When did Mikko Rantanen become such a goon? Ugly week for the well-paid Finn, who incurred the wrath of Islanders coach Patrick Roy after he crashed into Alex Romanov with under a minute left in DAL-NYI earlier this week.

Roy’s passion was so infectious. I was fortunate enough to be watching live, and you have to love a coach who relentlessly protects his players like that, chastising Rantanen with threats looming.

Regardless, the Stars lose. Fast forward to Saturday night, Hockey Night in Canada against Calgary, and Rantanen boards Matt Coronato in a vulnerable position and is ejected for the second time in a few days.

Never a good sign when Chris Pronger, guest panellist on HNIC, thinks it’s a bad hit. Rantanen will surely be suspended for this hit. It is ugly.

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Mikko Rantanen receives a five-minute major and a game misconduct for this hit on Matt Coronato. Coronato went down the tunnel following the hit.

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4:50 AM · Nov 23, 2025

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No one in the NHL has more penalty minutes than Rantanen. How crazy is that? His deletion from the game hurt the Stars because he leads the league in power-play points, and the Stars failed to convert a 5-on-3 near the end of regulation, losing to the Flames in the process.

When has a player of Rantanen’s calibre ever led the league in PIMs through a substantial sample size of over 20 games?

Bizarre. Rantanen should be punished for at least two games. Maybe more.

The Flames and their tanking

So the Flames collect two points in the win to improve their record to 6-13-3, knifing their way to just one point back of the 31st overall Nashville Predators.

There was no camera shot of the Calgary front office, because it must’ve been fist-pounds all around after the beating they took in the media.

Calgary president Don Maloney poured kerosene on his Flames like a radical arsonist. In a sitdown with Sportsnet last week, Maloney said the start has been “poor and unexpected.”

Not sure what you expected, Don. Literally, a couple more wins?

But in terms of a rebuild, he simply won’t hear of it. The overall approach isn’t going to change. Gavin McKenna, or drafting potentially first overall, is not an attractive position in his eyes.

“In a fantasy world, it’s very enticing. You have to deal with the real world, too. First of all, we’re very early in this season. Let’s see how it plays out the rest of the year for those teams. No disrespect, those teams are really good, but on that side, look at some of the other teams that have been in this. I don’t want to say the teams, but they’ve been down and missed playoffs for years and years and years. And then you lose your fans, you lose your interest and nobody wants that.”

A truly remarkable interview to read.

I agree that you can’t just come out and say you’re gonna suck, and that the goal is to try and finish with the best lottery odds, etc. I get that can be demoralizing.

However. For a team that has won two, I repeat two playoff series since the 2004-05 lockout, you gotta think there’s some anger with this perennial no-mans-land the Flames reside in.

The fanbase is actually craving being bad. They are giving you the permission structure to envision the franchise long-term. That is something you can’t ignore.

Nah. We’re good, says Maloney.

This piece of the interview was the real kicker.

“We prefer a Dallas model, where they got Miro Heiskanen at three, but also got good players in the 20s and 30s,” Maloney said. “We’ve got to be better in our drafting and developing versus saying ‘let’s lose easy for everybody.’ We don’t want that culture as part of this organization.”

Look, it’s a lottery system anyway, so finishing 32nd overall doesn’t guarantee you shit, but the phrase “Dallas model” is pure garbage. The model breaks down to, “We want to draft good players wherever we pick.”

Well, excuse me, but isn’t that every team’s model? What else are you doing at the draft besides trying to draft the best player you can at that selection?

The Dallas model also includes the ability to sign players in a market where they aren’t given any local pushback and can fit your total payroll for less dollars because of lower state taxes.

Dallas model? What model?

As an Oilers fan…

Yes, you are on Oilersnation, so an extended run here on the Flames is off-brand. But I can’t help myself from looking at this franchise that operates under this thinking and laughing.

For the Oilers’ spin on this, here’s the top scenario.

Amidst some reports of GM Craig Conroy not seeing eye-to-eye with the upper management’s direction, and Conroy being in the final year of his contract, imagine if Conroy is not renewed, as they let the veterans stick around, and the Flames still lose the lottery.

Calgary then hires a stooge who will bring a “winning” attitude back, and they spend big money in free agency chasing wins in October and November, at the cost of never seeing May hockey.

How delicious would that be?

The NHL Draft lottery is a bust

But I will say this: the Draft Lottery should be scrapped.

The argument is always that you don’t want to encourage tanking in the NHL. Well, what did San Jose, Anaheim, Arizona, Chicago, and Detroit just do for the last several years?

The teams are doing it anyway. The lottery only provides some gonzo 30-minute content for the league, as they’ve shaved the percentage odds slimmer and slimmer for the worst teams.

Why should the Islanders have got to pick Matthew Schaefer despite being nine places and 30 points better than the San Jose Sharks? What justice is that?

Frankie Borrelli

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Matthew Schaefer is better than you can even comprehend. 18 years old.

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4:54 AM · Nov 15, 2025

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Look at the NBA, the league most criticized for tanking. They have a draft lottery. The Dallas Mavericks won the lottery with a 1.8 per cent chance a few months ago, similar to the Islanders.

Although the schedule and situations are different, the NFL has no draft lottery, and they don’t have a huge tanking problem. Now, a 17-game schedule with a game every week is a whole lot different from 82 over several months. But bottom-feeder NFL teams consistently win “meaningless” games and harm their draft position.

It’s not a lottery that is the determining factor whether your league will have tanking teams or not; it’s because there’s a draft. As long as there’s a draft, there will be tanking teams.

Consistently missing the playoffs by four points is much worse than finishing last. Front offices have figured this out.

And when the top-four leading scorers of the NHL this week (Mackinnon, McDavid, Celebrini, Bedard) were all drafted first overall, you aren’t going to talk teams off of the idea.

If Gary Bettman were old NBA commissioner David Stern, he would’ve rigged it for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Imagine Matthew Schaefer with Crosby and co.

The Avs making history

To the polar opposite end of things, the Colorado Avalanche.

They are just the fourth team in National Hockey League history to have one regulation loss or fewer in their first 20 games.

Whenever you’re in the company of the 1927-28 Montreal Canadiens, you’re in good company. (George Hainsworth rocked 1.05 GAA that season in case you were curious). The 1979-80 Philadelphia Flyers, who set a North American pro sports record for going unbeaten in 35 straight games (25 wins and 10 ties), and the 2012-13 Chicago Blackhawks were the only other teams.

Because of the lockout, that achievement is somewhat memory-holed, but the Hawks were 21-0-3 through 50 per cent of their games. That was one of the best teams of the 2000s in my view.

The Avs won their eighth straight game over the hapless Predators on Saturday. They play Chicago tonight (Sunday), then have the Sharks and Wild afterwards.

Wallstedt is rubbing it in our faces

Meanwhile, it’s not getting a ton of press, but the Minnesota Wild are back in the mix in a major way. The Wild are 8-1-1 in their last 10 games, and after their brutal start and the Kirill Kaprizov signing hangover, they are finding ways to win.

Jesper Wallstedt is 5-0-2 this season with a 2.20 GAA and a .926 save percentage. It is criminal that he is not an Edmonton Oiler. Let me repeat. Criminal.

Hang that in the Tyler Wright Scouting Hall of Fame.