Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks. Here's your source of
information and analysis to help you win your fantasy hockey league. Block off,
Hot's a step hit on, staylock. Here's your hosts, Jesse Severe and
Victor Nuno Fantasy Hockey Live back once again talking nothing but the fantasy hockey.
Jesse Severe from fan Tracks and over there you love, Victor Nuno ep ringside.
Victor, how you doing. I'm doing okay, Jesse. Still find
out this little cold but not as cold as it probably is over for you.
I would think, right, wait a minute, are you fighting off
a cold or the cold? Just a cold? I know it's like a
man cold, but it hit me hard. All right. Apples to oranges
here, Victor, because the cold that we have in Wisconsin is not an
illness on my part. And actually it's been melting. We had this crazy
storm, crazy huge snow, and apparently the winter has decided that it was
going to put all of its snow in one storm. Knock on wood.
But yeah, that's okay, that's okay. Everything's melting slowly. I see
grass again for some reason, and all is well. Oh, Victor.
I hate the All Star break I know people are sick of me whining about
this every time, but I get twitchy when I go several days without setting
lineups. I don't know about you. Yeah, I was thinking about you.
Actually, when I wasn't setting lineups, I was thinking how twitchy you
were. I was frankly a little relieved because it's exhausting. I enjoy having
the break, so but if I ever feel left out now that I'm in
the Diesel League, I can just pop over to the basketball team that I
know nothing about, but I can see that they're the lineup set. Absolutely
you can. Absolutely you can. That's a feature, not a bug as
far as I'm concerned to be able to keep doing that. They don't open.
They also breaks don't overlap, so I can keep setting basketball lineups.
Victor H. We are ready to talk goalies today. I love talking goalies.
And if people out there like talking goalies and want to keep talking them
after this episode, they can pop over to our discord, which is absolutely
free and absolutely fun for anybody who wishes to join, and we always get
We get a couple a week, it feels like still, and that builds
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If you're interested, We love to have you over there. Victor, it
is time to talk about goalies. Right after this, you are going to
hear our favorite goalie experts in the entire world. We're back. We are
talking with Kat Silverman from in Goal magazine. Everybody knows that fantasy hockey players
soak up goalie information from knowledgeable people like Desert soak up rain. It is
absolutely something that we can't figure out without somebody who knows what they're talking about,
and nobody knows what they're talking about, like Kat Selberman. How you
doing today, Kat, I'm good. How are you guys? Excellent?
Excellent. Our listeners got a lot of your takes on goalies last summer.
Hopefully they were listening. Hopefully they benefited from all that talk. And we
are back hat in hand asking for more information, more takes on what's going
on with goalies out there. Yeah, we have a number that come up.
Victor has his goalie ranks. We've got questions from listeners. Victor,
I'll put you first up to talk about these guys. Yeah, definitely.
It was such a great series. Kat, I really appreciate you doing that
that listeners did too, and so we wanted to have you back on and
everyone the patrons know that I have my goalie ranks, but I'm no expert,
so I wanted to get your takes on all these guys, and so
we have asked to you who you think is too high too low. But
the first thing we do is go through our top five, my top five,
and I don't think you're going to have too much debate with the top
guy that I have. Desper walstat I know when we talked in the summer.
We're both big fans. He's now twenty one years old and he has
essentially played four full professional seasons at twenty one. That's incredible. All of
them have him at or above nine to eight save percentage. And he did
actually make his NHL debut this season, and the Wild completely crap the bed
for him. It was really unfortunate. Was I watched some of those goals.
They were hard to watch. They weren't necessarily all his fault, but
he was obviously struggling as well, and that was unfortunate because he's better than
that. When you look at his expected goals per goal conceded an instat the
last two seasons in Iowa, he's been at one point four to one and
one point six to one. Both of those are really incredible the numbers.
And I pulled up a hockey prospecting comp as I like to do for Walstead.
He's got some really great comps, guys like Brodeu and georgev and Connor
Hallibuck. So he's looking really strong, one of the stronger ones. So
what do you think about Walstad, especially in this pole position. I feel
like once you get into those top five in the rankings, both in terms
of your rankings and just overall, it becomes splitting hairs to a degree,
because it's nice that we have so many good young prospects right now, and
then we've gotten to see I feel like a larger number of them this year
making just a few little debuts here and there at such a young age at
the NHL level. Like you said, wal NHL debut was not kind to
him. It was reminded me of Mikey d Pietro's NHL debut in Vancouver,
where they decided that he was going to show up for the game and no
one else on the team was, which is always tough for a young guy
who's making their NHL debut there but looking at his numbers overall, so he's
in his second essentially a second full AHL season. Sometimes on once a young
goaltending prospect has gotten some games under their belt, we either see their stats
go up or we see them go down. Stayed pretty much exactly the same.
He looks good for Iowa right now. He looks like his game is
mainly just staying consistent. He's not getting a ton of transitional like we're not
seeing a ton of technical retooling going on, which he really didn't need in
the first place, so that's nice. We're not seeing him trying to reinvent
the wheel. But yeah, I've enjoyed watching just clips of him here and
there because I haven't gotten to see as many of his games this year,
just because I am not paying for a full season of HLTV, so I'm
grabbing clips where I can, and what I've seen so far looks really good.
I am glad that Minnesota hasn't decided to just pull him up because I
don't think that would be good for him, because I think he could be
one of our better starters. In the next probably i'd say three to four
years. Ideally, don't want to see him at the NHL level before maybe
middle of next year, just for patient's sake. But yeah, hopefully we
see him, i'd say within the next two to three years making full time
starts at the NHL level. Yeah, And one thing it's obviously important to
look at is the situation in Minnesota. Obviously they're having a disappointing season.
Obviously Gus Philip Gustafson, who looked pretty good for parts of the season and
last season, has really struggled. I mean, his goal save above expected
is negative twelve point four. He's had he's had some struggles, and Flurry,
you know, the ageless wonder Marc Andre Flurry at thirty nine years old,
has a goal save above expected a four and a half. So he's
looking good, but obviously not going to be there forever. I think some
people would assume naturally that Wall said, and Gus would I'm sure next season,
but it sounds like you think that might still be a little early.
I think if they can get away with giving him a little more time,
especially because the wildar it overall the Central this year seems like it's the division
that's a little more powerful, and so they're having a little bit more troubled
breaking into that clear contender playoff role right now. And so I think trying
to rush him to the NHL level, if they do need to do some
significant retooling to their actual NHL lineup out in front of him, is something
that maybe they shouldn't look at doing, just because you don't want to see
him trying to get his feet underneath him at the NHL level. You don't
want to see him trying to integrate into a system that is in the process
of establishing itself overall, like seeing a team that keeps their roster fairly consistent
over the off season before they add someone new in net, especially when they're
a younger guy. So that's more wishful thinking on my part, though I
know that the goalie market this offseason I think is going to be fun to
watch, just because I think it's going to be one of the louder ones.
There's a chance that they may have no choice and they may just need
to bring him up. If I would say now and not now as in
January, February March this year, if they're smart, they don't bring him
up at all this year other than that one game, maybe one or two
more, But i'd say maybe next season they'll probably bring him up. Realistically,
though i'd like to see him maybe wait another half a season after that.
Yeah, we'll see if they go and add someone. The big thing
for Minnesota next season is the Preeze suitor buyouts come off the book, so
they will have fifteen million or more to do something. So there's a lot
you can do with fifteen million, So we'll see what happens. But yeah,
that's great. I can't wait for Walstat to have a team that cares
and tries hard behind him so that he doesn't look so bad because he's great.
So the next guy on my list, number two is lukash Dostal,
and he's going to be graduating from this list pretty soon because I keep it
at fifty NHL games and he's at forty five, so he probably by the
end of the season the way things are going. He had nineteen games in
the NHL last season, twenty two this season. Looking at his numbers,
it hasn't been so good. This has definitely been more of a case of
me keeping the faith. I would say because his goals save above expected have
been negative four this season. If you look at the totality of his career,
he's closer to average, he's closer to zero, which is better.
And Gibson has been way out playing him, which hadn't been the case for
the last couple of years. Gibson had really been struggling and had some negative
numbers there. But it has turned around, turned the tables. Maybe that's
good for Gibson if he's going to get traded, it sounds it seems like
that's been the rumor forever. Who knows that that will actually happen. But
Doshtahl continues to have a super high equivalency. He has sixty three percent chance
of being an NHL or when he graduated the Hockey Prospecting Model, and he
has some really good comps, including Jacob Markshrum to Krask Star starters are like
at least average starters for him. But things are a bit rocky right now.
So I think you've actually watched him a bunch right because he's been down
in your neck of the woods and you have a pretty good book on him.
What do you think of Doshtaal as his upside still super high and what
are these struggles amount too. Honestly, I amount these struggles to Anaheim,
like some of the struggles I know that. I think we talked a little
bit before the season started about what's going on with John Gibson too, just
looking at whether or not he can turn things back around in Anaheim, just
because that team's been so bad the last couple of years. And unfortunately they
I think they started the year with a nice little optimistic streak and promptly lost
every game for a month and a half after that. I don't necessarily think
that's their goaltender's fault. For either goaltender. John Gibson has managed to turn
it back around a little bit this series. Looking I think it was over
the course of the back half of last year he was really starting to look
like maybe he was still an NHL goaltender, and it looks like he's continued
on that trajectory. And the thing is, I think Lucas Doschtall doesn't look
like he's out of place at the NHL level, which when you see a
young guy who's really only in his third ish, I think he's in his
third full season at the North American level. Not just at the pro level,
and he's holding his head above water. He's playing like an NHL goaltender.
He's just not playing like an elite NHL goaltender, which for rebuilding team.
The fact that he hasn't really seen his numbers taken nose dive from a
raw number perspective, he hasn't really seen his save percentage just absolutely plummet.
That's something I find optimistic, just because we're seeing him get regular starts.
He's not getting time to go back down spend a ton of time in the
so to speak, pressure free. It's not pressure free, but it's far
less pressure at the AHL level, especially because the San Diego goals are not
They were not a great team when he was there. I think that he's
not really getting that reprieve, that chance to go down retool things that maybe
you're starting to slip in his technique and his confidence levels and his consistency.
He's really staying up at the NHL level, and they're like, hey,
you were the backup this year, the number two. At times you might
be the number one. What happens, And I think he's responding to that
pretty well. I think next year will be the really the big test of
if he's actually going to be able to turn things around and get his numbers
back into a really impressive category. But I think that to a degree is
going to involve the team around him too. I know that we look at
some of the teams that are underperforming and see that their goaltender is doing really
well, and hope that we see something like that from the Shalin Gibson and
any of the goalies on the Sharks, which they're not doing there. But
ultimately I think that at least expecting him to hit that league average save percentage,
maybe a little below it when he's a twenty three year old kid,
that's all we can hope for right now, and then hope that he manages
to build it back up as the team continues to rebuild their roster for the
next year or two. On to Devin Levi. As of the All Star
break, he's played twenty games this year, nineteen starts. He's holding serve
for a sub par Sabers Club. Stats aren't quite as good as that deep
that brief seven game debut that was so hot last year, and for a
dunce like me, it seems like a decent defensive environment the sense that the
Sabers give up fewer shots per sixty than average, although a negative goal saved
expected percentage, a Levi gives up a little bit more than even expected.
And depending on where you look, he's either about the same as Ukapeka Lukenan
in terms of his stats are trailing him weirdly, a very bad home road
split in the sense of on the at home eight seventy four save percentage on
the road nine ten. Maybe he doesn't like Buffalo wings. I don't know.
Is this somewhere where you would counsel patients kat that this is a guy
who's still adjusting to the NHL, or is this going to be another promising
goalie prospect eaten up by the Buffalo meat grinder? Oh man, I think
at the start of the season, all that I said was don't put him
in the NHL yet, give him some time to to get his feet at
the love. That's all I wanted to see from Buffalo, and they said,
no, thank you, we'd like him to be our starter. Which
luckily we're seeing things turn around for Ukupeca Lucanan, which I think is helping
his case. It's not a great feeling when you're an NHL team and you
see your young goaltending prospect who comes into the league is expected to be one
of the best guys in his essentially in his age class, only play well
when he's not in Buffalo. That's not something I love to see. But
that's also potentially a pressure situation that could just be a nerves thing when you're
playing against an a way crowd. At worst, you play poorly in front
of people who were already rooting against you. At best, you stick it
to the haters. It's much tougher to play a consistent, positive game behind
a team that, for all intents and purposes, has not been good for
I think we're going on fifteen years now since the Buffalo was good. That's
that's so long, and they've really struggled with consistent goaltending. They don't have
a really solid mentor there. They have Eric Comery, who's a nice enough
voice to have in the room, but is someone who I think in the
past we've talked about having him around. He's a little too tough on himself,
so not really someone who's good at teaching young goaltenders to shake it off.
And uku Peca Locanin who has struggled I would say somewhere between moderately and
immensely every single season in the NHL. So you're not really giving him a
super promising environment, and you're giving him a fan base that, across all
of their sports teams is really just ravenous to see something go right. And
that's a really tough environment to put a kid. And it's the same type
of environment that we look at when we hold our breath for young Leafs prospects,
young Oilers prospects, young Canucks prospects, the same thing for the Sabers.
We're looking at a team that really expects to see you dazzle them immediately
or get out. And I think he's, like with Doschdal, he's holding
his own. He's not absolutely tanking the year. He's, like you said,
is his underlying numbers look a little bit more average. He's not impressing,
and he's not absolutely drowning. Ideally, I wanted to see more games
from him at the AHL level. That's I really wonder if in the off
season if Buffalo manages to snag someone with a little more experience outside of Buffalo,
because at this point, Lucanan does have NHL experience. It's just there's
a little last risk connect to that because it's all in Buffalo. I wonder
if they give Levi a chance next year to just do what I was saying
for Doshdall. You give him a chance to go back down to a more
pressure free environment retool parts of his game. He's someone who from a positional
standpoint, is really consistent and strong, and his reflexes are good, but
that's not the first thing you talk about when you look at his game,
his positional awareness and his technique. So giving him a chance to fine tune
that work on how to maintain that when he's under NHL level pressure, that
would be a good thing. I don't know that's what Buffalo is going to
do, because everything I want them to do with goaltenders they do the opposite.
But that's okay, it's their plan and at some point it's going to
work. I feel like the environment that you're describing is exactly what the Predators
are doing for Yaroslav Askarov, So let's talk about him next. He's had
few opportunities in the NHL, but very nice performances, and of course Kevin
Linkin it is holding down the FORD is the backup so that Askarov can't continue
to mature in the AHL. Sorrows is down to two years on that contract.
I can't believe that already. It's we're waiting for him forever and now
Rene is long gone, but Sorrows is down to two years on his current
contract. Obviously, he's somebody who one would think has got a long career
ahead of him. Askrov's doing very well in Milwaukee and the AHL and nine
say percentage is fifth in the AHL. And let's we forget Askarov is only
twenty one years old. This is his second real season in North America,
and so how is this maturing going with Askarov? What's going to happen if
and when he gets his chance? Cat He's like you said, I just
want to gesture what Nashville's doing and show Anaheim and Buffalo be like see it
works because Askarov has two games at the NHL level this year, he has
a nine to forty three raw safe percentage, and then he gets to go
back down to the AHL and he gets to continue developing his game and work
on his consistency and get the game reps in, which is exactly what you
want to see for those young guys. You want to see the chance for
them to retool their game work behind. At the AHL level, you see
a much more unpredictable defense. It's not necessarily that it's worse at times.
It's not necessarily that it's a slower game. The skating speed, the shooting
speed is all the same, it's just it's more unpredictable. You see a
lot of those sloppier mistakes. So you really get that worst case scenario practice
in gameplay at the AHL level, where any potential defensive breakdown you could look
at the NHL level, you get it one or two or three times more
per game at the AHL level to practice, and if you lose that game,
you're not costing your team two points towards their playoff run. So that's
what Nashville has been doing with Oscarb and he looks really good. I think
that's a team that has consistently done a good job developing their goaltenders. They
have a really nice surprise in Kevin Lincoln in there as their number two.
He is someone who when we talk about teams that really mishandled the way that
their goaltending prospects should be handled. I don't know if you guys remember Kevin
Lincoln and got his NHL start during that really disastrous year in Chicago where they
just they had to bring him up. He did okay, learned. It
turns out that he didn't get enough development time, didn't get enough time to
retool his game after playing behind a really bad rebuilding defense, and his numbers
started to slip. He's not doing amazingly in Nashville this year, but that's
okay because Sorrows is doing pretty well, and I think that we're probably once
again, i'd say maybe one or two years. I'd say realistically, we
have two years left on that Sorrow's contract. Probably that last year is when
I would expect the team to want to split. Ask Rovin Sorrows, see
how that works as a tandem, and then approach the future of their net
looking at how those two handle working together in tandem, which in a perfect
world we see a like a Lena Soulmark Jeremy Swingman type tandem. But worst
case, they decide that they only need one of the two of them.
But I think things are that is the perfect possible situation there, and it's
really playing out in a strong way for him. Hopefully they have some version
of the goalie hug that the Boston Boys do. I saw this clip of
all the goalies doing that at the All Star Yes, I just watched that,
except Thatcher Demko apparently is a hater and was like, no, thank
you listening to watching that clip. I don't know if you had the volume
turned up when you saw it. Jake Ottinger gives Jeremy swim and he's standing
at the entrance to the dressing room and each of the goalies comes fine.
He opens his arms to give him his signature goalie hug, and Jake Ottinger
gives him the hug and says, isn't this cheating on your boy here?
And then shuffles away. That's someone posted that. Someone posted that on Boston
Twitter. Yeah, that basically that Omark was going to call him a cheater
when he got back. That's hilarious. All right, This move on to
number five on my list, and then we'll get into some guys that are
too high or too low. And this is the big bad Dustin Wolf.
He is still killing it over in the AHL. He has for the past
three seasons. I think there's been some discussion too about how good the team
has been during that time. The Calgary Wranglers the last two seasons is stucked
and heat before that, it hasn't really mattered at first. For Dustin Well
if he's been at or above a nine to twenty four save percentage all three
years. This season he's at nine twenty six, last season nine thirty two,
and he did get five NHL starts this season. They didn't all go
terribly well. I think he got one win. There were a couple of
not so good ones. Overall, his goal save above expected was negative five
and his delta Fendwick negative three, which is a really bad number. And
Vodar has been equally not as great, maybe slightly better. But Jacob Markstrom
having this big rebound season, he has almost fourteen goals save above expected.
He's really turned things around. That's I think if Markstrom was going to continue
to struggle and Vladar, maybe Wolf would be getting even more starts. But
I don't know, well to see what you think about all that, But
looking at the hockey prospecting, he continues to have a good equivalency trended up
to fifty six percent. I'm ninety nine percent. Sure that would be much
higher if he wasn't six feet tall, if he was six four I think
that would be closer to eighty percent or something because the numbers are so good,
but he has equivalencies of I think probably the one that makes the most
sense to me looking at this as Anton Forrestberg, who is listed as an
average starter. Maybe that's the upside for him. Maybe it's more cats.
You're going to tell us, and I know that you and I are both
card carrying members of the Destin wal fan club, So tell me what you
think of his projection now after this third strong AHL season, I love rooting
for a good California boy. I'm glad they're not bringing him up more consistently
at the NHL level. I think at the start of the year, I
was like, this could be his year, and then Calgary immediately said,
no, this is not only not his year, it's not our year.
They are, I think, statistically one of the worst teams in the NHL
right now. They've really been struggling with a lot of things going on there.
I know they just had a trade go through that looks like they had
to get a massive haulback for one of their players. I don't know what's
going on there. I'm hoping that we'll see them turn things around before Dustin
Wolf makes it to the NHL level on a full time basis. Dan ladar
is struggling doesn't surprise me as much, just because I watched him more when
he was a prospect for Boston and I wasn't super in love with his game.
Jeremy Swayman was of their young goaltender, is the one that I had
tabbed is my heir apparent in Boston, and apparently Boston listened to me and
shipped Vladar off to Calgary. Agree it's no seeing mark Strom make a rebound,
but I don't he only realistically has a few years left as a volume
starter with lots of games under his belt, just because he's played such heavy
workloads for such a long time behind teams that do not give him a whole
lot of support. I know that Vancouver's finally turned it around this year when
he was there. They certainly didn't. They made it as as difficult as
possible for him. I like Dustin Wolf's game from a consistency standpoint. I
like his game. He reminds me a little bit of watching someone like Aunti
Ronto, who plays a unique game for a shorter goaltender. We see someone
who doesn't like to challenge too aggressively. It's not like an Alex Staylock type
short goaltender, which I did get to see him sitting on the bench here
in San Diego a couple weeks ago, and that made me extremely excited.
You guys know, I love Alex Staylock, but yeah, Dustin Wolf plays
like he's like a six three six' four goaltender where he's playing just comfortably
within the blue paint, doesn't do a whole lot of challenging, just patiently
waits out to see what the shooters are going to do. Does a really
good job of reading passes so he's getting good cross ice movement. He doesn't
really do a whole lot of overcorrecting, doesn't slide a whole lot, and
I think that works really well until you're behind. It does disastrous defense where
you just have to throw all of your technique out the window and just live
on reflexes and vibes alone. And I think that's what Calgary needs right now.
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like it's working out for Vladar because that's his
style, but it does seem like the ability to play with a little bit
of a panic element to their game, which is what Jacob Markstrom has had
to do throughout his career, is something that is working in Markstrom's favor right
now. So hopefully we see Calgary ky in a little consistency before they bring
Wolf up full time. But just looking at his numbers, I think they
can't leave him in the AHL too much longer without it becoming almost an off
ice problem. Where he's played well enough, he's earned his right to be
in the NHL, and if they keep holding him in the AHL, I
think that becomes almost a discontentment type of situation for him. Calgary has shown
they are starting to sell a little bit, so maybe they'll make some more
up there in Alberta. Next up, Kat, you have seen Victor's ranks
at this point, and we've asked you to comment on some guys that you
think might not quite be where you would place them. And the first one
who you think maybe is a bit underestimated here is Drew Comesso, embarking on
his first season as a Rockford ice Hog for of course, of the Chicago
Blackhawks system. After a fairly successful career at Boston University. Numbers are not
great in Rockford. In the AHL so far this year, eight ninety five
save percentage for a not great squad. I know on this show we picked
on Chicago taking him way back during the draft, as early as the second
round, but there's certainly an opening in Chicago. Is Comeso showing the potential
one day to be Connor Bedard's backstop. Why do you believe he is a
little bit underrated at this point? I so, I really like what I've
seen from his game. When I first watched some of his essentially some of
his scouting reports when he got drafted, I thought that some of the support
that he had there was it looked like they were a little high on him
because he was a US national team goaltender, and I believe he was playing
behind Spencer Night and they play pretty different games there. So I prefer a
game like Spencer Knight's game. I think Cameso plays a little bit more.
We were talking about guys who who thrive on vibes only, but watching Camesso's
game, He's really cleaned up some of the control in his game. He's
become a little bit more patient. He still likes to skate out, which
I think the Rockford Ice Hogs are not a team that not a team that's
doing super well from a consistency standpoint, which that makes sense. That's a
team that's in the process of retooling their roster, and they really haven't been
able to get the assets to stockpile AHL team because a lot of those guys
who would be in the HL are currently on their NHL team, which makes
it a little tough on their goaltending prospects. I just think I've seen good
upward trajectory from his technique, and at first I was a little hesitant on
that one, but especially of the goaltenders that Chicago has, I think he's
probably their best bet and thinking, well, probably if he continues to improve
like this. He hasn't really done a whole lot of backsliding from a visual
perspective, like from watching his technique, so I think as long as he
continues to improve like that and show that he's willing to learn and remold parts
of his game without taking big stumbles or without backsliding, that's a good option
for that team moving forward for sure. All Right, and you're right,
he was on that USNTB team with Knight. He was on the more of
the U seventeen side and Night on the U eighteen team. But anyways,
let's move on to the next guy, Kelly Klang playing. I have him
ranked tenth and and he he struggled so far this season with the goals San
Diego goals of the AHL. Apparently struggling so much he got sent to the
ECHL, where he's had a couple of very strong games for the renowned Tulsa
Oilers of ECHL. So yish, that's not good looking at the hockey prospecting,
he generally still looks really good. I mean, he peaked at sixty
six percent chance of being NHL or last season when he was in the SHL
and this season. He did get five games in the HL last season after
coming over, but this is his first real tour in North America. Hasn't
gone so well. He's dipped back down a fifty five percent. He's got
some pretty good comps. Actually, John Gibson is one of his comps,
which is funny since he's a teammate. But even though the raw numbers for
the goal don't look so good, hit eight ninety five say percentage and three
two three GAA and eighteen games his expected goals were goal conceded is one point
twenty six, meaning he's saving more goals than expected. So that's always good.
But I don't know, what do you think about playing so far this
season? So the Goals are an insane team to watch right now. I've
gone to a couple of their games so far, and obviously AHL games are
always an adventure. Those are especially an adventure. We have a buddy who
lives here who is from Palm Springs, so we get to go see the
fun Southern California HL team rivalries a lot because they like to go to all
those games. I think that sending him to the ECHL, as hard as
that can be for a prospect, sometimes that's probably a good idea, just
because I know that we're probably going to talk about their other goaltender in a
minute here, and I think that if you're the goaltender who's not doing as
well at the AHL level, it's better to get those reps in. And
so he's getting reps in on a different team rather than sitting as their backup,
which is nice, and he's getting a chance to like you said,
his numbers look really good. Now that he's getting out chance to get some
reps in at the ECCHL level, then they can bring him back up to
the HL level. There's a very fun locker room mentor in Alex Staylock at
the AHL level right now, so they have Honestly, I like the Anaheim
and San Diego stacked their goaltending roster there. They added almost too many goaltenders
so that they had in the case of injury, in the case of underperformance,
in the case of illness, they have enough guys, and that just
left Klaang is the odd man out there, so he has popped over to
the ECCHL level. I'm assuming that so that if they need to, they
can always call Alex Staylock up to the Ducks versus one of either Klanger Suchanic
and I'm assuming we'll see him back at the AHL level pretty quickly. But
yeah, I was surprised to see that he'd been struggling, and then I
went to a couple of the goals games and I was like, oh,
I'm not as surprised anymore. I get it. I think just getting a
chance to get his feet wet at the North American level beyond those five games
that he got last year. Is really going to be how we'll tell if
he ultimately is because I thought he was one of the better European prospects his
draft year, and it'll be interesting to see if he stays that way or
if maybe he just can't quite adjust to the patin rhythm of the North American
game, which is what it looked like right now. So you mentioned he's
been outperformed in San Diego and the man he's been outperformed by Toomas Suchanik,
And I'm thrilled that this is a guy you are seeing up close and personal.
He has got a nine to twenty one save percentage eight two and two
record for the San Diego goals a year after leading Checchia to a silver in
the World Juniors. He's not tiny, he's six to two, he's twenty
years old. He's young and is I keep staring at this cat. I
keep trying to make sure this is true. But he wasn't drafted, right,
He's got to be drafted in the upcoming draft. What the heck is
going out? Why wasn't he drafted? And as an overager, how highly
could he be drafted now. How good is Kamasuchanic? He's been so much
fun to watch. I remember I was watching one of the games that he
was starting in and I was like, who is this? Is this?
I thought it was playing it first, and so I just guy was like,
that's not his number, and I looked it up and I was like,
that can't be right, but it was. He had been playing on
the WHL's Tricity Americans for two years, had some pretty good numbers there.
I think that a lot of the we're going to see, and I think
we've talked about this during some of our summer series, We're going to see
some really weird goaltending draft positions, both guys who got left out entirely and
guys who got drafted too high. Because we had a full year where guys
in the OHL, guys who were playing for the IVS at the ENDA level,
some of the guys playing in Europe just didn't get a single start.
Some of those guys only had ten games their draft years, some of them
had zero. And so we saw some really weird draft positions where teams were
like, you know what, I think this guy's going to be good.
I saw him last year, and if he's still developed this year, he's
going to be great. And some of those gambles paid off and some of
them did not, And so then we saw a bunch of guys who were
essentially a year older at the level that they were playing. So we saw
a lot of older guys still playing in the WHL, still playing in the
USHL, still playing and CBA hockey, and so it became this weird sort
of dichotomy where teams couldn't figure out if a guy was playing poorly because he
had missed time or because he was struggling, and they couldn't tell if a
guy was playing well because he was older than everyone else or because he was
genuinely good. And so we just saw a bunch of really weird misses on
drafts, and a bunch of guys who were taken too high, some guys
who weren't taken high enough, some guys like Suchanik who were just missed entirely.
But he's been really fun to watch. I know that some of the
Czech goaltenders are a little exciting to watch. Some of them are a little
too exciting to watch, But he looked like he understood body positioning, which
is the huge thing when you get some of those more active goaltenders who enjoy
coming out of their crease, they don't enjoy playing a super structured game.
And his game looked really fluid and rhythmic, and it looked like he was
reacting well, but he also wasn't overreacting. And the goals defense is not
very good, there's no other way to put it. The goals defense is
wild at times, and there were a few moments where there were some really
high danger shots against him, and he was playing it correctly. He wasn't
diving for saves that he knew he couldn't cover, which is something that you
see in the AHL a lot. You'll see a guy who dives isn't able
to fully cover the puck, stop the play, puck pops back out into
play and they end up getting scored on because they're still laying prone on the
ice. And he was doing a really good job of staying on his feet,
staying on his knees so he could recover and make a second save,
or he was passing the puck out to a teammate, or he was trying
to create a little extra chaos in his crease without turning himself around. We
see that bad habit a lot from some of those guys who skate a little
bit too much, where they almost turn around and watch the puck behind the
net. It's something that we used to see from Charlie Lindgren actually before he
cleaned up his game, when he was an early prospect, turning himself all
the way around in the net. And that's something that I didn't notice from
suchanic at all, and I was waiting for it, and I was expecting
it, and it just didn't happen, and I was like, I like
this guy. I think they are probably not going to They might overreact,
but I think they're probably going to continue to give him development times. See
if this year is just getting a little too like writing on adrenaline there.
But from the way it looks, I think he's just someone that we all
slept on, didn't notice and might actually be a really solid prospect for a
team to have. That's some great stuff. And I know that Byron has
done a really good exercise looking at overage goalies and how that's a real market
inefficiency that you can pick up a little little bit more about them, and
you can draft them a little bit later, so that might be true in
fantasy too. So Thomas Schuchnik seems like a really good one. Dylan gran
who I have at twenty six and you wrote that might be a little low
for you, and so he is a New York Rangers prospect. He was
drafted in the fourth round in twenty twenty. He's six foot on hundred and
seventy two pounds, a little bit undersize. He's actually pretty young for his
draft year too. He's a June seventh birthday. And he was in the
WHL for his development, mainly with kam Loops, and then last season he
had his transition to the AHL and it was rough, and I know we
talked a little bit about that in the summer eight ninety four save percentage,
three goals against average, and so that was part of the okay, what's
going on here? After he did have some really great performances, if everyone
remembers at the World Juniors, I believe that was the year he led Canada
to gold and was stellar in that tournament, and then follow that up with
the not so good AHL year. His equivalency looks kind of stagnant at around
thirty percent the comps aren't super great guys like Brisgolov and Anthony Hudobin. That's
looking more like an average starter to back up kind of thing. I think
part of the issue is that he's a little bit smaller. He's six feet
and the WHL equivalency he had was pretty low. But you can't discount what
he's done this year in the AHL. It's been really good twenty games,
nine to eleven, save percentage, seems like he's current things around Kad.
What have you thought of grand and why do you think he should be a
little higher. I so I was really high on him during his draft year,
actually, and I was really hoping that he would go a little bit
higher. I was really excited when the Rangers managed to snag him, I
would say in mid in a kind of a mid to late draft position.
There. It's not like he fell to Dustin Wolf levels. But he's someone
who he was playing well at the WHL level. He hadn't really been getting
a whole lot of looks from Team Canada prior to twenty twenty one, and
obviously he ended up leading his team to gold, which was delightful. That
was a weird one for me. Because I had been surprised when he didn't
get taken for the I believe it was the Ivan Hlanka tournament where I had
thought that he was one of the better guys to have on the team and
he didn't end up getting to go. And then finally I think he ended
up going after a bunch of prospect essentially hadn't been able to play during the
COVID stoppage year and really Sean and then he did follow it up with a
bit of a struggle at the AHL level, which the Rangers are a weird
team for me because I feel like their goaltenders play really poorly at the AHL
level and then come up to the NHL and do great, or they end
up leaving them overseas they do really well and have i'd say more success with
drafting guys from overseas, letting them play in the pros over there, and
then bringing them directly over to the NHL. So we'll see how it goes
for him. I'm remaining a little patient, but he's someone who just from
a technique standpoint, I really enjoyed watching a lot of those guys who play
in the WHL have I would say a more consistent defense in front of them.
That's a league that historically has been a little bit more defense oriented.
You see a lot of really shining offense in the OHL, and then you
see a lot of chaos in the queue, and so getting to see him
develop his game behind good defensive consistency. I know that's something that some people
knock. They say, oh, guys who are playing as a goaltender for
a WHL team, they have it easier than guys playing for the other teams.
But I think it's almost better for their development, just because they're not
constantly having to guess what's going on in front of them, so they can
really focus on their technique, their repetitions, their consistency, and their reads.
So yeah, that's I think that the Rangers aren't necessarily hurting for goaltenders
right now, although I think the chiester cans not really having the year that
he hoped he would, which is okay, no goaltender is perfect. I
think that he's someone who when I saw that they drafted him, I was
like, perfect. They can use him as a backup in probably or even
as a tandem in probably two or three years, and I'd say we're probably
about a year out from wanting to try him in that position, which I
think they bought themselves some good time there by having a very successful, surprising
bounce back for Jonathan Quick. So we'll see how that goes. But he's
someone who I have a little bit of a soft spot because he was overlooked
by Team Canada for a couple of years while he was playing really well in
the juniors, and then when they did finally tap him for a spot,
he delivered, which is something that I think counts very good. We're going
to take a break, come back with Kat on a few more goalies,
so Victor and Jesse, it's Cal Peterson Air from now. The King's My
buddies played fantasy and they have an absolute flast. They have a hard time
drafting me, and fortunately because I think there's a lot of better guys.
But with Alan knows Kat, the next guy we want to talk about is
a fella. I feel like we've been waiting for a while, but maybe
that's just the main problem. Joel Blomquist of the Pittsburgh Penguins. His safe
percentage is actually fourth in the AHL this year. He's doing great. He
was taken as the third goalie in that twenty twenty draft with the after the
previously mentioned Yaroslavaskarov and Drew Comesso. I believe he has dressed for a Penguins
game but not yet played in the NHL, and it is not a remote
possibility that Tristan Jarry could implode. So if he did, would Joel Blomquist
be ready and or will he be riding in the long term? Oh man,
he's I know that we've talked in the past about justice in Nunan and
Joe Blomquist is from the same finished goaltending system that they have a really monster
goaltending coach over there, Ari Hilly, who has worked with Blundquists in the
past. It's a system that I think develops their goaltenders in a really unique
way where they look North American ready the minute they leave Finland. And I
know that we've talked about him in the past because I have this monstrous soft
spot for Blumquist. I was a little confused at first when the Penguins drafted
him. I think they drafted him what like four or five spots after they
took Kellie Klang, and that ended up working out in their favorite because they
were able to use one of the two or as trade fodder and were able
to recoup their investment there by snagging a couple goaltenders in a really monstrous draft.
And I couldn't be happier to see that Blumpost is having just a stellar
year at the HL level. But it's not super surprising given the system that
he comes from. I think that Carpot really develops their goaltenders to play a
tighter game. They work with their goaltenders to not try to challenge quite as
much as some of the European goaltenders can, almost work against the advantages of
the European goal, the European skating site stump. So they look weird when
they're playing against other Finnish teams, but then when they come over to North
America they look really good. I like you said, there's always that chance
that Tristan Jerry will implode. I love watching him play. I think he's
an amazing goaltender. He makes me anxious every time I watch him play because
I'm expecting something to go wrong and I cannot put my finger on why.
So yeah, I think that's a team that maybe needs a little bit of
a little bit of reassurance at the minor league level, and that's a boncust
really serves for them. Ideally, we don't see him out at the NHL
level, maybe not even next year, just because it's nice to be able
to give him a chance to get his feet wet. Ideally, we don't
see him play in an NHL game this year at all. We maybe see
him dress for them, but we don't see him play in them. Next
year, we see him do that one to five NHL games kind of introduction
that we see for most of those guys, and then see him more regularly
the year after that. All Right, we'll have to see if that happens
for Blanquist. So the next guy on my list for you is Justice Anenin
you just referenced him as he was from the same car pot system there in
Finland. He has finished. I feel like we've been waiting on En and
in forever. He was a twenty eighteen draft pick by the color Avalanche in
the third round. He's good, got good size, six four to two
o nine. He played in that car path system until the twenty twenty eight
twenty one this year, and then he came over to North America. That
first year was rough in the AHL, he had a sub nine hundred save
percentage, but the last two years have been pretty good and he's basically been
there with just five NHL appearances, including one this season where he got the
win, let in four goals, but still had a nine hundred safe percentage,
so I had a lot of shots against them. The Abs have not
been the defensive stalwart team they once were, and yeah, so again decent
in the AHL, his equivalency has been pretty much in that thirty to forty
percent range, and she looks a lot like someone like Dustin Dokarski, so
not the highest equivalency in this model. And I think one of the biggest
things for him is that the goalie situation in Colorado, Georgiev has been the
man. His underlying numbers haven't been good, but the Avs claimed I've been
Prosvetov off waivers and he's actually been pretty decent eleven games. His goal save
above expected and Delta fenwick are both positive. And I know we talked about
him in the summer as someone who could could do something for Arizona, but
now he's in this system and it almost seems like he's leapfrogged, although his
equivalency is slightly lower. That's similar, though, So what do you think
about on in? Has Prosvettov jumped him? Or what's who's going to be
the next guy? And I have to ask it in this way, Kat,
when will justice be served? Oh? I love that. It's weird
because I feel like Colorado it's the and I'd be like, why are you
so obsessed with me? I know, right the mean girls quote, Colorado
just keeps taking goaltenders that Arizona doesn't want from their prospect system. It's I
feel like Colorado really likes to snag goaltenders who aren't doing super well or getting
waived or not getting qualified by their old team, stuff like that, and
bring them in so that they don't have to rush their prospects up to the
NHL level. I don't really understand what's going on with Colorado's goaltending because they
seem like they end up with guys who do really well but then just can't
stay healthy, and then they lose them, and then they get someone else
and it's just a rinse and repeat cycle. I would love to see and
Ann jump to the NHL level next year. Because I think at this point
it's you have to just toss them in and see sinker swim. Really,
because he's been playing games at the AHL level. I know that one of
the big concerns when he got drafted was his conditioning. It's something that his
goaltending coach even openly admitted to me when I did a phone call interview with
Ari Hilly right after and got drafted to talk about him, and he said
that conditioning was the big thing they wanted to work on, making sure that
he could maintain good play over the course of a full year if he was
playing heavier workloads at a harder level. And that's something that I think is
a big adjustment when you were then being asked to play heavier workloads at a
higher level at altitude if you're someone who already has a little bit of trouble
with maintaining that conditioning that some guys, it's a little more instinctive for and
Ain had gotten hurt his final year in Finland, so he missed a big
chunk of the offseason, he missed a big chunk of the start of the
season, ended up getting to play and then came over to North America.
After kind of an underwhelming final year in Finland, so I think it took
him a little while to get his conditioning back again his first year in North
America, and then I think since then he's looked a little more consistent.
But at some point they just have to move him up to the NHL level.
It's nice thing that prospotav is playing well enough. He's one that I
was a little unsure about in Arizona because I know we talked about how hopefully
you'd be able to do something for them. Obviously, they found someone that
they felt a little more confident about from a consistency perspective in Connor Ingram,
who has really managed to deliver for them. But he's someone who from a
style standpoint, reminds me a little bit technique wise of Dan Vlodar, and
when he's not really focusing on it can become almost like the inflatable balloon men
outside of a car dealership. And really his limbit control can get a little
sloppy at times, and that's something that I think we're noticing in some of
his games for Colorado. But he has such fast reflexes that in other games,
especially when the team gives him proper backup support. He does really well.
I don't know. It's good that they have options right now, especially
like I said, they play at altitude. I think that's one of the
teams that needs to have three goaltenders ready to go at any given point in
time. Ideally they end up with all three just in their arsenal this year
and next year, and we reevaluate it moving forward. But I don't know.
I feel like I keep waiting Forandon and to step up and really take
that step forward, and he's just hovering. And I'm not ready to give
up on him yet, but I think we're coming down to that final year
or two where he needs to reach the NHL level or we have to maybe
reevaluate what we're looking at as an expectation from him. We need to talk
about Philadelphia because for dark reasons, there is an opening there and they're are
a grab bag of guys. I don't know what they're gonna do. Samuel
Erson has had nice moments this year, mind you, Since the middle of
January he has combusted a relief appearance and then four straight bad losses. Although
overall six sixty point nine percent quality starts over the years is not bad in
the NHL. The other two, Felix Anstrom Cal Peterson, are stinking it
up in the AHL. If you look at the sixty eight goalies in the
EHL who've played at least ten games or had ten starts, Felix's saved percentage
is sixty fourth of sixty eight. Cal's is fifty fifth. To put it
in perspective, a thirty year old free agent who played half his games in
the ECHL this year is doing better than both of them in the AHL.
And you might say, wow, these guys are young. That's an old
guy. No, Cal and Felix are both twenty seven, so these are
not young guy, although in goalie terms maybe they're still young. So I
don't know what to say here, Kat is it Ersen? Is it one
of these other guys? Is it a player to be named later who can
step up in the Philadelphia Nette? I that seems in trouble, man.
I know that. I even ahead of time, said we probably needed to
talk about this situation just because they're gonna have to do something. At the
start of the year. I think that's a team that we looked at and
we were like, what are they gonna do? Because they only had Carter
Hart, and then they had, like you said, assorted names, none
of which was really standing out as a clear option for them the year prior.
I think it was last year that they thought that the answer was bringing
in a veteran Martin Jones thought that would solve their problems, and it's barely
solving problems for Toronto. So I think that Samuel Erson is their best bet
from who they have. Cal Peterson obviously has the most NHL experience. He's
actually twenty nine right now, which is a little concerning that he still hasn't
fully stepped up in terms of consistency at the NHL level. Yeah, he
doesn't look good at the NHL level. He doesn't look good at the AHL
level. I think that Philadelphia is hoping that somebody frees up on the trade
market, which I don't. I don't think anyone will just because we're seeing
I was talking about it a couple days ago. The Western Conference is so
close. I think there are three, maybe four teams that are firmly out
of the playoff picture, and then everyone else. It's still kind of fair
game for those wild card spots. So we're not really going to see a
whole lot of sellers, especially when it comes to goaltending this time of year.
So I think Philadelphia is just going to have to they may even have
to be sellers this year, just bottom out and then reevaluate what they're going
to do in the off season. Ersen is holding things down as best he
can, which I'm impressed. I didn't think he was a super promising prospect
for them, and he's actually managing to get some stuff done. But I
think that cal Peterson, they were bringing in hoping to be number two,
do what Alex Sandelkovich is doing in Pittsburgh where he had some poor numbers,
his team gave up on him, they moved him out, and he's turned
it around and is coming back. That is not what's happening for cal Peterson.
We're seeing the opposite. He came into Philadelphia and said no, thank
you. So yeah, I think Samuelson really at this point is their only
bet and they might just have to roll relive the Corey Crawford situation in Chicago
where they have to roll through any guy who's willing to step in nets through
the end of the year and then just the wholesale reevaluate at the end of
the year, and they don't have a super strong prospect pull in net either,
so I think they're going to have to do some actual trading to get
someone on board, and I don't know who's going to be available for that,
So good luck to Philadelphia. Oh No. A couple of quick hits
from a listener from Mitch Carl. Lindbaum in Vegas is having a nice season
over in Sweden, Eric Portillo in La his AHL numbers look good. And
Nico Dawes in New Jersey could he take the starter's crease takes on Lindbaumb,
Portillo or Dawes. Ooh. Nico Dawes was a weird one for me because
when he got drafted, I had a friend who had been playing over in
Germany. I shot him a text, said I feel like this kid got
drafted too. Hi, what do you think looking at him? And he
said he's big and I was like, cool, that's descriptive, thank you.
What else? And he said he seems really slow and he did she
seemed really slow. But I think his techniques really starting to shore up,
and I think adding that extra little element. I know that's something that we'd
talked about in the past was wanting to see him gain that extra gear where
he's able to really turn it on when he needs to for those slightly higher
danger saves, those more desperate saves, and I think he's adding that into
his game in a good way. I don't know if he's necessarily at the
point where we'll see him as the starter, but I don't think anyone in
New Jersey is really looking super hot this year. Vidag Vanichik is struggling.
It seems like Washington did the right thing when they wholesale got rid of their
full young goaltending tandem and started over. Akira Shmid is a guy who I
had really liked his game when he first came over. I don't know if
he's just having an off year, because I feel like Jersey has those years
where it's just really up and down for their goaltenders. But he hasn't looked
super hot either. It could be Nico Daws's crease, why not. I
just watching him play has never been super exciting for me and has never been
super impressive for me. So I don't know if we're going to see That's
another team that, unfortunately, like Philadelphia, has lost a couple players for
some not super wonderful reasons. So I don't know if that team's going to
stumble as a result. Ideally we don't put Nico DAWs into a really tough
situation to finish out a year. But maybe next year. I think it
could be worth giving him a shot, just because I've liked how he plays
in the past a little bit more and more each year. Who else was
on my list there to talk about from this one? Eric Portillo? Yeah,
Eric Portillo. Carl Linbaum. Carl Linbaum. I'm not as familiar with
watching his game. I haven't gotten as much of a chance to watch him.
But Eric Portillo is a guy who when he first got drafted. It's
interesting I assume he was the heir apparent in Buffalo and then he didn't end
up going there. I didn't end up getting to sign with them because he
got traded at least his rights got traded to LA after playing for the University
of Michigan for three years. He's that's a big boy. He is six
foot six, two hundred and twenty four pounds. He's doing really well in
the AHL right now. The Ontario Rain or a fun team to watch.
I know I was talking about how some of those California teams are an absolute
disaster to watch. That's not one of them. I'd like to see more
than one year out of him. But ideally I think that's probably their era
apparent. And knock on what I've said that before, it's what I said
about cal Peterson, So I could be wrong, but I think he looks
a little more structured than cal Peterson did. So that's not something that I've
necessarily said about La King's goaltenders in the past. So they could be due
for some goaltenders with a little bit more structure and form in their game.
We'll see those are some really good cakes. And then Stephen wanted to know
about some of the best goaltenders in the NHL. Sometimes they can be a
little streaky. Are we worried at all about egotist Jerkin, Elis Surokin or
u Se Sorrows, who typically have been some of the best. I was
looking at some of the underlying numbers. Just Jurkins goalstave above expected, and
you see Sorrows is as both slightly negative, as is their delta. Fenwick
Sorocan is not he I don't know that he belongs on this list because his
goal save above expected is eight and his delta Fenwick is Z point six.
He looks different than the other two, but overall their raw numbers do look
a little bit lower than maybe you would expect. Sarokan's only at nine to
ten, just Jerkins under nine hundred, and Sorrows is just over nine hundred,
and he wonders if, yeah, is there a little bit of overworking
going on? Is there any concern about these three? Are they still elite
NHL goaltenders. I think that one off year is never something to to worry
too much about with a goaltender. If we start to see a continual trend
where they just keep doing poorly, that's something that we need to worry about
for sure. I do think that there might be a little bit of overworking
when it comes to Shustirkin, just because they the Rangers have not been the
world's most powerful defensive team, and they've been playing him for fifty five to
sixty overall games each of the last two years. I'm hoping that the fact
that this year he's actually getting a little bit more balanced is going to work
out in his favor just by giving him a little bit more rest in recovery.
Interestingly enough, Sroken is the first one that I know that you said,
that's one that you maybe wouldn't have on that list. That's the one
I'd have at the top of the list because he's the one I'm the most
nervous about because he has a new coach, and he has a new coach
who is known for being a little explosive, because the Islanders recently hired Patrick
Waugh, and that is someone who I get really nervous about. Excuse me
get really nervous about. I know that Louis doming who is still playing in
the pros right now, luckily not for Patrick Wah give a pretty spicy interview
back when he was still I believe it was when he first played for Arizona.
For the Arizona Coyotes, he was playing in a game against Patrick Waw
and he gave an interview where he said that he was one of the worst
human beings he'd ever met in his life because he was so hard on his
goaltenders that he drove Deming's confidence down to the point where he had to completely
rebuild it. And so I was get nervous when I see a goaltender take
a dip in their safe percentage when they're playing for a coach who historically has
been known to be a little unfairly hard on their goaltenders. Hopefully he has
live off love like live learned there and we'll see something a little bit better.
But I get nervous when I see that Sirroken's numbers are not quite where
they were in the past, which in fairness, might just be him leveling
out because his numbers were so high that they were to the point of almost
being unsustainable, and he was playing a concerningly high workload too, So I
think that some of it is fatigue, some of it is just his numbers
averaging out a little bit there. Sorrows is for sure, that's an overworking
thing. I think that he's been playing so many games for Nashville for so
long, and that's a team that is, in my opinion, right in
the thick of things every year in the West. So I think at some
point something's going to give there. But we've seen that in the past where
Sarus has managed to bounce back from struggling when he starts to start to see
his technique slip, just from what looks like a fatigue standpoint, where his
reaction timing seems just a little off. So he's able to make routine saves,
but those ones that are the game changers, the difference makers for him,
sometimes he isn't quite able to get to those, and once he gets
some rest in recovery, he bounces back pretty nicely. I don't see why
we wouldn't see that from Schusterkin. I'm just hoping that we get to see
it from Srokun too, because I would love to see him bounce back to
being absolutely superhuman from a safe percentage standpoint. That's awesome. One more for
me, we have to talk about Joey Decord. This is from Quicksmith and
just in full transparency for the sense of account of accountability. This is what
we said in the summer, or what I heard you say that you saw
him in person at ASU, so that was nice, and you didn't really
love his game. The technique was a little halphazard to decision making was questionable,
but he worked really well with his defense, and he was really good
at shaking off a bad goal. And you weren't sure that he would be
a pro goalie for a long time and he hadn't really shown you anything to
suggest his game was progressing, so overall it didn't sound very good, but
that he was the most nhlready and likely to get a shot in Seattle.
We also talked a little bit about how Grubauer's game left a lot to be
desired and so he probably was going to get a chance. We all know
what happened in Seattle. This year. Joey Decord has been a revelation thirty
four games to Grubauer's seventeen. Gruber has been injured, Chris Jeter has even
gotten a couple of games, but the Cord has been the man. His
goal save above expected is twelve. He's one of the league leaders in that
category. Stelta Fenwick is one point zero two. It's been Joey Tocord season.
He might be saving the season for the Kraken. He's having them in
the playoff front race, where Grubauer clearly was not hacking it. So we
want to know what your update to take on the Cord is. Is he
just playing well behind a good team, a better team turning things around,
or is this game progressed a little bit, or what's going on with him?
It's progressed a little bit, for sure. I think he sometimes we
can see that, especially from a guy who's really good at just being a
goldfish, because he was really good at shaking things off. There were some
goaltenders that I watched in NCAA games. Keith Petrick Zelli was one of them.
To feel out in a bad goal, his entire technique would just crumble,
and we didn't really see that from Decord. He just the way that
he was playing looked like a league average collegiate goalie, and I was like,
this is not We're not making the types of saves that you would expect
to see at the NHL level. But that could have just been the fact
that he's a goldfish. He might have just been not doing more than he
needed to, might have been avoiding overthinking things, because I think he does
look good in the games that I've seen at the NHL level where he just
he certainly didn't when he was in Ottawa. I thought that was when he
almost it looked like his wake up call where he had some games where I
was like, Oh, this is what an NHL game looks like, and
this is what it looks like when a guy who's not an NHL goalie has
to play in it, and I think he learned from that and has elevated
the base level of his game. Because some guys, you want to see
them elevate that top tier of their game, their desperation saves, they have
a good raw foundation, you just want to see them elevate the rest.
For him, I feel like he elevated the base of his game. Whereas
routine saves, the way that he tracks the game, the way that he
stays ready for certain saves, just looks a little bit more crisp and clean
and a little bit faster and more fluid, which doesn't necessarily mean that some
of that isn't Adrealine, anytime we see a goaltender who historically has not wowed
us, who really starts to turn on the jets over a single season,
we want to see them replicate it in a second season, in a third
season. But I think the way that he's playing from a technical standpoint suggests
that he could very well be, you know, one of those really solid,
consistent NHL goalies, And I'm happy to be proven wrong by a guy
who got to play for AS That's awesome. So I want to see him
continue to replicate this, but from what I've seen so far, it looks
really good. Well as a guy who just traded for Philip Grubauer with Victor
in Fantasy hockey this week, I don't care for that take at all.
I don't care for it at all, Cat, But I forgive you.
I forgive you. You're a great guest. A couple more quick hits just
to close us out here. Listener questions are tourist Sheiloves of the Vancouver Canucks
and Matt Vlalta of the Arizona Coyotes. Either one of those catch your fancy.
So Matt Valalta is a funny one for me because if I remember correctly,
he's initially an LA King's prospect and when he was with let me make
sure I'm correct on that. Yeah, he was an ELI Kings prospect and
I liked his game just fine, but was never like, oh, this
is the kid someone has to go out and grab. And so I think
that was a smart move by the Coyotes because they don't necessarily need They're not
the Philadelphia Flyers, right, They're not a team that is just absolutely dehydrated
and starving to have good goaltending they have Connor Ingram who is finally getting his
come up and so and is really getting some really good games in there.
They have Carl Vamelka, who I think has looked less good this year but
hasn't needed to look as good, so he looks just fine. And then
they didn't necessarily need Prospatav so they waived him. They lost him, and
so they have Vilalta just in a replacement role there. He is doing pretty
well for the two Sun Roadrunners. He's a kid who I think has one
of those cool I like his game, let's wait and see kind of overall
methods to his game. I'd love to see him get called up just to
get a glimpse of what he looks like against an NHL competition, because I
think we're at the point where he has enough HL games that we need to
see something to see if that he looks good is something that can be elevated
at the NHL level, or if he is one of those tweeners. But
it was a good pickup for them. The Canucks I am always far more
nervous to talk about because that is a team that I make fun of every
single year, and they are doing really well. This year, and I
can no longer deny it. Sea Loves had a really fun start to his
NHL career last year where he had a handful of games and he looked pretty
good. They haven't need I assumed they would need him this year because I
was like, it's the Canucks. They're going to be bad. They're going
to need to call up a bunch of guys, They're going to get injured.
That's how it's going to go. And they haven't needed him, so
he just had to stay at the AHL level, which has worked out just
fine for him. I think he's another one who, like Vilalta, excited
to see if he gets a chance to go up to the NHL level and
plays a couple of games, if he can replicate what he did in his
first few NHL games, or if that was a flash in the pan riding
on the adrenaline saved his team for a couple of games. But it's nice
having him there because the Canucks are a team that I'm constantly waiting for the
other shoe to drop, and they need to have some reinforcement waiting in the
wings. That's a team that can't afford not to have someone promising waiting for
them, and I think he serves that role really nicely. Kat. This
has been a very illuminating discussion. You've got great takes as always on all
of these goalies. Let people know how they can keep up with you and
follow your work. Unfortunately, I am back on Twitter or ex whatever you
call it. I spent nearly a year deciding that was no longer my thing,
and I have slowly crept my way back, so they can see stuff
from me there, here, and there, Kat M Silverman. That's my
Twitter handle. They can find my work at the mckeans Hockey in the yearly
Yearbook. Sometimes I do draft stuff for them as well, and I am
going to start doing more things at Ingle Magazine again because I think I have
finally finished with my hockey hiatus here. So we're all glad to hear it.
Thank you so much for coming back and talking to us today, Kat,
and have a great time until we can see you again. Sounds good.
Before we get out of here, just a couple more things to mention
to you. One of them is play your fantasy leagues on fan tracks.
That is a great place to play them because they have ten different sports.
You can customize your settings any which way you want to. You can move
new legs over there. You can start new leagus right now. I believe
they're giving away I think it's a Vlad Guerrero junior jersey if you sign up
for baseball for the first time, and I would encourage you to do that.
Fantracks HQ lots of fantasy content on their articles in fantasy hockey, all
the other fantasy sports. Great folks over there. We have lots of people
helping make fantasy hockey life come together. The content curator Kevin Adams been helping
with our show prep. Ryan Downey is the Tidy Admiral. You hear him
on this show. You love him, and he's keeping those six Tidy leagues
on the tracks as we head down the home stretch. Jeremy VR lead scout.
There's a lot of scout and content come in your way. Jason is
helping with prospect ranks. Brandon is our website guru and a scout and is
helping with prospect ranks and visualizations. If you have some skills you'd like to
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We're also brought to you by Dauber Hockey and Dabra Prospects, where Victor
is an editor. Follow his work there, as well as his other podcast,
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and Mike Clifford. I do a solo show, Dynasty Sports Life. I
talk about different Dynasty Sports this week. It will be a preview of the
wide receivers coming up in this year's NFL rookie class, and boy are there
a lot of them. Matt Cooper from DeBie to Dynasty Film Room comes in
to break them down with me. I will tell you before after we recorded
this show, before we put it out. Ivan provetsa Provtsov got waived in
the whole justice in and and thing now Elliott Friedman saying he's going to get
more time, so take into account we didn't know that at the time that
we recorded. Naturally, always news will break after we record an episode.
Follow Victor and myself on X at Fan Hockey Life at Victor Nuno twelve that's
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The season is rolling on, the All Star break is done. That
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