Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks. Here shits 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 Sevier and
Victor Nuno Fantasy Hockey Live. I am Jesse Severe fan Tracks over there,
joined me Victor Nuno of ep rink side Victor. How you doing. I'm
doing awesome, Jesse. It's it's a wonderful time of year where my San
Francisco forty nine er and football fandom has no bounds. We're recording on playoff
days, so hopefully by the time you hear this, there wasn't a massive
upset by the we've made packers. But you know me, I care about
football a lot. When the Niners are good and their games matter, that's
pretty much it. Yeah. If you're interested in seeing a victors of football
fandom, you need to come in like a three week window in December and
January, or until the forty nine ers are eliminated. If you're interested in
seeing in San Francisco Giants fandom, you need to stop in September in a
year that they're good, or October abud Victor is a little distracted with things
in October, so I hear in any event, Victor, I'm normally not
a big forty nine Ers guy, but I am surrounded by the Packers fans
here in Wisconsin, and I'm not a Packers fan, so I would be
fine with you guys roaming all over them. Sorry, friends and neighbors.
It's just the way I feel. I can't let other people around me have
nice things. Is this a case of who's less annoying? I'm sure that
if I lived among in present company, excepted of course, if I lived
among a mass of rabid forty nine Ers fans, I would probably find them
more annoying. But I don't. I live among a mass of Packers fans.
So that's how that's going right now. But Victor, what's not annoying.
What's not annoying is all the stuff that people can do when they join
up with us. They can come into our discord for free. There's hockey
chatter going on there all the time, and all you have to do to
get that is hit Victor myself up. You don't know where to find us
and get the little magic link to get into the Discord. You can find
us on x at Fanhockey Life at Victor Nunio twelve, or you can email
us Fantasy Hockeylife at gmail dot com. We haven't got as many of those
things lately. Maybe this is the part of the season where the hardcorees have
already joined and the casuals are not showing up quite as much. Is that
what it is, Victor Or? Have you just been handling all the emails
and I've been lazy and I didn't even know they came? Yeah, I
know, I think it's not the busiest time, but I did get a
couple over Twitter. I get some over Discord. So sometimes they come in
different ways, so they don't always come to the email. Not as many
have come to the email, so that is true. But yeah, you
never know when someone's going to get turned on. We're happy to have you
anytime. But wait, there's more, Victor. There's Patreon. Because the
people who are around at this point they want more out of life. They
want to dig deeper, they want to see cool things, and you have
lots of things you are producing over there. Can you tell people about it?
Yeah, for sure, lots of great stuff With the Patreon. We
do a couple of extra things like the patroon cast we do. We have
a prospect ranking that we're going to be updating or constantly updating. We'll update
a big update soon. You have the tidy the tier dynasty that you can
only play in if you're a patron, so lots of great stuff, including
a Patreon Priority channel and extra things like roster doctors and things. So if
you're interted in that and supporting the show Patreon dot com slash Fantasy Hockey Life.
That is the appetizer, but the main dish is right after this,
we're going to have Blake Kreamer talking about some fantasy hockey. We're pleased to
join the hardest working man in the fantasy hockey business. It is Blake Kreamer
of Apples and Ginos. Blake, how you doing, Oh man, I
feel good. That is a lovely intro. Hardest working man. I don't
know about that. I'll go second to you guys. You guys are doing
some amazing work over here at Fantasy Hockey Life. Come on, man,
Victor and I. We build up our endurance through the season so that we
can do two episodes a week in the off season and it practically kills us.
And you're doing you said, five episodes a week. I think Victor
and I would hate each other and never speak to each other and also sleep
the whole day, because if we tried to do that much at the same
time, that might make for some good podcasting though, just some real tension,
just going at each other, I think could even take it over the
top. I don't know where I'm going with that. Yeah, we're six
states apart, so the swings would probably not land. It would conflict sells.
That is very true, Blake. What else sells is the guys who
you need to get at this time of year in your leagues. We're in
the doldrums. We're in the the snow is on the ground, the ice
is on the ground. The matchups you're looking there. You have to check
how many matchups do I have left before the playoffs? Do I have any
hope? And you're just praying for a miracle at this point. You're trying
to find that guy who could take you over the top, Blake, And
if you're doing five shows a week, Victor and I believe you are going
to be the guy to identify the players who will take us over the top
for the rest of the year. Is that do you find that is something
that you've been able to do in your leagus is identify that guy mid season
who can really take you home. I really do believe in the way that
we value players over at Apples and Gino's, and I've had more successes than
failures, honestly. But what's interesting sometimes I talk with Nate over Apples and
Genos that the advice we're giving is sometimes better than what we're doing with our
own teams. Did you ever notice that I love that the takes we're putting
out there, And then I look at a couple of my teams, I'm
like, what is going on? Like, how am I middling around five
hundred right now? Yeah? That all said, I really do believe in
the way we value players here. Yeah, that's so true. Like I'm
gonna jump in now, and that's I totally feel that too. There's so
many times where I feel like I'm getting out of this good advice and then
I'm so busy like doing all that, and I look at my team and
look at my leagues and people are adding the guys that I suggested, and
I'm like, damn, it. I forgot to do that, so busy
telling everyone else to do it. That's right. That's the plight of the
fantasy hockey podcaster, isn't the victory. Everybody has all our information out there.
So if you're in any leagues with anyone who's listing, it's okay.
I guess I'm you got to stay up till midnight or three am or whatever,
and you got to make sure you get your guys. Yeah. I
guess I could just go through all my leagues and make sure before I talk
about them that I add them. But that's a lot of work, and
I'm here for the people more than I want to win my leagues too.
But I'm trying to put good content out there. That's right, buddy.
Their wins equal are wins? Am I? Right? There? You go.
So we have a bunch of guys talk about and yeah, it's good
to have you on the show. People may or may not remember. Back
in the early I think it was a preseason. You had me on your
show a couple of times, and that was really fun. It was a
good time. I'm sure I was wrong about all my ADP battles that we
did, and you took me to the cleaners. I specifically remember talking about
Meyer, and that's definitely one that has not worked out well for me.
You still still have a season left, and there's there's Slim over there.
He might get the biz here soon. Yeah, we're not gonna talk about
him. We're just gonna conveniently ignore that guy. But we asked you for
a list, like Jesse said, to identify some guys that couldn't help you
win the rest of the season, and so we got some really good names
here. The first one we're gonna talk about is mister Gabe Vallardi. And
Valardi came over this to this season with Winnipeg there, and he's been pretty
good so far career season, sixty six point pace, he's his time on
ice is up like a minute and a half. He's getting some decent power
play time in LA last year, but it's even gone up another twenty five
seconds or so this year. Really doing some good stuff. It's been hot
and cold a little bit here and there, but overall, I think all
this is suggesting you probably are pretty high on him. The time on ice
looks good. Do you think seventy point pace rest of season is reasonable for
mister Vallardi, what do you think. Yeah, seventy points might be a
little spicy, but it's in the range of possibilities. I think that would
be ceiling Vollardi. But to me, something that Velardi's been doing really well
since he came over from LA is that he's up his shots on goal per
sixty, especially like he's always been a somewhat efficient player right as evidenced by
his shooting percentage over the years, but he's been able to keep up that
efficiency this season. But he's up this shot count for reference, just at
five on five. This guy shots on goal for sixty last season seven point
two eight this season nine point zero five and over at Apples and Ginos,
we love shots on goal for sixty. Anything approaching ten shots on goal for
sixty is a pretty elite shot generator and it's just under that at nine.
So that's nice to see. And like I said, he kept up his
efficiency. So I don't know. To me, with Winnipeg two, like
things are a little bit in flux, aren't they. With with the injuries
to scheif Lee and Connor coming back, there's things up in the air.
But for me, the reason why I targeted Vallardi is because I think he's
gonna be the last man standing when Scheifley does come back, and I think
it's probably gonna be Nikolai Eelers. Unfortunately that gets bounced down on the lineup
because you know, Rick Bonus has shown that he doesn't give a damn about
our fantasy teams, right, even though Eelers come on, this guy's the
man eat metrics. He's going nuts. But yeah, I think Vallardi is
going to be the one to stick on the top line and the top power
play and ranked under fifty percent on yeaho are rostered under fifty percent on Yeah?
Who? I think this is a guy you need to add. It
just makes sense. Winnipeg is a wagon this year randomly, So I don't
know what do you guys think. I think Valardi I could see sixty to
sixty five point pace rest of season, and that's very valuable, especially for
someone rostered undred fifty percent. Yeah, I think I would agree with that
too. Sorry, Jesse, he's bounced around a little bit. There's been
times where he's been a little bit below that too. But you have to
feel the Winnipeg being as good as they are that they're going to continue to
push. My only concern is, like you said, he gets pushed a
little bit down the lineup when everyone's healthy, I'd be a little bit concerned
about that. I probably wouldn't take seventy. Just I agree with you,
there probably in that range that you listed. Yeah, yeah, it's nice
to see that. You triggered me by talking about Nikolai Eelers once again getting
frozen out. That seems to be just his lot in life, but I
guess it's unavoidable. Ellie tolven In is the next guy up to go,
and let's talk about him. He went from a forgotten man in Nashville.
He was waived thirteen months ago people, and now he is an important member
of that Seattle Kraken rotation. He's got if you look at some of the
advanced stuff of modest, positive impact, even strength. He plays with Yanni
Gordon Oliver York Strand gets two shots, two hits in a block per game
at under sixteen average time, and I love to see those periffs going on.
He's getting a mid fifties point pace and that is a wonderful thing.
That's something that does surprised me. That's something I didn't see him coming into
in the near term. Tell me about Ellie Tolvenin and why you think he
might even be more than that going forward. Yeah, and again we're talking
about players rostered fifty percent and under on. Yeahos So to me, Tolven's
not a league winner, nothing like that. But this guy is very valuable,
right and to me, the only thing really capping his value is that
stinky deployment that Dave Haxtall does in Seattle. Right, this guy hit his
line first off with Yanni Gord and the jerk store Oliver byork Strand they're doing
very well, right. They're tilting the ice a little bit when they're out
there at even strength, especially with their Coursey four percentage. But yeah,
like you said, Jesse, this guy he contributes in so many ways,
like the pariffs are stupid. He's played forty five games, He's got ninety
five hits and fifty one blocks. Fifty one blocks for a four that is
nuts. This guy's very valuable. Yeah, it's just a supplementary piece to
me, Elie Tolvenen, But yeah, like you said, all his stats
are training upwards. I'd like to see a little bit more power play time,
but where he's rostered on. Yeahoo, this guy's he's must own.
And then if he's not owned in your leagues, you got to pick him
up, right, especially if Seattle has a good schedule, I don't know
where, Like, how would you like to be Nashville and drop this guy
in waivers? Like I remember seeing it was a tweet or something where they
were the GM was talking about, Yeah, maybe we should have given tolden
In a bit more of a run here, because yeah, this guy looks
great, and I think, well, he's on a fifty three point pace
this year, but I could see this guy as a sixty point player moving
forward. It's all deployment dependent to me. You need some more time on
the power play, a little bit more time on ice. But yeah,
it's an exciting player and a big whiff for Nashville, isn't it. Yeah?
I think so. It was shocking that they did that and also not
surprising at all that he took off. And I agree with you too on
Seattle. Seattle is one of those teams that I don't ever want to reach
for a player, but if one of their players is hanging around later,
I'm happy to take them la because the middle of the roster players get much
more deployment than they probably should, and so I don't want the top players
on those teams, but I'm more than happy to take the middle to bottom
players on the team because they get they get a lot of good time.
So I think that's part of it too. And I think you're totally right
at the deployment for one of the top players on the team, which should
be lean on as a goalscorer. And he's getting fifteen minutes a night.
He's literally leading the team in points per game by a pretty significant margin,
and getting under sixteen minutes a night is just totally insane. Come on,
you want to get in the playoffs, get this guy some more time on
ice, is my feeling on it. Yeah, that's a great one,
and yeah, so let's move on to the next one. Alexis Lafere he's,
you know, having a pretty decent bounce back season. Of course,
this breakout or whatever you want to call it, it still only means a
forty eight point pace currently, but his first two seasons he had twenty one
and thirty one point points total, which is really not good. So far,
thirty nine points in the third season, you know, kind of trending
up if you look at the pattern, maybe twenty thirty forty to fifty,
like I think he could do that. Maybe he can flex that up even
to sixty sometimes this season or maybe next season. I'm not sure it's going
to happen. This season is currently right at that fifty point pace. His
time on ice has grown to over two minutes, and you like to see
a lot of these underlying metrics. And New York they're a good team,
but they actually uh not have struggled a little bit at least defensively with their
goalie, which doesn't make any sense. But we're not talking about bullies right
now, we're just talking about the forwards. He is still Lefrenier struggling a
little bit in his defensive metrics, so that might limit some of his deployment.
But overall, you like to see the shots have really come up,
almost an extra shot per game. So tell us what you think at thirty
two percent, Lafrenier is pretty widely available on Yahoo. What do you like
about him rest of the season? Yeah, for sure. Just in general,
there are three things that I look at when I'm valuing a player deployment,
some time on ice opportunity like where's he playing in the lineup? And
metrics, right, all all the things we look at here to value players,
and this guy checks those boxes. He's currently he's skating with that unexpected
shot monster, that bald headed beauty are Timmy Panerain. This guy's nuts.
I don't know what he's doing this year, what he ate, I don't
know, but can I have some Yeah, he's playing with Banera and tro
Check, right, Vinnie trou Just a great spot to be for the Lafronier.
And like you said, Victor, he's up to shots and shots on
goal for sixty and his individual scoring chances four for sixty by a huge margin
this season, which is something we normally don't see like last season. Just
again for reference, at even strength, his individual scoring chance is four for
sixty or just under seven, and this year he's cooking at eleven. That's
crazy, right, So I think that Lafarnier also has some headroom to produce
even more offense. If you look at his shooting percentage right now, it's
the lowest of his career currently at nine point six, after he had seasons
of twelve percent seventeen percent eighteen percent right now, he's cooking at nine point
six right, so I think it's reasonable to say that might regress upwards.
And then something else I like to look at is on ice shooting percentage,
and at five on five that's the lowest of his career as well, at
eight point four to seven, So I think that should be a little bit
higher considering the guys he's playing with. So I just like the player.
I think this is a guy that's taken a step in his development and he's
found favor with the new coach there, and he's reaping the rewards of a
bigger role. So again, to me, I'm expecting a fifty five to
sixty point pace rest the season, and that is definitely worth more than a
thirty two percent roster ship on Yahoo boocket. Nice. Nice, Yeah,
it's finally happening. It's finally happening with Alexis Lafrenie, a new coach.
Hey, Jesse, Yeah, I guess, so, I guess. So
let's go on to Recard Raquel. He's approaching his thirty first birthday, he's
warming up this season. He had only four points in his first eighteen games
this year with Pittsburgh. Then he went out with injuries. Then he came
back and had twelve points in his first twelve games. By the way,
little coincidence, he was on the MalCon line before, he's on the Crosby
line. Now. His minutes are down a little bit this year. His
hits are way down this year, from roughly to a game to roughly won
a game. And there are some rumors thirty two thoughts of Weekly listening to
mine, you heard there might be something about Pittsburgh selling this year, which
I don't know if that helps him or hurts him to go to a different
situationuation. But why is Ricard Briquel one of your targets going forward? I
just think he's too good to be this lowly roster, like with his top
six deployment there the metrics are looking good too, like first off, a
strange erotic journey from Milan to Min's Kura kill. All right, ever see
a Seinfeld episode, Victor you with me on this? I don't know where
I'm going with this. That's fine, I don't know, all right,
that's fine. I don't know Betty Middler episode that you're talking. Yeah,
that's right. Yeah, there you go. Think the Creamer musical with the
Bette Midler Okay, exactly, Yeah, So yeah, I think I just
like the player. Like we saw a sixty sixty point season last year with
crazy periffs, right, one hundred and forty one hits he had, he's
obviously underachieving. I think there are signs of positive aggression. Like his shooting
percentage down at six point four this year. It was eleven point five last
season. Like, he's not a very efficient player, but he's better than
a six point four percent shooter, So I think that's going to go up
and again, Like the big thing with Raquel is going to be his powerplay
deployment, and they're going back and forth between Raquel and Brian Rust at the
moment. But I do think that Raquel will get time back on power play
one, and if he does, like that's worth the ad almost right there,
Like that Pittsburgh power play hasn't been great this year, but it's still
a nice place to be and they've been better as of late. So yeah,
I think with the underlying metrics of Rakel, Like last five games,
this guy's got four points. He's his deployments, excuse me, his deployment's
still crazy. Like he's getting over twenty minutes even with power play two time,
and a number that really sticks out to me. In the last five
games, he's forty second overall in the league and individual scoring chances four for
sixty. That's a nice place to be. All his other metrics are sustainable
shooting percentage on nice shooting percentage. So I think, again, maybe I'll
just do this for every player fifty five to sixty point pace rest of season.
But I like that for Raquel, and I think if he gets traded
that would probably lower his value, so we got to keep an eye on
that. Right He's getting twenty minutes at night right now, so I don't
see him going to another team and just rocking twenty minutes. He's not that
kind of player, but he's built that up here in pit so I like
the player. I think his parifs are going to come back as well,
and hopefully powerplay one. Yeah. I think so much of it is going
to depend on where the Penguins are right now, and surprising I think a
little bit that Washington's ahead of him, the Devils and Islanders are right there,
Detroit's ahead. I don't think anyone surprise Tampa is Philly maybe is the
one big surprise too, So any of those teams could fall off, but
it's not a loving great for Pittsburgh. They really have to go on a
run. And Ricky Rax could be certainly a good trade target if so,
keep your on that. Yeah, that would definitely sour the probably the likelihood
of him being really good. All right, let's move on to the next
one that I'm gonna pose to you, and that is mister Troy Terry thirty
five percent rostered on Yahoo. He had a brutal beginning of the year.
He was basically unrosterable. Basically he had not much going on, but then
twelve points in his last thirteen and fourteen in his last sixteen. He's looking
pretty good right now. That's adding up to a fifty four point pace,
but he's trending up. Might get up to where he was the last two
seas, which was over a seventy point pace. And those two seasons were
interesting because the first one was bulloyed by a massively high shooting percentage. The
second one was a little bit more sustainable with more shots and a little bit
lower shooting percentage, and the luck metrics were a little bit more in line,
so it seems like he could get back there. But of course Anaheim,
being literally one of the worst teams in the league, having some injuries
might be a little bit tricky. So, Blake, what do you think
about Terry rest of the season? I know you already said what you're going
to say, but maybe he could get a little bit more than that.
What do you think? I think, Yeah, there's a high ceiling for
this player, but the floor is also not as high as I would like.
It's like a boom er Bus player, just because of his team situation.
But if you dig into De Troit Terry, a couple things have happened
so far this season. First off, they got the new coach there,
Greg Cronin. That sounds to me like a superhero or super villain secret identity.
It's Greg Cronin, and I don't know, I'll come up with a
good villain name for him. But yeah, there's a learning curve. Obviously
when you get a new coaching, their system changes. So that's affected Terry
for suit. His deployment has been down slightly, especially at the start of
the season when they were doing well. Terry wasn't a huge part of it.
It was guys like Mason mccavish and Frank the Tank Vitronto doing stuff,
so that was interesting. But also Troy Terry not getting power Play one consistently,
right, He has been recently, so that's nice, but he definitely
needs power Play one to reach the ceiling here. And then subsequently, because
of that start and everything that went on, all the metrics that matter for
Troy Terry they're down, so shots and goal for sixty, individual scoring chances
four to sixty, both down from historic numbers. And then, as you
mentioned Victor, the luck metrics two they're down as well, like his IPPs
individual points percentage down to sixty three percent from seventy five percent last season,
and that's at five on five, and then the online shooting percentage seven percent
down from ten at five on five, so that's huge. Like his teammates
are underperforming, he's underperforming, maybe a bit snake bitten. And also you
got a new coach in there, giving you a new system. Right,
So that all said, last five games, deployments up and points are coming
for Troy Terry. And I think I just love Troy Terry because he's such
a die player and he excels off the rush. I love players like this,
right, and a site that I'm a big fan of Corey Schneider all
three zones. I'm a patron there, and the information on his site,
it just shows that Troy Terry leads his team in things like controlled entries per
sixty, which is a great thing, and he's second on the team to
Leo Carlson and entries leading to scoring chances for so that this guy. What
I'm saying about Troy Terry is basically he can drive his own offense, right.
He doesn't necessarily rely on other people for his production. And that's a
player I'm in on for sure. So yeah, I'd like to see more
power play time. I'd like to see him maintain his twenty minute average time
on ice, and I'd like Leo Carlson to stop managing his load. Giggity
oh man, that sounded weird, but yeah, if those things happen,
I can see a sixty five point pace rest of the season with the ceiling
for seventy five. Giggoy. Indeed, all right, We're gonna take a
brief break and come back with Blake with a few more guys. Wait,
changed your name to McLevin mclovin. What kind of a stupid name is that?
Fogel? What are you trying to be an Irish R and V singer?
Oh, they let you pick any name you walmout he get down there
and you landed on mclovin. I was between that and Muhammad, weren't Fogel.
This was a late addition to the show, the Edmonton oiler Fogel.
I did a little bit of digging. It's all about the dry with this
guy, right, twenty seven year old trending to a first season over half
point per game, but he's with Leon Dreysidle now and focal also gets a
hit in two point five shots a game. Not bad. The minutes are
coming slowly to him. Lately, He's hovering around fifteen in a game,
which is a lot better than he started the season at twelve ish with some
inferior deployment. And of course, can anybody unremember that five point game from
New Year's Eve? That explains why in our crossover keeping Carlson FHL draft Elon
was extremely ready to start counting our stats on New Year's Eve rather than waiting
until January first to get those five focal points. Not that I'm bitter about.
Let's just not talk about that draft, okay, But anyway, Warren
Fogel is like, yeah, you might be coming on. What attracts you
to this stat profile for the year. First off, he has a beautiful
head of hair, and I am mclovin Warren Fogel. I'm a big fan
of that. But yeah, exactly what you said, Jesse. It's all
about the dry and The thing though, too with Fogel is that he holds
his own It makes sense that he's on that line obviously. Like I'm not
telling you that Warren Fogel is a must add, right, There's nothing like
that. But this guy is a very useful player and he could be a
streamer with benefits throughout the season, could be a guy you pick up and
maybe holds for a little bit. But digging into Warren Fogel, let's check
it out. Last five games, four points and as you said, fifteen
and a half minutes average Simon ice. There the numbers are really good.
Like, he's thirty eighth overall in the league in Sholson gober six, thirty
third overall in individual scoring chances, four for sixty in the League Warren Fogel
right in the last five games. That's a nice place to be, right
if he gets bounced off that line, but Dry Settle value is gone.
It doesn't matter if he has these amazing metrics. If he's toiling away on
the third line. I like what he's done, though, it's I don't
have too much on him other than he's got great metrics and he's got great
opportunity and as long as he's rock him with Dry Seddle, I'm in on
mcleven. Yeah. I wish I could be as excited about him because I
had him and then I was like, ah, two games, I'm gonna
stream someone else in and so I dropped him, and I'm like, oh,
I shouldn't have done that because I missed the tree. He probably will
be good rest of the season. But the thing is he also in a
week could just be moved off that line and then be nothing. But he
I think that what is different about Fogel from some of the other options that
they have in edmontonmy because they don't necessarily have like all the best options.
But one thing that I think is a little bit unique about him is that
his some of his defensive metrics have been a little bit better, and we
know that drys usually aren't, So I think it can work. Not only
the offense to not get scored on that that can be helpful. So as
long but as long as it's it's continuing to work, like nothing's gonna happen,
He's going to stay there and continue to produce. So you love that.
So we'll go from one of my disappointments to another, and that is
brock Faber, because I also had rock Faber. And then when Jared Spurgeon
came back, I was like, Oh, he's probably not gonna be relevant
anymore. And then Spurgeon went right back out and I was like, so
forty two percent for favor the future Caller Trophy winner is having himself a season.
He's rocking a forty two point pace, actually forty six because he scored
last night. He's hot with seven in the last eight and five in the
last three, like really catching on fire. His time on ice is something
some people have chronicled online twenty four and a half minutes for the whole season,
but he's had games over thirty. He's really been playing a ton and
that might even go up on average because Captain Jared Spurgeon is out, and
frankly, he's the best defenseman in Minnesota. And one thing I always thought
about Favor was that he's really good two way defenseman. I never thought his
offense was great, but they don't have a ton of great options as a
powerplay quarterback there, so he's just fine doing that and he's doing well.
Minnesota is still pushing for the playoffs. It's not looking great right now,
but he could really help them and he's probably gonna get a ton of time
on ice and explodure the rest of the season. So what do you think
it about Rock Faber? Yeah, I think we got to start getting a
little bit excited about this kid. Like it's horrible news that Jared Spurgeon is
out. That really sucks. I'm a big fan of Jared Spurgeon as well,
even in fantasy, Like he's amazing with his blocks and he's just a
consistent performer. But Rock Favor is the main beneficiary and he was already getting
reasonable minutes. But then obviously when Spurgeon was out those thirty minute games,
like that's we got to take note of that. That's important, right when
a guy gets thirty minutes. It means that his coach has ultimate confidence in
the guy, and that's something you can't really quantify, right, Like we
don't know all the X and o's, everything that's going on in the hood,
besides the statistics that we look at, ye, but the coach the
guy with that it matters to He's putting them out there for thirty minutes.
So I love that. And now he's powerplay one and no one's coming to
take that. The only guy who was an option with Spurgeon. But Faber
has shown that he can get the biz there no problem. Like he had
three points on the power play last night. It was awesome. Golding too
assist. This guy's a legend. Yeah, I think that everything under the
hood and metrics wise, for Faber, it's not that great, to be
honest, But when you got this kind of deployment and this kind of opportunity,
to me, it's this guy's a must roster, right because he's also
starting to show, especially because of last night's game. Yeah, he can
perform on the power play as well. And guys on Minnesota have been under
achieving as well, guys like Caprosov, right, even Joe Erickson Ack for
a little while was underachieving. Cap had a big game last night. Boldie's
playing well, So yeah, I think it's aces up for Faber. I'm
excited about the player. And if Bidard is out for even a more extended
period like this guy has a legit shot, he's gonna be on the ballot,
that's for sure. I simply can't think about brock Favor without thinking about
the train that happened in one of our leagues, Victor, where it was
some scrub and a third round pick that got traded and the guy got brock
Faber back, and it was one of those moments where everybody in the league
took a collective breath. But yeah, brock Favor and Jared Spurgeon is out
for the year, so let's see what he can do. Let's it's a
bit cold, Let's pop down to Florida for a guy. Sam Bennett.
He has some of the sweetest deployment around, Matt Kachuk, Carter ver Hagy
out there every night with him on his wings. He debuted a little bit
late in the season, started out a little bit injured in his minutes and
shots are down a little bit. Sam Bennett's are. His hits are way
down this year, but he's getting better over the course of the season.
His production is climbing, So I guess you're looking at it and saying it's
going to continue to climb. What is it that makes you think Sam Bennett's
going to hit another level? Yeah? First off, he's underachieving massively in
certain metrics like shots and over sixty. I've mentioned a few times now,
but yeah, it's a steep drop off like last year or the last three
seasons. This guy has had twelve shots in Gober sixty, eleven shots in
Ober sixty, ten at five on five. Those are great numbers. That's
elite shot generation, and this year he's six point eight. So to me,
this is very similar to what happened with Mack Kichuck and what happened with
or what is happening with Brandon Montur. These guys are coming off injury and
it takes a little while to get going, and we're impatient. In fantasy,
we're like, come on, like, now, what do you do
in Sam Bennett? You're playing with mac Kidchuck for love a peat. But
I'm first off too, with barkoff out, Sam Bennett goes to Powerplay one.
So that's excellent. Barkoff should be back, but yeah, he has
a pension for injuries. We know that Sam benis locked and loaded there for
power Play one deployment if and when Barkuff goes down. But I just think
that he's underachieving in major metrics here right, like I said, is shooting
and the online shooting percentage as well. It's I think that has room to
grow. That said too, this guy's a metrics monster and it's trending upwards.
Right in the last five games, this guy's got four points, very
nice, twenty seventh overall in the entire league in individual scoring chances for sixty,
which is really nice, and then the on ice numbers which are actually
high for most Florida players. But of course he four to sixty. He's
actually tenth overall in the league. That's Sam Bennett. So they're putting a
lot of pucks to the net to chuck and pucks and Bennett's there, and
I think they're gonna start going in eventually. It's a player I'm excited about.
And at his roster ship it's insane, Like I almost considered this guy
a must roster player at this point, Yeah, it's hard to argue with
any of that. I think I don't disagree with you, but I also
think some people are way too excited about Sam Bennett. They're like, they
think he's going to be like a league winner, and because he's because those
metrics are good, like a lot of the raid stats are really good,
and so if he only got eighteen nineteen minutes, but he's not going to
get that, he's going to stay probably around where he is, which is
not terrible. Seventeen minutes is decent. The most he's ever played is seventeen
and a half and he's right near there. So this is about what you
can expect, like fifty ish point pace with other good priffs, which is
good as long as they count the priffs in the league you're in. But
if you're like just a strictly points league, he's probably a bit overrated.
Doesn't always translate as much as you would like. Yeah, that's mister Bennett.
We're going to talk about a goalie. We're gonna talk about our first
goalie and I think our last for our only goalie, and that's a mister
Charlie Lindren. And we've talked about Linger in a bit on the show.
He's someone who I think has been a little bit underrated for a long time,
and he was good in Saint Louis. He's been good in Washington so
far this year thirty six percent. He's thirty year old, undrafted journeyman who
really rose in the ranks in college. And last year some of his numbers
made. His ron numbers weren't amazing, but his goals save above expected were
really good. And this year eight out of fifteen starts, including two shutouts,
have been good. And the raw numbers also, if you just look
at him compared to Kemper, he's got a nine to twenty seven save percentage
Kemper eight ninety five. If you look at the goal save above expected,
he's massively outproducing his Delta Fenwick and goal save above expected. And if you
look at Kemper, on the other hand, everything is below. It's all
way below. Kemper still has the contract, he's got the pedigree, so
he's probably still going to get a decent number of starts, I would think.
But at the same time, Washington don't win that playoff hunt, and
it seems to me like Charlie is their best bet. In fact, thanks
to our content curator Kevin Adams, he put a chart in here go save
above expected so far this season. Charlie Lnern is there like he's at the
top near the top of that list, if not at the top. So
some other weird names there, like Martin Jones and Jonathan Quick. But what
do you think about Lnren moving forward? Is he gonna get the volume,
because that's the other thing like rostering him can if he's like a one B
or even a split starter, can be challenging. Yeah, I think you
summed it up really nicely there. Victory Like, to me, it's all
about the comparison between Kemper and Lngren and who's going to give them the best
chance to win. And when you got a team that's fighting for their playoff
lives right now, they're doing well, but they need to put the best
guy in there every night. They can't afford to have these bad starts.
So if Kemper's not going which if you look at the statistics, he's not
right like eight ninety five save percentage, his goal saved above average is negative
six, whereas Charlie Lingren is twelve positive twelve. That's excellent. That's some
of the best in the leagues. And he's starting today as well. So
I really do see a world where they start going to Linggren a lot more.
And the fact that he's still rostered under fifty percent, Like this is
a viable goalie who's actually playing really well. We don't do a lot of
goalie analysis over at Apples and Ginos because it's just hurtful. What hurts our
feelings, right, and we get excited about a guy and then he just
bombs all right. Fun fact. Actually I was talking to Nate about this
the other day. In one of my money points leagues, randomly some guy
dropped Ilia serrokn This was like two months ago, and I picked him up
immediately off the waiver wire. I'm like, what are you doing? First
off, like I'm taking advantage of that because there's money involved. But he
stinks right now. Oh my god, the New York Islanders a loss like
seven straight. He's been in for all but whatever it is, I don't
know. That's zero g is a real thing for me, and that's why
guys like Charlie Linggren are so valuable, right, Like I should drop Socan
and pick up Charlie linggeron should I talk me off the ledge here, Jesse
Victor? Should I do that? Wow? Blake, don't do that.
Okay, that's good advice, thank you. Yeah, yeah, hang on,
that's my expert opinion. Elias Rocn still good. Uh. I don't
know exactly what's going on there, but uh yeah, I would say stick
with the talent. You know. The thing with Lingering, man, I
don't know. I don't know what to make of this guy. I don't
know what to make of the Caps. I turn on the Caps and I
watch him and I'm like, is wait a minute, do I have the
They look like they have the same jerseys on, but all these are new
names. These are all those guys that they took late in the first round
for several years, that Victor and awerk App maybe Alexi Protass maybe that's something
I don't know. And they're all playing now, They're absolutely all playing.
They're not killing it, but they're out there. And suddenly Alex Ovechkin's on
the second line and cats and dogs living together. But Charlie Lingern is out
there and whatever the Capitals are right now, he seems to be doing well.
From time to time, and by the way, this chart that Victor
put in the show notes for those who get the show notes is just absolutely
bonkers. Charlie Lingren leading the league in what is this victor goal saved above
expected per sixty. I don't even know what to say about that, but
maybe I should just pass it over in silence and move to the next guy,
who happens to be one, Nick Schmaltz of the Arizona Coyotes. This
again, because everybody wants to know about my leagues, I want you to
know that both Sam Bennett and Nick Schmaltz are on my four sport team.
So you were making me very happy today by bringing this guy into the loop.
He was pushing a point per game in the last two years. This
year he's been a little bit down for that. He is getting fewer assists.
The goals are about the same, but the assists have really gone way
down. His parifs are never going to be Nick Schmaltz's strong suit, but
that position, eligibility and fan track's all three forward positions per Schmaltz are a
sweet deal for those of you doing daily moves leagues where you have to be
flexible. Mltz also the good thing about him he continues to skate with Clayton
Keller, although the third wheel on that line has been a bit of a
rotating cast. And he's warmed up a little bit lately after really a cold
streak. What was that in must have been December. What is going on
with mister Nick Schmaltz And why do you think he is a pickup right now?
Yeah, full disclosure, Nick s Maltz is going to be out for
the game today which is Saturday to twentieth, So yeah, he's still injured.
So hopefully he's back in for next week. That would be great because
Arizona does have a good schedule. But I just think the opportunity and the
deployment is too good with this player to have him on your waiver wire.
It doesn't make sense. Right, he's playing twenty minutes a night when he's
healthy. And there are some signs of positive aggression to me with Schmaltz right,
first thing being his shooting percentage at five on five, right, And
it's just as luck metrics in general is ipp and his shooting percentage last season
at five on five, this guy shooting percentage was almost eighteen percent and currently
he's shooting seven percent. Nick Schmaltz, come on, I think let's find
happy medium, right, And if he finds a happy medium, obviously we're
looking at more goals. And his IPP is usually a higher IPP guy like
in the seventies, whereas this season so far at five on five he's sixty
percent IPP, so I think that has some room to grow. And then
over to his on ice shooting percentage again at five on five it's down to
almost career low numbers seven point three five percent, where last season it was
eleven point five switches high. But again, there's got to be a happy
medium. I all this to say, I think Nick Schmaltz is underachieving,
and when he does get back and healthy, this guy's top line, top
power play. They definitely are missing Barrett Hayton there though, aren't they Because
this line was fire at the end of last season, and obviously Hayton came
out at the beginning of this year and wasn't doing anything. It's just putting
up doughnuts. But I think, yeah, they haven't really had the consistent
line mate that they need to really pop. That said, I'm still excited
about the player, and I think he's got to be on a roster.
He shouldn't be on your waiver wire. So, Blake, those are the
guys we were going to ask you about, but we originally had some other
guys that we were going to talk about. If you have some time,
we could circle back of those beauties. Yeah, sure, let's talk about
those guys. I think part of the reason we decided not to talk about
them is because their roster ship has gone up and they seem like maybe a
little bit more obvious in terms of their holds. Is that what I am
I reading that right? Yeah? One of them deployment has changed, right,
So yeah, we can definitely talk about them for sure, because yeah,
there's still some interesting players that can probably help you rain. Yeah.
So Quinn Byfield was one of them that we were going to talk about.
He's someone so I did a show back in November with Ian Gooding and he
was someone that was like, yeah, we should just roster him long term
hold And that was actually some advice that I actually took for myself. And
I've had him on a couple of my teams ever since. I've had him
on a Dynasty teams forever. But I was like, yeah, Quinn Buyfield,
let's go. It's finally time and redraft and he's been pretty good up
and down, not always the best, but right now he's still rocking a
fifty nine point pace, and his time on ice is maybe a little bit
down. He's shooting more than he ever has, up to two shots per
game, the time on ice is up to fifteen and a half. Not
super exciting just in terms of the time and not always getting the top power
play and everything, but he's getting a minute and a half more power play
time than he ever had, and right now he's ice cold. As I
know, I've been benching him in the league that I have him, but
I'm not willing to drop him yet. So I guess, maybe should we
drop this guy or do you still think rest of the season he has some
hope. No, I'm definitely not dropping Quentin Buyfield at this point. The
reason I changed it from Quintin Bifield is because the Kings have been practicing with
PLD potentially taking the top line Pierre Luke Dubois, and that has looks like
it hasn't happened yet. But if Quintin Buyfield is bounced from that top line
and plays down the lineup that's really going to cap a ceiling, right,
He's not going to get out of a cold street playing on the third line,
right. He needs access to Copatar and campaign. But that said,
I've been really excited about this player this year. Something I love that doesn't
always show up in the metrics is this guy's ability to get pucks right,
to win puck battles, and to retrieve a puck and get it to the
players that need it, Guys like Copaitar right, and I think he's a
really good fit on that line, So it doesn't make a lot of sense
for me why they would take him off. Obviously, the Kings have been
underperforming on the ice, so they're they're throwing the lines in a little bit
of a blender. So that said, definitely check your game day lines and
see where Buyfield lines up. But they have an amazing schedule next week as
well, four games with four off nights, so Buyfield should definitely be rostered
for another week. If he goes four games without a point, I don't
know we can assess then, but I still think the potential is still too
good for this player and his ice time. It's it's up and down.
I'd like to see a little bit more opportunity, but it's a player I'm
excited about. Where you guys at with Buyfield, Like, obviously you have
him Victor, but are you holding him? Yeah, I think I'm gonna
hold on. One of these is the cup fall, and it's really hard
to find anyone with good exposure, so he's probably gonna stick around. I'd
have a hard time dropping him. And even though like what you said is
true about the deployment, if you look at Frozen Tools, of all the
time he's played this entire season, eighty six percent of it is still with
Copatar and eighty one percent of it is with Copatar on campaign. They might
they are definitely struggling now and they're gonna mix things up until they figure it
out. But I think eventually they probably will go back to this and he
will still get good deployment. So I tend to like to look at it
a little bit longer to him too, just to see this worked for a
long time. I don't think they're going to completely abandon it. But in
the meantime, in a shallow league like a ten team or certainly he's not
he has no business on your roster, but in deeper leagues, I definitely
am keeping him in the other spots I had him too. The other one
is Jonathan Duran that we were going to talk about. He's a little bit
lower roster twenty nine, but he's someone who's been getting some really nice deployment
lately, getting some top time, top power play time, and I watched
some of those games. He looks good on the power play too. He's
not just hanging out there, He's making plays. His confidence seems renewed.
He's playing almost forty percent of the time right now with McKinnon and Ronton,
and some of this may change with lucinon back and the Chushkin out of course,
but so far, like you really love to see. That's what we're
all hoping for at the beginning. And I love this too because he's been
available on a couple of my dynasties, which is really hard to find anybody,
even in a redraft league. It's maybe not as excited. He's just
under a fifty point pace, but trending in the right direction, it seems
so, I feel like, especially because they just might need to lean on
him more right with some of the depth that they have lacking and Natchushkin being
who knows these player Assistan things. It could be rest of the season,
it could be till playoffs, could be through fantasy playoffs. So I have
a feeling drew And is gonna get a little bit longer look, and especially
with what he's doing now and looking good with it, I imagine that might
continue. Where are you at, Yeah, I'm not sure I'm there.
Like I really see Jonathan drew In as a player that's being propped up by
this insane deployment. This guy's getting well over twenty minutes a night every night.
Again, like what I said about brock Faber, Like when the coach
is putting you out there for that amount of time, obviously you're doing something
right. So that's definitely a feather in drew On's cap. But and na
Chushkin going out, that's gonna keep Drewn's floor fairly solid, right, He's
gonna continue to get opportunity. But Lecanin is coming back, and that's a
low key concern for me with Jonathan drew And I feel like that is going
to eat into minutes. Lecanon has played on that top line before, so
I'm not sure that drew ens spot. There is a guarantee, right,
he has been playing well. I could see them easing Lekingon in on the
second line, giving him limited minutes. But I do feel that eventually Lecanon
is going to be the one getting the deployment over Jonathan drew And so to
me, he's a little bit of a cell high because when you look under
the hood with Jonathan drew in as well, his metrics are putrid. Right,
this guy's out there for over twenty minutes, Like last five games,
he's averaging twenty three and a half minutes. He's got four points, but
shots and gobra sixty over that time, three hundred and sixty ninth in the
league. What the what are you doing? Three hundred and fifty first an
individual course hef and then one hundred and ninety fourth in individual scoring chances for
So that's not good. What is he skating backwards out there? I don't
know what's happening. Just give the puck to McKinnon. I think you're good
to go. But yeah, so to me, the metrics really if this
opportunity in deployment falls off at all, now we're looking at a player that
doesn't shoot, he doesn't get scoring chances, and now all of a sudden
he's not scoring and he's with players that aren't as good. So there's a
minor concern for me with drew On. That said, I'm rostering him in
two spots until the wheels fall off. But yeah, not a player I'm
excited about moving forward. I feel too that Colorado might look to bolster their
roster for the deadline here, so whoever they bring in that could affect drew
In as well. So rest of the season, I'm not stoked on drew
On, but right now, you Ryde, I'm always hot. Yeah,
the wheels are always a little bit shaky, the nuts and bolts are always
a little bit loose with drew On, So I would do what you gotta
do, But I'm not a born on that one. You know what it's
at the earliest when you're listening to this is January twenty first. At this
time of your people, dynasty hockey turns into redrive hockey because we all got
to play every week, we all got to win. And a guy who
can help you is mister Blake Kramer, who's been here today. Blake tell
people how they can listen to more of your content and run through that tape
this year. Thank you, my man. I appreciate that. You can
always find me on Twitter, slash x. It's at Blake kreamer ag as
well. I am myself and Nate grut Niblick over at Apples and Genos so
you can listen to our fantasy musings, ramblings, digressions, what have you
over it. Yeah, just any podcast provider. You just search Apples and
Genos you can find us. We're doing shows five days a week. There.
We got waiver shows, all kinds of stuff. Also, I do
want to shout out I'm on this new app called did It, which is
actually you download the app and you can talk one on one with the person.
So that's something I'm on as well. If you're interested in that,
just go download the app did It, and you can find me as a
fantasy hockey expert. I can assess your rosters, look at trades, waiver
wires, all that stuff. So shout out to did It. But boys,
I'm so stoked on the content you guys are putting out. I love
fantasy hockey life and I love Dauber Prospects. Report you guys are crushing right
now. Just keep doing the work you're doing. Really appreciate it. Tremendous
stuff. Thank you for coming on and talking a little fantasy hockey before we
get out of here today. A couple of reminders you've come to welcome and
anticipate. One is you should play fantasy sports on fan tracks. You can
do everything you want over there. And I appreciate everything that they do because
I play all the leagues that I can over on fan tracks rather than the
other platforms that don't have the customized rookie eligibility, that don't have the salary
opportunity, the contracts, all the scoring, different options, hundreds literally of
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come into our servers. You can find people to play with who are
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Fan tracs HQ has a lot of fantasy content. There's articles on fantasy hockey,
all the other fantasy sports. You'll actually see them. If you're setting
a roster on fan tracks. Over the right hand column, you see little
article links and those are our staff and I even write if you're on a
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and it would actually apply to hockey as well. We thank our entire
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This week you can look forward to a talk on guys who positively and
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