The Hockey PDOcast - Who Stands To Benefit Most From This Year's Olympics

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by John Matisz to go through their list of people and teams who stand to benefit most from this year's Olympics, and the break in the NHL schedule that it'll provide. 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.

Lessing to the mean since 2015. It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey-O-Cast. My name is Demetri Filippovich. And joining me is my good buddy, John Mattis. John, what's going on, then? A lot. We've got trades happening.

We've got playoff races in January, this sort of race to the Olympics. And then, of course, the Olympics on the horizon. So, I mean, we could probably talk for hours and hours at this point. if we really wanted to dig into things. We certainly can. And that's exactly, maybe not for hours and hours, but definitely for the next 50 minutes. We are going to dig into it. We're only two weeks out from the Olympics at this point.

It is fast approaching. And I figured a fun exercise for us to build up the hype, keep prepping for the games to come, would be to make a list of the guys we think stand to benefit most from this year's games. Now, I gave you some homework, putting together your own list of names. so we can go back and forth here and pitch each other on our candidates. Open up the criteria as well, right? We should have some fun. I think it can be players like the obvious guys who are actually going to be representing

their countries in these games, but it can also be guys who won't be there, but might still benefit from it regardless, teams that could desperately use the time off. The Olympic break is going to afford an NHL schedule for a push down the stretch. So we're going to run the full gamut and try to get through as much as we can here today. the guest, I'll give you the floor, who's atop your list. We're not necessarily ranking it in order, but we're going to obviously start with the most obvious candidates up top and then get to the rest later on. Yeah, a guy who really jumps off the page for me. And it's a fun one in terms of being a snub guy is Matthew Schaefer of the Islanders. Like this guy, taking a well-deserved

breather here in terms of being left off Canada, you know, his life has probably felt like it's been going in fast forward since the draft, like just a whirlwind in terms of getting acclimated to being on the island. And, you know, he's 16th overall in total ice time. He's 18th in ice time per game. And this guy is the youngest player in the league. And arguably offering the best 18-year-old defenseman season of all time. I don't know.

I'd have to actually look it up. And the crazy part is that he played like 17 OHL games last year. Like, it's not like this guy's known for like these long playoff runs. And like he's battled some injury issues. And of course, the well-documented personal issues, off the ice with a couple tragedies. So it's just, it makes what he's been doing just that much more special is the context around him. And I wonder with this break, I mean, does he go back to the lab in terms of, you know, looking at tape and working on skills? Obviously, he will take some,

some much needed rest. And then there's sort of like this narrative factor of like, if Canada disappoints and part of the problem is the back end and, you know, some lack of mobility and lack of puck moving and creativity. I mean, he's going to be the poster boy for what if, you know, what if we took Matthew Schaefer instead of whatever, Travis Hanheimer, Colton Pereco, like he will be at the top

of that list. And then finally, from a team perspective, if you look at it in terms of where the aisles are headed, they're one of only three teams with just one guy going to the Olympics. Like they have, you know, they just have a Horvac going and that's it. So a lot of rest for that team in general, which, let's face it,

that they could use. Their second place in the metro right now, kind of exceeding expectations. So if they truly want to make a playoff push here, that's going to be helpful. I think that's a great selection to kick us off. I had the New York Islanders as a team because I lumped Ilyosuriken getting some time off

as well, obviously with Russia not participating at the Olympics, buying him, whatever, 20 days or so off in between games. He missed a couple games earlier this year around the holidays, and David Riddick has been awesome in a backup role, kind of not forcing them to just ride him

every single night necessarily when he's been healthy. So he's on pace for 150 games. This year, yeah, you look at the workload when he is playing, whether it's from a shot volume perspective or especially from a high-danger chance perspective where I believe UC Soros is the only goalie in the league who has faced more high-danger shots so far, corner sport logic, and he's done so playing 10 more games

than Sorokin so far, and how phenomenal Sorokin's been clearly the best goalie, most impactful goalie in the league. The only reason why Connor McDavid's point streak did not get the 21 games in that game last week where he got the benefit of a couple posts behind him as well, but made so many grade A saves. And so it buys him some time, and we know rest and recovery is so important for goalies and then Schaefer as well, right? Like he has played the 16th most total minutes this year. You look at the time on ice specifically by month. and I feel like his season total doesn't even do it justice where

October 2220 kind of just easing him in relatively November 2414, December 2439, January 2451 and really if it's a competitive game and they're close he's going to be playing 25 to 26 minutes at the very least and I think that's a great point by you in terms of the workload as well for a guy who played as little as he did last year and doing this the first time in his career as an 18 year old. it's just such an immense task for him. And he's kind of distracted us from that because he's looked so good within it.

But no doubt getting him a couple weeks to recharge and recoverer is going to serve him really well, just from having gas left in the tank perspective down the stretch. And I ultimately, like selfishly, I would have loved to see him at these games because I think he would have absolutely rocked in this environment. And I'd love to see him galloping up and down the ice with the best players in the world, even if he wasn't in their top six, I think it would have been very valuable to have him there, not only as a breaking case of emergency option,

but just long term, having them around the best players in the world, soaking up everything they have to offer, going back to the island and using that experience would be great, but he's not on this team, at least them now, barring any injuries. And so I think having these guys off for that long, considering how much they rely on both of them,

and the fact that they are in this playoff race in the Metro, I think is going to be very valuable to the Islanders. The first guy on my list is Tage Thompson. Now, if we think about the Four Nations last year, we saw the benefit of getting to compete in an event like that for star players who haven't really gotten that shine before, haven't had the luxury of playing in these types of important games in the NHL previously. I think of a guy like Don Larkin, who was obviously at a relatively advanced stage of his career compared to a guy like Jake Sanderson, for example, but I think a sense.

similar concept applies where you get to see them in this environment and they totally look the part of fitting in with all their peers at the highest level and then succeeding within the roles they're asked to on what are essentially all-star teams for Team Canada and Team USA. And so I included a guy like Tage because he obviously has not played in the NHL playoffs yet at this point of his career, although I think we're all hoping that the past 17 or 18 games the Sabres have played is an indication they really have turned their overall. corner as an organization and will erase that drought this season. He's second in the league behind Nathan McKinn and 515 goals.

He's on pace for another 45-ish goal campaign for the third time in four years. And I've been noting how in particular beyond the goal scoring, which is obviously great, like you look at his tape early in the year where I thought he looked a little either lethargic or kind of checked out or like he was nursing something compared to now where he's just been an absolute bull. he's using his frame to protect the puck, to win battles, to extend offense his own possession time, to take the puck to the net, even in games,

like the one against the hurricanes recently, where he doesn't score, he's just an absolute force. And so you put him in this environment. I'm very excited to see what it looks like. I think it's been a long time coming. And I think this team, USA team, in particular, is going to really need his skill set as a goal score.

Yeah, we're on the same weight length here in terms of, which Shaper you had the Islanders with Thompson. and I had the savers on my list where, again, they go back to how many guys are going. Like, I think this is important. They only have three guys going, which is good overall for the sabers and health and down the stretch. But the three of the guys that are going,

Lukinen, Thompson, and Dalene. I mean, they need big time, big game experience. Like, Dahlene went to four nations. He actually went to the Olympics back in 2018, which is kind of wild. And then obviously, Tage, you know, had the worlds in this past spring, but that's not quite the same as the Olympic.

picks. You know, Dahlene's going to play really important hard minutes for Sweden and Thompson is presumably going to play a pretty big role for the U.S. You know, on the power play, is he their top right-handed shot option?

Like is the PP1 sort of like, let's tee this guy up guy? Maybe. And I just feel like, you know, Thompson, as much as, you know, you talk about him a ton on this show and people who, you know, watch the league closely, have appreciate him for a long time. I feel like he's kind of flies under the radar.

Like, even with, like, mock rosters heading towards the Olympic announcements, I feel like he was still sort of on the fringes and sort of like, you know, should we trust this guy? It's like, all this guy does is score, and he's six foot six and, you know, plays a fairly physical game, even though he's incredibly skilled. So I just feel like, you know, if those three guys go from the Sabres, go to the Olympics and farewell, and let's just say one of them wins the gold medal, I mean, bringing that into a Sabres room that really lacks sort of winning pedigree

and lacks just veterans that have quote unquote been there, done that. I think that would be hugely beneficial. And trust me, next time the Olympics roll around, I feel confident already saying, even though it's a small sample size, a guy like Noah O'Slin is going to be on Team Sweden, and even a Josh Stone is going to work his way in a team USA consideration because you think about that skill set and it would be perfect along some of these top players. I think that's an important point you made about the handedness because you look at the way that's distributed

across this team USA lineup and they really only have three forwards who are right shots. That's Tage, Jack Eichl and Vincent Trochick. And on this team, Tage is not going to be playing down the middle in his usual slot because they have Eichael, Matthews, Larkin, Brock Nelson, you go on down the line. But bumping them to the wing, that's going to be very valuable in terms of opening up certain lanes for them.

And they're going to need his shot making and finishing in particular, right? You think about that devastating release, whether it's the one-timer on the flank, on the power play, or coming down the wing with the rister and how he uncorks it. That's why I've been talking so much about how Matthews sort of looking physically,

like how he did two years ago when he scored nearly 70 goals, is so important as a development because this roster as good as it is and as likely as it is to compete for the goal medal, I think is lacking a bit of finishing juice. Like they have a lot of great possession and two-way and transition players, but guys who just put the puck into the net, especially without Caulfield and Robertson on this roster,

I think they're going to need more of that. So Matthews' improvement over the past two, three weeks or whatever is huge. And then I think Tage Thompson is fit to play a huge role on this team. All right, who's next on your list? Well, I have Matthews on my list. So why don't we just kind of unpack that a little bit more? I mean, at what point is he officially back, right? Like, we're at 12 games since the holiday break, 11 goals, 8 assists.

And honestly, it's less about the production. It's more about how he looks, the power game. He seems to be getting more breakaways than ever. Shot looks as deadly as, you know, back in his 69 goal season. Whatever was ailing him before with the health, whatever adjustment period he had to have without Marner, like, that seems to be behind him. I suppose we should maybe give it a little more runway before we fully declare him back

as like a top five guy in the league. But nevertheless, I just find like if you look at it from Team USA's perspective, as you mentioned, sort of these shot makers, he's so important to what they're doing there. And I just feel like the Olympics also are just a great stage for Matthews to sort of like, I guess take the bowl by the horns

and really become this big game play. player that's just not been there in this time in Toronto. And when you take it back to the Leafs, I mean, all the fuss around Toronto being different this year, you know, no marner and sort of mixing up the forward group, it kind of all, for me at least, circled back to Matthews where it's like, okay, if you have peak Matthews, your ceiling is fairly high. If you don't, that ceiling really, you know, is brought down pretty significantly? So, you know, is he a capital S superstar by the end of the Olympics or is he, you know, back to what he was before this, this recent breakout. Like I would bet more on the capital S superstar, but, but there's still sort of some stakes here,

I guess you could say, for Matthews and not only his reputation, but sort of like the international experience and how important he is to the U.S. and just sort of hitting the ground, running with the Leafs for the playoff run. You also think about what Shepie was in physically at the Four Nations, where I thought he played a very valuable role and was awesome, but him and Jack Hughes were essentially being used is like a shutdown defense combo up front. And part of that was he was getting looks. He just didn't have the same shot, didn't have the same pop to his game offensively.

And so he wound up dominating the position, but it wasn't necessarily leading to goals. And ultimately, they needed just one more to win that tournament. He's probably going to be their best bet towards rectifying that and getting there this time around. And I think a lot of it is physical. I get there's an adjustment in terms of when you play with a guy like Marner, who's so well suited as a distributor to get in the puck. advantageous opportunities. That's all well and good.

But you just look at the tape of how he was moving on that road trip against the avs, even the Jets and the Golden Knights, and then the breakaway goal he scores against the wild. Like that level of separation, getting the puck in a straight line towards the net, and then beating the goalie decisively. He just, for whatever reason, was not doing that for essentially a calendar year. And now he is. And so I think that is a huge development. next guy on my list is Thomas Harley

and I probably could have lumped him in when you were talking about Matthew Schaefer because that's the left side of Team Canada's blue line. It's been a tough year for him so far as we've documented throughout on this show. He missed 12 games of the lower body injury in November after being plus 25 and plus 29 in 5-on-5 goal differential his first two NHL seasons. He's minus three this year. His 5-15 underlying metrics have dropped to around 45% across the board and shots chance his expected goals.

Individually, he scored 50 and 16 goals. The past two years, he only has two in 38 so far with his shooting percentage dipping all the way below 4%. And yet, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Not only do I think he's looked better physically recently, but just because of the role he plays on the stars where he's having all these minutes with Ilya Lubbushkin, with Alex Petrovich, guys who are fine, NHL defensemen, but should not be playing in that high leverage role and really limit him, I think, in terms of getting the puck out of the zone

and then allowing them to play downhill where he's absolutely devastating. And so you think about the impact he had on Team Canada at the Four Nations where he enters that tournament late and just immediately steps in and is clearly one of their best four defensemen and had such a massive impact with his mobility, feel for the game, efficiency as a skater and a puck mover. And I'm not sure what that's going to look like at this tournament because Shay Theodore is healthy now and so you've got TAVs, you've got Theodore, you've got

Morrissey on the left side, but it's going to be a long tournament relatively in terms of opportunities to mix guys in. There's going to be injuries as we know and so I imagine we'll hear from him at some point and I loved his game the last time we saw Canada play America

and so I'm still bullish about it and so I'm very curious to see if he can use this as a bit of a lot launching pad, maybe the stars at some point acquire a better defenseman to play alongside him in the NHL. And so it could be a huge return of form in the second half for him. And that would obviously be massive not only for Canada, but for the Dallas Stars as well. If it's okay with you, my next guy, Macklin Celebrini. I mean, I feel like this is one of those things where it's kind of hard to quantify, but the value of a guy like him,

who is, you know, slowly, I wouldn't even say slowly, actually. It's the opposite, quickly rocketing up the charts in terms of best players in the world. The value of him being around Crosby, McKinnon, McDavid, and potentially sitting beside them for weeks at a time and just soaking that in, I think that alone is super valuable. He's going to get probably a top six opportunity there. It's certainly for the taking. I guess we'll see what the coaching staff thinks,

and it would be completely well-deserved. He won't have to carry an entire team like he is, with the sharks right now. So that'll be a nice break. And also be really interesting from an analysis perspective. Like what does this guy look like when he has, you know,

let's just compare him to McKinnon. Like McKinnon has NACCHIS on his line right now. Like if he has a NACCHIS equivalent on Canada, like what does that look like for Macklin Sellebrini? And then, of course, the Sharks perspective, they're in the middle of a playoff race, sort of ahead of schedule. You know, any added confidence

from their MVP type player is massive. And I looked it up before we, we press record here. San Jose is the easiest remaining schedule right now, according to Tankathon. And I know it's not a perfect metric, but nevertheless, their schedule is clearly not super hard. Otherwise, they wouldn't be top of the list. So that's notable too. I mean, like, this guy is a franchise player in every sense of the word. And I feel like also some casual fans out there either don't know much about them or haven't seen him enough. and they're just going to be completely blown away by what a 19-year-old is doing at the Olympics.

Oh, undoubtedly. You think about the vibes for the sharks right now, right? And they're holding on a wildcard spot. They're neck and neck with their two California rivals. They go out and acquire a key for Sherwood, and that adds a fun element to it. Hopefully, not only is he a valuable player, but he can maybe bump an inferior player,

either down the lineup or out of the lineup. And so you almost get two birds with one stone there, and it just rewards a group that's been fun and obviously competing ahead of schedule. As you noted, I mean, Celebrini has been downright exceptional pretty much every night this year, although I will say I was watching their most recent game against the lightning. And one of my favorite subplots this year is guys coming into Tampa Bay really feeling themselves on top of the world, producing, just flying around. And then John Cooper just puts out Gord, Holmberg and Gergensonsons, along with J.J. Moser. And every time that player steps over the boards, they're just all over them.

there's no space. You can see they're frustrated and they wind up creating nothing. And so in that game that the Lightning won to extend their streak, the Sharks generated 0.11 expected goals worth of offense in like 11 head to head five five minutes in that matchup. And so I just love what that line's doing. Obviously, there's a lot going on in Tampa that deserves credit for, but that was a very specific recent example of that.

I'm very excited to see Celebrini at this tournament for obvious reasons, especially if it's playing alongside of McDavid. because I feel like everything we've spoken about his ability to be a spot-up shooter with all the attention on McDavid, his work as a forechecker kind of thriving within chaos

that he often creates for himself. No one creates more chaos for the opposing D than Connor McDavid and so I think he's going to fit C mostly in there and so I really hope team Canada experiments with that because that could be the most fun combination and I'm very excited to watch it. Here's the next guy on my list.

I got Brock Nelson. And the reason why I have him here is because I feel like he very unfairly gets mixed in with the New York guys in J.T. Miller and Vincent Trocheck amidst everyone's frustration that Robertson and Cawfield aren't on Team USA. And watching him play this year, I just feel like that's not a worthwhile comparison because he starts the year a bit slow. Last 30 games, he scored 21 goals, which is fifth in the league. Colorado's using them for defensive assignments because we know McKinnon's going to be out there for all the offensive zone starts. He's playing on the PK. He's toe-dragging guys and creating breakaways short-handed. He's been a monster coming down the wing, ripping it.

And so I feel like part of it is that system just juices everyone, but he's going to get to play with other great players on this team. And he just looks much more fluid as a skater and dangerous offensively than he did at this time last year when he wasn't a big factor in Four Nations. So I wanted to kind of just float out that delineation, I guess, because I still see people talking about him as if he was the player last year, as opposed to everything he's done so far this year for the Colorado bunch. Yeah, that's fair. And on the Robertson note, just as an aside, like the guy's up to 29 goals and 50 games,

first among Americans, I believe third overall. I wonder if he dusts off the famous Phil Kessel tweet about being around the house with his dog wondering what he should do. And, you know, with Robert. all jokes aside, like we've seen it from even as recently as last night, snubbed Americans going off in front of Bill Guerin. You know, the standings are set up for a wild star's first round matchup. I mean, what could be more sort of in your face than him going off again,

and this is looking far in the future, but him going off against Bill Guerin if things go sideways for the Americans. But at the same time, Robertson could also be there, right? Like all these guys that we're talking about that are snubbed. Like there's still a chance that there's an injury here. Like Braden Point, for the Canadians, for example, things are very much up in the air in terms of what's going to happen with him. And we saw today the announcement of Seth Jones being ruled out,

Jackson Lacombe coming in. And I actually think he's a super interesting guy to talk about here as far as, you know, he's in Anaheim, so, you know, most fans don't get a ton of, of viewings of Jackson Lecombe. And I know he had sort of the, if you want to call it, the hipster glow up before his extension, people who really focus on the game were very well aware of the type of trajectories on. You know, the Olympics could be sort of his mainstream glow up, kind of like what we saw from Sanderson at the Four Nations, where people were just blown away by this young

defenseman that's rangy, that's versatile. You know, in Lecombe's case, like really good defensive stick, I guess like, like, Sanderson as well. Great unretrievals like Sanderson. I suppose they're kind of similar players and how they think about it. But yeah, like and, you know, a lot of discussion online today about Hudson not being the guy that was replacing Jones. And honestly, I'm kind of okay with this decision. I like Lecombe being inserted into this blue line in sort of the overall context of already having Quinn Hughes, already having Zach Werenski. Like Hudson is a fantastic player and I think he's sort of underrated

defensively. I think he would be fine at the Olympics but we got to also consider here the fact that you know compared to the okay the forward group with Caulfield versus like say J.T. Miller like I think that your extra guys you're better off

having sort of hired guns you know one shot shooter like Cawfield. I think that makes sense and I think the argument Cawfield over JT. Miller totally legitimate but I think on defense given what they have I feel like your extra guys if we're considering Lecombe an extra guy should maybe be more versatile because like I said you already have Quinn Hughes, you already have Zach Wrenski

and Lane Hudson as phenomenal as he is, he's kind of a hard guy to read off of if you're not his teammate like he's doing jukes and he's going into traffic with the puck and he's doing this no look pass like that's all fantastic and it's great for the haves but I feel like if you don't play with him there might be an adjustment period so I was totally fine with the decision to go Lecombe over Hudson but I I wonder what your thoughts were. Yeah. I mean, listen, I think the world of both guys,

I think Hudson's so talented and so dynamic that he would have figured it out. And I feel like in particular playing with such great players, like you see when he's out there with Cofield and Suzuki for the Habs. Like, it just, it's a rising tide situation. Like, I feel like it gets the most out of these guys. I think ultimately for Team USA's purposes, you look at the left side and Hughes, Werenski, Sanderson, Slavin, like, absolutely loaded. So I'm not even sure ultimately what role.

barring further and injury Jackson Lecombe's going to play but he fits very well within this scheme because of the skating ability, the transition work, just how smooth he is. And so I'm totally fine with it. I did have both Cofield and Robertson on my list who obviously aren't on this team right now, but you watch on Tuesday night and their individual performances, Coffield obviously with facing Bill Guerrins own Minnesota Wild team sticking it to them with the game winning goal with 15 seconds left. Jason Robertson on TNT. just absolutely shredding the Bruins. I think he generated 17 shots,

shot attempts in like 19 minutes of action, scores a pair of goals. And I do, assuming these guys don't make it onto the team at some point, I suspect there will be a point where Team USA bumps into a game, most likely against Canada, where they're controlling possession, they're getting looks,

but they're just not turning them into goals, and it's a one-one-two-one type of game. And I think everyone's incredulity regarding their omission from this, is going to be validated at that point. I just think, you know, Caulfield especially, like some of the stuff he's shown this year with the finishing down low, whether it's kind of the bad angles or causing goalies to come out and then sort of tucking it in past them and stick handling around it. Like some of that stuff, I think, would certainly play in a tournament like this. And so I really do

wish he was on this team. All right, John, let's take our break here. And then when we come back, we'll jump right back in it. I've got at least another handful of guys that I want to get through here. I'm sure you do as well. You're listening to the Hockeypedio guest streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network. All right. We're back to the Hockeypedio guest, joined by John Mattis. We're getting excited for the upcoming Olympics just two weeks away going through some names that we think will benefit from those games when they happen. Whose turn is it, John? Is it up for me or you know? I lost tally. Let's go to you. All right, here's a fun one. It's a bit cliched, but I do really feel this way.

arguably the biggest beneficiaries of this tournament are going to be us as viewers, as hockey enjoyers. I think we're reaching the point of the regular season. I'm not sure if you feel this way where we're kind of hitting the same beats for three straight months now as we ramp up towards the trade ad line and then the push for the playoffs and then ultimately the postseason. And it can get a little monotonous, right? It feels like going through the motions at times.

You look at the schedule. There's 10 games on. They're all on at the same time. it's the same stuff over and over again. And I just think of how fun the Four Nations was, what a spectacle it was, how high the level of hockey was, and not even when it was just Canada, America,

even games with Sweden, how feisty Finland was, you throw in Czechia and Germany and Switzerland into the mix here. I'm so excited about it. It's been over a decade since we've been treated to best-on-best hockey. I'm always fascinated to see different combinations, something we said about Larkin earlier, like star players on their NHL teams doing the best possible cosplay of role players on this team where they're playing like a third line PK role that they're obviously overqualified for,

but they just get to crush it in those assignments. And ultimately tournaments like this are the Super Bowl for me for let's remember some guys. I was looking at the rosters and walking down memory lane you've got just off the top of my head, Dominic Cahoon, Tobias Reader, Michael Kepney, Sven Antriguez. Martin Marenchin, and the best one for last, of course, Andre Casha, who true hockey hipsters will remember that 2017 to 2018 or 19 stretch where he was one of the more dynamic players in the league on a permanent basis. He was absolutely lethal offensively, and then head injuries really deprived him of his prime

in the NHL and us, his viewers, getting to watch him. So all these kind of nostalgic names that you throw into the mix, watching them play at this tournament, I think is going to be so fun. and it's part of why I love stuff like this. Well, it's interesting you bring that up in terms of like four nations and how it rejuvenated the season last year. Paul Maurice was talking about this earlier. It was a lot, yeah, sorry, it was last week in Buffalo when the Panthers went by.

And he was saying like he was very fascinated by the fact that the guys who went to four nations came back and were better than everybody else for, this is his direct quote, better than everybody else for a window of, I don't know, five to ten games, the speed of that event must have really promoted it. And like, this is, this was pretty obvious when you were watching from home, but I find it always fascinating, interesting when an NHL coach goes like, I thought that there was going to be a letdown from those guys. And if anything, they took their game to the next level. So you think about the McKinnons and McDavid's and Sellebrinis and whatnot and what they've

been doing already. And, you know, what, what do they bring back to the NHL? It's, it's fascinating. Maybe things will be a bit different this time because there's a time change with, you know, the games being in Italy and whatnot. But nevertheless, it'll be something to follow in terms of trends. And that actually leads me to Nikita Kutrov, who, and this will sound counterintuitive to what I just said. But, you know, does he benefit in terms of like the scoring race of sitting around for a couple of weeks resting, recovering while these other guys are going balls to the wall? and it's also interesting too within the context of the lightning where they're sending a bunch of guys to the Olympics. But because Russia has banned, you know, Kutrov is not going to be there. And he's the only top five score not going to Milan.

So like it's pretty significant from that perspective. And as we know from over the years, like this guy is very much a rink rat. He's basically his own skills coach. Like I shouldn't say basically he is. In the summer, he just rents ice and works on a side. skills, you know, by himself and Brandon Hagel and other guys show up early to to talk to skills coach Nikita Kutrov. It's kind of fascinating in that sense. But Kutrov is one of my guys for this exercise. I think that's totally fair. I love those offseason stories. Obviously,

all these top players are top players for a reason. They all go about it a different way. And I love the, I was reading that story from a couple years ago where Brendan Hakel asked him to tag along. and he told him essentially if you miss one day, don't bother coming at all after that. And so he runs a pretty tight ship considering he's ultimately the operator of that set off-season organization. I had the Washington Capitals on my list.

Yeah, me too. Considering the age of the team, I think we saw them, you know, going against what you just said about Paul Maris. I feel like they did benefit down the stretch last year from not having guys despite their standing in the league. at the Four Nations, and so I think they got to lick their wounds a little bit, get healthier, and then benefited from that.

They've got to get to this break, because obviously they've been sputtering recently. I feel like their performance is as high and low as any team in the league right now, and that can be from game to game, where if you tune in on one night, you watch them play, and then tune in the next night, and it looks like an entirely different team. But even sometimes within those games from period to period, where when they're at their best, they look like a buzzsaw offensively, And then whether they're worse, they look slow, they're not picking up guys in transition defensively, and it all kind of falls apart, and it looks pretty ugly. They've got nine games in 16 days heading into this tournament before the break. And so that's what I mean when they have to get there because they're hanging around the playoff picture, partly because everyone in the east is still. They're a fascinating team, right?

Like we've been talking about this all year, but the only teams of a better 5-on-5 goal differential than them are the abs and the lightning, objectively the two best teams in the league. They're third there, yet their special teams are so poor that they've been bringing it down. And so they're going to get healthier. I know they're sending Logan Thompson this time. Tom Wilson's going to come back and play for Team Canada, but for the most part, a lot of these guys are going to get some time off. And I think the world of Spencer Carberry as a coach, and I imagine he's going to use this time off as well. he's probably not going to be hanging out at the beach. I think he's going to be in the lab,

figuring out how to tighten this up a little bit and get the most out of this group. And I'm curious to see if they use that as a launching pad to finish as one of the top three teams in the metro and make the playoffs, because I think that the upside of this team and the ceiling is clearly that. It's just that the floor has been well beneath that.

Yeah, we can't discount the benefit of Alex Ovechkin taking some time off. This guy's 40 years old. He, last time I checked. hasn't started a single shift in the defensive zone. I don't know if that's still an unbelievable stat, but he's been sheltered for a reason. Like, it's not just, you know, a lack of defensive chops here.

It's trying to keep this guy fresh at 40 years old and trying to squeeze as much as Washington can out of him. You know, sort of, you know, this would be, I guess, the opposite of a team or a player that's going to benefit. But while we're on the topic of the capitals, and their potential boost post-Olympics. I wonder about Florida. And honestly, I'm a little worried about them in terms of like,

okay, they haven't had Barkov all year. Jones just went down and it's bad enough that he's going to miss the Olympics. There's nine other Panthers that are in the Olympics. That's going to be even more wear and tear on a team that's gone to three straight cup finals. Sam Reinhardt at the player media tour in September kind of brought up, not randomly, I'm sure he was prompted, but he brought up on his own, like this stretch before the Olympics,

Olympics is super hard, not only on every team, but like especially hard on the Panthers, 16 games and 31 days, including 11 on the road. And where we sit now, they're five points out of a playoff spot. So a lot of things are sort of percolating here and in a pretty bad way in terms of the Panthers' playoff chances if things don't get righted soon. Because as much as they deserve a ton of praise for, you know, holding water, or I should to holding their head above water with Barkov out and obviously could chuck until recently out for the entire year. It's still been, it's been a bit of a grind in terms of getting points and making sure that they stay in the playoff hunt while the Atlantic division just goes off literally every team.

And if the senators could get a save, it would be every team leveling up or keeping pace like Tampa has and Boston has and Toronto is starting to. So not ideal for the Panthers, what's transpired here. Well, every time I think they're done, they just prove to be unkillable, right? I just think of like a recent stretch where they go into Toronto, then Montreal the following night, and just get completely overwhelmed by those two teams in the road. And then they follow it up by going to Ottawa, going to Buffalo, and beating those two teams and just locking everything down defensively, keeping them in the low 20s in terms of shots. Then they go to Carolina.

They get absolutely smacked around 9-1, I believe. and then on the second leg of a back-to-back going to Washington and play a pretty complete game and wind up winning that one. And so every time I'm like, all right, the wheels are fully off, it's over for the purposes of this season. They give you just enough of a glimpse that it could be different.

Obviously, Matthew Kichuk came back this week. I think while it's not ideal that a lot of their veterans are going to be playing extra games that don't count towards the NHL ledger and bumping them back up the standings, in his case, I imagine getting him some game action to speed up the process is going to be. be valuable. We've seen the past two times. He came back from extended breaks due to injury.

It took him a while before he really was moving at the same pace in terms of like processing speed and and puck management as he does when he's at his absolute best. And so getting him an extra handful of games is going to be valuable. And Sergei Babrovsky, like don't let the fact that he had a goalie fight with with our guy Ned, which obviously rocks objectively, distract you from the fact that In January, he has an 824 say percentage in seven games. You have to go back 12 games to December 15th for the last time. He had a 900 save percentage in a game. And so he's been struggling amidst all this, and he's going to get some time off.

And I do think we said this for Sorokin, but for these goalies, I think rest is probably even more important than for their skater counterparts. And so we'll see what they have in the tank when they come back from this break. I had Dylan Larkin again, not to recycle one from last year, but I just keep coming back to how good he was at that tournament, how he exemplified all these concepts we talk about in terms of embracing that role to a full extent to ultimately work in his way up the lineup by the time we got to the final because of how undeniable he was in those games.

I think he benefits in a context like this of on the Red Wings he has to do everything. He plays 20 plus minutes a night. All of a sudden now getting to just go full blast for 14 to 15 minutes in a game, I think really helps a guy who, can absolutely fly around the ice the way that he does guys like him and boldie really personify what playing elite defensive hockey in 2026 looks like with their range and motor and just how much they press you all up and down the ice and that's going to be a staple for this tb USA team right like they're going to need to control possession be dominant in transition and just kind of lean on you that way

with their skating ability and so i feel like larkin is is such a a linchpin i think for what they're entire team is going to be trying to do. Yeah, I mean, he's had a pretty phenomenal season, whether it's like the face-off percentage or just the usage or just being the engine of a team that's exceeded expectations if we're being honest. And looking at the sport logic data right now, on a per game basis, he's fifth and expected goals generated. He's one, two, three, he's top 10 in rush chances, top 10 in rebound chances. He's kind of all over the map in a good way in terms of his offensive output and is also a stud defensively like i'm glad you brought up boldie there because i do see some similarities there in terms of the skating and and pushing the pace

and bullies just always struck me as a guy who's got ice in his veins like i don't quite know how to articulate it but whenever it's six on five for the wild or three on three over time and he's out there there's just such a calmness and sort of a not necessarily in a inevitability because he doesn't score every time. But it just feels like the moment is never too big for him. And, you know, to circle back on some of the sort of comments I had earlier about Sal Brini or some, you know, Jackson Lacombe, like I feel like the Olympics are for, are great for not brand building necessarily, but like your exposure to the wider hockey audience.

And there's going to be a lot of casual fans who obviously know about Matt Boldie, but aren't quite familiar with how dominant he is and how he mixes this power game with finesse and is just so important to what the wild are doing in terms of their cup chances. Well, you think for Larkin as well, where the Red Wings are right now and him really pushing for his first taste of playoff hockey

in his 20s this spring, right? Like you think back to his rookie season, he plays five playoff games at the end of that run for the Red Wings in 2016. he's a 19 year old at the time. He's turning 30 in July. Like, he has not played a playoff game in his 20s. And this is the final year to do so.

And it certainly looks like the Red Wings are going to indulge him there. So I think that's very exciting. The last guy that I had on my list, this is a bit out of left field. But I've been thinking about this a lot in following the media landscape over the past couple weeks, Pete DeBur. Okay. He's on John Cooper's staff at this tournament, right, with Bruce Cassidy, Rick Talk, and Misha Donskov. and oftentimes when we see a coach of the stature in particular get fired, often they jump right back into it with another team,

or during their downtime, they make sure we remember them by just appearing on ESPN or TNT or whatever and just constantly being on TV talking about hockey and biding their time until a team comes calling. Pete DeBoor didn't really do that, and I think part of it is how things ended in particular in Dallas, but he really just went off the grid for the first couple months of the season. And then it feels like in the ramp up to this tournament,

every time I open Twitter, I see a clip of him on a podcast talking about this tournament or what's going to happen. And so I think that's obviously invaluable for him, not that people will forget about him because I think he's earned the right to keep coaching in this league. He's been very successful despite the conference final finishes and the Stanley Cup final losses. And so he's going to be on front of mind here on the bench routine Canada,

who are still the favorites to win. this tournament. And once it concludes, I wonder if we're going to see steam pick up here in terms of what the next spot's going to be for him. Maybe at this point of the season, it's going to come in the off season when there's a full coaching cycle and a bunch of openings. I would love to be a consultant for him in that process because I think he should choose very wisely. I think he's a great coach. And in particular, going into a team who needs a couple tactical adjustments, I think they would benefit a lot from bringing him in as the head coach. There's other landmines like the LA Kings come to mind, for example,

that I would probably steer clear over if I was advising him. But I'm fascinated to see how that all unfolds. And clearly, he's been using this tournament as a launching pad of his own to just get back out there and get people listening to him and talking about him again. He's been breaking news. He was the first guy to bring up the ice surface being all wonky in Italy. And I feel like every interview he does, he's done since. It's been brought up.

and then he sort of like sprinkles on some new insight into what the rink looks like in Milan. But also like on a more serious note, he's running the D for Canada. So like all these questions about did they pick the right guys? Should they have brought back the eight from four nations? Like I'm not saying that Pete DeBoer picked them like, you know, by himself because he didn't. Obviously, Doug Armstrong was the strongest voice in the room. But he certainly had had his say. And I'm sure John Cooper listened to.

his advice and and funneled that upwards to Doug Armstrong. So it could go really well for him in that sense where it's like they picked all the right guys or it's like you left Schaefer at home, you left this guy at home. So there's also that angle to consider. But at the other day, he's an elite coach. Like every time he ends up on a new team and it's what, he's been with five or six, they just take off. They're off to the races.

So I'm sure if he hasn't been approached already by. teams he will coming out of this Olympic Olympic bump. Especially you think about the two types of coaches we talk about, right? There's the ones who are good for the developmental phase of the organization in terms of having a bond with the young players, allowing them to experiment and play and kind of fine-tuning that sort of stuff. And then when it comes to winning time,

when you've experienced the pressure that comes with those expectations, a guy who can fine-tune stuff on the margins, whether it's systems, whether it's deployment, whether it's usage, all that sort of stuff that is obviously very valuable. He'd be near the top of my list of guys that I would want for that specific role to get the team over the finish line, even though obviously ironically, they've fallen a little bit short in his previous spots. But I think there's no shame in getting as far as he has pretty much every year he's been coaching in the NHL. So very fascinating to watch how that unfolds.

All right, do you got anyone else on your list that we didn't get to here? We've pretty much hit all of mine with a lot of overlap, as I think we could have expected in terms of us thinking the same way. because a lot of the guys you brought up, I had very firmly on my list. Yeah, I mean, there's just two guys that I'll talk briefly about Miro Hayskin, in terms of his usage and deployment for Finland. What does that look like? I don't know if there's like a direct correlation to going back to Dallas,

but being in such a heavy usage role for a top four team at the Olympics, I think, again, like talking more about sort of reputation and these guys shining towards a greater audience. Haskinen is one of the most underrated players in the league, and he's going to be front and center in some big moments for Finland. So I wonder about that, both from a coaching perspective, what they do with him, how hard they lean on him, and then also the image perspective.

And then the other guy would just be Connor Hallibuck. I wouldn't say his reputations on the line. That might be a little harsh or a little bold, but like a little dramatic. Yeah, dramatic, but like, let's, like, there's, there's such a long history of, of playoff failures mixed with strong regular seasons. This year is obviously not gone according to plan for both him and the Jets. I'm not saying he is the reason why they are where they are in the standings,

but, you know, he dealt with an injury. His numbers aren't quite Hellebuck-esque. So, I mean, I guess the first question with him would be, like, is he still the starter, which I assume he is, but even moving, forward. What type of sort of performance does he put on tape when he's become this guy that has some baggage following him around everywhere he goes? Well, I think the mayor of Hayes and inclusion is a good one because if you remember, he got hurt before the tournament last year and obviously it didn't play and that sunk Finland's chances in terms of what they were going to try

to do on their path towards victory. And him, Queen Hughes, who similarly did not compete at Four Nations last year, and he's going to play a big role on Team USA in particular now. I assume playing on a pair with his regular defense partner in Minnesota and Brock Faber and how he fits in from that context of puck possession and transition prowess and obviously him just ratcheting that up to an even higher level than we saw at four nations. So I think all that stuff is very exciting. And like I said, I keep reinforcing. I think that's the best part of this tournament, just getting to see kind of when all the chips are down and when all these guys are in the same place at the same time, how that all fits in, who kind of rises, not to that moment

necessarily from a clutch perspective, but from like a contribution and value perspective, their teams who can sort of differentiate themselves and who kind of falls by the wayside and either winds up playing their way out of the lineup or into such a small role that they're a non-factor at this tournament. All right, John, that's all that we have for today. That was a really fun exercise. Hopefully that got people even more excited for the Olympics, which we're going to be covering a lot, very extensively here in the PDOCast, doing post-game shows for all the big ones, obviously breaking stuff down throughout since we're not going to be distracted by NHL hockey,

and we can really sink our teeth into the individual games, even if they are on at odd times of the day. What do you want to promote here on the way out? Yeah, sure. First of all, thanks for having me on, Dimitri. Always a pleasure. Check out my Big Board, Trade Big Board, in the Score app, published early this morning.

lots of analysis on 25 guys who are likely to move before the deadline. I feel like everyone's got a big board these days. Maybe I got a, I'm not a written on my own. Yeah. If you don't have a big board, are you really covering this board at this point? All right.

And hopefully, you know, we'll talk more about this as we get closer at date, but hopefully we'll see you in Denver for the analytics conference that we've talked about. The Drenz and I will be doing a live show at along with other shows throughout our time there and, and we're in attendance together because,

it's so rare that you and I get to be in the same place at the same time. We'll have to get you on for a in-person show at that point. If you want to help us out, give us a five-star review wherever you listen. Subscribe to the PDOCAST Patreon. We've got David Castillo on Thursday for a stars deep dive. We've got Harmon Dial coming back on Friday to talk about the Rasmus Sanders and Kiefer-Shirwood trades and kind of look ahead to the next dominoes to fall. That is all for today.

We'll be back soon with plenty more. Thank you for listening to the Hockey, BDO-Cast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network. work.