Which draft year makes the best lineup of players traded for first-round picks?

Hidden away on my laptop is a list that’s simply labeled “ideas”. It’s where I keep all those potential columns that I haven’t got around to yet, or in some cases haven’t worked up the courage to try. A lot of them are weird. Some are probably just flat-out dumb. In some cases I’m waiting for some sort of news hook; in others I’m just holding off until Slow News Summer hits its peak. A lot of them just aren’t there yet in terms of supporting a whole piece, but might be some day if I get desperate enough circumstances change.

The point is, sometimes it just makes sense to wait on an idea. And yes, I’ll pause here so you can think about the stuff I have published and then wonder what isn't making the cut.

But there’s a downside to this approach: It turns out that if you wait too long on a given idea, the NHL might just decide to make it moot.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

Which syllable combination makes history's best roster? Welcome to Slow News Summer

So… we’re well into July.

Most of the big offseason action is over. Things are largely quietly. Pierre is at his cottage. Most importantly, my editors are exhausted and not paying attention. And longtime readers know what that means.

Welcome to Slow News Summer. It is time to get well and truly weird.

OK, sure, a lot of what we do around here is weird anyway. I’ll grant you that. But the dog days of summer? That’s when its time to reach down deep on the ideas list.

If that’s going to bother you, consider this your fair warning to tag out now, and we’ll see you in September. If you’re the sort of person who likes to post “slow news day?” in the column, then yes, it absolutely is, so kick rocks. But for everyone else, let’s get weird.

Today’s question: Which combination of syllables can build the all-time best starting lineup from NHL history?

In other words, you count the syllables in both of a player’s first and last name, and that’s their team. Wayne Gretzky has one syllable in his first name and two in his second, so he’s the captain of Team 1-2. Mario Lemieux is Team 3-2, Bobby Orr is Team 2-1, and so on.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

Which NHL team makes the best all-time starting lineup from first-round picks?

 It’s been a quiet week in the NHL world, with up to several hours passing in between blockbuster, franchise-shifting moves. Luckily, the first round of the draft is tonight, so fans will finally have something to talk about.

While we wait, let’s play a roster game. Which team can make the best starting six out of their first-round draft picks?

This should be nice and simple – three forwards, two defensemen and a goalie, all of them from a specific team’s first-round picks. And to add a degree of difficulty, one caveat: We can only use a specific pick number once per team.

We’ll do this the usual way, where I give you a dozen teams to start with and then hand it over to you in the comments to fill in the gaps. And we’ll start with the team that usually does well in these things…

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

Building each team's best lineup of players who never won a Cup with them

It’s Friday, the second round is almost over, and there’s no hockey tonight. Let’s keep it simple with a time-killing roster game.

This one comes up surprisingly often from readers: Which team could build the best all-time lineup of players who never won a Cup for them?

Easy. Maybe a little too easy, since some teams are going to be a lot tougher than others. So today, we’ll tackle this question in three parts, nudging of the difficulty as we go.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

Let's waste your Friday by building some NHL Olympic all-star teams

 We’re finally watching Olympic best-on-best hockey for the first time in 12 years. And so far, it kind of rules.

The last time the league sent its players to an Olympics, I wrote a piece where I picked the ten best NHL Olympians. The idea was to weight both sides equally – NHL success, and Olympic success – and rank the best of the best. It's been so long that I’d completely forgotten about that piece, and only stumbled on it recently. And it kind of made me want to revisit it.

Of course, there’s a problem: All these years later, we don’t have much in the way of new information to work with. So clearly, another top ten won’t do. We have to do what we do best around here: Take something that should be simple, and make it more complicated for no good reason other than it seems fun.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

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

Which goalie can build the best roster of guys who scored their first goal on him?

Today, we’re going to play a roster-building game based on a relatively straightforward question: Which goalie can make the best six-man team out of players who scored their first career goal against them?

That’s it. Nice and simple. But first, a few ground rules™:

- Each squad will be made up of three forwards, two defensemen and a goalie. Other than that, position won’t matter.

- The forwards and defensemen must have all scored their first career goals against the same goaltender. That goalie will then complete the roster, joining the guys who scored on him.

- Once they’re on the team, you’re getting the peak version of that player.

Before we start, let’s all tap sticks for reader Billy G., who not only sent me this idea, but also included a massive spreadsheet of relevant research. Folks, I can’t emphasize this strongly enough: My favorite readers are the ones who do all the work for me. Way to go Billy. You’re like the anti-Bryce.

We’re going to crank up stathead’s goal finder and build out a dozen rosters, and then turn it over to you in the comments to see if you can beat them.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

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

Who wins, a team of Canadians who played in Canada or Americans who played in America?

There’s a concept in international best-on-best hockey that some causal fans may not be completely familiar with, mainly because I made it up just now: The double player.

It’s a player who’s represents his country both internationally and in the NHL. A double Canadian is a Canadian player who plays on a Canadian NHL team. A double American is an American player who plays on an American NHL team.

Jack Eichel is a double American. Matthew Tkachuk became one when he forced his way out from Calgary to Florida. Connor McDavid is a double Canadian, at least for now. Mitch Marner was, but not anymore. And Mario Lemieux, as great as he was, never earned the double distinction. So far, neither has Auston Matthews, Sidney Crosby or Cale Makar. But Quinn Hughes just did, a few days ago.

Cool. So who wins, a team of Double Canadians or Double Americans?

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

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

Which season produces the best lineup of stars who played their final NHL game?

Slow News Summer has drifted into Some News September, and pretty soon this space is going to be well and truly in regular season countdown mode. We’ll have the usual previews, oddly specific predictions, and the annual reader contest. Just this morning I took the bizarro-meter out of storage and fired it up, just to see if it would last us another season. We’re almost there.

But not quite yet, so today let’s check one more reader question off our offseason to-do list. This one was first asked about five years ago – yes, sometimes it takes that long for the muse to visit – and was simple enough: Which season produces the best six-man roster of players who played their last game that year?

We can do this. Three forwards, two defensemen and a goalie, based on players who saw their final NHL action in a given season. That’s the sort of question that combines history, research, and remembering some guys, all of which are some of my favorite things.

But I’ll admit I had one concern heading into the project: I was pretty sure I already knew the answer. It would end up being 2003-04, because that was the double-cohort year caused by the lost lockout season that produced one of the greatest Hall-of-Fame classes ever. So we had already had our winner, and any suspense would come from seeing who could come the closest.

Except, spoiler alert, the 2003-04 season makes the list, but doesn’t win. We’ll get to that.

For now, we’ll dig back to the dawn of the expansion era in 1967-68, and try to find the 20 best lineups of players who said goodbye to the NHL. Let’s start with…

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

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

Who wins: A roster of NHL stars with unique first names, or two first names?

We’ve made it past Labor Day, which I suppose means it’s no longer Slow News Summer. But without much going on in the NHL world quite yet, I hope you’ll forgive me if I squeeze in a few more entries from my list of weird ideas.

Today’s question: Who wins, a team made up of players who have unique first names, or players who have two first names?

In other words, we’re looking for a team full of guys who are the only player in NHL history to have a specific first name, and another full of guys whose last name is also a common first name. It should be simple enough, as long as you’re not the poor sap who has to do all the research. Which as luck would have, you are not.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

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

Which team makes the best lineup with no repeated initials? Slow news summer returns

It’s summer and nothing is happening. Let’s play some weird roster games.

This one comes from reader Darryl F., who tweeted it at me five years ago. Yes, the “weird ideas” list goes back that far. Much further, actually. Look, you probably don’t want to know some of the stuff that’s been sitting there for going on a decade, but I can’t guarantee you won’t find out by mid-August.

For now, the game is simple: Make the best six-man starting lineup possible for your favorite team, without repeating any initials. So if you want to use Joe Smith, that’s your J and your S spoken for, meaning you can’t also use John Williams, or Tommy Simpson.

Easy enough, right? But first, a few ground rules™:

- We want three forwards, two defensemen and a goalie. No other positional requirements.

- You get credit for whatever that player did on that team. If the Blues want to use Martin Brodeur, they get seven games, not four Vezinas.

- In cases where there’s confusion over what a player’s actual name was, we’ll go by whatever hockey-reference uses. So it’s Maurice Richard (not Rocket), but Gump Worsley (not Lorne).

As always, we’ll do about a dozen teams and then hand it over to you in the comments to fill out any others. We’ll start with the team that’s become our unofficial leadoff hitter for these sorts of things…

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

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

Which NHL team has the best all-time roster from one country that isn't Canada?

Since we’re all in an international hockey mood this week, let’s try a roster challenge that reader Derrick sent in a while ago. His question was simple: Which NHL team could produce the best lineup of three forwards, two defensemen and one goalie from the same country, that isn’t Canada.

That sounds just about perfect for a Wednesday time-killer while we wait for tonight’s return of best-on-best hockey. Let’s see where this takes us.

And yes, before we start, I know what you’re thinking. It’s the same thought I had when I first saw Derrick’s question, and he told me he had it too. It’s that this is too easy, because the answer is obviously going to be the Detroit Red Wings and their Russian contingent. Start with the famed Russian Five, mix in Pavel Datsyuk, and this one is over before it starts. Except it isn’t, because it turns out that the Red Wings have never had a Russian goaltender, meaning they can’t ice a team for this challenge.

That tells me two things. First, today’s column won’t be 200 words long, and second, this might be tougher than it sounds. Let’s 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.)

Find your team's best roster of short-term stars in the return of The $200 Game

Today’s somehow-still-the-offseason time-waster is the long-awaited return of The $200 Game.

We first tried this a little over five years ago, so a refresher is in order. We’re building six-man rosters – three forwards, two defenseman and a goalie, with no other positional requirements – for individual NHL franchises. The salary cap is $200, and each player costs $1 per regular season game that he played with that team. Each player must have played at least one game, meaning no sneaky zeroes allowed (i.e. the Coyotes Rule).

You get credit for the player’s entire career, so the key is to find guys who had very short stops with one team during a great career spent almost entirely elsewhere. Martin Brodeur in St. Louis, that sort of thing. As we found out last time, that means that trade deadline rentals are our friend, as are stars-turned-journeymen who bounced around a lot over their last few seasons.

I highly recommend going back and checking that original post from five years ago, which will give you the hang of this. Back then, we covered a dozen teams: The Original Six, plus the Penguins, Avalanche, Kings, Stars, Hurricanes and Blues. The consensus was that that the two best teams were the Blues, led by Brodeur and Wayne Gretzky, and the Hawks, led by Bobby Orr and Dominik Hasek.

Today, we’ll see if we can top that with 12 new teams, starting with one that can walk us through how all this works.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

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

Who wins, a team made up of guys who captained more than one team, or guys who were never captains at all?

We’ve almost made it through the dead zone of August. But with a few weeks left in Slow News Summer, I realized we haven’t done a full roster-building exercise. That’s not good, so let’s dive into a topic that’s been in the news lately: Captains.

Today’s question: Who wins, a team made up of guys who captained more than one team, or guys who were never captains at all?

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

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

Welcome to slow news summer, let's play a time-wasting roster-building game

It’s mid-July. All the best free agents have signed, all the trade talk has cooled off, the draft is in the rearview mirror, and nothing is happening. Half the hockey world has already taken off to a cottage or golf course, cell phones turned off. Welcome to the dog days of summer.

Or, as we call them around here, pretty much the best time of the year.

Yeah, it’s time to get weird. This is the time of year when my boss is on vacation and there’s no hockey news to get in the way of me torpedoing your productivity with random trivia and time-wasters.

It’s not for everyone. If you’re looking for in-depth analysis of line rushes from prospect camp, I can’t help you. And if you’re the sort of person who likes to stomp off to the comment section to grumble “Slow news day?”, let me answer you in advance: No, dummy, more like slow news month, consider having some fun with the whole sports fan thing for once in your life.

See? I just called some of my readers dummy. You can’t get away with that stuff in February when people are paying attention. Hockey summers are the best.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

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

Team Big Brother vs. Team Little Brother: Who wins a battle between NHL stars?

Yesterday was Mother’s Day, which was hopefully a pleasant day for you and your family and/or explains why your wife seems like she's mad at you today. It also seems like as good a day as any to honor all those hockey moms out there by tackling a simple question sent in by a reader.

Pekka L. wants to know: Who’d win, a team made up of NHL big brothers, or little brothers?

Sounds fun. But first, a few ground rules™:

- We’re building 21-man rosters, with four lines of forwards, three defense pairings and three goalies. We’ll try to slot in wingers with centers, but won’t get too hung up on position.

- To be eligible, a player must have a brother who played in the NHL for at least 100 games.

- I’m only going back to the Original Six era, because otherwise we wind up with a bunch of guys that a lot of you have never heard of. Apologies to the Cooks, Conachers and Cleghorns.

- In cases where three or more brothers all played in the NHL, the middle children will be ignored, which they should be used to.

You may have noticed that 100-game limit that we slipped in there. That takes out some big names like Wayne Gretzky (whose brother Brent played only 13 games), Gordie Howe (whose brother Vic played 33) and Patrick Roy (whose brother Stephane played 12). Maybe that feels arbitrary, or like it violates the spirit of the thing. But here’s the deal: If we don’t put that limit in, we’re not going to have a contest. Team Big Brother would absolutely destroy Team Little Brother. It wouldn’t be a contest. There are just a ton of NHL stars who had younger brothers show up for a cup of coffee and then disappear.

Why? I have two theories. The first is that older siblings are clearly superior to their coddled, snot-nosed little wannabes. But more importantly, I think there’s some clear cause-and-effect here, with teams over-drafting or signing younger brothers of star players in hopes that genetics will kick in. If you see a guy like Sergei Fedorov or Paul Kariya tearing up the league, why not roll the dice on their kid brother? It works sometimes, usually it doesn’t, and it screws up our contest if we don’t account for it. So yeah, a 100-game limit is in play.

This will be fun, because athlete brothers always enjoy a spirit of friendly competition and oh no it’s started already. Let’s build from the net out and 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.)

Which team can build the best roster of stars taken with picks they traded away?

A few weeks back, I got an email from a reader named Chris W., who’d been working on a project with his son that he thought would make for a fun post. Their question: Which team can make the best six-man starting lineup out of stars who were drafted with picks that they’d traded away?

Sounds good, and the timing is perfect – this is exactly the time of year when teams are getting ready to trade picks for immediate help, probably while muttering about how those future picks probably won’t even amount to anything at all. And they might not. But every now and then, a team sends away a pick and then watches it turn into way more than they bargained for.

Which team can build the best roster of regret? That’s going to be today’s post. But first, a few ground rules ™:

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

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

Building history's best roster of guys who weren't the top star with their own name

A very important milestone happened on Saturday night in Montreal, when a longstanding NHL record was broken by rookie wonderkid Connor Bedard. They didn’t stop the game to recognize the accomplishment with a ceremony, which was unfortunate, and I’m not even sure that casual fans noticed it. But it was very important.

By recording the third point of his young career, Connor Bedard became the all-time leading scorer among guys named “Bedard”. He broke a decades old tie between a pair of Jims, 1950s defenseman Jim Bedard and 1970s goalie Jim Bedard, both of whom were tied with two career points.

No? It’s just me who cares about this stuff? Yeah, I guess that’s possible. But I’ve always been mildly fascinated by guys who become NHL stars while clearly being the second-best player with their own last name.

So that’s what we’re doing today, as an early-season Friday time-waster. Let’s make an all-time roster of great players who weren’t quite great enough to be the best player with their own name.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

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

Introducing the “they had him but he never played there” all-stars

With the season just over a month away, it will be time to get back to real content soon. It’s been a fun summer of time-wasting challenges and random rankings, but soon it’s going to be time get serious.

Soon, but not quite yet. So today, we’re going to get to a topic that shows up in a lot of your requests: Superstar players, and the teams they never actually played for. Specifically, we’re looking for players who belonged to a team at some point, be it a few years or a few hours, but never suited up for them. Along the way, we should run into some interesting stories.

But first, a few ground rules™:

- We’re going to be building a 20-man roster out of 12 forwards, six defensemen and two goalies.

- We’re looking for overall star power. Normally this is the part where I give you the whole “only get credit for what a player did on your team” caveat, but… (gestures at entire concept). Full careers on this one.

- Finally, we’re limiting each team to one representative. Call this the Arizona Coyotes rule.

Sound good? Let’s do this. One full roster, full of stars who never played for the teams they were one.

---

We’ll start our squad with a Hall-of-Famer and all-time great, who’s also kind enough to be a simple example of what we’re looking for here. Six years before he arrived in Montreal and gave the Habs nearly a decade of Cup-winning goaltending, Ken Dryden was a Bruins third-round pick. Boston held onto him for all of three weeks before trading him to Montreal, and the rest was history. Unlike the Bruins, we’ll give him a chance as our starter.

The second goalie spot has a few worthy candidates. We could go with Tim Thomas, a Nordiques pick who never got a chance there. There’s also Olaf Kolzig, who was technically Maple Leafs property for a few weeks in 2009, or another not-quite-Leaf in Tuukka Rask. Or Mike Richter, a lifelong Ranger who was briefly a member of both the Predators and Oilers due to offseason shenanigans. Evgeni Nabokov was a Red Wing for a few hours before the Islanders sniped him off the waiver wire. The Canucks acquired John Vanbiesbrouck for a few days before the 1993 expansion draft. We could even dip back into very recent history to go with the Blue Jackets’ brief Jonathan Quick era. And the best of the bunch might be Henrik Lundqvist, who signed with the Capitals but was never healthy enough to suit up for them.

All else being equal, I’d go with Lundqvist here. But without giving too much away, I don’t want to use my Capitals slot this early. So instead, let’s go with Hall-of-Famer Eddie Belfour and his brief and forgotten two-day stint with the Nashville Predators in 2002. Yes, really.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

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

Let’s waste an August day building rosters in the 100-number game

It’s mid-August and nothing is happening, so let’s play a roster game. This one was sent in by longtime reader Bill, who graciously took time off from thinking about inferior sports to suggest a deceptively simple challenge: Find the team that makes the best possible starting lineup where all six players’ jersey numbers add up to 100.

I like it. And yes, I can already sense the danger, because we’re going to run into some of the same problems we did in that column. Hockey numbers are handed out randomly, and they tend to group into either very low or very high. Mix in the several position-based traditions that come into play, and this won’t be as easy as just finding a few stars and then filling in the team around them. Or maybe it will. Let’s find out.

But first, a few ground rules™:

• We need a six-man lineup of a center, two wingers, two defenseman and a goalie. Yes, I do plan to immediately regret using wingers, thanks for noticing.
• In the case of guys who wore more than one number, we’re getting credit for whatever they did in the number we pick, meaning we can’t get cute with something a guy wore for a game or two because it was training camp or someone stole their jersey.
• Each roster only gets credit for what they did with that team.

Let’ see how this goes. We’ll start with the team that traditionally pulls leadoff duty in these things…

Edmonton Oilers

As is usually the case, the Oilers set some parameters for us right away. We can’t use Wayne Gretzky or Connor McDavid, because that doesn’t leave us enough room to find five more guys. In fact, given how rare it is to see a forward with a low single-digit number, we’re probably looking at something in the 70s as an upper limit for forwards, and lower than that for the other positions.

The better strategy will be to aim for lower numbers across the board. For the Oilers, we could try building around Leon Draisaitl (29), Jarri Kurri (17) and Mark Messier (11) up front, with Grant Fuhr (31) in goal. That adds up to 88, leaving us 12 to work with on our blueline. Paul Coffey wore 7 with the Oilers before switching to 77 for the rest of his career, so we just need a 5. With apologies to Cody Ceci and Ladislav Smid, that probably means Steve Smith gets out last spot, and our Oilers entry looks like this:

Forwards: Mark Messier (11), Leon Draisaitl (29), Jari Kurri (17)

Defense: Paul Coffey (7), Steve Smith (5)

Goalie: Grant Fuhr (31)

That’s… well, that’s actually pretty darn good. Better than I thought we’d be able to get, if I’m being honest. You could quibble a bit with the forwards since we did say we’d have two wingers, and Messier and Draisaitl are both primarily centers who also play left wing. File a protest if you’d like, but otherwise we’re off to a great start.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

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

Summer mailbag: Puckdoku tips, history's most-hated captains, an all-Canadian league

Welcome to August, where nothing is happening and it’s the perfect opportunity to waste everyone’s time with a bunch of nonsense. “Um, slow news day?” No, dummy, it’s a slow news month, so let’s get weird.

Please settle the debate about the proper way to play Puckdoku. (And share any tips you might have.) – Eric C.

If you’re not already playing Puckdoku, you’re still getting work done missing out. The game is based on a bit we did on Puck Soup a few weeks ago, and is basically a hockey version of the Immaculate Grid craze. You’re presented with a 3x3 grid, with teams or accomplishments along the top and side, and you need to fill each space with a player who meets both of his square’s requirements.

How do you win? In theory, by successfully filling out the whole grid, although some people like to go further. Is there a right and wrong way to play? I don’t think so – this is one of those things where everyone should just enjoy what they enjoy, and play however they choose.

That said, you should make up your mind before you start each day's grid. As best I can tell, there are four distinct ways people are playing:

- Basic mode: Just get as many right answers as possible, which a lot of days is difficult enough on its own. A right answer is a right answer, and that’s all you’re looking for. I’d imagine this is how most beginners and/or casual fans play.

- Front-runner mode: In this version, you’re trying to guess the most popular answer for each square, which will usually (but not quite always) be an active and/or superstar player. This means you’re looking for the highest possible “uniqueness” score for each square. Or to put it more simply, you want your grid to match the “Popular picks” that show up at the end of the game.

- Sicko mode: The opposite of front-runner mode, this one has you searching for the rarest answers, and the lowest possible uniqueness score. Double-digits is good; single digits is better. It will not surprise you to know that this is how I play.

- Cheater mode: This is sicko mode on steroids, where you research your answers before you enter them to try to get as close as possible to a uniqueness score of zero. I’ll be honest, I don’t really get the appeal here, especially now that you can use this tool to easily find players nobody has ever heard of. But if it’s your cup of tea then go for it, with the only caveat being that you own it – no showing up in conversations between sicko mode fans and pretending your zero was legit.

If anyone has come up with anything more creative, be sure to let us know in the comments.

As far as tips, I’ll pass on a few.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

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