Where were the Canes on the recently released NHL Top 100 players list?

Greg Wyshinski, ESPN's senior NFL writer, joins us on The Adam Gold Show. I want to talk to you anyway, because I miss you. And I don't know when you're coming here because the Hurricanes may never play another home game. So we have the State Fair.

Everything's deep fried here. And the Canes are playing out west. Then they'll go to Tampa before they come home next Thursday. But I saw this list on ESPN and I just thought, I want to talk to Greg. And I know that you're a very small part of the top 100 players in the NHL. I know you're one of just 50, but I'm going to hold you personally accountable for Jacob Slavin being the 21st best defenseman in the league. But it's just the whole thing is kind of silly and I don't put a lot of stock in lists. But you had Jacob Slavin number one overall, right?

No, I had Jack Hughes. That's why he's like sports. I skewed the rankings.

He's great, man. The way this thing is put together is the same way our power rankings are put together, which is that there's a series of sort of like head to head matchups that you kind of click on one name or the other. And that's sort of how the list is made. Because, oh, look, it's 50 people from ESPN. We're not going to have them all do a hundred names and then submit them.

I mean, she's very busy. So that's the way we do it. And then it leads to some somewhat wonky results here and there.

And then, you know, a few of us sort of take it to the next level and make sure we don't have egregious oversights. It's funny to hear penguins fans today, stretching about Sidney Crosby being behind Sebastian Ahas. Like baby, you should have seen where Sidney Crosby was before I got involved.

So like, so it's, it is a silly list, but also the sum total of a lot of people kind of coming together and putting it together and there's going to be oversight subs. And in some cases some of the nominees, the one, the defense that I was a little bit surprised by even more so than enslaving was Quinn Hughes. Like Quinn Hughes was basically a point per game defenseman captain of the Canucks. And he's like, he's a guy that clearly isn't the equal at all of, of slave and defense defensively. But I mean, there was only like four guys in the league last year that were better offensively than Queen.

I think maybe if you go back to the last couple of years, only four guys that were better offensively than Quinn use Queen years at a better points per game average and Eric Carlson over the last three years. So, I mean like that was the one that really perturbed me. And maybe it's just a, the defense and are an issue, an issue in the entire rank.

Can we just have an investigation on the Hughes family at this point? Right. Well, I mean, that's the thing like Jack gets put over as the fourth best player. And now I'm hearing from people that are losing their minds.

Cause like, how would you get it in the on dry side? Well, then it's like his brother is like a hundred spots behind them or something. And so I don't know. It's, it's all a witch away. They probably got one and two, right.

I think on the ranking, which is a McDavid in the, in the car. But then after that, it's like, you know, you roll the dice. Hey, you know, it's funny. I've been, look, there's a, there's a number of narratives that I was, I've been growing tired of. One of this, one of them was Jacob said, we'll talk with Greg Wyshinsky of ESPN.com. One of the narratives I'm tired of is Jacob Slavin is underrated because at some point if everybody keeps saying he's underrated, we are proving that he's not, that everybody, that he is on top of mind. And I do believe that the number one job of a defenseman is to defend. And I don't know how many players there are in the NHL at that position who are better than Slavin.

I haven't seen any, but I don't watch as many. So I'm not saying that there's nobody, but yes, the offensive part always skews it. That's why Eric Carlson is so significantly higher than Jacob Slavin. I'm, there's probably no NHL general manager who would take Carlson over Slavin if they've, they were given the option at this point. But the, um, but Rod Brind'Amour to me is the best coach in the league and Caroline has got one player in the top 60 and three players in the top hundred and they're the betting favorites.

So maybe we're, maybe we should try this list with coaches and see if Rod comes in number one. Well, who besides Aho would you put in the top? I mean, Slavin and Aho go in the top 50. I'm guessing it would be your argument.

Uh, my, yeah, well, yes, I would, I would argue. I, first of all, I think Sebastian Aho is too high on that list. I wouldn't put him 22. I mean, I love Sebastian Aho. I just think that there are a lot of players in the league, more than 21 of them, uh, who are, who would be better than Sebastian Aho for me.

So I'm not trying to look at this fruit through Carolina hurricanes, uh, storm colored glasses. Um, I just, I have a very high opinion of how good Slavin is. And look, when you explained it and how it's done, it makes more sense that the list gets kind of weird. Like Seth Jones, 20 some odd spots ahead of Jacob Slavin is, I mean, if five years ago, maybe right, but not now.

So the whole thing is kind of weird, but the way you explain how it's done is make sense to me. And it's important to remember that like, even if we did it another way, I mean, look at the awards voting every year. There are still guys that get awards love in the votes based on name recognition alone. And then there's probably a lot of people that if the methodology was different, would still have set Jones overrated because they remember Seth Jones being really good a few years ago and getting a big contract and everything. So I mean, it's, you know, the method, the methodology maybe does produce a little bit of wonky results, but it doesn't mean that if we did it another way, there still wouldn't be some issues of like Seth Jones being ranked ahead of guys like, like Quinn Hughes and Jacob Slavin.

Yeah. By the way, I would not want to be as tasked with listing my top 100 players. I wouldn't want to do it. So no matter what sport it was, and I, I spend a lot of time watching and, you know, covering the sport, but I would not want to do that. Let me ask you about the Devils who have good representation on the list. And Jack Hughes is a magnet for eyeballs when he's on the ice. He is an unbelievable player to watch. And for what it's worth, I didn't bat an eyelash when he was fourth. Do I think he's the fourth best player? No. But do I think he's close enough to it for?

Okay, I could be wrong. And it is a predictive measure as well, as you said in the, or somebody said in the beginning of the piece, I don't want to blame you for everything, Greg Wyshinsky of ESPN. But the Devils have a ton of really good players. And I know this is, you know, the Hurricanes play tonight in San Jose, so I'm gonna ask you a question about the Canes in a sec. But the Devils are the team, I think, that is best suited to stay in Carolina's way. They just happen to share a division. What what is different about the Devils this year, maybe than last year? Well, I mean, there's there's a couple of things that are that are different in a good way and in a bad way.

In a good way. They added Tyler to Foley, who is still kind of finding his way a little bit offensively. But at the end of the day, he's the kind of goal scorer that I think they lacked in the playoffs last year, specifically against Carolina, that it got that guy who could score a goal in a really tight game at a really key moment. He's got, you know, Stanley Cup experience, the L.A. Kings. He had 30 plus goals last year with the Calgary Flames. So that was a smart pickup for them. And then, you know, a full season of Timo Meyer, who actually came into the trade deadline last year, he's still kind of finding his way. In fact, he was bench in the third period last night for taking some bad penalties.

So he's still kind of finding his way on the on the downside. They lost two defensemen, Damon Severson and Ryan Graves. And while neither of those guys are Jacob Slavin, they are guys.

They're not on the list, Greg. They are two guys that play pretty well in their own end. And most importantly for the Devils, there are two guys that can make that first pass out of the offense, out of the defensive zone to transition to offense. And having seen the Devils twice already this season, I think that that's what's sort of been missing. They haven't had that sort of end to end speed game dominance, that that freewheeling creativity. And in some cases, I think it's because they've had trouble really breaking out of their own zone in the same way they did last year. So some adjustments need to be made.

I'm sure that they'll make them. They're a really talented team. But by no means are they coming out of the gate looking like a potential Stanley Cup champion. Well, it's early. The Hurricanes have played, honestly, three really good periods in out of nine, maybe.

And the overtime, I thought they played well, the overtime in L.A. Other than that, they really haven't played their game. Rod's been kind of kind of bummed about it. By the way, Tyler Toffoli is ahead of Jacob Slavin on the list, too, for people who want to go check out the list, for what it's worth. And I'm not even arguing about it. I'm just pointing that by the way, Devin Taves, Colorado's defenseman who just signed his new contract also on this list, criminally underrated.

Yeah. If he if he ahead of Slavin, he's a couple of spots, but I'm not even arguing. If if you told me that Devin Taves was ahead of Slavin, I wouldn't be that that upset about it. I think I hold him in super high regard. I think he is one of the best two way players in the league. Great skate.

I love everything about Devin Taves. And they and the Avalanche stole him from the Islanders because they had they had to get rid of him. So no Svetnikov on your list, because who knows when he's going to come back.

But I'm pretty sure he'll be back maybe next week, the week after. You're just your view on what the hurricanes are before we have to say goodbye. Oh, I think they're terrific. I mean, their their depth is is is fantastic.

Both up front and on the blue line, as you said, they've got arguably the best coach in hockey and rod, Brenda Moore. I think they know what they are. The question is, is what they are going to be good enough when we get into the playoffs.

We're all assuming they're going to be there. I don't think there's any reason not to assume it when it comes to, again, they're kind of in the same boat as the devils. They got to find that goal in some of these games, including some, you know, multiple overtime games last year where they weren't able to get it. And you and I talked last year about the idea that when they go out and get burned and they go out and get patchy ready in particular, how that's supposed to solve the problem.

Obviously with patchy ready's injuries, it didn't work, but they didn't really go down that well again to, you know, find that veteran goal score to really put them over the top. So again, maybe, maybe that's something that they read, they revisit at the trade deadline. I do think it's something that they need on this team. I know there's a hope that's, that's could be that guy. I think that they'd be smart to get some insurance in case he isn't, as far as scoring that big goal in the playoffs. But I mean, they're stacked. They're a team that I think a lot of people, rightfully so, has predicted will come out of the East this year. Tevo Terevinen is bidding to be on that list.

A mid-season update to the top 100 Terevinen on pace for like 109 goals this year. Greg Wyshinsky of ESPN.com, senior NFL writer. I appreciate your time, man. Thanks for playing along. I'll see you soon. Anytime. Thanks for having me. You got it. Greg Wyshinsky here on the Adam Gold show.