Speaker 1: Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks. Here
shits your source of information and analysis to help you
win your fantasy hockey league. Block off hot a step
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Speaker 2: Here's your host, Jesse Sovier and Victor Neuno.
Speaker 3: Fantasy Hockey Live once again. Jesse Severe, Victor der Nuno.
Speaker 4: Victor, are you ready?
Speaker 3: Good cause you're going? Come on, man? What do you
have to say today?
Speaker 2: I'm ready to go, man, I'm ready to go. Thanks
for that. Yeah, good to be here talking some more
fantasy hockey. How are you doing, my friend.
Speaker 3: I'm doing good, and I'm doing good. Ready to talk
a few more prospects. Yes, Sarah, we've got hockey back.
I think I'm back fully in the swing. See the
problem with having those are people sick of me whining
about not setting my lineups for a couple of weeks
Because most people, a lot of our fantasy hockey people
are like, they can decompress for the entire baseball season,
but I can't. So being without lineups to set for
more than two days, I get out of the habit.
I start forgetting the set lineups properly, and then the
NHL starts throwing weekday games at one in the afternoon. Victor, Yeah,
once you call me down, tell me to grow up
a little bit and just deal with these things.
Speaker 2: I think it just shows your level of obsession, which
is why we're here talking fantasy hockey. No, I think
it's good. It was. I enjoyed the break, actually tuning
out for a bit and just enjoying the Olympics. But
I did definitely forget the roster churn and just all
the intricacies of setting our lineups and free agency. I
almost forgot how to do it. Actually, I was like, wait,
where do I go? How many starters in this league? Yeah,
I could definitely understand.
Speaker 3: I always compare it to the moment in that cinematic
classic The Phantom Menace Star Wars The Phantom Menace, which
everybody remembers and loves at the end, where Qui gon
Jin is fire against the Darth Maul and they've got
these little force fields and that slam up between them
right in the middle of the fight, and they're crawling
around and looking at each other too. That's the way
I feel when the playoffs for our fantasy leagues lock
up for two weeks and we just left there staring
at each other. Absolutely nothing happening. But yeah, if people, Victor,
I don't know, man. I think it's time to get
to the content. Time to talk a little bit of
fantasy prospect stuff, because you've been writing, as you always are,
like a madman. So right after this we're gonna come back.
We're gonna talk Dynasty Stockwatch Dynasty Stockwatch Gee's edition, Big
D Double D. Today between Dallas and Detroit, we're gonna
talk about some of the top prospects that you need
to pay attention to for fantasy hockey between these two teams,
and in these cases, I think it may be stretched.
Mine is not necessarily never having made an NHL debut.
Some of the guys we're going to talk talk about
today are in the NHL, but there's still by some
standards prospects because they haven't played that many games in
the NHL. And sometimes that's exactly when we need to
pay attention and figure out is this a guy who
is is this the lid, is this the ceiling, or
what exactly do we have here? Victor? Before I get started,
do you have any sort of general comment on this
Detroit system that I believe we're going to cover first,
here is Detroit a system that you enjoyed covering? Or
these guys rough or what? Do you think.
Speaker 2: That's definitely more exciting than the Dallas system. I will
say we do the next one, but no, I think
that they have some really interesting players, in particular the goalies,
which we'll get to later. It's always interesting how they
where their sort of strengths or weaknesses or the different
teams are. I think that's always interesting. And then do
they have anyone really exciting or worthwhile they have some
guys that you're a lot of the guys that we
were most excited about recently I think have graduated from
the new phrase system. So it's a little bit less
less top end the little of the pack in my rankings.
But part of that is for most of that is
due to their high end goalies, which they which we'll
be talking about, and the other the fours are to
somewhat interesting. So yeah, but the Dallas system, which we'll
talk about later, they have had some really exciting prospects
and now they're not quite as exciting. So it's always
cyclical with these things, and it is important to keep
in mind how high end the whole team ranks and
the whole system, because each one of those members inside
the system has their value shifted based on that, and
so you really have to take that into account. But
you also can't overvalue guys just because it's a weak system.
That is something that I see a lot of people do,
and then we inflate the value of certain prospects. I
keep thinking about Samuel Poolan in Pittsburgh, and he never
really worked out the way some people thought he would,
but he was the shining star of that system and
it just never was gonna happen, probably, but because Pittsburgh
has such an awful system, he was the chosen one,
and so I think you gotta be careful to avoid that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, look out how Dubas actually is turning that around
in weird ways, although partly not from the drafting yet
so much as from the guys who's been to Bilberg.
I'll been kindled like he he was never in the system.
But anyway, this is not the Pittsburgh episode. This is
the Detroit episode. Like you said, the goalies will be big.
But in true fixed pre faction fashion, Victor, we got
to start with the entree in the plot before we
can get to the dessert. So we're gonna start with
Emmett Finnie, who is playing now. Not quite mister irrelevant
in the twenty twenty three draft, but Finnie has played
more games of all the players drafted after the first
round in the twenty twenty three draft, and he was
a seventh round pick. He's been quicker to develop on
defense than offense. His defense actually is above average at
this point. His offense, Okay, I don't love that he's
moved off the Dylan Lark and Lucas Raymond line that
he spent the majority of his season on. Now he's
with some GT Confer and Mason Appleton action lately. But
the important thing here is the player. I'm not going
to complain about the deployment. That's not where we're here
to discuss so much. The former kam Loose Blazer captain
m Finney lays the wood to his opponents with one
point five hits per game in fifteen twenty four average
time on ice and really has stepped in to stabilize
things or played an unexpected part for this Detroit Red
Wings team. In the Mason Black NHL Ranking Pole, we
put Finny up against the Jet Luchenko, the a recent
first round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers, and it's Finny
winning this one fifty seven to forty three. The hope
of what a first round pick could be or the
quick emergence of what could be a high floor guide
that being Luchenko in Finny. Looks like Finny has impressed
people enough to surpass the twenty twenty four mid first
round pick. What do you think, Victor, Finni or Luchenko.
Speaker 2: The fact that we're even having this conversation is such
a tip of the hat to em at Finnie. The reality,
as you mentioned, where these guys were drafted, there's zero
chance you would have thought we'd be having this conversation,
but we are, and I think it's really interesting and
valid if Finny, as we're recording this, just at the game,
Prior scored a beautiful goal on a drive to the net.
He created the whole play passing situation and ended up
finishing it off. He's definitely got some skill. We've seen
him move all up and down the lineup and I
think he touched on that. And obviously playing with Larkin
and Raymond at the beginning of the season was the
most exciting. He's still seeing some time with those guys
here and there, but mostly he's been that middle to
bottom six, which is what I thought would happen at
the beginning. It didn't seem like he was quite you know,
there to actually hold that deployment all season. You never know.
I think that looking at the hockey prospecting between these two,
Finney was never really someone who looked like he was
going to be great in junior. He was always just
a really solid junior player, and his star potential in
that model capped out at one percent, even though his
NHL or probability was fairly high. Luchenko is such an
interesting development case because he's one of those that maybe
you could argue was in the NHL too soon. He
was drafted in twenty four, had a great season there
for GWELF, and then jumped right into the NHL, played
four games, and then went to the HL for a bid,
played some OHL games, and he was just barely over
point per game for GWELF that season as the captain,
so it's underwhelming. He also has been underwhelming at the
U twenty World Junior Championships for Canada and then this
season the same thing happened with starting in the NHL,
then went back to GWELF and then he got traded
to Branford, and Branford is this absolutely loaded OHL team
and he's just been a guy there. He's actually under
a point per game for Branford, which is crazy because
they score a lot, but he's just asked to be more.
They're spreading the offense and the responsibilities around, and he
is a good defensive player, so his star potential has
jumped all around. He's currently at fourteen percent. But he
looks like he's going to be more similar to Emmy
than em Infinny than you might have thought. It's interesting
looking at the nhl A involving hockey charts, they're actually similar.
Both of them are average offensively, not great or sorry,
average defensively, not great offensively, and just that average middle
to bottom six, which is wild to think about. You
even look at Je Luchenko's Fantasy Hockey Life skater card
and he looks great in transition, but some of his
other numbers, like his not expected goals and course, not
where you would think they would be for a guy
who's been playing, who's played nearly a dozen professional games
or more than that actually count the AHL Games, so
it's interesting. I think he might end up being more
of just a guy than we thought. But I think
the question of who I would rather take, I would
still bet on Luchenko for more upside here, even though
I see the poll and Finny is winning there. Part
of it might come down to the peripheral contribution, which
Finny is pretty great at a hit and half per game.
He's got half a block and he doesn't shoot that much.
But Luchenko, actually you'd think he might have more, but
he doesn't really shoot or block that much either. He
does hit almost as much as Finny, probably similar but
a little less. I think the question is what's a
If he's actually a center and gets more face off wins,
then I think you could lean that way, and he
is pretty good at face offs. But yeah, I think
it's crazy that we're having this conversation. I would still
lean Luchenko for the upside, but I think they're way
more similar than anyone might have thought coming into this season.
Speaker 3: Certainly, let's move on to number two. Michael bransig nieguard
the Norwegians have entered the chat. I don't know if
you realize Victor. I do have some Norwegian heritage. I
grew up with Ole and Lina jokes. I am familiar
with the genre and I have long been I've long
been like, how come there are not more great Norwegian
hockey players? And then it dawns on me during the
Winter Olympics because they're all doing skiing, shooting things so
that they can win the most gold medals at the Olympics,
and that's where they're focused instead of the hockey. But
there are hockey prospects on the way, and Brian sig
Nieguard is the man of the hour right now, top
Detroit prospect doing well in his first year in North America.
He stopped he just short of passing the entry level
slide limit in October for the Wings. You got nine
games in and down in Grand Rapids in the AHL,
thirty four in his first forty eight very physical guy
among Red Wings with at least one hundred minutes of
ice time. This is when he was in the pros
for ten games. His hit rate of fifteen per sixty
was not only the highest on the team, and that
is for the full season, not only the highest rate
on the team, but his fifteen per sixty. The runner
up has ten hits per sixty, so he was just
throwing his body around when he was up there. Bash
plus some scoring ability. Yes please, Michael Brand Signey guard
and in our NHL Rankking Pole, we're gonna put him
up against Brandon Coots, who was drafted exactly the same
number fifteen pick, but one year later by the Vancouver Canucks.
And what do you know, pick number fifteen in either
year gets you an exact tie vote in this one.
Michael Brand, Sygney Guard Brandon Coots, both on a fifty
to fifty vote here, a dead heat as a recent
Canucks top pick, puts up a spirited showing victor. What
do you think here?
Speaker 2: I wonder what people are thinking when they see the
vote close like this. Do you think they just like
vote to keep it tied. Come on, let's try to
break this. And then there were good number of votes too.
It wasn't like it was just ten votes or something.
Speaker 3: Some people see it and they're like, oh, this should
be even, this should be I'm going to vote for
the other side just to keep it even. Yeah, what
are you doing out their voters?
Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying. Make it to make it, make
a choice, make it different. Anyways, No, I think these
guys are interesting. I got to see Kots live last
fall and he definitely looked great for the WHL, but
comparing it to what he's going to be in the
NHL is more useful forensic Nie guard. Yeah, that's interesting.
He never stood out so much to me initially as
someone who's going to be a big time hitter, but
boy did he ever when he got his opportunity this fall.
That was pretty interesting. And yeah, maybe that keeps up.
I'm not quite sure if it's going to, but look
I can I'll touch on that a little bit later
in the HL what he's been doing. But yeah, looking
at these two, I think that Coots has a little
bit more offense, and the hockey prospecting model would agree
with that. His star potential is eighteen percent right now
to Michael Brensignee Guards one percent, and both of them
look fairly likely to be NHLs. In fact, Kutz even
has a higher NHL or probability, So that's interesting. And
he was with Seattle and then got traded to the
Prince Albert Raiders, which has it's pretty similar in terms
of his point per game potential, it's been a little
bit over point per game. Kots did have those three
NHL games at the beginning of the season as well,
that somewhat disrupted his time period. But brensig ni Guard
being Norwegian and not having to worry about the NHL
COCHL agreement. He was nineteen at the beginning of this
season and was able to make the NHL but then
go straight to the AHL, which he wouldn't have been
able to do if he was in the CHL. So
his season has been going pretty well. Thirty four points
and forty eight games. Looking at Brenswick nie Guard's hockey
Prospecting skater card, though, it's really interesting and there's a
lot of not so good numbers here. A lot of
his transition game and play driving wasn't isn't great. But
this is a harder league, so I think you have
to give him that a little bit. He hasn't been
so good at loose puck recovery or puck battles one,
but his fenwick is extremely high, so that's good. And
he's been struggling in the face off dot and I
know they really want him to be a center. Maybe
he ends up being more of a winger based on that,
but his Perferle contributions. Both of these guys actually have
pretty high Perferle contribution bash in particular the hits and shots.
For brensign Guard, he's bashing up at eighty four percent,
so that's pretty nice. So you do have a strong
Perferle floor. I just think that the scoring potential is
higher for Kots and so I have him in my
puck said rating ranked a little higher. I have Brensi
Nieguard at a five point seven to six and Koots
at a six point five to one, so I think
there's a little better chance to Kots end up being
a higher than average roster player. The five is the
average and Brendi Nieguard that rating means I feel pretty
confident that he's going to be just an average guy
on your roster. But he's certainly seen like an NHLer
and a guy that's going to contribute perferally, so at
least you have that floor there. But I don't know
that he's going to be much of a big time score.
Bresid Leeguard is Kots. I'm still holding out a little
bit of judgment on him. I think that he has
the potential, but they might end up these guys might
end up being pretty similar. I would just lean kots
because I think there's possibly a little bit more there.
Speaker 3: Come on, Victor, don't take the coots away from the
Canucks fans. Please clete them that. Thank you for doing that.
Let's move on. Max Plant is the next guy up here,
Detroit Red Wings prospect taken in the second round back
in twenty twenty four. We actually talked about him a
couple episodes ago after the World Juniors. Now we can
address him in the context of this Detroit system. His
scoring pace actually in the NCAA has dipped since we
last discussed him two months ago, from the one point
five he had in the twenty twenty five portion of
the NCAA season to a solid point per game now
in the meat of the twenty twenty six schedule. That
is what it is. We're gonna put him up against
Liam green Tree in the NHL ranking poll. Liam green Tree,
who we also discussed. That was funny because we discussed
him while he was a LA Kings prospect. Then promptly
he got flipped to be a New York Rangers prospect.
In the ur Timmy Paneren trade, which I updated the
notes for the episode four, but we recorded it before that.
We've got green Tree up against Plant, and sorry New
York fans because Plant actually comes out ahead in this
one over green Tree, even though green Tree is also
having a very decent season. In the OHL fifty three
to forty seven percent in favor of Plant. He's up
against another late twenty twenty four first round or the
last time we had him in a polls against Merrik Vanaker.
This time it's Liam green Tree, and again like he
did last time, Plant wins, Victor. What are your thoughts
on this young man?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Plant, he's definitely someone who has emerged this season.
I don't think we thought as much of him prior
to that, and I think that's okay. But he is
still one of the top NC DOUBLEA scores. I think
when we talked about him, he was the top, but
he's not anymore. It's Ethan Wittenbach who we also talked about,
t J. Hughes, Cruz Lucius, all those guys are ahead
of him, although they have played more games and so
that's and McKenna's up there too. A couple of guys
have played more games Anyways, he's having an outstanding in
cublea season. He certainly will be in the Hobie conversation.
He certainly is one of the best players on his team,
and I think that certainly makes a big difference. University
of Minnesota Duluth is where he Max Plants is playing,
so forty five points in thirty four games. He had
that disappointing World Juniors. I think we talked about him
after that. In this Detroit system, he's certainly someone to
be excited about, and there's definitely some optimism that he's
going to be a player for them, where I think
previously there they didn't really know what he would be
or if he would even be in the conversation to
be in NHLR, But he guys jumped to the top
of their top of my ranks in terms of forwards
for Red Wings, a lot of the other guys who
Brads and Nie guard is in there, if Finny is
in there, Nate Danielson is in there. I have all
those guys lower just because I think they'll be closer
to average roster players, and I think Max plant has
the certainly has the potential to be a more likely
top six than some of those guys. It may not
work out, but I do like him better than green
Tree here. Green Tree, with the move over to New York,
is definitely one of their top prospects. They don't have
the best system anymore New York. Some of the guys
who graduated some have fizzled out, but Gay pro is
still tops there, so green Tree is just behind that,
and I still like him. I have a decent score
for him. I have him at a six point four
or five for green Tree, and I have Plant at
seven point one one, so a little bit more likely
for Plant to be a difference maker. So I like
that the hockey prospect in between the two clearly leads Plant.
He raised his star potential each year from twenty seven
to thirty eight to sixty two percent. Green Tree is
stabilized in the high teens. He's currently at sixteen percent.
Green Tree hasn't really had the best of seasons for
Windsor this season sixty one points in forty four games.
This is after one hundred and nineteen points in sixteen
sixty four games for Windsor last season, so definitely a
huge change. I know that there's some context with the
team there but yeah, for me, I think it's pretty
clear I want Plant, even though you have green Tree
being drafted much earlier. It's always interesting too to think
about did LA know that they didn't have that great
of a player and were happy to give him up,
or do you use the narrative that New York had
to get one of their best pieces, so they got
green Tree and that makes it more exciting. I definitely
think that he's still a decent prospect, but I think
some of his habits and the foot speed and some
of the things that we saw, especially at the World
Juniors where he wasn't that impressive, I think is going
to continue to be a problem. And it really works
me going to the New York system because they don't
have a very good track record of developing and grating
great players, so that might be an issue for him.
So I definitely go with the people here. Max Plant
a little bit more exciting than Green Tree.
Speaker 3: One more forward to discuss here. Carter Bear, the mid
first round pick last year. I don't think. Yeah. Carter
Bear is in the top ten of points per game
in the WHL, where he's an ALT captain. In Everett.
He plays with Land and DuPont there. I'm just a
humble country podcaster, Victor, but I've heard good things about
this land and DuPont kid coming up. Not this draft,
but I think next one exceptional status is doing very well,
and Carter Bear is out there with him. Anyway, back
to Bear, the kid plays with a lot of want
and he's a star for this Everett team, and we
need to talk about him for the Red Wings and
in comparison to Cole Eiserman. Oh, let's just pull out
col Eiserman and beat him up again. I feel like
it's weekly almost Coliserman ends up in one of these
polls and we have to talk about him. I feel
like a margin of victory here fifty eight to forty
two percent might be from folks who aren't following Carter
behar because it seems like to me, just on its
face the stats going on here, that Bear might deserve
even a bigger blowout than fifty eight to forty two
given his exceptional performance in the WHL.
Speaker 2: What do you think, Victor, Well, I know this is fantasy,
but you always have to think about which one of
these players is the team gonna value more and be
more excited about and There's no question it's Carter Behar.
He is going to be and is a dream for
a coach. Put him in any situation. He's tenacious, he's feisty,
he is very good on both sides of the puck.
He's gonna be responsible in his own end. He's going
to be competitive. You can feel comfortable playing him any
spot in the lineup and in any situation, and that
is the complete opposite of Cole Eiserman. He certainly has that.
He's a one trick pony, and that is a very
good trick. He's a really good goal scorer, probably underrated
passer and play, but he's certainly not that great away
from the puck, and he knows that. He says he's
working on It's been saying this for years, and I
think it is getting a little bit better, but it's
still not great. And even though he's playing on a
really good NCAA team, there are times where you just,
you know, you don't notice him for great stretches of
the game, and the best players that's not really the case.
They find a way to impact the game in other ways,
and I don't think he's really figured that out yet.
How to impact the way the game other than scoring,
which is obviously really important, but he's that's going to
limit continue to limit his opportunities. And that's why I
have Qualijaman at a five point four to six. Even
though he's a great scorer, I just don't know that
he's going to be a great fantasy asset. He might
end up just being that guy who's fringy and scores
a good amount but doesn't can't really take his game
to the next level at the NHL level, So I
worry that's what he's going to be. Car Bear, I
think is going to be a staple in the lineup.
And looking at his numbers in the WHL, there so
many of them are so good. His competitiveness is loose,
pucker cover, puck battles, his play driving, his transition game,
his passes to the slot to dangerous areas. All that
looks really good. He seems to struggle a little bit
with face offs, and maybe maybe that's not him long term,
maybe he's more of a winger. But the bash is
great and he's gonna do that for you. So tons
of bash, whereas Isserman shoots a lot, actually has hit
some blocks for Iaman aren't terrible, like he'll be decently bashye,
but not to the same extent. So yeah, I think
it's interesting between these two. The hockey prospecting has them
averaging out. Iserman was way higher up in the seventies.
Now his star potential is in the low thirties and
Carter Bear's at twenty nine percent. So they're actually more
similar now. And I think Bear's stock is going to
continue to rise and Ierman's may continue to fall or
stay staggered in So I agree with you. I definitely
think this should have been way higher for Carter Behar.
He's I feel much more confident in his projection and
his value to the team that he's going to get
tons of opportunities. So I really I like that one.
He's going to be a fan. Is he gonna get
lots of ECE time? Definitely going Carter Bear here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And just to define my term here, want is
something that Jason Parks came up with a baseball prospect
writer fifteen years ago, and I'm shamelessly stealing from him.
It's the It's a noun, and it means absolute grinder,
wants to come in early, wants to make himself the
best plays the hardest, absolutely his dedicated, merciless loves what
he does. See Sidney Crosby as the ultimate example of
having want in hockey, and it seems like Carter Bear's
got a little bit of that. And in which is
like you said, is gonna win Durham to a coach?
Finally Victor, Finally we make it to the sweet kremberlet
of this Detroit Red Wing system. The big two goalies,
Trey Augustine we'll talk about first. He We've been talking
about the two goalie prospects for Detroit. It feels like
for years. First we're gonna cover Augustine. He's the goalie
for Michigan State for Sparty up there in East Lansing.
He was the minder of the net for the US
in back to back World Juniors Championships. Lest we forget,
obviously not there this year. He's aged out. This year.
He's second among NCAA goalies and wins twenty two to
seven to one with a nine to twenty nine save percentage.
He's in year three at Michigan State, just turned twenty
one at the end of February, so there's no rush.
We've got John Gibson in the BIGS. Let Trey succeed
down there in Michigan State. We're gonna put him up
against Jacob Fowler, which seems unfair to me because Fowler's
already had some success with the Montreal Canadians, although he's
settled in as the third Banana in that goalie rotation
this year with the emergence there is Adobish I'm blinking
with Montebou. Yeah, he has settled in there, but Fowler
has definitely shown us something in the NHL already. In Augustine,
even though he was drafted one round earlier in the
same draft as not yet because he's succeeded in college.
What do you think of this comparison, Victor, and what
do you think of Trey Augustine at this point?
Speaker 2: I think, and like in some of these comparisons, the answers,
you want both, right, and I think you definitely want
both here. I think people really underestimate Trey Augustine's competitiveness.
And you were talking about want. I don't know how
that applies to goalies, but you see some goalies are
just super technical and precise or athletic, and that's all great.
That's like physical tools, but the between the years and
the competitiveness, the just inability to give up on a
play or a puck. Not all goalies have that, and
Trey Augustine absolutely does. He's been a winner at every level.
I look at his Elite Prospects page and it's like,
you eighteen gold, you twenty gold times two and c
DOUBLEA Division champ. Like he hasn't won the NCAA title
fors and four yet, but he's won just about every
level he's been at, and that's just I think a
big factor is just his competitiveness. Like he's very technical
and he reads the play exceptionally well, but he's not
the most athletic guy. And he's not the tallest guy.
He's only six one p ninety four. It's not like
he's small or anything. It's not. It's not like we're
talking about a five to eleven goalie, but six to
one is slightly under what some people consider optimal size.
But he just has excelled at every single level. And
I think that you know, you might hear what I'm
about to say about Fowler and completely disregard Augustine, but
I truly feel that he and Cosa are going to
be a dandem for years to come, and I think
they're both starter quality, so it might end up being
just who fits with the team and the way that
they play when they're both ready, because Augustine definitely works
better in a structured environment where he predicts where the
shots are coming from and has a better defensive structure
in front of him, whereas Cosa will talk about later,
it's a little bit different, But you're right about Fowler.
It's really hard to compare to someone who's already shown
some NHL's success and has already shown also at various
levels that he's the next coming here. And he's been
pretty fantastic at the he was pretty fantastic at the
NCAA level, and he's transitioned to the HL extremely well,
including last season on a playoff run with Laval, and
this season he's been great for them as well at
eighteen and seven record, and we saw him in the
NHL completely looking not at all out of place for
a goalie, which is not something that you always tend
to see for goalies early goalies that get called up.
Because he's still extremely young, Jacob Fowler is. He's only
twenty one, and usually we don't talk about goalies making
a big impact until they're closer to twenty three or
twenty four, So the fact that he's gotten such a
good track record on his belt already is pretty fantastic.
He's already in his ten games in the NHL this season,
he's already outperformed his expected goals metrics both at even
strength and short handed, so it didn't really seem to
face him too much. Certainly, it makes sense to let
him go back down and keep writing Dobash and Monteamboau
to some extent, but yeah, he's definitely the future star
starter for years. I would say I think it's a
little tricky with Fewler and Dobash long term because I
think both those guys are really good and they might
end up splitting some time. But yeah, I think I
have to go Fouler here between Fowler and Augustine, just
because I think he has more pure upside, pushed himself
to the frontal line and everyone else would have to
dethrone him, Whereas Augustine I think is in that competitive
fight with Cosa and certainly can be a number one,
but I don't think he's the no doubt, I'm gonna
absolutely be the number one guy. Interesting that both these
guys have around to forty percent and see nhlther probability
in the Hockey Prospecting Model slightly higher for Fowler, but
they're both a little bit lower than you might think.
But still I have to go with Fowler here. But
I really like both these guys, Jesse. I want both
of them on my teams.
Speaker 3: Then let's talk about the other Sebasti we just talked about.
I get that's right. We talked about the Montreal guy.
But let's talk about the other Detroit guy, Sebastian Kosa.
It's not his fault. Pictor, Let's stop blaming Kosa for
going before jessper Walstadt because he didn't draft himself before.
Yesper Waalstat, maybe he feels like he's better than jessper Wallspat,
but Cosa, it turns out, is going to be just
finding his own right for those who's stressed when he
was drafted in the wings, send him to the ECHL,
and we're all like, oh no, what happened here? They
drafted a guy and sent him to the ECHL. He
has certainly recovered and he is on a ascending career. Trajectory.
He's performing very well at AHL Grand Rapids this year
nine to twenty seven say percentage, thirty one starts for
the team and the best record in the AHL this year,
the first to clinch a playoff spot where the Grand
Rapids Griffins Cosa has a couple of years on. Augustine
seems to be working okay to have a top goalie
in the NCAA, the top goalie in the AHL. Arguably,
one would think someone would be coming in behind the
thirty eight year old unrestricted free agent Cam Talbot when
he leaves this year. John Gibson's renaissance is great in Detroit,
but he will be in the last year of his
contract next season. In a way, really good to keep
Augustine in the NCAA because Augustine and Kosa are both
able to thrive right now and get full time starts,
while John Gibson is doing very well and helping Detroit
with a playoff push in the NHL. But yeah, there's
a transition coming and who's coming first, and are they
both coming? And where are we going to put everybody?
It's not as crowded as it was a couple of
years ago in Detroit, but it's definitely going to be
crowded when both of these guys come out. Let's put
Sebastian Kosa in the NHL ranking poll up against Sergei Miruschev,
who who went a couple of years a couple of
years or one year later than Kosa, but he's also
a little over a year younger, and he's already had
some time in the NHL as Mershop. But Kosa wins
handily over him, sixty seven point five to thirty two
point five percent. Mershov's time in the NHL's had uneven results.
Obviously they were not comfortable enough with him to just
make him part of a tandem there Ar Turshilovs, and
of course the famous Pittsburgh goalie trade this year changing
that landscape a little bit. But both Kosa and Murshop
doing very well in the AHL. Victor is Cosa the
clear winner and how high are you on this young man.
Speaker 2: Everyone's gonna hear that I'm not taking the Detroit goalie
in either of these and maybe take it as a
negative sign, But the reality is you gotta blame Mason
Black because he put him up against two exceptional goalies
that I have a little bit higher my rank. So no,
I'm not taking Kosa, and I'll tell you why in
a second. Even though everything you said is true, he
has been great, he has turned things around. There was
a lot of skepticism when he was in the ECCHL,
but we talked about it with Kat Silverman. This is fine.
This is giving him time to figure out his game,
and it worked and he's been great in the AHL
ever since. And I think that he certainly, as I mentioned,
looks like he's gonna compete for the number one job
with Augustine has the inside track is a little bit older.
Certainly is bigger and more athletic, but sometimes with that athleticism,
he relies on it a little too much, and sometimes
he's a little moves a little too quick and opens
up some holes and plays a little deep in his net,
which opens up some spots to shoot at. So there
might be a little bit more concern there long term.
As I mentioned, with Augustine, it's just going to come
down to style. Who fits better with the way the
Wings are playing right now. I think based on their
defensive structure, it should be Augustine, but we'll see how
that works out. I think that they'll give both a try,
and I think you're right. Talbot will move on or
retire or whatever, and Cosa will be the backup and
it'll be great having Gibson there who they wanted to
rely too much on Cosa. That'll be perfect. And then
Augustine will come along after some HL time and they'll
split the net. So you're gonna be fine, Red Wings
and goal don't worry about it. Cosa is great. But
let me talk about Serge Mhershaw, because this guy is
frigging incredible and he is the next coming in my opinion,
he's going to be awesome. He is killing it in
the AHL already. We did see him in the NHL.
There was some there was a bit, a bit of
a mixed bag there look great at times, he looked
like he didn't understand where shots were coming from sometimes,
which happens with young goalies and this Pittsburgh team, although
they are apparently a playoff team, much to my complete bewilderment,
but he has He did do pretty well in terms
of the underlying numbers in the NHL, but clearly needs
a little bit more HL time to adjust. But this
guy has a super high ceiling. He's not the biggest either,
but he's just so incredibly technical and an amazing skater.
His feet moves so well and he's able to track
the puck very well. He's six to two one ninety,
so it's not like he's small or anything. He's not
sixty six like Kosa, but in terms of athleticism and
tracking and positioning, he is elite. So I think he's
going to be a star starter for years to come,
and hopefully Pittsburgh will be good by then. I guess
they're good now, although it still doesn't make sense to me,
But is he a better goalie than she loves and
Skinner and Jari And I would say absolutely yes. Maybe
not right at this moment, but I think he absolutely
will be, and he's a reason to be excited because
he's so good. He's the kind of good that prevents
you from tanking, which may not be good the Pittsburgh
Penguins that try to decide they want to tank, but
he's like just circing level good with an awful Rangers
team that just keeps him in it every night, and
like he's that level. So I'm taking Sergei Murshov and
I'm pretty happy about it. But again another one wre
I would like to have both. I would like to
have Cosa and Myershov on my team, but I think
Marshov has star elite starter potential and Cosa should be
a starter, So there's a little bit of a tear
difference there for me.
Speaker 3: Jesse all right, wow, all right, a rave review on Murshaw.
That's something to keep in mind. Let's take a quick break.
We're gonna come back and move on to our next
prospect system on.
Speaker 2: Selfish, Shock's right, selfish, break it down, skate fuck, don't
got It's still gonna be there when he's gotta jumps,
taking coast to coast talking for angles are still shot
a bad balance. That's a good breakaway. Gotta get the
bounced boys.
Speaker 3: As we returned, Victor, this is some time l brackets
when we dance and when sometimes Victor says some things
that people might be interested in joining up with us for.
Do you got any little plugs to put in here?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we took way longer than I thought, But
a few weeks ago we finally got all the data
updated on the site and post World Juniors, and midway
through the season, huge updates and all the data is updated,
so we'll be talking about some of the patron casts,
some of the guys who moved the most. You can
get access to all of that, the ranks, the tiers,
the list, the player cards, all of that. If you're
a patron, you have to sign up for the top level,
the ultralifers, and you get access to all of that.
There's also a download available where if you just want
the PDF of all the ranks. It's basically like a guide.
It has all the ranks by team, by forward by position,
broken down in several different ways. You could just buy
Brandon a few cups of coffee for the efforts and
you get unlimited. Every time we update it, you get
access to the download, which is so a year's worth
of that. Usually we do five or six updates throughout
the year, so it's pretty good deal if you just
want to do that rather than continued website access. Of course,
I think getting access to the cards is really helpful.
But yeah, all of that plus patroon casts and bonus
content go over to patreon dot com Slash Fantasy Hockey Life.
Speaker 3: Talented dudes we're working with here and like I say,
at the end of every episode. Thank you to Brandon
out there. Let's move on to a system that you
mentioned earlier you're not quite as enthused about, but we
got to talk about him. And there's still some guys
with fantasy relevance here and that is the Dallas Stars.
And in this system, we are going to talk about
a couple of guys that you are seeing in Dallas
right now, and not just guys who were in the minors.
But we're going to start out with Maverick Bork, a
man of mystery to me. He is probably one of
the last prospect episodes we'll discuss him on. But he's
continuing to transition to the NHL. Hasn't been scoring in
the NHL, but advanced stats do hold up. He's getting
mid six minutes and power play two time one. Suspects
of the Waters are not partying anytime soon to let
him glide to a spot in the top line or anything,
given the talent at the top end of the system
and the possibility that they could trade for somebody else
at the deadline, which will happen before you listen to
this episode. Not sure what to think of Maverick Bork's progress,
He took a big jump his second year in the NHL.
This is basically his second in the NHL. Maybe he
will continue to round into form as the season comes along,
but yeah, right now the results are mixed, and probably
his potential has dipped a bit in the last couple
of years as far as the way that the models
take him. But in the NHL ranking poll, we put
him up against Ridley Greek, who in some ways has
similar results for the Ottawa Senators, although I think he's
getting a little bit more juice right now than and
Greg comes out ahead fifty two to forty eight over Bork,
similar guys getting middle six times scoring in a somewhat
similar rate victory. What do you think of those comparison?
What do you think of Maverick Bork?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've long been a fan of Borg. I think
listeners to this podcast will probably know that kind of thought.
He might transfer a little bit better some of his scoring,
But the reality in Dallas is that they have such
good depth that they allow him to play a little
bit lower in the lineup and it works out really
well for him. They like to spread out their offense.
Although right now it seems like he's getting really good
deployment and as someone who might be a little bit
more exciting in terms of streaming role. But playing with
John Why Johnson and Jason Robertson is pretty fantastic and
that's where we hope he will stay. They might not,
So I like Bork a lot. You're right that these
guys are basically the same. They're like thirty five ish
point paced players, more depth, rolls on their team, not
getting a ton of ice time. So I think pick
them and a lot of leagues are redraft league. Certainly,
they're probably their streamer territory at best, but in deeper
leagues you certainly want to think about who has a
little bit higher potential. At hockey prospecting, Bork graduated slightly
higher sixteen percent versus Griggs twelve percent. Looking at some
of the underlying metrics, I ran some queries ver evolving
hockey based on how much time they've been in the
NHL and not just looking at this season, and Bork
definitely looks better in all pretty much all situations offense, defense,
power play, penalty. He definitely looks a little bit better.
The one big difference is Greig looks better shorthanded defensively,
so penalty killer, and I think he has a little
bit better bash, although he might be surprised that Bork's
bashed isn't terrible. Neither one of them shoot a ton, though,
and so they're definitely a little light on their peripheral
contribution with the exception of Grieg's hits, and Greeg has
been playing on this line. Maybe that means less fewer
hits for him because it's conjuckt hitting everybody. But I
think in terms of who has more untapped offense, I
have to go with Bork. And so it's interesting that
Greg he's been consistently playing higher in the lieup. Maybe
that's why the voters liked him a little bit better
in this poll. Otherwise I don't really understand. I think
Bork has more offense, but on the other hand that
Dallas does spread their offense around, and so maybe that's
the reason to not be as excited about Bork. But yeah,
these guys are certainly not very interesting in shallower leagues,
but in super deep leagues, certainly in thirty two team leagues,
these guys are both definitely rostered and probably decent depth
options on your team. So you might want to think
about who you want, and I would want Bork. I
think he still has some untapped offensive potential. He's only
at one hundred and thirty four NHL games, so it's
not like he's even hit that two hundred where a
lot of guys break out, So I'm gonna hold out
a little bit more hope for that. Greg is that
two hundred and twenty four games in case you're interested,
So he probably is what he is at thirty four
point pace. Player Bork is still at thirty point pace,
but he has about seventy sixty five more games to
go to show what he can be.
Speaker 3: Very good. Next, we have a player who I will
say makes me wonder whether I have undiagnosed dyslexia when
I try to read his name, because it's Ayrton Martino,
and somehow when I look at it, I want to say,
it's like Ariton or Marino or something, and this is
just not working. Maybe I shouldn't make that joke, but
you have to be very careful spelling his name is
what I would have to say. The winger from Toronto
finished a solid four year career at Clarkson University and
now he's in the second year of the AHL, so
he's he's well down the funnel considering his age and maturity,
and the scoring has definitely developed slowly. Given all of that,
I don't think there's probably much to see here voters.
I usually don't comment on this either, but the voters
did not express great enthusiasm voting in this poll. This
was a little voted on pole, but Simoon Robertson of
the Saint Louis Blues was up against Marino. No, that's
not Marino. He misspelled it. It's Martino. Maybe that's why.
And Robertson won this poll fifty three to forty seven percent.
Victor Martino Robertson or flip over the monopoly board and
just quit. What do you prefer here?
Speaker 2: I think it's definitely the latter, And we talked about
somewhere you want both of these guys. This is definitely
one where I don't think you want either. I'm glad
you said that about Martino because I feel like reading
his name sometimes gives me a mini stroke as well.
I'm like, what is happening here? And so when I
try to look up his name, I usually just use
his last name. I'm like, Martino. Yeah, and then I can't.
I can never remember if the y comes before the
tee or like how that's all working. None of this
is really relevant to his performance on the ice, but
I totally feel you it's a confusing first name. He
has been interesting, Martino has and that he's really trended
down his equivalency since Clarkson, who's a STA out at
Clarkson University, and his final season went well over point
per game. That's when a lot of people started noticing him.
Fifty one points in thirty nine games, and then had
some ECHL time sometime with the Texas Stars. I actually
watched him in a recent HL game that I'll be
writing about for the Journey, and I will have to say,
Artin Martinez completely invisible for most of that game, which
is not a good sign. You just did not stand
out at all for the Texas Stars. And there are
some other guys who are pretty good on that team,
but you expect to see some flashes. I expect to
see something really exciting player seat a little bit, and
there was not any of that. He has eight points
in twenty eight games with the Texas Stars this season.
This is first full HL season I guess maybe there's
some hope for more, but I don't think he's going
to be anything. I don't even think he's in NHL
or quite frankly, I have him at a four point
six y four meaning sub average roster player, which basically
means I don't really think he's going to make it.
And a lot of his tracking data on my Fantasy
Hockey Life skater card is pretty awful. A lot of
his play driving is off. I don't understand how this
happens though his course he is at eighty percent and
his FEN looks at sixteen percent. I don't know how
those two can be so different, but it paints a
different story there, so I'm a little confused by that.
But the rest of his numbers are all pretty awful.
If you look at Simon Robertson on the other hand,
the Saint Louis draft pick, and he is also not
doing super well. This is a second season with Springfield
of the AHL since coming over. He's actually fewer points
this season than last season. A lot of his underlying
numbers are pretty bad. I have him at at three
point four or five. I just don't think either of
the guys are going to be relevant. I guess if
you had to pick, I would pick Martino just because
he is had less time in the AHL to show
that he can't hang. So, whereas Robertson this is the
second season, I wouldn't be surprised if Robinson just went
back to Sweden after this. Martino probably isn't going anywhere.
He might play several seasons in the AHL. Maybe eventually
he shows us something. But I think Jesse, as you said,
just move along.
Speaker 3: Here, cambrhone Schmidt. He was traded from Langley. I refused
to recognize him as Vancouver. They're Langley Victor. He went
down to Seattle this year in the WHL, and he
continues to put up amazing WHL scoring numbers. Actually, at
press time, his forty one goals between the two teams
of let's call him Vancouver and Seattle tops the WHL,
while he's one off the points lead at present at
eighty seven. So he is burning it up right now
in the WHL. Now the exception that we always hear
for these guys, why haven't I seen him at the
top of my list? Well, he's five eight, so he's
on the shorter end. But I recently read. I've been
reading a lot about prehistory, Victor. Do you know five
eight is about the exact average of height of humans
through most of prehistory, So in a way, he's average.
Cameron Schmidt is up against even a Reapkin in our
NHL ranking poll, and it's pretty close. I know Riapkin
was taken around earlier and by the savvy Keynes, and
we always give a little extra oop to Keane's picks.
But so far in the HL, he's got two penalty
minutes and a quarter of a point per game, so
he's not showing out quite in the same way that
that old Cam Schmidt is in the DUB unless we're
heavily waiting, Bash, I don't quite understand how we're going
to give how we're going to give Riapkin even competition
in this one. Seems to me like Cameron Schmidt should
be winning by more than fifty four to forty six percent.
What do you think there, sir?
Speaker 2: You can't talk about ry Apkin without talking about his
attitude and the office issues, and I just continue to
think that's going to be an issue for him. It's
continued throughout his draft here that there was no one
at the draft that I saw with more arrogance and
just gravitas than him, which confidence in yourself is one thing,
but having that kind of attitude is not something that
usually rubs off well with your teammates. So I just
worry about him. I don't know that he's really gonna
make it Ryapkin, especially because his away from the puck
play is pretty terrible. You can be as good all
you want with the puck on your stick, but you
have to be better away from it, and especially if
you're going to have an attitude like that, you better
be all world. So that concerns me a little bit.
Rapkin did go from the USHL to the Q and
was pretty great there for charlottean but then has moved
over to the HL for Chicago and has just seven
points in twenty five games, so it's been a bit
of a rough transition for him. Though he is still eighteen,
so hey, that can certainly improve. And if you're wondering
why he's in the AHL so young, it's because he's
Russian and went the USHL route and isn't bound by
the NHL agreement. So that's a strange move from the
Q to the A. But he's not bound by the
CHL agreement was an import draft, so I believe that's
why he is allowed to do that transition. But Schmid,
as you said, he is small five eight. I think
it was in Brooklyn nine nine where Jake Peralta quoted
a nineteen sixteen census saying that he was tall at
that height. Apparently I'm tall too if that's the case.
But no, he's a smaller guy, but he hits a ton,
He's very he's physical. Schmidt is maybe not. I guess
a ton is maybe slightly overrated, but he's pretty decent
for hits and shots, so he's a physical guy. He
transitioned really well. I watched him too live and he's
feisty and all around the puck. People probably want to
compare him to like Logan Stankove, and I think those
guys are in different worlds. I think Schmidt is a
decent player. Stank Coven was clearly elite and is obviously
in NHL. Aer Schmidt, I think it's going to be borderline.
But between these two, I would definitely take Cameron Schmidt. He,
as you mentioned, did win this poll fifty four to
forty six. But I agree it should be higher. His
hockey prospecting is much higher twenty nine percent. Chance of
being a start ray Apkins six percent. And even though
he's small, he's very feisty, he's very physical. I could
see him being like a Brendan Gallagher type or some relevance,
some physicality, some energy. Certainly has some skill too that
can play on a scoring line, but might settle into
a middle sixth depth scoring role. So in a deep league,
twenty four plus probably still pretty relevant, but in a
more shallow league you might not be that excited in Schmid.
And in terms of Ryapkin, I would just cautiously watch
his development. I'm not investing anything in him until I
see a big shift in some of those off ice
off puck concerns.
Speaker 3: All Right, I think I'm finally going to say it, right, Victor.
I think it's Liam Bischel, right, Bischel, not Bixel, which
I had been seeing. Nice the Stars. The Dallas Stars
took Mira Hayskin, Jake Ottinger, Thomas Harley, Maverick Bork, and
Wyatt Johnston in the first round in a five year stretch.
What an amazing time. But our next two discussions with
the guys they've taken in the first round since that run,
and the results are less overwhelming. Bischell took a lower
body injury in November. He missed up to the end
of the Olympic break. He'd been in a fifteen minute
type time share strictly five on five. Dude doesn't play
special teams, and he's returned to that since he came back.
Excellent source of hits is this guy, and for a
lower pairing type defenseman, fifteen minutes not bad, not in
the complete dregs of minutes for them, but still it
seems like limited offensive upside profile here to say, the
least twelve points in his last what sixty four games,
not so much. But he goes up in the NHL
ranking poll against Oliver Bonk sixty seven point five to
thirty two point five wins. Bischel am I crazy. I
vaguely remember on past jos, maybe about last year, that
we were thinking that bank was going to be more
than a Bonker and more than just an amusing name.
He seemed to be on the right up. But I
feel like Bischel's ceiling is captain in the environment, so
I was a little surprised to see the blowout in this,
but maybe it's because Bank has not quite put up
is maybe not quite the same performance in the A
this year as he'd been putting up previous to that.
What do you think of this comparison and what do
you think of Liam Bishel?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I don't know if that accurately categorizes what I
thought about Bonk. I think that he had shown some
promise in London where he played last year. He was
getting really strange deployment playing the bumper. They called him
Bumper Bank on the power play, so he doesn't even
really have experience running a power play. He's definitely he's
not the bashiest guy, but he doesn't have the best
foot speed in transition, So it's like, what are you
at the NHL level? He certainly has the bloodlines there
with Radibunk, but is he going to be a no
doubt NHL or I don't think so. And I don't
think he's going to be a scorer. I don't know
he's going to be a basher. So then what is
he just a depth guy? I have him at a
four point eighty five and my puck stood ranking. You
look at the fancy hockey life skater card and there's
just a lot of red and purple everywhere. He's not
doing so well in the AHL, and so that's interesting
in terms of the underlyings. Eleven points in twenty seven
games is not awful, but it is certainly not blowing
the doors down making sure that he's gonna get an opportunity.
So he needs to improve that a little bit. He
had some physicality before, but it has materialized at the
pro level, so it'll be interesting to see what happens there.
Bischel is yeah, and I mentioned this before. He had
said Bixel in the past, but he's decided it's Bishal
and he's gonna go by Bischel. Okay, he is absolutely
a guy who wins you your hits categories. You might
not even have known who he was, but once you
sort by hits per game, and if you're in a
category is linking that checks Perferroles, you know about him.
He's three plus hits per game. The guy's incredible. In fact,
last season he was closer to four and a half
almost five hits per game, so that's incredible. I wonder
what that Swiss team would have been like with him
at the Olympics. That would have been a really interesting place,
and I think he would have made the team, but
he was injured. As you said, Yeah, I think that
he's he's but is he going to do more than
that is a question, and I would say no. I
think he's basically just Bixel is just a basher. His
even strength defense is actually not so good, a little
bit lower than average. Some of his foot speed and
transition struggles a little bit. But I think you could
probably get himself up to average and then he'll just
basically be a hitter and someone who doesn't score a lot.
He has fourteen points in sixty seven games. I don't
know if that's going to change too much throughout his career.
He's probably not gonna be a big scorer. But the
guy is huge. He's six seven, two hundred and forty pounds,
so huge, big reach, physical guys are really gonna worry
coming down the flank on him. So I'm definitely taking
Bixel here. He's already or sorry, bischeal He's already in
the NHL. He's hitting a lot, and at least he's
already there compared to Bonk, So if someone had Bonk,
or if someone had Bichel and you wanted to give Bonk,
I definitely would. I would make that trade, and I
would rather have bischeal Jesse.
Speaker 3: Okay, very good. Let's move on to our next guy,
Mel Heming. We also talked about a meal Heming on
our World Juniors episodes. I remember my my feeling coming
out of it was okay, good but not great. Not
that he's absolutely blown it away, but if you look
at his staff, he's looking pretty good in the OHL.
He's enjoyed since he came back from the World Juniors,
a three to four and a five point game up
in the OHL for the Barry Colts, and he missed
the number of games, but his point per game pace
of one point four to seven on the season, Emil
Heming is fifth in the OHL for the reasonably full
time players in there. Now screwed out the two game
type guys but Victor in this NHL ranking poll. But
beyond to Meil Heming, I won an entire episode next
week dedicated to this guy, Benjamin route Tynan. It would
help if I learned to recognize his name, because what
the heck, Victor, He's been picked up in all my
leagues and I see why, because Benjamin rout Tynan is
putting up amazing freaking numbers in Liga this year. As
a matter of fact, his sixty eight points is sixth
clear of the next highest score in the league, and
that's tied for thirtieth in the history of LIGA. With
seven games to go, he's been scoring one point three
to one points per game. Let's give him ten more
points for the last seven games, he would tie for
the fifth all time scoring in Liga. The only twenty
year old season even in the top eighty right now,
and again rat Tainan is already there. The only twenty
year old season or below is Saku Koivu seventy four
and nineteen ninety five. I just got chills, Victor. And
yet within this poll fifty three to forty seven percent
over once again a late round Tampa steel in rat Tan, Victor,
I guess we got to talk about Amel Heming, But
tell me about the other guy too.
Speaker 2: Absolutely absolutely, and I believe it's pronounced Rotianen. Rotianen is see.
Speaker 3: I don't even know how to say his name yet, Victor,
And he's putting up historic numbers Route Rotianan. Is that
what you just said?
Speaker 2: ROTI aen Roti Ininen.
Speaker 3: Roti Ininen. All right, we're there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he bottom line, the TLDR version is pause
the pod and go check if Roti and is in
your league, because you definitely want him. It's our AUTIAI
any end. Benjamin Routainan he is. Yeah. Tampa took him
in the fourth round this year, which I believe was
their first pick. I don't think they have many for
a few round picks anymore. But apparently they got the
memo of just hey, go swing for a home run,
and apparently that's what they got because the guy is
absolutely killing it. As you said, he was original draft
year was twenty twenty three. He's a double overrager and
that draft year he was in the U twenty league,
didn't do too great. The following year, he had sixty
two points in thirty six games for the U twenty version.
Could have gotten drafted as a later pick. Apparently he
was small. I couldn't figure out exactly how big he
was back then, but he was a little bit on
the smaller side. He is now six foot twenty eighty three,
so he's not super small. But then last season he
jumped to the Legua at thirty three points in fifty games,
and that got him drafted. He also played a pretty
decent role for the Finns at the U twenty World
Junior Championships last season, and that's what Tampa saw. They
drafted him with the fourth round pick. And all he's
doing this season, as you said, leading Liga. I got
a little bit of info from our FHL scout, Yarno,
who goes by Amalad and he plays the Britannian plays
for his favorite team, the Tapata, and so got a
little bit of info from him who watches all these
games very closely and definitely mentions that he's an intelligent
player and someone who excels in the offensive zone and
plays with deception. He's also really versatile. Part of the
issues that might limit him is that he's not that
fast and needs to improve on some of that edgework
and invasiveness. He's also not very physical and not so
great defensively, so those are some things to think about
with rutaining, but he's absolutely someone who you want to
go grab and people are already starting to wonder if
he could come over as early as next season or
at the end of this league season and I think
it's possible with the Tampa and the availability to loan
him over here, so maybe we see him sooner than later.
He's he's June birthday, so he'll be twenty one this summer.
Not crazy young, but definitely young enough. But it's certainly
old enough to get a look here there see what
they have. I don't know what the development plan is
after this. Maybe he comes to the Aho, but I
definitely would rather have routiern In. He looks much more
plausible as a top prospect, and the fact that he
is in the Tampa system, which is just pretty awful
in general, so I think you have to be excited
about that and go check and see if he's in
any of your leagues and if he isn't, sorry, but
he isn't in a lot of ours either. A lot
of people have scooped him up after he's been going off.
But yeah, he's definitely definitely one of the biggest risers
because he's someone didn't even really have him on my ranks.
He's now twenty fifth on my ranks. Routin an In
I have him at a six point eighty seven. Is
it going to be Saku Koivu? Level of impact probably not.
He certainly looks tracking to be well above average. His
fantasy hockea Life Skater card has some pretty good numbers.
He is play driving, some of his transition numbers look
really good. He doesn't bash much. He shoots a lot,
but he doesn't really hit her block very much. And
he's definitely got a good shot, that's one of his
best attributes, and a really good playmaker, so it's going
to get you, hopefully a lot of points. Heming, on
the other hand, six point one five is what I
have him at, so a little bit lower. I still
like Hemming, and I liked some of the improvements that
we've seen from him since coming over and being in
the OHL. He's looked pretty good for Barry. He looked
good at the U twenties this year. And his little brother,
Oscar is in this draft, so that'll be interesting to
see where Oscar Hemming goes in the twenty twenty six draft.
But yeah, Hemming I still like, But I like routian
in a little bit better, and you got to go
get him if you can. Basically, that's the bottom line.
And I definitely would prefer him in this poll, which
is interesting because, as you said, Hemming won by a
little bit. More people need to know about routin An
in Ys.
Speaker 3: The man wants to etche that name in your kitchen table.
Last Victor, we got one more guy in. It's goalie
Arno Tiefensi. He is the backup at AHL Texas to
longtime HL Texas stalwart Remy Poitier, the starting goalie down
there in Tifensi. I believe, I believe he's a German.
Somebody's got to start for the Germans in the twenty
thirty four Olympics. Maybe it'll be him. He's got reasonable
numbers this year in the AHL. He's even been loaned
to the Idaho Steelheads, probably just to get some time
since he's not the starter at the AHL. He's been
doing fine. We're gonna put him up against the guiney
Volokan of the Montreal Canadians. As we've talked earlier this episode,
Montreal's got a pretty stacked goalie system right now. Maybe
not a Sir Gaybobrovski at the top, but certainly three
pretty potent goalies working their way up are already up.
But over in Spartak Moskva in the KHL and in
various levels the Russian systems. If Geney Volok is playing
his wares and he was drafted thirteen picks ahead of
Defensi in that draft, Volocan wins this poll fifty eight
to forty two percent. What can you tell us about
these two up and coming goalies?
Speaker 2: I did. I got a chance to see Tfanc when
I went to a goals game, and I thought I
was impressed. I thought he was good. He definitely was
a better goalie in that game. He really good, positionally,
solid reaction, read the play really well. I don't think
he was He impressed me in the sense that I
didn't really know much about him or think much of
him as a prospect. He didn't always have the best numbers,
and he was Germans playing in the DL for Adler Manheim,
which is a good program. But just didn't really know
much about him or know his style too much. And
he was good, and he's got good numbers this year,
even though he's had to go down to the ECCHL
for a playing time. I like him better than Remy Poirier,
who's the other goalie. There's interesting. I've talked about him
with kat As well, and we agreed that wasn't super
excited with Prio. Well, he's getting more of the reps
as it stands right now, but I would prefer def
and C there. Volocan is interesting. Montreal already has some
really good goalies. They don't really need him, but it's
always its fine. This is one of those things where
don't worry about the guys ahead of h. I'm sure
Debesh Montebo de Beese and Jacob Fowler are a head
of Volocan, but don't let that dissuade you. He looks
really solid. He's got good size, sixty three one seventy.
He's playing primarily in the VHL right now in Russia,
he has gotten a couple of KHL games. In fact,
he played more in the KHL last season. Unload Tsoci.
He's in the Spartak Maksva program and hasn't looked so
great in the KHL this season, but it looks stellar
in the VHL. And but he's twenty and got to
give him time. He looks like he might have a
little bit more upside than Def and C. Will see
when and if he comes over. So I think Volocan
probably has more upside, But I might like def and C,
especially if you're looking for someone who can compete a
little bit sooner. He might have the inside track being
closer to being nhlready and being over here already. But
these guys are pretty similar. I would base my decision
based on how close I was to being competitive. If
I could wait, I'd probably take Volocan, But if I
wanted someone to be relevant sooner, it would be defencye Jesse.
Speaker 3: All Right, that's our tour through Dallas, Victor. Any final
words to say before we get out of here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I appreciate you listening, and hopefully you're reading the
Dynasty stockwatch over at McKean's. I think it's been a
good series and we'll be finishing that up this season
with a couple more episodes on the podcast.
Speaker 4: Pretty good, right back, before we get out of here.
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An McKean's you heard some of the material that he
worked on in related actions there. Here Today I work,
or it's not working, I do my solo show, Dynasty
Sports Life. I talk about four different Dynasty sports. This week,
it's going to be some of the quarterback prospects for
the upcoming NFL Draft, and you can read my baseball work.
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You can find that it tweeted out from my social
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