Evolving Hockey Podcast

We're back after two weeks to talk about the most important thing that's going on right now: our new Expected Goals model. We spent, at the very least, the first half doing this while also discussing league news, early over-performers, and the oddity of WI campus bars. 

Week 3 of the '26-27 NHL season is in the books! We spent the first half discussing the goalie mindset, documentaries, football, and falling attendance numbers. Later we talked about national anthems, shots from behind the net, and early GAR predictions. 

It's still way too early to say anything about whether your favorite team is good or bad. That said, we still tried (sort of). In the first half we discussed the Flyers, coaching media tactics, and fantasy letdowns. Later, we talked bad teams, early standouts, and the X-Files.

The first week of the '26-27 NHL season is in the books, and as is tradition it's too early to say anything conclusive. Instead, we chatted about Vince Dunn, broadcasts, concession food, David Lynch, and early vibes. In the second half we talked exclusively about xG.

Our team projections are now updated for the '26-27 NHL season, and our season preview article is up on the site! We spent the entire episode discussing the model, the league environment, each division, and every team (I think). If you want hockey discussion, no recurring episode ever has more! 

The season starts in six days. We're a little too early for our annual season preview episode, so we thought we'd wrap up the summer properly before we get to that. We discussed recent contracts, fantasy, initial contract analysis, extensions, bowling, and 1.5x listening. 

The theme of this episode is goalies. Things got really messy. I suppose that makes *a lot* of sense. Between all of that we talked about the perfect replacement level team, unexplained phenomenons, plants, fasting, and Dennis Quaid. 

It's time for us to start talking about hockey again (even if we spent 15 minutes talking about the MN State Fair). We spent the first half discussing our recently released fantasy projections and then moved on to Cale Makar and team construction questions. 

The Twins are back from the only vacation they take every year, and nothing is going on. It's all vibes. We spent the first half discussing pseudoscientific managerial assessment tools and prospect evaluation questions. Later, we pondered the Leo Carlsson offersheet and native thistles. 

We've been doing this for almost five years, and this episode is the most "offseason" episode we've ever recorded. We spent the first half talking about native plants (I'm not kidding), and the second half discussing ophthalmology and preseason hockey. Hell yeah. 

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.