Speaker 1: Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks.
Speaker 2: Here's shit Gims, Hereso.
Speaker 1: Your source of information and analysis to help you win
your fantasy hockey league.
Speaker 3: Block off hot a step hit on, stay lock.
Speaker 4: Here's your hosts, Jesse Sevier and Victor Nuno.
Speaker 5: Fantasy Hockey Live.
Speaker 6: Jesse Severe back with you, ready to talk some fantasy
hockey and is Victor Nunio here?
Speaker 5: Well sort of.
Speaker 6: Victor, as some of you may know, was at the
draft this past weekend, and my goodness, he was a
busy man doing the credentialed media thing there and he
got a whole lot of audio, and over the next
little while you're going to be getting the benefits of
that audio. Today is going to be no exception to that.
But a couple things to mention before we get itself started.
You should check us out on our free discord. Just
hit us up at Fantasy Hockeylife at gmail dot com
and we'll give you a link get you in. We
also have a patreon that does all kinds of things.
Victor's post draft rankings for fantasy purposes will be going
on on there, among many of the things, and you
can get yourself in the tidy leagues. That is the
tiered Dynasty League that we'll be doing once again next year.
I think it's our third year and it's a whole
lot of fun. Ask anybody who's in it. You got
to be a patroon though to do it, and so
check us out with all those things. But today what's
going to happen is we're going to start with some
of the people that Victor was able to interview at
the Draft, and that included several people who are in
the prospect talking space. We got Derek Numeier of McKean's Hockey,
among other things. We've got brock Otten, who you've definitely
heard on this show show before. We've got the famous
Cam Robinson, old buddy of the show, Anthony Donati the Prospect.
Don is going to be doing some interviewing with us,
Russ Cohen, who you have definitely heard on these here airwaves,
and Shane malloy. So it's a whole bunch of people
who are talking to Victor as the draft results are
coming in and getting their takes off. And the other
thing we've got is that Victor while he was at
the Draft was going and interviewing prospects or he was
participating in the scrums around the prospects and giving getting
some audio, asking some questions, listening to some other reporters questions,
and let me give you the advanced caveat that I
always like to give, which is these are edited down there.
Most of the reporters who are asking questions of people
are saying, well, what are you excited to move to Vancouver?
You know, what have you heard about it? How excited
are you right now?
Speaker 4: Was your family here?
Speaker 7: Who?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 6: These are great, great things to hear, and I've got
no shade against any of that, but it's not particularly
useful for US fantasy hockey players. We're not looking for
a quote, a pull quote that we can throw into
a quick profile to introduce the fan base to a prospect.
We are trying to provide some analysis of what somebody's
game is. And Victor's questions actually were the best when
it came to that. Those things, therefore are edited down.
I do my normal editing out of homes and us,
so that is also modified. There will be a couple
of these draft things interspersed with the other content here,
particularly after interviews where some of the prospects are mentioned
So why don't you sit back find out what I'm
talking about, because right after this we're going to start
Draftcastic one the interviews.
Speaker 8: All right, please to be joined now remotely by Derek Neumeyer,
who is the assistant director of Scouting and head West
Scout and mc keems Hockey.
Speaker 4: How you doing, Derek, Hey and doing well.
Speaker 5: Enjoying joining Scout Christmas this weekend, both today and yesterday.
This is the type of we work all year for
this event that scouts they're always excited to see how
the picks go in. You know, it's a good way
to celebrate the players that we watch and we like
and we're excited for their futures. This is a huge
milestone for them and this is a great time overall.
It's a little different this year. I'm not at the
draft like you are, Like I usually end the background
I'm using here. But it's working well watching it from
home as well.
Speaker 8: Yeah, when it was five hours in the first round
to make thirty two picks, I wish I was remote too.
So there are some benefits, but I do miss seeing you,
and I'm sure you're missing all the people that you
get to run into when you're in person, and hopefully
next year that'll be the kid.
Speaker 5: Yeah, finger crossing.
Speaker 8: So I wanted to bring you on to talk about
all the WHL players that you're so knowledgeable about, and
I wanted to start with the defenseman because we know
mat B. Schaefer's and a tier visional, but we're always
looking for some good offensive scoring depth.
Speaker 4: After that, I don't know.
Speaker 8: I was a little surprised, not terribly surprised, but Merca
went at nine and Jackson Smith went at fourteen. Maybe
we could just talk about these two together, because I feel,
and you can tell me if I'm wrong, that the
better fantasy asset is Jackson Smith seems to be a
little bit more offensive and Merca might be a really
good NHL defenseman but may not be as good a
fantasy in terms of like points. But maybe you could
talk about those two and it's what you think about them.
Speaker 5: Yeah, there's certainly a disconnect between Merca and what he's
good at and what actually translates to fantasy hockey depending
on how you set it up. You look for points,
you look for penalty minutes. Maybe hits RCA doesn't really
do a lot of that. Like you put up some
ok points this year in Seattle, but that was just
because he was their number one defenceman and he was
getting more power plays time than he probably would have
in other environments. I think it's a really good pick
where he went to Buffalo. He's a very solid workhorse defenseman.
There's a lot of good attributes to his game. I
think he skates better than he gets credit for. I
think he handles the puck better than he gets credit for.
But in terms of the NHL upside, looking at a guy,
he probably tops out of thirty forty points a year.
Not a lot of production coming from him, I don't think.
But he's still a guy that will be a top
four defenseman for Buffalo, most likely top penalty kill handles
really heavy matchups, and you've got a guy like Aaron
Eklass not an Apples Topples comparison that Glad doesn't put
up a lot of points, but he eats a ton
of heavy minutes for Florida and he's an effective difference
maker for them. With Jackson Smith, that's a guy with
some interesting fantasy upside. I mean, he reminds me in
some ways of Sam Dickinson last year where Dickinson he
was a point per game player for London, went eleventh
over all to San Jose, and he just looked like
he had so much more growth potential offensively, just because
he had such amazing physical tool and athleticism and like
to take risks and was very active. And he had
a huge explosion this season offensively, went from sixty points
to ninety one points. I think it was something along
those lines. And I could see a similar sort of
thing with Jackson Smith, where he didn't score a whole
ton this year, but he was just creating so much
offensively that you saw the tools that he had, and
he played on a team that didn't score a lot.
So if you would have put Smith in a different
environment with some better offensive players, a team that had
a better top power play unit, I think his production
would have been a lot better. I could certainly see
him being someone who's maybe a fifty or sixty point
guy at his peak in the NHL. And he's got
some nastiness to him too. He's not like a bruiser.
He doesn't go looking for big hits or scrums, but
he's not afraid to get his hands dirty if he
has to, so he'll be a guy that shows up
on the stat sheet in a variety of different ways.
I would say once he reaches the NHL level.
Speaker 8: I heard a lot of good things about Jackson Smith,
but I also read a look little bit about his
tendency is under pressure to maybe panicked and maybe not
make the mist decision, which honestly give me a little
bit of worry because it's only going to get harder
and there's going to be less faces and things are
going to get faster. So is that any a concern
for you? Is that maybe a little bit overblown.
Speaker 5: No, it's a concern. There's certainly a risk there that
is something that holds him back. So you do, as
a scout, have to hope for a little bit of
development help from your team to clear out some of
the warts in his game a little bit. Now I've
interviewed the guy. He seemed like a pretty smart kid.
He gave good answers to my questions. I don't think
there's anything that's like a red flag with his hockey
sense or his processing or decision making. I don't think
there's anything that'll prevent him from making improvements long term.
I think he's going to be a guy who makes them.
It just might take him some time. You look at
players NHL now, Jacob Chickrin, for example, had a really
solid season in Washington. He's really come into his own,
but it took him to be twenty six or so
before he really so I could see a similar sort
of thing with Smith where I think he's going to
get there. I think he's going to be able to
maximize all his tools and clean up a lot of
the weaknesses in his game, but it just might take
him a little bit longer than some other top prospects
who are a little bit smarter right now. So you
kind of have to play the long game with him.
He's maybe something you keep on like your fantasy bench
for a little bit and then just late and hope
he's ready forever the big league.
Speaker 4: Sometimes, Yeah, sounds weird.
Speaker 8: Let's talk about the most controversial pick I think in
this draft, and that's Roger McQueen, and it goes ten
to Anaheim, which honestly, I think is a good landing
stock for him, just in terms of he's not going
to be pressured to come along any quicker than he
needs to. They got a couple of good centers ahead
of him, but and of course there's questions about the
back and anything, but what do you think about him
just in terms of his upside and fantasy We don't
have to invest in those longestime development of this in
our fantasy team, But what do you think a man?
Speaker 5: Yeah, you're right with everything you said. I think tenth
is the right spot for him to go. The talk
for most of the year was that if he'd been
healthy all season, he could have been a guy who
went top five, maybe even top three, because you have
a center with size and skill and mobility and some
grit to his game, like he's had everything, which is
really interesting, but he missed a ton of time with
back injuries. He was telling teams of the combine that
the injury he has now will heal one hundred percent,
and he's got some doctors notes to support that, and
I believe him. But the worry the team still have
is that, you know, if you're susceptible to a back injury,
it can be a reoccurring thing. This specific injury he
has right now might heal, but what are the chances
of him having another different back injury in the future.
Higher for him, that seems than probably a lot of
other prospects, So it's a swing by the ducks if
it works out. We're talking about a guy who could
be just a massively impactful NHL player, a guy who's
sixty seventy maybe eighty points if everything really comes together
for him long term and everything works out with his developments. Yeah,
I just think there's a huge ton of upside. Yeah,
but maybe some chance that he doesn't quite get there,
whether it's for health or just missing time, that kind
of slows in down development wise. So it is high risk,
high reward, that's for sure.
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 8: I have thoughts on the medical stuff, which I've shared
with our listeners separately. We will We'll just leave that
where it is. I wanted to switch and ask about
Braiden Coots because when we were sitting here and Vitch
Er Eckland was sitting on the board at fifteen and
Vancouver and Detroit were on.
Speaker 4: The would have taken him.
Speaker 8: I thought that he would have been their guy, and
neither took him, and Vancouver goes Braidon Poots, and obviously
that must have liked a lot about him to not
take him to Sweed, who was pretty high in a
lot of people list, So what do you think about
foods And is that a good fist there.
Speaker 5: The Canucks had a certain need for centers in the
system actually right shot ones, so I can see that.
But I think there is more upside to Kots than
we've really seen so far this year in Seattle, he
really did not have a lot of support around him,
Like he'd go into games as the main offensive guy
in that team, the main guy that other teams are
trying to shut down, the guy that is getting the
toughest matchups, and that's not easy when you're seventeen years old.
I was talking to an NHL scout actually had a
hitman game here, and we were talking about Ben Kindall
in Calgary and some of the other top young players
coming out of the doub and this gun made a
great point where you know, if you were to switch
Ben Kindall and Brandon Kootz this season, where Kindall was
in Seattle and Kootz was in Calgary on a better team,
their production could have been completely swapped. Like Koots could
have been the guy putting up eighty ninety points in
Calgary and Kindle could have been closer to sixty in Seattle.
Just because the environment made such a difference, and Coots
had a good offensive showing at the UA teen tournament
in the Springs. I think he led Canon in scoring
Or was one of the top two guys. So he's
got more offense than we've seen so far, So it
could be a pick that works out. I personally still
would have taken Victor Ecklund. He was top ten for me,
whereas Coots wasn't on my board, but I can see
the logic of where Vancouver's going with that decision.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it still some mental gymnastics to me, but I
appreciate it are slaves. Let's move to a couple of
the second rounders. Blake Fiddler. He was someone who a
lot of us were saying after round one definitely one
of the best available.
Speaker 4: Let certainly in.
Speaker 8: That category of some of the secondary offensive defenseman or
just a good defenseman in general. I guess my question
for fantasy is, how good do you think his offensive
team can be? Can he be a guy who ton
of demands to power play time. He certainly has the
size and mobility, and he's so young, right, so he's
got a big runway. So that kind of gives me
some hope that maybe there's a little bit let me
tap offensive potential there, give me some hope.
Speaker 5: There maybe a little Yeah, we haven't seen a ton
of it yet. We've seen modest offensive production from him
in Edmonton. What I think is important to recognize with
him is that he's going to keep getting those opportunities
with the oil Kings in the WHL, at least if
he stays there and doesn't jump to the NCAA a
lot of other guys do. You're talking about a guy
who's going to be playing probably twenty five minutes a
night in all situations, including the power play. So he's
going to get a chance to grow that part of
his game. He's going to get those reps, he's gonna
get a lot of like coaching and attention on how
to work a power play like the oil Kings are
going to try and develop that part of his game
up a little bit more, and when he gets to
Seattle they work with them. I would say he's probably
still more of a twenty to thirty point guy at
best at the NHL level. I don't think he's going
to be a major offensive contributor, but I would say
there's maybe a non zero percent chance that he gets there,
maybe like a ten to twenty percent chance that he
can add another legitimate level or two to his off
It's possible. I just wouldn't really expected.
Speaker 8: Another guy that I think is interesting and anow they're
just super young guy and this guy's always fascinating the
Tatan Kettles six ninety four pound right shot, born literally
two weeks before being eligible for the next draft, So
maybe he didn't have a ton of points. He's pretty
raw and maybe there's some potential there. He talks a
little bit about his going to what he might be
into the table.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Like with Fiddler and Edmonton Swift Current like they
they've invested a lot in Kettles. He's a guy that
they really like. He's going to be a very important
player for them. He played a little bit of power
player this year, I think as the net front at
some points as well. So a bit of an interesting
asset there. But he'll be a guy who gets encouraged
and pushed to develop more offense to his game. But
his real calling card is going to be that nasty side.
There's been a lot of big defensemen who've been picked
so far today who aren't really that naturally nasty, the
truculent kind of guy, but Kettle certainly is. He's a
guy who really likes that part of the game. He
likes to throw his weight around. He likes to be
a bit of like an intimidating presence as a way
to help his team and push back the other team.
So I could see him being a guy who shows
up a lot in terms of family minutes and hits.
He's not afraid to drop the gloves and yeah, there's
just a lot there. He is still very raw when
you watch him right now. He struggles to handle the pop.
His skating could be a little uncoordinated, But for a
guy of his size and his age, you have to
project that's going to improve a little bit as he
grows into his body and just gets used to it
a little bit more.
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 8: One more guy I wanted to ask you about Matt Shanishka,
who is a real instinct player. He's big, and he
spent the first part of the draft season in check
Yah then came over to the Portland winner Hawks. Just
a random note here from the draft. I don't think
anyone spent as long at the podium answering questions and
talking to people as he did. It was both in
check and in English, which was really impressive to me.
And I don't know if that's because his individual circumstance
for what the reven was, but I actually found that
kind of interesting. And obviously he didn't play too many
games that Portland was twenty four and only seven points,
so I don't know if you'd think there's more upside there.
Obviously there's some acclamation pio that went into kandas seeming
to whl sign But you know, what do you think
of him and his upside?
Speaker 5: Yeah, he's interesting. He was certainly a late riser for me,
and it seemed like that was the same case in
a lot of other boards. With Redee Merka, he jumped
to Seattle and immediately looked right at home and was
making a huge difference. But that's hard to do. Most
players need a little bit of time, and Sanitzka was
one of those guys where it took him a little
bit to get his feet under him in Portland, but
by the time he did, he was showing a lot
of promise. Skates really well for a guy's eyes. He
likes to take charge with the pocket times like with
Kettle's there's a little bit of coordination concerns right now.
He's still growing into his body, but I think he
sees the ice well. I think he under stands like
the dynamics of playing on the rush. He understands how
to be a transition defenseman. I think he shows promise
with working the offensive blue line, and I think there's
a lot of pieces there with his physical tools and
his mental approach for there to be more offensive upside
to come from his game then we've seen so far
this year. So he's a very interesting players. Just seems
like teams are really leaning into these like big mobile tools,
the rock kind of defenseman right now. Just I guess
that's the way the leaves going to. But Go went
early this draft just because he's one of the more
appealing guys in that mold. He really does have some
very intriguing upside if everything can come together for him.
Speaker 8: Yeah, you saw a huge pattern of that, right, big
physical that was the trend in this year of draft.
Speaker 4: It was very obvious. I think all of us. That's great.
Speaker 8: Derek, is there anyone else that you think we should
talk about who went a bit later. I'm not as
familiar with some of those guys, and obviously for fantasy
we're looking at guys who might have this points of
didn'yone else come to nine?
Speaker 5: Yeah, So one pick that just came in not that
long ago, Cameron Schmidt to Dallas in the third round.
I think that's just a perfect fit for both of
those entities. Schmidt was considered like a first round talent
maybe coming into the season and he dropped. And he's
a guy with just tons of offensive talents, like great
explosive skater, great finishing ability with a shot, really solid
on the power play. He dropped to the third round
because of his size and a couple other issues with
like his off pock play and sometimes his effort levels.
He's just a guy who, if everything works out for him,
could be a twenty thirty goal scorer in the NHL level.
Sometimes these small scorers, like every year, these guys that
get picked like that and they don't pan out. But
with Schmidt, there's just like a real competitive edge to
him at times. It's really interesting. He's just got that
like break the game breaking kind of talent that you
see at times. And the Stars I just think are
a great organization for him, right They've got a lot
of young talent on their roster already. They're a really
established organizations, and like in a few years, I don't
think it would be hard for them if Schmid Schmidt
keeps developing well, for them to find an insulated spot
on their roster at the NHL level, let them get
like second power play time or whatever, and just kind
of let them let them do his thing. And the
Stars aren't scared of this type of prospect either. It
took Logan Stankoven a few years ago. It's not exactly
the same kind of player. There were a lot of
areas where stan Coven was better than Schmid is right now.
But that was a bit of a risk by the Stars,
but it worked out tremendously well for them. They got
the most out of Stankoven's development, and I think the
Stars think that they can have a similar kind of
results with Cameron Schmidt, and I'm very excited to see
how that goes in the coming years.
Speaker 8: All Right, everyone heard it here first, Derek sith that
Cameron Smidens the next Logan stank Billings mark it down.
Everyone heard that obviously that would be a very good outcome.
They're obviously not the same player, But yeah, I think
you're totally right. And it was thinking about that as
we were talking about him, like, obviously they treated him
and but they didn't. They weren't risk averse to taking
a player like that and helping him develop, and so yeah,
that could be a very good outcome if he could
be even somewhat partially as successful as log Lies.
Speaker 5: And the Stars loved Stankoen. They loved him, they didn't
want to trade him. They did so to get Miko Ranton,
and so that would have been a hard call for
them in a lot of ways. But yeah, don't get wrong,
the Stars weren't sick of Stankovi and he could have
been like a long time franchise player for them if
Miko Ranton didn't show up and say, hey, I want
to be a Dallas Star for sure.
Speaker 4: Awesome.
Speaker 8: Thanks so much Derek for doing this and for your insights,
and hopefully we'll see you next year live addition.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's the plan. Have a fun rest of your
day down in La alright.
Speaker 8: Saints pleased to be joined by brock Auden, who's the
director of scouting and the teams.
Speaker 4: How you doing, Brock? Yeah, and I you victory, being
great to see you here in LA.
Speaker 8: Hopefully we'll be going back to the regular draft setup
and before seeing again next time.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's definitely a little bit of fomo going on
the first draft I've missed in a few years. With
the quality of the production that we're seeing, I hoping
it goes back.
Speaker 10: To what we're used to what we'll see.
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely agree with that.
Speaker 8: So we know that you cover the Ohl and Pollo
really closely, So I wanted to ask you that some
of the HL guys who was drafted, and I think
the biggest surprise probably came at number five with Nashville
and Brady Martin.
Speaker 4: We heard sing the day and.
Speaker 8: We seen up to the draft, but he was a
favorite at the combine and people really like his game.
We saw the Stanta Cup finals and Sam Bennett of
course winning the consent probably did wonder if the braise
from Martin's stock, what do you think the Nationhville players
are getting and what's the kind of fantasy player you
think he could be. Do you think he can actually
be a big time score or do you think settling
from more of a middle six like hard Knows t
play list.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I love the pick for National.
Speaker 9: I've been driving the Brady Martin hype trained pretty much
all year. I think we've been under selling his offensive upside.
I think guys that play like Brady does sometimes there
are offensive upside gets underrated because he plays that heavy,
more NHL style game and people to look at that
sometimes and say this guy is a third liner or
nothing more. We've seen it millions of times in the
draft history. I think back to a guy like Mike Richards,
like people had him pegged as a third liner when
he was drafted. Brian O'Reilly like, you just keep going
down the list, and there's numerous examples. I think Brady
Martin can be a really solid fantasy contributor because he's
going to be a guy that contributes across the board.
Speaker 10: Right if hits is.
Speaker 9: Something that is kind of near league, he's going to
be one of the leaders and hits in the NHL.
He's going to play in all situations. I think he's
got a chance to be a thirty goal scorer in
the NHL. He's going to be a guy that probably
has positional versatility playing both wing and center.
Speaker 10: I'm going to guess at the NHL level.
Speaker 9: But yeah, I think that this is somebody that is
going to be a really good NHL player and somebody
who can be used from a fantasy perspective.
Speaker 8: Right, there's certainly a high floor there with the trifles
that he's going to bring. I think it's just a
question of his Guys that score fifty to sixty points
with good priffs have a certain value. But if you're
talking about seventy plus, that's a whole different echelon. Do
you think he can consistently be in that neighborhood.
Speaker 10: I don't know if he's going to be that kind
of neighborhood.
Speaker 9: Some of the comparisons that I've thrown out for him
are guys like Mike Richards, like Mike Peca, and those
guys weren't seventy point players at least consistently. So I
think he's more likely going to be sixty points of
the top range there. But if he's contributing in other
areas as a fantasy player, right, if he's winning face offs,
if he's getting hitm so, if he's scoring shorthanded goals,
who's scoring power play goals, He's he's got a chance
to be an all round contributor and depending on what
stats counting stats yearly uses that those kind of guys
they get drafted pretty early in fantasy drafts because they're
a bit unicorn, right, like a guy like Tom Wilson,
right like a penalty minutes hits special team's points like that.
Speaker 10: That has a ton of value in fantasy.
Speaker 8: Yeah, for sure, let's move on to the next guy.
I don't think it was surprised, but Jakes O'Brien going
to Seattle, I think that was. It's interesting. It feels
a little bit like what happened to them last year
where Berkeley Katon kind of fell into their lap, and
I think with Jacobrien was there at eight, they felt
he didn't think this guy they might have been looking
for a defenseman, but how do you pass on this
kind of talent And he's, you know, definitely a playmaker type,
it seems, and definitely not a guy who seems to
shoot up, but maybe his shots a little underrated. You
could tell us a little bit more about him in
terms of what kind of fantasy upside do you think
they're but it seems to me like it's pretty big.
Speaker 9: Yeah, he has among the highest offensive upside of any
player in the draft. It's just a matter of whether
you think the pace, the skating, the conditioning, we'll call
it like he needs to get stronger, how much all
of that improves, because at five on five he struggled
to be a consistently impactful player in the OHL. This
year power play he was the best player in the
OHL Allected league in power play points.
Speaker 10: With that extra time.
Speaker 9: And space, he's able to use the vision and then
the hands to make plays. With less space, he struggled
to make an impact at least consistently anyway, and as
a goal scorer that was more even strength. He got
to that a little bit more consistently, which is good.
That was the criticism of his coming into the year
because he had a really good rookie year in the OHL,
and one of the criticisms about his game was that
he needed to play through the middle a little more consistently,
and he definitely did that or attempted to do that
this year. So that is encouraging, especially for his goal
scoring numbers as a fantasy player. But in a perfect world,
I think Seattle hopes that he can be like a
twenty five fifty five kind of guy. There's some parallels
you could probably make to a guy like Shane Wright
with Seattle cerebral pivot, somebody that the pace of play
maybe isn't incredibly high and has been a knock on
both of those players. That's why Shane fell to fourth
in his draft year. Obviously O'Brien was drafted right around
where people had him, but the criticism on his game
is similar. So it's definitely interesting to see like both
of those guys and how they fit into Seattle's lineup,
especially if they're wanting to play a higher tempo game.
I don't know if they're going to be able to
do that, but that's a challenge that they're going to
have to figure out.
Speaker 4: Yeah, sure, it's interesting.
Speaker 8: Now he's going to fit in there, but apparently has
been pretty big outside. I think one of the next
big kind of head scratchers for a lot of us
was Jack Nesbib not only that he went a little
earlier than consensus, but that they straight it up to
get him when it seems like he might have been
available when film was pictated in the twenties.
Speaker 4: Maybe not.
Speaker 8: So it definitely was interesting and certainly seems to fit
the type of player that they want. Talks a little
bit about what Nesbit brings in and what kind of
what do I look like in fantasy.
Speaker 10: Yeah, so Nesbit's a huge pivot.
Speaker 9: He loves to play through the middle of the ice,
excels in traffic really strong, and then that front excellent
where redirects excellent. Has a screen, great hands for finishing
off second chances, really good offensive zone anticipation, timing his
his cuts well, works the wall well, strong defensive player,
good on face offs, can take and handle, good and
solid defensive assignments. That's the allure there, Right, You're looking
at potentially an Adam Lowry kind of guy, maybe more
like a Michael Rasmussen kind of guy in Detroit, are
going to handle on that front, but also could possibly
wear a letter in the future, possibly play in all situations.
So I think with where he was drafted, the Flyers
are hoping that as his frame fills out, because he's
pretty lanky still, even though he's playing and succeeding playing
this power game in the OHL, he's pretty leanky. So
when he's playing at six four two twenty, what kind
of game are we going to see from Nesbit? And
I think that's why they took him so early. Is
this is a guy that they're projecting as a potential
playoff performer.
Speaker 10: It's a copycat league.
Speaker 9: You're looking at the teams that have found success in
the playoffs and they've got guys like Nesbit playing in
their lineup and playing key roles. So that's obviously what
Philly's thinking.
Speaker 8: Do you think he has the offensive upside they will
really translate? Because seventy plus point player?
Speaker 4: Is it? Again?
Speaker 8: More like we talked about with Brady and maybe he's
a little bit in at fifty five sixteen five pointment.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I can't see him being like a seventy plus guy.
Speaker 10: I don't think that's going to be his game.
Speaker 9: I don't think he's got the sort of creativity or
pace to do that. I think he's probably more like
a fifty point guy, probably consistently a Lowry as a
comparison he throws out himself. I've seen interviewed multiple times
where he's mentioning Lowry as a player that he wants
to be at the NHL level. So I think you're
probably looking at a guy that might be a consistent
twenty five goal guy, but definitely not a seventy point player.
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 8: Let's talk a little bit about some of the defenseman.
I mean, we think you talk about these guys together.
Shohn Achensen was I think a gift to New York
where they got him. He seems like a raw physical specimens.
I'm not sure how much offensers and he obviously scored
a lot of goals. I don't know if that's going
to fully fans. That's such a hard thing to project
moving forward for defenceman.
Speaker 4: And then we have the.
Speaker 8: We have Cameron Reid going to Nashville, who just seems
like a really interesting player as well. I haven't watched
enough of him to relieve say much. And then Henry
Bristemis being the younger brother of Hunter, and he seems
he's a bit bigger and had similar He plays on London, right,
who tends to subscribe their draft eligibles at least with
some opportunity. So he's someone I could see popping off.
What do you think about those three and who do
you think has the most offense?
Speaker 9: Yeah, I think most offense would be Cam Reid. If
he makes the NHL, that's going to be his bread
and butter. He's going to be a potential power play quarterback.
He's a really strong skater, good transition player. He's definitely
going to be probably the player of those three, or
the choice of those three to make a fantasy impact
in the future. Casan Aherson, you might the offense game
might translate. He's not a strong on puck player. A
lot of his offense that he generates comes from his
play off the puck. Really big shot, really good offensive,
his own instincts, really good at timing his pinches and
getting into the middle of the ice to use that shot. Obviously,
the physicality's going to play too. Again, if you're using
hits as a counting stat in your league, he's going
to pile those up penalty minutes and hits because he's
one of the.
Speaker 10: More physical players available this year. And then you've got
Bruce Davis, who is a bit of a blank canvas.
Speaker 9: At the beginning of the year, before Dickinson and Bank
got back, he was running the power play in London.
Looked good offensively. Those guys get back, he slides more
into a defensive kind of role, pairing with Dickinson a
lot of the time, but there is offensive upside there
as I said, blank canvas as somebody that is raw
that has upside at both ends. That I don't think
we truly know what he's capable of, just based on
the fact that they had to defer a little bit
to higher profile defenders in that London system. So as
you know his game develops that I think we're going
to get a better indication of what kind of upside
he has. I think that people are under selling his
upside a little bit. Actually, I think he can be
a solid two way guy at the NHL level, and
I really liked that pick where they got him.
Speaker 4: That's great.
Speaker 8: Stef can ask you about one more guy real quick,
absolutely so. Simon Wag probably one of the most interesting players.
Obviously didn't play a ton of games in the OHL,
but just start saying organized hockey a few years ago.
Couple that with the fact that he's huge and needs
to fill out and the July twenty seventh birthday, just
there's a huge runway here for development right there, and
there needs to be.
Speaker 4: But what do you think of the rock package?
Speaker 8: It is Simon Wang and the fact that I can
tell you on the ground here the Sharks and the
whole PR team just absolutely love this kid. He's very
personable and it just seems like the kind of kid
who wants to work really hard there and could just
be a really good story. Asides how much interacting might have,
what do you think this impact might be he really
reaches his potential.
Speaker 9: I think that the impact is mostly going to be
from a defensive point of view. I just don't think
he's got the hands of the creativity to be much
of an offensive contributor at the higher levels. I know
his game is very raw. He's the classic project pick.
He's going to be a guy that takes four or
five years before we have a really good indication of
what he's going to be. But the adjustment to the
OHL was a really difficult one for him, especially with
the puck.
Speaker 10: He got a lot.
Speaker 9: Better defensively over the course of the year. I was
really impressed with his defensive play in the OHL playoffs
with Oshawa, and I think that really helped his projection,
because initially he was struggling at both ends with the
pace of play.
Speaker 4: But he is an.
Speaker 9: Unbelievable skater for his size, and that's the allure, right
Like you're hoping that the rest of his game comes
together around those unique physical tools, and as you said,
I've heard amazing things about his character and his work ethics.
So I think he's somebody that's going to work hard
to get better, and you just hope that four or five,
six years down the road that he pulls it all together.
Speaker 10: But I don't.
Speaker 9: See somebody that's going to be an offensive contributor at
the NHL level.
Speaker 10: I think you're.
Speaker 9: Looking at, maybe best case scenario, somebody like what you're
seeing in Dallas with William Bischell. I think that kind
of young defender, mobile big can kill the transition game
of your opponent with the size and skating ability and
the aggressiveness defensively. That's I think why teams were looking
at him so early. I don't know if any teams
truly believe that the offensive upside is significant. I think
they're looking at him being a potentially very impactful defensive player.
Speaker 8: I think you'd get that meanstream pixel seems to have,
or maybe just more the aggressiveness.
Speaker 9: Again, I think this is a player who doesn't really
know what he is yet.
Speaker 10: I think that's.
Speaker 9: Again like part of it, right, This is a project
pick for a reason.
Speaker 5: I think.
Speaker 9: I think that can be coached into him. I think
that he doesn't really know how to use his size
consistently as a defensive player.
Speaker 10: Yet I saw some games of his this year, both.
Speaker 9: At the Junior A level and in the OHL, where
he absolutely ran over guys and just for lack of
a better term, rag guys like he. He is a
strong young man, and I think that when the light
bulb goes off that you know, I can do whatever
I want physically. That's going to take his game potentially
to another level. And I think that aggressiveness can be
added into his game, can be coached into his game,
and we'll see what happens there.
Speaker 4: Awesome, great Stef.
Speaker 8: Thanks so much for doing this, Brock, and I hope
you get to enjoy in person next year wherever the
draft banking.
Speaker 10: Yeah, thanks Victor for my pleasure.
Speaker 4: Sim annoying Sharks your season jumping from junior into the
HL with Oshawa.
Speaker 5: How much did your.
Speaker 11: Game grow as the season went along jumping between two teams.
Speaker 12: I think my game grow mature, like, way too mature,
just as system playing against better players just make me
a different player, and going into next year, it's only
going to help my development even more.
Speaker 11: And how much do you think that playoff run with
helps showcase you to NHL teams.
Speaker 12: I think showcase me that I can play the against
the best team in the OHL and show my confidence
regarding some of my ice time and just how competitive
I am as a player.
Speaker 7: You're a young guy, but it's already been long journey.
How he will to be back at back?
Speaker 10: Whar you're here?
Speaker 4: You start to.
Speaker 7: Getting here, I think it's I'm just getting started.
Speaker 12: I never really know this game how I was supposed
to be played until fourteen, So I'm.
Speaker 7: Always the underdog.
Speaker 12: I always have distance to catch up, so I.
Speaker 7: Still have to hunger in me, so I have to
drive that. I got to get better every single day
to catch up to them.
Speaker 12: And that's why I'm probably one of the most.
Speaker 7: Unique guy in the draft class right now.
Speaker 10: What does it mean you to be there a Chinese
ports player of.
Speaker 13: Drafting in the NHL.
Speaker 12: It's definitely special and I hope I've inspired a lot
of kids back home and hopefully one day my record
get broken again, someone going in the first round, maybe
the top ten. That's probably the ultimate goal for Chinese hockey.
And I think still definitely come on that is gonna
make a huge impact on the game.
Speaker 10: Which first game do you prefer going forward?
Speaker 12: I think let's Simon because it's more simple for North
American terms.
Speaker 11: What's the player you're going to go to college and
what's that playing for over the next couple of seasons.
Speaker 12: So next year I'm looking forward to go back to
OHL and keep developing my game.
Speaker 7: Throughout both sides, and the year after.
Speaker 12: If I dominated the league and did what I wanted
to do in the league, I want to go to
college and keep developing over there and eventually turn pro.
Speaker 11: And then you there's a lot of parks who in
Michael message and Shorts picked yesterday, And of course you
guys played against like Sam Nikotson. What some of those
guys eventually your teammates and speak to anybout any of
those guys.
Speaker 13: I think they're just great players and ultimate competitors.
Speaker 12: Playing against Sam Dickinson in the finals, see how he competes,
how he played the game, really opened my eyes a
little bit and learned a ton from.
Speaker 7: Him as well, creaking down with his films.
Speaker 13: And I haven't played against Michael yet. He all's growing up.
Speaker 7: He allays playing Europe, so.
Speaker 12: Too good for me, but eventually we'll be teammates, hopefully.
Speaker 14: Jacob Brian Seattle crack him and they have.
Speaker 15: A good young team eyears Machine right coming up. So
I'm really excited to get going here. I'm really excited
for the future of this team, but I just can't
wait to get out there.
Speaker 4: Have young players and Shane right.
Speaker 5: He grew up in Toronto on.
Speaker 9: Ohl Okay of the year, So if you did, if
you have intersected with him and then.
Speaker 12: At all of them enough times.
Speaker 13: I've never met him in Minorrockey.
Speaker 15: I've always watched him, but I'm a really good don
Nell's team growing up. I've always watched him and that
was pretty cool watching him grow up get exceptional staffs
and stuff. Yeah, I'm actual really excited to meet him
and I can't wait be cracking.
Speaker 4: I'll talk about what do you know about the CEO
Seattle or anything.
Speaker 13: Though I don't know much obviously the Seahawks. Hopefully I'll
get to go to a game one day.
Speaker 5: That'll be pretty cool.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm really excited.
Speaker 15: There's a hard work in being humble, just going into
each day not can hear the best and just getting
to work every day and be getting better right after
this and when you get right back to working into
the gym, and i'lly make it that to the NHL
one day. It was the next area if your natives
just my face offs and my first three steps, I
feel like I need to get a little bit better
at my skating ability and then just working on my
face offs, getting in the gym, getting stronger.
Speaker 5: What if the boys Ranford Bulldogs just meant to getting
you to this?
Speaker 13: Yeah, just making a place at home in the OHL.
Speaker 15: Obviously, when you're a rookie in the league, you're really
nervous getting there and meeting the new guys and meeting
the new team.
Speaker 13: So they've just been great to me, a great organization.
Really well, we're on. I just can't think enough for
getting me here. What does it say about the league?
Speaker 5: Five of the top eight takes of this draft all
coming from the OHLS. Do you guys feel like it's
been a great banner.
Speaker 16: Year for this league?
Speaker 10: Then?
Speaker 15: Yeah, for sure, it's great competed against those guys throughout
the year when I feel like the OHL is the
premiere destination for high talent, so yeah, it's just going
against them each and every year.
Speaker 13: It was really fun. Kind of player are they getting
out of you?
Speaker 4: With everything you know?
Speaker 13: Close according to plan?
Speaker 4: What do you expect?
Speaker 13: A very high howkedech q smart player.
Speaker 15: I'm very good at finding my teammates through little holes
and little seams.
Speaker 13: I'm a good two wonder four player, and I make
those around me better.
Speaker 17: I go working on shooting a little bit more was
important than emphasis for you this season. How have you
felt like that's surrounded out your game?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 13: I think just how's my passing too?
Speaker 15: I feel like I feel like I'm a very good
passer and just being able to have the ability to
shoot fools goaltenders and fools defenders.
Speaker 13: I just got to keep working on and hopefully score
more goals next year.
Speaker 4: He's a reason you have some bad draft. Franks the
only damon kenih hes s please now to be joined
by the Cam Robinson, director of film Scouting at Elite
Prospects and content Director, which is a really fun title.
How are you doing, Kim?
Speaker 16: Yeah, I'm doing well, Buddy slogging through the day too
with the draft here, as always.
Speaker 4: It seemed to be taking a very long time. When
you say I.
Speaker 16: Actually I set the over under it at six hours
and we're at what do we at here?
Speaker 4: Four and a half?
Speaker 10: So I think we're gonna come on the under.
Speaker 16: Which at least that's pretty good Vegas last year, I
think it was like three and a half. We were
home and cooled, so it's yeah, it's dragging a.
Speaker 4: Bit for sure. We love hearing your thoughts. I know
this class is a little underwhelming, but I know that
there's some teams that you liked and did pretty well,
so I know Calgary is.
Speaker 1: One of them.
Speaker 4: You want to talk a little bit about a couple
of their picks.
Speaker 16: Yeah, for the Flames, I think that they've done really well.
Grabbing Reshni at what was at twenty something like that.
I really like that pick for them. An eighteen high
upside kid. Wonder if he's going to be a center
the next level, but loads and loads of skill, obviously
going to North Dakota next year. I think that's a
great pick for them. Thirty two Colin Potter. Yeah, he's
five foot nine, but maybe the best skater in the
entire draft class as far as like straight ahead speed.
He's just got to now take the next step on
how he can best use that speed to get to
the inside. Going down the board there, I like Theo Stokselias.
He plays like a heavy game, has some skill over
there in Sweden. Another like high upside pick in the second.
So I thought the Flames has done Aden Lane late
here too. I think that they've the scouts obviously did
the work and then Craig Conroy executed, and I think
that they've done well for their positions. But I think
the Real like a couple other teams to the Islanders,
obviously shave for the top special talent. But you know
that no adopts in trade wasn't going to look so
good if it was like Dobson for a couple mid
picks in the first round in a week draft class.
So they got very fortunate Victor Eckland super high on him.
I think I had him eight on my board, and
to nab him at sixteen tremendous value. And then kashon
his in the next pick is arguably my favorite player
in this whole class, just on personality, game, throwback style.
I thought that those were terrific picks for them too,
and then they kept it going. I'm trying to look
here who they got on day two. I'm trying to remember,
Oh pro croff right, they've just been going like high
upside picks to look Romano like they've just impure upside picks,
which is really nice to see. I thought, Philly, I
like their Portomarton pick at six, so they thought that
was a great pick. Didn't like them trading out for
Jack Nesbit at twelve or whatever they got him. Thought
they could have just sat and if he was there
at twenty two, just take them and if he wasn't,
take a skill player there. Obviously they have a mandate
they're going big. But there are Day two picks Amaco, Murtag,
Van Sagy, Matthew Guard like huge dudes other than Murtag,
but good value. So their second round was awesome, so
if they made up for that too, Yeah, those are
the ones that really jump out to me.
Speaker 4: One and I wanted to ask you about is Justin Carboneau.
I think he was one of my favorite of the
after fifteen sort of picks after Eckland. But he seems
like a guy who has pretty significant upside. Do you
think he can reach that top line potential?
Speaker 16: Top line might be tough, but as far as like
handles go, like one of the best handlers in the
whole class. I was mandate in the que this year,
especially early on, was like I'm a dieg everybody and
then see what's up. And I did evolved throughout the
season a little bit more to play a kind of
a maybe like a heavier game nor south. When we
saw him do that at the USA Shell chl whatever
Top prospects game where he was on a third line
and he was chipping and and getting in on the
for check he does. He reminds me a little bit
about Ryan Leonard, to be honest with you, maybe not
as skilled as Leonard and maybe not as ferocious as Leonard,
but I kind of maybe a lighter version sort of thing.
And he might end up at Boston College too, so
maybe he's gonna be aligned me with Jimmy Haggins next
year too, and replaced Leonard there. So for Saint Louis
at that spot, I like it a lot. I think
it's a really great upside on him. Probably more let's
project to a second line role rather than expecting like
a first liner who could push for a point a game.
But I do think he's a good prospect and a
nice value.
Speaker 4: Awesome. I wanted to ask you just about a couple
of the guys in the top ten, if you don't
mind deyo A. Do you think he's a guy who
can really hit that high points upside or is he
just going to be like a really strong two way
kind of guy.
Speaker 16: Yeah, I expect he's going to be more of a
two way guy that's going to be able to match
up well and playing in all situations. And he plays.
Speaker 10: He has skill, he has a good brain.
Speaker 16: I think the thing I'm looking for out of Caleb
is to produce in more professional style ways. And so
at this point he can tear up the que and
junior leagues with is like the cerebral slow it down
approach where it's like he needs to add more pace
to his game to be able to bring that with
him to the NHL. But he's a hard worker, he's
got good size, he plays the mill the ice like.
I got no problem with him at forty Utah. I
think that's like right in the range where he could
have gone that four to eight range. He could have
blended those guys up, no problem. I would have been
fined with any order. But yeah, I think more expect
him to be like a fifty sixty sixty five point
guy sort of thing.
Speaker 4: Would you say same about Martin? Not same type of player,
but in terms of points upside, maybe a little bit
more muted.
Speaker 16: Yeah, he's probably gonna be a guy who puts up
fifty to fifty five points in the regular season, but
then you're gonna look for him to elevate in the playoffs,
right when the whistles go away and all of a sudden,
like a big hit can change the complexion of a
game and change the energy and get the bench going.
He's gonna be a fan favorite. And it's so easy
to comp to Sam Bennett, And that's like the style
that he plays, and that's who he mimics is That's.
Speaker 4: Who he's going to look to become.
Speaker 16: Is that someone who can you can rely upon, is
like a good second line center throughout the year, but
then someone who can really jump up. And we see
that some guys can put up eighty ninet one hundred
points in the regular season and then be a ghost
in the playoffs.
Speaker 5: And it's like, what would you prefer?
Speaker 16: Would you rather someone who puts up fifty in the
regular season and then goes off for ten twelve, fifteen,
goals in the playoffs where you don't really drives play.
It's yeah, you're probably gonna want that, but you also
have to have the luxury of having like super skilled
guys around him all year to get you to that
point in the first place.
Speaker 4: Us for fantasy, we only care about the regular season.
Speaker 5: Yeah, fair enough.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, So I know we're looking forward to this
going back in person. Any insight in that. I haven't
heard anything official, but a lot of grumblings seem to
suggest that.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 16: So Gary Batman said that they're going to put it
back to the teams this summer. I was just texting
with the GM and he said, I sure hope that
he's going to give us a chance to vote for it,
because I want to go back.
Speaker 4: And same guy.
Speaker 16: Actually said at the sphere to me last year as
we were walking by, He's like, what have we done?
Speaker 5: Given this up?
Speaker 16: And so I think that I think a lot of
teams have an appetite to go back to it. And
I think that that first round last night, four and
a half hours, the techna, the tech issues, the awkwardness,
but the guys talking on zoom calls. It was brutal
and I can't see it's the NHL, so I really
I could see it happening, But to run it back
like this with a straight face is going to be
really difficult to do.
Speaker 4: And I know that Gary Bettman, he doesn't want it,
he doesn't like it.
Speaker 16: It's the uniqueness of the NHL Draft is something that
they had over the other big sports, and so now
we've stepped away from that and this I don't think
you could call this a success this year. So yes,
I'm really hoping it goes back. And I've been hearing
for months that there is an appetite to go back
and have it in Montreal on a regular basis, whether
that's every year, every second year, or they have a
three city kind of rotation, maybe it's Montreal, maybe it's Vegas,
and then they toss it to a different team. So
I think there's a lot of viable options out there,
But first things first this summer. I think we'll hear
about it in August, and I'll try to keep a
beat on it. Is that they'll get a vote in there.
I think the vote was twenty six to six in
favor of going decentralized last time, so we'll be looking
for that to flip this time around.
Speaker 4: Awesome, Thanks so much, Cam for your time. Yeah, of course.
Speaker 14: But Port of Marton in Philadelphia Flyers.
Speaker 18: And hear my name about Flyers with such a book
store organization and such great people.
Speaker 2: I was thrilled and I was very happy.
Speaker 13: What's your experience like in the world, Chap, It was amazing.
Speaker 18: I went over there and I got to surround myself
with NHL players and really learned the NHL lifestyle. So
for me going there, there's three Flowers there, so I
don't know quite a bit about the Flowers organization, and.
Speaker 2: They treated me very well and I'm excited to be
teammates with them.
Speaker 5: So it's going to good that.
Speaker 4: Like, what's your next best attribute?
Speaker 2: I think my hockey IQ. I think I make around
people around me better.
Speaker 18: I think I I get cee is very well, and
I think I know what the difference is when to
pass and shoot.
Speaker 13: Couldn't you grow this year one moment?
Speaker 18: But do you think about how your game has come
as the year is now? I think I grew in
a lot of aspects. I think I became a more
complete player. I think I grew as a leader, and
I think I just grew as an overall person. I
wanted to go on the rink every day and make
myself better each day, make myself a little bit better,
and that's something I really focused on and I think
I did that.
Speaker 2: And to be at the stage now and draft the
NHL is pretty special. Well of this deal has to
mean to getting into this world n I couldn't be
here without them.
Speaker 18: They traded for me when I was sixteen years old,
and you know what, it's such a great organization. They've
done so much development with me, but they've really trusted
me and built a kind of core piece around my
Drew Barren.
Speaker 2: I can't thank James jug From general manager.
Speaker 18: And head coach, Eliot Kurt and and board there for
the owners there and honestly, such a great organization, and
they'd done a lot for my development.
Speaker 4: I'm not sure I was working at it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was pretty special. I never thought that would
ever happen.
Speaker 4: Joy now by Anthony Donati the prospect on from Draft
Prospects Hockey. Here to talk about some of the guys
that are a little bit interesting in this draft. I think,
first of all, how you doing. Has the draft been?
Speaker 10: Yeah, it's great.
Speaker 1: It's my first draft experience, but seeing a lot of
these guys get drafted, who if you've talked to for
the last year, it's kind of like a graduation day.
Speaker 4: So it is nice to see it unfold. Super fun. Yeah,
it's been a great experience. Definitely different than the other
ones here in LA but it's been a fun time.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, for sure sphere Obviously, everybody was talking about
the ambiance just being there. I think we're a little
higher up in the standings, a little nosebleed area, and
I do that because it gets my feet wet and
I get the bird's eye view of everything.
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure, it has been fun. So we're gonna'm
to ask you about some of the guys that were
a little bit interesting. We'll start off with Ben Kendall,
who maybe a little bit earlier than some might have thought.
But what do you think Pittsburgh is getting and he's
he gonna be a good fantasy asset.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So Ben Kendall, obviously his rise was a little
interesting for the average fan, but this guy was. His
scoring output, especially in overtime games of the playoffs, was
absolutely ridiculous. This guy had about five game winning overtime goals.
He's very clutch, incredible offensively. I think that his skating
needs a little work, but he's very fast, so it's
just all around helping his skating game. I think that
he's going to be able to put up a bunch
of point totals in miider hockey, so I think that'll
help his game go into the NHL. He's got to
work on some things, but I think Pittsburgh is going
to be getting somebody that they drafted eleven overall. It
was a surprise, and then they traded out for their
next pick. But this is a guy that has a
lot of upside, a lot of raw skill. I think
offensively he's going to be able to to use his
strengths to outweigh his weaknesses a little bit on defense
and as well as the skating.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I think he's.
Speaker 1: Gonna for fantasy hockey reasons, he's going to be a
good asset.
Speaker 4: I have awesome I'd love to hear that. Let's talk
about some of the Calgary picks. I know that you
thought they were interesting and so Cole Retchney went eighteenth overall,
and I think that he probably wasn't a huge reach
or anything. But what do you think that the Flames
are getting and is he someone that we should be
targeting at fantasy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Cole Reginie. No one helped their case more than him.
In the last two months of the season. This guy
was putting up numbers. Like Yavin McKenna, I really do
like his game offensively skilled. Again, he is an under
six foot forward that has some skating issues.
Speaker 2: He's not the best.
Speaker 1: Like Colin Potter. They took two players that have opposite strengths,
but their skills are very similar as well, like strength
and skill.
Speaker 7: It could be considered the same.
Speaker 1: But the thing is like they do two things very differently,
where Colin Potter relies on his skating a lot and
Reginie is going to He's like an offensive guru in
the offensive zone. So it's just given him some time
and space and he's going to be able to bury
the puck. Especially, those two players are going to be
able to put up some fantasy numbers. I think that
Calgary got a super steal with both of them, and
they're not afraid to draft under six ft players, so
they're going to give them an opportunity to play top
six minutes.
Speaker 10: In my opinion, if they make it to the NHL.
Speaker 1: I think they're both going to so I think they're
both steals, and I think this class is a little
deeper than we think.
Speaker 4: Both these guys did well and going off to college,
you think they could both pop off next year and
or I guess Potter was already in the NCAA, but
the resting could pop off next year.
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So the thing about Colin Potter is he's more physically
developed than some of these other guys that didn't go
to the NCAA level because they're working out four times
a week, they're skating, they're not losing all those calories.
Playing eighty two games or eighty plus in the COCHL
or USNTDP, you play a little less. But I think
that Colan Potter showed that he can play with the
physicality playing against twenty two to twenty five year olds
in the NCAA. And I think that he's going to
have a lot better season than some of these guys
because he has that year under his belt. Yeah, so, Reginie,
it's going to take a little bit of a adjustment period.
But the thing is he is so offensively skilled. Then
I think that he's going to put up point totals regardless.
Speaker 4: Another one that you mentioned was interesting. We were all
waiting for Malcolm Spence, thought he might be one of
the first couple of picks. He ends up going forty
eighth in New York. I always worried some of the
New York Ranger prospects tend to have a difficult time developing.
So does that worry you at all? Or do he's
just so good he's going to figure it out.
Speaker 1: No matter what. Yeah, I think that this guy's going
to be a middle six player in the NHL.
Speaker 4: His offensive skill set showed a lot, especially in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: This guy plays with an intensity, like his physicality is good,
he can, he's a really good playmaker, and he has.
Speaker 10: A high offensive IQ.
Speaker 1: So I actually feel like the drop was surprising, to
say the least. I thought this guy was going to
be a mid twenties pick. At least his over under
was obviously twenty four and a half on some of
these vetting odds. But I just feel like this is
the kind of guy you want on your team because
he is obviously like best friends with Matthew Schaeffer and
Michael Misa.
Speaker 10: He was roommates with at the combine.
Speaker 4: He's just one of.
Speaker 1: Those guys that players that are at a high level
want to be friends with. He has this kind of
aura to him. So I really do like malcolms buns
and I was completely surprised Tefel.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, surprising any other guys after the first round
that you think we should really be targeting as first
rounders in fantasy.
Speaker 1: Lyndon Lakovich at twenty seven I think was the steal
of the draft. This guy is so offensively skilled. He's
basically a six or five to ten forward and six
four body. He just doesn't know how to use his
body that yet. When he first joined the WHL, this
guy was just trying to dangle through multiple defenders, trying
to get the highlight play, and then it was more
of a trying to figure out how to play that
two hundred foot game, and I think he did. Second
half of the season, Moustraw won a championship, so he
was bored out there last season. This season he had
a really rough time because obviously the team was retooling.
Speaker 13: They didn't have what they used to have.
Speaker 1: So I just like that a second round or Vaslav Nestrosil,
I want to talk about it twenty five for the Blackhawks.
This guy has absurd amount of potential. He's going to
UMass next year. It's just a player that you want
to have on your fantasy team because this guy can
just pop at any time.
Speaker 7: He has the four brothers.
Speaker 1: One of them got drafted in the third round of
to the Red Wings way back when Andre Nestrassil.
Speaker 7: They think he is going to be.
Speaker 1: A very good player. His family and I've talked to
his family a bunch. I think this guy is in
a steal. Second round picks that I think was pretty
good were outside of the first round. Ivan Reapkin, fell
A Ton, I think that what sixty one to the Hurricanes.
Zorowsky at thirty four, I think is a really good
pick for the Halves. Malviolm Spence, like we had said,
Simon Wang, who was the first pick of the second round,
I think he has a tremendous amount of upside to
be interesting to see how he plays at the n
C Double A level going to Boston. If he shows
that he can translate, it's gonna be really good because
he's a great skater. So those players I think are
absolute steals are stashing stashing the play players for you
on your team.
Speaker 4: Awesome, thanks so much to enjoy the rest of the draft.
Speaker 7: Yeah, thank you so much for having.
Speaker 14: Met Colin Potter recovery Flames.
Speaker 13: What's something you wanted?
Speaker 17: I think, just use my speed effectively and in bold
zones defensively and obviousively, and just put on some more
muscles top two to get some get stronger. I'll play
in the HL some by being able to go against
those guys that are six three, six four, and they're
super strong too.
Speaker 7: I gotta get stronger.
Speaker 17: I think those are the two main things I'm focusing on.
And obviously you will get better at scoring and all
the regular stuff.
Speaker 4: Think I do a good job.
Speaker 17: Talking how you talk to them before, not recently, but
obviously it's just cool to see their journey and I
tell them see how.
Speaker 4: They're progressing to.
Speaker 14: Lyndon Lakovich Washington Capitol.
Speaker 19: So I can know what to expect, and I'm just
excited to get there and meet all their all their prospects.
I've never been to Washington before, so I'm really looking
forward to getting down there. I know, like I've played
against Parasac and I've played against the Crystal growing up
and those are the kind of the guys that I.
Speaker 5: Probably know the best.
Speaker 19: But I'm looking forward to going down there and meet
new people.
Speaker 4: For sure, those playing the.
Speaker 6: Most warriorself can get to this point.
Speaker 13: Yeah, Moose's done so much for me.
Speaker 19: Their coaching staff and Jason, Mark, Scott and Curtis, They've
done a lot for me and and they've really helped
me develop my tenterfoot game and build confidence for myself to.
Speaker 5: To play my game.
Speaker 4: And I'm here now and a lot of credit goes
out to them.
Speaker 11: You mentioned Crystal Parasak I am talented to get you
get to play against.
Speaker 4: In the Western League?
Speaker 5: Yeah, how much you're playing against that caliber of town.
Speaker 7: Playing go Yeah, absolutely a ton of Western League.
Speaker 19: It's it's such a good league for developing and you
see those players and they're gonna be All Stars in
the NHL hopefully someday. And I try and lead myself
on that same path. But playing against that level of
talent's definitely helped me and that's going to continue to
help me.
Speaker 4: I think you want a.
Speaker 2: WHL championship or it's two seasons ago.
Speaker 4: How much I deal learnin involved winning?
Speaker 19: Like, Yeah, definitely a lot. I think I learned how
to buy into a role, and at the end of
the day, that's what you're gonna need to do to
win a championship. If that's you're told to score goals,
if you're totally go be on the for check and
play physical, you're gonna do that. And if you get
your whole team buying into their role, it's going to click.
And you have a family, and I think that's what
I can carry on into the next level.
Speaker 4: For those who haven't seen you play, how would you
describe your game?
Speaker 19: The Yeah, I think I'm a big two way dual
threat score. He plays with a lot of pace and
hot good hockey IQ I think, and I think I'm
a really good score when I get the opportunity. I'm
also really good at creating the space for myself and
I think one of my best.
Speaker 4: So that's what I'm doing, all right. Please to be
joined by rus Cohen, Sportsology, NHL Draft Buzz, and Elite Prospects.
How you doing, Russ, I'm doing good, Victor. How are you?
I'm doing awesome. As everyone might have heard, you're the
reason I got credentials here, so I'm very grateful to
that and it's been a really fun time.
Speaker 10: Oh, you're welcome.
Speaker 20: Look, I would rather give him to Peter, but Peter
didn't come. I'm kidding, I'm kiddy.
Speaker 5: All good.
Speaker 4: Pete's going to hear that and be very happy.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure.
Speaker 4: So this has been a very long ordeal. I can't
wait till we go back in person. There's been word
of that, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 10: We think it's going to happen next year.
Speaker 20: Stuff's starting to leak out, but we won't hear anything
concrete for months, all.
Speaker 4: Right, So I know our listeners want to hear about
maybe some guys that went a little later in the
NHL draft that have some pretty significant upside. And I
know that we were all waiting as Victor Ecklund fell
and fell and the Islanders get him at sixteen seems
like pretty good value. What do you think his upside is.
Speaker 20: I think his upside is a top liner, top line wing.
I think he could get sixty five seventy points a year.
I think he'll get physically stronger. He's already an elite
skater fast. His edgework is terrific. I asked him about
his usage at the World Juniors, and he was polite
and said he just did what they asked, so they didn't.
So if you go by and look up the world
junior numbers, it's not what he could really do. This
year will be a big will be a different story.
He's actually a very charming guy like he He's just
an honest, really good hockey player. And I think he's
better than William. So William got like sixty three points
this year, and I think he'll do better than that.
Speaker 4: On a bad team. And so the question is will
the Islanders be good enough when he's time and will
he command that top power play time? I think is
one of the questions too. It sounds like you think
he will.
Speaker 20: He's top power play. Can I tell you the Islanders
will be good in the future. I do not have
a Crystal Walder.
Speaker 4: Yeah sounds good. I'll wait till you get that and
it'll be good for everybody. Go to the next guy,
Malcolm Spence, who went to the island to the Rangers
at forty three. I know he was someone also that
we said at the end of day one he's gonna
go pretty soon, and he went a little later than
we thought. But what do you think his upside is?
Speaker 20: Yeah, he went later. I think he's a second line talent.
I think he's a second line winger. I like the
way he can control the play. He's a high character guy,
Like he's just a really good guy on and off
the ice. But he can get to the net.
Speaker 10: He can make great passes.
Speaker 20: Actually, for a guy that doesn't look like he's going
to be able to like make a nice finesse pass,
he can do it.
Speaker 10: So he's dangerous.
Speaker 20: If he retrieves the puck in the corner, he's gonna
find someone in scoring position. So he's gonna put up
some points in the NHL. I'm probably like a fifty
to fifty five point guy, but I really do like him.
The strength is gonna be good, and I think he
just plays that that controlling kind of game, that puck
control kind of game.
Speaker 10: Control shifts and.
Speaker 4: It seems like the kind of guy when the spaces
get tight and in the playoffs, he might be someone
who performs a little bit better.
Speaker 5: Yeah, no question.
Speaker 20: If you get him in that situation, he's going to
be a lot for any defenseman.
Speaker 10: To handle it.
Speaker 4: All right, now, I know we didn't have any usn
TTB guys that finished the year with the program. Drafted
on day one, but we had a bunch on day
two in the second round. And I know you wanted
to highlight a guy who I don't really know that
much about, so I can't wait to hear you talk
about him, and that's Conrad Foondric, who is going off
to be you next year. What do you think his
upside is? And obviously we could potentially see him pop
off at BU if things go well.
Speaker 10: I think he will.
Speaker 20: He had kind of an up and down season. I
think he had injuries. I think he was on and
off the power play. He's got a tremendous shot, but
I will say he needs to work on the accuracy
on that for the shooting percentage factor. But the SHOT's there,
and so he has that. He has good speed, he
knows how to play the game, he has a good
hockey IQ. This was just a derailed season for him,
and so I think he's one of those guys that
if you put him on your.
Speaker 10: List, you'll see he'll do very well in.
Speaker 20: College and I think he has a very good chance
of being an NHL or for how many games, I
don't know that's going to be up to him, but
he's got the tools.
Speaker 4: He also just turned eighteen a few weeks ago, so
he seems like he's got a pretty long runway to improve.
Speaker 20: He does, he's got a lot of runway, and he's
a mature guy, and so I really.
Speaker 4: Do like him, all right. One of the other really
interesting players is Ben Keevan. He went to New Jersey
at the end of the second and he's someone who
didn't play. Actually he played for des Moines this year.
He's going off to Arizona State next year. Played a
little bit with the program and then at the UA teens,
tell me a little bit about what you think about him?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I really like him.
Speaker 20: When I was covering the Fall Classic, I asked for
an interview before one of the games, and during that game,
he got banged up very early in the game. And
it's game number two on the season, and so all
of a sudden I got a note, Hey, if you
want to interview him, you could talk to him while
he's going to get X rayed on his wrist. And
so I did the interview on the fly with him
him walking to the X ray room, and I felt like,
this kid's pretty good if he could keep it together,
like this knowing that he's going to be out for
a while, Like he had to have known that, and he.
Speaker 10: Gave me a really good interview.
Speaker 20: He's a good skater, he gave a drive play at times.
He is a very good offensive player, and he is
hard to handle because of his edgework. So I feel
like he's a guy that it's one of these seasons
where you know it didn't fit in for whatever reason
at the NTDP, but he has offense and so like
from a fantasy perspective, this is the kind of guy
that you can get like extra offense out of and
he became like a fifty point guy.
Speaker 10: It would not shock me.
Speaker 4: Also, fun fact, he was born about fifteen minutes from
where I work in California, so not the easiest place
to develop a strong pedigree and strong competition. So he
had a really interesting development curve and he found his
way to the USHL. So certainly there seems like there's
a lot of runway here. Once he's only been playing
against top competition for a year or two now, so
it seems like he's still finding his way.
Speaker 20: No, he is, and that's one of the things I
spoke to him about was he's proud of that California
connection because years ago, like Emerson, Edam kind of was
like the guy for that at a long beach. But
now there's quite a few guys that have come out
of California and he could be that next one that
people all of a sudden say like four or five
years later.
Speaker 4: Hey, that guy's out of where is he?
Speaker 20: Like, it's near Fairfield, I don't know, somewhere around somewhere
in California.
Speaker 4: Somewhere in California is where a lot of people are from.
So thanks so much for us, and hopefully we'll be
back to the regular in person draft next year and
that'll be.
Speaker 10: Fun, yeah, I hope.
Speaker 1: So see if.
Speaker 4: All right, please to be joined by Shane molloy of
Hockey Prospect Radio. How you doing, Shane? Doing great?
Speaker 3: Just patiently waiting for the long draft process on the
second day to end. That's what happens when the NHL
teams are in their own war rooms and they can't
be cattle product to move a little bit quicker. So
sometimes it's I like those, but it's like hurting cats.
Speaker 4: Pretty ready to go back to the traditional format, aren't you?
Speaker 3: One hundred percent? It's one it's better for the league
in terms of marketing and branding. We can't replicate from
an industry standpoint how much that marketing and branding means,
and if we had to pay for it as an industry,
we I don't think we could afford it, so we
need to go back to the traditional format. It was
a nice try, but I don't think it produced the
results that the NHL would want.
Speaker 4: We're sitting here at the end of day two and
there are barely any people here, so I think that
speaks a lot as to how it went.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's empty, unfortunately, and it's I think Steve Maher
did Yeomen's work considering you got to think about all
the technology that's required to link all those thirty two
teams together, bus prospects and get make sure all this
technology works.
Speaker 2: That's a lot of variables and balls.
Speaker 4: In the air.
Speaker 3: And I told them last night after day one and
I said, look, that was like impressive to watch you
try to put all that together and your team put
that together.
Speaker 2: So I give them a lot at credit.
Speaker 3: I think based on the situation that he was put in,
I thought that it went as well as possibly you
could have because the technology could have completely collapsed on them.
Like we marvel in our technology, the more we use
it in a situation rely on it, it's gonna fail
on us.
Speaker 13: So sometimes simple is better for sure.
Speaker 4: All Right, we're excited to have you to talk about
some of the players. We're gonna start with a couple
of the first round players who maybe not as exciting
in fantasy. So we'll start with Jack Nesbid, who was
certainly one of the surprises I would say of the
first round when a little earlier than we thought, do
you think he's someone who can live up to his
potential in fantasy?
Speaker 2: Really had twelve that's really high.
Speaker 3: It really depends on whether he's second gets second up
power play time and whether he develops into a second
line center if his skating improves. If it doesn't, then
he and then it being a really elite third line center,
but then may not get the power play time or
the offensive zone starts to produce that type of offense
in a fantasy league. So there are players in the
draft where we see, oh, he got drafted really high,
but that player doesn't translate to fantasy hockey. So he
would be the first one that I would jump out
at and look at and then Baklav Nestro would be
the other one because he's the big, strong player could
end up playing maybe playing the bumper position, but again,
if his game doesn't translate to a second line, then
he's not going to get the offensive zone starts.
Speaker 4: And then again that can he play on the power play?
Speaker 13: Is he's the bumper position on.
Speaker 3: A second unit and how much points does he get
from there? So the two players that I targeted in
the first round that I don't think are necessarily fantasy players,
but it could end up being really good NHL players
that happens, and it would be those two players.
Speaker 4: Do you think it helps that Chicago doesn't really have
that player to in their system that maybe he could
end up being that bumper power play kind of guy.
Speaker 3: That's a possibility. He may have been a guy that
you have to wait and see how that plays out.
And he might be in the middle part of his
career where ok, he's twenty three, twenty four and they
start giving them more opportunities because they don't have the
big bodies, so he'll get opportunity just by default.
Speaker 2: So it's just something to monitor.
Speaker 3: But I would have if I've been a keeper league
that's not a guy that I'm drafting on purpose.
Speaker 4: All right, let's slip to some positives, some guys that
went a little bit later that maybe a little bit
more exciting. And Blake Fiddler is someone after day one
we were saying probably one of the best available, and
he ends up going to Seattle. Really big, rangy kid
with a lot of runway, very young for this draft
class too. What do you think of his upside?
Speaker 3: The other thing is because he's going to Seattle, if
you look at their farm team, they don't have any defenseman,
so you know he's gonna get pushed into action, and
I think he has because he's so young and raw,
there's an opportunity for him to continue to grow in
that area in a couple of years and develop more
of that offensive punch in his game. So I think
that's a nice secondary value for you. And then second
second player is Malcolm Spence because coaches love big bodied
wingers who can skate fast and are responsible defensively, So
he may end up being on a second line on
a wing to insulate two more skilled players, and he's
going to get extra points by being with those two
players because you can kill penalties having a big body
who can skate and is defensively responsible. That may not
sound sexy in the way I say it, but you
get points because you're on that line and you're going
to get more offensive zone starts. And he's another guy
because he has good hands, can end up being in
a bumper position on a second unit of power play,
so you might get some additional value out of a
second round.
Speaker 10: Or like those two.
Speaker 4: Players, New York Rangers don't have the best track record
of developing their prospects. Does that concern you at all?
Or is Spence just such a good player that he's
going to figure out. I think it depends on how
patient they are with him.
Speaker 3: So it's great that he's going to college because he
needed to challenge himself and play against not eighteen and
a half year old players, but twenty one and a
half to twenty two year old players and get bigger
and stronger. And I know that sounds weird because he's
already a big kid, but he also has to push
a lot of weight around the ice so develop that
man strength. So I think if they're Rangers are patient
with him and they don't put them in the American
Hockey league right away. Maybe he comes in as a
twenty one year old instead of a twenty year old.
I think that would be beneficial to his development.
Speaker 4: All right, So one of the more interesting prospects that
coming into the year people were talking about, and instead
records as a D minus one Ivan ray Apkin. He
ends up going sixty two to Carolina. I know some
people are really excited about the offensive ability there, But
what do you think in terms of would you shy
away from drafting a player like that?
Speaker 3: Yes, because it's primarily just his dedication. What his body
looks like is self discipline. If if you're not a
highly disciplined athlete, I think you're gonna have a lot
of problems trying to get by just on talent, because
you can't.
Speaker 2: So if he.
Speaker 3: Doesn't change his habits in his off the ice, I
think he's gonna have a hard time playing in the NHL.
He could be a guy that teases you and then
just goes back to Russia. So I'd be very wary
about drafting.
Speaker 4: Sounds fair. I will definitely not be drafting him. I
want to ask you about a couple of the small
guys I think we all like to root for these
small guys, but the reality is it's an uphill climb
for them. So Cameron Schmid goes ninety four to Dallas.
We have Adam Benach going one O two to Minnesota,
and we have LJ. Mooney going one thirteen the Montreal Canadians.
They're all undersized guys. You think any of them has
a legit chance of being a regular two hundred games
played NHL.
Speaker 3: Or no, unless they develop a B game. And the
example I use to that is Connor Garland. So when
he was in Moncton in the Quebec League, he was
a very offensive mind. It didn't have that responsible off
punk B game, but he developed it as he got
a little bit older and has now turned into a
really high quality five on five player who gets offensive
zone stars. But it plays a lot and could have
easily been just an American League superstar. So both these,
all three of those players, they don't develop their off
puck game. Because you think about it, if a really
good player in the NHL plays eighteen minutes is a forward,
how much of that time does he actually have the
puck on a stick. It may only be like five percent,
So what do you do in the other ninety five
percent of the time to help your team win. And
if your coach doesn't have confidence in your off puck game,
even if your team has.
Speaker 4: The buck, he's not going to put you out there.
Speaker 3: And then as the talent pool compresses from junior hockey
or college hockey into the American League and again into
the NHL, if you're a one dimensional offensive player, coaches
just can't trust you when you're not gonna play.
Speaker 4: You're very fair. Thank you so much for your time, Shane,
and hopefully we'll be back to the regular draft next year.
Speaker 2: That would be great.
Speaker 3: So hopefully across our fingers with a bee in Vegas
or Montreal, it'll be a fantastic time.
Speaker 4: Awesome.
Speaker 2: Thanks again for plaiting wrong.
Speaker 4: Hope you enjoyed that.
Speaker 6: And before we get out of here, a couple things
to mention. One of them is you can play all
your leagues on fantracks. Fantracks dot com place to play
fantasy sports. You can do slow drafts, you can do
startup drafts wherever you need to be, dynasty especially pretty
much that's the way to do it. Fan tracks HQ
also has great fantasy content. You can find articles on
Fantasy Hockey and the other sports. FHL's team. We shout
them out every episode because they deserve it. Tim Acrafts
er Ryan Simon are the commission team for the Tidy Leagues.
Tony is lead scouting for US. Mike, Steven and Matt
are here to help this summer with show prep. Brandon
helps with the website, prospect ranks, visualizations. If you'd like
to have any kind of a and helping or you
have some ideas on how to improve things, Victor would
love to hear from you, especially if you'd like to volunteer.
Just hit him up on any of the ways that
you can hit us up. We're also brought to you
by Dauber Hockey. Dauber Prospects Victors and editor. You can
follow his work there. I do a solo show called
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This week's episode is.
Speaker 21: About the NBA Draft and I wasn't there, but I
sure will love to talk about it, so listen in
follow us on social media. The Victor Nuno twelve is
Victor on X The One Victor is Victor on Blue Sky.
I am Jesse Severe on Blue Sky and Fan Hockey
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Speaker 6: That you can do for us, because all we want
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