I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects.

I'm Sean McAnew from The Athletic.

And folks, we're like halfway through the season here.

A bunch of teams right around 40, 41, 42 games.

I figure now is as good a time as any since we're starting a new year with a new full episode here.

Why not talk about the first half of the season?

Yeah.

And I argued that we should wait a month and do it when everyone had played 50 games.

Yeah, just to make sure.

Yeah.

You don't want to jump the gun.

And he said the math is actually on your side on this one.

Hey, the longer, the bigger the sample, you know, the better the, the better the, uh,

projections, projections,

can that be the right word? I don't know. Anyway, um, I guess the first question I have

for you, we'll start on the team side of things. What's really like stood? Give me,

give me a few teams that have really stood out to you. I mean, the obvious ones, as far as the surprise, the positive surprise, Washington

in a big way.

Yeah, sure, of course.

Minnesota, not quite as much maybe, but I would put them up there.

And over the last little while, I think kings have moved into that conversation, too,

because I was pretty much ready to write them off

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