Speaker 1: Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life presented by fan Tracks. Here's
shit ms, your source of information and analysis to help
you win your fantasy hockey league. Block off hot A,
step hit on, stay lock.
Speaker 2: Here's your host, Jesse Sevier and Victor Nuno.
Speaker 3: Fantasy Hockey Live back once again Jesse Severe of fan
Tracks and joining me the Fantasy Hockey Doctor, Victor Nunoe. Victor,
how you doing.
Speaker 2: I'm doing awesome, Jesse. Go be back together again and
looking forward to this chat. How are you doing, my friend, Victor?
Speaker 3: I am doing relatively well, but I am somewhat discombobulated.
I told you I sat down to record today and
I pulled out my big pair of headphones and I
put them on my head, and my head one of
the sides just snapped, and so I'm holding one of
my ear phones on with my hand. My head has
gotten too big, Victor. And I'm not sure if that's
the state of my ego or if that's just my
old Norwegian head that just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
If you ever met those guys who have just massive noggins,
you mean him, You're like, how can your head be
that big? Your head has just that's just a massive
noggin that you're walking around there, and it's just people
are built different ways, Victory. Is there anything I can
do about this?
Speaker 2: I don't know, but I have bet some people like
that with gigantic heads, and yeah, it's a little a
little interesting. Hats don't fit, it's hard to they break headphones,
all these things. It's a rough life, Jesse. But I
think it might be because we did our fhl KK
crossover and back in January, and for a while you've
been down in third, and recently we just checked the
standings and you're up there and first, so we'll see
if that holds. But looking pretty good right now, and
so maybe that's why your head has been so big lately.
Speaker 3: That's that's very likely scenario. I actually yeah. Our guy
Ryan asked us in the Fantasy Hockey Life Command Hub yesterday,
how is that thing going anyway? And I'm like, glad
you asked, because this is the first day all year
that I've been in the lead. So let me post
that for you so everybody see. So there are plenty
there's ten days for me to fall back out of
that lead, but dog on it. We will always have
We will always have that day that there.
Speaker 2: Was a chance.
Speaker 3: But yeah, Victor, it's it's that time of year. We're
nearing the end, but fantasy hockey never ends, and neither
Desert Discord. We've got our We've got a lot of
little nooks and crannies in there, but most of the
action is taking place out there in the in the
general discord, which is free to get into, and all
you have to do to get in is ask us
for link Fantasy Hockey Life at gmail dot com. We
just want to make a big community where people can
talk fantasy hockey all the time. And are there more
things you could do? There? Is there premium content, sure,
but there's also a place where you don't have to
pay and you could just chat fantasy hockey with a
bunch of like minded individuals on the daily, Victor. We
also do I said, we do have some extra bells
and whistles. Some weeks when I do the intro, I
do a very poor job explaining it. So just please
reset everybody and tell them the cool things they could have.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's lots of cool stuff in the patreon. If
you want some bonus content, We have our website that
has a whole bunch of cool stuff, but a lot
of it's behind the paywall, And so if you want
to get access to the ranks, the tiers, the lists,
all that good stuff, and the player cards which shows
all their peripheral stats and their contributions in their league
with projections of where we expect them to be in
the in the in the NHL, then you can have
access to that. That's in the top tier of the Patreon.
There's also the Tidy, which we talked a lot about
last episode, and we'll have a future episode with some
of the champs and some of the people who did
amazingly well and they can give you some tips and
tricks for success yourself. And that's a really fun league.
It's a tier dynasty. If you like leagues that have
lots of different levels you can work your way up
and a lot of camaraderie within the divisions, and that's
a really fun league. I think that's people really enjoy that.
So that's a patron park, so you have to be
a patron to get access to that. So that along
with a bunch of other cool things like some personalized
help that you can get and so go over to
Patreon dot com slash fantasy hockey life and become a member.
We're even getting members this time of year. Jes See,
sometimes I might have busy s He's in off seasons
a good time for that too, because you're planning your
next moves, you're dissecting your teams, you're looking at the draft,
you're looking at all that kind of stuff, and so
this is a good time to do that as well.
Speaker 3: And sometimes I think the as we get to the
Stanley Cup playoffs, people are probably tuned into hockey generally
as much as they ever are all year at the
Stanley Cup playoff time, and it's not peak time for
your dynasty season. But as you're watching that, I imagine some
of your kicking yourselves and saying, man, I want to
play fantasy hockey next year. I want to play dynasty fantasy.
I want to have all these players. So maybe some
people are getting involved in them, but still I dedicate.
I appreciate the dedication of anybody who's listening to this
time of year.
Speaker 4: It's just comencious, take a break, come back, and it's
victory today. At Victor today, We've got a couple more
X gamers, a couple more players, who we want to
discuss and are rather usual format and it's gonna start
with Michael Hagey.
Speaker 3: It's gonna start with Michael hage It's gonna start with
Michael hage Victor, Montreal Canadian, last year's HAS first rounder,
six to one center Michael hage He made the jump
from the national team development program to the NCAA thirty
three points in thirty one games starting off at Michigan
this year. Pretty excellent first year in college, and the
scouts talked about his two way ability with some strong offense.
Of course, Michigan's season done at this point. I believe
you might be a fan Victor, but what is your
take on.
Speaker 2: Page Yeah, I think he's really good. I think he's
really one of these players who's really good at a
lot of things. He doesn't necessarily have one outstanding skill,
except I think that he is a really smart player
and more than the sum of his parts, and so
that makes him really talented. But he doesn't rely on
just one thing like Slick Hans or a shot. I
think he's extremely well rounded, and I think that jump
from the US nationally development to the NCUBLEA is pretty
difficult for a lot of players he was with the
Chicago steel actually, so with that jump from the USHL
to the NCUBLEA is pretty tough, but he did really well.
Thirty four points in thirty three games is pretty great.
I know the playoffs are the Frozen four. They didn't
even get in, which is crazy, but that can be
a little bit challenging for some but he did. I
think that you can't ask for too much more than that,
and I think he's shown that his progression has really
come along. I think as especially as a twenty first
overall pick getting him a little bit later as some
of us might have in our fantasy drafts, have to
be pretty pleased with that progress. And also remembering that
as we're recording this on April tenth, he's still only eighteen,
and so he was seventeen pretty much all of last year,
eighteen all of this year, so it's a little bit
behind the aging curve, which is just really exciting because
he's got a lot more to go and you have
to really be excited about that.
Speaker 3: Jesse absolutely and Mason Black gauged the level of excitement
that our fans out there, that the people out in
the universe had for Michael Hage because he put him
up in the ex pole Hage versus Yvonne Morosnashenko of
the Washington Capitals. He's got a full years on him
and has been playing in the AHL and someone in
the NHL and Michael Hage one handily that Twitter pull
sixty four to thirty six percent Maurushashenko with the low
eb right now, Victor, is that how you would rank
Hage in maursha Shenko.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so, although center possibly center versus wing
here might play into that a little bit. You got
Murshashenko who is definitely a winger and Hage might be
a center, and so that can be organizationally. Certainly you're
gonna favor the guy who could play it on the
middle for fantasy, though you might want more someone who
can play the wing, and you might look at their
peripheral stats, which Rushashenko does tend to be a little
bit more of a hitter and have a little bit
better perpheral coverage unless you're including face off wins than
Michael the other way, although Hage also has a decent
amount of blocks for a forward, so they end up
being even that way. But I think the the offensive
upside is higher for Hage. I think Murcershenko, if everything
breaks right, might be more of like a twenty five
to twenty five fifty point kind of guy, probably between
fifteen and sixty points there. He did have a really
good season in Hershey. He played some games with the Capitols,
just like last year, didn't really take a whole lot.
It didn't really have a whole lot of points with
the Capitals, and it didn't seem like he was quite
ready in his opportunity there. But he does offer a
pretty significant at least a decent amount of Perferle floor,
which is always nice. So you like that for Murciasenko,
But we're talking about Hage here, and I do think
that the upside is a little bit higher for Hage,
and I think that's probably part of the reason you
want to be a little bit more excited for him.
They're pretty close, actually. In my rankings, I have Hage
at a six point seven eight and Merciershenko has a
six point five three. So for those that aren't familiar,
the second number is a percent likelihood of hitting that
and the six just means he's a six out of ten,
so slightly above average on your fantasy roster, and so
I do think that that's similar there, but I would
lead Hage a little bit more for the upside there, Jesse, Yeah.
Speaker 3: I got you. And how high is the upside here, Victor,
he's on a team with Nick Zuki who's had a
breakthrough year, or he continues to push up and become
more and more prominent. It feels like, is where's he
gonna fall out? Just in real terms and maybe in
the context of this Canadians team.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I always thought that Hage could be a top
sixth center, probably second line. I don't think he overtakes
Nick Suzuki, but in many ways he has some similar
features to Nick, who is really smart and has a
lot of good skill, but he kind of leverages all
his other skills with his intelligence to be an all
around pretty good player with not one like super outstanding trait.
And so I think that in many ways they could
be similar. I think the age is probably a step below,
so he's probably a good complimentary two seed to Nick Suzuki.
He might be a little bit better even defensively, because
Nick isn't the most amazing defensive center, but he's so
good offensively at driving play that it pretty much evens out,
and he is pretty decent at that anyways, at least
he's close to average. So when you drive that much offense,
it's it's not a huge deal if you're lacking a
little bit in your defensive game. But Hage has been
driving play really well in the NCAA and the USHL
before that, so I think that he can probably be
similar to maybe even a little bit better. I don't
think he overtakes Suzuki, So he's probably a second line
center with decent offensive output and probably in that sixty
to seventy point range, probably quite frankly similar to Suzuki.
Suzuki this year hitting the apps of ninety, I don't
know that he quite has that. Maybe if everything breaks,
if he's getting top power play, if he's if he's
not top power play with the guys that are there
now caff Field nine A and Hudson and Devin Duff,
seems like there might not be room for age, and
so he probably doesn't get as many power play points
and as much production. So probably closer to that sixty
sixty five Jesse, Yeah.
Speaker 3: Sixty five points. That's something I want on my team.
Victor our second player for the segment today, Berkeley Catton.
He was a hot pick in last year's NHL draft,
seem pretty universal. People liked who Seattle got at the
number eight pick in the draft. Our ADP project every
offseason we track the results of rookie drafts that are
sent in to us and create kind of an ADP
out of that. And Berkeley Catton was sixth in Fantasy
Hockey ADP among rookie drafts and this year became the
captain of the Spokane Chiefs in his fourth go round
with that club. He had a stay green one hundred
and nine points in fifty seven games in the regular season.
And then, and this is not a typo, four goals,
tenn asists for fourteen points in five playoff games. That
was the first round. It's still going they won obviously,
score fourteen points. You score four goals and assist on
ten more in a five game series, your team might
have done just fine. And so we'll see what Berkeley
Catton is able to put up in the second round. Anyway,
in the WHL, only Gavin McKenna and Andrew Christal outscored
him in the regular season. So Berkeley Catton was he
was blowing up Victor and the question is this solid?
Is this a foundational or is just cat and candy
that you take a taste of it and it burns
up like sugar and disappears. What is your take on Berkeley, Catton, vickor.
Speaker 2: Oh now I want some cotton candy, thanks loud Jesse.
Sounds pretty good right now. Now. I think that Catten
is I think this is who he is. I think
that he can translate lot of this. He's such a
smart and skilled player. And yeah, some of the numbers
that he's putting up in Spokane is pretty pretty ridiculous.
He was doing really well before Andrew Cristal showed up,
and Christal and him have just been going bananas the
rest of the way. Christal well over two points per
game and Cadden right there with him, so right and
shotgun or maybe driving I think more driving the bus
than anything. But I do think Cadden can be that
really strong offensive driver even at the next level. And
really he's I think what Seattle really needs a guy
who They have a lot of these guys who are
really solid two ways. It seems like they have four
third lines, like they're all pretty decent. None of them
are super incredible, but they all can hang, but they
don't have that one elite guy that can push things
to really far forward and push the offense. I think
Cadden can be that guy, and I think they hopefully
have enough skill to surround him. So we'll have to
see about that. But I think he's really exciting. I
think he can. I think he can bring a lot
of that to the NHL as well. I don't it's
probably not going to be like two over two points
per game or anything like that, but I think he
has like point per game plus upside, which is pretty exciting.
Speaker 3: Mason Black, the NHL King put him up against Dalla
board Devorski, a man who his stock really was blown
up last year and he's still looking pretty good this
year at last count. Forty two points and fifty six
games in the AHL was pretty good for the youngster,
but Berkeley Catton had Divorski dead to rights. In the
NHL ranking poll, it was seventy six to twenty four
percent in favor of Catten over the Blues prospect Victor.
Is that how you rank him?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would definitely take Catten here. I like Divorski,
He's had such a weird development trajectory because he's Slovakian,
but he spent time in Sweden even though he was
representing Slovakia internationally, and then last year in his draft
season or his draft season, he was basically in Sweden,
and then his draft cluss one season he started in
the SHL and then came over to the OHL, which
was just way too low of a league for him,
and he tore that up with Sidbury, and then this
past season he was in the AHL, and so a
weird roundabout. He's really young for his draft class. He's
still only nineteen and he will be until June, and
so being a teenager in the AHL is not easy.
But forty four points in fifty nine games was pretty solid.
He struggled to drive play at that level, which is understandable,
but he did. He was playing like seventeen and a
half minutes a night and trying to get some decent
amount of shots out there. But he didn't have the
most amazing opportunity in terms of power play time, so
that was good. He still was able to put up
that many points. So I really like Divorski, but I
think that he's definitely more of an offensive winger and
Caden I think can be that top line offensive center,
and so I definitely would lead Catten here. Although I
don't think you should be disappointed with the Vorski if
you have him on your team, I still think the
upside is pretty solid. There probably more of a second
line winger, maybe top six, whereas Catten I think has
a higher upside. So I would take Cam. And when
it's interesting though, when you look at the hockey prospecting
between these two, it's actually Devorski has, based on his
AHL time this year, has been able to increase that
his our potential up to sixty four percent, whereas Catten
is holding steady around sixty to fifty five with the
NHLA probably being higher. For Divorski, I just from what
I've seen from him and what I see in the numbers,
I worry that he's going to struggle to drive play
the Vorski, and so that makes me worry that he's
going to need a more specific situation. So he has
a lot of offense, but he might need to have a
more defensively responsible player with him, or he might just
not get all the opportunities. So that makes me just
a little bit worried, where I don't have as much
worry about Cadden. That way, they both both these guys.
So Cadden shoots a lot at ten out of ten
on the prospect ranks, and divorce Key a little bit
lower in the HL. He was higher in the OHL
last year. But none of these guys. Neither of these
guys hit or block a whole lot, so their bash
is pretty much entirely driven by their shots.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's so that's something to watch for. Then divorce
Ki in what level of fantasy upside do you see here?
Speaker 2: I think for Cadden, I think he can be a
first line center. I have often compared Cadden to Mark
Schifley as someone who you know, initially that's what Schifley was.
He was more that that second line offensive center, but
it was his offense was so good that eventually he
became more of this top line center. But he's still
he's still not the best defensively, but he has just
so much in His offense is so strong that it
doesn't matter anymore. And I think that Cadden can get there.
I think he can have so much offense that that
and he can produce a ton that I think he'll
be that top line center eventually with just a ton
of offense and huge going upside point per game plus,
but he might settle more into a second line complimentary
center depending on how Shane right Viniers maybe some other
people they draft work out. But I think that's a
good mix for him there, and I think that I
think that's a lot to be excited about Cadden. Yeah,
I would definitely want him as much as I could
get my hands on him, and especially in this I
don't tend to like to always look at the organization
because I think top talent can rise to the situation
that they are destined for. But I do think that
in Seattle it's interesting because they don't really have that player.
If he was in another situation, maybe like San Jose
who have like their clear top line center of the
future forever with Celebrini, it would be in a kind
of more interesting situation where maybe he falls into that
complimentary role. But I don't see anyone blocking his way
in Seattle. I think he can assume that top spot
and I think that he will. By the way my
ranks for him, I have him at an eight point
one five, so not a super high percentage of hitting
an eight, but an eight is a really high number.
Not too many guys have that kind of upside in
my ranks, and so that's pretty exciting. Divorceki by the way,
six point four to seven, so a little bit cool
around him, but I still think he's going to be
a great player, all right.
Speaker 3: So Benier's right, Victor Sain. Both of them are trash,
and neither one of them were any impediment to Berkeley
Catton Center one you heard it here or first, folks,
that's what I say, even deny it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what he's say.
Speaker 3: I'm just kidding people putting words in Victor's mouth. Let's
get some more words out of his mouth, and let's
have them be about Nick Lardis, because you did write
a bit about mister Lardis recently. He is a five
to eleven left winger who is drafted in the third
round in twenty twenty three by the Chicago Blackhawks and
is thriving right now for the OHL's Branford Bulldogs. He
sits at fourth in scoring for the league in the
regular season with one hundred and seventeen points. But guess what.
His seventy one goals leads the OHL Nick Lardis leads
the ohl In goal scored team is now in the
second round of the playoffs. He also managed a whole
bunch of points nine, including seven goals in the team's
first round five game series win. So Lartis is he's
on a roll even into the playoffs in the ohl Obviously,
if you're leading the ohl In goal scored, my guy
here could shoot. He's also got a little bit of speed.
And I know you looked at him for elite prospects.
So what's your take on Nick Lartis of the Chicago Blackhawks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and a guy can shoot and score, that's no
doubt about it. And if you look at the article
goes through a lot of his skills. I do think
he's a pretty unique dimensional kind of guy. Like his
expected goals and his shots or just off the charts,
that's what he does. He shoots, he scores. What else
does he do? I don't know, not too much. Actually,
his expected primary assists, even with all those amazing goals
and offenses he's creating, is pretty remarkably and disappointingly low
for a player of that status, and so that makes
you a little bit worried. He did end up scoring
those seventy one goals in the regular season. That and
Cam Robinson tweeted this out that is actually the most
aside from one other player, and that was see if
you could think in your head, John Tavares seventy two
goals and Nick Lardis tied with Eric Lindress at seventy one.
Nick Lardis, Eric Lendress, John Tavares, one of those is
not like the other two, I would say, and I
think that obviously those other two had some pretty incredible seasons.
Lindras one of my favorite players growing up, and fortunately
career cut a little shit or dude an injury, but
Tavara is still kicking and still highly effective in his
older years. Definitely more of a ski There's always been
more of a skating issue with tavaras he's just so
smart and skilled in other ways that it hasn't really
mattered too much for him. Larnis is definitely faster. He
can use that speed to create offense. But the thing
is he hasn't really rounded out his playmaking as much
as you would like, and he hasn't really learned a
various speed as much, and a lot of the goals
that he's scoring to me are junior goals. I don't
think that as much of it is going to translate
to the NHL, and so that's a little bit disappointing.
But there's still all opportunity for him to change. I'm
not saying it's not going to happen, but at this
point it seems less likely. It is worth remembering that
he's a July eighth birth date, so really late for
his draft class. He's only a couple months away from
being available for the twenty twenty four draft instead of
being drafted twenty twenty three when he was. And there's
some there's definitely a lot of skill here and a
lot of reason to be excited for the black Hawks.
But I think that he's gonna struggle to reach his
ultimate upside just because of some of those other pieces.
But right now there's plenty to be excited about it
and sit back and see where the rest of his
development takes him. And that number is historic. Seventy one
goals is pretty incredible, and you are okay to be
pretty excited about what's happening right now for Lartis.
Speaker 3: Yes, sir, so Mason black gauged he did the heat
check to see just exactly how excited people were, and
he put Nick Lardis up against Carson Raycop of the
Seattle Cracking System back to Seattle, and Lardis in a
pretty substantial win sixty two to thirty eight percent comes
out ahead. Is that the way you would put Nick
Lardis visa VI Carson Raycop.
Speaker 2: In terms of fantasy assets, who I would rather have?
I would say yes, I would rather have Lartis. I
think that what he's done this year in the OHL,
at the very least gives you huge leverage for a
third round pick and what you might be able to
trade for him if you wanted to, Or you could
just wait and see how he plays out. And with
that incredible season that he's had, there's still opportunity for
pretty incredible improvement and he might still work out to
be an excellent NHL goal scorer. I have my reservations.
If I was an NHL team, I think I'd rather
have Raykoff. I think he's a more He's a better
all around, complimentary kind of player. He's one of the
Swiss Army knife kind of guys who can help facilitate offense.
He can be a good middle six contributor, and he
has a lot of skill as well. I think the
upside in terms of all around play is probably higher
for Raycoff and Lardie is pretty unidimensional and so in
the right situation, in the right system, he could really work.
I have some concerns about they have Badard who's not
a large man. They have Nasar who's not a large man,
and now they have Lartis who's not a large man,
and they need some bigger guys and physicality, and they
have some of those. They have Alex Flasik in the future.
They have some other guys the Kortyinski and some of
the other forwards that are a little bit lower in
their lineup. But I just wonder if they have the
right situation for him, because I do think Lardis is
going to need that He's going to need a playmaker
who creates space, and I worry a little bit about
his straight line speed just not being as big of
a cheat code in the next level as it is
so far in the OHL. So yeah, I would definitely
like Lartis for the asset and the upside that he
projects right now, but I don't think I would keep
him Jesse. I probably would trade him and get something
a little bit more secure. It's interesting looking at the
hockey prospecting between the two. Lardis has been in that
fifteen to twenty percent and he's consistently maintained that despite
his historic goal runs, it does show a nice progression
year to year, and his NHL er upside is pretty huge.
Raykoff has trend it down a little bit, but that's
mainly because his HL equivalencies haven't been increasing as much,
but they were. It was higher than Lardis's last season
in the draft plus one season there, so he definitely
still has a decent amount of upside, and so I
think that's pretty exciting. And as you might expect looking
at his Fantasy Hockey Life player card, the shots for
Lardis are just tops. He is a volume shooter and
you're gonna get a lot of that. In terms of
your prifs, you're not gonna get a whole lot of hits,
and you'll get some blocks from him, but most of
the bashes coming from that shots. And looking at his
Fantasy Hockey Life rating, I have him at a six
point seventy four, so seventy four percent of being six.
So I do still think he's gonna make it and
have some contributions in the NHL. I just don't have
him higher. I don't have him at a seven or
eight because the concerns that I mentioned Jesse.
Speaker 3: Victor. I completely got sidetracked because I was thinking to myself.
So we got Lartis in Chicago, We've got Badard, We've
got Frank Naser. We could make him nizarre if we
had to. And who's the other young pup on this team,
Oliver Moore. Right, it's a bunch of R talk like
a pirated is going to be fire in Chicago people,
Chicago promotional people. Everybody on your team who's good now
is going to be an R. You can add that
one for free. But anyway, back to the topic at hand,
Nick lardis what kind of a fantasy profile? So it's
just shooting how high can the upside get?
Speaker 2: Here? By the way, this is the kind of insight
people tune in for. Jesse me, this is my upside.
Speaker 3: Right, if you like this, you've come to the right place.
Speaker 2: Y are. I think that Lartis certainly can score on
professional goalies. We're going to find out soon, possibly probably
next year because he's gonna graduate from the OHL and
be in the AHL. I think that he can definitely score,
but I think he might unless he really changes and
develops more of his scoring acumen and learns to adapt
to that professional pro style game. I think he might
be limited to more of a twenty goal kind of guy,
twenty to twenty five goal kind of guy, and so
that's going to be disappointing. But I think if everything
breaks right and he continues to adapt and improve, he
could certainly score thirty plus. But I think he's always
going to be more of a goal scorer, so if
he's even if he scores thirty, he might only be
a fifty point guy, which will be really disappointed. Maybe
he can work on that playmaking. If he's on that
power play, maybe he gets some assists just touching it around.
So I think he certainly has upside for sixty five plus,
but I think that more likely he's going to just
score a decent number of goals, probably in the twenty
to thirty range, and not have a whole lot of assists,
which will make him a little bit of a disappointing
fantasy asset. And so that's a little bit of the
concern and why I would probably if I had him,
I'd probably trade him and strike while iron is hot
and get a more secure asset out of that deal.
Speaker 3: Jesse Our, Tom Levshunov, Victor, Arvid Soderblom is going to
be back, and they're gonna keep Laurent Blur soirre. I'm sorry,
I'm I apologize to all the listeners. Yeah, all right,
I've derailed. But the point is Nick Lardis is perhaps
to sell high, Bud. We'd love to see somebody. Somebody's
got to score all those goals in Chicago, that's for sure.
Maybe Nick lards will be the guy. I think that
wraps up as far as I'm gonna carry this Nick
Lardis segment. Victor. But before we go to the break,
let me clear the floor, Let you take the ice
to the skate around the rink and anything you want
to talk about with all these great articles you've been
putting out for EP.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks, Jesse. So some of you may or may
not know this, but my time at EP has come
to an end. This happened actually a bit ago. A
few weeks ago, Cam came to me and said that Unfortunately,
EP is doing some restructuring and they're getting rid of
their whole fantasy arm, so Michael Clifford and I, who
were there along with Cam writing about fantasy, are going
to no longer be able to do that. So it's unfortunate,
but I really appreciated my time there. Was a lot
of fun and hopefully people liked the articles, and nothing
but great things to say about EP. Was really a
good time and a pleasure to work there. While disappointing
that it's ending, nothing but appreciation and I will I'm
not necessarily looking for another writing gig, but open to ideas.
I'm actually looking forward to diving back in and doing
a lot more with Dauber, who has supported me and
this show for a long time. So hopefully going to
do a little bit more there and looking forward to that,
especially contributing to the Guide this summer, which I wasn't
able to the last couple of years because I was
working with Cam on the EP Guide. So thanks so
much to everyone who read those. And so unfortunately you're
not going to be seeing any more of those articles
about X gamers or on EP, and so we'll find
another way to get all that information out there. Yep,
that's the main thing I wanted to say, And thanks
so much everyone who read that, and thanks to EP
for the opportunity.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you can't say it, but I can't, Victor,
And I'm sure I speak for a lot of the
listeners here as their loss. But we are going to
continue to benefit from hearing your great analysis here, and
I'm sure people will be looking for your byline wherever
it is found. Thanks Victor. Let's take a break. We're
going to come back with something even sillier.
Speaker 2: Ah you me hearties. Arm seasons.
Speaker 3: All right, I probably oversold the silly But the reason
I said that is because I'm going to talk about
or I'm going to set up a topic here for
Victor and I to discuss. This is more of a
we'll talk a couple of players at the end, but
this is more of a metatopic on fantasy hockey, and
that is the concept of silly season. And silly season
is an actually kind of a serious thing, and I've
been thinking a lot about it lately because this is
the time of year to think about silly season. And
let me define exactly what that is. I'll do that
in a minute. But This has to do with the
way we structure our fantasy leagues in the last say
quarter of the year, and how the way that things
are being played out in the league impact the competition,
in particularly head to head leagues. We've made the argument
on this show, and we've done it repeatedly that there's
multiple reasons why it's good to end a fantasy season
before the end of a regular season. The dog days
of February and March is our one argument. I find
that when people are out of it in leagues they're
not going to make the playoffs. They're riding at five
and twelve, and it's mid February and it's past the
All Star break. They know they've got no chance to contend.
It's hard to get people to keep setting their lineups
at that point, more likely to lose focus than if
you have a somewhat shorter season. And I also I
love a balance schedule. I love it when we can
set up a league so that everybody plays everybody else
in equal number of times, even if we got to
make a couple of those matchups two weekers, because that
means you've got an exactly even as much as humanly possible,
even strength of schedule for teams. But the other part
of the argument is the concept of what's the quality
of play in the league at the end of a
regular season. Silly season is an actual term we use
in fantasy basketball, so importing I'm doing the Dynasty Sports
Life thing of crossing over a little bit here and
explaining just how ridiculous fantasy basketball gets. To the point
where fantasy basketball, to some extent, is almost broken, I
would say by the way that the league is structured
at the end of the year, and the reason we
call it silly season is that the results of player performance,
the players who are available, the players that thrive at
the end of a season are silly. Okay, there are
blatantly tanking teams, and when I say blatantly taking, I
mean there are like ten teams who are intentionally trying
not to put out a lineup that can win a
game on any given night. And yet the way basketball works,
you're still going to get ninety points when you're terrible.
Somebody who's out there who probably shouldn't even be in
an NBA game is going to get in fifty points
the last day of the season and never being hurt
from again.
Speaker 5: Because they're intentionally be put out there by a team
wants to lose, and again, this is to improve their
draft position, which in the NBA is an even bigger
deal than it is in the NHL.
Speaker 3: And then there's the injuries. Injuries and resting done late
in the season in the NBA for similar reasons. Among
the major sports, Baseball's top rounds are very unstable. Baseball
HQ did a study a couple of years past that
in a fifteen team league, you can expect that about
five guys who were drafted in the first round are
going to return first round value, four to five guys,
and beyond there, it's going to be wild. Somebody drafted
after one hundred is going to end up in the
first round. Hockey, we don't really have that, man. The
people we drafted in the first round tend to be
the first round performers. It's really very unusual either for somebody,
for non injury reasons just to stink who was in
that first round, or for somebody who was in the fiftieth, sixtieth,
seventieth round to just pop up and become a very
top of the line contributor. In fantasy hockey at least,
in my opinion, for an entire season. But in basketball,
like I said, there are players who you end up
streaming in fantasy playoffs who were undrafted, unrosterable for most
of the year people have never heard of, and they
win you championships. So this means the background of my
parent and oil when it comes to hockey scheduling, and
so obviously there's nothing. I'm sure people were not familiar
with basketball are listening to this with a gast at
what I'm talking about here. But I do want to
raise the question of whether hockey has at least a
version of this problem, whereas there's something creeping in of
this level of trouble. So currently, I would say injuries
late in the season and fantasy hockey are real. I
don't think it's malingering in fantasy hockey. I think it's
the physicality of the game that causes this, and to
some extent, injuries are art a part of the game.
I looked up the eightyps for drafting this year in
fantasy hockey. Fifteen of the eighty two people who were
drafted in the top one hundred for skaters. I'm just
talking about skaters. The fifteen of the top eighty two
drafted skaters are currently on the AL or or were
the the day when I took this snapshot, And that
includes Connor McDavid is now back. Dry Title's been in
and out. Caprizov just came back, but he's been gone forever.
Jack Hughes has gone, Matt Kachuk, Brady Kachuk, Roman Yosi,
Elias Petterson, Dougie Hamilton, Miro Haskin, and Charlie McAvoy, Matt Barzol,
Joel Eric Sinek. There have been a ton of players
who were very highly touted who have been out and
not great. Fifteen of eighty two in basketball. By the way,
it's forty of the top one hundred eighty DV players
who are injured and out at this point. So that
just gives you a sense. And then there's the famous
LTIR problem where teams are incentivized to use LTIR to
stay in cap compliance leading up to the playoffs. Now
there have been a little bit of fluctuation because just
shortly before we recorded this, both Caprizov and McDavid came
back from the il slats. But would you believe that
right now there are eleven of thirty two NHL teams
that are only making cap compliance because of LTIR. So
there's a lot of situations, Like I'm not a cappologist,
There's probably ways that this gets finagled with the exact
number of days that guys are on the roster and
so forth being able to be pro rated. But Mero
Hayskin and Drew Dowdy, Jack Hughes, Matt Kichuck, Gabriel Landiskagaz,
He's a whole thing in and of himself. But there's
reasons why some of these guys can't be activated necessarily
right when they get healthy. But there are reasons why
the teams have to maybe delay they come back. It
Matt mark Stone and Nikita Kutrov being the famous instances
from a couple of years ago. And I'll tell you what.
Nikita Kutruv, he was oun't and off a long time,
but that I'm sure that tanked somebody's season. And Nikita
Kutro a couple ago, just a second. So, and I
think bigger than lingering intentional tanking, the big thing for
the NHL is the teams need guys for the sixteen games.
That is, the sixteen games you have to win a
Stanley Cup, and everybody's dinged up at this time of year,
and we know they're just going to get the heck
beat out of them in the playoffs. So players increasingly,
I think, need to be and have been conservatively managed
in March in April because they're needed for the playoffs.
So I'm not saying that somebody's help because they're a
weak I know that's totally away from the hockey ethos,
but I think teams are actually smart if they make
some of their players sit at this point of the year,
if they're beat up, to make sure that they're ready
to go in April. It's a different type of culture,
but it comes out in the same place where we
might lose players for the end of the regular season,
which is when we play our fantasy hockey playoffs, all right.
So I'm trying to lay out the case that basketball
is the extreme example. Hockey could end up drifting that way,
and I worry that it's a problem and may increase
them become a problem. Victor, Have I convinced you in
any way or where do you stand on this issue.
Speaker 2: I don't play in basketball leagues and certainly don't follow
it that closely. What you're describing sounds very extreme. I
don't think, as you mentioned, this happens quite to this
effect in hockey. I don't think hockey players are wired
that right way. I think a lot of them would
fight to be out there and to be playing, and
it doesn't seem to be that way in basketball. But
I do think a lot of that, a lot of
the similarities do persist in hockey. I think a lot
of players who probably could come back a little bit earlier,
especially the more seasoned ones who you know, like Matthew Kachuck,
who's clearly very competitive but also knows that they're in
for a long playoff run, might just want to take
a little bit longer to make sure that he's fully
one hundred percent healthy and maybe pretty soft too. Maybe
there would be more incentive if the wild weren't quite
as close or quite as well positioned in the playoffs.
So I do think there's a little bit of we're
in the playoffs, so let's just make sure we optimize
our chance of doing well in there. And so by
the very definition there, that's different than basketball. Right You're
talking about players who are potentially resting, whose teams are
in the playoffs, and as opposed to teams that are
tanking and they're just trying to rest and sit their starters.
You don't really see that happening in hockey. But what
you do see, I think is sometimes on some of
those teams that aren't as good or in that mushy middle,
you do see a lot of let's just shut him
down for the year. There's no point in keeping him going.
He probably could play the rest of the year, but
why there's nothing really to play for. So you do
see a little bit of that, but typically there's somewhat
of a legitimate injury. And I think the other thing
that happens is you just in hockey, you'll give some
guys rest here there, you'll play different goalies, give them
a chance, guys that are signing their elcs from college
or from other places, and they'll get them in the lineup.
And so somebody has to come out. And so it's
more based on that, Let's see what we have for
this team, Let's see how this player looks. We have
to make a decision on this young player maybe in
the offseason, so let's see what we have. And so
you might have some of these other players take a
night off. Typically it's other fourth liners that are getting scratched,
though it's not typically let's rest our stars, but usually
those guys will still play. But I do think there's
a little bit of it, and I think that really
does become an issue in the last couple of weeks.
So that's why we have advocated for ending early. Like
all of my leagues are not done now, Jesse, there's
still a couple more weeks, and my last one ended
just Sunday, but a lot of them had already ended
the week or two prior to that, and I think
I've always liked that, even though it means that the
playoffs and everything come early. But I think what you
really want to assess is that everybody has a similar
number of games. People are playing as much as possible,
not at the end of the season where guys might
be resting or taking time off, and so you want
to level the playing field as much as possible. Two
week playoffs we try to always do that because I
think that's really going to be reflective of who's who's
the best fantasy manager. And if you have a random week,
especially where players are taking time off, you can't really
adequately assess that, and so I don't think it's nearly
as bad as it is in basketball, but I do
think that it is still a bit of an issue.
And you'd hate if your season came down to one
week where there's only a couple of games for your
star and they decided that they were going to let
him rest a little bit longer before playoffs. I know
several people who Coroll Caprizov came back just a little
bit too late to help their season and they just
got they just couldn't compete because and that's a little
bit of a different situation and unfortunate timing of that injury.
But could he have come back earlier if they needed him,
I don't know. There's just there's potentially issues with that,
and so having it be longer and having it cover
more of the earlier part of the season. I think
you're going to avoid some of those issues, but it's
not going to be perfect. Jessie, Yeah, I hear you.
Speaker 3: I and I think I come out in the same
place worry about the future. I don't I don't want
to be that guy, Victor, but I don't understand how
hockey players play through what they do that NBA players
can They're actually running into each other all the time,
running into each other at full speed. Is it because
of the pats? Is it because the NBA players are
too tall and it's hard on their knees. Don't understand
how hockey players. Anyway, this is going to become probably
bad in a minute, so I'm going to stop saying that.
But Victor, the other piece of this, I guess that
that I want to talk about, and this is maybe
that's the philosophical conversation. I think you're right. I don't
think that's the reason we end our seasons earlier. But
I'm telling you put up the warning flag. But let's
talk about some small sample sized guys at the end
of the We don't talk about small We talk about
small sample guys at the beginning of the season and
how we don't trust it and we get bored of
it by this time. But sometimes I feel like in
the off season we look at guys who ended strong
and we say, oh, maybe there's something going on there.
So while I was running all this data, I looked
at the last thirty days and I looked at the
top twenty skaters, and there were a couple of guys.
I love a report where ninety percent of it or
eighty five percent of it looks like, oh yeah, that's
what I'd expect, and then twenty percent that's interesting. That's
the best type of report to me, because that's when
you're actually catching you know that it's basically catching the
right information, but you're catching the weird outliers. So the
number three player in the tidy settings for the last
thirty days victory is key for sure. And we've talked
about him before in this show. We talked about him,
I think as the guy who maybe you would make
as a sale on a run to a veteran team
this year, if I remember right, we talked about him
in like the sale deadline type time winger. Of course,
for Vancouver, he just turned thirty, so he's not a
young pup. He was drafted on average twelve hundred and
thirty this preseason. But here's the thing with Q for
surewood he chooses violence every day when he wakes up
and goes to the rink. Four hundred and forty six
hits this season. He's still got half a dozen games left,
or maybe five as I'm recording this. And in the
evolving hockey era, which is running all the evolving hockey
stats back to seven o eight, which is your lyrist.
The database goes, this is the most hits anybody has
had defenseman forward anybody, four hundred and forty six hits
so far. And these hits are already miles ahead of
the second place finisher for that entire era, Jeremy Losan,
who had three hundred and eighty two hits last year
four and forty six to three hundred eighty two, four
and forty six and counting to three hundred and eighty two.
And while he's only been half point per game this season,
the reason he's in, the reason he's number three right
now is he's got thirteen points in the last fifteen
games and Vancouver's let's just say in flux a little bit.
Things are changing there in Vancouver and he's only thirty
is key for Sherwood budget, Tom Wilson, Victor And is
this a guy who we're actually going to have to
take seriously next year?
Speaker 2: That's a That's the million dollar question I think is
that is this going to continue? And yes, I have
been saying to people that, yeah, trade him to a contender.
He's not nothing, but he's certainly. There was a time
where he was also scoring a decent amount of points
in addition to all those insane hits and decent blocks,
but that of course cooled down. But there were people saying, oh,
I should I just trade him for nothing because we
know this isn't going to continue, and I was saying, no,
don't trade him for nothing. Trade him. There should be
people who want to pay a decent amount for him
because he's really gonna help. He's really going to help.
He can win you leagues when you can win you
categories in categories leagues, so that's something you like to see. Yeah,
there's a lot going on in Vancouver, and who knows
what's going to happen. It sounds we really have to
wait and see what's going to happen with Tuckett because
it sounds like he's not going to be there, but
if he is, that will probably affect the situation. Whoever
they put in there is gonna affect the situation. He's
an amazing value in cap leagues. He's got another season
at one point five million, so that's really great. But
you look at some of his underlying numbers, it's actually surprising.
You might think of him more as like just a
banger who's good defensively or something, but he's pretty average
defensively and his offensive game, his expected goals and actual
goals above replacement have been really solid this year, above average,
and so that's surprising to see that he actually has
been deserving a lot of the points that he's getting.
He's still only on a forty two point pace. None
of that is incredible, and so basically any points you
get out of him are gravy. He has been justifying
his time on ice. He's only getting around fifteen minutes,
and that's been steadily climbing the last few years for
him in terms of his role. And he got a
lot more opportunity in Nashville than he ever had before
he was with Colorado and Anaheim before then. He actually
has been on each team for two years, and so
it'll be interesting to see if he sticks in Vancouver
after next year, whether he goes somewhere else and does
another two year stint. But I think your short answer, Jesse,
is a yeah, I do think this version of Kieva
Sherwood is going to continue. He's going to hit a
lot hopefully he'll still play in the fifteen to sixteen
minute range, which is going to allow him to translate
that hits for sixty that he's been doing to a
really high number. And yeah, I think that he's going
to continue to be valuable. He's not gonna score a
whole bunch of points, I don't think, but his two
power play points this season will probably continue to be
his high. But I do think that, yeah, he's gonna
continue to hit a bunch and be pretty valuable in
leagues to count that. I don't think he's gonna be
the next Tom Wilson in terms of him being a
really effective playmaker and goal scorer, but I will say
that some of that is actually there in the sense
of him generating offense and creating opportunities for his teammates.
But I think he can maybe get to the Tom
Wilson level that was there a few years ago, where
he was in that fifty ish point range. I think
Surewood can get there. This sixty seven point version of
Tom Wilson with ov breaking scoring records. I don't think
that Surewood's going to get there.
Speaker 3: The forty to fifty point thing. I just want to
I want to point this out, because it's something psychological
when we see that somebody scores forty points for like,
it's not very good, and it isn't de actively, it
isn't most forty point guys aren't valuable on our fantasy teams.
But let me tell you something like Jeremy Lazon last
year when he had that incredible hitting year, he had
fourteen points in seventy nine games. The difference between that
fourteen points and forty points is is it's huge. It's
a huge difference for somebody to be able to get
at least a viable number of points to go with.
That type of peripheral stat is not to be underestimated,
just in the sense that those extra twenty five points
to in that category just as good as the twenty
five points you might get above and beyond that. Not
explaining this very well, but as a concept, and I'm
not saying you're not doing that, Victor. I'm just saying
sometimes we're like this. We think of somebody who gets
a ton of periffs in ten points the same way
as we think of somebody gets a ton of priffs
and forty points, and that's a really big difference in
terms of you're going to bank some extra points that
you're not going to get from some other specialist in
that area. But it is way up in the air,
and you're right, I don't think he probably has the
heights of Tom Wilson ahead of him. Wilson was Wilson
was more of a hitter and not much of a
scorer at a young age, but he was never not prominent,
let's just say whereas sure what certainly was for some
time in his career.
Speaker 2: Second guy, I.
Speaker 3: Wanted to bring up Victor who is in the top twenty,
but unfortunately he's in the top twenty, but he's not
rising any further and he's only going to be able
to fall because he's done for the year and only
got twelve games played as opposed to the fifteen or
sixteen games or fifteen I think was the max games
played for the other guys in this top twenty. But
it is Dylan Holloway of the Saint Louis Blues, the
guy who was a Wisconsin, the only one of the
successful Badgers to feel like in the last few years,
all those Badgers we talked about, man Dylan Holloway, aside
from Cole Kawfield the only one of these badgers who
come in the last few years who really blossomed now,
but he was such a slow starter, it seemed like
for the Oilers. Now he's only twenty three and famously
got that big RFA contract last summer, But boy, he
has just blown up or he did blow up late
in this incredible Blues run that they've been on and
he's only twenty three. Victor, I'm trying to decide if
Dylan Holloway, if this was just like the hot stretch
of his year. But these sixteen points in twelve games
that he had in the last month and sixty three
points in seventy seven games, so it's not like that
was the only time he did this year. It deserves remembering,
and I hope we do remember it in the off season.
Is he the sixty three point in seventy.
Speaker 2: Seven game guy?
Speaker 3: Is that even a little high? Or is he the
guy who got over a point per game for that
last thirty days. Is that actually a sign of what
he could be.
Speaker 2: I'm sure we will talk about a lot of these
guys in our team previews, but I think that Dylan
Holloway is a bit for real I remember looking at
him last year and thinking, this guy does have some
underlying numbers, but I was a little skeptical that he
could leverage it into a lot more counting scats stats,
just because a lot of times he was playing eleven
minutes and twenty two seconds. He had some good underlying numbers,
But he was a twenty point pace player in Edmonton
during the regular season. Yes, the playoffs went really well,
so that doesn't always translate. This is a huge translation
to massive production for Dylan Holloway. And the thing is
you look at his underlying numbers and they look really good.
His metrics on evolving hockey are are sterling. You're talking
about ninety eighth percentile overall, ninety second percentile for offense,
ninety fourth percentile for defense. You just don't see this
kind of player like he quite frankly, was one of
the best players in the league this year and was
able to put up a sixty seven point pace, which
is just remarkable. That's only in just under seventeen minutes
of time on ice, so he's still not even getting
the most time on ice in Saint Louis. He hits
a lot, he shoots a little bit two point three
times per game. His shooting percentage, yes, was high. His
career average before this season was about eight percent, and
this season he was up at almost fifteen and so
nearly doubling his shooting percentage. His PDO was high, so
he was cooking a little bit hot in a lot
of different ways. His IPP, his PDO, his shooting percentage,
his secondary assist rate, all of that was probably over indexed.
And so was that sixty seven point pace real. I
think the play driving and the offensive creation numbers suggest yes,
but the luck metrics suggests no, So the truth might
be somewhere in the middle. I do think he has
shown at this point he can probably be a sixty
to seventy point player and might just need some of
that high variants to get there, which some really good
players can basically create their own luck, and so he
might be one of those. I think that he's a
really solid player, and it's gonna be really interesting to
see where he goes in drafts next year, because I
think it's going to be hard to believe this production,
although at the same time you can't necessarily ignore it.
I would probably let someone else reach for him when
the time comes just because I would like to draft
players in this position who have done it before. But
at the same time, if he's still there when your
draft is going on, he's probably someone you want to
go ahead and grab because he could potentially build on this.
And you look at some of the top players, Shen
is really slowing down, Kyu and Thomas are both highly
paid and they're great, and we're pretty good this season.
Bushnevich had some injuries and was pretty inconsistent. There's probably
opportunity for him. You got some of the young guys
come in with snugrud and divorceky and neighbors there, there
might be a good opportunity for him. It's hard to say,
but I really like doing Halloway and yeah, he's I
think he is pretty much as good as he's shown
this year. He just might have also gotten lucky.
Speaker 3: Yeah, looking forward to that Blues preview because the Blues
are sneaking up on all of us in a lot
of ways. And the third of the players who showed
up in here who surprised me, and this guy is
not unprominent, but he was definitely drafted outside the top
one hundred hundred and thirty three and that's Drake Batherson
of the Ottawa Senators who has been burning it up
for the last thirty days. Now, He's some of these
guys had more points per game than him, but twelfth
in total scoring. And by the way, the Lemieux Division,
the one that I'm in in the tidy, I will
point out the Iowa Canuck went from the sixth seed
to win the whole tournament and.
Speaker 2: This was his score.
Speaker 3: This is team for the last thirty days. It was
Drake Bathson amongst skaters outst the Iowa Canuck who upset
the whole division in won Tier two Lemieux in in tidy,
and Drake Batherson was a part of that. And one
one might say, Brady Chuck's been out, so maybe he's
getting somedditional usage there, but that's not really it. He's
still playing. He's been playing with Dylan Cousins and David
Parnt for a long time. And yeah he's been on
the power play a lot, but only three of us
thirteen points in the last month have come there. The
big difference with Drake Batherson is he's got a point,
three shots and two hits a game. That'll do it.
That'll do it for you in a CATS league or
a in a Bash league. I feel like Drake Bathson
is going to move up at least to the top
one hundred next year, maybe like the top seventy or
something like that, from the types of numbers he's been
putting up. Maybe it's time to start giving some respect,
put in respect on those senators' names. Do you think
that Drake Bathson is this anything that you perceive as real?
Not knowing yet where we're going to come in when
we talk to the senators.
Speaker 2: Folks, Yeah, I don't know. And he also helped me
win a championship, so I appreciate that in one of
the leagues that I have him in. So he was
great and we will definitely be talking to I Kannock
a little bit more when we do our tidy round table.
That's impressive. Winning from the sixth seed, as we heard
last week, winning having to win that first round when
the top two teams have a by winning that round
and then winning the next two is just PRIs pretty
It's something pretty special. It's really hard to do, so
good to him. Good on him. In terms of Batherston,
I don't know that I really believe this as much
as I do for Halloway. A lot of his underlying numbers,
especially his defensive numbers, are pretty poor. Some of his
even strength offense is also not great. But on the
power play he seems to really cook and fit in
well there, and he did have twenty seven power play points,
nearly his high as it was for a couple of
years ago. I think the bottom line is that Batherston
is not a strong even strength producer, but his power
play numbers basically bring him up to that sixty to
seventy point range. That's always a little bit worrisome when
you're when maybe your power play spot isn't one hundred
percent guaranteed with this kind of production, you'd have to
think it probably is. And the fact that Norris has
gone now probably helps him a lot. You have to
be a little bit worried that maybe he isn't going
to continue on that top power play and so if
he doesn't, then I think his points are going to
really fall off a cliff and so that could be
really unfortunate. And got cousins there. Now, you got Ka
Chuck Stuccla, You probably have a spot there, but there's
some other decent players who might battle him for it,
and then you could see it really fall off the cliff.
So yes, I love him for the hits and the
decent production to go along with those great hits, but
I would consider that production a little bit tenuous, as
a lot of his metrics are a bit over indexed.
He shoots, he's shooting actually right around his average, which
is fine, but he does and it actually his PDO
is a little bit neutral, but his IPP is fairly high.
For I think the question is are these numbers high
If he's an elite player, these numbers are not high.
If Drake Bathurston is an average player, these IPP and
powerplay IPP, secondary sists, all these things are very high.
I don't necessarily think he's an elite player, and as
underlying metrics do not suggest he's an elite player. So
I think he's an average player who's getting a little
bit lucky, and so if that luck runs out a
little bit, he's probably more of a fifty five is
point player, and which is still not nothing. But with
those hits, it's still rosterable, but it's a little less
exciting than the seventy ish point player that we've seen
the last couple of seasons or high sixties, And he
did have that season where he touched seventy eight points,
And that season was actually really interesting because he did
not have as many points, but he had more time
on ice and he had better linemates that he played with.
So I think that there's still obviously great opportunity here.
But I would definitely be a little bit worried about
Bathurston in terms of can he sustain this? Is he
like a cornerstone of my roster? I'm not sure, Jesse,
what do you think.
Speaker 3: You raise great points? I wonder not to throw shade
at David Peran and Dylan Cousins. Seems like the Senators
are investing pretty heavily in him, But I wonder what
would happen if they got a really exciting left winger
to go with him. Bathurston is eternally exiled to the
second line, at least because of the presence of Brady
Kachuk if they're both playing right wing. But yeah, we'll
have to see, We'll have to see how all that
comes together. We certainly will be hearing about that sooner
than later these guys, So our previews are starting by
the way, folks in now well under a month. It's
just a couple weeks away before we start talking about
our team previews. These teams that we're talking about, these
teams are actually doing pretty well, except the Canucks, but
I don't think the Canucks are one of our first couple.
But the team previews are closer than you think.
Speaker 2: Just be prepared.
Speaker 3: We'll be breaking down everybody in extreme depth with some
great guests, and not too long, Victor, that's gonna do
it for my rant about the solely season and anything
else you got to say before we come back and
close out the show.
Speaker 1: No, not really.
Speaker 2: Thanks everyone for listening, and we're looking forward to the
team previews and hopefully you'll join us for all those.
Beet right back.
Speaker 3: Our shows brought to you by fantracks dot com. You
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