Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks, your source of information
and analysis to help you win your fantasy hockey league. Fuck off, I
have to step on. Stay lost. Here's your hosts, Jesse Severe here
and Victor nun Yo Fannessee Hockey Live. It's Jesse Severe from fan Tracks.
It's Victor Nuno from Diver Prospects. Victor, how you doing today? I'm
doing awesome, Jesse. Yeah, it's good to be. It's gonna be
back doing our team preview stuff. And how are you doing, Bady?
I'm doing great. I'm doing great. It rained recently in Wisconsin, but
before then it was a desert, but it wasn't an Arizona kind of desert.
I would say, we're talking Arizona the Yots today, and yeah,
in just so many ways, it's more desolate apt there than it is here,
and I'm thankful for that. Am I begging on Arizona early in the
episode, Victor? I need to be gentle? Is there such a thing
as starting too early to bag on Arizona? Oh? Man, oh,
this is gonna be. This is gonna be a ride, folks. The
Arizona Yots today is going to be a ride. Hey, you know,
maybe I should set this up a little bit more. I never do that.
We are going to have our interview with our guest beat writer, then
we are going to have Cat's Instincts on Goalie's goalie prospects particularly, and then
we're going to do the Dynasty dig where we talk about three prospects on our
minds. So that's what's ahead of us. But if you want to ask
questions, you could be a part of this. You don't have to be
just hanging out there that you can be a part of what we do.
And to do that, you can join the discord. The discord is free.
There are tons of people talking in there every day. All you have
to do to be a part of it is email us Fantasy Hockeylife at gmail
dot com or hit us up on Twitter at Hockey Life at Victor Nuno twelve.
That's what to do. But Victor, just wait, there's more stuff
going on. Why did you tell people other things that they could do to
participate in the show. Yeah, we have a lot of really good stuff.
The draft content, as we did is pretty close to over, but
there is actually some other cool things that you can do to participate. In
one of them. We've had on the show previously, Tyler Matson, who
did the Average Draft Position project, and he hasn't been able to do that
this year, and we decided that we're going to take that over. And
what that is, if you don't remember, it's collecting all of the people's
drafts and compiling them into an average Draft Position project. And so that's what
we're going to do. So if you have a twenty twenty three rookie draft
that results that you could send to us, then that would be great.
And we have some really great patrons that are working on compiling that so we
can use that data, we can talk about it on the show, and
we can use it for our patrons to see, Hey, if you're in
a draft wondering where people went in other people's draft, then you can have
that. So the easiest way to do that is, once your draft is
complete, you just go into fantracks where it goes where it says draft results,
You view the draft results, you download the CSV, and you can
send it to us. We would just ask a little bit more information like
how many teams there are and what the settings are, so we can track
that all in a spreadsheet, and that would be great if you could participate
that with us. You could DM that to either myself or Jesse, or
the easier ways just to email it. So you can email it to me
at some Twitter buyer Victor at gmail dot com or Fantasy Hockey Life at gmail
dot com. But that's not all Victor. People can do lots of other
things that they choose to get with us and be part of us. There
is such a thing as a Patreon associated with this your podcast. Why don't
you tell people all the cool things that happen there. Yeah, if you
want to be a patron, you can be like these cool patrons that are
helping out with the average draft position. It was really funny the one I
was talking with one of the patrons and he was telling me we were talking
about how we could do this in a really seamless way, and he started
talking about writing this Python code and I was like, immediately realized he was
talking way over my head, but also very cool that he could do something
like that. Anyways, come hanging out with the cool kids. We have
a Patreon, we have patron casts, we have a bunch of really cool
things, like the Patron Priority Channel, and the spreadsheet, which is really
great. The rank sheet, which has the twenty twenty three. We have
four words goalies, defense, always updating and tinkering with that. We're going
to move the twenty twenty three guys over to the other integrated ranks pretty soon
here, and so you're gonna be able to look at if you're wondering how
do these guys. A lot of us have drafts that not only the twenty
twenty three, but it actually overlaps with other previously undrafted players, and so
that's where the sheet really comes in handy, and Jessie's gonna help me with
that migration here in the next a couple of weeks or next week, I
think, is what you promised, we'll see tangent. So there's really good
stuff like that. And the other big thing is joining the tidy the tier
dynasty. So if you want to be in that, it's a really great
league where you work your way up year by year. All the best from
last year worked work themselves up into a top tier, but they're gonna have
to work hard to stay there because it's a really competitive set of leagues and
they're all linked together, and we have a great chat in there where we
talk about it and it's good stuff. So if you want to do that,
you have to be a patriot. It's a patron perk and it's a
really competitive, interesting league the way it's set up. So if you can,
if you want to one details on that, you can DM me.
But check out patreon dot com slash Fantasy Hockey Life for all the goodness on
there. For sure, it is a really cool league. A lot of
people message us, they're like, how can I play a really cool dynasty
hockey league? And I say, we've got one running right now and you
can participate in it. And the thing is, some of the teams have
been vacated because we have created the top tier out of last year's guess what
they left behind the best players because they won, and you can go in
get some of those players, compete in your one, but also do your
building for the future. So it definitely get in on that. Now is
the time. We want to get this sucker together sooner rather than later.
So don't wait, Victor. We got to talk Arizona Coyotes, and hey,
we're gonna enjoy it. We're gonna enjoy it, and we're gonna do
so right effort. Welcoming back to the show. One of our favorite guests
to talk about Arizona Coyotes, Patrick Brown, who works for the NHL.
You so on the team beat for the Coyotes. How you doing today,
Patrick, what's up? It's good to be back. I'm doing great.
Thanks for thanks for having me on, especially in the dull drums of summer
where all we have is baseball, and I love baseball so much, but
always nice to talk hockey, especially when it's July. So thanks for having
me out. Yeah it's d backs are doing well, but yeah, yeah,
you need but it needs something cool to think about. I've been to
Arizona in the summer. You need to think about hockey and about ice because
miserable there and rookie development camp couldn't have come at a better time. We're
in the midst of I think it's fifteen straight days over one ten, spending
that week at the ice ten and at all sorts of sheets. There's no
better place to be in the summer than than some sort of barn. So
it was good. Nice. The Coyotes are in the midst of a long
term rebuilt There's no doubt about it. They finished twenty seventh and standing points,
and they had the mission of flipping some of their assets and dog on
it. They did it. Jacob Chikrin, she and Gossa spared, Nick
Bukstag, Nick Ritchie are all gone for some returning value. They laundered money
to try to get some advance on Shiaweber, Patrick Keene and Jakovoricek. And
then, of course last year the problems with the new arena, Mulit Arena,
some different economic situation. On the ice, they gave up the most
powerplay goals against, they took the fewest shots and somehow the PDO is over
one hundred. And then you had Galchenyuk yesterday, which I don't know.
We don't need to change. He's not on the team anymore. He's not
part of the preview now, Okay, just generally, where did the Coyotes
followers see the progress of this rebuild pad? I think this free agency period
has meant a lot to Coyotes fans. It's been exciting to see Bill Armstrong
go out and get guys like Zucker and Kerfoot, and it's also been meaningful.
You mentioned Nick Buch's dad. Yeah, he was flipped for an asset,
but then he came back and signed as a free agent. Same with
Troy Stecture. Stecture went to Calgary at the trade deadline, came back and
resigned. Two players from last year's team came back and resigned, And that
tells you, in my opinion, all you need to know about the direction
of this team. You tune out all the noise on the arena. And
it's hard to do, but you tune out all the noise because nobody,
myself included, has any control over that. Our ownership and the powers that
be are doing everything they can to come up with a deal, and it's
interesting to watch their progress, but there's no control over that and the product
on the ice. While you mentioned the rebuild, for sure, I think
it speaks volumes that a team playing at Malit Arena. Two of these guys
came back, and they cited directly the coaching staff Andre Turini and his coaching
staff. That was a direct reason why they wanted to come back, because
the culture of the team is there and outsiders have no clue. And I
don't mean to sound condescending, I really don't, but it's amazing to see
some of the headlines that come out from the national media about the Coyotes,
because the culture is incredible in that locker room, and it's because of guys
like Nick Buge's dad, because of guys like Jason Zucker, who's a huge
character ad just an incredible ad to that to the locker room, not to
mention his twenty seven goals, which we'll talk about in a little bit too.
And so it's encouraging to see that, and I think fans are excited
to see the free agency that they had. You put that in con text
with the past couple of drafts, five first round picks in the last two
years, and you look at what they've got in the future ahead of them.
They still have a ton of draft picks ahead of them for the next
three years. Will they make all those Time will tell. Maybe when you
get a little bit further into the rebuild two years from now, you can
trade some of those assets to bring in the missing pieces and really start building
a championship contender. But I think the most important thing that you want to
see as a fan is progress, and you're seeing that they played lights out
at Malad Arena. It was what twenty fifteen in one. I believe at
maulad Arena, last season best season in almost a decade, I think it
was about eight years. And you see the guys want to play for coach
Andre Cerini. Andrea, by the way, just an incredible guy and he'll
always stop to talk to you and everything else. And that's the culture that
they're building. And it's even more impressive considering all the distractions. But the
fans, the media here, everybody who follows this team, it's not a
surprise because you see the people that they have in place, and they've got
the right people in place. Let's start with the best person place as far
as I'm concerned, Clayton Keller. He had thirty seven goals, forty nine
assists eighty six points in eighty two games. The last time a Coyote hit
eighty six points or even crossed eighty points was nineteen ninety six ninety seven,
the first year there were in Arizona, and it was Keith Kachuck. Keller
was just tore it in the spring in twenty six games. In February March,
he scored forty one points for the fifth time in his six year career.
He played every single game his defense was a slight negative, but the
offense was just so good. Can Keller left that scoring even further or with
his surrounding cast until some new guys come in as he's happed out. I
think there's another level, and I think everybody tends to agree with Keller has
got an even one other level that he can go to, which is a
scary thought. What made his season so impressive last year two, of course,
is coming off of that devastating leg injury that he suffered against the San
Jose Sharks back in the twenty one twenty two season. I was at that
game. It was awful to see it, and you see how hard he
worked in the off season, and then what he did last year. You
mentioned the eighty six points ties Keith Kitchuck, which is an all time Coyotes
record. He tied it. He had a shot to break it, but
he tied it on the last day. That was awesome, And it was
even cooler tie in because Keith Kitkchuck coached Clayton Keller when Keller was growing up
in Saint Louis, so even even really cool tie in there. But the
best thing, one of the best thing that Keller said just recently at the
Masterton Awards ceremony at the NHUL Awards a couple of weeks ago, was that
he feels like he's got a head start on this year because he's not recovering,
he's not rehabbing. That's a scary thought when a guy who just put
up eighty six points is telling you he feels like he's got a headstart on
the upcoming season. He's got a whole new level to get to. We'll
see if he can get to that. But all upside with Kell's and really
happy to see the season that he had. Nick Schmaltz twenty two goals,
thirty six fifty eight points in sixty three games. That was the same number
of games to the prior year, with exactly one fewer point, very similar
shots, very similar hits, Very were blocks. It's unfortunate that part of
that consistency was the misstime. Of course, fifteen of those nineteen miss games.
As far as I can tell, we're an early season rib injury,
and now he Keller and Hayton are an amazing line together. Despite the games
that line missed, they played the twelve most minutes of any line in the
NHL. I think I saw it. Would you predict Schmaltz to be the
third that might be five by five two? Would you pick Schmaltz to be
the third eighty point coyote next year? Provided he's he's healthy, He's capable.
He's certainly capable of getting there, especially on that top line. I'll
tell you and we'll talk about Barrett Hayton in a few minutes, I know,
but he came in and really stabilized that top line, and they weren't.
There was a couple. They're a little shuffling going on early in the
season with who's going to center that line. But you've got Keller, Hayton
and Schmaltz. And Schmaltz is great. He's got amazing chemistry with Keller.
Watching them three on three and overtime is a lot of fun. They just
find each other all over the place and really fun to watch them three on
three go as well. But yeah, Schmaltzy certainly has a chance. He
can be a point per game player. He's shown it. You an he's
consistent. He is a little streaky, but he's also consistent in that you
mentioned his point totals for last two seasons within one point of each other with
the exact same amount of games played. So health will be the big thing
for him if he could stay in. But he certainly has the capability to
be a point per game player. Yeah, and the next guy we want
to talk about is Matthias MICHELLI not that Mattie Banier's own power and Stuart Skinner
didn't deserve Calder Trophy recognition, but for my money, I think Mitchelli should
have been in there. I don't think anyone did more with less as a
rookie than he did. I know I'm preaching of the choir here, Pat,
but everyone needs to know that preach preach. Forty nine points and sixty
four games paced out to sixty three point page. He played a full sixty
two of his forty nine points, thirty three of them are primary, only
sixteen eight two's less. You think he lucked out into a bunch of secondaries,
especially considering that his most common linemates were either lost in Krows pretty good
player and Nick Bukstad or Kraus and McBain. And I think that the other
candidates had much better players to work with. No offense to those guys that
Mitchelli got to play with and if you look at his underlyings, his expected
goals against per sixty and his goals for PERS sixty were both really good above
NHL average. Surprisingly, he was not great on the power play. I
think there's maybe suggesters room for improvement there under the hood. Mitchelli did have
a high PDO at ten twenty four and his IP was eighty seven percent.
I don't know that he rocks that his whole career, but he had one
hundred percent power play IPP, so when he was on there, he did
get I guess, either lucky or good, however you want to phrase it.
High shooting percentage at eighteen, that's the thing. He doesn't shoot a
whole lot. Patrick, It seems like there might be some regression coming Michelle's
way, unless you think he can take another big step. But I'm also
really excited about what this player can do, So tell us what you think
he has in store. Yeah, it was nice to see him at least
finished fourth in cauld voting. Yeah, you were preaching to the choir.
You said it all already. He had a spectacular season that, frankly,
I don't want to say came out of nowhere, because most we knew what
he was capable of. But he's ahead I think of where some people expected
him to be. He's a true playmaker and where I think he really started
getting dangerous last year's he started finding the back of the net. In fact,
after one game he scored a goal, maybe might have been two,
but he'd started scoring on a more consistent basis, and Andre Turini joked that
he just started telling Michellie to start passing the puck to the back of the
net because he's a playmaker. He was getting all those primary assists, but
he wasn't scoring. That changed. He scored eight of his eleven goals that
season in the final twenty five games of the year last year, so what's
happening now is he's starting to find his offensive game, find the back of
the net a little bit, and he becomes more of a threat. People
don't realize now, is he going to pass? Is he gonna shoot?
They can They have to stop focusing solely on that passing lane. So I
think he's gonna trend up. It all depends on who he's going to play
with this year as well, obviously, but when you're bringing guys like Zucker
into the mix, and you've already got guys like Kraus, like you said,
and there's a little more room for some secondary scoring there. I think
Michelle has a lot of upside, but so yeah, we'll see. A
sophomore season is always a big season to see how that turns out. But
a lot of promise with Michelley's game, a lot of promise loss in Krause.
Remember this guy who was a number an eleven overall pick. He set
a career high in scoring at forty five points in seventy seven games, two
shots, three quarters of a block, two and a half hits a game.
He's been a bash guy number twenty five in our metric of blocks plus
shots plus hits among forwards in the NHL for years, but that scoring puts
him over the top as a great fantasy value for US fantasy types anyway.
Krouse is one of these guys who they sometimes don't play the biggest offensive role
on the team, but they again put up the physical stats. Is he
going to basically have the same role on the team next year? Is there
any chance that he takes on any kind of a more offensive role. I
think he's got potential to reach thirty goals. I really do twenty four last
season, and he made known even at media Day last year last September that
his goal is thirty and it looked for a while like he was gonna get
it. Went a little cold in the middle of the season, but bounced
back. Well, he's got potential for thirty goals. But you said it.
He's a real big character guy too, just one of the leaders of
that locker room on and off the ice, one of the nicest guys in
the world, and just strong work ethic, the type of character you want
on a team. So he'll always be in that role, no doubt about
it. I would expect him to hover probably around where he's at, but
my Beer League GM skills are pretty lousy. Not gonna lie, But he's
got potential to be a thirty goal scorer. I know he expects that out
of himself and that's going to be fun to watch him grow and see how
he grows next season. Speaking of growth, I think we've all been excited
to see where bay Air Barrett Hayden can grow too, and it's been a
slow burn for the twenty eighteen fifth overall pick He's continued to increase his NHL
point pace each season. This season though much more than points. He played
seventeen thirty time on ice and played all eighty two, which was huge play
saw some progression through the season. His power play time grew as well,
and one very telling stat I would say is that only Keller and Schmaltz were
better without Haydon on the ice. So in terms of who's going to improve
when you take the other player away, those are the only two guys that
could handle not playing with Haydon, I guess is one way of saying in
terms of sustaining production. So that's really good. If you look at his
underlying stats on Evolving Hockey, all of his underlyings are either well above or
above an HL average in terms of his expected goals against for corsi, so
that's pretty fantastic stuff. A lot of people thought when he came into the
league he's going to be the next top line center for the Arizona Coyotes.
I think that suggestion was throwing out the window early on, but I think
it's still possible that he reaches that or at least close to that. So
what do you think we think Payton has a store and this year and then
maybe beyond that, it's all about his start this season. Really slow start
last season from a point production and standpoint, but he's stuck with it.
He persevered and I've got my notes here. Seventeen goals and eighteen assists of
his came in the last forty seven games of the season. He really found
his stride when when the calendar turned into twenty twenty three. Another thing I'll
say is underrated about Hayden, and I don't know how much your listeners care
about faceoffs, but he's a really important faceoff guy. He's in there.
He's really good at winning draws. He can go up against the number one
faceoff guy, especially in the defensive zone when you need to win. He's
a really good faceoff guy and he prides himself in that as well. I'm
saying in a lot and I know him a little biased, but a lot
of upside with Hayden. But it's all gonna be about how he starts the
season and if he's centering Keller and Schmaltz, because his production at the end
of last year was fun to watch and it was nice to see him bounce
back the way he did for sure, that was super exciting to see.
And yeah, obviously he's playing between those two, he's gonna be good.
Yea, So watch the deployment for sure. All right, let's move on
to kick them. We got a couple of new guys, Zucker Alex Kerfoot.
Three seasons in Pittsburgh for Zucker, mostly playing with I Ginny Malkin,
saw him average about forty five point pace, not super exciting. Kirkfoot's fourth
seasons and Toronto saw him put up roughly a thirty five point pace. A
couple of boots here and there. He occasionally saw time with some of the
big boys, Tavarus Marner. Actually, I would say he regularly saw time
with those guys Tavars Marnerni Lander, Matthews, and wasn't ever really to do
that much with it. Disappointing there. But between these two, who do
you think is gonna get better deployment? And who would you take here?
That's a tough pick, but I think they're two very different players and there's
a couple of variables there. For Zucker, it's his health right last year,
like you said, as what is I think twenty seven goals, twenty
one assists something of that nature, and he stayed healthy. He stayed he
was in seventy eight games, but he was able to get that production out
there. And Kerfoot, meanwhile, is a little bit he's more versatile.
Gm Bill Armstrong called him to glue. You can play him wherever you have
a whole, wherever you need him to go. He has that ability to
play. So it's going to be about time. If Zucker stays healthy,
it would be my opinion he'd be slightly more offense. He would produce slightly
more on the offensive side of things. But I think I don't want to
call it a coin flip. They're two very different players. It's an interesting
comparison because it comes down to their role and how much time they're going to
see and their health. Yeah, for sure, hard to say I personally
would take Zucker, But it also deplands on the deployment. You gotta just
watch and see who's getting the opportunity. One more quick question on the forwards.
Dylan Gunther. We have seen some of him last season. We also
saw him go back to the WHL and tear it out, But just seems
unfair for the rest of the WHL because He's clearly an NHL caliber player.
He should be there next year. He needs he's a sniper, he needs
to play with a playmaker. He didn't really get to play with the best
of Mitchelli and Hayden. The wonder if there's potentially a nice marriage there.
What do you think we can expect from Dylan Gunther this season? This is
a big season of growth for him. Six goals, nine assistant, thirty
three games NHL games last year, and what a year he had. Hat
tip to the year that he had. I was joking with him at DEV
camp a couple of weeks ago. I don't know if there's a single day
all year he didn't spend in a rink because he made the team, which
not a lot of people expected him to do, make the Coyotes out of
camp, and then went to World Juniors and scored the golden goal, winning
the golden goal for Team Canada World Juniors obviously, then was assigned to Seattle,
tore it up, won a WHL championship, played for the Memorial Cup
as well. So just an unbelievable year for Dylan Gunther. A lot of
upside. It's going to be interesting to see how it goes, but his
potential, his ceiling is through the roof. And when you look at what
Bill Armstrong did to acquire him back with trading Oel and counter Garland, that's
right, that Oel contract And how does that look now even trading that and
seeing the player that they got and they had no first round pick that year
and they come out of that year with Gunther that it's good stuff. He's
gonna be really excited to see what he does. A lot of upside,
but I would we'll see how he grows. It's a big season for him
in terms of growth. Anyway, at the time, that was a steal
for Arizona offloading that contract, but it looks even better now. Yeah,
I'm excited to see Gunther in the new role, So definitely watch him closely.
He's someone who has the potential to really pop off if everything goes right.
For sure. Let's switch over to the d and we're actually gonna start
with the new member and that is Sean Drzy. But the last two seasons
with Los Angeles obviously, and he is a pretty good offensive player. He's
taken power play time from Drew Dawdy. Drew Daddy has been injured and he's
been back and forth. He shows he's capable when he gets the role.
In fact, if you look at his underlying metrics, his expected goals on
the power Play are really good and his performance kind of speaks for itself.
Not everybody steps into that role and does really well. It's some guys,
even if they have talent bags trouble. It's good to see that he's done
that. Forty points at forty point pace is what he's hovered at. He's
had thirty power Play points in the last two seasons. Combined with meandering role
there, it seems like he's destined to run the power Play in Arizona.
I'm before this signing, I was gonna be really optimistic about the next guy
we're going to talk about, Vala Macki, which seems like Dursey just leap
frogs him. Though, what do you think we can expect from Jersey?
Yeah, I'd say if any player we're gonna talk about today, I have
the least intel on Jersey because I haven't really seen him live and in person
Sands the Coyotes playing the Kings. However, everything you said is right on
the money. I think he in dealing Shane Gasta Spare at the trade deadline
last year. That was tough on the team for a number of reasons,
not just the leadership he brings, but the offensive power and the power play
his power play intel, and I think Dursey can slide right in and help
help boost that back right away. So it was a good signing, like
you said, hovering around forty points. So definitely some offensive production there.
And we'll see if he can pick up where Gasta Spare left off, because
Shane Gostispar was doing some impressive things in the valley before he left. He
sure was. And so we'll get to Valamaki now, because yeah, he's
someone I've been really I was been really excited about it since early in his
career, and I had him expecting really big things from him, and I
guess I could say maybe I wasn't wrong. I was just early on him
because and now one hundred and sixty games into his NHL career, gossips beer
chicker and gone. As you mentioned, he was finally able to shine.
He did some really good things there. I feel like he just needed someone
to believe in him, and the Coyotes did and that was great to see.
Obviously, the Jersey signing hurts his opportunity, but thirty six point pace
for Valamaki with over eighteen minutes time on ice prove that he could hang.
He was playing in the low twenty minutes even at times before the Jersey signing.
I was hoping that maybe he could break a forty point pace. I
think that might be more challenging now with Jersey there. But what do you
think you can expect from Valamaki now? Like you said, he took that
step and he's such a good story because it just didn't work out in Calgary
for whatever reason he used. Those seems to be one of those examples that,
like you said, when you get to change the scenery and you come
into Andre Turini's group especially, it gives you a chance to shine and it
gives you a chance to jump start where you're at. I think he's got
potential on production, for sure. I would have expect him to hover around
basically where he was last year. But sound defensively, good decision maker,
good outlet passes from the zone, makes a good first pass, and from
an offensive perspective, there's potential there. It depends on how special teams play
out though, all right, Moving on to JJ Moser. After having a
nice little run late in twenty one twenty two, he was a solid member
of the Coyote blue line. Last year, he led the defenseman on the
team in total time on ice. His thirty one points with a shot,
a hit in a block and half a point per game was marginal for fantasy,
but he's also only twenty two and probably wouldn't have played such a role
on almost any other NHL club because a lot of the big defenseman for this
team, as we've said, we're moving out. He even led the team
in defenceman power play tom on ice with Gods despar and chickering out the door
are the additions that we have talked about above enough to knock Moser out of
a leading role this year, Pat, I would say not no. JJ
is expected to be a leader, and he's still young. But I've said
this a lot because as a rebuilding team, you should say it a lot,
but a lot of upside with JJ, and I think he really exceeded
expectations two seasons ago. So because of that, he came in last season
and had some higher expectations. Rightfully, and you think about how he's been
learning the league and learning the game. It's been from veterans. When he
first entered the league at Bill arms Strung had acquired a lot of veterans,
so he got that presence. But he's still so young, and he's had
to learn and improve on a rebuilding team, and I think he's done an
incredible job. So I don't see him getting bumped from one of the top
spots. He's expected to be a leader on this team. He's expected to
be out there a whole lot, and I just think it's been really interesting
to watch him grow, especially the role that he stepped into, which was
a pretty big role right out of the gate. Well, Victor Soderstrom has
had a couple of kind of up and down years now, and while this
performance wasn't awful in the lineup, he hasn't been the breakout that I'd hoped
for maybe, and I don't know Kyote fans expectations, certainly As a recent
number eleven overall pick, he put up nine points to shot a black and
half a hit per game in the thirty games he played last year. Playing
his other forty four contest down in Tucson of the ahl is third straight year
predominantly playing in the A. Do you expect a bigger role for Soderstrom going
forward or does he kind of risk being an up and down type death player
at this point, I could certainly see again. I don't want to speak
for Bill are Strong or Andre or anyone. Take everything with a grain of
salt, but I could see him again being a depth player. It depends
on the Coyotes have one more defenseman roster spot. I'd say to keep your
eye on through free agency. Again, no insider information, just looking at
the roster up and down. If they bring in another defenseman, that might
muddy the water a little bit. How However, Turini loves to go eleven
seven as well. He's played eleven seven quite a bit over the last two
seasons, so if you have that extra defenseman up, he could be filling
that in as well. If you're skating seven defenseman. It'll be interesting to
see. But I would not expect, at least out of the gate Victor
to have a predominant role in the blue line, especially with some of the
experience and talents they brought in. Yeah, but this Victor has a predominant
role on this podcast, never would change. That never would change that great
stuff on the Fords and d probably got to get your takes now. On
the goalies, the Carts had the twenty fifth expected goals against per sixty in
the league with the twenty fourth actual goals against I meaning they'd slightly outperformed that,
which is great. Carrel vill Melka was a really big breakout star of
the previous season, and he was not quite the volume stud we thought.
I thought that he'd maybe challenge the sixty plus games, but fifty is still
really good and he did save more goals than expected, even he had a
slightly worse delta Fenwick. What overall pretty strong season from him, and the
reason he didn't play as many games I thought is because the guy we'll talk
about after him did really well. But in terms of Correl, this is
two strong seasons now and we know that the Coyotes have some investment in him.
So what do you think we can expect from him moving forward? Yeah?
I think especially and you mentioned Ingram as well, who just signed a
three year deal. You'll see one, A, one B probably out of
them again. But man, you look at where this team was two seasons
ago. They had Carter Hutton coming in and no one else and Vimlca makes
the team out of camp, surprises everyone and now has played one hundred and
two games in the NHL. It's crazy to think about what he's done over
the last two years. And when you look at you're giving up his goals
against his three point five five, but his safe percentage career is almost nine
hundreds at eight ninety nine. That's remarkable when you realize what you're safe percentage
is when you're giving up that many goals per game. So he's facing a
lot of shots, he's making a lot of saves. He's single handedly stealing
at least a half dozen if not more games for the Coyotes every season,
I would say, And he's fun to watch, So I would expect him
to keep continue playing exactly what we've seen on him, steady, consistent and
with Ingram. I don't want even want to say backing him up necessarily,
I don't want to use that, but with Ingram by his side, or
however you want to say, it'll be a good tandem to see. Yeah,
I was almost wondering last year when he was winning games for them,
was like, I almost wonder if fans were cringing a little bit, like
come on, man, we're trying to here, let's go. It's it
was an interesting journey last year all around, just because of that, because
you're not going to be up. You can't be upset about your team winning,
especially when there's a lottery it'd be something else in The Coyotes have never
caught any lottery luck like ever, so I think it spoke volumes that everybody
was just happy they didn't move back from six this year. I think there's
a lot to a lot to look there, but it was hard to It's
hard to be upset when you're winning and the guys all want to win.
You see how hard they work. But he had. Veggie has stolen some
games for sure, especially against Boston last year. That was a wild one.
Anyways, Yeah, players don't tank, we know that. But yeah,
let's talk about Connor Ingram. What a surprise he was. Had the
highest goal save above expected on the team and the best Delta Fenwick in terms
of those underlying metrics. He actually quite a bit outperformed Vale Melica. Frankly,
he's the reason the Coyotes don't have a better draft pick. I think
it was a little bit of Villa Melca, but Ingram coming in and doing
what he did and just playing so well really pushed them back a little bit.
But again, great story for him. He's bounced around a little bit
and he's had some time in the player Assistance program. It's just really great
to see him thrive in this role. And actually I was listening to Kevin
Woodley, who does really good stuff for Ingal mag and there, and Dmitri
was asking him about who he thinks one of the best breakout like untapped goalies
in the league is and he said it's Connor Ingram. So you really love
to hear all these things. And like you said, one A, one
B, like he could get even more starts, like sign me up.
I think we can expect from him. I love the contract, and he
said they believe in him. They signed him, which is really especially in
a cap league like the Ingram If he's gonna play like thirty ish thirty to
forty games at that cap hit doing really good stuff. You love it.
So tell us more about Ingram another and I know I'm biased, I know,
guys, but another just great story, right, And don't get me
wrong, a lot of teams had their eyes on Ingram when he hit the
waiver wire last year and the Coyotes took him. He stepped in. I
think, I feel so long ago. I think there was a game or
two almost learning curve, because you come in he wasn't playing very much,
but man, he hit the ground running and provided stability between the pipes so
that if Amelca could have a day off for two or three or whatever it
would be. I love everything about Ingram's game. Honestly, Tip of the
cap to our goaltending coach Corey Schwab as well, who gets the most.
You see just how much time he spends with both of these goalies and pros
vatoff as well, And tip of the cap to cook Schwab. But Ingram's
a good story, another guy. What I think his career marked three point
four goals against, but nine oh five safe percentage. He's solid. You
know what you're getting back there, especially when you're giving up a lot of
shots. And he really came in between the pipes and provided some stability for
that team and some good peace of mind for Vimelka as well. Yeah,
for sure. As we were stepping as we were starting this recording, you
mentioned about proz vetov or yet signing, so actually that's not even noncap friendly
yet. It still shows him as one more year at seven seventy five and
that was it. He signed one year. Okay, so he pushed his
RFA back one year. But yeah, he's a really he was a pretty
highly tired prospect at one time. I think he struggled and his NHL appearances
this year, but it's been really intermittent spotty. I think it's been challenging
for him to break in. But tell us what you think about him and
will he get any games in the NHL this season or is it a more
pushing it down the line a little bit. I think if there's knock on
Wood, but any injury to any injury to the current tandem, he would
certainly be the first guy, especially with his experience last year. He came
in late season call up. Coyotes were rotating three goalies at the time,
and prosmatof went on a run that nobody saw coming. He won his first
four games, I think it was at least first three, maybe his first
four games, and played very well, got his first NHL win. That
was exciting and we were happy for him as well. So he's definitely going
to be when one of those guys if you need a call up, if
somebody gets hurt or whatever, you're gonna look at him first. But I
primarily look at him to help Tucson make a good run. Tucson is going
to have a really good season, a really good team this year, and
they could potentially make a little playoff run. We'll see how that goes.
But I would not expect I could be wrong, but I could. I
would not expect Prosmatov to be a regular in the lineup. Okay, some
great stuff, Pat on these Arizona Coyotes. We appreciate all the insights you've
given us. Why did you tell people how they can keep up with your
work? Oh? By all means Twitter at P Brown Hockey, threads at
P Brown Hockey, and then of course go to Arizona Coyotes dot com.
Check out the site. Even in the off season. I'm trying to crank
out at least three new things a week, three to five new things a
week, So Arizona Coyotes dot com you can check it out. I've always
got good stuff. Always trying to follow up with our prospects. And everything
else. Certainly catch up on everything from the draft to free agency and go
from there. And fellas, I appreciate the opportunity to come on again.
Always fun to talk some hockey, like I said, and appreciate you having
me stay cool out there. Pat, Oh, yeah, we got.
I always say I can do a lot more when it's one hundred and twenty
when I'm in my pool with Amergharita than I ever could when I lived in
Chicago and it was twenty below zero. So I'll take it nice. Good
fire passed off, quit grab. Now it's your weekly goalie Talk with Cats
Silberman Cats Instincts. Time for our Cats instincts on the Arizona Coyotes goalies.
Will it be called the Arizona Coyotes by the time we see them play again,
Probably, but it's all up in the air. But we want to
get your takes on these guys. The first guy we're want to talk about
Connor Ingram. He was a twenty sixteen third round pick by Tampa six foot
two, twenty six years old and finally got the chance to play in the
NHL this season, and he was really good. Carrel Valmilka, who really
came out of nowhere to a lot of us last year, and he struggled
maybe a little bit this year. Ingram played twenty seven games to Lamica's fifty,
and Ingram in maybe roughly half the games had four point four seven goals
save above expected even strength to Vilmilica's one point seven seven, so you could
arguably say he was much better and Ingram what I love about this story.
First of all, He's gone through a lot personally, and I'd love to
see him succeed. But I think the biggest thing is that people will always
say I don't have any interest in this prospect because he plays for Tampa and
they have Vasilevski, so he's never going to be relevant. Here's the classic
example of that is the wrong way to think about it, because a good
goalie will find a way, he'll find a way to move somewhere else succeed.
So I can't wait to hear what you have to say about his game.
Looking at his hockey prospecting, he actually looks a little bit like Billy
Husso, who came and established himself as a maybe an up and down kind
of starter, but an NHL starter nonetheless, And they just resigned Ingram to
one point nine five million times three years, so that's a pretty decent bet
on him. They have obviously Valmilka and who's making just a little bit more
at two point seven to five million, So both these guys very affordable and
not so much lower than Valmilca that he can't be a one B as opposed
to a backup. What are your instincts, tell us, cat and what
kind of prospect is he? So first starts, I have a massive soft
spot for Connor Ingram because I think he's He's so fun and he has such
a fun, just winning personality. And when he was with Tampa Bay,
they had some struggles with the Syracuse Crunch. A lot of the HL guys
for whatever reason, I don't know if it was a culture issue, if
it was a coaching issue, if it was just having to live in Syracuse.
I don't know. A lot of the prospects really underperformed expectations until they
moved to other teams. And what's interesting is Ingram wasn't one of those.
Ingram was performing on the Syracuse Crunch at a level where I assumed he was
ready for the NHL. I think it was three or four years Ago,
and I kept waiting for them to bring him up, and they just didn't,
and then they ended up essentially just moving him to the ECHL halfway through
a season. He continued to perform incredibly well down there, and then they
just shipped him out of their system altogether. They moved him to Nashville.
We figured there was something going on there. Nobody really pride too much,
which I appreciate because it's nobody's business. But when he reached Nashville, I
assumed, perfect, that's a team that Pekarina is on his way out.
They have a decent prospect pool, but I don't want to see them rushing
Aeroslavoscarov. It'd be nice to see Connor Ingram come up and play at the
NHL level, and that didn't happen. He ended up actually going into the
player's recovery program for a little bit, and when he came out of that,
played in the HL, did incredibly well statistically, and then moved out
of that system too. So he ended up in the Arizona system, and
that seems to be where he finally got his chance. I believe he'd just
resigned with them for maybe two years, maybe just one. He deserves it.
He stayed patient, he didn't seem like he was upset at starting in
the HL, didn't seem like he was upset at not getting starts, and
when he did get starts, so I think it was his first NHL start
with the team, he had just a really good technique and really good form,
which he's always looked structurally really sound. I compared his game most closely
when watching him back in Tampa Bay to like a Ben Bishop type player,
where he's physically a little bit more sturdy than Under Basilevski, but has that
really nice, just structural solidity to his game. And he still looked like
that. It looked like he hadn't really missed a beat. His timing was
a little off on some things, but as the season went on with the
Coyotes, that's a team that I feel like that's how you can really watch
to see if a guy's going to thrive, because a lot of times on
those rebuilding teams, the longer a guy is at the NHL level, the
more we'll see the wheels start to fall off, kind of like he saw
in Chicago with Colin Deli and Kevin Lanknin and Malcolm suban, and you didn't
see that from Ingram. The longer he played last year, the better his
numbers got, it seemed the once he really got into a rhythm, and
once he got playing consistently and really found his stride again after I think it
was two years since he'd last played consistently. Once he hit that stride,
he looked like an NHL starter to me, and so I think if they're
able to hold on to him for the next couple of years, that's a
team that looked like last year based on the effort level from their players.
They look like they're hoping to rebuild and take that step forward. They look
like they weren't trying to intentionally be bad. That's the kind of goaltender I
want to see on a team like that, someone who, from a structural
standpoint, can hold onto things when the rest of the when every other wheel
has fallen off the bus, he's still just driving along there. But great,
they'll get him for three or four years. But if he's only twenty
six, that's they could hold on to him through the rest of their rebuild.
If they managed to take a step forward this year, he could easily
be the cornerstone there for them. So the next guy we're going to talk
about Ivan Prezvetov, who is twenty eighteen fourth round pick, six foot five
now twenty four years old, and he's been the main guy that we've all
been looking at in Arizona for a while. But I think Ingram and Villemelka
passed him right. Everyone thought that he was gonna be the next air Parents,
or at least some of us did. But he's still got a lot
of time. He's not that old, and he has played the last four
seasons primarily in the HL of Tucson, with a few NHL starts sprinkled in
here, and before Ingram arrived, we thought that he was going to get
more time, and I think that kind of got cut into a little bit.
What's really interesting is you look at his hockey prospecting. It's been really
high equivalency all the way through until last year work dipped a little bit,
but he's still pretty high for a goalie. He's got some guys here like
Michael Hutchinson, Casey to Smith, which aren't like the most exciting options,
but I thought that wondering if that's more his trajectory now. So, Cat,
what are your instincts on Ivan PRIs Vetov. I keep waiting for him
to just tighten his game up, and I think that's where those wonky numbers
when it comes to just looking at his future projections are coming from. He's
a really fun story too. The Karates loved them a goalie with a fun
story. He is a He was a childhood gymnast in Russia who was a
gymnast and also a goalie. He actually had to be talked to by some
of his coaches because he kept doing cart wheels on the ice when he'd win,
and they were like, we love you, we think you're so fun.
You cannot get hurt doing cartwhels and splits on the ice after you win
a game, because that defeats the purpose. And I remember I was.
I actually got a chance to interview him his first year in North America and
he sadly told me that he was not allowed to do car wheels after wins
anymore, and I thought that was cute and hilarious, but disindicative of his
personality. And that's how he plays too. He has such good agility and
flexibility and he's not a huge guy in the to borrow the Connor Ingram comparison,
like a Ben Bishop or Ingram. He's not very sturdily built. He's
a little more willowy, but he's super tall and lanky, and he really
has that pad reach, he has the hands reach. He gets a little
too loose at times, like stylistically the two guys that I watch who I
would compare him to the most, or like a Laurent Brosois and Aiden Hill,
these guys that are all arms and legs like they are all limbs,
and if they get a little too panicked on the ice, those limbs go
everywhere and they open up a lot of unnecessary holes that are easy for other
players to exploit. And obviously Lauren Brosois was able to tighten that up belief
when he was playing with Winnipeg. He was working with he was working with
a goaltending consultant, Adam Francilia, who had worked with Thomas Grayce and Dubnik
and just worked on biomechanics to tighten his game up a little bit more.
And that's something that I'd love to see if Ivan Prospitov can have someone do
that for him, because that's where I see him stuttering to take that next
step forward in his game because from a reads perspective, he reads the game
really well, he reacts well, he shakes off bad goals. I would
argue better than Aiden Hill did during his time in Arizona. But he just
sometimes you can tell when he's a little too loose, which usually we tell
guys and you gotta loosen up more. With him, I'm like, oh,
you got to you got too loose, tighten it back up. So
I hate saying I think he's just one step away, like one year away
from being pro ready. But that's what he's looked like for me for the
last two or three years here, where he's so close, and he might
end up being like Michael Hutchinson versus a Casey to Smith, because Hutchinson was
one of the best tweeners right Like, he was a guy you could have
as your third goaltender in the system, great in the HL, capable of
being called up to the NHL without being totally lit up by the other team,
but you don't want him up there full time because he's exploitable versus a
Casey to Smith, who you call him up and he can stay up full
time. But I think press Foot is still young enough that we probably have
a year or two before we really need to make that determination for sure.
All Right, that's good to know, and but yeah, it seems like
getting a little impatient with his progression. The last guy we're going to talk
about here in Arizona is Matthew Vilalta six foot seven, twenty seventeen third round
pick by the Kings, who decided not to sign him to another contract and
they and then let him go in the Coyotes signed him. His equivalency,
he has been extremely flat. He was an OHL guy, came to the
HL, He's had some kind of average success there, but just seems like
he maybe didn't really progress too much and his comps are mostly average guys.
A couple of decent starters, but at best it seems like average. It
was Volalta is someone that we should have interested. It seems like the Kings
did, and what dor instincts tell you, Ken, I think he's worth
keeping an eye on. The Coyotes. During the draft this year, they
went and drafted three guys, which I think signifies that they knew that they
needed to replenish their prospect pool pretty substantially, and obviously they one of those
guys that they drafted I think was thirty fifth or thirty sixth overall. But
obviously that guy's not going to be ready this year. He's a player who's
playing in Russia. I believe he's playing for EUROS level right now, so
he's not going to be in North America. So they needed someone at the
HL level to flush out that that prospect pool there, and I think Volalta's
as good as anyone to put in that role. I think he he looked
he was one of the better options in their system, but the King's system
just sputtered out after a little while. I think a couple other guys got
trapped in the depth chart a little too much by Jonathan Quicks to respectfully putting
it overstaying his welcome by a couple of years. They ended up with that
weird backlog where almost they didn't get enough starts for Jack Campbell, and then
Cal Peterson wasn't able to come up soon enough and his development started to stutter,
and then Villalta's developments started to stutter, and you just saw this chain
reaction there. I don't know. I think the Coyotes do a good job
of reclamation projects with goaliees Connor and Grim's doing a great job. Devin Dumnick
was a reclamation project for them. Auntie Ronto was a pickup for them,
so we could see a big turnaround there. They tend to prioritize goalie development,
but at the moment, I'm not. I didn't see that one and
immediately go, oh, look out, here come the Coyotes. So we'll
see if that's one to for sure, wait and see on Yeah, definitely
wait and see. Thanksgiving us your instincts on the Arizona Coyote goalies, of
course, we'll be back right after this dynasty dig the Arizona Coyotes. We're
digging into them right now at Fantasy Hockey Life. We have the Arizona system
ranked twenty fourth. The Coyotes pulled in lots of extra picks in last year's
draft in this year's draft, but no one really seems to have loved what
they have done with them. You've heard a lot about Dmitri simashev on this
show and maybe a little optimism there and Daniel boot So we won't relitigate all
those today. We've got some of the other non draft prospects to talk about.
And it starts Victor with your no brainer. Who is it? Yeah,
the no brainer for the Arizona Coyotes is definitely one of the best prospects
out there had a monster season and that is, of course Logan Cooley.
Logan Cooley, who was picked third overall last season. That was a pretty
interesting draft. And this is why you can't necessarily form too strong opinions at
the time because last year, remember it was a little unclear who would go
number one, and at the time people laughed at Arizona for passing on Shane
Ryant. The first two teams did, but I think they knew what they
were doing and there were not too many people that had Logan Coolly number one.
But I definitely have to give a shout out to Chris Peters, who
was one of the few, I think the only public scout and the most
vocal about the fact that he thought Logan Cooley had the most skill in the
draft class. And that takes looking pretty good right now. I think in
a way too early redraft league, Logan Cooley goes number one, We'll have
to see how that continues to pan out. But he had a monster season
in the NC DOUBLEA. You just don't see this kind of offensive explosion.
Remember, he was at the USNTDP last year the previous year, which was
a good NTDP crop. It wasn't amazing, but he had seventy five points
in fifty one games for the NTDP, and he was good at the UA
Teens and the U twenty that year. But then this past season at the
ncuble A he had sixty points in thirty nine games. It was incredible for
the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Along with fourteen points in seven World Junior games,
and he was clearly a dominant player at that tournament for the Americans. He
was a Hobie Baker finalist. The list goes on and on. He was
incredible if you look at all of his accolades. He had World Junior All
Star Teams, First Team All American, and then the NC Double A obviously
the Hobie Baker's Finalist, all that stuff. So great season and he's committed
to go back to the NC Double A. I think part of that is
probably because the Arizona rink situation and all that. He was making that decision
when that was happening. But never a bad idea to overcook a little bit.
In college. So that's Logan Coolie. If you look at Mitch Brown's
tracking data, it's pretty interesting. I think of Logan COOLi as a pretty
defensively responsible, good two way center. His defensive corsie in that model looks
terrible, actually, which is very surprising. When you watch him play,
you don't get that sense. You don't get the sense that he's just cheating
for offense and not good at driving play, So that's a bit surprising.
Most of his offensive metrics are really great, including his expected goals against primary
sists against, and his transition game is really solid. So overall, Logan
Coolie rates out at a ninety third percentile offense at ninety four, transition at
ninety three, in defense at just thirty six percent tile. Again, it
seems strange to me, but let's hear what our scout has to say,
Jesse, our scout, indeed, Jacob I will sum it up that he's
got a very optim mystic take or a very positive take. I shouldn't say
optimistic because that suggests he's gone too far. Here are the attributes he sees
for skating great good straight line speed, explosive strides, quick cuts, and
edges. Puck handling excellent, super creative with the puck speeds puck skills.
He can maneuver his way around defenders with ease. The shot is great.
He loves to display his craftiness. Scored a ton of his goals this season
by going to high danger areas of the net. Can beat goaltenders by making
incredible moves with the puck to get them out of position. Panic meter is
low. Being pressured by four checkers, he nearly always tries to find ways
to slip through and find open lanes. Defense is good for a highly skilled
forward. He's good in his own zone. He isn't afraid to jump into
board battles and apply pressure on the puck carrier. Best asset puck skills.
The combination of his intelligence and the way he moves the puck makes him an
extremely dangerous offensive player and biggest concern. The only thing that Jacob saw is
he does have a tendency to do too much with the puck sometimes. However,
Jacob doesn't think this will be too much of an issue at the NHL
level as his skill continues to improve. The top tier potential for this guy
Elite first line center eighty to one hundred points most likely tier first line center.
That's not a bad person. That's not a bad most likely right there.
Now. The Coyotes don't have the greatest track history for developing that elite
level talent, but he should be a very good player. Another Clayton Keller
type, at least stylistic comparable. Trevor Zegress, another crafty with the puck
guy and the summary he's a dynamic offensive forward with flashy puck skills, great
speed, dangerous goal scoring touch and works hard. NHL ranking. Our buddy
Mason Black puts the stuff out on Twitter to do some comparisons. In this
time it was Logan Cooley versus Cole Proffetti mom Spaghetti, and we're taking a
look at how they compare. The people greatly prefer Logan Cooley eighty four sixteen
percent. That's pretty striking. If you look at the p NHL lead that
Mason comes up with, he comes up to a superstar potential and the comparison
similarity scores. Ryan Nugent Hopkins is the number one and then Brian little Clayton
Keller. I don't know Clayton Keller just because of the uniform. I won't
accuse his model of that, but that's an interesting coincidence. So he's moving
up and up twenty two, twenty three, up to a superstar level potential.
So Victor, would you rather have Logan Cooley or Cole Parfetti. I
definitely would take Logan Cooley at this point, but that's no slander Uncle Proffetti
because I think he's still a really strong prospect, even though his equivalenc he
looks a little low because he's in the NHL. Winnipeg was a little bit
messy this past year. They seems like they're going to be even more uncertain
this upcoming year. But I still think Proffetti has a pretty strong upside.
I still think he has seven to eighty point upside and he's a center.
The center take longer to round out their game. But what Coolly did in
this past season and his equivalency, the way he just helped it shoot up,
he does look like a superstar. He does look like that point per
game center, even more so at this stage than Perffetti did. So at
this point, I would definitely take Coolly, even though both are really good
options, and if you look at it, their hockey prospecting coolly shot up
from fifty four to eighty five percent chance of being a star. You almost
never see this, and we just the previous episode talked to Byron Vader about
draft stuff, and you almost never see this kind of rise in a DP
plus one. It's worth noting just how incredible that is to be able to
boost your equivalency by almost thirty star potential points in one year. So that's
fantastic. He's virtually a lock to be an Nahller. And Perfetti he started
at sixty eight percent chance of being a star in the Hobby Prospecting model and
then went down every year until this past year thirty four percent, which is
still a good is still a good percent. So it usually comes down to
what happened to Perfetti. You're trying to not let it fall so much year
by year instead of boosting at thirty percent or thirty points. So yeah,
both are good, but when you look at them, it's pretty clear who
has a better trajectory. If you look at Logan Cooli's just regular comps.
He has a bunch of really fantastic ones like Jeff Skinner, Ryan and Hopkins,
Nathan McKinnon, and I think the one he looks the most like is
Steve Eiserman, which is crazy because all these guys I'm talking about are incredible
and it would be amazing if he worked out like any one of them.
So yeah, that's important to reminder to remember. And also I didn't realize
this until I'm looking at it right now, but Steve Eiserman undersized five eleven,
not the biggest dude, but he played huge, and I think you
could say the same thing so far about Logan Cooley. He doesn't seem bothered
by high pressure situations. He kind of delivers and it seems to matter,
and he's got that tenacity in him too, So I'm not saying it's going
to be a Hall of Famer like Eiserman, but Logan Coolly looking great.
And also in the Top Down Hockey Model, forty four percent chance of being
a star, and this model tends to be a little bit more pessimistic,
I would say in general, So that's pretty fantastic. Ninety six percent chance
of being an nhlor. All the models kind of align and degree that Logan
Coolie looks like it's going to be a star. Jesse and by the way,
Cooley in Chinese means hard labor or somebody who does hard labor. Coolie
is not afraid to do the work. Victor. We got to move on
the need to know prospect. Who is it? I love that you're bringing
us this Eastern culture knowledge, Jesse. That's the kind of stuff people appreciate
about this. That's my strongest insight on Logan Coolie is that his name means
that in Chinese he will work hard. I seriously doubt anyone else in the
world could make that analogy. So good job, all right, So they
need to know. Artem Dud a twenty twenty two second round pick by the
Arizona Coyotes that was thirty six overall, pretty early six foot one hundred and
eighty seven pound left handed d He didn't play very much this past season,
which was difficult. Limited in just thirty one games. He split mostly time
between the KHL and MHL, nearly a point per game in the MHL,
though just three assists in the KHL, although he was playing only like ten
minutes a night, so that was hard. He's a bit of a late
birthday April, so he played his whole draft season as an eighteen. As
a young seventeen year old in his D plus one season as an eighteen year
old, so he's got a lot of room for improvement in terms of growth.
Really interesting in that something happened at the end of the season where he
was able to terminate his contract and I guess the NC Double A qualified him
as not a professional, so he was able to sign in the NC Double
A and he's going to be in the North America and playing at the University
of Maine, which is really great for being able to potentially get him in
your fantasy line up a little bit earlier. So that's interesting. I don't
know about you, Jesse, but whenever I read Ardham Duda's name, I
have to say his last name twice because I hear this song dude came down
to ye. So now you're all going to have it in your head and
whenever you say his name, you have to say Duda. But let's do
hear what the scouts have to Our scout has to say about him, Jesse.
Our scout on this case was Brandon, and Brandon said the skating he
utilizes edgework to create novel options for himself, potential playmaking at lower speeds.
He pivots on the spot, almost like a tabletop hockey player, shows glimpses
of mobility and shiftiness when carrying the puck on his breakout shades of Taylor Hall
from a visual skating perspective, but not in dynamics and effectiveness for puck handling.
Soft hands allow for receiving passes in a fluid way that he uses to
transfer the energy into another pass or shot. He demonstrates decent deacon ability allows
him to find some more open ice when playing with poison confidence. He gets
passes off quickly and cleanly. In the shot. He's got two main tools,
a risk shot with a long drag prior to the release and one timer
shots come off his tick fast and are well placed to deceive the goaltender's eyes.
SHOT's not heavy though IQ. There's a definite lack of passion, engagement
or IQ that leads him on the periphery of the play and prevents him from
being a player that pushes the tide. OH a real creativity and vision that
is obscured by that lack. And in defense without the puck, he plays
like a stay at home demand without the usual physicality that would come with that
style. It. Maybe Brandon speculates that this could be something that his coach
is asking him to do, or it could be part of his name game.
Hard to tell. His best asset is pucked control and his biggest concern
is the skating and again to drive top tier potential. What would make him
hit the very highest of his outcomes. At the very highest, He's probably
a number three or four D with some powerplay deployment in thirty to forty points
obvious. I'dath row pucks on Nick and his most likely tier what he thinks
he will settle in as if he makes it to the NHL, will be
a depth defenseman or a quad a player that would be too bad if he
didn't really stick in the NHL. But his stylistic comparable, he's going with
Tory Krug with the sprint style but not the speed of Taylor Hall. And
moving on to the Rank King comparison. The pull that went out on Twitter
are Buddy Mason Black finding a comp for him, and the comparison is going
to be to Shie William and that is going to be William went to the
University of Denver last year, so both are going to end up with some
NHL time and Dudoc came out ahead of William fifty nine to forty one percent,
with a slightly lower tality of votes. I think less people were is
fired up about this one, and right now Duda is a little bit lower
down. He's tracking, is having second line potential in his first year of
measurement. In his top matches. He's got some Nate Schmidt's of John Moore
on there. That's some good stuff. Schmidt peaked early and I don't know,
hasn't really done everything that I think we would have hoped. But Da,
that's where he's at. Victor, what do you think? I definitely
agree with this. I Shay buoy him is interesting. He's a Red Wings
prospects so I've watched him a bit and I think he's really good mobile defenseman.
He's got He's got the size and the mobility, but I don't know
that he has the offense. I guess people could say that about Duda,
but I do see more offense there with Duda. He obviously has a lot
longer to develop. He's got a year behind Billiam in terms of development.
But I think playing and he didn't play a ton professionally, but he's already
played some professional and I think there's a pretty good upside there, so I
do Dud a little bit better. I think it's fun that he's going to
be in the nc DOUBLEA and we'll get to see a little bit more.
But I personally, I don't know that this would be as close for me.
I would take a little bit easier, and looking at the hockey prospecting,
I know that Byron used his MHL data to create his equivalency because it's
up at fifty nine percent after his draft season, and that's pretty fantastic.
But as I mentioned, his KHL time wasn't that strong. So we'll be
interesting to see what happens in the NCAA. He's one whose equivalence he could
see saw up and down quite a bit. It could look very interesting.
But right now he looks miles ahead of Shibuyam, who started an eight percent
chance of being a star and trended down to two percent, And right now
it just looks like a thirty nine percent chance of being in a NHL or,
whereas Duda is up to eighty four. So it's no question looking at
Artem Duda, he has some really interesting comps he's got some guys like him
Alou, he's got Brian McCabe, s some Kevin Mitchell. But in terms
of what his statistical profile looks like in terms of the hockey prospecting numbers,
it looks exactly like Al mckinnis, which of course would be amazing because he
was a superstar producer and not saying that's going to happen, but that's just
the numbers actually correlate exactly to that right now, that would be fantastic but
unlikely outcome. Maybe if he's closer to that McCabe that would also be obviously
very good. The top down hockey model, i should say, is pretty
pessimistic on Duda. They have him at in terms of his star potential sixty
oh sorry, seven percent chance of being a star, but sixty eight percent
chance of being an NHLer. So they see him as a pretty likely to
play in the league, but not really to be a star or a huge
point producer, which is fair. I think we need to see more from
him to really know that in terms of in another league other than the MA.
But that's dude, h Jesse, Oh my gosh, the dad jokes
never end. Victor we've got one more to talk about, and boy the
Mighty have fallen a little bit. But who's your keep on, keep your
eye on prospect? That would be Dylan Gunther. Keep your eye on mainly
because he's close to the NHL, not because he's bad or anything. But
the twenty twenty one ninth overall pick played thirty three games for the Coyotes this
season, had fifteen points, close to half point per game. Isn't so
bad for a rookie and an offensively challenged system, so it was pretty good
for Gunther. He got loaned back to the Seattle Thunderbirds for after that,
and we've talked so many times about how the Thunderbirds this season, we're just
an absolute unit. And they steamrolled the WHL and then got upset in the
Memorial Cup, but they did great Gunther. I mean, you would expect
him to dominate at the WHL level, and he did. He was He
had twenty nine points in twenty games for the Thunderbirds when he went back,
and then twenty eight and nineteen playoff games, although I don't think he scored
in the Memorial Cup if I remember correctly. Certainly wasn't a dominant force there.
It was a bit frustrating for him and the Thunderbirds, I'm sure,
but he also played in the U twenty World Junior Championships, had ten points
in seven games. They're helping Canada win, So there was some pretty good
parts of his season for sure. I'm sure he was really hoping to just
stick in the NHL all season, but he didn't. Playing thirty three games
is weird because it's almost like, at this point, you've blown this year
of eligibility. Why not just keep him up the whole time? But they
did not. Looking at Mitch Brown's tracking data, his offense is just absurd,
which you would expect for a twenty year old, highly drafted player in
the WHL. His expected goals for sixty or nearly three standard deviations above the
mean. He was just incredible. And his primary assists. He's mainly thought
of as a sniper and he's got a great shop. But I think one
of the most impressive things to me about Gunther this year and his WHL sample
sizes, his expected primary assists are basically even with his expected goals, which
is incredible. I mean, he's really improving his passing plays. He's also
attempting more dangerous passes like to the slot, so that's really good. His
transition data has improved a little bit. He's still not the fleetest of foot
and the best transition player, but it's improved a lot. So overall,
yeah, you would expect him to be great. His defense actually rates out
at ninety five percentile, which I'm surprised at. His offense is one hundred
percentile, and so overall he's got a ninety eight score. So yeah,
in the WHL, Dylan Gunther good, not a huge surprise. Tell us
what our FHL scout had to say about Dylan Gunther Jesse. Our FHL scout
on this case was Jeremy. Jeremy I believe was the guy who looked at
Gunther last year because he's been viewing him for a while anyway. Skating Elite
for Gunther looks like one of the fastest guys on the ice. Puck handling
above average, good distribution on the powerplay, nice crisp one touch passes,
the shot above average. Before Jeremy said he had a high end shot,
although this game that he's watching now didn't showcase it as much. IQ vision,
really good defensive awareness, improving defense is still average, and that is
the thing that Jeremy sees is potentially holding him back. He still likes to
reach with his stick instead of moving to his feet a little late on the
uptake when possession changes. So overall, the biggest asset skating and where could
he land if he hit his top end outcome tier one. Gunther has potential
to hit Tier one on points it shots alone. That's a point per game
type guy. With the right system in linemates, he could be top twenty
five or so point scorer in the league. Any amount of hits or black
breakout would increase his chance of hitting this tier. Because of course, if
you have high hits and blocks, would consider you tier one for fantasy hockey
life tiering purposes most likely tier two. That's a seventy to seventy five point
player with high shots, but not a ton of hits and blocks. Stylistic
comparable shot and power play prowess remind Jeremy of Alex to brink It. But
Gunther is a little bigger and a little less tenacious. So let's look at
the NHL rank King comparison. Mason Black Gibs, Dylan Gunther versus your eye
Slavkovsky point, I feel like I haven't talked about your eyes. Slavkovsky much
the poor number one overall pick, and he did a poll out on Twitter,
and my goodness, Dylan Gunther beat Slavkovsky fifty eight to forty one,
and Gunther nonetheless is trending down in how he rates out. In his draft
year, he was just insane, just way up on the board in terms
of having almost superstar potential in Mason's model, and then down to first line
potential. Now he's a little between first line but probably closer to second line
potential according to Mason's projections based on last year. That's always tough first year
transition into the NHL, trying to train slate those stats and what he's going
to do in the future. So Victor, what do you think, Slavkovsky
or gunther Man? This is really tough because, as you said, Softkowsky
obviously had a really tough year. We talked with Ryan Sporr about that on
our Montreal Canadians episode, and we talked about how the Canadians maybe mismanaged him
a little bit and left him in the NHL too long. But at the
very end. These are two very different players that Gunther is all offense,
although we've learned how he's a little bit better defensively. But he's a high
he's a sniper, he's a skill player. In Solfkowsky is a little bit
different. He's a little bit more of a banger. He likes to hit
people, likes to be physical. So you're getting a different type of player
there. If you're just looking for goals, I think you take Gunther all
day. If you're looking for maybe some more peripheral coverage, I think you
take you, or at least you think about taking Slavkovsky. I don't know.
I still think I would probably take Gunther here. I like his offensive
potential. It seems like Arizona is getting better. Of course, it seems
like we've said that for a decade or two, but it's close. I'm
tempted. I have Slfkowsky in a couple of leagues where I had some top
picks last year, and I really thought that he could round out the scoring
and be that physical presence and be a unique type of player. And I
still think he can get there because he's a big guy and it takes sometimes
big guys a little longer. So I think what he did this year should
not really sway anyone's opinion one way or the other. So I think if
you're thinking more category coverage, it's reasonable to take Slavkovsky, But in general,
I think i'd take Gunther. Do you think about that, Jesse?
I think these are two guys who presumably you could buy low on right now.
There's a halo effect. If you drafted a guy first overall last year
in the draft, you probably don't want to sell him low at this point.
But let's put it this way, if you're selling him, you're probably
not going to get value out of your Slavkovsky right now, and probably not
Dylan Gunther either. But these are guys who perhaps certainly are at lower value
than they were before for fantasy purposes, both of them. I still I
don't know Slavkovsky. I think with the higher pedigree I'm still going to count
on is ultimately working out better. But I am not pessimistic necessarily un Gunther
either. What do you think, Victor? What else do people need to
know? Yeah, it's interesting when you look at these in the hockey prospecting
model, because there's no question. Like Dylan, Gunther has the more upside.
He started the model at seventy percent started a chance of being a star.
He's down to forty two, but that's still nearly triple what Slavkovski started
with, which was fifteen percent, and he's down to six now. So
it's very clearly Gunther in terms of star potential here, although Slavkovsky has a
much higher NHL OR probability already. But yeah, Gunther has some other pretty
good comps too. I would say he's got guys like Alex Turcott and Elias
Lindholm is a guy I think he looks a lot like in the model,
and so that's a pretty great comp He also looks a lot like Keith Primo,
who turned out pretty well. So there's a lot of really good comparables
there for Gunther, and I think he has a bright future, especially as
a goal scorer. So we'll see. The Top ten Hockey model has him
currently at twenty eight percent chance of being a star, so that's also obviously
still pretty good and ninety five percent chance of being an NHL or still and
Gunther good at hockey. We knew this, and Jesse, there's there's more
guys in Arizona that we could talk about, but there's not too much time
here. If you're a patron, you can listen to the top ten lists
recap that I do per team, and we're going to start that up again.
I took a little break while we were doing NHL Draft content, but
you'll get to hear that. And if you're interested in doing some scouting,
shoot me a DM on Twitter, discord, or send us an email.
Very good. We'll come right back after this, pull us out the show.
Bantracks dot com is the place to play your fantasy leagues. You can
play a whole bunch of different sports, like ten different sports over there.
But I imagine you're thinking about fantasy hockey and you can already set up your
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no, don't let Maclin Celebrini be in my pool, you can cut him
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some leagues. Fantracks hq has other fantasy content there. There's articles on fantasy
hockey, all the other fantasy sports. The hockey's just kind of kicking in
for the year, but I know there will be more ahead. There are
podcasts, including the Prospect Pod and Full Count Fantasy Baseball still going strong for
the hardball season which is not quite over. And in the football side of
the house, the Fly Fantasy Football and the P two W podcast that is
play to Win, so you can do either one of those. We'd like
to thank our producer Nate Duffett, who's been helping out with the show prep
this. I think this is like fifty one pages the show prep sheet,
and you know that's you know it's it's not a novel. There are lots
of pretty pictures, is the thing, and some of the last year's information,
but fifty one pages. It's a lot, and Nate does a ton
to help us. Ratio by Dabber Hockey and Dauber Prospects. Victor as an
editor followers work there as well as this other podcast, Dabber Prospects Report with
Peter Harling. They do great talk about hockey prospects. I do another solo
show. It's called Dynasty Sports Life. I talk for different dynasty sports there.
I do episodes on dynasty baseball, football, and basketball, and sometimes
I get into cross sport talk. How do the different dynasty sports have things
in common? How do you play a multisport dynasty? There are so many
wonderful topics and I groove on it. Follow Victor and myself on Twitter at
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Keep living that Fantasy hockey