Speaker 1: Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks.
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Speaker 1: Here's your hosts, Jesse Sovier and Victor Nuno.
Speaker 2: Fantasy Hockey Live back once again. Victor nunho ep ringsides
Speaker 2: Victor Nuno. That is, in case you thought he was
Speaker 2: a different Victor Nuno. Victor, how you doing.
Speaker 4: I'm in the one two timeline, Victoria. That's who I am,
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Speaker 2: We need noonal specificity, yes, and in the multiverse, one
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Speaker 2: is Victor the fantasy hockey man. And yeah, we're gonna
Speaker 2: be talking fantasy hockey today because that is what you
Speaker 2: and I do when we get together, We talk fantasy hockey.
Speaker 2: We're going to talk Colorado Avalanche and I don't know, Pigtor.
Speaker 2: How you been doing, man, I've been doing great.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's been the start of the medical school year
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Speaker 2: I'm all over. I'm all over the Olympics. Man. I
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Speaker 1: Yeah, lots of great stuff that we're doing. Through the Patreon.
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Speaker 2: And we'll be right back after this to talk Colorado
Speaker 2: Avalanche we'd like to welcome back to the show a
Speaker 2: guest who talks Colorado Avalanche with us, Megan Angly of DNDR.
Speaker 2: How you doing, Megan, I'm general, how are you guys
Speaker 2: doing great? We're in the midst of it. Victor and
Speaker 2: I are going through these team previews, and Colorado Avalanche
Speaker 2: definitely are one that I've been looking forward to getting
Speaker 2: your expertise on. Colorado dealt with some advert last year
Speaker 2: compared to the year they won the Cup. It's tough
Speaker 2: to be happy with the second round exit for a
Speaker 2: team that recently won a Cup because you have those expectations.
Speaker 2: But overall, the performance and the stats were solid for
Speaker 2: the year. Colorado scored the most goals in the league.
Speaker 2: We're going to hear about some of the individual performances
Speaker 2: and the playoff drama as we go through this today,
Speaker 2: But how did you come out of this year? Megan?
Speaker 2: Looking at the team and is the window still open
Speaker 2: for another Cup?
Speaker 3: Absolutely? You look at the year before after the Seattle exit,
Speaker 3: and there was so much disappointment linked to that as well.
Speaker 3: In the regular season, they dealt with their share of
Speaker 3: adversity in terms of injury, and so looking at this
Speaker 3: last year, especially following the trade deadline, the team felt
Speaker 3: so much more complete going into the playoffs than they
Speaker 3: did the year before, and it was a sentiment shared
Speaker 3: among the players too that they really felt like this
Speaker 3: team was the team that could go all the way.
Speaker 3: And so it did make it feel pretty displating when
Speaker 3: they lost in the Dallas series because they were right
Speaker 3: at the doorstep pushing The Valnutrushkin news just really impacted
Speaker 3: the team in a big way that was difficult to
Speaker 3: come back from on a seven game series. One game
Speaker 3: where you're not at your best can cost you, and
Speaker 3: it did for the Colorado Avalanche. But it was still
Speaker 3: a pretty special individual year for players like McKinnon. The
Speaker 3: core continues to impress. Between Rantonon and macar even on
Speaker 3: what might be considered a down year for him, I
Speaker 3: think that the window is still wide open. This team
Speaker 3: remained pretty intact going into the offseason, and hearing from
Speaker 3: McKinnon at the NHL Awards, that's how he feels about
Speaker 3: the group too. They are right there and I think
Speaker 3: that they'll be pretty stung by how they exited this
Speaker 3: last season and really hungry to get back after this
Speaker 3: next year.
Speaker 2: Well, Nathan McKinnon is definitely where we start with this
Speaker 2: team with the individual players. You're reigning Heart Trophy winner
Speaker 2: and he sure as he earned it last year. You
Speaker 2: talk about being at the awards. I used the version
Speaker 2: of this stat on our Edmonton chill or I'm using one.
Speaker 2: But in terms of looking at scoring, except for Nikita
Speaker 2: Kuchroff this past year, Connor McDavid the prior year, McKinnon's
Speaker 2: scoring this year was the highest scoring season since Mario Lemieux.
Speaker 2: That's pretty doggone amazing. Four hundred and five shots was
Speaker 2: the second most in the last fifteen years as well. Really,
Speaker 2: the only question I have about the level of excellence
Speaker 2: this guy has is whether this is the absolute peak
Speaker 2: of a Hall of Fame career or is they're actually
Speaker 2: more possible with him.
Speaker 3: I think there's certainly more possible for McKinnon, and it's
Speaker 3: because of how he has been trending. This is an
Speaker 3: award that he's been in the conversation for so long,
Speaker 3: and he's had seasons cut short by injury, and it's
Speaker 3: been the very thing to keep him out of the
Speaker 3: points race. Because Connor McDavid's numbers were just irrefutable, but
Speaker 3: finally it's a full season of runway. You see what
Speaker 3: he's capable of, and each year he does seem to
Speaker 3: just outdo himself in terms of pace, and when he
Speaker 3: has teammates like Niko ranton In alongside him and compliment
Speaker 3: what it is that he's trying to accomplish. And then
Speaker 3: you look at how he takes care of himself away
Speaker 3: from the ice. He's always finding ways to give himself
Speaker 3: that extra competitive edge that I do not think this
Speaker 3: is where McKinnon tops out. I think we've just begun
Speaker 3: to see the start of what he's capable of. As
Speaker 3: he continues to have more full seasons. I just think
Speaker 3: it goes up from here.
Speaker 4: Oh boy, that's exciting, and so is the next guy
Speaker 4: we're going to talk about, Miko ranton In. Four straight
Speaker 4: years of ronton In over a one hundred point pace.
Speaker 4: That's pretty incredible. McKinnon ranton In might be exiting their
Speaker 4: prime statistically, at least how we usually look at these things.
Speaker 4: He's twenty seven, he's going to be twenty eight this year.
Speaker 4: But I still think they're both phenomenal players and I
Speaker 4: don't know that there's going to be a huge drop
Speaker 4: off here. The talent pool around him has shifted over
Speaker 4: the years, but it doesn't seem to really matter for Runton,
Speaker 4: and he just keeps producing no matter what, whether they
Speaker 4: have to play him down the middle or keep him
Speaker 4: on the wing, or depending who's been in and out
Speaker 4: in the lineup, it seems to always end up with
Speaker 4: the same results. So, Megan, do you think we can
Speaker 4: expect the Finished Moves to have another one hundred plus
Speaker 4: point campaign.
Speaker 3: I think it'll be right there. Once he finally crossed
Speaker 3: the threshold of the one hundred point season, it just
Speaker 3: felt like he threw together the next one almost effortlessly,
Speaker 3: to the point of frustration at times where you felt
Speaker 3: like you weren't being Mika Ranton didn't give his best,
Speaker 3: and then he goes and puts up another forty goal season,
Speaker 3: one hundred points and you just realize he's that good
Speaker 3: that it actually seems pretty effortless at times, and so
Speaker 3: I think that's going to continue to happen for him,
Speaker 3: And it also leaves you wanting a little bit. You
Speaker 3: feel like, Okay, there's probably just a little bit more.
Speaker 3: Maybe not in terms of the overall production number, but
Speaker 3: it does feel like the way that he could come.
Speaker 3: Others around him can only go up from.
Speaker 2: Here the next place we stop here, There's two guys
Speaker 2: who I just don't know what to say about him
Speaker 2: and I almost the stats almost don't even matter for
Speaker 2: both of them. And they're Valery Nishushkin and Gabriel Landeskog
Speaker 2: for different reasons. Nishushkin had a great year, but obviously
Speaker 2: things ended horrifically in the playoffs and the future is
Speaker 2: very much in question. Gabriel Landeskog keeps saying he's coming back.
Speaker 2: He hasn't made it back. He hasn't played for this
Speaker 2: team in an awful long time. What's going on with
Speaker 2: these two guys?
Speaker 3: Megan talk to talk about both. I think I'll start
Speaker 3: with Landeskog because you at least feel the certainty of
Speaker 3: he is going to make an attempt to return to
Speaker 3: play in this next season. It's still not with the
Speaker 3: certainty I think anybody would like, like, when is he
Speaker 3: planning to will it be out of training campan he's
Speaker 3: trying to make this return to play. That much is
Speaker 3: still unclear, but it does feel at least sure that
Speaker 3: he's going to make a go for it this year,
Speaker 3: and he felt right on the brink of doing it
Speaker 3: in this last year, but the timing ended up getting
Speaker 3: later and later in the season. And you just know
Speaker 3: with the way that Landiskog is as a player and
Speaker 3: a person, that if he's going to do it, he
Speaker 3: wants to do it right. And I think that's what
Speaker 3: sort of defered it into this next season. But I
Speaker 3: am confident that we're going to see Laniskog attempt to
Speaker 3: return to play hockey, and then from there it's a
Speaker 3: matter of how he actually looks and feels once he
Speaker 3: makes that attempt. As far as val Nichushkin, a little
Speaker 3: bit is going to depend on what the PA and
Speaker 3: the league decide when it does come to sorry November
Speaker 3: time frame, and they're reevaluating his reinstatement to the league,
Speaker 3: so that's going to be out of the team's hands.
Speaker 3: And since this is a bit unprecedented, I assume he
Speaker 3: will be clear to returning to play at some point
Speaker 3: in that November time frame, But what I'm not sure
Speaker 3: of is his term in an ABS uniform. I do
Speaker 3: feel like the trust has been broken so deeply with
Speaker 3: this group because of the personal struggles, and it's not
Speaker 3: to say that he doesn't deserve any chance at redemption.
Speaker 3: But that kind of thing is hard to restore in
Speaker 3: a locker room, and it might be best for Valdachushkin
Speaker 3: and the team to sign a new home for him,
Speaker 3: to give him a clean slate somewhere else, because it
Speaker 3: just will be very challenging to overcome the way that
Speaker 3: the trust was broken with this group. I don't think
Speaker 3: that Valdachushkin won't play in an NHL uniform again, I
Speaker 3: just don't think it will be in an ABS Walm.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that seems totally fair after a couple of incidents
Speaker 2: that have thrown a crimp into avalanche seasons, shall we say,
Speaker 2: in the late in the game, Arturry Lekkanen is the
Speaker 2: next player on His points per sixty were a career
Speaker 2: high last year two point four or five points per sixty.
Speaker 2: That was with his secondary assist rate dropping significantly, which
Speaker 2: makes that score raid even more impressive if you ask me.
Speaker 2: He scored a goal in all five games of the
Speaker 2: first round series versus Winnipeg in the playoffs, and this
Speaker 2: is a season when he went out for two and
Speaker 2: a half months with a neck injury and for shoulder
Speaker 2: surgery after the playoffs ended. Lekani goes into his age
Speaker 2: twenty nine season projected, as far as I can tell,
Speaker 2: as a second liner for the team again this year.
Speaker 2: What are you expecting from Archery leccon in this coming year,
Speaker 2: and who's going to be skating with.
Speaker 3: In the app of Aana Chushkin in that top six group,
Speaker 3: I think that kind of solidifies the place on the
Speaker 3: second line with Casey Middlestat. A little unclear on who
Speaker 3: that winger might be, just because I'm imagining Lekkanen staying
Speaker 3: there with Middlestat and Dreuanne being up with the top
Speaker 3: line with McKinnon and Rantonan's I'm not quite sure who
Speaker 3: they'll see on that second line, but I do think
Speaker 3: there are some internal options they can consider in the interim,
Speaker 3: and I think it's just it's a testament to how
Speaker 3: valuable Luckinon is to the team. Jared Bennar has described
Speaker 3: him as possibly one of the most underrated players, and
Speaker 3: it is because he can absorb top six minutes. He
Speaker 3: has skill to fit in there. But you know, if
Speaker 3: he does need to be moved about the lineup, he
Speaker 3: just takes on the responsibility of special teams so well
Speaker 3: and He is a warrior too. Knowing that he was
Speaker 3: playing through something shoulder related in the playoffs the year
Speaker 3: before he had a broken toe. He is just everything
Speaker 3: you could ask for in a hockey player, and I
Speaker 3: think that it only becomes more important his role that
Speaker 3: is in the appens of Dona Chushkin.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the next guy we're want to talk about, Oksey Middlestat.
Speaker 4: His role obviously also shifts with everything else that we're
Speaker 4: talking about. He was one of the more notable hockey
Speaker 4: trades that happened at this past deadline. Too few two
Speaker 4: RFAs changing hands between Buffalo Colorado. Biram is gone, Thlstat
Speaker 4: took a three year bridge deal five point seventy five mil.
Speaker 4: Seems pretty reasonable considering his offensive and defensive impacts. It's
Speaker 4: both seem pretty great. According to Evolving Hockey, his gar
Speaker 4: is really excellent and so is a defensive impact at
Speaker 4: five e five, So that's really good to see. It
Speaker 4: seems like ever since nwasen Kadri left they have had
Speaker 4: a hard time filling that two C role and it
Speaker 4: just seems like they found it now. So it seems
Speaker 4: like maybe a good move for both. Colorado had some
Speaker 4: strength at d and Byrum, though great at times, was
Speaker 4: always seemed like he was always injured. And Middle stat
Speaker 4: looks like he could be the guy, could be the
Speaker 4: solution there. The last couple of seasons, he's hovered around
Speaker 4: sixty points, and I'm wondering if he can If you
Speaker 4: think he can break that ceiling, what kind of upside
Speaker 4: do you think Casey Middlesack can reach in Colorado?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that players come to Colorado and typically
Speaker 3: experience a little bit of a bump in their production,
Speaker 3: and it's just the way that Colorado likes to play
Speaker 3: usually complements that type of player, a player like Casey
Speaker 3: middles that I think he's taken on so much responsibility
Speaker 3: with his role previously in Buffalo, and I think being
Speaker 3: clear on this second line wall and having talent around
Speaker 3: him like Lecanon who's willing to do the work and
Speaker 3: go to the dangerous areas, really compliments his IQ because
Speaker 3: he's great at setting up those types of plays and
Speaker 3: Lacanon has the work ethic and the motor to anticipate them.
Speaker 3: And I think that's what is going to continue to
Speaker 3: work so well into next year. And because of Middle
Speaker 3: SATs high IQ as well. No matter who that other
Speaker 3: winger is on this line, as long as they've got
Speaker 3: the right work ethic, I think it's going to work,
Speaker 3: and you're going to see a very productive line on
Speaker 3: the whole with Casey Middlestat as a conduit of it all.
Speaker 3: The fit was very apparent after the deadline, and I
Speaker 3: think we only just began to see what he was
Speaker 3: capable of, and in his first taste of playoff hockey ever,
Speaker 3: he really handled it extremely well. And so I'm so
Speaker 3: excited to see what a full year with Ksey Middlestat holds.
Speaker 3: I think that had there been some universe where he
Speaker 3: could have even started the season with Thabs last year,
Speaker 3: we would be talking about him in a different way.
Speaker 3: I think he's going to have a huge impact on
Speaker 3: this group.
Speaker 2: All right, Jonathan Drew on you have already referenced that
Speaker 2: he could be a first liner again this year. In fact,
Speaker 2: last year, Drewn McKinnon and Rantnan was the five on
Speaker 2: five line that had the fourteenth most minutes together in
Speaker 2: the NHL. So pretty well established it was, and Drew
Speaker 2: was also entrenched on the power play one all year.
Speaker 2: There was discussion of whether he'd fit in with this team,
Speaker 2: and it sure looked like he did. Played seventy nine
Speaker 2: games after missing a significant number of games in each
Speaker 2: of his four previous years in Montreal. He set a
Speaker 2: career high in minutes at fourteen hundred and thirty seven.
Speaker 2: Fifty six points on one hundred and twenty seven shots
Speaker 2: was an outlier shooting percentage for him that was nineteen goals.
Speaker 2: I should say drew On was a reclamation project, but
Speaker 2: it looks like he's finally found a happy home in Colorado.
Speaker 2: So is he going to hold this primo role? And
Speaker 2: could we have a sixty point drew On next year?
Speaker 3: Another player or sixty points fills within reach and like
Speaker 3: middle sides because that opportunity is going to be offered
Speaker 3: to them and they just have to seize it. And
Speaker 3: so in Duranne's case, it's even heightened just because you're
Speaker 3: expecting him to be surrounded with talent like McKinnon. It's
Speaker 3: hard to keep those numbers down when you're playing with
Speaker 3: such talented players like that. And in Durenne's case, the
Speaker 3: fit just became clear as the season went on because
Speaker 3: he dug in. He dug in with the way that
Speaker 3: Colorada liked to play, and there was no ego in
Speaker 3: how Jonathan juran approached last season. He modified parts of
Speaker 3: his game to better serve with the ass needed and
Speaker 3: it felt trust with Jared Bender. I'll never forget seeing
Speaker 3: Juranne as one of the players utilized in overtime for
Speaker 3: the first time. There was almost this are you sure me? Really?
Speaker 3: And he almost played conservatively the first time that it happened,
Speaker 3: but you saw the confidence shoot up after that because
Speaker 3: it really signified the trust that had been built between
Speaker 3: Bednar and drew In. And so I think that you're
Speaker 3: going to see those minutes stay high utilized in that
Speaker 3: top line role just because on both sides of the
Speaker 3: Pockkeey became so much more responsible. It's not to tout
Speaker 3: him as some highly physical player, but there was such
Speaker 3: a willingness to be defensively sound that I think earned
Speaker 3: him a lot more opportunity in this next year with
Speaker 3: talented players like McKinnon and Ranton, and like Middlestat. Jonathan
Speaker 3: Durant is such a smart hockey player that he is.
Speaker 3: He was made to play hockey with Nathan McKinnon. Not
Speaker 3: only do they have the history from junior hockey together,
Speaker 3: but they anticipate each other so well, and it makes
Speaker 3: a lot of wonderful things happen.
Speaker 2: Now we go to the players who were a little
Speaker 2: bit further down for fantasy purposes and give you a
Speaker 2: pick on who's going to have the more points next year.
Speaker 2: We got Ross Colton on one hand, who had forty
Speaker 2: points in eighty games last year. We got Lolan O'Connor
Speaker 2: who had twenty five and fifty seven. Say what you
Speaker 2: want to say about these players in their role this year,
Speaker 2: and who do you think is going to have the
Speaker 2: better season?
Speaker 3: Love both these players and I'll keep the answer simple.
Speaker 3: It's going to be Ross Colton between the two, but
Speaker 3: I'll talk about each a little. Logan O'Connor, before he
Speaker 3: needed to have the hit procedure was trending at a
Speaker 3: career high pace, and some of that was because there
Speaker 3: were injuries in the lineup and Loc was able to
Speaker 3: play up in the lineup at times. So that bigger
Speaker 3: role in high skilled players around him gave him some
Speaker 3: more offensive opportunities, and let me give him credit, he
Speaker 3: took advantage of them. And so hopefully with a healthier lineup,
Speaker 3: Loc is more solidly in that third line role and
Speaker 3: I still think the production's going to trend in the
Speaker 3: right direction. But for Ross Colton, the payer that they
Speaker 3: brought him in to beat is the sixty point player.
Speaker 3: And I'll give ross Colton credit too. He had a
Speaker 3: career high year and I think that's that Colorado bump
Speaker 3: that I'm alluding to, and that's with him getting acclimated
Speaker 3: to playing down the middle full time. So that's a
Speaker 3: little bit of an adjust meant by itself. I think
Speaker 3: he also experienced because of some guys coming in and
Speaker 3: out of the line of Miles Wood missed a little
Speaker 3: bit of time last year. He was adjusting too to
Speaker 3: some changing personnel around him. I'm hoping with a little
Speaker 3: bit more consistency, you really start to see what it
Speaker 3: is that they saw in Ross Colton. I think you
Speaker 3: started to see it last year. I think he did
Speaker 3: everything asked of him. But hopefully with maybe a line
Speaker 3: that really comes together and meshes well and stays together
Speaker 3: ross Colton's production, you see what the scoring upside is
Speaker 3: really supposed to be there for him more than it
Speaker 3: is necessarily in Elloc.
Speaker 1: That's awesome context. Thanks for that.
Speaker 4: And the next guy we want to ask you about
Speaker 4: I've had a lot of questions about him.
Speaker 1: That's Nikolai Kovalenko.
Speaker 4: I would say his production is a million dollar question,
Speaker 4: but actually it's the nine hundred thousand dollars question. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it's a great value for anyone in a cap league
Speaker 4: if his production is going to be what some of
Speaker 4: us hope he can be. He'll be twenty five this season,
Speaker 4: the five to ten winger drafted twenty eight team by
Speaker 4: the Avs in the sixth round. Several years of minimal
Speaker 4: KHL production, and in the last two seasons he's been
Speaker 4: nearly a point per game in the KHL. Has a
Speaker 4: lot of us very excited. I know he got into
Speaker 4: a few NHL and a couple of HL games last season,
Speaker 4: it didn't have a massive impact. Also, not a lot
Speaker 4: could be expected at that point. Next season, a lot
Speaker 4: of people are saying he's going to be lined too
Speaker 4: with middle stat leck end. That would be an incredible
Speaker 4: spot and you might expect a fair amount of production.
Speaker 4: There began, what do you think we can expect from
Speaker 4: Covalenco this season.
Speaker 3: It's challenging because of what Benner is like as a coach,
Speaker 3: keeps players like Covalonco on a very short leash. We
Speaker 3: saw it with even an Alex Newhook, a very coveted
Speaker 3: prospect in the system, earned NHL opportunity, but it wasn't
Speaker 3: without a couple of brief h alstons mixed in. I
Speaker 3: think that coval anco his projection might not be to
Speaker 3: the level of Alex Newhook, for example, And though I
Speaker 3: think there will be a second line role that is
Speaker 3: available to for him at times, that short leash will
Speaker 3: also probably mean that if he doesn't settle into that
Speaker 3: more immediately, he's probably going to be utilized in a sheltered,
Speaker 3: more depthy role. And I still think because of what
Speaker 3: he has shown in the KHL, he'll have a little
Speaker 3: bit more runway than maybe some other prospects, and he
Speaker 3: finds other ways to impact the game beyond just production,
Speaker 3: because I think that will be challenging to convert from
Speaker 3: one league to the next right away. But some of
Speaker 3: the other things that he does well as a player,
Speaker 3: he can really bill as this power forward. If he
Speaker 3: can bring that to the NHL, I think Badnar will
Speaker 3: give him a little bit more runway. The sample size
Speaker 3: was too small to draw any meaningful conclusions for Covalanko,
Speaker 3: but there were some big mistakes that got made and
Speaker 3: he was punished for it, and that's exactly why it's
Speaker 3: important for him to work really hard in camp and
Speaker 3: be as responsible as possible to earn the trust of
Speaker 3: coaching staff. But I think that's the biggest hurdle for him.
Speaker 3: I think the production will come and that's almost a
Speaker 3: secondary concern, and it's just avoiding costly mistakes for Cobalalenco.
Speaker 3: And I think he will be given important opportunity like
Speaker 3: with the second line, and if he can seize it
Speaker 3: and make the most of it and demonstrate that he
Speaker 3: can be trusted there, that's where I think you can
Speaker 3: see more of this full time fit because right now
Speaker 3: I don't even know that we're having that conversation. I'm
Speaker 3: not sure where Cobalonco is fit in an NHL lineup
Speaker 3: right now. And it's not to write him off. I
Speaker 3: just think that a lot more needs to be seen
Speaker 3: of him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, fair, it is a big jump.
Speaker 4: It's a different league, different responsibilities, different coaching staff, so
Speaker 4: I appreciate all that context. I wanted to ask you
Speaker 4: about a couple other young guys that, of course we're
Speaker 4: excited about. Callum Richie is one I think he's maybe
Speaker 4: a little bit away, but he might compete hard for
Speaker 4: a spot in camp and Oscar Olsson. Do you think
Speaker 4: either of them or any other prospects are gonna make
Speaker 4: the team and make an impact this year?
Speaker 3: I think there's tears, and so the first year is
Speaker 3: the cal richeets here. He's the one right on the
Speaker 3: doorstep of pushing for an NHL spot, and obviously with
Speaker 3: the junior hockey commitment, like THEOVS apt to make a
Speaker 3: decision early on, but I absolutely think they're going to
Speaker 3: give him a chance to knock that door down coming
Speaker 3: out of camp, and that's certainly what he's vying for.
Speaker 3: We didn't get to see him at development camp last
Speaker 3: year because of his injury, so this was our first
Speaker 3: real viewing of him, and he looked great. He separated
Speaker 3: from his peers in an environment where he absolutely should
Speaker 3: and so I'm excited to see how he stacks up
Speaker 3: in the main camp then alongside some of the pro guys,
Speaker 3: and he's built up some strength, put on some good weight,
Speaker 3: and that was really I think what was holding people
Speaker 3: back from seeing him in an NHL role. Was he
Speaker 3: physically mature enough to handle it? And I think that
Speaker 3: he's been working really hard on preparing him that way,
Speaker 3: and Gil is definitely there another high player. In the
Speaker 3: environment of dev camp when they're doing a scrimmage, he
Speaker 3: was the player that shined because he was finding his
Speaker 3: guys that he's never played with before in that setting
Speaker 3: and creating all of the offense for the team that
Speaker 3: he was on. It was incredibly impressive. I'm excited to
Speaker 3: see what he does in camp and with him though,
Speaker 3: because he is so young and has this other year
Speaker 3: of juniors that he can return to, there's not this
Speaker 3: total urgency. Even though there is this fourth line centerment
Speaker 3: role that the ADS would like to fill. It doesn't
Speaker 3: have to be cal Ritchie, especially if it's detrimental to
Speaker 3: his development in any way, but it would sure be exciting.
Speaker 3: I think it's possible. And then that next tier is
Speaker 3: the Oscar Laustin. I would even put John Luke Fodi
Speaker 3: in that year. And they're had a point in their
Speaker 3: development where you really seriously are having NHL conversations, but
Speaker 3: it also feels a little naked or break it. What's
Speaker 3: challenging for both of them is where the Colorado Avalanche
Speaker 3: are at as a team and what role was available
Speaker 3: to them as players, both food and Allowsen are more
Speaker 3: highly skilled players that should be playing middle of the lineup,
Speaker 3: second line type roles, and they've both been trying to
Speaker 3: build into their game so that they could fill more
Speaker 3: of a depth role, because that's really more of where
Speaker 3: a role is available in the ABS, and that's the
Speaker 3: biggest challenge. Allowson missed a lot of time last year
Speaker 3: because of an injury, and so that kind of hurt
Speaker 3: his viewing, and then similarly, Foody started the year he
Speaker 3: had been recovering from an injury the year before. So
Speaker 3: both players I just feel like missed out on important
Speaker 3: viewing a hockey for the from the organization standpoint to
Speaker 3: have me certainly say that they're going to be able
Speaker 3: to assume an NHL role. And so between the two,
Speaker 3: I think they're both equally at a chance of vying
Speaker 3: for an NHL role and they just have to go
Speaker 3: out and knock that door down in camp. I think
Speaker 3: Olauson has really been trying to build the part of
Speaker 3: this game I called them the blue collar habit that
Speaker 3: would make him suited for all. So it's a matter
Speaker 3: of how convincing that is to the likes of Jared
Speaker 3: Badnark because he's got that NH already shot that will
Speaker 3: impress you. He's trying to become a more engaged skater,
Speaker 3: hunting pucks in the offensive zone, using his body to
Speaker 3: win some of those battles, and I think that he
Speaker 3: took strides there, especially under Cronin at the American league level.
Speaker 3: It just he missed this last year, so he should
Speaker 3: be healthy to start the year. Hopefully he knocks the
Speaker 3: doors off. I can't then even if he has to
Speaker 3: return to the Eagles a bit, he's got some important
Speaker 3: work to do. I think he might be the closest
Speaker 3: of the two between Booty and him.
Speaker 1: Love it.
Speaker 2: We're moving to the blue line, which means I get
Speaker 2: the easy one. Cale mccarr he said career highs and
Speaker 2: points and blocks this year, finishing with the second most
Speaker 2: points among NHL defencemen, more than his Norris year. Actually
Speaker 2: going into his fifth year, this will be the age
Speaker 2: twenty sixth season from McCart that's older than I even imagined.
Speaker 2: For some reason, he's got three more years at this
Speaker 2: nine million dollars per which is quite a value if
Speaker 2: you ask me, and no doubt there will be a
Speaker 2: big raise when that one runs out. What you expecting
Speaker 2: from mcar this year is is this performance going to sustain, improve, repress?
Speaker 2: Where are we at with him?
Speaker 3: I'm hoping somewhere. Obviously improve is the hope, but sustain
Speaker 3: is where I'm at with Cale mccar. And part of
Speaker 3: it is the type of utilization for mccar is high
Speaker 3: minutes every year. He leads the league a nice time
Speaker 3: each year because he is trusted and leaned on so
Speaker 3: heavily as a player, and I think it's taken a
Speaker 3: small tool on his body that you don't want necessarily
Speaker 3: anything crazy if it comes at the expense of his hockey.
Speaker 3: And that's where I'd like to see, especially some of
Speaker 3: the new additions to the defensive group, more balance and
Speaker 3: distribution is minutes for kil mccar. And honestly, if it
Speaker 3: takes away if there's a little less PK to time
Speaker 3: that allows cal Macar to be impressive by B five,
Speaker 3: that's where I could see these numbers hiking up even
Speaker 3: a little bit more. And it's just because to the viewer,
Speaker 3: cal Macar had a little bit of a down year
Speaker 3: despite the impressive points production, and it felt like it
Speaker 3: was because he was adjusting to this new normal with
Speaker 3: his body because he was dealing with something coming out
Speaker 3: of camp and it felt like something that just lingered.
Speaker 3: I won't classify it as a proper injury, just something
Speaker 3: that made his body feel a little bit different from before,
Speaker 3: and so I anticipate that to still be true off
Speaker 3: midn this next season. And I also wonder if the
Speaker 3: buzz around Norris. Of course, another North finalist in cal macar,
Speaker 3: even in what could be considered a down year, but
Speaker 3: seeing Quinn Hughes get that spotlight, I do wonder if
Speaker 3: that takes any pressure off cal mccar or if it
Speaker 3: heightens it, and he'll still continue to be one of
Speaker 3: the most important pieces of this AVS group. And he's
Speaker 3: still trend to get in the right direction. I think
Speaker 3: because last year was considered a down year, it does
Speaker 3: only go up from here. But that's scary to think
Speaker 3: about when it's Cam mccarr because it was still a
Speaker 3: curer high in poise for him.
Speaker 2: Wow, we should all wish for defenseman with such down
Speaker 2: years to be on teams we follow. Devin Tayes is
Speaker 2: the other most prominent defenseman on this team right now.
Speaker 2: He's signed for even a little bit longer than mccar
Speaker 2: is seven more years. He and mccarr played the ninth
Speaker 2: most minutes together of any defensive pair in the league.
Speaker 2: Clearly the plan is for these two to hold the
Speaker 2: top pairing for a long time. His box score stats
Speaker 2: will never match mccar's, but the advanced stats are always
Speaker 2: excellent for tays and he provides excellent defensive support for
Speaker 2: that pairing. Now at least Byron is bo when Byron
Speaker 2: is out of town as of during last season, so
Speaker 2: they are slightly fewer mouths to feed on this defensive situation.
Speaker 2: You think we'll ever see a sixty points season out
Speaker 2: of Devon Tayes and what do you expect from him
Speaker 2: this coming year.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure about sixty points. It's not to say
Speaker 3: that he's not capable of it. Another player with the
Speaker 3: minute an opportunity to staize that kind of production. I
Speaker 3: think he's settling into his extension. Like, if I'm being
Speaker 3: realistic about where he's at in his career, I think
Speaker 3: that his role is being complimentary to production, but he
Speaker 3: doesn't have to be the headliner. And similarly, because of
Speaker 3: his strong defensive game, that's also the way in which
Speaker 3: he holds down not only the top payer, but I
Speaker 3: think keeps the entire defensive group studied. And that's what
Speaker 3: I would boil it down to. For Dante's is studying
Speaker 3: the defensive group. That's his role, that's what kept him
Speaker 3: in Colorado for a long time. And also the way
Speaker 3: in which he compliments what Cale mccarr is trying to do.
Speaker 3: Those two keep up with one another in terms of
Speaker 3: pace and the way that they think the game, and
Speaker 3: that's where my expectation lies with DeVante's.
Speaker 4: Still think that was one of the best trades I
Speaker 4: ever saw, was it wasn't it Taves for a couple
Speaker 4: of seconds or something like that like that? Yeah, I
Speaker 4: remember thinking like, wow, this is why you keep your
Speaker 4: picks and have cap space, because you get a great
Speaker 4: defender for value.
Speaker 1: Good job.
Speaker 4: All right, Let's move on to a couple other depth
Speaker 4: defencemen and I'm going to give you points. Pick them
Speaker 4: here and a little context as you did before, would
Speaker 4: be great. And this is Eric Branstrom, Sam Malynsky Branstrom.
Speaker 4: Between these two, I think Malinsky definitely had the better
Speaker 4: point pace last season, even at the time an Ice
Speaker 4: was similar. Of course, things might be a little bit
Speaker 4: different for Branstrom in Colorado. I've long been a fan
Speaker 4: of Branstrom, and I felt like Ottawa didn't quite fully
Speaker 4: optimize him. I guess we'll see how it goes in Colorado,
Speaker 4: And in some ways I almost feel like he's an
Speaker 4: interesting replacement for Byrum. I don't know that he's quite
Speaker 4: at that level, but I see some similarities in the
Speaker 4: way that they play a biroum off if they had
Speaker 4: a bit more production. And in the past, I know
Speaker 4: you talked about how impressed you've been with Malinsky, and
Speaker 4: he's obviously come along really nicely. So what kind of
Speaker 4: opportunity do you think these two will will be getting
Speaker 4: and what kind of point pace do you think we
Speaker 4: can expect.
Speaker 3: It's a tough day for people like me who love
Speaker 3: Sam Malinsky, because realistically, I think that Branstrom has the
Speaker 3: inside track, and just looking at the way the decourse constructed,
Speaker 3: I don't think that Branstrom's coming for the second pair
Speaker 3: with Gerard and Manson. I think that because of the
Speaker 3: way Bednar deploys his decore, generally those payers get mixed
Speaker 3: up all the time anyways, So I think Brandstrom will
Speaker 3: play pretty important minutes, even if it's a third pair role.
Speaker 3: And the reason I think he gets the edge over
Speaker 3: Malinsky is in talking about Jared Bednar and how he
Speaker 3: works with players. Branstrom has the NHL experience and more
Speaker 3: NHL situations under his belt that I think is going
Speaker 3: to favor him just he's going to be a little
Speaker 3: bit more trusted. And that's not to say there won't
Speaker 3: be opportunity for Malinsky still in the NHL lineup. I
Speaker 3: think it's just become that much more challenging because I
Speaker 3: also really Branstrom as a player, and to your earlier point,
Speaker 3: I don't know that he's really even seen his full potential.
Speaker 3: He's still such a young player. Especially for a defenseman,
Speaker 3: I feel like their trajectory is always a little bit
Speaker 3: late bloomery, and so that Colorado bump applies to defenceman
Speaker 3: as well. Especially with the way that Colorado likes to play,
Speaker 3: I think it's really going to compliment him. I think
Speaker 3: the challenge or what he'll need to reconcile most is
Speaker 3: how he finds the ways to play the game that
Speaker 3: he likes to play, because it does complement Colorado's style
Speaker 3: as well. From a third pair role, which is going
Speaker 3: to be a little bit more limited and minute limited
Speaker 3: in the types of ice that he gets. I think
Speaker 3: that's going to be a little bit of a challenge,
Speaker 3: but I also think that if he's handling it, he'll
Speaker 3: get more opportunity, and I think that the production will
Speaker 3: trend in the right direction for him, just because of
Speaker 3: the way that Colorado likes to execute defensively. They like
Speaker 3: their players to activate on the rush and get involved
Speaker 3: in play down low, and I think that he has
Speaker 3: the speed and the mobility to really play that game well.
Speaker 3: So I'm excited for him, and I still think Mewinski
Speaker 3: will get his opportunities and he'll just have to really
Speaker 3: make the most of them when he does.
Speaker 4: Right here, and I'm really excited to see an unleashed
Speaker 4: version of Branching. But if that's what is in the cards,
Speaker 4: I want to also ask you about Sean Barns. We
Speaker 4: were talking a little bit about prospects earlier, but those
Speaker 4: are forwards, and he's a defenseman and he's been someone
Speaker 4: that I think has been really underrated for a while now,
Speaker 4: and he has been amazing at the University of Denver,
Speaker 4: a couple of national titles, to his name, and he
Speaker 4: did play some professional hockey, had a little bit of
Speaker 4: a stint with the Clarter Eagles. It seems like he
Speaker 4: might be there, but he also seems pretty NH already.
Speaker 4: It just doesn't I don't know if there's a spot
Speaker 4: for him, But do you think he'll get a role
Speaker 4: or at least potentially a call up.
Speaker 3: I think there's potential for a call up, and it's
Speaker 3: to do what the outs have done with other prospects,
Speaker 3: to see how he stacks up against NHL talent. And
Speaker 3: that's the express purpose because they still intend for him
Speaker 3: to continue working on his game in Love Lit and
Speaker 3: I wanted to demerit Barons because he is so close.
Speaker 3: That is absolutely the truth. The stridees that he has
Speaker 3: taken from freshman to junior year at do You are
Speaker 3: important ones. He always had that offensive instinct and became
Speaker 3: though so much more reliable defensively. He became an important
Speaker 3: peak guy PK guy for DU and actually one internally
Speaker 3: within d You the Defensive Defenseman Award because of the
Speaker 3: strides that he took and becoming just a really formidable defenseman.
Speaker 3: Because he is an undersized skater, but he uses his
Speaker 3: body like there is so much power behind him, he
Speaker 3: will deny guys at the blue line, and so that
Speaker 3: is something that I don't want people to underestimate about
Speaker 3: Sean Barns and where I'm going with this folk is
Speaker 3: and talking to their head of development, Brian Woolsey, he
Speaker 3: talked about with defenseman, there's usually like at least a
Speaker 3: year in the American League before you're having the NHL conversations,
Speaker 3: and that's just been the plan. Like even Baron's going
Speaker 3: back for his junior year and chasing another national title
Speaker 3: was part of the plan. And it's because there's a
Speaker 3: patient plan for him. With the way the Colorado's defensive
Speaker 3: group is structured right now, there is an urgency for
Speaker 3: Barons to be NHL ready, and I think that's by design.
Speaker 3: You look at some of the additions they've made in
Speaker 3: this offseason and it's to allow no desperation. And so
Speaker 3: I think that a fullyer in the AHL, then we're
Speaker 3: having conversations more seriously about NHL opportunity for Sean Baron,
Speaker 3: and it's not a slide at him as a player.
Speaker 3: It's just to give him the full runway to be
Speaker 3: NHL ready when that time comes. And set him up
Speaker 3: for success because I'm really excited for what the future
Speaker 3: holds for this player.
Speaker 1: Yeah, me too.
Speaker 4: He's I think he's really underrated. People should look into
Speaker 4: him more if you don't have him on your dynasty teams.
Speaker 4: The next thing we're gonna do is move on to
Speaker 4: the goalies. The Avs had the twelve ranc expected goals
Speaker 4: against for sixty but consided the nineteenth actual goals P
Speaker 4: sixty according to Evolving Hockey at Fiveyfore five main guys
Speaker 4: here obviously Alexander Georgiev and Justice Eninin and Georgia have
Speaker 4: playing sixty three games, and in fourteen there was also
Speaker 4: some Ivan Prisvetov in there. We saw the volume for Georgiaev,
Speaker 4: but he played well under expected. They have his negative
Speaker 4: six point eight goals to be exact. N only played
Speaker 4: fourteen but had five point two one goals save above expected,
Speaker 4: so that's almost as good on the positive side as
Speaker 4: Georgiae was on the negative. And Edin also had a
Speaker 4: one point one for Delta Fenwick and has two more
Speaker 4: seasons at a really good bargain eight hundred and forty
Speaker 4: seven than he's twenty four. Georgiaev four years older at
Speaker 4: twenty eight and has that three point four million dollar
Speaker 4: cap hit, which isn't a dramatic increase over n and In,
Speaker 4: but certainly has the money to dictate being the starter
Speaker 4: based on how it went last year, though it seems
Speaker 4: like Aninin should.
Speaker 1: Probably get a little bit more of a run.
Speaker 4: Is that how you see the situation coming into next
Speaker 4: season that Ninin might get a little bit more of
Speaker 4: a play.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's more of a timeshare. How do you see
Speaker 1: this unfolding Maiden?
Speaker 3: I think that he earned a little bit more of
Speaker 3: a time shore, like you said, and I'll say that
Speaker 3: cautiously because it's still very much Gurgiyev's net. It's the
Speaker 3: starter's net, and it's just based on how they even
Speaker 3: distributed the starts last year with someone like Prosatov who
Speaker 3: it's complicated. I think that on and the pros Vatav
Speaker 3: thing was confusing. Adinen was right there in terms of readiness.
Speaker 3: He had such an amazing campit surprised people. There was
Speaker 3: a little bit of an injury at the start that
Speaker 3: hampered Oninin starts in the beginning. I think that we
Speaker 3: would have seen him more with the abs at the
Speaker 3: start of the year if it hadn't been for that,
Speaker 3: and that's what I think forced their hand of the
Speaker 3: pros Vatov situation. Otherwise I think we would have seen
Speaker 3: on in a little bit sooner. That injury just really
Speaker 3: messed things up. But anyways, in how they utilize even
Speaker 3: Prosatov and Gurgiev starts, Gurgyev was still getting the edge
Speaker 3: on those starts. You could just tell that's where the
Speaker 3: trust lied. I think that's going to still be similarly
Speaker 3: true this year with Ninin, and it's just because he
Speaker 3: is still such a young goaltender and he has done
Speaker 3: well with all of the opportunity that he's been given.
Speaker 3: It's just been a short leash. And with what he
Speaker 3: did last year though, he really handled himself well. And
Speaker 3: you look at the workload for your GiB and some
Speaker 3: of the maybe mental challenges that he had at the
Speaker 3: end of the year with struggles, and hope that maybe
Speaker 3: a more balanced workload between the two will help to
Speaker 3: alleviate one of those pressures for Georgiv. If you talk
Speaker 3: to Georgive himself, he wants all of those start. So
Speaker 3: they'll have to be careful in that balance to make
Speaker 3: sure that they're not making any games that he'd like
Speaker 3: to be playing away from him. But Ananan is ready
Speaker 3: and he's ready for the task. I think in looking
Speaker 3: at how they have added to the goal pending position
Speaker 3: this summer, it does feel too like they are throwing
Speaker 3: their backing and support behind on and being a true
Speaker 3: backup in the NHL next year and hopefully similar to
Speaker 3: the Francois situation a couple of years back, giving him
Speaker 3: a decent amount of starts because he is so young,
Speaker 3: you also don't want him sitting idly for too long.
Speaker 3: So if they're going to do it, they really have
Speaker 3: to make sure that both goaltenders are playing throughout the season.
Speaker 3: And I believe you sasun in and is ready for it.
Speaker 2: This has been very enlightening, Megan. You were always I
Speaker 2: said it last year. You're always one of our best
Speaker 2: guests providing insights on a team. Why didn't you let
Speaker 2: people know how they can keep up with all your
Speaker 2: work throughout the year.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, I'm on Twitter slash x at Meg Ingley, and
Speaker 3: all of my written content can be found at the
Speaker 3: DNVR dot com under the Avalanche section, and I'm excited
Speaker 3: to provide you guys some more apps coverage this upcoming
Speaker 3: here outstanding.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for coming on today, Megan, and
Speaker 2: good luck following the Avalanche next year.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 5: We'll be back right after this.
Speaker 2: Since then, well that's good fires past top. Oh my goodness,
Speaker 2: long long with Kat gram Now it's your wingley goalie talk,
Speaker 2: but Kat Silverman, Kat's instincts.
Speaker 4: Time once again for Katz Instincts with Kat Silverman and
Speaker 4: gold mag Avalanche addition, which of course we're going to
Speaker 4: start with Justice Annenin as we have for the last
Speaker 4: several seasons. He is six or four two hundred nine pounds,
Speaker 4: taking way back in twenty eighteen. He's been in North
Speaker 4: America the last several seasons and gotten into some NHL action.
Speaker 4: This past season was the most that he's gotten into.
Speaker 4: Fourteen NHL games. He had a nine to twenty eight
Speaker 4: a percentage two point twenty five GEA. He also had
Speaker 4: twenty three HL games where he was also pretty good.
Speaker 4: I was able to pull his evolving hockey numbers and
Speaker 4: he they looked fantastic. His expected fenwick was not very good,
Speaker 4: and he was able to weigh out performed that at
Speaker 4: even strength and then on the penalty kill he was
Speaker 4: even better. He was trying to break the graphs here
Speaker 4: right evolving hockey. So looking at his hockey prospecting, he's
Speaker 4: been that thirty to forty percent range. Of course, because
Speaker 4: he's finished. I had to pick the comp of Vesa Toscola,
Speaker 4: who was another favorite. Not quite as tall as just
Speaker 4: as an and In, but a really fun, undersized goalie
Speaker 4: with the opportunity that we see in front of him.
Speaker 4: It seems like with Franco's finally retiring, it seems like
Speaker 4: there's some opening here unless the Avs fill it with
Speaker 4: someone else. Do you think that Ananin can step into
Speaker 4: that backup role even challenge some starts against Georgia?
Speaker 3: What do you?
Speaker 1: What are your ins things?
Speaker 6: Tell uscat Oh, Absolutely, I think they've been I think
Speaker 6: that the Avalanche's long term plan has been for this
Speaker 6: to be where we are at this point. They have
Speaker 6: over the last handful of years really focused most of
Speaker 6: their drafting and developing energy on Anin and then bringing
Speaker 6: in goaltenders from other teams that they see how they do,
Speaker 6: and a couple of them have pleasantly, couple of them
Speaker 6: have not, But really the focus has been on eventually
Speaker 6: seeing him move into the role of either backup tandem
Speaker 6: or starter. By about this point, I was all in
Speaker 6: on him. When he got drafted. I hyped him up
Speaker 6: to the point where I was really hoping that no
Speaker 6: one was screenshotting it so they could bring it back
Speaker 6: up when he was the world's biggest bust. And then
Speaker 6: he got injured in the season right before he came
Speaker 6: over to North America, missed half his season, really struggled
Speaker 6: to get back into the swing of things in Finland,
Speaker 6: because he is a goaltender whose biggest weakness tends to
Speaker 6: be his conditioning and getting himself to a point where
Speaker 6: he can play at the tier he likes to over
Speaker 6: the long haul for a ton of games. And then
Speaker 6: he came over to North America and had a little
Speaker 6: bit of trouble getting acclimated to North American starts, and
Speaker 6: I got really nervous and I got a little sweaty,
Speaker 6: and he finally caught back up, and he looks great,
Speaker 6: and his numbers looked good last year. His time Nique
Speaker 6: looked good last year. I was able to catch a
Speaker 6: couple full games where I was watching him, and he
Speaker 6: just from the time he was playing in Finland played
Speaker 6: with such a North American friendly style where he stayed
Speaker 6: a little bit more conservative in his crease, stayed within
Speaker 6: the blue paint at all times. He is a bigger
Speaker 6: goaltender and used that to his advantage to try and
Speaker 6: block off site lines, but wasn't afraid to skate around
Speaker 6: a little bit. And I think his consistency, even after
Speaker 6: having some stutters for injuries, getting to watch him continue
Speaker 6: to trend upward, I'm all in. I think he's going
Speaker 6: to be a starter. I'm ready for the VESNA, but no,
Speaker 6: I think he likely this year. I'd like to see
Speaker 6: him tandeming with Georgia IV. I don't think it necessarily
Speaker 6: behooves them to swap the starts percentages that we saw
Speaker 6: last year. I don't think we need to see In
Speaker 6: and In doing sixty to sixty five reps over the
Speaker 6: course of the full regular season. I think thirty five
Speaker 6: to forty is great, and ideally they move into a
Speaker 6: true tandem situation there. We'll see how that goes. But
Speaker 6: I think we're at a point right now where it
Speaker 6: would be shocking to see them try and find someone
Speaker 6: else to fill that backup role, because I think that's
Speaker 6: what he's there.
Speaker 1: For him man.
Speaker 4: Last year, I asked you how long it would be
Speaker 4: till justice was served, and it seems like we're almost there.
Speaker 3: We're there.
Speaker 1: I like it.
Speaker 4: All right, Let's talk about another guy that they have
Speaker 4: in their system, Ilia and the back off, and he's
Speaker 4: a double overrager that they just drafted in the twenty
Speaker 4: twenty four draft, thirty eighth overall. He is not related
Speaker 4: to getting the back off. In case you were wondering,
Speaker 4: a lot of people were. He was six foot, one
Speaker 4: hundred and seventy nine pounds. I believe he was the
Speaker 4: first goalie taken if I'm not mistake believe. So yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: So that was a bit surprising. But I think what's
Speaker 4: not denial and deniable is that he was incredible this season.
Speaker 4: Previous to this season, he'd been in the NHL, had
Speaker 4: one KHL game where he just made an appearance, and
Speaker 4: then he jumped right to Metaller Magnetogorsk, top team in
Speaker 4: the KHL, and was incredible. His numbers jump off the page.
Speaker 4: Nine thirty sive percentage, two point one five GA in
Speaker 4: the regular season, nine two one point a two GA
Speaker 4: and four shutouts en route to the Gargan Cup. That
Speaker 4: was just amazing. I think that he was a huge
Speaker 4: He was not like a guy that was on along
Speaker 4: for the ride. He was like literally the reason or
Speaker 4: at least one of the main reasons that team won.
Speaker 4: So that was pretty impressive. His numbers look really good
Speaker 4: in terms of the Hockey Prospecting model as well. Of course,
Speaker 4: with this strong season, he shot up to now a
Speaker 4: fifty five percent chance of being an NHLR. He has
Speaker 4: a lot of comps from NHL current NHL rs, including
Speaker 4: his the current teammate we just talked about Alexander Georgiev,
Speaker 4: whereas in this D plus three season he's right there
Speaker 4: where Georgief was fifty five to sixty one percent. So
Speaker 4: it seems like there's a there's some pretty good proof
Speaker 4: of concept there. Both of them are similarly sized, which
Speaker 4: is also interesting. So Kat, what do your instinct tell
Speaker 4: us about in the bock off and do you think
Speaker 4: he has the potential to be a future starter someday.
Speaker 6: That's a He's a really interesting case because I watched
Speaker 6: some highlights, I watched some film and he looks so crisp,
Speaker 6: and he's not overly conservative with his movement, but he
Speaker 6: is very controlled with his movement, so he doesn't overslide,
Speaker 6: he doesn't play a super fluid game, but he does
Speaker 6: play a very active game, and he looks like someone
Speaker 6: who a team that really needs a goaltender desperately would
Speaker 6: be drafting. So it's fun and spicy and surprising to
Speaker 6: see Colorado be the team that takes him. Because he
Speaker 6: is older. He's a double overager there, so he's twenty one,
Speaker 6: and he's going to be back in the KH all
Speaker 6: this season. I don't think he looks like he needs
Speaker 6: HL seasoning. So Pavelo Francus who came over and pretty
Speaker 6: much was ready for playing at the NHL level almost immediately.
Speaker 5: That's what we.
Speaker 6: See from him. And that's a really interesting choice for
Speaker 6: Colorado given that they have obviously Alexander Gordiev who is
Speaker 6: obviously NHL ready because he's their current starter, and they
Speaker 6: have Justice Annonon who looks to be fully NHL ready
Speaker 6: right now. So I don't know if drafting him was
Speaker 6: their insurance if things don't work out with either of
Speaker 6: their two na presumed NHL ers this year. They have
Speaker 6: someone that they can pull a Franzeus and just to
Speaker 6: sign him, bring him over and have him in the
Speaker 6: NHL right away, or if they were just trying to
Speaker 6: make sure that they had someone just in case in
Speaker 6: the system. If they do think that based on I
Speaker 6: didn't really get a chance to see any of his
Speaker 6: film from U years prior, so I am curious if they,
Speaker 6: when looking back at old footage and talking to his coaches,
Speaker 6: think that maybe he is a little bit of a
Speaker 6: slower burn and might need a little bit of HL
Speaker 6: seasoning when he does come to North America, even though
Speaker 6: he doesn't look like he'll need it, because there's always
Speaker 6: the chance that what we see is that he looks like, oh,
Speaker 6: he looks ready to go, and the team talking to
Speaker 6: his coaches and watching his game footage from even the
Speaker 6: year prior, think mmm, he probably needs just a little
Speaker 6: bit more time when he does make his way to
Speaker 6: North America. But yeah, that's it's a fun one. I
Speaker 6: think he's got, Oh he's got a game that looks
Speaker 6: like it's ready for the NHL when he's ready to
Speaker 6: move over. I just don't know if that's what Colorado needed.
Speaker 6: It plays like they were trying to usurp him from
Speaker 6: someone else, which is fun. I don't know who they'd
Speaker 6: be trying to take him from But we'll see what
Speaker 6: they do with him. I think there's a chance that
Speaker 6: could get super interesting in Colorado in the next couple
Speaker 6: of years.
Speaker 4: Yeah, should be very exciting. Maybe they could trade him
Speaker 4: for a song to the game that wanted him. Who knows,
Speaker 4: But thanks for giving us your instincts on the color
Speaker 4: Avalanche goalies.
Speaker 2: Good Dinas Colorado Avalanche. Dicker the Colorado Avalanche. They've still
Speaker 2: got some pretty good prospects going. We're going to talk
Speaker 2: about him today and it all starts out with your
Speaker 2: no brainer. Who is it?
Speaker 4: My no brainer is Callum Ritchie already mentioned previously on
Speaker 4: the show. Twenty twenty three, twenty seventh overall pick, six
Speaker 4: ' to two hundred and eighty seven pounds, right shot
Speaker 4: center wing. He suffered an injury that affected him during
Speaker 4: his draft season, and that was part of the reason
Speaker 4: why he fell so far, because there were some questions
Speaker 4: about his ability to heal from that, and now he
Speaker 4: was going to look once he was healed. He's still
Speaker 4: had a point per game that season for Oshua that
Speaker 4: was pretty great. This season, he bumped that up to
Speaker 4: eighty points in fifty games, plus another thirty and twenty
Speaker 4: one playoff games, going all the way to the OHL
Speaker 4: Final before bowing out to London. He had a pretty
Speaker 4: outstanding season, I would say, and what a lot of
Speaker 4: people expected him to take a big step forward after
Speaker 4: healing from that shoulder injury. I pulled up his Mitch
Speaker 4: Brown player cards and one of the things that I
Speaker 4: like to do is look from a year to see
Speaker 4: what kind of growth is there, And in his Draft
Speaker 4: minus one season, you can see that the offense wasn't
Speaker 4: really there, but the transition was excellent, and the defensive
Speaker 4: game was pretty good. And the defensive game has held
Speaker 4: steady and actually improved this past season. The transition game
Speaker 4: continues to be excellent, and the offense is just out
Speaker 4: of this world.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 4: He's in the ninety ninth percentile for total offense and
Speaker 4: overall ninety ninth percentile. A lot of his factors look
Speaker 4: really good, especially I think his best feature is probably
Speaker 4: as expected primary assist, but he's also got really good
Speaker 4: expected goals. He's got a great shot, his strenges in
Speaker 4: game is outstanding. His offensive point involvement, game score, all
Speaker 4: that looks really excellent for Kalum Ritchie and Mitch Brown's
Speaker 4: data set When you look at the FHL player card,
Speaker 4: you can see that his peripheral stats aren't amazing. His
Speaker 4: shots per sixty aren't really that great. His hits are
Speaker 4: a little bit below average, and his blocks are a
Speaker 4: little bit above average. So all in all, he looks
Speaker 4: like he'll be just above average in terms of bash.
Speaker 4: But his assists for sixty should be one of the best.
Speaker 4: It is best in the league right now in the ELHL.
Speaker 4: We'll see how that continues. His points look really high,
Speaker 4: I haven't met a seven out of ten, and the
Speaker 4: puck stud ranking you look at some of his advanced
Speaker 4: metrics and his transition game, his high danger chances created
Speaker 4: his puckwork, all that looks excellent. To learn a little
Speaker 4: bit more about klum Ritchie, though we need to hear
Speaker 4: from our FHL scout.
Speaker 2: We certainly do, and in this case our scout is
Speaker 2: Joshua Skating. Especially for his size at six two, Richie
Speaker 2: is a strong skater. While he'll never be the fastest,
Speaker 2: he can keep up as center. Working with professional skating
Speaker 2: coaches should help him, and as his problems are more
Speaker 2: fundamental than strength, and his skating should get even better.
Speaker 2: Passing and handley. The one thing that has always been
Speaker 2: a part of Bertie's game is his hockey brain, and
Speaker 2: that comes with competent vision and hard, accurate passes. Richie
Speaker 2: is generally pretty safe with the puck and rarely turns
Speaker 2: it over. He isn't going to wow you with the
Speaker 2: softest hands in the world, but what but he uses
Speaker 2: what skills he has smartly and to his advantage for shooting.
Speaker 2: Joshua thinks the biggest impact of Richie's long lasting Hulder
Speaker 2: injury from his draft year is what it has done
Speaker 2: to his shot. It's not a particular strength of his
Speaker 2: now and might be his biggest question mark. But Richie
Speaker 2: does make up for his shot by using his IQ
Speaker 2: in size to get to the high danger areas of
Speaker 2: the ice, and he makes the most of it when
Speaker 2: he does IQ. Even in his draft year, Richie was
Speaker 2: praised for high KEQ, pro readiness pro habits. He has
Speaker 2: great vision on the ice, whether it's during the breakout,
Speaker 2: finding soft spots in the offensive zone to grab some
Speaker 2: high danger passes, or hitting his teammates in stride with
Speaker 2: fantastic passes. His IQ and hockey sense are his biggest
Speaker 2: asset for checking. Richie is a fast, big body, not
Speaker 2: afraid to put physical pressure on opposing puck carriers. He's
Speaker 2: a hard worker on both ends of the ice and
Speaker 2: can be a difficult player to start a breakout against defense.
Speaker 2: He's a commendable defender, mixing size and tenacity with a
Speaker 2: mind that can be pretty good at predicting and reacting
Speaker 2: to the play. He's got size and strength to start
Speaker 2: and win puck battles along the Board's put pressure, especially
Speaker 2: on smaller stature opponents. So the best asset We've set
Speaker 2: it a couple times. His smarts, his IQ ability to
Speaker 2: read and see the play, make the best decision with
Speaker 2: the puck, or put himself in the best place for
Speaker 2: the puck. All of his skills and best qualities stem
Speaker 2: from his brain and how he uses it. The biggest
Speaker 2: concern It's impossible to predict injuries, but a long term
Speaker 2: nagging injury like this early in his career is very troubling.
Speaker 2: Other than that, it's his shot. In his fine puck skills,
Speaker 2: his shot not being super strong. Nothing in his skills
Speaker 2: sticking out is fantastic. There a questions about how well
Speaker 2: his offensive game could transfer to the professional level. His
Speaker 2: top outcome maybe a sixty to seventy point score with
Speaker 2: the average elite bash. Joshua doesn't think Richie has the
Speaker 2: high end talent to become a true number one center,
Speaker 2: but he's someone who could step into the role temporarily
Speaker 2: if need be. If he hits, he will provide really
Speaker 2: good defensive and possession metrics while putting his weight offensively
Speaker 2: for a fantastic second line ice tilting center median outcome
Speaker 2: fifty to sixty points score. Justification would be there's a
Speaker 2: possibility his offensive game doesn't quite translate. He struggles to
Speaker 2: find goals against the highest quality opponents that would slide
Speaker 2: him into still a high quality bottom six center who
Speaker 2: could shut down other teams stylistic comparable, he holds a
Speaker 2: lot of comparables to other big bodies that don't have
Speaker 2: the best skills, someone like a Boone Jenner or Ryan Johansson.
Speaker 2: Final thoughts big high scoring forwards and juniors can be
Speaker 2: boom er bust in the NHL. Don't think Richie's skills
Speaker 2: and skating can take him to a first line center role,
Speaker 2: but Joshua thinks he has enough skilled, tenacity and hogyiq
Speaker 2: to at least make an impact in the NHL. We
Speaker 2: place in the NHL rank King Mason Black's poll Calm
Speaker 2: Ritchie versus Trevor Connolly, recently drafted by the Vegas Golden Knights,
Speaker 2: and Trevor Connolly's hockey potential nudges out klib Ritchie here
Speaker 2: fifty two point five to forty seven point five percent. Victor.
Speaker 2: Is that how you see it?
Speaker 4: Ooh, that's an interesting one. Don't think I agree with that. Actually,
Speaker 4: I understand the appeal of Trevor Connolly. He does have
Speaker 4: really great scoring ability, but all the other things that
Speaker 4: go along with him that we've talked about over the
Speaker 4: draft season, I don't think that I would prefer that.
Speaker 4: I think Callum Ritchie has so much potential, and he's
Speaker 4: in this system Colorado. He's already knocking on the door,
Speaker 4: as we heard from Megan that he's close to being
Speaker 4: NHL ready. Maybe he needs a little bit more time.
Speaker 4: He has the potential to play with some real superstars there,
Speaker 4: which isn't necessarily the case in Vegas. Connolly is far away,
Speaker 4: and I have more questions about his ability to reach
Speaker 4: that final endpoint. So I'm a little bit more skeptical
Speaker 4: about Connolly, even though right now there, pinch Ley looks similar,
Speaker 4: even though Connolly's actually looks a little bit better. I
Speaker 4: would much rather have Callum Ritchie. I think I have
Speaker 4: a lot more faith on his ability to be an
Speaker 4: impact in NHLer. If everything goes right for Colony at Connolly,
Speaker 4: I do think the upside is higher. I'm just not
Speaker 4: convinced that it's as likely. I think the volatility is
Speaker 4: much higher there, so I would take Callum Ritchie. When
Speaker 4: you look at the prospecting between these two, they were
Speaker 4: similar in their draft season twenty four to twenty five
Speaker 4: percent star probability. Kalum Ritchie's went down a little bit
Speaker 4: this season, even though he had a great season. I
Speaker 4: guess Barron was hoping for a little bit more in
Speaker 4: the model and then fifty nine percent chance of being
Speaker 4: an NHL are pretty much the same for these two.
Speaker 4: One of the good comps here for Kalum Ritchie in
Speaker 4: his numerical stats is someone like Casey Middlestadt. Actually he
Speaker 4: looks who's funny because now he's a NAV But middle
Speaker 4: stats percentages look similar to Richie's, and I also feel
Speaker 4: like that's someone he could end up being like similar
Speaker 4: production wise, and I think that's a pretty good comp
Speaker 4: I think it's pretty reasonable. Looking at the j fresh card,
Speaker 4: Kalum Ritchie has nine percent chance of being an n
Speaker 4: star and sixty one percent chance of being an NHL
Speaker 4: or so still some chance there. Maybe a little bit
Speaker 4: more muted on the star potential, but I like Kalum Richie.
Speaker 4: I would definitely take him all right.
Speaker 2: And next victor who is our needs no prospect.
Speaker 4: The need to know is Mikhail Gulyayev. He was the
Speaker 4: twenty twenty three thirty first overall pick, seventy two pounds
Speaker 4: left handed d late April birthday will be nineteen all
Speaker 4: of this upcoming season. After splitting time in the VHL,
Speaker 4: the MHL, VHL and KHL last season, he played full
Speaker 4: time in the KHL this season for Avant Garde UMSK.
Speaker 4: Twelve points in sixty four games, including another three and
Speaker 4: twelve playoff games. Maybe not seem the most exciting, but
Speaker 4: he's a teenager playing and one of the most difficult
Speaker 4: leagues in the world, so I think you got.
Speaker 1: To give him that.
Speaker 4: When you look at his FHL player card, you can
Speaker 4: see that his he blocks a lot for someone in
Speaker 4: the KHL P sixty his shots and hits though are
Speaker 4: a little bit low, so he might be able to
Speaker 4: increase those depending on his role as he grows a
Speaker 4: little bit, but right now he's looking like he might
Speaker 4: be a little under average, below replacement level for bash.
Speaker 4: His goals though, looking pretty good for someone because he
Speaker 4: had four, which is a large number for someone in
Speaker 4: with such a difficult league. But overall, the pims are
Speaker 4: actually low, which is good in our metric if you
Speaker 4: like pims. That's another thing that he does not do
Speaker 4: very much. And looking at some of his other metrics,
Speaker 4: his transition game, high danger, passes, puckwork, all of this
Speaker 4: is excellent in the KHL, which is really impressive for
Speaker 4: someone who's so young.
Speaker 1: So I think there's.
Speaker 4: Still a lot of really good upside here. But let's
Speaker 4: hear a little bit more about Gliyah from our FHL.
Speaker 2: Scout Joshua once again on Guliyayev skating. Goliayev's bread and
Speaker 2: butter is his skating. He has good straight line speed,
Speaker 2: but really shines in his mobility and fluidity in his movements,
Speaker 2: whether it's covering space on his own or the fast break,
Speaker 2: or playing with a puck on his stick, Goliayev skating
Speaker 2: is his biggest ass set passing and handling. Goliaev is
Speaker 2: an offense first defender, and that could be an issue.
Speaker 2: Where there is a lot of skill in his passing,
Speaker 2: he can try to force big plays too often when
Speaker 2: there might have been a safer option. While this is
Speaker 2: okay in lower skill levels, his decision making could use
Speaker 2: a touch of conservatism at higher levels. Shooting, while Guyayev
Speaker 2: doesn't have that stereotypical super heavy slapper from the point,
Speaker 2: he generally relies on a heavy and accurate rister, choosing
Speaker 2: to go for more accuracy and reliability over pure power IQ.
Speaker 2: It depends where he is on the ice, says Joshua
Speaker 2: with puck on his stick. In his own zone, he's
Speaker 2: fantastic at pushing the play forward, putting opponents on the
Speaker 2: back foot as he attacks super quickly. He's also great
Speaker 2: in the offensive zone, whether it's stepping forward as a
Speaker 2: fourth attacker or keeping plays alive with a pinch or
Speaker 2: walking the blue line. He's also good at anticipating the
Speaker 2: opponent's fast break and can step up to stop it
Speaker 2: with a burst of speed. However, when opponents get established
Speaker 2: in his own zone, Guiayev can seem lost and not
Speaker 2: as engaged as he could be or checking. Guyayev is
Speaker 2: a force in the offensive zone and on the fast break.
Speaker 2: He pinches fairly affectively with his speed and active stick
Speaker 2: and still is able to cover his own zone in time.
Speaker 2: He likes to jump forward and provide another angle of
Speaker 2: attack on his own team's fast break and when the
Speaker 2: opponent's play with speed, that's his biggest strength, able to
Speaker 2: outskate most opponents and read the play to break up passes.
Speaker 2: As previously mentioned, Guliaiev is more than competent when defending
Speaker 2: the fast break, but you can get into can get
Speaker 2: into trouble under prolonged and established pressure. As you can
Speaker 2: imagine from a quick offensive defender. Goliaev is short and
Speaker 2: small at five ten and one seventy pounds, He could
Speaker 2: really get muscle dof pucks and isn't much help in
Speaker 2: physical puck battles. So the best asset the skating immaculate,
Speaker 2: whether it's straight line speed or edgework and agility, Guiaev
Speaker 2: will forever be one of, if not the best skater
Speaker 2: on whatever team he plays on. The biggest concern is
Speaker 2: his play in his own zone. If he can grow
Speaker 2: his strength and be able to handle bigger forwards more
Speaker 2: easily and engages more in his own zone, he could
Speaker 2: be a great defender. The top tier outcome maybe a
Speaker 2: fifty plus points scorer for this guy. That would be
Speaker 2: with him as an offensive superstar. He could rack up
Speaker 2: the points and put in the right positions. Never gonna
Speaker 2: have great bash, never gonna be amazing in his own zone,
Speaker 2: but if it works, his points should cover up his
Speaker 2: other shortcomings. The median outcome would be like a thirty
Speaker 2: point scorer with below average bash. Injuries could be a
Speaker 2: problem for his size, and if the liability is his
Speaker 2: own zone continued to prove too big of a shortcoming,
Speaker 2: his high octane, gung ho offense doesn't translate against the
Speaker 2: best defenders in the NHL. He could be relegated to
Speaker 2: power play specialist and offensive specialist. This is unlikely. There's
Speaker 2: also the fact that he resigned the KHL until twenty
Speaker 2: twenty six. It's still expected for him to come over
Speaker 2: to North America, but that's a factor the stylistic comparable.
Speaker 2: He's another in a list of offensive defenders that have
Speaker 2: been coming up cut from the same offensive cloth as
Speaker 2: Cale mccarr and Quinn Hughes. Ghuliayev is offensively gifted, but
Speaker 2: a small defender. He comes with all the upsiding question
Speaker 2: marks that come with that profile. The way the NHL's
Speaker 2: moving towards speed and skill, those questions should become less
Speaker 2: and less important. Guliyayev, according to Joshua, should be a
Speaker 2: special talent in whatever league he plays in. Our friend,
Speaker 2: Mason Black the NHL ranking put out the poll Mikhail
Speaker 2: Gulaya versus Luca Cagnoni, and Gulayev wins in just nudges
Speaker 2: a victory fifty point seven to forty nine point three victor.
Speaker 2: Is that how you would order these two?
Speaker 4: I think there's a lot of factors here. As josh mentioned,
Speaker 4: the contract in the KHL, the fact that he's going
Speaker 4: to be a bit ways from being able to make
Speaker 4: an impact, I think is something that's challenging. Both these
Speaker 4: guys are a little bit undersized. They're both that five
Speaker 4: to ten area and Cagnoni has a little bit more
Speaker 4: weight to him, but both are undersized mobile defenseman. I
Speaker 4: think you also have to keep in mind that was
Speaker 4: a first round pick and Cagnoni, as exciting as he is,
Speaker 4: and how much he's increased his draft stock. He was
Speaker 4: still a fourth round pick, so I think some of
Speaker 4: that definitely plays in a little bit. Certainly, some organizations
Speaker 4: will give those first rounders a lot more leeway, a
Speaker 4: lot more opportunity. A lot of it depends on what
Speaker 4: happens since the draft, of course, and both have done well.
Speaker 4: I think Cagnoni has taken more strides, but he had
Speaker 4: more room to make up, he had more growth to endure.
Speaker 4: I think it's probably difficult between these two. I think
Speaker 4: that I would rather have Gliaiev just because he's a
Speaker 4: first round pick. He's playing in a professional league, and
Speaker 4: even though the scoring isn't off the charts, it's still
Speaker 4: he still shows a lot of really positive signs to
Speaker 4: being able to be an impact defender at the NHL.
Speaker 4: I think his projection is a little bit safer if
Speaker 4: you look at the PNHL between these two. It's hilarious though,
Speaker 4: because Cognoni looks like he's up in superstar potential range
Speaker 4: and Gliaev is in that forty point but he he
Speaker 4: hasn't scored that many points, which is part of what
Speaker 4: has made his rejection a little bit difficult. But just
Speaker 4: because of that I think you can't necessarily discount how
Speaker 4: difficult the league he's in and how much upside he
Speaker 4: still has. But on the other hand, Cognoni is definitely
Speaker 4: someone that you should be interested in, and even though
Speaker 4: he's a bit smaller, seems like he's making the right strides.
Speaker 4: If you look at hockey prospecting, though the opposite is true,
Speaker 4: Galaiev looks incredible. He's eighty four down, a seventy seven
Speaker 4: percent chance of being a star and eighty five percent
Speaker 4: chance of being in NHLer Kegnoni has raised his dra
Speaker 4: his star potential from sixteen to thirty one percent and
Speaker 4: his introil probably to sixty two, but still quite a
Speaker 4: bit lower than Gliaev.
Speaker 1: If you look at.
Speaker 4: Other comps from Gliaev, there really aren't a whole lot.
Speaker 1: It's hilarious.
Speaker 4: The only ones that were really even close were basically
Speaker 4: Michael Dilzato, Ryan Murkley, and Scott Needemayer, and those are
Speaker 4: all very different levels of players, and so I don't
Speaker 4: think he's really going to be Scott Needemyer level. I
Speaker 4: don't think he's nearly as bad defensively as Ryan Murkley.
Speaker 4: Someone asked us that actually in the discord recently, Jesse,
Speaker 4: what's up with Ryan Murkley. He's playing, he's scoring really
Speaker 4: well in the KHL. Is he ever going to come back?
Speaker 4: And I think the answer is no, because he still
Speaker 4: can't really play defense very well, but he can play offense.
Speaker 4: He can do well in the KHL in a certain role. Anyways,
Speaker 4: I don't think that Guliaiev is quite that bad, but
Speaker 4: maybe somewhere in the middle there, which is a very
Speaker 4: fat middle. I think he's closer to being kind of
Speaker 4: star potential though than he is a replacement level Guliaev.
Speaker 4: Looking at the j Fresh card, Guliaev has seven percent
Speaker 4: chance of being a star and sixty five percent chance
Speaker 4: of being an NHL or so that's not too great,
Speaker 4: but I think there's still some pretty good potential there.
Speaker 1: I like Gliaiev.
Speaker 2: Jesse, Yes, indeed, Now who Victor is your keep your
Speaker 2: eye on.
Speaker 4: Prospect, keep your rye on? Is Sean Baron's mentioned him
Speaker 4: early in the show. Twenty twenty one sixty first overall pick.
Speaker 4: It's one hundred and seventy six pounds left handed. D
Speaker 4: finished his NCAA career with second NCAA championship thirty one points,
Speaker 4: in forty four games for Denver. He played a couple
Speaker 4: of games with the Eagles and he has projected to
Speaker 4: play there again next season. As we heard Meghan talk about,
Speaker 4: and also as you mentioned, you might think for an
Speaker 4: undersized defenseman, he's not very physical or good defensively, but
Speaker 4: you watch him play and you realize that is not
Speaker 4: the case. He's very physical. He's very good in his
Speaker 4: own zone. He's good with his stick, but he's also
Speaker 4: good at separating guys from the puck. And yeah, he
Speaker 4: just doesn't really get pushed around a whole lot, even
Speaker 4: though you might think so. He uses his edges really
Speaker 4: well in his positioning. Looking at Mitch Brown's tracking data,
Speaker 4: he has four years of tracking data from barons, the
Speaker 4: first two in the USHL at the us NTTP, and
Speaker 4: you can see that first year when he was D
Speaker 4: minus one, it was pretty bad. Then eventually he was
Speaker 4: able to increase that defensive metric all the way up
Speaker 4: to being a massive strength being ninety ninth one hundred
Speaker 4: percent tile the last two years. His transition game also
Speaker 4: wasn't as good initially and has improved up till the
Speaker 4: eightieth percentile, and the offense has obviously made a huge
Speaker 4: improvement as well. So overall you can see that some
Speaker 4: of the biggest growth he's had is defensively, which is
Speaker 4: great because that was the biggest need of his and
Speaker 4: also with some of his boards, play to body positioning
Speaker 4: and boards play to the middle have been really good
Speaker 4: for Barons. Looking at his FHL player card, he actually
Speaker 4: looks like he's going to be a pretty good bascher.
Speaker 4: His shots are a little bit about a average, but
Speaker 4: his hits and blocks are well above average, a ninth,
Speaker 4: ninetieth and eightieth percentile, so overall he looks like he
Speaker 4: might be a ninetieth percentile for bash, which is really phenomenal.
Speaker 4: And his assists are really high for the NCAA. We'll
Speaker 4: see if that can translate. He also takes a lot
Speaker 4: of hymns if you like that sort of thing. His
Speaker 4: transition game high danger area, high danger work and pucks
Speaker 4: upwork is really strong, including his power play time, so overall,
Speaker 4: a lot of his play, driving and underlying metrics look
Speaker 4: really good as well, so it's not just an effect
Speaker 4: of him get lucking into a lot of points. But
Speaker 4: let's hear a little bit more about Scott Barns from
Speaker 4: our Fahl scout well.
Speaker 2: Let's hear indeed, Joshua says. In terms of skating, Barons
Speaker 2: is very smooth skating defender. While he doesn't have the
Speaker 2: blazing top speed of some, he's got a very fluid
Speaker 2: stride and has good edgework and agility on the ice.
Speaker 2: He can skate backwards very well and has good lateral
Speaker 2: movement to work the offensive zone or stop attacks. Passing
Speaker 2: in and handling in the offensive zone, Barrens is usually
Speaker 2: a pass first player, and that is because he has
Speaker 2: great passing skill. His vision and a quick, snappy release
Speaker 2: makes him a threat to thread the needle and hit
Speaker 2: teammates from anywhere on the ice. He also has slick hands,
Speaker 2: especially in tight spaces. Barons shot is nothing to write
Speaker 2: home about, and while he does like taking shots from
Speaker 2: everywhere in the ice, it doesn't often pose a threat,
Speaker 2: hence why he's more likely to pass than shoot. Sometimes
Speaker 2: you can create chaos with a well placed shot and
Speaker 2: juicy rebound, but there's a reason why he hasn't hit
Speaker 2: the LA consistently. Hi Q. Vision in the offensive zone
Speaker 2: is Baron's greatest strength. He continually contributes at a point
Speaker 2: per game, mostly using his passing prowess to set up teammates.
Speaker 2: He likes to read the play and jump up to
Speaker 2: pinch and keep the play alive for checking. As a defender,
Speaker 2: Barons likes to pinch up and keep the play alive,
Speaker 2: and since he has good skating speed, he can get
Speaker 2: back to his own zone in case he needs to
Speaker 2: in a hurry defense. Barons won the twenty twenty three
Speaker 2: twenty four NCHC Defensive Defenseman of the Year while scoring
Speaker 2: twenty nine points in forty games. So if that doesn't
Speaker 2: speak to his defensive prowess, Joshu Witen know what does.
Speaker 2: He has grown since his draft year to become a
Speaker 2: better defender in his own zone. He was always willing
Speaker 2: to lay on the body, but he has put a
Speaker 2: lot of time and improvement into reading the play and
Speaker 2: disrupting opponents. The best asset Barns is a true two
Speaker 2: hundred foot defender, mostly because of his brain can produce
Speaker 2: and the offensive zone easily hold his own in the
Speaker 2: defensive side. His vision and passing are fantastic, and he's
Speaker 2: physical and smart in his own zone. The biggest concern
Speaker 2: Variance has yet to score goals at any high level
Speaker 2: in any league in his professional career. Despite being a
Speaker 2: great passer and having great vision, his shots not great.
Speaker 2: He's going to struggle to actually score. He isn't the
Speaker 2: biggest defender at five tens, so he might get overwhelmed
Speaker 2: by bigger opponents. So the top tier for this guy
Speaker 2: thirty plus points scorer with an average or above average
Speaker 2: or elite bash would say Joshua. That's because he doesn't
Speaker 2: have this goal scoring upside to become a top pairing defender,
Speaker 2: but it will put up a lot of assists, put
Speaker 2: up good numbers, especially in his own zone, and he's
Speaker 2: not afraid to put his body on the line for
Speaker 2: hits or blocks. He's got the capability of putting up
Speaker 2: great point totals while not putting the puck in the
Speaker 2: net himself. The median outcome thirty plus points sub thirty
Speaker 2: point scorer with above average elite bash. If the NHL
Speaker 2: proves to be too big and physical Forbearance, he could
Speaker 2: struggle to produce an either zone and he may be
Speaker 2: relegated to third line minutes with time on the power play,
Speaker 2: where he can make some points but will not score.
Speaker 2: Stylistic comparable as a smart player that can play well,
Speaker 2: both in his zone and the opponents. He reminds Joshua
Speaker 2: stylistically of Charlie McAvoy or Jeff Petree and the final thought.
Speaker 2: Since being drafted in twenty twenty one, Barns has adapted
Speaker 2: and grown specifically in his own zone. If this gross continues,
Speaker 2: he can definitely become a solid NHL defender. Mason Black
Speaker 2: the NHL rank King send out the poll Sean Bearns
Speaker 2: versus Ryan Ufco of the Nashville Predators of Co sixteen
Speaker 2: to nine to thirty one in a route over Sean
Speaker 2: Baron's victor. Is that how you see it?
Speaker 4: This is one of those cases where Mason is just
Speaker 4: mean because I like both these guys so much, and
Speaker 4: I'm sure he knows that. But yeah, these are two
Speaker 4: lesser Harold. It would be a good way of saying it,
Speaker 4: slightly undersized defenseman Baron's being drafted quite a bit earlier
Speaker 4: at sixty first overall on Ufco way down at one
Speaker 4: hundred and fifteenth overall. But I think the other thing
Speaker 4: you could say about both these two is they have
Speaker 4: both made dramatic improvements to their all around game and
Speaker 4: had stellar NCUBLEA careers. So both of them massive upward trajectory.
Speaker 4: But I think I'm actually gonna go Barons here just
Speaker 4: because I think he has a better all around game.
Speaker 1: I think he has a better chance of making an impact.
Speaker 4: Neither of these guys have any chance of usurping their
Speaker 4: top power play quarterback on their team. Roman Yosi isn't
Speaker 4: going anywhere anytime soon, and obviously NEI there's Cam Lakarr.
Speaker 4: But that doesn't mean they can't get traded and go
Speaker 4: somewhere else and have a pretty big impact on another team.
Speaker 4: I don't think that's likely. I think both these organizations
Speaker 4: like these guys and they probably will play for them.
Speaker 4: But I'm gonna slightly favor Baron just because I think
Speaker 4: he's been steadier, He's had a more outstanding NCUBLEA careers,
Speaker 4: had more growth in the areas that he really needs to.
Speaker 4: I think both these guys being slightly offensive defensemen, neither
Speaker 4: of them are truly really dynamic, so there they kind
Speaker 4: of factor is more second or third pairing guys with
Speaker 4: pretty good two way mobility and some offensive upside, but
Speaker 4: none of it's incredible. Yeah, I think that I would
Speaker 4: go Baron's Looking at the hockey prospecting Between these two,
Speaker 4: Ufko definitely has more star potential according to this, even
Speaker 4: though their NCAA NHL production is similar.
Speaker 1: In fact, Coos is just a little bit better, but
Speaker 1: he looks a.
Speaker 4: Lot better in this model looking at Baron's and some
Speaker 4: of his other comps. I think restmus Anderson is another
Speaker 4: one that kind of makes some sense. I heard some
Speaker 4: check Charlie McVoy earlier. Obviously that would be pretty amazing.
Speaker 4: Jeff Petrie, Yeah, I think all those guys or Restmus
Speaker 4: Anderson something like that. That's someone who's pretty effective but
Speaker 4: isn't obviously your star power play quarterback or anything like that,
Speaker 4: but a guy who can on the power play and
Speaker 4: maybe gets a role there and has a pretty decent floor.
Speaker 4: And the jfreshcard Barons does not look good. One percent
Speaker 4: chance of being a star, twenty two percent chance of
Speaker 4: being an NHL or that's pretty low. But I still
Speaker 4: believe in him a lot more than that, and I
Speaker 4: definitely would try to acquire him if you can. As
Speaker 4: you heard, he's pretty close to being NHL ready. He
Speaker 4: might even get a shot this year. More likely he'll
Speaker 4: play a full HL season, but you should definitely try
Speaker 4: to get your hands on Sean Baron if you can.
Speaker 4: That's it for the Colorado Avalanche dig If you're a patroon,
Speaker 4: you can listen to my top ten prospect recap on Patreon.
Speaker 4: If you're gonna do some scotting with us, shoot medium
Speaker 4: on Discord or email us.
Speaker 2: We'll be right back to both.
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