Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks. Here shit us Here
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Block off, hop a step hit on, stay lock. Here's your hosts,
Jesse Sovier and Victor Nuno Fantasy Hockey Live. We're back once again.
You can't get away from us. Jesse Severe, Fan Tracks and Victor Nuno
a EP ringks side. Victor, how you doing today? I'm doing great,
Jesse. It has been a minute. We have been off for a
little bit. I had a crazy April, but I'm excited to get back
into our stride. These team previews are one of my favorite times of the
year. So I'm doing great. I'm excited about that. How are you
doing? Yeah, man, it feels like we haven't recorded in forever,
just because of our travel schedules and full disclosure. The thing that your podcasters
you listen to are always saying, I'm recording from somewhere unusual today, just
to expect my voice to sound a little bit different. But Victor, the
voices may be different, the times may be different. We may have missed
a few weeks, but we're still going strong man, We're still talking fantasy
hockey and it's friggin May. We're in the middle of Stanley Cup playoffs,
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it for our introduction. Now it's time to talk a little cracking right after
the kind of welcome our guest now for the Seattle Cracking episode, and we're
very grateful to have RJ from Emerald City Hockey. How you doing, RJ
doing great? Thanks for having me back on Victor. Yeah, it was
great having you last year and as an interesting team to follow this year.
There was no doubt that this was a bit of a disappointing season for the
Krakend. Their final record was effectively halfway between their first fledgling season and they're
lucky maybe last season, but we'll get to that. Essentially, though,
everyone's scoring to client, which was weird. The team went from two hundred
and eighty nine goals top five to two hundred and fourteen bottom five, and
the goaltending improved a bit, but this led to a sizeable drop off and
their total points as a team in playoff contention, there was no forward that
ended with more than eighteen time one ice, something that drove us fantasy managers
crazy. I'm sure frustrating for some review as well. We'll get to the
individuals, but do you have an overall idea of what happened with this team
or what was going on throughout the season. Yeah, I think there were
a few different issues that were playing the group. Yeah, I know from
a fantasy standpoint, the ice time thing is really frustrating, and that's something
that I did warn you about. I think about a year ago. As
long as Dave Haxtall was the coach, that was going to be the case
that ice time was just going to be evenly distributed there, and even when
things weren't going well, he didn't really switch that up. He stuck with
his normal ice timemo and I think it was part of his undoing. But
really As you mentioned, they couldn't score. That was the number one issue.
The goal scoring was way down, and I think there were a few
different reasons for it. I think you look at the personnel, and this
season, like you said, was between halfway between year one and year three.
I think this was more indicative of what this group actually is from a
scoring firepower perspective. But I think there are also other things that they just
weren't doing that they could have done to generate more goals. And a lot
of that is just going NetFront, going to the right areas of the ice
that generate those goals, and there were just too many guys on this team
that just only went around the perimeter. And I think the team couldn't really
find an identity or a system either. They couldn't decide it's are we a
volume shooting team? Are we not a volume shooting team. They went back
and forth between those as one worked and then didn't work, and then you
try the other one and it works for a little bit, then it doesn't
work. I think the number one thing for next season you need to adjust
is for whatever the new coaches, just have a system, have an identity
in a way that you want to play. That's how you win games,
because there just wasn't a system this year. Yeah, definitely, that's interesting.
And I definitely got the sense that they were more of a volume shooting
team and you know, generated chances, but not necessarily great ones. And
yeah, the perimeter players you mentioned, and yeah, we definitely talked about
the timeline ies. That was an issue and why a lot of us shied
away from drafting krakeing me included. But I did have this guy on a
couple of teams. He's on a couple of my dynasty teams, and my
favorite from this team, and that's Jared McCann. So we'll go ahead and
get into the individual players. We'll start with him. I'll reference our Tidy
ranks, that's our tier dynasty that we do. He was one hundred and
twelveth in that format, so not great. And he's got a couple more
years on his contract. Pretty decent cap hit. And the big thing with
him, obviously is that he regressed from that forty goal season. I think
we all knew that was going to happen. He was shooting a little bit
hot, but he went back to similar what he did a couple of years
ago twenty nine goals in eighty games, almost thirty. That's pretty good when
overall his block shots and hits aren't not terrible, they're not amazing, but
they're decent. So I think it seems like the outlier was that forty goal
season, and obviously the shooting percentage cooled off. There was a difference in
even strength goals. But what do you think our day are we going to
see from McCann. Are we going to see him get closer to forty again
or do we expect him in this twenty five to thirty range. And what
about the assists? Do you think that can bump up as well. I
think we could see a little bit more of a bump up from McCann from
this season. The areas that I see or the room to grow is mostly
ice time. He's averaging like sixteen minutes and change of ice time per game,
and he's clearly the Krackings best forward, and that's a result of Dave
Hackstall in the way that he likes to gole out the ice time to forwards.
And I would have to think, if you're another coach coming in and
you're looking to win right away, why not have him average eighteen nineteen,
maybe even twenty minutes of ice time a game. I think McCann can handle
it, and I think with that, you're going to see more opportunities for
the numbers to go up a little bit. As for the shooting percentage,
we knew that was going to cool off, but still a thirteen point four
percent is not a bad clip and it's something that we've seen is sustainable over
the stage of his career, So I think that's going to continue. I
think they're going to have to lean heavily on him. Another thing that I
think held him back a bit this year, aside from the difficulties with supporting
cast at times with the injuries, was that he had to play center for
a lot of the latter part of the part of the season. After they
traded away Alex Wenberg at the deadline, McCann had to shift into center and
take a lot of the defensive responsibilities there. But talking to him after the
season, talking to Francis after the season about it, they definitely both view
him as a winger long term. I think that's going to help his scoring
production. Still don't know how much over that forty goal seventy point ceiling you're
really going to get. But I like the coaching change for his production.
That is good to hear about the winger status because I think it's a little
bit easier to fit those wingers into your lineup, So that's nice to hear.
So the next forward, I want to ask you about Oliver buyorick Strand,
and he was tidy rank one twenty so definitely a little bit lower.
He's got another year at the reasonable cap hit five point four and his point
pace this season it went his yo yoed between the high fifties and last season
was a bit of a regression his first season in Seattle, but he went
back up to his last season in the Columbus and the exception is maybe that
proves the role. Buyorck Strand produced a career high in points, a big
improvement from his first year until his usage was still limited despite being second on
the team and scoring and first and assists. The Danish buork just turned twenty
nine, which is not as young as I feel like he should be.
Which is which was this buyork Strand's career peak on a struggling team and can
he keep it up next year? I think the number this is probably around
the peak. And last season we had an inkling this was coming. His
shooting percentage was much lower than it had been in any of his prior seasons
really, and we thought that would start to go in for him. And
it started in the playoffs last year too, It felt like everything clicked for
him, and then this season he was able to just continue it going forward.
I think he's one of those players that is maybe a little bit more
useful in real life than in fantasy, because this year he played on every
line. He was the line fixer. If the line wasn't doing well,
Hackstall would throw buorck Strand on that line and usually it would improve. So
I think that he's useful. He's always going to get I think he'll get
top six ice time. He's certainly a top six forward on this team.
So much of this stuff is coaching dependent too, because whoever the new coach
is is going to have his own ideas about where bureick Strand should play,
and he has the most variable you know, where he can play. Right
he was on the first line. He was on the fourth line at times
this season, and so you just don't know what that's going to happen.
With that, I will say he was the team leader in power play points,
and this power play was not good. The coach got fired, right,
the power play coach, Paul McFarlane got fired because the power play just
wasn't very good. But it did lean pretty heavily on Buyorick Strand, and
so I wonder if next season maybe the power play doesn't run through him as
much, and so those numbers could go down a little bit. But also
I expect the power play in general to be better, so it could be
a rising tide lifts all boats type situation. Yeah, good point on that.
The line fixer, Yeah, that's usually not a good thing though,
Right, you want to be the one that everyone gets paired with and you
have high production. We might as well get to Maddy Benier's. We were
impressed by the first the small sample size in twenty one twenty two nine points
in ten games. Were drooling at that, and then fifty eight point season
last season point pace were like, Okay, this is not bad. He
can get over sixty. No, he went the other way. He was
not too far away from having his point total thirty nine point pace in seventy
for seventy seven games. It was really frustrating. I know Jesse who is
not here right now and he's delayed with some travel issues. He took Viniers
really early in one of our in our Diesel draft, and it was really
regretting it. But it worked out for him because he ended up winning the
league anyways, but that was a real frustration for him. And I'm sure
for the Kraken, I think he's always Veneers is always going to be one
of these guys who's better in real life, probably than fantasy. But I'm
not sure that it was really all that great in real life either this season,
So I'm wondering what you thought from him and whether he can get back
to potentially being a sixty plus or even more point player. Is that in
the cards for Beneers. I don't know that it is, and I don't
have a ton of confidence that it is, and really it goes back to
when he was a prospect coming into the NHL draft. Dylan, who's the
other half of Emerald City Hockey, is a former WHL scout. In his
draft profile on Matti Banier's was saying that the defensive play is rock solid.
I think it was this season for the Krack and too. But the concern
was can he score enough to be a number one center in the NHL.
I know Dylan was really concerned about that. Now, Maddy worked on his
offensive game in college, and you saw he had that Calder season where he
put it twenty four goals fifty seven points. But I think this season went
more back to what we were fearing around the draft, that he just didn't
have that offensive upside. And I don't know that he's going to put it
together into the tune of being a seventy or so point player. I think
he's gonna do better next year than that his thirty seven point out foot this
season. But still, really what you saw from him is he had elite
defensive impacts, like getting the puck out of his own zone, retrieving the
puck in his zone, breaking it out. That's great. That doesn't help
you in fantasy, though, And I think in the offensive zone. If
you go to NHL Edge and look at the advanced stats and look at his
shooting map, it is terrible. It is just all along the perimeter.
He doesn't go to the net front, like you can't expect to score from
those areas, especially with a shot as predictable as his He likes to target
one area of the nets, and I think I may have even mentioned this
to you last season, where it's right under the glove, right under the
above the pad on the goalie, and he just goes there every single time
when he gets a clean look. Now, he did vary his shot selection
a little bit in the middle of the season, and you know what,
it worked, But then he went back to what he was doing that was
predictable and easy for goalies to watch tape on. So I think the league
figured him out a little bit. But he's a good player. He's a
smart player, he's a skilled player. It's a big off season for him.
He's got to reevaluate his whole offensive game and see what he needs to
do. I think he's going to bounce back from this year. The numbers
are going to be higher next year, but expecting anything over sixty points,
I really wouldn't. Oh right, that's big news. I know a lot
of us were thinking, Okay, he'll bounce back, he can get to
that point, but you're a little pessimistic on that. So obviously we hope
the best for him, but it's good to have expectations. Jordan Everley a
couple more years for every at the four seven five million, and he progressed
back to his first season with the crack end forty six point pace. So
it seems like maybe the last season with sixty three was the outlier. He
was very relevant in a lot of circles. Maybe we shouldn't even be talking
about him. His perferal coverage is pretty low, but over a pretty reliable
performance. And you know, the the production, as we mentioned, has
tailed off a little bit. His power play points even went down. So
what do you think should is this kind of what we should expect from him,
like a sub fifty point Jordan Eberley, or is he going to potentially
boost back up to where he was previously. I think he could boost back
up a little bit. And there are two factors that I point to with
that one. He actually we found out after the season he broke his hand
in the fourth game of the season in a fight against Colorado, and so
he was playing with a broken hand for a while, and that might explain
an early season slump from him scoring wise. I'm sure that's going to affect
your shooting. You're stick handling all that sort of stuff. But the number
one thing is Matty Banier's just having the bad season that he had, and
Everly was pretty much tied to Maddy's hit for most of the season, and
I think that kind of hurt him. And so if you're betting on a
Matty Benier's bounce back, I don't see a reason that every couldn't get back
into the fifty something point range from production standpoints. So what we do know
is that he's going to get opportunities. He's going to be paired with Maddie
or with Shane Wright, because that toward the end of the season, the
Kraken played Shane Wright with Jaden Schwartz and Jordan Everley, and I know they
look at him as a leader on this team. I think he's probably the
favorite to be named captain before next season starts. I imagine that's the direction
they're going to go. So he's going to get more opportunity for sure.
And if Maddy Beniers can bounce back, if Shane Wright can have the season
that we're hoping he can, and Jeorde Beverly's playing with him, that could
bump up his numbers a little bit. Ellie tolvn In so he was tidy
rank one thirty eight, it's a little bit lower. He had hilariously identical
forty two point paces the last two season, although this one was entirely with
the Krack End. Previously, he had part season with Nashville and he's currently
an RFA, so it'll be interesting to see what they do with that.
And he definitely is someone who hits a lot, so that's providing a nice
peripheral floor for the fantasy gms. And some of his underlying metrics didn't look
super great. His expected goals against was pretty decent, but the rest of
his expected numbers were below average, which was a little bit interesting, and
maybe that partially explains why his time on ice didn't really go up that much.
Maybe there wasn't as much opportunity for him to play with some of those
metrics but he and then the way the Kraken spread around the ice time that
probably didn't help as well. But r J, do you think we can
see a bigger role from Tolvin in next season and potentially an increase from this
forty two point pace he seems to be stuck at. Yeah, I don't
know how much of a potential free increase there really is. I think he
is just that middle six forward that's gonna play solid for you, and yes,
he'll provide the hits. We're a little surprised to see how high the
hit total was this year and how high it ranked on the team. I
think that might bounce back a little bit next season, go a little bit
lower, kind of toward what we're used to from him. But I think
generally what we saw from tolven in this year. Of course, everyone knows
about his shot. That was the thing that everyone talked about when he came
over to Seattle was this guy's got a lethal shot. I think we didn't
see that as much this year. I think he was more focused on rounding
out his game and just really playing that kind of two hundred foot game that
Dave Hackstall loves, and I think that's probably what we're going to continue to
see from him. Interestingly, though, toward the end of the season,
he did get an opportunity to play on that top line with Matti Beniers,
but they moved away from it after a couple games. I think the chemistry
just wasn't really there with him and Maddie. They started off strong, but
then it really faded, so I wouldn't really expect to see him getting a
proper top six spot, and what he is there numbers wise, is probably
what he's going to continue to bring. Yeah, a nice decent depth option
there for Tolvinen. Shane Wright. Obviously, we know we've been those of
us who like the follow up prospects have been pretty excited about him for a
long time, and we know what happened last year. He was moved all
around at different league. So at least this past season he was pretty consistent
playing with Coachella and he had fantastic stats there. I got to see him
live actually when he played down here against the Barracuda, and yeah, he
clearly was too good. I think for that league, he was pretty impressive.
And we got to see him in the NHL level a couple times,
and I think the difference between this season and last season in the NHL was
pretty dramatic, at least from my eye test, and he looked like he
was much more comfortable. He looked more confident, he looked like he really
fit in. And obviously we can't glean a whole lot from eight games,
but Arjie, what do you think we can expect from right next season.
What kind of role do you think he'll be given and what kind of production
maybe can we see. Yeah, I think the ceiling could be pretty high
for him. We saw four goals in a five game call up for him
at the end of last season, and of course he's not going to shoot
what was it thirty three percent over a full season everything, but he was
doing a lot of the right things to generate that offense. He was going
to the net. He was one of the few guys on the team that
was willing to do that consistently, even in that short stint that he had
with the group, and he just looked, ready, the shot is there,
the body is there. I think he's done a lot of developing as
far as just body position. Right, He's got a really one frame and
he can go to those areas and not get knocked off the puck, and
I think that's going to translate as far as his where he's going to be
deployed. I think the plan is for him to start off in maybe a
third line type of role. I do think even as well as he did,
they're probably going to ease him in to start next season and he said
too, that's what he expects as far as next year. But if he
keeps playing this well, how do you not move him up the lineup,
especially with Maddy Benier's regression and where we don't know now is he even really
a sixty point guy. Shane Wright long term is who the team's going to
have to lean on to be that top center. It's just a matter of
time for how quick he gets there. Do you think there's a chance we
see top line Shane Wright as early as twenty four to twenty five or do
you think we're a little bit ways out of that still. I think by
the end of the season, I think we could see that. If things
continue along the current trajectory they're going, I think by the end of the
season he might be the top line center. He is that good. Yeah,
that's exciting, all right, So maybe draft him late in in your
leagues and hold them. That'd be a good advice I want to now pose
to you at pick them. So these are some of the more depth forwards
on the Kraken, and as we said, maybe not the best team to
go for with some depth scoring, but in deep enough leagues it's always interesting
to try to pick these guys out, and each one of these guys definitely
had their moments this past season. So we're talking about Jaden Schwartz, Johanny
Gord and Berukovsky Andrew Beraukovski. So between these three they were all similar.
Schwartz had the highest point pace with thirty nine and then Gord with thirty four,
in Berukovski with twenty seven. But there was definitely moments where each one
of these was maybe more interesting or more exciting than the other. And obviously
Gord has face off wins if that's something that's interesting to you, and he
definitely and he hits and shoots a little bit more and blocks, so there's
a little bit more perperal coverage if that's of interest to you. They're all
kind of similar cap hit if you're in a cap league. But what do
you think about these two just their general role and what maybe we can expect
from them moving forward? Right, So you said Schwartz, Goordon, Berukovsky.
Okay, So here's the thing. If they all play eighty two games,
which by the way, will not happen, I'd say Berukovsky easily.
Toward the end of the seasons he was finally starting to get in a groove
and get healthy. He was looking like the Berukovsky we remembered from Colorado or
from the Krakens first season with him before his major injury that caused him to
miss the rest of the year. And I think that's really you look at
the scoring numbers from him, they are way way down this season, and
I would shock pretty much all of that up to injuries. He just could
not get into a rhythm. When he came back, he got hurt again.
And so with him, you're drafting a player who could be top three
and scoring on this team easily if he stays healthy. But you're building in
that injury risk for him, and if he gets hurt again, anything that's
longer than a week or two, that's really going to just derail his season.
I think because he just needs that momentum. There's a reason they're having
him go play at the World Championships now, because he just needs games.
It's worth the injury risk. He just needs to get those games. So
I'd say Berukovskynumber one pending injuries. Schwartz then number two, also pending injuries
because he doesn't usually play a full season, but The thing about Schwartz is
he's the one guy all season who did consistently go to the net, and
that created a lot of offense. If you look at the shooting maps at
NHL Edge, he's the one guy who's shooting map you look at be like,
yeah, that's where you go to score goals. And I think he
benefited a lot from that, and I think he's going to continue to do
that. Problem is he's on the smaller side, he's a little bit injury
prone. He's going to take some punishment there. He's also an injury risk.
And then Yanni Gord he's tough because I think, certainly for the offensive
upside, it's the least of these three guys. We know what his ceiling
was, and it's what he did last season. And I think also we're
starting to see a bit of a decline there as well. There were a
number of games this season where he just didn't look like himself, and I
wonder if age is a factor there, and especially the style of game that
he plays where he's up in everyone's face. I think we might start to
see some of that wear and tear there. Yes, he provides a bit
more in terms of hits, block that other stuff. I don't know.
He still doesn't hit a ton. He's fifth on the team and hits on
a team that doesn't hit a lot blocks. He was, you know what,
he was tenth on the team that doesn't block a ton of shots.
I don't know how much extra value he brings there. And then also he
might not Again, I don't want to say anything for sure, but if
you were ranking players that the team could trade away, if they were looking
to make some roster moves and gear up for next season and free up some
cap space, I'd say he's probably number two on that list, after Brandon
Tannef. So that's just another thing to potentially consider. I guess by the
time you're drafting you probably know what team he's on, But that's just something
to look at there with him, all right, great stuff with those depth
players. Yeah, good to hear. Yeah, Barakovski, that could be
a big sleeper for sure. Oh yeah. Let's move on to the defense,
and Vince Dunn was, of course the top target. I have to
tell you, I was. I've always been a bit skeptical about Done,
but I was for sure wrong about this guy because he has really turned out
to be quite val and I was mainly skeptical about some of the value with
the cap that they gave to him. But for a top producing defenseman at
seven point three five million, that's not too bad really, quite frankly.
Even though his defensive metrics are still a little bit they leave a little bit
to be desired, but he generates some pretty good expected goals for and isn't
like a total liability defensively, at least as far as I can tell.
He doesn't provide the massive bash that maybe some defensemen do, but his blocks
are still really good and his hits are okay. He doesn't shoot as much
as we would like, but decently overall. His point pace was maybe just
a slightly down from last season sixty five to sixty four point pace. Obviously,
the injury that kept him out that was a big part. He definitely
missed a good chunk of games, but that allowed us to see the player
that we'll talk about later. That helped with that a little bit. But
what do you think about Dunn's season? Is he arrived in this sixty to
seventy point range? Is he going to hang out there now? Moving forward?
What do you think we can expect from him who he is. He
proved me wrong too, because I was skeptical just like you were when we
talked a year ago about his future. And I knew that he'd have to
do it a little bit differently too, because that five on five production wasn't
really sustainable. But you know what, he learned how to be a good
power play quarterback, something he didn't really figure out last season, but this
year he did it. He is easily the best power play quarterback on the
team. He's going to quarterback that first power play unit for probably as long
as he is a Kraken. So yeah, Vince Dunn absolutely proved me wrong.
And I think that scoring production you can pencil that in as long as
he's healthy. And I know injuries were concerned this year. I don't know
how much of a real worry that is. I think you look at the
big injury that he had on a hit from Martin paus Bacil that it was
just a dirty, garbage hit to the boards that like, you can't defend
yourself against that. You can't count on that happening again. I think generally
he's the type of guy who will stay healthy. So yeah, I think
you can just take what he did this year over a full season pace,
take what he did last year, and basically pencil that in from a production
standpoint. I like him when people prove as wrong in a good way.
I'm all about that happy to see that. Now we're gonna switch over to
the younger defenseman, Riiker Evans, and he was ranked pretty low in the
tidy. But this isn't really I've always found this pick really interesting because he
was one of their early draft picks. He was drafted as an overrager.
I just remember thinking like, wow, you're wasting your quote unquote wasting a
second round pick on this overrager. But man, has he been good and
he definitely has shown that he was definitely not a wasted pick. He has
really done well in the AHL and now coming up to the NHL. He
played thirty six games this season nine points. I guess it's nothing too exciting,
but twenty one point pace. He got some power play time. He
looked pretty good on the power play from my eyes when I saw him five
power play points. Obviously that role it was most likely going to go back
to Don when unless he's injured, but it was really great to see him
there was really great to see his confidence and his ability to play at this
tough level. His peripherals were okay and over a block and almost two his
per game. That's pretty nice. Perferle floor, the shots were a little
bit lower. But what do you think we can expect from Evans next season?
Is he a regular NHL or is he getting second pair minutes? What
do you think from him? You'll one hundred percent be a regular NHL or
that's something that Ron France is basically confirmed. He's going to be a regular
to start next season. I think he could potentially bump up into second pairing
minutes depending on how the blue line shakes out. Certainly if there's any injuries,
he could do that. Things to know about Ryker Evans, though,
he will quarterback a power play unit. That is for sure. It's going
to be Vince Done on unit one, Riker Evans on unit two. I
can pretty confidently say that going into next year. He was blocked by Justin
Schultz for a little bit of this season, and so some of those games
he got in he didn't have the power play work. But next season,
for sure, because Schultz is not going to be back, so Evans will
take over that spot also, I think too, I don't know if Again
I don't do a lot of fantasy hockey myself, but I don't know if
like handcuffs are a thing in fantasy hockey, But if you have Vince Done
right, Evans is the handcuff for Vince Done. Because we saw when Dunn
was out of the lineup later in the season, Ryker Evans where they ended
up liking him slotting right into that first pairing spot with Adam Larson, and
he was getting the ice time, he was getting the opportunities, and he
basically was just doing his Vince Done impression. So if Done were to miss
any time next season, Ryker Evans is the guy already. Yeah, for
sure, I remember thinking that exact thing, Oh, okay, Done is
out, Let's go get Evans. The difficult thing in redraft leagues and stuff
theres he was either playing like top line power play or he was like not
playing, and that was difficult to hold him in certain situations. But that's
another Hackstall thing also where I think that he gave him less leash than I
would have. I think that a lot of other coaches maybe would have Basically
there was one game against Dallas where and Evans had three games, really impressive
games up to that point in his call up, and then one game against
Dallas in overtime where he didn't take away the guy NetFront and it led to
the overtime winning goal. And yeah, he messed up. That's a rookie
mistake. But Hackstall benched him after that. He scratched him for the next
game, and he wasn't the same sense. And I would hope that whoever
the next coach is gives him a little bit more runway because it seemed to
mess with his confidence going forward. Yeah, that's a good point, so
we definitely should expect something different next season. I think I heard you say
this, but I want to ask you about Justin Schult Anyways, he's a
UFA. He may not be back with the team next season. He's thirty
three years old. He's someone who has run a power play. If he's
not back with the team, just wondering what you saw from him. He's
the kind of guy who can still run a power play. Is he someone
we should have interest in if he's with the Cracking or somebody else, or
do you feel like maybe he's washed up and isn't too interesting anymore. Yeah,
So first off, I will say, yeah, he's not going to
be back with the Krack and Ryker Evans is going to take that spot.
And I think that was always the plan with that contract expiring, as Ryker
Evans is ready to go on Schultz himself. He did have some productive games
this season, and I think it was tough for him because you clearly had
Ryker Evans kind of chopping at the bit to get into the lineup and everything.
But during the Krakens' best stretch, Justin Schultz was there and he was
on the third pairing with Brian Doomlan. He's the third pairing defenseman. Now.
He's not going to be getting top four minutes. That's just what he
is. He's a third pairing defenseman with a little bit of potential to run
a second power play unit. I thought he was worse on the power play
this year than he was last year. Certain things like keeping the puck in
the blue line, just decisions with the puck seem to get a little less
sharp than it was last season. And so I think depending on what team
he goes to, if he's on a playoff team, He's probably not a
top two power play quarterback if he's on a team that's maybe in the bottom
play of the league. I think he still could quarterback a second power play
unit, but I wouldn't be expecting a whole lot from him. He's definitely
more of a depth piece in the NHL. Now, maybe he will be
a good veteran leadership for one of those rebuilding bottom teams, get some support
to some of the younger guys. All right, let's move on to the
goalies now, and this season, the Kraken ranks six and expected goals against
for sixty six two point four to three, but only and conceded the ninth
amount of actual goals. These top ten numbers would expect you would expect the
team to finish better, but obviously we know that they did not make the
playoffs and it was a pretty difficult season. I think for Grubauer he missed
a bunch of time his numbers. Overall, he started similar number of games
as previously with injuries, but obviously Joey Decord taking a bigger part of the
net, having more wins, maybe passing him in some regards. Grubauer had
a negative goal save above expected in a negative delta Fenwick. It's a little
confusing though, because he obviously has the contract right, he has the cap
hit, and so you think he'd get more of the starts. But you
can't ignore Joey Decord playing getting twelve point seventy one goals save above expected his
delta Fenwick. He was way out performing the protection given to him, and
obviously he's a bit cheaper, so I can't imagine that the Crack can completely
ignore that and just go based on the money. But how do you see
this working out? Is the cord of the de facto starter here or are
they going to continue to share the net moving forward? How do you see
this shaken out? They're going to share the net in some respects. I
think it'll probably be about a fifty to fifty split to start the season,
and like the Crack can have done in the past, I think they're going
to ride the hothand from there. Last season or this past season showed that
they're not necessarily completely loyal to Philip Rubauert just because of that contract. If
Joey Decord plays out of his mind and is consistently the goalie that this season
showed that maybe he can be. They're gonna go with him because that gives
him a better chance to win That contract is going to have Grubauer hang around,
though. They are always going to continue to give him chances to find
his game and to play well, and at times this season he did.
He had some good stretches, but injury concerns. That's a huge deal.
This is the second year in a row that he's had a fairly major injury
at around the same part of the season two. Last year it was Martin
Jones coming in and playing out of his mind to get the cracking through that.
This year it was Joey to coord It feels almost like something you count
on now, which is not good, of course for Grubauer's long term out
look. But I think they're both going to have a chance. And I
cannot predict goaltending performance. I don't know that anybody can. It's just so
hard to gauge. But they're both going to get an opportunity. They're both
going to get a fair amount of starts, and I think the team probably
wants to go to the pretty even tandem if both stay healthy. One thing
to look out for goaltending wise, though, so the Krack and of course
let Dave hast All go and Paul McFarland, who's the power play coach,
the other assistants, including the goalie coach Steve Briere so far on the staff
right now, but you never know what the new coach coming in if they
want to bring guys with him. Goalie coaches, usually, I think,
tend to stay with teams they can survive a coaching change. But if something
happens where Steve Briere goes elsewhere, the goalie coach look out because things could
get bad. He's done a fantastic job with Grubauer Intcord, but if he
were to leave, I wouldn't want any part of this goalie tandem. That's
a lot of confidence in the goalie coach. He's great, he's fantastic.
Yeah, all right, Well, thanks so much for giving us your insights
on the Seattle Crack and goalie and thanks so much for your time today,
are j Is there anything else you want to mention about this team? I
guess there's In general, I guess it could be potentially a bi low opportunity
for certain guys because I think the ice time for the high end guys could
be increasing under a new coach, but still, I fantasy wise, I
just don't see a lot of really promising options on this team. Sorry to
tell everyone that, but I just think even if the goals scoring rebounds,
which I expect it to somewhat, this isn't going to be a team with
an eighty points scorer or they're just not going to produce a lot of offense
there. And there's no one who really hits, no one who really gets
a ton of blocks, no one who gets a ton of shots. There
aren't a lot of volume shooters on this team, so you have to pick
and choose to find the value, and it's in the depth, but no
one really high end. I guess one more thing too, They're going to
bring in at least one difference maker this offseason, have the cap space to
do it, they need to do it. There's going to be at least
one somewhat major player that's brought in, and that's going to change the dynamic
as well. Yeah, we'll look for that. Maybe that could be pretty
exciting. Tell the people where they can follow all your great work on the
Seattle crack En RJ right, so you can find everything at Emeraldcityhockey dot com.
That's going to lead you to our YouTube, Emerald City Hockey. It's
going to lead you to our social media on Twitter, Instagram, or Emerald
City Hky on there. And then of course we've got a bunch of cool
bonus content on Patreon, including our weekly podcast that covers league wide stuff.
So if you're not a crackt fan, we also talk about that there.
That's Patreon dot com slash Emerald City Hockey. Fantastic. We'll definitely go check
out all the great work they're producing. And RJ knows what he's talking about,
as you heard from last year, predicted some really good stuff. So
thanks so much for joining us, and we'll hit you up when we released
the episode. Sounds good, Wilson, that's good fer fans top. Oh
my goodness, long goal with a gram. Now it's your wingler goalie talk.
But Kat Silverman, Kat's instincts please to be joined again by Kat Silverman
from NGLD mag. We're talking Seattle goalies. Simeon via Savoy by as a
VOI and he's six foot three hundred and eighty one pound twenty one six round
pick by Seattle. He was primarily in the second Division Russian League again this
season, not much KHL time, just two games. Didn't go so well
there, but the VHL was pretty good and his expected goals were really good.
I'm looking at Hockey Prospecting and his NHL equivalence. He looks pretty high
here. It's trending up. He's got a comp of Corey Schneider, which
of course would be great, some other lesser comps, and the Fantasy Hockey
Life player card here shows that he's saving more goals than expected, which is
always nice, and he's getting a lot of saves. So, Kat,
what can you What do your instincts tell us about Vyazavoy? It's I feel
like the broken record every time I say, it's so hard to tell with
these goaltenders who are only playing in Russia. But he's such a like a
confident looking kid when he plays in Russia that I feel like he's ready to
take the next step if he's going to come over and once I see those
guys that I obviously didn't do super well in his KHL games, but he
did really well consistently throughout the VHL this year, and he looks like he's
ready to face opponents in different types of situations. That's always where we end
up looking at some of those stutter steps for especially the European goaltenders that come
over to North America. And he's from what I saw, looks like he's
someone who likes to block from a little farther out. He doesn't like to
really come too close to his net. And that's always the game that when
I see that working really well for a guy in Europe, I want to
see how well it works with that faster paced game in North America where you
really don't get as much space to command a ton of presents outside of the
blue paint itself. And so that's something that for me. Ilia Samsonov is
the guy who I always got really nervous about when I watched him play in
North America, and I say did always feel nervous. I still feel nervous
watching him do it during the playoffs this year, because he just doesn't always
work very well when you tell him, hey, you can't take up a
ton of space and force these guys to shoot for more low danger positions.
You have to be able to still track and anticipate the game when they're getting
a little closer to you when they're spending time challenging you within the blue paint,
and that's something that I want to see at the North American level for
Via as a boy. But I haven't really seen any backward steps for him,
which is good. And I think that Seattle is in a somewhat enviable
position where they don't really need him right now. It's not like they need
to bring him over, which there are some other teams in the league that
if they bring a guy over from Europe or Russia, they might have to
stick him in the NHL immediately because they're running out of viable NHL goaltenders.
That's not the case for Seattle. They have the chance to bring him over,
see how he's doing, give him a chance to play some low level
games with some low stakes, and then slowly but surely bring him up.
And I think if they can do that, they'll be great. Probably,
we just I don't feel confident in saying that I want to throw all my
confidence behind him just yet. We're going to get to the other guys.
But do you think he's the highest upside of their prospect goalies. I have
a little bit of a soft spot for a different one of their prospect goalies,
even though he has the highest NHL probability based on the numbers so far,
they do have another one that I think is going to be potentially an
easier transition to North America just based on how he plays the game. So
I'd probably put him as my number two out of the three that we'll talk
about. All Right, that's a good tease, unintentional. Let's move on
to the next one. Nicholas Coco six foot three and he's one hundred and
ninety pounds twenty twenty two second round pick by the Kraken. He's in the
Carpat system, which I know you're somewhat familiar with, and we've talked a
little bit about that in the past. And this season he played mostly in
the Mestis but also a little bit in the Liga. He was on loan
to PSI Pai, and he looked pretty good in some of the Liga game
Lega games this season as well with Carpot and the Pelicans. Why did I
say Sypi he's on loan to the Pelicans. Oh, that was last season
he was on loan. Looking at him in the Hockey prospecting model, his
equivalency has been low this season. This past season he bumped it up quite
a bit, up to nineteen percent, but that's still low. Most of
his comparables aren't very great. One of the ones that I pulled up was
Grubauer just because he's similar in the same team anyways, and currently in the
D two Draft plus two he's slightly higher than Grubauer was, although Grubauer got
a lot higher after that. I don't know. Maybe that's somewhat real equivalent,
but who knows. In looking at the our Fantasy Hockey Life player card,
most of it's not very good. Especially the expected goals per goal allowed
is really low, so he's saving less than expected. His goals against per
sixty and saves say percentage is good, but overall it didn't look all that
great. But what can you tell us, Skat with your instincts about Nicholas
Coco. He's actually the one that I have a little bit of a softer
spot for. It's always really interesting to look at those NHLR probabilities in each
subsequent year post draft glancing it. For Grubauer, his was pretty low.
Is Draft plus two year, he just made his way to the ECHL.
He ended up not going from the OHL to playing in the AHL. He
did most of his time in the ECHL, which obviously tended at that point
to be a red flag for a lot of teams. Guy, a lot
of teams didn't have the full time goaltending instruction at the EHL level at that
point. So I was back in twenty twelve. Now they're doing a better
job of giving more consistent coaching and guidance at all three levels. Yeah,
I like how Coco plays. I think he has a more transferable to the
North American game, which once again might just be Krpaul loves to train their
goaltenders to play a game that can transition to other leagues and other ice surfaces,
and they're playing styles pretty well. And that's what he looks like.
He doesn't doesn't like to challenge too aggressively. He likes to use his hands.
He has a pretty fun glove hand and likes to make some real personality
filled saves. Not that's a super analytical sounding evaluation of a guy, but
he does do a really good job of playing with a lot of decisiveness behind
his movement. He has a lot of intentional movement, and seeing that from
a guy who did start to struggle a little bit from the numbers perspective this
past year. That's reassuring we didn't really see his technique slipping much. I
do want to see him make his way over to North America as well,
just because I think that Finland's overall pro system is Silda wild West, and
once there's a log jam in a system and they have to start loaning guys
to other teams, you might get loaned to a team that's super competitive like
Carpotter, like Olu and like Helsinki, and sometimes you might end up on
a team like the Pelicans, hour not a super competitive team all the time.
And so I think seeing him make his way over here to get some
of that just hitting the ground running. I'd ideally like to see him before
VI as a boy, but I don't think that's likely. Those are probably
the two that I think have the most NHL probability to their games, though,
because I do like how he plays and I think he still has room
for some consistency, but his overall technique and confidence is where I want it
to be at this point in his career. Nice we do have a couple
other ones, one main one and a quick one. The next one is
another goalie who's in the Carpat system, and that's Visa vedem Pa six foot
two, one hundred and eighty three pounds, six round pick, just last
draft in twenty twenty three, and so he's in that same system. His
equivalency kind of low, fifteen sixteen percent so far, it doesn't have a
whole lot of great com Scott Clemenson is one that he looks like, but
he's also really young. As we're recording this in early May, he's still
only eighteen, so he played this whole season as an eighteen year old,
so he's got a long way to go in terms of developing and building.
Looking at his Fantasy Hockey Life player card, his goals against per sixty say
percentage, those look good, and his expected goals number or a goal against
are actually a little bit better than Nicholas Coco, so that's always interesting.
But he was mainly in the U twenty League and in the Mestis, so
a little bit easier competition for sure. But what your instincts tell us about
Visa Vedempa. I'm fascinated by that pick just because I think putting all of
your eggs into the basket of and not all of them, but picking two
guys from within the same system overseas gives the krack and a chance to keep
a closer eye on the development the familiarity. They can really shape their system
around how those goaltenders are being coached and developed, but also really relies on
that teams goaltenders doing well, and I think they've had some really good prospects
come out of that system. But it makes me a little nervous seeing both
of them. I do think that team does run the risk of having logjams
because they do have so many good goaltenders, which is how we ended up
seeing him only play I think it was fifteen games in the Messes last year
and then was in U twenty for the rest of the year, which I
would argue isn't necessarily where he needed to be at that point. He probably
should have been playing pro exclusively last year, and that might have had something
to do with seeing his numbers look not super amazing from a raw standpoint,
just because he did bounce around a lot last year. He played on the
U twenty team. He played on the essentially their version of a farm team,
which was their Mestis team, and then he was also loaned to Carpot
for a point during the season. He didn't actually get into any games,
but my assumption, based on what their goaltending coach has told me in the
past, is that they brought him up so he was able to spend some
time going through practices with them, seeing how they play their game, seeing
their drills, their systems, and spending some time one on one with their
goalie coach before he went back down to his team. So that's even though
Finland's not a super huge country, that's still a lot of travel and adjustment
within a year, and so I'm assuming that probably didn't give him a chance
to really find a solid rhythm with just one team. He was playing for
the U twenty team, getting loaned up to the farm team, and then
also spending some time with the LEGA team just to get the experience of being
there, and they do that with their prospects from time to time. With
him, I think we truly have to wait and see, because my assumption
is if he played half the year and message last year, he'll play the
full year in the pros next year, and we'll see if they give him
a chance to play any games for Carbot and if he does, how he
handles that, or if they'll give him a chance to really just stay with
one team throughout the year at the mustiest level and sort of gained some consistency
with his numbers, at which point he might end up leapfrogging some other people
in the system. Yeah, definitely a good point early to tell on that
one. The other one I wanted to throw real quickly is there was a
free agent signing Victor Austman, who is six foot four, two hundred and
five pounds. He's Swedish, but he's been in North America for a while
now. He played with the Chicago steel and then he was four years at
the University of Maine and he was a college free agent signed by the Kraken
was pretty good overall at times in May not the strongest program, so some
of his numbers look a little subpar. But he's a big guy and just
wondering if you have any quick thoughts on him. I'm excited to see what
he does in Coachella Valley next year because that is one of the teams that
I get to see fairly regularly. They play pretty frequently against the San Diego
goals, so I get to watch them in person a lot. I think
that Maine has a really good development system as far as their goaltending prospects go.
His numbers were never super stellar there, but he did get playing time
all four years he was in college, which some of those guys their first
year or two, they might get one game, maybe two or three.
And he did stay with the same team from twenty twenty until he graduated,
which I think is something that Seattle is probably hoping will benefit them because we
saw, i would say, an abnormal amount of movement among goaltenders just because
of the way that the COVID pandemic shut down a lot of collegiate goaltending.
Obviously, the ivys had no games, and a lot of the major juniors
didn't have any games, so a lot of guys were bumped to playing in
the USHL, So some guys ended up having extra eligibility and ending up ended
up not getting to play at all for a year too, So we saw
a lot of movement. So seeing a guy who played for the same team
all four years is something that I'm assuming Seattle said, that's an asset to
us. He didn't change coaches and systems multiple times throughout his college career.
Let's see what we can do with us. And from what I have seen
from their goaltenders at the HL level, they do a good job with them,
so it'll be fun to see where he fits in. I think right
now it looks like that's a minor league signing, but he could end up
surprising us. Great, thanks so much, gaff agaving. That's your instincts
on the Seattle Crack and goalies will be back right after this. A dig,
good Dynasty dig, Victor, Oh, how I've missed this song?
Oh how I missed this dig? I love me some Dynasty dig. This
is the part of the show if you haven't been with us in previous years,
where Victor and I preview three players of each team, three of the
prospects most interesting, talk a little bit about their system in general, but
really try to dive deep, and we have FHL scouts who do deep dives
into tape on each one of these guys and give us some reports that we'll
provide to you. So we're starting with the Kraken. Obviously, they have
the eighth best odds in the lottery. This is one of the very few
episodes that we are recording prior to the lottery drawing. But odds are they'll
be a round eighth. Marchiordano and Alex Weinberg trades in the past, Seattle
traded them away. They're going to get an extra second and an extra third
this year. And in Victor's rankings of the dynasty systems or the prospect systems,
I believe I count this as you're tied for seventeenth best team. The
Kraken are mid and why are they mid because been drafted in a couple of
years now. Nonetheless, they've got a couple of big ones and starts.
Victor with your no brainer, who is it? Yeah, that would be
Carson Raykoff. Carson Raykoff, who was their fiftieth overall pick just last year,
twenty twenty three. He's a six two hundred and ninety four pound center
slash left wing and he's been playing with Kitchener the Rangers in the OHL for
the past few seasons. He had fifty nine points in sixty eight games during
his draft season. This past season, he bumped that up to ninety five
points in sixty games and eleven points in ten playoff games is not too bad
either, so pretty nice. He's going to be back there in Kitchener again
next season because of his January seventh birth date and so he's not eligible for
the AHL quite yet, but he did some pretty nice things there and he'll
look to build on that. It's interesting looking at his playing card from Mitch
Brown, he had an overall of an eighty three ninety five for offense,
seventy for transition in twenty two for defense. I always thought he was a
bit better defensively than that, but the metrics that Mitch tracks did not give
him much did not do him much justice. But his expected goals and shots
per sixty are pretty much off the charts, So that's pretty fantastic and you
love to see that for fantasy obviously. He also is really good at making
dangerous passes to the slot and other things like primary point involvement and game score.
We'd like to see his defense beef up a little bit next year.
That'd be something to look for. Looking at his Fantasy Hockey Life player card,
you can again see that his shots per sixty and goals per sixty and
his assists for sixty all are top percentile of the league. His hits and
blocks aren't nothing, but they're more average, so he does have a high
batch, but that's almost entirely driven by his shots, So I would consider
him a met her medium full banger's value because it's going to be a little
bit diminished in those other stats. So that's Carson Raykoff. We also have
some advanced A metric player cards that you can see on there. It looks
a little bit messy, but you can see that he's really good for scoring
chances and does some decent with puck battles, but some of his defensive metrics
aren't good. Some of them are okay, so it's a mixed bag there.
So that's a little bit about him. But Jesse, we have more
information from OURFHL scout. We sure do. Jeremy, our head scout,
is providing all of the Seattle crack in scouting reports today, So shouts to
our guy Jeremy Vee, who does an excellent job on mister ray Cooff.
As far as skating, although he's very upright, he can get up ahead
of steam. Combined with a long reach, he can take defenders wide and
create a play using his skating ability. He's also strong on his feet,
uses his body to protect the puck for passing. He's a smooth puck handler,
comfortable quarterback in the offense with the puck on his stick. Passing is
crisp and smart shooting, powerful shot for Raykoff and has shown to be dangerous
from long range. Jeremy didn't necessarily see him as a sniper, but he
is a threat from all over the offensive zone IQ vision, anticipation, panic,
and poise. He is very poised with the puck and Raykoff has good
vision for his teammates or Jeremy'd like to see him use his speed in size
a bit more aggressively on the fore check. More of a passive pressure guy.
From Jeremy's looks, defense, got a good reach, willing to fight
for pucks. Not a standout defensively, not a negative, and so overall
the best asset was the shot. The biggest concern is he may not have
a standout skill. He may be a bit of a jack of all trades,
master of none who gets relegated to third line type duties because of that
profile. On the other hand, the top tier outcome, Jeremy says,
could be a top line winger with seventy to eighty points if everything broke,
And that's because he's got a lot of talent and hockey sense. Just not
sure. Jeremy's not sure how it's going to translate to the NHL level.
The fiftieth percentile. To provide that fiftieth percentile, what would be the most
commoner, the most average outcome for this player, third line win or playing
in all situations for Ray Coff, and that would be because he doesn't have
one of lead skill to allow him to carry a line or takeover games on
his own. Stylistic comparable in terms of the way his game might come together,
and Jeremy sees Jonathan Huberto in that area. With regards to Fercus versus
Ray Coff, little tease ahead that we're gonna be talking Fercus in a little
while. Both were fifty plus goal scorers in their CHL seasons. But Jeremy
may be a little bit more interested in the next guy that we'll be talking
about. Anyway, more on that guy later. Our friend, the NHL
ranking, Mason Black NHL Ranking on X sent out a poll. We're doing
poles of every prospect versus maybe somebody who's a bit similar. In Mason's performance
analysis, Carson ray Cooff was put up in a Twitter poll or x Pole
versus houton In and Victor Carson Raykoff won in a rop ninety two to eight
percent. Is that how you This is a blaw? Victor. Is Raycoff
that much your favorite among these two? I think so. Yeah, that's
pretty dramatic to see that percentage. Maybe a bit recency bias because people are
a little bit maybe more familiar with Raykoff as he's been drafted a little bit
more recently, and he was at the World Juniors and we haven't seen houton
In as much front and center, so maybe that's part of it. But
I do think he is better. I don't think that you should be so
down on houton In though, and we get to Tampa, he will mention
he's he did great. We've mentioned many times how the Legua is a really
low scoring league and he went back there and put up two back to back
really solid seasons in a low scoring league. We should see him in the
HL next year, so that'll be nice. But yeah, we know Tampa
system doesn't have a lot of great prospects. But I think he's pretty good.
It just can't compete with Raykoff in this situation. I think the upside
there is much bigger when you look at these two. In the Hockey Prospecting
Model, Yes, Carson Raykoff has gone down a bit in terms of his
star probability, it's down to eight percent, but that's just because he didn't
blow the doors off his D plus one and he had a little bit low
D minus one season. But I think he's looking overall really good. The
pnhily up at almost seventy and I think that's quite a bit higher than where
Hutan has been under five percent star potential his whole time. So I think
that jives that makes a lot of sense, and the I should mention that
the j Fresh card for Raykoff is a little bit more pessimistic, has him
auch just three percent chance of being a star at sixteen percent chance of being
NHLer. I think that Nhller probably is much higher. And I think what
you and Jeremy alluded to the fact that he might be just one of these
really smart players. He gets assigned to more of a middle six role,
that might be realistic for him because he is someone who can hang and maybe
he doesn't have the offensive pop of having won great skill. But I also
think he's one of these guys that the sum of the parts are greater than
the sum. The total is greater than the some of the part. That's
what I'm trying to say. So he could because he doesn't have one outstanding
skill, that doesn't necessarily mean he can't be a seventy eighty point guy.
He can leverage them all together. People will talk about mark Stone, none
of his attributes are elite, but when he puts it all together, he's
a really fantastic player. So maybe that's Raykoff, or maybe he just ends
up being more of a middle six forty to fifty point guy. I think
both of those outcomes are possible, but I would lean more towards him being
a point producer. Victor. Again, if you're not familiar with this format,
we got your no brainer prospect. We end with the keep your eye
on prospect, but in the middle it's the guy you need to know.
Who is it? That would be Jagger Furcus. Furcus was twenty twenty three
to thirty fifth overall pick and I'm sorry twenty twenty two thirty fifth overall pick
without Yeah, so I thought a couple of years ago five eleven then one
hundred and sixty one pounds. I think he was a little smaller than that
when he was drafted. He's still pretty slight. He plays for Moose Jaw
in the WHL, and he had some pretty good numbers in his draft season.
He didn't go up too much in his draft plus one season. That
was a bit of a criticism. Last year he only went up by four
points in the same number of games. But this year he's gone just about
two points per game, and that's a huge increase in his point production,
so that's great, and to two points per game in the playoffs eighteen points
and nine games. And Moustraw is still playing as we record this, looking
great. His player tracking data from Mitch Brown looks pretty phenomenal all around,
offense, transition, defense, it all looks really good. His transition play
is particularly good and his expected goals are way better, which is interesting because
he was known more for his shot, but his expected goals numbers went down
his expected assist numbers went up, so maybe they were like, work on
your playmaking mission accomplished. He did that really well, and he also makes
some really dangerous plast passes to the middle advantages created. His player card looks
really good from Mitch. His FHL player card also looks interesting, although you
can tell very clearly that he is not a hitter or a blocker. So
his bash if you like shots, is good, but doesn't really have the
hits or blocks very much. But he's scoring. He's toying with the WHL.
His goals assist points all that is off the charts, and that's what
that measures. So we know that he's almost too good for the WHL at
this point. This will be his last season. He's twenty and he just
turned twenty, and so he should be in the AHL next year, and
so we'll be interesting to see that. But we have a little bit more
information that we need justin we'll get that from our FHL scout. Jeremy once
again says as far as skating, it's just average. He's not a bad
skater, but it's not Fergus's standout skill. It doesn't have the breakaway or
burn you wide speed. He's adept at moving in smaller, tighter spaces with
the puck, which points to good foot speed in terms of passing and handling
is above average. He's quick to move the puck once getting it, does
so with accuracy. A touch on passes is underrated given that a shot is
most talked about asset. Just as said, shooting is elked from Jacob Furcus.
He's got a very strong wrist snapshot and it's going to score goals at
every level he's at. It's not Austin Matthews, is not Connor Bdard,
but it should be the singular skill that keeps giving him chances to stick the
IQ elite. This is actually Jeremy's favorite trait of Fercus. The IQ both
on and off the puck is great. Part of why he scores so many
goals is his ability to float to soft spots of the defense. Seems like
he's always lurking off the puck. On the power play with the puck,
he seems to always know where teammates are and is able to make quick passes
without hesitation. We're checking this above average so much for him being a little
guy right plays with some tenacity. Fercus is willing to go to the dirty
areas to get the puck. He's not big, but he plays the body
smartly. To keep defenders on the boards and get the puck back defense average.
He's a winger now, he back checks hard. He defends with a
stick, but could use a bit more anticipation to unlock his offense. So
the best asset was the IQ and the vision. The biggest concern was the
straight line speed. This is what he's going to need, Jeremy says,
to hit that potential. The top outcome for this guy point per game,
first line, first power play winger. That's the upside here, but the
justification for the top tier. If everything clicks, he could be a future
thirty five to forty goal scorer with assists. Jeremy thinks he'll be somewhat linemate
dependent, but could end up in a nice running mate role with Matty Benier's
or Sene Wright in a few years. The median outcome for this guy middle
six fifty point guy twenty to twenty five goals, and that's because his shots
good enough to score in the NHL and teams like that. The worst case
scenario, Jeremy ses is a Daniel Sprong type good secondary score, but not
a good enough skater to play with the big boys. So the style is
the comparable. They're Victor Arbitson, Ellie Tolvinen. Yeah, why not.
The final thoughts from Jeremy in the Raykoff Report, he he talks about both
and yes he prefers Furcus. So we'll see about that. NHL ranking.
Mason black Sen out a poll Jaeger Fergus's competition in the pole Riley height of
the Minnesota Wild and the results are in Jagar Fercus has got the moves over
Riley Hyde fifty five to forty five percent. Victor, is that the way
you lean? I don't think so. I think I would take height here
and he's got the Riley's got the height advantage. There, you go,
you gotta take him. He actually literally does have the height advantage as well.
Although they're neither one of these guys are big. They're actually technically the
same size. But I think Furcus was a little bit shorter when he was
drafted. I think the size, the thick height is bit thicker. He's
one hundred and eighty three pounds to win sixty one. And that's always been
the concern about Fercus is how is he gonna How's he going to be when
he plays against the bigger stronger, tougher competition. We really haven't seen that
yet. We won't until he plays in the AHL, so that'll be interesting.
And he is just dominating the WHL. I mean, he what he's
done. He's basically paced Furcus, but a year younger. He's basically doing
almost two points per game, a year before Fergus did it. Now,
team in context and all that matters, so it isn't necessarily even, but
I do think he I think I would lean Height a little bit. I
think he's just a very smart, creative player and the upside is huge,
so I like that. I also trust Minnesota's drafting maybe a little bit more,
although Seattle I think has done a pretty good job. Some of them.
I just like the last guy will talk about. I disagree with a
little bit some of their picks, but overall, I think both of these
guys are worth holding. I would prefer Height. Looking at the hockey prospecting,
forty nine percent for High, fourteen percent for Fercus in terms of star
potential, so that's not bad. Although you should we should say Fercus has
some pretty nice comps. The guys like Alish Hemski, Peter Forsberg, Timo
Solani are guys that sort of look similar in this model, but I think
they those superstars look a little bit better and their star potential and their D
plus two was a little bit higher than his. Don't get too excited if
you're a Fercus fan, but I do think, as Jeremy said, there's
certainly a decent world where that ends up working out pretty well. And Fercus
is a pretty great producer, so yeah, he's I like the progression.
I just think we really need to see what he does next year in the
HL Jesse. Indeed, now Victor, the keep your eye on prospect is
who that would be? Edward Schalle. Edward Schalle pronounce spelled sal E twenty
twenty three, twentieth overall pick six' to one, one hundred and seventy
pounds. He had a pretty interesting so he was in chech Ya last season
when he was drafted, and he had fourteen points and forty three games.
He looked really good at the U eighteens and spots at the under twenty.
Then he came over to the OHL and he was with Kitchener and then Barry
and so we've seen actually pretty modest production from him, minimal under point per
game. For a draft plus one who played in the pro league, you'd
expect them to go to the OHL and just dominate, and he definitely did
not do that. And his U twenty performance this season, he had seven
points and seven games, but in typical Edwards Schale fashion, he was invisible
for a large part of those games and then would show up and score at
times, which I know some people are like, who cares as long as
these scores? I know coaches care, and a lot of other people care
about what you do the rest of the game. So that's always the concern
with him. And if you look at Mitch Brown's tracking data, it is
you usually see a lot of blue in these Jesse a lot of blue was
the good color, and what do we see here? Nothing but red almost.
I think the only thing that looks good is his expected goal and shots
look pretty good. Some of his controlled entries and transition success looks good.
Everything else looks really bad. His expected assists, his defensive plays, retrievals,
his off puck assists, advantages, created primary point involvement. It's all
looking really bad. His overall scores twenty fifth percentile, which is just not
something you see usually in a first round pick. Now, minds you,
Victor, that's for five games that were track for that sample. Yeah,
that is potentially a sample sampling size issue, so we don't really know,
but I do think that is representative because that's what I've seen from Charlotte when
you watch the whole game and not just the highlights, that there's a lot
to be desired from his game. When you look at the FHL player card,
you can see that for the OHL, his goals, assists, and
shots are pretty decent for the league. So his points stand out at like
eightieth percentile. His hits and blocks are like negative. He doesn't really do
that at all, so his bash is pretty low, and I have him
rated low because that and some of his advanced metrics kind of show this.
Like battles, you know, in terms of puck battles, scoring chances,
defensive zone play, a lot of these like Corsi and Fenwick that are all
low for Challe. So I'm really eager to see. I haven't actually read
this Jesse, because I wanted to react to it live. I want to
hear what Jesse or what Jeremy has to say about Edward Schalle. So let's
hear from RFHL leadscout, and so you shall, he says of Edward Shale.
This skating, first of all, is elite fly through the newpral zone.
Should be able to create plays purely through pushing the pace in transition,
a valuable skill for a winger in today's NHL in terms of passing and and
handling. Great cross eyed passer able to thread the needle make seemingly impossible passes
shooting. Jeremy was surprised there too, in a good way by the shot.
Expected to see a passive pass first guy, but he's a lethal finisher
in close. Not going to be the rush shooter or one timer guy.
But from the slot down, Schle can pick his spot. In terms of
IQ, it's also high end. He's great at waiting until the last second
to draw defenders to him and create openings for checking. Not an aggressive for
checker, he prefers to play high. Third man doesn't suspect Jeremy doesn't that
Schalle will excel at creating turnovers defense. Transitional speed helps him on the back
check, although Jeremy would like to see him use his frame better defensively to
control opponents passing envision than was the overall best asset. The concern Army's heard
consistency concerns about him. Although he didn't see him disappear in the games that
were watched, he is deferring the industry scouts who's seen a little bit more
of him. On that point. The top outcome a top line assists heavy
winger would be the best you could expect or hope for what was. Schalle
got the speed, passing and vision to be an elite playmaker in the league.
Just a matter whether he able to find consistency and not frustrate coaches.
But the fiftieth percentile outcome mostly invisible mid six guy who bounces from team to
team. If you can't find consistency and effort, he won't be more than
a thirteen to fifteen minute a night guy. The stylistic comparable ooh, this
is interesting Jeff Skinner Charlie getting ready to chuck some bucks if he's going to
be Jeff Skinner out there, And the last thought that Jeremy had on this
the crack can have reinforcements coming with Fergus, Raykoff and Schally, even if
two or three of them turn into every top six players. Next to Brighton.
Vin ears they'll be in good shape for the next five to seven years.
So Shally, who does he go up against in the great competition of
NHL ranking Mason Black's x poles. It's Shalle versus Philip Mishar of the Montreal
Canadians, and Mishar wins handle a sixty one to thirty nine. It sounds
like you weren't that high on Chale to begin with, Victor, So do
you agree with this result? Yeah, as you might imagine, I was
probably gonna side with whoever was going against Challe as I do here, and
yeah, I think this is definitely a question of what you want. If
you want someone who's a little bit more sure to make the NHL and to
be to get minutes, then I think Maishah is a good pick because I
don't know that the upside is as high with Philip Meyshar, but he seems
more like he could plug and play in your bottom six and play minutes.
So in a deep league that might be interesting, but for a lot of
people that's not super interesting. And Challe certainly has more upside, but I
think there's more risk and more volatility with his projection and you know who.
He reminds me of Jesse Edward Scharlay, reminds me of a very poor man
of Guinea kudz nets Off. Guy has all the skill and when he wants
to, he can be good, so good, but he doesn't seem like
he wants to. And you heard that a little bit in the report from
Jeremy, that you would want him to use his body more, you'd want
him to leverage some of his skills a little bit more. And that's what
I see in him too. It's like, you have the skating and the
skill and all these things that you can do, and he just doesn't do
it most of the time. And then when he does do it, you're
like, why don't you do that thing more often? You're really good at
it. So it's a little bit frustrating with Challe. But I don't know
that he's going to figure out how to turn that on all the time or
keep it on. So that's my concern with him. And yes, I
would definitely prefer maischar If you look at the hockey prospecting between these two,
it's pretty low. They're both low, so it's not really much different.
And I think that both of them are. There's a little bit more volatility
with both of just in terms of what their possible upside is. I don't
think Maishar should be a target for people if you're wanting if it's a fourteen
team dynasty and you're wanting someone to be seventy point guy. I don't know
that Meishar has that in him. Challet does, but I think there's all
so I have a very good chance that he's just nothing and just sits on
your prospect bench and as Jeremy said, maybe becomes a meddling thirteen fourteen minute
forward that doesn't do very much. That's I think there's a pretty good likelihood
of that out come. Jesse, yep. The best comp between these two
guys is that they both have an S in their name that you have to
remember to pronounce as a show. And that's going to wrap up our Dynasty
dig. If you're a patron, you can listen to my top ten prospect
recamp that I do on Patreon that only the patrons can listen to, and
you can also have access to the lists and the different ratings that I have.
If you're if you're interested in doing some scouting with us, You can
shoot me a DM on Twitter or Discord, or you can email us and
we'll be right back to close off the show. A reminder, our show
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People have asked me at different points for football and for basketball. Gosh,
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in fantasy hockey, we're gonna have a problem with that because if there's a
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You have to play a separate league for like college football, to get scoring
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can do that anyway. Lots of stuff on fantracks HQ, you can read
about a lot of analysis of fantasy sports. The Fahl crew is Legion content
curator Kevin Adams. Boy, we've been counting on him for this show prep.
This is his season to shine. Ryan Downey, the Tidy Admiral.
You've heard him on the show. He will be and we will be making
the moves to get our tidy leagues. Now is the time actually to contact
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He's been wrangling people and making sure the scouting reports are ready for these
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They talk a lot of prospect stuff kind of exclusively over there. Great compliment
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And by the way, by the way, not for nothing. I'm not
sure if we mentioned the YouTube enough. Victor's got a Fantasy Hockey Life YouTube
going with a lot of prospect film breakdown. There's really cool things. If
you're a YouTube type person, if you want to see a little bit of
video to go along with things. I believe that is free. Youtubes tend
to be free. Go and have a look at that because there's some cool
stuff there. I do a solo show, Dynasty Sports Life. I talk
all the Dynasty Sports Unfortunately, I don't think we may have an episode on
Tuesday. We may not. As you heard earlier in this episode, my
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