Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks. Here's Shitqus, here
your source of information and analysis to help you win your fantasy hockey league.
Block Off has a step hit on. Stay lock. Here's your hosts,
Jesse Severe and Victor Nuno Fantasy Hockey Live back once again. This is Jesse
Severe, whose voice you're hearing from fan Tracks and over there it is the
man, the myth, the legend, the EP ringside extravaganza, Meister Victor
Nunio. Victor, how you doing. I'm doing great, Jesse. It's
it's been a really good start to the new year. The US won the
World Junior Championships, we got some hockey back on, and I was gonna
say Happy New Year. But is it okay to say that sometime between January
twelfth and fifteenth? Or is that just too late? Victor? You are
okay and continue to say Happy New Year until such time. Is I consistently
remember to type twenty twenty four on anything that I'm entering the date on as
far as so pretty much like March. I think you're still good to do
that, because I'm gonna be typing twenty twenty three on things for an unfortunate
amount of time. But yeah, man, are your teams doing well?
Are you in good shape at this point? Yeah, I have so many
teams, it's you got to modify that. But my tidy team is doing
pretty well. I think that I'll be in the mix to win promotion.
I don't know that it's going to happen, but I'm one of the top
few teams. I'm eating three. I'm doing pretty well in the FHL one
as well. I'm the league that you and I are against each other and
our friends of keeping Carlson Dynasty. We were I was we elin and I
finally lost, and then we lost three in a row. So it's been
a it's been a rough time, but I'm really proud of the league that
you started, the Diesel and that's the Hockey League, the four sports.
Yeah, and that was the league where I dolean my co GM. He
knows all the other sports. I don't know anything about them. In fact,
when he asked me about a player, I'm like, you have to
tell me what sport that is, because I don't even know. Sometimes I
just think he's making them up. But I told him, you know what,
we can go ahead and fade hockey. We would he would ask me,
do you need to take a hockey player? And we kept fading and
kept fading, and so all of the picks that we made for hockey were
very late. But we're still in first place, which is pretty amazing.
I would say it's a cap league. It's a really difficult league. I
ended up with some pretty strong late picks, like your Brock Nelson's, r
Zach Hymans, your Carter ver Hag's, your Joe Pavelski's, and then we
had some good prospects and some teams when they started not doing so well,
I turned around and flipped some of those prospects for some guys like alex Iovechkin
and Philip Deno and Vlaimir Terashenko. So it's been going pretty well. I'm
really proud of how we manage that team and that we'll see there's still some
really strong teams in that league, including yours, including Simoon's team and Kevin's
team, so it's certainly not a foregone illusion. Tony is the other one
actually that is doing really well. But I'm happy with how it's going so
far, and I'm happy that we're at least competitive, having faded that sport.
Wait a minute, Wait a minute, did you say Simon Simon is
sixth Sorry, yeah, it's Simoon. It's not Simon, what Simon?
All right, this is breaking news. Our guy Simon is actually Simon.
This is frankly, this has rocked my world. I did I did not
know that, and I think I pronounced his name wrong the entire episode of
Dynasty Sports Life that he was on. But yeah, you, me and
Anthony work in the top three places. Anthony's team is destroying in terms of
points scored, and Simon actually is outscoring both you and I, but is
in sixth plays. So it's yeah, this is going to be quite a
run. It's fun to be playing against each other wherever we have that opportunity.
Victor, we got lots to talk about today. The first part part
of this episode, it's going to be some Ryan Downey, some Tidy admiral
coming in to sweep in and talk about some of the trades that are going
on. And again, once again, if you're in the tidy, which
probably most of you are, if you're still listening to January, that's great.
If you're not, you're like, I don't care about this. These
are dynasty trades. We're breaking down dynasty trades. That's basically what we're talking
about here, So it will be good listening for all of you. But
before we get there, even if you are not in the not in the
tidy, not in any of the types of the leagues that we're going to
be talking about today, you have the opportunity to chat free of charge with
all the people who are and a bunch more, and that is on our
discord. All you have to do to join the discord is to hit Victor
or myself up. Victor is Victor Nuna twelve on x I am Fan Hockey
Life on x or. You can email us Fantasy Hockeylife at gmail dot com
to participate in that. They're free discord. Also, if you desire additional
content, you can hit Victor up, Matt, hit Victor up it,
hit the Patreon up and Victor tell them what they can find over there.
Yeah, don't hit me, I don't need that, but yeah, you
can hit up the patreon. You can hit me up, you can ask
there's lots of good stuff. We're doing Patreon casts and record the same da
I'm recording this recording a patron cast doing some bonus content, talking about some
cap league risers and followers. We do some extra things like the Tidy is
a great thing that you can join only as a patron, so that's a
really great perk fun league. We talk about it a fair amount. There's
also Patreon Priority Channel and roster doctors and things that we can do. You
get access to the show notes, which generally pretty extensive. This week it
was at a hand there was so many notes and charts and stuff that were
added, so you get to look at all that. I know, I
find that useful when I want to see the breakdown and want to see what
people are talking about. So you can check all that out at Patreon dot
com slash Fantasy Hockey Life. You're darn wright can now let's take a break.
We're going to come back and Tidy Admiral Ryan and Victor are going to
talk about some Tidy trains. It's time again for another edition of Tidy Takes,
where we talk about some happenings in the Tier dynasty here at Fantasy Hockey
Life, and of course this information is relevant to these players in all other
leagues as well. But in order to talk Tidy, we have to bring
in our tidy Admiral Ryan. How you doing, Hey, Victor, I'm
great. Happy New Year to all the Tidy managers and all the FHL listeners
out there, and to yourself of course. Yeah. Did anything happen in
the last distance, last time we talked on one of these episodes, Ryan,
Nope, nothing at all, nothing important, relevant, poignant at all
to hockey fans who like prospects at all. Nope. Yeah, I'm pretty
sure we had a really fun episode talking World Junior and drafting our team.
And I think on the episode Jesse said that it was that you and him
were going to be fighting for second, but in the end it ended up
being you and I battling at the top, and you were winning till the
end. I had a bunch of American players who pulled it off at the
very end. That was a fun draft that we did, and it was
fun to watch the USA bring home the gold for me anyways, And it
was a good tournament. Yes, it was fun, and that's what I
was referring to. Of course, it was a lot of fun. I
had a joke written in our show prep here that nothing was going on,
just this small little tournament called the World Junior Hockey Championship that they only really
care about up in Canada, and of course, as a Canadian here in
the resident Canadian here on the FHL podcast, I don't care about it now
because America won. So that's how it works up here. Fortunately, though
I don't think we'll have any parliamentary referendums. I think it's fairly clear why
Canada lost and so we can move on from that and hopefully Canada will actually
bring their best players to the tournament some day. That would be great.
What a crazy concept. Yeah, they didn't have enough ginger stash. That's
why they lost, I think exactly. And we're going to be talking about
Jagger Fercus today among other players. We're going to be analyzing trades that involve
players that you may have seen or may not have seen in the World Junior
Championship this year, trades involving Denton Matachuk, Cutter Gautier, and then Matthew
Patras as well, and then players who did not feature in the tournament but
were involved in some capacity Tristan Luno and Jagger Fercus. After analysis of those
trades, will be digging into our long awaited by that one month analysis of
Logan Cooley using two trades that have happened this season in the Tidy involving that
player. Let's dive in Victor with a trade that happened very early in our
Tidy season about a week into the season, starting in Tidy Lemieux between Dave
h The Evil Empire and Roy Team Empire acquired Zach Hyman and na d John
Carlson from Roy for Gabe Vollardi, Philip Thomasino, Denti, Mattachuk and Cutter
Gotier. So lots of moving pieces here, both in the prospect and pro
realm. I'll just share what our Tidy managers had to say about this in
our Tidy Poles and Tidy Trades channel. Many people think that Empire coming out
with Hyman and Carlson here is the better outcome, but a lot of people
think it's even as well, with about twenty five percent of our managers voting
even over just over fifty six percent voting for the Empire's side. So Dave
had this to say about acquiring those players. I just noticed that I had
too many right wingers, so I posted I was looking to move some for
a left wing or a d Roy was looking for prospects, and he reached
out with players he was interested in and he feels they both got what they
were looking for. Roy came in this year assessing his roster, felt that
he was two to three years from being able to go for it, and
believing that his prospect pool was strong, wanted to bolster with pieces that would
contribute for his window, which maybe too three years from now. With Sandan
playing well and with Carlson's injury last year, he was afraid he would miss
his window to get good value back, and he had this to say about
specifically the Tidy League. An interesting thing with moving futures in this league is
you don't want to get demoted, So he felt Gabe Vallardi and Phil Thomasina
would help him stay out of relegation but still have some upside as for the
more exciting prospect pieces here. He really liked go Tia and he wrote this
was earlier in the season, so he wrote that, especially with the mitchkov
exposure coming, which is not going to be a factor anymore, and we'll
get into that. He also liked Mittaichuk, so very excited to add him,
and that he was sad to let go of Hymen, but it was
a casualty of meeting Dave's needs. So again, some really solid veterans performing
maybe above their heads heading to join that Evil Empire team, and some younger
players with tons of upside heading the other way. A lot of ways to
look at this one, Victor, And you mentioned there's a lot of moving
pieces here, So let's try this. Which player is the best asset right
now, and which one'll be the best asset in three years? And which
side do you prefer. Yeah, there's so much going on in this trade.
I appreciate you laying it all out like that. I think that the
easiest way. I like that, the easiest clear answer I think is Zach
Hymen is the best player right now in this trade. I think he's really
going to help the Evil Empire as they try to escape the Lemieux Division,
or at least finish really highly. I also think I think it's close actually
between Attachuk and Gotier. So I want to dig into each one of these
a little bit, if you don't mind, because I think there's some interesting
situations with all these. Zach Hyman is just a puzzling player. I think
like he's just your every day run of the mill, turn thirty and then
become a point per game player, Like what it? It just doesn't really
make sense. He was always a fifty ish point player for five seasons,
and even his first season in Edmonton was maybe a little subpar run a sixty
point pace, and then he became this point per game player the last two
seasons. It just doesn't really happen that way. And so I dug into
some of his previous numbers. I was like, I was trying to think
about, is there a lesson here, right? Is there something that we
can see or is it just simply that obviously he's playing with two of the
best players in the world, which probably is the case, But was there
something that could have predicted this? And like his play driving numbers defensively have
never really been very good. He has been someone though, that I would
say could finish, that could have more goals or more expected goals than he
actually had. In the situation where he was put with some really good players,
you could see that maybe he would drive a little bit more. And
we did see that towards the end of his tenure there in Toronto, and
we've seen it obviously in Edmonton. I think it does make sense if there
is a situation like this again, where there's someone who has been a meddling
prospect or a meddling player and then goes to a really good situation. If
some of these metrics are in line, it's possible, even as a thirty
year old, twenty nine past their prime, that it could be really good.
I'm also really interested in the oiler situation because Hymen and rnh are committed
this team long term, but there's only two more years of McDavid in one
more year of dry title after this year. If they don't extend, Hymon's
value is going to take a nose Diive I would say, I don't know,
We'll see what happens. Obviously, Dave's not going to care if he
gets promoted this year and next, and I think he'll at least be really
good this year and next. Maybe a little bit less relevant there. On
the John Carlson side, I think that's a little bit more cut and dry.
He was obviously an elite fantasy asset for a long time, and now
he's just old in terms of hockey terms. He's thirty four years old.
But he has been declining for the last couple of years, and his priiffs
are still okay, but some of them have declined, like the hits and
not shooting as much. So there's definitely a bit of a decrease here.
But I think Dave can still and you all can still expect a forty five
to fifty five point pace this year and maybe beyond next year. He might
go down to forty forty five something like that. But I think that Carlson
is still decent for a couple more years, and I think that one of
the things Rory was talking about was, you know, whether that timeline was
going to make sense for him. I think it's probably a good time for
a lot of rebuilding retooling teams to get out from under Gerald Carlson if you
can, because he's someone who I could see just completely losing relevance, especially
and we'll talk more about Rasmus Sandy in a little bit later, but his
emergence is coming, I would say. And Okay, so the other pieces
really quickly gave Vallardi, Tomasino, mittaycheck and Gotier. Valardi is someone I've
long been a bit skeptical on, but I think that it's pretty clear he
is a fantasy relevant player in getting the opportunity that he's been getting increasing his
time on ice to almost seventeen minutes, and he's been close to a seventy
point player, So I think he can continue to be a sixty to seventy
point guy. And you mentioned the fantasy points per game five point four to
seven is definitely like closer to middle of the lineup kind of guy. It's
not a top of the lineup guy like Zach Hymen for the Forest, but
that's decent. That's pretty good coverage there. Tomasino, things obviously haven't gone
very well for him, and he hasn't really showed exactly what he could do.
He's been the forty point guy, but I think he's more than that.
But I don't know that he's more than a fifty point guy, which
is, you know what, even if he increased to that, I don't
know that he would be that helpful in this kind of setup. That one's
kind of a man. We'll see, but as a retooling team, sure
take a chance and see what happens. Denton mittaychuk Man. He was awesome
at the World Juniors. He didn't deserve He didn't deserve the poor outcome that
Canada got, he was great. I think for me, he really did
answer some questions in this tournament, because one thing we've been wondering about Mitaycheck
is if all the pressures on him, can he be the guy? Can
he be the guy to do everything to play defense, to turn the tide,
to drive play and generate offense. And I think he did everything.
He did everything he could. He was awesome. I still wonder little bit
about how he fits into the CBJ blue line, but when I look at
the Hockey prospecting model, it is pretty funny to me that one of his
best comps is his future teammate Zach Warnsky. He looks a lot like Zach
Warnsky in this model, and I think he could end up being that that
kind of top pairing or at least top four d man. And I think
depends on the style that you want on the power play, whether he gets
to run that or not. But I think he's going to play big minutes
and it's not going to be that far away. He's he's going to turn
twenty this July, and I think it's important to remember that he was really
young for his draft year, so he couldn't be in the HL this year.
He had to finish his time in junior get this last World Junior,
which I think is nice. He's really young for his draft year. He's
killing it for Moose Jaw. They're going to make a run at the WHL
title in Memario. Cup. Will see what happens. But then next year
he'll probably need an HL year, maybe two, So in an entidy it
might be a bit of a weight. So that's the other reason I could
see Dave moving on from him, because you might not see the fruits of
Dentimitacha for a few years. And then the last one. Of course,
we've all been talking about the cutter gotier, or or at least been hearing
and talking about it all week. The bombshell trade that happened, I don't
really know, and I don't really want to get into exactly what was the
genesis behind him asking for the trade, but clearly he wanted out of Philly,
and I think that that's going to be interesting with him in Anaheim now.
I think that the Anaheim Ducks have a really strong forward core, and
he was great at the World Juniors, and it sounds like he's going to
sign with Anaheim after the BC season. Sounds like he wanted to sign a
Philly last year but they couldn't for whatever reason. So he's looking ready to
become a pro. Obviously, he's not going to forego his chance for BC
to win a national title, so he's going to focus on that. But
after that, I think the nice thing here is that I don't think the
way for Goatee is more than a few months. I think he's probably going
to be in the NHL new next year, and I think with this before
gupen Anaheim, he could put up fifty plus points as a rookie and be
pretty relevant in the tidy as early as next year. So that's really nice.
Plus, you can flex that player up and down. The thing is,
I don't really think he can be a C a center in the NHL.
I think he's more of a winger, which might actually be good because
if you can slot him over to your wing, that's probably more helpful in
fantasy. I'm not sure it's as helpful for the Ducks because I think they
may want all those guys can play. See all those Carlson and McTavish I
think are clearly centers. But then Ziegers and Cutter. Gotier can play center,
but I think those last two are wingers, so either way they get
a nice solid top six. I think it's interesting between these. I don't
know you asked the question, who's better Mitaichuk or go Tier. I think
there's a pretty good chance that Miteichuk's actually the better piece three four years from
now, but Gotier is going to be relevant much quicker. So if I
had to choose just for the next couple of years, it would definitely be
Gotier. But if I had to choose four or five years from now,
I might just want the defenseman who is going to be out there playing a
ton and racking up priffs and have a really reasonable shot at running a top
power play for a team that we all think is going to be pretty good
in the next few years. We'll see if that happened at Columbus. But
that's what I think ran. That was a lot, But what are your
thoughts? I was going to say, I'm going to thank you for that
marathon of analysis you just gave us, and I'll talk for a bit so
you can catch your breath. Here. The first thing I want, the
thing I want to hammer home about this deal is that it happened in October,
early in the season, long before the Edmonton Oilers plummeted to the bottom
of the standings and climbed back up, long before Volardi broke out on the
Winnipeg top line, and long before this trade that happened this week with Gotier.
But you have to look at it in the context of starting out the
season, and so I think it does make a bit more sense, and
it is a bit more even if you look at it through that lens.
Gotier to me is the most interesting piece here. I think he's got a
great opportunity with that young coron Anaheim and will likely be a top line winger
for them for the better part of the next seven to ten years. That
alone, I think is the tipper for me. Can go Tia be a
twenty twenty three to twenty twenty four Zach Hyman as soon as three to four
years from now? Definitely? So then do we look at this deal as
Valardi, Thomasino and Mitaichuk for Carlson. I really like Mitaichuk, but it's
hard for us to know how he'll fit in on that defense. Like you
said, but if Warensky keeps the hospital bracelet on. We still have a
competition between Yurachek, David Yurachek, and Mittaychuck. And you can throw in
Adam Bokvist if you like. Maybe I wouldn't, but it's hard for us
to know how he'll fit in there. And like you said, if I'm
Dave, I would be comfortable moving on from him if I'm not going to
see the results for a couple of years. I'm not super high on Thomasino
either. I think he might just be a guy. Vollardi is certainly an
interesting piece this year, but he isn't the top winger on that team with
Kyle Connor and Nick Eeler's kicking around. That. All being said, I
lean to the field here and if I were Roy, I'd make this deal.
If I were Dave, I'd make this deal. I think it's fairly
even good job. Guys over to a deal with quite a few less moving
pieces, and we're actually going to go through these pretty quick. We've got
a few one for ones here. A player who we didn't get to see
much of in Gothenburg was Tristan Luno. Poor guy got a viral infection and
was hospitalized in Sweden while his buddies played one of the more underwhelming strings of
games ever played by a Canadian World Junior team. You got to think having
some of his NHL mojo would have helped this group. But I'll stop relitigating
the tournament and we'll just talk about this trade that happened in tidy Yager on
December fourth, where JB, one of our more active managers on the trade
block, acquires Tristan Luno from Mystics for dual eligible winger Matthew Joseph, who
comes in at four point five to six Fantasy points per game. Again,
it's pretty even split between our managers here. They all thirty five percent of
them think that this is a pretty even deal, with JB coming out on
top with about fifty percent of people thinking that this deal was for him.
And talking to both Mystics and JB, they've collaborated a number of trades this
year, the reason being that these are the two managers who are not afraid
to shake things up, which we appreciate as people who need content. For
this segment, JB says he's trying to grab guys that will be NHL ready
next year and we'll see if he can try and compete next year. But
for Luno, he thinks he can see big minutes and Anaheim will be solid
in one to two years. On the other hand, is going for it
now? Going for it this year all in after a great start to the
season, and she cited it's crazy hard to make a trade in this division
and that JB was willing to deal, so if she was lower in the
standings, she wouldn't have made this trade, which is true of every trade
that she has made this season. She's trying to compete and obviously Matthew Joseph's
injury has made this deal backfire for her. If I were JB, I
would feel a lot better about this deal after the cut four dry deal that
sent Drysdale to Philadelphia for Beek is really high on Luno, going on the
record of recent interviews to say that he believes that Luno is a big,
stronger version of Drysdale, with similar transition skills and a quiet confidence on the
offensive side of the puck. Do you agree with Verbik's assessment here, Victor?
How can I disagree with the little ball of hate? Right? The
guy just knows what he's doing. But then the other thing, the other
clear thing here is at Anaheim one hundred percent knows how to draft and develop
defenseman. They have such a track record. Even Noah Warren who was on
that Canadian team and didn't he's not going to get a lot of accolades,
but he's another defenseman for the Ducks and Rodwin Danichio, they have just seems
like anyone they take, no matter what round, ends up becoming an NHL
er. So and Luno was definitely someone that they had a little bit more
draft capital and invested in, and he certainly looks like he's he's trending in
all the right directions. He's been, for those of you who didn't know,
second round pick fifty third overall back in twenty twenty two, and he's
been and got to know for the Olympeaks and he's been fantastic. I mean,
he was almost a point per gameplay in his draft season. He's well
over that in his draft plus one. And then so far this season he's
split time in between the AHL and the NHL, and he's gotten some NHL
looks recently, and as you alluded to, I think the weight is going
to be minimal, if not zero for him because he's already playing in the
NHL. So I think the calculus might have been he'll be ready next year,
which I think I probably would have agreed with, but it seems like
it's going to be sooner, so you got to like that. I think
there are some concerns maybe about how Luno fits in with Mitchikoff, who's now
injured. That might change because there's opportunity in Zellweger, But I think,
as you alluded to, the Ducks have showed their hand that Luno is getting
a shot ahead of Zellweger. He is older. Zelweger is really young for
his draft age, so I think having similar amount of experience and Luno is
maybe a little bit bigger, similar mobility. Looking at his pnhle, Luno
currently looking like a second liner, but that's because they haven't played too many
games this season. But in his QMJHL's experience, he was looking like a
first liner, a seventy ish point guy, and in hockey prospecting, he
looks like a couple of pretty good players, one of them James Wiznowski,
who was a star producer. So I think I would lean towards the Luno
side. Matthew Joseph is a really interesting guy. My first take on this
was like, Oh, he's a fine kind of middle of the lineup guy,
and then I dug into it a little bit more, and I think
it's interesting because Ottawa was a bit in a bit of des array. I
would say they clearly came into the season thinking they would be better, and
they are not good. But I think Joseph is one of the pleasant surprises
here. Now. He has three hundred and fifteen games under his belt,
and I wouldn't say he's an overly large player. He's six one point eighty
six, so I think his threshold for breakout usually we says around two hundred
games, so he's well past that. He played fifty eight this season,
so he was passed it last season. His time on ice is up two
and a half minutes. His power play time on ice is is really high,
even though he has zero power play points, which is wild to think
about, and his five on five shooting percentage pdo are all pretty high.
You blend all that together and it's yeah, he's probably cooking a bit hot,
is Matthew Joseph. But it's not that hot, and he probably deserves
some power play points which he's not getting. Maybe he is this sixty ish
point player that he is shown to be, and for a middle of the
lineup kind of player, that can be pretty helpful four point five six.
I was just looking to confirm tidy scores. About three and a half is
a replacement level for a forward, and four and a half is probably middle
to the lineup for most players. But that's some solid production for your team,
so it's not nothing. And he's pretty good defensively, So I think
that Joseph is probably going to continue to get good minutes and decent deployment,
and I think he can be that fifty five to sixty five point guy,
which is probably more than Luno's going to do for now, but Luno might
get even more opportunities, so I definitely I agree. I think this probably
is fairly even because I think it can help both teams depending on what they
want. But in terms of just a strong, decent production, Joseph is
fine for now, but I gotta like Luno. I think it's relatively even,
but I think I would prefer that side. What about you, Ryan,
Yeah, I think FHL listeners will probably not be too surprised to hear
that I prefer Luno as well. I just love that archetype of player.
Any Time I can get a young defenseman who has some offensive upside and can
also mix it up physically and use their size, I can get behind that
player. I don't care too much about Joseph. I agree with your assessment.
He's a good player. Like he's middle of the lineup. You can
count on him for some offensive production. He's got some peripherals, not a
ton, but he's doing pretty good in that respect as well. And I
love a player who's not afraid to get dirty in front of the net.
There, I will say. I was listening this morning to thirty two Thoughts
with the Jeff Merrick and Elliott Friedman. They were talking about the potential of
Joseph moving out of town. He's a contract that they could move. They
need to move some space and make some space for Shane Pinto and try and
make their team good, which is something that Ottawa is not right now.
And so I do think for now this is good for Matthew Joseph, but
I think this is probably the best he can expect because They were talking a
little bit about like how high do you want him to play in your lineup?
And he's making three million dollars a year for the next year and a
half, how much do you want him to play on your second line?
And is that too much even for your fourth line? So it's a hard
deal to make, and probably he ends up somewhere where he has less opportunities.
So give me Luno all day here. I understand why Mystics made the
trade. For sure could help her this season, and we'll keep an eye
on that as we go. Another pretty cut and dry one here from Tidy
Yager. One for one, we have Nolan m acquiring Tommy Novak, who
is producing at about four point fantasy points per game from Gambler's Anonymous who acquires
Jaggerfur. Similar players here, spread out in age twenty six to nineteen,
but still playing I think a similar role two years from now. Nolan very
simple for him. He needed some more center depth, and they've been talking
about this Novak deal since the offseason, and so Nolan let it hang a
bit into the season before buying on Novak as a fifty to sixty point center.
He would rather just buy on that now instead of waiting for Fercus to
pan out. As for Gambler, Fercus wasn't his first choice, but he's
an intriguing prospect. He had a lot of players who were center only and
found that Novak was a little redundant on his roster and wanted to maximize his
games. Played a very simple deal there. When I saw this deal,
Victor, I thought about the Spider Man's pointing at each other meme. Once
Fercus fills out a bit, they will have very similar builds and skill sets,
and aside from obviously Fergus's incredible NH already shot, they will have very
similar skill sets. I think as well, who would you prefer at a
Furcus in Novak. You're right about the shot. When you were saying that,
I was like, oh, but Fergus has a better shot, But
then you said that not much to add there. Yeah, I think similar
in terms of perhaps how relevant they are on their team and to your fantasy
team. But I think I would go no back because he's already there,
and I think Fercus being a smaller guy and the environment that he's going to
be in Seattle that kind of spreads around the wealth. I think that might
be a more difficult situation to break into, and Novak's already there. I
think we all knew what he did last season, sixty nine point pace with
a eighteen percent shooting percentage and really high pdo. I think we all knew
that was going to come down, but it has really way over corrected.
I think he's better than a fifty two point player, which is where he's
at right now, and for a while even lower than that. I think
he was like sub forty point player. It was really not looking good.
So I think he was definitely a by low candidate, and I think he
will continue to do even better. Right now, he's at three point nine
ninety tiny points per game, as you mentioned, and as I referenced,
three point five kind of being that low threshold, So he is on the
lower end, but I do think he can ride a lot higher than that.
I think at times last year he was hitting closer to five or six
Fantasy points when he was riding hot, and I think he can do close
to that again. I have him not in the tidy, but in the
one of what FHL dynasties that we started, or the precursor that laid the
foundation for these leagues, and that league, like the Tidy, does not
have a flex spot or a skater spot, and so it can be difficult
to roster a center only type of player like Novak. So from that perspective,
I totally get it, because if you can get a dual eligible player
or a winger, that might be better, but it does probably hurt losing
someone who can be a little bit who I think can be a lot better
this season. But I understand no one's perspective. If all works out for
Furcus, I totally think it's it could be him, but I would take
the security in Novack for now. Furcus, it was really disappointing, as
we alluded to, we did not get to see him at the World Junior.
I'm glad the guy got at least a trip over there and he got
to skate on the rink and have some of that experience. It would have
been nice if he had showed a little bit better at selection camp, he
might have been on the team in the first place. But at any rate,
he'll just have to settle for continuing to tear up the WHL because that's
what he's been doing and it's going really well. Moose Jaw great team and
they should be real contenders. And then next year he'll be in the AHL,
which will be a really important year for him to see how that scoring
translates to the professional ranks. I'm very interested to see, especially being a
smaller guy, which he's still only one hundred and sixty pounds, that physical
play is going to be difficult for him. So I'm curious to watch.
But I think Furcus is still is going to need at least two more years
one at least one, probably two and maybe even more than that to break
in. So that would be my concern in this format is the weight.
If we didn't have to think about the tidy context, and I was okay
losing a middle of the lineup middle to the bottom Lamblick Novak, then I
might prefer the Furcus side. What about you, Ryan, Yeah, I
agree with you on Fercus. I really wish we could have seen him at
the World Juniors, but the wisened heads at Hockey Canada decided we had to
see Nate Danielson and Oen l Ard instead, that you've got to trust them
that they really know what they're doing when it comes to hockey. Clearly,
I love Fercus as a player. I love that player type as well,
similar to Braden Yaeger too, as you'll remember, I love that player too,
but he's heading to Seattle, where offense goes to die, and so
that would not be my first choice for him. As a result, I
think I'll lean to Novak, who I could see down the middle in Nashville
for a little while at least, although I think it is a little hard
to know what Barry Trotz is going to do there. Novak could just be
a seat filler, or he could be a real part of the future theirs.
I think, give me the guy who's doing it right now, but
Fercus on a different team, I could be convinced. It's time now,
Victor, for us to cool our heels on the World Juniors talk. And
as we cool down from that marathon of discussion, it's time to talk about
Logan Cooley. The enigmatic young center for the Arizona Coyotes turn pro this season
and has stuck in the NHL this year, which is definitely exciting for Coyotes
fans and management. I think many people had loftier expectations for him at this
point in this season than to be chipping away at a forty point pace.
But for me, he's played in all of Arizona's games and is trying to
sort out his role on a team that's full of Swiss army knives like Alex
Kerfoot and those types of players, So good on them for sticking in the
lineup. The two deals will be analyzing today are similar in the sense that
Kooley is the return piece for some established pro NHL players with very little prospect
involvement. We'll start with the all pro deal, which sees Roast Turkey acquiring
the aforementioned defenceman from the Washington Capitals, Rasmus Sandan and Logan Cooley from the
Logan London Spider Knights, who acquire Darnell Nurse and Brayden schen And it's pretty
lopsided here. People think that Roast Turkey acquiring Sandin and Cooley is the big
win here. I think people need to remember this is not a cap league,
so Darnell Nurse's contract really doesn't come into play for the tidy. I
think part of the bad feelings around Nurse is related to his contract. I
will share a bit of what the managers had to say, although they were
quite verbose when they came to describing this deal, So I'll do a bit
of a cut on the go here. Roast Turkey inherited his team this year,
felt like that he had to make some trades to get younger and had
some good older stars in Nurse and Shen that he could move along for Sandy
and and Cooley. Cooley was on the trade block for the London Spider Knights
and so he reached out, gave him a couple options and they ended up
agreeing on Nurse and Shen. He wanted to move on from Nurse and Shen
and get some younger players that were going to impact his team this year.
Mike for the London Spider Knights. He's a huge fan and a believer in
Logan Cooley and sees him as a long term, high end fantasy player and
it definitely hurt to give him up in the tidy format. In his opinion,
it rewards teams who push in and try to compete, which is what
trying to do right now. And at the time of the trade, he
felt he was underperforming as a team but could potentially be a playoff team.
He feels that Shannon Nurse had very unlucky starts to the season, and that
when he looked at some of the numbers under the hood, like on a
shooting percentage and raat stats, felt that both would bounce back as the sample
size grew, which lined up well with his team, which was also underperforming.
So he said he is prepared to look back and say that he lost
this trade in the long term, but over the next two seasons, which
is the theme today, he felt he was showing up a couple of solid,
middle of the lineup players who could help him compete and try to win.
Now, I love the analysis here from our managers. It's clear they
both thought through this deal from the long and short term ramifications. I also
love that both of these guys went into the deal looking to make a big
move and swing for the fences. And more of you tidy managers could take
some notes here, especially in Tidy Lidstrom and in my division, Lord Stanley,
what do you think of these big swings, Victor and which side would
you prefer to come out with here? I absolutely have to agree with Rose
Turkey. I love Logan Cooley. I think that he's everything that he said.
I think he's a true one seat in the making and a fantasy asset
star fantasy asset. And I also love big swings however it works out.
I love seeing gms who have guts and we'll make those big trades, even
though sometimes it is hard to do. I think what was mentioned there having
an honest assessment of your team, do you think you're really underperforming or overperforming,
and not just looking at the run numbers. In fact, I was
having this conversation with a friend, Simon, who's in in Tidy and basically
a dozen other leagues with me, and I was talking about a trade with
him and looking at him, thinking he was a rebuilding team, and he
was like, no, look at my scoring and look at my team,
and they're shooting percent they're on our shooting percentags are low and all this stuff,
and he was like, we're gonna be fine. We're gonna make the
playoffs. And at the time, he was like thirteenth out of sixteenth,
and I was like, what, okay, I'm not gonna argue with you,
like I thought you were a good trading partner for competitive team, but
obviously not, so move along and go lo and behold his team has completely
turned around and are headed towards the playoffs. I think it's really important to
do your analysis to know where your team truly sits and then push your chips
in. So that's what it's I totally respect that. And even though as
was mentioned, Coolly doesn't look like he's going to be that star Fantasy acid
this year, I agree with you. I think it's impressive what he's doing
just staving off deployment and stealing deployment from established NHL bats in his first season.
That's a huge win. Even though he only has the forty point pace
and some of his underlyings don't look amazing. He's getting a bit caved in
offensively, defensively and offensively not creating too much. But still I think this
is a win for him as a first year in the first player first year
player in the league. I think that star breakout is not too far off.
Maybe next year, unless he hits a sophomore slump. Depends on how
they decide to use him. If they use him more as a matchup set,
that's going to take a hit. But if they move him up to
that top line and plays with Keller, then all bets are off. I
do the Sandy in Cooley side, I think a little bit better, especially
for now and Sandin seems like he's ready and poised to take a bit of
the mantle from John Carlson as he slows down. But it hasn't really translated
so much this year, even though he's playing a lot, a lot more
minutes than he ever has huge minutes. Three seasons ago on Toronto he was
sub seventeen minutes and now he's over twenty two minutes. That is a massive
responsibility, so you shouldn't be too concerned that the points aren't coming quite yet.
All it takes is a little coaching decision or injury to John Carlson and
then things completely changed. So I do like that. But on the other
hand, I posted in the notes here a rampum chart of these two players,
and it's bleeding orange. It's all really bad. Like offensively, defensively,
they don't look good. I don't know. We don't care about that
from a fantasy perspective, because the fantasy points for the post of those are
deep, or at least for Cooley, should be trending up. But at
the same time, it doesn't look good. On the other hand, as
you mentioned, Darneld Nurse is a stud. Even though his minus twenty three
giveaway takeaway ratio is very bad and his fenwick isn't as good as it should
be, he still has a really high perferal floor and every once in a
while he's scored some goal. He's scored a goal the other night. That's
huge and he's a great win now piece. So I totally get it from
the Nurse perspective. Hey, yeah, he is absolutely going to help you
win now. In terms of Shen, I don't really know what to say
about Shen. I'm very confused with Shen. We've had I've had discussions with
Shen because I have him in a couple of leads, one with Elon,
and I don't know what to do with him. He's just awful right now.
He's got a thirty seven point pace. He hasn't had that low of
a pace since twenty eleven twelve when he played for Closierize. And think about
it, everyone, what team did Bradon Sheen play for that year was the
Philadelphia Flyers his third first real full season in the league, actually, because
before that he played nine games with over two seasons with LA. So it's
been a long time since he's been this bad. It just seems like something's
off with him. It seems like some of the other players are being leaned
on more heavily. It's not necessarily his fault, but it just isn't good,
and I don't think it can continue. I don't mind if I'm a
win Now team acquiring Nurse and taking a gamble on Shen if I can afford
the roster spot, because why the heck not. I think it can't get
worse than this, and maybe it'll get better. And for a win Now
team, those are some pretty nice assets. And as we keep saying,
if you're out of this division next year, you don't care. But if
you don't win the promotion, yeah, Shen might continue to go downhill and
then you'll be a little bit sorry. But Nurse will still be good,
so I think you'll be okay. What about you, Ryan, You're the
optimist victor, and I am the pessimist, And I'm going to come in
here with the negativity on Branden Sen. For me, he's a bottom of
the roster player right now and he's only going to get worse. And if
you think it can't get worse, try watching Sat Louis Blues game. He
could possibly be unrosterable and tiety as soon as next year. But Nurse,
on the other hand, is a great get for a league like this,
especially since we don't count the cap hit, which you have to do in
this league. Divorcing him from his cap hit. You have a solid muncher
with great peripherals and some offense on a great team that has poised to compete
for the Cup for the next two years until they have to make a decision
on those star players. That's a pretty fun piece to own in this league,
and it's one that we wish we had. Lord Stanley right now.
Let me tell you, as a Leafs fan, I'm not supposed to care
anymore. He doesn't exist to me anymore. But I've always loved his skill
set in transition and on the power play. And the guy hits too.
Let's not forget there were some pretty great hits reverse hits, in particular in
some of those playoff runs that he was allowed to play in when Keith led
him off the bench. As he crests into his mid career, you have
a very intriguing piece for the bottom of your lineup at least in this league.
Like you said, he might get some more play when Carlson eventually retires
or moves on, but then you might have some competition from the right handed
version of Sandeine, which is Ethan Bear. I think he'll hang around on
the bottom of people's rosters, but I don't know if I see much more
upside for him beyond where he is right now. So if it's Cooley for
Nurse, give me Cooley. But I think both managers get what they want
here. We'll finish off here with a lecture from our favorite professor of fantasy
hockey Pies and Craftster. I seriously feel like I learned so much every time
I read what Craftster has to say in the discord or reading the analyses of
their trades. So Craftser acquires, and this may seem a little lopsided,
but Craftser has an explanation here. He's acquired Logan Cooley from the Cape Breton
Oilers managed by Ian for William Carlson, Toyvo Terra Vinen, Matthew Potras,
and David Reinbacher. So some good young pieces, some good bottom roster pieces
here. People are fairly evenly split. I would say a bit leaning more
towards the Cape Breton side. Obviously, I think four pieces for one.
I think you can probably see why people think that. Craftser had mentioned that
the seed for this year was planted in his head over the summer when Ian
took over the roster and lamented about the prospect heavy makeup of his roster considering
the relegation rules. According to kraft Sir, he needed producing NHLers and given
the prospect of emotion expected he'd be willing to sacrifice some upside for current production,
which is a deal that makes sense for him now he's the one getting
logan Kooli. Crafts felt that he had bombed the first four rounds of the
inaugural draft last year, focusing on high floor players such as Shasturkin, Headman,
Caine, and Lindholm and lacking in the high end scorers. He felt
that he could move some of his middle of the draft pieces like Tara,
Vinen and Carlson to become deeper on the high end of his roster, and
so he feels that this is a commentary on how we should be building rosters
in the tidy where bottom roster pros need to be better than replacement producers because
they're checking up a spot to stream the farm into. So he felt he
needed to acquire as many zero to one hundred game producers as possible, and
this deal presented an opportunity to send some of those bottom roster pros for a
guy like Logan Cooley, who could probably contribute very well as a minor eligible
player over to Ian. And it's tough to talk about this roster because it
is really not a great roster. I don't think I would mind me saying
that since he took over the team, he didn't build it. The team
is still without a win yet this year, and so Ian felt he needed
to move some stud prospects to get some players who can produce, desperate to
trade for some help. And actually right now, fairly recently he moved Brent
Clark and Jasper Wallstad to a team. And that's that risk of relegation to
try and get Philip Forsburg and make something happen fast here. What do you
make victor of Krafter's assertion that these bottom roster pros need to be better than
replacement producers. And do we think he comes out on top by shedding Toyvo
and while Bill Carlson to upgrade Patrist to Cooley, in general, I completely
agree with craftser I think think that you absolutely should be trying for top of
the lineup players and trying to cut the bottom as much you can, and
for a lot of these players, a flex minor player maybe just as helpful
or similarly helpful and gives you more roster flexibility. So I agree. Knowing
that replacement level at three point five points per game, Carlson and Tarravina are
either a little above that in Travina's case, are quite a bit in terms
of Carlson's case, But in general, I do think that's the right way
to go. Patra is interesting. I think he's going to end up being
close to replacement level next year and he won't be minors eligible, so I
feel like that's a not so big of a factor. Maybe that's wrong,
and maybe he ends up becoming quite a bit better, and I think it's
reasonable to take the risk on that. For Turbo, I think he could
go back to being nothing. He had long stretches of not doing much,
and I think Carolina, with their spread out deployment, I wouldn't feel too
bad about missing out on that one. So for me, I think it
really comes down to Carlson and Ryanbacker for Kooley, And in that case,
I think it is interesting. I generally, when I look at these kinds
of trades, I see four guys on one side, and I just automatically
think that can't be the right side, because there's just like throwing mud at
the wall and see what sticks. But I'm not sure that's entirely the case
here. Carlson is a really interesting one. I mean, we all know
that first year in Vegas he went crazy seventy eight point pays forty three goals.
This season, he doesn't have that many goals, and I don't think
he'll get any more close to forty again, but he has a sixty nine
point pace, so he's not that far off. He's has having the best
season he's had since that big breakout in Vegas. But everything is running hot.
Power play, time on I is, total time on ice, shooting
percentage PO, everything is just really high. Sixteen percent shooting, not the
twenty three he shot that one entire year, but pretty high, so seems
like a pretty good cell high. And then Ryan Bacher, I think could
be really good in this format because he plays a ton, he should play
a ton drive play. I'm not sure he'll have all the counting stats,
but he should be pretty relevant, probably have some decent takeaways and stuff like
that. So between the two, obviously, Carlson's gonna probably continue to be
valuable at least the rest of this season, but then beyond that it's going
to get really interesting. I think I would lean Coolly have extolled his virtues
above. I think he's going to be a fantastic player, but it might
take another season or two, and in that case it might be a little
difficult, So I would lean Carlson. I do agree with Craftzer in general,
but I also think this is probably just fine for Ian. I think
he got a lot of assets, and some of them could hit and become
the top line center for a really good Boston team and play with Pasternak,
and I think that'll bump up his points per game, maybe even double,
maybe even closer to six. That would obviously pretty good for him. But
what do you think, Ryan Victor, This deal is a huge win for
Ian just based on the context of his team. He might as well call
the team the misfit Toys because the top scorer on his team is wild Bill
Carlson after acquire him from Crafts for Logan Kooley, And so, if I
were in Ian shoes saddled with this roster, I would take any opportunity to
get more NHLers on the roster. So, although I probably would prefer Kooley
as a player myself, I think I do this all day if I'm in
Looking at Ian season so far, there's a shortfall of about one hundred points
a week. And when you look at the high end prospects he started the
season with, you can understand why this is an amazing roster five years from
now. So if he can hang around for five more years, he might
dominate the tidy. Here are his top prospects. Are you ready for this?
Victor Yeri, Koolik, Rutger McGroarty, Frank Nazer the Third, Matt
Savoy, Liam Ogrin, Jordan Dumay, Joachim Kemmel, Jimmy snuggerud Layne Hudson,
Denton Mattachuk, David Ryan Bacher, Lucas Dostyle, You'll Hoefer, Mad
Soguard and Dustin Wolf. Oh my god, what a team five years from
now? Right? So I think Craftster definitely took the opportunity to come out
with the best player here, but Ian got some players to help flesh out
his roster and acquired his leading scorer, So there you go. It shows
how this league is different than many other dynasties. A. We've all played
against the team who has all these prospects, but in the tidy that team
is going to be relegated and blown up, so the urgency factor gets ramped
way up. And it's not for lack of trying on Ian's part. He
has been one of the more active managers on the trade market. As I
mentioned, he recently traded more studs away in Jasper Wallstad at Brent Clark for
Philip Forsburg. That deal may have more of the impact he's looking for,
but I don't think it'll make up one hundred points a week. So sending
Ian our best wishes for finishing out the season here, and thanks again to
Craftster for a great analysis of this deal. Yes sir, and thanks so
much Ryan for collating and putting all these together, especially the manager notes.
It's super helpful to understand the context. Yeah, our best asset here are
the managers in this league. A lot of really smart people playing this league,
and I'm just really trying to knock relegated myself here out of Lord Stanley.
So I'll take the opportunity to sit under the learning tree that Craftzer has
planted for us and other managers. So thanks everyone, and thanks Victor for
having me again on this segment. The tidy takes selfish, that's right,
selfish, break it down, skate the fuck, don't bat. Hey,
it's still gonna be there when you catch up on taking Coast to coast talking
for angles are still shot bad bounced, that's a good breakaway. I get
the bounced boys that For the second segment before that, Brian down and he's
a pretty smart guy. I listened to some of the things he just had
to say, and yeah, I think that's some great breakdown that you and
he did of some of the trades that are going on in our listener league.
Victor, and now we are going to talk about some of the articles
that you have rocking or there at ep Ringside, where you produce some great
content and some of the players, the ex gamers that we have to talk
about at this time of year, and one of them, Victor Maddie Baniers
is our first one. This time it's personal. I am a avowed Maddi
Banier's stand and he is definitely in a sophomore slump after that Calder winning rookie
year. He's still skating with the same guys, Jordan Everly, Jared mccannon.
His defense actually, according to advanced metrics from Michael Blake, McCurdy has
improved, but the offense clearly has declined. His powerplay production is poor,
his shooting percentage has dropped in half, So there's some luck involved there.
That said, he makes everyone around him on that Seattle crack and franchise better
offensively at five on five. According to the With or Without You except Jordan,
every who seems to do a little bit better without Benier's and of course
that's bad news because that's who he's playing with all the time. So there
is much to be said about Matti Benier's I am hoping that he this is
a blip. The second half he continues to take off. What do you
think, Victor, you have been studying up on Matti Benier's and telling the
people your take what's going on with Maddie. I think this is clearly retribution
for you taking him ahead of me in the Diesel league that we mentioned at
the beginning. I whispered in Mad's ear, just play poorly now, because
Jesse has you, and that's what he's doing. I drafted Matti Beniers as
my first prospect, No, my second prospect in a four sport draft.
Okay, my second prospect in a four sport draft. My first pick for
a row turned out to be a sex offender and probably will never play baseball
again. I don't know that I need bad karma from you, Victor,
but go on, Oh, I didn't know about the other one. You
guys whenever you guys talk about baseball edit being now So yeah, I know,
but yeah, I think as you mentioned, definitely seems like some sophomore
slumping going on. And one of the things I mentioned in the article that
I think will continue to be true regardless of his fantasy impact is that he
will always be a better real life player than he will a fantasy asset.
Because Matty Veneers is a great player, He's valuable to the Seattle Kraken,
probably much more so than he will be to your fantasy team at any point,
and that's that kind of sucks, I guess, you know, obviously
for your fantasy team. But it's also just important to keep in mind that
he is going to continue to get opportunity. He is getting good time on
ice, he is getting opportunity. His power play time is up this year,
his total time on ice is up, his shooting percentage is down.
Everything that you could pretty much point to say is he still doing good job
or is he just is not making sense? And I think he is still
doing well in terms of the what the team, what's helped the team.
It obviously isn't translating to the score sheet, and that isn't necessarily his fault.
Part of that is the way that the team is constructed, and that's
actually part of the reason I was giving you a hard time. But that's
actually part of the reason why at the time, when I could have taken
Mighty Beeneers in that league, I told Dolan to go ahead and take a
different sport because I was just a little bit worried that as good as Beniers
is, he wouldn't be able to thrive in that Seattle offense because he's just
another guy. That's the way they run things there. But it is also
important to realize that the Kraken are currently bottom five and goals per game,
and last season they were top five and goals per game, So that's obviously
an environmental issue that has nothing to do with Beniers really, and he did
do a lot more. I think if you look at his rampom chart,
holy cow, his actual goals per sixty are cratering and his expected goals are
maybe not where you would want them to be, surely, but it's he's
getting very unlucky, but still driving play defensively, still very good. So
I think this is all going to correct, and Matti Beniers deserves more.
But I don't know that he'll ever be that like point per game plus player
that we all kind of think he can be. It's going to take the
right environment for him. So if it all breaks right and he gets some
really strong wingers and he gets a coach that wants to play him twenty two
minutes a night twenty three minutes and give him some strong finishers, then I
think he can but I don't know when that's going to be. Jesse,
Yeah, it's not a good situation there, but yeah, it's the Kraken
are a team that loves to roll multiple lines at relatively equal amounts of time.
But I think there's going to be a stabilization. It's going to be
better than it has been. Might not be quite at the level it was
last year, But you've been saying, credit to you, victory. You've
been saying since day one, this is the deal with Matty Beniers. We
ask the people about Matty Benier's Mason Black. The NHL Rankking did a poll
for US Matt Beneers versus Logan Cooley out there on the internet, who would
people prefer to roster? Two dred ten votes and Logan Cooley with a decisive
victory seventy to thirty. Is that how you see a victor? Yeah?
I do, I do. I do really like Coolly better. I think
both of these guys have the potential to be a top line center in the
NHL, so it's hard to go really wrong. I think in a league
like the Tidy that might care more about takeaways and time on ice and Fenwick
maybe Benneer's gets a little bit more of a boost. But Coolly, I
think, is a top line center who can score point per game, plus
who has that dynamic offensibility that finishing ability and kind of demands that top deployment
just because of his skill set. So I think he's more dynamic. I
think he has a higher point ceiling, even though his floor is maybe a
little bit lower. But I think the floor is actually pretty similar. When
you look at the hockey prospecting between these two, it's actually pretty similar.
And the pnhl's well, you know, right now they look a little wonky
because Kooley isn't doing so well in the NHL, but it actually looks a
little bit higher all in, although I do just think that Kooley is a
more dynamic player, although I think he'd be pretty happy with either Jesse,
don't you think I do? Yeah, I think Logan Cooley's definitely guy.
I also enjoy Victor Next up, Axel sandin Pelica, a man who plays
for the Detroit Red Wings or will someday. He's actually tied for second on
the Swedish World Junior's Championship team in points among the defensemen, so he wasn't
quite the blowing away the field guy in terms of defense, but it was
still an excellent tournament for him at the World Juniors. It was a ninetieth
percentile performance per Mitch Brown's data actually among defensemen there. He was also injured
and allegedly will be out one to two months with an upper body injury that
involves a plaster cast according to the coverage there. And somehow the Wings get
one of these great defensemen every single year in the lottery. Lately, I
don't understand they keep slipping to him. This year. I think it was
a little bit more of a understood of a no brainer than it was with
Ebanson or Cider in some ways relative to at the time they were selected.
But what did you think of sandem pellicap because you just got a good opportunity
to watch him in the World Juniors, and what do you think of him
going forward to Victor. Yeah, a player this young doesn't typically get the
reins to such top offensive deployment and minutes at a really competitive tournament like the
World Junior. So it was just impressive to see him in the role that
he had and playing the minutes that he had. I think that sometimes gets
a little bit overlooked because this is typically a nineteen year old tournament. Sweden
is always a very strong team, and so the fact that they actually let
eighteen year old defenseman do so much and they had. That was probably the
strength of the Swedish team too. It's the defenseman they did really well and
it shows if you look at the scatagraphs that Mitch Brown has on his tracking
data. Lindstein was incredible. He was driving play in every direction. His
primary assists were really high but accuallyon Sadeen Palika had more expected primary goals than
Lindstein and had a similar the next best amount of primary assists as well.
So his play driving was really well, was really good, and all of
the other metrics looked pretty good as well. His defense, his transition is
offense. He looks like an all around stud defenseman, which I think is
really the question that we've always had about him. Is he just an offense
like a smaller undersized defenseman, or can he really truly be a top four
all situations kind of guy? And I think he answered some of those questions,
not fully, but he answered some of those questions. In this tournament.
He is looking like he's more of an all around guy, and that's
something that I get into in the article to which I encourage you to go
read, really breaking down like where are his weaknesses, what are all the
things that he can do. I got some great quotes from Jimmy Hamreen,
who we've had on the show, and Lasi allen In who watches him very
closely over there, Both of those guys in Sweden, and then a couple
other scouts that are here North American based. They all had really interesting things
to say about him and what his upside is. And I think the consensus
is that, yeah, he does look like a top four kind of guy.
I'm not sure that he's a top pairing, but I think there's more
agreement that he's looking more and more like he can be in all situations kind
of guy and not just a bottom pairing, top power play kind of guy,
which is the concern. Not from a fantasy perspective, but if you're
that guy, you might struggle to get minutes, even strength minents and put
up other counting stats. So that's looking less concerning about Accine Sandal Pelleka Jesse.
It is a definite concern, but yeah, things are looking up,
assuming that it comes back very healthy from whatever's out with Right now. We
had Mason Black put the pull out there for people. Alexander nikishon of the
Carolina Hurricanes Fame versus ASP and the vote came in and actually Nikkeishon edged Axel
signdin Pelica fifty two to forty eight, Victor. Is that the same way
that you would rank these two? I don't think so. I'm a little
I was always a little skeptical with Nikishon because he's in restaurant and he has
a contract there for a couple more seasons, and basically he was He went
from a nothing team to an all star team and put up a ton of
points, and so you always have to wonder is that not just the environment
or is this actually him exploding and taking a huge step in And so far
this season he's got thirty nine points in fifty games, which is still really
good for a defenseman in the KHL, So no no question about that.
In fact, he's actually listed as a captain of this Scott Saint Petersbergtarian team,
so he's got some leadership put a letter on his sweater, so he's
playing other minutes as well. But I'm just a little concerned that he comes
and translates all that fully. So I can understand why people really like him
though, because he is Nikisha doesn't have the size issues. He's huge,
six' four, very mobile, two hundred and sixteen pounds. You have
to figure he can play top pairing minutes, and he's doing it already in
the KHL. The only question is does he come over and does he translate
his game to North America Really well, I'm a little less concerned that actually
sending Pelica wants to come. That seems pretty clear. So that's that's the
That's why I would maybe lean a little bit more towards ASP than Nikisha.
And plus Nikisha playing for Carolina, they have just so many options and even
though he probably is one of the he is the top prospect I would say
in that system, but I think there's just a few more question marks.
It would make me a little bit more nervous, and I have to if
I had to really choose between these two, I think I might just go
ASP for the more security of him coming over. What do you think Tom
All? For security? And ASP certainly was impressive in that tournament, and
frankly, also there is the in Stevie why we trust factor going on right
now. Dawson Mercer of the New Jersey Devil's definitely more of a known factor,
more of a proven factor than mister Sandy pellicup. But it's Apple's an
orangees. He's not doing quite as well as last year. Is the basic
story here. It's a little bit puzzling. He's down in points even though
he's got a sixty eight IPP at even strength, so he's getting plenty of
points participation, he's getting plenty of recorded assists when the team scores. Boys
on the ice. His time on ice is up a minute from last year.
His time of power play time on ice is a little bit down from
it's low. It's the same as last year low. He's not a power
play specialist at this point. His linemates have been a scramble, a mess
on New Jersey, and frankly, New Jersey's having a down year last year
in some fifty six points for him in all eighty two games this year,
only thirty over twenty over the first thirty eight games. Maybe, like Veniers,
it's partly the team around him. Lately, he seems to have rebounded
a little bit. A lot of his production has actually come in the last
few weeks when he has been on the line with Meyer and McLeod although that
continues to evolve. I don't know, Victor, it's it's a rough situation
with mister Mercer. Is there anything you have to say about his season so
far and what your outlook is on him. I think Mercer is actually a
little bit like what we talked about with Matty Veneer's and that is and that's
part of what I talk about in the article, is that I think he's
he might just be too versatile for his own good. And that's actually what
I asked Greg Rushinski for one of the quotes in the article, and I
think he agreed, is that he is. He's just you can put him
anywhere. You can put him on the top line wing, you can put
him as a second C, three C. You can move him basically anywhere
in your entire top nine or top twelve, even I don't know that you
want him on the fourth line. Top nine is usually what a lot of
teams are going with now. And because he can move anywhere, they do.
They move him around, and they play them with different players, and
they have them play center at times and not necessarily with the best scoring wingers.
And he's still so good that he's turning that into offense and still contributing
you like that, but he has some but he also has some sort of
mixed underlying stats. I think that he is despite all that, having some
pretty high offensive zone starts, which is which you like to see. But
then he's also when you look at the teammates that he's playing with, it's
a whole jumble. Most players have thirty forty to fifty. Even some guys
who play together lost sixty seventy percent with one combination. If you look at
the frozen tools for Dustin Mercer, the highest he has with any combination is
ten percent ten point six percent. That's crazy, and the low it then
it's like eight eight seven six six. So he's getting absolutely thrown all around
in different combinations, and I think that's also going to be make it hard
for you to produce at a really high level. So there are a lot
of things working against Mercer, I would say in terms of it being a
true fantasy asset, unless you're talking about a really deep league that has a
lot of other categories. I think Mercer's going to be just frustrating because I
think he's hover around that fifty point mark and the team is just going to
feel totally comfortable moving him to play third line center instead of top line wing,
which we all want him to do, and he clearly can thrive there.
But so come other players, and it's specifically someone like Alex Holt,
where it's like Alex Holtz needs somebody to move the puck for him to pass
him the puck. Mercer doesn't need that. He can do those things for
other players, and so someone like Colts might get a better deployment just because
he needs it to be relevant and Mercer does not. Of course, Mercer
isn't going to get healthy scratched, which Holts might be. So it is
a good and the bad there. Yeah and yeah again, his time on
ice is up a little bit, but you're right, the role could continue
to be very flexible. Mason Black the NHL ranking, gave us a poll
out there on the internet. Maybe he was trying to help Dawson out a
little bit because he put him up against Luke Evangelista, who was drafted about
around later back in twenty twenty but has not yet established himself in the same
way in the National Hockey League, and Mercer rushed mister Evangelista eighty one to
nineteen in terms of percentages after two hundred and twenty two votes were cast.
Victor, is that a pretty accurate representation of the talent gap between the two?
I think so. As much as I just talked a little bad and
not necessarily bad, but complimented him, maybe in a backhanded way towards Mercer
in terms of his fantasy potential, but I do think he's a better player
and he has the more upside than Evangelista. I still like evangelistai He's only
sixty four NHL games into his career. Mercer right at that two hundred,
two hundred and three mark as we were recording this. I think Evangelista probably
still has more development and time to go. But I think between the two,
I still like Mercer's upside more. And it's quite possible that the Devils
get some more depth and just keep Mercer in the top six and keep him
on one of those top six scoring lines, and then sure the upside is
higher, and I'm not sure Evangelista really is going to dictate that. I
think he's more of a middle six player and more of that kind of forty
five to fifty five point guy when it goes really well. The hockey prospecting
between the two definitely has Mercer as a higher likelihood of being a star,
and the Pinchilli is similar right now because of their NHL scoring. But I
definitely would if I had to pick, I would believe more in Mercer's upside.
Yeah, I definitely would agree on that. And one more Victor,
This is a bit of a dark chorus Jack. You wrote about him at
EP ringside. He is a major riser this year for the Florida Panthers,
a University of Denver guy, So that's pretty exciting. And what tell us
about him? Why is Jack Divine a guy who is coming firmly onto your
radar? Yeah, if anyone is paying attention to college hockey or prospects,
they probably already knew the name and were similarly wondering, who the heck is
this guy? Is this for real? Do I need to be rushing out
to try to grab him? And so that's what I was wondering, and
I wanted to dig in and see a little bit. So in case you're
not aware of Divine and what his trajectory has been, it is interesting to
look at that he was a very late round pick, seventh round pick in
twenty twenty two by Florida. He is now twenty and he was drafted out
of the University of Denver. He actually played with the us NTDP, but
he didn't really score that much, and then he went to University of Denver
as as a freshman in twenty one to twenty two and at nineteen points in
thirty six games, I turned a draft pick. And in all this,
you have to remember that the University of Denver is a great team. They
are absolutely trucking teams. They're one of the favorites to win the NCAA title
they wanted a couple of years ago. Their coach just won a gold medal
with the US. He knows what he's doing. He knows how to coach
players, he knows how to surround them with talent. So this past the
previous season, after the season after Devine got drafted, he went up to
thirty one points in twenty eight games and he's currently at thirty points in twenty
games. So this is why everyone's freaking out because he's having this monster scoring.
And if you remember back to when we had Chase McCullum on the college
scoring can be a bit wonky because as he mentioned, you have twenty games,
you have twenty events, and if things go really well, you look
like you're absolutely killing it. But as opposed to the CHL leagues who have
played twice as many games by this point, you have more opportunities to do
well, which if you hit a bit of a cold streak, it evens
out and probably shows a little bit more of like the realistic outcome. That's
really the question with Divine is is it realistic? Is he just running hot?
What exactly is going on? So in the article I can dig into
that, and I think that it's pretty clear that Masimo Rizzo is one of
the players who's really helping him drive that offense, and Divine is doing great
to finish. Not to take anything away from him, but I think he's
not necessarily the primary driver. Zee William and some of the other players on
that team are really helping and Divine is basically just a shooter. He gets
in the right spot and he lets it rip, and they have given him,
obviously the green light to do that. So I think there's a bit
of hey, this is great for a seventh round pick. I think that
Florida is going to be happy with where he ends up, which I think
is probably more of a middle to bottom six forward. But you're getting that
out of a seventh round pick, you're pretty happy if people are thinking this
guy's going to be a top line talent, sure about that. So that's
my overall take Jesse and the NHL ranking. Mason Black put it out there
as a pull jack Divine versus the wonderfully named mckil illion. I don't know
if his name is really pronounced Ilion Victor, but Illan's that's a pretty awesome
name. Frankly, I think he should pronounce it that way. If he
doesn't, perhaps because of the awesomeness of the name, Ilion kept it close.
The Pittsburgh Penguins prospect lost the Divine, but only fifty two to forty
eight Victor. What do you think about that, as mister Illion also a
guy who is high in your estimation right now? Not really. I don't
envy this task for Mason to try to find an interesting comparable here. I
think it's probably a bit of a challenge. He was, as you mentioned,
just recently drafted, and he's doing okay in the queue. He had
twenty six or say not the queue. The MHL He was in the mhllast
year twenty six points in twenty eight games and to two points in twenty one
KHL games. So far this season he has twenty four points and forty six
games. If you believe in the pro scoring and how difficult it is and
that kind of league, then yeah, I think he's something to keep an
eye on. McHale Illen il y i n And if you believe it's Illan,
then the Beastie Boys are probably on this guy side because they will be
happy about that. I'm not sure that either one of these is really going
to be a game breaker, but if you're in a deep enough league,
you should probably try to roster both of these because either one of them could
turn out to be decent. But I would probably stick with Divine. Even
though I pumped the tires a little bit, I still think there's a decent
chance that he gets on a Florida line that is productive. That Florida team's
probably going to be good for a few more years, and he's basically NHL
ready, and he could step onto that NHL roster after the ncaa time this
season. Maybe he doesn't stay there all of next year, but He's pretty
close, and he could get some good looks. I know we saw Matthew
Samuskevitch basically do that this year and the end of last year, so he
could be in that same sort of time frame. So I think it probably
is close. I think some people maybe lean towards the Russian KHL factor,
but I think I would lean divine. Yeah, the defending champion Denver.
What are the pioneers Denver Pioneers, I think is what they are. They
don't play in other sports, Victor, so I really have to concentrate and
focus on what their mascot is. But yeah, alien from the MHL,
the nemesis of Byron baders model. Trying to figure out what to do with
that that league's stats because they are very difficult to compare. But it looks
like he's also got some substantial KHL time out there and quite a few points,
actually half a point per game in the KHL. That's not bad for
a young man like this, Victor. Those are the guys we have to
discuss today, very wonderful stuff. I believe we are ready to take a
little break and come back to pulls off the shot. I've said it before,
I'll say it again, you should play fantasy hockey on fan tracks.
You can move leagues over to fan tracks if you're still playing on one of
those antiquated platforms. They'll even help you do it if you need their help
moving your rosters over and such. You can start new leagues over there.
There's free options to play, there's pay options to play. Frankly, there's
a lot of options, a lot of settings you can change at the free
level. There's even more cool things you can customize if you want to go
to the full on fan tracks, and there's ten different sports you can play.
I play as many leagues of my leagues as I possibly can over on
that platform. Fan Tracks HQ lots of fantasy content. There articles on fantasy
hockey, all the other fantasy sports. While you see me retweet one of
those over an X, we thank our FHL crew. It takes a posse
to make this show. The content curator Kevin Adams, he helped a lot
with this show prep and other show preps, grabbing some of the stats and
stuff like that. For Victor and I to talk about Ryan Downey you heard
him, you love him on this episode. Who does not only analysis on
the show sometimes, but is the commissioner of all these Tidy leagues, the
Tidy Admiral himself. Brandon is our website guru. The website is growing all
the time. We're doing cool things over there. Jeremy v is the Ringmaster,
our lead scout who helps coordinate scouting reports that turn into resources for you
all. Jason and Brandon are helping out with the prospect ranks. That's something
you can get from Victor in the Patreon and if you'd like, if you've
got skills you'd like to lend the show, Victor probably use your hell hit
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