Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks. Here's shit us,
here your source of information and analysis to help you win your fantasy hockey league.
Block off hot a, step hit on, stay lock. Here's your
hosts, Jesse Sovier and Victor Nuno Fantasy Hockey Live back once again. Jesse
severe year from the faint track side of the house and over there ep Ringside's
own Victor Nunio. Victor, how you doing? I'm doing great, Jesse.
Yeah, I'm really excited to talk to our guests today. I'm excited
to get close to the end of the year here with so much goodness that's
happened in in the hockey world. But how are you doing? Man?
Oh? Yeah, I'm jazzed. I'm ready to go. I like the
holidays, Victor, but I get twitchy when I don't have a lineup to
set in one of my leagues. It just happens. Does that happen to
you or are you able to enjoy holidays and family in just moments of sensibility?
I think both things can be true. I do try to enjoy,
but also when those days happen, it is weird for me and I don't
quite know what to do with myself. And I still look at my rosters
anyways, even though there's nothing to do, and I'm just like thinking about
them. Sometimes I'll throw some trade offers. But yeah, it's definitely weird
and I don't understand how to handle it, even though it's been happening for
a long time. Everybody listening to us who agrees with us, you've come
to the right place. You've come to a safe space where you can cope
with these issues. And you know what, if you need more help than
just hearing our voices talked about it, come to our discord. There you'll
have lots of people who face the same crisis in their lives of not being
able to set their lineups at Christmas, and you can chat with them and
just generally hang out. And what you do to get there is to hit
Victor and myself up. You can check me out fan Hockey Life is my
handle on the X and Victor's is Victor new Neo twelve, and or hit
us up at the Gmail Fantasy Hockey Life at gmail dot com. That is
the way to get a hold of Victor and myself. Victor, I'm just
wondering because there's not just the Fantasy Hockey Life discord, but there's cool things
going on out there that people could be a part of. Can you tell
them about those? Yeah, a few things actually, And I think as
we're recording this, there might still be one or two spots left in the
World Junior Pool if you're interested in doing that. We're just doing a free
pool guessing who you think the best players are going to be at the World
Junior Championship. And at this point we have three shout out to Tony who's
helping to organize it, and our buddy Dolan, who's like a spreadsheet master,
is helping us with that. Yeah. Yeah, so we're going to
do that. We have a few different pools and that's going to be super
fun. So get in the last couple spots there. And then also the
Patreon of course, we got a bunch of good extra stuff. Shane has
been helping me with some of the patron cast duties that it's been that has
been difficult to manage all that. So you get some extra shows, some
extra content, you get access to the website and the really cool visualizations that
that Brandon is hoping out with there. You can get access to the Patron
rank, to the rankings, the prospect rankings, and play in the tidy.
There's all kinds of cool stuff. So if you're interested in doing that
and being involved in and giving a little bit back to the show. Patreon
dot com slash Fantasy Hot, sure enough, all those things are great.
Right now, we're going to take a break. We're gonna come back and
talk about the Oh. I'm very excited today to bring you one of my
favorite scouts out there from EP Rings side, Lauren Kelly talking Ohl. How
you doing today, Lauren, I'm good. Thanks for having me on.
Guys, Oh, we are. We are thrilled. We are thrilled to
get you on to talk a little bit of OHL. And it's the leak
that's got a lot of recently drafted players that we can talk about. It's
got intrigued because of the World Juniors coming up, so we got a bunch
of players to cover a victor. I think you've got number one here,
don't you. I sure do. I have the first one and this is
a really interesting player, Carson ray Kopf. He's sixty two and ninety four
pounds center wing drafted just as past year, fiftieth overall by Seattle, and
he was currently unsigned fifty five points and thirty one games. After a fifty
nine point and sixty eight game draft season, he was invited to camp.
I actually don't remember what happened with him. I don't think he got cut.
Now he made it. He made it. Yeah, that's what I
thought. Okay, Sorry, it's been a busy day for me. And
looking at Mason's black PNHL E chart, he has a pretty steep increase this
season from last season. His PNHL is looking like a seventy five ish,
which is pretty nice. But Lauren, you have to tell us that good
stuff. What do you know and what do you think about Carson Raykoff?
Yeah? And I think last season, I guess the best word to describe
Raycob was just inconsistent. I think we saw the flashes of skill. He's
always been a high end, dynamic shooter. That's always been his best asset.
And I think we've seen a lot of growth from his playmaking abilities this
year. And I think just the steps that he's taken in his development,
he's so much more projectable of a player now. I still don't know if
he projects as a center. In the NHL, he's probably more suited to
the wing, but the amount of growth he has shown in just the last
five six months since the end of last season to where he is now leading
the OHL in scoring multiple multi point nights. Seems like almost every game it
feels like he's putting up at least two or three points. And my colleague
Mitch Brown actually wrote a great article a couple of weeks ago about Raycob and
his growth, how he's become the OHL's most lethal finisher and the shot that
was already really fantastic in his draft year has really jumped up a level.
Is a lot more, a lot more accurate. The speed at which he
gets it off has definitely increased as well. Just a really impressive growth from
a player that Seattle got in the second round. We weren't too certain of
what kind of player he could be in the NHL, and now I think
he's looking pretty much like a second round steal for the Kraken, which I'm
sure they have to be thrilled with. Next up, Philip Maishar, a
right winger for the Montreal Canadians, nineteen years old, five to ten,
late first round pick back in twenty twenty two. Started the year with a
couple of games in Lavaux, but otherwise been all year with the OHL's Kitchener
Rangers, thirty two points in twenty games already in the young Man Hills from
Slovakia. Tell us what you've seen from Philip Mayshar this year and how you
project him to continue on his career path, for sure, So with Mesher,
it's a little bit interesting. At the beginning of the season, I
think we didn't really expect the Kitchener Rangers to be all that competitive, and
here they are now one of the best. He is, if not the
best team in the all season pretty much from the get go. So when
he was returned from Laval, that was probably the best case scenario for him
to land on a really hot team, a really strong team, and his
offensive production has just taken off. I think he had something like thirty points
in like the seventeen or eighteen games that he played once he returned. Before
he left for Slovakia's World Juniors camp. I expect him to have another big
tournament with Slovakia. He'll probably be relied on as one of their top offensive
stars. Obviously, we know Slovakia won't get your ice Lavkovski back, so
that will be he will play a huge role for them, and I think
the confidence that he has shown in the offensive zone, ability to make plays
the growth. Again, we keep talking, I keep talking about growth,
but I think it's really been steady progression with Meshar, especially he had those
couple of pretty good games in the AHL to start the year and then being
returned to the OHL to really further his offensive growth, just build his confidence
a little bit. And yeah, he's really the sky a little bit for
this kid. It looks like I'm not I guess Haves fans were a little
bit uncertain with the pick when they made it initially at the back half of
the first round. Obviously there was that connection with Slavkovsky, but now what
really looks like that twenty twenty two draft is really strong for the Hops and
I think he's going to play a big role in this organization's future. Yeah,
it was super fun to see the Slovak double Slovak thing going on.
That was fun in that draft too. Let's move on to the next guy.
Quentin Musty six to two, two hundred pound left wing. He was
taken at the end of the first twenty six overall by the Sharks. Some
people thought that was a bit of a steal in terms of going so late.
He's so far doing pretty well for Sudbury. He had a really good
draft season last season, seventy eight points and fifty three games. This season
about two points per game, thirty four points and seventeen games, but also
a couple of suspensions. And that's one of the things about Quentin Musty's game
is he really plays on that edge. Seems like he's having a hard time
finding where that line is and not going over it. I guess if you're
play in pims leagues, which I don't know why you would do that,
but if you do, then he's probably good for that because he's been taking
a lot twenty eight pims in the seventeen games, and so he's currently pacing
for one hundred and fourteen points. That would be pretty great for a start
OHL season, and the p andhle has him as pretty much a ninety pnhile
in terms of his projection, which I don't know if that's going to last.
But some people were surprised by his omission on Team USA in terms of
him representing US but I think a lot of other people were not terribly surprised
by it, So I'd love to get your opinion on that, as well
as just what you think of his season and his projection long term. Yeah,
so I guess we'll start with the USAO mission from the World Juniors.
I wasn't surprised. I don't think many of my team was either. It
just seems like USA shies away from the players that have gone over to the
CHL as far as the highly skilled players go. If Musty scoring at almost
two points per game pace isn't enough to warrant to selection at least or an
invite to camp, that, I don't know what wouldn't be enough for him
to maybe end up there. I guess he is a two thousand and five
born player, so there is the opportunity for him to go there next next
year if he's still producing at this crazy rate that he's performing at. And
of course you mentioned the good and the bad of Winton Musty, where he's
this ridiculous offensive player with so much talent and so much jaw dropping skill and
this kind of game breaking presence that he is on the ice when the puck's
on his stick, he's going to make something happen, and then the total
line he wants to make an impact felt physically as well. And then we've
seen the OHL is very strict when it comes to suspensions. Slewfoots are automatic
two games and the OHL unless it's reviewed. And he's been tossed from two
games this season. I think in about a three week span with slewfoots that
warranted the automatic two game suspensions. So obviously that is part of his game.
That's probably I don't necessarily know if you know, as he moves up
into the AHL and the NHL, if those plays are going to get called
as tightly, because I feel like the NHL kind of as far as officiating
goes, will end up being more lenient towards players of his reputation. I
don't necessarily see it as the biggest issue. I'm sure as the season goes
on, if we continue to see him get e suspended for plays like this,
obviously that's not a good sign. I don't think it's something that the
Sharks are particularly worried about. I think they're definitely excited about the fact that
in spite of all these suspensions and disruptions from playing that he is exactly what
they picked him for in the back half of that first round. The offensive
talent is there. He's better in the defensive zone this season, more attention
to deephail and so I think his development is coming along nicely. And if
he can just rein in that kind of out of control temper that sometimes gets
the better of him, I think they Sharks have got a great prospect in
their pool. Yeah, for sure. And he's one of the few on
this list that I've gotten the chance to see live. He was at the
Sharks camp and I live not far from there, and yeah, I have
to say he was by far the best player on the ice in that prospects
game, and he was playing with players who were Will Smith was there and
he wasn't particularly great, I would say, and there were a bunch of
players older than him, much bigger, and he stole the show. He
was fantastic. So do you think that he really can be? That's just
one isolated viewing. I'm not saying that that really says all that much,
but it was fun to see that. But do you really think that,
because I think a lot of Sharks fans think and some people think that he
could be like a top line winger. Do you think he's more like a
mill six or second line winger? What's his where do you think his upside
level is? Yeah, upside wise, the sky's the limit for this can
be amount of talent he has. So if the Sharks are going to end
up turning this rebuild around relatively quickly, I'm sure must he's probably going to
be tried on the top line to start. I'm sure they're going to give
him every opportunity to succeed, and I would be surprised if he doesn't rise
to the occasion. He's very competitive player. I think that's pretty well known
at this point, and now that you know, the attention to detail away
from the puck as well is catching up to his on puck skill. I
think, you know, they're definitely not out of the realm of possibility that
we could see him on the Shark's top line one day. If not,
you know, maybe he is a second line winger, but wouldn't be surprised
that he does have top six upside for sure. David Gayette, Seattle Centerman,
nineteen years old, late second round pick in twenty twenty two or forty
three points in twenty eight games for the Sudbury Wolves as we're recording, and
a linemate of Quentin Musty's there. As you point out in your recent article
about stock Rising and how that line has been looking pretty good. This will
be his third straight year, most likely getting over a point per game in
the OHL. So he's certainly an established quantity there and has a good track
record. Is this guy who's going to be translating to the next level and
what do you see in this guy's game? Yeah? And I think it's
interesting that at first when he and when Guyana Musty were first placed on a
line together, they didn't really show too much chemistry as far as they weren't
always passing to each other and the best of options. And as they've spent
significant amounts of time together on the ice off the ice, the chemistry just
has just grown between the two of them, and now it pretty much feels
like they can find each other through osmosis no matter where they are on the
ice. And I think with Goyette is very is a playmaking center. So
if you put him on a line with a guy who has that finishing ability,
I'm sure he'll be fine in the NHL there is I do have some
concerns about potentially upside. I don't know first line center, He's probably more
of a second third projection, second third line projection, at least from what
I can tell now, the chemistry that he has shown with Musty, and
then i'll obviously dillboard divorce case. Since he's come over from Slovakia, that
has looked really strong as a combination right now. I do feel like as
far as the he's that connector on that line where the other two are just
going at full speed, and then he is the one going to the net
and to clean up rebounds or get the pock along off the boards and that
sort of thing. It's been really interesting to see how he's developed. The
production is obviously great. I think a lot. I saw a lot of
people surprised that he wasn't invited to Canada's World Junior Selection camp. I think
it was just a matter of Canada had so many They always have so many
options as far as offensive top six guys, and they when they at least
look at compiling their roster, they're looking at for guys who could be more
comfortable playing that bottom six kind of death role. Or shifting to different responsibilities
that they may not be used to be playing in there with their junior teams.
And I think maybe that was one of their concerns with Goyette, is
that could he be a kind of effective bottom six player the off puck sort
of situations, could he kill penalties and that sort of thing. So obviously
not necessarily something to be too concerned about that he didn't warrant or didn't earn
an invite to his selection camp. But things are progressing pretty steadily with Goyet,
and so again, the Kraken have dropted really well in the last couple
of seasons, and he's probably another promising prospect. Yeah, I kind of
wonder with him. A couple of people have asked me about him. He
does seem, like you said, probably more of a two or three seed,
But I wonder if it's maybe Musty or other people feeding into his points
a little bit more Like he seems like a good player, but maybe it's
a little bit boosted by, you know, some of the players he's playing
with, or do you think he's driving like most of that or a lot
of that. I think it depends on I guess the situation. I remember
before Musty, before he was playing with Musty a couple of seasons ago,
he was playing on a line with two undrafted guys, Coach a Deelic and
Eving Panyan, and I thought he looked a little bit pedestrian in some of
the viewings. Obviously, as a draft eligible player who didn't have a rookie
season the ohl to get used to. There wasn't too many conclusions I could
really draw from whether or not that was just the rest of not having played
for a full season, or if that was just he's not the kind of
guy who has that kind of relentless like motor where he's just charging everywhere all
over the ice to make plays happen. He's more patient, picks his spots,
opportunities and that sort of thing. And I think as the seasons have
gone on, he's definitely shown more tenacity. He's way more involved than he
was in his draft year. So I think it's just a matter of like
situation, the linemates he's playing with, He'll adapt to whatever role he's tasked
with on that particular line with his linemates. Yeah, that's fair. Sounds
like a very versatile player. Very projectable. Let's move on to the next
player that we're going to talk about, Owen Beck, and he was.
He's drafted thirty third overall back in twenty twenty two by the Canadians six foot,
one hundred and ninety pounds center, his third season in the OHL,
and I don't know, it seems maybe not as steady of an increase as
you would hope for, just in terms of the raw points, I don't
know much more than that's why you're here. But in terms of increasing his
point production each year, it's stagnated a little bit, which is represented in
his pnhale, which looks flat. He looks like the second line potential guy,
obviously, another guy that was impacted by the Covich shutdown on the OHL
and pacing for forty goals after twenty four and twenty one in the last two
seasons, So that might be a little bit better. I don't know what
you think of back. He is going to be on the World junior team
for Canada, so that will hopefully boost his confidence and maybe really help the
rest of this season. But what can we expect from Owen Beck? Yeah,
so this is a player I went to beat hard for in his draft
year. I fully believed in his ceiling. The game he plays is so
translatable, so smart. Obviously, the production has been the one kind of
caveat as he's gone and played. This draft season was questionable, and then
last season we saw the dip after he was traded from Mississauga to Peterborough.
And I think it's not necessarily the I'm not too concerned about his ability to
produce. I think he is the player that he always is. The shot
has looked a lot better. He is showing projectable playmaking. I just think
it has a lot to do with the system that Borough plays is they're not
a very offensively creative team. As far as the system that they play,
they're very risk averse, lots of chip and Chase dumping on the for check,
and then they don't do a lot of cross lot passing, which is
how most junior teams end up scoring these days. So obviously I feel like
that has probably hurt his production a little bit. But at the beginning,
at the same time, you would expect a nineteen year old to be playing
or to be producing at least at a point per game, if not higher.
In your final year of junior so the fact that he was only on
pace for I think eleven points through five games to start the season was definitely
concerning, at least from my end. To his credit, he's found his
game. He's gotten into an offensive groove, I think, just in time
for World Juniors. I think not that necessarily he was in danger of being
cut, but I think the lack of production probably would have been a little
bit of a red flag for at least probably Hockey Canada Brass had he not
picked it up in the month and a half leading up to selection camp.
Obviously, he's in a unique stitch situation as the team's only returning player,
and I don't even know if he qualifies fully as a returning player. He
only played the three Metal Round games last year. He didn't even get the
full tournament as the injury replacement, So it will be interesting to see how
the role that he's asked to play. I don't even know if he's going
to be the first line center or maybe they feel more comfortable with him in
their bottom six. Is like purely defensive role, which he's more than capable
of playing and I'm sure he'll have lots of success with but he's going to
be relied on heavily for Tea for the team as far as just experience goes,
because he's the only guy who's been there. Yeah, it'll be interesting
to see whether or not he'll what kind of role he'll have, what kind
of linemates he'll play with, and that sort of thing. And then once
he returns to the OHL, does he get traded at the deadline again?
Personally, I would like to see it. I think Peterborough will probably they'd
been winning a ridiculous amount of games for a team that was expected to be
rebuilding this season, and I think that probably affected whether or not they were
considering going to move him. But he where to get traded to a different
team and other contender. You look at the Sue Greyhounds, who could use
some help down the middle. Missis augusteel Heads again the team he used to
play for, but they're in a strong position to be contending as well this
season and they could use some help down the middle as well. It will
be interesting to see what happens to the second half of the season if he
gets moved or if he stays in Peterborough, and then we'll see what the
production looks like once he gets back, we're gonna take a quick break come
back with Lauren back to talk more of the OHL's past. Eastern Cowen forward
for the Toronto Maple Leafs, last year's late first round selection by those Leafs.
Third year right now in the Ohl continuing to rise in the scoring ranks.
Thirty nine points in his first twenty three games this year is ridiculous.
Frankly for the London Knights, he's a five eleven forward and what do you
see from mister Cowen. Should the Leafs fans put all their hopes and all
their hype in this fan? I think they already have based on what training
camp looked like for Easton Kwen And admittedly I think this is the one player
we really missed big on, especially for me. I was a big Easton
Kawen fan last year. I just wasn't one hundred percent sure what kind of
offensive ceiling he would have, what kind of project the productible elements. But
he's really proven that the Leafs made the right choice, taking him so much
higher than he was I guess expected to go. I think we had him
ranked in the late second, early third, and for the Leafs to take
him in the first round obviously shows that their scouts did their homework. They
knew what kind of player he was. They were so certain of that that
he was the first round talent. And I think he's lived up to those
expectations that have been maybe unwittingly placed on him with when they made that selection.
He's done everything in this short couple of months for London. He's so
dangerous shorthanded, He's I think he's leading the OHL in shorthanded points right now.
The even strength playmaking, the relentless work ethic, and the motor and
it's just basically he's found a way to put it all together. And he's
having tremendous success on a very good London Nights team and on a team that
probably we weren't sure what kind of what their center depth would look like.
And I think he has really stepped up his game and shown that he's going
to lead this team and he's going to be the offensive catalyst, because I
think they were lacking, or not lacking necessarily, but there were questions about
who was going to lead this team offensively once their overages graduated. So I
think he with his growth and obviously Denver Barky's as well. It's just the
growth has been phenomenal. I've been so impressed with these think Kwan. Yeah,
the I was at the draft and the audible gasps when he was selected
was pretty fun to hear. And then the basically what he's done with his
play has really just turned that whole narrative and it's fun to see. I'm
really happy for him. Let's move on to our next guy, Denver Barkie.
He was drafted in twenty twenty three by the Flyers, third round,
ninety fifth overall. He's a little bit undersized. I think it's fair to
say five nine, one hundred and fifty four pounds, and he plays for
London also, and he was just under a point per game last season,
but he's having a bit of a breakout so far this season forty one points
in twenty eight games, just shy one hundred point pace. I know that
he's someone that people have talked about. The motor with him has been a
big thing, and his point projection has really been increasing. You know,
from his draft minus one to draft season. It's not quite linear, but
it's a really nice upward arc towards potential kind of between first and second line
player. That's what the p and Chili has him at. But what can
you tell us about Denver Barkie. Yeah, so I think I described Denver
Barkie and Easton Cowen on London as a kind of the Chaos twins. They're
just everywhere making everything happen for London. The motor again with Cowen Barkis's maybe
dialed up to eleven. This guy's everywhere on the ice, doing everything all
the little things, works hard in battles. He definitely does not play like
a player who's five foot nine. It's really unfortunate that he got cut from
Canada's World Junior team last night because I personally thought he was one of the
stronger forwards at camp in those two games that they played against U Sports,
and I thought he had done pretty much everything humanly possible for him to at
least plant a flag and make a statement show that he did deserve to at
least be seriously considered for the team. And I know they didn't bring a
thirteenth forward, but if they don't get NHL help down the stretch, I
do feel like he's probably the guy they go to and maybe they look to
fly him out over closer to the start of the tournament. He would be
my pick with Barkie. If you think of the way that he creates offense,
A lot of the time is off the rush or and pucks from down
low, the hard work along the board. It's a very second third line
kind of winger, and I think maybe that is And I wonder how much
of his production is linked to Eastern Cowan, who is their chemistry is just
so lethal when they're on the ice together. And I felt like when Cowen
stayed up with Toronto a little bit longer in training camp and it was just
Barkie alone in London, I felt like he was missing that kind of extra
piece. He was still doing all the good things that make him a really
promising prospect, but he's missing that next step. And I feel like once
Cowen returned from the Leafs, they were back together and it was like a
good they were just off to the races, And so I wonder if maybe
the production is a little bit influenced by Cowen. That being said, players
like Denver Barkie, the unrelenting work ethic, the NonStop motor, They're going
to find ways to be successful in the NHL, and then we'll see what
happens when he moved up into the Flyer system, because I have some thoughts
about their development system. But we will see. Oh, I'd like to
draw those out, those thoughts, Lauren, Let's get them on the record.
Let's get them out there now. I won't try to pin you down
here. Let's talk about another London Night here, Yet another one Oliver Bank
defenseman for the Philadelphia Flyers. So yet another Philly player, yet another London
Night. Number twenty two pick last year, which I think at the time
was also deemed is a bit more aggressive than some of the draft knicks would
have it. Others can tell me if that's the case or not. He's
up over a point per game this year as a defenseman, with thirty points
in his first twenty eight games. I really like hearing about shutdown guys who
can also score like that, because that means we'll get out on the ice
plenty bag. At six' two, he is obviously coming from some bloodlines.
Dad played a long time in the NHL, and you wrote just today
about Oliver Bank turning heads in Canada's World Junior's selection camp. I believe tell
us more about of the development trajectory here of Oliver Bonk and what you're expecting
from him. Yeah, and I think the general consensus with Oliver Bonk last
year was that he was going to go probably very high, much higher than
where I guess the public consensus was. I think we expected that. My
I guess biggest not necessarily concerned, but the one thing holding back from ranking
him that high was that he just lacks the kind of like dynamic offensive edge.
He's a very shut down guy, defense first, very responsible, makes
the right decisions on the ice. How high do you draft a player like
that when you could be passing up upside or more offensive upside. That is,
that was definitely still on the table with the look at a guy like
bo Aki or the Hunter. Brustevitch was still on the table when the Flyers
took Bank. So that was just my concern, not necessarily anything against Bank
as far as the projection or upside, It was just more that you could
be passing up on really game breaking presence. That being said, the Flyers
made their choice, I think is probably probably a good one. On their
standpoint, they could use a guy who's a little bit more defense first,
really smart moves the puck, well sees the ice really well. That just
reliable presence that you can rely on in every situation on the ice, power
play, penalty kill, defense of zone draws, and are the kind of
box out presence in front of the net. And to his credit, he
was one of the youngest players at Canada's World Junior selection camp and he was
probably the best looking at HL defender out there. He played both games and
I thought he didn't make a lot of mistakes. He really held his own.
He looked comfortable. And we're other two thousand and four OHL defenders falter
and they struggled a lot. Bunk was really the one constant as far as
that like OHL group of defenders went. And I think that's really telling how
he's the only one who ended up making the team. Yeah, I love
players in general whose name tells you what they're going to do. Let's just
like Boank. You got a those old Batman comics, right, I just
I hope that becomes a thing. And his dad played in the NHL.
But at that I'm waiting for Victor Zoink to come out or Biff. Is
there somebody named Biff? Come on? Victor. Yeah, hopefully that'll be
fun. But yeah, he's a fun one. Let's talk You mentioned the
next guy we're going to talk about, because we all just have to be
talking about him all the time. Anyone who follows any Vancouver writers on Twitter
knows about Hunter Brustevitz because he's been incredible. Six foot one hundred, ninety
pound right handed d was drafted in the third round by Vancouver and he's been
off to a pretty impressive star. Just seems like he's scoring multi point games
almost every time he's out there. And last season he had fifty seven points
and sixty eight games for the Kitchener Rangers. He's already up to fifty one
points in just thirty two games for Kitchener's as we speak, and it's been
it's been pretty impressive what he's been doing. He did not get invited to
US's World Junior Camp. I know that was surprising to a lot of people.
I know some people have thoughts about they already have that kind of prototype
in a sort of smaller offensive defenceman in Leaide, Huntson and other guys.
But it's sad because of his birthday. He's a November birthday. He's not
eligible to next year's This was really his only chance, and he pretty much
did everything he could, I think, to make a case for himself,
but it didn't happen. And I could just imagine him on the couch watching
those games being like, I could do better than that. That's what I
would be doing. But anyways, his linear rise in PNHLE is just incredible.
He's looking at superstar potential. It's PNHD right now is listed at ninety
three. That's ridiculous. So what can you tell us learn about Hunter Brucevitch?
Yeah, and I think last season Brucevich was a lot more possive,
didn't make too many activations in the offensive zone, too many plays with the
pack. He kept his game really simple, and obviously I feel like that
was reflective more of the system that was Kitchener was playing where they were just
they got a totally new coach in the off season. They overhel a lot
of things about the way they play in the style, and I feel like
everything's gone right for Kitchener this season, and he's definitely been one of their
brightest spots. He's a lot more aggressive in the offensive zone, lots of
circling, lots of changing lanes, changing positions up top, and the point
getting into the slot, jumping up into the play. And I think that's
definitely reflective of his point total, is that the production, the production has
just jumped, and we always knew he was the offensive defenceman and the really
talented could put up a lot of points. Can a quarterback a power play.
I'm still a little bit hesitant to kind of pencil him in as like
a top pairing defenceman, just because I would like to see a little bit
more growth. As far as defensively goes, the rush defense is still a
little bit of a hit and miss sort of situation, and obviously, as
a smaller defender, you got to get really good at boxing out in front
of the net, and I feel like sometimes he can struggle with that as
well. But that being said, I definitely feel as far as World Juniors
goes, we know that USA Hockey has that kind of mentality with players that
choose to go to the chlybe they're a little bit tougher on their expectations of
those players as far as who they invite to World Junior's camps. That being
said, some of the defenders that they did invite over Brustovitch. I feel
at least give him the extended the invite, let him play at camp,
prove his worth and show why he deserves to be there, and give him
a chance to make the team. If at that point you still don't feel
like he's done enough to kind of pencil himself into your roster, then maybe,
okay, you can cut him at that point. But I thought it
was given the way he's produced and played this season, how confident he looks
with the puck, I just feel like there were It was a little bit
of a confusing omission for me, Not that I was necessarily surprised, but
I feel like he had at least done enough to earn an invitation to camp.
There's not much more he could have done. Quite frankly, I just
there's This is always interesting to think about a player who I know, he's
a ride shot, and he plays in the Vancouver Connects system, and they
have one of the best offensive defenseman in the world with Quinn Hughes, and
he's not going anywhere anytime soon, unless unless the Devils can somehow acquire him
to and reunite the three boys that would be super fun. But do you
think that long term is a bit of an issue for him since he's an
offensive guy thrives on the power play. I'm sure he can generate offense five
on five to two, but that might limit his upside a little bit.
Or is that just so long from now and maybe they'll find another way to
use him. What are your kind of thoughts on that, because I know
sometimes as Dynasty Fantasy gms we like to think about that and some people are
shied away from Brussevas because, oh, his ceiling is cap because he won't
overtake Twin Hughes. Yeah, I definitely think that's a possibility. I also
think with Brucevish, I anticipate he'll get the full runway of Junior like the
Maybe he comes back next season two in the Ohl, we'll see what the
Connects do with him, or maybe he gets two or three seasons in Abbotsford
to really hone his defensive game and adjust and adopt to pro style. It's
one of those things where obviously there's no way he's going to ever overtake Quinn
Hughes for that top D spot in their lineup, but I don't necessarily think
that he would struggle in a two D three D situation, especially in the
first few seasons. I think he could really benefit from being eased into a
role and taking his time to adjust like he did in the OHL with the
first season was less about the offense and more about just finding your footing and
adjusting to a new league and that sort of thing. So I feel like
the fact that they do have Quinnhugheson that they don't have to rush Bruskevitch into
that one D spot or that top pair spot right away is actually to his
benefit. That being said, we'll see what they end up doing, and
there's a possibility at the end of the season that maybe they just try and
try him out next year based on how well he's played, that maybe he
does enough to show that he can at least stick a nine games in the
NHL next season, that sort of thing. Matias Shapoval if a centerment for
the Vegas Golden Knights, a late second round selection last year six' three
chat. He has thirty six points in its first twenty seven games on his
third tour for the Saginaw Spirit and seems like a guy who's probably going to
be playing for the Czech Republic out there Checchia out there in the World Juniors
this year. Tell us about the shape of Olive and waite for him.
Yeah, So Shapavala is in probably one of the best development spots for any
CHL player in Saginaw. Obviously we know they're hosting the Memorial Cup this season.
In his draft year, I feel like he didn't get enough attention as
far as the kind of reliable to a presence that he is, the offense
that he can consistently produce, and I feel like that has probably been the
one thing that has fallen a bit behind, is the offensive production. He's
producing at decent rates right now, nothing too concerning, but I think as
Saginaw's on one seed for at least until he left for a World Juniors camp,
to be putting up a little bit of a middling production was slightly concerning
given how offensively loaded that team is. You look at Hunter Hayte and Michael
Misa and Zane Perek on the back end, these are all players who have
the potential to reach higher echelons of offensive numbers, and I feel like,
especially at the beginning where Saganaw lost something like eleven of their first fourteen games.
That was very surprising, and I feel like their early season struggles really
impacted a lot of their players' productions, and Chefavlov was one of them.
And once they righted the ship and then they won something like nine games out
of their next ten. Junior hockey is just so unpredictable and wildly entertaining that
massive swings like that are just completely of the norm these days. So once
schaffavelop started clicking offensively, I think is when we started to see Saganaw's turn,
and I thought that was really telling. He's not an super dynamic offensive
player, but he's going to be the guy where you trust him to anchor
the team, to keep them together, and that's very valuable as a player
in Vegas's organization, and they seem to be contending so consistently year after year.
They don't need to rush this guy into the lineup anytime soon. But
he could step into an NHL role next season, maybe as their third or
fourth line, get some reps in he could play in the AHL, have
lots of success there. I think his game's super translatable. He's very intelligent.
Yeah, just a very very good player. That Vegas fans should be
real excited about. So, Lauren, thank you so much for all these
insights on the OHL guys. Why didn't you let people know how they can
keep up with all your work. Yeah, we'll probably be super busy over
the next few weeks with World Junior's content. And make sure to check out
ep rinks side every day. Elite Prospects is the career partner of the tournament
this year, So check out our social media channels. I run those so
you can keep up to date with all the things that we're going to be
getting content for over the next few weeks. Here, and yeah, you
can follow me on Twitter Laura Kelly twenty four private right now. We will
see when I come off that, but I do accept fuller requests. Oh
all right, thank you so much for being on tonight, Laurena. I
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