David Johnson

Defense stocks drop after Trump says Pentagon spending could be halved Shares of Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin were under pressure after President Donald Trump raised the idea of large cuts to defense spending.

I remember when Trump said he could cut Pentagon spending in half.

www.cnbc.com/2025/02/13/d...

I wrote about the Calgary Flames abundance of draft picks in the 2026 NHL draft and what is a reasonable expectation from the prospects they add to the organizations. If you are a Flames fan, which of these outcomes would make you happy?
hockeyanalysis.com/2026/03/10/h...

When described that way we see how stupid the current point system is.

I think about it this way:

Teams play 60 min games. Winner gets 2pts, loser gets 0pts. If teams are tied both teams get one point and as a bonus for neither being good enough to win the game they get to play a second game under completely different rules for a bonus point.

The context of Anaheim's 'successful' season seems important here and makes you wonder how much of a breakout season it is.

Finally, is this a problem for the NHL? Is the NHL sending teams to the playoffs based hockey rules that are not used for playoff hockey?

Anaheim has a 7-3 record in games that end in 3v3 overtime and an 8-0 record in shootout games.

Is Anaheim a good hockey team, a good skills competition team or just lucky?

Is Anaheim getting more credit for a breakout season than they deserve? Should we expect them to regress next year?

The Washington Capitals were sellers at the trade deadline. Their record is 32-26-7. Are they a good team?

WSH has a 27-26-12 regulation record and a +12 goal differential.

Who's better, the Pacific division leading Anaheim Ducks or the Washington Capitals who are 5 points out of a playoff spot?

The Winnipeg Jets have a dismal 26-26-10 record which looks much worse than Anaheim's 35-25-3 record.

However Winnipeg's regulation record is 21-26-15 with a -11 goal differential, which are very similar to Anaheim.

Who is the better team?

The Utah Mammoth have a very similar 34-25-5 record. Both teams have 73 points but Utah has played one more game.

However, Utah's regulation W-L-T record is 26-25-13 and they have a +27 goal differential both of which are much better than Anaheim.

How much better is Utah than Anaheim?

Are the Anaheim Ducks a good team? Their record is 35-25-3.

However...

ANA has 20 regulation wins
and 15 OT/SO wins

Their regulation W-L-T record is 20-25-18.

They also have a -10 goal differential, DET is the only other current playoff team below 0 at -1.

Do you still think ANA is a good team?

I made some upgrades to the draft pick simulator. You can now specify up to 16 picks which should cover most/all teams drafts. I also added some additional pick ranges to choose (i.e. 6-10 overall). Finally, you can now run the simulation 1, 5 or 10 times.

www.thestanleycap.com/tools/draft_...

I have implemented the ability run the draft simulation 1, 5 or 10 times.

So if I understand this right, Iran has surrendered and is no longer a threat to its neighbours but they are going to continue bombing Iran because...why not??

Maybe he's holding out for Iran to give him a gold watch and a fake Middle East peace prize.

Thank-you to everyone that visited TheStanleyCap.com today. It was almost certainly our busiest day for traffic ever.

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Did your team trade for some draft picks today? Were you wondering the quality of players you reasonably expect from those draft picks down the road? Use this draft pick simulator to see the types of players that were taken with those picks in the past.
www.thestanleycap.com/tools/draft_...

With Kadri going to Colorado I think the biggest losers today are the Minnesota Wild. They really needed a center to keep pace with Colorado and Dallas and McCarron just doesn't cut it.

Acquiring Strome makes a bit more sense now that the Kadri to Colorado news has come out. Flames need someone to play (and some salary to get to the cap floor).

Hurricanes analytics department must have come up with a useful Grit/60 metric.

Fixed. Thanks.

Yeah, simulate x times is something I want to do but it will have to wait until after the trade deadline. I literally thought of this yesterday morning and released it last night.

Obviously few good players in there, Carlson, Markstrom, Miller, etc. but a lot of meh too. Yes, you have a shot at a Carlson but you are more likely to get a Kapanen or Frederic or Del Zotto. Useful NHLers but not core players. You could also end up with guys that hardly play at all.

How much is a late first round pick worth? Using The Stanley Cap's new draft simulator which randomly picks former draft picks within a specified ranged. Here are 10 random players drafted between 20 and 32.
www.thestanleycap.com/tools/draft_...

TSN is not doing one the least interesting things they could do to fill time, a fake draft lottery. Is this the best time filler they could come up with?

Ideally we find a stable level and avoid the seesawing back and forth. That is the least efficient way to manage government spending.

Maybe not explosive, but it is at a level not seen in 30 years and back in the early 1990's Canada debt to GDP ratio was what was exploding. I don't think Canada wants to get back to that level which necessitated dramatic cuts to services/healthcare spending in the Chretien years.

The TSN panel is talking about how Calgary wants to be good for when their new building opens for 2027-28 season but not one of them mentioned that there is almost zero chance any of the draft picks they have acquired this season will be ready for the 2027-28 season.

What I hope for today is one trade every 15 to 20 minutes starting at 10am.

What will happen today is about 3 trades between now and 2:30ET followed by 20 trades in the final half hour.

I was curious how likely it would be that the three second round picks acquired in the Weegar trade would amount to something useful so I created a simulator randomly selecting players from past drafts based on criteria you specify. This should give you some idea of the draft picks value.

Next time I got Michael McLeod and Shawn Lalond so you win some and you lose some.

I just ran the simulator for Washington's draft pick return for Carlson using a first round pick between 12 and 18 and a 3rd round pick. I got Tom Wilson and Anthony Cirelli. Caps fans should be ecstatic if something like that happens.