Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks. Here shites your source
of information and analysis to help you win your fantasy hockey league. Block off
hats, a step hit on, staylock. Here's your hosts, Jesse Sovere
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Yeah, super excited to be continuing these previews. We're on the down slide,
we're on the downhill, we've passed the midpoint and we're cruising down home
into the back half. I guess as you were, So that's fun.
It also means we're getting ever so closer to the start of the season.
We're starting to see some different camps for different summer hocket is kind of fun.
How are you doing? Yeah, it's good win life. Some would
say I've crested and I'm starting on my way back down. And just because
we're on the second half doesn't mean we're letting up, Victor. We're cruising
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Life tremendous. Right after this, we will be talking Boston Bruins, introducing
our special guest today one of the top people in the media on the Boston
Bruins, Fluto shinn't Azawa of The Athletic. How you doing today, Fludo,
I'm great, Jesse, thanks for having me. So great to have
you to talk about the Bruins. Tell you what we said it last year.
The Bruins pushed in their chips. With a dominant team in twenty two
to twenty three, there would have been plenty of reasons to think the team
could have fallen off significantly, and while the overall record dropped out of the
stratosphere and just into the sort of the top of the league, they remained
one of the best teams in the NHL. They threw Toronto into disarray once
again after a game seven winning Round one of the playoffs, fell again to
the future champs in Round two, the Florida Panthers. That is, for
the second year. It wasn't an upset this time, at least not by
records, and frankly, maybe it never was. Florida was a heck of
a team last year as well. We'll talk about the goalies later, who
had a lot to do with this, but that amazing tandem is now broken.
Up, and they made some other offseason upgrades from this year to the
coming one. Is Boston likely foot out to stay near the top of the
East, And is the contention window for this team still open? Still open?
Yep. I think we'll see the goalie that state make a progression in
his development. I think they're more satisfyed with the defense now. It's a
big investment in Nikida's a door off well. I think that's critical, just
because they needed somebody on that left side to slot in behind Hampus, Linholm
and the whole defense. I think they're hoping, and I think they're projecting
that the defense will be better. Historically that's always been a strength. You
look at the number as there really wasn't. That was an average defensive time
team, which is unusual for the Bruins. Last year, the goalten was
excellent and it allowed them to go over some of their defensive deficiencies. So
I would expect the defense to be better. And then you still have some
primarily one chain Puiller up front with Pasternak and he's good enough that he can
carry the day. Martian is still there, Coyle is still there, and
then Linnholm, Elias Linholm. That's again that's a very pricing investment, but
had to be done just because that's Yeah, they had trouble, especially in
the playoffs. We saw they had trouble five on five scoring, so he
should help, I'm playing with Posternak should help, and then that puts everybody
else in their proper spots. So by the top of the East, no,
but they'll be right there. Let's get into that David Posternak, because
he had a pretty phenomenal season. He was eighth in hard voting, fifth
in points per game and total points. He outscored the next highest ruin,
who is Brad Marshan, by forty three points. Forty three points is a
pretty good season for a regular NHLer, and he bested one of the better
players by quite a lot. He was the eighth best forward in our league.
Are tidy scoring settings. Looking at reasons why this might not continue,
he had a slight increase in his time on ice. His PDO was a
little high, so was his IPP. But I don't think any of these
are outrageous, and he's had some of these numbers be similarly high in the
past. I think the biggest thing miss Pasternak is what you can alluded to
to, talent around him isn't what it used to be. There's an influx
of new players. So, Fluida, what do you think will we continue
to see over one hundred point pace pastronok this season? Oh yeah, slam
dunk. Sure. You look at the numbers these last two seasons, over
one hundred points, and it was a different David this past year. He
wasn't as primary a goal scorer. I'm sure he would have liked to have
that number be higher, But I think some of that was a lot of
that was opposition knowing that, Okay, there's nobody else that's such a primary
threat, so let's put best checkers, best defenseman all up against David Pasternak.
And he had to change his game where he was more of a playmaker
and control the puck. You saw the assist numbers go up, goal numbers
go down. I think career high and assists. He can do everything.
And he's still he's ninety six, so he's twenty eight years old right there.
He had some growing issues during the regular season. You would expect that
with the full offseason those would settle down and he should be good to go
in termans of health and then he'll be playing the design and of course these
lines will change, but the design at the start is to play with win
Holme, and that might be that primarily is to tease out more offense five
win home rather than the other way around. But David's so good at anything
he wants to do that it's going to be whether he's scoring, whether he's
possessing the puck, He'll be right there. Top ten. Let's talk about
Lindholm because that really is the wild card coming into next season, huge addition
for them. He fits with the win now situation because he's twenty nine year
old. He is scheduled to fill that C one role for the team.
It sounds like you're saying with Pasternak, Bruins are committed pretty significantly for a
contract to him seven point seventy five million for several years to come here.
After being a prized Trey target last year, he didn't produce a lot when
he went from Calgary to Vancouver, fell quickly out of the power play.
His production just wasn't great last year, dipped below half a point per game
one point five shots, even with a high shooting percentage last year. Is
this a case where Boston just needed to go after the highest available or the
best available center that was out on the market, which is always a sparse
market. Or is there some reason that Boston's looking at Lindholm and believing they
could really get this guy to have a bounce back year and be a strong
impact player both I think now, is he twenty one twenty two Linholm in
Calgary where he was with Hubert, like I mean Kachuck and Goodreau, No,
probably not. That was a point per game player and full Marx to
the linemates. Those are two terrific linemates to be carrying the day offensively.
Where Lindholme and we are familiar with his game, he's not that traditional number
one center who's driving the bus, not a McDavid, not a Barkop that
type of center. Will he be that type of presence? No, But
I think they're certainly projecting that there's more there than when he landed in Vancouver.
Yes, that they made offers with Calgary when he was available, first
available, and he ended up at Vancouver and it just didn't work out for
them via trade. So yes, they do seem more there. You'll have
way more opportunity way more than he did in Vancouver. Met Yes, that
was partly his because of his his fault, like he didn't the way he
played, he probably didn't deserve to be prime time opportunity. But still there's
no Pederson in Boston. There's no JT. Miller in Boston, like by
default even and this is not taking away from Charlie Coyle or Pavlozaka, but
they're not. They're in that mold of Lindholm where he's not that let push
pace, pushing center. He's going to get opportunities with pastchak top line,
why any of even strength first power play there is there's an opening there in
the bumper Chace Verseronzo spot Zaka was okay there, but he was a left
shot, so that changed the design of the power play where it was it
was Paschnok who's controlling a lot of pucks. And I think they do that
right shot there with Linholm's experience on the power play, so you look,
you add those things up. Okay, maybe not point per game player,
but yeah, there's gonna be plenty of chances for him to score five on
five play and he have the killing penalties too. Yeah, they're gonna be
looking for a bang for the buck. They pay big, but yeah,
they're looking to squeeze out a lot from them on bosst to doing business,
all right, Brad Marshaan the captain. I asked you on this show last
year if he would be a point per game guy. You said, no,
he's not gonna be point per game, but he'll get close sixty seven
points in eighty two games. I'd say you hit that one right on the
spot, Fluido. He played almost all season with Charlie Coyle generally was split
apart from Posterknock at five on five. After the first couple of months,
he had one and a half hits a game, two and a half shots
played nineteen minutes a game. Very respectable for a thirty five year old with
a lot of mileage on a famously not gigantic body that has gone through some
pretty serious injury over the year. He keeps himself in great shape. Now
Marshan is on an expiring deal, but he's got that seat for the first
year. Do you expect a similar performance to last year for Marshawn? And
can I assume he's not going anywhere but sticking around in Boston? For twenty
twenty five and beyond in terms of expected performance, so much of his health
because of the age thirty six years old, and like you mentioned, style
of play, and also I suspect he will not be with Posternok full time
at five on five that he's probably going to be with Coyle on the second
line. So there's that you're just not going to get as much scoring when
you're not with Bosternack. But you look at in terms of some of the
variables, Yes, contract year, he wants to stay. The feeling he's
mutual they would like him, and I'm sure he would like to retire as
a Brown. That was so meaningful for Patrice Bergeron and David Crachie. I'm
sure Brad. That's right up there in terms of career goals for Brad,
and Bruns are happy with him as captain, So there's that. There's also
the Olympic thing. He was so bummed that the whole was that they were
supposed to go to China and that fell through in twenty twenty two. He
that is a huge career goal for Brad to make Canada. That's a tough
ask. He's already made that. Whatever foreign Nations whatever roster as are as
part of the six first Canadians. Now that's probably because Don Sweeney is managing
that team that he has some influence there, But that's he's going to want
to make that team so badly that he's going to do everything within himself to
push an open team Canada's eyes. So he turned that team that with the
contract year. Those are two huge things for Brad. So now is he
going to stand up physically, Who knows, but those would be in his
favor in terms of motivation. Let's turn to a couple of the slightly more
depth guys who had a more prominent role recently, and that's Charlie Coyle and
Pablo Zaka. As you mentioned, with Elas Linholm coming in, that kind
of pushes these guys down the line up a little bit, probably more appropriately
than where they have slaughtered in the past. Both of these guys had similar
point pass Coyle was sixty and Zaka was sixty two. They both played just
over eighteen minutes time on ice, with Zaka playing nearly a minute more on
the power play, which kind of explains why he had four more power play
points tended Zach Coyle Fluto. How do you think the deployment shifts for Coil
and Zaka this season and who do you think it's more points between the two?
I would say Zaka just because he's a little bit more offensive minded than
Charlie and they're both a very good defensive but I think Jim Montgomery really leads
on Charlie for those diesel draws, endgame situations. That's a lot of calorie
burning which Charlie and those kinds of situations that are not left for offense.
So I would say if you're asking between the two, I probably lean a
little bit towards Zaka. Both had career years, so that would be my
guess. But there's also the question of we're probably going to see Zaka left
wing rather than center, so we'll see how does that influence his production.
Maybe that takes away a little bit of the defensive responsibilities for Zacca and he
can focus more on offense, So there's that. I would expect he'd be
playing with Linholm Imposterumark, so that helps his output there. Power play.
He might be down to PP two, so there's that, so maybe we'll
see a little bit of drop off there, but he's still within that rank.
He's twenty ninety seven, so he's twenty seven years old, still right
there within the prime. So I think they're expecting similar, maybe a little
bit more than last year from Zaka Coyle. He's older, he's two thos
he's in ninety two, so he's thirty two and plays a lot of hard
minutes. Probably not going to be first, power play, second line,
but yes, more appropriately slotted. Maybe he faces a little less tough competition,
but maybe his point total goes down. I don't know the same or
down, just give it because of the age. But he's not measured on
points in terms of value for the Bruins, but I would probably guess his
total goes down a little. Juxtaposing two kind of different players also on the
forward core, Morgan Geeky Matthew Portraw Portrait was one of the stories of the
early season. Really had a strong start with shipped off at the last minute
to World to Team Canada and the World Juniors before he ended his season early
due to injury. On the other hand, Morgan Geeky kind of plays that
steady role in the middle six. He's venturing hockey middle age at twenty five,
about a half point per game type player. What do you think of
these two coming into next year? Who do you expect maybe to have a
stronger performance. Probably Geeky because of age and we don't know how Potra is
recovering from shoulder surgery. He's been skating, he's been working out. They
had a development camp scrimmage. He didn't play in that, just because they
thought by risk any kind of injury or setback, there's a question mark there.
Is he going to be bully strengthened for camp and maybe they see best
fit? Why not send him to the American League. That's certainly a possibility
of Matt. At the start of the year. He wasn't eligible to play
in the American League because of the age last year as a nineteen year old.
Now he's twenty. He can go down. Maybe they think, hey,
why don't you settle in and really get your offense in order down there.
I could absolutely be a scenario. Those are not NHL points being scored
by Matt at the start of the season now, in terms of pure offensive
ceiling. Absolutely that's probably you're looking at Potro over Geeky in terms of a
fully fulfilled NHL center just because he has more skill, He's more offensive minded
than Geeky. So down the road, I would expect Matt to have more
off and output. But right now, Geeky is older, stronger, more
experience. Again, another player that might be shifted to the wing rather than
the center. It depends if Matt makes a team, maybe Geeky starts right
wing. If Matt is in the American League, maybe Morgan is your third
line center rather than second line right wing. So it depends upon where he's
placed. But I would expect Geeky to have more of an output right now
this upcoming season than Patrick. All right, let's move over to the blue
line, and of course we're going to start with Charlie McAvoy. And despite
the bruined success, McAvoy had the lowest point pace last season of any of
the past three that he's played. He plays big minutes, and I know
that his value is certainly more all around than it is point production. His
very valuable plays both sides of the ice, very reliable and fantasy. He
only rates out as an eighteenth best defender, partially due to his slightly regress
scoring, though he continues to provide solid production in the perferal categories and power
play points. So, Fluido, what do you think about McAvoy. Will
he be closer to a fifty or sixty plus point defender this upcoming season.
I would expect him to score more than he did last year. That was
I'm not going to say bad here, just because of how heavily he was
used and how he did everything. But I think that the organization is I
don't know about disappointment, but it's an average year for Charlie and he needs
to be great, so I would expect more output from him, but he's
just not within it's just not his game to be. Adam Fox, Cal
mccarr, those types of offensively focused right, shut Dez just because it's a
big part of his game is defending, laying, hard checking, and when
we see him, I would expect he'd be on the first part play because
he's probably still the best option up there at the point. But that's again,
that's not his strength. He just doesn't run a power play with as
much dynamic presence as some of these other these Hughes Fox mccarr, Like we
just saw Kevin Shatticker be a slightly better option as a point guy last year,
just because it's just not his game. It'll be better with Charlie,
but just just not a top tier scorer. And that's fine from the Bruins
perspective, as long as he's playing big, check down minutes and taking care
of the defensive responsibilities. But just and it will be better than last year.
He had at time struggled. His partner Matt Grizzick, really had a
bad year and he's not here anymore, so the numbers will go up.
He might play with a door off. That's certainly an option, so you
would think in theory that would allow Charlie to take a little bit more risk
offensively, knowing that he has a bigger guy cleaning things up in the defensive
end. So it'll be better, but not dynamic better. Hampus Lindholm is
the second one on the list when you're talking about centers who can put up
some offense. He, however, last year, didn't put up a ton
of offense, only four primary points in the thirty regular season playoff games,
following a stretch he missed due to lower body injury in February. In March,
to be fair, only eleven primary points and nineteen secondary assists. If
you put together the whole season, he was getting a lot of those A
two's, primarily Brandon Carlo's partner on the second pairing, and when you look
at the wit or without you if Brandon Carlo was out there without Hampus Lindholm,
the stats don't necessarily look great. So maybe that's some of the impact
going on here. What are the expectations for this steady bet Hampus Lindholm and
could they include a little bit more offense this year? Flew up? Yeah,
they have to because he had a bad year last year, especially when
you compare it to two years ago, because a lot of his offense came
when mcilvoy was unveiled. Blood started to see that he's coming back from the
shoulder surgery, and Hampus really did carry the day both ways. So you
see it there. What happened? Why did the offense go go dormant?
So it was significantly last year. Part of it his injury. He did
have any injury, but that wasn't like he was fully healthy for the first
half of the year. So what's going on there? Yeah, that's a
red flag. Now, some of it might be the age he's thirty and
he's a big guy. He's six four and he's thick, so that is
oh at that age he's getting bigger. Is the foot speed slowing down?
Is he going to have to adjust his training and his conditioning and his nutrition
to try and get a little bit more fast twitch in there. Yeah?
Yeah, I think there is some concern there. It depends do we see
Hampus a little bit lighter or a little bit quicker then maybe yes. Then
you can say, Okay, there's perhaps an upswing there, or are you
going to acknowledge if the team is going to acknowledge Okay, this is just
the faith that he's entering. He's going to be more of a defensive defenseman.
That's fine. But I think for his contract eight times six and a
half and there's a lot of term left on his deal, I think they're
not paying him to be Brandon Carlow at four point one. It's just being
a shutdown defender. Like you pay that much for him, you need some
points. He's not gonna be first power play, that's gonna be Charlie.
He might not even be second power play. So there's there's something doesn't align
right. So it's I think there's gonna be a big question mark heading into
the season, and maybe those questions will be answered early by Himpus and we'll
see. We'll see one way or another which way the careertory and responsibility is
going. But I think there's some breath holding there. It's really hard to
project, like you would think it would be better, just because this past
year was pretty bad in terms of where he's been bred to two years ago.
But this is not a twenty seven year old went home. This is
a little bit more high mileage. So it's hard to say from my perspective
expect with the Dora off there, and I'm expecting more from Charlie, I
think there is a room there for improvements, but significantly more room. I
don't see that for him. Yeah, and you've mentioned Zadora of a couple
of times, usually not the guy who shows up on the statue quite the
same way. But do you expect he or anybody else on this decoor to
get a big role or make a big impact for us next year. Yeah,
Historically in terms of his his production, that's just not who he is,
right, It's a door of here, get plenty of minutes five on
five PK. We won't see him on the power If you see him on
the power play, there's a problem. But Mason LORI, there is somebody
that is intriguing in terms of offense, because that is absolutely Mason's game.
He's going to push the pace, he's going to take risks. They see
him as possible PP two quarterback. The question with Mason is he's still young,
he's still learning that defensive side. But if he's relatively sheltered starting five
one five a third parent guy with Andrew peak like, maybe maybe he's not
asked to really be shutdown guy on defense, and I think they'd be okay
with that, just because he's still growing that part of his game and maybe
that will never be part of his game. But that's a six to four
guy, warmer forward who didn't change the defense till till high school. There's
absolutely offense there. Yeah, I keep my eye on that guy because Okay,
that's not a player that everybody is aware of, but there is.
There's certainly offense. He's there. It's there with Mason. He's not afraid
to push the offensive pace creativity. He's gonna be up there taking risks.
Yeah, that's one to keep your eye on. That's a great call up
and excited about him for a while, and he definitely looked good at times
in his limited action this season. Let's switch over to the goalies, fludo.
We of course have to talk a little bit about some of the movement,
but looking at last year, Boston Netminers were ranked fourteenth and expected goals
against p sixty, but we're actually ranked fifth in actual goals. Obviously a
big part of that was Linis Omark, who's no longer with the team.
So we're not going to hit it, so we're not going to discuss that.
Of course, we do need to mention Jeremy Swainman. At the time
of this recording, he has an sternline RFA negotiations. I imagine he's going
to get signed. Boston has eight point six million in cap space and it's
I think it's safe to assume Swayman takes a good chunk of that. He
had twenty almost twenty three goals tave above expected last season one point two two
Delta Fenwick. He was just awesome and obviously a really big part of their
playoff run and coming to the team Corpus solo, he was really not great
in Ottawa and that experiment who was which is already over. He's really struggled
for different parts of his career. Stretches here and there have been decent overall.
I've long been pretty skeptical of his actual value, but Boston has shown
that they can make just about anyone look pretty decent in goals, so it's
possible that he could really look pretty decently. But what do you think the
breakdown is going to be between these two? I imagine Swayman is the man
getting the majority of the starts. Do we see like sixty forty or or
maybe he gets up to three quarters of the starts? How many starts do
you think Swaymen and Corpusolo get and do you think they'll still put up really
good numbers? I would expect fifty five to sixty starts for Jeremy. It's
going to be clear cut that he's the number one, Like some of the
numbers that he's put up so far through on his career, your season playoffs,
there's not many goalies in his company in terms of age twenty five goalies,
like, he's a very select group, so you would think and based
on that, I think athleticism, competitiveness, hockey fence like, everything is
there for Jeremy. But I'm going to say that a and who knows how
big you can't It's impossible to say, but I'm going to pay A big
part of his success was because of the goalpending rotation that he had, not
just he could take the breath, so to speak, in terms of not
having to play every other game. That's so huge for a goalie mentally,
perhaps even more than physically, to know that, hey, the guy next
to me is going to be just as good, if not better. He's
gonna win the Besida two years ago. So I think that was baked in
a huge part of Jeremy's results. Knowing that he doesn't have to take every
start, he has to be on every time he plays, Otherwise Lena's is
gonna He's gonna get the net, and it's gonna be his net. I
would not be surprised to see a dip in Jeremy's way just because of that
pressure of having to be the guy. He's never had to be the guy,
although we saw in the playoffs and he was outstanding, the best player,
no discussion, hands down on the team, and so we've seen that,
but he can have a Donalds. So you don't know how is he
going to react to that, How is he going to react to the eventual
huge deal that he was going to get. Those are variables you just don't
know. In terms of workload, yes you can, you can absolutely work
him in as fifty five sixty, But in terms of say a percentage above
expected all that, I wouldn't be surprised to see all those numbers go down.
In terms of CORPUSALO, I know the bruin within the goaltending community.
I think there are a lot of people who know their stuff on goalies think
that this is a good environment for Jonnas to rebound just because Okay, he'll
be playing with fam, no pressure to be the guy, a better team,
not significantly better defensively than Ottawa, but better overall, ruins, better
culture, an expectation of winning versus Ottawa and the Golden Coach. Well,
you just look at what Bob Essence has done with Swimon all Mark Rask Colock.
It's a huge lift and it's been significant in terms of the work he's
done, so I would expect their recovery there. But also there's no guarantee
that in camp that Corpuslo gets assigned. They're pretty big on this kid,
Brandon Bassi coming up from the American League, who will need waivers to be
assigned. So that's a factor there versus Corpusolo at let's cap hit not three
million a year, nobody's gonna you would think nobody's gonna claim that and take
that on through waivers at the start of the season. That's a factor too.
If if Corpusselo shows up and he's off in camp and the other guy
is on't think they hesitate to send us down and make Bussy their number two.
So there's some questions there too with the golds In So overall, I
would not be surprised to see the goldsending worse off this coming season, just
because that tandem was so good, so long, so reliable, so consistent.
There's big change there. In my show, Open the Numbers, Fluto,
you do all the best stuff on the Boston Bruins. How do people
keep up with all your work? Athletic dot com. Actually everything is through
the New York Times site, so ny Times dot com, so just reread
the Athletic it's a promotion Fludo Sinzawa, thank you so much for coming on
and talking Boston Bruins. You got it, guys, My pleasure, Will
that's good fired Pans, Oh my goodness. We grab now it's your weekly
goalie talk. But Kat Silverman, Kat's Instincts. Time for another edition of
Kat's Instincts with Kat Silverman and m gol mag we're talking Bruins prospects. That
means we're talking Brandon Boosey. That's right, six foot five, undrafted now
twenty six years old. He's definitely at the top of their pipeline, it
would seem right now. Second straight HL season, which was quite good.
Last year. You talked about how he surprised you with how good he was,
though part of it was maybe based on the system that he has there.
This trade with Olmark and Corporasolo probably limits his opportunity a bit, but
overall he's, you know, got he's there and he's got some opportunity potentially
depending on if there's an injury or something. Looking at the hockey prospecting,
he has trended down. His comp here is Alex Staylock, which I know
we have a soft spot for. But what do your instincts tell us about
Brandon Bouzy and what kind of upside do you think he has. I love
the Brandon Boosey's comp is Alex Staylock because when it comes to st they play
so differently brand and Bussy is huge and a little slow, and Alex Staylock
is obviously the world's most exciting goaltender you can't trust. So we'll see where
Boston really has plans for him. I think that even though the Bruins traded
Olmark for Corpusolo, I don't necessarily think that that blocks the pipeline. I
think there's a chance that and it's not how I personally would manage my cap,
but I think there's a chance that if Corpusolo is just not getting it
done and Brendan Bussey is continuing to play with honestly this solid performances he put
up last year, there's a chance that those two get swapped in the system
and corpus Solo's contract gets not buried in the AHL because they can't bury that
much money. But I do think that there's a chance that he ends up
playing a ton of HL if Boozy looks like the better goaltender, because they're
at a point in that team's trajectory where they can't really afford to be just
throwing it all out and opting for rebuild, especially during the peak of Swayman's
during the peak of Swaymen's career arc here, So I think that this is
a better goaltender situation for Boosy if he is hoping to get NHL action.
I think that Ollmark and Swaymen together, even though both have had some injury
issues here and there, that wasn't a situation where either one of them was
going to get buried in the AHL. They were both too good, so
really the only opportunity he had for games was if one of them was injured
and the other one really needed rest. Now I think there's a chance that
he almost gets added in as almost like a three goaltender tandem for the year,
where if Corpusol is not performing well, they bring up Boosey, they
scratch Corpusolo for games. If Swaymen gets injured during the year, which he
has proven to do here and there, I think that if Woozy gets called
up, he is the primary starter at that point. So I think we're
going to see more NHL opportunity for him now. I just he is growing
on me. He just still makes me a little nervous because he's slow.
I think he's got good positioning. I think he's got pretty good reads.
He's just he's a little slow, and I don't know what he'll look like
in games where the Bruins defense breaks down, because unfortunately their team is aging
a little bit. It's transitioning, and I think that they aren't a They're
like the twenty fourteen to fifteen LA Kings. They're a team that has some
defensive breakdowns in there, and I'm curious to see what he does with that.
So I do think we're going to see him at the NHL level though,
and I think it's going to be this year. I just don't know
for how many games it's going to be. I love it. I have
long argued that Unice Corpselo is an HL caliber goalie, so I agree with
that assessment. Be fun to see Boosy in there. And for all of
those listening at home, I almost made Kat spit her coffee outrybut that Let's
move on to the next guy. Mike Dprow, that now twenty five year
old is no longer a top prospect, I would say, but he has
rehabbed his career a bit. He after playing in the primarily in the ECCHL
last season, he played entirely in the HL this past season and it was
really good. His round numbers were better than Boosy's and fewer games. And
last year we talked about how best case for dpro was maybe Jack Campbell outcome
at the peak and interesting looking at the two of them, thirty games played
for Dpro, forty one for Boosy pretty similar actually, although the both the
say percent and GA slightly better for Dpetro interesting, His hockey prospecting is pretty
low. His only real legit comp is Colin Delia. So, Kat,
what can you tell us anyone who has shares with Dphro? What do you
think we should do? Should we keep holding? Is there a path to
at least like a timeshare goalie in the NHL here or what are we thinking?
Man? Jack Campbell, calling Deally and Mikey d Pietro. That's like
the holy trinity of goaltenders who I would maybe go to war for. I
think that Colin Deely is an interesting comp because that's like Mikey di Pietro a
goaltender who from a technical perspective looked really good, did all the work as
a prospect, really embrace the grind. At the AHL level, you saw
tangible, noticeable improvement. You saw him get brought up to the NHL level
too early behind a team that knew they were going to lose and through them
out there's a meat shield, and then didn't give him a chance to recover
and lick his wounds and reinforce his good habits at the AHL level. Interspersed
throughout Mikey di Pietro is a goaltenders had a few too many injuries throughout his
history for me to be super confident at this point. He is undersized.
His technique is stellar. For a while there it got really rough technique wise,
and I don't want to put all the blame on Vancouver and Vancouver connects.
Fans don't come at me, please, but I do think that he
was not putting a necessarily a huge position to succeed there, and Thatcher Demco
obviously was that's their bread and butter. So when it seemed like DiPietro was
struggling, that became their sacrifice and they were like, all right, this
is not working, we're gonna we're gonna move on and try something else.
So it's nice seeing his game getting rehabbed in a much more low stakes Boston
system. He's got really solid positioning for a guy who is undersized. He's
not afraid to challenge when he needs to. He reads really well, he
tracks the puck. Wally's good at rebounds. We have seen all of those
accolades I'm giving him go out the window when he's going through a tough spell.
I think that's that's a good guy for Boston to have in their system,
because if he is a Colindelia or a Jack Campbell being the best case,
Colindilia being the worst, that's not a bad guy to have in your
system. That's almost like the Richard Bachman role, the guy who can be
a really good mentor for your minor leaguers. And then if you do need
to call someone up and it seems like Boosy is potentially going through a little
bit of a rough patch or he's injured, that's a guy that you can
call up. He can handle NHL games without getting completely lit up, and
especially if it seems like his game is returned to its peak form, that's
someone who potentially could I would say move ahead of Corpus Solo in my personal
ranking for goaltenders in their system. I just know that contract wise, obviously,
he doesn't sit in a position where they can be swapped in the depth
chart. So I don't think he's going to play a ton of games,
but I do think that it'll be fun seeing I'm hoping he gets a game
or two at the NHL level this year, just so he can play some
good NHL games, because I think he has it in him. Still,
all right, sounds like you're saying that's a bit of chance there. So
thanks for giving us your instincts on the Boston Bruins goalies. We'll be back
right after this digs the Dynasty Gig Boston Ruins Edition. Victory is gonna be
a short one. The old Bruins. I remember, I'm old enough to
remember when you were the Bruins correspondent for the Dabber Prospects, and I'm pretty
sure that our no brainer was still the no brainer even back then, Victor,
tell us about the no brainer for the Boston Bruins. Yeah, the
no brainer is baby in Lacel twenty twenty one, twenty first overall pick five
eleven and seventy six pounds. He had a very strange development. If you
all remember, he was in Sweden and then he came over to the WHL,
and then he was moving around a little bit. But the last couple
of years he was in the AHL. His first season there was very good
thirty seven points and fifty four games, and he up that fifty games and
for sorry, fifty points in fifty six games, looking very strong in the
AHL. Doing that sometimes isn't that impressive if you're older, but he's still
only twenty one, so that's very good. He's a right shot, right
wing, by the way, and his FHL player card looks pretty strong in
terms of some of the categories, like the assists. He looks like he's
going to be a pretty good setup man. His goals are a little bit
lower. His shots are actually only a sixtieth percentile. And I think one
of the things about like Seal that you can really see on this FHL player
card is that he doesn't really do much other than playmake His hits and blocks
are pretty much non existent, so his bash is going to be low.
He's going to be a points only kind of guy, and then if you
look at some of the other metrics like play driving and stuff, it's actually
pretty poor. You know, his power play time, it looks really good.
Some of his play driving is okay, but his transition game his pucks
to the middle in high danger are low, which kind of suggests that there
may be a bit of an issue in terms of translating that to the NHL.
But we'll see what our FHL scout says about that. Jesse, you
darn right, and our man Grant comes through with the Fabian le Cell report.
He has this to say for skating, Lisel has a very quick first
few steps, then as a bit of a choppy stride to get up to
full speed. Acceleration is above average, but overall speed just average. His
first few steps allow him to create space and tight areas as he's strong on
his feet. Passing and handling above average passing on both his forehand and backhand,
stick handles well in tight Passing and handling the puck are what we'll get
him to the NHL. Shooting, Wesall has an accurate wrist shot, but
he's not going to overpower goalies at the AHL or the NHL level with that
shot. Iq above average vision with the puck on his stick will find the
open teammate with a nice pass. His anticipation is slightly above average, as
Lisel keeps his head on a swivel when he's without the puck, and he
gets in the way of the puck quite often. He has very good poise
with the puck in his own end or in the offensive zone. For checking,
that's the weakest part of Lisel's game, as he relies on his two
line mates to do it. It just isn't in his game and could hurt
Lisel's ability to stay in the NHL for any length of time. Defense,
Lisel's got decent positioning in his own end, but can cheat at times when
leaving the zone. He'll need to get pucks deep when entering the offensive zone
as he likes to carry the puck in, which might not translate as well
to the NHL. After two years in the AHL, his defense is passable
but certainly not a strength. So the best asset is mentioned above. Passing
and handling the puck are Lisel's strengths. He has the ability to control the
play in the other team's zone. It could be an important and cog of
any team's power play. He'll get a chance on the power play in the
NHL at some point. The biggest concern the lack of physical engagement, non
existent cycle game and he can forget to move his feet. What's the top
tier outcome for Fabian le cell Well Grant says, top six winger playing on
the first unit of the power play, could be a tier three forward,
but as Victor said, no bash justification. He's got the passing a handley
skills to work with better players when he is skating and putting in an effort,
but he's going to need to find the right chemistry to reach his potential.
What's the median outcome for Fabian le Sell top ahl forward? No place
in the NHL as a bottom six forward because of obviously the lack of physicality.
That's because that outcome would happen because he needs to develop some better defensive
traits and perhaps a little more of a physical cycling game to become a bottom
six winger in the NHL. Could be a boom er Bus top six forward.
Stylistic comparable similar skating skill style to Cody Hodgson and much the same pucking
only in passing abilities. Cody Hodgson, being the comp for our no brainer,
votes poorly for this prospect system, Victor. But our friend Mason Black,
the NHL rankking, seals the deal. He sent out the poll Babanly
Sell versus Ridley Greeg of the Ottawa Senators and when the people had spoken,
Greeg in a landslide one hundred and ninety votes sixty three to thirty seven.
Victor, are you going Greeg overly Sell? I think this is a very
interesting debate. And obviously Greg is an NHLer. He has ninety two games
under his belt, he's played, they played mostly in the whole season this
season in the NHL, and he looked really good. He looked really competent.
Thirty point pace isn't anything too exciting, but he was getting sub fifteen
minutes time on ice, not much power play time, and given some rather
difficult assignments. So you can understand that. So in one way, you're
talking about a for sure with what seems like for sure competent NA versus somewhat
kind of knocking on the doorstep. But I think in Likeceel, there's a
little bit of prospect fatigue here. Twenty twenty one is when he was drafted,
people were really excited about him, and then they weren't, and then
it's been up and down. I think people are just impatient. They'll get
a little impatient and tired of waiting. But I think you need to keep
in mind that these two squads, Boston and Ottawa, have been very different
over the last several years. Boston has been a very good team, a
competitive team, and didn't they even win the President's Trophy one of those years.
I can't remember, but they seem like they're a very good team and
they didn't have a lot of room for someone likely Sel. I mean,
we've talked to Fluto the last several years, and what's been difficult for these
young guys, good as they may be, to enter the lineup. So
I think you have to keep that in context. You can't just say,
oh, he's not good enough. He was good enough, he would have
busted in. That's not entirely true when you have a super competitive squad like
Boston has had, So I think you really have to take that into context.
I think the upside for Lyceel is still higher. I think what Grant
mentioned, they are top six power play guy that I think could get in
that sixty to seventy point range. I certainly think the floor is lower than
what Greeg has right now, and so that's obviously the concern. But I
think he really needed that second year of the AHL. He was really good
in the first one, wasn't quite ready at camp, there were some injuries
that he was dealing with, and I think that he showed in this last
year that he's come a long way in the AHL. So I think if
you're looking at upside, I would definitely take Lecell. That's not what the
people voted. I think the people are showing they're excited about Greg. They
like the floor and they think there's a little bit more upside there. Personally,
I'm not there with Greg. I think that he has shown what he
is. He's a really strong middle six. Depends on if they play him
at center winger. I think he can be a center, and if that's
the case, there's going to be a little bit more two way responsibility.
But I think he could just end up being more of like a forty five
to fifty five point guy, and so that's not going to be as exciting
in fantasy. But he does offer a pretty nice amount of prepherals, does
Greg Greeg. So I think that it depends on what you want. If
you want that really strong preferal floor with upside for more than Greg is the
easy answer because Lacel, as we mentioned, doesn't do any of that.
But on the other hand, if you want a little bit higher points upside,
then I think you go Lisel. So it depends on what you want.
Looking at the hockey prospecting between these two is clearly Greeg he has a
lot more star potential as he graduated the Model. He's in the NHL now,
obviously, but looking at Lesel, he's been pretty low and part of
that is because he was in the j twenty and then he went to the
WHL, which is the lower equivalency and even though he did well in the
AHL, it's not enough to overcome Byron's math too. That kind of punishes
them for being in that lower equivalency league. So anyways, Lisell one percent
chance of being a star as he graduates the Model fifty one percent chance of
being in NHL. Er. He has a lot of replacement level guys.
There are some really high end guys that do look likely. Sell in the
model are more like outliers like Milan Hayduk, JT. Miller, Jeff Carter
looks similar. There's still some hope, but it seems a little bit more
far fetched at this point. I still personally believe that Lisel can get there.
I think it depends on how they use him. I think there's some
openings, more openings this year that he could step into, and there's a
little bit less kind of expectation there. I'm hoping for it. We'll see
his j fresh card hasn't match just four percent chance of being in NHLer,
thirty eight percent chance of being a star, four percent chance of being a
star, thirty percent chance of being in NHL, or it's quite a bit
more pessimistic. But yeah, I think if you, if you're been holding
Lisel this whole time, they might as well hold a little bit longer unless
someone is a little bit more convinced that you are, that he can be
that top notch player. And if someone is frustrated with Lisel and you can
get him for a song in pretty good value than I would because this could
finally be the moment Jesse finally, Yeah, this system it did not.
We only did two and we didn't even give the second prospect the dignity of
being the need to know Victor. We skip right to keep your eye on
who is it? Yeah, this is a guy that was just drafted Dean
Laturno twenty twenty four, twenty fifth overall pick. A little bit surprised he
went that early, although not terribly surprised, because the six foot seven,
two hundred and fourteen pound kid is just massive, skates really well for his
size, and he's just really big right shot center. Played in high school,
which is always a bit awkward to figure out how he's going to translate.
He was just dominating kids. They're almost three points per game in that
system, and the next year he's going to make the massive jump to Boston
College, so it's going to be really interesting to see how he handles that.
But in terms of raw potential, he has a ton. We'll hear
a little bit more of about the Scotting report, but before that, looking
at his FHL card, we don't have a whole lot of data and information,
as you might imagine from his high school days, but he did play
a couple of USHL games. He didn't have any points, but he did
looked a little bit like the pace was challenging for him in those couple of
games, but it was just two so it's hard to say too much.
But what we do know about him is that in those couple of games he
did shoot and hit a ton So there's a potential for a massive amount of
bash from Dean Laturno and that's pretty exciting considering there may be some significant points
as well. But let's hear a little bit more about what makes him tick
from our FHL scout. Here's what our scout Tony has to say about Laturno.
He is a decent skater, needs work, but very raw. His
base is an asset. Passing and handling average to below average okay for his
stage in development, though shooting as everything probably needs some work, but does
a good job picking an open spot on the rush getting his shot away off
a pass IQ in line with his young age, Tony's Sister's a lack of
confidence and maybe a lack of poise for checking. Tony did see some for
checking, but seemed like the lack of confidence kept him from one need to
be caught up ice defense A little bit is embodied players off the puck,
which you'd expect with his size difference against his peers. So potential is the
best asset. He's got a lot of it. Size would be the most
noticeable thing. The difference between the two games that Tony scouted is he seems
to be learning, not making as many mistakes in the second one. Be
interesting to see how college goes for him. And the biggest concern the size
instead of the ability top tier outcome a Tier two middle six player. Tony
just doesn't think he's going to be a top line player. Not enough skill
to get the amount of goals and assists that he would need. But the
bash could be great his median outcome maybe a matt Rempy type fourth liner.
Ooh that would like That would be nice. Boston would love that. Too
early to tell, needs lots of work, needs to be given time to
do so. Stylistic comparables Jordan Greenway, Kevin Hayes, Adam Lowry, a
couple different options from Tony here. Final thoughts so rearly in his career,
he could be a pack Kleine or you can end up a mat Renpy.
He's going to be interesting to watch and our friend Mason Black the NHL ranking
sent out the poll on Dean Laturno versus Alex Turcott, and Laturno did take
out Turcott in this pool fifty four to forty six percent. Turcott a post
hype sleeper, one would hope, but maybe not so much that Deanlaturno over
Turcott. Is that how you would rank a victor? It depends on,
like you said, do you want the post hype sleeper, the guy who
was drafted in twenty nineteen and has taken what feels like to some an eternity
to get to this point where he may have some NHL relevance, And I
do think there's some hope here at the end of the tunnel. It does
seem like Turcott has turned his career around a little bit. He's had a
lot of injuries and other setbacks, but he did look really good in the
AHL last season, played some NHL games. So he's the guy who you've
waited forever for and maybe finally ready. Or you could pick the guy who
you may also need to wait an eternity for and may end up in a
similar situation. That's the calculus we talk about the funnel Jesse. People that
are further down the funnel, you have more idea of the range of outcomes.
That's where Turcott is. Laturno is just a really raw piece of clay
that is completely unsculpted. So you could get to that point where he's this
amazing, beautiful statue, where you could just get to the point where he's
basically a taller version of Alex Turcott in four or five years. So I
get it. I probably would take Laturno too, because right now there's so
much more raw potential and it's pretty exciting. I also understand where if you
were a team that was a little bit more in a competitive window, you
might just want Turcott right now because he's someone who could contribute to your team
pretty soon, and so that's appealing. But yeah, I like the upside
and the raw potential of dein Laturno. Who'll be really interesting to see how
he fares at be at ABC next year. And the part of the reason
he made that commitment was because Will Smith decided to sign in the NHL if
he was going to If he wasn't, then he was probablyrobably going to be
in the USHL, So that gives him some opportunity at BC and it should
be really good for him. Looking at the Hockey Prospecting between these two,
you can see that Turcott was had massive potential early on his career, but
then he graduated the model at twenty six percent chance of being a star,
still fairly high there, and still fairly high chance of being a NHLer.
Laturner, on the other hand, just seven percent chance of being a star,
twenty four percent chance of being an NHL or who knows. There's still
a lot of questions there. Looking at Laturno's comps as hilarious, and they're
mostly all just busts or replacement level guys. I did pick out one that
I think might be similar, and that's Mike Rupp. Mike Rupp was listed
as a bust, but he's he was also a really big dude, sixty
five two thirty. He was also picked in the first round and he had
I wouldn't it's listed as a bust here on Hockey Prospecting, but he had
a pretty decent career and he ended up having some relevance here and there,
But for the most part, in terms of fantasy, he certainly wasn't what
we thought it would be. So that's all that we have on the Boston
dig. Yes, the system is a bit light. They got a couple
of reinforcements this year, but they're a really good team, so they shouldn't
be too worried about the prospect pool, although they really do need to work
on that. If you're a Patreon you can listen to my top Tip prospect
recap per team on Patreon and I furnishing doing some scouting with a shoot me
a DM on Twitter, Discord, or email us. We'll be right back
to close out the show. Well, our show's brought to you by fan
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