The Hockey PDOcast - ‘Our Guys’ This Season

Episode Date: October 11, 2023

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Thomas Drance to wax poetic about the random assortment of players they’re especially high on heading into this seasonThis 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.

Progressing to the mean since 2015. It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name is Demetri Filippovich and joining me here in studios, my good buddy, Thomas Jansdown. What's going on, man? Oh, no much. I am excited for today. This is one of my favorite shows of the year.

I literally bent my schedule to make sure we could do it. We're doing my guys. We're doing my guys. We're doing your guys. We're doing our guys. So we each have a list, a handful of players at least. We have more. We're probably not going to be able to get to all them today.

players we love, I think they need to be, we can do some kind of like honorable mentions and really obscure names more towards the end. But let's try to like... Oh, I've done only obscure names. Let's try to cater this though around like players who are going to have some relevancy to the season since the season is starting today as we're recording.

And so it feels like, you know... So you want me to scratch my KHL guys? Well, we can give them some shoutouts at the end. We'll save that for our KHL Our Guys episode later on in the show. We're going to try to walk a nice line though between, obviously the show needs to give you a little. little bit of that obscure event, right? It's got to have some guys that are total hipster picks.

Like, we're not going to do like Jack Hughes here today, obviously. No, I scratched guys like Will Borgon and Daniel Sprung because I did them last year. Yeah. Yeah, it was tough. I mean, you could argue Troy Terry's already transcended this category, but I still, I think, love them more than most people, but I've done it like five straight seasons. I think people get it now. He's my guy, no matter what, even if I don't talk about him today. I did learn we were talking before we went on the air, though, in compiling this list, it was really, you learn a lot about yourself and your tendencies, right? You really learn that you've got to type because my first five names on my list are all like roughly the same player, especially in terms of the way they

play. And that's just, I guess, the player that I like. And we're going to talk more about that as we get into this. I'll give you the floor here, though. Start us off with your list. You're the guest. Who's your first guy? So for as obscure as some names will get, they're not all obscure. And one guy, I just want to start with because he's my favorite player to watch. He's going to to be an engine on a supporting line for one of the best teams in hockey. He is pound for pound the single best puck battle winner in the league. It's Andres plot. And he got hurt a little bit in his first season in New Jersey, which I think hid just how good he is just a little bit. But man, this guy, just everything you could ever want from a hockey player in terms of

maintaining possession, in terms of the creativity, he's got, he pops in, he pops and both ends of the ice and through the neutral zone. He's the perfect winger. Like, for me, he's everything I like about hockey, basically, rolled into one. He had to be my number one my guy this year, Andres Palat. He's going to have a big year. And has obviously been in phenomenal situations throughout his career, right? Basically being on that entire Tampa Bay Lightning run and then going to New Jersey as they

blow up last year. So I'm not going to act here like, oh, he's a winner and his teams are winning because of him. But certainly, I think everything you read and hear, right, one that's been around him speaks glowingly about him. You watch him play, as you mentioned, and he does so much of the dirty work while also chipping in offensively. And so he's, he's kind of the perfect player, especially with his Devils team. I know there was some sticker shock when they signed him last summer, right, because everyone thought they were going to land Johnny Goodrow.

And instead, they give this kind of big contract to a player at a different stage of his career that doesn't have nearly the same flash. But, I mean, you're right. He was heard at the start of last year, so the numbers aren't necessarily there in totality. But towards the end of the end of the time, in the year and in the playoffs, you saw the value brings to his team, and that's going to carry over to this year. In a game of more, right? In a game of more, where it's not about scoring five goals, it's about scoring one more goal than your opponent, right? Having a guy who works hard enough all the time that 50-50 puck battles for him are more like 57% puck battles, that's a cheat code. And that's what pull-up brings to the table. That's why he's number one for me.

Well, here's mine. Let's stick with the devils. Okay, yeah, let's go. The dog, Dawson Mercer. Man, so sick. Last year when you and I spoke on the show, I told you all about my dream that I had where I woke up in the middle of the night screaming about how Doss and Mercer has that dog in him. And that's not by accent. You watch this guy play similar echoing just what you said about Platt, just basically what, 10 years younger version. He turned 22 last, or he's about to turn 22 in his second NHL season last year. He scored 27 goals, including 20 of them at 5-1-5. And this is the theme for me.

it's motor competitiveness multiple efforts right you watch dawson mercer play and he certainly got a level of skill to him like if you watch his tape from the queue when he was a prospect and then even in year one in the nchl he was trying a lot of very outlandish plays with the puck and basically testing what could work because he does have that skill but then on this team now when you've got hughes and bratt and hishier and now mire he can play a bit more of a complimentary role. So I still think there's a lot of utility for him as a potential third line center at some point during this New Jersey Devils run. But for now, having the luxury of basically putting him next to, say, Hishir and Brat or Hishier and Meyer in a second line and being like, you are never

going to get the puck against us and we're going to just win every battle around the net. That's pretty sweet. And so I just love Dawson Mercer. I just, that attacking mentality, like you're never going to see him go out for a shift and just kind of cruise around for 30 seconds and go off. Like everything has a purpose that he does. And I just, find that really cool, especially for a young player. He's incredible, and you're right. That line, which is how the devils have been practicing late

into the preseason, right? And that leaves Pilat with sort of... With Holla. Yeah. Or Holla. And, uh, right. And, um, Alexander Holtz, perhaps, like helping another young player. I mean, what a loaded team.

And, and they're going to play warp speed hockey. It's just, it's, that's the fastest show on ice. It's going to be a ton of fun. Yeah. Mercer's just overall doggedness is so key to what they do beneath Jackus. Yeah. Okay, who's next on your list? All right.

I'm proud of us. Look at us. We're humming. After the watchability rankings where we spent 50 minutes, just kind of hanging around on the bottom teams. Like, we're going to get through a lot of players. 100%. All right. This guy's going to be on both our lists.

So this is an argument. Oh, you stepped in front of me in line here. I did, yeah. I'm taking it. I'm sorry. I have to. It's Zach Benson. Yep.

Buffalo Sabers. winger. Look, he may not even spend the whole year in the NHL, but for the first nine games anyway, make sure to watch. And when he does stick, make sure to keep watching. Because this guy, here's what I love about Benson. And it's not too dissimilar from a lot of what I just said about Pilate. This guy has one of the best most mature, especially, but it's not even just for his age. It's like for anybody in the league, this guy's ability to read. what the opposition is doing on the breakout and disrupt it is uncanny, incredible, just completely dogged.

This guy is going to be so disruptive at 5'10 and 170 pounds right away in the NHL. We saw it in the preseason, but that doesn't matter. He's going to be able to do it when it counts because this guy just tracks pox. This guy just works. You know, when I say there's dog in Zach Benson, it's not like a fifth. 50 pound doodle like you or I have. It's a, you know, the whole pound. Mine's only 25.

He's a mini. It's the whole pound. This is a kid who grew up, right, in Vancouver, playing against, like, Andrew Crystal and Connor Bardard. And if he wanted to win games. He had to outwork him. He had to outwork him. And that influenced him a ton.

He processes the game incredibly. And then, like, he's also a really good finisher. He's also incredibly skilled. and his vision for disrupting breakouts on the forecheck is matched by his passing ability. At the end of the day, he's a my guy, not because he's like a skilled offensive player. It's because I think this guy is going to be

one of the 15 best four checkers in the league right off the hop. And that's pretty amazing. And it's super fun to watch. Can I submit him on my guy's list for being a gifted playmaker? Yeah, you can have him as the four check. I was the playmaker. Well, like, Shohei Otani. Yes, exactly.

Yeah, a little offense defense defense. I get Zach Benson away from the puck. You're taking him on puck? Yes. Yeah, I thought he was pretty clearly the fifth best prospect in this past year's class, and he fell to 13th just because as you cough, your coffee out there. Yep. Because he happens to be five.

I still can't believe it. Because he happens to be 5 foot 9. And what we've seen from him so far is he demolished the WHL last year in 98 points and 60 games. In his six preseason games. games, it is preseason, but still for a young player to come in and have the four goals and seven points or whatever he had and essentially forced the Sabre's hand, right? I think they actually went into it. I know there's a bit of an opening with a Jack Quinn injury, but I think they went into it with being like, let's see what happens because they do have other options.

And he just played so well and showed that maturity right out of the gate that it's like, yeah, okay, well, let's give him the next nine games. They're just essentially kicking the ball down the can down the road. And yeah, I think in nine games are going to be like, all right, let's give him another 72 games here because he's that good. And the thing that I love about him, The playmaking is obviously going to fit in beautifully on the Sabres team. But for as fun as they were last year, they did need to tighten things up defensively a little bit. And it's remarkable to say about a 5'9 rookie forward that I think he's going to help them a lot in that regard because one of the best defenses is just keeping the puck as far away from your own side of the ice as you can.

And as you mentioned, because of his forechecking ability, as we saw in the preseason, and he's just going to extend so many offensive zone possessions for them and win so many battles to keep them far away from their own end of the ice, right? And that's huge. So regardless of where he plays, I think you can make an argument he's already with Quinn out, their third best winger on this team. And so we'll see if he plays on the second line, third line,

what have you. But I think they'll experiment with it. And I wouldn't be a shocked at all to see him potentially even get promoted to the top line if they decide to move, tuck down and kind of split things up. You're right, though, when you combine the ability to drive possession with the ability to disrupt the breakout. This guy was like born in a lab and designed to defend from 150 feet away from his own team's net. And that's a super valuable skill.

Yeah. Super valuable. All right. I'll give you one more guy here. Benson was next on my list as well. I'll go to Nick Eelers. Yeah, yeah. Let's do it.

This is his final year on my list. He's going to turn 28 this year. I promise I'll retire this after this year. But I still think just based on his usage last year, he qualifies. for this because he was used less than Vladna Mesnikov and Mason Appleton last year on this Jets team. And I know you love you some Mason Appleton. Mason Appleton's like a classic. But let's be real here, right?

Like year over year, Nikola Eilers' usage has been perpetually criminal. There was one year, I guess two years ago where you averaged 18 minutes a game. Otherwise, it's been like hovering around that 15-ish 16 minutes per game range. And it's just unacceptable. Like there's no universe where even if he's banged, but not 100% that he should be their ninth most commonly used forward. Like that's just no team is good enough to justify that, but certainly not this Jets team.

And we reached an nadir last year, I thought, where it was like end of March, they got shut out against the lowly sharks on the road. And Rick Bonas after the game got asked by the Jets reporters in attendance, why did Nick Helers only play like 13 minutes tonight? You can generate any offense against this horrible defensive team. And he gave some answer about how he had. had to have Kevin Stenland out there instead for face-offs.

And I was just like, okay, like this has gone too far. Like, if you can't properly love this guy, then set him free and let someone else love him. Because he's 28. He's got two years left on his deal. Like, this is kind of a make or break, right? Like, at some point, you just go too far and we're not going to ever get the full Nicola's experience. And this year, it kind of is a bit of crossroads.

We probably have. Yeah. There's definitely a world where he goes to another team. gets fed 22 minutes a night and is sort of like the second coming of Marcus Naslin where people are like, wow, that that late career breakout for this elite shooter driving this super exciting offensive line. It's never going to happen. Like I already think it's never going to happen for him. And that is wildly upsetting because the skills are there. The ability to do it is there. It's, there's definitely not 32 forwards more deserving of being like featured by an NHL team than

him. They just aren't. I mean, there's certainly, I get it. Like he's missed a lot of time with injury the past couple years, and he might just play like too fast for his body almost, right? Like he just like he keeps getting hurt. And then it's unfortunate. Some of those are kind of fluke injuries, obviously. But at some point, like after three or four straight years of him missing extended time,

I get it. But when he's on the ice, he needs to play because last year, he was 17th in 515 point rate. The two guys above him, Mitch Martin and Rupert Haynes. The two guys below him, Austin Matthews and Carter Buragie. Like, he is an elite scoring forward. We can talk about the power play usage as well. He just can't crack the top unit at least, like, they do have good personnel up there. But his ability to carry the puck seamlessly through all three zones and dominate in transition as a puck carrier, like, he just needs to play more than he does.

He does. Now, far be it from me to defend Rip Bonus, but I did strongly consider Kevin Stenland. all right that's that's upsetting no no no I actually I do like Kevin Stadlin but he should not be playing at any point over Nick Eilers yeah you look at it over the past four years

his 515 goal shares never drop below 56% and that's also something that you can't like as much as you can love some of the other Jets forwards they'd had over the past couple years that's not something you can say about them right like look at Kyle Conner's 5-on-5 goals you're over those years by comparison and it's like when Nick Healer's in the ice the Jets are the best version of themselves and unfortunately that has not happened enough over the past couple years Tom let's do a couple more before we go to break here who's next on your list. Niels Hoglander. Ah, some home cooking. I got to go to I got to go with a

Vancouver player I'm going to go with Niels Hoaglander you know there's this sense in this market now because Hoaglander didn't come in and like light up the preseason and because Bruce Boudreau didn't have time for him, that there's nothing there. But this is a guy who had 37 points in his first 81 games until the Canucks changed coaches to begin his NHL career. That was accomplished at the ages of 20, at the age of 20. Yeah. Um, you know, usually when a player comes in and has that level of success, they're pretty good. And just watch him play. Like, he's got all the attributes of so many of the guys on this list. A little bit undersized, but wins an outrageous mess of battles, good speed. Maybe, like, I don't know

that he's a high-end offensive guy, but I think he can be like a more offensive Calle Yarncrock with less defensive awareness, which is still a really good player. I'm not sure if he's going to get that opportunity in Vancouver. Like it feels like if he doesn't impress Tocket pretty fast, then he'll have not worked out under two coaches and maybe it's time to see what he can do with a fresh start. But here's my guess, man. I think he's going to get into the lineup at some point. The Canucks are going to have the likes of Sam Lafferty, Dakota Joshua, you know, potentially Niel Zaman, Jack Sted Nika, as the season goes along, playing over this guy. And he's going to get in the lineup and it's going to be a light bulb on moment for Tockeet and

for anyone who's watching this team where it's like, oh right, oh right, why are we not playing this guy who's materially better than a variety of the other, you know, replacement level or just above wingers in this lineup. Tuckett wants to play north-south. He wants to play fast. Hoaglanders' play style matches that. He's going to make an impact for the Canucks this year. And if he doesn't, he's going to make a big impact elsewhere. This is a legitimate middle six guy who for some reason has fallen down the pecking order and people in this market are talking about like he's not a guy at all. And he's not just a guy. He might be a dude. And for a team that's thought of to be, you know, really talented in the skater front and,

And certainly, like, I think, you know, we spoke highly of their power play on the watchability rankings. I think that's got significant upside. There's still a lot of room to grow five-on-five. Right? Like, it's not like one of those things like, oh, no, we have enough here. No, they were 20th in goals scored it in five-on-five last year. Yeah. And they barely played defense.

Yeah. Like, they played run-and-gun hockey and they were always chasing. Yep. You know, the fact is that this team needs, this team needs more middle six contributors who can, move play and put up some offense. And again, I don't think Hoaglander's offense is going to be his calling guard. I think it's going to be his transitional ability and his battle winning ability. I think he can complement skill guys, though.

And I just think there's a lot of places in this Canucks lineup where he's materially better than what they're going to be rolling out. And that'll show when he gets a shot. Let me give you one guy who fits the bill in a sense because from a prototype perspective, he certainly checks the boxes. Maybe he doesn't qualify anymore because I think if you say, sign a $52 million deal. Maybe you're not underqualified anymore.

You're not under the radar. This is the philosopher? Well, Brandon Hagle. Is his nickname the philosopher? No. There's like a famous metaphysicist named Hagle. Generally people make like bagel jokes around him, but I like that you took it that out. I'm like, wait, is his name the philosopher?

That's what he's known on the Tampa beat. I went epistemological on you. Yeah. Oh, that's good stuff. Yeah, it's remarkable that he's. still technically playing on a $1.5 million deal. This should be the philosopher. I think let's make it happen.

And now from now on, if you hear or see that reference on any social media platforms, you'll know that it's come from this. So I love that so much. Still playing on that $1.5 million deal, which is why they paid the price that they did in draft comp to acquire them in the first place, right? Because that was such a luxury for them has fit in so well on this team that they felt comfortable giving them a $52 million extension.

and while that's quite pricey, I don't know, man, when you watched that series against the Leafs last year, there were stretches where I thought he was like the most impressive player on the ice in terms of his ability to just like create stuff from thin air

with that pursuit of the puck and just like how aggressive he can be. You know, it was interesting. Last year they used him quite a bit actually with Kutcherov and Point on the top line. And so his accounting stats exploded and maybe that did him a bit of a discerning.

service with this next contract. I'm curious to see how they're going to roll it out, whether they're going to roll that top line with Stamco's up there, how incentivized they're going to be to push right out of the gate because while Jonas Johansson performed well in the preseason, I think the goalie battery they're entering the year with for the first couple months could be pretty dicey. Yep. Jonas Johansson, who was once described by a Sabers beatwriter as the worst goalie he's ever seen. Which doesn't mean much, by the way. Yeah, it was a bleak time. It was Like the pre-Devin Levi, saver his goalies. Yikes.

But I love Hegel's game. He's so malleable. Plays exactly the way I love. And so it might not be under the radar anymore. But just like the player that I really like to watch. The amount of hockey people who I used to debate, they were like, well, he's not worth two firsts. People just don't understand like logistics in that regard. No, I know.

I just love that. I love that there was a time. that I was defending, parting with draft picks. Well, that's a, that's a thing. With, okay, so last, we did this last year as well.

Unfortunately, I don't think Tanna Gino was the guy to do it with. Yeah. But I, I'm totally okay with it. Like, speaking of, like, philosophy.

Yeah. Like, the philosophy makes total sense of, you should trade an entire draft class of draft picks for a player who makes that little that can contribute. Unfortunately, he was just complete dust for them last year. But like the logic behind it with all of these moves,

with Coleman of initially, I guess they did it with, Barkley-Gudrow as well with Hegel, like, that's what contenders should be doing every trade at least. I mean, I still think about, like, Xavier Borgo in the Edmonton-Oilers organization, and it's like, that pick should have been a guy. Yeah.

You know, and not, and not, like, I think Bargo's a totally interesting prospect. Instead, he's going to be like the sitcom character that always gets referenced, but never actually helps the Oilers get over the top. Yeah, he's poochies. Like, whenever the Oilers are playing, we should be wondering where Xavier Borgo is. Should this episode be titled,

Pucci and the philosopher. It could be. Okay, Tom. That's how you know we're off the rest. This is as good a time as any for us to take our break. We'll be back with more of our guys after you're listening to the Hockey-Pedio cast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network. Breaking down the top stories in the NHL every day.

The Jazz Mary Show. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. We're back here on the Hockey-O-Cast. Thomas Drans and I are doing our guys for 2023. players we just love more than other people do. Tom, who's next on your list? All right. I want to be clear, this is not me pandering to the Toronto audience, but I'm going with Matthew Nyes. Now, it's tempting when a player like Matthew Nyes is discussed, especially in glowing terms. Like, I'm planting, I'm planting my flag that I think this guy's really, really good. I think it's easy to

drop, and I'm sure we're going to hear it over the course of this season, but I think it's easy to drop, like, the completely unfair Mark Stone Comp. And it's only because he's a super big-bodied guy who gets around the ice, but like skates ugly. And has incredible hand-eye and really great, like, on stick timing. I'm not, I'm not putting that on knives, but I think he's going to be really effective right away. I thought, I thought you saw it in the playoffs before he got hurt and it's not for him you know everyone think i'm sure we'll think about like that spin around a spinoram a tap goal that he scored in the first round but for me it's that you can already tell that the way he processes the game isn't just an hl level it's like really high end and and to

combine what he's got the the ability to move around the size the puck skill and and the strength on his stick um with that sort of brain power man i think this guy's going to be an absolute player right off the hub. I agree with a submission on this list. I guess my question for you is, what do you think the best way to use him is with the other personnel they have? Like, what do you think the best spot in that lineup is for him?

Yeah, I mean, I think there's a long history of the Toronto Maple Leafs using sort of heavy press forward types to complement their skill guys. This guy's designed in a lab to do that. Yeah. Yeah, I mean. Don't hold him back. No third line. Just like throw him on.

align with one of Matthews or Tavares and let him cook. Yeah. I had Willie Nealander on my list while we're on the Leafs, but I'll save the time, the precious time we have here for other players who are a bit more obscure. Yeah. But just after the postseason he had and how ridiculously good he was and then how he just never gets the credit that he deserves for it.

He's all right. By the way, he feels like our generation's Alex Kovalhova. Yeah. That's how I think of Neelander at this point. Andrew Majapani. Much like every other flame, his offense kind of created last year, right? He dropped from 35 goals the year previous to 17. His shooting percentage was 9.5%, which isn't like that low, right?

That's like a bit below league average, but not outrageous. But when you consider that a shooting percentage of three years before that was 16, 20, and 19, I think he had established like a much higher baseline than that, and I don't think he'll be that low again this year. he could. I know they love to use him as sort of one third of that worker B-line with Michael Backland and Blake Coleman, right, where they just like terrorize you defensively and are just so good at 5-1-5. I think he could be a sneaky beneficiary of Tyler Toffoli's departure potentially. Like we've seen them experiment using him on line one, using him on the top unit power play.

We only got to see, because, you know, Daryl Sutter essentially phoned in last year. we like got to see very little of him with jon and huberto and i think that potentially makes sense as well because i thought huberto was missing some of that like speed and nice stretching and puck retrieval element that he had previously had in florida on that team last year and so um there's different ways to use them but once again similar to a lot of the players that i brought up so far the motor the effort yeah like how competitive he is like you just you love it and the 515 track record where every year he's been in the league he's been in the league he's been an absolute ace in that regard. And so I don't know, Andre, I think he could bounce back

and easily get back to that 30 goal mark and be an awesome sort of bounce back. He's just an absolute no question in my mind, top line player. Yeah. And I don't know that that would be like accepted without argument in a lot of hockey operations, boardrooms or, you know, Calgary bars at the moment. Yeah. Yeah. Undersized guy who works hard. That's always going to get a special place in my heart. Um, okay, who's next? I, I, Are we dipping into the Swedish league yet? No, no, no, but I mean, I might as well be. So we talked a little bit about player types.

One player type I always like is mobile enough big physical, hardworking defensemen. This is my Will Borgant tier of guy. And there's a few guys that I want to spotlight, and I know we're running low on time. No, we've got time. I'll go for it. So I want to talk about one guy who's like probably very very, very, very good. much a depth player but like I think can move up the lineup I think could be a four in a lot of situations certainly for the team I cover and never gets any love and so I want to I want to quickly shout out John Merrill we don't have to spend a lot of time on it but John Merrill is good and here's

the guy I want to spend a little more time on Montreal Canadiens defenseman Jonathan Kovicevich you are not here for this no go for it give me give me give me the take he's big yeah he's right-handed he's physical he can legitimately play. Yeah. And I think he's like a low end top four defensemen at least going forward here. He hasn't had that chance to break out yet. He's going to in Montreal, right?

You've got Savard, you've got Barron, right? So you've got a guy who's too old and the guy who's too young. This guy is going to be able to hold up in tough minutes, do enough transitionally, do enough to support the offensive attack. And like he's going to be regarded totally differently in 12 months in my view because he can do it. He can legitimately play. He's legitimately the type of big-bodied defensive defensemen you want, who I think can really support play.

Yeah. I think they're going to be horrid defensively, though. Oh, they are. But I'll be watching. I'll keep a close eye on the coach of him. He's going to be able to, he's going to be able to at least, like, you know, poke one finger in the dam that's bursting. Okay.

Well, let's stick with defensemen then. I'll give you one, you know, more highly. rated and skilled. I didn't, I wasn't really going, going, going as deep as a year. I mean, I did have a big thing on, on the Lamborghini, Ryan Longberg, who I think, in my opinion is like, it's like, is like the platonic ideal of a fourth liner, right? And has just like, every year increasingly won over my affection. But, um, he's just fun too. He is. He's awesome. You can't, you can't ignore, like, there's something about a fourth liner with, like, long hair, yeah, like, floats behind him as these skates really fast-hitting guys. That's just like, he's fun. Yeah.

But I'll go with Thomas Harley here. Oh, okay. So I deliberated between him and Y. Johnston as my star submission. And I think we've spent enough time talking about Yad Johnson during last year's playoff run. Like, I think people get it. He's really good.

He's got a really bright future. I think Harley is such a key member for this stars team as we saw during last year's postseason because the way their blue lines constructed, right? They're going to rely on Miro Hayskin and Ryan's Souter so much to a fault, right? Like, it's just way too much on Haskinen's plate. he was just getting battered last year during that run and Suter could not play those minutes at this point of his career but after that they simply cannot play that

Hacompa Lindell pairing together the way they did like both guys just treat the pocket like a grenade and when they're on the ice they're just going to get stuck in their own zone and so that leaves Harley because it's clear they're probably not going to trust Niels Lundquist either and so that leaves Harley as essentially having to anchor a second pair for them for them to play the way they want to play right which is off the rush, getting it to their forwards in the middle of the ice and have them flying up, up into the offensive zone.

And then when they're in the offensive zone, shooting for those tips, right? They set up those, like, layered where it's like two or three guys that are all in a line with their sticks out just waiting to tip the puck. Like it's very by design. And Harley showed last year that he is very, very good at like specifically shooting for those sticks and not just wasting and spamming a point shot. And so there's that. There's like Ryan Suter cannot.

play on the second unit power playing quarterback at the way he did last year and I think he's a key candidate for that. I just think the stars are going to be good this year, but they should have higher aspirations. And I think Pete DeBird desperately needs to treat this regular season as like a chance to experiment and let younger players play bigger roles because they like they can't treat the regular season as the playoffs as like, okay, we're only going to trust our veterans. And then by the time we come to the playoffs, well, it's too late for us now to experiment. Like they need to give Harley and Lundquist and some of the young forwards opportunities to shine to see what they have

before the trade deadline so they can act accordingly. They also need to make sure that Jake Ottinger doesn't play more than 50 games. Well, that's that as well. Like you need to like play for the long game here. Yeah. If you're the stars and Jake Ottinger starts his 51st game, everyone should be called to a meeting to account.

Honestly. Yeah. You don't want to get to the playoffs with that being, or get to the Western Conference final and be like, our biggest edge is in net. And then he's playing his 90th game. in your extremely sweltering hot barn and getting outplayed by Aden Hill.

Yeah. I thought long and hard about Nick Hague. Mm-hmm. And then I thought long and hard about Nick Waugh. The Nix. Yeah. Yeah. Just because I know Hague broke out anyway

in the playoffs last year, but I do think there's another level I think this day. It was amazing how much everyone that played them hated him. It was awesome. In like an endearing way, right? Like there's obviously the Max Domey when he absolutely lost his mind and then he gives him the thumbs up on the way back to the bench. Like, like, but that's,

good because he's massive. Yeah. He's good. He's skilled. But he's also like, he's just giving you that smirk after. It's like, all right, that's very annoying. We'll still talk about him in White Cloud. Like they were the Vegas Golden Knights third pair. No. And it's, I mean, first of all, they were the hard minutes pair.

They were the most important pair that they had five on five by a lot. And I think Hague's got another level he can get to. Like, I think Hague's got a chance to be a real superstar. Nick Wah, obviously, it's just the man. Yeah. It's probably going to be buried too low in the lineup again this year, but man, he's good. And anyway, I considered the Knicks, and then I, and then I settled on Braden Peshall or Pujal. Okay.

I don't know. Give me, give me his, give me his background. Right-handed transitional defender, really good skater. He's their seventh guy. They could not risk exposing him on waiver. It's going to be hard for him to get opportunity, but there's a real player here. Oh my God, Tom. I can't even pronounce his last name.

Was that your next name on the list? Yeah. Okay. But I also wanted to take the opportunity to talk about the next. See, now that's fair. Can I interest hear a little Matthias Machelli? Oh, always. So we did the watchability rankings.

We expressed how high we are in the coyotes. I had him really high on my Calder ballot, by the way. I felt like he got overlooked. You should have hit 38 assists in 64 games as a rookie. Like, that was elite. I had him second. And the coyotes outscored opponents with him on the ASEFI-15, which was impressive for them last year.

He's kind of a throwback player because now that Henrik Sidene and Joe Thornton are in the league anymore, not that, it's like, I can't, I can't, it's sacrilegious to compare him to that. But just in terms of how, like, desperately he doesn't want to shoot the puck, there were 402 forwards who played 500 minutes last year, Macheli was 39th. in shot rate. Like he average less than a shot per game. Like he just does not like want it.

And that's because he knows what he's really good at. And that's like he's a wizard as a passer, right? Like he's waiting, he's holding, he's holding, waiting for that window to open up, he'll pass it to you. I mean, if they play him and Cooley together, like bringing in Zucker might have blocked them a little bit on that wing. I think they're probably going to roll with Zucker and Cooley as a second line. But man, like just seeing those two guys play off of each other,

that would be scintillating. and another reason why we're so high on the watchability of how fun this team's going to be. They're going to be super fun. He also played a huge role. They ran a lot through him on the power play. So that's another area where you throw Cooley into the mix with Keller. Yeah, that could be a lot of fun. Really interesting.

Who's next in your list? I've got Seth Jarvis next. Nice. Seth Jarvis is very much of a type with a lot of the players that we have on this list. Dog on a bone. Works exceptionally hard. it's really hard to level up your offense in carolina's we don't care about puck possession system but i think this guy's got a shot to do it because of the way that he retrieves puck's the way

that he can be a one-shot scorer um and then you know some of the playmaking although that that that part of his game is going to it's never going to shine it's never going to shine in carolina with the way they play but i think he's got more east west to him than we'll ever see doesn't matter he can do the north-south thing he can be effective with the north-south thing and i think this kid's primed to break out. I agree. And that, like, the way they've constructed that top line with him, Aho and Bunting, is, is perfect.

Sick. Like, they're going to be good. And you're right. I think in a different situation, if he was maybe given a bit more latitude to, like, do stuff that he can and probably wants to, right? That'd be fun instead of like, all right, get rid of the puck and then go chase after it. That's obviously not best suited for his game, but that puck pursuit does work. The hurricanes care not for our aesthetic sensibilities.

No, no, but he'll be fun. Um, yeah, I think last year he said, uh, the key to his success was naps. So I thought that was very, very, very relatable. He's a good kid. And, and you know what? Like, there's, there's some rat in him too. Mm-hmm. And, oh, that, I've seen that mustache.

I know, I know. Yeah, I know. There's some rat. Um, okay. So my last player was Matias Michelli, who has never shot the puck. That was your last player? No, no, the player that I did. Most, most, most, most recently.

I was like, oh, man. My next player, I can't. think of a more polar opposite player. Okay. Adrian Kempe. Oh, yeah. Maybe the... Here for this.

The rock star of the NHL. Playing in L.A. with that unironic goate, goate, the long flowing hair, and the fact that he just has a one-track mind for skating as fast as he can and shooting the puck as hard as he can. I don't care about the circumstance. He's going to do it. He's heavy metal. Not the same potency, but it's like, you know, when you watch the Warriors play, and as soon as they get a rebound, you're, like, tracking to see when Steph Curry's going to cross half court,

because you know that he's within range to shoot. Or the offensive board, and you know that he's cutting to the corner. No, but I just, like, view it because when they're going in that direction from defense to offense, you're almost tracking. It's like you reset your expectations for what's going to happen, so you're just pushing it further and further back. Kempay obviously doesn't have the efficiency in that regard, but as soon as the Kings start crossing center, ice. I'm like, if Kempai's on the ice, I'm expecting a shot here. It's coming. We don't even have to wait for the offensive zone. Let's just cross, cross center ice and then something's coming.

I don't, I just, I love, I love his game. I love, I'm okay with, like, passing up shots for better shots is obviously more optimal, but there's just something so satisfying about, like, how simple Kempay's game is in his yard. And he's scoring a ton of goals, too, right? It's not like he's just spamming low percentage shots. I believe he's like top 15 in goals the past two years. But at the same time, he's like not in the top couple hundred and assists. It's so perfect. He's such a throwback player.

Does anyone go to the net harder? I'm sure some people do, but not, it doesn't look as cool. Yeah, it doesn't look as cool. Yeah, it doesn't look as cool as he doesn't. Here's the other thing I hear about Campay is way more competitive. Oh, yeah. Than people realize. Like, just like that guy might be on the short list of most competitive.

competitive dudes in the league. Well, he was the player that the Oilers were most worried about last year. Right. In that playoff series, right? And yeah, because of that, everything we've said so far, I was tracking the chances in that series. I had it. I went back in my notes.

The Kings had 95 scoring chances in six games in that series. He took 24 of them himself. And I like the way they've constructed it here, right? Where, like, he's a perfect running me for Kopitar, who at this point of his career, especially just only wants to pass and, like, wants him to do the work. And he needs a caddy through neutral zone. And then they've gotten out. potentially like dubois with fiala and then and then denou with arvidson right it's like a very like

playmaking center with guy who's going to fly up the ice and shoot a lot and so i really like the way they balance that out and i think kempa is awesome so i think that team is going to be really good um sticking in the pacific division my next guy ely tolvinen yeah yeah ily told how many teams passed up with 23 something like that yeah a lot yeah um um Ely Tollivan, and obviously we all know about the shot. And there's a swagger to his shot too that I think is important. Like I was watching a preseason game out in Abbotsford, and there was a puck that hit the goaltender and sort of parable it.

Like it wasn't a normal rebound. It was like a big looping. And it was sort of coming to him and he timed it. And he one touch smacked it. And it was like a no doubter. Like he stepped into and one touched a parabola in puck and like there was no human being on earth playing goal who ever could have had a chance. Like it was the most decisive no doubter I've ever seen and it was a really difficult shot. And he did it and he didn't celebrate.

I was just like, that's ice cold, man. That's ice cold. Now I've been a fan for a bit. But in Seattle, that team, they all play the exact same way. Tolvinen is made for that system. There's a couple of things that they do in particular that accentuate what he does well. One is you have to defend well and Tolvinan's not just a one-shot scorer. He actually is a pretty hardworking defensive player with really good instincts away from the puck.

I don't think he's got great on puck instincts as a playmaker, but he can see the game really well in terms of where he should be to disrupt what opponents are trying to do without the puck. And in Seattle they give Schultz and Dunn and hopefully eventually Reich. Evans the green light to like for check you'll have a defender that plays like a rover in in the offensive end when that happens a winger has to come back and cover he's got the defensive instincts to do that expertly and then he's got the one shot like to shoot from distance and punish opponents for it between him bork strand burakovsky you've got like a guy who's going to be on almost every line who perfectly fits the template mccann would be another of of that sort of system that sort of

type of rotation. I just think he's going to have a breakout year. Well, and that decisiveness as a shooter is key as we've outlined for them because off the forecheck and off those turnovers, that's what they do. That's how they feast. And they're going to need that level of shooting talent to fight off some of the regression that's coming this year as well from the percentages. So I like that pick quite a bit and certainly not a player that they should have just gotten for free the way that they did. I spent a little too much time there considering where we're at in the podcast. No, no, I think it's fine. I love it. I mean, I'm coming, I'm

I'm almost on my list here, so I'm happy with a Rorette. All right, let me give you a little, Keondre Miller. Yeah, I'm here for this. So entering year four, I thought it was a massive mistake. I understood they didn't really have a lot of leeway financially, but I would have prioritized going long to get him at a cheaper figure than what he's going to come in at two years from now,

which will certainly be much more than double what he's making right now on this short-term bridge. I just think he's already shown, right? He's 23 years old. He's already shown the ability to gobble up heavy minutes. They've used him a ton at 5-on-5 over the past couple years. And I just think such a unique player, right? Because he does like hockey's equivalent of the chase down block where he can get caught deep in the offensive zone

or the team has a guy leaking out and it looks like he's almost going to have an uncontested breakaway. And because of his closing speed and his ability to just cover as much ground as he does with his reach, he tracks that player down and disrupts it and knocks a puck away from him. And it's one of the coolest defensive plays that we have going in today's game. We've also seen, like last year, when he scores, they're the coolest end-to-end rushes that he does by himself. And I understand it's not realistic to expect that time and time again. But I do have hope that as he gets into his mid-20s here, it gets a bit more comfortable to position and the

league. And with a new coach who everything we're hearing out of Rangers camp is, there's going to like give their defensemen more ability to activate and be involved off the rush, which they didn't really do much of last year. They played a very under Gerrigline. They played a very vanilla system offensively, right? It was very like ABC. And this will hopefully give guys like Keandre Miller and Imperial Aviate more room to experiment. And if that happens, I think there's much more offensive upside here with the type of unique

defensive skills that we just don't really see much of in the league. I mean, I'm here for this. I also would love to see him get a look on the powerplay. It's never going to happen while Adam Foxes is. No, but PowerPlay, too. I mean, he didn't play at all last year. He looked good there in the preseason. Like, when I watch some Rangers preseason games, I was really impressed with how he looked.

He had the same number of 5-1-5 points last year as Roman Yose, Quinn Hughes and Alice Petrangelo. Yeah. But he just never got to play the PowerPlay, right? Like, it's... I also wonder, why do you think the Rangers never play him with Fox? I just think, though, I think they like... I don't know. It doesn't much sense.

Yeah. At some point wouldn't you want to see if you're too... Well, that's the thing. The horses can just destroy Tufts. Truba's so off the glass and out, and it's almost like it's carried over to Kianre when he's out there where I think he has so much more in his tool bag to do, but he just resorts to a simple play sometimes,

and part of that might have also just been coaching as well. And so if they just give him more opportunity to play with the Paukeye, like he's clearly got the skills. Like, this isn't like, all right, we're going to ask this player to do something beyond his means. I just, I want them to tap into it more. So yeah, I'm here for that. Okay.

Give me one more. We got to wrap up here. Man, it's going to be hard to. We can do some honorable mentions at the end, like to plant the seeds and we can revisit them later in the year. I'd like to, so more than an honorable mention, I just want to mention this guy fast and then I'll move on to my actual one. But I think Luke Evangelist is a guy to watch for in Nashville this season.

I'll give you a little Yuso Parson in. Nice. Yeah. You so Parsons. Oh, I love a big guy with hands like that. I mean, there's, he's, he's, Gord the through the legs goal last year against the wild and then gave us a little shrug after? I'm serious.

Luke Evangelis did Dark Horse Calderbuzz. Just like watch for that. I'm not even kidding. I think he's going to be that good. Rasmus Kupari is my pick, though. Yep. Okay, so Rasmus Kupari went from the Kings to the Jets. Kupari is, he's got a game that I think is going to lend itself really well to controlling play,

but the spectacular underlying numbers haven't been there yet. They will be. They will be. This is a guy who I think profiles to be potentially a, you know, Backland or Grabowski style play driver, super smart, super quick, super slick in the middle of the ice. Just an expert at connecting play. You know, I don't know that he's ever going to be an offensive superstar, but man, he is, he is massively underrated.

And for me, by far the best asset that the Jets got back for, like I know Gabe Valardi is like a very popular. analytics pick but I think Capari's got a way higher ceiling and if he really is better now he doesn't have the higher ceiling I think he does I don't know I think Valarty's got legitimate like 40 goal chops if he can stay healthy yeah yeah he's just got shooting talent that Capar he just doesn't he does have shooting talent that caparie and I get you paid in this league but I think the two-way talent of cupari is yeah well especially for how little he's making yeah like he's so cost control that it's it's one though too where like Valardi's numbers are through the roof from an underlying perspective, but if you watch these guys play, like, I'm telling you, but I'm so confident

that Kupari is the superior two-way guy. Okay. Yeah. Do you disagree with that? I'm sure you do. No, I mean, I like Kupari a lot, so I don't want to still become a me not liking Kupari thing. So I'm biting my tongue. Okay, Tom, let's get out of here. We got to a lot of guys. I'm surprised we didn't shout out Dersie, though. Got Dersie. I got Brock Faber on my list, Sunny Milano, Ryan McLeod. I got a lot of names. I got Farivari. I got Farivari. I got John Ludwig. I've got Alexi Torpchenko. Nice.

Yeah. But Derzy was an important one. And then two guys to watch who didn't even make their teams. Olin Zellweger. Oh, yeah. Down in San Diego. And Nick Blankenberg. Oh, nice.

Yeah, yeah. You talked about them. Those guys will be sick when they come up. Okay. Let the listeners know where they can check out. Check me out at Canucks Talk on Sportsnet 650 and at the athletic. Awesome, man. Looking forward to having you on again.

As always, thank you to the listeners. I just want to say, my number one guy, though, it's you. want you to know you guys all man feeling's mutual thank you to the listeners for listening to the hockey pdo cast as always we'll be back with plenty more here on the sports night radio network