Evolving Hockey Podcast

Episode 183: Stanley Cup Final!

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 03:00:00 -0500

It's time, and we're here. The 2026 Stanley Cup Final starts today, and we spent the first 10 minutes discussing the Jurassic Park franchise and sports movies. Once the important things were necessarily covered, we talked Hockey for the rest of the episode (I promise)!

Episode 182: Conference Finals

Wed, 27 May 2026 03:00:00 -0500

The Conference Finals have started off just like everyone thought! Colorado may get swept (they did, but we didn't know it at the time), and Carolina's quantity-domination's resulted in shaky outcomes. We spent the whole episode analyzing everything like only we can (talking about pickup kickball and the Staals).

Episode 181: Contract Projections!

Mon, 18 May 2026 04:00:00 -0500

We had some severe scheduling issues over the last three weeks, but we're finally back! We spent the first half discussing the second round and professional bowling. Later we did a deep-dive into our contract model and the upcoming offseason. It's good to be back.

Episode 180: Analyzing the First Round

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 04:00:00 -0500

Josh is sick (but still talking), so we anticipated a shorter episode. We didn't do a shorter episode. We spent our entire lovely time talking about the ongoing NHL first round, surprises, ranges of quality, our favorite series, and Weather Report.

Episode 179: First Round Preview

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 05:00:00 -0500

Yes we're a few days late, but we're sticking to our schedule - we've never missed a week or recorded on another day. Our First Round Preview is up on the site, and we spent the entire episode covering all eight series with no interjections. This was all business, like always.

Episode 178: The End (of the season)

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 03:00:00 -0500

We published our awards article yesterday, and even though we talked about the Awards at length last week, we couldn't help but spend a chunk talking about them again. To be fair, it was mainly The Twins yelling about the Selke. Later we chatted about playoff positions and *weird* results (The Kings).

Episode 177: Awards and Hell In a Cell

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 05:00:00 -0500

We're back after a week break (because of Shawn it wasn't our fault). We spent the first segment discussing the ongoing insanity of *this* season, playoff races, statistical oddities, and the Hell In a Cell match. Later we previewed our awards picks and the inverse of that.

Episode 176: The Playoff Race

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 05:00:00 -0500

With only a few weeks of the NHL season left, we felt the need to talk about professional bowling and who owns the hockey pucks. In all seriousness, we spent most of this episode analyzing the current playoff race, team strengths, disappointing western teams, and actors who might play current NHL coaches.

Episode 175: Montreal, Minnesota, and Linkin Park

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 05:00:00 -0500

As we approach the end of the season, it's important to focus on what matters [see title]. Shawn spent the weekend scouting the Habs, so we made him share his thoughts on the team. Later, we talked about our die-hard Wild fandom, Hogs, and the odd era of 2000s popular rock music.

Episode 174: Trade Deadline Recap (2026)

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 04:00:00 -0500

The 2026 Trade Deadline is over, and we're here wondering whether it happened at all. We spent the entire episode evaluating all the trades and drama, picking winners and losers, talking Sabres, recommitting to the Minnesota Wild, and contemplating cassette tape collecting.

Episode 172: Trade Deadline Preview (2026)

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 02:00:00 -0600

We've quickly transitioned from one of the greatest spectacles on the planet (the Olympics) to one of the greatest sources of drama in the NHL (the trade deadline). We spent the entire episode discussing the deadline, our annual trade-target article, and Werner Herzog's thoughts on chickens.

Episode 172: Olympic Finale!

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 05:00:00 -0600

Unfortunately, the Olympics are over. The Twins spent the last week binge-watching Olympic sports while Shawn just watched the hockey. We spent the majority of the episode discussing the hockey medal rounds, USA vs. CAN, curling, jingles, and all-nighters.

Episode 171: The Olympics!

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 04:00:00 -0600

We're a big Olympics podcast now. We know all the sports and have great opinions about all of them. We spent the first half discussing everything that's happened, but really we just talked about curling. Later, we chatted about (disappointing USA men's) hockey. The Olympics f**king rock.

Episode 170: Olympic Previews

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 05:00:00 -0600

Alright - the title might be a bit misleading. After (another) week break we're back to discuss bad arenas, Olympic problems, classic "bad" hockey players, and brain health. There's definitely some NHL discussion in here - I promise.

Episode 169: Messed Up Times and Josh Doan

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 05:00:00 -0600

We're back after a week break due to some [things]. We spent the first half discussing a few recent trades, bad teams in the West, and a surprise Goalie Fight. Later we chatted about favorite colors, The Twins being right about the Peterka trade, and shows we haven't watched yet.

Episode 168: Olympic Rosters and Expected Goals

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 05:00:00 -0600

Various countries announced their Olympic Rosters this past week before we could get to talking about our predictions, however, we still have a lot of thoughts. Before we dug into them, we first chatted extensively about Expected Goals and modeling problems.

Episode 167: The Holiday Spirit

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 05:00:00 -0600

We're back after an unplanned Holiday break, and we all really felt like talking. We spent the first half discussing The Holidays, geography, and The Red Wings. Later we discussed the Blue Jackets and Zach Werenski, ancient YouTube videos, and standardized tests for some reason.

Episode 166: Quinn Hughes

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 04:00:00 -0600

One of the biggest mid-season trades in recent memory just occurred, and it happened to involve our favorite team: The Minnesota Wild. We spent the first half discussing all things Hughes. Later we analyzed the Sabres' recent GM change and the Skinner/Jarry Equation.

Episode 165: The Best Modern Teams and Russian Basements

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 04:00:00 -0600

It's December, and the Avalanche are still destroying everyone. We spent the first half discussing the Avs in relation to the modern "greats" and moved on to hypothetical Russian basement dwellers. Later we chatted about hockey rink dimensions and "circle math".

Episode 164: Trying to Figure it All Out

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 05:00:00 -0600

Just like everyone else, we're trying to figure out what the hell is going on with the NHL this season... in general just overall. We spent the first half doing exactly that (it's figured out now). Later we discussed incredible pump-up songs, Scott Stapp, a more "optimal" league environment, and TRL.

Episode 163: Parity and The Problematic Atlantic

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 04:00:00 -0600

The Atlantic Division has been all over the place for 20 games, so we took the opportunity to investigate each division relative to our preseason expectations. We discussed the odd Canadiens, bad Leafs, interesting Kraken, and the Canucks. Later we hinted at some early Awards picks and tried to get Shawn to watch a movie.

Episode 162: The Ducks, Age, and Astrology

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 04:00:00 -0600

We're well into the NHL season at this point, which means it's time for us to meander. We spent the entire episode discussing the surprising teams AND the unfortunate teams, young people and old players, our updated fantasy tools, and McDavid's astrology info. This was a blast.

Episode 161: Spooky Season

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 05:00:00 -0600

It's Halloween, and Shawn wants nothing to do with it. We spent the first half discussing spooky teams, standout goalies, and teammate combos. Later we chatted about scary movies, superstitions, injuries, and early awards picks.

Episode 160: Wins Above Replacement and "Bad" Jeserys

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 04:00:00 -0500

GAR, xGAR, and RAPM data is now up on the site for the '25-26 season! We spent the first half talking about statistical models and jerseys that are actually awesome. In the second half we discussed surprising teams, road maps, and feeling very old.

Episode 159: Way-Too-Early Takes

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 04:00:00 -0500

Week 2 of the '25-26 NHL season is on record and it's way too early to glean anything from 5 games - we're doing it anyway. We spent the first half discussing the Ducks and early-season relative-to-teammate stars, and later we talked about traded players on new teams and tried to convince Shawn to watch Point Break.

Episode 158: Technical Difficulties

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 04:00:00 -0500

The Sabres are 0-3, Josh is 0-1 in fantasy, and Shawn is in Florida; we embraced all of these issues and powered through it all. We did actually have numerous technical issues, but we rolled with the punches. Week 1 is in the books, and we spent the whole episode talking about it.

Episode 157: '25-26 NHL Team Previews

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 04:00:00 -0500

The '25-26 NHL season begins today, which means our team projections are out! We released our initial preseason projections on Sunday (there's an article on the site for those interested), and we spent the entire episode discussing the projections and our thoughts on each division.

Episode 156: Pre-Preseason Projections

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 04:00:00 -0500

The '25-26 NHL season starts in two weeks and (not) surprisingly, there's still nothing happening. We spent the entire episode trying to evaluate teams based on our general feelings before the EH projections are finished. It went about as well as you would expect. It was a great time though!

Episode 155: The Kaprizov Situation

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 04:00:00 -0500

We're getting back into the swing of things, even if there's only one of those things going on right now (see: title). We spent the first half rambling about our respective other favorite sports (bowling and golf, obviously). Later, we analyzed the Kaprizov "situation".

Episode 154: Fantasy Projections and Burning Property

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 05:00:00 -0500

As we continue to get back into the swing of things this summer, our Fantasy Projections came out last week. We spent the first half chatting about the MN State Fair and burning yards before moving on to the topic at hand. Later we covered our under-covered (our fault) GAR projections and good defensemen.

Episode 153: Offseason Vibes

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 04:00:00 -0500

Marco Rossi signed a contract and nothing else happened this month. It's been a few weeks since our last episode, and after a (much needed) break from hockey this summer, we're back to chat about essentially everything but that. This was a bit shorter, but we had a blast just vibing.

Episode 152: Midsummer Free Agency Check In

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 03:00:00 -0500

We, without much thought to it, ended up taking a long break this July. But now that we have all contracts tracked, we can evaluate our projection model and discuss the market. We spent the whole episode doing just that, and talking bowling. It's fun to be back.

Episode 151: 2025 Free Agency - Week 1

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 03:00:00 -0500

We got right down to business with this one. Despite a weak free agency class, myriad contracts signed before July 1st, and an excess of money still in team's hands, over 200 contracts have been signed in the last week. We spent the entire episode talking about the interesting ones.

Episode 150: 2025 NHL Free Agency Preview

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 06:00:00 -0500

That's it. That's the episode. We spent the first half covering the exceptionally active last week and the second half discussing our preview of things to come. And also talking about the draft, schedule changes, data annoyances, and bowling.

Episode 149: Stanley Cup Review and Trades

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 01:00:00 -0500

Upfront: we had some technical issues with this one, but we were all quite happy with our discussion(s) so we decided to upload this anyway. Apologies.

The Panthers are your 2025 Stanley Cup Champions! We spent the first half covering the final, discussing team strength, and talking about portable CD players. Later we covered the surprising number of trades and signings over the last two weeks.

Episode 148: Sports Tier List Discussion

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 03:00:00 -0500

In the second half, I (Josh) proposed a potential framework for a ranking system to order sports based on how great they are. Shawn and Luke were both less than pleased with my (amazing) system. Earlier, we also discussed the ongoing Final(s), contract impacts from playoff performance, and bowling.

Episode 147: Stanley Cup Preview (2025)

Tue, 03 Jun 2025 02:00:00 -0500

[Boyz II Men voices] although we've come to the end of the road, we're not going to skip the Selke voting results. In the first half, we chatted about the Conference Finals series and previewed the Cup Final. Later, we spent 30 minutes yelling about the Selke Trophy.

Episode 146: Contract Projections (2025)

Tue, 13 May 2025 04:00:00 -0500

It's that time of year - it feels like we've done this episode before, but this time we got to talk about terrifying children's movies and our love for Moneyball while doing it. We spent the whole episode covering the contract model, and it was a blast, as always.

Episode 145: The Second Round (2025)

Wed, 07 May 2025 04:00:00 -0500

Oh, what a treat the first round was. Really something to cherish. We move on to the second round, and once again, we've got you covered with a new preview on the site. We spent the first half haphazardly moving through our first round impressions, and moved on to our second round preview in the second half.

Episode 144: Tornadoes and Forkballs

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 04:00:00 -0500

We're one week into the NHL playoffs, and the twins were dodging tornadoes today. We spent the whole episode discussing terrifying Habs fans, Hellebuyck, the unlikely Wild, the Leafs over-performing worst players, and amazing forkballs. This year's playoffs are shaping up to be a real treat.

Episode 143: The First Round (2025)

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 04:00:00 -0500

We released our 2025 NHL playoffs preview on the site for the first round a few days ago - check it out! First, we had to get some irritations with the current NHL remote viewing experience off our chests. After that we spent the entire episode discussing every round 1 matchup! These episodes are always a blast.

Episode 142: NHL AWARDS

Tue, 15 Apr 2025 05:00:00 -0500

The episode Josh and Luke have been waiting for all season. We spent the vast majority discussing our Awards picks for the '24-25 NHL season (accompanying the recent article on the site). In between we chatted golf, The Truman Show, and advertising.

Episode 141: The Record

Tue, 08 Apr 2025 04:00:00 -0500

Since our week off, we've become a sports talk show. In the first half we chatted about Ovechkin's record (and differing levels of interest around it) while discussing other interesting records. Later, we covered the overlooked (by us) Habs and wondered why more people don't utilize the 10-key portion of their keyboard.

Episode 140: Canucks, Rangers, and Twisters

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 03:00:00 -0500

We're making our way to the regular season finish line, and we're vibing. In the first half we chat about the draft, exercise habits, old tweets, and the dismal Canucks and Rangers. Later the twins rant about Twisters, discuss Ovechkin, and cover a few horrendous defensive skaters.

Episode 139: NHL Ownership

Wed, 19 Mar 2025 04:00:00 -0500

It's possibly the most boring time of the season - everyone is waiting for six teams to figure out which two will take the last wild card spots. That didn't stop us from getting chaotic. We spent the first half discussing the recent Athletic ownership survey. Later we reined things in w/ the playoff race and explained Rush to Shawn.

Episode 138: Trade Deadline Review (2025)

Tue, 11 Mar 2025 03:00:00 -0500

Just like that, the 2025 NHL trade deadline came and went! We spent the entire episode recapping last week/the actual deadline. Along the way we discussed handling team changes re: modeling, Buffalo and Seattle, life hacks, and skunk cabbage.

Episode 137: Trade Deadline Preview (2025)

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 05:00:00 -0600

After a long night, Luke and I finished and released our Trade Deadline Targets article on the site (check it out)! We spent the entire episode discussing the article, the current trade market, philosophical ways of evaluating trade targets, our favorites, and a couple movie recommendations in between.

Episode 136: Canada is the Best

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 01:00:00 -0600

We took a week off to fully enjoy the 4 Nations Face-Off, and now it's time to evaluate. We spent the first half doing just that (to varying levels of success). Later we dove into some deep model talk, quizzed Shawn on decade-old draft orders, and pondered Classical Music.

Episode 135: 4 Nations Preview!

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 03:00:00 -0600

We've officially entered the 4 Nations break, with the tournament only a few days away. In the first half we attempted to cover all the Nations while rambling about file systems and technology. Later we analyzed the evolution of dump and chase vs. zone entry systems and bad skateboarding.

Episode 134: Trades and Ambidextrous Skaters

Tue, 04 Feb 2025 04:00:00 -0600

In the last week, three (well really four) major trades occurred. We spent the entire episode breaking down each one. In between we rambled about fast food, faceoff specialists, haters, and why aren't there ambidextrous hockey players?

Episode 133: The Rantanen Trade (and Bedard)

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 04:00:00 -0600

The biggest trade in years happened last Friday. We spent the first half discussing the transaction, our analysis, and home improvement stores for some reason. In the second half, Josh was accused of questioning Bedard's value, so we talked bad teams, #1 overall picks, and vibes.

Episode 132: The Playoff Landscape

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 04:00:00 -0600

After a week off due to another Vikings playoff loss and a physical move by Shawn, we're back to cover the current playoff landscape. Fair warning: we did our classic poor job of staying on topic, but we tried. In the mix: Blue Jackets, Bruins, Canadiens, and Connecticut?

Episode 131: The Social Media Landscape

Tue, 07 Jan 2025 04:00:00 -0600

We're, once again, back at our regularly scheduled time. We've never been late. In the first half we discuss the current social media landscape re: hockey, Frank Vatrano's interesting new contract, and tax evasion. Later we chat about Canucks drama and Classic Rock.

Episode 130: The Stars Break the Rules

Tue, 31 Dec 2024 06:00:00 -0600

The last remaining authentic podcast is back. We spent the first half investigating the Stars' wrongdoings then talked try-hard hockey players and misleading prospects. Later we covered audio engineering, Hockey WAR history, bad sports movies, and rivers.

Episode 129: Problems in New York

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 04:00:00 -0600

New York, as a state, is struggling. As certified East Coast Skeptics, we do some Sabres and Rangers forensic analysis, discuss alternative between-period entertainment options, break down defensive player types, and reminisce about our prior laughable models.

Episode 128: The Nature of Fandom

Thu, 12 Dec 2024 03:00:00 -0600

We're back after an unexpectedly long absence while Shawn's on the road. In the first half we chat about the interesting nature of fandom. Later we evaluate some of the public team projection models, discuss Awards (against Shawn's will), and talk movies that make you feel terrible!

Episode 127: The Bruins, Free Agent Review (in-season), and ESPYs

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 03:00:00 -0600

We recorded several hours after the recent firing of Jim Montgomery. We spent the first half discussing the Bruins and similar teams out East. Later we checked in on recent additions from the summer, tried to figure out Seattle, and debated the validity of the 2005 Best Play ESPY.

Episode 126: Everything GAR! Plus the Capitals and Jets

Thu, 14 Nov 2024 04:00:00 -0600

We recently released all of our GAR/xGAR/RAPM data along with every corresponding chart for the '24-25 season. We spent the first half covering the models and interesting early results. Later we tried our best to figure out the Capitals and praised the Jets.

Episode 125: Go Vote! (Plus: Probability Theory and Division Roundups!)

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 03:00:00 -0600

It's election day! Please make sure you get out and vote! We spent the rest of the episode discussing shaky probability theory, potential GAR standouts, special team curiosities, mathematical education, solfège, and early-season division standouts.

Episode 124: The Wild, TV, and Hockey Stats History

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 04:00:00 -0500

It's still a little too early to make "proper" evaluations of teams and players (GAR and RAPM aren't out yet), but that didn't stop us. In the first half we discussed declining NHL viewership and America's Team. Later we covered some site house cleaning items, interesting traded players, and hockey stats history.

Episode 123: Frozen Frenzy and Way Too Early Evaluations

Wed, 23 Oct 2024 04:00:00 -0500

We're once again delayed a day, which means we get to record during the early part of the Frozen Frenzy. We chat about this annual "tradition", the Predators surprising start, statistical uncertainty, Hellebuyck, the Sharks defensemen group, and classical composers.

Episode 122: Week 1, Moneyball, and Jacks

Wed, 16 Oct 2024 02:00:00 -0500

We're (about) a week into the '24-25 NHL Regular season, and while there's little to talk about re: useful stats, there's plenty of hot takes to discuss. We battled through some Twin tech issues (it's fine) to cover Utah, Georgiev, the NHL schedule, surprises, and farm jacks.

Episode 121: '24-25 NHL Regular Season Preview

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 04:00:00 -0500

A new NHL regular season begins today (sort of), and we're all in. We spent the whole episode discussing our team point projections for the coming year, our recent article, division strengths and weaknesses, cup favorites, and dark horses. Buckle up.

Episode 120: NHL Offseason Review & Contract Model Evaluation

Wed, 18 Sep 2024 03:00:00 -0500

With our recent Free Agency Review article up on the site, it felt like a good time to devote an entire episode to it. We discussed our contract model's performance, outlier contracts, winners/losers of the summer, recent signings, and Gothenburg.

Episode 119: Jarvis, Draisaitl, and Monetary Policy

Tue, 10 Sep 2024 04:00:00 -0500

We're back with a real doozy. Outside of a few rambling moments, we spent most of the episode discussing Seth Jarvis' new deal, contact structures, team/player benefits, SOFR, and modeling. If you're someone who enjoys numbers, this one is for you.

Episode 118: Fantasy Projections, Offer Sheets, and Coffee Makers

Fri, 30 Aug 2024 04:00:00 -0500

We took a month off because, frankly, not much has happened and/or we all needed a long break away from hockey. But ... we're back in true and proper form. We discussed golf, coffee, offer sheets, our recently fantasy projections release, and the Minnesota State Fair all while kind of forgetting how to do a podcast episode. It's nice to be back.

Episode 117: League Round Up, Mailbag, and Cronenberg

Wed, 24 Jul 2024 03:00:00 -0500

We took a few weeks off to recover from July 1st, but we're back in full force with this rambling excursion. In the first half we covered recent NHL news, discussed Byfield's contract, and pondered the Sabres' status. Later we answered listener questions and talked films!

Episode 116: Around Free Agency in a Day

Wed, 03 Jul 2024 03:00:00 -0500

Even though it's only been two days, the NHL decided to spend a Billion dollars already. We spent the entire episode covering free agent signings, our contract model's performance, team evaluation, and winners/losers. This was chaos, just like Monday.

Episode 115: 2024 NHL Free Agency Preview!

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 03:00:00 -0500

The Panthers! We spent the first half discussing the Final, team management, and general league happenings. In the second half, we took the timely opportunity to dive into Sabermetrics, WAR theory, and contracts while previewing this summer's Free Agency!

Episode 114: Stanley Cup Final & CapFriendly

Wed, 12 Jun 2024 03:00:00 -0500

We're two games into the 2024 Stanley Cup Final, and there's some stuff to discuss. In the first half we chat about our Cup projections and team construction/expectations. Later we discuss the recent CapFriendly news and contract data/information in general.

Episode 113: Round 3 Recap, Stanley Cup Preview, and Generational Discussion

Tue, 04 Jun 2024 03:00:00 -0500

The 2024 Conference Finals have concluded, and we now move on to the Stanley Cup Final! in between we do our odd version of a post-mortem for the Rangers and Stars, discuss team construction, and ponder the meaning of "generational talent".

Episode 112: 2024 Conference Finals Preview!

Wed, 22 May 2024 03:00:00 -0500

In typical fashion, we're moving on to the Conference Finals with more pressing matters to discuss. In the first half we chatted about buyout structures, AI, and the Selke award. After the break we discussed second round results and our favorites for the Conference Finals!

Episode 111: Boston, Carolina, and Veracity

Wed, 15 May 2024 02:00:00 -0500

We're about halfway through the second round, and things are a little tense. Don't worry, we're here to alleviate your tension. We spent a full segment diving into the series (that we've watched), discussing the Canes and/or angry Rangers fans, and teaching Shawn the meaning of veracity.

Episode 110: Round 2 Preview!

Tue, 07 May 2024 03:00:00 -0500

We're on to the second round of the 2024 NHL playoffs! We spent a full hour with no breaks discussing the first round and our models' thoughts on the second round while covering some interesting past playoff performances and geography.

Episode 109: Round 1, Idioms, and Coffee

Tue, 30 Apr 2024 04:00:00 -0500

Round 1 of the 2024 NHL playoffs is halfway done, and we're here to discuss archaic idioms and our coffee habits instead. In between we spend the actual majority of our time covering the ongoing series, a few interesting statistical tidbits, and The Leafs.

Episode 108: 2024 NHL Playoff Preview! Round 1

Wed, 24 Apr 2024 04:00:00 -0500

We're a few days late, but that's not our fault! The NHL decided to start the playoffs earlier than expected, so we're scrambling a bit to catch up. We spent the entire episode covering each of the first round series. In between there's some nonsense as usual.

Episode 107: Kyle Dubas Roasts Us

Tue, 09 Apr 2024 05:00:00 -0500

It's been a few weeks, but we're back to discuss... Kyle Dubas in the twitter replies. Later (and before) we chat about the terrible Eastern Conference wild card race, potential changes to the NHL playoff structure, shooting talent, and eclipses.

Episode 106: Tanking, Models, and the Playoff Picture

Tue, 19 Mar 2024 04:00:00 -0500

It's that time of year again: bad teams. We use the Sharks and Blackhawks as a jumping off point to talk historically bad teams (the '92-93 Senators and Sharks), and then cover the current playoff picture. In the middle, we chat about preseason expectations and models.

Episode 105: 3v3 Goalie Pulls, Twins, and Post-Tade Deadline

Tue, 12 Mar 2024 04:00:00 -0500

The NHL trade deadline came and went, but we had more important things on our minds: 4v3 strength states. In the first half, we talked twins, the Wild's bold 3v3 goalie pull, and scoring rates. Later, we did a full breakdown of the deadline!

Episode 104: Rempe, The Devils, and Wikipedia

Tue, 05 Mar 2024 04:00:00 -0600

With the trade deadline fast approaching, we first explained to Luke why everyone is talking about Matt Rempe and then cover the very recent Devils coaching change. Later we reminisce about Wikipedia-while-working and chat about the ongoing deadline happenings.

Episode 103: Trade Deadline 2024 Extravaganza

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 04:00:00 -0600

We just published our '23-24 NHL trade deadline targets article on the site and spent well over an hour talking about our targets, the Evolving Tanev deal, and contending vs. non-contending teams. This one was a blast.

Article can be found here

Episode 102: Columbus, Jágr, and Trade Deadline Targets

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 04:00:00 -0600

We're back after a long holiday weekend to chat about Jarmo Kekäläinen's firing, the Blue Jackets, and the tank race. Later we cover some Jágr trivia, trade deadline (non-) targets, and music composition.

Episode 101: NHL Audit, Empty Net Goals, and Vacuums

Tue, 13 Feb 2024 04:00:00 -0600

It's time for some data discussion! The NHL recently announced that they completed a season-long audit of their tracking methods, and we took this as an on-brand opportunity to spend the first half chatting about it. Later we discussed the awesome Greig empty-net slapshot, empty net goals in general, geography, and vacuums.

Episode 100: Trades, Rest of Season Predictions, and NHL Recitals

Tue, 06 Feb 2024 04:00:00 -0600

We're back - at our proper time! In the first half we discussed the All Star game, Lindholm & Monahan, the Canucks, and regional pronunciation. Later we talked NHL players in recital, expansion cities, and team predictions for the rest of the '23-24 season.

Evolving Hockey Guest Spot: Charlie O'Connor, Again!

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 04:00:00 -0600

It's our pleasure to welcome our first returning guest! Charlie, one of our favorite people in hockey, stopped by to chat about the Flyers' surprise season, the coaching and organizational overhaul, interesting players, Tyson Foerster, and some of our favorite albums from 2023.

Charlie O'Connor can be found here:
PHLY Sports
Twitter

In light of the recent 2018 Hockey Canada sexual assault charges, we are encouraging those who are able to support and donate to the following organizations:

WOAR Philadelphia Center Against Sexual Violence
RAINN
National Sexual Violence Resource Center

Episode 99: Fleury, The Blackhawks, and Technology

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 05:00:00 -0600

We're halfway through the season, and it's a perfect time to discuss some exceptionally bad teams. In the first half we chat about Fleury's recent climb among goalie greats and goalie stats this season. Later, we debate terrible rosters, fuel economy metrics, and historical stats.

Episode 98: The PWHL, Gauthier / Drysdale, and Nylander

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 04:00:00 -0600

In rare form for this season, we've had some actual big news over the last week! In the first half, we chat about the early success of the PWHL and the unique Flyers / Ducks trade. In the second half, we discuss Nylander's extension, aging curves, and great hockey names.

Episode 97: The Winter Classic, Preseason Expectations, and Airports

Wed, 03 Jan 2024 04:00:00 -0600

New Year, Same Us. We spent the first half discussing the Winter Classic, language stack exchanges, and airports. In the second half we chatted about public models, team performance relative to preseason expectations, and the state of public data/tracking in 2024.

Episode 96: Naughty & Nice Lists, Twin Cities, and Olympic Rosters

Wed, 20 Dec 2023 04:00:00 -0600

It's Christmas Eve in podcast form, so we took a prompt from Shawn and spent the first half discussing our individually-defined naughty & nice lists for the NHL this season. In the second half we chatted about GRIT and stumbled into 2026 Olympic hockey roster speculation.

Episode 95: Player Evaluation, Philosophy, and Ohtani

Tue, 12 Dec 2023 04:00:00 -0600

Last week we discussed a few others' award picks. This week, we used our own picks as a means to discuss player evaluation philosophy, under-looked players this season, and Connor Bedard. Later we talked Ohtani's new contract and NHL parallels.

Episode 94: Awards Talk, The Sabres, and Geography

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 05:00:00 -0600

We're quite late, and that's the twins' fault. We spent the first half rambling about the crazy Pacific teams, handwriting, and some important geography. In the second half, however, we got serious: The Buffalo Sabres and Awards talk.

Episode 93: Dean Evason, The CBA, and Thanksgiving Standings!

Tue, 28 Nov 2023 03:00:00 -0600

We're back after a week break for Thanksgiving. This one made it seem like we really missed doing this podcast (we did). First we discussed the Wild, their recent coaching change, and struggles. In the second half we attempted to talk the current playoff picture. In between we covered DST, our vague understanding of the CBA, Randy Newman, and New Foundland.

Episode 92: The Oilers / Sharks Battle and Way Too Early Calder Discussion

Tue, 14 Nov 2023 03:00:00 -0600

It feels like the only thing happening in the league has to do with the Oilers. So of course we discussed Edmonton's woes along with one of the more entertaining games of the last year. In the second half we chatted about early rookie standouts and made time for some geography trivia!

Episode 91: The Canucks, The Leafs, and Jury Duty

Wed, 08 Nov 2023 03:00:00 -0600

Shawn has been dealing with jury duty, so we're once again a day late - our apologies. We spent a good portion of the first half discussing the Canucks, the erratic Pacific division, and expectations. In the second half we pat ourselves on the back re: the Leafs and chat about the important new Minnesota top line.

Episode 90: Halloween, The Ducks, and New GAR Data!

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 04:00:00 -0500

As is (now) tradition here at the podcast, we're recording on Halloween, once again. We chat about the surprising Anaheim Ducks, discuss the recently released GAR et al. data for the '23-24 season, quiz each other on D-men shooting trivia, and share some spooky stories!

Episode 89: New Tracking Data, Alberta Struggles, and Frozen Frenzy

Tue, 24 Oct 2023 03:00:00 -0500

The NHL just released their new player tracking site, Edge! We spent the first half covering the new site, what's available, and discussing our thoughts on theoretical player "value". In the second half, we talked Alberta, struggling teams, and the upcoming Frozen Frenzy!

Episode 88: Conor Bedard, The Leafs, and X-Rinks

Tue, 17 Oct 2023 04:00:00 -0500

The first week of the '23-24 NHL regular season is in the books, and we're here to discuss your 3 GP shooting % leaders. It's still a little too early to say anything conclusive about this year's season, but we discussed Bedard, some surprising upsets, Leafs discourse, and fun hockey variants.

Episode 87: '23-24 NHL Season Preview!

Tue, 10 Oct 2023 04:00:00 -0500

We went long with this one. And for good reason. The '23-24 NHL regular season begins today, and we just released our preseason team point projections! This is a companion episode to the article that went up on the site covering the projections! This was a real fun time.

Episode 86: Baseball, The Minnesota Wild, and Scandanavia

Tue, 03 Oct 2023 03:00:00 -0500

We're a week away from the start of the '23-24 NHL season and spent a good amount of time discussing the upcoming MLB playoffs and childhood sports fandom. We then moved on to some recent signings by the Wild and Ducks and discussed the definition of Scandinavia.

Episode 85: Barbie, Data, and Zegras

Wed, 27 Sep 2023 03:00:00 -0500

We're back to our regularly scheduled time (a day late of course). Josh & Luke saw Barbie, so of course we have to talk about it. Afterwards we discussed nonsense, the Buffalo Sabres, preseason storylines, recent changes to the NHL's data, and the Zegras saga.

Episode 84: Babcock, Sanderson, and Nonsense

Tue, 19 Sep 2023 03:00:00 -0500

We're back after our broken promise of a normal schedule. Despite our best efforts, we spent a little time discussing the Babcock situation in Columbus then moved on to Ottawa and the Sanderson signing, contract theory, and a recent lack of publicized NHL tardiness?

Episode 83: It's Fantasy Time!

Wed, 06 Sep 2023 03:00:00 -0500

We just released our updated Fantasy Projections for the '23-24 NHL season yesterday on the site! We spent most of the hour discussing the model, our process, how the tool can/should be used, and the things we learned from our mistakes (as fantasy managers) last season.

Projections: https://evolving-hockey.com/stats/fantasy_projections/

Episode 82: 2023 NHL Free Agency Review!

Tue, 22 Aug 2023 04:00:00 -0500

It's that time, once again! We spent the entire hour discussing everything 2023's NHL offseason had to offer. While this summer may have been a dud, we had a great time diving into our contract model's performance, team evaluation, trades, and Oliver Bonk.

Take a look at the article that goes along with this episode here!

Evolving Hockey Guest Spot: Dani Chu

Tue, 01 Aug 2023 02:00:00 -0500

We're honored to have Dani Chu, Senior Quantitative Analyst for the Seattle Kraken, on the show! We spent an hour talking about Dani's background, working with the Kraken, education, statistics, hockey conferences, and the Coachella Valley Firebirds. This was a blast.

Episode #81: DeBrincat, Kopitar, and '23-24 Player Projections!

Tue, 18 Jul 2023 04:00:00 -0500

We're back! We start discussing a few recent signings, the end of the DeBrincat Saga, career Goals Above Replacement re: Kopitar, and Banana Ball. Later, we cover everything you need to know about GAR projections on the site!

Episode #80: Five Days into NHL Free Agency

Thu, 06 Jul 2023 03:00:00 -0500

We're through five days of free agency. So far it's been a lot of things, and we have thoughts. We spent the whole hour covering all of it. Contract projections, Twitter, left-field contracts, and team evaluations. It's nice to be back.

Episode #79: Stanley Cup, Team Construction, and Contracts!

Thu, 15 Jun 2023 04:00:00 -0500

The Golden Knights are your 2023 Stanley Cup Champions, which means hockey (in its played form) is now over. We discussed the Cup Final, transitioned to a larger discussion about skater size and team construction, and spent the second half covering a few recent contracts and gaming.

Episode #78: Round 3, Defunct NHL Teams, and League News

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 03:00:00 -0500

The Conference Finals are done, and we weren't particularly impressed with them. We discussed the series, learned about now-defunct NHL teams, talked probability theory, and tried to cover everything that's happened in NHL front offices recently.

Episode #77: The Leafs, Coyotes, and Geography

Thu, 18 May 2023 03:00:00 -0500

Round 2 is complete, and well, it wasn't necessarily the best round we've watched. That said, there's a lot here. We discussed the second round, the upcoming Conference Finals, the Leafs' potential problems, the Coyotes actual problems, and spent way too long figuring out where the bayou is.

Episode #76: Draft Lottery, Round 2, and Draisaitl

Tue, 09 May 2023 04:00:00 -0500

We recorded immediately after the draft lottery, and none of us were exceptionally happy about it. We chat about the aforementioned lottery, the ongoing second round of the playoffs, cleaning agents, and Leon Draisaitl... with quite a bit of rambling throughout.

Hockey Stats Glossary Series: Contract Projections!

Fri, 05 May 2023 03:00:00 -0500

The Glossary Series is back! We spent the entire hour covering our NHL contract projection model, which we recently updated and released on Evolving Hockey for the 2023 NHL offseason. Josh & Luke rambled a bit too much, but we had a lot of fun with this one!

Episode #75: Round 2!

Wed, 03 May 2023 06:00:00 -0500

The first round of the NHL playoffs this season was quite a treat. We chat about everything that happened (in as much detail as we can fit in an hour), and cover the second round along the way. Keep an eye out for another episode later this week covering our recently released contract projections!

Episode #74: Playoffs, Penalties, and Projections

Tue, 25 Apr 2023 02:00:00 -0500

We did it. We solved the "penalty problem". During the first half, we discuss the ongoing "issue" of refereeing/penalties in the NHL and chat about sleep schedules. In the second half, we cover the current state of the playoffs, the interesting DAL/MIN rosters, and the potential round 2 matchups.

Episode #73: First Round Playoff Preview!

Mon, 17 Apr 2023 04:00:00 -0500

The 2023 NHL playoffs begin today! We spent well over an hour discussing each series at length. Mind you, we sprinkled some banter in as well, and had quite the heated debate about the North Stars. Make sure to check out our complete playoff preview on the site (here).

Episode #72: Vibes, Bruins, and Scoring Trends

Tue, 04 Apr 2023 03:00:00 -0500

We thought we'd have little to talk about this week, but that was clearly wrong. We discussed the Bruins and their chances in the playoffs, tried to briefly rank teams based on vibes, circled back to the scoring trends and tracking this season, and butchered numerous French phrases.

Episode #71: Playoff Talk and Mailbag!

Tue, 28 Mar 2023 03:00:00 -0500

We're about 3 weeks away from the 2023 NHL playoffs, which means we're all wondering why they haven't started yet. In the first half, we chat about the current playoff picture (among various random topics). We then move on to a quite long but very fun mailbag segment!

Episode #70: The Gang Scouts a Hockey Player

Tue, 21 Mar 2023 02:00:00 -0500

As hinted at in past episodes, we've finally done it. All three of us, individually, scouted a game from rookie sensation Jack Quinn of the Buffalo Sabres. We spent the entire hour discussing our process, reviewing our notes (which can be found on https://evolving-hockey.com/), debating our evaluation, and pondering scouting in general. This was a blast.

Episode #69: Philosophy, Raw Meat, and Awards Talk

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 04:00:00 -0500

We're quickly approaching the end of the '22-23 NHL season. With the trade deadline behind us, we discussed recent league occurrences, the current state of the playoff race, Chychrun's diet, our NHL awards picks, state fairs, and the philosophy around player evaluation.

Episode #68: Trade Deadline Analysis, Pennsylvania, and Scouting

Tue, 07 Mar 2023 03:00:00 -0600

The NHL trade deadline is now behind us! We cover the rest of the deals that happened since last episode, evaluate teams and how they did, ponder whether Pennsylvania as a state is in trouble, and consider what it would be like if we were scouts.

Episode #67: TRADES!

Wed, 01 Mar 2023 03:00:00 -0600

That's it. That's the whole episode. We spent nearly 80 minutes going through @CapFriendly's trade history page, chronologically, covering everything that's happened in the past week. This trade deadline has been insane. And there are 3 days left.

Episode #66: Chychrun, Tarasenko, Horvat, and Tage

Tue, 14 Feb 2023 03:00:00 -0600

While we're a few weeks out from the trade deadline, there have been plenty of speculated and actual moves. We first cover a few All Star Game bits, then focus on recent league news, Jakob Chychrun rumors, the recent Tarasenko trade, Bo Horvat's new contract, and "good" teams. And of course, Tage enters the conversation as well.

Episode #65: The Horvat Trade, All Star Rosters, and Awards

Tue, 31 Jan 2023 02:00:00 -0600

It's an Emergency Podcast! Not really, but Bo Horvat happened to be traded 20 minutes before we started recording, so it's an emergency. We chat about the trade, cover a few league happenings, and combine All Star Rosters and Awards analysis in the second half.

Episode #64: Bad News, The Canucks, and Shot Data

Tue, 24 Jan 2023 02:00:00 -0600

The past week was a lot of not good news. We cover a few of the items in question in the first half, along with some general good old fashioned trivia to start. In the second half we revisit our predictions from last week, and spend some time discussing shot data in general.

Episode #63: The Halfway Point

Tue, 17 Jan 2023 02:00:00 -0600

We're halfway through the season, which means it's time for a full midseason recap episode! In the first half we discuss struggling teams (Canucks, Senators), the Kraken's recent success, and Matt Boldy. In the second half we dig into the playoff landscape.

Episode #62: The Panthers, Bad Teams, and Jack Hughes

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 01:00:00 -0600

We're back after a short break! While things are heating up in the NHL, we're focused on the continuing tank efforts from teams across the league. We also spent quite a bit of time trying to diagnose the Panthers issues, and discussed the Hughes brothers.

Episode #61: Filip Hronek, Systems, and 2022 Review

Wed, 28 Dec 2022 01:00:00 -0600

Our last episode of 2022 is here! In the first half, we discuss the Rise of Hronek, pronunciation, and the impacts of systems on players. After the break, we banter about Michigan attempts, run through Josh's 2022 year in review, and ponder future contracts.

Evolving Hockey Guest Spot: Corey Sznajder

Thu, 22 Dec 2022 04:00:00 -0600

We're very excited to have Corey Sznajder, the premier hockey-tracking analyst, on the podcast! Corey has been in the field longer than any other public analyst, which is saying quite a bit. We spent an hour covering his work, trends in the past decade, what he finds interesting in hockey, and the most unique skaters in the league. This was a blast.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShutdownLine
Support him! https://www.allthreezones.com/

Episode #59: Scorekeeper Bias and Historic Games

Tue, 20 Dec 2022 02:00:00 -0600

We have a guest episode scheduled in a few days (!), and with the holidays approaching we kept this one a bit shorter. That said, we discussed the impacts of screen time on sleep, historic games, Columbus, and our new point of focus: scorekeeper bias in the NHL.

Episode #58: Education, Tage Thompson (Again), and Empty Net Goals

Tue, 13 Dec 2022 03:00:00 -0600

Tage Thompson is at it again. This time, we tried to find comparable players based on his career (so far). In the second half we discussed Ovechkin's pursuit of the all-time empty-net goal record, point streaks, Luongo's bathroom break, and tanking teams.

Episode #57: SEAHAC and Early Season Awards

Wed, 07 Dec 2022 03:00:00 -0600

All three of us just got back from SEAHAC 2022. We spent the first half recapping the conference, presentations, festivities, and all things related to one of the best conferences any of us have attended. In the second half, we chat about our favorite topic: our early-season NHL awards picks.

Episode #56: NHL Rink History, Tage Thompson, and WAR Discussion

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 01:00:00 -0600

With Thanksgiving only a few days behind us, we took the opportunity to ramble about sleeping habits, league history, rink dimensions, Tage Thompson, some of the philosophical foundations of WAR, and vocabulary.

Episode #55: League Round Up, Tank Race, and Microstats

Wed, 23 Nov 2022 02:00:00 -0600

The general state of the league was the topic for this episode: tanking teams, the unlikely ascension of the Devils and Bruins, the most "expected" teams/players, and Nick Seeler. In the second half, we had a great conversation about Shawn's recent tracking project and article on the site.

Episode #54: Tracking, Philosophy, and Expectations

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 02:00:00 -0600

Despite some technical issues, we all loved this episode. We discuss tracking, zone entries/exits, philosophical questions in modeling hockey, expected goals, over/under-performing teams and players, and Otto McAvoy's new dog food.

Episode #53: Time, Chaos, and Hockey

Tue, 08 Nov 2022 02:00:00 -0600

This one was all over the place (in a good way). We chat about early season trends, surprising results, particularly bad team and skater performances, Matthew Tkachuk, daylight saving time, SEAHAC, and coffee.

Episode #52: Spooky Season

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 02:00:00 -0500

It's Halloween. Spooky Season. We chat about the release of our EH player evaluation models for the '22-23 season, some (still) surprising teams and players, the history of analytics, and Matthew McConaughey

Episode #51: Early Season Impressions

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 00:00:00 -0500

We're a little late this week, but we've officially moved on to week three of the '22-23 NHL season. We chat about our initial impressions of the young season, discuss the surprise teams (among 7 games), cover some interesting teammate data, and try hard not to deride Shawn for his lack of Coen Brothers knowledge.

Episode #50: Week 1, Rookies, and Excitement

Mon, 17 Oct 2022 02:00:00 -0500

The first week of the '22-23 NHL regular season is now complete, and I think we're all just a *little* bit excited. We discuss some very early trends around the league, rookies, cover seemingly every team in the league, and Josh and Luke convert back into premier Wild fans. Plus quite a bit of rambling and nonsense.

Episode #49: A New NHL Regular Season, Predictions, and Hydration

Tue, 11 Oct 2022 02:00:00 -0500

The '22-23 NHL regular season technically began a few days ago, but for most people it starts today. With Shawn back in his host chair, we chat about the beginning of another regular season, our early off-the-board predictions, and spend too much time discussing liquid intake.

Episode #48 (Twin Edition): Team Projections

Tue, 04 Oct 2022 04:00:00 -0500

Shawn is on vacation, so Josh and Luke decided they'd try an episode without our host. It went surprisingly well in our opinion (don't ask Shawn what he thinks). Our team point projections for the NHL season went live yesterday. We spent the episode discussing them along with other NHL regular season eve items.

Episode #47: Hockey, End of the Offseason, and Schedule Woes

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 00:00:00 -0500

Again, there isn't much going on, but we found plenty to talk about. We chat about Hockey (in the abstract), pace of play, the "final" review of our contract projection model for the 2022 offseason, general grievances, and coffee.

Episode #46: J.T. Miller, MN State Fair, and Fantasy Projections

Wed, 07 Sep 2022 01:00:00 -0500

We released our our fantasy projections for the '22-23 NHL season yesterday, but we also made plenty of time to ramble about random nonsense, J.T. Miller and Tage Thompson, the MN State Fair, and Milk. We then spent the entire second half covering our newly released projections!

Episode #45: Nothing is Happening (and Mailbag)

Tue, 30 Aug 2022 03:00:00 -0500

It's the end of August, and absolutely nothing is going on. We spent 40 minutes rambling even more than usual about the very few remaining free agents, Jason Robertson, projections and early expectations for next season, and corn (it's a little complicated).

Episode #44: 2022 NHL Free Agency Review

Tue, 16 Aug 2022 01:00:00 -0500

We're officially one month into NHL free agency. Not only that, but Josh wrote a review for the site covering the last month! We chat about the contents of said review, general salary trends, annoying contracts, month rankings (yes), and RStudio themes.

Check out the article here: https://evolving-hockey.com/blog/2022-nhl-free-agency-a-review/

Evolving Hockey Guest Spot: Mike Murphy

Thu, 04 Aug 2022 04:00:00 -0500

Mike Murphy, one of the absolute best people in hockey, joined us for a special guest episode. We talked with Mike about women's hockey, the current evolving environment in the game, contracts, and of course stats among numerous other topics. This was easily one of our favorite episodes!

Episode #42: NHL Free Agency - Week 2

Thu, 28 Jul 2022 01:00:00 -0500

We may not have had as many signings, but the second week of NHL free agency proved to be possibly more interesting. We spent 75 minutes discussing everything that's happened since our last episode: Laine/Bjorkstrand, Tkachuk, and shenanigans.

Episode #41: NHL Free Agency - Week 1

Tue, 19 Jul 2022 02:00:00 -0500

We're one week into NHL free agency for 2022. A lot has happened, and possibly even more hasn't. We spent the entire episode discussing the first week, the current free agency environment, and our contract projection model.

Episode #40: 2022 NHL Free Agency Preview

Tue, 12 Jul 2022 02:00:00 -0500

Tomorrow, NHL Free Agency officially begins. We just released our comprehensive preview article on evolving-hockey.com, and we spend the entire (long) episode discussing what has happened so far, what might happen in the coming months, and what possibly should happen.

Episode #39: Free Agency Discussion and Contract Projections!

Tue, 05 Jul 2022 03:00:00 -0500

Free agency is a week away! We spend the first half discussing the current free agency environment, some early signings, and Bobby Bonilla. In the second half, we cover our contract projection model, questions, and fumble around with CBA terminology.

Episode #38: Stanley Cup Results, Rivalries, and GAR Projections

Wed, 29 Jun 2022 01:00:00 -0500

The '21-22 NHL season is now done. The Colorado Avalanche defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning. Which means the offseason has begun! We spend the first half discussing the final teams, the final series, and rivalries among other related things. In the second half, we cover our recently released GAR projections for the '22-23 season.

Episode #37: NHL Awards Results, Stanley Cup Final, and Dinosaurs

Wed, 22 Jun 2022 03:00:00 -0500

The NHL Awards are now final. We spend the first half discussing the results among a host of other topics. The second half we check in on the in-progress Stanley Cup final, discuss other league topics, and ramble for a good 10 minutes at the end about dinosaurs, pronunciations, and explicit language.

Episode #36: Stanley Cup Final, Analytical Teams, and Riley Nash

Wed, 15 Jun 2022 02:00:00 -0500

The Stanley Cup Final is upon us. We chat about the final series of the 2022 NHL playoffs, roster construction, depth players, analytical teams, and make a bet revolving around Shawn's favorite hockey player Riley Nash.

Episode #35: Selke Results, Bruce Cassidy, and Mailbag!

Tue, 07 Jun 2022 02:00:00 -0500

Our favorite subject, skater defense, gets a highlight here as we discuss the Selke results and the imaginary defensemen award alternative. We also chat about issues with team colors in visualizations, Bruce Cassidy's recent termination, and spend the second half answering your mailbag questions!

Episode #34: Luke's List of Grievances and the Conference Finals

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 02:00:00 -0500

Other than the Playoffs, there really isn't much going on in the NHL. We chat about the recently concluded 2nd round and just started 3rd, debate the importance of playoff performance in player and team evaluation (among the other items on Luke's list), and once again talk about Valeri Nichushkin.

Episode #33: Tampa Bay, Round 2, and Some Early Contracts

Tue, 24 May 2022 01:00:00 -0500

We're all a little burned out, but the burn out was not consistent between the three of us so we could still cover all the series. We chat about the Lighting's empire, general round 2 happenings, and spend the second half discussing the first contracts of the 2022 NHL offseason.

Episode #32: Playoff Discussion and Contract Projections

Wed, 18 May 2022 02:00:00 -0500

The twins had a very long past week, and we are a day late. However, we still had some time to discuss the end of the first round, chat about the upcoming 2nd round, and talk about model results. In the second half, we covered our recently released NHL contract projections for the 2022 NHL offseason!

Episode #31: Round 1 Playoff Coverage, Team Names, and Penalties

Tue, 10 May 2022 02:00:00 -0500

We're midway through the first round of the NHL playoffs (at this point we know the Avalanche swept the Predators, but we didn't know this at the time of recording). We chat about every series, debate team names, talk about the "new" penalty environment, and follow a few rabbit holes like normal.

Episode #30: 2022 NHL Playoff Preview - Round 1

Mon, 02 May 2022 03:00:00 -0500

Our full preview of the first round is live on the site (check it out here: https://evolving-hockey.com/blog/evolving-hockey-2022-playoff-preview-round-1/), and we spent the whole episode covering each series. It was a little scatterbrained, but it's been a bit since we've had a "thing" to talk about. Just like the first round will be, this one was fun.

Evolving Hockey #29: Vegas, Early Playoff Takes, and Good Defensemen

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 02:00:00 -0500

There's not much to talk about given the playoffs start in a week, but we somehow managed to fill an hour with riveting discussion. We chat about the Golden Knights' struggles, names in general, robotic refs, good defensemen, and some recent additions to all-time hockey tweets.

Evolving Hockey Guest Spot: Charlie O'Connor

Tue, 19 Apr 2022 02:00:00 -0500

One of our favorite people in hockey, Charlie O'Connor, joined us for another guest spot. We talked about Charlie's start in hockey stats and writing, covered hockey twitter history, discussed the unfortunate '21-22 Philadelphia Flyers, and saved a little time at the end for some musical debate.

Evolving Hockey #28: Statistical Terms, Preseason Projections, and Listener Suggestions

Tue, 12 Apr 2022 02:00:00 -0500

Just like last week, we're waiting for the playoffs to start. We needed some content, so we asked for your suggestions. On the way, we covered irritating statistical terms, preseason projection misses, Winnipeg's lack of an airport, a Quiz Show around unique defensive performances, and thrash metal.

Evolving Hockey #27: Hockey Names, Fighting, and Hockey Stats History

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 02:00:00 -0500

We're in the dog days of the '21-22 NHL season. The playoff teams are almost all set with only a few teams vying for the remaining spots. With that in mind, we discussed pronunciations, hockey names, fighting, Patrice Bergeron, and jumped into an overview of the foundations of hockey stats.

Evolving Hockey #26: Gold Drafting, Awards, and Mailbag!

Tue, 29 Mar 2022 02:00:00 -0500

We spent the first part of the show bouncing around from one topic to another covering allergies, Gold drafting, playoff implications, and draft lottery ping pong ball conspiracies. The second half is devoted entirely to mailbag questions (with an early sidetrack to Creed and early 2000s hard rock).

Evolving Hockey #25: '21-22 NHL Trade Deadline

Wed, 23 Mar 2022 02:00:00 -0500

The 2022 NHL trade deadline happened a few days ago, and we tried to cover every trade that we could fit in. Like this year's deadline, this episode is all over the place, chaotic, and of course fun.

Evolving Hockey #24: Josh Manson, Single Game Seasons, and Ristolainen

Tue, 15 Mar 2022 02:00:00 -0500

Josh Manson was traded just before we recorded, so we used this as a jumping off point. We chat about the trade, utility in position-switching, absurd rate statistics due to single-game seasons, bizarre minor league teams, and the Ristolainen signing among a host of other topics.

Hockey Stats Glossary Series: Part 3 - Regularized Adjusted Plus Minus

Wed, 09 Mar 2022 01:00:00 -0600

In part 3 of our Glossary series, we dive headfirst into RAPM (Regularized Adjusted Plus Minus) and its use in hockey skater evaluation. When we say headfirst, we really do mean it. This part in the series has a lot packed into it. It's not required, but listening to parts 1 & 2 ahead of time will make things a bit smoother. Let's go.

Evolving Hockey #23: History of Hockey Twitter, Social Media, and The Western Conference

Mon, 07 Mar 2022 03:00:00 -0600

The All Time Hockey Twitter bracket is live, and we had plenty to say about it. We spent the first half chatting about some all-time hockey tweets, social media, and how much older we are than Shawn. In the second half, we get to actual hockey talk regarding the struggling Wild, the Western conference, and a little trade talk.

Evolving Hockey #22: Exceptional Goaltending, Live Coding, and '21 Free Agency

Mon, 28 Feb 2022 01:00:00 -0600

We tried to do some planning, but this one ended up as chaotic as ever. Luke coded the entire time while we chatted about the Leafs/Red Wings four-goalie extravaganza, covered obscure icing stats, and attempted to review 2021 free agency. Chaos is fun.

Evolving Hockey #21: Toffoli, Giroux, and Rabbit Holes

Thu, 17 Feb 2022 23:00:00 -0600

We recorded this before the USA/Canada gold medal game not really realizing that we should've just waited a day. However, we did cover some fun topics while getting caught in our usual rabbit holes. Tyler Toffoli was traded, Claude Giroux might be traded, we checked in on the Sabres once again, and learned that the Philadelphia Spectrum's roof blew off in 1968.

Evolving Hockey Guest Spot: Alison Lukan

Fri, 11 Feb 2022 01:00:00 -0600

We're extremely excited to welcome one of our absolute favorite people in hockey, Alison Lukan (@AlisonL), to the podcast! We discuss Alison's background in hockey and stats, talk about numerous topics related to and regarding the Seattle Kraken, and reminisce about hockey analytics conferences. This was a great time!

Evolving Hockey Guest Spot: Dom Luszczyszyn

Thu, 03 Feb 2022 03:00:00 -0600

We're very excited to have one of our dearest friends Dom Luszczyszyn (@domluszczyszyn) on the podcast for a special episode. Burritos, Apple Numbers, Game Score, The Seattle Kraken, and Fortnite are the topics of conversation (among many others). This one was fun.

Evolving Hockey #20: Exceptionally Bad NHL Teams and Trade Deadline Targets

Tue, 01 Feb 2022 02:00:00 -0600

We're a day later than usual (technical issues), but the extra day gave us time to be extra sharp. We spend the first segment discussing our favorite topics (Geography, the Sabres, and bad NHL teams), and then transition to our takes on potential trade deadline targets.

Evolving Hockey #19: Edmonton Media, The Curious Case of the Coyotes, and Mailbag!

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 02:00:00 -0600

Week 15 is over, and the Edmonton Media is at it again. We chat about the Oilers (they've been the biggest story in the NHL for weeks), the absurdly odd Arizona Coyotes, and spend the entire second half answering listener questions in a mailbag segment!

Evolving Hockey #18: All Star Selections, Good/Bad Takes, and the Canadiens

Mon, 17 Jan 2022 01:00:00 -0600

Week 14 (?) is in the books, but who's really counting at this point. We chat about the difficulty in projecting team performance (the Montreal Canadiens), All Star Game roster selections / general All Star Game nonsense, and discuss all of our good, bad, and ugly takes over the years.

Evolving Hockey #17: Own Goals, Scoring Trends, and The Calder

Mon, 10 Jan 2022 02:00:00 -0600

Despite setbacks, the '21-22 NHL season rolls on in entertaining fashion. We discuss Marcus Foligno's "goal" via Carl Hagelin, hockey Scorigamis, general goal scoring trends, the Calder race as it stands in our opinion right now, and the "generational" goaltenders of the last decade. This episode jumped around more than normal, but remember: chaos is good.

Evolving Hockey #16: 2021 Year End Review

Mon, 03 Jan 2022 01:00:00 -0600

We took a week off, but we're back in full force. 2021 is in the rear-view mirror, and we spent a good deal of time covering the current state of the league (first part) along with our version of a 2021 year-end review (second part). Cold, the Winter Classic, and the importance of eradicating the emerald ash borer were also discussed.

Hockey Stats Glossary Series: Part 2 - Zone, Relative, and Quality Metrics

Thu, 23 Dec 2021 01:00:00 -0600

In part 2 of our Hockey Stats Glossary Series, we cover several of the "non-model" metrics for skater analysis in hockey statistics! Here we discuss zone starts, various relative metrics (relative to team, WOWY, relative to teammate), and quality of teammates/competition evaluation. This all leads into part 3, where we'll discuss the "model" based skater evaluation metrics (RAPM and GAR).

Evolving Hockey #15: Breakout Skaters, Covid, and The Olympics

Tue, 21 Dec 2021 01:00:00 -0600

Covid is shutting everything down (again). The Olympics are likely cancelled (again). Everything is bad right now, but we still managed to talk about the Sabres, breakout players, and some potentially spicy Olympic roster picks. Even if it's not going to happen, we can still hope and keep the dream alive. Right?

Evolving Hockey #14: Our First Guest Shayna Goldman! (Zegras and Penalties Too)

Mon, 13 Dec 2021 01:00:00 -0600

We're excited to have Shayna Goldman as our first guest on the podcast (skip to 30:54 if you're just interested in her)! We chat with Shayna about her recent endeavors, the public expected goals models, and her ability to incorporate data and hockey numbers into her work. Before the break we cover the Zegras/Milano connection (and discourse) and dive back into the NHL penalty debate.

Evolving Hockey #13: Canucks, Coaching, and Early-Season Awards Picks

Mon, 06 Dec 2021 02:00:00 -0600

We're back this week with a full-length episode. Just before we recorded, it was leaked that the Vancouver Canucks had potentially made some changes in their organization. We discuss their new move(s) and cover what coaching analysis in the NHL looks like (or doesn't). In the second half, we go all-in on our way-too-early NHL awards picks.

Hockey Stats Glossary Series: Part 1 - General Terms

Wed, 01 Dec 2021 02:00:00 -0600

We're back with a special episode: Part 1 of our Hockey Stats Glossary Series. Our goal with this series is to cover every hockey stat we can think of, which happens to be almost everything that's available on evolving-hockey.com! In our first episode, we talk about the general terms in modern hockey stats and discuss history, definitions, and usage along the way.

Evolving Hockey #12: Thanksgiving, Team Projections, and Jerseys

Mon, 29 Nov 2021 02:00:00 -0600

We're back with a slightly abridged version this week as we'll be releasing another episode in a few days (keep an eye out for it midweek)! We chat about recent trends among teams, discuss the age-old Thanksgiving standings positions in relation to our team projections, and haphazardly talk about hockey jerseys.

Evolving Hockey Episode 11: Hexagonal Rinks, Shorthanded Defense, Fantasy Projections, and the Kraken

Mon, 22 Nov 2021 00:00:00 -0600

Week 6 of the '21-22 NHL season is in the books, and we're back to discussing some nonsense: the battle for New York, irregular rink sizes, shorthanded defense, and various other strength state play. In the second half we talk about our new in-season fantasy projection tools that were released on Evolving Hockey this past week and more or less agree that the Kraken are getting goalied.

Evolving Hockey Episode 10: Troy Terry, The Coyotes, and Penalty Talk!

Mon, 15 Nov 2021 03:00:00 -0600

We're back for our 10th episode! We spend the first half chatting about various topics in the NHL (geography, Troy Terry & the Ducks, how bad are the Coyotes really, historically bad teams, and luck). In the second half, we talk almost entirely about the recent Connor McDavid discourse, penalties in the NHL, and whether they are real (they are).

Evolving Hockey Episode 9: The Eichel Trade, General League Happenings, and Mailbag Time!

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 02:00:00 -0600

Jack Eichel was finally traded (to the Vegas Golden Knights), which more than fulfills our weekly Buffalo Sabres check-in requirement. We talk about the months-long saga and trade, discuss a few other notable aspects in the still early '21-22 NHL season, and spend the last half answering your questions! Since last week's episode was cut short, we added a little more to this one. Enjoy!

Evolving Hockey Episode 8: Halloween, More Early Season Results, and Technical Difficulties

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 02:00:00 -0500

We fought through technical issues to get this one recorded, and the results were a very minor success. We chat about Halloween, Frederik Andersen and the Hurricanes, cover how the Sabres are doing as always, and ramble about random statistical hockey bits until Josh's mic stopped working. Check it out!

Evolving Hockey Episode 7: Early season model and team results, the Blackhawks, and Ambidexterity

Tue, 26 Oct 2021 01:00:00 -0500

Week 2 of the '21-22 NHL season is in the books! We chat about some early season player evaluation model results, unfortunate teams (cough Chicago cough), cover a few modeling topics, and banter about an interesting idea regarding players switching handedness.

Evolving Hockey Episode 6: First Week Impressions, Game Predictions, and Model Talk

Mon, 18 Oct 2021 01:00:00 -0500

We're only 6 days into the '21-22 NHL regular season, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be impressed by the Buffalo Sabres or laugh at the Chicago Blackhawks. Shawn, Josh, and Luke chat about the first few games of this season, discuss our new game prediction model, and cover a few other pieces of way-too-early-in-the-season items along the way!

Evolving Hockey Episode 5: Team Projections

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 02:00:00 -0500

Shawn, Josh, and Luke spend the entire episode mostly rambling about our recently finalized NHL team point projections. We talk about some interesting results, early reactions, and how the model works!

Evolving Hockey Episode 4: Mailbag!

Mon, 20 Sep 2021 00:00:00 -0500

Shawn, Josh, and Luke banter about a few current events in the NHL and answer your questions ranging from contract value, dealing with age in modeling, preseason NHL award picks, vacation destinations, and much more!

Evolving Hockey Episode 3: Offseason Banter, Fantasy Projections, and Team Projections

Mon, 13 Sep 2021 01:00:00 -0500

Shawn, Josh, and Luke are back for the 3rd episode. We cover a few bits and pieces from the leisurely NHL offseason, discuss the new Evolving Hockey fantasy projections and the ensuing discourse around their release, and take a look at some probably-too-early team projections heading into the '21-22 season!

Evolving Hockey Episode 1: Expansion, Skater Similarity, and Overlooked Players

Mon, 30 Aug 2021 00:00:00 -0500

We're back for Episode #1 (it's the second episode). Shawn, Josh, and Luke chat about the Seattle Kraken's expansion draft, cover Evolving Hockey's skater similarity tool and how we can use it to find interesting comparable players in the league, and discuss overlooked players currently in the NHL!

Evolving Hockey Podcast Episode 0: Welcome

Mon, 16 Aug 2021 00:00:00 -0500

Shawn, Josh, and Luke introduce the new show, talk a bit about our history and the site, chat about free agency and how our contract projection model has done this summer, and answer some overdue mailbag questions!