Podcast Ombudsman Report for Blueshirt Bandwidth Ep. 106
A team nearly pounced on Dylan Garand, Connor Hellebuyck’s trade list has a built-in escape hatch, and a lot of goalies who were waived went on to earn Vezina votes.
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 get wrong. If you aren't already, you can listen and subscribe to the podcast here.
Gary Thorne
Gary Thorne stopped doing Baltimore Orioles games after the 2020 season and filled in on New York Mets radio and TV broadcasts during the 2021 and 2022 seasons before stepping away to retire.
Lifetime Broadcasters
When discussing the ideal broadcast team to narrate their lives, both Eric and Joe somehow omitted the obvious best choice for play-by-play announcer: Howard Cosell. John Madden would be my choice for color commentator, with Al Trautwig as my lifetime sideline reporter.
Elliotte Friedman on Garand
In a recent 32 Thoughts episode, Elliotte Friedman said that a team was close to claiming Dylan Garand:
"Somebody told me that there was a team really thinking about it, too," Friedman said on the latest 32 Thoughts podcast. "I said 'Who?' and he wouldn't tell me. This guy said there was definitely a team that thought about it."
Hellebuyck NTC
Connor Hellebuyck has a 10-team approved trade list, so he could plausibly put the 10 teams that are least likely to want to trade for him on that list.
Waiver to Vezina?
Joe asked whether any player has ever gone through waivers and gone on to be a Vezina Trophy or Calder Trophy contender. There are actually quite a few examples of goalies who were up for grabs, cleared waivers, and went on to receive Vezina votes, including Jordan Binnington, who was waived during training camp in 2018 and went on to finish fifth in Vezina voting while backstopping the St. Louis Blues to a Stanley Cup that season:
- Tim Thomas—waived by the Boston Bruins in 2005-06, won the Vezina in 2009 and 2011
- Corey Crawford—waived by the Chicago Blackhawks during the 2009 preseason, finished fifth in 2016
- Mike Smith—waived by the Tampa Bay Lightning in February 2011, finished fourth in 2012
- Devan Dubnyk—waived by the Nashville Predators in March 2014, finished third in 2015
- Jacob Markstrom—waived by the Vancouver Canucks in September 2014, finished second in 2022
- Scott Wedgewood—waived by the New Jersey Devils during training camp in 2017, finished fifth in 2026
- Jordan Binnington—waived by the Blues in September 2018, finished fifth in 2019
- Anthony Stolarz—waived by the Philadelphia Flyers in October 2018, finished fifth in 2025
- Charlie Lindgren—waived by the Blues in October 2021, finished eighth in 2024
Additionally, Alex Nedeljkovic was waived by the Carolina Hurricanes before the start of the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season and went on to finish third in Calder voting that season.
