Speaker 1: Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks.
Speaker 2: Here sits.
Speaker 1: Your source of information and analysis to help you win
your fantasy hockey league. Block off hot A step hit on,
stay lock.
Speaker 2: Here's your hosts, Jesse Severe and Victor Nuno Fantasy Hockey.
Speaker 3: Live once again.
Speaker 2: It's Jesse Severe fan Tracks, It's Victor Nuno a VP ringside.
It's Fantasy Hockey time and that means we got to
talk about it. Victor, how you doing today?
Speaker 4: I'm doing great, Jesse.
Speaker 3: I'm so excited that they're actually games back on TV
to watch and so I'm doing great.
Speaker 4: How are you doing?
Speaker 2: I'm doing great. I'm doing great.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: Beautiful fall here in Wisconsin. We're going to get those
two weeks of fall that we really enjoy before it
gets cold and rainy and miserable and all the leaves
are wet. So yeah, I can't complain. I can't complain.
I just preemptively complained about the future. But I can't complain. Victor,
this has been your weather report, as we like to
give in all the introductions, and that is the case.
There is not, in fact a weather report channel in
our discord. Perhaps we should make one, but I don't
think it would be very relevant to hockey. There are
mostly things that are relevant to hockey in there is
what I mean, and you can check them out by
joining our discord, talking with a few hundred of your
favorite fantasy hockey friends and just chatting hockey all the time,
asking questions, getting ideas from the high mind. And to
do that, all you need to do is get a
link from us. That's how discords work. You get that
by emailing us Fantasyhockeylife at gmail dot com or hitting
Victor or myself up on x at Fanhockey Life at
Victor nugnio twelve. Victor, what are the other things that
people ought to know about as we get into the show.
Speaker 3: If you want some extra content, you want to support
the show, then go over to patreon dot com fear
Hockey Life. You can check out all the bonus content there.
You can be a lifer and get all the patron cast,
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slash Fantacy Hockey Life and thanks so much for any
support you want to offer.
Speaker 2: And in fact, one of the things you get, of
course is the tidy, the tiered dynasty leagues, and today
is going to be all about that tidy, Victor, don't
I haven't made a trade yet this year in the tidy,
and I need to make myself a dang trade. Maybe
the trade will have happened in the interregnum between the
second we're recording this and the second that you're recording.
I'm not going to be here though for it. It's
going to be you and the Admiral right after the
break talking tidy trades.
Speaker 3: All right, Time to talk some tidy cakes, and of
course that means we get to bring back our tidy Admiral.
I believe Ryan, you have had some shore leave to
take care of some fun business. How you doing, my friend?
Speaker 1: Hey, yes, Victor, it's been a busy summer for me.
And yeah, for those who don't know, I got married
over the summer the Admiral. The Admiral needs to take
a little bit of a short leave as you said
from the ship, but we're setting out to see here
on the Tidy Take segment and we are back and
better than ever and Victor. Before we get started here,
I want to give a quick shout out to a
new factor here to consider for the Tidy League, and
that is the Tidy Commissioner Team. But if you listen
all the way to the end of every Fantasy Hockey
Life episode, you will hear Jesse shout them out, and
I'm going to shout them out right now to Simon
Craftster and Timmy. The peak behind the curtain here is
that it's actually a lot of work to be commission
for six divisions of a league like this, especially with
promotion and relegation factors to account for. So I came
to you over the summer and with the wedding and
mind and other obligations I have this year, I said
I wasn't sure if I could do it all again
this season, and we were able to come up with
this solution where these guys were only too happy to
lend a hand. And I'm so proud of how we've
been able to navigate the off season adjustments, dispersal drafts
and more to get to this point, the group chat
was popping off pretty much the entire summer, and so
I really appreciate everything those guys have been doing to
make the Tidy League one of the best leagues in
the world. And the other thing is that this administrative
change gives me a lot more time to focus on
the Tidy Takes segment, which is what I really love
about my role here within the Tidy commissioning team. Without
any further ado, let's get started here as we launch
another season of Tidy Takes. For the uninitiated. Here's how
Tidy Takes works. One of myself or tim A, collects
all of the trades across the entirety of the Tidy leagues,
and we post them as trade polls in the Tidy
Trades channel on the FHL Discord. Just in case you
needed another reason to come and join us over on discord,
this might be your opportunity. I comb through the list
to see if there are relevant players to discuss or
interesting trends to dissect, with the hope that the information
that we present is relevant to people across a variety
of league types. We also present the poll results as
a snapshot of what the FAHL community thinks about certain
players and their values, with the caveat, of course, that
we are a bunch of prospect sickos over here at
the Fahl Discord, and so in a very general sense,
the younger the player, the higher.
Speaker 5: The appeal for the Tidy managers.
Speaker 1: With all that being said, the first trade we're going
to discuss has some familiar elements for listeners to last
year's Tidy Take segments. It's a trade involving new Tidy
deckhand Craftster, who also has found a place in the
Lord Stanley division to nobody's surprise. If you were a
listener last year, you know I'm a big fan of
Craftster and the way that he evaluates players, very detail oriented.
And he starts out this season acquiring a Tidy Takes
favorite from the twenty three to twenty four season in
Pavel Minchikov along with Buffalo Sabers spark Plug Zach Benson
from the Steel City Stars for Alexei Lafrenier. It's interesting
to note here that our Tidy community has voted in
favor of crafts Er here acquiring Mitchikov and Benson over Lafrenier.
Some people think it's even and then we do have
a few people who are Lafrenier fans. At this point,
usually I will share some feedback from the managers about
what they thought of the deal and how it came together,
and I'm going to start with Ricky from the Steel
City Stars, who says that he is much higher on
Lefrenier than most watching him play. In his opinion, he
has the ability to be a dominant player, playing at
a much faster pace, more decisive with his reads, and
more confident than ever with holding onto the puck as
everyone saw during his playoff run last season. He admits
that there's no clear spot for him on power play
one big knock against him in my opinion, but thinks
that it would re fle poorly on the Rangers if
they don't find a way to make room for him
in the coming years. In name value, he gives up
a lot in Benson and Minchikov, but he believes Benson
made the league too early. He's not confident that he
will be fantasy relevant as he becomes a full time
fantasy pro this season. As for Minchikov, given Ricky's position
in the draft, he felt that he could draft Levshinov
to replace Minchikov and get out from under the uncertainty
that Minchikov faces sharing a blue line with Zelwegger Luno
at all and in usual crafts Or fashion, if we
were here reading everything that Crafts wrote to me, he
wrote a novel. I appreciate that for context, but if
I were to read it, we would still be here
recording the episode at the start of the twenty five
to twenty six season, and so please enjoy these highly
edited comments from Kraft Craftster's main focus here was Team
Construction as a dispersal team in the Lord Stanley Division.
He feels he needs to scrape for every edge he
can find, and having as many players as possible that
can flex back before black back and forth between pro
and farm is one way to gain a small edge.
Speaker 5: Benson will lose.
Speaker 1: His eligibility in the first half of the season, Minchikov
has a bit of a longer leash, plus Anaheim has
its typically great schedule, and if he gets really desperate,
these are exciting names that can be dangled at the
end of the year to contenders in deadline deals to
try and survive in Lord Stanley. Big fan of Benson
and Minty Interestingly, his concern with both is both players
is the concern that he has with Laffarnier. Are they
no doubt power play one guys in the medium to
long term there are obvious five on five studs, but
will they demand top power play time for his short
term needs? He doesn't think he needs that since the
player he gave up won't have power play one either.
In laffarniir Crafter goes on to say he thinks Benson
could get top line duty at points this year and
that he doesn't think the internal options like Paterka, Quinn
and Tuck are immovable, which, as a Quinn stand I
might push back on a little bit. Interesting context here
is that Craftster and Ricky have mentioned they've known each
other for years, being former college roommates who would print
out the NHL rosters and bring them to school and discuss,
and they're therefore very comfortable dealing with each other. Those
are fantasy hockey goals, Victor, if I ever saw one.
We've got a juicy one for you here to chew
on with young studs with upside on both sides of
this deal without guaranteed power play time, do you prefer Lafrenier,
victor Or Benson, and Minchikov.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is an absolute gem of a trade, I think,
and I totally agree. I love hearing both these guys talk.
I've dealt with both of them in trade negotiations, and
I was with Graftser in the dispersal draft, which was
super fun, So we had a lot of fun conversations,
and yeah, it's just nice to be able to have
those really in depth conversations with people. I believe when
I voted for this that I voted for the Minchikov
Benson side, just for full disclosure, things have happened since
then that might shift that a little bit. I think
in general, you prefer I think in general my philosophy
is to prefer the side that has one player with
more points upside, and as it stands right now, that
is clearly the case that Lafrenier has more Fantasy points
per game. But it's not just a white right now,
it's a what do we see for the future. And
I agree with what you said about Lafrenier, and that's
been my biggest concern too, is that he looks great
and his near sixty ish point pace is pretty impressive.
Especially considered he had six power play points this past season,
and I agree with Ricky's point that they should find
a point for a place for him on the power play,
but can they Can they find him with enough of
a role that he's going to be able to boost
that past ten to fifteen, which is really what he's
going to need to be a seventy point player. And
I think that he will gain more ice time. Seventeen
time on ice is what he had last season, and
he's proved that he's earned more. But there's just only
so many minutes to go around on a contender like that,
and that's a bit of my concern. I think that
at least for the next year or two, he might
have a little bit of a lower ceiling that that
is going to be hard for him to push pass
because of all those elite players on the Rangers. I
think everyone who's heard me talk knows that I love
Pablo Minchikov and Zach Benson, all these or my fans,
but I'm definitely more Minchikoff Benson truther than anything. But
I don't disagree with what Ricky said about Benson. I
do have this worry that he's just going to be
more of a real life all situations put him out
there and he can just shift the tide to what
the team needs, not too terribly unlike Mark Stone, I
think in some ways, who can put up a lot
of points, but also is just really an effective play driver,
and you might put him on a third line to
drive that line, and that could be really bad for
his fantasy prospects. But I do think he's a guy
who demands power play time, and I think that, you know,
maybe he made the team a little too early, but
he's just so dang good that it's hard to keep
him off. I do wonder that his fantasy points in
this format don't ever become elite though, just because he's
such an effective real life player that we try to
reward ice time and fenwick and takeaways, which are things
he should be good at, so I think that might
help him. The real sticking point for me is Minschikov.
I think we talked about him a couple times on
the show last year when he got traded a couple
different times, and I just think this guy is so impressive,
and he did really come out hot out of the gate,
and he had some pretty good numbers early on, and
then I think they really wanted him to focus more
on his defensive play, which he definitely needs to work on.
I don't know it was so much him though, than
the team around him, because his even strength defensive minutes
were thirteenth percentile for the league, which is obviously not great,
but you're talking about a really young player on a
really bad team, and so I don't know that you
can hold that much against Minchikov. I think he has
He totally has top like number one D all situations
written all over him. And that's a guy that can
play twenty four minutes and put up fifty sixty points
with power play points, hits and blocks. That's the kind
of guy that gets you seven plus points fantasy points
in this format. And so I think that I would
take that side just because of how much I believe
in Minchikov, even if it's plus minus on because as admiral,
there's a pretty big boost to defensive scoring in this league.
Speaker 1: There is, and I also think that Minchikov will take
a big step defensively, as will the entire Anaheim Ducks
roster as they age up and they level up in
their time in the league here, I think, for me,
given Kraftster's reasoning about where he is as a dispersal team,
that I probably lean towards his return, and indeed I
did vote for it. I have a little bit of
concern about the potential of Zelweger taking some of Minchikov's
reps on power play one, but I checked this morning
at the practice lines for Anaheim and Zellweger seems like
he might be the seventh defenseman, so certainly for this year,
I'm pretty high on Minchikov, and so short term with
the potential of moving him on at the deadline. Like
Krafter said, that really isn't a concern. I've never been
all that high on Lafarnier either, even when he was
playing for Team Canada. I just didn't see how it
would translate as well. And then when the Rangers picked
him and that shock move up the draft board, I
was pretty sure that he wouldn't really get the opportunity
that maybe people have been hoping for him. I don't
know how they make room for him on that power
play with all those top skill guys locked in for
at least two more seasons, and some of them for
five and six seasons down the road. It may take
a trade from New York for lafferniir to realize his
full potential, And I don't know if the Rangers will
admit defeat on that front. They might be more happy
to move like a CaCO or someone like that, but
I don't think they'll be ready to move Laffarnier anytime soon,
So I don't think I want to wait around for that.
If I could get a power play one D like
Minchikov and then the scrappy wild card in Benson, so
I think I leaned Craftster as well.
Speaker 3: Just one more thing I want to say about that
is that I totally agree. I wonder just how much
more Lafernier has to grow there too, because I have
thought those things about Lafarnier too, But he really has
changed the way he plays in a lot of ways.
Part of that is because of the weird development that
Ne gave him, but also he was just a guy
who would skate in off the rush and beat guys
wide and just I agree that was pint of the
concerns I have, But I think you really have to
give it to him in some respects because he has
upgraded his game significantly in the last few hundred games
that he's played, and he has really developed more skills,
especially down low, driving to the net, being able to
be more of an end zone type creator that we
didn't really see before. So you know, this is a
new era. But those other concerns about the team and
how just how they get him, I know that.
Speaker 4: It's going to be hard.
Speaker 3: Even if they want to give him lots of opportunity
and power play time, it's going to be hard to
give him enough to get up to past seventy points.
That's I just think that's going to be a challenge,
even if they really want to, So that part, despite
his improvements in his overall game, isn't going to necessarily
go away.
Speaker 1: I guess the other way that they could make this
happen is if they ship at one of those veterans.
We saw this past offseason that they are not exactly
shy about calling out some of their veterans see Jacob
Truba's situation right now. So it's there's some potential that
with the quote unquote last dance for the Truba version
of this team coming up this season, that maybe if
they don't have the success they're looking for. Maybe they
move on a Zabanajad or a Crider or someone who's
on that top power play. And maybe we do see
Lafregner fulfill his potential, but hard to say. And this
is a trade for this season. Definitely leading crafts are here.
We'll shift away from the Top division to the ore
division here and although we're changing divisions, we are not
changing subjects as we're sticking with Michikov. Yeah, this is
the Fantasy Hockey Michikov podcast. For this week, Goku Chuck
yourself also known as Cory, acquires Minchikov for a collection
of very interesting players at differing development levels. Here NHL
regular Matty Benier's new Jersey defensive hopeful Seamus Casey, and
Predators prospect matthew Wood from the Desert Scorpion team. The
Tidy managers voted overwhelmingly for the Desert Scorpions, which I
might disagree with, would Casey and Beaneers versus Minchikov. Corey
has this to say, I overpaid. I know that, However,
in this type of league, does it really matter that much?
I had more centers than I could play? And Benier's
probably being what he is last year one for one
was probably fair with Minchikov, but de always costs more,
and so one of Wood or Casey should have gotten
it done. But really wanting Minchikov, he thought he might
have to add a little bit more and his value
will only go up. Anyways, Casey and Wood are currently
buried on teams that clearly made additions and want to win,
so he thinks the players will be waiting longer than
usual to make the team. They're certainly blocked in Nashville
and New Jersey, Desert Scorpions had this to say. I
wasn't selling Minchikov and had never made the decision to
really move on from him, but this offer came in
and it was an intriguing idea made me really think
about making a move. My only real hesitation was moving
on from a young stud d man in Minchikov before
I really got to see him succeed. But the returns
seemed impressive. In the end, I stare at the offer
for a good hour, and knowing that the value was there.
Speaker 5: Pulled the trigger.
Speaker 1: No drawn out of negotiation, just a good offer made
and accepted. This one is really fascinating to me.
Speaker 5: Victor. But I know right away which side I'd rather
be on with this one. What do you think?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I don't think it's any question for me either.
I would one hundred percent take Minchakov here. And I
think there's several things here. First of all, I love
the idea of you want your guy, you overpay, and
you just get them. I totally agree with Corey there,
because what could happen back and forth? I think we've
all been through this back and forth negotiation. Other people
get involved with the people off for other things and
you might just lose out, or they get tired of it,
they get offended.
Speaker 4: You never know what could happen.
Speaker 3: So if you want your guy, just make a reasonable
offer and get him.
Speaker 4: I don't disagree with that at all.
Speaker 3: I think you can say lots of different things about it,
but I.
Speaker 4: Totally agree with that strategy.
Speaker 3: And having missed out on guys here or there that
maybe you wish you had offered a little more for
is a good reminder sometimes that yeah, that guy could
have been on your team, and are you really going
to miss these other guys? As really part of the
question I was recording yesterday with Scott Wheeler for dober
Prospect's report, and one of the guys we talked about
was Seamus Casey, and holy cow, he loves Seamus Casey,
and he has really looked awesome this preseason. He had
an amazing career at Michigan. And I think part of
the question that I think we all have and that
we discussed is what does his future look like.
Speaker 4: In New Jersey?
Speaker 3: And I try really not ever to think about that
because and one of the things I clarifyed with Scott
is I think that Seamus Casey could go to another
team and be a second or third pairing top power
play guy. And he totally agreed. So if that happens, yeah,
this might look a little worse because I think Casey
could have similar points. I don't think he has the
upside nearly that minchikav has isn't like. I don't think
Casey will ever be at number one D. I'm not
even sure he can be a top forty, but he
can certainly run a top power play if he's not blocked.
And then so you got that going for you. You
got Matthew.
Speaker 4: Wood, who has struggled a little bit.
Speaker 3: He's switching college teams and I think that he still
has a bright future but has some development to go obviously,
and his foot speed is always going to be an issue.
But guys that have that hand, those hands and that
size are always gonna get an opportunity, So big upside
for those two. I think part of it comes down
to Beanier's and what you really think about him. I
know a lot of people have different opinions about Benier's
but in the tidy there's a pretty important roster flexibility
that you need to have and if your guy isn't
locked into that center spot, I totally get what's Corey.
Corey is saying there are guys I've had. I think
it was I had Cousins. Yeah, I had Cousins on
my team for a couple of years, and even though
he's like a good player, there are times where he's
on the bench. So depending on your team construction, you
can have a really good player like Beniers, he could
end up just being on your bench if he's a
three to three and a half to four and a
half Fantasy points per game player. So that's a situation
where it depends on the team. Maybe if you have
a guy who's center, left wing or if you have
your absolute stud center like Jack Eichel, who I have
as my top center. Now that's kind of situation where
there's a no there's a no brainer. But if Beniers
doesn't get back to scoring sixty to seventy points, I'm
not sure he's going to be much more than a four.
Speaker 4: To four and a half point guy.
Speaker 3: And then with Minchikov having the upside, like I talked about,
having you know, up to six or seven fantasy points
per game, then I like the consolidation. I think that
there's a lot to be said there, and of course
the D value and the fact that he's ready now right,
I think just next season, I'm pretty sure Minchikov will
outscore beniars and unless Peniers goes bonkers with his scoring.
So you get the consolidation, you get the d which
are always a bit more valuable, and I think that
you just go get your guy.
Speaker 4: Do you like that strategy?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I like.
Speaker 1: I like especially in this league where there's no guarantee
you're going to keep your team. If your team has
a really bad year, that team's going into dispersals. If
you're gonna have some of these kind of extraneous prospects
like a Casey or a Matt Wood, and we should
talk about him a little bit as well. It's good
to move on and consolidate and get that sure thing,
no doubt player. So I agree with Corey just talking
a little bit about Casey. Still good to know. That's
what's going to be coming out for the DPR show
on Seamus Casey with Wheeler and yourself. I was listening
to Prah earlier today on the Athletic Hockey Show Prospect series,
and they were talking about Seamus Casey, who has had
a really great preseason for New Jersey and looks set
to maybe get into a few games early in the
season here as some of those injury issues on the
Devil's Blue lines sort themselves out. And one of the
things that Corey Prohman brought up was that he's blocked
threefold by Hamilton, Hughes, Knemich and other strong New Jersey
Blue liners there. But today this time could serve as
an audition for NHL teams around the league, who, you know,
maybe see this guy as an extra piece here in
New Jersey and someone who could really help them out.
A la Tyson Barry perhaps early in his career. I
could definitely see Casey moving on and putting up some
similar numbers. But you know, if that's what it takes
to get the deal done, that's what it takes to
get the deal done. You know, if he ends up
closer to a Ryan Whitney type than a Mike Green type,
then that's that's fine.
Speaker 5: Ryan Whitney was.
Speaker 1: Pretty decent early in his career with the point scoring especially.
I'd like to get your opinion here on Matt Wood.
For me, the boots are a little heavy skating has
always been a knock on him, and I'm pretty low
on him, especially after his lackluster performance in last year's
World Juniors. I certainly would welcome an opportunity to move
on him if I owned him, especially since the Nashville
middle six is teaming with good options moved down by
the acquisition of Stampcos and Marchesso where does Wood factor
in here for you?
Speaker 3: Yeah, the boots are a huge issue for Wood, and
I think a lot of us saw that looking at
some of his tracking data from that World Championships. There
were definitely some good things, but we also saw some
of the lacking things. I think with Wood. The problem
with him, is that you really need someone to move
the puck and set him up. You need someone to
do a lot of work for him. He needs to
be in the right situation and you can't ask him
to do too much. There are some wingers that you
can absolutely there's some wingers that you can absolutely just
help drive the entire play and you don't need to
worry about them. Guys like Miko Ranton and come to mind,
doesn't matter what line you put them on, Kevin Fiala.
They're so creative, they're so dynamic, it doesn't matter what
is not that type of player. He needs a very
specific centerman playmaker creator. He can get down low, but
he can't get the puck in the zone. He can't
necessarily drive the puck to the middle all the time.
Sometimes he's getting a little bit better at going from
boards to the middle, but that's still something that he
needs a little bit of help with. So I think
in the right situation he can be good and Nashville
has no reason to rush from along, which is good.
Speaker 4: I'm looking at my.
Speaker 3: Fantasy Hockey Life player card and one of the things
that you think about with Wood is that he's a big,
physical guy. But he actually doesn't really hit that much
that much. His per sixty hits are below average in
the NCAA. He shoots a lot, though, so that's good.
His shots are great, but he also doesn't block, so
his peripheral floor is basically he shoots, and so he's
more of a points only play and he's more of.
Speaker 4: A goal scorer.
Speaker 3: He hasn't really developed that much of his playmaking side,
so to me, he's the type of player that just
needs a very specific situation, which is part of where
my rating comes in. For those of you who haven't
talked about this before, but the puck said rating. I
have him at a five point five to seven, which
means fifty seven percent chance of a five out of
ten on your roster, So that's like average roster that's
not even above average, which means he's he at best.
In my opinion, he'll be close to replacement level, so
that's not super exciting. I do think there's a world
where he becomes like a second line powerful forward, plays
on the top power play like that certainly is still
within his reach, but there's each season that's getting less
and less likely, and it's looking like he's going to
have a monster season that Minnesota with this new change,
which could happen, but there's more, there's farther to go now,
and I think those things are a little less likely.
And I haven't seen a huge improvement in his feet,
which is something he really needs to work on.
Speaker 1: So we both disagree with the Fantasy Hockey Life discord here,
who voted overwhelmingly in favor of Desert Scorpions. Remember I
said earlier a bunch of prospects, sikos and these guys
really love guys like Casey would, but Minchikov is the
proven element here, and very happy to get him in
that kind of a deal, especially if I move on
from a guy like Wood who could end up on
the waiver wire. We'll be right back with more tidy takes.
Speaker 4: This too excellent, are serious injury.
Speaker 1: And we're back victor onto our next deal. Here, we're
going back to the top division, that Lord Stanley Division
for this one. It's a doozy involving last year's Norris
Trophy winner. I remember I sent this one to you
and you were very excited to talk about it. Indeed,
one of the most underrated centers in the league and
a slew of polarizing prospect d to discuss here Clay
and Tidy. Lord Stanley acquires Quinn Hughes for last season,
the Norris Trophy winner for a selection of prospect D
here Montreal Canadians, now injured defensive prospect David Reinbacher Ottawa
Senators soon to be power play one in a couple
of years, d Carter Yakumchuk, a solid top four defenseman
in Tanner Mahlendyke for the Nashville Predators, and center Sebastian Ajos,
perhaps one of the more underrated players in the league.
And here's what Clay had to say about this deal.
The main reason I was trying to make this deal
was just trying to fix my own mistake of over
rostering centermen with my acquisition of Dubo the deadline last
year and both Doc and Line coming off of my
IR looks like Line is going back on there. But
he felt he could get more production out of another
elite winger or d man. He canvassed the league pretty
thoroughly with trade offers to assess what the market would
be like to flip either Tage Ah or Ryan O'Reilly.
I feel like in any other format, I wouldn't have
paid the price that I did here. But I'm assuming
that both Yakimchuk and Mahlandike will take several more years
to make any impact on an NHL level, and that
Reinbacher will take a back seat to Hudson on Montreal's
blue line.
Speaker 5: Interesting thought there.
Speaker 1: He sees Hughes as a top five D in the
league for the foreseeable future, with one of the highest
vorps in this format that's value over replacement player, where
Aho is around top ten at his position with a
much deeper.
Speaker 5: Pool of positional competition.
Speaker 1: Clay thinks that in a couple of years he might
want this one back, but with relegation on the table
this year in Lord Stanley and it is it's worth
the risk to push in every year to win the championship.
Liam got this offer at a nowhere and smash accept
when it was offered to him totally out of the blue.
He likes Aho and one of Yakimchuk and Ryan Backer.
He might have said yes to just Aho and one
of those guys, but instead he gets both of them
plus Mooldendyke, who could be a second pair guy. Liam
also did say to me. He was a little surprised
at how close the vote was. And I have to say,
considering how prospect crazy this discord tends to be, I
tend to agree, what do you make of Hughes for
AHO and these three young d Victor.
Speaker 3: I know Clay did his due diligence because he also
reached out to me, and being in Lord Stanley, I
got the privilege of having that discussion. You might have
had some discussion with that too. It was in general,
I love the consolidation one better player, and if you
just look at the points from last season, Hughes did
have more points per game than Aho, so on a
just superficial value, I always liked that concept better and
I totally get the having too many good centers thing
and trying to upgrade another premium position. That philosophy works
well for me and I know Clay well. He and
I co manage our DPR team together, dub Prospects Report team,
which we won last season.
Speaker 4: And I know he's smart.
Speaker 3: He's been in the discord and been in different leagues
for a while, so you have that initial Okay, he
knows what he's talking about. This isn't some silly request
like he's obviously thought about it, and it's not coming.
It's not coming without some forethoughts, so you like that.
I think part of it comes down to two things.
One is what we saw from Hughes last season the
peak or is there more to come? And what do
you make of these other guys the other defenseman And
I think that's a big part because I think Sebastianajo
is pretty much where he is. He's a fantastic fantasy
points per game center at a position that there's a
lot of death, but there aren't a lot of centers
who score that much, so it's definitely like a pretty
good value for him. And in terms of Ryan Bacher,
Yakimchuk and Molandike, I think Mollendyke is someone who is
going to play in the league, but I'm not sure
his fantasy points is going to be much more above replacements.
He'll be really valuable on his ELC when you're flexing
him up and down, and beyond that, I'm not sure
how valuable he will be. Ryan Bacher, who seems pretty
nh already, might have the same benefit of being able
to flex those guys up and down, but when he's
full time he might be just a little bit above average.
And I think it really a lot of it comes
down to Yakimchuck. And you can talk to probably ten
Fantasy gms and get ten very different impressions about kri Yakamchuck.
I personally haven't changed my mind that much, even though
he's had a fantastic preseason, because when you watch him
without the puck and when you watch him defend, all
those concerns are still there. So when he has a
puck on his stick, which is what we've always said,
you know, when you watch him in the dub puck
on his stick, he's incredible. He's super dynamic, he can score,
he can set plays up. He's fun, super fun. But
he's also fun for the other team when defending and
away from the puck, And so that's not good.
Speaker 4: You worry a little bit.
Speaker 3: I just can he be that top pair all situations guy?
And I still don't think so. And so if he's
what we talked about with Shamus Casey, if he's third
pair of top power play, that's good.
Speaker 4: But it's not. It's not Quinn Hughes.
Speaker 3: It's not like he's not going to get almost eight
Fantasy points per game. That's the rub. Is he like
a four to five Fantasy points per game kind of
guy at his peak? That's more what I'm thinking, and
so but if that shifts, then it's a completely different situation.
And I also don't think that Quinn Hughes has even
hit his peak. I think he is an elite player
and he might even have a little more to give.
And I think, you know, if he's in that eight
Fantasy points per game range, he's like kel McCarry, he's
like best of the best. So that is it's worth
having the best, and if you can get that consolidation,
then I personally would prefer that, even though Ajo and
those guys are perfectly reasonable, and I think I would
probably lean more towards even But if I was forced
to choose, I think I'd want Quinn Hughes premium position
that probably even has a little bit more to give,
and I would be very happy with that.
Speaker 4: What do you think?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I tend to agree. I'm lower than most on
Rinbacher and Mollendike. Like you said, I think they'll be
pretty valuable on their entry level of deals, and when
we can flex them up and down from minors, get
those valuable peripheral stats, maybe a little bit of extra
scoring here and there, but I think Mollendike is the
kind of guy who you could find on the free
agency waiver wire. I think reinbacher at he's a talented
player with some very exciting physical tools, there's no denying that,
but there's just a ton of competition in Montreal for
lineup spots, and that injury that he sustained really spooks
me on his value for the coming seasons here. So
I think they're absolute ceilings. Those two guys are top
four defensemen. Certainly, that's valuable in our league. Like you mentioned,
we try to assign some value to time on ice
and Fenwick and that kind of thing. But I don't
think that they're a threat for power play time on
their teams, and so they're not really interesting to me.
The one guy who could be a power play threat
is Yakim Chuck. I know Corey Prahman is particularly high
on because he's six three to two hundred pounds, and
we know that Corey loves size, especially for these young guys.
But I do think he's blocked in the short term
by Shabbat and Sanderson, who will probably be the power
play guy on that team for the next decade, And
so if he has to compete with Jake Sanderson for
power play time and Shabbat is ahead of him, he's
not super interesting to me. And like you mentioned, yeah,
Yakimchuck is great in the dub but it's not like
the quality of competition in that league is particularly high.
I really am not that interested in Yakimchuck. And when
the other side of the ledger is Quinn Hughes, it's
no question for me. Hughes is a great player to
have right now, especially for a team that's looking to
contend like the Lazy Boys, and it's been a discussion
of consolidation this entire episode. I'd be very happy to
get Hughes here. I do recognize that this was a
pretty good deal for Liam, who adds a top ten
center in Oho. That's nothing to sneeze at, certainly, and
some nice good use to flesh out the prospect pool
of the defense of the Queer one imports. Who knows
Ottawa could trade out a blue Liner or Hudson could
sputter and give Rinbacher some power play time, and Liam
will have cycled out Hughes for the future power play
quarterback of either Ottawa or Montreal. But for me it's Hughes.
What do you have to say about that?
Speaker 3: No, I totally agree. I think that it's going to
be really interesting to track. I also think it's really interesting.
These two teams are both in Lord Stanley and Queer
One was sixth in last season and Lazy Boys eleventh,
So as Clay mentioned, they they're both in Tier one
and Clay worried a little bit more about relegation. He
was close last season. You were the last team that
narrowly avoided relegation, you and d Right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and we.
Speaker 5: Don't need to talk about that.
Speaker 1: We're not talking about our team yet.
Speaker 4: But it's a real big deal.
Speaker 3: For those who aren't familiar with the format, the bottom
four teams essentially play a playoff and the winner of
those four stays. The other three get relegated. So you
don't want to be in that round robin. It's super
not fun and stressful and you lose your team and
you get relegated and all that. So avoiding that is huge.
At least if you're in the middle, you're playing for
draft picks, but you're safe you don't have that chance.
So he was not that far away, and he and
Clay trying to do the best he can to improve
his teams. It's interesting, especially in Lord Stanley.
Speaker 4: I have found it.
Speaker 3: I've had a lot of discussions since being promoted, and
everyone's going for the same goal.
Speaker 4: It's different when you're in the lower.
Speaker 3: Tiers and you're like, this might be not this might
not be my year, like in typical dynasties. Right, I'll
take some futures for you can have this win guy
now and Lord Stanley, there isn't any of that.
Speaker 4: It's all we're trying to win. But it's a little bit
more like redraft.
Speaker 3: You have to be a little bit more careful so
you can have some positional consolidation. You can have a
little bit of I'll take two blos us to be's
for my A or something like that. You can do
some of that, but you got to be careful because
in the end we're all going for the same goal,
which just to win, but also to avoid relegation.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, we're really thinking about the next three seasons,
I think is the way I think about the tidy
Lord Stanley division. And you mentioned that we were pretty
close to being in that round robin last year, and
that's what prompted what will be our last trade discussion
of today. You've given me the perfect way to dovetail
right into this trade here. That's what being a professional
podcast host is like. By the way, folks, this is
peak performance from Victor Nunio. It wouldn't be a Tidy
Take segment without me cornering you and soliciting feedback on
a deal of my own ed and I traded Branford Bulldogs.
Still feels weird to say Branford Bulldogs stand out forward
Merrick Vaniker, who we just drafted in the Prospect Draft
this season, and the lynchpin of the Prince George Cougar
is Riley Hite, who I know is.
Speaker 5: A favorite of this podcast.
Speaker 1: And we got back ready made NHLer in Nick Paul,
who does it all for the Tampa Bay Lightning, and
a very exciting young defensive prospect for the Chicago Blackhawks
in Alex Vlassik. Voted to be mostly an even trade
here between us and Clay by the tidy listenership here
and from our perspective, we were initially offered Nick Waugh
instead of Alex Vlassick, so two centers there for the
Height and Vaniker tandem. We're pretty solid at center on
our team, and we're much weaker at d We always
have been since we drafted this team, and so we
counted with Vlassic in the hopes of picking up a
Pariff's guy who we can flex up and down for
at least part of the season.
Speaker 5: This year.
Speaker 1: We were also happy to get a guy like Paul
with dual eligibility and a shot at the top power
play in Tampa, where that fourth spot is a split
between himself and Brandon Hagel. Clay thinks that the power
play is a little more cut and dry in Tampa.
He sees that Hagel is taking that power play back
all season, and he sees that Paul's last year and
was possibly his career high watermark, which I don't necessarily
disagree with. He believes that Vlastic is a hard hold
after he loses his minor eligibility, even though he has
a good floor in this format. He's a big believer
in height as am I, but he thinks that he
has been the straw that stirs the drink in Prince George,
not a whole lot going on up in Prince George
certainly right now and a bit of a deep cut
here for fans of the DUB, but Clay offers this
analysis of what Prince George is going through with Wheatcroft
and Funk finishing their junior careers next to him and
both finishing second in the DUB end points. Last season,
Vaniker was the clear leader production wise on a competitive
OHL squad, and if Lardis can stay healthy this year,
he can sees them being them as being one.
Speaker 5: Of the highest scoring duos in the OHL this year.
Speaker 1: He thinks that anytime an organization trades to get a
player in the first round, everyone should bunch bump him
up a notch in their rankings. So, in summary, this
deal for Clay was moving some guys that have diminished
value in his perspective, in Vlassik and Paul for some
prospects that he is very into. So, Victor, what do
you think of the deal that we were able to
come up with here Flastic and Paul on the BFF
side and Vanniker and Height Going back to Clay.
Speaker 3: Since I am a COGM with Clay, I happen to
know he absolutely loves Mark Vanneker. There's no question about that.
He basically talked to me, talked my ear off in
a good way about Vaniker, just how he thinks he's
gonna he's going to really pop off.
Speaker 4: And I think Clay is one of.
Speaker 3: These guys that watches a lot of the chl very closely,
and so I respect that, not being not having as
much access to watch that. I totally believe and respect
when people have those opinions. And he I have chatted
with him for many times over the years, and generally
his takes are pretty right when he sees these kinds
of things happening, especially with respect to what kind of
role a player has and what they're going to be
getting in the future and all that kind of stuff.
I think that's really important. Looking at Vanniker, there's ice
time he was getting, you know, eighteen minutes last season
that should balloon this year. And he was able to
do quite a lot for Branford with very limited time
on ice. I mean he had a little bit, but
you know, well over point per game. I think he
you know, he could be zero point and a half
to two this season with a lot more opportunities. So
you love it when a guy plans his flag on
a guy, So you love that. I'm not sure that
I fully agree with Manniker. I haven't seen as much
as he has, so I'm willing to just say, yeah,
maybe with that guy. That's when he asked to Adam
to draft him. I shrugged my shoulders and said, yeah, man, whatever.
So if you believe that strongly about height is another one,
so both these guys. So Height is someone I absolutely
think is going to be great. He even had a
really good camp and prospect tournament. So Height is someone
who I think is turning heads even within the Wild organization,
which is great. I have him at a seven point
three to one for height. I do think he has
pretty good upside. I'm not sure how realistic it is
you get there, but man is he's feisty. He's got
a little bit of that snarl in him that a
lot of people love. Pims count negatively in this league.
Speaker 4: But he does a lot of that.
Speaker 3: So if you're into that, so these are but these
are two maybes right for what you got, which is
clearly Nhler's. I agree about the Nick Paul situation. I
think he might be closer to replacement level moving forward.
But you get some depth, which is good. I also
think it's funny you guys made this trade since you're
right even with each year, like you were right near
that line of relegation line, and those of us who
just join the league are all going to be trying
to pull you down, so.
Speaker 4: We're all in that same range.
Speaker 3: But I think a lot of this hinges on Alex Flassik,
and I personally think that he's a stud. And one
of the things that's always useful to do is to
go look at the money. And especially if you're not
a cap league, you may think I shouldn't look at
the money, but you absolutely should look at the money
because you can tell that the Chicago Blackhawks obviously think
very highly of Alex Flassek, giving him for four point
six million dollar cap hit, even though he hasn't played
you know, that many games. But I think it's pretty
clear based on his body of evidence. I mean, his
defensive impacts were insane. He was ninety ninth percentile for
his defensive impacts in the entire league on a historically
bad team, you know, for the Chicago Blackhawks, so that
I think is really impressive. As this team gets better,
they added a whole lot of guys that are at
least NHLers to round out and support Connor Berdard Hall
will be healthy. We'll see what Bertuzzi and toy Ver,
Terry Vine and can bring. But they just have more
competent NHLers to play with and I think that's going
to make a big difference here. And alex Flassk is
going to be leaned upon second most time on ice,
I'm sure, and I think he can bring more periffs
this league. Also rewarding play driving I think is going
to improve dramatically for alex Flastic this season because it
was hard to have any positive last season with that.
Speaker 4: And then you also.
Speaker 3: Brought up the minor eligibility, which won't last that long,
but while it does, that'll be super helpful. So I
can see why if you could be patient for a
vanikar and height in particular height, and if you believe
in Vaniker, then I can see how that makes sense,
especially if you think Paul is going to regress, which
I think he might. It really depends on how high
alex Plastic goes, because I think it's not terribly inconceivable
that alex Plastik nearly doubles his fantasy points, and if
he does, that's looking really great for now, and then
we just have to wait and see what Riley Hype
can do. But I'm not sure that Riley Heyde is
a no doubt top liner. He's probably more of a
middle six playmaker type guy. I like this for you, actually,
I think that I would prefer that, especially in this
division where you might not have the ability to be
that patient.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: You need to focus a little bit more on what's
happening now, So I would probably lean towards the aleck
Blastic side.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Victor for validating my opinion here. I just
want to wax poetic a little bit about Vlassic here.
I really love the player. I think that kind of
player early in his career. I think of a guy
like Samuelson over in Buffalo, another guy who got that
kind of bigger contract. He's younger, he's got some physical tools,
he's strung defensively. I really love that archetype of player
in this league. And does Vlassik have the potential to
be like a Brent Seabrook over the course of his career.
Is that something where we could be looking at him
ten years from now, when Badard and co. Have won
their second Stanley Cup and we're looking at that guy
as a really big piece of that team. He's already
on the level of some of these established NHLers, and
so I'm excited to have that particular player, especially given
that Edward and I last season we rostered Eric Branstrom,
we rostered Sean Walker, we rostered Jalen Chatfield, we roster
still to this day, Jake Middleton. So we need some help,
certainly on that blue line, and we're looking for a solution.
So Vlassic seems to be a guy we can plug
in every night and be very happy with the return there.
I want to talk now about Riley Height, who I
agree he's an exciting player. I just wanted to share
this tweet us out the other day from Mike Russo,
who is the gospel here for the Minnesota Wild fans.
He tweeted a few days ago about Height when the
Wild sent him back to PG saying that the talent
is clear for Height, but that he is not remotely
ready for the NHL.
Speaker 5: And I agree about that.
Speaker 1: I love Height and players of his archetype, but his
height is a concern for me and I think his
biggest fans might see him as a Braiden Point type
if he hits all of his benchmarks. The puck stud
rating of thirty one percent, what is it, thirty one
percent of being a seven that doesn't scream Braiden Point.
To me, Point was more consistently dominant in junior than Height,
and he still took two years to make the NHL
and two more years after that to be fantasy relevant.
So we're looking at twenty six twenty seven for Height
to really make an impact, and like you mentioned Vaniker,
he might have a bit more of a cook time
as well. We don't have that long to wait. As
you've mentioned, we're at the bottom of the Lord Stanley standings,
and so if Height isn't ready and Vankar isn't either,
Given that all of our prospect draft picks this year,
we're left wings with weight Times and Isiserman and Chernishov,
we felt very comfortable moving on from Vaniker to get
something that we needed right now. No losers in this deal,
with the discord basically voting this asn't even split. But
I'm happy to come out with the NHL ers and
with guys that can help us move up the standings
right now.
Speaker 3: Indeed, I yeah, I think I would have a hard
time taking play side just because I would be really
nervous about giving up some competent nhl RS when you
have to worry about relegation and all that, I totally
get it. But if you can when if you can
be patient, then I'm totally on board with that. It's
that's what makes tidy so fun. You have to consider
these different variations. You have to consider the fact that
you might get relegated, you have to consider that you
might feel like you're safe, and then you make a
trade and now you're fighting to stave off relegations. I
think that all makes it super fun. And obviously we
want as many people that join this super fun league
as possible. That's why part of the reason we're talking
about it. But also we just want to give insights
on these players.
Speaker 1: Right exactly, Victor. That's why this Tidy Takes segment exists.
Thanks for having me back, Victor. It's great to be
back here on the Tidy Takes segment. I'm very excited
for the next time we get to talk. We've got
a couple more trades in the Hopper to discuss going forward,
some very exciting players, and I'll just tease a little
bit here some of the players that we might talk
about next time, and one that just came across my
desk today. We might be talking about an exciting player
in Colorado, Nikolai Kovalenko, who's had some run with some
of the top guys there through the preseason. Here, Danieli Yurov,
who I know Jesse will be tuning in for. He's
a big year off guy. And Kent Johnson, who has
been a bit of a enigma as he crests into
his kind of second third season here as being an
NHL tweeeners lots to discuss going forward, Victor, and I'm
excited to be back in the grind.
Speaker 4: With you absolutely so much.
Speaker 3: Appreciate you curating all this fantastic data, and thanks to
all the participants for lending their insights. It is so
fun to hear. To me, that's the best part, hearing
all the reasoning behind the trades, how they come together.
It's just a super fun part. And to me, some
of these relationships are one of the best parts of
fantasy hockey, So I really enjoy it and hopefully other
people are going.
Speaker 2: And before we sign off, reminder our shows brought to
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Today you heard several referenced with the Tidy. Ryan the Admiral,
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show prep. Well you heard it today, he did most
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Brandon is our website guru. He's a scout and he's
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Victor up in the discord email or on X We're
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is an editor. Follow his work there as well as
his other podcast, Aubert Prospects Report with Peter Harlan. You
heard reference to Scott Wheeler being on this week. That's
a get Ladies and gentlemen. Check out Victor's articles at
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with Cam Robinson and Mike Clifford. I do a solo show,
Dynasty Sports Life. I talk all the different dynasty sports. Recently,
I've been doing what I call the City Blender editions
where I rank players from all four teams, all four
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the tidy takes, and until next time, keep living that
fantasy hockey life.