Evolving Hockey Podcast: Recent Episodes
Evolving Hockey Staff
Shawn Ferris and Josh & Luke Younggren of Evolving-Hockey.com talk weekly about hockey focusing on NHL players, teams, and other current events from an analytical and statistical perspective.
It's been 19 days (it was only supposed to be like 14), but we're back in full offseason mode. We spent the entire episode covering all of the important things that happened in July such as: Legoland, Air Bud, The Bourne Identity, depressing jigsaw puzzles (and I guess some hockey content).
What the f*ck. The first week of NHL Free Agency is always the most active, and 2026 gave us some absolute bangers. We spent the entire episode covering as much of it as we could fit in (or remember). That's the episode.
Free agency starts tomorrow! Our full preview article is up on the site. It's time. We spent the entire episode covering all things free agency. That's it. That's why we get up in the morning.
It's officially the offseason, and the Evolving Hockey Podcast's transition was a little messy - please be patient. We spent the first bit discussing (the twins') football ignorance while understanding football analytics. For the rest of the episode we analyzed all the trades and contracts your heart could desire.
The Carolina Hurricanes are your 2026 Stanley Cup Champions! We spent the whole episode chatting about the series, analyzing what went right for the Canes, and how the playoffs shaped up overall. Within that, we spent time reminiscing about hockey stats history and its evolution. This one was fun.
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)!
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).
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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".
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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".
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
[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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
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".
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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/
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!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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).
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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).
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/
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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).
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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!
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!
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.
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!
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!
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!
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!
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!
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!