The Steve Dangle Podcast - Who Will Be the Best NHL Player of the 2020s?

Episode Date: December 30, 2019

Break out the crystal ball. Steve Dangle, Adam Wylde, and Jesse try to predict who will own the 2020s! Merch: https://teespring.com/en-GB/stores/fancydangleshirts Follow us on Twitter: @Steve_Dangle, @AdamWylde, & @JesseBlake Follow us on Instagram: @SteveDangle, @AdamWylde, & @Jesse.Blake Subscribe to us on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/steve-dangle-podcast/id669828195?mt=2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

panago pizza presents s s d p p the steve dangle podcast with your host steve dangle adam wild and jesse blake let's go all right guys this is your way too early prediction who wins best player of the 2020s i am gonna go with i think when you're when you're picking when you're placing bets when You're making odds. You've got to go with the fastest horse. Connor McDavid. Connor McDavid. I don't see a way how you keep the best player down for this long.

Like, the Oilers are trying their best. Management did a great job last decade of keeping the kid down. But I don't see a way how he doesn't sneak in one in there. And I'm talking about a cup win. A cup. A cup. He sneaks in one in there from the 2020s to the next end of this decade. And so on the pace he's going, he's going to throw in a heart trophy again.

At least one. A couple scoring titles. It's going to happen. So I don't see how you don't place your bet on Conor McDavid. It really is crazy. Like, what do you need for a cup win, right? You need a little bit of longevity. You need some health.

Goal tending. Goal tending. Yeah, health at the right time. I look at the 2018 Capitals, for example. they won the cup because their big guys did big guy things here's a problem every team's got big guys who do big guy things so holtby was great not everyone gets great goaltending throughout the playoffs okay that's great ovechkin was ovechkin backstrom was backstrom kuznetsov was kuznetsov john carlson was john carlson but brett connelly davante smith pelly like they got so many

good depth performances uh who was buddy the defenseman they acquired at the deadline i can't even remember his name i want to say he's czech or slovak or i can't remember anyway he was amazing and like made a lot of money off of that run it's probably ryan mcdonough uh the famous czech player best they got the oilers are i still say it like a couple depth scoring pieces away from being unstoppable like if the oilers get to the playoffs and they get a couple nice like third line contributors, you don't have a game plan for Conor McDavid. Do we all agree that Conor McDavid is the best player in the NHL right now? Yes.

How often has the best player in the NHL gone his entire career without a Stanley Cup? Very rare. It's going to happen. And I don't see how it doesn't happen in the next 10 years. With Gretzky, there's like an argument like he won his four cups so early on. And then he went, like he had like 15 years with that cup after that, something like that. Yeah, but did he win? He won.

But he won. He won. He won back-to-backs twice. Go away with that argument. It's stupid. I'm going to go off the board because McDavid is the easy pick. It's the right pick. I mean, it's also the right pick.

When I think of a guy who is dominant, when I think of a guy who is going to win more hardware than anyone, and a guy who's got a legitimate shot at several cups, I'm going to throw him out there. Nathan McKinnon. Nathan McKinnon is a top five player in the National Hockey League right now. He's also a student of Sidney Crosby. He is a student of Sidney Crosby, so that would be... Claude Giroux is going to have to give that torch back

and hand it right to Nathan McKinnon there because, I mean, the league doesn't have many monsters. like even even a guy like david pasternak is he's very he's elite at a couple things and very good at a bunch you can throw nathan mckinnon out there with two echl players i've never heard of and he'll still scare the daylights out of me so i'm gonna throw out nathan mckinnon not a while well you guys took two really good picks those were my top two we got we got mckinnon and we We've got McDavid. What's with the mix?

I don't know. The max. Part of me wonders. They're daddies. You brought up the Gretzky thing. Well, I won them early and he had a lot of support and whatever. True. All true.

And if that's the case, McKinnon might get the edge just because he may win more. Maybe. Maybe. Connor McDavid's skill is unflippant deniable. I would hope that the Oilers are able to surround him. I think they will. Ken Holland's dealt with superstars before. But just for the sake of being different, we just don't know what Sebastian Ajo is going to become.

Oh, wow. Sebastian Ajo, you know what? It's off the board, but it's great. Yeah. Sebastian Ajo is interesting because he's on a young, fun, up-and-coming team that's figured out their goaltending, that has strong defense, that has depth in scoring, that plays the right style, has a great coach, has a good ownership situation, it's an up-and-coming market. Like, there's everything about the Hurricanes, there's something to like right now.

And I wonder about Sebastian Ajo, and I wonder if that contract is going to look Nate McKinnon-esque in about two years. The one that he signed this summer, that Montreal signed him to, or whatever it was. I think Sebastian Ajo, outside shot, admittedly. You know, my bet would be on McDavid, I think. I think that's anybody. You just got to throw out other names. But if we're going to throw out another name, Sebastian Ajo is getting my vote. Here's why you're wrong. I'm about to ruin, I'm about to end this man's whole career. Sebastian Ajo might be

the most underrated player in the league well now he can't be underrated right now that's the kiss of death he's finished we'll see we'll see S-E-P

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