The Hockey PDOcast - Players to target in Fantasy Hockey

Episode Date: January 10, 2023

Chris Meaney of the FTN Network joins Dimitri to talk about players to target in fantasy hockey. This podcast is produced by Dominic Sramaty.  The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate. If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name's Demetri, and joining me is my good buddy, Chris Meanie. Chris, what's going on, man? What's going on, Dimitri? Happy to chop it up with you again here. We're in the second half for the NHL season. It's, I think, where the pretenders and contenders separate themselves.

It's still a couple teams outside looking in that could make a run, but looking forward to talking to some hockey with you, man. Thanks, as always, for having me. Oh, it's going to be a blast. Yeah, the plan for two. today is we're going to do some by-low, sell highs, situations of target, just hopefully help everyone get an edge under our league mates. And, you know, I was looking back in preparation for this one at the last time we did this,

which was about six weeks ago, an hour or so in November, it's holding up pretty well. Like, I think we were talking about buying Kyle Connor at the time. I believe since then, only Connor made it a score more points than him. That was a call by you. I preached patience on Alex de Brinkett, who's been a point of game since then. We told everyone for the love of God, not only hold. hold, Tage Thompson, but buy as many more shares as you possibly can, sell coffee, than Suzuki.

Like, it worked out. We didn't nail, like, I messed up a bit on the Trevor Moore one and stuff, but those are, those are low, low, low risk suggestions. I think all the main ones we did pretty well. So hopefully we're going to be able to help the listeners again this time. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I still like Trevor Moore as a player, too. And you're right.

It was a low risk as a guy that was hanging around waiver wires and kind of still is as a volume shooter. And, you know, I watched the Kings last night against the oilers. and man, they're probably playing some of their best hockey of the season right now. I mean, they're getting strong goal-tending. Kevin Fiala, you know, was fine in the back of the net. Adrian Kempi went through a bit of a slump. But, you know, he's scoring.

Alex Ai follow looked really good. And Philip to know is more known for his defensive presence. And he certainly got under Connor McDavid's skin last night. It wasn't the first time. It won't be the last. But Philip to know has been contributing. We had a career year with the Kings in his first year. And he's another guy that's kind of filling the net.

But yeah, Connor McDavid, or, Kyle Conner, excuse me, is, he's clicking. And now Nicolai Euler's back there and he's playing, they're playing together with Pierre Luque Dubois. I don't know about you and I don't have a lot of data, but when I watch Kyle Conner, he just seems to play his best hockey with Pierre Luke Dubois. Like there was times where they weren't playing together

at the start of the season, but now they're playing together and they look just as good as they did last year when they were together. Yeah, I may make sense stylistically, right? Like DuBois is one of those guys that creates more space for him and just basically attracts attention wherever he goes. And for a guy with Kyle Conner's release every little, extra step of space that he has is going to pay dividends. So yeah, it's an interesting point you make on the Kings there because I don't think

they're a team that traditionally, and even as recently as last year, they didn't profile as like a very fantasy friendly team, right? Like the guys on the top of the roster that are getting all the big minutes, certainly produced. And Kempe was much more productive last year than he has been so far this year, although he had a big game last night against the Oilers. But they weren't getting in these necessarily like, you know, high scoring game environments. And this year it's actually been kind of the opposite.

it feels like every time I'm looking, the Kings are playing in this 5-4, 6-5 type of game. And that's fantasy goodness. That's what you want to be attacking at all times, right? So it got me thinking, like, you can do really well by just, if you're playing in like a week-long league or something, just weekly league, just looking at the schedule,

seeing which East team is going out to California to play the Kings, the ducks, and the sharks, and just feasting on that. Because obviously the ducks and sharks are two of the worst defensive teams and give up the most. And the Kings are a much better team, but they're getting in these high scoring game environments as well. So if you're getting three of those games in any given week,

chances are your players are going to be doing pretty well. Yeah, absolutely. That's something I like to take a look at over at FTN with a weekly article. I like to look at teams that are playing four games for the week just to get the most out of your moves and your ads because at this time of the season, it really is just about your opponent. If you're in a vertissary league, it's a little bit different.

But if you're in a head-to-head format, you want to have more players than your opponent. And the way to do that is just stream guys on four games. And usually for the most part, like you said, those West Coast trips, I mean, they got back to backs. They're going to have three games in four nights or five nights. They're most likely going to play four games. And a lot of those teams that you mentioned, they give up a lot of rubbers.

So I think that's a really good strategy to take. And that's really maximizing the most of your moves. And I don't think you should waste them. You know, if you have a certain amount for the year, every league's different. Maybe you have 40 for the year. You want to be cautious with them down the stretch, certainly into the playoffs. But if you have three every week, and they reset on a Monday, just use those.

Okay. Well, let's get, let's get into it. I'll give you the floor here. What's your first player team situation that you want to be targeting or you want to be letting the lusters know about? I think, I feel like we should talk about the Canucks. You know, just because I took a look at the most traded players over at CBS Sports League over the last week.

And there are four Canucks on this list. There's Bo Horvatt who is having a heck of a season. and he has a ridiculous 24% shooting rate, but he's playing for a contract. He's a proven goal score in the league. It's not like this is a fluky campaign that he's having. Andre Kuzmanko is another guy that has been the most traded. J.T. Miller is a third and then Quinn Hughes.

So I'd like to get your thoughts on all these players and kind of where you're at, maybe two of the three get, two of the four get flipped. I don't think Miller's going anywhere. Bull Horvack could potentially get traded. Maybe Kuzmiko is a guy. because Manko is a guy that gets traded as well. But goals are so hard to come by, Demetri. I know you look at all the numbers and your listeners do it as well.

I mean, this shooting percentage is alarming. It's one of the highest in the league. But he plays a lot. If you're playing in a league with faceoffs, I don't know how you move on from him. He takes a lot of faceoffs. He takes a lot of faceoffs. And he gets a lot of ice time.

He plays in all situations. He's leaned on quite a bit. It's one of the bright spots for the Canucks. So I'd be more willing to ship a guy like maybe J.T. Miller, who is not going to come close to the season. he had last year and was starting to pick it up a little bit lately. Maybe if he wanted to move him, he does have triple eligibility in Yahoo Leagues. But Bo Horvad is a guy that I just have a hard time moving somebody who is like scoring goals

almost every single night. It may not be sustainable, but goals are hard to come by in fantasy. Yeah, what I would say is I'm more so buying than not. I understand that he's clearly never produced at this level before, certainly, and the shooting percentage is slightly elevated from where it's been. but the point that I keep making was, if you look at the past couple of years, he'd established a pretty high baseline for himself in terms of as a finisher. And I think we can point to tangible evidence for why he's improved as a scorer this year, right?

Our pal Thomas Drens wrote up this really nice feature over the athletic about how he basically started working with Adam Oates recently, how I think last summer during his trading, he decided to switch the type of stick and the type of blade he's using to be more conducive in those net front areas. and you look at where he's scoring most of his goals this season. And there's some kind of slot plays, certainly, where they get him to puck on the power play and he shoots from there. But a lot of it has been standing in front of the net, redirecting stuff, tipping, feasting on rebounds. And that's the type of player that I expect to have

an above average shooting percentage when you're generally shooting from that in tight in those premium areas. So I'm certainly keeping them. I think the goals are more legit than not. I kind of used Chris Kreider as a comp in terms of last year, he exploded and he had that 50 goal season and he's come back down a little bit to Earth this year, but he's still going to score 40-something goals or in that ballpark. And so it might not be a pure trajectory in terms of what he's been doing so far the rest of the way,

but I don't think the goals are going to dry up. Miller is a different case for me because I'm significantly more skeptical of the player. At the same time, you mentioned the recent production. That kind of coincides with them moving him to the wing to play with the last Pedersen, which I think is his natural slot. he retains that center eligibility on all platforms, he's not a center. Like he, I know he's played center in the past. He is a winger.

And Alas Pedersen with a level he's playing at right now, I think if the Canucks were a better team, he'd be in the MVP conversation because he's made everyone around him that much better. And so as long as Miller is going to be playing on Pedersen's wing, I expect all of the production to keep coming. And so for a team that's as top heavy as the Canucks are in terms of how they utilize their players, all those guys are going to keep scoring and the team is going to keep losing, but you don't care about that for fantasy.

you just want the points to keep coming for those top guys, and I believe they will. Yeah, I mean, I agree. And that's the most questions that I get, I feel like, is surrounded around this Canucks team. I mean, they played a lot of operas. They're not getting strong goaltending. You talked about a fantasy environment that's friendly, and that seems to be one here with the Vancouver Canucks. So I did want to lead with those three guys. You know, you're in the area and some of your listeners as well.

Yeah. Probably have their eye on some of these players. So I just found it very interesting to look at the top 10 traded players over the last week. four Canucks there and a guy in Bo Harbat that's having a heck of a campaign. So I'm with you. I would kind of hang tight. You know, I like Quinn Hughes as a player. I think it's all about your, your scoring settings. If you, you know, if you play in those quote unquote bangers leagues with hits and block shots, even he doesn't really shoot the puck all that much, you know, he's a terrific playmaker. He's fantastic on the power play. I don't even think he had a power play goal last

year, but he had like 30 assists or something silly like that. But I think it's, all about your setting. If you take a look at your Yahoo settings and you see that he is ranked as like the 40th defenseman here in fantasy, but he could still finish as a top 10, you know, a defenseman in terms of scoring. That's something that you just have to,

you know, weigh in your league and everybody, everybody plays in different leagues. But, of course, you know, if you need some grit, you could trade a guy like Quinn Hughes in return for a defenseman that

could still kind of come to, you know, a same point standpoint, the rest of the year, but maybe he can provide a little bit more, you know, of what you need. So it's just, you know, again, if you're playing in Yahoo leagues, you can take a look at the home page and the settings and the standings and see where you match up with the rest of your league.

Where do I rank in terms of shots, block hits? Where do I rank in terms of power play points? Is this? Can I afford to get rid of a guy like Quinn Hughes and get more of a defenseman that will be more well rounded as terms of a fantasy asset? So I think it's a conversation you need to have with yourself. But Quinn Hughes is, it seems to be available. And some people are wondering what to do with him. I like that conversation.

You have to have a result. That's good. Okay, well, let's take on the Pacific Northwest then. Because my first team that I wanted to talk about was the Cracken, who have been a fantasy gold mine and in a very unique way so far this season, right? They lead the league in 5-1-5 goal scoring. Only the Sabres and the Bruins have scored more across all situations than them, which is a remarkable turnaround from a team that was 28th in all-situations goals last year, I believe.

Now, they're leading the league in 5-15 and all situations shooting percentage as a team. Most of the guys that have been producing for them, you look, they're amongst the league leaders and not only individual shooting percentage, but also on ice shooting percentage for the rest of their teammates. So certainly proceed with caution at the same time, they're going well right now. And we're seeing on this East Coast trip that they're on right now, they're banking a ton of goals.

And they're doing it by really spreading the wealth, right? They've got 10 players with 7 plus goals so far this season, and it doesn't even include Bjork, Stry, and Gord, who you would have thought would have been amongst the team leaders. Ten of their players have at least 20 points so far. And so on the one hand, it provides a situation where it's a bit risky in the sense that if the shooting percentage does come down, it's not like they're riding their top line necessarily. It's coming in waves and in all different shapes and sizes and forms. On the other hand, though, it provides a situation where I think they're generally underowned because a lot of people are still skeptical.

They're not really, they didn't go into the season drafting any of these guys high. And so they're potentially even available still on your waiver wire. And so if you can get a bottom six player on this team right now, while the going is still good for them, I think there's value in it. And certainly a lot of these guys, I imagine, are available in pretty much every league.

Yeah, you're right. A lot of them are and a ton of value in the betting market as well. Like, for example, last night they played with the Canadians. And you mentioned how high scoring they were. And we talked this morning with Eric Young. And it's like, oh, Buffalo in Seattle, two of the high scoring teams in the league.

It's like who, Eric's like, who would have thought, just like we drew it up. But the Cracken played pretty deep. They played a Canadian team last night, and they dominated Montreal like most teams have. Montreal is a team that leads the NHL and penalty minutes. And yet some of these guys were like seven to one, eight to one to have a power play point.

Vince done. Five to one to have a power play point last night, plus 100 to have a point. He's got eight over his last five. He's got 12 points over the last 30 days. Actually leads to the Cracket. He's got 30 shots on goal, which is second on the Cracken as well. He's getting a significant boost here at Ice Time. He's playing power play.

Him and Justin Schultz are widely available. in leagues and they're contributing. Maddie Berners is, you know, the Calder favorite. His ownership in Yahoo Leagues is 48%. That's it. Just 48% despite him having a goal in four straight games as we're recording right now. And he's got three multi-point showings over that span. He's their number one center.

He's getting time on the first power play. Jordan Eberleys kind of, you know, turn the clock back a little bit here. He's putting pucks towards the goal. He's widely available. Andre Beercoski's more of a pass-first guy. But he's another guy that's widely available. And if you play in leagues with faceoffs, Yanni Gord's been a top 65 player in Yahoo leagues over the last 30 days. He is chipping.

It's up and down the whole lineup, right? Even Daniel Sprong, like this guy score goals. He's getting opportunity on the power play. Brennan Tannab is throwing his body around and he's getting opportunity. So there's a lot of these players that are certainly available. The one guy I'm a little skeptical on is Jared McCann. I like him overall as a player. He's got 19 goals.

but he does lead the NHL in shooting percentage right now. So it may be a bit of a drop off, but it's not like you're selling this guy because I'm looking at his ownership right now, Dimitri, and it's 28% and it's jumped up 10% over the last 24 hours. So it just goes to show a lot of people are sleeping, I think, on this cracking team. They don't really have the goaltending either. So they play to a lot of overs as well.

Yeah. Well, I think McCann, I was looking at it. He does lead the league in all situations, shooting percentage. He's also like over 30% right now. at 5-on-5, which is just obscene, it clearly won't continue. But he is an elite shooter, so, like, I'm not, it's not completely out of where I just obviously inflating his performance right now.

I mean, it's wild to hear you cite some of those ownership percentages, right? Because I thought even those guys would probably be more own. So I was really kind of scraping even further, right? Like, I had a whole section here on Daniel Sprong, and you probably don't even need to go that deep on the scene's depth chart because you can get guys who are playing more premium 5-15 minutes. But I will say Sprong, we saw him against, Montreal, he scored the power play goal, he's on the top unit.

He was put on this earth to shoot the puck. Like, that's all he wants to do every single time he enters offensive zone. He's looking to release. We love that for fantasy. I believe he's 17th in the league in shots per 60. He's fifth in the league in points per 60. Now he's not playing top minutes, of course. So it's, it comes with a caveat.

But only McDavid, Tage Thompson, Jason Robertson, and David Pasternak have scored more points per minute so far than Daniel Sprong has. Such a fun player to watch. Rocking that thick gold chain, just an unbelievable. amount of swag. So I don't think you get any points for that, but I did want to throw that out there. I also had Adam Larson here, right? You mentioned Vince Donne, and he's certainly the flash your option, and he's going to get more points and he plays on the power play. But Adam Larson, his partner, who I think from a real life perspective has helped unlock Vince Don a little bit and get him back into form

after a rough season for him last year with heightened expectations coming from St. Louis. Adam Larson, if you're playing in these like bangers leagues or leagues that are just multi-category playing 24 minutes a game. giving you top 20 in hits and block shots, gets you take some penalties because he plays a physical game. And he also shoots the puck quite a bit for a defenseman. And he's actually shipping in. I think he's got like 17 or 18 points so far the season.

So it's not nothing. So depending on the depth of your league and the categories, if he's somehow available, I would certainly be all over that as well. No one's going to be like, ooh, my opponent picked up Adam Larson this week. But he's doing it all for them right now. Man, he really is.

and he's been one of the better category cover guys, even with only getting, you said, what, 20 points roughly, and maybe only finishes with 30 this year. But in terms of hits and blocks, and the ice time is tremendous. I mean, he played 29 minutes the other night against the Canucks, and he played 27 against the Leafs. So he's really getting leaned on there,

and it has opened up Vince Dunn, right? He's more of a stay-at-home defenseman of Vince Dunn, is joining the rush, and he's, I mean, this is a guy that's got 12 shots in his last three games, Vince Dunn. And so you're really seeing a different, you know, unleashed or untapped offensive ability that he never really, we saw a little bit in St. Louis, but he, you know, the Blues had a lot of great defensemen. And he was kind of buried on their on their depth chart. You never really get the power plates time. But he's getting it. So yeah, he's he's a guy. Will Borgon is another guy. He's got 42 hits over the last month of the NHL season, which is near the top of the league. I mean, that's, that's a deep, deep, deep hole. But believe it or not, his ownership is at 4%. So there are people out there that are playing in those deep leagues. that are looking for, you know, those categories to be covered. But I would go with Adam Larson over him as well. I mean, even Jamie Olexiak is another guy that kind of chips in with hits and blocks.

So it's a good team. Man, they're a lot better than I thought they would be. I know that I felt like they were going to be better. You know, you have the whole narrative of these guys that, you know, weren't wanted on their teams and a chip on their shoulder, but they brought in like a Bjork Strand. They brought in, you know, Andre Beercowski and some of these guys. So, yeah, they've made some nice decisions.

their team and yeah they're a team that is they're pretty underrated offensively and like you said I mean they're widely available and what I will say I don't think it's reasonable to expect them to lead that you can shoot a percentage at the same time though it's pretty clear that they not only infuse this lineup with talent but also that talent

has allowed them to play a more offensively friendly style right and if you look at where they're getting their shots from even though the volume of shots they're generating it's clearly improved from last year so I don't think any of that translates to being the high scoring five on five team in the league but certainly when you look at the depth and you look at the way they're playing,

they're stumbling on a nice little formula here. So I think for fantasy, especially with these guys being widely available and potentially just being on waivers for you to pick up, I'm totally fine, not trying to be too cool for school about worrying about shooting percentage in that regard, right, because the risk is so low. You just ride it while it's hot. If they start to regress,

you can just cut bait and move on and find someone else, right? You're not necessarily paying a premium price to acquire them. So I'm totally fine in that regard. All right. Meanie, what's, who's next on your list? So I want to go to Washington, who's actually second behind Seattle in the shooting percentage of 5 and 5.

But I just wanted to bring up, and I'm probably not breaking any news, you know your listeners are very sharp, but there are two guys that return to the capitals lineup, and they are very much available in leagues. And one is Tom Wilson, who is sub 50% in Yahoo Leagues, and he just made his season debut in his last game.

He played 14 minutes. He had six hits. So he's another guy that really does, does touch a lot of categories. I mean, 24 goals last season is a three-time 20-goals score, you know, is 15% shooting rate in each of the last, you know, three years or two of the last three, rather. So it's not like those seasons were, we're fully, you know, just, wow. I mean, this is, this is a guy that's, that's score because he's playing with Ovechkin or he's playing with Nicholas Baxter. He likes to shoot the puck, 151 shots last year in 78 games,

it's over 200 hits, and he'll drop the glove. So he's a guy that can touch a lot of categories. and he took a spot right away on the top line. And then there's Nicholas Baxter. And I'm a little different about Baxter. I actually feel like he's a guy because of name value that you could pick up and maybe flip right away. Maybe you're patient with him for a couple games. And you see that he's playing on the top power play.

You see that he's playing with Ovechkin, a proven player in the NHL, a really good hockey player, but a pass first guy. And I want shooters on my team and I want goal scores on my squad. So I think for Baxter If you can pick him up, he has a game against the flyers in his next one. Maybe he fills a net. In fact,

Washington goes back to back against Philly. So it's two really good opportunities for him to maybe find his footing. He's going to get more than 14 minutes per game. He's going to contribute alongside Ovechkin. But I think, you know, Wilson is a guy that I certainly would roster, depending on your format,

but Baxter is a guy that it would pick up and maybe flip. And even Eric Gusseson is a guy that's really just playing great hockey right now. I don't mind holding on to him because it sounds like John Carlson is going to be out for for quite a bit of time. So Gus Simpson's getting a lot of ice time. You know, he's a couple of years removed from a, from a great campaign, actually, is scoring a lot of points.

He's playing on the power play. He's a guy that's been plus money most times here to pick up a point around plus 340 to pick up a power play point. But a lot of these Washington players are interesting. And on the flip side with these guys coming back, like Dylan Strom, Connor Sherry, these guys kind of, you know, the first couple months of the season, they were playing good. They were getting opportunities inside the top six.

but now with Washington and Oshy and everyone seems to be back fully healthy and the capitals are playing really good hockey over the past month or so. Those guys are going to drop down the lineup. Maybe you cut bait. I don't know if you could sell anybody. You can sell any of those to your league mates. You're probably paying attention seeing other guys return to the lineup. But I think Baxteram is one of those.

There's a couple of guys that have returned Dmitri. Nikolai Eilers, Max Petruetti, Nicholas Baxteram. These are guys that are all of a sudden trendy. I don't mind hold. I would love to hold Patriotian Eilers. Backstrom is a guy that I would flip just based on name value along. What, when you mentioned the capitals, I was excited because I thought for sure you were going to focus on Gustafs and you brought him up there. What percentage owned is he in Yahoo League? Do you know, do you have it available?

Yeah, he's 65. Okay, wow. So it's spike quite a bit, I imagine, in the past couple weeks. Yeah. This time last week, I think it was 33. Oh. And really, if you look at the back, I mean, this guy's got a point in one, two, three, four, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine of his last 11 games. He's got four multi-point games over that, that span.

He's scored a hat trick. Yeah. I took against the Leafs that really just unleashed them. Yeah, he's got 15 points in those 11 games. But if you look, he's got 29 shots on goal, 54 attempts in those games as well. And since Carlson went out, and we do expect him to be out long term, that was a pretty freaky injury that he suffered. He's third in all situations minutes for the Capitals,

and he's on that first unit power play. And that's a pretty great spot for him because he's a good distributor, and he's willing to shoot the puck as well. But, yeah, just stand up there at the top of that umbrella, and you know where the puck needs to go, and there's going to be plenty of assist opportunities for him. So if he's getting the usage, we talk all the time. He's a talented player, not necessarily someone that would, you know,

excel in every single spot. And we've seen him struggle over the past couple years. But here's the thing. For fantasy, sometimes it's really opportunity-based. And if you're getting usage, you're getting in these spots where you're in high-leverage scoring opportunities, you're going to get the points. And so right now there's no reason to believe that they're going to take those minutes away from him. So, yeah, 65 is high.

I think it should keep rising because I don't really see. He's not going to score hat-tricks and be over a point of game. the points are going to keep coming at a defense position that's incredibly valuable. Yeah, and especially with the Capitals, you know, just playing their best hockey this season and, you know, getting the boost offensively with some of these guys returning to the lineup. Yeah, 21 minutes is what he's averaging since the start of December. So this is a guy that average 15 minutes per game in the month of October, and he's been well over 20 cents.

I would hang tight on him to him. I don't, you know, it's rare to find a defenseman on the waiver wire that could contribute. And you're right. about opportunity. This time next year, he's probably hanging on, hanging on every waiver wire. You know what I mean? But now you live in the moment and you find, you find it, you found a guy that really can be a top 20 defenseman the rest of the way. I would, I would hang on to him. I love it. All right, Meey, let's take a quick break here. And then when we come back, we're going to hopefully keep helping the listeners win their fantasy pools. So you're listening to the HockeyPedio

cast on the Sportsnet Radio Network. We're back here on the Hockeypedeo cast with Chris Mini. All right. I think it's my turn. to bring up the next name. Here's a fun one that I'm excited about. Brandon Hagle. So, Hagle, on pace for 32 goals, 67 points. And that also accounts for the fact that he had literally nothing in his first five games. So since then, he's basically been at a point of game.

His usage is the real selling point, though, right? Not to diminish his own capabilities as a player, but we're looking for those opportunities, especially lower down on a depth chart. 400, 5-1-5 minutes so far the season played with Nikita Kutrov and Brainpoint on the top. line last year he played two total power play minutes in his 22 games after being traded to the lightning he's averaging over two and a half power play minutes per game this year on the top

unit he's essentially replaced alex core and is kind of that net front guy and the reason why that's important is i think the net front on power plays is generally not as valuable as you think because those guys aren't really getting the shot opportunities unless they're cleaning stuff up right very few power plays are are catered to getting the puck to that guy it's generally the guy guys on the flanks and on the point we're operating with it or in the bumper. But in the lightning's case, they don't use a traditional net front power play guy. They have that guy kind of going from side to side, popping out the goal line and making themselves available for passes. And so all of a sudden you get these situations where there's no one in the league better at orchestrating this than

Akita Kutraub, where he essentially isolates you on that left side, on that right side. And it becomes a three on two where it's him, Hegel and point in a kind of triangle shape against two defenders, and all of a sudden, Hegel's actually getting touches there as well, where he can get it and take it to the net himself or pass it into the bumper spot to point for a one-timer. And so I love all of that. He's playing around 19 minutes per game on average. And here's another fun stat for you.

So there's been 552 skaters this season who have played at least 300 minutes. Brandon Hegel is 20th in terms of the highest percentage of his shot attempts being registered as high danger, which makes sense given the caliber of players he's playing with. So nearly half of his shot attempts are being high danger chances according to natural statric. And that makes sense based on his responsibilities and what he needs to do. And so, listen, with Soirelli back, I think there's going to be certain game scripts here where if they need a goal, for example, they're going to load up the top line.

They're going to put Stamco's up there with Point and Kutraub. And all of a sudden, that's going to relegate Brandi Hagell to kind of more of a checking role playing with Sorrelli and Chlor on that second line. But that's totally fine. I think that's going to be rare. I think they generally want to split up the lines and they don't want. to load up their top line a full time. And if that's going to be the case,

we're going to see a lot of him playing with Kutrov and Point. And because everyone has sort of lightning fatigue since they've just been talked about so much and going on these deep postseason runs the past couple years, it kind of flies under the radar, but Point is healthy. Kuturav is playing at a supremely high level. And so I want every bit, every share that I can of someone who's basically on the ice with them at all times.

And that's what Brandon Hagle has been for pretty much the last like two or three months. man he's been fantastic and i know i try to cover a lot of shop props over at work and i can't find any when it comes to haggle and i want to it's like why haven't books released shot props on brennan haggle because you said it perfectly like nikita kutrov is just such a a tremendous playmaker and he he himself when i watch sometimes on the power play i'm like man shoot it and he doesn't want to you know it's it's either back to the point or in the bumper to point or over to to Hagel and this is a guy in Hagel who's got three plus shots in six straight games. It's having a great season.

I feel like he just fits perfectly on that line. He really does. And you mentioned last year when they acquired him. It was kind of like he was up and down the lineup, but they didn't really have a spot for him. But with no Pilat, right, Pilat left. And there was an opportunity to play on that line with, with those two superstars.

And Braden Point is a tremendous goal scorer as well. That line generates a lot of offense. And I'm surprised. like Hagel is a guy in ESPN leagues, I think, are a little bit different than Yahoo leagues. He's sub-50% owned in ESPN leagues. And his ownership in Yahoo is just over 55% now. I mean, this is a guy who's been doing it for quite some time. I think he should be on pretty much every roster. He's having a career. Yeah. I don't know if he slows down, dude, like 31 points and 38 games. This is a guy that's probably going to score 25 goals and 65 points,

60 points down the stretch here. Yeah. Yeah, I completely agree. I think he should be owned in pretty much every league because regardless of your of your categories, like he's going to produce and perfect skill set, right? Like very fast, Ryander knows his role, has enough skill to take advantage of the opportunities those guys create for him and knows where to be and get there. And so I love the fit

and he's certainly made the most of it. So credit to him. Yeah. And if you look back at the Chicago campaign too in 2025 games, I mean, he scored 21 Fools and had 37 points on a very bad hockey team. And now he's averaging nearly two more minutes per game like 17 that season in 1857 here this season, but the ice time has been more significant for him of late, right?

October, 16 minutes per game, December, 19 minutes per game, November, 20 minutes per game. So not only is it the 5 and 5 play, but it's the power play time as well that you alluded to. And I don't know, maybe people are just a little bit, maybe they are sick at Kutra

and things like that. Again, I'll reference the most traded players in CBS leagues. Number two is Nikita Kutra. If anybody is willing to ship Nikita Kutra, in your fantasy hockey league take them take them because yeah the shots are not always there but this is a guy that's uh i mean i think there's only been six games this year where he hasn't hit the score sheet six or seven uh it is in a lot of multi points showing for him as well so you'd be surprised

what's available and maybe it's a two for one but yeah i really like this uh lightning team down the stretch of the season and had been back in the lineup and is seem to get it's been a little bit of him and mikhiel surcochever not top power play but i think down the stretch he's here. We'll see Hadman kind of take that spot back. And I think he's also a guy that maybe you could buy on the cheap. I love it. Okay. What's next on your list? I wanted to bring up Travis Kinekney with you. Over the last month of the season, he's the third ranked fantasy hockey player. He's got 21 goals and 43 points and 35 games. He's a proven goal score in the league.

You're 24 goals from 2017 to 2023 straight campaigns. He had 24 goals. He's a guy who does like to shoot the puck over 200 shots per game. Or imagine that, 200 shots per game. I love that. Last season, 220. Yeah, 200 shots per game. How could you sell this guy? That's why he's the top fantasy hockey player.

20 minutes per game. It's really having a career here. The flyers are pretty thin. Of course, he was a healthy scratch one game. Kevin Hayes was a healthy scratch one game. You never know what Tortorella is going to do. But Travis Kineckney is, you know, he's touching a lot of categories. I don't know if he's going to, I don't feel like he's going to be scoring 40 goals this season.

But a lot of people, same thing. What do I do with Travis Keneckney? They feel like they need to trade this guy because he plays on a bad Flyers team. But what we talked about earlier, it's just the opportunity is there for him. If you could flip him for a Jake Gensel, I don't think you could. But if you could flip him for a Jake Gensel, who has kind of been a little cold this season, some injuries here and there. It may take two for one. I would consider something like that.

but maybe you just hold Travis connecting. What do you think about him? Yeah, I think players in these situations playing on these on these crappy teams, like the one loves owning them for the most part, right? It's not like no one's super excited to own someone in the Philadelphia Flyers, but he's been productive and he's and he's being used in a way that's very conducive of success. And I love how involved he is in like every phase of the game, right? Like even stuff that you're not necessarily getting categories,

points for it, but I think just shows that involvement and kind of like his fingerprint. on every one of these games. He's drawn 21 penalties. He's taken 12 of his own. Like, he's always mixing it up. You mentioned the shot totals. Here's another one for you. So he's got, he's got the 21 goals. He's got 22 assists. 17 of them have been primary, which is not ideal because it shows, I think, like, how much responsibility offensively is on his plate. And there's very few situations where he has the luxury of, you know, passing the puck and then not being involved in someone else creating for someone else in scoring and he, him benefiting of the secondary assist. And, in fantasy, we generally don't care about, you know, what type of assisted is.

We just care that that you get the point. But I think it shows the caliber of season that he's having himself and the level he's taken his game to and really bouncing back after a couple down years. So I wouldn't be like selling him just for the sake of getting rid of him just because he plays on the Philadelphia Flyers. I think he can be immensely productive the rest of the way. But you're right. If you're able to identify a situation like againstel, although he did have back-to-back

multi-point games, I think, which might make it trickier to buy him. but someone like that certainly that has the track record and is in a better situation in terms of line mates and quality of teammates, I would identify that. But otherwise, I'm perfectly cool just not even watching the games, but just checking the box square every night

and enjoying the fact that Connectney's producing for me in a bunch of categories. Yeah, and that's really it. I mean, another shot prop darling of ours because, you know, sometimes players on bad teams,

books just overlook it. You know, Thomas Hurtle is a guy that's plus money every single night for two and a half shots and other plus money play tonight against Arizona, you know, a leaky defensive squad. And it's just the ice time and the opportunity is there. So I've said the same thing as you. I wanted to bring him up.

And it's nice to hear your thoughts and kind of have the same sort of thinking, right? Is a guy that, you know, he's on a bad hockey team. You don't got to watch, but you watch the points pile up. He throws his body around. And you mentioned he's drawn penalties and he's taking them himself. So if you're playing in one of those leagues, he can contribute in that type of format as well. Ultimately, this guy's going to go down as a top 30 fantasy hockey player this season. And then, you know, next year, you fade them because the cost may be a little bit higher.

But this year, you kind of ride it down. Yeah, I like that. Okay, I'm going to give you a bit of a deeper pull here, but one that I'm excited about. So Mason McTavish. So speaking, I had some other guys, but just while we're on the line of kind of bad teams, but guys were producing on them. So last 10 games for him, five goals, seven assists. He had a monster game recently against the San Jose Sharks, where he was just everywhere

and he was completely dominating them. He's centering Troy Terry right now, and Adam Henrique is on his other wing, which is a massive step up in terms of quality of linemates because his most common linemates previously were Brett Leeson and Max Jones. And most importantly for me, you watch the power plays now for Anaheim, and all of a sudden,

they've catered everything to trying to get these diagonal cross-seem actions between Trevor Zegra's passing the puck to Mason McTavich for one-timers. In fact, I think he scored a power play goal against the Dallas stars recently where three straight times Zegra's passed it to him. He like hit the post on one of them. They got it back. He passed it to him again for a one-timer. Scott Weddway made a nice save. And then again,

pass it back to him, third straight shot and finally beat him and went in. And you love to see that because they're acknowledging his talent, acknowledging his upside and they're putting him in a position to actually kind of capitalize on that. And so there's going to be lulls, right? Like it's a bad team. It's not, I think they're still 31st or something in terms of goals scored. So it's not necessarily a fantasy-friendly situation, but I believe in his talent,

and I believe they're finally putting on a position to make the most of it. And so this is a good time, I think, to jump in on it. You look at the minutes as well. He was playing like 13, 14 minutes pretty much every night to start the season. He's played over 20 minutes into his past four games. He's getting legitimate top line center usage.

And so I honestly, like seeing that, I feel like that Michael Scott gave from like, oh my God, it's happening. It's happening. I'm trying to stay calm, but I'm trying to run as well, to pick him up because I really think this is the start of an awesome year. Like he's playing under 15 minutes per game so far this season and he's still on pace

for 18 goals. I genuinely believe in the second half of the season he can produce at a 30 plus goal pace and play 17, 18 minutes a night. That's within his range of outcomes. And that's a very valuable player considering he's going to contribute in other categories as well just because he's such a physical beast. Yeah, I love the call. I actually had some ducks written down here as like risky, risky buys.

Two of them I'll get into in a second. but Mace McTavish is a guy that certainly should be picked up. He was one of the most picked up guys in high stakes leagues. Actually drafted him in a deeper format. And I've hung on. And now it's like he was just a bench piece for me. Just, you know, let's see. And now that we're starting to see some of the things that you talked about,

mostly the ice time, you know, as a rookie, not, you know, just trying to figure out his role. And he was getting some power play time early on in the season. But now he seems to be a staple on that power play. and the docs are a team, yeah, they're struggling and they have one of the lowest shooting percentages in the league, but they do still have some skilled players. And especially when they get opportunities on the power play. So I love the Mace McTavage call.

His ownership is like sub 20%, so he is certainly available. And then just since we're on the docs, Troy, Terry, and Trevor Zegris, like Zegris has been shooting the puck. Man, he's really shooting the puck lately. I don't know if, you know, somebody told him to start shooting or if he's just sick of losing hockey games

and he wanted to take matters into his own hands. But against Vegas, he had seven shots on net. Against the Flyers, he had nine shots on goal. This is a guy that kind of, you know, he's only got 100 shots on the season. He only has 12 goals. You know, he's a terrific player. He's got points in four straight.

He's hit the score sheet in five, his last six. He's got goals in back-to-back games. His ownership is actually like negative over the last 24 hours. People are dropping him. They're cutting ties with him. And Troy Terry. Troy Terry's got two goals over his last 16 games. It's a risky buy.

both of these players, but these are players that you can get because they have that duck logo on their crest, as nice as it is. They are available. And Troy Terry is playing two more minutes per game this year than last year. He's not going to come closer to the 37 goals, but he still has the ability in the upside to maybe get 20 the rest of the way here down the stretch of the season. Because this ice time and his minutes are never going to go down. He's never going to be healthy scratch, never going to get bumped down to the third or fourth line. He's not going to lose the spot in the top six or on the past. power play. So I would much rather buy, I think, Terry than Zegris because I believe even Terry

is more of a, at this point in their careers is more of a whole volume shooter and a goal score. But those are three players that I think won't, I don't know, I know they won't cost you anything. And who knows? Terry and Zegris could be hanging around your waiver wire at the moment. Well, and if someone in your league dragged to Terry highly because of the season he had last year and was just expecting him to build on that even more and is feeling disappointed. And we know sometimes fantasy owners can become very emotional, right? Like it's like, ah, this isn't what I signed up for and all of a sudden you panic,

even though he's having a fine season, just because you have these kind of inflated expectations of your own, I would be all over that. Like, I think only Connor McDavid has more rush chances than him so far this season. He's in the top seven or something in terms of shots from the slot. Like, he's getting his looks. He's such a talented player. You watch him.

He still pops off the ice every time he gets the puck. So I'm totally buying that. I just, so you don't have to sell me on Troy, and Trevor Zegers, everything you said is very important. as well. So yeah, I'm all for all three of those guys. Here's another situation for you. The abs, I feel like we need to talk about them because you're not going to be able to buy Nathan

McKinnon, or Miko Ranchin or Kel McCar, or even Devonteves, right? Like their owners are probably going to be holding them regardless and those guys have been producing. But because of all the injuries they've had, I remember last time I talked about Evan Rodriguez and I'm going to have to bring him up again because the way the abs are going right now is about as condensed and funneled of a fantasy situation as I've seen where they're essentially only using like the top half of their lineup. Some of the ice time totals you're seeing in these games are genuinely preposterous. In the last 15 games, JT. Comfer is playing 2320 per game. Arturo Lecannon is playing 22, 15 and Evan Rodriguez is playing 21 and he missed some time in there.

But Evan Origuez, since coming back, nine games, three goals, seven assists, over three shots a game. With that usage, it's almost impossible to fail. Like if you're going to be on the ice for 22, 23 minutes a night and you have the puck and you have even a baseline level of skill and those guys all do, you're going to be fine. Like I wish J.T. Comfer was a bit better because his usage is actually unreal right now. And they've actually recently split up McKinnon and Ranton in a 5-on-5. So all of a sudden he's got Miko Ranton in his winger. He's playing on the top unit power plate.

But he's not really like he's not a shooter. So he's not going to really capitalize on that the most, which is why I prefer a guy like Kevin Rodriguez. as, but all three of those guys, I imagine, are widely available. And they can't individually fail in this current situation with the way the ads are using them, I think. I couldn't agree more, Demetri. Before this show was going to wrap up, I was going to bring up the abs with you.

And I didn't know if it was too obvious or not, but, I mean, you talked about shooting percentage as a team. I mean, 5%, right? I know they're missing a lot of their players, but they're outside looking in in terms of a playoff spot right now. And they're getting healthier. This is a team that's going to go on a run. There's no question of my mind.

They're going to go on a run. Kenan's back in the lineup. Nchuschen's close to returning. He's a guy that could be had. I'm always for, you know, buying low, depending on your situation, if you're near the top of fantasy hockey and your standings, you know, you look at a Nchuskin owner who's near the bottom.

They can't afford to hang on in Chuskin and wondering when this guy's going to come back. Maybe that's a risk that you can take. I love the Lekan and call, 59% his ownership, and he has dropped significantly over the past month or so. This was the guy that was, you know, mid-80s, you know, six, seven weeks ago,

when he was scoring almost every single night. Now he's not going to be a point per game guy, but he might flirt with a point per game, total the rest of the way, you know, playing in the top six with some of these skilled players. And I love the Evan Rodriguez call last time, and I love it right now as well. I have him in a couple leagues.

I hung on to him when he missed a couple games. When he was on IR, you could put him, actually put him on IR Plus, but this guy that he's entering tonight against the Panthers on a five-game point streak. Yeah, he only has nine goals and nine assists. But he broke out last year basically playing on the third line with the penguins.

He had 19 goals and 82 games. He played 1550s, averaging 19 minutes per game this season with Colorado. I think what we talked about last time when we brought him up is that he had that an awesome cadre role as the second line center and an opportunity to play on that first power play, especially when the abs are depleted. So I'm not totally in a comfort. I think you said I'm perfectly. I wish he was a little bit better because the opportunity has been there for him,

especially over the last two months. He's been a little underwhelming, but Rodriguez is a volume shooter, nine shots, seven shots. These are some of his totals over the last month. And I would say Bowen Byrham in deeper leagues as well. I saw that he was skating recently, you know, in Keeper Leagues especially. But he's another guy that played so good, especially in the Stanley Cup finals last year. This out seems going to pick it up. The top six is loaded.

So grab as many of these guys as you can. Rodriguez has triple eligibility forward, left, right, center, whatever you want in your league in Yahoo League. so you can put them. And that's pretty valuable because Yahoo's changed around. They've been really tight this year with their positions, the eligibility. A lot of guys last year were center and right, center and left. Now they're just center. It's really nice to find a player that has triple eligibility and you can place up

and down your lineup. It's very valuable, in my opinion, and very underrated. Yep. I love that. All right. One final guy. Let's talk about Max Patch ready. You have any notes on him because I feel like, you know,

you mentioned him in passing earlier with Nicholas Back. from and Nick Eler's and guys that have come back and are available. He's only played the two games so far, but I think he's in a pretty good spot to produce. Now, it's always risky 34-year-old coming off of Tour and Achilles, certainly. You know, I proceed with caution, of course, because just because he's back doesn't mean he's actually going to stay in the lineup. But at the same time, if he's going to be playing with Seth Jarvis and Zabashinajo

and being the trigger man on the top unit power play for a team that has the shot volume they have and plays at the pace they play at, like this is a dream scenario it's kind of a shame that we didn't get to see like 27 year old max patcher ready on this team because this is a this is a situation that's like perfectly made for a guy that just wants to shoot the puck as often as he does yeah max patcher ready scoring 39 goals with david day arna is his number one center that that max patcher ready a nice upgrade with sebastian ahho in the middle i love this player um he's a volume shooter he's a guy that's had over 300 shots a couple times over the course of his career.

He's like, I think a four-time 30-goal score. I still think he has a lot to offer. His first game, he played 14 minutes. He had 19 shot attempts and he had six shots on a goal. And then he scored two goals in his last game. I thought he looked really good alongside Ajo and Seth Jarvis. They have Tebow-Tarvina playing on the fourth line. Now they roll their lines, certainly in Carolina.

And Tebow's getting some top power play time. And I think he could take his spot potentially back. in the top six, but Seth Jarvis is a nice little player. And he's got three plus shots in six straight games. He's got 10 over his last two. He's a guy, you know, his ownership is 26%. I'd want a piece of him in deeper formats. And Max Padretti think is a must own.

And I know he's had some injury history. Like you mentioned off the Achilles injury. And we don't have a lot of the data when it comes to that one with hockey in the NHL. But goals are hard to come by. And you mentioned how this team plays. Last six weeks, they're number one in shot attempts, shots, High danger chances. Five and five per 60.

This is the team that they own the puck. They put a lot of pucks towards the goal. Packer already is going to add a nice boost to this team. So I would, if he's available, absolutely, even in a shallow league, an eight team and a 10 team league, go and get him. Seth Jarvis in deeper formats and even deeper than the deepest of all deepest leagues. Paul Stasney is playing on the top line right now. Like I say top line, maybe second line.

He's not the same type of player he was a couple of years. years ago, but he is playing with two snipers in Martine Natchez and Andres Feshtonikov. He's hit in the score sheet of late. Let's be honest about Yossberry Kokonemi. He's not ready as a top six player, which he was given the opportunity early on in the year to be that guy, especially when Alho was out of the lineup. Stassan is a veteran presence and he looks pretty good alongside those two snipers as well. So, uh, I'm terrible line.

This is a team that I expect to go on a run here in the second half. Yeah. I think they've already started it. No, they have. And, you know, when you think about Prime Max Patchretti, he was, a lot of his game was predicated on speed, right? Coming down that wing, especially at that size, it was overwhelming and he was able to get so many good looks off that way. I'm not sure if we're going to see that. And if we do, it might take some time for him to ramp up to that level at this point.

Because he actually, you know, last year in the games he was healthy for Vegas, he did look like that version, even though he was 33 years all the time. But you look at the first two games he's played so far. he's got what 14 shot attempts or 13 shot attempts in those two games and most of them are him standing there and the canes have so many guys who are puck retrieval beasts who can go into the corners get the puck back pass it back out and he's just standing there and he must be in heaven he's like oh i got the puck again all right yeah i'll fired on it and so you know if you're doing shot props i assuming he keeps getting those minutes and stays healthy like i don't see how he doesn't have three to four in every shots on goal and literally every single game he plays with

this team because of the spot he's in like it's it's it's foolproof so knock on wood he stays healthy and he's able to to kind of round into form physically but in the meantime it's it's going to be pretty hard similar what we said about the guys on the abs it's going to be pretty hard for him to fail if he keeps getting these these uh these minutes and these opportunities yeah i mean as an example tonight and he's a quarter to our prop shop ft and vets.com it's a free tool it's like google search you can type in anybody you want you see all the books lay out for you and you can get the best possible odds save yourself a lot of time and maybe a little bit of cash like fandal's offering plus 136 for him to have four shots against the devils.

I know the devils have been a pretty good five and five team, but it just takes one power play. And to your point, they do have a lot of guys that can get the puck. And Aho is a past first guy. He's, he's going to be looking to set up Max Patch Touretti. So it just takes one or two power plays for him. The shot at the temps are always going to be there. And that's certainly

a prop that I'm definitely interested in moving forward as a plus money play. There was one more guy I wanted to toss at you on the way out is Talley Yarncruck. I think it may be a little bit of just a live in the moment right now. Maybe the Leaps bolster their top six. Maybe they add a guy at the deadline and he loses his spot in the lineup. He's playing with Mitch Marner, who's obviously fantastic and John Tavares. He's been

nine games since he returned to the lineup December 20th. The guys take the score sheet in every game but two. He's got four goals over that span. He has two three point games. He's got a power play point. He's got a couple short-handed points as well. I mean, Marner is terrific all over the ice. So when he plays five and five with Marner, he plays a little bit penalty kill time with Mitch marner as well. Again, I don't think it's sustainable. Callaghern-Cruck is like a nice player. Yeah, he's like a middle-six guy.

He hasn't had a lot of opportunity. Of course, of his career playing in a top six role like this, surrounded around these type of players. But if you're in a pinch and you're in a deep league and you're just looking for a streaming option, he's available. I love it. Go ride the way of all you can. All right.

Meanie, this is great. Hopefully we help the listeners out. I'll let you quickly on the way out. plug some stuff, where can people check out? If you're, obviously, you guys are hockey fans. Myself and Eric Young, twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, Dangle Bet, Selly, we roll through all the, all the games. Always heavy nights in the NHL on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

We have a little bit of a fantasy hockey span too as well. You know, Eric's calling some goals, got like 30 goal scores he loves, to call some shot props and points. It's just a fun, I think, a fun little fantasy hockey conversation. And we seem to have a pretty good family in there as well. So if you're looking for a little bit more hockey content, check out that. It's free iTunes, our YouTube channel, FtN Network, at Chris Minnie, always tweeting it out.

And Mean Streets is Monday to Friday at 12 Eastern. And we just, it's a multi-sport show. Of course, it's heavy football these days. But we're covering a lot of sports from PGA to college sports to, of course, the NHL a little bit at NBA as well. Demetri, man, you're fantastic. I love chopping it up with you, man. I always listen and I always come away with like an interesting tidbit or two.

And you had it several. so I appreciate the time, man. I appreciate it, man. It was a blast having you on. We're certainly going to get you back on maybe around the trade island or after when we can kind of recalibrate on where our guys are at in their new spots. Be well. Thank you to our listeners for checking us out.

And we'll be back tomorrow with more of the HockeyPedio cast on the Sportsnet Radio Network.