Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks. Here's your source of
information and analysis to help you win your fantasy hockey league. Talk off hot,
a step hit on, stay lock. Here's your hosts, Jesse Sovier
and Victor Nuno in Fantasy Hockey Live, back once again to talk fantasy hockey.
This is Jesse Severe of Fan Trust. That is Victor Nuno of ep
rnks side Victor. How you doing. I'm doing awesome, Jesse. Yeah,
it's good to be here. It's good to be talking fantasy hockey.
Always good to be talking fantasy hockey. How you doing, my friend?
Good? We're we're pushing into July. There's all kinds of episodes coming together.
We're really cruising through this whole season preview thing. Victor and Victor as
usual as doing yeomen's work and putting these together. I think this is the
last of the first half. We're this is team sixteen as we put it
out, I believe, unless my brain scrambles and they come out in a
different episode a different order than I think. So yeah, Victor, it's
good times. Man. Let's say that if people wanted to talk more about
Columbus beyond today, they could do such by hopping into our free discord.
All you have to do to get in the discord is hit Victor or myself
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gmail dot com. Lots of people, hundreds of crazies in there, preparing
for the rookie drafts, thinking about next season, responding to free agency and
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after this, the other thing you can find is our team preview of the
Columbus Blue Jackets. We'd like to welcome today our guest to talk about the
Columbus Blue Jackets, Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch. How you doing today,
Brian doing good? Finally, good to be with you guys here in
the off The Blue Jackets are keeping people busy this offseason. There's a lot
cooking. But let's talk about the team in general. I would have to
say the season didn't necessarily go great to start out negative, but Columbus finished
last in the Eastern Conference, fourth worst in the NHL. Pascal Vincent is
out after one season. The longtime GM has moved on. Two of their
three highest paid players missed long stretches of the year. They allowed the second
most goals in the NHL on the second most shots against through the eleventh highest
paid goalie, so in his contracts got three more years on it. He
started forty games, and the tief say percentage was higher when the less expensive
goalies were in. They ended up with picked four in the draft, and
that was a nice chariot the end of the season. We'll get into the
individual players, but Brian, geez, where does this franchise go next?
Let's question. One of those people that's busy being kept busy by this team
is myself. This has not been the most fun offseason for a beat writer
because you're just basically going from one story to the next. But it's hard
to say right because they haven't even hired a coach yet. Like they decided
that Pascal Vincent had one year left on his two year contract that he ended
up signing out of a rush before last season, literally three days before training
camp last year when Mike Babcock was forced to resign in that debacle, so
he had a year left and it was basically you gotta figure it was probably
not a lot of money because it was a first year head coach filling in
that kind of thing. And he decided to move on from him. I
personally felt that they were a lot better than look record wise. Last year.
You take out the last I want to say, six weeks after the
trade deadline, they traded away two of their key line guys in Rozovic and
Pete, and then they endured like a just another ridiculous rash of injuries.
It took out Ken Johnson and a bunch of other guys who were contributors,
and they lost a bunch down the stretch. But before that, if you
take it between like November to that point in and it was marched, they
were a pretty good team. They were actually weren't that bad. Their biggest
struggles were just closing out games. They had a young team and didn't know
how to put their foot on people's throat once they had a lead in the
third period. The question is about going forward. So now there's no more
Pascal Vincent. He's gone there trying to find a new coach, and for
three weeks we thought for sure it was going to be Todd McClellan, who
was fired from the Los Angeles Kings mid season, and he has a year
left in his deal. He's more of a defensive guy. He's a veteran
who's been This would have been his fourth. He pulled out last week,
let's put it that way. So he pulled out of the start. Things
broke down last week. So unless they circle back and could meet his contract
requirements, it's not going to be Tom McCollum. But he was more of
a veteran guy. That's what the new and they also have a new president
of hockey operations and general manager who haven't even mentioned yet with Don Waldell who
flipped over from the Carolina Hurricanes, who's leading this search now for the coach
and who made the decision on passcal Vincent. Dell wants experience, is what
he says. In the head coaching department. McClellan going to fit that perfectly,
but the salary and stuff broke down in the years or whatever, so
he's out. That's going to leave Dean Evison, who coached the Minnesota Wild
for the past four plus seasons until he got fired last season, or Jay
Woodcroft. Those are the next two names on the list. The next two
finalists. The Croft was with Edmonton they had obviously had really terrible start last
season. He got replaced by No. Block. We saw what happened,
the Oilers made a run to the Cup final. Whatever those two guys mean.
So when we look at the blue jacket for next season, assuming the
pick will be one of those two guys, to me, those are diametrically
opposite coaches. So you got Dean Everson, who's like the stern tricked another
defensive minded kind of guy who wants to keep pucks out of the net and
play tight defense. And not that Woodcraft doesn't. But Woodcraft is more of
a he's younger, he's forty seven. He's more of a he's seen as
like your younger players, code developmental guy, offensive minded, that kind of
thing. In fact, his career arcs sound like Pascal Vincent, who they
just fired, and neither one of them. Everson has five four plus years
in the in the NHL head coaches position, all with the wild Woodcraft has
two plus as a head coach in the NHL, all with the Edmonton.
So it'll be one of those two. And if it's not one of those
two, that is back to the drawing board, going back to those twelve
names that Waddell originally started with, and among those twelve names, one maybe
keep in mind potentially would be Bob Hartley, but we're far from that point
right now. It seems to be Everson or Woodcraft or the choices. And
like I said, this team could go one of two ways for each one
of those guys. They could be a really they could become a real defensive
type team under Everson next year, or maybe they try and explore more of
the offensive side with Woodcraft. It's going to depend on where they go now
really quick. One last thing personnel wise, they did sign We'll talk about
it, I'm sure, but they did sign Sean Monaghan and the hope there
is that you know, reuniting him with Johnny Gudreau, will you know,
hopefully spark Johnny Gudreau's comeback season and w will be his third year with lud
Yeah, let's see, you know what, I'll throw both of them at
shit together. Herenni Gudreau sixty points led the team last year. Two point
three six per sixty were the lowest of his career. Two point three six
the second lowest with two point sixty five. Basically, he had a rough
time in about half his production of his last year in Calgary, twelve goals
down from his career high of forty, but of course he didn't have much
help. I can't believe the guy had only two hits in the entire year,
Johnny Gudreau. And then over to Sean Monahan. He's got a big
contract now, he's soon to be thirty years old, and he's going to
be the first time in the United States team for in year twelve of his
career, he led the league with eighty three games played due to his trade
last year and for Fantasy fifty nine points was the best since before the pandemic.
So Monahan had a little bit of a comeback. He's locked up to
a decent contract for somebody who's going to be getting first line center minutes.
And like you say, there are there's history with these two guys, Gadrow
and Monahan. What are you expecting from these guys next year? Everything looks
great on paper, right when you put two guys who played together for a
long time in one place back together. They're both older, I'll say that
than they were when they last played together. And also Sean Bunahan, he
did play eighty three games last year, which very commendable to him. But
if you look at like the previous two and a half years before that,
he barely played it all for Montreal and Calgary before that, with a bunch
of injury. He had a lot of I think it was growings in just
all kinds of stuff that you know, hip, you know hip and growing
injuries that needed surgery. So it'll be interesting to see how like a full
eighty three game season impacts him coming off that going into this startup. What's
a five year contract with the Blue Jackets. But I said, if you
look at it on paper, the guys are really close friends. I know
that they've got they'll probably have instant chemistry. You would think that Monahan would
spot directly right in that top line just because of the relationship to Gudrow and
that Gadrow is gonna stay in the top line. But I've done this job
a long time, and I've also seen years where we think something's gonna happen.
We thought Max Delmi was gonna be the first or second line center here
pro when they got that trade with Josh Anderson, and that didn't work out.
He was barely the third line center here At times, sometimes it just
doesn't work out. So we're gonna have to see once they get into camp
and see how they look and preseason and all that. But I do think
that I think that it could spark Gudrow a little bit. I also think
Gudrow I'll be interested in interested to see what kind of attitude he brings,
an approach he brings into camp, because the end of season, he went
out talking about how he was gonna approach this offseason differently. He was gonna
work a little harder. The year before, he'd spent more time with his
family and he got newborn, young children and that kind of thing, and
nothing against that, but he looked at that and said, you know what
I am, I'm going to really dedicate myself this offseason to really coming back
strong next year. So I'll see. It'd be interesting to see if he's
more proactive and aggressive next year as opposed he to his first two years in
Columbus. Yeah. Boone Jenner the captain put up another sneaky nice season for
my purposes, because when he was healthy for Fantasy two and a half shots,
two hits and a block per game, thirty five points and fifty eight
games projects out to about a fifty point pace, which is very Boone generoush
his shots were high quality. He was actually second on the team in individual
expected goals despite only playing fifty eight games. This was that for missing six
weeks in the middle of the season with a broken jaw. His ice time
was the highest average on the team when he was out there with another centerman
on the team. Daily faceoff actually shows him as a third line winger right
now. So is that where he's going to be even though he had the
most average on my ice report. So my mind's blown right now. What
is Boone Jenner's season? What do you expect from it? What do you
think he's going to be doing. He could be anywhere from the first line
center to third line wing. Like you said, it's just so unpredictable right
now. Because he is super versatile. He can play either side, he
can play down the middle. He went, he's their best at face offs,
but he's used a lot. Coaches fall in love with him when the
tight game and they got big time face offs, they got to win defensive
zone or like penalty kills, that kind of stuff. If you're looking for
a guy fantasy wise, I think he's always He's every year. He should
be like one of your biggest bargain pickups ever because people don't think of him
as a producer. But if you're looking for different categories and stuff like,
he's gonna fill pretty much every category except for maybe like penalty minutes or whatever
if you have it here in one of those leagues. And one thing that
he has learned to do really well, I think the last I want to
say three years or so, is he really plays around the net like he
is. He his ability to tip pucks, stand in the low slot and
tip them and redirect pucks and things like that and then get loose change off
rebounds and things like that and then put them home. He's among the league's
best at that. And that's why his goal toal if he could stay healthy
the almost that's part of the reason. Like last year you mentioned the broken
jaw that happened while he was trying to tip a puck a guy, it
got deflected up, hit him right in the jaw and broke his jawn.
Is out for six weeks or something like, what are his numbers look like
if he's healthy for four or five of those six weeks and he only misses
one week instead of six, and he's had back injuries in the past as
well, which is always a concern as far as durability. But when he
is healthy, he's gonna give you every category you need if you're looking from
a fantasy stat standpoint, and I think that I don't think that changes a
ton. His ice time will change if he drops down the line up,
obviously, but I don't think it'll change as much as me people may think
because he's so important. Whatever coach comes in here, they're gonna look at
their line roster and be like, I need somebody who can win face offs,
and it's gonna be either Monahan or Jenner because your other options are Cylinder
Fantilly. I guess Corrally's an experienced guy as well on the fourth line,
but it's mainly gonna be Boone and probably Monahan and for the first two options
for that, and then Cylinder Fantili is just not there yet as far as
being old enough and experience enough to win a ton of face offs and be
dependable defensively. Boone's gonna get a lot of ice time no matter where he's
at. It's just going to depend on kind of his roles is going to
depend on how well they look down the middle. Yeah, for sure.
Ed now the guy everybody wants to know about. Of all the things that
went wrong for Columbus last year, Patrick lyone might have been the biggest thing
that went wrong. He made it two months into the season, notching half
a point per game with a very unline ash, two shots per game,
very low. Then he broke his classical. Then he wanted to the player
assistant program and missed the rest of the season. The record recently of guys
coming back from that program again, I don't want to say anything negative in
terms of people getting assistance and things like that. A lot of guys coming
back from that program have struggled to make an impact, but everybody's different.
I'm not sure what there is to make of Line's year, really because he
was gone for so much of it and hurt for so much of it.
But what are you expecting from Line this year? And is he gonna stay
a Blue Jacket? By those are like almost impossible to answer, right because
everything is so much uncertainty around that situation. I just checked with Don Modell
today Blue Jackets GM, just to say, hey, is anything up?
Is there anything changed with Lion as its status quo? Is he still in
the program? Is he out? And the answer is he's still in the
program. And until he is at the program, he cannot to other teams.
And if you can't talk to other teams, yes you can be traded,
but what are the odds that a team is gonna invest anything worthwhile that
would make the Blue jacket sign off and say yeah, that's a good trade
for us, or it's an okay trade. They're not going to give him
away. It's just not gonna happen. They're not going to give him away,
especially with that kind of raw talent. So they gotta wait until he's
out of the program to be able to talk to other teams. His agent
can talk to other teams, and he is is from what I'm told,
talking to other teams. That's fine, but those teams are going to need
to talk to Patrick, and that's not happening until he's out of the program.
And there's no set time frame for him to graduate or what you would
call from the program or to be released from the program. So it's all
up in the air. Now. Now, let's hypothesize for a second.
Right, Let's say, okay, he's gonna get released. Let's say they
can't find a deal that don Whdel feels comfortable make at this state the game.
That means they're going to have a hard conversation with Patrick Lyone and his
agent and say, do you only if you really want out of here?
Do you really want to get out of here? Do you want your you
want a new fresh start somewhere else. That's fine, we're gonna We're gonna
help you, but you got to help us as well by coming back and
playing like Patrick Lyone for a while. You need to show other gms that
you have your stuff together, that you can be the guy that everyone thinks
you can be. And if he does that, I guarantee you he will
be moved quickly because other teams will want to cash in on that, and
the Blue Jackets will get something worthwhile and everyone will be happy. But like
you said, come players coming out of that program not a great history right
now. I would never I'm not gonna bet against Patrick lion A just because
of the raw talent though, like the guy has scored forty plus goals in
the past, he's still pretty young. He's only twenty six years old or
even that old, twenty five, twenty six and when he has been healthy
here, which is very rare so far in the what three or four years
he's been here, I can't believe he's been here that long, to be
honest with you, but he has been, and when he has been healthy,
for most of that time, he's been a pointed game player. He
hasn't just been a goal scorer. He's actually set up goals as well.
I think he's proven something here as well for teams that are looking for somebody
that can be more than just a goal scorer. But I think a lot
of gms just say, look, man, we just need you to put
the puck on the net. If you can just get back to being that
guy, we'd love to have you on the team. So it's all gonna
depend on how he comes out of the program, when he comes out of
the program, and how he looks. I think I have a feeling that
he's gonna have to stay here for a little bit to prove his value in
a trade. But that's just me talking and we'll see what happens. So
you already mentioned Adam fan Hilly, and the rookie ended up with the sixth
most time on ice of any CBJ forward, youah the fifth most power play
time on ice and as well as the most points per game. The conflaceration
made him miss the rest of the season after late January. Y five point
pace should be encouraging, though. I would think, especially with his high
number of hits and blocks per game, he has a really high perperal floor.
Brian, what do you think we can see from Fantilli next season?
Do you think he can take another step increase those points a little bit?
Again, he has to stay healthy as well, but that and that has
been a challenge for all Blue Jackets, the last threat, I want to
say, three years. They got to take a look at that. And
I don't know if there's just all luck or if there's something that they can
adjust within the walls of Nationwide Arena. They have to do something to keep
healthy. But assuming hell, I do think that he can build on that.
He is a really talented player. There's a reason why he was rated
so high at the top of the twenty twenty three NHL Draft. Everyone talked
a lot about Macklin Celbrini this year in the twenty four draft, and rightfully
so. Is the number one overall pick. He stood out over the rest
of the field, especially among forwards. I think that you could make a
really strong argument that had Fantilly been available in this year draft, there would
have been a real kind of fifty to fifty coin flip type situation as to
which one of them would have gone first. That's how good Adam Fantilli is.
It's what we were hearing last year about last year's draft being very special
in that you also had Leo Carlson, when you also had Will Smith,
though, and Connor Bernard obviously was out of the world, and he was
the number one on that pick or in that draft, like those four guys,
plus maybe even Mischkoff will see how he looks this year. He's coming
in for Billy. But those four or five guys, scouts looked at them
and said, in most other draft, if those guys were singled out and
put into those other drafts, they would be like the number one overall pick.
And Fantilli was one of those guys. So you're looking at a guy
who, even though he was drafted third, I looked at him as a
guy who he's got talent of a number one overall And what he did last
year was impressive. Again, though he's a rookie, or he was a
rookie and he only got half a season because he had his the calf injury,
getting the laceration. From what I've been told is physically he's bouncing back
fine, I is what I'm hearing. And he's a great skater. It's
gonna be interesting to see where they play him though, And I don't think
it's the end of the world if he spends a little bit of time on
the wing. If he has to play on the wing, excuse me,
just to get his grounding and get some of those point totals up and stuff
without having to worry about all the defensive stuff in the D zone as a
centerman, and then steadily work his way back into be He's gonna be a
center. Eventually, he will be. He'll be a dominant center. But
when you're young like that in the NHL, sometimes it's not bad to play
wing, and it's always good to show versatility because that's how you get more
ice time when you got coaches, and the guy can be like, maybe
he's struggling at the center here for a second, but we can still play
him on the wing on the top line. So we'll see where he plays.
I think he's got a top six spot, but again that's going to
be determined by whatever coach comes in here, but depending on who he plays
with. They have some finishers, they've all got to grow together because a
lot of those finishers are young as well. Yeah, definitely speaking of some
of those finishers and one of to point pose a points, pick'em to you
kill Marchenko, Yegor Tchennikov and Dmitri Varonkov. These three were pretty exciting.
Mark Chenko first RFA is where he is right now, fourth on the team
with forty two points. He led the team with twenty three goals and led
all fours and shots on goals even though it was just under two hundred shots,
and he increased his point pace from thirty five to forty four, and
unlike last year, he didn't try to win the Cy Young Award, getting
a few more assist than he did previously. Chinnikoff, maybe we call this
his mini breakout. Definitely a step forward. He more than doubled his career
high in points from thirteen to twenty nine. His sixteen goals were good enough
for fifth on the team, and he signed a bridge deal two point one
million for a couple of years. That's pretty nice, and he'll be an
RFA after that. And then Varonkov probably the most surprising. He played seventy
five games is a rookie. Previous games played high in the KHL was fifty
four, so that was good that he was able to play so many.
I heard early on there was worries about or the signs that he maybe wanted
to go back to Russia, but he stuck it out and it ended up
going really well for him six and the team in scoring just under two minutes
per game on the power play at thirty seven point pace. So here we
go. We've got these three Russias, Chennikov, Marchenko and Varonkov, and
they play a lot together, which is obviously a little hard to separate them.
But who do you think between the three gets the most points? I
think the most points. Again, it's going to be another installment in my
ongoing theme here for this podcast to stay healthy, blue jackets, and you
got a shot to compete, and specifically with these three that pertains to Igor
Chennikov that Chinnikov. A lot of people don't really pay a whole ton of
attention to Columbus if you look at what he's doing from a pro rated standpoints,
pretty good and he's got a lot more potential in there. But he's
always injured like he is. He's always running into injuries so far in his
young career that limits him. Every time. It seems like he keeps,
he gets going and you're like, oh, here comes Chinnikov, here comes
the breakout that he's out, But I don't of it. Like last year,
I think it was a concussion the end of the season prematurely, and
before that it's been a knee injury and some other stuff. What I'll say
about him is again he's that the third overall pick type talent like our second
overall should say, like lion A was. But when you look at Chinnikov,
the guy his what really takes people by surprise on him that they don't
realize he's so good at is his foot speed. His foot speed is elite,
like he is a really good skater, and he's a powerful skater.
He's become a very powerful skater by adding muscle in the lower half, but
he's also added a lot of muscle and bulk in the upper half since he
came over here. He's put together like he like it's he's a power forward,
Like he's not your traditional power forward going to run people through a wall,
but he will steam steam engine right around you and carry the puck and
take it right to the net. And then he's getting better at finishing and
burying. And he also has a rist shot that he's had it clocked a
risk shot now a slap shot has been clocked upwards of ninety eight miles an
hour before. That's pretty fast for a risk shot and heavy. And then
his slapper is one timer can reach over one hundred. He's got a great
shot, he's got great speed, got strength, he can see, he
can actually make plays. So I think if he stayed healthy, I would
pick him out of those three to have the most points. But it would
be close with Marchenko because Tenko is a goal scorer or he's got to get
back to scoring goal like he's a goal scorer. But that guy can also
make plays as well. He's an underrated passer as well. He's another big
body. I know he can take pucks to the net and probably do so
more often as a rookie. He was taking you dragging guys to the net
with him as a rookie and last year that kind of fell off a little
bit in his game. He's got to refine that. And then you look
at Veronkov, and Varronkov is just he's massive, He's huge. He's six
foot five, he's I think he came in last year two hundred and forty
pounds or two forty five. I would like to see what he weighs when
he comes back to camp this year. If he's like a two twenty five,
he's like a sixty five two twenty five or two thirty. Look out
for that guy because he'll have an extra step even to help his skating,
and he can really finish around the Today's a lot like like a giant version
of Boone Jenner. He can finish around the net, he screens really well,
and he can play center or wing as well. So they're those three
guys, but all three of them have potential to be then the main guy
in that trio. But I think I would pick Chinnakoff just an edge above
the other two. Yeah, that's exciting. We just made all fantasy managers
drool by calling him a giant verse'ion of Boone Jenners. So everyone needs
to settle down a little bit after that. But that's great stuff. Let's
move on to the next guy that we wanted to talk about, and that's
Kent Johnson. And Johnson he had a rough year. He was struggling a
little bit. He went down to the AHL. He did very well when
he was there. In fact, when he was down in the HL,
I wrote a piece about how this might be the best time to acquire him
because he was his stock was pretty low. Then when he came back,
he finished with just a thirty one point pace, so it was disappointed.
He didn't tear it up in the NHL like he did in the AHL,
like some of us were hoping he would. But he still has a ton
of talent. He still only has one hundred and thirty NHL games to his
name. He's still only twenty one years old. What do you think is
going on with Ken Johnson? How does the organization feel about him? Is
he on the trade block? What kind of upside do you think is still
there for Ken Johnson? I'd be really surprised if he was on the trade
block, to be honest with you, yeah, I was. Well.
I was on my way out to the draft in Vegas. I talked to
one of the Blue Jackets coaches within their system, and I can tell you
they absolutely love Ken Johnson. They think that Ken Johnson's ceiling is extremely high
and that he's a young player and young players don't always make it in are
as far as right away. And he's also he's slightly built. They've put
some muscle on him, they've put some bulk on him, they're trying to
get him to eat a little more. It's all genetic right with him,
where he like, I wish I had his genetic by the way, where
it'd be easy to stay nice and then and healthy and everything. I think
we all wish that we had Ken Johns genetics, but he wishes he had
it the other way. He wishes he had a little bit of mind where
he could just put on ten pounds with no problem. So because of that,
he's struggled a little bit in board battles, puck battles, that kind
of thing. And he's not the most elite skater either as far as speed.
He's a very intricate skater. He uses his edges really well. And
one but the one thing that that coaches really love about Ken Johnson in a
blue jack of system. Is he has a really innate ability to shield the
puck and to be a puck possession guy, even though he gets swarmed around.
The problem is he gets pushed off the puck because not big enough right
now, When that changes and he gets a little more strength and he stays
on the puck and stuff like that and he's not easily muscled off, he's
going to be a real problem for people to defend because he sees the ice
probably better than most of his teammates even and that's also a problem too.
You got to find teammates that are able to play with him and anticipate and
read what he's reading, because he's seeing the game two or three moves ahead,
and a lot of times it doesn't translate if you've got teammates that aren't
seeing the game two or three moves ahead or whatever. It's like chess or
whatever. So I think he's gonna be really good. I don't I would
be. That's not to say they won't trade him, but I would be
very surprised if they did unless they got something really good in return. And
like, how do you get that out of him? I think you just
have to play him. He's coming off a shoulder injury as well, which
was very unfortunately tore a Labram just on a meaningless face off with two seconds
left and ago in a game that they were losing in New York. That
was a shame because it just ended his season prematurely. But a lot of
these guys, we look at it and we say, oh, young guys.
We hear a lot about him in the draft, right we hear about,
oh, they're so good, and then we see him at Michigan or
Boston College or Boston They're amazing and all this stuff. The NHL is a
whole different ecosphere. It's just a whole different world. And unless your name
is Connor McDavid or Connor Bdard or some of these like really elite standouts,
you're not gonna look real good the first two or three years a year in
the NHL just not gonna happen. Like the vast majority of guys, it
takes them a year or two to really like figure things out. And I
think that's where Kent Johnson is right now. I think he's gonna be a
really good player. It's just a matter of win. And so how do
you predict that hard to predict that. But if he came in and had
a breakout season this upcoming year wouldn't surprise me in the least. And if
he continued to struggle, wouldn't surprise me in the least. Like I think
that or somewhere in the in between. He's one of those uncertain ones.
It's gonna be hard to predict. Yeah, I think the upside is huge,
and I think it's a great by low window. I fully agree.
Let's move over to the defense now, and of course we're gonna start with
Zach Wrensky. We already talked about how the Blue Jackets had a bit of
a down season, but don't tell Warnsky that he definitely had a massive positive.
He had his career high in points, a fifty seven point pace of
sixty seven, and that was with the talent not being the best around him
either. It was pretty incredible what he was able to achieve. This young
group should be getting better and better. We've talked about some of the additions,
potentially even greener pastures. If you look at the last four years,
Warensky is tenth in goals four per sixty according to Evolving Hockey, this guy
knows how to put the puck in the net, especially for a defenseman.
Brian, I think my question for you is this pek Warenski or do you
think he could get to yoc Carlson Heights. I think Ken, I really
do. If you look at like you mentioned the pro rated numbers there being
like tenth or whatever that his games played up against pretty much every other defenseman
in the NHL from his draft class since they've been in the NHL, Like
most of the guys in his draft class have probably played a full season's worth
the games more than he has, and that's because he's had numerous injuries.
He's had shoulder injuries that if he had won two years ago, that kept
him out for all but thirteen games of the season, right. He had
ones before that that kept him out for half season. When I first got
here to Columbus in twenty seventeen eighteen, he was like in his second full
pro season, and I think he played most of that season and his shoulder
heart because he had He's had multiple shoulder injuries, which is not good if
you're like looking at it from the long term. Can he stay healthy prospect?
However, last year he stayed fairly healthy, and he did miss some
time with a sprained ankle, like a high ankle sprain a couple of weeks,
and he also battled. This was all gives set in all kinds of
career highs and assists last year, but he could not beat a goalie for
the first three quarters of the year last year. He didn't. He just
was not. The puck wasn't going in for this guy. And that was
really odd to see because Zach Warinski, if there's one thing that he really
knows how to do, it scored goals. As a defenseman. He can
really put the puck in the net. That's it was shocking, like he's
getting a ton of assists, which is great, but where are the goals?
There were no goals. And then steadily he was working his way back
from that season long soulder injury, shaking rust off, and finally it just
popped, like it just came back and it was like, Oh, there's
Zach Warinsky and it was just like goal every other game type of stuff.
Like he really poured it on at the end of the season and showed you
what he can really become. Oh, once again, injuries, if he
can stay healthy, this is a guy who I do think he can put
himself, at least scoring wise, among the elite defensemen in the NHL.
The big question for me is going to be who plays with him right Who's
gonna be his partner of the right side. You can argue, and I
think very successfully, that since the Seth Jones trade in twenty one that sent
Seth Jones to the Chicago Blackhawk, they have not found an adequate defense partner
for him, or they haven't found a regular defense partner for him. He
used to just be It was like set in Stone. It was Wrenski and
Jones for three or four years, and you knew what you were getting from
each one of them. And Jones knew that even though his numbers were,
his offensive numbers were being held back a bit. He knew that for the
team to be really good, Zach had to score some goals, and so
he would hang back and play more defense and just control everything back there,
get some assists, and Zach would almost be like a fourth boward time,
so it'd be almost like four to fours just buzzing around his own and trying
to score a goal. And since Seth has left, it hasn't been that
is quite as easy for Zach to do that there's been. There was one
season he did score twenty. I can't remember if that was the year that
seth or not. They're all running together on me now in my aging brain.
But who has been his main defense partner? He hasn't had one.
So I'm looking forward to next year and I'm like, who's it gonna be?
Like, who's It's not gonna be? Erica Branddon Erica Brandson has slotted
pretty much perfectly into the third pairing on the right side as a veteran,
older, kind of aging, grizzly defenseman. Probably not gonna be David year
Jack. He is not ready for first line minute to the NHL. You
could maybe even make the argument that he might not even be ready for a
ton of minutes in the NHL. He might be more of a third pairing
type guy. But they don't really have a spot to put him on the
third pairing. So I'm expecting Yurcheck to be on the second pairing with prover
Off, and I'm expecting Damon Steverson to go up and play first pair of
minutes with Warenski, and I think that can work. But I think Steverson
is more. He's another guy who probably slots perfectly on a really good team
into the second pairing, So they don't really have that Seth Jones type of
guy on the right yet until you're a check develops and that could affect Warenski's
numbers if he's got to hold back a little bit because whoever he's playing with,
he can't really trust them his mud as far as defensively, Yeah,
I could limit him a little bit, but I think that the end of
last year was encouraging for me, and I do expect a big year from
Zach who stays healthy. Yeah, there's a lot of good stuff there.
And you mentioned one of the guys I wanted to ask you about. You
mentioned David Yerichek, And obviously he's been disappointed in the amount of playing time
that he's had, but as you mentioned, it's a big jump coming to
the NHL, especially playing top flne minutes. I watched some of those games
when he did play in the NHL. Some of them look good, some
of them looked awful. There's a lot of in between there. He got
turnstiled a few times. I know that there's high hopes long term for this
young man. Do you think that the upside is still future top pairing type,
Maybe not this year down the road a little bit. How are we
feeling about Eric check And do you think there's any chance that they move him
because he's been a little disgruntled. There's always a chance, I guess of
that. But it's the guy who drafted him no longer there, right,
like one of the guys Philly's searing, the Amazon gutting director. At least
Carnow is there, but the armokeek Linen who drafted him is no longer the
DM. And but I'm sure that Don Wadell doesn't have quite the allegiance to
him as one of his own draft picks, So we'll have to see where
that goes on that. But that doesn't mean Don doesn't like him either.
I think with your check is that I think what happened is they drafted him
sixth overall, and you know, actually, so they drafted him sixth overall
and that's a high spot. Obviously, he goes to that World Juniors after
that and just has a great tournament, like just an unbelievable tournament. Really
helps Check. Yet I think he gets them all the way to the gold
medal game, they win the silver. He's clearly the biggest reason for that.
So against his peers in that tournament, he was elite, like elite,
and I think everybody saw it and was like, all right, this
dude's ready, like he's ready for the NHL. Let's bring him up right
now. And he wasn't anywhere close to ready. It was like that was
against junior competition, and you can't just go from junior competition to go into
the NHL and stopping guys not gonna happen. And so he had a pretty
good year that year in the AHL, but also showed, like you said,
there are times when he becomes a turnstock and in the defensive end,
and that's a problem right now. That doesn't mean he's always going to be,
but this is the process. Young defensemen take a long time. They
take a while longer and not a long time. They take longer than buwards
because they have so many more responsibilities on the defensive end of the ice.
I'll say this for David Yeertek. On the offensive end, he makes too
many decisions or he makes too many mistakes. I think right now, still
where he puts himself in really bad positions, gets caught out of position and
they got a three on one going the other way or a three on two.
That's not great. However, you also do want a guy who's aggressive,
and he's got an amazing guy. He has a really good shot,
and he's got good offensive internate, so he can produce on the offensive end
of the ice, and he showed that in the AHL Playoff. He helped
the Cleveland Monsters get all the way to the Eastern Conference Final against the Pershe
They may pushed him a seven games that Hirschy ended up winning it. They
have a bunch of HL veterans, but he pushed them to seven games in
a lot of those games that were your check scoring like huge goals at the
end of regulation, basically to push games to overtime. So offensively, I
think he's way farther ahead than he is defensively, but that's not to say
he won't catch up at some point. I do think this is a year
where he's probably gonna spend I would think he would spend most, if not
all, of the year in the NHL and probably play on the second pairing.
I don't know if he'll get power play minutes he may or may not
on the second pairing, but we'll have to see. With all that,
skating remains an issue for him. I hope he's working on the skating in
the off season. Although he had such a long run with Cleveland, his
leg has got to be He's got to recover as well. So how do
you work on like your power skating when you've played until May or the end
of May. But that's an issue for him, is like transitions going forward
to back, and for a defenseman, that's just so vital and right now
he's not that he's terrible at it, He's not as good as he needs
to be to shut down people in the NHL love all right, that's awesome
stuff on the defense. Let's move on to the goalies. The Blue Jackets
were ranked as the thirtieth expected goals against per sixty and conceded the twenty ninth
ranked actual goals per game. We saw several goalies ten to net obviously was
mainly Mergelikens with forty one games, and we saw Danielle Tearis off with twenty
five for Spencer Martin had thirteen. He's moved on now. Jack Grieves still
in their system had nine games. It was supposed to be the redemption season
for Elvis, but it didn't quite work out. His say percentage was quite
low. He's expected or his goal save above expected negative one point six Delta
Fenwick was negative. He still has three more years at five point four.
On the other hand, a real bright spot was done Tarasof with some really
nice goal save above expected in Delta Fenwick. He's just got one more year
till he's an RFA. So what do we think about this tandem moving forward,
Brian? I imagine it's going to be those two, maybe in a
slightly different ratio, maybe with a few more starts for Tarasof. But what
do you think we can expect in terms of splits of starts and for their
performance, Unless then Waddell finds some kind of trade that he's not expecting.
Somebody comes along and says, hey, I want to give this Elvis a
shot. I don't want to use the term stuck with him. That's the
way it looks right now, because he's coming off of two subpar seasons.
Last season, it would be it was not up to his standards. Sure,
I know that, but compared to the season before, which was like
it was like rock bottom, worst numbers you could ever have and stay in
the NFL's starting goalie with a five point four million dollar av It was a
really tough season two years ago. So he did make improvements last year,
just not enough, right, Like he just didn't get up there enough.
But that's a huge question of what they're going to do in net and I
asked Don Wadel at his introductory press conference the Sun in June what he planned
to do there, actually it was late May, and he said, they're
play at this point. They're planning on just taking another crack at fixing them
because otherwise, if you try and buy them out, that's three year.
He has three full years left to five point four So you buy that out
now you're talking, you have him in some respects on the butt the dock
up for another six years and it just doesn't make sense at this point to
buy him out too expensive against your cap going forward. So we'll just well
off to ste what they do with Elvis. I think they're going to try
and fix them. A lot of it's going to depend on Elvis and whether
he is open to working with coach Nicholas Bastrom. The goalie code. I
don't think there was any I don't think there was any dislike necessarily between the
two of them last year. But Backstrom was a first year goalie code,
he was new to that position. He's a former NHL golie is I'm sure
you guys remember. And Backstrom has a pretty close relationship going back into the
developmental days with Daniel Terosov, so they have a pretty close working relationship.
Elvis didn't quite have that and didn't he just wasn't open to it. Didn't
seem like he was open to it because his guy was Manny for Manny Legacy
for four years or whatever. So I'll be interested to see what kind of
approach and attitude Elvis brings back camp, because you got to figure something out.
At by four million dollars AAV that's a huge number for a goalie with
those kind of numbers that you listed, and he's I still say it again,
he's got the kind of contract where if he plays up to the talent
that he's shown in the past that led to that five point four, and
he can do that consistently, then that five point four becomes like a small
number and you're like, wow, we got a great goalie here for five
point four million dollar contract, and if he continues to play like he has
the past two years, you're like, what are we going to do with
this guy for another two It's it's I've never seen it so polar opposite.
And one of the big differences goaltending wise this year for the Jackets is they
will go to camp and because of the way and you mentioned it, the
way that that Danil Tarasov played last season, he has put it, in
my opinion, he has put himself in a great position to challenge Elvis for
that number one goal goaltending spot, like right away, as soon if he
comes into camp and he knocks it out like he did the way he was
playing in the regular season, and Elvis continues to intermittent and sometimes he's great
and sometimes he's bad. They're gonna go with tasof like, you're gonna always
go with the most consistent guy who stops the puck for you, and last
year that was Daniel Tarasov when he was healthy. But again there's that phrase
again. When he was healthy, he gets injured a lot too, unfortunately,
so that'll be an interesting It's a huge part of their whole deal.
Like Don Waldel came in, like yarmokeck line in for him talking about how
he thinks it's not as big of a turnaround thing as people think it is,
and that they can be they compete faster than people think. If that's
the case, you're gonna have to get better goaltending. Then you got the
last two or three years, and you're also gonna have to get better defense
and those two things. Still, I just don't see how they shoed those
things up enough to really be a serious contender at this point. But we're
gonna see what happens. That's why they play the game, so we'll see
what happens. Alrighty sir, You've given us a lot of great information on
the Columbus Blue Jackets. More news is breaking all the time on this team
right now into the summer. How can people keep up with your work?
Brian? You can follow me on Twitter at iron Hedger just at symbol b
R I A n h E d G E R. I do some stuff
on Instagram, I guess just Hockey Hedge, but it's mostly just on Twitter
for covering the Jackets. I will say this, I'll give you a bonus
real quick before we go, a bonus fantasy play. Okay, guy that
we didn't talk too much about today, I think Cole Sillinger is going to
have a breakout season next year. That guy did every single thing that you
want a center to do except score enough goals, and he's got the If
you look at why he was drafted twelve overall in twenty one, it wasn't
because of all those intangibles that he has added since coming to the NHL.
It was because of his shot, because he could score. He had a
great risk shot, and he could score and beat goalies. He's learning how
to do that and this is already going to be his fourth NHL season.
I don't think people realize that. Man, it's gone quickly. He's almost
a veteran and he's only twenty years old. I could see Cole having a
breakout year and he's another one you want to talk about, another kind of
like a Boon Jenner clone who has basically learned at the foot of Boone Jenner
and has soaked up every single thing he can from Boone in the locker room.
On the ice, it's Cole Cylinger every day. Just keep that ad
in the back. That's a sleeper. Yeah, they filed for arbitration,
right, they have not settled on arbitration on his contract, right, he's
not eligible for arb so they're they but he is on signed. You correct
that he's an RFA right, Yeah, and Johnson's an RFA two. But
he has almost zero go like bargaining chips except for holding out or asking for
a trade because he he can't even sign an offer sheet somewhere, whereas Cole
can spend an offer sheet with somebody if they wanted to try and force things
along. Marchenko did file for arbitration, and he's the old They only had
three guys file for arbitration. Two of them have settled with Jack Greeves and
uh Jake Christensen. So Jake Christensen may he may actually be in the top
sticks this year for depends on the third period. But Marchenko is the one
that filed for RB and he has not settled, and I think he's looking.
I think they're looking for a long term deal, so we'll see where
that one goes. Yeah, the drama will not end soon, So the
only way to keep up is to follow Brian Edger on X so, thank
you so much. For coming on today and enlighten us about these Columbus Blue
Jackets. Sir Kill, thanks for having me anytime. We'll be back right
after this. Wilson Ben, that's a good fired pas. Oh my goodness,
long with a quick grab. Now it's your weekly goalie talk. But
Kat Silverman, Kat's instincts. Welcome back to Kat's Instincts with Kat Silverman and
gold Mag talking Columbus Blue Jackets goalies. And of course that's going to start
with Daniil Tarasov. We were lucky enough to see some Tarasov in the NHL
this season, so arguably we shouldn't even talk about him, but we're going
to twenty seventeen third round pick six, five hundred and ninety six pounds now
twenty five. He played the most games he ever has in the NHL this
past season, and he looked pretty good. Previously, you talked about how
the situation was tricky with him and the team being bad in corporate solo.
This season, he really did quite well in terms of his overall numbers.
He still had a little bit under expected for his Delta Fenwick and that was
a little bit worse on the power play Penally Kill shorthanded, but overall,
you know, it was a pretty strong season. His hockey prospecting is trending
really nicely. He's been in the seventy three and sixty six percent the last
two years being an NHLer, and he's got a really nice comp here to
took a rask, which is obviously a pretty lofty goal there, Cat,
So what do your instincts tell us now about Neil Tarasov, oh Man,
Obviously there's a huge asterisk by any player in that Columbus system right now,
just because they've been bad, like bad, and they thought that they had
their goaltending really set for a while, and Elvis Muslikans has really struggled.
Corpusolo was for a while there. They it seemed like they had a little
bit of a log jam for any other prospects. Obviously, Corpusolo is now
out of their system and out of Autowa's system too. Good luck to Boston
next year. With that, I think Tarazov is probably their best bet moving
forwards. He still looks a goaltender that I don't necessarily want to see them
riding heavily. He's got a very fluid style. He's obviously a very long
limbed, linky goaltender who relies on being pretty athletic, having good instincts,
good reflexes. That's not necessarily something that you want to drive into the ground
because when you are so reliant on getting that timing right, are so reliant
on making sure that you're not overstretching anything or giving yourself any physical limitations,
your game's not quite as structured as some of the more quote unquote robotic looking
goaltenders that overworking fatigue from playing seventy seventy five games a season can really take
its toll much more aggressively, and it can show up in the numbers much
faster for those guys who have a tendency to overslide a little bit and have
a tendency to really make them more aggressive play whether they need to or not,
which is something that you see from Tarasov. I think he looks about
as good as he could have behind Columbus. And when you take a look
at the goaltenders that they rolled out last year, which they really they almost
pulled a Philadelphia they had I believe it was five different goaltenders appear in at
least one game throughout the season. He outside of Malcolm Suban, who appeared
in one game, was statistically I would argue their best goaltender in the system,
But that doesn't mean that I want to see him as their clear cut
starter moving forward. If that really makes sense. Yeah, there's some skepticism
there. I understand. We have one more year until he's an RFA and
three more years of Elvis at his five point four million unmovable cap hit.
As the president of KOPS has said, let's move on to the other guy.
Jack Greeves, undrafted signee. Last year, you talked about how his
technique was good, he had a great attitudes rolled with it. This season,
he got another nine games after his won the previous season, and he
looked overall pretty good nine to eight save percentage. Then GA was high in
the AHL, though he was quite good. His GAA and say percentage much
better, and overall his delta Fenwick in the NHL was low, but you
could see that on the penalty kill he was outstanding. He well performed that.
So maybe he just needed to be challenged more. I don't know.
But one of the funny things is that when one of Jag Greaves's main comp
here in the hockey prospecting model is Elvis murs Likins, which is pretty hilarious.
So what do your instincts tell us about Greeves? Have they changed it
all? After seeing him in some NHL action, I like him. I
thought he looked good. He had some gameplay there. Obviously not as many
games as we saw from Ether, Elvis or Tarosov there, but the same
sort of thing that I My opinion of him hasn't really changed, just because
he still looks like a guy who goes out there says, what do you
need from me tonight? If that's playing HL games, He's cool, sounds
great. Love it. If it's playing NHL games behind an unwinnable team in
a tough game, he's sure, sounds great. I'll do it. And
it shows up in his numbers because he doesn't have it. Didn't look like
he took a steep nosedive at any point throughout the season. He really just
dis rolled with the punches, which, given how little pro experience he has,
is something that we could have very easily seen. I do think that
having Elvis as a comp is a nice thing to have, just because prior
to obviously the fireworks tragedy that seems like it really rattled the Blue Jacket system
as a whole. Resilicans seems like he was doing really well for the team,
whether the team in front of him was giving him a lot to work
with or not. And so if we take just the on ice performance and
take a look at what Jag Grieves can do, that'd be awesome if they
have that in their system. I don't know if he's going to rise above
Tarasov, and obviously, like you said, they have musicians on a deal
that is relatively unmovable at this point, they really only have one open spot
at the NHL level full time. And I don't know if he continues to
play well, if he wants to stay as an AHL, or he might
end up getting moved out of the system if he continues to perform with some
consistency. But even if he ends up getting moved out of the system,
that's a really good bargaining tip to have because there are a lot of teams
that are scrambling for good goaltending right now. Best case, he ends up
being a good goaltender for the Blue Jackets. Worst case ends up being a
good goaltender for someone else. And I think either way he's got He's shown
us enough so far that it looks like he's got some good NHL potential there,
and I think those nine games are not going to be always see him
at the NHL level moving forward. You think he's a future starter one A,
one B. What do you think his upside is? Back up?
I'd say right now, he looks like a really good replacement level starter or
a really good handom backup, So almost like a Laura Besois who's not going
to be your fifty to sixty game a year guy, but can really help
elevate your team to a lengthy playoff run. But I do think he's a
little ways away from that. I think we need to see just a little
more. I think not and I want to see a goaltender go through a
ton of struggle, but we haven't really seen him go through a full season
of the NHL grind, and I think he's going to take a little bit
of an adjustment when he does move to the NHL full time, which I
think he's close to it. Awesome, thanks for giving us your instincts on
the Columbus Blue Jackets, Coalies, Dig the Dynasty, Dig Columbus flu Jack
in the edition. The CBJS took Caden Lindstrom at pick four in this year's
draft, and the system is tied for number six in Victor's organizational rank.
So let's go through the top three. It starts with the no brainer Victor.
Who's Columbus's no brainer prospect? Let's dent in Mattaychak, of course,
twenty twenty two to twelfth overall pick five to eleven, one hundred and ninety
two pounds, left handed, d seventy five points and fifty two games as
he led his Moosejaw Warriors to the WHL championship and a Memorial Cup appearance.
He was the WHL Defenseman of the Year and the WHL Playoff MVP, amongst
some other accolades. Pretty good stuff. As we're recording this, it's actually
his birthday, so happy birthday. He's always been young for his draft class,
and so he's finally twenty and that means that next year he should be
in either the NHL or AHL. He did actually play a few games in
the AHL in the playoffs for the Cleveland Monsters. He actually looked pretty down
good from what I saw too, So he looks like he might be pretty
pro ready. I would imagine he needs some AHL seasoning, though I would
doubt he'd be with the NHL team the whole year, but maybe he gets
at least nine games or something like that. Maybe a little bit more,
we'll have to see. Looking at his tracking data from Mitch Brown, it's
as outstanding as you would think. Both offensively and defensively are pretty great.
A lot of expected goal, a lot of expected assists, great transition,
great impact on the game, great expected primary point involvement, game score,
all that kind of stuff is really good. Not to mention, he was
similarly great at the World Junior Championship, which Canada was a little bit underwhelming
at this showing, but he was awesome. I think that was really a
big coming out party for him in particular, but overall during the regular season
he was great as well. Looking at his FHL player card, you can
see that he shoots a lot P sixty and his blocks are pretty good.
His hits are closer to average though overall. His bass should be pretty good
rates out as a seventieth percentile, which is pretty nice. And of course
the scoring looks really great in junior. We'll have to see if that translates
to the NHL. Looking at some of his other play driving metrics, really
just top notch and just about everything play driving, transition game creating, high
ENDURR chances and great puck battles and puck work. So overall he looks fantastic
Jesse. But how does he look to the eye of our FHL scout is
the question? Good question, indeed, our FHL scout Sasha Laguarde has this
to say about Denton. He is in terms of skating and a pressive skater
in all sense of the word. His mobility separates him from other prospects in
the Jackets prospect pool as he's an elite transporter of the puck. His edgework
and fluid mechanics are improved over the past two years as well. His confidence
in this tool allows him to carry the puck with swagger, passing and handling
above average distributor does a really nice job finding streaking players in transition. He
also possesses a very tidy first pass out of the zone. All in all,
his passing will be the bread and butter's offensive game in the NHL.
He has no problem passing into space in transition or in tight spaces. His
handling is not elite, but he creates the vision with his feet more than
his hands. He needs to clean up his retrievals on his backhand, but
will not struggle working himself out of trouble. Just to be clear, he's
not a dangler by any means, Sasha says in regard to his shooting,
Sasha didn't see him too much from him in terms of his shot, but
when he did attempt some shots from the point, he often leaned on his
wrist shot which found openings to get to the net. Sasha thinks his biggest
strength is getting pucks through traffic, as he's able to make small adjustments right
before his release to ensure they get through. As he progresses in the pro
game, he will probably be known for finding guys in the slot of cross
ice. Teams will have to respect the fact that he can get pucks through
efficiently, which will open up other options for him. Hi Q probably his
best tool from the skating Mattaichuk is an extremely intelligent player, hardly makes the
wrong read offensively, has almost mastered the awareness of when to activate and when
to stand his ground. He has the great poise with the buck knows how
to manipulate pace, and his vision is off the charts as consistent I would
like for him. That is, Sasha would like for him to focus more
on defensive positions, specifically during cycle plays, as he sometimes forgets to check
behind him for incoming or pinching players. But overall, Sasha is extremely impressed
with the ability to process the game at a very high level, which will
only lead to more offense from Mitaichuk as he matures defense above average though his
high level scanning habits and off puck decisions, he needs to work a tiny
bit on his gap at the blue line and his cycle defense, but he's
too smart to not adjust as he gets older. He anticipates plays well.
He has a very active stick, and Mitaichuk does not shy away from battles
in front of the net. As he gets older, he'll need to be
more efficient in his board battles, using his body to position himself better.
Right now, Mitaichuk defers the stick checks and poke checks instead of engaging physic
physically, so the best asset was skating or IQ. Biggest concern was the
physicality. The top tier outcome ninetyieth percentile would be a top four power play
quarterback. One. That would be because the elite brain and skating ability mixed
with a nice toolkit of top tier V and passing the fiftieth percentile tier roll
middle power middle six with powerplay upside. That's if he doesn't develop a physical
element to his game, then he could get exploited on the four check in
the NHL. Sasha doesn't actually believe he will falter. He's just too smart
to do that. In the stylistic comparable a less physical Chris Latang Mason Black,
the NHL ranking put out the poll as he always does for us,
and it's blue jacket on blue jacket violence here because it's Denton Mitchai Chuck versus
David erecheck in terms of this and the people half broken, and David Eurichek
has come out ahead fifty seven to forty three over Denton Mittaychuck Victor. Pretty
hard to compete with David Yurchek. It's already in the NHL. But how
do you see these two breaking down? Do you like your check still better
than Denton? I do? And as you said, that's unfair. You're
comparing a for sure current NHL or I know that he didn't play the entire
season in the NHL, but David Yichuk is clearly ahead of where Denton is.
He's played professionally since his draft season, and he's looked really good in
the AHL. And he's only got forty seven NHL games, but he's certainly
more experienced and looks like he's ready to break out into a larger role.
So hard to overcome that. I would definitely take Yerichak here. I think
I've said this before on comparing these two. It's unfortunate that Mitaichuk is behind
Yetichek because he's such a strong defenseman. But overall, I think that you
have to be happy with Mitaichuk, and I would be very happy. I
am very happy to have him on several of my teams. But if you
compare these two head to head, he's not going to be able to overcome
Yerichek. And they are different handedness, so maybe that'll help. Depending on
what kind of offensive structure and different pairings, they could be the top pairing
together for a long time, depending on what happens with Wrensky and other guys
on the team. So yes, Mataichuck is great, but No, I
wouldn't take him over Yidychek. It is interesting to look at the hockey prospecting
between these two because Mataichuk currently and they're both the D plus two. Mataichuk
has a higher equivalency based on his WHL scoring, whereas Yedichuk has increased his
scoring every year, but he's up to fifty two percent compared to Mitachuk seventy
three percent of being a star. This is where you have to have a
little bit of looking at the league that they're in and how difficult it's been,
and I think it's been more of an uphill battle for yery Chuck's I
still like him better. Looking at Mitaichuk versus some other comps, I still
think he looks quite a bit like Zach Wrensky, which is funny. They
are both left handed. Karnsky's a little bit taller and obviously way more established
in the NHL, but that's interesting that maybe he could end up looking similar
to Wrensky in terms of his long term production. Looking at the j fresh
card, Mitaichuk just eleven percent chance of being a star for eighty five percent
chance of being in NHL. Are so a little bit less optimistic, but
in general that's what these cards are are. Indeed, Victor the next guy
the need to know prospect has come up a couple times over the years.
Here who is our need to know? This is going to be Jordan dumay
and do May twenty twenty two, ninety sixth overall five to nine. He
was five eighty five to nine at the time. He's still only five nine
hundred seventy four pounds right shot, right wing. Thirty seven points and twenty
one games for Halifax. He was cut short due to an injury. He
had one assist and one goal in five games at the U twenty World Junior
Championships. Definitely someone that Canada was looking to rely on a little bit more
and fell a little bit short of those expectations, so that was a little
bit frustrating. He should be in the HL next season, as he's already
twenty, so that'll be a really important season for him to see if he
can translate that scoring to the professional ranks. I we'll see what happens with
that. Looking at his World Junior Player card for Mitch Brown, you can
see that the defense was pretty underwhelming. The offense in terms of the expected
assists and slot passes for sixty he was actually he just wasn't converting a lot.
There's some optimism here that you can gain from that small sample size,
which was just the five games tracked, But there were some positive there.
It wasn't all doom and gloom as much as some people might have made it
out to be for Dumee and wanting him to be one of the fall guys
for the team. He was doing his best and it was pretty good.
Theyre just weren't converting. Looking at his FHL player card, you can see
that dume doesn't really hit at all. His blocks are a little less an
average, and he isn't like the biggest shooter. He's like in the eightieth
percentile, which is pretty good, and overall his baths should be subpar.
The big thing for him is the scoring. He's more of a points only
kind of play, and the question is whether that scoring will translate to the
pros we are going to see you next season. Some of his other numbers
are really underwhelming, like some of his transition game and the FHL player card
and puckwork puck battles are a little bit lower. But one thing he does
do consistently is get pucks to the high danger area. So that's nice.
Well, let's hear a little bit more about Jordan Dumay from our EVERGEL Scout
FHL Scout, Sasha is back to talk Jordan Dumay. His skating always will
be somewhat of an uphill battle for DeMay, according to Sasha, especially following
a significant sports hernia surgery leading to a hip problem. He needs to work
on all of his elements such as edgework, explosiveness, and straight line speed,
passing and handling. The passing and playmaking is what made d May shine
throughout his draft year. Sees lanes very well, is very daring in his
playmaking game altogether. His intelligence allows him to anticipate plays very well, and
his vision is enhanced by his confidence to exploit those holes in the defense.
Whether it's leaving the puckinsoft diyes for his teammates to skate into or finding someone
across the ice for a one timer, Dumay is always looking for the best
play. Shooting. Do May's shot is not much of a threat, and
it was something Sasha was looking forward to watching progress this season. However,
there isn't a lot of strength behind it, and he has to be incredibly
accurate to beat goalies clean. He will have to develop an NHL level shot
in order to supplement his playmaking game. The IQ very intelligent, high IQ,
high anticipation. In the offensive zone, there are flashes of high end
manipulation and vision in sustained pressure situations more than in transition. You may have
some poise with the puck and has just enough handling skill to be able to
exploit those gaps In the defense. However, there are giant question marks about
his ability to properly apply as tools at the pro level due to his flaws
for checking. Not the best or consistent for checker, as he lacks the
physical skills in skating to angle off players. He has the intelligence to learn
any system at the pro level, which will help in the long run,
but there are lots of instances where Dumay just doesn't make it to the correct
positions. On defense, Sasha grades him as average, nothing spectacular, but
nothing that will hinder him overall. Again, his awareness is the best tools,
so we can adapt to end zone coverages, switches and cycles. He
has great retrieval analytics to support the fact he can get pucks off the wall
and break out efficiently, but will never be the breakout monster due to his
lack of foot speed. So the best asset was the IQ biggest concern skating
and physical skills. The top outcome that Sasha can foresee would be a middle
six winger because of a lack of true dynamism skating ability to keep up with
the best players. Could be a nice complimentary piece, but will need to
fine tune a lot of his tools to match the median outcome. Third line
checker with some offensive upside A checker don't check, and there's a world where
Dumay doesn't become an impact offensive player, but can learn his smarts. Leonard
is Smart's to become an effective third or fourth liner. Stylistic comparable a slower
version of Jonathan Druon and Mason Black. The NHL ranking put out the comparable
Jordan Dumay versus Bradley Nadeau, And how did that one come out? Victory?
I'll tell you Nadeau sixty one to thirty nine over do May Victor.
Is that how you would rack up these two? Yeah? I think so.
I like Nado a lot, and I and you may have heard it
in my voice. I'm pretty skeptical of do May and how he's going to
be able to translate all of this to the professional ranks. He still gets
pushed around a little bit. You can see him, you know, with
puck battles. He loses them a little bit. So he's crafty and he's
you know, has good visions. Some of the things that Sasha mentioned really
some things are really good. But then you know, are all those things
going to be able to work professionally and he's going to be able to hold
his own physically. I think there's still some big questions about that. Nadou,
on the other hand, went from the BHL to the NC Double A,
and we were worried a little bit about how he was going to be
able to translate his points. What didn't have a problem at all. He
had forty six points in thirty seven games almost yeah, just about just over
a little over half a goal per game, which was pretty great. Lots
of assists, so he looked pretty good in his NC Double A production.
But both these guys are a little bit undersized and a Doe's five to ten.
He has that calling card of shot and he's able to get it off,
and he's able to succeed against a little bit bigger, stronger competition.
So I'm taking na Dough actually pretty easily in this comparison. Looking at hockey
prospecting between the two, it's actually pretty interesting because they're similar. Do May
is during their D and D plus one season they actually had the exact same
star potential twenty one to forty six percent. That's where Nadeau still is and
his Draft plus one seasond May and his Draft plus two season went down from
forty six to forty one percent chance of being a star, but both still
really high. Both still really high NHL our probability. Nado a little bit
earlier in his progression and do May a little bit farther down the funnel,
which is another reason to potentially not prefer him, because you have a little
bit more proof of concept to what he could be and there's some discouraging signs
there do May. In terms of his other comps, I think one that
actually is pretty appropos is Ryan Ray Whitney, who was a Shark's draft pick
forever ago, one of their first and he ended up being a pretty good
producer and he was also a smaller guy but really dynamic and had some really
good skill, and I think that's a pretty good realistic outcome for Jordan Dumay
if everything breaks right. There's also a bunch of guys who are just didn't
make it that are some reasonable comps for do May. So there's a wide
swath still of what he could be in courtant including replacement level or just about
nothing to something pretty good. In terms of his j fresh card, do
May six percent chance of being a star, thirty seven percent chance of being
an NHL are it's pretty pessimistic still in that model as well, Jesse very
good and Victor who is to keep your eye on prospect This is Gavin Brindley
and Brinley twenty twenty three to thirty fourth overall. He is also five nine
like to May, one hundred and sixty eight pounds, so definitely still undersize,
hasn't really grown since being drafted last year, but and a right shot,
right wing, but he's still he plays a different style, which is
something that I think is a little bit more translatable to the NHL. He
also is our. He signed by Columbus, so that was interesting. So
it was do May by the way, but he they signed him. They
signed Britley pretty early. He went back to Michigan this season and had a
pretty outstanding season with the Wolverines. He had thirty eight points in forty one
games last season. This season, he had fifty three points in forty games
for the Maze and Blue. Looking really good at ten points in seven games
for USA and route to that World Junior Gold he was definitely one of the
best players on that team. At times. He looked pretty fantastic with Nazarre.
He also played five games in the World Championship for USA with one assist.
So a little bit experienced playing against bigger, stronger guys, and he
made his NHL debut. He played one NHL game and so that was playing.
He played a lot of different ITS teams this season. Earlie Prospects has
him listed as playing for the Blue Jackets next year. I'm not sure that
he will. He's definitely gonna compete for a job in camp and there's a
pretty good chance that he could make the team in the bottom sixth role or
he could be in the AHL. He is an October fifth birth date,
so he's really old for his draft class and he has eligible to play in
the HL this upcoming season, so he's pretty much done with college. He
signed, so he's done with college and it's basically HL or NHL for him.
Looking at his Mitch Brown player card, you can see is there's some
things are really elite with Gavin Brindley. His controlled entries are off the charts
excellent, really good, transition game actually overall defensively pretty good as well,
ninetieth percentile transition eighty second for defense. So some of his other things like
advantages created and XG build up are also pretty good, and his expected goals
are pretty good, but actually his expected assists and slot passes are low,
so overall his offense took a little bit of a hit at fifty nine percent
tile, which is interesting. Looking at his FHL player card, he scores
goals and assists pretty high relative to the league, and he also shoots hits
and blocks a fair amount even though he was a smaller guy. His bash
projects to be elite. I'm just not sure how much the scoring is going
to translate. But overall, his perferal coverage looks strong and a lot of
his other metrics, like his transition game and play driving look really good.
But let's hear a little bit more about Bridley from my Rachel scout. Let's
do indeed, Sasha is back for one more For Gavin Brindley skating elite,
much fun to watch and carry the puckkin transition. He moves so effortlessly and
it allows Brindley to be a very complete player. His edges are fantastic.
He is super agile. There aren't many players who possess the skating ability that
Brindley has and it is the key pillar to his game. Passing and handling.
Above average distributor with a knack, defined soft eyes for his teammates,
able to make passes on his forehand and backhand in transition, and relied upon
to be a distributor on the power play. Brindley's handling isn't his best tool,
but he has enough skill to make any pass he chooses. All in
all, his passing is one of his sneaky good qualities. Shooting. His
shot is improved over the last year to the point where Michigan felt comfortable moving
into the bumper spot on occasion. Brindley shot isn't overpowering, but his release
mechanics are would allow him to get puck's past goaltenders, He'll have to find
a way to get more shooting opportunities off the rush, but there has been
a big improvement in this area of his game. IQ extremely intelligent two way
hockey player who can become one of the high end defensive centers in the league
once he reaches his full potential. He has a knack of finding teammates through
methodical reads and anticipation. When there is sustained pressure in the offensive zone,
Brindley is constantly moving, which allows him to get open and with that improved
release, he has added an extra layer to his game that wasn't really there
in his draft year for checking. The motor makes him an extremely efficient four
checker, as he's a pest on the puck. He lacks physical skills to
move guys around or to pin them on the boards in order to get reinforcements
from his f two, but his smarts kick in, often attacking the proper
angles defense. Probably the most consistent part of Brindley's game is his defensive impact.
He'll be an excellent two way center as he can get back with ease
and his off pucked habits are top notch. He's constantly scanning in the open
ice and always taking in information. There's a reason Brindley was once known as
Swiss Army Knife in his draft year, and he can do a little bit
of everything, especially killing a power play in his own zone and best asset
IQ biggest concern size and physicality. The top tier outcome well, Sasha says
two C super smart has the Florida's defensive game to be relied upon even if
the offense doesn't meet the full potential. The median outcome a three C too
good defensively to play on the wings unless he gets completely overpowered in the NHL
due to his size and the stylistic comparable Sasha picks all over more of the
Chicago Blackhawks. Gavin Brindley in the Mason Black NHL ranking poll is up against
Brad Lambert of the Winnipeg Jets, and the outcome here Brad Lambert just will
not go away, although Brad Lambert his stock went up during the year and
he wins this face off fifty four to forty six percent victory. You were
a long term Lambert skeptic. Do you like Brindley over him or does Lambert
carry the day? Yeah, I have been up and down on Brad Lambert,
just as his production and projection has been throughout the course of his time
here. He actually it really has changed quite a lot, and I believe
I wrote, yeah, I wrote a feature on him that's something to look
at back in April. He has had a really unique trajectory and it's definitely
something that I've come around on, in particular seeing him in the AHL,
because last season he was mostly playing for the Seattle Thunderbirds, who are a
really great team, and he was just like dominating and it was just hard
to know if that was him or somebody else. But the reality is that
this Seas this past season, he's been with AHL pretty much the entire season.
He did play one NHL game, with fifty five points in sixty four
games, especially when you're still a twenty year old and he was nineteen for
part of the season, is super special. So I have come around on
Lambert. I would take him over Brinley. He doesn't have the size issues.
He's six foot, he's an excellent skater, he has a little bit
more offensive pop than I think we originally thought. And Brinley, as much
as I do like him, I think, as Sasha mentioned, he would
be a very reasonable bottom, middle to bottom six checking role type of player,
energy guy, and I think that's what he might end up being,
just because I'm not sure how much that skill is going to translate. Plus
just the size issue I think is just going to be a hurdle that's going
to be really difficult for him to overcome as skilled as he is, so
he might end up just finding that middle to bottom six role a little bit
more. And I have more faith than Lambert being able to overcome that.
It's looking at the hockey prospecting though, you would not believe that because Britley's
star potential is twenty fifth percentile and or twenty five percent and his NHL probably
sixty seven percent, and Lambert in this model is zero zero zero zero percent
in the first three years of him in this model, So that's pretty terrible.
It's obviously higher than that based on what he's doing, but he has
such a low equivalency in the LIGA and then in the WHL that it just
an In Byron's model, it just doesn't forgive that. So it looks pretty
bad in that model. Looking at the other projections, other comparables for Gavin
Brinley, there's some interesting ones. Most of them are pretty average to replacement
level guys. Svenn Bercie is someone I think he could end up looking at.
Bertie was a little bit taller than him, but he ended up being
an average producer and then flamed out. So that was that and it ended
up being what Brinley is. But I think Bertie didn't have as much of
a B game as Brinley does. Brinley has definitely more of that all around
checking type of game that can help him survive in the NHL, but it
won't really help your fantasy team all that much. Looking at the j Fresh
card, it likes him thirteen percent of being of being a star, fifty
three percent chance of being an NHL aer, so overall pretty good and that's
going to do it for the Columbus Blue Jacket to dig. If you're a
patron, you can listen to Top ten Prospect Recap per Team on Patreon,
and if you're interested in doing some scouting with us, shoot me a DM
on Twitter, Discord, or email us. We'll be right back to close
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