Speaker 1: Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks. Here's
your source of information and analysis to help you win
your fantasy hockey league.
Speaker 2: Block off hot a, step hit on, staylock.
Speaker 1: Here's your hosts, Jesse Severe and Victor Nuno Fantasy Hockey
Live once again.
Speaker 2: Victor Nuno, Jesse Severe creeping up on the first games
of the NHL season. How you doing there, Victor?
Speaker 3: I don't like that you suggested that we're creeping. That
just sounds.
Speaker 2: I would never creep, Victor. If anything, when people hear me,
they know that I'm coming. They Yeah, I don't think
I am particularly subtle in any way. I don't think
that will be a problem. Victor. Yeah, what do you think? Man?
It's getting to befall. It's getting to be that time
of year. How about the Fantasy hockey like weather report?
How how's the weather out in California right now?
Speaker 3: The weather here's awesome as always, so people love it here,
Jesse's although I was recently in your neck of the
woods where you were from anyways, growing up in Iowa,
and that was interesting. I think I understand a little
bit more why when people come to California they get
a little confused by the weather because when I was
in Iowa, I woke up and it was about seventy degrees,
and I went to bed and it was maybe eighty eighty five.
It pretty much stayed the same temperature most of the time.
It didn't really fluctuate that way, whereas here it does
get cool in the morning. It's not like cool. I'm
not saying it gets cold, but it definitely there's a
huge fluctuation in the temperature, which I don't think is
always the case in some Midwest states, at least early
in the summer and early fall. So that was just
a reminder of because I would get up early and
go play disc golf and even at six in the morning,
it's seventy five degrees, and that would not be the
case here. It would be a lot colder. So that's
a little touch on.
Speaker 2: You whether you went there at an Yeah, you went
there at an odd time, victor that is not normal
des moin weather behavior. Yeah, you've showed up in a
couple of days in September that I think were unrepresentative.
And yeah, the variants may the modulation maybe maybe less
sometimes I think than California. But don't worry the cold
is there. The cold will find you if you're in
des moin much longer. Oh, I think everybody feels reassured
that they know some current weather forecasts. And you can
be even more reassured if you come into the Fantasy
Hockey Life discord, where we talk about nothing but fantasy
hockey and weather all the time. That's all we talk
about in there. That's all. But you could get in
there still and probably start a league where you could
just chatter fantasy hockey. Maybe you have some last minute
draft decisions to make and you want to bounce it
off a couple of people. Yeah, you can get in
free Fantasy Hockey Life at gmail dot com. We'll get
you the link to hop in the discord discords all
the hotness and so, yeah, you should enjoy that. But Victor,
there are other things people might want to know about.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Through the Fantasy Hockey Life Patreon, you can get
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Speaker 2: If you're right back to talk some Eastern Conference hockey, Victor,
we are doing the second half of the Ketchup and
Mustard episode, the TLDR version of how this works. We're
going to go through the teams, describe what happened after
our team previews would stretch all the way back to April,
and then give two hot takes for each team, and
one of them is going to be the one that
we hold. The other two we're going to start with
one of yours. Victor out in Beantown.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Boston four twenty nine, one of our earliest recordings
end of April. A lot of things have happened. They
made some interesting signings and trades. They signed Michael A. Cymont,
who's a pretty decent middle six bottom six forward. Tanner
Janeau got signed and he certainly has had some interesting seasons.
We'll see if he can bounce back. I almost made
my take about him, but I decided to go with
someone else. Traded for Victor Arvidson. I don't really think
that there's much left for Victor Arvidson. He's a depth scorer. Now,
they extended Morgan Geeky, who is going to relate to
my hot take. They signed in Sean Collari, Sean Corally.
They have a new coach, Marco Sturm, who I have
known growing up watching the Sharks, and he's been a
really effective coach ever since he turned to coaching, and
so that's fun. We don't know what's going to happen there.
And then they drafted James Higgins, so my takes are
going to relate to the one forward, one defenseman. Morgan
Geeky is a guy that I said first we'd start with,
and I just am very skeptical of Geeky. First of all,
we always talk about don't draft line dependent players, and
I don't think there was anyone more line dependent last
year than Morgan Geeky. And it was great that he
did a sum with it. He got a sixty one
point pace, clearly a career season, almost double what he's
had in some previous season. That says a lot. He
was pretty much staple to pasta the entire season, and
I think that tells a lot too he was stable
to Pasta and he barely got over half the number
of points as David Paster Knock and he was at
fifty seven. So I think he's going to continue to struggle.
I think he might even get shuffled down the lineup.
It might be Linholm, they might try Zaka, they might
try somebody else with him, who knows. So I think
Morgan geeky fails to clear a sixty point pace and
the other take relates to Mason Lori. Mason Lori is
an interesting player. I've liked him for a long time,
but he also is a very exciting player. Both ways.
Things happen when he's out there. Either he helps create
a goal or he gets scored on, and that's not ideal.
Minus forty three is like impressive to be able to
accomplish that in this season. I know we don't tend
to talk about that as much, but his underlying metrics
show the same thing. Really good offensive creation but very
suspect defense. And he had a thirty five point pace
last season. He was running the power play a lot.
He did get just under twenty minutes time on ice,
but I think his defensive abilities continue to limit him
a bit, and so normally I'd say he's prying to
take a step, and I do like him as a
speculatve ad in a lot of places. You and I
were just talking about him, Jesse, and one of our
dynasty leagues we co manage. We have him, and we're
thinking what to do with his new contract. Decided to
keep him. But I am skeptical that he will reach
his full potential just because he struggles to play defense,
and I'm not sure he's gonna get all the way there.
He has to be at least serviceable defensively to get
a lot more minutes. Three point two million for the
next couple of seasons is not a huge deal though,
so I'm happy to take that low key bed in
a deeper dynasty. But I'm going to say Mason Laura
fails to clear forty five points this season, as I'm
just a little skeptical that he gets enough time on
ice an opportunity to make good on that. Morgan Geeky
or Mason Lori, these are both on the pessimistic side. Jesse.
Speaker 2: First of all, on the topic of stapling to pasta,
I've cooked with pasta. If you attempt to staple anything
to I think you got to go with the lasagna
noodle because that's the only one that's probably big enough
to take a staple. You're just going to crack the noodle,
and if you cook it, it's just the staple's going
to go right through it. So don't stay anything to pasta.
All right, let's just get with that, Morgan geek. You
could have told me fails to clear a fifty point
pace and I would have gone with it. So I'm not.
I'm not going with that hot take at all. Mason
Lorii clearing forty five points, I'm I'm psyched by that because,
like you said, I was a little reluctant that we'd
be paying a reasonable contract to him in our co
managed team. But hey, I'll hold you to that one
just because I find that to be the less likely
of the two, and I sure hope you're right about it.
Next up, we got the Buffalo Sabers. This was another
pre draft recording that we did the catch up the
very latest. Actually, they signed Alexander Georgia, which after that
chaos ensued in our dynasty in our guillotine draft because
he wasn't eligible to draft in five teams including me,
drafted him, so it was chaos. They made the famous
JJ Peterka for Josh Stone and Michael kessel Ring trade
which caused consternation as well, Buffalo just causing all kinds
of stuff. They traded Connor Clifton for Connor Timmins to
keep the Connor balance steady for the team, and the
extended RFA is boone Byram definitely by Jack Quinn and others.
And they drafted right and MRCA in the draft, the
big solid defenseman. So they did do some things that
we might like. Sounds like there's some question about ukapec
Lukenin and his injury status at this point because of
the signing of Georgia, but we don't know. It's Buffalo.
Man of the hot takes for this year, Josh Norris.
We talked about him recently, and I'm so hoping that
Norris busts out again, like I said a few years ago,
a few years ago, and I am really hoping that
he is going to hit sixty points this year. So
I'm going to make that one of my hot takes
that he makes up to sixty points. And Devin Levi,
even with the UPL situation, and the Georgia. But with
the Georgia of signing, I say, Devin Levi gets fewer
than five games under five games in the NHL this year,
which would make me extremely sad in our four sport league.
But I don't know what's going on there, but they
don't seem to want to use him a whole ton
in the NHL. He began to be down in the AHL.
Maybe I'm just doing that to hedge my bets to
hopefully be wrong about this one, and then I'll be
happier in my league. Which one of those two? Do
you like?
Speaker 3: Victor like both of them to some extent. I think
it's funny Cousins and Norris who are traded basically for
each other. I'm very skeptical of both these guys, actually,
and I've been seeing them in my mock drafts and stuff,
and I'm just avoiding them. I'm just not really believing,
I guess, and so I'm and the injury history. When
Norris does play, he's usually pretty good, but the issue
is all the time missed and all those things that
you mentioned that he's only hit fifty five actual points
would be his max. So this is a good one.
Because you're going out on a limb saying he's gonna
play a lot, he's gonna get the opportunity, he's gonna
be productive enough, and he's gonna stay healthy enough, which
always sounds like a lot of caveats things that need
to go right. So I'll hold you to that one.
I'm really curious as to what they're doing with Devin
Levi too. It's frustrating with the uncertainty with UPL. They
went out and signed Georgiev, as you mentioned, and yeah,
it's just I don't get it. They have Devin Levi there,
who who seems like you should be good enough to
take some of the load. Maybe he really is super
injured and they're gonna roll with Georgiev and Levi as
their tandem. I doubt that, but that would blow up
your other one. But I'm going to hold you to
the Norris one. I think that one's a little harder
to hit, and so we'll go that. I do hope
and think that Levi should play more than five games,
but that hasn't been hasn't been a very common theme
in terms of what he's done recently, So that makes
you a little bit worried. About that happening, But let's
move on to the next team here, Detroit Red Wings.
That was back in early June as well. Since then,
the Gibson trade happened. They gave up Maraazac for Gibson,
They signed JVR, they signed Mason Appleton, vlad Terasenko moved on,
and they drafted Carter Bear, who was an interesting prospect.
In terms of where to go here with the Red Wings,
it seems like they still are shuffling things around the edges.
I'm not sure how big of a shift all these
things are going to do, but they still have a
pretty decent team. They should be in playoff contention. One
of the big stories last season was Marco Casper taking
a big step, playing seventy seven games, thirty nine points,
all that was pretty good. I'm just a little skeptical
that he's going to take even another step because I
think Casper is I think he's a good player. I
think that he was probably going to be helpful to
the team, But just in terms of opportunity, time on
ice and all that, I'm not sure where he falls.
Is he really a top of the lineup kind of guy.
Is that how they're going to use him. Just looking
last season they had him as the sixth month time
on ice, he was just behind j T. Comfort and Dabrinkit, Kane, Raymond,
and Larkin, and so he's probably going to stay in
that range. And he also had a lot lower time
on ice. He was behind Terry Senko as well in
the terms of the power play and only had four
power play points. So he's going to need to beef
all that up. They're going to need to trust in
him more. All those things are going to need to
happen for Casper to get an even bigger step forward.
So I would just be skeptical that's going to happen.
I think if he basically repeated or got forty five
ish points, I think that should still be success with
all the other things that he does. So I'm going
to say that Marco Kasper fails to clear a fifty
point pace. And so that's the first part. The second
part has to do with seOne Edvonson and I've been
a fan of Edmondson, and I think that what's interesting
they have a lot of good options there in terms
of defenseman who could run a power play, who could
get points. I think Edvonson is going to be a
really important part of their team. Just in general, they
were much better with him out there. But I think
it's a lot of it's going to come down to
what is happening with the power play, who's going to
run it and all that. So I think that's where
we get into some questions. It's been Cider, He's had
the bulk of the power play time, but a lot
of people that we've talked to have agreed that he
might not be the best fit for that, and so
we'll have to see. We also have seen a pretty
significant time on ice to Eric Gustafson, who got that
over Sewan Edvonson, So I think he's I think that's
going to flip, and I think they're going to give
more opportunity to see one Edvanson, and I don't that
they're going to bring up Axel sending Pelica this season
and give him that opportunity. So we'll just have to
wait and see how all that comes out. But I'm
going to say that Semon Edvanson finishes no less than
five point pace behind most Cider and last season the
point paces we're forty six for Cider and thirty for Edvonson,
and I think that he basically narrows that gap, and
I could see a world where he even overtakes Cider.
I think Cider is really good at playing really difficult minutes,
but he's not always the most offensive guy. So I
think Edvanson gets closer. So which one of these do
you want? Hold me too, Jessic.
Speaker 2: Quite interesting. I think I'm going to go with the
Edvonson take, with the logic that I think most Cider
is gonna have distance him, that the offensive difference between
them right now is a little bit wider than what
you're talking about. We'll go with the Edvonson take. I'm
not so sure what kind of expectation to have Marc
or Casper on to Florida. And even though we recorded
them at the end of July, there were a couple
of things Luke Cunning, Mike Benning both coming in and
the hot takes that I have. Here's a spicy one.
Victor Evan Rodriguez outscores Brad marchand I think we all
think that Brad Marschon is just gonna automatically be this
thing because he was the playoff hero. But Rodriguez has
been kicking butt there for a couple of years, and
he's gonna have good deployment. Yeah, and I truly expect
this is the one you're gonna hold me to. And
then the other one, Carter ver Hagy bounces back to
a career high scoring. That would mean he'd have to
top seventy three points, which I think is well within
range for the young man who just had an off
year last year. Victor, I'm going hard at these Florida takes.
Which one you want me to be held to?
Speaker 3: They have so many interesting things going on right with
Kachuk being injured, I know that Barkov often misses some
time here and there. They have a bunch of certified
band aid boys on this team, and the reality is
that even though they're not super banged up, they might
just take some time because they've been in multiple three
years in a row long playoff runs, and they know
what it takes to win in the playoffs, and they
know what it takes to get there, and they all
they need to do is get in. So I think
that they might rest some of their guys a little
bit or just let them take a little bit easy
during the regular season, and I think that's going to
affect everybody in different ways. I like for Hagey bouncing back.
I've always liked him as a player. I think he's
really smart, and he might get even more of an
opportunity here with some of these other injuries. Not sure
if he can catch in on it, but I like
him to be able to bounce back a bit. I
like the take of Rodriguez over Marshawn. I totally agree
with you about playoff performances obviously often influencing people too
dramatically one way or the other. I do think that
there's a pretty decent chance that Rodriguez has a good season,
but I find it hard to believe that he's gonna
outpoint Brad Marshaan, even at thirty eight years old or whatever.
I think that Marshan is going to figure out how
to get his points, even though he probably will take
it easy and not be as such a torrid pace
as he was in the playoffs. Just no reason for
him to do that. But I'm going to hold you
to the Rodriguez over Marshaan one. I think that one's
going to be a little less likely, all right. And
then the next team is the Montreal Canadians. We recorded
also in early June. Catchup is they traded mL Heinemann
for Noah freaking Dopson. As Jesse wrote here in the notes,
thank you. That was a good trade for them. They
and some draft picks. Obviously they turned out pretty well
for the Islanders. But right the right now, big thing
is no Adoptson. Obviously, they signed Jimmy Sammy Blay, They
signed Couple Kakan in extended Jacob de Besh. They traded
away Caden Primo, which is probably good for both parties.
They traded a Look at My Youth for Zach Bulduke,
and they traded the Kerry Price contract to San Jose.
So I'm really high on the Canadians. I think that
they've done this amazing rebuild, which is funny because they
were in the Sene Cup playoffs or final what a
few years ago, five years ago now, But they've really
been able to add some incredible pieces. That trade for
Dobson was great. They've also graduated some amazing prospects that
are now contributing. They just seem like they're in a
really good fun position and I think it's looking up too.
They have a pretty consistent goaltender. They have the BESH
looking good. I don't know why they signed Capolcock and
maybe some HL depth, but anyways, I really like a
lot of the offense, and my two takes are gonna
come down to the two youngsters. First I've been Demodov
and second Lane Hudson. I think Demoedov is incredible. I
would be shocked, absolutely shocked if he did not win
the Calder this year. He has so far and a
head away ahead of everybody. He's been starring in the
KHL for couple of years. I imagine it would be
absolute criminal if he wasn't on the top power play
in Montreal. Even though he's this first season, he absolutely
deserves all the top deployment. I think they probably even
put them up there with uzukiin Kawfild. I don't know. Yeah,
maybe slof Costi drops down the line too, but Demodoff
should get all the opportunity. I've seen some projections for
him in the fifty ish point range, which I think
is very reasonable for a first year player, and you
don't really know what to expect, but I think that
he's better than that. So I'm saying that Demodov is
going to get over a sixty five point pace, and
I'm not going to make a comment on the calder,
but I would be shocked if he didn't win that.
So that seems pretty likely and I don't think that
any other first year player can out outpoint him. Second
has to do with Lane Hudson. Layne Hudson is awesome,
and I was trying to figure out how high to
put the bar here because he said it pretty high.
Sixty six points in his rookie season. Frankly, just repeating
that would probably be pretty impressive, but we're gonna go
over that. I'm gonna say he clears a seventy two
point pace, which is a pretty big improvement from what
he already did. But I think that he's that good.
So both of these are optimistic for their young players.
Which one you're gonna hold me too, Jesse.
Speaker 2: Boy, I think demoedoph clearing a sixty five point pace
that I I think that's gonna happen, So I can't
really hold you against I'm not going to hold you
to that one. I'm gonna say there's a better chance
of Lane Hudson having a little bit of regression after
his amazing first year, even though there's it's not that
I don't believe in him, but probably a better chance
that he'd have regression to me than that Demidov doesn't
do what I think he's going to be doing. All right,
Ottawa Senators, not much to remark upon since the mid
July recording. They signed Yan Yenick. And I've got two
hot takes. I covered Josh Norris half of that Norris
Cousins trade. Let's do the Cousins half. I say he'll
be top five in power play tom and ies. To
be clear for the Senators, he'l that he'll basically be
a power play one guy for the team. They got
some good power play guys, so Cousins would have to
break into that slot. And the other is yea kimp Chuck.
Carter Keimpchuk is gonna come up. He'll be his role
will be expanded late in the season. He will be
top four in defenseman minutes for the team after the Olympics.
So for the last part of the season, I'm saying
he's gonna grab a big role for the big club.
Victor these hot takes, you're gonna hold me against either
one of these.
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely hold you to one of them. That's the
game here. So I think I'm very skeptical of Cousins
just in general. He's always left me wanting, But I
think being top five and power play Tom and Ice
is pretty low bar considering. I think all he has
to do is probably be Jakes Anderson, which might be hard.
I think Sanderson's going to take a step forward, but Stute,
slib Atherson, Ko Chuck, I think are pretty locked in there,
so he only has to be better than one one
other guy. I think the Yakamchuck is pretty interesting. I
think that he's a really fun player, but also has
a lot to learn away from the puck still and defensively,
I think if Ottawa wants to continue to be a
playoff team where they want to push towards being really competitive,
I think that he's going to struggle a little bit.
Is Yakamchuck with the defensive aspect of the game, and
I think that might limit some of his opportunities. So
I'll hold you to the Yakamchuck one. I think that's
going to be a little harder to accomplish, but I'd
really love to see it. Would be fun, although I
have invested heavily on Jake Sanderson in a couple of places,
so for that reason, I don't want it to happen,
but I think it's pretty pretty plausible. Jesse. Let's move
on to the Tampa Bay Lightning. We recorded an early September,
so not that long ago. No real catchup for that one.
My hot taches revolve around Jake Genzl and Oliver buick Strand.
So Gensel has we know, he's been in some really
good situations and he's had some really good point paces
with Tampa and Pittsburgh before that. I think that he
has a little bit more to give, and I think
that he's gonna out point braidon Point this year, and
so that's where I'm gonna put my first one. He
was close last season. Gensel had eighty points in eighty
games and bradon Point had eighty two points in seventy
seven games, so a little bit higher point pace there.
I think that Gensel They're both going to be on
the top power play. So this is just really a
matter of how much more can Gensel get? Can he
get up there? I think it's going to be close,
but I think that Genzil can do it. The other
one that I'm really excited about is Oliver b york Strand,
and I'm really excited to see how he's gone to
fit into this new team. He's been a pretty productive
depth type of score. I think the question is can
he do more? Can he get more opportunity? Can he
dictate that we saw a little bit last season. He's
been this very meh, forty five to sixty sixty five
ish point player. But I think that he can fit
in and do it a little bit more so. If
he can, then I think that will be He'll be
a really interesting play and redraft maybe someone to take
later on in your drafts. But his career high is
a sixty four point pace. I'm going to say he
gets over that in Tampa this year. Over sixty four
point pace career high. I think if he can get
on that top power play even for a little bit
of time, then he has a pretty decent chance of
doing that. He the question is where he plays at
even strength. I think that there's a second line spot
for him if he can take it. There's also some
other competition for that, and it's unlikely he gets on
the top power play without an injury, So that would
be good for his opportunity, but also would be a
little bit roughid he wouldn't have as good a players
to play with Jesse, which one you want? Holme me
to Gonzel or byork Strand.
Speaker 2: Huh, both of them are These are both really good
hot takes, I feel like because both of them have
just the tempting plausibility of yeah, that could happen, but
still less likely than likely. Now. The thing the thought
of our b yorick Strand is he's always been on
teams that are probably worse than the team he's on now.
I think that his role could be a little bit
less than it is right now. Actually, his time last
year in Tampa and yeah, he was just fitting in
after mid season, but he had his lowest average time
on ice of his career, only fourteen minutes average time
on ice when he was there, even though he had
half point per game. What he does. One thing that
york Strand is underrated for is how healthy he stays.
He's really only had one year where he missed significant
time since twenty seventeen eighteen. But he's also thirty and
there could be some concerns there, So I just a
career high for him is more than I dare expect
at this point. There's so many ways that he could
fall below the fifty nine. The sixty four fifty nine
is his career high. So to see that major escalation,
I just don't see it. So I'll go with the
Oliver Yorkstrand take and onto the Toronto Maple Leaves that
was recorded very recently, So no major news.
Speaker 3: There.
Speaker 2: Two potential hot takes. Mattie Nye's top three in scoring.
That means of the surviving three of the core four,
he's got to surpass one of them in the scoring,
maybe John Tavares, who can say. And the second is
that Morgan Riley, even with that big contract post Olympic break,
does not lead Toronto d in power play Tom and Ies,
it's the field versus Morgan Riley. I think Morgan Riley
is going to get edged out at least for that
part of the season. Victor Which one of these do
you find least plausible?
Speaker 3: I also think these are good. I think that they're
both on the edge of being plausible. I think they
can absolutely happen, but also unlikely just based on inertia
for Riley and based on previous performances for Nys, I
mean with Marner gone, but's obviously a question of Kneelander, Matthews, Tavares.
I can't imagine Nis passing Matthews and Tavares. But sorry
Matthews and Nilander, but Tavares is probably the one that
you're banking on he could pass. I think that's also
still unlikely, even though Tavares is thirty five, but he's
still really smart and knows how to get to his spots.
And I think that Nis will come up. Tavares probably
will stay similar or regress a little bit, and so
I think it'll be close. But I will take that
one because I think it's a little bit more plausible
that Nys finishes behind Tavars, and there's a little bit
more flexibility there, So we'll go with that one.
Speaker 2: Jesse, very good. Let's take a break and come right back.
Speaker 3: What are you selfish shocking? That's right, selfish hocking, break.
Speaker 2: It down, skate fuck, don't got It's still gonna be there,
and you've got jumps one taking coast to coast talking
for angles, are still shocking? Bad bounce that's a good breakaway,
got to get the Bounced Boys the Metro Division last,
and before that we will preview maybe not last, in
our hearts, we start with the Carolina Rock Me like
a Hurricanes. What do you got?
Speaker 3: Yeah? No updates on this one. We recorded middle of July,
and I have a real soft spot for a couple
of these young players, and I'm gonna go with them
for my hot take. I was so impressed with what
Jackson Blake did last year. I thought that he would
be good. I didn't think that he would be that.
I didn't think he would play as many games as
he did basically the whole season last year in the NHL,
and I thought that it might take him a little
bit longer to climb up the lineup. But he was
playing top line, top power play towards the end of
the season, so I think he can take an even
bigger step forward. Jackson Blake, even though he had a
really solid season and tidy his scoring was even better
because he's really good at play, driving and takeaways. But
he ended up with only a thirty five point pace,
which isn't as exciting, and he certainly did score some points.
But when he's not scoring points, he doesn't do a
whole lot. Just nineteen hits, thirty blocks, and one hundred
and forty shots in eighty games is not very good
bash so he was a little hard to hold at times.
But I think he increases that thirty five point pace
up to fifty. I think he's shown really good chemistry
with those top line players in Carolina, and I think
he continues to play with Jervis Innaho, which is exactly
the place you want to be. And I think that
if he does that all season, I can't imagine him
get lowering, getting lower than a fifty point pace socially
a question of whether he'll do that. And the other
one is Bradley Nadau. I made a hot take on
a Doe last year. I thought he would be the
one who would make the team and score some points,
but he ended up only playing two games towards the
very end of the season. But I still think that
they need to add a finisher like Nadau, and I
think that he's a perfect compliment there and I think
that they will give him a shot and his finishing
ability will show. So I'm going to say that Bradley
Nadeau scores at a twenty goal pace now again back
to our pace conversation. That means he has to play
at least half the games to get to that mark.
But I think that they will like his scoring, and
I think they'll put him in the lineup. So which
one you got, Jesse Nadeau or Jackson Blake. I think
I know which way you're going to go.
Speaker 2: I'm going to go Na dou Victor because twenty goal
pace is pretty impressive for a young man like that.
Jackson Blake, we were just talking about him not that
long ago, So I will I'll bet for the progression
is not linear and it's going to take him a
little bit to get over that homp. I think you
will someday, though, So let's go with Bradley Na do there.
The Columbus Blue Jackets were recorded two months ago, but
they traded for Yvon Fettatov in the meantime. I think
that's a significant trade for them, new guy in the
mix with Jet Greeves and Elvis murz Lickins for their
goalie situation. Now my hot take, this is spicy. This
is spicy. I think this team has so many young
guys on the rise and so many guys who already
are performing. Last year, the high end goals for this
for any player on the team was thirty one. I
think we're going to have three thirty two plus goal
scorers this year. Let's open it up. Let's see the Fantillies,
let's see the Kent Johnson's. All these guys get an
opportunity and a little bit of progression, more progression from
this team. On the defensive end of things, Dante Fabreau
has made a comeback for this defense career comeback since
he's come to Columbus. I feel and top two scoring
defenseman on this team for this year is my take
that he is going to move up there. Obviously number
one is a little difficult to displace, but the other
defenseman on this seem passable. So what do you think, Victor?
I think I know which one you're doing, But once
you go ahead and tell.
Speaker 3: People, YEP, I think that Fabria one is much more likely.
I think that that's that's pretty likely, so I'll not
pick that one. The goalscorer one is interesting. I think
maybe what I'm looking at shows vantill He had thirty
two last year, which I don't think changes your take
too much because there was a thirty one to thirty two,
and then the rest were a bit lower twenty four
to twenty three, twenty two, nineteen. So I think basically
you're saying those two will probably hold at least steady
or be a little bit over that, and then someone
else is going to join that club. And that's someone else.
There's some good candidates. Ken Johnson certainly seems like he could.
I don't think as much as I love Zach Warnsky,
I don't think he can get all the way up
to thirty two, So he's probably not one of the
goal scorers. But they got to meetri Varankov, Sean Monaghan,
They got a lot of different options who could pump
up to that. I don't think Matthew Olivier can quit
that high with his time on ice, but there's a
couple of options there. But I think it's a little
less likely. If anyone was going to do it, I
would imagine it would be Kent Johnson, and I think
he is due for an increase, but I feel like
he'll continue to score more Assistan points. But I think
that one's going to be right on the border of plausible,
So I'll hold you to that one. I think it's
a good one. Let's move on to New Jersey. We
recorded at the end of September, so not much catch
up there. But my hot takes had to do with
two of my favorite players on this team, Jack Hughes.
He's the one who I picked for the intro and
our intro music. I love him. He's obviously battled injuries
and hasn't ever quite hit the actual point numbers. He's
had really high point paces, but he has never hit
one hundred points Jesse. So that's what my hot take
is going to be, is that Jack Hughes hits one
hundred plus points. That's going to be a lot. He
hit ninety nine in twenty two to twenty three, and
then the past couple seasons he's had seventy four and
seventy points. So even though his point paces go pretty high,
he's had a couple near one hundred and one over
one hundred, he's never quit hit that mark. I think
this is a year. I think his off season training
and I think he's talked about being stronger and less
of injury prone, which has always been He's quite aware
of that, putting himself in positions to get hit awkwardly,
so I think he does it. The other one is
related to Dougie Hamilton, and I really love Dougie Hamilton.
He's of such a solid Priffs guy, even if he's
not getting all the power play time. And we note
that there's a Luke Hughes problem for him on this team.
But some people may not realize this, but Dougie Hamilton
continues to get more power play time and a lot
more power play time than Luke Hughes. Even though Hughes
did actually finish with more power play points last season
than Dougie in less time, Dougie still got more of
the opportunity and the point paces were similar forty four
for Hughes forty for Dougie, and so I think that
actually I think I'm reading that wrong. I think they
both had fifty point paces. Anyways, I think that Hamilton
is going to continue to have more power play time
loss than Luke Hughes. I think he continues to earn
more opportunity from the coach and it might be handed
in his name, but I think bottom line is Dougie's
going to finish with more average power play toomin Ice
than Luke Cues. Which one of these do you want
to hold me to.
Speaker 2: Jesse Aw It's all Hughes all the time with this team.
I think that Dougie Hamilton will finish with more time
on I power Play Tom and Ice than Luke Cues.
As long as they have Dougie Hamilton, that seems to
be what they like doing over there. And I think
that Jack Hughes scoring over one hundred points the year
is coming. It's going to happen, but so far, guessing
against it has been a pretty effective strategy because Old
Jack has not been able to stay out there for
the whole season. So even though it would not be
surprising in the least for that to happen, I still
think it is less likely to happen than not, just
because of availability, and then of course it's got to
be performance on top of that. So Jack Hughes one
hundred plus points total is the one to hold you on.
The New York Calendars were another pre draft, pre free
agency preview, and they drafted, of course famously, Matthew Shaffer,
Victor Eckland, Kashawn Hison. What a big haul they got.
They traded Noah Dobson, Noah freaking Dobson for a Meil
Heineman and some pretty juicy fix some of which already used.
Maxim Ziplo Cooff signed from overseas and another one of
the biggest guys coming over from Europe for the new year.
They re signed Tony DiAngelo. They signed Jonathan drew On,
they signed big save Dave Ridditch and Ethan Baar. So
they did a lot of surgery on that team. And
of course when we were recorded, they'd already parted ways
with lou Lamborello. So this is a team in the
middle of a facelift. The hot takes anders Lee top
two in Islanders scoring. He is undefeatable. He continues on.
Maybe this is hot take, maybe it's not. Maybe it's
just we all have to remember that anders Lee continues
to exist and score a whole lot on the island.
But I will say top two in Islanders scoring for
the coming year. And the other Ilia Sarokan, who has
been up and down a little bit over the years,
leads the NHL in shutouts this year. I think that's
you say, anybody's going to lead the NHL in shutouts,
You're going out on a limb a little bit. So
Victor which one of those you gonna do?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I these are interesting. I hate betting on goalie
things in general, just because they're so random, and shutouts
are extremely random, right. All it takes is a random
deflection and the shoutout is gone, even after a stellar performance.
I think I do think Sroken is the best goalie
in the league, but he doesn't play for the best
team or even a good team, so that was gonna
make it hard to get shutouts. I think Lee is
an underappreciated aging veteran who continues to put up at
least serviceable numbers. I think bo Horvat's gonna really come
around and be really good. And I think that Matt
Barzal is also gonna be really good and probably be
even better. But that's gonna be close. There's some other
options that might take step forwards, like someone holds from
or I don't know, Ziplokoff. I doubt any of these
younger guys like shaving Off do that, but I think
it's I think it's close, and I think that both
of these are reasonable. I think that I'm probably going
to just lean with Soroken, even though I think I
probably would be safe with either of these frankly, which
I appreciate, but I think that it's a little less
likely to lead the league and shut out, so that's
a little harder to achieve. And I think mars out
would beat Lee, but he also has a lot of
variability in his projection with his injuries and his inconsistent plays.
I think the easier one for me is to take Stroken.
All right, let's talk about the Rangers. So the Rangers
have we just recorded early August. No real catchup for them.
They had some interesting they have some interesting players, They
were reconfiguring their lines. They were, as we all know,
awful last year, and I think that they're really in general,
I would say that they're due for a bounce back
this season. I think that they're going to be, at
least offensively pretty good. I think that they're still going
to have some struggle with defense, but then with one
of the best goalies in the world, he cleans up
a lot of those problems. So I think they made
some improvements defensively with Gavikov, he should be decent. But
then some of their left side looks not great with
Carson Susi and or Jovak and Ninen so I think
that they might struggle defensively, but offensively, I think that
there's an underappreciated player that I want to highlight, and
that's Will Cooley. See you why lle if you're scoring
at home and can't find him. I think he's going
to be really good this season. He's a bash master.
People probably know him for that. But he only had
twenty forty five points, twenty goals, twenty five assists. I
say only that's a pretty good season for the young man.
Second year, and he increases goal total from thirteen to twenty,
and he increases points from twenty one to forty five.
I think there's a second line spot for him. There
might even be a net front power play position for
him if they want to use him that way. He's
very good at doing that. Last season he only had
three power play point points. He probably won't get too
many more than that, but he could, if everything goes right,
really take off. And I think that he's gonna in
fantasy leagues be top three for your on your rangers,
and so last season, this is going to be tidy settings.
Last season, looking at who the players were, it was JT.
Miller at six point sixty three, or Timmy Paneren at
six point twenty six, Adam Fox at six point oh three,
Vincent Trocheck at five point nine to eight because Avantage
ad at five point oh seven, and then Will Cooley
at four point eight, who was almost a full point
above Alexis Lafrinier. If you're scoring at home, I think
that Miller and Paneren are locks. I think that Cooley
with all of his peripherals could push up to the
Vincent Trocheck area, and especially if he's playing with him,
I think that'll really help. So this is a big jump,
but I think that he could jump a couple of spots.
Certainly he can jump the benaje at I think that
will be easy. But then the question is can he
jump either Fox or Trocheck. That'll be hard for the
next one on the team. So I'm giving you a
little bit of a somewhat of an easy one there, Jesse,
and the other one has to relate to Vincent Trocheck.
He's had some up and down seasons. It seems like
he has these seasons where he fluctuates back and forth,
and every once in a while, I have this really
big season, but I think so many things went wrong
for New York last year. I think Vincent Trochick gets
back to being good, and he's had three seasons over
a seventy point pace. I think he gets there, but
I'm gonna say he gets over a sixty eight point pace.
So basically, sixty nine points are up and I then
I win. But I think it's going to be close.
He was had fifty nine points last point pace last season.
He had sixty three two years ago and fifty two
three or four years ago, So there have been some
lean years for Vincent Trocheck. But I'm thinking I'm saying
this is going to be one of the better ones. Jesse,
what do you think?
Speaker 2: Boy? I always am in favor of Vincent Trocheck, so
I'm not going to go against him on this one.
I will instead say Will Cooley has reached Cooley high tide,
and while I do not doubt him for his future,
I don't think he's going to get in top three
in Fantasy points. I think it's a bridge too far
for him with the other talent that's on that team.
So I'm going to go against Will Cooley as the
one I'll hold you against. All right, then we will
go into the Philadelphia Flyers and say that they drafted
Porter Marton jack Nesbitt, because this has been since June
that were recorded. They traded away von Feedotov. We just
talked about that on the Columbus side, and the hot
takes Victor going strong here. I think we're all under
estimating Coachurier. Sean Couturier. He's going to be back now
that he's actually on speaking terms with his coach. He's
going to become the sixty five point Couturier that is
not peak, but is a whole lot better than what
we've been seeing in the last couple of years. And
of course that injury that took him out for the
whole season was quite extreme on his performance. And then
the second one one hundred point Mitchkoff. It is strong,
but who is going to say that Mitchkoff can't do
it because that guy is crazy with the talent. And
now the Couturi is actually going to get some assists
that should help him as well, Victor, which one of
these is less likely for you.
Speaker 3: That is a lofty goal for meach Cough, but it
also does seem hard to cap the young man. He
seems like a very explosive score. I think the less
likely thing is probably Sean Coturier. I do think that
he's been a little bit maligned based on his situation,
but he hasn't scored over a seventy point pace in
four years now, and I was a couple times he
did that, and he's older. I think that this team
is really in transition, trying to figure out what they're doing.
So I think neither room is going to happen. So
I appreciate you giving me good choices here because I
think I love mitchkov but one hundred point is a lot,
So I think that probably won't happen. But I am
less confident in voting against that than I am against Katurier.
I love Katurier, and I hope he rebounds, but I'm
skeptical that he can get up to sixty five point pace.
Or you're saying sixty five points that's even less likely.
All Right, I'm good with that. Let's move on to
the Pittsburgh Penguins. We recorded back in early May. A
lot of things have happened. They drafted Ben Kendall, they
signed Alex Alexeiev Anthony Mantha, Caleb Jones, Raphael Harvey Pinard,
they traded away in Adelkovich, Matt Dumba, and they traded
for or They traded for Dumba and Archers sheilovs PSA.
For She Loves, I would not go out trying to
acquire him. And if you have him, this is the
time to trade him. This is the time to get
what you can for him. Because he just won the
Calder Cup in the AHL. He looked really great down there,
but I just am skeptical that he's a solid NHL goalie.
Every time you've seen him up he seems to struggle
with the pace. So that's not what I'm gonna talk about, though,
caause I think that's I'm not sure that there's even
a good take for what She Loves is going to
do this year because the situation in NATI is murky.
But I'm gonna say a couple of things, a couple
of players that I like, and try to bring some
positivity to the Pittsburgh Penguins, which I think have struggled
to find some recently. So I'm going to say that
Brian rust Is continues to be awesome. Brian rust Is awesome.
He is a really steady producer, he had that down
year a few years ago, but all in all, he's
really good. He had a seventy four point pace last season,
seventy five point or seventy four two years ago, seventy
five last season, and then he almost hit point per
game four years ago. I'm going to say that he
continues to have a seventy five point pace plus, which
may seem like not a lot, but the fact is
that he's not dealing. He's not doesn't have a lot
to work with in Pittsburgh, and I feel like he
might get traded. So I'm going to caveat this that
this only is in play until the trade, until he's traded.
If he is traded, if he goes the whole season,
then you can have the whole seventy five point pace.
But if he gets traded, we'll cap it at his
time in Pittsburgh. So the other one has to do
with Eric Carlson. Carlson has been so bad since going
to Pittsburgh. It's really confusing. He seems like he's deferring
to all the other guys on the team. But I
think this is the season that he gets back on track.
I think he will, He'll get a little bit more,
take more charge of his opportunities, more of the playmaking,
stop being so deferential, and I think that will really
help him get more points. And I think that it's
also possible that he gets traded, but in this case,
I think it might work to his favor. So I'm
not gonna I'm not going to cap this on being traded.
He has this season and next season still at ten million,
and then he's UFA, so that that might play into
him getting traded this year with it's easier to retain
that money towards the end of the contract. So I'm
gonna say Carlson gets back over a sixty five point
pace and Brian rust will have seventy five point pacer
over on Pittsburgh. One more thing about Carlson, Aside from
that one hundred and one point pay season in San Jose,
he hasn't been over a sixty five point pace since
the twenty eighteen nineteen season, so that was a law
was his first season in San Jose. So this, I
think is a pretty big increase and I feel like
that's where Jesse might be going. What do you think, Jesse?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I both of these are plausible situations. Yeah, I
think rust is going to have over seventy five plus
point pace. I think that's very likely. Eric Carlson, best
thing that could happen to him, it feels like to me,
is that he gets traded. But even if he does,
is he going to fall into a spot where his
scoring is going to take off like that? I will
put old Eric Carlson on the less likely train and
hold you to that one. The very last team to
cover Washington Capitals, we covered them just after the draft,
just after free agency. Really don't have anything else to
say about them now at this point, but I'll give
the last two hot takes of the episode. Of course,
once again, I think I screwed up doing all these
Calder vote things because we're not going to know the
Calder voting at the end of the season. But Ryan
Leonard called her top three. I think that's my third
top three, maybe my fourth, so they can't all be right.
But I don't think he held me to all of them.
Ryan Leonard Calder Trophy top three. I think he's going
to bust out in a big way. He didn't look
completely out of place when he did come up at
the end of the season and into the playoffs last year,
didn't thrive, but look like somebody as a guy playing
his first few games, who's going to play some pretty
good games after that. And then I will never quit
Anthony Avilion. Remember I've been on the Pavilier train ever
since he was an Islander and early on, just because
it's burned into my retinas the way that he blew
up the capitals in that bubble series back in twenty twenty.
And I think he's going to have a career high
end scoring, which would be a modest forty one points.
But considering the role he's in now and the road
he's had, I think anybody would say that's probably a
little bit of a bull take at this point, Victor,
which one of these are you going to hold me too?
As the final one of the day.
Speaker 3: Jesse, I really like both of these for me, because
as much as you don't want to quit Pavilier, I
want to quit ever talking or thinking about Anthony Pavillier
because he's one of those players when you watch him,
he seems good and you think he can do more,
and then you realize that's just never who he's going
to be. He's just not that guy like he, like
you said, forty points is his max. He's one of
these guys that you look at and everywhere he goes
he gets good deployment. He had good deployment in New York,
he had good deployment in Vancouver, in Chicago, and he sucks.
I'm sorry, Like, he's just not that good in terms
of us being a profession Obviously he's better than ninety
nine percent of us or whatever, but he he doesn't
do as much as you would like in his situation.
So I think, but I'm gonna go one better for you, Jesse.
I'm going to say that neither of these things are
going to happen, because as much as I like Ryan Leonard,
I do think he's gonna struggle a little bit to
just fully translate. And I think that they're gonna want him.
And I don't know that this is permanently where he
will be, because I do think he has more skill
than this. But I think that they're going to be
content to let him just play on the third line,
help drive that line, help be a little menace down
there against lesser competition, and not put him up in
the top six and stress him a little bit more
than is needed, because Washington should be a really good team.
I don't know that they win the division again, but
I think that they should be a really good team,
and there's no reason to pump him up towards the
top of the lineup and have him struggle. I think
he'll I think he'll our other third lines, but depends
on how they use him. I think that he's just
not going to get enough points to be in that
conversation of Calder votes. Though I think he's great and
I think that his upside remains tremendous. So yeah, we're
gonna go on a bang and with the last one,
I'm holding you to both Jesse.
Speaker 2: Wow, this was a major escalation, Victor. That was a twist.
I'm glad that everybody was listening to the end because
this was a twist at the end of the Eastern
Conference ketchup and Mustard, Victor, this has been great talk.
Do you have anything to say to the people it
was this a good exercise or we exhausted before we
come back to close out the show.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a little exhausted, but this whole project is
done out of a labor of love. I know we
enjoy doing this for the listeners. And there have been
other podcasts that have done the team by team series
and then abandon it because hey, it's a lot of work.
It's a lot to keep track of, it's a lot
to do. So we appreciate all the guests that come
on and talk. Kat Silverman who does the goalie discussions,
There's people that have helped with the show prep and
all the scouts. This is the whole thing. Was quite
an ordeal and it's a lot of work and I
think this kind of puts a bow on it, and
I'm really glad that we're able to do it for
one more season and hopefully it helps you as you're
getting ready for your fantasy leagues. That's really what it's
all about, sharing the information as we see it and
having some fun. So hopefully you did too.
Speaker 2: Nice. Thanks everybody, and we'll be right back after this.
Speaker 3: We'll time hum.
Speaker 2: And before I get out of here, just a reminder
of show is brought to you by Fan Tracks. Moved
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you in the discord, email or social media. Victor writes
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and Dauber Prospects. A sponsor of this show, and I
do a solo show called Dynasty Sports Life. I talk
about multiple different Dynasty sports recently it's been some basketball talk.
We'll see. We're in the football season, but maybe it's
time to talk a little baseball. I'm not sure. You
just never know, and sometimes cross sport things. You're not
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fan Hockey Life, Rate and review, Apple Pods, Spotify, wherever
else you get your pods. Thank you for listening. Once again,
Only two more sleeps unless you're European, and then I
don't think you're sleeping. If you're an NHL fan until
the NHL season begins, keep living. It's time for that
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