Speaker 1: Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks. Here'sh MS,
your source of information and analysis to help you win
your fantasy hockey league.
Speaker 2: Block off, hop a, step hit on, stay lock.
Speaker 1: Here's your hosts, Jesse Sevier and Victor Nuno Fantasy.
Speaker 3: Hockey Live back once again. I'm Jesse severa fantracks. That
is Victor Nuno of if you ringside, Victor, how you doing.
Speaker 2: I'm doing awesome, Jesse. I'm super excited for what we
have in store today and the World Juniors that are
coming up. It's just holidays, Christmas all that. It's it's
a great time of year. How you doing, my friend?
Speaker 3: That's right. It's a time for people to spend time
with kith and or kin and if you have neither
kith nor kin, or you have them and want to
avoid them, great news because come the day after Christmas
aka Boxing Day, you can just watch the World Juniors.
Rest of the way in one of the places where
you could talk about it. You could pop over to
our FHL discord where people are always popping. I think
there are World Junior pools. Probably by the time, I
think by the time people listen to this, it might
be too late to join, Victor, is that true or
is there still time?
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're already drafting. I'm already in the fourth and
fifth round drafting. Yeah, it's already going.
Speaker 3: All right, this is releasing Sunday afternoon, and maybe you
could just come watch the drafting. I don't know if
you like to watch this stuff anyway, Victor, I don't know.
I'm ahead of myself. I'm behind myself. I think you
need to put people straight about all the cool things
that they could do, even above and beyond the World juniors.
As far as our Patreon.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you want to check it out where we
have some bonus content there patron casts. We have Patron
Priority channel on the discord if you want access to
the website with the player cards, which Brannon just did
a big update and actually took in some feedback based
on the most recent update and updated it again so
it looks even cooler. There's a bunch of advances, blocks,
hot hits, shots, Fenwick takeaways, all that kind of stuff
for prospects, including the ranks by the Puck studlist that
I curate. So a bunch of cool stuff. If you
want to participate in the tidy the Tier Dynasty. We
do have a couple of spots that are opening up
from some gms that need to step away, so you
can get in on that. Go over to patreon dot
com slash Fantasy Hockey Life.
Speaker 3: Very good, All right, we can't wait any longer. Stepping
away for just a second. When we come back, it's
the Big Draft.
Speaker 4: Back and it.
Speaker 3: Is a crossover episode, folks. It is FHL, it is DPR,
Dabber Prospects Report. Victor is both. But in addition to
Victor wearing all those hats, we have joined us today,
Peter Harlan and Jim I Cavone. Peter, Jim, how you
doing I'm.
Speaker 4: Good man, I'm good.
Speaker 5: How about you, Jim, I'm doing great. I'm excited. I
had to kick this off. We should have a fun
episode for everyone Christmas.
Speaker 4: And the World Juniors at the same time, Like what
more could you possibly ask for?
Speaker 5: True that time of year, the year, time of year
everyone looks forward to.
Speaker 3: Oh man, this is going to be so cool. So
we are doing this. We're doing this draft. It is
about the World Juniors because people want to think about
that when you're driving forever to your aunt's house. When
you are sitting there waiting for the friggin high to
be served after the meal, you need something to think about,
you need something to contemplate, and that will include those
top few World Juniors players. So today we are doing
a snake draft and some basic formatting things here, folks.
We're going to go through nine rounds. This is a
crossover episode, so the first half of this will be
on our feed, the second half will be on the
Diver Prospects Report feed. You got to listen to both
people today if you want to know how this whole
thing comes out. And we are going to go through
five forwards, three defensemen, and one goalie. The settings are simple.
The scoring for this league. If I can pull up
the right tab here, Victor, I believe it's one point
for goal, one point for assist, one for what a win,
and one for a shutout? Is that right, Victor?
Speaker 2: You managed to get there, Jesse.
Speaker 3: Oh man, that was It was tense. It was touch
and go, Victor, but we got there. And yeah, we're
gonna snake around. We're gonna go nine rounds and obviously
all the players who are playing in the World Juniors
will count toward this roster. I don't know, fellas, but
before we take the first pick, does anybody want to
divulge their strategy? Does anybody want to completely out themselves
so that the rest of the three of us can
snipe you back and forth the whole way? Victor, why
at you star? What do you think of this whole thing?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I do have the privilege of having already started the
Fantasy Hockey Life draft that we're doing with some of
the listeners, and it's been pretty It's been pretty interesting
because I think you have the heavy top line of
the Americans who probably will lead the turn scoring. I'm guessing.
I don't think I'm giving anything away there, but Canada
has much more balance, and I think you got a
lot more options there with the forwards. In Canada, there's
really only a few high end goalies that I think
expect to play all the tournament, which is better for
our purposes. And that other draft you got nine guys,
and I don't think there are nine relevant goalies, so
you're going to get some backups that aren't probably going
to get too many points. But for us, I think
you know at least to two or three are going
to be good. The fourth person might not get the
best goalie, but it still should be fine, and then
you got the defenseman who you know there. I think
there are clearly some top end guys that are that
are going to be involved a lot, and then there's
a bunch that are probably just going to be placeholders
that aren't going to do too much. So I think
you've got to be really selective. I think it's gonna
be interesting that you can make a case for a
goalie or defense going a little bit earlier than you
might otherwise, just based on the setup of this tournament.
In particular, there was actually in the other pool that
I'm doing, the goal that I won't spoil went tenth overall,
and I think there were discussions of him going top five,
but didn't pull the tricker on that one. So yeah,
it's it's gonna be it's gonna be fun. But that's
without giving too much away, but giving some context. I
think that's where we're at. I think clearly everyone knows
it's US, it's Canada, it's Sweden. Those are the top
three that everyone expects to medal in one order or
the other and has the most relevant players also, so
that's what we're looking at mainly I'd be shocked if
any of you pick Kazakhstan or Germany or was it
the other one Latvia? I can't remember it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, Victory, I'm crossing off my Latvia heavy strategy.
I was gonna go with the Latvia stack, the lat
stack as I like to call it, and so much
for that idea, although I guess it's still open to me.
How about you, Jim, you have any opening thoughts before
we get in. Obviously we're gonna be talking about some
of the individual players, but yeah, what do you think, man.
Speaker 6: I'm gonna go heavy United States and Canada. I think
here the rosters are absolutely stacked, and Victor mentioned the
United States top line.
Speaker 5: A lot of pressure too with the first overall pick.
Speaker 6: I believe it or not, I don't know who to
pick here, so there's just too many guys to choose from.
Speaker 5: So I'm going to go with my favorite one. I
think that's my strategy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I hear you. I got the second pick. It's
going to go Jim, Me, Victor, Peter, and then we're
reversed back in some ways. I'm not complaining about where
it was drawn for me to pick, but some ways
it might have been better to pick later, because it
seems like there's a tier at the top, and to
get two guys in say the top five or the
top six, might be better than the second and the seventh.
But you never know, how about you. Peter, any opening
thoughts before we get into this.
Speaker 4: I like your Latvia heavy strategy. Actually, I think that's
the way to go. You pick before me, so you're
gonna get the best Latvian player and I won't. So
maybe I'll switch up and go heavy. Kazakhstan. They've got
the only Sens draft pick and the tournament's in Outawa,
so that would be a lot of fun to cheer
for that guy in your fantasy roster while it's in Outawa.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I appreciate that. That's like an alliance that we're
making here. Peter to agree. I won't take your cozahs,
you don't take my lets, and that way we both
have a chance.
Speaker 4: I think that's called collusion.
Speaker 3: I think the other guys will be okay with it,
to be honest, Ye, yeah, I'll good proceed. It's the
only collusion if they don't like it, all right, Yes,
Victor gives us the nod all right, maybe we should
get into this. Let's start out with pick number one overall, Jim,
you've been given a chance to think about it. Who
do you got?
Speaker 6: Yeah, so I mentioned this was a little harder than
it should have been, maybe here because you have players
like Avin McKennon and James Hagen's and portomartone. But I
think at the end of the day, I'm gonna go
with my guy, and it's a winger, a guy that
combines skill, speed, physicality. He's a leader, great on the
fore check, goot into defensive zone, and that's going to
be Ryan Leonard from the United States team.
Speaker 2: First overall pick.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna go with my guy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, wow, all right, what do you think victory? You're
starting to speak there?
Speaker 2: Oh sorry, I was. Yeah. So in our league he
went number one, and the other league, the B League
Lives drafting, I think he went like seventh or eighth,
So there's definitely some disparity there, or maybe not that late.
It was fourth or fifth. It was much later than
I thought, and so I think you rip, Jim. It's
hard to it's hard to pick from one of those three,
but getting one of those three is going to be
help I think because they're gonna put up a lot
of points. Yeah, why don't we just where I can
just take the third one?
Speaker 3: She's son of a gun. All right, I'll make it easier.
I'll give you who I think will be the third
best of the three, because I'll take James Hagens at
pick number two, blowing it up in college right now,
thought to be potentially in the mix for the number
one overall pick. It depends on who you ask right now.
It seems to be a fluid situation that may not
really be settled until the summer. But James Hagen's of
the United States, one of our twenty two thousand and
six is who will be coming out this summer, and
I'm sure will be spoken of a lot on our
both of the pods represented in this podcast. Any argument
against James Hagen's anybody want to make before Victor does
his thing?
Speaker 2: Great pick? Not really? He's a beast and he is
draft eligible. So do you tend to think of those
guys not being able to get as many points? But
when you're as elite as he is, I don't think
there's too much debate there. And it's funny because this
is the same thing that happened in my pool where
I picked third and the third option to me was
Gay Pro, And I'm actually very happy with that because
I think there's a pretty decent chance that Pro ends
up with as many or more points than those two,
just because that's what he does, is score Leonard. You know,
if you're protecting the lead out late, you might not
have Pro out there, but you will have Ryan Leonard
and Hagen's is probably gonna be taking the draws and
all that, but every offensive situation he might get, he
might he'll be a part of all that. So I'm
pretty happy with that. And it went one, two three, USA,
Pete so more USA.
Speaker 4: I really wanted to get at least one of those guys,
but I can't say I'm surprised that I didn't. There's
some pretty heady competition in this league. You guys know
your stuff, and I think you all nailed it right
out of the park there. So I might actually start
looking towards Canada and go with a couple of offensive
juggernauts there, maybe Beckett, Seneca and Zane Perrek checks notes. Nope,
not gonna go with those guys, although I might maybe
would have if they made the tournament, but somehow they
didn't all right, So I think the James Hagens pick.
One of the most exciting things about that is as
a draft eligible player, there's a lot of buzz around
draft eligible players and their draft year and in this
tournament especially, and they get a lot of extra chatter
and buzz. And so when you have a guy on
your fantasy your roster that everyone's talking about, it's always fun.
And I've watched some of the pre tournament games as well,
and the concern with d eligible players is they might
be a little bit deeper down the list. And he's
not even draft eligible for twenty twenty four. He's got
another year to go before or sorry, twenty twenty five.
He's not eligible for the following draft after this one,
so he's two years out. So historically those players don't
have prime minutes, and he might not have them to
start the tournament because is a you know, it's a
nineteen year old tournament. But I think, like Connor Bdard did,
I think he is going to just gravitate up the
roster as he's just so influential in the games that
I've watched him play, and I think by the time
we're into the final couple of games, I think he'll
be Candida's go to player. So my first guy is
going to be Gavin McKenna. That is pick number four.
Speaker 3: Yeah, tremendous, tremendous. That's the other theme of this is
the young guys versus the established guys, right or the
guys who are already drafted, And that's Is he the
youngest player in this tournament, Peter, I think so.
Speaker 4: I think so. I don't think there's any other twenty
six draft eligible players. There is a bunch of twenty fives,
but I think he is.
Speaker 3: The youngest relevant one certainly.
Speaker 4: But yeah, absolutely, you got the.
Speaker 3: Turn here, sir. So you get two in a row, right, Yes.
Speaker 4: Yes, and no, I'm not going to start the run
on goalie or defense either. I'm gonna stick with Canada
and I think another player. I got two choices here
that I think are either pick is is quite correct,
as they're both prolific and dynamic offensive players. But I'm
only going to give you the name of the player
I'm picking, and I'm gonna go with the guy that's
got a super hot streak since last season through the
regular season Playoffs, Memorial Cup. He's had a point streak
of over fifty games split over two seasons, and I
think he could be the tournament leading scorer.
Speaker 2: I know it is.
Speaker 4: I hold your questions till the end of the conference piece.
And I think players become kind of Canadian folklore in
this tournament if they have a just a massive tournament.
And so this is a guy that with a high
pedigree and profile plays for the London Nights. He's drafted
by the Toronto Maple Leafs. I'm gonna go get Easton
Town is my next pick.
Speaker 2: He'd picked a maple leaf how surprising.
Speaker 4: It's not with my heart though, I think this is
a very legit.
Speaker 2: Pick that's giving you a hard time. There's a lot
of right choices to pick from Canada. That's part of
the reason. That's part of what makes it difficult, I think,
is that I think that there are gonna be a
lot of Canadians that they're scoring a lot, and it
might it probably will be him, but it might be
someone else. But that's why it's a little hard to
start the run on them, in my opinion. But I'm
more than happy to pick the second, third, or fourth
guy from Team Canada personally, but let's see, Oh, I
guess it is my turn, huh. All right after the
top USA, I think it gets a little bit more
challenging to pick. One thing that I think is going
to be a little bit tricky is picking the top
defense and I really think that they're only a handful
that I think are going to be really impactful, and
I think most of them come from the top country.
There's a couple of the countries that might not make
it past the quarters, that have a couple of decent guys,
But to me, it really comes down to Canada, US,
Sweden for those top spots, and I am actually going
to go I think that this guy was defenseman of
the Tournament last year, and I think the Swedes don't
look quite as dominant as the rest. But I'm going
to go ahead and take Axel sending Palico with my
second round pick. I think he's gonna whatever scoring the
Swedes do, he should get in on it, and they
should be especially the side of the bracket they're on.
They're going to get at least of the semis, so
they should get the maximum number of games even if
they lose in the semis. Have a third place game,
which totally counts in the points. I'm going to go
with him even though that. I'm curious, you guys think
he's the best fence on the board. Does anyone disagree
with that?
Speaker 3: I think it's a toss up. I think it's a
toss up, but he certainly is right there, Victor. It's
more strategic. I think individually he's probably the best strategically
in terms of a stack or in terms of whether
a guy makes it to the finals and gets that
one extra game, although a third place game would still
count for stats.
Speaker 2: So yep.
Speaker 4: I'm not sure how prolific Sweden's offense is going to be.
I think they're a great team and they're a gold
medal candidate, but I'm just not sure they're going to
have as many goals as candidate and USA overall throughout
the tournament. While he might be the best defenseman, I'm
not sure he'll be the most offensively producing defenseman he
could be, though.
Speaker 3: All right, let's back to me and this one. I'm
going to take who I actually would probably rate as
the top defenceman but also by far the most fun
name to say. Now, I won't speak to every one
of the Latvians, Kazakhs, and folks from some of those
other countries we might get to today because there might
be some darn fun names to say there. But I
love seeing z William, our man from the University of
Denver and a prolific probably I think will be the
lead defenseman despite a very highly touted guy who we
have loved in the past playing also for the USA,
but should be top minutes, should be taking a couple
of those second assists and maybe putting in some of
his own for the USA. Zev Bollyem of the USA
my first defenseman before I get to Jim, because Jim
has the chance now for.
Speaker 2: Back to back.
Speaker 3: Let's take a brief break and come back right after this.
Speaker 1: What is this acrossover episode?
Speaker 3: Back into the draft and it's Jim time. Jim, You've
waited an awful long time since Ryan Leonard and now
you get our revenge on all of us.
Speaker 6: That time to think because you sniped me there, Jesse
Zee Bulliam was going to be my guy. Great pick,
and I'm going to keep the run on d alive
here and I'm gonna go with a former first round
pick of the Philadelphia Flyers surprise Oliver Bunk keep the
run on d going. I think he's going to have
another solid World Juniors with Canada. He's having a decent
year for the London Nights, twenty one points in twenty
four games. Bumper Bunk is going to be my pick
in the second round. And then I guess I'll start
this run. I'll take the who I think could be
the best goalie in the tournament in Carson Bjarnison, and
just a coincidence that he's another Flyers prospect. I'm not
going to be picking all Flyers prospects, but Carson Bjarnison
will be my pick to start the third round.
Speaker 4: Sure, sure, sure, sure.
Speaker 3: Wow wow, I thought you had me on that one, Jim,
But spoilers, I'm taking Trey Augustine right here at USA goalie.
That was the guy I was really you started talking goalie.
I was ready to throw my hat down on the ground.
You probably in the end, you probably made a better
pick to me. I don't know, but let's keep the
Apparently I'm a USA stack now that must be an
American or something. I don't know what happened over here.
It's usually fun to put on another Country's jersey for
this just for the Lulls. But Trey Arnstein. But I'm
scooping you, man. I don't want to step on the
picks you had there. Those were great. You got a
couple of Phillies, you got a couple of got a
couple of flyers, and you got a couple of big
time players. Oliver Bank is guy who's we've been talking
about a lot lately, who's really been blown up this year.
Speaker 5: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 6: You had a big season last year, really put him
on the map. Flyers fans are excited for him. A
big right shot defenseman. It plays that bumper spot on
the power play. I'm i like watching him play for
Canada more than I like watching him play for the
London Nights because I'm not sure how his game with
London will translate to the pros. So I'm looking forward
to watching him with Team Canada during the World Juniors.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Cool.
Speaker 3: And then, so now two goalies off the board, Victor
Bjarnsen in Augustine. The good news strategically for you and
Peter now is nobody else can back up drafted backup goalie.
There's only two more goalies going in the last six
and a half rounds of this draft, so it almost
unless there's one bet or another. You guys can wait
till the ninth round if you want, But that just strategically.
That's one of the interesting things about this draft is
that you get to a point where certain positions just
can't be drafted. So anyway, Victor, how does this goalie
run impact you? Are you crushed? Did we destroy you?
Because that's all I really want to happen.
Speaker 2: I think those are the two clear Actually, I think
Augustine is the clear number one at playing. He's a
guy who's for sure going to play all the minutes
and is on one of the better teams, be honest,
and I think is very likely to get some games
and he's on a good team, but I don't know
that he's the for sure starter. That's the only issue
with him. And there's another goalie who I think is better,
but the team is not as good and so that
makes it difficult. And I think I don't think I'm
giving anything away because pet and I were just talking
about this, but we're not exactly sure who's going to
play for Sweden. I think Sweden's going to be good,
but I don't know that they have a goalie that's
for sure going to play all the games. So Augustine
is by far the best goalie pick of my opinion,
just because he's going to play unless he gets hurt
and knock on wood.
Speaker 4: He's the safest.
Speaker 2: He's the safest. Yeah, and I think the US is
for sure gonna he's going to get the most games
because I think the other unless one of the other goalies,
like for Canada Sweden gets on a roll and they
just don't take him out, then they'll play just as
many games. But yeah, that's that's a good one, all right.
So yeah, and part of my thought process, you took
Ze Bullyam. I really wanted to take Zee Bullyam. I
was a little worried about stacking too many Americans on
one team, and so that was something that made me
a little bit worried. But you know what, I'm to go.
Speaker 4: Don't do it. Don't do it, Victor, don't take my guy.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 4: Don't you dare.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do it. I wanted him in my other draft,
and I chickened out a little bit. But I think
Matthew Shaffer is going to be a big part of
this tournament. Even though he's draft eligible. The guy is
just such a beast and he's already looking better than
a lot of the drafted defenseman on Team Canada, and
so I just I think he's going to be I
think it's gonna be awesome. He may not start at the
beginning of the tournament being one of the top d
running the top power play, but I think he's going
to end up there. And it's a good team and
want some of that. So I'm gonna.
Speaker 4: Listen, this ends our friendship. Fine, fine, good pick? All right?
That that said it to me? Then yeah for twelve, Peter, yep,
all right, regroup time. There's I've always wanted to get
one of these brothers in my drafts, and I prioritize
them hither than when they've been drafted, and they still
never have fallen to me. So this is going to
be my first opportunity to have one of the Hudson
brothers on my fantasy roster. So I'm going to go
ahead and take Cole Hudson from USA and that is
going to be my pick number eleven.
Speaker 2: What ending of that, I think Cole Hudson's going to
have a huge tournament, which is part of the reason
I shied away a little bit from Zee William, just
because I think William's awesome, But I think Cole Hudson
should be running the top power plays. He has more
of that skill set which is more offensive, and I
think William's going to be out there and more situations,
more even strength situations. He could get more points. But Hudson,
that's his defined role. That's why he's there. He's not
there to log big even strength minutes. So yeah, I
definitely like that pick.
Speaker 4: I liked it too, all right, so to me again,
and it seems to me like the confidence inspiring selection
or pool for offensive defenseman is drying up fast. So
I'm gonna take advantage of that with my back to
back picks, and I'm gonna take my second defenseman and
I'm going back to Canada. And I like Sam Dickinson.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say I left you Dickinson, but you
got there on your own.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, No, I like Dickinson. I think he's I
think he's a pretty pro ready style game, and I
don't think he's gonna have a problem with the pace
that this tournament plays with. And I think he oozes confidence.
He's the offensive defenseman leading scorer in the Ontario Hockey League,
and without Zane Perrek there, I think they're gonna ask
him to step up his offensive game in this tournament
for them and be one of the guys that gets
time on the power play. I think him and Bonk
are gonna they come in with immediate built in chemistry,
both being London Nights, so I think they should be
the top pairing for Canada.
Speaker 2: I'm hoping, all right, at least I don't have to
take another defenseman now for a while. I neither do you.
I have to look here probably makes sense to get
a Canadian full word, so I have to think about
who who's going to be the top here. But that's
one of the hard things I think about picking Canada
is that they have so many great options that it
makes it a little bit more challenging. But I so
I really have a soft spot for Cadden. I'm gonna
take Berkeley Cadden. I think he's one of the most
dynamic offensive guys. I think Callen and some of the
other forwards that could go here are maybe better in
all leverage type situations. I don't think Cadden's like bad defensively,
but he's more dynamic offensively, so I think that he
he's gonna be a fun one looking forward to watching him.
I think he could put up a lot of points,
so Berkeley Caton.
Speaker 3: I'm fascinating. Look, this mock draft is like the old
TV show whose line is it anyway? Where the game's
made up and the points don't really matter. I should
probably err on the side of not talking strategy, but
I am fascinated. We're halfway through the fourth round. There
have been as many actually yeah, there have been as
many defencemen as forwards taken so far. The first five
picks were all forwards, and then we had a run
of eight straight defenseman and goalies, and now Victor finally
has recracked the seal on the forwards. One wonders if
value over replacement how much that matters. But that only
matters for the five of you who are still out
there in the world trying to draft a World Junior's draft,
because certainly there's always the scarcity. And I took a
defenseman too, But I am going back to the forwards,
and I'm going even though there's balance, I'm once again
going to get sucked in by the promise after James
Haggens of the young man on the come and take
port marton power forward. Hopefully he'll get up toward the net,
he'll score a few goals for Canada on the putative
first line, playing up there with a belief he's supposed
to be on that first line with captain that should
and McKenna, So that would be a very good thing
to do. So I will figure out how to input
this on this list and take myself a little bit
of port of martone. What do you think, guys, is
Martona is that like you said, there's so many players
who could be relevant for this Canada team. Is this
guy going to make an impact or is this one
of these stop just taking guys because they're young type
situations because there are big prospects for the next draft situations.
I guess I should say.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think there's a lot of upside with Martona.
I think he's got the size and skill to be
an impact player. We'll see the draft. Eligible guys usually
are a little insulated at the World Juniors. On the
deep ross is like Canada. High end draft players for
checks and Slovaks can be in a more prominent role
because they're just not as deep, so he could get
a little bit buried by the agent experience of the
Canadian roster. But like I was saying with McKenna, he
absolutely has the possibility to just play his way up
the roster and into it a top six regular role
in PP one, good big one.
Speaker 3: All right, all right, we're back to the wheel once again.
Jim has been patiently waiting, silently frustrated, probably learning to
hate every one of us by name, possibly with the
voodoo doll below where we can see in his camera
poking needles in all of us. But luckily for him,
he's back up to draft for two here on the wheel.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and drafting with you guys makes this tough. Certainly
it's fun, but man, every pickets and it's only four
of us too, so it's funny. But every picket's there
goes my guy, There goes my guy.
Speaker 6: So I'm gonna I'm gonna take cole Eiserman here, natural
goal scorer, elite shot USA should score a lot of
goals this tournament, and another wing. I know, I drafted
Ryan Leonard Ryan Leonard with the first overall pick, so
I'm gonna need a center at some point, but I'm
gonna go Cole Eiserman for USA with this pick. And
then for my second pick here, well, there goes my guy.
Speaker 5: Was it. You're a big Isserman guy for good.
Speaker 6: I did that in our draft league too, I think
in our Dynasty league. Sorry Pete, but you got Cole Hudson.
Speaker 2: Still.
Speaker 5: I think that was the other one.
Speaker 4: Yeah, at least I got one.
Speaker 5: There you go.
Speaker 6: And then for this next pick here, I'm gonna go
away from the United States and in Canada a bit,
and I'm gonna go Constant Hellnious. Skilled playmaker, good vision,
good pup handling. Someone's got to put up some points
on that team there. So I'm gonna go Constat Hellenius
with my pick on the turn there.
Speaker 3: Oh, good pick, I Constant Hellnious. Probably not too much
of a spoiler to say that he was one of
my favorites for the non Big Three teams. The Victor
remembers I was a big fan of his back in
the draft, even though it's not always thought of, I
think to be potentially as much of an elite scorer
in the NHL. But he's incredibly skilled and I think
like I said he's going to play a leading role
for that finished team, so I'm fired up about I
was hoping I could wait a few rounds sneak him
in at the end. Nobody's thinking about the Fins at
that point. After Peter gets done taking all of his Kazakhs.
That then we'll just sneak that one in and see
if we can.
Speaker 4: Get it past the group.
Speaker 3: Any reactions to Jim's picks on the wheel, I've got
one more to take in this first half of the
episode after that.
Speaker 2: I think it can be helpful to take players from
other teams that the only thing you don't want is
you don't want someone that goes out when the quarters
or really early, because then you get a lot fewer games.
But I think the Fins always have a propensity to
make an upset or play really well at the team
and Lenny As should be right there. Anything they get
a piece out, he should have points on and he
really should be dominant in this tournament. He's been playing
against men for a long time, so I think it's
a great pick, and yeah he iserman should He'll be
on one of the power plays. He'll get these munt
even strength time they should score a lot of goals.
He should be there, So definitely like that.
Speaker 3: One I will say that is these are also guys
that I was really hoping to take. So I also
hate you, Jim. Just let it not be a secret.
But no, that's all right, that's all right. But I'm
feeling good. I've got a nice base. I've got a defenseman,
I've got a goalie, I've got two forwards, and you
know what, I think I need to stay on the
forward train here. I'm going to go to that second
line of the USA and hope that Trevor Connelly is
able to come up with some more points for my Americans,
continuing the stack of the USA team. So yeah, Trevor Connelly,
I believe he's a Vegas Golden Night at this point.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 3: He didn't get traded yet, not yet. Yes, it could
happen at any moment with him, But he made the
jump to the NCAA this year, so he is. He
is transitioning from that lower level of competition in the
USHL last year. He's just in his first year of
higher level stuff, but I think that will not preclude him.
He's had a good start at Providence College this year
with eleven points in twelve games and is making the
progress that he needs to make. So I am going
to go ahead and count on Trevor Connolly on that
second line of the USA team to make an impact
for my squad. Victor, I think we're back to you.
You've got a nice balance of countries here. You're a
very internationalist, you're practically the United Nations. And who do
you want to pick next on this team?
Speaker 2: I thought about going to a different country to expand
my seat at the table for the UN here, but
I think I'm going to stick with the country that
I've already picked from. And I do think that Connelly
is probably the fifth best American forward, so like that
there might be another decent one out there, but I
think there's much better options with Canada, and I believe
if I'm reading this board correctly, their top line center
is still available. Depends on who you call their top
line center who's playing wing, But I still think they
have a top liner there and that's cal Richie. So
I'm going to take cal Richie with this pick. I
think that he got some NHL time, Cowen got some
NHL time. A couple of these guys have played really
high levels, including some of the other guys that I
won't mention to spoil it, but I think Richie and
Cowen are clearly ahead in that way, and they should
have an easier time dominating in this tournament. And so
whether or not there in all the offensive situations is
really the only question. But I think if Canada goes
far and Richie should should have a pretty prominent role
in that, I'm gonna take him. And by the way,
just to clarify what was said earlier, there is no
left wing center right wing, so they're all just forwards,
So don't feel like you need to take a center.
Speaker 3: Very good, And now we're to Pete. At the end
of this round. We're going to split Pete's two picks,
So you take one now, Peter, and then you will
have plenty of time to contemplate what comes next.
Speaker 4: All right, I think I'm gonna stick with two forwards
for these back to back picks here, and I just
have the most confidence with taking Canadian players, So Victor,
he did me a favor there, making my choice a
little bit less convoluted with taking one of the top
I believe four or five players that are still left
on the forward roster for Canada. Good pick with the Richie.
I'm not sure he would have been my guy, so
I also appreciate that you went ahead and took him
instead of taking Bradley Nadou. I think I'm gonna roll
the dice and go with this guy and pick number
twenty as he's playing some pretty good hockey. He's been
a player that's been hot and trending up. He doesn't
have a lot of pedigree with Team Canada and that
usually works against you. But despite the fact that he's
not not been a regular player for Hockey Canada, I
think they just couldn't ignore the fact that he's played
his way onto this team and it made other players
expendable like mott Wood and Beckett Seneca. So I think
he's going to be given a lot of opportunity to
play a prominent role for Canada. So that is my
pick to close out this round six or five.
Speaker 3: Tremendous, tremendous stuff. Any reactions from the Peanut gallery, of
which I include myself to Pete's finishing pick of this
round five.
Speaker 2: I think what's interesting about Nadeau and I think it's
a great pick, but all these teams where players are
playing in the NHL at AHL have a lot more
control over what happens with him, and apparently Carolina was
very resistant to let him go, but they wanted to
make sure he was going to have a prominent role
and that works in your favor Peep for sure. Now,
whether or not he stays top line power play, that
may change. I don't think it will. I think he's
good enough that he's gonna stay. There's you look at
his production and you might say, oh, he's not doing
that great. But he's playing in the AHL and he
has fifteen points in twenty two games. Don't be mistaken,
that's not great production when you're used to seeing junior
scores that are two points per game. Because that's more impressive.
And he's playing against men playing tougher minutes. He should
have a much easier time playing against players that aren't
used to playing such difficult minutes and against bigger, stronger,
physical players. So I think people might look at this
and say, oh, he's not that exciting, he's not tearing
up his league. But I think it's just a different
standard here when you're playing at such a higher level.
So I think he actually is going to have a
really great turn. Red