PuckPedia Hockey Show Episode 45: McKenna or Stenberg? NHL Draft Preview ft. Jason Bukala

PuckPedia Cap Central 6/24: NHL Draft Week Chaos

For Episode 24 of PuckPedia Cap Central, Keith Kavanaugh and Hart Levine dive into the pressing topics of the NHL salary cap world. They kick things off by setting the scene for a chaotic NHL Draft Week in Buffalo, with trades coming in from every direction. Then they break down the trades involving Brady Tkachuk, Simon Nemec, William Eklund, Jordan Kyrou, and Bowen Byram, and what each move means from a cap perspective. Then they get into the Oilers signings and how Edmonton is building out their roster heading into next season. Then they touch on Bobby McMann re-signing and what that deal looks like. They wrap up with a walkthrough of the PuckPedia NHL Draft Simulator and how fans can use it to follow along as the picks roll in. Visit PuckPedia.com and follow PuckPedia on social media! X: @PuckPedia  IG: @PuckPedia  Go to PuckPedia.com/Coolbet to get in on the action today. Stay Cool, Bet Responsibly Theme song by Lester McLean (https://www.lestermclean.com) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

PuckPedia Hockey Show Episode 45: McKenna or Stenberg? NHL Draft Preview ft. Jason Bukala

Episode 45 of The PuckPedia Hockey Show features a very special recurring guest, Jason Bukala of the Pro Hockey Group, back for his fourth appearance on the show and joining just days before the 2026 NHL Draft in Buffalo. Jason will be on Sportsnet for Day 1 and NHL Network for Day 2 of draft coverage, and his full scouting reports are available on PuckPedia Plus along with the new video vault feature. We dive right in with the big debate at the top of the draft: Gavin McKenna versus Ivar Stenberg at number one overall (1:30). Jason breaks down the key difference between the two: McKenna as a quick-strike offensive playmaker who makes everyone around him better, and Stenberg as the death-by-a-thousand-cuts two-way center who never goes away in any zone. He views them as 1A and 1A rather than a clear-cut top choice, and addresses McKenna's improvement in the back half of the season after returning from the World Juniors to Penn State, crediting him with a 30-40% improvement in his play without the puck. Then we get into the top defensive prospects in the class: Keaton Verhoeff, Carson Carels, and Chase Reid (7:00). Jason breaks down the nuances in each of their games, what they will bring to an NHL roster in the next three to five years, and why defensemen generally take a little longer to find their footing at the pro level. Then we move to Caleb Malhotra, who has shot up the rankings seemingly out of nowhere and could potentially go as high as third overall to Vancouver, where his father is in his first year as head coach (14:00). Jason walks through what changed in Malhotra's game over the last six to twelve months and why he sees him going no later than the Rangers at fifth. We get into the value of draft capital this year given the depth of the class, the Brady Tkachuk trade between Florida and Ottawa as a reference point, and whether we will see big trades on the floor on draft night (17:00). We then discuss what happens when teams miss on early picks and how scouting and asset management go hand in hand (20:00). We wrap up with the Coolbet question of the week: who is Jason's sleeper pick in the forties (26:30)? He points to Finnish winger Matias Vanhanen from the Everett Silvertips, who he believes could be one of the second-best playmakers in the entire draft class despite his current ranking. Visit PuckPedia.com and follow PuckPedia on social media! X: @PuckPedia  IG: @PuckPedia  Go to PuckPedia.com/Coolbet to get in on the action today. Stay Cool, Bet Responsibly Theme song by Lester McLean (https://www.lestermclean.com) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

PuckPedia Cap Central 6/17: Nurse Trade Request + Preds/Avs Trade + Buyout Candidates

Visit PuckPedia.com and follow PuckPedia on social media! X: @PuckPedia  IG: @PuckPedia  Go to PuckPedia.com/Coolbet to get in on the action today. Stay Cool, Bet Responsibly Theme song by Lester McLean (https://www.lestermclean.com) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The PuckPedia Hockey Show Episode 44: From 17 Cents & a Dream to One of the Most Powerful Agents in Hockey ft. Dan Milstein

Episode 44 of The PuckPedia Hockey Show features a very special guest, Dan Milstein, NHLPA certified agent and CEO of Gold Star Hockey. We start with Dan's extraordinary background: born in the Soviet Union, living 78 miles from Chernobyl when it happened, and arriving in the United States at sixteen years old with one suitcase and seventeen cents as a political refugee (1:00). From working at McDonald's before school every morning to becoming the youngest general manager in his bank's history before age twenty-one, to starting Gold Star Mortgage with $3,500 in savings and growing it into one of the largest mortgage companies in the United States with ninety-four offices from Florida to Hawaii. We talk about how Dan served as executive producer of the film The Russian Five and how his connection to Russian hockey culture ultimately led him to pivot from finance to building Gold Star Hockey into a top-five NHL agency (7:00). We then discuss what makes Gold Star Hockey different from a typical sports agency, the lifestyle approach to player representation, and the player development infrastructure built with former NHL players Sergei Samsonov and Alexander Tishnik working directly with clients on video and development (10:00). We get into how the recruiting and drafting process has changed over the last five to ten years with NIL, the NCAA landscape, and the availability of video and data, and how Gold Star leverages its internal infrastructure to identify and develop the right players (16:00). We dive into some of Dan's current clients, including Dan Vladar's upcoming extension situation with the Philadelphia Flyers and what it means for negotiations when a player publicly says he wants to stay (20:00). We also talk about Ivan Demidov's long-term outlook with Montreal and how the rising salary cap creates real complexity for agents trying to maximize value for younger clients. We wrap up with the Coolbet question of the week: in a rising cap era where the ceiling is jumping significantly over the next few seasons, how do you navigate the short-term versus long-term contract decision, and what do the public trade requests from players like Dylan Larkin and Darnell Nurse say about the growing power of players in today's NHL (27:00)? Visit PuckPedia.com and follow PuckPedia on social media! X: @PuckPedia  IG: @PuckPedia  Go to PuckPedia.com/Coolbet to get in on the action today. Stay Cool, Bet Responsibly Theme song by Lester McLean (https://www.lestermclean.com) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

PuckPedia Cap Central 6/10: Larkin Trade Request + McCarron Extension

Visit PuckPedia.com and follow PuckPedia on social media! X: @PuckPedia  IG: @PuckPedia  Go to PuckPedia.com/Coolbet to get in on the action today. Stay Cool, Bet Responsibly Theme song by Lester McLean (https://www.lestermclean.com) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.