Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks. Here sits your source
of information and analysis to help you win your fantasy hockey league. Talk off
hats, a step hit on stay lock. Here's your hosts, Jesse Sevier
and Victor Nunyo Fantasy Hockey Live talking to Fantasy Hockey talking with Victor Nunio,
talking as Jesse Severe Fan Tracks Victor of EP Ringside Nunyo. How you doing
today? I'm doing awesome, Jesse. Yeah, it's been good times here.
We're getting ready to do some fantasy drafts, some entry drafts. That's
always good. We're a little bit of ways from the NHL draft, which
always good to get a little bit more perspective on everything that's going down.
And got some trade that are happening. Yeah, it's good. It's good
off season times. How you doing pretty good? I will say we as
you're listening to this, you were past the draft. We're not going to
cover pre draft stuff. But the interview you're going to hear here in a
little while will not incorporate whoever the heck Chicago picked in the draft. Just
pulling behind the curtain, but you no doubt you may say gosh, I'm
not getting the opportunity then on this episode to discuss Chicago's new draft pick.
Let me tell you where you can do that. You can pop into our
discord for absolute free. You just have to hit Victor on myself up Fantasy
Hockeylife at gmail dot com or at Victor Nuno twelve at Fanhockey Life on X.
We're there's no there's nothing in it for us except to have a couple
one hundred people to chat with about fantasy hockey. So we just encourage people
to get in there. In addition, Victor, there are other things that
people might want to know about fantasy hockey wise that are being offered. Tell
them what it is. It's the Patreon and where we have all kinds of
bonus content. If you're wondering what all these different prospects do in terms of
their prefer coreverge, what type of upside they have where they slot in against
other prospects, you can find all that on the website Fantasy Hockey Life dot
com. To access it, you need to be a member, so you
need to be an Ultra lifeer a member on Patreon and you can get access
to all that. You also get access to Patron Gas, Patron Priority Channel,
and other bonus content, so definitely check that out. Another perk and
being a patron is you can play in the Tier Dynasty of the Tidy.
We talk about that league on the show, and there's lots of great managers
in there. It's a great community and it's a really it's a fun challenge.
It's a perk, So you have to be a patron to be in
it. Let us know if you want to be interested and get you on
the list and get you in the league. Very good, Victor. We're
gonna take a break, come back and talk Chicago Blackhawks. Welcome mad back
to the show. Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun Times coming to us to
talk about the Chicago Blackhawks. How you doing today, Ben, I'm doing
well. Thanks for having me. All right, we're ready to talk some
Blackhawks. A little bit happier talking this year than it was a year or
two ago. One guy, it turns out, can't quite immediately save the
franchise. Maybe he will, but it won't be instantaneous. We learned this
year the Hawks were engaged in what we call the productive struggle once again,
this kind of at the bottom of the rankings in the NHL, but increasing
their attendants nine point four percent and becoming a fairly hot ticket on the road
on the ice, fewest goals in the league, second fewest shots leagues worth
shooting percentage. Things were not much better on the other end eight ninety two.
Save percentage was twenty fifth and the fourth most goals allowed at two hundred
and eighty nine. I could probably go on, but that kind of misses
the point here because the last year's black Hawks team was not about winning the
Stanley Cup. We're going to get to the man himself that's in the middle
of this rebuild. But how do you think Hawks fans think of this past
year the Hawk's brass, How do you expect how do you look back on
it? And can we expect a jump in year two of the Bidard era.
I think most fans so far have been patient with this rebuilding process.
So we're about two and a half years in since Kyle Davidson took over,
and this is basically the second season of tanking this past year. Obviously they
had been dark, but they didn't have a lot of talent around him,
and they weren't really trying to assemble much talent around him. The idea was
to get another top five draft pick, and that's exactly what they did.
They'll have the number two pick coming right up. In that sense, it
was mission accomplished for this past season. But I think they were hoping to
maybe be a little bit more successful, win a few more games than they
did, and there were a lot of injuries that factored in and guys that
didn't really live up to expectations in a few areas, but I don't think
any of that. It's a really long term cause for concern, considering they
weren't really trying to do much last year, and I think most fans understand
that there is a lot of patients in the fan base, and with David's
and saying at the end of the season that they feel like it's now time
to start building things up and start improving the year after year, that's the
signal to the fans that their patients will pay often that things will start looking
brighter as we go forward. So if that doesn't prove to be the case
this coming season, then I think then it'll be a little bit more angst
in the fan base and people will start to question the process A little more,
but for now it seems like things are roughly on schedule. Yeah,
And the main guy who's definitely on schedule Connor Berdard. Obviously we're going to
start with him. As we're recording this and as you're hearing this, probably
he's still only eighteen the mid July birth date. Played all of his rookie
season as an eighteen year old, and I would say that he was either
as advertised or better for most people's money. Twenty two goals and thirty nine
assists in sixty eight games was the stat line. I'm not sure what impresses
me more, the goals or the assists. Considering the talent around him,
that's a pretty high assist total. Seventy four point pace. Being the focal
point of every opponent's defense, I think was pretty special. And what did
you think of his freshman campaign and what can we expect as a sophomore?
Do you think he can get higher above point per game at this upomding season.
Yeah, the expectations and the pressure was obviously sky high for Bdard coming
in, and the fact that he was able to completely match those expectations it
is a really good sign moving forward. This was always going to be a
year for him figuring out the NHL and integrating in and doing it with not
a ton of help around him. This is always going to be a big
challenge for him. And it wasn't so much about the point totals, but
the fact that he was able to come close to a point per game was
really encouraging. He was doing this most of the year with Nick Folino and
Philip Kurashev as his linemates. Compared to a lot of other players who played
that seventy four point pace around the league. That just shows how much more
potential he has. He certainly a lot of those assists were to Korashev.
They found a bit of a connection, even though they struggled defensively together.
Fellino was all right in that role. They tried a few other guys out,
like Ryan Donado, even Rim Pittlick, Anthony Bovillier, but weren't able
to find a ton of success on that left side of the first line with
him. But Dard was certainly everything he was advertised to be, and I
think when there's guys around him who will create more space for him and can
make better passes and finish off his passes, we're only going to see that
total go up. And also as he individually gets more comfortable in the NHL
and gets to know each opponent's tendencies and just figures out what he can do
and what he can't do at this level. So I think there's only a
ton of improvement ahead for him. So I wouldn't be surprised at all if
he gets above a point per game this coming season, and the fact that
he's already so close is a really good sign for that. It's not the
best news when the second player we're going to talk about basically missed the year,
and that is Taylor Hall. His year ended almost before it began.
He blew an ACL in early November. He actually had already missed a couple
games to that point. He still has a year left on that Boston contract
to sync with the Duard, and he is only two years old still,
so he's not that agent. He's had a heck of a career and seems
like a very nice compliment. In fairness, his first five games were with
Bidard, while his last five after missing that short stretch were with Tyler Johnson
and others not with Biduard, but What are your expectations for Hall in the
coming year with his comeback, and the million dollar question for hall fans is
he going to play with Connor? Yeah, it's really hard to predict,
honestly, what Hall's role and what as a player he'll be like this coming
year. Obviously, coming off a really major surgery, didn't really get to
play much at all last year, as he mentioned, and he had obviously
been brought in to be Badard's kind of left hand man, his go to
guy to help him integrate into the league, and that didn't end up happening
At kurshev ended up being more of the guy that was consistently with him.
But I think if Hall checks every box and looks like the player he used
to be in training camp, that role will certainly be open to him on
the first line. We'll see who the Blackhawks bring in this summer. I
think they're probably going to try to add another top six forward or to put
a little bit more competition for that role. But I certainly it's not out
of the question that Hull could still be on the first line next year.
It's just really hard to predict what he'll look like. I know he was
eager last year to prove that he hadn't declined, that he still had what
he used to have and that he was pass his injury issues, and that
obviously didn't really work out in any front. So I'm sure he'll be motivated
to do that again this coming year, but we'll see if it works out
for him. I think the one maybe encouraging Steign is that his recovery from
the ACL surgery went really smoothly from everything I heard, and he was able
to resume practicing with the team the last week of the regular season, so
set himself up to have a pretty full off season of training rather than finishing
his rehab during the summer. So ideally he'll come into training camp with a
little bit more practice underneath him and less rust to scrape off. So I
think that that could work in his favor. But it is going to be
really interesting to see when training camp rolls around, how he looks and what
role he settles into, because it's hard right now to really say for sure
what that's going to look like. Philip Kurushev an ethnic Russian born in Switzerland
who played juniors in Canada and now holds a significant role on a US team
because that's hockey. For as rough as the season was, tip your hat
to Kurushev for a career year. Fifty four points in seventy five games was
more than he had scored in any two years of his career and placed him
second on the team in points. Despite missing seven games. He led the
forward core on the team in time on ice. He has another year before
restricted free agency, pretty cheap contract. Is Krushev just a matter of somebody
filling the vacuum on the offense and or playing with Connor Bedard or is Kurushev
going to be a significant contributor going forward in a part of the Blackhawks long
term plan. He's certainly benefited from being Badar, There's no doubt about that.
But also he played well with Badard, whereas other forwards they tried in
that role didn't have the same chemistry. So that's certainly a credit to him
that he was able to figure out the best way to play to compliment a
guy like that, And I think they developed a pretty good friendship off the
ice too. By the midpoint of the season, it was pretty clear that
those were the two guys that the Hawks were going to be running with the
rest of the year. Barring I think he did take a really big step
forward in terms of his finishing ability. He was a lot more efficient than
they had been the years before. He learned how to be more of a
complimentary player, where has he had the puck on his stick a little bit
more in previous years, albeit not in that first line role. He's always
been the talented guy. I remember back in the twenty twenty one season,
with no fans in Detroit, he just pulled off an absolutely unbelievable goal,
deaking through three guys and scoring one of the prettiest goals I've seen covering this
team. And that was his rookie year. So he's always had that dynamic
offensive ability, but just maybe not the consistency and the efficiency that you'd like
to see from a guy like that, and he did find that this year.
So while if he's not with Badard next year, I wouldn't expect him
to put up that same kind of point total. I think he did unlock
a new level in his game, nonetheless, and also set him set himself
up to be in the conversation to to play with Badard and they maybe even
if he doesn't start there, if something doesn't click or if someone else gets
injured, you would expect him to probably get a shot at recreating what they
had last year. So, as you mentioned, he does have another year
on his contract, and considering his production before last season, they he wasn't
super high value players. So if he can repeat that or come close to
repeating that again, he could be in line for a much bigger payday next
summer. Definitely another interesting guy to watch on the forward side. Next up,
we're going to have a points pick him between Nick Felino and Tyler Johnson.
Of course, Fellino scoring thirty seven points in seventy four games last year,
long time NHLer and Tyler Johnson also thirty one points in sixty seven games.
Came to the Blackhawks originally as a captum from the Tampa Bay Lightning,
but he's stuck around and he's played now for quite a while. There which
one of these two Fillino and Johnson you think will have the better year next
year. Johnson is not going to be on the team next year. He's
a free agent this summer, and exit interviews he made it pretty clear that
he's expecting to leave. He was talking about wanting to sign with a contender
and being frustrated that things during his Chicago tenure weren't very successful. I think
in terms of the Blackhawks, obviously Fillino is the pick. It's hard to
say. I'm sure Johnson, we'll get another contract for next season. I'm
who knows what team that could be on as far as Fillino goes another guy
where he got significant time with Badard, but more just because there wasn't anyone
else to really fill that role. Off the ice, is a huge mentor
for Badard and for the whole team. He's basically the de facto captain,
and he really made a positive impact in the locker room and bringing his experience.
He had some of the young guys over for dinner once a month,
which I know the coaching staff really appreciated. So off the ice, huge
impact on the ice that he had a decent year I think seventeen goals,
twenty assists. We'll see what kind of role he occupies the next year.
Obviously, in Boston before coming to Chicago he'd fallen into more of a bottom
six guy, and with the Blackhawks bringing in more talent this summer, it's
possible that he goes back to being more of a bottom six guy this coming
year. I think potentially maybe the third line of next to Jason Dickinson could
be a good fit for him, which would certainly lead to less offensive opportunities.
But he is such a versatile guy and such a big part of the
leadership group that I'm sure they would be comfortable moving him around the lineup as
need be and to fill different roles, so he could still spend some time
hiring the lineup as well. So thirty seven points last year probably, odds
are he will be slightly under that this coming year, but I think probably
still in the thirties range most likely. Nice. So let's talk about Lucas
Raichel, the next forward we're gonna mention here. After a pretty strong end
of the twenty twenty two to twenty three campaign where he scored fifteen points in
twenty three games, Rerychel only scored one more point in twenty three twenty four
while playing forty two more games. Some fantasy gms who roster him are panicking
a bit right now and trying to sell their shares. I have this player
card from Evolving Hockey up where it lists Richel's offense as second percentile and defense
as third percentile. It looks grim Ben, What can you tell us about
the future of Richel? Can he still be a top sixer point scorer?
What do you think the future is here? Yeah? It was obviously a
really poor season from Reichel and a big disappointment to probably the biggest on the
team. They had really high hopes for him, former first round pick who'd
done really well in the AHL, looked good in his couple NHL call up
stands before last year, and they thought that he was going to be the
second line center behind Badard from the start this coming year, and that just
never panned out at all. He didn't He wasn't comfortable at center at all.
They tried in there for about ten games and then moved him to wing,
and even then it didn't really help much. He just lost confidence,
and that it's hard to predict. Confidence is an intangible thing, and it
just wasn't there for him for the majority of the season, and that undermined
him in a lot of ways. They tried moving him down to the fourth
line for resets. They tried scratching him to send a message. They tried
having him work with assistant coach Derek King individually and the skills coach at different
times and trying to just try anything really to jumpstart him, and nothing really
worked that well. So it was close to a disastrous year for Riichel,
But if you're looking for positives moving forward, he's still very young. He
is three years since signing his contract, just got a new contract for two
years this summer, which the fact that was two years instead of won the
Hawks hope as a sign that they do still have some faith in him,
and the last month of the season was definitely his best. They sent him
down to Rockford and finally after exhausting other options, and he played fairly well
there, then came back up in mid March and was definitely better the last
month of the year. He scored a beautiful goal the season finale in Los
Angeles and had a few other really nice plays during that time. Still maybe
not as consistent as you'd like, not putting up tons of box score stats,
but he was having more of an impact on the game and his underlying
numbers were a little bit better, and he just seemed more confident and talking
with him late in the year, he mentioned how he's had to learn that
mistakes are inevitable and that you can't beat yourself up over that, that even
the greatest players make mistakes, and he's gotten better at flushing that and moving
on. So it feels like it was a year he learned a lot in
terms of just the psychology of being an NHL player, and I'm sure he
and the Hawks are really hopeful that but with that under him and with having
gone through that adversity, that it'll benefit him next year. Certainly have to
lower expectations from what they were a year ago, just seeing such a larger
sample size where he wasn't productive, but I think there is still hope that
he can progress and be a solid second or third line guy, even if
it doesn't seem so much like he would have first line potential moving forward.
And I'm sure they're going to work heavily with him as they have to try
to unlock that talent because they had seen him as a big core part of
their rebuild up until a year ago, and just one bad year isn't really
always a good reason to give up on someone. So another guy where it's
hard to predict exactly what his role will be like next year, but it
certainly has the potential to be an im back player. Nice, all right,
we'll keep the faith. That's good to hear. One guy that also
is coming, and we saw a little bit last year after a really excellent
season at Michigan is Frank Nazzar. He played a few games. I think
he had even a goal in his first game, maybe in his first shot
there, but only three games. Do you think he'll have a role with
the Blackhawks next year or do you think he needs some HL seasoning? What
do you think we can expect from the Zarara. That's another thing that they'll
have to figure out during training camp. I wouldn't be surprised if he does
spend the first couple months of the year in Rockford, but I also wouldn't
be surprised if he makes the NHL team right off the bat. He did
look good in those last few games of the season. And the thing with
him is he missed pretty much his entire freshman year at Michigan with that surgery,
so he really set his development back a little bit as timeline wise,
So he's really only had one year of college coming into this coming season,
so that would be kind of reason to be patient. And take things slow
with him. But he does have a pretty refined game for being such a
young and relatively inexperienced guy. He looked good defensively in his last few NHL
appearances, which is something that can't be said for Badard and Kiroshev and Reichel
and a lot of the other Hawks on forward. So I think that fact
that he is a little bit further along in that aspect of his game will
help his chances of making the NHL roster, And even if he doesn't make
it right off the bat, I would certainly expect him to get significant time
in the NHL next year once he has a little bit more pro experience at
the least, And he is a guy that I think, with as we
talked about Richel maybe not being projected to be this anymore, I think they
now are hoping that Nasar can be that long term number two centered behind Bedard.
So the high hopes for him for sure, and another guy where you
know, along with the whole team, it's just going to be a wait
and see thing because there is so much uncertainty with with what next year's roster
will look like. Awesome, that's good to hear about Nazaar, we'll see
what happens with him. Let's move over to the blue line. Of course,
we'll start with Seth Jones. His point paces have trended down in Chicago.
He had fifty four, forty two and now thirty eight point pace.
His career point pace is forty two, so he was below that last season.
Of course, that was bumped up by a few early ones in Columbus,
or relatively early ones. I should say. Obviously things were rough last
seas in his peripheral floor remains high. He's still someone who hits blocks and
shoots a lot. But do you think that we should have optimism that Seth
Jones can get back to his forty two point pace, his career point pace
of forty two, or maybe even higher. Ben, Yeah, it's set.
This an interesting case because you look back at each of his three seasons
in Chicago, and the second half has been a lot more productive than the
first half. All three seasons, particularly the last two were just pretty much
exactly In mid January, he started producing a lot more And I asked him
about that towards the end of the year, and he didn't really have a
good explanation, but he seems like almost a guy where it just takes him
a little bit longer to get in a rhythm, but in the second half
of the year can be really productive. He struggled with the with his shooting
this past year, especially early on. He'd switched to a whippier stick in
the offseason, thinking that would allow him to have a faster release as he
shifts away and the league shifts away from more slap shots. It didn't really
pay off at first. He didn't have a single goal until January, and
he missed some time with an injury, and I know that was really weighing
on him to be sitting out and just staring at that goosegg and the goals
column. He definitely is a guy who looks at staff. But the second
half he was a lot more productive. And as you mentioned, he has
a pretty secure role, getting power play time, getting first pairing time,
and the Blackhawks trust him to shoot a lot from up top and be aggressive
offensively. But just a matter of him being efficient with those opportunities. And
again, it seems to just take him some time every year, but it
doesn't really seem to be necessarily like a decrease in opportunities or even ability.
It's not like he's really that old yet, it's just a weird pattern with
that. I would expect him to continue to be in the first pairing with
Alex Blastik next year. Those two guys are pretty locked in, and they
were together probably the brightest spot on the team this past season, just in
terms of consistency and stability, and one is specific relying or pairing. I
think that seems pretty locked in. And you know what you're going to get
with Jones at this point. It's just a matter of him bearing his opportunities
maybe earlier in the year the way he has in the past few years.
Okay, And I just want to clarify what I think I heard you say
is that you think he'll retain that top power play role because obviously Korczynski is
there. I'm not sure that de Vlasik has that same profile. But there's
some other guys in the system that and including who they're going to draft,
which we don't know right now, but those guys will be a couple years
away. But do you think Jones maintains this role at least for next season.
I think at least for the start. They try Kortinsky a little bit
there from time to time, especially when Jones was injured, and it really
didn't produce much. I didn't really click that well to give up a few
short handed goals with him up there too, And so I think Jones will
start the year as the number one power play guy. We'll see as the
year goes along, but I think with Korchynsky, I'm sure we'll talk about
him more soon. It's more that they want to focus him to focus on
the defensive side of the game and improving there, and I think the offense
will come in time. They don't really have to worry about that as much.
Obviously, it's hard to predict the exactly how things will go as the
season goes on, but I think for now Jones will probably continue to hold
the top role. Talking about him soon means talking about him now. Let's
move to Kevin Korchinsky. Ben I did not for one realize he was going
to be a full time NHLer last year, but maybe that's just because I
was out of the loop. But that was an awfully quick transition, kind
of a coup to get the third most minute skated on the team from a
twenty year old. His stats they look like a rookies. He's got a
little bit of Jones. He got a little bit of time with Set Jones
and or Connor Murphy or win in the year, but he moved to a
depth role later on in terms of being on a different line. What's the
word on year one of Korczinsky and you talked about working on the defense.
What is the expectation for year two. Yeah, it's not so much that
he changed roles in the second half. It's just that they didn't have anyone
to play with him. So they just claimed Jacob Megna off waivers from the
Kraken in January and just plopped him next to Kortinsky and the second pairing for
the rest of the year. And Megna had been a healthy scratch the entire
first half in Seattle and then suddenly was like the number four defenceman in the
Hawks. So that was definitely a big hole in the roster and that definitely
did not help Kortenski. I think moving forward this summer, one of their
biggest priorities is going to be to bring in a more established, proven second
pairing defenceman that Kortinsky can play with next year because Megna He tried his best
and it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't really a great fit in that high
of a role. As far as Korchinski, there were a lot of growing
pains defensively, which it was to be expected. I don't think the team
really knew either going into the year that he was going to be a full
time NHL guy, but they didn't have the option to send him to the
AHL. It was either back to juniors or in the NHL, and he
had dominated junior so much the year before that I feel like they thought that
if he showed any ability to hold his own in the NHL, that it
would be worth it for him to get that trial by fire, and that's
pretty much exactly what happened. He trailed off a little bit as the year
went on. I think the first month or two was probably his strongest,
but he pretty much looked the way you would expect from a talented offensive guy
who maybe wasn't quite qualified to be at that level, but was holding his
own more or less. There were bright spots. There were areas where they
thought that he improved, particularly with using his stick and his positioning in the
defensive zone. The frustrating part, I'm sure, especially for a fantasy perspective,
was that he didn't really produce a lot, and it was more that
he was in his own zone so much that he didn't really get that many
chances to produce. And I think that's another thing that as he improves getting
the puck, moving the puck, just getting more time and possession in the
offensive zone. I think that scenario where he'll get more opportunities and where his
talent and his sort of best attributes the reason they drafted him, will be
able to sign more and just obviously as he gets more experienced and has a
more experienced partner. I don't know if he's going to be anywhere close to
a finished product this coming year because he was in the NHL a bit ahead
of schedule. I think maybe with another team this coming year would be more
like his rookie year, and I think it's still going to take him some
time to get to what they think he will be, which is a top
four offensive defenseman and power play quarterback. So that goes in with what I
said about Jones, is that I think Jones will probably have that role at
first, just because Korchinsky is still a ways away from reaching his ceiling,
but you would expect him to take a step forward this year. And I
think it'll be really interesting to see who they bring in to be his partner,
because that player's tendencies could be pretty indicative of the role that Korchinsky will
have next year. And Alex blask you talked about how he was locked in
with Seth Jones. He had the second most minute skated and placed second on
the team in expected goals of a replacement with some excellent advanced defensive stats.
I can't say that Mark Eduard, Blastic's cousin was also was on my radar
either as a big performer for this team this year. He's six' six,
he was very good on defense. And what do you think the Hawks
have in Blastic Do you expect him to, say, in the top four
as this team develops, As you say, as they continue to bring guys
in, sounds like you think he's gonna stick with Seth Jones for the long
term. Yeah. The Blackhawks were hoping that Blassa could earn an NHL spot
this past season, and not only did he did that do that, but
he was arguably their best defenseman if he was a rookie and he was one
game outside of rookie eligibility, I think he legitimately would have pushed to be
a finalist for the Calder alongside but guard like. He was just as good
as brock Favor in my opinion, and he was just doing it on a
team where it was such a train wreck around him that it was hard to
appreciate. But as you mentioned, his defensive analytics were fantastic, and even
when the eye test, he was just impeccable at breaking up plays and being
in the right spot, and he cleaned up so many messes around him.
He was truly a revelation in probably the brightest spot of all from this team
in terms of exceeding expectations, even brighter than but Dard and the Blackhawks showed
that they think that he's a long term poor piece by giving him a six
year contract extension a month or two ago, so you can see their commitment
and their enthusiasm for his future. So he's absolutely locked in the top four,
most likely the top pairing this coming year. And the thing is that
while he is a defensive defenseman and probably never going to be a huge point
producer, He actually had quite a few breakaways, a surprising number for a
defenseman, and he just wasn't able to finish any of them, a very
small blemish in his impressive season. But I think there is a possibility that
he could produce a bit more, particularly in the goals column, this coming
year, if he can figure out how to be a little bit more of
a finisher at the NHL level. That's something that is probably never going to
be a huge part of his game, but there is a little bit there
and we'll see how that goes. I don't know if his rate of creating
breakaways is quite sustainable, but I also don't know if his zero percent conversion
rate on those breakaways is sustainable either. Another guy where maybe not from a
fancy perspective as exciting, but from a team building perspective, a really big
piece of the black Hawks are excited about. Yeah, that contract I think
is going to age really well for what they are paying for him. And
also I think the US being on the USA World Championship was a huge vote
of confidence for him. What an upward trajectory for Blasteca. I'm really happy
for him, and you're right, he was incredible considering the context of what
was around him. That was fun and as you mentioned, some of the
defense help I think is going to help these goalies. We'll talk about them
now. They were ranked the thirty first team and expected goals against for sixty
and they conceded the thirty first ranked actual goals. They couldn't do worse than
the Sharks, So good on them. And of course we're talking mainly about
Mrazek and solder Bloom here. While both goalies saw similar in terms of shots
per game, Razek had fifty six games played to star Bloom's thirty two.
The high shot volume was similar, but there was a big difference between these
two goalies. Not only did Razek play twenty four more games, but his
raw numbers and advanced metrics showed he was way better. Razek had thirteen more
wins, eighteen more quality starts, and nearly twenty seven more goals save above
expected at all strengths fourteen at fourteen point six positive from Razek and negative twelve
point nine for Solder Bloom. And in January, in the middle of the
season, David said gave him an extension. The establishes some stability and experience
for the rebuild. So I know the black Hawks don want to miss the
playoffs forever. And after watching Razik this season, do you think he's part
of the future or do you think he's the guy who can carry the rebuild
and help them be a little bit more respectable. What do you think?
Then? Well, I gave him that extension to twenty twenty six, and
they did the same with Felino and Dickinson, and that really was the final
signal that twenty twenty six is the year they really expect to pivot from rebuilding
and ideally improving the next two years to really being a contender beyond then.
And he'll be on the old side by then. He's already on the old
side now, Moraazik, and I don't know if he is going to be
a part of the rebuild past that point, but they do see him as
a guy that they can rely on in the meantime. I don't think anyone
expected to be him to be as good as he had as he was this
past year. It was up there with among the best years of his career.
He did set a new career high and starts. I know that,
and we've seen that from him before He's had the odd year in Detroit and
Carolina where he was a well above average in NHL goalie, and he's also
had years where he was a well below average in HL goalie, and this
past year turned out to be one of the well above average years. He
was really solid for that team in front of or behind a pretty difficult situation,
behind a leaky defense, and he handled it well. He's struggled with
groin injuries for years and years, and he didn't have any of that this
past season. Not only did he not miss any games, but he talked
about feeling really good in that area, not even dealing with any discomfort or
pain at any point, and I think that helped him feel more confident and
feel more mobile in the crease and just creates a snowball effect wheor he just
was able to improve in every area because he wasn't dealing with any issues with
that off the ice, really funny, down to earth guy provides some levity
in the locker room, and I know the Blackhawks really like him in that
role as well. So he did prove himself to be, at least for
this interim period there, starting goalie, and I would expect him to continue
to have that role next year, barring a big drop off in performance,
which obviously we have seen before from him at various times in his career.
But if he can a healthy I think the odds are that he will be
able to repeat an above average It was pretty impressive this past year and I
would expect that to continue. Ben, this has been some great intel on
the Blackhawks. How can people follow all the work you got going out there?
You can find me on Twitter at Ben Pope CST. And you can
also find me on the Chicago Suntimes website. Pretty much anything under the Blackhawks
section is going to be written by me. Two easy ways to find my
work outstanding. Thanks so much for coming back on talking Blackhawks. Yep,
thanks for having me. Thanks will since Ben, that's getting fired, pasp
Oh my goodness, walk with a cat we grap Now it's your weekly goalie
talk. But Kat Silverman, Kat's Instincts. Kat's Instincts with Kat Silverman from
NGOL mag Chicago black Hawks edition, which means we got to start with one
of the pretty one of the better prospect goalies. I would say at least
I think they have high hopes for him and that's Drew Comeso twenty twenty second
round pick, six to two hundred and one pounds, So I has first
professional action this season thirty eight games played, nine zho six A, save
percentage two six' five GAA. That was for the Rockford Ice Hogs of
the AHL. And last season last year you mentioned how he transition to college
really in his game and game and how he needed some HL seasoning, which
he got, So there you go. Nice. His hockey prospecting has him
trending up or at least stabilizing in the low to mid thirty percent. So
there's some pretty decent comps in this range. Corey Schneider is someone who I
think maybe looks a little bit alike. So what do you kat, What
do your instincts tell us about Kumeso And is he peg to be the future
starter here? You think? I think he has to be. Not to.
He never want to put that much pressure on a young kid like that,
but he has to be. He's the best option in their system right
now. I loved watching some of his Ice Hoogs games last year. It
was interesting because there were a couple moments where I was watching some overall game
footage of them and of him, and it looked like he was facing a
shootout, because it would be. And the only reason I would know that
the clip I was watching wasn't a shootout is because it wasn't just one guy
from the other team heading towards him alone. It was like three, And
so the Icehug's defense is just nonexistent. There were times where they were just
completely gone, and he did a really good job of holding his positioning,
didn't get too panicked about it. Fantastic reads, really good at you can
tell when guys have played multiple different levels, have played against some of the
really tricky players at the AHL and NHL level. Because he is lucky that
he's able to get some of those practice development camp reps against Connor Bodard,
which I think has helped him with some of his just reads in reaction timing,
just getting to practice with someone like that, because there were times when
it looked like he just had that really confident knowledge of who he was supposed
to be tracking how many guys on the other team were able to come into
his zone, were ready to receive passes. It looks like he was able
to tell that his team's defense at times was just not even there, which
sometimes it looks like some of those younger goaltenders who are a little more unseasoned
at the pro level aren't really expecting to see that much defensive breakthrough from the
other team. I thought he looked great. I'm excited to see what he
can do. I still don't think that they necessarily need to move him up
immediately, just because I'd love to see him get a chance to just fully
develop into their next Corey Crawford. He only gets comparables to Corey's here Corey
Crawford Schneider. But yeah, I think I thought he looked great. I'm
excited to see a lot of the really aggressive positioning that he had with the
US National Development Program seems to have been worked out of his game. It
seems like he's good enough at reading his opponents that he doesn't spend a whole
lot of time floating outside the blue paint challenging too aggressively, which is something
that I was worried he wouldn't be able to shake or we would see slip
back in during times where there were defensive breakdowns and he was just in panic
mode. And it seems like he has officially restructured his game well enough that
he's playing that nice, confident, more conservative game, but you still see
a lot of that, just that confident movement that he had even back when
he was playing a more freewheeling, aggressive style at the National Development Program level.
Nice. Yeah, that's good to hear, and yeah, definitely some
high hopes there for COMESO. Let's talk about a couple of the other guys.
So Jackson's Stauber as another guy. He was six ft three, one
hundred and seventy four pounds first full season in the HL this past season,
nine or two save percentage, two eighty five GA and one point one four
goals expected goals per goal conceded. I have to say I was floored when
I read the Greg Ballos ep ring Side top fifteen affiliated goalie list, and
frankly, I had never really heard or thought about Jackson Stalbert and he was
number thirteen on that list I was back in fall of twenty twenty three.
I was just really surprised by that. And he has had some NHL Action
six games last season where he did pretty well, and he had a pretty
good career of providence, but to me, he didn't stand out as being
on this list amongst the walstats, and this was a list with Jill Hopfer
and she Lov's and some of these guys that seemed like to me made a
little bit more sense. So I don't know, Kat, what do you
think about Staber? Do you think he has that upside of being like a
starter or timeshare guy. I do know that Greg has been a huge Jackson
Stauber guy. And every good goaltending analyst has someone that they hold dear to
their heart, someone who they think is they saw something good when they were
watching some of the highlights, decided to do a deeper dive and really see
enough promise there that they want to throw their throw, all their weight behind
them. And I know that's one of Greg's guy's right there for that.
I like how he plays. I do think that the Blackhawks one thing that
essentially from the inception of goaltending coaching, they're a team that has been that's
a high priority for them is having good goaltending coaching from top to bottom.
They try to make sure that they keep consistent communication between their NHL and AHL
goaltending coaches. They try to make sure that they're on ice coaches for their
offense, their defense. Their head coaches are all on the same page as
their goaltending coaches, so you're not seeing a mismatch and style development with the
way that their team is playing, which obviously the Blackhawks are at the moment,
will work in progress, obviously, and so we haven't always seen that
match up perfectly because we haven't seen the skill level there from some of their
especially some of their defensive guys. Unfortunately, that's what we saw with guys
like Colin Delian. There are other prospects in the past, they were stuck
behind some kind of tough systems. But everything I saw from Stubbur when I
was watching some of his highlights, he looks good. I think that Cameso
looks more refined, but I think that Stubber looks really good as well.
So they're a team that they have choices. That's one of my daughter's favorite
things to say, is what are my choices? And the black Hawks have
them, which some teams don't have any. So I think they really Between
Comeso and Stouburt, both of them could play at the NHL level next season
and do pretty well. I don't know what Stauber's ultimate upside is because I
do think that he's a little less refined than Kumesso when it comes to just
overall technical skill. But his reads looked good. He's a little more aggressive
depth wise, it doesn't look like he's over committing too too much, doesn't
have to make a ton of recovery saves, so we'll see where that goes.
But he's a really good option for them to have in their system.
Awesome good to know. All right, Let's move on to the last guy.
Adam Guyane twenty twenty three, second round pick, first goalie taken I
remember correctly and twenty twenty three. It's a bit of a surprise to some
of us there. Overager six, three hundred and eighty seven pound Great World
Junior Championship. I think that was a big reason why he got picked so
early. He was incredible in that tournament for the Slovox, and he went
back to the was back in the USHL this season with the Green Bay Bag
Gamblers, whose numbers were really not great. Over All, the row numbers
took a bit of a dip, but the underlyings were still decent. He's
committed to the University of Minnesota Duluth next season. So that should be a
big change for him. His equivalency is really low. He had a junior
Slovak League, the NAHL and the USHL as his comm so those equivalencies are
very low. So his number is percent. So not a whole lot of
NHLers came out with that percent, but Kevin Weeks is one as an average
starter. So what do you think about Guyanne? Did you think he is
he someone who still could be a starter someday or how much kind of work
does he need to get there? He needs a lot of work. Even
at the World Juniors, some of his safe selections were a little questionable.
His style kind of reminded me a little bit of there was a guy a
couple of years ago, Dennis Godla, who was just an absolute star at
the World Juniors, but did not look like his game would translate super well
to the NHL because there was a lot of falling on the puck and covering
the puck, which at the NHL level you can't do that. You can
make some of those saves when it's an absolute last resort, but you can't
be doing that all the time. His skating looks decent, but he looks
a little uncontrolled. The good news for him is number one the Green Bay
Gamblers. And you said it's the University of Minnesota next year, du loose,
But yeah, University Minnesota Louth. So he's he's going to be close
to Chicago when it comes to where he's playing in both of his post draft
seasons, which is huge because I do think that sometimes when the Blackhawks draft
goaltenders, the positioning with which they draft them can be a little questionable,
and sometimes they take some really they take some flyers on guys that maybe aren't
going to pan out. But we can never accuse the Blackhawks of not trying
to get goaltending prospects. And that is a minor shot at Dominic Bass.
That was how was a draft pick for them, for sure. I think
he needs a lot of work. We'll see what happens. I think he's
a long term project them for sure, which if he's playing NCAA's they potentially
have at least four years before they'll really need to look at where he fits
in their system. I think he maybe could have some upside just because he
very clearly can kick it into high gear and half games behind a weak defense,
which the Blackhawks have proven that maybe they need some of that in their
system because they have a little bit of a weak defense at times. But
I don't think he's anywhere close to being in the conversation, at least with
the other two that we've talked about so far. I think that we have
Jackson Stauber and Drew Camesso on one tier, and then we have Adam guy
on just He's in the conversation, but he's not in the same conversation as
them. He's in a conversation, though it's in a side conversation in the
corner by himself. He's in the side chat. Maybe you can make it
to the main chat next year, Adam. Good luck at the ris Miss
d luthe than thanks Cat so much for giving us your takes on the Chicago
Blackhawks coolies. Will be back right after this dig the Dynasty Dig Victor.
It is the Chicago Blackhawks edition. You had this system ranked fourth, but
that's with an asterisk because at the time the ranks that we're computing from I
think still included Conter Bdart, So I got to go back and see that
might have changed subsequently, but there's still some very relevant prospects in the system,
they start out with a solid no brainer. Who is it, Victor?
That would be Frank the Tank Nazar twenty two to thirteenth overall pick five
nine and seventy four pounds center right wing had a great rebound season at Michigan
after an injury duled campaign the previous one. Forty one points in forty one
games was pretty strong. He also had one point in three games for the
Hawks. I think he scored on like the very first shot on his very
first shift or something like that, but it wasn't like the cleanest It wasn't
the cleanest release or anything like that. Also if someone skate or something.
But anyways, that was fun to see him in the NHL at the end
of his NCAA season, and since he turned pro, he is going to
be either in the NHL or the AHL next season, so it'll be fun
to see him play professionally. He's already twenty, so he has that opportunity
as well. Who was also pretty great at the U twenty World Junior Championships
for the US, and Mitch Brown's tracking data had him looking like pretty amazing.
Overall, his rank was one hundred out of one hundred ninety five percent
tile on offense, ninety six in defense, transition was one hundred percent amazing
expected goal expected assists for sixty had probably one of the best assists I've ever
seen in that tournament where he liked bag of the puck around someone and Saucer
passed it across his body. It was just an incredible thing. We talked
about it before go watch it. He also had really strong game score advantages,
created boards to the middle play, all that stuff was just incredible for
him. Eight points in those seven World Junior Games and at times I would
say, definitely the best player on the ice for the Americans, So that
was pretty fun. Looking at his FHL player card based on his NCAA season,
really strong across the board. Points scoring was high. His shots are
an eight hits five lock seven, so overall his bash should be a little
bit of a a have average, but that's not going to be the biggest
thing for him. He's definitely a stronger points option. Looking at some of
the advanced metrics, really strong as well, really good play driving and transition
game as well as getting the puck to really high danger areas. That's a
really strong feed of his. But let's hear a little bit more about Franknazar
from OURFHL scout. The FHL scout today is Austin and here's what he has
to say about Bizar. Skating really good. Is fast, plays with a
lot of energy, really strong first step, consistent mobility with the puck.
He can just weave around everybody around him. He does well finding holes in
opposing areas. And Nazar is not as fast as fellow black Hawk prospect Oliver
Moore spoiler alerts, but he's probably around the same tier. Nazar is a
high end playmaker, one of the best passing prospects in hockey. Has great
hands, good elusiveness. Smaller stature helps add to his ability to weave past
defenders and create plays, and Nazar has good transitionability with a puck. In
terms of shooting, some strong shooting moments, Bizzar seems more of a playmaker
than scorer, but he has a few nice looks at the net. He
doesn't create his own chances a lot. It would be beneficial to him to
do. Probably has to increase his shooting volume to be a more consistent goal
scorer. In terms of IQ, Austin says Nazar is a very intelligent player,
has good vision and awareness on the ice. He's shown good maturity in
a very experienced Michigan team and held his own at times in the NHL,
holding glimpses of seeming to fit into place. He's calm and mature and plays
a hard working game. In defense, Nazar can get a bit overwhelmed in
physical battles and playing the Pocket's not the biggest guy and against a bigger,
stronger opponent, it can show. Intensity is the biggest asset in the Nazar's
game. There's a few areas he excels in, but Nazar really does give
it his all each ship, and he's constantly engaging and showcasing his effort.
With his size, you need to be able to consistently be on, and
Bazar has shown he can play at a high level. Playmaking ability seems to
be a standout tool creative passer should be able to translate it to the NHL,
which is ironic given technically he's done nothing but score goals in the pros.
Honorable mentioned to his maturity. Obviously smaller and younger than most on the
ice, both in the NCAAA and NHL, but held himself well enough in
both. The biggest concern we keep talking about the size. He's not big
or physically dominating. He's not going to have it easy starting off in the
NHL. He's highly skilled, but it remains to be seen if Nazarre will
be able to play his full style consistently in the National Hockey League. In
his debut he looked a bit unprepared for the intensity, but he also had
a goal, So who's to say what that meant. What's the top tier
outcome? If he's able to overcome the physicality concerns, Nizar could be a
tier two forward with power play one opportunities, twenty five goals, forty assists,
sixty five points, perhaps creating offensive chances netting a few goals if he's
able to get them. More potential to be a second line center behind Bidard,
but he's going to have to fight for it with Oliver More spoiler alert.
Like More, he could end up on the wing as a complimentary option
for the first line, and that would be because how would he get there?
Because he's a hard working and energetic player. He's got the intensity to
make up for that lack of size In a big way, and if you're
able to give him teammates we're bigger and can provide that finishing touch. He
could very much thrive with the right pieces around him. What's the median outcome
for Nasar power play two potential Tier three forward depending on how much his shooting
can come out, he could average out to a forty point player with around
ten to fifteen goals. That's more than median possibility. That would be something
that would happen if a Nazar can push the offense forward with his size.
There's moments he looked overwhelmed, which is natural for a small youngster. But
will it persist will come down to how he responds to the size of NHL
pros. It could also mean that he ends up a winger full time stylistic
comparable, a bit of a faster krou Terry, strong dual threat offense with
the ability to play the game in full and have consistent energy. Terry had
that one year in twenty twenty two where you look like a great goal scorer
on a high shooting percentage. Good chance the same happens to Nazaar and getting
the numbers up and finally will be interesting to see the development of him and
Oliver Moore. Two similar players fighting for essentially the same responsibilities and having very
similar play styles. It's going to be interesting to see which one of them
wins out in the end. Both are streaky playmakers with really strong skating.
Both could end up fighting for the two C spot in Chicago, Both could
end up on the wing. And our friend Mason Black, the NHL rank
King, sent out this bowl to the people out there on ex Frank Tazarre
versus Dalliboard Divorski of the rival Saint Louis Blues and Nazar comes out on the
winning end fifty eight point five percent to forty one point five percent Nazar over
Divorski, Victor. Is that how you rank them? Yeah, definitely,
I'm taking Frank all day here. I think Kadavorski had a really strong long
season with Sudbury. I think he he has an interesting development curve. He
was in Slovakia playing and then he went to the SHL and he didn't really
get the best off. Well. He was in Sweden Hockey al Swenskin in
the draft season and then he went to the SAHL early this season and he
didn't really get as much of an opportunity. So then he went from the
SHL to the OHL, which is the massive drop in competition level, and
he dominated, which he should, so that was good, but it wasn't
like totally unexpected, especially being you know, someone who has played in a
much higher level. He is a June fifteenth birthday, so he's really young
for his draft years. So I still think there's some decent upside here.
But I think that Nazar is more dynamic, He's more offensively gifted, and
I think the Vorski is going to be a little bit more of a competent
down the middle type of guy, might end up even being a three C
in the NHL and they might look at him more for that role, whereas
Nazar, I don't I think he's the center. I think he's going to
be more of a scoring, playmaking winger, which could which is much better
for fantasy anyways, So maybe not as good for the Blackhawks. They have
some other center options as well, and they might take someone in that role
this year. We'll see, or they may already did. You'll know that
by now. But looking at these two, I know that the PNH lee
has Divorceki much higher. But I think some of that was really inflated by
him playing with especially Quentin Musty, who had an outstanding season. I'm not
sure that all that's going to fully translate for Divorski, but I think Nazarre,
being more of a sixty to seventy point guy, is a little bit
more realistic. So that's why I'll take him. Looking at hockey prospecting between
the two, I know it's pretty low on Nazarre, but part of that
is because he just had such a disappointing draft plus one season because of the
injuries, which I don't think it can totally hold against him, and Divorski
looks much better seventy eight percent chance of being an NHL or star potential I'm
sorry, eighty eight percent chance of being an NHL or so it looks a
lot better for divorce Ki. But I think this is an opportunity that you
could use to get Nazaar maybe ad a little bit of a value because people
are maybe underrating him. Looking at some of the other comps for Nazar you
can see that he's doesn't have a lot of great ones. One of the
biggest ones is probably Cliff Ronning, which is not super exciting. There's some
other guys like Kyler Yamamoto Sean Katurier. So he's looking more like an average
producer, but I think there's more offensive pop there. I think there are
some questions of how it's all going to translate, but I still think there's
a lot of upside here. I think you should be pretty excited about him,
and I would take him looking at the j fresh card five percent chance
of being a star, five percent chance of being in NHLer. I think
there's more than that, Jesse, yes, sir. And there's also more
to find out about this prospect system. So who is the need to know
prospect? Victor is? If people didn't know are already all of them?
More is with already reference and he's going to be our need to know twenty
twenty three, nineteenth overall pick five to eleven hundred and ninety four. Pounds
had a really strong season with the us NTDP and appropriately modest freshman year at
NCAA, scoring thirty three points in thirty nine games from Minnesota, second most
assists on the team behind only Sam Marinzel, so pretty strong production there for
him. He was also at the UUSA World Junior Championships. I'm playing more
of a depth defensive matchup role, which is a little bit more understandable.
Looking at the twenty twenty two to twenty three us NTTP players on the under
eighteen side, it's pro Smith, Leonard and then Moore and then there's a
big drop off to Danny Nelson. So that's pretty great, but you're pretty
excited to see that really strong production in the past for him. Looking at
an FHL card from college this season, you can see he really stood out
in terms of the assists, which was already referenced. His goal scoring was
a little bit lower. I'm not sure he has the best or most deceptive
shot, so that is something that probably isn't going to translate super well.
He does shoot a fair amount, though, so you get some decent shots
there and some decent blocks for four, but doesn't really hit that much.
Part of that's because he skates so fast and he's always got the often got
the puck, so that might be a little bit lower. But let's hear
a little bit more about Oliver more from OURFHL scout Jesse Austin has this to
say about Oliver Moore for the skating exceptional. He's always been a great skater
it's transitioned well to the NCAAA. Moore already looks like one of the best
skaters in the NCAAA. In fact, says Austin, he has an incredible
pace with good natural foot speed. His glide is effortless and has strong ten
to two turns. Probably the most exciting part of Moore's game for Austin is
how fast he is with and without the puck. Just being able to carry
the puck with that burst is valuable enough passing and handling. A very strong
playmaker is more. He has good vision in overall hockey sense with the puck
that makes him a strong passer both in close and from one wide. Does
well in transition in part due to his quick speed, making him a very
capable puck mover. He's naturally skilled at puck carrying, which he likes to
do a lot. Mostly he works it up the ice himself. Moore is
good at setting up from his own end and quickly creating chances the other way.
In terms of shooting that Austin says more as really nice goal scoring vision.
He does not do well cutting through the ice and spotting chance is not
always the most high volume guy More looks a bit more passive, perhaps because
of snuggerout his teammates goal scoring ability being the focus some shots that have gone
wide. More can get better at being more accurate with In terms of the
IQ mores of very smart player, says Austin, who does really well reading
the game. His quick speed allows him to target plays at blazing speeds.
His processing seems to be going as fast as his legs. Many times.
He does seem a little too quick in getting the shot off at times,
leading to some shots going wide. In terms of the defense, More is
five to eleven and one hundred and ninety pounds, so he's not a physical
dynamo, but he has shown at very least the willingness to battle for pucks
and be a bit tough in positioning battles. More is not overly physical in
terms of using his body, so the best asset for More that high end
skating. Previously mentioned the obvious answer, but big credit also to the anticipation.
It's one thing to be a fast player, but another to be able
to read plays and know how to disrupt and break out. More is highly
intelligent and aware of his surroundings. He plays with a lot of purpose.
The biggest concern for Austin Moore is a small skill guy, so he takes
a lot of hits he can't always match up on. Even with conditioning,
he'll likely be a bit light. He didn't have a perfect transition to the
strength change going from the National Development Program to the NCAA. He's still clearly
a work in progress, perhaps two to three more years until he's NHL ready.
He played wing a bit for Minnesota, and there's potential he ends up
as a wing and not as a center. The top tier outcome for more
Tier two top six forward twenty five goal forty Ass's sixty five point total is
a potential peak for Oliver More. He could end up as the number two
center behind Connor Bedard in Chicago. As previously mentioned, That would be because
he's a highly mobile and electric talent with great two way ability. There are
flashes of a very deceptive player who will not only move the game but also
self create. The transition to college hockey wasn't always smooth, but if he's
able to refine his game more, he may actually be very hard to stop
in the NHL. He'll have to be able to keep himself out of trouble,
but if so, he can be a very exciting option for a team
that needs players who could score when Bedard is not on the ice, a
potential long term second line center option or even a first line wing. The
median outcome or Oliver Moore is tier three middle six forward, twenty goal thirty
sis fifty point. That's the median outcome. Hard to see his speed not
translating, but the rest will have to show up consistently and the justification.
He could just be a winger at the NHL level, being able to create
with speed and puck handling, but he hasn't been the most consistent goal scorer.
A bit of an uncertainty in shooting, in physicality, and it could
take a short while to determine how much of that can grow, especially without
an elite goalscorer in snuggaroot, where Moore has the reins still projects to be
a good setup man, regardless stylistic comparable There's not a lot of players who
seem to be similar to Moore, says Austin. He has the skating of
a Dylan Larkin type, with the size and well roundedness of another former golfer
star in Logan Cooley, he may be a bit more likely to move to
the wing as opposed to those other two, and in Austin's own personal view,
More has shown moments that he could develop into a much better player.
It's all about being able to showcase he can handle finishing play and driving a
line. He got to the lead on the second line at the National Development
Program and looked completely fine taking charge. That's who you hope Oliver Moore can
be. Mason Black. The NHL ranking put out the call for people to
vote on who was going to have the better time, Oliver Moore or Marco
Casper of the Detroit Red Wings. Oliver Moore won that one easily, sixty
five to thirty five. Oliver Moore over Marco Casper. Victor do you agree?
Yeah? I do? I do. I think that Casper he's someone
who we were he who was drafted pretty early, quite a few ten spots
earlier, eleven spots earlier in the previous year. Then Moore and someone we
were pretty excited about. Had some professional success in Sweden and he's looked okay
and thirty five points and seventy one games for Grand Rapids. He also represented
Austria and did pretty well there. But the reality is that he's just looking
more and more like a three C, which is great for the team.
That's great. You want you need centers, you want someone who can play
down the middle. That's what Marco Casper can be. I'm just not sure
that there's enough offense there. The funny thing is that Oliver Moore may end
up being almost the same a year from now, we may be saying the
same things about him, But right now there's more upside and more promise for
more. So I would definitely take him if I had the choice, and
I do think that he looks better than Casper even did at that time.
But a skating is one hundred percent translatable. Whether he can adjust his pace
and slow down and get some of those looks that was mentioned there by Austin.
Sometimes he does defer, Sometimes he passes those up. Sometimes he doesn't
leverage all his skills as best as he can, but I think he's still
learning it. He can get there. I think college is a good place
for him. The professional leagues, as good as they are, they can
be difficult to develop in because you already need to be good already. Anyways,
I still think there's a little bit more hope for More. Looking at
the hockey prospecting between these two thirty he went from fifty nine to thirty nine
percent chance of being a start at Oliver Moore and held Steady had seventy percent
chance of being an NHL or. Casper has been trending down since twenty one
percent chance of being a star in his draft season down to three percent,
so pretty low for Casper. Most of his comps are looking like replacement level
guys. Oliver More, on the other hand, has a lot of stars
on his comp list. He's at already mentioned his star potential, but Eric
Stall is someone who took a huge jump after his Draft plus one season,
so I'm not sure how realistic that is. But he looks similar Brendan Shanahan,
Jayden Braydon point Mkhil Granlin. These are all guys who have similar who
had similar equivalency in their D plus one season. There's still the opportunity for
a really massive points producer here for More. I'm not sure that I've fully
see it. I definitely see him more of the middle six matchup type transition
guy, but I think there is a little bit more offense there than we
originally thought, and I think he can continue to develop that. So I'm
taking more all day, and I think that there's more potential there. His
j freshcard six percent chance of being a star, twenty four percent chance of
being an NHL aer. All in all, more is a pretty interesting guy
to keep it, keep your eye on, to know about and to hopefully
we'll see how he develops. I think there's still some great potential there.
And lastly, to keep your eye on prospect, keep your eye on is
going to be Sam Rinzel twenty twenty two to twenty fifth overall pick six,
four hundred and seventy six pounds, d can a D. As a freshman
from Minnesota, he had twenty eight points and thirty nine games, which was
enough to lead all defensemen and the sixth most for the entire team. He
also led the team in plus minus and assists, so overall looking really good.
Previous to that, Renzel played in the USHL and he had some pretty
strong production for the Waterloo Blackhawks. He also played on that World Junior team
for Team USA, and he was really good. I think he opened a
lot of people's eyes at how good he was on that big stage. He
didn't score a lot of points, just one assist in seven games, but
he played a lot of important minutes and he looked really good in them.
Looking at his FHL player card, he has really high assists for sixty as
we already mentioned. His shots and hits are also pretty strong eight out of
ten, and his blocks are kind of closer to average, so overall he
should be pretty good for BASH eight out of ten overall, mostly driven by
the shots and hits and a pretty decent points upside. I have him as
a six point five out of ten in terms of the up side. But
let's hear from Austin about what makes Renzel so interesting. Renzel, according to
Austin, skating fast paced skater with a good burst, quick first step,
but at times he'll just move the puck down the ice and not worry about
speed if he doesn't have to, which is a good tool. Very natural
skating, stride, does well keeping puck control, good transition puck movie.
Not overly crafty in his skating, but the fundamentals are strong in terms of
passing and handling. A good playmaker who sees the ice well, patient,
able to wait to find the right to man transition, puck carrying is a
great strength. Passing is good more than it is great, but a lot
stronger than expected. And Austin in terms of shooting, Bronzel has really come
into his own as a shooter, a lot more confidence in taking chances and
hitting shots that he'd usually differ on in the past. And Brinzel's still not
scoring a ton and a lot of it seems to be in relation to accuracy
issues, a lot of wide shots, not enough juice on his shots.
There are some positives in taking those shots, but you'd like to see him
get better at connecting. If he can't, Rinzel's offense may just be limited
to playmaking. In terms of IQ, Rinzel has good hockey sense. He
knows how to speed up and slow down the pace it does well controlling himself
with the puck, has a good panic meter, reacts well to rush chances
and to loose pucks. For for checking, Austin says that Renzel has decent
for checking. An active stick game uses his body more than a stick,
but he's shown he can shut down opponents without needing to be physical. For
defense, Brinzel does show some good shutdown ability He's physical and engaged in his
own end, but he doesn't have the dominance you'd expect from a six to
four defenseman, so the best as set here. One thing about Rinzel's game,
according to Austin, is he's not trying to wow some other players.
He's quick when he needs to be. He shoots when he needs to,
he passes when he needs to. He doesn't do things to be flashy.
He's smart and calculated in how he plays each shift. He's very mature in
his tools in Brinzel's hockey sense looks to be very translatable long term. He
may not be ready for the NHL just yet, but he could surprise without
quickly he progresses from the A to the end. The biggest concern he is
not getting much getting many goals despite being more comfortable as shooter and Renzel can
get knocked down a bit. Yeah, he's young, but he does need
to bulk up more for his size and potential shutdown defender and six to four
you'd want him around one hundred and ninety pounds minimum right now. He's at
one seventy five to one eighty depending on where you check. The top tier
outcome here that seems like maybe a second or third defenseman tier two potential ten
goal forty five assists fifty five point player at the very best forty five to
fifty more likely that would come if even though he doesn't have the offensive dominance
in creation to be a first defenseman, he should be able to play on
the top four given his IQ two way potential. Possibly he's on the first
line for a team. If he's able to get to two hundred pounds,
but you're likely putting him in a shutdown role, then there's value in the
offense too. There's positivity in how well he's hand go in from high school
to being a top NCAA player in two years fiftieth percentile tier three. The
scoring doesn't come. Maybe more realistically, five goals twenty five assists thirty points.
That type of player who anchors the second line despite having some decent scoring
looks. That would come because Renzel has struggled in getting goals. He may
just be a playmaker at the NHL level, which could make him lean more
to being a second liner. Adding to his frame will be necessary to get
the projection that he'll need. Stylistic comparable, there's some similarity to Brock Favor,
who took a while to mature his game before the NHL. Renzel probably
isn't on Favors level, but could potentially have a similar early breakout. So
overall, Austin says, Renzel was a very off the board pick for Chicago
who traded up for him, but after this season it's a clear lesson to
trust Blackhawks scouts could be a long term partner for one of the Korchinski Mastro
players in the NHL. Perhaps Renzel could be there, Brent Seabrook for the
future. Woof our friend Mason Black the NHL rank king. Yes he is
our friend, Yes he is the King. Sam Renzel versus Lucas Dragonsavitch of
the Seattle krak and Rizzel is not able to overcome Dragonsavitch, who wins in
a vote of fifty five to forty five percent, Victor, Is that something
you would agree with? No, I don't think so. And I think
people are still really excited about Dragosovitch, but I don't think you should be.
I know that he had really strong production in his draft season. Did
Dragasovitch? He was second round pick, fifty seventh overall but he had really
incredible that was twenty twenty three. He had really incredible production for tri City,
seventy five points in sixty eight games that went down this year, fifty
and sixty six. I think it's really telling that he was not selected to
be part of Team Canada for the U twenty and I think that the big
issue with him is that he just he can't really defend. So he's six
' to two. He has a lot of good offense, but if you
can't defend, it doesn't matter how good your offense is. We've seen a
lot of guys fall and have issue with this very recently, so I just
as we're recording this, I just thowt Ty Smith signed in Carolina for his
like third chance here. Remember when Ty Smith was a thing. Yeah,
he was a great whler. He had a lot of points upside. But
guy can't defend at the best at the time, even at the professional level.
Ahl So, Caitlin Addison, these are guys that struggle two way,
and it doesn't matter how good your offense is if you can't do that.
So I would caution anyone who's still super excited about Dragon Savage because I don't
think it's going to happen like at all, So you get not an NHL
or on one side, and maybe Sam Frenzella isn't the most exciting in terms
of points upside, but he should be playing in the NHL. And I
really like what Austin said too about the pair because one of the comps that
comes out for Samrenzel in the hockey prospecting model is MITIASX home and we're seeing
MITISX home star for the Edmonton Oilers. We're seeing what a fantastic partner he
can be. And there's a little bit offense there. It's not nothing,
but he's a really strong player and I think Renzel could be something like that.
Brense Brook is certainly a high praise as well, but yeah, I
would definitely take Brinzel, even though it looks from a lot of equivalency models
that Dragon Savage is better. He's up to forty four percent chance of being
a star. Renzel has grown his equivalency up to ten. Part of that
is his equivalency was so low in high school and then USHL. But at
a really strong CAA season and I would definitely take him. As I mentioned
the comp to Eck Holme. There's some other comps in here of some reasonable
guys that are more like average producers, but still, do you want an
NHLer or someone who's not going to be the j freshcard A little less pessimistic,
more pessimistic on Ranzau one percent chance of being a start, eight percent
chance of being an NHL or so, a little bit not as exciting.
But I think they do have a really strong prospect here and someone who should
play a lot and should have a pretty decent role for the team, So
that's exciting, and should have some pretty decent peripheral coverage as mentioned earlier.
So that's it for the Blackhawks dig. If your patron, you can listen
to my top ten prospects recaps per team on Patreon and if you're should do
some Scottie with that, shoot me a DM on Twitter, Discord, or
email us Victor Drags Dreg gonna say that that's how I saw that discussion.
We'll be right back to close out the show. A reminder are brought to
you by fantrackspantracks dot com has all the different options you need to play your
fantasy sports. You can do everything you want to. Take some notes and
save them on the little pop up that you see for a player the news
option. You can actually take notes on that thing and save them for yourself.
Across your leagues. You want to pop into that player thing and see
if there's a player who's a free agent in any of your other leagues.
There's a little tab called rostered. Click on that you can see every one
of your leagues and you can see if that players rostered. That's a very
quick way for those of us in lots of leagues to figure out whether a
priority free agent might be somebody you need to go snap up somewhere. That's
just the tip of the Iceberg. Salaries, all different scorings set. It's
hundreds of different scoring categories. You can do contracts, you know anything,
customize how long it takes for your rookies to graduate. You can start up
the leagues right now today. Just go to fantracks dot com. Fan tracks
HQ has lots of fantasy content. There's articles on fantasy hockey and all the
other fantasy sports. FHL is a team these days, and we'd like to
thank the whole crew. Content curator Kevin Adams has helped out with our show
prep Ryan, Simon, Kraftzer and Tim are the commission team for the growing
Tidy Dynasty leagues. We need people to join that right now. You've got
to be a patron to pop in, but check with any of those guys
in our discord. We'd love to get you involved. Jeremy Vee our lead
scout here at Fantasy Hockey Life. Jason helps with our prospect ranks. Brandon
is the website guru. He's a scout and he helps with prospect ranks and
visualizations the massive tableau the Fantasy Hockey Life player cards. If you'd like to
have your skills be a part of this Fantasy Hockey Life enterprise, Victor would
love to hear from you. He's always looking to do something new and exciting.
Check him out in the day discord, on email, Fantasy Hockey Life
at gmail dot com, or on x at Victor Nunia twelve, or you
can contact me fan Hockey Life. Okay, well, I've got a serious
topic that I want to bring up. There's no unawkward time to mention it.
But this week it would appear that one of our longtime patrons, a
friend named Dennis, who was hook and Scramble in the Discord forums has passed
away. He was a competitor in our Tier one of our dynasty, a
great fantasy hockey player, and Victor and I really want to send out his
thoughts to his family. Now, in the modern era, when it comes
to social media, it's very difficult to find out when somebody disappears from something
like a discord, what's going on. Our tidy team did a lot of
research. They found an online obituary. They found multiple confirmations that this happened
with Dennis. But if you knew Dennis, he was well loved in this
and every other fantasy hockey space, it seems, and many people enjoyed interacting
with them. These people you play with are real people, and so Victor
and I want to send out our best thoughts. And it's a sad day
Dennis, who can scramble on the discord. Well, no good transition from
there, but a couple other things I'll mention. Daber Hockey and Daber Prospects
also sponsors this show. Victor is an editor there. His podcast, Dauber
Prospects Report with Peter Harling is out there from all of your fantasy hockey prospect
needs check out Victor's articles at EP Ringside, where he is part of the
fantasy team with Cam Robinson and Mike Clifford. I do a solo show,
Dynasty Sports Life. I talk all the Dynasty Sports on that one, sometimes
multiple at the same time. Follow us on X as I said, rate
and review us on Apple podcast, Spotify, and anywhere else that you may
go out and get your fantasy content. Thank you so much for listening.
Just keep in mind we're a family, take advantage of every day, and
we want to help you have fun in the time that you spend with this
fantasy hockey life. M