Speaker 1: Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks.
Speaker 2: Here sits.
Speaker 1: Your source of information and analysis to help you win
your fantasy hockey league. Talk off hot, a step hit
on stay lock. Here's your hosts, Jesse Sevier and Victor Nuno.
Speaker 2: Fantasy Hockey Live back once again to talk fantasy hockey.
Jesse Severe from Fan Tracks and Victor Nunyo in this
corner from EP Ringside.
Speaker 1: Weighing in it.
Speaker 2: No, that's not important, Victor. How you doing today?
Speaker 3: I was waiting to hear how much you're gonna gets
that way. That would have been That would have been fun.
I'm doing great. I'm doing great. I'm happy to not
have my weight out it on the air.
Speaker 2: How are you doing? Jesse? I would have no idea
what your weight would be, Victor, so that would be
uh in Frankly, it's just a dumb thing to try
to guess, even if you think so. Yeah, let's get
past that social awkwardness because we're going to be talking
some cool hockey today about the Winnipeg Jets. We've got
really a great interview coming up. I time traveled and
can tell you it's going to be great. But before
we do that, just as a reminder to everybody, you
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Victor is at Victor Nuno twelve. I am at fan
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are other things though that we want to let people
know about. Why don't you say a few words?
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Speaker 2: Tremendous. Be right back with our interview. We'd like to
welcome to the show a guy who is behind the
great website at legal curve dot com. Dave Manu. Ready
to talk some Winnipeg Jets.
Speaker 4: How you doing, Dave, I'm good, Jesse, how are you good?
Speaker 2: Good? I love talking some Jets. It was a team,
I would say, Winnipeg that entered the year with fairly
modest expectations, at least in the public size, and ended
up as tied in fourth and standing points in the NHL.
Quite a year for them. Unsurprisingly, that had something to
do with the league's stingiest defense one hundred ninety eight
goals against nine to eighteen. Save percentage that was the
second highest save percentage in the NHL was nine to
thirteen and they had nine to eighteen, So that gives
you a sense, and we'll get to the guy who
might be behind that a little bit later in the show.
But there were also certainly some flaws. The special teams
units efficiency were both below average, the offense was middle
of the pack and scoring goals dependent compared to the
of course outstanding defense, and the Jets wrook streaky the
end of the year, with an five to one stretch
and then an eight oh and oh stretch, so both
types of things near the end, and then a run
in with the Abs in round one was too much.
They fell four to one in Round one of the
playoffs for the second straight year. Has to be galling
that after that defensive year, they gave up five point
six goals against per game in that five game series,
more than double the regular season rate. But one series
is a couple of games. What did Jets watchers make
of last year and is the expectation they're going to
be a big contender in the West again this year?
Speaker 4: Dave just think it's interesting because last year, at this time,
the big question mark was what's going to happen with
Connor Hallibuck and Mark Schifley, because of course they hadn't
signed their seven year extensions. And so Jets fans didn't
know what to think about this team, whether it was
going to be a rebuilding team, whether it was going
to be a contending team, whether it would be a
middle of the.
Speaker 1: Pack sort of group.
Speaker 4: And they, of course didn't get that answer till sometime
in October when those both those players signed their seven
year extensions, and all was well in Jets Land, at
least from a perspective of having your center and your
top netminder locked up for a long term situation. But
I think that it really was I remember at this
time writing about this team, and we talk about it
on the Illegal Krevockey Show. What were the Jets going
to look like? Because again you didn't know, you didn't
know how the defense would adjust, how would the second
year of Rick Bonus and this team meld under his
sort of guidance, And we saw, we saw what they
were able to do on the back of Connor Hallibuck
and Lawn Bersois, who of course won the jennings. Technically
Laurence berswas and they won't be on there because of
course he didn't play enough games, which is a silly
rule if you ask me, but regardless, that is the rule.
And so that was a significant thing. And also the defense,
which largely was the same as the year before, but
for whatever reason, they really they gelled well. They played
under the system well and as a result, and also
the forwards buying in, forwards buying into the idea of
can we play defense and still produce offense. Now, as
you said, Jesse, they didn't produce a ton of offense,
and a lot of that was due to injury, right,
Gabriel Vallardi getting injured in Game three, Kyle Connor sustaining
his knee injury and eliminating himself for I can't remember
exactly how much, but it was like six to eight
weeks of injury for him, for a guy who's consistent
and plays usually almost every single.
Speaker 1: Season, a complete season, I should say.
Speaker 4: So from that perspective, the offense wasn't there, but the
team had a buy in and you saw it from
them pretty much from the get go, and I think
that was largely what propelled them forward. They bought into
that defensive structure that Rick Bonus and Scott O'Neil tried
to implement, and as you outlined, the special teams were
not good and they've been progressively worse the year after
year for the last couple of years now. The PK
was at least decent two years ago, it was terrible
last year, and the power play similarly wasn't particularly good.
It was twenty third and twenty second the last couple
of seasons. So of course Davis Payne brought in from
the Ottawa Senators he's the power play coach, and of
course Dean Chenow from the Leafs also with the Hurricanes,
he'll be the PK coach. I think both those guys
had Davis paying not as much success as the you know with,
but Dean had a pretty good track record with the
Leafs and the Hurricanes. Jets fans are hoping that and
implementation of so maybe new structure will really change the
special teams around.
Speaker 2: Let's get to some of those guys. Mark Schifley first
of all, the guy who signed that big contract. Despite
missing eight games last year, he still led the Jets
and scoring seventy two points and seventy four games. Doesn't
take a ton of shots. That's not Schiffley's game, but
his hit rate has actually crept up over recent years.
That's something I take interest in. He gets almost a
hit a game. His advanced stats, I hate to say it,
they don't like his even strength defense. It's pretty rough.
The evolving hockey, the hockey viz pretty rough on all
Mark's even strength defense. It's the outlier on this team.
But certainly this is a star for the team and
a guy who the Jets are committed to long term.
What do you make of that observation on the defense?
Is that legit or is that a fluke of the stats?
And is shiefully going to be a point per game
force again in this coming season?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: You know what, It's interesting, Jesse, because Mark himself has
been asked about stats and he doesn't Necessarily he's not
the biggest fan of them, and perhaps it's because they
don't reflect super well on his game overall. One of
the things that we've talked about in one of the
things that has been a focus for years is the
fact that if he wants to be considered an upper
echelon top center in the NHL, then his defensive game
had to improve. Now, we saw it from in stretches
last year. We did see bigger commitment to defense of
hockey than we had seen from him in the past.
But again, the line, especially when Kyle Connor's on it.
They're not exactly a defensive, first defense first line, and
they don't think that way. So from a production standpoint,
I actually think he'll probably continue to produce. Would I
can see him in the seventy five to eighty point
range just because he gets the ice time, he gets.
Speaker 1: The opportunity, he gets the first power play.
Speaker 4: Minutes and especially and again when this is the big
No real rocket science analysis here, but if guys can
stay healthy, If Gabriel Verlardi he didn't stay healthy, it'll
be interesting to see what he can do with Mark Shadley,
because that's the way it's trending right now, based on
some early comments from head coach Scott O'Neill is that
it seems like you've got a Connor, Shifey Vollardi line.
Speaker 1: To start the year for the win Big Jets.
Speaker 4: Of course, we'll have to watch what training camp produces,
but that would be my assessment right now for Mark Shafey.
Speaker 2: And Kyle Connor. You referenced it earlier was his season
was marred by missing about a month to a knee injury.
Then after his return he only managed two points two
goals that is in his first nine games back, so
obviously at least the scoring, whether it was bluke or not,
it seemed like it took him a little while to
get back into looking like the Kyle Connor, who is
an absolutely outstanding player where used to seeing. You take
away the time he missed and that nine games he
came back, and you've got that ninety ish point pace
we're used to seeing from him. Connor doesn't hit or block.
He shoots a ton, but he doesn't provide a lot
of those perferle stets, like you said, maybe not as
focused on doing the defensive things as he is leaning
into the strength of his offense. He's definitely out there
with Shifley most of the time when he's there, according
to the stats that I'm looking at. Hopefully, if Kyle
is healthy next year, do you think we could see
like a ninety five point season as he cruises through
his late prime here, Or you think that we've seen
pete Kyle Connor already and just hope for another one
of those types of seasons.
Speaker 4: No, I actually don't think it's unreasonable to expect a
ninety five to one hundred point season out of him,
and that's not me looking at it with rose colored glasses.
I've watched him since I was there, and I think
it was Sunrise, Florida when the Jets drafted at him
in twenty fifteen, and I.
Speaker 1: Watched him they'll develop.
Speaker 4: Actually watched a lot of his games playing for the
University of Michigan with the Wolverines, and his shot was
pretty lethal back then, and up with the Moose and
up through the Jets. He just continues to produce and look,
if he doesn't get injured, he's on a fifty goal pace,
and we were talking sixty goals at one point earlier
in the season because his shot really is that good. Again,
I'm never going to speak the name Kyle Connor and
team defense it pretty much in the same sentence. But
I definitely think he can produce. And we'll see what
kind of magic that trio can produce again, presuming that
is what they're going to look like. But yeah, I honestly, Jesse,
I gotta tell you, I think he's got fifty goals
and fifty assists, because that's one of the things that's
unheralded about Kyle Connor that people don't talk about he's
very even Stephen in the regard that if you look
at his career goals and assists, it's not a significant
disparity between the two. And he produces. He's a very
good passer, and he's got a nose for the net.
For me, could I see a forty forty sure? Could
I see a fifty forty five?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I think I could as well. He really is pretty
elite when it comes to scoring. We'll see if he
can continue that. Until last year, I think I think
it was hampered by the injury, and I think it
maybe I don't want to say mentally. I'm not a psychiatrist.
I'm not going to try and do an analysis, but
you could just see wasn't necessarily when he came back,
there was a bit of a I don't want to
say hesitance, but it didn't seem to be the Kyle
Connor that we were used to seeing. So now I
think with a summer behind him and a full training
and his knee feeling good, I think you're going to
get back to what we saw of him throughout his career.
Speaker 3: All right, the next guy we're going to talk about,
Nick Eelers, the guy all fantasy managers agree deserves more
total and power play time on ice, but for some
reason his coaches do not agree. I'm not sure why
that is other seasons another season in the sixties happened
last season. He only has had two point paces over
seventy and one of those was the twenty twenty twenty
one season when he only played forty seven games, so
he had an eighty point pace. And he's never scored
more than sixty four actual points in the season due
to games played, and his point power play points have
been a career high of thirteen, so all of that
is a little frustrating for us. I guess the question
we're all wondering, Dave, is there any chance that Eelers
has can break that actual ceiling of sixty four total
points and maybe get into one of those seventy plus
pay seasons again, Victor.
Speaker 4: That is the multimillion dollar question with Nikola Eilers, and
we're all wondering what is going to happen with him
because there's been so much uncertainty surrounding him. Though folks
will remember around these parts at least that when we
were watching him in preseason, he missed the day of
preseason and we were all kind of speculating wondering what
that was about. And it turned out, as we found
out in the exit meetings, that he had he suffered
a neck injury and it never really healed.
Speaker 1: So he was a little bit hampered by a neck
injury throughout.
Speaker 4: The course of last season, and that was the reason
why he actually didn't play for Denmark at the World
Championships this summer because he was looking to get that
dealt with. Now we would have heard if he had surgery,
so he obviously didn't need to have surgery on it,
which is good news, and you hope that a summer
off has allowed that to heal whatever whatever it took place,
and now he's going to be back to full health
now unfortunately for Nikolai Eilers, and the biggest question mark
is usage, and as you touched on it, it's a
frustrating topic for fantasy followers, touchy subject for Jets fans
because they see a lot of the game breaking abilities
of Nikolai Eelers and they wonder why not more And
we've heard for years that from coaches like Paul Maurice
and even Rick Bonus that maybe this is the minutes
that he needs to play to have that level of success.
Others would suggest that he could handle a bigger role,
but right now it seems like the coaching staff is
going to go with an eeler's and the mess to
call Perfetti, And again, my qualifier is always going to
be we have to wait to see what training camp brings.
Betty of course doesn't have a deal yet, but maybe
when this goes there he will I suspect not. It
probably will drag on into training camp. But for Eelers,
that line actually had quite a bit of success. Their
advanced stats were good, and if you actually looked at
like the Jets record with before they traded for Sean
Monahan and acquired a second line center, they actually had
I think it was so I'm going to look it
up to make sure I'm right here because I want
to say it wrong. Thirty wins, twelve losses, and five
overtime er shootout losses. So the record was quite good
with that trio as the second line, not a traditional
second line by NHL standards, but they were doing all right,
and other guys of course were contributing. But getting back
to Eelers, we had twenty five goals thirty six assists
in more limited minutes.
Speaker 1: I don't know that he's going to have.
Speaker 4: A bigger role, and of course this will be up
to Davis Payne to see what kind of role he
gets on the power play, but it just doesn't seem
like with the way the Jets have traditionally rolled, he'll
get that power play one minutes, and I think without
those power play one minutes, he may be in line
for probably a little bit more productive of a season
because again, provided that those guys have built up quite
a bit of chemistry now together. So I wonder if
you could expect maybe a seventy seventy five point season
out of Nikola Ahler's And that's a guy who the
Jets are going to be relying upon because, as you
guys voutelined, you need more to produce a little bit more, and.
Speaker 1: They didn't do that last year.
Speaker 4: So he'll be a guy who's relied upon to help
bring about a change in that regard.
Speaker 2: You mentioned Gablardi, and he is definitely one of the
mysteries going into this year. He had pretty medium usage
when he was in La probably safe to say, and
then he jumped to Winnipeg last year and jumped to
his two most common line mates being Shifly and Eelers,
And like you said, it probably would have been Connor
and Shaefully except he and Connor weren't healthy at the
same time very much. But anyway, he unfortunately had the
same issue that we've talked about for the history of
the show. I swear I don't know how many times
Victor and I have talked about for Gabe Vallardi and
his injuries, it just goes back for years. He missed
a few weeks in the fall with a knee injury.
He missed March with an in large spleen. Apparently, my goodness,
you can't exactly call a guy injury prone for having
it in large splin'. That's just something that's going to happen.
But it's still been rough. Except for that COVID shortened year,
he has missed large chunks of every season, even going
back to the juniors. He's had just he's gone through
just a ton, this poor guy. It's tough to predict
that he'll get healthier, but you referenced this already. He
was on a sixty three point pace when he was
out there this year for those games forty seven games
that he played. What do you think is going to
happen if he can get out there healthy and play
with some of these top.
Speaker 1: Players, Jesse.
Speaker 4: It's interesting because Jets fans were clamoring for Nikolai Eelers,
Mark Scheifley and Gabriel Valardi because again going back to
their advanced stats, they were pretty good as a trio.
And of course it was interesting because we would talk
to the coaching staff about it and they essentially said
that they're almost like, we have muscle memory. We can
go back to that line if we need to. And
one of the things I think with I think Vallardi
was good at reading Eelers because Eelers is unpredictable to
get into. Back to Elers, whereas Kyle Connor very north south,
you know what you're gonna get. Whereas obviously, as you
guys have seen with Nikolai Eilers, he's spinning around, he's
spinning around, he's spinning around, and eventually you got to
cline him or he's if he's got the puck, he's
going to dish it to you. And I just think
like Gabriel Valardi was pretty good in terms of reading
Elers which is not an easy task for some players.
So I think his biggest task this year, some to
what we saw with Sean Monahan last year, really was
about staying healthy. And if Gabriel Valardi can stay healthy,
we saw it with the Jets power play specifically, he
was very impactful in front of the net, and when
he wasn't there, the Jets power play wasn't nearly as dynamic.
So when you have Vallardi and you have his hand,
he's got really good adds, especially in tight When you
have that, you get some pretty goals and there were
some highlight goals and the Jets were producing a little
bit more when he was able to be there in
the power play. But again it becomes a function of
he played forty seven games in an eighty two game season.
You don't blame him, right the blanket falling on his
falling on his knee basically, or on his leg three
games into the season, and as you said, the enlarge splay,
nobody can really.
Speaker 1: Account for that. You hope, like we talk about with
a lot of guys.
Speaker 4: Who have dealt with injuries early in their career, that
they get past it and they get over it and
then maybe they can start to put together some healthy
seasons if he can, which is a huge if because
as you outline, there's a lot of injury history there,
then he's going to be a significantly impactful player for
the Winnig Jets because he's the top right winger on
this team right now, all right, let's.
Speaker 3: Move on to Cole Profetti, currently unsigned restricted free agent.
As we're recording this, I imagine the Jets are, like
many fantasy gms, not exactly sure what to do with
Cole Proffetti. It was such an awesome junior player hasn't
exactly translated to the NHL, although I do think he
has taken some pretty significant steps, including his defensive game,
which I think has come a long way. He was
actually quite a bit above average in terms of even
strength defense last year. That was some of the questions.
I'm not sure what the other questions are, Dave, what
do you think the Jets are going to do with
Freddie contract wise? And also with his opportunity in the
lineup this season.
Speaker 4: Again, that's one of the burning issues between Eelers and Perfetti.
Those are the two biggest issues right now this summer
here in Winnipeg, we're hearing that the two sides are
working towards something. We just spoke with Kevin shovel day
Off after he just did the trade last week of
Rutger mccorthy for Braden Yaeger, so we had a chance
to talk with him a little bit and one of
them one of the questions with him with respect the
cole Profetti, and he just said that the two sides
are working too. Are still having conversations with Kevin shovelday Off.
It's his usual Chevy speak for having conversations and that
he's never going to give you too much insight in
that regard. But it does seem from a Jets perspective
that there may be a bridge here, a couple two
year deal, or we may see the long term deal.
And again, I hate to sit on the fence here
with you guys and not give you some sort of
concrete answer, but it really is a question as to
whether the organization has.
Speaker 1: That level of faith they love the player. I don't
think there's any question.
Speaker 4: I know that there's some people talking about cole Profetti
and not being the long term. I think the Jets
when they drafted him back in the first round of
twenty twenty that there was no question in their minds
they had another similar player to Mark Scheifeley, of course,
doesn't have the same size, which is why when there
was question as to whether he'd play up the middle
or on the wing, it seems like he's going to
stay with the wing, and we weren't certain because again,
I know, we want to talk about Perfetti, but we'll
just talk about that second line center role, because that
was going to Vollardi or Perfetti question for Scott O'Neil.
And when Scot O'Neil was asked this recently, he just said,
I really like Perfetti on that wing, and then he
went and talked about Domestikov and Ethers, which is the
reason why I'm speculating that it again based on pre
training camp thoughts, he will be in that sort of
situation because they like him on the wing. It's you know,
you don't need you don't need to have the same
speed and you don't need to have the same size,
which are his two limitations in the NHL. But I
will say Victor, he's got a phenomenal shot, he's got
an absolute brain for hockey, and the guy can anticipate
and he can hit guys in the perfect spot. So
I think that there's a real possibility that they'll do
something short just to see if he can stay healthy
and what he can produce at the NHL level, Like
you said, like nineteen goals, nineteen assists, he's he can score.
Speaker 1: He went through a streak last year.
Speaker 4: I think he went twenty three games without a goal,
so he did have a chance to hit twenty but
wasn't quite able to get there. And one of the
things that I noticed with Profetti and again the benefit
of covering him, and it was during the COVID year,
so I'm not joking when I say this. I was
literally the only person in Winnipeg who was watching the
Moose AHL games when they were playing in the Canadian Division,
because originally they began at the Canada Life which is
in downtown Winnipeg, but then they moved it to the
training facility, and in the training facility literally it was
like HL officials, teams and me. So I got a
chance to watch Cole Profetti up close. Because so definitely
when you're watching in the press box in an NHL arena,
it's awesome, it's great. The view is fantastic, but then
when you get down a little bit lower in the
practice rank, he developed a different appreciation.
Speaker 1: And one of the things with Cole that I noticed
was that everything was on.
Speaker 4: The periphery at the AHL level early because he was
small and he was playing against men, when it's a
big jump from obviously from the OHL to the AHL.
And then he started to get it and you could
see him going to the middle and finding his spots.
And again, I think we're starting to see that with
him in the NHL. Again, there's limitations in the sense
that he's never going to be six foot five in bruising,
but he's a smart player and I think he's going
to continue to produce, and I really do think that
you're going to see a big improvement I could see.
I don't want to again, I'm trying not to have
jets rose colored glasses here for you folks, just to
give you an honest assessment, but I really could see
a twenty five to thirty goal season out of him
given the right opportunity.
Speaker 2: Nice we don't break down every one of these guys
in detail, so I'm gonna throw a couple of these
veterans hovering around thirty years old. I should just see
which one you think maybe will have the best season.
Vladislav Domestikov, Mason Appleton, Nino Nita Rider, all of them
goes veteran presence, steady guys in the middle. Any of
those three stick out as somebody you think will surprise
people with the really big performances here.
Speaker 4: Now, the best option is Vladimstokov because he's gonna be
He's most likely, based on what Scott O'Neil said, is
your second line center, and the coaches absolutely love him,
and he's a responsible guy. Eleven goals, twenty six assist
last season. They're all about the same the three that
you just mentioned, Jesse. They're all thirty four to thirty
seven point guys last season with the Jets.
Speaker 1: So they're all fairly consistent.
Speaker 4: Mason Appleton and of course Nino nit A Rider play
on what we in Winnipeg called the third line, but
really from an ice time perspective, is essentially the Jets'
second line with centered by the captain Adam Lowry, so
they do get a lot of opportunity, but generally they're
more defensively responsible and the expectation is more they'll put
a goal in here and there, but really their role
is to kill the first line of the opposition. So
from my perspective, if I was going to again go
with the qualifier that the Jets could make a trade
for a Sean Monahan literally next season at the trade deadline,
and it may it would change flat domestic Off's role
from second line center down to a fourth line center.
But if he's able to stay in that role, then
from an opportunity perspective, you got to think it's him
playing alongside right now Nikola Eelers and Colporvetti.
Speaker 3: All right, so we wanted to ask you about Brad Lambert.
I have to admit I have been a skeptic of
Lambert from his time at Finland to the WHL. I
was very honestly not convinced. But then this season he
had that monster Ahl season with the Manitoba Moose fifty
five points in sixty four games as a nineteen for
part of this two months and then twenty year old.
That's outstanding, and now I'm pretty excited about him. So, Dave,
what do you think we can expect from Lambert this season?
Will he make the Jets, and if he does, what
do you think we can expect from him.
Speaker 1: That's a good question, Victor.
Speaker 4: And training camp will be interesting because there's going to
be one of the things that Kevin Shovel day off
spoke about what I'm going to say about a month
ago was opportunity for young players, and it was always start. Sorry, yeah,
it was about a month ago. It was during development camp,
so maybe a little bit more. And he essentially said,
if I'm a young player in this organization, I'm working
every day to make sure I'm in I'm ready to
go with training camp and I'm ready to shoot my shot.
Because in essentially reading through the Chevy speak, essentially was
that you're going to if you can elevate your game,
if you can seize a role, we're not going to
be adverse to giving it to you. And I'm sure
we'll talk about villa Haanola and we saw that with
him last year. Fortunately for him, in the final preseason
game he suffered an injury, so that changed his trajectory
for twenty three twenty four. But Brad Lambert, you know what,
I watched him in the fourteen games he played in
twenty two to twenty three with the Moose before being
assigned to Seattle. And what a good thing from a
development perspective, because remember, he's a winger coming with that
first season here in North America with the Moose, they
sent him to Seattle.
Speaker 1: Seattle made him a center.
Speaker 4: And I talked to Moose's general manager, Craig Heisinger when
we do a Moose end of season roundtable just breaking
down the HL season here in Winnipeg, and one of
the things he said was they didn't necessarily see him
as a center until after Seattle put him in that position.
And I talked to Brad and he said he loves
playing up the middle. And then when I talked to
head coach Mark Morrison of the Manatoba Moose throughout the
course of the season, one of the things that he
stressed and one of the things he focused on because Victor,
it's easy to point out the points, and you're right,
his production was very good, and so much so actually
that he was rocketing up the Moose rookie totals and
was right up there in top top five and goals
top five and assists top five points. So he was
producing it at levels that were real good for an
organization's been around for a long time. But what Mark
Morrison told me during the season, but also like I
said at our end of season medi availability, was that
his impressed He was most impressed with the defensive player
Brad Lambert, and is getting it. And one of the
things with Lambert is shot is very good. His speed
is Nikolai eelers as a center, and he's developing a
head for the game. Now. My my speculation, based on
the way I watched the Jets organization.
Speaker 1: Operate, is if he hits a home run out of
the park.
Speaker 4: I don't know why I'm using a baseball analogy and
on a hockey show, but if he hits a home
run in training camp, then maybe he's in line to
be that second line center. Most likely, they'll put him
down into the miners again and he'll play start with
the Moose and you take the pressure off of them.
Like It's similar to what we saw with Kyle Connor
that first year played with the Jets. Wasn't having a
tremendous amount of success, sent him down to the Moose
and it really didn't have a lot of success initially,
and then he went on a tear towards the end
of the season, but that second seed. That next season,
he actually played the first five games with the Moose
and then got recalled and never looked back.
Speaker 1: So I expect my expectation.
Speaker 4: Would be for Lambert again, unless he has an insane
training camp, that they let him continue to develop and
become an elite second line, elite center, maybe a second
line center eventually our first line center.
Speaker 1: Because it's such a such a it's such a significant.
Speaker 4: Ask of a player to play up the middle at
the NHL level, So for Lambert, if you're going to
do that, and that's one of the things I think
the Jets organization made a mistake. I don't want to
go too historical for you guys, but with Jack Roslovic
that he was one of the most dominant centers in
the AHL, and then for the last ten games of
in the AHL he went up to went from the
center to the wing, and then when he went up
to the NHL, he played on the wing, and I
think it disrupted him a little bit. I think if
they're going to keep Lambert as a center, then you
have to wait for opportunity to present itself.
Speaker 1: I e.
Speaker 4: If he a guy gets injured and you want to
give him a couple of games, then maybe you slide
him in that way, and then what you're doing is
you're giving him less pressure in terms of that expectation,
that weight of expectation to produce as a second line
center in the NHL as opposed to a first line
center in the AHL.
Speaker 2: Let's move over to the blue line. Josh Morrissey, star
defenseman for this team. He didn't quite hit that point
per game pace that he did the prior year, which
was such a jump in his career, but sixty nine
points in eighty one games was just tremendous. He's locked
into a quite team friendly contract for four more years.
If you ask me, led the team in expected goals
above replacement, he's you know he he gets two and
a half shots, a hit, a block twenty four minutes
BYCE time, and I is a pretty darn nice thing
to have on your team. What do you see in
Morrissey's game? And do you expect a third straight year
of this level of scoring breakout we've seen lately?
Speaker 1: I see a player who was unleashed under Rick Bonis.
Speaker 4: Rick Bonas essentially said to him, having coached against him
when he was with the Dallas Stars, and then of
course when he became his coach. He saw potential in
Josh Morrisey, untapped potential, and he essentially said, not just
to Josh Morrisey, wanted his entire defense.
Speaker 1: To produce more because they weren't producing a ton.
Speaker 4: And one of the things we saw with Josh Morsey
was like the gloves were off and he was given
a real kind of this is your team. You're the anchor,
You're the guy who's going to run this defensive unit.
Speaker 1: And he's taken it and run with it.
Speaker 4: Really because he's been such an effective defender for the
Winnipeg Jets and added that offensive element, and so I'm
not surprised. Again, it's always funny how his life takes
time and we live in an instant gratification society where
the guy is in the minors for a season. I
remember with Morrissey, he was in the minors with the
Moose and I after being drafted in the first round
in twenty thirteen, and folks were calling him a bust
and I was like, guys, calm down, Like this is
the guy who's going to take some time to develop,
and boy, are they happy that he's not a bust now?
Speaker 1: But I don't see why.
Speaker 4: He wouldn't be able to continue to produce because he's
going to get that opportunity. They don't really have an
effective and again, unless they change their power play configuration,
they don't have that booming slapshot. They don't have the
dust in Bufflin, even a Jacob Truba. So Josh Morrissey,
who's more of a finesse get the shot through, is
going to be that kind of anchor on the power
play at the top of the at the blue line.
And I think from that opportunity you'll sellet him continuing
to produce. And also he plays the most minute tim
and Dylan Demelo, so I can't see why he wouldn't
continue to sustain it because he has such a high
level of compete and also because Team Canada is not
that far away and he's got his eye on playing
for Team Canada and the Olympics. So I think you'll
see continued production. Again, I don't want to put a
number on it.
Speaker 1: But you're right.
Speaker 4: I would think maybe I could see him increasing back
towards that eighty point seventy five point mark next season.
Speaker 2: Once again, a couple of guys who are big defensemen
on this team probably won't have quite the fantasy impact,
but are very significant to this team's hopes. Neil Pianc
Dylan Demelo. Throwing that attion together, which one of those
two you think we should look to having a better
year next year.
Speaker 4: Neil Pionk is the easy answer, because his season was
not good from an analytics perspective and Jets fans, it
seems like I would imagine for fan bases of every
team find a poster child. Some went to Pillary a
little bit, and Neil Pianc was that player. And unfortunately
for him, he's in a role where you're the second
pairing right side defenceman and there's a lot of expectation,
a lot of need for you to be able to
do your job, and oftentimes that on the PK or
whether it was just at five on five that side,
that pairing often with Brendan dill And wasn't doing enough
to keep the Jets. And again, like I said, it
hard to knock a guy because they had such a
good regular season. So I think I'm probably thinking a
little bit of the playoffs, where a lot of the
guys failed, but really for Neil, for me, Dylan Demello
is just consistent. And now that he's got the four
year deal, the four year extension that he signed this
summer with Winnipeg, I'm not surprised because that's they were.
The two sides were flirting with that sort of being
an option, and you knew you heard from him at
the end of season medi availability.
Speaker 1: He wanted to sit down roots.
Speaker 4: He just had his second child and so he really
wanted to make Winnipeg his home and he sees that opportunity. Obviously,
Brandon Dillon went and signed with the Devil, so he
went elsewhere. But from my perspective, the guy who needs
to have the bigger year is Neil Piank. Now you
would expect Dylan Demello because he's got the deal.
Speaker 1: Maybe this is a little bit more weight.
Speaker 4: On his shoulders, but he's a top pairing guy alongside
Josh Morsey. He's in the thoroughbred racing. He's the guy
who reads beside the throw the pony that rides beside
the thoroughbread to make it calm. That's Dylan demelo is.
He's just steady, he's even, and again, like I said,
he's still produced. He what three goals twenty eight assists
for thirty one points last season, and of course Pionk
had thirty three. Pianc though I think has the higher
weight of expectation in terms of turning his game around
to justify that contract, and.
Speaker 1: You alluded to it earlier.
Speaker 3: I am going to ask you about Villa Heinola because
I have someone who have been a fan and hoping
that he'd make it. And last year, as you alluded to,
I was really impressed with some of his preseason play
and then he got injured and it just seemed a
man come on, like he was trending in the right direction,
and it didn't happen for me. It was another season
back in the AHL. A couple of these seasons he
has gotten some NHL games, and this past season seemed
like a step in the wrong direction. Is he got
zero in NHL games, which is disappointing. But do you
think that he's never going to have a significant role
with the Winnipeg Jets.
Speaker 1: Victory this is the year.
Speaker 4: They have no choice and you look, nobody predicts a
guy's gonna have a fractured ankle in the final preseason
game of In advance of the season, Rick Bonus himself
said he's made the team, which was going to make
the Jets have to make hard decision because of course
it meant that a guy like Nate Schmidt or Logan Stanley,
their twenty sixteen first rounder, was perhaps going to be
put on waivers. They were going to have to make
some sort of decision to keep Villianola. And the easy
decision would have been to send Villianola down because of
course he was waiver example last year, not so this year.
So this year you're going to see what he can
do at the NHL level. And last year was a
tough year because he didn't start skating I think till January.
The Moose, of course, were in that terrible losing streaks.
He joined them towards the end of that, but he
was behind. He was behind the eight ball, right everybody
else has been skating for four months and he's just
starting to get back into it. And it's really unfortunate
because I remember talking to him at the end of
twenty two to twenty three end of season media availability
for the Moose, and one of the things he talked
about was just how much trade he was going to
put into training and how much effort there was going
to be, and so there was so much disappointment for
him to go put all that effort and then to
sustain that injury. Went back to Finland, came back to
Winnipeg and he trained with the Rasmuskapari who's dealing with
an injury as well. But the one thing I'll say
is that he had a really good attitude and so
he was able to produce ten goals seventeen assists for
the Moose in the forty one games he played.
Speaker 1: But you started to see the.
Speaker 4: Villy Heanola of old emerge a little bit last towards
the end of the season, and like I said, it'll
they don't have an option this year because they're not
going to send him down. They're not going to lose
him on waivers, so they have to make room for him.
And they did that, of course by not resigning Brendan
Dillon because they had such a glut on the left side.
Speaker 1: So to me, right now there's a big.
Speaker 4: Opportunity for someone, and I suspect we'll see a platoon
with Villy Haanola and Logan Stanley as the sixth seventh
defenseman on the left hand side, probably paired with Colin Miller,
who's been signed i think a two year deal after
they traded for him from the Devils this year, and
he actually looked pretty good in his somewhat limited role
with the Jets.
Speaker 1: So we'll see where it goes.
Speaker 4: But yeah, this is the opportunity, and I suspect he'll
take the disappointment he felt over this past year and
channel it into an opportunity because he knows this is
his chance to really make an impact, to seize a role,
which he did last year, but again to seize that
role and then make it his own. And we'll see
because he's not great unknown because well, he can make
a great first pass, which obviously is something that the
Jets need to be able to do to get out
to make for breakouts. And he's also pretty good effective
on the power play, so we'll see if he gets
some opportunity there as well, because he has again a good,
pretty good passer and a guy who's got a pretty
good head for the pretty good nose for the net
when he makes that pass or a shot.
Speaker 3: Hey man, I'm hoping for it. Let's move into the net. Now,
the Jets were ranked eleventh and expected goals against per sixty,
but actually conceded the fewest number one team in terms
of actual goals against. Why that was it was Connor Hellibuck.
No one had more goals save about expected than Connor
and in fact he had twelve more than Jacob Arkstrom,
who came in second. Just an incredible year. He played
sixty games last season, one of the last remaining true
volume starters. I would say, I guess the question, Dave
is do you think the plan is for Hellibec to
get another sixty games this season? Or will newcomer Kapo
Kakanen or potentially our Comray eat into those starts a bit?
What can we expect in the Jets net this season?
Speaker 4: I would say that you should hope that they that
he does based on what we've seen from the playoffs.
And I don't blame him solely for that, but I
think that there's just and I don't know how to
account for it, because when you look at guys Patrick waugh,
Arter's Herba, guys who played seventy eighty games, for God's sakes,
it was not a hardship. Now getting a guy to
play sixty sixty five seems like it's not even a possibility.
And of course there's so many more guys who platoon
and that's what we're seeing the NHL move towards. But
as you said, Victor, this is more. This is getting
back towards this idea of.
Speaker 1: Are you going to play him that much?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 4: Connor Hallibuck loves to play, and Wade Flaherty and him
have a plan and it'll be interesting to see who
ends up back he came up, I could. The organization
loves Eric Comery. He's beloved like Mark Schifley's grew or.
I think Mark Shaifley got ordained to marry him. They've
got He's very close with Josh Morrissey, so he's got
a lot of connections and the folks and the Moose
absolutely love him. So if he ends up in the minors,
that'll be he'll be a guy who's well received because
again there's that all that connectivity. They share him and
Connor Helibuc share the same agent, the same training routine,
so there's a lot of symbiosis between those two guys
and the Kacanan. Again, unfortunately for him, he was on
San Jose, which is not a good team if you
want to have good numbers. But whenever we saw him
in more actually, although ironically I will say whenever the
Jets in the play, he seemed to be on it
play on his head because I recall, I think once
or twice against the Jets he had fifty game fifty
saves in a game or something like that. But his
numbers were decent for New Jersey, and I think that
one of the mistakes that Jets realized they made forget
about the William Jennings and Lawren bressois not playing enough
games to earn it.
Speaker 1: I just think it.
Speaker 4: It's more a function of trying to find that balance.
And you look at the goaltenders who have won the
Stanley Cup traditionally, and a lot of times it's that
fifty guy plays fifty to fifty five games. You keep
him fresh. And I know that Connor Hallibuck says that
he could play more, but I think your optimum, especially again,
he's not old by any stretch of the imagination, but
I think that your optimum for him is to get
him into that fifty five range.
Speaker 1: Keep him around there.
Speaker 4: Fifty three to fifty seven, I would say, take a
few games off, try and make sure that you're not
overworking him, over taxing him, because if you look at
the number of when you look at his total volume
of saves minutes, the guy since twenty fifteen sixteen, I
don't think there's anybody. I think, what's his name, Gibson
is close in certain regards, but other than Gibson, I
think it's like Hellibuk by a long shot, and Vasilevski.
I guess I should put him in that category two.
But the fact is that a lot of those guys
didn't face the same volume necessarily, and I think Hellibuk,
like I said, I think it'll be better for him
and the team if they can reduce workload a little bit.
And that again it'll be an incumbent on guys like
Kakanan or Comery, whomever is the backup, whoever wins that role,
to give him that.
Speaker 1: Relief and give the team the confidence.
Speaker 4: And again, when air Comriy was here a few years back,
the team actually was playing pretty well in front of him.
So we'll see if they can go back to that bowl.
But again it becomes a function of they have to
make a decision collectively, how many as will they try
and limit him to a few less games than sixty plus.
Speaker 2: This is tremendous stuff, Dave. Why don't you let people
know how they can keep up with your work throughout
the year.
Speaker 4: With the Winnipeg Jets, we do a Saturday show every
Saturday on our YouTube channel. It's the Illegal Curve Hockey
Show starting at nine o'clock goes to eleven. Usually it's
Jets focused. Throughout the course of the broadcast, we'll also
usually cover a little bit of the Jets, whatever team
the Jets playing that day, We'll talk to players, coaches,
we'll talk to visiting media on that show. And then
of course, after every single Jets game, as soon as
the buzzer ends, you can join us on the Illegal
Curve postgame show and that is also on our YouTube channel,
and then Illegal Curve dot com. That is our website
and that has all the latest Jets and Moose news.
We aggregate the news every morning, so anything related to
the team we find it so you don't have to.
And then throughout the course of the day we do
interviews with players, interview with the coaching staff, and we'll
have anything that's related to the NHL or HL teams
of Winnipeg on Illegal Curve dot Com.
Speaker 2: Tremendous. Thank you so much for coming on today, Dave,
thanks for having.
Speaker 3: Me, Thank you.
Speaker 1: Will. That's good fire past.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, we gram Now it's your weekly goalie talk.
But Kat Silverman Cat's Instincts.
Speaker 3: Time once again for Cat's Instincts. With Kat Silverman and
Ngold mag talking Winnipeg Jet goalies, you might say they
don't need any prospects. They got Connor Hallibuck. Eventually, it's
not going to be a thing anymore. So let's look
at who they have in the pipeline.
Speaker 1: It's leak.
Speaker 3: Basically, we're going to talk about Thomas Milich. And in
case you were unaware, he's six foot zero, one hundred
and seventy six pounds maybe six foot zero, twenty twenty
three fifth round pick as an overager. And I was
curious about him because he had some decent time with
Seattle when they were a really good team, and then
he's gone to Manitoba to play in the AHL and
had some EHL time and some of his numbers look
a little unflattering, but I was looking up his expected
goal per goal conceded, and they've been pretty consistently good
to great over his past four seasons, so I just
found that kind of interesting. For Milich, he is obviously
an undersized goalie looking at his hockey prospecting, he has
increased it year by year, So that's always good to
see up to twenty three percent chance of being in
NHL or after his strong HL season this season thirty
three games for the Manitoba Moose, nine hundred save percentage,
two point seventy two GA and one shut out, So
not a whole lot of great comps, but a Manny
legacy comp in there is a decent one to start
out with. So, Kat, what do your inter thincts tell
us about Milich and the rest of the system, which
I'm not sure there's anyone else worth talking about.
Speaker 5: That's it's the system. I That being said, Thomas Milich
is a goaltender that I'm really rooting for and finding
it almost actively hard to be super objective about him
because I want nothing more than to say I told
you because he was I believe draft eligible starting in
twenty twenty one, and I had him on my list
of goaltenders that I thought were genuinely ones that should
have surpassed some guys who actually got drafted, and I
thought he wasn't quite my Dustin Wolf, but I thought
he was a similar level of quality tender, just a
little less technical prowess at that point. And he didn't
get drafted at all, and I was pretty sure that
he wasn't going to get drafted, period, and I was
super nervous that I was going to have hyped up
this goaltender. I did some extensive scouting on him because
I liked his depths management for a smaller goaltender. I
thought he was really sharp with his rebounds. I thought
his tracking looked phenomenal. I said he did a great
job sealing the posts. And then I thought he was
going to just fade away. And then Winnipeg said, we'll
save your reputation, Catsine, and they drafted him. So I
hope he becomes a VESNA winner. I really don't know
what Winnipeg's doing because they're going to need someone, but
ideally i'd like it to be him. I do think
he needs a little bit more time, just because he
I don't think has as long as a leash as
some other goaltenders do, so I'd like to see him
really looks solid and confidence at the AHL level before
he makes a move to the NHL. I don't know
that's a team that needs to have one clear cut,
shining star prospect and they don't. Maybe it'll be him though.
I think he's a lot of fun to watch. I
think Winnipeg Jets fans would enjoy watching his games. So
watch the Manitoba Moose. But I don't think he's headed
to the NHL anytime soon, unfortunately.
Speaker 3: Yep, that's that's a system, as you say, so don't
come to the Winnipeg Jets to draft a bunch of goalies,
but Militch might be an interesting one if you have
him available. Thanks so much, CAF forgive us your instincts
on the Winnipeg Jets.
Speaker 2: Dig the dynasty dig Jets, Dynasty Diggers. That is the prospect,
the system overall. Before the draft, Victor, you set it
up as maybe a number nineteen, little middle, lower of
the road. That's what kind of happens when you've been
a successful team for a couple of years, and so
we're gonna start out with our no brainer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it starts with Braden Yeager. Definitely a reasonable no brainer.
He is a twenty twenty three, fourteenth overall six ft
zero hundred and seventy pound right shot d increased his
point totals significantly with ninety five points and fifty seven
games and another twenty seven and twenty playoff games for Moosejaw,
who won the WHL went to the Memorial Cup. It
was a pretty awesome season for him, and he's been
the assistant captain there the last couple of years, really
strong leader for the team. It's been pretty great for
Yeager and you love to see it as definitely the
top guy here and he should be in the WHL
one more season. He's going to turn twenty, just after
the cutoff to be in the AHL, so he might
compete for a spot this season, but I feel like
it's gonna be a little bit longer for him. He's
not quite there yet, but pretty close. Looking at some
of the tracking data for Mitch Brown, looking year over year,
his defense has definitely been consistently one of the poorer aspects,
but in his Draft minus one season he actually bumped
that up to fifty eighth percentile. Aside from that, it's
been basically in the thirties or this year was actually
down at fifteenth percentile really quite low. Kind of interesting
too that his offense trended down a little bit this
past season, went from eighty seventh percentile to fiftieth percentile,
and his transition game has been all over the place too,
although that was really good this season. Surprising looking at
some of these tracking numbers for someone who is such
a high pick and on such a good team, it's
really not as good as you would expect. A lot
of the expected goals and assists are quite low, below average,
as well as some of his defense and space creation,
body position plays off puck awareness. These kinds of things
you'd expect to be much much better for such a
high end prospect for Bradenyeager, and it's really not. So
that's super surprising to me. The tracking data for Mitch
Brown looking not super favorable for Yeager, especially on such
a powerhouse WHL team. Looking at his tracking data from
the World Union Championship, where he did we had five
points in five games for Canada, it looks a little
bit better. His transition game looked pretty good, his defense
continued to look not so good, and his offense was yeah,
just a little bit better for the expected goals, his
slow passes to sixty were really good and his shots
were decent, but overall his offense was a little bit
subdued as well. So interesting looking at his FHL player card,
we can see that Braden Yeager shoots a lot ninetieth
percentile for shots. His hits and blocks though really low.
He definitely seems like he'll be a points only kind
of an option in the WHL. His goals and assists
are top notch hundreds percentile for both, and other than that,
it's basically just his shots. Looking at the play driving metrics,
it's interesting because Mitch tracks all this manually, but if
you look just the some of the transition game and
some of the high danger plays, puck movement, all of
that looks really good. The play driving looks poor, but
some of the other underlying metrics look okay. For Braidenegger's
that's surprising. But let's hear a little bit more. May
even get some clarity from our FHL scout on Bradenyager.
Speaker 2: Our FHL scout is Chris, and this is what he
says about Braiden Yeger. Average is skating is average, skilled,
stop start skater average, and almost every other aspect Jegger's
best skating tool is this quick acceleration. It's stopping passing
and handling middle of the road. Often has a great
first touch of the puck, put in himself in great
shape to quickly fire his signature Jaeger bomb. He's much
better facilitator when utilizing short passes or saucers to the
slot from the circles behind the net. Can protect the
puck well on his four hand side, especially by using
his edges to lean on the defender while holding the
puck at a distance. His passing suffers once he is
at speed and the general lack of creativity often when
passing and stick handling. Shooting is elite. The shot is
outstanding and is his greatest talent. He can get a
shot off very quickly and from nearly any body position.
Jaeger shoots from passes incredibly well and attribute that Chris
believe will carry over well to the NHL. Jaeger often
shoots into blocks or from inopportune angles for distance. Iq
exceptional positioning off the puck sets himself up to take
shots often find him disappearing though only to pop into
a scoring position the moment it's available. Takes greatly time
to cuts toward the net can have poor decision making,
though when stick handling at high speeds, noticeably uncomfortable from
the left side of the ice, unless skating from behind
the net with the puck to his forehand for checking
is positive. Brayden has a very high motor, above average
stick checking. His below average strength and physicality holds him
back from being an excellent ford checker. Defense is above average,
great passing, anticipation, interception skill in great stick checking, sound
positioning most of the time, but also has brief moments
of puck watching. He's going to need to become stronger
and more consistent to be an effective two way player
and the best asset Jaeger shot. It's an NHL ready release.
The biggest concern that was the lack of physicality and
average playmaking that makes Chris think he's probably a right
wing in the NHL maybe line dependent in the NHL
top tier outcome Tier two first second line center powerplay one.
If he can add the physicality to his game and
refine his playmaking, the path to being a seventy plus
points scorer on the pen in Winnipeg is easy to imagine.
A fiftieth percentile outcome would be a Tier three right
winger powerplay one because his shot is NHL caliber, But
if he doesn't get his game beyond what we currently see,
he's going to be a low, high goal type of
winger thirty goal thirty assist type during his prime. His
stylistic comparable Travis Connectney with little Bash and in terms
of what Chris saw Fercus Jager, Fercus was consistently dishing
beautiful passes to Yeager for many of his goals scoring chances.
Jager on Jeger violence. He could see Yeager being very
linemate dependent, as he doesn't seem to be a play
driver at this stage of his development. Yeager was seemingly
a great teammate, which was great to see in a
young player. Yeager won the COCHL Sportsman of the Year
for this past season. Based on the games that Chris scouted.
He one hundred percent understands why he was awarded this
trophy because Braiden seems to be a great teammate and
has a selfless attitude despite being a goal scorer first
and the NHL rank King Mason Black sent out the
poll Bradenyeger versus Connor Geeky and Connor Geeky is nudged
out by Braden Yeger. Braden Yeger with the win fifty
one to forty nine Victor. Is that how you'd do it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely. I know people are excited about Geeky going
to Tampa, and then that's reasonable. There should be some
excitement there. But I still would take Brandon Yeager here.
I think he has more realistic points scoring upside. I
definitely think Geeky is more of like a middle six
kind of guy. He might get some decent opportunity there
in Tampa, though, we'll see. But Yaeger I think has
a little bit more upside. I think it depends whether
they try to keep him down the middle or whether
they put him more on the wing. Based on some
of his play driving metrics, he seems like he's trending
more to be a winger, but.
Speaker 1: I guess we'll have to see about that.
Speaker 3: The PNHD for these two is similar, but I think
that there's more context there. The comparables are interesting in
the Mason Black ranking model, none of them are super exciting.
I think I mentioned on a previous show that one
for Connor Geeky is Sean Monaghan and I think that's
a pretty reasonable outcome of what he could be. Like
for Yaeger, there's some Joe Veleno and Brian Little also
not super exciting, but maybe there's a little bit more
side than that. Looking at the hockey prospecting, Jaeger still
has a higher star potential than Geeky twenty one percent.
Geeky has trended down from twenty through three to nine percent,
both of them at seventy percentile of being a NHLer though,
so the hockey prospecting supports Jaeger here. Looking at some
of the other comps for Yeger, there's a lot of
kind of average producers to replacement level. But one of
the guys that is really exciting is Luke Roboti. But
he had an insane jump in his production after coming
to the NHL, So I'm not sure that Yeager is
going to do that. We'll have to wait and see.
Looking out the FHL player card, ten percent chance of
being a star for Yeager, fifty two percent chance of
being an NHL urs decent from j Fresh there Jesse.
Speaker 2: Victor. Who is our need to know prospect for the Jets.
Speaker 3: Need to know is Colby Barlow twenty twenty three, eighteenth
overall pick. Also, our good friend Peter Harling of our
Prospect Report had that fantastic picture with Barlow in the
airport after being drafted in Nashville. Super cool stuff. Anyways,
he was six foot, one hundred and ninety four pounds
left shot left wing. Had a little regression in his
production this season from seventy nine points and fifty nine
games to fifty eight in fifty games. Then Sound Attack
were the last team in the playoffs of the Ohl
Western Division and the first out. Last season, the team
was more middle of the pack, so that context might
have made a bit of a difference. Looking at the
Fantasy Hockey Life player card, you can see that the
shots are ten out of ten for Barlow. The hits
are like sixtieth percent tile and blocks fortieth percentile, so
overall he should have a pretty decent floor for bash
which is nice. But I personally have him rated as
a five at a ten my Puck stud list with
a five point twenty four, which means twenty four percent
tile or twenty four percent chance of being a five.
So I'm a little lower on him. But let's hear
a little bit more about Colby Barlow from OURFHL scout.
Speaker 2: Patrick Patrick says of Colby Barlow skating, Barlow skating look
somewhat awkward and lumbering. First step doesn't look great. However,
the footwork in stride is excellent. Passing and handling, Colby
exhibits good passing and handling, uses the size of his
body and positioning to shield the puck from opponents, and
makes smart, accurate passes to teammates. Barlow has a very
good shot, especially as one timer from the off wing
faceoff dot. His IQ able to read the play well,
maintains his poise. Patrick says that Colby Barlow is not
the fastest, but is able to use anticipation and poise
to sometimes get an advantage and some breakaways on defenders
for checking. This is a strength for Barlow. He's savviat
being at the right place in the right time and
separating the puck from defenders, then moving to a good
position or passing it to a teammate to get the
cycle going. Patrick thinks that the defense the lack of
a strong first step hurts him from being a better
defender the efforts there. When he gets close, he's able
to lift the stick or getting close to jar the
opponent off the so the best asset the shot, and
this is something that he heard referred to as a
bomb multiple times. In his viewings, the biggest concern not
as much of a playmaker is Barlow. The top tier
outcome for this guy at goals heavy, second line winger
whose shot gets him on power play one. That's because
the shot is so good, the soft hands, the subtlety
in the game, and he can play on the PK,
which should get him some favor with coaches. The median
outcome for Colby Barlow games good enough that he'll have
a role in the NHL, but maybe third line power
play two type situation. That's if the deficiencieson has skating
caused an issue with keeping up with play or getting
out of position, and the lack of playmaking means a
more limited role. Stylistic comparable that Patrick has is Andre Pillotte.
Barlow's point pace went down slightly this season. At the
end of the season, he got three games with the
Manitoba Moose got himself one goal in two assists during
that time. Mason Black, the NHL Rank King, put out
the poll Colby Barlow versus Nate Danielson of the Detroit
Red Wings and Colby Barlow wins this one in a
narrow victory fifty four percent to forty six percent. Victor,
Are you a Barlow over Danielson man.
Speaker 1: Yes, I am.
Speaker 3: I think probably not too surprising to some of our listeners.
I've been pretty skeptical of Danielson as a high point producer.
He did have a kind of an interesting year. He
struggled a bit at times, but then was also pretty
good at other times in his recent season, So I
think that there's some issue in terms of just his
how well he performed. It was a weird year to gauge,
but overall, I think Danielsen did well and I think
that he was a strong playoff performer for Portland. He
will be in the AHL next season, so that'll be
good to see. But I just think that Danielson is
more of a middle to bottom six center. He probably
is going to be one of these guys it's better
in real life for his team than he is for
the for fantasy, so I'm not so keen on Danielson.
And he also, if he is a center, might have
a harder time getting top power play and fantasy relevance,
whereas Barlow, on the other hand, being a winger, I
think he's clearly a winger. He's got the good shot,
he's got the finishing ability. As we heard, that might
be easier for him to flex up to the top
of the lineup, or at least the top six, and
I like that for him, So I would definitely take
Barlow here. Between Danielson and Barlow, looking at the hockey
prospecting between the two, it's Barlow pretty easily double the
star potential of Nate Danielson, both having a pretty strong
NHL or probability. Looking at some other realistic comps for Barlow,
I think Logan Kature is someone that he looks a
bit alike, and he could end up having a similar
trajectory to Couture in terms of being a sixty to
seventy point producer. Both of them were Ohl guys actually
had pretty soil production to Couture at that time. Looking
at the J Fresh card, Barlow just ten percent chance
of being a star of forty three percent chance in NHLer,
which is actually not too bad considering how pessimistic the
J Fresh card usually is for these guys.
Speaker 2: Jesse, we've talked about him once on this show Who
is to keep your eye prospect, Victor, Yeah.
Speaker 1: We are talked about him.
Speaker 3: Brad Lambert is the keep your eye on and he
definitely is someone who I have had to fully come
around on because I already mentioned that I had had
a different opinion of him. But he's a twenty twenty
two to thirtieth overall pick, six foot er, one hundred
and eighty three pounds, right shot center wing. We heard
a little bit about that from our great guest. Looks
like he came mind into being a center, which would
be great value for the Jets. I'm not sure that
him being a center helps his fantasy value. It probably
would be better if he was a winger and could slot
up easily into the top six. But if you see
his second line center, that could also be a good thing.
Not sure he will get there. I mentioned his strong
HL production that was a huge boost after having plus
minus seasons in in the WHL and Liga. I was
also at the draft talking with Scouch and that was
one of his boys. He was top five on Lambert
all season and it was fun to see him come
full circle around and Scouch, to his credit, has never
really wavered on that opinion of Brad Lambert, so love
to hear that when it works out for one of
your guys. Looking at the Fantasy Hockey Life player card
for Lambert, you can see that his shots are eightieth percentile,
but his hits some blocks are just thirtieth percentile, so
overall he should be average at best. For Bash, he
might even be more of a points only guy because
his scoring right now in the AHL was very good,
but the rest of the number is not so good,
so you might consider him more in a points only option.
But let's hear a little bit more about Brad Lambert
from REFHL scout.
Speaker 2: Hey, for sure, the talent was never in question. Here's
what our guy Patrick talked about with Brad Lambert. Excellent
skater is Brad Lambert enables him to be a trusted
transper order of the puck up the ice, passing and handling.
Extremely capable in both measures. The handling's evident when transporting
the puck. He makes good passes. Shooting, Lambert has a
shot that is most effective from the face off dots,
although his touch allowed him to score some goals in
the paint IQ. Unfortunately, Lambert's play doesn't show good vision
or anticipation. He has poised, but doesn't do well at
foreseen play and sometimes looks out of place for checking
that's not necessarily Lambert's forte. He can help on the cycle,
but didn't show much evidence of being able to separate
defenders from the puck. Likewise, defenders were often able to
separate him from the puck defense when he skates back defense,
it doesn't necessarily translate to engagement. Rarely was he active
involved in nullifying the other team's offense. So the best
asset easily his puck transporting ability and the biggest concern
hockey sense defensive engagement. The top tier outcome is top
six winger. That's even a little bit below what our
guests said today, but the justification there. Patrick sees that
despite deficiencies in the game, Brad Lambert his point pace
at the AHL shows that the skating, passing, had shot
are such valuable skills they've already served him. Perhaps with
time he can improve that hockey sense. The median outcome
bottom six winger, power play specialist. The deficiencies in his
game limited him to a lesser role in that scenario,
but he still has enough to contribute to the NHL.
Stylistic comparable perhaps the more offensively skilled Michael Grabner, says Patrick,
and despite the deficiencies in his game, Patrick ultimately thinks
he's going to find his way to the NHL and
Brad Lambert will be a middle six winger. The Mason
Black NHL Rank king pole for this one is Brad
Lambert versus Connors Zery of the Calgary Flames, and Zeri
is the superior in this poll over Lambert fifty eight
to two. Victor, you said you've been coming around on Lambert.
Are you coming around strong enough to put him past
Connor Zeri?
Speaker 3: This is a really hard one because I really like
Connor Zery, and I really think what he did this
season was super impressive in the NHL. The point total
may not say it so much forty four point pace,
but he played sixty three NHL games, his underlying metrics
were generally really good on a pretty poor Calgary team,
and so him being able to do as well as
he did was super impressive. I'm also impressed with Lambert
in the way that he's progressed, but I think that
I would go Zeri just because he has done it
at the NHL level, and I think I'm just a
little worried about the talent around him, but him being
a winger, that should also help Zeri in terms of
getting top power play time and getting a little bit
more of those great offensive minutes. And I don't tend
to worry so much about who they're playing with. I
think the best players right to the top anyways, So
I will go Zeri, but it's really close.
Speaker 1: I think gonna be happy with either.
Speaker 3: And quite frankly, if you're in a league that value
use players who have more minors eligible time, you might
go Lambert because he has had fewer NHL games and
he could flex up and down a little bit more often.
So if that's a concern, you might think about that.
Looking at Lambert's PNHL is hilarious actually, because in his
D minus one season he had one hundred and eleven
PNHIL and then he went all the way down to
a plat to a Nayder at thirty two or Trry
twenty two point a PNHL. Now in this current HL pace,
he's up to a seventy five PNHL. Wild ride there.
If you're looking at Lambert's pnchil, Zeri has been more
consistently in the sixty to eighty PNHL, settling down near sixty.
But I think there's upside for more from Zeri. As
I mentioned, looking at the hockey prospecting between the two,
it really does not like Brad Lambert zero percent chance
of being a star, forty nine percent chance of being
an NHL er Zeri has trended down from fifty nine
to ten percent chance of being a star, and that's
locked because he's graduated from the model. Looking at some
other comps for Brad Lambert, I don't think it's even
worth mentioning because none of these zero percent guys are
really interesting or known at all, So he basically would
have to break the statistical model to be relevant, which
he might, and it seems like he has at least
partially done that. Looking at the j fresh card, ten
percent chance of being a star, forty seven percent chance
of being an NHLer, So a little bit of hope there,
But overall, I really think you should take a look
at Brad Lambert and he might do some really good
things this year.
Speaker 1: But that's it for the Winnipeg Jets.
Speaker 4: Dig.
Speaker 3: If you're a Patreon, you can listen to my top
ten recap per team on Patreon and if you're some scouting,
shoot medium on Twitter, Discord, or email us.
Speaker 2: Tremendous will be right back to close up a show.
This is the time and the show. I remind you
to play leagues on faint tracks. You can move leagues
over there. You could start new leagues. There's still time
to get a dinis de league cooking for this year,
even it's less than a month until the season starts.
Less than a month, I tell you so. The Jets
are not the only team you're going to be paying
attention to very soon as you get into your drafts.
Fan Track's HQ has lots of fantasy content, articles on
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