Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks. Here's your source of
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I'm doing awesome, Jesse. Yeah, it's good spring weather here. It's
good talking about these team previews, and we got a good one today because
I think we're all looking for some answers of what the heck happened with these
Buffalo Sabers. Is that right? How do you get Oh wait, Victor,
the Sabers aren't the playoffs. What happened? The Sabers aren't a playoffs
yet? No, but they did bring back their coach from the last time
they were. Oh we'll get into all those things, Victor. But yeah,
and it is that time of year. It's the weather is finally although
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We need to just get to some summer weather here. But yeah,
Victor, a place you can commiserate about the weather. We should make a
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You have questions, we hope to have answers about the Sabers right after
this welcoming back to the show. Walter Zarowski of Saber Metrics, ready to
talk to them, Buffalo Sabers. How you doing there, Walter doing great,
Looking forward to talking about the Sabers. Yeah. Man, it's gonna
be a good talk. It's going to be a good talk. Bad news
right up front. Buffalo did not make the playoffs last year. I think
people may be aware of that, but there is some good news. They
did have some areas of improvement. Goaltending was a whole lot better than a
lot of people expected last October and we'll get there. And for the first
time, I went back and counted this on Hockey Reference, Walter and you
could check my mat But for the first time since twenty ten to twenty eleven,
the Sabers scored more goals than they gave up. That's certainly a nice
accomplishment to have a new group of young forwards are coming into the fold,
becoming more established. We'll talk about a lot of them. Yet at the
end of the season, the coach was gone and there were cryptic comments coming
from players at the end of season press conferences about maybe some guys were disengaged
practices and things. And now, whether for nostalgia or success, the blast
from the past, Lendy Ruff is back in Buffalo to replicate the glory days.
So overall, what happened this year to the Sabers and are they ready
next year to take that leap into the playoffs that we've all been waiting for
years now. Yeah, obviously last season was a very tough season. Just
being a point away from the playoffs in twenty two to twenty three and taking
a step back this season was obviously a disappointment. Like you brought The goaltending
this year was fantastic. That was something that Savers kind of struggled with in
prior seasons, but this was the first season a very long time, probably
since the Ryan Miller days, where they actually got elite results from their goaltenders,
and that really helped their season stay somewhat alive later into March. But
at the end of the day, I think it was really just their top
line, their top offensive players that really weren't able to replicate what they did
in the prior season. I think you look at guys like Tage Thompson,
like Dylan Cousins, all guys that have saw a drop off in their production
last year, and I think just really not getting that offense, really not
getting that extra goal in those close games to pushings in overtime and get those
extra points, I think just killed the team this past season. And the
Jack Quinn injury definitely didn't help. But there's still a lot of promise in
Buffalo with the amount of young players on their roster, and obviously despite missing
the playoffs, things could have been much worse last season. I think the
Savers are a team that's still not that far off from finally breaking through for
that playoff appearance, but this past season was certainly disappointment in coming up short
once again. Yeah, let's get into some of those players and disappointments,
I would say, and it has to start with Tage Thompson. This guy
was incredible previously had a record breaking season for him last season forty seven goals,
went all the way down to twenty nine this season. We'll ref and
some spots the tidy rank our Tier dynasty, so he was the one hundred
and first player ranked player in that format, which isn't bad, but we
would expect it more for him, and obviously fantasy nuts are going to be
disappointed with the massive drop off in the goals. Obviously he played a few
less games and that's understandable, but his assists were way down, his goals
were way down. His time on ice was similar, maybe a little less,
but not too much of a drop off. His pdo ozone Star percentage
IPP Power Playoff PP they were all a little lower, but I don't think
all of that explains how much lower his production was this season. So Walter,
is Tage really just more of a seventy point guy in that ninety nine
point pace season was a massive outlier, or should we expect him to bump
back up closer to point per game. I think Tate Thompson, he's such
an interesting player really, just with how he grew up with this point totals,
how he really came from being like a fourth line guy in a Savors
to be a top offensive player. I think that question is still one that
I don't even think most Savers fans know. The answer will be in the
future, what Tage Thompson truly is He definitely I think he's got that baseline
of being a seventy point guy. Certainly we'd like to see that ninety plus
point season come back again, maybe even something better. He's still somewhat of
a younger player at currently in his prime, so it's not too crazy to
expect to bounce back, but there is Throughout most of the last season,
I think a lot of Savers fans just wanted more from Tage Thompson on a
night in, night out basis. I think there's some games where you could
barely tell he was out there, and for a guy who's supposed to be
your star offensive player, was sorely disappointing. And I think the interesting thing
was like stuff came out after the regular season ended about how he was playing
through some injuries, and he said, like, maybe some stuff you probably
shouldn't have tried playing through. So I think that's one side of things that
kind of plays into that his production and regress last year just because of injury.
And I think if you're a Tage Thompson hopeful, I think you're really
hoping that what happened this past season is due to injury and not just performance
stuff. So I think he's going to bounce back. I think he's gonna
have a season that was better than last year. That's going to be difficult
to plate to replicate that twenty twenty two to twenty twenty three season, but
I think he certainly got the talent to get close to that, and I
think with more and more talent coming up on the wings developing the Saber system,
I think he's have a lot of pieces to be able to continue some
fantastic offensive production. But Alex Tuck actually was higher ranked forward in our Points
formatt than even Tage Thompson was, and he had himself a decent year.
He is always good in the bash, lots of blocks, lots of hits
in plenty of shots. He didn't match his near point per game breakout year
of the year before. Part of that, I think is the obvious shooting
percentage flexing a little bit closer to his six eleven percent rate rather than the
spike he got last year. He missed a couple of stretches Alex Tuck did
early in the year, but he stayed mostly healthy, and that's not always
been the case for Tuck. So that's a very big positive. Is Tuck
now entrenched as a top line player with this team and next to Tage Thompson,
and can he see that point pergase, point per game pace that we
thought we might be getting after last year. I think Alex Tuck, I
think he's gonna be one of those players that Lindy Roff falls in love with.
I think just because he's a great team leader. He's from the area,
he grew up as a Savers fan, while Lindy Ruff was a coach
of the Sabers, So I think there's like a pretty cool relationship there with
Lindy Ruff coming back to Buffalo with Tuck. So I think Tuck's still going
to be relied upon to be a top line player. I'm still expecting to
be on Tage Thompson's wing next season. I think to start the season for
the Savers, I think a lot of fans are really disappointed with how Tuck
was playing, but he really got things going as the season went on.
He looked more like himself. I think he's just going to be your reliable
player. He might not have that crazy point per game season ever again,
but he's always going to be that effective player. Just with his size and
his skating ability, He's always gonna be a guy the Savers really rely upon.
I think getting that power play back to just at least league average level
is going to help a guy out like Tuk a lot in terms of his
point production. I think just simply having your lie on five points for all
your productions tough, especially for guys like Tuck. But I think once that
power play gets going again, I expect his production to increase. And I
still think he's a really valuable player for the Savers, and I still think
they're gonna lean pretty heavy into him heading in the next season. Next Jeff
Skinner, huh, Jeff Skinner, He is a conundrum. This guy here.
He had twenty four goals twenty two is sis twelve power play points,
and yet it wasn't the types of point pace that we sometimes have hoped to
get from him. Lots of shots as usual. That contract he's on,
the nine million dollar contract is never going to look pretty, but he always
remains a threat to score goals every night. This year such a dip from
the year before, as Skinner dropped also a minute and a half night of
a night of ice time, shooting percentage dropped, shots dropped, goals of
course dropped, and assists dropped significantly. I did the old Evolving Hockey's goals
above replacement model, and of eight hundred and seventy nine skaters, Jeff Skinner's
negative eight point three defensive goals above replacement was the sixth worst skater in the
National Hockey League. And that was out of, like I said, eight
hundred and seventy nine guys. The offense, now, mind you, was
about that much to the positive, which was number one thirty of those eight
hundred and seventy nine. So really you got to remember that defiven is holding
Skinner back regularly. This isn't news. Everybody knows this, but that was
the by far the worst of that measure of Skinner's career going back and the
last couple of months of the season, Skinner went from the Tuck and Tage
line to the Peyton Krebs line and his power play time on ice dropped.
What is the future of Jeff Skinner on this team and what happened? Yeah,
Jeff Skinner, He's probably the most interesting player to watch for the Sabers
next season really just because, like you brought up, how he got demoted
to that bottom six roles a season and on pushed off that top line that
he's usually on with Taje. Thompson, Alex Tuck. I think having a
guy like Lindy come in will be interesting because he's known as a guy who's
pretty strict with players playing the right way or at least how he wants to
play, and he's not afraid to limit guys ice time if they aren't playing
that way. And Jeff Skinner, he's really a guy who kind of cheats
on the defensive end of things to play that quick counter attacking game when he
gets the puck back on offense, and it works sometimes. It worked in
twenty twenty two, twenty three when that top line had that kind of chaotic
but fun offense going. But when things aren't as chaotic, when things are
more settled down, you'd see the deficiencies in Jeff Skinner's game. And as
he gets up there in age, he's going to be thirty one years old,
he's probably leaving his prime, at least in terms of offensive production.
I think he's a guy where maybe you're concerned if he's able to bounce back
to some of the production we've seen before. I think, just with all
the wingers the Savers have coming up through their system, all the young players
we've seen JJ Peterka take Skinner's spot on that top line to end the year,
maybe he's a guy who will never give up that spot again. So
I think with Skinner it's going to be interesting to see what happens to him.
It's almost nearly impossible to predict what season you'll get from Skinner because it
feels like every season you get from this guy, it's just like a roller
coaster. You get a good year, a bad year, another good year,
and it's really been like that since his Carolina days. So he's probably
the most interesting guy to watch, and I think he's probably the biggest candidate
to have the biggest falloff on the Buffalo Savers heading the next season. Wow.
All right on to Jack Quinn. Of course, Quinn a former first
round pick just from a couple of years ago, still pre restricted free agency.
As this guy, he had pretty much a lost season I think is
the short version here. Nine goals tennis is four power play points that would
pay us out to fifty eight points. But of course he only played a
few games, but the scoring rate at least improved. That was even better
than his half point per game rookie season where he had only thirteen fifty one
average time on nice What do you make of Quinn the season we only saw
a little bit, and could we dream of him being on the Dylan Cousins
Casey Middlestat track to post high breakout? Yeah, I mean, I think
guy like Jack Quinn, he's just a hockey player. It's really easy to
like. He's always playing the game the right way. He's always getting the
dangerous areas of the ice. He's got a pretty crazy shot too, that
allows him to score goals from areas guys usually won't be able to score from.
So I think a guy like Jack Quinn. I almost want to say
last season was supposed to be his breakout year, but the injuries destroyed that.
But he still had decent production in spite of that. I think he's
a guy who just with his shooting ability, I think if he's placed higher
up the Sabers lineup, if he's placed higher up on their power play units,
on the top power play unit, I think he's a guy whose production
could just explode. I just think he has that offensive skill set that allows
him just to score goals, to accumulate points. I mean, we saw
him in his draft year in Ottawa and the Ohl just the amount of goals
he's able to score down there. I think he's a guy who just has
that. He's got that knack to find the soft areas of the ice,
He's got that knack to finish off his opportunities. And I'd say he's probably
one of my favorite savers forwards. And I think a guy like Lindy Ruff
coming in is gonna love the way Jack Quinn plays. I think he's going
to be given a lot of opportunities went fully healthy to contribute higher up in
the lineup. Definitely looking forward to seeing more Jack Quinn. Next season,
let's move on to a couple of guys maybe go in a slightly different direction.
So after last season, we might have thought Dylan Cousins was going to
continue being that seventy ish point guy. I definitely was one person who was
suggesting that it was going to regress. He went from sixty nine point pace
to forty nine point pace and coming the other way. JJ Peterka, I've
always been a fan of his game. He ended up with a fifty point
pace this season after a thirty four point pace last season. These two are
a bit different in terms of what they bring to the team, but they
actually ended up with similar ice time. They ended up with similar point paces,
And wondering what you think about these two between who might get more point
who would you bet on more for a point pace? Moving forward? Between
Dylan Cousins and JJ Peterca, this one's a tough one. I think he
got two guys trending in opposite directions with how they played last season. I
don't really think either of those trends will continue next season. I still think
Pitt Turko is a great player. Cousins is a great player. Cousins obviously
had the very frustrating season. It just seems almost everything was going wrong for
him. He's on the ice just like weird puck touches, not great passes,
just didn't really seem like he's utilizing a skill set like he was in
the season prior. And I think a guy like Dylan Cousins, the huge
question around him is what's his true shooting ability. I think we really saw
those gold totals explode in twenty twenty two to twenty three, and I think
a lot of people expected that to maybe continue because for a lot of young
players, once they learn how to shoot in the NHL, they continue at
that level. It's just about making that jump. Of Dylan Cousins, it
seemed like he made that jump to be able to score goals the NHL level,
and then his shooting percentage regress back down again. So he's a guy
where it's a big question of what's this guy's overall game, because what's his
baseline. I think he's a guy who's a great athlete, is a fantastic
skater, big forward, But in terms of that game in, game out
type of play, I think there's still a lot of questions that need to
be answered there. I think the one benefit he does have is that he's
signing Buffalo long term, and he's also a center, so naturally he's always
going to be giving opportunities in the top six. I think a guy like
Paterca, he's just a guy who consistently has been having great games for the
Savers. I think he's a player who as a prospect, a lot of
people did not know the dimension he had to his game or the dimension he's
been able to add to his game as a prospect. He's really just a
fantastic rounded player. We've seen the production take off a little bit last season,
and that followed a great World Championships. You have Jeremy in twenty twenty
three where he was the player of the tournament there. I think he's a
guy who's just very fun to watch. I think a coach like Lindy Ruff
coming in is gonna love a guy like Patka. I think in terms of
point production, I'd say Paterka is a safer bet just because I think he
has a higher baseline than Dylan Cousins. I think Dylan Cousins is probably more
of the boom or bust guy, just because I think with his skinning billion
and his size. He's got that higher ceiling. But I think they're going
to be two valuable pieces for the Savers moving forward. I think they're both
going to be second line players for the Savers next season, and we'll always
have that ability to work their way up onto the top power play unit.
Yeah, definitely good point. I think the contract dictates, so you would
think you'd lean Cousins, but I really love Peturka's game and I think i'd
bet on him. I like the trajectory he's going in, but they'll probably
be similar, I would think like they were this season. Let's move on
to the next guy. One of my favorites, Zach Benson and this kid.
He was lowly ranked in the tidy, but that's because he didn't play
a full season, or he played a lot of the season, but some
of his priiffs aren't quite there yet. But he does so much and I
think it was just a huge surprise that when I first met him at the
draft, I thought, there's no way this Scrinning little kid is ready for
the NHL. He looks so small, But man, he did he ever
show us. He played the whole season as an eighteen year old, and
there are a lot of stats that you could point to show how good Benson
was this season. My personal favorite is that amongst all Sabers forwards, he
was second behind Peturca actually in terms of expected gold differential per sixty minutes,
so as a rate stat he was pretty much better than just about everyone in
all situations. That's bonkers considering his age and how many other good players that
are on the Sabers, or maybe they're not that good, I don't know.
Maybe that says something more about the other players on the team. I'm
not sure. Anyhow, I don't think you should look at his thirty five
point pace and be disappointed. I think you should realize how impressive that is
for such a young player, and that the upside is pretty high there.
What do you think Zach Benson's upside is long term and maybe going into next
season. I truly think Zach Benson has the potential a little bit further down
the road to end up being the Sabers best forward. I think that's just
how confident I am in him as a player. I think he's still got
a lot of runway left in his development in terms of production. It's crazy
that he was eighteen years old for the entirety of the last NHL season.
He didn't turn nineteen until Actually I'm not I man, sure he's ninety year
I think his birthday is in May. So that just shows how crazy it
is that he was both able to crack the Sabers roster and be a fairly
productive player and the Sabers roster and it really wasn't just like the defense for
him. He was a pretty valuable player for the Savers on the defensive end
of the ice. And I think to already get that from a player at
his age, I think it's fantastic. And he really just knows how to
play the game the right way. He knows how to tilt the ice in
his team's favor, he knows how to get under the opponent's skin. He
knows how to win puck battles and turn that into positive plays for his team.
I think he's got all of those skills to be a fantastic NHL forward.
He's not the biggest guy, he's not the fastest skater, but he
knows how to use his skill set and leverage that into being a really valuable
player. So I just think that the sky's a limit with him. I
think he definitely has potentially be the savers best forward. I think his production
is definitely going to increase next season. I think he may even be given
a larger role, like a permanent second line role for most of the next
season. I think he's a guy who Lndy Ruff's going to absolutely love playing
the style that he wants to play. I think Zach Benson he's just a
great player. Once he figures out his shooting at the NHL level, I
think we'll start to see those goals increase, and once the Sabers finally figure
out that top power play unit, I think a guy like Zach Benson will
definitely be featuring on that unit, if not next season, the season after.
Back to the blue line. Rasmus Dollin is the first one we talk
about. He's a star, paid like a star, plays like a star.
Fifteenth ranked in tidy and so well worth it. Fifty nine points this
year, twenty eight of them on the power play. Lots of blocks,
lots of hits, lots of shots. He was excellent with the general twenty
five percent scoring discount. Everybody on the team seems to have taken from the
year before. If you aplied that to him, he basically kept up with
that pace and when he's on the ice, he greatly lifts the team's offense.
It's amazing. You can get a chart of Buffalo's five on five offense
with and without Rasmuss Dollin and it goes from very red to very blue when
he goes and skates off. So what was the deal was Is there anything
notable about Zach or about Rasmus Doalin's season to bring out or is he just
steady as she goes one of the better defensemen in the NHL. I think
one of the better things with Dolling last season was I think he got affected
by really just being unlucky when he's on the ice. I think the team
probably should have scored more goals when he's on the ice and given up less,
given like the expected opportunities that we're out there. But other than that,
I still think he's just that guy for the Savers. I think he's
probably their best player, their most talented player. He's going to be a
guy that the Savers really rely on in a leadership role in the future.
Most people believe that he's going to be the next captain of the Buffalo Savers,
So he's going to be a guy who's going to be leaned upon a
lot for the Savers, especially as they hope to take the jump next season
new playoff spot. It always gets big ice time, fantastic offensively, has
really just done it all for the Savers, and I think last season having
that be his dropoff year, I think is pretty encouraging for Sabers fans because
we've seen some bad drop off years for him before, but that was earlier
on in his career. So now that I think he's entering his prime as
a player, I think he's a guy he can consistently rely upon to just
be one of the best defenders in the league and be a very valuable piece
for the Savers. And when those forwards start producing a little bit more,
I expect those point totals to increase for him as well. And on the
flip side, owen power, he maybe did not blow up the league and
the way that some of us hope. Maybe I'm being too negative. He
has also gotten paid. He's under contract for eight years eight point three to
five mill per. This year, he put up thirty three points nine of
them in the power play, he had one hundred and fifteen blocks, forty
five hits, one hundred and eight shots. His point base was actually consistent
with his rookie year, but he ticked down fifty three seconds of average time
on ice, which was surprising to me. How does Owen Power fit in
with the there's one big defenseman we're going to get to and one of them
we already have. How does Power fit in on this blue line now?
And is he really going to end up having the primary role that some of
us thought he might whin he was drafted so highly. Oh, It's definitely
going to be interesting to see own Power's role moving forward. I still think
he's firmly that number two guy, but I think on a lot of other
NHL teams he'd already be being groomed and being that number one defense fan on
the roster. I think having a guy like do Lean in front of him
maybe suppresses his production a little bit. The interesting thing with Owen Power is
that he's a pretty fantastic offensive player. It just doesn't really show up on
the scoreesheet for his individual stats like goals and assist. He's a guy that's
at a kick starting a breakout with a great zone exit pass, and just
the little stuff in the game like that. So when he's on the ice,
the team scores. I guess the issue with him is he's not always
getting a point when his team scores. But I do think he's a guy
who took a jump really just in his goal scoring ability last season. I
think earlier on in his career with the Sabers, we saw a guy who
was able to get to the dangerous areas of the ice, especially for a
bigger defenseman, but he just didn't really have the shooting ability or the confidence
to finish off those chances. And he was also a guy who's pretty hesitant
with shooting early on his NHL career. Now he seems a little more confident
in getting that shot off when he has the opportunity. So I think that's
definitely a positive development in own powers game. I think he's going to be
a guy who is a great NHL defenseman for a very long time, but
he's definitely going to have a unique development path with having a guy like Rasmus
Dalli in front of him. But I do think he's still a guy that
a lot of Sabers fans want a little bit more from him, especially on
defensive end of things, but I think most people would say they're pretty happy
with his development so far. But he's still a guy he's expected to take
that next step. Speaking on about a guy we've expecting to take a next
step for a while now, is Bowen Byram the newest one of the newest
members of the Buffalo Sabers has been one of my favorites for a long time.
Obviously, he was great in the playoffs for Colorado when they won the
Cup, but he's had some pretty inconsistent regular seasons. I think that's fair
to say he's had some pretty decent point paces without playing a whole lot of
games. This season, he actually played the most games he's ever played and
still ended up only at a thirty three point pace combined. We only saw
eighteen games of him in Buffalo, but some of them were really fun.
I've always been a fan of his the health issues, and another thing that
was really weird this year is typically his underlying numbers have been good. His
great stats have been good. It hasn't just translated based on time on ice
and some other factors, but this season they were really not good. So
I'm wondering, Walter, what you think about Byron fitting in long term?
You know, will where will he fit on the depth chart? Will he
get second power play time ahead of power or potentially lose some of those opportunities.
What do you think about Bow and Byron moving forward? Bom, Byron's
definitely an interesting piece on the Savers. Obviously they got Dollying in power already,
both Latannah shots and out of there Bow and Byron to that mix.
When Byron first got traded the Savers, they're using him on a parent Rasmus
Dolling. They're giving him power playtime, and he scored a few goals on
his first few games as a Buffalo Saver, and things were looking great in
terms of Byron's future outlook on the Sabers as a season. When on he
cooled off a bit production wise, and he really wasn't as noticeable on the
ice towards the tail end of the Sabers season, and I think he played
more like the guy that you've seen some Colorado Avalanche fans talking about. Towards
the end of his time in Colorado. It just seemed like something was like
a little off there. He's obviously a fantastic skater, has a great mind
for the game, but it just didn't show up every night for the Sabers
and the Avalanche this season as well. So he's a player who I think
the Savers are going to lean upon in a bit of a softer role,
probably that number three role. I think he's a player that could maybe fit
very well into Lindy Rouff's system. We've seen Lindy Ruff when things were going
well in New Jersey. The way that team played was they really just killed
plays early, use their speed, use their skating, and I think a
guy like bo and Byram, with his skating ability, with his speed,
I think maybe he could excel in a system where you're killing plays early in
the neutral zone with your skating, with your speed and turning it up ice
quickly and hopping in the play as a defenseman. I think that's where he
really thrives. And the Sabers really relied a lot on that inverted offense last
season, where the defenseman come down from the point, the forwards go back
to cover the point when in the offensive zone, and anytime you do that,
you're really looking for a defenseman who can't finish off their scoring opportunities,
and bom Byron has been a guy who consistently throws NHL career for a defenseman
has been able to finish off those scoring opportunities, So I think there is
some potential there with him. I think the big thing is that he's got
two big names like Power and Dollan in front of him. If he could
possibly hop on a pair with one of those two, like the Rasmus Dallion
pair we saw early on in his tenure, I think he's a guy who
could see some pretty good production. And I think he's a guy who could
still see second power play unit time even with own power already being on that
unit. I think they may even run two defensemen on that unit. Good
point. We've seen that before, so maybe we'll see all three of them
get power play time. It'll be fun. Let's finish up with the goalies.
So the Sabers were ranked twenty fourth in terms of exp goal against per
sixty with two point seven seven, but they conceded the eleventh actual number of
goals, so that was a little bit better. And looking at the goalies,
Ukapeca Lucan and obviously had a pretty nice you know bounce back season.
I think to his game he had fifty four games to Devin Levi's twenty three
and er Comery played ten, and the row numbers were pretty good for Ukapeca.
Lucan In his goal save above expected was really nice nine point seven to
six point two four Delta Fenwick. He's an RFA this summer. I'm pretty
sure he earned himself a raise, so that was pretty nice and a lot
of us had a lot of high expectations for Levi coming into the season.
Obviously it was maybe a bit too much of him early on or too much
for him, but I think he really showed out. If you look at
the whole body of work, it was actually quite good. Seven point nine
two save percent sorry, goal save above expected that's really nice, as Delta
Fenwick was point eight. Those numbers are solid, even though we were remember
potentially some maybe not so good performances and the team maybe relying on him a
little too heavily at the beginning. What do you think the goalie ten I'm
going to look like next season, Walter and what can we expect from UPL
and Devin Levy. I think the goalies are probably the most exciting part about
the Sabers team at this time. I actually remember coming on this podcast for
last season talking about Eric Comery and UPL and about which goalie I think is
going to get this starting job. And I was actually someone who was maybe
a little more confident in Eric Comery than I should have been, and wasn't
as confident in UPL. So that kind of really shows the season UPL had
last year. He was in his last trial as a Saverers goalie before they
would potentially move on from him, and he really just excelled. I don't
think we've seen him play like that at the NHL level yet in his career,
and he was just always solid. It always seemed like he was in
the right place, just seemed very calm out there. This was really great
at keeping the game in front of him, and he gave the Saber a
fighting chance and nearly every game he played in, which as an NHL team,
that's about the most he good asked, very, goalie is just saving
what you should save, maybe a little bit more, and just giving your
team a chance every night to win the game with their offense. And that's
really what UPL did for them last year. And I think he's a guy
who's definitely gonna be the number one next season. In terms of the backup
role, I think it's got to be Devin Levi, and he's another exciting
young goalie. He had some rough games in Buffalo to start off the season,
mixed in with a few good games. They called him up later on
in the season, he had some even more good games. I feel like
the bad games got filtered out with the time he has been able to put
in down in Rochester and now was a guy who's down in the AHL right
now in their playoff run, and he's been absolutely incredible for the Rochester Americans
and their playoff run has really kept that team in a ton of games.
Just had a sixty save performance the other night. So he's another just fantastic
young goalie. I think with the Savers goalie tandem, I think you definitely
look at a team like Boston with Olmark and Swayman, and you look at
a team like Vegas with Aiden Hill and Logan Thompson. I think if you're
a Savers fan, I think you're really hoping that those two guys can be
the next great NHL goaltending tandem. And what we've seen from UPL last season,
with the numbers we've seen from Devin Levi throughout his college career, even
in his time in the NHL and Ahl, I think you're really hopeful that
those are the two guys who can really push the team to the playoffs next
season. I think getting twenty five to thirty five games from Levi next season,
giving UPL the rest of the starts, I think that's just going to
be huge for the Savers because you're getting two very solid goalies that I'll be
playing every night for this team. And that's something that we really didn't even
get for the Savers last season because Eric Comedy wasn't that great and it seemed
like the Savers really excelled and out that great goalie player in front of them.
So I think next season, I think the goal tanks be huge for
the Savers, and I think there are two guys who will continue to be
great. The hockey world is a better place with Ukupek and Luken in with
relevance because I just want to keep saying that name for an entire fifteen year
career. That is going to probably do us. Wrap us up on the
Buffalo Sabers Walter, this has been some great information once't you tell people how
to follow you out there in the greater world. Sure you could follow me
on X at Sabermetrics s A, B R E, me et ri I
X and you can also find some of my written work at the Charging Buffalo.
They could also be found on X and Instagram. So yeah, looking
forward to hopefully a good Buffalo Saviors season next year. Absolutely, we're we're
pulling for you. Good luck and thank you so much for coming on Walter,
Thank you Wolf. Since then, that's good fire pass up. Oh
my goodness, world long ago with a Kat gram. Now it's your wingley
goalie talk but Kat Silverman. Kat's instincts joined once again by Kat Silverman of
ngal mag to talk some prospect goalies here and there's some interesting ones here with
Buffalo. We are going to start with Scott Ratzlaf and he's six foot one,
one hundred and seventy four pounds. They just picked him last year in
twenty twenty three in the fifth round. Good time to take a goalie.
This was his third season with the Seattle Thunderbirds of the WHL, and so
far he's been doing pretty well. In terms of his equivalency, it's up
to around the twenty six percent mark, which is not bad for a goalie.
Overall, Seattle has been a really good team. He hasn't played the
most games the last couple of years, but this last year he played fifty
two nine oh five say percentage, he was you know, overall not bad.
There's a couple of interesting comps for him in that hockey prospecting model.
I would say Ryan Miller is an interesting one. Obviously Ryan Miller was great
and maybe he won't quite live up to that, but also a Buffalo Saber.
The numbers are actually a little bit better for Rats Left at the current
level of the same development time with Miller. That doesn't mean he'll be better.
One of the things that I think is fun with the FHL player cards
that we have for goalies is you can see passes per sixty and that stands
out right away for Rats Left. He likes to play the puck, I
can assume only just by looking at this card. I don't know that,
but this is one of the fun things you can tell about the card,
is that you can tell he likes to play the puck, which is nice
because sometimes you don't know that about goalies unless you watch them like you do
Kat, and so for us ignorant people, that stands out. His expected
goals per goal against number is also great, and some of his other numbers,
like say percentage. So overall, this player card looks like pretty strong
for him. But what do your instincts tell us about rats Luff? He's
one of those goaltenders who can be a little frightening to watch, but it's
a lot of fun to watch because he isn't super super huge, and so
he really likes to make sure that he isn't standing still at any point.
He wants to make sure that essentially his opponents aren't given the chance to really
pick his corners and pick his weaknesses and exploit things. So tends to be
a little more aggressive, which we really don't see from too many goaltenders at
this point in time. We're seeing a lot of them, We've talked about
this in the past, almost get a little too over technical with their gameplay.
He has no issues with that. He I wrote down that he does
like to challenge the way that the shooter comes at him, and he doesn't
get his arms moving too much, but he does like to come out of
his crease a little more, and he does like to play the puck,
and that's something that I'm always interested to see how that translates beyond essentially the
major junior in the minor league level, just because there are some teams that
really do that that In the past, we've talked about some NHL teams that
do better at playing a pass first game with the goaltender. Saint Louis was
always really good at that with some of their older goaltenders, and that's something
that he could be really good at. That's not something that we see from
too many of the Buffalo goaltenders, though, so I'm interested to see how
he fits into their system because that's not something that their current era apparent.
Devin Levi, he's certainly not a past first goaltender. He tends to play
the game a little more. I have my job, you guys have yours.
Will divvy up the responsibility pretty evenly, and rest Off's a little bit
more of a jack of all trades there. I am a little more optimistic
about where that will go for him looking at how the Rochester Americans have done
Now that Devin Levi is in their system because for a while their goaltenders were
really struggling at the minor league level. But I do think that he needs
a little more technical seasoning. I know that some of the goaltenders that we
talk about, we say great, their technique looks great, they just need
to work on their confidence or their decision making, or they need to really
add in their high end game. And I think for him it's still he
needs a little bit more work on that technical foundation. So it's he could
get there. It's just surprising to see a goaltender that still needs technical work
like he does, which might explain why he was I believe he was a
later round pick. Yeah, so I think they're going to just keep an
eye on that one for a little bit. Yeah. I love late round,
fifth round swings on someone and let them sounds like he allows a lot
of right raw talent and confidence and needs a little refining, which is great.
He's got probably one more year in the WHL. He is with the
Rochester Americans right now during their playoff run. Not sure he'll get into any
games, just like he was with Canada for the U twenties even though he
did not play, But he might get some of those opportunities next year,
which would be really good for him. So let's move on to the next
guy, to Pious Leninin and I have to say I was a little bit
more optimistic about this guy when they drafted him. I thought that he I
thought that it was a pretty decent pick and that he would work out.
Obviously, still too early to tell, but I don't think it's gone particularly
well since then. He's six foot five, two hundred and thirty four pounds,
twenty twenty two second round pick. And yeah, so this season was
he didn't play a whole lot of games, so that's part of it,
but he was all over the place. He was split between the U twenty,
the Liga, and the Mestis and he had a total of to what
twelve games across all those leagues, so not a lot, and that kind
of made his equivalency trend down. It has been trending down since his draft
season, where he actually played a decent lot of U twenty games. But
his draft season he had a couple of Liga games already and some really strong
performance in his U twenty, but he's been trending down. His best comp
right now looks like Mike Condon, which obviously wouldn't be great, and his
FHL player card is hilarious because all of these, like almost all the numbers
look really bad except his goals against, which looks pretty good and that we
know is typically more of a team stat than an individual goalie stat. And
then he had a fair number of saves. So that's it's like you were
in goal. That's what we can say about your performance. But I'm sure
you have more eloquent things to say. Katz, the whata your instincts tell
us about Tapius Lennon in He's Oh, he's a really weird one because he
the way he played, looked like he was going to do pretty well and
it's just not panning out. He's one of those guys that I thought he
he looks like he has decent size. I know that I was reading up
on some other reports that were done on him by some other goaltending scouts,
and they were talking about how he had really good puck handling skills and that
does not show up in his numbers at all. He didn't have a ton
of available film to look at this year just because he didn't get to play.
He really didn't play much this year, and I don't know with him
how much attention Buffalo should focus on potentially keeping him around because they do have
a really intriguing younger prospect in their system. Obviously, Devin Levi's doing very
well for them, so I think they don't necessarily need to cut ties with
him, but I think he needs to show at least this upcoming year that
he's going to play consistent games, and that may just be a byproduct of
the system that he was in. Once again, he was like some of
the other goaltenders over in Finland. He was a guy who got shuffled around,
and they've done that to him for three straight years now, where he's
played you twenty games, he's played in the Mestas and then he's played in
the Liga, so he has to do a lot of travel, has to
do a lot of moving around between the juniors, the minor leagues and their
top league, and also had some international games in there, nothing World Junior
related, but did play just was on their U twenty team at the national
level. And I don't think that giving him that many bounce arounds for three
straight years is doing him any doing him any favors. I think they need
to stick him in a league and leave him there for a year, just
to give him a chance to get some reps in, get some consistency in,
because he does have good speed when he's on his skates. The film
footage that I did manage to find him, he looks fast for his size.
He looks like he can control his game. He just hasn't gotten a
chance to really establish it. And he's at that kind of sweet spot age
wise where if he doesn't get a chance to play a lot, I think
we'll start to see that backslide a little bit, and he certainly won't become
a high quality prospect for them if he's not getting the chance to really get
in those reps. Don't love what's being done for him. His gameplay is
not doing him any favors. But he could end up being good. He's
got the overall physical attributes to be good. He just hasn't been. It's
all about asset management. Is this a case where you think a by low
is appropriate, like, either as an NHL team or as a fantasy manager?
Do you think it might be? Because the cost to acquire him in
fantasy is probably nothing right now, because he hasn't been good, even though
he had a decent draft pick draft pedigree. Would you take a low probability
but low stakes bet on that on the prison if you have the availability to
do it, maybe, But once you see a guy who's struggling that much,
if there's a chance that Buffalo is going to take other goaltenders to essentially
fill in their minor league ranks, the way he's playing overseas right now,
it doesn't look like he is making a good case to come over to North
America. So I think I think you could run the risk of him not
making his way over at all. And even though he was drafted pretty aggressively
high, I don't know if other teams would necessarily take a flyer on him
unless he really wanted to come over, and then it would probably be a
minor league only deal unless it was Buffalo themselves. I guess maybe i'd give
it. I'd say he probably still has a little bit of a flyer chance
there for another year or two. But I certainly wouldn't be looking at his
numbers and saying this is going to be my sleeper pick because I don't think
he's going to be Yeah, makes sense as a really low probability flyer.
You could got him to your team. Wait a year, maybe two,
don't expect much. There's still a chance because he's still huge and has the
size and on the pedigree and all that, so you never know. Thanks
so much for giving us your instincts on the Buffow Saber Goalies. Cat will
be back right after this dig nine of those Sabers edition. The Sabers they
are set up with the eleventh. Eric Johnson netted them an extra third this
year. Their fourth has gone away. Otherwise, they've got the normal and
full complement of draft picks and their prospect system in the Victor Nunial model is
tied for tenth best in the National Hockey League. We start with our no
brainer. Who is in Victor One of my favorite players, Jury Kulik.
He was a twenty twenty two to twenty eighth overall pick sixty one and eighty
five pounds. He had a fantastic season in the AHL up to scoring from
forty six points to sixty two games to forty five points in fifty seven games.
He got one NHL game, didn't score any points, and he was
awesome for Chechia at the World Junior Championships. He was just incredible for them.
Twelve points and seven games really helped push them forward as much as he
possibly could. It's interesting looking at his playing his tracking data from that World
Juniors. He it looks like he had really poor transition data, which is
not something that I usually think about him because he's very mobile. He skates
fast and he usually gets the puck going quickly. But his transition data was
awful seventeenth percentile his controlled exits and entries. Of course, this is a
small sample size because Mitch tracked all seven games he played in, but still
it's only seven games, so it's not that big of a sample. So
interesting that his transition game looks poor, but his offense and defense look great,
and that's what I've always thought him a good two way player, and
that's that's a good thing to know about Coolick. Looking at his FHL player
card from the HL time, his shots and goals are what stand out the
most. He's got a really good shot. He had twenty seven goals this
season in fifty seven games, so that's a pretty nice number, almost half
a goal per game, which is great. He wasn't as high in the
blocks and shots, but it isn't a total vacuum there. It's just a
little bit less than average. So overall he's looking pretty strong. I have
him as a seven out of ten on my ranking, and his World Junior
Championship player cards showed his numbers. We're pretty much the same, except maybe
a little bit more hitting from him. But let's find out a little bit
more about your Koolik from OURFHL Scout Jesse Indeed, and all of today's Scout
reports on the Buffalo Sabers by the way, our courtesy of Joshua Rosa FHL
Scout Joshua. Thank you, Surah stick taps. In terms of mister Koolik,
he is a big guy and so the skating means he uses a big,
powerful stride to make it up and down the ice quickly. Kulik is
usually one of the first forwards back in his own zone for defensive help and
has speed to break away from defenders on the fast break. Kulik has some
surprisingly soft hands in tight space is whether it's deaking around defenders along the wall,
undressing goalies, and breakaways. His passing is solid, quick and accurate,
but he lacks the standout vision in pinpoint accuracy of the very best fuck
distributors. In terms of shooting, Kolik has a hard rister that can be
tough for goalies to handle and can reliably be used to create rebounds and second
chances. Joshua says he's good at getting his shot off quickly and in tight
spaces, not afraid to get to the center of the ice and the slot,
which allows him to make the most of a shot. In terms of
iq being a big body, Koolik is willing and able to get to the
front of the net for screens and high danger shots. On the power play.
He's frequently the fulcrum with the puck or directs traffic with his stick when
others have possession. Very positionally aware whether it's getting too high danger areas in
the offensive zone or covering defensively, Kolik knows he has multiple skills and ways
to get out of dangerous situations and keeps his head in awe checking. He
uses a combination of speed and size to be an effective ford checker. Kulika
always finishes his checks in the offensive zone to keep defenders honest. He can
keep up with his skating. He also has excellent hand eye coordination, which
he uses multiple times to break up saucer or cross ice passes. In terms
of defense, the standout ability for Kolik corded Joshua is the two hundred foot
game. Generally one of the first forwards to help back on defense, will
usually cover for pinching defenders in his own zone. Kolik is fast and physical,
good at footing pressure on opponents, not afraid of puck battles, and
difficult areas in the ice to make a defensive play. So that was the
best as set overall that two hundred foot player ability able to help out defenders
in his own zone and chip in offensively, big, quick, able to
jump in the fast break and make it back to break up a play going
the other way. The biggest concern Joshua was not sure how well his offense
of game will translate to the next level. He has a good shot in
a good pass, but it might not be as effective against NHL competition,
and a lack of offensive output may keep him from being a top line center.
The top outcome that josh twas sees is a point per game score sixty
to eight point score with Elite Bash, a top six center. Ooh,
that would be nice, and that would be because he's an effective defensive forward
in the NHL, the question of course being the offensive output the fiftieth percentile.
The median outcome that Joshua sees here would be a sixty to seventy point
score with below average BASH or a fifty to sixty point score with above average
or elite BASH, and that would be the case if the genuine question marks
on his offensive game translating do not work out well. If Kooley struggles to
score like he did earlier in his career, the ceiling could be only mid
six, shutdown type role stylistic comparable. He's got the body and physicality and
speed of Pierre Luke du Bois and the defensive awareness of Philip Denil. Those
would be nice and the final thoughts. Progression that Koulik has made since being
drafted has been phenomenal. Originally drafted as a defensive forward, but since has
added a lot of offensive skill translated into hl's success. If this upward trajectory
continues, he could very easily become one of the better second line centers that
plays in all situations in all zones. Mason Black the NHL rank. King
dared to put Yurie Kulik up against Maverick Bork of the Dallas Stars, and
wouldn't you know it, Koulik came out ahead of Ork in the end,
fifty seven to forty three percent. Victor, you like mister Bork quite a
bit too, right? Is Koulik your favorite in this contest? This is
just mean. This is mean by Mason to put these two up against each
other. They're two of my favorites for sure. Mason's passionate passive aggressiveness has
manifested early in the previous season. I see, no, it's good.
It's good to have two guys that are both interesting and similar. Bork is
two years older than Kulick. They're both in their second year of the AHL,
and Bork was the player of the year. I mean, he was
incredible. He was phenomenal for the Texas Stars. Seventy seven points in seventy
one games, four points and two playoff games are playing tonight as we're recording
this, and he's back in and they have a really good chance of winning.
So he's awesome. I think it's hard to compare because he is just
a little bit older, but I do think that Bork has a little bit
more offensive, dynamic offensive ability than Kolick. That's kind of something that Josh
was hinting at as well. Coolick might just be a better middle six,
energy type, shutdown center, and I think that's reasonable. I think he
has offensive pop. I think he could be like a field to o who's
still fantasy relevant but mostly gets defensive deployment, and you'll hate that as a
fantasy GM because you want you always want your players to have more offensive zone
starts and whatever. I like both of these guys. I would really want
both of them on my team. But if if push came to Shoven,
I really had to choose, I would lean Pork just because I think he
has more of that offensive pop and I really like the situation in Dallas.
He is a center, I think, but they could also move him to
the wing. They're gonna need some center, some true centers. We've seen
a little bit of that already with Why Johnston moving to the wing or playing
some center, and they can do that with Pork too, So it's a
good problem to have. I like that. In terms of Koli his star
potential, it's been a little bit low and part of the issue with that
is that Byron didn't have an equivalency for his D minus ones season, or
really low equivalency, so it looks poor. But since he's come to North
America, his AHL production has been solid, and I think you can lean
a lot from that and his PNHL being in that seventy range. He looks
a little bit like Carterifer Hagey in the Hockey Prospecting model. He also looks
like a lot of the guys that are average producers or busts. He looks
decent in the top down Hockey model twelve percent chance of being a star,
with eighty three percent chance of being in NHL ors You'ury Coolick is definitely someone
that I'm interested and I actually got a couple of shares of him last offseason
when people weren't believing his strong AHL production. I think that the other issue
is where does he fit in this Buffalo lineup, because they do have a
lot of skill forwards coming along, and we I don't know exactly where he
will fit. He might end up just being more of a matchup player,
which would be that's the reason to maybe be a little bit worried about coolick,
but I think his skill will shine through and I think he'll still be
a relevant player. If not, maybe he won't be a seventy plus point
per game guy, but still be relevant. Lector, I've got him in
the diesel. Come talk to me, Come talk to me. You're a
coolick. Here he is, Victor. Next up, we've got your need
to know prospect. Who is it? Need to know? Is Matthew Savoy
twenty two, ninth overall pick. He's still small, only five and sevy
nine pounds. Played mostly in the WHL. He did get one NHL game,
played a few HL games. He was all over the place, but
he did have five points in six HL games, which was nice. Then
he went back to the WHL where the franchise moved from Manitoba to Winachi to
be the one Acchi Wild and he then got traded to Moose Jaw. So
he's been all over the place. I think that's tough for a young player,
but he's handled it well. He's produced really well for Moose Jaw and
looks like really good in the playoffs as well. That's pretty much what you
could ask from him from what he had to go through, and he his
NHL his player card from Mitch Brown, it looks stellar. I mean his
offense, transition defense, it all looks really good. There's a lot of
blue on the card seven percent overall. The transition games a little bit low,
but offense defense both similar, and that's great to see. You look
at his FHL player card and you can see that the hits and blocks are
a little bit low, but the shots are high, the points are high.
All that looks really good. And we need to hear a little bit
more about what makes Matthew Savoy tech. So let's hear that from OURFHL scout.
Yes, Sir Joshua once again says of Savoy's skating. While he's not
an out and out speedster, he is a fast skater who regularly uses his
breakaway speed to create distance between himself and defenders. Takes advantage of fast breaks
in terms of passing in handling. Savoy's offensive skills those are his bread and
butter, the passing and handling. They really shine on the bower play with
plenty of time and space. Killer combination of skill and IQ slash creativity that
it can be difficult to tell what Savoy is going to do next. He
can beat defenders with slick stick handling or make small adjustments to get the perfect
shot or pass off around defenders. For shooting, there was one goal where
Joshua said he had rewind a couple of times to see where and how exactly
the shot even went in. Savoy can get a heavy, accurate shot off
really quickly, definitely second to stick handling in terms of his top skills,
but a big enough threat to keep defenders and goalies true on the shot.
For the IQ, Savoy has a brain for offense, excels in all facets,
seems to live for the puck on his stick and pretty much always makes
a good decision with the puck. Sometimes he can force passes, but generally
he has the skill to pull off some beautiful and surprising passes in plays,
especially dangerous on the fast break, whether that's alone and depending on his handles
and shot, or with a teammate, giving him even more options for for
checking. While Joshua doesn't see Savoy as a standout for checker, he can
use his speed in low center of gravity to be quite unannoying presence to opposing
defenders. For defense, Savoy did get penalty kill time this year and it
didn't look out of place. He has an active stick in the defensive zone,
but sometimes with that lack of size only being five to ten one seventy
nine, that got him into trouble. Best asset the offensive IQ and skill
in all facets of the offensive game. The biggest concern once again the size
and the defense, and josh Joshua says he's never going to be a Selki
nominee, and big defenders might cause some trouble when there's less time to work.
The top tier outcome tier one point per game plus player elite offensive talent,
and that would be what would happen if all of his potential skills to
be an elite first line player came together. He could skate, he could
score, he could pass, not a liability in his own zone. That's
what it would look like for him to come out in his top outcome fifty
percentile roll seventy to eighty point score with below average BASH or a sixty to
seventy point score with above average or elite bash. The justification. That's what
would happen if he's at least a power play specialist and a middle six forward.
The biggest problem fantasy wise, is that if he's not producing points,
he likely won't be doing much else. The stylistic comparable hold on to your
buckets here, Savoy could become a Brayton point type player, great versatile forward
that threatens one hundred points. Oh boy, it would be shocking to Joshua
if Matthew Savoy isn't a full time NHL player soon and not having a positive
offensive impact, especially if he's paired with another great young offensive talent who tilts
the ice and drives play like no one else. M Zach Benson him the
futures Bright and Buffalo. Savoy is a big part of that. Our friend
Mason Black the NHL rank King pot Matthew Savoy up against one of my favorites,
Danilla, You're off, and I think Victory you might be coming onto
You're off, although he's still my off. Not You're off Matthew Savoy versus
Danilla You're off of the Minnesota Wild and You're Off actually defeats Matthew Savoy.
I think maybe the twitterati might have a little lower opinion of Savoy than our
guy Joshua did. What about the deciding voat of Victor Nunill. Yeah,
we've come on a long way from the moment where I declared that you're off
your rocker for liking Danilla so much. Jesse, I think he has come
a long way. Actually just wrote about him for a ramblings for ap Rings
side. It's actually incredible what you're off has done. He just played for
He just had the most points on his KHL team Metalluric Magnetic Gorsk. He
had the most points on the team, which maybe is okay, maybe that's
not impressive, but remember there's a lot of older established players on this team
and he is not that. And he had forty nine points in sixty two
games. So some players had more games than him and didn't have more points
he had. He beat the next best by eight points, and he did
so while having the twelfth most ice time twelve. He was only twelveth in
ice time for the leading scorer. That's ridiculous to me. And what's even
worse is I think he had who was the thirteenth most power play time on
ice. These are absurd numbers that he had and he made the most of
it on the KHL winning Gargan Cup championship team. So It's not like he
was doing it for some no name team that didn't matter and wasn't trying to
win. He's leading his team to the Cup with very little ice time,
So I'm very impressed by that. With your off, I do think the
Pinochilly of eighty four that might be slightly inflated. But do you think he
can be a seventy to eighty point guy. And I think there's more proof
of concept there for him than there is with Savoy, who's still playing against
junior competition. So I would definitely take your off here, and I think
that there's a really good chance that he gels with Courtel Caprisov on that top
line from Minnesota. Now we are going to have to wait, unfortunately,
because he is signed You're off is signed for one more year in the KHL,
so that's going to be unfortunate. But it's not too much much longer
that we'll have to wait to see him come over. And remember he still
is pretty young, so you love to see that. But back to Savoy,
I know that back in the day we talked about the comparisons of Braiden
Point and Joel Henderson said all the reasons why Matthew Savoy is not going to
be Braden point two point zero, but it seems like he has made some
improvements in the areas that were question marks for him. So you love to
see that. He loved to see players improving. Of course, we need
to see him in the AHL, which will happen this year. He turned
on New Year's Day, he turned twenty, so he'll be in the HL
next season, so it'll be really good to see how his offense translates.
So yeah, he's definitely still a really good smart player. It's just a
question of how well all that offense is going to translate. He looks really
good in the Hockey Prospecting Model, sixty six percent chance of being star.
Looks really good, basically a lock to be in NHL or his equivalence.
He looks a little higher than your offs actually in this model. But I'm
not going to vote against the guy that who just lit up the KHL with
very few minutes. That was really impressive. But in terms of Savoy looking
at his comps in the Hockey Prospecting Model, gradon point is there that is
one mkil Grantlin I think is one that's maybe a little bit more realistic.
And of course Grantland's still playing not the player he used to be, but
had some pretty relevant seasons, and I think Savoy could end up being like
that. The top down Hockey model really likes Savoy has him at thirty two
percent chance of being a star, and he's number six in this data set.
Pretty high. Yeah, I think that there's a pretty good likelihood that
Savoy is amongst those top forwards in Buffalo. That's going to be very crowded
here very soon, Jesse, yep, and you're off. By the way,
his team did win the Gagarian Cup. They are the champions of the
Gaugel right now, Victor last up to keep your eye on prospect? Who
is it? Noah Oastland is the keep your eye on. So he was
twenty twenty two to sixteenth overall, pick five to eleven hundred and sixty three
pounds, twenty three points in thirty eight games for Valuo Vaccio value. I'm
not sure how to say that Lakers of the SHL. He also played in
the World Juniors for Sweden ten points in seven games. He was really great
in that tournament. He played a couple games for the Rochester Americans. He's
on loan right now and getting in some games in North America, which is
really nice to see. He's also ap peered in a couple of playoff games.
In his tracking data from the World Juniors, he was outstanding. A
lot of blue there, a lot of offense transition game looks excellent. His
defense a little bit lower. But I do think he's a good two way
center and his primary port involvement and game score all that looks excellent. If
I look at his Fantasy Hockey Life player card, one thing that isn't represented
here that I know he is pretty good at his face off wins. He
is a center. I do think he'll be a center at the NHL level,
even though he's five to eleven. I think he's probably good down the
middle. For that. His FHL player card doesn't show anything as a major
standout skill. He is playing in a really tough league, the SHLS.
A young player. He played most of this season as a nineteen year old,
so he'll be twenty next season. But most of his metrics didn't look
that great. He's not a volume shooter. He doesn't hit a block too
much, so some of those other peripheral things aren't super great for Oceland,
but he is a pretty good play driver. So let's find out a little
bit more about Oceland from rftel Scout Indeed, and what did Joshua have to
say about Noah Oaceland his skating. He's a dynamic and fast skater, able
to pick up a lot of speed quickly, maneuver at high speeds, uses
his speed to break in on a pass, break make it back on the
defensive end. Strength for Oceland has improved since his draft yere, allowing him
to withstand more physical pressure from defenders and even add more explosiveness in his stride.
As far as passing and handling, Oceland's main strength in the offensive zone
is that passing in handling, sometimes to his detriment. In the offensive zone,
he is the clear setup man, and he does that very well with
his slick hands to handcuff defenders in great vision to execut who passes to teammates.
His fast hands open up tons of passing lanes which he attacks constantly.
Unfortunately, he can rely too much on his passing and often passes up premier
shooting opportunities. So as far as the shooting, the worst part of the
shooting is that he doesn't do it often enough, says Joshua. Definitely runs
far more comfortably as a passer and that limits his offensive potential. Generally uses
his speed and hands to put himself into high dangerous situations where a quite accurate
risk is his best weapon. While not a particularly heavy shot, it's a
pretty accurate one in terms of IQ. This is Osland's greatest skill. According
to Joshua, everything in his game stems from the IQ in division. Constantly
finds weak points in the opponent's defenses attacks them quickly, whether with speed or
hands to turn defenders inside out on the fast break or opening up passing lanes
and firing a cross iized pass onto the stick of a teammate. For for
checking, Ostland does an admirable for checker, using his speed and work ethic
to be a pest for opponent defenders. He doesn't always have the greatest read
on defenders, but at least puts pressure and takes away time for the breakout.
The added lower body strength has helped them with physical pressure, which will
only continue to improve. For defense. Similar to the Ford checking Oceland is
a dogged defender who can get a little bit of tunnel vision and does get
caught watching. His speed makes him an asset when getting back for the backcheck.
He rarely takes a shift off in either zone, which makes him at
least an adequate defender in all shifts. So the best asset was the terrific
passing and the stick handling, using those along with speed to find offensive opportunities
for himself and more frequently for his teammates. The biggest concern it was the
goal scoring Oceland, it will likely never light the lamp consistently at the top
level. Per Joshua, size could be an issue. He also tends to
stay outside the offensive zone and could use a bit more presence in the center
of the eyes to become fully effective. The top outcome that Joshua says could
come from Oastland's game would be a point per game elite offensive talent. That's
if he's paired with an elite goal scorer. He could be a dominant setup
man and rackup asss like crazy, and can compete and muscle defenders on the
for check. The fiftieth percentile that would be a bit lower than that,
maybe to sevent to eighty with above average. Bash Olslan drives enough play,
provides enough positive impact on both sides of the puck that he should have a
solid middle six potential. May struggle to find the net enough to reach first
line potential, relies on teammates to finish his passing and setups. Stylistic comparable
and again I don't know if we're talking about the outcome quite so much as
the archetype here, folks. Henrik Sedin stylistically Mitch Martner in the stickhandley,
skills and passing and preferences set up rather than shoot. And Joshua just comment
he's such a fun player to watch. His Oastland combination of speed, skill
and tenacity makes him very entertaining. And when he makes it to Buffalo,
josh Will predicts Noah Oasland will be a fan favorite. Mason Black put out
the pole, put out the call, no Oasland, Fabian Lisell of the
Boston Bruins, and Oceland came out in a decisive victory sixty five to thirty
five percent victor. What do you think of that result? Yeah? I
like it. I think that if you depending on what you want here,
because I think Oceland being a center. That's a little bit trickier to project
because where is he gonna fit down the middle? Is he gonna get bumped
down the lineup because they already have some other centers there. That's that's conceivable,
right. You could see him maybe having to play more of a third
line role because of that, but he could also stick in the top six
and slide over to the wing. I do think he's a pretty great play
driver. He's one of the Swiss Army knife players that you can put in
any situation. As a coach, you're really happy and comfortable with him.
So I think that, as Josh said, he'll be a fan favorite player.
The fans will really like him. He's never takes a shift off.
He's always any situation kind of player, which is great for the team.
Does he have that huge offensive dynamic offensive ability. I don't think so,
but he's just so good at leveraging all his skills to put it all together
and be productive. Lisel is very interesting because I do think he's done really
well for Providence and he's shown that he can hang in the HL. I'm
still surprised that he hasn't gotten more of a look in the NHL so far
to this point, none, but Boston is a really good team, and
that may be maybe why they'll be a little bit more cautious with Lisel.
I think if I was an NHL team, obviously I'm taking Oastland. If
I'm a fantasy GM, I think I probably would lean Lisel, just because
I think there's more ability for him to slide up the depth chart, especially
on the left side there. I mean, Marshan's getting up there like that
potential, whereas Oslan, I'm not sure he could slide all the way to
the top line because being a center, unless he just becomes a pure winger,
which I doubt, I think they'd like him more in that two or
three C role, and so that might limit his opportunity a bit. He
does have a little bit more fantasy hockey or hockey prospecting star potential does Oslan
than Lisel? Like twelve percent compared to the one percent that Leasel has,
and Oslan actually a pretty good comparable here to Lucas Raymond. I think that's
a pretty reasonable outcome. The main difference here is Raymond's definitely a winger and
Ocelan seems more like a center. But I think you could expect similar outcome,
especially if Ocelan slides over to the wing a little bit. And I
should mention that the j Fresh card is a little less optimistic about Ocelan,
has him had just two percent chance of being a star and six percent chance
of being in NHL or so a little bit more pessimistic on him, but
Jesse, that's going to wrap up our dynasy digg for the Buffalo Sabers.
If you're a patreon you can listen to my top ten prospect recap per team
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