Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks, your source of information
and analysis to help you win your fantasy hockey league. Fuck off, that's
a step on stays. Here's your hosts, Jesse Sevier and Victor Nuno see
Hockey Life back once again to talk about the Miracle Cats. It is Jesse
Severe from Fan Tracks joining me across the glass. It is Victor Nuno Elite
or EP bring Side Daver Prospects. Victor, how you doing? I am
doing awesome, Jesse, And yeah, that's was super fun to follow the
Florida Panthers all the way Standy Cup Final. I wish they could have got
it done. That would have been super fun and we wouldn't have to have
the phrase Vegas Golden Knights standing champ camps added to vernacular. But here we
are and there are you. How are you? I'm doing good. I'm
doing good. Yeah I was on the bandwagon. But it didn't quite work
out, did it? But yes, sir, it was. It was
good times. We are at that point in the season where we're getting to
the teams that were just right there at the end, and the Cats were
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We're ready to talk a little bit of Florida Panthers. We'll welcome our
guest today. It is Colby gut for Florida Hockey. Now, ready to
talk Florida Panthers. How you doing, Colby I'm doing great. How you
guys doing today? Pretty good? The Panthers beat Man, the Panthers beat
is hot now, it was. It's probably not always the greatest attention,
but boy, last year has got to have been fun, right, I
got it? It was it the most fun you've had, is a Panthers
reporter, considering this was year two for me. Maybe the whole President's Trophy
run was fun in year one, but the whole playoff run definitely was pretty
fun too. So yeah, yeah, like you said, President's Trophy last
year and second round got upset, and then this year the last qualifier for
the playoffs in the finals run. In the regular season, the Panthers actually
scored the six most goals in the NHL two eighty eight, only thirteen fewer
than Boston. Put that way barely an upset that they lost to Boston in
the playoffs. They got that scoring mark by taking the most shots in the
league, three nineteen over the second place, which was twenty nine hundred forty
eight. They also took a lot of penalties. Only the Senators and Coyotes
faced as many power plays save percentage of eight ninety six. Of course,
bottom half of the league the goalies were some drama, and we'll get to
that, but we write this story of the team based on what happened from
April seventeenth onward. Was that a fluke bob Brovsky time plus the Maddie Kachuck's
birthday party, or well, the twenty three twenty four Panthers be more like
those Stanley Cup finalists than the regular season just barely got into the playoffs team.
When Bobrovsky's on, he can play leg that on a consistent basis.
But the problem has been since Babrovsky has signed with the Panthers is that he
hasn't necessarily found that consistency. And we'll talk more about the goaltending late late
later, but Spencer Night's back. He seems like he's ready to take that
next step as well if Babrovsky's not going to be one hundred percent. But
as for the rest of the core, it all it all boils down to
what happens when Brandon Montor and Aaron Eckblad are out. But you look at
guys like Matthew Kitchuck, Alexander Barkov, those are guys that are ready to
step in there. And have big seasons. Again. This is a much
deeper team than it was at the beginning of last year, at least forward
wise, because they have Evan Rodriguez. Now they have a fourth line that
sticks out a bit more than last year. Granted, dude losing Anthony du
Claire, but he wasn't there anyways last year when he was out with a
torn achilles injury. So this team definitely looks like one. Let's gonna score
a lot of points, but keeping points off the board is going to be
a little tough until at laden montor come back. Let's talk about a couple
of those guys that are going to put up points. First, the aforementioned
Matthew could Chuck the fourth best player for our fantasy types last season and really
just right at the top there. He exploded in his first season on a
UFS team seventy nine games, forty goals, sixty nine assists for one hundred
and nine points, a career high in points, three hundred and twenty two
shots, sixty eight hits, thirty six power play points, five hundred and
seventy seven skaters played at least five hundred minutes last year at five on five.
The on ice goals for per sixty for Matthew Kulchuck led the NHL four
point seven five goals for per sixty, best in the NHL at five five
and in fact four point seven five second place guy was at four point five
one per sixty. So buy a mile his goals above replacement dwarf his team
teammates. If you just look at the advanced models of trying to quantify the
overall contributions player makes in all categories minus the hits, Matthew Kachuck is what
I want Brady Klchuck to be. He's a top five guy for us these
days, and certainly the playoffs were even a jump from that regular season level.
Is one hundred and ten points this year realistic? How how high is
the ceiling on matt Kinchuck? All Right? I think the ceiling for Matthew
Kachuck's about a top three player in the league. Pretty much does it all
out there. He's gonna he's gonna be playing on another pretty good line no
matter who they put him with. But he's found some chemistry with Sam Bennett
there. I think he's pride for another big year, I possibly another MVP
type season. Great Alexander bar the other big gun there. He is mentioned
in the first twenty seconds of every episode of this show. I Will Hide
Cold, because he's in our opening theme song. He had another fine Fantasy
season for twenty three goals, fifty five as sass, seventy eight points and
sixty eight games, three shots a game, about two thirds of a hit
and two thirds of a block per game, thirty power play points. Why
sixty eight games. So he had some pneumonia, then a niko hesher stick
to the knee that knocked him out for a bit, and at one point
he tried to stop a puck with his hand, which cost four games sandwiched
around a span of three points in six games, which kind of makes you
wonder whether he was at one hundred percent in the span between. But when
he was out there, Barkoff played a tone thirteen average time on ice pims.
Barkoff is frequently a later bin candidate because he's never put up more than
eighteen pims in a season in his ten years. Very good at keeping his
team away from penalty kill. Is Barkoff's over on line last year predictive of
this coming season, or do you think he could make a jump over that
seventy eight point in sixty eight game, if he could maintain a good health
throughout the year. Yeah, obviously there are a lot of instances where he
put him he got it hurt or he got pneumonia. Got to edit that,
but yeah, there are the instances where he got hurt and got pneumonia.
But if he's able to maintain that health, I think he definitely can't
take the jump. And as you did mention, during that instance where he
had the hand injury, he wasn't necessarily one hundred percent, so it was
production to drop. They shifted, they shifted him away from faceoffs for a
little bit there. At that point there, he was playing not healthy for
quite a bit because he also was playing with the illness for a little bit
as well. So if he stays healthy, he definitely can't take that jump.
But Barkov's sich An only one of those players who does just about everything
on the ice, very good goal scorer. So we'll see how he can
take that jump next year. Yeah, definitely interested to see that. And
the next guy I'm gonna talking about, Cardiver Rehegy. Career year for Rehegy
highest point total point pace shots, power play points, all of it.
It was awesome. His power play time doubled, his time on ice rose
by a minute and a half. It was all pretty much good. At
forty two goals, almost double his previous high, thirty one assists, almost
close to point per game. His bash wasn't that great, not a whole
lot of hits and blocks, decent shots, but two hundred and second in
his position and four point one six seven million for two more years. That's
pretty great cap hit for a guy who's given you a nearly point per game
production. If you look at his rampom charts, they're on involving hockey.
The defense isn't really where it's at, but great offensive production, great on
the power play, and none of his luck metrics seemed two out of place
coolby So I'm wondering if you think Rehegy can continue to be close to a
point per game player. Yeah, this shot is absolutely fantastic. He can
shoot the puck from pretty much anywhere, and he's getting these shots off on
five mostly because the Panthers used him on the second unit mainly last season.
And that's maybe the one thing from a fantasy aspect I'd be concerned about with
Rehege because you'd want to get a lot of those powerplay points based off how
fantasy works. But when you look at from a just pure points perspective,
I think he's gonna be on a line with either Barkov worka Chuck, and
he's found chemistry with both of those guys, and he's really opened himself up
to be a really good player. No matter where you put him, whether
it's on the power Player five on five, he gets shots off, he's
able to create those shots. So I think he has a good chance of
getting back up to that point per game mark and getting close to that forty
gold mark again. Yeah, that's great to hear. I think he's also
going a little later in drafts, so he might be able to get point
per game player a little bit later in card Rehagey, let's talk about the
next guy. One of the Sam's year one of two, Sam Reinhart.
We had him. I had him projected to be around the fifty six best
player Jesse ninety second. He was forty six, so he even beat my
projection by a little bit. Played in all the games. Second year in
Florida, he didn't have as many points even though he played all the games,
but his shooting percentage went down four percent points, so that's gonna hurt
you. And his PDO went from ten sixteen to nine seventy five. His
IPP and power play IPP, his points participation all went down. Basically what
it sounds is it he got a bit unlucky, you might say if you
look at the rest of his numbers though, like another thirty goal season that's
his second straight and thirty six assists, pretty decent points per game. His
BASH was actually decent with hits, blocks and shots seventy first in his position,
twenty seven power play points. You love that one year left at six
point five million, that's going to be value for sure at for this year
anyways. And if you look at his underlyings, his actual goals were way
lower than his expected goals. Kind of talking about the luck metrics there,
and defensively really good. So it seems cool to be like Reinhardt was just
unlucky this past season and maybe he can get back to that point per game
plus level. Do you believe that? Yeah, especially when you look at
the way Ryan Hart started the season last year, Like in October and November,
he was getting a ton of quality chances, but they were just getting
stopped after stop. It's definitely pretty luck based there with the finishing, and
when you look at the way he finished the season, and especially when you
look at the way he was he had to play at a whole different slew
of lines with guys coming in and out of the lineup. You had the
illness that went through the Panther's locker room in December that shook up the lines
tremendously. So I think you have a little bit more consistency for Ryan Hart,
plus maybe a breakout season from Anton Lundell, who's his usual linemate that
will probably talk about in a few minutes here. I think that he can
definitely get back to that level and he's a guy that can finish at that
high rate that he did in his first seasonant in Florida Sam Bennett. Following
his first seven years in the NHL and Calgary, where Bennett scored one point
about every three games, He's now spent three years in Florida where it's been
more like five points every seven games, much higher rate to be blunt,
with career highs and average Timoni's the last two full seasons last year, sixteen
goals, twenty four assists for forty points and sixty three games. More crucially,
goes over three shots and your two point five hits per game. That's
great for us fantasy types. Bennett deel was some groin stuff in the last
third of the season, it appears, but gutted it out in the playoff
run. And having Kachuk and Verhegia's linemates, that's a pretty good gig for
producing in the NHL. Is that what he's gonna have. He's gonna continue
to be with those guys as linemates this year, and what kind of production
are you expecting from Bennett. Verhegi does get pumped up to the Barkoff line
a lot, and at Zulo Serena was another frequent line mate for Bennett and
Katchuck. But I think the main thing boils down to that Bennett and Kotchuck
have pretty good chemistry and they pushed the net pretty well together. So I
think just based off that they're going to get a lot of opportunities to get
points, and then if they'd stick with the same power play set up they
had during the playoffs, especially given they only have one defenseman that they can
put up there. Bennett played that net front role really well and he opened
things up for the Panthers in that playoff series against Boston, which kind of
helped them get back into the series in the first place. So if things
play out the way that they did during the playoffs, I think Bennett can
have power play up side potentially. He's a NetFront guy, which means he
can get a lot of his stick. He can get sticks on a lot
of shots as well to get some goals. But I think the thing that
is a bit question snowball with Bennett's the fact that Anton Londell could push him
out for some minutes. But we'll have to see how things shake up during
camp and early going in the season. But I think he does stick with
Matthew Kachuk for at least the first few months of the season. You mentioned
Lindell and atoist Ryanan in that discussion. Let's throw those two together, throwing
Evan Rodriguez for good measure. Of those three guys, who do you think
is going to have the greatest production in this coming year and any observations about
those three just as a group, I think, just based off where they're
going to be playing in the lineup, Evan Rodriguez might have the chance to
play with a Ktruck or a Barkoff. He will probably slide in into a
role where Anthony Duclaire was, So I think in that aspect, I think
Evan Rodriguez immediately has the biggest chance to have a big season. But at
two lost, Organ is a guy that took a big jump, and he's
a guy that plays the game the way the Panthers like. He's a guy
that fights in the corners there, gets in front of the net, and
he's gotten a lot better about creating chances for himself. So I think Lousterinan
has a big chance of making a jump too. All three of those guys
definitely do have some upside. And Lundell, if he sticks on the same
track as he did during the Stanley Cup finals specifically, I think he has
a chance to be a fifty to sixty point guy. That would be very
exciting for Lousterinan, especially since I just picked him up in in a couple
of deeper leagues. So I'm hoping that you're right about that. Let's move
over to the d though I am very interested to hear your thoughts on this
core here. So Brandon Montour is the first guy we're going to talk about.
He's someone that I've liked for a long time, but he's never really
had the opportunity, and obviously he got that in a big way last year,
huge breakout. We actually did rank him last year, but he of
course far exceeded expectations and seventy three points in eighty games for just about double
what he had ever done before. His time on ice was huge, went
up six minutes from the previous season. His power play time on ice went
up three minutes, sixteen goals, fifty seven assists, nearly point per game,
with ninety two hits, ninety three blocks, two hundred and forty two
shots, and thirty three power play points. That's massive power point point production
and one year left at three point five million. Anyone who had him in
a cap league like me, really enjoyed that and has one more year hopefully
to bask in that glory. Of course, the issue here is that he's
going to be out. It sounds like last I heard sometime between November and
January with a shoulder injury. I'm sure you'll clarify for us if you look
at his evolving hockey chart. His defense is not great, it's like the
bottom ten fifteen percent of the league, but offensively amazing. His bars are
trying to escape the top of the screen, so really fantastic offensive production.
I think the big question here is has he cemented himself as the top power
play quarterback in Florida? Because obviously they have Eckblad, they've seen Forsling as
kable. So what do you think is going to happen when he comes back
into the lineup. Is he gonna automatically get that role or at least get
the opportunity to prove himself again. What do you think is in store for
Montour? First, I'll knock out the timelines for both Ecblad and for in
Montour here. I think they're last time I check, they're slated to come
back somewhere in December. They'll be out the first two months, maybe come
back mid December to late December, but I could change from there. Well,
we'll have to see about their timelines. But as far as once he
comes back, he did pretty much cement himself as the power play quarterback last
year to the point where Ecblad did get knocked off powerplay one during the playoffs,
but for a while they were running two D on the power play.
But Montour played very well in that quarterback role, and unless furs Lang quarterbacks
the power play extremely well. I think he has that back. But in
that role all that he was in last year, he definitely has the opportunity
to repeat it. It just depends on how he's feeling when he comes back,
obviously, and it does take a while for some injured guys to break
back in obviously, but he does have the skill set. It is a
contract year for him as well, so the motivation for that will be there
as well. But he has a skill set to repeat what he did last
year, save for missing the first two months. Aaron eckbladd two amazing seasons
now both abbreviated by injury next year, of course, you just mentioned,
probably until December again. Last year his stats came down a bit closer to
his career norms from that outstanding rate the year before, thirty eight points and
seventy one games, three shots, a hit in a block every game,
and he went down one and a half minutes of ice time per game from
the prior season. Eck Blade is actually, if you look at the advanced
stats, a little bit of a negative on evens defense, but is an
enormous help on the penalty kill, the power play, and on even strength
offense. If you look at one thousand minute demand combined for the last three
years. I ran this query in Evolving Hockey. He's in the ninety fifth
percentile of expected goals for per sixty in Fenwick four percentage. Just outstanding when
he is on the ice. I suppose the question about who the top d
dog in Florida. You just talked a little bit about how good Montour was
last year, But is the gap between him and the still only twenty seven
year old eck Blade, who's actually two years younger than Montour, just health
or is he going to be a very good, kind of fifty point paced
defenseman who is going to be maybe more of an all around role than Montour.
What is the role that these two guys are going to shake out too
when everything gets healthy again. The thing with Acblad was over the last two
seasons he was playing through a lot, and especially last year there were even
more injuries and what he had at the end of the playosity and he played
through which kind of saw his production suffer before the All Star break, and
he picked that up after he had the week to recover. But I think
if Ecblag comes back one hundred percent, he could be closer to what he
was during his prime, And that just leaves a pretty big vacuum for both
of those guys to pick up where they left off and compete for that power
play one spot. But I think both those guys are fully capable of being
fifty point players, or maybe not fifty if they're missing twenty games, but
being able to score on that pace. Well, you mentioned Gustav Forsland,
who's going to have the first shot of that power play this year while the
others are healing up. Forsland was florida seventh leading scorer last year. Only
Montour had more total ice time among skaters due to some of those injuries out
there. Second Street year of half point per game production for Forsland more than
two minutes more ice time per game than the year prior. He's not a
guy who gets a whole ton of hits, some blocks, a little less
than a hit, a little more than a block, two and a half
shots a game, and he plays glued to Eckblad at even strength when both
are healthy. He got some power play two minutes last year with more while
eck Bladd was missing time. Amazing how much he survived in three years at
Florida compared to his first three in Chicago. So the four defensemen we're talking
about today, by the way, Eckblad's got two years left. Everybody else
is in a walk year. So Worsling, Montour and the guy we're gonna
be talking about here in a minute are all in a final year. I
believe last I saw in cap friendlies who stopped Worsling. What do you really
expect we're going to see from him at this beginning of the season when he's
going to get this rare opportunity. Oh yeah, he has the opportunity to
be the guy. And when you look at what he was last year when
Brandon Montor was first breaking out, he had a very good season. He
was on the ice for twenty five to twenty seven minute a game, and
he put up some pretty big numbers as well. But he's a guy that
moves the puck very well. He plays a very defensively responsible game, but
likes to jump up when he can and as his confidence has grown over the
last three years, he's jumped up more and proven that he could shoot the
puckwells as well. So when you look at the opportunity he has in front
of him, it's only you can make that jump even further for the first
couple of months and with a chance to quarterback a power play. Albeit,
Oliver Ekman Larsen's in the fold as well, but they'll have to shake that
out during camp and see where Oliver Eman Larsen's at right now compared to what
he was in Vancouver when he played through a couple of injuries there as well,
I believe. But but the he has a chance to have a really
big breakout here. Yeah, oh yeah, we got to talk about him
too, because that was a bit of a surprise. Maybe not that Vancouver
bought him out because they needed to make some changes, but Florida snapped him
right up. That defenceman Oel Oliver Eckman Larson hurt his ankle ind February,
missed the remainder of the year. It was the end of what had to
be a really disappointing two years in Vancouver. He averaged more than a half
point per game in eleven years in Arizona, but only put up fifty one
points in one hundred and thirty three games in Vancouver with a hit a bit
under a block in a little under two shots a game. He hit age
thirty two this summer, which is not young but not impossibly old for him
to continue to be a very relevant NHL defenseman. Is he do you think
you talked about it? Is he going to get an opportunity for some of
that power play time on ice? And what do you expect his role will
be before and after those other guys return? And it ultfully he boils down
to how he is during camp because Florida brought in a slew of guys this
offseason, plus a couple of young guys that have the ability to come in
there. So I don't think it's gonna be easy pickings for all of Rickman
Larsen to come in and quarterback power play one, because you have Fosling there,
because Mike Riley can come take those minutes. You have other guys there
too that have the ability to take those minutes. So you really have to
see how he isn't camp. But if he is at least fifty percent of
what he was in his prime, a bit better than he was in Vancouver.
I think he has a chance to play some serious minutes, maybe get
power play too. But he is a pretty big question mark because of the
shortcomings he had in Vancouver. But he has a serious chance to rehabilitate himself.
Here. Yeah, great stuff on the defense there. Let's move over
to the goalies. And the Panthers had the twenty first expected goals according to
Evolving Hockey. Then they had the twentieth actual goals allowed per game. Of
course, Babarovski was the big story certainly at the end of the playoffs,
hot and cold, but mostly hot until the end. He had almost ten
goals they've above expected during the regular season point six one delta Fenwick. He
definitely all performed what was left for what was given to him three years left
at ten million. And obviously we know also that Spencer Night has had some
issues away from the rink, and sounds like hopefully he's getting back. Sounds
like he got some good treatment. And they also brought in Anthony Stolars,
where I guess could fill in if Night isn't ready, But mainly this is
going to be Bob. So what do you think we can expect from the
goalies this season? Do you think we can expect similar production from Bowsky,
who certainly has shown he can be one of the best goalies at times,
but also can be a little inconsistent. What can we expect from him?
Yeah, at least to start the season. I think Bobrovsky will be the
day one starter and he'll get a majority of the starts. And the question
marks lie with on Spencer Night if he's going to start the season in the
NHL or the AHL, because by bringing in Stolars, the Panthers gave themselves
the option to start Night in the HL and make sure he's right to go
before calling him back up. But Night does seem like he's ready to play
again and he's in good spirits. We saw him play during development camp and
he seems like he's back to being himself and he's ready to make that jump
if the Panthers need him to. Because when you look at Bobrovsky's first three
years in Florida, like we said earlier in the show, there's been a
lot of inconsistencies in this game. But when he's on, I think Night
will be a pretty good option later as a waiver pickup. If Bebrovsky starts
to slip a little bit, he'll start to get more of those starts.
I think Lebrovsky gets the majority of those starts to start. What do you
think about just moving forward, because obviously this team protects to be pretty good
and Night at one time we really thought that he could be the next starter,
and then obviously Bob came in with the massive CONTRACTO assuming obviously we don't
know depending on how things go this year, but does the organization still feel
that Night can be their future starting goalie? Oh yeah, they definitely believe
he can be that future starting goalie and he will be eventually. And the
way Babrovsky's contract is set up as well, he has his full no move
clause becomes a sixteen team no trade at the end of this season. So
if Bobrovsky has a really good year and puts himself into the visit the Trophy
conversations or something, his contract all of a sudden isn't that awful and it
can be moved, just like Eric Carlson's was this offseason. So it's not
like Florida is stuck with Burbrovsky after this year, because it does they now
have an option of sixteen teams trade him too. But I think the ability
to move on from him definitely has to do with what if he's able to
have a good season this year, so I ought to see. But at
some point in the next three years, Spencer Knight w will be the starting
goaltender of the Florida Panthers. Colby, this has been some great insights on
the Florida Panthers. Why don't you let people know how they can follow all
your coverage? Yeah, you guys can find me on Twitter or I guess
it's X now. I'd still calling at Twitter, but you can follow find
me on Twitter at Colby d Guy, and you can check out my coverage
at Florida Hockey Now dot com and someone Palm Beach posts as well formd us.
Thanks a lot for being on today, Colby, Thanks for having me,
guys. Wilson, that's good fired past my, oh my goodness,
walk with a cat grab Now it's your weekly goalie talk with Kat's Silverman Cat's
instinct Time for another edition of Cat's Instincts with Kat Silverman En Gold mag and
it's not the best goalie press pick system. They traded away some guy named
Devin Levi. I can't remember who that was for just kidding. It was
a good trade, but they wish they had him back, I'm sure for
this part of the system. And the guys were going to talk about unfortunate
our Mac Guzda and Tyler muslic So. Guzda, first, he's an undrafted
six five twenty sixteen pound goalie and he's now twenty two years old. Played
mainly for the Owen Sound Attack of the OHL. Didn't really have stellar numbers
there, and then this past season he was in the HL for the Charlotte
Checkers. Also didn't have really great numbers there, though he did win more
games than he lost by a little bit, and the some of the underlyings
weren't super stellar. But Kat, what are your instincts tell us about Guzda?
Respectfully, to him, he's a goalie. When he signed in the
pros, I figured he was like an HL lifer essentially. I don't love
his game, he's but he gives off the impression that he is there exclusively
to serve as an HL goaltender for them. I know that Florida recently signed
Anthony Stolars, who had been in Anaheim, and that I assume is going
to be there tweener. Essentially, they're a guy who if Spencer Night needs
a little bit more adjustment time coming back off the NHL Player Assistance Program,
Anthony Stolars can fill in for him as the backup to Bibrovski, but they
don't need him there so he can play in the HL. So nobody that's
in their system beyond Stolars, I think is going to be an NHL goaltender.
I maybe shouldn't say that because that means that all three of their NHL
guys are going to get wiped out and we're going to have We're gonna have
mad Gosta starting seventy games for them this year. Sorry Florida fans, but
no, I don't know. He's not super exciting to watch. He doesn't
do anything outrageous, but I think that's because he's not a super speedy goalie.
I don't think we're going to see a ton from him, honestly,
Yep, that's fair. The other guy we're going to talk about is Tyler
Musulic, and he was taken on the sixth round in twenty twenty two six
three hundred and ninety four pounds. He was at the USNTDP. I would
call that a little bit of a downtime for the us NTTP. It wasn't
one of their most stellar teams, and certainly a little bit of gap between
some of the better like Dustin Wolf Spencer night goalies, and wasn't there strong
suit, I would say during that time at the program. And he went
off to the NCAA, played thirteen games to University of New Hampshire, had
an eight eighty three save percentage in those games three point two four gaa.
So didn't look superstellar. His equivalency is in the low twenties. He looks
a little bit like a bunch of guys that busted out or didn't make it.
He has a couple of decent comps. Josh Hard is one who was
a backup decent for the Wild. But what do your instincts tell us about
Tyler Muslic? I keep waiting for him to show me that he's awake.
He plays a good game when it comes to reading the play, and he
doesn't get a little too aggressive with things. But sometimes he like the way
that he plays his game. It almost seems like he is waiting for the
play to come to him, and he makes these little minute adjustments, little
conservative angle shifts, and little minor things to his game just to get himself
set into position. But he doesn't do anything huge. And it might be
because he doesn't have the explosive movement, it might be because he doesn't have
the strength yet in his game. It might just be that he's a little
bit slower when it comes to his overall physical reaction speeds, and he knows
that and is playing to his strengths. But it's a game style that I
think works if you're playing, for example, a double overtime game and you're
trying not to tire yourself out, or if you're playing in the middle of
a long hauler you have a back to back where you have to start both
games. But you can't play like that all the time. So I don't
love his game. I don't hate it. I don't think that he has
any major red flags in his game, but I just don't love the way
he plays right now. So I would have said, hey, he's pretty
far down their prospect pool, but they don't have one, so he's there.
He's the best of what's around. We can cue the Dave Matthews song
right there. All right, thanks so much for giving us your instincts on
the Florida Panthers goalie system. Kat, We'll be back right after this.
The Dynasty dig Florida paint Caps. Addition, Victor, this Florida Panthers system,
they've graduated a lot of prospects and now they're ranked twenty sixth in the
National Hockey League. That's understandable, but there are definitely prospects to talk about
here. It starts with your no brainer. Who is it? Yeah,
that's gonna be there. Recently drafted Grayson Sachen. You always know that's a
bad sign you when your best prospect is when you just drafted, assuming you
had a first round pick. But Grayson Sachen Slow which twenty twenty three second
round pick, sixty third overall, five eleven hundred and sixty five pounds center,
slash wing. He was on the Seattle of Thunderbirds this past season,
which we've talked a little about here and there, and it was a little
bit of a down the lineup situation for him. He was at the USNTDP
last season, decided to go to the WHL to leave and go the WHL
route, and he was not getting the best deployment, but he's still had
a point per game for the Thunderbird who had a really great team, and
he has two more seasons at least in the WHL unless he somehow makes the
NHL team because of his January nineteenth birthday, And he's definitely someone who I
could see going off next year because Seattle is going to be not as good,
They're going to have more opportunity for him, and we'll have to see
how that goes. Looking at Mitch Brown's tracking data, Grayson Sachin has a
ninety eight overall with a ninety for offense, ninety for transition, and eighty
six for defense, so really good all around. He's definitely more of a
playmaker. His expected primary sister for sixty are excellent, as are his slot
passes. His expected goals are pretty average, though definitely not his strong suit.
Really good in transition and really great at bringing the puck to the middle
of the ice off the boards, and his primary point involvement and game score
are also very high. So that's a little bit about Sachin, but we
need to learn a little more so to do that. We're going to go
to our FHL scout. That's right, Victor. We've heard the stats.
Now let's have the eye test. Our scout. Tony has this to say
about Grace Sachin his skating good very good speed for it. Passing and handling
both are positives. Good motor in the offensive zone on the fore check.
For shooting, Tony is overall positive on that and says also it's very good
on deflections. IQ seems to have good offensive anticipation. Didn't see a whole
lot of defense from him, hardly any shorthanded time. The panic meter seems
to be minimal. He looked very comfortable in the AHL for checking, very
positive on the fore check, motor, trying to get puck in good transition
once he regains the puck. Defense. Not a lot of defense observed by
Tony for this guy for checking and transition mostly in the offensive zone and on
the fore check. Best assets that play in the offensive zone for checking,
transition once regaining the puck, and the biggest concern lack of defense and the
size. Top tier outcome for this guy Tier two offense, passing for check,
deflections, lots of power play time fifty percent tier middling outcome for him.
If he does not play more defense and improve skating, a probable Tier
three powerplay time and limited third line minutes stylistic comparable, he's going to go
with a Brandon Gallagher type. So that's Tony's assessment of mister Sachin. Now,
let's look at the NHL rank Kings data and our poll in terms of
his NHL P NHL E equivalence you score, He's just dipped up over second
line potential. Not bad for going into the AHL, and not necessarily the
most exciting comparables Brendon Leipzig, Landing, Ferraro, Eric fear No. But
we're going to compare him in terms of our polling for Twitter for X We're
gonna compare Graycis Sauchin to Ethan Gautier, the second round pick of the Tampa
Bay Lightning this year. In fact, he was drafted about twenty six spots
ahead of Sauchin in this year's draft. And the people disagree with what the
Lightning and the Lightning in Panthers chose to do because they like such better than
Gautier fifty seven percent to forty three percent. Victor, is that the way
you break this one down, I think it is close, So I think
that's good that it's probably pretty close. I think that they are different kind
of players, for sure, and so that has to factory in. And
I think you have to take into some account the fact that the draft position
at this point at least still certainly matters. And I think that Sachin is
probably going to be a better like NHL player to his team. I'm not
so sure he'll be the better fantasy asset. We'll have to see what he
does next year. I think it's going to be really interesting to watch his
development. Gautier, and if you look at Mitch Brown's tracking data, you
can clearly see this. He definitely has way more expected goals and pretty good
primary assists too, so I think his offense is probably better, but he's
certainly a little weaker defensively, even though that's that was a weakness that Tony
mentioned. I think Sauchen is probably a better all around player at this point,
but we'll have to see how that shakes out. So I think it
probably is close. I think Saucin also as a I guess they're both the
same size. They're both five to eleven but being a smaller player and he's
a little slighter is Sauchin than Gautier, so that might go against him.
I think if I had to pick, I probably would go Gautier just because
both of these prospect pools are pretty dilapidated, so you're gonna want one or
the other. But I think they're gonna turn Sauchen into more of a just
a bottom six, shutdown kind of guy with maybe a little bit offense here
and there, maybe like an E two LUs terrain and kind of type,
and Scautier I think is going to be more out there for the offense.
But it's not the most exciting pick him in general, So I would probably
just look at the third or fourth best prospect on other teams in general than
these two. But yeah, it's a it's they're both around fifteen to twenty
percent star potential and so not too dissimilar. They just got drafted. Not
much else to say there. If you look at Sachin, he has some
decent comps. Most of them are pretty average or replacement level of players.
Yakov Trennan is someone he looks a little bit like. That's probably not unreasonable
in terms of your more shutdown kind of guys. And the Jay Fresh card
has him just two percent chance of being a star and ten percent chance of
being an NHL or. Definitely a little bit disappointing for the no brainer here
for Florida Jesse. Yeah, if you're giving me that choice, Victor,
I'm going Gautier. Different player to select, That's what I'm going to do
next up, Victor. The need to know prospect is who Michael Benning,
who is definitely someone to know, a little bit more exciting, perhaps,
but a little bit more volatile. He was twenty Florida twenty twenty fourth round
pick and he's five ft nine, one hundred and eighty one pounds. He's
basically been this small his whole career, and he is related to Matt Benning,
who currently plays for the Sharks and is a little bit taller, I
believe. So there was hope that maybe he would grow, but at this
point he's twenty one, he's going to be twenty two in January. I
don't think he's getting past five nine, So definitely a bit undersized. He
just finished his third season at the University of Denver, where he was part
of the national championship team. That they had, so that's great to be
part of that. And he was the tournament MVP in twenty one twenty two
when they won, so that's a pretty outstanding accomplishment. He was also nearly
a point per game this past season when they won. He was good,
but just under a point per game, and he was similar to this season.
The previous season he was definitely his first season in college was definitely a
little bit lower, and he had a very interesting trajectory because Benning was drafted
in twenty twenty out of the AJHL and so very low equivalency league. He
was awesome in that league, seventy five point fifty four games, very low
equivalence. He's so hard to know. But then he made the big transition
to Denver and he's continued to do well there. So at this point,
yeah, it doesn't seem like he's gonna get any taller. He's not signed.
I'm not really sure what the plan is for him next year because he
could play in the HL, he could go back for one more season of
the NC DOUBLEA and we'll have to see what happens with that. But he's
got really good upside, especially considering some of his offensive acumen, but the
size is a hindrance. If you look at Mitch Brown's tracking data for the
NCUBLEA, Benning has awesome offense. Expected primary goal expected goals and expected primary
sists are both really high. Pretty decent okay for shots, Definitely some good
transition play, some of it's a little weak, but most of it's pretty
good and defensively actually rates out really well as well. Board battles, primary
point involvement, advantages created. All that looks really good for Michael Benning.
But let's hear a little bit more about what makes him. Tip From my
RFHL scout, we definitely showed victor, and in this case it is our
scout Jacob, who says skating good mobile skater with good speed moving up the
ice, quick strides, great edgework that separates him from his opponents. Puck
handling excellent, fantastic puck skills that allow him to generate plenty of scoring chances.
Creativity with the puck stands out, especially when quarterbacking the power play.
Jacob says the shot is great, quick wrist shot, booming, slap shot.
Loves to get pucks on net as often as he can. The panic
meter the IQ low a very high hockey IQ and low panic meter. He
isn't afraid to make plays with the puck, hardly panics when under pressure.
He likes being the one to lead the charge. Defense is good, showed
good positioning, great gap control. He could read plays fairly well. Isn't
afraid to engage in board battles and try to start rushes by retrieving loose pucks.
So the best asset where those puck skills. The biggest concern size.
Then he isn't the biggest player, so he will need to get stronger,
improve he can handle playing against bigger opponents at the pro level. The top
tier outcome for him a top four defenseman. The offensive skill set can make
him a very good offensive defenseman with top four minutes along with power play time.
My goodness, stylistic comparable Kale mccarr. Let's say that it's a stylistic
comparable. I don't know if he's trying to say he will be Kale mccarr,
but we shall see. Michael Benning's trajectory actually has got some very encouraging
comps for his p NHL from Mason Black, Dante Fibro, Tyler Myers,
and PK Suban are the top three. And so we're gonna put Michael Benning
up against Sam Renzel, who was the first round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks
just last year in twenty twenty two. And Sam Ronzel beats Michael Benning in
this competition fifty six to forty four victor. Is that how you see it?
Wow, that is a little interesting. I do see it that way.
I would probably take Renzel, although the upside is so tantalizing with Benning.
If you just look at the numbers, if you didn't know how tall
Michael Benning was, you would this would be a no brainer. You just
say, well, of course, I'm going to take Benning sixty seven p
NHL. You look at the Hockey Prospecting and Benning graduated the model this past
season with a forty nine percent chance of being a star a coin flip to
be a star producer in the NHL. And then you look at Renzel,
who actually increased his star potential from five to eight percent, which is really
hard to do for a player D plus one. And but anyways, if
you just look at the numbers, you would say Benning in the landslide.
But then you realize that Benning is five to nine. He hasn't grown,
He's got the size issues that are not going to go away. And you
look at Renzel and he's six foot four, one hundred and seventy six pounds
right handed d for Chicago and also super young for his draft here. He's
a late June birthday, so always been younger. And actually Renzel draft out
of the USHL and really did his draft season there. He's and then D
plus one season. He actually played primarily in high school in his draft season
and then did a little bit of USHL time for Waterloo the Blackhawks there,
making that jump from part time USHL at the full time SHL and the next
season he's going to the University of Minnesota. So upward trajectory, it looks
like for Renzel. And he's huge and mobile and you know, has a
great shot. So I think you have to go Renzel here. And I
do really like him. I understand the equivalency, but Michael Benning is just
going to have so many issues with the with making his play be translatable.
So I love the little guy. I think I hope he you know,
can do it. I think he has the upside. He has a lot
of great potential, But I think depends on where you are with your team,
right, If you want someone who's a great lottery ticket and you have
some other for sure prospects, then Benning makes a lot of sense because you
can have him there and if he pops off, great. What we were
talking about with Lane Hudson, right, I think Lane Hudson is way better,
But Benning has the similar issues of the size and is that going to
be able to hold up? There are only a few undersized defensemen that small
in the NHL. Renzel, on the other hand, for sure, we'll
play. Of course, he's going to compete with Korchynsky and maybe Seth Jones
when he gets there. Why Kaiser, There's some other guys, so that
might be a bit of an issue. But I really like Renzel and he's
on the upper trajectory. If you just look at Benning and his regular comps,
there aren't a whole lot that really look like him, because he went
from seventeen percent chance of being a star down to thirteen and then up to
twenty seven and then up to forty nine percent chance of being a star.
Very weird. Not really anyone that looks like him. There's a couple who
look like that, and that's Noah Hanaffin and Rasmus Anderson. And the only
way they really look like him is that they went down for one season and
and eventually went back up. But it doesn't none of them finished as high
in the model. Maybe he could be like a Hannaffin or On Anderson,
but remember both those guys are well over six feet. They're big, dude,
so the comparison kind of falls apart there a little bit. So,
Yeah, if you look at the Jay Fresh card, Benning two percent chance
of being a star, thirteen percent chance of being an NHLer. The deck
is stacked against him. But I'm really hoping for him. And if you
want a really great lottery ticket, you can probably get Michael Benning for not
too much because people are just gonna look at the size and be a little
pessimistic about it. Maybe you can get him at value. And if that's
the case, then I think it's a great ad, tremendous. And next,
they keep your eye in prospect picture, Yeah, they keep your eye
on is going to be Mackey Samaskevich twenty one, first round, pick five,
eleven ninety two pounds, was just over a point per game for the
Chicago steel in his draft season twenty nine points and forty games, and his
D plus one at Michigan on that really stacked Michigan team twenty goals, twenty
three assists for forty three points in thirty nine games and DP plus two at
Michigan. Signed with HL. Charlotte played two games in the regular season and
seven the playoffs. Wizards six total assists, and he should be in the
HL this season, so that would be great to see his transition, although
he had a little bit already and he might compete for a roster spot in
camp even two years left on that entry level, so we'll have to see
what he can produce at that cheap cap hit. And then if you look
at Mitch Brown's tracking data overall, he's in eighty eight defensively seventy five offensively
eighty one, and transition play is where he's a little bit weak, although
some of the things are really good. His control the entries for sixty are
good, but his control exit relative is really poor. His primary assists are
a little bit lower than his expected goals, so maybe a little bit more
of a goal scorer and some of his other transition translatable plays like advantages created
and game score also really good. So looks pretty decent for Matthew MACKI Samaskevitch,
But let's hear a little bit more about him from our Fhil scout.
That's right in our scout for Samaskevitch is Yarno skating elite fast skator, great
ability, quick first steps, good balance, very dangerous and transition and rush
play as he's able to have good speed to challenge the opposing defenders. Good
balance agility allows him to do quick turns and deek opponents. Passing and handling,
he has a bit of a playmaker type of habit, especially in rush
attacks. If not able to get clear shooting range, he can pass the
puck nicely, even do some backhand saucer passes to the other side of the
neck the net. Stick handling great allows him to handle puck in tight areas,
controls play in the offensive zone, also finds teammates behind the net for
clear goal opportunities. Shooting that's one of his best assets. He shoots quite
a lot. In Yarno's opinion. Best shooting ability is after rushing the middle
ice to opponent zone, getting to shoot from direct skating long grade shooting.
Similar is what we've seen from Patrick Line, but the one timer is good.
It's not nearly on that level, but he can also go to dirty
areas to score with deflections or rebounds just in front of the net. Can
gain a fair number of assists from the shots that are also either deflected for
a goal or the rebound put in IQ very good can handle the puck under
pressure and keep possession of the puck. Has usually a lot of responsibility to
start the attacks, either with the centering past the center or middle ice,
where he takes the puck off to off zone and able to distribute the puck
in wide direction. Defense generally looks like he's playing a balanced defensive play.
Even though he plays as a right wing. He sometimes stays low to be
ready to defend the coming attack. In this own zone play usually has responsibility
to clear the puck, and in some situations he lacks some responsibility to make
sure the puck goes over the blue line. Also seen in some cases after
turnovers, he's not too quick yet to follow the opponent player. His great
asset overall here is the skating combined with the shot. If he gets enough
room, he could score a goal even from long range. The biggest concern
there's strong competition on the NHL level for his type of playing role and however,
at the same time, also there's not much of the other NHL caliber
prospects in the organization, so he should get a chance if he's able to
show the skills at the AHL level. He needs to bulk up have some
strength and mass to be able to better compete against men in this level.
His top tier outcome Tier two sixty plus point score above average BASH. His
role should be a scoring winger with strong goals and assists, should get power
play usage on the pro level, supporting cast in Florida's elite. So if
and big, if he makes those top two lines in the near future,
he could really raise some eyebrows, maybe even go over that outcome. Stylistic
comparable Travis Connecte is what Yarnold will put up here for us the NHL rank.
King Mason Black puts Macki Semoskevitch up in his p NHL E equivalency model.
He's coming up between second and first year potential. Trevor Moore Reid Bouche
and Brett Ritchie are some of the comparisons he comes up with, And we're
gonna compare him with one of Victor's not so favorites, Jonathan Lacarimaki. Maybe
Victor, I don't want to slander you're slander of lacari Moki. Victor Lacarimaki
versus Semaskevitch and LACARIMACKI wins fifty nine to forty one. How do you see
this one, Victor, I have been skeptical of looking Amaki. He had
a very difficult season last he actually twenty two. Yeah, he's actually had
had a pretty difficult season this past year where he had basically as many points
in the hockey fenskin that he had in the SHL this previous season, and
so he was a little bit down on that definitely turned up in the playoffs.
He had fifteen points in fifteen qualification games for Drew Garden. We mentioned
previously when we talked about Ogran and Oceland that it wasn't quite enough to get
them back in the SHL. But this season he's actually on loan to a
rebro Hk and so far, so good. Two goals in the first two
games a goal per game, So yeah, if that continues. I love
how on e Laitue prospects they project obviously clearly just based on the numbers that
are there. So they project him for fifty two goals and fifty two games
and zero assists, because what else are you going to do. That's what
he's done so far. Seriously, doubt that's going to continue, obviously,
but it does. He's a goal scorer, luck at Amaki, and he
needs to do that in order to be impactful. So if he's not scoring,
what is he doing? And that has been the issue. If he's
not scoring, what is he doing? But if he is scoring, everybody
is happy and everything is hunky dory. So if he can continue to do
that, if he can get his skull scoring touch back, then yeah,
certainly then he can be great. So between these two you have to think
about it that way. I would take Lekaimaki probably because although I like Samaskevitch
and I think that he does have some good all around offense, he doesn't
have that one skill that's elite, and Karrimaki, at least in the SHL
level, has a pretty elite shot hopefully that will translate to the NHL.
At least it will be really good and he can probably beat NHL goalies with
the one timer and some of his other shots. I would take him.
It's a little bit close as described here in the poll. I think some
people are just really down on Liquorromaki. But some people are saying already the
revenge Tour is real Lecormaki. So if you believe that, then I would
then go with him. And so yeah, that would be my choice.
If you just look at Samaskevich, some of his other comps, a lot
of them are replacement level or bust guys. The only one who none of
them really look that exciting. There's some dominic box, Martin Cout and guys
who busted out a little bit, and Chris Kelly is one who looks a
little bit alike ended up being a replacement level producer. I'm not super exciting.
The Jay Fresh card has some scavige. At just five percent chance of
being a star fifteen seventeen percent chance of being an NHLer, he is trending
up a little bit, but he's currently the eighty fourth ranked forward in that
system, so a little bit lower on the upside there. But Jesse,
that's all the guys we have time to talk about. If you're a patron,
you can listen to the top ten prospect list on Patreon, and if
you're interested in doing some scouting with us, shoot me DM on Twitter,
discord, or email us. All right, we'll be right back to close
up the show. Hey, a couple more things to mention before we get
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