Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks, your source of information
and analysis to help you win your fantasy hockey league. Fuck up, I
just step hit on stay lots. Here's your hosts, Jesse Souvier and Victor
Nuno. Fantasy Hockey Live back once again. I am Jesse Sapara fan Tracks
and joining me my good friend, my buddy, Victor Nuno of Dabber Prospects.
Victor, how are you doing today? I'm doing awesome, Jesse.
Definitely excited to dig into some more our team previews here. How are you
doing? I'm good man, Team previews season. We love talking about the
team previews. And we're on to number two out of thirty two and adrenaline
is still running strong. Today it's going to beat the CBJS, the Columbus
Blue Jackets. Victor. This is just a crazy time because not only do
we do these episodes and these he used to become a laborate over the years.
Man, we got all kinds of parts and pieces of this episode coming
coming through. You're gonna love this. It's not just me and Victor sitting
here talking the whole time. We got guests, We've got segments, we
got all kinds of things. But Victor, in addition to that, it's
like it's like there's an accompaniment to the whole thing. It's like when you
when you were a kid, did you ever do that thing where you got
the little record or tape and then it came with a book and you could
listen to the one while you were reading the other. Did you ever do
that? Oh? Definitely. I love looking at the little booklet that came
with it and reading all the the lyrics or the credits or whatever was in
there. It's a good time. Yeah. So our CD liner notes come
in a particular format and with a little price take on it. But I
would tell tell the people about our patreon, Victor. Yeah, so much
goodness over at the Patreon we got depending on which tier we want to stand
up for. You can look at all the show notes, and if you've
never looked at our show notes, they're they're quite elaborate, with lots of
graphs and tables and and stuff easy reference. We also write down notes from
what the guests say, so in case you can't remember and don't want to
go back to listen to the whole thing, you can find that. We
also have patron casts. We have roster doctors where we can help you figure
out what's going on with your team and how to dissect what to how to
move forward. We also have a lot of great stuff on the prospect rank
sheet, which has been redesigned and redeveloped thanks to Jesse, because I'm not
very good with the spreadsheets, but I put in all the data and he
helps me make it look pretty and make sense. There's organizational ranks in there.
There's ranks of each prospect on each team based on who the best are
and then also looking at forwards, goalie, and defense and based on you
know, who has the most upside. So this is constantly being updated.
I'll definitely be refining it as we kind of go along, having the twenty
twenty three ranks integrated after the draft, and one of the few places you
can find information on hits, blocks and shots, which is something that is
really hard to find out there. So looking at their bashed potential is something
that's really good for those of us to play those kinds of leagues. So
a lot of great stuff. If you haven't checked it out, if you
want to feel like you want to support the show, check it out at
patreon dot com slash fantasy Hockey Life. Well, we've got a lot to
get to today, so we will tarry no longer. Let's get to talk
about the Columbus Blue Jacket with our guests. You can read along with me
in your book. You will know it is time to turn the page when
you hear the chimes ring like this. Let's begin now. Pleased to welcome
tonight Mark Shy from the Hockey Writers to talk about the Columbus Blue Jackets.
How you doing their? Mark? Oh, Jesse and Victor are good to
be with you. Guys doing well all things considered. Oh man, you
sound glum. Mark. We gotta get you up. We gotta get you
to talk about some Blue Jackets hockey here. Man, it's it's an exciting
time. Maybe I'm sounding like the pessimistic Blue Jackets fans is you know,
we're talking on the night before the draft lottery, so they've already resorted thinking
that they're going to have the third or the fourth pick and lose out on
Connor Badarts. So maybe I sound like them. But we'll get it going
here, I promise. Hey, Look, I know the feeling I was
supposed to have good odds and win Connor badarts tonight in the lottery. And
you know my partner here, Victor, he just you know, he holds
me out of the pick. He pushed me back to pick three. So
I'm gonna be just like the Blue Jackets the man, right, I just
kind of tease. Anyway, we'll talk about the Blue Jackets here. That's
a little more relevant mark. They had, no doubt a rough season,
there's no question. Only the Ducks allowed more shots against or goals against goals
four percentage was the worst in the league under thirty eight percent, and they
were also very, very injured. Pulled this from a Twitter account NHL Reviews
that said the in game man games loss for the twenty two twenty three Columbus
Blue Jackets was the third highest in the NHL since two thousand and two thousand
and one, behind Arizona last year and the Islanders in two thousand and eight
two thousand and nine. Just crazy, crazy, bad injury luck for this
team last year. Best news for the franchises. There are some real players
we're going to be talking about tonight, A whole lot better and more less
depressing than it was when we talked about Chicago last episode, and there's some
hope for the fans. We we'll get to those guys as we go,
But nation Wide Arena couldn't have been the happiest place on earth this year?
Did Jacket fans see all this is necessary medicine for the next step forward this
year? And does this club look to have a bright future? How much
of it depends on the ping pong balls that dropped between the day we record
Mark and the day of this broadcasts. Guess see, you know what,
So there's two things going on with that question. So is their future bright?
The answers absolutely yes, even prior to the ping pong balls, they
have one of the deepest young prospect pools in the league. You consider players
like Kent Johnson, players like Cole Celinder. I know we're going to talk
about them later. I'm David, you're a checking Dentim tay check on the
back end, who are going to really help with that blue line coursing Coolman's
as well, talking about our first round picks that you know they're building within
the draft. So even before we talk about what's going to happen with the
draft coming out in twenty twenty three, they're still in really good shape.
But with that said, the ping pong balls mean everything because you're talking about,
yes, they're guaranteed to pick within the top four, they're going to
add one of the best players in the world. And they're at that age
too already one of the best prospect pools. But you're talking about rma Gard,
then you're talking about a couple steps down to Adam Fantail. Then you're
talking about maybe a step or two down to the likes of Leo Carlson,
Will Smith, Matt v Mishkoff. However, whichever way they want to go
with that. So, yes, it's very important because they need a player
like Connor Bdard. They've never had a player like Connor Bdard ever in their
franchise history, with all due respect to Rick Nash and how great he was.
They need some luck to go on their side. They have a thirteen
and a half percent chance to add you know, when many people consider to
be a generational talent to this prospect pool and if they want to take the
next step. Even though you guys saw the Hurricanes Devil's game that happened as
Game three, that's the class of the Metropolitan The vision, and you know,
how are they built. I mean they're built right down the middle.
Jack Hughes, Nico hesher Sebastian Aho, Jordan Stall. They're solid down the
middle, as solid as you can get. And if there's a weakness on
the Blue Jackets that have them behind the rest of the pack, it's right
down the So that's the importance, right, They're going to get a center
like we mentioned along those names, but getting someone like Connor Badard is necessary
if they actually want to make up some of the gap between the top echelon
in their division, in the league and where they are now. So they
absolutely knew luck if they're going to get somewhere. They do have some stars
still on this team, and they start with Patrick Lyone. Victor ranked him
coming into the season last year number thirty five. I said sixty two.
He ended up one twenty two in fantasy terms, but with an asterisk.
He was actually pacing out to be the number forty four fantasy forward without injuries,
and Victor and I both see him as a top tier player coming into
next year. In fifty five games, he had twenty two goals thirty assists
for fifty two points. Not really bad considering the team around him was not
much. He missed stretches for an elbow and then another undisclosed illness and then
an ankle. Generally, he's been quite durable in his seven year career,
except for the first half of the twenty twenty one season before Winnipeg sent him
to Columbus, and then again this year. Line eight lost the final twelve
games the year to a triceps On top of that, he was with Johnny
Hockey at the top of the Columbus production chart. And we'll talk about mister
Goodrow here coming up in a bit. A point three plus shots a game,
great stat profile for Patrick Lyoney in fantasy, recently turned twenty five,
one of the three big money players on this team. Do you expect Line's
recent status quo of a point per game? Do you think he could be
even better in a full healthy season for this club? Mark that you just
nailed it. Can he stay healthy? And in fact, the team announced
on Sunday that he will not play in the World Championships, even though the
tournaments in his hometown of Tempere, Finland, because he's still recovering from that
said triceps injury. So it was a very choppy year. I mean it's
from game one. He left the first game of the year injured, then
he had to deal with loss of his father, and then he said he
only played in fifties some games. Was still almost a point per game player
if they land Connor, but Dark he absolutely could be a lot better.
We're talking forty goals, maybe even more than that, because now you're talking
about having a top flights center that can get the best out of him.
He had those numbers. You know, no offense to boon General always played.
You know that the team is done. To ask him at center ice
For him to be a point per line, to be a point per game
with who was at center is borderline miraculous because you're talking about guys that normally
on a good team would not be a top six center. So it actually
goes to show his upside. He can still shoot the puck, one of
the best in the world. He's still an underweighted playmaker. I think not
enough attention to being given to how good a playmaker is. I think a
lot of people look at Goodrow as the playmaker. But when Lyney has the
puck and you know, the defenses start to play a shot, he can
get the puck two spots where he can get his teammates open for goals.
So the upside is definitely there. The key is going to be can they
finally find consistency with him and Goodrow together, and then more importantly, can
they find a top sixth center that can get the best out of him.
So in terms of next year and if Badar joins them, there's a lot
of upside there. If it's Fantilly, you know, he could he could
step right in and play. The other guys are probably a year or two
away, and then it'll be really curious to see if they go the trademarket,
if they go to free agents, say no, Kevin Hayes's name,
has burn brought up a lot, somebody that Goodrow is familiar with. But
Lenny's production is going to be based on how he does with Goodrow, and
then if they can bring a center in to get the best out of him,
I think it'll be a little bit better. But he really he has
to take the summer, and I think it's a good step to miss the
World Championship. He needs to make sure that he's healthy, that he has
a good summer of training, and that he's ready to go because you know
they need him. He's being he's one of the best paid players on the
team for a reason. You know they need him to score thirty five forty
goals. He can't be missing chunks of the season due to injury. So
a lot of questions there, but the upside is certainly can't deny it or
sure hot upside there, and let's move into the next guy, Johnny Goodroau.
We already kind of referenced him. Of course we have to talk about
him next. A bit of a slow start for Goodrow he had, but
he eventually had a pretty strong season. Coming into it. I had him
ranked as the twenty sixth best for Jesse thirtieth. He ended up actually seventy
eight, and so a little bit lower than some expectations. We both see
him as a Tier one guy going into next year. His seventy six point
pace was probably a bit of a disappointment compared to the one hundred and fifteen
point pace he had in calgaryes last year, but really on par with half
of his Calgary seasons. If you just look at what he did most of
the time in Calgary, it was about that it was about, you know,
high mid to high seventies. He had a great time on ice,
but his shooting percentage was three percent lower than his career average, his PDO
was low, and his ozone starts were even low. I don't know that
that was on purpose. I think it was more likely a team effect than
a deployment choice. If you look at his rampum charts on Evolving Hockey,
he excels an offense as we know, and his defensive metrics are pretty poor,
So you really do need that offensive deployment for him. Need probably need
more just offensive zone starts in general to allow him to flex his skills.
And that was pretty much on par with what his career trajectory has looked like,
although generally a little bit better defensively and even more offensive production. So
his numbers are just a little worse than his expected three years average, but
pretty much on par with what you would expect from goodrow on this suppressed offensive
team. So Mark, as the team improves around him, should we expect
a floor of maybe seventy seventy five points with maybe upside for a point per
game plus one hundred percent. Agree with that, Victor, and I think
that where a lot of the outside fans don't realize. You know, there
was obviously the decision to leave Calgary and joined Columbus. There was an adjustment
period when you're going from a place that you've only known your whole career to
a brand new city. You know, you know, his wife they just
had a new baby at the beginning of that season as well. You're talking
about adjusting to a new city, adjusting to a new home, adjusting to
new teammates, adjusting to a new coaching staff. We kind of expected a
slow start because of all those adjustments of the brand new world for him.
That's exactly how it played out. But then to his credit, and I
think that's where kind of his greatness comes in. Where, yeah, the
numbers were you know, obviously not to the standard where they were at Calgary
because there wasn't much better team around him than considering all the injuries seventy some
points, it did points to the skill that he has, the way that
he just created on the ice, that he can make everybody better. And
then consider the injury factor. You know, Liney was gone early. Like
we've already talked about virtually every put it to you guys, this way.
The Blue Jackets did not have a single person, not not one player played
all eighty two games. I mean, that's absurd to think about that.
Everybody missed at least a couple of games, and even Goodrow, who had
the iron Man streak, got caught up in the injury bug as well.
He had a lower body injury and a couple of different occasions and had to
miss the games. So nobody was a man. But he was still able
to produce quite frankly, one of the better seasons in Blue Jackets history,
just to kind of give your perspective on you know, there haven't been very
many great seasons, but that one was up there because you know, he
produces on the power play. You know, he's still a great playmaker.
I absolutely agree with your assessment about the four seventy some points. Just imagine
if they're able to get Badart and Bedart and Goodrow get to make magic together.
That's a deadly combination. And there's folks out there that say that Badart
could get thirty goals as a rookie if he has to play with Goodreau,
Goodrow could approach eighty, maybe even ninety or more points of him and lining
and Badard become a line and they find chemistry. That's just some insane skill
that you'd be able to put together. But going into the new year,
though he's now used to Columbus, now he's going to have a lot of
the same teammates. Now they're looking for a coach, So that's certainly going
to be a factor here whenever they decide on who the new coach is going
to be, how he's going to be deployed, who's going to play with.
But he's not facing the same challenges that he had last year, so
I think that it's expected that he should have a bit of a faster start.
And he's Johnny Goodrow. He's still going to produce, and I think
that he'll produce at around a point per game, and then if you put
the right linemates around him, you know it's possible that he could do better
than that. Let's talk about Boone Jenner. He's been mentioned a couple of
times already. I just still missed on the Boon Jenner train. Victor predicted
him one thirty two this year. I said one hundred. Guy even hit
the over on that for fantasy purposes was the eighty first best fantasy forward,
and Victor and I are going to give him a tip of the hat by
putting him a Tier three for next year. Ten years into his career,
Boone, Jenner, the odometer is going to flip over to thirty years old
this summer, the captain of the team three more years in a modest three
point seventy five million per A rare example of a guy to me who plateaus
for years in terms of production and then increases it at a later point in
his career. He was basically sixteen to seventeen average time on ice, half
a point per game guy for years, and then for the last two years
as Columbus has kind of torn down and needed somebody to step up, Like
you said, into that center one vacuum, he's gone over twenty minutes,
shooting percentages are well over ten fifty five point paces, three shots of block,
and two hits. His fantasy gold for a real world leader type.
He's got a lot of nice stats up there for us fantasy folks. Is
this recent Jenner production the Jenner you expect to see next year or once again?
Is it all got to come down to ping pong balls, Whether he's
going to get twenty minutes a game. Well, certainly injuries had a lot
to do with his role last year, and yeah, he got hit by
the injury bug two. But he was their top line center, you know,
when he was available, so that gave him the extra minutes he plays
in all situations. He's their spark plug. He was on their top power
play and saw success in the net front. There's he was able to get
a lot of the six feet away and under goals, tips, deflections,
mentioned the hits and the blocks. That's the stuff that he's willing to do.
But here's the question about moving forward. Besides you know the ping pong
balls and how that's all going to work out. You mentioned that he's thirty.
There's all. You know, he's had some back issues and the injury
that he dealt with a little bit in the last couple of years has been
his back and that has been something that creeped up a few years ago,
creep up again last year. They asked to play a ton of minutes.
He's not getting younger here. You just wonder are they going to look to
put him possibly on the wing. You know, he's absolutely willing to play
center if the need is still there, So they brought in a guy.
You know, if you guys saw the news or not, this is widely
expected. But from the KHL, they signed one of their draft picks by
the name of the Pitri Bronkoff just played in the Gaggering Cup Final. Why
are we bringing him up? Which because they expect him to play center.
So if Sean Crowley is a bottom sixth center and Dmitry Ronkoff is a bottom
sixth center, that means there's only two spots available for the other centers.
And if you land Connor Badard, suddenly there's only one Cole Cylinders there.
Kent Johnson's there. We need to mention Patrick Laney playing center a little bit
last year and a little bit of an experiment. He might Jenner might end
up on the wing. Is the whole point, depending on how everything shakes
out. So you're still going to get a lot of the hits, you're
going to get a lot of the blocks. The shot that's still generally going
to be there. But are the days of him playing twenty minutes a night
over. That's the biggest question that we have. If they don't land Badard
and they end up third or fourth, and the guy that they get is
not ready is going to be a year or two away. Very possible Jenner
goes back in that spot and we'll have every opportunity again to produce. But
that's something that we need to see how the draft goes. We need to
see if they go out and acquire somebody. The one thing that they said
they want to overhaul the center ice position. They're not happy with it when
they admit that on the record, it's a top priority. So given the
back situation, given what they're looking to do with center, do not be
surprised if he's deployed on the wing, but stay tuned. That's just something
that has to develop well. And one centerman there who I would feel called
out if I was in that talking about that group of people. Jack Rosselovich
is another sentiment on this team and not a great year. He was the
victor and I didn't have the highest hopes of him coming into the year and
he really didn't end up stepping it up in a big way. You know,
during that COVID season when Rosslovich found his way at Winnipeg and closer to
his Ohio roots coming in with Patrick Leaney, things were just so positive and
from a high fifties pace that shortened year, he's kind of drifted down into
the mirror up or forties type of scoring. Got top six minutes all year
with the best wingers on the team last year even at up up to big
minutes when when Boone Jenner did miss that time that you're talking about, then
four percentage of five on five was one of the lower on the team,
although only line A was on the ice for a lower goals against per sixty
among the big boys. So for whatever reason, Rasselovitch was on there in
some good defensive stance, maybe from his offensive deployment. Anyway, one more
year, a four million dollars to go. Is he going to get bumped
out of his top six by the center crunch you see coming and is he
going to even be a part of the Blue Jackets in the long term?
Well, I was to say he might be bumped off the Blue Jackets,
Jesse. It's something we're watching for sure. In his end of season availability.
You know, we talked with him and you know, he's very frank
and came out and said that based on the interview that we had, we
feel like that there's going to be a bit of a culture even when it's
first saying that quote, I'm not there yet, but I hope to be
soon, meaning what they kind of expect. And I just thought that that
it was a strange comment to me because it makes me question if he's even
a part of the future plans. You mentioned that he's got the one year
left, but look at last year, all the injuries, how far they
had to go into the depth chart, and yes, he very much could
not find the consistency that they're hoping to get. They signed him to a
kind of a prove it contract to see could he be a solution at Centirise.
Now, to his credit, he finished with a career high and assistant.
I think that kind of gets lost in everything because of his struggles and
all the injuries, still been of a playmaker, still can stay very well.
Consistency has very much been an issue for him, and especially if they
land but Dard or Fantilly, I could very much see a scenario where one
he's not a center on the Blue Jackets anymore and they'd be relegated to the
wing. If they can't find a trade partner for him, he could possibly
be in the bottom six or possibly be even a healthy scratch. It really
depends on I know, we keep coming back to the ping pollen balls here,
but he's a case where just something, it's just something that we have
to watch. Based on his comments, based on his play, they expected
a lot more from him. I mean, you're paying a guy four million
dollars to possibly be either on the bottom six or not even part of the
plans at all. So the preference there could be to see if there is
a trade partner out there somewhere that could give him possibly a top six opportunity
summer, because there just simply might not be any more room on the Blue
jackets depending on how it goes. A stay tune in that one flip a
coin. It can go either way, whether he's even on the team or
not. Yeah, for sure, we're gonna have to track that one.
The next guy we have to talk about we have mentioned him already a couple
of times, and that is mister Cole Cylinder. He we I had him
ranked one fourteen Jesse one fifty two. He was actually three hundred and thirty
seventh. He had a really massive sophomore slump. We have him, we
have a little belief in him going in the next season Tier three. His
point pace was cut in half this season, although his hidden block pace went
up, but his shots went down. Hasn't really ever been a big shooter
in the NHL. He struggled to drive play and he was ninth in time
on ice for Fords for Clembus. That's pretty bad if you look at his
underlying metrics. All of his pers sixty stats are pretty pretty bad, and
much worse than his three year average. I don't really know what to make
of Cylinder. I was really impressed when he was, you know, eighteen
years old in the NHL, kind of holding his own, looked like,
you know, doing really good work in a limited role that first season,
and then he just kind of seemed like he struggled a lot more. I'm
not exactly sure what happened, but I feel like probably have to get him
a little bit of a break because he's still really young. I mean,
he's still still only nineteen, and so he still has a lot of bright
future ahead of him, I think. But I think there's hope for him
being a fifty plus point player with pretty good hits and blocks. I mean,
you tell me, is that a little bit too much to ask for.
Is that what we can hope for for Nicole Cylinder a little much next
season? But I think you're right in the future, So kind of fill
everybody in on his season where you know, big things were expected off the
eighteen year old season. Ended up just under twenty goals in the eighteen year
old season, and there's Patrice bergelon like numbers, so there were a lofty
expectations. But then coming and then does the year has started? Here,
all the injuries happened. Suddenly he's playing with guys that he had never played
before. Sometimes he found himself playing with other rookies, so they're trying to
find their way in the National Hockey League against established players. So when you
look at it from that lens, it certainly points to a downtick. But
first, for a long period of time he was fighting it. He lost
confidence, he was still trying to make an effect on the game in other
ways, like you mentioned with some of the hits, and but yeah,
that the time, he was not consistently in a second or third line center
role. He sometimes was down on the bottom six, and in fact,
he found himself eventually scratch and it got to us questioning is he going to
end up in the American Hockey League at some point? And then real late
in the year and he ended up finishing the season with the Cleveland Monsters with
the hope that the Monsters would make a playoff run. They didn't even make
that. So definitely a tough year for him, but there's still certainly a
lot to Like you mentioned how young he was, the upside is certainly still
going to be there. He's going to He's a type of player that's going
to provide hits once he gets into a position where he's got better linemates around
him. I think the rest of the numbers will come. But next year,
specifically, with so many questions, I think we have to temper our
expectations a little bit. You know, you'll be interesting to see the new
coach that comes in. You know, there's a lot of talk out there
that the Blue Jackets will look at or Gland, who has just recently had
a mutual parting of ways with the New York Rangers, and you know him
and Alexey Law for an yeer. That's always been kind of the discourse about
how Gallant handles young players and development and would go on, he'd be coming
into a team that's very, very young. You know, there's kind of
the fine line. The Blue Jackets need an experienced coach, but they also
need someone that's going to be able to develop their young players, and Cylinders
at the top of the list of guys that need to be developed. So
we need to see who the coach is going to be, how he's going
to be deployed, and then he needs to be able to use this summer
to just flush last year away and to be able to focus and get ready
for this year. You know, let's tymp our expectations for twenty three twenty
four, but I think we're going to start to see the upside come later
in the year and then moving forward. He was a twelfth overall pick in
the first round for three reason. He's still expected to be a top sixth
center eventually. It's just now he has to have the right people around him
to be able to develop. And we're going to hear a lot of this
out of Columbus for how young everybody is. Proper development and cylinders right at
the top of out this. So let's tymper expectations for now, though for
next year, another one of those hot rookikies who haven't quite blown up yet
at the pro level. Kent Johnson I had high helps of him in the
preseason. He didn't have the greatest production year, but we'll get to that.
Victor and I both see him as Tier three for next year. Nine
game audition the year before, and then a full season this time. Ice
time gradually climbed over the course of the season, and he ended up with
sixteen goals twenty four assists for forty points in seventy nine games head for a
rookie. That's an only fourteen thirty one average time on ice too. On
scoring rates, he was fourth on the team after the top three guys that
we've already mentioned. He was rabbit low and secondary assists too, so he
would jump jump Jack Roslovich for third on the team if you did primary points
only and took off the e twos. He's going to turn twenty one at
the beginning of the season, and for those who hoped he would jump straight
into an elite scoring role, it was just more of a steady debut.
Why don't you see of Kent Johnson as a rookie mark and how much improvement
would you expect in the coming year. Depends on how he does in the
gym this summer. That's going to be the biggest thing with Johnson. He
actually declined an offer to play with Team Canada at the World Championship, citing
the need to have a full off season to be able to get stronger,
to get in the gym, and to get ready for the new season.
But man, I'll tell you what, guys, we might be talking about
the one of the best top two three player on the entire Blue Jackets.
As it is, the upside there is very tantalizing. He got more confident
as the season went on. You cited the low timeline ice Brad Larson had
a little bit of a struggle putting him out there, and kind of in
the early going is there's some strength issues, some defensive issues, and a
kind of typical to see out of a rookie. But just overall, he
just kept improving and improving and eventually became one of the better Blue Jackets on
a team that was completely decimated. There's a lot of excitement around this player,
a lot of comparisons to Patrick Kane. I know that's a very lofty
expectation. Here. But this guy is the real deal of anyone that's followed
him from his Michigan days. Playing at the World Junior Championship getting the golden
goal. This guy just has creativity written all over him. He is prioritized
shooting the puck more. But if he's going to find a rule, you
know, the question is can you eventually become a center? Now you know
he's interested in the Blue Jackets will certainly explore it. He has to gain
ten fifteen pounds of muscle. He was muscled off puck's way too easily.
So that's that's the story with him. If he's able to hang in there
against bigger and stronger guys moving forward, we could be talking about one of
the best players on the Blue Jackets, And if him and Bdard get back
together, that would be being reunited up from the World Juniors on Team Canada.
Two of them could really hit it off as well. We might be
vastly underestimating this guy, you know, and that's not just me saying it.
There's a belief out there that he could really pop. It's just at
what point will it happen? Will it be this coming season? You know,
we'll be the season after that, But we need to kind of be
on guard with him that it's going to click at some point, and it
started to click as the year went on. So just pay attention to him.
You know, the earlier that folks see the way that he can perform,
the better off it's going to be for them. So I'm telling you,
guys, I'm telling you fans right now, pay attention to Johnson,
pay attention to his deployment. There's going to be a moment in the future
that he's going to absolutely pop. I'm giving me that fair warning right now.
If you pay attention to him and you catch him at the right moment,
you're going to be handsomely rewarded. This guy's got immense, immense upside
and you heard it here first for sure. I love that guy. Definitely
agree with the huge upside for Kent Johnson. And another guy that I've been
following for a long time is kil Marchenko. He's someone that we've been very
interested in. He's been in the KHL for a long time, having signed
his contract with Scott and then he told them he wasn't resigning last year he
planned to come to North America. They kind of monkeyed with his deployment at
the end of last year because of that, but he still had a pretty
strong showing he at some time in the HL this year. Nineteen points in
sixteen games clearly proved that he needed to be in the NHL, and when
he came up, he looked really good. I mean, I remember watching
some of the goals and stuff that he had. He has definitely NHL scoring
talent, no doubt about that. He had twenty one twenty one goals in
the fifty nine games. He played only four assists, really going for that
Cy Young award there, and he got decent deployment sixteen minutes time when I
was two thirty nine on the power play. You know. Overall, his
defensive impact also wasn't bad. He was actually you know, he's someone who
the narrative has kind of been like, yeah, he's not the best defensively,
but it really was was good. He was he was beyond not bad.
He was good. And he probably had a little bit of luck not
go his way too. He probably could have had a lot more assists,
certainly secondary assists, and so anyways, his thirty five point pace may seem
a little muted to some but he's someone I could see really going off next
year and beyond. So tell us what you think of Carol Marchenko's you know,
upside, and what do you expect from him next year and beyond.
Yeah, so a little aside on him before we jump into what we expect
next year. You want to talk about somebody in a dark year for the
Blue Jackets who just lit up a room. That's Carol Marchenko. Like,
this guy just had such a positive outlook on everything, like you walk into
any room. He was always wearing a smile that rubbed off on his teammates.
So he's just a big ball of positive energy. And I bring that
up because that's how he approaches everything. I mean, it's no accident that
he scored over twenty goals away that he did. He is super, super
talented. He can shoot the puck. You already cited the unkind of underrated
defensive metrics that he has. You know, he played overseas. He has
an understanding of the game and so when he came over we kind of expected
that it would be a quicker transition. He started the year in the HL,
quickly became one of the better players on the Monsters and that earned in
the call up, and then he justo was so good that he ended up
staying for the rest of the year. He eventually ended up in the top
six, even spent some time on the top line with Johnny Goudreaux as a
little bit of a reward, but he earned it. He earned top power
play time, he was deployed in important situations, and there's no reason to
believe that that's going to derail The one thing that we will say is,
you know, is he going to be in the top six to start next
year. I'm not one hundred percent sure of that because in Pong balls,
I Alex Texier's back on the team after spending last year in Switzerland, you
know, dealing with a bit of a personal situation for Roncos on the team.
Now we kind of wonder if there'll be an all Russian line, and
we might talk about Ginnikov later, but chinikof for Ronkoff, Marchenko and all
Russian line guys that are kind of familiar with each other, that could be
a potential third line. So I think with Marchenko you need to be excited
about the upside. He can absolutely score. I know he only had the
four assists, but you know when you know his focus is scoring goals,
but he can pass the puck when necessary. But it's going to be where
does he kind of fit in deployment wise? He might end up starting on
the bottom six, which could limit him a little bit, but there's no
reason to believe that there will be a real sharp drop in where he can
go. He can easily get the twenty goals again. If he ends up
playing in a bit of a higher role. He could even approach thirty like
he's got a legit shot, like it's borderline elite, and that's how good
he is, And just a matter of word they decide is best for his
deployment next year. Sure, yeah, definitely definitely like to hear all those
inside notes too. I wanted to pose to you a quick points pick up.
These are a couple of depth guys. Justin dan Forth, who looked
really good in the limited time he had before he injured I think was his
shoulder. He had just three points in six games forty one point pace I
mean obviously small sample size. And Chinnikov, who we had a little bit
more hope for for thirteen points in thirty games for thirty six point pace.
Who would you pick between these two to get over a forty five point pace
If you had to m of the two, I would say chiennikoff. Dan
Fourth coming off an injury. I'm not even sure he's guaranteed a spot in
the top twelve at the beginning of the year, depending on how they handle
the off season. He almost made it back at the end of last year
coming off of major surgery. I think forty five's kind of high base.
Still certainly could work his way into bottom six depth roll, but I just
think that that's a little high on the point side. Chenikov, he's coming
off an injury as well. He ended up in the AHL, but some
and if you want, if you're asking who has the better chance, I
think Chenikov does. He's got the shot, got a really elite shot when
given the opportunity. And I think that he also has the opportunity to play
higher in the lineup than Dan Fourth, just given the overall situation. So
you better chance at forty five. I don't know. I don't think either
of them will get there next season, but better chance, I would say
very much. Chennakaugh over game, gotcha? Yeah, And now it's time
to move to the blue line, where of course we have to start with
Zak Warnski. In the preseason, Jesse and I had really high hopes for
him. I ranked him as the fourteenth bestde Jesse twentieth. He was actually
two hundred and fourth, but that's based on him missing so much time.
If you pace it out that thirteen games he played, he was he was
on pace to be the twenty fourth best defenseman, So that was pretty good
in the limited time. We both have him as a Tier one guy going
in the next year. As I mentioned, thirteen games before the injury,
but eight points in those thirteen games on you know, well, when ended
up being a really tough team and early on in the season, and it
didn't quite look that bad, especially with Warnski there fifty point pace. So
I guess, first of all, does he seems like he'll be fully healthy
and you know, what can we expect from him? If you look at
some of the metrics from his small sample size, it looked great both defensively
offensively. Everything kind of looked as it should. I have always thought,
you know, Zach was super talented, especially as one of the defensemen who
could actually score a lot of goals. You know, typically defenseman don't don't
scores a lot of goals, a lot more assists. But he has such
a good shot and he can get it off so well. So should we
should we expect a return to fifty plus point zach Warenski next season? Great
question, just because he's coming off of the injury. So let's talk about
the injury first. You know, we talked to him at the end of
season. He says he's doing well, spent a lot of the year between
Vail, Colorado and Columbus and a little bit of extra travel for all the
rehab now, so there's certainly good news there that he should come into training
camp one hundred percent ready to go. He even starts skating with the team
at the end of the season, and some of like the morning states of
the practices, he wasn't going to return, but it was a good sign
that he was able to do that, which means that he was on point
and on schedule. He's expected to miss six months, so in that sense,
to go into the season confident of him at least scent. As for
next year itself, though, now that's it. You know, he's going
to be playing his first few games in gosh, almost a year, you
know one by the time the preseason the regular season get there. So I
would actually expect a little bit of an adjustment period for him to kind of
shake the rest off. But then the other important question we have to consider
with Brensky is what about who's his partner going to be in As we sit
here right now, we don't know, you know that, is it Adam
Boquist, Is it going to be David Yurichek, possibly someone who's just completing
his nineteen year old season in the American Hockey League, to someone else that's
not even on the team yet. So there's a lot of questions around who
he's going to play with. Now. There's been a lot of chatter about
him out there saying that, you know, maybe he hasn't performed like a
number one defenseman. Well, that could be further from the truth. They
paid him over nine and a half million for a reason. You cited the
numbers. He very much was a when he played, he was excellent.
Now the goal scoring from the past, you know, he was with Seth
Jones, now he's without him. I sort of get the feeling that he
is playing more of a true number one defenseman where he's not just a rover
like he used to be, where he would roam around the offensive zone looking
for his shot. He's admitted that he's being more selective and when he pinches
in because he has to try to decide when to stay back, when to
pend. So to go back to the old scoring that he had or he
was around twenty goals a year, I think that's a little rich. I
think it's more realistic to look at him maybe ten to fifteen goals, maybe
a bunch of assists. He's going to get some certainly top power play time,
so the production is certainly going to be there. I just think he
has to shake some of the rust off. He has to get chemistry with
his new partner. Plus he's trying to be an overall number one defenseman.
That's the thing that he's been working on he's going to continue to work on.
So there, some of the numbers might dip just because you're going to
see maybe some more production on the other side of the puck defensively, so
temper the expectations offensively, but still go into it, you know, treat
him like a number one defensive one of those other defensemen you mentioned Adam Bokwist.
You know, we thought of him maybe as a top one hundred ish
Victoria were a little bit outside of the top one hundred. Turned out to
be a bit below that, but he was pacing out to eighty nine.
Because stop me if you've heard this one before. He did miss some time.
He went from a coveted prospect to kind of an afterthought in Chicago.
It seemed like at one point he seemed untouchable, and then suddenly he was
moved in the Seth Jones deal. By the way, that trade right now,
pending any other low level breakouts, was one year of Seth Jones at
five point four million dollars. That then gave them the opportunity to pay eight
years at seventy six million in return for Adam Bokwist, Cole Cylinger, and
David Yurachek. That's what we got going so far. Not bad Columbus anyway.
Bokwist moved to a prominent power play role after missing a good part of
the twenty two season with a broken foot. Ended up with five goals,
nineteen assists in twenty four points in forty six games. That is, he
missed the twenty twenty two half of the season. He was back in the
twenty twenty three half eighteen thirty eight average time on ice a block shot in
a half per game. Team actually performed well with him on the ice five
on five goals four per sixty If you extend the sample to at least twenty
games, he was on the ice support a team high two point nine nine
four goals per sixty if five on five good offense when he was out there.
Still just twenty two, but the blue line is about to get really
crowded in Columbus. What's the future for Adam Boqwist as a Columbus Blue jacket?
Mark, Yeah, Jesse. He has to take this summer has to
be the most important summer of his life. He admitted as such at the
season end, because right, I mean, he was one of the injured.
When he was out there, he played well offensively, struggled a little
bit defensively, just didn't have the strength to be able to knoxt some of
the tough guy top guys off. So he has to get stronger, just
like everybody else. You know, the team has parking on these guys.
You know they have some skill there, but they have to get stronger if
they're going to last in the National Hockey League, and Focust is up there,
but Blue Jackets Stu certainly believe in what he could become. He could
become an elite offensive defenseman. Now there's still been some comparisons to kind of
Eric Carlson of yesteryear. You know, it's very high praise and he certainly
has a lot of work to do to get into that point. But he
showed some flashes. See him the way he carries the puck in the offensive
zone, he can create space for himself, he can find the open area
to get a shot off, and he's able to finish even from distance.
You know, it's easy to see why that there's some pop around him.
You know, when given the opportunity and now, can he be the guy
to play with Varensky? You know, he's a right so he certainly would
have the advantage and an opportunity to get there, but he has to prove
that he belongs there. He has to be consistently available. He's had not
just injuries, but the kind of injury where he's had to miss weeks in
many games, so it's really hindered his development. So he's kind of behind
the eight ball and has to really focus on getting caught up in that sense.
So this year is certainly going to tell a lot about you. Where
is he going to go? Is he going to be part of the future
plans of the Blue Jackets, because they're gonna have to make a decision on
him. Your check's going to be up full time when my taycheck comes probably
next season twenty four twenty five for him. You know, Cooleman's is in
that mix, and there's something like Andrew Peaks under contract for a couple of
years. The only some of spots that can go around, So they will
eventually have to make a decision now. But in terms of if you're looking
for an offensive defenseman is kind of a little bit under the radar when you're
compared to the rest of the league. You could certainly do worse some vocust,
he's got some upside there. He's going to get some power Play time.
You expect Rensky to run power Play one. We would probably expect Boqust
to play Power Play two at least at the start of the year, not
out of the question that he can deliver another ten goals, but we'd like
to see some of the other elements of his game developed, and that's where
I think is going to be the focus, and that'll determine if he's a
part of the Blue Jackets future. He'd be a coin flip on two other
depth defensemen on this team. He got your Jake Bean and your Marcus Bjork.
If Adam Boucovist has declined from a sparkling shine to a cloudy finish,
Jake Bean has fallen all the way to a sit covered matte. It's not
looking good for mister Bean. He debuted five seasons ago and he's had one
hundred and twenty five games in the NHL, appearing in four of those last
five seasons. This year it was only fourteen games because he tore a laboram
in November. Pretty wich, that's pretty unfortunate. He got six points in
those first fourteen games. On the other hand, you got Marcus Bjork after
four years in the SHL, he came to the United States this year.
Eleven points in thirty three games with a shot, a hit and a half
in a block and a half. Pretty nice stats for US fantasy types.
But of course he's an older player making a debut. Of course, you
got all these other right shot defensemen you're talking about who are going to be
contending for spots. Hard to say whether these who you know who among these
guys is going to be the one with the opportunity. Which do you prefer
of being or Byork going forward? And how much production do you think they
could manage. I think we've seen Byork's upside. Had it not been for
the injuries, I don't think he's in the NHL. So assuming that everybody's
back, and there's even a couple of guys like Nick Blankenberg, they'll be
able to talked about. That is somebody that could very much compete for a
spot. I would still pick being but that's something like we got to be
careful with that because he's got to come back from injury. He's got to
prove that he can stay healthy. Still under contract the spot on the left
hand side of the defense. Now, what's interesting is that the Blue Jackets
are going to prioritize that spot that Vladislav Gabrikov vacated, you know, once
he was traded to the Los Angeles Kings. Now that they didn't say anything
about being going there, it looks like that they're going to possibly use that
second first round pick that they got from the Kings is part of that return.
That pick is available, and they would love to be able to get
an established top four defenseman like a guy this is just a random thing and
thinking about who could fill that spot, whether it be free agency or a
trade. I think of a guy like Ryan Graves in New Jersey, a
left hand defenseman that a little bit over to be able to come in and
seamlessly fit in that spot. I'm just not sure being fits in that spot.
So there's a question about where he fits. But York, I think
man I had to pick between the two in terms of just overall upside on
the Blue Jackets. It's being but my confidence level that he would be able
to produce anything will come down to where he slots into the lineup, and
to me, that's either going to be on the bottom pair or might be
sub of three defenseman were as York, same thing with so much competition.
I just don't see a defined rule for him at this point. But I
picked Bean of the two, but I don't feel great about it. Something
else to not feel great about is the Columbus goaltending this year, it was
pretty rough, the worst in the league, letting in three point four seven
goals per sixty, just beating out the Ducks and Sharks. They were actually
the third worst teams in terms of protection, with the Ducks and Canadians being
a little worse. So they had pretty poor protection and they slightly did poorly
then expected based on the expected numbers, and Corpuslo, who's no longer on
the team, did by far the best of any of the blue jacket goalies,
and he was over with the Kings who got eliminated by the Oilers,
and they had saw a couple other goalies. They saw some Jet Grieves,
John Gillies, Michael Hutchinson. I think the main guys to talk about though,
or obviously Mrs Lickins and Tarisoft. And we know Elvis really struggled this
season. I know he's dealing with the death of his friend over the summer
and mattis Kavlennox very unfortunate, very I'm sure that weighed on him very hard.
And Elvis has signed for four more years at five point four million.
I know he really tried to dedicate the season to his friend. It didn't
work out. A lot of it was beyond his control for sure, but
he's also trended down the past four years, so kind of need to figure
out what he's capable of and what you would expect from him. He was
someone who way underperformed the expected protection that was in front of him, and
that was unfortunate to see it. And maybe you can just wrap that in
with what you think of Tarisoft, because Tarisoft is someone I've been tracking for
a long time. I think he has pretty good upside. Only seventeen games
played this season didn't quite work out. I know that there was a lot
going on in front of him and it's hard to hard to put a goalie
like him in that situation. But you got the highly paid vet who's been
trending down and the young prospect who struggled a bit. What do you think
about the goalie situation in Columbus moving forward? Boy, if they're gonna recover
from their rough years here, that has to be the top priority in getting
them right. And yeah, you bring the two of them together. They
you know, Tearasoft would need waivers to get to the HL, so that's
why they trade corpor Salos he was apending UFA and he was, you know,
probably the best goalie of the three, and they would have preferred not
to trade him, but the contract situation spoke, so they actually when they
dismissed Brad Larson, the head coach, they also dismissed Manny Legacy, who
had a pretty strong connection to um Elvis Mrs Lecans, you know, both
on the ice and off the ice. You know, he was actually at
Legacy's house where that firework since that happened, so there's a lot of connection
there. When we asked Mrs Lecans you know about Legacy, he confirmed that,
you know, he understood that it was a business and that he knows
that he has to be better and said he was going to torture himself.
So he said all the right things, but the time is now that he
actually has to prove it. You know, they paid him to be the
number one. He put up some great numbers when he first came into the
league as under John Tortorello, who was a kind of a goalie friendly coach,
plays defense first, so he benefited from that. Larson's system was nothing
like Tortorella's in terms of the way that they played defense, so he struggled
with that for sure, and we have to sit the end. We have
to include the injury situation too, because the defense was in shambles. They
gave up so many shots. There are a lot of times that he'd see
forty forty five fifty shots a night, he'd give up six and still have
a nine hundred safe percentage. There's only so much that a goalie can do,
but then a lot of knights as well. He just I just think
there are some trust issues there. So he's had a lot to work through.
So this goalie coach that they bring in is going to be of utmost
important because they have to get him technically sound. They have to make sure
that he's mentally ready. So there's a lot of work that has to go
in there. But then we have to note that Kekolina admitted that it's something
that they're going to address. You know, are they prepared to go into
the season with those with Tarasoft and Resleikans as their goaltenders. They need somebody
that's got some NHL backup experience in the event of injury, because then they
have to go with Tarasoft be ready to start all the games given his injury
situation. You mentioned Grieves and Hutchinson and Gillies when we don't expect Hutchinson or
Gillies back at all for the record, but are they prepared to go down
to the American Hockey League again. They have to make sure that the goaltending
is more stable, so that means Reslikans has to be better. Tarastoft has
to use the summer to make sure that he's ready to go. But then
they need someone else that can come in and help them win some games as
well. So I would not be surprised if they bring somebody else in from
the outside to be able to stabilize that situation. But vers Leakins knows that
it's all on him. He's got to use the summer to be able to
do that. He's proven he can be a good goalie. So I think
a lot of it's going to have to do with the coach that comes in,
if what kind of a system they're going to be dealing with. So
that's a developing story. But just based on what we've seen here in the
last couple of years overall, especially what you mentioned with the Kivalinic situation,
pretty pessimistic but it's not a lost cost. So it's kind of one of
those wait and see sort of situations to see who the coaches are going to
be, who's going to be with him day in and day out, and
then eventually, if the right people are in place, there's still talent there.
It just can they unlock the talent. So I would not jump all
over the situation at the beginning, but maybe a little bit later on,
when things are more settled out, maybe there's something there. So just keep
your guard to the beginning, but later on watch out for it, and
you know there might be something there. Well, Mark, you've given us
some great insight on the Columbus Blue Jackets. Why don't you let everybody know
what you got going on out there on the internet and how people can stay
caught up with you. Oh wow, it's a great time a year to
be following along. The playoffs are going on, the Draft, we've got
the Draft lottery coming up, We've got the combine the Draft. I am
at Mark underscore shag on Twitter. I'm actually going to have the blue check
mark comes down here in the next little bit. We're not going to pay
for that thing any more. There are a lot of people that aren't going
to do that, but we're going to be doing a lot of stuff.
We got the Draft Guide already out there, so if you want to get
to know not only the two of the top prospects are, but some of
the other ones are. We hope to have run one hundred and eighty draft
profiles ready to go by the time the draft gets here. We're going to
have boots on the ground in Buffalo at the combine. You know, we're
going to have a team in Nashville at the draft. We've got articles about
the playoffs, about the different off seasons. We've got a lot of shows
going on. We have a round one hundred writers that are out there putting
content out every day, so it's at the Hockey Writer on Twitter. If
you want to see what's going on, feel free to reach out if you've
got any questions. But right now, there's just no short of storylines.
Between now and free agency. We are slamming and we got a lot to
talk about. Awesome, Thanks so much, Mark, it's been great talking
with you about the Columbus Blue check is tonight. Yeah, I'm Jesse.
Always a pleasure join you really appreciate the time, Wilson, that's good.
Buyers passed off. Oh my goodness, walk go with a cat, quick
grab. Now it's your weekly goalie talk with Cats Silverman, Cats instincts.
All right, back for another Cat's instincts. Thrilled to have you again,
Kat Silverman from Ingle mag And we're talking, of course Columbus goalies and and
this is really fun for me because we get to talk about one of my
favorites, and that's Daniel Tarasov. He has he's been one of the top
prospects outside of the NHL for a while, but we can't say that anymore
because the twenty seventeen third round pick has gotten into some games now he's he's
really big, six five one ninety six now twenty four years old. He's
a little bit more mature, kind of split in time in the NHL AHL
the last two seasons and the raw numbers don't don't look good. But frankly,
no one's did in Columbus this year, although somehow, you know,
Scorpusalo looked like an amazing goalie. Again, I don't know. That's a
different story for a different day. But Tarasov's expected goals per goal conceded in
Cleveland of the HL have been the last three seasons one point one four,
one point four five, and one point one three, So he's consistently saving
more goals than expected, although if you look at his NHL time, he
definitely did not do that. But you know, I think that was a
really rough situation in Columbus this season, so maybe we'll give him a pass
on that. If I look at his hockey prospecting, he has gone from
basically the twenty to thirty percent in his draft plus one in two season to
seventy three and sixty six percent the last two years, which is really high
for goalie. He has some really decent comps. You know, there's Trevor
Kidd, Philip Grubauer, also some Jonathan Quick and they're not stylistic comparables.
But what can you tell us about Danielle terrasoft development and how excited are you
about him as a prospect? Oh so, I truly have have a note
on here that says was injured and this team was so bad, and I
underlined so in bad twice a piece, just because I don't think it's possible
to overstate just how bad Columbus was like we talk about expected goals allowed,
expected goals saved, and I think we need to talk about expected performance for
that team because he was put in a situation that, to me, hampered
his development in just a massive way. I think he looked really good when
he first came over to North America when he was because he's kind of been
splitting his time in the last two years. Two years ago, so the
twenty one twenty two season, I thought he looked pretty good. Then he
got injured. I believe he was just coming back from injury when the season
started, and the situation with Unice Corpusolo and Elvis Muslikins was tricky to watch
and tricky navigate because it was hard to tell who was who was essentially the
better bet, because at any given point one of them was vastly underperforming and
one was slightly overperforming. And then it's like the moon would shift and they
would switch places and one of them would start overperforming while the other one just
absolutely tanked it. And I didn't necessarily want to see Tarasov playing at the
NHL level just yet, just because I thought he had a lot of really
good athletic agility. I thought that he had some really good decision making examples
in his game. You'd see him really really control his movements when he needed
to in some really high stakes moments where like you said, he's a big
guy, he can very easily get caught doing a little too much. And
I thought he looked like he was doing a really good job of not doing
that. And then he's someone who I thought the more time he spent at
the NHL level, you just kind of watch him panicking. And there were
a couple games that I really just I watched him play and I was like,
he needs to go back to the HL, like he needs more development
time. And I know that they had a massive shake up in Columbus recently
and that Manny legacy has gone now that was their goaltending coach. I'm curious
to see how that goes because in theory they have really good goaltenders that just
we're not getting it done. And I really want to see what happens now
that we're seeing this massive personnel shake up, in particular for Terrosof because I
think that the raw talents there, I think that the consistency can be there.
We've seen it numbers in the past. I just I think he was
put in a position where he really wasn't given an opportunity to develop him to
progress forward because the team really didn't put him in a position to do so.
So we'll see. I think he's he's for sure in NHL, though,
which is promising for Columbus. Be his best case, he becomes their
next starter. Worst case, he becomes a really good trade chip for them
as they continue to rebuild. Yeah, it might actually be a really good
by low time for him, because he definitely looked terrible at times just because
of the team. But yeah, like in a dynasty league, you might
you might be able to acquire him now, whereas a couple of years ago
it might have been hard because things were looking really good. I was going
to ask you about viny of a hillin in but it turns out not with
the team with the team anymore, So we can just skip that one.
I added someone instead. If you want. Jack Grieves is there in his
place, and he's very fun. Is he more or less fun than Sergey
ivan Off, because that's the next one I was going to ask you about.
Uh, he's more fun because he's in North America already. Um and
He's my up for anything guy. Yeah, So Jed Grieves Uh every year
has shown improvement in his game year over year. UM. He was an
undrafted signee. I believe UM was put into a game in the HL and
like a really wonky circumstance where I think both of their goaltenders had been injured,
and so he just ended up in it. I believe he ended up
playing his one NHL game in a similar situation where he just ended up having
to play the game for them, UM, and he just rolls with it.
I've never seen him play a game where he looks like he's just panicking.
He had nine thirty nine in his one NHL game. So far,
he's been predominantly at the HL level for them, which is exactly where he
should be. UM. But he's from all accounts like I've talked to a
couple goalie scouts about him. I've talked to a couple of goalies about him.
Everyone says he's just like a really nice dude. And I feel like
we can't understate how important it is for Columbus from a locker room perspective to
have some goalies in their prospect system who are just able to roll with it,
and I think he's he's got good technique, he's got like a really
sturdy looking game. There's nothing overly spectacular about him, but he doesn't do
anything wrong either, and he's just he's fun and I think they need that.
That's something that Columbus fans have almost been starved for. And he's so
like up for anything that I wouldn't be surprised to see him end up in
like a long term callip role, and I feel like he could outperform expectations
just because he's he's willing to do it. He doesn't seem like he has
any chips on his shoulder. Yeah, it seems like a very affable guy
who'd love to hear that great, so good good on that one. And
so yeah, then we'll go to Sergey Ivanov, Columbus's fifth round pick in
twenty twenty two, so just very recently. I'm actually kind of shocked at
that a five eleven goalie got drafted. It seems like that's not allowed anymore
in this NHL. But he's also very young, just turned nineteen. He's
in the SKA system, so you know that has pluses and minuses in my
mind, very good system, but also sometimes they don't let him come over.
He played five KHL games this season, sixteen VHL and six MHL games.
His raw stats look amazing. In each one. He's already up to
a forty two percent chance of being an NHL or, which is really incredible
for goalies to be that high in their D plus one season. He's got
some pretty good comps, you know, guys like Chris Strijer, Aiden Hill.
Maybe those don't sound very good. There's some other ones too, but
it's a really high percentage and equivalency right now. But I think part of
the reason, part of the reason some of the comps and stuff are are
lower is that he is just five elevens. So what can you tell us
about Ivan Avn? Can Can he be the Russian? U see sorrows?
Oh? I sure hope so. Um. I have a admitted soft spot
for our shorter goalies because I feel like they aren't afforded as many opportunities to
do things wrong. Um Like, we've talked about a couple bigger goalies who
the techniques not there, the consistency's not there, but they're like six foot
eight, and so coaches are like, yes, we will take him.
Can you see these guys that are like five to eleven and they get a
little overlooked U. I think in Calgary Dustin Wolf is a perfect example.
That's right now my number one prospect across the league. Um and seeing another
guy who's five to eleven, who's just putting up just top tier numbers,
Like if I had this team was so bad written for Danielle Teasov under Ivanova
have great numbers in Russia, would probably keep him overseas right now, to
be honest, written as my two notes for him, because he's doing well.
That Saint Petersburg system is one of the best prospect situations you can find
yourself in in Europe. I think that the goaltenders that are in their system
are it's almost like the Carpot system in Finland, where just the structure and
the rigidity in the order and the way that they move their guys from juniors
to miners and miners to the KHL and they have consistent coaching between the three
that keeps the systems the same and keeps the technique the same. Whereas you
see some other guys who unfortunately end up on teams where you know if they
get loaned to the minor league team within their own club system, they get
maybe moved to a team that doesn't have a goalie coach at all. And
I think that Scott is one of those teams that that's a perfect situation to
be in. It's a powerful team. Whether that's something that you know is
by design intentionally or not is another conversation entirely. But when it comes to
having a goaltender that you want in your system, when essentially your NHL club
is really struggling to put up a consistent environment for your prospect, Ivanov is
in the complete opposite situation. He's playing for a team where he's getting that
consistency and he's getting the controlled environment to really just continue improving his game and
continue improving his overall performance and confidence levels. I think that Columbus's biggest mistake
would be trying to rush him over, which as we know, Scott doesn't
let that happen if they don't want it to, so I don't think there's
any real concern of that, But I think that he's definitely someone that I
think Leewide will probably have to watch out for in the next couple of years.
Yeah, he's already rushing. We don't need to rush him. There
you go. Oh all right, well, thanks for those insights on the
Columbus goalies. We'll be back right after. This good dynasty did back once
again to talk about a couple of the top prospects in this year's system that
we call the Columbus Blue Jackets. Victor, in terms of this overall system
and where this team is at, they have lots of picks. They've added
the King's first round pick, the Flames third rounder, the Jets fourth rounder,
the Bruins fifth rounder. They traded away a couple of their own picks
a little bit later. And you, Victor, Nuno ranked this system tied
for first in the NA Chill. Wow, Victor, why are Columbus so
high? And why does it start with your no brainer? Well, it
starts with a no brainer because it's the top. But why is it so
high? Is they have just so much, so much goodness in their prospect
system. I mean, that's really what it comes down to. They have
elite talent at the top. You know, guys that are already in the
NHL performing that we talked about on this episode, Kent Johnson, Carol Marchenko.
We also saw little Danielle arras off. But they have so many other
guys too. They have great elite talent and great depth, and that's what
makes it so fantastic. Some of the guys will talk about on this episode,
and some other guys that we're not going to have time to mention,
like Luca delle Belle. Blue still has some pretty good upside, Dennis Slavs
Fosal of course, some Suleiman's, Samuel Nashco. You know, all of
these guys, even Foodie down there. And so that's really what makes it
one of the top systems. Is you need great elite talent and you also
need depth in the middle and towards the bottom. And so that is the
Columbus Blue Jackets they are. They have a fantastic prospect system. You love
to see it in Victor. You're no brainer. My no brainer is one
of my favorite prospects for sure. David Yiddi check I was team meet to
check all the way since the draft. I continued to be undeterred by that
notion. He was a sixth overall pick in twenty twenty two Canada North America
and played mainly in the NHL this season HL this season, thirty eight points
in fifty five games for the Cleveland Monsters of the HL. He played over
twenty minutes with half a hit and point eight blocks per game with two shots
nearly four minutes of powerably time on ice. That's pretty awesome for a rookie
in the HL. I we documented earlier this year what an outstanding HL season
he had as a teenager. Just really rare to see that kind of production
as a teenager, and he played most of the season as nineteen, part
of it as eighteen year old, so really strong production. We got to
see him in four NHL game and he looked, you know, kind of
will like what you would expect as a nineteen year old in the NHL.
He looked really good at times and he looked really bad at times, got
turnstyled a couple of times, but also was really physical and made some nice
plays. Stood up Nathan McKinnon on that one play that I still remember,
just knocked him cold, just stopped his momentum, which is something that's hard
to do for someone moving that fast and that strong. Let's hear from my
FHL scout Sasha about Yiti check and this was like this his skating report or
skating is above average. Really big concern with like the way that he slouched
over. We've always kind of talked about this. He kind of has his
hunch skating style lacks full extension, but he's able to keep his balance when
skating backwards. That might be a little bit of a concern moving forward.
It isn't really ideal, but it has kind of improved in the HL this
year, he saw consistent growth in his transition play and his skating improved a
little bit, so that was really good. To see his puck handling average
decent skills to manipulate other defenders, which was nice to see him incorporate.
That would really Sasha would really like to see him improve his puck reception skills,
as he tends to fumble way too many pucks that he should compare to
an offensively gifted defenseman like him. His shot is elite and really what separates
him from all defensemen in his draft year. It's heavy, it's accurate,
and makes him deadly on the power play, something that a lot of other
power play qbs don't have, which is you know that that deadly shot.
He is also making a little bit of a correct shot selection instead of just
bombing away from the point. He also is really getting is improving more and
more. Always about finding the best option, creating, making plays, and
so that's good too. His IQ, his offensive IQ is where he really
excels compared to the defensive game hasn't really seen. He has seen him blow
coverage or pinch at an inopportune time on defense, and that's a little bit
disappointed to see. But overall, he has pretty good defensive acumen. Loves
his gap control. His long reach allows him to recover in the neutral zone
and on turnovers. However, his off pug habits were lacking in the last
month of the season. While low in his defensive zone, he tends to
lose his man and that forces him to cheat at times, which is kind
of unfortunate. So definitely some work to do there. On the defensive side,
his best asset is his offensive instincts and shot. The biggest concerned is
backwards skating and pivots and top tier potential, probably a top pair demon who
can quarterback a powerplay. He could be a point contributor, but will also
be an absolute bah monster, which is what I love about him. That
high floor, especially if he gets used on the penalty kill as well.
I definitely think gar checks an all situations defenseman, and so that really helps
with all the peripheral coverage for Sasha. What will most likely hold him back
or what most likely tier top tier is or top four will probably be the
worst case scenario with monster Bash and potential power play here and there, But
there are a lot of guys in Columbus who can run a power place,
so that's a little bit of a thing against him, I guess, and
Stylist is comparable. He has a more outsider, not as good as a
skater, but certainly with the monster Bash and points upside. Great comp And
let's move over to Mason Black at NHL rank King, who has of course
the two guys drafted high last year David ed to check Simon Nemic. Both
of these guys had pretty good seasons primarily in the HL this season. Since
they're both European, they could go right into the HL not having to worry
about the HLHL NHL CHL agreement. And you need to check with the Cleveland
Monsters had thirty eight points in fifty two games for one hundred and nine PNHL
that's incredible. Simon seventy three points or sorry, twenty nine points in sixty
two games for seventy three phl E. And if you look at hockey prospecting,
Nemis basically kept his star potential let around eighty three percent. That's really
high, virtually a lot to be an NHLer and need to check increased his
star protection from seventeen to thirty four. The hockey prospecting model didn't like YEI
check as much, and that's partially due to his a little bit lower equivalency
in the pro league that he played in his draft season. When we put
the vote to the people, Jesse, it was sixty seven percent to thirty
three. David Yidicheck. Who you got here, Gussie, Yeah, the
people are right this time. Your Acheck has surpassed Nimaic in you know,
in prospect, dumb I was wrong last year on my rankings. I think
I had Image a couple of spots higher than Euricheck. You have been on
him all along, but he's already I thought, he you know, he's
already broken into Columbus, and I think he's going to be a good player,
and I think he is going to be the man despite the big fella
Zach Warrensky. We talked about him the first part of the show where his
nimic is not going to surpass Luke Hughes anytime in the immediate future, nor
perhaps Dougie Hamilton for at least a while. So your check is my guy,
Victor, I imagine you were the same way. Oh yeah, for
sure. I definitely mt yet check, as I mentioned um and and not
even because of the things you mentioned with with Hughes and having a little bit
of a blockage. They're not only Hughes but Hamilton for namtch. I just
think I love the high floor of YETI check. I love how he can
be put out there in every situation. Net isn't quite that way. So
yep, definitely got me some Yudi check onto the need to know prospect,
Victor, all right, So need to know is Jordan Dumay cbj's third round
pick in twenty twenty two. So far, he's pretty much turned into the
steel of the draft getting him in the third round. He's one of the
prospects who has raised their stock a ton. I can't think of anyone who's
who'd raise it more than Dumay, Right, now. He increased his point
pace in his draft season from his draft season of one hundred and nine points
in sixty eight games to one hundred and forty points in sixty four games,
and this is while playing for the Halifax Mooseheads. This season he was an
assistant captain. He also put up sixteen points in eleven playoff games. So
far, He's still only five ft nine one hundred and seventy four pounds,
but that doesn't seem to be bothering him too much. Let's listen to a
scatting report from Tony says. Skating is good, quick skater, good passer,
good shots, puck handling. He doesn't overhandle it, but he has
good hands. Shot is both wrist and snapshots in one timers. All of
those are good. IQ high to very high, lots of offensive upside.
Panic meter is pretty low loaded, medium, sees things before they seem to
be happening, very perceptive hockey IQ is his best asset, anticipates open areas
to get his shot or pass off, and the biggest concern is his defense
or lack of puck pursuit against players top tier potential, probably tier one seventy
to eighty points top six forward, maybe not top line, but power play
time super smart can see things before they happened. Skills are above average and
below average bash though unfortunately most likely tiers maybe more of a Tier three.
You'll have to work on his defense, hits some blocks to get stronger,
and in summary, good top six player high IQ average skills, needs to
work on defense, hit some blocks. So and Dume's CHL tracking data according
to Mitch Brown, you have pretty elite slot passes. That's like his strongest
thing. His shooting is actually pretty below average. A lot of his transition
data is also a little bit below average, including his defense, but has
some other really strong things, including his powerplay involvement. His advantage is created
and his boards to the middle of the play per sixties. So overall he
rates out as a ninety out of one hundred and fifty five on defense eighty
seven on offense. So a little bit of a mixed picture there. And
looking at the p NHL with Mason Black at NHO rank King on Twitter,
the comparison he has is Joshua of the Montreal Canadiens, drafted in twenty twenty
one fifth round, so both these guys were drafted a little bit later one
for some size concerns Dumay and the other josh is skating was a little bit
off. And so this year the pH leave for Dumay was ninety five based
on his production in the que and for Joshua at seventy for Sherbrooke Phoenix.
Both these guys in the queue, so that makes the comparison a little bit
more. Even Dumay has a star potential of forty six percent. He increased
that from twenty up to forty six this season, and while went down a
little bit, he was basically at nineteen for his draft season, went up
to twenty five and then back down to sixteen this season. And so the
people, this is a close one. Jesse, Jordan Dumay and a nail
biter. Actually one of the most votes we've seen on a pole like this,
several hundred votes and it went fifty two percent to do May and only
forty percent for Joshua. Pretty close. I'm not sure which one you're which
way you're going here, Jesse seems like a coin flip. Hey, I
think we woke up the Montreal fans, is what happened here? Victor,
because I like de May and I traded for him in a couple of leagues
late this year from that production. Why wouldn't you want him? He's blown
away wha in production this year. He's a year younger, he's a year
behind, they're both playing in the queue. So I don't I don't quite
get the statistical argument. I mean, DeMay is smaller, and like you
said, there's the defense of concerns, but I definitely would take him at
this point over wa. How about you, Victor? Yeah, I've never
quite been a full believer in Joshua. I mean, I think you can't
deny a lot of his production. And for a lot of people, he
was undrafted, so in their fantasy leagues he's basically found money because you probably
just added him and he still has, you know, decent potential, but
he just and you saw him at the World Championships, like he is a
good player and he can produce. But I think he's just one of these
elite complimentary players, like he can work well with really strong players, But
I don't think he's You don't put him on a line like Timo Meyer and
he drives the whole line. You know, that's not or David Posture now
like that doesn't happen with Joshua. I don't think so that's in that mayor
may not be the case with dou May. But I think du May can
do a little bit more of that play driving. He's super smart and he
can really drive the bus and I love the love the production. He is
smaller, so maybe a little bit more concerned there, and some people might
lean towards the taller guy just because he has a cleaner path, But I
would take dua du May. Hear, but both of these guys are a
little bit lower in terms of their actual potential of being an impact NHL for
different reasons. But yeah, and a nail biter. I'm taking to May
and next Victor last the three we have your your keep your eye on prospect.
Who is it? Denton Mette Chuck so twenty twenty two, twelfth round
pick for Columbus, still only eighteen. His birthdate is so late, it's
it's really I think one of those things you have to keep in mind.
July twelfth, and so he was seventeen his entire draft season. He's eighteen
sententre d plus one season and he had a just awesome season for the Moosha
Warriors of the WHL sixty five points in sixty three games as the captain,
he had sixty four and sixty five as in its D zero to his draft
here, So improved on it, but you know, maybe not a ton.
Still a lot of production for a defenseman and for moosejaw, you know,
looking at the peripheral coverage really great for blocks, nearly two blocks a
game, but under a half hit per game, so that's not great.
His shots were close to three, just under three, so that was pretty
good. Overall, his bash should be pretty decent. Let's hear a little
bit more about his production from FHL scout Brandon. So his skating very flow
oriented with a pension for effortlessly changing gears. Not an explosive skater, but
very opportunistic. Puck handling, simple and effective when carrying the puck, quiet
hands, poised to make a play shot, pulls his wrist, shot in
close his skates before releasing with a large wind up one timer for the puck
or taking a slapshots. It's somewhere between underutilized and not a legit threat for
his shot IQ by far Denton's biggest gift, very adept at being in the
right place at the right time, especially during broken plays or turnovers. Defense.
An incredible spatial defender uses his positioning an active stick as his prime defensive
weapon. Best asset intelligence and processing speed the biggest concern that keeps his game
to the perimeter even when actively engaging the puck carrier. Easy to get to
the middle into the dangerous aerias a little bit more top tier potential probably number
two complimentary d assist machine, especially secondary assists, would benefit greatly if tertiary
assists were tracked. He says much higher tier if considering takeaway in passes,
but middle of the pack in terms of shots and attempts, low tier in
terms of other peripheral covers like hits and blocks, although we did mention that
his blocks were actually really good in the DUB this year, so we'll see
if that continues. Most likely tier is second or third. Pairing can certainly
run a powerplay. Columbus has so many guys that can run a powerplay.
Stylistic comparable as Tyson Barry with less knack for shooting a shifty evasive level to
Kewen Hughes and Eric Carlston with less flashy hands and deacon capacity. Looking at
the tracking data from Mitch Brown, you see that Denton Metaichuk is basically breaking
breaking off the page in most categories. He has an overall rating of ninety
nine out of one hundred. Defense is ninety six, transition ninety nine,
and offense is only eighty. And that's partially because of his shot, because
he just doesn't use it enough. But his his slot passes per sixty,
his expected assists per sixty, you're all pretty good. His transition play is
elite, and his defensive play at breaking up entries and retrievals are all really
really good. It's mainly the fact that he doesn't shoot enough, so that's
something that maybe can be worked on. But a little bit of a concern
there, I guess. Looking at the NHO rank king pull here on Twitter,
so you have Metaichuk against Pavel Minchukov. So both these guys drafted last
year, Minschikov with the Anaheim Ducks at tenth overall, Metaichuk at twelfth overall
and Somataichuck seventy four PNHLI this year based on his WHL time and Mentukov got
traded. He was with the Ottawa sixty seven's for part of the year and
he was with the Saganaw Spirit the rest of the year, so you have
both equivalences for both. He was with Sagonaw first and so that was a
ninety one PHIL based on thirty fifty four points in thirty seven games. When
he went to Ottawa, he was a little less of the focal point and
kind of more of a balanced part of the attack, so his pH lely
went down a little bit. He had thirty four points in thirty two games,
sixty six pH Chile. It's a little bit down there. Mettaychuck on
the Hockey Prospecting Model kept his star potential pretty much even fifty three to fifty
three percent and start in NHL probability still around seventy eight. He looks like
a couple of really good stars in this league. I mean he has some
comps of like Paul Coffee, not sure about that, but Bowen Bayram is
one that he looks a fair amount alike, and that would be pretty great
as he a pretty big star producer. And the poll between Metaichuk and Minschikov
actually went pretty handily towards Minchukov sixty nine percent to thirty one percent over Metaichuk.
Is that What do you think about that, Jesse? I apparently am
throwing the wisdom of the crowds to the side, because I don't quite get
that Minchkov had an amazing start to the season with Saganaw and then they traded
nine draft picks for him to get him to Ottawa, and from that point
they had pretty similar production, except one played in Ottawa and one played in
moose Jaw. Maybe a little more out of the public light, but I
don't think it's it's strange to me that Metaichuk is that far discounted. I
like him just as well as Minchikoff, if maybe maybe a little bit better.
Victor, how about you. I definitely like Metai Chuck here. I'm
a big fan of his game. I like Minchukov, but I think that
he just has a little bit He's a little bit more of an all offense
kind of guy, you know, and I want to see that more well
roundedness. I think Metai Chuck has strong offense, but also he is like
he could pretty much play in the NHL right now. He just seems a
little bit more physical maturity. But I like those guys that have a pretty
well rounded game. It just means that they're more likely to be in the
NHL and the guys that have to work really hard. I didn't mention this,
but one of the comps from Matai Chuck was Ryan Merkley, and I
think he's nowhere near like Marian Murkley in terms of the overall style of play,
because Merkley was basically like Minchukov in some ways where he was just all
offense and didn't ever care or give any effort for defense, and that's not
Metai Chuck at all. You know, He's very defensively, alert and responsible
and helps turn defense into offense. So that's one of the reasons I really
like Mittaichuck in terms of just pure offense. Sure, Minchukov has more,
but he also has a lot of work to do to improve his all around
game, and that may leave him in the Ryan Merkley train, where five
years later he's still not in an each other and that is kind of a
wasted draft pick. So that's a little bit of a of an issue for
me, and so why I'd shy away from Minchukov a little bit. But
Jesse, there's no more time to talk about these guys. If you're Patren,
you can listen to the top ten recaps per team that I'll be doing.
And you can also subscribe on Patreon if you want to actually look at
the prospect rating list and you can get all that goodness there. And if
you're doing some scouting with us, you can shoot me a DM on Twitter,
Discord, or email us Darting Wright. You can. Let's come back
and close up the show. May a couple of reminders to give you before
we get out of here today. Number One play fan Tracks. Fan Tracks
is the website of choice for playing all of your fantasy sports. You can
not only start your fantasy hockey league right now, you could set up leagues
for heck, basketball, football. You might still be able to draft a
baseball I don't know, f one. Whatever you like to do, you
can do it on fan Tracks. Starting new leagues there. You can move
your existing leagues over to fan Tracks if you ask them, they'll help you
migrate it over there. Most options for scoring, salaries, contracts, customized
rookie eligibility, anything you can think of. And they even have a pretty
nice little chat feature while some other platforms aren't doing chat features anymore. There's
also fantracks HQ, which is the part of fan Tracks that has fantasy content.
Plenty of articles on fantasy hockey and all the other fantasy sports. Baseballs
in full swing, and there is some baseball prospect and regular Baseball. The
Prospect Pod and the full count Fantasy Baseball podcasts are there for your listening enjoyment.
We're also brought to you by Dabber Dabber Prospects, where Victor happens to
do some writing and some editing. He likes to write a lot. I'm
sure as the draft is coming up, he'll be doing a lot of work
on that. Dynasty Sports Life is my other podcast. You can listen to
that if you're into all the different dynasty sports. As you're listening to this,
there will probably be a multi sport question and answer. I'm going to
be put on the spot to answer some questions in the episode that will be
coming out on Tuesday morning, So tune into that if you like. We're
also running a four sport dynasty league out of that. It's going to be
a ton of fun and that'll be a startup for some dynasty hockey that I'm
going to be getting in on as well. Victor has a new podcast,
and that is he has joined forces with Peter Harling for the Dabber Prospects Report.
It is Dapper Prospects Radio, reborn new format, and they're putting out
some straight up fire content. If you like Victor here and listening to prospect
Talk, you're gonna love it over there too. Follow Victor and myself on
Twitter at Victor Nuno twelve viic t O r n U n O one two
or me Fan Hockey Life, fa N Hockey Life all together, Rate and
review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you look at podcasts
so more people can find it. We're in full swing. The days are
getting longer, so our episodes, and so I hope you'll enjoy all thirty
two episodes as we prepare you thinking ahead to next year's Fantasy Hockey Life