I bring that up particularly is you mentioned Adam Fox earlier and Team USA and the Olympics, and that's going to be a big talking point for us in terms of who's playing their way onto rosters, because this is going to be such a big deal with best on best returning and all these guys getting a chance to represent their country.

trees on that stage once again. And it's going to be an uphill battle because Team Canada is so loaded and they have so many centers. But I do think with the way some of their players forwards in particular performed at the Four Nations, it left a little bit of an opening. And I've heard from people I've talked to that Robert Thomas, for example, has gained a lot of steam internally in terms of a guy who could fill that role. But I feel like you're going to get to a point where if Celebrini just takes another step

and is just even better than he was last year, you're. get to a very interesting question of like just mapping out the future like I think the importance of getting him some of that experience playing on that stage with some of those the caliber of those players and then seeing what he does with it would be very intriguing for me and so that's just out of respect to what he put on tape last year because it was just it was mind-blowing seeing a guy come in and be that good that early yeah like I wish we had the sport logic stats for like crosbie's rookie season because it felt like he had in terms of like the polished game it felt crosbie-esque and you know i'm not saying that celebrating he's going to have this like rush mount rushmore career but like he is just

his details are so dialed in and then he's got like the skill and the shooting ability and playmaking to put up points like it's it's it's kind of scary like he's by you know he's easily a breakout candidate for me in terms of like leveling up from star to superstar like i feel pretty confident in that and on the Canadian roster point, it feels like, you know, when they're filling out the bottom of the roster or even like the 13th, 14th forward, it feels like they're going to go with a two-way guy, right? I mean, if you think about like Robert Thomas is kind of in that conversation, you could argue Travis Kineckney, but he probably already has one. Seth Jarvis probably already has one. But again, like this is a guy who can go up and down the lineup and wouldn't be like a marquee player. So I think that Celebrini fits into that profile. It's like because Canada is so deep at forward,

they're almost better off picking the well-rounded guy versus like the specialist when you get down to the bottom of their lineup. So that's super interesting to me. And I know that Crosby is like blown away by this kid, enough that after they went to the world championships and after they hung out at the Canadian Olympic orientation camp, he invited him and Will Smith to Halifax and did some sort of to private training with presumably Marchand and a couple other people locally like McKinnon. And I'm not saying Crosby's pulling strings behind the scenes, but like, you know,

coaches and managers would catch on to that where they're like, this is, Crosby is a huge fan of this guy and, you know, maybe there's a spot for him on this team in terms of like, you know, these players really respecting what he brings to the table and how he's sort of integrated into that team can in a bubble. So anyways, I think he's totally in there as a candidate to fill out the bottom of the roster. And I don't think it's offside at all. I mean, he had 25 goals and 63 points and 70 games last year as an 18 year old. But I think the strides that, you know, Will Smith is his running made made comparing first half to second half and how good they looked.

And then the idea that like we only saw 60 minutes 515 of the two of them playing with William Eklund. And in that time, they were up 5.3 at 58. percent of the shots, 66% of the expected goals. And they go out and they bring in Jeff Skinner to go along with Tofoli and like Wemberg previously. And so they have enough veterans in place where they can be competent and potentially load those guys up, obviously. I'm curious to see what happens with Michael Misa as well.

And, you know, we also saw the effect that when they went out and they got Timothy Lilligrin had on them in terms of just having a guy who can play with skill and get the puck to their forwards and how valuable that was. And then they go out and because they had to get to the cap floor, they bring in Orlov and Klingberg and Letty and those guys are a different stage of their career and would cause me concerns for what the defensive environment is going to look like. But no doubt they can still get the puck to their forwards and be more efficient in transition.

And so I think there's going to be more advantageous opportunities for them. So it's going to be a very intriguing thing to watch for. Do you have anything else on your list that you feel like we have to add? we have a couple minutes here or should we sign off put a bow on it and uh and do our plugs to close out today's show unless you've got something to throw out there i'm good no i think i'm good i think i'm good i had some some quinn hugh's stuff but maybe we can uh save that for once we get into the season and revisit that i wanted to talk about the capitals the mac david extension but uh and of course my utah mammoth but i think we're have plenty of time uh in future episodes to

to get into all that good stuff and we're certainly going to have you on again soon and maybe you and i can get back up. All right, what do you got to plug here on the way out? I'll just plug, I guess, my Twitter handle, just because that's how you can find all my stories. So it's M-A-T-I-S-S-ed, J-O-H-N on Twitter. And I'll either retweet the Scores account with my stories or tweet about myself. That's sort of the feed to get my written content. And also I'm appearing on different shows. And also the score has a YouTube show itself called Top Shelf that we're launching season two actually today. I'm about to film that after this. So yeah, check

on my Twitter handle and thanks again. As always, Dim, for up me on. All right, good stuff, buddy. Well, as I said, off the top, if you want to get more of the PDOCAS, subscribe to our Patreon. You can find that the link either in the show notes and our Discord or just search the Hockey-PedioCast on Patreon and join us for two extra shows a week on there. As I mentioned, in the early going, we had Jack Hott on today. We're going to do more fun stuff

there. We're going to incorporate a weekly newsletter as well. And we'll see if we can get Mattis on to chip in with some of that and give us some of his his written chops on there as well because I love the stories that you write at the score and then postgame shows mailbags for subscribers, merchandise, all that good stuff. So get in there and join us for the ride now that the season starting. Join us in the Discord, as I've said many times and we'll continue to say because I'm really proud of that place in the community we're building. There's no place like it to just watch games on a nightly basis now the regular season starting. Great banter and discussion

in there every night as we watch all the games. So join your fellow sickos there. Give us a five-star review wherever you listen and enjoy the start of the regular season. We're going to celebrate it with a really jam-packed schedule year on the PDO cast. We got these two shows today, got a show coming tomorrow, breaking down the first set of tonight's games, and then a couple more things along the way later on in the week. So join us for all that. All right, that's all for today.

Thank you to John for joining us. Thank you to you for subscribing and for listening to the Hockey Ocast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network.