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Speaker 1: Here's your hosts, Jesse Severe and Victor Nuno Fantasy.
Speaker 3: Hockey line back on the Handy Talks Fantasy Hockey Jesse Severe,
Band Tracks and Victor Noon you VP ring side. Victor.
I try to vary this every time. How you doing today?
Speaker 4: I'm doing well? And actually when people ask me how
to pronounce your name, I say, at twelve o'clock, Yes,
what time it is?
Speaker 3: It's nun yo there you go, oh wow, wow, Victor.
It's a shame the English. Frequently the till day is omitted.
Victor is a till today heavy. Nuno is a till
day heavy, A tildo inclusive. A tildo's safe space isn't.
Speaker 4: Then till the inclusive?
Speaker 2: I like that. Yeah we should go with that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, till days. I love till Day's all right, Victor.
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Speaker 3: And right after this you're going to have our special
guest to talk team preview. We'd like to welcome to
the show today the man who covers the Pittsburgh Penguins
for the Athletic Josh Yoee, Josh, how you doing today?
Good guys, how are you doing great? Doing great? Ready
to talk some Pens and I some things about the team.
Puzzle me, So I'm gonna need your help here. Sixteen
straight years in the playoffs, but now the Pens have
been out of it for two years and some of
the stats are not what you would expect from this
Penguins team, this great Penguins team. As they age, their
power play conversion percentage was the third lowest in the league.
They still get off a ton of shots, six most
in the NHL, and while sometimes in recent years the
goaltending has been the question, their goaltending was a respectable
nine hundred save percentage last year, actually above the middle
of the league. Unlike the Rutherford years where they sensibly
threw in their chips every trade deadline to try to
maximize their championship window, this year they even as recently
as a year ago when they put it all in
for an aging defenseman we'll talk about later, but a
former Norse winner and great defenseman. But this year they
sold it the deadline. They moved the franchises of youngest
star member of the corps, probably Jake Ginsel, for a
nice package of prospects from a division rival. And now
the question is can the Penguins adding up to their
longtime core to get back to the playoffs and make
some noise down Josh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been a strange couple of years. I've covered
this team since two thousand and nine, and the Penguins
making the playoffs has never really been in question until
the last couple of years. In particular last season you
mentioned the power play, and that was the most puzzling
thing about these Penguins. If their power play would have
been league average, they would comfortably have made the playoffs.
And not only did they finish thirty first on the
power play despite employing four future Hall of famers on it,
which is incredible, but they also led the league in
shorthanded goals against. It was just an utter disaster on
the man advantage of cost. Trod Rarden, the assistant coaches job,
the personnel figures to be about the same next season.
They didn't really make any massive changes. There are no
big names coming in. It's going to be those same
future Hall of famers on the power play again. And
from a fantasy hockey perspective or simply a wins and
losses perspective, how the Penguins do on the power play,
I think figures to tell the story. If they can
be as good as they should be on the power play,
they could probably still sneak into a playoff spot. But
if they're going to be this bad on the power
play again, and let's be honest, they didn't make the
playoffs last season despite getting fairly good goaltending and despite
Crosby and Malkin being healthy all season, you don't know
that those things are going to happen again next year,
and so the power play is just unbelievably important for
the Penguins, and it's honestly a mystery moving forward.
Speaker 4: One thing that's not a mystery is that is how
good Sidney Crosby is at hockey, because it's incredible. It
seems like he's defying all these aging curves too. We're
recording this just before his birthday eight seven. If you
wonder why he wears eighty seven and the soon to
be thirty seven year old. There's rumors that his contract
extension will be announced on that date, August seventh. We'll see,
you'll probably know by time this comes out. Despite all
the decline of the players around him and talent leaving,
Crosby just continues to be awesome. Another ninety four point season.
I don't know what else we should expect from him.
He just seems like it doesn't matter who's around him,
it doesn't matter how old he is. Seems like he
could be fifty and he'll still put up nearly a
hundred point pace. Is that what we can expect from
Crosby next season, that he'll still be above a point
per game?
Speaker 2: Josh, Yeah, until he doesn't I wouldn't expect otherwise. The
time will come when he will slow down. We all
know that. But he had ninety four points last season,
and I'll go back to that power play. If it
would have been even functional, he would have had one
hundred and ten points latter. He was that good. I
thought it was his best season in five or six
years probably, And he just does everything. It's not just
a matter four points. He takes every big defensive zone draw.
He's always out there against the other team's best center.
And it's not like he's always surrounded by this ridiculous
amount of talent. And he lost Jake Gensel but the
trade deadline. This is probably his favorite winger ever, and
his production actually went up after Genseil left, which the
way Crosby finished the season was unbelievable. If the Penguins
had made the playoffs, and they almost did, he would
have gotten plenty of MVP boats. I have no doubt,
just because of how dominant he was down the stretch. Yeah,
I wouldn't expect much different next season. One of my
favorite things of the year is always the first day
of training camp, when I get to see all the
Penguins after not having seen them skate in four or
five months, and I always laughed to myself because it
takes guys a little while to get going usually. But
then you see Crosby on day one of training camp
every single year, and I always say to myself, God,
I forgot how great he is. He always looks like
he's ready to go from day one. Yeah, I would
expect somewhere between eighty five and one hundred points if
he's healthy, and that that's just who he is.
Speaker 3: One guy who would certainly benefit from that if Crosby
returned to that form or was able to show that
in the scoreesheet, would be Brian Rust. He had an
injury March season. This year, he missed twenty games. That said,
he's still set a career high with twenty eight goals
in a year where he was on a mid seventies
point pace. Went on the ice, he took more than
three shots per game. He had reasonable shot block, hit
the bash for forward. For the last four years, he
has served as Crosberry's primary right wing. Do you expect
him to say in that position line, one power play,
one point per game. What do you think we're going
to see from Brian Rust? This year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you can count on him having another
productive season. He was so good last year and he
had three different injuries that really gave him fits and
he I have a lot of respect for him. He
will play through just about anything. And now that Goenzel
is gone and the Penguins never really replaced him, I says,
I'm sure we'll get to this later. It'll probably be
Drewe O'Connor again on Crosby's left wing. His things stand
right now. Sid's really picky about who he plays with,
and he loves playing with Brian Rust, so he lost Gnsel.
There's no way they're taking Brian Russ off of his line.
Even though Ricard Roquel has been effective playing with Crosby,
Sid just likes playing with Rust more than Roquel, quite frankly,
So you're going to see Russ certainly score over twenty goals.
The power play is interesting. I don't think it's a
given that Rust will be on the top power play,
but I think it's likely even if he's not, he'll
still see some time there and he'll still score in
the second unit. So I rest will score between twenty
and thirty goals if he's healthy and the thing about
him too. When he came into the league a decade ago,
he was just a skate and shoot guy. There was
no creativity to his game. Over the years, he's really
developed into something of a pretty good playmaker. The way
he sees the eye and passes the puck. Now, it's
incredible how much better he's gotten compared to where he
once was. So yeah, he is a reliably productive player
and you always throw in if he's healthy. He is
healthy right now as far as I know, and I
would expect twenty five plus goals. They're going to use
him a lot.
Speaker 3: And at Guinea Malcoln his production slowed a little bit
last year. It was the lowest per sixty scoring rate
in nearly fifteen years for Malcoln. On the other hand,
he played all eighty two games, and again the guy's
thirty seven lost in the fact that he may not
be playing at the Hall of Fame clip that we've
looked at so many years out of this guy, he's
still a ridiculous second line center. Is Malcoln? What do
you think about Malcolin's trajectory for this year and is
he going to be good for another seventy to eighty
point season.
Speaker 2: I don't know about that many points. I will say,
when you look at the Penguins, the big three, Crosby,
Malkin and Latang Malkin, clearly he is on a steeper
decline than the other two. Like when I watch Crosby play,
he doesn't really physically look any different to me than
he did ten years ago. I think the rest of
the league might be a little faster and younger, but
he's still the same, which blows me away. When I
watch Malkin play, you can see the physical gifts starting
to decline. He does not have that burst anymore. He
frankly looks slow at times. I don't think he has
the one timer that he once did. That said, we're
talking about an all time great player and those guys
just know how to put up points. I don't think
he'll be any better than he was last season numbers wise,
and I don't think he'll be worse. He turned thirty
eight the other day. Maybe he'll begin continue to decline
a little bit. But when you consider he'll still be
on the top power play and that the probably has
to be a little better than it was, it couldn't
be any worse. I don't think that should help him.
And also late in the season, the Penguins acquired Michael
Bunting in the Jake Denzel trade. Bonting and Malkan work
great together. Bonting's one of those guys you don't always
need to be a ridiculously talented guy to be effective
in a top six position. Bonting did all the little work,
used his speed. He really created a lot of space
for Mulk, and Gino likes playing with him. So I
would expect Mulkan to not be a point per game guy,
but I could see him put up twenty five goals,
maybe sixty sixty five points in that range, I think
for where he is. You just turned thirty eight the
other day. I think that's a reasonable expectation.
Speaker 5: Nice. Good to hear that.
Speaker 4: Let's talk about the aforementioned Michael Bunting. He just talks
about him. He came over at the trade deadline from
Carolina and the genst the trade. He started off playing
mainly with Crosby and Rust, but ended up mainly with
Raquel and Malkin. As you were just mentioning, he had
a fifty six point pace overall, but nineteen points in
twenty one games with Pittsburgh, So there's some optimism here
that he can get back to a career high sixty
five point pace in Toronto. So, Jess, do you think
that there's hope that Bunting can be hit that peak
where he was in Toronto.
Speaker 2: It's possible. Some guys just fit in with certain teams
and you can't really explain it. It just happens. And
Bunting his first few games with the Penguins, he looked
so good and I was talking with him. I said,
you look really comfortable. Can we expect to keep seeing
this that? He just shook his head. He said, I
really like it here. He said, I don't know what
it is. I just like from day one, I just
feel like I fit and he and Malkan were great together.
The one thing Maulkin doesn't really bring to the table
is speed. Okay, So Mike Sullivan loves having Maulkan with
at least one really fast winger, and that's one thing
Bunting brings to the table. He's scrappy, he goes to
the net and those two just had an instant chemistry.
Whereas most of the season Malkin played with Riley Smith
and Riley Smith just wasn't very interested in Pete and Pittsburgh.
He never wanted to be traded from Vegas. He had
a great October with Malkin and then that just fell apart.
Malkin and Bunting were good together. I would expect Bunting
to score more than twenty goals. The point totals can
be a little tough day. It's not like he's not
going to be on the top power play at least
I'd be very surprised if he were. So he's not
going to get many cheap power play points, but I
think he'll put up plenty of even strength points. He's
going to play with Malka, and there's no question they
won't break those two ups. So I certainly think twenty
plus goals and I don't know fifty points would be
my guests in that range. But if he stays healthy.
But no, there's definitely chemistry there and I expect him
to be good.
Speaker 3: Ricard Raquel you mentioned earlier he said he isn't effective
forward for this team. His production dipped from his first
full season in Pittsburgh, mainly because of a painfully slow start,
started with no goals and four assists in his first
seventeen games. Then he missed a month twelve games with
an upper body injury. He came back quarter to saying
he'd been in a dark place and he used the
time for a reset. But then he went on to
post a very reasonable fifteen goals, eighteen assists thirty three
points in his remaining fifty three games. Should we expect
that post injury Raquel, post comeback Raquel is good to
be the real deal for the team in the new year,
and will he likely be paired again with either Crosby
or malclin boy.
Speaker 2: He is a real X factor for this team. He
was so bad in the first two or three months,
and it was surprising because the year before he was terrific.
I think he was around thirty goals. It played very
well since joining the Penguins a few years back. And
he was just so miffed. He had told me that
the previous summer he never worked harder in his life.
He thought he was gonna have a really big season
and hockey can be a funny game, and he couldn't
buy a goal. You said it though. He was back
to himself in the second half. I would think of
all the Penguins. He would be one of the biggest
candidates to really enhance his numbers from last season. He's
going to play with Malkin. The second line is going
to be Malkin, Bunting and Raquel, and Raquel is such
a natural goal scorer. I think you'll see him back
over twenty for sure. And one thing about Raquel, he
played so poorly at times last season that he was
off of the top power play completely. Yeah, there is
a chance he could be back on that top unit.
The way he can shoot the puck from the left
wing circle, they would like to take advantage of that.
It could be Raquel wore rust on the power play.
I don't know that it will be both, but I
wouldn't be shocked to see Raquel get a look there.
And if that's the case, he could certainly pad those numbers.
So I don't think he's on some steep decline. I
still think he's a good player, just happened to have
an off year. He's a pretty good bounced back candidate.
Speaker 3: All right, A bit of a smuggle a points pick
them three different guys here, Drew O'Connor. You mentioned he's
been playing the Crosby, some Lars Eller, a solid veteran
down line centnerman, and Kevin Hayes, who last year had
twenty nine points in seventy nine games. Which one of
these guys you think is going to have the best
year for the penns.
Speaker 2: Oh I would say Drew O'Connor first and foremost. I
think there's a real chance that he begins the season
on Sidney Crosby's left way. He played really well with
him in the last month of the season. Nice net
front presence. O connor is one of those guys if
you're building somebody on a video game like he would
have all the physical attributes. He's big, he's fast, really
shoot the puck. He's one of those guys in training
camp you watch him play every year it's like, why
isn't this guy a star? And he never really put
it all together. But last year he finally started to
first in a bottom six roll. He just kept getting
better and better, and after the Denzil trade he got
the chance to play with sid and man that he
take off. He made the most of it. I'm pretty
bullish on him this season. I've always liked him. You
could just see the talent. Assuming he plays with Crosby
throughout most of the season, which I think he might.
He's certainly a guy who can exceed twenty goals, and
I wouldn't be surprised if he did. Compared to Hayes
and Eller, Boy Hayes, I don't know what to expect.
I was really surprised by that trade. He certainly has
a good resume and talent, but he also seems like
a guy who's on the back nine of his career
all of a sudden. And Eller's such of a good
defensive player and he was really good for the Penguins,
but I also feel like he's a guy with a ceiling.
I don't see him scoring more than twelve to fourteen
goals in that range. But if you're looking for a
guy between those three to take a chance on, I
think Drew O'Connor, just because of a lack of depth
in their lineup. I think he plays with Crosby and
he might stick there, and you know what that means.
If you're playing with him all the time, you're gonna
get your looks. So I think he's a real twenty
goal candidate for them.
Speaker 3: And one last catch all here is Jesse pool Yarvey
maybe gonna be relevant or is there anybody else on
this forward core who get more and half a point
per game?
Speaker 2: Jesse Cooleyarvey, boy, he was as advertised when he came
to He always as the fuck he does, and he
scored a couple of goals. I don't know that I
would expect a ton of offense from him. He wasn't terrible,
but I wasn't really blown away by anything that I
saw from him. The Penguins have had so many issues
on their bottom six for years. One guy I'll throw
out there, well, Terry Poostain is a guy he had
a handful of think he had five or six goals.
I don't have the numbers in front of me. Poostinen
can really shoot the puck. He only had a few goals,
but they were all pretty I could see him elevating
that number just because of his goal scoring talent. I
don't know how much ice time he will get. I
think it's hard for him to crack into the top
six unless there are injuries, but postin and has upside.
Speaker 4: Let's move over to the defense now, and of course
we're going to talk about Eric Carlson first. Thirteen percent
retained but still ten million cap hit for three more
seasons and after some questionable years with injury, EK sixty
five played all sixty two games in the last two seasons,
this year being the fifth time playing every game in
his fifteen year career. His point pace was low fifty six,
where the three previous seasons he had paid seventy points,
there above his career average of about eighty two game
point pass sixty seven. He's definitely still under that as mentioned.
As you mentioned previously in a couple of times, the
power play being so bad was probably a big part
of that, and you already mentioned you think it can't
get much worse. So do you think we see Carlson
get back to a sixty five point pacer above?
Speaker 2: I do, And he was another one that was so
puzzling to me last season. He did not play poorly,
but you could certainly see the brilliance with the puck,
all the talent. As advertised. He makes his defensive mistakes too,
but he actually wasn't that bad defensively most of the season.
But I can tell you the coaching staff was frustrated
with him. They just think there's another gear for him.
That he didn't hit last season, and I think he
was a little too hesitant. We've seen this over the
years when you play with Crosby and Balkin, even great players.
Jerome mcginlow was the ultimate example in twenty thirteen, which
is constantly defer to them. And I think they want
Eric Carlson just to be Eric Carlson's UND's crazy. He
usually coaches want him to slam on the brakes a
little bit. I actually think they just want him to
go for it and do what he does. Go freelance,
go shoot the puck. The last game of the season,
the Penguins lost a meaningless game to the Islanders, and
I was standing right behind the bench when the game
ended and Mike Sullivan went on an absolute tie rade
back to the locker room because Eric Carlson didn't shoot
the puck in the last ten seconds of the game.
They want him to shoot the puck first and foremost,
so I think his point totals will go up more
than anything. I think his goal totals will go up.
I really think they want him to be more of
a shot first guy, almost to play a selfish game
in a way, because they think that's really when his
talents are at their best. Yes, the power play hurt
his totals. Maybe he was part of that problem, though
I would argue he wasn't as good on the point
as I thought he would be. But physically he still
looks like he's the same guy. And I know he
was really unhappy with how last season went. So I
don't think we're ever going to see him score one
hundred points again because that was the That was just
literally him trying to see how many points he could
score on a terrible Statos eight team a couple of
years ago. But if he were to get back up
to seventy or eighty points, I honestly wouldn't be surprised
because the talent is all there, and again he's going
to be on that power play, and I have to
think the power play is going to be better, and
I think he'll play a role in that.
Speaker 3: We talked about him earlier, Chris Letank part of that
Hall of Fame corps of this team. He played eighty
two games again last year. After course the issues with
blood clots that are not too far back in his past.
Still excellent in block shots and hits, good scoring defenseman,
even with the power play. Not having the year that
they expected. He was tied for seventh in the NHL
in total time on ice, So even at thirty seven,
he is hogging minutes out there. And if you look
at the other I had to go all the way
down to thirty eighth place to find a guy who
was as old as him who was that many minutes
on the ice. So it's he's an anomaly for sure.
Latang is similar to some other defenseman who play a
ton of minutes as goes the team, so he goes
and vice versa. So if you look at some of
the advanced stats, it's pretty close to what Latang's stats
look like. But anyway, is Latang do for another vintage
Latang type here?
Speaker 2: Boy, that's a fair question. I'm not sure. Here's the
problem with Chris, and this is my concern. I thought
in the first three months last season that was some
of the best hockey you I've seen him play in
many years. He was unbelievably good. And to his credit,
that was the first time since twenty ten when Sergei
Gonchar was here that he was taken off of the
top power play. They put Eric Carlson there. He didn't
complain about it. He didn't mope about it, and they
told Chris, hey, your your roles changing a little bit,
and in particular, he became the focal point of their
penalty kill. His penalty killing in the first three months
was superb. He played just a wonderful two way game.
Something happened to him in the last couple of months
of the year, and I know he had a hand injury.
He had surgery on the hand this summer and he's
fine for the start of the season. Maybe that's all
it was, but he was not good in the last
two months. He really fell off, and who knows what.
Chris is one of those guys, like I always say,
we always call them tanger games. He has about five
games a year when he just looks awful and you
can see it from the first ship. There's just something
not right and he's out of sorts. He only has
a few of those games a year, but he has them,
and we don't know why. He just has these mental lapses.
But the other seventy five games, he's great. So I'm
going to keep an eye on him at the beginning
of next season, just because he is at the age
even though he's an incredible condition where you can see
it fall off, and maybe that's what we were seeing
in the second half last season. I don't know, but
I don't think we're going to see a huge production
wise season from him, just because I don't think he'll
be on the top power play just in terms of
his overall level play. I'm curious to see if that
drop was just just an injury or something was little
off whatever, Because you said it, the Penguins go as
Crystal Tang goes. It's been that way for fifteen years,
and he's one of those guys. He plays better the
more minutes he gets. He's like a running back in football.
The more carries he gets, the better. And the best
games I've seen Crystal Tang play was when he played
thirty minutes and he never looks tired. So I'm curious
to see how he bounces back, But I wouldn't expect
a huge season in terms of points.
Speaker 3: When you have Carlson and Latang. How many more defensemen
do we need to talk about? But I will bring
up one more, and that's Marcus Petterson. One of the
nice things with Betterson is if he's not playing with Carlson.
He seems to be playing with La Tang, so he
gets some pretty nice deployment out there. He was somewhat
more prolific when he was out there with La Tang
than when he was with Carlson, But he played all
eighty two games last year. He chips in a reasonable
profile of statistics, lots of blocks. For example, is this
a guy if things fell through, if things started to
go south, that maybe could get some power play time,
you know again, maybe third in line to the throne,
that type of a thing if some veterans were out.
And is he going to continue to have fairly similar
type production to what we've seen from him in the past.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would expect him to be on the second
power play with latag in fact, and Marcus is one
of those guys. He's a defense first guy, and he's
a very good defenseman. He had his best season last year. Boy,
I don't know where that team would have been without him.
He is just so steady and he has a ceiling offensively,
he's not an overly gifted guide is them for a
hard shot, But I will say he gets better with
the puck every season. And Mike Sullivan always notes that
he just makes these clever little passes a lot like
Brian Doomlun used to when he was with the Penguins.
He'll put up some points just because of who he's
surrounded with on the ice, and he's been durable. He's
their most dependable defensive player frankly, and I absolutely expect
him to play with Eric Carlson next season. He's good
with latag or Carlson, but the two Swedes, Peterson and Carlson,
they've really got a connection. It's not easy to play
with Eric Carlson. You need the right personality. And Marcus
is so laid back you just you ask him about
playing with Carlson, he just smiles and he says, I
know er it's gonna go freelance most of the game.
That's okay, that's my job, just to take care of
the two on ones when they cup it. He's very
much at ease with it. They have a lot of chemistry,
so he'll brack up a lot of assists, there's no
doubt about that. And he just like I said, he
gets a little better offensively every year. He's only twenty
seven still, so I still think there's room for improvement.
Only is one year left on his contract. You can
expect the Penguins Silakiam up very soon. Really good player.
Speaker 5: All right.
Speaker 4: Let's move over to the goalies now, and the Penguins
are ranked twenty seventh and expected goals against p sixty
at five y five per Involving Hockey, but conceded the
twenty second ranked actual goals per sixty, So that means
the goalies did a little bit better than expected. The
team collectively blue some substantial leads, though early in the season.
They also didn't close out enough games in the extra frames.
They only earned four overtime win versus twelve losses. They
would have made the playoffs that they just converted a
couple more of those. But let's talk about the goalies.
Tristan Jarry of course, first goal save above expected nine
point three delta Fenway point five to five those that's
pretty nice. Year two of a five point three seventy
five million twelve team no trade list in the quality
start at fifty five percent, really decent record. There's some
competing narratives here amongst the fans, and one version, despite
having the twelve team no trade list, Jarry should be
traded to help the retool, or he could be part
of another playoff run. So I guess we're not really
sure what's going to happen, but it does seem like
the team wants to keep competing and go for the
playoff spot. Can Jari help him get there? What do
you think we can expect from jarr this season, Josh with.
Speaker 2: Tristan Jarry, we always see him start the season well,
but if you look at his splits first half and
second half, they are dramatic. He's great in the first half.
Those are reason he's made two All Star games, because
his numbers always look great January. For whatever reason, in
the second half this season he struggles. He got to start,
believe it was March twenty sixth, I want to say,
in Dallas and he gave Marcus Petterson a dirty look
after a shot deflected off Petterson and went in the net.
Mike Sullivan didn't give him another start the rest of
the season. Alex da Helkovich started every single game down
the stretch. Coaching staff was not happy with Jari. I
think Jari in terms of physical talent, is maybe a
top ten goalie. He has all the tools, he's big,
he's athletic, he really handles the puck, He's never quite
put it all together, irritates coaches, He's got some maybe
bad practice habits when he was younger, stuff like that.
Whereas Nadalkovich might not be quite the physical talent of
Jari is but everybody loves net one of those guys.
So my concern for Jari I don't know what percentage
of the starts he's going to get. They brought the
Dalkovich back, which I wasn't really expecting he was a
free agent. I thought he would probably get a little
bit of a raise somewhere else. Instead, the Penguins bring
him back on a two year deal. I think Jarry
probably gets the majority of the starts, but this could
very much be like a sixty forty situation. They really
liked Dalkovich, and I just feel like Jari did some
damage and loss and trust from the coaching staff next year,
So he could have a really good year. He's got
the talent to do it, but I'm just not sure
how much he's going to play, And I know that
can be a concern when you're talking about a goaltender's
numbers and wins.
Speaker 3: All Right, this has been some great information on the
Pittsburgh Penguins. Why don't you let everybody know how they
can follow your work.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I just come to the Athletic. I know
everybody probably knows the Athletic, but now just come to
the Athletic dot Com. I cover the Penguins, and of course,
no matter who your team of choice is, we cover
just about everything. And I'm on Twitter not as much
in the summer. I have to get away from social
media a little bit. I find it's good for the
soul in the summer. But you can find me on
Twitter or the Athletic.
Speaker 3: Indispensable the Athletic. We'll definitely look forward to your coverage.
Thanks for coming on, Josh.
Speaker 5: Oh my pleasure guys any times. Then that's good.
Speaker 2: Fire passed off.
Speaker 4: Oh my goodness, long with a quick gram.
Speaker 3: Now it's your weekly goalie talk. But Cat Silverman, Cat's Instincts.
Speaker 4: Time once again for Cat's Instincts With Kat Silverman and
Ingold mag we're talking Penguins goalies, so we get to
start with you. Ol Blumquist, Pittsburgh's twenty twenty second round
pick before they took Kelli Klang and before they traded
him away. But Bloomquist is who we're focusing on here.
He's six foot, two hundred and eighty three pounds. Came
up in the car Pot system, which we know is
good for goalies and a good system overall. He was
in the AHL all season for the Wilkesbury Scrand Penguins
last season and it went pretty good. I would say
nine to twenty one save percentage, two to one six GAA.
It didn't go as great in the playoffs. He had
a couple of rough games and it looks like he
got benched after that. But overall, he has a pretty
good hockey prospecting. He's basically trended up just about every
season and now he's up to forty three percent chance
of being an NHLR. He's got a bunch of really
good comps. Took A Rask is one that he looks
like a lot of Yeah, fellow finn I like to
do that sort of thing, and yeah, he looks overall
really good. He's not the only comp. There's some other
guys in there. But Kat, what do your instincts tell
us about Blumfisz. Is he the next starter for the Penguins.
Speaker 6: You'd gotta be I think when they traded Kelly playing
to the Anaheim Ducks.
Speaker 2: That was.
Speaker 6: More or less putting their faith in After watching playing
in Blomquist developed for a year or two after getting drafted,
saying we think that Blomquist is who we would like
to go with moving forward while getting some really good
assets back. It'll be cool if they both make the NHL,
but I think Blanqus has a much clearer path there.
I think he absolutely needed to have that good year
last year. That was huge for him because that is
a big jump going from playing in Finland, where he
really does play a strong technical game. You've got good positioning,
he's got good depth management. He makes really good decisions,
but sometimes occasionally would look a little rattled once he
started playing more frequently at the higher level, and I
just I wanted to see him have a nice smooth
year in the AHL, just to show that he's developing
and feeling confident about his development. Because he had the
tool kid there, I just wanted to see that he
was confident with it.
Speaker 2: And it looks like he does.
Speaker 6: Looks like he feels pretty good about it. So I
don't know, it's going to be fun seeing when Pittsburgh
decides its time to bring him up, because they're in
a little bit of a weird state right now where
they have a couple lesser known good guys on their team.
I think Sidney Crosby is one of them who are
aging right now, and so they're in this weird holding
pattern where I don't know if they expect to still
have any kind of window open for the next couple
of years, or if they're really looking towards making that
overhaul to try and avoid plummeting before heading back up again.
And I think that'll depend on when Blumquist is brought
up to the NHL full time. Is going to be
what they want to do with him and with his contract,
But it's nice that they have that ability. It's good
to see a team that has a guy who looks
like he's ready to start getting his NHL action. Looks
like they could bring him up this year, but they
don't to. They could afford to leave him developing, maybe
even splitting next year between the NHL and the AHL
give him a chance to feel confident against NHL is
without leaving him their distinctreas win. But I do think
that he's the future of their goaltending, which is a
bold thing to say and means he's probably about to
get traded. But I think he is the future goaltender
for a number of years to come. It just did
the matter when they feel like it's time to make
that move.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they got four more years of Jari at five
point three seventy five and two more years in Adelkovic
at two point five million, and for his to his
credit bloom quiz, he has two more years at league
men or eight eighty. So no decision needs to be
made anytime soon. But if he pulls an Ascar off,
who just demand as reporting this just demanded a trade
out of Nashville, You never know. Maybe we'll see him
in another jersey sooner than that. Let's move on to
the other guy. Sergei Muroshov twenty twenty two to fourth
round pick six ' to one. Actually he's listed at
six to two on Elite Prospects now one hundred and
seventy pounds. He's in the Locomotive system. Last season played
almost entirely in the MHL and the Actually that was
a previous season. I know you mentioned I would look
like he was out playing that level and this season
he played all but six games in the MHL, and
with those six KHL games they went very well. But
unfortunately he was back dominating the MHL again and last
season he had ten playoff games. This season he had
nineteen playoff games. Actually I didn't write down if they
won or how far they went, but it looks like
he played a lot of playoff games and he did
very well. Unfortunately not as much of an opportunity. It
sounds like, though. The big news is that he is
coming to North America and he'll be in the HL
this season, so that could be really good competition between
him and Blunkfist, although it might mean fewer games for either.
His hockey prospecting has has him trend down a little bit.
He's been that thirty to forty percent range of being
an NHL or There's a bunch of ok comps. The
one is Nicholas Backstrom, not the forward but the goalie
of course, and he was more. He was a pretty
good starter in his day. So what are your instincts,
Kat tell us about Mershov.
Speaker 6: I'm really excited to see essentially what Pittsburgh does with
that system, because in all honesty, I think the weakest
looking the goaltenderdrive the most questions about, and that system
is Alex Ndelkovitch, and that's a pretty If that's the
goaltender you're the most uncertain about, that's a really good
system to have. I think Myshov has such good speed.
He plays such a different game from Bonquist, so that'll
be interesting to see if they do spend the year splitting,
essentially splitting those starts in the AHL for wilkes Bury,
I think it'll be fun to see how the system
in front of them handles that. Because Blonquist is a
little bit more conservative with his movement, stays a little
bit higher up in the blue paint, that makes more
movement depth wise than he does latterly, and watching Mirshov
move he's such a fluid skater, almost like a Marc
Andre Fleury when it comes to being able to essentially
change direction on a dime, but without looking like he
has to do it because he's not reading the play well.
He just has that extra little gear too. If he
does need to make a really quick transition, he's able
to do it. And that's just such a different game
from what Walmquist plays, So I'm excited to see how
that goes for both of them. Ideally, we see them
play off each other really well, learn a little bit
from each other. Gives the team a lot of a
lot of versatility when it comes to practicing different situations
at the AHL level for all their prospects. But I
do think that eventually, based on how he's been playing,
he and Blomquist are both likely NHL as in my eyes.
And I know for a while there we were joking
that Pittsburgh was doing what bitch Korn used to do
with Washington and holding on to as many goalie prospects
as they could to dangle them as care for teams
that don't know how to draft goalies like Dallas.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 6: I know that there's a chance that one of them
would get moved. My guesses it would be Mirushov, just
because they've put a little bit more development into Bunkfast.
But I don't think that move is something that they
would need to make this year, and I don't think
it's one that they would make this year. So I
think it's just one to keep an eye on because
if they both look NHL ready super quickly, like you
said with Yer Slavaskarov, that could put them in a
really tough spot if they try to keep one of
them at the AHL level when they very clearly don't
need to be there, because I think both Myrishov and
Blonquist play games that look like as long as Mirshov
makes a good transition to North America, they're both going
to be NHL raised in the next year or two.
Speaker 4: I love it, but yeah, I definitely keep an eye
on Myrshov. Don't be so disappointed that he's behind Blunkfist
because you never know, and he's definitely an exciting goalie.
Thanks so much, Kat forgive me instincts on these Penguins goalies.
Speaker 3: Digs the Dynasty Dig the Third Penguin Edition. Oh it's
not so great here, not so great twenty seventh rank system.
But there are still prospects, Victor that we want to
talk about. It starts with a no brainer.
Speaker 2: Who is Jesse.
Speaker 4: That's Rutger McGarty and he was a twenty twenty two
fourteenth overall pick, six foot one, two hundred and five
pounds left wing, obviously recently traded from the Winnipeg Jets
over to the Pittsburgh Penguins, as he had requested a
trade didn't hear any clear reasons as to why it
sounded like it just they didn't think it was the
right fit or whatever the case may be. But he
wanted out of Winnipeg and he got it, and now
he's clearly the top prospect in Pittsburgh. I think part
of the reason Pittsburgh wanted this is him being a
little bit more NH already, and that's pretty exciting that
he is most likely going to play for the Penguins
this season, and that's super exciting. Obviously, someone you want
to target in your leagues and dynasty leagues if you're
going to be competitive this season, as he could get
a role with some of those aging top stars. He
had two stellar seasons at Michigan, and he was over
a point per game or at a point per game
in his first season with Michigan fifty two points and
thirty six games, last season well over a point per game.
He was part of the Team USA World Junior Championship
for the UA teens twice and the U twenties twice,
and this past season captained them to the gold medal
nine points in seven games. Was really the emotional leader there.
If you remember he was coming off an injury and
they weren't really sure how he would fare, but he played,
and he played a significant role, and it was it
was pretty impressive to see him out there. I pulled
up his Mitch Brown tracking data, which is always interesting,
all the way back from his U seventeen season, where
it's interesting because that he's actually a little bit more
defensively deficient than you might think about. Even from back
in his U seventeen days, the corsi against is pretty
pretty poor, and that has maintained all the way through
his most recent season at Michigan. You might think of
him more as a stout two way player. He's certainly physical,
but I'm not sure that the defensive metrics are exactly there,
at least based on his USHL and days at Michigan.
But the transition has always been pretty good up until
this past season, where it actually dipped a little bit,
which was interesting, and the offense has maintained strong. Even
in his D minus one season, he was seventy ninth
percentile for offense, which is pretty incredible. That bumped up
to the nineties in his subsequent seasons and his most
recent season, which was a little bit marred by injuries
and just the nine game sample size may have been
a little bit skewed here, but I wasn't quite so
good in terms of expected goals and assists, but previously
those have all been really great. His overall impact boards
to the middle, all these things have been overall really
strong for McGroarty. Looking at his track data from the
U twenty, his defensive game was incredible ninety fifth percentiles,
so again a small sample size, but that suggests that
he actually can be a really strong two way forward,
and his expected goals were off the charge, some of
the best in the tournament. Looking at the FHL player card,
you can see that his shots are ten out of
ten hundred percent tile. Not many people are shooting more
than the NCAA. His hit some blocks are right around
fiftieth percentile, so overall his bash is really strong. He
doesn't take a whole lot of minor penalties, so in
our metrics that's a good thing. And his goals and
assists are really strong as well, so overall pretty decent
peripheral floor. More shots than hit some blocks, but those
are still about average, and overall pretty decent peripheral floor
from McGroarty. But let's hear a little bit more about
what makes McGroarty interesting. From our officil scout, Jesse.
Speaker 3: Scout Patrick has this to say about Rutger. McGroarty skating
average is slightly above average, and Patrick believes it has
improved somewhat since his draft here. He isn't the swiftest,
but he skates hard and he keeps moving on the cycle.
Passing and handling they are a strength. He's able to
hold onto the puck in traffic, can make quick and
accurate passes or pause to find the best pass. Shooting,
he has a plus shot that is most lethal in
close to the net, where he scores a lot of
his goals IQ. Very good hockey IQ. He puts into
good use to get back on defense at the right time.
Reading the play on the offensive zone for checking. Hockey
IQ and hard work serve him well. On the fore check,
he moves to get in good position, steals the pucker,
maintains possession on the boards to keep the cycle going. Defense.
McGroarty is dedicated to defense. He reads the play to
get back quickly and can help stop turning the puck
back toward offense. His best asset is his hockey IQ.
His off puck play will be instrumental in his success
in the NHL. The biggest concern it would either be
the lack of dynamic play or the lack of play driving.
McGarty will need to be in line with somebody who
can get the play into the offensive zone. Top tier role.
It's possible that McGarty tops out first line sixty to
seventy points because of this hockey IQ. Because of this
work ethic and the passing that helped facilitate the play
of a very skilled playmaker the median outcome. McGarty has
enough skill to at least be a low and second
line wing Sirspatrick. While he may lack the elite skill,
some of his parts can play an important part on
a scoring the line and a stylistic comparable. Patrick's going
to go with Blake Coleman. He'll play a valuable part.
Maybe score won't score the most points, but be a
value for the hockey team. Mason Black puts Rutger McGroarty
up against this year draftde Tichi Ginla and I don't know,
maybe it's maybe it's the sour on McGroarty, but tich
Akinla is you won a route seventy six to twenty
four boy, I'm surprised. I think i'd take her. But
what do you think of this one, Victor.
Speaker 4: It's hard not to want the guy who's going to
be playing in the NHL this season, so obviously proximity
to the NHL and NHL readiness might make you lean McGroarty.
I could see this being a win kind of trade.
If you're in a compete now mode and someone is
competing in a two three years, this could be a
pretty even swap, I would say, potentially. I think the
upside for t is still a little bit plus minus
in my mind, but I think he has at least
as much upside as McGroarty, and maybe a little less
security just in terms of McGroarty already being there. But
I have no doubt that Tach is going to be
an NHL or as well. I think that there may
be a little bit more upside for Ts from what
we've seen. He's still so young, and he's still growing
and developing, and his trajectory has been so linear. But
at some point that's going to flatten out, and we
just don't know exactly when it's going to flatten out
and how much it's going to so I understand that
I could see this. I could see this going the
way to pay on the context of the team. If
you're looking at just pure upside, though, I would definitely
take Ts's That's where I stand on that pnhrle for
T McGroarty eighty both really high. You see the ascension
for T is basically almost straight up, and for McGroarty
it's getting a little bit up and down, but right
now it's pretty up, and even his low point is
more like in the fifty sixty range, So it's not terrible,
especially with that bash and looking at the hockey prospecting.
Between these two, T's just twenty one percent chance of
being in a star. But remember that was a big
change throughout the season. It was pretty big trend upward,
so if you just looked at the back half of
the season, it would be higher. McGroarty has bumped up
to forty seven percent chance of being a star based
on his strong based on his strong production in the NCAA,
and eighty seven percent chance of being an NHLO. That
seems like all but a lock at this point. Looking
at some other comps from McGroarty, there's some interesting ones here.
Jack Quinn we haven't fully seen from him. Tyler Ennis.
I think he's probably better than that Dimitra Thomas Hurdle.
I think that's probably pretty accurate, like sixty seventy point
guy with decent bash. Although I don't think McGarty is
the center. I think he's definitely a winger and Claude
Drew is another one that he looks a bit alike,
and I think he could be similar to that, maybe
not hit the highs that Drew hit as a superstar,
but maybe a little bit lower upside. And the J
Fresh card has him has McGroarty at just fifteen percent
chance of being a star, eighty percent chance of being
an NHL R, So that's pretty good. Thirty nine in
the data set for the J freshcard, Jesse pretty good
at the pictor. Next up, who's our need to know prospect?
The need to know is going to be Owen Pickering
and Pickering twenty twenty two to twenty first overall pick
six foot, five hundred and eighty five pounds left handed,
d wore the C the Captain C last two seasons
for Swift Current of the WHL. His offensive production showed
just modest improvement, finishing forty six points in fifty nine
games after forty five points in sixty one games the
previous season. Also pitched in seven points and nine WHL
playoff games. Looking at his tracking data, it looks really
much different than Jigger's. The defensive impact was really good
even in his Draft minus one season it was seventy percentile.
Now his trended all the way up to ninety eighth percentile.
His offense trended up from seventy nine to ninety seven percentile.
This is what you want to see, like positive trends
in the right direction. His transition game looks like it
maybe took a little bit of step back, but some
of the features are still really good there and overall,
offensive involvement, game score, expected points, all these kinds of
things look really high for Owen Pickering. Looking at his
FHL player card, the bash isn't going to be something
that Pickering is super good at. His shots just sixtieth percentile,
and hits and blocks both sub fifty, so it looks
like more of a points only option. The question is
how likely are those points to come. I'm not really
sure about that. He was ninetieth percentile for assists in
the WHL but I'm not sure how much that's going
to continue. Looking at his play driving and analytics from
the FHL player card, really good transition game, good high danger,
good puck work, but his play driving not so good
so far. But let's hear a little bit more from
our FHL scout.
Speaker 3: Wisdom from our FHL scout Chris Owen pickering skating great
good skater, especially for the size, Very agile, quick to
accelerate and accelerate, good on his edges, and an impressive
headfake that routinely beats tricks' his opponent backward skating could
still use a little work, as his speed and agility
or slightly lacking. Passing and handling elite excellent passing, especially
for a defenceman. Really excels at handling the puck when
regrouping behind the net and starting the breakout. Smart use
of size to protect the puck from oncoming four checkers,
and often exploits the weakness of a team when sending
too many four checkers by making stretch passes through the
neutral zone. Shooting average, Owen's got an average shot for
a defenseman, shooting only about six percent to juniors. Maybe
we could hope for more because of his height that
has yet to be seen. Pickering does have a quick
release for his size, but he's often just shooting for
tips or rebounds, inaccurate even when close to the net.
IQ great, very good under pressure, always poised to make
a breakout pass or a smart dump off to his
deep partner, something that has gotten much better since his
draft season. Actually, Chris says he's great at anticipating shots.
Pickering can often put his body or stick in for
the shot to make timely blocks, especially good at the
type of stick block that ramps the shot off his
stick and out of play. For checking, Pickering stays as
a stay at home defender most of the time, so
for checking isn't really applicable. Often he's already his blue
lined before any breakout's been made. Defense good, great at
using his size to win puck battles. Often boxes out
opponents and uses his length advantage to take control of
the puck. Also, Owen will defer to tying up his
opponent if teammate is near and in better position, good
positioning while on d and in transition. He's going to
need to get stronger for the NHL, though, despite being
six to five there's not a lot of physicality in Pickering,
per Chris. Chris can see him getting bullied in the
pros a little bit until he does bulk up, but
the height kept him from getting exposed, especially on the
boards and in net front battles. Best asset is the passing.
Then his ability to set up and read a breakout
from behind the net will help him in the transition
game at a pro level, and the concern lack of
physicality's got to get stronger or will be completely ineffective
on the defensive end. The top tier outcome for Owen
Pickering Tier two top pair power play one quarterback, ten
goal thirty five assists, low hit totals, but upside for blocks.
If he adds physicality to his game, that's how he
gets there. He could become a team's foundational two way defender.
Passing and skating ability open up the possibility of becoming
a power play one quarterback on a team without a
strong offensive scoring defenseman. The median outcome second or third
pair power play two quarterback five goals twenty five assists,
low hits, maybe some blocks. His playmaking will keep him
relevant on the power play in that scenario. Keeping him
as a power play two quarterback. If you could learn
to be serviceable as a non physical defender who uses
his length as a separator, he'd be valuable as a
second or third pairing defenseman, depending on how his two
way game develops. Stylistic comparable Damon Severson, how about that.
We'll see how that comes out and the NHL ranking.
Mason Black has set up a poll Owen pickering Mikhil
Gulaiev of the Colorado Avalanche and Gliaiev in a route
in a ROMP seventy three to twenty Sevictor, Is it
also Glaiev over pickering for you?
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely. I think that's probably not surprising for those
of you that heard our AVS episode. I do Gliaiev.
I think he has some really good opportunity to be
a positive point producer. Even though he didn't score a
ton in the KHL. He's in a really difficult league,
and I think he's showing his all around skill set
and pickering. As you've probably heard, as I was alluding to,
seems like he's going to be more of a shutdown
defensive kind of guy, and he has really high likelyood
to make the NHL. Both these guys, do I think
pick Pickering is going to be in the NHL for sure?
His size and mobility, his defensive game, but I'm not
sure he's going to score a lot. Gliaev is a
little bit smaller, but I think he has a little
bit more offensive upside, so I would definitely take him.
The PNX League for these two is a little bit similar,
a little bit higher for Pickering, but I think it's
much more realistic and there's more upside here for Guliayev
in terms of him reaching that ceiling. Looking at the
hockey prospecting is pretty clear Guliayev eighty four to seventy
seven percent chance of being a star. Pickering has stayed
consistent in the sub ten percent the last three seasons,
so a lot more pessimistic on him reaching his star potential.
Some of the other comps that seem reasonable for Pickering
someone like a Darnell Nurse, but without the bash because
he doesn't really bash that much as we saw from
the player card. That's basically what you're hoping for. Maybe
someone who gets a lot of minutes, maybe gets some
decent amount of points, but you might not have the
peripheral floor there from Pickering looking at the j fresh card,
just one percent chance of being a star, seventeen percent
chance of being an NHLer, and I think that's probably
pretty realistic. I don't think there's a huge chance that
Pickering is a big point producer, but someone who will
play games. If you want someone on chry level contract
who could turn things around, and it seems pretty sure
bet to play in the NHL, then he could be
your guy.
Speaker 3: Very good and victor who's to keep your eye on prospect?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so this is going to be val Terry pustin
In and pustin In is was a twenty nineteen twenty
nineteen seventh ro out pick two hundred and third overall,
five foot nine, one hundred and eighty three pounds, right shot,
right wing, so he's definitely a bit on the older side.
Twenty five year old managed fifty two games with a
big club this past season, five goals of fifty and
assists with the Pens while averaging eleven forty five time
on ice not so much and about a minute a
half on power play two.
Speaker 2: So overall, he.
Speaker 4: Was pretty good in the AHL the past couple seasons
and finally got his shot with the big club. Looking
at his FHL player card, he doesn't really shoot, block
or hit a lot either, so the perperle floor here
is pretty low, and he doesn't really take any pims
and the points you're looking for points only mainly assist
from postin In, So that's a little bit hard to justify.
But one thing that we know that the Penguins need
as they're trying to extend this window is they need
guys who can perform for relatively cheap and he can
do that. He's got two more years this year and
next year at seven hundred and seventy five thousands, so
that should give him some opportunity potentially to play with
these aging bets. But let's hear a little bit more
about pustin In. From our FHL scout.
Speaker 3: Chris says this to say about val Terry Pustinen. He
is good skater, hits stop speed very quickly, average top
speed overall quick, nimble, incredibly high motor, never stops moving
in the offensive zone, and it's tough to keep up
with as a defender. If you make his skating distance
into a rate stat he's in the seventy seventh percentile
of distance traveled per sixty. That's an interesting stat. Passing
and handling well, that one's below average. He rushes to
get the puck off his stick. He passes the puck
before surveying his options and makes some questionable decisions. Therefore,
at the AHL level he's completely different. Though with the
added time and space the AHL allows, he always looks
calm and composed. He needs to adjust the speed and
pacing of the game in the NHL before we see
any of his playmaking abilities show in a meaningful way.
Shooting his average great shot when given time and space,
but struggles with accuracy when rushed. Has a great one
timer that he loves to wait backdoor to receive, but
he needs to shoot for rebounds more often. Val Terry
aims his shots at the top corners, which often results
in the puck going out of play where he misses
the net entirely. Chris says he needs to be a
more intentional, cerebral shooter to improve his goal scoring and
finishing abilities. Can sometimes shoot seemingly just to get the
puck off his stick and avoid a turnover. The IQ
good high hides and low lows. He's an elite off
puck player, constantly moving and pulling defenders out of position.
Pustinen is a true waterbug type of hockey player. Without
proper communication from his opponents, he exploits the spaces to
set himself up for one timers for a quick slat
pass across the crease. Excellent positioning defensively, gets all he
can for his five to nine size, and is often
pressuring getting puck handlers in poor positions. He anticipates rebounds
quite well, but Chris says that Pustinen has poor poise
when puck handling and being pressured. He needs to see
better decision making and a willingness to handle the puck
near defenders on a consistent basis before taking the next
step Offensively, for checking is good. Val Teri's extremely high
motor helps make him a great four checker, good at
positioning himself on the fore check as the weak side attacker.
If his opponent attempts a dump pass or a pass
along the boards, Pustinen is always there to force the turnover.
On defense, Chris says Pustinen is good handles defensive responsibilities,
great at rotating with his defenseman when needed. He communicates
and has very predictable movements and positioning while defending almost
never leaves teammates in a tough spot by puck chasing
or getting pulled out of position, So the best asset
was the high motor he moves around the ice with
such pays, it's invaluable as a forward to force creativity
into an offense and cause havoc for defenders. The biggest
concern the poison while puck handlane. Without growing his game
to become a more comfortable put carrier, Chris doesn't see
coaches having the patients to keep him in the NHL.
The top tier outcome tier three wings, So like a
second third liner may be powerplay one twenty goal twenty
five assists low Bash, and that's because of the poor
playmaking ability panic on the puck that sets a hard
ceiling in his place in the lineup. Second line power
play one is obtainable if he has a playmaker center
and he can grow comfortable with the speed and pacing
of the NHL. The meeting outcome though a third or
fourth line power play two type wing fifteen goals twenty
assists low Bash. That's because he's already capable in the
power play with the extra time and space which would
be a reason to put him on a power play two.
Very sound bottom six winger who's defensively responsible with some
offensive upside. Connor Sheary is the comp that Chris offers
for this one, and overall Boosting is an amazing story,
unlikely success. A seventh round pick all the way back
in twenty nineteen, It's great to see his talent realized
and for him to get his chance in the NHL.
He's exactly the kind of bottom six players all fans love.
In the NHL ranking, Mason Black puts up a poll,
I think this is a first Victor Jack Divine of
the University of Denver and the Florida Panther system up
against val Terry Pustinen fifty to fifty dead even tie. Victor.
Are either one of these better than the other, or
these actually wins separated at birth.
Speaker 4: I cannot confirm it, deny they were twins, but they
don't look anything alike. That nothing that necessarily matters. It's
interesting these are. I think this is great that this
is a tie, because it really depends on what you want.
If you want the kind of more for sure NHLer
that has probably not the highest upside, then go with
Poussin in. If you want the guy that has a
much bigger upside but a lower floor and is less
likely to reach it than go with Jack Divine. I
probably would go with Divine just because he does have
that higher potential, that probability for Florida. But I hit
his prowess at the NCAA level has been incredible, but
that's been a really good system for him the entire
time he's been there with Denver, and I just don't
know that he's going to be able to translate the
skill set that he has. And I've watched him a
bit and what he does at the incident of a
label is really good, but I'm just not sure that's
going to work at the NHL level. I'm a little
bit more pessimistic. But if you want the big upside swing,
take Divine. If you want the security, take posting in.
Both these guys are pretty low in the Hockey Prospecting Model.
Zero percent star potential for possing in two percent for
Jack Divine, Both of them pretty low chance of being
in NHLers. Although we've already seen posted in the NHL,
so's that's that. Looking at the other comps for posting, in.
They're pretty much all just replacement level guys. I could
list a bunch of them, but they're none of the
guys that you've really heard of. I guess the best
one is probably E two loose terrain in, but that's
that's pretty much it. So not too much in terms
of excitement there. And there isn't a j freshcard here.
I think we covered poosin in. He's someone who is playing.
He's getting the opportunity now. I don't think the upside
is huge, but he's there. So if you want someone
in the NHL on a cheap contract, there you go.
If that for the Pictsburgh Penguins dig. If you're a
patreon you can listen to my top ten prospect recap
on Patreon. And if you're just into some scouting suit
me a damn on Twitter, Discord, or email uss.
Speaker 3: We'll be right back to close out the show. A
reminder our show's pride to you by fan tracks. You
can move leagues over, start new leagues, ten different sports
to play. We're about a month and a half out
from the hockey season, so you could be setting up
leagues right now and starting your slow drafts with your friends.
That's right slow drafts. You could set your draft to
have a four hour clock, an eight hour clock. You
can have an overnight timer, so maybe it's four hours
by day, but between ten at night and eight in
the morning, it doesn't move at all, and then the
clock starts again. You could still pick in the middle
of the night, but the clock doesn't tick on anybody.
That's just so cool doing a slow draft. It's the
only way to do it in minor and age where
you can't get everybody online at the same time. Fantrac's
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There's many people in our crew. We think. Content curator
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He's part of the fantasy team with Cam Robinson and
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This week, myself and Matt Cooper of the Couch Scouts
podcast decided to do a show about the NFL teams
whose fantasy football situations were most curious to see how
it plays out. You just never know what an offense
is going to look like until it goes out there
on the field, and with just a few days to
go for the NFL season, that was a interesting topic
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twelve is Victor Fan Hockey Life is me? Rate and
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your podcast. Thank you for listening to everybody. I hope
you enjoyed this talk on the Pittsburgh Penguins and until
next time, keep living that fantasy hockey life.