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 has
a step hit on staylock Block. Here's your hosts, Jesse Souvier and Victor
Nuno Fantasy Hockey lie back once again. I am Jesse Severe from fan Tracks
and across the wire. For me, it is from EP ringside, the
Fantasy Hockey Doctor and the zucker Puncher, Victor Nuno. How you doing,
Victor? I feel like I got zucker punched back because the flu is kicking
my butt right now. I'm a little into the weather. My note my,
my voice sounds a little funny. I apologize, but I'm here and
I'm excited to talk a talk. You plan a lot of this episode,
Jesse, so I'm looking forward and reacting to what well we got planned for
this one. Yeah. Man, We've got a lot of things going.
But you know what you bite, Jason Zucker bites back, and he does
it mysterious ways, Victor, sometimes through flu bugs. And but you're gonna
do the flu game. You're gonna do the Michael Jordan today and play through
this one. So I think it's gonna be good. Oh, Victor,
it is getting to be Thanksgiving time. I know I've got family coming into
town. We're gonna be eating some stuffing. I will completely lose whatever ground
I have been doing, trying to get down from double excel to excel this
weekend or excel to l whatever it is. But how about you. You
got cool things planned? Yeah, part of our family is going to celebrate
together, but because we have some illness in the family, so they're gonna
kind of quarantine together, so we're not part of that. We'll celebrate with
some of them later. So it's gonna be a little different Christmas. I
think we're actually Thanksgiving And that was a freudiing slid because I think we're actually
gonna go get our tree on Thanksgiving, which is not something I usually support.
I usually wait until after Thanksgiving, but we don't really have the usual
Thanksgiving plans, so we're like, you know what, We're just gonna go
get our tree and basically move things along because we're going to be out of
town for Christmas too, so get in the mood a little early so we
can enjoy those festivities. You may as well. You may as well.
Yeah, and if you didn't catch that. Folks, You're like, wait
a minute, Thanksgiving is way over. What is wrong with you people?
We're recording this a little early because we got a little travel going. Victor
and I are nott a verse of that, because you know what, this
is a Dynasty Fantasy Hockey podcast. Time doesn't matter here. Time is eternal
prospects to develop, and they don't develop over the course of two games,
so we're allowed to do that, Victor. If people really want to be
with us or with the Fantasy Hockey crew in real time, the place they
can do that is by joining the discord, and we get man, we
get a couple three people, it seems every week coming in who say they've
been listening, and I always really appreciate those. Usually only one of the
two of us writing back. But if you have sent an email and said
that you like the show and that you'd like to be a part of that
discord, I just want to give thanks for you right now, because that
really is gratifying and humbly every time those things come in, and I'm glad
to have more people join in the conversation. It is free to join our
discord. You just need a link because that's how discords work. And basically
it's a big old chat room. If you haven't been in a discord before,
it's free. The app doesn't cause anything. It is a different app
from the website that it runs great on mobile and there's just chat rooms and
it's a little less chaotic and you don't have to do a big post and
then click post and then wait for somebody to quote your post. It's more
conversational going back and forth. So people should join that by emailing Fantasy Hockeylife
at gmail dot com Victor and I can send you the link to get in
or hitting us up in our XDMS at fan Hockey Life is me at Victor
Newnio twelve is Victor. If people want to get the next level of experience
Victor, they can join the Patreon And you've got a few things to say
about that, don't you. Indeed, so lots of cool things over at
the Patreon. We just had a Patreon cast talking about salary, cap leagues
and different values there. And there's obviously the rankings which are really useful.
You can get hits, blocks and shot tiers in there, and you can
get extra things like the Patreon Priority channel and roster doctors. You can take
a look at your team and help you figure out what exactly the direction you
need to go, moves you might want to make. So those are some
nice bonuses. And of course you can plain in the Tidy the tier Dynasty,
which we're not going to have a segment on this episode of Tidy Takes,
but we do that often and it's a great league. So you can
check all that out at patreon dot com slash Fantasy Hockey Life. Yeah,
and you know what, we talk about Tidy on the show. And I
think I've said this before, and I'm sorry if this sounds defensive, but
the reason we talk about Tidy on the show is that people can talk about
dynasty trades. They could just randomly ask questions, but in the Tidy we
have the context. We have a lot of players who are interested in listening.
But really it's just analysis of dynasty leagues, right, It's just it
actually is a concrete example of a dynasty league. And we know many of
our listeners are listening to But for today, what we're going to do is
something else. As Victor said, and I'll tell you all about it right
after the break. We're back, and one of the things Victor and I
give things for every year is rookies. We love us some rookies. We're
always talking about prospects, We're always talking about guys coming up, and today
it will be no exception. We're not digging into a specific group of miners.
Instead, we're really talking about guys today who are already in the NHL
and what we're going to make of them going forward. And in our first
segment, what I've done is I've run some stats from Hockey Reference from stadhead
if you're aware of that function, where you can actually run some interesting reports
on hockey players. And what I have done is run fantasy hockey rookies going
back to twenty ten and tried to figure out who scored the most for fantasy
purposes and for fantasy purposes four point five points for a goal, three for
an assist, and point five for shot hit in block. I don't have
the power play points. You know what power play points are overrated as far
as I'm you know what, Victor, I'll get into that later. But
anyway, what I've done is I've pro rated guys who at least had twenty
five points in all years prior to this one over eighty two games. If
they had played an eighty two game season, how many Fantasy points in that
format would they have had? And then guys from this year, we've got
teams that have played like sixteen games, teams that have played around that time
right now, and I said they had to play at least seven games.
I don't need a guy who played one game and I'm trying to project that
or eighty two games because sample sizes are already too small. But nonetheless,
let's just see where some of our our rookies fall out. So I've run
a list of the top thirty. I'm gonna rattle through in order. Who
has had the most points? Think in your head, who do you think
in their rookie year for fantasy purposes, if they had played a full eighty
two at the pace that they played in prior to this year. Guys who
have played a lot, how would they rank up? How would they were
acting stack? So here is what we find. First the very top of
the list, Victor, my seven game arbitrary cutoff comes into play because we
have the biggest outlier. Martin Paspacil of the Calgary Flames. The twenty four
year old rookie is actually pro rated as the number one rookie for the last
fourteen years, everybody just turned off the segment because this completely eliminated their ability
to comprehend it. That's the one real exception, but from then on,
but it does give you a sense of how freaking hot he has gotten off
to and part of that, folks in seven games in his first seven games,
five points, twenty two hits, twenty one shots. That is insane.
If you think about that, he is if you picked him up off
the wire, you are burning it up. After that, your instinct may
be true. Connor Van Dart is the number two rookie. He is pacing
ahead of every other rookie since twenty ten. Over his first sixteen games,
he's practically a point per game. And that will do it. That will
do it. And he's got reasonable hits. He's got all kinds of three
shots a game, that type of the thing. Then we got Gabriel Landeskog,
he of the two hundred and nineteen hits and fifty two points in his
rookie season. That'll do it too. And then I'll just rattle through the
rest of these. Patrick Lyoney, Austin Matthews, Carillkapriesaw, Brady Kuchuk,
Brock Besser, Connor McDavid, Logan Coochure. That's the top ten eleven to
twenty Tanners you know comes in at number eleven, Jake Gensel, Philip Forsberg,
Elias Petterson, more at cider Are, Timmy Panerin of course he came
in at age twenty four, Andres Pallatt, Matthew Barzaw, Nathan McKinnon,
cal mccarr. Then we're going to have from twenty one to thirty two more
rookies from this year. Connors Zerry is coming in at number twenty one.
He's a point per game, almost two shots, and he has a little
bit of periffs on top of that. He would come out almost identical to
cal mccarr and just ahead of Jason Robertson. Then you got Jeff Skinner,
of course, he had thirty one goals his rookie season, anders Lee Matt
Boldie, who really he did better than you may think in his official rookie
season. Ridley Greek is number twenty six, Somash Hurtle, Trevor Zegris,
Brendan Gallagher and Michael Bunting. Okay, just a couple of thoughts on that,
and then I'm just going to give Victor a chance to react if there's
anything that stands out to him on that list. Tanners, you knows,
hittastic rookie year carried him to the number eleven spot. Remember three hundred and
eighteen hits. Stop and think about that for a man. Almost four hits
a game and half a point for this guy, his rookie season didn't matter
that he only had a shot and a half. It's really unsurprising. It's
not that far ago. If you were playing in a points league, or
lord knows, if you're playing in a categories league, you probably have fond
memories if you happen to pick up Tanner's his rookie season, because he was
just extraordinary but amazing. When we really put this in context of a fantasy
scoring system, how high he plays. This probably if you did add in
power points, he would power play points, he would drop a bit.
And then let's assume Paspacil drops off but Badard keeps it up. That would
probably mean Connor McDavid's rookie year ends up sliding in at number eight on this
list. That is not something I would have expected. Thanks a lot Brandon
Manning for taking Connor McDavid out for a good part of his rookie year,
and I think that was part of it. Was it just clavigal was his
shoulder was broken or is something along those lines. When McDavid is a rookie,
I think that slowed him down, but obviously it did not slow down
his reputation or his long term future in the National Hockey leaguacy. He scored
over a point per game, and I am projecting that out over eighty two
games that rookie year. But of course Connor McDavid not a big bash guy.
He two shots and really negligible hits and blocks his rookie year, even
though he was scoring to beat all. Those are some of the initial observations.
If you want the full list, folks, this is one of the
things if you're a patron, you get to see the whole show sheet and
you can see this. So this first reaction the top thirty fantasy rookies from
the past what thirteen fourteen years? Any reactions to this list. Victor Martin
Pasposol is definitely going to fall off. I would say, he does not
have the track record, and I think everyone who's looking at this situation knows
that he is. It's great what he's doing right now. But there's another
flame later on the list, Connor's Airy, who I would say is for
real. This guy looks amazing and he's someone. Actually, my next article
is going to be on Connor's area, so I'll say a lot of my
thoughts for that next ep ring side article, which we'll probably talk about at
some point later on the show. But Connors are for real and Martin Paspasoli
ride that train, but don't be afraid to drop him if he cools off,
or if he expires his games play limit or whatever the case may be.
And yeah, Badard is I saw something online about the impact of forwards
on their team and basically using like expected goals and things like that, Martin
and Badard is literally the most valuable player right now, and that's incredible considering
how young and how bad Chicago is. So that's impressive. So there's some
interesting things here. I think, Yeah, that Geno season really stood out,
and how much he's fallen off. Then the change in scenery and opportunity
have certainly impacted him greatly, so that was pretty interesting. Obviously, some
other cool things like that, some of the only a couple defensemen on this
list, with Cider and mccarr. That first season for Cider was just so
good. And Greg is another one that does surprise me. I think we
talked about him with David Saint Louis and yeah, he's just someone who he
just always seems to be there, even though you you know, you might
think not or you might not like some things about his game. He just
wills his way and that's something a guy will talk about later has in common
with him too. But yeah, some really good plays. Poor Brendan Gallagher,
I know, one of your favorites, he's really falling off. And
Michael Bunting that was, Yeah, that was such a thing, and his
situation has really changed too. So a lot of these guys have become superstars,
and a lot of them got traded right after and so that kind of
completely changed the trajectory of their production. And I think that's you never really
know what could happen if they'd stayed there for sure. Now, why don't
we go on and we can talk about a couple of the defenseman who pop
up on this list early on. It's not fair to compare it defenseman too
forwards and we know they're just a completely separate track. So let's talk about
the top thirty defenseman rookies over the years. I wonder before I say them,
who you would have in that group. All right, let's go through
them. You already heard more at Cider Cale mccarr. We're the top two
that actually came out in the top thirty overall. Then we've got Ryan Pulott
Victor. Now, I get why you had him on all your teams a
couple of years ago, and I had him on a bunch of teams too,
because before the arrival of why am I spacing off on the No ADOPSID?
Yeah, before No Adoptsin's arrival, it looked like maybe he would fall
into that dominant spot. And he's still only twenty three years old. No,
he was twenty three as a ROOKIEE. Then we've got PK Subano four,
Shane Gosta Spare. Remember how amazing that guy's rookie season was and it
really it started so hot. Yeah, like he was a dang league winner.
If you had him early on, or he was taking you to an
early undefeated record and had to head and you had to hang on for dear
life. But whatever. Jacob Truba number six, he was that good in
Winnipeg back in twenty thirteen fourteen. Travis Hamminik. Travis Hamminick, now this
is one of those guys. Twenty six points in sixty two games, but
he had almost two blocks and two hits and two shots a game, So
he was a bash master his rookie year back in twenty ten eleven. Then
Zach Warenski. Now we have our third rookie. Pavel Minschikov is number nine
based on his first eighteen games in the NHL, and that's based on ten
points in his first eighteen games, getting toward two shots a game and about
one and a half hits and about one block a game, so that would
pro rate. If he goes out a whole season, he would be a
top ten defenseman rookie in the last ten years. That's pretty amazing. Then
we got Charlie McAvoy, Nikita Zeitsev again the bash was just insane for him
as a rookie. Colton Perreco, Aaron Eckblad, Yvonne Probarov, John Klingberg.
Now small sample sized theater begins. Kayden Korshak of the Vegas Golden Knights,
rookie this year. Four points in his first is seven games plus a
shot, one and a half hits and a block Victor. I wasn't even
sure who this guy was. Does Kayden Korshak? Does he make an impression
on you? Yeah? Yeah he is. He is someone worth noting,
And I know that a couple of patrons have actually, in fact, I
think it was Shane that I was just talking to in the patron cast talked
about Korzaka and he's someone who, yeah, he doesn't necessarily have the biggest
points upside per se, but he's just one of these guys who's a gamer.
You know, you him out there, and he just he's so physical
and he's so competitive. That compete level, right that is super high like
that can often mask so many potential other issues that a player may have.
And so I do think that Korjak is probably more likely. And I think
it's an interesting question if you had to put Kyden Korjak and Tristan Leno and
say which one of these two is going to play more NHL games I think
it might be Korjack, even though that Lenaux has such a higher pedigree and
it was more of a score. So then for fantasy that becomes tricky because
then you're thinking, like, okay, one of these is not like the
other. Right, I don't think Korjak's going to score that many points,
but he's going to play and he's not gonna He had a hat trick I
think in one game or something like that, so that really messed up his
Corjack did that, I think messed up his points projection, but so he's
not going to do that. Maybe it was an a hat trick, but
he had a lot of points, so anyways, he's so he's not going
to do that. I think the points that he got so far lucky.
But he is someone who I think could hold down a ball pairing and play
and have decent priffs as long as he's minors eligible. That's pretty pretty worthwhile.
But no, I don't think that you should. I don't think that
Kuardiak is going to be someone who's going to be like the rest of the
guys on these Like some of the guys on this list, he's not going
to be like a true better or high profit, also high points. I
don't think that's it. Next, we've got a number of names that are
star defenseman. You'll recognize these. Maybe you're wondering why you haven't heard him
yet. A number seventeen, Kevin Shatt Kirk course, his great days are
a little bit passed. Rasmus Dollan at eighteen, Quinn Hughes at nineteen,
Sean Dursey, Adam Fox hits number twenty one, John Carlson, Tory Krug,
then Brady Shay, then our other small sample size in Victor. This
must been amazing for you. Nikita of San Jose comes in at number twenty
five on the basis of two hits and two blocks in one shot a game,
plus three assists over the first eight games that he had recorded. I'm
just going to stop and ask you in the middle here too, what is
the deal with this guy? Is he's not the defenseman we've been talking about
making an impression for San Jose. No, but he is the defenseman making
an impression to those who follow closely. Because he is. He has been
much better than a lot of people expected. And it's rough in San Jose
right now, right they're getting carved in. They've they've been more competitive in
some games, and I think some people thought, but he has been better.
And he's someone who before he came to Santease, he had fifteen NHL
games across two seasons with New Jersey and this season he's already played nine and
so far he's also getting carved in. But it's been he's been getting praise
from the coaches and from other people. And he definitely bashes a lot.
He's not going to score. I think he has what three assists, Yeah,
and he doesn't really shoot, but he hits some blocks a ton,
so he's playing good men. It's almost twenty minutes a night. He's basically
playing like top pairing. And he's one of the big reasons. He was
basically free, so that was one of the reasons they liked him. But
he's big. He's pretty big and physical and he's pretty mobile, so he
might carve out a role, but yeah, I think he's basically just a
peripherals guy. I don't think he's going to score more than a few assists
here and there. Yeah. The last few on this list, Eric Jelena,
Mikhail Sergi, Chef Cam Fowler, John Marino and Jake Sanderson clockson at
number thirty, And you might, what, so a list like this,
what do you do with it? Now? You've heard a couple of names
that obviously are not going to stick. Probably they're probably not of the class
of the John Carlson's and even the Sean Jerseys of the world in the level
that they're hitting or that they hit a long term in their career. But
nonetheless it maybe it's time early in the season to tip your hat for the
types of starts they've gotten off to and maybe just maybe grab them in some
of your leagues, just to hold them and see if they can keep it
up, because they could sure help you right now. And I've always subscribed
to the theory, and I forget where I heard this first, But when
you run a list in about eighty percent of it makes sense intuitively, and
twenty percent of it surprises you. It's probably a good list because it probably
reflects reality but still provides a couple of interesting insights. And even though part
of the value of a list like that, or part of the reason that
the scoring comes out the way it does on a list like this one,
is that we're counting the bash for the defenseman, so the Travis hammonis float
up in ways that you might not otherwise expect. I think there is still
a value to recognizing where these defenseman rookies, and a lot of the rookies,
a lot of the defensemen that you know and love from the past ten
years. A lot of your star defenceman started out with a Starbrookie season.
But there are a couple of others who sneak in here who are off to
amazing starts or maybe surprising ones. Victor, I picked on you this time.
I picked on you in the middle of the talk. But do you
have any other observations from this list of things that surprise or stand out to
you? Yeah, And I think you're absolutely right about the list. There's
no point in examining a list where all the names on it are exactly who
you thought it would be. I guess that can tell you one thing,
like maybe some confirmation bias, and maybe it's it makes you feel good,
but it should if you're running the right query. It should challenge some of
your assumptions and it might lead you to some new thoughts. And I think
that's what we have to try to look for. We always have to challenge
our biases and examine is this really true? And I know I remember very
clearly when Shane Gosslilsbear was doing his thing his rookie season. I remember thinking
like, Yeah, this doesn't make sense, this is not real. Who
is this guy? Why is he doing this? And if I would have
been a more open mind at the time and just been like, maybe this
guy's really good, but there were a lot of signs pointing to that he
wasn't really good. They're like his two way play, but he was still
getting the opportunity, still getting the points. And you have to ask yourself,
is this guy just going to be nobody and get washed up after like
a Zeitzef who hasn't really done much, or is there staying power? And
that's where the nuance becomes more complicated. But at least you can be exposed
to the idea that, yeah, maybe this guy is really interesting. What
is his pedigree? Kind of look into it and really examined from all angles.
I think that's really important to do because there are some massive gems that
you can find just on Minschikov. I would say, and I said it
before, I'll say it again. This guy is for real. This guy
we're going to look back on years later and say, Wow, what an
impressive rookie season. And he it makes sense. He's like one of the
best defensemen in the league. He's one of the most valuable fantasy assets.
The guy just does it all. He can do everything in any situation.
He's quite literally the best defenseman already in Anaheim, and they're still easing him
in a little bit, not giving him tons of responsibility, but he's already
doing a lot and with not much to work with there in Anaheim. That
team should get better and he's going to get more reinforcements on the back end.
But I just think that he's incredible and he could end up being one
of the most valuable players on this list period. In terms of Minchikov compared
to someone like Kill mccarr, he does more in the peripheral department and he
could score similar to mccarr in the high upside seasons. So I just think
Minchikov is awesome, and don't I would definitely not look at this and think
that that's an outlier and he's not that good. He is. He's even
better I think than what he's shown so far, but a lot of these
guys do end up being just high priffs guy and there isn't much scoring there,
Mitchikoff. If it's not one of them, yeah, I would assume
that years hints there are going to be a couple of names from this class
who end up belonging at the top of that list, just like there are
a couple every year, And it looks to me like so far, Mitchikov's
the one. Now again, I ran this whole list. It is linked
to from our show notes page. There are two hundred and fifty four names
on it, which encompasses all those guys from the previous year the criteria I
gave before, and obviously I'm not going through all these, but there are
a couple of other names that appeared, probably lower on the list than I
would have expected that. I just want to mention, first of all,
very last place among the pre twenty two to twenty three guys in terms of
a rookie Fantasy season for guys who had at least twenty five points. Casey
Middlestat, He's got to hint He's going to come up again later this episode.
Casey Middlestat it's hard to remember exactly. Maybe it's not hard remember,
but for some how miserable of a rookie year, that guy had just barely
hanging on. Now again, if the criteria here was he had to score
at least twenty five points. There were certainly people who had worse rookie seasons.
You can do worse than scoring twenty five points your rookie season, but
that still was very low. It just tells you of all these guys,
that was the lowest on the list. Kent Johnson, who we talked about
last episode, came out one ninety five on this list. He had forty
points in his rookie year. But this just highlights how bad he is in
bash less than half a block, less than a quarter of a hit,
like a sixth of a hit, and half a point his rookie season,
one and a half shots. Even his rookie season when he was shooting twelve
point seven percent, he had trouble. So, like we said last episode,
and maybe a bi low opportunity because Kent Johnson, and this is last
year that I'm talking about, this is last year's stats is low. But
he proved that he proved to be low. The guy who I think we
were hoping might appear very high on this list. By now Luke Hughes is
only down in one hundred and seventy ninth place on this list, and I
don't know where that is on defenseman it's much closer. Of course, this
is all positions, but even with ten points so far this year in sixteen
games, one and a half shots, but no bash, almost no bash,
half a block, less than half a block, and only three hits
in his first sixteen games. So that is a little bit troubling, but
obviously much ahead, and one would expect that Luke Hughes is going to have
a big jump and even that scoring rate as it continues to climb, is
going to be impressive. But just I'm noting how low he is so far
in terms of a points league. And the other guy that I noted who
surprised me at how low he was Matt Kichuk. I talked about Brady Kuchuk
being in the top thirty, but it seems and I've always talked about Brady
Kuchuk a lot more than I have about Matt Kuchuk on this show. Of
course, Matt Chuck Kuchuk broke out and became a star last year in the
NHL playoffs and taking that Florida team to the finals, and probably Calgary fans
have stronger memories of his early impact on the league. It came before Brady,
but the fact that his rookie year for a guy who's a basher the
way Matt is and also scores some points, he had forty two points his
rookie year. He had a little under two shots a game, but he
had less than a hit per game, and he had twenty two blocks in
seventy six games, almost like one in four, so he was way down
there. He's actually next to Nick Suzuki and below Brady Shay in terms of
his per rated stats. That was surprising to me. But I don't know
Victor A. He probably didn't go extensively over this lower list, But it's
just fun to drag through Cole Kawfield, by the way, who we have
always talked about. Geez, he had a slow rookiear. He came in
sixty fourth at least on this list, way above some of those guys and
actually pro rated above Pavelo Minchikov right now. But any other observations you want
to mention on this list is you maybe have scrolled through it a little bit
or we can move on after that. Well, I think the main thing
is that there are outliers in every direction. So the Martin Paspasol is an
outlier, and so is Luke Hughes having a low season. I don't think
any of us expect that to be so low. So there's that's why it
requires more in depth analysis. We can't just look at this list and say,
Okay, all of these guys top, they're the ones we want,
all the ones at bottom or not. There's more nuance in that, and
that's what makes it interesting and difficult and challenging and frustrating at times and all
those kinds of things. But yeah, just because you had a slow work
season doesn't mean that you're not going to be a great fantasy asset. That's
something that actually Shane and I were just talking about on the Patron cast that
sometimes you have to really change your perception about guys. Right. There are
guys like brock Nelson, with someone we talked about, he was a perennially
thirty five forty point player until he was a sixty to seventy point guy and
that happened eight years into his career. It can happen to players, It
totally can, and you have to be willing and mentally flexible to change your
mind. Adrian Kempe is another one, right. And these guys would be
nowhere on this list, they'd be down in the many hundreds or thousands,
they'd be so low, but they can think things can change and shift for
them, and I think that's important to be open and flexible to that.
I just found brock Nelson. Actually he was one hundred and seventy seven.
So yeah, it was a good college. Right next to Luke Hugh's.
Yeah, wouldn't have been someone that would be normally that exciting. Yeah.
And the thing with Luke's the thing that scares me. And I'm not saying
that Luke ques is going here, but I just remember the hype for another
guy who comes in fairly close to him in the list, Jamie Drysdale.
And Jamie at least had almost a block a game his rookie year, even
though his points were at a little bit slower of a pace. But Jamie
Drysdale went from the hotness to almost an afterthought with Anaheim in barely in shallow
leagues barely rostered. I was hoping for him with a bounce back this year.
But you're right, changing perceptions for the good or the ill, but
you're not seeing anything like that, Luke Hughes, right, then, no
loss of faith at this point, no loss of faith, in fact,
increased faith. I think what Greg Washinski mentioned and I think cannot be overstated.
The fact of that brotherly connection those two on the power play with Jack
and Luke is just it's dynamic. It's amazing, it's fun, it's fun
to watch. They know where each other are in ways that other players can't.
Although I feel like Brad has become like the third hues there because because
those two are such a wavelength. But yeah, so he's gonna him getting
that opportunity, and but he obviously still has other things to work out in
terms of his defensive game, Luke that is. But yeah, I think
he's getting an opportunity a little earlier than I would have thought, and his
early returns on those defensive metrics have been quite good, and that's earning him
even more opportunity and going to get even more points and more upsides. So
I think the sky is a limit for Hughes. I don't think anyone's cal
mccarr, but I think that Luke Hughes could have similar value in terms of
fantasy leagues. Yeah, he's He's ridiculously good. And the situation is so
good in New Jersey, like the way it was in Colorado for so long
and still is for some of those high scoring seasons. All right, that's
that's good stuff. Let's take a break. We're gonna come back and talk
some more stuffish selfish, break it down, Kate the buck, don't got
head. Bet it's still going to be there. And he got jumping cos
you're talking before are still shot a bad balance. That's a good breakaway.
Got to get the bounced. Boys. We're back and we're talking some more
X gamers and prospects, guys who were coming in. This is something that
you heard on last week's episode, and we have a few more for you
that we're going to go through this episode on some guys that Victor has been
writing about over at ep ring Side and of course his works behind the paywall
there, but geez, lots of paywalling today, but you can read it
there. It's worth supporting. Ep ring Side's pretty cool, and so let's
talk about a couple of these guys. Next up, Victor, another article
you wrote was on Alex le Farrier. Swear to god, if this guy
ends up being more productive than Alex la Frendier, and you bring that up
in your article, you do a good job of bringing up the irony that
the person who accidentally drafted Alex Lafarier may actually be happy about it. Now.
The real thing with him is he's producing well this year. He stumbled
into the lottery here a little bit by getting a right wing slot next to
Pere Luke Dabois and Kevin Fiala. My goodness, that's a very nice light
line to fall on with the Los Angeles Kings. If you look at the
with or without you stats, he is dragging everything down for those two guys.
He is not exactly a guy who is bolstering what is going on with
the other two, but seems to be holding his own somewhat defensively. He's
not destroying things out there, so he's getting his opportunity. Victor Arbitson is
out there getting his back fixed is what month to month here at this point.
But he is the right wing who presumably will come back into that top
six if and when he can get healthy, and that means that I would
think Lafarier, though perhaps your results may vary, maybe you say more is
got an expiration date on this thing. So he's getting a featured opportunity in
a premo role on a very good team right now. And is he going
to be able to show enough. Is he going to be able to grow
enough into that role while he's there that they can't take it away from him
or he can get it somewhere else, because I don't nobody expected this,
right, Victor. Is this is Alex Laferrier doing this for real? Yeah?
Yeah? And thing, it depends on what you mean by that in
your league and your context. Because Alex A. Farrier is a really good
hockey player, especially defensively. Is he a really good fantasy asset? I'm
still not one hundred percent sold on that. But he definitely looks like an
NHL er when he absolutely did not a couple of years ago. So that's
great, And he had been interesting trajectory, and so you always have to
tick that in mind a little bit. And being a really an older player,
so sometimes that you can hold that against he should be scoring this much
because he's a little bit older. He's a late October birthdate, so about
as close to as old as you can be for your draft here, just
maybe six weeks or so, and so he's always been a little bit older.
But he is a bit undersized and underweight, but he just he plays
so much bigger and stronger than that, and he's just Some people will say,
like that guy's just a gamer, right, Like he just it doesn't
matter the size, you just someone you can rely on. He's always on
the right side of the puck. He's always making the right play. But
I don't know that he has the finishing talent. He's going to get opportunity
though, because he is just he's strong defensively. And the other thing you
like about that you love and hate about LA is that they run the top
nine, right, So you hate that for the top players because I have
Fiela in a lot of leagues, I have Pold, I have some of
the other top guys, and I want them to get all the ice time,
right, I want them to get twenty two minutes, and they they
don't do that. They spread it around. It's better for the team and
better for these depth guys, because you do get more time on ice for
your sort of third liner La Farier types, but you're frustrated from the top
end guys that you want to have more time on ice. I do think
that if their leagues that count like the tidy, they count things like Fenwick
and takeaways, he's going to be much better in those type of leagues.
But in just straight up scoring leagues, I'm not sure that. I don't
really think that Alex la Ferrier is going to be better than la Frenier,
but it is way closer and more interesting than people ever thought it would be.
I certainly never thought it would actually be that close, but it is
somewhat anyways, And in terms of impact on the team, I don't know.
Laferrier might have more because he's so responsibly defensively responsible, and Lefrenier at
this point is more of just like a finisher, right, just to let
let someone else do the work and you come in and finish, which definitely
has value, don't get me wrong, and it's much more attractive in fantasy,
but yeah, it's a it's interesting with la Farrier, and I know
that some of the Kings fans, like Max and our discord has been pumping
his tires forever, and that's part of the reason I decided to do this
article, because he was like, this guy's gonna be good, just mark
my words. And then he ended up being better than I thought, and
I was like, I should really look at this guy. And then he
started getting NHL games, And now at this point he's played fourteen NHL games
and his defensive metrics are great. His offense is still still low in terms
of expected goals. Maybe he's one of these guys that finishes over his expected
value because he's done that so far in his career. Maybe he can maintain
that, and if you're on a good line, then it doesn't always necessarily
matter how well you can finish. So far, he's been playing a lot
with Dubois and Fiala. You can't ask for too much more than that.
On the Kings. That's some great linemates right there. So even if he
wasn't good, he could look into a decent number of points. Right now,
he's rocking an eighteen point pace, so that's certainly not exciting. But
he's still pretty young. He just turned twenty two and he's playing his first
fourteen NHL games. So I think there's still a decent amount of upside here
because he's just one of these guys that strikes me as he's just always going
to play the right way and he may not be gifted the scoring chances,
but he can generate and drive play on his own, and he'll be put
with good line mates and so you like that. So yeah, that's my
thoughts on the Afario. What do you think, Jesse, I'm sure take
la Fregnier, right. Yeah. I feel bad because I started out dumping
all over this kid in our explanation. I didn't mean to do that.
I had the advantage of knowing because I read your article that you do have
some positive thoughts. You're seeing some good things with this guy. And who
doesn't love a story where a kid is punching above his weight. He is
hitting a high percentile of his outcome, and that's probably to do with a
strong work ethic and belief in himself, because he wasn't reading hype articles about
how he was going to be the best player coming out of his draft class
by any means, Would I take La Fregner or Lafarier. I probably still
think that we are close enough to the beginning of these guys careers that I
am still going to blindly hang onto that pedigree for dear life. But it's
true every day that passes Lafrenier is looking less and less. I think we
probably are already ruling out that he's going to be a superstar or anything,
but looking less and less like he's going to hit one of his high percent
dole outcomes. And Lafarier seems to be hitting one of his high percent doll
outcomes. By all means, I wasn't trying to dump on him here at
the beginning. He's definitely not a finished product, though it's a matter of
your perspective. If you weren't expecting anything from Alex Lafarier, then you are
very pleased by seeing the progress. If you didn't know who this kid was
at all, and you said it's a rookie coming in, you'd say,
hey, he's all right, but he's getting carried by FILA and PLD right
now. Victor. The next one is a guy who we've talked about a
lot over the years. I know I've invested in various leagues. Kalen Addison,
who made the move to the West coast from Minnesota. Great move from
a climatological perspective to make it to your San Jose Sharks. Kilan Addison is
a guy you wrote about, I think right after that trade, right right
after that trade to talk about him coming in and I love it. I
love that he went out there. I so want this to succeed. He
has jumped into San Jose and immediately become the top power play guy, not
only the top defenseman on power play, but looking at the hockey vis charts,
actually like arguably the most significant guy on the power play in terms of
like time that he's out there playing, and he's going to get all the
opportunity he can handle. He didn't he wasn't able to follow through on it
in Minnesota. There's a lot more competition for those defensive minutes in Minnesota.
He's jumping pretty high on the food chain out there in San Jose. Right
away. It's going to be difficult. I think. I don't even want
to really and tease you about San Jose this year, Victor, because it's
just it's a weakened roster. These guys are in the tank and we get
it. Hope bless them that if they get the Macklin celebrinier whoever it is
who will be the best pick coming up in next year's draft. But it's
going to be difficult to know how good Killing Addison can be in San Jose
right now. But he's going to get the opportunity. He should get a
lot of minutes. I don't see why they would take him out of this
role as the top power play for a long time, and that probably is
going to mean that he will fall into points even though San Jose isn't getting
a whole lot of goals at this point. It's a long season. It'll
go back and forth. So I I like his context in the sense of
opportunity. Obviously it's not going to be real good in terms of the context
and how much that will benefit his secondary scoring and things like that. And
we're gonna find out whether he's a guy who can actually carry a situation or
not because he hasn't necessarily been there in the past. You've been to Killing
Addison guy way back right. Tell me about your take on this change of
scenery for him. Yeah, I agree, it's absolutely it was super smart
by my career to do this, and he got him for basically nothing.
It's not going to cost them much as a fifth round pick and a HL
or Adam Rasca. So he's in our favou season. They're going to give
him tons of opportunity, and they have. He has literally played more at
this point since I wrote the article, and yes I did write it right
away, and so there was like, I think one or two games under
his belt, but now he has four and he's you like to see that
They're continue to give them the opportunity. He was minus four in that game
against Vegas and he was quite frankly, pretty bad, but they keep giving
him mice time. In Minnesota when he was bad, he would make one
bad play and they'd bench him right or they'd healthy scratch him the next day.
And I know that a lot of Minnesota fans were frustrated with that too.
I think a lot of us were. I don't I'm a teacher.
I don't think that's how you teach people. You show them what to do,
and you let them try again, but they continue to make the same
mistakes over and over again. That's one thing I don't really think that he
was doing that. Of course I wasn't there on the bench, but it
was very frustrating that he wasn't given the opportunity to improve, and it did
seem like he improved. And if you look at his underlying metrics, which
is one of my points, is that he's pretty close to NHL or average.
And when you're an offensive defenseman, that's all you need to be is
close to average. You don't need to be great, you just need to
be serviceable. You can be sheltered on a third pairing and the player offense.
The problem is that the Sharks don't really have a really strong defensive defenseman
to pair him with. Right you think about those seasons with Eric Carlson and
people forget or when Brent Burns, sorry, when Brent Burns won the Norris
and they had Paul Martin as his partner, who's like a total defensive defenseman,
but it unleashed his offense. So you need someone like that in many
cases to be able to be the best version of yourself. And I don't
think that he's going to be able to do that, but at least they're
trying. At least they're giving him the opportunity and they're not benching him.
At this point. He has zero points in those games, but that's more
function of the Sharks being terrible than killin Addison not being able to generate offense,
because he is doing some really good things watch some of those shifts.
He is also still making some mistakes defensively, but he also doesn't have anyone
to help him cover those up right, and that's ideally what you would want
for someone with his skill sets. So I would definitely buy if you have
if you can buy really low and it's not costing much. But if you
have Addison, if you're somehow still rostering him, and someone wants to give
you a much more for sure asset, then I would probably take that.
Because it's also probably just as likely that he does not much in San Jose
this year and is maybe even out of the league within a year or two.
So I think that's possible, so I wouldn't invest too much, but
there is still a pretty decent opportunity for him to turn things around and you
know, play evolve his play. He really just he needs games, and
he needs confidence, and he needs you know, a team to believe in
him, which it seems like the Sharks at least are to some extent to
give some assets to him. If I were Greer, no matter what happens
these next few months, I would just give him a proved content and then
see how he does next year when the team might be a little bit better.
There's at least a little bit of leash here, so I would play
this out and see where it goes. The Sharks don't have anyone else that
has promised that role. We were all scratching our heads in the preseason who's
gonna run the power play? And it was a bunch of nobodies, And
certainly Henry Thrun and Shakira mccammadolin are okay, but that's not really their role
either. There are more two way guys, so killing Addison is worth an
ad at this point, and they're worth by low and see what happens.
Love it. Put away your free. Killing Addison signs people he's free.
Now let's see what happens. Daniel Gushkin two games this year with Sharks to
go with two games last year, and that's just so far. Your articles,
Victor, I was joined. You have some good videos in there.
Gushin definitely has some serious swag. That guy. He tries some stuff.
It's fun to watch the young Russian get it done here in the AHL.
He's committing back and forth across San Jose from the Barracuda to the Sharks,
and he got a shot. Those two games that I just talked about from
this year were last week as we're recording this, But he was sent back
down in front of the show. Shengpeng had some words to say about that.
He analyzed why he got sent down for the coach, Gushin didn't make
a strong enough case to stay up. And here's the quote the other night.
I thought he got a bit overwhelmed defensively. I thought it was a
little bit of a hard game for him, and that was based on the
Saint Louis Blues game. I don't like hearing defensively, he had a hard
game. And nonetheless, coach liked Gustin's season debut go on Tuesday against the
Florida Panthers more he does good things with puck. Quinn said, he's a
smart player and he's competitive. I thought it did a lot of good things
today. I think your research, when you ran the actual stats on this,
does not seem to quite line up with what Quinn is saying. The
defense was actually looking good for correct me. A smaller player. On the
other hand, your statement in the article that he is playing better than Marcus
Grandlin was damning with faint praise. If you ask me, the twenty twenty
three to twenty four version of Marcus Grantlin is not what it once was.
But I guess the moral of the story. Victor Daniel looks like a fun
player. He looks like a player on the ups, but not one who's
been able to cross that Quada line just yet to get into a firmly established
role in the NHL. Is he your new Shark crush and when will he
blow up? Victor? Definitely, I don't know if he's a crush,
but he is really fun. Like you said, he tries things. He
tried to throw the legs shot in the NHL that was really fun from pretty
far out. And he's very dynamic and creative with the puck. But he's
not a liability defensively. That's where I feel it's I think for a lot
of Sharks fans here in Quinn say that because it's not I don't know that
it's accurate, and it doesn't. It's not really born out in the data.
And there was a play the other night that in that game actually where
he literally saved a goal on the back door from a backcheck that he provided.
Maybe there's some other things where he's positionally not where they want him to
be in the system. I don't know, obviously, I don't have insights
into all those things. But he's someone who's always been effortful defensively. He's
not someone who cheats for offense. He really helps create it the right way.
And he's even though he's smaller, he has has good skating. He
always has that motor. He really is someone who competes really hard. But
the hands, the stick handling in a pham booth is no joke with Goosha.
He really is. And in a lot of the prospects, scrimmages and
stuff we've watched, whenever he takes, whenever he makes a shoot, whenever
he's in there for a shootout, he does something crazy, something really fun,
something exciting, and it usually goes in. So that's really fun.
Yeah, the question is what can he be now? And I still think
he can be a pretty impactful forward. He's increased his projection up to like
close to a first liner in Mason's PNHL E ranking app and a couple of
games that he played. As I mentioned, yeah, better than ground Land.
He's definitely hasn't been the worst forward, so that's also a little bit
frustrating. But I know that the Sharks also have a lot of contracts to
guys that they need to play, and so it's not terribly surprising that he
isn't getting too much opportunity. But I think he is someone that they can
rely on in the future to be the middle sixer. I think part of
the genesis was to this was our my COGM and our common league elon we
were looking at he was available because there's a post hype sleeper. He has
been around for a very long time now and hasn't really taken an opportunity,
and that's where this is an opportunity to hey, maybe now's the time to
go grab a Neil Goosha. Now he did get those two games, which
was exciting, and maybe he'll get more after the trade deadline, but I
think for he probably will not. He'll probably stay down there and continue to
dominate the AHL. But I do think he's someone who can be a sixty
to seventy point guy in the right situation, and as sang mentions in the
article like they want him to be a top six point producer. That's what
the Sharks want from him. They just want to refine some of his game
a little bit. So, yeah, he's a really fun one. He's
really fun to watch. I hope he makes it just because he's really fun
and you want to see creative dynamic forwards like that. Yeah, for sure.
So that is one. Now let's talk about JJ Peterka. That is
John Jason Peterca, a man whose parents over there in Germany apparently were not
considering me when they named him, or when they nicknamed him, because he
screws up all my excel functions because half the time he goes by JJ,
half the time by John Jason. Let's all get that together, fellas.
He showed his skill in Germany at the international level, and the AHL is
Jack Quinn's wingman down there. Last year, of course, he was about
point per game in the AHL. This this is actually two years ago.
He had a full rookie year last year, but Jack Quinn and he blew
up during that time and in the NHL last year. His scoring rate is
climbing from last year to this year. Talk about the bottom guys on that
rookie performance list. Casey Middlestat I mentioned was dead last. John Jason Peterka
was sixth to last among all players none prior to this year in terms of
pro ration, right above Nick Schmaltz and Robert Thomas. So you can see
that don't last forever sometimes. His scoring rate now eighteen points and are fourteen
points in eighteen games, seven goals and seven assists. That puts him tied
for second on the Buffalo Sabers as I record today, tied with Casey Middlestat,
who is actually on the same line as him. That appropriate that these
two guys who are experiencing a career climb are on is his number one line
mate? Christ middle sized rookie year was like five years ago now, but
they're both tied for that second most points for kind of a disappointing Sabers team.
Nonetheless, it's good to see a guy who's this young in his career
performing. He's twenty two now. This is his twenty two year old season.
Anyway. Now, the concern I've got with JJ as a fantasy manager
is the bash is not shaping up. There's not a lot going on there.
In eighteen games played so far this year, he's got one hit and
four blocks, and that seems pretty consistent with what he was doing last year,
and just over two shots a game, a little bit better than the
one and a half he had last game, but not the level that I'm
hoping for from a guy who is moving up in the world in terms of
his deployment. He's only skating fifteen minutes a game, so I guess we
can. I hope that is going to climb as well in terms of at
least his shots, But I don't know that somebody who has that low of
the physical stats is necessarily going to climb. I don't know if that's going
to be part of JJ's game. Victor is in the past, Okay.
My vague impression is that you've not been a huge Perturka fan. You maybe
weren't as draft here, but you faded on him a little bit. Maybe
I'm not being fair correct my recollection. What have you taken as JJ Paterka's
trajectory and what do you think of him now? Oh, I think I've
always been a Paturka fan. I think the question is what how high the
upside is that's really the main question. It's you love the motor. He's
a super competitive guy. We were talking about Gooshan Paterca. There's no one
more competitive on the ice at any time than Paturca. He's his motor just
goes NonStop. He's really high impact in that way and a guy that the
coaches just love right because you throw him over the boards in any situation and
he's he can score, he can the lead. Initially his first year in
the league. Last year he was not great defensively, not for lack of
effort, but just I think some of the positioning and some of the systems
seem to not really work well with him. So his expected goals for sixty
was a little bit lower, but much better this year. So he seems
like he's figuring that part out. He's figuring out the offense. He's getting
more opportunity this year with the Tage Thompson injury. That's not ideal, but
that is affording him some opportunities when those situations present themselves. Usually it's in
that negative for everyone, but he is getting to play some second line minutes
and it's maybe not with the best linemates, but he's working it out.
He's getting a little bit of power play time too, And yeah, he's
already up to a sixty four point pace this season. When I wrote that
article, he was like in fifty something, so he's been pretty hot in
the last few games. So I did make that claim before he got hot.
But still this is more of a long term projection. I do think
that he's going to live in that middle six. I don't think he's like
a top liner. But I think for me, the big question is what's
going to have happened with all those other guys that are coming to Zach Benson
and Jack Quinn are basically locks for those top six spots already, and then
they have Tuck, Thompson and Skinner locked up kind of long term, and
then Cousins is the complicated one too, so there's not really a whole lot
of room in there. So I do fear that Peterca will get relegated to
more of a third line role, middle six role, and they have Kulick,
Savoy, Auslin, Rossen, all these guys are coming for those spots.
But I think that Peterca is probably better than all those guys, at
least better suited for a role in the middle six. Kulick might end up
being just like their three C or two or three C. And I don't
know about the other guys. That's a big concern is they have too many
good prospects, so maybe they'll trade them. We saw this with LA when
they had so many good prospects and they didn't trade any of them, and
then they couldn't fit them all in and then they up trading them later for
less value. So they might do well to make some moves now before that
happens to Buffalo. I'm not saying that they should trade any of these guys,
but it might make sense in terms of an asset management type of move.
But yeah, I'm really really excited with peterka. He has a really
good opportunity. He is pretty close to that NHL games played limit if you
use one hundred. He's at ninety seven right now, and this is before
the Wednesday Buffalo game, so by the time you hear this, it'll probably
be really close to one hundred. So the question is what's the ceiling.
I think he even without a top line role and top power play, I
think he can still be around a sixty point guy. But obviously with that.
If he gets that and how consistently he'll get that, he could be
seventy or more. But I don't think he's like a point per game player.
But he I think will improve some of his more perperal stats. With
a little bit more time on ice, I think he'll be more of a
shorthanded specialist. He could definitely be one of these power kill kind of guys.
Right you put them on the penalty kill and you're worried about him because
he's fast, he makes things happen. He'll make you nervous as a defenseman
on the blue line because he can just explode past you and get a short
handed goal. So he will command opportunity in different ways. That's what I
like about Perturca. There's not just one way for him to succeed. And
you have that for your prospects for sure. All right, Victor, And
now I think that's going to do it for our X gamers. For today,
We've got a couple more scouts touts to bring you, and we'll do
the first one right after this time again for another scouts tout where we bring
on one of our FHL scouts to talk about a specific player, someone that
they've watched and gotten some good eyes on. And for this edition, we're
going to be talking about twenty twenty four draft eligible defenseman zaying Perakh and to
talk about him, we're going to bring on our FHL scout Josh. How
are you doing, Josh, I'm doing great. How are you, Victor,
I'm doing well. It's great to have you here. And yeah,
we got a pretty exciting player to talk about. He is one of the
operted players defenseman and players for the twenty twenty four draft. And just in
case people were wondering a little bit about him, he is a six foot
z one hundred and eighty one pounds right handed d The consolidated ranking over at
EP has him at ten. I know Dobber is super high on him.
They have him at fourth overall. Most outlets have him in the twelve to
fourteen range. That Dabber rank really pulling him up to maybe around top ten.
But tell us a little bit about zam PreK and what kind of makes
him so interesting. Yeah, I'm surprised at how low a lot of places
have him because to me, he's clearly in the conversation for the best defenseman
in the draft. I would say that other guys like Sam Dickinson's more well
rounded in that respect, but when it comes to the offensive side of the
game, there isn't anyone that holds a candle to correct this year. In
my limited viewings, I'd have to see a lot bit more to rank him
my top defenseman, but he's definitely up there. He can skate really well,
and his greatest strengths are when he's skating with the puck on the fast
break. He can skate it up, he can shut down the opponents fast
break pretty well and just play great in the neutral zone. And then once
he gets it in the offensive zone, everything he does is just so crisp,
clean and effective. Like we recently got those shot analytics shot speed.
I'd love to see the speed of his shots and passes because they the puck
leaves his stick like nothing I've seen in a long time. He just gets
it gone and it's like a magnet wherever he needs it to go, whether
that be the back of the net or a great pass to his teammates.
He's just magnetic in the offensive zone. And he's just projects to be such
a just point producer, power play guy in the NHL, like, it's
hard to see him not succeed in that way. He is six foot so
a little bit small on the defensive side, and that's where his biggest question
marks are is how well can he handle the physical defensive side, which is
where he drops compared to some of the other guys like Silaev and Dickinson.
But I don't think it's that much of a detriment. He's not a complete
offensive defense when he does have some like he's capable of playing in his own
zone and he's a great rush defender. But it's definitely something that he's gonna
have to put some pounds on and just learn how to roll with the punches
in the defense zone. But if you could get that figured out, you're
looking at a possible point per game defenseman at the NHL level if everything hits
well. He's just I haven't seen an offensive defensive prospect like this in a
long time. Yeah, he's super interesting and exciting, and I guess I
didn't mention he plays for Saginaw, and Saginaw if people remember had Minchukov there
until recently, and I know some people were commenting on maybe that mentorship was
really special or helpful for him. I also know that Saganaw plays this kind
of unique style where they could rotate everyone around a little bit and really activate
their defenseman, so he might also be beneficent benefiting a little bit from the
style that is being played there. So maybe that's part of it, but
I don't think that explains all of his production, which currently is over a
point per game in a draft eligible season is pretty special. As you mentioned,
I think one of the concerns some people have talked about is I hear
people say different things about his defensive game. Maybe it's closer to average.
Some people say it's poor and that might stop him from becoming a true number
one D, Whereas if the offense is good and the defense is poor,
he might be caught more in the middle of being like a third bottom pairing,
top power play kind of guy. And talk a little bit more about
what you've seen from that aspect and whether you think he can truly handle all
those tough defensive minutes, because it's still going to be an exciting pick no
matter what. But if he can truly be like a top all around D,
then that's even more exciting, right. Yeah. The second of his
system is really interesting because sometimes you almost see him like playing like a winger
when he's down near the hash marks or just flying up to the blue line
during the rush. So he's definitely put in the best place to thrive.
But I again just the skill that's shown in his decision making and his puck
skills is just like too great to ignore. On the defense like he does,
he is closer to average below average in the defensive zone. I think
to get the most out of him at higher levels, you will need to
pair him with a more reserved and more responsible in the defensive zone defenseman to
cover him up sometimes, especially if he is going to be where he's most
effective, where he's trying to pinch up and make plays in the offensive zone
and play aggressively offensively. I do think that having that steadying force could help
him out. But when you have the amount of skill in the ceiling of
point production and offense that Zane PreK has, I think you can forgive that,
and especially if he gets that really great defensive pairing, like he can
completely go off and again have like point per game seasons over point per game
in the NHL. But it's not a complete liability, as some offensive defensemans
have like I do, think he can be at least okay in his own
zone. It's something he has to work on for sure. And if he
elevates that and works on it and involves past this, then he could definitely
grow into that top pairing. Otherwise, I still think that he's okay enough
to hold his own to be that top four guy even if everything doesn't work
out great. But he's going to make points no matter where he goes,
he's going to get points. He's going to be a power play quarterback.
And he's just every time you see him, every time a puck touch is
his stick, it's just electric. It's so much fun to watch it.
I'm really excited to see out all and so yeah, me too, I'm
really excited. I know you put in your report maybe Eric Carlson, but
better defensively. Not that's a high bar, right, better defensively than Eric
Carlson, But yeah, that's super exciting, and I definitely agree at this
point, I can't see anyone else. I don't currently see anyone else as
being a better offensive defenceman. I think, yeah, guys like Sam Dickinson
and some of the Russians maybe could be more all around impactful. But in
terms of fantasy it seems like it's correct leading the way and he'd have to
really fall off in order for him to not finish as the top fantasy defenseman
that you want, and so that's pretty exciting. Anything else you want to
mention about him, Yeah, especially points only, He's going to be a
beast in that category. Yeah. It just depends on what you want from
your best defender. If you want the all round guy and go more with
Sam Dickinson, but if you want the full top peak offensive potential, you
can't go wrong with Zane Prak fantastic, Josh, thanks so much for doing
the Scouts Tout and we'll look forward to hearings in the next round. Welcome
back to Scouts Tout. This is a feature where we bring on one of
our FHL scouts and tout a certain player that they have recently watched. In
this edition, we are going to be covering David Edstrom, who was a
twenty twenty three first round pick by the Vegas gol the Knights who picked thirty
second overall at the very end of the first round. And Edstrom is a
six foot three and ninety pound center. He plays in the SHL. He's
been playing for for Londa last couple of years. After a pretty good start
this season, then eight points in nineteen games, almost half point per game
there. Last season he had four and eleven, but mainly played in the
J twenty and to do to learn a little bit more about Edge Trem,
We're going to bring on our scout Mitch and Mitch. How you doing pretty
good? Victor? How are you? I'm doing great. I'm excited to
hear a little bit more about Edgetrum. I know you watched him pretty carefully,
and tell me what you think stood out to you the most. Definitely
his skating and his mature game. He's a very fast skater. He has
the ability to be explosive. At times he doesn't. He looks effortless when
he's doing it. He almost looks like he's not skating fast, but he
keeps up with everybody and it's pretty impressive to watch. But also he plays
such a responsible defensive game, so it's probably not good for fantasy, but
he's definitely a coach's dream. It's like he won't leave the end before the
puck and he's always making the little play to advance the puck. He doesn't
want to try and carry it himself, and he doesn't dangle. He doesn't
have high end offensive skill, but he definitely can play with high end players
and he can keep up with the speed he's he gets utilized on the power
play. He's shorthanded, like even at such a young age in the SHL,
the coaches are still trusting him with fairly decent minutes. He's not top
line minutes, but power play and penalty kill show that he's obviously trusted and
just that mature game I think could get him in the NHL sooner than later.
Yeah, we just had David Saint Louis on and he was talking about
how important that real life ability is, and I think sometimes when as fantasy
gms here that he's a two way guy, we'd close our ears a little
bit. But I think that can be a really good thing. But as
you said, it could also I also worry sometimes that that maybe they're too
good for their own upside, and perhaps that might limit their opportunity in the
NHL on the power play and in other offensive situations. Can you see that
maybe happening with Edstrom? I can. Yeah, I think he got drafted
into the right system. Vegas has always caps, so I think he would
have a good chance to play upper or higher in the lineup. But I
do think that if he doesn't start putting up numbers right away, he could
very well get buried in a third, fourth nine role, almost like Ryan
McLeod in Edmonton. I think he has more talent than McLeod, but I
definitely could see him getting pigeonholed into that bottom six. He might play on
the PP two if that's where he gets put. But it's unfortunate because I
do think he could play with high end line mates, which is why I
like him on Vegas, but we can't draft just because he could play on
a top six role, maybe with elite wingers. But yeah, I do
think that could happen to him, and that's one of the fears I have
with this prospect. Yeah, and I know one of the other things you
talked about in your report, which you can read if you're an ultra lifer,
that he has not really much bashed. He's more of that two way
guy and doesn't necessarily need to add in all that physicality. Hits blocks Steven
shots are going to be a little bit lower, and I know in some
of your comparisons you mentioned a couple guys that do bash, yol Ricks and
Eck and Thomash Holmstrom. I was wondering if you think there's some car comparison
with his potential future teammate and William Carlson, who is that middle sixth center
who doesn't bash a lot, but you can score. Obviously, he had
that ridiculously high goal scoring season, but is probably more of a fifty point
guy. When you know, on average, do you think that's a realistic
comparable. I do think that's a Actually, that's a really good realistic comparable.
He very well might be like a William Carlson. He yeah, he
doesn't. He won't. I don't think have a big goal scoring season like
that. I don't see just the hands on him and the shot. He
doesn't shoot much and he's not He doesn't have a great shot, at least
from what I seen. If he develops that shot, he could maybe turn
that around. But he likes to stand in front of the net. That's
why I put homes from there. I couldn't think of anyone who was so
relentless battling in front of the net. It's rare to see in our in
this year, these days of hockey, so I'm impressed by that, and
he battles to get open. But yeah, I do think just with the
total lack of bash that he has, that he will be he could be
like a William Carlson. I also think to a Ryan McLeod could be a
pretty good comparable. Though he's pretty young still, so we haven't really seen
what McLeod can do fully at the NHL, but I think he's probably not
far off as you know, of where he'll end up. His ceiling will
be. I know in a couple of the Edmonton people that I've talked to,
they push back on the idea that Ryan McLeod has more offense to give.
If McLeod is kind of who he is, he's basically a twenty five
point pace guy that's pretty low and not really fantasy relevant. So if that's
from can do a little bit better, then that would be good. And
I know that he's probably pretty widely available in a lot of leagues. I'm
looking at his his PNHL E through the ranking app. He's hovering in that
fifty point range which he might be able to bump up obviously, but I
think the security of knowing that he's pretty likely to play some NHL games probably
can give him a little bit of boost, right, I think so,
And I do think he'll put up more offense than McLoud. I think McLeod
might have another level of offense in him if he gets the opportunity. But
yeah, as far as Edstrom goes, I think the fact that he will
be playing sooner than later should bump him up people's lists. I do think
he will get an opportunity on the power play because he is such a NetFront
presence and he's a big guy. Again, that offense, though being a
big guy, might take time, but I was encouraged. I got to
watch some World Junior games from last year with him in there, and he
looked really good against his own age. So I think once he gets starts
to learn the NHL might be he might have a little more offensive upside.
Then he looks right now playing against men, but he does pretty well.
But I think he's it's almost like he's a little scared to make a mistake
in the SHL, whereas when he's playing with the juniors, there was a
little bit more a little bit more flash, but it was such a small
amount. I didn't think it was at this time to you say, oh,
there could be this dangler here, so we'll a lot to see.
But I did what he was doing against his own age group. Yeah,
and you should be able to see David Edstrom again this World Juniors under twenty.
He should be there, and he will probably be eligible for the following
one unless he's somehow in the NHL, because he'll be eighteen for the next
World Junior and he'll be nineteen after that because he's got a February eighteenth birthday.
So we're looking forward to tracking David Edstrom and seeing how he tracks.
And thanks so much for providing this insight, Mitch. Anything else to say
about David Edstrom. No, I think we covered all the bases. Yeah.
I do like this prospect. I think more from a real life perspective
than fantasy. But I do hope he'll get a chance to play with some
talented players and show what he can do at that level. All right,
thanks so much for tiding this prospect, Mitch. Thank you, Victor.
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