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back to talk Nashville Predator. We welcome back to the show. Brian BASTIONI
of on the for Check the Man on the Street talking Nashville Predators. I
am doing all right, how are you guys doing? I really appreciate you
guys, having me back on this is always something to look forward to every
year. Shoot, yeah, that's awesome, man. We love having you
on to talk Nashville Predators. Where do we start with the Predators? Brian
on January thirty. First, I went back and looked at Hockey Reference and
tried to figure this out. January thirty, First, the Predators were fourth
in the Central Division and you were in the wild card one spot. Then
they ripped off a seventeen to two and two run starting with that legendary YouTube
concert. And when that was all done, they were still in fourth in
the Central and in the wild card one spot. And then they became buyers
of the deadline because everybody got excited. Then they finished the year on a
bit of a slide, four or five and one in their final ten games.
Guess where they were in the standards at that point, yep, fourth
in the Central wildcard one spot. So when the water stops swishing back and
forth in the pool, the stats, if you look at overall league stats,
showed Nashville's is pretty much right in the middle of everything in most of
the stats. And we're going to talk about some of the stars of the
team coming up in some of the really great performances that certainly came with this
team. But what at a high level do Barry Tratz and company make of
this year and what do you expect for them next year? We'll talk about.
I think the main reason why they pivoted to I wouldn't even say full
buyers because adding guys like Anthony Pavillier and Jason Zucker were additions, but they
weren't necessarily anything that was going to push the team over. I think that
it had taken that long for the team to shake the cobwebs out of the
John Hines system that they had been in for three years, and some of
them had still still had that lingering Peter Laviolette type play. Andrew Brunette came
in and was fre an analytics guy like me, just a dream, an
absolute dream of a coach to have, and they came in and that all
of a sudden, Nashville had high scoring forwards, which is something that you
don't really normally hear when you or think about when you talk about the Nashville
Prayers, especially historically. You've got your, of course, your big star
in Philip Forsburg, who seems to his age curve seems to just go upwards,
which is unbelievable to me. Same with Roman Yosi. But they were
sitting there in that four spot. Nobody really thought, myself included, nobody
really thought that they would stay in that spot, and they made it into
the playoffs, and despite UC Sorrows having, by his standards, the pedestrian
years. So I think that was the mindset. I know that when they
came in that I think the expectation level, even for a guy like Andrew
Brunette, was that this team was going to be okay. They were going
to transition, but this year was not going to be a year where they
were going to put it all on the line and try go out there and
try to get that one last piece, which is nice because that's what Nashville
had been doing for seven six seven years prior. And I think they got
pleasantly surprised. And I do think that Andrew Brunette was a little bit robbed.
Probably wasn't going to win Coach of the Year, but I think he
should have finished a whole lot higher than he did because the talent level that
he inherited and then what he did with this team and turning players around was
unbelievable. I think it was one of the best coaching jobs I saw in
the NHL last season. Let's start with that guy you mentioned whose career is
heading up and up, Philip Forrestburg. He put up highs in both goals
and assists for his career ninety four points. He crushed his career highs in
shots and hits, and importantly, maybe more importantly, even he skated eighty
two games for the first time since twenty sixteen seventeen. Every year since twenty
sixteen seventeen he well into double digit games per year. He certainly clicked with
those two new Preds who lined up with him at even strength. We'll get
into Ryan O'Reilly and Gustav Nyquist in a little bit seven hundred and sixty four
minutes together. Believe it or not, that threesome at even strength were second
in most minutes in the National Hockey League. Was a minutes hog on the
power play, twenty third out of four hundred and sixty five skaters in the
NHL for powerplay tom and Ice nineteenth in power play points. Certainly what the
Preds were hoping for with that big contract that he signed. And some people
were questioning in terms of can he stay healthy enough to make it pay off?
Is it simply a matter that Forstburg has to stay healthy to be what
he is or is there something else affecting this career curve going up and up?
Do you see any regression coming? Like you said, I think staying
healthy was a huge factor, and towards i'd say maybe the middle of the
season last year he started, he stopped going to practice, and nobody complained
about that. And I think that that I can't sit there and say that
had everything to do with his performance in him staying healthy. But I think
that the system that Andreburnette plays in a lot more north south, like a
much more faster, high powered type of offense, I think really helped him
out. And then, of course when you've got a guy like he's played
alongside. He had a career year a couple of years back playing alongside Matt
Dushane, which was really good. Matt Dushane ended up getting setting at the
time the franchise record and goals which was just a paltry I believe forty three,
which I think he Dushane and Fordsburg were the first forty goal scorers in
Nashville history, which was surprising even to somebody who's covering the team. But
I think with Ryan O'Reilly especially, I think Ryan O'Reilly just came in and
was had that midas touch. But Fordsburg was allowed to be a little bit
more creative, he was allowed to be much more. He was allowed to
be that unique combination of power and skill that you don't see a lot.
He's had some pretty great line mates over the years. I think we think
back to the JOFA line which was him, Ryan Johansen and or Arvidson.
Of course with Matt Duchane as well, but I think the combination of the
three players that we saw last season really played to Philip Forsburg's strength and he
just saw him get up to a completely different level. Again, he did
have about what thirteen point eight shooting percentage, which is probably you say it's
not sustainable, but that's the numbers he puts up kind of year after year
as being a little bit above what you would expect. But I think that
the offense was more finely tuned to his strengths, allowed him to be creative,
allowed him to go one of his things that we saw him do under
Andrew Brunette this season, which he didn't do a ton of in previous years,
was he was just incredible. He would go down down the right side
or left side and come up off the half wall just almost parallel to the
goal, and he would come straight across with the puck, and guys like
that usually aren't going to be able to carry the puck from the wall to
right in front of the net, but sure enough, Philip Forsburg was able
to do it, and a lot of his goals were right there in those
high danger areas. And again, you've seen the trick shots, You've seen
all the things that he can do. They took the leash off him a
little bit and catered to that first line than the offense, to his strengths,
and it really paid off. And I'm very excited to see what that
trio does next year because forty eight goals, we'll see. I don't know
if he'll be able to do that. But they all got off to a
slow start, the entire team did. And I'm not going to last year.
I said I didn't think that he was going to top his forty two
goals from a couple of years back and look what he made me look like
a fool. So I'm not going to do that again. I do think
that I think that if Philip Forsburg's going to hit one hundred in his career,
it's probably going to be in the next couple of years. And I
feel pretty confident about that. Well, you know who else made all of
us look like a fool? That was Gustav Nyquist. I think like waiting
until you're thirty four years old to have a career year, wait to go,
buddy. Not only did he set a career high, but he smashed
it by fifteen point total points or an eight point pace, however you want
to look at it. He did this by scoring by shooting four percent over
his career average. Other than that, his leut metrics were pretty much in
line. He looked at his total impact on a hockey. The offense was
pretty high at seventy six percentile. The defense was four. I mean,
can't get much worse there, Gus, But hey, his offense was pretty
strong. So, Brian, what do you make of this hot season by
night Quist? And most importantly, do you think he can replicate it to
any extent? Yeah? That's you're right. Nobody expected that, but as
somebody who also found his peak in his mid thirties, it was good to
see. And again, I think it was that complimentary piece, and I
think that both hit you know, him and Forsburg owe a lot to the
game of Ryan O'Reilly, and I think that with Niquist, I think looking
at his impact metrics and things like that, he wasn't the best defensively,
but I don't think Andrew Burnette and company were asking him to be all that
well. Ryan O'Reilly has always been a good shot, suppressing forward. Philip
Forsburg's always been that all around guy. I always say that he's underrated for
his defensive ability, but I think that allowed Niquist to come in there and
probably take advantage of the fact that a lot of offenses were both keying on
Forsburg and O'Reilly, and Niquist probably he benefited from that. I don't know
that he's going to have another season where he puts up I believe, what
was it, seventy five points. I'm not positive he does that, but
it is encouraging to see that thirty four of those points were primary assists,
and I think that's what seven fifty seven, So fifty seven out of seventy
five of his points were primary points, So that's always a really good sign.
He was a really good player to have on the power play. We
didn't want to see him too much on the penalty kill, which I don't
think we saw him too much anyways. But I think that he's a guy
that if I was going to say, I say Forsburg, I really was
pretty confident about him being able to go up. I don't know that Gustav
Nyquis is going to be able to hit seventy five points. I think twenty
goals is probably achievable for him. But I think that as offense start to
start to key on him as well, not just O'Reilly and Forsburg, we're
probably going to see some of those numbers go down, because again, he
shot a fifteen percent last year and his expected shooting his expected shooting percentage was
around ten point four, So quite a bit of a difference there, and
I think that he might cool down come back down to earth. Who am
I to judge that first line at this point, Yeah, they were looking
pretty darn good. And the third member, Ryan O'Reilly, You just mentioned
him, what a renaissance this year. Some folks were scratching their heads last
summer when he signed down there, trying to figure out what exactly was going
on. It can be remembered he had a great run with Toronto at the
end of that truncated season. If you look at the numbers, he was
amazing after a pretty slow start in Saint Louis. But his sixty nine points
Ryan O'Reilly's this year were the most since his Selky slash smythe twenty eighteen nineteen.
He's never going to be a guy for our fantasy game. Who's going
to get the bash, black shots and hits. Not really a Ryan O'Reilly's
game, but it seems the Preds have something really good with that first line.
Do you expect more of the same from O'Reilly in his second year in
Yellow? Yeah. I think what he was most effective on, the biggest
impact he had on the team was on the power play. He was simply
incredible the power play last season. There was for the first half of the
season he was either first or second I think in power play goals for a
good probably thirty forty game stretch, which was again you think about Nashville,
you know, Nashville doesn't really have a great historic have a great power play,
but he came in and was scoring a ton and again it really did
show that Andrew Brunette offense of trying to get everything to the front of the
net and really focusing in on those high, high danger shots, it really
paid off. And his power play impact did cool off just a little bit,
and he did shoot a little bit over what we would expect to see
based on some of the advanced metrics. But he came in and I was
like to have him. But looking at that deal was what four years and
four million dollars, You think that's a lot for a guy who's thirty three
when he came in. But who are we to doubt a guy coming Toronto
and having a renaissance here and we just watched Hymen and the Stanley Cup finals
do the same thing, So I think that I think the whole O'Reilly couldn't
handle the pressure of playing in Toronto. Who's but I think he really did
have quite the career renaissance and was somebody who I think should have gotten a
lot more credit outside of Nashville because we all appreciate him, that's for sure.
But I think that what he did at his age and being able to
play a solid all around game, especially again suppressing shots things like that,
I think that was something that a lot of people were surprised by. And
I think that he's going to be a solid piece right there in the middle
because Nashville has struggled having really good centers. It wasn't until Ryan Johansson and
Matt Duchane that Nashville really had a one see on this team, a true
one see, and they were so good that Nashville's continuing to pay them both
over the next few years. But all Riley, I think he's going to
be a guy that I wouldn't be surprised at all to see similar numbers,
especially with new assistant coaches coming in to coach the power play. I think
that's going to see. We'll see a little bit of a bump and production
from those guys on that first power play unit, and we'll see that Ryan
O'Reilly's productive days aren't over it all. Yeah. Sure. Tommy Novak next
guy, he's a late bloomer now. In his third NHL season, twenty
seven years old, Novak held it down well enough. His performance wasn't as
hot as that breakthrough twenty twenty two slash twenty three, But there was also
a bit more going on in the Nashville forward core, probably than there was
late the year before. Well, the future Novak, who actually was fourth
on the team and expected goals above replacement last year looked more like the forty
three point and fifty one season we got the year before or the forty five
and seventy one we just had. And how will Novak fit into this lineup
as the team continues to rebuild. My I love Tommy Novak, especially those
years coming out of Milwaukee. He's a guy that I think, like Forestburg
put me, not to the same extent, obviously, but when Tommy Novak's
gonna shoot the puck, I just have a feeling that like he can score
when he shoots. He's just got that shooter's touch. He reminds me a
lot of Craig Smith. When he played for Nashville, where he was Kik
Smith. The joke was that he was a lock every year to score twenty
goals and that was about it every year on the second line. And I
think that Tommy Novac played a majority of his minutes on the third line when
on the checking line. Things like that with some of the younger players like
Luke Evangelista and guys like him. But he's just a guy that has,
you know, continued to mature, and yeah, his goals and his point
scoring went dipped down. But one of the biggest things I saw, which
I thought was really encouraging, was that he was a black hole for defense
for the first couple of years in the NHL, and he's I'm not going
to say that he's a world beater at this point, but he looking at
advanced metrics, he broke about even being league average a defense for being a
guy who developmentally was just a purely an all offense player. I think something
like bash with blocks and hits, He's not going to do it. I
think he had six hits all of last season. He's not a guy that's
going to get in there and muscle muscle other guys around. Only thirty one
blocks, but you know, as an offensive scorer, I mean, he's
definitely a type of guy that you can sneak and get him later and later
rounds in your drafts, and he's going to he's going to surprise you.
And he's a guy that I've really had a good time watching because he's a
lot of fun to watch, and when he gets that hot hand with scoring,
he'll rip off ten to fifteen games and score twelve thirteen goals. So
we'll see. I think that a lot of these younger guys struggled a little
bit more than some of the veterans did getting adjusted to the new system.
But if there's a guy that's besides Forstburg who's just a pure shooter on the
team, it's going to be a guy like Tommy Novak. Awesome, Let's
do a points pick them for a couple of guys who a couple of the
younger guys actually on the team or starting to establish themselves. Guys Luke of
Angelista, Philip Tomasino, both of them twenty two years old. Last year,
both of them put up identical forty point paces, but Evangelista did it
by playing eighty games, whereas Thomasino was only out on the ice for forty
one of them. Which one of these two do you prefer going into next
year and how do you look at them? Yeah? So the thing is
with Luke Evangelista, in the past two years, going to development camp,
you see a lot of these new guys, new draft picks, things like
that coming out on the ice. But every year there was one guy on
the ice who looked like he was an NHL player and just was just head
and shoulders above everybody else on the ice, and that was Luke Evangelista.
He has not slowed down from his days in the OHL. He's been a
guy that has been pretty electric. I didn't think he'd play eighty games this
season for Nashville, but shows what I know. He's a guy that is
got a ton of skill. Nashville drafted him to be a one seed in
the future, and I think he's got that type of potential. I wouldn't
I'd love to see him play on a line with Philip Forsburg a little bit
more things like that. But I have high hopes for him, and I
think that sixteen and sixteen goals, thirty nine points, I think that he's
going to be able to beat that next season. On the other hand,
we have Philip Thomasino who came in with a similar pedigree, similar expectations one
Sea of the future. He had incredible seasons with Oshauwa and Niagara. We're
calling correctly, and then just he got, came into the NHL, had
a good year and a half or so, and then just sputtered, and
so much so that again he spent the second half of the season last year
playing a ton of his time in Milwaukee, and there's a lot of doubt
as to whether or not he's even going to return. I think even Andrew
Brunette after the season kind of dropped quite a few hints about they just they
weren't seeing out of Philip Thomasino what they wanted to see. I think that
he could have used a little bit more time, But as a restricted free
agent now coming in, I just I don't know that the chances of I
think you'd have to pick Evangelista just by default, just for the fact that
I don't know that Tomasino will be on the team next year. But even
if he is, I think Evangelisa is much more of a sure bet to
be a guy that is going to pay off, especially with points going from
sure bets of guys that might actually be on the team and guys we have
a lot of questions about, let's go to Cody Glass. Where still unsure
who Cody Glass is, but he is nearing in that two hundred games played.
Mark one hundred and eighty seven is where he's at right now. He
played forty one games this past season. Sounded like he was dealing with the
merit of different injuries, including some mental health stuff. The previous season he
had seventy two games and had a forty point pace, so seemed like things
were encouraging, but this could be construed as a step back. He also
lost some time on ice and some opportunity. There's still hope, potentially from
some of us that he could be that high pedigree guy that he was originally
drafted to be. So, Brian, what should we be thinking about Cody
Glass and where do we go from here with him? Yeah, he was
a great story. I think when a couple of years back, when they
had the behind the Scenes series on NHL Network, it was a big deal
about him coming to Nashville looking to revide lightis his career after being a first
round pick with Vegas and never really finding his footing there. And when he
arrived in Nashville that first year had a great year and I think a lot
of people were super excited to see what he would do. But for whatever
reason, this year he could just never get it together. Looking at Evolving
Hockey their goals above replacement, he actually graded out as the worst player on
the team and goals above replacement, which I didn't know that anybody would get
underneath. I like Luke Shen, but Cody Glass did and we just he
felt lost out there. And I don't know if it was just the transition
to a different style of play under Andrew Burnette compared to John Hines. But
it's going to be very interesting to see what the Predators do with him because
they've got one more year a two point five million dollars with him before he's
a restricted free agent, and I think this is a season where he's going
to have to prove that he belongs because I think being twenty five years old
still young, but I think that a lot of people the year he had
this year is what a lot of people like in Las Vegas, thought he
was going to have after they traded him, and he's going to have to
step up, and he's got the pieces around him that where he can,
he should be able to step up and have somewhat a good stockpile of talent
to play around him in a second or third line role as of last season.
He just really couldn't put it together, and it was pretty disappointing to
see. And you feel for the guy because I think he really felt revitalized
by coming to Nashville and having that turnaround season that he did last year,
but unfortunately this previous season he just couldn't quite put it together. And it's
going to be a boom er bust. I think this could be a season
where he could get forty forty five points if he can put that together,
and maybe it just takes some time to get used to the Andrew Brunette system.
But if he doesn't do it this year, then there's no telling what
his future might be. But I don't think that if he's not putting up
those types of numbers, then he's probably not not going to be in Nashville
for too much longer. Our defenceman section is relatively brief, but it doesn't
start any better than this one with Roman Yosi. He is just out there
building a Hall of Fame resume every year. As far as I'm concerned,
eighty five points in eighty two games, led the league in primary assists,
third in overall points doesn't even get unorous votes. These days among the defensemen.
I don't get it. You'll see had the eighth most minutes skated in
the league, led all defensemen in the league. In individual course, he
four need I go on. Yosi's big money eight year deal is aging like
a fine wine. Is there any reason to accept expect slippage of some sort
or will we see this level of Yosie again? I can't imagine that we'll
see anything every year. I say that I don't think he could, he
can get any better, and he does. I think he had a low
shot at the Norris this year. I think that he could. There was
a compelling argument for him, and he may be one of the most electrifying
skaters, not just defenseman in the league to watch. The local broadcasters like
to call him Nightcrawler because he's the type of guy that you'll see him in
one spot and all of a sudden, he's one hundred feet down the ice
somewhere else. And one of the things that I always really wanted to see
from him was to see him drive it to the net a whole lot more,
and under Andrew Brunette he did. And of course you get closer to
the net, you're going to score more goals, and I really loved his
game a second or third on the team and goals last year with twenty three,
like you said, eighty five points from a defenseman. We saw Shay
Weber get into the Hockey Hall of Fame today, and if and Weber is
obviously beloved and an icon here in Nashville, But what Roman Yosi is doing,
I think a lot of people in Nashville were like, if Shay Weber
just got in, then it's a bygone conclusion that Roman Yosi will because he's
just an electrifying player. He's been. The season we saw from Philip Forsburg
reminds you of the talent that Philip Forsburg had. But Roman Yosi is not
a He don't have to be reminded. It's every season. It's every year,
whether he was playing with guys like Ryan Ellis or Mattiscomb or Dante Fabreau,
PK Suban even a little bit back in a few years back. No
matter who you put him with, Roman Yosi is just incredibly effective. His
defense is getting better, I think, and looking at some of the charts
of evolving hockey things like that. His offense just goes off the chart,
you have to basically stretch that y axis because of what he does and what
he creates on the ice. He is somebody who is just dynamic. He
makes the players that he's skating with better. And again, he played all
eighty two games him and Forsburg, which is something that you don't see too
often, especially in Nashville. And I don't have any reason to expect Romanosi
to have to have a downturn at all, if not. If anything,
you don't expect him to be better just because that's what Romanosi does. I
you have to worry about all the other defensemen next year, Brian, but
I don't very few of them are probably going to be fantasy relevant. But
if anybody can get above a forty point base on this blue line, is
there anybody who could even get there? Or who I think? And this
is a guy that when I started covering the Predators I was very down on.
There's another guy, another defender that I really thought was better than him,
and he proved me wrong. Has quickly become one of my favorites.
But as of right now, I don't know if he'll still be on the
team this season. And that's Alex Carrier. His game has been really tremendous.
I love the way he plays hockey. I think that given a little
bit more, more of a shot and more time, I think he's going
to really develop into a strong I think right now he you would put him
in a second pair on most teams, But I think he has the ability
in the talent to be a first pair defenseman somewhere, and I think,
unfortunately that's going to be probably what's going to end up happening, just because
you had guys like Ryan mcdona, Dante Fabreau, the failed experiment of Tyson
Barry. But I just think that he's a guy that if anybody who's currently
still on the Nashville roster was going to approach forty it's probably gonna be carry.
I don't think he will. He would hit it this year. I
don't think that there's anybody currently on the Nashville blue line that's going to get
come close to forty points. But he's a guy that I think has a
lot of potential and is somebody that could surprise you just depending on where he
ends up. So Steven Stampcoz it's going to be a little weird to see
Stammer in a Smashville jersey. What do you think we can expect from this
perennial point per game scorer who is typically good for thirty to forty goals and
has been a really reliable high point getter for his career. How do you
think he's going to fit into this top six in Nashville, Brian? And
what do you think we can expect from him? Point wise? It's exciting
because it brings a completely different It's that star depth that Nashville didn't have last
year. I think a reason why that they weren't going to perform very well
in the playoffs is that top line was cooking all year, but beyond that,
there wasn't a lot of offense generated. And when you're adding a guy
like Steven stampcast, yeah, he's thirty four. I was a full last
offseason talking about thinking that Ryan O'Reilly was past his prime. And this is
a guy who scored over eighty points last season, Like you said, point
per game type of guy, forty goals. That's again, like, there's
only two players in Nashville history who have scored twenty or forty or more goals,
and that's Forsburg and Duchhane and you can't. You can't. It's hard
to look past the fact that, yeah, you're getting a guy that he
may not be at his prime, but even past his prime, is still
really good. And honestly, the kind of talent now, the one two
punch that you have with a guy like Forstburg and then O'Reilly and then having
stamcoast, that's I think it's gonna be great. I don't know if he'll
be the type of guy that'll he'll be able to score forty again, but
eighty points should be pretty pretty doable. I think just because that's gonna the
power play is gonna get affected quite a bit. They're going to have guys
on the second power play. I think more importantly, you'll have a lot
of guys that were playing on that second power play that you know won't have
to anymore. They can focus on the rest of their game. But you've
got a guy like Stamkos, You've got Forstburg, Ryan, O'Reilly, Roman
Yosi, and you've got so many options now that I think the problem that
Andrew Burnet's gonna have is how does he divide up the talent? You can't
you could make it, you know, a really heavy, strong PP one,
but that second one's still going to have some good players on there,
and so that's he's got a little bit of a problem with riches, I
think. And so I'm really looking forward to it because for a guy thirty
four years old still putting up forty goals, that's that's pretty great. Yes,
it was on Tampa, but who knows, who knows what he could
do, especially in this offense. Exciting for sure, and yeah, as
you said, just pushes everyone down the lineup in their correct spots I think
a little bit, which is really good for the team overall. But they
didn't just do one thing with Stamp cost they also are I mean everyone agrees
they won the offseason the beginning of the off season anyways, and getting Stamp
Coos and Marciso. One of the original misfits turned consmith. Wa has been
a perennial sort of fifty five to seventy point guy most of his career when
he's gotten the opportunity. He's also been in the seventeen minute time on ice
range with pretty good power play opportunity. It seems like that should be similar
to Nashville or maybe even he gets more opportunity because I know in some of
his previous stops the Fords have had their minutes spread around a little bit.
So what do you think we can expect from marches So do you think he'll
be right in that sixty sixty five ish point range? I think so.
I think that you know he's going to be playing with I mean because now
you look at that top line of Roriiley Forstburg and a Nyquist, where you
put Stamkos in Marciso, that's you would say second line, and you're like,
you don't put guys like that on the second line, But do you
mess with the chemistry of that first line. I think that it's going to
I think both of these guys are really going to benefit from playing with each
other, because I would expect them to get time together. But looking at
that top six, you've got plenty of options I think, to go with
when it comes to what you want to do when it comes to offense.
I mean, who better for a guy like Tommy Novak to learn from than
like Marcas and Stamcos, you know, and curating his game and watching these
types of guys play, and then you can still have that bottom six where
it's that high four checking, you know, you know, pretty physical type
of play that edgrew Burnett kind of likes to have to compliment the high scoring
offense. And these two together, I was going to be happy with one
or the other going into the first day of of the free agency, and
the fact that they were able to get both, and that part of it
was marshasof Saw. I think he heard about the stam Coast signing on Twitter
and that kind of helped him make his decision to come. And five and
a half million for four years is not bad at all for a guy like
that. I think that we all expected that this team was going to be
taking the slow rebuild starting last season, but seeing how the season ended,
they saw opportunities to add on and with getting more caps based and things like
that. I think that it's been great and so it's going to be really
interesting to see because now you've got Forstburg is locked up till twenty thirty,
stam Coost till twenty twenty eight, Marcasau until twenty twenty nine. So you've
got Burnette has his core of guys. You've got Romaniosi until twenty twenty eight,
another defender who just signed until twenty thirty one. Those are guys you
build that team around, and now you've got. Now he's just got to
deal with the complimentary pieces to go along with it. And if these deals
don't work out, it might be a little bit tough. But I just
can't imagine them not, these guys not coming in and being really productive players.
Again, two forty goal scorers when Nashville's only had two in their history,
So that's pretty nice. So Brady Shay coming off a career year forty
eight point pace has obviously his career ten point pace higher than he's had,
which is basically what he's done the last couple seasons. In terms of what
was so different from him, he didn't really get more time on ice that
was pretty similar. His power play opportunity was similar. It's never really been
a big part of his production. Although he did spike from seven up to
twelve power play points, so got a little bit more there, a little
bit more in that opportunity. I think he's probably gonna still have a fairly
significant time on ice roll in terms of the total, I'm not sure if
he's going to be power play too kind of guy what kind of role do
you think Shay is going to have with Nashville And is he going to be
able to get close to that point pace that he had last season, up
close to fifty. That'll be interesting, I think, because with the kind
of the depth that's there is here in Nashville, Alex Carry he got re
signed, which was surprised to a lot of people. I was super happy
about it. But it takes the load off of him to have to step
up and do a lot of those things because the Tyson Barry experience experiment didn't
quite work out. But I think Brady Shay would be a fantastic please piece
to put on that power play too, because Roman Yosi operates as the one
defense defenseman the quarterback on the first power play, and I think that Nashville
has gotten pretty used to, I have, at least to having that four
forward first power play unit. But a guy like Brady Shay and then whoever
else you want to throw in there, Tommy Novak, Gustav Nyquist, those
types of guys, like, You've got a really good unit there, and
this is a guy that his goals above replacement looking at evolving hockey on the
power play it was really good for especially for a defenseman. Now, part
of that is he plays in Carolina. He played in Carolina last year.
I think that him going from Carolina and their style of offense to coming too
Nashville, I think he's going to find a way to fit right in with
that. He's gonna be able to play, probably play special teams and play
on the penalty kill two again taking off time to where you've got to put
Roman Yosi in there, because Roman Yosi is going to continue to play,
you know, whatever it is that he seems to play a game like thirty
forty minutes. Not really, but it seems like that. So he'll be
a guy definitely that'll be great to have on there to take that load off.
He'll be a good second option, like a second pair probably. And
again you've got your established veterans like In Yosi and Brady Shay and then Luke
Sheen for better or worse. But then you've got the younger guys like Spencer
stats Andy, Mark del Gaizo, Alex Carrier, Dante Fabreau. These are
guys that you know are going to not have to play in that first that
first pair role out of necessity and you're replacing some guys that maybe you can't.
You're not going to sit there and replace a leadership or things like that,
but are going to get these guys who are obviously talented, who have
put in put up a career year last season. I would say probably like
his last three seasons with thirty nine, thirty eight, and forty seven points.
Yeah, I'd say thirty five to forty would be great. I think
that would be a huge success. But at the same time, it's it's
a little difficult as a defenseman to get a ton of points if you're playing
next to Romano Seas. But you'll see, we'll see. I think that
that job gets easier when there's better depth on the team, and I think
that now Nashville has better depth, and I'm really excited to watch him play.
I think these are three guys that Nashville had twenty six million dollars in
space coming into the opening a free agency, and they utilized it definitely for
sure. I think that they still have some moves that they will have to
do afterwards. I'm really pleased with it. I think that if you have
the top six completely figured out, it seems like at this point then going
out there and getting guys that are going to help extend the depth in the
bottom half, or guys that can come in and play as second pair and
play significant penalty killing minutes. That's going to give Nashville a lot of depth
that they didn't have in previous years. And so I think that's going to
make this team a little bit more dangerous because now teams aren't gonna be focused
on shutting down the Forsburg line. They're gonna have to worry about. Okay,
that was the Fordsburg and Ryan O'Reilly Lion, here's Marsh's and stam Coast.
I know, yeah, Brady Shea is probably playing with them too.
So it'll be great and I'm really excited. I think that there's a lot
of potential for these guys to all step in and have pretty good seasons in
Nashville, especially with what Andrew Burnette the type of hockey he likes to play.
So full disclosure for everyone. We interviewed Brian prior to the draft and
the trade and free agency. Brian was kind enough to come back on and
give us his take on stam Coast, march or So and Shay. But
we'd also like to hear what your thoughts are and how these guys might affect
some of the other players. We heard a little bit about Sam Coast and
March, so maybe playing with Nova, his stock seems like it's going to
go up, and maybe some other guys get displaced from power Play one.
What do you think is going to happen to the rest of the team with
these guys coming in, and especially any opportunity impacts that might be fantasy related.
Yeah, so I think that I think there's not especially with forwards.
I don't know that there's going to be a ton of guys that we're going
to go have a huge fantasy impact. I think that would be that might
get displaced by this. I think Novak is one that is. I think
he stands to benefit from that. I think he's going to be moved into
this. I can't imagine him not being moved on to that second line playing
with some of these guys. You have guys like Luke Evangelisa, Mark Jankowski,
Cody Glass like those are guys that if you're getting real deep in your
fantasy league, they might be worth looking at. But I don't think that
the impact is going to be necessarily as huge for them. I don't know
that anybody who might have less minutes as a result of these signings, I
don't know that their output or fantasy output was going to be significant enough for
it to be affected in a huge way, at least on that side.
I think it's just that now there's more options when there really wasn't that much
past that top line before. So I think that if you've got guys deeper
down the depth chart in Nashville, guys like Novak, Luke, Evangelista,
I think is the only other one I would say that, I'm still expect
him to continue to break out and get better each year, But past that,
Michael mccaern Cole Smith, Cody Glass, I'm just I'm not sure that
those guys are going to have a good enough production unless you're just in a
really deep, deep league. Now we get to move on to the goalies.
The Predators ranked thirteenth and expected goals against per sixty, but considered only
the tenth actual number of goals per game. And you would think that was
because you see Sorrows had an amazing goal save above expected, And you would
be wrong, buddy, because he did not. He was actually below expected
at even strength negative two point one five. Kevin Lancanin had eight point two
six, eight point two eight the goal save above expected and really well outperformed
the protection that was offered to him. At least had even strength. On
the penalty kill he was got awful. Actually Yeah, But overall we know
that Sars was the workhorse. He got sixty four stars to Lancinnin's twenty four,
so that heavy workload has to be factored in. Of course, lancn
In is UFA, SARS is the last year of his contract. What do
you think they're going to do here, Brian? Are they going to resign
linking in? And if so, do you think we'll see a similar split
between Stars and Lincoln. Of course there's one other guy we'll talk about as
well in a minute. Yeah. So I think Lancolnin, I think he's
even expressed that he's wanting to get another shot at being a starter somewhere or
getting a little bit more time, because I think if you're backing up UC
Sorrows, you're not going to see anything close to a fifty to fifty split.
I think if if Kevin Lincoln was going to make an argument for that.
He made a pretty good one this year. But it was very surprising
because this is probably the first year that I've seen with UC Sorrows that since
he took over full time for Peccorine, that we've seen him look human really,
And I think that his play kind of was a lot of the reason
why Nashville felt comfortable adding a couple pieces of the deadline last year, because
I don't think Nashville would have I think they could have finished second or third
in the Central if he was playing UC Sorrows hockey like he did a couple
of years back. I think that he was. He should have had He
should have been a top three VESNA finalist a couple of years back. I
think that he's maybe one of the best technical goaltenders that in the NHL,
and of course the thing that everybody talks about is that, and of course
because he's a short guy, he's a short king. But I think that
this season, I think just things didn't line up, But I think that
they've got faith in him. Nashville went out and got their old goalie Whisperer
back, and Mitch Korn, which a guy that we saw again with a
lot of guys like Pecorine and Sorrows very early in his career to help him
out. But I didn't see much from UC Sorrows last year that really said
that we should really worry about him going forward. However, he's playing out
that last year of a two and a half million dollar deal, which that's
a steal for Nashville and has been a steal since he signed that deal.
But just looking at the goalie market and seeing some of the trades that have
happened this offseason, I think the original plan was to try to move him,
and there was a lot of talk about moving him at the draft this
time last year and at the deadline. But as we're seeing, the return
for a starting goaltender has not been I think what Barry Trotz wants to see,
and so I think that Kevin Lankinnin is going to probably not He's not
going to return. It's going to be interesting, though, because they are
working on Sorrows' extension, and if you're a guy like UC Sorrows, you're
not wanting to take a three or four year deal. You're gonna want a
long term deal. You're gonna want some trade protection and things like that.
But when you've got a guy, there's some guys sitting in the wings behind
him. It's going to be very interesting to see how this next year plays
out. And if UC Sorrow's still on the team next year, which I
think, if it was up to me, he would be, it's going
to be very interesting to see because this is another case of having an established
veteran who's been a VESNA contender most years that he's played, and then a
strong up and comer coming up behind him, and so it's going to be
very interesting. I think Kevin Lincoln in his spot will be filled by somebody
else and will get a really good chance to see what the future of goaltending
in Nashville is going to look like, and what those contracts for Ucsorrows is
going to look like too. I'm team Chaos, so I want them to
trade Sorrows to get a good assets and let Lincoln in potentially be the starter
or fight it out with Yarslava Scar. Obviously he's the guy we were alluding
to, and quite frankly, he's been really good in his so far in
his ability to play in the AHL, although he did get benched during the
playoff run for the Admirals and that actually seemed like it helped them, So
that was interesting to see. But we have seen him in the NHL.
We have seen him excel in the NHL so far and his limited action.
Obviously he's a guy and knowing to be the future. But is the future
now? Brian? How many stars do you think a Scarf will get in
this uphimming season? Uh? Yeah, So I think that I'm the type
of guy. I like what Nashville did with UC Sorrows. They led him
cook in Milwaukee, maybe a year more than he might have wanted, but
and then let him come up behind Pecorine for three or four years and slowly
build up that workload. And I think that did a lot of good for
UC Sorrows, especially to learn behind a guy like Pecorina. And I think
that'd be a really good opportunity for Askaroff, because, as you said,
he's a guy that get a little bit prone to streakiness as but figuring out
goaltenders is his voodoo as it is. Anyways, he's just raw talent.
He was named to the hl's All Prospect team for goaltenders, and it's he
had a lot of tough competition. There are guys like Dustin Wolf and Spencer
Knight and guys like him that are in there. Troy grossen It came back
to Milwaukee after he had been in Milwaukee I think four or five years ago
as a starter or a backup actually behind sorrows. He went and played with
Edmonton for a little while and came back and had a really good season.
And but Askarov was just he was just electric. He's that guy You've seen
the clips of him. He's gotten better about holding onto a stick with the
thing that everybody laughed about when he had been drafted. But he's a guy
that is just electric. He's excellent in the shootout you saw. We saw
him in his start in Nashville against the Capitals. He stopped Ovechkin in the
shootout, which had to be probably a top five moment in him for him
in his life to be able to stop Alexandrovchkin, a fellow Russian. But
he's a guy that I think with Mitch Krn coming back to Nashville that I
think that you're going to see him maybe you get about twenty five games next
season, and I wouldn't say that he's ready to be a full time starter
again. I would say I'm ninety five percent sure that Kevin Lanknan won't be
with the team next year, and he deserves a chance somewhere else to get
a few more starts. So I think there's a really good chance we're going
to see the tandem of Ucy Sorrows and Askaroff, And if UC Sorrows has
a similar season to what he had this year, we could see that number
bump up for Askaroff, and it'll be really interesting to see how he handles
that pressure on a more regular basis because he was excellent in the AHL.
I think he was second in shootouts last season. He had or shutouts.
Rather, he had six shutouts. He was second in wins with thirty wins
in ninety one zero point one save percentage. He was. He's a guy
that you know Milwaukee who they had an incredible run just like Nashville did as
far as a win streak of sixteen games in a row, I think,
and he was a huge part of that. And he's a guy that is
a guy that you can see that kind of leads from the back of the
team. I think that's if there's ever going to be a guy like Pecerine,
who a lot of people said, if there's going to be if you're
going to allow goaltenders to be captains, it's guys like that. And I
could see I could see Askarov being that type of guy because he's personality,
which I hope the NHL doesn't beat that personality out of him. But he's
a guy that I think is thirty thirteen and one last year in the AHL.
I'm really excited to see him, and I think a tandem of Sorrows
and Askarov is going to be a whole lot of fun to watch because it's
two very different games. Like I said, Sorrows is a really incredible technical
goaltender, but ask Escaroff is just he's talent. He's just raw, pure
talent, and it's going to be really exciting to watch him because he's got
a lot of expectation thrown on him. The tenth pick in the draft spent
on a goaltender when they had UC Sorrows there and a lot of people,
including myself, I don't know if that's what you want to do with the
tenth overall pick, and you know, I've eaten my words, and I
think everybody else around Nashville and the rest of the NHL have as well,
because I think his name has come up just as much, if not more,
in some of these trade rumors than YUC Sorrows. So Steven Stampcos it's
going to be a little weird to see Stammer in a Smashville jersey. What
do you think we can expect from this perennial point per game scorer who is
typically good for thirty to forty goals and has been a really reliable high point
getter for his career. How do you think he's going to fit into this
top six in Nashville, Brian And what do you think we can expect from
him? Point wise? It's exciting because it brings a completely different It's that
star depth that Nashville didn't have last year. I think the reason why that
they weren't going to perform very well in the playoffs is that top line was
cooking all year, but beyond that, there wasn't a lot of offense generated.
And when you're adding a guy like Steven Stampcos, yeah, he is
thirty four. I was a full last offseason talking about thinking that Ryan O'Reilly
was past his prime and this is a guy who scored over eighty points last
season, Like you said, point per game, type of guy, forty
goals. That's again, like, there's only two players in Nashville history who
have scored or forty or more goals, and that's Forsburg and Duchane. And
you can't. You can't. It's hard to look past the fact that,
yeah, you're getting a guy that he may not be at his prime,
but even past his prime, is still really good. And honestly, the
kind of talent now of the one two punch that you have with a guy
like Forsburg and then O'Reilly and then having stam Coast, that's I think it's
gonna be great. I don't know if he'll be the type of guy that'll
if he'll be able to score forty again, but eighty points should be pretty
pretty doable. I think just because it's gonna the power play is gonna get
affected quite a bit. They're gonna have guys on the second power play.
I think more importantly, you'll have a lot of guys that we're playing on
that second power play that you know won't have to anymore. They can focus
on the rest of their game. But You've got a guy like Stamkost,
You've got Forsburg, Ryan O'Reilly, Broman, Yosi, and you've got so
many options now that I think the problem that Andrew Burnett's gonna have is how
does he divide up the talent. You can't. You could make it,
you know, a really heavy, strong PP one, but that second one
is still going to have some good players on there. And so that's he's
got a little bit of a problem with riches, I think. And so
I'm really looking forward to it because for a guy thirty four years old still
putting up forty goals, that's that's pretty great. Yes it was on Tampa,
but who knows, who knows what he could do, especially in this
offense. Exciting for sure, And yeah, as you said, just pushes
everyone down the lineup in their correct spots I think a little bit, which
is really good for the team overall. But they didn't just do one thing
with stamp Cos. They also are I mean, everyone agrees they won the
offseason the beginning of the off season anyways, and getting stamp Coos and Marchiso,
one of the original Misfits turned con Smyth winner, has been a perennial
sort of fifty five to seventy point guy most of his career when he's gotten
the opportunity. He's also been in the seventeen minute time on ice range with
pretty good power play opportunity. It seems like that should be similar to Nashville,
or maybe even he gets more opportunity because I know in some of his
previous stops the Fords have had their minutes spread around a little bit. So
what do you think we can expect from Marchers? So do you think he'll
be right in that sixty sixty five ish point range? I think so.
I think that you know he's going to be playing with I mean because now
you look at that top line of Riiley Forstburg and a Niquist where you put
stam Coast and Marcisso that's you would say second line, and you're like,
you don't put guys like that on the second line, But do you mess
with the chemistry of that first line. I think that it's going to I
think both of these guys are really going to benefit from playing with each other
because I would expect them to get time together. But looking at that top
six, you've got plenty of options I think to go with when it comes
to what you want to do. When it comes to offense, I mean,
who better for a guy like Tommy Novak to learn from than guys like
Marcisa and Stamcos, you know, and curating his game and watching these types
of guys play, and then you can still have that bottom six where it's
that high four checking, you know, you know, pretty physical type of
play that Edgrew Burnett kind of likes to have to compliment the high scoring offense.
And these two together, I was going to be happy with one or
the other going into the first day of the of the free agency, and
the fact that they were able to get both, and that part of it
was marcasl. Saw. I think he heard about the stam Coast signing on
Twitter and that kind of helped him make his decision to come. And five
and a half million for four years is not bad at all for a guy
like that. I think that we all expected that this team was going to
be taking the slow rebuild starting last season, but seeing how the season ended,
they saw opportunities to add on and with getting more caps based and things
like that, I think that it's been great and so it's going to be
really interesting to see because now you've got Forstburg is locked up till twenty thirty,
Stamcos till twenty twenty eight, Marcoso until twenty twenty nine. So you've
got Andrew Burnette has his core of guys. You've got Roman Yosi until twenty
twenty eight, another defender who just signed until twenty thirty one. Those are
guys you build that team around, and now you've got Now he's just got
to deal with the complimentary pieces to go along with it. And if these
deals don't work out, it might be a little bit tough. But I
just can't imagine them not these guys not coming in and being really productive players.
Again, two forty goal scorers when Nashville's only had two in their history,
So that's pretty nice. So Brady Shay coming off a career year forty
eight point point pace, has obviously his career ten point pace higher than he's
had, which is basically what he's done the last couple seasons. In terms
of what was so different fro him, he didn't really get more time on
ice that was pretty similar, His power play opportunity was similar. It's never
really been a big part of his production, although he did spike from seven
up to twelve power play points, so got a little bit more there,
a little bit more in that opportunity. I think he's probably going to still
have a fairly significant time on ice roll in terms of the total I'm not
sure if he's going to be power play two kind of guy. What kind
of role do you think Shay is going to have with Nashville And is he
going to be able to get close to that point pace that he had last
season up close to fifty. That'll be interesting, I think, because with
the kind of the depth that's there is here in Nashville, Alex Cary he
got re signed, which was surprised to a lot of people. I was
super happy about it. But it takes the load off of him to have
to step up and do a lot of those things because the Tyson Barry experience
experiment didn't quite work out. But I think Brady Say would be a fantastic
please piece to put on that power play too, because Romaniosi operates as the
one defense defenseman the quarterback on the first power play, and I think that
Nashville's gotten pretty used to I have at least to having that four forward first
power play unit. But a guy like Brady Shay and then whoever else you
want to throw in there, Tommy Novak, Gustav Niquist, those types of
guys, Like, you've got a really good unit there. And this is
a guy that his goals above replacement. Looking at evolving hockey on the power
play, it was really good for especially for a defenseman. Now part of
that is he plays in Carolina. He played in Carolina last year. I
think that him going from Carolina and their style of offense to coming to Nashville,
I think he's going to find a way to fit right in with that.
He's gonna be able to play, probably play special teams and play on
the penalty kill too. Again taking off time to where you've got to put
roman Yosi in there, because Romanyosi is going to continue to play, you
know whatever it is that he seems to play a game like thirty forty minutes.
Not really, but it seems like that. So he'll be a guy
definitely that'll be great to have on there to take that low off. He'll
be a good second option, like a second pair probably, and again you've
got your established veterans like in Yo Si and Brady Shea, and then Luke
Shen for better or worse. But then you've got the younger guys like Spencer
Stats and e Mark del Gaizo, Alex Carrier, Dante Fabreau. These are
guys that you know are going to not have to play in that first that
first pair role out of necessity, and you're replacing some guys that maybe you
can't. You're not gonna sit there and replace a leadership or things like that,
but you're gonna get these guys who are obviously talented, who have put
again put up a career year. Last season, I would say probably like
his last three seasons with thirty nine, thirty eight, and forty seven points.
Yeah, I'd say thirty five to forty would be great. I think
that would be a huge success. But at the same time, it's it's
a little difficult as a defenseman to get a ton of points if you're playing
next to Roman Yo SE's But you'll see, we'll see. I think that
job gets easier when there's better depth on the team, and I think that
now Nashville has better depth, and I'm really excited to watch him play.
I think these are three guys that Nashville had twenty six million in space coming
into the opening a free agency, and they utilized it definitely for sure.
I think that they still have some moves that they will have to do afterwards.
I'm really pleased with it. I think that if you have the top
six completely figured out, it seems like at this point, then going out
there and getting guys that are going to help extend the depth in the bottom
half, or guys that can come in and play a second pair and play
significant penalty killing minutes. That's going to give Nashville a lot of depth that
they didn't have in previous years. And so I think that's going to make
this team a little bit more dangerous because now teams aren't going to be focused
on shutting down the Fordsburg line. They're going to have to worry about Okay,
that was the Fordsburg and Ryan O'Reilly Lion, here's Marsha's and stamcost and
know, yeah, Brady Shea is probably playing with them too. So it'll
be great and I'm really excited. I think that there's a lot of potential
for these guys to all step in and have pretty good seasons. In Nashville,
especially with what Andrew Burnette the type of hockey he likes to play,
so full disclosure for everyone. We interviewed Brian prior to the draft and they
trade and free agency. Brian was kind enough to come back on and give
us his take on Stam Coast, Marchorso and Shay. But we'd also like
to hear what your thoughts are on how these guys might affect some of the
other players. We heard a little bit about Sam Coast and March, so
maybe playing with Nova, his stock seems like it's going to go up,
and maybe some other guys get displaced from power play one. What do you
think is going to happen to the rest of the team with these guys coming
in, and especially any opportunity impacts that might be fantasy related. Yeah,
so I think that I think there's not, especially with forwards. I don't
know that there's going to be a ton of guys that we're going to have
a huge fantasy impact. I think that would be that might get displaced by
this. I think Novak is one that is. I think he stands to
benefit from that. I think he's going to be moved into this. I
can't imagine him not being moved on to that second line playing with some of
these guys. You have guys like Luke, Evangelisa, Mark Jankowski, Cody
Glass, like those are guys that if you're getting real deep in your fantasy
league, they might be worth looking at. But I don't think that the
impact is going to be necessarily as huge for them. I don't know that
anybody who might have less minutes as a result of these signings, I don't
know that their output or fantasy output was going to be significant enough for it
to be affected in a huge way, at least on that side. I
think it's just that now there's more options when there really wasn't that much past
that top line before. So I think that if you've got guys deeper down
the depth chart in Nashville, guys like Novak, Luke Evangelista, I think
is the only other one I would say that I'm still expecting him to continue
to break out and get better each year. But past that, Michael mcchaern,
Cole Smith, Cody Glass, I'm I'm not sure that those guys are
going to have a good enough production unless you're just in a really deep,
deep league. Tremendous stuff. Brian, you do great workout there for on
the four Check. Wait, let people know how they can keep up with
it. Yeah, but you can find me on Twitter. It's where I
am the majority of the time at Brian Baston as well as at the fore
Check and during the season doing some postgame video with the Renegades of can follow
them on Twitter at Renegades of Puck. Those are always really fun to do
those postgame recaps and do a little bit of a my segment, which is
one big stat because I got to stay true to my roots as a stats
boys. Yeah, you can find me there, but and yeah, I
really really encourage you all to check it out. I'm super happy with the
state of the media, the fan media in Nashville these days. I think
that the immediate landscape here in town is stronger than it's been in five,
six, seven years, which is really great. Some of my former colleagues
at on the for Check I've moved on to some bigger and better roles here
in town and elsewhere, and it's been really great to see. If you
don't want to follow me for my takes, because you know, like you
said, this could come out after free agency and all these guys could be
gone or somewhere else. But I think make sure you guys give guys other
guys a follow here because I think that the media here is getting is really
great and I really do want to encourage some of my colleagues here in town.
Tremendous stuff. People will be certainly following the Predators. Thanks so much
for coming on, Brian, Oh, thanks for having me. It's always
a blast. We'll be back right after this. Wolf then that's good fires
pass up, Oh my goodness, or long with a cat cram Now it's
your wingley goalie talk, but Kat's Silverman, Cat's instincts. Time once again
to get Kat's instincts. Kat Silverman from NGLD Mag. We're talking Predators prospect
goalies, which you know what that means. One of the most fun prospect
goalies out there. Yar slav A scar Off twenty twenty eleventh overall pick,
six foot, four hundred and seventy nine pounds, second full HL season,
pretty great stats overall. He had some really strong numbers. Nine to eleven
save percentage two thirty nine JA, basically the same save percentage as last season,
but lower Gaa had some interesting playoff performances. He actually got pulled in
the series against the Texas Stars and and they ended up winning that series.
Once he was no longer playing goals, so that was not the best and
to his playoffs. But overall, I would say it was a successful second
season. His expected goal per goal conceded was still above one, saving more
than expected. Last year. You talked about how he's NHL ready, and
he did get a couple of NHL games, and he looked checks notes really
good. Last year, he also talked about how aggressive he is sometimes too
much. I'm not sure that changed too much, but looking at his hockey
prospecting, he had some really strong numbers when his equivalencies were based on Russian
play. It's gone down a little bit based on the HL, but it's
still pretty strong. One of his main comps, hilariously here is Pecarine,
who obviously was the legendary goalie there for Nashville. I don't know whether we
know how many games he's going to get in the NHL this season, but
tell us your instincts on a scar offf do you think he's ready for a
larger workload, maybe even ten twenty NHL games or does he need a little
bit more seasoning. What do your instincts tell us? I think he could
get ten to twenty NHL games for sure. I had a little bit of
a surprise this year. I dog sat for my boss, and as a
thank you, he bought my daughter rinkside seats to watch the San Diego Goals
play the Milwaukee Admirals, And so obviously I got to tag along with her
because they were her tickets, not mine. And I show up at the
game and it was Polly Klaying versus Arosovaskarov, and that was maybe the best
non NHL game I've gotten to see. It was such a fun treat for
me. Ascar was not the better goalie in that series. He got a
little bit lit up by the goals, which was unfortunate, but it was
a lot of fun watching his reactions to the team in front of him was
playing very poorly defensively, and watching the way he was adapting his game over
the course of the game was really fun because he did change his depth management
a little bit, changed the number of rebounds he was allowing to see someone
who doesn't mind pushing the puck back out into play, and as the game
progressed, and he realized that mostly Chase de Leo and one or two of
the other guys on the goals were just pushing offensively in a really aggressive way
to grab those rebounds because they weren't getting any of the first shots by him.
He stopped allowing some of those rebounds, and so watching him be able
to react to the game in real time was super fun, and that was
something that when we look at the way that some of these guys transition to
the NHL, that's something that we look for. You know that they're able
to take their game and if it looks like things are about to become a
little bit of a dumpster fire for them, they're able to take their game
and adapt it on the fly, not aggressively, but just make the little
tweaks to what they habitually do to make sure that they essentially are able to
continue thriving throughout the course of the game, and even if they don't win
that game, they're able to still progress forward and give their team at least
a fighting chance to try and tie things up. And that was so much
fun to watch. So I left that game. He was not the better
goaltender, but I was still reassured that he was going to do just fine,
and I'd love to see him get more consistent NHL action because it was
very clear that he was. Both he and Klang looked better than I feel
like in every HL game, one goaltender and you're like, ah, you
belong here, And this when it looked like we were watching almost like an
NHL preseason game with top prospects. So that was a lot of fun and
I'm excited to see I think he'll be ready to start tandeming next year for
sure, all right, can't wait to start watching that. Not that they
need other prospect goalies because they at least for now have sorrows and they have
a scar off, but they have a couple other interesting ones that I want
to get your takes on. The first is Gustav's Davis Grigal's. Of course,
you know he's Lot Van because there's way too many SA's in that name.
He's undrafted, six foot, two hundred ninety six pounds, a lot
twenty five years old now. He was at UMass Lowell last year and had
great numbers primarily in the ECHL this season and looked pretty good. Do you
think there's anything here, kat I think from a name perspective alone, yes,
because that's what a fun name. Watching some of his highlight I think
he's got some exciting saves there. I do think that when we look at
when we talk about these teams where there's one conversation being had and then there's
a side conversation for guys that aren't quite at the same tier, he's in
a different conversation from a scaroff, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, that's
just that's a scaroff is nhlready And I think that Grigls is for sure not.
But he did look like he's got some of that fun, raw talent
that when we look at a team like the Predators, they don't need to
have a ton of nhlready guys right now because they have a star in U
See Sorrows and they have a star in a scar Off. So if they
have too many other nhlready guys in their system, that can create a little
bit of a logjam. So I think that Grigals is a project, and
he looks like a fun project because he looks like he likes to make some
really spicy saves. And if you are going to have other guys in your
system who aren't. Essentially you're Richard Bachman's. You're thirty plus guys who are
only there for locker room presence in morale and to potentially play a couple NHL
games a year. You might as well have ones that are fun because they
really don't need to have anyone else who is top tier ready just yet,
so he's a fun one to have in their system. I don't think he's
necessarily their next beson a winner, but that's probably a good thing because if
he was, then we'd be talking about him next year in a different prospect
system because I don't think he'd stay in the Predators one definitely, which we
were always keeping track of because you never know. That was Connor Ingram,
and I was always a fan of Connor Ingram, and I kept saying,
if he goes somewhere else, he could be good. Yes he did.
I'm really happy for him. Let's move on to Ethan Hadier. Hater six
foot four, two hundred nineteen fifth round pick now twenty one, will be
twenty two this season. Transferred to Yukon this past season from Clarkston Clarkson,
where he was for three seasons and he looked pretty good there, similar save
percentage to what he had done previously, and for the for the Huskies,
his equivalency's really low. I'm not sure that there's much here. What do
your instincts tell us about Hater? He's got a lovely family, so I
have a natural soft spot for him. I wrote a piece a couple of
years ago about some guys who were this could be a fun player to look
at down the line as a tweener in each system, and Ethan Hayter was
one of the guys. So I was like, he could be fun.
He could be a lot of fun. And his dad thanked me for that.
That's saying to me for taking the time to watch the highlights of some
of the goalies who were farther down depth charts, and not in a oh
my son deserves this, but in a thank you for looking at all of
them, and I thought that was really sweet. He looks like a very
well trained North American developed goaltender, and that's it's fine. He's not.
Unfortunately, he's in a system with Rosolvascarov, who was nhlready already and looked
like he was going to be NHL ready before he ever got drafted, and
by design, you look at a guy like Ethan Hayter and you're like,
yeah, he's fine, but in another system, a weaker system. I
think if he was, for example, if he was in the Flyers system,
or if he was in the Sharks system, or even if he was
in a system like the Utah Hockey team, I guess I almost said the
Coyote system, right, he would be probably the number one or two pet
just because he looks consistent, he looks controlled, He's got a little ways
until he would potentially want to see any NHL action, but he doesn't look
like he's taken any major dips. So looks like he's a good depth option
to have in your team, like a good asset there. I just unfortunately
he's in a system with already powerful guys, so by virtue that drops his
stock just just a little bit. For the team he's on, doesn't drop
his trade stock though, So once again, that's another guy who maybe we'll
talk about with a different team in the future, just because there's some power
that's not going anywhere in front of him. He's from Minnesota. I don't
know that going to the Minnesota system behind wilstet will help him at all,
but no, maybe another system that would be fun. Thanks so much,
Gov for giving us your instincts on the Nashville Predator goalies, dig the Dynasty,
dig Cherld. We're in an optimistic frame of mind today because you happen
to love this Predator system. You ranked him third in your recent system ranks,
and it starts out with the no brainer. Who is it? That
would be none of th Yoakum kamal And he is a twenty twenty two seventeenth
overall pick five to eleven, one hundred and eighty three pounds, right shot,
right wing turn twenty at the end of this season. He is in
April twenty seventh Birthday's a little bit on that later side turn. This was
his first full season in the AHL. He had forty one points in sixty
seven games for the Milwaukee Admirals right there where you are, Jesse, and
they ended up losing in the Western Conference finals of the AHL. Eleven points
in fifteen playoff games. He did all he could to prevent that loss,
but it wasn't enough. That was seventh amongst all four wards with at least
ten games played. That's pretty good. That's seventh all forwards, not just
the twenty year olds. A lot of these guys are seasoned veterans in the
AHL, so that's pretty awesome. Of note, he was bested by Zachary
LaRue, who we are not going to talk about. But I actually did
recently write a really deep dive on LaRue. I already committed to who we
were talking about on the show before I realized that. So anyways, go
read the EPSID article on LaRue because he is worth reading about, even though
we're not talking about him here, even though I mentioned his name like three
times already, zact LaRue, go read about him. Looking at Kamel's FHL
player card, it looks pretty nice. He's got some really good bash.
His shots are a seven, his hits are nine, his blocks are nine
a seven, so overall he has a bash of eight. He looks like
he's going to be pretty solid for that. These are per sixty, of
course, so depending on the time on ice he gets, he could be
a pretty nice bash guy. And his goals and assists we already talked about
are pretty good for the league, so that's looking pretty strong. Looking at
some of his underlying numbers, his transition game looks outstanding. He's got some
really good play driving. He think it's a lot of power play time and
some of the other puckwork is pretty nice. What he could do a little
bit better at is get into some of the high danger places to score a
little bit. Being a little bit on the smaller side, maybe that's a
little bit hard for him, But we need to see a little bit more
of that. But to hear a little bit more about Camel, we need
to hear from Ahl scout, Jokim Gimmel and our scout. William has this
to say, skating pretty average. Hasn't seen him get beat by a mile
and a race for the puck, but also has not seen Kimmel beat any
defender by a mile either. Doesn't have any big weakness in his skating,
but it won't be one of his strengths passing and handling a dual threat is
Kimmel passing is impressive. William says on the power play he often plays the
right flank despite being a righty. He's very patient for the right passing line
and can either release or set up a teammate, and William would say his
hands are above average. He's fast, can get and retrieve pucks off the
board easily. For shooting, this is where Kimmel excels. If the preds
are looking for scores, he could see top nine minutes next year. He
has two main weapons. The first one is the tow drag shot. Not
at a Bdard type level, but he can place that shot very well.
With a screen off the rush or on the power play, Kemill can place
it in that small corner. The second is the one timer. That thing
is a bomb. Despite averaging five to six shot attempts per game, William
actually thinks he's underutilizing his shot. Thinks with his shot he could reach thirty
goals in the NHL IQ. Kimmel anticipates the space quite well on the offensive
zone. He's good at making the defense forget him and then find the open
space. His vision is one of his strengths. He can be deceptive while
taking a shot and open a passing lane before checking. Kim won't retrieve every
puck, but he loves to get in the d man's face with either a
quick check or a small slash. On defense, Kemmel's not going to be
a penalty kill type. He uses his vision a lot on defense to anticipate
where the play will go, but William often finds him too passive. He
can at times just sit in one spot and watch the play developer around him.
On the other side, he's very active in the ozone, taking the
defenseman's spot. The best asset then was that shot. He's always been a
score at all levels, but he's also developed a very good passing game,
and the biggest concern is finding the right fit. William highly doubts he can
drive a line on his own, but if he's placed with talented players,
he could really perform the top tier role potential top six power play one.
That is, if he finds that right fit, he could be a thirty
goal scorer, but he'll need a play driver on his line for that to
happen. And the fiftieth the median outcome for mister Kemmel is a top nine
scorer and winger is that the take on. No matter what fit he finds,
he'll be an offensive top nine winger in the NHL, in William's mind,
could be a power play two if that power play one doesn't work out.
Stylistic comparable is Trevor Moore, and the final thoughts that William has.
With the need of adding to scoring forward, Nashville could promote Kimmel to the
NHL next year or the year after. With the right playmaker, he's going
to reach that ceiling. Thirty goal scorer. Surprisingly good Cats guy with a
good shot volume in the AHL and a good amount of hits. He should
play at least a top nine guy for his whole career. Mason Black puts
Joe King Kemmel versus Yvonne morosh Deshenko of the Washington Capitals, who's already gone
up to the NHL, and the potential of Kemmel beats the actuality so far
of maroshna Shenko fifty seven to forty three percent in Mason Black's NHL rank.
King Pole, that's what the people said, Victor, what do you think.
I think it's about as close as they have it here. I thought
it's interesting that they had Kamel a little bit higher. I think, yeah,
I think I would take Marshashenko actually, but I think it's pretty close
and I wouldn't be upset going the other way. I think you there's some
reasons to be concerned with the direction that the Capitals are going, so that
maybe play into it. But also, on the other hand, there are
a lot of strong young forwards in Nashville that may take the spot there of
anyone who's trying to come up there, So that'd be a little bit of
a concern in terms of what's available there for Nashville. We've seen Novak,
we've seen Evangelista, We've seen a bunch of really strong young forwards there.
So yeah, I think that there's some reason to maybe be a little worried
about how much space he has to flourish there. But I do like his
shot a lot of dokemel shot a lot. I also really agree with what
it was said there in terms of him needing a distributor him needing someone.
We saw at the World Juniors a couple of years ago when he tried to
do it all himself and it really did not go I think that's something that
we realized really clearly about him, is that he definitely needs someone to help
set him up, which is not a bad thing. A lot of good
players need that. But he needs to simplify his game and not try to
do too much. So if he can do that, and if he can
find the right fit, and if he can beat out some other guys like
Angelista, Tomasino, you know, even some of the young guys. I
don't know if Cody Glass is done. Lealked about him earlier Parson in there's
a lot of other options here that worries me a little bit. But I
really like Marstershenko and how physical he is. His hits and shots per sixty
are both really high, and he scored really well in the AHL. In
his NHL call ups, he didn't do He started off with a bit of
a bang, but he didn't do quite as well in the long term.
He played twenty one NHL games just six points. I think part of that
is how bad that Capital's team and how lacking of offense they were, and
the system that they were playing didn't really help him too much. So I
think these guys are close. I think you can be pretty happy with either
one, and may just depend on what more you're looking for. Because Murcia
Schenko does hit quite a bit more than similarly and shoots a little bit more
than Kamel. I think I think both of those guys you could be pretty
happy with, But looking at the hockey prospecting model, Kamel has a much
higher equivalency thirty six percent to two percent from Murciashenko and looking at some other
comps there. For Kamel, there's some actually, Eli Tolvinen previous Nashville predator,
is someone he looks a fair amount in the model. That could be
a reasonable outcome. But there's some other guys there like Jordan Stall, Barrett
Hayden who he could be like. Looking at the dre fresh card, Kamel
nineteen percent chance of being a star seving sentence to being in NHLR. Those
are pretty good numbers and pretty optimistic there for Jesse. Do you have any
thoughts on Murshashenko before we move on? You watched him a bit, Yeah,
Maurusianshenko, this might be one of those deals where when the guy first
comes up and he doesn't turn into an all star right away, which Maurushashenko
is probably not going to be at that level, then he could be a
bit more of a post type sleeper than a guy like Kemmel who has not
shown us the struggles that he probably also will have when he first reaches the
NHL. So I think this might be a bit of recency bias, and
I do think you're probably onto something saying that he might end up being the
better player, but he's still showing a lot in that capitalist context. They
got Pierre Luketabla. Now, Victor, what could go wrong with their centerman
play. Next, we're going to go to the need to know prospect.
Who is that Victor need to know is Matthew Wood. So he was a
twenty twenty three fifteenth overall pick just this past year, six foot four,
one hundred ninety six pounds, right shot left wing. Second season at Yukon
in the same number of games, his points regressed from thirty four and thirty
five games played to just twenty eight and thirty five games played. His shooting
percentage actually went up from eleven to fourteen percent, and both seasons, by
the way, he had way more primary than secondary assists, so it wasn't
just his teammates scoring. I'm not exactly sure what happened with his decreased production,
but that is a little bit disappointing, and maybe I'm not sure what
all led into it, but he did change his commitment from Yukon to the
University of Minnesota, so that's interesting, and he is Canadian, so I'm
not really sure how that if that played anything into it, but he's headed
to I think a stronger program there in University of Minnesota. Maybe that was
him just wanting to be at a better program surrounded by a little bit more
talent that could be so his points could certainly pop in his third NCAA season.
Looking at his tracking data from the World Juniors, he had some really
strong offense expected goals, expected assists both super high. His transition data was
pretty good as well, seventy nine percent. His defense was really lacking,
and part of that is probably related to his skating, which I'm sure he'll
be touched on the scouting report. It's a bit rough, to say the
least. But some of his other numbers, like his game score, his
advantages, his boards to the middle player are all really strong. Looking at
his FHL player card, his shots per sixty year really high. His hits
are a little bit lower, and his bash his should be really strong,
even though he doesn't block a whole lot and hits are a bad average.
Looking at his other metrics is a lot of his numbers and including his transition,
game play, driving, his high danger chances, and puckwork all are
really strong For Matthew would But let's hear a little bit more about him from
our FHL scout, and this is FAHL scout Jeremy hopping in to help us
out a bit with mister Wood. Skating for Matthew Wood is probably his weakestas
set. According to Jeremy, he's a bit of a stomper when he skates.
He lacks acceleration noticeable at the NCAA level. Also not particularly strong on
his feet or a big guy. The one positive is his straight line top
speed, is pretty good passinger and handling. Despite being a shoot first player,
Wood is a good passer who sees the ice well. Does sometimes try
to do too much one on one, but he has soft hands and Jeremy
thinks he can learn to do to be more judicious with his stick handling.
Shooting is elite what as one of the best shots Jeremy's ever seen from a
teenager. Not bit arder Matthews level, obviously, but it'll play in the
NHL. His quick wrister snapper coming in from the boards around the rush is
lethal and will beat NHL goalies the IQ average. As mentioned above, Jeremy
thinks that that would over stick handles at times, which is a lack of
panic meter, but he does show poise in corner and on the zone entry's
exit, so Jeremy thinks this is probably a net positive IQ will be okay
for him. We're checking above average. Wood definitely uses his size and reach
to create turnovers, but Jeremy wonders if there's more to be unlocked here with
the right coacher scheme. The defense is another area Wood is probably not strong
in. He can get beat by quick changes of direction, and he can
be bumped off board battle. So the best asset was that shot. Definitely
one of the best in recent craft classes. The biggest concern for Wood is
skating, but Jeremy thinks the high end shot will and above average playmaking skills
will I won't keep him out of the NHL forever. So the top tier
outcome the best you can see from Wood top line seventy to seventy five point
sniper's that's if he exceeds the ceiling, which Jeremy doesn't actually see that high,
but with some improved skating and a good line, he could get those
top line winger numbers the fiftieth The median outcome middle six thirty goal, thirty
assist type of guy and yeah, that's the stylistic comparable. That is the
Jeremy come up with. Here is Max Patcher ready, and so overall he's
very curious. Jeremy is to see how the transfer from Connecticut to Minnesota next
year goes. He'll likely have to fight to be a go to guy on
that much stronger Minnesota Golden Golfers team. The NHL ranking poll is out,
and in this case, it's going to be Matthew Wood up against Victor's old
favorite from his Bruins writing days, Fabian Lisell of the Boston Bruins. And
in this competition, in this matchup, the people have spoken Matthew Woods sixty
two to thirty eight over Lesell, Victor. Is that the way you rank
them? Yeah? I think so. I like Lisel and he is still
someone who has some pretty good upsides, some pretty good promise. But I
think Wood has a little bit higher trajectory, has a little bit more upside
than does. I think both of these guys are interesting. We've been waiting.
It seems like we've been waiting on Lysel for a really long time.
Maybe there's some fatigue there in terms of sometimes when you're waiting on a guy
for a long time and gets you get a little frustrated. But he's still
only twenty one. He's not like he's that old. He has played in
the HL for the past two seasons. He had fifty Lisel had fifty points
in fifty six games for the Providence Bruins last season after thirty seven and fifty
four, so he's got really strong HL production. He's still young enough that
I think it really counts in my mind that he's doing really well there.
His assists and his shots are good Lisel. He doesn't really do a whole
lot else though, so that's more of a points only type of play.
So I like this. I think you should be happy with him, especially
with how little Boston has in their prospect pool, and so maybe you could
put take that into account, but I think Wood has the higher upside.
I think Jeremy spoke to some of the concerns that the skating. You have
to watch his skating. His first step is slow, but he is a
big guy. He lumbers a little bit. But the thing is, if
he can just learn to get quickly to the right spots, he doesn't have
to be a burner. He doesn't have to be the guy carrying it in
the zone. He can let other people do all those things. He can
just be that power forward around the net that cleans up rebounds, It gets
the right spots, it gets the shots. If he can learn how to
do all that a little bit more efficiently, then I don't think this.
Then I think the skating issues will be minimized. So in the right context,
he could be really good. And he's a pretty physical player. He's
good along the boards. There's a lot that guys are going to the coaches
are going to chel coaches are going to like about him. So yeah,
I would take Wood look, and I agree with Jeremy. It'll be interesting
to see how he thrives or how he fares in a different environment that has
a lot of other talent and not just him being basically the one, the
one strong player. Some guys really struggle with that. They struggle sharing the
puck. They want to just be on the best guy on the team and
get all the opportunity, even if the team isn't so good. So,
looking at hockey prospecting, between these two, Matthew Wood went down from forty
one to twenty percent chance of being a star and Fabian le Sel has been
pretty low in this model pretty much the whole time. He tracked down to
one percent, even though he had really strong HL production. Byron just punish
him a little bit for his previously low production and the WHL production which was
a really low equivalency league looking at how the rest of the comps would has
some pretty decent comps, guys like Logan Couture, Raffi Torres as someone who
he maybe looks a little bit like, maybe more of an average producer type.
Looking at the j fresh Car, thirty seven percent chance of being a
star and eighty seven percent chance of being an NHL are pretty high in this
metric. So looking really good there. And yeah, I think we still
have a lot that we need to learn and think about with matthew Wood,
because this was an interesting step down from him. But I don't think the
jury still low. We still need to see a little bit more and I
think there's a lot upside here. Okay, and Victor third, And finally,
it's to keep your eye on prospect. Who is it? This is
Ryan Ufko twenty twenty one, one hundred and fifteenth overall pick. That's right,
fourth rounder. We're talking about him the here. He is a five
foot ten, one hundred and eighty one pound right shot. He was the
captain for UMass this past year. He had ten goals. Sorry, this
was his junior year. He had ten goals, which put him tied for
third most on the team. Twenty six points in thirty seven games was also
enough for third best in the team in scoring, behind fellow defenseman Scott Morrow
and forward Jack Musa. Looking at him, he was, he was the
captain and he actually got some HL time there with the Milwaukee Admirals six points
and nine games and another ten points in fifteen playoff games. I would say
his pro tenagers and went pretty well, Jesse. I don't know about you,
but that sounded pretty good to me. So we love to see that
on UFKO and he was twenty twenty. He was. He just turned twenty
one at the end of this past season. And we do have his FHL
player card here. We're able to see that in NA his goals for sixty
were really high for a defenseman. His assists were also really good, and
overall his bash was pretty strong. His shots and hits were particularly strong.
His blocks are a little bit more average. Part of that I think is
just because he's a really strong defender and he has the puck a lot,
so he doesn't need to block quite as much. But overall his bash should
be pretty good. Assuming his points translate, that should be pretty nice.
And looking at some of his underlying numbers are pretty fantastic. His transition game,
high danger, and puckwork are all ten out of ten. Stellar stuff
there really. Of course, he got tons of power playtime and all that,
but we also have some of his numbers from the AHL time and it
looks similarly is amazing, so that's pretty great. He was able to really
push the envelope there, so I'd love to see that. But let's hear
a little bit more about Ufco from RFHL Scout three Prospects three scouts today.
This one is Patrick courtesy of Patrick Skating. Ufko's skating should be considered average
to above average. Doesn't stand out as spectacular, but not a hindrance when
defending. He skates backward well, but occasionally a forward will blow by him.
In terms of passing and handling, he's excellent in that area. Rarely
does he make an unwise pass or one that is off the mark When manning
the point on the power play, Ufko quickly and decisively distributes the puck to
teammates from the defensive zone, feeds it to his defensive partner, or facilitates
the breakout. Overall, Ufko is more of a distributor than a shooter.
However, his point shots on the power play could use some work, as
they often miss the net. Ufko has developed in terms of his hockey IQ,
He's made that into a strength. He uses foresight to aid his defense
and activate on an offense when the situation calls for it. Ufko's rarely caught
out of position on the defense as a result. In terms of ford checking,
Patrick says, when the opportunity is there, Ufko will venture deep into
the zone to keep a puck in and keep the attack going. On defense,
Ufko uses multiple techniques to limit attackers. On the rush. He limits
opposing players time and space. Ufko closes the gap and finds an opportunity to
poke the puck away or take it away and send it on to a teammate
on the board's Uko will close the attacker off to the boards with the intent
of taking the puck away. Patrick says the best asset then for Ufko is
that hockey IQ. It's the key to his defense and an offense. You'll
rarely see Ufko make the wrong play. The biggest concern a lack of high
end skill. While some might consider his size of concern, Patrick never saw
that being what held him back. However, his pace, shot and skating
ability may not be good enough to push him higher in an NHL lineup the
top tier outcome. What's the best case scenario for Ufko? If he continues
to progress as he has the last couple of years, he could be a
very good second pairing defenseman. That is, because he continues to beat expectations
well. He might not have the high end skills. The hockey IQ,
the passing, and the defense have led to successful play already at the college
in AHL players levels. As you said, Victor, the median outcome probably
a bottom pair defenseman or a tweener who's good in the AHL but can't stick
in the NHL. That's what could happen if his lack of size becomes a
bigger problem in the NHL, because some players there are bigger, stronger,
and faster, and he may not be up to the NHL level of play.
Stylistic comparable, possibly former teammates Zach Jones. Both are undersized, puck
moving defenseman and overall, Patrick says. After playing the college season, Ufko
joined the Admirals Milwaukee Admirals to the AHL often got eighteen to twenty minutes of
ice time during the playoff run, as you said, including extensive power play
time. In the playoff game that Patrick watched, his play was really excellent
and it looked like Ryanufko belonged in that game. So we're going to put
him up against in the black NHL Rankking Pole, Jeremy Pourier of the Calgary
Flames, and it's a narrow one this time, but Pourier comes out ahead
fifty two to forty eight over Ryan Ufko. Victor, Is that how you
see this one? I think I like goof Go better here, but I
could understand how close it is. I think that Goofco is just so dang
underrated. I don't understand why people don't like him more. In fact,
I was talking with Patrick about this very subject. There are a lot of
outlets that have him ranked very lowly still, and I'm not really sure why,
because he's pretty much done everything he can approve. You know, even
when he came out and the one World Junior that he played last previous year,
he was phenomenal. I think people were like, WHOA, this guy
is really good, and yeah, he's been good this whole time. People
are finally noticing. You see him stepping straight into the HL and producing.
That's not nothing. But I think people have a hard time changing their mind
on guys that are fourthrong picks, because that's what he was. He was
a fourth round pick. And part of the reason he was a fourth round
pick is that he was five to ten and he's still five to ten,
So definitely being a little bit undersized is a knock against him. But there
were some other things in his draft year, like some of his decision making
and ability to pinch that was that were question marks, But that's all gotten
resolved and he's been a strong player, So I still think that he's going
to be really good. He's just so smart and smooth as a skater and
highly competitive. I don't think that those are going to be big issues that
might limit him from being a top pairer guy. He still should have some
pretty strong upside. Parrier is a very different case because he was always pretty
highly touted. He just didn't know how to play defense basically, but he
has gotten a lot better defensively. He has produced pretty well, although he
had some injury troubled this year, so that was really difficult to evaluate.
But he did have some pretty strong production again before the injury. This year.
The Flames could use him. He could make the team of camp,
but he's probably going to play one more full AHL season and then we'll see.
Of course, they have hundred Prostevis now and they have some other options
there on the back end. But I still think that he's really increased his
chances. But I just think that Pariy has a more specific role that he
has to fill on the team. You know, he's not someone who's going
to be out there in all the most important defensive minutes, whereas ko Ufko
can play in a lot of different situations. I think that's going to help
him. And he can run a power play, and I don't know that
he will necessarily run the top power play. I think that's a little bit
more. He has a little bit more even strength scoring options as well.
He's not going to be as much of a liability, so that's why I
would take Ufko, but I could see why it would be close I imaged,
and both these guys have really come around on Parriy. I think he's
a pretty interesting prospect and I'd be interested in rostering him as well. Looking
at hockey prospecting between the two, Ufko has graduated from the model now at
forty two percent chance of being a star. Basically that's really high, seventy
percent chance of being an NHLer. Parria has trended down from his fifteen percent
chance of being a star down to four percent, at his NHLer probability up
to fifty five, so the hockey prospect can definitely leans uf Goo. Looking
at some other comps for uf Goo, there's some interesting ones, guys like
Keith Yandel. I think someone he looks a little bit alike is Shane Gorosta
Spear, who's a little bit undersized as well. I think oof goes better
defensively and all around than Gostil Spear, but maybe doesn't have as much offense,
but maybe that's reasonable. Looking at the j freshcard, just six percent
chance of being a star for uf Go fifty one percent chance of being an
NHLer. It's a little bit more modest there, But that's it for our
Nashville dig. If you're a patroon, you can listen to my top ten
prospect recaps that'll be starting up soon. And if you're interested in doing some
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If you'd like to help make FHL even better, hit Victor up in
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