Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks, your source of information
and analysis to help you win your fantasy hockey league. Fuck off, I
just step hit stay lots. Here's your hosts, Jesse Sevier and Victor Nuno
Fantasy Hockey Live. We're back once again. Jesse Severe, Victor Nuno talking
hockey. Victor, how are you doing today? I'm doing awesome, Jesse.
We are living the life going through the teams. We got a team
that doesn't have a big fan base. Today, I hope people listen to
this episode. How are you doing? Oh, I'm doing good. I'm
doing good. It's the right time of year. I've never been there,
but I assume this is a beautiful time of year to be in Quebec,
and we're going to go up there to visit the Montreal Canadiens. Les Lei
Abitan. It's not Low Sabitan. That can't be right. No, they
would never stand for that. No. Instead, it's Lei Habetan and we're
gonna talk about those Montreal Canadians. It's a rough year, but it's one
of my absolute favorite guests. I'm not ashamed to say. Recurring guests that
we have on this show to talk about them. Yeah, Victor, we're
plugging through. We got a lot of these to do. Just so people
know, we're going to record a bunch of these over the next couple of
weeks, and they're gonna keep coming out all through June. But we love
life and we love getting these things out, Victor. Other things that you
love I happen to know because I've seen you do it this week is the
stuff for the Patroon. You've been a madman working those Patreon sheets and doing
some of these new things. Why didn't you tell people what you're doing that.
Let's tell them right up front. We're not gonna wait till the end
today, We're gonna tell them right up front all the stuff you're doing.
Yeah. I recently had someone reached out to me on Twitter asking if I
do Prospect rankings, and I was like, yeah, I sure do,
and you should check it out. They're pretty good. But for those of
you who don't know, we absolutely that's one of the perks of the Patreon
It's behind a paywall, so if you're just a discord listener, a regular
listen, you're not going to see it. But there's some pretty good stuff
in there. We are also hear us quoting the organizational ranks, the team
ranks. That's something that we have in there, and you can see each
prospect where they rank within their team based on their position as well. And
then we also haven't broken down by forward, defenseman, and goalie, and
not only can you see their points upside, but also whether they're a volume
shooter, hitter, or blocker. So you can see all of that,
which is really hard stuff to come by. I don't really know of any
site that or any other aggregator that puts that together. You can pay for
access of sites against that that'll give you that, but that's several thousand dollars.
If you want to go and pay for that, you can. Anyways,
this is a bargain to be able to get all that. In addition,
we're doing team top ten lists for the patrons, so we'll be talking
about out each team's top ten. We also have roster doctors. I got
a couple of those coming up with people going over their team making a plan
for how they need to move forward with their team. And of course we
have patroncrass. We just did one on Thursday. It was Jesse and I
am walking up the who we think is going to go where. We'll do
another one in May and June with the actual patrons and doing a fantasy mock.
This was a mock to see who we think will go where in real
life and their fantasy upside. But in June it's going to be that.
So if you want to get on that, you can join Patreon dot com
slash Fantasy Hockey Life and you can join our free discord two. We've got
people in there talking fantasy hockey all the time, talking real hockey as trades.
As news is going down, people are chiming in talking about that,
and if you want to be in there, it's free to you, and
you just need to hit Victor or myself up. Email us Fantasy Hockey Life
at gmail dot com or on Twitter at fan hockey Life is me at Victor
Nuno twelve is Victor. You just need a link from us, that's the
point. You need a link to get into the discord and then you're there,
Victor. We're gonna take a break, we're gonna come back and we're
gonna go to Montreal to talk about the Canadiens. We are very pleased once
again for several years in a row we've had who is I think I could
say my favorite team preview guest. It is Ryan Spoor of the hockey writers
for the Montreal Canadians, my best French Canadian friend. How you doing,
Ryan, I'm good, I'm good. Thank you for having me to be
there. We are terribly glad to have you here. I love talking Montreal
Canadians with you. And unfortunately we've had one year it was under really good
circumstances, and then a couple of years where that hasn't been yet. But
let's talk about the Canadians and how they did last year. They gained nine
wins and thirteen standings points from the prior year, so that's good, except
they were still last in the Atlantic and this year their pick will be fifth
overall, not first as it was in twenty twenty two. They were in
the worst five statistically in the NHL for several areas, shots for shots against,
power play goals for power play goals against, total goals against. They
had a ton of significant injuries. Only one player surpassed thirty eight points,
and the number one overall pick had a pretty slow start to his career.
I'm sorry, there's a lot of bad news to start out, but there
were some happier surprises that we will talk about as we go through this team.
It's not all bad news. But what's your overall take on the season.
The Canadians are just coming through, Ryan, it was it a necessary
transition year? What we expected, a disappointment, a happy surprise? What
did you get out of last year? I think that they, to degree,
the Canadians outperformed based on expectations. They weren't. Don't get me wrong.
They were obviously a non playoff team, but they also sustained an incredible
amount of his league leaders in man games lost for the second year in a
row. And in spite of all that, they showed significant progress in terms
of where they've ended up in the standings. And I think that ultimately it
was the scene as a next step forward after bottoming out in twenty twenty two
when they finished in the last place. So all in all, I think
they did well relatively speaking. Of course, it starts with Nick Suzuki.
This is the start of the team right now. He is a guy who
preseason I think Victor had him about fiftieth as a fantasy player. I had
him ninety first, he actually ended up one hundred and seventh, and for
next year, I've got him Tier two victor Tier three, but twenty six
schools, forty assists, sixty six points in eighty two games. His minutes
and his points topped his young career highs. On the flip side, his
batch, his black shots and hits dropped just a little bit two shots,
a bit over half a hit and half a black per game. The defense
rated out poorly in some of the advanced models I see, like Don Lucisions.
But at least the sources I've been reading, it doesn't seem he's been
beaten up too badly by PABs fans in terms of the way that they look
at him. He's only twenty three and the Canadians are committed to him for
seven more years at seven point seven eighty five billion per Do you think Nick
Suzuki is meeting expectations that you have now that the team has now for this
team and can you see further improvement coming on that sixty six point season.
I think he's living up to expectations. He was the own This is not
even an exaggeration. He was the only player to play all eighty two games
this season only. I think Jonathan kova Savic was next, and in Kovisavich's
defense, I think he only thought taking out of lineup because he was a
part of a rookie defenseman rotation in and out of the lineup. But all
that to say, Suzuki was the only player. He was for all Inton's
purposes, the epitome of consistency and for him to perform the way he did,
scoring a career high in points careering goals with twenty six under less than
ideal circumstances, to say the least, with the revolving gore of blind mats,
I think everyone would say that he did all right. I think that's
very fair, very fair. First Suzuki and the next guy we're going to
talk about his often his running mate, and that is Cold Caufield. End
of the season with an injury, and the preseason I guess I should mention
I had him ranked around sixty, Jesse around eighty. He was right in
that range, seventy eight. I had him tier two, Jesse tier one.
We both have him tier two coming in next year, thinking he'll be
similar to his point pace, and before that season ending injury, Caufield was
on a sixty four point pace, which he's built on that every year.
Going from four one two I was ten games forty one point page fifty three
to sixty four. He was shooting sixteen point five percent before that, and
that's a couple percentage points above his average. His PDO was also a touch
high, so maybe a little bit of reasonable regression coming. He also was
pretty bad defensively, just in terms of his expected goals against per sixty and
his actual coursie. He actually scored a lot more goals than his expected goals.
I think that's something that he can probably replicate though. Is a very
good shot, strong shooter. But what worries me a little bit more is
that his powerplay impacts were very bad compared to the league average. His expected
goals on the power play went well below league average. So I guess two
questions for Kaufield. He is an RFA, So what do you think his
contract will look like? And do you think he can continue to improve his
point pace? Maybe you get close to seventy. I think that the Canadians
need to lock caught Field, so forget any don't forget it. But in
my opinion of Bridge deal would be a mistake. I can't really determine where
he would end up in terms of a capit, but I think it's realistic
for fans to expect north of seven if following in Suzuki's footsteps in that regard,
because as you said, running mates and all that, I wouldn't put
the power play his lack of power play success on his shoulders. The power
play as a whole was garbage on the Canadians and special teams in general and
overall. If he's producing like he was, I'd say that he's going to
be at all right. And at one point the season before he sustained his
shoulder season ending shoulder injury, he had been just a few goals shy of
scoring fifty in eighty two games under Saint Louis Martens, samily the head coach
of the Canadians, when samely, of course, place Dominique arm late last
season. So Caufield was basically doing all that was expected of him and more.
And I feel like he's going to be a star in this league.
He's gonna be a star for the Montreal Canadians and there, if they're smart,
they're gonna lock him up right now for what may be interpreted as an
overpayment but will probably come to be a bargain in just a few seasons.
Well, a guy who the Canadians picked up last year, Sean Monahan,
was taken from the Calgary Films basically just to eat the contract. They got
a first round pick to eat that contract, and it expired, of course,
at the end of the latter That was the end of that contract at
the end of this year. But actually Monahan was okay when he got in
there. Six schools, eleven assists for seventeen points at twenty five games,
a much improved role in Montreal over the last one in Calgary. He was
definitely trending down late in his Flames years, better production rate than his last
few years there. Unfortunately, you talked about health. Monahan is exhibit A.
He broke his foot and then apparently messed up his groin trying to skate
with a broken foot and didn't play again after December fifth. Monahan's never really
last year. He never really settled into a consistent line either between injuries and
looks like maybe Saint Louis just trying different things. But his numbers was Josh
Anderson were actually quite nice. That's who he was settling in with before he
finally went out for the year. Is Monahan coming back next year, Ryan,
And if so, what do you think you're going to see from him?
Could he be a fifty five point second centerman if he was a Canadian
again next year? I think if the Canadian resign him, I think those
realistic figures. I don't believe that Canadians will resign him or that, or
at least that they should resign him because of his injury history and the fact
that he's boldies. He's going to be twenty nine, I believe, and
I'm thirty eight, so that makes me feel old. But whatever, the
fact is, he was healthy for the first time in a long time to
start the season. He went underwent tip surgery the last two seasons, and
he was finally healthy, and he showed what he could do when healthy,
and he provided stability ian down the middle. When the Canadians lacking that number
two centermen they did acquire Kirby Dock at the draft last season, and initially
the thought process had been that he would be that number two center. Of
course, then general manager Kent Hughes made that deal with the Flames, and
no one really expected much out of Monahan, but when he got in,
he showed how valuable he could be effectively insulating doc in the process us And
just to an anecdote as to just how valuable Monahan was, you mentioned,
I believe that December fifth as his last game. It was against the Vancouver
Canucks and the Canadians were up for nothing in the game, and I think
that Monhan even scored in that game, and with the lead, he decided
to leave the game because he growing injuries and whatnot, and the Canadians ended
up losing that game, I believe, seven to six in overtime. Yeah,
they gave up a four goal lead without Monahan. And up until that
point the Canadians were also in the playoff hunt. There was a point in
early to mid November when they were when many they were in a playoff spot.
So it was without Monahan, basically they went through a downward spiral in
the standings. And I wasn't just him. There were obviously multiple other injuries.
All that to say, with Monahan's injury history, the fact that he's
as old as he is, If I'm Monahan, I'm looking for some semblance
of job security. I'm looking for a medium to long term deal if one
exists, and if I'm the Canadians, I don't want to commit to a
player who has his injury history, who's probably going to be in decline in
a season or two. And the Canadian would bet would want to be contending
in that time span, and I don't think the timelines fit. So in
my mind, I think, don't resign Monahan, go with Doc as your
number two center, as originally planned, and that should be what they do.
I think you're right on there. It was a great idea, I
believe to make that trade. I give all the credit in the world for
that, because what did you risk. You got yourself a player who could
stabilize the team, a nice, solid centerman for as long as he lasted.
It was a tank here anyway, Let's admit it. It was a
tank here. So all you're really out is a little bit of money.
Get you got a first round pick and somebody to help develop your young guys
and fill in the gaps for a part of the year. So I thought
it was a nice bit of business. And whether he comes back or not,
I don't know what the market's going to be from Onahan. But you
were talking about Kirby Doc and he definitely, he definitely was a positive story
for this year for these Montreal Canadians. Victor and I didn't have many expectations
coming into this year, but he came out with fourteen goals, twenty four
assists, thirty eight points in fifty eight games. Multiple injuries wiped out the
last part of his season, but things really look pretty great before that.
He had his best campaign in this his fourth year in the NHL and first
in Montreal. He'd fallen out a favorite. Seems like in Chicago at least
not produced maybe at the expectations people had. Doc played a lot beside Suzuki,
so you're talking about him being a centerman, but definitely this year he
was getting some time with Suzuki. He actually had one of the expected goal
four percentages, one of the best ones on the team, and his defensive
advanced that's rated out well relative to his teammates. Although, like you said,
nobody on the team looked exceptional this year. But what do you think
of the jump Kirby Doc made this year? Is it for real? Is
this a guy who someday could be a seventy point player for the next playoff
Canadians team. Ryan, I think that's I think seventy points is maybe it's
not out of the realm of possibility. I think he could really, very
possibly hit that. It's interesting that Doc did find his greatest success playing with
zukin Coffield. At one point, the three set a franchise record as the
first three players twenty three or younger to hit seventeen points or more in the
first twenty games of the season, which is a mouthful but still impressive.
Nonetheless, I think that with the stats say that with Doc, Suzuki and
Kauffield were and I have number here, they were controlling fifty two of the
shots with him as a trio, but only forty one percent of the shots
with someone else or without him for purposes. So he definitely provided a lot
of value to that top line. But I think it only makes sense for
the Canadians to go with him as their second line center and just see what
they have in him, and they did do that. When Monahan got injured,
they turned to Doc and he just has a propensity to make the players
he plays with better and I think he showed that both on the top line
and at the center position. And I think that, assuming that they don't
bring Monahan back, it just that's second line position. It's this position he
was acquired to play. She was went on record as saying that when he
acquired him at the draft last season. I think that they might have theoretically
drafted Sleeri Slavkovsky to compliment Kauffield and Suzuki. So I think that ultimately you're
trying to find someone else to play with those guys and just spread spread the
wealth, so to speak. Yeah, that's good. That's good to know
about Doc. It definitely felt Chicago gave up a little early on him,
so good to see him turn things around. The next guy we're going to
talk about, he came out of nowhere. That's Raphael Harvey Pinnard. We
didn't rank him. We didn't really know about him, I would say,
to be honest, we didn't really think about him. He ranked in at
the ninety fourth best forward, which was pretty great considering all the forwards out
there this year. I don't think Jesse has him ranked. I have him
as a tier three guy. I think he might be able to sneak into
that range. He had a forty eight point pace. They're twenty points in
thirty four games. So if he can get above fifty with all of his
hits and shots, and he has quite a lot of blocks for a forward,
I think he could get to that tier. It sure seems like they
found a gem here. The Cabs did with Harvey Pinard. He was also
a significant play driver. His expected goals against P sixty was really high were
as was his offensive impacts surprisingly pretty great underlying numbers all the way across the
board, and as I mentioned, the strong peripheral floor gives him an opportunity
to be pretty valuable fantasy asset. So, Brian, I guess we have
to know first of all, he is an RFA, so I would imagine
the Albs are bringing him back. He's only twenty four years old. But
it seems like found money here. I don't think they're going to have to
pay him a ton. And do you think he can going to get a
similar kind of role to get close to that fifty point pace with all those
great hits, blocks and shots. What do you think about Harvey Pinard?
It's hard to say where he'll end up because he obviously, as you alluded
to, a great rookie season. He had fourteen goals in twenty points and
thirty four games. So the fourteen goals were impressive all in their own but
the fact that they came in thirty four games. He ended up ninth among
rookies, with Why Johnson and Mattie ben Years leading with twenty four But all
the players above him, so numbers one through eight, had played at least
sixty seven games, almost double, so he was really putting them in.
But on the flip side of that coin, he was also he had the
benefit of playing with Suzuki a lot because of all those injuries. And I
don't know how healthy the Canadians will be. I don't know assuming and I
think it's a fairly safe assumption the Canadians aren't as injured as they are for
a third straight season. It's possible that Harvey Pinnard simply slots in into a
bottom six roll and provides a depth scoring there, which would be fine.
I personally think he's got enough upside to warrant putting him in the top six
beside Doc, but it remains to be seen like what happens there. I
think that Slavkovsky has might have the inside track to that spot because of his
pedigree, whereas Harry Pinardi is a late round drop pick. And I wouldn't
say he came out of nor because he's been the worst kept secret in the
Montreal Canaans organization among their fans, as someone who's been nicknamed Lavallagher based on
how he replicates his game after Brendan Gallagher, and he was plying his trade
and with Laval Rocket in the NHL, and everyone knows how much the Canadians,
how much Canadians fans love Brendan Gallagher. So I'd say that all we
know about harrypan Art is that he's going to make a team next year.
I don't see any way around that, based on how much success he enjoyed
with the Canadians this year's it's his spot to lose. It's just a matter
of which spot that is. I'm gonna throw a little bit of a grab
bag. Three guys at you at once here, Ryan, the forwards who
maybe we're the next level down, maybe didn't all perform as exceptionally as we
would have hoped. You got your Mike Hoffman a carbon copy of his last
season half a point fifteen games, missed. You got your Jonathan Druan.
He has done a restricted free agent. I gotta think he's not coming back.
He missed some time for injury, but he also ended up on the
fourth line sum or even healthy, scratched at times. And then you got
Josh Anderson, a personal favorite of mine because he hits a lot of people,
but his defensive indicators are very bad in terms of some of his things.
There's Hoffman, drew In, Anderson. Are you optimistic about any of
these guys in a future role with the Canadians, Ryan, I don't see
Joanne coming back, so like you, so right the bat, I'd say
he's off the table. It just it was a mistake to bring him to
Montreal. And I say that with all due respect to Dreem, because he
just wasn't There was too much hype surrounding the Canadians acquiring a French Canadian player
of his skill level, and it just was doomed a failure, especially when
they tried to put him force round peg into a square hole and make him
their number one center when it just wasn't meant to be. And add to
that the fact that they gave up Mikael Sigachev to get him. It was
one of Mark Bergerman, the ex general manager, one of his worst deals.
Barn On Joanna obviously missed the Canadian stan runted the Stanley Cup final with
the mental health issues, and it just hasn't worked out at all. So
I think just as much as the Canadians wouldn't want to bring back, he
wouldn't want to stay. So he's it's a fair bet that he's going elsewhere.
I don't have Hoffman hasn't worked out either. He's got a few years
left. This is the last year of his deal, I think. Actually,
so, I think that he's kind of got a second line spot locked
in, if not in middle six, just because Canadians would want to want
to have him build up his value as much as possible for the purposes of
a trade if possible. I'm sure Hughes would love to trade him this offseason.
I don't think that's going to happen because really, Hoffman hasn't done enough
to warrant interest from other teams across the league. I think he's going to
be on pace for similar production or to what we we witnessed from him over
the last two seasons. Anderson is an interesting case and that I think that
he's a twenty goal scorer, but he his production tops out at mid thirties,
maybe forty points. And yet the Canadians love this guy because he's Some
seem to think of him as a unicorn because of his combination of speed and
size. He's a valuable power four. I'll give him that. I just
feel like the Canadians should capitalize on the trade value he has right now and
trade him because I don't see him contributing the way he has, which is
from production standpoints, not all that significantly in two three years when the Canadians
are going to be looking to compete not just for a playoffs, but potentially
for more. And I think he's going that contract of his is going to
be an Alba Albatross contract, and that's a few years down the road.
For now, I think he's going to get his looks. I don't think
the Canadians have anyone play on that top line with Kauffield and Suzuki aside from
him and Doc, and like I said, I think Doc belongs on the
second line. Yeah, I think Anderson is probably going to be good for
twenty goals, assuming he stays healthy. You'd think he'd get more assists if
he plays on that line with Kaufield, but I don't think so. So
let's say in my mind, he's going to get twenty goals and maybe ten
fifteen assists this year next year. Yeah, a twenty nine year old power
forward with defensive maybe it's not a strength of his and not able to equal
his goals with assists and be under half a point per game at four more
years at five point five million per it is going to be a tough point
of trade. But maybe he'll get off to a hot start. They'll be
able to get something back. Boy, you mentioned the other guy, and
this is a guy who has broken my heart, Ryan, because Brendan Gallagher
is also one of my favorites. But it has been a rough go for
the last couple of years. Fourteen points in thirty seven games, he's down
to fourteen seventeen average. Tim on Ice used to be a hit per game
guy that's fallen off, definitely. He said he broken ankle this year,
which cost him multiple stints that kind of added up to the majority of the
season in the end, if I'm reading the reports right. But he's now
in his thirties. He's under contract for four more years, but the production
just hasn't been there for a couple of years. Is Brendan Gallagher done or
are we going to see a comeback from this guy with help this year?
I think he's done in the sense that I don't see him enjoying career resurgence
from a production perspective. He did score career low fourteen goal fourteen points and
through seven games this past season, and over the last four seasons he's missed
one hundred and three games if my calculations are correct. Just for some additional
contexts, he only played fourteen seventeen per game this season, which was twenty
third on the team, and it's not something you might have expected did out
of him on his peak. Here is just a few seasons ago. But
he's dropped down the depth chart and he can still provide value in a bottom
sixth role, just not value worth the CAP's cap it. I think he's
staying put. He has no movement clause. He does bring value as a
leader on this team, part of leadership corps, but no, he's as
far as I can tell, he's this is the role he's going to play
from here and out. Unfortunately, let's shift to a guy who's certainly not
done and hopefully there's a little bit more optimism about and that's your I Slavkovski,
who is a pretty rough season for the number one overall pick, just
thirty nine games and ten points to show, played just over ten minutes a
night. His offensive impacts were pretty bad than the bottom a few percentiles of
the league and didn't provide a whole lot else. He had just over a
shopper game. He had a fair number of hits, although he also received
a lot of hits too, and that was a big issue. Two questions,
Ryan, was Muntra All the right place for Slafkowski in twenty twenty two
twenty three and what should we expect from him in twenty three twenty four.
In my humble opinion in regard to your first question, f No, he
should not have been played with the Canadians. I felt like the American Hockey
League was the right place for him for him to actual mats to the North
American game, first of all. Second of all, I think it's hard
to say that he even got played with Canadians, so you have to wonder
what the hell they were thinking. I'm sure there was some justification in their
minds. I just I'm not sure what it is. I had mentioned that
Gallagher was ranked twenty third with fourteen seventeen per game, and I sat Slavkovski
was ranked thirty with twelve thirteen per game, and again for additional con text,
a team like the Calgary Flames only had twenty nine skaters, So that's
messed up. I don't know. Maybe they just felt like there was value
and in experiencing a full season with the Canadians, and maybe there is.
But yeah, I think that if you draft a guy number one overall,
you need to develop him with his best interests at heart and by extension,
the best interests of the franchise. I don't think they did that. And
what do you think he can accomplish next year? Do you think they'll put
him in the A. It seems like they're committed to keeping him up.
But do you think he can come around and have some impact, maybe get
a little bit more ice time, a little bit more opportunity. I'd like
to think so. I think, like you just suggested, the Canadies are
probably committed to keeping them up. I think that with a previous high draft
pick. But there's just Barry Cockinghammy. They demoted him his sophomore season,
and I think there's value in that if they take that route. But if
I'm in betting man, I'm not generally in betting man, so take that
with a grain of salt. But I have to think that they're keeping him
up and probably going to give him more opportunities to succeed. I hope,
so if they do in fact keep him up. I also mentioned that the
Harry Pinard might be in line for a top six role or second line role.
I think Slavkovsky. It comes down to between him and Harry Pinard and
Slavkovsky for that spot on the second line. I could be wrong, but
I think that's what makes the most sense. Let's move to the blue line,
Brian Mike Matheson boy, I technically Victor and I overrated him in terms
of the preseason. We didn't know what to make of this blue line,
and we both victory. I'm forty nine, I at M sixty. He
ended up one twenty one, but really that's only because he missed a lot
of time. But he was darn productive when he was out there. Exceptional
year. Eight goals, twenty six assists, thirty four points in forty eight
games, two and a half shots a hit, one and a half blocks
a game. Great numbers for defenseman pro rated out to number thirty eight in
bash Dom's market value of nine point three million dollars, shows how well his
numbers played up. Mattheson really just the revelation last year. Is he the
power play quarterback of the future for this team. I don't think he's going
anywhere, that's your question. He had a career high thirty four points in
just forty eight games. And just for some comparison, Jeff Petrie, the
guy who went the other way in the trade Petre Penguins had thirty one points
in sixty one games. And Petrie is six six years older and matthis matth
Siddons capit his four point seven five million versus six point two five million for
Petree. So all in all, it was a great trade for Kent using
the Canadians. And I believe Ryan Paley also went the other way to the
Penguins, and I might be forgetting another piece. But all in all,
considering the circumstances surrounding the trade with Petree having requested out of town. I
think Hugh was couldn't have done any better. I think though, the one
issue is that Matheson it plays the left side, whereas Petrie played the right,
and the Canadians are very deep on the left side with Caden Gooley,
Jordan Harris and Arbor jack I all three rookies this past season also and Joel
Edmondson of course the veteran presence on the left side. So it's a stacked
left side for the Canadians. But all that to say, Mattheson has established
himself as the most productive defenseman left or right on the team right now,
and I think, yeah, he's going to stick around and continue to lead
the way offensively for this team. His skating is incredible and as he proved
as he's proven timing again, he's not too shabby with the puck on a
stick. The next guy we're going to talk about one of those rookies,
Caden Gooley. Solid rookie season for Gooley before he got injured high ankle spring
shut him down in March. He was logging over twenty minutes a night and
massive hitting block numbers, becoming kind of a bash Darling. For those of
us who care about such things, his defensive metrics were quite good, especially
considering these were his first forty four NHL games. He was well above average
and expected goals against and coursie against for sixty. His offensive impacts were quite
a bit lower, but that's okay. Expected goals for were quite low based
on their depth chart. I don't see any reason why Googlie can't play twenty
plus minutes a night next season, giving us all those sweet hits and blocks.
Ryan, What do you think twenty four has in store for Googli and
can he improve on that thirty four point pace? I mean he. I
think it's maybe unfair because it was just one season, but I think it
wasn't just an ankle injury. He also stand knee and shoulder injuries this season,
so his health is concerned. But like you suggested, based on how
he played when he was in the lineup, have to believe that he's going
to get his looks and if he stays healthy, for sure he's going to
produce. And I think that pace you mentioned thirty four points, I believe
it's very much realistic. He heading into last season, he was seen as
the team's top defensive prospect, and he's obviously graduated in that regard. Yeah,
I think he's a potential top pairing defenseman on the future. Maybe not
next season, but he's definitely trending in that direction again, assuming his health
is okay. Justin Barron four goals eleven it says, fifteen points in thirty
nine games. He's young. Nice to see a first rounder getting some traction
with the team. He only got called up halfway through the years, so
this was a growing pace for him. Is Justin Baron going to be in
for a bigger role When he started to get minutes, it didn't really come
with the scoring production yet, But I don't know if that's how his game
is just going to look all the time, or is just the way that
you're one looks for him him and we expect a continued growth. So what
do you make of Justin Baron? Ryan my colleague Land Potman from Hockey Ritters.
We also we cover the Canadians together in his mind, and I think
he's had first on exposure to Justin Barron and his developmental years. He suggests
that Baron's game is similar to that of Jeff Petrie and Petrie was a kind
of a late bloomer too. He really only Petrie was course drafted by the
Boilers and it came to the Cannes via trade. And it was only after
he came to the Canes where he started to put up the points like he
did. I think Barron and his production wasn't too bad. He had thirteen,
sorry, fifteen points and four goals in thirty nine games, so at
thirty point pace for all oftense purposes. I think he's going to get more
ice time next season. I think he's established himself as a better right side
option than Chris Widman, who's relegated to death defenseman's status and justifying Blues.
In my opinion, I think he Baron obviously came up from the Colorado Avalanche
to trade deadlines ago, and I think it was the right move then to
trade our tour leaking in for him to shore up I get some additional depth
on that right side because it was lacking at the time. And I think
next season Baron is going to do well to further justify that trade. I
see it. I see him as a fixture on the right side four years
to come, and yeah, I'm still happy with that trade. Yep,
I think it worked out well for everyone. I think Artur's pretty happy with
the cup as well. So the next guy we're going to talk about is
Arbor Jackie. You included to him earlier. If you like the bash of
Googlie, then you probably like jack I as well. Not quite as many
hits are blocks, but pretty solid banger type guy. Although his underlying metrics
are quite different than Googlies. He's not really good played ever, his defensive
impacts are pretty negative. He has expected goals per sixty are pretty close to
the bottom ten fifteen percent of the league, So that was really not so
good, and that kind of worries me that he won't get the same number
of minutes, he won't get the same time on ice moving forward. He
played fifteen sixteen this year. I don't know if that's going to increase because
of his poor defensive play, and it's not like he's offensive genius or anything.
His offensive impacts were pretty similarly bad. So Ryan, what should we
expect from the man they call WiFi? Since no one would really guess jack
I as your password, it's hard to say he's ingratiated himself with fans.
As fan favorite based on his style and the fact that he drops the gloves
and he's a heavyweight, and his production wasn't too bad and he was actually
fourth among defenseman and power play ice time per game and second and powerfulay points
among defenseman with three, which isn't much, but again, the powerploy suck
to get what you get. I think Jack guy is between him and the
other rookie defenseman on left side, Leean Harris, he probably has the lowest
ceiling of the three. But I also think that I also know that he
crew me wrong this past season and established himself as a as at least an
NHL caliber player, and kudos to him for that. I think he is
an undrafted player for the record, so he's been proving people wrong all along.
I think that the Knaser going to continue to rely on him to a
degree. Last season, they deployed a rotation in and out of the lineup
among the rookie defenseman, and I think that he's going to get in that
way. But see the HL is being out of the question for him.
But again, like if he stays like the fans won't mind, because again
this coming season, no one's really expecting much and they'll love to see him,
and he's going to you to produce decently if he does, and I
don't think there'll be any complaints because to a degree, he's playing with house
money and he's winning. He sure is. He's doing better than you and
Iran, that's for sure. So it's also funny because, yeah, as
you mentioned, undrafted kind of earned a role for himself. And he also
has a brother who is in junior right now. He's eighteen, and his
named Florian jack Eyes, so at least I want all know how to say
his name now. He's also playing for Hamilton, so he was. He's
eligible for this year's draft. Will be interesting to see if he gets drafted
or if people are going to just continue to sleep on the Jackai brothers for
longer. But let's move on to the goalies. The Canadians had the thirty
first expected goals against for sixty in the league. Their goalies, though,
outperformed this mark by allowing only the twenty ninth most goals yay. The goalies
that were there, Montembo and al both played about the same number of games
in the forties. Kingen Primo got into three games. If you look at
the numbers, Primo was a non factor. Alan was pretty good at negative
two goal save above expected, not too bad. He was neutral, and
his delta Fenwick Montembo completely surprised me. Ryan, I don't know. I
did not see this coming for him, even as it was happening. I
didn't really believe my eyes when it was happening. I didn't really understand why
he kept doing well. He played forty games and had had fourteen point seven
eight goals save above expected. It's incredible, and his delta Fenwick was point
nine eight, really good stuff. He well outperformed his expected save percentage.
Continuing on Montebo, he has never had a positive goal save above expected and
his next best mark was negative three point two five. So I don't understand
what happened with these goalies. Alan, I thought, did fine for what
was expected of him, and Montembo way outperformed his expectations in a way that
makes me wonder what the future holds for these Twombo has one more year at
one million, so pretty affordable, especially in cap leagues. If he's if
you're telling me he's going to play half the games, that's a huge value.
And Alan has they just resigned him two more years at three point eighty
five. By the numbers, Alan is for sure the starter, but it
didn't work out that way this year. So what do you expect in terms
of the split for these two and is anyone else going to play a significant
role. It doesn't sound like Caiden Primo is in the good gracios of the
organization, and there's also Jacob Dobash, but I'm not sure he's ready yet.
So what do you think of the Canadians goalies? See, that's it's
complicated. It's always complicated, but it's even more so with the goaltenk situation
because Primo is no longer waiver exempt this next season, so the Canadians have
a decision to make as to whether they want to try and slip him through
waivers, and I don't think he makes it through waivers. After another solid
season in the American Hockey League, started off slowly and he got injured,
but I think he picked up the pace late in the season and in the
Color Cup playoffs in twenty twenty two he had a nine three six percentage and
expectations had been for him to further establish himself as the number start of the
future this past season and he didn't really do that, but he's still in
the conversation. And I think that if you're the Canadians, you can't simply
ignore the potential he has as a Mike Richter Award winner and the college ranks.
I think that he's never going to be another carry Price. If you
can ever claim to be another carry Price, I think that the kids have
to resign themselves to the fact that they're probably not going to find another one,
and Primo has potential to be a decent, if not unspectacular starter in
this league, and the Canadians can simply just throw that away, or at
least risk throwing that away, just because they have Alan and Montamble under contract.
And I think Alan, all due respect to him, I think that
he is the odd man out, at least he should be, unless the
Canadians determined that they would go with three gold goalies, and I don't think
that's realistic, but it's a possibility. Montambo has effectively earned the number one
job in my eyes and the eyes of many people based on how he's played.
I don't know if he replicates the same success next season, because,
as you pointed out, Wow crazy. I don't know if anyone expected that
he was a career of third stringer, and all of a sudden, yeah
again, he's proven me wrong, like Jack I before him, But I
never envisioned him playing like an NHL caliber goalie, and all of a sudden
he's in the conversation to be the team's number one goalie. Of course,
this team's number one goalie is not necessarily a number one caliber goalie in general.
And I think Montambo is the future, is a quality backup. And
I don't know if the Canadians can again turn their backs on the potentially displayed
last season. And Alan at thirty three, I believe he's not getting any
better. He's in fact, only getting worse if you look at his the
superficial stats or since he started, since he joined the Canadians. And I
think that you can try trading Allen. I think his cap hit goes up
to three point five million next season from two point eight seventy five millions,
so you're gonna it's gonna be hard to find takers. So I think you
have to maybe consider burying his contract in the HL, just so you don't
risk Premos Premo getting claimed. I think that's the logical course of action.
There is value in Allen's leadership. I just don't know if it is more
valuable than premost potential. In fact, I would hazard against that it is
not. So I think it makes the most sense where the Candians ago with
Montambo and premoting goal next season. I don't know if they do that.
I don't think they will. I think that they'll try and sneak Premo through
waivers and get bitten as a result. That's my two cents. Wow,
Yeah, that was going to be my question because it my follow up question
because it I don't disagree with you. I think they probably should go Montembo
and Primo to not risk losing Primo for nothing. In my discussions with Kat
Silverman, who's prospectially person she really thought that Primo has plateaued and while not
disagreeing that he what the like what you said, but what the Canadians should
do with him is different from maybe what his upside is. But she really
likes this Jacob Dobesh guy, even though he's really not ready for a role.
I would say, so he probably needs to be in the AHL,
and so yeah, he maybe Dobesh in the hl and having Alan down there
could be good for his development. And maybe if they started with Primo and
Montembo, if someone gets injured or whatever, they could always bring one of
those guys up. That certainly seems like the right It seems like a reasonable
plan. But I also agree with you, I'm not sure that they follow
through with that. They probably don't in all honesty, because the Canadians are
about as traditional an organization as you can get, and that doesn't sound like
a traditional move. All right, Very good, Ryan, thank you for
sharing all this knowledge and analysis on the Montreal Canadians. Whyn't you let our
listeners know where they can keep up with you and follow your work. Yeah,
so I'm the Montreal Canadians columnist. I'm Montreal Canadians columnist at the Ocurators.
You can find me there. I write every few days, even during
the offseason, and you can find me on Twitter at My handle is our
Scorer. So my first initial and my last name are sz P, like
Peter O, R E R. Very good. Thanks so much, Brian.
Good luck to your Canadians in the coming year. Thank you very much.
Then I'll that's get buyers. Oh my goodness, with a cat quick
grab. Now it's your weekly goalie talk with Cats Silverman, Cats Instincts,
And now it's time for Cats Instincts on the Montreal Canadians, joined once again
by Cat Silverman, and we're gonna talk Montreal goalies. We've got a few
good ones here to talk about. We're gonna start with Emmett crow Too,
twenty twenty two, sixth round pick, six foot four, two hundred pounds.
He was in the USAHL this past year playing for the Waterloo Blackhawks.
He had twenty eight games, nine seventeen saver centers two point four eight Jaa's
committed to Clarkson. He's got actually a pretty high hockey prospecting equivalency at thirty
five percent, it's pretty decent for a goalie. He looks like a couple
of NHL starters. Alex ald is one comp So nothing that's blowing the doors
down. But what can you tell us about Emmett kroto Cat. Yeah,
he's headed to Clarkson. I'm assuming that's a long term project for Montreal,
and I know that they are probably hoping they have something a little sooner than
him and the works, but I think he's done a good job of adapting
at each level. Because he was with the Waterloo Blackhawks last year, he
took a little bit of an unconventional path in order to ensure as one of
the Canadian players that he was able to play in the NC Double A.
So he played minor hockey and then moved to I believe it was a private
school for high school in the US, and then moved to Waterloo and now
he's headed to the NC Double A, and it looks like he's done a
really good job of adapting at each level. Obviously, it's a little tricky
with goaltenders that go through some of those smaller leagues to find some of those
videos, and the ones that you do times look like they were filmed on
a pinhole camera. But what I saw, it looks like he does a
good job of essentially using his size to his advantage when he's when he's facing
new competition. But it looks like it takes him a little bit to get
used to each level. I found just little clips like with Waterloo, and
I found a couple of clips of him from back news playing in Canada,
and he doesn't seem like he has a ton of instinctual flow to his game
yet, but he does play to his physical strengths right, Like he looks
like he's the opposite of Caden Primo, who we're gonna talk about too,
who. I think that Emmett Croto just looks like someone who he knows his
speed and he knows his agility level and he just rolls with it, and
so it sometimes takes a little reining in and it takes him a little while
to read his opposition. But once he gets settled in, he looks really
good. So I'm excited to see how that goes for him. But I
do think that we see some of those guys who play year at Ventsa sometimes
they played two or three. I think unless something really drastic happens, he's
probably going to be best served playing all four years. So he's a ways
out for Montreal. But I mean, he's had to do a good school,
it's got a good foundation behind him. And didn't see anything in the
games that I did watch at Waterloo that looked like an O to me,
just looked like he he sometimes gets a little too fast and loose with his
technique and maybe needs a little bit of raining in here and there, but
not a ton. All right, that's really good. Hears maybe a guy
in deep leagues to add and hold on to Emmet Croto, good name to
know. Let's move on to the next guy. Jacob Dobesh or DoBeS,
d OBEs. It's probably Dobesh in check but people, I'm sure over here
are going to say it differently. He was a twenty twenty fifth round pick
from Montreal, came to the United States and to high school from the check
Chekia, then to the USHL, then to NTABA. He is now twenty
one and he's been at Ohio State for the last couple of years and looked
really good. Last year. His numbers were a little bit better at nine
thirty four saved percentage in thirty five games this year nine eighteen in forty games.
Ohio State certainly not the class of the Big Ten in hockey as they
are in football, so maybe a little different there, and he should be
with the leval Rocket next season. Dobeesh has a pretty decent hockey prospecting profile.
He looks like a couple of NHLers Corey Schneider, David Riddett and Martem
bern Is one who he looks a fair amount alike, at least at this
point. Broun, it should be noted, was in the NHL and his
D plus five season and his equivalence he shot way up. But that's probably
not gonna be the case for Dobesh. What can you tell us about him?
What are your what do Kat's instincts tell us about Jacob dobeesh oh So
I felt on a rabbit hole watching him. He's no Jacob Dostal but Lucas
stalled. But he's good. He's a lot of fun. I had to
double check his stats something like three different times because I didn't believe his physical
stats as they were listed. Because every highlight reel I watched, every game
I was watching, I was like, this guy's huge, this guy's enormous,
and he's taller than most, but he's not He's not a been Bishop
sized goaltender. He's six four two o five pounds. There's literally another guy
in Montreal's system who's bigger than him, and he just he takes up so
much space and does such a good job of being exactly where he needs to
be to maximize his size. So he's not a super speedy goaltender. He
but he moves smartly with his size. He reminded me a little bit of
watching Darcy Kemper. When Kemper is playing well, stayed within his crease,
stayed within the blue paint really well, didn't seem like he was oversliding.
I wish I saw a few more games with some explosive speed from him,
just because I wanted to see what happens when he really needs to just get
across the creased split second. It's a good thing that we that I didn't
have to see a ton of that, because obviously that means that he wasn't
putting himself in that position very often. But I did want to see it
just because when he does move up to the big leagues, that is something
that's going to undeniably happen at some point. I wanted to see how he
can make those upper tier desperation saves and just didn't get a huge feel for
it, but loved what I did see and assumed that he's headed at the
age I decided at the Laval Rocket, I'd assume he's probably outside of Kayden
Primo, their closest NHL ready goaltender in the system, just because he looked
like Everything about his game was just clean and tidy. All those things that
I said I kind of want to see from Emmett Croto over the next couple
of years. Here is what I saw from Jacob Dobesh, And he just
looked like everything he was doing was crisp and confident, and he looked like
he wasn't having to adjust himself too much. It wasn't having to second guess
himself. He was making it tricky for the defense on the opposition to open
up space for themselves to just sneak the puck in because he does take up
a little more space in the nuts. So I was exciting to watch.
I do know that obviously, at twenty one, we've only seen him play
collegiate hockey. It's a different ballgame when they hit the pros. But from
what I saw, look like he's set to be good to go for Montreal
at least at the HL level to start and them we'll see where he goes
from there. Yeah, it should be fun to watch the ball and see
how they progress. But Jacob Dobesh definitely good name to know. He's Yeah,
like you said, he's someone who who might sink into some games and
at the pro level depends on how far they have to reach down the depth
chart. You never now, it's happened before, happened before, so we
already alluded to him. Caden Primo, he's someone who has been on the
radar for a while now. He was drafted all the way back in twenty
seventeen seventh round pick, and yes, in casa wondering, he is the
son of Keith Primo and Wayne Primo is his uncle. Maybe he should have
been a skater cat. Maybe that's the problem, but he's six foot three.
This past season was his fourth split between the HL and NHL. He
really has I guess you could say fail to establish at the NHL level,
but it's not like he's had a ton of opportunities. Twenty one games in
four years is not a lot, and so mostly he's been at the HL
level. His equivalency is now tapped out at five years and he's at twenty
seven percent. He actually looks a lot like Jordan Bennington, who obviously has
been a starter, but he also looks like a lot of other guys who
haven't progressed to that point. I guess what do we make of him at
this point? With all the bouncing round. He seems like a guy who's
unlikely to end up being an NHL starter. But does he still have one
b upside or maybe back up? What do you think? What's your instincts
tell you about Peyton Primo? That's it's so frustrating because he was their guy
for me. I assumed he was, especially with some of the signings they've
made over the last couple of years. I assumed that they were looking to
get him in the very least by this last year. And like you said,
he's played split between the NHL and the HL for four years now.
He's played a total of one hundred and twenty three HL games At this point,
I feel like there's not a whole lot more he can do at the
HL level from a development standpoint, just because he's tapped out there. I
don't know why they've stalled out on him like this. He's never looked super
remarkable in the NHL games he's gotten into, but he hasn't gotten a whole
lot of time, like you alluded to, just to find consistency at the
NHL level. I think he he looks like a goaltender who, for lack
of a better term. He looks like someone who's had really good trainings throughout
his career, which makes sense given his hockey background. But he tracks well,
he reads well, he does a good job of making sure that he's
staying with the play through traffic. He just sometimes his recovery in his structure
level once things start to go poorly doesn't look amazing. And I don't know
if that's just because he hasn't been given a chance to develop that NHL confidence,
or because Montreal really really thought he looked fine in a few games they
saw but didn't meet him at the NHL level yet, or I don't know
what it is, but once he'll have you twenty four, when this upcoming
season starts, that's not necessarily old for a goaltender, but you'd assume he'd
at least be in the running for their backup role at this point. And
I don't know if that's their plan right now, but if he's not in
a backup role by this year, i'd assume it's maybe not a good fit
for him, just because we've seen everything we can and I think he doesn't
need a whole lot more structurally and technically development wise. He just needs to
get the reps at the NHL level to see if he can do it,
and I assumed he could. He was a guy that I was pretty high
on when he first hit the HL. I assumed he'd get a year or
two of miners and then make it to the NHL. But at this point,
I don't know that he's I'm very confused when it comes to him,
because I assumed he'd be at the NHL level by now, and nothing that
he's done at the NHL level has been so egregious that I think he deserves
to be banished back to the miners. So I don't really know what the
hold up is, but clearly Montreal doesn't feel the same way. They don't
necessarily see eyed eye with me on that. So something has to be holding
them up and holding him up, and it might be his decision making,
it might be the way that he recovers from games. I don't know what
it is, but I don't know. I'm losing a little bit of faith
that he'll be that NHL starter. Like you said, I think he probably
still has n HL backup potential in him, but I don't know if that's
what he's looking for. So I don't know what sort of reaction he'd have
to that. Yep, sounds like Cat's instincts are confused. That's that's never
a good game. But good to know that it's nothing developmentally or any specific
thing. Maybe there's something unseen, as you said, with the team,
that's always hard to know. One more guy from Montreal, just briefly let
us know if this is a guy we should even worry about. But Joe
Verbedeck, who is a six foot six, one hundred and eighty pound twenty
twenty one seventh round picked by Montreal. He is someone who was in the
OHL and this year he spent most of the years in the ECHL. I
think primarily because they had enough at Levall, but maybe not. He had
four games in the HL didn't look so good. But should we even worry
about him? Is he someone that is of any interest or should we just
focus on the other three? I don't think he's like I've we've talked with
other teams about some guys that I think or I don't understand why teams have
signed them to pro deals. I don't think they're worth looking at all.
I don't think that's necessarily the case with Joe Verbedic, but he's not one
that I'm super high on, and he kind of made a somewhat unremarkable shift
to the Pros, and he didn't have super remarkable numbers in North Bay with
the OHL, which sometimes those OHL teams, the numbers can be a little
skewed just based on the quality of teammates versus quality a competition. But when
you then also see struggles to put up good numbers once they hit the Pros,
that becomes something where I don't think he's worth completely discounting. But I
don't see any reason for us to focus on him a ton at this point,
just because he hasn't done anything to shoulder his way ahead of the other
three that they already have in their system. Awesome, thanks so much for
giving us your instincts on the Montreal Canadians goalies. Of course, we'll be
back right after this that dynasty dig Victor Nudio. We are ready to talk
about the Montreal Canadians hockey in the miners. According to your rankings Fantasy Hockey
Life rankings, the Canadians have the fourth best system in the NHL. Look
at that. Good job, guys. They also have picks. They've got
an extra first rounder, two extra fourth rounders, and an extra fifth round
pick for this upcoming year's draft. So Canadians, there's something bright on the
horizon. I know it starts with their no brainer victor one of the hottest
prospect names out there in the world today. That's right, Lane Hudson is
your Montreal Canadian no brainer. If you have been living under a rock for
the last year, maybe you don't know about Lane Hudson. But the man
is an exciting prospect and he had an amazing season one for the record books.
I feel compelled to mention that we did tell you about him last year.
We told you that you should probably draft him with the late first or
early second round pick, even though we know he went almost in the third
round. I ranked him twenty third going into last season, and I wasn't
even high enough on him. It turned out to be not nearly high enough.
I know that in Mason Black's pnh Elly overall rankings, overall of all
the prospects, he's currently number four of the anyone any prospect. That's pretty
ridiculous. So he's awesome. Forty eight points in thirty nine games for Boston
University. He scored the most points by a defenseman in the ncuble A since
Brian Leach, who turned out to be pretty good player. He was a
Hobie Baker finalist was Lane Hudson, First Team All American U twenty World Junior
Championship bronze medal. Oh and right now he's playing in the World Championships against
men and scored at least at this point when we're recording probably the goal of
the tournament where he actually blew past and deeked out four different defensemen and then
one handed it by the goalie. Ridiculous stuff. He's really good. We
have some Mitch Brown tracking data on Lane Hudson. His overall scores A ninety
nine. His offense rates out as one hundred percentile. He has the highest
expected goals per sixty and expected assist per sixty of anyone in the NC DOUBLEA.
His offense is just off the charts. It looks like he's trying to
escape the page. His transition zone game is pretty good. The biggest asset
is his controlled entries. The other things like exits and things like that are
pretty good but not amazing. Miscellaneous things like board battles, advanced and just
created expected primary involvement game scorer all off the charts as well. The main
bugaboo is his defense entry zone prevention is pretty bad, so is his retrieval
success in defensive plays, so he rates out of the thirty four for defense.
For a little bit more on him, let's hear from our FHL scout,
Austin. FHL Scout Austin has this to say about Lane Hudson. Skating
is strong. Hudson is very deceptive, high motor player who uses his skating
effortlessly to beat opponents. Doesn't have the elite skating motion, but does a
good job at catching up on opposing rushes. Puck Handling above average. Hudson
has very good puck skills and has great patience at both ends, although at
times Austin noticed that he gets a little lost with the puck when challenge and
doesn't maintain full control. Shot above average for a defenseman. Hudson has a
very strong shot that looks that he looks comfortable with and he isn't afraid to
shoot. He's doing that more than he did at the usntdp IQ Borderline Elite.
Hudson is incredibly calm on the ice. His awareness for what he has
to do is sensational. He always understands the correct play, puts his fundamentals
to good use. It's rare to see him make a mistake that you can
chalk up to size, and his ability to create high desure height injured moments
is top notch. Defense is average. Is not the most physical player,
but he isn't afraid to play with a bit of grit at times, and
his size can be noticeable, though it mainly holds up at one v one
against bigger competition, though it remains to be seen and he has noticed Hudson
lose control of the puck at times, but he's not really sure if that
size related. Best asset offensive IQ biggest concern size and defensive game top tier
potential Tier one plus all star level potential with natural speed and IQ defensive growth
could turn Hudson into a legitimate Nors Trophy candidate most likely Tier maybe Tier one
could fall to Tier two if his defensive hinders him. He is a and
then his stylistic comparable. It's tough to find a strong comparable to Hudson.
There isn't a player too similar to his game as a smaller, offensive minded
defenseman, but there are some similarities with Quinn Hughes in terms of both skill
and being offensively intelligent. And there's a whole lot more written that I will
say. I did go back to Austin and querry him a little bit more
about the skating because some of the skating and defensive questions have been an issue
for Hudson in the past, and he said that it has really improved throughout
this year and what he saw was some pretty good edgework and skating and really
able to keep up with most rush defenders, and some of the in zone
play was an issue at times, but overall pretty good, so that's good
to hear. He also notes that his one point three points per game in
the NC DOUBLEA is the highest for a D plus one defensive prospect in the
last twenty years. The only three that are even comparable are Adam Fox,
Quinn Hughes, and Zach Warenski, all HL star defenseman. So pretty good
stuff there. Thank you Austin for that awesome report. Now we look turned
to the NHL ranked King himself, Mason Black, who sent out this poll
Lane Hudson versus Brant Clark. We have star studded matchup here. Brant Clark
tearing up the OHL this season, sixty one points in thirty one games.
He also got in some NHL games. His PNH chile is ninety nine.
We already know that's not going to be higher than Hudson's because he's the highest
of any defenseman, and his PHLI at the NCAA level is one hundred and
eleven points. That means in his peak years at this point right now,
he's projected to put up one hundred and eleven points as a defenseman in the
NHL. That's crazy talk. He definitely has this upward trajectory if you look
at his PHL e and by When I say crazytock, I don't mean to
say Mason's wrong. I just mean to say that's crazy to think that he
could do that. We have to wait and see, of course, but
Hudson definitely looks like he's grown from a second to a first line to a
superstar, and his current p initially equates to those two of the guys I
already mentioned, Zach Warenski Adam Fox, and the other one is Tye Smith,
which is not working out so great, right Now, if you look
at the Hockey Prospecting bottle, this one definitely leans towards Brant Clark a little
bit, although in their D plus one year they were almost identical with having
the same amount of star potential. Although brand Clark's NHL probability is a little
bit higher, that's probably mainly due to the fact that he's three to four
inches taller. Anyways, at this point, brand Clark has raised his star
potential from seventy four to eighty eight percent, so just a little bit higher,
but overall pretty similar in this model, with a slight edge towards Clark.
The people voted and it was relatively close. They went Brant Clark fifty
seven to forty three. Jesse, what say v This comparison on the Hockey
prospect on the Byron Beater is so weird because it's got basically the star probabilities
are equal for the D one year, and of course brank Clark hasn't just
had his D two year. But if you look at the full comps,
Lane Hudson's are a bunch of superstars and Brank Clarks you got Victor Hedman,
Evan Bouchard, Tony D'Angelo, it's fine, but the other side, she
got Pronger and Leech and Bork compared to Lane Hudson. Anyway, I don't
know what that means, but you talked about the heights, some of those
types of things, Victor. I find this weird because I would think that
the Montreal fan base would be a bit stronger than the LA fan base.
In chiming in and maybe juicing these stats a little bit, but man,
I like Lane Hudson. I think I'm gonna take Lane Hudson over Brank Clark
in this comparison. Both of them are likely to become power play quarterbacks for
their teams in my opinion, and both of them were likely to be very
successful in that role. But what the Hudson did this year, like you
said, you just can't deny, and at a higher level of competition,
not NHL has Clarke did a little bit, but the ncaa higher level competition
than some of the Ohl stuff that Clark did. So I am going Hudson,
Victor. How about you? This is really hard because they're both stars
and you don't want to have to choose between either of these. I think
both of these guys are going to be impact HLS. It's hard to imagine
that Hudson will have an easier path to start him than Brent Clark because there
isn't really anyone in the LA system like him, and he has decent size.
Is skating has come a long way and he just looks the part right.
He doesn't really have any major deficiency like Hudson has the size thing.
I do think Hudson has better offensive IQ and some of his tangibles are just
incredible, but he is gonna always have that tag of just being too small,
so it's hard to imagine that he'll get the same opportunity and runway to
be a star in the NHL. But I personally like Lane Hudson better as
a fantasy asset. I think that you have to include the volatility risk between
these two, and there's more risk with Hudson, but I think the reward
is slightly better. If you think the reward is the same, then I
would imagine you would just go Clark because the risk would be less. But
I think it's worth it to take the risk on Hudson. He has defied
the odds every single place he's gone, and he has not only made it,
but excelled and broken records everywhere he plays, and so that's that's pretty
crazy. And I should also mention, since we're talking about Lane, he
has a brother, Cole at the USNTDP who's going to be draft eligible,
I believe next year, and he's already looking as good or better than Lane.
So we're going to have this conversation again on repeat for the next several
years. But Lane Hudson is incredible. I don't think you can go wrong
between these two. It depends on how risk averse you are and looking at
the teams. And I should also mention that I don't think Matrell has anyone
like him in their system either, and there's far fewer defencemen blocking his path
than there are in LA. So there's maybe a reason to go Hudson Jesse
onto the needs no prospect Victor who is it? Joshua who continued his strong
play in the queue this season. He was pretty great at the U twenty
World Championships for Canada, who brought home gold. Often sorry of the guys
that were drafted on that team, he was drafted the latest fifth round.
I remember a couple of years ago they had a team of all first rounders
and Jordan Spence. This year, they had a few guys who were taken
outside the first round, but most of them were first rounders. You had
Cayden Bank here as a third Jack made here and Ethan deal Mastro was fourth,
but Joshua was the fifth round pick and all he did was finished tied
for second in points with Logan stan Coven, just behind Connor Berdard ahead of
Dylan Gunther. So anyways, Joshua just continues to prove everyone who doubted him
wrong. But I think there's still reasons to have some town and we're going
to talk about them. So if you look at Mitch Brown's tracking data,
his shot numbers aren't great. They're a little bit above average, it's pretty
good. His slot passes and expected assist for sixty are really high. His
transition game is poor, and that probably goes to his main issue, which
is his skating. It has been an issue since his draft here, which
is part of the reason he fell, and some poor production and it's gotten
a little bit better, but it's still not great. His entry and exit
numbers are really poor. His defensive game is actually pretty good in terms of
his offensive zone retrievals, but his defensive plays of course against is not great,
so overall it's he has an overall score of eighty six high offense at
ninety five percentile and thirty two percentile for transition zone, even though his defense
is at ninety four, So a mixed bag there for WA. For a
little bit more on WA, let's hear from rfil Scout Nate skating is average.
He doesn't have high end speed. You'd like to see a skating standout
in junior, but even in junior he looks slow. It's hard to say
whether this is a lack of effort or if his skating just needs a lot
of work. Because there are times where he can get moving pretty quick.
It's just not consistent enough to say that he's any more than an average skater.
An average junior skater. Puck handling elite the positive in his game,
as he turns defenders inside out off the rush, has a puck puck on
a string when going through traffic in the new school of players. He likes
to pull off some flashy moves to beat the defense, and they often work
in his favor. Shot above average. It's accurate that finds the net often
in his high danger scoring opportunities. He's shown that he can beat junior age
goalies with ease, but might need to work on it a bit more to
beat pro bolies on a consistent basis. IQ above average was a perfect example
of someone who makes up for average skating by having an excellent hockey IQ.
He always finds himself in the correct position on the offensive end, turning nothing
plays into scoring opportunities that usually end up in the back of the net.
His IQ and this area is a big reason why his inconsistency and average skating
don't bother an eate as much because they as much as they should, because
they think he'll always find a way to contribute defense average, he sometimes while
sometimes loses himself in coverage at the defensive end or at even strength, leaving
his man open for shots to the net and struggling to get the puck out.
Will even when get him in the opportunity, he tends to cheat for
offense, trying to beat the defender the defense for opportunities at odd man rush,
which isn't rare for a player of his offense. Skinsett at junior he
often bailed out of his coverage with hits or and his coverage issues with hits
or blocks, but that won't be easy once he moves up in the ranks.
Biggest asset is the lead hands in playmaking. Biggest concern is consistency.
It's easy to be inconsistent in junior when you're as long as you're putting up
one hundred points like while he will still get plenty of ice time and opportunity
because there's always a chance he can break through and put up a game.
He references this one game that he watched, which I think is a great
example in this year's playoffs, where he was a complete non factor in the
first two periods, then he exploded in the third period for three goals and
assist. Once he gets to the pro level, taking off large portions of
the game like that will not afford him those third period opportunities, which is
an excellent point, and that could really limit his ability to live up to
his potential. So top tier potential for Joshua tier one elite second line winger.
If Walking clean up his consistency issues, there's no reason he can't put
up sixty to eighty points per season with his offensive skill set. He won't
do that by taking shifts off at the NHL level, though most likely tier
tier three middle six winger. From what he's seen, Wa can be a
contributor to the offense at the NHL level, even if he isn't consistent stylista.
Comparable Jonathan Druanne, he finds that Wa reminds him a lot of Duranne.
His ability to cut through defenders and find the open man is something that
Durand was doing in the same league during his time at Halifax while being a
bit of a liability of the defensive end, and what interests him in the
during comparison is his concerns and potential. Many said Duane would be a high
point producer from pro even after leaving junior, but consistency issues and his game
not translating to the pro caused him to not live up to his expectations,
and he fears that Wa will have the same issue as Duanne. I have
those same issues as well. One thing that he notes is that for why
is coming into the fifth round pick and doesn't have the weight of being a
top five pick. That will help the pressure situation in my opinion, but
it won't afford him the same opportunities like it did for Duanne. So thanks
Nate for that awesome report. Now we turn our attention to the NHL rank
King Mason Black himself and the pole and data Joshua in this case going against
Connor Geeky. Connor Geeki who was taken eleventh overall by Arizona just last year,
and Wa, as we mentioned several times, taken fifth over a fifth
round in twenty twenty one, so with his time and sure Broke coming off
a pain actually of seventy this season, and Connor Geeky with the pig ice
this season to pile a fifty four, so not exactly the same and was
Pachilli has hovered above and are below and then above and then right hat first
line potential the pah Lei equivalents for Waugh, Anton Londell, Connor, Garland,
Payton Krebs, so pretty decent but not standout performers, and looking in
the Hockey Prospecting model, they're pretty similar. Geeky went from twenty eight to
twelve percent star potential, so he went down quite a bit. This year.
Wa has gone up and then back down and he's currently sitting at sixteen
percent. So pretty similar there, and in this poll with hundreds of voters,
Joshua came out pretty handily the favorite sixty four percent to thirty six percent
the fifth round pick, taking it to the first rounder Jesse, What do
you think you talk about how much lead he's going to get, how much
opportunity he's going to get. Victor Dude's name is wa he's playing in the
queue and he's playing for Montreal. All this guy is gonna get all the
opportunity he needs. We need a French Canadian hero up there in our Quebec
team. It's it's tough because, yes, there are these flaws in the
game. On the other hand, you got Connor Geeki here, who's the
bigger guy physically, should be the more imposing guy, but nobody trusts Arizona
and there's Wartz. Con Geekie gets picked apart, and again Joshua is the
underdog because he's coming up from this later round pick. I don't know that
there's just enough I worry about with Connor Geeky that I'm gonna take my chances
with Joshua. But I could see this going either way. I don't mind
if somebody likes geeky, but I think that Wa has shown us a lot
so far. Yeah, I have big concerns about Connor Geekie. I think
that he's a big guy, so he doesn't have any of those concerns.
His skating is a little awkward, he doesn't really impose his physicality as much
as I would like. But he is probably to get a lot of opportunity
in Arizona. They're not going to rush him. They're going to let him
play probably a year or two in the HL, and then whether the team's
still there in Arizona or not, we'll see, but he's gonna get opportunity.
I still just think that Connor Geeki screams like bottom sixth center to me.
I don't think that he'll have the opportunity, whereas Wa has those issues
too. You're not playing Wall unless it's in a scoring role, even if
it's a third line scoring role. There's no really real reason to have him
on the ice unless he's going to get powerplay opportunities or at least some sort
of offensive deployments. For that reason, I don't really have much interest in
Geeki. I would rather take the risk on Joshua, even if he doesn't
pan out to be everything I hoped he could be. I think this is
a philosophical thing, Jesse. I would rather have someone on my roster like
Joshua that I'm gonna know is either going to get the best opportunity or flame
out and do nothing, as opposed to someone like Connor Geeki, who will
probably. I think Connor Geeki is much more likely to be a regular NHL
or and have a longer career than Joshua. But I don't think that's going
to be as valuable to fantasy because if he's a bottom sixth center who's scoring
twenty to forty points a season with some peripherals, I can just go get
it out on the wire. I don't need to have him on my team.
I think you agree with that, right, Yeah, I do.
Does he have some Christian Fisher in him, Victor? Would that be the
kind of role he could fill into? Yeah? Though I think Risin Fisher
might even be a better player, but he's similar. Yeah, a poor
man's Christian Fisher. That's what we're going with Connor Geeky. So I think
everybody can draw their conclusions from there. Keep your eye in, Victor.
I want to keep my on a Montreal Canadians prospect. Which one should I
do? John Farrell is a good one. And John Farrell he's someone we've
talked about for a while. He was drafted way back in twenty twenty in
the fourth round. Another kind of small guy, five nine. He's now
twenty one. He'll be twenty two this season. He really popped off this
season, putting up fifty four points in thirty four games for Havid over there
in the NC Double A. This was his second season at HAVID. His
first one he was over a point per game two at twenty eight points in
twenty four games, and before that he was with the Chicago Steel He mostly
had assist this season, but he did pop twenty goals in those fifty three
points. That's not bad. And he got into six NHL games with the
Canadians and scored a goal I think in his first game, if I remember
correctly, and I saw that live. It was definitely not a shot on
goal that just ricocheted weird and went in. But he got a goal.
That's better than I've ever done. So good for Sean Farrell and looking at
his tracking date in the NC DOUBLEA, it's pretty good except for his defense.
His defensive play is so bad it's like worse than almost ninety percent of
the rest of the ncuble a cohort that Mitch Brown track. That's pretty terrible.
His offensive numbers are awesome, not he's not going to be a goal
scorer. As I mentioned, his expected goals are just a little bit above
average, but his expected primary assists are incredible. He's like ninety nine percentile
there, so that's looking really awesome. He also was pretty good in transition.
He has pretty good entry and egg its success. He also has some
other intangibles that are good, like board battles and off puck assists and things
like that that Mitch tracks, that are all looking really good. So overall,
ninety nine percentile is really good. And for a little bit more on
Sean Farrell, we're going to hear from Austin ur FHL scout skating above average.
Farrell was a player who fell because he didn't have great skating during his
draft here, but he thinks that's really improved. He isn't an elite skater,
but he has moments where he's quick on his feet and he thinks he's
looking close to being NHL ready. Puck handling is very good. Farrell's puck
skills maybe his best asset. He's a calm and relaxed player who rarely makes
a mistake with the puck on his stick. His composure and control are very
strong, and he does some great job connecting with the right play, rarely
causing turnovers your errors. Shot above average. Farrell doesn't rely on his shot
much given his Harvard limate Matt Coronado being able to do that work for him
on the scoring end, but that doesn't mean Farrell can't be issued or he
has a decent risk shot that he can control. He has good control over
IQ above average. Farrell has a strong hockey mind. On the offensive end,
He's very mature and patient in both puck and stick handling. It's impressive
how glued Farrell can be to the puck. He's constantly has his eyes on
the puck's movements throughout the ice, always knowing where he needs to be and
whether that's in the offense or a defensive end. And I will just add
that I think that's mainly because he's not a good skater, so he needs
to figure out where he needs to be, so he can get there as
quickly as possible, so I'm adding that into Austin's report. I don't think
he would disagree with that. More defense for share for Farrell. Average may
not be Farrell may not always stick to his guy, but that seems to
be more him analyzing the game and deciding what move to make next. He's
very analytical player who likes to be mobile, but he also has the IQ
to challenge players defensively, best asset IQ vision playmaking. Biggest concern size.
As I mentioned, he's five foot nine, one hundred and seventy four pounds
at almost twenty two years old, so doubt he'll grow more. Top tier
potential Tier three possible with his continued growth, but being that he's small,
he faces an uphill battle. But he has the benefit of being defensively sound
enough to hold his own two to three inches taller and you'd be considering him
on your second line. Still possible for him to m up there, but
more likely a third line option, most likely tier below Tier three, i
e. Not tierrible like forty to fifty points, so that is a very
realistic outcome for him. Stylist is comparable. Austin sees some similarities with fellow
Harvard alum Alex Kerfoot. Coming out of Harvard, Kerfoot was a high IQ
playmaker who worked to improve his shooting towards the end of his NT double A
career. There's also a bit of similarity with him and Jake Neighbors, both
being which are puck moviers will have great read for offensive defensive side of the
game. Moving over to our NHL Rank King data, we have Sean Farrell
and Atu Ratu. Farrell having a sixty seven PNHILLI for his Harvard time,
Ratu with the Bridgeport Islanders forty three phil just fifteen points in twenty seven games
this year. For Ratu, looking at hockey prospecting, this is the no
contest. We have Farrell, who's covered in the low teens to eleven percent
star potential, though his NHLAR probability has climbed to seventy five percent in his
D plus three season. Ratu, on the other hand, came in at
zero percent star potential, has maintained that zero percent star potential and he's up
to only thirty seven percent NHLAR probability. So things look much bleak bleak for
Ratu and the people voted and it's pretty close. Of course, we should
mention that Ratu had a higher pedigree coming into the draft, even though he
fell to fifty second. Overall, the people picked Sean Farrell fifty four percent
to forty six percent. Is that correct, Jesse Victor, I got to
fly to Ratu. I am a Ratu guy. Ratu is my cheeseball.
I was happy for him to get out of the Island and to move to
Vancouver this year. I think he's going to have an opportunity. Vancouver.
Please stop dropping bags of money in front of the likes of Tyler Myers and
try playing at Ratu's and giving them an opportunity to be your secondary scores,
because I think he didn't get the opportunity that he needed. Yet he's still
growing into it. He's still younger. He's a year younger than Sean Farrell
and he's played in more NHL games already. But I think that pedigree will
shine through. He's four inches taller than Farrell and like you said, there
are some serious warts in Farrell's game. The pedigree is going to shine through
at Ratu. For me, Victor, I don't care. Mason Black,
I love you I trust you, But this zero percent star probability, man,
it's at least one percent. Mason admitted it's one percent star probability.
Just I'll take your corrections off the year you got to direct that hate mail
to Bayron Bader. He's the one that has him at zero percent. Mason
doesn't have him quite that low. He has him as a phil of forty
three, which is still not very much, but it's better than nothing.
Yeah, I hear what you're saying. He has the size Atu does.
He's six two and one hundred and eighty pounds, so he's probably gonna get
that opportunity and it's gonna come easier than Farrell. I still would rather have
Ferrell because I think that if he does pop off, he could be a
really great small play making winger center and I'm taking him over Ratu. I'm
glad you believe in him. I'm sure his family does, but I don't.
Jessie. Victor is off the show now, but me and Atu Ratu's
family will come right back after this tow pulls off of the show. Hey,
everybody getting out. He here today. Just a couple of things to
mention to you. One of them is our shows brought to you by fantracks
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