Speaker 1: Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by Fan Tracks. Here's
Jim Kings, your source of information and analysis to help
you win your fantasy hockey league. Block off hot a
step hit on, Stay lock.
Speaker 2: Here's your hosts, Jesse Sevier and Victor Nuno.
Speaker 3: Fantasy Hockey Life. Jesse Severe with you, Victor Nuno with you,
Victor of the Many Places, the Dabber, the mckeans. How
you doing today, buddy.
Speaker 2: I'm doing great. I see I'm today. I'm a mckeens man.
And why are you?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, man, that's right. You're more McKean than Michael. Yeah,
I'm doing great. I'm doing great, talking a little bit
of fantasy hockey. I'm by the time people listen to
this night, we always record a couple of days earlier.
By the time you listen to this will be in
the Olympics break. I think Olympic Games will be going.
We don't know how that's going to go yet. I
always gripe about this every year that I don't like
not having my fantasy hockey matchups for the next month.
But I'll probably also come and be watching the Olympics
and be into all that. But come on, Victor. We
got our own Olympic pool though, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we got Olympic pools going. We actually had so
much interest. I think we opened we had I think
A through D or E initially, and then we had
to open all the way up through G because a
lot of people wanted to do it. And yeah, we
got a fun format. We decided to make sure that
you had someone from at least ten different countries, which
kind of makes it a little bit more interesting because
there's definitely like Italy, France, Latvia who aren't going to
be as interesting, but it should be good and it
gives you a little something extra to root for. I
in one of my pools, I ended up taking the
Team USA goalies, so I will be of course a
little bit more on edge on those games.
Speaker 3: Wait, you got to take ten countries out of the
twelve picks.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, if you didn't know that, then we might
be in trouble.
Speaker 3: It's okay. I actually took Mero Hayskin into the second round,
which that's probably gonna work out then because I got
my thin and I got one of the power play types.
Hopefully that will be helpful. But yeah, now I'm gonna
have to be careful taking Canadians and Americans and Swedes.
But yeah, so I see somebody took Romaniosi in the
second round. How often are you going to see a
Swiss player taken in the second round? But it makes
perfect sense, all right, Victor.
Speaker 2: That's part of what makes it interesting. And I think
and we ended up opening another pool I needed to
jump in. So I ended up taking dry Sidle in
the first round, which maybe not that surprising, but taking
a German first really opens up your options after that
because they have some decent players, but they're certainly, like
you said, if we didn't limit this, it would be
all Canada, US and probably some Sweden sprinkle in, with
maybe a few other individual players, but not that many
from each country. So this made it a little bit
more challenging and a little bit more interesting because you
might end up taking some French player that you're cheering
card for, which could.
Speaker 3: Be end up being one yeah la Fronce. Okay, Victor,
let's get into this episode. We've got a lot to
talk about, so right after this we're going to be
back to talk proscos. Victor, this is another edition of
Dynasty Stockwatch. I need a theme song for that, I
don't know. I don't have one yet, but I'll come
up with one someday. Today is going to be all
about Colorado and Nashville, two systems that I don't know it.
They've got a lot of interesting guys to talk about,
although neither one of these systems I think is regularly
accused of being at the top of the NHL. Were
you happy writing up these teams?
Speaker 2: It was definitely challenging for the Avalanche, I will say
they didn't have as many interesting guys, but the Nashville ones,
there's some. They have some, a couple of high end
guys and then a couple of just really guys that
are in interesting places like don't know which way they're
going to go, which I think makes perfect for discussion,
like we're going to do.
Speaker 3: Here absolutely, So let's start with Colorado, and it has
to start with Ily and a back off. He was
the first goalie selected in the twenty twenty four draft.
His third year in the KHL. This year hasn't been
quite as good as his first two full seasons. He
had a cameo the year before that, so it's actually
his fourth year, but his same percentage is down a
little bit. It was nine to twenties, nine to thirty before.
Now it's down to around nine hundred. But his team
is running away with it, and he is the overwhelming
goalie for that team. He was forty six, thirty and
nine the previous two years in his starts, the team
was that is and this year they're twenty and four
at last count. When not Nabakov is on the ice,
Magneta Gords is running away with the regular season. He's
actually been signed to an ELC. He's over in the
KHL on a loan. He's not still under a KHL
full on contract. So Colorado's got a good goalie situation
going on right now with Blackwood and Wedgwood, but they're
gonna have to make a decision on this guy. No
need to rush, but the ELC is ticking here and
he's already going on twenty three victor. We have the
NHL Rankking poll, as we always do, in Bakoff versus
Simeon Froloff, who is a Carolina Hurricanes prospect and was
actually the first goalie taken. I believe he was the
first goalie taken last year. Now, maybe not the first goalie,
but he was taken in a similar place early second
round in the draft, and Bahkoff wins this one significantly
sixty five to thirty five percent. Is this the deal?
Speaker 2: Is the back Off the real deal between these two?
I would definitely taken bok Off. I think that, and
not just because he has a name of And by
the way, in case you're wondering, he's not related to
if getting to back Off, who shared the same last
name sim spelling the last name, but they are not related.
It is he has been really good for a few
seasons now, and you mentioned that his numbers slipping a
little bit. His row numbers are slipping, He's still his
like goal save above expact, and his underlying metrics still
look the stellar and his team is really good, as
you mentioned. And I think his contract situation also makes
him more appealing because he can come over at any time.
Simeon Froloff, on the other hand, has a contract that
runs through the twenty six twenty seven seasons, so at
the earliest, Froloff could come over in the twenty seven
to twenty eight season, which frankly probably still wouldn't even
happen because he is still playing in the NHL and
actually he got he's injured right now, but he hasn't
played any KHL games, which is an interesting situation that
they took him. And by the way, you were asking
where he was in the goalie rank, I pulled it up.
He or not the rank, but the order. He was
the third goalie taken in twenty twenty five. It was Andreanoff, Ravensbergen, Frollof,
Medvedev Ivankovich, so there was a few us. It was
the third one early in the first early in the
second round. But Frolloff is far away from being relevant.
I definitely would want to see him at least get
some HL or VHL KHL starts, and probably a season
or two of that before he even entertained coming over,
So he's probably four or five years from coming over.
It's hard to project upside just based on his MHL numbers,
but I think that Frolloff still has decent upside, got
good size and mobility. But I think it's just there's
no way I would take him over in a Bakoff
who is able to come over at any moment. And
I think if the Avalanche hadn't had such great success
with their goalies this year, between Blackwood and Wedgwood. I
think that they might have entertained trying to bring him
over a little bit earlier, but at this point there's
absolutely no rush and he couldn't come over any time.
I'm looking at the hockey prospecting between these two, and
the Bokoff has a ninety two percent chance of being
an NHLer, which has steadily climbed from twenty nine to
fifty six to seventy nine to ninety two in the
past three seasons four seasons, and froll Off is stagnant
at twenty three percent, and part of that is just
because he's just played in the MHL and hasn't had
a big sample size and hasn't played any more difficult league.
So I would definitely taken the block off here, and
I think he's someone you should be excited about because
he does profile as a future starter. And how much
longer are they going to have Blackwood in Wedgwood, I
don't know. Right now, it seems fine, and it seems
for the near future they probably will be interested in
continuing that, but I don't know that it's gonna that
either of those is the for sure guy years and
years down the road. Blackwood is signed for four more
seasons after this, and Wedgwood just won, but neither one
of them seem like an insurmountable hill to climb.
Speaker 3: I would say, let's move on to a guy who
I feel like we've been talking about for a few years.
I want to say Sean Bearns might have been in
one of our earliest years that we covered the draft together,
Victor and feels like somebody who's drafted all the way
back in twenty twenty one should have passed their twenty
third birthday by right by now, but Barns has not. Instead,
he's got reasons for not making the NHL scene too hard.
Speaker 2: Yet.
Speaker 3: He had a great run at NCAAA Powerhouse Denver, and
after being ready for a full season in twenty four
to twenty five in the AHL, he tore in ACL
missed the whole year. Now he's in Colorado the Eagles
for the AHL, but his production is not necessarily elite
new but at least we can say something could still
break as he rounds into an HL groove for the
first time before he gets his shot to the NHL
ABS remained a very tough place to break in, as
if you're going to try to be an offensive defenseman
at that place anyway, for reasons that almost can go unmentioned.
And so in the NHL ranking poll he goes up
against Blake Fiddler of the Seattle Kraken, and that oil's
king prospect. Fiddler, who was just drafted last year early
in the second round, has produced very well in his
D plus one. He comes out ahead in this poll
sixty five to thirty five percent.
Speaker 2: What do you think, Victor, I think that it makes sense.
Fiddler is a little bit earlier in the funnel, so
you're a little bit more open to the possibilities what
he could be. I'm just not sure that he's all
that exciting or interesting. He does seem more likely to
have a clear path to the NHL. Has got good
size and mobility, He's got good blood lines there, and
I think that he should thrive in that. I just
don't know that he's going to put up a lot
of points or be that exciting if he does make it.
I don't know about you, Jesse, but one of the
things that I dislike the most is getting really excited
about a player holding them forever and ever, and then
they finally arrive and they're just a dud. Would just
rather not have even held them at all. It's like,
why did I even do that? And I just feel
like Big Fiddler might end up being that guy that
is a little bit disappointing once he does arrive, because
I think there's no doubt he is going to play Baron's.
On the other hand, he is you chronicle some of
his issues. He's had injuries, and since turning pro, we
finally have seen him though the AHL We've been waiting
for a long time because he was great in college,
fantastic in college, but what was he going to do
once he turned pro? And it turns out that some
of the data is mixed, Like he some of his
play driving has been okay, some of it has struggled,
and he is generating some decent amount of expected goals
and scoring chances. I think some of his defending has
been a challenge, and he is still slightly undersized at
five to ten and that's always going to be his challenge.
So I want to pick him, but I do think
that maybe just picking Fiddler and kicking the can down
the road a little bit and saying maybe he'll develop
more offense or some of these guys that just skate
so well and have all the physical tools end up
just putting it together later anyways, or at least being
serviceable enough that they're interesting. So I guess I would
probably take Fiddler unless I was if I was in
a league where I really wanted someone to jump in
and contribute as quickly as possible, then I probably would
lean Barons because he could get called up at any moment.
He's in the AHL, and all it would take is
a few injuries and then they might dip down into
their HL poll. And he's got twelve points in twenty
nine games so far this season, so it's not terrible.
He's close to that half point per game mark. It's
not nothing. The hockey prospecting between the two, Barons graduated
eighteen percent chance of being a star and Fiddler is
at ten, and so there's definitely more star potential when
he graduated for Baron's. We'll see what Fiddler does. He's
definitely made a great jump from the US. He was
at the NTDP and then he went to THEA did
the WHL for the Oil Kings last season, but he
was around half point per game this season, he's jumped
up above that, and so he's getting close to that
point seventy five points per game mark, which is pretty good.
He's getting a little bit more power play time. I
have his Fantasy Hockey Life skater card here, and the
thing that Fiddler is always going to be great at
his transition. His transition data is just impeccable, Like he
is all green looking fantastic. He's pretty good at loose
puck recovery and play driving. His bash is actually pretty
decent too, eighty first percentile, So even if he doesn't
end up scoring a lot, he should have pretty decent
floor In terms of someone who's somewhat serviceable and in
a deeper league, if you're talking like thirty two team leagues,
Blake Fitler is definitely someone I would prefer because he's
just so likely to make it and give you something back,
some return on that investment. But in a more shallow league,
I'd be I'd have a little bit more discretion.
Speaker 3: Jesse, Yes, sir, Moving on Max Million Curran of the
Colorado Avalanche O, what's current? Is it Kuran? Victor? Is
it Curran?
Speaker 2: It's I think it's Koran.
Speaker 3: Okay Kuran, and that means more Edmonton Oil Kings. Baby
Max is looking great at the ninety at the nineteen
year old D plus two season, averaging a point and
a quarter, not bad for a fifth round pick. He
had a goal and two assists in Chechia's semi final
upset of Team Canada at the U twenties, so he's
performed at a big stage. And he wasn't a late
round pick because he was small, so because he's a
strapping six three poet eighty seven listed on Elite Prospects.
He's up in the poll this week against Cole McKinney,
who we've talked about a little bit recently, and Cole
McKinney gets the better of Kuran seventy to thirty percent.
We just got done talking about McKinney Victor, and apparently
people are still psyched about him. Is this the right result?
Does Koran deserve more respect than this?
Speaker 2: I think he deserves more of respect than thirty percent
of the vote. Yeah, And we did see him at
the World Juniors. He was actually pretty good five point
seven games. He was noticeable at times. Everyone on that
Chechia team I think a punch a bit above their weight,
and he was definitely one who was who had some
flashes of brilliance. I think part of the reason people
are maybe a little unsure about him is he was
he did come over, played in check Yeah, then came
to the WHL, had a really good first season there
and was actually he played for Tri City, which is
maybe one of the less noticeable places to play. But
this season for the Oil Kings, as you mentioned, he's
been great and he's off to the NAA for UMass
next season. His trajectory has been pretty nice and he's
definitely someone who in terms of the offense, I think
that he has a lot to give there and I
think he just maybe needs a little bit more maturity.
He's literally like two weeks away from being eligible for
the twenty five draft, and that was That's part of
the reason why he might be part of the reason
why he went so late, because he went in the
fifth round. His first WHL season was pretty ambivalent, but
if you regress everything back a year, he looks a
lot more exciting. And so that's important to think about
when you look at these metrics, because they can't really
correct for the birth year. But when you're in the middle,
it's not a big difference, but when you're only two
weeks away, that's pretty close to being a flip of
the calendar and everything being completely different. Because right now
the hockey prospect in between these too. You got Karan
at ten percent, McKinney at six percent, even with his
strong NCAA season, So he's even higher now. But if
you regress that a year, he would be probably in
the thirties or so percent. I would imagine pretty high.
And we talked about McKinney previously. I still think that
he's a fine probably bottom six forward, penalty killer, maybe
a center. And if he's a center, that's good for
the team, not so good for you. In fantasy. You
prefer those wingers so they can rise up to the
top of the depth chart. And the thing that Karan
has going in his favor, which I don't always like
to consider this, but the depth chart for the Avalanche
and the prospect pool is bleak. There are not a
lot of good options, and so he's definitely one of
the better ones. And if he was on a completely
different team you would be you probably wouldn't be interested
at all, but because of that, you're a little bit
more interested. And I think he could find his way
to some relevance, so I definitely have a little bit
more interested in But even if he went to another team,
I still think you should maintain some interest in Max Kuran.
I think that he has super relevance there, and just
looking at his WA, his transition data, and his other
aspects from the Fantasy Hockey Life player card, he's looking
pretty good. Transition data, good play, driving, really good on
puck battles loose puck. His bash is also pretty solid,
better than mckinny's. Actually, so these two I actually have
ranked really close to each other in my Fantasy Hockey
Life buck Stud rating, but I had a slight edge
to Karan, And that's how I would actually vote here,
because I think as a fantasy asset, I'm a little
bit more interested in Kuran. If I was building an
NHL team, I could see why McKenny wins so much earlier.
Speaker 3: Jesse makes sense to me, Victor. Let's move on to
our next comparison, and for this one, Mikhail Guyayev, he's
the defenseman still plugging along in the KHL, isn't scoring
much this year and never really has scored a ton.
I note, as of my last check at ten games
scoreless streak going for gu Yayev. He's also playing depth
minutes over in the KHL, eight to thirty minutes a game.
We've proven lately that which we've proven lately that doesn't
mean a death sentence if you're over there and people
are thinking you might go over to the NHL eventually.
But certainly Goliaev is for whatever reason, getting only death minutes.
He is up in the NHL ranking poll, up against
Owen Pickering, another longtime frequent flyer on our poles. Of course,
the Penguins defenseman prospect drafted in twenty twenty two, who
we've speculated might have more cups of coffee. He's had
a couple of cups of coffee, but not enough to
get jittery, and he's back down in the AHL right now,
Goliai have wins the poll here sixty to forty percent.
Feels like expectations are dropping for Pickering, who's not scored
a whole lot when he has been in the NHL.
But which one of these two do you like better,
Victor Gliae or Pickering?
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is definitely one of those where I would
want neither, frankly, But if I had to pick one,
I would pick Pickering, not just because the illiteration and
it's fun to say, but I, as you outlined, or
as you mentioned briefly, Mikil Guiev has just never scored.
He just that's not his thing. He never really I
guess he did was a bit of a score in
the NHL, but that didn't really translate. And he has
thirty one total points, which would be great if it
were in one season, but he has thirty one points
in one hundred and eighty three games over four seasons
in the KHL. That is not good and does not
really project for him being a scorer when he comes
over to the NHL. So I don't think Guliav is
going to score. So then you have to ask yourself,
what else is he going to do? Is he bashed? Yeah,
he's a decent basher. Actually he's bashing at eighty six
percentile for the KHL. He shoots a fair amount, he
blocks a ton, and his hits are a little bit
below average. So he will be someone who you're decent,
you can hold somewhat in a peripherals format. If you
were in a really deep league, I probably would prefer
Guli have just because he seems pretty likely to play.
He's been playing the KHL for years and doing and
at least getting decent minutes. But I'm very skeptical that's
going to continue. Pickering has been in the AHL, and
he actually was. He actually made the team the past
two seasons, played some NHL time and that was looking
pretty good. And more recently he's been in the AHL
with these surprising Penguins who are actually seem like they
might even be good this year. I don't know, it's weird,
but he didn't stick around in the NHL. He's been
close to half point per game in the AHL, which
is certainly better than with Kel Glee, I can say
in the KHL, and those two leagues are roughly pretty
similar actually in terms of their difficulty AHL and KHL.
So I would give the nod here to Pickering and
just look the other way and hopefully find a better option.
But if I had to choose between these two, I
would pick Pickering.
Speaker 3: Jesse picking Pickering. I get it, Victor. It's something has
to be done sometimes. Danielle Gushin is the next guy
up here. After great numbers for HL San Jose last
year and even had twelve games in the show with
the Sharks. He was on my radar, man, I thought
this guy was all over it, But he has been
traded to Colorado. He seems to be adjusting to the
elevation because he's got twelve goals four assists for sixteen
points in twenty seven games. That did twelve goals and
only four assists. That's that's a ratio right there.
Speaker 2: Kids.
Speaker 3: I see a right winger who scored three times as
many goals versus assists, and I think, oh, I forget,
it's Gushin, a big power forward. Nope, he's five eight.
But that's what he does, is he scores goals. And
so we're gonna put him up against Sasha pasta yofv
Pasta Jov of the Anaheim Ducks here, and Gushin has
fallen from great heights and is down to a sixty.
It's a sixty seven to thirty three split for Pastadyaofv
over Gushchin. So the other guy's taller and more productive.
Is he really the bet for future fantasy production? And
what's your opinion of Gushin these days?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think this is another one of those where
frankly I don't think you want either of these guys.
I think gushen Stock has fallen tremendously. He seemed like
he was on the verge. He got some games there,
but it's one of those things where they all around
compete level and the trust in all situations and are
you hard to play against and all those kinds of
things just weren't really there for him at the NHL
level with the sample that he got, and I frankly
think that he's probably on his last legs here in
terms of his ability to make an impact in the NHL.
He certainly seems good enough to be in the AHL
or maybe he'll get at KHL or go over to Europe.
He's just good enough at that level. But one of
those tweener guys quad a guys who's not quite good
enough to be impactful at the NHL level, And so
as good as he's scored in the AHL, it does
not seem like it's ever going to translate, so I
would be less excited about him. Passajov is another guy
who has been a little frustrating, although the big difference
here is that he has not had repeated tryouts in
the NHL that haven't gone well, so he's still waiting
for that opportunity. He has been pretty decent for the
goals the last couple of seasons. All the last season
he was really good and this season a little less good.
And I actually got to see him live when I
went to a goals game and he was very invisible
for large parts of the game, and then every once
in a while he would do something fun and that's
his mo and that's what might limit his translatability to
the NHL is that he just he doesn't do a
lot for large chunks of time and then he shows
up and does something, but coaches off and don't like
the part where you're invisible for that long. So that's
going to make it a little bit hard for him.
And looking at some of his Fantasy Caacular Life player card,
you can see some issues with his game, like the
fact that some of his defensive metrics and play driving
aren't ideal. But some of it has been pretty decent
and he does actually shoot and block a decent amount,
so there's some bash there which is nice. But yeah,
I think both of these guys are dead. The guys
that aren't that exciting.
Speaker 3: Jesse, Well, let's see if we can peak your interest
with one more prospect from Colorado. They didn't develop him,
but they got him now. Gavin Brindley. He came to
Colorado from Columbus as part of the return for Charlie
Coyle and Miles Wood when Colorado was shuffling things around
last year. He only played in one game when he
was a Blue Jacket, but he's already drawn in at
last count forty times this year for the Abs. Evolving
Hockey suggests that he's been the team's worst even strength
defensive player, but he's only playing fourth line minutes. I
don't know what's going on there in the gar Sometimes
it's a little weird. And considering he's a fourth line player,
he's actually scoring well for that nine points, and he's
got a few points in what he's doing. He's up
in the NHL Rankking poll against David Edstrom, the traveled
prospect who was drafted by the Golden Knights and now
is playing for AHL Milwaukee and Victor. You will note
I am wear in my Milwaukee Admiral sweatshirt today. Apparently
I could just do that every week. So David Edstrom
versus Gavin Bridley. Gavin Brindley wins this complete whitewash eighty
three to seventeen percent. People have more confidence there. David
Edstrom's already been traded for Tomash Hurtle and euroslav Askarov
in his young career, so he's got the he can
always tell his kids that, but he seems to be
no match for a guy who's already putting up results
in the NHL. Is Brindley over Edstrom at a considerable
distance going to be the way this looks in retrospect? Victor?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so that Edstrom trade Tree is bonkers
man that just looking back on that, the fact that
he that the Sharks were able to send David Edstrom,
who I'm talking about in a second here, but basically
I don't think he's anybody, and Magnus Crona, who is
also doesn't seem like he's going to be an impactful
NHL or and a first round pick who ended up
being Riker Lee, who's a decent prospect, but that's what
they sent for what seems to be their future star
starting goalie. Crazy craziness. Anyways. Yeah, so within this pole,
I think it's definitely Gavin Brindley, just because he's already
in the NHL and he's playing and David Edstrom, I'm
not sure will so that seems pretty straightforward. He has
been Edstrom has been playing in the AHL, so he's
close proximity wise in that sense. But I don't think
he's doing particularly well. He's one of these guys though
that's attractive. He's a center, he's big, he's physical, can
be a little bit hard to play against. But also
I just don't think he's anything If he does make
it all the way, I don't think he's anything more
than like a fourth line center. Those are pretty replaceable generally.
There's usually guys that are close enough to being that
type of player. Britanley, Yeah, he's tiny, but he has
been playing in the NHL, which you know, certainly something
we said. He's played this whole season in the NHL,
which is surprising. As good as the Avalanche have been,
he only has eleven points in forty one games. He
hasn't gotten in on a lot of it. And look
at his evolving hockey metrics, they're pretty awful. His defensive
game is thirteen percentile, offense is twenty eighth percentile, So
he hasn't been able to be due to do that.
And if you look at the Fantasy Hockey Life skater
card for David Edstrom, there's some really mixed data on
his transition game, his play driving. He's as I mentioned,
he's physical, so he wins a lot of puck battles.
He doesn't really hit a lot, So if you're thinking
David Edstrom at least is going to hit a lot,
he does not. He only hits about thirty fifth percentile
for the AHL. He does block a lot, so that's
pretty much the only thing he does bash wise. He
doesn't shoot, he doesn't hit, but he blocks a lot,
So again, not something that's going to be super exciting.
So between these two, easily take Brindley. But also I
would really scale back your expectations for him because even
though he's playing in the NHL, his underlying metrics are
not good, and those eleven points and forty games, he
seems like he just might end up being a twenty
point guy if he ends up sticking in the NHL.
That long twenty to thirty, which isn't that exciting.
Speaker 3: Very good, We're going to move on to Nashville in
the second half. Spoiler alert David eds From has already
been covered, so he will not be again. Right back
after this break to talk more prospects on to the Predators,
Victor matthew Wood is the first one to discuss the
mid first rounder from just twenty twenty three jump from
Yukon to the Minnesota Golden Gropers all the way to
the Nashville Predators full time NHLer this year, and as
in dvanced stats, look really good. He's playing a depth
role on the team, but his points per minute are
in a dead heat with Roman Yosi. His goals above
replacement are fourth on the team in terms of advanced stats,
right ahead of Steven stampcos so old Maddy Wood. He's
doing well for himself for a rookie, and he's going
to go up in the NHL ranking poll against Daniel Boot,
who is doing real well with Ahl Tucson but is
not necessarily blown up in the NHL yet for the
Mammoth they were drafted just three picks apart, and despite
Wood's nice showing so far this year in a depth role,
Boot wins the NHL ranking pool fifty four to forty
six percent. Victor, I feel like disrespect persists but Boot
has also played part of the year just as Wood
has played happier. Now, what do you think of this
result Victor and these prospects.
Speaker 2: Well, I definitely would take Wood here. It's interesting that
Boot is that high, and sometimes I think people just
look at the PNHL, which clearly looks higher for Boot
right now this season, his PNHL is quite a bit higher.
But I think all in all, the upside for Matthew
Wood is much higher. He's definitely has been more of
a score. He's got an incredible shot, He's big, long
and lank, he can use his body well. He's still
figuring how to use his body pretty well, which is nice.
In the hockey prospecting, they're pretty similar. I haven't mentioned
this yet, but I do look at the Advanced Hockey Stats,
which is the j Fresh model, and they have much
more love for Dinnal Boot here. He's at forty two
percent chance of being a star and Wood is only
at nine percent. So that's interesting. So that kind of
maybe supports that a little bit more. But I think,
just to your point, if you look at the what
they've done in the NHL this season, and they both
had a decent number of games, impact wise, I could
look at the time on ice, so Wood has almost
eight hundred minutes of total time on ice and Boot
has just over five Hundred's a little bit less for Boot,
but Matthew Wood is sixty six percentile for the entire
league and offense, so that's really good, and he's even
performing a little bit above expected, which is nice. His
defensive game not so good at sixteen percentile. That's what's
limited a lot of his ice time, which makes sense.
And I have him in a couple of leagues where
I'm flexing him up and down, and he has had
some out purson goals and so that's always nice that
you can at least hope for a goal on his behalf.
Nine goals so far in forty five games is pretty nice.
He's just playing under twelve minutes. Boot, on the other hand,
is more of a defensive specialist. He has eighty six
percentile for defense and just twenty six percentle for offense,
so he's the inverse. To put these two together, you
got a pretty solid n Ehler there between the offense
and defensive metrics. But obviously we're here to celebrate offense
a little bit more, and that's definitely what Boot has, sorry,
what would has. Boot is definitely more of a defensive guy,
and he's huge, And one of the things we always
said about Boot is, oh, he's he's this big guy
and hopefully he'll hit and use his body, but he
doesn't really do that. He has sixteen hits in twenty
eight games. He's someone who uses his body well, but
he doesn't necessarily impose it physically. It doesn't hit a lot,
a little bit like Alexai protests. I think that might
be the ideal outcome, or the best case outcome for
what Boot could be someone like that, but I don't
know that he has the scoring upside to hit that.
Matthew Wood definitely can be a scorer. He's someone who
should be able to hit thirty, maybe even forty goals
in this league if it all works out for him.
So I'm definitely taking Wood. It's nice to see Boot
get a little farther along, but I think he's someone
who's just a guy. I think he'll fit into that
middle six, whereas would could be an important piece on
a successful power play. So I'm taking him Jesse pretty easily.
Speaker 3: Actually, Okay, very good. Let's move on to our next
prospect that's going to be Igor Sewerin. I can't wait
for this. I've been fired up about Sworing for years.
Remember there was that brief period where I was writing
Nashville prospects for Dobber and Cern was one of my
main squeezes in those times. Kid is just a burner.
His progress transitioning from the MHL to KHL seems great.
He's really stepped up in the KHL. He's still just
a teenager. He has another year under contract with the KHL,
so he's going to be there for the rest of
this year and next year. So it's going to be
a bit before he's in Nashville. But I'd say he's
in the top two of most promising forwards in this
team system. We'll obviously get to the other one a
little bit later in this discussion. He goes in the
NHL ranking poll up against Liam green Tree of the
Los Angeles Kings, who's just a touch older and was
drafted just a touch later in the same draft round
draft year you are. Serin wins in a narrow victory
in the NHL Ranking Poll fifty three forty seven, drafted
four picks later. Yeah, he's winning the drafted four picks earlier.
Surin wins this vote pearly prospects. Green Tree, by the way,
was the oldest player at the World Juniors. I looked
that up in terms of the guys of the World
Junior Liam green Tree was there. He was the oldest
player in the tournament. Anyway, what do you think of
this comparison and these prospects.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting. I definitely want sur In here. And
you mentioned his great KHL time. He's also really young
for this draft. He's in August first birthday, so as
you mentioned, he's a teenager. He won't turn twenty until August,
and he will have played already two seasons in the
KHL as an eighteen and nineteen year old. That's super impressive.
And the fact that he has thirty two points and
forty five games really good. He's got good size, he's
really fast, he's got really good hands, he's got elite handles,
so all that looks really positive. Green Tree is no
slouch here, but I definitely would easily prefer sur unto him.
Green Tree is still in the OHL, which is not
his fault, but it is a little less exciting or
a little more difficult to make that comparison in terms
of what the what the difficult level of difficulty is.
So he's twenty, as you mentioned, you just turned he
was still eligible for that tournament because he was nineteen
before it started. And yeah, he's been fine for the
windsor Spitfires. Last year, he was almost two points per game.
This year he's just barely over point per game. So
a little bit of regression here. I think part of
that is team effect, but I just think that Surin
with his upside and playing against professionals already, he's at
forty six percent chance of being a star in the
Hockey Prospecting Model, green Tree at sixteen percent. Because he
regressed a little bit this year. Looking at the top
down Hockey model Advanced Hockey Stats, it's a little bit different.
But I think I don't think he's updated his the
next draft year's potential yet, but he has Surin at
twenty two percent and green Tree at thirty six percents
a little bit higher for green Tree, I don't think
it's factored in that regression from this year. But you
look at Currin and his Fantasy Hockey Life skater card,
and I mean there's just green all over this thing.
The only thing that is not ideal is he doesn't
block a lot, and his power play time and shorthanded
time is a little bit limited, but that's because he's
a teenager in the KJL, so he's not getting as
much opportunity. But he's making the most of it. And
he's his expected goals, his puck battles, his transition game,
his loose puck recovery is Fenwick. All of that is outstanding.
And even his bash, because of his hits and his
shots are elite. He's almost at ninetieth percentile for bash,
so you love to see that. And green Tree's numbers
look pretty good in the OHL, but not as good
for puck battles wand for some of the transition data
and a little bit on the lower end. I actually
updated my numbers recently and I actually flipped Surah and
green Tree. I had green Tree a little bit higher,
but I bumped him down a little bit and I
bumped Surin up. So this is definitely stock up for
Surin in my opinion.
Speaker 3: Jesse very good. I love it. I love it. Everybody
in my four sport league come talk to me about
Sor and I have him all love, Victor, I'll trade
him to you for some massive return here at the
trade deadline.
Speaker 2: What do you think of that? Sure? If by massive
you mean little, then I'm down.
Speaker 3: Come on, guys, got a dream. I Next up, we
got Riker Lee. Lee hit the ground running at Michigan State,
which is pretty good considering he was coming from the USHL.
He even scored a goal for the US in the
infamous overtime loss versus Finland at the World Junior Championships.
So he has already shown that jump from that jump
from the lower levels. He's doing very good at He
was a late first round pick this last year. He's
an Illinois boy. In our draft coverage right now. In
our draft coverage, when you went out there and recorded stuff, Victory,
I think you got audio of Breker Lee and Cole McKinney,
and I remember one part I was able to isolate
where Cole McKinney was talking about how good buddies he
is with Biker Lee, how they trained together. Anyway, Lee's
looking real good right now, and we're going to put
him up against Jager Fercus in the NHL ranking poll.
We just talked about him on one of these episodes.
Fercus a one of our most talked about prospects, but
Lee outdoes him in this poll, despite Fercus's recent offensive
fireworks in the AHL, fifty six four percent. Fascinating pole
as Lee is younger and bigger and on a completely
different development path. He's not on the WHL AHL train,
He's on the USHL NCAA train. So it's a little
bit of apples and oranges. He's got six seven inches
on Furcus. What do you think of this poll and
Lee coming out ahead of Fercus.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's really interesting. I think this really depends on
where you are, where your team is at, because I
would for sure take Fercus if I was a competitive
team waiting for that call up right now, which I
think is what we talked about on the last episode.
Having forty points in forty two games in the AHL
is pretty outstanding. And I look at Fergus's underlying data
with the fantas Tackle Life Skater card, and a lot
of it looks really poor, like some of his transition data,
his play driving, his puck battles. I'm not quite exactly
sure how he's doing it, and haven't watched enough games to know,
but he the underlying numbers don't suggest that he's doing great,
which is maybe why he hasn't been called up. I
don't know, maybe Seattle is waiting for something. But if
I were a competitive team looking to get some reinforcement soon,
I would lean toward that. But if I could be
a little bit more patient, I would take Lee. I
do think Lee has a lot more upside. I don't
think he is just a product of his environment, and
Michigan State is a pretty good team. Last I looked
at the NCAA polls, it was Michigan and Michigan State
one and two. So there's a lot of good hockey
going on in Michigan in these days. And I don't
think that's just the team around him. I think Rikerley
has been one of the driving forces there, and he's
certainly a super creative and high end skill guy, and
so I would definitely take him if I had a
little bit more leeway to let these prospects marinate. But yeah,
and it's interesting though too, because the hockey prospect in
between the two, they're really got the bottom five and
six percentile, respectively, so neither one has tremendous upside there.
Part of the reason why Lee's looks so bad is
that he is his first. The first equivalency that came
out for him was based out of his shot at
Saint Mary Prep School numbers, which were good. I mean,
he was almost at two points per game, but to
really move the needle in high school you need to
be at like three points per game, and he wasn't
quite there, so that makes some of his numbers look
a little bit less. But even in the top down
hockey model, both of these guys are under five percent
chance of being a star, so some of the models
don't believe in them. But I still think that Riker
Lee has upside above an average roster player, and he
could continue to develop and push that ceiling even higher. Jesse,
so I would take him.
Speaker 3: Tremendous. Let's move on to our next prospect. It is
going to be Zachary LaRue. Victor. You and I have
both been doing dual lingo French for a little while,
and I got to tell you the greatest thing that
I've learned in French is luo. However you want to see,
it means happy in French. So this guy's name is
literally Zach the Happy because look, of course this is
the so Zach the Happy played most of the year
in the NHL last year. I'm going to make this stick.
He's a mean guy. He might hurt me for this,
but yeah, I'm gonna make it stick. He played most
of the year in the NHL last year, but he's
not been back this season at all. Instead, he's over
a point per game at HL Milwaukee, and in his
most recent appearance that I looked at on his game log,
he did achieve a Gordy Hall hat trick, a goal
and assist, and a twenty seven minute misconduct after fisticuffs
in the second period. So the guy hasn't changed. His
reputation is is a guy who's willing to get into
under the skin of others and be a little bit
of an instigator. But he's also got some offensive props,
offensive chops, i should say, And we're gonna put him
out with Joshua Waw in this NHL ranking poll the pick.
He's actually drafted four rounds later in the same draft
by the Montreal Canadians. We've talked about him several times
on this show because he had a moment where it
looked like he was gonna make maybe an impact with Montreal,
and he faded into the background again and not been
a major factor for the team. So LaRue, even though
he hasn't been back up this year, is winning the
NHL Ranking poll sixty one to thirty nine percent. Who
you got in this one?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think I would take laru here. And that's
funny maybe because his name means the happy. He's trying
to do everything he can to convince people otherwise because.
Speaker 3: It's so against type Vicker. That's what I love is
if like some lady bing winger was named the Happy,
that would be one thing. But for this guy, come on, I.
Speaker 2: He's doing it on purpose. I'll show you. I'm not
the happy guy. I'm the mean, tough guy. That's what
he is. We've always talked about, even in his draft year,
we talked about him being really physical, and he is.
That's definitely part of what he offers and what he brings.
Looking you can see that on his Fantasy Hockey Life
skater card. He's hitting at seventieth percentile, seventy first percentile.
His bash is really low though, because all he does
is hit. Actually he doesn't really do anything else. He
doesn't really shoot, it doesn't really block, but he'll hit everything.
And apparently he'll pit him as well, so if you're
into that kind of thing, he'll give you some penalty minutes.
But I think that the confusing thing about Joshua, as
you mentioned, is that, yeah, he's played in the NHL.
He played three games this season, he played twelve last season,
and twenty three two seasons ago, so he's had some
NHL time, but mostly he's been in LaVall and I
think a lot of people have moved on and just
think it's not going to happen for him, which it
might not, but also it just takes a really quick run.
It takes a little bit of a call up and
for him to prove himself and then he could be
off for the races. So I think people are still
holding out hope for that, and I think that it
is possible that he's still. In fact, I have him
in our common league that we're in the playoffs right now,
and I'm trying to maximize my flex spots, and I've
been tempted to drop him because he's just sitting there,
he's not doing anything, he's not getting called up. But
also the fact that he might get called up makes
me want to hold on to him, and you never know,
he could have some relevance. But I think that I
would take LaRue. I don't think he's ever going to score.
That's something that we've talked about. He's not really a scorer,
but he can provide those hits and he has had
some decent at least he has got minutes in the
past and had some production seasons ago when he was
in the NHL, he was pretty good defensively, So I
think that there is a player there who can be
in the NHL, who can find a role. Maybe it's
a little bit of teaching him when and where to
be so physical and to get a little bit of
more of that physicality to translate to offense. He's at
thirty seven percentile to offense, so he wasn't that's not
horrible for your first forty games in the NHL, And
I think that if he could get closer to average,
then you know he could and in the right situation,
he could be a little bit more of a player.
So I like the floor for Laru. I like the
fact that he hasn't had too many options or too
many opportunities to go by the wayside quite yet, and
he has been really good at Milwaukee, so he looks
like he might be due for a call up any
minute now, Jesse. So I would definitely be a little
bit more interested in LaRue right now, because both these
guys are close, and one of the guys, Joshua, has
had several opportunities that haven't really gone super well, and
then LaRue has had not as many opportunit. He's just
one long stint and I could see another one very soon.
Speaker 3: Here, yes, sir. Now, Brady Martin, Prospectum's favorite farm kid,
is back on a role in the suit in the
Ohl played a lot of points in the World Junior
Championships as well, eight in six games. He messed up
his arm near the end of the tourney and hasn't
played for the last month, so it's a little bit
of a delay for him. He's not going to make
it up to Nashville in time to play under Barry Trotz, probably,
but he might end up a good part of that legacy,
having been the number five overall pick last year and
looking pretty good for what he's doing. Brady Martin is
let's make it a early let's make it a lottery
time comparison here between Martin and Deoier Caleb Danoier of
the Utah Mammoth, who's taken one pick before him. They
were taken four and five respectively, and Denyer is not
going to prevail over Martin. Martin fifty seven to forty
three percent in the NHL Ranking poll. Dyno Ye the
host for Hockey Day in Canada, which was hosted in Moncton.
He is a monkedin wildcat, the start of that team.
Who do you have in the battle of Martin versus Deoier?
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a tough one. I'm definitely taking de
Noyer here. I do still believe in him, and actually
this is probably a good opportunity to buy a little
bit low on him. I think I wrote this in
my write up for de Noyer for The Mammoth, which
is not what we're highlighting here on this episode because
it's Nashville and Colorado. But I'm pretty sure that is
what I talked about, and he's been good for Mouncton.
But I think people might forget that Deane had a
wrist injury. He couldn't really do anything for a while.
He had surgery in August, he missed the first twelve weeks,
and then when he came back, he really wasn't himself
at first. And so you might be looking at the
forty points in twenty seven games, which is good, but
you might wonder, oh he's made he's not that good,
or maybe he's lost a step or whatever. But I
still think that daon A has a lot more upside.
I think he has one c upside potentially maybe more
likely a two. See, but he's got a ton of
upside there, and I think that there's more offense there
for sure. Brady Martin, you're getting. The reason you're getting
Martin is because he's got a strong Perferle floor. But actually,
if you look at the Ohl versus the Q, Danaa
has more hits per sixty relatives the rest of the
league than does Brady Martin and the Ohl. So that
is interesting and we'll see. Maybe that'll change. As Martin
had well, he was he made the team at a camp,
the NHL team, and then he went back and then
he went to the World Juniors. They both did, so
maybe Martin is getting back on track, but traditionally he
has hit more. But either way I think that Dayona
has more of a perferle floor that people may think,
and he's got more scoring upside. And I think Martin
is probably going to settle into just be more of
a middle six banger kind of guy. Everyone said Sam Bennett,
and I think you have to really think about in
those lean years of Sam Bennett, was he someone that
you really wanted? Was he someone that you rostered in
those first several years, because there were many years that
I can remember he was just not appealing at all,
and even now he's a depth guy in a lot
of leagues that I'm in. I think that's a question
you have to answer yourself with that prototype is something
that you like, because for me, I don't. I wouldn't.
Looking at the hockey prospecting between the two, Dione has
thirty eight percent chance of being a star and Brady
Martin twenty five percent. So definitely leans daon a there
in the top down hockey model, they're closer to ten
percent each. But yeah, I'm leading daone.
Speaker 3: Jesse, all right, very good. My French is getting workout today, Victor.
Next up we're going to have Aiden Fink. He's doing
well for himself, but He's in Penn State in the
Happy Valley with Gavin McKenna and others there. The last
round selection from twenty twenty three. Fink is in his
third straight year of point per game or above production
at Penn State. That's some teams wish they had known
he'd do that when they drafted during that draft when
twenty twenty three, at the time, he was picked out
of the AJHL, where he was legendary. He was a
huge scorer in the AHL, but he jumped right up
and is doing things at much higher levels. He is
up against Jacob Pelatier in the NHL ranking pole, and
Fink wins this one sixty to forty percent. Pelotier is
three years older, much more of a known commodity. Is
think the better choice in this matchup.
Speaker 2: As you were saying that, a question came to mind.
The trajectory for Idenfink is bananas. As you mentioned, he
was in the AHL, then went to the NC DOUBLEA,
which there have been a few players who have done that,
but I don't know that anyone went from the AJHL
to the NCAA and became a point per game player
in their first season in the NC DOUBLEA. Thirty four
points in thirty four games is just bananas. There have
been plenty of guys who have dominated the A AJHL,
and when they transition out usually they have a bit
of an adjustment period because there's a big step up
in difficulty there, and that's a big, huge step. AJHL
to USHL would have been tough. AJHL to WHL would
have been tough. Going all the way to the NCAA
is really hard. So that was impressive. And remember he
did all that before Gavin McKenna and before Penn State
was even really that good. Frankly, he was one of
the better players on that team, so it's not like
he was just benefiting from passing the puck to a
generational talent. And this year his point totals are actually
muted compared to last season. So anyways, all that to say,
it is interesting to see his trajectory and being such
a late pick, a seventh rounder, there's definitely a little
bit of skepticism on how high he could go. But
I think in this comparison, I think it's pretty easy
to want him over Peltier. Palotier. It seems a bit
of a tweeter. He's in the Tampa system now after
coming up in the Calgary Flame system and then he
went to the Flyers for a bit, and he's played
some NHL games, but they haven't he hasn't been able
to stick. And so now he's in he's dominating the
AHL in the Tampa system. Maybe he'll get another view,
another opportunity, but the reality is that he seems like
a bit of a tweener. So I'm not sure that
if I had a choice between someone who could be
pretty decent and someone who is pretty proven that he's
a tweener and not really able to take that step,
I think I'm going to go with Aden Fink and
I would take him. Looking at the hockey prospecting between
the two, they both graduated already and Fink was at
nine percent, Palatier had four percent. In the top down
Hockey model, there's a Fink is the only one in
there now and he graduated two percent, so not that exciting.
And you look at some of the Fantasy Hockey Life
skater card and Fink has a lot more green on
his card for transition data and play driving. So definitely
seems more optimistic for Fink than Pelotier. Because even though
He's got some decent scoring in the AHL. Pelatier is
struggling with transition game and played, so that may be
why he hasn't been called up. But you never know.
With Tampa, they could call him up and he could
instantly gain some relevance. The Darren Radish story is legendary
from this season, so maybe he could be the forward
version of that, although I extremely doubt it.
Speaker 3: Jesse, very good, Victor. That takes us through all of
the prospects we have today. People probably can get the
long version of this and more if they pop over
to McKean's. That's some paywall action. But what else do
you have to say before we get out of here today?
Speaker 2: Nothing much, Just yeah, keep listening along and feel free
to reach out with any suggestions for any content you
want us to cover. Thanks so much.
Speaker 3: Oh wait, Victor, we didn't mention the patreon.
Speaker 2: That's right, our patreon. You can get lots of bonus
content through the Patreon. You can get access to the
patroon Priority channel, access to the website which the update
is coming probably hopefully by the time you listen to this,
and all kinds of other cool stuff patron cast and
being getting into the tidy and one on one Ruster
Doctor helps all kinds of good stuff over at picture
on dot com slash Fantasy Actor Life.
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