Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks. Here shits your source
of information and analysis to help you win your fantasy hockey league. Block off
high, A step hit on, stay lock. Here's your hosts, Jesse
Severe and Victor Nuno Fantasy Hockey Live Jack once again to talk fantasy hockey.
You know it because today, everybody, duck, We're gonna talk some Anaheim
Ducks. You know what, I haven't even introduced us. I am Jesse
Severe. And that over there, that guy over there in that corner,
not in the corner, in the big seat, it's Victor Nuno, a
VP ringside. Victor, how you doing good, Jesse, Hi from the
corner. I'm doing well over here. Good. It's good to be back.
I'm really excited to talk about a really interesting team and to move along
with these team previews. I feel like we're in our stripe. We've done
a couple of these. It's I think we're almost a third of the way
through. Eh yeah, yeah, definitely. And I don't envision you in
the corner, Victor. When I pictured I've been watching Star Trek lately.
I imagine you, like in the captain's chair and I'm in like one of
those one of those little tables up front, turning on the warp drive or
whatever it is they do, or firing the phasers up there. So that's
where I envision you, Victor, just so you know. Yeah, But
Victor, there's a couple of things we like to mention at the beginning of
the show. What them is the discord It is probably at this point it's
probably about draft time. We're recording this in advance. I think we've made
that clear in the past. It's probably about NHL draft time, So I'm
sure folks are thinking about that, and who knows what's going on with the
Ducks and the draft, but it's probably a good time to be buzzing with
all your friends over there on the discord. And to do that, you
just have to hit us up Fan Hockey Life Victor Nuno twelve or Fantasy Hockeylife
at gmail dot com to get a link in Victor in addition to discord but
is free. Where else can you get in? What else can you get
from us? If you want to hear some bonus content, you want access
to some bonus things, then you can check out the all the great content
on Patreon there's yeah talking about draft. There's I have all my draft lists
and content is behind the paywall at Patreon, so you can look at top
forward prospects, goalie defenders. That's kind of them all integrated together. But
also there'll be a twenty twenty four draft list and you can be able to
see who's going to be the top bashers, who's going to be people who
hit and block a lot, those kinds of things. Will also be doing
a Patroon cast talking specifically about that, so if you want to get clued
in on that, that's always an important thing that's difficult to track and you
know, an important thing. So there's that, there's Patroon casts. There's
other bonus content like if you want help with your draft, if you want
you know, copilot, I'm happy to do that with you for those slows.
It's easy to DM and see what the preferences are so happy to do
that. There's lots of other things like roster doctors helping you through your content
and your team and what kinds of things you want to do. So check
all that out if you want to support the show. Patreon dot com slash
Fantasy Hockey Life all right and we'll be right back after this The Talk Ducks.
Our next guest is here to talk to us about the Anaheim Ducks.
It is Derek Lee of the Hockey News. Derek, how you doing today?
I'm good, Jesse, how are you doing good? Good? It's
the quiet time of the year for the Ducks. Unfortunately didn't work out well
for them. We got some bad news. We've got some good news here.
Just setting up the team and their season. There were two teams to
finish below them in the NHL standings. Penalty kill was the NHL's second worst
efficiency shots for bottom pop. I'm not going to go on except to say
that actually, when you dig into the stats, it was a slight improvement
from the year before in a lot of categories. But the Ducks are doing
the right thing. They are rebuilding. They traded away five players during the
season, and particularly most of the team that was pushing thirty was on the
way out to new places. There are lots of exciting young players here.
We're going to get into a lot of them, most of whom have already
debuted. Looking at it, there's not beeny guys in their prospect system that
I saw that a whole ton of them who haven't debuted, who are their
top guys. But when these guys all get into the pros, obviously there's
going to be a lot of growing pains associated with that. So that's part
of what we're seeing too. How did Ducks fans and how do you see
this team in this past season? And is this something that's going to be
able to come together to be competitive or is this a team that maybe doesn't
have the upside of a strong playoff team. What do you think of the
Duck's trajectory here, Derek, Like you said, they had a small improvement
from last season, I think, honestly, anything is an improvement from last
season. They were at the bottom of the league in pretty much any statistical
category that you want to mention. I think bringing in new head coach Greg
Cronin that did a lot for their defensive work. They were a lot better
defensively. Like I just said, anything was better than last year, but
they were pretty bad defensively, just like from a historical standpoint and then just
having the worst record in the league and worst record in their franchise history.
Is bringing in Greg Cronin and he had a lot of improvement defensively, I
think you want to see a little bit more improvement in the offensive production category
just because of how many young guys they have that are up and coming.
Like you mentioned, I think penalties were a big part of that. Obviously,
having a bad penalty kill that can lead to a lot of issues.
They all had a lot of injuries. I think out of their who were
their expected top six, I think those guys played like less than ten games
together, So obviously that's not ideal when you're looking for a lot of production
from those guys. I think now they're in a situation where the rebuild thing
part is done for the most part, and now you're just going to building
now and you want to take those young guys in that core, and you
want them to start pushing towards the playoffs and maybe adding one or two more
veterans to glue that core together and start pushing for a wild card spot or
even just a regular division spot. Yeah. One of the kind of outlier
potentially, I guess you could say seasons was from Frank Vitronto. He had
He's thirty years old, had a banner season career high in goals with thirty
seven previous high was twenty four career high in points of sixty point pay sorry
with previous of forty two career high in time on ice nearly two minutes more
than last season and nearly four minutes more than his previous career high. He
shot thirteen point six percent, which is definitely a bit higher than his career
average by about three percent, but that's not an insanely high number. We're
not talking in the twenties here, and his PDO is actually pretty low,
as was his ozone start, although that might be partially reflected by the team
not getting too many offensive zone starts. I think his time and I might
be slightly limited by his defensive impact, which continue to be poor, even
though his offensive metrics seemed very strong. So I guess the big question here,
Derek, is the Toronto going to be able to replicate this kind of
season? Can he get at least over thirty goals? Again? This seems
like it was out of the blue for him or has he really figured a
new gear out? What do you think? Yeah, it's really interesting because
you don't really see that very often a guy having a career at that point,
especially on the team that's not necessarily bad. You look at where they
finish in the standings, but typically you don't see this kind of performance from
a team that's that low in the standings, where one guy is popping off,
so to speak. I think for the Toronto he's a very shot happy
guy. There's not a shot that Frank or Toronto doesn't like in all honesty,
But I think it's just I'm not really sure. I can't really put
a finger on why he did so well. Just the guys that he plays
with, they're able to set him up for success. I'll tell you the
exact same thing. He wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the guys on
the team setting them up time to time. Then, contrary to everything you
just mentioned, he actually plays a lot on the penalty kill, and I
mean it was probably the forward that played the most on the penalty kill,
especially after the trade deadline. So he plays in all situations, will play
it even strength, power play, penalty kill. He led the team shots,
block shots and hits. He can't do it all. You need him
to play goalie, I'm sure he would, and he's happy to do anything
in any situation. Let's talk about Troy Terry. This guy's had an interesting
career arc ifs Mede, of course, blew up a couple of years ago.
This year, seventy six games was a career high. His scoring pace
was a tick down from the prior two years, but his scoring was also
quite streaky if you look at his game log throughout the season. But he's
now one of the most seasoned players on the team. I think of Troy
Terry as like one of these young guns who's coming up and we're just trying
to gel for a few years. But he debuted in twenty seventeen eighteen,
and if my eyeballing of Hockey Reference is correct, only Camp Peller John Gibson
in Jacob's overberg remained from that far back. Troy Terry being the fourth most
tenured player on the team, he was. I watched his exit interview.
It seems like he was generally positive, although he did say the mental part
of the game was rough on him this year with the losing. What do
you make of Troy Terry's year and what do you expect from him going forward.
Troy is a very cerebral guy. He just he gets into it a
lot mentally. Like you mentioned, I think that was something that kind of
bogged him down when he was first coming into the league. I think he
really struggled to adjust to just everything from the NHL, going from the collegiate
level to the NHL. He spent a couple of seasons at the AHL.
I think that really did wonders for him and Dallas Aikins, the former head
coach of the Ducks, he was actually able to work on Troy and get
him to that level where he's able to mentally fight through things even when it's
not going so well. He had a really slow start to the season,
and I think that kind of nodded him a little bit. As like you
said, the production was a little streaky. I think he would like to
be more consistent. I'm sure Andrew Patford Beek would like him to be more
consistent now that he has that big contract. I think it'll be interesting to
see where everybody's at next year when they're healthy. Like I said, injuries
played a big part in Guy's not getting consistent production. He played most of
the season with Leo Carlson. I think he should be at least in a
top six row next season. I think there will be some moving parts depending
on what they do in free agency and maybe trades as well. But he
had his third consecutive twenty goal season, led the team and takeaways. He's
a really good two way forward. He doesn't play on the penalty killer just
yet, but he's great at four checking and just keeping the out of the
defensive zone. And he'll be on the power play as well, So it'll
be interesting to see where he fits in everything, but he'll definitely be a
big part of what they do next season. Yeah, with the second worst
powerful penalty kill in the league, they could try some things. It would
seem to me, but I don't know. Mason McTavish one of the top
young guys coming into the team. Mctavish's even strength offense was the best on
the team, was a jump from his rookie year, although this year he
missed eighteen games and was shut down early with a knee injury. He also
missed some games in December from an upper body injury, So talking about injuries,
Mason McTavish was certainly not exempt from those. What make this guy was
such a touted prospect coming in What do you make of mctavish's progress and could
this guy end up a first line point per game type or there's obviously a
lot of competition at the top on this team now, But what kind of
role do you think he's going to settle into. I think right now they
definitely want Leo Carlson as the top line center, and then after that it's
not really a first and second line. I think that's more of just a
top six and you have all these interchangeable pieces. I know Tavabi talked a
little bit about that and his end of the season interview is just the versatility
of the guys that they have now. There's so many ways that they can
go about this. So I think McTavish, ideally you want him to sloan
and is that top six forward behind the Carlson line. It got off to
a really good start with trying to and Ryan Strom. They had a great
first month of the season, and at least Nick Tavish he tailed off a
little bit, and like you said, injuries got to I think he had
a little bit of penalty trouble similar to what Trevor Zegiss went through last years
penalty troubles and then struggling defensively. So I think that they want to work
with him on that. He said that he himself wants to work more on
his skating and get a little bit quicker, and then from a special team
standpoint, he'll definitely be on the power play again. I think he's one
of their most dangerous guys in the power plays. Got really nice shot,
and then just being able to work on this passing as well. I think
that will help him ground out his game and be that two way center that
they wanted to be. You already mentioned Zegris, so he might as well
talk about him now. After sixty seven and sixty six point paces and nearly
full season secrets, was limited to just thirty one games played and a forty
one point pace. He broke his ankle needed surgery, should be go good
to go for next season, although you can certainly comment on that his time
on ice this season fell, as did his power play time on ice,
although just by a little bit, it looks like his defensive metrics improved.
It seems like that might have been a focus for him, though he still
only clocked in at about the twelfth best forward in terms of course he against
for sixty Next season, Zegres will be an RFA there have already been trade
rumors circling. So Derek, what do you think next season holds for Zegres.
Can he get back to that sixty five plus point player and will it
be with the Ducks. I definitely think it'll be with the Ducks. I
think the trade rumor things are out of hand. I think once Jamie Drisdale
got shipped out to Philadelphia, nickseuck on a wave of its own and people
were projecting Zeriously be everywhere but Anaheim for the rest of the season. But
yeah, I think he can definitely get back to that point pace. Just
in the last eight games of the season, he had a point per game
pace, and I think he was really happy with the way he finished the
season, especially after everything he'd been through. He came in the camp wait
because of the contract dispute, and he picked up an injury, which was
ostiitis pubis and that's something that Logan Coutured dealt with all season and he only
played six games. So for Zegrest to come back from that, he had
the broken ankle, but just to come back from that initial injury, he
said he felt a lot better after he got rest and recover from that.
He can play both the center and the wing. He was playing wing with
Leo Carlson at the beginning of the season prior to that injury, and then
he played a little bit of center at the end when McTavish was out.
So I think, like McTavish, he'll slot into that top six, whether
it's playing with someone like Carlson or playing with McTavish or whoever. He definitely
has the potential to get back to that sixty plus point pace. And then
he'll be on the power play a lot as well. And I would say
that he is the most dynamic playmaker on the team. And because he was
out for so much of the season, you could definitely tell that the offense
struggled about him. You get a guy like Zeegres back healthy and you put
him with McTavish, Terry, the Toronto Carlson, like, those are the
core guys you want to try got one more year, But Terry and mctavi,
Zegris and Carlson, those guys are definitely the core of the team.
Yeah, definitely. And for those of you that don't know, ostia I
had his pubis is an inflammation of the bone where some of those muscles attach
and pretty much doing anything really hurts, and as you said, Logan Kutcher
sounds like he might not ever play again partially related to that, and that's
that's pretty serious. So it was good to see Zegris get back. We
also saw him at the World Championship for Team USA. He seemed like he
struggled a bit, and the Americans did overall at times. But it was
good to see him back in red, white and blue and at least look
forward to brighter things with the Ducks next season. Let's move on to Leo
Carlson, the next forward we're going to talk about. Somewhat surprisingly, the
Ducks kept Leo with the NHL club all season long. They rationed his games,
played his time on ice a little bit. He still played eighteen oh
seven average in fantasy. It was super frustrating because you didn't know when he
was going to play. But when he did play, he was really good.
You know, in the daily sort of set up Davy fantasy, it
was good. But as a season long or a weekly it was frustrating that
he would play only every other cut game or something like that. He offensively
and defensively, his metrics were pretty incredible. Especially for a young player.
He was definitely one of the best forward statistically in terms of play driving on
this not so good Ducks team. His shots were a little bit low,
which was a bit frustrating, but overall he brought the Purfs to a decent
extent, with his blocks and hits both being over half per game, which
was nice. So, Derek, what can we see from Carlson next season?
Is he gonna play in every game? What kind of production can we
expect from him above that forty three point pace he had. Yeah, definitely,
I would expect him to playing every single game, barring health. Obviously,
it was a really weird season for him, just because he missed so
much time, not only due to the game management plan, but he had
a lot of injuries too. He missed the start of the season because of
an injury that he suffered in practice, and then he had a couple more
injuries along the way. I think it was definitely frustrating for the team and
for him personally. He's still finished the second on the team. In take
with with forty one is it was a really big struggle in the face off
circle. That's something that he definitely wants to improve. On. It's something
that he talked about in the middle of the season and how he wants to
get better at that and some of that kind of comes from not playing center
full time when he was in the Squish League with Orbro, But he,
like you said, he had really good numbers both offensive the end defensively.
Actually played on the penalty kill at the end of the season with Alex Klorn
and they did a pretty good job of killing plays and converting that into offensive
opportunities for themselves. Shorthandeds, I think, like I mentioned before, Carlson
will be on that top line. It's just a matter of who's going to
be playing with. But he's definitely one of the most dynamic offensive players.
I'd probably put him behind only Zegres I think in terms of offensive capabilities,
and he still has a lot of room to grow, especially to you mentioned
the low amount of shots. I think that's something he wants to work on
so that he can become that dual threat on offense. We like points pick
them out with a couple of players and get your sense of which one of
them is going to have the better offensive impact the next year. And for
this a couple of the older guys on the team. They both come up
in the show already, Ryan Strom, Alex Colorn. They are both on
the team for a couple more years. It reasonably high contracts probably come off
the books right about the same time as some of these young guys are out
there to get paid. Both of them, Strom's had forty one points in
seventy nine games and Klorn had thirty six and sixty three, so both a
little over half a point per game. Who do you like between these two
and what do you make of these two players veteran players for the Ducks.
I think in terms of opportunity it's probably going to be Alex Klorn who gets
more of that. He missed a little bit of time due to a broken
pinky and I had arthroscopic knee surgery in January, so they missed the beginning
of the season and then he was still a little bit of the middle of
the season, but he played with Oleil Carlson for the most part for most
of that. I don't know they'll be with him, but the last game
of the season played with Cutter Goche as well, so it was colorin Carlson
GoChi, So it'll be interesting to see where they mix and match those pieces.
Like I said, there's a lot of versatility as well, so I
think you look at it on the face value, I think Colorin's going to
get the bigger piece of the pie from the start. I think Strom will
probably be on a third line. Maybe he interchanges with whoever is not playing
on that top six, but I think Colorin he'll probably have that upper hand.
And both of those guys are on the power play last season, but
there will be a new power play coach after Neil Brown's contract was not renewed,
so that can change things up. But I think Claurin, just because
he has the pedigree and he's had that production coming from Tampa, I think
he has the upper hand in that situation. Let's splip to the blue line.
We're gonna start with Cam Fowler, who is one of the I feel
like one of the quieter lead defensemen in the league. His advanced stats were
not great. You would expect that to happen with the guy who played a
ton of minutes on a team that wasn't that great. His goals above slash
below replacement was the worst on the team actually, but the points nearly half
of which came on the power play looked nice. Thirty nine points for defenseman
in eighty one games, eighteen of those on the power play. He got
the preponderance of the power play Tom on Ice, and we'll be talking about
a couple of guys who were coming up on his heels for that type of
a role. He's down to two more years on a big eight year deal
that he signed, so at age thirty, the bigger hit on the book,
six point five mil is coming to its conclusive stages. But what type
of a role are you expecting. Is camp Faler going to hang on to
that type of role? What are you expecting from him next year? Derek,
Yeah, it's really interesting. I think Salar definitely played a lot more
than he probably should have. A lot of that was due to circumstances,
deciding a lot of young guys on the team. I think in situation you
want to lean on the veteran guys. I think that's what Cronin did a
lot in his first year. Is he lean on guys like cam Fower and
Rad Koguis and Yogio Lubushkin when he was still on the team to just eat
a lot of those minutes while the young guys were getting their feet wet and
adjusting to the league. It'll be interesting to see where they go from next
year. Like you mentioned, there's a couple of young guys coming up,
Pavel Minchikov, Owen Zelwiger, Jackson Lacomb as well. Those are all guys
who play left handed, as zel Wiger was playing with Faler at the end
of the season on his offhand, and it'll be interesting to see if they
go back to that. I don't know if Beek really wants zell Wiger to
continue playing on his offhand in the long term capacities. I definitely think that
Faler will be that guy that Cronin leans on. I don't think it should
be as much as twenty four to twenty five per game, but it'll be
interesting to see where they go from here and maybe ease off on leading him
as much. But I think he'll definitely still be at least on special teams
power playing, maybe not as much, but I think penalty kill will still
be on there while the young guys continue to develop. But it's really interesting
because Cam follows the longest tenured duck on the team. It's Camon John Gibson
is the leftovers now from the old regime. Now that Silverberg is retired,
Adam Henery's no longer on the team, so he valers just that veteran presence
on the blue line, and I think that's not really what he's relegated to
now, but just trying to limit how much time he's playing and then also
get the young guys a little bit more opportunity as well, I hope.
So I have long maintained that Cam Fowler is the most boring power play defenseman
in fantasy hockey, but we have to wait for the others to be ready
and have them. Minchikov I think might be the next. But we only
saw his first season in the NHL, and I think it was pretty darn
impressive and his draft plus two season. Minchikof jumps straight from the OHL to
the NHL, a pretty difficult jump in terms of how many levels of quality.
That is, he played sixty three games. He was fourth of all
the regulars in terms of time on ice. After Drysdale left, only Cam
Fowler had more power play time on ice, and even with the diminished opportunity,
Minchikov had seven power play points even though he had a lot less total
time on ice, his offensive impact was positive, especially on the power play.
His hits and blocks are good. Shots are a bit low, but
I think defensively he still has a little bit of work to do, although
it was good at times. We were just talking about this, but do
you think that he can Minchikov can take over on the top power play regularly
or do you think they will split some time with he and Falure. What
do you think is going on? And do you think he can get over
a forty five point pace next season? He was at thirty six this season.
I'm not sure in terms of maybe responsibility where they'll go with the power
play. It's hard to tell, just because of they don't know who the
power play coach is going to be for next season. So I think once
they nail those things down, it'll be a little bit easier to figure out.
In terms of who's running the power play. They they had a rotation
at the end of the year with Foal and Minchicav and Zelweger. I think
in the long term it will be Minchikav and Zelwegar kind of running those units
on their own. It's really impressive how well that Minchikav adjusted from going from
the HL straight to the NHL. He was really dynamic offensively at the bend
of the year. I think they had to reel him in a little bit
because there's things that you can't do at the OHL level that people try to
do at the NHL level. So I think there was a little bit tougher
for him once he went through that. And then he had a couple of
injuries as well. He had a separated shoulder in January and then he had
a bone contusion at the end of the season. But he should be ready
for a training camp in the fall, and I think he'll slot in behind
Cam Fowler. It's tough to see who will play with. He played a
little bit with Radkogodis at the end of the year, but depending on what
they do in free agency and trades, he might be playing with someone else.
But I think if he's getting a lot of power play time, he
gets penalty kill time as well. He can definitely get to that for forty
forty five point pace. You mentioned Olin Zelweger, a long time favor of
the show. We've really talked him up at one point, really like one
of the top defensive prospects in the league. Now there's a question whether he's
been passed up by such a great defensive prospect on his own team in Mitchikov.
I don't know what to make last year, he didn't play that many
games in the NHL, but as you said, was in the mix for
power play at the end. Where does Zelweger fall out long term on this
team and what are you expecting in the coming year. Like I said,
he played on his offhand with Fowler at the end of the season. It's
really weird because just because of how many left handed guys they have, but
Zelweger got to play top paira minutes. I think that's the big statement.
Is easy able to play with Cam Fowler in that kind of minutes munching role
and he doesn't get penalty kill time, but he does get power play time.
And he's probably the most I would say he's probably the most dynamic offensive
guy on the blue line ahead of Minchikov. Just the things that Zelweger is
able to do with the pucket just so incredible sometimes. And his skating is
really great. I min Chicov's skating is great as well, but I think
zel Wadred has an extra element offensively when it comes to things like that.
He also blocks a surprisingly high amount of shots. You look at a guy
with Zelwig and he wouldn't expect him to block that many shots. But just
in the small time that he was in the NHL, he blocked like pretty
much a shot or to like every single game. So he should get power
play time, I think if he's going to be at the NHL level on
a full time basis, which he should be. He was. He was
called up in January, he get sent back down before the All Star break,
and then recalled right before the trade deadline. So he finished out the
season with a team, and I think he'll get every opportunity to break camp
with the team again in the fall. And I just got to mention him.
Rad Kogudas shouts because US fantasy players love this guy. All the hits,
all the you know, all the defensive stats that he piles up.
And by the way, if you think that he's just an empty stats type
guy, he was number two on the team and goals above replacement. Uh
Radkos. You know, from a real life perspective, I know sometimes he
doesn't get the respect, but do you expect Raiko Gudas to have a role
with his team similar to what he's had in the past. Oh, definitely.
I think, just like you look at the kind of the dearth of
right handed options on the team right now, Like Radko, Gudis is the
top option and he's going to play a big role. He's playing for check
It right now in the World Championships, are going to the Golden Medal Game
along with goaltender lukashto Stall, So I think Gouas will have a really big
role again next season. Like he said, he gets a lot of block
shots, a lot of hits. He's a really physical guy. I think
health is just the concern as he gets a little bit older. Just the
way he plays that can lead to a lot of injuries. So as long
as he can stay healthy, I think he'll be a really solid presence again
on the blue line for them. If there's one thing about the Ducks that
I've always said is that they know how to draft and develop defenseman. And
not only do they have Minchikov and Zellweger and some other guys that we're not
even talking about because they're not his fantasy relevant. Even though they're good players.
But Tristan Leunou is another one to just mention. Injury limited him to
thirteen games played. He missed part of the early season, and infection caused
him to miss the World Junior Championship infection of the knee. He had six
games in AHL, seven in the NHL, but he had a few points
while he was there, So who knows if that thirty five point pace was
just noise based on the seven games or what. He certainly has some offensive
pedigree. So do you think that Tristan Leno Derek is gonna play in the
NHL next season or is he going to more likely have a full AHL season
and have that transition that often is needed to professional hockey. I was a
little bit surprised that he actually broke him with the Ducks this season, just
because of where the team was at and they had Illi Lubushkin at the time,
so they had Brad Kgouse and Labushkin in those right handed roles, and
then Jamie Dresdel was still on the team, so it was weird to see
where Luno was going to fit. And then Dresde went down with injury really
early on, so you know, got an opportunity to play in seven games,
and then he went to the World Juniors and he was supposed to be
one of the top guys for a team Canada there, and then he got
sick and then he had a staff infection, and then he just didn't play
for the rest of the season because he spent the whole rest of that time
recovering from the staff infection. When he didn't even start skating again until April,
so he missed a lot of time. And then now just going to
the offseason, that's pretty much six seven eight months where he hasn't played in
a game situation. So I think having a really good summer and kind of
just getting back to where he was at before, having a good training camp,
I think that he probably should start the season in San Diego. He's
going to have a regular role. If he even presses in training camp and
he makes the team out of camp again, then that's great. But I
think at the end of the day, he really just needs to get playing
time because he's been gone for so long and I'm just recovering from everything that's
happened to him. Another question about the defenseman with so many good high end
offensive defensemen, I know I don't at least I don't think you have a
crystal ball. But do you think who do you think, like three or
four years from now is going to run the top power play for the Ducks
Minchikov, Zellweger, Luno or possibly someone else that is tough And like you
said, I don't have a crystal ball, but I think just from an
offensive standpoint, I think Zelwiger probably has the most potential to run his own
unit. I think when the pock is on his stick, he's just able
to do so many great things with it. He's really shot happy too as
well. I think he's probably a lot more shot happy than Luna or Minchikadz.
But having his presence on the blue line and be able to walk the
blue line on the power play, I think he has a really dynamic status
about himself, and I think he has the potential to be that high offensive
guy for the team. Awesome. He was always my answer, even when
Drysdell was there. But I've also really liked what I've seen for Minchikov,
so they have a lot of good options. Let's move on to the goalies.
The Ducks were ranked twenty third and expected goals against per sixty, and
they conceded the twenty third ranked actual goals per sixty. Consistent there ducks.
Their goalies both performed a little bit under expected looking at some of these numbers.
Gibson had a little bit low expected save percentage and he performed slightly better
but pretty much at expected. Dostal was given pretty decent protection by the team
and performed well under expected. But it was really nice to finally see a
split of eaving games between Dostaal and Gibson. He had forty four to Gibson's
forty six. The team offered him pretty good protection. As I mentioned,
he wasn't able to get anywhere near that, but we've seen as of this
recording. We saw Doshtell have a twenty six save shutout against Team USA and
the World Championships and beat Team Sweden on their way to the championship. And
I think it's important to note that this Chechia team that Dostell is playing for
has two NHL goalies with more experience than him, Peter Marazak and Karl vel
Melka, and the Czech team decided to go with Doshtall. I think that
it's really impressive and a nod in his direction. But let's talk also about
Gibson. He has three more years at six point four million, and it's
been four seasons Derek since Gibson had a positive goal save above expected, and
that was only one goal save above expected. It was also the only time
he's done anything positive in his goal save above expected in five seasons. When
we talked to kat Silverman, she noted that there are too many prospect goalies
in the system and some could use some HL time. So I don't know,
maybe there's a move there. I know it's been talked about for a
long time and we have not seen a Gibson trade. So, Derek,
do you think we will see Gibson moved? Will Doshtall be the next Duck
starter? What do you see the breakdown there? If Gibson is still here?
And will anyone want these Duck goalies in fantasy next season? Will they
be any better? Overall? I would fully expect Gibson to be an Anaheim
Duck next season. I think those trade rumors have been going on for a
little while. That is, I compare it to the Zegris rumors. There's
just those kind of every time something comes up like a goaltending issue for a
team is Gibson is always one of those at the top of the line where
people think, oh, is are they going to go out and get this
guy? But I think the biggest obstacle is the salary. Is as we
look at the new age of goaltending, you have a lot of guys with
tandems like the Islanders and the Ruins, and not a lot of teams are
committing to that one top of the line goaltender. Gibson's not really that anymore.
I definitely think that he can still be a really good goaltender when he
has proper protection, but he's been not great from a consistency standpoint for the
last couple of seasons. Played the least amount of games in a full season
since twenty fifteen to sixteen, so almost a decade ago, and he lost
his last seven games of the season, allowing four plus goals in all seven.
So it was a really tough and to the season for Gibson. I
definitely think he could do with being rotated more because in past seasons the heavy
borkload has really caught up to him at the end the season. In February
and March when you need your tender to be strong as you head into the
playoffs. So next season, I think it could be a little bit more
of a fifty. It was more of a fifty to fifty split this year,
but I think it'll be more of the same as they try to get
Dostall more games under his belt. So as Gibbs is a do Staal the
starter of the future as he seems to be, and how long until you
think he takes over, because as we know we have if you don't think
Gibson's moving, he's got three more seasons. So are they going to just
go fifty to fifty and then maybe the season after sixty to forty? Do
Staal or is Dostell not the heir apparent? What do you think about him?
When I asked Pat Verbeek in his end of the season interview about that,
he said that they might just go with the hot hand approach and it's
just a matter of who's playing better. And we did see at the end
of the season gosh O Staal was the better goaltender and those last eight or
so games, also with a Zigris in the mix, they played a lot
better. Is they were close to full health. They weren't quite there because
min Chicago and McTavish were out, but for the most part, they had
everybody that they want in the lineup, and we saw that they He played
a lot better at the end of the season as opposed to maybe the middle
of the season in December when they were on a nine game losing streak.
I think does Stall definitely had a lot to do with that. He's so
calm and poised, and that's what guys talk about, our guys on the
team talk about, is just how calm and poised he is all the time,
and he's just always in the right place. He doesn't have a lot
of extra movement in his technique. And he also picked up his first NHL
shutout in March against the Blackhawks. Like I mentioned before, he was playing
for check yet the world actually had a thirty six save shodow I had to
type out I had a typo in my tweet the other day. He had
a thirty six saved shoutout against ten USA. They just won this morning against
Sweden to advance to the gold medal round. So this could be a really
great momentum carrier for him going to next season and just giving him that confidence
as he goes into his second full season. This has been some great stuff
on the Anaheim Ducks. Derek. How can people go out there and keep
up with your work? I'm on Twitter at Derek Underscore Elite at twenty seven.
Everything I posted out there, updates on the team and articles and whatnot.
That's definitely the easiest place for people to find my work at all.
Right, thanks for coming on. Good luck to those Ducks next year,
Wilson, that's good fires passed up. Oh my goodness, long quick grab.
Now it's your wingler goalie talk but Kat Silverman Kat's Instincts joined once again
by Kat Silverman in Gold mag to talk prospect Goalies Anaheim Ducks edition, and
we are switching it up here. In terms of who the top goalie is,
it's Thomas Sukanik and he was not drafted signed last year. Now twenty
one years old, sixty pounds. He was great for Chechia at the World
Junior Championship last year. This season, he split time between the San Diego
Goals of the HL and Tulsa Oilers of the ECHL. His run numbers were
pretty decent in both stops and he saved more goals and expected according to instat
in both locations. Looking at his hockey prospecting, it has trended down a
little bit from his time in Chukia to WHL to HL now, but even
though his numbers have been good there, he's got a comp of with Devin
Dubnik. There's also some other comps like Philip Kustafson. So, Kat,
what do your instincts tell us about Zuchanek. So he's one of the goaltenders
that I got to watch play in person this past year. Living in San
Diego, I don't always get a chance to watch everyone play in person because
we obviously don't have an NHL team here, so I do have to travel
to watch the NHLers. But he looked really good. I was surprised because
I came into the game really hoping that I'd get to see a Cali Klang
play, and the first game that I went to, I was really bummed
that it wasn't going to be Clang and it ended up being suchanic and he
was a delight to watch. He looked like, even though the goals are
a really chaotic team to play behind right now, no matter what their raw
numbers look like in each game. They start off their games really sluggish offensively,
and then panic and really try to put on the offense at the very
end of the game, and it looks really messy for their goaltenders because essentially,
before their goaltender is warmed up, they're peppered with some really weird,
high danger shots. And I thought he looked like he was super comfortable with
it. He didn't seem like he had any trouble communicating with the rest of
the team. He didn't come out to play the puck too often, which
when the team really can't seem to break out of their own zone, is
super crucial and huge. That being said, I didn't love what I saw
from the goals this year, so I would love to see him get just
a little more development time, Maybe watch that HL team take a step forward,
give him something a little bit easier to play Behind me before I immediately
say yes, he's the future of the Anaheim Ducks, but I thought it
looked really good then I was pleasantly surprised by that. Yeah, And I
think the other good thing is he's available in a lot of leagues. You
should go get yourself a share of Zuchanic if you can. And you already
mentioned that the other guy we're going to talk about because Kelie Klang is someone
we have talked about, have been excited about before. Twenty twenty third round
pick by Pittsburgh. He came over in the Raquel deal six two hundred and
ninety four pounds. I don't really like what I've been seeing from Afar ever
since he left Sweden. Klang's numbers have been trending down. His run numbers
anyways, his expected goal per cole conceited has been great though, and maybe
that's this is a little bit of what you were just talking about the team
in front of him, because his expected goals per goal conceded is better than
even it was at Rogla, and Rogla being a strong team, maybe it
was hard to outperform that number. So his hockey prospecting, as I mentioned,
trending down a little bit, but still really high. In fact,
one of his his main compt here is Connor Halbuck, which obviously pretty good,
John Gibson, Cravomelka, some other ones. So Kat, what can
you tell us about playing? So he is the other goaltender that I got
to watch for the goals this year, and yes, I do think that
some of his numbers trending down from a raw perspective are because the San Diego
goals they're giving nothing, and they're giving him absolutely nothing to work with.
Sometimes. I had a really special treat towards the end of the regular season
where I got to watch playing play against Urosova Scarov and that was one of
the most fun goaltending battles I've seen in a really long time, and it
was all at the HL level, and I got to bring my seven year
old daughter to set ice level to watch that, which was really nice,
and playing with the better goaltender in that name Mascarfv really struggled during that one,
which I don't necessarily think was his fault. I think the Admirals were
the two teams traded off where Milwaukee really pushed aggressively from an offensive perspective in
the first half of the game, and then when they weren't able to put
a ton past Klang, they just took their foot off the brakes and they
said, now, let's give our first round draft pick a chance to bail
us out since we're not really able to score all that much. And boy
did that ever hurt. So I thought what I saw from Klang looked really
nice. He didn't look super energetic, but that's never really been his style.
So I think he's just slowly but surely figuring out where he fits into
what right now for all intents and purposes. And I think it's as the
Ducks rebuild, a lot of their good young players end up at the NHL
level prematurely. Whereas on some of those stronger teams you get some really strong
forwards and defenders staying at the HL level for an extra year. We don't
really get to see that as much Nannaheim right now. So really, the
best player he was playing behind was their captain, whose name just flew right
out of my head. I mean, second, I redo that part.
Let me make sure I get this right. Chase de Leo. Okay,
Yeah, the best player that I really saw on their team was was their
captain, Chase DeLeo, which isn't necessarily a super super great thing to see
when he's a he's a career ahl r here. Yeah, I'd like to
see Klang maybe take an extra step forward from a consistency level on a from
a raw numbers perspective. But the way he handled playing behind a very inconsistent
development team I thought looked really good. So I don't think we have as
much to worry about as the raw numbers are showing at the moment. All
right, Well, that's a relief that because we both have been fanned of
him. Let's talk about the last guy, Yatchislav bhutits b u t e
y E twenty twenty sixth round pick six y four, one hundred and eighty
five pounds. He's primarily been in the VHL over and RUSHURAT for the past
two seasons, looking really good there. He went to the KHL for one
game and got blown up pretty badly, but we don't need to worry about
that. We'll ignore that his hockey prospecting has been steadily trending up to fifty
two percent chance of being an NHLer. He has a couple of comps archers
Erbe who I was a huge fan of way back in the day, Alexander
Georgiev. Obviously, people at a little bit more familiar with these days.
Average starter is what he's listed at. So, Kat, what do your
instincts tell us about Boutiet. That's a tough one. He doesn't necessarily play
for one of the KHL's strongest teams, and he yeah, he got a
little, a little blown up there in that one game. I love seeing
the consistency of love seeing the consistency of game starts. He played thirty five
games for Chilibinsk in three and then this past year he played another thirty five
games, and we didn't really see his numbers go down a ton with that.
I found a couple clips of him. He looks good. I'd love
to see him play a few more KHL games and show that one game was
an anomaly. But I think he's more or less probably ready to come over
to North America. If they're planning on, if they're planning on essentially bringing
him over, I think it's going to be time soon. I just don't
know necessarily where they would put him, just because they do have playing and
they do have suchanic and so I think the Ducks are reaching that point.
Where as crazy as it is to say, I think they have too many
good prospects in their system and nowhere really to put some of them. I
think if they can keep him over in Russia for the moment and allow him
to play some games at the KHL level. That's probably the best thing to
do for right now. It'll just be time to bring him over soon and
see what he can do all right. Last one, Damian Clara twenty twenty
three second round pick, definitely surprised some pundits on Day two. I personally
had not heard of him. Six foot six, two hundred and fourteen pounds.
He's Italian, best Italian goaltender since Jianluca Paaliuca. Look him up if
you don't know who that is. He doesn't play hockey, though he spent
some time in Austria and Sweden, and his draft season Clara was with Fargistide
BK the Jay twenty version and this season he'll be on loan to brain Us
if of the hockey has funskin. He played thirty four games, had two
point two three gain nine thirteen save percentage, four shutouts, twenty five and
eight record. Then he went ten to one and eleven qualification games with a
one point six eight and nine to thirty one save percentage as he helped Brinus
get qualified to the SHL again. That was an insane run. His expected
goal per goal conceded one point three to five. Next season he's going to
get he's going to be back with the main club Fargistade BK in the SAHL.
His equivalency has bumped up to forty five percent chance of being in an
NHL or there's a comp here of Aiden Hill. I think maybe there's even
upside for more kat. What do your instincts tell us about the best Italian
hockey goaltender, Damian Clara. I love seeing number one goaltenders from non traditional
markets, so whether that be somewhere like Florida or Italy, I love to
see that. I'd love to see him play at the SHL level this upcoming
year, just to see what happens when he's essentially going to be on one
of the weaker teams at the SAHL level just because they did get promoted backups.
So we'll see. I think what I said with our our guy Bootites,
we're reaching a point where I don't know what Anaheim's going to do with
all these guys, because if he plays really well at the SAHL level,
you'd assume he's ready for North America and I don't know where they would put
him. Love to see what he can do against the SHL competition. He
came out of nowhere. For me. Yeah, I think we'll have to
see. But at some point I think they are going to have to make
some trades, which luckily for them, he needs some players. So I
think we may end up seeing some of these prospects on another in another system
in the next year or two here, just because they have so many of
them. But that's not a bad problem to have. No, it's not.
Let's trade John Gibson. Let's move some of these prospect goalies up kind
to make it happen Anaheim. Thanks so much, cav for giving me extans
things on these Anaheim Duck goalies will be back right after this dig The Dynasty
Dig in a nine Ducks edition. The Ducks have a lot of extra picks
in this draft, and extra first, an extra second, two extra thirds.
Who cares about late picks. They got rid of their fifth and their
seventh, but the one they picked number three overall in this excellent draft,
and they're already tied for tenth in Victor's Prospect System ranks. That's going to
start out with the no brainer. Victor. Who's the no brainer. It's
Cutter, Gotier and he is the twenty twenty two to fifth overall pick by
the Flyers, six two hundred ninety four pounds center, left wing. He
was traded from Philly to Anaheim for Jamie Drysdale in that sort of a shocking
trade, I think for some of us. He just finished his second NCAA
season where he was over a point per game in both of them. His
first season, he had thirty seven points in thirty two games. This season
sixty five points in forty one games. Very impressive overall in terms of his
performance. He was a Kobe Baker finalist, and that stacked BC team somehow
lost to the Denver Pioneers in the championship game. Before that, he led
the Americans with twelve points in seven games in route to the U twenty World
Junior Championship gold medal. Looking at some of his tracking data from Mitch Brown
in that tournament, he was outstanding in most of the offensive and transition metrics.
A lot of really good controlled entries and exits. Transition success rate was
really high, his primary expected assists were extremely high, and he shoots a
lot, although his expected goals were a little bit lower. He has really
good advantages created primary point involvement game score, all that's pretty good. The
one thing that's a little bit low is his defensive metrics, his course he
and his ozone retrievals, so overall looks really strong for Gotier. Looking at
his FHL player card, you can see that overall his shots and hits are
really high per sixty, they're some of the highest in the NCAA this season.
His blocks are on the lower side, and overall his goal scoring is
definitely really high, but his assists are as well. So he's looking like
a really strong points option and bad looks like, but at least based on
the shots and hits, is going to be really high. I have him
as an eight out of ten on my scale, and looking at some of
his underlying metrics overall really good buck battles, zone entries of course, see
all of these things look really strong. Even some of his defensive metrics in
terms of some of his dumps and retrievals for checking breakouts look pretty strong.
But to learn a little bit more about Cutter Gotier, we need to hear
from our FHL scout and Art's our favorite Fahl Finn Yarno coming to talk to
us about Cutter Gotier today skating average smooth skating for a big body, even
not top speed caliber footwork efficient and powerful. Goate is able to quickly switch
on skating lanes and has great balance with his skating, making him with the
ability to drive to the net even when the opponent tries to interfere with them.
He can also do quick deep moves with his top speed skating to pass
by the opponents for a scoring chance. For passing above average, quick hands
sees the ice well, distributes the puck and transition situations to find the open
area on offensive zone. He's always dangerous as always posing a shooting threat,
so he can also find open teammates for the pass instead, so he's more
of a dual threat in that sense. Shooting elite, very powerful and accurate
shot with a quick release. He's always willing to use it, even from
the tight areas. He should have great shot volumes in fantasy hockey. Scores
goals mostly at the front of the goal or from both circles and the center,
not so much from the blue line. IQ above average playing calm hockey,
not throwing panic passes. Great vision in the offensive zone. It's clearly
visible as he's finding himself on many occasions in the goal scoring zones. His
heat map is strong all around the offensive zone. That's a good sign for
checking dangerous and for checking situations. He's willing to use his body and strength
and gives some hits, but he does not rush out defense. Gotier plays
a quite good all around game, which he's not a special defensive player,
but he can survive in defending situations. What helps him is his big size,
with Gotier uses against opponents when battling for the puck and uses his wide
reach which allows him to interrupt opponents with the puck. He's had so far
some usage on shorthanded situations, but Jarno also thinks he could be more of
a regular on defensive situations. Also on the pro level, best asset elite
shooting, magical ability to find open slots at front of the net to score
goals. Biggest concern. He's got a lot to prove on a pro level.
After pailing out on the flyers, Jarno says, how can he handle
the pressure he himself set? Will it be a question more than is his
skill set? That will be more of a question than his skill set.
The top tier outcome, top line power, forward power play one goalscorer with
over a point per game an elite bash woof and the reason why that could
come into play. He's got the skills, he's got the size. What
if he gets up there with Leo Carlson and the other Anaheim young guns fifty
percentile median outcome for go tier top six players sixty to seventy points average bash.
Not getting the top line rolling Anaheim would be what creates that if he
doesn't involve as a hitter, that could hurt his bash stylistic comparable n is
gonna go with J T. Miller and our friend Mason Black, the NHL
Rankking woh set out the following poll cutter Gotier versus Logan Stankoven. Boy,
that's that's the big boys. Gotier was not quite enough to overcome the great
stank Oven at this point, who won by a margin of sixty two to
thirty eight. Victor, I can't imagine you not getting stanky with this stankover
Gautier. Oh, you know me too well. I definitely like both these
players, but I'm going stanky. I just love him and we've been lucky
to see him in the playoffs already At the end of the season playoffs,
he's gotten some run with the team and he had Stankovin had an incredible AHL
season. Even though he played twenty four NHL games, he had fifty seven
points in forty seven games in his first professional season in the AHL. And
for those of you who are wondering if he's still small, yeah, he's
still really small. He's still only five foot eight. But he's also looking
strong for the Stars in their playoff run. Six points in fourteen games may
not seem that exciting, but Dallas is in the Western Conference finals, so
these are high stakes, high impact games, and he's still performing, you
know, at a really high level. So I think Stankovin, especially if
you're looking at Tidy, I mean, he has some really he's gonna have
a lot of takeo takeaways, that's something, you know, He's like Mark
Stone level in terms of takeaways, which is really funny actually because he had
a couple of takeaways against Stone and in the playoff series, which was pretty
fun. But he's someone who's going to have really strong play driving metrics,
takeaways, those kinds of things. And he doesn't hit as much as Gotier,
but he blocks a lot more and his shots are also still really high.
This is for stank Covin, so I think stank Coven's bash will be
similar and I think his points upside is higher, So I would take stank
Covin. Honestly, you're going to be happy with either of these guys.
And I will say that Gotier has the opportunity to be higher in the lineup,
maybe than stank Covin, because Dallas has so many good young forwards with
Johnston, and they have Maverick bour Coming, and of course they have Jason
Robertson and Rupe hints there might be some limitation at the top. But if
you look at the Ducks, they obviously have Ziegers, Terry and Carlson,
so they have some other good young forwards as well, so they might be
some similar blockage there. If you look at the hockey prospecting between these two,
it's still a favor Goatee a little bit. This season he bumped his
star potential up to fifty one percent, steak Ovin was at thirty three and
the NHLer probably for both these is like a lock. So the overall Gothier
hockey prospecting, he looks like a fair number of superstars. Some kind of
bus like Robbie Fabrie wouldn't be that exciting. But he looks a fair amount
like our Timmy Paneren, who's obviously a superstar, so that would be pretty
great. Looking at his j fresh card, he's more like a fourteen percent
chance of being a star and a pretty much locked to be an NHL Earth
Anyways, all around, Gotier is looking like he's going to be really good.
I wouldn't read too much into the fact that I would prefer stank Covin
slightly, but I think both of these guys you'd be happy with you there
on their team. Jesse, absolutely, you would stak Ovin. Yeah,
he's already playing at a higher level. But Gotier, he's a coming.
He's just somebody that I used to know. Victor. Who is our need
to know prospect. Our need to know is Owen Zeyweger. We already talked
a little bit about Zellweger in the main part of the show. Because he
got some time with the Big Club. We want to dig into his numbers
a little bit more, and so reminder that he was a twenty twenty one
to thirty fourth overall pick. Slid so far because he was small, and
he still is five foot nine, one hundred and seventy four pounds. He
beefed up a little bit, but still short. He was in the AHL
for most of the season, thirty seven points and forty four games for the
AHL San Diego Goals And for those of you that listen to the Cat Silverman
Talk, she talked quite a bit about the Goals, who she's seen a
lot in person, and how they're a pretty disorganized and chaotic team. So
the fact that Zelweger was able to produce and that environment is pretty great.
He had twenty six NHL games with nine points. Looking at his wrap him
chart on Evolving Hockey, most of the metrics are pretty low, but these
are his first twenty six NHL games and the Ducks are not We're not great.
I don't think you can hold that against him too much. Looking at
his FHL player card, you can see that the bash isn't going to be
so much. I mean, he shoots a fair amount, and that's something
that Derek mentioned. Pretty shot happy, but doesn't really hit a lot and
his blocks are below average, so his bash might be a little bit lower
unless you're just focused on shots. He does also not take too many penalties,
which is a good thing for the team. But he should be really
high in terms of his points and as Derek mentioned, having some strong power
play acumen is really good. So that's something to look forward to. But
let's hear a little bit more about what makes Eelweger tick from our FATL scout
Yarno. Jarno says the skating is elite, great speed, ability to do
quick turns with skates. Managed to have fast speed even on his backward skating,
usually joining rush attacks almost like a fourth forward. Can also move quickly
through the blue line from left to right or vice versa, or rush to
more forward toward goals for scoring chances. Passing elite, great stick handling.
He has the ability to pass the puck. His rush attack and other movements
are very active, usually creates chances for passing and goal scoring chances. He
will generate a lot of passes from his shots, which will be valuable in
fantasy power play. He can work as a powerplay quarterback because of his three
way threat movement, shooting and passing. In shooting, it's good, very
accurate shot. Good shot volumes over three shots per game in the a can
use the shot either from the left circle area when rushing toward the net,
or from the right hand side in power play situations, and he will shoot
the puck is much from the blue line, which can go either directly in
or cause rebound goal scoring chances. The IQ is elite, especially in the
offensive zone, always on the move looking for the next chance, adjusting his
position to be more dangerous if getting the puck, able to move with the
puck inside the offensive zone, reacts quickly to changing situations without hate decisions for
checking. He's very active in defensive situations, although he doesn't use his body
that much defense that's going to be a question mark, Jarno says, will
use his stick very heavily on defensive play. He's very active on the Rushdee
bets hugely to be able to get the puck away, and if that doesn't
happen, it can lead him to be playing himself out of these situations.
It allows opponents to go through him. This also can lead to positive outcomes
when getting the puck away and then he's able to transition quickly to the attack.
But in long defensive zone situations where the opponent is dominating the game that's
not great for Zelweger, and the puck battles in front of the net could
be hard for him. For larger opponents, he should be paired with the
good two way defenseman capable of moving the puck. Jarno's thinking about a Devon
tees with Cale mccarr. So the best asset active play, which generates a
lot of offense chances. Biggest concern that's going to be the same thing because
his active play could lead to some defensive backfires. The top outcome for Owin
Zelweger top attacking d on his team, powerplay one quarterback racks up points fifty
plus points. When he gets adjusted to the NHL on a good team with
supporting talent, he should be able to be right there in the top ten
and defensive scoring probably liked on bash for us fantasy types, and that would
happen if his offensive talents are so exceptional, they're so undeniable, it's hard
to see him not reaching them. If you're coming out to a median outcome
for Zellweger powerplay two guy, third pairing usage and five on five, and
that's if he can't get his defense together to a point that he's not a
liability at that point, then you've got to give him safe minutes, second
power play usage, stylistic comparable Jarno goes for Brian Brafolski. How about that?
And in terms of our comparrison, again, we're going up against a
big boy here. Mason Black's not screwing around this week because he gave Olin
Zelweger versus Luke Hughes and the poll had another duck goes down in a landslide.
Luke Hughes seventy five point five, Olin Zelwegger twenty four point five.
Victor, is that where you're at with this comparison? Yeah, definitely,
you're right. This is a really difficult comparison because Hughes has already been in
the NHL. He already looks fantastic in his NHL time, and he's played
a full season, been highly productive, and he's in a really good situation
with the Devils, who underachieved this season. But clearly he has some really
high heights that he can reach. Picking Hughes doesn't mean that Azelwegger is going
to be bad or anything like that. They both have really high potential.
In fact, in the PNHLE model as a reference. They're both looking super
strong, both looking like they could be close to point per game guys.
I don't know that they'll quite reach high, but certainly in that fifty sixty
range of elite offensive defenceman, which is really nice. Both these guys actually
really young for their draft year too. They were both taken in twenty twenty
one, Hughes at four, Selweger at thirty four, but both of them
are September birthdates September ten and September nine. These are literally five and four
and six days away from being eligible from the twenty twenty two drafts. So
both these guys having a little bit more development runway, and we're seeing the
fruits of that now. It took them a little bit longer to get there,
but they're both fantastic. So yeah, both these guys are great.
They both have basically our eighty nine to ninety percent chance of being stars in
the Hockey prospecting model. They both look incredible, Hughes slightly higher, but
both great, And of course Hughes does not have the size issues because he's
six foot two, so that helps him a little bit. And the other
comps for Zellweger there really aren't many, which is weird considering he's so high.
But Darryl Siedor is the one that would keep coming back to. And
he was also a whler who ended up being more of kind of an average
producer, but had a really strong WHL and a decent NHL production. Looking
at the j Fresh card, he has a twenty five percent chance of being
a star, ninety four percent chance of being NHL are one of the top
in this really high upside for Zellweger. I wouldn't shy away from the fact
that he's still a little bit small. He's really dynamic, as you heard
Derek mentioned, as you heard a lot of our guests mentioned in the past,
Elwger is a really good player, and I don't think he's gonna it's
gonna bother him too much that he's a little bit on the smaller side.
He seems to do really well with it. Jesse and lastly, Victor,
we've got our keep your eye on prospect. Who is it? That's Tristan
Leno and we already mentioned him a little bit. Twenty twenty two second round
pick six, two hundred and ninety two pound right handed d only played thirteen
games I referenced previously missed the World Junior Championship, had that staff infection,
had another injury early on, so it's hard to glean a whole lot from
his season. But looking at his FHL player card, can see that he
actually hit a lot in the AHL, one of the highest for sixty in
the league. His shots were a little bit lower and his blocks were low.
There wasn't a whole lot else to glean because he didn't score a lot
in terms of his goals. He had a decent number of assists. But
let's hear a little bit more about Tristan Leno from our FHL scout, Yarno
comes up with this on Tristan Leneau skating smooth, quick feet, good balance,
looks very easy for him. He's got speed, so he can join
the rush in transition or get the puck to the opponent's zone with skating.
He can also change the position in the offensive zone with the puck by his
skating. He's still more of a puck distributor than a puck carrier a la
zelwigger passing. He's a puck distributor in his own zone when starting attacks,
usually has the main responsibility to pass out of his own zone to the center
or the wing and junior. He played more as the quarterback on the power
play, but that probably will not be a main role in the power of
the pro level. On rush situations, his plays start and the offensive zone.
Has the skills to find his own players in free slots. Also,
much of his scoring assists could be secondary assists instead of primary assists. Observes
shooting doesn't look overly powerful. He scores some goals from the blue line,
but mostly it's up close on the circles or from the rush. Attacks can
be used on the power play on the left hand side as a shooter with
his right hand shot. The heat map especially is strong on the right to
his center area. IQ plays with calm, nerves, no panic in his
play. Good IQ to read the play on the right position attacking or defending
defense calm and quiet. Defensive play stays between the opponent and his own goal
in his zone. Usually parks to the front of the net, active to
defend opponents, sticks uses his body well for his advantage in puck battles.
Is not looking for the big hits that could make him lose his position.
Yarna would like to see him laying together in defensive pair with some more dynamic
offensive defender like Zelweger, as with Luneau still having to have good enough puck
skills. It would make them compliment each other very well, and Luno should
be a regular in the penalty kill. Best asset is the all around play
looks easily translatable to the pro level, doesn't have clear weaknesses, and could
be trusted with both offense and defense. And the biggest concern maybe not a
special elite level talent which would raise him above which would raise him above normal
NHL players and probably caps his fantasy value at some point. Top tier would
be a top four all around defender twenty plus minutes a night special situations,
could be one of the first defenders on shorthand perhaps getting some power Play two
usage, but his points mostly coming from five on five point scoring limited thirty
to forty points with medium bash. That is what his skill set is.
A great all around play, but not a great fantasy points role. Fiftieth
percentile outcome. Yarnold kind of thinks that the top outcome is very similar to
the median outcome here. Basically, he would be a more defensive situations maybe
not as much power play usage, and then he's more like a twenty five
to thirty point player. The stylistic comparable is Jake Sanderson. That's what Yarno
would say, and our friend Mason Black, the NHL Rankking give gives a
little bit of easier time to Luno than he did the first two. Jeremy
Poitier the Calgary Flames is the competition this time, and Luna comes out ahead
of Poitier fifty eight to forty two. Victor, you agree with that,
I do, And I just wrote about Poye for EP ring Side, so
that'd be a good thing to check out. He did have a really strong
HL season and has had a couple there. But I think one thing that
you could just do with this comparison is just ask yourself who do I trust
more to draft defenseman? And the easy answer is the Anaheim Ducks. They
are very good at this. They always find really good players, and Luno
is definitely in that camp. I think that even though he had a lost
season, really but he was really good in his spurts and he's been really
good in the queue, and I think him just doing a little bit at
HL and NHL level this season proves it he can hang and I think he
can develop even further, so I think I like him. Quarrier has definitely
come a long way since his draft, and he was really good in his
He was really offensively talented in his QMJ. Chell time, but he struggled
defensively and he's really rounded that out. So I think he's someone that's a
lot more interest than I thought he would be at this stage of his career,
and he's been really strong in the AHL. But I would definitely take
you know, the only consideration here is that the Ducks have so many good
defensemen, as we just talked about, so the Flames do not. So
if you want like the top end of a lower field, then maybe you
go with Pria just for that. Looking at the hockey prospecting between these two,
it's it's definitely Luno. He had sixteen percent. He's currently at sixteen
percent chance of being a star, sixty two percent chance of being an NHL
or I'm fairly certain he will be an NHLer. Paria has trended down since
his junior time to just four percent chance of being a star, but he
has had really strong HL production and I think that's worth a lot of consideration,
and him being a June birth date, it was, it's a little
bit more reasonable that he's doing what he's doing in the AHL at his age,
so I like that. Looking at some comps for Luno, I think
Josh Morrissey is a reasonable one who's been a really strong producer. Of course,
him getting powerplay opportunity is going to be important. He may or may
not get that at the time that he's ready with Zellweger and Minschikov ahead of
him. Looking at the j freshcard, just two percent chance of being a
star for Luno, so a little bit lower thirty six percent chance of being
an NHL are a little bit more pessimistic, but overall, shrist and Luno
another great defenseman for the Anaheim Ducks, and that's going to do it for
our Anaheim Ducks. Dig. If you're a patron, you can listen to
my top ten prospects recap, which I'll start after the draft, and if
you're interest in doing some scouting with us, shoot me a DM on Twitter,
discord, or email us. We'll be right back to close out the
show. A couple of things to mention before we leave here, today.
Our show is brought to you by fan Tracks. You can move leagues over
there. You can set up your twenty twenty four to twenty five leagues right
now. Ain't nobody stopping you. You can get those things going, and
you can play a whole bunch of different sports if you care to do so.
You can refantracks HQ for fantasy content. There's articles on fantasy hockey and
all the other sports. FHL has a whole team, and I'd like to
think, as always our whole Fahl crew content curator Kevin Adams, who helps
out a ton with our show prep. We have a whole admiral team for
the tidy leagues now, Ryan Simon, Kraftzer, and Timmy who's been boy.
Timmy has been doing the work lately. All the new commission team.
Jeremy vis our lead scout. Jason helps with prospect ranks. Brandon is our
website guru and a scout and does the FAHL player cards and other visualizations.
If you've got skills you'd like to lend a show, hit Victor up in
the discord email or on x. We're brought to you by Dauber Hockey and
Dauber Prospects Victors and Editor. There you can follow his work, as well
as his other podcast, Dabber prospect Report with Peter Harling. Great Listen around
draft time, be sure to check out Victor's articles at EP Ringside, where
he is part of the fantasy team with Clif Mike Clifford and Cam Robinson.
I do a solo show, Dynasty Sports Life. I talk all the different
Dynasty Sports sometimes multiple at the same time. Follow us on x at Fan
Hockey Life as me at Victor Nuno twelve v I C t R and you
N one two is Victor Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
wherever else you get pods. We appreciate that the little hiccup right now,
Google pods is is extinct, and YouTube Music does not yet have the show,
but hopefully you're able to find it somewhere. If nothing else, download
it straight out of Spreaker. It's right there in the ex posts. We're
trying to make it as convenient as possible, but just subscribe, kickback listen.
We're gonna get through all thirty two teams, we promise, and until
next time, keep living that Fantasy Hockey lif