Varying levels of 🔥 (as shown by the # of 🔥's on a 1-5 scale) and I tried staying away from "popular" debates (Val Nuke, Kase etc) though I have enough hot takes I can probably do a second post
I feel like I was really pessimistic... I swear I don't hate your team bc I said x player sucks

ANA
Gibby is still the best G in the world despite the down year 🔥🔥
Getz has fallen off significantly 🔥
Zegras is the best drafted prospect in hockey 🔥

ARZ
Hall will get a Panarin ish level contract (11+ mil) and live up to it for at least a few years 🔥 🔥 🔥
Chychrun is the teams best d man 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥
Soderstrom was worth the pick and has "exceeded" expectations for 12 OA 🔥 (not really a hot take for some depending on how much you track prospects, same for most of the prospect ones)

BOS
McAvoy is a top 5 RHD 🔥 🔥 🔥🔥
Nick Ritchie is a good NHLer 🔥 🔥 🔥 (he's so underrated it's crazy)
Stud is well... A stud and should be an impact player next year 🔥

BUF... So many to choose from...
Dahlin was barely a top 4 d man this yr, and regressed from his rookie year 🔥 🔥🔥
Joki isn't that good (still better than Alex Nylander tho) 🔥🔥
Yinz don't have any interesting prospects and I want to say something positive, Reinhart is a stud, I can't really quantify his studness, definitely a legit first liner tho 🔥 🔥

CGY
Czarnik should be in the NHL 🔥
Looch is "good" and CGY won the Looch for Neal swap 🔥🔥🔥🔥
They shouldn't have fast tracked MEP 🔥 🔥

CAR
Aho isn't a top FIVE player on the team 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Gards isn't bad, he had some bad puck luck, and bad luck at when he had some mistakes in TOR, he's not that bad defensively 🔥 🔥
Suzuki is not a particularly good spec, he didn't improve that much this year imo, although he was hurt 🔥🔥🔥

CHI
Kubalik should be on most people's Calder ballots 🔥🔥
Kane isn't an effective hockey player 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Regula will be a good top 4 d man, and they fleeced DET in that trade 🔥

COL
Makar should not be in discussion to win the Calder (not knocking him, he's basically as good as advertised, there's just someone better... Not Hughes) 🔥🔥🔥
Ian Cole can be an ok second pair DFD 🔥
Newhook can be argued to be the best drafted prospect 🔥🔥

CBJ
Bjorkstrand is their best player 🔥🔥🔥
Jones is not a good top pair d man 🔥🔥🔥🔥
TFW is/will be there best 7th rounder from 2018 🔥

DAL
Lindell SUCKS (Oleksiak is the best defender at actually defending on the team)🔥🔥🔥
Bishop>Vasy 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Harley was a fantastic pick, I was completely wrong about him heading into the draft, the kid was a stud this yr 🔥

DET
They all suck moving on
(Kidding! Some are good)
Mantha=Larkin (at worst) 🔥🔥
They traded out my next two ideas for hot takes lol
Nemeth is a very good top 4 d man, and was the best on their team (not that the last part says much) 🔥🔥🔥
Seider was worth the pick 🔥

EDM
Here is where DET traded those two hot takes to
AA is a horrendous NHLer 🔥🔥
Green was a downgrade over anyone else on their defense 🔥🔥🔥
Oh I have so many more I can list, but I will hold back
Broberg is not good, he is a project player with a low upside (EDM should take Mukhamadullin, then they'd get another high risk no upside guy... Ty SammyT for that line)

FLA
Weegar>Ekblad 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Dadonov>>>x50000 Hoffman, who is literally incompetent off the PP 🔥
Let me just preface this by saying FLA's development system SUCKS... But Tippett isn't that good, and reminds me a lot of... Mike Hoffman! (But a bit, not much, just a bit, better 5v5) 🔥🔥
Doughty is not a good NHLer. 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Roy (or Walker) is a really really good d man, solid number 2 imo 🔥🔥🔥
Kaliyev sucks at hockey (before I go on a 5 page rant about him, I'll leave it at that) 🔥🔥🔥
Sorry Kings fans, you guys have enough young studs, I had to knock a few guys down lol

MIN
Spurgeon was worth the extension 🔥🔥
Foligno is the best defensive forward in the game 🔥🔥🔥
Yinz have a bunch of solid underrated specs, I'll go Firstov for this one but there are others that are really good too 🔥

MTL
(Habs fans on HF love this...) Mete and Kulak are good top 4 d men 🔥🔥🔥
You kept the wrong goalie 🔥🔥🔥
(Don't bash Caufield, don't bash Caufield, don't bash Caufield) Norlinder is an amazing spec, honestly has a higher CEILING (and much lower floor) than Romanov 🔥🔥🔥🔥

It's halftime, take a break here, go yell at me in the comments, then come back to finish the rest of the teams

Ellis is a top 10 d man. 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Bonino would be an above average 2C 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Tomasino was a great pick, would go a good bit higher in a redraft 🔥

NJD
Butcher is this teams best d man 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Gusev is a very good player and had a successful year 🔥🔥
Walsh can't defend 🔥🔥

NYI, hey I have positive ones here
Pulock is a top 8 RD, and I will apologize to all the isles fans I uneducatedly argued with 🔥🔥🔥
Beauv is this teams 4th best forward 🔥
(Don't bash Wahlstrom, don't bash Wahlstrom, don't bash Wahlstrom) Dobson will peak as a top 10 RHD 🔥🔥🔥🔥

NYR
Panarin was the best player in the league this yr 🔥🔥🔥
Fox should win the Calder and it isn't close. 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Holy sh*t Krav is so good, please don't f*ck his development up (cough cough like Lias cough cough) 🔥🔥

OTT
Duclair is not a very good hockey player, he doesn't defense and will not be in Ottawa's top 6 by the end of next year, and they will look to shop him bc he can't play a bottom 6 role 🔥🔥🔥
White is WAY better than this years point totals suggest 🔥
Brannstrom isn't that good and was a pitiful return for Stone, he'll be a decent top 4 guy 🔥🔥🔥

PHI
Coots is a top 3-5 C in the league 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Provy is overrated...? Do people still think he is a really good top pair guy...? 🔥
Serdyuk will be a really good middle 6er, and they killed the 2019 draft, after the first, Brink is good Serdyuk is good, I really like Attard, Brodzinski isn't bad (especially for a 7th) 🔥🔥🔥

PIT
Marino should be on a lot of people's Calder ballots, he is not far behind, if at all to Makar/Hughes 🔥🔥🔥🔥
ERod is one of the most underrated players in the league, he isn't quite as good as ZAR, but he is a really really good two way forward 🔥🔥
Ehhhh... Idk if I even agree with this, but Hallander is this teams best spec 🔥🔥🔥🔥

SJS
Meier is this teams best player (really close with Hertl and EK 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Burns has already fallen off a cliff, he struggled to offense this yr and had his normal defense 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Kniazev is their best spec (not highest ceiling, that's obv Merkley, best) 🔥🔥🔥🔥

STL
Dunn is amazing, he's a legit top pair d man 🔥🔥🔥
STL lost the Faulk trade the moment it was made 🔥🔥
All of their prospects are rated pretty fairly imo, Perron is not a very good hockey player tho 🔥🔥🔥

TBL
Killorn is very good, legit top 6 forward 🔥🔥
Cirelli is also very good, legit first line center 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Their prospect pool is very bare, ABB is the best of them tho 🔥

TOR
Nylander=Marner 🔥🔥🔥
Muzzin is this teams best d man 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Robertson is overrated, very very good yes, but he's not like a top 5-10 guy from 2019 (maybe it's just me, but I feel like I've seen that way more than I should have)... Yet at least, and yes ik he's very young 🔥🔥

VAN
Elias Pettersson is a top 10 player in the league 🔥🔥🔥
Hughes should only be in conversation for second in the Calder race 🔥🔥🔥
Rathbone is their best prospect not named Podkolzin 🔥 🔥 also if someone can find the Rafferty quote (you know the one) please post it, I love that

VGK
Stone is the best winger in the league 🔥🔥🔥
Take away one season, and MAF has been an averageish goalie for his entire career 🔥🔥🔥
Ik he had really good production in the AHL, but Elvenes is not a fantastic prospect 🔥🔥

WSH
Vrana is this teams best ALL AROUND player (yes Ovi exists, yes he is probably the best goal scorer of all time, but he sacrifices a lot of other aspects of his game to become the best goal scorer of all time) 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Carlson should not be anywhere close to Norris contention, and is not even the best d man on his team, he doesn't defense 🔥🔥🔥🔥
This team sucks at drafting in the second round (other Fehervary, he's a stud) Klark and Leason suck (and we all know your two most recent drafts=how good you are at drafting.... Yeah I just needed a way to say both Klark and Leason suck, and didn't want to simply say Klark and Leason suck...) 🔥

WPG
Ehlers is this teams best skater 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Demelo is one of the two most underrated players in the league and is a good top pair guy 🔥🔥🔥
I love Samberg, and loved the Heinola pick at the time (I think he is a bit overrated now bc he did get those NHL games) but Gawanke has a legit shot at being this teams best spec... 🔥🔥🔥🔥

The game is over... I am sure I will be getting lots of referrals to a mental hospital tonight, but in stand by pretty much all of these takes, I'm sure you don't, make sure to yell at me in the comments tho anyway, and I'll just laugh, also if this gets enough interest I may do another in a few days, while I was scrolling through the rosters I noticed a lot of other guys I have hot takes on (although some teams I struggled to come up with three lol)

I had so many comments but after reading so many words I just forget all of them

There is plenty to nit pick here, but I want to address one thing.

"Hoffman, who is literally incompetent off the PP 🔥"

Florida's entire PP structure ran through Hoffman and entirely relied on his shot to do anything for better or worse. He did his job.

You think Fox is better than Makar and Hughes? Wow even as a NYR I'm really not so sure about that...

Agreed with some, couple of controversial ones and others are off

Won't go through all so just my team: Ritchie isn't underrated, he can barely skate. And there are several other options that you could classify as " underrated " on BOS.

That's what stats says. People don't talk about Fox enough

worst ones:
The hate on Seth Jones
The hate on Sebastian Aho
The hate on Makar and Hughes
The obvious bias towards the Rangers

Which stats?

He was spectacular on the PP

Jones I fully stand by as being insanely overrated
Aho is still really good, he just doesn't defense, turbo does, Dougie and Slavin are both number 1 d men, and Pesce although he had a down year this yr is a really high end number 2, not really hating on Aho there, just love everyone else
As I think I said earlier, not hating on Makar and Hughes, they're as good as advertised, Fox is just insane
Lol the thing is, I could have also said the rangers had the worst NHLer this yr (Kakko) one of the bottom 10ish d men (Trouba) Strome being very overrated, or even Zib being a bit overrated, the he is still really really good... And I'm a pens fan

Jones literally carried the CBJ this season

Advanced stats. Probably more but found those two




If you want to compare with Makar/Hughes
https://twitter.com/wwright88/status/1247942132519878662
https://twitter.com/HBAnalytica/status/1260662319572492288

Fox will probably not win the Calder only because he played less minutes. I understand it's part of the criterias but still, he was really good.

I can agree on 2 of the Columbus ones... but Jones will have a bounce back season. You must not watch hockey to think Jones isn’t top pair. Yes his advanced stats sucked this year but this year was also a career low on most stats for him. Expect him to be better next year. If you though Jones were bad... don’t go look at Werenski, Savards or any other jackets defenders numbers.... they were all pretty bad, Jones was the 2nd best on the team...

Honestly put the metrics down and watch a hockey game.. you might learn something about it the stats don’t tell you.

I like the Gawanke shoutout for the Jets. He’s got a big shot, something the PP1 unit missed with Buff gone. Could/should be a better PP point man than Pionk in a couple years after he works on his defense a bit in the AHL.

Behind Elvis?

This one as well https://twitter.com/JFreshHockey/status/1249851175022800903?s=19

What about Elvis?

For the Wild:
The Spurgeon extension is awful.
Saying this as a big fan of Foligno; he isn't the best defensive FWD in the game, he is one of the best defensive wings in the game though
The Wild have a lot of prospects that could/should be NHL players; but most of them fall into bottom-6 FWD, low end middle pair d-men, and goalies are all a crap shoot. I like the prospect pool quite a bit, but it's lacking the potential top-6 center and top-pair d-man.

Yeah, I saw his article and was was looking for it but didn't find it so

I’m gonna have an aneurysm if they trade Dunn this summer. If you get like the 10th pick from the Devils (which won’t happen) they maybe, but that’s it.

I have 2 points
1. I'm a pens fan, I watched 65ish pens games this year, I remember 3 CBJ games, Jones wasn't particularly good in any of them
2. When the analytics say he's outperforming x then he "underperforms x/had a down year" it usually stays that way...

Spurgeon is a top pair d man imo, term is a bit rough ig, but no where near as bad as people say, he'll be worth it for at least 5 of the 7 (right?) Years, there's a few guys who are think can be middle 6/middle pair, but yeah aside from Kaprisov and Boldy it's not the best

Plus he's 99% gonna get a steal of a contract

So you watched Jones 3 times and looked at his stats... okay. You must know everything on him. He did underperform but if you look deeper you’ll also see that those are career lows on all major categories. So even if he averages out next year he’s still better then this year. Yes, Jones has a bad year but he’ll be better. So if Jones isn’t a 1st pair D Columbus no top pair defenseman. So if Jones is so overrated Savard and Werenski must be too... gotta love only looking at advanced stats to determine how good a player is. It’s the only way!

Savard and Werenski are both very good, better than Jones imo