Speaker 1: Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks.
Speaker 2: Here sits.
Speaker 1: Your source of information and analysis to help you win
your fantasy hockey league. Block off hot a step hit on, staylock.
Here's your host, Jesse Sevier and Victor Nuno Fantasy Hockey.
Speaker 2: Live once again. Jess Severe of Man Tracks, Victor Nuno
of Dabber of McKean's Victor. How you doing.
Speaker 1: It's really bright down here, Jesse. I don't know what's
going on. I can barely see what is that. I
think it's the glow of the two gold medals that
the US won at the Olympics. I don't know how
I'm gonna see anymore. It's so bright. How are you doing?
Speaker 2: Oh no, oh no, yeah, yeah, it's you knew it
was coming. Canadian listeners, please don't drop in listenership over
the next week. But yeah, it was quite an event, man,
and it couldn't have been more exciting, right, couldn't have
been more exciting. I was actually in Canada watching the
finals and a little frightened to go outside afterwards. People
were pretty bummed. Was pretty early in the morning, but no,
everybody's a good sport and it was fun. It created
some interesting chats and some of the groups that were
in Victor.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was great. It was the best hockey I've
ever seen, I think, just in general seeing all the
nhlrs at the Olympics, I don't understand how anyone can
watch this, And I'm talking mostly to the NHL leadership
and say we shouldn't do this again. We'll pass. Like,
I don't understand how you could not want this. I
know that these are as, these players are assets for
the teams and the owners and all that. I totally
understand that. But this was the best hockey we've ever seen,
in my opinion, and great storylines with some of the
countries who maybe you don't think of as being so strong,
like Slovakia making it in to the fourth seed and
near upstats happening all over the place. It was just
really high quality, even some of the teams that were
a little lower down. It'll and France being more competitive
than I thought. And France is going to be there
again because in four years it's back in France, so
they should be there again, so that'll be interesting. But
I just really loved it and it was great, fantastic hockey.
Some of the best that I've ever seen, and I
just really hope that we get to see it. I
know it's a little hard for the fantasy rosters and
I personally lost I think four of my top players
on one of my teams. It's going for a championship
due to injury. So I get it. That sucks, but
to me, it's all worth it just to see such
great hockey, and I hope we get to continue it.
It's been It was such.
Speaker 2: A treat I think it's undebatable that gold medal game
was the I think it was the most talented. It
was played at the highest level that has ever been seen.
Because you can talk about Stanley Cup finals, and I'm
not dissing Stanley Cup finals at all, but those teams
are beat up by the time they get to the finals.
The two teams are beat up. It's a battle of attrition,
worn out and they're just surviving and you get an
amazing level of play. But everybody in that game was
playing their freaking heart out and they were the most skillful,
best players. Effectively the best two teams that you could
assemble in the world based on the using use of
nationality to do it. It's what you theoretically would hope
an All Star game would be. But these guys not
only care, but if you saw the way that they looked,
when both teams looked when the thing was done, there's
no question. I will say it was the most skillful,
most talented, strongest play on ice game that we've ever seen,
and we're going to see probably for several years. So yeah,
pat on the back to those who tolerated this, even
with Kevin Fiala, Mikol Ranton and others not probably playing
for certain amounts of time varying on the player involved.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was awesome and there was a lot of
discourse that was happening, and it was funny. Some of
the Canadians that I saw said, this is ridiculous. These
are these Americans are fairweather fans are not even gonna
care the next day after this upset and obviously Canada
are really upset. And to that, I will say, how
dare you? It is Tuesday and we just stopped caring.
Speaker 2: It's gonna say. They have a point. That's that's the
American Olympic experience, folks, is Yeah, it's quickly, it's quickly
crowded out of the public imagination, but nonetheless, what a
tournament victor. We're thinking always about the next thing, and
there were a couple of next things in this tournament.
It was really more about today. But today we're thinking
about the draft. Right after this Victor, we're gonna come
back and talk some draft eligibles, really for the most
organized first time maybe this year, Victor.
Speaker 3: Today is our first big cut at the Rentil Draft.
We've mentioned some guys time to time, but today we're
really getting into the meat of some not We're not
going one through ten here, We're gonna talk about some
of the very top guys. We're gonna talk about some
of the middle of the first we're gonna talk about
maybe some guys who even get out of the first round.
So it's not comprehensive, but it's some of the stuff
that is of great interest to right now. And we're
gonna start with Keaton Verhoff. He is a consensus top
prospect in the draft, generally top three ranked. I even
saw him on some rankings number one overall. Now that's
according to taste.
Speaker 2: Obviously, there's a couple other guys who are up there
who've been talked about a lot. But if your taste
is in a big, heavy, right shot defenceman that is
on every NHL GM's wish list, and you can understand
how one of those might rise to the top. Here
is our scouts tout. FHL Scout Patrick had this to
say about verof the skating slightly above average, strong stride quality,
lateral movement, skating and backward skating. Overall, the skating looks
like it will refine further as he grows comfortable with
his size. Passing and handling, Veroff makes decisive and crispasses
on target, can handle the puck, he can transport it
up the eye, and his shooting is that's a hard shot.
It beats goalies IQ high for Keaton. He reads and
reacts to the play very well. Infrequently does one find
him out of position, and often Verov finds himself in
the right place to get the puck for for checking.
He's going to contribute by coming down to the face
off circle when it makes sense, but he is conscious
of defense. He's not going to sell out from the
defender position. He uses his hockey sense and skating to
be in the right position to defend on the rush,
retrieve the puckin zone, defend well at NetFront, so the
best asset here, according to Patrick, is hockey sense. The
biggest concern was overall defensive game still has some imperfections,
mostly minor, still to be worked out. The top tier
outcome that can be seen here a top pair defenseman,
power play one quarterback. That's because he's got all the
skills to be a top pair with the attainable approvements
to his game the fiftieth percentile of the median here,
second pair of power play two. The overall size and
skills provide a good baseline that you could take him
pretty far. The stylistic comparable echoes of headman or Eckblad.
A more recent comparison perhaps Sam Dickinson, who's still matriculating
through the miners, but with better defense and less dynamic offense.
The NHL ranking pole doesn't screw around with Keaton Verhoff.
We're gonna put him right against Gavin McKenna and see
what happens. And as you might expect, especially after McKenna
just dropped a bomb, it was a one goal and
seven assists the other week, he wins this poll eighty
one two nineteen percent over Keaton Verhoff. And this was
even a real world draft choice thing, It's not even fantasy.
It still ended up this way. Not gonna lie as
the guy who took Michael Misa over Matthew Schaeffer last year,
the beginning of a fantasy draft. The high flying forward
over the top defenseman is feeling painful to me right now.
I don't feel great about it. But Victor, how do
you feel about Keaton Verhoff as a fantasy prospect?
Speaker 1: Well, you just mentioned the about thinking back to last
year and the Misa versus Schaefer is definitely a little concerning.
Could that happen again? Certainly we never know. We I
felt pretty confident about Misa there over Schaeffer, and who knows,
maybe five years from now we're seeing Lisa put up
one hundred and ten points and it's fine, but he
would have to massively outproduce what Schaeffer is doing. Based
on relative value for defenders. It seems like it's going
to be a long shot. I do think that I
do think similarly in this pairing as I did last year,
that the forward has way more points upside and the
defender is going to be more valuable to his real
life team. But that narrative could shift and we'll have
to wait and see. Verdoff is just so steady. I
love that description. I love the comps that we're given there.
He's definitely I could see him going ahead of McKenna
in the real draft right now. As you mentioned, he
is number one only on one rankless, a major rankless,
and that is Ryan Kennedy of the Hockey News. He's
the consolidated rank number three, and most other outlets don't
have him higher than in the two or three range,
whereas McKenna is still consensus number one, although a lot
of places have him two, three or even four. It's
just interesting. I think when they redo their ranks based
on the points that he's had recently, I think that
might shift a little bit. At this point, he's really
doing what Celebrini did in his draft year in college,
and so that's pretty impressive. It was low for a
while there, but he's really broken out. Apparently all he
has to do is a punch guys in the face
at a bar and then he can score more points.
That's interesting, but yeah, I think that in terms of
real life, Verhoff is going to be more valuable to
his team. He's a right shot defenseman who can play
in all situations. He looks like a true number one
D prospect, the guy that you put out there and
all situations, run the power play, penalty kill. That's extremely valuable,
more valuable to your team than McKenna, who even as
a high end winger, you're looking at some of the
best wingers in the world like Rentonen and Paneren, who
absolutely can tilt the ice and be super special. But
you still need guys down the middle to defend and
to play in all situations, and he's not going to
be that guy. His looking I have pulled up his
Fantasy Hockey Life player card and a lot of his
defensive metrics are not great. Some of his play driving
is okay, but his corsi against is pretty terrible. Some
of his puck battles, which is an issue, like his
off puck play, essentially continues to not be very good
at all, although his transition data he's still good offensively.
It's one of those things where you spend all that
time in the offensive zone, then you're pretty good defensively.
Just because of that. Verhoff is pretty good in all
those situations, and that'll be part of the narrative but
you look at hockey prospecting between these two and there's
just no question. You can see that McKenna is a
ninety nine percent star chance of a star and Verhoff
is fifty three percent, which still extremely high. So all
to say that, yeah, I probably would take McKenna here,
but I think it's for Verhoff because he's a great prospect.
Going against Mckennadough is just really challenging at this point.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, that is going to be a couple of guys
you're looking for it in your draft lottery now. Ryan Lynn,
Vancouver Giant. Lynn is a smaller defenseman, but one who
is well over a point per game this year, being
discussed as something like a mid first round pick and
a buzzy guy. Our FHL scout Nate has this to
say about Ryan Lynn. Above average skater, which he uses
to close gaps defensively and have smart activations when breaking
the puck out of the offensive zone. For an undersize defender,
He's going to be one of the few who can
make it work with his great skating tendencies, which is
why teams will want to take a chance on him
early in the first round. Passing and handling a good
first pass when breaking out in the defensive zone, but
doesn't show as much in the offensive zone as you'd
like to see from a player of his size. Not
going to hurt a team with his offensive abilities, but
not going to be a game breaker either. The shot
is not going to blow any goaltenders away, and his
play style doesn't lend itself to too many scoring opportunities.
He is smart and the offensive zone does well to
get pucks through to the net, but he doesn't really
have much of a scoring touch. The IQ is in
the running with skating for his best quality. He makes
smart reads with a puck in the defensive zone to
create offense. He also has a great stick, which he
uses to break up attacking threats. He sometimes overanalyzes the
play defensively, which gets him flailing out of position, but
it's likely a case of trying to do too much
on defense. Lend's strong stick skills in anticipation make him
an average to above average defender. Likely isn't going to
be a shutdown defender, but he'll be steady as a
rock and have a long career as a dependable two
way defenceman. It's hard to pick between Lin's skating and
hockey IQ for his best asset, but Linz skating will
get him out of trouble as an undersized defender, but
with his IQ, there won't be too many times where
he gets himself into trouble. Right now is skating is
likely the better quality, but if you can clean it
up some of his overplaying at the defensive end that is,
his IQ will be what makes him a full time
NHL defender. The biggest concern, well, he's got offensive talents,
he projects more as a two way guy, hasn't shown
enough of a high end offensive ability compared to others
in this class, and that will likely lead to him
not having as much offensive production. Also, asn't a physical
two way defenceman and stead he tries to excel with
smart breeds and a good stick. While whichever team drafts
him will be getting a steady defenseman, his style won't
translate to the stats categories, so the top outcome here
top pairing defenseman. He'll get some duty on the power
play depending on the rest of the defensive corps around him.
More likely he's more of a power play two guy
who will also get some time at the penalty kill
as well, but could get some time on the power
play one at some point in his career. Lynn has
all the tendencies of an above average to elite defenseman,
but his offensive talents are still which could limit his
chances on the power play or in other offensive situations.
The median outcome something more like a second pair defenseman
who isn't the first defender out on the special teams,
but gives the team seventeen to nineteen reliable minutes every night.
That's because when a defenseman has solid qualities but doesn't
excel in one particular area, this is the kind of
role he frequently lands in. He'll sometimes get power play time,
he'll get some PK time, but his presence on the
back end will be the minutes he eats on five.
Ryan Lynn's style is reminiscent of Jared Spurgeon. Spurgeon was
worthy of getting the C in Minnesota because of his steadiness,
but he isn't going to rack up hits every single night,
and his career high end points in his prime was
forty three. So thus speaks Nate our FHL scout. In
the NHL ranking Poll, Ryan Lynn is up against Xavier Villenueve,
and that is going to be Ryan Lynn in a
win as fifty eight point five to forty one point five.
Will an NHL team experienced Ryan Linsanity in a couple
of years after drafting this young defenseman, More importantly, will
my fantasy team.
Speaker 1: I think the answer to both of those is yes.
And I hope we can bring Linsanity over to hockey
because that was super fun. You could probably tell me
what happened with him. I vaguely remember that happening, and
I think he faded into oblivion. Am I wrong about that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Basically he did all that while Carmelo Anthony was hurt.
Mello came back and Lynn Jeremy Lynn just take a knee.
Then Lynn went to Houston. Yeah, he slowly faded. We
ended up playing in Taiwan, had a decent career, but yeah,
he was the hottest couple of weeks in NBA history
and that kind of faded away.
Speaker 1: Gotcha. That's why you're on this podcast to give us
the basketball information that correlated with other sports. Yeah. I
think that Ryan Lynn is not going to be like that.
I think that he has way more upside and I
think that it's interesting talking about the offense. I think
everyone needs to understand that the Vancouver Giants are a
very bad team, and I got to see them live
and I saw that like I saw Ryan Linn, just
doing so many small little things, creating space, opening up lanes,
putting perfect passes onto sticks, all of which plays just
died after they left his stick. It was really hard
to watch. And he is more physical than some might
go credit for it. He was separating players from pucks.
Sure he won about as many board battles as he lost,
but he was competitive in those. He's not the biggest guy,
but he's competitive. People put the body on, although he
more likely is going to steal the puck from you,
just with a good stick check and body position. But
his defensive game is really good. Looking at his bash
he actually has eighty two percent for hits, which is
pretty high, and his blocks are pretty good and his
shots are pretty good. So overall his bashes eighty fourth percentile.
That's going to give you a really nice floor for
that high Q and good skating and all that. I
think I mentioned this, but his comps are insane, like
Ryan Murkley to Scott Needemeyer, and there's a entire breadth
of players in between. There So is he going to
be the next Scott Needemayer. Probably not. But I think
he is nowhere near as bad defensively as Ryan Murkley.
He's not even in the same conversation, Like, basically, Ryan
lan is what Ryan Murkley would have been if he
could actually play defense, which he never really did. So
I think that's the context to put this in. He
not only does he try, he's actually really good at gapping,
at getting a stick in the right position. For me,
I'm taking Ryan Land because I think he has a
chance to be He's probably not to the point where
he's going to be a number one defender, but he
might be a really strong number three on your team
who plays top power play, plays in the top four,
gets twenty to twenty two minutes in the best case scenario,
and is really valuable in those situations. So I think
that's pretty high praise there. You look at the hockey
prospect in between these two, and I'll talk about Villeneuve
in a minute here, but sixty nine percent for Ryan
Lynn to be a star and twenty seven percent for Villeneuve.
I think some of the some of the things, some
of the equivalencies for the Q are a little regressed
a little bit, but he has some good comps like
Jacob chick Gran and Owen Power, Alex Petangelo, that's Exavier
Villeneuve and his season has been going really well. One
of the things about him is that he does have
that profile of not being so great defensively, and he
is slightly undersized at five eleven pet fifty seven, so
that's a little bit tricky. He is over point per
game for the Armada there and the queue, and I've
seen some improvement in his defensive game right now. A
lot of his metrics are tracking to be really good actually,
and a lot of his play driving and transition play.
He's actually really good at takeaways as well. So the
hockey isn't as high event in his own zone, but
that is going to be the concern. Is he competitive enough?
Does he play well enough away from the puck? In
my olymbic of viewings have been that hasn't been a
huge problem. He's pretty good at puck battles and loose
puck recovery and play driving. He doesn't really hit or
separate guys from the puck, but he shoots a lot,
so I think the bash will actually be better for Lynn,
and I think he has more offensive upside, so I
would definitely take Lynn here, but I think Villeneuve is
an interesting one, especially if you're drafting in the ten
to fifteen range and your fantasy draft. I think that
you'd be pretty happy to get Villeneuve in that range
because I think there's a significant amount of upside. But
for me, Ryan Lynn is probably going to go for
fantasy in the five to seven range. That's probably where
I'm gonna want to take him. That's where I would recommend,
So if you get him any time after that, I
think you're pretty happy about it.
Speaker 2: On to that via Albert Smith's perhaps the most prominent
draft eligible at the Olympics, or at least the one
who had high profile because he was on one of
the main names of his team that people knew. He
did manage a couple of apples in the Land of Pasta,
and now he goes back home to Finland to Ukurt,
not home to Finland, but up over the Baltic Sea
to Finland to Eucret, where he has not scored a ton,
but he did have twenty three minutes in forty three
seconds time on ice in eight shots in his first
came back. Is it the Gulf of Botnia or the
Baltic seed there anyway, not important. Patrick our scout has
the important stuff. On Albert Smith's He's an above average
skater six two hundred and five pounds or not hindrance
for Smith's. The forward and backward skating are both fluid
as well as the latter mobility. Alberts is a skilled
stick handler, able to handle in space on the boards,
and the passing is accurate for the most part, but
could use some more consistency. The shooting, Smith's hits a
hard shot from the point that tests goalies well. The
eighth that he shot the other day didn't go in,
but maybe they left bruses. The IQ Alberts is very calm,
but could use more urgency at time. The vision anticipation
or average, as he makes the obvious plays but doesn't
display higher end vision. The defensive IQ is higher than
the offensive IQ at this point. For checking, the game
can be a bit chaotic with Smith's because sometimes he
gets in the zone deep on the four check, but
then he's smart enough to fall back at the right
times the defense. On the plus side, he has the
size and likes to check when it makes sense, especially
along the boards. He maintains good gaps and has good
timing on his poke checks. He can be a little
inconsistent on board battles, so the best asset was the
skating provides a base for the other parts of his game.
The biggest concern. There's not a lot of major concerns,
but maybe the offensive upside isn't that high. The top
tier outcome that Patrick can see here as a line
one defenseman, align one player with power play two and
he has a very solid all around game with some
offense that could project him to a minute lunch or
with good periffs. The median outcome bottom four defenseman, occasional
power play two time. If his development stalls, it doesn't
translate to the higher levels, he could have more of
a limited role stylistic comparable Why not Alex petranngeloone, Devin
Taysee and Albert Smith's is going to go again against
Tynan Lawrence in our NHL Rankking Pole Lawrence one of
the top prospects in this draft, the real deal number
five in the consolidated ranks. He wins over Smith's in
this cop sixty five point five to thirty four point five.
I'm not surprised Lawrence won this vote. Victor Smith's maybe
not quite the offensive reputation. But what do you think
of these two?
Speaker 1: Well, I think you're gonna want both of these. I
think it's interesting how Mason paired up forward in defense
in several of these instead of just going straight across
D to D and forward to Ford. It makes these
much more challenging. So thanks a lot Mason to comment on.
But I think that's the point is some of these
NHL teams are going to be faced with this decision.
Do I want the defenseman who could be our top
pair all situations kind of guy, or do I want
a center. Those two positions are two of the most
coveted in this in by NHL teams, and Lawrence is
I think, by far the top center. He continues to
have that pedigree. There aren't too many great centers. We're
going to talk about another one later, Kilob Melhocha, who
is in the ranked in the teens, and then after
that there's a pretty big drop off to like Oliver
Suvanto and Ryan Rubric, who will also talk about you Gercieloff.
So these guys are gonna get bumped up the draft
board just because that always happens, and teams are always
looking for centers, even in the teens and twenties and beyond,
and it rarely works out, but they still do it
because the appeal is so great and the utility is
so great to the NHL team. But looking at these two,
it is really interesting thinking about Smith's. He has a
really interesting profile. He's a big guy, he moves really well.
He's been playing in He's Loveyan, but he's been playing
in Finland for years since he was fifteen, I think,
and now he's playing as a eighteen year old. He
has a bit of a early birthdate is it December
second birthday, so that helps him a little bit in
terms of being ready. But he played some lega games
last year. He has played thirty eight this season with Jukert.
That's pretty impressive for him. He played at the U
twenty World Junior Championships, he played for the Olympic Games
for Lavia. All that stuff is so impressive for the
young man. And I definitely watched those Lavia games and
I was looking for him. He was noticeable, but not
in a bad way. He is definitely someone who I
think is gonna be really good. Is he gonna be
like your big offensive driver. Probably not, But he reminds
me a ton of most Cider, and I think all
of us have come to really appreciate most Cider in
our fantasy leagues. And one thing you can see from
Smith's is his his hockey prospecting. He's only down at
eight percent chance of being a star, whereas Lawrence is
at fifty three percent chance of being a star. And
we'll talk about Lawrence in a minute, but Smith's has
it's just one of those guys with a super high floor.
He skates, he's big, he's physical, he's going to play
in the league. I think the Petra Angelo comparable is
also really good. If he's giving you tons of pariffs
and playing lots of minutes, it's gonna be valuable. His
BASH is at seventy seven percent already in the LEGA,
which is pretty impressive based on his role already and
a lot of his play driving metrics. This looks like
a pretty good finish player already, and he's only eighteen
and he's driving play and getting pretty good expected goals
in puck battles. I like him for the super high floor.
Lawrence is a really interesting case because he was really
good in the USHL last year as a draft eligible
on a Mskigen Lungerjacks team that way overachieved and a
lot of it was because of him. And he started
this season with Muskegan seventeen points in thirteen games, and
then he transferred to BEU and that's a big jump
and it's been a pretty hard adjustment for him. That's
a really risky calculation in your draft season where you
don't have a lot of time to make a really
good impression. He went several games without getting a point.
At this point, he has two in thirteen games, and
it seems like it's coming around for him. He's hit
some posts and some crossbars, but some of those are
going in now, and if he continues to do more,
I think that's going to only raise his stock. Already,
I think it's pretty high considering there aren't that many centers,
so I would be surprised if he wasn't the first
center off the board. But I think this decision comes
down to do you want the high floor defenseman or
do you want the center? And I think that you
have to make that choice for yourself. I think that
Tynan Lawrence probably has more offensive upside then relatively than
does Albert Smith's, but it might just be the good
play to take the high FLOORI Lotvian here and hope
that he is as mean and nasty and translates as
well to fantasy as most sider does, because I think
it's a really real chance that happens. So it's kind
of preference, Jesse. I think it would depend on who
I needed on my team, but I think I'd be
pretty tempted to go Smith's because I don't think that
Lawrence is head and shoulders above what other centers would
be in this draft if he wasn't the only one
that was this high, and Smith's is better than most
of the other defenders in this league, probably just a
few ahead of him that we already talked about, like
Lynn and Verhoff and maybe one or two others.
Speaker 2: All right, very good, moving on matthis Preston. As you said,
the Vancouver Giants not all that great this year, but
they did trade for Preston to put him on the
same roster as Ryan Linz, so he's only been there
three games at recording time. Cam Schmidt is also there
as part of the team who the third round pick
from Dallas is actually the leading scorer, but they're the
last place of their WHL division. But Preston continues to
hang around point per game in his second year in
the WHL. And here's what our FHL scout Punite has
to say about it. Skating explosive acceleration, top end speed
if you can match excellent edgework and foot speed, allowing
him to change direction and pace effortlessly constantly in motion,
push defenders back with pace and deception. Second gear let
him burn opponents wide or separate through the neutral zone.
Passing and handling. Shifty puckhandler, tight control at full speed,
handles in motion with adaptability difficult to contain at one
on one. Can create off the rush or off the
cycle due to his ability to maintain control under pressure.
Shooting one of the most dangerous releases in the dub Quick, deceptive,
and accurate generates power despite not being overly big, uses
blade manipulation to freeze goaltenders and willing to shoot from
anywhere in the offensive zone, often catching goalies off balance.
For IQ high hockey sense within advanced anticipation and transition
in the offensive zone reads defenders well, exploiting small openings
with speed and timing. Rarely panics under pressure, calm with
the puck. Capable of making quick layered reads for checking,
uses speed to close space quickly force turnovers. Active stick
and quick reaction time make him disruptive on the for
check and creates pressure that leads directly to scoring chances
for his line. In defense, he's still developing as a
two hundred foot player, but the effort level is strong.
He tracks back effectively with speed, closes down rush chances.
Needs refinement and defensive positioning and puck support inside his
own zone. So the best asset that combination of elite
speed and shot, the ability to attack at a highest
pace and still release accurately that separates him from most peers.
The biggest concern defensive detail. Physical maturity needs to round
out his game away from the puck show he can
handle stronger competition physically. The top tier outcome here could
be a top line scoring winger or a dynamic top
six creator. That's because he's got speed, skill in finishing
touch to drive offense and tilt the ice at an
NHL level, potential to be a game breaking winger who
thrives in transition and in power play settings. And what
does punite say is the median outcome for this guy
middle six offensive winger, power play contributor. Even if his
defensive impact or strength plateau, his skating and shot still
project to translate as a secondary scoring option. Think Berkeley
Catton similar dynamic pace, shiftiness and play driving skill, or
elements of Kevin fiala speed based transition game with a quick,
deceptive release and flare in tight spaces. We're gonna put
matthis Preston up against Ryan Rubreck in the FHL. In
the NHL ranking poll, Rubrec of the Niagara Ice Dogs
of the OHL and Rubreck wins this one. Sixty five
to thirty five percent. Pundits have both these players as
later first rounders. They're also, on average have Preston going
earlier than Rubrex, so that's not a good sign. The
people say otherwise they like Rubrec more than mathis Preston,
Victor you are the swing vote. What do you say?
Speaker 1: I think this is really close. I think I might
actually take Preston. So there's a couple of things that
are really interesting between these two. They're very different in
that matthis Preston is extremely young for this draft class.
He won't turn eighteen until July twenty first, so just
about a little more than two months away from being
eligible for next year's draft. He's also five eleven one
seventy six, a little understanding under size, but super skilled,
and all those other things that the scout mentioned are fair,
but I think he has way more runway to grow
into an elite talent. He's also ranked consolidated nineteen and
has some pretty high ranks by some people, including in
the top ten by a couple of outlets like The
Hockey News and Dauber and Smart Smart Scouting, and then
Rubric on the other hand, is literally ten days away
from being eligible for last year's draft, which would have
completely changed the narrative on him, because first of all,
he's huge sixty four to two and sixteen pounds, so
very physically mature. He plays in the OHL and had
over a point per game last season, so if he
was drafted last season, he probably would have gone in
the second roundly first or second, maybe around there. And
this season for Niagara, he's pretty similar improved his actually
his scoring is about the same as it was last year,
so he hasn't taken that big step, and being an
older player who's big and physical, maybe there isn't as
much runway because he's older, but also the fact that
he's really big. Sometimes those guys take a little bit
longer to figure it out. But if you just look
at the Fantasy Hockey Life player card between these two,
Preston has way better play driving and transition metrics. He
also hits a fair amount, which is interesting for a
smaller guy. He shoots a ton, so his bash is
actually better than Rubric's. Even though Rubric hits more, he
doesn't he doesn't shoot or do the blocking quite as much,
and some of his play driving is really not so good.
The net expected goals Corsi and Fenwick puck battles one
not as good as you would think and not as
good as you would hope for a bigger guy who
you could imagine would protect the puck better. The hockey
prospecting between the two, it definitely has Rubrick higher at
twenty four percent chance of being a star at mathis
Preston at just fifteen. But I think you have to
think about how far they are a part in age,
and there almost a year apart it's about it's a
little less than a little more than ten months actually,
so that can make a big difference. I think because
matthis Preston has a longer runway, I think I would
go with him Jesse, which might be a little controversial.
Speaker 2: Wow, all right, all right, let's take a quick break.
We're gonna come back with more of our draft prospects.
Speaker 1: He is a reason some ranks the only Dash.
Speaker 2: June playing in Hafel keep saying. So we're just gonna
say Hafel. There's different ways to say that. Moving from
the national team development program here in the States to
the USHL's Green Bay Gamblers has coincided with a jump
in offensive results for Hafel, nearly a point per game
for the Native Alaska kid. This isn't a Day one prospect.
We're kind of switching a little bit. We're going a
little bit deeper in some of these. But he's an
excellent one. Thought to be something more like a second
or third rounder. Tony, our FHL lead scout, has this
to say about Landon. Fast skater, not technical, but relentless,
great at passing to teammates and holding onto the puck
to make passes. Landon's got a really good risk shot.
He's able at certain times to get his own shot
off turnovers he created. Hafel's got impressive vision in IQ.
Sometimes he does panic a bit, sometimes he outskates his
thought process for checking did a fair bit of it
in Tony's watches and defense. Good motor creates turnovers, hounds
players on the four check or back check. So the
best assets Landon's speed and his motor, he has them
to spare. The biggest concern he did seem to float
sometimes Tony was watching. Did a little better as a
center in the games that Tony watched, but on the
wing he seemed a little bit lost. The Tier two
middle six is the likeliest ho the top outcome that
Tony could see here. Speed and motor can be taught.
He should be able to keep it up even the
top nine on most teams, most likely see time on
special teams as well. But if he falls to more
of a median outcome could be Tier three, could be
bottom six if he lets that floating creep into his game,
and with the lack of bash, he's going to be
a bottom sixer and Tony overall, says Landon, reminds him
of a Jonathan Marshas Riley Smith type, a misfit so
to speak. Landon Hafel is going up against Brady Wasslyn
in our NHL ranking poll. Wassolin is going to be
the big winner there seventy three to twenty seven percent.
They're in a similar range by the rankers or by
the people who are publishing their their ranking list for
the draft, but Brady wins it big over Landon what
do you think, Victor?
Speaker 1: Yeah, not to focus on the birthdays, but these are
also really interesting because Halfo is literally three days away
from being eligible for last year's draft, which would have
been totally different. He was at the NTDP last year
and really did not have a lot of points, didn't
really have the best season. That might be why he left.
Maybe he won a little bit more opportunity, but he
ended up scoring just fifteen points in fifty games at
the NTDP, not so great. This year for the Green
Bay Gamblers thirty three points in thirty nine games also
not super incredible. And again he's really old for this
draft class just three days for me for the previous
so that makes a huge difference. Consolidated ranked number fifty
five at Elite Prospects. Not a lot of outlets even
have him ranked, which is interesting. Some just didn't even
rank him at all. That's interesting, although some of those
only do the top thirty or top fifty, so that
might be part of it. He's off to Arizona State
next year. I don't know. I think there's some upside here,
but he's definitely someone I would wait on, and maybe
he has a strong second half. Maybe he's someone who
pops off in college. But going from ntdpd USHLT NCUBA,
it's going to be a little hard for him. Especially
his size is fine. He's six seven, but not the
biggest guy, so he's just average in that way, so
that transition to the NCAA might be a little hard
for him. And then Brady is interesting because he's super young.
May twenty eighth draft birthdate, so he's going to turn
eighteen at the end of the season. Consolidated rank number
eighty seven. But there's a lot more runway here, and
I like him more because he played for Niagara last
year and then he got traded to London. London, as
we know, is a really great development program and they
tend to give a lot more ice time to some
of their older players, so he's not getting the most
opportunity right now. But I think Brady west Lynn could
end up having more ice time and more opportunity, especially
next season. So he's one of these classic guys who
could pop off in their D plus one year and
then he's off to Boston University next year. So I
would like him. Even though when you look at the
scoring or you look at the star probability, Haffle has
eight percent, we Wasstlynn has two percent. I'm going to
go with Watston. I think he has more runway and
I think that he has a little bit more skill
that he could he could lean on and develop into.
Speaker 2: Let's move on to Caleb Malhotra. He's been a buzzy
guy at times this draft season. Could be a mid
first rounder, but might also be at or near the
top of the class at the centerman position. You named
one other Fellau earlier who might be a top center.
But if you're one of the top centers in the draft,
your name could be called earlier then where you might
show up on a big board. So here's what Punit
has to say about Kleeb. Smooth, powerful stride with efficient
mechanics that complement his size. Strong on his edges, using
balance and body control to shield pucks and protect possession
for passing. It's an elite level playmaker, excellent touch and deception.
Head always up scanning for options, consistently finds teammates through
tight lanes. Shooting, he prefers to distribute, but owns a quick,
accurate release. When he chooses to shoot, he can change
angles on his shot to surprise goaltenders. Doesn't need much
space to get it off for IQ high end hockey
sense inherited from his NHL lineage. Yes manny is his daddy.
Dictates pace with composure, never rushed, reads plays two steps
ahead for checking, uses strong anticipation to close lanes rather
than pure speed. Effective stick placement and body positioning creates turnovers.
Competes hard on retrievals, forces defenders into poor decisions. Not
overly physical, but assertive and efficient in pressuring put carriers
defense responsible in aware, takes pride in his defensive assignments,
tracks back vigilantly, diligently, and supports defenseman deep in his zone.
So the best assets here were the playmaking vision In
the IQ, his tempo is he controls the tempo out there,
sees plays develop early, consistently makes the right read. The
biggest concern top end speed and assertiveness as a shooter.
The skating is strong, but not elite, can refer too
often instead of taking scoring chances himself, so the top
tier outcome top six two way center, power play distributor.
That's because of intelligence, size and poise for an NHL role,
similar to a cerebral play driving pivot who contributes on
special teams could become a matchup center who produces offense,
will handling, tough minutes meeting outcome middle six responsible playmaking
center even without elite speed or finishing the IQ and
vision making valuable as a dependable, possession focused center. The
stylistic comparable for Caleb Malotra is Ryan O'Reilly strong two
way awareness, personal positional intelligence, and playmaking control. Shades of
his father Manny in his calm, disciplined approach and his
face off defensive reliability. Thank you Pount for that scouting report.
Malotra is going to go up against Chase Reid, who's
also one of the top prospects in this draft. In
this case, a defenceman, and Reid comes out way ahead
of Caleb on this poll, sixty eight to thirty two percent.
A top centerment versus a high line defenseman. Chase Reid's
got over a point per game, as does Samalhutra, but
y'all hope for that from a center and sometimes don't
get it from a deep What do you think of
Chase Reid versus Caleb Malutra?
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is one of those where Malcoltra. I think
he's a good all around player, and I think that
he is going to be valuable to his NHL team,
probably as a middle six or bottom six center, And
I don't I think everything that was said about him
good two way situations, face off, his father obviously being
really good at those things. I think that's all true.
But in fantasy that is probably going to be less
helpful unless you're talking about the tidy that counts all
those things or a league that counts a lot of
hits and faced off wins and things like that, because
he's pretty good at that. But I think Chase Reid
is the clear answer here. He has way more upside
in my opinion. He is an incredible talent right now,
he's got good size, he's right shot He's got tons
of offensive instincts. He's well over point per game for
the Sue Gray, which is a middling AHL team right now,
and we saw him at the World Juniors Chase Reid
when Cole Hudson was out, and even when he wasn't,
he was one of the better players on that team
as a draft eligible, which really shouldn't be the case,
but he was confident. The real issue with Reid is
how bad is his defense. I would say it's not
that bad, but there are definitely times where he makes
mistakes and is a little too aggressive, but that happens,
and that can be taught. He's not Some people might
have you believe he's terrible defensively, and I would definitely
push back on that. So I think Reid can be
average defensively, and if that's the case, his offense is
pretty special. He's pretty good offensively, and I think that
he's someone who you're gonna want on your team. So
I would definitely take Reid. I think that NHL, I
think killer Man culture will certainly go ahead of Chase
Reid or I think it's very likely because NHL teams
just can't help himself. So I would be kind of
surprised if Reid win first, but I think you shouldn't fantasy.
Speaker 2: Drafts, all right, Read him and weep. Now we move
on to the kid a clip Off. Nothing to see here,
just a seventeen year old leading the ohl and scoring
the draftnicks place the Florida Bourne Clipoff. Nikita Klipoff is
a US player in the second half of the first round.
Put is back for Clipoff and says that he's a smooth,
agile skater with excellent balance and edgework. Constantly pushes the pace,
plays fast attacks with pace all through all zones, passing
in handling, high end puck skills and tight space control.
Executes quick give and goes with assumptive handling, maneuvers in transition,
shooting dangerous around the shot with quick release and accurate
shot creates shooting lanes off the rush through quick cuts
in mixed direction. Clipoff reads defenders exceptionally well, exploring gaps,
exploiting gaps with deceptive movement. He shows advanced understanding of
time and in space creation in the offensive zone for checking.
NonStop motor and physical edge make him a disruptive defender.
He pursues pucks aggressively and wins races through speed in persistence,
forcing turnovers, which in turn can extend offensive zone times
or help get the puck out of the defensive zone.
On defense, reliable two way awareness, especially tracking back and transition,
and Clipoff supports the defense effectively with strong back pressure
and stick placement. So the best asset was the relentless
motor combined with elite puck handling and deception. Constant offensive
threat who dictates tempo. The biggest concern. He's going to
need a little more body strength to hold up better
against physical defenders and maintain put control and heavy traffic.
The top tier outcome here top six NHL winger and
play driving forward. The blend of pace, creativity, and compete
makes him a potential first line winger who can drive
offense and thrive on special teams. The median outcome for
Punit is a middle six two way winger. So that's
because Clipoff's high effort alone in being a high skilled
player capable of complementing skill lines or driving secondary scoring
puts in a good position. It's the physical limitations that
could cap the upside slightly. The stylistic comparable Nikolai eelers
or bradon point, but the winger version of point, fast, creative, energetic,
deceptive hands and a relentless motor despite not being overly big.
And Nikita Klipoff goes up against JP Hurlbert and Hurlbert
wins this one seventy to thirty percent. Victor, I see
you the OHL's leading score, and I'll raise you the
WHL's leading score. Who's going to go play in the
NCAA next year? In Hurlbert, How do you think that
this competition comes out?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's pretty even. I'm surprised it's so
dominant Hurlbert. I think probably because his PNHI is a
bit higher. But I think that both these guys are
going to want They're both ranked in the twenties, with
Hurlbert at twenty and clip Off at twenty six consolidated rank.
For me, it might depend a bit on which team
drafts them. That will probably have some input, because that
can that'll either reinforced how much I like them or
make me a little skeptical based on who took them
and who what their developmental path is. I think I
like Herlbert a little bit better. I think I like
the scoring so far in the dub for Kamloops, so
I think that I would probably go there. Interesting that
he was another one of these guys who was at
the NTDP and left and went to the WHL. That's
why he wasn't invited to the World Juniors and why
he hasn't really represented US as much except during that
time when he was at the NTDP. So it's interesting.
It's a difficult choice, I'm sure for these guys. And
as you said, both these guys are going off to college.
They're actually going to both be in Michigan, with Hurlbert
at Michigan and clip Off at Michigan State. So I
think they're really close, and I think it's almost close
to a coin flip. The rest of the season will
determine who I like a little bit more and who
drafts them. I will say we have the skater card
for Hurlbert, which some of his play driving doesn't look
as good, but his transition and offensive creativity looks pretty amazing,
So that's what you really care about. I'll go Hurlbert.
It'll be close, and I will reserve the right to
change my mind as we get closer to the draft.
Speaker 2: Jesse on Diegor Shilov back into the first round types,
We'll give you one of the top ten scorers in
the queue. Sheilav's seventy two points and fifty two games
shows his offensive skill even for a struggling Victoriaville squad.
Here's what Nate has to say about him. For skating,
he is an interesting thing to watch when he has
the puck and is weaving through opponents with his slow
and calculated stride, Sheilov looks like one of the most
poised players on the ice. Skating looks average to above
average then. However, at the defensive end, the skating style
makes him look lazy and disinterested, which is going to
get him in trouble when he starts battling for ice time.
At the next level passing and handling, he gets time
and space and other teams aren't playing and physical. He
can be an elite playmaker in those situations. He also
has an above average ability on puck pickups that helps
him get the jump on his opponents shooting. Definitely, his
pass first abilities are what's key to Silov's game. Doesn't
have a quick shot release, isn't going to beat many
goalies clean. At the pro level. The IQ she love
is a player that the team will want with a
puck on his stick when attacking the offensive zone. Great
poison intelligence for waiting for the perfect time to find
open teammates. It especially shines on the man advantage. His
defensive IQ isn't too impressive, but that might not seem
like a big deal from a fantasy perspective, but there
are times when he can make plays or start a
counter attack to generate more offense and mental mistakes to
cause his line to get him in at two hundred
feet from the opponent's net. Defense doesn't demonstrate a lot
of urgency in the defensive zone. He has a tendency
to cheat in passing lanes in an attempt to get
a jump start on the offense, but it caused him
to be out of position. His best as set, then
is the elite offensive skill, the ability to shine through
at any point in the game, could be invisible for
large portions of a game and still finished with two
or three points after making something out of nothing in
the offensive zone. Not a coach's dream maybe, but a
good fantasy contributor. His lack of physicality, though, causes him
to be pushed around when the ice gets tighter, so
that might be the biggest concern. Also a bit reluctant
in the physical part of the game, showing he may
be able to get bullied by bigger opponents. Top tier
outcome here that NA can see Top six forward fifty
five to sixty points limited bash. That's because Shilov's ability
to be a point producer could get him a home
in a team's top six down the road if sheltered
by more physical guys. It would have to be the
perfect fit. The median outcome middle six forward, powerplay specialist
thirty five to forty points with limited bash. The justification
the flaws in Shilov's game could lead to a lack
of trust from his future coach, which pushes him down
the lineup at five on five, but could still be
used with a man advantage stylistic comparable. How about Trevor Ziegres.
Team can get past his obvious flaws, He'll find somewhere
that values his offensive talents. And we're going to put
Igor Shieloff up against Jack Hextall of the USHL's Youngstown franchise,
and Shilov wins this one big sixty four to thirty
six percent. What do you think, Victor.
Speaker 1: I think it's interesting that it's so disparate. I think
that these guys are a lot closer than that Pole
may seem. Both of them are a little bit later
birthdates there in the spring, so they're both seventeen right now.
Both of them are having good seasons in the USHL
and the queue. I think she loves scoring a little
bit better in the queue. Have to be taken with
a little bit of a grain of salt there. They're
hockey prospecting is almost identical ones of twelve ones at
thirteen percent, so not really much different there. These guys
are in that range, have some upside, but generally long
shots to be really high end contributors. If you look
at the Fantasy Hockey Life skater card between these two,
there's a lot better play driving and transition metrics for Jack.
Hextall better away from the puck play as well, whereas
with silv there's some real concerns there, especially with the
corsi against and some of those play driving numbers. The
pariffs are not going to be great for either of
these They're both low, although Hextall does hit a lot,
and by the way, I think I mentioned this previously,
but he is not related to run Hextall in case
you're wondering, So no relation there for him. But yeah,
these guys I think are depth probably second day guys,
although they're both ranked in that late late twenties, so
could easily go end of first day, could go second day,
depends on how things go from here. But probably guys
that you're looking at a little bit later in your drafts.
Sheilof definitely has more offensive upside, whereas I think Hexall
is a better all around player play driver, so teams
will probably like Hextall more. That'll probably allow him to
go a little bit earlier than she Love. But for fantasy,
you may just take a flyer on she Lov and say, hey,
if this guy hits and he has all that offense
like you Wherever's egrest, then you're pretty happy about that.
Speaker 2: Extel not related to ron Igorshilov, not related to the
giant spider who tried to eat Froto on the way
into Mordor spoilers, So it's all good, Victor. That's gonna
be our take, or are run through some of these
draft eligibles right now. Anything to ask the people tell
the people before we get out here today.
Speaker 1: No, not really, just really enjoying being back into watching
ANTL games and setting those fantasy lineups. And we got
some great content here to tell your fantasy playoffs and beyond.
So let's stick with U.
Speaker 2: Be right back into your dun show. This is the
points in fantasy hockey life where I give a couple
of announcements, a couple of separately recorded pieces of information
that you need to know. I swear, even though it
sounds the same probably to some of you every week,
I do actually record these distinctly, so you can probably tell.
I can prove it. I could hold up a newspaper
right now, and if I did, it would have the
headline that says, fantracks dot com is the place to
play all your fantasy sports. Actually probably would because I
say that enough. And the reason is there are so
many different fantasy sports to play. I know I've just
gotten done with baseball rookie drafts customized. If I want
to do a first year player draft rookie draft, it
ain't easy, but it can be done. I somehow got
sucked into a league on a different provider for the
first time in a while, and I noticed that we're
doing all this weird placeholders and capitalize the placeholders, don't
capitalize them because all the players are on No, it
didn't work like that. On fan tracks. You can get
done what you need to get done. So I highly
recommend you move your leagues there and while you're there,
check out some of the content they do articles on
fantasy hockey and other fantasy sports. We also like to
think at this point in our show, and this is
I'm not giving this up. If you think this is repetitive,
I'm sorry because I'm going to thank every single time
I get the chance. Our FHL crew, Tim, Ryan Simo
Crafts are coming off the highly successful tidy season. Well
it's not quite done. We're still doing playoffs. It's not
good for me. As you heard the other week in
our Tidy Trades. I'm in a bit of a rebuilding mode,
but I'll survive. And our lead scouts Tony and Patrick
you heard their handiwork on this episode them and all
the other great Fantasy Hockey Life scouts. Brandon helps with
the website prospect ranks of visualizations. We've recently had a refresh.
If you felt like some of that stuff, maybe a
little bit stale. No, Victor has done some work and
Brandon has done great work. We love that guy. We
love your Brandon and you can check that out. If
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you think man scouting, reports, visualizations, all Victor's special stuff,
there could be other cool stuff that you guys do.
We'd love your help. We'd love to work with you
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You know where to find him. We're also brought to
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Yo twelve, fan Hockey Life on Blue Sky, The One,
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keep living that playoff fantasy hockey life