Speaker 1: Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks. Here's Hits,
your source of information and analysis to help you win
your fantasy hockey league.
Speaker 2: Block off hot a step hit on, stay lock Blocks.
Speaker 1: Here's your hosts, Jesse Sevier and Victor Nunhoe Fantasy Hockey.
Speaker 3: Live once again.
Speaker 4: Jesse Severe Victor Nuno in the place to be. How
you doing today, Victor?
Speaker 3: I'm doing awesome. Jesse. Yeah, it's good to be here
again with you. And how you doing, my friend? I'm
doing great, doing great?
Speaker 4: What is this month? January? I can't keep track anymore, Victor.
Good times are rolling on and hockey is rolling we
Actually I may have overshot it a little bit, Victor.
We're close to the Fantasy hockey playoffs and a couple
of our leagues, which seems crazier to me now than
it did before. But this stupid Olympic break is really
cramping my style. Prepare everybody to hear me say that
about two twenty more times over the next month. But
how are you doing, man.
Speaker 2: I'm doing well. I am super excited for the Olympics.
I think it's going to be a lot of fun,
but I also agree that it's making a mass out
of the Fantasy Hockey playoffs, so.
Speaker 3: It's good in the bad. It's good in the bad.
Speaker 2: We are doing a Fantasy Hockey Life Olympic Pool, just
like we did the World Junior Pool, so that's not
something you even need to be a patron or anything for.
So if you're interested in getting in on that, we'll
get a bunch of groups together and there'll be a
lot of fun. So that's another reason to come join the.
Speaker 4: Fun, Victor. There's maybe one other thing you want to
mention here, is there not?
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 2: Last week we mentioned the Dauber Midseason Guide giveaway. We're
doing that again. Daber Hockey has hooked us up with
copy copies of the mid Season Guide and we're giving
them away to our lawyer listeners.
Speaker 3: Is it. Thank you for the support.
Speaker 2: All you have to do leave us a five star
review on the podcast aggregator of your choice, take a screenshot,
send it to me Victor email at Fantasyhockeylife dot com
at gmail dot com, or you can email. You can
demand me on ex, Twitter or discord. That's it, simple
and quick. We'll keep doing this until we run out,
and it's by far the best fantasy resource out there,
So hughes thanks to Dabber and definitely.
Speaker 3: Want to get in on that. Good luck to have
one who enters.
Speaker 4: All right, Victor, let's get to it. It's time to
talk a little bit more World Juniors. Right after that, Victor,
we're talking the World Juniors today for one more time.
My goodness. Yeah, didn't work out that great for the Americans,
but I still enjoyed the World Did you enjoy the
World Junior's, Victor when you were watching there?
Speaker 3: Absolutely? I always enjoy it.
Speaker 2: There's always fun storylines, There's always heroes that score on
overtime or unfortunately sometimes make a bad play or whatever.
Speaker 3: But it's just it's where you remember.
Speaker 2: Like these memories people and can I certainly remember Jordan
Emberley and he's the guided them forever, regardless about how
good is a NHL career is, So those kinds of
things just stick with you forever.
Speaker 3: So I love it.
Speaker 2: And the storylines were totally there, even though some teams
were better than others. It's just an awesome time. And
maybe it's also because for me, I'm usually off a
little bit, I've worked a little bit lighter during that time,
so you actually get to watch a lot of the games,
whereas I feel like for the UA teens or the
Gretzky Alnka, I just don't have time during those tournaments
usually to watch it. So the U twenty is just
it's perfect timing. I just said, and just enjoy I.
Speaker 4: Love day sports. I love that the World Juniors is
on during the day. Man. Yeah, so let's get into
some of the players victory because I know you got
some takes to get off. We did a little bit
of that last week. We're gonna do a little bit
more right now. We're gonna start with Max Plant the American.
He's been lighted up for Minnesota Duluth this year again,
with thirty two points in twenty one games seventeen goals
so far this year. He was named an alt captain
for the tournament with the USA, but he took an
upper body injury and missed the final two games. The
two loss. Is that a coincidence? Who can say? Stevie
Eiserman's second round pick in twenty twenty four, so he
was a Red Wings draftee. His draft time rep was
for passing, but he's averaging nearly a point per game
in college only one goal in three games at the tourney, though,
So we're going to compare Max Plant today to Merrik
Vaniker of the Chicago Blackhawks, and in the Mason Black
NHL Ranking, Pole Plant comes out. I had seventy thirty
in a big voting turnout. Victor is playing stock on
the rise, er on the fall.
Speaker 2: I don't think his World Junior performance helped him all
that much. The way you framed it, it does certainly seem
like he helped, and I think his presence would have
been helpful had he been there. But the reality is
that he really didn't do that much in the three
games he was there. He was a minus three. I
know we don't worry too much about that, but one
assist in three games when you're literally the leading scorer
in the NCAA. And quite frankly, I said it beforehand,
the Americans are going to go they as Max Pliant goes,
and they needed him to be an All Star in
this event to have a chance, and he wasn't and
they didn't. But I think there's a direct correlation there.
I certainly think that they had enough. They could have
still made it to the Semis had they all played
a little bit better, but really they didn't deserve to
win that game against Finland. They didn't really play that
well and a lot of it was on him. He
could have done a lot better. So I think his
stock is down a little bit. But a lot of
times these one small sample sized tournaments, and maybe he
was dealing with something even before he was out, so
who knows. The reality is he is having a fantastic tournament,
sorry season in the NCAA. And actually this can work
both ways, right, Like sometimes you can have a strong
tournament stock up and people really want to have you
and trade for you and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: So I think that's something to think about.
Speaker 2: And then the other way too, like you can have
not so great tournament and maybe people perceive your stock
is down and maybe you could get him as a
bit of a bargain. And I think that might be
reasonable because he is he is someone who could be
who should still be better than what we saw in
this tournament. So I think that it just creates a
little bit of an opportunity.
Speaker 3: Jesse.
Speaker 2: All that to be said, I think that I would
still take plant here. I would go with the people
seventy thirty. I think is pretty clear. Of Vaniker is
someone who he's a Chicago prospect taken late in the
first round, and I think that he has showed pretty well.
He plays for Branford, who's at absolute wagon. He's playing
a little bit more of a depth role because they
have so many talented players on that team. He's getting
a little bit buried, but he's still strong. And I
think that between the two though, you clearly want Plant
despite the stockdown. So if you had Vanikar and or
someone you might want to send it to the Plant
owner because you might be able to get a bit
of a bargain. Looking at the Hockey prospecting between the two,
it's fifty nine percent star potential for Plant and just
five percent for Vankar. He's trending down and Plants trending up,
so that one seems pretty clear. And if you look
at the Fantasy Hockey Life data and the puck sid's
score rating, Plant is a little bit higher than Vanker,
both of them seem to be doing pretty well. Although
the ncaamors for Plant are a bit better, with his
transition and play driving all a little bit stronger than Vannikers.
The bash is a little bit stronger for Vaneker overall,
he should be more of a bash master, but Plants
bash is still pretty good at eightieth percentile, where but
Pannikers is at ninety one. So I definitely would take Plant.
But I think that Vanniker's value is a little bit
depressed because he's on this really strong team and not
able to show as much as he can show.
Speaker 4: Jesse next, Yeah, Victor, I notice you're not going to
plant your flag on that guy, so we'll let that
one go. James Hagen's next up. He is in his
second year of point per game performance at Boston College.
In the World Juniors. He put up two goals and
five assists in five games. That was a similar pace
to what he had on last year's winning team. Actually,
subjective reviews I read of his performance were generally positive,
and Haggin's is one of the top prospects, certainly outside
the National Hockey League at this point. As we do
the Mason Black NHL Ranking poll, James Hagen's up against
Porter Martone, the player drafted one spot ahead of him
for the Philadelphia Flyers last year, who's doing very well
for himself in Michigan State this year, and Porter Marton
wins this poll just to see came out ahead in
the NHL draft fifty three to forty seven percent on
another big turnout here, Hagen's a touch behind Marton. How
is your opinions? How is your opinion involving evolving on
Hagen's and what you got here?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think Hagen's tournament was pretty underwhelming. I think
we were expecting as a returner. He played with Pirot
and Leonard last year and it was exciting and we
thought he could do great things and he's super talented.
He went high in the draft, and I think it
was just rather disappointing that he didn't do as much
as we hoped he could. So that was a big story.
And I think it's reasonable to show a little bit
of stock down here for Higgins.
Speaker 3: We would have liked to see a whole lot.
Speaker 2: More from him than the two points in five games,
So that's all extremely reasonable. On the other hand, I
don't think Porter showed everything that he needed to show
or wanted to show in this tournament. I think he
was good, he wasn't incredible. He was the captain and
he was supposed to be on the best line, and
he showed up in a few spots in that semi final,
he did score it a tie against chech Ya, and
so there was some moments, but overall it was just
a little unimpressive. Someone that is really doing fantastically in
the NCAA as well, and we thought that he could
come in here and just absolutely tear.
Speaker 3: It up, and he didn't.
Speaker 2: You know, I think he did a lot of really
good things, and I wouldn't say that his stock is down,
but I think we wanted to see more from Martau
that we did, so I think that both of these
guys were maybe just a little bit disappointing, but more
in the sense that we thought that they would be
absolute stars and they were just kind of good. So
I think that was something to be said. I think
between the two, and you mentioned this on the last episode.
It is often generally the case that you want wingers
more than centers and fantasy. In real life you probably
want the center, that would be an easy choice, but
in fantasy it's often easier to get centers, and so
you might want the winger. And in this case, I
think I would take martone. His hockey prospecting is a
little bit higher to fifty five percent chance of being
a star, whereas Haiggens has dropped down.
Speaker 3: To thirty six.
Speaker 2: And if you just look at the bash between the two,
Hagen's actually surprisingly has quite a bit of bash. People
think of Martone as this big power forward, and he
is big, but he doesn't necessarily bash that much, so
his bash is only at sixty fifth percentile, whereas Haiggins
is at ninety three. I think they both have a
tremendous upside to have them both rated as a seven,
but Martone's is eighty five percent chance of hitting that
and Hagins is seventy five, and Haiggins's might have gone
down a little bit after this tournament. The rest of
their skater cards look pretty similar, so I think that
it's probably accurate to say fifty three forty seven might
just depend on context. Might also consider the fact that
Boston doesn't have that many great prospects and Hagen certainly
looks like he could be the top line center of
the future, whereas Marton looks like a top line winger,
but they also have some other pretty good wingers in Philly,
so maybe he doesn't earn that right away, so that's
something to consider. But I think all in all, I
would just rather take marton Jesse.
Speaker 4: Very good. Let's move on to a Meal Heming. He's
been a Texas Star and a Barry Colt this year.
Of course, he is on his way to be a
Dallas Star one of these days. Aside from the tournament
that is a Texas Barry and now the World Juniors.
The recent first rounder potted three goals in seven games
for the Finns. His production has been higher at Barry,
but you can't argue with Finland's results given their odds.
A Meal Heming, I've been watching him close because I will,
full disclosure, have him on some fantasy rosters because I
figured anybody who the Stars wanted late in the first round,
I just want it in on. But that hasn't worked
out yet for a Meal. A Meal Heming. In the
NHL ranking Mason Black poll is up against Vaclaude Nestrasil
of the Czech team, who also had himself a very
nice tournament and a Chicago Blackhawks again number twenty five
pick in last year's draft. Nestra Sil comes out way
ahead in the poll here, sixty nine to thirty one percent.
Yea had a better world junior. So what do you
think of the performance here? Is Heming still on your radar?
Is nest You're still moving up? What's going on?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I think overall, both these guys played to their team
strengths more than they'd been shown as individual stars, and
I think that's important. I think you could say both
of them were a little disappointing. Their team success was
more important than their individual success. Heming just has an
absolute canon of a shot, and that's a weapon, no
matter whether he uses it as a shot or as
a decoy. And you saw him a lot using I
saw more of it this year than I ever had before,
of him using his shot as a decoy where he
takes up the one timer and he doesn't actually shoot it,
he fakes it and then tries to create more of
a pass or more of an opportunity for someone else.
So that's good to see a little bit more playmaking
from him, But the reality is that there's still a
lot of issues away from the puck from him. He
isn't that engaged when he's not in the offensive zone.
That's still a little concerning because even though his shot
is good, he's not like Ov where he can just
stand there and do nothing and rip one timer. So
he's got to do a little bit more. Nestra Sill,
I wish I saw a little bit more from him
in this game. I think you can't necessarily knock him
for the whole team being so successful in him playing
his role really well, because he did have some really
strong moments. It just seemed like some of the draft
eligibles and some of the second rounders. I've shown him
a little bit more, which was interesting. And I'm sorry
to tell you, but I don't think that Emil Hemming
is going to be the next White Johnson in case
that's what you're looking for. But I do think that
I would take Nestra Still here pretty easily. I think
he's a more complete player. He's also both these guys
actually bashed pretty well and decent shots, blocks and hits
for both of them at seventy seventy eight percentile of bash,
but Nestrasil up at ninety one per bash. He's gonna
just be hidden and destroying everything. I don't think either
of these guys have super high points upside, so the
Perferle floor I think is even more important for Nestra
Sill and the Hockey prospecting is just slightly higher six
percent versus four percent for himing, and a lot of
that is based on really low production in his draft
minus one season for n Estra sil like non existent
and then not a great, not a super high season
last year and then blowing the doors off the NCAA
this season. So definitely, like in Estra Sill, I think
he's a more complete player. I think he's going to
fit into that Chicago lineup really well. I think that's
exactly the kind of guy that they need, someone that
will run around in bash. He's like a younger, more
skilled version of Nick Folino who's on the way out,
but he's got a rough and tumble guy who will
protect some of the stars, and I think Estra still
will be the next in line to do that.
Speaker 4: All right, then let's move to our next player, and
that is going to be Cole Aserman.
Speaker 2: Ooh.
Speaker 4: Eiserman did not get subjector reviews that I read, and
there was a I think a little reference at the
end that maybe Cole Eiserman was not a topic we
talked about last week because we were trying to stay positive.
His production was two goals and an assist in five
games in two years college. In college, my guy has
thirty three goals and fifteen assists as he prepares his
application for the Josh Anderson School of scoring all goals,
no assists. Still a dynamic goal scorer who would be
very nice for the Islanders to get if he is
able to do that at the higher level. The NHL
ranking pole is going to put him up against teammate
Victor Eckland, who also played in the tournament for the
winning Swedish squad, and the people have spoken fifty nine
to forty one percent in favor of Victor Eckland. I'm
not at all surprised by this. I wonder if the
question is I'll let you talk about which player is better.
But I'm starting to wonder is Cole Eiserman ever going
to be a thing because it seems things are not
going that well. What do you think, Victor, So.
Speaker 2: You can take what I said about hemming and you
can add amplify it by one hundred With Cole Eiserman,
He's just invisible away from the puck. He just doesn't
do anything. At one point I tweeted out when he
had that really nice goal in the semi final, like
all he does is score big goals, which is good
but also bad because that's all he does. He literally
doesn't do anything until you need him on the power play.
And he's the kind of guy who you know, maybe
like Victor Olifson, who plays like nine minutes a night,
but eight of it's on the power play or something
like that, and you just park him in that spot.
You don't trust him with any even strength minutes and
you just use him for his shot that does not
bode well for tons of fantasy success. And you hear
that he's trying, you hear that he's improving, but in
this tournament, best on best, he was not there. He
was not where he should be, a lot of those
other things had not improved, and maybe the fact that
his good buddy got knocked out and stretchered off really
affected him. I could imagine how scary that would be
for a player, seeing your friend and teammate. But a
lot of the other Americans pulled through and did a
bit better. We talked about Zeller's and Ziemer and some
other guys who did pretty well despite that. I'm actually
surprised with this poll, Jesse, because I think it should
be like ninety five to five or something like that.
I think it should be much higher. I would take
Victor Eckland here easily. Even though it's funny you look
at the hockey prospecting and Iiserman is still a forty
two percent chance of being a star and Victor Eckland
is down to ten percent. But I mean, you watch
the tournament and you saw how impactful Eklund was. And
he's a basher, he's a gamer. He engages in all
aspects of the game. He's someone you can rely on
when you need a goal, when you're trying to protect
the lead. He's going to earn the coach's trust, and
he's going to earn ice time, and he's for sure
going to be an NHL regular. I think Cole Eiserman
I have strong concerns whether he will even be an
NHL regular. I think he will certainly get looks, he'll
get opportunities, and will what will he make of it?
I think is the question. And not on the power play,
but at even strength in his own zone away from
the puck. Those are all the things that need to
come Miles, and I just didn't see enough in this tournament.
To make me think he's going to get there. So yeah,
I would strongly prefer Eckland right now. And just a
reminder that Victor Eckland, unlike his brother, is a strong basher.
William doesn't do a lot of that Victor does. And
I do think that Victor even has even maybe more
points upside at least similar, if not a little bit
more than William Ecklin. So I think that's all pretty exciting.
We're not talking about a point per game plus player,
but I think we're talking about somewhere in the sixty
to seventy point range with maybe upside for a little
bit more.
Speaker 4: Tremendous. Let's move on. Adam your Check is next. No,
we did talk about Adam your Check a little bit
last week, but there's never a bad time to talk
about Adam. You're a check defenseman. Scoring four goals and
an assist in five games is pretty remarkable for a
successful check team. As we said before, Branford is loaded.
He's a big part of that, and we'll see what
impact he's able to make with the Blues. Some prankster
put Adam your Check up against David Erecheck in the
NHL ranking poll and results ensued, as one might expect,
eighty three to seventeen percent for the younger brother, Adam
over the older brother David. Victor. I know you still
haven't quite given up the ghost for Adam obviously or
for David. Obviously Adam the better prospect at this point,
but to let people know what you're thinking about him.
Speaker 2: I definitely would take your check in this poll. So
I think that settles it. Adam way to take a
stand Victor, Yeah, that prankster would be Mason Black, of course.
To put these together, it's interesting, right, I mean, they're
obviously at very different stages, and David Eercheck has just
been so disappointing in his transition to the pros. And
that's why I always find it interesting when people when
a prospect makes it known that he wants to be moved,
and people often will jump to the defense and say, see,
just needs to change the situation.
Speaker 3: He's great and he'll be great.
Speaker 2: And the reality is that a lot of these pro
scouts and a lot of these coaches, they know what
they're doing right, and they saw some struggles with him,
and they have continued. Eighteen games in the NHL this season,
he's up to seventy seven total and zero points. But
not only that, but he's pretty awful defensively. He's getting turnstiled,
he's getting turned around. His defensive metrics are pretty awful.
His offensive impacts are minimal. But even in Iowa, maybe
he's lost some confidence. But just five points in fifteen
games this season, seven points in twenty seven games last season.
That's in the AHL. It just doesn't seem like it's
going to happen for David Earcheck. So I guess if
you're in a competitive team that wants someone just playing now,
maybe you would take David. But I think the reality
is that anyone would want Adam Aircheck. Especially the funnel theory.
Just kick it down the line a little bit. Take
the guy who's younger, who at least hasn't proven yet
that he can't handle the NHL. Maybe Adam can't handle
the NHL either, but at least we haven't seen proof
of concept of that yet, so we might as well
take the younger Earcheck. I do think Adam has some
differences in his game. I think he's a bit feisty.
I think he's a better skater, and I think that
his all around game is a bit better. He may
not be as good offensively as his brother, but hey,
if that's going to allow him to stick in the
lineup and actually earn some minutes and respect from the coaches,
then you'll take that. You'll take someone at least playing
in the NHL and he bashes a lot. They both do,
although David's lost a bit of his bash because I
think he's trying to improve his skating, but Adam at
eighty six percent bash and great transition and play driving numbers.
Although we talked about this on the other show last week,
you have to take some of Adam Yirchek's numbers with
Branford with a grain of salt because the whole team
is awesome. But I think watching him with check Yo
was good away from those other stars and just looking
at his individual skill and development, and he's progressed a lot.
Speaker 3: So I think you've got to give it to him.
Speaker 2: Got to give it to him in this poll, and
you probably want to reach out and try to acquire
him if you can.
Speaker 4: Very good, Victor, It's time to take a brief break,
come back and talk some more World Juniors prospects. Back
from the break, Victor, do we have any public service
announcements we want to make to the people today.
Speaker 3: We do, we do.
Speaker 2: We want to mention that we do have some mid
season guides from Dauber that we're happy to give away
if we will give them out on a first come,
first served basis. So all you have to do to
enter that is you can give us your You can
give us a five star review on your podcast app
of your choice, and you can thick screenshots send it
to me. You can email us at Fancy Hockey Life
at gmail dot com, or you can send it via
DM on Twitter X or Discord and we'll get you
in there. It's a great guide. Thanks to Dab for
providing that. And the other thing I would mention is
that we do have our Patreon that you might want
to get access to. We're updating all the tiers, ranks
and player cards after the World Juniors and so doing
a lot of updates in there. You definitely want to
check that out and you can get all kinds of
bonus content to Shane and I are going to be
going over more of the well lesser known will junior
players and the next patron cast and we're going to
be doing all kinds of great bonus content that you
want to get in on, So go over to patreon
dot com slash Fantasy Hockey Life if you want to
get in on that, and if.
Speaker 4: You just want to hang out with fantasy hockey crazies,
you can join our discord for free and get to
know some of these things and maybe get an interest
in some of those other things. Just emails Fantasy Hockey
Life at gmail dot com. We'll get you in that
discord for free. Back to the prospects. Aeron kibbi Haru
of Finland. He captained the overachieving Fins with five assists
in six games. His day job is modest, scoring in
Hifk Liga, but of course a young man is still
a teenager. Not doing that much in liga is not unusual.
Speaker 3: Victor.
Speaker 4: I want you to know. I wore my HIFK jersey
to the upsode today.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 4: I have an HIFK jersey, baby, yeah, eighteen ninety seven.
Mostly advertisements before in Jerseys look like yeah, yeah, that's right,
that's right. That's why I chose them. But yeah, I
got to visit their stadium once, but KiB Haru was
not there at the time. As far as I know.
Speaker 3: Anyway, what's that he wasn't there to welcome you.
Speaker 4: He wasn't very rude of him, frankly, and I think
you should mark him down on that account. But if
you want, if you wonder why it's not so easy
to score in Liga for a teenager, Aaron kiv Hary
is teammates with your Electra, Remember your elect He played
three hundred and seven games for the Blues and Flyers
like the mid twenty tenths. He's thirty eight years old.
He is double the age of Aaron kiv ar You
and they are teammates, so that gives you a sense
these man's league's overseas. Anyway, Let's put kivvy Haru up
against Dominic fens Or on this NHL ranking poll. That's
another defenseman who's much older, actually drafted in twenty nineteen
and a Chicago Wolves slash Carolina Hurricanes prospect. He'd got
some good numbers this year, twenty one points in twenty
four games. I believe that thirty two and sixty seven
was last year. So Aaron kivvy harre You comes out
significantly a head of fence Or on this comparison. Seems
like defenceror was going to be a thing you might
have already happened, although certainly that kind of production says,
hey give him a try in the NHL at some point.
So even Kri Aaron Kivvy harre you seventy five to
twenty five over fence or very different developmental tracks. People
seem to like Kivvy. How are you just in this comparison?
What do you think about these young gentlemen?
Speaker 2: Well, I think it's pretty simple. Actually, I think I
agree with the people in the poll, but I just
don't think Dominic fens Or is ever going to be
in NHLer. So I think you want the guy who
still has a chance to be in NHLer, which.
Speaker 3: Is Aaron Kivy. How are you?
Speaker 2: Which I found out today I was messaging with Byron
Bader because I was looking at his hockey prospecting card
and I noticed that he had a Danish flag Denmark flag,
and I was like, isn't he finish? And he pointed
out to me that he was born in Denmark, and
so that's why his flag has the flag of Denmark,
which then we were discussing maybe it should be the
country he represents, because that's confusing, and he was.
Speaker 4: The captain of the Finnish team and you're talking about
Kivy Harry here, right, he's the captain of the team
and he's from another country. Come on, this is a scandal.
Speaker 2: I mean, he is finish. You could be born in
another I was born in Spain. I'm American. I was
born on a US military base. So I don't know
his situation, but it does happen. And he's clearly finished
and he's always represented Finland, but he was born in.
Speaker 3: Denmark, which I didn't know.
Speaker 2: Anyways, I'm sorry to take us down that the dietribe,
but it was interesting. I just was like, huh, why
is the flag different? I was expecting the finish flag, right,
at least I know my flags. I guess that's at
least to some extent. Anyways, Kivy Harre, you we didn't
talk about him too much on the yet, but I'm
really happy for the young man because he needed a
redemption tour after we talked about him as potential number
one overall pick three years ago before he was in
his draft season and then he started not performing as well,
and basically everyone else grew around him and he didn't
grow and he's still five to ten and so anyways,
he ended up going, as a lot of people know,
in the fourth round, not clearly, not first overall, not
even in the top ten or first round, and.
Speaker 3: So he's had to work his way back.
Speaker 2: He's been playing in LIGA for years, in the top
league there, and he's really improved a lot of his
play driving, a lot of his puck battles, a lot
of his loose puck recovery, his physicality his bashes is
still not great, but his transition game and play driving
have really improved. And you saw him in this tournament.
Speaker 3: He was a force.
Speaker 2: He was an important factor in that team that nearly
won a bronze medal and pushed several of the really
good teams to their limit.
Speaker 3: So I was really good to see.
Speaker 2: And yes, Spencer had some high pedigree for a while
and some promise, and he is still doing well in
the AHL, but at this point he's been in the
HL for several years and I just don't know that
he's ever going to get a clear shot. He did
play one game this season in the NHL, but a
lot of his underlying numbers there in the AHL are
not great, and so I'm just not sure that he's
ever gonna do it. So I would take kiv Haryu,
who I think has a little bit of stock up
and we just haven't seen him in the AHL yet
and we haven't seen him struggle at that point. So
let's go with kivy hary You, the Danish born Finn.
Speaker 4: There you go, There you go. Let's move on to
a guy who I drafted in the first round of
the World Junior's Tournament. We did victory that did not
go well for me because this fel At Cole Hudson,
great player. Things did not go well at the tournament.
He was injured early on. He came back strong in
the Finland game with a goal and assists, but over
the course of three games had one goal three assists,
so it didn't come out with big numbers for him.
He did play in that Finland game. He played twenty
seven minutes coming back from injury in a game that
went about sixty two minutes before it ended dramatically in overtime.
Cole Hudson's Boston University team was sixth in Hockey East Conference.
At press time, things are not going great at Boston.
You considering that he's a leader of that roster in
terms of prospect stock or prestige if you want to
go by that and Boston University's roster. If you look
on elite prospects, everyone, almost everyone, ninety percent of the
players on that roster have been drafted by an NHL
team already. This is this looks like an AHL team
or something. It's pretty crazy that Boston University hasn't been
more successful. But again, don't blame the guy who's doing
very well. There are twenty points in eighteen games. We're
going to put him in the NHL Rankking Pole up
against a guy who was drafted much earlier, and there
are many good things to say about and it's already
playing in the NHL. Denton Mattaichuk, who is two years
older and again was drafted the first round, whereas Cole
Hudson was drafted two years later and in the second
round mistakenly for many NHL teams. Cole Hudson wins this
poll seventy or sixty sixty eight to thirty two percent
over Mittey Chuck and again a big response. Denton is
fine and all, but it seems like this is blawed
to me, but I don't know, Victor. I know you
love Cole Hudson. What do you think of this?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I think this is accurate.
Speaker 2: In fact, when someone one of the patrons was recently
dming with me and talking about acquiring Hudson in this trade,
and I was like, yeah, do it. The other pieces
weren't substantial, And then I thought about it and said,
I'm not actually sure what's Hudson he meant? And then
I was like, it doesn't matter. You want you want
the Hudson, whether it's Cole or Lane. I think Cole
we've talked about projects to be as good, if not
better than Laane in terms of a lot of his metrics,
a lot of his NHL's and PNHL. So I think
that you're gonna want Cole Hudson. He what the Americans
missed when he was out was so obvious. They just
could not move the puck. He had such a tremendous
impact on that team, and last year when they had
more stars, he took over a couple of those games.
He's a gamer, he's a difference maker. You want cool
huts on your team. That doesn't mean that Denti Mitchitchak
is bad by any means. I actually just traded for
him and the Tidy, which maybe we'll talk about on
a future episode. I think he's obviously blocked by Zach Wrensky,
one of the best out there, but he's still able
to be impactful. He's playing over twenty minutes. He's on
a forty point pace. He's injured right now as we're
recording this, but decent bash and decent point pace. So
I think you got to take that for what it's worth.
And his offensive impacts in the NHL have been extremely
strong and suggests that he even deserves more points. His
defensive impacts have been a little bit below average. He's
treading water, I would say, so, I think that you
got to take huts in here, but I think frankly
you'd be okay with either of them. And I just
want to also say that the thing that happened to
him was super scary. In fact, I did a little
digging upon it, and it's really weird what happened to him.
He got hit in the neck with a puck and
it basically shocked his spinal cord to the point where
he couldn't move. But luckily it was a temporary condition,
and he was able to regain full function. There's only
been a couple of recorded cases of that ever happening,
which I thought was super interesting because obviously you fear
the worst, and certainly proalysies and things like that can happen,
but they usually happened with a hit, being pushed into
the boards or having your neck turned or compressed in
a certain way. A super interesting medical thing that happened.
But I'm glad he's completely fine, and I definitely would
I don't think there's going to be any long term
effects if anyone's wondering about that. It seemed completely reversible,
and obviously he played in the last game there.
Speaker 3: But both these guys are interesting.
Speaker 2: I would take Cole, though, and I think that it's
reasonable to want him close to seventy thirty there.
Speaker 4: Totally. That is what I thought you'd say, and I
would agree with it. Let's move on to a guy
whose name I'm going to no longer mispronounce on this show,
and that is Michael h. Because he is showing out
top scorer in the World Junior's Tournament two goals thirteen
assists for fifteen points in seven games, again leading the tournament.
Hage has been very good at Michigan, with two straight
years over a point per game there, and of course
he was a first round draft pick in twenty twenty
four of the Montreal CANADIANSNHL ranking poll puts him up
against Yerikolit of the Buffalo Sabers, who has been out
for a long time this year, but is really still
very well regarded. It cool baffles me anyway, because I
have him in our four sport league and he never
really I don't know his reputation has exceeded his production
so far, but I will give the ben for the doubt.
Is this the high tide of Hage or just the
evidence of a full breakout finally coming for him?
Speaker 2: I think two things can be true here. Michael Hage
is awesome, and I think this might be the high
tide for him. So I think that you do want him.
I think that he will be good. I think that
he is probably still just a middle six center. I
don't know about just that's important. I think he can
be that two C that Montreal really needs down the road.
I think they clearly have their number one center and
no question about that now, and so can Hage be
the two C? Or is he more of a three C.
I think he's still in that neighborhood. But he showed
a lot more of pushing to be a top sixer,
and he was awesome in this tournament. I think he
did everything you wanted them to be. He was one
of their best players with their leader. He showed a
lot of grit, and I think that you definitely want
him between these two because Coolick, as you said, he
hasn't quite lived up fully to his potential. He's had
some injuries, they've had some depth issues there, and he
did center the top line for a minute there when
it looked okay, and he had some production, but yeah,
a lot of his underlying numbers still are not great.
Speaker 3: I'd love to see.
Speaker 2: Him in the lineup now when Buffalo is actually doing
well well, that would be fun to see, and I
think that he could contribute to that. I don't think
they're doing well because he's out or anything like that.
So I would definitely take Hage. But also if you
have Michael Hage, you might want to just see what
you could get from him, because if you could get
seventy to eighty point guy like a Tage Thompson, I
don't know. I think I do that because I don't
know that he's going to hit fully that upside. I
think Age is going to be very good. I think
he's going to be rosterble. I think he's going to
be someone you wouldn't mind having on your team. But
I have him righted as a six point seven four
I meaning just above average, and he bashes pretty well.
He's probably going to play center, which means that they
might push him down to the third line at some
point and just have him drive his own line or
do a middle six kind of thing. So that's always
a bit worrisome when you have centers that they might
just need to plan a different line or get a
different line going, and so that's always a bit concerning.
But I like both these guys, and I still do
think there's hope for Koolick. I just think that Buffalo's
been a mess for the whole time he's been there,
and maybe they're pulling out of it now and maybe
he can be part of that.
Speaker 3: I think he has more to.
Speaker 4: Give very good. Let's move on to talk about Zane Perak,
another guy we talked about last week. But again I'm
always down for PreK talk. He was on fire scoring
wise at the tournament, with five goals, eight assists thirteen
points in seven games. I'm impatient. I want him done
cooking in the Saddledome for reels playing for the Calgary Flames.
I know you, and you and our guests last week
both expressed a little bit of doubt about how he
really looked out there, and this one kind of shocked me.
Speaker 3: Victory.
Speaker 4: The NHL ranking poll put Perek up against Alexander Nikishin,
and Perrek won sixty to forty. What happened there? Is that, right,
Victor am I did Alexander Nikishin? Did he like lose
a leg? Is he completely burn people out up in
the pros? What do you think of all this?
Speaker 3: I think a few things happen here.
Speaker 2: One Parak has come or sorry, Nikishon has come in,
and people alway want the new shiny toy to just
ascend the top of the lineup and play all the
minutes and do all the things. And even though he's
played several years in the KHL, he's still a rookie
in the NHL, and especially in Carolina, how they deploy things,
there's just no way that was going to happen, Like
he wasn't going to get all the top minutes, he
wasn't going to get the most important role, and they
still has some pretty good defenders on that lead on
that team, right, So I think some people are a
little disappointed with what he has done, but he's still
depending on how you look at it, top five, top four,
depending on injuries. In terms of ice time, yeah, it's
a little bit less than maybe you would like, but
even strength anyways, So I think that you have to
be a little bit more patient.
Speaker 3: With or Pink.
Speaker 2: Some people also saw PreK with all the points he
scored at the World Juniors, and just focusing on that,
we talked last week how there's a lot more concerns
about PreK than just the points. The points were never
really the concern, it was the rest of the game.
And so I think this poll is wild as well.
I think it would absolutely take Alexander Nikisha. He clearly
is NHL or you look at his underlying numbers, and
his offensive impact is incredible to the eightieth percentile and
his overall impact is sixty three. Like his defense hasn't
been great, but he's been good enough and he's on
a good team, and he's bashing, and he's learning and acclimating,
and I think he ultimately will step into that top line,
top pair role, and I think that's the guy.
Speaker 3: That you're gonna want.
Speaker 2: Zane PreK we talked about the issues, and he will
be on the top power Play eventually if he sticks
in the NHL, But is he going to be like
a Tyson Barry third pair Top power Play limited minutes?
Speaker 3: And of course Barry did.
Speaker 2: Have some strong seasons, but he also was a bit
frustrating at times when it wasn't going well and he
was getting benched and not living up to maybe the
full potential that he could have had. So I would
definitely rather have Nikishen here. I'm definitely worried about the
full projection of PreK and how well he can actually
how high he can ascend, So those are still some
concerns in mine. But yeah, I was a bit surprised
by this too, wondering sometimes if we're watching the same
thing what some people are seeing, But sometimes you see
what you want to see. You see the goers goals
in the scoring, and he had some really beautiful goals
and some really impressive offensive output, and maybe that's all
people were focused on Jesse.
Speaker 4: Shoot, I need to look at where I have back
and see if I can make a swing for Nikishing,
because I think I would still like to try that
one Victor, any last takes on these World Juniors as
we kind of wrap this episode.
Speaker 3: Up, Yeah, this was a great tournament.
Speaker 2: I think just always remember that this is a snapshot
in time the World Junior, and I would encourage to
make any big decisions one way or the other, stock
up or stock down. These are snippets in time, and
there have been plenty of star players who didn't have
exceptional World Juniors, and there have been plenty of players
who've had exceptional World Juniors who don't become relevant at
all in the NHL. So don't read it too much
into it one way or the other. And generally, most
people's strategy that I talked to is they like to
sell high on their players who do well at the
World Juniors, and I think that works out more often
than not.
Speaker 4: All right, very good Victor, Thanks and we will be
back right after this. Quot about our show band tracks
dot Com You've heard me say it before. There's the
website that sponsors all of our leagues. Can start new leagues,
lots of different sports, all the options you're gonna want.
I've got some Baseball first year player drafts coming up.
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Whatever you want, man, just set it. If you want
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make it so that they got to be taken out
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they're a pro player, they can be sent down.
Speaker 3: You can do that.
Speaker 4: Man. Everything is there in that goes for hockey as well.
Fantraks HQ, lots of fantasy content over in that right
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I do a solo show called Dynasty Sports Life. I
talk about lots of different Dynasty Sports. This week, you
are going to hear there's a lot of hockey on
this week's episode. We do what I call a city
Blender series, where we take all of it. Because I
like multi sport leagues. We have a four sport league
that's part of the Dynasty Sports Live community. Eighteen teams,
four sports callery caps everything. You want to trade Austin
Matthews for Josh Allen, you can, And in this episode
that question actually comes up because what we do is
I try to take all the teams in a metropolitan area,
throw them together, and then me and Marcus, a FHL patron,
a friend of mine, and he comes on and he
and I are going to rank all the players from
the Toronto and the Buffalo Professional Sports team. So we
got two hockey teams, one football, one basketball, one baseball,
and we try to slot them. And let me tell you, folks,
a lot of hockey players from Buffalo in Toronto making
that list. Social media follow us on x Fan, Hockey Life,
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enjoyed this edition of Scouts About and until next time,
keep but that's man's just see hockey later