Podcast Ombudsman Report for Blueshirt Bandwidth Ep. 60

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.

Rangers Who Wore #60

If this episode had been recorded three weeks ago, then it could not have been the Scott Morrow episode, as Morrow made his Rangers debut wearing #60 on Nov. 16.

Jose Theodore wore #60 for the Montreal Canadiens, Colorado Avalanche, Washington Capitals, Minnesota Wild, and Florida Panthers.

Here is a picture of the Curtis Joseph goalie mask that Eric was referring to, which is indeed really cool: 

Joe an Eric spoke at length about It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, including some iconic scenes such as the Wolf Cola apology on the news, and Charlie Day proclaiming himself the wild card.

Cam Talbot

Joe remembered Cam Talbot playing in “a shitload of games” during the 2014-15 season. Talbot played 36 games and received one third place vote for Vezina Trophy, good enough to tie Jonathan Quick and Andrew “The Hamburgler” Hammond for seventh in Vezina voting. Interestingly, Henrik Lundqvist finished fifth in Vezina voting that season.

Joe Will Not be Around Next Week

Joe will not be on the podcast next week, and said that we will be going from Henrik Lundqvist to Cam Talbot. In true Rangers fan fashion, we should expect a vocal minority within the comment section to say that we shouldn’t waste the cap space on an overpaid podcaster like Joe when you can win a cup with a much cheaper option like Chip.

Conor Sheary in the Press Box

We are finally seeing Conor Sheary spend some time in the press box, with Mike Sullivan sticking him up there for last week’s games against Carolina, Boston, and Tampa Bay. His ice time has also been trending downwards, with Sheary playing 15 minutes or more only once in eight games since Nov. 8 after reaching that mark 10 times in his first 16 games. This seems to be a tacit acknowledgement by Sullivan that Sheary hasn’t actually been very good.

Among forwards across the league, Sheary has the third most minutes of any forward in hockey who is yet to score a goal:

Evolving Hockey has Sheary as the Rangers fourth worst skater by xGAR:

Brennan Othmann

Joe said that “The Rangers appeared to have missed on Brennan Othmann”.

Looking back at the 21 players drafted 16^th overall between 2000 and 2021 (when Othmann was drafted), four have been legitimate stars (Jakob Chychrun, Matt Barzal, Tom Wilson, and Vlad Tarasenko), 6 have been solid NHL players, 6 have had short careers, and 4 have been out and out busts. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how confident I am that Othmann will reach 300 games played and turn into a solid NHL player for years to come.

One Year Since The Memo

Joe and Eric said that one year after the memo the Rangers are an aging team stuck in purgatory with no plan as to how they can get better. The Rangers are middle of the pack in terms of age as the 18th oldest team in the NHL.

In last week’s Banter Roundtable, I unpacked how Drury’s vision was to create a team that played effective 5v5 hockey in Mike Sullivan’s system while preparing cap space to add an elite talent next offseason. Unfortunately, Kiril Kaprizov, Connor McDavid, and Jack Eichel are not walking through that door and Drury is going to have to find another way to add elite offensive talent.

Would You Undo the J.T. Miller Trade?

In the discussion of whether or not you would undo the J.T. Miller trade, the question of what would you have done with the cap space and assets was raised.

The one player with team control who was traded that had previously been linked to the Rangers and would probably be a better option than Miller right now is Trevor Zegras. Zegras has been a point per game player so far this season, and the Philadelphia Flyers gave up Ryan Poehling, a second round pick, and a fourth round pick for him.

Did the Rangers Destroy Lafrenière and Kakko?

One thing to remember about Alexis Lafrenière is that his development stunted by COVID. He did not play any competitive hockey from March 12, 2020, until his NHL debut on Jan. 14, 2021.

Joe said that Kaapo Kakko was good last year with the Seattle Kraken. He had 30 points in 49 games, which works out to being a 50 point player over a full season. That would be an improvement over the 40 points that Kakko put up in the 2022-23 season. JFresh has him as a 52 percent projected WAR, or approximately a league average player. While there’s value in league average players, that’s not what you hope to get out of the second overall pick.

Parssinen v Sheary

Who is better: Juuso Parssinen or Conor Sheary? They’re nearly identical players per JFresh: