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The Official Post-Bitch 2025-26 Regular Season Thread

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McKenna doesn't quite have the high ceiling or the high floor that i'd want in a #1 pick. he's good though.

but for obvious reasons it would be nice to get ourselves an elite D.

I actually lean towards Chase Reid myself, mostly cuz he seems to be the one true elite skater of the bunch, but i haven't done too deep a dive.
 
MindzEye said:
I mean, if we're ranking the pantheon of #1 overall forwards based on their pre draft production over the last ~20 years

Legend Shit:
McDavid, Sid, Kane, Celebrini, Bedard

Perennial Stud Shit:
Matthews, Tavares, Stamkos, Hall, Lafreniere, Hughes

Ehhh, he'll do:
Mackinnon, Yakupov, Hischier, RNH

Fuck, why did we suck this year?:
Slafkovsky

McKenna is a weird one to handicap because his D-1 season in the WHL was below but in the same category as McDavid & Bedard's draft season...both of which are pretty fucking historic pre draft CHL production. But McKenna's draft season production is a big step down from Celebrini's (1.68ppg vs 1.46) and also a step down from Eichel's 1.76 & Fantilli's 1.81 (though both of them were October birthdays, which is a pretty significant advantage before you reach the pros)

Like, if we just look at CHL D-1 production of the #1 picks who played CHL (and birth month, because yeah, important):

McKenna 2.3 (Dec)
Sid 2.28 (Aug, very young for his draft class)
Tavares 2.0 (Sep...but just after the cutoff, so he was as old as his draft class allowed and was 19 to start his 1st NHL season)
McDavid 1.77 (Jan)
Lafreniere 1.71 (Oct)
Bedard 1.61 (July)
Yakupov 1.55 (Oct)
Stamkos 1.46 (Feb)
Hall 1,43 (Nov)
Mackinnon 1.33 (Sept...but before the cutoff, so celebrated his 18th birthday after the draft, right about the start of his first NHL training camp)
RNH .97 (Apr)

So yeah...what is McKenna? Dunno. He's not Sid though. Mitch Marner that can/will shoot the puck and apparently throw a punch? A slightly bigger version of Berard, Kane, Hughes that plays the wing?

Is there a big enough gap to not trade down. Probably.
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I will say Mckenna may have started slow this year but he did get 30 points in his last 15 games. Something seemed to have clicked for him in the new year and he got his production up to pretty crazy levels. His production was definitely disappointing as shit prior to that tho: just 21 points in 20 games. Not sure how that pattern of late season dominance and early season disappointment compares to Celebrini, Eichel, etc. though.
 
zeke said:
I actually lean towards Chase Reid myself, mostly cuz he seems to be the one true elite skater of the bunch, but i haven't done too deep a dive.
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I generally start with the question "why isn't his production elite, if he's elite"....but Makar was in the AJHL his draft season and Quinn Hughes draft season production was good but just good, so what the fuck do I know?

Reid sure looks like fucking Makar when he skates with the puck though.
 
Preston said:
I will say Mckenna may have started slow this year but he did get 30 points in his last 15 games. Something seemed to have clicked for him in the new year and he got his production up to pretty crazy levels. His production was definitely disappointing as shit prior to that tho: just 21 points in 20 games. Not sure how that pattern of late season dominance and early season disappointment compares to Celebrini, Eichel, etc. though.
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and yeah, I'm good with that as an explanation as well. Transferring leagues, programs, etc is already a pain in the ass. A lot of production is based on role, fit with linemates, etc and that can take a bit of time to sort itself out when you do something as drastic as move leagues and countries. I've always just felt like that's the first obvious question to ask about an elite prospect without elite production in their draft season. If there's no good answer for it, well, is he actually an elite prospect?
 
yeah Chase Reid definitely looked better heading into the season than he does now, with no real bump in production. While Carels has exploded. And Reid seems to get lesser reviews defensively.

would like to see what's happening with their EV/PP productions.

Verhoeff seems to be the one to avoid, but again, who knows.
 
Preston said:
I will say Mckenna may have started slow this year but he did get 30 points in his last 15 games. Something seemed to have clicked for him in the new year and he got his production up to pretty crazy levels. His production was definitely disappointing as shit prior to that tho: just 21 points in 20 games. Not sure how that pattern of late season dominance and early season disappointment compares to Celebrini, Eichel, etc. though.
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Celebrini got 27 points in his final 15 college games, by comparison. So his production was a lot more even throughout the year. Tough to tell what it means, they play so few games that it could just all be small sample noise to read too much into end of season college stats. He could maybe be at or close to Mack's level tbh.
 

MindzEye said:
So the story goes, Pelley observed how Treliving operated at the deadline and it was a fumbling, bumbling shitshow with no plan, no data, all vibes and snap decision making. Pelley came away from the experience and started quietly preparing to make a change.

A fucking shame he didn't take a few weeks away from the cottage in the summer to do that around the draft and free agency.
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Orrrrr last years deadline? Wasn’t it fucken obvious then?
 
Preston said:
I will say Mckenna may have started slow this year but he did get 30 points in his last 15 games. Something seemed to have clicked for him in the new year and he got his production up to pretty crazy levels. His production was definitely disappointing as shit prior to that tho: just 21 points in 20 games. Not sure how that pattern of late season dominance and early season disappointment compares to Celebrini, Eichel, etc. though.
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He did have that one 8 point game.
 
zeke said:
yeah Chase Reid definitely looked better heading into the season than he does now, with no real bump in production. While Carels has exploded. And Reid seems to get lesser reviews defensively.

would like to see what's happening with their EV/PP productions.

Verhoeff seems to be the one to avoid, but again, who knows.
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Thing to remember about Verhoeff is that he's 17 playing in the NCAA. 6'4 215, skates well for the size and doesn't turn 18 until June

Draft Season:

Q Hughes: .76ppg (Oct)
McAvoy: .68ppg (Dec)
Sanderson: .68ppg (July)
Power: .62ppg (Nov)
Verhoeff: .56ppg (June)

The bolded is the comparison that kind of tracks for me here. Power and Verhoeff are/were pretty similar prospects, but Verhoeff is the better skater imo and Power was a full development year ahead. I think you're looking at a bigger, smoother skating McAvoy type defender there.

I prefer Reid and Carels' offensive upside to Verhoeff, but he falls to the 5 spot, I'm not upset either.
 
soco22 said:
Orrrrr last years deadline? Wasn’t it fucken obvious then?
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In fairness to Pelley, Shanahan was still employed by the organization at the time and it was his job to oversee hockey ops at last year's deadline. I kind of get not pissing in one of your lead execs pool and whatever business practices he's cool with, allowing until results dictate otherwise.

After letting Shanahan go in May though, the magnifying glass should have been out.
 
I think Vehoeff is slipping a bit since he apparently crumbled in a frozen 4 game a few days ago. He'd fit right in!


He also did oppo Mckenna and slipped end of season with just 3 points in his final 14 games. He was tracking pretty well prior to that.
 
MindzEye said:
Thing to remember about Verhoeff is that he's 17 playing in the NCAA. 6'4 215, skates well for the size and doesn't turn 18 until June

Draft Season:

Q Hughes: .76ppg (Oct)
McAvoy: .68ppg (Dec)
Sanderson: .68ppg (July)
Power: .62ppg (Nov)
Verhoeff: .56ppg (June)

The bolded is the comparison that kind of tracks for me here. Power and Verhoeff are/were pretty similar prospects, but Verhoeff is the better skater imo and Power was a full development year ahead. I think you're looking at a bigger, smoother skating McAvoy type defender there.

I prefer Reid and Carels' offensive upside to Verhoeff, but he falls to the 5 spot, I'm not upset either.
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all depends on the skating for me. i want the best skater.

i haven't read great things about verhoeff's skating but that's just the usual half assed online scouting reports so i dunno.
 
Wheeler on his late seasons struggles:

Keaton Verhoeff’s late-season struggles

Early on this season, Verhoeff was the presumptive No. 1 D in this year’s class. He was a minute eater for Canada as an underager at U18 worlds in Texas, their captain at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup and then scored four goals in his first nine college hockey games in non-conference play. Then the points dried up as he and the NoDak staff tried to build his defensive game on their third pairing in anticipation for the NCHC tournament and then the national tournament. And over the last few weeks, as the games got tougher, I thought he had a hard time with the pace of play. In the NCHC semifinal against Minnesota-Duluth, he was minus-4 and played 16:26.

In the regional, he played 13:04, a season low, and 16:50. On Thursday, he struggled from his very first shift, repeatedly getting hemmed in and icing the puck, stumbling over his feet (a concern I’ve had since U17s in Sarnia almost two seasons ago now), getting caught flatfooted and running around in his own zone. Even with the caveats of his age (still 17 because of his summer birthday) and the stage, it was alarming. He’s not in my top three D in the class at the moment, and there are some clear developmental areas he’s going to have to improve upon to reach his full potential.
He should go to U18s at the end of the month to end his draft year on more of a high note.


TLDR: I do think his skating is an issue. I'd avoid.
 
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