Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks. Here your source of
information and analysis to help you win your fantasy hockey leaguer. Balk Off hop
a step hit on, stay lock. Here's your hosts, Jesse Severe and
Victor Nuno. Fantasy Hockey Live back once again fucking the Shamps, the Champs,
the Florida Panthers today. I am Jesse Severe fan tracks that there you
know him, you love him? Victor Nuno of EP Ringside, Victor,
how you doing today? I'm doing great. Apologies to all of you,
those of you who don't love me and just were insulted by Jesse saying that
how are you jessing? Hey, look, if you don't love Victor,
get out of here. Look we don't need your downloads, We don't need
your listening to our ads. Know it's this is about Victory here man.
I'm not going to put up with that stuff from people Victor. Okay,
fair or there we go, all right now that we've had our moment of
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by the way, fan Hockey Life, and that will do it,
Victor. In addition to coming into our discord, there are above and beyond
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do that if you join. And yeah, it's a good, good set
of perks going the other way too. Victor and I aren't afraid to touch
the Stanley Cup before we've actually wanted, So right after this break, we're
gonna come back and lift the cup on the Florida Panthers. We'd like to
welcome to the show a man who just got himself into the business of covering
the Florida Panthers and suddenly he's got a cup. I'm not sure if they're
give him a ring, but it's Colby, Guy of the Palm Beach Post.
How you doing today, Colby? I'm doing good. I've been trying
to rest a little bit after this crazy season, but next season's already around
the corner. Might as well talk about it. Yeah, yeah, no,
it's gotta be fun. Though. It happened this year. It finally
happened for the Florida Panthers after putting up two dominant regular season years Colby and
then they had one year as the runners up last year, and now this
year they win it all. They allowed the fewest goals in the National Hockey
League despite the second most power play opportunities against. There was a there was
some chippiness to Florida Panthers games. There ain't no question about it. They
led the team in pimsber game for and against. But obviously they were great
and they peaked in the playoffs, and it came out miraculously described what it
was like to cover this season, and do you think that the Florida Panthers
can stay at this level next year? Ever, since this Cup Final ended
last year, I knew this team was going to come out with a chip
on his shoulder during the regular season, looking at the way they played in
the playoffs and the way they immediately went right back into free agency and kind
of bolstered the holes that they had during the Cup Final last year. Going
into this season, or well two years ago, going into last year,
they really made sure to shore up those holes, even when you had guys
like Aeronic Budd and Brandon Montour missing the start of the year, and you
get a guy like all of Rickman Larson who can man a power play and
things like that. Going into the season, I knew I was going to
be dealing with a pretty good team there, and from the jump, this
team proves that no matter who's in or out of the lineup, they have
the depth, they have the system, they have the style of play to
consistently play winning hockey. And that's just what it was from this group.
From the drop of the puck in October, this team just played that style
of game that works in the playoffs. And well, some scoring numbers were
down, you had guys all across the lineup doing everything they can to help
this team win. And even you have a guy like Sam Reinhart who was
in there playing that system to perfection and shooting at a pretty high clip there.
But it was just a very good team full of very good players playing
very good hockey, and that's what it takes to win in this league.
You just mentioned Sam Ryan Hard, He's the first guy we're going to talk
about. Naturally, he had a high of twenty five goals while he was
in Buffalo and his previous career high of thirty three it was his first year
in Florida. He pumped that up to fifty seven goals this year, which
was only good enough for second place. He picked a bad year to score
fifty seven six twenty twenty two. Only five Rocket Rashards have been awarded with
more than fifty seven, and he happened to be in one of those.
Three of those have been in the last three years as well, his shooting
percentage is nearly twenty five percent, ten more than his career average previously,
and year over year he scored twenty six more goals, with eleven more in
the power play and ten more at even strength, and he also went from
zero to five short handed goals. So it seems a little bit hard to
repeat all of this that we're talking about with Sam reyn Hart, but he
also is a really excellent player and this team is going to continue to be
excellent, as we said, So what do you think we can expect from
Sam Reynhart this upcoming season, Koby? Do you think he can come close
to that ninety four point pace a season and the fifty seven goals, it's
going to be pretty hard to get back up to fifty seven, and that
shooting clip is very far from what he had in his past, as you
said. But he gets to a strong start to the season like he did
last year. And this is a guy who actually benefited from the short offseason
where he wasn't really putting too much work into things and coming into the year
overthinking it. I think maybe the effect of having another short off season is
not going to affect him because of the way he reacted to last year's short
offseason. So I think if he comes out and gets hot, I think
he can get close. Do I think he matches fifty seven, I don't
know. But this is a guy that scored pretty close to an eighty two
point clip earlier in his career, so I think you're going to get pretty
close to the ninety points. I think this is the guy who's going to
score at least forty goals again. And he's a guy that plays that system
for perfection. He's not out there cheating for those shots or cheating for those
goals either. He just says a really good shot and really good awareness of
when to get that shot off, So I think we're dealing with a pretty
talented player here. He's going to put up some pretty good numbers. Does
he get to fifty seven? Probably not, but we'll see. Matthew Kuldchuk
his individual performance was no doubt a tick down from his first year in Florida
and of course his last year in Calgary. There's fewer points, less time
on ice. That said, the man cut his ridiculous PIM total by more
than twenty five percent while doubling his hits and scoring well above a point per
game. Last year. He faded a bit at the end of the playoffs,
only a goal and two assists in his final nine games, but still
overall excellent playoff line. Matthew kuld Chuck is at a prime age and he
is dominant right now. Do we expect another season like the one we just
saw in an individual level kind of that ninety point pace he was at last
year or is there a reason to anticipate the individual totals of the year before,
which were even higher. It all depends on how he goes into the
season. In the start of last year, he was still dealing with some
things and getting back into it a little bit where his offensive game took a
while to get going. But at the same time, you're dealing with a
player who was a lot better defensively, a lot more disciplined, and playing
hockey the way that the Panthers want to see hockey be played. So I
think from that perspective, no matter what, he's going to be a key
impact player for the Panthers. But as far as fantasy numbers go, it
all depends on how much of a groove he gets into to start the year.
But I don't have any doubts that he's going to clear at least ninety
points, and if he gets off to a good start, I think he
can get back up two hundred. The next guy we're going to talk about
is Sasha Barkov, and it was awesome to see the first finished captain behind
of the Stanley Cup in a moment that was He's entering the third year of
his eight year or ten million in per year contract. Over the last three
seasons, he's been top twenty four points assists primary assists. He was eleventh
in both are goals against replacement of war wins against replacement. He's just a
steady and consistent as it comes. As he starts to leave his statistical prime
of DSE twenty eight, do you think that Barkoff can continue to keep doing
what he's doing in terms of his all round play, But more importantly,
of course, we care about in fantasy being that ninety ish point guy,
which is what he's been the last several seasons. Yeah. I don't see
why not. He saw the way he stepped up in the playoffs and the
way that he came into this season with a bit of a different He went
into the offseason, lost a bunch of weight, added some more speed to
his game, yet he still went in there and played a pretty physical game.
And I think as time goes on, he takes really good care of
his body and he plays a smart game, which allows him to keep being
that kind of player. I don't think that defensive IQ is going to go
away anytime soon, and he is one of the best playmakers out there,
and he doesn't give enough credit for that. And I think if he gets
into a similar mindset. It all depends on how these guys start the season,
too. But he's a guy that's going to be there and going to
get you points. I don't see any sign of him slowing down. When
I talked about Chippy, Sam Bennett certainly had a reputation at the forefront of
that forty one points, ranked fifth on the team. He put a lot
of hits out there. That is something that was beloved by US fantasy community.
His season started late after a lower body injury or maybe two. I
don't know exactly how all that went down, but Bennett is on a very
reasonable expiring contract for this team and playing a big role with them. His
main appeal, of course, that hit, but he also has scored a
bit in the past. What are the Panthers looking for and what are you
expecting from Sam Bennett this year? If it just depends on his health.
If he stays healthy, he's a twenty to thirty goal guy, and he
obviously has really good chemistry with Matthew Katruck and he's going to get a lot
of points just from receiving passes from that guy and passing the pluck to that
guy. And he's a really net front guy, and that's the kind of
guy you want to have centering your second line, and a guy that Matthew
Chuck is really comfortable with. It all depends on how healthy he is.
Going into the year. The injury he had last year happened during the preseason,
so that's not really an easy thing to project right now. There has
been a few times where he's missed some time, but I think you can
count on the guy scoring near the twenty point mark, near the forty one
point mark, and he's just a nice little complimentary piece there that fits well
with the core. We're gonna give you a pick them right now for the
points, but other takes you may have on these two couple of players who
had a big role. Evan Rodriguez, he is centerman there playing on his
for three million dollar contract. He had thirty nine points last year in eighty
games. And you got Anton Lindell, the young man who is coming up
and coming into his own at age twenty two, who had thirty five points
in seventy eight games. Rodriguez's or Lundell, Which one is a which of
them you think is going to have the better year? Colby Rodriguez has been
playing on the wing next to these star players like an Alexander Barkov, like
a Matthew could chuck as he was during the playoffs, and that's going to
continue. Linemates are a question with Anton Lundell. Now that Vladimir Tarasenko is
in Detroit, that third line right wing spot is opened up. So there
are some question marks as far as who Anton Lundell is going to be passing
the puck to or who he's getting the puck from. And I mean,
you saw during the playoffs where Lundell went off he had fifteen assists and at
times he was playing with Matthew could Chuck on that second line. Sam Bennett
was hurt, so that was a place where the Panthers saw he was beneficial
in. But as long as Sam Bennett's here, he's probably going to have
that spot next to Matthew met next to Matthew could Chuck. So I mean,
unless you have a breakout from Matkiew Samuskvitch, who I know you guys
want to talk about later on, I think the better fantasy bet would be
Evan Rodriguez. But I wouldn't be surprised if you see Anton Lundell come into
his own this year and be able to carry a line like he was in
the playoffs, where it really didn't matter who Anton Lundell was playing with.
He was playing really good hockey and he was making the right passes and now
looking at the situation he's in because I was talking to Anton Lundel earlier this
year and the thought of having that first contract he needed to sign and all
that was getting into his head. And it took a conversation with the other
person in this little debate, Evan Rodriguez, to help him calm down a
little bit and simplify things, and from there he was playing really good.
It just depends on the way linemate shakeout, and if that breakout happens.
I am confident in Anton Lundell, But for the purposes of this little debate,
I'm gonna say Evan Rodriguez just because he's going to have the star line
mates Maki Samuskevitch or I'll throw the floor open to you about any other guys
who could surprise in that top six or top nine for Florida this year.
Do you think Maki is the next best guy to make the impact. Yeah,
unless you're gonna throw a guy like Aj Greer or Thomas Nosek up on
that line, I don't really see anyone else fitting there as well as Maki
Samuskevitch can if he has a good training camp, a good preseason and kind
of shows that he belongs at the NHL level, which He's played some pretty
good games at the NHL level already. He had a pretty good campaign in
the AHL, so this might be his chance to break into that lineup and
carve out a role for himself, and the Panthers are definitely gonna need him
to do that. With the way the salary cap is, there's nothing better
than having a guy on an entry level contract be an impact player for you.
I think that's gonna be the main guy that Panthers are going to want
to see replace Vladimir Tarasenko in that top nine. But there's also a guy
like Justin sord If who can jump in and try to do the same thing.
He's shown that he could be a quality player at least at the AHL
level. At the NHL level, he's shown some flashes at as well,
So I think those are two guys that can maybe make a conversation for making
the lineup. But other than that, I mean, you have your top
eight forwards right there that have made a pretty big impact. I think they're
gonna be fine offensively no matter who slides in on that third line, but
anything from one of those two rookies would be very helpful for the Panthers as
well, tremendous. Let's move to the blue line. No more Brandon Montour,
no more Oliver Ekman, Larson, Aaron Eklads. There, though you
talk about a team building up a core over time, we are talking about
five different guys who went in the top six of an NHL draft on this
show, and Aaron bl eck Blad is the fifth of five guys who went
in that round. Of course, former number one overall pick. He is
in his last year of his eight by seven point five million dollar contract.
He has missed a fair amount of games each of the last four years,
though he was really dominant in the stretches when he was available. Lucky for
him, he's had a lot of help coming on the blue line of this
team. We'll obviously talk about the guys who left. There's a couple more
guys who are coming back who will be talking about. But with Brandon Montour,
especially out of town, opportunity on the power play should be back.
Daily faceoff shows him on the power play one certainly comeing into next year.
Eck Blad's stats have ebbed over the past couple of years, maybe with his
missing time, maybe with the injuries, But what will Eckblad's role be this
year and is he going to stay a Panther as this long contract is finally
concluding. Yeah, I don't think the numbers have anything to do with him
being injured or something going on with the way he plays as far as his
skill goes, It's just been a change of mindset for him as he adjusted
to Paul Maurice's system. He's played a more defensive style of game and that
pairing with him and Gustav Forsling have been the panthers number one shut down line.
They play a lot of minutes on the penalty kill. And he also
was taken off the power play with Eckman, Larson and Brandon Montour there and
now that they're gone, I think he gets himself back into the conversation.
Although looking at the way the Panthers powerplay operated when he was on the power
play, I think he's more of a shooter rather than a distributor, and
they're gonna have to get creative if they want to make it work. Is
I don't think he is your traditional power play quarterback, so there are other
options they can try. There. I don't know if this is Aaron Eckblad's
job to lose necessarily, because you also have Gustav Forsling there, who is
a very good distributor of the hockey puck and has a pretty sneaky gets shot
as well, and he put up some pretty good numbers during the regular season
despite being known as a usually shut down guy. So maybe that could potentially
be their answer on the power play. That's something that's gonna have to play
out during camp that doesn't have a clear answer, And I know Adam Bochlist
got added he can get himself into the conversation to at least be a power
play too. Guy. We'll have to see what he provides throughout a camp
there. But Aaron Akblaed has just been a very sound piece of the corps
and ever since the injury he came back from to start the year, he
was pretty healthy through most of the season until he had a little nick keep
him out for the rest of the regular season before he came back to start
the playoffs. So I don't think health is too much of a concern going
into next year. I think he's going to be fine, and I think
he's just gonna be another key piece of the defense. Do I think the
offense is gonna come back? Maybe a little bit, because he's gonna be
taking some of that responsibility away from Brandon Montour. Maybe he gets on the
power play, but I think the whole who gets power play one debate is
a bit up in the air right now. So you already alluded to Gus
Fordling, and we're going to talk a little bit more about him now because
he deserves that, and he was such an interesting success story bouncing around the
league. A bunch of teams didn't want him, comes to Florida and instantly
gets a really good opportunity and just hits it out of the park, and
it was really fun to see. Now he's a top defender on a Stanley
Cup Champ brand new eight year deal five point seventy five AAV, which I
still think is a value for how good he is. He's pretty much been
a forty point pace guy though since arriving in Florida several years ago. He's
just consistently at that. Even though he plays north of twenty one minutes,
he was over twenty two last season. He's never really gotten a ton of
power play time. You just mentioned that you're not sure that this is guaranteed
to eck Blad, but there's certainly less competition than there has been in the
past. Do you think FORZN gets at least a little bit more power play
tim and ice And do you think we can see his pace finally increase from
forty or do you think he'll be stuck around that area. Yeah, as
I alluded to earlier, I think he's a guy whose name should be in
the conversation demand the power play, the way he distributes the puck, the
way he passes the puck, he has that in his bag. He just
plays a more defensive style of game, and maybe if you have him on
the power play, you see that point numbers start to go up a little
bit. But his mL has usually been defense first. So, like I
said, with Akblad, you're gonna have to see how things play out in
camp. I think he is going to get some opportunity to work with the
power play during camp, and you're gonna see a couple different looks on the
power play. I'm sure we're gonna have to see how things shake out opening
night, but I think this is a guy who's gonna have some chance to
have a bit more of a scoring up, get his numbers up a little
bit more offensively, and I think next year here going to have this guy's
name in Norris conversations even more so than they would Laer last year because talent
wise, this is a top ten defenseman in the league. But you already
mentioned at a Bokavist, I'm gonna give you a pick him. With Bocavist
and Nate Schmidt, the Panthers have finally gotten to that stage of success where
some of their players are getting they get too expensive to stick around. They
got to pay the guys that they have, but some guys who end up
being to cast offs and other teams want to come and try to win with
the Panthers. Boquist took him a long time to sign Schmidt was actually bought
out by the Jets, and now they both come to Florida. Florida decor.
Where As we said before, a couple of guys are leaving. So
do either Nate Schmidt or at a Bokvist seem likely to break out or take
a big role with this team. I think Nate Schmidt will be a quietly
really good two way defenseman. I don't think he's going to, I guess,
for your purposes, be a quality fantasy player. I think he's just
gonna go in and be a twenty point guy and play some pretty good to
fit defense and be a nice quality piece of that corps. I think he's
going to have his role and he's going to play it well. I think
Bokeust is a bit more of a wild card because going into earlier in his
career, he had that capability and that potential to run a power play to
put up a lot of points, and maybe that's a guy the Panthers look
at to try to give an opportunity on the power play while having your shutdown
pairing take a little bit less minute to not go through that. And as
I said with the other two guys, I think he's going to be in
the race. I think he's going to get an opportunity to prove himself and
who knows, maybe at some point during the season, this guy's running your
power play and he's going to put up career high numbers. So I think
the wild card of the fact that Bokest had that potential and could be a
guy that can do it. I think that for fantasy purposes. I think
he'll be the more inter guy. But I think Schmid's going to play a
pretty good role on this team as well. And that price tag he took
to come here is going to look pretty good moving over to the goalies now,
and you mentioned price tag. That ten million dollars cap hit was questionable
by some people's accounts for Sergey Lebrowski, but now he's a Stanley Cup champ,
and I don't think Florida cares too much about any of that's happened.
He was top three finalists for the Vesna. He was pretty fantastic and definitely
a consmyth front runner before Florida let and Minton back in the season and Connor
McDavid did Connor McDavid things. But most importantly he's he's a Stanley Cup champ
and he's got two years remaining on that contract. His goal save above expected
last season were excellent. He had thirty six wins. He had really good
overall numbers, top tier for fantasy as you would be thinking about. I
think part of the question of what's going to happen here is who's going to
be the other guy in the net. We've seen Spencer Knight struggle with some
personal things. He's done pretty well in the a HL. He has two
more years of four point five million before coming in RFA, and the team
also has Jijer and Helbert in the system. But I imagine it's Bob's net.
He's probably gonna play. You know, you tell me sixty ish starts?
So is that going to be the case for Bob? And do you
think he'll have similar numbers? And who's gonna how the rest of the start
is going to get dolled out? Yeah, I don't see things trending away
from where they were last year. As far as sirgate Bribrovsky goes, I
think he's going to command a good fifty five to sixty starts and I don't
see him slowing down for now, just given the way he was during the
playoffs. But as far as whose backup's gonna be, it just depends on
how things go in camp. And I think Spencer Knight has gotten him to
suit himself to a point wheor he can be back in the NHL. Granted,
I think the Panthers also want him to have a good, healthy amount
of starts, so he probably could find himself in the AHL at some points,
and he still could be down there getting a lot of starts just for
the fact that the Panthers wanted to get reps and that's what getting a guy
like Chris Drieger allows him to do. But I don't think it's gonna be
as clear cut as it was last year as far as Night spending the entire
year down there. I think they're going to have him up in the NHL
at points next year, But it's all a wait and see thing and see
how Spencer Knight plays in camp and how things go with Chris Drieger. Because
this isn't a guy like Anthony Stolars, who was showing signs of being a
really good goaltender with Anaheim, and a guy that you could say, oh
wow, this is one of the best backups in the league. Let's bring
him in. Our guy get some playing time in the AHL. This is
a we're familiar with them. He played some pretty good hockey for us,
but he's also coming off of a couple of years of some pretty bad injury
problems and he needs to change the scenery to get back to where he used
to be. So who knows if he's going to be a contributor at the
NHL level. So I think there's a lot of question marks as far as
the backup goes. But I think Sir Gaberbrovsky's going to be Sir Gebribrovski.
Awesome. Well, first of all, I recommend people let Colby have a
couple weeks off and just leave him alone as he recovers from this long Florida
run. But Colby, I know people will be looking to read a lot
about the Florida Panthers this year. How can they keep up with the work
you've got going on the internet. Yeah, So the best place I can
tell you guys to follow me right now is at Colby d Guy on Twitter
or I guess it's called x now, but I hate calling it that.
I mean, I freelance for the Palm Beach Post. I freelance for the
AP, and I'm in the middle of trying to figure out another place for
my permanent work. I'm still trying to figure that out, So I guess
stay tuned with my Twitter and eventually I'll have a full time home for all
the stuff that isn't freelance. Awesome, thanks so much for coming on Colby.
Yeah, thanks will be. That's good fire passed off Bob, My
goodness, long with a cat quick gram. Now it's your Weekley goalie talk.
But Kat Silverman Cat's instincts. Time once again for Cat's instincts with Kat
Silverman and ingld Mag Florida Panthers Stanley Cup champs, and they have a kind
of interesting goalie situation. I would say, obviously we know about Bob,
but Spencer Night. It may seem a little weird to talk about Spencer Knight
here, but he played last season entirely in the h L. It was
fun to see him with the Cup celebration, but he didn't get any time
with the Panthers. This past season, it was all with the Charlotte Checkers,
and he was great for them. He had some really strong numbers nine
to five say percentage, two point four one five wins and his last NHL
action was twenty two to twenty three where he only had twenty one games.
I think last year, previous year, we talked about him taking over and
stepping into a bigger role. That did not happen. But so far,
with the strong HL numbers, his trajectory, his equivalency in the Hockey prospecting
model at least looks very good. He has many NHL quality goalies as his
comps. Of course, being an American, I put color handbook caller Connor
Hellibuck up here, which is of course very lofty. I'm not sure that
his upside is there. But what do your instincts tell us about Spencer Night?
Do you think he can regain his form and be the next starter when
Bob starts slowing down. I think that's entirely possible. I truly. I
think both of us thought the last time that we talked about Spencer Night that
we were done talking about him in this series, had our farewell to getting
the wax poetic about his game. And then he did end up during his
last couple of years starting to fall off technique wise, and he ended up
in the player Assistance program for a little bit. Getting to see goaltenders go
through the player assistance program, we've seen a couple of them who actually got
a chance to rehab their game by rehabbing any anxiety OCD substance abuse that stems
from the pressures of the game. We've seen a couple guys go through that
and come out on top. Obviously, the hope is that's what we're going
to see from Spencer Night, because from a technical standpoint, he was one
of the strongest prospects we've seen come out of the United States, I think
in years and years. I think he's one of the strongest prospects over the
last couple of draft classes. I do think that he was put in a
really tough situation there in Florida to start, where he was the very obvious
era apparent who everyone was expecting to take on a ton of games, stuck
behind a guy with a truly unmovable albatross contract who was underperforming through the first
couple of years of that contract. And obviously Bob has turned his game back
around, settled in enough to win a Stanley Cup and get snubbed for a
con smythe So obviously I think a little bit of the pressure has been taken
off of Night there, just because he no longer has to navigate this weird
situation of being the better goaltender technically but making a fraction of the money of
a guy who they can't move out of the way for him. So I
think that it's a much healthier situation and environment for him overall. Now,
I do think that it'll depend on what they do with him next year.
I think, knock on wood, this is actually going to be the last
time we talk about him as a prospect. But it's crazy because he is
only twenty three, so it seems like he's gone through most of the ups
and downs we see from guys out of their careers over they're twenty seven or
twenty eight by the time we're talking about them like this, and Spencer Nada
is twenty three years old, so I think we still have a lot of
career ahead of him to look at. I just am curious to see what
they do with him next year because I think he was probably NHL ready technically
last year, and it was smart of them to keep him in the AHL
instead of moving him up to try and rush him back too quickly. So
I think there's no excuse not to have him at the NHL level this upcoming
year, and it'll be fun to see what he does with that. Yeah,
indeed, we're all pulling for him and hoping for the best. And
I see your goalie card is still intact. You would have for sure voted
for Bob over like David I love it absolutely. If he hadn't let in
all those goals and games four, five, and six, it would have
been for sure. But that wasn't all on him. Let's talk about the
other guy in this system. An interesting one actually, I would say Cooper
and he was an undrafted six foot eight two and forty pound goalie. He's
now twenty three years old. He played very weird trajectory here. He played
in the for the USHL a little bit, and then he played in the
NAHL and the BCHL before going to the NCAA for Dartmouth in the last couple
of seasons, where he has been and been okay there, and then he
had one AHL game where he got absolutely lit up. So no hockey prospecting
for this guy. But Kat, what can you tell us about Cooper Black
other than he is insanely tall. I got a couple of highlights of his
I truly didn't know what to make of then. It was a little harder
to find clips on him than it was some of the other guys that we've
looked at over this series. He is huge. I think he is a
great add to their system because, as we've talked about, they have Sergey
Bobrovski and Spencer Knight as their top two goaltenders, so everyone else in their
system ultimately is either a fill in for Knight or Bibrovski, or it's someone
who you are looking at being four to five years away from playing NHL hockey,
and those are guys that ultimately you're either looking at European goaltenders who you're
drafting this year or last year and have obligations to their KHL program or their
LEGA program or their SAHL program that they need to fulfill before they come over,
or you're looking at guys who are just centering college or just leaving college
and had no interest from teams up to this point, and that would be
Cooper Black. So I think that's a fun project for them to have in
the system, because worst case scenario, he is an AHL ECCHL goaltender who
they have for a couple of years and then they move on and they say,
cool, that was fun. He was huge, and best case scenario,
he actually turned out to be a decent prospect that they have in their
system. But they don't have to worry about where to put him for at
least a couple of years, so I think we've got time to keep an
eye on him. Could be fun to see. I love seeing what giant
goaltenders do when they make it to the AHL because there's always some sort of
a skirmish that they get into. I don't think I've seen any big goaltenders
that have spent prominent time in the AHL who haven't had at least one little
scuffle, so that it'll be fun to look out for in Charlotte this upcoming
year. But I don't know. That's such a long shot for them,
and I think that's the right type of goaltender to have in the system,
but I don't know. I was watching a couple of clips and I was
like, yeah, he's big. There's some goaltenders you can't tell they're as
big as they are by watching them play. There are some that you can
tell. And that is the best way to describe him is you can absolutely
tell that he's huge by watching him play. All right, yeah, maybe
take a fire because they don't have a whole lot else going on in that
Cooper Black, thanks Pat forgive us your instincts on these Florida Panther goalies.
Will be back right after this dig the dynasty dig Florida the Panthers. Addition,
Victor. The Florida Panthers did not have a particularly strong prospect system prior
to the draft. They got there honestly, of course, by winning the
Stanley Cup. This is the point where you're probably not going to have the
best prospect system because you haven't. You've been having to make the moves.
But Victor, this still is going to start out with your no brainer.
Who's your no brainer for the Panthers. Yeah, this is Maky Samuskevitch twenty
twenty one, twenty fourth overall pick five, eleven hundred ninety two pounds.
After a two strong NC Double A seasons, he played seven NHL games where
he didn't get any points. But it was surprising to see him make the
Panthers camp, especially being such a darn good team. As we saw,
they want to stand the Cup, so you can say that they were the
best. And after that he got I went and sent down to the HL
where he was just fantastic. I talk about an amazing jump from being over
a point per game in the NC DOUBLEA. You can have some somewhat high
expectations, but fifty four points and sixty two AHL games is really phenomenal for
twenty He was twenty at the beginning of season, twenty one year old.
That's some really great production. Looking at his FHL player card, you can
see that he does shoot a fair amount and it's probably his highest skill.
His goals and assists are both in the eightieth percentile for the AHL, which
is really no joke. That's a really strong league. He doesn't really hit
or block too much, so his bash is probably going to be low.
Is Samuskevitch. But to hear a little bit more about what makes some Skevich
tick, let's hear from our FHL scout that's right, and in this case
our FAHL scout for samuskevitchs Craig, he has this to say. Skating below
average, Samuskevich has a short, clunky stride that when skating north to south
highlights how slow he is. When in transition or skating defenders. Chasing defenders
around the ozone, he seems to utilize his crossovers and picks up speed passing
and handling. Samus Skavitch's average is able to find the open man, usually
a trailer coming in late and Craig didn't notice stand out playmaking skills when he
got lower down close to the net. Buck handling is solid, but not
able to beat defenders one on one. For shooting, Samus Skevitch it has
a quick and powerful release. When given time and space, he can beat
AHL goalies with these. This is Samuskevitch's best asset and will hopefully allow him
to stick in the NHL IQ average. As the HL season went on,
Samus Skevitch IQ started to come to life. Early in the season, he
struggled to find the open areas and didn't have a lot of puck touches.
However, as the season went on, he started to read the play better
and was able to jump through holes and take advantage of opposing defenders. For
checking average, Samuskevitch works hard in the ozone to create turnovers, but he
lacks the size and strength to become elite at this. With a lack of
size and strength, he throws next to no hits defense averaged above average.
Samuskevitch gets into the passing and shooting lanes, but that's about it. He's
weak along the boards, often getting out muscled turning the puck over, and
a lack of batchecking often led to opposing teams getting scoring chances. Craig's best
as it for Samuskevitch. That shot hard, accurate, gets it off fast.
Biggest concern lack of ability to win a puck battle and the turnovers.
The top tier outcome that Craig sees for Samuskevitch second line complimentary winger could do
sixty to seventy po points with below average BASH. That outcome would happen because
samuy Skivitch can score, and if he can make it into a top six
along a playmaker, he could maybe do that for you. Fifty percentile median
outcome Tier three six fifty to sixty points below average BASH. That's if he
can't strengthen up and he limits his turnovers. If he can't limit his turnovers
too, his minutes are going to be very limited. Coaches aren't going to
put up with that stylistic comparable. Craig compares him to Daniel Sprong as in
the shot is there, but not much else. Our friend Mason Black,
the NHL Rankking set out the poll Mackey Samuskevitch versus Cole Bodowan, and Samuskevitch
comes out significantly ahead of Boudwan sixty one to thirty nine percent. Victor,
is that how you would rank the two? Yeah, this is really interesting
because, as we mentioned, Samuskevitch is not really that much of a hitter,
and I could see him being more of a points only kind of an
op. Boudouan, on the other hand, man, is he going to
be a potential bash king? The guy hits and blocks and shots all of
them up in the eightieth percentile, so he should be top ten percent or
so in combined hitch, blocks and shots across the board. That's if everything
kind of translates. I really like him. I think he has a little
bit more points upside than some may realize or some may think. But I
think Semiskavitch certainly being farther along, having that really good eight yel season and
being on a really good team like that. So it depends if you want
more of the points only option, a guy who's a little further alonger,
a guy who's going to take a little bit of time. They have a
lot of strong forwards there in Utah. They're building a really strong prospect pool,
and Boudwan might end up just being one of the guys, and because
he bashes and hits a lot, might end up just being more of a
third line checker kind of guy. So I think that I probably would take
Simons Kevitch certainly for the points upside. But man, Bodwan is really appealing
and he's someone that I would really like to have on my team, especially
because that high floor. If he gets anywhere close to that, he has
a really solid potential to have a pretty reasonable points upside. So yeah,
I think I probably would agree with it, though I would not begrudge anyone
who wanted to take Buduan for that really solid preperal floor and significant points upside.
If you look at the hockey prospecting between these two, Butoduan is pretty
similar to where Semaskevitch was in his draft season. Semi Skevich trended down from
twenty four percent ended up just two percent, but really good production in the
AHL. Withdwan being at twenty one percent in the OHL, he could continue
to improve that or at least keep it a little bit higher. So we'll
have to see how that works out. In terms of some more realistic comps
for Samuskevitch, I think Vladislav Domesticov makes a lot of sense. His equivalency
is almost exactly the same as Semiskevich, and we know the trajectory of domesticoff
a really good, complimentary player, certainly in NHL are but not someone who's
super exciting in fantasy, and that could end up being what Samyskevitch is.
We'll have to see. They're both the same height and similar weight. Macky
is a right shot and blad as a left but otherwise pretty darn similar looking.
At the j Fresh card, Samuskevitch just five percent chance of being a
start of twenty four percent chance of being an NHL or so as usual,
a little bit more pessimistic here from Jay Fresh. Yes, sir now oh
sneaking into the need to know prospect victor recent entry. Who is it?
Yeah? This is someone Simon Zether And he's someone that I wanted to put
in here because he was just drafted, and he was drafted pretty late.
But I think he has some pretty interesting upside. He was a twenty twenty
four fourth round pick by the Panthers, just drafted six to three hundred and
eighty seven pounds right shot center. He's really old for this draft class.
Eighteen because he was born on October eighteen, so he was eighteen all draft
season, and he's been just over a month away from being eligible from the
previous draft class, so that was interesting. He played forty two SHL games
this year, had four cyts for Rogulan bk Ruglans are really strong team,
so you can understand why that would be the case. That he wouldn't necessarily
score that much, but just being able to make this team and place play
a decent role for Rogul is pretty impressive. He also appeared in fifteen playoff
games with one assist. At the J twenty level, he was well over
a point per game, with twenty seven points in eighteen games. Looking at
as Lassie Allenin's tracking data, you can see that Simons other fantastic defensive player.
His course, his retrievals are really high, his transition games are pretty
good to his offense though just sixty one percentile, so his expected goals primary
sists are all a little bit lower, and this is from the J twenty
level, not the shlvel. When you look at the SHL tracking data,
it looks really poor, and that kind of makes sense. He's a really
young guy. Playing a depth role on a really good team in the SHL,
so you wouldn't expect it to be so good. But looking at his
Hockey prospect or yea FHL player card, you can see that he actually hits
not that much. His blocks are actually pretty good and his shots are pretty
good, so he should be a little bit above average for shots. I
would say his goals and scoring at least at the J twenty level are top
knock for that league, which is pretty nice to see. In the SHL,
it's not looking so great other than he did block a lot of shots
in the SHL. He can do that. Let's hear a little bit more
about Simon Zether from our FHL scout. Our scouting report is from Tony Robinson
on Simon Zether. He is has this to say, skating above average to
he's got speed, he's got edges, he's got starts, passing and handling,
puck handling slightly above average shooting. One of the best attributes of Zether
seems to be able to get out his own shot close to the net and
also hit shots from further out iq good vision anticipation by being able to get
open around the net. Not a lot of panic with his peers checking.
Tony was surprised to see some for checking using his bigger frame, so this
could help his career if it continues. Defense the slightest amount above average,
as again Zether uses his size and the offensive zone, but as is the
new norm not a lot of shot blocking best asset then twofold shooting and use
of size to get his own shot and for check. And the biggest concern
well, skating needs work, needs to be bigger for the riggers of the
NHL, and needs to play a more all around defensive style. The top
tier outcome for Zether Tony will put it all the way up at the low
end of tier one, a top six player with number one power play deployment.
That's if he's willing and able to get his own shot, use the
size while improving skating and defense. The median outcome mid tier three with some
upside. If skating does not improve and he doesn't improve in things like shot
blocking for our fantasy purposes, maybe a switch to the wing. He could
carve out a role in the NHL. And that's because the lack of elite
skating is a problem. Stylistic comparable he reminds Tony of Patrick line, which
don't mean what he used to mean. Scouting final thoughts and additional stats and
info being loaned to Hockey Alsbhinkan probably not the best for Zether's deployment. Tony
thinks hopefully can use this time to get back to the SHL and maybe the
NHL and Mason Black brings us the NHL ranking poll. Here Zether is up
against Victor Noringer and he wins this one sixty three to thirty seven percent.
Not a whole lot of odes. People probably still becoming familiar with Zether's game,
But Victor, is that how you would stack these two? Yeah?
I think so. Both these guys were fourth round picks. They're both decent
sized guys. They're both playing in the J twenty. They played in the
J twenty. In terms of nor Under he was drafted by Nashville right around
the same time in the fourth round. He's a bit younger, though August
thirty first is his birthday, so he's still only seventeen. He was seventeen
the whole year. He's a six to three right shot left wing and his
scoring and the JA twenty wasn't as impressive he played a lot in the JA
eighteen as well, which I guess makes sense considering how much younger he is
than everybody else. But if you just look at the scoring between the two
and the J twenty, then you can see that Zither massively outproduced him.
So that's interesting Between these two, though, I think I would take Zether
just because I like his offensive production and had the fact that he already played
so much in the SHL but for no Longer. You could also say,
on the other hand, he's so much younger, and he has a lot
more to grow, and a lot more to grow his game and be a
little bit more productive. So mainly, I just wanted to draw attention to
these two because I think they're interesting depth options, and as you're getting towards
the end of your fantasy prospect draft, probably worth a flyer on either of
these guys. Their hockey prospecting is interesting because other's twenty four percent chance of
being a star and fifty two percent chance of being an NHLer and no longer
zero. I think maybe that's some equivalency issues with he didn't score as much
on the J twenty levels, so I'm sure his equivalency's a little bit higher
than that. But I was looking for some comps for Zether, and one
that I think is appropriate is Thomas Plakanik, who was a kind of an
average producer and kind of more of a defensive specialist but at some times of
relevance there. That's someone who Zether could end up being. And if he
is anything like that as a fourth rounder, you're you're pretty happy with that.
The j fresh car just one percent chance of being an NHLer and four
percent chance of being a star for for Simon Zether Victor third up, we've
got to keep your on prospect. Who is it? That's Grayson Saucan,
twenty twenty three second round pick, sixty third overall, five to eleven,
one hundred sixty five pound right shots center. You split time this season between
the Seattle Thunderbirds and the Edmonton Oil Kings. He's someone who last year was
on that really stacked Seattle team and we thought, oh, when he gets
a little bit more opportunity, he could be better. He was point per
game and that really stacked team as a depth player. Didn't quite work out
that way this season. He was over point per game. Both with his
time in Seattle and in his time in Edmonton, but it wasn't that much
over It was only four points more in Seattle and seven six points more in
Edmonton. You'd kind of hope for more of a point and a half,
kind of or almost closer to two points per game, but John, but
it didn't quite happen. Looking at the tracking data from Mitch Brown, you
can see that Sacchin was really excellent in transition, really good defensively, but
his offense wasn't that great. His expected assists, slot passes, and slot
percent are all really good, but his expected goals and his shots are really
low. So he seems like one of these guys that doesn't shoot that much,
doesn't create a lot of expected goals, but a lot of primary systs.
That's the kind of player you'd be getting. There is a lot of
advantages created and boards played in the middle, so there is some really strong
playmaking and play driving, but not so much the goals are expected goals.
Looking at his Fahl card, you can see that this is pretty well represented
in the assists for sixty. His goals for sixty are actually seventy eight percentile
in the WHL. But considering what in the player card that probably isn't going
to translate too well. Looking at the rest of his periffs, he's pretty
low in everything. His shots are really low, his hits are really low,
his blocks are really low. He looks like he's going to be one
of these twentieth percentile type guys for bash. So really low points and only
kind of guy. Well, let's hear a little bit more about Statchin from
OURFCHL SCOUTFA Shehall Scout. Patrick has this to say about Sachin skating average to
above average. Well, he isn't the fastest. He has a smooth skating
stride, pretty good in his turns and pivots, as well as lateral movement,
passing and handling. This is the best area for Slatchin. According to
Patrick, He's adept at making touch passes and pinpoint passes to open teammates.
His sticky handling is a plus skill, but there are times when it's a
little loose and the puck gets away from him. Shooting, Sagan's more of
a playmaker than a shooter, but when he gets the chance, he's able
to place his shots well and be goaltenders. Sometimes it's a high shot,
other times it's five hole or via a wrap around the IQ Sachin's vision and
anticipation are decent. There are times when he'll read the play, but others
when he tries to skate his way through the other team without a plan.
He does well keeping calm when under pressure and can still make plays for checking.
There are times when he gets active on the four check, but more
often than not, his wingers are in on the fore check and he'll wait
until a puck comes loose. Defense. As a center, he lives up
to his defensive responsibilities. He's aware when it needs to get back on defense
and he's the first forward back. He'll go down behind the net to support
the other defenseman where the defenseman and strip the puck from the other team.
So the best asset, hands and playmaking skills biggest concern. Couple concerns,
but the biggest is the hockey IQ on the rush. Patrick some multiple teams
where he's skated right into the other team without seeming to have a plan and
the ozone is positioning was good, but often he didn't seem to know what
he was going to be doing. So the top tier outcome here. It
could be a second line center or winger and that's because he has enough skill
between his skating, stick handling, passing in hands that if he can continue
to improve those skills and improve on his vision, he could facilitate scoring and
help on defense. The median outcome Risachin more likely he's going to top out
a third line center or winger if he makes it to the NHL. Patrick
thinks it will be because of the playmaking, but the lack of the higher
end IQ, along with other skills not being that high, means he'd be
limited to the third line. This is aerie. Victor Patrick also brings up
the name Tomash Plakanch. There's placanitches all the way down in the Florida system,
it turns out, and overall Patrick thought he looked like a good bit,
not really good, not a great player D plus one year. He
only slightly increased that point pace Mason Black. The NHL ranking makes Grayson Sachin
face up against Sean Ferrell of the Montreal Canadians prospect system, and Sauchin wins
that one fifty four two forty six. Ferrell had a drop in his production
this past year, Victor, is that how you would rank these two?
Probably not, I totally agree with what Patrick said. And by the way,
what's better than one Thomas Bulkanic, It's it's two right clearly, so
or three Victor. I think they'd be pretty happy with one if one of
those guys worked out to be similar. But yeah, I agree that sachin
is. She seems like more of a two way playmaker kind of guy,
and so that's probably why I would take Farrell here. Even though Farrell his
potential has been up down. He was absolutely phenomenal in Harvard, and we've
seen him play at the World Championships and the Olympics. We've seen him play
against men and had some success. Last year was his first season with the
LaVall Rack the Laval Rocket, and he's been he was pretty good there.
He's still really small. He's five foot nine, one hundred and seventy four
pounds. He's a really small, undersized playmaking winger. And I think that's
the concern is that how much can he really leverage that into And they,
the Canadians already have some smaller forwards and so there's a little bit of concern
about his upsides. So I think if you wanted the more for sure,
NHLer, that's probably Sachin, but Farrell has a little bit more upside to
it, so it depends on what you want there. I think some people
have really soured on Farrell too as he's had his professional debut, but I
still think there's some there's still a world where Farrell works out to be a
really strong Johnny Goodroau type player who's like a good winger, playmaking winger that
can help create some offen as long as he has the right linements and support.
Yeah, there are definitely some questions with both these guys in terms of
their fantasy outlook. That's why this system isn't as great, but it's still
worth mentioning they're looking at these two. In the Hockey Prospecting model, Sachin
had twenty four percent chance of being a star went down to ten. His
NHLer probably went from fifty four to forty two, so a little bit low
lower this season. Barrell, on the other hand, has been in the
teens in terms of his star potential and his NHL are pretty in potential up
to seventy five percent. I was looking at some other comps for Grayson Sachin.
One that I think is pretty appropriate is Ryan Hartman. He was,
so it's pretty reasonable, still playing but still an average producer kind of guy.
And I think that's what Sachin could end up being. Someone who can
move around the lineup fill a couple different holes. But it really is his
fantasy valley is going to depend on who he's playing with and does he get
the right deployment and can he hold onto that because we've seen Ryan Harmon be
really good and then be like really irrelevant, and that could end up being
what Sachin is as well. Looking at the day freshcard, just two percent
chance of being a star and ten percent chance of being an NHL are for
Sachin pretty low and overall, this whole system not super exciting, but just
a few guys worth mentioning that's going to do it for our Panthers dig If
you're a patron, you can listen to my top Tech ten prospect recap per
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