The 22 NHL beat reporters, ranked by who you should actually trust.
Every rumor in our wire carries a name attached to it. The Nakano Index is the rolling 0–100 credibility score we assign to each of the 22 beat writers whose bylines move the deadline market — updated nightly, traceable to a logged verification, and built so a serious fantasy manager can act on it before the headline hits ESPN.
How the Index works, in plain language.
The scale
Every reporter carries a 0–100 Nakano score recalculated nightly from the last 90 days of their logged public claims. A 90 is a bellwether — verified first, almost never wrong on tier-1 names. A 60 is a useful secondary signal. Below 40 we mark the reporter as “context only” in the wire.
Three rolling windows
Scores are computed over 30, 60, and 90-day windows and reported together. A hot streak (30d) pulls the headline number up; a slow stretch drags it back down. We surface the direction so you can see whether a reporter is trending or cooling — not just where they sit today.
What counts as a hit or miss
A hit is a logged public claim confirmed within 48 hours by an independent on-record source or official transaction. A miss is one denied by the involved club or that ages 14 days without materializing. We weight name-t准确性 (player-specific) heavier than framework speculation.
Unconfirmed rumors
Every rumor in the wire is tagged CONFIRMED, TIER-1 (single source, often the reporter’s own beat), or UNCONFIRMED (multi-source or secondhand). Unconfirmed tips never move a reporter’s score — they appear separately so you can read the byline and decide.
Every score in the table below is traceable to a logged verification. Read the full methodology →
Rankings — last updated March 6, 2025, 02:00 ET.
Scores refresh nightly at 02:00 ET. The full sortable view — with team-specific hit rates, source maps, and per-deadline archives — ships every Sunday morning to Deadline Wire subscribers.
| # | Reporter | Beat | Tier | Score | 30d Δ | 60d Δ | 90d Δ | Last verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | E. L. Friedman34N / Friedgereport | NHL-wide | Tier 1 | 92.4 | +2.1 | +1.4 | +0.8 | Mar 5, 11:42 ET |
| 2 | P. SeravalliDaily Faceoff | NHL-wide | Tier 1 | 88.1 | +1.8 | +1.1 | ±0.0 | Mar 5, 10:08 ET |
| 3 | F. SeracuseAthletic | NHL-wide | Tier 1 | 84.7 | +3.2 | +2.4 | +1.9 | Mar 5, 14:31 ET |
| 4 | D. PagnottaThe Fourth Period | NHL-wide | Tier 1 | 81.0 | −1.4 | −0.6 | +0.3 | Mar 4, 22:14 ET |
Showing the top 4 of 22. The wire ships the full table every Sunday with sortable columns, per-team hit rates, and a 90-day rolling trendline per reporter. See Sunday’s full leaderboard →
Questions serious managers ask before trusting the scores.
What sample size are the scores built on?
Each top-of-table reporter carries between 62 and 184 logged claims in the rolling 90-day window. The bottom of the table runs as low as 14. We surface the sample size next to each row in the full leaderboard so a 90-day score of 88 on n=14 isn’t read the same as an 88 on n=140.
Couldn’t a reporter just game the Index by filing easy confirms?
No — we score name-accurate, material claims only, not drive-by retweets. “X is on the trade block” with no further detail doesn’t log. A reporter who reaches for hot scoops but misses on specifics sees their score fall faster than one who files cautious, accurate ones. We’ve measured this directly across the 2022 and 2023 cycles.
Where does the “rumor origin” get credited — to the first tweeter or to the deeper source?
To the reporter who commits to the claim first, in writing, on their own byline — not to the aggregator who paraphrased it two hours later. Behind-the-scenes sourcing we can’t independently verify is kept off the Index entirely and surfaced as UNCONFIRMED in the wire so you’re never trading on an inferred score.
How exactly are the Tier 1 / Tier 2 / Tier 3 bands set?
Tier 1 = score 75+, multi-source verified across two cycles, low denial-to-confirm ratio. Tier 2 = 50–74, generally accurate but occasional misses on tier-1 names. Tier 3 = below 50, used as context or second-wave confirmation only. We do not promote a reporter into Tier 1 on a single hot streak — the threshold requires a 90-day baseline plus a second cycle of evidence.
More on edge cases — partial-credit scoring, framework rumors, denial handling — in the full methodology.
What the Index has actually delivered.
Hard numbers from the last three NHL trade deadlines — 2022 through 2024.
The Index itself is the source-of-truth for which reporter sits where — these stats quantify what the system has been able to do with that ranking. Both industry-leading bands.
Every ranked reporter’s newest tip, in your inbox 6–12 hours before the headline hits.
Free, daily during the deadline window, fully sourced. Sent by a 7-person desk across Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, and Boston. 58.2% open rate — 4.3× the fantasy sports category average.