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00:00We've got to get to some hot topics out here, and that includes Pete Jensen from the NHL
00:08going to join us here.
00:09Big doings in the NHL market.
00:11How have you been enjoying yourself right now, Pete, knowing that the NHL season is
00:15done, but also there's no rest for the weary here.
00:19What's going on, guys?
00:20Yeah, absolutely not.
00:22This is such a tight timeline, right, between the Cup Final ending on Monday and Game 7
00:27in pretty epic fashion.
00:29Big congrats to the Florida Panthers on not falling apart completely and getting the job
00:34done there in front of the home crowd.
00:37But yeah, now we're at, right, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, awards, draft, and draft day two.
00:43So a lot of intrigue starting at number two, but great to be on with you guys.
00:48Good stuff, Pete.
00:49And by the way, if anybody sees his background now and is envious here, Pete's waking up
00:53early with it.
00:54Typically, he's in the New York market with us.
00:56Now he's out on the West Coast.
00:57And also, tell us why you're out on the West Coast and what's going down at the Sphere.
01:02Yeah, so the NHL draft is big doings for sure.
01:07It's going to be at the Sphere tonight, Friday night, prime time, right?
01:12It's going to be really fun.
01:14It's the first ever sporting event and live broadcast from the Sphere in its history.
01:20Very unique building.
01:21Have yet to be inside, but I'll be inside in a few hours.
01:25And I think everybody expects Macklin Celebrini of the San Jose Sharks to go number one.
01:31Seems relatively locked in considering his family's from the Bay Area and his father
01:37works for the Warriors.
01:38So great storyline there for the projected number one pick.
01:43Well, you mentioned it, Pete.
01:46The consensus, finally, unlike the NBA draft, the consensus for the number one, we're all
01:51on the same page.
01:52So what happens at number two now with Chicago?
01:56What did they need?
01:57Where do you think they're going to go and will it move the needle one way or the other
02:00for this franchise?
02:02Right.
02:04So you remember Chicago got Conor Bedard in the draft last year, of course, the generational
02:11number one center.
02:12He won the Calder Trophy.
02:13He delivered.
02:14I think they need to shift the focus to defense.
02:17And what a great draft to be able to do so, where you could make a case for six different
02:22guys at the defenseman position to go on the top 10 of this draft.
02:27Maybe it'll be in the top 11.
02:29The Sharks actually traded up for the number 11 pick from 14.
02:33So really interesting there.
02:34Maybe they could nab one of these defensemen, including Carter Ykemchuk, who scored 30 goals
02:41as a defenseman in the W.H.L. last year.
02:45So that's really good stuff.
02:47The Sharks maybe could double up there on him.
02:50The big debate here is Artem Levshinov from Michigan State.
02:54I compare him a lot to Ziv Buoyum from Denver, both freshman defensemen in the NCAA.
03:02Michigan State this year.
03:04Michigan State's been terrible in college hockey for so many years, but they burst onto
03:09the scene and Levshinov was a huge reason why.
03:12But to me, I don't know.
03:14I'd rather probably be back a couple of spots or maybe even take a bold call on Ziv Buoyum
03:19from Denver.
03:21About the same size.
03:23Actually was better than a point per game last year in the NCAA, and Denver won the
03:27national championship, whereas Michigan State and Levshinov, about the same age, but he
03:33was fewer than a point per game.
03:35So Levshinov's projected to go at number two by most outlets, including NHL.com.
03:41But I wonder if that's going to be a comparison between Levshinov and Ziv Buoyum for the years
03:46to come.
03:47Maybe the team that gets Buoyum a couple of picks later might win out.
03:52Now Pete, we can have some fun here this episode.
03:54Just say, you know what?
03:55Let's have some fun and talk about Matt Bay-Mitchcoff because that's where everybody wants to talk
03:58about.
03:59How many Stanley Cups he is going to bring for the Flyers.
04:01For myself, I hope he's a generational talent.
04:03The correlation to this draft is, do we believe Macklin Celebrini, who's 18 years old and
04:08a center from Boston University, is a generational type talent?
04:12Like what do we expect out of him, even coming into the league early in his career?
04:17Yeah, I mean, I think he's like somewhere behind Bedard probably, but maybe not by too
04:24much.
04:25You got some great Boston connections for the Sharks team.
04:28The GM, Mike Greer, played at the same prep school as their other young center stud, Will
04:34Smith.
04:35And Will Smith went to Boston College.
04:37And now Celebrini won the Hobie Baker for top player in college hockey as the youngest
04:42player in the NCAA this past year for Boston University.
04:47So BU has the connection with him and GM Mike Greer.
04:50And the other guys know each other from playing in the same division and being from the U.S.
04:56So it's really playing in the U.S. as youngsters, I should say.
05:01So it's a really good situation for the Sharks to be in as they finally tore it down.
05:08There were so many years where they refused to rebuild.
05:10Now they tore it down.
05:11And in just one year, two years, you find yourself with two top five picks at the center
05:17position that you could build your franchise around.
05:20They hope that someday it could be like a Crosby-Malkin type thing, and maybe they're
05:26winning championships and getting over the hump down the road four, five, six years from
05:30now.
05:32So we've seen some craziness over the last couple of drafts here.
05:37Are you expecting this to be business as usual?
05:42Looking across the board, are you expecting there's going to be one or two surprises hitting
05:46the board there at the top of it?
05:51I think there could very well be a surprise at number two.
05:54I mean, we've seen it a couple of years ago.
05:57Everybody thought Shane Wright would be number one, and he dropped to number four up in Montreal
06:02when Montreal had the first pick and they took Slavkovski.
06:05And then even last year, like most people, when we were talking to the prospects before
06:09the draft last year, after Bedard, people expected Adam Fantilli at number two.
06:14Instead, he fell to number three.
06:16And Leo Carlson ended up being an absolute stud for the Anaheim Ducks, and he was taken
06:21at number two by surprise last year.
06:24So we have seen a lot of drama and randomness, despite the prospect rankings and central
06:30scouting and NHL.com and all the experts out there.
06:34It really only boils down to what that particular team wants and what they've seen in the
06:39prospects.
06:40So, yes, I would expect a surprise, maybe even at number two.
06:44Absolutely.
06:45And the surprise that we're going to have is Pete Jensen.
06:47We're going to keep him around for another segment here, because there was an awards
06:51ceremony yesterday with some great players.
06:53Got the hardware.
06:54I want to ask Pete about that.
06:55But also, more importantly, how this is going to project in next year and some of the odds
06:59here at the FanDuel Sportsbook to lift Lord Stanley's Cup.
07:02We just had somebody lift Lord Stanley's Cup, and it was the Florida Panthers.
07:06When are we going to see a team from Canada?
07:08It's Pete Jensen from the NHL with another segment.
07:11Don't you go anywhere.
07:12Ah, getting the ice advice here from Pete Jensen of the NHL, and he's in town in Las
07:17Vegas.
07:18A lot of big doings there.
07:19Awards ceremonies, draft.
07:20It's all going down.
07:21And we want to take a minute here to take a look at what actually happened with the
07:24awards last night.
07:25Nathan McKinnon, the Hart Trophy here, picks up the W for the MVP.
07:31Are we in agreeance here, Pete, that he's deserving of the Hart Trophy yesterday as the
07:36NHL's best player?
07:40This was one of the craziest races that I could remember.
07:42I mean, even left out of the top three was Austin Matthews, who had 69 goals, the most
07:48in the NHL in quite some time.
07:50So I mean, pretty insane right there.
07:52If you look at the depth of this class for MVP, McDavid obviously won playoff MVP, and
07:58he was in the top three.
07:59But I think it was going to be down to debating Kucherov versus McKinnon all along.
08:06McKinnon had a career year.
08:07He was one of those guys in fantasy and stuff.
08:09We always knew that if he stayed healthy for a full season, that he could rival the likes
08:14of Kucherov and McDavid in terms of really, you know, getting into the 120s, 130s in points,
08:21that type of thing.
08:22So I'm not surprised that he won it.
08:25It's interesting, though, like with Kucherov, like he won it before.
08:28We all remember at the All-Star Game, he kind of had that like lackluster effort.
08:33It comes down to the votes.
08:35So maybe that broke the tie for some people.
08:37I didn't have a vote.
08:38If I did, I would have voted McKinnon by a very slight margin, though.
08:44And there will be some that say it's about time, because he probably should have won
08:47if not two of those trophies in a couple of years past there.
08:52But what did you think about Halibut winning best, the Vesnian winning best goalie?
08:58Was that closer in your mind than how it turned out to be?
09:03I figured he would probably win it because Thatcher Demko got injured late in the season.
09:09You know, that maybe broke the tie for some people.
09:12One thing, though, about Vancouver, I mean, look at the season they had after missing
09:16the playoffs the past couple of years.
09:18Just to give him some love, like with Quinn Hughes winning the Norris and Rick Tockett
09:24winning the Jack Adams and Thatcher Demko being deserving for sure, but coming in second
09:30in the Vesna race and them also going to game seven against the Oilers without Thatcher
09:36Demko and nearly beating them.
09:39So I mean, that's crazy when you think about how far they've come in the past year.
09:43The Vancouver Canucks now we'll see if they fall into that like, you know, New Jersey
09:48Devils type profile where they overachieve one year and then everybody has them on the
09:53radar the next year.
09:54So I'm not so sold on them to replicate what they did, but they got a lot of talent up
10:00there in Vancouver.
10:01But it's interesting with with Hello Buck, like he deserved the Vesna here.
10:05But in the playoffs, man, he looked rocky right against the Colorado Avalanche with
10:10all those five plus goal games allowed.
10:12But again, it's a regular season award here.
10:14He deserved it.
10:15Exactly.
10:16Rookie was Conor Bedard.
10:18No surprise there.
10:19Also take a look at some other awards that were given out the Norris trophy to Quinn
10:22Hughes as the best defender.
10:24And as Pete brought up there, Rick Tockett, best coach in the NFL, taking home the Jack
10:28Adams.
10:29So we do have the draft coming up.
10:30We do have free agency coming up, which is going to change a lot of these rosters in
10:34the NHL.
10:35But let's take a look at some of those twenty twenty five Stanley Cup options here.
10:39Three teams at a nine to one price next year.
10:42That's the Hurricanes, the Avalanche and the Panthers heading into free agency and the
10:47draft.
10:48What are our feelings next year?
10:49Well, who has a legitimate chance to win the Stanley Cup, Pete?
10:54So many teams are close.
10:55Dallas is super close and they have a lot of young blood that's going to continue to
10:59get better from Wyatt Johnston breakout season and postseason Logan Stankovic Maverick Bork.
11:07So there's a lot of appeal for Dallas, even though they've fallen short.
11:11Seems like Dallas, right?
11:12Almost every year since covid is getting to the conference final or cup final.
11:16So don't count them out for sure.
11:19Interesting that the Devils are back in the conversation after acquiring Jacob Markstrom.
11:23They finally have an elite level goalie.
11:26So that's something to look at with the bounce back appeal of the New Jersey Devils.
11:31Also Edmonton, like the big elephant in the room, right, is like Leon Dry Saddles entering
11:36his contract here the following year.
11:38Connor McDavid's going to be entering his contract here.
11:42Is this the last couple of runs at the cup for this group?
11:46It could very well be really interested to see, you know, again, don't pull the trigger
11:51on Edmonton just yet.
11:52We'll see what they do in the offseason, who they might lose.
11:55They were playing through a lot of injuries and they still got to game seven of the cup
11:58final.
11:59So I would lean toward that team in Edmonton where it's kind of like, you know, you learn
12:05how to win by falling short these past years.
12:08Two years ago, they lost to the eventual cup champs in the Golden Knights in the second
12:12round.
12:13This year they lost to the Panthers, maybe Edmonton and McDavid and Dry Saddle.
12:16If he sticks around, he probably needs to stick around for me to pick them to win the
12:20cup this coming year.
12:23So let me ask you, last year, I know a lot of guys that got burned with Ottawa thinking
12:29they were going to be that team, that dark horse.
12:31And then they finished 31st and goaltending.
12:34Well, they ended up addressing that in a trade with Olmark now.
12:39So where is Ottawa on your radar?
12:45They're in that same range with the Sabres and the Red Wings, but maybe accelerated a
12:50little bit.
12:52We're talking about non-playoff teams with some youthful upside and chance to make the
12:56playoffs one of these years.
12:58Brady Kachuk and Tim Stutzler are two of the best forwards in the entire NHL, especially
13:03Kachuk.
13:04I'd love to see that kid, especially after his brother won the cup.
13:07He's never played a playoff game in the NHL.
13:09We need to see Brady Kachuk in the playoffs at some point soon, physical force right there.
13:14But Olmark is a huge upgrade for the Senators.
13:17I'm tossing and turning between the Senators and the Sabres as for which one I'll have
13:23making the playoffs this coming year.
13:25The Sabres got Lindy Ruff back.
13:27They have probably a little bit more young talent, but let's see how the Ottawa defense
13:31shakes up this offseason.
13:34That was a weak link.
13:35They got to re-sign Jacob Chikrin, or maybe if he's gone, I won't like Ottawa as much.
13:40So I still put Ottawa on the fringe.
13:43I probably like Buffalo at this point in time a little bit more to get over the hump and
13:47make the playoffs next year.
13:49Pete, about 30 seconds left in this segment.
13:51I know free agency is coming up.
13:53Is there a top free agent in the NHL that should be sought after that we should watch
13:56out for?
13:57Oh, yeah, definitely Steven Stamkos.
14:01I mean, Tampa Bay's cap situation for years after winning multiple cups has been a log
14:07jam.
14:08So it sounds like he might not be back, but you never know.
14:11They could always pull a surprise and make room for him or pull a trade or something
14:15like that.
14:16It seems like Steven Stamkos, one of the best players of this generation, could hit the
14:21open market on July 1st, which would be wild.
14:25Pete's doing it all, from East Coast to West Coast, covering it for the NHL Network here.
14:30Thanks for joining us, Pete.
14:31Really appreciate it.
14:32We'll be right back.