Blueshirt Bandwidth Ombudsman Report

Podcast Ombudsman Report for Blueshirt Bandwidth Ep. 103

Tom Poti was better than you remember, the Devils' cap sheet raises questions, and the podcast's tallest-line math gets a fact-check.

Charlie Vidal

01 Oct 2026 — 3 min read

Photo by Will Francis - AI & Marketing / Unsplash

Welcome back to the Blueshirt Bandwidth Podcast Ombudsman Report. Each week, Charlie Vidal will listen to the latest episode of the podcast and correct the record on anything Joe and Eric (or, in this case, Joe and Chip) get wrong. If you aren't already, you can listen and subscribe to the podcast here.

Tom Poti

For some reason, this was the Tom Poti episode. While the much-maligned defenseman only spent three and a half seasons with the New York Rangers, he was actually pretty good.

The first year that HockeyStats.com has advanced metrics for is Poti's age 30 season in 2007-08, when he had an 88 percent projected WAR. He followed that up with 95 percent and 96 percent projected WAR seasons. Evolving-Hockey paints a similar picture, with Poti putting up strong expected goals above replacement (xGAR) in the first three seasons that they have data for:

It thus stands to reason that in Poti's age 24-28 seasons, when he was putting up similar point totals with the Rangers, he would have been a very good defenseman. He was not, however, prime Brian Leetch.

Will Cuylle

Joe said that Will Cuylle had a down season last year. Beyond his regression from 45 to 38 points, his underlying metrics regressed from 4.4 xGAR to only 1 xGAR:

Hellebuyck to Devils?

The idea of Connor Hellebuyck being traded to the New Jersey Devils was discussed because they have one of Hellebuyck's Team USA Olympic teammates, and they could use a goalie. Hellebuyck is signed for five more seasons with an $8.5 million cap hit.

The Devils currently have $52,000 in cap space. They only have two players with a cap hit of more than $5 million who do not have a no-trade or no-movement clause: Luke Evangelista ($7.25 million) and Luke Hughes ($9 million).

This all must also take into consideration the Devils' pursuit of Quinn Hughes in free agency next summer, if he actually reaches free agency. Looking ahead to summer 2027, the Devils will have approximately $24 million in cap space with only 15 players signed. That would certainly be enough to fit Hellebuyck under the cap, but it's hard to imagine also having space for whatever deal Quinn Hughes will sign, plus other complementary pieces.

Joe asked, "What would the Devils do if Quinn Hughes signed a four-year deal with Minnesota tomorrow?" If Quinn signed an extension to line himself up with his brother's free agency, then it would be a three-year deal, because Jack Hughes will be a free agent in 2030.

Biggest Line Ever

The tallest recorded line to ever regularly skate together was the trio of Elmer Soderblom, Michael Rasmussen, and Oskar Sundqvist that the 2022-23 Detroit Red Wings ran out with an average height of 6-5⅔. The Rangers line combination of Sam Carrick, Adam Edstrom, and Matt Rempe had an average height just shy of that Red Wings trio at 6-5⅓.

If the Rangers played Dylan Roobroeck, Nathan Aspinall, and Matt Rempe in a regular-season game, their average height of 6-7 would dwarf the two aforementioned lines.