Speaker 1: Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks. Here's
shit Kiss, your source of information and analysis to help
you win your fantasy hockey league.
Speaker 2: Block off hot a step hit on stay lock Block.
Speaker 1: Here's your hosts, Jesse Sevier and Victor Nunhoe.
Speaker 3: Hockey Live back once again.
Speaker 4: Jesse Severe fan tracks Victor Nunio of an each prospect. Victor,
how you doing.
Speaker 5: I'm doing awesome, Jesse. Yeah, good to be back chatting
again and looking forward to this episode. How are you doing.
Speaker 4: I'm doing great, man, I'm doing great. It is that
time of year that my babies, my fantasy teams, they
fall one by one. I hope that at least a
couple of them make it through. Our man Kevin in
the four Sport diesel Is, he just blitzes me every year.
He's coming after me in hockey. I'm playing him in
basketball at the same time. It's it's just a whole thing, Victor.
But yeah, it's that time of year. We'll have some survivors.
Our common team is looking good right now. That that's
at least a blessing. How you doing, man, that's a
lot of me.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm doing well. I have I'm definitely still alive
in a few leagues. One of them are Common League,
where I thought it was pretty much over for me,
but I won the first round matchup and now head
ahead in the second one the semi, so that's looking good.
I have a couple other teams where I'm in the
semis and yeah, the team we gm together, we're looking
really good. We're looking like we have a legit chance.
So I'm excited about that. So always fun and actually
one league, it's funny. I don't know if anyone else
has experienced, but my boy Clay and I co manage
this team and we just we walked through the regular
seasons as a one seed and then it's almost like
we forgot how to play or how to like manage
the team because we're getting blown up in the first
round here and that's no fun. I'm not looking forward
to that, and we still have a couple of days
to pull it out. I'm hoping we can turn things
around because we barely lost any matchups all year and
cruise to the number one seed. And now it sucks
when that happens and you go out early, earlier than
you should have.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's that is what head to head will do
for you. It's all a coin flip. When you get
to the end, one bad week spoils the whole thing, victor.
But even if your championship is spoiled by an early upset,
because everybody listening at this point, no doubt has just
a smashing team, just an outstanding team that will destroy worlds,
you can still enjoy yourself by getting into the Fantasy
Hockey Life discord if tragedy strikes and commiserate, chat with
other people, or celebrate your victories. We should have like
a celebration thread in there, just everybody doing their sellies
after their championships this year. But you can get in
there by just emailing this Fantasy Hockey Life at gmail
dot com. We'll send you a nice link and you'll
be able to pop in there and participate for free
in some great discussion. But aside from that, there is
also the Patreon. Tell people what they can get over.
Speaker 5: There, tons of great stuff over at the Patreon. In fact,
I just made a big update on the ranks. It
was supposed to be done after World Juniors, but I
we mentioned previously all the different things that were going
on personally, so it didn't happen, but it did now
and all kinds of updates on the different players, the prospects,
how they're doing, how their ranks change and adjusted throughout
the year. So people have been asking and this should
really help you make some decisions at trade deadline and
through the playoffs rest of the season. So you can
see that. If you're an ultra lifer, you can already
have access to that update. And there's all kinds of
other cool stuff too, like getting in lined for a
position in the tidy. You can also get one on
one help with your roster and different decisions. You can
join in the Patreon Priority channel, and of course get
access to the patroon cast, so all kinds of great
stuff over there at patreon dot com slash Fantasy Hockey Life.
Speaker 4: That's right, Victor. Now we're going to take a break.
It's just victoring me again. There's been good time s
lately doing that, Victor. Just you and me, man after
this with some NHL discourse. Victor, it's been about a
week and a half by the time people are listening
to this since the NHL trade deadline, and we're not
really an up to the minute type podcast. I'm sure
that everybody has gotten their fill of all the NHL
trade deadline analysis, But what we like to do is
we like to talk prospects.
Speaker 3: It's no secret.
Speaker 4: And so we're going to talk about some of those
prospects that were moved that maybe people hadn't heard about
and are trying to assess, particularly maybe in the context
of new teams. So we're going to go through I
pretty much have every trade that went through. A couple
of these we're going to skim through because the prospects
aren't particularly relevant. It's probably good for you to know
if they're not particularly relevant prospects, but we're going to
get into the ones that we can hear victors. So
we're going to start out the Edmonton Oilers. They acquire
Max Jones, Peter Hawser, Trent Frederick, and it's a three
team trade. Boston gets Max Wanner and a second and
New Jersey gets Shane la Chance, the only one you
really looked at out of this mess of prospected players.
And again, we're not going to talk about the established
players of the guys who have major pro experience. Shane
la Chance, though, who's going to New Jersey is somebody
who you thought may be worth discussing a bit. So
what do you think it's Shane la Chance.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he's a little bit interesting. You look at the
Hockey Prospecting and h show zero percent chance of being
a star, no chance for the chance. That's funny. You
look at the PNHL E and it has him about
a forty eight point player. The comparables are guys you
probably haven't heard of, except maybe Andrew Pertolowski. But he's
a friend. NHL are at best, so it doesn't look
that exciting, but I think some thing's worth noting. First
of all, he was drafted sixth round twenty twenty one.
He's a really late birthdayate August thirtieth, so he's still
only twenty one. This is his draft plus three season,
and he's finally he was drafted out of prep school
and then he went to the USHL for two years,
and then he's been at Boston University for the past
two years and this year he's their captain. And so
at twenty one, which is not super bold, he has
twenty seven points in thirty four games, so that's part
of it. The foot speed in the movement has been
an issue, but you can't deny the fact that he's
six foot five, two hundred twenty pounds. The guy is
just a beast, and so that was probably going to
get him some looks in the NHL. So Shanela Chance
doing really well at BU and he's got the frame
that isn't that suggests he can be an NHL or
and he's putting up production to at least warned him
a look. I think he's still probably a bottom sixer
who can bang, So he's not like super exciting, but
there's something there in a deep enough league, certainly, if
you're in a thirty two team league, you want to
be looking at channel the chance. In maybe in twenty
ish deep leagues if your roster's miners rosters are deep enough,
it may be worth it. But more shallow leagues you're
you're probably not that interested. I don't think the upside
is huge. I would be shocked if he ended up
becoming a second liner. So don't get too excited, but
you know that he in the right of the setup.
Maybe take a look at shame the.
Speaker 4: Chance outstanding And moving on to our next trade. Victor
of the Florida Panthers v Tech Vanchik, you have a
dog a bone goes from San Jose to Florida because
they need an extra goalie, and instead Patrick Giles returns
to San Jose. Is this anything, Victor.
Speaker 5: No, I don't think so. I think we can move along.
Speaker 4: Right next up Tampa Bay the Oliver b. Jorkstrand trade.
Yanni Gord is moving, Kyle o'cahann, Michael Essimont's moving in
this trade. Everybody's moving all along. The only one in
prospectum is Kyle Acoin who is moving into Tampa Bay.
Speaker 3: Is is Kyle anything for us to paid as you do?
Speaker 5: Probably not either, And so I would probably just move
along with Kyle o'coin. But you're always a little bit interested,
I would say in time of Bay Lightning prospects, just
because their system is so bereft of talent that you
always can wonder maybe he'll get a chance, maybe he
can do something. We saw Nick Perbicks, we saw some
other guys actually get some opportunity, and maybe in the
deepest of deep leagues, you might have some interest, but
I wouldn't go too crazy. And in case you're wondering,
this is Adrian o'coin's son, Kyle o'coin and Adrian did
play for a long time in the NHL, so he
has some some bloodlines there. Nice.
Speaker 4: Nice And next up, the New Jersey Devils get Brian
Dumelin from Anaheim and in return Herman Trough and a
second round pick go back Herman Traff to New Jersey.
Speaker 3: What do you make of him?
Speaker 5: He's interesting, I think I would say he's six foot three,
one hundred and sixteen pound winger, and he would drafted
just as past draft ninety first overall by the New
Jersey Devils. And he's still he's not. He wasn't like
super young for the draft class, actually was old for
that class. But he's still pretty young in the funnel,
pretty early in the funnel, it hasn't had too much
time to show what he can do. And last year
he played primarily in the j twenty. This year he's
played twenty five SHL games, which is a pretty big jump.
He actually spent a little bit of time at the
Hockey Houlspenceken and did really well six points in nine games.
So he's played primarily at the SAHL level, and so
you can't really fault him too much for a nineteen
year old not scoring too much in the SAHL. But
as we've talked about previously, when you only have seven
points and twenty five games, it's hard to make a
projection about what things are going to be long term.
So I would say that Herman Trough is someone that
it's worth keeping an eye on. I do really respect
the Ducks pro scouting staff, and so if they were
interested in him, you probably should have some mild interest.
The comparables I think here on the NHL ranking app
that our buddy Mason I think are pretty spot on.
You got Marcus Krueger and Lucas Walmart. I think Herman
Traff is pretty much right in that ballpark. Of those
guys which were not really relevant in most redraft formats,
maybe waverwire pickups or certainly could have some value if
they play NHL games three R minor systems. So that's
I think what you should be thinking about Herman Traff.
The one other thing I will add, though, is that
he does hit like a beast. He's not like a
super huge guy, but he is. Let me see, he's
only sixty three, yeah, so he's pretty good size. But
he hits at ninetieth percentile for the SHL, which isn't
like an overly physical league. So he is the guy
who's going to throw the body around. And so at
least when and if he does play NHL games, which
I tend to think he will at this point based
on his trajectory, that he will throw the body a lot.
So you got a nice floor there at least, which
is nice.
Speaker 4: Yeah. And did I say New Jersey? He started New Jersey.
He ended up in Anaheim. Anaheim could use the help. Finally,
after the next trade involved somebody who I dang well
heard of, the Vegas Golden Knights get Riley Smith and
try to decide if they still have a prospect to
trade for him. They probably still thought they had Riley Smith.
They traded for him. Brendan Barisson, the Michigan alum, goes
back to the Rangers. Is this an opportunity for Brisson
to reset a little bit? He's not necessarily had the
best time lately in his prospect stock.
Speaker 5: Yeah. I don't think it has gone super well for Brasson. Actually,
I think it's funny that he and Alex Holtz were
on the same line for a while, and I often
commented that I thought they were the same player. They're
both relatively flawed players that had a great shot and
you know, could actually score a lot, but didn't really
do a whole lot else, and you know, he really
needed to round out his game, and looking at some
of the expected goals against and for charts, he's pretty
below NHL average is Brasson, and so he hasn't really
been able to turn that around in any appreciable way.
Some people might be surprised to hear how many NHL
games he's played. It's only been twenty four. He's been
up and down, played a lot of HL games, and
he hasn't really been able to make that next step.
One hundred and sixty five HL games, one hundred and
three points so far, twenty four NHL game six points,
and he hasn't really generated a lot. He's a bit
of a liability defensively, and his shot isn't that good
that he can justify not being an asset in other ways,
and so I think that's part of why the Vegas
Golden Knights moved him. He also, looking at some of
its HL numbers, the play driving and the shots, hits,
everything else hasn't been super great. And so I've been
down in Bisson for a while now. Because of that,
his trajectory is certainly looking like it's trending down. Maybe
in the right situation, the Rangers can do something good
with him, but I think the reality is that both
of these teams were too good to give him a
real opportunity, which is what he really needs. To find
a good centerman to set him up and utilize his skills.
And so I don't know that he's going to be
long for the NHL quite frankly, and so it's probably
not gonna probably not going to turn out super well
for brisshn And And the other thing that's funny is
that how many Golden Knight draft picks have they actually
retained at this point. I think they've pretty much traded
all of them.
Speaker 4: Right, It's a philosophy, man, there's a there's somebody in
your dynasty league who does the exact same thing. Right,
If they get anybody relevant, they are cashing that chip
in and we'll see.
Speaker 3: If it catches up with them eventually.
Speaker 4: But the Minnesota Wild get Justin Brazil from the Boston
Bruins and return for Rat kuz nadinof a Jacob Lauco
and a pick justin Brazil. What do you make of
this incoming Minnesota Wilder?
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's interesting, right. I think that a lot of
us didn't really think that much about him, and he's
covered out in an NHL role, right, so that's good
for him. He's played at this point eighty NHL games
across the last couple of seasons. He's got a thirty
ish point guy who has some pretty decent peripheral coverage.
He's played sixty one NHL games, has ninety three hits
and about a half block per games. About a hit
and a half per game and a half block per game.
That's pretty decent. He doesn't shoot much, but the peripheral
coverage is there, and the priffs for sixty or high
because he's only getting twelve minutes a night. So you
look at his bash potential and it's high. But I
don't know that he's ever gonna earn too much more
ice time. You look at some of his expected goals
for and against. He's actually got a pretty decent expected
goals for, but his coursing against his relatively average, but
his expected goals against is low. So I'm just not
sure that he's going to do anymore than what you've
actually already seen of Justin briz Brizo. I think he's
got high priffs, low time on ice, dirty ish point guy.
I would be surprised if that shifts much even in
the move to Minnesota. Maratt, who's the DNA off On
the other hand, though, that's a He's a little bit
of an interesting guy. I've liked him even from back
in the day when he was an undersized guy in
the KHL people were doubting that he could play in
the NHL. I was definitely saying that I thought he could,
and so far, so good seventy six games, but he
has not. What is his thirty two total NHL points,
He's been on average of a. I mean, he's only
played seventy six games with an average of thirteen points
per season, so pretty low. He has done pretty well
or somewhat well defensively, but his expected play driving in
goals have been really poor, although I believe in his
was his first or second game with Boston he had
a really nice goal, so maybe there's more. The one
thing is Boston definitely needs him. It's funny though, because
Minnesota actually also needs centers, but they clearly thought that
he wasn't going to be one of them, so they
traded him. So I think he's going to get an
opportunity in Boston. I don't know that he's going to
make much more of it. I don't or On the
other hand, I don't think he's much more than a
bottom six pivot at that he might slide the wing.
Interesting though, because he is a smaller guy, but he
actually blocks a ton and he hits a fair amount too,
So he's got forty blocks in sixty NHL games this season,
which is pretty remarkable. He's almost has more blocks than hits,
which is funny. And he has grown a couple inches
since being drafted, so he's now five to eleven, so
still undersize, but not as dramatically as he was at
five point nine when he was drafted. So I don't
think you can expect too much from Marot, who's na
d enough. But I do think that he should get
a little bit more opportunity with Boston. And I know
Boston's allergic to the R word, the rebuild word, but
I do think that they're still going to probably count
on him for getting at least getting some opportunity to
show what he can do, and I think maybe he
can get to the forty to fifty point pace and
be a bottom six center. But beyond that, I'm not
sure that there's much more. Jesse.
Speaker 4: I don't care if they call it rebuild or breakfast Taco, Victor,
They're doing it or they're going to have to do
it here pretty soon. Boston is on the change mode, Victor.
I finally, this time, I know we're getting a prospect
who we can talk about, who can get thrilled about.
Because the Colorado Avalanche traded for brock Nelson and sent
back their baby Callum Ritchie, along with other things, and
Owen william Before actually went in that trade as well.
But cal Ritchie going to the Islanders. I heard on
I forget which podcast it was, but they said lou
Lamarello was telling teams, if you want brock Nelson, I'm
taking your number one prospect. And in this case, I
think he did tell us about Calum Ritchie.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I definitely agree. I agree that he did. And
I heard that too, And it makes sense. If you're
gonna give up one of your best assets, you dang
better get what you think is the best return. And
I would agree. I was probably the best they could
have gotten out of Colorado. I think that everyone knew
what was going on here. Richie is still a good prospect.
Is he, you know, a top line kind of guy.
Is he have tremendous upside? Is he as exciting as
we thought he was in his draft plus one season?
I don't think so. I think he's more likely a
Middlesex guy. I think he showed with his brief NHL
stint this season with the Avalanche that he can hang
in the NHL, and I think with a little bit
more seasoning, he definitely can play. But I don't think
that he's going to be the kind of guy that's
going to be a super high end producer. In fact,
if you just want to look at who they traded
for him, does he surpass the upside, the upside and
production that we saw from Brock Nelson? I would say
probably not. Actually, I would say he might be just
below that line. Nelson was for a long time a
pretty average producer, and then the last several years he's
upped it to be pretty you know, above average, not elite,
but pretty strong, pretty consistent, And you know, maybe Richie
gets too close to that. But I'm not sure that
he passes at he still has upside for around, you know,
the brock Nelson area, but I think realistically he's just
going to be as strong middle six contributor who's you
know that fifty ish point pay sky and in the
right situation has upside for more, which in Colorado seemed
a lot better than it does on Long Island. I
think they really need to retool, get younger, and improve
their team because things are not looking good in the
long term there. But I still like Richie. I think
he's a strong prospect. He's he's definitely the question is
between him and Iiserman, who's the best on that team.
I think that if you're going all around hockey player,
it's definitely calm Ritchie. If you're going fantasy upside, it's
got to be Cole Eiserman. So depending on what you're
looking for, at least there's a couple of decent guys
to talk about here on Long Island now, so that's good.
But they need both of these guys to hit and
a whole lot more for them to be a competitive
team moving forward.
Speaker 4: Jesse darn Well Victor that once you put that Islanders
Jersey on. Just assume that you've added five miles an
hour and ten points you're scoring. That's just how it works.
The Islanders are just I'm being sarcastic people William de
four victor anything unwilliamed before.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I've been a little low on to four for
a while. He's someone who struggles. I've seen struggle with
the pace a bit. He's had some HL time the
past few seasons and he's been okay, he's been fine.
I think he still struggles with that a little bit.
I think he's someone who probably could play in the NHL.
I think actually this move to Colorado probably doesn't help
him because Colorado is one of the fastest paced teams
and likes to play that certain style. I think it
would have been easier for him in color in Long
Island to play a little bit of that slower, controlled
physical pace. But maybe Colorado has a specific idea for him.
I'm not so sure. I'm not so sure that he's
someone that we should be super excited about. Most of
his analytics look pretty poor in terms of his projection.
Even some of his play driving this year in the
AHL looked average at best, and in terms of his
bash's wage, he shoots blocks and hits decently. I just
don't think there's a lot of points upside there. I
think he might just end up being a banging or
grinder kind of you know, a third fourth liner kind
of guy. So I am not super excited about before actually,
and if someone wanted to give me something nice and
shiny for him, I would take it.
Speaker 4: Scott Lawton and in return and a first round pick
head down to the Flyers. Tell us about Nikita Gribonkin.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I definitely see it written and spell different ways
g r E b E n K I N or
sometimes there's a b y O n K I N
in case you're looking and can't find it. But I'm
pretty sure it's as you said it. Gribiancan is how
I've heard most people say it, and I think that
he's Yeah, I think he's pretty exciting. I think I've
heard some people say this, and I would agree that
he seems like a Flyers type of player. He's physical,
he likes to play that hard note style, which is
It's funny because I think a lot of Leafs fans
were excited that this guy could bring something that they
didn't have a lot of in their system and they're like, Ah,
we can't have that, let's get rid of it, let's
trade that away. So yeah, that is funny that happened.
He is that player. He is physical looking. At his
AHL numbers, he's seventieth percentile for hits, which is that's
his jam. He likes to get in there, mix it up.
He's six two two ten. He's got that physicality. He's
got experience playing professionally in Russia before he even came
over here. And I think his first full season this
year in the AHL has been pretty strong. He had
a cup of coffee early on with the Leafs and
then he's been in the with the Marleys twenty one games,
twenty one points in thirty nine games he has so
far this season, with quite a few pims to go
along with that. That's coming off a forty one point
in sixty seven game KHL season. I think this is
really good for the Flyers. I think it's good for Gribyankan,
who I think will probably get a little bit more
of a role earlier on. I still think he's probably
just a realistically bottom six, maybe middle six, best scenario
kind of thing. But I don't think you should get
too excited, except that the floor for hits at least
should be pretty high. For the rest of the stats,
I wouldn't get too carried away because I don't think
he's gonna do much and this PINANCHIALI has him at
left thirty five to forty, which I think is realistically
probably where he ends up.
Speaker 4: Moving on to the next trade, Colorado Avalanche acquired yet
another of the sell off of the Boston Bruins in
Charlie Coyle. The Boston Bruins saw the end of Colorado's
Casey Middlestat experience with them coming back or Middlestack coming
back to the Bruins, and draft picks were flying, but
also tucked in there somewhere William Zeller's moves from Colorado
to Boston is William Zeller's something we should be paying
attention to.
Speaker 5: You're saying they were sellers or they were Zellers. I'm
not sure they could be anything.
Speaker 3: They could be breakfast stock, O Victor. I'm gonna make
this a thing.
Speaker 5: They're just making me hungry. Yeah, so Zeller's. Zeler is
an interesting guy. I think of all the guys that
we're talking about. He's really raw and probably one of
the earliest in the funnel. So he was just drafted
this past year twenty twenty four, third round, seventy sixth
overall by Colorado. He's five to eleven, hundred and seventy pounds.
That's part of why he probably went a little bit later.
He was in high school the twenty three twenty four
season at Shattuck Saint Mary's and he was in the
USHL last season and he had a good season, but
it wasn't or sorry that was this season he was
drafted out of high school and then this season he's
been with the Green Bay Gambler sixty points and forty
two games. Always hard to draft these high school kids.
I think one hundred and eleven points in fifty four
games at Shattack Saint Mary's looks amazing. But also I
don't know. I've seen film on these high school games
and I don't even know what I'm looking at. It's
just one kid who's just so much better than everybody else.
It's hard to figure out. But Zeller's is that guy.
I think his transition to the USHL has been pretty good.
His pnhle this year Mason doesn't really have one for
the high school prep circus circuit, and so this year
it's sixty six, which is pretty decent. Most of the
comparables in that model aren't people you've heard of, but
there is a Bohorvac comparable there, which would be, of
course pretty decent. He only has a four percent chance
of being a star on the Hockey Prospecting model, and
Byron does have a high school equivalency, but it was
really low in his draft season. So most of the
guys in that model you haven't really heard of. I'm
not really sure that there's too much here, but I
am interested in Zeller's partly because of going from high
school to the USHL and maybe he can continue to
grow after that. He's going to the University of North
Dakota this year. Just know that if you're investing in Zeler's,
it's going to be a bit of a wait. He's
going to be someone who's going to take some time,
but there may be a pretty decent payoff. He also
is a pretty late birthdate in April fourth birthdayate, and
so he's got He's going to take some time, but
he could really pop off in the NCAA and be
a decent contributor. I don't think he's a first line guy.
I think he's someone who might be a little bit
a little bit more of a middle to bottom six guy.
But he's still so early in the funnel that the
range of outcomes are pretty wide.
Speaker 4: All right, I'll take wide outcomes.
Speaker 3: Let's take a brief break. Come back.
Speaker 2: We got a few more trades to discuss.
Speaker 4: You know it. Sometimes victory in your league you're like, Okay,
what is the stuff that are is at the bottom
of my roster? I don't even want anymore? What if
I offered all of them at the same time to
somebody else, just for anything, just for the smallest thing
they can get. And that's what seems to have happened here.
It used to be Utah that made trades to accumulate
those things. Now they're trading away Victor Soderstrom and Shay
Weber's contract to the Chicago Blackhawks for a draft pick
and also in addition to Soderstrm and Webber and solder
Stream I think is back in Europe, Aku Ratu, brother
of Ratu goes is Aku Ratu, is that the incentive
for Chicago to make this trade?
Speaker 3: Was it Soderstrum? Was it anything Victor?
Speaker 5: What?
Speaker 3: He must be a non zero?
Speaker 4: Right? Oh?
Speaker 5: I don't think you can assume that. I don't know
why Soderstrom is in Europe, and I'm interested in that.
I've always thought that he could be a capable fourth, fifth,
or more likely fifth or sixth defenseman. The contract you
get the money, of course there's that, but I think
that he's someone who possibly could still play, and so
maybe they're thinking that they could get at least one
of these guys to be in a NHL or for
that contract for Weber and not giving up too much.
A fifth round pick isn't anything too exciting, so I
wouldn't worry so much about that. But no, I don't
think Aku Ratu is anybody exciting. In fact, I'm most
excited with Victor Soderstrom. But that's assuming he can come
back over the Atlantic and actually be someone who's But
I don't really think there's much here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's broke my heart a few times now, so
maybe who knows, maybe by next year, Old ready to
love again. New Jersey acquires Cody Glass to Cody Glass's
great surprise, apparently along with John Gruden, and they sent
back a couple of prospects to the Pittsburgh Penguins. It
looks like they're trying to get something down there, and
they got a third round pick probably the main return
Chase Stillman, Max Graham. Two prospects that move from Jersey
to Pittsburgh are either one of them worth discussing.
Speaker 5: No, but I want to talk about the old Raiders
head coach being traded in this hockey deal. That's no.
I know. I don't think anyone here. Cody Glass I
thought for a while could be interesting, and I hope
he really keeps his career going, but I think he's,
you know, bottom six guy at best. Chase Stillman, who's
Corey Stillman's son, who had a pretty decent career. Maybe
he can carve something out of in the NHL, but
at this point it's looking like he's he's a tweeter
or HL or at best. I don't think there's really
anything exciting here.
Speaker 4: I think original recipe John Gruden would if you thought
of him as Monday night football commentator, because everything that
happened to him in Las Vegas, he probably would prefer
nobody remember at this point, Ottawa the Ottawa Senators were
involved in several big trades. The one that we will
mention here is they got Fabians Zetterlund from the San
Jose Sharks along with Tristan Robbins, and the San Jose
Sharks got zach O Stopchuk and Noah Gregor, and some
draft picks were flying to Let's start with Tristan Robbins.
Is that anything for Senators fans to be excited on
the incoming side?
Speaker 5: Probably not. Carolyn was an interesting get. I don't think
that we need to talk about him though we know
who he is. And Gregor is just a filler he
was with San Jose. Maybe he's more of a mentor
now for the younger kids. But Robbins, that's funny. We
were back in the was it the twenty twenty draft
when they drafted Wiseblad and Robbins and they were both
tearing up in the WHL, and I remember there was
a big rivalry between the two about who's going to
be better, And it turns out the answer is neither,
because I don't think either of them are really going
to be much. Wiseba is playing some NHL games, but
I don't think either of these guys are super exciting
and wise blat Sorry, Robbins didn't look like he was
really gonna get much of a chance with the Sharks,
even though they're not such a good team. He had
a really good first AHL season, but he's been pretty
poor the last couple and maybe he can resurrect his
career and be a bot bottom line kind of guy.
But I don't think that's anything to write home about,
so no, I would move on from him. But Zacha
Stapchek is someone who I think has a little bit
of interest. He's six three two o five twenty, he's
still twenty one, he'll be twenty two this year, and
he's played some NHL games last sear This season, he's
had forty three games seven last season. He was close
to a half point per game last season in the AHL.
This season he had eleven points in fifteen games. I
think he's got a little bit more upside, But realistically,
I think he's probably like your fourth line center on
a good team, maybe a third liner, but I think
that's about as high as you can go with the staff. Chuck.
On the other hand, if you look at his BASH,
he does have pretty high BASH based on his AHL numbers,
and so there could be a pretty decent floor there
for priiffs. And so, depending on your league, you might
have some interest in a stap Chuck. I don't think
you should expect any scoring, but he could be one
of those guys who could fill the stats and drive
play for you. Depending on how deep your league is,
there could be some mild interest in Zach Stapchuck.
Speaker 4: Yeah, at least he's one who's had a bit of
a profile in the past. Now we get the new
Jersey Devils who got Mark McLaughlin from Boston and they
sent back to Boston Daniel Missyule. Is that is, mister Mimsyule,
anything we want to pay attention to.
Speaker 5: I don't think so. I think we should just move on.
Speaker 4: Moving on. Toronto Maple Leafs get Brandon Carlo from the Bruins.
The Bruins continue to sell off, and this time they
get another. This time they get a pretty prominent prospect,
all but one I think whose star has declined a
little bit over the years, Fraser Minton. He is coming
back to the Boston Bruin. It's a system where he
should have probably more opportunity to move up than others.
And what do you think of Fraser Minton's prospects.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think that he was definitely a victim of
being in the Toronto Maple Leaf system and getting a
lot more hype than he probably deserved. And I think
the expectations in the bar got set way higher than
they should have. He definitely seems like he's going to
be in NHL or he seems capable of playing at
that level. He's played some NHL games. He had fifteen
this season. He fit in okay, he had a few points,
and he didn't seem terribly out of place. But also
he doesn't seem like he's someone who's going to put
up a lot of points in the NHL and exceed.
But he's someone who could be a good depth piece.
And he's got some physicality to him too, and so
I think that also fits with what Boston likes. Since
all of that to say, I think that it probably
is a good fit for the teams. But I don't
think you should expect too much from Minton. And I
think if you actually go back and look at even
where all the hypes started, it never really was super justified.
None of his analytics ever suggested he was going to
be a super high score. He was always going to
be at best, maybe a fifty to sixty point guy,
but I think realistically is probably even a little lower
than that with some pretty strong prifs. So unfortunately that
was that's just the reality, and he's still probably going
to be a pretty capable NHL aor and a good
depth piece, and it's unfortunate that people might be disappointed
in that outcome because they expected more from him.
Speaker 4: All right, Victor, that's our run through it. I gotta
say I'm a little underwhelmed by the types of guys
scrat traated. At least I thought you'd give me some
enthusiasm for Calum Ritchie, but this is a little underwhelming.
Do you think generally NHL teams are clutching their best
prospects and just unwilling to trade them because of salary
type implications right now?
Speaker 5: I think there's a few reasons. It's interesting because this
market was with so many teams being in the race
this year, there was a lot of teams that were
wanting to buy, but not buy super hard, not pushing
all their chips in, and so there weren't too many sellers,
and so the prices for a lot of these for
a lot of the modest returns were pretty high. And
Brandon Carlow for one of your top prospects is a
silly season, and so what would they be wanting for
even higher defenseman right, a number two or even a
number three. I think that the prices were just so
astronomically high. I think that's part of the reason we
didn't see more moving a carl Oter. Avalanche were a
classic example of they were willing to push in one
of their top prospects and because they're close, they're only
a few pieces away from winning another Cup or they're
already a contender, right, So there aren't too many teams
that are in that sit situation that both have the
capital and have the expectation that they can go really far.
I mean, there are a couple other teams that I
think could have pushed their chips in like Tampa always
tries to, but they just don't have any assets that
are worthwhile to do that kind of thing. So there
aren't too many teams that are in that situation where
they could have given up a lot to get a lot,
and so it just made it for an underwhelming return
on some of the prospects, but there are still some
decent depth pieces, and there were some pretty a couple
of decent blockbusters that was fun at least in terms
of NHL players, but not so much in terms of
high profile prospects moved. So I think it was partly
just because of the market this year and how many
teams are in their contention window.
Speaker 4: Yeah, maybe it's a fluke. Maybe it's the fact that
some teams really seem to want a semi established That's
what a lot of people were trying to get back with,
somebody who with some NHL experience, it seems like. And
then there were plenty of these flyers, not of the
Philadelphia variety, but of the to just take a chance
on somebody lower down player to be named later types,
but just that intermediate the top prospect nobody's trained in Danilla,
Eurov's rights for a semi star potentially coming back to Minnesota.
And I don't know if that's just because of cap
stuff in the years of control or just that valuable
or what, but it surprises me. It's a little bit
of a little bit of a lull here. But at
least people who are following individual teams have a sense
that there's not great fantasy enthusiasm for some of these players,
although maybe some of them will have some real life
type implications for the rebuilding squads.
Speaker 3: Victor any more thoughts.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it's interesting that you brought up Minnesota.
I think that's a classic example of a team who
has a ton of assets, but they're not really ready
to push all their chips in. So the question is,
are we ready waiting another couple of years for these
prospects to mature and really open our window up wide,
or are we ready to catch some of these chips
in and really go all in and get even a
modest return for this top prospect. And I think they
decided we'll trade a couple of the lower end guys
like Kuzandinoff, but we're certainly not going to trade some
of the higher and certainly not like an O Grin
and certainly not like a year Off. So they were
conservative on that run, and I think it makes sense.
I think it would have been foolish for them. I
think we all could agree it would have been foolish
for them to push in a bunch of their top
prospects for was brock Nelson really gonna win them a
cup probably not right. It would make them a lot
better team, but they're probably still not going to be
able to match up against Dallas and Colorado and even
Vegas and Edmonton. So I think that was probably wise
of them to do that, but it certainly didn't make
things less exciting for us, right Jesse.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 4: It's the same thing as in the our original what
I called our league. We play against each other, our
oldest ones. The f ok it is it is one
where the top teams in the league don't have any
big proct prospects. So when I'm trying to sell off
those top teams, the teams that are willing to push
in theirs don't have many chips to push. And so yeah,
the Colorado is willing to send out their top prospect.
That's cal Ritchie. We heard about him today. Dallas is
willing to send out one of their best young assets.
Logan's thank COVID, but he's too established to come up
in an episode like this. But you could argue easily
that he was the top young young piece who was moved,
or top future potential type guy who was moved because
he hasn't necessarily fulfilled what we think he's going to fulfill. Yeah,
some of those teams just don't have the ponies to
send in. You're right, why would in Minnesota give up
their big prospects. So that's the dilemma. Other years, perhaps
we will see other things. Victor, this has been a
great talk, and we'll be.
Speaker 3: Right back after this. The CLO's up the jong.
Speaker 4: On our way out of this episode. I've got a
couple things to mention. One of them is our show
is brought to you by fan tracks. You know what
I'm in my leagues and fan tracks.
Speaker 3: We're reaching the boiling point.
Speaker 4: In some of them, and I hope that if you
haven't played there before, you will give it a try.
I'm looking forward to rolling over leagues the next season.
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