The Official 2026 Off-Season Thread: Revenge of the Nerds
- Thread starter MindzEye
- Start date
leafman101
Well-known member
The 3 longest starving coaches are Cooper (13 years), Bednar (10 years), Brindy (8 years). The next two are Maurice (4 years) and MSL (4 years).
All are with analytics driven organizations and I imagine are heavily influenced by the nerds. Maurice is the only one that was a non- first time hire.
Don’t think any of that is a coincidence. Coaches need to evolve over time. The ones who use the data do.
All are with analytics driven organizations and I imagine are heavily influenced by the nerds. Maurice is the only one that was a non- first time hire.
Don’t think any of that is a coincidence. Coaches need to evolve over time. The ones who use the data do.
zeke
Well-known member
Thanks
Cal Gal
Well-known member
Thank you.
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
It's probably the core thing I've always been confused about when it comes to this weird schism. "Analytics" are so fucking intuitive and align with most traditional hockey knowledge/logic. All you have to do is be willing to accept that slow defensive hockey wins far less often. That's it. Accept that skill and puck moving is supreme, which shouldn't be difficult considering that the consensus best players in the history of the game were all elite at doing exactly those things. Look at the top 50 players of all time, there are a bunch of pussies who can't play D in there, but zero players who didn't have an elite ability with the puck. Super instructive, super intuitive.
Jeremy
Well-known member
John 3:16
hockeylover
Well-known member
hockeylover
Well-known member
CH1
The Artist Formerly Known as chiggins.
100%
If the NFL behaved like the NHL, they’d still be handing the ball on every single down except 3rd and long
I think the ideal outcome for many NHL coaches remains a 2-0 win. They’re not so jazzed about winning 6-3
Feyd
Well-known member
View: https://x.com/NHLRumourReport/status/2053203352595660835
Just putting this here again for archive purposes
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
hockeylover
Well-known member
CH1
The Artist Formerly Known as chiggins.
Don't worry, Corey still has Leafs picking Gavin in his mock draft.
This list is different for some reason
I have a top group of five players, and ultimately, the No. 1 spot on my list was a near five-way tie among three defensemen and the two dynamic wingers, Gavin McKenna and Ivar Stenberg. Given how close the evaluations are, my approach is always to lean toward the defensemen. I realize saying that will ruffle some feathers, but I owe it to my readers to tell them what I think, even if it’s unpopular.
This list is different for some reason
I have a top group of five players, and ultimately, the No. 1 spot on my list was a near five-way tie among three defensemen and the two dynamic wingers, Gavin McKenna and Ivar Stenberg. Given how close the evaluations are, my approach is always to lean toward the defensemen. I realize saying that will ruffle some feathers, but I owe it to my readers to tell them what I think, even if it’s unpopular.
LeafGm
Well-known member
Jesus. There’s galaxybraining and then whatever the fuck this is. Universebraining? Infinite-Multiversebraining?
If he’s not straight-up trolling, he must be really convinced he’s the smartest man in any room he steps into. Especially with Smits not ranked in anyone else’s top-5, and Verhoeff outside of the top-10 in a lot of rankings. But yeah, both ahead of McKenna. Sure.
LeafGm
Well-known member
That’s part of his schtick.
I remember back in 2016, he went to great pains to make it clear that he thought the Leafs would take Matthews and that it was perfectly understandable for them to do so because they needed a center, even if he wasn’t as good a player as the sublime, Mario Lemieux-esque Patrik Laine.
Feyd
Well-known member
The hatred literally eats away at them (and god damn is it glorious to bask in as a Leafs fan)
CH1
The Artist Formerly Known as chiggins.
They also know provocation pays the bills