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, that's
a step on. Stay lot, gosh. Here's your hosts, Jesse sup
Here and Victor Nuno Fantasy Hockey Live back once again. We're still onto the
NHL Draft. I am Jesse Severe fan Tracks and joining me it is Victor
Nunio of Dabber Prospects. Victor, how are you doing today? I'm doing
awesome, Jess. Yeah, I'm so so enjoying talking all these prospects and
draft information from all these great sources. And we got another great one one
one of my favorite guests for sure, and Joel Henderson who knows the WHL
better than anyone, and you know your way around a mic better than anyone.
How you doing, Jesse? Oh that's nice? I am. I
am doing great, man. I do truly enjoy talking to Joel about the
WHL and he does not disappoint. I will preview for you he will not
disappoint on this episode talking about some of the drafted guys. Victor, there
are things people need to know about because we are getting perilously close to I
believe it's July nineteenth, right where a certain thing involving a certain podcast is
going to be certain drawn from a hat or something. What bail me out,
Victor, tell people what I'm talking about. That is certainly the case,
Jesse. We have a Dauber Draft Guide giveaway. So this is the
this is the guy that you want. It's got all the and it's going
to have all the information for you know, redraft leagues and include the Dauber
Prospects, Prospect Report, and all kinds of great information, including a mid
season guide. It's the ultimate pack at Dauber and that's what we're giving away.
We're gonna draw on July nineteenth, so by the time you're hearing this,
you'll still have a little bit of time. Easy. All you gotta
do is follow us on Twitter. You should be doing that already. Give
us a five star review on the podcast aggregator of your choice, and let
us know how you did that. Take a screenshot, send it to myself.
You can do it on Twitter, you can do it in the discord,
you can do it via email, and then tweet out one of our
episodes. So just let us know that you did that and you're entered and
there's still some spots to be able to You have a pretty good shot of
getting this giveaway and you definitely want to have that information going into your fantasy
league. So we're going to be announcing that on the next show after July
nineteenth th in, so you want to get that in as soon as you
can. That day is coming pretty quick, so now is your chance to
get it out there. You still have this weekend and there's still gonna be
a couple episodes between here and then, but by all means, please to
get that information and just would love to give away some of these guides.
Victor. We're give people. We give people the opportunity to come and hang
out in our discord for free. All they need to do is hit us
up at Victor Nunio twelve at fan Hockey Life that's me, Fantasy Hockey Life
at gmail dot com. Gets them a link and discord is free and there's
people in their chat and every day. But also we have extra stuff for
people who like to join the patreon. Why don't you tell people what's in
there? So much great stuff at the patreon. You know you got your
patron casts with extra content you got your patron Priority channel and the discord you
got top ten lists that we're doing for each team. You can get extra
content about who the top prospects are and each team a little bit deeper dives
on those guys. And I think one of the biggest benefits is the tidy
the tiered Dynasty. We launched this tiered Dynasty League last year and it was
a great success. This year, we people had a lot of fun and
we created a whole new division with the top four in each of the initial
divisions, and so there's room for pull to come in and fill those spots.
We also created a brand new division so you can work your way to
the top. You can get relegated if you're unlucky or not doing so well.
But it's a great time and it's only for patrons. If you want
to take your Dynasty League, if you want to take your skills the next
level, you definitely want to check that out. And I think the other
big thing is the DAB or the prospect ranks that we have through us.
And there's if you think this is just like one rank, it's not.
It's a whole lot of stuff. There's twenty twenty three guys. There's defenceman,
goalies, there's organizational ranks, top prospects within each team. There's a
whole lot of stuff. And thanks to you Jesse for collating all that,
because this is not something that I could ever do with a spreadsheet, but
I move guys around and help organize the ranks. So we tag team that
and it has. One of the best things about it is you can find
block shots and hit information about these players, which is really hard information to
find, so you can compare. You know, a couple prospects that you
know may be similar, but one has good bash and one doesn't have good
bash, and so you can get that information which is sometimes hard to find.
So definitely check all that out Patreon dot com, slash Fantasy Hockey Life
and you can support the show. Get in there. There's cool stuff.
Victor is always dreaming up more stuff and people are helping and it's it's just
a beautiful thing. Let's come back in just a minute. We want to
talk for any chill draft shoulders back with the goth level guess. One of
our absolute favorites, Joel Henderson talking WHL Joel, how you doing over there?
I'm doing really well, I'm having a good day, ready to talk
about hockey and all of the things. Man. This year, the WHL
did good for themselves in this NHL draft. They had some of the absolute
top prospects. In fact, they had the top prospect, like the top
prospect and Contrabadard. You presumably got to watch him all season a little bit
closer up than some of the rest of us did. I don't know,
Joel. We'll just start by asking it. Connor Bdard, what's the deal?
Man? Is he all that? Yeah? So for people who don't
know, my hometown is Regina, Saskatchewan, I got to see Connor play
a lot and a lot in person, and I've gotten to see him play
a lot in person since the Hub, and so I got to see him
dominate and put up point per game when he was supposed to be exceptional status
into the league and while the other guys weren't playing Connor is There's a number
of elements that you look for in like a can't miss prospects, and one
of them is like goal scoring IQ, the ability to not only create your
own space, get to own space, do those sorts of things, but
then deliver. And I've said this a number of different times. I haven't
seen anyone to put this out there, but in my mind, Connor Bdard
is like Jack Hughes, but with an Austin Matthew shot. And even if
you even if somehow you chopped off one of Connor's legs, he'd still probably
score forty as a stand as a stand and shoot from the half wall scorer.
So it's even if everything goes awful, if everything goes awful, like
as far as like the expectations go, he's still gonna find He's still going
to find some sort of value in the way that he plays. So it's
just me he's as can't miss as you can get that. Yeah, I'm
just imagining this one legged Connorberdard sniping top top shelf goals. That's all I've
got to victory that image. Now, I don't know what to do with
that. Victor nobody tried that at home, thank image. I guess.
One of my favorite stories is tell is when they were Graham for that one
World Juniors when he was he was an under, a double under last year
or whatever, and they had picked the first part of the team and then
everybody was like, is Connorbadard going to be on there and it's not necessarily
and they go about their things, and I remember someone asking me and they
said, do you think Connor Bdard deserves to be on this team? And
I said, if Connorberdard isn't on this team, then people need to be
fired. That's how I feel. And I was like, that's my level
of certainty here. And so then they had that a second round of camp
and they brought in a whole second round of players to be like, these
guys might earn their way onto the team basically, and Connor showed up and
I think he got four points in the first scrimmage game and it was and
I think he had no I think he had four goals in the scrimmage game
something like that, Like it was something's just bonkers. And I laughed and
it was like, just put him on the team. And then and they
did, and he run them up and it was beautiful. And so I
just think he's a guy that's continued to prove everything for quite a long time.
One of the things that I think is really fun is what do you
I like the additions that Chicago made for a few reasons. One being what
do you want Connor to learn as a young player in the league. If
you want him to learn about the pressures of being a first overall pick,
you just got Taylor Hall, a guy to really walk you through what that
is. If you want a guy that like the talks about leadership and talking
about being like a top Canadian player and all those sorts of things, you
just got yourself. Corey Perry learned all those things at them at the next
levels and that kind of stipulation. If you want to if you want him
to learn what it's like to be a true captain and like a really big
leader in the locker room, you just got yourself, Nick Flino. So
to me, they went out and said these three years, three players are
probably going to be really instrumental for somebody like him, and so I am.
I just I don't know. I like it. I like all of
it. Where you put the line for Connor's point pace in Chicago this year
depends on Chicago. Right now, all we know is, well, you
just mentioned some of the great additions, which I totally agree with. They
need to surround him with some talent, and they did. Maybe they're not
done, but right now with what we know on July six, what do
you think? Well, like you said, I think you'll need a little
bit of help in play driving. I don't know if they necessarily have someone
that can really help him play driving wise, it'll be a little bit hit
or miss for Badard. Just I think in the same way that it was
for Jack Hughes. It'll just take him maybe a year to really to be
dominant in the middle of the ice as a transition player, but it won't
take long. My line for him is, I think the bare minimum if
he's healthy all the year is like seventy and then anything above that, Like,
I don't know. I'm really not wanting to hold back my level of
thought on this kid, because, like I said, he can score very
quickly, and so Puck's squeaked to him, and he already knows like all
of the one touch plays that he can make the teammates the touch passes back
to the defense, and he can rocket shots while changing the angle on the
shots as quickly as anybody. So I just he's going to score a lot.
Seventy at the minimum, I think if he's healthy all year, love
it, love it all right. We could talk all day about Connor Bardard,
but we're not We're gonna talk about some of the other great WHL guys.
And the next w TEL guy taken was Nate Danielson, but I don't
think was totally surprising, but I was a little surprised the Red Wings went
there because I was figuring they go best suite available, as they tend to
do, but they went with Danielson, who I think a lot of people
have called this a safe pick, meaning like he has a really projectable game
in terms of being an NHLer. But I'm wondering, and I talk with
some of the scouts about this, and they were saying that they just don't
know what the upside is. That maybe he's more of a middle to bottom
sixth center, and I wonder where you think about that. But also I
pulled up this comp on hockey prospecting to Kirby Dock, and he seems to
have similar point projections. Now, Kirby Docks, we don't know the outcome
really still in terms of what he is going to be long term, but
he certainly hasn't He's had has an up and down early career. I think
you could say, but what do you think about that comp in terms of
what we might expect from Danielson and what do you think about his game in
general. I've never really thought about that comp before, but that's actually pretty
nice. I don't mind that at all. I think Kirby was a player
in his wh ol days that was still trying to figure out who he was.
He went on periods of time where he went I think he had a
massive point scoring streak, and then he went on a time yet a massive
drought. He was trying to playmate from the half wall quite a lot.
Danielson is a really unique player, Like I've talked about him as a really
effortless transition player because of his long stick, long stride, great finesse,
really fast hands processing. He really just makes transition hockey very easy. I
as a longtime Calgary fan, I've talked about Michael Backland as a guy that's
that is way more smart about his positioning than he is about just being dominant
in all positions. It's not his strength, Like it's not his strength on
the pocket. It's not it's not the power and his shot, it's not
his like holding onto the pocket then to the very last second to set up
a teammate. It's none of those kinds of things. It's just Danielson has
a lot of tools and he's still working on how to be the most dangerous
player he can be. I guess I would say, I guess the safe
comes from he has a lot of growth still left in him, which is
a good thing. And the skating stride and his intelligence in the fastness of
the hands is going to make him a good transition player in the NHL.
Shot still, like like I said, he takes smart shots, but he's
not a natural goal scorer. I would say he's more of a guy that
just plays in flow and it's just a strong possession player. He's there's a
versatility of outcomes. But I could see Kirby dock and frustrations of different points
in time. That would make sense to me too, because Kirby's still he's
still growing into who he is too. You think Nate has that upside to
be seventy plus point type of players, He maybe too well rounded for his
own good, where he ends up being more of a matchup type of center,
maybe a middle six kind of guy. He does that that kind of
upside, but it ends up being about more about the line that he's on
in the place style that they are, like, I don't think Nate is
one of those guys that goes, I'm gonna get seventy no matter what every
year. It's way more about the possession. It's way more about the team
style play with his Like I said, the things that have been drawbacks for
me about him is that he's not naturally that guy that like draws all of
the pressure to him and he's calculating it all his head and he's waiting that
last second to set up that prime opportunity for a teammate. He's just more
of a guy that really understands when you pressure him. He knows how to
evade the pressure and pass to a teammate and do things like that. He
has all the tools, and it's just there's a level I think in a
player to go from a really good hockey player to like that's seventy point or
above echelon of player, And I think he has all the skills to do
it. He has all the potential to do it, but I haven't quite
seen that in him yet. We'll see. I do think it was a
bit of a reach as far as like where he went, but you can
see that in his he still has all that potential to grow and stuff too.
So I understand it from that standpoint in him being a true centerman.
Down to the next guy from the dub who was drafted, Zach Benson,
number thirteen. Overall, really looks like Buffalo got a value in this guy.
The Winnipeg I slash when at you wild forward, it sounds like because
that team is relocating, but he's apparently going with him south of the border.
He gave Victor a nice talk about how he already knows guys associated with
the Sabers, including past teammate Matt Savoy. He told him that at the
draft or recording the recording the scrum with him. I guess the downside is
what I'm reading is that he's five ten, a little bit lighter weight,
but the two way play and the motor are renowned for this guy. Ninety
eight points and sixty games last year's no joke. Why do you think Benson
slipped? What should we expect from him in terms of performance? Joel I
would say a couple of reasons. One is, yeah, due to this
size. I think there's just he's not a dominant physical player. He's a
dominant positional player. And so the size and the grind and those kinds of
things. If you're looking at a matchup of Florida and Vegas in the playoffs,
and you're going, we want more of that and less of there's and
then Benson is he's probably way more of a natural winger. And sometimes the
centerman or the big defenseman get the bump or those sorts of things. And
then Benson also just that he doesn't have that top tier shot, and so
his play is all about efficiency. I talk about this and I say this
all the time. He is Captain efficiency to me. He is. There
are players and most of the players that we talk about here are like here's
where they are, Here's where they can grow too. And Zach Benson is
about is. He is about as efficient as a hockey player can be.
It's actually really gross. Like even when I go when I talked about Badar,
we're going to talk about the ways in which he can grow his game.
And then you watch Benson and you go and you like throw your hands
in the air and you go, he's perfect. He's perfect. I hate
it. I hate it, And all year I've just coined the term like
he's the hockey School of Zach Benson, because anytime anyone was like, how
do I improve my game, I want to go, let me send you
shifts of Zack Benson because the way that the way that he can adjust his
play so fast, the way that he moves on his edges, the way
that he pressures guys in the fore check, the way that he recalibrates in
the middle of the ice, the way that he can manute, like,
the way that he can play with multiple different teammates, the way that he
can absolutely change his game. He is on the PK, he's on the
power play, he's never demanding. It's the reason that he's putting up all
of those points in the WHL is not because he's getting soasced prime power play
minutes. It's because he's earning it on the PK and at five on five
it's actually gross. And it's hard to find comparisons for guys like that because
I don't really know too many in the NHL. They're their own kind of
echelon of player, right, that elite five on five player that always gets
undervalued, right, And I think we've seen some of the last number of
years those guys that have really moved up in the world. But I think
of those guys as more and who are the undervalued guys in the league.
The Jonathan Marsheszose, the Yesper Bratz, the Lucas Raymonds, those kinds of
thing, And so I think Zach Benson he has the upside of being just
an absolute unbelievable compliment winger who dominates at the PK and plays on your second
power play and you're just I don't know. He's a fan favorite everywhere he
goes, and I just love the kid. You can't not cheer for him.
Joel, I think of a baseball prospect term called does he have any
projection left? And it makes me wonder. You said, his technique is
already so good, and I don't know whether he's done growing, but he's
never going to be. Is he going to have a growth spurt or is
this going to be beside that he plays in the NHL? Does he have
is he already a finished product for what he is or is there ways that
this kid's game could grow and become better. I wonder if that might be
the problem. Yeah, I would say that the growth in his game comes
in two different ways. I think it comes in the one timer of his
shot release, and so I think it just if I were him, I
would work on strength and conditioning, which he's going to do over the next
year to two years, and then after that it's going to be about his
shot release and if he can become a more dangerous score and he doesn't have
to be like the end of the world type of goal scorer. There's a
lot of guys that have scored thirty plus goals in the league up to forty
and they're not They don't have the greatest shot in the world. It's way
more about the positioning and the timing and how fast it comes off your stick,
And so when he works on those sorts of things, then I think
it'll just continue to rise his portfolio. But ia in Winnipeg too, they
had all sorts of different talents, just a wondrous of talents, and Zach
was a forgotten guy on the power play because he's just not a natural absolute
whatever. But if you go back and you watch the all start like the
top Prospect game, those sorts of things, and you watch the way that
Benson seamlessly played with Bidard it's like, that's what he's gonna do. One
of the things that I've been saying is that in terms of his equivalency,
he looks actually it's similar to Mitch Marner, and I don't know that the
play style is exactly the same, but Marner isn't the biggest guy and neither
one of a big volume shooters, but they both attract attention and can just
dismantle you with their hockey I Q. So I don't know what you think
about that. In comparison, I would say Marner is way more of an
offensive leaning guy like he just he has that confidence in that swagger to be
that guy who can curl back and shoot heavier. So I would say Marner
is more of the offense of the natural offensive guy. But Marner, he's
been really working on his two way game too, right, and so he's
ended up becoming a very good defensive player as well. And Benson is just
once again I don't know how many different synonyms I couldn't say, for like
perfect positionally, So he's just always in the right spot at the right time,
and it comes from the quickness and his agility and how fast he's able
to adjust and how he just understands the flow of play and the way that
they're maneuvering within the offensive system as well. It's just it's it's elite as
far as I've ever seen. I've never seen a player like him in the
WHL and but alread included, Benson's on another level when he thinks on those
types of things. Awesome. All right, let's move on to the next
guy. Even though we could talk about Benson forever too. Well, last
thing I want to say about it is because it's just a little anecdote that
I love. Is that. So on my other side of when I'm a
musician and so I've a show last summer in Calgary and I played with I
played a show with Peyton Krebs's sister. She's a musician out of Calgary,
and she's a very talented songwriter. And so the whole Krebs family came to
the show and I got to meet Peyton there as well. And so Peyton
and I Matt and talked and Peyton just went so, Zach Benson, Hey,
and it was just like that was who he wanted to talk about too.
And it was before obviously this last year or two, but it's just
the one thing a little out of two. With that, I know that
he's like even the teammates know, like, Zach Benson is a really good
hockey player. Yeah, oh sorry, Vicer. I was gonna jump in
and say when you interviewed him, he talked about Krebs and Savoy going out
to eat with him in Buffalo and getting together with him when he was there
for the combine Victor. Yeah, he did. He did. He talked
about that, and I think it's a great landing spot for him. He
also when I talked to him, I just loved the fact that someone asked
him subtly about him being small, and he was just like, yeah,
I'm a really good player. My hockey sends is elite. I have good
skill. I was like, yeah, he just who cares And that's yeah,
that's how a lot of us feel like. It doesn't matter. He
doesn't play to his size. All the things you said already, He's fantastic
if you're a person who really wants to break down strategically, just like what
players are doing and stuff. Like I said, I'm like, I just
it's the joys of watching hockey is watching Zach Benson play like he's going to
continue to grow, and I think with every bit of strength that he adds,
he just gets naturally stronger and harder to handle on the puck and those
sorts of things. He just comes at you in layers, and if plan
A doesn't work, Plan B, Plan C, Plan D, Plan E,
it's it's just so fun to watch, and I'm just excited for him
to go up against the top of the competition because I just think he's going
to excel. I don't know if he ends up being like the echelon or
the echelon part of his I think part of his part of his value is
playing with that elite sniper or that elite transition center and those types of things.
So if you can put them with those players. But once again,
when you start to think about Buffalo and the players that Benson could end up
playing with, it's like this is that's really nice for sure? All Right,
So the next guy probably won't have as many things to say about him.
I don't know, we'll see, but Braden Yeager went fourteenth overall and
he put up nearly a point per game in his D minus one season,
so expectations were pretty high. I remember last year, we were talking about
the Yeager bombs and how fun that was going to be to talk about in
his draft season. And he didn't have a bad season by any means,
seventy eight points in sixty seven games. But I think the jump wasn't as
big as some people might have wanted or hopeful, I'm sure Braden included.
And he still ends up going pretty high fourteenth. It's great, But how
do you like his landing spot in Pittsburgh. He instantly becomes their best skating
prospect by a mile. But what do you think of Braden Yeager's upside and
what he ends up being. Well, I think one of the things I
was saying about as soon as they took him to was people talking about timelines,
and so with Pittsburgh, like, there's a timeline with their team,
and so if you can get somebody that can come in maybe a year or
two earlier than someone else can, I think that's good for their whole system.
Braden Yeager is he has the size, the strength, the skate like
the skate to length, He has the physicality. He can play center if
you need him too. You can play waiting if you do. So there's
a lot of versatility in his play. Yeah, I think he did.
I was expecting him to maybe drop a little bit going into this year.
I was wondering if we're going to see a little bit of that. The
biggest thing I think is if people are looking at the numbers, is that
Braden Yeager was essentially the trigger man on his line last season, and so
it was Jagger Fercus and some of the other guys really moving pucks around and
Yeager putting himself trying to put himself in shooting position all the time. And
this year he was he was really trying to round out his game. And
if you see any interviews with him on that kind of thing, he talks
about that a lot. Where he was playing center a lot more, he
was involved in the transition of the play a lot more. He was able
because they were looking for him to shoot off the rush, he was able
to use a lot of fakes and slip passes and stuff, and then in
those offensive situations they were using Jagger Fercus more as the trigger man. To
be honest, right now, I would say that Jagger has the better shot
and so at the WHL level, So I don't even get that like it
makes sense for me as a team play there. But Yeagger is working on
the right things. He is starting to work on changing the angle of his
shot slightly by just pulling a little bit in more to his body. I'd
like to see him do it a lot more. I'd like to see him
change angle more with his feet and be more unpredictable. He's he's striding in.
There's a lot of things that he can continue to work on. But
he's a guy that's just had a baseline of success for a number of years.
Yeah, I did have him when he was another one of those guys
that I did have a little bit lower on my board. But I think
if you're Pittsburgh, there's a little bit more of a play certainty there.
And Yeah, and I just think that he's a guy that could blossom.
Maybe after a few years. He might. He might struggle in a first
couple of years if he hasn't put in prime positioning, if he's in the
bottom six and he has to earn it on his own, he might.
There might be a little bit of problems there, But I think he'll figure
it out. And I think he's one of those guys that's just going to
have a good NHL career. There was a comparare while I was going to
make and I always forget his name, Owen Tippett. Owen Tippett is somebody
that I think that there's a lot of similarities with Brandon Yegger, and so
it took Owen a little bit right. He wasn't given anything, and he
was he struggled litle bit in a third line role. In this year.
When he was given a bit more opportunity, you got to see a bit
more goals out of him. Those sorts of things, I think we might
see some similar path maybe something like that. I think maybe a little bit
of struggles and then might find his way a little bit after that, Samuel
Hansick went number sixteen overall to the Calgary Flames. What I'm reading about this
guy is it's a guy with a profile that shows a big, sturdy,
puck controlling center. He's from Trench and Slovakia, the hometown of Zadeno Chara.
He was good for fifty six points in forty three games, but also
good for five less inches tall than Chara. When he was playing for the
Vancouver Giants last year, I read less suggesting that this guy has big swing
upside, maybe more of a high floor. But are you picking up when
I'm putting down Joel or am I misspeaking for Samuel Hansi's prospects. No,
I don't think you're misspeaking. I think he's an interesting player in that.
Once again, he's his biggest strength to me is his ability to keep possession.
And so when he's in the zone, he uses his body in his
frame and he senses the pressure coming quite a lot. It's actually to me
it's his biggest strength, and right now his biggest weakness, which is that
when he sends his pressure into the zone, he's way more inclined to go
into a puck protection mode split stride. And so when there's a guy with
that big of upside, that much of a guy that could turn into more
of a power forward take it to the puck heavier. He's a guy that
once he sends his pressure on his side, like if he's moving into the
zone, he split strides, he goes to protect, and he looks for
a passing outlet. So it is very possession oriented, but sometimes he gets
more secondary assists by just like cycling back the defenseman shot on that rebound goal
and he gets that second assist. So he's still learning, but to his
credit, he really was trying to power through those moments, break that habit,
really push and become that aggressive player because he can play at his reach.
He's got a ton of finess. He's a very smart player as well.
His one timer on the off side. The puck can come on and
off his stick very quickly too. He's a guy that I see his floor
being a third liner. But he's the type of player that if the fit
is right, he can play anywhere in your top six. So I think
he hasn't interesting upside. It'll just end up being about the other elements.
And there's certain things that hold kind of players back from reaching those new echelons,
and I think Hans's biggest one is just breaking that habit of becoming too
predictable when the pressure comes. I love that he retains like possession. I
love that he doesn't throw pucks away or he scans. He's very intelligent with
the way he moves the parks. I just you want to see a bit
more of that, like break into it and start dominating. Because he has
the hands and the smarts and the IQ to really score in tight but there's
a lot to come. Like he still is a work in progress, but
he is one that has a ton of outside nice So the next guy,
Defenseman Tanner Muhlendik. He went twenty fourth overall to Nashville. Every Nashville pick
got a lot of brave reviews, as I'm sure you could imagine in person
at the draft, and from what I understand, excellent skater, really good
shutdown guy. Seems like he has a high likelihood of getting NHL looks,
even though he's only five to eleven, so maybe slightly undersized, but just
really good mobility. One of the comps on Hockey Prospecting that seemed reasonable based
on that mobility was Nick Letty. So I don't know what you think about
that and maybe what his offensive upside is. So what do you think about
Muhlendik and his fantasy upside that's actually not bad. I don't mind that comparable
at all. I think that's that makes a lot of sense to me.
There's another couple of guys. There's another guy in San Jose. I always
lose his name. He's a bit of a younger player too. There's another
guy like that I think is reasonable comparison there too. Tanner is, Yeah,
Mario Parl I think maybe something along those lines too. Their Tanner is
He's just always been about the mobility. He's been an unbelievable skater for a
long time. I've posted videos on him on my profile where I just go,
I wish every player skated like this, especially from the back end.
He was breaking through layers and busting through layers in his first year in the
WHL as well, so he was already out skating guys. That is not
an issue for him. So he's a transition player though, like he's a
There's some guys where you go where when you interview them, they go,
yeah, I played forward up until three years ago, and now I'm a
defenseman, and you can see that in their processing when they go to me.
Tanner is a defenseman who's played defense and is now continuing to evolve,
like how what do I do in these situations when I'm off the rush trying
to create offense. I think there's people that were always wondering if there was
We're going to see more and more offense out of him. But the offense
I think comes from just smart puck movement and transition play. His defense is
a lot there too. Even in the playoffs the Slash year against Bidard,
he was the one player that I think bar really didn't want to go one
on one and with and he was going into the zone because Tanner can adjust
in his feet to players like him. He's probably the one on the blades
that kind of gave Connor the most fits, and so he's quick to adjust.
He's very fast, he's really good on his edges. His defensive game
is a lot more about positioning. He is a little bit he is decently
physical, like it's it can still grow to like it's not bad. It's
just Tanner as a guy where you look at the guys that the types of
defenseman over the years that Nashville has liked to develop, and they've all been
really excellent skaters, and so he's another one with that kind of upside.
So somewhere in that Ferraro to nic Letty thing, I think is a really
nice comparison. I had Tanner anywhere and that I figured anywhere from thirty to
forty, So it was a little bit maybe a little literally, but the
reality is like when you look at the defenseman here. His skating is just
that's going to be the element that makes him play in the NHL. And
so he already has that, he already has, the how he already has,
He's already a smart positional defensive player. He already battles and he and
he already knows how to transition the puck. So all that stuff is in
order than the rest. The upside is just going to come from adding those
extra elements to his game. Very good. Let's take a brief break,
come back, and we're going to talk some more WHL prospects from the draft.
Back to talk about the thirty third overall selection, Miko Miatovich. He
is a winger drafted by Anaheim way before I was led to believe he was
going to be drafted. He had sixty points and sixty eight games with the
Seattle Thunderbirds, by the way, an interesting team. We'll talk about at
least one more player from there today. Mitch Brown's stats raided out his defense
much better than his offense. I guess. In terms of his game,
I guess Anaheim probably needs to focus on winners at this point. They've already
got a bunch of centers. McTavish and Zegris and now and now they add
Carlson to that mix. They've got a lot of big defenseman come in in.
Some wingers might have some value, though. Was Metovich the right one
and is he going to get deployment with one of those big centers in the
top six in Anaheim someday? I don't. I'm not sure where I think
he's a top nine player. I've just always referenced him as a guy that
plays, and that was like the starting point of it all. Nico.
He played in the WHL playoffs last year against big, strong teams as a
young player, and he earned more ice time in every playoff game. He
was one of those guys where you were just like once again, at five
on five, he's driving possession of the zone. He's playing hard on the
edges. He's being hard to knock off the puck. He's really extending his
reach using his body well and his frame. He does not give up the
puck easily. He's always pressuring the puck on like in the offense. He
skates very well. He has very long strides, and so he's a player
that loves to get in on the four check at five on five. He's
a guy that you can put on the penalty kill. He's a very versatile
type guy. Like I've always said, there are guys that come into the
league where maybe they don't have the fanfare and maybe they don't even get drafted,
and then they slowly work their way up through the AHL system and you
go, man, this guy's out working everybody. He's earning these minutes,
and then they end up being that third liner that you go, man,
And I think that they're starting to really get a bit more of those value
in that those types of players, like the guys that just they outwork everybody
on the ice and you watch them and you go, how do you not
like this guy? And it was a little bit before I thought he was
going to go too, but I wondered if a team was going to reach
on him too. And when you're collecting all of that kind of skill players,
Nico is one of those guys where you go, these players are very
valuable too, and you need these guys, and we've seen them at different
times in the NHL be really coveted. Like I think someone like a Blake
Coleman, that type of player makes sense for someone like Nico, where you
go, man, our team could really use a guy like this, A
guy that is big and hard to play at a part against five on five,
loves to grind it out in the playoff games, like he did a
lot of really wonderful things in Seattle. He's not the most He's not as
talented of a goalscorer as Gunther or the natural center, all of those sorts
of things, but he's that guy that outworks everybody. And I think he's
a guy that's still tapping into his young potential. And so if he ends
up being a third liner in the NHL, he's a third liner that you
love because of what he does on your third line, and if he excels
beyond that, it's because he earned it, and so I don't necessarily want
to put a ceiling on him. I think he's probably him in a middle
sixer and maybe a third liner that you love that plays PK and finds a
role on the power play maybe that front. But I just I love the
player, and I think it's a really cool player to fit into that mixture
for Anaheim. Nice love it. The next guy is probably the most divisive
prospect that a lot of us talked about all year. You already know who
I'm going to talk about. That's Andrew Christal. He went fortieth. A
lot of US Fantasy rankers have him in the top fifteen because his offense is
pretty undeniable, but he's definitely has other aspects to his game. I guess
you could say on skill alone, he's probably one of the top in the
draft, but I guess there's inconsistencies. There's the below average size, there's
the skating issue. If you look at his equivalency, though he's got some
pretty awesome comps someone like Cole Perfetti, which probably not like hands wise,
but how you think and see the game maybe similar. But I also just
saw on Twitter that Washington, as we're recording this a sign him to his
ELC, which seems interesting, especially for a fortieth overall pick. Surprising,
but I think they got a gem. I think that he has a lot
of upside. Tell us what you think about Andrew Cristal Jill. Yeah,
I'm not surprised that Crystal signed his ELC, just simply because you know what
the player is. It's not his offense, it's not if it isn't going
to translate you'll find out, but there's no way, there's zero chance I'm
ever not signing him to an ELC. Like so, if you want to
get it over with, get it over with early. But like you said,
the thing about Crystal is that at this point in time, he's not
a very good two hundred foot player, and so you have to take the
ups with the downs. There's a reason that Johnny Goudreau was a fourth round
pick. There's a reason that all these different times these guys slip. It
is a copycat league, and people are looking at the especially the playoffs even
this year, and how big it was on defense, how hard it was
to get past those guys. How up front there's loaded talent loaded with side
the matthew to Chucks for the difference makers, and Crystal is from the red
line in Crystal is as dangerous as anybody. He's so unbelievably smart his passing
and the way that he can manipulate play. He's very fast, he's very
quick to react. His shot is very sneaky. He knows how to get
to the space to shoot. Rather than like his shot being elite, he
just he's just a very high high IQ player. So he figures it out,
and he doesn't have the escapabil that he is somebody like Johnny Coodrow is.
He's not the natural guy that continues to open up space for those kinds
of players. I think he's a guy that naturally fits in the NHL.
Is more of a down low player on the power play. Like there were
games with Colonna where Colonna was basically using Gabriel Shoots as the transition player.
So Gabriel was doing the heavy lifting in five on five like Download, the
defensive zone, Andrew was cheating a little bit out. They would transition the
puck out and then once they got there to the center ice, then all
bets are off. And so now you've got Crystal in his offensive zone,
so you can drive the middle and have shoots drive the middle heavy towards a
net. Crystal can delay slip more into the slot and then try to find
a shooting angle or passing angle. I've seen Andrew Crystal have the worst game
I've ever seen Andrew Crystal have, and he's still got two goals because he
was very ineffective for pretty much most of the game. He wasn't battling Download
defensively. They were really pinned in their zone against bigger, better teams for
the most of the zone, but then when he got an opportunity to score,
he did. And so it's a very you have to take the ups
with the downs there. As far as fantasy is concerned, he should go
a lot higher than he did in this actual draft because the guy's going to
put up points. But it's then it comes down to about upside and stuff
too, Right, So like I used to talk about the I think there
was one time I talked about the Seth Jarvist to Johnny Goodreau range. I
don't think he's at the Johnny Jeor range. I don't think he has that
escapability. But I think we've seen a player that's not too dissimilar from Crystal
as well. Everything went terribly. He could be where Kayla Yamamoto is right
now, you know what I mean. So that's the danger of it.
But the upside is point per game winger, So it's it's a big swing.
There's a lot of teams that just go, we love the player,
we love what he does, we love all this stuff about him. We're
just going to build our team a little bit differently. And so he ends
up falling, but eventually you just go, we've got to take him because
he's going to outscore a lot of guys that he was taken in front of.
He's just really fun. But you need the pieces around him. You
need a hard matchup two way center with him, a dominant two way center
to balance the scales a bit more, and then preferably you need but a
more complimentary two way guy on the other wing too to get the best out
of him and really figure that out. Now we're about halfway through the second
round in terms of NHL picks and forty sixth overall went kle and Lynn,
brother of Cole Barry Trots, reached back into the WHL in the second round
again for this physical winger playing in Red Deer, he averaged. Lynde did
more than a point per game In his third year in the WHL. He
had forty four points in forty three games. But the buzz seems to be
maybe not as much offensive upside there as one would hope. I don't know,
is Lynda bottom six NHLLER? Something better? Something less than that?
What is your take on Lynchell? Lynde's an interesting kid. He's always been,
even in junior and like down through U fifteen and stuff, he was
super dominant. The Saskatchewan kid just put up nothing but points. He was
always big, fast off the rush, really nice hands. I think,
as he found in the WHL, his finesse in motion worked a little less
than he was hoping that it would. Sometimes guys would poke pucks away from
those sorts of things. He just in those kind of situations there, it
was still a work in progress. And I think to the credit and I've
given them credit pretty much all year on this, most players are the same
player as they are all throughout their time. There's not a lot of players
that really change a lot of their game to be pros. And one of
the things that Red Deer does really well with their players is they do they
prepare their players to be, to try to be more well rounded players.
Like I think in Red Deer they're learning a lot of what guys learn in
the AHL. And so Lynd is that guy who he went from like that
rush player to like being a very particular kind of role player. He changed
his game this year. He was heavier on the four check, he was
hitting way more often and then on the power player than even at five and
five, he was playing a lot more net front and down low. So
he was playing that Matthew to Chuck kind of role where he's jam and pucks,
trying to put things between his legs, uses finesse to use his skill,
his length in those kinds of ways. So he became a player that
is like already starting to work on the path that he could be in the
NHL, which is a net front, side of the net, big body
player. Thomas Holmstrom like that the archetype of whatever. There's not a lot
of guys that come into the NHL going I really want to be in front
of the net, be the net front guy. There's a lot of guys
that are like, I want to earn that slot shot, I want to
earn that playmaker on the half wall role. Kalon lynd Is, he's that
guy that's already been like, give me that role, and so I think
there's versatility with him in that. I think if once again, I think
if he ends up being a third liner who plays the net front on your
second power player or maybe in your first power play if you need him to
do, I think that'll all makes sense. There. There's still more upside
there there's still more stuff to get in. But he's heavy. He's a
heavy player. He plays heavy, he hits hard. He's that guy that,
once again, like when if you see him down the road, team's
acquiring him for his nationale down the road gets a decent return on him because
some team is just coveting what he brings for a playoff roster. Like,
he's that kind of guy as well, if we're talking fantasy, he'll get
hits and shots and NetFront and all sorts of penalty minutes and all that's kind
of stuff too. So he's a guy that once again, there were two
players I think in this draft that I go they're gonna play. I would
just I just think they're going to play because they're carving out the kind of
rules to play. And that's my Adovic and Lynd, and I ended up
having them pretty much back to back on my board. But they're if you're
wanting to swing and you're hoping on the upside, you're hoping on all these
kinds of things or whatever. I think if you take Callen LND, I
think you get a player definitely. All right, let's talk about Lucas Drega
Sevage fifty seventh. Overall, very I think another Christall is the most divisive
forward prospect. Drega Sevac is probably the most avisive defensive easily if you want
to call him a defenseman, which I think is debatable, but anyways,
he man. Offense is definitely his forte and a converted forward for recently converted
forward. When the puck's on his dick, he is super fun to watch
and put up a ton of points. This kind of production seventy five points
in sixty eight games or tricity was incredible, and I know we've heard from
people who say that, like the offense basically ran through him, and he
was able to do what he wants and that's going to help you put up
a lot of questions. And when you look at him as his equivalency,
there are literally four players that have the same equivalency as he did, and
three of them are basically superstars are Hall of famers and Paul Coffee, Rasmustelian
and Zach Warenski, which are like ridiculous and all way better skaters than him.
And then there's Zach Bogosian. Okay, maybe that's a more reasonable likely
outcome, but Yeah, I think that's the big question, is this skating
good enough? Can he actually defend well enough? Because I think in Mitch
Brown's tracking data he rated out as a fourteenth percentile defender, which seems almost
generous. So let us know what you think about him, Joe Lucas Dragasevich
who ended up going to Seattle, so that's fifty seventh overall. Yeah,
I think he once again he became a really curious aspect and people started to
talk about him a lot, and so I think things like Mitch's data on
him, I think it paint him in a correct position, and I don't
think he's unaware of that. Like you said, he's a guy that the
offense completely flowed through, especially the power play, like he was making all
of the decisions from the point he was waiting until he had shot lanes in
front. And the way that Tricity kind of goes to Tri City is a
dump and chase heavy, pound the net, get shots through, really look
for secondary efforts. Everyone crashed the net, so he's getting quality shots through
on the net and then they're burying rebounds with some of their bigger forwards too,
So he was just able to rack up points, especially on the power
play. And yeah, he's a converted forward. He's only been playing defense
for three years. The way that he plays his style of defense is he's
just he's in the gaps, and so he's learning how to be more physical.
He's learning how to like to play more. He's sometimes it just looks
really easy. There's times when he goes down to block a shot lane and
he's taking a knee. There's so much growth that has to happen in his
game. Like the one things the people that I've referred to him as we've
seen players like this, the Ryan Merkley's, the Jeremy Poirier's, the Oliver
Shillington's, like these kinds of offensive dynamos that like, especially with Shillington and
Pourier and some of the other guys, you go like, how did they
fall? They have stuff to work on him. And for Shillington, it
took him a number of years in the NHL to be able to get his
game and to play it in the way that he wanted to as a Rover,
to get to the NHL to play the way that he wanted to and
have that opportunity. One of the guys that I've said, I think the
best way that you can understand Lucas Dragasevic is Eric Gustafson. Eric Gustofson has
a sixty point season in the NHL, and Eric Gustofson has been a healthy
scratch for a lot of teams, and he can go from it from absolutely
manning the power play and being the best option on your team to do that,
and then he gets traded to the Leafs and he's a healthy scratch in
the playoffs. That's the kind of player I think Dragon Sevic is and it's
because of his defense, and his future in the NHL is not going to
be about him improving his offensive game. It is entirely about how far his
defense can come. Because as he moves up through the system in Seattle,
he'll get opportunities on the power playing in the AHL, he'll get the opportunities
to really prove himself there. But it's going to be about that defensive work,
and I don't think Seattle's unaware of that. So Seattle is just basically
going, we know who you are, and we're going to get you to
you can have a shot at being a really good pro for us in a
very particular role. So I like to fit from the team, to be
honest, But Dragisvik has always been a little risky, and so when people
want to say he's fifteenth eight, however high on the board, that's you
betting on Lucas coming a long way. But to his credit too, he's
not a defenseman who's been playing defense his whole life. If he was and
this is the way he played defense, i'd be very worried. But he's
still really young in it, and he's still learned. He did get better
at it this year. That's the one thing that I have to say.
At the start of the year, it was very hard to watch, Like
you said that the generosity of it. He is getting better, but it's
still a long ways off. This is the concern I have. I have
him ranked fairly high in the fantasy ranks just because he does have crazy high
upside, but I still only ranked him thirty one because of all the things
that he needs to do. So that's really the questions. There's obviously volatility
to his projection, but is the high so high because it's so enough,
like you said, Eric Gustopson, So yeah, sixty points season, but
there's just so much that has to happen, and I think that's what people
need to be aware of. There's a long road, and sure there's a
lot of progression that all these players need to make, but it seems like
that's just more substantial for drag Savage. Yeah, I think just for a
player like that, I think it's fantasy owners, aren't you, Like they're
not unaware of those types of volatile players, right that, Like when it
comes to a draft and Eric Asilson's just put up sixty points in a season
and you go like, how high do I take him? Like? It
makes you still makes you nervous, Like the whole Shane Gosses spare when he's
moved around different teams, You're like, how high? Right? So there's
always the risk with those kinds of players. Shane was a guy that's really
figured it out long term. But the reality is like, is there a
world where Lucas gets to the NHL and he really never quite figures out how
to be an everyday player and teams don't really trust him down the line?
Yeah? Is there a world where he ends up being a power play quarterback
in a really effective generator of offense at the NHL level and like a passable
defensive player. Yep. So there's it's just the volatility of that and it's
but it's just it's going to come in his defensive journey. All right,
let's talk about Grayson's sautch in the sixty third overall pick. I said there
would be another Seattle thunderbird, and that's who Grayson is. And he got
about as far of a commute from his home office as he possibly could have
gotten playing in Seattle. But he's going to be with the mothership in Florida
in Miami playing for the Panthers Centerman. The draft folks I follow seemed to
think that his slipping this far was highway robbery, that he was more qualified
than sixty third overall prospect. He was a point per game in the WHL
last year after a lower point pays the year prior. On the US national
team development program. I read that he's got a lot of want in his
game, Joel, that he's somebody who's a hustler. He plays really hard,
and some say they've seen some offensive flashes too from mister Sachin. Is
he over under a middle sixer for Florida some day? Where do you see
in his game? Yeah, I think he's a middle sixer. He's one
of those guys that I was actually more I'm more inclined to put him as
to slot him as there's a higher upside to be a second line player,
I think for me to be in to actually play in that top six and
be a top six winger. I really liked this player and I was really
surprised that he slipped too. He was probably the one guy that I said,
I think everybody's really low on. There's some people that worried about he's
skating, and they worried about other kind of things. I don't know.
For some reason, I just think that people were point watching. If you
watch Seattle, like he just didn't get any of the prime opportunities and he's
not in a prime position and where he gets to just like Trounce up points
as well. Like he's a guy that is a natural playmaker from the half
wall. But they had him playing NetFront on the power play at different times
and he was excelling at that. He's getting rebounds, getting him back to
the point, really using his agility very well. And he's a smart player.
He's an adaptable player the big The one thing that I actually heard him
say in an interview too that I was like, bang on and I love
that self awareness from players, is he said, I think the one thing
that gives me in a bit of advantage against everybody else as some of the
guys that maybe are kind of players like me, I don't mind being physical,
and he doesn't. And the thing is, not only does he It's
not aggressive physicality, it's what you want. It's in those moments where you
need that separation. When he sees that moment to separate, I've got tons
and tons of clips on him where he's bumping defenseman and pushing them off their
stride before the puck is coming. He's preemptively doing this to create space.
He knows how to do it under pressure, he knows how to do it
with the puck on his stick. He knows how to do it before the
puck gets to him. There's so much of his well roundedness of his game
that it's like he's one of those he's I would say he's probably the most
versatile player in this draft where I go, he is one of those middle
sixers where you go, we can use him in about as many ways as
possible, and he just continues to find reasons to be good value for us,
Like there is this is me and my names and stuff, but the
player for Seattle that came from Tampa Bay Board. Yeah yeah, So to
me that he's a player of that archetype. And I think one guy will
talk about as well as Riley Hights a bit more of that in him.
It's just Yanny Gord has just proven that, and Sauchin is a bigger version
of him, I think. And so Yanny Gord can play up and down
your lineup. He can slot into all sorts of different ways, and you're
never unhappy with a Yanny Gordon your roster. And I think that's what Grayson
Sauchin is. And like I think about some of the other players that might
have a bit more finesse, they've been able to get into better positionings.
Like I think Florida has a player that's leg Sauchin in Maki Samaskevitch. But
I actually I had some people gasp at me, but I actually think that
Sachin has a better chance of making it than Samaskevitch does too. And I
think they got a great player, and it just shows how deep this draft
is that somebody like Sauchen can really fall Like Sachin was playing seventeen eighteen minutes
against the Winnipeg matching up really night in and night out in ways that they
wanted him to. I think you're going to see such take that next step
and really explode this year in the WHL, now that some of the other
guys have moved on and he's going to be a guy that's relied on with
the puck, watch for him to take another step in his development, like
a he's not a point per game player in the WHL, He's gonna he's
gonna rise into that one point three year above I would I would expect.
Yeah, he's someone that I'm banking on next year. Yeah, multiplying that
by a significant margin when he gets more opportunity. Yeah. There's a lot
of guys in here, and especially for fantasy too, there's a lot of
good players in this mix, and that's kind of thing. But if you're
in a points league, I think there's a point in time where Sauchin really
has to rise up higher. But just from a team perspective too, Like
I talk about his physicality, the way he can play multiple Asians and playing
your bottom six, kill penalties, all sorts of things like he's just such
a verse at all player. For sure, he felt the love at the
draft. I think he called out some of the scouts in particular and said,
thanks for believing in me, because I know that it's got to be
hard when you see yourself falling that much and you know you can you're a
good player. But he's got a good attitude too, and so the next
guy I want to talk about it. He went right after Height, sixty
fourth overall, right after Sauch and Riley Height is what I'm trying to say,
And he's the one who I think in terms of the production was one
of the biggest surprises. I think in terms of how far he fell Riley
heights sixty fourth overall to Minnesota, Minnesota's amazing prospect pool, just it's even
deeper. With a really awesome player and his equivalence. He puts him in
the conversation with a lot of really talented Nhler's super high upside. I would
say, I don't know that he looks like any of these players that I
have equivalences for, But Alex Tangey Nazim Kadri Right, and Shanahan. Probably
not stylistically like any of those guys, but those are the kinds of equivalences
that he has. I guess the biggest concern with Height that I've read is
that some of his production might not be pro translatable is the issue. But
I don't know what are your thoughts on Riley Hight because he seems like a
high upside kind of guy. That's interesting that you brought up Alex Tangey,
because to be honest, I would I think I think that's the direction that
I would naturally push Riley Moore in when it comes to the NHL. So
Riley Height has the last number of years, he's been the ball end all
centerman for Prince George since they when they brought in Riley and he was playing
that first season with Cohen Ziemer. The two of them had really been growing
together, despite Cohen being a late two thousand and four and Riley being in
two thousand and five. But they've grown up together and they've always been playing
together. And so Riley has been the heavy two way minutes even in his
first season, like really dependable down low, coming deeper in the zone,
as a defenseman, really taking his defensive responsibilities more seriously in the defensive zone.
And then Cohen was that guy that was just like spring in the zone
and really and so Riley was outletting to him and letting Cohen rush the pucks.
So it was like to me, Riley heights value specifically in the offensive
zone and creating points is his playmaking from the wing. And you could see
that, I think, in the Top Prospect game, and you could see
that at any international conversation that Riley ended up joining a team because as soon
as Riley gets on that team, he transitions to the wing. They use
him as a winger, and they use him as a playmaking winger. Riley
has as much finessed as anyone else in this draft, as it comes from
a playmaking war. His vision is top tier. His hands or top tier.
He can saucer pass into lanes across zones. His playmaking as far as
that is concerned, is easily his best element to me. But I think
sometimes in Prince George it takes because he was a centerman and because he has
to be for a sentiment, it takes him out of that mold. And
so when I watch Riley as a centerman, there's some things in his game
where I go, I wish he did this more. I wish he was
maybe more aggressive in these moments. Riley's a very There's some guys that we've
already talked about here too aggressive four checkers. They always apply the pressure,
They always apply the pressure. Riley is more of a positional centermon. He
applies the pressure when he actually he's going to make a difference. And so
there's some moments where I've described Riley as he's as good as he wants to
be. If Riley ended up being that guy that went one hundred percent every
shift, every moment, he'd be a different player. But Riley's just very
strategic. So I think if you move Riley to the way you use him
as more of a playmaker on a line, you start to I think you
start to get more of the upside out of him. His skating is good.
He's got a little more in him in that regard to go to just
in the way that he moves, but he does have a powerful stride when
he really gets into it. And then the underrated aspect that they don't use
a ton too is go back to a few of acts. As go back
and watch some of Riley's goals, He's got a one time or slapper specifically
from the right side that he does not use very often, but it's as
effective as anybody else's. It's a way better shot than someone like Zack Benson
per se. So he's got a ton of elements to his game, and
I just don't I think he's a guy that, once again you can talk
about if we need to put him at center, we do. But I
just think if he's going to explode in the NHL, it's going to be
as a playmaking winger and his upside is a second line playmaking weir to me
so that true playmaking from the side Alex Tang type guy. He doesn't.
He won't have the reach, he won't have the extension as Tange quite had
there. But but just another kid that I'm really excited about. And I
think his usage is going to shift from junior to the pro level too,
So very high intelligent player. I saw some stuff on Twitter as well.
I think I retweeted it of something from that his dad was saying, and
it just his dad was essentially like commenting about how thankful they are how hard
of a road it is to get to the NHL. There's so many guys
that you know that Riley's played with for years and years who wish they were
in a spot that teams were considering them to be drafted. It just came
from this thankful mentality, and I was like, I don't know, I
love to hear that stuff from families, just being like, we're so thankful
or whatever. Let's get to work, let's keep going. I think Riley
going at the end of the second round is another You got value there for
sure. Number seventy eight. Oh where'd you by the way, where'd you
go to Florida? Oh wait, no, Minnesota? Minnesota? Yeah,
yeah, that's just value. Yeah, all right. At number seventy eight.
Joel cohen Ziemer, he was with Prince George last year. The right
winger put up forty one goals, forty eight assists eighty nine points in sixty
eight games. That was his fourth year in the WHL, or at least
his fourth year that he put on a jersey. A couple of those were
fairly truncated, and his production was fifth among the twenty twenty three ers in
the dub last year and ninth overall scoring in the league, another guy who
dropped way below he was in draft rankings, but he could do a lot
worse than Land at LA where they're definitely is still room for productive wingers.
The book on him seems to be a lot of willingness for physicality, some
shooting process of prowess, but reports on the skating seemed to be more mixed.
You have to let me know whether that is an accurate summary. And
could Ziemer grab a middle six role on the kings and put up a bunch
of points someday, Joel. Maybe he's a guy that does make me a
little bit nervous, and I think despite the production, there's a reason why
he fell to that range. There is even some people in the WHL that
are like Coen Ziemer all day as a first rounder, and I just said,
be prepared that he's gonna not go there like I thought. Maybe you'd
see him at the end of the second round kind of thing. But to
be honest, even then would be a little bit nervous for me as a
scout. I think he's a third round gamble. He's that tail end of
the offenses there. But there is some question marks as far as his skating,
you can call him a really physical player. He's not afraid to get
physical in those physical moments, and he is a strong kid's I would describe
him as like bullish, especially to get to spots to shoot. He's one
of those guys that's aggressive and he will challenge you to get to spots to
shoot. But he does. He's not despite being I don't know, I
think he's six feet something. He doesn't have the length of the stride to
him, he doesn't have a really long reach to him. He's just a
guy that constantly applies the pressure. He's a gas pedal down type player that
when you are letting him really operate off the rush or even download a curl
around the net and try to get to shot lanes, he's going to be
aggressively shooting for aggressively trying to find shot angles and shot lanes. He's not
a natural like he's. His skating kind of holds him back from being that
aggressive, physical five on five player as well, because he doesn't. Sometimes
they move the buck before he gets there. He's more of a Sometimes he's
more chasing the buck than I would like as well. His value just comes
from He's a very high IQ player and he's a guy that, like if
you're talking about a guy that you're wanting volume shots as well, he's gonna
shoot. He's always going to shoot. He believes in his shot, and
he's a very good goal scorer too, Like when you get him into spots
where like cohen Ziemer is one of those guys that can pick the short side
up high, he can pick over the pads downlow on the side too,
Like, he can really find his spots too. And then not only that,
but he aggressively tries to get them, so he'll shoot for them often
and when he does score, it's not like easy cap ins or things that
people have really made for him. There's sometimes when he scored goals where you
go oof, nice shot, like he really found the accuracy and part of
it. But he's not like a guy that's firing one time or is from
huge distance. He's trying to get in closer than he is. He's a
bit of a risk, but he's at that tail end I think for this
draft of like super high up fantasy guys, but he might end up being
just a really good HL scorer. He's one of those guys. I think
that will stay in the gaps where he might. It might take him a
few years to find earn a shot in the NHL, but he's a guy
that if he gets it, he'll be put in positions to be offensive and
he'll have opportunities to do it. He might end up being like an Alex
Barbouley, where you look at him in the HL and you go gad.
You got to give him some chances. But there's maybe some reasons why he
isn't earning a job over somebody else too. We'll see. He's a player
that he's really easy to like, but there is some a little bit of
worry that held him back. It wasn't a first rounder in this draft,
but he was the King's first rounder in a way because even in the third
round, he was the King's first pick. So they can call him a
first rounder if they want to. Joel, this has been great, man.
You always bring the heat when it comes to the WHL, and you've
had a closer eye on these guys all year long than anybody I know.
Let people know, man, where can they keep up with your work out
there and just check out everything that you're doing. Yeah, So I am
the director of Scudding Preps, So you can go to puck Preps dot com.
And so if you're interested in draft stuff, everything from draft eligibles down
to fourteen year olds who are really starting to push their way up us push
their way into a potential WHL draft or a year into potentially getting drafted into
the CHL. It's all North American based, and so if you're really loving
just looking into prospects and seeing what the next guys are coming. So this
next draft coming in is Macklin Sellabrini and I've been watching him since his fourteen
year days in Shattuck and it's it's a lot of information, a lot of
reports on a lot of players, and the subscription is not very expensive.
So if you're one who just loves to see what's coming in the next generations,
that that would be your place to go. If you're really interested in
the draft coverage and that kind of stuff. I can't recommend FCA Hockey more.
I'm one of a number of guys that is part of that team,
and this has been my third or fourth year with them, just doing profiles
and stuff on players for Western Canada. Amazing. Everybody go check out Puck
Preps, FCA Hockey. And thank you Joel for coming on with us today.
No problem. Thanks are you guys having me? Yeah? Thanks so
much. Well, here everybody, a couple of things to remind you of
before we get out of here tonight. The first one is fan tracks.
You should play fantasy sports and fan tracks. That's what it's there for.
There's ten different sports. I think I can't even keep track of them,
so many are coming along right now, but one of them is hockey,
and you can certainly be playing your fantasy hockey there, so you should.
You can do pretty much anything you want. You can customize trading draft picks,
your rookie eligibility. They have a nice chat feature that you can go
back and forth with when some other platforms if you have a notice, have
been taken that away, and you can set up your links right now.
You don't have to wait. Fantrack's HQ is the content end of this website.
We're part of that Fantrack's HQU because we're part of the Fantracks podcast network.
There are podcasts including Prospect Pod, Full Count, Fantasy Baseball, The
Fly, Fantasy Football, and the Fantasy Hoops lots of different sports covered there.
Also thanks to our content curator, that's what we're gonna call him.
He's not really the producer. I really do the production stuff, but he's
doing a lot of the content creation, preparing the sheets, doing stuff in
the background. Anyway, Nate Duffett is his name to and I remember that
he's been helping out a lot. So thank you, Nate for all the
work you're doing. We're also brought to you by Dabber Hockey Dabber Prospects.
Victor is an editor at Dabber Prospects. You can follow all his work about
prospects there, as well as the other podcast, Drobber Prospects Report, which
he does with Peter Harling. And you can listen to this show, the
Daber Prospects Report, as well as our show on the Dauber Hockey podcast Network.
It's some wonderful stuff. I do a second show called Dynasty Sports Life.
I talk four different dynasty sports sometimes multiple ones of them at the same
time. This week, you'll be hearing a little bit coming out later this
week about the basketball season, some of the players who moved around and how
it will impact their dynasty fantasy values. So tune into that. If you're
into basketball or you're thinking about it for next year, follow Victor and myself
on Twitter. Fan Hockey Life is me, Victor Nuno twelve is Victor.
You should follow us and if you want to follow us, retweet a copy
of this episode on Twitter. You can give us a rating and review,
five ours and some kind words. Then take a snapshot, send it to
Victor myself and you'll be entered in a drawing for a Dauber Guide fantasy guide
for next year. So please do that. You've just got a couple of
days. That's going to be drawn within a couple of days of your hearing
this episode. Thank you everybody for listening. We hope you enjoyed. Get
another trip down draft lane, and until next time, keep living that fantasy hockey like