The Drop Pass

Merry Christmas buddy! 

Today we continue where we left off last time, so those who haven't listened to the previous episode yet, I'll be covering my favourite players to watch from each NHL team and today, we will cover teams that were left out aka. teams from Montreal all the way to Anaheim. In the next episode, we will take a quick glance at the U20 World Championships, so while you are enjoying the holiday, remember to turn the TV on when those games are live and stop by next time to hear my thoughts on the ongoing tournament. 

So stuff your face full of treats, put the ugly Christmas swater on and enjoy the following 46 minutes more than you did when receiving another pair of socks for Christmas. 

(01:40) Montreal Canadiens 
(05:47) Minneosta Wild 
(08:18) Los Angeles Kings 
(11:32) Florida Panthers 
(14:33) Edmonton Oilers 
(16:53) Detroit Red Wings 
(19:23) Dallas Stars 
(22:46) Columbus Blue Jackets 
(24:40) Colorado Avalanche 
(25:15) Chicago Blackhawks 
(26:54) Carolina Hurricanes 
(29:42) Calgary Flames 
(31:33) Buffalo Sabres 
(35:25) Boston Bruins 
(37:41) Arizona Coyotes 
(40:35) Anaheim Ducks 

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Hey, and Welcome! 

Today, in a special holiday spirit I'm  going to be featuring a two-part series where I'll be listing my favourite players to watch from each NHL organization. Teams that will be featured today will go from Winnipeg all the way to Nashville and in the later episode, I'm going to cover the last remaining teams from the World's best sports league. 

Some familiar names will be present, but expect to see few surprises in the mix as well and of course, I'll give you brief explanations on why these guys make the list ahead of many others. 

The second part will be published before Christmas, so keep your eye out on that one as well, so that you don't happen to miss the other part of this walkthrough. But, breezy episodes inbound without unnecessary focus on statistics and analytics, so take a comfortable position and enjoy the following episode! 

(03:51) Winnipeg Jets 
(06:34) Washington Capitals 
(10:07) Vegas Golden Knights 
(14:17) Vancouver Canucks 
(16:34) Toronto Maple Leafs 
(19:12) Tampa Bay Lightning 
(20:47) St. Louis Blues 
(23:57) Seattle Kraken 
(26:01) San Jose Sharks 
(27:42) Pittsburgh Penguins 
(28:12) Philadelphia Flyers 
(30:18) Ottawa Senators 
(33:36) New York Rangers 
(36:28) New York Islanders 
(38:17) New Jersey Devils 
(42:43) Nashville Predators 
(45:23) Summary

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After a bye week, we continue our prospect coverage by going over the North American pro-leagues (ECHL, AHL & NHL) while looking at the best performing young bucks. And since last week, few guys ended up slipping through my fingers, those guys will be mentioned right before we bite our teeth into "the Jungle". 

In our weekly brief, I will touch upon the major injury news from the past few weeks, enlighten you about Brock Boeser's future in Vancouver, go through the procedures concerning Ottawa's RFA Alex Formenton and of course, the game between the Kings and the Kraken will be on the table as well. 

But for the most part, another batch of prospect talk is inbound, so grab your headphones and put them on full blast, so that you can block all the unnecessary noise from the background (could be your wife, construction Billy or your mother-in-law - doesn't really matter). 

(01:26) Thompson, Robertson & Marner 🔥 
(05:52) Names that Haven't Been in the Headlines Enough 
(06:14) Injury Update 
(11:03) Brock Boeser & Vancouver 
(13:01) Alex Formenton - No NHL Hockey This Year 
(14:23) LA Kings 8 - 9 Seattle Kraken 
(15:33) Cal Petersen --> AHL 
(16:46) Reinbacher, Sale, Kiiskinen, Mesar 
(18:36) ECHL 
(21:04) AHL 
(36:30) NHL 
(52:14) Outro 

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Hey, and welcome back! 

In this week's episode, we are going to take our first look at the best performing NHL affiliated prospects, while also in the process highlight the top names for the upcoming draft classes that have popped off so far this year as well. We will go through the top North American Junior Leagues (Canada: WHL, OHL & QMJHL, the US: USHL & NCAA) as well as the top leagues in Europe (DEL, NLA, Extraliga, Allsvenskan, SHL & Liiga) while also checking out the Swedish and Finnish top junior levels. Few Russian prospects have also impressed in the early season, so those guys will get their moments as well, but the main focus will be in the leagues mentioned above. 

So, lots of prospect talk inbound, 'cause I wanted to include this kind of preview episode ahead of the U20 World Championships so that, if need be you are able to listen to this episode and learn bit more about the possible participants. But at the same time, it was nice to check their progress at this stage of the season, since some guys are going to make their moves to professional scenery already next year and we are going to come back to this topic later on in the spring, so we will have some base to compare to once that episode is upon us. 

But take out your notes and enjoy the following 60 minutes of full on prospect coverage. 

(01:31) Weekly Update 
(06:40) WHL 
(12:31) OHL 
(17:44) QMJHL 
(22:45) USHL 
(26:42) NCAA 
(31:35) Fantilli Wrist Job 
(34:26) DEL 
(35:25) Extraliga 
(35:56) NLA 
(38:30) J20 Nationell 
(40:25) Allsvenskan 
(44:40) SHL 
(51:07) U20 SM-Sarja 
(52:53) Mestis 
(54:03) Liiga 
(56:50) Russian Prospects 
(1:00:42) Outro 

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Tire pumps, fire speeches and whole lot of speculation inbound in our early season check-up. 

In this week's episode, we are going to take a look at teams and players that have pleasently surprised us, but as well the ones that have had nothing but misery business served for them within the first 20-or-so games. 

We will also cover injury, trade and waiver fronts and before we tackle the early season performances I will quickly touch upon the Mitchell Miller situation, since I've dodged that due to previous few guest episodes. 

Go at it and enjoy!

(01:23) Trade Update 
(08:51) Waivers Update 
(10:45) Injury Update 
(16:19) Mitchell Miller Debacle 
(19:18) Bruins 
(21:42) Devils 
(26:25) Kraken 
(27:57) Jets 
(29:58) Canucks 
(32:30) Blues 
(33:52) Senators 
(36:20) Bottom Feeders & Pleasant Surprises 
(37:13) Shoutouts 
(43:44) These Guys Gotta Be Better 
(45:38) Outro

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Twitter: _JToiva

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Another one! 

If you've been waiting for guests, then you are about to cream yourself 'cause I have another treat for you - back to back. Veeti "Riverboat" Vainio joins us to tell us about his young and eventful career as we go through his struggles, triumphs and most memorable experiences from his junior career. Critical but humorous (factory promise) episode ahead, so take a comfortable position and enjoy the following 50 minutes! 

Intro (01:18) 
U18 Medal Mystery? (03:08) 
The Start (04:46) 
Blues jun. (06:54) 
Medals Only (08:03) 
Accolades (09:09) 
Blues' Magic (10:22) 
Pressure from Success? (12:06) 
Restrictions? (13:57) 
DFD - OFD? (14:59) 
Shoutout Time (15:47) 
End of an Era - Espoo Blues (16:41) 
Skating (19:40) 
Roller Hockey? (21:15) 
Junior National Team (22:03) 
Standouts (24:05) 
141st - Blue Jackets (24:41) 
The Draft Experience (25:16) 
Draft Projection (26:21) 
Dev. Camps & Big Boys (27:47) 
First Full Liiga Season (29:30) 
Mentors & First Game (30:10) 
The Rookie (32:16) 
KooKoo & Mestis (33:31) 
SaiPa (34:53) 
I Can Prove It (36:36) 
70min of Penalties? (37:50) 
SaiPa --> Pelicans (38:30) 
IF Björklöven (39:47) 
Differences: Liiga - SHL/Allsvenskan (41:23) 
Finals Disappointment (42:10) 
The Target (42:52) 
The Mind (44:01) 
Goals (45:20) 
NHL Dream? (46:06) 
The Injuries (46:40) 
Prime Time & Highlights (47:23) 
Any Other Sports? (47:56) 
Golf Talk (48:44) 
Stanley Cup Prediction (49:46) 
Nickname (50:39) 
The Snapshots (51:39) 
The Trifecta: (53:20) 
Outro: (54:48) 

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Twitter: _JToiva

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Been waiting for guests? If you said yes, then this episode is the one to listen. 

Another humble Canadian import joins us to talk about his junior days in the WHL (Champ and an All-Star - not a big deal),  rocky road from the Cheese Toast to Europe and what he's gone through so far in his young career. He also is under the fire in the fan favourites: The Snapshots and the Trifecta and reveals to us, his off-season training secret. If you want to skip some of the segments during the episode, timestamps can be found underneath for your pleasure. 

It was a treat to chat with this guy and I wish him nothing but the best for the remainder of the season. 

(And I'm sorry for the interview's audio quality - the official editor was unfortunately out of reach, so that's why the quality is pretty sub-par, but this is the benefit of a low-budget production!) 

After the interview, I will announce my trophy predictions for the ongoing NHL season, so stick until the very end to hear my take on the Stanley Cup hunt. 

Go get it!

(01:20) Intro 
(03:35) The Start 
(05:45) CHL Draft 
(08:30) Player Description 
(09:55) Swift Current 
(12:38) Memorial Cup 
(14:46) Breakout Season 17-18 
(18:45) Jump to Professional Scenery (Binghamton Devils) 
(24:03) Playing in Florida 
(25:40) Any Regrets? 
(26:57) Missing NA Playstyle? 
(27:46) Move to Europe (Vita Hästen) 
(28:55) Adjusting to European Style 
(29:41) Biggest Differences 
(31:13) Off-Season Training 
(33:25) --> Liiga 
(34:52) Kuopio & KalPa 
(35:24) Expectations 
(36:44) Characters & Finnish 
(37:40) Setting Goals 
(38:39) Return to NA or Future in Europe 
(39:32) Injuries 
(40:30) Mentally Challenging Times 
(42:56) Most Impactful People 
(44:26) NHL fan? & Stanley Cup Prediction 
(45:26) Name Dropping 
(45:47) Bleeding Oil 
(46:31) Golf Merchant 
(47:24) Any Other Sports? 
(48:00) The Snapshots 
(49:52) The Trifecta 
(51:07) Outro 
(52:05) Trophy Predictions 
(56:05) The Stanley Cup 

IG: thedrop_pass / jtoiva
Twitter: _JToiva

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Season previews now done and dusted! 

This week Western Conference on the board and same rules apply: standings, top scorer and breakout predictions included and spiced up by hot take for each organization. Next week, I'm going to throw out my predictions for Trophy races and tell you which team is going to hoist the cup after all is said and done, so return next week if you want to lock down your bets on the big price. 

(3:46) - Anaheim Ducks 
(7:06) - Calgary Flames 
(11:22) - Edmonton Oilers 
(14:58) - Los Angeles Kings 
(19:16) - San Jose Sharks 
(23:34) - Vancouver Canucks 
(31:04) - Vegas Golden Knights 
(34:56) - Pacific Standings 

(36:15) - Arizona Coyotes 
(39:12) - Chicago Blackhawks 
(42:17) - Colorado Avalanche 
(45:36) - Dallas Stars 
(49:20) - Minnesota Wild 
(53:50) - Nashville Predators 
(58:02) - St. Louis Blues 
(01:01:07) - Winnipeg Jets 
(01:04:50) - Central Standings 

IG: thedrop_pass / jtoiva 
Twitter: _JToiva

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