The Hockey PDOcast - Episode 253: Fantasyland

Episode Date: September 26, 2018

Elan and Brian from the Keeping Karlsson podcast join the show for the Eastern Conference component of our two-part fantasy hockey preview crossover. For Part 1 and the Western Conference section go and check out their feed. In this episode we set the timer to 4 minutes per team, using every second (and then some) of that allotted time to dig into all of the most relevant storylines and players involved.  Sponsoring today’s show is SeatGeek, which is making it easier than ever before to buy and sell sports and concert tickets. They’re giving our listeners a $20 rebate off of their first purchase. All you have to do is download the free SeatGeek app and enter the promo code PDO to get started. If this episode has you wanting to try your hand at fantasy but you're not looking for the commitment and stress of a season long league, you can do so with daily fantasy hockey over at fanduel.com/PDO. If you tell them we've sent you, you'll even get a bonus $20 to play with after your first deposit. Stay tuned for future listener league contests we'll be hosting over there throughout the season. Thanks for listening! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

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My name is Dimitri Filipovich. And joining me, I think I've only done it once before. I had Todd Warner and Jeff Merrick on. I think it's the only other time I've really had two guests on at once, but I had to have the Keeping Carlson Boys on to do this two-part crossover fantasy extravaganza. So joining me today on today on today's show are Elon and Brian from Keeping Carlson. What's going on, guys? Hey, Dimitri, how's it going?

Happy to be here. We just recorded an episode of Keeping Carlson about the Western Conference. I'm excited to talk about the East. And you definitely saved a friendship by not picking only one of us to be a guest. on your show. We appreciate you making a rare exception. Yeah, I was thinking of making you guys either flip a coin or fight to the death or however people make big decisions in their lives, but ultimately, I figured it was easier just to get both you on. So for those of you that haven't listened to part one where we talked about the Western Conference, obviously go do so.

But in case we need a kind of a bit of a refresher for some people, what we're going to do here is we're going to bounce around the Eastern Conference this time. And we're going to do, we're going to try to do four minutes per team when we were doing the Western part, we struggle to, at least at the beginning, stick to those time constraints. But I feel like we got better as we were going along. So we're going to try to do that here and cover all 16 teams and hopefully get out of here in about an hour or so. So let's get right into it with the Boston Bruins.

Do you want to, do you want to tease us up for that? Sure, yeah. I mean, it makes sense. When you're talking about Anaheim and Arizona, you're going to go seven, eight minutes. Like, you know, obviously we could roll through teams like Winnipeg. They're boring. But yeah, Boston, the player I wanted to bring up here is, Jake Debrusque. He had a two-gold game versus Calgary in China. 50-point pace last

season, kind of under the radar. He had 43 points and 70 games. He could see top power play time this year. Like Spooner's gone. He was always there. Rick Nash came in and took that top power play spot, but he's gone. I feel like it's either Debrusk or Donato, who's going to play with those three amazing forwards. And either way, he'll probably play on the second line with Kreachie. So I don't know. I feel like he has a lot of upside for next year. Yeah, he definitely does. Jake Debrusk, I heard that his jerseys were just flying off the shelves in China after that two-goal performance. Everyone in China wearing a Bruins jersey has DeBrusk on the back.

He also managed two shots for game as a rookie, which is like impressive. A lot of people think that's ho-hum. Maybe for an established scoring NHL or it is, but for someone like Jake DeBress, just making his way into the league and not getting the greatest deployment, that's pretty good, it's pretty promising. And he definitely, like, there were a lot of names. after the top three in Boston last year, there's a lot of middle six guys all jogging for position.

And Debrusk was the guy who consistently stood out of Monkson. The other name was Ryan Donato, but he played so few games and then got benched a few times in the playoffs. It was really hard to gauge exactly where he lands. But Debrusk Donato is an interesting sort of push and pull going into next year as to which guy is going to be the most exciting sophomore. Yeah, I mean, obviously we saw. last postseason, especially in that

series against the Leafs, the Jake Brusk really kind of came into his own and was showing flashes of being an impact player. With Donato, very small in HL sample size, but just the fact that across multiple levels last year, he was able to produce pretty much where he played, and even in limited usage with the Bruins,

he was generating a ton of shots, so that inspires confidence. And you're right, like, for this team that generally has Stanley Cup aspirations, they're going to need more than just the one line. And whether it's the Brusk, Donato, or or even Adanton Hinen who showed flashes last year. You go on down the line with your Yakub, first back of Carlson or Andrews Bjorch.

Like there's a bunch of young guys here with a lot of opportunity for growth and prime scoring minutes. And it'll be fascinating to see who takes it. I think here's the interesting thing for me. Do you think we see all year that they're going to stick with that kind of tried and true Bergeron, Marchand, Pasternak line up top? Or do you think they're going to go with a bit more of a balanced approach? Because, you know, we were talking about the stars. on your guys podcast.

And in that case, we were saying it doesn't really make sense to have Radgelab up on that top line. Maybe you're better off having someone else there and going with two scoring lines. But in this case, with the Bruins, like those three guys have been so dominant together that maybe it's just one of those things where you just don't mess with the thing that's going so well and you just do keep them together and hope that the second line can somehow take shape without them. They did try to mess with it last year, but it didn't last long, which I feel it might be instructive into thinking whether they have an appetite for it again. And remember at the start of last year, Elon, it was Andrews Bjork, right?

For what was it, 10, 12. Did they make it 20 games? It wasn't that long, yeah. It was Pasternak who got bumped to the second line. I feel like the second line on Boston that looks a lot better than what it would have been on Dallas if they kept Radulov online one. Like Creechie and DeBrusco, I think is really good. And, you know, Donato or Hinen, I feel like that's a pretty good second line.

And don't forget there's David Back is there who could play on a third line. So I feel like they're a little bit deeper than the Dallas stars. But it's not outside of the realm of possibility for sure. that top line, like you said, Dimitri. They're so good. And I'd also love to get your take. I don't know how much time we have left on Boston, but Brian mentioned on our show a couple of times that he's a little bit concerned about Tuka Rask, maybe being able to hold on to that starting job or getting all the games that he usually gets with Yaroslav Halak coming in, who's a really good goalie,

and maybe even potentially almost a better goalie than Tuka Rask at this point. Yeah, well, that's the thing. I mean, I've been worried about Rask's sort of downturner performance for year over year for a couple seasons now. And last year, I know his overall number of end the year. Kind of regressed a little bit and didn't necessarily finish as well, as good as they were for stretches last season. But I don't think it's a surprise that he was doing a lot better in kind of, like, he only played 53 games compared to the 60s or so that he'd been playing in years past.

So maybe it bodes well for them considering they do want to play late into the postseason to keep toning down Rask's usage and give Halak, even if he doesn't take that starter spot 30, 35, even up to 40 starts. And it's really tough to evaluate Halak at this point, just because. that Islander's team he was playing behind last year was a historically bad defensive team. So I don't think his numbers actually indicate how much he has left in the tank. And we've seen these Bruins backups over the years, whether it's Adam Anton Hudobin or Chad Johnson or who have you, have kind of stand-alone value as whenever they're playing,

you want to have them in your lineup. So I agree. I think Halak provides really intriguing value, especially in deeper leagues. Yeah. I want to start answering with yeah for anyone who just listened to Part 1. I've got to come up. Maybe I'll start with you. I'll go, yes. But Halak is good. We talked it on part one about how unprotected Jonathan Quick was relative to what the L.A. Kings usually do. Yaroslav Halak and Thomas Grice were like the least protected goalies,

the worst protected goalies in the NHL last year in Long Island. And Halak still managed to put up semi-respectable numbers. And that sort of obscures the fact that he was a pretty good goalie last year, he was just getting shelled unreasonably. So you put him on Boston, a competent team. And I think if he gets enough chances, if Rask plays inconsistently enough or gets injured, I think it could be Halaksnat by the end of the year. But I know, Elon, that makes you very uncomfortable because I'm the only one saying it. Okay, let's switch gears here and talk about the Buffalo Sabres. And I want to tee this up for us. We'll get into the forwards and Jack Eichl and his new wingers and all that. But in terms of

the blue line, what fascinates me is obviously the two Rasmuses. The two Rasmus is, you know, Dahlian's expectations and the hype is understandably and justifiably sky high as the first overall pick and sort of projecting to be this generational franchise changing defenseman. I think, you know, Rasmus Ristelainen, on the other hand, has been a guy who gets knocked time and time again from the analytics community and from people on hockey Twitter in terms of his performance. performance, but he's actually been a really useful fantasy guy just because he's been playing these ridiculous 25, 26 minutes a night. And I wonder if, you know, having Dahlan in there and maybe having some better players around them, maybe they can tone down Ristelainen's exposure and

usage. And I'm wondering sort of the give and take between whether, you know, if his, maybe he'll be more efficient, but maybe his actual volume will come down and whether that's ultimately a good or bad thing for him from a fantasy perspective. Yeah, I think a lot of people's main concern with Ristelainen for next year was that they were thinking, What if Dahlene comes in and knocks Ristolining from the top power play? But that's not what's been happening in the preseason. They've either been having both defensemen there or even just maybe Ristolining in there. So if Ristelining can stay on the top power play, like you say, Buffalo has all these new,

exciting forwards. You know, Jeff Skinner's in there. Like we'll get to them in a little bit. Then yeah, I feel like at least for one more year, Rist Aligning can be great. And in fantasy, like I say, he's also great for your hits and blocks. So he's really good all across the board. Brian, like what do you think Dahlian's going to be able to do next year? I think Dahline will be able to make his way or at least get a,

get a couple auditions onto that top power play, but I don't necessarily think that means awful news for Ristelainen. Ristelainen's still going to need to be leaned upon enough and even strength that he still should have opportunity to gather those peripherals like hits and blocks that he's used to getting, get a couple shots in there. And I still don't know that Dahlene appearing on the top power play necessarily means that Ristel Hinen has to leave. They can both work that power play just because Buffalo is.

isn't terribly deep it forward. So it wouldn't be the worst situation for them if they run three forwards to defensemen just because of the personnel available to them. And they go San Jose, have Carlson and Brent Burns. You could have Dahlane and Ristelighton. Pretty comparable players, I'd say.

Running both units. Yeah, lots of Carlson-Daline comparison. Yeah, no, I mean, I think Dahlian is going to be a special player. I wonder, you know, we haven't really seen, I'm trying to think of, I mean, Aaron, Glad was pretty good in his draft plus one season coming straight into the NHL. But typically speaking, we don't really see defensemen step right into the NHL and be impact players. But obviously, very few guys come along with Dalyan's skill set.

And also, like, part of fantasy is talent and ability. And another part is opportunity. And it's clear on the Sabres team that Dahlian might have a great combination of both because they desperately need him to eat up a bunch of minutes. Yeah. Though talking about the forwards, we do need to mention Jeff Skinner, right? Like, I feel like he's such an obvious breakout candidate for next season. Brian laughs. I don't know why.

You need to mention Jeff Skinner. He's great. So he had a goal in five shots on Saturday versus the least playing with Eichl and Ryanhart, which is where we were hoping that Jeff Skinner would land. Obviously, with Connor Sherry injured, it's all the more likely that Skinner gets on that top line. I feel like he's a lock to bounce back from his 49 points last season. He was playing with Derek Ryan and Justin Williams. Now he's going to move up to play with Eichl and Ryanhart.

That's such an improvement. I feel like Skinner can get right back to his production from a couple years ago when he was in the high 30s for goals. And I think it was almost 70 points, like 65 plus points. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I'll jump in there and take this. I think Skinner is, yeah, he's going to be great.

I think the more impactful thing from a fantasy perspective here is just the fact that I'm really excited to see what Jack Eichael is going to be capable of with real NHL wingers who can actually take advantage of some of the opportunities he creates. And on your show, we were talking about potential, you know, McDavid is obviously the number one guy in fantasy. and then after that we've got the lioness and the McKinnons and Kucharab and so on and so forth. And I think Eichol's ability should have him in that conversation if he actually is able to have guys who convert all the plays he creates with his speed and his puck-carrying ability. So, yeah, I'm very excited for him. And I'm curious to see how quickly those guys are going to mesh and what it's going to lead to from a fantasy perspective.

Hopefully they'll match very well. Jeff Skinner has not always been a hundred. high efficiency converter. He's sort of been up and down over the course of his career. He was sort of, it's funny because he is not entirely different from Evander Kane, right? Came out with a huge rookie season, 31 goals, tons of shots, and then has just sort of been wildly inconsistent, although his highs have been a little higher than Evander Cain's and he doesn't throw hits quite as often. But he's been a low percentage converter for several years of his career. It looks like at least in two of the last three years, Skinner has had a shooting

percentage above 10%. So hopefully he's more or less bucked that trend. And one really exciting thing about Skinner's season for both Skinner and Eichol is his presence on the power play. Did you know that in each of the last four seasons, Jeff Skinner has never seen more than a 47% share of his team's power play minutes and as low as 37% share. So I don't imagine Buffalo is going to. to play Jeff Skinner as sparsely, as scarcely on the power play as Carolina chose to for whatever reason. Skinner seems like a guy with the shot that he seemed. It's funny because I think of him as a guy who can shoot, but his shooting percentage doesn't really bear that out. But in any case, the power play is a great place for someone to convert at a higher rate than they're used to.

Look at you bringing the fancy stats on the PEO cast. I try. Every so often, is that okay? Do I'm excited about it. I'm not sure my listeners are as well. I mean, we're going to be talking about hits and block shots, so we need to a cataract that so the people aren't throwing up in their mouths the entire time. I can always follow up with plus minus if need be. No, that's going to be on the R-rated version. All right.

Carolina Hurricanes. Yeah, I feel like the clock. The thing that I'm excited about with them is I've got all these new young players, like in the preseason, they've been going with the top line of Aho, Sveshnikov and Valentin Zikov, which is a very intriguing top-lock. I guess that wouldn't be so great for Toi Votera Vinen, who would then, I guess, fall to play with Nekash. Oh, yeah, we're trying to figure this out in our album.

Nichas. Nichas and maybe Furland on the second line. But, like, I feel like Zikov right now could be, and I'm pronouncing his name right. By the way, Dimitri, kudos, or should I say hoodos on your hoodobin pronunciation earlier on. That was really great. We only learned that recently.

But, yeah, I feel like Zikov could be a really nice sleeper for next year if he's going to be playing with Aho, though apparently was Aho centering that top line. And Rod Brindemore was quoted and saying he wasn't so impressed with Aho, et cetera. So maybe he won't be able to stay there. Yeah, we'll see about that. I mean, Zikov got a bit of a cameo. Like, he had a good HL season last year for the Carolina Hurricanes farm team.

And he came up at the end of the year and unlimited usage had seven points in 10 games, I believe. And obviously, he has a ton of talent. So I'm really excited to see what he can do riding shotgun with those guys. And I think obviously, like, Sebastian Ajo is a big play driver there. And it's going to hurt to able to Ravine and to not be playing with him. but just based on some of the other guys that they have at their disposal, like I think there's enough talent in that top six to go around where I don't think he's going to completely fall off the face of the earth either.

Hopefully for Tara Vinen, because I feel like a lot of his production was because he got to play with Aho at even strength. Although to his credit, Terri Vinen had 25 power play points last year, and there's no reason why he couldn't get there again. He did have 17 even strength goals, though, when his usual shooting percentages would have dictated somewhere closer to 10 goals.

So you take him off the top line at even strength, and that could bleed out, bleed a few more points from his totals. Zikov is the one who I'm like super interested in. Everyone's talking about Svetnikov. Well, everyone's talking about Svetchenikov. You can keep your eye on Valentin Zikov. You said that he had that cameo, Dmitri, and he did really well in it. Three goals, four assists for seven points, 18 shots,

in 10 games. And you mentioned he was doing him on the HL, just to quantify that, 33 goals in 63 games before being called up. So fantastic year all around, both in the HL and NHL for him. He seems ready. I just wonder if the hurricanes are going to have

some kind of limit on how many rookies they can play on their first line, right? Like, do you want Zikov, Nietzschez and Svetnikov all on separate lines? Or can you combine at least two of them somewhere? Yeah, it's funny. Like, because Brian, obviously when you say like you're more interested in Zikov and Svetnikov, you mean in terms of like because everyone's talking about Svetchnikov.

Like in fantasy, I'd rather have Svetchnikov. But I feel like you almost have to be a hipster when you're playing fantasy hockey. Like, you know, Spetsnikov's the hotness. So in your draft, everyone's going to reach for Svetnikov. And you're saying maybe you wait a bunch of rounds and you get Zikov at a fraction of the price. And maybe he's not a fraction of the value. So it's fun. And there's a lot to talk about on Carolina.

I don't know how much time we have left because there's a defense situation with Hamilton coming in and Justin Falk is there. Justin Falk was so bad last year. He only had 31 points. I see he's still been hanging in on the top power play. They've been going with two defensemen as well, at least in the preseason. I feel like that probably won't last. But there's also the goalie situations of Dimitri.

What do you think? Which one should we talk about? Well, we only have 40 seconds here. I do want to quickly talk about the defense because, yeah, Falk, you mentioned, is still going to be there and it's still going to be eating into it. And he hasn't been as effective on the power player. Like, he was scoring double-digit goals for a while there in the past few years.

I believe it's fallen off quite a bit to like only three or four per season. But with Dougie Hamilton, I mean, he's one of the best defensemen in the league, and he was still putting up crazy numbers, even though his three seasons in Calgary, his average ice time was 1946, 1941, and 2132, which is just comically low for a guy of his caliber. And I'm very fascinated to see whether he gets unleashed and actually starts playing closer to that, you know, mid-20s that we typically see top defensemen play in the league. And if he does, if he's going to be able to handle it, which there's no reason to believe he won't. and what that's going to do for his overall production. What do you think the chances are that Falk and Hamilton play on, like apparently in preseason they're playing together on the top power play? Think that's going to stick?

Yeah. Yeah, I'm not sure. It kind of doesn't seem like a greatest fit because I figure you'd probably want both guys to be more trigger men. So it seems like there's, you know, there's only one puck to go around. And maybe that's not the best way to stylistically deploy them. But it's going to be fascinating to follow. I think ultimately Hamilton, just based on his ability, should wind up winning out and will hopefully be playing much, much more than he was in Calgary. One final thing on Carolina, before we do move on,

you mentioned the goaltending. I don't necessarily really want to unpack it right now just because it could be its own separate podcast based on what we've seen from Darling and Carolina goalies in general over the years. But obviously, if they're going to take that transition from being this preseason sleeper team to actually finally making the playoffs and realizing their hype, they're going to need more than an 888 percentage from Scott Darley next year. Well, they brought in Petter Morazic, so obviously that means they're going to be a lot better. Another hype guy, awesome.

Just what Carolina needed. Okay, let's get to Columbus here, who, you know, I was talking up the Blues as being one of my favorite fantasy teams with all the different personnel they have in the league. I think, like their Eastern Conference mirror image team for me is Columbus. They have so many guys that I feel like we could talk about in this segment. Oh, well, I'd love to talk about Dubois, actually. because the big storyline on Columbus is, of course, Panarin, and is he going to get traded or what's going to happen because he doesn't seem to want to sign there long term?

But let's just assume for this conversation that Panarin's going to stay. And then you've got Dubois, who had a really nice rookie season, 48 points. And actually, he was a lot better at the second half of the year when he got on and became the top line, top power play center, 26 points in 33 games after the All-Star break, which would be good for a 65-point pace. So I feel like you've got a guy here that could be like a really nice breakout candidate next season.

Like I said, 48 points last season. I could see him getting up to 60, especially if he's playing the full year with Panarin. Yeah, it's a super exciting player. Dubois, here's what we found in our almanac. He was the 18th player. When I get super specific, it's because I'm borrowing something. I don't just happen to know these things off the top of my head. I did the research a month ago.

He's the 18th player to score at a 48 point pace or better as a 19-year-old in the salary cabarris. So since 2005, 2006, which is worth something, right? It's closest comparison. If you look in terms of points and shots on goal are guys like Matthew Kuchukh and Nico Heeshier, which aren't like, that's not bad company to be in. And he's someone who also, you know, people talked in his rookie season that he was a little small that he can put on some body mass, some weight. And I don't know.

I want to buy into that a little bit to think that. usually I don't get caught up in all the conditioning talk, like someone's coming into camp in the best shape of their life and whatnot. But when you're talking about an 18 or 19-year-old player whose body is still actually growing and developing, it feels worthwhile to consider that this could be something that helps him just another year of physical maturity. Absolutely, yeah, especially at this point of his career in year two.

And you look at just how he was used as the season went along and they clearly were relying upon him and trusting him more and more. towards the end of the season, it had some games where he was eating up a ton of minutes. And the fact that, you know, John Tortarella being his coach, I was actually willing to get that type of responsibility to him

is clearly a testament to how good this guy is and will be moving forward. And that top line, you know, the third piece there that he's been around a while and he's not necessarily, doesn't have the upside that Panarin and Pierre Luc Dubois have. But Cam Atkinson, I was looking at this because I did own him in my league last year. And he started off real slow.

he got that massive contract extension. He was actually like a healthy scratch for a while. He only had 14 points in 33 games before the All-Star break with only one power play point. In the 32 games after, he was a point-of-game with nine power play points. So he clearly turned it on and that kind of coincided with them uniting those three together. And he's always been one of those guys that generates a ton of shots. And if he's going to be playing on that top line, I don't know if he's necessarily going to be a point-of-game guy, but I feel like he could have a monster bounce back season.

Yeah, I totally agree. Like, Atkinson is someone who you might be able to get for really good value in your drafts. So people look at their full season pace. I think I made an analogy at some point on our show that he was like the kid from Rookie of the Year. Remember that movie? Like he got injured and then all of a sudden he was able to pitch like 100 mile per hour fastballs. I feel like that must have happened with Atkinson, right? He sucked.

Then he got injured and all of a sudden he was a point per game player. Yeah. And, you know, you look at his team. I mean, you know, they've got the Josh Anderson's who kind of had his coming out party last year, Boone Jenner, who was awesome after Thomas Vannick came at the trade deadline. Sonny Milano who has a bunch of pedigree and upside. They just have so many interchangeable moving parts who could potentially have big seasons. And the other combination I'm looking at,

I don't know what you guys think about it, is Alex Wemberg, who for the most part was very disappointing last year, looks like he's going to be playing with Oliver Bjork Strand, who has been a personal favorite of mine for a long time. And just sort of that combination of Wenberg's passing with Bjork Strand's finishing ability seems like on paper like a match made in heaven. And I wonder if those two guys are going to click and both have really big seasons. That's exactly what I've been thinking going into this season.

And it's enough promise between Wenberg and Bjork Strand to make me want to give Wenberg a second chance. He was awful last year, right? He had a 43 point pace. If you took his point totals, he had 35 points in 66 games, put it over 82 games, 43 points, terrible. He's not a big goal score. So you're never going to get that.

He's not a big shot taker either. But if he can set up someone who can finish, And we know he can set up. I just want to find out of Oliver Bjork Strand can finish. And he is someone who I've been hopeful, Ken. He doesn't seem to have gotten at least the tortell of approval quite as quickly as Pierre Lik Dubois managed to. Yeah, no, hopefully it'll come this year.

I mean, he obviously has the talent and his track record over the years at lower levels in the case he's capable. One final thing before we do get to the Red Wings, and this is kind of like a random, long-shot thing that might not have a massive fantasy implication. But I'm very curious to see how they handle their goal-tending situation this year. And what we see from Eunice Corpusallo, he only played 18 games last year, I believe, and Bobrovsky's an impending free agent. And they have this guy Elvis Merzilzilkins who has been lighting it up overseas and winning all sorts of awards, probably coming over next year. So this kind of feels like a potential crossroad season

or make or break season for Corpusallo, who has kind of been in that conversation with the UC Soros of the world as the next big thing in the goaltending community, it seems like if that's going to come to fruition, this might be the year we finally need to see him realize some of that potential. Yeah, that'll be interesting. We'll talk about another next big thing in the goaltending community when we get to the Philadelphia chapter. Can we believe we made it all the way through Columbus.

We didn't talk about former 70-point guy Nick Falino, and we didn't even talk about Zach Werenski. There's just too many guys. It's a really fun team, and I would be perfectly okay with owning a bunch of them. Let's get to the Red Wings who have less intrigues. A lot of humor guys. Here's my one quick question to T us up for the Red Wings. Can anyone, now that it sounds like Mike Green is going to be out for a while and hopefully

best wishes to him with his health, hopefully he can come back eventually. Can anyone on this blue line step up and have fantasy relevance? It's like hard to imagine who it would be, right? Like Trevor Daly, Nicholas Cronwell, but it's like not the 90s. Is this guy Dennis Cholowski who's getting arrested? Can you come back? I feel like he'd instantly be their number one defenseman. He might be able to, honestly.

It's a really sad group. The Red Wings are barely equipped with Mike Green on their roster. They are very ill-equipped if Mike Green isn't there. But this Chilowski guy, he was a, he's the first round pick back in 2016, taking 20 of the overall left-handed defenseman. And he ran the power play for Prince George and Portland of the WHL last season, finishing with 14 goals, 52 points. no, 52 assists for 66 points in 69 games, which is pretty nice.

I think the plan was for Cholowski to try, I assume anyway, that he was going to get to quarterback the Red Wings HL power play, this being his first pro season. But now I wonder if this is like, okay, well, we might as well, because who else is there? The Red Wings would normally, even with my green around, they're like, okay, yeah, Nicholas Kronwald, you go in, green, you're on the bench. Don't even bother going out. But now that they've actually, I have faith because the Red Wings are not seeming to want to audition just an abdlocator on the top line this year for the first time in a while.

I thought you were advocating for him to be on the defense unit. But there's an applicator out there. Let's get him as a cop pairing. I would not be surprised. But the fact that they're moving away from Abdel Kater makes me hope that they're moving away from Kronwal, which means maybe Cholowski or if not Trevor Daly? I don't know. Yeah.

I guess it's a long shot name. I'm not sure if he's going to make the Red Wurrayer. he might start the year at the HL level is Philip Harnock, who last year had a huge season in Grand Rapids and seems like he has more offensive upside than a Chilowski. So I'm not sure if it's going to take a while, but maybe at some point midseason, he might be a name to resurfaces. I didn't want to short sell this team too bad up front because while I think they're going to be really bad next year, there's some interesting names there, obviously, right, with like the Larkens and the mantas of the world and Athanasia is really fun. And obviously Rasmussen and Zadina are going to make their first

appearances in this level, so it's going to be curious to watch them, which is weird that the name I want to talk about most from these guys is Tyler Bertuzi. Well, yeah, he's the one who's been playing on the top line with Larkin and Manta during the preseason. If that holds, that's a really great spot for Bertuzzi, because I really like Larkin. Like, now that Zetterberg is gone, unfortunately, he's hanging up his skates. Like, I feel like Larkin is going to be the guy, and he probably has room to grow. He had 63 points last year and was only getting 45% of the power play time. So if Larkin all of a sudden gets on the top power play and maybe becomes a 65, 70 point player, and then, you know, someone playing with him like Tyler Bertuzi could be pretty good.

Yeah, he's got that interesting combination of, you know, he's feistyness. So if you're playing a penalty, man, so he can help you out. And he's produced at the lower levels. I mean, you look, every year he got better at the HL level. And I know Ryan Stimson was either writing about this or tweeting about it recently, but he appeared on this list of guys who, like, most frequently set up prime score. opportunities on one-timers, which I found fascinating and it kind of lines up with the fact that he's generally had pretty good assist totals throughout his young career. So yeah, I mean, if he's going to

land in that cushy top line spot, he's a guy who you can get late in your draft who could potentially give you really surprisingly good numbers. How cushy is that top line spot in Detroit, though, really? I mean, you get Dylan Larkin, who looks legit, right? He's still just 22 years old. He only saw second unit power play time last year. So I, I think he's primed to have a big season. He brought up his shot rates last season, back up to where they were in his rookie season. And they had dipped in between. We were like, which is the real Dylan Larkin?

So it's great to play with Dylan Larkin. And there are guys. Like there's Mitha and Athanasiou. And I guess we're like Nyquist is really down the list now because we're sort of giving up on him, right? I think it's just a matter of opportunity. Like just maybe he could like fall his way into production just based on the fact that he might be playing a lot of minutes on this team. Right. and sometimes in fantasy, that's all that really matters.

Yeah. Let's do Florida. We actually somehow squeezed four minutes out of the Red Wings, which is impressive on our part. The Panthers, where do you guys want to start off with them? I mean, oh my God, like this team, this top six is so good. Barkov, Bjokov, Dadov, then Trochek, Hoffman, Huberdow. That's been the line in the preseason so far,

which is no surprise because Biongstad got on the top line with Barkov and Dadov last year. It was amazing to end the year. I was actually surprised, though, to see the power play lines. We knew someone was going to have to get dropped first. from that amazing group of players from the top power play with Hoffman coming in. And we were actually discussing a lot over the summer. Is it going to be maybe Dadanov? Is it going to maybe be, you know, Hoffman who doesn't make on the top power play?

But it's actually Jonathan Huberto, who's been off the top power play in the preseason. Who knows if that will last. But, I mean, man, Huberto, by the way, also kind of ended last year on a bit of a down note. Only 14 points in his last 23 games after being so great, like over 70 point pace before that. But yeah, after he got dropped from the first line, he was really down for the, like I said, those last 23 games. And now if he's also not on the top power play, I wonder if, in this amazing, you know, looking team.

And obviously, if we're talking about the team overall, like Florida's looking great, I'm really excited about them. But fantasy-wise, the one guy who I'm a little bit concerned about is Jonathan Hubertow. Yeah. No, I mean, obviously getting bumped down there and not being playing with those guys on the power play is a big deal.

And I'm curious to see whether they're going to go, I guess they will just kind of add a necessity, but also because it work well for them. I mean, they were playing very well. down the stretch when they were riding those top two centers. I mean, how often you see the number one center playing 22, over 22 minutes a night and then the second guy playing 21 and a half, like how much they were relying on Barcov and Trochik is kind of astounding.

And both guys are young and in their prime. And there's a reason to believe they can hold up to it. But yeah, I mean, obviously that provides great value for those guys. And with Barkov, you know, he's kind of made this ascent finally into that elite tier of guys from a fantasy perspective. And I was just happy last year to see that he could finally hold up for a full season. I believe he played 78 or 79 games, which is the first time he's really done that in his career. So, yeah, it seems like it's all systems go for that top six.

Yeah, Barcove, not made of glass, which is great news for everybody. Going back to Jonathan Hubertow, you know, like you mentioned, the centerman got played reasonably close in terms of their time on ice. But one of the reasons for that was because Vincent, Procheck still managed to get on the top power play unit. And Elon actually had this Twitter exchange with one of the Panthers beatwriters today. Jameson Olive at Jameson Coupe or Co-op. I'm going to just guess Co-op.

Anyway, and Huberto was absent from the top PowerPlay unit, which is kind of concerning. And the Beat writer made this argument that, well, Huberto will be the star on PowerPlay, too. Like, he'll just get fed and get to take a lot of shots. But I don't think that's going to be enough if he does. does lose his top line spot and his top power play spot. I mean, you're looking at him losing at least 60 or 90 seconds of ice per game. And you're wondering if his deployment might go back to as low as it was back in 2015, 16, when Huberto played second line minutes and had just 13 power play points.

He managed 60 points that year. Of course, he's better now than he was then. But you just have to keep in mind how limited his deployment could potentially be. Of course, this could all be for not. and he ends up on the top power play unit and on the top line at some point. Also, it's all so sad that this top six is so strong because there's not even an opening for Henrik Borgstrom to try and find his way in there. Yeah, now we talked about Troy Terry on your guy's show,

and now we're going to talk about his college linemate who has insane upside. And it's probably not going to be realized this year just based on he's going to, it's a bit of a numbers game, and he'll probably need an injury to crack that top six, as you mentioned. But I mean, what this guy is capable of with a puck on a stick is remarkable. There's a reason why his nickname is the artist. And he eventually is going to be a dominant NHL player. And if you're playing in a Dynasty League or something like that and you can stash him,

this is a good time to do so because heading into drafts next year, it might be too late. And also, can I just point out quickly how good Evgeny Dandenov is? He had 65 points in 74 games last year. That's a 72 point pace. And he, you know, was kind of like he got injured. And then when he came back, he wasn't getting on the top line, top power plate right away. And he had a slow stretch. So he could have even been better if he was healthy the whole year.

Like, I'm really excited to see what Dandenov could do next year. I could see him being a 75 point guy for sure. Just a step away from fantasy for a second. Oh, sorry, Dimitri, did you want a response? No, well, while we're on Dattanov, I mean, we shouldn't want from the Panthers soon. But I did want to say, like, I had this funny anecdote from last year where I play in this one keeper league. And I, the first week of the season, we run our waivers. and I decided I was going to spend a lot of money on an impact player,

and I couldn't decide between Datanov and Shippechev, and I went with Shippochev. It did not work out for me. Oh, no. I want the whole story on that someday. That was such a bizarre chapter. And it was only made more bizarre by the fact that Vegas did not need him, which is ridiculous.

I wonder how much, like, if they could have been better with him or if he really was getting in the way. One day, that story will come out. So in Florida, the top six, like, we're just drooling over it. But then you look at the bottom six, you look at the defense, you look at the goal tending. And do they have it? Is the top six going to be enough to compensate for all of that and make them a

playoff team or at least a bubble team? Well, I mean, they're clearly the fourth best team in their own divisions. So they're already competing for one of the two wildcards spots. And with how good the Metro is, like it's going to be pretty tough for them to squeeze in. I think they're going to need a healthier Roberto Luongo season and they're going to need some of these other depth guys to step up. But, I mean, we saw last year, like that top six almost carry them into the playoffs with a really strong second half.

So I think they're definitely in consideration for that. Yeah, I think it's a lot has to do with if Roberto Luongo could stay healthy. I don't know if James Reimer could do it. But yeah, I guess we've got to move on to our next team, right? Yeah, let's do the Montreal Canadians who here's like, if we're looking, taking a big picture view of a team like this and I'm trying to think of like a narrative that ties it all together. I think looking at this team's shooting percentages and how they've assembled some of these guys and whether there's actually credence to the fact that there's something funky going on here

or whether last year it was just an aberration and they're going to regress this year is ultimately going to determine how successful this team is because whether it's Charles Houdon with his 5.6 shooting percentage or Arturole-elect at 7.3, maxed only 6% last year. Jonathan Druand pacing this team with 7.9%. You look at all these guys that they're going to be relying on for heavy offensive minutes this season and all of them really struggled converting their shots into goals last year. And I don't think it's necessarily, like if you look at those players and how talented they are,

I don't really see why that would necessarily continue heading into this season. So maybe this team could be kind of like filled with a bunch of bylaw guys who could exceed expectations this season. Wow, I think you're the first person who's had like optimism about the half. I want to tell Canadians take in 2018. That's really nice of you to say. Well, because also you could say that Kerry Price probably should have stopped a few more pucks than he did so you could get that percentage converted as well. Yeah, I mean, maybe like you lose

Patcher Ready and you lose Galchaniac. You get Max Domi, who now we're not even going to be able to see what he can do in the preseason because I don't know what he was thinking, getting suspended for punching Aaron Eck Blad for no reason. But yeah, I mean, there are some interesting players. We had Brandon Gallagher have a bit of a breakout last year. It'll be cool to see what he can do. It looks like he's been playing with Thomas Tatar, who came back from Patcher Ready Trade and Dano playing on a line together. And like, that's not so bad, actually. like, you know Joel Armia.

Oh, Army has been playing on the top line with Domi and Drew, or at least he was supposed to. So he could also be kind of decent. Like, I feel like there's some value there. I don't know. Like,

what do you think of Joel Armia? Like, he was nothing on Winnipeg before, but he was only playing like 12 minutes and a half per game. So you couldn't really tell how good it is, I think. Yeah, he was an interesting prospect coming up with the Jets.

I mean, this is just like, or I guess even with Buffalo back in a day because he was in the event of the game trade. But yeah, it's like, this team just has a bunch of guys who are potential bounce back candidates and I'm sure not all of them will.

But for a team that is expected and projected to be as bad as they are and last year they struggled so mightly to score goals, like they have a sneaky amount of guys that I at least want to keep an eye on this season, I guess, which is something. Yeah. I don't know. I'm just, I'm trying to think of something to say about Montreal. That's not just respondent. Let's talk about Harry Price.

Jeff Petrie. He's going to be good until Shay Weber comes back. And even then he'll still be good. Yeah. And Carl Alsner, he's okay. But right, I know you. With his contract. Are you you wrote something down about Armia?

Why don't you say this thing about how he was a piece of the Evander Kane deal? Because Dimitri already said it. And I remember when he came over from Buffalo, he was sort of a, he felt like a throw-in. And there was a lot of commentary going around. Well, you know, he's sort of being framed as a throw-in, but there still is some offensive upside there. And I'm just not sure there actually is. I mean, anyone on the top line. anyone, you play anyone for enough minutes

if they're capable of making an NHL team and earning that top line spot you know, they'll be okay. Yeah, I'd also be more optimistic if Shea Weber wasn't injured. Like, you really don't have a defenseman there who can really drive offense. I guess Jeff Petrie had a really good second half of the year

when he took over as the main guy. Do we even think Weber's going to come back? Like, I feel like with the HABS, you know, that whole Kerry Price thing where he was just injured in Weber last year, like, you never know if just like, is he actually like a live? I'd love to know if he's going to come back next year or not. Yeah, it's a weird imbalance of this team where it seems like they're rebuilding,

especially with their four group, and then they have so much money tied up in Price and Weber and Carl Olsner and Jeff Petrie. It's like, I don't, there doesn't really seem to be much of a plan, which I guess doesn't really have anything to do with today's show about fantasy. Just big, big picture. It's a very, very confusing assortment of talent. And I was dragging that on because we were officially at four minutes now. We can move on, thankfully.

All right. Well, quickly, let me take 10 more seconds. Kerry Price, let's say even the Canadians were an average team. Does Kerry Price have an average season? Where should the bar be said? I've had a really hard time figuring this out. I still like to think that he can still be at least an average NHL goalie.

But that almost that feels both equally possible that I'm short changing him and that I'm overestimating him. I have no idea. I mean, we're only a year removed. So, okay, in 2015-16, he only played the 12 games and he was ridiculously good in them. I'm not sure what that tells us, but then it's only like a year removed from him having a 9-23 save percentage in 62 games in 2016-17. And I don't know. Like last year he was so bad, but I feel like a lot of it was, I mean, the entire team was a mess and all their performance was.

But I feel like it was a lot health-related and I'm not sure what he's at heading into this season. But if he had a similar season to what he had in 2016-17, I wouldn't be surprised by any means. So I feel like I'm fairly optimistic about him heading into this year. Yeah, I guess like the, oh, sorry, I'll just say quickly. And then you, Elon, the upside is definitely there. I just, and of course, it's going to be really hard to see on this Montreal team. Elon, what were you going to say? No, I was just going to say, like, the thing is you don't know with goalies, like,

the health, a health concern can really affect you. Like, if you're not at 100%, like you look at a guy like Corey Schneider, who was an always above 926 percentage goal a year in, year out, like so reliable. Then he seemed to start running into some injury trouble. And now he could barely even get above 9%. 9-10. And so I don't know, like, hopefully carry price is fine and he'll be able to get back to his like 920 plus say percentages, but it's not a guarantee.

I have no idea what just happened in the past four minutes. I feel like I lost my mind and I went all in on the Montreal Canadians. And now I feel like we should end the show. I've lost all credibility. Okay, the New Jersey Devils. So I, here's, okay, here's what I want to mention with his team because I feel like the natural inclination is to go, oh, Taylor Hall and everyone else.

But I kind of want to spend all four minutes talking about Nico Hishier. So Heeshire, like, he was only 19 last season. He still hit 52 points centering the top line. And he wasn't even on the top power play. And he got 52 points, which is very impressive. So there's so much upside because he's probably just going to be better because he's older. He's apparently been putting on muscle over the summer. And you've got to imagine now Pat Maroon's gone.

Like Zajaxe you're older. There's got to be a spot for Nico Heeshire on that top power play. So I feel like he has a ton of upside for next year. I like him. And I also like Kyle Palmeri, actually, to have an improvement over last year. But let's focus on each year. Like, he was drafted first overall for a reason. And I feel like playing with Taylor Hall all year on the top line and top power play,

I feel like 60 points is very reasonable and maybe even upside for more. But you look at it. I wonder what people think of his rookie season in terms of like, do they debut as a success? Because like I feel like sneaky. He was amazing. I mean, he, what he had, he was 32nd in the league in 5-15 points ahead of guys like Blake Wheeler, Phil Kessel, Vlad Tarcenko.

He was tied for 16th in 5. on five primary points with guys like Eric Saul and Leon Dre Seidel and Sean Couturey. And obviously, he wasn't even playing heavy minutes. So if you pro rate that on a per minute basis, he jumps up even more. Like, he was so effective. And you're right, if he all of a sudden gets some of those power play opportunities and he keeps playing with Taylor Hall on the top line, like the sky's the limit for this guy. I feel like it wouldn't necessarily even be surprising based on how good he was already as a rookie.

But I feel like people might get caught off guard a little bit by his insane point totals. if he starts getting some of those easier opportunities. Yeah, because you look at his numbers and you see 52 points, whatever. I mean, that's great, but that's what we expect for the first overall pick. Great. He came into the league he did what he was supposed to do, but only six power play points. And Demetri, you're just running down all the ways. He stood out at even strength.

Here's another way to slice it. Only three 19-year-old rookies have scored 19-5-on-5 goals since 05-0.06. And those three are Dylan Larkin, Sean Monahe. and Nico Heeshire, but what separates Heeshire from those other two is that he wasn't even close to going Sa Young, like Sean Monaghan only had 12 assists. Dylan Larkin had 22 assists, but Heeshire had 32 assists. So that means that not only was he excellent at putting pucks in the even strength, but he was also really great at setting up teammates and helping to create. Of course, it helped him that Taylor Hall was there. But for context, Nico Heeshire has.

I had the same amount of five on five points last season as Taylor Hall did. So you throw in some growth, throw in some muscle, and it seems like it's going to be a pretty exciting season for each year. I'm all in. But DeMichael, I'd love to spend a little bit of time talking about Palmeri, if you don't mind. I feel like he's a little bit... You're really like watching this agenda. Were you hired as Kyle Palmyri's agent this half season? All right, listen to this.

Just like you said about Cam Atkinson, like I feel like Palmary had a similar season. He had 44 points in 62 games overall, which is a 58 point pace, which, by they would have been a career high. But if you break it down, he had seven points in his first seven games. It was amazing. Then he had a foot injury and he returned from it and he was clearly not at 100%. He ended up missing more time after they realized he wasn't really ready. Then by the end of January, he found his game again. And like he ended the season with 28 points in his final 33 games for 70 point pace,

playing with Heeshire and Taylor Hall. So I feel like just like he sure has room to grow. I feel like so does Paul Mary. If he could play a full healthy season with those two guys, I think he could be 60 plus for sure, maybe hit some. 65. Yeah. No, you could. I'm sure he's going to be happy. You've done your job as his agent. Yeah. The degree to which Elon pushes his own agenda just illustrates how, like, the chasm in our disagreement on a given player. Like when he's like, I really need to talk about Jonathan Quick with

you, Dimitri. Yeah. Please. We need to. All right, guys, we're done with New Jersey here. Let's take a quick break to hear from a sponsor of the Hockey-Ocast. Then we're going to pick it up with the New York Islanders and the other and things. Hopefully you guys are enjoying today's episode of the Hockey PEOCast. I know it's a bit of a change of pace from the regularly scheduled programming on the show. We don't typically talk about fantasy a ton, but I'd like to get into a little bit more of it this season. I've been playing for years myself, and I'm an avid player, and I know a ton of you are as well, because I constantly get questions from listeners about, you know, start or sit, who I should be picking up, who I should

be targeting and trades. So with it being preview season and all, I thought it was a good time of many to do this type of show and hopefully there's going to be some useful information for your glean from it and as the season gets going, I know people play in year-long leagues, but we're going to get some daily contests going on Fandul and partnering up with them. So I'll tell you all about it more in shows to come. Until then, though, let's talk about Seek, because they are the ones who are making today's episode of the Hockey-Ocast possible by sponsoring us and helping us out. And they're going to help you out as well because they know that getting tickets online can be a really complicated process. There's hundreds of sites out there and varying levels of reliability and it's hard

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All right. Let's do the Islanders. Start the clock four minutes. I'm ready to go. Let me go an name of you as the one I'm most excited about because obviously Matt Bursal is going to get a lot of the headlines. Anthony Bovier is a value is the most intriguing player on this team for me. Yeah, that's who I had also to bring up.

We're on the same wavelength, Dimitri. He's been playing with Barzal at, like, during the preseason so far. Bailey was with them on Saturday for the win over the Rangers, and Bavillier had two goals. Bailey had a goal in a couple of assists. Barzle had a couple of cents. I'm talking about one preseason game here. The second line was Lee, Eberley, and Nelson. But I feel like Anthony Bavillier, he was so good last year once he got up, once he finally

bumped Andrew Ladd from that, I guess, second line at the time to get with Barzell. He had 29 points and 40 games to end last season. that's a 59 point pace. And now if he's going to get top line minutes with Barzell next year, which it seems like that might happen since he's showing his chemistry with him. There's a lot of upside there. And I feel like you could get him very late in fantasy drafts. Or maybe even pick him up out of free agency.

Yeah, I mean, he had 21 goals in 71 games. And obviously, I was actually looking at this. It was a pretty clean split for him. He had like 440 minutes at 5 on 5 with Barzal and 440 without him pretty much. And, you know, it was a tale of two seasons for him, obviously, playing with Barzal. his numbers were amazing, and I think if he's going to get a full year with him, those two could run a while. I'm really curious, because obviously, expectations are through the roof for Barzal this season. I'm very fascinated to see, you know, there's going to be more opportunity for him.

I feel like they pretty much should be using him whenever they possibly can, unless he's tired. With Al-Tivera is there, but at the same time, now opposing defenses will really get the key in on him and his line and focus all their defensive efforts and game planning on him. And I wonder if that's going to decrease his efficiency a little bit. But ultimately, I mean, I think the talent's going to win out and the opportunity well as well, and he's going to be perfectly fine. Like, I wouldn't, I wouldn't shy away from him at all in drafts. Neither would I. I'm believing that Barzal can keep doing what he's doing, even though he is the guy in Long Island now.

And Beauvilliers, it's the same, I have the same story as you, right? It was a tale of two seasons, like you said. Either he was great while playing with Barzal or totally irrelevant when playing away from him. he had on his whole season he had 36 points in 71 games as a 20 year old sophomore this is bovilliers but there is that downside well those aren't impressive numbers but they were impressive when he was with barsall and if you want to take a late fly on him great just remember that there's that downside that if he doesn't hold on the top line he won't be so valuable but if he does hold that would be awful news for anders lee who suddenly has not only lost his best friend centerman who's like they've been making such great plays together for so long. But he gets a loss in what's likely to be his ice time too by going down to the second line. Yeah, I mean, he will get to play with one of your favorite players, Ryan, Jordan Eberley. So that's so good.

He'll probably, I'm sure. Under's leave. Well, I mean, if they go Bavillier, Bailey and Barzal on the top line like we're doing on Saturday, who knows how it'll shake out. Either way, at least Andresley is going to be on that top power play. And I'm sure he's going to get a lot of goals there like he did last year. Yeah, and a couple names for people to keep mind on the blue line. Like, you know, Ryan Pulock was obviously very impressive,

especially as the year got going last year, and they're going to rely on him, especially on the power play. He'll generate a ton of shots, and I'm sure he's going to score a bunch of goals. So he's kind of an intriguing guy. And another name to keep in mind in deeper leagues, and we'll see if he makes the team because for some reason, they signed Lucas Beza to a one-way deal today, which is absolutely insane and mind-boggling.

But Devin Taves, who has had awesome numbers at lower levels and really thrives at the HL. And he seems like another guy who, you know, there's not a ton of talent on that blue line. So if they give him the opportunity, I feel like he could take the job and run with it. But we'll see what they decide to do because ultimately, like it's a Lula Amorello team and Barry Trots is running it

and they might just go with a veteran's, quote unquote, safe defenseman instead. That's just another one of those. I said this thing about there being an Islander's tax. Was it a couple weeks ago, Elon? Yeah. In any case, I was saying, you know, just because I have no idea what the islanders are doing, like why they're signing Komarov and Philpola and acquiring Matt Martin, that makes me a little concerned about investing in any of their players for fantasy reasons,

just because, you know, I don't know what the plan is, and I can't make sense of it. And now you can add signing Lucas Spisa to that list of things that sort of justify this perspective. Dimitri, before we go to the Rangers, really quick, who's going to get more games next year between Thomas Grice and Robin Lennar? I think Robin Lennar. I think it'll be close. I think it'll be one of those classic 50-51, A1B splits,

but I think I'm going to go with like 48 games for Robin Lennar. I pull that number randomly out of a hat. I don't know why. The Newark Rangers, you know, you're talking about there for a second, about how the Islanders concern you because there seems to be no coherent planning. You don't know how they're going to act this season.

At least with this Rangers team, it seems like they fully embrace the youth movement. They've got this new coach and David Quinn coming from the collegiate level who will in theory utilize those guys and kind of work through the growing pains and not necessarily bench a guy like Pavel Bouchnevich every time he makes a mistake. So are we excited about this team as potentially having a bunch of room to have relevant fantasy hockey guys just because they're going to play their young skilled guys without necessarily worrying about whether it costs them at HL games?

I feel like the Rangers are so interesting because they could totally go into rebuild mode and ship a bunch of guys at the trade deadline or like there were rumors that they were in the market to sign Artemi Panarin and if they do that they could easily just shift the plan and all of a sudden hold on to whatever

Kreider and Zuccarello and they do have Kevin Chattankirk who was injured for most of last season and I think a lot of people have forgotten about him now he had two assists in the game against the Islanders on Saturday and like he's a guy who had he was a 55 plus point pace guy for a bunch of years in a row on the Blues.

He had a great start last season, 18 points in his first 25 games, but then he totally fell off and eventually had that season-ending surgery. But I feel like Kevin Chattonkirk's totally under the radar, but he's like a potential, like 50-plus point defenseman, even on this Rangers team. And also Mika Zabanajad, I feel like has room to really break out. And like you said, Pado Bluchenevich, if he could actually get consistent time on the top line and top powerflake,

I think there is a lot of potential for this Rangers team, or they could just ship a bunch of people away and do a rebuild and be great in a few years. Yeah, and that extends to what it means for Henrik Lundkvist also, right? Is he playing for a team that is at least acting like they have a shot? Or is he playing for a team that's resigned itself to, you know, this being year one of a longer term rebuild? And there was a letter to fans, right, saying to be patient, we're working on this.

Yeah, there was. I think obviously, like Henrik Lugn was an all-time great. and I feel like there's still going to be plenty of nights where he stands on his head and has a 50 save performance that wins the Rangers the game that they have no reason winning. But at the same time, I think the days of him being a top fantasy guy are over. I think, like, you guys kind of made fun of me about on your show that it sounded like we were just kind of replaying my takes on Timel Mire from last season. And I feel like I'm doing that with Bichnevich again here.

But this has to be the year, right? Like the talent is there. Elin was misusing him so badly. Every time he made a mistake and it would seem like he'd get benched and like David Dayharnay was playing ahead of him. And it was just a mess last year. And he's been so good was Zabinajad whenever they've played together. And, you know, his passing was Abinajas shot.

We've seen it on the Powerboy, how lethal it can be. And hopefully those guys are just attached to hip all season and can make sweet music together. Yeah, but Buccnevich and Meyer, like the difference here last season, you were saying the same thing. And so were we. but there was a clear villain in this whole scenario, and that was Alainvignon, and now he's gone.

It's sort of like Spetsa in Dallas that, okay, now that this guy's not coaching anymore, and we have someone else making choices, maybe that person is still going to be able to unlock this player's potential. And I'm also going to circle way back to Chatton Kirk, who Elon mentioned as being a great value pick. He's someone who you would have had to try and nab as like your first or second best defenseman,

but I've seen him going in drafts as like, someone's third or fourth defenseman because people are forgetting just how elite a player he is, especially on the power, well, particularly on the power play. And last year he played through like this torn meniscus injury, which by the way was nothing compared to what Cody Cici has played through. So let's take a moment to realize that. But that was probably the driving force behind Shatt and Kirk having the lowest power play points per 60 rate since his breakout 2012-13 season. So now he's got a healthy body. The team around him is going to be good.

And I still think he's an elite power play quarterback. He actually still managed to raise his shots on goal per 60 rates and suffered from his teammates not converting very well on their own chances on the power play. So a lot of things went wrong even while Chattankirk was still hurt and disabled to some extent. So this year he's healthy. his team, it should see some aggression on the power play. I'm really, really optimistic about Shatton Kirk. Okay, well, let's do our two minutes now on the Ottawa senators. And you mentioned Cody Cici persevering throughout his career so far, despite being Cody Cici to keep playing in HL games. And the biggest question for me with his team is, I guess, twofold one. Do we view this

as a bit of a kind of sneaky land of opportunity just because even though it's a disastrous tire fire, ultimately at the end of the day, someone's going to have to eat up minutes and produce, or is it just a complete stay away? I mean, I feel like there's a couple players on Ottawa who might have a chance to really surprise. Brady Kachuk, they're going to force him down everyone's throats. But at the end of the day, if he's playing on the top line and top power play with Mark Stone, he can have an impact next year in his rookie season.

I'm assuming he's making the team. Also, Thomas Shabbat, now that Carlson's gone, you got to assume he's the guy who's going to take over as the top powerplay quarterback. He assisted on a Duchenne power play goal on Friday, a rare goal that Ottawa scored in the preseason. They've lost all four games they've played so far. So I feel like those are a couple of guys that you think could do something. But like imagine if they move Dushain and Mark Stone at the trade deadlines,

they realize they're not going to sign. Then all of a sudden it's like how good can this TV? I guess like just pure minutes you think they could do something. But you need to have someone to play with. Like Bobby Ryan? Someone. There are people who will be wearing Ottawa Senators uniforms and skating up in the other guys. Like you know.

Yeah. Or Avietzky. I think the new uniform should be polo shirts for everybody. And the bench should just be one large, easy chair. Okay. Ottawa senators who, so Cody Cici, yeah, he's going to have a ton of minutes, which means he's going to have a ton of blocks. So if your league counts those, that's great. He might have a few shots.

That's great, too. Brady Kachuk is getting really great billing early on. It seemed as though, I mean, and this is, It's hard to tease apart which of it is skill and which of it is PR because I think the Sends have really decided to go all in on Kichuk as somebody who can sell hope and tickets through this season and what's going to be a pretty dark year or two for the franchise. So it's hard to know if he's really going to be able to bring it with this high-end deployment that's being hinted at through the preseason. As of three months ago, he was maybe going to stay in college, and then he was probably going to go to London of the O HL to play, and now potentially top line winger with the big club.

So he's one guy to keep an eye on. Of course, Duches and Stone are obvious. People forget about Duchy and Stone. I think they're going to be good value later in draft, so long as your league doesn't count plus minus, and it shouldn't. Ryan DeZingle is the other sneaky senator who you might be able to get your hands on.

I'm not sure how Brady Kachuk's ascent is really going to impact him, but before thinking that Kichuk had a shot at a place on the top line or top power play, Ryan does Zingle seem like someone who is going to slot in nicely alongside Dushain and be able to, he's a decent finisher. So he might be able to notch a goal or two here and there. All right, guys, our two minutes are up. And let's move on because, I mean, we're getting, like,

we're approaching like the three hour mark now of podcasting and I love you guys, but it's been a long night. But also, I think these final five teams, it's really a bit of a murderer's role, right? Like, we've got the flyers, the penguins, the lightning, the Leafs, and the capitals. Like, there's going to be so much fantasy goodness for us to talk about

with these teams. So let's start it off with the Philadelphia Flyers. And I mean, yeah, like, there's so much we could talk about with them. Like, you've got Kinekenny online well, like Nolan Patrick is probably going to have a breakout. Like, you know, aside from the obvious stars, Claude Jaroo, who had probably overachieved last season, but I'd love to spend

sometimes talking about the goaltending situation because Brian Elliott, he dealt with persistent issues last season related to a core muscle surgery. He's gotten 20 minutes of preseason time so far like before today and he stucked. And apparently he played today also, I think, and he's stuck there as well. Noyberth, as usual, is out with a groin injury. Lion is injured. Stolars is, you know, I mean like, whatever, Anthony Stolars. So then we have like 20 year old Carter Hart who's been fantastic so far in the preseason, two goals against on 47 shots. He's the goalie of the future. But ever since Noyverth went down with his injury, I've seen a lot of starter heart murmurings on Twitter.

Could Carter Hart be kind of like this year's hellebuck to Elliot Steve Mason, like taking over early and ending up being a top goalie in the league? Or maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. But like Philly is a really strong-looking team, like forwards and defense. They just need a goalie who can stop the puck. And maybe Carter Hart is the guy, even though he's still young.

Congratulations on summarizing 15 years or 20 or more of Philadelphia Flyers franchise history. it's yeah no i think carter hard probably is the best option they have right now but just based on how we know how teams typically operate at the nitchel level it's like they're going to be ultra conservative and probably just go with the proven commodities they have in elliott and noirth even though they don't necessarily give them the best chance to win so i feel like it's going to take a while for that to happen but you're right i mean just based on how he's produced up until this point in his young career like there's a lot to like about carterhart and when he's he's going to like about carterhart

and when he does get this job, like I feel like he's going to be right there with those UC Sorosos as the world as like the next wave of goal heading at the NHL level. When he does get this job as a Columbus blue jacket, am I right? He's only 20, right? So anyone expecting him to step in and do something big,

he hasn't played a pro season, right? Just a few months ago, he led the Everett Silver Tips of the Western Hockey League to the league finals. So hoping for heart to step. in like someone like Hellebuck has. Hellebuck had some pro experience going into his breakout year. Does anybody want to guess who the only 20-year-old goalies to play at least 40 games

in the salary cap era are? Murray? No, I know. I should say regular season games. Yeah, go for it. Hi, how are you? Steve Mason with Columbus, 61 games. And Carrie Price.

But those were 10. and Price only played 40. That was 10 and 11 years ago, respectively. So you're right, Dimitri. All these NHL clubs, all were conservative. It seems unlikely that Carter Hart is going to be called upon. Brian Elliott, he just played his first full preseason game. Apparently, that was a big step for him after working through some injuries.

He looks like he had just worked through some injuries. I still think he's probably opening night starter. Here's my one question for you guys. Sorry to cut you off, but Wayne Simmons is one of the only, really intriguing four words for me to talk about this group because it seems like those top guys are kind of we know what they are and they're going to be really good with wayne simmons obviously last year he was banged up he had offseason surgery he's got one year left on his deal and he's going to be a very intriguing contract to follow because of his age and his playing style you

don't necessarily want to commit long term to him kind of like what we saw with milan luchess and the oilers but at the same time like it looks like for at least for now he's been bumped out of that top six and he'll be playing on a third line at 515, and on the power play, he's listed currently as still being on the top unit, but with James and Reimske as kind of a potent net front power play presence and the money they threw it in this summer, I wonder if there's a bit of redundancy there

and if Wayne Simmons could get kind of caught looking on the outside in, just purely based on this numbers game. Last year was sort of a throwaway for Wayne Simmons. We've gone through the laundry list of, ailments he was playing through. So it's sort of like whatever he did last season, forget it. It doesn't really demonstrate who Wayne Simmons is. He didn't just fall off a cliff in in terms of what he's able to do offensively. But the tricky part is, like you mentioned, James Van Reimsdike is in the picture now and he is in a lot of ways a better version. Like he does a lot of

the things that Wayne Simmons does. He plays net front on the power play. He converts really well. and he's sort of the Wayne Simmons plus at this point. Elon, did I cut you off? No, no, that's pretty much the right thing. Like, I feel like with Simmons, he could be a sleeper guy because you say like, oh, last year he wasn't demonstrating how good he could be because he was so injured, but then with the deployment, it could really go either way.

Like, it just goes to show how good this Philly team is that you could have Wayne Simmons not in the top six and not on the top power play, but it's definitely foreseeably possible. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I agree with that. Okay, the Penguins. Where do you want to start? I guess we got to start with the top line. Like we always do like pretty much every episode or two of keeping Carlson.

We're talking about who's playing with Crosby on line one. And right now it's looking like Gensel and Sprong are going to be there. So you might have a really nice sleeper option in Daniel Sprung. And by the way, even Gensel, who is maybe a little bit more off people's radars than he was at the start of last season. Like everyone was really into Gensel going into last year. But, you know, he ended up with only 48 points. I feel like he could get at least 50 if he's able to stay with Crosby all season. And Daniel Sprong, like, I don't know.

He seems like a good late round. Sleeper, what do you think about Daniel Sprong versus Ty Rattie, who we talked about in the last episode? Who do you think is going to have a better year? Oh, man, that's a tough one. Yeah, I mean, we've seen, like, listen, whether it was Connor Scherer or whether it's been Jake Enzel over the years or whoever, Chris Coon, it's Pascal DuPui, you go on down the line. Like, if you were guaranteed a spot with Sidney Crosby, you're going to have an awesome season. And you just look at the list of players.

Like, it seems like he will at least have a bit of wiggle room or a bit of a leash here. Like, it doesn't feel like after a couple of a couple of. couple games, they're going to bump him from that spot just because there aren't too many obvious fits above him other than like, it seems like they do want to have Hornquist and Brassard playing on that third line and go with those three scoring lines. So yeah, I mean, if he's going to stick there and he's looked really good at the H. L. L. I know Corey Pran and his prospect reports for the athletic is still a believer and still raves about him. And so there's a lot to like there. And the opportunity is the most important part. It looks like he has it right now. And I think I am,

I think I'm buying it. I think I like him as a sort of sneaky guy who could produce massive points playing with Crosby. Me too. He has that goal scoring acumen. We're talking about sprung still, right? You didn't flip back to Gensel? No, no, no. We already know how Gensel is at this point, which is good.

Right. And the trouble, the trouble with Gensel, too, is that even if he does play on the top line all season long, it's going to be so hard to get a sniff on that top power play, which is what would really, you know, make him as valuable as everybody thought he could possibly. be going into last year's season. But going back to Sprung, he was second in HL goal scoring last year, 32 goals to go with 33 assists for 65 points and 65 games with the Wilkes-Barry Scranton baby pens.

Fifth in the HL for total points. The thing with Sprong, though, is that if he does slip up or if it's not working out, he's got to hold off both Hornvist and Kessel for his spot on a depth chart, although it sounds like Demetri, you're sort of of of the mind that those two are where they are in the depth chart to keep that top nine really healthy so that even if Daniel Sprung does struggle. It's not like all of a sudden they're going to say, oh, like Kessel, Hornfist, we need one of you up here with Krosby. Yeah, I feel like Kessel's going to stick with Malkin on

that second line. And they've shown over the years that they don't necessarily love loading up fully and they like having that three line balance attack. So I think, especially in the regular season, And I think it behooves them to give Daniel Sprung a bit of a longer look than he's gone in past years. And I don't know. It's obviously going to be a matter of him actually taking advantage of it and producing. But I feel like he's set up to do so. Yeah, I think it makes a lot of sense. And maybe really quickly on Pittsburgh, I'd love to talk about Chris LaTang for a second.

Like last year, he finally did what we've been waiting for for so long. He stayed healthy for the whole season. He only missed like three games. But strangely, he only ended up with 51 points when he used to be a really good bet to be like 60 plus point pace, even like a 70 point-paced guy, but just he could never say healthy. So I wonder if next year he could do both, like be healthy all year and get back to being like a 65-point defenseman.

I feel like he's a bit underrated right now. And going to next year, like Brian was talking about this amazing top power play on Pittsburgh. He's going to be quarterbacking it again. And I feel like Chris LaTang could be primed. I don't know if he could call it a breakout at this point in his career. I think he could do better than the 51 points he put up last year. Yeah, I mean, I remember his like,

especially if I mean for the full team, they were going through this weird spiral at the start of the year and all of their on ice shooting and say percentages were out of whack but especially his I remember when it came up

that the penguins are considering trading him or at least his name was floating around and rumors I looked into it and it was crazy just what was going on with his underlying numbers and which was pretty much mostly out of his control I know that sometimes he makes this kind of glaring gaff or two

and people latch onto it and blame him for it but I still think he's a fine player at this point of his career and you're right assuming health which I guess with him at this point is a risky thing to just take for granted. But if he can play in 70 plus games,

I feel like an offensive bounce back of sorts is an order for him. Cool. So, shall we? Okay, Brian's into him too. Yeah, yeah. All right. Good. I'm glad we're on the same page.

He's a word for a player who reclaims his status. So you've been trying to find this word over the course of both these. He's just bouncing back. That's the word. That's the word. Yeah. Yeah, he's definitely not breaking out. Okay, the Tampa Baylight.

Yeah, so interesting practice lines came out today. Stamcoast and Kucherov split up. They were going with J.T. Miller, Stamkos, and Killorn, and then Palat, Point, and Kuturov, which I feel like the player that really jumps out to me is Brayden Point, because he was already so amazing last year, 66 points as a 21-year-old. Now if he's going to play with Kuturov, like centering him,

and not to say that's going to happen, like, who knows, it's just a practice line, but I was already so excited for him for next year. He even got on the top power play by the end of the year. I feel like Braden Point is going to join the 70, Point Club and I'm really excited about him. And someone like J.T. Miller, who was really great at the end of last year, when he got to Tampa Bay and was playing with Stamcoz Ocucherov, he had 18 points and 19 games, though he wasn't great in the playoffs.

Like, I don't know, like Miller is someone I think people are really excited about. But, you know, I wouldn't reach too far for him just because if he gets bumped down that lineup, who knows what could happen. But Braden Point, I'm all in on. I think he's going to have an amazing year. So I've got two players to throw at you guys that you could choose who you want to talk about. J.T. Miller is the guy, like when you're at your dream. draft table and someone else was looking at him. You can say, yeah, you know, he had 18 points and 19 games with Tampa, but his shooting percentages were ridiculous. He had five power play goals on 10 power play shots. That's not going to keep up. Be sure you want that guy? And then you can just nab him later because, yes, he had favorable percentages, but Miller also raised his game as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning. He was letting Pucks fly at even strength and on the power play in ways that we hadn't seen him ever.

really do on a consistent basis in New York Rangers uniform. So that's why I like J.T. Miller going into it. And like his deployment to New York was also sort of all over the place, right? He'd bounce all around the top nine just when he was getting in a groove somewhere. He'd be shifted somewhere else and he could always handle it. So Tampa seems like a pretty great place to be moved around the top nine. If that's even his worst case scenario, seems pretty good to me. And then Braden Point, Elon, I'm with you.

that he can join the 70 point club this year. He had 106 points in his first 150 NHL games. Other players who've done that, McKinnon, Getslaff, Aho, Nelander, Skinner, Klingberg, somehow. And then we saw Braden Point as a sophomore up his shot on goal and shot attempt rates per 60 minutes as well. So that's all great. I'm really, like, he's so fun to watch too.

He just seems so talented. And if he can hold down that top power play spot, he is like going to be great value. I feel like you can draft him as a 70 point player, assuming he meets that projection. But around the time that everyone else is like messing with 55, 60 point guys, you can probably get him right around there. Yeah, you're right.

I just wanted to echo or bounce back to what you were saying about J.T. Miller. It's, I mean, we saw last year the start of the year in that spot, what Vlad and Mascar did and he was awesome. And then what Miller did when he came into the Tampa Bay situation and step right into that. And whether it's with point or Stamco's centering that top line, as long as he's playing with Kutraub, I have no doubt he's going to produce.

And you're right. Like if he gets bumped down to the third line, he's still playing with like Tyler Johnson and whoever else. Like it's that's probably good enough to be anyone else's second or maybe potentially even first line. So there's so much talent on this team. I feel like maybe, you know, aside from the Kutrov, Stamkov's and points,

like the other guys might be hampered a little bit just because there's no need to really ride them with giving them a ton of minutes or opportunity or they can kind of bounce around the lineup and this team's going to score goals regardless of who's out on the ice. So that might lower their ceiling a little bit, but it also kind of raises their floor because you know that regardless of what line they're on,

they're going to be playing with a couple other really good players. Yeah, this team is just like so deep. Like we won't even have time to talk about Yanni Gourd and like, you know, some other players who broke out last year. And like their defense also like heaven. They've got Surgachev still coming up. Like this is definitely like a strong cup contender, probably the front runner, I'd have to imagine.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I agree. I think it's like the problem with talking about a team like this is, is, it's just so obvious at this point with, with these guys. Like, I'm glad we had that brain point discussion and the J.T. Miller stuff. But otherwise, it's like, do we really need to tell people that? Heardman is very good. And Nacudukutroft is going to probably be like a top three guy in points again. Like it's, yeah, I bet people know that already. If we want to say something negative, we could talk about Dan Girardi for a bit. No, because people already know that too. So it's, yeah, like talking about Dan Gerardy and Ryan Callahan's old news at this point as well. Let's go right to the Leafs then. All right, well, everything's awesome on the Leafs. I have a co-worker who's a huge Leafs fan, and he's just talking to me about them all the time.

Like, how can you not get excited? Like, Tavares and Marner playing great together, along with a solid third wheel. Zach Hyman's always around doing fine. And like Matthews and Marlowe both had a couple points themselves, playing with Tyler Ennis in some recent preseason games, which is kind of funny. Like, Nelander is still waiting to sign a contract.

Who knows how long he'll wait, but it seems like Tyler Ennis is actually filling in pretty well for however long Nielander will be out. And this has been playing 19 plus minutes. And he has a couple goals and assists in three games. I guess that's what happens when you play with Matthews. And then the buzz is Toronto's been loading up the top power play. We thought maybe they would go with two even units like they were doing last year.

But it seems that they've got Tavaris, Matthews, Marner, all on the top power play, which means there will be some big winners and losers, both in terms of, I guess, like, maybe Cadreys versus Nilander for who gets that last forward spot. And then Riley versus Gardner for who gets that last defense spot. I'll assume that the Leander signs, which it, how could he not? Right. I saw a comparison made. His agent is also Johnny Goddrow's agent and Johnny Goddrow in a similar point in his career

and similar situation held out till October 10th signed his contract then. So, you know, tried to gain a little bit of leverage by waiting past opening night. So maybe we're seeing the same playbook here. That's the biggest question at the moment. but it must be kind of annoying to him and his agent to see Tyler Ennis in there. And the Leafs are probably just like pointing to see, that guy can do what we want you to do. Of course, Neelander is a better player than Tyler Ennis.

This could be the first year in a long time. Like the way I'm summarizing the whole Leafs fantasy value is this is the first time in a long time that it may be impossible for Leafs to be overvalued in fantasy draft by Leafs homers and Leifes fans playing fantasy, which means that if you are a Leaves Homer who likes to grab Leaves on your fantasy team to cheer for, you may not have a choice. You know, usually you've just been able to reach for a guy

a couple rounds early and cheer for him that way. But now you might just want to try to draft a really good team and get a whole bunch of assets that you can trade away in a lopsided lose trade for you to get your hometown players. They have such an embarrassment of riches up front too, right? Because like in most other situations, I'd be all in on guys like Andreas Janssen and Kaspari Kappanenna's breakout candidates

and guys who could sneakily have huge seasons but on this team, like they look prime for a third line spot and I guess now they're going to be playing with Nazan Khadry, which is an awesome line but just in terms of their usage and the volume of minutes they're going to receive, I don't know if it's enough to support that,

especially without the prime power play minutes as well. I guess the one big question, and this is like really the, you know, big time rich person problems, but it's like it can Austin Matthews take that leap in year three to becoming one of those top handful of guys in fantasy because he's been tremendously effective obviously, especially on a permanent basis in F515,

but because of the power play usage and because he hasn't been having to play a ton overall, he hasn't necessarily gotten the counting stats that some of these other guys, whether it was Kutrov or McKinnon or McDavid that we were talking about for the numbers, two overall spot in drafts. Can Matthews enter that and be firmly in that discussion

and potentially even be the number two guy in fantasy this season? I don't know. I don't know that he can be ahead of Liny, right? That's the mountain that he's got to climb to be able to be the number two guy. But he still is a young goal-heavy guy, which makes him super attractive in especially Keeper Dynasty leagues, but also in one-year leagues.

I don't know that you can like legitimately grab him second overall in a one-year league, but it's not out of the question that it could be the case in the next two or three years. Yeah, there's McKinnon also. But, I mean, obviously, the upside for him now is, like, if they're going to load up that top power play and he gets to play with Tavares on the top power play. That was by one concern is maybe he only gets 50% of the time not playing with John Tavaris. But, like, I don't know.

I just feel like Matthews is so amazing. This team is all very excited. I'm ready to drop the puck. I want to go to a bar and watch some games and high-five people, whatever the Leafs are for scoring goals. Yeah, no, they're going to put up a bunch of goals. and having any guys in their team is you just kind of want to be in on the fun.

Okay, let's wrap this up. Wow, we're at the 31st team on our list of Washington Capitals. Yeah. You only take us three hours. Yeah. I'm glad that we did our podcast first, Demetriars. That's more energy maybe. But I've tried to keep it up here.

I drank a Red Bull, and the Caps are a really fun team. So we could obviously just talk about how awesome Ovechkin is and how, you know, whether or not we think he'll be able to do it again. I think the one guy, I want to kind of go on a bit of a downer note to talk about Nicholas Baxter, who's lost his line one spot, centering ovechkin now it's kuznetsov there i wonder like how far should we expect backstrom to fall next season like last year he was below 0.9 points per game for the first time since 2010-11 he only had 71 points which is still great that backstrom's always been like so

amazing like is that his new ceiling though now a 71 point guy if he's not playing with ovechkin like if he's going to play with tj o'shi and like i don't know jacobarana or burakowsky like it's not the greatest of linemates no i think oh you go ahead to me you go for you go for it and then i'll jump it Thanks. Yeah, Backstrom reminds me of, well, I mean, not at all, Anthony Bovoli, but there is a quantifiable difference for when Backstrom's playing with Ovechkin and when he isn't. And of course, you want him playing with Ovechkin more often than not. One way that I would hope Backstrom can compensate if he does lose time with Ovechkin is seeing

his IPP rise again. And I don't, IPP is something we use constantly, but I guess I'll try and give a very quick explanation, individual points percentage. So it illustrates on what percentage of goals scored while a player is on the ice, how many of those the player registers a point on. And it's generally, you know, a player can establish themselves at a reasonably consistent number. And then like shooting percentage, it can bounce around or spike or drop suddenly. And then you can expect it to regress back the next year.

So backstrom's IPP, the three years before last was 82, 77. And then in 2017-18, his IPP was a very not nice, 69%. But so, well, not a but, but I, so I'd hope that it can regress back up and that'll at least offer him a few extra points compared to last year, even if he does spend a lot of time away from Ovechkin. Backstrom is still an excellent person at setting up shots. He's an excellent pass-assister. And so I hope that is going to still help him bounce back.

Like, he's not done. He's not over. I still like him for somewhere around 70. I should. I still like him around 70 points. And then 75 if he does play a half season with Ovechkin on his wing. Like he still is good enough to create. And that top power play time is also going to help him.

Yeah, no, I agree with that. And it's not like, I mean, he's still playing with Brandon and Osi, who are fine players in their own right. So I think there's plenty of fantasy goodness to go around there. And I guess you could just kind of, I'm still holding out hope for Andre, Rokovsky and Jakob Rana as breakout guys. Obviously, Rana if he gets the play on that second line, that's a massive luxury because

while I do like Lars Ler quite a bit as a player and Brett Connolly's has shown flashes as well, like if Berkowski's playing on that third line, it's going to be tough for him to reach and realize all that potential and produce offensively. With Rana, we saw what he's capable of in the postseason, when he's actually playing with talented players that can match his skill and ability and vision and all that. So I love that top six. And I think I'm not worried, I'm not really, worried about this team. I know it's kind of easy to make jokes about a Stanley Cup hangover and especially

quite literally in this case with this team. And since we saw them just all very, very heavily drinking throughout the summer and really enjoying their Stanley Cup victory, which they definitely should. You know, I think they've kind of, I think they're going to come back and be professional. And we've already seen Ovechkins look good in the preseason. And I have no reason to believe you won't be at least in the 40, 40, 45, approach 50 goal range again. And I think it's kind of status quo with this team. Like, I think there's the top guys are going to be the top guys. They're all going to be going really high up drafts and should be. Yeah.

And you know, Demetri, there is a way that both Jacob Verona and Andre Berkowski can get into the top six. All that they need to do is get Tom Wilson out of there. I don't know that they paid him a lot of money. So maybe they're not going to move them down. Well, I guess you just wait for the Tom Wilson suspension to come.

And then there's going to be an opportunity. Yeah, wide open door. Vranas is my Timo Meyer of the East. He's someone who we sort of tried to get excited about last year, didn't pan out, but he has great shot rates. and few minutes.

So I'm hoping that he can muscle his way into a regular top six or even top line role this year. My fearless prediction is that Varana plays more minutes in the top six this season than Tom Wilson does. I mean, he should. And like, yeah, that's such a sweet spot.

If Verana can get in with Obechka and Kuzmstanov, we haven't even talked about Kuznizov and how amazing he's been. So like, it could be just a really great spot if he can get in there. Yeah, I agree. All right, guys. Let's get out of here.

We've done enough. This was fun. Yeah. I know it was a blast. This is the part of the show where you guys plug some stuff. I know that you've been churning out the fantasy goodness lately. So I'm going to give you guys an opportunity here to tell the listeners where they can check out some of your other work.

Thanks. Yeah. So we have our podcast, Keeping Carlson. You can find us on iTunes or whatever. We did a crazy thing over the summer. We did the world's first ever NHL audio almanacs, like 27 plus hours of fantasy hockey content breaking down every single team coming up with a point projection for all the fantasy relevant players.

So you could check that out, keepingcarlson.com slash almanac. But yeah, we'd love if you become a listener of our show. At least listen to the Eastern Conference episode that we recorded. That was a lot of fun. Yeah, I'm on it. So if you're listening to this show and you like what I do, go and listen to their version as well. And then keep subscribed and listening to the Keeping Carl's on podcast

because it's as good as it gets when it comes to fantasy hockey. Yeah, basically just every week we like to, we really appreciate that. Yeah, every week we're just going to try to break down. What's going on in the league? Who's up? Who's down? Who's hot? Who's not?

And if Brian's going to dig into the advanced stats and see if he thinks these players are going to be able to keep it up or not. I love talking hockey, but let's go to bed. Yes, yeah. No, this was fun, guys. All right. Yeah, let's check back in as the season gets going. Maybe we can look back at kind of what we got right,

what we got wrong, and recalibrate our expectations and all that good stuff. Sounds great. Sounds good, I see you, Dimitri. Good night. Chat soon. Bye. Thank you. The Hockey PDO cast with Dmitri Filipovich.

Follow on Twitter at Dim Philipovich and on SoundCloud at soundcloud. com slash HockeyPedioCast.