MINI BTP: 11-9-23 (Calen Addison Trade)

Brandon Mileski & Pat Micheletti break down the Calen Addison trade on this episode of MINI BTP!

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Hey, welcome to an episode ofMini BTP. This is where we just
take one topic and just do alittle quick hitter. I'm Brandon Mleski,
former gold and Go for Pat mclettyis with me as well. Pat.
Before we get to our topic,can you tell us about one of our
sponsors here on Beyond the Pod?I would love to are you? Are
you on a Beer League hockey team? Check out our contest page at kfean

(00:23):
dot com for a chance to getyourself sponsored by michelob Golden light That sounds
exciting to me, Pat. Thenews came down yesterday that Kaylin Addison was
traded to the San Jose Sharks.The Wild then went and acquired Zach Bagoshin
from the Tampa Bay Lightning. We'lltalk about the Klan Addison side of this

(00:44):
first. You and I did amini BTP this summer on Kaylin Addison and
whether we'd be able to take ajump off jump up. You know,
last year, great on the powerplay, not great defensively five on five.
There were questions about whether he couldimprove, and twelve games in the
minnesot in a while, I guessdecided to give up on him. What
do you what do you think ofthe trade? Well, I think you
and I can go back what twoyears, three years, and we always

(01:11):
talked about in the playoffs and ourdefenseman getting you know, hit and hit
and hit, and we didn't haveenough size back there. But then you
had Addison, right, and youhave a kid who is the size of
Jared Spurgeon and you start to wonder, you know, is that you got

(01:36):
two of those guys, how canit work? Well? Addison has some
skill, There's no question about it. He's got the skill level. He
can skate, he can handle thepuck, you know, play the power
play. But you know the Ithink ultimately the other parts of his game
haven't come to fruition yet. Andif you're the Minnesota Wild and you know

(02:00):
you're in the Western Conference and yourhopes are to make the playoffs again,
you still haven't addressed the issue ofwhat are you going to do when you
get in the playoffs again and youstart getting hit in all of that?
So I think Billy did good onhim for making the move, and you

(02:24):
know that that's where we are today. Yeah, for Kaylen, I you
know he's gonna have an opportunity toplay a little bit more yeah, in
San Jose than he would hear.You know, Pat, Over the years,
we've talked a lot about tweeners,right, like a guy like a
Jordan Schrader, where, yeah,skilled player, he can skate, but
he kind of has to be ina top six role because he can't play

(02:45):
your typical bottom six role in termsof four checking the physical aspect, killing
penalties. And I feel like KaylenAddison, and you know, he's still
twenty three, so there's still timefor him to grow, but I feel
like he's in that tweener area,Pat, where are good on the power
play? Yep, He's got someoffensive skill, but he's not good defensively

(03:06):
enough to play in your top four. But then he doesn't really fit the
role of what you want in thethird pairing, right Like, And now
that they're gonna have Jared Spurgeon comingback, that was gonna be able.
That was gonna push Kaylen Addison outof your top four. So now when
you want your third pairing, youwant guys who can kill penalties, which
has been a struggle for this team. The penalty kill has been bad.
Any guys who can take on thirdfourth liners for other teams, guys with

(03:29):
size in front of your net battleand corners, and he can't really do
that. So he was just kindof always to me and kind of that
like that no man's land, patright, and and and and and when
you're assessing this team and and andthe circumstances that they have in front of
them in terms of no money,you have to you have to say,

(03:53):
Okay, what can we do tobe competitive make the playoffs? And and
you know what is what is thebest scenario for our team heading into the
playoffs? What do we need?Well, we need we needed to get
bigger on defense. Now they've donethat with Bogosian. Okay, is he

(04:15):
Is he the answer? He's theanswer for eight hundred and fifty thousand.
You know that you have to putyourself. You're not going to get a
big, strong, you know,uh defenseman, you know for three four
million dollars because you don't have it. And so when you look at the
Western Conference, Brandon, and thisis why I'm okay with moving Addison and

(04:40):
getting Bogosian, is that there aretwo teams maybe three, that are above
everybody else. Colorado Vegas. Youcan put maybe the Dallas or La in
there, you know, but youknow there's those two teams are beatable.
So if you're saying to yourself,Okay, you know we're we're we're not

(05:03):
a great team, but there's notteams that are significantly better than us.
You know, Nashville is certainly not, you know, better than Minnesota.
Winnipeg is okay, Saint Louis isokay. You know Arizona is up and

(05:25):
coming, but you know, youknow, you don't know what you're getting
out Arizona. So when you lookat the rest of the Western Conference teams,
you can make the playoffs, thatis the goal number one, and
then you go from there. Whoknows what happens in the playoffs. You
know you never know, but soyou know you have that ability. And

(05:47):
I think Billy is trying to dothe best he can do knowing that the
West is what it is, youknow, to get your team a little
bit better. How do you viewKaal and Addison moving forward now that he
is moving away from Minnesota going toSan Jose. The opportunity you'll be there,
I'm sure to play a lot morepower play. You know, clearly
they lost Eric Carlson and the offseason they are having a ton of struggles,

(06:11):
so there's a lot of opportunity fora power play defenseman to fit in
there. But I think there's asection of the fan base Pat that is
convinced Kaal and Addison is going tobe a star player someday. And you
know, there's you know, Idon't think you're a big analytics guy.
I'm I'm not a big analytics gay. I just like to go with the
IT tests and I get there.There can be flaws of that, But
I think sometimes people are too investedin analytics and just I think analytics and

(06:38):
hockey are flawed to a certain extent, Pat, because there's so many variables
on the ice. It's not likeit's not like baseball, where it's individual
play within a team play, soyou can you can, you know,
zone in analytics a little bit morehockey, there's so many variables at who
you're playing with, who you're playingagainst, level of competition. So but

(06:59):
there's there's a section of the fanbase that thinks Caylin Addison was on this
track to be this, to bethis player, and are convinced he's gonna
be a nine. He's twenty three, Pat, so I don't like to
write a guy off, but Ididn't see a big I know it just
twelve game this year. I thoughthe played a little better than he did
last year, but I did notsee a big jump out of him.
You can't analytics maturity, and Idon't think he I Some of the plays

(07:25):
that he does make defensively branded arehead scratching. Okay, I'll use that
term head scratching, and they goover it with him daily daily. His
biggest thing from the coach's perspective wasyou got to get better defensively. It's

(07:48):
this game is not that complicated whereyou you know, where you can't figure
it out, and especially with theadvent of of watching yourself and getting it
things pointed out on video and itjust didn't seem to register, or he

(08:11):
didn't want it to register. SoI don't want to say he's not the
most intelligent player. He may bea hard headed player in terms of no,
I'm going to do it my way, and it didn't, you know,
And they kept telling him, here'show you got to defend, here's
you know, there's a point intime where you take chances and there's other

(08:33):
times where you don't. I don'tthink that registered with them. I think
is his function was I'm going todo it my way, and for those
reasons, I think it drove thecoaching staff and management crazy a little bit.
And here's where we are. Youknow, I had a coach once,
pat that said, if you scoretwo goals a game, you don't

(08:54):
have to back check, right.That was that line always stuck with me,
Like, right, well, hardto score two goals a game.
But you know, the elite playerscan get away with having to do some
defensive things because they can produce.In Kaitlin's case, he had his defensive
awards. I think people think he'sbetter offensively than he is. I think
I think he's a quality offensive player. He's not a great offensive player,

(09:18):
right, Like he would get pointsbecause he's on the power play. Like,
if you're on the power play,you better, you better get points
you're gonna get you're gonna get secondassist. But like, he wasn't a
guy that was the engine on thepower play. He wasn't. They weren't
going through him and five on five, Like, he's not a great offensive
player. He has I think somesome of a skill set to do that.
But he wasn't like super productive fiveon five. So, like,

(09:41):
I just I don't think he's asgreat offensively as people think he is.
Yeah, you you coined it perfectly. He's a tweener. And and if
it's not gonna, you better beyou better have something that is your bread
and butter. You better And youknow, like some guys make it in
this league because you know what,he's a shot blocker, he's a defender,

(10:03):
and he can you know what he'syou can trust them. Now,
Okay, what you brought up Addisonfive on five, There wasn't a lot
there offensively there, There wasn't anythinglike, Okay, we're putting him out
there because he's gonna he's gonna drivesome offense for us when we need a
goal and you know the power play. Hey, listen, you're on the

(10:28):
power play. And he wasn't onthe power play the last fifteen twenty games
of last year. Hence they broughtin Klingberg because it wasn't it wasn't working
out well. And the last coupleof games here and run the point the
last two games, yeah, fiveforwards, right, and so you know,
just it gets to the point where, yeah, you know it just

(10:50):
it just ultimately it didn't work.And listen, I I hope it does
for him. You don't want tosee just because the guy's trade it and
you know we're gonna sit here andknock him and you know this, that
and the other thing that that's notthe Billy did good for him by you
know spot, he's in a betterspot. He's still young, and maybe

(11:13):
another team is going to be ableto to cultivate him into a you know,
a better NHL player, But ultimatelywith him and you know, you
need size back on defense in theNational Hockey League, you just do.
The forwards are too big and they'retoo strong, and they're too fast and
uh and they get especially when youalready have another smaller defenseman, right and

(11:37):
then you and let's not forget theystill have Alex Koalagowski, right and and
who knows what's gonna happen with him. You know, we haven't heard his
name much, probably because he's onL T I R. But you know,
I don't know if there's if there'sroom for him when when he gets
back, I don't know what they'regonna do. I think another move probably
will will be coming, you know, John Merrill. Uh, you know

(12:01):
on that bubble, you know they'rethere and listen. They they do have
a lot of up and coming defensemanright Hunt Rourke, Jack Peart, who's
at Saint Cloud. They've got theyyou know Lambos who was in that Zucker
trade. He ended to be inthe draft pick they got in that Zooker
trade. That so so from thatperspective, you know, I think they're

(12:26):
in. They're okay. All right, Pat, we'll talk to you next
week on Beyond the Pod. Soundsgreat, Thanks Brandon. All right,
he's Pat mcletty. I'm Brandon Muleski. This has been another episode. This
has been a mini bt B.We just talked about one topic today.
We'll talk to you next week righthere on Beyond the Pod. Thank you
for listening and watching. Bye,