The Hockey PDOcast - Episode 413: Turning Fantasy into Reality

Episode Date: October 10, 2021

Cam Robinson and Chris Meaney join the show to help you prepare for your fantasy drafts by discussing players to target, breakout candidates, and situations to watch closely to start the season. Topics include: Stacking Florida Panthers skaters Sam Bennett's remarkable end to last season Sam Reinhart's upside playing next to Barkov Jack Hughes' breakout, and why points are coming Which Devils skaters will be able to benefit from it Jakob Chychrun trying to follow up on last year Joel Eriksson Ek playing with Kirill Kaprizov Jordan Kyrou's talent and usage Take advantage of the unknown in Seattle Underrated goalies that are in good situations Top six wing battles to be determined f you haven't done so yet, please take a minute to leave a rating and review for the show. Smash that 5-star button. Each one counts, and helps us out greatly. If you're feeling extra generous, you can also leave a little note about why you recommend people check the PDOcast out if they haven't yet. Thanks for the help! 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.

On a beautiful run through the park, on a pleasant day, you can easily get lost. No, no, no. She didn't kill him. Huh? In your true crime podcast. It was the pool guy. So obvious. Whatever motivates you works for us, it's all about letting your run be your run. And Brooks is here for every runner. Doing the research and sweating the details to create gear that works for you.

It's your run. Brooks, run happy. Regressing to the mean since 2015, it's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Philip. Welcome to the Hockey Pediocast. My name is Dimitri Filipovich. And joining me is my good buddy Cam Robinson Cam. What's going on, man? Hey, damn, not too much, bud.

Just excited for a little Saturday morning podcast here. That's right. And also joining us for making his first appearance on the PEDAO cast. I'm excited about it is my buddy Chris Mini. Chris, what's going on there? Hey, thanks for having me. I love this podcast. You guys are both studs, and I'm happy to be.

here and join you guys. And I think you got the best podcast name in the biz. So it's fantastic. I like it. You're coming out of the gate hot. We're looking for a second invitation to the podcast at this rate. So we're off to a good start. So we're recording this Saturday morning. We're going to post it immediately. Hopefully people can listen by Saturday afternoon. I know it's going to be a busy weekend for people's drafts and stuff. And so hopefully we'll be able to provide them with with some names, some guys they can target to win their drafts and get one up on their friends. also even if you don't play in fantasy pools hopefully you're going to find use out of this podcast because we're just going to talk about a bunch of breakout candidates and names we like this season

and players to watch out for us so even just for casual kind of regular fans that aren't playing in fantasy pools there's going to be some actionable advice here and kind of to prepare you for the coming season so we have a lot of ground to cover here let's start right out of the gate Chris I'm going to let you go first as a first time appearance in the PDO cast give me a name. We can start with breakout candidates and go from there. Give me someone that you're excited about, that you think people aren't talking about nearly enough

that has massive upside this season. I don't know if people aren't talking about the Florida Panthers, but I'm just going to start there. Like, I really like this squad quite a bit. I think that they're going to be one of the highest scoring teams in the NHL. And I don't know if people are just sleeping on Sam Bennett, but he had a very, very strong small sample size with the Florida Panthers last season.

and you could really just see the difference between the two when he was with Calgary as somebody who was averaging 13 minutes per game, 30 seconds on the power play, and then he goes over to Florida. And he really just thrives in a big role. And whether you're drafting in high stakes leagues, which count hits, underdog fantasy, you know, he's still a ninth, tenth round pick.

And I think he could be a top 40 player, a top 40 skater. If you are playing in leagues with hits, sure. But even in not, you see the difference from the 15 games, he had seven goals and 20 points. I'm including the playoff games there. He had three power play points. He averaged 20 minutes and 55 seconds overall. Now, I don't think he's like, if you put that on pace for 82 games,

I don't think he's going to have over 100 points and flirt with 40 goals. He's not going to be able to keep up that that pace that he was on, 15% shooting rate. But this is a guy who's going to play inside the top six. He had well over a minute per game on the power play with the Panthers. I like the addition of Sam Reinhart. I think this, they got four lines that could really come out. at you in waves. So Bennett is, he's definitely a target of mine, 3.8 shots per game and 3 point hits, a 3.1 hits per game in those 15 contests. He's a guy that can cover a lot of categories.

I'm really excited about him and the entire Panther squad. I had Bennett on my list as well. I don't really know how to handle him heading into this season though in terms of my expectations because as Chris illustrated there, it was such a massive disparity between how he looked and performed Calgary, even in years past, compared to the 10 regular season games or so that he played with the Panthers. And the thing is, it's like those 10 games with the Panthers, I think it's only like 120 minute, 5 on 5 on sample size. The percentages are insane, right? Like, I think he had a 982, 5 on, 5 on I say percentage or something behind him. Like it was just, everything was going there away. At the same time, it makes sense playing with Hubert O. They looked amazing to

together, all of his other sort of predictive measures in terms of the shot volume they were generating, how much they were carrying the puck, everything was through the roof. And so it makes you think that for whatever reason, you know, we talk all the time about environments and fits, for whatever reason he fit perfectly in the system playing next to Hubert O. How do we kind of stack the two Sam Bennett resumes that we have here and how much should we buy into that 10 game sample and try to project it forward. And do you think that, you know, the latter is more predictive than the former? Yeah, it's tough.

I figured that Bennett was going to come up. So I didn't even put any notes down on him today. But, you know, it's interesting. He did look, obviously, looked excellent with Huberto on, you know, quote unquote, the second line there. Playing on the top, power play is going to be a juicy spot. I expect that to maintain just coming off how red hot he was to finish the year. But, you know, small sample sizes, they're tough to really get a gauge on,

especially when a player moves teams. I feel like when a player moves teams, it can go one of two ways, right? It can go like this where they just hit the adrenaline-fueled bender and go off for a ton of points and everything clicks right. And it's like, here we go. This is the fit we've been waiting for. You know, 18-year-old Sam Bennett has finally arrived at 25. But then, you know, the opposite of that is like, remember when James Neal 100 years ago went to Pittsburgh and I think got like one point in 25 games and we're like, what? This guy was supposed to score 30 next to Sid.

And then it took him a little bit to get going and then warm up came the next year. So such a small sample size, I'm a little, I'm hesitant. I'm hesitant to think that we're looking at, you know, obviously I don't think we're looking at 100 point players where he was clicking at. But, you know, he had offensive opportunities in Calgary, a ton of them. They tried their very best to put him in a situation to succeed and it just didn't work. Now that could have been situational. And now he's in sunny Florida and he's feeling good and he's got a good team around him. But I'm still going to hedge my bet a little bit there that I could see him.

struggle out of the gate and lose that top powerplay job pretty quickly because they have so many options in Florida. So, you know, could he be a top 40 player? Like, he potentially could, right? I'm a little more bearish on him in the regard that I think that he's probably more in the middle of where we're hoping and what we're expecting and what we've seen so far. So I like some other options there ahead of him. Obviously, the big guys, Carter's playing up on the first line, but he's on the second power plane. He's probably the guy that's going to go to wedge him out if he slows down a little bit. So yeah, I have a hard time rating him too, too highly,

but I understand when people will and how people are going to look at those metrics down the stretch and be like, you know, we could have a star on our hands here that you could get outside the first few rounds. So swing big on that. He's still young. He has the pedigree as a top, you know, a top pick back in whatever it was 2014. So, yeah, I like Florida too. My hot take earlier this year was that, you know, Barkoff was going.

going to take a run at the heart this year. So I think they're going to be a high scoring team. I think they're going to put up a ton of points. They've got those top two lines that are just going to roll. So yeah, you know, for me, Bennett's, Bennett's, he's kind of a wild card, I'd say. Well, let me give you the pro Bennett or the optimistic view here. The thing that really gives me hope that there is something to this, I don't think anyone's expecting, you know, six goals and 15 points for every 10 games he plays. But the fact that, you know, the shot volume where I think he ramped up to 62 shot attempts and 40 shots on goal in those 10 games. Like that's a level we've never seen him play at.

And I'm totally with you, Chris, here in terms of being all in on the Panthers from a fantasy perspective and trying to stack them and get as many pieces as you can there. I just think that that system we saw last year, you know, San Bennett's one of them, pretty much everyone that stepped in there and played their first year for the Panthers last year, even in larger samples in the 10 games Bennett played took off. And it's very clear to see why because they were playing this kind of run and gun fast-paced system where they were encouraging all their players to sprint up the ice and create as many fast breaks as they could. And that's actually why I like a different Sam here.

I think Sam Reinhart is one of my favorite players to target this season. I think he's a bit pricier than Bennett. But I just love the idea of him going from Buffalo last year where he still kind of quietly scored 25 goals. And I think was near the top 10 in that category. he's going to be playing on the first line with Sasha Barkov now, who, as you as you talked about, who was insane last year. I think there's reason to believe he can be even better this year. He was amongst the league leaders in terms of shot assists.

And so pairing those two guys, I know that Reinhardt scored those 25 goals because he shot 19% or whatever last year. But he's always been a guy who's been an above average finisher. And so just putting him in that system and in that environment and what we've seen from all these players that came in and succeeded, I really like Ryanhart this year. And I think that he could score a ton of goals. Yeah, I totally agree with you there. I mean, this is a guy who's had at what, at least 17 and each of his few seasons in Florida, 20 and 5 is past six.

Let's be honest, playing on lousy buffalo teams. Like, no disrespect to Jack Eichol. He's a great center. But I agree with the Barkoff call. I mean, he's 25 to 1 to win the heart. I mean, that's a terrific bet if you want to make that bet. He's going to be surrounded around a ton of talent, even if he doesn't play with Barkoff. I mean, going on that second line, they just have a lot of offense in Florida.

So I'd like that call out. Yeah, tied for 11th in goals and kind of sneaky, right? When you look overall and you look at last year and you see some of the goal leaders, for me, I was like, wow, Sam, Sam Rinehart is, you know, he's inside the top 12 in goals in the NHL. So, yeah, Cam, I think, you know, it's starting off strong here. We all like Florida and there's just a lot of offense to be had across the board. With, again, their fourth line or their third line,

whether what do they want to do with it? It's better than some team second and third across the league. Yeah. And the thing that I like about a Reinhardt here as well is, is obviously, I think, an ideal landing spot for him is playing with Barkaw. But as he showed towards the end of last year, kind of out of necessity, playing in Buffalo, he can also, his natural position is playing center and he can play there. And so if they decide, I mean, they have so many chess pieces, as you mentioned there, that as I'm sure over the course of 82 game season, they're going to mix a match.

If they have a slump, they're going to try and start some different combinations. But his fallback plan is playing second line center with Jonathan Huberto, which is something we just talked about, Sam Bennett succeeding in. That's a great spot for him as well. So I think Ryan Hart is kind of foolproof here in terms of whether he's on the first or second line. He's going to get a ton of opportunities.

All right, let's keep him moving. Cam, it's your turn. Give me a name you're excited about it. Let's get out of sunrise. I'm going down the turnpike a little bit here. And I'm talking Jack Hughes. And another guy that I'm sure people have been talking about, but there haven't been as glaring a flag saying that a breakout's coming.

So, you know, we're entering year three. Traditionally, it's year four where guys really explode or, you know, X amount of games, 200 plus games. But I just what I saw from him early on in the season where he was popping, right? I think he had like eight points and nine games to start the season and we're like, holy smokes, Jack Hughes is here. And then he kind of got bogged down with what's going on in New Jersey.

And so I think that year three coming up, we're going to see more shots. So, you know, he went from two shots a game to two and a half last year. His power play production, though, went down. despite seeing, you know, 62% of the power play deployment there, they're going to be a demonstrably better man advantage unit this year with Dougie Hamilton coming to town. Like that's, and Thomas Tatar come in as well. Like they're going to be a much better team at five on four.

And I think Hughes is going to play a huge, huge part in that. So for me, I obviously, the upside has a long been there, first overall pick. He was projected to be like Patty Kane light or isish. Kane stepped into the league. He was a little bit older and put up the big numbers right away. I think this is time for Jack Hughes. another guy that you're going to get later on because he hasn't shown capable of really blown it out yet.

Like he played it like a 45 point pace last year. And so for just regular people sifting through stats sheets here or even looking at, you know, who's the sleeper's going to be. He's not, he's not a name that's just really pinging out there. And so this is a guy that I think you're going to be able to get in the mid rounds that, you know, I projected him for just under 70 points this year. But I think he could go a point in a game even two on that upside as well. So there's a, there's a ton of room for development.

If you're in a keeper league, obviously he's going to be held up already. but in those one-year leagues getting them a little bit later, I think New Jersey is going to be a lot better. They're pushing for it now. They're not going to be a great team, but I think they're going to be a fun team, and they're going to try to score their way out of trouble. And he'll play a big role in that first line,

first power play, obviously. This is the divide for me in participating in fantasy circles versus actual on-ice analysis, because for me, I didn't even consider he uses sort of a breakout candidate because he broke out for me last year in terms of actual on-ice results. I think he was literally in the 100th percentile in terms of like even strength zone exits, even strength controlled entries,

one of the best penalty differentials in the game, like everything, the eye test, like it just popped. He clearly was stronger on the puck. I'd still like to see him improve his shot a little bit. And I'm sure that's going to be something that is never going to be true. The ladies obviously can have pro ball as much more of a playmaker and passer, but it was pretty clear that he took a massive step last year in terms of his ability on the ice and how he was playing out, how he was controlling games when he was out there.

But I guess you're right in terms of what people care about for fantasy when you're just looking at the point totals, it's still lagged a bit behind. So it provides you this kind of buying opportunity to get in there while you still can before this guy truly turns into a fantasy superstar. Chris, obviously Hughes is very interesting. And I think as Cam talked about, he's got massive upside. But I think the way he profiles, I'm curious in getting pieces of whoever's going to be sharing the ice with them as well at 515 because I think he's going to be that type of player

where he's going to make everyone around him that much better. So what are we thinking? Are we thinking Sharon Gilewich? Are we thinking to Tar? How are we sort of breaking down that top line for the New Jersey Devils? Yeah, I think Sharon Govich is very, very interesting. Towards the end of last season two, this is a guy who, you know, from a shop volume standpoint, you know, I'm pretty big on shop props when we get into the season.

He was a guy that, you know, was having around the one and a half mark. And he was clearing that pretty easily down the stretch. So he's a guy that I think could not only break out, but he's going undrafted. Like I just took a look at his, did a draft last night with 14 people and was able to get him, you know, in the 16th round. It was kind of like just people sleeping on him. Like 16 goals, 30 points is pretty strong. Like it's pretty solid for a rookie who you started to see right away like some of the splits early on in the season. This is a guy that was just hovering around like 12 minutes a night.

And then towards the end of the season, he was, he had games well over 18 minutes. So I think if he is linked to Hughes, which I do believe that he will be, there's an opportunity there. We just talked about Hughes and, you know, his playmaking ability. And I think Sharon Govich is, you know, I think he's going to be a volume shooter. And he's, he's a guy that projects pretty well at 5 and 5. And he's going to get that opportunity to play on the power play. And you've got to think that the power play is going to be a little bit better this year with the addition of Dougie Hamilton. Like, it's a pretty strong defenseman to quarterback that power play.

So the devils are actually underrated. Like I think there's a lot of players that even Hughes, like all three of us, we like him. But he's going well outside the top 100 picks. I mean, Pam, you just talked about. about how he, you know, you got projected for 70 points. You know, there's a few guys on that team like Tatar, who's a great five and five player who could fit on then next to him as well. And you can project points that way. But yeah, Taryn Govich, underrated sleeper, breakout, volume shooter. I do think that he will be the guy linked to Hughes.

And the sky's limit for Hughes. And four more points per game, four more minutes per game last season guys and more points and fewer games overall. So it's a strong target that there's three or four devils in there that we could talk about. Yeah, I do think he's going to be the type of player where once he hits his peak, you're just going to want whoever's playing with him because it's going to be fantasy, fantasy goodness. Cam, I feel like I'm interested in sharing Goage for this year. And I like what I saw as Laster went along from him. But I feel like all of this is kind of just keeping the seat warm for Alexander Holtz eventually

to step in there and just be turning all of these passes. into beautiful types. Yeah, you knew I was, I was just waiting to talk about Alexander Holtz. And he's looked good. He's looked good in the preseason at camp from all reports. I'm not sure if he'll make the team right off the hop because another young kid, Dawson Mercer, has outplayed him. Both them can play the right side.

You know, they, we're talking about Sharon Govich. I think that he's going to start the year there anyways. He had obviously came out of nowhere last year and looked really strong. But, you know, they do have those options, right? Jasper Bratt is just sitting right behind him waiting to steal that job on the top line. And then Mercer, I think probably has the inside track to crack the club. And then he's one of these players that could bounce all around the lineup and could find himself on that top line to another deep, deep sleeper that you could be looking at that could link up with Hughes. And if they

have some success at five on five, you know, he's going to probably see some second power play opportunities. But it's holds long term. And Hughes passing a holds is going to be disgusting. And so obviously if we're looking at keeper leagues, you want to have, you want to have a piece of that on both ends if you can. And then even if you want to take a late round flyer, like just keep an eye on on what's going on at Devil's Camp and see if Holtz makes the team, I'm sure they're going to try to put him in a situation to succeed. And that means, you know, he's going to get looks with Hughes or with Nico Hisher because you're not going to keep him around to play seven minutes on your fourth line. And if you do, that's just probably not a great idea for his development.

So yeah, I'd be keeping my ear to the ground and watching that, watching that position, seeing who's getting in opening night, seeing who's getting the power play minutes on the second unit, too. I think that's usually telling on who's maybe in more of the coach's favor and could be getting to look later on. Just for Brat, though, as a kid who, I've been waiting for him to break out too. And so if he can manage to steal that top line right wing spot, I think that we could be looking at him to take another jump up in points as well. I like it.

All right. I'm going to keep us going here. A player that I have next on my list that I want to talk about is Joel Ericksonek. I'm not sure how much more offensive potential that's untapped. He's got individually himself because he scored kind of quietly 19 goals and 56 games last year after having 24 in his first 210 games total in the league. He finished fourth in Salki voting. He got that $42 million extension from the wild. So the 2021 season went about as well for Joel Erick as he could individually hope for. But I think the reason why I bring him up here and what I think

was a really important development from preseason, you know, you watch you watch these games. You see these lineup reports and depth charts and kind of projecting ahead. And usually there's a lot of noise to it. But I think in this case, the fact that he was playing on the top line, centering Carol Caprizov and Matt Zuccarello in the preseason and also playing the net front on the power play, I think is really appealing to me because you look at last year, he scored those 19 goals. None of them were on the power play where he was playing just over a minute per game. He only played with Caprizov for 100 minutes. I think that combination of those three guys was Zuccarello only played 22, five on five minutes total. And I was just watching all year,

just watching Caprizov just throw these beautiful dimes all across the ice to Victor Ask, who was just fumbling the puck and missing wide open nets and failing to tap it in. And we know that Eric Seneck, he showed last year that he's really good around the net. He's got nice hands in tight. He had a lot of high danger opportunities and he converted a bunch of them. And so for me, you know, he's going to play a lot for them, obviously, because he's going to be there relied upon center. I was actually kind of surprised to see that they finally put him with Caprizov in the preseason.

I was kind of waiting for them to do that all of last year. But if any team is going to prioritize defensive responsibility and defensive value that Joel Erick and Marcus Felino provided last year for them, it's going to be the Minnesota Wild. And so I thought that maybe that would hold them back from just kind of putting all of their best players on one line like this. But it seems like they're going to do it. And I think there's tantalizing potential here for someone who's a really, really good actual NHL player on the ice to also kind of carry over his scoring success last year. and even maybe potentially build on it. And that makes him an appealing guy

that you can probably get pretty late in drafts. Yeah, love the call. Absolutely. He was on my list as well. And another guy, you're right, he's not really getting drafted. And you just have to know your settings. If you play in leagues with hits and shots,

he was one of two players last year to have at least 100 hits, 100 shots, and 19 goals. The other was Chris Kreider. And you could see the uptick and ice time in each of the last two seasons increased by two minutes. And, you know, from his five, and five numbers too. I mean, high danger chances for 4.9 per 60. That was the 11th best

mark in the league. 1.37 goals four per 60 was inside the top 10 and his expected goals inside the top five among players at five and five last season per 60. So I'd like that they're giving him an opportunity. I don't really have much more to add than that, but he is going to play with some studs this year, which wasn't the case. I was waiting for it too. All of last season towards the end of last season. When was he going to be able to be the number one center there? Rask wasn't it, Bukstad wasn't the answer, and he's going to have a net front presence, like you said, on that power play. So I don't know. If he shoots 16%, I don't know, probably not, but when you're playing with Capri So you're going to have a lot of tap-ins. There's no question.

So the upside's pretty high. He is a terrific, terrific player that not a lot of people talk about. I'm with you guys also on my list, too, as a value guy or a breakout guy, you can put him in either category. You know, it's going to be all about the power play work, right? Like he didn't see any power play time, basically, in his career here. Very, very minimal last year was a big jump up to like a minute. So I see he's skating finally on that first unit in camp here. They started him out on the second one. I think that I think we're all right on the money that he's going to get the minutes at five on five.

They're going to have some chemistry. And then it's time to step up and produce on the power play. Because like this guy doesn't even know what a secondary assist is. Like he just never chiseled secondary points. And so he is due to step up and have one of these. seasons where he can get, you know, 40% of his assist can be secondary and you're going to watch his number spike. So playing with good players, that top unit, I think is going to be really good. I have another player that I want to talk about from that top unit later on for a breakout too.

No, I'm all about the Joel Erick's next train. I think I had him like four years ago in a keeper league where I was like, this guy's going to be really good. But I think it was more me, he's going to be such a good real life player. And he is, right? Like he's Selky caliber already. Like he's just an excellent player. And now we need to see him step up. up and, you know, break, he played another guy who played at like a 40 point pace or 45 point pace last year is that he's going to have to start hitting those bigger numbers, right? We're going to need him to get 20 points on the power play because his even straight to offense was already excellent last year, like very, very good.

And it still only drove him to a 45 point pace. So he's going to need 15, 20, 22 power play points to get him up into really fancy, relevant categories in these points only leagues where he's going to get 60, 65. And I think it's doable, right? Carol Capuzoff, he's a superstar. You link up with a superstar. You're a good smart player. You're going to get your points.

And that's where I think those secondary assist. are going to jump up in a big way. I like it. All right. I'm going to open the floor to you. Which one of you two wants to talk about Jared McCann? Cam does. Sure, I can talk about Jared McCann.

I was going to talk about another Jared, but we can save him for later too. Yeah, McCann, obviously, I'm a big fan. I've had this kid dialed up since his junior days. He's a shooter. He's intelligent on the ice. He can move around well. He obviously stepped up last year and played a more prominent role in Pittsburgh. And lo and behold, he played at like a 60-odd-point.

pace. The numbers were a little inflated. And when you're playing with a couple Hall of Famers, different situations, that's going to help. But now he's the guy in Seattle, right? Like, he's coming down, he's coming downhill on the top powerplay unit. And that shot, that wrist shot of his is really, really nice. Like, it's one of the better shots in the league coming in downhill. So I think he's going to get tons of opportunities there, playing on the first line, playing on the top power play unit. I know a lot of people are a little sour on Seattle right off the hop, questioning whether anyone's going to be able to put up a ton of points. And I can see that. You know, is there, is there a point of game guy on that team? Probably

not. But he's definitely someone who could play at a 60, 65, maybe even a bit higher point pace. We'll see if he can say healthy throughout the season. But, you know, at his age, he's 24, 25. He's got the pedigree. He stepped up last year. He's one of these guys that's going way too late on Yahoo boards anyways. There's value. There's definitely value to be had in, in Jericho. Well, he shot 15% personally last year, which wasn't that outrageous. I think obviously more concerned it was that the penguins with him on the ice at 5-1-5 shot 13.8% or something like that, 13.6. And then that's obviously just insane and it won't continue.

And I don't think anyone should expect that. I think though that while there will be a regression, I think it's going to be kind mitigated by just an increase in volume here where he only played 14.06 per game last year. Like I think as this team's number one center playing in all situations, that's expected to increase. I think the opportunities, especially in terms of shot volume, will increase for him as well. He's always been a good shooter. I'd like to see him use it more. And so I think there's a lot to like here.

I think that that regression and that kind of concern about Seattle's offensive ability and whether they're going to be playing a bunch of two-one games is baked into his price. I think last time I checked Yahoo had him around 170th or something, like he's going in the same range as guys like Patrick Hornquist and Alex Colloran. And with all due respect to those guys, I think a guy like McCann provides significant can leave more upside if everything does come together for him. So especially in that range with that price baked in, I love him as a,

it's kind of a breakout guy. But I just thought we needed to mention him because he's pretty much on everyone's list as, oh, this guy's going to break out. So I feel like people were waiting for us to talk about him. Yeah, I mean, he could, I don't want to say that he's going to score 43 like William Carlson did in Vegas, but a lot of guys across the board in Seattle are going to see a career high across the board with statistics, but most of all, ice time. I could see, I got him projected for over 18 minutes

a game. So from 15 to 18, Cam says first line, first power play. Absolutely. I believe in all of that stuff. I mean, 14 goals and back-to-back seasons, 32 points, just three shy of a career best. And, you know, he only played 66 games. So I think that he's, there's a lot of Seattle players that, you know, Jordan Eberley is the one guy. I think people go to or, or Schwartz. But McCann is, he's getting overlooked. And he's going to be one of those guys that we're talking about and people listening, drafting him. But I bet you after week one, week two, people will be talking about, wow, McCann, he's one of the hot waiver wire pick up.

So just make sure that you, you know, it's not going to cost you a whole lot. It can cost you a late pick. And I think it's going to be a pick that works out for you. Well, I also, I keep graviting to Vince done here as well because if you look at the way they've constructed their blue line, I think right now they have Mark Sheridan on the top power power play unit. and he's obviously got the reputation, and he similarly is a great value in that regard.

But it's a lot of, like, you know, Jamie Alexiac and Adam Larson, and they kind of drafted more defensive defensemen types. And I think if there's anyone that can unlock a true offensive ceiling here with this group and take advantage of we've been waiting for him to get that ice time ramped up and actually start being relied upon and trusted by his coaching staff, and it seems like the runway is there for Vince Dunn, where if he really has it in him at this point, this is about as good of an opportunity as he's going to get.

I'm with you. I got it on situations to watch is that who's Q being that power play in Seattle? Because I think it will be Gio to start. He's, you know, he's their captain, I believe. And he's got all the, all the history with being that guy. But he's not getting any younger. And Dunn is he's this player that analytically we've been high on for a while. And, you know, with the eye test too, excuse me, he looks like he should be a player.

You know, he's looked good in camp, preseason action. he's one of these rare defensemen who can finish at a pretty high rate too, right? Like he's clicked at 8% or above a couple of times in his young career, seeing very little power play time too, right? Like 30, 35% of the team's opportunities. So he can put up points on the power play. And I think that Seattle's going to recognize that. I think they did, and that's why they took him,

is that he's going to get an opportunity. And it might not be right off the hop. He might be one of these guys that goes off come Christmas time, right? When he manages to steal the spot if they're going dry for a little bit or Gio gets hurt. So he's one of these ones. Both those guys are kind of like a handcuff late in the draft, in my opinion, is that on Yahoo leagues, I think it's a little, a little while.

But I think Giordano is the 40th defenseman off the board and Dunn's like 44th. So they're sitting around each other because nobody really knows is who's going to do what on that unit and are they going to be a good enough unit to really want to have them? So that's kind of like that platoon goalie situation where they, they kind of lessen each other's value by not knowing who's going to get the majority of the starts. in this one, it's going to be who's going to get the majority of the minute. So I always like to hedge the younger guy in keeper situations. And in one-year leagues, I usually hedge the older guy who probably is going to start in that

position. But I'm quick. I'm quick to get to drop either one if the other one starts to go or gets that opportunity. So I'm usually a keeper guy, so I'd be a little more pro Vince down here. But yeah, and those one-year leagues probably take you off the board first and then either take down late or watch them all on the wire and be quick on the draw. I like it. All right.

Let's take a quick break here, and then we're going to pick it back up and finish up with a bunch names we like. Recognized employees with Custom Ink. Show customer appreciation with Custom Ink. Outfit your teams with Custom Ink. Easily add your logo to your favorite products and brands at Customink.com. Make Custom Ink your Custom Gear partner with great customer service, quality products, and all in pricing, along with personalized help when you need it, and an easy-to-use website when you

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champion by making it simple for anyone to sell their products anywhere, taking the guest's work out of selling. When you're ready to take your winning idea to the world, team up with Shopify, the commerce platform powering millions of businesses down the street and around the globe. Sign up for a free trial at Shopify.com slash bluewire, all lowercase. Go to Shopify.com slash bluewire to start selling online today. Shopify.com slash bluewire. All right, Chris, it's your turn. Give us another name. I like Derek Batherson. Not just because he played his junior A hockey in my hometown,

but I really liked what I saw from him last year as a player who I hear the stories, too, by the way, of him like running up the Citadel Hill in Halifax with Sidney Crosby and Brad Marshan. Like, those are guys I think you want to work out with. They've both been terrific players in the NHL. And Drake Batherson, you know, it was really his first full season in the NHL last year. you know, small sample a couple of years before that, but a lot of opportunity to play with the senators. I don't know what is going on with Brady Kachuk and if he's going to sign and when he's going to be back,

but it was one of the top lines in the league with Kachuk and Josh Norris and Drake Batherson. But it's another guy that I typically like these players that touch a lot of categories, 100 plus shots and 100 plus hits. And, you know, upside to be a 30 goal score, I do believe maybe even as early as this season, averaging over three minutes per game on the power play. so getting all kinds of opportunity to play on a team that needs, you know, skilled players. Like Ottawa is on the rise. They have some guys that I am excited about from a long-term standpoint.

But Drake Batherson is going to get, I think he's going to flirt with 19 minutes this season. And I think the biggest thing for me is that power play time, 15 power play points last year, as I mentioned, just over three minutes, 314 on the power play. So I think he's going to be a guy that's going to continue to shoot the puck quite a bit. And the coaching staff really just you could see the progress from the first month to the first half of the season. And then into the second half of just the ice time and the confidence that not only he was getting, but the team had in him to put him in those situations to succeed. So Batherson's another guy I'm seeing his ADP at 134 in high stakes leagues and an underdog.

And Yahoo's right around the same mark. And what do you, how do you feel Batherson, Norris, you know, Kachuk's current ongoing situation, yeah, whether that benefit stood's left, he potentially jumps up to that top line to fill his void while he's out. How do you feel about the auto senators? Yeah, they're funny. They're a plucky little team that,

and we saw that down the stretch last year, right? Where they came into the basement in the Canadian division, and they had a good run there at the end and spoiled their draft position, and that's okay. Batherson's a fun when he's a, he's kind of that gritty all-around piece

that has skill as well that every team needs in their top six. And, you know, he can shoot the puck, he can make plays. You know, he's, I'd like to see him, shoot the puck more. You know, let's get him up averaging two, two point seven five shots or two and a half, two point seven five, something like that.

He got a ton of power play opportunities last year, got 15 points on the power play in 56 games. Like those are great metrics. I think that he's probably going to be playing on that top line. I'm a huge Josh Norris guy. Like I've been I've been pumping him for a while. I had him in my keeper league. I ended up traded him at the deadline to go for a championship and I got it.

So, you know, it's not too much heartbreak. But I think that this kid's going to be an excellent real life player, like potentially even like Selke level player who puts up the big points that you need to win the Selke these days or forever. And then, yeah, and then it's going to be interesting to see, right? Kachuk's going to get signed. He's going to come back and he's going to get that top line left wing and that top line is going to be a lot of fun.

And that top power play unit is going to be a lot of fun. It's going to hurt Tim Stittsla, his value a little bit when Kachuk does come back. But I think Bathison's a great pick there. We saw him go on streaks. I think it was his second quarter last year where he put up a point of game in 14 or 15 games. And he can go on those mini little heaters. and, you know, he's 23 now, so it's time for him to start to put those heaters on a more consistent basis and see it throughout the year so that he can, instead of being a guy who plays at a 40 or 50 point pace, he's a guy who can play at a 60, 65 point pace, and you can really look at him as like, this is a guy I want on my fantasy team that I can roll out every week.

Yeah, I like it. I certainly think it's a good environment for scoring, especially with what I expect they're going to give up a lot of goals. So we saw them last year getting into a lot of high scoring back and forth kind of track meet shootouts. And I expect that as well this year. All right, I'm going to keep them moving here. I think my favorite breakout candidate this season is Jordan Kairu. I wrote about him at length for EP ringside this week, but I'm going to kind of regurgitate a lot of the stuff that I spelled out there. So last year, he was 18th in the league and 5-15 goals.

He was 13th in the league and 5-15 primary assists. He was fifth in rate of entries leading the chances. He was 9th in controlled entry rate. And the reason why I bring up some of those transition stats is because he really reminds me of, I don't think he's necessarily as dynamic and as good of a skater as these guys, but whether it's a Nick Eler's or a Rupa Hints, he really reminds me a lot in terms of their sort of trajectory and their profile where there were these really exciting talents that we're not getting the minutes that we need

for fantasy success, and we're kind of waiting and we're hoping that their teams would finally unleash them. And then when they did, they exploded and now their household names. And I think in Cairo's case, what's amazing to me is that he accomplished, He was basically a top 25-15 scorer last year while playing in his first full NHL season in this miserable environment where the blues were basically playing at a snail's pace. They were the 28th team in shots for and against. They were 30th and expected goals.

Like it really wasn't a situation that was conducive to fantasy success. He was their 10th most frequently used forward for some reason despite the talent that I just talked about. And so I'm just kind of betting here on talent eventually winning out. I'm not sure how their lines are going to shake out. But with O'Reilly, Shannon Thomas, they certainly have the centers down the middle to support a bunch of fantasy wingers now that they brought in both Buchenevich and Brandon Sade. And I just, I love it. I think Yahoo hasn't ranked behind Jake Gardner or something who's like not even playing in the NHL this season. ESPN hasn't ranked behind Carl Soderberg.

It's like at that point, you're basically taking a long shot flyer. And for me, I really do think he has tremendous upside where he only had three power play points last year. I believe only four or five of his assists, as we talked about with Joel Erickson, Eck were secondary assists. So he was incredibly unlucky in terms of that. Basically, every single point he was getting was earned the hard way. And if he gets more opportunity playing with top players, the top of the blues lineup, and they desperately need his transition ability.

I think the sky's the limit. Like he produced at a 50-ish point pace last year over 82 games. I think that could skyrocket if he's given the chance. And I just love betting on a talent like that. Like Kyru, I've liked him for a while. You've got speed, speed, speed, right? and you love that in someone in his size too who can move around so well. He's got to shoot the puck more, right?

We got to get this guy shooting the puck more. He didn't even average two shots a game last year. And he's got a good shot, especially in that kind of high slot area. That's where he made his butter and junior. I think what it's all going to come down to is opportunity. If he can find a way to get even just under two minutes a night on the power play, I think that's going to help him immensely. And then becoming more comfortable in the league,

like he's basically played a full season's worth of games now. this is kind of like his sophomore season, even though it's his fourth year getting games, he should be able to step up, right? Like you said, he played at a 50, 52 point pace last year. I want to see him shoot the puck two and a half a game, up the per night. So at 5 on 5, he should get more minutes.

He should get some more minutes on the power play, but that's dicey. He's not going to see the first unit probably. So he's probably not going to really break out. But if he did, if he managed to get on that first unit and find himself in that bumper spot or even the net front, then, yeah, we could be looking at a player that could, you know,

he could go off for 65 this year. But I think it's all going to come down to opportunity for him. Yeah, I think people are hesitant maybe to draft him because of the Bouchnavich edition there. But I think that you shouldn't overlook Kairu because, I mean, what you both said, I mean, he does need to shoot the puck a little bit more, but he is a sniper. And he is, he's a terrific hockey player. And I think he's good enough, like you said, to with the skill, we'll take over with this team and that he, I think he definitely has a top six role.

even if he gets on that third line, it's still a line that has a lot, it's going to have a lot of talent on it. But I saw in camp that they had tried him out with O'Reilly on that first line with Perron. And those three together, like those two guys are fantasy gold. I mean,

David Peron is a guy that, he's another one that touches a lot of categories. And Ryan O'Reilly is still a guy that I think is underrated in the fantasy community. He can still provide a lot. So being linked to those two guys, if that's the case, that's great for Kair's upside.

But yeah, just over a minute per game on the power play last year, I don't know if he gets that first unit, like Cam said, but the skill could eventually take over there. And towards the end of last season, he was a guy that was playing on that top power play. But we'll see what they do with Buccanevich. And I don't think SOT is not going to be that guy who's going to get a lot of,

he's definitely not going to get PP one time. He's more of a five-on-five player. So, yeah, I like that call as a breakout guy. And I think 30 goals is in his future for his career. Yeah. Yeah, it might be foolish on my end, expecting NHL coaches to do the right thing. But I like, I like the bet on talent.

And I think certainly he's about, out as talented as there is. Cam, let's keep him moving. Who you got? Okay. So we're talking breakout guys. We think young. I'm picking a guy who's about to turn 32 to break out this year. All right. We're going, we're going back to Minnie and it's Jared Spurgeon. Okay, we talked about that top unit. Is Joel Erickson not going to get a crack on it? We think he will. But regardless, there's going to be Carol Caprosoft. There's going to be Kevin Fiala and there's going to be Jared Spurgeon. He took over that top power play spot last year down the stretch. And he put up 20 points in the final 30 games when he was average.

just under three minutes a night. This is a guy who's always been just a tremendous player in real life, so, so smooth, so underrated, finally got paid. And now he's getting the recognition that he is, oh, he is excellent at everything. And now it's time he's going to put up the points. He's a guy who's never broke 45 points before. I'm putting him up there that this guy's going to break 50. He could see 55 if many really goes off. 32-year-old Jared Spurgeon. He's going off the board late too. I got to check my notes where he was where he's coming off the board. It's way too late. I didn't write it down. But he's, he's down there for defenseman common with the board. He's like the 35th or 38th defenseman cut off the board. And we're looking at a PP1 guy.

And there's, there's not a ton of those in the league that you really want anyways, too, right? Like there's maybe 20 of them in the entire league that you're really, you're chomping at the bit to. And he's another one of these guys, because it happened late in the season, his counting stats weren't blown up for the full year. So it's your sift him through the stats. And he's old. And it's Minnesota who has this history of being a team that doesn't score a lot. he's one of these guys that you're going to get great value and I think he's going to pop this year. You don't need to sell me in a PDO cast on Jared Spurgeon.

I'm all about that take. And as someone who's, I'm turning 30 in a month here. I'm excited that the best is still to come. And Jared Spurgeon is going to lead the way and show us that. And to get into your early 30s, you can still keep producing at a high level. And they had Ryan Suter on that first power play on timed last season, right? It's like, what? Let's put Spurgeon on there.

So just shy under three minutes of power play time. Yeah, three for three. He's, uh, he, this Minnesota team is going to be pretty good, right? I mean, and the future looks pretty bright for their, for them as well with, you know, get Rossi in there, boldy. But yeah, top power play time. And I think, Cam probably, what do you think when you're projecting power play quarterbacks across the league, he probably will be inside the top six or seven in terms of ice time?

Like I expect, you know, he got, he ended up averaging 250 last last year, which is pretty good. Yeah, that's pretty strong. But I, I could see that going up even, right? Like that, that, that unit there, I think. they're going to load it up and I think that he's going to play a huge part in it. Like I don't, I don't really see Dumba being a huge threat to them. Maybe one day Callan Addison is going to come up and join that young group that they're

really building there with Rossi and Boldie and all those kids. But for right now, he's their number one. He should get all the minutes. I think he's going to, I think he's going to chew him up too. And another one of these guys that has the long history of converting at a high rate, right? Like I think he only clicked at 7% last year, but he's done over 10 before.

He doesn't shoot a ton, but like let's see him hit over two shots a game this year. he does have a good shot too from the point obviously clicking at that rate um yeah i i think that just and then all around too right like if you're if you're in a multi-cat league like he he won't hit too too too too too he he's out there in all the tough minutes too like i'm not sure what his his own start times were last year but they probably weren't all that great about hovering around 50 so that's pretty good i expect that maybe to go up even higher as they're looking to drive some more offense through him so yeah he he's my pick i got him in my in my keeper draft there last weekend late

late, late, then people were just completely asleep on him, not even knowing that he's probably going to be that top unit guy. I like it. All right, Chris, keep us moving here. We got to, I have so many names we still haven't covered yet. I think we got to go like rapid fire style here, two minutes of pop and just get through as many as we can. All right, all rapid fire.

I'll start. There's two guys that are rating around this round six to seven range. It's Martine Natchez and Nick Suzuki, and I always have a problem which one I'm going to grab because I like both of them. And I think we saw part of a breakout last year from, both, but I'll go with Natchez here as a guy. I wish he would be locked in next to Aho. Man, those two down the stretch last year and into the playoffs, it just seemed like they were just on the same page, but I mean, 14 minutes per game as a rookie and he jumps up there in terms of

ice time, three more minutes per game. I think he can get into that 18 minute mark. I think he could be on that top power play time or top power play unit. His ice time increased at 5 on 4 and 5 on 5, and he set a career high in power play points of 11. So Natchez is definitely a top. target of the line. Yeah, I'm just, Carolina's one of those teams where they have so much talent up front that I'm never sure how it's going to shake out because I agree with you. I think he should be playing full time with Aho. They showed tremendous chemistry playing short-handed, playing on the power play together, playing at 5-1-5. His shot from that wing on the power play is tremendous. I think his ability to kind of carry the puck and help get them set up in the office as though to begin with is incredibly valuable for that top unit. Yet still, he was playing a bunch of second unit minutes. I think he was playing under two minutes per game on the power. play, he only played 185 on five minutes with Aho last year. And some of that was just because they had injuries and Tarabino was out. And so they were mixing and matching. But if you told me the NACIS was going to be playing full time with Ajo, I would be all in.

And I think still he's such a talent that he's going to get there regardless. But I'd like to know how those lines are going to shake out before I fully committed just for this year in terms of his point production. Yeah, I'm with you guys. Love him as a talent. Like I think he's, you know, him and Nick Suzuki, they went back to back in that draft. And they have very similar point totals over their careers. like everybody drools over Nick Suzuki. He's the front line center in Montreal.

He's the future, him in Caulfield. And Nakesh is just in Carolina. And so he's, he's, you know, the fourth best option there. I agree with you guys. I think he should be up there. But Tara Vinen seems to hold that top line right wing. Nakesh can play the middle of the ice too. So I think that they're going to look to him maybe as that center ice fit in

hole if Kotkinemi isn't that long term to replace Stahl or Trocheck when he walks away. He's great, though. It's all about opportunity, right? He's just not getting the top power. play time yet and so that's going to keep his totals muted i think he can play at the pace we showed he showed it last year 63 point pace like that's that's that's terrific he drives offense at five on five and he's only getting better 22 years old love the player it's just in fantasy you know you need that opportunity and so if he can wedge his way onto that first unit then watch out but until he does i'm i'm

not holding the candle too too highly uh on draft day okay i'm going to give you a player here that arguably has the most opportunity out of anyone in the nchl jacl jacob jic who I think people are slightly scared off by because Arizona is such a mess and they had such a talent exodus this year where they're basically trading anyone with a pulse for draft bics and there's very little left there. But I think part of the appeal from last year, and he's a tremendous player, he's still young, he's still ascending, but was that volume where when he was on the ice last year, he accounted for 27% of the team's total shot attempts.

And basically they were funneling their entire offense through him. And if anything, now I think the opportunity is even more so there, with all of Eric Mlarison gone. I know they brought in Shane Gostis Bear, but I really do believe that, you know, he still played 23 and a half minutes last year. There's even potentially room for an uptick in that. He's a multi-category beast where he might not shoot 10% again

and score 18 goals and 50 games or whatever he had last year, but they're going to be funneling that offense through him. He's a physical player, so you know he's going to get the penalty minutes. He blocks shots. He's going to play a lot. And I think the shot volume is going to be insane. Like, he's an interesting candidate for Chris,

for your shot props, basically on a nightly basis, I'd be hitting that over because there were nights where he was just firing five, six, seven, eight pucks on net. And I don't really see why that's not going to continue. The team's going to be bad, but for fantasy purposes, the opportunity is there for him to just rack up insane volume. Yeah, he's an Ft N Fave.

We attack the shot props with Chickren all the time. Yeah, he's an absolute set. Actually, again, know your settings, because in leagues with power play points, shots, hits, and blocks, the number one fantasy hockey defenseman last season. and number two and among defensemen in shots as well and not getting drafted that way. He's going 18th, I think, on Yahoo right now among the defensemen, which is crazy. Because it's, it's only because Arizona. That's it. He's got Arizona next to his name and that

and that's the reason. So he is completely undervalued. And I think he can duplicate and replicate what he did last season. Do you have some concerns I wrote about him as a regression candidate too, right? Like as far as expected goals, like I think he was on, he should have only popped nine last year. And he ended up telling what, like 18 or something like that. So that his IPP, both at even strength and on the power play, was pretty high. But I think you're right, Tim, is that who else is going to do it, right? Who else are they going to give it the puck to? Like, he's their best player.

He's going to get a ton of minutes. Like, we could see this guy be playing, you know, 25, 26 minutes a night. He could be pushing four minutes on the power play. Like he could be getting OV-like numbers on the power play for minutes here. And he's just going to bomb shots. Like, would anyone be surprised if he put three and a half on this year? just that pure rate, like that that's kind of going to blow up your expected goal totals too, is that he's shooting from the point every time.

Well, parks are going to go in for him, though. Well, that's the thing. He was on an 82 game pace of 260 shots on net last year. Like, I wouldn't be surprised if he plays 25 minutes a night this year and gets 300 on net. And so, yeah,

he's not going to convert 10% of them again. But I think, you know, talent is important, opportunity is important. I think he's got a nice mixture of those two, even though there's not that much around him. And so I'm always surprised when I see,

I know, no one's like really that excited to draft a coyote's player at this point. But like everything isn't go through. Pretty much every time I see the coyotes have scored a goal, I'm expecting him to have factored into it in some way. And so they're an NHL team. They're going to score some goals here or there. And he's going to be a big part of that.

And so I think as the 18th defenseman off the board, considering he was literally the number one guy last year, I just like that regression is baked in. He doesn't need to be as electric goals core as he was last year to still provide plenty of value for people. All right. So Cam, keep us going here. Hey, we're looking at Tyler Johnson.

A guy that I traded for 100 years ago in a Keeper League and immediately regretted it. I think I ended up trading a third overall pick that turned into Mitch Marner after he popped for like 70 points that one year in Tampa. We know he can put up points when he plays with good players. And guess where he's playing this year, right? He is centering that top line with Canaan to Brinket. He's playing on the power player on the first unit. He's the net front guy, which is like the least likely spot to get touches. on the unit. So he's going to have to rely on tips and rebounds and guys feed him in the in the low

slot to get those power play points. But I'm looking at a resurgence from Tyler Johnson and another guy that you're going to be getting way late that people are sleeping on unless they're paying attention on who's going to get the minutes there. Is that I think it's Tyler Johnson. I think you should probably wait. Like don't jump up being like, oh, he's going to get 6570 for sure because, you know, I think Curry Doc is another one to watch that going into year three that he could be a sneaky guy to steal that job at some point too. But I think Tyler Johnson's in a great spot to start the year. Coming out of the

cup winning teams there, he's going to Chicago. There's a lot of excitement in Chicago this year that they won't be a middling to bottomer team this year that they can regain and go for one more push with Kane. There's some talent on that club and he's going to be playing with it. So I like that situation. Yeah.

I can't argue that. I can't argue that. He's going to get an opportunity. I'll go with another former bolt here in Blake Coleman. I think when you look at Blake Coleman last year, just basically third line minutes, right? I mean, with Tampa 15 minutes, 28 seconds, you know, he gets 31 points in 55 games, arguably the best third line in the NHI. I mean, I think we could say that with agreement.

And it's all gone from Tampa now. I think with Coleman is another guy touches a lot of categories. It's going to be suspended for a game or two, I believe, to start the season. But you look at his New Jersey numbers. You look at the 78 games with the Devils. And then the 57 games is a guy who averaged 17 minutes per game. He had 20 goals in each of those seasons. he was one of three players in 2018 and 19 to have over 20 goals, 200 shots, and at 200 plus

hits. There's a vetchen and Josh Anderson's another guy that's right away. It looks like he's going to, if it's not on that first line, it's on the second line. And I think we could see him with Kachuk and Linholm. I think that will be a trio that at least I expected to kind of work out that way. And you just, you take away last season and you're getting more, you're getting power play time. Like, this is a guy who didn't even get power play time in Tampa Bay. I'm like, why would he with that star studded team?

So I think you go back to the past couple years when he was with the devils, and that's what you can project from this season. And that is, that's a guy that's not getting drafted in fantasy. And those numbers, if he does get 20 goals and 50 plus points, even 40 plus points, like that's going to be fantasy relevant. Yeah, he's going to be a player that Daryl Sutter is going to love using. And so I'm all for that. No, speaking of the flames, we haven't really talked about goalies yet.

But a goalie that I noticed is going insanely low in Yahoo. I think he's the 26th goalie off the board. Yeah, what's that about? Behind Tristan Jerry, Sergey, Sergey, Mabrowski, Carter Hart, and Mike Smith is my good pal, Jacob Markstrom. And I think it kind of flew under the radar a bit because it was such a mess down the stretch and they didn't make the playoffs. And then as people remember, they were kind of playing out the string in these meaningless

games against the Canucks while the playoffs were going on in other divisions. But even if you remove those games that weren't even in HL caliber games. and you just look at the 27 games before that, the Daryl Sutter coached the Flames. They were third best, or I guess gave up the third fewest shot attempts against, the second fewest shots on goal against, and the fourth fewest high danger chances against,

and expected goals against. They were, as you'd expect, for a Daryl Sutter team, an elite defensive team to basically shut it down, grinded the game down to a halt, and didn't give up anything. Marksum's numbers for the year don't look particularly good, but I think the context is important here

where he came out of the gate, remarkably well. I think it's first 12 games. He had a 925% percentage. They rode him into the ground. They played him way too much. He played pretty much every single night and on back to backs and he eventually got hurt. And then his numbers plummeted and he had a couple stink bombs in there where he got destroyed by the Oilers. And it submarined his numbers for the year. But I really do believe that it's a great defensive environment for a team that I think is going to be sneakily competitive in that division. And yeah, games against the Oilers and the Golden Knights, and even the Canucks offense aren't going to be ideal necessarily.

But there's enough teams in there with the California teams and with the Cracken where it's going to be these great scoring environments for a goalie, and especially in that situation where I think Markstrom is being severely slept on just because the overall results aren't necessarily there. But I think once you peel back a few layers, you realize that I think there's a lot of reason to believe that that team defensively and him in terms of his numbers are going to be pretty good this season. And not only that, like you didn't even.

to mention, he's good. Yeah, he's genuinely good at shopping bucks. He's really good. He's big and he's good. And yeah, I think, I think you nailed it there. I think Marks from he's getting way under. Calgary's just this weird team that people are just like, are they any good? Are they medium? But they're not bad.

We know that, right? They're not going to be a bottom feeder. They're going to be probably stuck in that purgatory zone where they don't quite make the playoffs and they don't get a good draft pick. And the Calgary's well adjusted to that situation over the years. So, no, I like that a lot. I'll talk about another goalie, too. and I think that another guy that people are,

people are sleeping on is Cal Peterson. He's going off the board at 39th. He's the 39th goalie off the board right now for Yahoo. LA's going to be a better team. You know, I think they're going to, they're going to sniff at a playoff spot. They're going to be in the mix.

They obviously, they want to take a step forward. They made that clear going to get Arvidsson. Quentin Byfield going down. That hurts them just, you know, for six or eight weeks or whatever he's out for. And that's a little demoralizing. But they have a lot of,

a lot of young talent. He's 26. you know, he's got 56 career NHL games and he's, and he's posted above NHL average numbers playing on a bottom feeding team. I think that as, as, as Peterson goes, so go will the Kings. And so if he can maintain that 915, 917, say percentage that he's showed capable of thus far, that they're going to be a pretty decent team. If he can take an even, you know, take a step forward here in quote unquote year two

or three, however you want to look at it for him with games played, that they could be one of these teams that could surprise and they can make the playoffs. and you're going to be getting yourself a starting goalie, you know, the 40th goalie off the board. Like that's, that's just not. So there's tons of value with Cal Peterson. Both of those guys were on my list. Well, I was going to say, you know, you talk about how they're going to be better, especially I think the additions are of note where you add a defensive ace and in Philip Dano,

you had, you know, a top flight winger who's got great possession stats and Invictor Arvinson. I think both those are going to help. I think the competition, like Jonathan Quick at this point, I understand that he's still got two years under contract. And I'm sure that the organization has a lot of allegiances to him, but it's pretty clear that Peterson is the objectively better goalie by pretty much any single measure. And so they committed to him this offseason two, which was really interesting to me when they didn't necessarily need to yet. I believe that the extension that kicks in after this season for him

is going to make him like the 12th highest paid goalie or something. And that was interesting to me. They clearly signaled to me that they're expecting a big year for him that's going to price him into a higher higher tax bracket as well. Otherwise, there would have been no need for him to, for them to commit to him ahead of the time as the way they did. So that signals really good things for me. I think it's a team that's certainly on an upward trajectory. And you're right for where he's going.

I think the upside is there. Yeah, I don't understand both of those goalies that you guys brought up. I don't understand the ADP on either of them. I mean, Markstrom is an absolute steel and Peterson is in for a breakout campaign. One more goal here. I'll just throw them out there. I'd love to get your guys' thoughts in the Boston situation, not as great defensively, you know,

as some of the teams that we've talked about here, especially, you know, when you were talking about the other goalie there. Just overall, though, when you look at his numbers, I was looking at him again here before I got on, just a 9-12-sab percentage for his career, 9-17 last year, 9-15 the year before that, on bad Sabres teams. And the Bruins do have, I have a lot of questions about their defense. I'm not going to lie about that, but, I mean,

high-dangered saber percentage, 861 at 5-on-5. overall save percentage of 937 that's among the leaders and it is a better team it is a better Bruins team like they obviously are much better offensively they're going to lose they lost crachy rask is gone now swayman was in a very small sample size was his numbers were off the charts but i do believe with the contract that they signed him to that he would he will be the goalie there's a lot of tannums across the league and i think more teams are doing that these days but i still think you know when i'm projecting the split it's probably like 6040 maybe worst case for for Elmark.

I don't know where you guys stand with him, but he's a guy as well that's going outside the top 15 at the position. Yeah, I've got, I'm just looking at Yahoo there. It's telling me he's the 12th goalie off the board, and I think that that could be a little generous for him. But when I think you're right, though, on how the splits are going to work.

At the end of the day, look at who gets paid more, right? Everybody's looking in Florida too and being like, Spencer Knight, he's going to blow up. He's going to win rookie the year. It's like, yeah, Bob still makes $10 million. They're going to, they're going to probably feed him some starts, especially when it's a young guy, old guy situation. So Allmark got the paycheck. They're probably going to roll them out there.

And if he can stay hot, then he'll get the lion's share that starts there. And I think you're right that if he can get 45 games, that that's probably going to be enough to propel him into being a top half of the league gold tender sort of thing in fantasy circle. So I think there's value there. He's a handcuff situation though. You know, go ahead and go get Swamen as well, I think. And because, yeah, Swamen looks so, so good there in his limited minutes that if I want one of them, I want both of them. Yeah, I know they lost Crachian, that's probably going to influence their possession numbers. But I think, you know, they were third fewest expect the goals against and high danger attempts conceded last year. Like they've been historically a good defensive team. I think pretty

much anyone that plays in that environment is going to post good numbers. And so, yeah, I like getting both of them and just locking down all 82 of those starts. Acknowledging that it's not ideal that they're going to be playing Tampa Bay, Florida, and Toronto in a bunch of those games. But it's going to be a good team again. And I think for that price, I'm into it. All right, let's, let's, let's,

let's, let's, some situations to watch. I know we've already touched on a few of them, but, Cam, are there any sort of,

you know, things you're waiting to see play out heading at the start of the regular season here in terms of like line up battles or depth charts that are still kind of in flux where you're like, I'm going to be waiting to see

if this player actually gets to play in this role because if so, then I'm going to be really interested in them. Yeah, how much time do we got? I got a lot. I'll start the top of my, list and it's in T.O. with Nick Ritchie. Getting that gig on the first line is going to be all right. If he can hold down on it. So as a kid who went 10th overall, 100 years ago to Anaheim,

Big Body, who has shown capable of having nice hands, he can play with skilled players and bring that sandpaper. So he's looking to try to replicate what Zach Heiman did, but in more of a, more in a meat and potatoes role, if he can hold that that top line position, obviously at even strength, he's going to get some, he's going to get some points. The big question is, is what Toronto's going to do with their power play units, right? Do they load up the big four with Riley? In which case, you only basically want those five guys, I think. If they split them up, as they have done in the past, and they move Nielander, they

moved Tavaros under the second unit, and all of a sudden Nick Richie's the net front on P-B-1, oh boy, now I'm really interested. Now this is a guy that could just kind of beat the expectations by a mile for him. So that's definitely a situation I'm watching. What about you, Chris? Yeah, that's one that was on my radar. Bunting is another guy who could step up there and me. be get an opportunity right.

Toronto's pretty weak on the left side. I thought you're going to bring up your Canucks. Where does, where does Garland fit in here? Connor, I mean, he's, it seems like he's going to have a terrific center,

whether it's Bo or Peterson, like, or Pederson, he's going to have one of those two next to him. And he's another guy that is probably in for a career season. I mean, 12 goals last year, 22, the year before that,

he's had at least 12 in his three seasons. I, he, sometimes he goes through these moments where he really shoots the puck a lot. And the other times he's, he's pretty quiet. and you wonder if he even played in the game, but he does a great job, I find,

of finding those, you know, areas where he's kind of wide open in the end of the slot, and he could work on the power play too, sometimes on the halfboards. I'd like to get both of your guys' thoughts on him, because I do feel like he's going to have a top six role, maybe not long term, but I think right away in Vancouver. I think he's got it, and I think he'll have it for a while, too.

And I have that Vancouver's top line as a situation to watch because Miller's played, J.T. Miller's played the middle of the ice, the entire camp. all preseason game. He's been playing the middle of the ice. They talked about the potential of him being their, quote, unquote, third line center, or second line center,

however you want to look at it. They'll just kind of mix and match that top nine up. And that means Garland's going to get a look on his off wing on the left side. And if it's next to Pedersen, like I fired up the hot take machine last month for an article. And I said he's going to pop 40 if he can land next to Pedersen. And like, what is the guy who's got a career high of whatever 20 goals,

that if he could go off, that it's all about who's close to Elias Pedersen, right? And if he's the guy that, that's playing there at even strength, then he could get a look on the power play as well. They could try to wedge him in there in a situation if they want to split up their top unit a little bit and try to spread out the offense.

Their situations where Connor Garland could be a really interesting player. He's one of these guys. It kind of is a little reminiscent of Brad Marchant that his numbers are creeping up a little bit later in the career, where he could be played at like a 65 point pace. Now we need to see him do it again, right? He's playing in a better situation. He's not going to get as many power play minutes in all likelihood,

but at even strength, the talent to work with is going to be demonstrably better. that's a fun one to watch for sure is how that Vancouver top nine shakes out and who gets the plum spot next to, next to Pedersen and Besser. Well, this worked out well because the name that I'm watching, and I love Garland and I certainly think he's a good bet, and I'd like to invest in him, is Neil's Hoglander just because I know that early on in the preseason, this was before Pedersen was even signed, they were experimenting with the idea of playing him, of playing Hoglander with Peders and Bessor.

And I think stylistically, it makes a ton of sense because he's just got this relentless motor and just crashes the net at all times. And so he can win them some extra possessions. He can possibly drag some defenders with him to the net and create space for them to shoot. And so he quietly led the team in 5-on-5 goals last year with 12, albeit, you know, Pedersen was injured for a bunch of it and it was a mess in Vancouver. But it was a great year one showing by all accounts. He's even faster heading into this season and clearly made that a priority in his off-season training.

And so Hogland is a player that I'm watching because I think like his NHL talent is remarkable. He displayed some of those trademark hands in tight throughout the season, but I think he's got another gear to hit. And I kind of hope that they do give them a little bit of a shot there just because I'm curious to see how those talents line up. I think they will. Like, it's going to be a blunder situation. I think you're going to see guys all over the lineup here. Like you could be on L3. He could be up there with PD2. You talk about like pure puck skills, like Hoglanders, he's in the top 10% of the league, I think. Like he's got terrific hands too. And he drives play. Like he said, like even training scoring last year, but even just like his

coursey numbers too like at five on five i think he led the team in that category as well like he drives possession at a high high rate and that's what you want you want your good players to have the puck at a high volume and hoglander definitely does that so i could i could see him being one of these guys that could break out too and play it above a 50 point pace situation i'm monitoring and we'll put a ball in this conversation here is is the shark's top six wing battle because i think the names involved are incredibly fascinating to me and it might become a moot point if tomah tammage hurdle gets traded at some point because then, you know, playing with one of those top centers of theirs isn't necessarily as appealing. But right now we've got a battle between Jonathan Dallin, who came back from Europe

and is wowing in camp. Rudolph's Bolster's the best name in town. And he was sneakily quite good last year. And William Eklund, who is, I think, a bit ahead of schedule. And Cam, you and I did a mock draft in the summer. And I had him as my number one ranked prospect in this year's class. And I think the sky's the limit for him. I wasn't expecting to be having this conversation. station this quickly, but he's clearly proving that his talent is so immense that he's kind of forcing their hand and making them give him a scoring line role right out of the gate and see if he can stick. And so I'm really going to be watching that closely because obviously if Echlin proves that he's ready from day one, I think his potential is incredibly high. And in a good

situation for a team that's going to score a lot of goals, they're not going to be great necessarily in terms of winning games, but I think they're going to be playing in good scoring environments. And obviously, if he plays with a guy like Hurtle, for example, it's a pretty good spot for him to start his NHL career. Yeah, Ecklin for me, yeah, yeah, Eklum for me was, he was clearly the guy from that 21 class that could break camp this year. Like, you know, he's an older birthday. He just played in the SHL, so he's got the pro experience.

And, you know, he's good. He's very good. And like you said, he's a bit ahead of schedule. I think he was supposed to give a good run at making the team, but he's given a good run of being like a top line guy on this team. And then Dahlene, like, right? Like, that's a really fun one because all this messy stuff that happened in Vancouver returned home to Sweden, you know, the rumors that he was like on the verge of retiring

that he just lost his love for the game, re-founded again with Timra playing in the second division in Sweden where everyone's like, why is this guy still playing in the second division putting up like three points a game? Like this is bananas. And it's, you know, he wanted to get his club promoted. He did that. Now he's back. And he looks like he should be able to steal the top six job there. He's, he's a sneaky guy, especially because he's not very young. He's NFL. He's like, he's clearly an HL ready. He probably was two years ago. So he's, he's definitely one that's probably going to slip under some draft radars this year and that you might be able to grab yourself a top six winger. Yeah, both of those guys are hardly getting drafted. I get shares of both and Dahlene and Ecclin.

And is, San Jose is kind of like Seattle in the point where these guys are going to get an opportunity to play. And the ice time is going to be there. They're going to score goals. It's like when you're talking with Arizona and Chickering, like they are going to score some goals in the NHL. And I'm looking at just ownerships on Yahoo. And obviously, it's just the big three in terms of ownership and hurdle burns and Carlson. I don't even know if either of those defensemen have too much more to offer from a fantasy standpoint. So these are guys that I think

we'll be talking about in deeper leagues. They should be owned. All right, guys, well, this is a blast. I think we covered some pretty good ground here. And hopefully we provided some value to people who are getting ready for their drafts this weekend and heading into the season. We got two minutes here. So I'll let you go first, Chris.

And then Cam, you can go after, plug some stuff. What are you been working on? Where can people check out your work? If you've got any tools that you recommend people check out as they do prepare for the draft. us. Yeah, we got a lot of content over at FtNF Fantasy.com, just some rankings and projections. A lot of players that we've already talked about here, but some breakout candidates, some busts, some sleepers, just division previews. It's all there. And we're going to take care of the people

over at FTN all year long with waiver wire articles, in season rankings, things I like to look at like four game streams and stuff like that, just, you know, take advantage of the NHL schedule if you're playing in head-to-head format. So a lot happening over at FTN and appreciate the time here today, guys. Nice. Yeah, I was telling, I was telling Demetri off the air there is that I don't rarely do notes for podcasts anymore, but I did for this one. And I got a whole bunch of words and a whole bunch of guys we didn't talk about. So I think I'm going to repackage this and put it out as an article for EP Rings on a glimpse into my mind preparing for a fantasy podcast and getting ready for draft. So look out for that. I just dropped my top 150 fantasy rankings the other day. Got a whole thread

on the Twitter hockey underscore Robinson of a bunch of good stuff if you're prepping for your fantasy drafts this weekend or early next week ahead of puck drop here. So lots of good stuff. EP Rings Set is just blown it out right now. Hey, Dim, like we've got crazy amounts of content too. So you definitely check that out for fantasy and for real life stuff. All right, man. This is a blast.

I'm glad we got to do this. Good luck to everyone this season with their drafts and their teams. And we'll have you both back on the show sometime down the road and we'll check in with this stuff. So until then, take care and enjoy your drafts and we'll chat soon. Good. All right. That's going to be for today's episode of the Hockey Pediocke. As always, thanks to everyone for listening.

Hopefully you enjoy today's show. If you did and you want to give us some love, please consider doing so by leaving a quick little rating and review. A lot of you've done so already. It's greatly appreciated. It's so easy to do. You just smash that five-star button. And if you're feeling extra generous and you have some extra time, you can write up a little

review that lets people know either what you enjoy about the show or why you recommend checking it out. And each of those recommendations and reviews is greatly appreciated. It helps us a lot. so thank you for doing that. If you listen to today's show and you got kind of inspired and you want to test your might in fantasy hockey and you want to play this year,

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with Dmitri Filipovich. Follow on Twitter at Dim Philipovich and on SoundCloud at soundcloud.com slash hockey p.docast.