The Hockey PDOcast - Our Guys for the 2025–2026 NHL Season

Episode Date: October 1, 2025

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Thomas Drance for the first episode of a brand new NHL season, as the PDOcast makes its return from summer break. They put together their 'Our Guys' list for the 2025-2026 campaign, highlighting the players they're especially excited to watch this year. 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.

since 2015. It's the Hockey P.D.O.cast with your host, Dmitri Filipovich. Welcome to the Hockey P.D.O. cast. My name is Dem, Philipovich. And joining me here in studio, my good buddy, Thomas Trance. Tom, what's going on, man? Hey, Dim, we're back. We're back, man. We're so back, in fact. And it is our first episode of the 25, 26 season. It's our first episode coming off of our, dare I say, critically acclaimed summer series where we interviewed people in the game, did five or six episodes of that. That took us right into the off season, we knew we had big shoes to fill coming back. And so we're going to start this new season with an annual PDOCAST staple, a tradition that's become something of a landmark event for us. I think the brand new year, obviously, it's a clean slave for everyone.

I think it provides so much hope and excitement for what's to come. And to help celebrate that, we're going to do our guys for the 25, 26 NHL season. Now, I think the listeners that have been along for the ride with us for a couple years now know this gimmick quite well. and they really love it. If we've got some new additions from the listenership side that are tuning in this season, strap in, enjoy the ride. It's going to be a fun one.

And I think this particular exercise, beyond just being incredibly fun to do, I think really allows us to get into our bags and showcase our chops a little bit in terms of talking about some niche players. We've had some very hilarious names over the years. I've been prepping for days now constructing my list. You've been speaking with people in the game

with pro scouts and various people to iron out your list. And so we're going to see how far we can go. We've got about an hour or so here. We're going to try to rattle through as many names as we can. This was the episode where in the past we dubbed Brandon Hagel, the philosopher. That's right. So a classic right there. I had Alexis Lafrienei last year, though.

That was an unfortunate miss. But we had a lot of hits last year, and I'm looking forward to sort of digging into the bag and coming up with something. Now, I was hoping, because I tried to keep them a little higher level this year, right? but I think maybe at the end can we do like a lightning round of guys who if they make a team are very, very interesting? Are you okay with that?

Yeah, are you just trying to get Braden Pekal back on this list? Yeah, I just want to make sure that my whole list isn't Adam Wilsby, you know? Yes. Well, we're going to see. I think my list has a lot of big names and I don't think are going to be surprises and then once we get to the back half,

I think we're going to maybe more rapid fire style try to get through as many of the deeper shoutouts as we can. Just as a reminder, these are players. We're excited to watch this season either because they showed us enough flashes as last year progressed that they'd captured our attention. We're excited

to see what they can build on this year and follow it up with. We're players who are already established and we just kind of want to plant our flag as being very high on them, very excited about them, and there are guys. And so that's why they're on this list. This

is one of my favorite shows of the year. I say that about bunch of stuff. I say that about the trade special we do. I do mock drafts, but this is right up there. I love this exercise. Let's get into it. Let's see how far we can get. I'll give you the floor here to kick us off with your first name, and we're going to see if we wind up stealing some of each other's guys. So I wanted to start with what I consider to be the highest upside guy on my list. And, you know, maybe it's a little bit out there. This is a guy who's going to be entering his first full North American season. But I think when we think about like the sort of upside and how much that upside could

potentially matter in terms of the league hierarchy, the overall NHL hierarchy, I think the first pick is clear, and it's Nikita Nikitian, the Carolina Hurricanes defender. And I wanted to start with Nikitian because we really are talking about a unique scoring and physical profile here. I mean, we're talking about a guy who, you know, was like a captain of one of the big KHL teams in his teens and was like a 50 plus point defenseman at that level while also being, you know, six foot four, six foot five. And, you know, like a genuinely mean, borderline cheap physical defender.

The hurricanes, I think, and especially head coach Rod Brindamore have obviously been in a lot of ways like turning down the hype, I think, on Nikisha. And so I think it's caused us to maybe overlook the impact that this guy can have. And of course, they've made some pretty significant additions to that roster and on the back end with like K. Andre Miller, I think, soaking up most of the attention and sort of the mindshare of hockey fans going into the season. But I mean, I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that we could get to game 50. game 60 of next year and see Nikitian playing at like a fringe Norris level. You know, like top 10 defensemen in the league type upside.

In fact, I think that's not even outside the base rate as a bet for what could happen this season. And so for that reason, I just want to make sure, I'd add this too. With the Maple Leafs losing Marner, right, and the terrible Barkov injury, right? the ACL MCL that will keep him out seven to nine months. And realistically, too, you know, could keep him out, could keep the Barkov we know out of the entire season, including the playoffs, right? I mean, he might be back, but the same impact might take longer than that, as we've seen

with previous ACL MCL, multi-ligament tear injuries in the NHL. The East feels wide open. If this guy is who I think he's going to be, right? I want a flag plan on that because that's the sort of thing that can upset, like, very apex of sort of the NHL hierarchy. And for that reason, I wanted to start with him. And he's my first pick. I think it's a great pick.

He was in my honorable mentions. I had a feeling you would take him, so I'm glad you started with him. I do want to, because I'm sure listeners are yelling at their screens right now. You did call him Nikita Nikitian. Oh, sorry. And his name, of course, is Alexander. Alexander, Nicky.

I think you're thinking of throwback Nikita Nikitin. Excuse me. Blue Jacket's defenseman, who I'm sure if we were doing this exercise, 10, 12 years ago would have been on this list. I was more a rusty Klusla guy, but yeah. I think the opportunity is certainly there. You mentioned Kandre Miller coming in and the acquisition cost, the hurricanes paid, the contract they gave him. I think there's lofty expectations there. But with the minutes moving out from last year, with Burns gone and Orlov gone and the reshuffling on the back end, it's certainly there for him. I think he's probably

going to start lower in the lineup and is going to be able to work his way up. He got the trial by fire in the playoffs last postseason, right? With the hurricanes really struggling to find any answers in terms of moving the puck against that Panthers forecheck, they threw him in there. I thought, especially like he played the one game earlier on in the playoffs against the capitals and had that one very memorable shift in my mind where he like, I think it was against Ovechkin, where he like chased him up high in the zone. knock the puck away, then they wound up working the puck all the way to the other end,

had this extended offensive zone shift, and he was blasting it. And I think the upside is incredible. This also isn't your typical rookie either, right, in the sense that he's got all of the pro experience playing at a high level and the KHL coming in, and will be 24 years old, I believe, once the season starts. And, yeah, I mean, this is an awesome environment for defensemen. Yes. In particular, right?

We've seen a laundry list of guys play their very best hockey there succeeding in the system. You're going to have the puck a lot. I think your responsibilities will see. I'm going to talk about Nikola Eilers later. We've seen them start to out of necessity shift towards carrying the puck a little bit more with the guys atop their lineup and trying to be a bit more creative or decisive with what they do with the puck. But for the defensemen, the list of responsibilities is still quite low in terms of just getting it out of your zone into safe space. and allowing your forwards to retrieve it.

And so it's a great spot for him to be in. I love the shout out. And I think that's a great way to start our list. Yeah, let's go. So you mentioned the Barkov injury. And obviously a devastating one this preseason. Terrible. Genuinely bummed out about it.

Not only for him, we both love Sasha Barakov, but I think just for us as people who love watching great hockey, he's amongst the very best. And so hopefully he's able to come back at some point this postseason, but he will clearly be out for the duration of the regular season. And, you know, I was listening to Paul Maurice talk about this in the wake of it. And he's right. There's no, like, in hockey, there's a very, there's a mindset of, like, next man up, right?

And injuries are going to happen. Roles are going to change. If you're a good team, you're going to have guys to fill that role. I love this answer, by the way. Trust Paul Maurice to just, like, puncture the old hockey bromides when appropriate and, like, do so in a way that almost felt like motivational for his team. You know what I mean? Like, realistic, truthful. and honestly, I thought, you know, motivational.

Like, there is no next man up for Sasha Barkov, but we're still going to sort of be sad for a day and move on. I just thought that was awesome. Classic, like vintage Palmaries. No, there isn't, because he's such a unique player in the way that he just puts everyone around him in such advantageous ice-tilting situations every single time he's on the ice. Now, what they do have, though, is another beast two-way finish center

whose talent and ability clearly heavily outweigh his actual usage and the ice time he was getting and the role he was asked to fill on this team that was as deep up front as the Panthers have been for the past couple years. And I think now we're finally going to get to see if there is a silver lining out of this, it's that we're going to get to see

what Anton Lundell can look like in an elevated opportunity that I think we've been wishing for and clamoring for and thinking he's going to be more than capable of filling. Now last year, He was 207th out of 431 forwards with at least 250 minutes in 5-on-5 ice time per game. An interesting wrinkle is we did see Paul Maurice really more selectively used Barkov last year. He toned down his PK usage a little bit in the regular season,

and that's because he had Lundell and Lus Terina, and they were so good, and he was using them as his top PK guys. So we've already seen that. But if you bump up that 5-1-5 usage, his career high was 45 points last year. And then he goes off for 19 and 23 playoff games, including six in six games in the Stanley Cup final against the Oilers. And I'm not sure what the upside is because we haven't seen it for a sustained time. But you've been shouting this out during our shows last year, these glimpses he's shown us in watching him of the creativity and like offensive upside.

Yeah, the new ones. Coming to fruition, like him trying stuff, even if it fails, that clearly resembles a high-end player, not just kind of a grinding, checking type of center. And then you see whenever he gets a chance in the shootout, his hands and his creativity and what he can do with the puck. The skill is clearly there. And so now you bump up that ice time. I'm very fascinated to see what that's going to look like, obviously, under circumstances you don't wish for if you're the Panthers.

But I think it's a fairly decent plan B, at least for the time being. And I really want to see how in particular Paul Maris is going to utilize his forwards now with not only Barkoff, but Kach being out for an extended period of time and what these guys can do with that added usage. Yeah, and I do think Luster and Lundel bumping up and playing potentially with Sam Reinhardt gives you your best chance at, you know, gives the Panthers their best chance at having like a top end that can still tear their opponents apart, right? Having a tough minutes group that's still absolutely dominant in the, you know, loaded Atlantic. So, no, I mean, I'm, I love the pick. I obviously, I'm a huge fan of both players. I'm really curious to see how they utilize them.

but I know the temptation is going to be to leave them with Marshand, given the way that that line cooked all playoff long. But those two guys are ascending players. And I honestly do think if you're going to keep sort of Bennett in a role where he can take more chances and sort of win you games, having those guys be table setters at the very top of the lineup battling Tufts is the Panthers best chance of succeeding and sort of holding the fort in Barkov's absence. Well, so he has two options here.

one is to keep that line together, and I wouldn't blame them because they were the best forward line the entire postseason. Last playoffs, they outscored opponents 30 to 4 in their 5-1-5 minutes. The only issue for me there is if you're implying that we're going to ramp up the usage for this line because it's moving up the pecking order and essentially becoming your 1A or 1B line, as opposed to a definitive third line previously, I don't know if I want to be putting those miles on a 37-year-old Brad Marchehan. At this point, I think part of what made him so special last post-season, was like the efficiency of like in these brief, uh, sprinklings, he was just able to completely take over the game.

For sure. And that was the difference for that. And he missed a lot of the regular season with injury. I mean, you have to be thoughtful, I think, about his usage, especially if you're going to be, you know, going into the most important games of the air with Barkov, you know, still in not, not like injured status, but injury impact status, right? The difference between returning to play and returning to effectiveness that probably is going to linger as a story around him, even if he makes it back for the playoffs.

Which is why the idea of putting Reinhardt with those two finished dogs is so appealing. We saw the proof of concept in the first Stanley Cup final run of theirs in 23 when they were just so good as this throw-a-mouth checking line, just completely tilt the ice and do everything defensively. And then that allows you to experiment with Bennett and Brehaki and potentially Samaskavich. I don't want to include two Panthers. I want to limit myself to one guy per team here. But I got a shout-out Mackie Samiskevich as an honorable mention because what we saw from him

last year where he starts the season. He's stuck on the fourth line playing with Nocic and Greer. Every time you tune in to the Panthers for the first two or three months of the season, he's playing eight to ten minutes in those shifts. He's creating glorious chances that those guys just can't really capitalize on. They have injuries. They try them out on the first powerplay unit in the top six. And he finishes with what, like 25 points in the final 35 regular season games. And they reached an interesting crossroads this offseason where they obviously prioritize bringing back their veteran UFAs who contributed to the cup with Bennett. Marshand and Ekblad.

And so that leaves them with so little cast base, they essentially have to punt a decision on Samaskiewicz down the road to next year, sign him to what, the 775K, one-year bridge deal, and he's going to be an RFA again next year. And I imagine with this opportunity we just talked about carved out for him, he's going to be playing premium minutes

and I think he's going to be producing a ton. So if you're playing in fantasy leagues or anything, and you can get him as one of your last picks, I can't recommend that one. I think Samiskevich is going to have an awesome offensive season. The decks have cleared to really amp his usage up, especially in the first couple months of the season. And if you're a believer, which I am, you are, you know, then he's going to seize an opportunity and potentially be able to maintain that role even as they start to get healthy. Right. So that's a very appealing fantasy profile.

All right. Next up. I'm going to go Will Cooley. New York Rangers winger, Will Cooley. We'll see exactly how things shake out. But I suspect that he's going to end up on that line with J.T. Miller. and Mika Zabandesia ad a line that's going to play down low, really sort of try and emphasize puck possession beneath the hash marks.

If you've watched J.T. Miller play, I've watched him play a ton. He wants a lot of pucks going back behind the net, especially when pressure arrives instead of forcing passes, throw it back behind the net. Let's keep battling. Let's keep looking. So if you can pass and if you can win battles and if you're a handful down low, I mean, man, what a great opportunity this is going to be for a player who has, Will Cooley's skill set and profile.

He's just really good. I mean, had some mid-40s point totals last year, but I mean, I think if he's playing with two skilled guys all season long, bringing some doggedness, I don't think 60, 65 points is out of the question. I think this is a guy we'll be talking about a year from now the way we talk about Matthew Nyes today.

I don't actually see a huge golf and quality between those two players. Matthew Nyes was one of my guys last year. I just think this is the same profile. This is the exact same profile that I like. This guy's big, skilled, a dog, and he's going to have a huge opportunity to make it work on that Rangers' top line this season, which stylistically just seems perfectly calibrated. Maybe it's a little bit of a slow way of playing versus what we see like the Panthers do or what sometimes works in the Stanley Cup playoffs, but it's going to be productive.

And it's going to be a long night for a lot of defenders just sort of trap down low. against that trio. And like the idyllic version of a Mike Sullivan system with him coming in as a head coach is a very like uptempo north-south system during the prime penguins years. Obviously we have him because of the personnel seeing them able to execute that in Pittsburgh the past couple years. But I imagine that's what he's going to want to preach. And so a guy with coolie skill set in a very like no nonsense approach of just going straight line and attacking with or without the puck is going to he's going to get in Mike Sullivan's good graces, I think. I think the ice time is going to come accordingly, and so he's in a great spot to really produce.

And he's really good. Like, he's just really, really good, did a lot last year without this sort of opportunity with it. I just think this is one of those where situation meets a guy who's also more talented than I think, you know, the public outside of the island of Manhattan, the hockey watching public on the island of Manhattan, has, like, caught up to yet, but they will. Like, by December, January, we're going to be having very different conversations about who and what Will Cooley is in this league, and for good reason, he rocks.

Now, when you mentioned Cooley, my heart stopped for a second, because as you can see here, atop my list, is another Cooley. Yeah, let's go. One, Logan Cooley. And listeners certainly, they won't believe it, that we have a Utah player prominently featured here on this list. Hopefully the hit he took in a preseason game that sidelined him for a little bit here won't impact the start of his year. Because I just think it's completely wheels up for him as you look ahead to not only what he showed us in the back half of last year, but what our expectations are. for this Utah team heading into this season. He's entering year three.

He's extension eligible. He went up from 44 points as a rookie to 65 in his second season. It looks like, you know, we're in peak best shape of his life season here, but it does look like, and it makes sense given his age, that he put on a bunch of strength this offseason. He looks bulkier from what I've seen, and that's scary because he was already down the stretch last year, just asserting himself to such a greater extent.

with the puck protecting it down low, hounding opponents as a forechecker, causing havoc and then making plays off of that. His ability, in transition, to hit this extra gear that just creates this additional separation from him to defender and then allows him to make plays with the puck is breathtaking,

and I think that's going to continue to grow. I'm very curious to see how they utilize their new edition, JJ Petrka here, whether he plays with the Gunther Cooley connection or whether they split it up because I did love what I saw from Cooley and Keller loaded up together last year. They played about 500, 5.15 minutes. They were awesome. I know they like playing Keller a bit more with Schmaltz and Hayden in particular.

And so maybe adding Petrca gives them a legitimate third guy to play with Gunther and Cooley. There's a lot of options there, but the firepower is incredibly exciting. We've talked about the warp speed this team wants to play at and the types of players they brought, not only Petirka and his prowess off the rush. but suddenly a guy like Nate Schmidt and his sort of quick efficient decision-making to get them to pop quickly, Brandon Tannib, in a North South style. And a couple absolute freakish imports from Russia, who we'll talk about in the honorable mention section. Some big lies, yeah. Yeah.

And so I think the sky is the limit here. The power play, I'm curious to see how that fits because there is a bit of a awkward fitter overlap with skill sets because you've got gun throw on one flank and then Keller cooking on the other. and that sort of puts coolly in a bit of a tricky spot with that top unit. But that was a unit that post four nations just went off. I think they were top five in power play efficiency, which makes sense given the personnel they have. I'd expect that to continue. And yeah, I just can't wait to watch this guy play.

I think the points are one thing, and his puck skill is certainly there, and that's where he's going to get a lot of attention for. But I was just blown away and going through the tape of him last year of how much better he got down low. and winning battles and extending possessions for Utah. And all of a sudden, if you surround that type of a player with all these high-level shooters like a Patyrka and a Gunther, I mean, Gunther's going to score 40 goals this year.

I think he was on our list last year. Like, I didn't want to repeat it. So I wanted to give Cooley a bit more shine instead, but he's a phenomenal player as well. And so, yeah, I just can't wait to see how this top six shakes out. And I think Cooley's going to be the ultimate difference maker amongst the bunch. Yeah, he's, I mean, he's also got a chance to be a really special driver through the neutral zone, just because there's a, sort of like, you know, nightcrawler and X-Men

element to the way that he transports the puck. I mean, in terms of pure puck carrying speed, he is in very rare territory. And it's such effortless speed, too. Like, it doesn't look like he's necessarily working that hard. And all of a sudden, like, you can see the defender just, there's a certain level of fear it instills, and it pushes him back. And then all of a sudden, there's this cushion for him to attack. And I'd love to see him. Like, we saw him elevate his shot rates and chance rates last year. I think he's got much more uptap. untow potential there, but obviously when you're playing with a guy like Gunther, I think it's always a good strategy to look for him and try to tee him up, and he does that as well as anyone.

Yeah, and I think, you know, we'll know based on how frequently we see that part of his game unleashed. Down the stretch, you started to see it, you know, once period, but I think you'll see it even more frequently, like on an almost every shift basis where he begins to terrorize or terrify defenders, especially when they're trying to gap up. You know, no one's McDavid, but I think he could hit the Matt Barzell level as sort of a transporter of the puck through the neutral zone. In fact, I think he's probably pretty close to that level already. I just want to see it more frequently, and I think we will as he, you know, becomes prime aged. I think you're right.

This guy's primed for a massive break. Do you want to squeeze in one more or a guy here before we go to break? Sure. Yeah, I want to do Cutter Goce. So I'm going to squeeze someone in and I'm going to squeeze someone in. I don't think we have to, like, talk that much about. But, you know, Gochay's got the sort of like big skill. shot rates through the roof,

took him a long time to get rewarded. But when you were watching him last season, and granted, I hope you weren't, because then you were watching Ducks hockey. But when you were watching him last season, it wasn't as if the shot rate was like bad angle, no conscience coded. Like he was getting inside.

He was creating. And he just wasn't getting rewarded for it. Damn sort of broke for him. The mass began to work for him in the latter 30 games or so of the season. And by the end of the year, you know, he ended up running so hot that it sort of evened out. And I think, you know, like one thing that some people in the industry suggests sometimes when you ask them about Goce is like, what does high end look like for him? And I just think the, you know, he's not like a classic power forward and that he doesn't have that mean streak, but he's still a big bodied, skilled guy with a great shot. And, you know, I kind of think, I kind of feel like we're talking about when we're talking about, when we're talking about, about Cutter Goce, it's like when we were talking about Marchenko two years ago. And it's like people couldn't quite visualize the power forward game that he was going to develop because we didn't

think of him as being a player of that ilk. But now it's like, oh, right, you're six foot two and you're puck protection game's incredible and you're a skill playmaker. And that package is wildly dangerous every single time you're out there. I kind of feel like Gocee, Cutter Gocee is like right on the fringes of becoming that guy, right on the fringes of sort of developing into that sort of player. And I really sort of was thinking about him in sort of fleshing out my list as being like, you know, in that mold, like the guy who two years ago would have been a hipster pick,

but I feel like is just going to be one of the best sort of two-way offensive forwards. And more offensive, but like big physical assertive offensive forwards. I think he's got a shot to be one of the 30 or 40 best of that ilk in the league as soon as next season. I think it's a good call to include pretty much any Ducks player under 25 years old on this list, just in terms of that rising tide element of the coaching change and hoping that with it will come opening up the system a little bit, not trying to play so conservative and vanilla and allowing some of these young guys to cook with the puck and play with more pace.

and a guy like Goce would certainly benefit from that. I thought that the connection, you know, I was talking about the connection between Gunther and Cooley, what him and Leo Carlson were doing down the stretch was incredibly fun to watch. I'll include a similar guy in North Carolina that I think checks a lot of the same boxes you just had, and that's Will Smith. Yeah. Because I thought similarly, maybe no one other than in that market was paying that much attention

because the team was headed towards the lottery. But following his progression in his rookie year, from what he looked like in the first 20, 30, 40 games when he was clearly trying to acclimate himself to the NHL level and deal with the speed shift coming from the NCAA and figuring out what would work and what didn't. And then what him and Celebrini were doing down the stretch, first 40 games, he got created at 5-on-5. They got outscored 27 to 16.

He had six goals and 15 points. Final 34 games, finished with 12 goals, 30 points. They won those 5-1-5 minutes 30 to 21, and I think that's incredibly exciting, bumping him to the wing, playing with Celebrity. Celebrini, your guy last year, which wound up being a tremendous call because he blew away my expectations for him heading in, is clearly going to be a guy that is in that rare breed of whoever gets to share the ice with him is going to be in a position to succeed. And Smith's skill set makes so much sense. We had these scintillating shifts in various games down the stretch between the two where they were just take over and you could just see the potential of like they had the puck on a string.

The opposing defense was hanging on for dear life. and I think we're going to see much more of that this season. And so whether it's a DeFoli or Skinner who's coming in playing with them, I think there's certainly enough juice for that to be an incredibly fun line that terrorizes opponents. So I have further thoughts on this and how much we struggle as like a hockey commentariat in general and just as hockey watchers and fans on the sort of act of adjusting for age as it pertains to Will Smith,

but it also pertains to a guy who I'm sure is on both of our list. So why don't we sort of put a pin on it and do like a collective P.D.O.cast R. Guy on the other side. All right. Let's take our break here. You're listening to the Hockey Piedocast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network. All right. We're back here on the H-Giocast. We're doing R-Gai for the 25-26 season. Tom. You had a brilliant tease heading into the break there. You're a true broadcasting professional. I'll let you pick back up here on that thought and introduce our next R-guy. Yeah. So look, I truly think this is an R-guy in that. We both have them on our list and both firmly believe that he's poised to break out.

I think for the second straight season, we had like, I think we even started last year's edition with like a long diatribe about him and I remain completely unwavered. Oh, yeah. I'm going to, well, I also, even if the production wasn't there last season, I still think, so, so sorry, because I want to come back to your Will Smith pick and it all dovetails into a wider take. So it's Zach Benson, Buffalo Sabers, Winger. and, you know, Zach Benson was a R guy last season. He's going to be an R guy again this season.

He'll be an R guy again until he's widely recognized as a star-level player because that's coming for this winger. You know, the ability to play top of the lineup minutes be durable enough. I mean, not that he's had a completely clean age 18 and 19 seasons from an injury perspective, but be durable enough to play a lot of games in the NHL before his 20th birthday. day. And to do that while legitimately being one of the best defensive players on an atrocious defensive team, like a legit defensive driver with the sorts of details where it's not just empty calorie spreadsheet stuff. I mean, this guy is making a difference off puck and keeping

an overmatch side afloat in Tufts at the NHL level as an 18 and 9 year old and an 18 and 9 year old who's not all that physically developed. To do that is incredible. And, you know, I think we're kind of used to the story of, you know, the best players in the league coming in and being stars right away. And I think because of that, we have lost sight of how wild it is to be doing this at the age that some of these guys are doing it at. And especially when it comes to the guys, like with Celebrini, obviously it's incredibly impressive to do what he did at 18. But Will Smith, Zach Benson, Connor Bedard, I think fits into this conversation. And there's a whole host of other guys, too. Like, first of all, those are the only four teenagers that were full-time NHL players last year.

Yeah. Right? There were only three 18-year-olds who played at all last year. And most of them, like Jet Leshenko played four games, right? I mean, only Celebrini played meaningful games. To be an NHL player at the age that these guys are and to be able to hang, like, okay, but Benson hasn't had the 50 or 60-point breakout season yet. But don't mistake that for thinking that. that's not there or failing to recognize just how impressive he has been as a draft plus one and a

draft plus two player. I mean, I think this is the year that it's going to click because when you watch, you know, the, when you watch his shifts, he's creating constantly. It's not that there's a lack of offense to his game. It's not that he's not getting to difficult areas of the ice with the puck. He just hasn't had the sort of run out where that team has really been fully rewarded for all that he's creating on the ice. This season, it's going to happen because he's already at that level. Like, this isn't even he's going to break out, although I suspect he will improve between the ages of 19 and 20. I think that's a reasonable expectation for an ascending player like this, but also I think he's already been better than we recognize now, even if he doesn't take

another step in terms of the overall quality of his performances. I think he's also a perfect storm of his size, and he's listed generously at 5'10. And then his first two seasons with the counting stats of 30 and 28 points. It's the perfect storm for, it's like catnip for the guy who is the worst hockey takes, you know, being like, see, this doesn't work in the NHL, where if you bother to watch a single Zach Benson game and I posted an 18-minute mixtape of his shifts last season on the PDOCAS YouTube channel, you can check it out for yourself. It's just an endless loop of him winning pucks against much bigger players, taking

it to the net, causing all sorts of havoc, and making good things happen out of the air. He's creating so much. He's amazing at funneling the puck into high danger areas. In the interior, he had out of this world defensive impact by any metric you look at last season. And that's why I think he is almost made in a lab as a perfect compliment to play full time alongside someone like Tage Thompson, right, as kind of the defensive conscience that does a lot of the dirty work and plays the role of the setup man that allows a guy like Thompson to do what he does best. And you could see that in their splits last year. They played 240-on-five minutes together.

Thompson played about 850 without him. And there was a noticeable drop in those two across the board and expected goals, shots, high danger chances. And I'd love to see that used as a combination for their top line full-time. this coming season, I imagine they will. And yeah, I mean, he won't turn 21 until the end of this season. He's going to be 20 this entire year. And I don't know if there's been a better recent example of a player who you want to lock in at a certain number for eight years right now and wind up looking at that A.A.V.

And it being a laughable steal for the team before it even kicks in at the start of next season. Because in this role, if he keeps playing the way he did, he takes a little bit of a step individually, in his development, the finishing comes along a little bit. He might never be a high-end finisher because he is kind of one of those Carolina Hurricane-style players that he takes the puck to the net and kind of jams it into the pads and stuff. But he was an 11% shooter in his rookie year. He was eight and a half or so last year. If that ticks up a little bit, his teammates start converting some more of his opportunities, which will happen if he's playing with Thompson. I mean, he only had four secondary assists last year, right? That's partly what's bringing down

the counting stats as well. And so pretty much just checks every box you're looking for for an offensive breakout, playing a premium in a premium spot in the lineup for the Sabres, and I think he could be a massive difference maker. So, yeah, this is a player that I'm going to keep planting my flag on and just riding for because I think he's, I think what he showed already last year was so fun to watch. He was just such a chaos agent and such a dog, and I think it's going to be even better this year. I just think he's the most obvious breakout candidate in the NHL.

I like really as simple as that. All right. I mean, such a rare combination of the motor with the playmaking chops. Yes. Usually you're giving up in one category to benefit from the other, and he just doesn't. Like, he does both at such a high level. Given what he's done relative to his age group, I mean, it's going to be a surprise if we're not talking about him as, you know, in my opinion anyway, one of the 20 or so best forwards in the NHL in two or three years time. All right.

Next on my list is the Columbus Blue Jackets forwards. I couldn't pick between my children. I wanted to do. So you picked a Blue Jackets Forward? Blue Jackets forwards. Wow. Encompassing them all. I figured they'd all broken out.

I've got a Blue Jackets player, but it's not a forward. They're broken out, but this isn't a breakouts list. This is our guys. Fair enough. Players we love more than consensus. Okay. And here's the reason why I think a guy like Foronkov in particular still applies. Right.

Because the Blue Jackets just had a chance to sign him long term. And they wound up going $2.1 million for one year, rolling the can down to next year where he's going to be an arbitration-eligible RFA one year out from unrestricted free agency. He's one of those players where by any microstat, like he doesn't have the puck a lot. He doesn't really do a lot. He's almost the opposite of Benson, who does everything. Yet he has such an outsized on-ice impact through that connective tissue, through his play along the wall, winning pucks, and then making plays around the net.

Him and Marchenko last year, 5-1-5, 724 minutes. They were up 51 to 22. What I loved about those two guys is when Monaghan got hurt and he was cooking early in the season with them, until he got bumped up to that spot and answered a lot of questions for me because I thought his playmaking was tremendous. It was almost infectious playing with those two guys. It had to come along to fit in. And he just started seeing the ice and making all of these plays for them that he hadn't done early in his NHL career where he was much more of a bull in a china shop, like straight line player, which allowed him to succeed in NCAA because he was more physically gifted.

than everyone. All of a sudden, now he started play with nuance. I love that they drag that out of them. And I'll include Ken Johnson in here as well. I don't know if he was on our guys list last year, but he finished this past season, ninth and five on five goals per 60, 20th in five on five points per 60, pound for pound, one of the most gifted players in the league with a puck on his stick. He can absolutely do everything with it. And I just love that those three guys in particular, all essentially got, what, two and a half to three or maybe more minutes per game and usage. going from Pascal Vincent to Dean Everson last year, and all immediately stepped up to the task,

rewarded him for it, looked phenomenal doing so, and I just loved seeing that. It was deeply impressive, very satisfying, after clamoring for it all of two years prior. And so I just wanted to include all those guys. They've broken out, but they're so fun to watch, and I don't know if your general fan is necessarily tuning in that much to the Blue Jackets, and what they do offensively is worth the price of admission.

So please, please, please, watch the Blue Jacks. Yeah, track meet hockey. It's super fun. And, yeah, I mean, honestly, you're right. It's impossible to choose between about five or six forwards. And so I actually considered picking Jetgreaves. I'm not going to, but I do want to shout him out.

He was like a strong consideration for me. Goaltender obviously had like a 930. I mean, he nearly willed them into the playoffs in the final week or two, yeah. Yeah, and that's obviously not, he's not going to sustain that. But I think there's a lot more there. He's been overlooked for a lot of. his career because he's only six feet tall, but as we saw with Dustin Wolf and as we've seen generally if you're athletic enough and clever enough and really understand sort of the artistry side of the

position beyond the positional science, you know, the center net strong stuff. And I think he does. I think there's a really high-end competitor there and a potential game stealer there, which is exciting if Columbus can add that even if he is just a platoon like a 1B 25 game, 25 to 30 game guy this season. I think it's an exciting development for a team that I think could be. be a lot better than we're expecting going into the year. All right. Who's next on your list? Or do you want me to include Jet Grieves as one of your picks and do you want me to go ahead?

No, no, no, I have a pick. I'm going to pick Marco Casper. Detroit Red Wing Center, Marco Casper. You had him on your list too, huh? Yeah. Sorry about that. Yeah, I mean, Marco Casper is nasty. I think it's very easy for me to imagine how he succeeds if he's playing on a line with

De Brinket and Kane. We've literally seen oversized, skilled enough center succeed throughout Kane's career when you put him between two skilled wingers. And Casper, I think, has a chance to be the best of that iteration of player, you know, that Michael Hansus, Artemisimov, tier of guys that we've seen over the years. I mean, Casper's really, really good. Took a huge step last year, I thought, physically, right? I mean, he's already like a big-bodied skill player. but I thought the strength, you could see the strength coming along to make an impact at the NHL level, unsurprising now that he's what, a couple years removed from his draft year going

into his age 21 season. I mean, you know, that's how this works sometimes, which is why we talk about the age adjustment, right? Like this is, this is, again, now a guy, I think, who's poised to take a big step. Again, in terms of the opportunity meeting talent, I just love this style of player, and I love his game and I think he's perfectly calibrated to just eat as in sort of the pooper or scooper role between Kane and DeBrick it. To your point, I mean, he started the year with two goals and seven points in his first 35 games. They have the coaching change, right? They bring in

Todd McClellan. He finishes with 17 goals and 30 points in his final 42. Down the stretch, he was getting bumped up to 17, 18, 19, sometimes 20 minutes a night. And it's such a high leverage spot in the lineup for them, I think, as well, right? Because if you tracked the Red Wings last year, the young players that they've drafted and developed were not the issue. They were not the reason why they fell short of making the playoffs. Yet again, they were the guys who were creating the positive results and carrying the team. It was pretty much every veteran they've brought in to try to supplement and compliment those guys that was letting them down along the way.

And so you know what you're going to get from Lucas Raymond and Dylan Larkin playing together. That's what makes having a second line that can not only stay. they afloat, but tilt the ice and keep that going once they come off, that much more important. And Casper showed so much. I also thought, like, some of the goals he scored with the shot that he was flashing to go along with that dog in this and work ethic and all that other stuff is incredibly exciting. And so I like him to build on that. My next guy, I guess he already fails your criteria of he's broken out because he definitely

broke out down the stretch last year. But I have to. We talked about the ducks quickly, so I won't spend too much time on it. but I got, it can't do this list without shouting out Jackson-Lacombe. Yeah. Because year one on a bad team for a rookie defenseman was about as bad as you'd expect. Like he got caved in.

At the start of last year, they were still easing him in with ice time. After New Year's, he winds up playing over 24 minutes a night down the stretch, which was top 20 in the league. I think he was 12th in both goals and assists by defensemen in that time. He had a positive goal. differential at 515 despite playing tough high-volume minutes on a really bad team and I know you got to

watch him play a couple times because it seemed like the ducks and conucks were playing every other night down the stretch for whatever reason and it was excruciating yeah he was amazing but he stood out as a guy like he's a one-man transition machine yet has the skating juice to lead the rush and then be the first guy back and break up a play and so all of his like entry denial metrics were incredible but all of his transition stuff carrying the puck and setting up teammates was also through the roof. I think like if you look at Corey Schneider's tracking data, he was in the high 90th percentile of pretty much every metric across the board. And I just think because of the way the ducks were playing, it wasn't necessarily appreciated that much. But I think it provides so much optimism for what

Zell Weger and Minchukov could be as well if that system does change and they go through a similar development. I don't know if it's reasonable to expect a year-to-year jump the way we saw from Jackson-Lacom. He went from really struggling to be. a genuine all-star, but I do think it provides encouragement and optimism, I think, that that could come along for two other young defensemen where we're both really high on. It also provides insulation, right? It provides insulation where, you know, whether they're going to be able to play a little bit further down the lineup or whether the stakes of them succeeding or not, like, right away this season are somewhat restrained because, you know, the ducks look

like they've found their 1 AD. And that's a huge development for a team that's, you know, spent a lot on the back end, has a lot of talent coming on the back end, but also, you know, pressure should be on them to take a step this year. And L'Combe, you know, optimism about L'Combe's game, I think, is a major reason why those expectations are reasonable and realistic. Do you think that the average fan appreciates fully how good Robert Thomas was in the second half of last year, post-Fournations in particular? No. Because he's a household name, certainly. Like, he's put up bunch of points in the past. But final 26 games post-Fournations, he led the league with

40 points. He had 32 assists in that time. He had a point in 27 of his final 30 games. Really, that entire forward group you can include obviously Dylan Holloway, who took a massive step last year as well, exploded after the coaching change under Jim Montgomery. But I really feel like assuming Robert Thomas is able to keep that up from day one this year, there's going to be a lot of buzz for him across the board. And I wanted to include him as well,

because I feel like it's being slept on a little bit how good he was last year. Yeah, you know what? It's a good call, and I'm really curious to see if he gets consideration for hockey Canada at the Olympics. I mean, I thought he was at that level last season where if hockey Canada thinks that they need a little more offense

coming out of their Four Nations tournament, you know, I wonder if he's going to be a serious consideration as, you know, in that sort of anthony, Anthony Sorrelli role. Get a guy who can be a little bit more of a creator because Thomas certainly fits that bill. I set you up and you hit it out of the park. That's why we're such a good team. All right. We got five minutes left here. Do you want to rattle through some either fringe names or guys you just want to get on the map here? Do we haven't included yet? Yeah. I mean, we got to talk Simashev. We got to talk Danny Butt, Danny Boot, in Utah.

Finally we can talk about the Utah Hockey Club. Well, I just look, I mean, when do we see an ascending team add two six foot five, just like absolute freakazoid potential guys? You know, I think Simashev probably less likely to make an impact this year. I think Danny's a little more likely, even if I'm a little bit higher on Simishev long term. You know, I just think with Sima Shev, like the move from the sort of contained defending that, you know, he's going to be used to on the international sheet to the North American sheet. I feel like probably best for him, especially given that that team's pretty deep on the back end to go through those growing pains at the HL and we'll see where we're at 40, 50 games into the season. But I think Danny Butt could be a pretty big, like an impact player quickly, more quickly than people are ready for. So Ryan Leonard, Washington Capitals forward.

I just love the way the game slows down for him in the dirtiest areas of the ice. I think there's something pretty special about that. You know, I've got Adam Willsby. I wasn't kidding about that earlier. Adam Wilsby, you know, Nick Hague sustained a bit of a knock, so there should be opportunity on the back end for the Predators. And there's a couple. One thing there's a lot of a Nashville's opportunity.

They're looking for guys who can play hockey. Yeah. Well, and, you know, I like, I like Leroux too. But I like Leroux. I like Svetchkov. I like what I saw from last week. I like Svichkov. and and but but I want to I want to ride for wills be a guy who's been overlooked his entire career

despite consistently managing pretty remarkable results. I mean, this is a guy who played, um, SHL games in his draft year and, and wasn't drafted until his second time through. Like, it doesn't even make sense.

So, you know, he's just a guy who's always been overlooked, but I think he's a player. Um, so that's sort of a short list. I mean, I've got Sibbachev.

I've got a bunch of other guys, but that's a short list of, of guys, I wanted to shout out his honorable mentions. You know, some of them are on the fringes of even making the NHL off the bat this season, but I'm going to be watching them closely. Oh, here, sorry, I've got one super off the radar one. Colin Graff.

Nice. Oh, yeah. I think, I think. I watched a lot of Sharks hockey last year. There we go. And I just, don't be shocked if he's sort of like the face of, you know, as a team comes up, right? There's like some guy who comes up that's like a bottom six guy who's not like a star, rest of them, but makes that sort of gutty contribution that every team needs and become, you know,

I think he's got a shot to be like what, like, like, uh, like Shaw was for the Blackhawx or something like that or something like that. I think he's a really interesting player and, and got a lot of dog in him. So I'm a fan. I like it. I like it. Here my honorable mentions, another freakazoid affiliated with Utah, not on the team anymore, Michael Kesslerang. I'm very curious to see, obviously, you know, a lot of the attention was given to the Peturca side of that deal, but the fit in Buffalo as a compliment of their top two defensemen and what he showed in declining ice time as last year progressed. But I think I'm always fascinated to see how these like per minute guys who excel do in bigger roles. And I love his skill set. Conor Zeri, a player

you and I talked about a lot last year, had that gnarly knee-on-knee injury. But he's so fun to watch with the puck and I think makes a ton of plays. It's going to excite people this year. Zach Bullduke going to Montreal. I think there's a real opportunity for him on that top power play to play on the inside as a shooter of the bumper. We saw what Robert Thomas setting him up did last year in terms of goal scoring. Max Cipulcov, who had no business being as fun as he was

last year on the Newark Islanders, I love watching him play. He's an absolute joy. I'm going to include... I wrote him down as Sipashev, but he's who I meant. I love it. Max Cipulcov. Sipulcov's nasty. That's all.

We could go through a bunch of other guys. I think we've nailed it and we're going to have all year to keep doing our guys and sprinkling in, certainly. You got anything to plug here on the way out now that we're back on the airwaves? Yeah, I mean, Canucks preseason coverage winding down over at the athletic. This is a week where the Canucks tend to make trades. So I'm sure it'll be busy in the second week of the preseason. Braden Coutts watch, all of that good stuff. And then Canucks talk back on SportsNet 6.50 noon to 2 p.m. every Monday to Friday.

and then, of course, wherever you get your podcasts across the SportsNet Radio Network. Beautiful, buddy. Well, the two of us will be back on Friday, I believe, as we continue prepping for the upcoming season. We've got a couple more fun shows planned before the games begin. A few other programming notes for this season, just like last year, people can lock in the fact that we'll be back for once the season gets going, Sunday specials every week, have them out on the feed. First thing Monday, hopefully for you to start your week with us. talk about most interesting developments of the week, stuff that caught our eye, just play some fun games along the way. I love the Christmas game we played last year. We're going to have to

bring that back, giving teams gifts that we see fitting. And so looking forward to that, that is all for today. It's really great to be back after taking the summer off. If you're happy, the PDOCAS is back in your life. Let us know by hitting that five-star rating button and dropping us a nice little review. And we'll see you back here soon. Thank you for listening to the Hockey PEOCast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio. Radio Network.