The NHL season coming up quickly and that means a lot of pressure for some players and coaches. Peter Klein looks at the players and coaches on the hot seat heading into the 2024-25 NHL Season.
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Apple Pod: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/couch-potato-diary/id1564122189
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Twitter: twitter.com/primetimeklein
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Email: couchpotatodiary@yahoo.com
We Had No Idea: every Wednesday morning,
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00:00The NHL season is fast approaching, and with it comes a lot of pressure for a lot of players
00:11and coaches.
00:12Today, we are looking at the players and coaches on the hot seat.
00:16Who needs to have a good year this year in the NHL?
00:20Let's start with the coaches.
00:21Coming in at number 5, it's Rod Brindamore.
00:24I think Brindamore is the best coach in the NHL.
00:26I think it's absurd to suggest that he would be on the hot seat.
00:29But there was enough fire around his contract situation last year, and enough debate around
00:36it that I just feel like he needs to have a good year.
00:41Also, I will say, again, while I think he is one of the best coaches in the league,
00:46if not the best coach in the league, at some point this team has to win.
00:51At some point, even with the talent that they lost, and we talked about them in the undervalued
00:55teams yesterday, with the talent they lost, they have been a very good hockey team for
01:01a really long time.
01:02And they've added big names like Burns, they've made big deadline acquisitions like Gensel,
01:07and they still have not been able to get over the hump and get into the Stanley Cup Final.
01:12At some point, there's going to be pressure to do that.
01:16Fairly or unfairly, I think there's going to be that pressure.
01:19At 4, John Tortorella with the Philadelphia Flyers.
01:23I think that he did a great job in dragging a good season out of this team last year.
01:29I do have some concerns about the growth of this team going forward.
01:33Also, he tends to wear out his welcome a little bit.
01:36And him on a bad team tends to not go super well.
01:41And so I just worry about how this team is going to do, and how he is going to react
01:46to that.
01:47So he is at 4.
01:48Andre Tourney for Utah.
01:50I had him on the list last year with Arizona.
01:53I think you can kind of explain away a lot of what happened in Arizona this last year.
01:57It was a very, very tumultuous season, shall we say, where midway through the year, all
02:04your players are trying to figure out like, hey, where are we going to live next year?
02:09And that became a bit of a talking point, and became a bit of a distraction.
02:12Now they're in Utah, and we have seen teams do quite well early on in their new spots.
02:17Vegas, Seattle.
02:18Uh, Seattle might be better than...
02:21I guess Vegas is the exception.
02:23But we have seen that there is some pressure to try to grow this.
02:26And Utah has come out and made some big moves, acquiring Sergeyev, which I forgot to mention
02:31in my overvalued thing with Tampa Bay.
02:34I think that the move from McDonough to Sergeyev is actually bigger than people are realizing.
02:38But I think that there's going to be pressure on Utah to make a move here this year.
02:45And um, out in Detroit is Derek Lalonde.
02:48He is number two on my list.
02:50Detroit has made a couple of big moves in the last couple of years, by going out and
02:55acquiring Debrinkit, and making some very good draft picks to try to push.
03:01And each year it gets close, and they got very close to the playoffs last year.
03:05They just didn't get there.
03:06If this is another year where it's close but they just didn't get there, I think Derek
03:10Lalonde is packing his bags and getting out of there.
03:12And at number one, it's the Pittsburgh Penguins.
03:14Some of the pressure is off with Sidney Crosby signing an extension, but I don't think it's
03:18a very good roster.
03:19I do think that it is a team that probably needs some change, and I do think that it
03:25is a roster that, given some of the cap whatevers, is going to be difficult to change.
03:31And so, what change can you make?
03:33Ah, the coach!
03:34So I do wonder if Mike Sullivan needs a very good year for the Pittsburgh Penguins to kind
03:40of keep his job out there this year.
03:42Now, let's get two players on the hot seat.
03:45At number five, it is Nikolaj Ehlers.
03:49There's a lot of talk about him getting moved by the Winnipeg Jets anyway.
03:53He has long been a guy who it has kind of felt like, a ton of talent, either coaches
04:00don't trust him, or it just hasn't clicked, or whatever it is.
04:04But I do think there's a very good hockey player there.
04:07At some point it has to just work though, right?
04:09And at some point the lack of opportunities you're getting is kind of on you, to a certain
04:13degree, I will say.
04:15And again, it's been a long enough period of time where I think you say that.
04:18I think, I do think that he kind of needs a good year here, or there's a lot of pressure
04:24on him here, or he might be going elsewhere if Winnipeg wants to go in a different direction.
04:29At four, it's Thomas Chabot.
04:32I think there's a ton of talent in this kid, and I think the world of him as a hockey player.
04:38But it has been a rough couple of seasons.
04:39Now it's been a rough couple of seasons in Ottawa, but it's been a rough couple of seasons
04:43for him.
04:44And there was a lot of talk, and most of it from the fanbase, of trying to get this guy
04:49out of town.
04:50And, like, oh well, maybe in a Noah Hannafin trade, would you guys take Chabot back instead?
04:54That is the part where, and a lot of Flames fans are like, we're good.
04:58That is the part that should concern, I think, with him, is that your fanbase has soured
05:03and other fanbases don't want him.
05:04Again, I think he's really good, but I think he needs to prove it this year.
05:08Again, with a lot of pressure on Ottawa to try to make their way back into the playoffs.
05:13They move on from Chikrin, they didn't get a whole lot back for him, there's going to
05:16be pressure on Chabot to help get Ottawa across that finish line.
05:20At four, it's Trevor, sorry, at three, it is Trevor Zegres.
05:25Anaheim feels like they're ready to take a step.
05:27And while their young players have progressed, Zegres has kind of just stayed the same.
05:32And there have been injury issues, and there's been all of this.
05:35But it does feel like if Anaheim wants to make a big roster-altering move, he would
05:40be the very easy one to do that on.
05:43Me personally, I think he's wildly overrated.
05:45I think he can do some flashy shit, but I think as an actual producer and a make players
05:50around you better, I don't think he's all that great.
05:54And so, I think if you can get for Anaheim, um, maybe a bit more for him reputationally
06:01than you are actually getting for him as a hockey player, that can be a really big
06:05adjustment and a really big upgrade for your team.
06:07And so I think if Anaheim isn't taking that step that they want, he's going to be the
06:10one who's on the way out.
06:12At two, Freddie Anderson.
06:14We talked about the pressure that's on in Carolina.
06:16I do think Freddie Anderson had a couple very good games in the playoffs.
06:19But I do think that Freddie Anderson let in some absolutely boneheaded goals that cost
06:25the Carolina Hurricanes in the postseason, and it really set them back.
06:30And they have, again, even though they lost a bit this year, they still have such a talented
06:35roster.
06:36But he has to be a guy who can go out and steal some games.
06:39And has to be at least a guy who's not going to lose them some games.
06:42And he was a guy who lost them games last year.
06:45He needs to not be that this year.
06:47And number one, it's been the talk of the offseason, it's Mitch Marner.
06:51Mitch Marner was on the trade block, it felt like, it's just kind of perpetually on the
06:55trade block, given the contract, given the lack of success that the Toronto Maple Leafs
06:59have had, he, and the contract status of everyone else, he is now feeling like the
07:04one who could finally, of that core four, face some kind of repercussions for this team's
07:10lack of success.
07:12I don't think it's a secret they tried to move him during this offseason, and just couldn't.
07:17And so if he wants to stay a Toronto Maple Leaf, and honestly, I wonder what that contract
07:21looks like after this season anyway.
07:24He will probably get paid, I'm not saying he's going to get four by five, or anything
07:27like that, but I do think there's a lot of pressure on this kid this year to set himself
07:33up for the future, and to show, one last time, that maybe this thing can work out in Toronto.