Way Too Early NHL Playoff Outcomes & Future Predictions

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00:00Right back out of here on the early line.

00:02A lot of fun over these three hours.

00:04And the fun is going to continue right now.

00:06It's your boy, Donnie Wrightside, along with Joe Ranieri.

00:08And now Tom Vecchio going to join us as well.

00:11Because why?

00:11We've got some NBA topics to hit, which we'll get to in the next segment.

00:14The NHL season just finished up, Tom.

00:18The NHL season for you.

00:19Sad to see it go?

00:21Yeah, of course.

00:21Sad to see it go.

00:23You know, it's a great series overall.

00:25A lot of questions going into the offseason for a lot of different teams.

00:29It's also important to note that the NHL going into next year is going to have

00:32one of the, I believe it's the actual largest jump in cap from year to year.

00:37So there's a lot of money to spend for a lot of teams.

00:40Let's take a look at those Florida Panthers here who are Stanley Cup champions,

00:44winning in game number six on Hall Myson, an impressive performance.

00:48I mean, when you get a guy to score four goals in one game here,

00:51and it's a clinching game, and you do it at home,

00:53and you skate around with the cup, and you have fun with it,

00:55to the victors go the spoils,

00:57which includes an unbelievable run for the Panthers,

00:59which we'll get to to see if we can extend it.

01:01But your thoughts on the Florida Panthers season in totality.

01:03Now, granted, yes, they won the Stanley Cup.

01:05What were your expectations all along throughout the season

01:08and into the playoffs for the Florida Panthers?

01:11I talked about this a lot with Carver on NHL today.

01:14I always like Florida.

01:16I never liked their odds, and that's what it really comes down to.

01:18It's like when you saw them sitting as the favorites to win the East,

01:21you know, especially after Kachuk got hurt,

01:23after the Four Nations, they trade for Marshawn.

01:25There was a bit of uncertainty, and their odds were never favorable.

01:28I always believed in them, and obviously Paul Maurice is a phenomenal coach,

01:31and just what he does with the system and the players overall is fantastic.

01:34So I always thought they could do it.

01:36I was never in favor of betting on them,

01:38just because I never thought their odds were appropriate.

01:40Going into the offseason, they have some holes to fill

01:42with some players approaching free agency,

01:44but with the cap space and just I would assume that there's players

01:47that want to go there and are willing to take less money.

01:49Just be like, hey, we have a real shot to win.

01:51I'll take a couple million dollars less.

01:55You saw that.

01:56Schmidt did that also.

01:58Took a million dollars less just to be able to come back

02:00and look at that there.

02:02It's going to be interesting.

02:03They do have a lot of core guys coming back

02:07and wrapped up for the next couple of years,

02:10and Zito's already shown us his ability to be able to get the right guys,

02:15the right kinds of guys attitude-wise and everything into there.

02:18I'm looking at them next and say,

02:21is the three-peat out of the question in your opinion, Tom?

02:25I don't think so, and it really comes down to the rest of the East,

02:30where, listen, I don't know why Caroline,

02:32at least on the Fandles Sportsbook,

02:34is booked at 7-1 in Florida, 7.5-1.

02:36I don't know why Caroline is the favorite.

02:37Like, they haven't shown us that they can beat the Panthers at all,

02:40so they shouldn't be there.

02:41We always have our doubts about the Toronto Maple Leafs.

02:44Can we make a case that the Devils theoretically could compete with them?

02:47Yeah, but, like, show me when the Devils are actually healthy for once.

02:51Like, they have the talent.

02:51They have the depth, I believe.

02:53And, obviously, with Marks from Annette,

02:54like, I believe they have the piece to get it done,

02:56but they've never been healthy.

02:57So it's like, all right, let's have that conversation once they are healthy.

03:00Tampa's a team that worries me because, again,

03:01they are a team that have been aggressive at deadlines,

03:04trading for players, extending players,

03:06and they still have Kucherov.

03:07They still have Hadman.

03:08They still have Vasilevsky and Annette.

03:09It really comes down to the fact of, like,

03:11don't play the Panthers in the first two rounds,

03:13and maybe you can get to them in the conference finals,

03:15but it's obviously yet to be seen.

03:18Yeah, you know what?

03:19The Panthers probably won't repeat next year

03:21because the Philadelphia Flyers will stand in their way

03:23and knock them off on their way to a Stanley Cup Finals run here.

03:27So I'm going to keep the Flyers bag currently flying over here.

03:30But let's take a look here at the Edmonton Oilers

03:32because you take a look at them.

03:34Equal success here for the Edmonton Oilers

03:35because you take a look and say to yourself,

03:37you know what?

03:38I can't believe this.

03:39It's back-to-back seasons.

03:40We lost both of those times.

03:42What is going to happen now with Connor McDavid,

03:44the expectations you're supposed to win a Stanley Cup?

03:460 for 2 now.

03:47What do they do?

03:49They have to make a change at goaltending.

03:50Like, they have to bring in an elite goaltender.

03:53And if you are not even changing goaltenders

03:57in the Stanley Cup Final,

03:58if you are having questions about your goalie

04:00in the Stanley Cup Final,

04:01that's not a team that is destined to win.

04:03So it is a—

04:05I'm saying it is a literal make-or-break year for the Oilers,

04:07and this might be a bit of a hot take,

04:08but they have to do something.

04:10McDavid is a free agent after this upcoming season.

04:13So if those—

04:15You got to remember, like, if they don't do something,

04:17what is the reason for him to stay there?

04:18And I've said this before,

04:20going back to the years that McDavid—

04:21Mike Smith, Miko Koskinen,

04:23now it's Stuart Skinner.

04:24Terrible goalies.

04:25If you would have given McDavid an elite goaltender,

04:27he would have already had one.

04:28They lost in the conference finals four years ago

04:30against the Avs.

04:31They lost in two Stanley Cups now.

04:33They would have had one by now.

04:35They wouldn't have beat Florida both times,

04:36but one cup if McDavid had an elite goaltender.

04:39Kind of—it's kind of crazy, too.

04:43And I love the idea of how Edmonton can—

04:47Oh, boy, they're just a player or two away.

04:50No, they're not.

04:51And, Tom, if I was to tell you that no team in NHL history

04:54played with the lead longer in a Stanley Cup final than the Panthers,

04:59tell me how close this series really was

05:01when the only games you won, Oilers, were two in overtime.

05:04Yeah, two in overtime, and I think that tells you, like,

05:07how—in an optics perspective, you would say, like,

05:11oh, this series was super close, but in reality,

05:13the differential when you watched the games was massive.

05:16Like, there were times where Florida looked unbeatable.

05:19They were relentless.

05:20They were doing things, like, to the T, to the letter

05:23that you would see, that you would teach,

05:25but they did it for literally every second of the game,

05:27and they were just superior to the Oilers in every capacity.

05:31Yeah, it was a really enjoyable Stanley Cup run.

05:33I was just hoping we got to see game number seven in Edmonton.

05:36It would have been so much fun to see the fallout,

05:38but certainly the better team all along was the Florida Panthers

05:40in an entertaining season, no doubt about it.

05:42So we flipped the page forward to next year.

05:45Is there a team, Tom, that you might identify and say to yourself,

05:47you know what?

05:48There's a lot of favorites out here, a lot of underdogs.

05:50Is there a team that you want to watch next year and say,

05:52this could be my club to either win a championship

05:54or take it to the next level and say,

05:56we're now being competitive again?

05:57So I said this to Scott and Dave last night.

06:02The Minnesota Wild at 34-1 are interesting,

06:06and I got to pose it like this.

06:07I'm not saying I'm betting them.

06:08I'm not saying they're my favorite,

06:09but at least interesting for two specific reasons.

06:11A, the cap, as I said, is going up a massive amount,

06:13but they are getting the Zach Parisi and Ryan Suter contracts

06:17off the books, essentially.

06:18Over the past few years, they've had over $14 million

06:21of dead cap space tied up between those two players.

06:23This upcoming season, those caps drop down to about $800,000 each.

06:27They're free of $14 million of cap space, plus the jumping cap.

06:31They have Philip Gustafson in the net.

06:33They have an elite player with Caprizov.

06:35They have the young players, Matt Boldy, Brock Faber, Zeev Bouiam.

06:38They just need to spend the money.

06:39So they have the pieces, and in that division in the Central,

06:41the Avs, the Jets, and the Stars will always be ahead of them,

06:44and they have the pieces to get it done.

06:46They just need to put it into effect.

06:48We'll see what happens next year at the NHL.

06:50Look, it's already off-season.

06:51Before you know it, they'll be in training camp in September,

06:53and away you go as we take a look at the Florida Panthers

06:57and the Edmonton Oilers giving us excitement here for the 2025 season,

07:00and away we go off to that.

07:02Now, the NBA Finals, they're going to continue tonight.

07:04You know where I'm going to the radio.

07:06Next up, it's going to be Tom Vecchio.

07:08It's going to be Joe Ranieri to count down to the Finals tonight,

07:11and away we go to see where that goes.

07:13Tom Vecchio, Joe Ranieri.

07:15See you guys when I see you.

07:17I'm out.

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