Speaker 1: Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by Fan Tracks. Here's
shit us, your source of information and analysis to help
you win your fantasy hockey league. Block off hot A,
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Speaker 2: Here's your hosts, Jesse Sovier and Victor Nuno.
Speaker 3: Fantasy Hockey Live once again. Jesse Severe, Victor Nuno joining
you from inside whatever it is you put in your
ears to listen to this, including a car. Victor, how
you doing today the Fantasy Hockey Doctor.
Speaker 2: I'm doing awesome, Jesse. Yeah, definitely looking forward to talking
some predators. Hey doing my friend?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm doing good. I'm doing good. This is the summer,
is the time when we tend to record in advance,
so this episode is being recorded actually fairly close to
the time that you will be hearing it. But we
do record ahead and we space them out. But I'm
excited to talk about Nashville today. Man, it's yeah. I
have questions. I have questions, and I hope our guests
that has answers. I don't understand. But Victor, whether you
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Speaker 3: Yes, SuRie, that is correct. You can do all those things.
But first you can sip back, relax and enjoyed the
upcoming preview of.
Speaker 2: The National Predator.
Speaker 3: Mike to welcome a first time guest WUR show, Emma
Lincoln of The Hockey News, Ready to talk some Nashville Predators.
How you doing today, Emma.
Speaker 4: I'm good.
Speaker 5: How are you guys good?
Speaker 3: We're excited to have you heart today. We do our
team previews in the off season. We have to start
early because there's so many dang teams and we go
in order of the teams that have their seasons done
earlier in the process. So it's unfortunate that we're getting
to Nashville back in May. But I'll try not to
be too negative. I'll try not to be too negative
because I like the Predators, but we have questions in
the first one being what happened? I think that's my
question for today. Famously, the Predators were the winners the offseason.
They brought in a lot of talent. We'll talk about
some of those players and how their performances varied this year.
And they've got one of my all time favorite hockey guys,
Barry Trotz, coaching for him. My first game was at
the Bridgetone and I saw the Predators back in the
Paul Korea era, and that was all the way back there,
and then Barry took my Washington Capitals to the championship
before going back. But anyway, the pred season started zero
to five and in a lot of ways, it just
never really seemed to get on track. They were thirtieth
and standing points. By the end. They were thirty first
in goals scored, ninth, most shots taken, but the worst
shooting percentage goals against six most on the fourth, worst
save percentage. Boy, in the old days, we would have
said the Pdo monster is going to come and help
them in the future. They played in the deadly Central Division,
but that doesn't really fully explain things. They had a
nine and eleven record in the division and a twenty
one thirty three and eight record outside of the division,
so it wasn't really just the Central, although that was
a good way to get buried in the standings. They
very wisely sold to the deadline, so you have to
take that into account and some of these final standings
as they weren't going forward at the end, they'd moved
some players, but it doesn't explain the big signings. I'm
back to Emma, can you explain what happened and how
are they going to fix it?
Speaker 5: Well, that's the million dollar question, right or the one
hundred million dollar question. I guess after the the off
season signings last year, it is something we here in
Nashville have been racking our brains about. No one knows, like,
no one can point to one thing or one or
two things and be like, ah, yes, that was the problem.
That's where things went wrong, because it was just one
of those seasons where everything that could have gone wrong
did And you look at the roster and the pieces
they added and the off season they added I think
eighty two goals to their roster between Stamco's marcius o'sha.
I think that when you look at the roster, it's
not a lack of talent. It's not that there's not
scoring talent on that roster, but they couldn't score goals.
And I think that there are a lot of reasons
for that. I think one of the biggest things was
almost psychological in a way, because I think that the
pieces they added in the off season, they weren't just
adding depth players. These are guys that you like build
a system around, and I think that there was this
sort of level of whether it was conscious or not,
I think more realistically it probably wasn't even conscious, But
I think guys were maybe just deferring to each other
both on and off the ice, that there was just
this sort of a lot of walking on eggshells. Maybe
if you're Roman Yosi, you're looking at Steven Stamcost and saying, oh,
he's the big guy, I'm going to take a step back.
But if you're Steven Stamcost coming in, you're saying, I'm
the new guy. I'm going to take the back seat
and let these other guys do all the work. So
I think it's just it was a weird mix of
things that just created this just the worst possible outcome
I think for Nashville this year. And as far as
what went wrong, how long do you have? I think
there's just the defense was absolutely not there at all.
This is a team that traditionally has prided itself on
defense and goaltending. Neither of those things were there this year.
You had a lot of moving parts, not only the
additions to the roster, but like you mentioned, the deadline,
and even before the deadline, trades that were getting made
and different injuries causing issues, a lot of guys making
their NHL debuts. There was just so many moving parts.
It was just the entire season. It seemed like they
were trying to catch a moving train and just never
got it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's go to some of these individual performances, and
we started with Philip Forsberg and Forestbrin's year was a
step back from that career year he had in twenty
three to twenty four, but not a huge step back.
He didn't have a bad season at all. Really. His
overall goals above replacement dwarfed his teammates, although his even
strength defense was not all that great. He did have
thirty one goals forty five assists for seventy six points
in a second straight eighty two game campaign. That's excellent.
His assistant was only one back of his career high
coming into his thirty one year old year. Forresburg is
going to be getting direct deposits from the Broadway and
the Preds into the twenty thirties. He signed for a
very long time into the future and he's still playing
at a very high level. What are you expecting from
Philip Wursburg in the coming year.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think that just because of how bad collectively
the season was for Nashville. I think that Forsburg season
gets overlooked a lot. Like you said, he still put
up seventy six points, and that is on par with
what you would expect from him. I think that he
is as far as what to expect from him. He's
taken some steps forward in the last couple of years.
One thing I think that maybe gets overlooked a little
bit is the fact that he's been healthy and he's
played all eighty two games for each of the last
two seasons. That's huge for him because he had some
injury issues, some health issues leading up to that. So
the fact that he's been able to stay healthy, stay
in games, obviously that's going to improve his chances his numbers.
I think that he is still one of the most
steady performers on this team. He has taken steps forward
in terms of his style of play. I think his
game he used to be just a finisher. He was
scoring goals and that was his job and he was
very good at it. In the last couple of seasons,
I think we've seen him take steps forward as a distributor,
as a playmaker as well. So increasing his chances there.
I think that he in terms of what to expect
from him for next year, I think that he is
going to be exactly what he has been for the
Nashville Predators, and that's one of their top forwards, top scorers.
He has so much potential. I think there's a lot
of I get the question a lot of is Philip
Forsberg an elite winger and elite forward? And my answer
to that is usually he can be. I think he
can be. I think he needs the right situation, he
needs the right circumstances, he needs the right players around him.
But we have seen flashes of that elite potential from him,
and I think that we have no reason to doubt
that he'll show that next year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, a great point about him staying healthy, because that
was the bugaboo there for a while with Forrestburg. Jonathan
marshisso now we're getting into, to some extent the rougher time.
Marsh is getting older just like the rest of us.
His season was actually not all that different from a
couple of the years he had in Vegas in the
early misfit days in terms of his surface stats twenty
one goals, thirty six as sis fifty seven points. That's
the same number of points he had two years ago
in Vegas. That's well over the number of points he
had during most of his earlier seasons, and it's one
of his top career totals. But it certainly wasn't the
expectation that we had from Marcius coming on to a
five year deal off some really exciting years with the
Elite Knights team to meet the hopes of the Preds.
Marcistoll seems like a guy who maybe is not going
to be the ideal player for Rebeling Club. If that's
going to be the case, and that's going to be
probably a running theme here. I know that was some
todd that Trotz wasn't just going to trade off guys
who had just signed there. He wanted to make sure
that they were okay or that they wanted to move on,
if they were going to move on. But what do
you think of Marciuso's trajectory? Was this what we should expect?
Is there something much better coming down the road? Is
a guy who's still going to be in the long
term plans the Predators if they're needing to take a
step back, what do you think of Marciuso's future in Nashville.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's an interesting one because when he was signed,
when all those guys were signed in the off season, Stamcost,
Marcus and Shay, My immediate thought was that Marcius so
was the most obvious fit for Andrew Brunette's system, in
his style of hockey. I said, that's a perfect fit.
He is a he's a puck hunter, he is a pest.
He's also skilled. Obviously he scores goals, but he can
get under the opposition's skin and he can knock guys
off of pucks. Small, but he's strong, and I think
that all of that speaks to the Andrew Brunette system.
To me, that was a perfect fit. But he seemed
to be the one. And I think this is more
of just a personality thing, but he was I would say,
the most vocal about wanting to see changes in the system,
in the coaching, and I think not that he didn't
do anything horrible, not like throwing his coach under the
bus or anything like that, but he did make some
comments about how there are adjustments that could be made,
and you could see it too. The eye test tells
you everything you need to know. These guys would get
out on the ice and it looked like they had
never met before, and it was like passes were going
past each other, behind each other, in front of each other.
They weren't finding the other guy's tape. It was just
a mess. And I think a big part of that
is coaching system, and you want to see adjustments there,
and Barry Trotz is going to give Andrew Burnette chance
to make those adjustments. But I think if they can
get into a groove there, Marcius is a good fit
for this system when it's played correctly. And as far
as him being part of the long term future part
of a team that's rebuilding, I think if you ask
Barry Trotz, this team has no intention of rebuilding, like
doing a total tear down right now. Quite frankly, their
roster just isn't built for it. There's so much trade protection,
movement protection in those contracts on the roster. They want
to build a team. He's been very vocal about wanting
to build a team around Ucsorrow's Philip Forsberg and Roman
Yosi still plans to do that again.
Speaker 4: I think.
Speaker 5: The reason that Marcius's name gets brought up a lot
in terms of, oh, could we see a trade in
the near future, is because he is the one of
those three big signings in the offseason who doesn't have
trade protection in his contract. That being said, I think
that at this stage in his career, he and he's
said this too, he didn't move his family across the
country to play for a rebuilding team, and at this
point they have no intention of being a rebuilding team.
Now it's looking like they're being more of a retool
on the fly sort of situation. I think if you
look at maybe what Washington did this past season around Novchkin,
that's an example of how to do that well. I
think Nashville, in terms of a rebuild, is going to
be doing something that looks a little bit more like
that as opposed to a complete teardown. I think March's
can be a really important piece of this sort of
He helps the team right now and he can help
them in the future. I don't see unless he explicitly
demands a trade, which I don't see him doing, at
least not in the immediate term. I don't see him
moving on from Nashville yet. Now, well, if we have
another season that was similar to the one that just passed.
Then maybe then we're having a different conversation. Maybe, but
I don't think anyone is really ready to throw in
the towel after what was just an absolute dog of
a season that nobody saw coming. I think at this
point everyone is still so shell shocked by it. The
players included that they're like letting it sink in and saying,
all right, let's just chalk that up as an outlier,
because until next year, we have no reason to believe
it's not.
Speaker 2: Indeed, let's talk about another one of the players who
didn't have a great season. That was Ryan O'Reilly. His
second season wasn't quite as productive points wise. He had
went down from a sixty nine point pace to a
fifty five point pace. His even strength tim and ice
and power play tim and ice both slid a little bit.
Two more years in contract, and it was clear kle
Line and from discussions with him that I heard that
he wants to stick around, that he didn't really want
to be moved. Looking at his metrics on evolving Hockey,
he's still a very impactful player. His defense rted out
is more average, which might be more of a team effect,
but his offense still seventy seven percentile. Jay Fresh has
him as an overall wins above replacement at eighty three percent,
so still a very effective player, even though he's getting
a little bit older. Emma, what do you think we
can expect from Ryan O'Reilly next season?
Speaker 5: I think Ryan O'Reilly is a huge piece of this team.
He's been their one seed when Stamkos is not their
one seed. At at the least he's a two s
and I think that's probably the best fit for Ryan
O'Reilly is as a two seed. But we saw him
have that amazing year last year as the one CEE
with Philip Forsberg and Gus Nyquist on the top line,
and those three were just electric together, and so I
think part of that was that line got broken up
pretty early in the season this year. Again, That's where
I go back to that maybe there's this sort of
knee to force it with these guys, these star power
guys coming in Stamcost and Marches. Oh, we gotta make
them fit, so we gotta change everything and scrap all
the lines that we have. So I think that may
have been part of it. But Ryan O'Reilly is first
and foremost like his value to this team is as
a leader both on and off the ice. It's a
huge part of why Barry Trotz brought him into the organization.
And again, his name came up a lot around the
trade deadline, and like you said, Barry Trotz treated him
as if he had trade protection in his contract even
though he doesn't, so he wasn't getting traded anywhere unless
he signed off on it. And he, as you said,
came out and said, I want to be here. I
think that we have the tools here. I think that
we can win as a team. And so in terms
of what to expect from him, I think that his
buy in. What you need from all of these guys
is buy in, and his by is probably the most
important you can have, and I think that you have
it from him. He said it, He's been vocal about it.
He's a leader on this team. He's huge on five
on five, on special teams. Again, I really have a
hard time looking at numbers from this last season for
anybody on this team and making any kind of sweeping
generalizations about them, because this was just such an offlier
or an outlier season for everyone. And so I think
that as far as Ryan O'Reilly. He's still he's going
to be a key part of this team's top six
next year. He's going to be getting big minutes no
matter where he's playing, because he's playing on special teams
as well. He's a guy that you can put in
all situations, and I see them continuing to use him
that way.
Speaker 3: Another one whose season we're trying to make some sense
of right now is Steven stamcos he's arguably had the
low he had not arguably the lowest the scoring type
year of his Hall of Fame career. His points per
sixty was the lowest that he's had, amounting to twenty
seven goals, twenty six assists fifty three points in a
full eighty two games. His sniper skills are not gone.
He maintained a Stephen stamkost ish fifteen point five percent shooting,
but he dropped from over three shots a game to
just over two shots a game. Is this a fluke
down season? Is this a sign of eleven hundred and
sixty four regular season and one hundred and twenty eight
postseason games of NHL ware and tear hockey? Was it
just a context change? Those those pucks not hitting the
sticks that they're still trying to work out that you
were talking about that they can improve upon, and then
what if the improvements don't come, what is the future?
Was Steven stampcost do you think?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 5: In terms of his production, same with everybody. I think
that the biggest issue that I could see was just chemistry.
And that's not to say that these guys don't get
along or there's drama in the locker room or anything
like that. I think it's just Stephen Stamco's played what
seventeen years with the same team in the same system,
and now he's being asked to change. That's huge. And
he's still a Hall of Famer, he's still one of
the best goal scorers in the league, but he's he's
going to take some time to adjust. You add in
the fact that he's learning a very new system under
Andrew Burnett, and I've talked to him, I've talked to
a Stammer about this, where he said, it's not the
system in itself is not difficult. It's not inherently crazy
what they're asking us to do, but it is.
Speaker 4: It's different.
Speaker 5: It's forward thinking, it's different, and so it's really fast.
Getting pucks hunting pucks, getting through the neutral zone, getting
up the ice, and it's not a again, it's all
very very fast paced, and so I think that when
you add in the speed of the system, the fact
that he's playing with all new teammates, he's playing in
a new role. He's played some time at wing, sometime
at center, he's got like I said, most of the
time he's out on the ice, there's different guys playing
with him every time, and that's a coaching thing, that's
a system thing. Part of that, too is things like
trades and injuries that you can't really control. But it
just there were so many moving parts this year, and
I think that looking at what Steven Stamcos did given
the circumstances, I think that's still People look at his
numbers from this year compared to the rest of his
career and say, oh, like you said, oh, he's washed,
he's over the hill, he's old, he's not playing with
Koucherov anymore, so now he's terrible. I really don't think
any of that is true. I think that this season
was just such a hard season for everyone. I do
think the biggest thing is going to be mystery, and
I think that is only going to come with time,
and REPS have every reason to believe that will improve
this year if we see some adjustments in the coaching
and the system and in the way he's used. But yeah,
I don't think that Steven stamcos numbers from this past
season or any sort of indication of just that he's
hit a bump in his career and he's just on
the downturn.
Speaker 3: Now, all right, I'm all in on the stamp Coast rebound.
Let's make that happen next up. Just the simple points.
Pick them between two other players. We won't go into
real in depth. Luke Evangelista Michael Bunning, a little bit
of new blood. In terms of a guy moving up
and a guy coming in, who do you think is
likely to have the better year those two next year?
Speaker 5: I'm gonna go with Bunting. I think that Evangelista has
the potential to But for him, it depends very much
on where he's used and how he's used. I think
we saw him improved tremendously towards the end of the
season when he started getting a more regular look in
the top six. He's a really he's got really good hands,
he's a really skilled playmaker. Not the fastest guy, but
he can distribute the puck really well and he thinks
the game really well. So I think if we were
guaranteed to see Luke Evangelista in a top six role
more regularly, then I'd say that's more of a debate,
I think between those two guys. But knowing now based
on what we saw from last season, again admittedly small
sample size. For Michael Bunning, he came in at the
trade deadline, but just seeing what he can do. He
was getting to the hard areas, getting to the net,
punching in kind of those ugly, greasy goals, and that
was something that this team had desperately needed and he
provided that. That sparked to the offense, and I think
we're more likely to see Bunting in a more regular
top six role for the Reds next year. So that's
why I'll go with him, all right.
Speaker 2: The next guy we want to ask you about is
Zach LaRue. One of the bright spots I would say,
at least from a fantasy perspective in Nashville. He burst
onto the scene after a strong HL season last season,
and fantasy gms immediately noticed him because he was throwing
three hits a game and that'll get you noticed in
our circles only had a twenty point pace. I'm not
sure whether he will actually translate more scoring than that.
Maybe certainly possible. He's still young, but if his time
on ice goes up just a little bit, he could
even crest the four hits per game, which was pretty outstanding.
His time on ice was only at twelve three and
looking at his Ramvom charts in his player card at
Evolving Hockey, his defensive game was actually pretty exceptional seventy
seven percentile there. His offense was a little bit below average,
but overall, he certainly didn't seem like he was a
liability out there defensively, which which is saying something on
that Nashville Predators team. So, Emma, what do you think
we can see from LARU next season?
Speaker 5: Yeah, that is saying something when almost everybody finished in
the minus. But I think that Zach LaRue is as
you said he was. He really burst onto the scene
as a goal scorer in his last season in the AHL.
We saw that offensive upside he has when he was
in Milwaukee. Of course, comes up to Nashville, he finds
himself in this bottom six role again, and so credit
to him that he has been able to lean into
that physical side of his game. In terms of the hits,
he again not the biggest guy, but he's strong and
he can throw guys off of pucks, and he's, as
you said, very sound defensively, which is great to have
in a strong two way forward on the bottom six.
But I do worry. I mean, I'm not totally worried
yet because it's only been one season, but I would
say I have I'm watching with an eyebrow raised because
I think that I don't want to see Zach LaRue
get pigeonholed into that sort of bottom six bruiser role,
because I think he can provide more than that long
term for the Predators. But in terms of what we
see from him next year, I do think that it's
gonna be You're gonna see him more in the bottom six.
You're gonna see him. I would like to see him
get some more ice time, but I just don't know.
I think that's one of the areas where Andrew Burnett personally,
I think needs to improve in giving these guys, giving
these younger guys some more chances to show what they
can do. But at the end of the day, when
you're playing most of your minutes on the fourth line
with guys like Michael McCarn and Cole Smith, and there's
you don't really have a ton of skill on that line.
You've got a lot of size, a lot of physicality,
and they do a lot of good things. But there's
not a lot of skilled playmakers that he's playing with
in that bottom six, and so that's gonna reduce his
scoring potential. I think if you see him in the
top and you see him with more skilled linemates, you're
going to see more of that that scoring potential. The
problem is, I just don't know if the Predators have
skilled enough linemates to put him with in the bottom six.
Who are going to make that happen?
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. One guy that may work Jokim Kemmel.
He's the next guy I wanted to ask you about.
He did finally make his NHL debut this season, two games,
no points, limited opportunity. He did have another strong AHL season.
This is his second full although third season where he
has appeared in the AHL. He has two more years
seasons on his ELC, but he's already played one hundred
and forty six HL games, It feels to me like
he needs more of an opportunity. Maybe it's just that
he hasn't demanded it, or his play hasn't been up
to stuff. I'm not quite sure, but it sure seems
like we've got an inflection point of where he needs
to take more control of this situation. What do you
think we're gonna see from Kemmel? Are we going to
see him in the NHL for an extended next season?
Speaker 5: I hope so. I think that when we did see
him for that very limited sample size this past season,
he struggled. He struggled. It was only two games, yes,
but he definitely looked like he was in over his
head a little bit, which is okay for a guy.
That's normal to for your first NHL game, first two
NHL games, especially coming into the situation that he was
coming into in Nashville. Nobody was playing well, the team
was doing poorly. It's hard to really stand out and
really burst onto the scene coming into that situation. He
looked like he needed more time. But again, he's a
first round pick. He's got that lethal slap shot that
I think will play very well. Almost stamcos esque at
the NHL level, I think that he has a lot
of potential. I do think that he could stand to
improve a little bit defensively in taking care of the
pucket a little bit better. But he's fast, and he's skilled,
and he's a really good goal scorer. I see no
reason that the Predators don't give him more of an
extended look at the NHL level this coming season. Does
he start the team, does he make the opening night roster?
I don't know, but I think that he's a guy again,
with the way he profiles and his skill, you want
him in a top six role, but he was not.
He did not look ready for a top six role
in the NHL. Now he's had another season of playoff
experience with Milwaukee and he's been a big contributor for
them in the AHL. I would just like to see
him maybe get a little bit stronger, a little bit
better defensively, and that way I think you can trust
him a little bit more at the NHL level.
Speaker 2: All very fair. Let's move over to Romannoci on the defense.
And it was his worst point pace in five years,
fifty nine point pace, very fitting for him. A big
part of it was that they're just I don't know.
There wasn't that much offense happening for the Predators and
they had the lowest goals for sixty at all strength.
That's pretty incredible considering the offensive weapons they had. Even
Yosi's ipp and powerplay Appy please shows him that he
shows that he wasn't as involved in the scoring as
he has been in the past. I guess one big
consolation is that it was pretty unlucky. His PDO was
nine to sixty, which is definitely the worst he's had, so,
you know, looking at some of his other numbers, it
certainly seems like he was generating some but not converting
or his teammates weren't. Jemmaz do you think Yosi can
get back to the seventy plus point defender we've come
to know and love.
Speaker 4: If he stays healthy. Yes.
Speaker 5: I think that was obviously a big thing for him.
He only played fifty three games this year, missed most
of the tail end of the season with a head injury.
He got cross checked by Sam Bennett that kind of
sidelined him for the rest of the year. That's something
he does have a history with, so a little bit
concerning there that wanting to take care of that and
making sure that he's fully healthy. We did talk to
him at the end of the season. He said he's
good to go, and he will be ready to go
by spring training camp next year. So I think that
he'll be fine at least to start the season in
terms of his production and his not being involved as
much in the offense. Again, I go back to that
sort of subconscious deference that these guys had to each other,
and I think that.
Speaker 2: That's part of it.
Speaker 5: I think that there were some pretty big changes on
the defense. Of course, his primary defensive partner was Dante Fabreau,
who got put on waivers and claimed by Columbus, and
so he's gone. Now you bring in Brady Shay. Those
two guys, Shay and Yosi on the same pair didn't
really work that well. I didn't really expect it to.
And plus, I think when you have that much talent
on your back end, you want them spread out a
little bit more. If you have Yosi on the top
pairing Shay on the second pairing. But then he's playing
with different guys, He's playing on different sides. At one
point he's playing with Alex Carrier. Then Alex Carrier gets
traded and then he's playing with Jeremy Lozan and Loazan
gets injured, and so it's there were just a lot
of moving parts on the back end. I think that
he Roman Yosi is so good at what he does,
and he's not only is he an excellent offensive defenceman,
but I think unlike a lot of other what we
would consider offensive defenceman, he's incredibly sound in his own
zone as well. He's very good defensively. But I think
that again with all of the moving parts on the
back end this year for him, the addition of the
goal scorers, because that was the biggest thing that it
looked like they needed, right it was like, this team
needs more goals. Barry Trotz went and in theory added
more goals, added eighty two of them, and they just
didn't translate. And in theory, you don't want to be
relying on Roman Yosi to be one of your top
point getters. He has been that for them, he wasn't
this year between injuries and all the other factors that
I just mentioned. I just don't think that this is
a good season to judge him on. But I think
as long as he can stay healthy, stay in a
good consistent situation on the back end with a regular
defensive partner, and that's something that Barry Trotz has said
is a priority this offseason is to go out and
get a veteran right shot defenseman to play with Roman Yosi.
If he can do that, if he can accomplish that successfully,
then I think that we're going to see the Roman
Yosi that we all know and love.
Speaker 3: Let's talk Brady Shay and season in the eye of
the beholder, Maybe it depends where you get your stats.
He certainly didn't hit the sizzle of that hype from
the last offseason and his career year in Carolina that
earned him a seven by seven contract, which all will
be served in his eight was age thirty decade. What
happened on Broadway did not really see his skills shine
a big drop from prior years, but some of his
deeper stats show he was on our defensive decent offensive year.
He was on the ice for more minutes than any
other pread, which that's not going to help your stats
when the whole team is letting in a lot of goals.
He also took a significant power play role, especially after
Roman Yosi went out, so he was moving into that
was finishing definitely was down his defense in expected goals
per sixty against. It was one of the worst of
his career the Nator of his overall, but the power play,
some of that stuff was not bad. What do you
make of Brady Shasey and what do you see coming next?
Speaker 5: Brady Shae, I will say, was honestly one of the
guys I was most excited about coming into this year
because the Predators needed someone like him on the back end.
I actually got my start in hockey covering the Carolina Hurricanes,
and so I had seen Brady up close for a
couple seasons before I came to Nashville. I know what
he's capable of doing. I also know that Carolina under
Rod Brindamore plays a very different defensive system than the
Predators do under Andrew Brunette. In Carolina, they're much more
man on man, which is pretty self explanatory. In Nashville,
it's a little bit more focus on hunting pucks than
it is on defending your man, and so I think
that was an adjustment for Brady say. I also think
if you look at Brady SHA's career, as a whole.
So far, the worst seasons statistically of his career have
been his first season in a new organization. The first
season he came to Carolina, he saw a dip in
production before he started creeping back up. I think we
have no reason to believe at this point that this
is not what this is in Nashville, that comes to
a new organization with all the factors working against him,
working against everyone this year. Again, this is a guy
who joined the team in July and by March he
was the most tenured defenceman on the ice for the
Nashville Predators, which is shocking, and I think that says
a lot about the situation that he was thrown into.
He was playing top pairing defensive, top defensive pairing minutes
with Nick Blankenberg, who was not even supposed to be
in the NHL this year, but those two became the
regular top d pair for the Predators down the stretch,
which I mean no disrespect to Nick Blankenberg, but that's
not how this was supposed to go. That's not how
things were supposed to go this year. And I think
that when he's on the back again, the new guy,
the guy who just got here in July, Brady Shae
is now the most tenured leader on the back end,
because again you're playing with guys like Blankenberg, Justin Barron,
Mark del Gaizo, and then Jordan Osterly who they got
at off waivers right around the deadline. It's really just
a hodgepodge of bodies back there defensively, and so I
think that looking at the hand that Brady Shay was dealt,
I think that he did the best he could. There
were a lot of concerns I think about him, at
least from the fan base. Early in the season. He
was looking like a little bit of a liability defensively,
was not taking care of the puck very well. But again,
the same could be said for a lot of the team.
I do think just watching Brady Shay, he improved as
the season went on, I felt much better about him
and his ability to take care of the puck. By
the end of the season, you really could see that
he was getting it. The system was new and it
was challenging for him at first, but really as the
season went on, you could see that he was getting
it and he was improving. So I am very optimistic
about his contributions in his production next year.
Speaker 2: I have to ask you about Ryan Ufkoh. He's been
one of my guys for years. Not a lot of
people were talking about him until he played for the
U twenty World Junior Championship team in twenty twenty three
and had a really stellar NCAA career. Then he had
his first real AHL season with the Admirals. He got
one game in with the Preds. I'm wondering what you
think the organization thinks of him, how they view him,
and whether he'll get a full time shot in the
NHL this season or maybe the following.
Speaker 5: I think the organization is very high on him.
Speaker 4: We saw him.
Speaker 5: He got a one game cup of coffee down the
stretch here, didn't obviously no points, didn't have a ton
to show for it, But even in that one game
he got I think he got over fifteen minutes of
ice time. I think that's pretty big for a guy
who has never played in the NHL. I think that
he is again he's a smaller guy. He's not the
biggest guy, but he's very talented defensively. In terms of
his role on this team moving forward, I think that
is going to depend a lot on what happens with
the roster around him. You've got guys like Spencer Stassny,
who I think was supposed to get obviously a more
extended look at the NHL level this year. That didn't
happen when he missed all of training camp and dealt
with some other issues that kept him from even joining
Milwaukee until December, so that kind of threw wrench in things.
You've got guys like Adam Willsby, who is expected to
be a much bigger role player for Nashville next year.
Then he got injured, so we didn't really get to
see a ton of him. You have Mark del Guizo,
who is now after his contract is up. It's looking
after the Predators signed Andreas England to a one year deal,
it's looking like del Guizo's not going to be back.
So I think that a lot of it is going
to depend on what they end up doing on the
trade and free agent market. In terms of defenseman, I
think they are looking to get some more size on
the back end. Unfortunately, Ryan off Coo does not really
fit that bill in terms of size, but he does
have a lot to offer, so I think that he's
a guy that they're committed to as being a part
of this organization being a part of the future. But
in terms of what that looks like and how quickly
it happens, I think is going to depend a lot
on what the team does this offseason.
Speaker 2: That's fair, it makes sense. Let's move over to the goalies,
and yes, we do have to talk about the goalies.
The Predators were ranked eighteenth in expected goals against per
sixty two point five four, but they conceded the twenty
eighth ranked actual goals against per game at five to
five and at all strengths, it wasn't great. Sorrows has
been a guy who consistently tends to outperform the protection
he's given, and he's been the champion for this small
guy goalie, which there aren't a whole lot of in
the league. Although it was nice to see Dustin Wolfe
join that club this season, but this season for Sorrows
was pretty disappointing. He had negative sixteen point zero six
goal save above expected at even strength at all strengths.
He was a little bit better, but he was not
able to outperform the protection that was offered him was
which was actually a little bit above average at even strength.
For Sorrows Annin certainly wasn't any better he when he
came in. He also struggled quite a bit. So, Emma,
what do you think we can expect from the Nashville
goalies next season. I have been telling people that this
is a good bi Low opportunity for Sorrows. I think
he's still a good goalie and as we've been talking about,
everything just went sideways for Nashville this season. But I'm
wondering what your thoughts.
Speaker 5: Are one thousand per a great Bilo opportunity for UC
Sorrows his contract extension kicks in this year. I think
that he is. He is still an exceptional goaltender. He
is the kind of goaltender that, as you said, has
outperformed the protection in front of him in the past. Finally,
after years of doing that, he didn't do it this year,
and so I am willing to give him that. I'm
willing to be like, you know what, you had a
down year and off year. Look at what this team
did or didn't do around him. I think he has
more than earned that. But this is a guy who
is capable of stealing games. He in the limited experience
he has had in the playoffs, He's performed very well.
I just think that any it really bothered me a
lot of the blame that I saw being placed on
sorrows and goaltending for all of the Nashville Predators problems
this year. Does he deserve some of the blame. Of course,
the goalie is the last line of defense. You need
him to be stopping pucks. But I think if you
look at just how abysmal the defense was, and even
the defensive play of the forwards. When I say defense,
I mean everybody in front of him, it was so
poor this year. When everyone is struggling with the system,
everyone is struggling with chemistry, there's that changes the way
the goaltender sees the game unfold in front of him.
When are guys going to be passing to each other?
When our guys going to be screening? When is this
going to happen? And I just think that he I've
gotten to know Juice very well over the last couple
of years, and this was the first year I saw him.
He was the most visibly frustrated I have ever seen him,
which is saying a lot because he is He's a
man of few words, and he's not a super emotional guy.
And I think you saw that from him this year,
which quite honestly, I think was a good thing because
I think that the rest of the team sees that
they see this guy who has stood on his head
for them for years and finally now he's starting to
see the struggles. I think it was just a product
of the team's overall struggles this year. Goalie stats don't
tell you everything. I hate the goalie wins stat. I
think that it means it should mean nothing. I think
that looking at everything that went wrong for Nashville this year,
we have no reason to believe that this was a
sign of Of course, people are panicking, Oh no, they've
just signed him to this massive contract extension and now
he's terrible. What have we done? And I really don't
think that's it. I think that he's still he's a
tremendous competitor. He is exceptional. He's explosive, he's so athletic.
He has to be for his size. As you said,
he doesn't cover the net with his body alone. So
he's exceptional at what he does. And I think bringing
and Eustace on and and again, what do you expect
from the way the team played in front of him.
Neither of those guys are going to have exceptional stats
after this year. But I think that the goaltending situation
is in really good shape in Nashville. I personally do
not think it's any more than just a down year
for the entire team. I think that if you look
at Sorrows and he's a guy who normally has slower
starts to the season, he actually didn't have that this year.
He actually started very strong, and we thought it's the
rest of the team that's having a slow start, and
then that slow start lasted for eighty two games, but
it was I think what you're seeing from the team
as a whole, it affected the goaltending. How could it not.
I really don't see. When I'm looking at the biggest
problems facing the Predators right now, and there are a
lot of them. Goaltending not even in my top three,
maybe not even in my top five. It's something I'm
just not worried about with this team.
Speaker 3: All right, Emma, this has been some really great stuff
on the Nashville Predators. I feel more edified and more
optimistic perhaps and more ready I think things will be
bouncing back. And when they do, where should people read
the great coverage that you're going to provide on this
team going forward.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can.
Speaker 5: You can follow me on Twitter Emma Underscore Lingen and
I'll post all my work there, But all my Preds
coverage is going to be at the Hockey News Nashville
Predators team site, so you can check it out there
as well.
Speaker 3: Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on and look
forward to your coverage in the coming year.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Wilson. That's good fired my goodness.
Speaker 3: With a quick grab. Now it's your wingley goalie talk.
But Kat Silverman, Kat's instincts.
Speaker 2: Once again, with Kat's instincts. With Kat Silverman in Gold
mag we're talking Nashville Predator goalies and it's not great here, Kat,
it's not great. We gotta be real here and we're
gonna start with Matt Murray. No, not that one, the
other one who is twenty seven years old. This was
the goalie who six one and ninety four pounds. He
was in the Dallas system. He was playing at UMass
In College for a few years. He was playing mainly
with the Texas Stars and then he got a couple
of games with the Dallas Stars. But then this past
season he's been in the Nashville Predators organization. Great numbers,
forty three games with the Milwaukee aard Moerals, nine thirty
two say percentage two point seven GAA pretty decent, pretty
decent there. Obviously, they lost the scar off in their
pool now and Sorrows just had not the best year.
So I don't know how realistic this Matt Murray project
is for them. But what do you think about? What
are your instincts tell us about Matthew Murray.
Speaker 4: I don't really know what's going on there. I thought
he looked really good. I watched a little bit of
their overall sort of I don't know. I was watching
some of his highlights. I was watching some of his games,
and he looks good. I have no idea what Nashville's doing. They,
like you said, they ended their They're a scar Off
project before it got started. They decided to bring in
Justice A Noonan, who I was really excited to see
getting a fresh start. He is not having a great year.
Desorrows did not have a great year. Scott Wedgewood, who
got a couple of games for them, who seems to
travel with Matt Murray there because they both moved from Dallas.
He also did not have a great year, So I
don't know. Matt Murray. Do we refer to him as
Matthew Murray to differentiate him from the other Matt Murray,
but we could just say Matthew m Stanley cup the
non Stanley Matthew Murray there. Yeah, he looked good at
the AHL level, but there's no real spot for him
at the NHL level unless they think that Anunan did
not do well enough to warrant continue being Sarros' backup.
And it seems like Sorrows likes to be in an
all finished tandem, so I don't know if that's what
they're trying to do there. So I don't know. We
will see with that one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think that an Nan did much too
engender any kind of confidence with continuing with him, So
maybe they do give Murray a little bit of a shot.
We'll have to wait and see. But let's move on
to the other guy we're going to talk about, and
this is Magnus Crona. He was great back at the
University of Denver, won a national title. There was really
strong program. He was drafted by the Lightning, never signed,
and then went to the San Jose organization of the
last couple of season, and now he's with Nashville, and
he was decent with the Milwaukee Admirals. He is a
big goalies six two hundred and sixteen pounds. The Hockey
Prospecting Model has him up to a thirty percent chance
of being an NHLer, but it also listened as a bust.
So how do you reconcile all that you tell us, Kat?
What do your instincts tell us about Corona?
Speaker 4: I obviously I will never see Magnus Crona without hearing
Magnus Crona with the Humagnus five hole, which was said
by his at least drafty buddy in a Tampa Bay
at one of their one of their development camps. But
I don't know. I thought the Sharks gave up on
him a little early because they do need to have
bodies in their system. And I don't really know where
he fits within the Nashville system because I really don't
know what Nashville's doing there. I think he looks a
little slow. I think Matthew Murray is a little bit
more concise with his movements. I think he's a little
bit Chris. I think he's got slightly better reads. But
Magnus Crona is really big, so I'm sure he will
continue to get chances. And he's young, he really that
was only his second year of playing pro hockey, and
the first year was within the San Jose system. And
they're not a team that's having a lot of fun
over the last couple of years, although I would say
they're out of the darkest of it. Maybe we'll see.
I don't know. I think Magnus Crono is not a
blue chip prospect by any stretch, but I don't think
anyone in the Nashville system is. So I think they're
a team that needs to draft a goalie, but they
did that in the last couple of years and then
they traded him away, so we'll see how that goes.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, I know a big blue chip
goalie that they had system, But all right, we will
start harping on that decision. Predator's fans, thanks so much,
Kat for giving us your instincts on the Nashville Predator goalies.
Speaker 3: Of course, will be back right after this digs the
Dynasty DIGSDYO. It is the Nashville Predators edition of the
Dynasty dig. The Preds, as you heard in the first segment,
are loading up for this year. Didn't have much lottery look,
but they'll be drafted five, twenty three, and twenty six
in that first round, and those prospects will be added
to are no brainer. Who is it.
Speaker 2: No brainer is matthew Wood. Matthew would twenty twenty three,
fifteenth overall pick, sixty four, two and five pounds. He's
had a bit of an interesting trajectory. He has been
in the NCAA since his draft season. He had a
really good draft season at University Connecticut and he stayed
there for the following year went down little bit, so
it took a little bit of dip in his development,
and then he transferred the University of Minnesota, where he
had a pretty fantastic season. Again, point per game thirty
nine points and thirty nine games was pretty awesome, and
he did get into a few NHL games half a dozen,
got one assist at the end of the season, so
that was cool. His evolving hockey metrics look pretty neutral,
pretty average, what you would expect for someone with sixty
three even strength minutes, very limited sample size. Looking at
his Mitch Brown tracking data, it looks pretty awesome at Minnesota.
He overall looks like a really solid player. Transition good, excellent,
ninety fourth percentile offense, eighty eight, defense just sixty one.
But that's not necessarily his calling card. Looking at his
Fantasy Hockey Life player card, I have him hat a
twenty four percent chance of being a six out of ten,
where his shots are excellent one hundred percentile his hits.
Even though he's known as a bit of a his
physical player, he's only fifth two percentile for hits and
seventy percent out for blocks. But overall his bash should
be quite excellent at ninetieth percentile. But we want to
learn a little bit more about Matthew Woods, so we're
going to turn this over to our Fantasy Hockey Life Scout.
Speaker 3: And our FHL Scout this edition is Chris Collier. Here's
what he has to say about Matthew Wood. The skating, Well,
it doesn't have a great take on that. I thinks
it's a bit poor lumbering skating stance, lack speed, particularly
for a winger, prefers gliding while digging rather than handling
the pocket full speed. He takes wide looping turns when
changing direction, which often delays his back checking efforts. But
despite the overall skating limitations, Wood is effective in the
backcheck and demonstrates solid backwards skating ability. Says Collier, below
average passing and handling attempts too many week passes resulting
in turnovers. Rarely makes the final high risk pass that
leads to a goal. He favors safer possession, maintaining plays
on the upside, good buck handler those skating limits his effectiveness.
He recovers well from poorly placed passes e g. Into
his skates and quickly corrals rebounds for shots. He uses
his size effectively to shield the puck, keeps defenders at
bay and Matthew Wood is a strong backhand passer for
shooting good better as an instinctual shooter than a calculated one.
Quicker releases yield better results. Wood is ineffective as a
transition shooter, but dangerous when trailing the play. He lacks power,
but compensates with a quick release and ability to shoot
from unconventional angles. His hesitation leads to blocked or missshots,
but on the other hand, Wood excels at smashing rebounds
and deflecting pucks in front of the net. He's a
strong backhand shooter, and he frequently scores on one timers
with one knee on the ice, a signature move for Wood.
The IQ Chris is going to put it at about average.
He prefers simple, safe passes over high risk plays. He's
willing to attempt crosscrease passes on the power play, but
avoids high risks passes at even strength on the upside,
excellent at drifting into soft spots behind a play or
in transition for one timer opportunities. He's a strong net
front presence, though his lack of physicality despite his size
could hinder him in the NHL, and he thrives on
the power play, leveraging extra time and space to make
decisive plays for checking below averager limited lack of speed
and agility severely limits his fore checking potential, likely best
suited as an F three on the four check, but
the strong instincts for triggering his presses effectively on defense
sheltered as an offensive winger thus far in his career.
Skating and lack of physicality may expose him defensively against
NHL caliber opponents slow recovery from turnovers. On the other hand,
he's safe and positionally sound. Chris says he rarely makes
glaring mistakes, uses his size to reach to and reach
the clogg laying stick check in disrupt puck carriers. He's
reliable in coverage, filling gaps when needed. The best asset
for matthew Wood shot in size. The biggest concern lack
of play driving ability. The top tier outcome that Chris
can foresee is a fringe tier two forward, a first
or second line winger on the power Play one thirty
five goals thirty five assists with low heads and blocks
but high shot volume. That's because the shot and frame
give him immediate offensive upside, and if he improves his
skating and learns how to use his size, he could
become a top six power play specialist. The median outcome
about a tier three forward or a little less middle
six winger on the power Play two projection would be
twenty five goals twenty assists that type of thing, and
that's even without significant improvement. If he can just be
what he is now is powerplay proficiency ensures a decent
scoring floor could rotate between Powerplay one as a secondary
option or fourth forward and power Play two in the
stylistic comparable. James Van Riemsdyke the overall thoughts. Chris has
is a high floor, high ceiling prospect, as Matthew Would.
A twenty is already debuted, showcasing a six four, two
hundred five pound frame. He's still growing into trajectory mirrors.
Jvrs a goalscoring NetFront power play specialist who may need
defensive sheltering if his skating doesn't progress. Our friend Mason Black,
the NHL Rank King, an Ultimate Tidy champion, put himself
out this poll Matthew Wood versus Colby Barlow Winnipeg Jets,
and Matthew Would sixty to forty percent is judged the
winner in this victor. Are you awarding Matthew Wood the
crown over Colby Barlow?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so. I think that's pretty accurate. Actually,
I would rather have Wood. Barlow has been interesting. He
was taken back in the first round, same draft, just
a few spots later, and he's been good for Oshua.
He was traded there this year after playing for Owen
Sound last couple and he was really solid in the
playoffs again, helped them get all the way to the
OHL Final. As a they were already a strong team,
but I just haven't. You haven't seen a lot of
the growth in the scoring from Barlow. You've seen a
stagnation or even regression, as it may be, even though
his playoffs were pretty incredible. I'm just not sure that
all that scoring is going to translate. I have some
similar concerns about Wood, but I think I have more
faith in that. I really like the JVR comp The
thing you still see when you watch Matthew Wood is
he looks around the ice, but in those corners, in
those NetFront battles, in those certain situations, when he has good,
complimentary pieces around him, he can be really excellent. So
I like the thought of being the F three. I
don't think he's not going to be the burner for checker.
He's not going to be the one pressing for turnovers.
But he's got a really long reach and a good
stick and a good and a big body, so he
can do some of those things really well. He just
is not going to be able to do all of
the for checking things, and he doesn't have the speed
or separation to usually get breakaways those kinds of things.
But I think i'd much rather have him. I like
the boring upside. I like what he's continued to do
in college. He should get a good shot at the
NHL next year, but most likely it'll be in the AHL,
and then we'll see how well he can do this
against bigger, stronger, faster competition, because he's always been much
bigger than the competition, but it will be less so
in the AHL, so that'll be a good test for him.
It's interesting looking at the hockey prospecting between these two.
They're pretty darn similar actually, and Matthew Wood just had
a little bit stronger D plus two, which is the
season they're both in right now production, but the draft
season the D plus zero were actually exactly the same
in terms of both star potential and NHL are probability.
It was just this last season where they both decline,
but would decline a little bit less, and so that
kind of fits with what I'm saying. I did mention
earlier that I have Wood at a six point twenty four.
I have Barlow out a five point five, so just
very small percentage chance of being just an average player
on your roster. So he's pretty you could read that
as he's also pretty likely to be below that and
his bash is actually pretty good too, a lot of shots,
a bit more hits than would which is surprising, but
not as many blocks. So the bash is going to
be comparable most likely. I mentioned I like the Jbar.
The other comps that is in here in the hockey
prospecting model is Dustin Mercer. Just in terms of the
probability of being an NHL er and star and what
the production might be like, I think he probably has
the upside to score a little more and be more
offensive than Mercer. He'll probably be used in a different situation.
We've mentioned on the show before that Mercer is almost
too versatile for his own good because he can be
moved up and down the lineup and put in different situations.
I don't really think that's the case for Wood. He's
going to have to have a very specific situation. Chris
mentioned first or second line winger. I think that's where
he needs to live. He's got all the tools, he
just needs someone else to open up space and get
the passes. And Mercer is the kind of guy who
can do a lot of those things himself and doesn't
need to be in an isolated role. So in fantasy
that might work much better for Wood, but the production
is where that might be comparable. Looking at the top
down hockey model, Wood is a fourteen percent chance being
a star, sixty two percent chance of being an NHL
are so pretty strong stats there. He's fortieth in that
data set. So overall, things are still looking pretty good
for Wood and it'll be interesting to see what his
a HL professional transition looks like. And overall, definitely someone
I'd like to have on my team.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, very good. I've never been accused of being
two versatile for my own good, but I'm glad that
Matthew Wood is in that position. Victor, who's next? Who's
our need to know prospect need to know?
Speaker 2: Is Yoakum Kimmel twenty twenty two to seventeenth overall pick five,
eleven hundred eighty three pounds. Forty points in fifty six
games with Milwaukee this year, and then he's almost a
point per game. In the playoffs, he had eight points
in ten games. This was his second HL season. He
had pretty similar numbers last year and also had another
strong playoffs, so overall he's had some really we heard
a little discussion with him above from Emma because he
did have two NHL games really seems like he's ready
to make the next step, get the opportunity. I don't
quite understand why he didn't play more. As bad as
Nashville was, there wasn't too much reason I didn't think
to give him more of an opportunity. But he did
get two games. In his very minimal number of games
or minutes in the NHL, he had a pretty minimal
impact in terms of his underlying stats. Looking at the
FHL player card, I have him at a six point
twenty five twenty five percent chance of being a six
out of ten, and that's decent, not the biggest percentage.
Looking at his bash, it's actually seventieth percentile overall, and
all of them are just a little bit above average.
The shots, hits, and blocks are all above average, but
none of them are exceptional. His hits are actually his
best part at eightieth percentile. Now, I remember this is
in the AHL, so a lot of times guys look
exceptional in junior and then they get to the HL
and all of these numbers completely crater out. So it's
actually pretty solid projection that kim Al has these good
of numbers in the AHL. So I think a lot
of that can probably continue. But let's hear a little
bit more about you can Kimmel from AVHL.
Speaker 3: Scout Jokim Kimmel. Chris has this to say for the
skating good strong edgework acceleration allow him to create separation
Andy's agile and small spaces. On the minus side, he
lacks the top end speed. Passing and handling average very
good hand eye coordination, often using to stick to bat
the puck down for a shot or pass Andy the
spray displayed some impressive deaking ability. On the other hand,
he lacks creativity is passer tends to opt for load
danger shots instead of distributing effectively. For shooting an elite
one timer with scoring threat from nearly any distance, excellent
shot off the tow drag, hard, powerful wrist shots with
fluid release, but he takes some low percentage shots that
may not translate well against NHL goaltending. The overall verdict
from Chris very good in this category. IQ like vision, anticipation,
panic poise is good. He's got a strong off puck presence.
He stays in open ice and crashes the net selectively
rebound scrumps, and when a teammate has possession behind the net.
He skates with his head up, maintaining awareness. He uses
shot threat to manipulate defenders and create passing lines. He's
good at shooting for rebounds and deflections. A large number
of his assists come in this manner. He's excellent at
drawing penalties for ford checking, above average effective when engaging
in board battles. High motor, but he lacks explosive closing speed.
He needs positioning advantage to pressure his opposition for defense.
Slightly below average physical for his size, delivers explosive hits
along the boards, but relies on stick checks in open ice.
He's strong and puck battles along the boards. Anticipation helps
him intercept passes and disrupt crosscrease plays. He can get
caught flat footed and slow to react, struggles against bigger
players when defending the crease, and occasionally loses defensive focus,
sometimes cheating toward the neutral zone to jumpstart the rush.
So the best asset here for Kemmel is the shot
and Chris is. The biggest concern is defense. While not
outright poor, his defensive game lacks the refinement needed for
consistent NHL success. The top tier outcome that Chris can
see is tier two a top line winger power play one,
thirty five goals, forty assists on high shot and hit volume.
That's because he's already a consistent offensive contributor and a
goal scorer. With defensive improvements and a slight playmaking growth,
he can become a bona fide top line winger and
consistent goal scoring threat. The media outcome tier three middle
six winger like Powerplay one or two with twenty five goals,
thirty assis, high shot in average hit volume. That would
be if defensive issues persist, it could lead to him
becoming a sheltered wing score and power play specialist. The
stylistic comparable, Chris chooses Victor Arbitson, a tenacious, shoot first
winger with powerplay upside. Chris's final thoughts here. The elite
shooting and offensive instincts give Kemmel top six upside, but
his defensive game needs polished to avoid a specialist role.
His floor is a middle six power play weapon, while
his ceiling is a thirty five plus goal score. If
he rounds out Play and Mason Black, The NHL ranking
put Jokin Kemmel versus Nate Danielson and Kemmel comes out
on top fifty eight to forty two percent. Victor. Seems
like last year after the draft was the last year
after the draft whenever he was drafted. We talked about
Daniels on like five straight episodes, But now kem is
coming out ahead of him. At this point, what do
you think of him as the winner over Danielson.
Speaker 2: We sure did talk about Danielson a lot, the karate
kid Danielle Son. It was, it was really fun. I
do think I would agree with the way that this
came out fifty eight percent. I think it's relatively close.
That might surprise some people. I was always a bit
low on Nay Danielson, just because not because I thought
he was a bad player, just because I thought that
he'd be a good player that was just middle to
bottom six and not necessarily a huge score. But I
have to say I was pretty impressed with his pro
transition this year. I'm sure we'll talk about him in
the Detroit episode, but thirty nine points in seventy one
AHL games is nothing to sneeze at. Over half point
per game in his first NHL season. I remember he
is a very early birthday, so he's been twenty. This
entire season turns twenty one on September twenty seven, so
it's a bit easier to manage that first HL season
when you're a bit on the older side. But don't
take any away from him. I think it's still a
really strong performance and it did open my eyes a
little bit to maybe he does have a little bit
more to get. Sometimes these guys that are just so
solid overall for all them to leverage that into a
bit more scoring than you would have expected. Overall, though,
I still think that I would want Kemmel because I
think he has a little bit more scoring and in
his first full AHL season he outscored Danielson by a
decent margin, so I still think that boswell for him.
And he was similar age but younger on the twenty side,
and his first Agel action was as a teenager, So
I do think that all this points to Kamal being
someone that you want a little bit more. Plus I
think that he it's really time for Kamal. He needs
to show now that he's an NHLer, he's had enough
AHL time, and so I definitely would lean that way,
although I wouldn't be upset with having Danielsen with that
he showed this past season. Looking at the hockey prospecting
between the two, it's pretty interesting that they both Famel
has a pretty big up and down. He was drafted
the year before Danielson and he's peaked at his draft
plus one season and with his lego production, he's trying
to down since then. But he finished. He graduated the
model this year at eighteen percent chance of being a star,
so that's pretty solid fifty to fifty coin flip of
being an NHLer. But I think that there's probably more
chance than not that he will stick in the NHL,
especially with the options that Nashville has, and Danielsen has
really just trended down since twenty two percent chance of
being a star as a draft eligible all the way
down to five percent, so even with that pretty good
HL production, so it's a little bit more pessimistic on Danielson.
So the Hockey Prospecting definitely agrees with that. I have
Danielson at a five point two two twenty two percent
chance of being at five in my model, and Kimmel
was six point twenty five, So definitely a bit more
optimistic that Kimmel is going to be a strong conjurer
to your leagues, and I mentioned that he had pretty
average bash. Danielsen never was the biggest basher and his
hits blocks are all pretty low. They're well below average,
and his shots are just average. So overall Danielson's probably
gonna be average to below average in terms of their bash.
You mentioned that Arvidson could be a good comp for Kamal.
I don't hate that. I think that's pretty reasonable. He
definitely is a shoot first kind of winger. I think
he's got some similar attributes to in terms of the
speed and tenacity he's They're both a little bit undersized.
Kamel's a little bit bigger, but overall I think that's
a good comp. Another comp in the hockey prospecting model
is Toyvo Teravinan. They're both fins. Terre Vinen took a
little bit to become highly valuable in fantasy and then
he's been up and down since then, and I feel
like Kimel might have a similar trajectory to terra Vinen,
So I think that kind of fits as well. And
it depends a lot on the deployment, which is true
for a lot of people, but some star prospers they're
the guy you want, doesn't matter who they're playing with.
I don't think Kamel is going to be quite like that.
I think he'll need a little bit more support, which
is okay, we all need a little support every now
and then, Jesse. And in terms of the Top Down
Hockey Model, nine percent chance of being a star for Kamel,
sixty percent chance of being an NHLer, So not super exciting.
He ranked sixty first in this data set and not
the biggest endorsement, but also could be worse. This model
tends to be pretty pessimistic on guys, So I'm really
excited to see what happens with the Kamal this year.
I really think he should get a shot and it's
time for him to take hold of it. And so
he's the kind of guy that if you're in a
league where you're competing, having him on your roster when
you can flex him up and down, like now is
the time. He should really get that opportunity now, and
so I'm excited to see that.
Speaker 3: And another guy who already made his debut in the
NHL last year, They keep your eye prospect Victor Who
is it?
Speaker 2: Ryan Ufko? Listeners of this podcast for a while well, no,
I'm a big fan of UFCO and I couldn't help
myself but ask him about him, because I really want
to know what the hex call with someone who I've
really wanted to get a shot earlier. He has been
someone who has been really good in the NCAA level.
When he last season when he joined the Admirals after
a solid NCUBLEA career, he looked not out of place.
He was really good in the playoffs, and this season
he had his first full HL season three points in
seventy two games, also had another strong playoffs. Just really
a solid guy. He's a fourth round pick, but he
going back to that draft season, there was some reasons
why in terms of his decision making and in terms
of his skating, but a lot of that has come
such a long way since twenty twenty one. And they
gave him one game at the end of the season
in the NHL and can't really read much from that,
but it was cool to see and maybe there's more
to come with that. They definitely have roster spots and
things that they can they could do for him if
he made team. If he forces their hand. I'm not
sure he will do that, but I'm really excited about him.
See where it goes and the FHL player card for
UFCO having my forty three percent chance of being a five.
So try not to get too over excited. But I
do think that he has a pretty decent shot of
being average, maybe even slightly above average, depending on where
he goes from here. His bash isn't going to be
huge though. His bash in the HL was just subpar,
just under average, and his hit shots and blocks are
all fiftieth percentile, so add that all together and it
ends up being forty percentile total. So not the best
in terms of bash. Maybe there's some opportunity for secondary
power play time or secondary scoring if the Nashville Preyers
learn how to score again, Jesse. But let's hear a
little bit more about OOFC from our FHL scout.
Speaker 3: Chris leads us off with Ryan Ufkoh's skating good positive
is a smooth, sufficient skater with strong four way mobility,
excellent edgework, lateral agility, quick acceleration aids in transition and
gap control. On the negative side, a little slow to
transition from backward to forward skating when beaten one on one,
and he lacks elite top end speed passing and handling.
Great positives, high end vision, executes, stretch passes and breaks
pressure effectively, soft hands poison under duress. Excels as a
powerplay distributor, great puck moving ability with crisp accurate passes,
excellent puck handling at full speed. Likes to curl around
the net for wrap around attempts or slot passes. On
the other hand, some of that he does force high
risk passes into traffic a little too often for Chris's taste.
On shooting average a quick, accurate rist shot with a
good release, effective at getting pucks through traffic from the point.
He specializes in top corner shots. On the negative side,
not an elite shooter, lacks a true bomb of a
slap shot for IQ. He reads plays at an advanced level,
anticipates developing threats well in all three zones. He rarely panics.
He maintains composure under pressure, and he excels in control
breakouts and can stick handle into controlled zone entries when
given the opportunity. Overall great, although a one negative that
Chris would note he occasionally over handles the puck, leading
to turnovers. Defense that's a little below average. The positives
are his active stick disrupts passing lanes. His strong stick
positioning and gap control help his efforts. Andy Reids plays
well breaking up cycles with anticipation, but the negative he
gets beaten too often in one on one situations. He
can be out and muscled by bigger forwards and board battles,
and the NetFront coverage needs improvement. Too many goals are
conceded due to a lack of engagement by off code.
The best asset, then, is that vision and puck moving.
The vision poison distribution make him a dynamic transition defenceman,
but the biggest concern is the defense and the size
struggles against heavier forward and may need to add strength
to handle the NHL competition. While his defense isn't terrific,
his mistakes and efficiencies will be exploited by strong NHL teams.
The top tier outcome tier two, top four offensive defenseman
and a power play one quarterback ten goals, forty assists,
but low bash. His excellent vision, passing and transitional play
would solidify that top outcome and give him top four upside.
If he add strength and refines his defensive game, he
could thrive as a second pairing stable with powerplay duties,
the fiftieth percent tile outcome Tier three bottom four offensive defenseman,
power play specialist, fifty or five goals, thirty assists, and
low bash that would happen if defensive limitations persist, and
therefore he would still carve out a role as a
sheltered puck mover and powerplay contributor, but struggle for consistent
even strength ice time. The stylistic comparable Samuel Gerard, and
the overall thought he projects as a high IQ transitional
defenseman who could thrive on an NHL power play, but
the lack of bash may cap a ceiling. Offensive instincts
and playmaking ability are what give him a strong chance
to become an NHL regular. And Ryan Ufko goes up
against Michael Benning in the head to head NHL Rank
King poll and Ryan Ufko comes comfortably ahead of Benning
sixty eight percent to thirty two percent. Victor, is that
the way that you would rank up Goo versus the
Florida prospect Benning?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think so, definitely would rather have oofgo. Benning
is an interesting guy. He's Matt Benning's brother, but he
is quite a bit shorter. He's only five nine. He
was five nine when he was drafted and he's still
five to nine, And unfortunately that matters a lot, and
he hasn't really progressed a lot. In my opinion, Benning
hasn't in terms of his physicality and able to help
with that. You just it's a really big hill to
climb when you're that short to get to play successful,
meaningful minutes in the NHL. And so I even though
he has had a couple of decent seasons in the AHL,
I mean, he had two points and fifty four games
this year, but I just don't know that there's enough
with Benning to really carve out a long, meaningful career
at that size, and so that for that reason alone,
pretty much I would definitely I would takeof Go is
not that much bigger, but he's five to eleven, he's
a little bit thicker. He does need to get stronger,
but his skating and his even strength defense is a
little bit better. So between those two I would want
Oof Go. Plus he's had it hasn't had as long
in the AHL, so I think that he can improve
a little bit. But I think both these guys size
is going to be an issue, and so I just
am a little bit more confident that uf Go, as
a more well rounded defender, can can get there. But
both of these guys are going to have the decks
decked against them a little bit for sure. In terms
of the hockey prospecting, Benning has an incredible percentage just
because his scoring was always pretty exceptional in the NCAA.
So he graduated the model at fourty three percent chance
of being a star. But he's one of those outliers
where there's a big asterix, and because of all the
things I just said, it's probably not realistically that high,
and I'm sure Byron would say the same thing. Ufko
has kept himself at forty three percent chance of being
a star since his draft plus one season since he
was in the NCAA, and so he's graduated at that
point as well, and I think it's unlikely that he
hits that highest star potential, but I think it does
bode well for his future projection. I have Michael Benning
at a five point zero zero, so just a really
low percent chance of being an average player on your roster.
Ufko was just a five point four to three. So anyways,
neither is super exciting. In terms of other comps for
uf GOO, I mean, there aren't a whole lot of
reasonable ones, I would say in the hockey prospecting model,
because they all kind of discount that hat that height issue.
But Heath the handle is one that I think is
reasonable and the Yandle was never the best defensive guy,
and I think Ufko is in that vein, although I'm
not sure that he struggles quite that much. Yandal struggle
for other reasons he was didn't have the height issues.
And looking at the top down hockey model, oofqua has
just two percent chance of being a start in thirty
seven percent sanch being an NHL or so a little
more pessimistic there. But that's all for the Nashville Predator's dig.
If you're a patreon you can listen to my top
ten prospect recap on Patreon, and if you're interested in
doing scotting with us, you can shoot me a dam
on Twitter, discord, or email us.
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with like a five day window or a thirty three
minute window for picks. Just it doesn't matter. You want
to change in the middle of the draft, go ahead,
It's all there. Key drafts are going to start this
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FHL is a team and we thank everybody for being
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