A (4:42)

And Scott, you got five names in your tier two there. How many of those would you consider to be or to have a chance at seriously threatening Gavin? I know he's still in tear himself right now, but year's end, how many would you say have a serious chance to get into that?

D (4:55)

I think the more likely outcome for me is that a guy or two from that group maybe joins Gavin in the same tier. I'm not sure I'll get to the point at the end of this season like his five on five struggles would have to persist all year and I don't think that's going to happen for Gavin. It is notable that only three of his 13 points through his first 10 games here have come at five on five but I think we're going to see more of that. The shot creation is there. His, his shooting percentage is low. He's generating. He's not playing on their big boy line. They really lean on on their return. Their that sort of returning top line with Serato. So there, there are, there are different things that have contributed to his quote unquote slow start. But 13 points in 10 games is still indicative of a top prospect and I think we're going to see him. I touched on it the pod on the pod a couple of weeks ago but I think we're probably going to see a four point game around the corner for him at some point here and he's going to break through and he's going to start to feel better about himself and that's going to build through the World Juniors and he's going to be one of Canada' players at the World Juniors and Canada are the gold medal favorites and I think we're going to see a bit of a realignment around Gavin McKenna in the Conversation as this goes on. To answer your question, I think Stenberg and Verhoff, who are obviously my second and third ranked prospects are the two that I that I feel closest on. I know there are some who believe that Bell Ketz is in that conversation. I've seen Ethan play several times already this year. I was just in Saginaw last weekend and saw him play a couple weekends before that. I saw him play in Brantford. He was excellent in both of those games and frankly better than lineman Jack Nesbitt who was a top, Almost a top 10 pick of the Philadelphia Flyers in both of those games and as good if not better than Liam greentree who's a 19 year old and one of the coming off being one of the league's leading scorers a year ago in both of those games. So Belcats is legit. I don't know what the next like I know what the next level for Stenberg and Verhoff is like. I think Stenberg can be a premium, premium first line winger in the NHL. I think Verhoff can be a first pairing defenseman in the NHL. I do wonder if Bel Katz becomes more of just like a. A really unique, big, strong, heavy, talented, sort of Matthew Nies style top six player, maybe a little bit more than that. I actually think he's probably a little bit more skilled than Knives was at the same age. But I don't know whether I'll get to Bel Katz as a player that I could imagine taking first overall, I guess is what I'm saying. And I think I could maybe get to that point on Stenberg and Verhoff if they continue to sort of trend in the right direction here.

C (7:28)

I know we always love doing comparables in November when we're, you know, more than half a year away here from actually calling these kids names at the draft. But the early comps I thought of for McKenna would probably be Artemi Panarin. For Belketz, I've thought of Slapkovsky, and for Verhoff I've thought of Aaron Ekblad. So. And you can just don't even agree or disagree with that. But if this is, let's just say for argument's sake, those are the three names, what order would you have those three names in?

A (7:59)

It's probably Panera Neckblad. And then I forgot Slavkovsky was your third. Yeah, I think that's probably the way I would go.

D (8:07)

I think that's probably the way I'd go as well. For what it's worth, I had an NCAA coach who was in Windsor at that Windsor Saginaw game that I was at last weekend who used. Who used Rick Nash. After how impressive Ethan Belketz was, I don't think he skates like Rick Nash did. But that was a name that got tossed out there.

C (8:26)

Me, Rick Nash was my comp for Slafkovsky three years ago. Mind you, that's true.

A (8:31)

There is a nice little through line there. If you went one level up, though, Corey from Slavkovsky, and if you really bought the physicality, which at times I think you probably could, if you got to like a Brady Tkachuk level, I think that conversation kind of gets upended. I'm not sure he's quite Brady Kachuk. I don't think there's too many guys quite like that. But I'm just saying if the physicality ticks up just a little more and if you really believe that the offense is a 60 to 70 point guy, that's the name that I think starts to upend that conversation. If you start to get into the.

C (8:59)

Brady Tkachuk territory, would you take Brady over Panarin?

A (9:03)

I might, yeah. I mean, it's hard to say because Panarin's right now we're seeing a decline from Panarin. So it's, it's. You got to separate those biases.

D (9:11)

Yeah.

C (9:11)

You're thinking of his peak years though where he's like 100 point threat.

A (9:14)

Right. And so I think it's close. I mean, would you rather have the 70 to 80 point Brady Tkachuk type who I think impacts games every night even if he's not scoring, or would you rather have the 100 point guy? 20 points is a lot. It's trade off I might be willing to make.

C (9:30)

Yeah, yeah. I think that's going to be a conversation we're going to hear as we get closer to the spring. Is, is McKenna the type you win with? Do you prefer a Verhoff or a Bell Kits? And again, well, long way to go till that point. We'll see how they actually play the rest of the way here. But I think that's, it's interesting conversation. Like I said, I would probably still like, I think that that talent gap is so large, like I think the skill gap on McKenna is just like so, so much bigger than anybody else that I would still lean that way. But kind of like I said at the top here, if the offense doesn't come in the way we expect it to, then two months, two months later from here, I definitely could start, you know, coming off on McKenna as an 1 player.

A (10:16)

Corey, your number two prospect is actually a guy that we haven't talked about in this grouping. You mentioned him in your answer. Tynan Lawrence, a guy who as you said, has missed a little bit of time. Why does he belong in that mix for you?

C (10:27)

I think he just ticks every box. Excellent skater, excellent competitor, excellent skill level. What he did last spring in the ushl, being the top player in their playoffs and helping Muskegon win and you know, he was just so impressive and he may not be the most dynamic skill player, but he has so much in his game to me that makes me think he could potentially be a maybe an you know, an average to below average first line center in the NHL. I kind of think of him like in a Sebastian Aho type of player mold that I just think the way he plays is just so likable and he will impact a game in so many different ways that I think he belongs in that conversation. That being said, I would like to see him play. I tried to go watch him play a couple of days ago and he got hurt again. So one of these days he needs to get on the ice and get a season going here. But from what I saw last year and at the Holynka, he looks like a true top tier prospect.

A (11:30)

And then one final thought on Gavin McKenna here. This was something I was thinking about the other day. Does the NCAA need Gavin McKenna to be the first overall pick here? Do they kind of need this to go really, really well for him so that it become a little bit of a, oh, you know, selling point for. For CHL teams to be like, hey, look what happened to McKenna. He was a can't miss first overall pick. He goes to college and he ends up second or third.

C (11:52)

What has Bearhoff goes over one.

D (11:54)

I was going to say the same thing. If, if Verhoff and him go one, two, I don't think it really matters in what order they go.

C (12:00)

All right, fair point.

A (12:01)

I guess so. I guess they would have to take a CHL kid or even Tynan Lawrence going number one to make that selling point. But Ty Lawrence doesn't do them much good as in the U.S. uSHL did.

C (12:10)

I do think if he wouldn't have left though, it would have been frowned upon in the NHL. I think they would have looked at a guy who basically did everything he possibly could have in junior hockey and didn't make the step and they would be asking questions like why isn't he challenging himself? And you know, different types of questions. In the questions we're asking right now, it's. That's the consequences of being such a good player is you will always have questions asked of you because everybody's watching you.

A (12:37)

Yeah, it was nitpicking for sure. All right, let's go to Ivar Stenberg now because to your point, Corey, like the start for Ivar has been excellent in the SHL here. Can you contextualize for people who maybe haven't followed his season, what you're seeing from Ivar right now?

C (12:50)

I mean, for Lunda is one of the very best teams in the shl. I think even as we're talking about they might be number one or number two in the standings right now. And he gets first power play opportunities. He's a regular at even strength. He's one of their leading scorers. You know, just what he's doing right now is nearly unprecedented. Like you look at like what Elias Lindholm did in the shl. Leo Carlson, his pace is way ahead of those guys and the impact he's having on his team is right up there with them. It was a little bit smaller, not a center like those guys were, but Just, you know, just outstanding start to the season here. We'll see whether he keeps it up. We'll see how his world junior goes. You know, we talk about him versus McKenna. You know, the struggle I would have is that, you know, people will think, well, look at how good Stenberg looked at the U18s last year. It's like, yeah, well McKenna did better the year before that at the U18s. You know, it's so, you know, as both of them are like small skilled wingers like McKenna would really need to fall off in the coming months and Stenberg would just need to continue doing this for me to have him in the same conversation. But that being said, I mean he looks, you know, you think about Perlin to winger like Lucas Raymond. He, he could barely get in the lineup in his draft season. Even his draft plus one season, he struggled at times in the SHL for Perlinda. And this guy's making a difference. Like this is a pretty special offensive talent. He's a competitive kid and he has all the makings that Scott said as a potential first line wing in the NHL.

D (14:20)

From an impact standpoint, it actually reminds me of what William Nylander did in his post draft season in that league where William was an excellent, excellent player at that level and then came over and joined the Marlies and was an excellent player for the Marlies right away. If you think he's a more competitive kid on pucks than Willie was at that same age. But I see a similar path for him to becoming that level of that level of player who's a leading scorer on a team or one of the two or three top forwards on a team. I think he's that talented.

C (14:50)

I went over there to watch him play a couple of times. One game was just okay, but the second game I saw, he was one of the two to three best overall players in the entire game. And that's pretty rare for a teenager in the SHL like these. I'm not saying, you know, there's going to be ebbs and flows with a guy that young, but he's absolutely deserving. Being talked about at the very top of the draft.

A (15:12)

All right, let's take a quick break right there. We'll come back with more draft talk on the Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series.

E (15:18)

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A (18:13)

AI agents are everywhere, automating tasks and making decisions at machine speed. But agents make mistakes. Just one rogue agent can do big damage before you even notice. Rubrik Agent Cloud is the only platform that helps you monitor agents, set guardrails and rewind mistakes so you can unleash agents, not risk. Accelerate your AI transformation@rubrik.com that's R U B R-I K.com all right, we're back and we're going to go a little bit deeper into the draft rankings here. And Scott, I want to start with you because on your list you have two smaller defensemen, Xavier Villeneuve and Ryan Lynn, both in your top seven. After a draft where we have seen and really several drafts recently where we have seen smaller defensemen kind of get pushed down the board. Last year being the most extreme example. I wanted to hear a little more about your thought process in getting both Lynn and Villeneuve into the top seven.

D (19:11)

I think it's just the year honestly it that the trend is certainly trending in that direction where a year out from no sub 6 foot D going in the, in the entire draft, obviously Cam Reed got that extra 0.25 inches at the combine that made that stat, that turned that stat into a. But we are, it is it, it is trending that way at the draft despite Denton, Matejuk and some other players having success. We've talked about the many, many players at that Height that were first round picks in the last 10 or so years who've, who've on the flip side have struggled. Whether it's the Boqvists or the Village Nolas or the Ras, even Rasmus Sandin at times in his career, you go down the list. But I think this is, it's just the year you play the cards that you're dealt in a draft class and I think the cards that you're dealt in this draft class are that those are two of the more special, more talented, more projectable players in this class. For me, Villeneuve is arguably the most certainly up there with Gavin McKenna as arguably the most purely gifted player in this class. I think he's a special, special dynamic talent on the puck who can break teams down and is going to do that at the NHL level. Villeneuve doesn't defend at a necessarily at a top 10 level for me at this point and I do have questions about what that will look like in the NHL for him, but because of the talent, because of his feet, because of the way he handles and attacks with the puck. I think that is translatable. And once you get past the top six that we talked about in that sort of tier at the top for me, I think Villeneuve is right there in at the very top of that next group. But in saying that there is a player who is in that group for me who isn't maybe in that group for the consensus and that's Ryan Laird. We've talked about him a little bit on the pod already and Corey and I have gone back on back and forth about him a little bit already. I know Corey feels differently about win than I do in terms of range and NHL scouts tend to lean Corey's way. But there are some big believers around the whl, around Hockey Canada, around, including amongst NHL scouts and Ryan Lynn and I've sort of fallen into that camp here. I think he defends for a 511D at a very, very, very high level. His details, little retrievals, everything is there at a high level except maybe the size piece and the fact that he's about an average skater. The line you immediately draw I think is kind of that Adam Fox, extremely, extremely intelligent player, thinks the game at among the highest levels in this draft class for me, defends well, is a top player in his age group, has been a top player in his age group all the way up. I think he's going to be a big part of Team Canada at Future World Juniors, etc. Etc. The real question scouts just have is, is that the feet are average for a five' eleven guy. Like he doesn't skate like a Villeneuve does. He doesn't sort of operate offensively like he does. He has really opened up his game this year. I've been very impressed by how he's expanded his game offensively and this is coming off of being with Landon Dupont, the first two defensemen in more than a decade to have 50 points in the WHL as a 16 year old a year ago. So despite the that he maybe doesn't look like Villeneuve, he's been extremely, extremely productive. Like top of a draft draft class productive as well. He's not going to be for everybody, but I think with the details and the way he defends there, there is a lot there. Like he is very impressive in his own zone.

A (22:39)

Corey, I wanted to go to you on a couple of the center prospects that you've had kind of tick up your list and one of those is out of Finland and it's Oliver Suvanto, a player that I didn't know A whole lot about. Until he kind of came onto my radar through you.

C (22:52)

Yeah. And I think I mentioned in our Halinka episode I thought he was really good there. And this is a guy who, when I watched him a year ago, didn't really impress me a whole lot. Like when I saw the U17 age group for Finland, he didn't really stand out in a significant way. But this is also a guy who is really young. I think he's a couple of days away from being 2027 draft eligible.

A (23:15)

Yeah, one week away.

C (23:16)

And you know, he's really just developed at a significant rate in the past six to nine months. You know, he's playing, you know, regular minutes on one of the very best teams in Liga and Tapira. He's. He's big, he's heavy, he's very skilled. You know, he's going to, I think, going to be right in the mix to make this world junior team for Finland. His skating is just okay. But for me, when you look at just the trajectory he's on, the significant skill he has, you go back and watch some of those who linked it games where he's playing against junior players, which he hasn't got a chance to do much of in the fall here. And he was just so impactful. You know, this is a guy that reminds me a little bit like how like, say like Connor, geeky looked at the same age and like, that's the kind of range I think these guys tend to go in is, you know, high teens, latter part of the top 10. Like, I think he's got a chance to be a second line center in the NHL and you know, we'll see how the rest of his year goes. We'll see whether he makes the U20 team or not. He's got a. He's playing with the U20 team here this week as we record in the tournaments they're playing in. But yeah, like I said, he's a really exciting player. And I do think if the draft happened tomorrow, this is. That's about the range in the draft he would go in.

A (24:30)

And there's another center that's climbed your list too, out of Brantford, and that's Caleb Malhotra. And you know, you have Savanto at 9, Malhotra at 11. All of a sudden, this draft that looked a little bereft on centers, we're starting to see some names take up that board.

C (24:44)

Yeah, and Malhotra for me, I did not expect to start of the year like I, when I watched a little bit of his bchl, I thought he had good skill. I didn't think it was outstanding skill. I didn't think the skating was all that impressive. And just watching him this season, like, man, has he been good with Branford. I know Branford is loaded and he has that top power. He's on the top power play unit and he gets, you know, you know, you look at the plays that, you know, Adam Banach and Yek and Jake o' Brien make, make around him and. But he's still been very impressive. He's playing penalty kill, he's playing regular even strength minutes on this team. He's competing hard, he's driving play with his, with his feet. He's making a lot of really creative plays. And yeah, I mean, I, you know, we'll see how he looks when frankly half his team leaves here in a couple of weeks to go to the world juniors. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that, but what I've seen so far, just kind of like Savanto, the development he's made has been extremely significant in a short period of time and I think he's not just been a passenger on that top Branford team. I think he's been a reason why they've been a top team.

A (25:51)

Scott, you also have Malhotra as a first round pick and actually Suvanto for that matter as well. But I'm curious what you want to see from Melhotra as the year progresses before you put him into this kind of top 10 to 12 range where Corey has him.

D (26:03)

I just wonder a little bit about the ultimate offense for Malhotra. He's another player that I've seen play several times already this year live plus on tape and extremely impressive in terms of the details of the game. Like as Corey mentioned, he's penalty killing. He's good in the face off circle. He knows where to be, he's above the puck. He supports his line mates really well. He's been an important part of a very important line for them despite how loaded they are. All those guys, the Vanekers, the Banachs, they've played together at the top of that lineup. And their line, they just traded Aiden o' Donnell, who was an important part of that line as part of the Ben Danford deal. But their line with Aiden o' Donnell and Cooper Dennis became a pivotal, pivotal sort of early in the season, middle six line for them and has produced it 5, 5. Despite the some of the cookies that he does get by playing on the top power play there he's a very smart player, but he doesn't really have the physical tools like you meet him. He's a really, really skinny kid. He's not a burner in terms of his skating. His skill level in his shot are good, but I don't think he's going to be a 30 goal guy at the NHL level. So I think you're, you're looking at the two way detail, you're looking at the position, you're looking that he is good size, like he's over 6ft tall and should be able to fill out. And you're looking at the smarts and thinking, okay, what does that player look like at the NHL level? And I think he's probably a middle six, more likely a third line center for me at the NHL level, which sort of kept him in the 20s on my list as opposed to say the teens.

C (27:27)

I think the player style is a little different, but I think the way he plays, the the environment he's in, it reminds me a little bit of Barrett Hayden in terms of the great team that was around him in his draft year. The great all around centerman. Now Barrett Hayden shouldn't have gone five, but he definitely is a guy who I think belonged in the teams.

A (27:46)

We're going to put a pin on that strong team in Brantford here as we take a break because we're going to come back with them right out of this break. AI agents are everywhere, automating tasks and making decisions at machine speed. But agents make mistakes. Just one rogue agent can do big damage before you even notice. Rubrik Agent Cloud is the only platform that helps you monitor agents, set guardrails and rewind mistakes so you can unleash agents, not risk. Accelerate your AI transformation@rubrik.com that's R u b r-I k.com this episode is brought to you by Addio the AI native CRM Add IO is built to scale with your business from day one. Setup is instant and in seconds of syncing your email and calendar, you'll see all your relationships in one place, fully enriched with actionable insights. With Addio, AI isn't just a feature, it's the foundation. You can do things like instantly prospect and route leads with research agents, get real time insights from AI during customer conversations, and build powerful AI automations for your most complex workflows. Industry leaders like TaskRabbit, Granola and Flatfile are already experiencing. What's next for CRM? Start now at adio.com pod and get 15% off your first year that's a T T I O.com pod ThirdLove makes better bras, period.

B (29:17)

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A (29:55)

All right, we're back. And Corey, earlier this week you had a piece come out that was a world junior stock watch, talking about players who have helped and hurt themselves for trying to make the rosters at this year's tournament. Really good story. I would recommend everybody check that out. I'm not going to pull directly from that so much here, but I'm making a couple inferences based on what I'm reading here. Corey, you got three Branford Bulldogs with stock up. Does that mean that this team's stock is going to be down in December because they're going to be without all these guys?

C (30:23)

Probably. You know, this is, you know, one of the more loaded CHL teams we've seen in the last few years, and they continue to load up, up. They just traded for Ben Danford and I, and I don't know whether they're quite necessarily done here trying to acquire pieces as we approach the OHL trade deadline, but that team is just.

D (30:41)

I bet that they push hard for Luchenko here in the next couple of weeks.

C (30:45)

Yeah, that was the name I was thinking of without outright saying it, but Scott said it. So that's. So that's fine. Is, you know, I think, you know, you look at that team and, I mean, there are that whole top unit of, you know, know, I think at the start of the year, I'm not sure what Scott thinks. I think we thought Jake o' Brien's probably on the bubble for the World Juniors for Team Canada, but if they.

D (31:03)

I thought he was. I thought he. Coming out of the summer showcase, I thought he was fully out. I actually remember texting his dad, texting his dad that I thought he was unfortunately going to be out. Like, I don't think he was even in the conversation.

C (31:16)

Yeah. But now I presume Beckett Senake is not going to get loaned Out. We'll see what happens with Berkeley Cat and we'll see what happens with Michael Misael at the NHL level. But given the year he's having, I think he's squarely in the conversation. Make Team Canada. He's been one of the very best players in the chl. He's a center, he has size. He's been competing hard, you know, so he's been great. Adam Binoch's been fantastic. You know, that whole blue line is just great. You know, you got year check there. You have Owen Prats is a, you know, not really skilled player, but his skating and his physicality could put him in the mix to make Team Canada. He was at the summer showcase case, you know, you have Ben Dan for now on this team. You have Marek Vaneker, who's been, you know, really filling that net front rule on the power play and he plays hard and might find his way into a bottom six spot there. So, yeah, it's quite possible that there's going to be a lot of Team Canada representation from the Brantford Bulldogs and.

D (32:13)

Team Czechia representation from the Brantford Bulldogs. There's a chance. I think there's a good chance. Vladimir Javecki, who's draft eligible this year, joins.

C (32:20)

Yes.

D (32:21)

Banak on that team.

C (32:22)

Stall and your check.

A (32:24)

We were talking about Corey a second ago. You were talking about all the guys who were waiting to find out and maybe even thinking probably won't get loaned out to Team Canada. You mentioned a lot of forwards there. But Scott, this has to be a huge worry for Team Canada on the blue line here because a lot of the names that we're thinking from this 2024 draft class, you remember it was that outstanding blue line year and a lot of them were Canadian. Are they getting any of these guys this year?

D (32:46)

Yeah. I remember when we put. When the three of us put together our sort of predicted lineups for Team Canada this summer, we all kind of commented on, I'm not sure the defense will look as good as it does here it come December. Just the expectation was that Parek and Dickinson were going to start in the NHL, that Brunicke had a good chance to start in the NHL, that Schaefer had a good chance to start in the NHL. Well, now all four of those players are currently in the NHL and a couple of them have already been announced as not going back to their junior clubs. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that we're not going to see a Sam Dickinson who was just told that he's staying, or Zane Parekh who's. Who sounds like he's staying or potentially even a Brunicke Lent. But they're not going to get a Matthew Shaffer and I think that at this point they're probably happy to get one of those four guys. Which means the shape of this blue line for Team Canada starts to look a lot different. And, and unfortunately for them, one of the players who played his way into that mix and I think was in line if they were to miss some of those power play guys to be a third pairing power play guy for them with the way that he'd started at Michigan is Henry Muse who is now also done for the year. So you start to look down the depth chart. I don't think Cam Reed and Kitchener, who was probably in the mix for the third pairing there, has played particularly well this year. I think Danford probably bodes well. I think you could see his teammate Owen Protz in the mix. As Corey alluded to. Could Keaton Verhoff be a part of the team? We've talked about that a little bit, but that's a much different look than wheeling out Matthew Schaefer and Zane Parek and Sam Dickinson and Harrison Brunicki for 25 minutes a night each. So suddenly I think they're, they're a little susceptible. I think in, in that case on Aitchison probably gets into the mix, it'll, it'll still be a good, good blue line but their forwards I think are going to be much stronger based off of the outlook there and even that. I mean there's no guarantee. Berkeley Catton, Michael Misa, Corey mentioned Beckett Senake. There's no guarantee. They get some pretty important contributors there. Ben Kindle could maybe not be available. He's another guy who I don't think was really in the mix coming out of the World Junior Summer Showcase. It looked like he was on the outside looking in. Cole Reshnie actually felt like he was sort of firmly in the mix after the way that he played at that tournament. And I don't think Reshni's been particularly impressive, at least not in my viewings of North Dakota this season. So I think there's, there's a lot at play there. Caleb Danoyer is coming off an injury. Sasha boy, there's coming off an injury there. There are a lot of questions suddenly for this, this Team Canada.

C (35:13)

I think he got hurt on in the first game back again, although I don't know the severity.

D (35:17)

Yeah. So they, that's just another thing that they've got to figure out here. It's a, it's a long list. I think they're happy that Brady Martin is back in junior there. There are some players who are trending in the right direction, but you're talking suddenly about eight or nine guys that I think were if not locks to be a part of the team were strong candidates to make the team who either haven't played well or are injured or are unavailable via the world juniors. So they could, they could take a bigger hit this year than, than even we're used to at recent tournaments.

C (35:47)

I do wonder given that Mark and Dale Hunter are part of this team Canada and that I think we expect the San Jose Sharks will continue to be not very good and that Sam Dickinson, even though he's made the team, he's not playing a significant role. That's one. I think they will find a way to convince the Shark to loan him out by December. Like I just think that one just makes too much sense.

A (36:10)

Scott mentioned Ben Kindle, Corey and that's a player who at the time I think was one of the surprise picks of the 2025 draft. And really all he's done this year is justify the Penguins faith in him.

C (36:22)

Absolutely. I mean he would have told me a year ago he's going to be a third light center in the NHL. I mean one, he's not a center in junior. Why is he gonna.

D (36:30)

He won with Crosby and Malkin.

C (36:32)

Yeah, I mean he's just. He looks so good. I went to one of their games the other week and he was really impressive there for an 18 year old and yeah, he's just look like, he looks like he's gonna be a top six forward in the league. Whether he's gonna stay in the middle or be in the wing long term we'll see. Obviously it's going very well for him in the middle right now. Even as an 18 year old I think he still gets knocked around a little bit in battles but that's to be expected when you're 5, 10, 170, whatever he is kind of thing. But his, his skill is hockey sins, he works hard, he's got, he's good enough skater. I think it'll be fascinating to see whether they loan him out for Team Canada or not because they've been winning games. I think you look at the underlying numbers and I think you can ask reasonable questions about whether they will continue to win games here over the course of the next few months and what's in the best long term interest of Kindle and the Penguins. But if he's playing regular minutes, he played 22 minutes when we recorded this last night. So, like, that's not a guy who gets loaned out. If he was, if he was more like how he was at the start of the year where he was playing like 11, 12, 13 minutes. That's a, that's a loan out candidate, especially if they're not winning. But that's going to be a really fascinating one. And I think that's going to be one where I don't know if Team Cat expected they would have to haggle over Bed Kindle to him to be on the team two months ago. And I think they're going to need to really twist the Penguins management's arms there to get them two players.

A (37:50)

Scott, for Team Canada, who, you know, stand to kind of be even in more prominent roles now. Michael Hage and Justin Carbono both off to really, really good starts this year.

D (37:59)

Yeah. Coming out of the Summer Showcase, I think Hage was trending to make the team and Carbono was kind of a bubble guy. He'd had very, very good camps with St. Louis, but didn't play well at all, frankly. At the Summer Showcase in August in Minneapolis, the reverse was true for Hage in a very disappointing camp where I thought there were big questions about Canada, including some top guys who got to leave early and go home after, after getting upset early in the tournament, if you can call it a tournament for summer hockey. But Hage was very, very good there. Like, he was one of the two or three forwards who stood out the most there, and that has continued into the start of his season. We talked about Brantford in the wagon that they've been, but Michigan, everybody seems to be playing at a very, very high level right now as well. Everybody seems to be clicking there and playing their best. And Hage is, is right at the forefront of that. I think he's not just on this team, but if, if they're without Catton and Misa and some of their centers down the middle, I wonder even if he's a top six center on this team. Like, I don't think they like the idea of returnees like Cole Bauduin or Jet Luchenko in that kind of a role at the top of the lineup down the middle. I'm not sure they like Brady Martin there. I'm not sure they'll get Ben Kindle. And there are a lot of questions. You've got wingers like Porter Martone and Gavin McKenna that, you know, just slot in. I'm not sure who their centers are if they're without Katton and Misa down the middle there. So I do wonder about Hage in that role and if he's not there, I think he's got a real good chance to be a top six winger for them.

C (39:29)

I wonder about Braden Coots maybe now too because just because the need for a center even still like it's it's not.

D (39:35)

I know I get sexy down the middle there.

C (39:38)

Yeah, you mentioned Michigan. One of the crazy stats I was looking up yesterday. Both were eligible in the same draft class for the first year. The undrafted Dakota Rail Mullen who I highlighted in the article. There was a guy with glues of stock up for the World Juniors who I think has a really good chance of make Team usa. He has more points currently this college season than James Hagit does.

D (39:58)

He was he was a late call for the summer showcase too and was very good at the summer showcase as a guy who wasn't initially on the the roster that they announced there. You know who also has more goals than Gavin McKenna is Keaton Verhoff.

C (40:10)

He does. So does Ilya Moroza at the University of Miami who there's a lot of people going in to watch right now. Six three center, six three first line center on Miami who can skate as a 17 year old. I think his draft stock will be very interesting to follow in the coming months.

A (40:25)

A lot of great stuff both on the World Junior front and the draft front and a lot more to come that is going to do it for us today. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series. Remember, remember to check us out on YouTube. We'll talk to you soon.

D (40:43)

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