Morning y’all. Happy Friday. Here’s what we got on the agenda for you today:

• NHL Draft Discourse 🏒

• Shohei Ohtani - The Greatest Athlete of All Time? 🐐

• Tons of NHL News 📰

• Domingo German Tosses a Perfect Game ⚾️

Enjoy!

NHL Draft Winners

There are so many things you can talk about from draft night. Heck, you could analyze every pick if you wanted too. But that seems like a boatload of work, so here are my three winners from the 1st round of the NHL Draft on Wednesday night (in no particular order), with some help from a couple of Twitter’s best NHL Draft/prospect accounts.

Chicago Blackhawks - Picks: Connor Bedard (1st), Oliver Moore (19th)

Obviously the Blackhawks are considered one of the winners of the draft getting Bedard, but I don’t give them much credit for that. I do, however, think their second pick of the night, Oliver Moore, was a very solid pick. I heard the kid ran a sub 5 minute mile in middle school. That’s enough to get an A+ grade from me (I actually do think he can be legit though).

Columbus Blue Jackets - Picks: Adam Fantilli (3rd)

Columbus had to be ecstatic when Anaheim took Leo Carlsson 2nd overall, allowing Fantilli to fall into their laps at pick #3.

But not only does it seem like Fantilli will become a superstar, it looks like he’s a great kid too. Check out the vest he wore to the draft:

Looks like the Jackets got a good one on and off the ice.

Philadelphia Flyers - Picks: Matvei Michkov (7th), Oliver Bonk (22nd)

Didn’t even matter who the Flyers took with their second pick, they may have got a generational talent at 7th overall (!) by taking Michkov. Better numbers in the KHL in his draft year than Ovechkin. I understand the concern with Russian players, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this kid ended up better than Bedard. Every time they’ve played in the same tournament so far in their careers, I think Michkov has looked like the better player. What a night for Philly.

Shohei Ohtani’s Historic Night

On Tuesday night against the Chicago White Sox, Shohei Ohtani did something special (even for him). Here are his stats from the Angels 4-2 victory that night:

Ludicrous.

I know baseball isn’t the most popular sport for the younger generations, but if you ever have a chance to watch this guy, do it. He is truly a once-in-a-century athlete (who will get a $500M contract this offseason at least).

I’m going to do a deeper dive on Shohei Ohtani down the road and I hope I’ll be able to show how special he truly is. But for now, I’ll just leave you with this tweet.

For those of you who aren’t sure what WAR is, here is a quick explanation from our pal ChatGPT:

Shohei Ohtani put up 0.8 WAR in a single game. That means he nearly won the entire baseball game on his own. For those of you who aren’t as interested in statistics, I’ll try and put that in perspective for ya.

Aaron Judge led Major League Baseball in total WAR last season with 11.5. Aaron Judge also played 157 games last year, equating to an average of 0.07 WAR per game played last season. The 2022 version of Aaron Judge (who set an American League [AL] record for most homers in a season with 62 AND took home the AL MVP award) would’ve needed 11 games to put up the same WAR Ohtani did in a single game.

If you are a fan of sports, especially of baseball, I hope you take some time to watch and appreciate Shohei Ohtani, because odds are we’ll never see anything like him ever again. 🦄 

Here is a little poem to conclude this section about Shohei Ohtani:

Everyday

I pray

that Shohei

becomes a Blue Jay

🙏 

NHL News

Ross Colton Traded to Colorado from Tampa

The Lightning received the 37th overall pick in the draft (which they used to select Ethan Gauthier) in exchange for Ross Colton. I’ve always thought Colton has been a fairly solid player who has scored some big goals for Tampa during their deep playoff runs. Part of his success is a byproduct of playing on such a good team, but that isn’t going to change in Colorado. I expect him to be good for the Avs.

With the Alex Newhook trade, the Avalanche essentially traded Newhook for Colton and the 31st overall pick (Mikhail Gulyayev). Tidy bit of business right there for Sakic and Co.

David Kampf Re-Signs with Maple Leafs on 4 Year x $2.5M AAV Deal

Should’ve kept Dubas lol.

What is Treliving doing? Every dollar counts when you need to re-sign Matthews and Nylander.

Timo Meier Signs Massive Extension with the New Jersey Devils

8 years, $8.8M AAV for Timo. Great deal, great player.

They’re building something special in Jersey man. If they bring in a half-decent goalie this offseason, I think they’re my Stanley Cup pick for next season.

+1000 odds (9.1% implied probability) for a Devils Stanley Cup champs future on theScore and DraftKings if anyone is wondering…

Vegas Trades Reilly Smith to Pittsburgh, Re-Signs Barbashev to 5-Year Deal

I said to you guys in the first newsletter that I am going to try and not let my biases shine through. However, I hate the Vegas Golden Knights with a passion. Just thought I should put that out there so everyone knows.

Vegas traded Smith to play in Steel City for a 2024 3rd round pick. Smith is 32 now, but still has some skill to try and help the Penguins win with their aging core of Crosby, Malkin, and Letang. Good first move for Dubas in Pittsburgh.

Vegas had no choice but to move a fairly sizeable contract as their playoff roster was significantly over the regular season salary cap. The $5M in cap space Vegas shed sending Smith away, they immediately used to re-up Barbashev with a 5 year, $5M AAV contract.

Barbashev was pretty good for Vegas in their latest playoff run, but I’ve watched that guy do absolutely nothing in the Central Division for awhile now. I’m not convinced he’s a $25M player after a ~20ish game sample where everyone on Vegas looked pretty decent.

Blackhawks make Multiple Moves

Acquire Josh Bailey and a 2026 2nd Round Pick from the Islanders for Future Considerations

Salary cap move for the Isles. Hawks are going to buyout Bailey, meaning he will become a free agent.

Sent a 2024 7th Rounder to Tampa for Corey Perry

More Bedard help. Signed a 1 year, $4M deal with the Hawks after the trade.

Pretty good week for Chicago.

Edmonton Ships Kailer Yamamoto & Klim Kostin to the Motor City for Future Considerations

Following the major theme of the last couple days, Oilers trade Yamamoto and Kostin to the Red Wings in a salary cap move.

Wings should compete for a playoff spot next season.

New York Yankee Domingo German Pitches the 24th Perfect Game in MLB History

I talk about how special Ohtani’s performance was, then German comes out the next night and throws the first perfect game since Felix Hernandez did so in 2012. Smh.

Here is a video of the final out:

As rare as it is, we really shouldn’t spend much time celebrating this feat - German is an absolutely awful human.

That’s all I got for y’all. Another long one with so much hockey news going on. As always, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

From,

The Nosebleeds🩸