The talk of the day on Edmonton sports radio was mostly about the news regarding when the NHL is returning to play. BORING! Sounds like mid-January for those of you that care about that. Players are already returning to their club’s cities, so I’d say we’re not far away from getting some more concrete news.
I’m pretty bored as it is so we’re going to go with five random hockey questions today.
- If there’s an All-Canadian Division this season, who has the best set of defencemen?
First, we need to look at each team’s top-six defenders which I’ve retrieved from CapFriendly.com.
Now, I might not have the same six skaters as you so feel free to let me know how daft I am for leaving Player X out of the following lists in the comments section below. I’m not using any stats here, just first-glance and my own personal opinion.
VAN: Myers, Schmidt, Hughes, Edler, Rathbone, Benn
CGY: Giordano, Hanifin, Andersson, Valimaki, Tanev, Nesterov
EDM: Nurse, Jones, Russell, Larsson, Barrie, Bear.
WPG: Morrisey, DeMelo, Pionk, Poolman, Beaulieu, Forbort
TOR: Rielly, Muzzin, Brodie, Holl, Bogosian, Dermott
OTT: Gudbranson, Chabot, Zaitsev, Brown, Wolanin, Reilly
MTL: Weber, Petry, Chiarot, Edmundson, Romanov, Mete
I’ve got them ranked thusly,
- Montreal 2. Edmonton 3. Toronto 4. Calgary 5. Vancouver 6. Winnipeg 7. Ottawa
The Habs shored up their defence something fierce this off-season and I love who they’ve got leading it in Weber and Petry. Chiarot and Edmundson are very capable 2nd-pair old-school defenders and then there’s hard-hitting rookie Alexander Romanov and swift puck-moving defender Viktor Mete.
Edmonton is no.2 but not by much. I like the depth of their defence even though they are missing Oscar Klefbom, the addition of Tyson Barrie helps that. The difference between Montreal and the Oilers’ groups comes down to the Canadiens having an elite defender in Shea Weber and I also feel that Montreal’s defenders have an element to their game that will help in the post-season (should they get there).
Depth comes into play once more when it comes to Toronto and Calgary. The Maple Leafs have five good solid d-mean whereas Calgary’s talent drops off after their top-four.
Vancouver has an excellent top-four but I’m ashamed to say, I don’t know much about Jack Rathbone. So I can’t really say if he’s the kind of player that would put them in the conversation for #4 instead of #5. Jordie Benn is a good hard-nosed no.6 defender.
The Jets and Sens have one really good defenceman on their team surrounded by bottom-pair rearguards. There’s not much more to say there.
- Could a team built around toughness be on the horizon?
I do believe that hockey is tipping too far in one direction and at some point, there’s going to be a new Broadstreet Bullies or Big Bad Bruins running through the NHL.
It won’t be gory and unforgiving like it was back in the 70s though. Think about it this way, it’ll be mostly comprised of highly-skilled players who are very fast because that’s how hockey has been trending for some time now but they’ll play a very physical brand of hockey. A hybrid of the Oilers of the 80s and the Flyers of the 70s if you will.
GMs will realize that they’ll need the skill to get through the regular season and the toughness to go deep into the playoffs and just find players who exhibit both qualities instead of trading or signing specialists.
- Who are your top-3 Sleepers for your favorite team in 2020-21?
For my club, the Edmonton Oilers, I’m going to say that Anton Forsberg could be one, Dominik Kahun will be one, and Adam Larsson will be the other.
Everybody is sleeping on Forsberg but he’s right in his prime as a goaltender and I think people forget that four seasons ago he lead Cleveland to an AHL championship. The teams he’s played for since the trade from Columbus to Chicago haven’t been amazing, so I wouldn’t read into his AHL stats.
I believe Kahun is on the fence when it comes to the definition of a sleeper because a lot of folks are thinking that him being paired with Leon Draisaitl is going to be a good recipe for point production. See, I’m not necessarily sure Kahun will be playing with Leon, he might be on Connor’s line. Either way, he’s being set up for success early and I like the odds. We do have to keep in mind that this player has played for three teams in two years already and that fact alone might make him a sleeper.
I think the weight of the defence is going to land squarely on the shoulders of Adam Larsson so I hope his back is alright. Did you know that when Larsson was 16 there were people in Sweden comparing him to Nicklas Lidstrom? Anyways, he’s no Lidstrom now, but he is one of the leagues better shutdown/physical defenders and he’s going to have a massive amount of responsibility carrying that load whilst staying healthy. With all this time off, my feeling is that he’ll be back in Edmonton healthier than ever and at the end of the season we’ll be talking about how good The Iron Swede was for Edmonton.
- Who’s the youngest player you’ve ever heard “1st overall” hype about?
I’m sure you’ve heard of Shane Wright (2022), Connor Bedard (2023), and Matvei Michkov (2023) by now and maybe some of you have even heard of Aron Kiviharju (2024), but there’s a player named Ivar Stenberg playing in Sweden that is already getting hype for the 2026 draft!!!
The 13yr old plays for Stenungsund HF and is already dominating their u16 program (10pts in 3gp). If that doesn’t blow your mind, Stenberg is also playing games for the J18 club too! He has 1pt in three games versus players four or five years his senior.
He is by far, the youngest player I’ve ever caught wind of as an NHL prospect let alone one that could go 1st overall. It’s mad!
- If you could make a mega-budget movie about one team in NHL history, which one would it be?
Over the years, we’ve seen some hockey clubs make it to the silver screen. “Miracle” was about the 1980 American Olympic team and the Charlestown Chiefs of “Slap Shot” fame was based on a minor league team called the Johnstown Jets. Then you’ve got CBC movies like “Net Worth” about Ted Lindsay and the Detroit Red Wings and “The Rocket” which told the story of Maurice Richard and his time with the Montreal Canadiens. Don’t forget, a few years back Rob Zombie was rumored to be making a movie about the Philadelphia Flyers dynasty team that ultimately fell through.
As fun as it would be to go with one of the dynasty teams, I reckon that the audience has to be considered, and if I’m going to make back some of that money from the budget, I need to address that American market and that means I’ve got to take a Cup-winning team from a big US city.
I’m going with the 1993-94 NY Rangers.
There are so many highlights from their post-season run that Hollywood could dress up and have the viewers on the edge of their seats like Messier calling the win in game 6, Stephane Matteau’s OT goal, the penalty shot stop from Bure, and the final few seconds of game seven.
I don’t know, I just think there would be enough inspirational storylines to make a really good movie about this team. All the ex-Oilers on the club, the first time in history that a Russian would get his name on the Stanley Cup, the 54yr wait… I mean c’mon, a movie made in the vein of “Miracle” could be very entertaining.
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