You remember how we've been saying in the past how it was an important season for Suzuki to establish if he was who we thought he was, or did he have something else, a new level? It's been, offensively, his biggest increase since his rookie season, between his first and second rookie season. There clearly is for a guy who's still only 24, room to grow and develop into a bona fide a hard player. But it seems to me like the rest of the league seems to still look at him and say, Yeah, he's not quite a first-line center. You'll see where I'm going with this. It's just there's going to be next season, the Four Nation Face-off Competition or tournament, and then two years from now, it's going to be the Olympics. I wonder, from now until they make the roster is for the Four Nations Face-off, if you'll have enough of a runway to end up on that roster for the Canadian team. And if not, will you have enough for the Olympics? I know it's shrewd competition. There's a lot of high caliber players going in there, but it's a minority of observers who have tried and had fun trying to figure out rosters for both of these events that have included Suzuki in I've always seen one.

I'm sorry. I think I've always seen one that had Suzuki on the roster. I think it was BXa. Is that possible? I think Kevin BXa's roster had Montombo and Suzuki, if I'm not mistaken. But I could be wrong.

Because you got guys like traditional picks, like Stamkos and Tavares that are... They're legacy players at this point in their career. But if you look at who are the best players at that time, a year from now, Suzuki could be more performing than any of these guys. You could argue that he is already more performing than both of these guys. If there are some room that's left on the roster for those older players that meant a lot, 500 goals for Stamco and whatnot, maybe the fact that there's that Four Nation tournament is It could be a good way to segue from that old generation and turn to a guy like Suzuki for the Olympics the year after that. But I'm thinking if things are keeping up that way and he keeps going on that upward trend, he's going to be in that upper echelon of players, and he'll force himself into that conversation.

Yeah. It was Biaxa, by the way, who put him and Montombo on his team. Montombo is a backup goalie, and Suzuki is an extra, but still on the roster. I agree with you. He has some more work to do to get into that, to legitimately get into that conversation. He's on the fringes of it right now. But yeah, with the Yeah, he's played. And not only the last month, I feel like I don't know if I've made this point on the podcast or not. I've written it, but it's worth pointing out now because... So back on January 15th, can't Ken Hughes spoke to mark the midway point of the season. The Canadians played the Colorado Avalanche that night. Ken Hughes was asked during that press conference if How important is it to get a point per game player forward to build around for this franchise? Ken's answer was interesting because obviously, he represented Patrice Bergerard and said, I've never really thought of it that way. This This is something that often comes up in this market, I found blah, blah, blah. Kind of talked about it. He said it wasn't really that big of a burning issue for him.

After the game against Colorado, Ken Suzuki comes out. Ken Suzuki, jeez. Nick Suzuki comes out. Nick Suzuki comes out and says he watched that press conference. Between the time... That press conference was after the morning skate. And between the time of the end of the morning skate at the beginning of the game, somewhere around his game day nap, and at a time when he should be probably focusing on other things, nick Suzuki watched that press conference with Ken Hughes and watched that question being asked. It was asked in French, but I believe Nick's French is good enough to understand the question and definitely to understand Ken's answer. That night, nick Suzuki went out and got two assists against Colorado. The Canadiens beat the Avalanche that night. Since that date, January 15th, You look at the scoring leaders in the NHL, January 15th till now, he is 13th in the league in scoring. He has 24 points in 18 games, 12 goals, 12 assists.

It's more than a point per game player.

It's more than a point per game. So there's some pretty impressive people that he's ahead of, but he's not in the upper echelon elite of the league, obviously, but he's right there. He's got one less point than William Nylander over that span. Him. Three less than Mitch Marner, three less than Matthew Kuchuk, four less than Leon Dreisidil, four less than David Pasternack. He is in a grouping of players. From the moment he heard Kent Hughes asked about the need for a point per game player. It's almost as if he said, You want to see a point per game player? I'm going to show you a point per game player, and just has gone on a tear since. It's pretty impressive. Honestly, I remember thinking when he said that after the game, like, Wow, you You couldn't wait till tomorrow to watch that press conference. You have a game against one of the best teams in the league. You're going to be matched up against Nathan McKinnon all day, and you're watching Ken Hughes' press conference. To me, it says two things. It's how invested he is in the future of the team. Whenever Ken Hughes talks, I don't think Nick's the only one, but nick definitely pays attention.

If Ken Hughes is making public comments, because I really do think nick wants to see a path forward. It's been two very frustrating seasons for him coming into this year. Last year, obviously, the only one who stayed healthy all year, playing with a mishmash potpourri of guys, wingers, left, right, and center. Every time a guy would go on his line, he'd go out. The fact he put up 66 points last year with the roster that was around him, it's pretty commendable. The year before, same deal. There's definitely And Nick's never come out and said this, but you see what's going on with Elias Petterson in Vancouver and how he approached this season. I want to see where this is going in Vancouver before signing. Nick signed long term. It's not be like, it's not the same thing, but I do feel like nick wants to see the same thing. How are we progressing? Are we building towards something? And him and Caulfield sitting there after the game last night in the room after losing the Panthers in what is essentially a meaningless game for the Canadians, tells you what you need to know about those guys and what they want.

So good on him for being invested in where this team's future is headed, and good on him for taking that question and being like, I'm going to show you. I'm going to show you something now. And it's been six weeks since that press conference, and 24 points in 18 games is a pretty good FU to that question by nick Suzuki. It's pretty impressive.