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00:00Pete, not to make it about any particular individual,
00:03but absolutely going to do that.
00:04Alex Ovechkin, Ovi, has been playing some fantastic hockey.
00:0839 years of age, and he's still looking like
00:10one of the young guys out there on the ice.
00:12He's top 10 in goals.
00:14He's getting assists. He's putting up points.
00:16I mean, is there any slowing down Ovechkin?
00:19And what's going to be, I guess, the benchmark
00:21once it's all said and done at the end of this year for him?
00:25I mean, in his prime, like I'm talking, you know,
00:28way earlier in the 2000s, he's had 60-plus goals.
00:33He's had 40 a bunch of times.
00:35Could he get up into the 50s
00:37and break Gretzky's record this season?
00:39Right now, he has 10 goals in his first 14 games.
00:42So his current pace would break Gretzky's record this season.
00:47Again, I mentioned, like, the Capitals have been playing
00:50a little bit above their heads so far,
00:52but he does have a really good centerman in Dylan Strom
00:55that he's really comfortable with,
00:56has been playing with for a few years now.
00:58And Washington just made so many low-key,
01:01sneaky upgrades in the offseason.
01:04They got Jacob Chikrin on the back end.
01:05They got a 1B goalie in Logan Thompson.
01:08They got Andrew Mangiapane.
01:10They got Pierre-Luc Dubois.
01:12Like, their top-nine forward group is really good.
01:14Their defense is better.
01:16The goaltending is stable enough with a decent tandem
01:19that I think Ove is live here for the Rocket Richard.
01:23That other number you mentioned, the Hart Trophy,
01:25that may be a stretch here
01:27just because there is Kaprizov, McDavid,
01:30all these other guys that are probably going to score,
01:32you know, 30 or 40 more points than him.
01:35So maybe he's not really in play for that award.
01:38The Capitals would really have to finish,
01:40like, near the top of the Metro,
01:41and he would have to break the record
01:43for him to be considered for the Hart Trophy.
01:45But Rocket Richard, that's not based on any voting.
01:48If he leads the league in goals,
01:49he wins that award over, say, a Matthews
01:52who's injured right now.
01:53So it's really possible.
01:56Pete, let's look at that MVP market
01:57because some of the names,
01:58even, like, the most common NHL fan will know,
02:01Kucherov, McKinnon, McDavid, Panarin, Makar,
02:04but I do see Kaprizov at a plus-350 price
02:06leading right now in the Hart Trophy odds.
02:09How good has he been so far up there in Minnesota?
02:13Yeah, everything seems to be aligning for this guy.
02:15After next season, he's due for a new contract.
02:19We don't know if he would stay in Minnesota.
02:21Depends on the trajectory of the franchise.
02:23But this guy is absolute lightning right now
02:27for the Minnesota Wild carrying them.
02:29They have a nice team around them
02:30with guys like Matt Boldy, the veteran Zuccarello,
02:34defenseman who was a finalist
02:35for the Calder Trophy last year,
02:38and Brock Faber, and some decent goaltending.
02:41They got three good options, really, moving forward.
02:44So I think that Kaprizov right now,
02:47if I were to pick, I just picked at the one-month mark.
02:49I don't vote for this award,
02:51but I have Kaprizov number one right now.
02:53He deserves it. The Wild are in the playoff mix.
02:56They look a lot better.
02:58He's, you know, he missed the playoffs last year.
03:00If he continues to carry them
03:02through some of the holes on that roster
03:04the rest of the way,
03:05like, I feel like he could be a slam dunk.
03:08It's never for sure because McDavid,
03:11like, look at him, right, missed a little time
03:12because of injury, four points last night.
03:15He'll get back into the conversation for sure.
03:17But Kaprizov is a beast out there right now.