Goalies We're Excited To Watch This Season

(upbeat music) - Regressing to the meat since 2015. It's the hockey epidemiocast with your host, Dimitri Philipovich. - Welcome to the hockey epidemiocast. My name is Dimitri Philipovich and joining me is my good buddy, Kevin Woodley-Kevin. What's going on, man? - Not much. Training camps have opened. It's exciting time of year. Get to talk to you. Already to go for the season. Yeah, I'm looking forward to this. And also you got a new logo over your shoulder. That's killer. - I like that. - I'm recording from the new home office. We're working on it. We'll keep adding stuff as the year goes along. - What is it? - I just like that it's a goalie mask. - It is. Well, it's the epidemiocast logo. So, you know, we ought to wrap the goalies. But I've got it flashing nice and bright here today because we've got our resident goalie expert on the epidemiocast on the show. And so, beautiful. We're gonna have some fun. Here's the plan for today. I wanted us to do a theme of goalies we're excited about this season. Now, that could take a bunch of different forms, right? It could be goalies that are just in different situations compared to the past. And so we're curious to see what that looks like. Golees who find themselves in a promising opportunity to have a big year. Golees we're just interested in to see how they do. Maybe ones we're excited to watch. We're invested in them. We did this last year I believe around this time at the start of the season. And it was fun. I enjoyed it. I think the listeners enjoyed it as well. So I wanted to bring the exercise back. And yeah, let's get into it. I've got like a surprising number of goalies on my list. It feels like we didn't have necessarily as much movement maybe as obviously since past. Something we talked about is the goalies are typically now locked up and under contract. There was nothing available in unrestricted free agency for the most part. So there hasn't been that much movement. But whether it's because of contracts or development or new coaches, it does feel like a bunch of these goalies are in fascinating spots to either continue their development and hit the next level or just answer questions that we have. So we'll get into all that today. I'll give you the floor. You're the guest, you're the Goleexpert. You know much better than I do on this. So who's a top your list? We don't have to go and order necessarily but just write off the bat who do you want to start with as the goalie you're most excited to watch this season. - Yeah, and this is a guy that, you know, like every year I get asked to sort of identify my breakout candidates and he's at the top of this list. I don't know, maybe some people like he hasn't been on all the lists I've seen for this category and maybe that's because he's played enough in the NHL that it doesn't count. So maybe I'm cheating this one a little bit but it's Jacob Fowler and or maybe it's because Jacob Dobish was so good and is also probably going to continue to be really, really good. They've kind of really nice set up there, Munchers. Maybe it's because of the fact that there's a chance some onto both stays in the NHL and Fowler keeps playing in the American league. I'm not sure. At the end of the day though, his results last year were off the charts good. You and I have talked about this before. Small sample, absolutely. But his adjusted save percentage. So his performance relative to his environment and I'll throw the caveat now. This is all coming from Clearside Analytics. The company founded and run by Stephen Vallecate former NHL gold tender. But he's like plus 2.2%. So on 100 shots, he is saving the Montreal Canadians more than two goals. So say two goals every three games, maybe every four games if they're good with shot suppression, better than average. Only Devon Coolley was better on that rate stat in the National Hockey League last year. Among guys who were semi-regular. So again, it is a small sample. But then you talk to other goalies around the league. He's one of those guys that I think if you pulled other goalies, they'd be excited to see where this is going. He's a guy that they identified to me. And there's also some bias here. Went to Boston for the USA hockey gold tending sympos in this summer and got an invite from Alfie Meas showed former NHL Holy University of Managoli coach to come watch Jeremy Swaman skate. And Swaman had Jacob Fowler out there on the ice with him in the summer. And you listen to Jeremy Swaman talk about Jacob Fowler when Fowler's in net. And as much as there's a Bruins Montreal thing that should make that never possible. Like he's so abusive. And then you see the skills. You see the patients. There's just a broken level patients on his edges and with his hands that just makes me really excited for where this goes. Development's not always linear. There's probably going to be some ups and downs here. But he's the guy I'm most excited to watch in the National Hockey League this year. In part, because of what he did in a small sample last year. And because it was off in 8.78 expected, I'm not sure people realized how good he was. Well, it's nice to hear the team USA is finally getting a good goalie to look forward to after a long drought at the position. I had Fowler on my list. I had Dolby on my list as well. I kind of included them as a tandem for Montreal. I think both are interesting for different reasons, right? All the stuff he mentioned for Fowler, only 17 games last year. So it is a small sample. But I think the tape was very exciting. I believe you. And I talked about it like after one of his early starts and we were blown away by how he looked in that. For Dolby, though, like what a revelation he was last year. Not that it came out of nowhere because he'd put some stuff on tape the year prior. But scaling it up to the usage he had where 43 regular season games and then what 19 playoff appearances really sort of cementing himself as one of the big stories even in defeat that we're going to remember from the 2026 post season gets rewarded for it with a nice three year extension, which kicks in the following season. So he's still under $1 million this year. And if they go with this tandem of Dolby, who's 25 Fowler, who's turning 22 in November, both guys under $1 million still have Sam Onto, as you mentioned, on the books for one more year, we'll see how they sort of divvy up those starts. We'll talk more about three goalie rotations and sort of how more teams might be using that or utilizing it this year. But yeah, I think all of that is fascinating. Something I've been noting in terms of my projections for the Habs, right? Because I think people are uncertain kind of how to view them. Like they had a very quiet summer for the most part. Pretty much Chris Crider was the only real addition to last year's team despite them having cap space. It seems like they're biting their time waiting for a big addition as opposed to spending it now on stuff that's not really going to move the needle. They had this remarkable run through East Final. I don't think anyone's necessarily expecting them to match that again or exceed that this season. But something I've been looking at is there was a long stretch last year where they were just giving away points because of how much Sam Onto was struggling and how much he was playing early on. And eventually they went to Dolby's more full time and sprinkled in Fowler and the splits are pretty staggering. Not only from a result's perspective for like the goalies individually, but just as a raw like team point total projection, right? In Montobos games, they played at an 86 point pace in Fowler's 96. And then in Dolby's shoes, they were 121 point team. Now, I'd expect that to come back down to Earth a little bit. But if all of a sudden you're telling me, we're going to get 84 games of Dolby's and Fowler and they keep on this upward trajectory. I feel like that's going to balance out whatever regression we expect from the Habs. And they could probably repeat as one of the top three teams in the Atlantic again. And having both of them gives you the flexibility to not to be able to sort of manage the ups and downs that come with an NHL season for a young goal tender, right? Like you manage the expectations. We've seen other goal tenders of that age where when the expectations shift, so does the results because those are hard to deal with. Again, like just you have such a nice balance. You've got Marco Marciano, who's built a good relationship with both of those guys there as the goalie coach after spending time with them in the American League. So he was a part of that development in the American League. So they're just in a really good spot. And I know in that market, you know, having two, they're still this, you know, I remember sort of, they were nervous about having three and the perceptions. And there's a lot of talk around it. And then you talk to some of the guys involved. Obviously, Jake Allen didn't love the three goalie rotation, but other goalie thought that it was beneficial in certain ways. So like having two in Montreal is not a bad thing. Like we've come a long way from the days we're having two means you don't have a number one. They've got two really, you know, guys that project at an elite level, interestingly enough, and totally different styles of play. Like totally different strengths and weaknesses between those two, which makes it even more fascinating to watch. So, you know, patients from an observer standpoint, right? Like, you know, that the development isn't always a straight line. And then if one dips a little bit, it's not the end of the world because you have the other one. You can go back and forth and just see where it comes out at the end. Like options are the best thing to have as we move towards an increase in tendoms around the league. And they've got two, yes, inexperienced and incredibly young, but just incredibly talented options in Montreal. What a great place to be. So if anyone was putting together a betting market for where you'd start your list and who you'd include as your number one goalie, I think Jet Greaves would have been the heavy favorite on that list. And I'm pretty surprised he didn't start with him. He's number one on my list. But I guess like, I think we're past his breakout, aren't we? Like, I mean, I, I've been sort of had him at all my list for, you know, two and a half straight years because the results were so good when he was up. They finally bring him up. The results over the course of the year, weren't as high as they were on shorter samples. Again, inevitably some ups and downs. But if you know, Jack, you know, he's going to school on where the ups and where the downs came and how he can level them off a little bit. So yeah, like he'd be a high on my list. I'm not sure he still classifies his pure breakup. I think he's broken out based on what he did last year. I guess my argument would be there's levels to it though, right? And I think it's one thing that kind of, you know, he'd done it previously in these like five game samples where he'd look amazing and you and I would be like pounding our fist on the table, being like more jack grieves like give us 10, 15, 20 more games of this. And then last year we finally get the 55 games. But now he gets the three year extension this summer, right? Five million per narrowly avoiding arbitration with the team. He's 25 years old. He's coming off that 55 game season. I think there's a certain level of expectations for the organization with the Zach Warnski situation this summer, right? Like how I feel like they're feeling a certain level of urgency to keep moving in the right direction and make the playoffs and kind of keep it happy. And hopefully he stays around. There's a lot of uncertainty with a bunch of their other young players. They're looking for positive signs of growth continued growth for this team. And the season he had last year was interesting to me where there's two chunks of it essentially, right? There's part one when Dean Evanson was still the coach and he really, Evanson did like really lean into jack grieves. I think because partly Elvis was struggling and grieves was clearly a superior option. And maybe he was feeling like like he was on the hot seat. So there was a stretch. I remember where they were just playing grieves like both legs of a back to back and really leaning on him as the workhorse goalie then Evanson gets fired. Rick bonus comes in and they split those starts more evenly. Grieves was still the one A, but it was more of an even distribution between the two, but the environment changed pretty significantly as you'd expect from a Rick bonus team, right? Like they really slowed their game down, had an added emphasis defensively. I'm still not sure it's in their best interest given the personnel long term to be playing that way. But I imagine for a goalie, it was a more advantageous environment. They cut down what they were giving up in general by quite a bit. I was looking at it. They were giving like five fewer shots against per game under bonus. And they were with Evanson. And now Elvis is out to start the year. He had his surgery about a month ago. He's out indefinitely. They bring in two veteran goalies in the meantime, right? Phoenix Copley who's 35 in January and has played 10 total NHL games the past three years. And this week they bring in Cam Talbot who just turned 39 and it's coming off probably the worst year he's had in the NHL. And it's Jets time. Like I'm curious to see what his workload looks like. How he handles those expectations, whether he's got another level to his game because he was really good last year. But I think he could be even better. And so putting all that together, I think he's like in a fascinating spot. He's eight in the Vesna market right now in terms of the highest odds. And so people are on this in terms of being incredibly high on Jack Reeves. And yet I'm not sure it's even reached the point where I'm like, you know what? Everyone is as high on him as you and I are. Yeah. And you worry a little bit about overplaying him too. Like, you know, was it 55 last year? And as you said, stretches where, you know, you worried about them, maybe playing the wheels off them a little bit. First taste of that type of workload in the national hockey league. Again, ups and downs. The highest weren't as high overall. Like he doesn't finish his, as high he as he was in the sort of shorter samples, his performance relative to that environment, even as it cleaned up down the stretch. And I think just having been through it once he'll be better for it. And I think there's value. Like Cam Talbot is as good a vet as you'll find in terms of the way he thinks the game, the way he manages himself through a season. Like there are lessons to be learned from having that influence around. Now, Al Vesmer's Likens has, you know, he's been around, but not to the degree that Cam Talbot has. Right? Like Talbot has seen some things. And there might be some value there. And having him as a sounding warden guy that Jack can go to and talk to about, you know, this process he's going through as a first time number one goal tender. And, you know, like, like, I don't know that he's had that, you know, I we'd actually talk to Jay Upperube going way back names for you about his role. Because Jett sort of gave me his name as a guy when he was first starting out in the American like that really provided that mentorship and was important to him. And I think Cam Talbot can be that guy too. Because as high as we've been on Jett for as long as we've been, you know, and you're right before anybody else was, right? We were banging that table, as you said. And the underlying numbers suggested they needed to be banged. But he's never really had that guy in the NHL that that, you know, like he's been in competition with Elvis. I'm sure they had a great relationship and they shared, you know, lots of, you know, tips and advice. But Talbot might be perfect for him as he basically takes a giant step in his career last year and now has to not just repeat it, but maybe repeat it with longer stretches of the highs we've seen in the past. If this team's really going to make some, you know, noise about getting back into the playoffs. Yeah, I'm curious just to see how how they play as well. I mentioned how much less they were giving out from a shop volume perspective. He was also like it say percentage was pretty consistent. I think it was actually identical. During Elvis's time at the start of last year and after bonus took over, but he gave up like two point four goals against per game or something down the stretch with bonus like they were much better defensively. And so it's just an interesting environment. It's definitely in stark contrast to when he first captured our attention, right? Like there were those times where he'd come in for a spot start and he'd stop 40 out of 42 shots. He faced or something. Right. There's not going to be a lot of those this season. For as long as Rick bonus is the coach. So it's a different set of challenges. Yeah. And it's totally, you know, now the challenge is more mental, right? And he's been there a little longer. Like just when he gets called up in those other opportunities, it's just come out and battle like crazy as much as you can. And we're seeing 40 shots tonight. You turn the brain off. But as the environment becomes more predictable and the shots are suppressed more under Rick bonus, like it does require a different approach. The thing is the way he thinks the game, I don't think that's going to be a problem. Like I don't think it's an adjustment where he's going to be like, I can't do this. There, you know, there are some goalies that just man, give him 40 shots a night. They'll stand on their head. Give him 25 and they struggle to sort of find that balance. And I don't think Jets going to be one of those. So looking forward to sort of, you're right. He's another guy that I'm looking forward to watch. Well, it's interesting how he's just sort of came out of nowhere to win out as well here, right? Because think back to all that time when like Daniel Terraceau was the top prospect there and everyone was excited to see what he'd look like. And then he winds up moving on. Elvis had that stretch where he came into the league and it was on fire. And even though like he's out to start the year. But regardless, this is clearly going to be as last year, one way or another with Columbus. His contract expires. He's been looking for a trade or on the trade market for seemingly five straight years now. So the other backups of this moment are guys in their mid to late 30s. And so like it's the path is cleared pretty sufficiently. I think like this is Jake Rees's team. He's going to be their starter moving forward and they gave him a three-year extension in line with that as well. So they clearly believe in that as well. There's a challenge here too for Cam Talbot. As much as the environment has changed on her bonus, then it should benefit his game. And again, the strengths of his game in terms of his ability to process and read the game and anticipate again, just thinks at a really high level. For all the criticism that seems to get thrown at Elvismer's lichens, the reality is, yes, consistency was a bit of an issue. But he gave them some really good stretches where again, I, you know, especially pre bonus where I'm not sure people realized just how tough that environment was. Goldies were being asked to stop bullets in their teeth. And he did, like for really, for long stretches. I mean, again, I think that's the hardest thing to do is be consistent behind a bad defensive team, which is why I was so impressed with what Devin Cooley did last year in Calgary, right? So don't like there's as much as people are quick to want to move on from Elvismer's lichens. And I understand that that's the likelihood in Columbus. There've been some stretches there where he has got them points and wins, largely because of his play behind them. And, you know, the risk maybe less so now that bonus is there, but the risk is you miss those stretches as a team where you know, it's not just enough to have a backup come in and provide a steady presence. You needed Superman back there every night and there were nights where Elvis gave you Elvis did things that not everybody can do athletically and sort of within his game and his abilities. And, and some of these veterans again, hopefully the environment allows them to succeed because they aren't going to be asked to make some of those saves or put themselves in a position and make those saves easier than Elvis maybe did. But I just, you know, I, I'm an Elvis, I guess I'm going to be get labeled and Elvis Apologist. I just think I looked at the numbers and again, consistently over time, you know, they dipped, but there were stretches there where he was the reason they were getting points. All right, we got to keep him open because I, I recognize the irony of the last show we did literally the end of it. I had Jayna Goldman on and at the end we were talking about fantilly still not having a contract. How indecisive Columbus as an organization has been with their young players this summer and I profess like I'm fed up with it. I'm sick of talking about it. I'm blue jackets out. And then of course for submission to this list is take you, you brought up greens, not me, man. Like I already had him as a established. I always look for it. Listen, don't ask me who I'm looking forward to watch. I look forward to watching all the goalies. Yeah, we should do a list of goalies. You're not looking for it to watch on the very short podcast. That's sure. Okay, who's next in your list? You know, Devin Levi and Edmonton, you know, just, you know, talk about a guy that trains in the off season, spend some time in Montreal. Jet goes to see him in his coach Marco Ramondo. Wasn't the only one. Some of the young goalies made that journey as well to get an opportunity to work with Marco. It's seeing the work that that Devin does there. You know, always believed in the talent of this young goal tender. Love his approach. It hasn't always translated. I don't, I don't think Buffalo, when he got his opportunities, like, Buffalo's one of those teams were dependent on the opportunity you got. And that could shift, like, not just timing wise within a season, depending on who was healthy, but like on a night to night basis. I'll never forget the year where Eric calmly just basically got handed every shit start. Like, just like, and you look at the end of the year and you had an expected say percentage of eight, 58 and people are like, oh, he's not an NHL goalie. I'm like, nobody is with an a 58, like nobody is. And so there were stretches where Devin got some of those starts, right? Like, and that, that was kind of a, like, real technical term on my end here to meet you, but it was a really weird team. Like, it was hard to sort of, you know, some guys, and you had this huge disparity environment between one goalie and the next. Like, I'm talking, like, 20 and 30 points swings. It's almost like they'll be like, hey, we're going to suck tonight. And we know we're going to suck tonight. That's his start. And so I think there are some things in his game. He's in Edmonton now. If you sort of, you know, look to Calgary and you watch Dostin Wolf and the success he's had is a quote unquote undersized goal tender by actually playing less aggressively. And Devin having a lot of aggression in his game early in his career, like, like, that's an adjustment. I think they're going to try and make. I haven't had a chance to ask Devin where he's at with it. I'm looking forward to seeing him as we get into the preseason and a visit here early in the regular season. But for all those reasons, whether it's him trying to succeed with some aggression in his game or him trying to find comfort playing less aggressively. And for a head coach that typically likes aggressive goalies, like, where does he find that balance? How does he allow his skill set, which is undeniable? Give himself the best chance to succeed behind a team that I think will be better defensively. But better defensively and fits the strengths of your game are not always synonymous. And so I'm really curious. I've never stopped living in the talent and the work rate of this kid. And I'm curious to see how much of an opportunity and what he does with it in Edmonton. And it might require some patience. If indeed he's trying to make an adjustment that big in season against NHL shooters, I go back to a conversation with Mark Andre Flurry earlier in his career. Henrik Lankwist, same thing, right? Like the hardest part, Hank was famous for playing deep. And the hardest part of learning to trust that was in practice, where guys had so much time and space. There was an exposure there. And Flower talked about it when he was in Pittsburgh still trying to play more conservatively. You know, one of Jenny Malcolm and Sydney Crosby have time and space in practice to pick you apart and trusting the process. It's kind of probably with Devon Levi's looking at it. If he's trying to make this adjustment, you know, with McDavid and dry side, I'll bearing down on him every day in practice. And so might require some patience. But I'm excited to see where it goes. Excited to watch him. Because like I said, I really do believe in the mindset, the approach, just the professionalism, everything about Devon Levi. He has some goalie quirks that we like in the goalie world that have maybe not always been appreciated by people around him in Buffalo. That's another thing under a Michael Babcock coach team that I'm interested to see. You know me, Demetri, let your goalies be your goalies. Don't try to make them something they're not and kind of curious to see how they find that balance as well with Devon Levi. Well, you mentioned that opportunity. I think he's going to get it because unfortunately, Brady Anderson's already hurt. And regardless, even if he hadn't been, I imagine the vision after they brought him in was managing his workload pretty diligently in the regular season, keeping it pretty low and hopefully he's available for the start of the playoffs. I think we've got along enough track record right now to know that there's going to be a stretch during the season where Tristan Jarry looks amazing. And there's going to be articles written about how he's finally put it together and figured it out. And then there's going to be a stretch where he looks unplayable. And they're going to be looking at Devon Levi to fill in those starts in the meantime. And so he's going to get opportunities. And it's a big spot for him. And I'm looking forward to it as well. So that's a good shot. I Adam. I don't know. So history says that history says Jarry will start exceptionally well. And so that might not be a bad thing, especially if Devon's working on getting more comfortable playing a more neutral positional game. It gives him more time to get comfort with that. All right, well, speaking of Jarry, let's go to his former team. And a goalie that I want to include on this list is Sergey Murashov. Now, I know typically you prefer for us to talk about goalies who have put enough data and tape in the NHL for us to feel more comfortable evaluating them. We've only gotten that what five game cameo from them last year, essentially a very small sample in the OH, AHL. Sorry, he was remarkable. He had a 9/19 A percentage in the regular season. And then a 9/31 in the Calderca playoffs gives us another right handed catch and goalie, which is very exciting. Also, when you talk about opportunity, you know, the penguins, despite being flush with so much cap space, decided to let Stuart Skinner walk in free agency to win a peg. And for a very reasonable price that they easily could have justified, it was 3.75 times two. I was looking at it like there's no frills in that deal either for for stew skin. It's no trade protection, no signing bonus money, getting paid less salary in year one. Like it was if they felt like Murashov wasn't ready or they wanted to bring back the tandem from down the stretch last year, they very easily kind of just brought back Stuart Skinner. They chose not to. It looks like it's going to be she loves in Murashov and Ned. And so I guess you could include both guys. I'm very interested. I can't wait to watch she loves in particular in the shootout because I want to know whether last year was just a statistical anomaly or if there's something seriously wrong. I know you and I have spoken about this and how in one-on-one situations during live play, none of these issues cropped up. And then you got to the shootout and he gave up 13 goals on 22 shootout attempts and gave up a goal on the only penalty shot he faced as well. So there was some weird mismatch between those two. But yeah, I think it's going to be fascinating. I love when a new goalie like this, especially a high prospect who performs so well in the AHL gets thrown into the mix. I imagine he's going to get a long look in Pittsburgh. And yeah, maybe we can revisit this in season after he's had some starts under his belt. But I wanted to shout him out here as well when you're thinking about, you know, breakouts or guys who could really, you know, open our eyes to them this season and be like, kind of like, I'm curious to learn more about him because he's performing so well. I feel like he's probably near the top of that list. Yeah, I mean a really a really high end prospect. This is probably sooner in terms of pro reps than you'd like. Ideally in terms of again, the patterns of the game and connecting those dots. Pittsburgh didn't have a single goalie that finished sort of above their environment last year, which is a little concerning. Mirashoff in that small sample actually had a pretty good defensive environment in front of him underperformed it just slightly, but at a similar level to where she loves and skin her finish last year. So you know, it's an interesting juxtaposition to be willing to give opportunities to such young goal tenders. And don't forget like Joe Blumquist is still highly regarded as a prospect as well. And has had some success, not last year, but had some success in the past in the national hockey league. Like it looks like there's a goalie there. But you've got this veteran team that, you know, because of the crossbies in the Balkans and all the tanks, feels like it's a more of a a win now situation. And goal tenders who just don't have a ton of experience, even she loves, right? Like never been the guy guy. Was really good coming off the bench from the playoffs last year. Some questions about whether if they'd gone to him a little bit sooner that series might have looked a little different. And that's the thing about our tours. You know, you've talked about the shootout and all these different things. At the end of the day, the one thing you never question about she loves is his ability to sort of handle big moments, right? And like that that matters. That matters. The other things you can work on, like his first year in Vancouver were, you know, the playoffs ended against Edmonton. A lot of teams went to school on his inability to sort of manage and figure out traffic in the NHL. And then the next year against, you know, he gets the game one start against the connox. And what does Calgary do? Starts throwing pucks from the point with bodies in front of the net. Like everybody went to school on that. Playoffs expose you. I thought he figured that out last year's numbers against screens were much better in Pittsburgh. So those types of things you can get better at. How a young goal tender handles pressure and big moments and expectations. That's often difficult to read. And it's often difficult to quantify. But every time he gets these opportunities in high pressure situations, he performs, like he plays his game. And usually to the end degree, like there's a, they have letticism shines through in in big moments. He has the ability to sort of make saves that other guys don't. Like he's so long and so explosive. of laterally. So giving him another year to sort of stack the foundational things that he continues to work on and the experience in the NHL combined with athleticism and more than anything else, his ability to handle it between the years is like, you know, as excited as everyone is about Miroshoff and as much as Joel Blumquist is still a really highly regarded prospect, like sea loves has already been through the learning curve that those guys have yet to go through in the NHL. And so I'm excited for him at this opportunity. I recognize that it comes, the expectations are different without Stuart Skinner, right? We saw Levi Marilane in last year, two years ago, sensational. Last year, the expectations changed and he struggled with it. Is he a worst goal tenor or just did the expectations create a bit of, you know, issues in terms of doubt and and tension in the mind, which creates tension in the body? Like, you won't see that with Archie or sea loves. He's never had this opportunity before without the insulation of somebody else around him. I'm looking forward to seeing how he manages it. He might be a guy that surprises a lot of people for all the attention that's being paid to the people behind him on this dev chart. Well, and he got a pay raise this summer from the contract he was previously playing, right? Because the penguins after acquiring them were inheriting the deal he had with the connox previously. But despite giving him more money this year, the commitment wasn't that extreme if they essentially just did another one year deal, punted the decision to next summer when he'll once again be an RFA. And so it'll be interesting to see like how all this shakes out and how they handle that, how they perform. And it's, it's an interesting spot because I think the penguins are going to be competitive once again. Their offense is going to score a lot of goals. They'll get run support. The defense we'll see like probably their best pure defenseman last year was Parker Walters boot and they traded him to Vegas. So we'll see what the environment is like, but the opportunity is there. And so I'm excited to to watch how it shakes out. Okay, let's keep them moving. Who do you want to shout out next? Oh, I don't have a lot of details on his game. You know, and I have some questions about whether it will translate in the NHL behind the team that is probably looser defensively than most people would expect given the coaches compared to the installation he had in the American League. But I'm excited to watch Sebastian Kosa with the Utah man, but as much as their team, you're like, hey, you look at teams that, hey, did they need to add a veteran and some experience in the crease? Like, this is his opportunity. It's a massive one. And I'm really excited to see what he does of it. You know, I don't know enough about his game to sort of have like any deep insights on it. I've talked to some people sort of around him and around his summer training. And they think he's ready for this. And they think he's, you know, like, gonna, gonna, you know, basically show people, everybody that's doubted him, including in the Red Wing's organization, that that was a mistake. And so it's a fantastic opportunity. And I'm excited to see what he does with it. At the same time, you know, this is not a great defensive environment. And everything everybody you talk to and Detroit talks about how, hey, we're the numbers in the American League for all their goal tenders, not just him. How much of that was a product of a really structured defensive environment by American hockey league standards. He's not gonna have that in Utah. And so that adjustment, and the adjustment from the outside analyzing him, like recognizing that you're gonna need some, you're not gonna be able to go off the wrong numbers here. You're gonna need to sort of see how he does relative to sort of the adjusted stuff. I'll be fascinated to watch him and excited to watch him because he waited a long time in the American League. I don't think he always got a fair shake down there with the Red Wing in terms of the opportunities and how slow they were in coming. This is a big jump. There, there's no sort of dipping your toe in here. It's, it's him in Vamelka and not a lot of safety net. So there's pressure that comes with that. And I'm excited to see and like I said, I know some people that that that work with him and know him. And they think he's very ready for this opportunity. I hope so too. He was very high on my list. Now you and I spoke about him quite a bit when we chatted in July. The last time I had you on, but I did want to revisit it. And you know, I can tell you for a fact, like the, and I'm sure you heard the same things, like the Red wings were very skeptical that he was ready for this. And I think their actions spoke as such because they kept them buried in the AHL. And after everything that's happened in Detroit the past couple months, you could even stretch it further than that. I don't think we should necessarily view them as the authority on good takes and player evaluation. So I'm not going to hold that against Kosa. I think he's going to get a fair shake and a clean start here. And that's exciting. The reason why this is important is two straight years. The mammoth have just belligerently overworked Vamelka, right? Two years ago. Was it 22 straight games or something like that? They played him down the stretch while they were hanging around a playoff opportunity. And then last year, 64 games for him. No other goalie in the league played 60 regular season games. They finally make the playoffs. They have a competitive round one series losing in six to Vegas. I think they should feel like they're entering this year trying to compete with those top three teams in the central for one of those seeds, trying to play multiple playoff rounds. And so that's going to come with even extra workload in the back half of the season. And I think the the mammoth correctly recognized that they need to be more careful while managing that if they're going to accomplish it. And so they go out. You and I already spoke in July about you know, they clearly value Kosa quite highly because it's rare to see a first round pick traded for any goalie. Yellow, yellow, yellow, alone one who just has not played in NHL yet. Like he was drafted in what 2021? And he's played 45 minutes of NHL action, faced 14 shots so far at this level, played 134 HL games. And they acquire him. They spend that 23rd overall pick at the draft. And then they give him a two by two to be the backup. So yeah, it'll be fascinating to see that he's got the physical tools. Certainly we'll see how he deals with NHL shooting talent and some of the adjustments that are going to have to come with that. But it's just especially the way they defend like the pace of the game is so high overall. And they give up a lot of sort of difficult shots that require pace and big goalies that have to move east to west like that. That's what they surrender. And so and yet Pamelka does it really well. Like he's not a small man and he moves so well in the crease. And listen, I trust their their goalie scout Clay Adams. You know, he's he's a guy that's made some really a stew. He's been a part of really a stewed decisions around the goal tending. Their goalie coach Corey Schwab is kind of overlooked and underrated as as one of the guys has been around a long time and had some really good results with a lot of different styles of goal tenders. So I think he'll be able to do some good things there. And you know, like listen, I may talk about the defensive environment and it's a bit of a surprise how loose it is given the coaching staff. But credit, when we talk about the maca playing all these games, not to jump ahead to ebugs and three goalies and stuff like that, we can we can sort of pull on that thread later. But you know kudos to the Utah mammoth being one of the teams that started their practice goalie last year and managed it in a way that allowed Vamelka to avoid a lot of the reps in practice that wear a goalie out and contribute to the fatigue and this trend towards playing less like if you're playing an entire game in practice, that's one less you get during the regular season. And they had a practice goalie and they used him purposely very purposely last year to negate some of the wear and tear that other guys around the league ultimately have to go through. I love the idea that I told you as your homework today that we're going to talk about goalies, we're excited to watch the season and then you had ebugs on your list of goalies are excited to watch the season. So maybe we can say that for the end, you can shout out some of your favorites. I won't be shouting out favorites, but I do think there is a discrepancy. I'm seeing it already in terms of how teams are approaching this that I think is very it's going to be worth noting as the season goes on and again, it won't be as difficult the season from a load management standpoint because it's not as condensed as last year. But some teams are treating it as very much a tool for them to rest guys and some teams frankly appear like they don't even really want one. So we can revisit that as it goes. Well, and Kosa is a six, six freak, but they also have Michael Robble in the system and he's making his jump to pro hockey. He got a taste at the end of last year, but he had dominated the NCAA playability and so that's more of a down the line projection. He's still only 21 and it'll take some time, but it's interesting to kind of all these pieces in Utah and how excited we are about their long-term trajectory and what the goalie situation is going to look like by the time they ultimately achieve that peak. Okay, so I guess we're giving you Kosa as your shout out here. Let's go with a goalie from that draft class who finally got his opportunity full-time last year and he's already broken out, but I wasn't necessarily viewing this list as like guys who are technically breaking up, but just guys who I think are going to have extra opportunity and that's just per wallston. Right. 45 combined games last year between the regular season and playoffs. He makes two million this year and then he's in arbitration eligible RFA that's going to get paid pretty sizable in next summer. Yep. Philip Gustafson is starting his 6.8 times 5 extension this season and gets paid a lot up front in the first two years including a full-known move clause, yet he's out for at least the first month or two. While recovering from hip surgery, they bring in Calvin Pickard to be the backup, but I imagine we're going to see a lot of just per wallsted and they made their intentions pretty clear, I think, after I'm Remember at the start of the playoffs, you were tasked with breaking down the goalies and their strengths and weaknesses ahead of round one. And you were pretty undecided in terms of which way they were gonna go. And I think you profiled both guys and they just ran with Wallstead and gave him the net and he performed well, especially in that Dallas series. Now the reason why I find this interesting beyond like he had a really good year, he's top 10 in the Vezna Oz, he's gonna be playing behind a good team again this year and playing a lot is, and this is a big if at this point as we're recording, but if Queen Hughes is gonna be there for more than just this coming season and that's gonna come with a contract extension around 20 million or whatever, there's just no universe in which they can justify the luxury of keeping both Gustavs and Wallstead, especially with Wallstead's next deal coming up as well. And so if they're keeping him, we can talk about a Gustavs in trade when that happens in the future. They'll need him to get healthy first, but for now like Wallstead is gonna get the lion's share of the starts, which he got for stretches last year, but not really full time in the regular season. And so similar what we just said about Jack Rees, I think that comes with a certain level of new expectations, especially for a team that while Hughes is there is trying to compete for a Stanley Cup and build off of last year and he's just gonna have to not only repeat what he did last season, but now do it more frequently, playing like two out of every three games or whatever. And so I think that makes him a really interesting goalie heading into the season. - Okay, so there's a number of different things we can go there, like first off that is a really, that's a goalie-friendly environment, right? Like that's a place where goalies wanna play. I actually think Calvin Pickard will have success there early on because the game is somewhat predictable. He reads it so well. The environment, if it's similar to what both Wallstead and Gustavsson had last year, if it's similar this season, like two of the highest expected say percentages in the league, you know, that's more what Calvin Pickard had two years ago in Edmonton compared to the tire fire he played behind in his starts this year. And we saw the success that he had due season two. So I actually think that's a pretty astute pickup for them and then a chance for him to go down to the minor leagues when Gustavsson is ready and be a veteran guy. As far as Gustavsson goes, if indeed they have to sell on him because of contract stipulations, says, you know, if you, if, and like as you said, a big if, if he was resigned and the things get tight and Wallstead needs a deal, like the good news is presuming the injury doesn't change this pattern. Gustavsson is due to have a really great year. And it's, I can't explain it. He's not the first guy to do this. I point to Craig Anderson historically as another. But like last year, Gustavsson relative to environment was like almost bang on league average just slightly below. So in terms of how he played relative to the quality of shots he faced. The year before he was like one of the best guys in the league. And that pattern goes back like five years now. Alternating average seasons with incredible seasons. Now if your lows are league average, that's actually really good, right? Like that's not a criticism. That's, that's a feature not a bug as they like to say. But when he's on, like his highs are so high the years he has in the every second season. Like, and again, who knows what a hip surgery does to this in terms of where he's at in his recovery and the work he's put in. But if that trend continues, man, like that's the time to sell. And I don't think his contract is onerous. The one thing that leaves you a little worrisome is just the big moment results haven't been there. Like wallstead, sorry, Gustafson's a guy who's gonna get you there, right? Help you get to the playoffs. But whether it's playoffs or international play, like in those really difficult moments, it just hasn't had the same level of results. And that's why I don't worry about wallstead. Because he kind of has like his performance in the playoffs. Yes, pressure changes, expectations changes here. I use the Merlinan example in Ottawa already on this podcast. But the difference would be yes for wallstead faced all those expectations and pressure is the number one starter in the playoffs. And he had no problem with them, right? Like again, we don't get to see inside their heads. There are signposts along the way. We see what they do between the pipes, but between the ears, it's all about sort of reading situations. Do they play their game? Do they start to play differently under pressure? Do things change? I'm sometimes even if the results aren't there, are they at least failing as themselves or are they trying to make changes in pressure moments and they don't look anything like what they look like in the regular season? Like sometimes there's nothing you can do about it, but do they change? Wallstead sort of checked all the positive boxes there. And so, you know, there's no guarantees. It is a small sample still for him. But if I was placing a bet on guys that I would expect to sort of handle all the extra pressure of the expectations he faces this year, I think we've seen enough signs that he'll handle it just fine. - I agree, I agree. All right, we got time for a couple more. - Okay. - Who do you wanna talk about? - Oh, let's go old school here. 'Cause of the opportunity and because it's an opportunity again, to sort of go back to my first guy in Jacob Fowler how it was other NHL goalies that sort of pointed me in this direction or in his direction because of how high they were on him, Michael D. Pietro was finally getting a shot. And, you know, I remember talking to Brandon Busy about this last year as he was having his breakup with the Carolina Hurricanes and Busy's like he should have been in the NHL last year. Should have been in the NHL this year. Like he's ready for the NHL. We're finally gonna get to see that, right? Like they trade Eunice Corpasallo interestingly enough at the expense potentially of another guy I'm really high on who, you know, again, curious if he clears waivers, had a great tiny sample result at the end of last season and that's Dylan Garon with the New York Rangers. The Rangers acquire Corpasallo, push Garon down to number three and in need of waivers so that the Boston Bruins getting rid of him to create space 'cause they don't think D. Pietro's gonna get through waivers yet again. So, you know, Mikey's a guy that I know from his time here in Vancouver. Actually, I think he went by Mikey here. I don't even think he does that anymore. So, Michael D. Pietro's like I know dating back to his draft and sometime I spent in a video role even when he was with hockey Canada. Know him from some of the camps there and the summers like I hard not to like this kid. As good a person as you'll find his game has evolved. It was clear it was going to need to. It has like a lot of goalies in Boston. He's found sort of his game and been able to sort of adapt it to what they want. Not a huge goal tender, but blessed with a ton of athleticism and I think he's sort of learned how to reign that in and play a more patient calmer game within that. Is it gonna translate right away? Like his box then it's like ever since they lost Bergeron. They lean heavy on goal tending and that makes this a difficult assignment. Swamen was so good last year. So, yeah, spelling him is not easy. There's a lot of pressure here, right? Michael's waited a long time for this opportunity. We don't share for teams. I always say this as a media person. I share for good stories and great people and D Pietro checks both those boxes. I can't wait to see him in the national hockey league this year. And my belief in is, even if there are some ups and downs early, if you give this kid a chance to sort of get his feet under him in comfort, he will deliver for you. 45 games of Providence last year. 9/30 is a percentage. 34, eight and one record with a 1.9 goals again. So, yeah, I'm excited. He's earned it and it should be fun. I, you know, Swamen was really, really good. And I think the raw numbers didn't even give him enough credit for what a big bounce back here. He had with the normal training camp and process preparing after the down year, the year prior. So, yeah, we'll see how that shakes out. I've got two others that were on my official list that we haven't gotten together. And I had a couple of honorable mentions with the rattle through. Throw him at me, I'll be quick. - The first is just, yeah, okay. - I'm familiar with the game, you can't fool me. Joel Hover. So, 26 years old, he makes 3.4 million this year then he's an RFA after this season that coincides with Bennington's contract expiring. He's gonna be a 34 year old UFA next summer. We already saw the changing of the guard, I thought in the back half of last year, in terms of how they were distributing the starts, like at the start, they were still going like 60, 40, or so in Bennington's favor. By the time we got to March and April when they made that spirited push as they do seemingly every year to get back into the playoffs, it was like 75, 25 in Hover's favor. And he outplayed Bennington last year. There were some lows along the way, particularly early in the year, like he had a catastrophic first month of this season. I think he's played, they just four games he played in the first month, he got pulled twice, he had like a 780, say a percentage or something. And then the highs were really high. I've noted this stat previously and it's not an aberration for a goalie to have really good numbers in the games they win, but his were just insane. Like six of his 24 wins were shut out. He had like a 945, say a percentage in those games, barely giving up over a goal against per game. And I imagine they're gonna wanna scale up as you should even further from the 46 games played last year, even with Bennington still there for one more season. and I'm curious to see what that looks like because I thought the highs were genuinely special and now he just needs to get that consistency, I guess, which is true for any goal he's trying to make this sort of a leap in their career. So I mean, he's already kind of broke out last year, but like solidifying his role seems to be a theme for me with a lot of these goalies. Yeah, and then this will be an opportunity. You would think, again, it probably depends on Bennington as well, really interesting to note, like he finished his top 20 and adjusted, say, percentage, sorry, if you, you know, take away the guys that just had a cup of coffee, right, minimum 250 chances against his right there 20th and the national hockey league, almost a goal every hundred shots, just barely behind Dustin Wolf, who similarly had a brutal October, but was really good the rest of the way. The difference that I see is in environment a little bit and I'd be interested to, if I had more time to sort of go look at the games where that you really liked and see what that environment looked like then compared to earlier in the season, he finishes the year with an 894 expected, you know, which is up in the top portion of the league. Jordan Bennington finished the year with an 880 expected. So with more playing time, with more opportunity, might come more tougher starts, more difficult assignments. Again, some of this I think to your point is depending on the time of the year with Blues with the Blues, like their inconsistency in terms of how they played in front of their goal tenders is part of this equation, but that's a pretty wide swing between two guys on the same team, 14 point discrepancy, and so if you start giving hope for some of those, starts getting some of those tougher starts, is he able to sort of sustain the level at which he outplayed that environment as it worsens? And I think, you know, I'm not sure we're expecting them to be great this year, so that's certainly a possibility. Yeah, part of it is because they fell out of the race, they became a seller. So they drew a couple of veterans and then just started playing younger better players in their place. And we're like, yeah, all right. Well, we should have just probably done this all along, but I think that's both pretty well heading into the season. I did get healthier as the year went along. So I think that probably attest to some of that environment change. We can't do this list without discussing this next goalie. The last guy on my official list, and I saved him for a last, because I already know everything you're going to say about it, but we just can't do this list about including him. And that's Yaroslav Asgrov. Like, I know what you're going to say about the lows, the questions on the technical side, on managing certain situations, on being really high on Ned, and he outperformed him last year, particularly down the stretch when Asgrov's wheels just really fell off, yet you know, the shark's our team. We're really excited about looking to see if they can make that leap into the playoffs this year. They added a bunch of salary and even further young talent and players just getting better organically, heading into this year. And you know, you hope that the defensive environments could improve because it was a mess last year and the personnel, you could only do so much with it. So it might be kind of contingent on that, but I think they also just need him to be, I guess, more reliable is the term. And that's a challenge for every young goalie, because you know, the athleticism and some of the highs are incredible, but the lows, as you saw, really from like, New Year on, were really bad. And I'm curious to see, I guess, what the start distribution looks like as well, right? Like they bring in your guy or a comery. They bring back a name from the past, Ilya Samsonov, as well. I imagine it probably will just be Asgrov and Ned splitting the starts, but you know, that's probably still going to come with at least 40 to 50 starts for Asgrov, and how he does with Indos in a big year for him as well. He's an RFA next summer is going to be a big storyline for me to watch. Yeah, I'm curious to like guys, I'm excited to watch absolutely put Asgrov on that list. You know, the Samsonov thing is really interesting to me, because I know a little bit of the backstory there. Like there's a guy who, you know, in Washington was resistant to change, right? I think people forget that when he came into the league, he was, he was on that short list of the next great one from Russia. Like it was Shastirkin, it was Serokin, and it was Samsonov. And, um, you know, clearly he didn't get to the levels those guys have. And I know earlier in his time in Washington, there was a real resistance to doing things differently to adjusting his game kind of like, hey, like I, you know, we saw this with Jacob Markstrom when he was in Florida the first time, right? Like as a young gold tender, the gold of coaches there are stupid. They saw what needed to change. But when you're quote unquote, the best goalie, not in the NHL, when you're a guy who's being compared to Shastirkin and Serokin, like the way you did things worked for so long, it can be really difficult to get these, especially the high end guys, high end prospects to buy into the fact that that might not work in the National Hockey League. And when you look at Asgrov's strengths, he's so good along the ice when he's on his knees. Um, he moves from his knees in the butterfly as well as some golees move from their skates. But the reality is the game has changed. And you talk to golees around the league, go like coaches, go like directors, like they all stress the importance of patience on the edges. And so they tried last year at the beginning of the year to get him to narrow up his stance so that he could hold edges a little longer. But I don't know that that's the strength of his game. And so this is where we talk about, you know, if I'm a, if I'm a GM, I avoid term because the game changes so fast that the strengths of a goalie might fit the game one year and four years later, they don't. He's got some adjustments to make. I thought he did it at the beginning of last season, he kept his feet narrow, he kept them under him. And that's not an easy adjustment as a big goalie. That ice feels like it's a long ways away. When you're narrow, you're inevitably further up and taller in your torso. It could be hard to get that buy in. By the end of the season, he looked more like he did a couple of years ago, lower, wider, locked in, more prone to some of the attacks that take advantage of those types of things. And so I don't know whether that was, hey, just a season wearing him down and some of the changes not sticking or whether that was, you know, I want to go back to doing it my way. I genuinely don't know. I haven't asked that question as pointedly as I probably should. But it sure looked like a bit of regression down the stretch. And as you've said, like some of that is just the team around him, you, you know, as you fatigue, or as you feel pressure, it's that old golfer's making a swing change. And they, you know, they're setting up to play a fade and they've made this swing change. And it's good for their game. And all of a sudden they get into contention back, nine under pressure. And the old swing comes back in your double cross. Like under pressure, under fatigue, your old game tends to come back. And so has he put in the work, you know, is Simpson off there to sort of, because Simpson off right at the end in Washington and too late, finally started to buy into some of the things they were trying to tell him needed to change. And he had this great late run. And then he left for Toronto next year. And so I wonder if there's any mentorship or any thoughts towards having that mentorship delivered. Like, hey, you've been great playing it this way. We might need you to think more seriously about making some changes, because that way just doesn't translate into days NHL the way it did when you were drafted. And so probably putting too much emphasis on this, because it's not his whole game. It's not everything, but it's the one that stood out to me. And maybe that's a bias when I watch him. But I thought it looked really, it looked better at the beginning of the season. And it looked more familiar to seasons past by the end of it. And they're going to need him to probably keep making that adjustment. You know, if he's going to continue to climb, because by the end of the season, yeah, it was a tough environment, but he finished, you know, 60, I thought, a 71 goalies in terms of his performance relative to it. And obviously, they're going to need better than that this season. If he's going to, you know, meantime, Alex and Delta, which was well above expected last year, like not hugely, but in a tough environment, he more than tread, tread water for them. So, um, Eskara's going to have to, there's work to do to sort of take away those starts from that. Yeah, I believe as November was ridiculously good. And it was like, okay, here we go. He's putting it together. And then from the New Year, he had an 865 a percentage in his final 21 appearances. So yeah. And there's, there's some, there's some professional stuff that, you know, like learning to be a pro, um, you know, I watched a couple of their practices here in Vancouver. And there were some habits there that like, man, changes like this don't come without without work. And they have to be daily. Um, they have, you have to grind through them. And I'm, and I'm not sure talking to people around it that that was as consistent as they would have liked. So, you know, maybe other voices helped sort of him find that. So the couple of honorable mentions I have you already had on a few of them earlier. I had Joseph Wool, um, you know, just to see if he stays healthy because I've been the talent is there. And generally, being a retired goalie, yeah, he is a great fit for that system. Like his strengths in the way he's changed his game should fit beautifully if he can stay healthy and fill it out. Yeah. Yep. Um, I had Linus Almark on my list as well at Devon Cooley because I really enjoyed him last year. And I was cool. I did video on Cooley recently because we're supposed to connect for, for a pro-read session. Um, you know, early in camp here. And I kept talking about the numbers, like he had the best adjusted say percentage of any regular in the national hockey league last year. Like better than Logan Thompson, better than Scott Wedgewood, Soroken. Um, he showed up Jake Allen by the way with six in that number for everybody that's, you know, nervous about New Jersey's gold tending situation. I don't think he realized just how good Jake was even in a smaller sample. But I watched the video on Cooley. His explosiveness, the control within some of those explosive movements and his size. I'm not sure people realize how, like, just how good that combination is. Obviously the numbers backed it up, but when I watch it on video again just recently this week. I was just blown away like this. There's a reason teams are calling Calgary about him. He small sample. Let's see if he repeats it. But man, like from a late blumer standpoint, he might, he might be one of the best examples we've seen of late. And you know what, two of the three guys atop the list I just mentioned Logan Thompson Devon Cooley would both sort of classify as that late blumer. Yeah, I'm looking forward to both him and Dustin Wolves ability to just mess with Calgary's best laid tank plans. Best goal. Best goalie tandem in the national hockey league last year. And what did that do for them? Yeah. Well, I think they still wish they were a little bit worse. That's what I mean. That's that's the challenge, right? You know, goalie's I didn't have on my list despite being interested to see what happens with them this season because both their veterans, but also you and I spoke about them a lot in detail. Last time or Jacob Marxram in Florida, Sergio Baprovsky in Toronto, Connor hella buck TPD who is still somehow the bedding favorite for the Vezna despite the fact that we don't know when if or for who he's going to be playing this season. And most importantly, people get sick of me hearing this from me, but like what's the environment like like again, Connor hella buck will be a great goal tend to regardless of where he plays. But if you want to get the best out of him, you better have a very specific environment. It's the same of every goalie, but him like it's not to the extreme, but it almost is like there's there's things he does that if you put him in the right environment, it takes a guy who is arguably the best in the world and puts him at the end degree. But if you don't have that environment, you're probably not getting the best out of him. A couple of things I did want to talk to you about on the way out. One was, you know, I included some rotations. In my list, we mentioned the potential for Montreal, for example, I think what Buffalo does is going to be interesting to watch New Jersey as well as you mentioned, like some of these just splits, especially now in a 40 game, 84 game season to see what that looks like and how teams operate. I think they'll be interesting. So Nico Dawes is another fascinating name as good as Jake Allen was. And again, like I got a stress, like we did our best in a breakdown at in goal sort of using these numbers. It's like, hey, like Jake Allen should, you know, with with more games should be in this conversation. So can he repeat it? And then Dawes, Dawes has always had this ability to make the tough stuff, like make the difficult saves. He's been undone. Tiny sample last year, but it was the first year where his numbers weren't completely caved in by bad goals, low percentage goals. He was basically giving up a low percentage goal every second game up until that point. They disappeared last year. If he can keep that up, he's always been good on the tough stuff. If he can get rid of the low percentage goals, like he seemed to last year, if there's something that they've done or he's done or something that's made him more comfortable, he's a guy that could have some really good success this year, because he's like I said, he's always managed the tough stuff. Well, it's just, it's really hard. Like we've talked about what it does do a bench. There's numbers like you lose 87% of the games your goal gives up a low percentage goal unless the other guy gives up one two, like things like that. Like you can't survive one every two games. If he's eliminated the bad goals, his ability on the tough stuff, there's a guy that could have a nice breakout as well. Now listen, I'm not saying this just because you're regular in the show. But everybody can have a breakout when I talk about it. And you come on, no, well, yeah, there's that. But I do genuinely view you as the best goalie analyst in the game, and that's why I try to have you on as often as I can to talk about the position. How do you feel though speaking of Devils goalies about their prospect coming potentially for your crown as the best goalie analyst? Did you see the website he put out there you grew up and his breakdown of his own play at BU because I thought that was fascinating. And I really hope we get to a point where he's good enough in his development to come to the NHL and that he's doing breakdowns at the NHL level and putting all the stuff people like myself are doing using the public data to shame because he's like hand tracking all of his own stuff and has a lot of rebound stats and things like that. Exactly. So what's he doing? Like what's he really doing? Like he's basically for himself, like this is this is the issue. It requires hand tracking. It requires, you know, the ability to sort of look at all these different categories. And so I you're right, I absolutely admire him for doing it. It's why I trust Clearside Analytics so much because that's what they do. Like a lot of the stuff that he's doing there are stuff that I have access to tracked independently, objectively and manually being the keyword. You know, is there anything that's perfect? No. But when I talk to teams around the league about some of the other systems that are relying on video and using other methods to sort of establish, you know, there's a degree of inaccuracy. And not forget the stats because they're brilliant people creating the numbers. But the actual events being measured properly is an issue for a lot of it. And so kudos to him. Absolutely. I did find it interesting to watch everyone lose their mind. Like and I get it because he's a goalie. But to watch everyone lose their minds and I basically pull up a website and look at similar stats. And it's and I still question to this Dan, like, why isn't every NHL team looking at the same stats in part because they're just not willing to spend the money. All jokes aside, if he ever chooses to do so and it seems like he doesn't want to based on my chat with him. But I think Scar wedger would when his playing days are over, it can become the best goalie analyst in the game because when I had him on the show, he was remarkable. And I knew he would be. I told you people who know him and you yourself vouch for him. He's so good. I love the like as part of the chat. I had a section where I was like, so I solicited questions from our pal Kevin Woodley and he like instantly sat up in his chair and was like, all right, here we go. And he knew what was coming. So he's, you know, like I hope he has like that last year. And I believe like, I mean, the the level he played at expecting it to continue for any goalie would be difficult one year over the next. It was that good. Like repeating that is hard for the best in the history of the game. But I hope it's, and I believe it can be part because of how well he thinks the game. Part of an ongoing upward trend because I want him to play for a long time because to your point, as soon as he's done so much, I haven't got a chance. As soon as that guy turns to media, he's so good at what he does. And he thinks it's so well. No, he says he doesn't want to. I'm sure he's going to be a coach or something. So we'll see how it goes. But yeah, he was he was phenomenal. All right, buddy. Well, you're phenomenal as well. This was awesome. I catch up with you feeling much more prepared for goalies this season. I'll allow you promote some stuff on the way out because you've got a new podcast venture of your own cheating on me here and doing your own things. I'll let you tell the listeners a little bit about that and where they can check you out for more of your takes. Oh, I had to pay some bills. I'm really honored that John Shannon asked me to be the co-host sliding into the chair that landed for ROV catered on a hundred percent connox. So obviously a lot more connox focused on that one, although much to John Shagrin, I will work in the odd goalie take as well. And then Ingol Magg that's that's the main one, right? That's where the focus lies. If you're a goalie, if you're a goalie parent, especially if you're a goalie parent, if you're a goalie coach, there is no better resource online thanks to the generosity of people like Scott Wedgewood, like Alex Nadelkovich, all these goalies that Devon Cooley that give us their time to watch video with us and help explain how they see and break down the game knowing that it will help the next generation of goal tenders. As Mitch Cornwood say, connect the patterns of goal tending. It's not a game of shots. As Mitch says, it's a game of patterns. And we have unprecedented video and access to NHL guys that will help you as a goal tender, whether it's beer league, junior, college, coming up as a youngster, connect those same dots and figure out how to read and anticipate the game at a higher level. We have, we're up close to 400 of those videos to meet you with over 40 goal tenders, you know, including the Connor hella box, that your damn goes like big names around the game, carry price headed into the Hall of Fame. So yeah, I would highly encourage selfishly that people go check that out. Subscription, price is actually going up in a month and a half. It's only $50 Canadian right now. I think that's two cups of coffee in the States. We will give you access to unbelievable goal tending knowledge for that money. All right, buddy, well, looking forward to all of your coverage of goalies this season and having it back on once the game to go and maybe we can revisit this list and see who's living up to the hype and who's let us down. I'm sure your list of guys letting you down and be very low because you're going to tell me that their expected save percentage is actually seven 25 and they're outperforming it. So hey, I'm honest, I'm honest, when I miss. So no, you are, you are. Then I just blame volatility. You're the best in the business. Keep up the great work. Okay, that is all for today. If you want to make sure you're getting to listen to all the shows you're doing this season, I highly recommend subscribing to the PDO cast Patreon page. Our Patreon subscribers will be getting access to every single episode we do this year and they'll be getting the ad free version of all the shows we record on that feed as soon as we're done recording them. So there's no more waiting around for new shows to drop pretty much as soon as I'm done recording. I'll be getting it out for you to listen and enjoy in a very timely manner. We've got a lot of really fun stuff on that feed already. Last week, we had Shayna Goldman on right after the new CBA kicked in. The two of us broke down all of the contract extensions we saw around the league. We also had John Madison and he helped me preview the Atlantic division by working our way through the biggest questions we have for all eight of the teams in the Atlantic heading into the year. And we're going to keep the shows coming, especially now with the start of the NHL regular season only a week or so. away. I think it's a pretty good time for you to join us if you haven't done so already and make sure you're not missing out on anything all year. The only other new thing this season for us is that we're also going to be posting full shows on the YouTube channel. So if you want to watch along with us please check that out and while you're there make sure to subscribe to the channel, like the videos, comment on them. That's going to help us really grow the channel and we're going to keep putting more and more stuff on there throughout the year. We'll be back soon with more on this feed. Thank you for subscribing and for listening to the hockey PDO cast. [Music] [Music]