Fantasy Hockey Life Ep. 427 Vancouver Canucks with Patrick Johnston

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks. Here's
your source of information and analysis to help you win
your fantasy hockey league. Block off hot a step hit on,
Stay Lock. Here's your hosts, Jesse Sevier and Victor Nuno.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Fantasy Hockey Live back once again. Jesse Severe, Pain Tracks,
Victor Nuno, the Fantasy Hockey actor.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Victor.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
How you doing.

Speaker 4 (00:32):
H I am doing awesome, Jesse.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
How are you?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Good Man? Good doing great today? Ready to talk some
fantasy hockey once again? I already said once again, so
people already know it. The fact that I said once
again instead of just once tells you that there have
been past episodes of the show, actually quite a few
of them. Victor, here's my question for you today. The
media streaming situation in hockey is getting weird right now.

(00:55):
These local stations. I think I'm worried that all pro
sports are going to collapse under the weight of all
these different changes, like these little local things going out
of business. At least right now, on ESPN, I can
watch everything, and I think in Canada, can't they watch
it all on Amazon or something like that, so we
can hope, but it's still propped up and the salary

(01:17):
caps propped up by these weird things. Victor, is this
the This is the type of thing I think about
in August, because what the heck am I going to
think about? And I'm in salary league, so I care
about these things. But do you have an opinion on
any of this?

Speaker 4 (01:30):
I don't really. I get it, like there's a lot
of changes and shifts that are happening, but the reality
is that I'm going to do whatever I need to
do to watch the game, so I don't really care,
and lucky, I'm fortunate enough that I can do whatever
is necessary. Of course, there's things like on Hockey TV,
where you can get a stream of just about any
hockey game anywhere in the world if you want. And

(01:50):
it's a little buggy and you have to deal with
pop ups and things like that, but you can find
in stream any show you want there or anything. Of course,
we advocate paying for the service whatever you need to
do to make it legit, and that's what I will
do no matter what. It would be nice if it
was a little bit easier. I remember back in the
day when we had NHL Tonight and it was it

(02:11):
was just it just felt like it was easier for me,
and I had an easy subscription to just get all
the hockey in I want. It seems like it's a
little bit more complicated now and that's annoying.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, yeah, well, Victor, if you want to have any
kind of philosophical conversation from the future of NHL finances
to what is the sound of one hand clapping in
our Buddhist room? In the Fantasy Hokeey Life discord, you can.
All you have to do is join it. And to
do that, all you have to do is send us
an email. Fantasy Akey Life at gmail dot com probably
the time to join in. It's free, so it's just

(02:43):
a chance. There's a couple several hundred people at this point,
and it's a good place to organize new leagues, to
chat with people about what the heck should I do
in my draft position here, all those types of things.
So yeah, people should do that. And if they want more,
if that's not enough for them, tell them what else
they could have.

Speaker 4 (03:03):
You could have so much more if you go over
to patreon dot com slash Fantacy Hockey Life. You can
get extra bonus content, you can get patroon cast, you
can get one on one roster doctor help. You can
get access to the website, the ranks, the tiers, a
list all the things you need to give you a
leg up on your fantasy leagues and help know who
to keep, who to trade away, and all those kinds

(03:24):
of things. It really will make a big difference for you,
So check that out over at patreon dot com slash
Fantasy Hockey Life.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
You right back to talk or a special guests. We
welcome to the show, Patrick Johnston of the Province in Vancouver, Son,
ready to talk some Canucks.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
How you doing, Patrick, Great guys, great to be back.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Hey, it's great to have you back, and it's great
to be talking Canucks here in the still the late
form of the summer. I always try not to be
a downer in these introductions, but I got to say
it had to be a bit of a disappointing season
for Canucks followers. They went from the top six in
the league in goals for and fewest goals against, the

(04:12):
bottom half of the league in both, one of the
lowest shot totals in the league. Only a slightly above
average shooting percentage kept them respectable scores. But one piece
of news awesome penalty kill. Aside from that, controversies the
guys we're gonna be talking about the guys who but JT.
Miller not so much, and then the Calgary Flames. This

(04:34):
team would have been in contention after all that if
they would have been in the East, but not at
the bottom of the brutal Western Conference. Made a few
moves in the offseason, none monumental, and mostly paid up
for their current players. And we'll get to all the
can the Canucks get back to the playoffs this year?
What is their trajectory? What do you make of that season? Patrick?

Speaker 3 (04:53):
Going into the season before twenty three to twenty four,
the season that ended with them winning the division title
for the first time in a decade, playing a fantastic
series against the Edmonton Oilers in the second round, looking
like everything was coming together for them, even with the
late season injury or early I should say early playoff
injury that Thattri Demco, some struggles for Elias Petterson, you

(05:15):
still thought this was a team that was going places,
that they were gonna bay, that they certainly would be
a playoff team. There was a bit of question matter,
I think whether they would repeat as Division champions just
because they are in the same division as the Edmonton
Oilers in the Vegas Golden Knights. I mean, you could
look over the horizon then see the Kings coming. But
still you're like, this was a team that's gonna be
a good team. They're gonna be fun, They'll be fun

(05:36):
to watch, certainly obviously fun to cover. And before that
twenty twenty three, sorry, twenty three to twenty four season,
Jim Rutherford had said, we need everything to go right
for us to be a playoff game. He was trying
to tamp and down, which is expectations, which in this
market is the right thing to do, because this team
since the Mike Gillis era, has stumbled around the dark

(05:57):
and not done very much. And there's a lot of
behind the roof seasons reasons that are there that are
not interesting for your audience, but a lot of it
was self imposed, self inflicted damage. And since Rutherford and
his career have come in the midway through the twenty
one twenty two season, the ships looked right and it's

(06:18):
put in the right direction, but nonetheless, coming into the
twenty three twenty four season, they hadn't made the playoffs
since that twenty twenty bubble run, when at that time
it looked like they were about to turn the corner
and then didn't. He was just being realistic. Hey, guys, listen,
we haven't made the playoffs. We haven't done anything. Let's
be realistic. Making the playoffs is hard. And then they
completely annihilated the whole premise last year. In hindsight, in

(06:40):
the end, it was the opposite. Everything went wrong. They
couldn't make anything go right. They struggled. They had actually
a pretty decent start of the season. This is forgotten,
but there was early on in the first ten games
we were like, oh, man, are these guys going to
ride the same sort of offensive wave that they did
the year before. They obviously were great finishers. That also
means you'd got some lucky, had some pop cluck. But

(07:03):
they'd played well defensively under Rick Toalckett. Their goaltending had
been strong in twenty three twenty four, and yeah, they'd
had a power play like they did everything you need
to be an elite team. And at twenty four to
twenty five, after this nice little start, everything starts falling apart.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
J T.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
Miller actually was hurt out of training camp in hindsight,
should have taken more time off. That was a lingering injury.
We never quite nailed down. At one point I did
hear that it was an upper back maybe neck nerve thing,
but we never really got full clarity on that. But
certainly Rutherford admitted to me at one point, yes he
should take more time off. That was on the team.
But so Miller struggled. He put points up, but he

(07:39):
still struggled. He was not an effective player, LEAs Peterson
was a disaster. Coming out of the previous season. He
had talked about having a bit of knee tendon ice
and whatever. The team pushed back on that a little bit.
They're like, mostly their feelings that he hadn't prepared himself
well enough. He came into the He said he hadn't
been able to train fully during the summer, but even
then the team was still frustrated with sort of his preparation.

(08:01):
He had had an awful season from start to finish.
There were a couple of windows around the time that
Miller left the lineup. We're going to leave in November
of last year. But for the most part, a terrible season.
And so when your top two centers are not playing
anything close to like they're supposed to, and your entire
system is designed no, no team's going to survive that.

(08:23):
Your team, your system's designed around your best players playing well,
and their best players were atrocious other than Quinn Hughes
and then that she Demko was hurt and all these
things everything went wrong. Miller, Obviously there was a huge
rift I'm sure everybody heard about in the end, and
emergency just couldn't function together, and yeah, it was atrocious.
I apologies. I will apologize on the player's behalf for

(08:44):
fantasy players out there who expected huge seasons for Liais
Petterson and J. T. Miller. Miller was, in the end
a decent producing player went to New York could get
them the playoffs, but still put up some points. So
that was something. Peterson was a disaster. So now the
question isn't I'm sure we're gonna talk with us is
Kennileus Peterson be a point per game player this year?

(09:04):
Because if he is, that means there's good things happening
all around, and this team is headed back to the playoffs.
The division, as I said, I've already mentioned, it is
a tough division. You've got You've got the Oilers. You've
got the Knights. You've got the Kings. That's three strong
teams right there. You've got the rebuilding Flames. I don't
think the Sharks are there yet. I don't think the
Ducks are there yet. But the Ducks really have some
interesting pieces. So it's a tough division and the Canucks

(09:26):
are going to have to come out playing hard. And
to be honest, they have not. They mostly subtracted this summer.
They haven't added. They brought back Rock Besser. They had
never found the top six winger. They're top center that
they wanted to find. They talked a lot about trying
to find a top six forward. They didn't find that.
Everybody seems to be looking for that. Everyone seemed to
be waiting for what's going to want what's going to

(09:48):
happen with maasicvy Tavish and I guess Marco Rossi's off
the table now, but Jack Rossovik's out there, although I
don't think the Cucks are interested. So yeah, the Canucks,
I don't think they're as good as they were last year.
They do Quinn Hughes, they are hopeful with that your
Devco there's I talk to people who really believe that
Patterson will be back to who he should be, but
they're not as deep. They haven't replaced G. T. Miller,

(10:10):
and Miller was not a perfect player, but he was
a heck of player for this team. And so it's
a lot of questions going into this season, not many
answers or certainties. I suppose I should say.

Speaker 4 (10:22):
Let's talk about that main guy, the disaster as claimed
Elias Petterson. Miserable season, as you mentioned, worst career, worst
numbers just across the board pretty much goals, shots, student
percentage plus minus, everything was pretty bad. On the other hand,
his hits and blocks were up just a little bit
for the first time in his career. Yay, what does

(10:45):
I tell you?

Speaker 3 (10:45):
Right, that's the guy who doesn't have the park. He's
the guy that wants but he plays hard. There's no
doubt about this guy plays hard.

Speaker 4 (10:51):
But it's not quite what you want from him. And
obviously heard a little bit about the narrative with Miller.
So that's the question you mentioned, the training you meant,
and all the issues last season. What's going to happen
this season? Is he going to rebound from that career
worst season? Is their hope for above point per game. Patterson. Again,
I think a lot of people at this point would
just settle for anything in the sefty to eighty rank. Yeah,

(11:14):
absolutely pretty nice. But is there optimism for more? And
where are we at with him?

Speaker 3 (11:18):
Is the optimism It's tough to gauge. The expectation certainly
is there. Right, This is a guy who, even when
he struggled down the stretch in twenty three twenty four,
still put up eighty nine points. Right, this was a
guy that got it done. Fundamentally. If you want to
look at one thing to explain his struggles over the
past eighteen months, it's exactly what you just said. He
has not had the puck enough. He has been He's

(11:43):
always been a good two way player. I can't remember.
I can't tell you how long it was, but it
was many seasons he was He's still a young player.
And at one point I said, people, notice how hard
you work on the backtrack. What's that about? He goes,
I don't like not having the puck. I like having
the puck. Of course I want to go get it,
and so he'd go get it. And last year it

(12:04):
was just not there wasn't he was lacking jumping his stride.
There was a time when he was one of the
faster skaters in the NHL. He had he won the
slap shot competition at the All Star Game. Like he
was a guy that had the tools and the desire
and the hockey IQ. And last year we didn't see
certainly much of the tools. I think there were times

(12:25):
when he wondered about the desire. The desire and the
performance was forty five points in sixty four games. That's
atrocious for a guy that's being paid eleven point six
million dollars. The expectation remains, can he get back there?
Like I said, I've talked to a couple of people
that know him pretty well, and they think he will
be he I think was he doesn't like talking about.

(12:48):
To be honest, these days, he hasn't like talking about
very much at all. He's really but more than ever,
last year he went into a shell and he was
certainly wasn't happy to talk to the media. He'd have
his moments where he would, but there was just so
much or of chaos around the team that whether he
meant to or not, he really shut down. So there's
no chaos going into this season. Certainly, I think if

(13:10):
you were asking a teammate off the record, how much
you are mature, you look into PD to really perform,
they will. So he's everything. But is there optimism? Supposedly
he's trained better, Supposedly he's been more on fire. The
question is has he learned his lessons of why he
struggled the last eighteen months, whether it was preparation, whether
it was the mental game, whether it was awarding injury,
whatever it is, he's going. I think he's a huge

(13:33):
I don't think it's funny. I think he will get
eighty points. I think he just will by showing up.
He's too good not to. But then again, last year
he didn't put up the points because and that's why
the team was terrible. He's a weird bet. I am
not sure what to say. I think if you bet
on him, I think you have a you're probably gonna
get rewarded. But I can't guarantee that, So I don't know.
Is that optimism?

Speaker 2 (13:54):
Oh man, I don't know. But let's move on. Let's
talk here. He didn't quite sustain that career year he
had a year before the stats across the board decline.
Accept his hits jumping to a hit per game. Maybe
had a lot of frustrations to get out last year
and took it out in his opponents. He takes fewer
than two shots a game, got a big old contract
to stick around. I know he's one of those guys

(14:16):
that the Canucks were looking at and in that long
debate about whether he'd remained with the team and how
expensive it would be bounced around lines a lot. Is
that drama played out around him. I clearly believe in
him for the long term. What's your assessment and could
we see more production for him on a roster with
similar talent but hopefully a little less drama.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
His scoring rate consistently has been about thirty goals per
eighty two, right, so he's a reliable scorer. The question
is how many games are you going to get out
of him? And the truth is over the last four seasons,
last five seasons, really, even that COVID season, he's been
a pretty healthy guy. He didn't win. He was probably
he was going to be the favorite, I think to

(14:56):
win the Rookie of the Year in twenty eighteen. If
he hadn't gotten her. He's slid him backwards into a bench,
and that was the end of the season basically or
into a bench. Dorias Is it was a rough, terrible injury.
It affected him a little bit going into the next year.
He's a guy that when he's on, he's fantastic. He's
a very smart player. He's not the world's greatest skater,
but he's a really sharp player. He's underrated. I think

(15:19):
for his two way play. I'm not saying he's going
to get Selki Trove's Trophy votes. I think he's a
guy that could actually be a pretty effective penalty killer
if he gave him a chance. But he's not there
in the end to play defense. He's there to put
the pocket in the net. And he has proven to
be a very nice not leading edge scorer, but first tier.
He's a good player and he persevered. It was a

(15:40):
really weird season for him. Obviously, loses his center JT.
Miller had been his sort of the preferred center, was
the guy with him in his forty goal season the
year before, but with Miller obviously struggling, then did wasn't
even in the lineup for a month. Then it comes back,
but it's just never going to be the same. It
was a weird He just didn't do that well, and
then of course himself becomes the center of all the

(16:02):
trade attention because he didn't have a contract going into
the summer the free agent. The expectation was the Canucks
were going to move on. Certainly, all the rhetoric behind
the scenes was they were going to move on, and
then they didn't, and that messed with his head. He admitted,
he has admitted openly that trade talk is always and
almost every year in the last few seasons, he would
be in the center of that kind of conversation, especially

(16:23):
once as they transition between management groups in December twenty
twenty one, that he was not a guy that ever
had like a locked and secure spot. And yet he
kept scoring, and he kept showing up, and he kept
having a good attitude, and he just as someone has
told me, he just wants everyone to get along. Like
he's a good guy. Now he wears a letter on

(16:44):
his sweater sometimes right, Like he's a guy that is
a dependable, he's a good teammate and like I said,
he can put the puck int thatt and honestly, he's
one of the better net front guys. Now he's a
really good He doesn't like playing at that front. But
he's really good at tips. This is the thing we realized.
The Canucks really developed that under Rick Talcket was they
really developed now going back to Bohot even before that,
but they really leaned in on their power play, figuring

(17:06):
out how to play that top of the crease kind
of role. And obviously there's no Morbret, there's no Kuzmenko.
Besser could find himself there. Again, we'll see what they
do with Evander Kaine or your instinct is that you
put the big body in front. But Besser has a
skill that a lot of players don't have. He's very
good at adept at tipping the puck. He's always had
great hands around the net. He did change the way

(17:26):
he prepares himself for the season last summer and it
had a huge impact. There was two summers ago, huge
impact in the way of he was able to just
set himself. I think he's stronger in his legs, which
I know sounds weird, giving you'd expect hockey players to
be doing that, but no, he's a guy that has
proved reliable, a reliable player when he's in the lineup.
Can he get back to thirty goals. I think he should.

(17:48):
There's no reason to think he won't stay healthy. The
volume is the one concern, and we talked a bit
about this with Peterson. And there is an element too
as the players get older. We just know this, they
don't shoot as much. But you look at the way
this lineups can be set up and there is every
reason to think that he's going to be looked to
to be that goal scorer. Obviously, they've got King coming in,

(18:08):
they've got Connor Garland coming back. But in terms of
pure goal scorers, it's and the guys who have hands around.
That's him and Neils Holglander is a big It should
be a big season for him. He's got his new contract,
he will have no distractions around him. I mean, I
think he's a guy to really look to is to
be a saw. I don't think he's a top end
scorer obviously, but he is a solid producer for your

(18:31):
fantasy hockey lineup.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
You mentioned Connor Garland. He has had pretty similar stats
every year, it seems like. But that's interesting because he
played four more minutes a night last year and his
stats didn't really change. He's reliably taken a sweater every
night during his next career, he did not get a
study line. Last year, Peu Suitor lined up with him
forty five percent of the time at five on five.
That was tops for Connor Garland. His shot rate was down,

(18:56):
but his shooting percentage is still high. Advanced Dad's hate
does even strength offense, but call does even strength defense
easily the best on the team. Yeah, is Garland gonna
get top six next year? Is this the man we
need in the bottom six? What are you looking for here?

Speaker 3 (19:10):
And no, I think, yeah, there's a reason that you
look at the top six because I neglect to mentioned
Jake Debruss, But yeah, you look at the You looked
at the four wingers that you can pencil in as
on the top two lines, and it's a pretty decent group. Obviously,
they're leaning a lot on Kane to be the player
he used to be and not the player you worry
he might have become. But yeah, I like Connor Garland.
There's a one of my buddies here co covers the

(19:33):
team why it aren't as the stanchion covers the team
for Canucks Army and always his funny postgame post. And
he's a big fan of just he's the nickname guy
and he calls Connor Garland the Toyota Corolla of the
Vancouver Canucks. He's not flashy, but he runs forever. He
gets it done. But you never have a problem with him.
He's a really solid, just solid player. And Garland has

(19:55):
been a solid producer for this team ever since he
showed up in the Oli rec trade in twenty twenty one.
Mentioned this recently, like in a story I wroud, I
talked about how after that trade happened, it wasn't just
trying to sell the media on Ekman. Larson. Travis Green
let you know, we had a chat about it and
he said, listen, this Garland guy, people need to understand

(20:17):
he is a huge difference maker and he's been exactly
the player they want him to be. He's been reliable,
he's been the Toyota Corolla of this team. He's going
to continue and you note he played more. Again, the
Canucks struggled to generate shots overall. That was about their
inability to get to the middle of the ice. That
was a huge problem. A lot of that was because
Peterson and Miller just simply weren't playing very well at all.

(20:40):
And in the end, Garland is a guy who loves
winning the puck on the boards. He's an amazing four checker.
He knows how to use his short stature to essentially
get under other teams defenseman, turn the puck over, great hands,
great vision. He does sort of crazy things that no
one else imagines you could do, and he's very good
at it.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
Next, I've got Jake Debrusk. You mentioned it came over
from Boston. Pretty much, DoD did what Jake Debrus does.
He hits a lot, takes two shots, kept him on
the ice, skated sixteen minutes, scored in the forty to
fifty range. All those points total only forty seven. His
twenty eight goals led to Vancouver Canucks last year with

(21:20):
above average Yeah, above average shooting too. He's always a
pretty good shooter. Makes you wish he took more than
two shots a game. He's on a long range, middle
class contract with a full no move clause, which I
don't understand. But I'm just some guy. But what do
you make of Debrus this year? How big of a
role is he going to have and what kind of
performance you're expecting.

Speaker 3 (21:40):
Yeah, he was funny again. Another funny story. He's got.
It started a bit slow, but found once he's got
used to line even in the midst of the chaos.
He spoke to Jim jamison ed menton journal recently and
I ended up writing a little thing about that as well,
basically saying I was the man in the middle. He'sat
where and I thought about as soon as he pointed out,
I was like, holy shit, holy you're right, because in
the direct cacuts that Miller was in the corner by

(22:02):
the and then Peterson wasn't far away, and of course
demonstrating with my hands for people listening, which is really great.
But if you think if Miller was at sort of
ten o'clock and Peterson was at midnight, and then debrask
was about trying to think he was more eleven fifteen,
so he was in the middle. He got along with
both of them. He's a very upbeat, very friendly guy,

(22:22):
friendly with anybody he meets, front of the media, friendly
with fans, friendly with his teammates. By the end of
the season, he was doing what they had brought him
into be, which was to be another complimentary scorer. He
scored twenty eight goals, career high knows for the net.
He doesn't. He is an unconventional nose from that kind
of guy. He's not like a he's not a bowl.

(22:44):
He doesn't run over the other guy to get there.
He's certainly not like his dad, who is known more
for his fists than scoring goals. But his dad is
built like this, big shoulder. He is the kind of
nineties tough guy that you expect. Jake is not built
like his dad, but yet he's got smart hands, smart eyes.
He knows where he's going and he knows how to
finish a right. Is he gonna score twenty eight goals again?

(23:07):
I don't think so. They called them career highs for
a reason. But he's a guy that should get you
twenty twenty five goals. And he'll play on the power
play and he'll get top line minutes, you know, probably
playing again with Petterson. He certainly promised time with Patterson.
He expect he'll be back with Petterson. We'll see. That's
the other question, by the way, for Bessar, just to
go back to Bester, who's he gonna play with? He
had a lot of success early in his career with Petterson,

(23:28):
played more than Miller once they reunited at the end
of the season didn't work all that well. So can
he mesh with Philip and Bessar meshed with philipedal, whereas
Debrasco is going to be Debrusk, Petterson and Kane. It's
really going to be interesting to how things shake out.
I think Debrusk had a fair bit of success with Peterson,
although even if Patterson wasn't playing that great, certainly you
can see a world if he plays with Patterson and

(23:48):
Petterson finds his way back to at least that point
per game. Player like Jake Debrusk will get twenty eight
goals again. Maybe he'll set a new career high. But
certainly I think, no matter what, his baseline is going
to be twenty twenty five goals. He's been that through
his career. The Caducts signed to be that guy, and
he has been that guy.

Speaker 4 (24:06):
All right, let's talk about the next guy. Keefer Sarewood
and he became an absolute fantasy darling this season. We
track in our tidy League bash per game, blashots hits
per game. He had eight point zero nine, which ranked
him number one. There was no forward that had more
block shots and hits and keep for Sherewood. Of course,
all fantasy gms probably know this because everyone was clamoring

(24:28):
for him. Of Course, the question we're all asking ourselves
is what's for real? Is this for real? Is he
going to continue to do this? Is he going to
get the ice time? His ice time went up just
a little bit, almost three minutes from last season, but
the priffs came in droves and he scored a little
bit forty two point pace. Isn't bad for someone who's
providing all that perpheral coverage. Do you think there's upside

(24:49):
for even more points or is he overperforming in that
category and he can he continue the priff floor that
he's had, which makes it has made him so valuable?
What do you think? Patrick?

Speaker 3 (24:58):
Yeah, you have such an interesting look. We look at
the numbers, right you look as Curry he's been an
NHL or for a while now, but he's a guy
that scored forty goals in the AHL, right like he
certainly at the next tier down of quality of play,
he knows where the goals are and certainly he had
a hot start here. We saw him doing incredible work
just finding goals, just finish. Now he has not been

(25:24):
that guy for the most part in the NHL. So
to expect him to be that guy again, I think
is unlikely. I would be a little bit careful with
how he plays, because, like I said, they brought in
Evander Kane, He's gonna end up playing top six minutes.
They brought back Brockbesser, They've got cart, we know what
Garland's about, we know what Jacob Rusk is about. So
right there, there's four guys that we are almost certain

(25:45):
are going to play ahead of Sure. Now, if Kane
does not work, there is reason to think Sherwood will
get more ice time. But I just I don't think
you should be convinced of Kee for Surewood as a
top six winger. This is a lineup they really He
was at his best when he was playing as a
third liner, going hard for check, just an aggressive player.

(26:06):
When they signed him away from Nashville in the summer
of twenty twenty four last summer, I was like, this
is a really interesting signing because obviously we saw him
up close in that first round series against Nashville, and
he was a persistent presence, constantly on the pot, constantly
in your face, and he became a fan favorite here

(26:27):
because of that, the way he plays, he will be
given a fair share by side, but he doesn't play
in the power play. He's a guy that's come probably
right now if it lines up the way it is.
He's playing with Autau and like raw, Tu's got some
skill and some potential, but he's a career ahler. Sorry,
that's probably not fair. He's young, but he has not
established himself in the NHL. So Surewood is a guy

(26:49):
that I think is really about. Look who he's playing with.
I'm not sure you want to drop him right off
the top, but certainly a guy to maybe stash, keep
your eye on, see how things develop in this because
le Canucks, like I said, they're still dreaming of getting
that second line center. Sherewood and Heatl is a very
fascinating combination of Hetal gets pushed down the line at
philp Heatle's right now pencil and is the second line center.

(27:10):
He's a speedy player. Obviously concerns about concussions with him,
but when he's in the lineup, he's looked good and
I feel like he's a guy that's a good fit
for sure. But the ice time, like I said, is
still not quite going to be there, and nor is
the power playtime.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
You mentioned Philip Heatel, and he is a big question
mark coming in. There's so many other forwards on this
team who could jump up and do something, but just
for simplicity and hitting some of these top guys, Heatel
and Evander Kaine probably are the next two most relevant players.
I would say for the forward group, which one of
those two would you bet on having a better year?

Speaker 3 (27:46):
The risk it's tough to say. With Hetel, like we
even saw it. He took a head injury. It turned
out be more of a whiplash kind of situation than
the concussion. I'm just so anxious about him that the
comparison is tough to say. I like the play, I
like what he brings, but obviously the concussion history from
New York is a concern. I just I just don't

(28:07):
know what else to think about him, other than, like
I said, he when he's in the lineup, he's an
effective player and he plays in a way that Canucks
didn't have last year. He attacks the middle of the ice.
It's just I just I'm just nervous about him. Again,
a guy maybe to stash and sit and maybe you
can take a take a gamble on him, but he's
not a guy I'm leaning on. Who's the other guy? Sorry,

(28:28):
I just rambled myself about heatel.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
Oh, I was gonna say Vander Kine.

Speaker 3 (28:32):
Yeah, Kane like Kane. Keane's a bit similar. Kane, of
course didn't play it all last season right now was
there ltir involved and they got him in for the playoffs.
My basic impression of Kane is that he's still big
and strong, but he's thirty three, and he is He
struggled when Zach Hyman got hurt in what was it

(28:55):
in the conference finals, right, Kane picked up a lot
of his ice time. He struggled, and he just was
not an effective as effective as perhaps you've seen now.
We saw him obviously a lot in twenty twenty four
in the playoffs and admittedly dealing with injuries. He had
basically every important his shoulders and his hips operated on

(29:17):
before last season. He was dealing with some kind of
some kind of injury or another during the playoffs and
he just was You would see the strength and you'd
see the hands, but he couldn't get there. And so
that's been my consistent concern with him. Canucks clearly believe
that he can make a difference. And like I said,
he's gonna get a ton of time with Eleas Petterson.

(29:38):
He's a guy that if you make a late, late
round bet on, I think that's a good one to make.
I wouldn't go off the top saying this guy's gonna
be a thing. He's not a sure thing, but certainly
his history has been he's going to a contract year,
He's always performed well in contract year. He's always performed
with pressure. I'm just concerned about his age. I'm just
conconcerned about the wear and tear. And the fact is

(29:59):
that he did not he played twenty whatever playoff games
last year. He did not play a regular season. He
will argue, and he did. We asked him about this
when we met with him after the trade. He would
argue that is to his advantage that he's fresher than
he might have been otherwise. But we'll see. He comes in,
he's playing at home. He's firebule playing at home. If

(30:19):
I had to pick one or the other in terms
of taking a bet on him, picking Kane because I
don't think he's going to have concussion issues. But I'm
still anxious about whether he can keep up with the
pace of play, because the criticism of the Canucks last
year too slow. They weren't fast enough like they were
the year before, and like I said, struggle to get
to the midle of the ice. Kane is not a
pot carrier. Kane is a four checker and a finisher.
But if again Patterson lights it up and Kine sticks

(30:42):
with him, there's a guy that could. He'll just be
picking up assists and banging in goals and he'll be
looking pretty good. I'm just again a little bit anxious
about him.

Speaker 4 (30:50):
All right, let's move over to the blue line now,
and of course that means we get to talk about Hughes,
which is a really fun topic. He had another awesome
season ninety two, back to back ninety two a season
which is pretty incredible. The goals per game was up
a little bit, assis down a little bit, categories were
most consistent and the best since last year. He's entering

(31:12):
year five or six of the contract, and of course
we always know Hughes to be a little lighter on press.
Four point zero one bashed per game with ranks him
two hundred and ninth. But when you're getting ninety two
point pace. You're not complaining too much about that, But
do you think we can have this again? Ninety plus point?

Speaker 3 (31:29):
Who's yeah, without a doubt. We're done. We don't even
talk anymore. If you haven't seen Quint Hughes play hockey,
I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know
what to tell you. Quinny Hughes is amazing.

Speaker 5 (31:37):
He is.

Speaker 3 (31:38):
He's a guy that I love to talk about going
back to when he first showed up and you first
started watching him play, and you're just like, this guy's
not a defenseman. He's something else. Because in hockey we
labeled the position based on where you start. I'm a
huge fan of how soccer describes players. They talk about
their role, the way they play. Quinn Hughes is some

(31:59):
kind of point guard's he drives the lane. He is
an absolute sensationally fun player to watch, and he's only
getting better. That's the other crazy thing. And he in
front of him, obviously they're not in the same division.
But we see Klee mccarr all the time, and he's
not personal about it, but he sees Kuail macar all
the time, and he's out there to be even better

(32:20):
than Kyle mccar because he uses him as his primary
rival for future caledor trophies, and he is just Norris trophies,
and he's just a sensational player. He's he is a
as a reporter selfishly, he is a blessing to cover
just to watch him play. The captaincy last year was tough, right,
Like he had to carry a lot of weight. It
was a really tough year. The room was again difficult

(32:44):
to manage. And he's when you're the captain and it's
where the sea as much as I think it's a
public facing element, but in the end, he was looked
to be a leader to set a tone for this
and it wasn't on him. The struggles of the team
weren't on him, but he knew that the sort of
the weight of the team was falling on him, and
I think that drag him down. He's still persevered and
had an incredible season right struggle with some injuries, but

(33:04):
that wasn't necessarily his faults. Yeah, he's gonna come back.
He'll be coming back and he's gonna he is a
slam duck lock to be the among the if not
the top scoring defenseman in the NHL.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
This season, and one other defenseman to talk about. We
got to talk about Philip Peronik. He put up another
very good season in the Vancouver D Corps. Doesn't get
the peripheral stats in big numbers that we fantasy players crave,
but above half per point per game scoring with big minutes,
and a wonderful impact on five offense. Pretty good impact
on five on five d's quite valuable part of his appeal.

(33:40):
He's always playing with Quinn Hughes, which, as he said,
is not a bad place to be. Yeah, miss twenty
one games last year from a lower body injury. Could
we see a scoring bump from heronic or are we
just hoping with health he can put up more of
what he's done these last few years in Detroit and Vancouver.

Speaker 3 (33:56):
Yeah, certainly. The way the defense corp lines up, there's
still some questions whether they'll roll again with that pair.
I think they will. The Petterson Myers dynamic was Tyler
Myers has been an excellent defenseman for this team last
a couple of years, even as he rambles into his
mid to late thirties, he's been a quality player. And
can he play with Marcus Patterson or can you play
with k Hughes. I think more than likely they will

(34:18):
go again with that big bulky which is a funny
thing to say about two small defensemen. But the way
Petters or a Hughes and Coronic play is they play
huge minutes. They play big in those minutes. Hughes had
since the time he even before he made the NHL,
from the time he was drafted, has talked about wanting
to prove to people that he is a good defensive player.

(34:39):
He's not just a guy that puts up points. He's
a strong He's just been outstanding and Heronic benefits from that.
He obviously struggled with injury earlier in the year, and that,
by the way, if you're looking for a moment that
really sank the season. Like I said, I talked about
the centers being terrible, but Heronic suffered an injury in
and around when Miller went out of the lineup, and
that changed everything. The whole balance of the defense corps

(35:02):
was a mess. The team couldn't move the puck up
the ice. Kronik's ability to break the puck out is
an underrated, perhaps not as well as it should be
understood part of his game, and it's not just because
he plays with Hughes. He is a great partner for
Hughes because he hands the hands to do it, and
they play when they're on, they're very up tempo. They're
pushing the play up the ice. So can Ronick put

(35:24):
up pile up a whole bunch more points. I think
he will. I have no reason to think he won't
continue playing with Hughes. There's just picking up assists with
the guy that's the best player on the team. Kind
of element to this. Can he stay healthy, I think
is a fair question. I think he will. He's still
what twenty seven, he's still in the media part of
his career obviously starting. He's starting a new big contract

(35:47):
or sorry, second year of his new big contract. I
should say he's just there's everything they like about this
player and his focus. Two years in a row or sorry,
not two years in a row, because he was it
was two seasons before that. He struggled a bit of
injury coming out of Detroit. His first full season Vancouver
was totally healthy. Last season, struggled again with injury. But
when he's been on he's been great. I think he

(36:09):
should look to him. He's going to get you forty points.
No matter what, he's got thirty three points and sixty
one games. That's a guy that's a reliable producer because
he's playing with one of the best players in the
league and he has the hands to keep up.

Speaker 4 (36:22):
Let's move over to the crease now. The Canucks were
ranked thirteenth and expected goals against for sixty but considered
the eighteenth ranked actual goals a little bit below expected there,
and of course we thought that we were going to
see a lot more of thatch for Demco. He ended
up playing only twenty three games, and the goals save

(36:42):
above expected was a little bit positive for him, and
it was definitely a little bit better for Lankanin, who
ended up getting the line chair and was actually really
quite good in a lot of metrics. Of course, a
lot of people are hoping that Demco comes back and
has the line share of the starts, but there's some
skepticism there, and then there's also they moved she loves.

(37:04):
They have some other goalies in the prospect pipeline, but
really it's going to be these two, assuming Demco stays healthy.
Otherwise we might see another lot of linking in And
so what are we expecting here in the crease for
the Cannucks.

Speaker 3 (37:17):
It's it's a big question, to be perfectly honest. You
look at Demco and the player he's being, and that's
why the Connects resigned him, right They signed him to
an extension starting next season. And if he comes back
and is the guy that he has been, that's is
gonna be again. He's already on a very value, very
valuable contract. He could be that guy again. The question

(37:38):
remains how how he deals with injury, and he has
struggled with injury the last three seasons. Each year he's
had some kind of rather substantial problem. Obviously, he suffered
the Populata's injury muscle injury in his left knee in
at the beginning of playoffs in twenty twenty four and
that kept him from you and preparing for the Sea.

(38:00):
He had off season surgery for another injury going into
the season, didn't even play until December, and he played once.
He found his groove. He was playing pretty well and
then he got hurt again. And so that's the there's
a huge question mark hanging around him now. By all
accounts I've talked to a few people, he's had a
great season preparing. He came back to Vancouver a bit early.

(38:22):
He's already here. I've been skating and preparing for the season.
And the guy has been a Vesna Trophy finalist. Like
the guy has been an outstanding goalie and he believes
he will be that goalie again. He's not a lock though,
as you said, twenty three games like he just had to.
It was a season defined by injury more than anything else.

(38:43):
Kevin Langanon benefited from that and he was a late
the late training camp signing a guy that wasn't even
in their plans at this time last year, although he
had roughly started talking to him about this time of year.
Because they started to realize Depco is not going to
be ready for training camp, they had to start thinking
about what they were going to do because they could
not go into the year with Archer she laws as
they're number one well the GM. Patrick Levigne basically won

(39:07):
a game of chicken against against Lanclan and his agent,
eventually getting him to accept that there were no other
offers out there and that what the Canucks had on
the table and what the best they could join another
gap that was on the table was what he was
gonna have to go with and then Lankton played really well,
was originally in the tandem, which she loves, struggled. The
one thing what Lancan is as his season went along

(39:28):
and he was starting to be leaned on to play
more and more, he has not been a true number
one starter since he came to the NHL. His game
started a waiver and you started seeing, truthfully why he's
generally been a backup in the NHL. He just doesn't
seem to have quite the sort of performance durability, no
injury concerns, but just that ability to repeat the repeat

(39:49):
the moves. And you're looking at a year now where
almost certainly the Canucks are gonna have to look to
Demco to play less than he has before. This is
a guy that used to pride himself on getting to
sixty to sixty five. It starts in the season. I
think you're looking at like fifty starts at best. It's
a really true one to one a situation with him
in lank and Lanknon could get thirty five, thirty thirty

(40:13):
thirty something starts. So it's not a great situation. Again,
but as I've said, if you're a personally wants to
make a bet. Depko is not a bad guy to
bet on, just because of the fact we know what
he's been before. But that said, there's question marks because
he's struggled with durability, especially and especially so last season.

Speaker 2 (40:34):
The Canucks might be good this year, they might be bad,
but either way they will be darn entertaining Patrick. They
always always great interest and I would suggest to people
that they use you as the way to follow all
those things. How can people follow your writings on the Canucks,
your presence on social media, et cetera.

Speaker 3 (40:56):
Yeah, I'm not doing too much social media these days.
I occasionally pop on a Blue sk I got to
tell some jokes and linked to my stories. But yeah,
you can always find me on email. P Johnston at
postmedia dot com. My stories are at the Province dot
com and elsewhere. They seem to spread far and wide.
So yeah, I'm always happy to chat always to answer
to your questions. And if you find me on blue Sky,
I'm at Rising Action, Bluespeasguy dot social. That's the best

(41:18):
place to find me. I do have a Twitter still there,
but I'm not using it, so don't even try.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
All right, Thank you, Thank you, for coming on and
talking Canucks with us.

Speaker 3 (41:27):
Patrick, take care guys.

Speaker 2 (41:29):
Thanks, that's good fired pat O, My goodness. Long with
a cat we grab Now it's your Wakley goalie talk.
But Kat Silverman, Kat's.

Speaker 5 (41:49):
Instincts then once again for Kats and sings with Kat
Silverman at Ben gool Mag we're talking Canucks goalies and
we're talking.

Speaker 3 (41:57):
I think this is the first.

Speaker 5 (41:58):
Time we've talked about these guys on the show. And
that's Nikita Tolopilo. He's the first carotis twenty five years old,
six foot six, two hundred and twenty nine pounds, not drafted.
He just completed his second HL season for the Abbospher Canucks,
the Calder Cup champion atmosphert Canucks.

Speaker 3 (42:13):
I'll have you know then most of that.

Speaker 5 (42:15):
Was she loves at, not Telopilo, who was responsible for
them all. But he did get into one game there
and these and she losses off to Pittsburgh. So what
are your instincts telling you about tolo Pilo?

Speaker 6 (42:29):
I he took me by surprise. In all honesty, I
did not expect the Canucks to consider him a clear
cut part of their organization. I thought that he was
there really just kind of fill in the depth chart,
and they had him play two games at the NHL
level last year, which is really cool for him. So
I don't really know if he is what they want

(42:52):
long term. I think he's a lot of fun to watch.
I think I don't know, but that's a really tough
one for me. The Canucks are another team that had
kind of in flux with their goaltending. I don't know
if that's something that will change anytime soon. That being said,
I would love to see maybe one more season split

(43:16):
between Abbotsford and Vancouver for him. I don't think he's
ready to move up to the NHL full time. He
did do a really good job, though He's got a
little bit more agility than I was expecting from him
when I watched his first couple of games when I
was trying to get a feel for how he plays,
and he showed that he can elevate his game a
little bit more. And even though his first two games

(43:38):
with the Canucks were fine, not elite, he did a
really good job of beholding his own and then he
did a pretty good job last year in the AHL,
even though his numbers weren't the best in the league.
They certainly weren't bad, and they looked fairly consistent. To me,
I would love to see what he can do with

(44:00):
more consistent NHL time. So I'd love to see, like
I said, not a full time NHL shift, but almost
more of a fifty to fifty split right there.

Speaker 5 (44:07):
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (44:08):
I think he could be a surprise for them. I
really wish the Canucks would draft and develop, but it
is nice that they do sometimes find those kind of
surprising slightly older goaltenders. He's not that old yet, but
he will be twenty six before this season is over,
and that to me really brings up the only red
flag that I have, which is he is six foot
six and two hundred and thirty pounds and he is

(44:29):
almost twenty six. And I would say usually once we
get into those really big goaltenders, you start to see
more rest and recovery, more stretching needed in order to
keep playing with that extra surprising bit of agility that
he has, you need a little bit more both before
and after every single game that they play, the closer

(44:50):
they get to thirty, and this year he will tip
onto the wrong side of that, so unfortunately that moves
him into does he become an injury risk territory, which
I feel nervous saying that. For Canucks fans, I think
that's their worst four letter word. But that is the

(45:10):
only thing that I would probably watch out for with
him is as he ages, if they increase his workload,
will that cause an impact with his conditioning and agility?

Speaker 5 (45:19):
Essentially you've alluded to it the Canucks, and that's a
Demko who's a great goalie when healthy, does have injury issues.
What happens if Demko gets injured? Lancan In does okay,
but maybe he falters a bit. Are they happy? Can
they contend with Tolapilo as part of that tandem with
Lancannin or is it or is he not?

Speaker 3 (45:41):
In that sort of conversation.

Speaker 6 (45:45):
I think he should be fine, but that is where,
like I said, I worry about him for injuries. I
still don't really have a ton of faith in Kevin
Lincoln's consistency. I know that's something that we've talked about
back when he was still more of a prospect. He
has surprised us and turned into a serviceable NHLer, but

(46:07):
he doesn't have the consistency year over year that I
would love to see, and Demco's injury history is I
would argue, the worst among true de facto starters in
the NHL. And so my guess is that at some
point they are going to need to start cycling potentially

(46:28):
that three goaltender cycle where they have one guy that's
serving as the backup, one guy that's waiting in the wings,
potentially use some rest in recovery, maybe even split Lankanin
and Tolapilo as like a thirty thirty split, and then
use Demco as what forty percent of the season tops,

(46:54):
potentially backloading him towards the end of the season, which
ideally that would put them in a good position because
then they can always drop Telapillo back down to the
ahel if they need to use him for a playoff run,
and have a healthy Demco for a postseason, which would
be nice for another Western Canadian team to have. But

(47:17):
I don't know, I really don't know.

Speaker 4 (47:20):
Ringing endorsement from Katz, Let's move on to the next guy,
and that is Alexey Medveded. He's seventeen years old, six
with three hundred and eighty one pounds, Drafted forty seventh
overall on twenty twenty five. Interesting too that his draft day,
his birthdate is literally five days away from being eligible
for following there for the next draft, so he's super

(47:43):
young for this draft class, and he was ranked by
many as one of the best goalies in twenty twenty five.
He played not in Russia during his draft season.

Speaker 3 (47:52):
He actually played.

Speaker 5 (47:53):
For the London Knights, the Ohl Memorial champ London Knights,
and he had great numbers there, but it was mostly
twenty one year old undrafted Austin Elliott who started around
half the games are in the regular season in all
the Memorial Cup games. So interesting to see that he
was in that tandem. Maybe now is an important part

(48:14):
this year. Anyways, looking at hockey prospecting, he'd had about
twenty five percent chance of being a starter. So there's
some decent comps in there, like the Manny Fernandez, it's
one of them, the cat. What are your instant to
tell us about it? Let's say, Menvin, I.

Speaker 6 (48:25):
Am really excited to see what he can do. Like
you said, he is one of the youngest goaltenders in
his draft class, one of the youngest players in his
draft class. He has a birthday the same week as
Austin Matthews and my daughter, which is a real fun
little stretch where essentially they can wait and essentially declare

(48:47):
themselves eligible as a overager if they need to, and
it doesn't really hurt them. But he looked good enough,
at least from what I saw to have been in
this draft class. He is one of the second round
and drafted goalies that I do think belonged to there.
I think the biggest thing that I noticed with him
is that he's smart. Which is not to say that

(49:09):
other goaltenders that we have watched are not smart. I
would like to put that out there. All goaltenders are smart.
They're all intelligent. But the way that he was reading
the puck, the way that he was anticipating plays, the
way that he was adjusting as his team was adjusting
throughout the season looked really good to me. He's got
a lot of physical skill, his technique looks pretty good.

(49:31):
He's got a lot of speed. But it was his
overall hockey I hate using the term hockey iq, but
it was because hockey iq that really made him stand
out to me. He looked like he understood when he
needed to elevate his game. Throw in some desperation saves
be a little bit more aggressive and when to be

(49:51):
a little bit more patient, which is something that sometimes
sixs goaltenders a little bit to learn. But yeah, they
certainly don't need to rush him, like we were just saying.
They technically have a very serviceable tandem when healthy at
the NHL level, so it's not like they need to.

(50:13):
It's not like they need to hope that when he
is old enough to.

Speaker 2 (50:17):
Go pro.

Speaker 6 (50:19):
That he will immediately be ready for the NHL, And
since he is so young, he is a ways off.
But that is nice for them that they have this nice,
lengthy development period where they can watch, they can see
what adjustments need to be made, they can see if
they need to draft anyone else to slot in ahead
of him. It puts them in a good position in theory.
I think the Canucks are a team that tends to

(50:42):
draft goaltenders really well and then just do really bizarre
things with their lineup, so I never really know what's
going on with their goaltending situation. But all things considered,
I think that this puts them in a good probably
five or six years down the road, this potentially puts
them in a really good spot to have more of

(51:03):
a seamless transition from the Thatcher Dumco era without needing
that kind of the struggle that the Chicago Blackhawks went through,
I guess is the best team to use as an
example where they lose their legacy starter kind of fall
into a black hole of sadness for anywhere between three
and five years before they're able to get their feet

(51:23):
under them again. I think this puts them in a
little bit of a more seamless position.

Speaker 5 (51:28):
I like it don't rush the Russian and also I
like how you recover from almost having your bully park there.

Speaker 3 (51:34):
That was pretty nice.

Speaker 6 (51:36):
I feel like I recovered really nicely there.

Speaker 5 (51:40):
Well, then, thanks guy for giving me user instincts on
the Vancouver.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
Cook Bullies will be back right after this. The Dynasty

(52:03):
dig Vancouver Canucks. Victor Nuno. The Vancouver Canucks. What are
they doing in terms of their prospect system? They are
number twenty six. It's not looking good, so good, but
at least they are the one prospect system who has
a no brainer prospect of whom our resident opera singer
has a song of tune?

Speaker 3 (52:24):
Who is it? Victor?

Speaker 4 (52:26):
Yeah, I am assuming that you have just played that
amazing drop.

Speaker 2 (52:30):
By if I can find it, if I can find it.

Speaker 4 (52:33):
Yes, Melle Lukara Maki is the thing to say on.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
Umber right Why in Christmas?

Speaker 4 (52:41):
Johnny Lcari Macki is our no brainer for Vancouver twenty
twenty two first round pick, fifteenth overall, five eleven hundred
and seventy two pounds. It was his first full season
in North America, where he primarily played for the Calder
Cup champion Abbotsford Canucks, so that's pretty great. He had
their twenty eight points and thirty six games for the
Abbey Canucks, and then another seven and sixteen playoff games,

(53:04):
so that's pretty nice. He did get into some NHL action.
He scored his first goal, in fact, his first three
goals and had six points in twenty four games. Overall,
not as exciting as you would have liked. I know
some people were really excited. I was really excited to
see his first couple of games, but in typical Lacarry
Mackie fashion, he was invisible for a lot of those games.

(53:24):
And that's the problem with him is that he shows
up and does some really cool things sometimes and then
oftentimes doesn't really do anything. And so that's going to
continue to be the issue with Lacara Mackie, and hopefully
he can push forward to have a little bit more
all around impact. I have my FHL player card for
his AHL time, and one of the things you can
see is that his course and Fenwick all that looks

(53:47):
pretty good. Overall, his play driving is a little closer
to average. His periffs aren't great except that he shoots
a ton. He shoots a ton. His hits and blocks
are very low. So if you like shots then great.
If you like other priffs, no, And if you want pims,
I'm sorry, I go somewhere else because he doesn't really
do that. But mainly, the main thing that looks green

(54:07):
on this whole card is his shooting as what you
would expect. That's his calling card, his shot, his expected goals.
A lot of these other metrics don't really have data
because he doesn't take a lot of He doesn't pass
a lot, so passes the slot, accurate passes, those kinds
of things. There's just nothing there because he doesn't do
that a lot. So overall I have him at a
six point sixty six sixty six percent chance of being

(54:28):
a just above average roster player and that's the thing.
He might score twenty five thirty goals in the NHL,
but he also might only get fifteen assists. Think of
Kirol Marchenko from a couple of years ago when he
won the cy young and barely had any assists. That's
what Lakaramaki could end up be like, except we saw
Marchenko's assists come around. I'm not sure that Lara Carmack

(54:50):
is going to do that. He might, maybe he'll develop
more of a playmaking He hasn't really yet, but let's
hear what else he's developed. Jesse from our ever retail scout, If.

Speaker 2 (54:59):
A chill s out, Craig says of Jonathan Lcarrymakey skated
his average does have the ability to burn defenders wide,
but doesn't have the standout speed to make him a
difference maker. The passing is below average, but he's the
type of player that will double his assists with goals.
The handling is slightly above average. When he has time
and space, he can dance around defenders, and when he's

(55:20):
under pressure he usually ends up turning the puck over
shooting above average. Enjoys lining up in the OVA line
a circle, rebranding and letting the one time or rip. However,
the accuracy and power is nowhere close to the above
mentioned IQ below average. He does succeed when time and
space are available, but Craig saw too many examples of

(55:40):
Lakaraimakey throwing the puck away or making a poor decision
when under any sort of pressure. The fore checking was
average able to use cause the odd turnover by being
in the passing lane, and he through the occasional hit
as well. Defense average. Being a winger, nothing really stuck
out defensively. As mentioned before, he does turn the puck
over went under pressure, which might push him down to

(56:02):
the below average range. So the best asset was the
shot and the goal scoring ability the biggest concern, Craig says,
one dimensional style of play. If he's not scoring goals,
he's not going to be doing much else. The top
tier outcome Tier two sixty point guy slightly below average BASH.
If it all breaks for him and he can land
in a top six roll, the goals will come. The

(56:25):
median outcome Tier three fifty to sixty points also below
average BASH, because he definitely has the ability to get
a shot in the top six, but Craig doesn't think
twenty minutes a game is going to be there with
this type of game style istic comparable, Craig says, he
reminds him of a Daniel Sprong. The goal scoring is there,
but that's about it, and Mason Black the NHL ranking,

(56:47):
doesn't mess around. He puts Lacari Maki up against Cole
Isserman of the New York Islanders. Eiserman edges out Lacarry
Maki in this case fifty nine to forty one percent. Victor,
do you agree?

Speaker 4 (57:01):
I agree that Mason is really good at these comparables,
because actually these guys are quite a bit like. The
off puck issues are what continued to surround these two,
and we haven't really seen that develop much from Lakaramaki.
I think I would go Izerman here just because he
has more time to develop that we haven't seen as much.
He's not as far down the funnel Lakaramaki. It's been

(57:22):
several years now and we continue to not really see
much of a B game and much of a playmaking
much of an off puck game. Ierman has been told
is he says he's working on it. We'll see. We
saw some of that flashes of it. Maybe he can
be more consistent, So sure, I'll go with Izerman. Both
of these guys are prototypes that aren't my favorite, but
I know for some people they really like them, so

(57:43):
maybe I can Maybe you could grab them and trade
them to someone who likes them a lot more. Looking
at the Hockey prospecting between the two, I Lakaramaki finished
the model in just six percent chance of being a star,
and Ierman started the model it's seventy two percent chances
of being a star and went down to fifty eight,
so still very high. He's got some pretty nice comparables.
His two main comps in this model are Clayton Keller

(58:05):
and Vincent la Caavier, which would be pretty amazing for
col Eiserman, so clearly leaning Ierman in the Hockey Prospecting model.
If you look at Cole Eierman's FHL player card, you
see a lot better play driving and transition game. There's
also quite a bit more bash. He hits a lot
and his shots are really good. His blocks are not
so good, but overall his bash should be pretty good.

(58:26):
And he takes a lot of pims if you like that,
some sort of thing sometimes at really an opportune times.
But he does do a fair amount of that, and
his playmaking quite a bit better than Lakara Maaki's, so
this card shows a better improvement. Even though I have
him at a six point sixty three, which is just
slightly below Lakaramaki, I should probably outdate that because I
do think I would take Ierman between the two. Looking

(58:48):
at other comps for Lakaramaki, there's a Riley Smith, a
Ryan Donato. I think that's probably the range that he
ends up with. Guys that aren't really strong off puck
or defensively, but their offense is good enough to be
a regular middle sixer, and I think that's what we
could see from la Karamaki looking at his J Fresh cards.
Six percent chance of being a star, fifty six percent
chance of being in NHLer. That's what we expect from Jfresh.

Speaker 2 (59:12):
Who is your need to know prospect?

Speaker 4 (59:15):
Need to know prospect is Braydon Coots just a great
name for one thing. Twenty twenty five, first round, fifteenth overall,
six foot oh, one hundred and eighty five pounds. I
remember the draft thinking that they passed on the Swede,
on Victor Eckland. They passed on a couple guys, but
the more I talk to the Western scouts, the more
I realized how much they really like this guy. And
it makes sense. He does a lot of really good things.

(59:37):
He might be a center, and I think that's something
that weighed into this heavily is that Braiden Coots certainly
seems like he might be able to play drive enough
to stay down the middle. He's a six foot oh
one hundred and eighty five pound right shot center wing.
He was with the Seattle Thunderbirds this past season sixty
three points in sixty games, really strong production. He was
the captain, which is pretty unusual for a draft eligible player,

(01:00:00):
so you like to see that. You look at his
tracking data from Mitch Brown, offense, defense, transition, all in
the eighties, all really solid. The lowest thing is probably
his shots and his net expected goals, but his primary
assists were high. His transition game excellent, His space creation,
which is a whole category that Mitch has, boards to
the middle and advantages created off puck assist, proactive contact,

(01:00:21):
all of those things are excellent for Brandon Coots. And
I think that's part of it too, is that he
is a physical player. If you look at the FHL
player card. You can see his bash at eighty five percent,
so he shoots a fair amount. He also blocks a
ton and he hits a lot, so all across the
board he's pretty excellent for that. His pims are about average,
but his play his transition game is excellent. His play

(01:00:42):
driving is pretty good, and his prefs are good. He
takes a lot of face offs and wins most of them,
so that's all pretty good. I have him had a
six point one five just because I want to see
another step. I think part of it depends on how
his WHL team fares this season, but he should be
really good and be able to take the next step.
Let's see what else can learn about Braidon Kots From
FHL scout Jesse.

Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
Craig says, a Braiden Koots average skater good on edges,
shows you can keep up on the backcheck not the
type to burn defenders wide.

Speaker 4 (01:01:11):
Though.

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
Passing and handling average Coots is always thinking one step ahead.
The puck is usually on and off his stick with
one touch passes. The shooting average able to pick a
few corners in the games that Craig watch. However, these
games were at the UA teams in the amount of
time he had won't be there at the higher levels.
That being said, when he was able to shoot the
puck with pace and given the opportunity, he could finish.

(01:01:35):
IQ Hockey IQ above average plays the game a step
ahead of everyone else on the ice with very little panic,
noses next move or pass before the defender gets to him,
and the ford checking is above average, isn't afraid to
get into the corners and throw his body around. The
hit should come in slightly above average defense. Also, above
average game reminds Craig a lot of Fraser Minton, not

(01:01:59):
going to create a ton offensively, but will control the
play and limit opposing chances. The best asset then the
two way game. That'll be his ticket to the NHL,
although it limits him to a middle six role. The
biggest concern no real concerns other than for fantasy the
points will never quite pour in the top tier outcome
then tier two sixtieth point upside with good peripherals, good

(01:02:23):
bash if he can translate and get the ice time
that he would need, and the lower tier outcome would
be a bit lower than that. Maybe we're last f
fifty points with average bash. That's because he's likely going
to find himself in the third line role in that
scenario with limited upside and limited ice time and the
stylistic comparable Adam Lowry is what Craig is going to

(01:02:43):
say the NHL ranking Mason Black, what did he say?
Braiden Koot's up against Cole Rashney, a Calgary Flame selection
in this same class, and boy, Rashne took this one
pretty handily, sixty six to thirty four percent. Victor, what
say you?

Speaker 4 (01:03:05):
I did say all those nice things about Brandon Kotz
and it's unfortunately he had to go up against Cole
Reshnie because I agree this is a slam down. Cole
Reshnie is in another league. I think he doesn't necessarily
have the bash that Kotz does. I think he's gonna
be kots will definitely be a better bacher. But Rashnie
has elite points upside. He's one of the few guys
in this whole draft that I think has point per

(01:03:25):
game upside. So that is gonna send him to a
different echelon. Well, he had a really good draft season,
did Rashnee for the Victoria Royals, and he was almost
a point a half per game there, pretty awesome stuff
in the playoffs as well, and he is leaving to
go to Nodak. I think that's really gonna help his

(01:03:45):
development too. He's a little bit undersized at five eleven
hundred and eighty five pounds, but he plays pretty physically.
He at least proactively with some of his contacts, so
I think that he can he can take the next step,
and I wouldn't be surprised if he had a ton
of points at no Dak. So I like Restnie here.
I like both these guys. If you're more of a
bangers league, I think it might be close, and maybe

(01:04:08):
you would lean Kots, but I think that I would
still take Cole Rashnie because the points upside is so
much higher. If you look at the hockey prospecting between
the two, Coots had eleven percent chance of being star
based on his draft season, Rashnee up to forty percent,
about four times as much. That's a lot. If you
look at his FHL player card, Rashnie was pretty good
in transition. His play driving was good. His bash only

(01:04:28):
at sixtieth percentiles, so a little bit weaker on the
blocks and hits, but really good for shots and his
pims were a little bit higher, So all in all
I have him at at seven point one. Oh, so
he's one of the few guys in this draft class
I had at a seven. Looking at some other comms
for Brandon Kotz, there aren't a whole lot of good ones.
Conor McMichael is one that he might look like Devin Satagucci.

(01:04:49):
So there's some Austin Watson, some guys in there that
there's a range. Looking at the j fresh card for
Coots six percent chance of being a star, twenty eight
percent chance of being in NHL or Jesse and Victor.

Speaker 2 (01:05:00):
Who is to keep your eye on prospect.

Speaker 4 (01:05:03):
Keep your eye on is sire Mineo. He is a
twenty twenty three to third round pick, six one hundred
and eighty one pound left handed d He played this
season in the WHL for the Calgary Hitman. He was
started with the Seattle Thunderbirds and then he was traded
to Calgary. Had pretty close to a point per game.
He was a little bit over with Seattle and he

(01:05:24):
was on that World Junior team for Canada, and so
an up and down season. Didn't maybe have as many
points as he would have thought, but he did have
trade in the middle, so that was a little disruptive.
He should be in the HL next season, and so
looking at that. Looking at his FHL player card, you
can see the sire Mineo pretty good in transition except

(01:05:44):
with dumping and dump out, but the arrest of it
pretty good. The fenwick good, the loose puck recovery very good,
the net expected goals and course he not quite as
good peripheral contribution hit and miss with Mineo. The shots
are good, the blocks are average, the hits are not
very good, so overall seventy percentile for Bash. But the
passing and the shooting all look really good for him.

(01:06:06):
We'll see if he can translate it. I'm not convinced.
I think he can be an average roster player, which
is why I have him at a five point three
to five. But let's hear a little bit more about
him from our FHL scout Jesse Sawyer.

Speaker 2 (01:06:17):
Mineo is Craig's discuss. He this time skating below average,
able to hold his own and push offenders wide on
the rush, but when it came to racing for the
puck he often lost the race. The passing and handling
slightly below average. Didn't see a lot of puck control
from him, as he often deferred the puck to a
close by teammate rather than making something happen himself. The

(01:06:41):
few times he did try a long stretch pass at
lacked pace and was intercepted, the shooting slightly below average.
The few times he did get a shot off at
good pace, but often getting blocked on the way to
the net. The hockey IQ average anticipates the offense next
move and able to hold them to the outside, venting
any real scoring chances. Satya doesn't do anything flashy to

(01:07:04):
really stand out or show his panic or poise under
pressure for checking. Mineo throws minimal heads and when he
does is more of just a ruboff. His small stature
needs to bulk up to have any hope for the
NHL and the defense average able to use this body
positioning to hold offensive players to the outside, but being
a smaller stature, he isn't able to clear bodies around

(01:07:26):
the net. The best asset maybe his ability to stay
back and cover for an offensive minded defender. Honestly, there
isn't much here for fantasy relevance is Craig's bottom line
and the biggest concern. Lots but if he had to
choose just one, he'd go with the lack of strength.
We see NHL teams loading up with bigger and stronger defenders,
and Mineo just doesn't fit this current mold. The top

(01:07:48):
tier outcome, yeah, tier three, sixth or seventh defenseman with
limited peripherals, and that's because Craig didn't see any offense
and minimal peripherals, very little bash and the fiftieth percentile
of the median outcome career AHL guy with limited NHL
time because Craig just doesn't see an NHL player here,

(01:08:09):
and it will be a depth role to play a
minimum role. And the stylistic comparable is going to be
Ian Mitchell, the NHL Mason King, Mason black Sler, Mineo,
Terrence Smith. The selection of the Anaheim Ducks is up
against him. Smith is the big winner this time, sixty
to forty percent.

Speaker 4 (01:08:30):
What you think, Yeah, I'm probably going to take Terren Smith.
If there's one thing that holds true is that Anaheim
knows had a draft defenseman, So in general, you're probably
going to take the Duck when you can. And Smith
had a really good season for Everett. He is a
six to two hundred ninety pounds left handed d so
similar league, and he was able to have a little

(01:08:50):
bit better production. He was assistant captain there for Everett.
We should see him there again. And overall there pn
Itchley is similar, so is their hockey prospecting with Smith's
just been a little bit above that. And you look
at his FHL player card and there's a lot more green.
There's a little bit better production across the board. His
bash is even better at eightieth percentile, his blocks and

(01:09:11):
hits are closer to average, and his shots are good.
I have him at a six point thirty four, so overall, yeah,
I just like him a little bit more. Looking at
some other CompCert Sier Mineo Jordan Harris is probably a
reasonable one who we're seeing kind of struggle to stay
afloat in the NHL. He might be closer to a tweiner,
so that might be where Mineo ends up. Looking at
the j Fresh card for Mineo, one percent chance of

(01:09:34):
being a start, eighteen percent chance of being an NHL
are so pretty pessimistic there, Jesse. That's all for the
Vancouver Canucks dig. If you're a patroon, you can listen
to my top ten prospect Recap on Patreon, and if
you're interested in doing any scouting or helping out the show,
shoot me a DM on Twitter, Discord, or email us.

Speaker 2 (01:09:50):
Come right back close.

Speaker 5 (01:09:52):
Up the show.

Speaker 2 (01:10:01):
Before I Levia, I would be remiss not to mention
that our show's sponsored by fantracks dot com, where you
can play all your fantasy leagues nine different sports. You
can move leagues over there, you can start new leagues,
you can do slow drafts, you can do look at
rookie drafts, You've got all kinds of you can do salaries, contracts.
Is all extremely customizable, so if you haven't used it before,

(01:10:22):
I would recommend it. And yes there is an app.
There is an app that you can play your fan
track sports on and there is also content that comes
out from the fan tracks people. You can see their
articles on fantasy hockey and other sports. We thank all
the people who help make fantasy hockey life possible by
contributing their time and energy to it. The tidy leagues

(01:10:44):
which you heard about at the beginning of the show,
are an enormous amount of effort, and thank goodness for
Tim who's really stepped up this offseason and to the
whole Commissioner Crew, Simon, Ryan, and Craftzer for their work
in making these things happen. Tony and Patrick are lead
scouts and make things happen like the scouting reports you
heard today. Mike, Steven and Matt are doing behind the

(01:11:08):
scenes work for these show prep the sheets that Victor
and I use for our interviews and for the Dynasty
dig Brandon helps with website prospect ranks and visualizations. If
you have skills you'd like to lend the show, hit
Victor up in the discord, email or social media. We're
also brought to you by Dabra Hockey Dapper Prospects, Victors
and Editor. There you can follow us work. I do
a solo show called Dynasty Sports Life. I talk about

(01:11:30):
four different sports and you should have a listen. Social media,
you can follow us Jesse Severe and v one Victor
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(01:11:53):
Until next time, keep living that fantasy hockey life.

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Fantasy Hockey Life Ep. 427 Vancouver Canucks with Patrick Johnston

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