Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks. Here sits your source
of information and analysis to help you win your fantasy hockey league. Block off
hot a step hit on, stay lock. Here's your hosts, Jesse Severe
and Victor Nuno. You're gonna see Hockey Live back once again with Victor Nuno.
This is Jesse Severe. You were in the right place if you were
coming looking for Dynasty Fantasy Hockey Talk. Victor Nuno, how you doing.
I'm doing great, Jesse. I'm gonna try to maintain my level of quality
throughout this episode and not fall apart at the end like the Flyers did.
Oh that's cold. That's cold. I think our guests just canceled, So
way to go, Victor. Nope, the guests can't hear this, not
yet. Uh yeah, Victor. It's interesting times talking Flyers and we will
get to that. But before we do, Victor, I just got to
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Fantasy Hockey Life Glorious Victor. You did point out it's going to be Flyers
time right after this, we welcome back to the show a guest who's been
here before, talking Philadelphia Flyers. Russ Cohen of Sportsology and any chel Draft
buzz dot com. Russ, how you doing doing great? How you guys
doing great? Man doing great? Ready to talk Philadelphia Flyers? The Flyers
shocked the world up until the very last moment, and then things didn't go
right on opening night. Just to give people a sense of the roller coaster
that Flyers fans must have been on this year. On opening night, Don
Licisien's model of playoffs gave them a two percent chance of the playoffs. In
late March it was up to eighty percent, but in the end they didn't
quite make it over the finish line, unfortunately a couple of late losses.
It really was a miracle. The team rants along. If you ask me,
the franchise goalie went away maybe forever, I don't know. In a
dark turn of our office events, the league's worst say percentage happened in Philadelphia.
Multiple of their important defenseman was time for injury. They dealt with a
top prospect to he ended up with a different philosophical position than Flyers management,
and the famous John Tortorella had his typical moments of drama figuring out how to
push whose buttons to get the most out of this team. So which Flyers
team will next year's most resemble The underachievers are the or rechievers who are one
standing point from hosting a playoff series on Valentine's Day, or the team that
only managed two wins in their last eleven contests. So they'll be the team
that, instead of being right there one point from the playoffs, they'll be
like six. Because that's how the NHL is. John's a good coach.
He'll get them above what projections are. But if he rides the guys as
hard as he rode them last year and we can get into the specific ones,
the same thing's going to happen, because they'll add a little more talent
this year than I don't expect them to do much in free agency. If
they do, they're silly because they do have talent that they need to develop
and keep. When you keep bringing in bottom pairing defensemen, it doesn't help
the other guys get better and eventually move up. But and the goaltending is
going to be an issue, and now really is an issue. If we
hear this stuff about Kolo Sev possibly going back, a lot of these things
are in flux. I think they'll be talking, hey, we're open for
business for trades for the draft, but as draft trades are hard to make,
we'll see if that happens. But I think in the end they people
won't be saying as bad of things as they were last year. As far
as not going to be able to make it again. I don't think there
was anything wrong with that, because in the end they didn't. So whether
they had a two percent chance or an eighty percent chance, they still didn't
make it. Like you said, in the end, they overachieved a bit
this year. I still think they could overachieve a little next year. But
I still don't look at them as a playoff team. That makes a lot
of sense. That's probably the rational way. They've got pretty good management there.
I wouldn't be I would be shocked if they didn't take that approach.
Let's start with some of the players. Travis Connectney was great for fantasy purposes
this year. He got named the alt captain during the year, comfortably led
the team in scoring fifteen more points than the next highest score. Career high
in scoring for Connectney in a sixty point twenty sixty game twenty two to twenty
three. He did average more than a point per game, but since he
played seventy six games, he had more points this time. Fun fact,
Connectney led the NHL in shorthanded goals this year with six, He's on a
very reasonable contract in his prime for the next two years, positioned to be
a leader on this team. Is connecty locked in as the kind of the
top line point per game start of this team for the moment. But because
the time's running short on his contract and it is affordable, I think you
know they're they're going to look at trading him. I don't think any end
they will because I don't think John will want that to happen. So,
yeah, he's their number one guy. He's the guy that starts everything.
I don't think I think he'll ever be a seventy point guy. I think
what you saw this year about what he'll do every year. I think the
shorthanded goals are something that no matter how well you play in that and did
he's remember he's only played shorthanded since John's been here, So that's something that
John unlocked and definitely gave more Fantasy points. But as most guys go,
that's stat fluctuate. You have six years this year, you get two next
year. There were always guys that were sharks at it in the league,
and then there were guys that sometimes just couldn't get it done. They would
always get these chances, and so I think he'll still get you three or
four shorties, but I don't think he'll get as many as six. Yeah,
let's talk about the next guy here, and that's Owen Tippett. We
might reference a couple times the Tidy Rank Our Tier Dynasty. He was number
sixty two. That was pretty fantastic for a relatively young player that hadn't really
established himself quite at that level. But he had a really great season and
overall his second season in Philly, his time on Iceland down by a minute,
his goal production stayed about the same with a few more assists. His
shots actually went up, which increased his perferroles, which is part of what
made him more valuable in fantasy. I remember, Russ, I reached out
to you back in January for a EP ringside article, and I love the
quote that you had, which was basically that when Tibbett doesn't think, he
scores, and thinking too much causes him to miss the net. So,
Russ, how can we get Tippitt to just stop thinking and score more?
Get him a shooting coach, Get the whole team a shooting coach. They've
got a lot of guys that missed the net too much. I mean,
he was one of you know, I want to say, top five worst
for misshots for the league something like that for the year and still had a
good year, but could have. Really, he's never been able to break
the thirty goal barrier, and you figure he should hits her up. Like
you said, he's figured out playmaking a little better. Still, the hockey
IQ at times lacks, especially when teams starts a key on him, because
he really he's a lot like Jeff Carter in the younger days of only having
one big move, and Carter, you know, diversified his portfolio after a
while. Tippett's trying to do that. But since he hasn't really broken through
as a key power play guy, those are hidden points, but just hitting
the net are hidden points. And the problem is he could really tantalize people
analytically because if you go down and you're rushing down the left or the right
side, and a lot of times for him it's the left and you put
up that last second shot trying to get the high corner and the goalie stops
it. It's still a scoring chance, right, still a high danger chance,
but you didn't put it in and so he has a lot of high
danger chances every game that he just doesn't put in. And there are times
when they're falling, and that is when he doesn't think you're passing the pucket
one times and it goes in. But the minute he's got a second or
two, that's when things start failing. And that's why I think he needs
outside help with that. I think he's going to get twenty five a year,
but I know people when they when he got signed, and even management
was thinking he's thirty thirty five. But I think it was as we we've
learned, or at least this is my take on it. There's a lot
of twenty goal scorers in the league, obviously there's fewer thirty, and then
once you start getting thirty five and up, it really starts separating the pack.
And I don't know if he'll ever get there. I love it.
As Kevin Costner once said, don't think can only hurt the ball club.
Joelle Farrabe he had a career here in scoring as well, landing third on
the team with fifty points at age twenty four. If you zoom out to
these numbers, things sound great. On the other hand, if you look
at the fact he only scored one goal in his final twelve games and ended
up buried on the fourth line. Looks a little different that after one point
in twenty twenty four, he actually led Travis Connectne in even strength scoring.
Is Farrabee in orange and black next year and is the potential there for a
jump in production? Russ He should be there, But I think they're gonna
shop him because I think John got up set with him, like with on
his own entries. But my feeling is this, you put Farabi on the
power play. He's a very good power play performer. He didn't get enough
time there this year. Those two goals in the last eleven Yeah, go
look at who his linemates were on the fourth line. It wasn't going to
produce much. And the team, as far as John goes, probably looked
at Farabi's year like, yeah, it wasn't that good. But Farabi was
only three points behind no and Tippett, so it was pretty good. And
it probably would have been better had he played somewhere between first and third line
all year, and that's where the coach took away seven to ten points.
I think on his season having him just muck around on the fourth line.
He's not that guy. I think we all can see what Joel Farraby can
do a miraculously same as other players with that same neck injury. He's come
back strong with Jack Eichele and so I think that's those are the two most
notable in the right they're the NMA guy. I don't know if I don't
think anybody else in the NHL's had it, So that's an amazing thing.
Later we'll talk about Cam Mackinson who had to get the the next fusion and
that doesn't work as well. That's pretty much proven at this point too.
So yeah, I like the kid. There's still upside. There's definitely upside
on the fantasy side, but I don't know if the team sees it,
and it's because of the coach. The coach he sometimes upsets the coach and
so that could cost him. We'll talk about the team not seeing it and
upsetting the coach. That also applies to Morgan Frost, who's the next guy
we're going to talk about his You know, I think there's been a big
miss narrative here that he's a bad defensive player. He actually has been really
good defensively. And maybe at the expense of some of his offense, which
is what he was known for initially and in junior, and he was certainly
much better at that, but back to back fifty seven point pay seasons.
But I think with the growth in the defensive area is a huge asterix there
that must be pointed out. He lost about thirty seconds of time on ice
and only had the seventh total amount of ice time for all forwards I mentioned,
and quite good expected gold against for sixty So what do you think we
can expect from Frost next season? Do you think he can finally get over
that sixty point pace. I think he could be there if they just keep
him at second line center. Just keep him there, leave him there,
give him good linemates. His play for wait from the puck is better.
He's one of their best own entry guys. When they have him on the
top power play, leave him be man, let him create. You're right,
he's had to focus so much and keep the coach happy that it has
cost him some of his offense. But towards the second half of the season
he was already figuring that out. The worry is he's the guy most likely
to be traded and again, if I'm a fantasy owner, I'm watching out
for that because if he goes to the right team who plays a little bit
more offensively, man, he could really do some damage. And it's all
there. It's just waiting to happen. And again, we'll see what John
wants to do with that, because I know Frost was frustrated this year,
held it in. He's a pro at some point. You can only do
that to the kid so many times, scratching. I'm putting on this doing
that change. But he's better than that. But you're in John's world,
so there you go. We always do a couple of points pick'ems between two
forwards, and boy, this one kind of breaks my heart because the two
I'm gonna put up against each other Sean Couturier and Scott Lawton. Oh Cuturier.
That's how far the Mighty have fallen here, thirty eight points in seventy
four games last year. He's the captain at one point Towardorella says he's our
leader, and then he's healthy scratched. It used to be a reliable seventy
ish point pace guy. But after missing a year and a half to injury,
boy, the return year just didn't match up to what he'd done before.
And then on the other side, Scott Lawton is two years younger.
I guess he's twenty nine. He had the second highest point total of his
career with thirty nine points in eighty two games, but played third line minutes
his expected goals for and again pointed in the wrong directions. Does get some
great hits though, which fantasy players appreciate. What do you think of these
two? All right, so let's start with Katurier. He was one of
those guys I was referencing that really needed to have load management. I think
when they played him so much early on, and John tried to tell the
media he wanted to if I'd have said him, he wouldn't have gone for
that. Yeah, I'm not sure of that. So all I'm saying is
they needed to have it worked out with a trainer. Hey, maybe he
plays six on one off, maybe he practices twice every four weeks, whatever
it is, come up with something a game plan. There wasn't. The
only game plan was, Oh, look, looks like we're playing Sewn too
much, so let's sit him for a game. Then let's scratch him for
a little while then let's put him just on the fourth line. Let's just
put Sean on the fourth line. This point, he can't play. And
it's not true because when he was out there, he was playing well.
Defensively, he was doing well on faceoffs. As one he wasn't but as
a two he was doing okay. He was good and shootout like, he
was really good in shootouts. But there is still some offense there. Look,
the skating was never great with Katie. It's no better than it was.
It's probably, you know, a quarter of a step slower, but
he used correctly, could get fifty points. There's no doubt in my mind,
because he's smart enough to be able to do it. I think the
problem with Sean is there was a problem with the agent and John and him.
They all could put a happy face on it and say now there's no
problem, but there was scratching him as a captain with not much warning.
And then John says, I did say talk to him, and there's two
sides to everything. But at the end of the day, it hurt his
season a little bit, and I think they have Look, they have to
come to grips that Sean could do just so much. John is the kind
of coach, unfortunately, that doesn't want to hear about limitations. He just
wants to hear if you're ready to play, I'm gonna play you, and
I'm gonna play as much as I could play so that we win. And
that was great. That was great with that early part of the season where
they got up to eighty percent and then all of a sudden you had guys
starting to drop because they just weren't able to keep up that pace, block
all those shots, play that wave hockey. And John even admitted he had
to change the way he coached and played the game in the second half because
things changed. Teams start playing playoff hockey, and that's true. So early
in the season. What was happening a lot with the Flyers. They were
facing the second goalie, a lot, they were being under I think teams
were not taking them seriously for a little while, maybe for a few weeks,
and they did get to pile up some wins, and Katerrier was playing
as much as twenty two minutes some games, and it was just too much.
And I was saying at the time, this is crazy. It's not
going to end well. And it didn't. But I don't want to say
he can't play, because I think he can. His ego has been hurt,
though. It's great that he came back, and I think he feels
good about that, and I feel good for him because there was a question
whether he could even make it back. But now it's you got to change
your game. I'll just liken it to my favorite athlete of all time,
Tom seaver So. When he left the Mets he went to the Rights.
He was still at the height of his career. By the time he left
the Reds, his fastball lost two three miles an hour. He had to
all of a sudden learn a couple more pitches. So now instead of having
three or four pitches, he had five pitches. He learned another pitch,
he changed speeds, he painted the corners even better than he did when he
was a fastball pitcher, because all of a sudden he realized that's how I
have to get through these games. And he did, and he elongated his
career like another three to five years, three of them which are really good.
Last couple, yeah, not so great. So Katurier has to figure
that out too, same way. I can't do it the same way anymore.
I got to do it differently, maybe even talk to his dad,
because his dad's a coach. He's probably dealt with players who have gone through
this and get his head right mentally, and then it's up to the coach
and the team. The team never really stepped in and said, hey,
John's doing something wrong. They just all said at the end, yeah,
Strong not playing right now, so that's why he's getting benched. Okay,
but it wasn't fair. That was fun. Let's do another points Pickham so
the literally David reference to but he's a Hall of Famer so whatever. Yeah.
Yeah, Well, these guys a little less well integral to the team.
But the young guns that are coming up next, So Tyson Forster and
Bobby Brink, both these guys on the younger side, both have broken into
the NHL and a little bit different in terms of what they bring. Obviously
being a little bit of a smaller guy five eight, very feisty though in
Forster six two two fifteen, bigger and a little bit more physical, but
both of them ended up around the same thirty three and thirty five point paces
respectively. Who do you think between these two is going to have a larger
role next season? And therefore probably more point it's Forrester. The thing about
it is the fact that he's six to two, the fact that he hits
some people and has that shot. That's what John's looking for. So he
has the instant leg up. Just because of the those three things. Bobby
can't get any taller. It's not his fault. Bobby's not the goal scorer
Tyson is. It's not his fault. But the way the Flyers are,
they need that goal scoring. So he gets top power play, he gets
great chances. He's going to get him next year too, so he'll probably
have twenty five to thirty goals, which is really what you would expect Forrester
to get from the time he was drafted because he always had that great shot.
Now he misses the nets too. He's another guy that could use a
shooting coach because he's got the kind of shot that really could get forty one
year if everything broke. But we not at that point. He's just figuring
excuse me, he's just figuring out the game. So right now where he
is, yeah, I think next year you're probably looking at that twenty seven
goal mark. I think he's figured out a little bit where his feet should
be before his shot. Some guys don't get fully set and they just shoot.
They've worked on that with him, and he's done a pretty good job
of making sure he's like, how do he stick down ready to shoot?
Feet in good position? And he's definitely picked up his pace. So all
these things have helped him out. So Brink is on the brink, Like
I think they're going to give him a one year deal, and I think
this is it. If he doesn't prove it, he's gonna he'll get traded
or just not resigned. He look going way back to when they got him
the two things that were going to be a question about Brink where he always
put himself in a bad position, meaning he plays feisty like you said,
but he's not the biggest, strongest guy and as a result got hurt a
lot or got hurt enough, dinged up enough that it would take him off
his game. He has built up his body to some degree. I still
don't think he's good in the corners where he really can handle himself that way.
At times you see these flashes where yeah, he can play with high
end guys and can really move the puck, can really take a great shot
with a risk shot. He has talented on the power play. If he
give him the time, he knows how to do that. But with John
you have to earn it, and I don't know if he'll put up enough
to keep a spot in the top nine. He can't play fourth line,
but he's a top nine or bust, and right now he's on the edge.
Let's move to the blue line and start with Travis Sandheim. Boy.
Sandheim had a career high in scoring. He gets the sweater out there every
single night. He doesn't miss more than two contests in any of the last
six seasons, led the team on time on ice. Now, I tend
to think of him a little bit more as a real hockey guy than maybe
a fantasy guy, although he did fine in both this year. He's the
power play two defenseman if I'm reading things right. That said, hits and
blocks make him really relevant too. He does a lot of both of those.
Signed for many years to come. What kind of a role you anticipate
We're going to get into some more defenseman who will presumably be making moves for
big roles on this team. But is Travis Sanheim going to maintain this role
in this level that he maintains. Now, what do you see coming forward?
I mean he has to. They don't have a choice. They don't
have a number one defense and he's not a true number one defenseman. But
he has bulked up. He's definitely blocking more, He's definitely handled himself in
the corner better. There were spurts where he was getting more confidence and so
he was getting more goals. I forget how many he had, might have
had eleven something like that, but what was he at sixty points something in
that range, And yeah, he got that because he had the opportunity and
he was putting up points five on five. So I think end of the
day he gets some power play points, but his bread and butter is going
to be five on five in the fact that he's getting an order amount of
ice time because he is their de facto number one. I think he'll do
the same thing next year. He actually he did have a good year.
I think a lot of people think that Cam york isn't as good defensively as
he is. He's an ex guy we want to talk about. But york
Is was actually quite good defensively, and his corsi against above league average.
Of fact, The only player who had a better corsi against than Cam York
was Eager Zamula, and that might have been at the sacrifice of some offense.
I think some of us who saw there wasn't a whole lot blocking Cam
York this season, we're really excited that potentially he could run the top power
playoff season and get a lot of points. And we know what happened.
They moved that roll all around and we saw lots of different people hold it
at different times. But it was encouraging to see York get three extra minutes
of time on ice and more power play time on ice, But that still
ended up in the same place thirty point pace, which was basically the same
that he had exactly the same as he had last year, even with all
that extra time. So, Russ, what do you think we'll see from
York next season? And can he finally get to that forty point pace.
It's going to be tough. He might be able to the things that are
going against him is he's playing on the off side, he's playing on the
top pairing right, he's really a second pairing guy and on the other side
guy. But he's worked it out right every team John Twitter has ever had.
He's always asked one or two defensemen to play the other side. So
right when you do that to me, you're already negating some points. He
did play great defense, no question about it, and probably could be better
if he gets physically stronger, because he still loses some puck battles. But
he's another guy. His point shot isn't that good. It misses than that
a lot. He actually scores more goals when he moves in. If he
can improve his point shot over the summer, I think he would get more
power play time. He's a great distributor on the power play, so he's
going to get assists that way, but he's not getting goals that way.
So yeah. In short, I think forty might be the limit for him
this year. With the players they have and everything else. He gets the
ice time, it should happen, but it's probably going to be right around
that same mark, between thirty and forty one more pick him on the blue
line. Igor Zamula Jamie Drysdale. I'll tell you there was a goal that
Zamula scored. I think it was against the Senators, which was my wife's
favorite highlight of the year. Where is Zamula shoots absolutely nobody else is looking,
and it goes in from the point wonderful times. It was the fourth
year that Zamula suited up for an NHL game, but it was really his
first full season. He had twenty one points in his sixty six games.
Advanced stats suggests that he did alright. Victor just referenced that. On the
other end, Jamie Drysdale, the kid the top prospect at one point for
the Anaheim Ducks, made it over to the Flyers, and unfortunate injuries waylaid
his return. Drysdale very recently was one of those top guys, but the
shine wore up prior to the trade. He didn't really get a chance to
adjust to the system of his new team. Some people say, so,
what do you Thinkisdale or Zamula. You still have to take Drysdale, although
I think Zamula is underrated and last year, the only reason Zamula got the
playing time he did is because they couldn't send him down because he was out
of options. Some team would have claimed him based on that. They played
eleven to seven a lot, and he got a lot of that playing time.
It wasn't all tremendous minutes, but they were good minutes. He also
got pretty good power play early time, early on, because he's just got
a shot that gets on net and a great shot, but he gets there.
Drysdille, when he's on the power play has not been allowed to be
Jamie Drysdale. Look, I can talk about Rocky Thompson for you. Give
me an hour. I'll tell you how bad he is for the next hour.
The fact that he's come back is ridiculous. But that's John's in charge
of that. He's oh, yeah, we'll get better at it. They've
been bad for two years at it, and Rocky for those You look at
it and you say, okay. When Drysdale gets the puck, he needs
to be able to get into the offensive zone. If he has to go
behind the net, if he has to go to the other side and mix
it up, he's not been allowed to do that. He has to stay
stationary. It's not his thing. As far as five on five, maybe
he turns into the number two at some point. If he's not, if
he's on the second pairing, that's fine. He should get more five on
five points this year. He will be healthier. I worry a little.
I'll tell you, if you're a fantasy owner, you have to worry a
little bit aft that shoulder. It's the second time he's he's getting core.
Is he getting core surgery? We don't know, but he might need it,
So who knows if he starts the year on time or fifth heels over
the summer. That will find out later down the line. So I think
as a fantasy owner, you have to take him like in the middle rounds.
Don't get crazy about him. There's a lot of upside there, but
we have to see which Jamie drives. They'll hits the ice. I do
think he'll be a good fit for them, and he'll definitely get more points
than Samula, but he could get a lot more points if they use him
differently. But again that would take a philosophical change and the way they're running
their offense, and maybe that will happen. I don't know. All right,
time to move on to the goalies, and the Flyers were ranked the
seventh in the league and expected goals against per sixty That is solidly a playoff
team, but they didn't concede that number. They conceded the twenty fifth ranked
actual goals per game, definitely solidly not a playoff caliber. We already know
what happened it was. It was good at times, but definitely overall not
good. Samuel Erson had the most load fifty one games played. Carter Hard
played twenty six. We know that he's no longer an option out of the
picture. Kyle Peterson played five games, Felix Sanstrum five, and even Fetotov
at the very end played three, and none of these guys really performed well
or better than expected, and even though they had some pretty decent protection,
it was overall not good. We know that it seems to me next season
the tantem's gonna be Erson and Fetotov in the NHL. And we thought that
maybe Kolosoff would have some play, but it seems like that is vertly up
in the air. So it's probably between Ersen fetotovh Is that how you see
a play out russ And can we expect better next season? Yeah, that's
the only way it's going to go right now. And the twenty six games
that Heart played is like the missing ingredient here. How many of those games
did Carter Hart win? If you go back and you look how many wins
did he get and can they replace those wins between the two goalies they have,
because that's a big thing because ursa On I don't know if he could
play much more fifty one games. They knew they were overdoing it at the
end. He was dead at the end. Now, every year, sure
a goalie gets some better shape, but there's always a limit for every goalie.
I think Freddie Anderson, we've seen you push him too much in the
regular season. He doesn't have much in the playoffs. There's a lot of
guys like that in the NHL, and they have to be managed. And
so the Flyers weren't managing our son until they just couldn't just way everything was
going. So they knew they piled on games and so that was a problem
for DoD Off is an issue because look, two years ago, there was
a lot more hope from me as far as what his play was. Then
all that stuff went on, he didn't get to play regular minutes, he
wasn't training in the same so then of course he comes over. Yeah,
he's lacking sleep or whatever. So he has a bad game, Fine,
you put him in again. He's not great, Okay, I get it.
He's just getting his feet wet in the NHL. The problem is they
give him a contract like he's a bona fide NHL backup, but you don't
know that he is. He probably doesn't know if he is. Now you've
got a situation where somebody's got to make up these wins for Carter Hart and
Ersa. You're hoping to be the same, And I can't tell you right
now for Dodolph's that guy. Nobody can. And I don't know how their
backup goalie's going to be because if Kolosoff goes back, let's just say he
does. Flyers say they don't know anything about it right now. Maybe they're
right, maybe it dies down. Cal Peterson's not your guy either, he's
not. He's barely an HL goalie. He did play in the playoffs,
fine, but he's not a future guy. The minute of his contract's up,
it's over for him. And maybe they buy him out this year,
but I don't think they can now because with Kolosoff hanging in the balance,
so he probably still gets to play, and then there's nobody. So like
my whole thing was, you had Felix Anstrom there who you didn't play for
big stretches and then you sent them down. He didn't look great, so
Peterson won the job. So then all of a sudden, Peterson was the
only guy. Kolosov plays one or two games, Peterson the whole way.
Sandstrom, I don't know where he was in a hotel. I'm not even
sure where he was, so I'm not sure he's getting signed by the Flyers.
But you have to point out that in recent years, Antonys Delars got
that treatment. I don't know, he's turned into a pretty good backup.
Alex Lyon got that treatment. I don't know, He's turned into a pretty
good almost a one B kind of goalie. One A, one B.
He's somewhere in between. We probably need a new designation for a guy like
Lyon. So I can't tell you for sure. Sandstrom's that guy, but
he's better than he was last year, and they probably won't resign him,
So I don't know. I don't know what they're gonna do for the backup
spot there. Maybe maybe it is Kolosov, but if it is and Fidodoff
doesn't look good, they got to wait at least half a season to him
really playing in the AHL before they could just throw him in the NHL.
Anyhow they're gonna have they're gonna have an issue, and they're gonna have to
decide how they handle Fidodoph and me personally, I would play him always on
back to backs and against the weaker teams until he could prove that he could
beat some good teams. So that's probably the way they're gonna go. Arsun's
a good pick. I think he's bottom fifteen in the league, but he's
certainly not the bottom. I think he's probably in the twenties. So you
could take our son and you'll get a certain amount of wins. Excuse me,
but you're still gonna need another stud goalie to go along with them,
because that won't be enough to feel your team, at least it wouldn't be
for mine. Great stuff for us. Appreciate all these insights into the filida
if your flyers. Where could people find your workout there? Sportsologia dot com,
NHL Draft Buzz dot com. I'm on Sirius XM every Tuesday twelve fifteen
with mcckern. You can go to eat p rnkside dot com. Those are
the main places, all right. Thanks Russ, hope to get you back
to talk some flyers again in the future. Absolutely, see you guys.
Wilson. That's good myer fast off. Oh my goodness, long with a
quick gram. Now it's your wingley. Goalie talk with Kat Silverman, Kat's
instincts. Time again to get Kat's instincts on the prospect goalies, Cat Silverman
of in gol Mag. We got a lot of goalies to talk about.
I think oftentimes when you talk about multiple goalies, it's like you have if
you have five goalies, you have no goalie. But I think there are
actually some pretty interesting ones here, and the first one we're going to talk
about. I've been Fetatov six foot eight, two hundred and twelve pounds,
twenty fifteen to seventh round pick, played a couple two of the three last
seasons with CSK Moskva, the Red Army team. We also tracked a little
bit of this story. He lost the twenty twenty two to twenty three season
when he's tried to come over and then he was I believe, forced into
some military service. Anyways, there's a whole saga. There was a lot
of people who thought he would never come to North America and then boom,
one day he was here and it was awesome, and so we got to
see a little bit of his NHL performance this season. He had three games
eight to eleven save percentage, five four point ninety five GAA, one and
one. I don't know that was necessarily all on him, because the Flyers
were seemed like they were trying to not make the playoffs at that point.
They were just bad. They were just trying to take everyone else out of
the playoffs with them. At that point, it seemed like no one wanted
to make the playoffs in the East. They were crumbling around him. But
he anyways, so he was good in the KHL this past season. Nine
fourteen save percentage was good two seasons ago. He's basically had pretty great KHL
numbers going all the way back to four or five years ago. So his
equivalency in the hockey prospecting model is insanely good. He ended at seventy six
percent chance of being a starter. There's some pretty good comps in here,
and one of the ones that I just put on here was Alexander Georgiev,
who he looks a little bit alike, who maybe isn't the most amazing goalie,
but certainly an NHL goalie and looking at his Hockey Prospecting card, this
tells me that he likes to play the puck, because that's pretty high.
His passes verse sixty. Some of his other numbers are pretty good, including
his expected goals, And it seems pretty clear we're going to talk about him
the main We talked about him in the main part of the show, Kap,
but I want to get your instincts because you've seen him before this.
It seems like he's going to be splitting stars with Erson, so we're going
to see him in the NHL most likely. But what do your instincts tell
us about fetetav? Are we super excited about him still? Does he have
that star starter potential that we thought he did? What do you think I
think he does? I assumed he was NHL ready a couple seasons ago.
He was of their prospects, the one who I thought had the most nhlready
game, had the most versatility and adaptability to the way he was playing.
And then, of course he was reportedly put into a military prison and then
hospitalized and had a real interest go of it for a couple of years there
where I truly didn't. I you can count me as one of the people
who didn't think he was going to be able to make it over to North
America. I truly thought that he was going to end up being a goaltender
that Russia wouldn't allow to come and play in North America, and so I
was a little nervous about the fact that it looked like Philly had put all
of their eggs into that basket. But obviously he has made his way to
North America. Now he is playing over here, and I think that's going
to be a good thing for them. They didn't rush him up too quickly,
not because they weren't, not because they exercised restraint, but because Russia
exercised restraint for them and didn't allow them to bump him up to the NHL
immediately. But yeah, I think he should be good. He is unfortunately
a little bit older now for a guy who is making his NHL essentially season
debut next year. So I think we'll have to see how many years he
has left of high level hockey because he's coming in as essentially a twenty seven
year old era apparent, and that's a little bit of an alarming thing for
Philadelphia. But that's part for the course for that team, So we'll see
how it goes. I think he plays his debts management pretty well, but
I do think that Philadelphia will have to He's essentially going to be getting his
first North American starts while getting his first NHL starts behind a team whose defense
I do not always trust to ease someone into playing a new style on a
new ice surface dimension. So we'll see how that goes. Hopefully it'll go
well for him, though, because I would love to see him finally get
his chance to be an NHL or and have it go really well. So
we'll see how that goes. Me too, I was really skeptical as well,
but I kept telling people, just hold this guy, hold him you
never know, just hold him for one more year. Yeah, And I
ended up we actually started a couple. I was in a couple of New
League drafts where I got him really late in a prospect draft, and now
he's one of our starters or one of our main goalies. It's a really
deep lead too. Yeah, if you can get him, I think it
is worth I think it is worth paying up a little bit for that.
The next guy that we're gonna talk about, though it might have something to
say about that, not right away, but Alexei Kolosov is another really good
one. And I what was hilarious about this is we thought that neither one
of these guys might come over, or we weren't sure, and then they
both came over at the same time. It was like they went from none
to both. And they're both, I would say, two of the better
prospect goalies out there, or at least goalies that hadn't played in the NHL.
So Kolosoff is a bit smaller though six foot one hundred and eighty five
pounds. He was a twenty twenty one third round pick by Philly, so
he's quite a bit younger. He's been playing in the KHL for the last
several seasons to really great success, good numbers. He plays for Dinamo Minsk,
and he actually did come over. He's five years younger than Fedotoph By
the way, he came over and played a couple HL games. It didn't
go particularly well, but they did. And he's also Belo Russian or no,
yeah, yeah, he's Beli Russian. Yeah, compared to Russian,
and his hockey prospecting chart looks like a steep ascent has gone from zero.
They didn't have a equivalency the first league he played in that way, That's
why it was zero and then up to eighty three percent. Looking at his
comps, I picked out Nikolai Habibullin, who was a pretty good average starter,
and his hockey prospecting card it looks similar to Fedotov. It's a little
bit lower in some areas, but his expected gold numbers are really good as
well as his He plays a pucket fair amount, maybe not as much,
but I have him just a little bit lower on my personal ranks just because
I think we need to see a little bit more from him, because he
is a bit younger. So what do your instincts tell us about Kolosof?
I do think, though I should just put this out there before you say
anything. I have a feeling that Kolosoft could be the better of to and
he certainly has a longer trajectory, as you pointed out, being younger.
What do you think about close Offen? What do you think about how these
two are going to play out over the next several years. Oh, I
for sure think that he has the higher promise at this point, largely because
he does have time on his side, he's able to he's able to make
his way over to North America five years younger, and especially playing for Belarusian
teams that he's been playing on a much larger, much more open ice surface.
And he's a smaller guy, so he has really good skating capabilities,
but he has had to use them more than he will need to in North
America just because he's had to cover more ice surface. He's had to challenge
people more. I thought he's looked really smart about how he does that in
games that I've gotten to watch him play. I love how he plays.
I think it's going to take some time to essentially adapt to instinctively making plays
in North America just because it's different situationally, it's like changing to a new
team that has a completely different system. That's what he's having to do here.
And I think he doesn't have that size on his side to occasionally just
park himself in front of the net, and while he's adapting to it,
hope that his body will absorb more of the shots because he just doesn't have
that luxury at his size. But that being said, I think he's a
really smart looking goaltender. His decision making has always been pretty high end.
I've enjoyed watching how he handles high danger saves because he doesn't handle them entirely
based on adrenaline. So I think that he has a lot of promise in
his game for how he'll be able to adapt. I'm just glad they're not
hopefully going to be putting him in the NHL anytime soon, because I do
think that it will benefit him to get some seasoning in those lower stakes games,
because obviously it's never a lower, low state game when you're playing for
Philadelphia as a goaltender. Every game's in audition to beat their next number one.
So I think they giving him a chance to play some of those smaller
games will be a good thing for him for sure. Nice. Yeah,
I'm really excited about him, And yeah, I definitely glad to hear you
agree he has the higher upside. There's another goalie, another Russian goalie that
probably took a bit of a hit when these other two Russians came over because
we thought that igor Zawrigan it was going to be potentially a little bit higher
up the chain. But he's also pretty raw because he was just drafted in
twenty twenty three six p two hundred and eighty three pounds. He's still eighteen.
He won't be nineteen until August, so there's still a lot of time
for him, and I think he's pretty and pretty interesting player played primarily in
the VHL this season, also got some MHL time with really outstanding numbers.
His equivalency looks super high. Based on a seventeen game sample of one point
six zero GAA and nine to forty three save percentage in that VHL, that
has given him a fifty two percent NHL equivalency, which is super high.
The only other interesting comp I've pulled for him was also Nikolai Happy Bullin's maybe
a little redundant there, but he's Russian and it had actually not even as
good numbers. Averagant looks even better. So what do your instincts tell us
on him? Obviously, probably a bit of a weight. But what do
you think I obviously, I think they're going to be holding off on bringing
him over for understandable reasons. They don't need him over here yet. It
would really make no sense to bring him over. His numbers look unreal.
I do think it's interesting that Philadelphia is going so Russian heavy with their goaltenders,
but I think that might actually be to his benefit. Hell, both
benefit from the fact that it looks like he's a good player. So far.
I found very little in terms of film footage on him, but looked
fine. But he's going to be coming into a system that is essentially going
to be shaping itself around a number of Russian goaltenders coming up just ahead of
him. So when it comes to fitting into a system that would potentially benefit
his gameplay and what he's used to in his development style, that gives him
an advantage over the other two just from the get go, because he's going
to be coming into a system that is already prepped to allow him to succeed
as much as possible. I just don't think he'll be over at least in
the next couple years here. I'd love to see him play in the KHL
in the coming years, just to see what he's able to do, because
his numbers at the VHL and MHL level are so comically good that it almost
makes no sense to have him playing against the lower quality of competition at the
moment, if that makes sense, So I'd love to see what he can
do against essentially the best of what the Russian League cast to offer. Indeed,
it'll be fun to watch him over time, and that's a good point
about them going so Russian heavy, and that could really benefit him. They
also did got another goalie in twenty twenty three that was not Russian, and
that was their second round pick, Carson Bjarnison, who by some accounts was
the best goalie available in that draft. I don't know that certainly wasn't consensus,
but six foot three, two hundred and three pound, he was back
in Brandon of the WHL this season and did well. Obviously, there's a
long way to go here for Bjarnison and there's a lot of really strong goalies
ahead of him, but I just wonder if you had any quick thoughts on
him. I think that's I'm glad they did finally draft a North of European
goaltender, just so we can if things do happen to go south with some
of the player loan agreements and some of the signings with the Russian goaltenders,
they have someone who is close by. He's a very skating heavy goaltender,
which is good because that as far as North American goaltenders go puts him as
close to thriving with the other three that we've talked about, essentially as they
can. He does tend to move a little more than I would love to
see, but I think he looks really good. I just it's almost an
overload of goaltenders here, and he does look good enough that I would worry
about them. And I don't want to say i'd worry about them having a
logjam of goaltenders in Philadelphia because we haven't seen them ever have a logjam.
They are always scrambling to find someone. But it could potentially create a logjam
if he ends up hitting his stride looking like he's ready to hit the NHL
at the same time that all of their other goaltenders are in their heyday,
which might be a good thing for them. They'll finally be able to trade
away goaltender instead of constantly having to trade for them. But I do think
that he looks like he's probably i'd say three or four years away, which
is where I would put Zabragen, and honestly about where I would be put
in Kolosov too. I'd put him two to three years, and then i'd
put three to four years for Zabragen and then probably for is It Bernescent as
well. Yeah, they're all in that three to four year range and that
could create a really interesting situation for Philadelphia in a couple of years. Speaking
of goalies that they traded for, cal Peterson, I don't know if we
should just be done with him, but he was in the HL this season.
They buried his five million dollar capit, which he has another one next
season. But he was pretty good, we should say, in HL nine
or two save percentage two point seven one GA. He did get five games
during that meltdown that Philly had and was not good. He was three point
nine zero gaa sixty four to save percentage. But I don't know. It
just feels like this might be the end or close to the end. I
feel like I doubt he gets another contract in the NHL. But what do
you think about cal Peterson if anyone still has him on their team? Should
they? I do think that he is going to reach a point where and
I believe when this current contract expires, which that was a contract for sure,
I still can't believe they did that twenty nine, so he's twenty nine
this year, he'll be thirty when his contract expires, he's going to be
an unrestricted free agent. There will be no requirement for a qualifying offer.
He'll be able to just sign wherever. He could maybe be a good league
minimum tweener at that point. But I haven't seen a season from him where
I really liked how he played in We're going on three years now, he's
unfortunately pulling the Martin Jones here, where he had some really good technical strengths
to his game, he had a couple of weaknesses that he just needed to
clean up and then said they're what seemed to develop more strongly within his game.
And some of that was the way that he over aggressively challenges for some
of the shots that he faces. He tends to allow too many rebounds without
having the agility to get back into the crease in time to get that second
shot or third shot against. And I don't know he's reaching a point age
wise where obviously Martin Jones has received another contract, so I don't see why
cal Paerson won't as well. But these are guys that at this point we
know what we're getting from them, and I don't know why teams are continuing
to take chances on them, but that doesn't mean that teams won't. I
don't think Philadelphia is going to let go of him though, because they,
as we saw this year, need to have insurance on top of insurance on
top of insurance. So they're at the point where, unfortunately, I think
they're going to on to him until his contract expires and then find a new
Cal Peterson or Martin Jones to add to their system, whoever that may end
up being. Yeah, that's fair, feel bad for the guy, but
this also seems like a theme that La has done. You know, makes
some goalies look good and then they go away from that system and they look
not so good. But yeah, we'll see that. The last guy I
wanted to ask you about Felix Sanstram. Last year we were talking about him
and Erson, and clearly Erson emerged as the better of the two. But
it seems like we've forgotten about Sanstrum. I've once forgotten about him, and
now there's there's Betotah and there's Colosoff, and it seems like he's not going
to get much much interest. But should we still have interest in him?
Do you think he has potential to be like a backup or a one bee
or is it like he's just been passed by everybody now. I'd love to
see him get a chance with another team because the way he's been playing with
Philadelphia, I would say no, but Philadelphia, like if to compare it
to showing a home that's for sale, there some real estate agents that are
really good at staging a home that's for sale, and then there are some
that leave the home with unwashed clothes on the floor, the homeowner is still
home, and you've got empty beer bottles on the kitchen counter. And that's
what Philadelphia does. They set a lot of their goaltenders up to fail when
it comes to showcasing their abilities. So I don't know if he has the
ability to be really good, but i'd love to see another goaltending coach take
a stab at him. I don't think he has a chance to fully turn
his career around at this point because he is I think he's twenty seven now,
so he would really have to strip down some of the bad habits that
he has with some of his recovery and some of his reads and some of
his debts management too, honestly, but I think he could probably do better
in a once again a slightly lower pressure system because every game is not in
Philadelphia, and for a guy who already had some holes in his game and
some exploitable weaknesses that obviously did not go well. But maybe behind a team
that it isn't do or die every game, things might go a little better.
Hopefully. Maybe I was wondering where you're going with the homestaging analogy,
but I was very happy when you got there, So I agree. They
didn't do a very good job of showcasing him or really any of their goalies
this season. So let's hope that's better for them in the future. And
thanks so much, cav for giving us your instincts on these Philly goalies.
We'll be back right after this. The Gianasy did Philadelphia Flys the edition,
Victor, You love, love, love this system, and I know why
it's your number two in all the NHL. They're going to pick twelve by
virtue of the unfortunate missing of the playoffs late in the season, and they
have not only their own but also the Florida Panthers first round pick. They
could have as many as two second rounders hashtag it's complicated, and they also
have a couple of additional late round picks. This starts with the no brainer
of no brainers. Who is it Victor? It's Matt ve Mitch Gooff and
Matt B. Mitchalff, who had quite the saga last season. We know
how high would he go. A lot of us thought he was as good
as second overall, but he fell all the way to seventh, to Philadelphia
twenty twenty three, seventh overall pick. He's a five foot ten hundred and
seventy six pound right winger, and we know some of the reasons were certainly
the Russian factor, but also the fact that he had signed a contract that
was three years after being drafted to stay with SKA. But what we're hearing
actually right now as we're recording this so you might know more by the time
you I hear this, is that it sounds like SKA is going to terminate
his contract and he's going to come to North America as early as this season
twenty four or twenty five, which would be really exciting for anyone who took
the leap of faith that we encourage you to take him. Regardless of that
contract issue. We had reports about a month ago that he was not going
to stay the entire time at SKA, but that he might stay one more
year, and now we're hearing that he's pretty much done so he might come
over immediately, which is pretty exciting. He did play this season one game
with KHL SKA before they loan him to Sochi. He's been on loan to
Sochi basically the last two seasons, and he's been incredible. Twenty points in
twenty seven games for Sochi last season, this season, forty one points in
forty seven games again for Sochi of the KHL, really outstanding production. If
you throw out that one game he played for SKA, he had the best
points per game mark by any nineteen year old in the KHL. Ever,
if you do count that one game, he's one slight percentage point behind corodll
Caaprisoft. But this is the neighborhood that Mattvey Mitchcoff is living in. That's
pretty outstanding production. You love to hear that. You look at Lassie Allenin's
tracking data for Mitchkoff and you can see that his offense and transition game is
elite. His defense is questionable. He's in the twenty first percent tile there.
You look at his FHL player card, and you can see that he
shoots a ton. His shots per sixty are one of the tops in the
league. His assistant goals are also really high, so super high in terms
of points. His BASH is mainly driven by his shots, but he'll be
close to replacement level for blocks and he'll throw a hit every now and then,
so he'll be decent for BASH, but it's mostly based on his shots.
Looking at his tracking data, you can see that his scoring chances in
a bunch of different areas. Passes to the slot, high danger passes,
inner slot shots are all really high. A lot of his transition data is
pretty good as well. Some of his defensive metrics are okay, like breakouts
and some of his breakouts via passes are pretty good, but some of the
other ones are not so good, and a lot of his play driving is
pretty weak. Definitely has some work to do to round out his game.
But let's hear a little bit about what makes Matt Vey Mitchcalff so exciting for
our FHL scout. FAHL Scout James had the pleasure of scouting Matt Dave Mitchkoff.
Here's what he says about the skating he loves to use the edges behind
opposition goal to slip away from defenders and rek havoc in the offensive zone.
We'll have no problem adjusting to the speed and pace of play in the NHL.
For passing and handling, e Elite would like to see him pass the
puck sooner sometimes, as he has a tendency to want to maneuver his way
out of trouble instead of making the simple pass. For shooting, James says
most of Mitchkoff's shots came within five to ten feet of the goal during the
games he watched Mitchkoff scored. In three games, he scored five goals,
all within five feet of the goal. The IQ Elite at times you look
too smart for the players around him, as he attempted to do too much
on his own. His anticipation is very good. Even when playing defense,
you can tell he's thinking about offense. For checking, surprisingly, a very
solid four checker, according to James, gets in the zone and behind the
opposition goal quickly, as it seems he really enjoys playing behind the goal.
Watched him. James watched him create multiple turnovers and deep one of which led
directly to a goal. Mitchkoff maybe on the smaller side, but he's tenacious
for sure. Defense, Mitchkoff plays defense like a player who's always thinking about
offense plays defense. According to James, he made sure he's in the right
position most shifts and seems to be always anticipating bad passes from the opposition.
In his own zone. He could be better along the wall and more physical
to help turn over the pock. So the best asset that IQ magician offensively,
as he not only reads the ice extremely well, he creates chances for
himself and teammates seemingly out of nowhere, and the biggest concern, of course,
is the defense or lack thereof in the defensive zone. Top tier potential,
without doubt, he's an NHL star. Justification is the elite offensive instincts,
the talent to produce major goal in point totals to go along with it,
and fiftieth percentile James is not coming off it. He's still a point
per game plus guy in the NHL stylistic comparable nikkity Kucharov, we have Mason
Black putting out the NHL ranking poll, be Mitchkoff versus Ivan Demidov, and
how did that work for his opposition over on the Flyers team as well,
Mitchkoff. This is a little surprising, one hundred and forty five votes.
He only Mitchkov wins, obviously, but he only wins sixty six to thirty
four. Victor, I assume that's the way you go. Is it that
close? You assuming correctly, because I would actually take Demodov here. But
these two, yeah, I know, I've been having this discussion. I
thought about this a lot. Obviously, it's a natural comparison, right,
these are the two top Russians that we haven't gotten to see internationally. We
did get see Mitchkoff internationally several years ago at the Ivan Linka and he was
outstanding, but we haven't gotten to see them at the UA teams. We
haven't gotten to see them at the U twenties, which Mitchkoff certainly would have
been last season, and probably Demodov as well, So we haven't really gotten
to see as much. And I think there's a huge difference here in the
sense obviously that we have seen Mitchkoff in the KHL. We have not seen
Demidov in the KHL. Really, we've just seen him in the MHL.
So it's really hard to gauge, and we will certainly talk a whole lot
more about Demidov as we get more into our draft coverage. I think the
bottom line between Mitchkoff and Demidov, you can't go wrong. Both these guys
are great. I think the question once we know the team that Demidov is
going to, is he going to Chicago and playing with Connor Bodard that's going
to make a difference. Is Chicago going to pass on him and they made
you go a different direction? That's going to matter a little bit for Demodov.
Mitchkoff, I'm not sure he's going to have as much with Philly.
He's fantastic and he's going to have a really high and upside. The reason
I like Demodov a little bit better is that he has I think more dynamic
one on one skill. He reminds me more of Patrick Kaine type in terms
of his ability to make guys miss, his ability to see the ice in
so many different ways and beat you in so many different ways. He also
is pretty dogged defensively. He's a guy almost like stankovin who can steal pucks,
Mark Stone, create turnovers, create offense generate that way, he's a
pain in the ass to play against in all zones. And even though he's
playing in the NHL, he Demodov uses his teammates very well. He makes
his teammates look like really good, almost like they should be at a higher
level, and you don't see that as much from Mitchgoff. Mitchkoff playing off
his better skilled teammates a little bit better, which is nice, and using
those higher skilled forwards to his advantage, which you like to see. Again,
I don't think you can go wrong here, but I just think Demodov
has more game breaking ability and the ability to have more gaudy point totals because
he's a cheat code that way. Whereas Mitchkoff is really good at seeing the
ice. He has some really good skills, but he's not as dynamic with
the puck. He's just better at seeing the ice using his IQ, breaking
down the defense tactically, which is good. Again, both these guys outstanding.
In fact, I just got as we were talking, as you were
talking, Jesse, I just got a message from our buddy Elon over at
Keeping Carlson. He was asking who would you take between Celebrini and Mitchkoff,
which I would take Mitch Goff there. I think that's interesting. I think
Demodov has that higher offensive ceiling and Celebrini the more all around, even though
it's high points. I think I would take Mitch Gooff. There lots of
comparables to think about. I could see why people are taking Mitchkoff. That
KHL production is remarkable and nothing to sneeze at. If you look at the
hockey prospecting between Mitchkoff and Demodov, it's basically a pick em of who which
superstar do you want? They're both ninety nine percentile. They're both all the
comps are Hall of famers, Mario lem Conor McDavid, John Tavares, Paul
Korea, all superstars. If you look at Mitchkoff's other comps, there are
some other ones like Jack Hughes. I think is probably a more reasonable outcome
for what he could be in terms of his point production, in terms of
what we can expect from him. Remember, Mitchkoff is five to ten like
Jack Hughes, so a little bit smaller. Demidov is one inch taller.
I'm not sure that makes a huge difference. They're pretty much both slightly undersized,
but not terribly. But Mitchkoff's pretty pretty thick. He's he's pretty strong,
so you don't see him getting pushed around too much, So I don't
know that'll be a huge issue. Looking at the J Fresh model, Matthew
Mitchkoff one hundred percent a chance of being an NHL star, one hundred percent
chance of being an NHL R. I don't know that I've seen this from
the J Fresh card. This is breaking news. He's the number one forward
in this prospect data set, number one rank. Basically, everyone knows,
everyone doesn't know, everyone thinks they know, and it's assumes that he's going
to be a superstar, and I have no reason to doubt that. I
agree, and I'm very excited that it seems like he's coming over asap.
So yay Matvey Mitchcoff. Maybe it's a bit of a shock to hear me
to say that I would take Demidoff, but I think that really between those
two you cannot go wrong, So don't read too much into that. But
if I had to choose, I think I would take demodof. Wow,
you know what, if you don't have a ninety nine percent or one hundred
percent. Then you're not using all the percentages. As far as I'm concerned,
maybe that's not how percentages work. Nonetheless, Victor, that is a
wonderful endorsement of mister Mitchkoff. Let's move on to the need to know.
That would be emmel Andre eml Andre twenty twenty fifty, fourth overall pick in
the second round, five nine, one hundred and eighty one pounds. He
was five foot nine a little bit slighter when he was drafted. He hasn't
really grown in height. But don't let the lack of vertical size full you.
This man is thick, and he is strong, and he did not
get pushed around. And after several successful seasons playing professionally in Sweden, Andre
came over to North America at the end of last season played a full season
in the AHL for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. This season, he scored thirty
two points in sixty one games, twenty seven of those assists, and three
points in six playoff games. I think one of the most impressive things is
he led the Phantoms by well over a minute in total time on ice and
he led he nearly led all skaters a couple of one of the forwards beat
him out in power play time on ice, and he definitely had the most
of any defender, so really strong numbers in terms of his time on ice
as play driving was good. Looking at his FHL player card, it's pretty
interesting he has really high assists for the league. His hits are actually really
strong. I mentioned he's physical, even though he's a bit smaller, knows
how to separate the player from the puck, and he's not afraid to hit.
So his hits are eight out of ten. His shots are just above
average at six, so overall his bash is a little bit lower, but
some of those priffs may turn around, and overall the points are pretty good
and that's really the question here is how much of the points are going to
translate and how high is he going to play in the lineup. Maybe our
FHL scout James can help us with those questions. Your dog gone right,
James can help us with those questions. Andy will skating excellent skater and sharp
edge work. Agility and burst of speed allow him to cover a lot of
ice. Enables him to excel in both offensive and defensive transitions. Passing and
handling exceptional, always seems to know where he's going with the puck before it
comes to him. His passes are crisp and precise, which makes Andre great
for getting out of the defensive zone. Shooting decent shot can get it to
the goal from the point, which is extremely important. It's far from a
bomb, but Andre possesses the ability to find seams and get it through bodies.
IQ. Andre's IQ and hockey minor perhaps his greatest ability, as he
reads the ice extremely well, putting himself in the right position to disrupt plays
defensively or create plays offensively defense. The IQ and positioning go along with the
active stick to allow him to breakup plays defensively, which maybe compensates for his
lack of size and physicality. So the best of the assets, just like
we've been saying, it's the IQ. Extremely smart player, may even possess
future leadership qualities for an NHL team. But the biggest concern five nine.
That's the concern is that he gets knocked around, bullied around the goal,
and he's shown that not to be the case so far in the AHL,
but obviously we're gonna have to wait to see him do it in the NHL
top tier. Outcome could be a excellent second pair defenseman in the NHL who
could see time on a team's power play and PK unit. That would be
if his IQ and ability to quarterback a power play make easy justification for second
pair defenseman a fiftieth percentile that could be a Level two or Level three like
a thirty plus point defenseman with above average bash. Black assists in shots should
be there. Not quite sure about the hitting and the stylistic comparable. If
we're going to talk about a WEI defenseman Tory Krug, who's going to come
up and that is somebody that James sees as a potential comp the NHL ranking
Mason Black Emil Andre puts him up against Ethan del Mastro Chicago Blackhawks, and
as it turns out, Andre comes out ahead fifty four point five to forty
five point five for del Mastro Victor. Is that the way you rank them?
Yeah? Definitely. I definitely am al Andre here. As I mentioned,
he has played professionally in Sweden for several seasons since being drafted. He
was in the SHL with HB seventy one, and then of no fault of
his they got relegated to the Hockey House fenceman came back to the SHL he
was with them and then went over to the AHL with that we have valley
phantoms that as we talked about and see some NHL action. I totally agree
with James that it's only going to take a few times of getting bullied in
front of the net by a big, giant NHL forward to raise serious questions
for the flyers. But as he also said, we haven't seen that yet.
And he is pretty physical used as a low center of gravity, doesn't
really get pushed around too much and is usually in good position so he will
hold his position. Someone will really have to displace him from that spot.
He engages really well physically, even better than someone like Tory Krug has in
the past, who even though Krug otherways, he definitely still struggled with getting
pushed around a little bit at times because of his stature, you don't really
see that from Andre. I don't think he'll have the offense that Tory Krug
had, but not many guys do, so yeah, I definitely like Andre.
In terms of del mastro meed you mentioned him, He's someone who is
really interesting because fourth round pick by Chicago in twenty twenty one. He's big,
he's six four, two of five. He's played in an nationally for
Canada. He generally just plays a good matchup role. He doesn't really score
a lot, but he's really mobile. He's really good at shutting down other
top forwards, and I think that's what del Mastro is, someone who has
been really good at just being out on the ice, shutting down other top
forwards, but isn't necessarily going to score a lot. He did have thirty
seven points in sixty nine games in the AHL this season, so that was
nice to see. That was his first professional season. I think that he's
going to have a little bit of a tougher time translating his offense, but
I do think he's someone who's going to earn some NHL time, and I
think that he's someone who will be a good depth osh And I don't know
that he's going to have the priffs. I think I would bet more on
Andre. I think that he's neither one of these guys is going to command
top power play, so you're looking more at some depth scoring and some priffs,
which Andre does seem to provide. If you look at the hockey prospecting
between these two, Andre definitely has a higher equivalent. See when he graduated
in the model thirty three percent chance of being a star compared to just one
percent for del Mastro. Definitely Andre there. Looking at some of his other
comps, you can see mL Andre looking quite similar to someone like Thomas Shabbat,
which is a pretty high praise for him indeed. So I don't know
that he'll be quite that level superstar producer, but I think people are a
little bit low on mal Andre, and he's proven it at every level and
I think he's going to continue to even as he goes up to the NHL.
We'll see what the state of the defense is in Philly when he gets
there, but it'll be interesting. There's another small forward, they have Cam
York, and they have some other bigger options, so it'll be interesting to
see how it plays out. But I like Andre. The j freshcard has
him at six percent chance of being a star fifty two percent chance of being
an NHL er, which I think is a little bit lower in terms of
the star potential, but the NHLer probability seems pretty right on Victor. Let's
stay on the blue line, where you keep your eye on prospect. Yeah,
so this is Oliver Bonk twenty twenty three, twenty second overall pick sixty
two, one hundred and seventy six pounds, right handed d playing for London
of the OHL. London who is going to the Memorial Cup. And as
the time you're hearing this, you might know how they did there, but
they're just about to start as we're recording this. So, yeah, he
had a really great season, sixty seven points in sixty games in the regular
season, thirteen more points and sixteen playoff games for London. They swept the
Oshawa Generals in the OHL Championship, and he currently leads London in total time
on ice, has the most power play time on ice of any defender,
and his course he is fifty five percent. But I think there's some interesting
caveats here because even though this all sounds really good for Bonk, I think
a lot of this is team effect, because London is a really good team
as we are seeing they're trucking through the OHL. But a lot of the
underlying tracking numbers for Bonk are really not great. His defense is thirty fourth
percentile transition, forty fifth percentile offense, forty fifth percent centile, which are
really not good for someone who is playing so much and racking up so many
points. You'd think that all these numbers would be better and that he'd be
blue in all these categories. But there's a lot of red here, sub
below average, particularly things like retrievals, controlled exits, shots per sixty,
slot passes, success, primary point involvement, advantages created. All these are
below or well below average, So that's not something you like to see for
Bank. Looking at his FHL player card, you can see that he does
shoot a lot per sixty anyways, which I think is at odds with what
Mitch is tracking here. So I don't know how to reconcile that looking at
but I do know I can tell you that Brandon, who helps with these
cards, the data that we use tracks it for the whole season, not
just per game, so maybe there's a sample size issue with what Mitch looked
at. The goals and assists per sixty are tops of the league for all
over Bank. I believe he had one of the best power play scoring of
any defenseman in the OHL, or anyone in the OHL actually, so points
are really high, his shots are good, his blocks are just above average,
but his hits are low. So overall his bashes pretty good, mostly
driven by the shots and a little bit by the blocks. Looking at some
of his play driving numbers in the FHL card, some of these are a
little bit better, but his fenwick and COURSI are a little bit lower.
Some of his zone entries are good, some aren't so good. He's creating
a decent number of chances, and some of his devents and metrics are plus
minus. Really a mixed bag here with Bonk. It's really a confusing picture.
So I'm hoping that our FHL scout James can help clear up some of
this misunderstanding. Perhaps let's hear from him. James says, a Bonk skating
good, smooth strides, covers a lot of ice quickly, almost deceptively,
passing and handling stick handling is very positive for a defenseman, as Bonk maneuvered
himself out of trouble a few times, even drawing a penalty while being stuck
in a less than ideal situation. His passing is very as he moves the
puck deliberately and rarely turns it over. The shooting a good shot uses it
quite often from the bumper position on London's power play even picked a corner or
a gold earn a rush play, and James believes the scoring can continue in
the NHL, maybe not at the current pace. IQ Bank's ability to read
the ice is a huge aspect of his game, as he can jump into
a rush at the blink of an eye, as well as shutdown a play
before it starts. On the defensive end, he makes smart decisions with the
puck and also make sure to be in the right position without it. Defense
bonks size and long reach allow him to break up plays, and his IQ,
combined with his skateing ability, make him extremely formidable on the back end.
I expect Bunk to fill out a bit more, which only will help
him continue to win more board puck battles. Best asset then he could be
a good two way defenseman in the NHL. Right now, the asset is
the IQ, reading the ice well, mapping out play before they unfold,
and ensuring he's in the best position available. The biggest concern he's a well
rounded right hand ed obviously concerned, would be that his current offensive production may
not translate to the NHL, but only time will tell. The top tier
outcome flashes of a potential top pair defenseman, but at the very least a
top tier second pair defender. That would be if the offense translates at the
pro level and the fiftieth percentile level one, which forty plus point defenseman with
elite bash as. Block shots, hits, hits and assists are all things
he does very well now, could score five to ten goals, twenty five
to thirty plus assists. And the stylistic comparable was Colton Pereco Mason Black the
NHL rank King hits Oliver Bank versus talent Tanner Mullendike, and in that competition,
Oliver Bank comes outhead fifty four to forty six, Victor Bank over Mullendike.
For you, I think, so this is interesting in terms of both
these guys have a similar NHL E close to seventy. Mollendike's is a little
bit higher. He played for the Saskatoon Blades who took the Moustraw Warriors who
just won the WHL, took them to seven games, So the Saskatoon Blade
is really good. Mollendyke really strong. Basically, molendike skating is already NHL
level. He's really solid. I think he's going to be more of a
transition defender. I'm not sure how much his points are going to translate,
but I think the same can be said about Bonk. I'm not sure how
realistic it is for his points to translate either. I think that there's some
concerns there. I mentioned some of that in the tracking data that Mitch found.
He's on a really good team. Is all that going to fully translate?
I don't know, but I would pick Bonk here between these two because
I think Mollendyke is just going to end up being more of that transition great
skating, but isn't necessarily going to have the offense. He might, but
I don't know that he's dynamic offensively enough. And right now he's getting all
the great opportunity on the power play, He's not going to command that in
the NHL necessarily, So we'll see. I think there are question marks about
both these guys, but both seem like they're going to be NHL ers.
It's just a question of how high. Looking at the comps here in the
PNHLE model, Oliver Bank has a Sean Dersey comp which I think is pretty
realistic and reasonable, especially with the peripheral coverage and the sort of scoring and
form Molandyke is Braden Schneider, which I also think is reasonable because he's a
really excellent skater, he's an excellent defender, but he doesn't really he didn't
really produce that much in terms of points and perffs, so that's maybe what
you have to expect. They're looking at these two in the hockey prospecting model.
It's funny they have exactly the same numbers in terms of the star potential
which is eight up to thirteen percent this season, and the NHL are probability
forty seven up to sixty six. They're in different leagues, they had slightly
different equivalencies, but their percentages are exactly the same, which is pretty funny.
Not much help there between the two. Looking at other comps for Bank
in this model, I think Justin Falk is another reasonable one. Someone who
is a really strong producer but isn't it wasn't ever really like the main guy,
but is a pretty good secondary option and certainly can't produce when given the
opportunity. I think that's reasonable for Bonk. Looking at the j freshcard,
just one percent chance of being a star eight percent chance of being an NHL
or so. Still pretty decent overall. And that's it for our flyers dig
If you're a patroon, you can listen to my top ten prospect recap per
team on Patreon, which I'll start after the NHL Draft. If you're interested
in scouting with us, shoot me a DM on Twitter, Discord, or
email us. You're right back in close outst couple of things to mention you
know what they are. Fan tracks is first and foremost. You could play
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Fantracks HQ has lots of fantasy content. There's articles on fantasy hockey, other
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helping with our prospect ranks. Brandon is the website guru. He is a
scout. He does a lot of things, wear's a lot of hats,
and he helps with the famous Fantasy Hockey Life player cards, prospect ranks,
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