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. Block Off has
a step hit on staylock. Here's your hosts, Jesse Severer and Victor Nuno
Fantasy Hockey Live back once again talking the wonderful world of fantasy hockey. I'm
Jesse Severe fan Tracks. That next voice you will hear is Victor Nuno's of
ep Rinkside. Victor, how you doing. I'm doing great, Jesse.
Yeah, it's a great time of year the I don't know about you,
but in most of my dynasty leagues, playoffs start this next week, so
that's exciting. How about how you doing? And is that true for you?
Yeah? It is. And did you know, Victor, that tomorrow
is a national holiday? Are you aware of that? I am aware of
that. I didn't realize that in the sense of my playoff matchups starting on
the holiday, but I was aware that it was the holidays. That just
gives you. That just gives me more time to stress about the matchups starting.
I don't know about you. Yeah, some people think that the day
is President's Day, but in fact, you and I both know it's international.
Don't let Jesse set the playoff brackets in the dynasty League's stay. That's
actually the real reason for the season, because I goof those things every single
year, Victor. Now, the second round is worse than the first round.
That's the one that really chaos ensues. But we are involved with nine
leagues and hopefully the Admiral will take care of at least six of them.
But it's going to be, yeah, biting my nails for the other I
think the brackets break your brain because it's not as simple. It's not as
simple like top versus bottom. The way we set them up usually is the
especially the consolation brackets, is that the worst teams have the best chance.
So it's like the top teams go against each other and for some reason that
it's difficult. Well, for it's the receding every round that gets me.
But yeah, also I put the buys in the wrong place. So anyway,
those are just my problems. You don't need to hear about my problems,
but if you wanted to, you could hear about other people's problems.
But more to the point, they're happy times over in our discord server,
Victor. We're coming up on four hundred people in that server. There's a
lot of people showing up there for free. It's a free server in the
discord where you can talk fantasy hockey any and all of the time. You
can be a patron. We'll talk about the Patreon soon, but you don't
have to be. And they're just a whole lot of people. And this
is going to be a spicy time of year because, yeah, our dynasty
leagues that we create for Fantasy Hockey Life are firing into the playoffs now.
Some people think that's rather early to have playoffs start. Victor you and I
we differ that that should be a hot topic for people this week. Absolutely,
I'm in a couple of leagues where this is not the case, and
I think we have five more matchups until playoffs and it goes until the very
last week, and I'm just like, this is insanity. We've made our
case on this, but it's totally crazy, I think personally, to have
all this come down to a one week matchup where some you know, at
the end of the season, some teams are out of it. It just
doesn't make sense. And then having the championship be a week where stars are
being rested. It's lunacy. Yeah, I get it, it's a little
early to start February nineteenth, we're not even all the way into March,
but it just it makes for a more level playing field. It makes for
a more competitive environment, and I think in a lot of our leagues that's
an even matchup if you do it this way with all the teams in the
league. So I also really that too. So it should be about fairness,
and it should be about trying to get the best outcome where the best
teams have the best chance to win, and not just have some random variance
or luck play into it. As much as possible, there's always gonna be
some of that, which makes it fun, but you don't want to be
too chaotic, right, Yeah, And people who know me or no leagues
that I've been involved a commissioner in no, there's nothing I love more than
having a balanced schedule where everybody plays every other team once. I mean,
heck, if the season is long enough, we could play other team twice.
But the truth of the matter is the number of weeks of normal matchups
are usually fairly similar to the number of teams in a league, and therefore
I love to make them balanced, even at the expense every once in a
while of making a two week matchup. That confuses people because that's just how
it's got to go. But Victor, some people like me are selling at
this time of year, and to do the selling, I will tell people
that I do enjoy looking at your your prospect list to guide me and figure
out who are the guys that I'm going to try to trade for in rebuilding
situations. Others can look at your prospects and get access to other content from
us by joining the Patreon. Victor tell them how to get there. Yeah,
you can go to patreon dot com slash Fantasy Hockey Life and yeah we
just actually aside from you, Jesse, that was fun helping you with that.
But there was also someone who a desperate need of joining a new team
and having all this chaos in terms of getting you know what happens when you
join a new league, especially at this stage, people are gonna throw trade
offers at you. Most of them are going to be terrible, but some
might be decent. So in a desperate need to not screw this up after
joining a new league, someone joined just recently and had all these questions which
is great. That's what we're here for, that's exactly and sometimes those people
are in multiple discords, so you need more personalized advice too. So that's
one thing you can get through the Patreon is one on one help. You
get access to the Patron Priority channel with a bunch of smart people that can
help you as well. The prospect rankless so you can see and you can
always ask if certain players are maybe up or down depending on which way they're
trending. So all that kind of stuff is available plus Patroon casts and other
great perks. Patreon dot com, slash Fantasy Hockey Life Jesse. Yeah,
that's maybe sometime in the off season. I'll share the teardown that I decided
to do late in the season in the original Dynasty, because I've really flipped
the switch from when now to future and Victor, you were a key part
in deciding on some of these trades because the obviously the market was starved for
the buyers who really wanted to get stuff, and some of the buyers who
were contending for championship actually did have some pieces to deal, so it was
it was a fun situation. But anyway, Victor, yes, now we
have to get to the content. We have to get to the meat of
this episode we're going to be talking about. Listen after the breaking find out,
we welcome to the show a man who scouts both for Dabber prospects and
for your hometown fantasy hockey life. It is Jim Icavone. Jim, how
you doing today? Doing great? Guys, Thanks for having me on.
How are you man? We're pleased to have you. We're pleased to get
some takes on some prospects, and today the basic just Jim does flyers prospects
for us primarily, but we're also going to focus on a couple of NCAA
teams that happened to not only feature some flyers prospects, but some other very
prominent guys that Jim's been following. That is Boston College and Denver University.
So that's the gist of what we're going to be getting through today. Jim
is just a few guys that we've all had some interest in. How does
that sound to you? That sounds great. I'm excited. He agreed before,
so I knew he was going to say yes to that victory. I
think you get a started year. Yeah, we're going to start out with
some BC boys. They just play the bean pot and they've been following him
along for a while. And the first guy is is a non flyers player.
That's Emon Powell and he is a five to eleven, one hundred and
seventy two pounds right handed d drafted by Tampa in twenty twenty fourth round pick.
He's the captain of the team right now, so some leadership there.
It's always nice to see when guys are wearing a letter. He's twenty one
years old now and he's had an up and down production there at BC.
His first season was really strong with fourteen points in twenty four games, and
he dipped down to nine and thirty eight, and then he's kind of trended
back up and this in his senior season, twenty points in twenty eight games
is pretty nice production for a defenseman, and looking at his hockey prospecting,
it's not that exciting he has Basically he'd be statistical anomaly to be a star
at this point in that model, like one percent chance of being a star
in Mason's NHL ranking app he's trending back up to like maybe a second pairing
potential. And I have a ninth on my Dauber Prospects organizational rank, which
says to me a lot more about the depth in Tampa than it does about
Powell. But depending on what you say, Jim, people might want to
be a little excited about a depth role here. What do you think about
Eman Powell, and especially in that organization where there isn't a whole lot of
other names to jump in front of him. Yeah, so even Powell was
He's been a fun watch. I think you mentioned he's the captain and you
can definitely see in his play his leadership qualities. One thing I thought was
interesting is he plays on it. He quarterbacks the PP one for Boston College
on a power play with four first round picks, and he's the only one
that wasn't a first round pick. You mentioned fourth round pick of Tampa Bay
in twenty twenty, picked in the fourth round. Now, he's a smart,
steady, right handed defenseman. He looks a little smaller in stature.
He's listed five to eleven, one sixty five. You can definitely see the
one sixty five, but I think maybe they juiced him up in the height
a little bit. He's fearless, he's, as I mentioned, small,
and stature, not afraid to engage in puck battles, plays in the gritty
areas, doesn't always win those battles, but doesn't shy away from them.
Even still plays an aggressive defensive style, very agile, good edge work.
With the skating, I noticed he sometimes skates straight up, which makes him
appear slow. It just looks. It looks funny to me, but I
don't think. I don't think it'll have anything to do with good or bad.
With how he plays, participates in rushes, supports as a trailer,
adds good depth to the team's attack. There is one thing that I really
didn't like about him, and he sometimes forces what I call low percentage plays.
And maybe that's because of the talent that he has around him and BC
is such a good team that they can get away with doing that. But
he's not going to be able to do that at the NHL level for Iman
Pale. But yeah, overall, he's a fun player to watch. He's
my kind of player where he gets into the gritty stuff. He's a smaller
guy and not afraid to play physical. But yeah, overall, fourth round
pick and maybe he's bottom pair D in Tampa Bay will see Yeah, definitely
strikes me as a guy who in the l is probably not going to be
running a power play but the best of what's there right now. But he
also seems like he can move the puck pretty well. Like you said,
maybe a bottom pairing. And certainly we've seen in Tampa guys come in like
Nick Perbicks and they have another guy now can't remember his name, but guys
that seem to come out of nowhere, and if as long as they can
handle some of the physicality and move the puck quickly, they can be relevant
and fantasy and Tampa still pretty good. So you think you could fit that
role after college, right, Yeah? I think so. He's he definitely
works, and I think as long as you're willing to work the way that
he does, you always have a chance, especially if you don't have the
skill you need to. He does have the skill, so don't get me
wrong, But he's a fourth round pick. There are guys that were picked
one and two and three rounds ahead of him that maybe have more skills,
So he's going to have to work to earn his spot on the roster next
up. I'm guessing that one of the reasons as a Flyer scout, you
were watching Boston College was because of one Cutter Gotier, who was a right
winger drafted twenty twenty three forty five points twenty seven games as a freshman in
the NCAA ten points in seven games, rocking the World Juniors this year.
But of course, the great drama of Cutter Gotier ended up heading out west
to the Anaheim Ducks, and it really has been blowing up once again this
year for this dominant BC team. What have you seen about Cutter Gotier and
how much of a grudge do you hold against him for going west? Man
A lot's changed since we last talked about Cutter Gotier. Huh, Victor,
I think we talked about Gotier back in November, and I just during the
show we talked about he had eleven goals seventeen points in thirteen games, and
he now has twenty five goals forty two points twenty eight games. And I
wanted to see because I've noticed he's been scoring a lot since January ninth,
the day the Flyers traded him to Anaheim, and since being traded, he's
played in fifteen games, he scored fourteen goals and has twenty five points.
He looks. It's going to sound weird because he had eleven goals seventeen points
into thirteen games, but he looks like he has extra motivation. Or maybe
he wasn't playing to his fullest potential before the trade. Maybe he was pissed
off. On the show, we talked about how we were surprised that he
was playing the second year with BC, and it's come out that maybe there
was some disagreement on what the plans were for Gotier for this season. It
sounded like he wanted to play with the Flyers this year. He was promised
that he would be with the Flyers this year, and as we know Danny
Brier and Keith Jones, this is their first year with their positions with the
Flyers. It sounded like they had a conversation with him and it said,
hey, you're going to have to earn your spot. You may not play
with the Flyers right out of the gate. Maybe there's some hl time.
I don't think Gota liked that. If you think about it, your seventeen
eighteen year old kid promised one thing. All of a sudden things change,
and maybe that upsets you a little bit. So he didn't really look like
himself early in the year, even though he was over a point per game
player. After the trade, he looks like the old cutter Gotier I guess,
the one that was scoring nine points in the men's tournament for you Team
USA. Over the summer, he's been an animal. He's a goal scoring
machine, the best shot in the NCAA. It's almost a shame that he
was traded because when I watch him now, I'm like, this is the
guy that everyone was so excited for. Because for a while there, I'm
watching Gotia and he's making maybe uncharacteristic mistakes, careless mistakes, really lacks a
daisical plays, and I'm watching and I'm like, this is not gonna fly
under TWITTERRELLI He's going to chew him up and spit him out. But since
the trade, it's like he's re energized, remotivated. Maybe he's excited again,
I'm not sure, but he's absolutely carrying. Be you right now.
I think he's got twenty twenty eight goals. Now look the sup real quick
twenty five goals in twenty eight games for BBC. Yeah, he's pretty awesome.
Yoh. Yeah, it's a shame that he's not with the Flyers organization.
And Jamie Drysdale is a hell of a player. But Cutter got Man,
when you watch him shoot, it's it's something else. And to think
that he's only twenty years old with all that potential, we'll be doing it
out in Anaheim. Yeah for sure. Yeah, he's definitely an exciting player.
And yeah, that BC team must be so much fun to watch on
a daily basis. I still can't believe they didn't win or didn't do better
in the Bean Pop. They're focused on the Frozen four and national championship.
All right, let's we've spent a lot of time talking about Gotier, so
I want to talk about some more depth guys. And this is another one.
Oscar Yelvick j E. L v Ik for those of you scoring at
home and oscars with a K. He's a five to eleven left wing,
one hundred and eighty one pounds. He was drafted by the Boston Bruins and
the SO Again another late pick here, and this was in twenty twenty one
he was drafted. He's now twenty one years old and he was this is
the second season with Boston College. He was over in Sweden before that.
Really tearing up the j twenty and this season so far he looks pretty hard
good thirty points in twenty eight games for BC. Of course, we know
they score a lot, but a lot of it comes from those other high
pedigree guys, So you're gonna tell us if he's just writing cottails of what
he's doing there. But looking at the Hockey Prospecting model, Yelvick looks like
he currently is listed as zero per chance of being a star, which is
pretty harsh. But there's some of his compster guys like Dennis mulgan. If
you guys remember that name, Noah Cats is someone who's still in the league.
So these bottom are the roster replacement level type guys, but sometimes they
can have values, especially in deep leagues. And with Mason's app he's got
a PNH ly of fifty fifty two it looks like, so he's a bit
on the rise. In that model. He looks a little bit like Alex
Kerfoot types, so he's six on my Dabber Prospects organizational rank like Powell,
has more to do with the depth in the Boston system, which I would
argue is even worse than the tempe of system. And you know you're gonna
tell us, James, what do you think of Oscar Yelvick. Could he
be a nice depth at it and maybe he has some skill to rise.
Yeah, so you mentioned a guy like Alex Kerfoot and Oscar Yelvick. When
I watch him, he does have offensive potential, but yeah, he would
be primarily looked at as a third line, fourth line type guy possesses He's
got a good physical stature. He's listed five ten one eight one, but
he looks like so. Something that I say a lot is some of these
young kids need to grow into their man body, right because they might have
the skill and this and that, but when they get to the NHL,
they're playing against grown men who are fully built. So he's got good vision,
good passing skills, contributing to offensive setup. He plays well with Gotier,
is what I noticed. Maybe they've developed some chemistry, but it's like
he knows where Gotier is going to be on the ice and it's not that
hard because Gotier usually goes to the scoring areas. But there was one play,
for example, Yelvick rushed in to retrieve the puck behind goal and almost
blindly threw it to a spot, but Gotier was right there ready to receive
the pass. Good passing, good vision, good hockey IQ, high level
hockey IQ. Make smart decisions with and without the puck. Not afraid to
engage physically either, which from for a third or fourth line guy is what
you want to see. Good work along the boards, not afraid to get
to the front of the net, can win puck battles. Pretty good rounded
playing style mentioned his work ethic. Strong work ethic, is consistent with effort.
He's got a motor on him, and pretty much everything you want in
a bottom six player. You want a guy that's willing to work, willing
to do the gritty things, but also possessed the ability to put the puck
in the net or help his teammates put the puck in the net. And
now we get to the Holy Trinity, the three guys who came from the
US national development team to BC. They're rocketed out the first of the three.
Of course, it's got to be the first of three, even though
he's the middle of the three. Drafted Ryan Leonard of the Washington Capitals or
soon to be drafted date overall thirty six points and twenty seven games, as
a freshman, he scored six points and seven games at the World Juniors.
His reputation is kalate a big hitter. But why don't you tell me.
One of the mysteries that we've got to untie here is what are these guys
when they split up? And they aren't altogether? But what do you think
about Ryan Leonard and his potential future? Yeah, I see a potential star
in the NHL. I'm not sure if he'll be a macachuck, but he
has the potential to be that, and it's certainly how he plays now and
at the college level he's played like that for the US national development team.
I see potential future captain of an NHL team. Thirty eight points in twenty
eight games as a freshman, eighteen goals, twenty assists. He does it
all. He's got the motor. So there are some guys who are potential
stars, and they have the talent and the skill, and they might lack
the work ethic, whereas Ryan Leonard has the skill and the potential, but
he has that the third and fourth line work ethic as well, which is
I think what makes him so dangerous, because sure he can set guys up.
He can finish plays, he can check and do all this, but
he just he's got a motor and I think that makes him extremely dangerous.
Obviously, projects top six NHL player, probably top line more than more likely
than not. But yeah, this is a guy that the Capitol should be
very excited about. He's got an NHL ready frame. He's listed six foot
one ninety two. It'll be interesting to see if the Capitals elect to sign
him after the season or if he goes back to BC for another year.
We'll see. But I can't wait to watch this guy in the NHL.
I can't wait to watch all three of these guys away from each other because
they have been playing together for so long. It's going to be interesting.
Ryan Leonard is the one. I think I've said this before far, I
have the least concern about playing away from the other two. I think you
agreed with me on that. The next guy we're going to talk about,
though, Gay Perro, and he's I think the most interesting of the three.
Maybe there were more questions. He was drafted the latest. He was
drafted twenty third overall by the New York Rangers. He's a five to eleven,
one hundred and sixty five pounds winger, and he was really good at
the World Junior Championships for US. He had seven points in sorry ten points
in seven games, and there were questions about whether his lack of foot speed
and his intelligence would transfer to the NCAA. I don't think there are any
questions about that anymore. Forty six points in twenty eight games. He has
been sane for his production, so far, so good. His hockey prospecting,
he's got a bunch of weird comps. Some of them are like Pavel
Burrey and Yarma Yager, and then there's Sam Gangne and Bob Brann like some
other busts. So it's definitely not a bus proof projection. His pnhle has
him looking like an absolute superstar over one hundred points. But I also pulled
up Chase McCollums graph and he has some more modest projections. I would say
a lot of interesting ones like Alex Nielander and Sonny Milano who would be not
so good outcomes. Also Joshua Sang, But then I think one of the
more similar is Nick Eelers. He could be that type of productive NHL R.
And it's really funny that a lot of his similarity comps are guys that
are haven't quite made it yet in this model. But then you go down
to the logan Cooley and maybe there's some rhymes there, although they're not the
same type of player Seth Jarvis, Mikhail Bodker, Nick Eelers. So anyways,
there's some interesting things. And I also wanted to pull up best points
per game in the NCAA by an eighteen year old, and some of these
go back to the seventies, but he's currently twenty third on that list,
which is pretty crazy. This is points per game, but if you just
go back the past twenty years, gay Pro has the third best mark of
points per game in the NCAA. That's insane for an eighteen year old.
So yeah, he's pretty good, James, But tell us a little bit
more about what you think about gay Pro and how's progress through the season,
because I know you've watched him throughout the year. I've had the most fun
watching gay Proro progress than probably any other player in the NCAA this year.
He's I think doesn't receive enough credit because you see guys like Ryan Lanyard,
Will Smith where they went in the draft last year, they're the big names.
Gay Proro I think is the steal of the draft for last season,
at least to steal the first round, the Rangers getting him at the twenty
third overall pick. I see a star. You brought up a lot of
models there. There were a lot of different names. But so one thing
I look for is positive progression throughout a season, and he's doing that and
then some he's listed five to eleven, one sixty five. There's no way
he's He looks bigger than that. He and the skating no issue. He's
the guy that's He's the straw that stirs the drink on that line. But
he you're right when we talk about these guys doing it on their own,
it will be interesting to see, but he is. He seems like he
can be the guy on a line where the play will will work through him.
He's It sounds like maybe a negative thing to say that he's the guy
that connects, he's the connector, but it's not. You need those guys,
you know, as long as you have guys that can put the puck
in the net, you need a gay Proro. I covered the Flyers could
use a gay Proro. They have a lot of guys that can put the
puck in the net, and not necessarily a lot of distributors that will look
for guys in shoot first position or scoring positions. Gay Per is that guy.
He's a lot of fun to watch. Unfortunately he plays for the Rangers,
but I'm excited to watch him do this in the NHL. It's a
lot of fun to watch. Not going to stay under the radar long.
If he's literally the highest scoring player in the NCAA, that's probably going to
get him a little prominent forty six points in the lead by two a game
perrole. Do not forget the name. A name that everybody can easily forget
but shouldn't is Will Smith of the San Jose Sharks. He was the first
one of the big three here taken and he's got forty one points to show
for it in his first twenty seven games as a freshman in the NCAA.
Nine points in those seven World Juniors games, and is come down a little
bit from the estimations that some had for him last year. Maybe some might
take these guys in a different order, but you've been watching Will Smith closely.
What is your take on where this guy's at? Obviously, Will Smith
is the unfortunately because it sounds like a knock, he's the least fun for
me to watch, but he is getting the job done. Forty two points
in twenty eight games, sixteen goals, twenty six assists. You have a
guy like Ryan Leonard who literally does everything on the line, a guy like
Gapro who's just fun to watch progressing, and Will Smith, who he just
I guess he just does what he's supposed to do. He's not as flashy,
not as fun to watch for someone like me, but he gets it
done. He was picked fourth overall for a reason by the Sharks. He's
a guy I think will need to see develop more in the NCAAA. I
wouldn't be surprised to see him back there next year. I think he might
need it, and yeah, he's probably going to be I don't want it.
I don't want to say medal six on the show, but yeah,
we'll see With Will Smith, he's a guy that I'm not as excited as
the other two. We'll just say that bear enough. Let's take a brief
break that is covered the BC. They were good. I watched that consolation
game with them from the bean pot and they were getting it done, but
we have another exciting team to talk about after the break. Gonna selfish shocking,
that's right, selfish, break it down. Skate the fuck, don't
got head. It's still gonna be there. When he got up one,
taking coast to coast, dropping four angles, you're still shot. Bad balance,
that's a good breakaway. Gotta get the bounced boys. Yeah. So
now we're gonna move on to Denver University and there are a couple of really
interesting players here to talk about, and we're gonna start with Sean Barns.
Barns is a five to ten, one hundred and seventy six pounds left handed
d He's a color out of Avalanche draft pick twenty to twenty one, second
round pick sixty first overall, kind of really late in the second round.
He's now twenty, he'll be twenty one in about a month and a half
here, and he's doing really well. He's got twenty points twenty three points
in thirty NCAA games. He had similar production last year and also had really
good production in his first season at Denver. Denver's been really good for a
long time though. That's something to keep in mind. Though they are a
really strong team, and Barons is definitely a bit undersized for an American defenseman
and he plays in college. But you know what that means, We have
a Tory Kruge coming, because that's who we have to compare everyone to by
contractual obligation. But Barons, in the Hockey Prospecting model, he looks like
a sixteen to twenty five percent chance of being a star kind of guy and
a seventy five percent chance of being an NHL R. So most of his
generated comps in that model don't look great. One of his main ones is
Joe Morrow, who didn't really work out, another Boston draft pick for Krug
though he definitely looked a little bit better, and his last couple seasons were
really strong. But if you look at the straight up equivalency for the most
part, Barons is pretty similar in terms of his straight NHL in his three
NCAA seasons, and his PNHIL model has him looking like a little bit better
than a second liner, somewhere between a first and second liner and about a
fifty PNHIL. So that's pretty strong, especially for Colorado that has a really
strong team but not the best prospect pool. So James. What do you
think of Barons and do you think he could step into an NHL role relatively
quickly since he's basically going to be done with college after the season. That's
a good question. When I watch him, I see a top four defenseman,
more likely a second line, second pairing guy. He's played a lot
with zeev Bouiam this year, who's his draft stock is skyrocketed throughout the year.
I've seen him as far as top three, top five in the Summer's
draft projected pick. What I notice about him is he's got a lot of
intangibles I have here. He's a solid, steady defenseman, good skater,
good edgework, his IQ vision very smart, He's got an extremely high IQ
and he allows Buoyam to play his game. And I think that's an extremely
underrated asset to have, especially for a young kid at twenty years old,
to be able to have the ability to this kid, zeb Bulliam's a freshman
two years younger than Sean Barns, and he's able to put his ego aside
and say, Okay, I'm going to play this way to allow my teammate
to play this way. So I think that's a very underrated asset to have.
He's not a selfish player, reads ice very well, always in control.
It's willing to block shots. The last game that I watched he blocked
three shots in one shift on a power play. So willing to do the
dirty stuff to win games. His best asset plays. He plays a good
defensive role, and maybe I have here he allows his partner to play his
game. So yeah, I see a projected top four defenseman. He's just
a solid all around player. I don't have anything negative to say about Sean
Barns flipping to defenceman Shi William already. You've heard us talk about Zev already
and not Shay Shay. But he was a Detroit Red Wings pick a couple
of years ago. He's already looking like he may be a bit overshadowed.
He's a big fella. He's six' three and was drafted in the second
round. Once again. The Red Wings have been in a tear of drafted
defenseman in the last few years. He doesn't hit a whole lot in college.
That's interesting, well, under one per game and less than his brother.
Scores less than his brother too, who's of course many years younger,
So twenty five points in twenty seven games is still pretty darn good as a
junior. And by the way, I wanted to mention before we get too
far with these Denver guys. Remember Denver won a national title and they won
it with all the guys we're going to talk about today Denver. They were
all freshmen on the team that won the national championship. They all played,
and the announcers announced on the broadcast I was listening to that the reason they
got eliminated as early as they did last year is everybody got sick at the
same time. So this is a dynasty that might have even been more.
But anyway, back to William and whether he is going to be elite,
even though it seems like he might not be the best pioneer defenseman from his
own family. Yeah. So Shai Buyam is drafted in twenty twenty one by
the Detroit Red Wings. They was the thirty sixth overall pick in the second
round. He mentions big boy six y three, two hundred and nine pounds,
twenty years old. The first thing that jumps off the page when I
watched Shai Bulliam is this kid is smart. He's a very intelligent hockey player,
extremely patient, but patient with a purpose, if that makes sense.
Obviously is Ziv's older brother, and maybe he rubbed off on Zev a little
bit. Who knows, but his passing is excellent. Pass are extremely patient
and precise. He knows what he's going to do, but he's waiting for
it to open up. So he almost manipulates the opposition with his patients,
which is really fun to watch watching it. If you're watching it just watching
a regular game, you might not realize it, but if you go back
and watch him, he knows what he's doing. He's just waiting for it
to happen. So that was something that really impressed me. He's got a
shot. He can snipe the puck. If you give him time and space,
that puck will end up in the back of the net. It can
get the goal from the point. He'll find areas to put himself into shooting
ability. And it's funny because on some of the goals that I've watched,
his brother was the one setting him up. So that was cool to see.
I mentioned very smart, patient, reads the ice extremely well. Detroit
I think has another good defenseman coming up, but in the ranks, and
I wouldn't be surprised if this is a low end second pair guy or a
high end third pair guy in Shaibu. I'm excited to see how he does
the professional level. He does have the tools, and I wouldn't be surprised
if he sticks around on the second pair. To tell you the truth,
Yeah, for sure, unequivocally not the best Billiam, though I would say
now we've talked a lot about Zeven, we'll talk more about him, and
not on this show, but another shows. Let's move on to the next
guy, and that is Jack Divine and he is five to eleven ry wing.
He's one hundred and eighty one pounds. He was a seventh round pick
by Florida, and we could just stop here and say they knock this one
out of the park, because regardless of what happens with Jack, he has
really risen in the ranks from a seventh round pick, a little bit undersized,
and part of the issue with him, or I guess part of the
concern maybe is that he's in October second birthday, so he's literally two and
a half weeks away from being eligible for the following draft, so he's really
old for his draft class. So he had a pretty strong season at University
of Denver, but again playing a little bit down the lineup, even though
he scored a fair amount. Probably a little hard to evaluate him. But
so far this season as a junior, he has forty four points in thirty
games, insane. He already has twelve more points this season than he did
last season when he played thirty eight games, so that's incredible. He's tied
for fourth in NCAA and goals, tied for second in points. I actually
did an EP rings side article on him, and not to spoil it,
but I frankly think that the next guy you're going to talk about is a
big reason for Divine success. So we'll tease out a little bit. But
I do think that he's found a scoring touch. When you look at the
Hockey prospecting model isn't too excited about him, although his NHLO probability has risen
up to sixty one percent, but the star potential remains low. The PNHL
for Jack Divine and Mason's model looks like about eighty point per game player,
so I don't think he's going to hit that, but he has some interesting
comps. Guys like Neils Hoglander. I think that's the guy who he could
end up looking a little bit like more of a depth scorer. Sean Manahan
Monahan and Matthew Bniers are two other names. I don't know that he'll reach
those heights. And then looking at some of his other comps in Chase McCollum's
model, there's a whole lot of names here. A lot of them are
bus unfortunately. But then there's some other guys that we're waiting for data on,
and maybe we'll see the other Jack h Ugheses, one of them not
the superstar for the Devils, but the one for the Kings. Maki Samiskevitch
is another Florida prospects. So not a lot of guys in Chase's model have
actually made it. None of them actually have made it to be regular NHLer.
So that is a bit of a tough hill to climb for Jack Devine.
But James, tell us what you think about him. I actually really
enjoy watching him play. The number one thing I noticed about him, and
I have it written down in big letters here he's got a motor on him,
which I think for a seventh round pick. We talked about it with
one of the other prospects I think it was emon Pal. You need to
have the work ethic and he's got that. But he's got a lot more
than just a motor. Not the most skilled, but he's a smart player.
He goes to the goal scoring areas, puts himself in a good position
to score, goes to the dirty areas around the goal. He's always around
the net. He's got a pretty good shot, a good release. What
stands out to most to me, the most to me is his desire to
work. And you combine said it before, you combine work ethic with skill,
and all of a sudden you have a pretty good player on your hands
there. And I mentioned always around the goal. He can dish the puck
too. A lot of players, especially ones that can score goals, you
think of them around goal. They're probably a goal scorer. But he also
looks to pass and set up teammates around goal, which makes him dangerous because
you don't know what to expect as a defender. Is you're going to pass,
is he going to shoot? So he's very good in that sense,
a round goal, above average to good skater. He protects the puck when
he's got possession of it, and yeah, it looks like Florida might have
something on their hands here. I don't know about top six player, but
definitely a guy they can see if he can fit in their lineup somewhere.
Maybe a third line guy with scoring touch or fourth line guy. But Jack
Devine is a good player, a lot of fun to watch. As long
as he has that work ethic, he should find his way into Florida's lineup
at some point. All right, the next one, I want to put
everybody in the way back machine first, and we're going to go back to
the summer of twenty twenty three. And if you remember, one of the
dramatic events at that time was the Flyers were trying to find a happy new
home for Tony DiAngelo. They kept trying to trade him to the Carolina Hurricanes.
There were technicalities that meant that they couldn't do it. They were supposed
to trade him for a certain prospect that the Flyers had. The trade fell
through, and yet somehow the Carolina Hurricanes still insisted on sending that prospect with
a fifth round pick to the Philadelphia too. I'm sorry. The Flyars acquired
this player and a fifth round pick in return for the Flyers sending the Hurricanes,
a broke twenty seven year old veteran who's been putts it around in the
Czech League for three years and once upon a time Andre Kasha's brother David,
who is this prospect of whom I speak His name is Massimo Rizzo and he
is a climax of what we're talking about today. A five to eleventh center,
twenty nineteen to seventh rounder, and Massimo Rizzo hasn't done much this year.
He's only the second leading scorer in the NCAA and leading the NCAA assists.
Now listen to this one we're recording on February eighteenth. Massimo Rizzo has
been out of action with a lower body injury since February third. He's leading
the NCAA in assists and he hasn't played in over two weeks of the regular
season. At this point, he is absolutely killing it for this Denver team.
Definitely is tied with Divine, who we just spoke about as the lead
on the team of points. Masimal Rizzo has risen from obscurity seventh rounder to
a guy who the Hurricanes had to bribe adding the fifth rounder to him just
to get the Flyers to take him for a broken twenty seven year old player
from the Czech league, and now he's absolutely killing it. I'm gushing.
I don't understand what's going on. Please Jim explain this to me. Massimo
Rizzo, Yeah, so this was a guy who when the Flyers made that
trade, my first thought was, Okay, this could be a diamond in
the rough type guy if everything goes right, And so far this season it's
looking like that could be a diamond in the rough player. Maybe it's found
money with Massimo Rizzo. Flyers need center depth in the organization. That's the
one thing they do not have right now at all. So if Rizzo can
pan out and I don't want to talk projection yet, I'll get to that
at the end. But he's certainly making a case for himself. You mentioned
second in the NCAA scoring. He's third in the NCAAA and points per game
at one point five to seven, Like Perro's the number one player in that
category. But you look at the names up there with Rizzo, it's Gay
Piro, Maclin, Celebrini, Rucker, mcgrody, Cutter, Gotier and he's
third and all this so it's not a fluke that he's up there. He
is a distributor. He's a playmaker, likes to pass the park, likes
to find teammates in scoring areas. Jack Divine and Massimo Rizzo, two former
seventh round picks. It's fun to watch those guys play together because maybe they're
playing with the chip on their shoulder type thing and they can both relate.
But Rizzo, when I watch him play, there are instances where he still
obviously needs work. He's a young kid. He's young, but he's old.
I think for he's a little older. I think for college he's He
is twenty two years old. He's a junior at Denver, So there's going
to have to be a decision I believe after this year for him to sign
or not with the Flyers'll see what happens there. If he does, I
think he needs time in the AHL before he kind of transfers to the NHL.
What I see him as is a top line AHL center, but also
a guy that can flex in and get some time in the bottom six in
the NHL, only because there are things in his game that are not going
to fly. He's very skilled, but he's not going to play in the
top six for in the NHL, So there are things in his game that
he's going to have to brush up on if he's going to play in the
bottom six. So he's an interesting player to watch because the talent is there,
But sometimes I do wonder about the work ethic is all, and if
the Flyers can get him into their system, maybe get them with the end
of Perrier And obviously Tortorella and the Flyers have been able to develop the last
couple of years, so maybe they get Rizzo in the building, they get
him in the system, maybe he's a guy they can work with and maybe
they can turn him into something. But as is right now, I see
him mostly as a top line AHL center. Oh Jim, you're breaking my
heart. Man. I thought this was I thought this was the guy.
This guy has already scored a goal in a championship winning game. He did
it two years ago when the Denver Pioneers win it all. But sounds like
the NCAA production just may not translate as well to the NHL unless there's some
significant breakthrough here. Yeah, Like the offensive talent is there, he's got
the vision, is a good skater, but like I mentioned, when you
put him up against some of the top six NHL players. I'm sorry the
put him up against the top six, top two lines on NHL teams.
He's not going to really compete with those guys, and so if he's playing
in the bottom six, like I mentioned, there are parts of his game
that still need work and it won't fly. I'm thinking in terms of the
way the Flyers play, he's going to have to really brush up a guy.
I can see maybe spending a year or two in the AHL and then
maybe flexing back and forth. But if he can get that cleaned up,
the offensive potential is there to where he can play on a third line in
the NHL. But as I mentioned, there's some parts of his game that
won't fly. Yeah, this is great stuff, Jim. I wondered if
you were okay if I asked you a couple of Flyers questions. Since sure,
Flyers guy, Sure, I'm really interested in this team. They obviously
have overachieved, and I'm sure we're going to talk about this in the offseason.
Obviously, getting Coturier back was huge, but they had some guys that
have taken some big steps right like Tippet, Frost Fairbe, although he's been
cold for a little bit. Lawden is a real good depth guy since Zamula.
So I think part of the question here that I want to ask is
part of it is like how for real are some of these productions? And
I specifically want to ask you about Morgan Frost because he's someone that I've been
interted in for a really long time and it sounded like he was a totalrello
guy, and then it seems like they had a pretty frank or heated discussion
at some point and turn things around a little bit. And he certainly has
taken seems like he's taken some steps forward, but he also seems like he
is still not a favorite of Torts in some ways. So I wonder if
you think he's sticking around because there's been rumors of him maybe being traded and
kind of is this his ceiling? Is he kind of like a fifty point
guy or does he have upside for more because he isn't playing that much.
He's kind of like in that fifteen sixteen minute mark, which is not usually
what a two seed play, but that's what he's been getting lately. Yeah,
I think you hit the nail on the head there. For the last
month and a half Morgan Frost has been a different player, a player that
I've never seen him be with the Flyers, and it's what they've been waiting
to see from him. It's what they know has been there and this is
what they need Autam Morgan Frost. They I mentioned the Flyers lack center depth
in the entire organization. They need him, as they're to see, they
need him to get going. They need an offensive dynamics center that can create
opportunities for shooters. The Flyers have an abundance of guys that can shoot,
that can put the puck in the net. They need a center that can
create opportunities. He's been pushing the puck up ice, taking on defenders.
He's been more aggressive. There's a lot less thinking out there and more just
reaction. Hockey is a reactionary sport. Once you start thinking, you're already
behind. And so Morgan Frost he's doing all these positive things. Occasionally they
are still plays where what I've noticed is he plays too fast. It's almost
like his mind is moving faster than his body. And a lot of people
say, yeah, you want fast players, you want creativity, Yes,
but you also need to consider your line mates and either they're not used to
playing his style or he's not used to playing their style. Either way needs
to be some kind of compromise. You can't go out on the ice and
just play your game like it's great that you're this skilled and you can do
all these things, but there's two other players on your line. So that's
something that I noticed with Frost, and I don't want to call it selfishness
because I don't think it is. I think he's trying to do the right
things, but he needs to slow down. Sometimes it sounds like a negative
thing, and maybe it is, but that's something I've noticed that he needs
to work on a little bit. Just tone it down. Remember that maybe
your linemates aren't as fast as you. I don't know. That's something I
observe, though, and I'm not sure if it's a positive on him or
a negative. Maybe his linemates need to play a little faster. I don't
know. But some of the decisions that he makes still bother me. And
I'm sure bother Tortorella. You mentioned he might not be a Tortorella guy.
I don't think he is. I think it meant a lot of Tortorella that
Frost came in to have that conversation with him about playing time and being benched
again, and Morgan Frost went on a tear after that. We know Towards
likes to press buttons. I think Morgan Frost is more of a laid back
kind of guy, and I think Towards is the kind of coach where he
knows he needs more from Frost and he's trying to rip it out of him.
Right. It's like a coaching strategy where it's like, if you can
create, if you can get the player angry at you, maybe he'll try
to prove you wrong kind of thing. And I think that's what the case
is here. I just hope it can last. You mentioned is Frost a
fifty point player, and I think he's projected fifty points since December or January
when he started picking things up a little bit. My issue is, and
it was at the beginning of the season starts in October, and it's not
fair to the team for them to have to wait for you to kind of
turn things on here. I'm not sure if that's a mental thing with Frost,
but it's become a thing that it takes him a while to get going,
and for me, I don't think that's fair to the team, like
you need to be going day one when everybody else is, and if he
is, we should be looking at a sixty plus point player. I don't
see any reason why Frost can't be a twenty goal forty assist guy. It's
almost like he holds himself back sometimes. It's definitely an interesting and somewhat frustrating
player because he definitely has lots of skill, but it seems like sometimes he
makes just the wrong read or like a softer, tricky play or something,
and sometimes on the backcheck it's like he spaces out for a minute. Oh
sorry, there's a guy there right, and it's always like the wrong time
to do that. I think last night he might have even seen a couple
of times where he just got lost, or maybe it was a Toronto game
where they lost in overtime. If you go back and watch the overtime goal,
I know it's three on three, but you watch Morgan Frost and it's
you wondering what he's seeing. I definitely watch that at that specific play a
couple of times, and I watched him and it's like, what are you
doing? He's just they're covering. And then in the outdoor game, yeah,
he loses his place and I forget who scored backdoor that was just a
few feet away from him, and he's just on the wrong spot. So
that happens a lot. But then you watch the high end skill and you're
just like, whoa Like he can make these crazy spinnerama tape to tape passes
or thread it through a couple of sticks, and it's just yeah, that's
you can see why people are still eye on him because he has tons of
skill and like you said, specifically for what the flyers need, those connectors,
those distributors. One more guy I wanted to ask you about, and
that's Cam York. So he's a younger defenceman. He's now twenty three,
so he's not super young. And I think some people questioned the size issue
and the competitiveness, but I don't know that's been as big of an issue.
He's playing really good minutes twenty one minutes. I think one of the
frustrating things is that Tortorella has been just moving his power play time all over
the place, and a lot of people thought York would be the guy all
year, and that's really hurt his fantasy production. He has eighteen points in
fifty six games, twenty six point pace and only five power play points in
that time. He's getting two minutes on average a night. But it has
really varied as far as I remember. I know we've we have done a
lot of time Sanheim. There's been a lot of different guys running that power
play. I'm wondering what you think about York, whether he's going to continue
to get good minutes and maybe more power play time, because right now,
a twenty six point pace is not someone who's super interesting in fantasy. But
I think he still has a skill to do more if he's just given the
opportunity. What do you think about York? So a couple things I'll get
I think the positive stuff. I'll get the good news first. So,
York's a very smart player. I think he has the ability to put up
thirty plus points, thirty five plus points in the NHL. I think he's
a very good second pair guy, which you need. So it's not a
knock to say that he's not a first line guy. For a first pair
guy, you need very good second pair guys, and I think that's what
York is You're right. He has been moved around a lot. He's had
different defensive partners. He was playing with Sandheim for a bit and then he's
playing with Drysdale. I think even with Nick Sealer for a little bit there.
The Flyers are trying to figure out their d so it hasn't really been
easy for him, and we all know consistency on familiarity it makes it better,
especially when you're one of these younger guys. He's been very good defensively,
but I've always been skeptical about his offensive production, especially on the power
play. I don't he's not a guy that gets pucks to goal consistently.
He can quarterback a power play, but you don't really have to worry about
his shot, so in my opinion, that makes him less effective and easier
to defend. I don't how can I say this without making it too personal.
I don't think he's PP one type player. I think he's okay on
the PP two, But fantasy wise, I wouldn't have huge expectations for Cam
York offensively. He's been more a better defensive player this season. I think
Tortorella made a point to develop him defensively. Travis Sandheim is his line mate
for a large part of the years having a breakout offensive season, but Cam
York I don't have the optimism offensively as maybe most people do. Tremendous,
a little extra Flyers content for the listeners, Jim, thank you so much
for joining us today. Anything that you want to promote out there, Oh,
just my work on Dauber prospects, So you guys can also check out
my work for High and White hockey. We have a site hw hockey dot
net. We do a podcast once a week predicated around the Philadelphia Flyers,
So if you're a Flyers fan or you want to know what's going on with
the Flyers, check that out. And yeah, obviously doing stuff with you
guys, which I love, by the way, this is great stuff.
I always have fun look forward to talking to you guys. So thank you
tremendous. Thank you so much for joining us to the bank. A couple
of things to mention before we're out of here today. Our show is brought
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Late February is here, trade deadlines coming up, playoffs are here.
It's time to keep living that fantasy hockey life,