Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks. Here's your source of
information and analysis to help you win your fantasy hockey league. Talk off hot
a step, hit on, stay lock. Here's your hosts, Jesse Sevier
and Victor Nuno Fantasy Hockey Live back once again, Mark Fantasy Hockey. You
can't get rid of us, neither me Jesse Severe Fan Tracks Nor Victor Nuno
of ep Rinkside. Victor, speak for yourself. How you doing. I'm
doing great, Jesse. Yeah, it's it's gonna be a fun team to
talk about there. They got a lot going on and I'm really excited to
break this team down. How are you doing, I'm doing good. I'm
doing good. The summer is upon us. Days lasts longer than eight hours
or whatever they do in the winter time. We're near a solstice at this
point. So life is pretty good, man, Life is pretty good.
And of course the Stanley Cup playoffs as well. Moving on. I'm not
going to say who's playing who or how that's going right now because a little
tip for the wise, I'm in the past and i don't know who is
still alive in the playoffs at the moment. You're listening. So just assume
that it's a wonderful matchup and very exciting. That's going to be my perspective
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darn well should And when you're done with that, come back listen to our
interview right after this on the LN Welcome to the show, Davis Birdstain of
the fourth period. Ready to talk a little bit at La Kings. How
are you doing today, Dennis doing great. Jefsch has to be back on
the podcast with you. I know we did this to us this time last
year. So happy to come back and talk some Kings hockey with you.
Yeah. Absolutely, we will enjoy this and I'll just give some opening thoughts
on the Kings for people who weren't paying as close of attention at the thirty
thousand foot level. The seasons are starting to look a little bit the same.
Third straight year of third place in the Pacific Division, third straight year
of the Oilers and round one of the playoffs. Lost each year actually in
a diminishing number of games. First year took them to seven and then six,
and then this year it was only five. But in terms of what
the Kings did well throughout the season, gold prevention two hundred and ten goals
allowed was the third fewest in the NHL. That's what happens when you have
the fourth best say percentage and allow of the fourth fewest shots. Leading the
way was a crushing eighty four point six percent penalty kill. Only the Hurricanes
had a better penalty kill than the Kings. You know the overall that I
look at the King a couple of years ago, I thought of this team
as a couple of older guys and then this whole young core who was ready
to all come together in jail and be a future powerhouse. Now it feels
like there's a distribution. There's the sneaky middle aged. They brought in some
guys who were kind of late twenties. They've still got a few of those
prospects and a couple to arrive, and a couple of the old guys are
still hanging on and performing very well. But what's the trajectory of the Kings
at this point and are they a team that is going to be able to
achieve a higher peak with some guys leaving and some guys coming. Yeah,
and it's a great point. I think what happened just go back a couple
of seasons. You're right. I think they had a couple of older guys
and they were looking for all the kids. I used to joke maybe three
seasons ago when it was really bad, play the kids, play the kids
every game. And then they went in a little different direction. They signed
They signed Phil Dennell, who was fine, has been fine. It's been
really a good value, adding in Victor Arverton, which if you were going
to progress with your younger players, you would have signed those two players.
But there was pressure on to go back to make the playoffs, and they
have made the playoffs. But you're right, the question is can this team
are they now the Minnesota Wild a team that can make the playoffs, can
represent well? Can get ninety five two hundred points and never win in the
playoffs, And that's the question with this team. I think you have to
start of the top. Jesse is I assume Jim Hill is going to be
the coach. They haven't named that. They they haven't named him yet.
They've let Trent Yonni go, who was one of Todd mccollins longtime assistants.
So that tells you that the defensive scheme is probably going to be a little
bit different with respect to these players in this team. I don't know.
This is the make it or breaking season for Rob Blake. He's coming up
on the last year of his contract. They have not won a playoff round
since they won the Stanley Cup in twenty fourteen. That's ten years. That's
not good enough, and especially when you go out and signed Pierre Luke Dubois,
which was for the first season the disaster. There are a lot of
question marks about this team might now Jesse, I'm not really sure how this
team progresses. Are they when I watched Dallas plan, I watched Dallas roll
four lines and sizeable defense in the legitim goaltender, Like if that's the gold
standard, let's say in the West. They're one level below that. So
yeah, they can make the playoffs again. They might be able to win
a division if you believe Vancouver was a one year anomaly. But are they
a championship contending team. I'd have to look at this team in July jest,
because right now I think they're stuck in what you said, They're stuck
in groundhog Day. You get to the playoffs losing in the first round,
the fans are tied of it. Are we getting more? I rate with
each season? So it's gonna be a very interesting and pivotal season for Rob
Blake if he wants to continue with general manager past his contract. Let's start
with the good. The first player will cover. Adrian Kempe really had a
career season and a team where I, like I said, I think about
the kids, and I think about the gray beards. These guys are in
their primes, twenty seven years old, and his trajectory through his mid twenties
has been up into the right pretty consistently improving. So seventy five points in
seventy seven games, more than three shots and a hit and a half per
game, seventy third in our bashed metric of goals the black, shots and
hits per game or overall in the NHL. Very reasonable contract rounds out the
profile. Five point five mil for a couple more years. Is keimbe meant
to be the star of this team, and can you expect him to keep
this up? Yeah, And when you look at his goal total, because
I believe two seasons ago was forty eight, he dropped the twenty eight forty
one. He went from forty one to twenty eight. People that wear the
goal but he was better with the spec too, assists. He was the
leading scorer on the team. He was voted at MVP by the media here
in Los Angeles. He's a true leader right now, Jesse. He is.
He's their best player, without questioning, the most rounded best player.
Cope Tool might have some things to say about that. But when you lead
this team and I think Kope left the team in scoring for sixteen or eighteen
years, the fact that agent did lead the league and did lead the team
in scoring, fine, but he's not a one hundred point player either.
Let's be really at seventy five, which was a great season for him,
I think you'll see more in the goal total. So if you're going to
play this player, you might want to lean in towards his goal production,
which I think would be closer to forty one to twenty eight next season.
And with a better team, you probably going to get maybe five or six
points more overall, like a point of game player. You're not going to
get a top ten or top five scorer with Adrian Kempe because I don't believe
the team around him is going to be that, and I don't think their
power play is strong enough to do that, because you look at Adrian,
he had twenty three regular twenty three even strength goals, only five on the
power play. The true leading scorers in this team, in this league have
a lot more power play goals. So excellent player excellent places with choice would
be your first year selection for me, No if I'm a fantasy standpoint,
but absolutely a solid addition if you can get him on a value pick.
If Kempe is the top, Kevin Fiala is right there as well. We
mentioned the tidy ranks. Kempei thirty nine, f YALA fifty three, so
right there, almost in the top fifty. He had a pretty solid year
overall, and in his second full season with the Kings, he did regrets
to blow the point per game mark for the first time in three seasons.
He had eighty five and eighty six point paces previously. Although he didn't play
a full eighty two in the first King season he did this season, so
that was nice to see. His time on ice did go up last season,
as well as his power plat the time and ice, but his shooting
percentage was slightly above average. His pdo IPP and power play IPP all a
bit low, so maybe that explains partially why he didn't score quite as many
points. But Dennis, can you explain overall what happened to the points for
Fiela and can he get back to a point per game plus next season?
Yeah, Victor, he can now understand. He played what eighteen minutes a
night without being on the top six or a lot of the season. When
Victor Arbitson went out, he went He jumped back up to the second line
role with Deno and Trevor Moore. This is the player that you always want
more from. He was their leading power play goal scorer with eleven, so
that's it. I think he can certainly get the thirty five. I think
it's a matter, to be honest with you, of where Kevin's going to
play in the lineup, and that's been a challenge for Kevin and I'm sure
we'll talk about while later on. If Kevin had a dedicated spot in the
lineup where he can go to every night. He probably had more points.
Now. Part of that is in because he is a very He's the most
difficult player to play with, be honest with you, and I think players
privately would tell that because he's so unpredictable Victor, and he can make great
plays. He's when he's at his best. He takes the risk he plays
that the blind passes to back to the blue line, they come out of
his game. So just she stretches where Kevin will be productive and not make
mistakes And you say, why can he do that for eighty two games?
And that's the challenge with Kevin Fiala. But will he be a point producer?
Absolutely, I would think that Kevin could lead the team in scoring next
year because I agree with you, I think seventy three points is underachieving for
Kevin Fiala. Twenty nine goals is probably what you're going to get. I'd
say twenty eight to thirty two. I think he'd be more productive with the
stuck to assist and probably as with helpers on the power play. Doesn't play
on the penalty kill, so that doesn't really take up his time So I
think this is one player that if you said, okay, could this player
get to the achievement of maybe eighty five or ninety points. I think this
is the one player that could on this team. Yeah, I'd love to
hear it. The next guy I want to ask you about is Quentin Byfield.
I have been a long time Byfield stand It was awesome to see him
come into his own a little bit more this season. He had record highs
and time on ice, powerplay time and ice hits, shots, blocks,
points, pretty much everything, and he was consistently in the top six,
at least towards the end, playing mostly wing, which was a big move
for him. They had been trying him down the center. He was getting
three C looks before that, but the move to the wing has allowed him
more time on ice. His time went from twelve oh nine to fourteen oh
four to sixteen twenty nine this season. So I guess the big question here,
Dennis is do you think Byfield has another gear? Can he get over
a sixty five point pace next season? He was at fifty six point pace
this season. Victor, as a second overall pick, you would hope his
ceiling is in fifty five points right, and I don't think it is.
And yeah, it's great when he has an emerging season and this is the
season he needed to emerge, right, There's a lot of questions very he
had a poor season two seasons ago because he had risk issues, he was
ill for a while. He had won five goals in the Song games.
He had to emerge and he did the question with pit quinton is and I
agree with the spect to having patients for this player. And you need to
have patients sometimes, especially with the bigger players. You've seen that with Sebkowski
Montreal as well. They just take more time to develop physically and canfine their
game. Quentin scored twenty goals and he really doesn't have any other Like he
doesn't have a shot like he goes to the net. Does He had two
beautiful goals against Columbus in Montreal this year, but he still needs to find
his shot, Like he doesn't really have a great shot, Like most of
his goals are getting to the net getting rebounds, which he should sometimes power
moves to the net, but his game he doesn't like he's not awfto Matthews.
He doesn't have a wicked rist shot. It's going to be he might,
he never uses it, so I think this summer and when I spoke
to him at exit meetings, he needs to work on his game's, particularly
in a shot, because if he get twenty without really having a legitimate shot
in his arsenal, then can he get to thirty thirty five? Yeah?
Do I think he's a top five score in this league one hundred point player?
I don't, and also would be a function of course the players that
surround him, But should quit be more than a fifty five point twenty thirty
five guy? Next season he should probably get close to thirty. Maybe Again,
this is a point of player. This could be a point of game
potential player next season. You're talking about thirty and fifty. Is that doable
on this team? It probably is. He might take away some points from
Copaitar. And that's the one question as you bring up Victor, what is
Quinton Byfield? Is he truly your first line left wing? Will eventually rolled
back to center? And when I ask him about that, he says,
I grewup planned center, and so he wants to play center at some point
in time. And I think if there's some regression from Copatar offensively they're going
to ask Quintin Buyfield to go back to the middle, step up and maybe
produce more. But I would expect a lot more with respect his production next
season than fifty five points. He's just finding his game. You have to
remember he's still a kid coming out of his ELC. We've mentioned him a
couple of times, but on j Coopepetar, you don't want to take him
for granted because he is just unstoppable. It seems seventy points last year in
eighty one games, he led forwards on the team with nineteen thirty nine average
time on ice. The only player in the NHL last year that outscored him
but was older than him, was Sidney Crosby. In the evolving Hockey Tracking
Area era, only sid Crosby has more net expected goals above replacement Dank Crosby.
Moreover, Copaitar's contract is about to start aging gracefully. Is that eight
x ten contractors finally run out next two years? Seven million per little bit
more flexibility for the team. The question is can we just keep getting another
year of this from Copaitar? Yeah? The question was when is he gonna
regress? He never regresses. Jesse I would expect the same thing. I
would expect twenty five, forty five, seventy five points. I would not
for nothing. This is look Copa. Tar's the coaches son. He grew
up in Europe, as European. He's a past first mentality guy, always
has been, never been a huge goal scorer. But he sh when he
shoots. He's got a great arsenal shots. He actually took a slap shot
for a goal last year. I joked on and go a slap shot.
I didn't even know you had a slap shot in the arsenal. So great
risk shot, great leader. Has stayed away from injuries, and you would
think, yes, normally regression from this player, I don't see it.
And when I watched him playing. I watched him play the final weeks of
the season. He wasn't tired, he wasn't banged up, he was injury
free. I was also process of the penalty minutes though. Now this guy,
he's one of the being and he had twenty two minutes and penalties and
when he took a misconduct, there was like I guess at the game at
the end of the season where all ten players on the Ascott miscontacts and Kope
was one of my I go bro, they go to a lady bing.
But I would expect the same level of production. I don't expect any regression.
If it happened, I wouldn't be shocked. But with this player,
he asked for three four years. Okay, you can't keep producing this.
You're thirty four, you're thirty five, you're thirty six. Stop Okay,
he's a seventy point player on this team. I would expect about the same
productivity next season for the Kings shoot, I hope we had the copaitar heel
turn there. That would have been fun. But Trevor Moore, Trevor More
fascinated me when I really went to look at some of the scoring here in
ghostbub replacement. Last year, only Byfield had more ghostbub replacement than more fifty
eight points in fifty seven points in eighty two, you might miss what happened.
He was a bit further down the score sheet his black shot, since
his bash was number sixty six in the NHL. More dragged anybody who was
paired with When you look at the with or without you to the good end
of the chart, people were better when he got out there with more I
guess I hadn't appreciated this guy as a real player. We'll talk about the
guy who was out there a lot with him later, But is there a
chance that Trevor Moore could maybe push up this offense a little bit to match
his sort of real life overall contributions just he had twenty nine even strength goals,
which is a lot, and he tagled off towards the end of the
season. But he's a local kid from Thousand Oaks, California. Everybody jokes
about it. Every time he scores a goal, he says, some Thousand
Oaks that's been a runner. But he was finally healthy. He had some
concussion issues, he had the other injurieses he was finally healthy. So what
do I think about this player? I think can he get the thirty one
again? Might be a stretch, but can he improve on the assist total
of twenty six? Yeah, but I think he's a sixty point player.
I think he's a twenty five thirty five player on this team. He's proven
himself when he's healthy. He's a tenacious four checker. He gets in there.
He does not afraid to get his nose dirty in front of them.
That he's got an underrated shot, Jesse. I think that was the thirty
one goal. I think he surprised a lot of goals with his wrist shot
last year. I already do because they will look at the lineup and even
coaches posting coaches, Okay, this kid fifteen goals, he's a marker,
he's a grinder. No, he's actually got a really good shot. Not
the speediest kid in the world, So I think he's had about at his
ceiling from a productivity standpoint, So maybe a little bit of regression on the
goal total, but I'd still think that with sixty points and probably third or
fourth and scoring on this team is certainly with any in reach. Again because
the partnership and he'll probably talk to him, talk about him with a philter.
Know that's been a great partnership for the last couple of seasons. Yeah,
for sure. Yeah, we will come back to him. But Victor
Arvidson is next. He missed a big chunk of the season to injury of
definite incomplete there came back in stepped back into a power play one role for
the last couple of months and fifteen points in his eighteen games, and he
also contributed three assists in the playoffs. Is Victor Arbidson poised for a bounce
back next year, maybe on a different team, just because he's unrestricted.
He played only eighteen games. He's been banging. He's been had back issues
for two seasons that cost him a lot of time. Look, and you're
right when he came like in the regular season, he played eighteen games at
fifteen points. He's a productive player. He changed the mentality of this team
when he came back, on the power play and on the offense because he's
a first shoot guy. He's a playmaker. I think the Kings would love
to bring him back if they knew he could play eighty two games. I
think there's that doubt, so I think they might go to some of their
younger forwards like a tur Cod or maybe a fag Moo again. So I'm
not certain he'll come back. I think that if he does sign with another
team, I assume he still wants to play. I assume he'll be productive.
The question is in the caution flag, is like, how many games
do you think this player role play next season? Can you rely him to
play eighty two No? And I think that's a major barrier for him coming
back to Los Angeles next season. We tend to talk about forwards in order
of roughly in order of scoring, but dropping down to to know here seems
a little bit unfair to to know because he is still exceptional. He had
forty seven points in seventy eight games. He is like we were talking about
locked at the hip with Trevor Moore. They played eight hundred and sixty four
minutes together at five on five. That was the twelfth most that any two
forwards played together among fifteen hundred and seventy seven forward pairings in the National Hockey
League five on five last year. And if you go with percentage of minutes,
Deno Moore is ninth in NHL for percent together. So obviously you can't
talk about one without the other. And why wouldn't you keep them together When
they skated together, all of the two man forward combos with the at least
three hundred time on ice, they allowed the twelfth fewest shots against per sixty.
They you didn't shoot against them. Denot scored, as we said,
his scoring was down a little bit. He doesn't shoot as much, and
that seems to be a part of what's going on. There. His reputation,
of course coming in was a two way guy who helped that Montreal run
to the Cup finals. So what is the no spot on next year's team?
And maybe can he ever get those stats that US fantasy managers crave.
I don't think so, because in a perfect world, I think what you
would have on a championship team, Phildeau would be a three seed, not
a two seed. And if they do put Fiala with Denot and more,
that probably helped Denot's assist total if he stays there permanently for most of the
season Fiala. But I think you're seeing one. I think two seasons are
going. He had twenty five goals or something in the high twenties that that
was an anomaly. This is what he is. He's seventeen thirty forty seven,
and that's great if he's your third line center, Jesse. If he's
your second line center, he probably don't have enough offense. And that was
the problem with with Dubas is that you would think the lineup would be Coppaitar,
Dubois, Deno, but it wound up being Cobaitar, Deno, Dubois.
But I don't think you're gonna get more than fifty points. Well,
he's a two way player who'll get a lot of ice time. He's a
staple on the penalty kill, right, He's on the second unit of power
play. This is what he is. He's a fifty point player. He's
a fifteen to thirty five, twenty thirty fifty point player. So I think
that the fantasy managers that look for point production out of field to now,
I don't think you're ever going to get it, because I think at some
point in time, at least the Kings hope that Dubai would be the two
C and Phil will be to three C and that would help them go deeper
in the playoffs. You already referenced it. We have come to the part
of the show where we have to talk about the disaster that is and was
and probably will be Pierre Luke Dubois and that contract woo. I don't know
how else to describe it. There's a lot of adjectives you could use,
but his first season with the Kings was not great. He seemed to rehabilitate
his contract in his career in Winnipeg. The Kings acquired Dubas and assign in
trade with the Jets eight times eight point five million. He is the highest
paid King by nearly a million over Kevin Fiala, and arguably one of the
least effective forwards. Of all the Kings forwards who played at least as much
as Duba, only Kempe and La Frenier had a worse expected goal differential.
And we talked about how much bring how much Kempe brings in the offense,
So that's not really a fair comparison. In your left sorry, la Farrier
makes one tenth of what Dubois does, So those guys aren't really in the
same conversation. Where do we go from here, Dennis? What do the
Kings do? What does Dubois do? What can we expect from him moving
forward? And is there any chance he gets back to the player he was
at the end of Winnipeg And the problem with the left farrier's negative stats is
that he was on the line with Dubois. You can say the bois contributed
to those negative stats, Victor, I don't know. I think the danger
here in Los Angeles is that you don't want a situation to happen like what
happened with Uberdo and Calgary. Remember Uberho saw in that big contract, came
over in trade, had a lot of expectations, didn't get along with Daryl
Sutter and had a poor season. But the second season wasn't any better.
And that's the biggest concern here, what's going on with this player. It's
about engagement, and they do bring back Hiller as a coach. He never
got through the Dubai Dull the fourth line center in the playoffs, like you
can't have that, Like it's the problem is he's a nonchalant style to his
game right And I've joked all season, I've never seen a player play with
one hand on a stick more than this guy. It just it didn't work.
It never worked. His approach to the game wasn't there. And I
think it's the optics when you have guys who aren't the most talented players on
the team, like Trevor Moore and Blake Lazzade giving every inch of energy when
they're out there on the ice, and this guy comes out and doesn't look
like he's that engaged. It's a huge problem. Victor. So I don't
know how he's got to be better than forty points. And he didn't need
to be a superstar. Either here's the thing, you had enough scoring if
they got what he delivered, like in Columbus, like he to me,
he's a sixty point player. He's a thirty to thirty guy. He's not
a great facilitator. He's not a great passer, but he's a scoring center,
which is great if you have Copatar and to know and he's the thing,
Victor. The most frustrating thing is he was set up to win because
when you have Copaitar and Denot in the middle, you don't have to worry
about playing defense. If you're on the third line, you don't. He
just had to go out and produce, and he never produced. That was
the biggest challenge. He's got to be better than forty is it? Would
it be great to take a risk on this player in later rounds in your
fantasy draft. Yeah, he's not gonna be your first or second round pick.
You camp be. He has to prove it. So you might miss
on him from a fantasy standpoint this season because you can't take the risk.
There's nothing in his game that you saw when it's a lot about effort and
engagement, Like how do you change that? The players got to change that
not a system, not a style, not your players around. The player
has to change that. So he would be a very risky pick. It
might payoff for some guys who like risking their game when they picked fantasy players,
but this guy I would stay away from until he proved that he could
be the guy that they felt they would get. And again, it wasn't
gonna be Austin Matthews, but it was gonna be twenty five to thirty another
thirty assists being monster on a Popeye. And here's the thing. He had
nine even strength goals this year, like Drew Dowdy had eight. It's just
not good enough. So all the negative and asparaging comments about this players season,
he earned to be honest with you. So it'd be a very risky
play. If you're gonna pick this player high, it might payoff, it
wouldn't be me. Wow. I got a follow up. There's been a
lot of talk in the hockey media about should they have bottom out this offseason,
and apparently the general managers said, now, we were never going to
consider it. That's what I thought. I remembered came out from a press
conference or something. But do you think that was ever a possibility. I
asked Rob that question directly because it was the elephant in the room. Because
of this age and the Stanley Cup Final finishes before the twenty fourth, before
he turns twenty six. You get him at a one third buyout. Here's
the thing. Ownership is not going to let the Kings pay a player of
twenty seven million dollars not to play for the team. That was a non
starter. Well it made sense and people started looking at that. Wow,
it actually would work, and it would save six million dollars this year and
that cap hit and that would help them get a goaltender. It would It
was never going to happen. So while the speculator, and it was fair
to speculate because the coy didn't deliver and you tied into him for another seven
years. So this is the way to get out from under. But the
fact just the finances of the buyout, even at twenty seven million, you
can't do it. Plus, let's be real. If you're the general manager
that signed him to that contract for sixty four sixty seven million, and one
year later you're telling your ownership we're gonna buy him out. Not gonna happen.
The optics would be terrible there, so while that the buy up would
make sense, and if they had changed general managers, they named me the
general manager after all, Blake, the first thing I would do is I'm
gonna do the bet the worst mistake the franchise made. I'm gonna buy out
Dubois. You could do that the same general manager. No way, can't
do it. And so you're gonna have to live with this contract for at
least another seven years unless you find a way to trade him. And there
were some trade rumors around the deadline about going to Boston for Olmark. That
could happen, but I don't think for Dubois. So it's gonna be really
interesting. But to answer your original question, while it made sense from a
statistical number standpoint with the spect to the cap, it was in reality it
was never gonna happen. Yeah, the sunk cast dilemma has not yet hit.
But I gotta understand the mentality I find the GM that signed anyway move
into the blue line. Drew Dowdy, Boy, that's another guy who I
would have thought by now would not be this high in the conversation, but
fifty points in eighty two games keeps him a top twenty defenseman score in his
age thirty four season. Only John Carlson had a higher average time on ice
in the NHL last year among skaters, Doughty was twenty five forty eight a
night. That's not unusual for Dowdy, but just that's a lot of mileage.
Lest you feel like this scoring is dropping off, is points per sixty
of one point four to two is actually last year was the fifth highest of
his sixteen years. He is not declining. He is maintained, of course,
the offensive environment has changed. Nonetheless, unlike Copatar, the big contract
for Dowdy isn't over yet. There's three more eleven million dollar years to go.
But like Copatar, is there any reason to doubt Dowdy at this point?
We'll talk about an up and comer next who could becoming at some point,
but is there any reason to think that Dowdy will be doing anything different
from what he's been doing in the past. I mentioned that Campe was voted
and MVP of the team by the media. I wasn't want of the media
voted for campaign. I know for Drew Dowdy, although Drew was the MVP
for this team. Because they mentioned the production number of men Cy plays.
He's really irreplaceable. I guess you can see that you could replace Kempe with
another forward. If Daddy went down, there's nobody to replace him. It's
amazing what happens, Jesse when your shot actually hits the net, sometimes it
goes in. And that was the thing with Drew's accuracy was way I gotta
think, and you never said this during the season. I gotta think last
summer he went and practiced his shot and practice the accuracy because the accuracy was
like compared to other seasons, it was off the chart. And that's why
you saw fifteen goals. That's why he saw seven power play goals. He's
thirty four years old. He's still passionate for the game. He didn't he
wasn't banged up at all. He played every game this season. So unless
there's an injury, could I expect another fifty points from his player? I
can, because he found he unlocked the accuracy of his shot. This season.
Doesn't mean fifteen nough, but he could get more points, more assistem
on the power play. So I think he's at his level right now.
Thirty four, which sounds really old, and you think about Julie's played what
sixteen seventeen years. That is a lot of That is a lot of miles,
a lot of tread off the tires. But this season really proved that
he's motivated. Plus I think there's also a motivation Jesse that you got the
Four Nations tournament coming and the Olympics tournament coming, And she says, yeah,
I might be an older cat, but don't forget about me. For
those teams, yeah, I expect them around the same production for this player.
He had a marvelous season and at thirty four, he's not quite over
the hill yet. So like Coppatar, I don't think there's gonna be any
regression with respectator point totals with Copatar and Downy, for sure, Dowdy wants
to be on Team Canada for those best of guests, there's no question,
And yeah, it's gonna they have a lot of They have a lot of
choices. I don't think this next guy will be quite in that conversation,
but brand Clark certainly is in the conversation of the future top defenseman for the
Los Angeles Kings, and Jesse was obviously alluding to him. We got to
see a little bit more from Clark this season. In the NHL sixteen games,
he had that incredible overtime game winning goal after leaving the penalty box.
That was super fun. I thought that would lead to more if his time
in the NHL, but it didn't. He went back to the AHL and
he was really great fifty games when the Terry rain forty six points, not
bad, really good in the playoffs as well. They're still going actually,
so as we're recording this, I guess the question here is what do we
expect from Clark? Can he be full time with the Kings? Can he
maybe give get some power play time from Dowdy or maybe they put two guys
up there on the top unit. What do you think we can expect from
Brent Clark this season? I think a function of that victor, like with
respect to Tom on Ice, is what happens with Matt Roy all right,
Matt Roy is their second pair right defenseman. He's up for a contract.
I don't think they can afford him because Matt's cap hit the season I think
was three point one and for what he does play twenty minutes a night,
is solid defender, not much offensively, blocks a lot of shots you're probably
gonn look at five million dollars a year for that player. I don't think
he can afford that. Maybe they can if they bring him back, that
would affect brand Clark directly, because you wouldn't saw Matt Roy for five million
dollars a year Victor and put him on the third pair. That would put
bran Clark on a third payer, which would affect his Now. If they
let Roy walk the free agency, which I think will happen, then brand
Clark's going to slide into his check compared defenseman with with Vladislav Gavikov, which
will probably help will certainly help his offensive output. Do I think he's a
fifty point player like Drew Dowdy? I don't what I think would happen.
You're right. One of two things happens. He's added to the second first
unit power play with Drew, or he takes over from Jordan Spence on the
second unit power play because Jordan had a solid season, but he's not a
goal Jordan doesn't have much of a shot. He's no threat that he's got.
He had two goals in seventy one games and he ran the second unit
power play. So I think that what you would see next season if Roy
walks, you're looking at Bran Clark to probably step in the second. And
the reason he didn't play in the playoffs and late in the season is he's
still working on his defensive game and he's working with Trent Yarni, who was
their defensive coach who's no longer with the team, to get his level of
defense up. Because to be honest with you, yes, those highlight reel
goals were great that he scored this season against Vancouver and against Boston, but
having defend the Coono McDavid and Leon Drysaddle in the playoffs was another different,
entirely different story. So he'll work at it. I assume he'll be in
the lot of next season. So from a production standpoint, I think you're
looking at probably at this point, maybe twenty five to thirty points. Not
I wouldn't expect a lot, So again, maybe a nice risky mid level
mid round pick if you want to play a hunch on that, because it's
still undetermined, and I guess it also depends when you pick your team.
If you can tell me on July second that Matt Roy had walked the free
agency and brand Clock's going to be your second pair defenseman. Then jump on
Baron Klaw because he has to hold the tools victor offensively, he has the
tool to be maybe not a dominant player, but an impact player offensively,
and I think they'll take the leash off him next season. Then they really
have to. He's going to play second pair defense because he's there for offense
and this team certainly needs more offense, especially on the power play. So
I would think that if he does get that second pair role, you're probably
looking at thirty thirty five points next season. Then maybe in the following season,
maybe he emerges and takes over the first unit of power play from Due
Dowdy. At this point in time, so mid level pick, don't go
crazy with Clarke, but I think he could be a reductive player of the
season in the lineup. Assuming Matt Roy's going to walk the free agency.
I hope Matt Roy goes to either the Canadians or the Golden Knights so that
they can have a Roy and Awa on the same team, and that'll just
that'll be a nightmare for the announcers. No, that's a good point long
term, though I appreciate all that context for this season three four years from
now, do we see blank Brant Clark as a top pairing defenseman, assuming
Dowdy slows down or eventually his contract is up or whatever. Can he be
that top pairing guy all situation's top power play fifty plus point guy. Do
you think he has that upside still? Yeah? I think so, and
you draft him eighth overall for that reason. Do I think he's at the
level of Quinus or mccarr or Yosi with respector production. I don't, and
that's a function also of the team as well. Again, it can It
depends what style of player are they going to play, because things are going
to change in Los Angeles. I assume Hill's gonna come back to them and
play different styles. To answer your question, yes, I think in the
future he can be that player. Do I think he's going to be top
three or a Norris candidate. I really don't think so. But I think
he's a second tier production level player, the next tier of players or defenseman
below those top elite players. I think he could hit that because when you
see all the tools he has in the passion for the game and the IQ
he has Offensively, he has all the components to be a productive player.
I just question how productive I think he will be an impact player offensively.
I'm not sure at this point in time. Can he get to that level?
No? Can he get to the second level. I believe he can.
Awesome, So we talked about Dowdy and Clark. I think the answer
to this question is no. But do you think anyone else on this blue
line can get to forty point pace or more? Can he get to twenty
five? No? I don't see it. I don't see an emerging player
either unless they draft on or trade for one. And they look, I
don't think they're going to draft for a defenseman or trade for a defenseman.
So yeah, And that's the challenge with this team is that they had one
producer. And that's why you want to make the case of Brand Clark,
Drew Dowdy producer for this team Offensively. I mentioned Jordan Spence, He's the
next productive. He had twenty four points and he had two goals. They
don't get a lot. Gavkov had six goals, seventeen assists. There's nobody
that's going to get forty. They're really unless you have Brand Clark emerged this
sea and he could. He could, but again, the rest of this,
the rest of the offense isn't an offensive league. Look, if you're
going to have Spence and Andres England back there on the thorpe, again,
you're not going to get a production there. So yeah, they're not gonna
put it a bit this way, Victor. They're not going to be ten
top ten productive defensive unit with respected their scoring next season. Yeah, likely
look elsewhere. I would say. Let's move on to the goalies. The
Kings were ranked fourth and expected goals for sixty Jesse you mentioned this early on,
and conceded only the fifth actual goals, So they were both good and
expected and their goalies performed admirably. All three goalies are UFAs this summer.
It is going to be a very interesting summer and a new season in the
crease. Riddick was near league minimum. Talbot one million, Coplee one point
five million. The pipeline also has journeymen Aaron Dell, Jacob Ingram and Eric
Portillo. We'll talk about them in a different part of the show, the
younger guys, but looking at the number of games played, it was obviously
Talbot with the most games at fifty four, Riddick with twenty four, and
Phoenix Copley unfortunately with the injury, only played eight And as mentioned, Talbot
was good, He's getting up there in age, but goalsave above expected was
positive one point two to three. Delta Fenwick right around neutral, but overall
he had really good production protection and he did pretty well with it. He
didn't drastically outproduce it, but he didn't underproduce it either. And Riddick,
I think this was a good season for Riddick. He you know, displayed
that he can you know, he's still an NHL caliber goalie. Eleven point
four to three goal save above expected really solid in his limited action. As
Delta Fenn was actually outstanding. But with a lot of question marks and all
the UFAs, what is going to happen in the crease next season for the
Kings? Are they going to bring someone in? I don't know that Eric
Portello is really ready for this opportunity right now. It's not his time yet.
So what happens next season? Dennis, I agree with you on Portello.
He's going to get out of the full season in Ontario of the AHL,
and I'll look to him for our future future. Number one. He's
a big goaltender, and I think that's the one thing this team doesn't really
happen. Now, going back to Can Talbot, here's what happened. Camp
came out a really great start to the season. The team did, and
I think his ask for a contract extension was a little too high given his
role in his age, and he didn't want a multi year deal. He
wouldn't want to stay in Los Angeles. Look like it's not going to happen
because he got on a roll. Then the team didn't play well, they
held off, so is he Here's the thing with all these goaltenders from the
season, Victor, they were system goaltenders, like you didn't have a goaltender
who could save you win a game and steal a game with forty or forty
two. So because their one three to one defense, as Jesse mess to
the top, it was a shot suppression. A system like that's going to
probably change because guess what, you played the one three to one all season
and you still can't beat the Ebontonuela's in the playoffs. So something's got to
change defensively. So maybe you might see more aggressive offensive teams, which means
what you can't have system goaltenders. You have to have a goaltender as like
legit, like a top fifteen goaltender. And they did sign Riddiche to a
one year, one million dollar contract. They brought him back because let's be
real, he played the elimination game. Cam was on the bench after two
games. If they sat Cam and riddles was the goaltender going forward, So
they get he's a nice quality backup for a team, but they have to
go get a goaltender. And if it's Sorrows or if it's Gibson, or
if it's Markstrom, Rod Blake's got to do that. He's got to get
a goaltender without question, and he's probably got to get a better goaltender because
I don't think they're going to play the same style because as I mentioned,
it doesn't work in the playoffs and this team has to win a playoff round.
So you might see more aggressive offensive team, which might help some of
the fantasy managers because maybe these point totals get elevated. But they got to
go get a goalie that can get steal games for them, and who that
goalie is, I'm not sure, but they certainly did an upgrade there,
and I think that's the one biggest question mark as we step into free agency
and free agent frenzy. Which goalie are they going to acquire. It's going
to be Allmark, which seems to be a no brainer because Swiman has been
fantastic. Swimon's probably gonna get around seven million dollars a year. You can't
have another five million dollar year on the goaltender on the list. Now we
know or we heard that Ollmark may be turned down a trade because even want
to be that far from his home in Sweden and it was a longer flight,
which I don't know if that makes any sense. But they have to
find a better goaltender, no matter who it is, because these system goaltenders,
they get you to the playoffs, they don't win you rounds, they
don't win you championships. And that's a challenge with LA right now. Yeah,
I love that. That's a really good point. And I don't want
to speculate too much on who it's going to be because we obviously don't know.
But I'm just wondering if you have a read on John Gibson being in
southern California, the Ducks being around there. It's been He's been such an
interesting case because he was so good early on. He has been bad for
several years now, but still have the Ducks. So it's always hard to
separate all of that context. Do you think and does a team like the
Kings do other people regard him still as someone that can be a top goaltender
in this league? Or is there just too many question marks there? I
think there's some question mark expect to do. I think he could come to
Los Angeles and do well. I do. The question is do the Kings
and Ducks want to make that big of a trade, because historically they never
have And for let's say Gibson goes thirty miles north of Los Angeles and wins
a Cup as that kind of left for Duck fans, And you're right about
one thing. His numbers haven't been great, but that team stunk defensively.
It's it's a bad defensive team. So you have to throw out some of
it, not all of that. Those style looks to be the kid and
he's younger, and you've got a six million dollar price tag on that.
Now there have to be some retention or maybe a contract going back to make
that trade work. I think it could work. And then one thing that
you would know, I assume moving to a team that's thirty miles north of
where you play now, you won't enact your no movement clause. I think
he'd be happy to play in Los Angeles. His legacy, what if forever
it is in Anahem is set. It's a really good goaltender, couldn't get
the team over the hump. I still think there's juice left in this player.
He has been a little bit injury prone. You have to look out
for that. I think he could work in Los Angeles. I do,
but at six million dollars a year, I'm sure there has to be some
cap mechanics to make that work for Los Angeles because despite the fact they have
some guys walking away as the free agents, and Jesse mentioned that Coprait contracts
coming down three million, they still have to pay byfield the contract. They
still probably have to go get another forward. So it's be interesting to see
if they can get from a budget standpoint, get that contract in their budget
for next season's cap hit Dennis, this has been some tremendous content on the
LA Kings. How can people out there find all the work you're doing well,
if you can't find me, you're probably not looking for me. Jess.
Let's see. We do the Hot Stove on Serious XM every Saturday from
eleven to one Eastern. I'm an occasional co host with Steve Cooley. Is
also on the Power Play on Serious XM from noon to three Pacific some days.
You have to check my social media accounts and the fourth Period dot com.
We'll have our predictions for the Cup Final and the Conference finals as well,
and also be doing the pregame show for Serious XM for all games in
the Cup Final, no matter where they are. So, like I said,
I'm not hiding. If you guys want to find me, you can
find my content somewhere. I hope everybody does. And much appreciating having you
on again, Dennis. Oh, it's great being on talking hockey with you
guys. I appreciate the ass. Wilson. Then that's getting fired past.
Oh my goodness. Long now it's your Wingley Goalie talk but Kat Silverman Kat's
instincts joined once again by Kat Silverman of Goal mag to talk prospect goalies.
LA King's edition might as well be tabbed the Eric Portillo System, because I
think all the eggs are in this basket. Kat, You're gonna tell me
if I'm right or wrong about that. But he's a six foot six,
two hundred and twenty five pound goalie. He's He was a twenty nineteen third
round pick by Buffalo, traded to LA last season and signed had his first
taste of HL action and it went checks notes here very well. Actually,
he was played thirty nine games for the Untrain, which is a pretty good
AHL team, but he had a nine to eighteen save percentage, two five
zero goals against, and he had a one point sixty nine goals expected goals
per goal conceded. He had really good numbers in that metric at Michigan,
but this was even better in a more difficult league. So I'm impressed.
I guess I would say, looking at his prospecting, it's a low equivalency.
Some of the leagues he played in previously were pretty low. He didn't
have an equivalency in a couple of them, and he missed some time and
then he was in the j twenty USHL, and so some of those are
a little bit lower. But the comp that I have from here is Alex
Nandelkovich, who would be a decent outcome, but maybe he has more upside
than that. Last time we talked, Kat, you were high on him
initially and how and talked about how much LA needed him, which they definitely
do. The need in LA has not changed, perhaps only intensified. You
mentioned that he's not as slow as some big guys are. So what do
your instincts tell us now about Eric Portillo? I truly first starters. I'm
still just baffled that LA, which for a while there was almost a system
that would crank out good goaltenders and trade them to other teams that badly needed
them, almost like an asset factory. And here they are now. So
that's really fascinating to watch. But I think Eric Portillo has to panel for
them at this point because they don't have a whole lot in their system.
Obviously, things with kal Peter and I think they'd put a lot of eggs
in that basket. So I'm always a little nervous when they have one guy
who essentially has to do well, but I think he does. I think
he has to do well for them. That being said, it looked like
he did really well. I think his development has continued on a very consistent
trajectory. He's still someone who I consider one of the bigger but not necessarily
slower goaltenders. His depth management looks really good, and sometimes you see those
guys who are physically intimidating because he is. He's a big boy, he's
sixty six two twenty five. When you see guys like that playing in the
collegiate games, sometimes it's almost a little easier for them, just because they
can physically intimidate and take away space from some of the college players who aren't
necessarily going to go pro, and then they hit the pros and have to
show off a little bit more speed and really just find themselves lost. And
I thought that he looked at the AHL level, he looked really good.
I would like to see what he can do with consistent time in the AHL
for LA, and I'd love to see what happens if he gets an NHL
starter too. I think he is officially old enough that they could probably give
him some NHL starts next year if they need to, so I'd love to
see what happens there, just because I want to see what his decision making
looks like when he is forced out of his comfort zone, just because he's
big enough that playing against lower level shooters, he can use his size more
than he uses some of his decision making. And I think once you hit
the NHL that becomes fully exposed. So I'm excited to see what happens there.
I think LA from a physical standpoint as a team is really strengthening themselves
up. Again. It helps that they're in a very weak division right now,
so that might help him a little bit. But I yeah, I
think he's ready to hit the NHL at least for partial periods of time,
and I'd love to see what happens there. How dare you speak truth about
the Pacific Division like that? Yeah, they don't really have. They have
David Riddick at one more year and no other goalie signed, so it's can
be very interesting to see what happens. Yeah, maybe they roll back Cam
Telliber for another year. We will see. It'll be interesting. They have
a couple other goalies that we could mention, but as you said, they
really need Portilla to work out. But Jacob Ingram is another one who played
for the Antira raign last year. Aaron Dell got twelve stars, David Riddick
got sixteen, and Jacob Ingram was the only other one, so they had
quite a rotation there. He had six games, then he had I feel
like we know who Dell and Riddick are. Jacob Ingram with the six AHL
stars, then thirty four EHL Stars. I think we're still learning a little
bit. He's six foot five, two hundred and five pounds. He was
drafted way back in twenty eighteen. He's now twenty three years old. He's
had good numbers this season and both those stops. If you look at his
hockey prospecting, though, it's really trending down to low single digit numbers.
Eight percent chance of being a starter of that is really low. There aren't
really any good comps there for him. The only one was Dan Ellis,
who was a replacement level goalie rafted by Dallas. So, Kat, what
do your instincts tell us about Jacob Ingham. That's been a really fascinating goaltender
to watch because when he was drafted, I think they really expected him to
be one of their top prospects, and they drafted him right at the tail
end of having a wealth of goaltenders. They drafted him right before we knew
whether or not Jack Campbell was going to pan out. Right before we knew
whether or not Cal Peterson was going to pan out, and obviously they now
have neither of those. And I had considered him kind of an insurance pick
for them. He looked like someone who if he panned out, that's great.
If he didn't, that's okay. They had so many other goaltenders in
their system, and now they have Aaron Dell and David Riditch, which that's
a choice. I do know that. So they just resigned him. They
gave him a one year, two way deal. It looked like even this
past year they didn't really consider him a super high prospect for them, just
because looking at what they did, they had loaned him to the Greenfield Swamp
Rabbits in the ECHL And I don't know. I feel like when you have
a good prospect like that, especially when you have guys like Aaron Dell and
David Brittitch in your system who full no offense tie they're one of them,
they seem like really great character guys to have in your locker room. They
seem like good guys to have around your young goaltenders just to help keep things
on a more even keel. Because they've both been through some pretty severe ups
and downs throughout their careers. Giving them the majority of the starts and only
giving Jacob Ingham six HL starts and then sending him to the EHL for the
remainder of the year, it doesn't necessarily bode super well for him. But
that being said, like you said, they only have one guy I signed
for next year outside of Eric Portillo. Yes, he's their second best guy
in the system right now. From a prospect perspective watching him play, he
looks like a replacement level NHL guy, like one of those tweeers. His
decision making is fine, his movement is fine. He doesn't seem like he
does anything that's a glaring red flag, but doesn't really do anything that clearly
demonstrates that he needs to be pushed up to the NHL level instead, or
that he should be fighting for more AHL starts. He just looks like he's
there. His skating is once again fine. He doesn't do anything super glaringly
bad. He's not over correcting too much, he's not oversliding, he's not
challenging way out of the crease. He's just not making any of those really
dazzling saves when he needs to and he sometimes his angles are a little off,
just little things that don't make him look super spectacular. So we'll see.
I think they if they re signed him, I think that means they
have to be giving him a second look. But at this point, I
think this is probably especially on a one year deal for this upcoming year,
it's a one year, two way. I think this is probably his last
chance to show them that he essentially needs more needs more development from them,
versus getting released into the wild for another team to scoop up. So I
don't know, we'll see. I find it hard to be super worried about
having him in the system, but I don't. There's not a ton about
him that makes me super excited either. Let's talk about the last guy.
Hampton Slukinski six foot, one hundred ninety pounds twenty twenty three fourth round pick
played mainly in the high in high school in Minnesota and his draft season a
couple of games in the usn TDP. Last season, he was with the
Fargo Force of the UCCHL, and his numbers were pretty stellar, being that
he was just in high school in the USHL and a July second birthday.
He is far from being someone who they can consider with the main club,
but maybe it's someone that we can be interested in. He is committed to
more than Michigan University for college. His hilarious. His one of his best
comps here in hockey prospecting is Cal Peterson. That was not intentional, It
just popped up. So got what do your instincts tell us about Slokinski.
So a lot of those high school games are impossible to find a ton of
footage on. I did catch a couple clips of him, and he looks
really happy to be there. It's the best way to describe his games.
He First off, I think he has an elite hockey name. I think
Hampton Slakinski is. If somebody was writing a fictional book about a hockey player
like that would be their name. So I want to see him sixcted just
because of that. But I don't know. I think we truly have to
watch him play against collegiate goaltenders. Because he did well in the USHL.
It looked like he had the instinct, he had, the speed, he
had the reaction timing. His game was super unrefined though, and I don't
know how much of a step forward he took just because I wasn't able to
see what some of his prior year development looked like. Whereas, especially with
some of those Canadian goaltenders in the European goaltenders, if they're playing a couple
games here and there in higher level systems, we're really able to see them
play from sometimes age sixteen, we're able to get some of that linear paths
upwards for them. So I'd love to see him play a second year of
film hockey just so we can see if that really aggressive, enthusiastic style is
going to be a thing for him, or if that was just him trying
to hold his own against a much faster pace in the USHL, Because there
are some really good high school teams out there, but none of them come
even close to playing a full season of USAHL hockey. So it may have
just been him trying to keep up and doing a really good job of it.
But if that's just his style, I'm very curious to see what happens
when he plays against adults, for lack of a better term. So I
think he's like you said, I think he's a ways off from the team
being able to consider him as a sure thing in their depth chart. But
glad they drafted someone because boy do they need it. They do, and
I agree. Let's see Hampton Silkinski succeeds so we can keep enjoying that name.
Thanks so much, Kat for telling it, for giving me a certain
stakes on the LA Kings Goalies. We'll be back right after this dig the
Dynasty dig La King's edition. Time to talk a little bit of King's Dynasty
prospect system. Victor likes the system quite bit. He's got him tied for
tenth in terms of their strength and pick number twenty one is on the way
this year. But they've done some they've done some buying. They got no
second, third or fifth round pick. So the Kings system starts with the
no brainer. It's a name who is a Victor. That's Brant Clark,
of course, drafted eighth overall in twenty twenty one regular season in the AHL.
This season, he put up forty six points in fifty games for AHL
Ontario Rain, really solid production. Sixteen games in the show this season,
managed six points, with three coming on the power play. He had a
very memorable OTGWG that was fantastic coming out of the penalty box taking it down
if you haven't seen that clip, go look at it. It was really
exciting and I thought that was going to be a little bit more opportunity that
was going to earn him even more leash and more time in the NHL.
But it turned out to not be true. He ended up going back to
the Antario Rain was with them for their very long playoff run, which actually
is still going on as we record this. They are in the Ontario Rain
are in the Pacific Division Finals against Coachella Valley. You'll probably know when this
comes out how that fared. Coachella has a very good team though so anyways,
really strong HL production as well, and the Kings opted not to bring
Clark into their playoff run, which I think was unfortunate, although he might
have struggled against some of those fast forwards for the Oilers. Anyways, forsists
in five playoff games for the Ontario Rain was really nice. Looking at his
FHL player card, Brant Clark ten out of ten in terms of gold and
assists per sixty, both of them tops of the leagues. No one better
for defense. He shoots a lot, you'd love to see that he actually
blocks a fair amount. He'll be above replacement level for that, but he'll
be below replacement quite a bit below for hits, so he blocks a lot,
doesn't hit a lot. Overall, the bash because of the shots and
blocks is pretty good and the points certainly look like they will be there,
so really exciting prospect. It was great to see him a little bit more
run in the NHL this season, and we're going to learn a little bit
more about him from OURFHL scout. Yes, Jacob is our scout in this
case. And skating great, positive on the strides, top end speed,
strong cuts and edges. Showed flashes of brilliant lateral movements. Passing and handling
excellent, fantastic puck mover, especially in transition up the ice. Skill is
good enough to quarterback a power play shooting his great quick release off the stick,
booming slapshot IQ low panic level, very poised under pressure for checking decent.
Not the most physical defender, but will put in the work and the
defense is a positive. Something he's really improved since he joined the Rain in
the AHL. Good gap control, great use of his stick to take away
passing and shooting lanes. An asset at one on one battles, especially in
front of the net, so the best asset was the puck handling. The
biggest concern is the physicality. While the defensive games come along, he still
needs to work on his physicality and continue getting stronger. Best case scenario,
Brank Clark is a number one defenseman who can play in every situation fiftieth percentile
outcome. The worst case would be solid top four, top six defenseman with
good offensive tools and a decent defensive game. Stylistic comparable look no further than
Grew Dowdy. He is a dynamic offensive defenseman in some with brilliant puck skills.
High Hockey IQ sees the ice well, isn't afraid to jump in on
the offense. Two way game has come a long way become more responsible in
his own in by providing great gap control an excellent man on man coverage.
He'll need to continue getting strong and provide more physicality to fulfill the potential of
being the number one defenseman in the NHL. I'm ready to run through a
wall, Jacob. That's great stuff, and our buddy Mason, the NHL
Rankking, put out the poll. Put out the call Brent Clark versus Olin
Zelweger. Another one of the top defensive prospects, and Clark won this one
in a route sixty five to thirty five. Victor, is that the way
you rank them? These are certainly two of my favorite prospect defense been going
back for years. But I remember saying years ago that I would We've actually
had this question exact question posed before, and I remember saying that I would
take Clark just because there are other options in Anaheim and there's no one else
in LA. And that's even more true now because Pamel Minchikov has completely arrived.
This is when we were debating Zellwegger versus Drysdale, but obviously Drysdale has
been moved and hasn't quite worked out the same way. But Minchikov came.
They have Tristan Leno, they have nor Warren, they have a lot of
good defensemen in LA. Anyways, I think even more so now than than
before, I absolutely would take Brent Clark here because he is the heir apparent.
I don't know about that comparable to Dowdy. I understand where he's coming
from. I do think that he has the potential to be a number one
d like Dowdy. Dowdy I think will always be better defensively, but I
think Bran Clark will be much better offensively. He's much more dynamic and interesting
when he runs the power play, he offers a little bit more. So
I think it'll be see it'll be interesting to see how close he can get
to being a Drew Doughty type. When you look at the Hockey prospect team,
between Clark and Zellweger, it's pretty clearly Clark, but they're very similar.
And remember that the Zelwegger was always really young for his draft year because
he's a September tenth birthday, So if you regress his years, he probably
would be the same or even higher than Clark. Looking at Clark's other comps,
a lot of them are stars, Victor Headman, Tody DiAngelo, Evan
Bouchard I think is probably the best comp here, someone who can be like
a number one d and whose defense is probably a bit underrated. Like people
like to poke fun at Bouchard and say he's not good offensively, but I
think he's actually pretty good. He's just not incredible. He's no Rock Favor
or even Adam Fox Victor Headman. He's not those type defensively, but he's
pretty solid. He's probably one of the best defensemen defensively on Edmonton, but
he's also got that dynamic offensivebility. He's got that booming shot, the shot
that Clark does not have. But I think Clark is more dynamic walking the
blue line and creating offensively, whereas Bouchard definitely is more of the shot.
He makes some really good passes too. Looking at the j Freshcard twenty seven,
twenty three percent chance of being a star for Brent Clark in this model,
ninety six percent chance of being an NHL pretty much a Locke to be
an NHLer and a really good chance of being a star. So yeah,
definitely big Bran Clark fan. He his time is pretty much now, like
he has pretty much arrived. He's played some decent NHL games and I think
he's only going to get more next season, so be excited about him.
I definitely would take him between him and Zellweger. Very good. And who's
your need to know, Victor need to know? Is Cohen Zeemer twenty twenty
three to third round pick, six foot one, two hundred three pounds right
winger. After putting up forty goals in the WHL the year prior this year
was cut short by injury. Unfortunately. He managed to come back recently and
contribute ten points in fifteen playoff games for Prince George before they were eliminated,
But overall it was a bit of a lost season unfortunately for Zeemer, as
he just didn't have the number of games. His regular season totals were well
over point per game, so that was nice, but hard to gauge exactly
how much growth and development he had because of the injury, which was really
unfortunate. He was The other thing I think that's always going to be a
bit of a caveat with Zemer is that he plays with Riley Height and Trek
Parasak was there. There was also Zach Funk. So he's on the team
with some really high end offensive producers, and so the questions are going to
continue, like how much is he a passenger versus how much is he driving
the play? I think that there's some fair questions there. Looking at his
FHL player Carden, Zeemer has some really good scoring, but actually he's a
bit more physical than you might think. Seven out of ten in terms of
his hits, six out of ten for blocks. So overall, with his
strong shots. His bashes a nine out of ten, so strong periferal floor
for coin Zemer and really high point production at least per sixty basis, which
is why we always do this per sixty because even though he played a limited
games, you can see that he's actually near the top of the league in
terms of his scoring. Yeah, nice periferle cover decent goal scoring. Let's
hear a little bit about what makes coen Zemer tick from URFHL scout. Cohen
Zeemer is talked about here by Jacob as well. The skating below average,
not much explosiveness which doesn't allow him to pick up much speed. Same with
cuts and edges as he falls a step behind because there isn't much quickness.
Passing and handling above average. Shown flashes of nice puck skills. Not much
of a playmaker, but has the ability to create open space for himself.
Great quick release in his shooting off is played with plenty of power and accuracy
for the IQ the middle of the road under pressure, He's got a tendency
of forcing passes to areas where there's nobody around. However, he has shown
flashes of poise to maneuver his way around and create open space for himself for
for checking. Average isn't necessarily a workhorse when for checking, but is effective
when he puts in the work. Likes to use physicality to knock opponents off
the puck and the defense above Average showed decent positioning in his own end,
using his stick to take away passing lanes, not afraid to play physical,
throws some big hits here and there. Pop asset then was the shot.
Biggest concern was the skating quickness and agility and need improvement along with his cuts
and edges. The top outcome middle six winger, best case scenario, improves
his skating, becomes a solid two way winger who can occasionally score some goals
and kill penalties. Fiftieth percentile. Zeemer is a middle to bottom six winger.
That's likely where he succeeds the most. In the NHL defensive responsibilities PK
stylistic compare, we had Barkley good Drow here, so victor our friend Mason
Black put Cohen Zemer up against Nick Lardis of the looks like the Chicago Blackhawks,
and the winner in that competition was Lartis actually fifty three to forty seven.
Is that the way you would stack him, Yeah, I think so.
I really liked Lartis in his draft season. I thought he was drafted
sixty seventh overall by Chicago in the third round, and I thought in terms
of the guys left on the board, he was really solid. In terms
of his goal scoring, He's a goal scorer. That's really his biggest thing.
He had In his draft season, Nick Lardis had twenty five goals for
Hamilton and twelve for Peterborough after the trade, really strong. This season.
He had another twenty nine goals for now the Branford Bulldogs of the OHL.
You love to see that goal scoring. The knock on him is that he's
five to ten and what else does he do off the puck. It isn't
maybe as strong or as noticeable. So that's the concern with Lardis is that
he maybe it doesn't do as much. But he's got a really good one
skill and I think if I had to choose between the two, then I
definitely would take Lardis because of the goal scoring versus Zeemer. Seems like a
good complimentary offensive playmaker type. But I like Lardis. Looking at some of
his underlying stats, He's got pretty decent transition numbers. He's got pretty decent
like puck battles and scoring or sorry, not puck battles, but scoring some
of his defensive zone and puck battle As you might imagine, it is a
little bit lower, being a little bit of a smaller forward, so Zeemer
doesn't have the height issues. But I still would take Lards. I think
that there's a better chance there. Looking at the hockey prospecting between these two,
Zeemer started off much higher and the star potential forty one now down a
twenty seven percent chance of being a star, and Lards started at thirteen and
an update in his draft plus one season to twenty. Really hard to up
your equivalency in this model, so you love to see that for Lardis.
Looking at Zeemer's other comps, he's got some decent ones like mckkil Granland.
Matt Coronado is one, I think one that probably makes a lot of sense
as Joel Ferbee as a decent, complimentary offensive winger that wasn't maybe too exciting.
I think that could end up working out for Zeemer and the Kings.
Looking at the j fresh card, twenty two percent chance of being a star,
sixty four percent chance of being an NHL or so, pretty decent numbers
there from the j fresh card and overall, you know, he may be
able to get a bargain on him because he did have a bit of a
down season. So Zeemer is someone I'd still be interested in, and if
you can acquire him for cheap, he could have a really strong bounce back
deep plus two season and you could be all over that, all right,
Victor, And now we move on to our third and final prospect. Who
is the keep your eye on? This would be Alex Turcott twenty nineteen fifth
overall, very high draft pedigree five to eleven, one eighty five pounds center,
slash forward, winging, not sure. Hasn't played full seasons fifty five
games this season, thirty six this season before thirty five two years before that.
His point pace has fallen behind as he jumped in levels NCAA to AHL
to NHL. This year. In the AHL, his best pace was twenty
nine points in thirty five games. That's really solid. He had four points
in twenty NHL games, so certainly not a breakout, but it was nice
to see him get a fair number of NHL games, which he still has
struggled to play that many of he had. Two years ago he had eight
NHL games that was before his ELC was kicking in. Then he had four
last season in twenty this season, so it's a trickle of NHL games,
which means he's still baby even though he's twenty three years old. He'll be
twenty four this season. He hasn't really had a whole lot of run in
the NHL, and looking at his FHL player card for the AHL, he
has really strong assists for sixty that was really good in terms of best setup
men in the AHL. Nineteen assists and thirty five games was really good.
He actually blocks a ton for a forward. He's one of the best blocking
forwards in the league. And his hits, though, are extremely low and
his shots are below average, so overall his bashes not great even though his
blocks are incredible. He may be someone you pick up as a depth blocking
forward. That's not anyone who's too exciting in fantasy. But let's hear a
little bit more from our FHL scout to see if we should be interested.
Jacob has some words to say on Alex Turcott skating great quick strides, top
end speed, excellent makes him a relentless checker at both ends of the ice,
passing and handling middle of the road. Not much of a play driver,
but is almost always taped to tape with his passes. Doesn't create too
many turnovers. Shooting is good, quick release on the rush. Scores a
lot of his goals by going to the front of the net for tips and
rebounds. The IQ low panic level very little panic in the scheme, shows
patience within without the puck or checking is excellent. Strong for checker because of
that strong skating ability, uses his body and stick to knock his opponents off
the puck and defense excellent, high work ath relentless checking, plays hard along
the board's wins, puck battles, loves to pressure his opponents to force turnovers.
So the best asset NetFront, presence, and work ethic. Biggest concern
offensive upside. While he's a good two way player, I've got concerns about
how much of an impact he will have offensively at the NHL level. The
top tier outcome top six winger. Best case scenario, that's if he translates
his offensive game and becomes an excellent second line center who can score fifty to
seventy points while getting time on both special teams units and the middle of the
road would be middle to bottom six winger. That would be a reliable middle
to bottom six winger with defensive responsibilities. Stylistic comparable, we're going Brandon Hegel
here and Mason Black. The NHL rank King puts Alex Turcott up against Pafol
D'orofiev of the Vegas Golden Knights, and the answer there, D'arrofiev in a
route seventy three to twenty seven percent. Victor. You got the same idea,
Yeah, I think so. Last time I listened to the pronunciation.
The very Russian way to say it is Dodo Fiev, but we can say
doro Fiev because we're not Victor. You're ready to effect. I see what
you just did. No, I'm very happy not being in Russia, thank
you. But yeah, I think that I would pick doa Fiev. He
is already in the NHL. We've talked about Vegas' system being a little lacking
and high end talent, but they do seem to find guys like this who
can slide into the lineup can be productive. It's nice that you can have
that strong production in someone like him. I was really impressed too with his
goal scoring thirteen goals in forty seven games getting thirteen minutes time on ice.
That's pretty outstanding. And I know he's not the best defensively, but he's
not not completely terrible. So I think that he could be someone as a
really nice steps option. And if he gets more scoring, sorry, if
he gets more time on ice, then I think he can really increase Dora
Fiev increase that scoring quite a bit. So forty two point pace last year
was based on a thirteen percent shooting percentage and a little bit high PDO,
which that could all be mitigated with taking a little bit more shots and having
a little bit more time on ice. And I think there's gonna be opportunity
for him in Vegas to get closer to like maybe fifteen or so, and
if he can do that, I think he can get closer to fifty.
So I like Doro Fiev Turcott. I really like Turcott as a depth,
you know, post type sleeper here because I think he seems like he's turning
his career around. I do think he's probably more of a middle to bottom
six forward at this point. This is just a classic example of LA used
to have all these top assets and they just held on to all of them
instead of trading some for more immediate help. And I think that's really a
lesson learned here for your teams as well your fantasy teams. You can't just
hold on to all these guys forever and expect them all to hit, which
it seems like that's what LA was doing, and they definitely did not all
hit. And Turcott is one of those examples, and he may still work
out well, but I don't think his upside is fifth overall like when they
drafted him, and part of that's injury is part of us development. So
anyways, I do I would still take a speculative that on him because I
think there's still something there, but I'm not sure it's quite as high.
One of the comps in hockey prospecting is Elis Linholm, and we're seeing alcelin
Holm do pretty well now and we've seen some highs, we've seen some kind
of regression in low seasons and definitely needs to be in the right position,
and I think that's probably the top outcome for Turcott at this point. I
don't know that it's super likely, but I do think that he could end
up being something quite similar to that. Looking at the j fresh card,
it's pretty low. One percent chance of being a star, ten percent chance
of being an NHL are really pessimistic on Alex Turcott, and I could see
why it's not gone super well, but there's still some potential there. That
is the La Kings dig. If you're a patroon, you can listen to
my top ten prospect recap on Patreon, which I'll be starting after the NHL
Draft in case you're curious, they haven't happened yet. If you're interested in
doing some scouting with us, shoot me a DM on Twitter, scored or
email us. We will be right back and we'll lw these out before we
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