Speaker 1: Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks.
Speaker 2: Here shitus.
Speaker 1: Your source of information and analysis to help you win
your fantasy hockey league.
Speaker 2: Block off hats, a step hit on, stay lock. Here's
your host, Jesse sovi Here and Victor Nunyo Fantasy Hockey
Live once again. Jesse Severe, Victor Nuno ready to talk
to you about the world of fantasy hockey.
Speaker 1: How you doing, Victor, I'm doing awesome, Jesse. Yeah, it's
been a fantastic time of just watching so much hockey.
And I don't know if you've ever had a week
like this, but I in my matchup last week, I
felt like I wasn't worthy to roster Logan Cooley. He
dragged my pathetic managing but to a victory and I
really didn't. I really didn't deserve it. But he by
himself basically won me my matchup. I was down by
fifty points at one point on Wednesday and he was
just like hol my beer and just we all know
what he did. I bet he won a lot of
people their weeks, but I feel like I didn't really
deserve it.
Speaker 2: How many players you think in fantasy hockey would get you,
Logan Cooley right now, in a trade in your Dynasty
League five, I mean we're getting in territory.
Speaker 1: I would take Dry, I would take McDavid, would take McKinnon,
probably UNEs Celebrini.
Speaker 2: You take Celebrini over him? Is that the dividing line.
Speaker 1: That's really close? I think the bash was probably more
with Celebrini, But people are The point you're making, which
is valid, is that Cooley is way up there and
way better than a lot of people are thinking. And
there aren't very many people I would trade for him,
that's for sure. So if you get any of those
names that aren't like top ten in your league and
you can get Koley for that, do it because he's incredible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, outstanding Victor. I also this week I was
watching I forget what they call it, but it's the
deal where they start at a game every twenty minutes
right starting a Yeah, the frenzy, the frozen frenzy. I
love that thing. Man. I don't know about you. I'm
a football fan and I turn on the Red Zone
on Sundays and I just it. It's like a drug.
It's just you sit there and fixate and you can't
stop because all you get is the good stuff. For
seven hours, and hockey tried to do that last time.
Unfortunately they did it up against the Blue Jays World Series,
so I'm sure probably nobody was watching it, but it
is one of my favorite things. They only do it
a couple times a year, but I just love when
it's just NonStop the good play. It's hard to do
with hockey because you don't know when the good play
is going to happen, as compared to football, where's you're
getting closed, something's going to happen here. But it's just
a beautiful thing. Man.
Speaker 1: I have to say, I hate it, really yeah, I
like like for as someone watching, sure I love it,
but for fantasy it's a nightmare. I want to know
when I need to start my players. Like yesterday, I'm
in the middle of giving an exam and I'm like, oh,
which goalie do I start? It's two thirty in the
afternoon over here on the West Coast, Like it's way
too early. And then then the late game started at
what eight o'clock local time, like eleven PM, Like that's
just not I want to have consistent star times, and
quite frankly, if they want to do this, they don't
have to have every team playing. They could have a
bunch of team playing and modify the starts. I don't know,
Like for Fantasy, it's a nightmare because this week sucks
for streaming. All the varied star times were like really
hard to figure out which goalies some teams don't announce
their goalies. Was like, I don't even know who to start,
Like some guys like William Kneelander became available four minutes
after the start of the game.
Speaker 2: What the heck? Man?
Speaker 1: I oh so I didn't get my Kneelander in anyways,
I'm just complaining because it was really hard to manage
for fantasy. But in terms of highlighting the sport and
like having tons of hockey on, that was great, but
a little hard to manage my rosters.
Speaker 2: There's a comprom for the two things, Victor. One of
them is we could just the thing that I actually
you know, I like watching the NonStop. But the other
thing that I really appreciate is when we don't have
all the games start at the same time, so that
they all hit intermission at the same time. And I'm like, oh,
I could flip between five games right Oh no, none
of them are happening right now. I just got to
sit here and watch somebody jabber at me. I can't
flip to the other ESPN station. Eventually those things get better.
But the other thing, Victor, I heard a solution with
your problem, and that is assign the goalie research as
part of the test. Tell your students open up the internet.
I want to know who's starting tonight for the Colorado
Avalanche and that is going to be scored. That's going
to be great. That's going to be part of your
pass and score and find a way to look at
those in real time victory. These things are simple, man,
This is what I would do.
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm sure my Dean would not be bothered by
that at all.
Speaker 2: Victor. Also, your dean would not be bothered by joining
our discord, although we probably shouldn't let him in because
it just makes it hard for you. Oh, that was
the best assumption on my part. You can edit that
out the Royal. He Yeah, the Dean probably right now
not going to be joining the discord, but you could.
Fantasy Hockey lifevegimail dot com. Send us an email, we
send you a link, and that's the transaction. No money
part hands. You just jump in there and participate. All
you want, all right, we'll be right back, and we
got to.
Speaker 3: Talk some hockey today, Victor.
Speaker 2: Today is it's follow up. It's similar to what we
did last week, which is we're going to be talking
about some prospects, checking in on some guys who are
drafted and we're waiting for him, and we want to
know what's going on. These people are sitting in your
minor system if you're in a dynasty league, and the
inquiry minds that people want to know what to make
of these guys. And it's based on an article you
write for Dabber Hockey called the Journey Guys with Plenty
to prove it. Tell us what inspires your selections for
this thing? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Thanks, And I got a shout out Timmy, who I
have discussions about these things with and he often helps
with figuring out the names and then I do the writing.
But a lot of it was like, Okay, who was
injured a lot of last year, that's easy. There's some
guys who missed almost the entire season, which we're going
to talk about. Some guys missed most of the season
or all of it. Some guys missed just a small
or a large chunk and that can always affect you,
but it certainly affects you a lot more when you're eighteen,
nineteen twenty than when you're twenty five twenty six and
you're an established player. So that's really important to see
because you never really know exactly how it's going to
affect things, and so that's why it's interesting to write about.
And the other guys are guys who just frankly sucked
last year. They laid an egg. They didn't really pop
off like you thought. They either took a step back
or didn't take a step forward. Maybe they jumped up
into a new, more difficult league than they were ready
for it had a hard time producing. So there are
lots of different scenarios and so a lot of it
is like looking around your leagues and seeing this guy
I don't know what to do with. He didn't really
progress as I would have liked, or this guy took
a really big step back. Depending on what leagues you follow,
you may notice that. So trying to look at the
larger system of what's going on. Who didn't do what
I thought they were going to do, who took a
step back, or who's PNHL regressed or NHL I don't
always look at the the numbers that closely in terms
of what I'm trying to figure out who to talk about,
because a lot of guys drop and it doesn't necessarily
mean anything, especially in hockey prospecting, where if you don't
take a huge step forward going from the WHL to
the NCAA or from USHL to n CUBA, if you
don't take a huge step, you're going to go down
in your percentage, and that doesn't necessarily mean that you're stagnating.
So I tend to look at it more holistically and
just say, Okay, who didn't quite do what I thought
they were going to do next last season?
Speaker 2: Fair enough, and so let's start going through those guys.
And we're going to start by the number four overall
pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets back in twenty twenty four,
it is Caden Lindstrom, and talk about guys who were injured.
Linstrom had a back injury, I believe, if I'm reading
the timeline right, it was known at the time of
the draft, but he had a microdisc ectomy in November
twenty twenty four. He certainly didn't play after the spring
before the draft, and this year after having played I
think in the dub before that is in the NCAA
on Sparti squad Michigan State. He's playing with portamartone, Charlie
strammele riker Lee, Shane Vasagi, Trey Augustine and Gold. They
darn near got Gavin McKenna if you recall that recruiting
push between the two Big ten clubs. Anyway, Lendstrom is
off to a little bit of a slow scoring start.
Two point game so far this year is surrounded by
five zero point games at press time, but he's getting
good reviews play. He's working his way back. You got
to give the guy a break where he hadn't played
for over a year and he's in a higher level
than he ever played before that. Caden Lenstrom is back
in action. Victor the NHL rank King Mason Blackpole put
him up against Berkeley Catton, who is the hotness right now,
was drafted four spots after Lindstrom in that draft, and
it's almost unfair because Catton's already burning it up for
this team. But he he won this competition seventy nine
to twenty one percent. It's it's really tough, I think
to compare these guys. But I think the question really
is here, has Linstrom's year of injury meant that he
really should be passed by or are we gonna remember
in a few more months that maybe Linstrom went over
Caton for a reason. What do you think of this thing?
Speaker 1: Victor great overview there. I definitely still and I think
you have to give him a little bit of a
mulligan there because he just didn't really play last season.
But I do think that's going to affect him more
than most people. As you mentioned too, there definitely was
the injury concern at the draft, and they took him anyways,
and then the worst fears realized with him missing so
much time. So there's a lot of just who knows
about this guy. I don't think we'll really know until
the end of the season how he's really doing, and
even then we're just gonna have more question marks about
him as he moves forward because he missed so much
time and when he maybe isn't producing as much as
we thought. What is that all going to mean? And
we're going to have a hard time deciding what all
this means because of the time. So this I don't
think this these questions are going to go away anytime soon.
I think that we're going to continue to be puzzled
by him for an east another year or two because
he's missed so much time. But we have to say,
you mentioned the time in Michigan State. He's rocking a
six course. His net expected goals is high, he's hitting
everything in sight on two and a half per game.
He's shooting, he's creating chances. In that sense, he looks
good even if the points aren't all there. Michigan State
is a good team and probably good for Winstrom that
McKenna isn't there taking all the spotlight away. Maybe he
can get a little some of that and rebuild his brand.
But I think that the poll in particular, I think
that I would take Catten here for a couple of reasons. One,
Catten is playing in the NHL right now. I think
a lot of us were wondering is he going to
make the jump. He's been awesome in the WHL, but
it's a big jump, and he's one of these guys
who would not be eligible for the AHL because of
his age. He's just on the other side of being eligible,
so he would have to go back to junior for
another season and light it up even more. And so
that's a tricky spot to be in. And we've seen
them handle the Shane Wright and give him a conditioning assignment.
If you scratch a player for I forget how many
game games in a row, you can send them on
a conditioning assignment. And that's what they did with Shane Wright,
and they did that a couple of times before they
sent him to the World Juniors, and they might do
something similar with Kadden. But right now he's getting top
line left wing deployment, which is great, I still think,
and this is more of an indictment on Seattle and
the Kraken, but I think he's there forward with the
most offensive talent that they have on their team or
anywhere in their system. Even right now, he's the most
creative and offensively gifted guy. So that's great that he's
getting some time, he's getting some points, and I think
the upside is just higher. The main reason you might
still lean Kadden in this discussion, or sorry, Lindstrom in
this discussion, is that Linstrom when he's healthy, has more
bash and he definitely was someone who would hiten block
and shoot a lot more. But because of the back
injuries and the uncertainty and his development curve. I would
definitely take Catten, and I think the points upside is
just so much more, And I think there's just too
many questions with Lindstrom and the fact that Cadden's already
looking not at a in the NHL. I think you
take that certainty all day and you say, oh, I'm
good with this, Jesse, Are you good with that? Or
would you lean maybe a little bit towards Lindstrom because
of the peripheral coverage.
Speaker 2: It's so hard to go against Katon right now. He's
just so hot. And I agree he's probably headed back down.
He could be back down by the time where your
people are hearing this, because he's near in that nine
game total. I think he's going to surpass nine games
by the time people listen to this. But it's so
hard to go against somebody who's already producing like this
in the NHL. But if you got Berkeley, Caden Lenstrom
is just he's out of mind, but don't discount his possibilities.
Next up, Victor Tidjiginla the Utah Mammoth selection. For obvious
genealogical reasons, he was one of the most talked about
players in the twenty twenty four draft, but his season
was also cut short in this case with what sounds
horrible double hip surgery in December. I don't think you
want hip surgeries when you're in hockey. That seems like
a bad thing. He's back in Cologna now, he's got
two goals in an assist in his first two games.
He's flashing that star potential that people were already looking
for with him. Mason Black puts him up against Jake O'Brien,
who was a top pick in this year's draft. Two
picks later, we're going it's all cracking versus all injured
guys to start this episode, and he is synonymous with
smarts and skilled, but he also currently leads the OHL
in scoring over two points per game as the captain
of the best team in the OHL, the Branford Bulldogs
eleven zero two at press time, Victor, who you got
between these two? O'Brien once again is the hotness and
Tijiginla was the hotness who's trying to come back to
his former level of production.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is one of those situations where I think
I can speak on the medical part a little bit,
because in general, you're right, and not all hip surgeries
are created equal. He certainly did not have a hit replacement,
which some people might wonder that would be horrible. But
he had what's called femarac tabular impingement, which means that
there's basically the way that the bone is formed is
a little bit more narrow and it as the hip
as the leg bone tries to move around that socket,
it gets pinched a little bit because of the shape
of the socket holding the femuliar head in there, and
so basically they shaved off part of that. That's not
a big deal. I think that it's a it's something,
but it's not something that should really limit his career,
and he should be more mobile, he should be able
to move easier. And I don't think that's going to
be something that's going to be carried forward. It probably
just moved past him. Should not be a recurring injury.
It was a weird sort of anomaly with the shape
of his hip, and that should be taken care of.
So hopefully that's the case and there's nothing more that
is going to come of that. Although I can see
why some people might be injured might be concerned about that.
It is concerning, though, that t hasn't really had a
whole lot of games. He's basically had. He's played two
as we're recording this so far this season, twenty three
games in the past two seasons, and if you add
on his previous WHL experience, he's still under one hundred
for the last three years. That's not great. So we
really just don't know, and I think that's a big concern.
I think with bloodlines and with all the excitement about him,
I think that there's reason to be somewhat excited, but
I could certainly understand the concerns. Jacobrien is a really
interesting prospect. I think people don't really understand quite how
good he is in terms of his upside, and Branford
should be an absolute wagon this year, so it's going
to be great to watch him just destroy the OHL.
He's already well over two points per game. I could
see him realistically maintaining that all season. So I like O'Brien.
The thing about O'Brien is that he just doesn't shoot.
He's one of these guys that's just going to want
to pass it all the way into the net if
he ever scores and so it's mostly going to be assists.
He doesn't really shoot. He does block a fair amount,
but he doesn't hit, so his peripheral coverage should be minimal.
So he's going to be one of these guys that
might be difficult to roster because it's like, unless he's
getting you and assist, what is he doing for you?
I still think the points upside is massive. I think
O'Brien is an eighty to one hundred point guy at
his peak if everything breaks, and so that's pretty exciting.
This krackn are going to need to get some dang
shooters on their team though, in order to make him
be able to finish those plays that he creates. But
I think in this case, I am going to take O'Brien.
It's razor thin, but I think he has more upside
and I think that he's going to have a monster season.
I'm more comfortable with where his projection is at the moment,
so I'm definitely leaning him. And the other thing that
to note about actually both of these guys is they're
both extremely young for their draft class. O'Brien is a
June sixteenth birthday and teaches an August fourth birthday. So
both of these guys have a lot more development to go.
They were really young when they were selected and they're
still really early on in their career. I'm taking O'Brien.
His hockey prospecting is also way higher than nigan Las,
so I think that there's a little bit more reassurance there.
What do you think, Jesse? Did I explain femora acid
tabular impingement? And can you say that after having three beers?
Speaker 2: I can't say it now? And I there was a
femero that's all I got, And that means it's ephemeral.
That means it goes away, and that means you to
give better. That's what I heard. Let's move on, Adam.
You're a Check, the second highest drafted player on Brainford.
We're still with the Branford Bulldogs here. You're a Check.
The younger is maybe what we can call him in
honor of the Robertsons. I think I let my vague
sense of letdown over what his older brother is settled
into rub off on my impression of Adam. But the
young Check is thriving offensively eight points in his first
ten games this year in the OHL. He's even managed
five assists in seven games last year for the bronze
winning Checchia squad at the at the World Juniors. Saint
Lewis's once infinite supply of six million dollar defenseman is
slowly slowly running out in the cabinet there. There's only
a couple of years left for all those guys, so
they're going to need defenseman pretty soon. Those guys are
aging out, and so the number sixteen overall pick from
twenty twenty four year check has plenty of opportunity coming
ahead of him in Saint Louis and the NHL Rankking
Pole puts your check up against Liam Bixel of the
Dallas Stars, a guy who was drafted around the same
part the middle part of the round, but two years earlier,
which means he's already the NHL, which means he's putting
up NHL points. And the thing is a Dallas depth
defenseman is not going to have the opportunities that a
potential Saint Louis defenseman could have. If you believe era
a check has the upside to be a power play
type guy. I think Bixel has a bigger is a
lower cap on his production, but the voters didn't think
so because in the Mason Black Pole sixty five point
six for Bixel thirty four point four for Eur a
Check almost a two to one decisive victory victor. I'm surprised,
but is that the way you come out on this? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I love, have loved the year Checks. Definitely been a
disappointed with what has happened with David and one of
our good buddies Tom. He and I made a bet
about Nimh and Yearcheck and we were just joking recently
that it's going to take forever to decide who wins
that bet based on how poor they're both producing, although
Neimah has come on strong lately, so definitely tilting that
way right now. But yeah, Adam has unfortunate that he
also had an injury last year at World Juniors which
limited him. He didn't really play that many games for Branford,
and he actually didn't really look that great. Surprisingly, some
of his underlying metrics, like some of his transition game
looked pretty good, some of his puck battles and loose
puck recovery looked okay, but some of his net expected
goals and fenwick look awful. So that makes me a
little concerned. This is a guy who played professionally before
coming to the OHL. You think this would be a
lot easier for him. Maybe not. You're right that he
looks good so far this year, so I think that
I would probably lean him, although this is definitely one
of those cases where it depends on what you want,
because Bixel right now is rocking over three hits per game.
He's the kind of guy who just can win you
your league, and he's only playing fourteen minutes a night.
It's not even playing that much. He's just hitting everything,
but that's all he's going to get for you. He
has one assist in ten games. He definitely seems like
a twenty to thirty point kind of guy. I don't
think he's gonna get a lot of points. And when
you look at Bischel's underlying play driving, it's pretty awful,
like he's getting caved in out there. And I know
in the past I have said Bixel, but it was
confirmed by our Dallas Beat writer that he prefers Bischel.
So it's one of those favra farv situations where it
should be Bixel. But if he wants to say at Bischel,
then whatever, then he can decide that, so we'll call
him Bischel. Yeah, I think that if you want the
guy who's producing now and you want that security of
especially in a categories league, he will literally help you
win your hits categories. But I don't know about you, Jesse,
but this is not the kind of guy that I prefer.
I don't prefer these kind of guys who just dominate
one category and are negative in all the rest of
the categories. I probably wouldn't want to roster a guy
like him in a category league, and in a points
league where you get points for all the different categories.
I think he wouldn't be that valuable because all he
does is hit. He doesn't really do a whole lot else.
He's not really scoring. He has two shots in ten
games right now in the NHL. That's it, doesn't pim
So what are you doing out there? So I think
I would lean Yerchek just because there's more potential there,
more and certainty, but more potential. And I think that
if you can play all the games and not get injured,
then I think that there's a little bit more upside there.
Speaker 2: Fair Enough, mister Bischel, we will move on to Andrew
Basha as the next guy we will discuss. He's a
playmaking scorer. Per the scutt In reports to Calgary Flames Prospect.
He graduates from his years in Medicine Hat and this
year plays in the NHL. In the HL, in fact,
he's a Calgary Wrangler. In fact, that means he actually
plays in the Saddle Dome. That must be weird for
the AHL team to be in the same arena as
the NHL team. It's like, maybe guys will just hang
around the locker room sometimes on Flames game days and
see if they just accidentally get put in because the
team doesn't realize that they're not on the right team.
It probably used the same locker room. Heck, I don't
know that, but and Basha was born in Calgary. His
family probably lives across the street. He just looks over
and sees if somebody left the light on in the
locker room. Anyway. Andrew Basha twenty twenty four second rounder.
He scored well enough in his final year at Medicine Hat,
although it had tamped down from eighty five points to
twenty nine points in twenty three games versus eighty five
and sixty three of the year before the culprit and
ankle injury that stole half of his season. Another one
of these injury bug guys. His pro debut, had two
points in his first five games in the AHL. He's
getting his Sea legs back, So Andrew Bosh is on
the road to recovery and moving up. At the same time,
we are comparing him today to Ethan Gautier. The Mason
Black Pole had Gotier of the Tampa Bay Lightning against Basha,
and Basha wins this one big time, eighty six point
five to thirteen point five. Little resistance from Gotier versus Bosha.
What do you think, Victor?
Speaker 1: Definitely Bosha. For me, this one's actually pretty easy. I
think I'm surprised that it's I'm not surprised that it's
so desparate. I'm surprised actually that Mason picked this one.
He usually does a really good job, and I think
in theory they are similar in terms of when they
were drafted and sort of their offensive pedigree. That part
makes sense. But Gotier, he's one of these guys that
I always worry about because he looked great in the queue,
he was scoring. He actually regressed. Actually, he was similar
for a couple of years, and then he had a
pretty strong last season in the Q, but he's already
mostly twenty that season, and then he transitions to the
AHL and it hasn't gone swimmingly. It's still early, but
he's the kind of guy who I don't think it's
going to transfer necessarily that well, because I think that
scoring was a little easier in the queue, and I'm
not sure I had him rated as a four point
sixty seven just based on I'm not sure that he's
gonna be able to elevate his scoring. His hockey prospecting
is at two percent, so I know the PNHL leaves
are a little bit closer here, although Basha is still
almost twenty points higher. I have Basha much higher at
a six point three five, so I have a lot
more faith in him. His WHL underlying numbers were generally good.
The main negative I would say about him is he
doesn't really hit or block that much. He blocks some,
but he's basically one of these guys who shoots a lot,
and he's really fast and offensively good. I'm not sure
that his defensive metrics are ever going to be great,
but if his offense continues to be good enough, then
I don't think it's gonna matter too much. And so far,
at least in the limited sample of the WHL we've
sorted the AHL, we've seen some pretty good stuff, and
he was someone who stuck around a little bit longer
in camp than we expected. So I think that this
was pretty clearly Basha for me and boydes Calibery need
some intrusion of talent. I think that's also pretty clear.
One thing that's also interesting about Gotier is Tampa also
needs some young players to step up and move into
their lineup, and we have seen several players pass ethan
Gotier recently. Right, we've seen some guys join the NHL
that we didn't necessarily think of as super high prospects
for Tampa. The Connor Geeky was a trade, but we've
seen Gage Gun Salves. We were never that into him.
He had some potential, but wasn't that exciting. Dominic James
Pontus Holmberg like, these are guys who were playing in
the NHL ahead of him, and that I think says
a lot about how the organization views go Tier two,
because if he was really that highly touted, he would
have stepped in already I think or at least gotten
a lot longer look and he hasn't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, Yeah, Basha is in the right place for
a rebuilding team, for getting opportunities as he gets healthier.
I almost think we need a theme song for Kevin
Korchinsky at this point, victory if I could just get
my act together, because we talk about Kortensky a lot.
I think previously on Fantasy Hockey Life we discussed Korchinsky
getting a full year in twenty three twenty four so
that Chicago could claim at a higher level. He was
a guy who couldn't go to the AHL because of
the WHL agreement, so that kept him away from the
Seattle Thunderbirds, where he had nothing left to prove because
in his teens as a nineteen year old, seventy three
points in fifty four games for the WHL Seattle at
nineteen as a defenceman, Folks offense was hard to come by.
Though that first year at the United Center fifteen points
in seventy six games, and then last year he was
able to slow roast in Rockford, which is probably what
he needed being in the AHL, picking up skills he'd
need for the long term. He was about a half
point per game in also got sixteen games of death
minutes in Chicago. This year, he again starts in Rockford.
Five assists in six games so far. Guys, still only
twenty one, so let's not think that, if anything, he
was rushed early and we might have to talk about
whether that screwed up his development. In the NHL ranking poll,
we put him up against Kristen Luno of the Anaheim Ducks,
yet another in the long line of tantalizing Anaheim defensive
prospects who roll through the Duck system and in many
cases have not turned out to be all that we
hope for, except Jackson Lecomb, who came off the top
rope to become what he has become so far. Luno
wins this matchup. He's probably doing a little bit more
at a higher level than Korchinski has done so far,
especially again as a defenseman. Fifty two points at fifty
nine games last year, plus he also made the Ducks.
But he wins fifty six to forty four percent. Luno
is the champion there, but Victor, we are a long
time Korchynsky stands here. Are we gonna quadruple down on
Kevin Korchynsky is a post type guy or given to
the Luno love.
Speaker 1: I don't know that I'm going to align myself as
a longtime Korczinsky believer. I think I've always been a
little with him, So I'll let you stand on that island.
Speaker 2: Well, long time Korchinsky talkers at least.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, yeah, yeah, we are definitely a longtime Korzensky talkers. Yeah.
I think that this is it's interesting that people both
these guys have been around the block for a while,
and it's interesting to me that there was a relatively
sound victory for Luno, who I don't know that he's
proved anything either when he's now going to be twenty
two this season, he's had a little stint in the NHL,
hasn't really been able to stick and has been in
the AHL. His underlying numbers there haven't looked very good,
so I'm skeptical about him. I think for me, I
would very clearly pick Korchinski, just because he has a
lot more in terms of investment from the team. Being
such a high pick. He has had a couple of
guys past him at this point. With Rinzel live shunoff plastic,
So that isn't great. But the nice thing about that
is that the Blackhawks aren't necessarily trying to win, and
they seem committed to leaving him in the AHL while
he recaptures his game. Last year, they brought him up
and it didn't really help him. After he looked good
in the HL for a bit this season, just leave
him down there the whole season, however long it takes
until he really rediscovers his game, his magic, his offensive creativity,
everything that made him good. So I would at this
point lean Korchinski just because of the post type sleeper issue,
and also I don't have too much faith in Luno,
although hey, as if you're someone who can get Luno
for relatively cheap and he may be able to step
into the NHL soon, then that's exciting.
Speaker 2: The by low Luno, I love it. Let's move on
to Brad Lambert. Talk about a potential guy who was
taking to throw a roller coaster over the years. First
he was supposed to be one of the biggest prospects
in the draft, and then he really dropped down low
and people were not fond of the way that he
looked in his draft year, and then he had that
high when he was coming up that first year post draft,
and then it faded again. He split his games last
year halfway between the Jets and the Moose, or that's
this year. Actually he's split between the Jets and the
Moose up there in Winnipeg. No points yet, but last
year he at least averaged half a point for the
Manitoba Moose. This is his third year where he's had
games for the NHL squad and if someone else knows
exactly what he's going to turn out to be, I
would like them to brief me on it. In this
Mason Black NHL ranking poll, he goes up against Colin Potter,
the number thirty two pick of the Calgary Flame in
this past draft, the receiving end of the horns down
from Gavin McKenna when McKenna's Penn State team visited Arizona
State and McKenna taunted them a second time, and so
Potter was three years up the funnel from Brad Lambert
at this point. So he's a bit further off. The
people have spoken and they are fond of Potter compared
to Lambert sixty forty split on the vote Victor. I
need to know what's the deal with Brad Lambert these days.
Speaker 1: I also would like to know what the deal with
Brad Lambert. I think we all want to know. Also,
I think McKenna did the forks down. Aren't they like
a pitchfork or something?
Speaker 2: Okay, forks down they're basing or not horns down from Texas.
But yeah, Forkstown, you're.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, that was amazing when Andrew and kempe did
that recently in the game against the Stars. The horns
down after winn was awesome. Anyways, Yeah, I don't think
any of us know what the heck to make of
Brad Lambert. I think he's been one of the probably
most confusing players out there. It seems to me like
he's done enough to earn a longer look in the NHL,
but he hasn't gotten it, and every time he does
get in the NHL, it hasn't gone particularly well. He
seemed a little out of place. Part of that I
think just might be the Winnipeg Jets or a really
good team, and it's hard to break into a really
good team like that, so I think that's part of it.
I think this really comes down to for me, who
is what's your time frame here? Because if you want
someone who's really close to NHL right on a team
where I'm competitive, and I want guys that could sneak
into the lineup at any moment, I probably would just
take Lambert. But if I could be patient and I
had a little bit more of a long leash here,
I would take Colin Potter because I think that his
upside is probably similar, maybe even more. His hockey prospecting
can certainly higher. At seven percent chance of being a star.
The P and H league between these two is not great,
and part of that is because Colin Potter played his
draft eligible season in the NCAA, which is really hard
league to score. And think that team should be a
little bit better this year. And I think his upside
is pretty great. He's an incredible skater, even if he's
a bit undersized, and I think that he could really
show out at the World Junior this year. He could
be one of their one of their star players. So
I would take Potter if I was more in a
retool rebuild, but I would take Lambert if I wanted
someone a little bit closer to NH.
Speaker 2: Already very good Victor, let's take a brief break, come
back and talk some more prospects. There's a weapon that
you know.
Speaker 1: And miss name on.
Speaker 2: It, Victor. We're gonna try talking about this at this
point in the episodia where we get to the next
prospect to tell people what they could get in our patreon.
Speaker 1: Yeah, lots of great stuff in the Patreon. You can
get access to the player cards, which I use to
prep a lot of episodes. It has transition data, play driving,
perperal stats, shooting, passing, expected goals, all kinds of great stuff.
And my ranks, which is the puck stud rating one
to ten and a percentage of getting there. All of
that along with some other ranks, tiers and content that
you can only get on the website. And you can
get access to patron casts and DM messages and advice
and all that kind of stuff. So definitely check it
out over at Fantasy Hockeylife dot com for the website
and Patreon dot com slash Fantasy Hockey Life to become
a member.
Speaker 2: Next we go to Beckett Seneca. He jumps from the
Ohl to the Anaheim Ducks. This year, he has played
pretty well for the Ducks, finding himself on the scoreesheet
five times in his first eight games. He is a
slide candidate. Very likely by the time you're listening to this,
his day job will be back in Ashawa. I hope
he did not sell his parka toke and no shovel
when he left ashawat But here's hoping he's up against
Frank Naser in the NHL ranking pole, who has absolutely
been on fire for the Blackhawks. When I watch Blackhawks
broadcast lately, it seems like they just talk about him
and Bidard in the same breath now and watching their games.
He's he has definitely stepped up and become really good.
Tell me the comparison Victor Naser, who won this poll
sixty eight to thirty two over Seneca.
Speaker 1: Anyone who's watching the NHL right now, it's hard to
not want any part of Frank Nazer on your team.
He's just looked awesome and yeah, but something we've talked
a little bit. There's been a little discourse about Badard
and the reality is that he's an awesome player, but
he's not I don't really know that he's going to
be a center. He often needs someone to help him
out to drive the play to entry zones like he
he and that's going to be the same concerns with McKenna.
You look at Celebrini, he doesn't need that. He'll do
all that himself. He'll get in the zone, he'll create,
he'll set up, he'll attract pressure. He can shoot, he
can assist, he can do all that. Badard certainly has
had less to work with, and so that's been an issue.
But I know we're talking about Nazar, but the point
is Nazar can do all that. He's transitioning, he's scoring,
he's shooting, he's creating, he's helping everyone around him be
a lot better, and there seems to be less of
that from Bdard, which is interesting. So straight up, who
would you want there? It seems wild that you would
even have that discussion before last season or the middle
of last season, Connor Bdard or Frank Nazar. And now
it's it's actually probably still relatively easy, but maybe you're
thinking about it a little bit more. They seem to
be a little bit more even than others might have thought,
So I think that's making you want to lean Bazar Seneca.
I think people were surprised that he made the ducks
and has been he was actually really bad the first
game or two, and then he's really turned it around
and it's figuring it out. So I still like him.
Between the two, I think that there's the hockey prospect
anyways a little bit higher potential for Seneca, but I
think that I would go based on what I've seen
from Nazarre, and I think I would take him. Actually,
I think the upside is super high. The guy has
just been incredible. He went to the Worlds, played against
the best players in the world and stood out. He's
already doing it. He's already doing it, and he seems
to be ahead of schedule, ahead of Seneca. Even though
my ranks are right now have Seneca a little bit higher,
but I think based on the next iteration and when
I adjust this, I think I'm going to have to
move in Nazarre up a bit, just based on what
he's been doing.
Speaker 2: Tariq Parasac of the Washington Capitals demolished Prince George last year.
He's doing so again this year. Last year was he
and Riley Height there were the top two scores on
a playoff team in Prince George. He even got a
game with the Hershey Bears in the AHL and as
I prep this, he has goals in four stree games
back in Prince George. Definite offensive potential the Caps could
use from their mid twenty twenty mid first round of
twenty twenty four pick. He's up because yeah, who wins
this one substantially fifty seven to forty three. This is
the two week trend of Parasac or rature that we're
dealing with in the polls. Neieman is further along, two
years further along, thrived with Coachilla Valley last year and
debuted with Seattle Victor what's the deal eyes in Parasak
winning this poll.
Speaker 1: I think there have long been questions about Parasax, just
about his skating, his off puck play, his compete level.
All those are actually show up a little bit in
the data and the Planet's Hockey Life player card. And
it's never been about the points with him. It's about
how all the other things and how he does. And
then last year he actually made he actually regressed a bit,
and so that was concerning that his points actually regressed.
So far he's putting that to bed this year, but
I still think that there's some mild concerns there and
Jannie Newman, who Yeah, I mean he's been getting some
decent looks in the NHL. He had, he hads some
peripheral coverage. He's giving you some hits. Doesn't shoot a lot,
but he's his shooting percentage is really high, So there's
a little bit better Perferle floor there. But I think
if you wanted to swing, I think the better swing
is Derek Parasak. I think he has a lot more upside.
But if you want the guy producing now, that's more
of a sure thing because I think Newman sticks around.
I think he's going to be there where he fits
in the lineup, and how Seattle deploys their lineups is
always a bit of a nightmare. I really despise hating owning,
Rostering Krack and players because of that, because they just
want an even top nine or even top all twelve.
That's really challenging. But I think that right now, on
the bright side, he's playing with Right and Schwartz, which
is pretty decent spot. You'd like him to have a
little bit more of better deployment, but it's decent. So
I think if you're happy with decent production now, than
take Newman. But if you want to take a big swing,
then Parasack is a good one to swing on for sure.
Speaker 2: Trevor Connelly we've talked about also many times on the show.
It feels like scoring prodigy, or offensive prodigy at least,
of whom we have often asked, can he do other things?
His production beyond the USHL draft here has never been outstanding,
and he took a bad leg injury over the summer
which delayed his progress this year. Yeah, we've just wondered
a lot I know about Trevor Connolly. And in the
NHL ranking poll, he's up against Braden Yeger, who was
the guy who came back for Rutger McGroarty from Pittsburgh
in the big trade last year and the captain of
what turned out to be an underwhelming World Junior's Canada
team just a year ago. But Jeger continues to plug along.
Looks like he'll be a reliable guy. He's in the
AHL and doing his thing. I guess I'm not surprised
to see Yeager win this poll fifty seven to forty three.
But I just don't know what to make of Connolly.
He seems like he's always been this high upside, low
floor type guy. What do you think?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I definitely agree with this poll. I think I
think actually it should be more skewed. Connelly is such
an interesting guy and I try not to read too
much into this. He had some off ice issues and
he had some sort of trouble fitting in with the
World junior team. But also it's my understanding that he
was advised to stay in the USHL another year and
he went to the NCUBLEA, and then he was advised,
you didn't have the best Ncublea year, you should probably
stick around for another year of college, and he decided
he wanted to go to the HL. So it seems
like he's also not necessarily taking the best advice in
terms of where he should play, and I think it's
showing up in his production. He didn't. I mean, he
had a good USHL season, but I don't think it
would have been bad for him to have another time there.
And his NCUBLEA season was really nothing to write home about.
Thirteen points in twenty three games is fine, but it's
not like amazing top prospect kind of domination. So you'd
think maybe he could stick around for another year and
really dominate. And he went to Henderson had four points
in six games, and that's fine. He was a minus
two and his play driving was awful, but hey, at
least he got some point point. It's so far this
season he's been a bit dinged up and hasn't played
a game yet, So I don't know. I just think
that he's the kind of guy that will continue good
opportunities because he has tons of offensive creativity. But I'm
just not sure that it's actually going to fully translate,
and I think he's someone who may be really frustrating
for you to roster all that. To be all that
to say, I definitely would take Yeger. I think maybe
his floor is a little lower, his ceiling is a
little lower, but I think a ceiling is still really high.
His hockey prospecting is still higher than Connolly's, even though
it's a seesawed a bit. But he's still had some
pretty great WHL production last season. And yeah, he's transitioning
to the AHL right now, so that might be a
little bit difficult. But three points in seven games is
not bad, and I think that if he can hover
around half point per game, that's a success. And it
may take him another season to get to the NHL,
but I think that he's someone who is going to play.
It's just a matter of how high the upside is.
So I definitely would want Yeger here. He I wish
there was a little bit more Perferble coverage with Yeger.
That's really unfortunate thing. He's like shots and points only
kind of guy. But I think his transition game in
his off put game is good enough that he's gonna
warrant long looks and a lot of opportunity to the NHL,
which I'm not sure you can say the same about
Trevor Connelly, Jesse.
Speaker 2: Victor Matthew Poatraw. Is he gonna end up telling his
grand kids about the fall of twenty twenty three when
Grandpa's somewhat unexpectedly debuted and blew up for the very
strong Boston Bruins eleven points in twenty two games that fall.
It was a magical run. Then he was flown to
the World Juniors from the Bruins. Seemed like it was
like the middle of the night air drop of patras
as the missing piece to a Canadian goal that didn't
work out. He ended up with the shoulder injury he
prematurely ended that season and basically he's been in Providence
HL most of the time since He's still only twenty one, though,
and he's had NHL success at a younger, much younger
age than he is. He's playing well so far this season,
and you've probably stared at him on the waiver wire
for the last two years in your fantasy leagues, unless
you continue to roster him for a whole year after
he went to the AHL, which probably some of you
did that as well. But it sure seems like this
is a guy poised to be a post hype sleeper,
a guy who had forty one points in forty games
in Providence last year and has shown potential for much more.
But Britain Kots of the Vancouver Canucks, who was just
drafted this past year at number fifteen overall and is
doing his work in the WHL as opposed to the AHL,
wins handily in a poll up against the victor sixty
seven to thirty three percent. Victor. Is this just about
the flavor of the month, or has Patra kind of
proven with the max of what he can be while
Kots is not.
Speaker 1: Maybe a little calm, a little columb I think it
might be a little bit of both. I think Coots
is way better than we thought. I remember at the
draft when they had Victor Ecklin there and how much
the Canuck like Swedes. I thought that they would go
that way, but it was very clear that they wanted
a center and he was the last of the what
people thought of as a tier of the centers, and
so that's why he went there. And he definitely, I
remember looking into it, he's got a huge, perferal floor.
He didn't show it necessarily in his brief NHL stint,
and it was crazy that he made the Canucks and
played a few games, which was good for him, good
feather in his cap. But the Canucks did the right
thing by sending him back. He held his own a bit.
He was definitely a bit underwater a lot of times
in the NHL. But send him back, let him keep
his confidence and destroy the WHL, which is what he's doing.
But Kots, Yeah, if you like guys that hit and
block and shot and get face off wins and have
excellent transition, like he's all of that. He might even
pim to some extent as well. So definitely a high
floor guy. The ceiling maybe isn't super high, but He's
like an awesome third line center, maybe a second line center,
depending on how much offense he shows. So I definitely
would like him, and I don't think that's necessarily indicative
of Wuatra struggles, but I don't think it helps. And
I definitely think that when Matthew Puachra retires, he's going
to talk about how he made the NHL at such
a young age to his grandkids, and that was an
incredible feat. But I also feel like the Bruins did
him a disservice because I think they relied on him
too much at that time. They put too much on
his plate. They forced him to really change his style
and be more careful and be afraid to make mistakes
and not be as creative. And I also just wonder
he was ever really that good or they just really
wanted him to be the player that they needed him
to be at that time instead of let him be
who he could be. And I think that's not necessarily fair.
I still think that he can be a fine like
bottom sixer, but I actually never really got on board
with the fact that this guy is like amazing. Now.
I said, yeah, go get him because he's playing, But
what is the upside there. He's also one of these
guys that doesn't shoot for that much. He doesn't really
do anything else. He doesn't hit, he doesn't block, he
doesn't really do anything like he's just out there. He's
like you're Alex Wenberg type. It just doesn't really do anything.
He might get some assists here and there, but that's
not super exciting in fantasy. So yeah, I definitely would
take Coots here, and if I have I think I
do have Pachua in one league where I can just
hold guys for a couple hundred games, and that's probably
what I'll do, and I'll use him while he's miners eligible,
and then when he's not, I'll probably just drop him
because I don't know that he's ever going to be
that exciting in fantasy.
Speaker 2: Last guy for today Victor Joshua Waw of the Montreal Canadians.
Not only in Montreal Canadians. This guy started in the QMGHL,
then he went to Laval, then he went to Montreal.
His name is Wa for Pete's sake, this is some
serious This is some serious Quebec energy here. I really
want to know more about him because he's been sitting
in my miners for a while in one of my leagues.
His third straight year where he's got some time in
Montreal as well as Laval, and he's just killed in
Laval when he's been down there. It's not like he's small.
He's had a decent impact already when he's been in
the age the NHL over his career, but he hasn't
really stuck for permanent time in any way yet. And
he's up against Denver Barkie in the NHL ranking poll,
former third round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers, who is
also sad at the depths of some of my rosters
I think. And after four years tearing it up with
the London Knights last year as their captain, he is
moving to the AHL as well. Both guys were relatively
late draft picks, but Wah is a little bit further back. Oh, Victor,
you're frowning. Did he go to the Why are you frowning?
Speaker 1: Victor? Not because of you? Sorry?
Speaker 2: Oh? Okay, the rug Yeah. Josh Joshua Wan Denver Barkie
are up against each other in this poll. It's a
fifty to fifty dead even split for the two. Victor
Explain why versus Barkie. Where do I want to go here?
Speaker 1: I think you want to go whah. And it's funny
that it's a dead even tie. Maybe that's just the
big shoulder shrug from our voters. I don't really know
who to pick. I think that both have some interesting factors.
I think people have a lot of people have given
up on Joshua. I have him in a couple of
weeks too, and I've been Yeah, I don't really know
what to say either. He definitely, from what I gathered
last two seasons ago, when he played a good number
of games, came to the NHL, came to camp thinking
expecting that he was just going to play, and he
had too many assumptions there. Then he went down to
LaVall and he did rEFInd his magic his game there.
So far this season he's only gotten into one game,
but he's been great in Laval. I think this is
both a factor of they need guys in the NHL
who are strong play drivers and off puck, and they
want to be a playoff team, and it's a little
bit harder for him to break in at this point
than it was a couple of years ago, when the
expectations were a little bit lower, so I think that's
part of it. I think he is He's not the
fastest guy, so he's one of these guys who just
thinks really fast and is really good at playmaking. So
the question is like, how useful is that right now?
And I'm not sure that it's fit into exactly what
they need. So I don't think it's necessarily at this
point a problem with him. It's more of what they
need and they haven't really needed his prototype, especially with
Demadov there, so I think it isn't entirely his fault.
But I think that they are going to find a
spot for him, especially if there's an injury. I think
he's going to come up. I think he's going to
slot in. I think he's going to be productive. So
I definitely still have some faith in Joshua and I
would take him Denver Barkie. He's someone every time you
talk about a player from the Knights, and in particular
in a year where the Knights won the Memorial Cup,
you have to be extremely skeptical because that team was
absolutely loaded, and I think he benefited from a little
bit from the environment. I think that he's one of
these players who's never going to be as good as
he was in junior. I think that's true for a
lot of guys, but I think that him in particular,
he's going to struggle with the transition and he's one
of these energy guys. I think you look at Gavin Brindley,
I think Denver Barkie could be similar to that. Like
he could get some opportunity, he can play some games,
but like how high is his upside in fantasy? I
think it's limited. So I would definitely take Wat just
for various reasons. He's been there before, he's close, and
also I think his upside is higher. He doesn't have
the size issues. Certainly, he doesn't skate as well as Barkie,
but I think there's size and there's translatability and scoring
concerns with Barkie. So I'm going Joshua here, Jesse.
Speaker 2: Very well, Victor. That has been our run through the
guys from the journey over at Dabber. People should follow
that and check it out. There's no paywall there, right, Victor.
People can check out your thoughts that you're periodically putting
out there, and if you're a patron, you also can
give Victor some input on guys you'd like to see
covered anything else before we get the close out here today, Victor.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely read the journey that's free at Daber Hockey
and at Dauber Prospects, even though we talk about prospects.
But yeah, definitely. If you have ideas for things you
want to hear about, different ideas, themes, guys, players, names, whatever,
pass it along. There's a channel in the discord where
you can give me ideas for all my writings and
episode discussions.
Speaker 2: All right, we'll be right back to close up and
don't stop me if you heard me say this before.
Our show is brought to you by fantracks dot com.
Fantracks dot com is the place to play all of
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We thank them every episode. Tim, Ryan, Simon Kraftzer get
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