Friday, January 31, 2025

Grab Bag: Offseason grades, a 4 Nations request, and happier times in Vancouver

We’re halfway through the season and haven’t done a Grab Bag yet. Let’s fix that today, with your favorite Friday complete waste of time…

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)




Wednesday, January 29, 2025

How rare is it for first overall picks like Taylor Hall to play for this many teams?

Friday night’s Mikko Rantanen blockbuster was such a monster trade that the inclusion of a former Hart Trophy winner felt like a footnote. But there was Taylor Hall, heading to Carolina and his seventh stop in the NHL.

That led to what I thought was an interesting question from a reader:

That could be a fun topic for a post. Spoiler alert: The record isn’t held by Hall… yet. And you might be surprised how many first overall picks ended up building resumes worthy of a journeyman.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)




Monday, January 27, 2025

Weekend rankings: The Mikko Rantanen blockbuster shakes up the league

The word “blockbuster” gets thrown around a little too often in today’s NHL, often for trades unworthy of the term, in the same way that anything might feel like a five-star meal to a starving man. But the deal that dropped on Friday night? That one deserves the title, no questions asked.

First, the details if you somehow missed them:

There’s a lot there to unpack, but the basics are jaw-dropping enough on their own: The Avalanche traded Mikko Rantanen. And the Hurricanes gave up Martin Necas to get him.

Let’s get into it.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)




Friday, January 24, 2025

Do you know your defensive defensemen? The ‘Who Didn’t He Play For?’ quiz returns

Folks, it’s time to honor the noble defensive defenseman.

I don’t mean with a new trophy, although that idea popped up again recently. Sharks’ blueliner Marc-Edouard Vlasic is the latest to call for a new award, an idea that Daniel wrote about last season. You can understand why a guy like Vlasic would be on board, but a lot of fans seem to like the idea too, especially as the Norris Trophy becomes the domain of guys who produce offense. Having a Rod Langway Trophy, or whatever else you would call it, would be a way to recognize the guys who put the actual “defense” in defenseman.

But that’s not the honor we’re awarding today, because I don’t have to ability to create new NHL trophies. (As much as I’ve tried.) No, we’ll have to settle for the greatest honor that I can bestow – their own version of the “Who Didn’t He Play For?” quiz.

This is the quiz where I give you a player and four teams, and you have to tell me which one he never played a game for. In the past, we’ve covered everything from Hall-of-Famers to Conn Smythe winners to some of history’s top goalies.

This one might be tricky, since a lot of the league’s best defensive defensemen don’t bounce around all that much, a fact we were reminded of in last week’s rundown of teams’ games played leaders. But for every Ken Daneyko or Chris Phillips or even Vlasic himself who’s a franchise lifer, there’s a journeyman who travels from town to town, clearing pucks and cross-checking spinal cords. Not every stay-at-home guy gets to stay at home, you could say. Let’s give those players their due, while seeing if you really know and appreciate the noble defensive defenseman as well as you should.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)




Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Every goalie goal ever scored, ranked, in way too much detail

These goalies are out of control.

You already know about Alex Nedeljkovic’s record-breaking Friday night, as he became the first goaltender in NHL to record a goal and an assist in the same game. But that goal doubled down on the history by also making the 2024-25 season the first to ever feature multiple goalie goals.

In fact, we’ve now had four goalie goals in less than two years, with Linus Ullmark in February of 2023 and Tristan Jarry that November. And yes, Jarry and Nedeljkovic both pulling it off means the Penguins go in the books as the first team to have two different goalies score goals.

That’s a lot of history. And it probably makes this a good time to regroup, with a way-too-in-depth ranking of every goalie goal the NHL has ever seen.

To be clear, for our purposes today, a “goalie goal” is when they shoot the puck the length of the ice into the net. We’re not counting all the times that a goalie has been credited with a goal after being the last player to touch the puck before a team scores on itself. Those moments are neat too, but they’re more statistical quirks than they are actual achievements. So with apologies to legendary offensive names like Damian Rhodes, Chris Mason and Mika Noronen, we’re looking for shooters today. Please don't come to my house and hack my ankles, Billy Smith.

As it turns out, we have an even dozen to choose from. We’ll rank them from worst to best, factoring in crucial criteria like the circumstances and the degree of difficulty, as well as important factors like the crowd, the call and the celebration. Let's do this.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)




Monday, January 20, 2025

NHL weekend rankings: McDavid’s cross-check, an imminent trade and a goalie goal

The Panthers have earned a break, meaning they drop off the Top 5 for the first time all season and free up a spot. And there are more than a few teams with a decent case to make. By points percentage, the East’s next team is the Maple Leafs, who spent their Saturday teaching us all a valuable lesson about not pointing at the scoreboard too early. The Devils and Hurricanes are right nearby, as are the Wild despite a recent slump. And if you know that this section is about projecting the eventual Cup winner and would prefer a team with a track record of playoff success, the Avs and Lightning are worth a look.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)




Friday, January 17, 2025

The 9 levels of bad sports owner hell

It’s been an interesting week for NHL owners. In Buffalo, Terry Pegula watched his team get embarrassed while fans chanted for him to fire the GM or sell the team. In Philadelphia, Comcast dropped a surprise announcement of a new arena, a goal that Michael Andlauer is still chasing in Ottawa. And in maybe the biggest news, it’s the lack of an acceptable owner (among other issues) that’s standing in the way of the league’s return to Arizona.

Not quite business as usual. But not far off, in a league where a team’s owner is often just as important as the best player or the GM – and sometimes much more. If you’re lucky, your team has a good owner, or at least one that does no harm. But as with any other North American pro sport, a bad owner can feel like a death sentence for a team’s hopes at a championship.

As a fan who grew up rooting for Harold Ballard’s Maple Leafs, I have some expertise in this area. So today, let’s break down the nine levels of bad ownership hell. I sincerely hope that you don’t recognize your own team’s situation on this list.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)




Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Which non-Hall-of-Famer played the most career games for your favorite team?

The Hurricanes retired Eric Staal’s number one Sunday, a well-deserved moment for one of the most popular players in franchise history. Sending a player’s number to the rafters can be tricky business, and some teams handle it better than others, but that’s part of the fun. At the end of the day, these honors are as much about the fans as the players, as they get a chance to celebrate a guy who was important to them.

Next up for Staal’s legacy: The Hall-of-Fame debate, which will be a tough one. He won’t hash it out here, but it’s fair to say that you could see it going either way depending on which way the wind is blowing whenever the secretive committee gets together. My gut says he doesn’t get in, but my gut has been wrong about this stuff before.

Either way, seeing Staal get his flowers in Carolina got me thinking about a question: Who is each team’s all-time leader in games played among guys who didn’t make the Hall of Fame? Lots of fans could tell you their team’s all-time leader in games played, because it’s somebody like Gordie Howe, Ray Bourque, Mike Modano, Sidney Crosby… you get the idea. But what about the guy who stuck around forever, but wasn’t a superstar? Some of those guys have interesting stories, while others fall into that category of “you had to be there to truly appreciate it” for a fan base that watched them forever.

Today, let’s go through every team and see which player answers our question. (Well, almost every team – there’s not much point using Vegas or Seattle here, since they haven’t been around long enough to have a true lifer in the books. Sorry, newbs, check back in another generation or two.)

Do you know who your team’s guy will be? How many of the 30 teams do you think you’ll be able to guess? Lock in your answers in now, because we’re about to find out…

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)




Monday, January 13, 2025

Weekend NHL rankings: The Blue Jackets are the league’s best story and it’s not close

We’re past the midway mark of the season, which means we can’t just hand-wave away any surprises with a dismissive “too early”. That’s bad news for people like me who make preseason predictions, because it means we might have to accept that we were wrong. Key word: might.

For example, back before opening night I grouped the league into four divisions, including one for the true contenders. Of those eight teams, only three – Edmonton, Vegas and Florida – have appeared in the Top 5 since early December. That’s partly because we’ve had teams like Washington and Winnipeg that have forced themselves into weekly spots. But it’s also because five of my so-called sure things have been varying degrees of disappointments.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)




Friday, January 10, 2025

DGB Mailbag: Ovechkin’s record-breaker, the Jack Adams curse, and 4 Nations fights

We haven’t done a mailbag since just after the season started. Remember back then? When the Rangers and Bruins were elite, the Predators were ready to contend, the Habs and Blue Jackets were write-offs and the Sabres were going to take the Capitals’ playoff spot? Good times. In related news, it’s possible we’re all dumb.

On that note, let’s see what was on your mind this time around.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)




Wednesday, January 8, 2025

Ranking 25 of the NHL's biggest blockbuster trades from the last 25 years

Happy new year. How did you enjoy the first quarter-century of the 2000s?

That question probably makes you either feel old (because there’s no way it’s been that long) or young (because you haven’t even been around that whole time). I’m solidly in the first camp, and that’s why I’m going to distract myself from my feelings by talking about trades.

Today’s topic: Let’s rank 25 of the biggest trades of the last 25 years. Specifically, we’re going to pick the single biggest trade of each calendar year from 2000 through 2024, then rank those from least to most important. Admittedly, “biggest” and “most important” are pretty vague criteria with tons of room for subjectivity, but that’s the way we like it.

To give you an idea of how much time we have to work through, the very first NHL trade of the 2000s involved Stephane Richer. Yes, the guy who used to score 50 goals for the Canadiens back in the 80s. He was apparently a St. Louis Blue for a minute way back when. You learn something new everyday, even when you are extremely old.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)




Monday, January 6, 2025

NHL weekend rankings: Offseason regrets, Lightning surge, and are the Habs good?

The holidays are done, you’re sitting in a home surrounded by all your new stuff, and you’re probably thinking: I don’t need some of this junk after all. I hope I kept the receipts.

A few NHL teams know how you feel.

We did this last year, and it’s interesting to go back and look at that list. I think it holds up fine – there aren’t any obvious cases where a player turned it around and made the doubters look bad. But what stands out is that even with a couple of honorable mentions slipped in, only one name from the list is still on the same team. That would be Anaheim’s Alex Killorn and his long-term UFA deal that everyone thought was too expensive. But the six other names had all found new homes by opening night, including three – Pierre-Luc Dubois, Joonas Korpisalo and Ryan Johansen – who were traded, despite having contracts that felt unmovable. I guess there’s some optimism to be found there if you see a guy on your favorite team on the list below.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)




Sunday, January 5, 2025

Mid-season mailbag?

Hey folks...

It feels like a good time to do amidseason mailbag. I need your questions. Fun ones, silly ones, complicated ones, simple ones, about everything from fictional awards to history to real, actual hockey news. Topics could include the season so far, WJC, Four Nations, or anything else. Please bring it. Send your questions, comments and rants via email at dgbmailbag@gmail.com.

Thanks,
Sean




Friday, January 3, 2025

Florida vs. California: Debating the NHL's best state of the salary cap era

Which state has been the NHL’s best of the cap era?

There are four states with multiple NHL teams, but two stand out above the others for our purposes today. New York has three teams but no championships to show for the cap era, and are, to put it mildly, going through it right now. And while Pennsylvania has three titles to go with plenty of big stars and memorable moments, virtually all of those have come from the Penguins, which would make for a one-sided combination.

That leaves us with two contenders, at least for today: Florida and California, the only two states who can boast multiple cap-era Cup winners. And with the Tampa Bay Lightning arriving in California for a three-game road swing that starts on Thursday, this feels like as good a time as any to have the debate.

We’ll divide the question into categories, and then make the case for each side. Eric Stephens will represent California, because he pulls double-duty covering the Ducks and Kings and knows the state’s NHL situation better than anyone. And Sean McIndoe will take Florida, because he’s an eastern-based writer and has therefore never watched a West Coast team play in his life. (That was, of course, a harmless little joke. Sean has indeed watched a California team play. Once. It did not go well.)

It's California vs. Florida, and Eric vs. Sean. Ring the bell, and let's see where this goes.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)




Wednesday, January 1, 2025

Ranking the 10 best (and 5 worst) games for Alex Ovechkin to break the record

Alexander Ovechkin is back, and the chase for history has resumed.

Ovechkin returned to the Washington lineup on Friday, needing 27 goals to pass Wayne Gretzky for the all-time crown. He wasted little time in getting the first of those that night, and then added enough on Sunday in Detroit, bringing him to 870 on his career heading into last night’s matchup with Boston.

A broken leg ended up costing Ovechkin just 16 games, which is on the low end of what we were told to expect. It’s still a decent chunk of time, and mean that catching Gretzky this season is far from a sure thing. Can he still do it? Of course he can, and everyone knows it.

But when? After all, if you’re going to build towards the fall of arguably the greatest individual record in the sport, you’d at least hope that the hockey gods have a sense of drama. And now that he’s back, it’s not too early to look ahead at the Capitals’ schedule and wonder: Which games would be the best ones to see some history?

Luckily for those hockey gods, I’ve gone ahead and done the work for them. Heading into last night, Ovechkin was 25 goals away from the record, and the Caps had 46 games left. If we assume that even the sport’s greatest sniper’s absolute ceiling would be to score at a goal-per-game pace, that takes us to the first week of March and a roughly 20-game window in which the record could realistically fall (although we’ll bend that rule with one exception you’ll see below).

Let’s rank the best and worst games for it to happen.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)