October 26, 2025 • 52 mins
Early in the season, what do we think about some young players and prospects trying to establish themselves in the NHL? Hear Victor and Jesse discuss Penguins prospects Rutger McGroarty, Emil Pieniniemi, Sergei Murashov, Ben Kindel, Artus Silovs and Owen Pickering. We also talk Buffalo Sabres prospects Konsta Helenius, Jake Richard, Noah Ostund, Isak Rosen, and Radim Mrtka. Have a listen! Our show is part of the Dobber Podcast Network and sponsored by Fantrax.com. Email fantasyhockeylife@gmail.com and ask to join our free discord. Join our Patreon at Patreon.com/fantasyhockeylife for rankings, bonus podcasts, in-depth prospect reports with video, show notes and more. Check out our YouTube for more prospect videos at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQPYVXp3foOcvh7344fjKmA. Listen and subscribe wherever podcasts are posted - and give us 5 stars! We want to be your best place to talk about the game of dynasty fantasy hockey
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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.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Block off hot a step hit on, staylock.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Here's your hosts, Jesse Severe and Victor Nuno Fantasy Hockey Live.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Jesse Severe over here from Fantracks over there, the Fantasy
Hockey Doctor, the man who writes for everywhere fantasy hockey
is spoken, Victor Nunia.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
How you doing, Victor?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I'm great, Jesse. That's right. Everywhere, everywhere you could possibly imagine,
is all right? How are you doing? My friend?
Speaker 3 (00:43):
On the walls of bathrooms. You can find it sometimes
up on billboards everywhere. No, No, Victor is a very
good writer of fantasy hockey and fantasy aspects, which is
what we're going to leverage today. Because Victor has been
writing a lot of good stuff about prospects. I want
to quiz him on some of that. But before we
get there, the Fantasy Hockey Life Discord is always a
(01:06):
place where you can have conversations about fantasy hockey. You
can find things that Victor writes there. He just writes
comments and chats. That's good stuff too, And occasionally I
do but more importantly the listeners do because they're very
smart people, and you can get that by email in
this Fantasy Hockey Live at gmail dot com, victor anything
else before we get rolling on this one.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Oh, let's get into it. I'm excited to talk about
these players.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
All right, let's take a brief break, come back and
talk to some players.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Victory.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
You've been writing for mckeans lately, one of the big
old hockey places about some dynasty stock watch. It's a
comparables of buys and sells, which is something we love
talking about on the show. So this gives us some
grist for the mill to talk about a few fantasy
prospects that people ought to be paying attention to lately.
(02:04):
How's this assignment been going for you so far?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, it's been great. Rob McCain's approached me with an
idea to write something, asking what I wanted to write,
and I was thinking, you know, I think it would
be good to just do a team by team analysis
of where the prospects are at, but not just like
every prospect, but in terms of what the trend might be,
because I find that to be more helpful rather than
(02:29):
just like a grade. It's who's trending in the right
direction or the wrong direction. Who might you want to
move off of or buy. So it's really a buy sell,
watch and team by team, and it's going to happen
all throughout the year, So what you might be thinking
preseason early on in the season might be different in
the middle towards the end. And that's all kind of
(02:51):
baked into it, and they'll shift a little bit throughout
the season. And it's usually three or four of each
category getting autonomy to to do it how I want,
which I really appreciate. And it's really great stuff. I
really have been enjoying it. Hopefully people have been too.
I know the first few were open access. I think
eventually it's going to go behind a paywall, but I
(03:12):
encourage you to subscribe to mcckein's. It's a great service.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Yeah, very cool. Yeah, as you said, it focuses on
specific teams a specific times. Today, we're going to talk
about a couple of teams that may be looking for
some prospects to contribute an't though they're not off to
awful starts this season. The Pittsburgh Penguins in the Buffalo Sabers,
so the players are going to discuss will largely cluster
around those franchises and we'll start over in Pittsburgh. So
(03:37):
the first guy on this list Victor Rutger McGroarty. He's
been a bit of an enigma for the Old Pens.
He was traded from Winnipeg a year ago. He was
frustrated over the likelihood of playing time, and probably was
right to be so, because the President's Trophy Winnie Jets
had a pretty deep NHL squad. I don't know how
much time he would have got there. The former US
(03:58):
World Junior's U twenty goal medal winning captain, however, only
got eight games in Pittsburgh spent the rest of his
year in wilkes Bury in the EHL instead of Manitoba.
Your taste may vvery on wilkes Bury versus Manitoba. He
had thirty nine points in sixty games. He starts this
season injured with an upper body injury, though he's back
(04:18):
at practice a recording time. I think he is supposed
to play for the big club. And Mason Black put
out a poll for US of Rutger McGroarty versus Easton
Cowen of the Toronto Maple Leafs and wouldn't you know it.
Maybe it's the name recognition, maybe it's the latent talent
that we're waiting to break out. But Rutger McGroarty still
won that one fifty six to forty four percent. So Victor,
(04:40):
do you agree on this result? And why do you
want in on this one now?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah? I think it's a good one, and yeah, thanks
to Mason in addition to the articles and the players
we'll talk about on the podcast. Coming from the article,
I think it adds more context for Mason to put
out the poll and so that's really useful to to
compare one to another, and he always does a good
job at these. I think I would take McGroarty here.
(05:06):
It's a little bit of a difficult decision. Cawen was
awesome last year for the Memorial Cup winning London Knights.
He was just every metric you could look at, he
was pretty great except I guess maybe his bash isn't
as high as some people would like. But in terms
of his play, driving, his puck, battles, his course, he
(05:26):
his own entries and exits, all that was so good
in the OHL and it'll be interesting to see what
happens with him as he transitioned professionally. He has played
a few games for the Maple Leafs. It seems like
they want to ease him in there, but he also
is old enough that he could be going to the AHL,
so we'll see about that. But I think that Easton
is one of these guys who in the juniors is
(05:48):
a scorer and a high producer. But I think as
he moves up the ranks, he's probably going to be
just more of a guy, more of a middle to
bottom six guy who is very versatile and can play
a lot of different roles, but might end up just
paying playing a sort of complimentary top nine role. McGroarty,
I do have him ranked higher. I have him at
a seven point three four and kind of want to
have at a six point three to two, and so
(06:10):
both similarly likelihood to hit that. With McGroarty, though, I
just think there's a little bit more of that intangible
factor you mentioned. He was the captain of that World
junior team, and I think that there's a lot to
be I don't know that every captain really has all
those things, but I think he's definitely a good example
of he's the passionate leader that people follow and will
he eventually be the next captain of the Penguins. I
(06:31):
don't know, but he has those sort of intangible qualities,
and he's been captain at multiple levels places that he's
been and he did have a good AHL season after
he went down three nine points in sixty games, although
I will point out that some of his underlying metrics
were not very good in terms of his play driving,
which kind of feeds into my narrative here, which I
think McGroarty is one of these guys who's going to
(06:53):
produce despite maybe not having all the tools. He's just
a hard and soul kind of guy who just defies
the odds. He does give pretty good Perferle coverage, even
though he's maybe not the highest end skilled kind of guy.
I think he has a high floor, and I think
he can play with those really smart, creative, talented players,
and so I think he dictates the top six spot
(07:14):
when the time comes and you shouldn't have to wait
too long, and the Perferle floor is there. So I
think all those things mixed together, I think I would
prefer McGroarty here, even though maybe the high end upside
is higher for Cowan. I'm just I'm not sure that
he's going to be able to reach it. And I'm
not really taking too much into account the team here,
(07:35):
but I also think if you factor that, and I
think it even more leans McGroarty because there's more space
with the Penguins. It's more crowded in the top six
in Toronto. So for all those reasons, I would definitely
lean McCarty. Jesse, what do you think?
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Yeah, I like it, it's just are we going to
see it come to pass? McGroarty had such a positive reputation,
it seemed like it was fair for him to ask out.
Hockey players are a little more reluctant, I think than
players in other sports. But this guy deserved some run.
I don't feel like he's got it as much, and
we're gonna be talking about other guys in Pittsburgh who
(08:11):
have got some run, but maybe now that he's healthy,
they'll be there. But the upside of him in the
long term, the ceiling that we foresaw for him earlier
is higher than Callen and he certainly was very good
at Michigan, so we shall see if he's able to
deliver on that. Next guy up a mill p and
(08:35):
m Victor. No, it's not that it's.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
Niemi.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
There's way too many. There's an illegal number of ease
and I's in this name, all right, it's Pnny. That's
just that's not right. He split last season between the
Finnish U twenty team, where he then went to the
OHL's Kingston front Necks and had a point per game.
He's now listed that ehcl or ECHL Wheeling, West Virginia.
(09:03):
That is no stats so far, and I guess that's
sixty miles from the big club rather than four hundred
and eighty miles up in Kingston. So maybe you keep
him a little bit closer to have him close at hand.
But anyway, his equivalency he's jumped last year from his
years toiling in Finland, including the time he spent in Liga.
We've got him up against stanislavs Vazil of the Columbus
(09:27):
Blue Jackets and the Mason Black NHL ranking poll Voseel
after Penny Niam, I don't even want to hear about
that name. Is the winner in this one? Fifty five
to forty five percent is the matter of Pittsburgh opportunity
to come. The reason people like Piani Nemi because I
think this is another guy you're on the side of
(09:47):
you like them, right, what's your read on the guy?
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yeah, and it was really fun hearing your struggle through
the name Tuga job. I think you got that in
the end illegal number of that. That's great. So I
do think it's interesting how people likes FOSL here. I
think pan and Yemy is just really underrated. I think
people haven't quite come around to him yet. Surprisingly especially,
(10:12):
I often find that with these grat or with the
ranking polls. I feel like a lot of times people
look at the graphs of the PNHUL and with this one,
it seems pretty obvious that p and Emy is on
a much more upward trajectory. But I guess they're discounting
that completely because that's not how they voted, or at
least ten percent voted then favor more in favor as FOSAL.
(10:33):
But yeah, in terms of FOSAL, he's someone who he's
had a really weird trajectory from check YA to WHL
to HL and he's been fine in the AHL, but
the reality is that a lot of his play driving
metrics have been pretty bad down there, even though he's
hovering a bit under half point per game raw number wise,
(10:54):
you're like, Okay, he's not doing too bad, but then
you look at his transition game and his play driving
and it's just not great. And to be fair, Panaemy
might struggle as well because he hasn't He's only been
in the Aliga and then he went to the OHL,
and really the only league he scored in is at
a significant rate have been the junior levels. When he
played in Liga, he didn't score very much, but we
(11:15):
know that's a low scoring, hard league, and then it's
a bit of a step down to go to the OHL,
which he did quite well in point per game, but
beyond that, a lot of his play driving numbers were
really good, and so I think that's part of what
I like about him. Neither of these guys have really
good bash, but Panaemy has really strong, some strong offensive instincts,
(11:37):
and watching him on Team Finland, I think that was
one of the biggest things too. At the World Juniors,
everyone thought it was going to be Aaron k v
Harry was coming out party for Finland and he was
completely overshadowed by Pan and Eami, and I think that
was a really good indication of what might be coming here.
I didn't weigh too much into the fact that Pittsburgh
(12:00):
has an awful prospect system, or at least they did
before this draft, with a couple of these guys coming
from the twenty twenty five draft that make this a
lot more interesting. But I do think that he's a
pretty significant piece there that makes what would otherwise be
a pretty barren defensive prospect system in terms of fantasy,
(12:20):
I think that it makes him. It makes it a
lot more interesting. And now there's Bruniki and there, and
there's Pickering, who I know we're going to talk a
little bit about later. But I don't think either of
those guys are super offensive. So in terms of who
you might want for offense, I think it's Panamy and
I think there's a reasonable chance that he could be
a second pair, power play quarterback kind of guy, which
is obviously someone that you would want.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Yeah, Pian and Yammy there are I think I'm counting fourteen, no,
sixteen letters, of which all but four are eyes, ease
and end. So I rest my case. The next guy up,
we're going to go to goal. We've got a little
bit of goalie action to talk about with the Pittsburgh
(13:04):
Penguins and Sergei Mushov is going to be the first.
He won't be the last Pittsburgh Goldie prospect. He's one
of the goalie prospects.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
With the system.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
All he does is put up great save percentages, whether
in the MHL, KHL or AHL. In nineteen career games
played in the A, he has a record of fifteen
and three now with a nine to sixteen save percentage
on really what is a mid tier squad in the AHL.
So he's been nails for a fourth round pick. Back
in twenty twenty two, we compared him against Igors zebgar
(13:38):
Zabragen of the Philadelphia Flyers, who has had a bit
more hype to him, and Zebgaran did come out as
Zilvagen has come out to be a little bit more
beloved in the eyes of Mason Black's public sixty two
to thirty eight percent. It's interesting he's coming into the system.
(13:58):
It sounds like this is a guy who you don't mind.
And he's also in a system with Joel Blomquist. There
are other goalies nipping around the edges. There's certainly possibility
of somebody taking over this net in the long term.
Is murrishav now the air apparent for the Pittsburgh net
and what can you tell us about him?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, we're definitely going to talk about another one Russian
goalies here in a little bit or sorry, not at
the Pittsburgh goalies. But I do think that he is
the most talented of all their prospect goalies, and I
do think he is probably the heir apparent. It's interesting
seeing the votes here, I think, and I like how
you finally I think you channeled your inner Russian there
(14:37):
at the end. It's a Ragena or else, it just
doesn't sound right. Yeah, I want to pick the Vragen,
but also I feel like I'm deeply wounded by how
terrible the Philadelphia Flyers have drafted and developed their goalies recently,
which makes me just not want to believe anything that
they're doing. But I do think that they hit on
(14:59):
an absolute ja here. I think the reality is you
want both of these guys. There'll be some of these
comparables where I think you might not want either, but
in this case, I think you want both. And I
think that I would put Zevragen a little bit ahead
of Mushov, even though they're both great. Mihershov is a
little bit on the I guess they're both decent side,
(15:21):
so size isn't a huge issue. But we have seen
Zevragen do really well in the KHL. For the last
he played a full season last season. Before that he
played a few KHL games and then was mostly in juniors.
And this season he's off to a great start. So
I think we're seeing him do it at a really
high level, which is nice. Mrshov we've also seen some
(15:44):
limited KHL time, but then he's been in North America
which has been really exciting, and he was awesome to
start last season. So far in Wolksbury scan Scrin, he's
been good this season. I think they're going to bring
him up and give him a little bit of a
taste at some point. But right now she loves its
done okay, and Jarry actually has done. Didn't he get
a shut out the other day? That's wild, but that's
what Paul Tristan Jarry does sometimes, and then he tends
(16:07):
to fall apart towards the end of the season. I
think we'll see me or Shov at some point, and
I think it's not gonna be this season. It might
not be next season, but he is the heir apparent,
and I think you want either of these guys, but
I would slightly lean towards Levin Agen. He's been better younger,
and I think he has a lot of potential. The
big worry here is that Philly does what Philly sometimes
does and brings them over too early and ruins or
(16:28):
stunts his development. So let him marinate, don't do anything
crazy with him. He's twenty, and he's also a young twenty.
He's an August twenty third birthday, so he literally just
turned twenty. He's already been playing a fair number of
KHL games as a teenager, which is super exciting. He's
got fifty one KHL games and only recently turned twenty,
(16:48):
so that's a pretty good number. Let him cook, be
patient with him, and I think he could be a
star and your fantasy team in a few years.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Yeah for sure.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Yeah, Victor, we're talking about to little trading in one
of our leagues right now, and I might have mister
Mershov over here ready to make the jump to the
Victor Nunial squad.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
We're gonna do a trade on the episode right here.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
I don't know, I don't know if we have time today.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
I don't know if we have time, but I well
make it happen. All right, We're gonna we're going back
and forth between the two franchises today, so we're gonna
have our first Buffalo Saber.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
Of the day. Consta hellnious.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
I remember I liked him more than you did, I
think at draft time, maybe not unrelated to the fact
that I was visiting Finland while while this draft was
getting ready. So I was just psyched for any finished prospect,
and he was the best one, I think for the year.
But the story with Buffalo, as if anybody needed to
hear it from me, is that there are these glut
of mid tier forwards that have gone in there over
(17:47):
the years, and while they are starting to thin out
because some of the very best ones off the top
have been traded away Millennius, it's this is gonna be
a good episode because we're gonna differentiate between some of
these guys and what they're trajectories looked like his first
year last year in the AHL didn't blow the doors off,
but first year in North America, that's always a transition
(18:08):
for guys. He had thirty five points and sixty five
games in the A and he's down there to start
this season as well. Started out okay so far. We
put him up in the Mason Black NHL ranking poll
against Daniel Boot, who went number twelve overall, whereas Helenius
went fourteen in the second in the year after twenty
(18:31):
twenty four and Helenius still nips out Boot fifty two
to forty eight percent. So has Helenius risen as a prospect,
has the competition for NHL ice in Buffalo with the
crowding kind of cleared away to make more opportunity for him.
My impression was this was maybe more of a you
were thinking of him as maybe more of a better
(18:51):
real life player than a fantasy player. But I don't
want to put words in your mouth tell us about
consta Helenius their victor.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Yeah, actually, I think everything you just said is true.
I think it has thinned out in Buffalo. I think
that Helenius has had his stock risen. I think I
was a little more skeptical about his production early on
in terms of what I thought he could be, and
if he didn't blow my socks off this last season
in the AHL, he definitely ruffled them quite a bit.
(19:18):
They're uneasy, They are getting ready to fall off. So
he'd had a really good season. Mind you, he was eighteen,
almost the entirety of last season at eleventh birth date,
and he had thirty five points and sixty five AHL games.
That kind of production is nothing to sneeze at. That
usually is a huge factor in projecting how well they
(19:38):
can do moving forward. I wish we had better data
from the AHL. I'd really like to look at some
of the transition in play driving numbers, but it just
wasn't available unfortunately, so on my FHL player card that
data is just blank, which is really frustrating. He did
have a sixty percent Fenwick, but the other numbers are
(19:59):
basically missing, so I'm not sure if we can rely
on just one number. But he did do really well.
He had some pretty good expected goals from that and
scoring chances, and I think if he can at least
build upon that, even if that's not purely a reflection
of how we can do, I think he can probably
even do better than that. He also had six points
in eight playoff games for the Rochester Americans, so that
(20:20):
was all good. Not to mention the fact he had
a decent number of points in Finland and Yeah. At
the time, I was thinking, Okay, here we go. He's
another undersized forward who's pretty good, versatile, he can do
lots of different things. But I think what he showed
is that he definitely can hit another gear and delivers
some scoring. And if he can do that, he absolutely
separates himself from the rest of the field there in Buffalo,
(20:42):
and that's what it felt like he did. Actually, so
I definitely like him more than I previously thought, and
I actually think that this poll is much more clear
than what the voters had fifty two to forty eight.
I would much prefer Elnius to Daniel Boot Helenius at
seven point twenty four and Boot at five point five
(21:03):
to six, and Boot is he's fine. I think he's
going to be a bottom six player. He's a big
he's huge, dude. Remember that was the year that they
just seem to go based on size. And he's been
fine in the KHL. He's of his around a half
point per game. I just don't know that he's ever
going to be a big scorer in the NHL. So far,
he has three points in four AHL games, which I'm
(21:25):
not sure that really tells us a whole lot. In
the KHL. His transition and play driving numbers were good,
but again, is he going to be able to translate it.
You might think as a big guy he hits a lot,
but he actually his hits are actually really low. He
rarely hits. He uses his body well though, to position
and protect the puck. I think of an Alexi pro Toss.
I don't think he has that kind of points upside though,
(21:47):
so maybe pro Toss with not quite as many points.
I think he's more of a fifty point guy. So
I'm not sure the Boot is going to be all
that exciting, but we'll see. I'm willing to have him
change my mind in terms of what he does in
the AHL, but I think for me, it's very clear
that Helenius has changed my mind significantly, and I definitely
would want him here.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Jesse dos Boot, All right, that's the story over there.
One more buffalo prospect here, and this is probably one
of the later round type guys, so must be a
diamond in the rough type. But Jake Richard, we're not
going to make him a Richard yet. We'll just call him.
Jake Richard is at Yukon the University of Connecticut. A
(22:24):
Husky He's a guy Buffalo got late, drafted him while
he was still in the USHL three years ago, and
now he's putting up admirable points in his third year
at Yukon. He's up against Aiden Fink in this poll
of the Nashville Predators drafting Prowess and Fink is I
think one fairly handily against the probably less well known
(22:47):
Richard seventy four to twenty six percent the voters. And
there weren't too many voters on this matchup. I think
we're dealing with a bit of an undercard. People are
probably a little less familiar with these guys. The voter
seem to have been slow to come around owned to
the improved performance here. But I don't know, do you
like Fink, do you like Richard? What do you like here?
Speaker 2 (23:09):
I think if you're in a deep league, then you
might want to take a flyer on either of these guys,
quite frankly, because I think that both of them were
Both of them were late picks. Seventh round pick for Fink,
sixth round pick for Richard. And I think is Richard
he is mixed nationality and Canadian American, but he was
born in Florida. I think he's a Richard Anyways, The
(23:32):
reality is that I probably would favor Fink just a
little bit because he's younger and having produced at a
high level in the NC Double A. He went from
the AHL to the NC DOUBLEA, which is just a
crazy leap in difficulty, and he went from what you
might imagine a really strong AHL career to a point
per game at Penn State in his freshman season, and
(23:54):
then last year he had fifty three points in forty games,
so that boosted his projection way up, and so far
this season well over a point per game. Again, we
know that Penn State had some infusion of some pretty
talented players and that's certainly helping him, but he did
all that without some of those high end guys and
was a really big reason why they were in the
(24:14):
so good in the Frozen four last year. So I
probably would take think just because he did it a
little bit earlier than did Richard. But I think if
you are someone who could if you could grab Richard
in a deep poll or maybe trade for him without
too much investment, I probably I would want either of
these guys on my roster in terms of low risk
play that he might be able to get hold of.
(24:37):
Idn't think also looks a little bit better in the
hockey prospecting model if you're interested in that. And the
other thing I would mention is that he has a
little bit better bash than does Richard I think, although
mostly that's due to shots, but he does have a
little bit better Perferle coverage.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
All Right, Victor, those were the good news guys for
some of them. We're going to take a real quick
break and come back and.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
Talk about some of the guys.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
You maybe are a little less enamored with.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
Christian is shock all.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
You have an apologize, wasn't really familiar with your game,
and you know, casual.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Back to talk more Penguins and Sabers prospects. Benjamin Kindall
is the next guy up on our list. At Pittsburgh Penguin.
He was he was one of the stories of the
draft because people were shocked he went number eleven overall. Now,
I've been watching the Penguins a little bit lately and
he's actually he's had some good plays. He's been called
(25:46):
out in some good ways in some of these plays,
but he was a bit of a shock conclusion in
the active roster. There weren't many guys who have made
it from their draft class, and here is one of
the guys I think was probably least expected. However, he's
six games last I counted it was six games in
and an entry level slide candidate. I haven't heard any
official reporting about that, but maybe this is one of
(26:08):
those deals of let's get him up from the dub
for a few games while Sidney Crosby is still wearing
black and gold. Hopefully he's still wearing it next year,
but anyway, he's up there now, he's skating third line
minutes for the Penguins. The Penguins aren't horrible yet, but
I know you're a bit skeptical at the time. And
(26:28):
Ben Kindall is going up against the guy who was
picked six slats later and one year earlier in Parasak
of the Washington Capitals, and Kendall comes out pretty significantly
ahead in the Mason Black NHL Ranking poll seventy three
to twenty seven percent. Sounds like people respect the quick
promotion over last year's Caps first rounder. What say you, Victor?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Yeah, this is so interesting. And I wrote all this
before Kendall made the squad and before he has looked
as you said, quite good in the NHL, and to
me that was never really the question. Like he he
is a very strong two way player. I'm not surprised
that he can at least hang at the NHL level.
A bit surprised that he's made some really solid plays
(27:14):
and scored his first goal the other night, and has
looked has had some really impressive moments, But I still
feel like offensively, that's not necessarily going to be his jam. Like,
I don't think the points upside for ben Kendle is
super high. Of course I could be wrong about that,
but I think that I still maintain this is a
good time to sell ben Kendel, especially because he's getting
(27:36):
NHL time it looks to be way ahead of his
previous the thought of trajectory, I think this is the
right time to cash in on that because I don't
think he is going to be like a point per
game player. I don't think he I don't even know
that he'll be like a seventy point player. He might
just end up being like your forty five to fifty
five point guy who drives play well and maybe in
(27:56):
the right situation, could put up some more points. But
I think I think might up being a little bit
frustrated with a better real life player than fantasy asset.
With Kendall, I do think that he's going to help
the organization quite a bit, and I think that they
should be thrilled with him because he seems to be
very solid. But in this poll I would totally disagree
with the voters here. I would absolutely take par Trek Parasak.
(28:19):
I think this is one of those things where people
are looking around and seeing how well Kendall's doing, and
this I think speaks to the point of you could
probably get a song for him right now, and this
is a great time to trade him. Parasac still has
some questions. Of course he's gonna be unfortunately because of
his age, he has one more year of the WHL
(28:40):
in him. And actually he's someone that I just wrote
about players who need to turn around because he did
regress last year with Prince George in terms of his
point totals. I think frankly he's a little bored in
the WHL and needs a new challenge. But the NHL
COCHL agreement won't allow him to be in the AHL. Now.
They could do the Shane Right thing and take him
and bring him along and scratch him and then put
(29:02):
him in the AHL. But I'm not sure that they
want to do that. I think they just want to
see him playing games and get back to his high
production level. So I still would take Parasac here. I
think the points upside is much higher. I have him
had at seven point one five, so a higher upside
with less probability, and Kendle at a six point six
y five, so more certainty but lower ceiling. That's exactly
(29:23):
how it described these two. You look at the hockey
prospecting between the two, and Kendall does have a higher
star potential, and I still think that there's a possibility
that he ends up a little bit higher, and the
floor is certainly higher. So if you want someone that
is for sure going to play, then by all means
take Kendle. But if you want someone with a higher upside,
I would go with Parasac. And I still think that
(29:44):
what you could get for Kendall at this point probably
outweighs the value that you're going to have from him
moving forward, so I still would try to move him.
I fire here, Jesse, fair.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
Enough, fair enough. We'll see how this comes together again.
I suspect this is one of those. Even though he
plays really well, at least the people will have some hope.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
There really is.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
To me, there really is a lot of hope coming
up this Penguin system, more than in recent years. But
the next guy we're going to talk about also a Penguin.
And I turned on replay the other day the Penguins
Canucks game, and I had it on mute, so I
had the close captioning's up there. I'm doing some stuff.
I'm watching it and it talks about our tour Sealops
(30:26):
getting a big save, and I was like, the heck
I thought Kevin Lankinen was playing for the Canucks today.
I did, how does Selops get in there? And then
I realized the brain milt that I just had. Of course,
Sheilovs is a Penguin. Now he's not a Canuck and
coming into this year, Selovs had nineteen career regular season
(30:48):
games and ten playoff games in the NHL.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
How about that?
Speaker 3 (30:52):
I mean that, what a bizarre thing, because if you
remember a couple of years ago, he kept the Canucks
in a very tough seven game series with the Oilers.
He dangnare pulled it out for them against Connor McDavid
in the playoffs, one of those years that they made
it all the way to the finals. That's a lot
for a twenty four year old Latvian like she loves is,
and he did. He did very well in the game
(31:14):
that I watched, because the Penns ended up winning, I
think five to one. And he won a Calder Cup
last year for Vancouver's AHL squad, the Abbotsford Canucks. So
things are looking up for this guy and Mason Black.
The NHL ranking took name recognition, Our Tours versus Art
versus Our Tour, the ar tour Aktyamov, who we talked
(31:38):
about I think on Our Shares episode because I still
do have a lot of shares. He's and like we
said on that episode, he's one of your faves. Both
of them are a few years into their NHL careers,
both of them pretty low round draft picks, and in
this case, both of them playing some AHL time this
time and the guy with the name recognitions won handily
(32:02):
seventy three to twenty seven percent. This one must hurt.
But I don't know, what do you think of this?
What do you think of these guys?
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Picker reinforces my exact point. Trade archer shelobs that's exactly
what tells me people like him more. I talked with
Kat about him, I've talked to other goalie experts about him.
I as well as he has done in this limited
sample size. I just I don't think he's an NHL goalie.
(32:31):
I just really don't. And we've seen it. We've seen him.
He can be okay, like he can have some pretty
good numbers. He also can look disastrous. We saw that
he had a horrible game against the Rangers. Then he
can look great. He's looked great in a couple of instances.
In his revenge game against the Canucks, he looked great.
(32:51):
There's a lot of probably emotion there. He also looked
pretty good against the Kings, who sometimes have trouble scoring.
I'm just not sure that he's someone who can keep
it up for the long term and that he will
be someone that you're necessarily going to want to sink
all your hopes into. On the other hand, if you're
someone who's competing and you like that roster flexibility and
(33:14):
he's someone who's playing games, then absolutely right it while
it's hot. I just don't know that you want to
invest too much into him, especially as we talked about Mrshov.
I think that he clearly is the heir apparent. He
is going to be better long term. I'm sure he
will leapfrog. She loves when the time comes, and she
loves might be a good backup or maybe one b.
I think she loves as the kind of guy who
(33:36):
you can give some games to here or there and
not feel too bad about it. But I'm not sure
he's the kind of goal you can ride long term.
He was great in that Caller Cup run. He's really hyperactive,
and I think sometimes that can be really problematic when
you're trying to play a sound structure, and I think
the better the shooters are, they can pick him apart,
and we saw a little bit of that in the
(33:56):
playoffs for Vancouver previously. Okayama is one of my highest
rated goalies. I have my goalie ranks at Fantasy Hockey
Life and I have him number five, So I think
you definitely want to have him now. The problem with
oktiam Off is who knows when he's actually going to
get opportunity Because we don't know what's happening with Wall.
(34:18):
They have Primo now and they have Stolars, so it
might be a bit until they actually give octam Off
the opportunity. But I think he's a way better goalie,
and I think that he's someone that I'd rather have
my system, even if I have to wait a bit
for him.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Jesse fair enough, fair enough. Next up, Victor. We have
another Pittsburgh Penguin, Owen Pickering, a defenseman for the Pens
for a couple of years there. For years, I just
vaguely have this sense that the Penguins it was always
like Owen Pickering and Samuel Poulan, who were the entirety
of the Penguin's prospect system. They were being ranked last
(34:53):
in rankings a lot of the times, and Pickering's still there.
Pickering had some time up last year. He had twenty
five games in the NHL. It wasn't enough for him
to make the big club this year, but he's at
least off to three points in his first four AHL contests,
and that's a good thing. Pickering, I don't think, embarrassed
himself coming up. So this is the lead defenseman prospect
(35:17):
I guess coming up for the Penguin system. We've got
Mason Black putting Elias Salomonson up against him, and Solomonson
wins that matchup fifty six to forty four percent over
Owen Pickering. So I guess my question Victor, is Pickering
gonna make it back west in Pennsylvania soon and be
(35:38):
playing in Pittsburgh instead of Wilkes Barry Or is he
set to simmer for another season in the.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Miners considering how well the Penguins are doing without him,
which I think is surprising a lot of us, he
may have to wait a little bit longer. I don't
think many of us had that on our Bengo card,
but the Penguins have been quite a bit more respectable
than might have thought. I do think that some of
the guys that have been ahead of him, I'm not
(36:06):
sure that they are necessarily going to stay ahead of him.
I think the left side is certainly the weaker side
for the Penguins defense, and so he might make his
way up there. But remember when I said earlier, there
are going to be times where you don't want either guy,
and I think that's just one of those times. I
think the reality is that if you had to choose
(36:28):
between Solomonson and Pickering, I think you would just probably
go a different direction and see who else might be
available from a different team. Solomonson, I'm not sure is
I don't know that he's ever really going to be
someone that's super impactful. I certainly not in fantasy. He
might be a second to third pairing guy who's a
(36:49):
puck mover. I don't know he's going to get a
lot of points, but he's he did pretty well in
the HL last year, and Pickering has been fine as well.
But I don't think. I don't think either of these
guys are known for scoring points. Neither of them are
really big bashers. And I think the point you made
also is really good. There was a long time where
(37:10):
people talked about Pickering, they talked about Poulon, they talked
about kiln Addison back in the day, and it was like,
I want the guy who's the best of a weak pool.
And the reality is that I've never agreed with that,
because that does not mean that's gonna be the guy
who makes it, and that's going to be the guy
who stars in the future where he gets all the opportunity.
(37:32):
If they're not good enough, they're not good enough, and
where are those guys now? They're not in the NHL,
and except for Pickerings too young obviously Addison Pulan, they
were not the ones you want to stake your claim
too because they weren't that good. And so just because
he was the best of the system doesn't mean that's
who you should be targeting. I think Pickering is probably
gonna be a decent bottom pairing guy, but I don't
know he's going to be more than that. He might
(37:53):
be a second pairing, but he's not going to be
a fantasy asset. Oh, just move along and find someone else.
Speaker 4 (37:59):
All right.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
Yeah, sometimes the answer is none of the above, and
I guess someone Pickering will not be included in my
trade offer to you. Next up, I won't even try
Next up. Noah Oasland is next up. As claim to
fame was always hockey sense. He's a Buffalo Sabers forward prospect.
By the way, he got eight games with the big
(38:21):
club in Buffalo last year, not bad for twenty one
year old. To be fair, he was their first round
pick or a first round pick in twenty twenty two.
He put up a lot of points in Rochester last year,
thirty six and forty five games, and he's off to
a good start again this year, but again he's another
one of them in the morass of Buffalo prospects that
(38:41):
were making our way through today. Noah Osland in the
NHL ranking poll is going up against Brad Lambert, who
is yet another enigma. I can't wait for the Winnipeg
episode to get more into him. But Oceland comes out
ahead of the Brad Lambert, who's five minutes getting really
hot in prospect circles have seemed to have faded and
(39:04):
he's packed down there. He won. Oastland did sixty three
to thirty seven percent. Anyway, after all that, Victor, what
do you think of no Oceland?
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Yeah, he's one of these guys who I think is
going to be He has done really well in the
AHL and I'm happy for him. I'm just not sure
that he's going to be able to translate it to
the NHL. Some of his underlying metrics just haven't been
that good, even though he's been scoring a fair amount
in the AHL, and he is a bit undersized and
lack some physicality. So I just feel like at the
(39:34):
NHL level, if anything, he'll be a bottom six energy
type of play driving guy who could help against some
of the wors competition, but I don't think he can
hang necessarily against the best of the best. I'm not
even sure he could be a shutdown forward, but in
the right matchup, in the right situation, he could be okay,
maybe provide some depth scoring. So not someone that I
(39:55):
would want to hang my hat on. I'm also confused
about Lambert, and we'll look forward to digging into him more.
But he has looked good in the AHL. He some
of his underlying numbers haven't looked good, but he's produced
fifty five points in sixty four games and then had
a little bit of a step back last year thirty
five points in sixty one games. He has had seven
games with the Jets one assist. Hasn't really looked really
(40:20):
great in those in that limited action, but I think
there's still hope for him, and I think the upside
is higher for Lambert. So I would take him in
this comparison, even though the voters clearly picked Oaceland. But
I definitely would take Lambert. But the reality is that
I'm not super excited about either of them, even though
I would rather have Lambert. I would be patient with him,
but probably would look for something more secure than that, Jesse,
(40:44):
and I'm not sure that's going to come in our
next option.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
Oh, Victor, we are going through all the Kevin Adams
first round picks. As far as I can tell. The
Sabers have this history of the last few years. They
pick a lot of guys, a lot of decent forwards
in the middle of the first round, and we're not
quite sure how they're going to pan out. And this
is the third four of them we're going to talk
about today. Doc Rosen, He's had two brief seats stints
(41:12):
with minimal production with the big club in Buffalo, but
he puts up decent numbers, like a lot of these
guys with the Rochester Americans at the AHL So Victor.
In the NHL ranking poll, I was surprised Zach Rosen
went up against Cole Bodwin, who I think of is
a pretty darn good prospect and one of the better
ones from that twenty twenty four draft. Rosen was picked
(41:34):
in twenty twenty one. But Rosen comes out ahead in
this poll fifty six to forty four percent. These forwards
from Buffalo are all blurring together. From me, Victor, don't
get me started on Yuri Kolich tell us about is zac.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Rosen is not as good as Jeri Koulik, So I think,
there we go, Oh that's all you need to know,
and he's actually to me, he's pretty similar to oacelan
other I'd rather have Osland Versen great for him that
he there was this great behind the scenes documentary that
was done about him and how he shifted his game
(42:08):
to the more North American style and was able to
be much more productive in the AHL, and we've seen
that he was had fifty five points in sixty one
games last season for the Americans, looked great for the
Rochester Americans. I just don't think that he's ever going
to be able to translate that to the NHL. I
don't think the style, the way that he plays is
going to be able to translate. And it shows that
(42:29):
even in his when he produced that a lot of
his expected goals in his course, he was still pretty weak.
He's someone who's on the doorstep and certainly looks like
he could. He's ready to translate that. I'm just not
sure that he'll be able to. So if it were me,
I would not be choosing Rosen. I would take Bodwan Now, Bodwan,
I don't think it's going to be a big score,
(42:49):
but man, the guy's going to bash like crazy. He's
got super high bash hits, block shots, everything looks great,
his transition numbers. He's going to be a matchup nightmare
kind of guy. If he could translate his scoring even
a little bit close to fifty points, he could end
up being a pretty valuable prospect in banger leagues. But
the reality is a Boudwin probably won't do that, and
(43:10):
he'll probably be more of a forty ish point guy.
But I still would rather have him because I think
he's for sure going to be an NHLer as opposed
to Roseenne. Even though he's done well in the HL,
I don't know that's really something that's necessarily going to translate.
And you look at how many games he's had now,
it's really good to have some production in the AHL
(43:33):
when you're younger, but he's now, he's going to be
twenty three this season, and he's already one hundred and
ninety nine HL games, is recording this and has still
not been able to make the Sabers. He played seven
games two seasons ago, and then eight last season, he
didn't make the team again this year. That is not
a good trajectory for a player he seems to be regretting,
(43:55):
even though he's dominating in the AHL. I think he's
someone that might just end up going back to and
probably having a decent career there. But that's not going
to help your fantasy rosters. So give me a Boudwan
even if the ceiling is lower, the prifts are high,
and who knows, maybe he could play compliment to one
of those top six lines and be the enforcer and
keep up with those guys and bang in some rebounds.
(44:17):
I'd rather take my chance on that.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
Jesse, absolutely, I think, yeah, these guys have had the opportunities,
whether they end up coming up and being complementary role players.
I don't foresee really big impact coming from iatzauck Rosen.
But the last of the players we're going to talk
about technically, he's also a first round Kevin Adams pick
(44:42):
from those years. Ready Murka was the pick this year.
I feel like opinions on this guy range a lot,
because I know in these quarters we've not necessarily been
that high on Merca. Some see a guy who's primarily
just really big, because that's a defining characteristic of mister
murcoz he's extremely tall man, but he's also not a mauler.
(45:03):
He's not out there trying to Zadano Chara, not that
char was not skilled, but there's touch. There's a skill
to his game, or that's part of the theory because
the physicality is actually not there to match with the body.
Murka's just started with the ahl waiting to see what happens.
(45:24):
But he is the hotness because he was picked in
the top ten of this year's draft and some I
think some real NHL types seem to like him, maybe
more than fantasy types did. Anyway, we put him against
normally praised guy from the defenseman prospect ranks, Kevin Korchinski,
who we've talked about from the Chicago Blackhawks a number
(45:45):
of times, and how it seems like this guy is
going to bounce back at some point, but it hadn't
happened yet and he was not elevated above the fray
by anything we said. Obviously, because in Mason blacks Pole,
Mirko wins out fifty nine to forty one percent. Is
this an opportunity the time to sell high on Merca
(46:08):
before he drops or is I don't know what do
you think of Red and Merca? Anything changed your mind
so far?
Speaker 2 (46:17):
Not really. I think that i've I think a lot
of people have been critical that Kevin Adams picks, but
I think this one in general will work out well
for the team. I don't know that he's that ready.
Murca is going to be a great fantasy asset, but
he is big. He's not super physical, as you said,
but he is a really good skater, probably going to
(46:37):
be an excellent defender of real life defender, but he's
not going to do much in fantasy. He's going to
be one of those guys who's out there for a
lot of minutes, who doesn't put up a lot of
priffs and is you're Jonas Brodein type, Like he's out
there a lot and he's helpful to your team, but
not to your fantasy team. And it's interesting the hotness here.
(46:58):
Maybe people are over rating that. And Koortchynsky is an
interesting case study because I feel like this is exactly
why you don't rush players to the NHL. I know
we all want to see it early, but he played
seventy six games for the Blackhawks back in twenty three
twenty four, and I feel like it stunted his development.
He developed a lot of bad, bad habits. That team
was terrible, and I think it forced him to adopt
(47:22):
some habits that were really not good, and he's had
a really hard time coming back from that. I think
he can still be a good player Kevin Korchynsky, but
he almost has to relearn how to defend at the
professional level because he really has struggled a bit to
translate that. Again, he didn't even make the team this
year after baking him previously, and Renzel has passed him,
soonof has passed him, Alex Lasik has passed him. That's none.
(47:45):
That's good. But I think now they're being patient with him.
They're letting him really figure it out. And I hope
that starting the NAHL, he's looked pretty good so far,
let him really get his confidence back, get back on
the rails, and let him be the guy he can be,
because I still think he can be an effective player
and someone you much rather would have in fantasy. So
actually this is if someone actually offer this to you,
(48:07):
ridding Merka for Kevin Korchinsky, I would smash this. I
would say, absolutely, give me Korzyinsky, you take my Merka.
I'd be very happy with that. What about you, Jesse, I.
Speaker 4 (48:18):
Bet you would.
Speaker 3 (48:19):
Yeah, I think I would take that deal too. I
suspect that whoever has Mirka is higher on Mirka then
would be for accepting this. They would see getting Korchynsky
with it as buy and low. But if I took
over an orphan team, say that had Mirka, it would
probably first of all tell me they were picking late
ish in the first round, or maybe middle of the
(48:41):
first round even worse, and decided to invest in this guy,
and I probably would be trying to get something out
of him.
Speaker 4 (48:49):
Victor. That's actually all the guys we have today.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
That's sort of an abbreviated lot, but it is a
number of players that people can pay attention to. Why
don't you let people know once again again how they
can keep up with these new assessments as you have
them coming out.
Speaker 2 (49:06):
Yeah, absolutely definitely check out mcckeens. That's where I'm writing these,
trying to do two a month, And if you have
some next one that you would like me to tackle,
then feel free to let me know. I think the
next one on the docket is going to be I think,
I yeah, the Rangers are on the docket at the
krakend and then then looking at who else, maybe the Devils.
(49:27):
So if you have some teams that you want me
to cover sooner than later, or some players from those
teams that you're interested in having me cover, best places
to hop into the discord where we have a channel
set up for all these discussion. You can even ask
follow up questions on the guys that are discussed or
written about, and certainly about other players on that team.
So all that's great stuff, get in the discord chat
(49:49):
about or you can always email me or hit me
up on Twitter x. But yeah, good stuff, and definitely
check all that writing and all the good stuff over
at McKean's awesome.
Speaker 4 (50:01):
We will be right back to blot out.
Speaker 3 (50:11):
A reminder show brought to you by pantracks dot com.
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(51:38):
The Journey. You also heard in this episode. You're writing
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Not sure there'll be an episode this week, but look
for those to be coming out generally on Tuesdays. Social
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Twelve on x Or on Blue Sky, Jesse Severe or
(52:02):
The One Victor. Thank you for listening, Rate and review
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Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks. Here's
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your fantasy hockey league.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Block off hot a step hit on, staylock.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Here's your hosts, Jesse Severe and Victor Nuno Fantasy Hockey Live.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Jesse Severe over here from Fantracks over there, the Fantasy
Hockey Doctor, the man who writes for everywhere fantasy hockey
is spoken, Victor Nunia.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
How you doing, Victor?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I'm great, Jesse. That's right. Everywhere, everywhere you could possibly imagine,
is all right? How are you doing? My friend?
Speaker 3 (00:43):
On the walls of bathrooms. You can find it sometimes
up on billboards everywhere. No, No, Victor is a very
good writer of fantasy hockey and fantasy aspects, which is
what we're going to leverage today. Because Victor has been
writing a lot of good stuff about prospects. I want
to quiz him on some of that. But before we
get there, the Fantasy Hockey Life Discord is always a
(01:06):
place where you can have conversations about fantasy hockey. You
can find things that Victor writes there. He just writes
comments and chats. That's good stuff too, And occasionally I
do but more importantly the listeners do because they're very
smart people, and you can get that by email in
this Fantasy Hockey Live at gmail dot com, victor anything
else before we get rolling on this one.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Oh, let's get into it. I'm excited to talk about
these players.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
All right, let's take a brief break, come back and
talk to some players.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Victory.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
You've been writing for mckeans lately, one of the big
old hockey places about some dynasty stock watch. It's a
comparables of buys and sells, which is something we love
talking about on the show. So this gives us some
grist for the mill to talk about a few fantasy
prospects that people ought to be paying attention to lately.
(02:04):
How's this assignment been going for you so far?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, it's been great. Rob McCain's approached me with an
idea to write something, asking what I wanted to write,
and I was thinking, you know, I think it would
be good to just do a team by team analysis
of where the prospects are at, but not just like
every prospect, but in terms of what the trend might be,
because I find that to be more helpful rather than
(02:29):
just like a grade. It's who's trending in the right
direction or the wrong direction. Who might you want to
move off of or buy. So it's really a buy sell,
watch and team by team, and it's going to happen
all throughout the year, So what you might be thinking
preseason early on in the season might be different in
the middle towards the end. And that's all kind of
(02:51):
baked into it, and they'll shift a little bit throughout
the season. And it's usually three or four of each
category getting autonomy to to do it how I want,
which I really appreciate. And it's really great stuff. I
really have been enjoying it. Hopefully people have been too.
I know the first few were open access. I think
eventually it's going to go behind a paywall, but I
(03:12):
encourage you to subscribe to mcckein's. It's a great service.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Yeah, very cool. Yeah, as you said, it focuses on
specific teams a specific times. Today, we're going to talk
about a couple of teams that may be looking for
some prospects to contribute an't though they're not off to
awful starts this season. The Pittsburgh Penguins in the Buffalo Sabers,
so the players are going to discuss will largely cluster
around those franchises and we'll start over in Pittsburgh. So
(03:37):
the first guy on this list Victor Rutger McGroarty. He's
been a bit of an enigma for the Old Pens.
He was traded from Winnipeg a year ago. He was
frustrated over the likelihood of playing time, and probably was
right to be so, because the President's Trophy Winnie Jets
had a pretty deep NHL squad. I don't know how
much time he would have got there. The former US
(03:58):
World Junior's U twenty goal medal winning captain, however, only
got eight games in Pittsburgh spent the rest of his
year in wilkes Bury in the EHL instead of Manitoba.
Your taste may vvery on wilkes Bury versus Manitoba. He
had thirty nine points in sixty games. He starts this
season injured with an upper body injury, though he's back
(04:18):
at practice a recording time. I think he is supposed
to play for the big club. And Mason Black put
out a poll for US of Rutger McGroarty versus Easton
Cowen of the Toronto Maple Leafs and wouldn't you know it.
Maybe it's the name recognition, maybe it's the latent talent
that we're waiting to break out. But Rutger McGroarty still
won that one fifty six to forty four percent. So Victor,
(04:40):
do you agree on this result? And why do you
want in on this one now?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah? I think it's a good one, and yeah, thanks
to Mason in addition to the articles and the players
we'll talk about on the podcast. Coming from the article,
I think it adds more context for Mason to put
out the poll and so that's really useful to to
compare one to another, and he always does a good
job at these. I think I would take McGroarty here.
(05:06):
It's a little bit of a difficult decision. Cawen was
awesome last year for the Memorial Cup winning London Knights.
He was just every metric you could look at, he
was pretty great except I guess maybe his bash isn't
as high as some people would like. But in terms
of his play, driving, his puck, battles, his course, he
(05:26):
his own entries and exits, all that was so good
in the OHL and it'll be interesting to see what
happens with him as he transitioned professionally. He has played
a few games for the Maple Leafs. It seems like
they want to ease him in there, but he also
is old enough that he could be going to the AHL,
so we'll see about that. But I think that Easton
is one of these guys who in the juniors is
(05:48):
a scorer and a high producer. But I think as
he moves up the ranks, he's probably going to be
just more of a guy, more of a middle to
bottom six guy who is very versatile and can play
a lot of different roles, but might end up just
paying playing a sort of complimentary top nine role. McGroarty,
I do have him ranked higher. I have him at
a seven point three four and kind of want to
have at a six point three to two, and so
(06:10):
both similarly likelihood to hit that. With McGroarty, though, I
just think there's a little bit more of that intangible
factor you mentioned. He was the captain of that World
junior team, and I think that there's a lot to
be I don't know that every captain really has all
those things, but I think he's definitely a good example
of he's the passionate leader that people follow and will
he eventually be the next captain of the Penguins. I
(06:31):
don't know, but he has those sort of intangible qualities,
and he's been captain at multiple levels places that he's
been and he did have a good AHL season after
he went down three nine points in sixty games, although
I will point out that some of his underlying metrics
were not very good in terms of his play driving,
which kind of feeds into my narrative here, which I
think McGroarty is one of these guys who's going to
(06:53):
produce despite maybe not having all the tools. He's just
a hard and soul kind of guy who just defies
the odds. He does give pretty good Perferle coverage, even
though he's maybe not the highest end skilled kind of guy.
I think he has a high floor, and I think
he can play with those really smart, creative, talented players,
and so I think he dictates the top six spot
(07:14):
when the time comes and you shouldn't have to wait
too long, and the Perferle floor is there. So I
think all those things mixed together, I think I would
prefer McGroarty here, even though maybe the high end upside
is higher for Cowan. I'm just I'm not sure that
he's going to be able to reach it. And I'm
not really taking too much into account the team here,
(07:35):
but I also think if you factor that, and I
think it even more leans McGroarty because there's more space
with the Penguins. It's more crowded in the top six
in Toronto. So for all those reasons, I would definitely
lean McCarty. Jesse, what do you think?
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Yeah, I like it, it's just are we going to
see it come to pass? McGroarty had such a positive reputation,
it seemed like it was fair for him to ask out.
Hockey players are a little more reluctant, I think than
players in other sports. But this guy deserved some run.
I don't feel like he's got it as much, and
we're gonna be talking about other guys in Pittsburgh who
(08:11):
have got some run, but maybe now that he's healthy,
they'll be there. But the upside of him in the
long term, the ceiling that we foresaw for him earlier
is higher than Callen and he certainly was very good
at Michigan, so we shall see if he's able to
deliver on that. Next guy up a mill p and
(08:35):
m Victor. No, it's not that it's.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
Niemi.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
There's way too many. There's an illegal number of ease
and I's in this name, all right, it's Pnny. That's
just that's not right. He split last season between the
Finnish U twenty team, where he then went to the
OHL's Kingston front Necks and had a point per game.
He's now listed that ehcl or ECHL Wheeling, West Virginia.
(09:03):
That is no stats so far, and I guess that's
sixty miles from the big club rather than four hundred
and eighty miles up in Kingston. So maybe you keep
him a little bit closer to have him close at hand.
But anyway, his equivalency he's jumped last year from his
years toiling in Finland, including the time he spent in Liga.
We've got him up against stanislavs Vazil of the Columbus
(09:27):
Blue Jackets and the Mason Black NHL ranking poll Voseel
after Penny Niam, I don't even want to hear about
that name. Is the winner in this one? Fifty five
to forty five percent is the matter of Pittsburgh opportunity
to come. The reason people like Piani Nemi because I
think this is another guy you're on the side of
(09:47):
you like them, right, what's your read on the guy?
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yeah, and it was really fun hearing your struggle through
the name Tuga job. I think you got that in
the end illegal number of that. That's great. So I
do think it's interesting how people likes FOSL here. I
think pan and Yemy is just really underrated. I think
people haven't quite come around to him yet. Surprisingly especially,
(10:12):
I often find that with these grat or with the
ranking polls. I feel like a lot of times people
look at the graphs of the PNHUL and with this one,
it seems pretty obvious that p and Emy is on
a much more upward trajectory. But I guess they're discounting
that completely because that's not how they voted, or at
least ten percent voted then favor more in favor as FOSAL.
(10:33):
But yeah, in terms of FOSAL, he's someone who he's
had a really weird trajectory from check YA to WHL
to HL and he's been fine in the AHL, but
the reality is that a lot of his play driving
metrics have been pretty bad down there, even though he's
hovering a bit under half point per game raw number wise,
(10:54):
you're like, Okay, he's not doing too bad, but then
you look at his transition game and his play driving
and it's just not great. And to be fair, Panaemy
might struggle as well because he hasn't He's only been
in the Aliga and then he went to the OHL,
and really the only league he scored in is at
a significant rate have been the junior levels. When he
played in Liga, he didn't score very much, but we
(11:15):
know that's a low scoring, hard league, and then it's
a bit of a step down to go to the OHL,
which he did quite well in point per game, but
beyond that, a lot of his play driving numbers were
really good, and so I think that's part of what
I like about him. Neither of these guys have really
good bash, but Panaemy has really strong, some strong offensive instincts,
(11:37):
and watching him on Team Finland, I think that was
one of the biggest things too. At the World Juniors,
everyone thought it was going to be Aaron k v
Harry was coming out party for Finland and he was
completely overshadowed by Pan and Eami, and I think that
was a really good indication of what might be coming here.
I didn't weigh too much into the fact that Pittsburgh
(12:00):
has an awful prospect system, or at least they did
before this draft, with a couple of these guys coming
from the twenty twenty five draft that make this a
lot more interesting. But I do think that he's a
pretty significant piece there that makes what would otherwise be
a pretty barren defensive prospect system in terms of fantasy,
(12:20):
I think that it makes him. It makes it a
lot more interesting. And now there's Bruniki and there, and
there's Pickering, who I know we're going to talk a
little bit about later. But I don't think either of
those guys are super offensive. So in terms of who
you might want for offense, I think it's Panamy and
I think there's a reasonable chance that he could be
a second pair, power play quarterback kind of guy, which
is obviously someone that you would want.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Yeah, Pian and Yammy there are I think I'm counting fourteen, no,
sixteen letters, of which all but four are eyes, ease
and end. So I rest my case. The next guy up,
we're going to go to goal. We've got a little
bit of goalie action to talk about with the Pittsburgh
(13:04):
Penguins and Sergei Mushov is going to be the first.
He won't be the last Pittsburgh Goldie prospect. He's one
of the goalie prospects.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
With the system.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
All he does is put up great save percentages, whether
in the MHL, KHL or AHL. In nineteen career games
played in the A, he has a record of fifteen
and three now with a nine to sixteen save percentage
on really what is a mid tier squad in the AHL.
So he's been nails for a fourth round pick. Back
in twenty twenty two, we compared him against Igors zebgar
(13:38):
Zabragen of the Philadelphia Flyers, who has had a bit
more hype to him, and Zebgaran did come out as
Zilvagen has come out to be a little bit more
beloved in the eyes of Mason Black's public sixty two
to thirty eight percent. It's interesting he's coming into the system.
(13:58):
It sounds like this is a guy who you don't mind.
And he's also in a system with Joel Blomquist. There
are other goalies nipping around the edges. There's certainly possibility
of somebody taking over this net in the long term.
Is murrishav now the air apparent for the Pittsburgh net
and what can you tell us about him?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, we're definitely going to talk about another one Russian
goalies here in a little bit or sorry, not at
the Pittsburgh goalies. But I do think that he is
the most talented of all their prospect goalies, and I
do think he is probably the heir apparent. It's interesting
seeing the votes here, I think, and I like how
you finally I think you channeled your inner Russian there
(14:37):
at the end. It's a Ragena or else, it just
doesn't sound right. Yeah, I want to pick the Vragen,
but also I feel like I'm deeply wounded by how
terrible the Philadelphia Flyers have drafted and developed their goalies recently,
which makes me just not want to believe anything that
they're doing. But I do think that they hit on
(14:59):
an absolute ja here. I think the reality is you
want both of these guys. There'll be some of these
comparables where I think you might not want either, but
in this case, I think you want both. And I
think that I would put Zevragen a little bit ahead
of Mushov, even though they're both great. Mihershov is a
little bit on the I guess they're both decent side,
(15:21):
so size isn't a huge issue. But we have seen
Zevragen do really well in the KHL. For the last
he played a full season last season. Before that he
played a few KHL games and then was mostly in juniors.
And this season he's off to a great start. So
I think we're seeing him do it at a really
high level, which is nice. Mrshov we've also seen some
(15:44):
limited KHL time, but then he's been in North America
which has been really exciting, and he was awesome to
start last season. So far in Wolksbury scan Scrin, he's
been good this season. I think they're going to bring
him up and give him a little bit of a
taste at some point. But right now she loves its
done okay, and Jarry actually has done. Didn't he get
a shut out the other day? That's wild, but that's
what Paul Tristan Jarry does sometimes, and then he tends
(16:07):
to fall apart towards the end of the season. I
think we'll see me or Shov at some point, and
I think it's not gonna be this season. It might
not be next season, but he is the heir apparent,
and I think you want either of these guys, but
I would slightly lean towards Levin Agen. He's been better younger,
and I think he has a lot of potential. The
big worry here is that Philly does what Philly sometimes
does and brings them over too early and ruins or
(16:28):
stunts his development. So let him marinate, don't do anything
crazy with him. He's twenty, and he's also a young twenty.
He's an August twenty third birthday, so he literally just
turned twenty. He's already been playing a fair number of
KHL games as a teenager, which is super exciting. He's
got fifty one KHL games and only recently turned twenty,
(16:48):
so that's a pretty good number. Let him cook, be
patient with him, and I think he could be a
star and your fantasy team in a few years.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Yeah for sure.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Yeah, Victor, we're talking about to little trading in one
of our leagues right now, and I might have mister
Mershov over here ready to make the jump to the
Victor Nunial squad.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
We're gonna do a trade on the episode right here.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
I don't know, I don't know if we have time today.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
I don't know if we have time, but I well
make it happen. All right, We're gonna we're going back
and forth between the two franchises today, so we're gonna
have our first Buffalo Saber.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
Of the day. Consta hellnious.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
I remember I liked him more than you did, I
think at draft time, maybe not unrelated to the fact
that I was visiting Finland while while this draft was
getting ready. So I was just psyched for any finished prospect,
and he was the best one, I think for the year.
But the story with Buffalo, as if anybody needed to
hear it from me, is that there are these glut
of mid tier forwards that have gone in there over
(17:47):
the years, and while they are starting to thin out
because some of the very best ones off the top
have been traded away Millennius, it's this is gonna be
a good episode because we're gonna differentiate between some of
these guys and what they're trajectories looked like his first
year last year in the AHL didn't blow the doors off,
but first year in North America, that's always a transition
(18:08):
for guys. He had thirty five points and sixty five
games in the A and he's down there to start
this season as well. Started out okay so far. We
put him up in the Mason Black NHL ranking poll
against Daniel Boot, who went number twelve overall, whereas Helenius
went fourteen in the second in the year after twenty
(18:31):
twenty four and Helenius still nips out Boot fifty two
to forty eight percent. So has Helenius risen as a prospect,
has the competition for NHL ice in Buffalo with the
crowding kind of cleared away to make more opportunity for him.
My impression was this was maybe more of a you
were thinking of him as maybe more of a better
(18:51):
real life player than a fantasy player. But I don't
want to put words in your mouth tell us about
consta Helenius their victor.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Yeah, actually, I think everything you just said is true.
I think it has thinned out in Buffalo. I think
that Helenius has had his stock risen. I think I
was a little more skeptical about his production early on
in terms of what I thought he could be, and
if he didn't blow my socks off this last season
in the AHL, he definitely ruffled them quite a bit.
(19:18):
They're uneasy, They are getting ready to fall off. So
he'd had a really good season. Mind you, he was eighteen,
almost the entirety of last season at eleventh birth date,
and he had thirty five points and sixty five AHL games.
That kind of production is nothing to sneeze at. That
usually is a huge factor in projecting how well they
(19:38):
can do moving forward. I wish we had better data
from the AHL. I'd really like to look at some
of the transition in play driving numbers, but it just
wasn't available unfortunately, so on my FHL player card that
data is just blank, which is really frustrating. He did
have a sixty percent Fenwick, but the other numbers are
(19:59):
basically missing, so I'm not sure if we can rely
on just one number. But he did do really well.
He had some pretty good expected goals from that and
scoring chances, and I think if he can at least
build upon that, even if that's not purely a reflection
of how we can do, I think he can probably
even do better than that. He also had six points
in eight playoff games for the Rochester Americans, so that
(20:20):
was all good. Not to mention the fact he had
a decent number of points in Finland and Yeah. At
the time, I was thinking, Okay, here we go. He's
another undersized forward who's pretty good, versatile, he can do
lots of different things. But I think what he showed
is that he definitely can hit another gear and delivers
some scoring. And if he can do that, he absolutely
separates himself from the rest of the field there in Buffalo,
(20:42):
and that's what it felt like he did. Actually, so
I definitely like him more than I previously thought, and
I actually think that this poll is much more clear
than what the voters had fifty two to forty eight.
I would much prefer Elnius to Daniel Boot Helenius at
seven point twenty four and Boot at five point five
(21:03):
to six, and Boot is he's fine. I think he's
going to be a bottom six player. He's a big
he's huge, dude. Remember that was the year that they
just seem to go based on size. And he's been
fine in the KHL. He's of his around a half
point per game. I just don't know that he's ever
going to be a big scorer in the NHL. So far,
he has three points in four AHL games, which I'm
(21:25):
not sure that really tells us a whole lot. In
the KHL. His transition and play driving numbers were good,
but again, is he going to be able to translate it.
You might think as a big guy he hits a lot,
but he actually his hits are actually really low. He
rarely hits. He uses his body well though, to position
and protect the puck. I think of an Alexi pro Toss.
I don't think he has that kind of points upside though,
(21:47):
so maybe pro Toss with not quite as many points.
I think he's more of a fifty point guy. So
I'm not sure the Boot is going to be all
that exciting, but we'll see. I'm willing to have him
change my mind in terms of what he does in
the AHL, but I think for me, it's very clear
that Helenius has changed my mind significantly, and I definitely
would want him here.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Jesse dos Boot, All right, that's the story over there.
One more buffalo prospect here, and this is probably one
of the later round type guys, so must be a
diamond in the rough type. But Jake Richard, we're not
going to make him a Richard yet. We'll just call him.
Jake Richard is at Yukon the University of Connecticut. A
(22:24):
Husky He's a guy Buffalo got late, drafted him while
he was still in the USHL three years ago, and
now he's putting up admirable points in his third year
at Yukon. He's up against Aiden Fink in this poll
of the Nashville Predators drafting Prowess and Fink is I
think one fairly handily against the probably less well known
(22:47):
Richard seventy four to twenty six percent the voters. And
there weren't too many voters on this matchup. I think
we're dealing with a bit of an undercard. People are
probably a little less familiar with these guys. The voter
seem to have been slow to come around owned to
the improved performance here. But I don't know, do you
like Fink, do you like Richard? What do you like here?
Speaker 2 (23:09):
I think if you're in a deep league, then you
might want to take a flyer on either of these guys,
quite frankly, because I think that both of them were
Both of them were late picks. Seventh round pick for Fink,
sixth round pick for Richard. And I think is Richard
he is mixed nationality and Canadian American, but he was
born in Florida. I think he's a Richard Anyways, The
(23:32):
reality is that I probably would favor Fink just a
little bit because he's younger and having produced at a
high level in the NC Double A. He went from
the AHL to the NC DOUBLEA, which is just a
crazy leap in difficulty, and he went from what you
might imagine a really strong AHL career to a point
per game at Penn State in his freshman season, and
(23:54):
then last year he had fifty three points in forty games,
so that boosted his projection way up, and so far
this season well over a point per game. Again, we
know that Penn State had some infusion of some pretty
talented players and that's certainly helping him, but he did
all that without some of those high end guys and
was a really big reason why they were in the
(24:14):
so good in the Frozen four last year. So I
probably would take think just because he did it a
little bit earlier than did Richard. But I think if
you are someone who could if you could grab Richard
in a deep poll or maybe trade for him without
too much investment, I probably I would want either of
these guys on my roster in terms of low risk
play that he might be able to get hold of.
(24:37):
Idn't think also looks a little bit better in the
hockey prospecting model if you're interested in that. And the
other thing I would mention is that he has a
little bit better bash than does Richard I think, although
mostly that's due to shots, but he does have a
little bit better Perferle coverage.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
All Right, Victor, those were the good news guys for
some of them. We're going to take a real quick
break and come back and.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
Talk about some of the guys.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
You maybe are a little less enamored with.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
Christian is shock all.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
You have an apologize, wasn't really familiar with your game,
and you know, casual.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Back to talk more Penguins and Sabers prospects. Benjamin Kindall
is the next guy up on our list. At Pittsburgh Penguin.
He was he was one of the stories of the
draft because people were shocked he went number eleven overall. Now,
I've been watching the Penguins a little bit lately and
he's actually he's had some good plays. He's been called
(25:46):
out in some good ways in some of these plays,
but he was a bit of a shock conclusion in
the active roster. There weren't many guys who have made
it from their draft class, and here is one of
the guys I think was probably least expected. However, he's
six games last I counted it was six games in
and an entry level slide candidate. I haven't heard any
official reporting about that, but maybe this is one of
(26:08):
those deals of let's get him up from the dub
for a few games while Sidney Crosby is still wearing
black and gold. Hopefully he's still wearing it next year,
but anyway, he's up there now, he's skating third line
minutes for the Penguins. The Penguins aren't horrible yet, but
I know you're a bit skeptical at the time. And
(26:28):
Ben Kindall is going up against the guy who was
picked six slats later and one year earlier in Parasak
of the Washington Capitals, and Kendall comes out pretty significantly
ahead in the Mason Black NHL Ranking poll seventy three
to twenty seven percent. Sounds like people respect the quick
promotion over last year's Caps first rounder. What say you, Victor?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Yeah, this is so interesting. And I wrote all this
before Kendall made the squad and before he has looked
as you said, quite good in the NHL, and to
me that was never really the question. Like he he
is a very strong two way player. I'm not surprised
that he can at least hang at the NHL level.
A bit surprised that he's made some really solid plays
(27:14):
and scored his first goal the other night, and has
looked has had some really impressive moments, But I still
feel like offensively, that's not necessarily going to be his jam. Like,
I don't think the points upside for ben Kendle is
super high. Of course I could be wrong about that,
but I think that I still maintain this is a
good time to sell ben Kendel, especially because he's getting
(27:36):
NHL time it looks to be way ahead of his
previous the thought of trajectory, I think this is the
right time to cash in on that because I don't
think he is going to be like a point per
game player. I don't think he I don't even know
that he'll be like a seventy point player. He might
just end up being like your forty five to fifty
five point guy who drives play well and maybe in
(27:56):
the right situation, could put up some more points. But
I think I think might up being a little bit
frustrated with a better real life player than fantasy asset.
With Kendall, I do think that he's going to help
the organization quite a bit, and I think that they
should be thrilled with him because he seems to be
very solid. But in this poll I would totally disagree
with the voters here. I would absolutely take par Trek Parasak.
(28:19):
I think this is one of those things where people
are looking around and seeing how well Kendall's doing, and
this I think speaks to the point of you could
probably get a song for him right now, and this
is a great time to trade him. Parasac still has
some questions. Of course he's gonna be unfortunately because of
his age, he has one more year of the WHL
(28:40):
in him. And actually he's someone that I just wrote
about players who need to turn around because he did
regress last year with Prince George in terms of his
point totals. I think frankly he's a little bored in
the WHL and needs a new challenge. But the NHL
COCHL agreement won't allow him to be in the AHL. Now.
They could do the Shane Right thing and take him
and bring him along and scratch him and then put
(29:02):
him in the AHL. But I'm not sure that they
want to do that. I think they just want to
see him playing games and get back to his high
production level. So I still would take Parasac here. I
think the points upside is much higher. I have him
had at seven point one five, so a higher upside
with less probability, and Kendle at a six point six
y five, so more certainty but lower ceiling. That's exactly
(29:23):
how it described these two. You look at the hockey
prospecting between the two, and Kendall does have a higher
star potential, and I still think that there's a possibility
that he ends up a little bit higher, and the
floor is certainly higher. So if you want someone that
is for sure going to play, then by all means
take Kendle. But if you want someone with a higher upside,
I would go with Parasac. And I still think that
(29:44):
what you could get for Kendall at this point probably
outweighs the value that you're going to have from him
moving forward, so I still would try to move him.
I fire here, Jesse, fair.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
Enough, fair enough. We'll see how this comes together again.
I suspect this is one of those. Even though he
plays really well, at least the people will have some hope.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
There really is.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
To me, there really is a lot of hope coming
up this Penguin system, more than in recent years. But
the next guy we're going to talk about also a Penguin.
And I turned on replay the other day the Penguins
Canucks game, and I had it on mute, so I
had the close captioning's up there. I'm doing some stuff.
I'm watching it and it talks about our tour Sealops
(30:26):
getting a big save, and I was like, the heck
I thought Kevin Lankinen was playing for the Canucks today.
I did, how does Selops get in there? And then
I realized the brain milt that I just had. Of course,
Sheilovs is a Penguin. Now he's not a Canuck and
coming into this year, Selovs had nineteen career regular season
(30:48):
games and ten playoff games in the NHL.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
How about that?
Speaker 3 (30:52):
I mean that, what a bizarre thing, because if you
remember a couple of years ago, he kept the Canucks
in a very tough seven game series with the Oilers.
He dangnare pulled it out for them against Connor McDavid
in the playoffs, one of those years that they made
it all the way to the finals. That's a lot
for a twenty four year old Latvian like she loves is,
and he did. He did very well in the game
(31:14):
that I watched, because the Penns ended up winning, I
think five to one. And he won a Calder Cup
last year for Vancouver's AHL squad, the Abbotsford Canucks. So
things are looking up for this guy and Mason Black.
The NHL ranking took name recognition, Our Tours versus Art
versus Our Tour, the ar tour Aktyamov, who we talked
(31:38):
about I think on Our Shares episode because I still
do have a lot of shares. He's and like we
said on that episode, he's one of your faves. Both
of them are a few years into their NHL careers,
both of them pretty low round draft picks, and in
this case, both of them playing some AHL time this
time and the guy with the name recognitions won handily
(32:02):
seventy three to twenty seven percent. This one must hurt.
But I don't know, what do you think of this?
What do you think of these guys?
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Picker reinforces my exact point. Trade archer shelobs that's exactly
what tells me people like him more. I talked with
Kat about him, I've talked to other goalie experts about him.
I as well as he has done in this limited
sample size. I just I don't think he's an NHL goalie.
(32:31):
I just really don't. And we've seen it. We've seen him.
He can be okay, like he can have some pretty
good numbers. He also can look disastrous. We saw that
he had a horrible game against the Rangers. Then he
can look great. He's looked great in a couple of instances.
In his revenge game against the Canucks, he looked great.
(32:51):
There's a lot of probably emotion there. He also looked
pretty good against the Kings, who sometimes have trouble scoring.
I'm just not sure that he's someone who can keep
it up for the long term and that he will
be someone that you're necessarily going to want to sink
all your hopes into. On the other hand, if you're
someone who's competing and you like that roster flexibility and
(33:14):
he's someone who's playing games, then absolutely right it while
it's hot. I just don't know that you want to
invest too much into him, especially as we talked about Mrshov.
I think that he clearly is the heir apparent. He
is going to be better long term. I'm sure he
will leapfrog. She loves when the time comes, and she
loves might be a good backup or maybe one b.
I think she loves as the kind of guy who
(33:36):
you can give some games to here or there and
not feel too bad about it. But I'm not sure
he's the kind of goal you can ride long term.
He was great in that Caller Cup run. He's really hyperactive,
and I think sometimes that can be really problematic when
you're trying to play a sound structure, and I think
the better the shooters are, they can pick him apart,
and we saw a little bit of that in the
(33:56):
playoffs for Vancouver previously. Okayama is one of my highest
rated goalies. I have my goalie ranks at Fantasy Hockey
Life and I have him number five, So I think
you definitely want to have him now. The problem with
oktiam Off is who knows when he's actually going to
get opportunity Because we don't know what's happening with Wall.
(34:18):
They have Primo now and they have Stolars, so it
might be a bit until they actually give octam Off
the opportunity. But I think he's a way better goalie,
and I think that he's someone that I'd rather have
my system, even if I have to wait a bit
for him.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Jesse fair enough, fair enough. Next up, Victor. We have
another Pittsburgh Penguin, Owen Pickering, a defenseman for the Pens
for a couple of years there. For years, I just
vaguely have this sense that the Penguins it was always
like Owen Pickering and Samuel Poulan, who were the entirety
of the Penguin's prospect system. They were being ranked last
(34:53):
in rankings a lot of the times, and Pickering's still there.
Pickering had some time up last year. He had twenty
five games in the NHL. It wasn't enough for him
to make the big club this year, but he's at
least off to three points in his first four AHL contests,
and that's a good thing. Pickering, I don't think, embarrassed
himself coming up. So this is the lead defenseman prospect
(35:17):
I guess coming up for the Penguin system. We've got
Mason Black putting Elias Salomonson up against him, and Solomonson
wins that matchup fifty six to forty four percent over
Owen Pickering. So I guess my question Victor, is Pickering
gonna make it back west in Pennsylvania soon and be
(35:38):
playing in Pittsburgh instead of Wilkes Barry Or is he
set to simmer for another season in the.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Miners considering how well the Penguins are doing without him,
which I think is surprising a lot of us, he
may have to wait a little bit longer. I don't
think many of us had that on our Bengo card,
but the Penguins have been quite a bit more respectable
than might have thought. I do think that some of
the guys that have been ahead of him, I'm not
(36:06):
sure that they are necessarily going to stay ahead of him.
I think the left side is certainly the weaker side
for the Penguins defense, and so he might make his
way up there. But remember when I said earlier, there
are going to be times where you don't want either guy,
and I think that's just one of those times. I
think the reality is that if you had to choose
(36:28):
between Solomonson and Pickering, I think you would just probably
go a different direction and see who else might be
available from a different team. Solomonson, I'm not sure is
I don't know that he's ever really going to be
someone that's super impactful. I certainly not in fantasy. He
might be a second to third pairing guy who's a
(36:49):
puck mover. I don't know he's going to get a
lot of points, but he's he did pretty well in
the HL last year, and Pickering has been fine as well.
But I don't think. I don't think either of these
guys are known for scoring points. Neither of them are
really big bashers. And I think the point you made
also is really good. There was a long time where
(37:10):
people talked about Pickering, they talked about Poulon, they talked
about kiln Addison back in the day, and it was like,
I want the guy who's the best of a weak pool.
And the reality is that I've never agreed with that,
because that does not mean that's gonna be the guy
who makes it, and that's going to be the guy
who stars in the future where he gets all the opportunity.
(37:32):
If they're not good enough, they're not good enough, and
where are those guys now? They're not in the NHL,
and except for Pickerings too young obviously Addison Pulan, they
were not the ones you want to stake your claim
too because they weren't that good. And so just because
he was the best of the system doesn't mean that's
who you should be targeting. I think Pickering is probably
gonna be a decent bottom pairing guy, but I don't
know he's going to be more than that. He might
(37:53):
be a second pairing, but he's not going to be
a fantasy asset. Oh, just move along and find someone else.
Speaker 4 (37:59):
All right.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
Yeah, sometimes the answer is none of the above, and
I guess someone Pickering will not be included in my
trade offer to you. Next up, I won't even try
Next up. Noah Oasland is next up. As claim to
fame was always hockey sense. He's a Buffalo Sabers forward prospect.
By the way, he got eight games with the big
(38:21):
club in Buffalo last year, not bad for twenty one
year old. To be fair, he was their first round
pick or a first round pick in twenty twenty two.
He put up a lot of points in Rochester last year,
thirty six and forty five games, and he's off to
a good start again this year, but again he's another
one of them in the morass of Buffalo prospects that
(38:41):
were making our way through today. Noah Osland in the
NHL ranking poll is going up against Brad Lambert, who
is yet another enigma. I can't wait for the Winnipeg
episode to get more into him. But Oceland comes out
ahead of the Brad Lambert, who's five minutes getting really
hot in prospect circles have seemed to have faded and
(39:04):
he's packed down there. He won. Oastland did sixty three
to thirty seven percent. Anyway, after all that, Victor, what
do you think of no Oceland?
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Yeah, he's one of these guys who I think is
going to be He has done really well in the
AHL and I'm happy for him. I'm just not sure
that he's going to be able to translate it to
the NHL. Some of his underlying metrics just haven't been
that good, even though he's been scoring a fair amount
in the AHL, and he is a bit undersized and
lack some physicality. So I just feel like at the
(39:34):
NHL level, if anything, he'll be a bottom six energy
type of play driving guy who could help against some
of the wors competition, but I don't think he can
hang necessarily against the best of the best. I'm not
even sure he could be a shutdown forward, but in
the right matchup, in the right situation, he could be okay,
maybe provide some depth scoring. So not someone that I
(39:55):
would want to hang my hat on. I'm also confused
about Lambert, and we'll look forward to digging into him more.
But he has looked good in the AHL. He some
of his underlying numbers haven't looked good, but he's produced
fifty five points in sixty four games and then had
a little bit of a step back last year thirty
five points in sixty one games. He has had seven
games with the Jets one assist. Hasn't really looked really
(40:20):
great in those in that limited action, but I think
there's still hope for him, and I think the upside
is higher for Lambert. So I would take him in
this comparison, even though the voters clearly picked Oaceland. But
I definitely would take Lambert. But the reality is that
I'm not super excited about either of them, even though
I would rather have Lambert. I would be patient with him,
but probably would look for something more secure than that, Jesse,
(40:44):
and I'm not sure that's going to come in our
next option.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
Oh, Victor, we are going through all the Kevin Adams
first round picks. As far as I can tell. The
Sabers have this history of the last few years. They
pick a lot of guys, a lot of decent forwards
in the middle of the first round, and we're not
quite sure how they're going to pan out. And this
is the third four of them we're going to talk
about today. Doc Rosen, He's had two brief seats stints
(41:12):
with minimal production with the big club in Buffalo, but
he puts up decent numbers, like a lot of these
guys with the Rochester Americans at the AHL So Victor.
In the NHL ranking poll, I was surprised Zach Rosen
went up against Cole Bodwin, who I think of is
a pretty darn good prospect and one of the better
ones from that twenty twenty four draft. Rosen was picked
(41:34):
in twenty twenty one. But Rosen comes out ahead in
this poll fifty six to forty four percent. These forwards
from Buffalo are all blurring together. From me, Victor, don't
get me started on Yuri Kolich tell us about is zac.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Rosen is not as good as Jeri Koulik, So I think,
there we go, Oh that's all you need to know,
and he's actually to me, he's pretty similar to oacelan
other I'd rather have Osland Versen great for him that
he there was this great behind the scenes documentary that
was done about him and how he shifted his game
(42:08):
to the more North American style and was able to
be much more productive in the AHL, and we've seen
that he was had fifty five points in sixty one
games last season for the Americans, looked great for the
Rochester Americans. I just don't think that he's ever going
to be able to translate that to the NHL. I
don't think the style, the way that he plays is
going to be able to translate. And it shows that
(42:29):
even in his when he produced that a lot of
his expected goals in his course, he was still pretty weak.
He's someone who's on the doorstep and certainly looks like
he could. He's ready to translate that. I'm just not
sure that he'll be able to. So if it were me,
I would not be choosing Rosen. I would take Bodwan Now, Bodwan,
I don't think it's going to be a big score,
(42:49):
but man, the guy's going to bash like crazy. He's
got super high bash hits, block shots, everything looks great,
his transition numbers. He's going to be a matchup nightmare
kind of guy. If he could translate his scoring even
a little bit close to fifty points, he could end
up being a pretty valuable prospect in banger leagues. But
the reality is a Boudwin probably won't do that, and
(43:10):
he'll probably be more of a forty ish point guy.
But I still would rather have him because I think
he's for sure going to be an NHLer as opposed
to Roseenne. Even though he's done well in the HL,
I don't know that's really something that's necessarily going to translate.
And you look at how many games he's had now,
it's really good to have some production in the AHL
(43:33):
when you're younger, but he's now, he's going to be
twenty three this season, and he's already one hundred and
ninety nine HL games, is recording this and has still
not been able to make the Sabers. He played seven
games two seasons ago, and then eight last season, he
didn't make the team again this year. That is not
a good trajectory for a player he seems to be regretting,
(43:55):
even though he's dominating in the AHL. I think he's
someone that might just end up going back to and
probably having a decent career there. But that's not going
to help your fantasy rosters. So give me a Boudwan
even if the ceiling is lower, the prifts are high,
and who knows, maybe he could play compliment to one
of those top six lines and be the enforcer and
keep up with those guys and bang in some rebounds.
(44:17):
I'd rather take my chance on that.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
Jesse, absolutely, I think, yeah, these guys have had the opportunities,
whether they end up coming up and being complementary role players.
I don't foresee really big impact coming from iatzauck Rosen.
But the last of the players we're going to talk
about technically, he's also a first round Kevin Adams pick
(44:42):
from those years. Ready Murka was the pick this year.
I feel like opinions on this guy range a lot,
because I know in these quarters we've not necessarily been
that high on Merca. Some see a guy who's primarily
just really big, because that's a defining characteristic of mister
murcoz he's extremely tall man, but he's also not a mauler.
(45:03):
He's not out there trying to Zadano Chara, not that
char was not skilled, but there's touch. There's a skill
to his game, or that's part of the theory because
the physicality is actually not there to match with the body.
Murka's just started with the ahl waiting to see what happens.
(45:24):
But he is the hotness because he was picked in
the top ten of this year's draft and some I
think some real NHL types seem to like him, maybe
more than fantasy types did. Anyway, we put him against
normally praised guy from the defenseman prospect ranks, Kevin Korchinski,
who we've talked about from the Chicago Blackhawks a number
(45:45):
of times, and how it seems like this guy is
going to bounce back at some point, but it hadn't
happened yet and he was not elevated above the fray
by anything we said. Obviously, because in Mason blacks Pole,
Mirko wins out fifty nine to forty one percent. Is
this an opportunity the time to sell high on Merca
(46:08):
before he drops or is I don't know what do
you think of Red and Merca? Anything changed your mind
so far?
Speaker 2 (46:17):
Not really. I think that i've I think a lot
of people have been critical that Kevin Adams picks, but
I think this one in general will work out well
for the team. I don't know that he's that ready.
Murca is going to be a great fantasy asset, but
he is big. He's not super physical, as you said,
but he is a really good skater, probably going to
(46:37):
be an excellent defender of real life defender, but he's
not going to do much in fantasy. He's going to
be one of those guys who's out there for a
lot of minutes, who doesn't put up a lot of
priffs and is you're Jonas Brodein type, Like he's out
there a lot and he's helpful to your team, but
not to your fantasy team. And it's interesting the hotness here.
(46:58):
Maybe people are over rating that. And Koortchynsky is an
interesting case study because I feel like this is exactly
why you don't rush players to the NHL. I know
we all want to see it early, but he played
seventy six games for the Blackhawks back in twenty three
twenty four, and I feel like it stunted his development.
He developed a lot of bad, bad habits. That team
was terrible, and I think it forced him to adopt
(47:22):
some habits that were really not good, and he's had
a really hard time coming back from that. I think
he can still be a good player Kevin Korchynsky, but
he almost has to relearn how to defend at the
professional level because he really has struggled a bit to
translate that. Again, he didn't even make the team this
year after baking him previously, and Renzel has passed him,
soonof has passed him, Alex Lasik has passed him. That's none.
(47:45):
That's good. But I think now they're being patient with him.
They're letting him really figure it out. And I hope
that starting the NAHL, he's looked pretty good so far,
let him really get his confidence back, get back on
the rails, and let him be the guy he can be,
because I still think he can be an effective player
and someone you much rather would have in fantasy. So
actually this is if someone actually offer this to you,
(48:07):
ridding Merka for Kevin Korchinsky, I would smash this. I
would say, absolutely, give me Korzyinsky, you take my Merka.
I'd be very happy with that. What about you, Jesse, I.
Speaker 4 (48:18):
Bet you would.
Speaker 3 (48:19):
Yeah, I think I would take that deal too. I
suspect that whoever has Mirka is higher on Mirka then
would be for accepting this. They would see getting Korchynsky
with it as buy and low. But if I took
over an orphan team, say that had Mirka, it would
probably first of all tell me they were picking late
ish in the first round, or maybe middle of the
(48:41):
first round even worse, and decided to invest in this guy,
and I probably would be trying to get something out
of him.
Speaker 4 (48:49):
Victor. That's actually all the guys we have today.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
That's sort of an abbreviated lot, but it is a
number of players that people can pay attention to. Why
don't you let people know once again again how they
can keep up with these new assessments as you have
them coming out.
Speaker 2 (49:06):
Yeah, absolutely definitely check out mcckeens. That's where I'm writing these,
trying to do two a month, And if you have
some next one that you would like me to tackle,
then feel free to let me know. I think the
next one on the docket is going to be I think,
I yeah, the Rangers are on the docket at the
krakend and then then looking at who else, maybe the Devils.
(49:27):
So if you have some teams that you want me
to cover sooner than later, or some players from those
teams that you're interested in having me cover, best places
to hop into the discord where we have a channel
set up for all these discussion. You can even ask
follow up questions on the guys that are discussed or
written about, and certainly about other players on that team.
So all that's great stuff, get in the discord chat
(49:49):
about or you can always email me or hit me
up on Twitter x. But yeah, good stuff, and definitely
check all that writing and all the good stuff over
at McKean's awesome.
Speaker 4 (50:01):
We will be right back to blot out.
Speaker 3 (50:11):
A reminder show brought to you by pantracks dot com.
Raight here. You can play leagues at Fantracks. You probably
still start one if you really feel like it. Start
a hockey league. We've set things up like a second
half best ball draft. We've done things like that, so
it's never too late to get those things going. You
can move leagues over nine different sports always another one
(50:33):
starting in the near future. Most options for scoring, salaries, contracts,
rookie eligibility, slow drafts, rookie drafts, anything you can think of.
Certain other websites have taken away the button or made
it premium to start your players for the week right
now still free at pan tracks. Give that some thought.
There's lots of fantasy content there too, articles on fantasy hockey,
(50:54):
the other fantasy sports. There is a big team that
puts together these episodes, puts together the FHL experience. Shall
we say, I think Victor and I pretty much did
this episode, but we've got the tidy leagues is part
of the Greater Fahl Empire, and Tim, Ryan, Simo and
Kraftzer are doing good work behind the scenes to make
(51:15):
those things happen. We have scouting reports that come in.
Tony and Patrick are our lead scouts. Brandon helps the website,
the prospect ranks, the visualizations that you see, and if
you have skills you'd like to lend to the show.
Victor would love to hear from you in the discord,
email or social media. We're brought to you by Dauber Hockey,
Daber Prospects Victors and editor there he writes the column
(51:38):
The Journey. You also heard in this episode. You're writing
articles for McKean's Hockey Now. I do a solo show
called Dynasty Sports Life talk about four different Dynasty sports.
Not sure there'll be an episode this week, but look
for those to be coming out generally on Tuesdays. Social
media follow us at fan Hockey Life at Victor Newno.
Twelve on x Or on Blue Sky, Jesse Severe or
(52:02):
The One Victor. Thank you for listening, Rate and review
us on Apple, pod, Spotify, wherever else you get podcasts
to listen to. Just make sure you have it there
every week, because I want you to enjoy every minute
of this fantasy hockey life
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