Morning Skate: Colleagues – Stanley Cup of Chowder
Another weekday, another summer edition of Morning Skate!
I’m working on an imaginary schedule this week where I train every other day and pretend no one notices that I’ve actually had two weeks of skating.
Thanks to everyone who continues to visit us during the summer lull and helps us discuss things like the NHL’s latest silly signing and the Edmonton Oilers offer document chaos.
(As someone in the comments section on The athletethe chaos on the deal pages is pretty entertaining if your team has nothing to do with it…if you’re an Oilers fan, though, it might not be quite as funny.)
We’ve reached the point in the summer where the NHL Network releases its annual Top 20/Top 10 lists, all of which are designed to make people angry and start arguments on the Internet.
After all, it’s a great time of year for it, considering we don’t have much else to do.
The rest of the lists will be released throughout the month, but I got an email on Wednesday about the current top 20 wings, and two Bruins made the list: David Pastrnak at No. 4 and Brad Marchand at No. 18.
Nikita Kucherov, Matthew Tkachuk and Mikko Rantanen were ahead of Pastrnak on the wing position; Pastrnak finished just ahead of Artemi Panarin, Jason Robertson, Kirill Kaprizov and William Nylander.
I don’t think you can argue too much about the guys before Pastrnak, because each of those three are among the elite that can be called these days.
The full rankings are as follows:
- Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay Lightning
- Matthew Tkachuk, Florida Panthers
- Mikko Rantanen, Colorado Avalanche
- David Pastrana, Boston Bruins
- Artemi Panarin, New York Rangers
- Jason Robertson, Dallas Stars
- Kirill Kaprizov, Minnesota Wild
- William Nylander, Toronto Maple Leafs
- Sam Reinhart, Florida Panthers
- Mitch Marner, Toronto Maple Leafs
- Zach Hyman, Edmonton Oilers
- Brady Tkachuk, Ottawa Senators
- Steven Stamkos, Nashville Predators
- Filip Forsberg, Nashville Predators
- Kyle Connor, Winnipeg Jets
- Jake Guentzel, Tampa Bay Lightning
- Clayton Keller, Utah Hockey Club
- Brad Marchand, Boston Bruins
- Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals
- Travis Konecny, Philadelphia Flyers
There could probably be some debate about Marchand, but it’s fair to say that he had a relatively weak year on offense and is in the latter stages of his career.
And to be honest, some of the people I was initially worried about (Clayton Keller, for example) were more prolific producers than I thought, so… yeah. Maybe you shouldn’t listen to me.
Anyway, the floor is yours!
Discuss offer sheets, argue about imaginary rankings (ours are not imaginary, but very scientific and legitimate), fret about the Jeremy Swayman contract… the decision is entirely yours.
What else is on the agenda today?