Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks, your source of information
and analysis to help you win your fantasy hockey league. Fuck off, how
to step on? Stay lost? Gosh, here's your host, Jesse Soup
here and Victor back. Coming into your ear drums from fan Tracks headquarters and
joining me is Victor Nuno of many Places, Elite Prospects, Dapper prospects.
Victor, how you doing. I'm doing awesome, Jesse. Yeah, definitely
came into my ear drums right there. If you ever need a wake up
call, just to just play that first part of Jesse saying Fantasy Hockey Life,
it's good, it's good. I appreciate that, Jesse. I'm awake.
Now, how are you good? I have to start out hyped,
Victor, because there's the music. The music is fading in or fading out,
whatever the music is doing. I gotta get my voice above that thing.
But yes, we got to start enthusiastic because we're gonna have fun today.
We're gonna have fun talk and fantasy hockey. The season is closer and
closer. We're talking days away, not weeks, Victor. Days. I
don't think I can quite count it on my fingers and toes yet. I
gotta check see how many fingers intoor toes I have. But we're getting within
that range, I'm pretty sure, right, Oh yeah, definitely. It's
very exciting time. The weather has finally started to change out here in California.
It's getting a little crisp. Yeah, it's happening. I'm ready.
That's sixty eight. That's sixty eight for Victor. That's crisp. That's how
it goes out there. Oh my gosh, it's balmy, it's frigid.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, everybody's feeling for you right now, Victor.
Everybody's feeling for you. But that's all right, that's all right. We're
not haters. We're not haters. We could all move there if we wanted.
That. That said, it is, yeah, Wisconsin a little more
iffy, but really we're actually getting that kind of weather too right now.
We'll see how long it lasts. But September is always a wonderful month,
except for the part where we're waiting for hockey. If you can't wait,
if you need to while you're on your your wonderful autumn walks and you're watching
the leaves fall from the trees, if your mind is turning to hockey and
you need to interact with others who feel the same. You could join our
discord and just stop looking at the discord before you cross the street. I'd
recommend that, but otherwise you can you could be looking at it and interacting
with all of our fund friends there. There's a couple hundred people in that
discord and it's free hit Victor and myself up on X at fan Hockey Life
at Victor Newno. Twelve. If that presents any kind of problem, email
us Fantasy Hockey Life at gmail dot com. X can't shut down. They
can mess with our dms, Victor, but they can't shut down our email.
That's it's you know, that's like survivalist stuff email these days. But
they're also there are a greater level. There are deeper levels to this whole
situation, and they are found in the Patreon and Victor, you've got lots
of cool stuff going to the patreon. Tell the people what's going on.
Yeah, lots of great stuff. The Patreon patron casts. We have the
fantasy ranks, so you can check out all the different goalies forward D twenty
twenty three guys. Those have all kind of been integrated, moved around.
This gets updated throughout the season two. I know a lot of people put
out lists every now and then, which I try to keep them updated in
real time as things happen, as guys look good. I try not to
react too much game by game or anything like that, or even in a
small ish sample size, but I can move guys around after a month or
two of data, depending on how it stacks up against the rest of the
guys. You can also see hits, blocks and shot tears there and top
ten lists for the prospects or for each team that we're doing. And of
course there's the Patron Priority channel. You can see all the show notes.
There's a lot of notes for each show. They're really good to get in
there. And of course the Tidy the Tier Dynasty, which we'll be featuring
on shows throughout the year, and it's a really great league. If you're
not already part of it, there's going to be a new division next year
and you can be part of that, So get on the waiting list if
you want. There's only a couple of names on there right now, but
that's obviously where we're gonna go to first when we open up another division next
summer, Victor. I can hear the sounds of Gotham. I can hear
the sounds of New York. Because we're about to talk Rangers right end.
We'd like to welcome talk to New York Rangers Colin Stevenson from Newsday. How
you doing, Colin, I'm doing well. I'm doing well. I'm getting
ready for training camp. The rookie camp started, and so they're back on
the ice, and then that can only mean the opening nights around the corner.
That's right, that's right. This is a fairly exciting team to follow.
I gotta say you're you pulled a good beat here for the New York
Rangers. I gotta say, I'll In terms of last year's team, at
one level, it was a lot like the prior year. They were in
the middle of the Eastern Conference playoff teams, but the differences maybe the year
before they made it to the conference finals. This year they lost to the
Devils in round one and a certain awesome goalie. In terms of the New
York Rangers help the team allow only the fourth fewest goals in the NHL last
year. That's definitely a huge advantage the Rangers have, But otherwise a lot
of things for the team good but not great necessarily. A lot of big
contracts on the team, A couple more coming up Igor, for example,
two years away, and we'll get to him. Just overall calling, how
was last year perceived by Rangers watchers and what are you expecting for the coming
year? I think for fans of the team it was I wouldn't imagine the
disappointment. They had gone to the Eastern Conference Final in twenty twenty two,
and a lot of people, the super fans, expected them to go deep
and maybe get to the Cup final in twenty twenty three. Some things that
worked, really what's happened sometimes with teams. Some things that worked really well
didn't work as well in the following year. Some things didn't pan out.
And that's the nature of it, right I don't that's part of it's a
process, and we'll see where they are in the process as we go all
into twenty twenty three, twenty four. For sure, one of the guys
who definitely keeps going he's not a problem for this team are Timmy Pannerin a
consistent superstar playmaker over the past six years. I ran the numbers only the
Oilers Boys, McDavid and Drey's title in. Nathan McKinnon over there in the
Avalanche had more points than our Timmy Panneron. He is an assistant master for
us fantasy types. That's what we love. He gets all kinds of assists
every year. Last year, twenty nine goals, sixty three assists for ninety
two points in eighty two games. He shoots at a fourteen point three percent
career rate, but takes fewer shots than the normal superstar, with only two
and a half a game. Panera's going to turn thirty two at the beginning
of the season. Are you expecting another Panarin like season? And could you
please talk to him about taking a few more shots for me? We will
definitely when we see him. I think it's at the end of the last
season. He was pretty bitter. He did not have a strong playoffs,
so he had a real good regular season, which I'm sure for fantasy purposes
is what you're interested in. But obviously he wants to try and win a
cup. It's not one a cup, and I think he didn't He wasn't
crazy about what he had done in the playoffs in twenty twenty two and twenty
twenty three, he did not have a strong playoff at all, and he
left at breakup day. He was down on himself. And I've seen through
social media. I've seen, you know, he got his hair cut over
the summer and was hair It had always been a big thing to him.
So I don't know if he's trying to change up some stuff, and I
don't know what the new plan is for him for this season. There also,
let's not forget they have a new coach as well, and Peter la
Violette, and I think his mandate will be to maybe try and get the
team to play a little bit more of a playoff style in the regular season
than they have in the past. Is the playoffs are a little bit different
in all sports, certainly than the regular season, but in hockey the game
does change quite a bit, and so some of the things that are Timmy
Panarin can maybe do in the regular season, maybe you can't do those things
to that extent and in the postseason. So you know, if they're gonna
try and play playoff hockey in the regular season, I don't know exactly what
that's gonna mean for ar Timmy Panarin, but he is coming back. I
think pretty hungry to prove himself and to try and get to the next level
or whatever. So I think he's gonna have a strong season, is what
I guess. I'm saying. Tremendous a guy who certainly had a strong season
as well last year. Mika's abun a jot. He blew up, especially
for his fantasy types. Hit new career high end points thirty nine goals fifty
to assist ninety one points in eighty two games. That was ten points more
than the year before. He also takes three shots, throws the hit every
single game. Just tremendous stuff out of him. In terms of Mika's Abnejad's
year, how was that perceived? Do you think we're looking forward to another
of the same type of production. Yes, yes, that I believe is
consistent about as far as Mika goes. I do believe that that he's a
guy who is going to give you what he's given you the past few years.
So I think that I think he's solid. Is he Nathan McKinnon.
No, But he's a solid two way guy, and I think he's fairly
consistent, and I think his numbers are going to be where they're going to
be which is ninety points and whatever, somewhere in the thirty goal region.
And speaking of guys who had career years or near career years, Vincent trocheck
boy he in New York were a great match. Last year, he put
up his second best scoring Italian ten years. That was sixty four points into
eighty two games, just under three shots, just over two hits per game.
And he mostly played with Pannerin that was his most common wing mate sixty
percent of his minutes at five on five. Actually he was more successful if
you look at the rate stats with Chris Krider or Patrick Kane versus Artemi Panarin.
He scored almost an additional goal per sixty minutes with Krider than he did
with Pannerin. But anyway, every scenario saw New York heavily on the advantage
when Ziba was on the ice. More importantly, he was a mainstay on
that power play, one seventh most effective power play in the NHL at twenty
four point zero eight percent scoring. He was getting off more dangerous shots than
ever on the power play in terms of those expected goals per sixty that take
into account where you're taking the shots from his rate last year was two point
six five expected goals per sixty in his career. It was one point six
seven, So just hugely better than his rates in his career. Vinny Trocheck,
is he locked in for power play one top six centerman this year and
what are you expecting that to him? So now that's the interesting question.
This is something that we don't know. This is something that we're gonna have
to see with the new coach and how he aligns the players. There's a
lot of pressure. I shouldn't say pressure, but there's a lot of chatter
around here about guys like Alexis Lafrenier, Philip heedel Coppo Cocko. Those guys
generally played together on a third line under Gerard Gallant, and people are a
little impatient about the fact that Lafreniere, particular, was the number one pick
overall in the twenty twenty draft and was supposed to be a superstar hasn't really
blossomed into a superstar. But part of that, the Rangers say, is
because hey, you have Panaran who's ahead of him at that position. He's
a left wing. Panaran's a left wing. Chris Crider's a left wing.
At fifty two goals, a couple of seasons ago, when you have Panarin
and Criner at the top of your left wing depth chart. There then Lafranier
was relegated to third line ice time. And so now there is again,
I don't want to say pressure, but there is chatter about maybe figuring out
a way to get Lafrinier into the top two lines. And so how Peter
la Violet is going to do that. There's a couple of things he's gonna
he would have to do if he was going to do that. One would
be this to move Lafrinier from the left wing to the right wing, which
two previous coaches have tried to do at various times in Lafrignier, and neither
one of them stuck with a Gallant and David Quinny before him. So that's
one thing that that la Violet could try and do is try and move Lafrinier
from the left wing to the right wing and give it some time to work
and see if that works. The other thing you could do, quite frankly,
is because since Philipeedel at twenty odd goals last year, is the third
line center and a lot of people think that he should be the second line
center. That is another option that they could do is theoretically flip flop Heedle
and Trocheck, And so maybe Phil Heedel gets to play on the second line
with Panarin, maybe Trocheck ends up playing on a third slash checking line with
Krider. So we don't know yet and won't know until we see a couple
of preseason games or at least a few practices in training camp. What la
Villa is thinking in terms of how he's gonna align his top six forwards.
We assume MICA's advantage, AD is going to be the top center at this
point. Is it gonna be tro Check that's a number two center, or
is it gonna be Hetle less number two center. Odds are it's gonna be
Trocheck. He's a veteran guy. As you said, he did have a
good year, had a slow start but a strong finish and had a good
year overall. He's their best faceoff man, So there are a lot of
reasons why you would want him to be the number two center. But again,
you have a twenty three year old. I guess it is in Hetel
who showed so much promise and who signed a big money, relatively big money
contract as a third contract this year, and they may be looking to get
him some more ice time. And then so when you talk about power play,
yes, Trocheck was on the first power play unit for most of the
season, but I can't promise she thought's going to be the case this year,
because if you're gonna try and get Heatles some power play time, if
you're gonna try and get laugh for a year, some power play time,
Coco, I don't know who's going to come out to make room for those
guys. So I can't promise you that Trocheck is going to be on the
first power play unit this year. And I can't even promise you at this
point that he's gonna be the number two center all season long. I would
say probably the number two center, but I don't know about the powerplay so
I can't He had a good year, but I can't guarantee anything there.
All right, good info on those guys, and let's talk about one of
their newest editions, Blake Wheeler. For the first time in over a decade,
we're going to see Wheeler in a different jersey other than the Jets.
And obviously he's a bit older, but he has been productive even in a
down year for him, which is sixty three points. He still was able
to do quite a lot sixteen goals, thirty nine as sis, fifty four
hits, thirty five blocks on hundred and twenty six shots decent number. He
used to do a lot more with those peripherals. He used to be great
for that. He's slowed down a little bit. Cap leagues eight hundred thousand
for this one year at that's goal. So I'm really excited about that,
and obviously great for the Rangers to get such a strong player for a cheap
value. So I guess the big question is where do you think he's going
to line up and what kind of production do you think we can expect from
Wheeler. Do you think he's going to be getting back to that seventy five
ish point range where he was the previous three seasons or is he going to
be closer to a sixty point player again? Another one where I can't really
give you a true prediction because I don't know where he's going to play at
this point. If you look at the Rangers roster, they have one top
six right wing on the roster locked in right and that would be Coppo Coco,
who's going to be the other top six right wing. Is it gonna
be Wheeler or is it going to be laugh for Anier, Like, it
depends if they decide to make a commitment to move la Fornier from left wing
to right wing to get him into the top six, and that means Wheeler
is going to play on a third line somewhere, because Wheeler is a right
wing, so that would make a difference. So is he going to be
playing on a third line with Phil Heedel? Is he gonna be playing on
a third line? And it could be a third line with say something like
a Chriter tro check Wheeler a third slash checking line. So this is something
that is up in the air. I think most observers believe that Wheelers ticketed
for the third line on the Rangers this season. Again, it depends on
production, depends on how I'm assuming Lafrinier is going to switch to the right
wing. I'm assuming that's plan A. Depends on how well Lafernier plays on
right wing, how comfortable he looks, and if he's comfortable and productive,
then he's gonna be that second line or first line right wing. You know,
he and Cockle will be the top two right wings, and that'll mean
third line ice time for Wheeler, and I don't know he'll get power play
time, but it might be second power play time. So I can't you
know, I can't really guide you in terms of what to expect from Wheeler
without you know, a little bit more information in terms of where do we
think he's going to play Right now, I'm guessing he's going to play in
the third line. If he plays on the third line, I don't think
he's gonna get you seventy five points if something doesn't if it doesn't pan out
with Laffernier on the right side. And again, Laffernier has played three seasons
in the league, and he's played on the right side at some point in
each season under two separate coaches, and both previous coaches have ultimately tried him
on the right move them back to the left. So I can't promise you
that he's going to be a permanent fixture on the right side. And thus
I can't tell you where Wheeler is going to play. YEP, makes sense.
A lot of unknowns there. I am more confident in Wheeler being able
to handle that second line role than Laffernier myself personally, so well, yeah,
it's at this point Wheeler's done it and Laferner hasn't. For whatever reason,
coaches haven't committed to keeping him there. Of course they see something they
don't like, or they don't see something they want to see. I don't
know. I mean, for most of it, for the last three years,
it's always come back to those three called him the kid line, with
Lafronier and Coco and Heetel playing together as a third line. And I just
don't see how that can happen this year because Coco was entering he's now played
four years, he's entering his fifth year, and he has to play on
one of the top two lines. And that quote unquote kid line can't be
your third line anymore because Cocho can't be on the third line. He's going
to have to play on one on top two lines. So whether those three
kids end up being your second line, which is I suppose as a possibility
that would happen if you chose to play Panarin with Zavantage. And again,
that's something that they've tried over the last three years or so and they've never
stuck with it. It doesn't seem to work. So I'm skeptical that they're
going to do it this way. But yeah, so I just the kid
line I don't see coming back. And so if Coco's playing, let's say,
with one of the top two lines, and Heeteles on the third line,
and we don't know where la Fronier is, then a lot of stuff
is in flux. And I just think that in terms of guys like a
Wheeler or a Trocheck or even a Crider, I think, are I can't
promise you they're going to give you the numbers that they've given you last year
or the year before. Yeah, definitely makes sense. Let's talk about Crider.
He was the next guy we were going to talk about specifically, and
we Jesse and I both had him in the low high twenties, and he
ended up closer to seventieth overall in fantasy. We both thought of him as
a Tier one guy, and he had been so great he had We knew
he was going to regress a little bit from that near point per game season
and shooting twenty percent, and he did, but he fell back a little
bit more than maybe some of us thought. It was closer to his previous
norm right around that fifty fifty five point guy with tons of hits, a
decent number of shots. We tracked bash and he was thirty eight at his
position, So really good there. He's got four years left at six point
five million, and for a guy who was often getting middle six deployment,
that's a pretty decent price tag for someone like that. But we know he
plays a really important role as well for the Rangers. Really actually good defensively
too, really good all around player is Crider. But we're wondering if he
can be more than what he was last season because he's been that fifty five
ish point player for several seasons and then he had that spike up too close
to eighty. So what do you think it's going to be this year.
I think it's gonna be closer to what it was last season than the season
before. As you say, we all knew that he wasn't going to score
fifty two goals again the way he did, and you know, in twenty
one twenty two and they scored in twenty two twenty three, he scored thirty
six goals, which is is a good number I think for the type of
player he is. He's not I don't know that he's a superstar. I
think he's a real good player's a nice player, and I think he has
He's played a lot with zabata Jad and they know each other left and right.
They have set plays that they do. The one that sticks out is
we're as a bad gets the puck deep in his own zone and he just
he knows Crider's got to speed and he can just throw it up the ice
and have Crider skate onto it. So they know each other very well.
They know each other's games. They play together for so long that they think
alike. And I think multiple coaches have come in and they've tried different things,
and it always comes back to Crider AND's bandage At playing together. So
I think I think when all said and done, Rider ends avantage At are
going to play together. And I think that Krider is what he is like.
He never scored thirty goals. We always thought he was gonna scoll This
is gonna be the year he scores thirty, and then some injury or some
super long slump or something would crash him and he would get twenty eight or
something, and then all of a sudden, he scored fifty two goals two
years ago when he comes back to thirty six last year, so I think
that's where he is. I think he's a mid thirty thirty five ish goal
guy and a fifty five ish point player, and I just I wouldn't bank
on him doing doing much more than that. I think the season he had
two years ago it was a career year, and I think the season he
had last year is probably more about where he's going to be. It's a
fascinating puzzle of all these guys fitting together because New York's got a very respectable
second line. Even without the Kid line and those guys coming in there,
they have a very solid top six, or at least most of that top
six. But looking at that set of three, the Kid line, as
you say, Philippeedal really was the one who produced the most. Last year
he did he had forty five points, the third highest goal total on the
team, with twenty two and seventy four games, basically doubled his previous season.
I his seven goal postseason the year before really was the time I think
he broke out on the national stage and it became clear this was not a
bus this was a guy who was hitting his own in his age. The
games he missed last year. Now I'm worried about that. It sounds like
it was due to a hit to the head he took an October. I
don't know if that was a concussion, But then he also took a hit
this summer in international competition, possibly fractured his face. I thought I read
and the report. Maybe you have more current information. But talking about these
guys, is anything about Heat'll separating himself from that group. Is there a
chance maybe he's the one who sneaks onto the power play one or where does
he fit into this whole picture? Yeah, again, with a new coach,
it's all the stuff that that's got to be figured out. You're right,
he had the best year of any of those guys, and he was
the one that when the season started was left on the third line. There
were nights when he was playing with a couple of guys that we're not as
good as he was. Let's put it that way. Because the start of
the season, I think they had Coco up on the top line with Zabannah
Jaden Crider, and they started I remember they had the Vitali kraftsoff last year.
At the start of the season. They started crafts off on the second
line with Panarin and Trocheck. Kraftsoff got hurt and like his second shift on
opening night, and then so they moved moved Lafranier into that spot on the
right side of Panarin and Trocheck and that, and they rolled with that for
ten or twelve games or something like that, and eventually they settled back down
and put him on the third line. But for those ten or twelve games
that where you know we're Laufernier was on the second line with Panarin and Trocheck.
Phil Heatl was on the third line. I want to say, by
himself obviously had two wingers. I was playing with Jimmy VC and these types
of guys maybe Barkley Gudreau on the right side. He wasn't playing with with
legit sort of goal getters like and top offensive players. And he still was
able to get his points and get his goals and have a big year himself.
And obviously the kid line came back together. They keep coming back to
that, and all three of them had nice years. They were a nice
third line. But the Rangers set up has been that they don't have really
a first line, second line, and a true third line. It's almost
like they have two first lines, or co first lines, if you will.
And then that kid line had always been more of a second line type
in style anyway, and we just again, I don't expect those three guys
to be together again. So I don't know who Philipedo is gonna play with,
and I don't know if he's gonna play with Wheeler. I don't know
if he's gonna play. I have no idea, but I think what he's
proven is that he can play. Now, you brought up the fact that
he missed games with a head injury. It took a hard hit to the
head. I don't think that they're willing to use the C word, but
I'm pretty sure, or I shouldn't say, I'm pretty sure. My guests
would be that he had a concussion and he I think there was a later
time in the later in the season where he missed some games, and I
think it was it was somewhat related, let's put it like that. But
he's missed times with other injuries. He had a broken hand or something two
years ago, and I don't know how durable he is in terms of giving
you eighty two games. Right if he plays say sixty seven or seventy one
games. What does that do and who's he playing with? That's an X
factor. I think he's a good player. I think he's going to get
points, but I think we have to see who he lands with on his
wings and how much ice time he does get and the power play time of
all of them in terms of those three kids, who's most likely to play
on power Play one if they decide to mix up power Play one. I
like he he's the one that got that time last year. But again it's
a different coach, so I don't know. I have knowing. I'm sorry
to be so helpless but like to help you until the coach kind of shows
tips his hand and shows us what those line combinations look like. On day
one of training camp, we're all just guessing, Yeah, you can't make
it up. This is you're speaking the truth because we don't even know.
Maybe Lovio I doesn't even know at this point. We'll have to see how
everything comes together. But all I know is Lafrenier and Coco have got the
reputation, they certainly have the pedigree, They're gonna get the opportunity, but
they hadn't really produced yet. And I don't know whether that has just been
a matter of the role that they were given under the previous administration and the
minutes they got, or whether there's still something holding back their game that they
have not been just an outstanding breakthrough of young players like you might expect from
players drafted so highly this far into their careers. Do you think that there's
Do you think that this is the year that we see the jump out of
those two guys? I do, actually I do. For Coco for sure,
if you look at his trajectory, I think he had I don't know
he had ten or eleven goals. Is his rookie year as an eighteen year
old coming over from Europe, English being his second language, and he had
worked hard to be able to communicate in English. It had to be hard
for him, and he didn't They lived in a with a billet family and
didn't get to see his family very much, and they didn't have They didn't,
to the surprise of most of us, they didn't go out and get
a veteran finished guy to be in the locker room to be as brother that
season. He was just on his own as an eighteen year old. And
then of course Covid shut the league down. We had some injuries in and
out, and then as he was starting to get going, Covid shut the
league down. When the league came back, remember they came back in August
in the in the Bubble playoffs. I think he was one of their stronger
players. The second year, his second year, was that fifty six game
Covid season. We got Covid at some point during the year, you know,
just didn't play fifty six games. And in this third year, he
had an injury, had a broken wrist that that knocked him out for a
huge chunk of time. And so last year was his fourth season, and
we had a pretty good year in terms of production. He had what did
he have? He had the eighteen goals and forty points, which is not
again not great, but again you're playing a lot of third line ice time.
He's not getting much, if any power play time at all, so
not bad. And in the meantime, his defensive metrics. I'm not the
biggest analytics guy, but if you look at his defensive metrics as a rookie,
and then they've gotten better over the years because he's such a puck possession
guy. When he gets the puck, he holds onto it, and so
if he has it, then the other team obviously doesn't have it. And
so if you look at their lines, every line is better with Cocko on
it then without him on it. So he's trending in the right direction.
And I do think that if he consistently gets that top six ice time and
gets some power play time, I think that he's poised to really have a
nice year. Now. Is he going to score forty goals? No,
I don't. I don't think so. I don't think that they're set up
for him to do that. But I think he'll put up good numbers lap
for a year. I would think would be the same way. And he
had I think twelve goals in the fifty six game season his rookie year.
I think he had nineteen his second year at sixteen last year. People are
disappointing that he hasn't scored forty goals yet, and but he hasn't been that
stud that Tim Stutsla is or that Jack Hughes turned out to be. In
New Jersey. He's the number one overall, and people just don't think that
when you're number one overall. In twenty twenty and you've been talked up so
much that you can just be a good player. We'll see. I think
he's gonna be a good player, But is he gonna be next level?
Again, that depends on role, depends on how he's used and when Gallant
would say, hey, he's got Panarin and cried or in front of him,
and this is what it is. And there's a certain truth to that
and certain logic to that. And the question is now, in year four,
can they find a way to elevate him to the next level? And
as we discussed before, I think that the path to that will be having
him switch from left wing to right wing and get more consistent ice time in
the top six. And but I don't see him scoring forty goals if that's
what you're looking for, you know what I mean. I think maybe over
twenty maybe if he's got a good year consistently in the top top six,
maybe twenty plus twenty five something like that. But I don't think he's gonna
go crazy. I don't think he's going to go from sixteen goals to forty
goals. One guy who does not need to elevate another level next year on
the blue line, Adam Fox. He had another top nach season, first
team All Star and wasn't Eric Carlson comeback miracle year? His second Norris in
three years. I would say seventy two points in eighty two games. That
was only seventh in scoring among defencemen last year, but in the last decade
that was tied for the nineteenth highest because last year defenceman we're going nuts on
scoring. Fox gets two shots, a block and a half. He munches
minutes out there, the most skater time on ice on the team, seventh
in the NHL r Timmy had one more minute than Fox on the power play
and that was it. He's been very well paid entering the second year of
seven times nine point five mill boy? What makes Fox special? And are
you expecting another one of these years? Colin? So I'll ask the second
part first, which will be yes. Are you look at that the numbers
that he had to last year and you say seventy two and he's down and
all that. You got to realize too, that he again was missing his
partner Ryan Lindgren for a good chunk of the season. Lindbren got hurt and
was out, and so Fox had to play with he played with Ben Harper
or whoever. And then finally they made the trade and they got Nico mccola
and he was able to play with Mykola and then or Mikola however you pronounced
it, and then and then Lindgren finally came back and all that. But
but Fox kind of was out there for a long time without his trusted partner.
That they go back to the US development program together since they're sixteen years
old. And so if if Lindren's healthy, the Rangers are a better team
because he can play with Fox and Fox can can be secure back there.
Fox is going to get his He's a great player, obviously. He runs
the power play, plays the penalty kill. He's a better defensive player than
and any of us expected him to be. He's just really a good all
around player, a good solid all around You're a great player, I dare
say so. Yeah. I think that he's gonna keep going. He's gonna
give you what he gives you, what he's always giving you, and I
think he's gonna always be in the mix to be the Norris Trophy winner.
Is he Kale mccarr spectacular? No, but he does. He's a different
player, right, So he's probably a little bit better and a little steadier
on the defensive end than is mccarr And I think that those two were gonna
every year, it's gonna be one or the other of them in the hunt
for the Norris Trophy, and I think this year will be the same as
every other year in that regard. Yeah, I definitely love Adam Fox around
these parts, that's for sure. And another guy that I absolutely love is
KeAndre Miller. He's been one of my favorites for a long time, so
fun to watch. I just love all the little things that he does on
the puck before the puck arrives angles. He plays the physicality, not overly
aggressive, but when he needs to be, just really like him. And
I'm pleased that he's actually becoming more valuable in fantasy too, because for the
first couple of seasons he played a lot of games and he was valuable to
the team, but he didn't score a lot this season this past season forty
five point pace. In those seventy nine games, he played a large number
of hits and blocks, not a lot of shots, but decent for the
peripheral coverage too. Not obviously not a lot of power play points. He's
that's not his main role, but pretty good, especially for the value that
he signed three point eight seven million for two more years. That's going to
be great and cap leagues, I think he can outperform that value. And
he's just a guy that is going to be on the ice lot and he's
really important to the team. So my question about Miller, though, is
he shot eight percent, which helped him get the nine goals, and he
definitely had more A twos than a one secondary assists. So do you think
that Miller is going to see some regression or can he keep over that forty
point pace. No, I don't think he's going to see any regression.
I think, if anything, it's going to get better because I think what
happened this past year was that he got some power play time which he never
got before, right, And I think I'd see him as getting more power
plays time this next season here because if you look at the way their power
play had been set up, obviously Fox is the point man on power play
one, and then Jacob Truba had been the point man on power Play two,
and then there were times in the latter part of last season in the
second half and in the final third of last season, where as Miller's game
got stronger, he ended up getting some time on the power play as supplanting
either supplanting Truba as the second power play point man or them playing with two
defenseman on that second power play unit. And so I think that he did
get Keyandre did some power play time in the latter part of the season,
and I think that he's going to get more this season because again new coach
said it a million times a ready. We will have to see how he
does it. But I think he's going to play the guys that he believes
can play. And I think Miller is a guy that he's gonna learn very
quickly. Laviolette, This is he's going to learn very quickly that KeAndre Miller
is a guy that he's going to be able to count on and trust.
And I think DeAndre Miller is a better point man for that second powerplay unit
than Jacob Truba. So I fully expect that Miller is gonna is gonna probably
take over as a second point man or a second power play two point man
if you will, and I think he's gonna get more power play time.
And thus I think he's gonna probably score a little bit more than maybe he
did even this past season. We need to talk about Jacob Truba. Boy.
He may not be a superstar by some or Fox is a superstar by
everybody's perspective, but for us fantasy folks, we love Truba. He seems
no threat to take over the power play duties, but he lacked the field
on this team in blocks and hits two and a half shots, two and
a half blocks, or nearly three hits a game. He was the number
one defenseman in combined block, shots and hits, and his thirty points in
eighty two games were just gravy. On top of that, advanced metrics don't
seem to like him in terms of his actual defense, especially on the PK.
New York was a little bit worse with him on the ice than off
it, but that was that was when he was on the ice without Miller,
his opponent's scoring got especially rough. Of that was a pretty small sample.
What is Truba's role on this New York Rangers team this year? And
can the Rangers please just keep using him like they have because I really like
getting that production again? What's his role to be determined to some degree by
the new coach, but I think his role is more of a leadership type
thing and more of a defensive role. I think there's a transition happening there.
When he first came to the Rangers. You remember, he's coming off
a fifty point season with Winnipeg and they came to the Rangers, and I
think his role here was probably more offensive. But as his partner KeAndre Miller
has developed his game and his offense has blossomed a little bit. I think
you're gonna see Truba become more of a defensive role, right. I think
the balance on that second deep pair, if you will, is going to
shift, and it's gonna be where our KeAndre is the offensive guy and Truba's
the stay at home guy. More so, Truba's the more physical guy,
and he's pointed out the hits and block shots, and he blocks a million
shots. I think he's gonna gravitate towards being a more of a defensive and
now he's gonna be a true shutdown, mark stall, stay at home,
don't cross the blue line kind of guy. But he is gonna be a
guy who's gonna be defense first and allow KeAndre to go forward. A little
bit more, and so I think that's as far as yon Ice roll,
that's where it's gonna be. But he's also the inspirational guy. He fires
him up with some of these big hits. It's it's not every hit is
gonna lay a guy out and knock him on his back or anything like that,
but he does fire the team up with those types of hits. He
will fight, and he's pretty good fighter. When when that happens, I
think at one point, I don't know if I don't remember if he finished
as the leader in fights, but I think for most of the season he
was the leader or tied with Gudreau as the leader in fights. He does
all of those type things, those intangibles if you want to call whatever you
want to call him. He fights, he hits, he blocked shots,
and if he doesn't score fifty points, I think he can still help you.
And I think that's going to be the role for Truba going forward.
And he's great in the locker room. You guys really rallies the guys around,
and that's again that's not something that you're gonna get fantasy points for.
But in terms of as far as helping the team, win. He is
helping the team win in lots of ways beyond scoring points. Oh, I'm
getting all the points I need from Truba. He can fight, he can
be happy in the locker room. I'm good with all those things as greatman
too. A couple more guys we wanted to mention one, Eric Gustafson,
following the Lobbiolette over from Washington and then a little bit of a journey in
the last couple of years. Is he going to have a role with this
team? What do you think he's going to be doing there? So my
expectation would be that he would be that third pair left side defenseman, right,
because if you look at their defense, the top five are fairly well
set. You have Fox and Lyndgren, you have Miller and Truba, and
you have Braden Schneider as the right side guy on the third pair. And
so the one thing we don't know, or the one thing that's not set
in stone, is who's going to be the left side guy and that third
pair. And at this point you would have to think that Gustafson is,
you know, the most likely guy to be that third pair lefty. Now
there's there is Zach Jones, who's a prospect that they like quite a bit,
and I'm sure they'll give him a long look in the preseason to see
if if he can can beat gustupson out and claim a regular role. But
I started in that role last year as the third pairer left side guy next
to Schneider and obviously didn't last He got the first crack at that. Eventually
they started going back and forth between he and Leebore Hyak, and then at
some point they sent Jones down. I guess they felt like it was more
important as a young player for him to be a number one in the American
League than to be a number six and a half in the NHL. But
I think they do still like him, and he's gonna require waivers to go
down to the minor leagues this year, so it's gonna be harder for them
to send him to the minor leagues without risking losing him. So it's much
it's very likely that he's going to be on the team. Now. Whether
he's going to be on the team is the sixth or the seventh certainly remains
to be seen. I would think though, based on the needs for that
specific spot, third pair left side defenseman next to Braden Schneider, who's already
established himself. I think Gustupson's style and gifts probably lend him to be a
safer choice to play over Zach Jones, who is five ten and one hundred
and seventy seven pounds or whatever he is. I think a bigger, more
veteran guy makes more sense in that spot than a young guy who's undersized.
So I don't know what that means for Zach Jones, but my projection would
be that Gustupson probably would be that third pair left side guy, but it's
I can't say that it's written in stone as of yet. Yeah, Zach
Jones was actually the next guy I was going to ask you about. You
answered already a little bit there, But he's someone who we're going to cover
in a different part of the show. But he's someone that I've been excited
about for a while, and it just there hasn't been an opportunity, it
hasn't been a role. So I mean, that's that's what you just said
there. It's going to be between those two, and you think maybe someone
has the inside track there. Yeah, No, I just think that for
that particular role and this is why I thought last year as well, it's
not It's got less to do with Zach Jones than the role that's available.
Zach Jones is an undersized guy, but he's a smart offensive player. He
can run a power player. You already have Adam Fox who's going to get
most of the power play time, and we already discussed I believe that KeAndre
Miller is going to get more power play times. So I don't know.
If you have a power play guy, a five foot ten hundred and seventy
five hundred and eighty pound power play guy in Zach Jones, and you can't
give him power play time, then I don't know that he's the best fit
for that opening that you do have. Now, again, he's a good
player, he's accomplished everything he can accomplish in the minor league level, and
they do like him, they'll probably want him here. But to me,
that third line, I'm sorry, that third pair rule me personally. I
prefer a bigger guy, more defensive minded guy, and I just don't see
how Zach Jones fits that mold. But it's sure it would be nice to
have him if anything, God forbid, anything happens to one of the two
guys ahead of him, you know what I mean. I don't know.
We'll see, but yeah, I do think it's between those two guys for
that one spot. Now, I wrote for my newspaper. I guess it
was Wednesday, the first day of rookie Camp, that Matthew Robertson, of
all the guys who were at rookie Camp, Matthew Robertson probably had the best
chance of making the opening night roster at that role. I don't see anybody
else is at rookie Camp that's going to be on the roster unless something crazy
happens, barring any or anything like that. But I do think there is
a competition, open, competition for that sixth spot. And I think that
Matthew Robertson, there's a second round pick in twenty nineteen who's played two years
of minor league hockey, who's still well thought of in the organization. I
think I think they owe it to him and to themselves to give him a
look as well and put him in the mix for that For that those two
spots, I should say six and seventh, So we'll see about that,
But I so I would say that those Gustofson, Jones. I would throw
matt Matt Robertson in there, and then Connor Mackey, Ben Harper. All
these guys are going to be in the mix for that sixth slash seventh defense
spot, and it's to be determined. My favorites right now would be would
be Gustufson and Zach Jones, but I can't rule out Matthew Robertson or Connor
Mackey at this point. Wonderful. All right, let's move over to the
crease. The Rangers were ranked fifteenth and expected goals against per sixty, but
conceded only eighth amount of actual goals per game. I think we all know
why. They have one of the best collies in the world, Igor Shastyrkin.
He's fantastic, He outperforms his protection, his delta. Fenwick is one
of the best in the league's twenty five goals save above expected just incredible.
Two years left at five point six seven million, even pretty good for those
cap leagues, and we know that Jonathan Quick was brought in to be his
backup. I'm not sure how much of his game is really left. It
seems like he's gone a bit downhill, so I would expect shast Jerkin to
be the volume starter here. I don't can't imagine that's changing, and I
would imagine he gets similar numbers, maybe even ross a percentage increase a little
bit. But what do you think we can expect from the crease from the
Rangers this season? Yeah, no, I'm right there with you. I
actually even think that Shist can be better this year than he was last year.
If you'll remember, he didn't start off last year. I wouldn't say
struggled, but he had a phenomenal year two years ago. And I think
last year the start of the year, probably the first two months maybe of
the season, he was ordinary and I had to play his way. It
was into back into where we expect him to be. It was it wasn't
quite all the way at the All Star break, but the first two or
so months of the season, I think he was not the same guy as
he was a year before. And I think, and so I think,
assuming he cleans that up, whatever the reasons were for the slow start,
and there could be anything, these guys aren't robots there people. He was
a new father, so that may have had something to do with his focus
in terms of training, I'm not saying in the games or anything like that,
but who knows. I don't know what it was. It may have
been that, it just it may just have been a normal sort of I
had a crazy good year last year, and I can't possibly live up to
that, and I'm gonna have a natural sort of comeback come down from that.
Whatever it was, he was not the same guy in the first two
months, but he was and the rest of the seasons now that he's played
and again last or not again, I should say last year or two was
the first year he's played over here where he didn't have any kind of an
injury. If you remember, the first couple of years he was here,
he had a groin injury every year, and this first year actually had a
groin injury, he got into a car accident, he had an ankle injury,
and then the second year he had a groin injury that kept him out
of three weeks or what have you. And so this past year he was
healthy all year, made it through, played the most games he's ever played,
And now that he's done that, I fully expect him to do it
again. So yes, I expect that Igor is gonna be as good as
he was last year, and I would say he's probably even gonna be better
than he was last year and closer to what he was two years ago when
when he won the Vezano. And then as far as Jonathan Quick, I
think we're all curious as to what they're going to get out of Jonathan Quick.
Right, Igor is great and all, but he's not gonna play eighty
two games. And I don't know that you want playing seventy two games either,
if that means you're gonnagor is gonna play sixty four. You're gonna need
Jonathan Quick to play to start eighteen games and maybe come off the bench in
a couple of games, and you're gonna need him to be good and whatever
ice time he gets right and can't just come out there and just give up
four goals every night. So he's gonna have to play well. And I'm
curious as to how well he is going to adjust and adapt to that backup
role where your ice time is not consistent and you don't know when you're gonna
play next, and it might be once a week or it might not be
once a week. And I remember when Alexander Georgiev was with the Rangers.
He did not do well in that role. The infrequent ice times and games
and starts and stuff. He just did not handle it. He played best,
It's just Durkin was hurt. It's just Durkin had that growing poll that
kept him out for three weeks and Georgiev could be the number one. He
played great in that stretch the rest of the year, which just Jerkin was
healthy and playing the games he needed to play. Georgiev didn't. I don't
handle the infrequent ice time very well, and so I'm curious how Jonathan Quick,
a guy who's Hall of Famer maybe and two time Cup champion three times
actually if you count this past year when he was a backup, I'm curious
as to how he's going to handle that backup role. And you need him
to be good, and until he proves it to me, I don't know
whether he can be good in that role. Tremendous stuff, Colin. This
has been some great insight on the New York Rangers. Why don't you tell
people how they can keep up with your work all season? I'm on primarily
on X formerly known as Twitter, and my handle is calling s Newsday and
then if you're looking forward to read a story once in a while. I'm
on the newsday website Newsday not Com Slash Sports Tremendus. Thank you so much
for coming on today, Colin. Good luck following those Rangers this year well
and thanks for having me. It's been a blast hanging out with you guys,
and plenty time you need me again, just reach out. I'm here
for you. Wilson sent all that's getting fire passed off. Quick grab Now
it's your winger. Goalie Talk with Cats Silverman, Cats Instincts. Time for
another Cat's instincts with Cat Silverman in goal Maag New York Ranger Edition. So
we got a couple of interesting guys talk about. We're going to start with
Dylan Grand and Grand was a twenty twenty fourth round pick by the Rangers.
He's a little bit undersized, which is probably partly why he lasted a little
bit longer one hundred and seventy two pounds. He was the guy who stepped
in for Canada when Cosa couldn't hack it back in their U twenty World Junior
Championship. People may remember they were really excited about Cosa and it didn't happen
Back in twenty twenty two and anyways, Grand, he was great in the
six games one GAA nine twenty five save percentage and we're to a gold medal.
Not to discount his performance, but I think a lot of goalies could
have played really well behind that Canada team. But his equivalence he is looking
and the low thirties, high twenties, so about twenty percent is where he
is down as D plus three just finished the HL season, looks like some
decent guys, some come Talbot, some Elia Brisgolaf, some many Fernandez,
so average starters there. Looking at his saved percentage above expected in the HL
this past season, it was really good despite that kind of on the surface
rough transition from the WHL to the HL. He had a three point zero
one GAA eight ninety four saved percentage in thirty two games for the Hartford Woolpack.
But under the hood it looked a little bit better. So, Kat,
what can you tell us? What do your instincts tell us about Dylan
Grand. I've got a real soft spot for him. I you guys know,
I love my undersized goalies who get overlooked unfairly. He hit faceoff against
drs all a scar of at the twenty nineteen U eighteen Plank at Gretzky Cup
and looked really good in that game, and I was like, all,
this kid's the next big thing. And then because he is only six feet
tall, Bucks seventy Bucks seventy five got a little overlooked there. Obviously was
shifted to the side for Sebastian Coosa until took over for him there during the
twenty Championship. Yeah, I think he's a fun guy because he's the opposite
of a lot of those undersized goaltenders who try to make themselves a little bit
bigger, try and give themselves a little bit more, try to take away
some of that space by standing a little farther out. He plays really conservatively,
and he plays really a really controlled, just position based game, and
so I assume part of that is the transitional struggles that he had between the
WHL and the AHL as he got used to just what sort of speed he
needed to display at the HL level to he'll replicate what he does depth wise,
But I think he's good. He matches what the Rangers like from their
goaltenders, which is those slightly more conservative playing. They don't they draft an
Egorciaus Sterkin instead of instead of a guy like Mark Andre Flurry or Jonathan Quick,
they keep someone who's a little more controlled, although they do have Jonathan
Quick as they're veteran on the team right now. So yeah, I like
him. I think he's going to be an NHL or one day. I
just don't know how soon that is, And I don't know where he'll fall
in their depth chart or if he'll get crowded out and need to go to
a different team. Yeah, he's already had one HL season, probably has
another one. Probably a little too early to expect him to take the NHL
rains, but he might be similar or even better at this point than Quick,
who's at the tail end of his career. So that's transition is probably
gonna happen soon. And of course they have just Jerkins. They don't need
to worry too much. Yeah, they'll be fine no matter what. They'll
be fine. After they drafted Grand in twenty twenty, they can win a
complete opposite direction with Talon Boyko, who is massive six foot eight and he
was drafted in twenty twenty one in the fourth round, and so he was
traded from Tri City to Kelowna last season where he was the main guy there,
so he's he's in the WHL and that was a well. Actually that
was last season where he was traded to Kelowna and then this past season he
was with the Rockets and they were the Memorial Cup hosts and he only got
into one playoff game but had sever a lot in the regular season forty he
should make his transition to the HL this year. Talan Boinko in the WHL
had above average expected save percentage and or save above save percentage above and goals
expected but he was just barely above average, So even though his raw numbers
look poor. So what are your instincts, cat tell us about Boyco.
It's interesting because I feel every couple of years the Rangers do draft someone who
just goes completely against their preferred style, and it seems like they do it
just to make sure that they're not pigeonholing themselves, and it seems that's what
this move was. I'm not super enamored with his game, but I don't
hate it. There were a couple of WHL goaltenders who were bigger, who
really had some trouble with controlling their game, and he wasn't necessarily one of
them. Matt Sogard is my litmus test for guys who raise the red flag
for how energetic they are at their size, and I feel like Boycot doesn't
quite fall that far on that end of the spectrum. But it'll be interesting
to see how because I would assume he and Garand are going to be a
tandem next year, and the Hartford wolf Pack is. They're not an HL
powerhouse to me, I really they don't look at them as a team that's
challenging to make deep playoff runs, and so it'll be interesting to see how
they handle starts for those two. They may send one of them to the
ECHL just to give them maximum starts and exposure. We sometimes see teams do
that, but I want to see how they play off each other because they
do have very different styles just because of their size, and so it'll be
interesting to see how their HL team adapts to that and how they adapt to
it. I would assume the Boycot is going to have a slightly easier transition
just because from a sheer size perspective. When it comes down to those point
zero five save percentage points that separate a playoff team from not. I don't
know if he has it, but obviously he's able to make more of those
just base saves because of his size, so I think he has a slightly
easier baseline for his transition, definitely. And speaking of the ECHL, the
next guy we're going to talk about Isla Lindbaum, and he was at twenty
eighteen, second round pick, so he's been around a while, six two
hundred and eighty three pounds. He's now twenty three, and he just spent
his first year in North America. He had been and he'd been primarily in
the Hockey El Spenskin and Sweden the Beast couple. A part of that was
due to some relegation, but he hasn't had too many SHL games actually,
so it's been primarily second division. And this season he played one game for
the wolf Pack, it did not go well and he spent the rest of
the season with the ECHL Jacksonville Iceman. So that's where olaf Linbaum was.
He actually looks like he dominated in terms of say percentage above expected in that
league, but his goals above expected were really low that I'm not sure exactly
was that that was due to but his equivalency. Olaf Limbaum's is also a
really low The only one again that I could find Frederick Narenna. This is
maybe the Frederick Nonna line. Are we above or below that? As an
NHL backup? So Oleflenbaum, what your instincts tell you about him? Kat?
I hate to say, because I never want to talk about a prospect
and say I don't like them, But I was surprised when he got drafted.
I believe his draft year he was the first goaltender taken in the second
round. I believe we talked about with a different team that particular draft year
really powerful in the second, third, fourth rounds, and I was just
super surprised that he was the first one taken in that second round. And
if he wasn't the first, he was maybe the second by a position or
two. And I just I didn't love his game. He didn't have quite
enough control when it came to his overall speed and movement, and didn't really
seem to have his edge work down, didn't seem like he was reading quit
as confidently as some of the other guys who were being drafted. So I
was prize that the Rangers took him. He went against their prototypical style.
Seemed a little more aggressive and enthusiastic than they typically like, but they took
him anyway, which once again I think they like to take those guys that
are different from what they typically like just to see how it works for them.
And obviously it didn't work spectacularly. When he made it to the AHL,
I didn't I don't think he's at the top of their depth chart at
the time he got drafted. Was almost a little bullish on it. I
was like, they'll see he's not going to be the best, and I'm
right not to brag, but I'm right. I think they'll has passed him
up in their depth chart pretty substantially at this point, but there's nothing wrong
with giving him a little extra seasoning in North America. That's a team that
has just a really good goaltending development depth because they have really good coaching,
and so we'll see how that goes for him. As he continues to flourish
in their system, he might end up topping out as like a tweener,
one of those guys who predominantly hangs out in the HL and gets some of
those NHL call ups that you feel confident he's not going to blow Richard Bachman
is like my prototypical, like model tweener goaltender, and that's what I think
he's going to top at us. But I could be wrong, and I'll
never get mad if a goaltender exceeds my expectations. I just don't think he's
I don't think he is near the top of their development chart at the moment.
Yeah, I sure doesn't seem like it. And you're right. We
talked about the twenty eighteen draft before the two second rounders, the first two
taken. You're right, Limbaum was first, and then Olivier Rodrigue was second,
and then we talked about some other ones. N in the third,
Scarrick in the third, and then the Ducks taking the sixth goalie off the
board Lucas Dostil was a home run in my opinion, and then for Prosbitov
and Schmid went all after that. In the fourth and fifth round, all
of those guys were there, and Lynde Baumb and Rodary were the first you've
taken. That's it's always hilarious to look back, But yes, thank you
so much for giving us your instincts on the New York Rangers goalies will be
back right after this. Dig the Dynasty, Dig your Rangers. Addition,
the Rangers have finally got where everybody else gets eventually, because they've called up
so many prospects that the system is ranked thirty first. That's said, there
are a couple of really cool prospects we were about to talk about in this
segment, and it starts with your no brainer. Who is it? Yeah,
the no brainer is going to be the guy they just drafted. Gay
Proro twenty twenty three first round pick, went a little later than I thought,
but kind of in that first round range, twenty third overall. He
was part of that historic USNTDP line with Will Smith, Ryan Leonard seventy two
goals, one hundred and five assists and eighty six combined games at the USNTDB
in their USHL and NCAA games there and that trio. All of them are
headed to Boston College for their freshman season, which is going to be both
fun and a little bit annoying because if they continue to play together, we're
still going to struggle to know how they would do a part. But I
think that they will actually get split up, and I think that the coaching
staff, there is going to work with each one of them on their things
that they need to work on. I think for Ryan Leonard that's fewer things.
For Will Smith, that's a lot of things defensively, and similarly for
gay pro who it's definitely not his strong suit. And actually, when you
look at Mitch Brown's tracking data, gay Proo was like one of the worst
forwards in the sample set that he had for the US. For the USHL,
he was almost the standard deviation over standard deviation below in his coursie against,
meaning that he was from that massive bottom tier there. I know that's
not why you have gay pro out there, but if he's going to be
a defensive liability, it's going to be a little bit tougher for him to
break in if you look at the other things for pro and Mets just data
one hundred percent. For offense, his expected primary assists and expected goals were
just like off the charts, ridiculously high, top two to five percent of
the league. He also had some pretty good other things like his some of
his transition game underrated, really good controlled entries and cross lane plays. Some
of his exits were also really good. His game score was one of the
highest that he tracked and his primary point involvement was really high, and so
that that bottom category that I know some people like to call the translatability is
very high for a game pro and overall ninety seven percentiles, So really good
player. Definitely has some things to work on. And let's hear a little
bit more about that from our FHL scout. Our FHL scout to talk about
Perro today is Sasha. Here's what he says. Pero is a strong skater
who lacks a little bit of acceleration and top speed. Uses his edges nicely
on offense and defense, using a series of cutbats and manipulation in his stride.
There could be a strength issue more than a skating issue, but he
thinks that there could be both in there. Passing handling from the games that
Sasha walked watched, Pero is a past first mentality player who has outstanding handling
skills, able to create space for himself along the boards with some impressive pacing,
delay and hesitation, uses the open ice well in his passing game.
Really fun player to watch in the offensive zone with this high class passing and
handling combination. Shooting the shot is above average will be a true weapon once
he develops his inside game more and more over the next few seasons. When
Pero receives the puck in the slot with time and space, he's extremely accurate
on his wrist shots, specially due to his quick release upon reception the IQ
that might be the strongest part of his game a coordinate to Sasha, it's
very rare to see Pero make any mental errors in terms of game processing.
Elite at scanning the ice, able to anticipate opponent movements before changing gears on
them with a cut to the outside or laying the puck in the open ice
For his teammates not as active in the D zone, it can at times
try to shoot the zone for an offensive opportunity, but he's still smart that
Sasha thinks he'll be able to adapt to the pros solid for checker needs to
improve in his speed and strength to really impact the game on the four check,
but that IQ is evident once again in that arena defense. The smarts
are there. He's able to anticipate offensive schemes by a and fill in for
teammates who are out of position. Gets beat along the boards at times,
and one on one board battles best asset. As we said, the offensive
and defensive IQ and his puck handling playmaking ability all elite tools, and the
concern is the strength and the top speed. Not a strong puck carrier in
the neutral zone. The top tier outcome for Pero a top six line connector
glue guy who can keep pace with high skilled forwards. Not a big bash
guy due to his lack of physical play. His median outcome high end middle
six floor with a huge offensive potential, smarts and tools that will keep him
on offensive lines, and the stylistic comparable Jake Gensel. That would be nice
gay Pero and the NHL ranked Kings comparisons. He blew off the charts once
again for his NHPNHL equivalency Dylan strom, Seth Jarvis, Nick Patan. But
it's over superstar potential in terms of how his production last year would have translated,
and as we know he was in a supreme offensive environment. We're going
to compare him to one of the breakout prospects of last year who was playing
up in Halifax, Jordan Dumay of the Columbus Blue Jackets. The people have
spoken and they like Perot a whole lot more than Jordan Dumay. Seventy two
to twenty eight was the vote victor. Is it that easy for you?
I think so. I love Jordan Dumay. He's fantastic and MVP most points,
most assists, First Team All Star. He had a ridiculous season,
and again in terms of value here third round pick versus one first round pick,
the fact that we're even talking about Dumay is a relative of the hat
to him. Just a ridiculous one hundred forty points and sixty four games for
Halifax. That's borderline silly there. I know the Q can be can have
a little more scoring than the other leagues, but that's massive. So really
like that. But I think that the upside with pro is just so high.
You know, if he can eat hit even you know, seventy eightieth
percentile of what he has shown at the USN T TB, it's going to
be amazing. So I definitely, like per I thought about this more than
maybe you would assume based on the difference in the draft position. But by
the time these guys get closer to being in the NHL, that's going to
be a distant memory. So I can't think about that too much, and
their PNHL is similar as mentioned. I think it's a little bit closer than
that. But Pero with the size, he's not like huge, but five
eleven one seventy is certainly a better more projectable frame than five nine one sixty
that Jumet de Dumet is, So you like that. The thing that really
concerns me about pro is that the Rangers system has really not shown to be
able to develop talent well, and the prospects there seemed to develop in spite
of their system and not because of it, So that really worries me.
And he has a lot of work to do, but fortunately most of that
will be in college and not directly under the Rangers supervision. But if you
look at the hockey prospecting between these two, Pero comes in a fifty three
percent dume win from twenty to forty six percent, so they're actually pretty similar.
And then if you look at just Pero's comps, most of them are
silly, and Pavel Burret is one who had a similar draft season, and
then there's some other really good ones too, are like Gary Hurdler and Sam
Gagner, and the Jay fresh card usually pretty pessimistic about players Jesse forty nine
percent chance of being a star, ninety three percent chance of being an NHL
or. He's the seventh ranked prospect in this data set. Pretty high praise
for gay Pero. It's nice to be on that launch. It's gonna it's
definitely gonna juice that production. Victor. Next up, we're gonna go to
the need to know prospect. Who is it? Yeah? Yeah? So
this is Zach Jones, twenty nineteen third round pick, five ten hundred and
seventy nine pounds. He has primarily played in the HL for the Hartford wolf
Pack. This past season he had actually the last two seasons, and he
had eight goals and twenty three assists for thirty one points in fifty four games
for the Hartpack. This Hartford wolf Pack this past season, which was similar
to the first. He played sixteen games with the Rangers, one goal,
one assist, so not a whole lot of scoring, and he is known
as an offensive defenseman. He's slightly undersized at five ten hundred and seventy nine
pounds, so that's a bit of an issue for him, and he is
going to be twenty three this season, so he's getting a little older.
He should definitely get a look for the Rangers this season. Unfortunately, they're
back end is pretty stacked and so there it's gonna be a little bit hard
for him to break into to that blue line there. Obviously, Lyndgun and
Fox are good there, you got Truba Miller and then Braden Schneider who basically
passed him, and then they have gust Of Son and some other options there.
So it's going to be a little bit of a challenge for Zack Jones,
but he does have teyears left on the entry level and to get to
know him a little bit better, we should hear from our FHL scout.
Right FHL scout Jim is concise in his analysis of Zack Jones for skating average
to good passing good passer first pass always seems to be great, and he
moves the puck with conviction. Shooting, he doesn't shoot that often, but
Jim sees it as an average shot. IQ Hockey IQ's excellent smart player seems
to always make correct decisions with the puck. Defense, good in his own
zone, average on the rush on the rushes, where average to good skating
looks more on the average side than the good side. Best asset is that
hockey iq. The first pass is outstanding. He knows where he's going with
the puck before it comes to him and reads the ice really well. Biggest
concern not sure positives amount to more than third pair NHL. Can be quarterback
of a power play maybe, but can't get shot to goal consistently, and
his top tier outcome would be tier three. Can't see him scoring more than
thirty points in the NHL. Doesn't seem to block a lot of shots,
hit or shoot, So Bash not so much fiftieth percentile tier role. Yeah,
just a fine player, solid for what he does, and a stylistic
comparison Ryan ellis light is what Jim's going with in the NHL ranked King Pole.
We're gonna put Jones up against Philip Broberg. Of course, Jones already
in the NHL, so we're not going to have an equivalency guy here,
but he's not necessarily coming out with great outcomes yet. But Mason Black put
the poll out nonetheless for and of course Broberg also has some time in the
NHL. And the answer here Broberg sixty five percent, Zach Jones thirty five
percent. Victor we've seen these guys in NHL sweaters, Is this the way
that you would rank them? Yeah, I don't know about that. I
understand the love for Broberg. He's already playing and doing a little bit more
in the NHL. I understand that, But I also just think that Broberg
is going to be a middle to bottom pairing guy without too much offense.
And so, yes, you're getting a more likely NHL or for sure if
you take Broberg here. But also is that going to be anywhere exciting or
is he just going to be taking up space on your roster. I think
it's more likely the latter. I don't think that Broberg is going to be
the score that some hoped he would be. He's turning into an effective an
NHL defenseman, which is great for the Oilers. I think that a lot
of the fans, we're really hoping that they would take Zegris in that spot.
But I think if you're getting a competent NHL defenseman who can play decent
minutes, you're not too upset about that in the end. As the organization,
hindsight's always twenty twenty. But I think that's what you're hoping for,
and he's actually been really effective defensively. So you like that for Broberg,
But I think in terms of like upside, I think Zach Jones still has
upside. I know that there's some struggles in his game, and maybe I
just really think he needs to go elsewhere. I think Zach Jones needs to
get traded and hopefully another team can give him a shot and he can flourish.
But I think that's going to be a struggle in New York because there's
so many just better options ahead of him, and obviously no one's taking Adam
Fox's job, but even some of the secondary offensive minutes are going to be
hard to come by. So I would just take Jones for the upside.
He's close, he could get traded to a team and just have a decent
season when so I would take that. But I think that if you hold
Broberg, you're just going to be holding a guy who, once he runs
out of your miner's limit, he's going to be a replacement level guy,
and that's not super exciting. I would actually take Jones unless you just really
wanted an hlor and don't mind lower counting stats. In terms of the hockey
prospecting, Oones graduated the model on a much higher equivalency twenty percentile, twenty
percent sorry of being a star, seventy five percent chance of being an NHL
or Brober was much less just a coin flip to be an nhllar even though
he already has been, and just four percent chance of being a star.
If you look at some of the other comps for Jones, you have some
decent guys. The one I think he looks the most like is Connor Timmins,
who has found a role with the Leafs, at least for now in
cold depth position. So maybe he could be Connor Timmins, like I think
that's an appropriate comparison if you're looking for kind of upside, I think there's
maybe even a little more there. Zach Jones also has a comp of Andre
Markoff. I think that's unlikely, but that would be amazing that happened.
And the Jay Fresh card, which is usually a little pessimistic about this guy.
About these guys eight percent chance of being a star, at thirty nine
percent chance of being an nah llar, and his rank is fiftieth in this
data set, it's not bad. It's not bad for a guy who's probably
available or people aren't too interested and holding on too and you could probably get
for cheap. I think a decent speculative ad or trade for his zact Jones
wouldn't be the worst thing for sure, all right, Victor, Next up,
we've got to keep your eye on prospect. Who is it keep your
eye on? Is Brennan Athman, New York Rangers, twenty twenty one first
round pick, sixteenth overall, six foot, one hundred and eighty one pounds.
He was third in OHL. Sorry, was in his third OHL season
after missing twenty twenty twenty one due to COVID when he went over to the
SL in Switzerland, which is not the top league there. But for his
draft year was not bad production where he had sixteen points at thirty four games
as a lower tier professional level as a young man. That's pretty decent production.
He was traded from Flint in mid season, where he was the captain,
to Peterborough where he had a less prominent role. So twenty nine goals
thirty eight assists in fifty six games combined with Flint and Peterborough. Twenty five
points in twenty three games for Peterborough in the playoffs, so that was great.
He signed with the Rangers, so he could get a shot at making
the team this season. Otherwise he will probably be in the HL, I
would imagine, and he's already twenty he'll be twenty one in January. Bothman.
If you look at Mitch Brown's data set overall, really good ninety six
percent tile overall. His best is his offense, but his defense isn't far
behind. He's actually a really effective defensive forward. The main lacking points are
his transition game, where his transitions success and controlled exits are pretty low,
but has pretty decent controlled entries and some of the cross ling players are really
good. He shoots a ton and has really dangerous passes to the slot,
and his expected primary assists are probably his best asset, so he's a good
setup man. He also has some pretty good translatable features like the primary point
involvement, game score advantages created bringing the puck to the middle. Those all
look really good for Brennan Affman, and this was tracked mainly in the Peterborough
data set, where he was a little bit less exciting than in the Flint
data set. Important to note, Okay, let's hear a little bit from
our FHL scout about Brendan Othman absolutely Joshua talking about Atman the skating his biggest
weakness what will hold him back? Probably he has a very shallow skating stride,
which, while he isn't the slowest, lacks separation speed even at the
OHL level. He can overcome it. Now will he be able to in
the NHL? Passing and handling a snappy, quick, hard pass that Aman
can get off fairly accurately. Sometimes has the habit of overshooting his target,
but rarely makes support decision with his passes to cause a dangerous turnover. Handling
doesn't flash yere great, but it's effective and he won't frequently beat defenders with
his stick handling, shooting strong and accurate wealth of different shots at his disposal.
He's also good at finding those soft areas of the ice and lapses in
defensive coverage to put himself in the best position to get the shot off.
IQ good anticipation and anticipation from Affman with the puck able to find some interesting
passing lanes and deceived defenders off. Puck Able to make up for his lackluster
skating by finding the light spots and lanes to be most effectives for checking is
as good as his speed would allow. Active and physical, but possible for
opponents to outspeed him and then there's nothing he can do defense. Similar to
the for checking predicated on his physicality limited by his speed, the rush defending
needs some work, so the best asset shot IQ and underrated passing. Those
make up for his shortcomings. At this level, he's effective and finding the
best thing to do with the puck in any given circumstance. Can physically dominate
players off the puck and the biggest concern once again, we set it again.
It's the skating renders rather ineffective on fast breaks going the other way,
and the game just gets faster from here. Top tier outcome. If the
skating improves, he has the skill and talent to become an effective two hundred
foot top six winger can be trusted in his own zone, could be a
dual passer shooter threat. Best case scenario, he tops out at thirty fifty
eighty if skating and skill doesn't translate the median outcome for him. Bottom six
winger. They can kill penalties, put the physical pressure on opponents, but
will struggle in the offensive zone. Twenty five point type guy and the stylistic
comparable maybe Tyler Toffoley and his shot skill in IQ with a bit of Zach
Kyman with his physicality and tenacity. And in the NHL Rank King comparison,
he has gone down a little bit since last year. He's a little bit
below second line potential now in terms of equivalency, but his overall similarity scores
still some very good names Bohorvat, Anthony Bovillier and Jordan's Stall. And for
this comparison we take one of our recent I guess we talked about his brother
in a recent episode, but we like talking about Chazz Lucius here, Brandon
Affman, Chaz Lucius in the face off here and Offman buy a nose fifty
one to forty nine percent over Chazz Lucius Victor. Is that how you see
him? No, I don't think so. I think Chazz had a really
difficult But Chazz did have a really difficult year, so I think maybe people
are a little bit down on him. But he had some really great numbers
at the USNTDP and had a really decent transition to the University of Minnesota after
that, and then this past year was just all over the place. He
started the h L and then that was difficult, or he started got loaned
to the WHL. He was at the World Juniors, then he had an
injury, so it was just it was a lost year for Chazz unfortunately.
But I still think he has way more offensive upside than Authman. As we
heard the skating, and I think Aufman is just more of a He's just
more of a physical grinder type. I think he has pretty decent hand skills,
but overall, I'm worry that he's just going to settle into more of
a bit of a third line checking role, and he likes that that physicality.
He reminds me of was a more skilled Nick Ritchie who was supposed to
be this big power forward with lots of skill, and he ended up just
being, you know, like a fourth liner. So I'm a little worried
about that with Ausman. I think he's better than that, but I don't
think he's better than Chazz. And I think for fantasy, you're gonna want
the guy who's gonna command power play time. You're gonna want the guy who
you know has a little bit more offensive upside. And I think this is
actually a time to get Jazz Lucius at value because I think that people are
a little down on him after his weird year. I don't think that was
necessarily his fault. He had some injuries, he had some some it was
difficult being moved all around. I like Jazz here. I'm not super excited
with Authman, even though I think he's decent, like he should play NHL
games and maybe there's more offense there, maybe he can make it into the
top six. But I think that's just a little bit icy. In terms
of the hockey prospecting, Authman looks really poor. He started at four percent
chance of being a star. He lost that COVID year. There wasn't an
equivalency for that league in Switzerland, so Byron has that as just blank for
his D plus one year and then or for his D year sorry, and
then he kind of has trended down just one percent chance of being a star
now thirty two percent chance of being an NHL Chazz also has trended down,
but I think again part of that was this year being weird. But he
went from twenty seven to twelve to five. Anyways, I still like Lucius
there. But if you look at some of Authman's other comps, they're pretty
boring guys. Vitally pro Horcof is one of his best comps who's a bust
pretty much. They're all bust or replacement level for guys that have been Authman's
type. Milan Mahalak is maybe one of the better ones who was pretty average
at best. So anyways, the Top Down Hockey model has authented just three
percent chance of being a star twenty one percent chance of being an nhlor So's
that's pretty pessimistic, and I'm pretty skeptical about his upside. I think if
you're down with the bash, that's great, but I wouldn't be expecting super
high end production from Authman, Frankly and Jesse. There are more guys we
could talk about, but there's no time here. If you're a Patreon you
can listen to the top ten prospect recaps on Patreon. If you're actually doing
some scouting, you can shoot me a DM on x Discord or email us
Autman. No longer the hotness. We'll come right back close up the show.
Well, a couple of things to mention before we get out of here
today. One of them is our shows brought to you by Fantracks dot Com.
You can move leaks over to Fantracks no problem at all. They can
help you start new ones. I believe if you start one now and you
do all the little things, you can win yourself and autographed Austin Matthews jersey,
So that's something. And they have all the options that you're looking for
for your fantasy hockey. They have all kinds of customization, hundreds of different
scorings, settings, and frankly everything you're gonna need to play dynasty. Fantrak's
HQ has lots of fantasy content. There's a ton of articles coming out right
now on fantasy hockey and all the other fantasy sports. There are other podcasts
covering baseball and fantasy football. We think our content curator Nate Duffett, as
well as our new guy behind the scenes, Kevin, who have been helping
out a lot with show prep. There's been a number of people who've sort
of been added lately to really help us out in running a lot of things,
because boy, there's a lot of plates spinning here, folks. We're
also brought to you by Dabber Hockey and Dabber Prospects, where Victor is an
editor follow his work there, as well as the other podcast, Daber Prospects
Report with Peter Harley, where he loves to talk about some hockey prospects,
some great stuff. I saw Megan Angley, one of my favorite guests from
this year, recently made an appearance herself, and one of the things I'll
mentioned just in passing in case you're interested in getting in another Dynasty league by
the end of the year. My good friend Nathan aka Dynasty one Stop on
X is a established Dynasty Fantasy commissioner who does a whole ton of baseball leagues
that he runs, and he's going to be starting a hockey league this year,
So if you're interested in that, you can DM him Dynasty one Stop
or you can hit him up in our discord for him. He's also going
to show up there and you can DM him on that if you're interested in
being a part. Things are still coming together, but maybe one last chance
to get into a Dynasty league with a reputable manager who is not going to
rip you off. You can listen to my other show, Dynasty Sports Life,
I talk for different Dynasty Sports sometimes at the same time. This week's
episode was with a friend of mine, Casey Bubba who does a bunch of
writing on fantasy baseball, and we look back on the twenty twenty three Dynasty
Baseball season and what we can learn from it. Follow us on x at
fan Hockey Life is Me at Victor Newno. Twelve is Victor Rate and review
the podcast. Give us five stars, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever else
you get your podcasts. We are down to just a couple more episodes.
I believe three more teams to go. I hope you've enjoyed listening to this
New York Rangers preview and until next time, keep living that fantasy hockey light.