The Hockey PDOcast - Fantasy Hockey and Players to Target

Episode Date: November 24, 2022

Fantasy Expert & Host of Mean Streets & Dangle Bet Celly, Chris Meaney joins Dimitri Filipovic as the pair run through some fantasy hockey advice and players for you to target.This podcast is produced by Dominic Sramaty. 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. 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.

dressing to the mean since 2015. It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filipovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEOCast. My name is Dimitri Philpovich. And joining me is my good buddy, Chris Meanie. Chris, what's going on, man? Hey, what's going on, Dimitri? Happy to be here, man.

You know, it's an exciting time of the season for the NHL. And Thanksgiving in the States, it's a good, I think, sample size that we have to break down some players and some teams and maybe take a look at some outliers. It is. We've got about 20 games. or so for most teams, which is a nice little cutoff here for us to try to make sense of the sample sizes we've got. So the plan today, we're going to hopefully provide the listeners with some actionable

information for their hockey pools. Players to target, situations to buy on, kind of stuff to be wary of, all that good stuff. So hopefully those are you listening that do play in a hockey pool, you're going to get a little bit of an edge here. And maybe we'll even help you identify some shining new toys that you can go and grab in your pool and then brag to your league mates about how smart you are. And then, of course, to let them know where you found out that information. So they come and listen to the show as well.

So, Chris, as the guest, I'll give you the floor here. You can take this any number of directions you want. Give me a name, give me a team, give me something that you're really keying in on these days for what you want to target. Well, I'm going to give you, I think, just maybe the biggest bilo candidate in fantasy hockey right now. And it's, in my opinion, Kyle Connor. when I take a look at Kyle Connor as a proven goal scorer, and these are questions that I'm getting lately from some fantasy hockey players. What do they do with Kyle Connor? I thought he was going to score 40.

I mean, he's been flirting with 40 the past couple years. What's happening with Kyle Conner? Is there anything different in his game this year compared to last year? And I don't see a whole lot, Dimitri. I mean, this season, take a look at his 5 and 5 numbers, according to natural statrick. He's 7th and expect the goals of 5 and 5. But he only has three goals. He's shooting 7%.

He's fifth in scoring chances. Last year, he was top 20 and expected goals. He had 28 goals. He shot 14%. I know a lot of his production over the past couple years have, has come on that power play. But this is still a guy that when I look at the scoring chances and the high danger chances, he checks a lot of the boxes for me. So when I take a look at the elite scores in the NHL and who is not putting the puck in the net,

it's kind of Kyle Connor. And I think the window is closing. Like he's starting to fill the net lately. You're starting to see some of those pucks go in. So I just feel like now is the opportunity to go and get this guy if you're looking for a big bylaw. Yeah. Yeah. This is our prototypical or like classic bylaw, right?

Where you look under the hood and you look at all of the rate stats and all of his shot metrics look identical. In fact, he's generating significantly more hiding your chances than he used to. We know he's a proven goal scorer. Really, it seems like the only thing dragging him down right now is that shooting percentage. And so that's where you want to capitalize on the track record and expecting him to bounce back. He's been one of those players historically where you're looking at his shooting percentages year over year since he became a regular in the NHL. He's 16.2, 15, 15.9, 15.7, 14.8 last year.

He's under 9 right now. He's proven year over year that he's not only an above average, but an elite finisher in terms of efficiency. And he's got the shot rate as well. So it seems like a no-brainer that the goals will come. I guess the only potential concern is when there's a coach. change like this and we know Rick Bonas generally has had a bit of an offensive drag on his players in terms of the system they play and kind of the pace they play at. But it's not like it was an ideal situation for the Jets last year by any means in terms of the way they were playing. Kyle Conner

still feasted there. And we've seen that top line of Jason Roberts and Rupé Hintz and Joe Pavell's Kese thrive under Rick Bonas as well. So it's not much of a concern for me. I guess that'll be the only kind of like what's different this year. But in terms of the numbers, it seems like nothing's popping up. Yeah, not exactly. And you know, Nikolai Heilers, you know, helps that power play out. But I just saw this morning, he's going to be sideline for the next six weeks at least. So he's going to miss a lot of it. It's a lot of time. So, you know, you get seeing other guys step up maybe offensively. But Kyle Connor, to me, is that guy. And you mentioned Jason Robertson. I don't think anybody's vile on Jason Robertson. And nobody should sell high on Jason Robertson either because he's continuing to just like

the world out fire. It's phenomenal to watch that. Yeah, play hockey. Well, actually, here's a, we should have started with this question, but it ties into this because Kyle Connor was a great example of this. So it was a listener question from Jake Cotton, who asks, what advanced stats are relevant to fantasy hockey? What metrics should I be looking at to help predict future success? What metrics are unreliable? It's funny because you and I, you know, you do fantasy football as well. And this year in particular, I've like, like, I jumped headfirst into it. I'm playing in a couple, a couple of leagues and taking it very seriously. And there, I'm looking at stuff like yards per route run and completion rate over expected and all like, like, I jumped head first. It's just the stats are just getting crazy and crazier in terms of like how you can really narrow down what each player is doing. In fantasy hockey, it's it's certainly a bit more rudimentary. But I do still feel like there's just having a like a basic understanding of percentages will give you such a leg up to prevent kind of irrational panicking about star players when they're not producing or, you know, getting overly excited about some one shot one hit wonder that's kind of come out of the gate strong and not necessarily just, you know. prioritizing that over everything else. So I think just understanding percentages in terms of both individual and on ice and kind of what the baselines are for those positions

and expecting everything to come back to normal eventually will give you like a big edge over all of your league mates. Yeah, it's great advice and it's a really good question. I take a look at those percentages as well, shooting percentages. I like to look at five and five numbers in particular. I mean, there's just a lot of players that are going to get opportunity on powerplay. And some of the times that could be a little skewed like Chris Crider, a ton of his goals.

I think half of his goals last season, the NHL came on the power play. Is that sustainable? You know, if the power play struggles. And you're starting to see it, right? I mean, he was having some issues as well.

He's dropped down on the fourth line. He was benched a little bit. He's back up with Mika. And it seems like they're, they're clicking again. But yeah, expected goals, taking a look at players at 5 and 5. Like another guy here.

Like, we're not breaking any news. You're not going to be able to get awesome Matthews in any of your leagues. Right. But, you know, this season second and expected goals behind Tim Omires, second in scoring chances, three goals this season at 5 and 5 and 5, for 60 minutes. It ranks 21st in the NHL. Last year, first and expect the goals. First in goals of 5 and 5 and 30. He shot 15%. He was third in the NHL in shots per 60 minutes. So a lot of those other,

like basically all those numbers that I gave you are very similar instead for his shooting percentage. His shooting percentage in the puck's not finding the back of the net, but it's not like the shot attempts aren't there. It's not like he's not generating any scoring chances. Again, this is arguably the best score in the NHL. So I'm not breaking any news here, but taking a look at just those percentages and just seeing are the chances there. If the chances aren't there, then we should be concerned. And I'm sure there's going to be a couple players,

definitely that I'd like to bring up with you and get your thoughts. But for Matthews and Kyle Conner, like these are still illegal scores. And we're going to see some regression the other way, I think, in the second half. Yeah, if either the individual player himself changed the way they're playing for whatever reason, whether they're hurt,

not 100% or whether, you know, they're just playing with different players or the situation around him is different. That's when you kind of need to recalibrate. But if everything under the hood, otherwise looks very similar. You kind of want to bet on the track record. I've got actual numbers here for last year's averages. So last year's average for on ice shooting percentage at 5-on-5, which is not just the shots you're taking, but everyone around you when you're on the ice was 8.4%, which is a number

to remember. Individual shooting percentage for forwards was 11.8 for defensemen 4.9 or whatever. The reason why I bring that up is because I think you can make a lot of money over time, just betting on outliers to eventually come back to that norm, right? Like, we always want to talk to ourselves into, oh, no, this player is, this player is different. Like, he's going to be, he's going to be an outlier. And then they may for a year or two or for half a season or whatever, but eventually we're going to see people either keep coming back down or going back up depending on where they've been at. And so just kind of betting on that, stabilizing, normalizing is generally a good practice. Now, elite players are generally going to be a bit higher and we'd expect higher baselines for them.

So keep that in mind. but the reason why I bring that up is, and it pains me to say this because I love watching them play. I know you're high on them as well, but this seems like a pretty good time to sell high on Nick Suzuki and Cole Cawfield. Yeah, I would agree with that, especially Nick Suzuki. And I am high on them. And when they hop over the boards,

these guys really generate a lot of offense and they're playing really, really good hockey. But I was looking at shooting percentage and I had them ticked off. I mean, both of these guys, right? I mean, Cole Cawfield, so far this season, I mean, 15.69% shooting rate, but that's not nearly as high as Nick Suzuki. And Nick Suzuki's not even a guy who really likes to shoot the puck. I mean, he's a past first player. I'd like to personally see him shoot the puck a little bit more.

But he is among the leaders this season in shooting percentage. I mean 29% of 23 at five from five. I mean, seven goals is pretty significant. Other guys above him on that list don't get really get the ice time like Alex or David Carachie. These guys, you know, they're going to, their skills levels, not quite the same as Nick Suzuki's. but I absolutely agree with you.

You know, goals are hard to come by. So I could be hesitant maybe to not sell Cole Cofield. But what is this? Is this a 60-paced guy? I don't think so. I mean, what he's doing with Martin St. Louis is ridiculous. I think he's got 34, 35 goals and 56 or 57 games with St. Louis behind the bench. So I'm always a little hesitant to sell that, you know, that trigger man.

But for Suzuki as a past first guy, he's not going to be able to keep this up. And I don't think anybody agrees that he's not going to finish as a top 10 score in the in a challenge he's a nice player but yeah he's a good sell high candidate yeah cofield's different because his shot rate in particular is so high that like he's shooting whatever 16% as you mentioned which is slightly elevated nothing outrageous by any means but he's getting so many good looks and he's firing the puck so frequently himself that even if the shooting percentage does come down over a couple weeks he's got the volume to like not just completely go dry right like the goals will still still keep coming for him for Suzuki the 26% shooting percentage all situations

16.4% of shots at 515 for the habs are going in with him on the ice. Like it's just it's not that's not a skill that is that is pure variance right like it's gonna come down trust me. And so I get you get attached to players and you know, especially if you drafted someone like Suzuki later in your draft or whatever and now you're seeing the success, you're probably feeling pretty smart and you're like yeah like I got a good I got a gem here and certainly a good player. And if you know, if other league mates in your league are aware of this and you're not

actually just being able to sell high on them, they're aware that he's probably going to come down. And so they're paying you accordingly. You don't need to panic and sell low by any means. But this is just something like if someone wants to look just at his point totals, feel free. Feel free to sell because I don't think it's going to continue. And people are trying to pull a fast one on me too. Yeah, for those that know me, they know I like to watch Blue Blah Roos quite often. But yeah, they're trying to pull a fast one on me. Hey, you know, I got a lot of Tage Thompson or Jack Hughes and, you know, trying to do that one for one center trade. And there's just no chance, you know, speaking of

Tage Thompson. He's a guy that I wouldn't sell high. But yeah, Nick Suzuki, he gave the numbers there is pretty spectacular when he's on the ice and puck to go in. That's just, that's a lot of puck lock, for sure. Well, it's interesting you bring up Thompson. I had him on my list of do not sell. In fact, if I think maybe there's someone in your league that might own Tage Thompson that feels like he's getting lucky or just riding the hot hand. And so they might actually be thinking they're selling high. and in reality, I would buy high on him in that instance, because I think this is totally legit, right? Only Tim Omeyer and David Pasternak have more shots than him this season.

Only McDavid, Horvatt, and Jason Roberts, and have more goals. And just watching him, I mean, is there anyone more unique in today's game than him? Like, clearly Connor McDavid in terms of how fast he can operate and how quickly he can do stuff is incredible and unparalleled. But Thompson, like, with that wingspan and, like, the toe drags he's doing the other night, he absolutely just obliterated the habs all.

night. Like it was a one man show. There was a penalty kill shift where he was just terrorizing Michael Matheson and he got like two or three scoring chances and it felt like it was a one on five and it almost was and it didn't matter because he was the one. And Tage Thompson is so cool and so fun. And so I would be buying him if anyone in your league is thinking that this can't continue for whatever reason. I'm laughing because he is, he's a freak, man. He really is for somebody that's six, seven, two hundred twenty to move up and down the ice the way that he does and the hands that he has in tight and you know a rare power for it in today's game that has hands in speed he's playing in all situations he's in a little bit of a boost in ice time and it i feel like i see i mean i know

you tweeted out recently but you know last night was a little bit of a dud game from against his former squad in the blues but before that it was a six game sample size where he had over 40 shots he was averaging 10.5 shot attempts for game and he has three or four rushes where he just takes a defender toe drags like you said or goes out wide with that height and that reach that he has. He's not afraid to shoot the puck. And there's a lot of chemistry between him, Alex Tuck and Jeff Skinner as well. So, yeah, hold.

And if somebody wants to sell, I think you set up perfectly. Go ahead. Bye. Bye. If you want, I don't think you'll regret it. Well, I know you're big on the shot props. Last 14 games here is shot attempt totals. 5.13, 11, 7, 12, 6, 16, 75, 64, 14, 14, 14, 12.

Just preposterous volume. And you're right. The most recent game against the blues and those beautiful throwback jerseys they were wearing. The five shot attempts only, which is a disappointment by his standards. Two of those were like unreal, a highlight real moves that he made leading up to them that easily could have been goals. And so it's like it's every night he seems to be just doing something ridiculous. It's highlight real worthy. So bye, bye, bye on Tage Thompson.

Who's next in your list? So I have a player on my list that I don't even know if I'm into buying this guy, but I know the opportunity is there. And you mentioned shot props at the start of the season three and a half shot props. Every single night for Alex De Brinket is the first time I saw him last night. I know it was partly because it was in Vegas against the Golden Knights and they're playing pretty good hockey. But De Brinkat was at two and a half shot. So taking a look at him against him of his five and five numbers, two bowls at five and five. He's shooting four percent, the 16th in shots per 60 minutes, 11 per.

And last year, of course, this is a new player in a new scenario, a new situation, new coaches, new players to adapt. up and down the lineup. He's on the second power play. You know, now he's playing with Drew and Bressard. And last week he was up on the first line. And so they're really trying to figure out, I know the Sends aren't playing great hockey, but they are among the leaders in terms of like, you know, shot attempts at 5 and 5. They're generating some chances, but they're not getting anything really from DeBroncat. 18 goals at 5 and 5 last season shot 10%.

8.5 shots per 60 minutes. So fewer shots per 60 minutes last year than this year. But again, you lose a guy like Patrick Kane. You're trying to find your footing with certain players. I don't know if I'm totally in and on buying him, but I'm checking in on the owners and seeing what the price is because he's absolutely available. And this is a player that a lot of people touted at the start of this season

is maybe flirting with winning the rocket and another 40-goal season. Everybody seemed to like the Sands. They were flashy, made some moves in the off-season. I don't even know if he's going to be a member of the Sends in three months. I don't know if they decided to just move on from this guy. I know they traded some assets. But he's a guy that I don't know. I have a lot of questions.

Maybe you've got some answers for me. Yeah, it's a tough one. I mean, looking at the teammates he's played with, right? They really haven't been able to find the right combination for them. And I think part of that is just unfortunate Josh Norris got hurt early in the season because I feel like that would have been a natural fit. I know Norris is more of a trigger man himself and not necessarily a playmaker who would get to brink at the puck, but just would have been a highly skilled player

to play off with them. And they looked really good in the 50 or so minutes they played together. Since then, I mean, his most common linemate is Claudeau-Jureau, who at this point of his career. I don't necessarily think is going to drive massive results. And then the second most common line made is Derek Broussard. Like that's just not, it's going from playing with Patrick Kane, who's like one main job on the ice was to serve the puck up on a silver platter for high danger opportunities to that is quite a bit of a downgrade. I will say, yeah, you're right. All of the underlying metrics in terms of the generation checks out. I still think he's a very talented player in

the prime of his career. And I will say like if you just take a step back and look at it from a team perspective. I think no team has been more unlucky than the senators in terms of like losing all these weird one goal games and just not being able to get anything going this season so far. And so I think eventually that luck just in general will turn. And I feel like the goals will start to come and when they potentially do, they'll come in bunches for different cats. So I'd be wary of panicking and selling him at this point. But I'm not necessarily kind of running out there and trying to pay a premium price from it. If you can get them at a discount for sure, because his tracker record of scoring goals is so,

so exciting and so hard to come by in today's game. But I don't know, there's, there's enough red flags here where I'm a little bit concerned. Like I would sell Gabriel Vilardi for him. He's a trendy, he's a trendy player that a lot of people picked up. And, you know,

a few questions about Vilardi, a nice little player, right? It looks like he's breaking out this season. He's got a nice shot, heavy shot, and he was up on the top line for the Kings a little bit. And I got Fiala back up there now. But he's a player.

He's got seven goals at five. and you know and 20% shooting rate it's a player that I don't think you can flip one for one and maybe like him and you know a piece a hot defenseman that maybe you picked up that you wanted to flip and you're okay at d I could see that move happening like he's he's a sell high candidate that I would consider I like that well speaking of the kings here's a guy that I think I think he's owned and less than half of yahoo league so you can probably still just get him out the way or wire I know I've picked him up in my leagues Trevor Moore um so this line of Trevor Moore, Victor Arvison, and Philip Dano is one of my favorite lines in the league.

And not necessarily the most glamorous line, right? There's still more of a kind of like a two-way checking line. They're not going to score huge point totals. But they've played 220 minutes together at 515. They're dominating in those minutes. And Trevor Moore in particular, his usage has gone up from he was playing 1541 per game last year. He's up to 18 minutes now. He's actually fourth most on the Kings amongst forwards.

He's playing more than Kevin Fiala, which is a bit surprising, I think, to people. his power play usage has gone up significantly. And, you know, he's on pace for like 22 goals, 60 points, won't blow you away. But with that ice time that he's added to his resume, and 265 shots he's on pace for this season, which is 22nd most as well. So he's one of those guys where every night I look,

and I notice he's got four shots on goal or whatever. So he'd be like a guy if I was playing shot props, that I would be all over. But I just think in terms of how much they're using that line, how featured he is in the offense, he's someone who you can probably get for nothing. that could sneakily give you value, especially if you play in leagues that count shots, ice time,

and all that good stuff. I love it, Demetri. Yeah, he's on my short list here. I was going to bring him up a little bit later on. You mentioned the ice time, the boost that he's had. That line plays really good. And they played really good last year, too. There was a stretch where they were one of the best lines in the NHL of 5 and 5 last season.

And it was a stretch of almost two months. Yeah, you mentioned shot props. He's cleared in 15 of his 22 games this season. And he's usually two and a half. I mean, books are adjusting. You know, you're not going to get plus this money for, a lot of players these days, but he was one that you were getting plus money from. And this guy, I have four shots and in four straight games from.

He had a hat trick the other night. Philip Dono's a very smart hockey player. Obviously, we all know about his defensive game. But last year, he had a career season offensively. He was given opportunity on the power play. And, you know, they keep that line together at five and five. And they keep them together on the power play as well, which I think correlates well. If you're playing a little DFS, you're looking for shop props and things like that.

So, yeah, it's a great call. Kempay's on that list for me, too. Just a short list. but, you know, a hot start. I don't think he's, you know, a 40 goal score, which, you know, he flirted with last year. I think, you know, when we look back, maybe last season is the outlier from him, but, you know, seven goals, 12 points in 22 games.

And again, a lot of that came in the first, you know, month of the season, first few games of the season. But 11th and shot at attempts at 5 and 5 were the last month. Like, they're still there. But it doesn't seem like, Dimitri, you mentioned Fiala's ice time versus Moore's ice time. Fiala's on the third line. He's on the first line.

and I don't think they're ever going to split up that second line. But it doesn't seem like there's a lot of chemistry when I watch Kempe, Copatar, and Fiala. But I think that over time I could figure it out. Yeah, it's one of those things that sounds good on paper. But then you realize that Kempe and Fiala both ideally want to shoot whenever they get the puck. And it's like, oh, this is not the most natural fit. And yeah, I think there's a bit of a stylistic clash there. I'm kind of curious, you know, just speaking on the shop props,

do you feel like they adjust quickly enough to this stuff? like when guys like kind of surprisingly, especially Trevor Moore, for example, you mentioned that he's, he's beaten his total 15 out of 22 times. Like, do you do you feel like there's still a bit of an inefficiency there where you can target it or do you feel like generally they're pretty aware in terms of like what the usage is happening? And if a guy all of a sudden his situation changes, they're bumping it up to, you know, three and a half or whatever or changing the big. I think it takes a little bit of time. I mean, I'm really seeing adjustments quicker this season compared to the past couple years. I mean, I've been doing this for a past couple of years. And two years ago, when I started at FTN, it was the first time that I ever really tracked shop props and bets.

We have a bett tracker over there. And it took them forever. Like Nathan McKen and Miko Rand, we're at two and a half plus money for the first two months. Kyle Connor. It was like, holy crap. Like it seemed like they didn't understand it. And now with big name players, you're really starting like Cole Coffield, Tage Thompson, Timommeyer, all these guys are now juiced heavily. But a guy like Trevor Moore was on the second line.

A guy like Owen Tippett, who jumped up the lineup in Philadelphia, was on the first. first line. The books are not really adjusting to those type of players. Carter Verheaggy is another example, especially when Matthew Cichuk was out of the lineup, Carter Verheaggy, having a really good season for the Florida Panthers. Last year, he was great too. There was multiple games. I think a span of eight of 10 where he had at least four shots on goal, and he was two and a half plus money. I would throw that entire time. And then I think, you know, over, you know, I guess the, a span of him doing it consistently. Now I saw him last night in what was a tougher spot against the Bruins at plus money again, two and a half.

So I think bucks are adjusting on the big players, but you know, you bring up a Trevor Moore, you bring up a sneaky little second liner who's getting a little bit of power play at the time. Maybe he's quarterbacking the second power pool unit or something like that. Books are a little bit slower to adjust,

but shop props are getting tricky these days. A lot of these players are heavily reduced. You've got to put them into a two-leg or a three-leg parlay, which obviously decreases your chances of winning. But still, I think what the value is is maybe like just, having guys get points or assists in terms of props. But to answer your original question,

we are seeing a little bit of adjustment, but it's not on those lower key names. Well, here's another similar profile to that. And unfortunately, he got hurt last night against the Canucksumato. Monitor status.

It didn't look good. I couldn't tell if he got slashed on the leg or if he stepped on a stick awkwardly. Like his leg was clearly in rough shape. But Evan Rodriguez, who prior to that injury, he was playing 1835 per game, which is only behind Nathan McKinnon,

amicantan, and Arturi-Lecan on the Avalanchez, bench on pace for 30 plus goals, 200 plus shots, and he was really benefiting from the injuries that they had up front, right, missing Gabriel Lannis Gogol year, Valerie Natuskin going out. He was essentially becoming like the second or third option on their power play one, which is one of the most devastating units in the league where if Kil McCart didn't have the point shot or if Nathan McKin didn't have that one time, they were looking to get it to Evan Rodriguez or every time he would get the puck, he would just, you know, shoot it on net because that's what

he likes to do. And so I love that spot for him. And he's a perfect example of that where he was like a second liner on the avalanche, but in a prime scoring position and he was benefiting from it. So hopefully his injury is not too bad and he can come back because I feel like he's a guy that you can probably get for nothing as well and can give you sneaky good production. There's another guy we talk about here. You're checking all my boxes here. There we go. With players that are like low key and plus money for your shop props and things like that. He has the cadre role. Like he's not going to put up cadre numbers, but he has that Nossum cadre role from last year is the second line center and the abs are going to get healthier, you know,

eventually and you'd like to see some of these kids, maybe that he's playing with. His line may have been different almost every single game, but the fact that he is on that first power play and he's getting an opportunity. And you're right, he loves to shoot the puck. There is a lot of times last season where he was on my radar with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Of course, they were deeper down the middle, but, you know, there was some times where he was on the wing with either Crosby or Malkin or getting some power play time when they were depleted.

But yeah, he, he, it's not a shot, but he doesn't like to take it. EYI said that all the time when it comes to some of these players. He loves to shoot the puck. And that's something that we like, right? We're trying to target, you know, if the goals that are not going to come, at least, you know, these guys aren't going to give you zeros in your fantasy hockey league. If you're in a points league, you can you put up four or four shots on net, maybe you get to power play assist.

You walk away with a little something as opposed to some players like past first guys, like Jonathan Ubergo. What's Jonathan Hubbertoe doing for you these days? Like, you know what I mean? So you get a shot volume guy in there. That's a really good call. Yeah, I love that. All right, Chris, we're going to take a quick breaker.

and then when we come back, we're going to keep talking about fantasy hockey and hopefully helping our listeners out. So you were listening to the HockeyPedio cast streaming on the SportsNet Radio Network. Back here in the HockeyOcast with Chris Meany talking about fantasy hockey. Chris, you said you wanted to give me the most random player.

Go for it. I do. I do. I was watching again last night, and I was thinking to myself, is William and Carrier good? Is he a great player? I don't think so. Is he a fantasy asset for people in deeper leagues

to play in hits and shots? maybe now seven goals in the season they've all been five and five i don't even think he gets any power play i've never seen him on the second power play unit at all uh even when the golden nights are depleted four goals in his last four i mentioned he's he's checking some boxes for hits and shots for those of playing banger league's he's 15 unexpected goals for he's fourth and high danger chances for have five and five of thirty four hymen one mire two thompson three carry four matthews five i don't think like he deserves to be in that conversation with those people Dimitri, but he's a guy that's,

and I notice every single night when I watch the Golden Knights play. Yeah, remarkable. 34 high danger chances at 5-1-5, which actually leads the team. Just, yeah, it's the, I have a running joke where like, he's basically Carter McDavid except with absolutely zero hands. Like, sometimes when you watch him,

rush the fuck up the ice, you're like, oh my God, this guy's, this guy's brilliant. And then he just doesn't do the actual part that winds up getting the puck into the net, but scored that highly a real goal against the senator's last night. And, uh, and it's been doing so. I mean, listen, he's been around for a while, and I believe his career high for a season is nine, and he's already at seven. So it's one of those things where I think it's a cool story. I think the Golden Knights will certainly take every single one of these goals and run with it and

not ask questions, but I wouldn't necessarily be expecting him to keep up this seven goal for every 20 game pace or even half of that. But yeah, I mean, listen, if you play in a super deep league and you do get credit for stuff like shots and hits and all that, like you could do a lot worse in that, especially while he's riding hot. Like this is one of those situations where he's certainly on your waiver wires. You can just pick him up for free, stream him for a couple games. And if he comes back down to earth, just drop him and you're not necessarily risking anything. I'm totally fine with that.

You can do a lot worse, especially, I haven't looked at their schedule. But if they have, you know, a week coming up where there's a bunch of games on or whatever, and you plan ahead to head, that's totally fine. But yeah, no, it's a fun player and a fun story. But certainly one of those situations where it's like, hmm, this seems like it's very out of the norm for what we've come to expect from this player. Yeah, absolutely. I'm kind of tongue and cheek there.

But yeah, it's when you just look at some of these players and you look at some of the metrics that we're talking about here throughout the show, it's just like one of those players that does not seem to fit in with the grouping that he's in right now. But yeah, interesting. Yeah, one of those where it's good to have like a familiarity with the sport and context because if you're running just purely like a numbers based model without any sort of track record or history or knowledge of the names, you'd be like, wow, this passes all this, this checks every single box I'm looking for.

Sign me up. But there's a bit more to it than that. Okay, let's talk about the Panthers. Because you mentioned Carter Verhege there in passing before I went to break. And I think they're a team to target in general. You're probably, like Matthew Kachuk has been immune to this. Sachel Barkoff for the most part in terms of points, has been fine. So you're not necessarily getting those guys for cheap.

But I just think as a whole, if there's someone in your league that's worried about, you know, they bought high on or they drafted Panthers really high based on how they played as a team last year and is disappointed or doesn't like what they're seeing so far, I think that's a situation to target because they're 31st in team shooting percentage after being fourth last year. Now, last year, they were first in high danger chances, first in shots for, first and and expected goals, and first in goal scored. They basically, like, redefined what modern offense looks like in today's game, right?

They're better in every one of those categories this season, except for goals scored, where they're down to 10th because of that decreased shooting percentage. And so I don't think they're necessarily going to shoot 11% like they did last year as a team. I think it's probably somewhere in between. But I feel like there's a level higher to hit for pretty much all of these top names in the team that have been underperforming a little bit so far just based on expectations from last year. And so if you could jump on that and pounce on that and target that, I would be all for it. Yeah. And I think there's two names in particular.

I mean, again, if here in a bangers league, Sam Bennett does at least provide something for you. it. I mean, he is among the leaders in terms of points per game, like in a point setting, if you are playing with hits, of course. He's always thrown his body around. And he's shooting. I'm pretty sure he's, yeah, he's 19th and expected goals of five and five. You know, he's right around that range in terms of shot at attempts as well. I think the biggest name, though, the one that I would be interested in grabbing would be Sam Reinhart, six goals and 10 points. He's averaging two more minutes per game this season. He's a six time 20 goals score. Six of the last seven years he's had 20 goals now he had 33 last season and you talked about the shooting

percentage from last year and you know maybe it evens out and we're starting to see that but I still view him as a 20 goals score or maybe even a 25 goal score 10% shooting right 14% for his career yeah this is still a team that generates a lot of offense a great moment for them last night to slow down the bees at home and and that's in particular where they thrive at home they play in a lot of like high tempo games they're always like I always see them after the first period, it's like really, 25 shots and 38 attempts in the first period. Oh, my goodness. Only one goal. But it does seem like the chances there every single night for this squad. So those are two players that take a look at more so Reinhardt than Bennett, but it depends

in your scoring setting. I really wish we could combine Sam Reinhardt and Carter Verhegey into one fantasy asset, right? Because Reinhart is kind of lost in the shuffle at 5-on-5 because they've been loading up that could Chuck Barkov, Herbert Higie line. And understandably so, they've been right up there is one of the best five-on-five lines in the league. Now, Reinhardt, a lot of last year, most of his success actually came with Anton Lundellon and Mason-Marchment on, like, what was their third line, essentially. They had immense efficiency

that you probably wouldn't expect to continue regardless, but I think he's shown that he can produce, even if he's not necessarily playing with Barcobb or on the top line at 5-on-5. He's actually their most used player on the power play, and that's where pretty much all of his production has come so far. At 5.05, he's got one goal on 60 shot attempts, and the team is a sub-4% shooting percentage

with them on the ice. So both of those are going to come up quite a bit. And when that regression hits for the Panthers, he will probably be the biggest beneficiary. So I think he's a great player to target. For Hagee's kind of the opposite where because they run that three forward two defensemen set on the power play now with Montour and neckblad back there, for Hagee's not really going to get that top power play ice time. He's going to have to do most of his damage at 5-15. Luckily, as you mentioned, he's one of the best 5-15 producers in the league in terms of shot volume in terms of scoring. So I like both those guys quite a bit and I would definitely, if you're getting an ANC league member that's like,

oh man, this Panthers team just isn't what I thought they'd be this year after the changes they made this off season going by because they might not replicate last year's offensive success, but I think the goals are going to start coming and, you know, that five goal output or whatever they had against Boston last night, I think that's going to become much more of the norm than the one or two goals

that we've been seeing from them lately. Yeah, exactly. I mean, they check a lot of boxes as a team at five and five, right? The shot attempts are always there. the high danger chances too. I mean, their top five and high danger chances created at five of five per 60.

So yeah, there's a lot of guys up and down that lineup that I think will, you know, now that Eckblad is back to, you know, Montaurs had a great start of the season. He was filling in really nicely when Ecklad was sideline. But having Eckblad,

you know, on that power play, I think will create a lot of offense there as well. How do we, here's my next question for you. How do we capitalize on this supernova that is the New Jersey Devils? Because you're not going to get Jack Hughes.

or Jisper Brat or even Nico Hishier or Dougie Hamilton at this point, I feel like their owner is probably going to be pretty happy with what they're getting from them and was not going to want to part with that. Luckily, you know, I think me, you and our pal Cam Robinson at the start of last year, we did like a full preview of the fantasy hockey season. We did like a 20-minute segment where we were like, we're buying Jack Hughes as the next superstar in the league and especially the type of player where you want to get whoever is,

even tangentially related to him in terms of ice time because he's going to make all of them so much better. And at the time, we were like, Igor Sharon Govich, maybe potentially Alexander Holtz, we were trying to figure out who was going to ride shotgun with him. Now, because Jasper Brad is playing with him, it's tough because you're not going to get that player for cheap. But we've seen Eric Hala cycle in there and his shot volume has been remarkable. And he's probably been one of the most snake-bitten players in the league that I've seen. Like, I think he's either hit the post or had like a puck on the goal line, get knocked away before just before going in like at least a handful of times so far this season so maybe you can look

at him maybe fabian zetterland or dawson mercer because those guys are kind of cycling on that on that his year line how are we targeting this because i think there's enough um there's enough offense there that you can get some of these tangential pieces and still get great production from them for cheap but trying to figure out who it's going to be is kind of tricky yeah it really is tricky um when i look at this team on paper i i really am surprised that they're where they're at but when i watch them play. It's like, well, okay. They are really good. They roll four lines. It can come at you in waves. They have great defensive players as well. They are solid in their own net and, you know, in their own end, they got good sticks. Eric Hall, I noticed the same thing. Every time I watch the devils,

I mean, Jack Hughes and Jasper Brack create something almost every single time they hop over the boards. And whether it's Eric Kala or I or Sharonovich, those guys are getting opportunities. And you mentioned Hall of maybe Snakebit. And I think that's the guy that I'm probably most interested in. I mean, he does have a little bit of a track record. He's not going to go and do what he did a couple years ago in his first season with the golden nights and things like that. But he is a guy that I feel like next to Hughes and next both of those guys I do believe are past first players, even though Jack Hughes is among the leaders and shot attempts.

I still feel like he's a guy that looks to set up somebody before he shoots the puck. So like a guy like Holla and Brad's the same way. Like Brad is a past first player as well. I think that Sharon Govich may have the highest goal ceiling between him. And maybe Zotterlin, who's playing on that first line with Dutari and he's sure compared to Eric Hala. But it just doesn't seem like there's consistency with him. Like he scored the other night, I think in Toronto overtime winner, and it's like, oh, this guy's maybe going to stick here for a couple games.

And then, you know, they went away from it. So in deeper formats, I would probably look at Hala, you know, even in 12 team leagues, if you're streaming, I think the Devils are one of the teams that play. No, they have three games next week. I thought they had four. But even still, you know, if your league is deep enough, I think you just, like you said, piggyback off of that. I think Jack Hughes is a future 100 point player.

I don't know if we see it as early as this season, but I think it's a superstar in the league, and there's no question about it. Oh, I think that's the baseline. I'd say future 120 point player. Like he's going to, yeah, he's going to erupt if he hasn't already. Are they just, can I. Are they top contenders in your opinion to jump in on you?

I actually heard you. Stanley Cup contenders. I heard you and our pal, Eric Young talking about this on one of your recent shows. I think so. Like, certainly if you got the preseason odds or whatever they were at, at 60 to 1 or 50 to 1 or whatever absurd total it was, like you're loving that.

I'm not sure what their current price is. You probably don't want to buy high after a 13 game winning streak regardless. Maybe wait for that to come down a little bit. I'm not sure entirely about Cup contender just purely because there's some other teams that I might like a little bit more. But if you're factoring in the value as well, I think there's a range of outcomes where they could certainly be among that short list of teams. Right. Like I think they're totally legit in terms of the way they play. Like you look at the depth.

You look at the skating, you look at the philosophy of how they, when they're holding leads, they're still playing aggressively. They're constantly pursuing the puck. They turn on these stretches for 10, 15 minutes every single night seemingly where the other team just gets like suffocated and bottled up and can't even complete a pass because they're just all over them. And I think that's here to stay. Like that's not some sort of a fluke where they're just riding a hot hand.

So they're going to start losing some games, but I think they're totally legit. I think they're one of the best teams that I've watched this season. And so, yeah, I'm more so leaning towards buying them than not. Yeah, I would agree with that. I think 17 to 1 right now, but in some spots. But yeah, I would agree. I mean, I didn't buy in at the start of the season. It was mostly because of goal-tending.

It was not because of the kids or the kids offensively. I saw Nico Hesha playing Halifax here for a couple of years. And you can definitely see, it's nice to see him, you know, fully put it all together. He's staying healthy. And he's a really nice player. They're deep down the middle, right? When you include Mercer in there as well. So, yeah, it's a team that's playing pretty good hockey.

And when you have a 13-game winning series like that, you pretty much punch your tick into the playoffs. And here's the thing. I'm not sure if it can necessarily continue. But as they're playing right now, you or I could be their goalie and they probably still win a lot of games because they're just like they're not giving anything up. They're like literally the best defensive team in terms of every single metric and also one of, if not the best offensive team. So here's a question for you. This is for the true deep league degenerates. You mentioned William Carrier earlier.

Can I interest you in a little Nathan Bastion? Who is it? Sorry. Nathan Bastion. So he is. Oh, yeah. First Power Play last night, right?

No, first Power Play pretty much all year. Like, he's been there, a net front guy. And the on-off splits, last I checked, were actually, like, totally support that decision.

You know, power plays are a weird sample, so you don't necessarily know how much to buy into it. But certainly plays his role in front of the net there, mixes it up, throws a ton of hits,

has actually gotten a pretty good chance of volume. And, you know, he's playing fourth line minutes. So you're not going to get that much a five-on-five, but that line with, with, like him,

McLeod and Wood is one of the most exciting fourth lines in the league in terms of just playing with pace and mixing it up and they've been hard as well. So I think, you know, you could do a lot worse as well, similar to what we were saying about Kerry. I'm not expecting huge goal volume from him by any means, but just in terms of like if you're scraping the bottom of the barrel, there's a guy that's pretty involved and considering the offensive environment he's in,

I think you could do a lot worse than trying to kind of get a little piece of action with that if he's one of the only guys available in your league. I like that. that's a good call. It's a deep pull. I would be proud of you for sure. He mentioned him the other day for an anytime goals score because of that opportunity. Yeah, that fourth line,

and me would. It seems you could create something every time he's on the ice as well. There's a couple random players like that that are getting first time power, like first power play opportunity. Like Stefan Noeson is a guy that I don't, I'm not really totally in on, but he every single time I see the Hurricanes power play. Maybe that's the reason why they don't score any goals.

I don't know what you make of the hurricanes, but I was taking a look at the top 10 teams and expected goals for. and then where they actually are in goals, four and five and five, and the hurricanes and the Rangers and the Leafs are three teams that are inside the top ten, but in expected goals, but they're not scoring.

Like last night, again, hurricanes dominate, a ton of shots, a ton of shot attempts, and they can't find a way to score. It seems like if Spreschikov's not scoring, Martin Aches is nice. I think he's one of the players

we chatted about last year as well with a cam. He's having a real solid breakout campaign. Maybe the offense starts to come when Pacerite gets into the line. up in the new year potentially off that Achilles injury. But, yeah, when they put no assent on that power play and Seth Jarvis, I think a lot of people had expectations for it. It's a team that just, again, if especially Koshka not scoring,

they're not scoring any goals. I can't really figure them out because they dominate play as well. They're really good defensively. Yeah, they got shut out by Correll the Thrill of Emelka last night, who's been playing remarkably well in November, I believe, was one of the best colleagues in the league. Yeah, I would buy on Seth to Jarvis, actually. If you look at his numbers last year when he kind of burst on the seat as a teenage rookie compared to now,

a lot of those underlying metrics have actually gone up. He's being used more. He's generating more. He just hasn't scored at all. I think he's shooting like 7% himself. The team with him on the ice is around 6%. Both of those will go up. And he's so important to them as a creator.

I know they've mixed and match the lines because they've been understandably frustrated by how hard the offense has been to come by. But I think they still ultimately want to have him and Aho as the one two punch. on the top line. And so if you can get him, he might even be getting dropped in some leagues because he's only got like three goals and seven points. So far, he's someone who I think has the upside to build off of what he did last year. And once those goals start coming, he's going to benefit from him. But yeah, it's been pretty frustrating. It's been kind of a commitment to a bit by the hurricanes in terms of getting a lot of shot volume, but not being able to actually turn it into actual goals. Right. Yeah, I agree with you on Seth Jarvis too. He's a guy that have a lot of shares of.

I'm hanging tight where I can. And you're right. He is getting dropped in some formats. He's a nice little player and the opportunity is there for him. Again, I feel like this team may look a little bit differently when, different when they get patch ready in there. I want to bring up UC Parsson into you as well, because I, keeps talking about him. We're seeing, you know, him getting a real opportunity in Nashville. Of course, he was a big Preds guy, but, you know, I've really noticed him.

I mean, his first NHL goal was, I don't want to say it was Tage Thompson like, but, you know, a big body who took it out wide and with a little bit of speed, looks like he's got some nice hands and he cut it in and went, hard of the net. I mean, he took a massive hit on that play as well and still put the puck in the back of the net. He's getting an opportunity to play with Nashville's best score and Philip Foresberg on that first line, Michael Graham has moved to the wing and he's playing an he's getting opportunity to play on power plates too. And even I noticed, you know, with the game on the line the other night, it was a tie game. He's, he's out there. You know, he's getting

responsibility. It's not like it's like, oh, you know, he's a young kid or, you know, just a taste in the NHL. We're going to kind of, you know, scale him back a little. Because actually, like, Habs do that with Coughfield, believe it or not. When they're up a goal in the last three minutes of the game, he's actually not on the ice. I'll put Monahan on the ice with Nick Suzuki. Who's another player, by the way, who's getting top power play time is kind of producing.

But yeah, Carson, what do you think about him? Is he maybe a deep league pole or somebody? I think he's somebody to, me, myself, I have streamed him and ride this out maybe a little bit to see if he sticks on that top line. I think there's an opportunity for him. Yeah, there is. I mean, listen, he is a rookie. He's only played six NHL games,

but he produced pretty impressively the past two years in a pro league in Finland. And then he came over and started the year in the HL and was basically the point per game player. And so they felt the need to promote him. And he's rewarded them for it. They're putting out a position to succeed, certainly. I think he's averaging like three power play minutes per game so far this season. And he's riding shotgun, as you mentioned, with Forrestburg, if I-1-5. So you could do a lot worse than that.

He's, what? He's shooting like 27% or something right now. So that's not going to continue regardless of where he's getting his shots from now. Listen, he's played six games. So when you score three goals and six games, those shooting percentage totals are going to be inflated. I'm not holding that as a knock against them. I think certainly passes the eye test. Like I like what I see in terms of how he uses his frame, taking the puck to the net,

and how they're using him. So yeah, if he's available, I would certainly take a shot on him, take a flyer, see if this continues because if they're going to keep putting him in this role, the points are going to come, right? like for this Predator's team last year, they were highly efficient, but it made sense because their top players were so good with the puck. And then,

you know, they go in the power play, they'd create all of a sudden. And so if he's going to be one of those guys, he's playing off of Duchenne and Forsberg and Granland, and they're feeding them the points you're going to come. So I like that. That's a,

that's a classic Eric Young poll there. And it makes sense that he'd be a player that he likes. But I like what I see. I'm very interested. He was on my list as like monitoring for the later. But if he keeps this up and you're, simply kind of putting him on your watch list, you might miss out on him, right?

So maybe it makes sense to a, to stake a claim on him now. And then if he comes back down to Earth, you can always drop him. Yeah, that's the thing, right? I mean, it depends on your league and how deep your league is, of course, all about context.

But, yeah, as you mentioned, the ice time seems to be there. I mean, 18 minutes the other night, he's shooting. He's got at least two shots in four of his games. And you mentioned the alarming shooting percentage. Yeah, it's something to certainly monitor, but he's winning some faceoffs.

He's thrown his body around, too, for those that are in Bang your leagues. He had six hits the other against the bolts. I thought it was actually a very impressive game from him. I love it. All right. I think we've done a good job here. I think we've gone through a pretty good amount on my list.

Let's do some plugs. I'm going to give you a couple minutes here because I know you've got so much the plug because you're doing a million different shows. Let the listeners know where they can check you out what you're working on, give them all that good stuff, including the show you do with our pal, Eric Young, who's one of my personal favorites. Yeah, I appreciate it, Demetri. Yeah, Eric Young is when he tells us,

you he's a fantasy hockey psycho he truly is i don't know where he finds at the time uh you know he'll he's overseas and he's texting me at like three in the morning and saying oh my goodness that arizona in seattle game was fantastic i can't believe it i watched all but it was great i dangle bet sally uh is uh twice a week at 10 eastern tuesdays and thursdays those are the busy nights in the nchel we just kind of roll through the games have a little bit of a fantasy hockey span and call some shop props have some fun with some goals and really just have a fun NHL conversation. Mean Streets is five days a week. It's a free show as well. Both of these shows are free on our YouTube channel, FTN Network. I tweet them all out at Chris Meaney. It's a multi-sport show,

you know, obviously football, but this is a great time to be a sports fan. You got hockey. If you like NBA, you got the World Cup happening. You know, we cover it all over at Mean Streets with some great guests and things like that. So yeah, I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to plug my stuff. I love coming on with you, man. An absolute blast big fan of the podcast here and all my stuff over at FtN, whether it's a betting angle that you're looking for, a DFS, or you're just looking for some fun fantasy hockey talk, fantasy football talk, rankings, projections, weekly articles, all that stuff over at FTCN, Fantasy Ftn, Daly and FTTBets.com.

Awesome, man. Well, thank you. I know it was a really busy time for you. So thank you for carving out some time in your schedule to come chat. Always a blast. Hopefully the listeners enjoyed it. I'd highly recommend checking out your work. We're certainly going to have you back on here later on in the season with another fantasy update.

So stay tuned to that. If you enjoyed today's show, please go smash that five-star button. We really appreciate it. We'll be back tomorrow with another mailbag. So thank you for listening to the Hockey PEOCast streaming here on the Sportsnet Radio Network.