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The Official 2026 Off-Season Thread: Revenge of the Nerds

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.
 
CH1 said:
coach needs to turns nerdy insights into player behaviour

MSL is always going on about 'how did we manage the puck tonight' which is about possession

what to do with the puck?
what to do if your team has the puck? (get into a space that gives the puck carrier options)
what to do do if the opponent has the puck (reduce their options, get puck back)
Click to expand...

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.
 
MindzEye said:
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.
Click to expand...

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
 
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.
 
hockeylover said:

View: https://x.com/MF1sles/status/2054608428220219552?s=20
Click to expand...



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.
 
CH1 said:
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.
Click to expand...


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.
 
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