6:04
Let's put together a starting lineup of the biggest playoff risers so far this NHL season in an era where everyone loves to just crap on the guys for choking in the playoffs. I think let's flip the script. Let's give some guys their flowers. So we'll go three forwards, two defensemen, and a goalie. The guys who have surprised and kind of picked it up the most so far this postseason. We'll start with you, Josh. How can we not start with the playoff leading scorer right now, and that's Mitch Marner? Yep. Guy has been awesome this postseason thus far. You know, he had this reputation as a guy who couldn't deliver in big moments, but
I've never heard that before. Really? But yeah, he's been just outstanding. I think the part that's impressed me most is he's played center for a lot of these playoffs. So that makes Toronto look even worse where all these years they were, you know, let's try Willie at center even though he's basically doesn't play defense. Yeah. And you never once tried Marner at center even though he was a natural center growing up, and now he's, you know, William Karlsson's been back. He's been playing a bit of wing now, but for most of the postseason he's been playing down in the middle, showing off that versatility. So that's just really impressed me a lot about his game. Yeah.
No, uh certainly I mean I don't know how many times we need to touch on this, but I kind of really am upset about seeing him on this list. So I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Mitch. I'm glad happy for your success. Where was it the last 8 years? Uh Moving on. Moving on to you, John. All credit due. Like he's been awesome, and There's there's clearly And in big games, too. And in big games. Clearly there's a lot less pressure on him over there in Vegas than there was in Toronto. So yeah, all things considered, good stuff, Mitch. John, who do you got for us? Let's go with a Vegas Golden Knights opponent, Leo Carlsson. Okay. This guy rules. He rocks. He's [clears throat] whatever, 21. He's really coming to his own like strength-wise this season, but
has kept that sort of obviously keeps his hockey sense. That doesn't go away. But like he's very agile, I find, for a guy who's 6' 3" 205. Very good defensively. Dual threat offensively as a shooter and a passer. And he's putting up points, and also the process is there. I mean, you watch the games and he's he's impacting all three zones and right now I think he's he's third in slot shots per game, but then in the top 10 in slot passes per game and I find that combination really tells a lot about a player like Nikita Kucherov every year. He's always like in the top five in both, same with McDavid. So, for Carlson to be sort of moving into that territory, I mean, I don't know about you guys, but I'd probably put him as a
top 10 center at this point in the league. Yeah. Because it everything just seems very real about his breakout. And this goes back months. Like, it's not like he just showed up in the playoffs, you know, as an complete unknown. insane. Yeah. And, you know, he he's in a small market, so you can understand why he's been sort of overlooked. He missed the Olympics unfortunately due to injury. So, you know, you add that all together and then you see him on this massive stage being the number one center for a team that may go to the conference final and it's all pretty enticing and, you know, I don't I game one assist or I sorry, it wasn't even an assist cuz Lecomte didn't finish it, but he did this crazy spin-o-rama to set up Lecomte for a wide
open net and then he ultimately passed it for unknown reasons, but that was just magic from Carlson and we've seen it throughout the playoffs. Everything you want in a number one center, right? And it's crazy to think back like he was a surprise pick at number two as well. Like, it's really impressive what he's become. I was going to say that too and honestly, I'm going to put you guys on the spot. Would you rather build a team around Leo Carlsson or Connor Bedard?
Whoo. Probably Carlson. I It's so close. Like, I still love the I like the high end that Bedard can be, so I still lean that way, but in terms of like the prototypical easier to build around like guy down the middle. for Carlson is so much higher right now. Bedard be doing what Carlson's doing so far if they had switched spots? What do you guys think? Hmm. I don't know if you want to They're such different players. Yeah. That's the part that's a bit tricky. Cuz it's like Bedard is still like this center, but only better on the winger. Like, there's some weird stuff with him, but I still think like the high end He might score 50 goals like for real.
Exactly. I'd probably go Carlson personally, but it's it's so close. I'm The fact Sorry, go ahead. Well, I was just going to say Alec Martinez, the former NHLer, he's now doing some media. He mentioned he sees a lot of Anze Kopitar in Leo Carlson, which I thought was pretty good. But that in my opinion, Carlson has a higher offensive ceiling. Like he might end up scoring like 80-90 points, whereas I don't know where Kopitar is. I mean, regardless, the fact that we're having this conversation comparing him to Bedard about a guy like is surrounded by a hundred other young studs in Anaheim.
Like they're in a good spot. So, credit to the Ducks what they're doing so far. I think he definitely deserves to be on this list. To round out the forward group, who do you got for us, Kyle? I got Jackson Blake here. We went with a couple high-end guys, but this is a player who has been high-end in the playoffs here, but maybe isn't that high-end guy that you expect for a team coming into a playoff or a guy that you pencil in as like this is the guy who needs to show up. But what we've seen from him this playoffs, like that line with Stankoven and Taylor Hall has been the best line in the playoffs. And is a big reason why that the Hurricanes have gone 8-0 and are the team that is
sitting back eating popcorn watching all these other series. Um it has been really impressive to see the evolution of Jackson Blake going from a guy who was pretty good rookie last year and has just increased his role and now this playoffs is this guy with this high-end motor who is doing great stuff with two other fast-paced guys who are just doing relentless things on the forecheck. And like you look at the overall numbers and it's not just the scoring or the overtime winner or whatever with Jackson Blake. It's like he's up 9-1 at five on five and it's like almost a 70% expected goal share. And yes, it's been against the Ottawa Senators in the first round and then
yes, against Philadelphia Flyers, but like this is like extremely impressive things to do as this line with the rest of maybe the high-end guys for Carolina not scoring as many goals as maybe you expect. [clears throat] Like Carolina's not in this situation or in potentially a very scary situation in the playoffs if that line hadn't been clicking the way it was. In terms of guys that have risen for me, I my opinion of Jackson Blake has grown immensely here in these playoffs. How valuable does that contract look? That extension [snorts] he signed. So he's still in the last year of his ELC and the next year begins an 8-year deal worth around 5 million, just north of 5 million, I think.
like, yeah. What a bargain. The fact that yeah, we're sitting here talking about like the best line in the playoffs through two rounds is Logan Stankoven, Taylor Hall, and Jackson Blake. Like You could have put any one of those guys on this list. Like in terms of stocks rising, um obviously Blake is maybe the most underrated or least talked about in the Yeah, the reason I went with Blake here is like Stankoven was like a touted prospect through juniors, like traded in the Mika Rantanen deal. Like we knew kind of what he was or what he's expected to be. Taylor Hall, a veteran, you may you obviously don't expect this from him, but you know what kind of player he is. Whereas Jackson Blake I
think is the guy that has really come on to the scene here, like made people aware of like the player type that he is and what he's going to be for many years to come. He's the youngest player on the Hurricanes roster. And he's doing this in the playoffs. It's extremely impressive. This is exactly the kind of line that the Hurricanes need firing on all cylinders to have any chance in the conference finals cuz we've seen them fizzle out when they have no scoring depth at all. So I think that line with Jackson Blake especially is giving them the best chance they'll have in all of these runs that they've made there.
There's our forward group. Uh we've got two defensemen and a goalie left. We're going to start with First defenseman, starting with you, Josh. Who do you got? I'm bringing another duck to the team. Okay. That's Jackson LaCombe. Okay. Uh just especially in round one, the way he sort of shut down Connor McDavid. I know McDavid is playing through an injury, but this is still the best player in the world we're talking about here and he just completely shut him down at five-on-five and generated tons of offense the other way. He hasn't been as good in round two. He's had you know, had some tougher moments, but he still I think his stock is just on
another level. Like this is a guy who made Team USA's Olympic team, but a lot of people are like, who is this guy? Why is he here? I know like Habs fans were outraged he made it over Lane Hutson, but I think the two-way game is exactly why he was on that team, and he's probably going to be on the World Cup team in a couple years and future Olympic teams, and he'll play a bigger role. I think he's just going to be one of those guys who's playing huge minutes for the next like decade, 15 years. Does pretty much everything well. Oh, yeah. He's There's no real major weaknesses in his He's so good. And again, like going back to the point of like Carlsson and Drysdale, like everyone was a little bit skeptical of
like, oh, okay, I don't know about these guys while they're still what? Top three, top four picks. While in that whole process, they all have also just sniped Jackson LaCombe out of What round was he? Was he second round but like 2019 or something. They've been prolific at drafting defensemen like Incredible. Not a lot of them have stayed in Anaheim, but like let's try to name some of them. So, Montour, Fowler, Shattenkirk, Lindholm. Yep. Bang. Um And now I'm drawing a blank, but there's literally like 15 guys in the last like 10 years that are like legit NHLers. And obviously not like not all of them are on uh the NHL team right now, but like even Tristan Lounau, um Yeah, they've
got guys [clears throat] like Olen Zellweger is going to be Zellweger, they've got um Mintyukov. Like all these guys just Martin Madden, or their head scout, their assistant GM is just dialed in on how to like draft an NHL defenseman. Yeah, it's crazy. It's awesome. Like an embarrassment of riches kind of when you got a guy coming out of the woodwork like that and he's Team USA. He's on our all playoff risers team. Obviously, the kind of the biggest accolade you can get these days. Uh but yeah, LaCombe's been incredible. Uh Going on to our second defenseman here, John. So, I'll go more under the radar and pick Sam Malinski of the Avalanche. He didn't even play last night cuz he has a an upper body injury. I believe it's
only like a day-to-day situation. So, fair pick still in my opinion. Absolutely. Yeah, and he's sort of like a poor man's Makar. Like I could have picked, you know, Quinn Hughes or Cale Makar here, but that would have been a little silly given like we know all about them and I wouldn't say they are rising in the playoffs. They were already a top, you know, top players in the league. So, I don't know. Malinski's just like this really fun story where he's a college free agent out of Cornell and you know, it takes him a little bit of time cuz he's a smaller player to learn um how to sort of play that rugged style but I mean, the Avalanche love to bring in these types of players.
Um they love to take chances on small like Nick Blank and Berg at the deadline for example. Like H N, the guy who played last night. There you go. Like They don't care about No. And like Jared Bednar's system allows them to flourish. So, he played also Malinski with uh Taves towards the end of the season because Bednar was trying to make sure okay, you know, if Makar goes down or if I just need a different look, will Malinski be able to hang with Taves on that top pair? And the answer was yes down the stretch. So, I wonder if we see even more of Malinski um as things keep going along. And he just got that extension or right around the deadline here whenever it was but and that's a guy that is pretty team
friendly. Exactly. Looked very team friendly. If he gets to free agency, I think there are a lot of teams that would love that kind of guy. And like you talk about a story, like this isn't just like a college free agent who signs at like 21 or something. He was on the older side of the college free agent class to the point where when he signed, he was a true free agent. Like he wasn't signing an ELC. He was signing a standard player now so Exactly. So, when he signed, it this is like you think of the college free agents that usually don't do anything. It's the guys who are like 24, 25. And he's the exception to that and he's been fantastic. And I love the poor man's Cale Makar cuz that's the
way that he plays. Like people are going to hear that and go, "Come on. Poor man's Cale Makar." But truly like the way he plays and his fit and everything has been as that very similar stylistic guy. Obviously not to that high end but he's been such a great find for them and if you're going to be a great team like the Colorado Avalanche have been, you have to find those guys and have them develop and play a role and he's been fantastic. Yeah. Yeah, again, we said it for the Ducks, embarrassment of riches. Just having guys like that develop up and play these key roles, playing with Taze and everything. He's been really, really fun to watch. We've got our forwards, we've got our defensemen. One
position remaining that goes to Kyle, goaltender. The biggest riser so far this postseason in net. There's actually a few options here. Like you look at the goaltenders that are left here in the playoffs and it's a lot of intriguing names, but for me there was an easy pick here and it's Cayden Primeau Dobesh. To the point where what, couple months ago when we were doing some cheer list stuff talking about the playoff outlook, the Montreal Canadiens were a fraud category team for us because of their goaltending situation. And basically from that point onwards, Cayden Primeau Dobesh has found another level and he's been fantastic here in these playoffs.
Like he goes on in March into early April on the seven game run where he has a fantastic stretch. Looks like he's the option and then in the last two starts of the regular season he allows nine goals over those two starts and the questions are back there again. Like going into game one it's like, is it going to be Dobesh? Are they going to the young guy in Cayden Primeau Fowler? And Dobesh gets the start and he's been great all the way through. There's been like a couple hiccups, but you look at like his games five through seven, all those like elimination type huge games in round one and he is lights out in all of those. he out-dueled Andrei Vasilevskiy. Game seven, yeah. His team puts up nine shots
on goal and he completely shuts the door against the Tampa Bay Lightning going up against one of his childhood heroes in Andrei Vasilevskiy to the point where in his postgame interview on Hockey Night in Canada there, like he's getting choked up talking about how he went [clears throat] in the and out-dueled Andrei Vasilevskiy and shook his hand and is like he wishes he could have a longer conversation with him about goaltending. Like that is the incredible stuff and then he goes into round two, has a bit of a stinker in game one as kind of the Canadiens do and these last two games has completely found his game again. Like I great story, um great guy to cheer for, awesome seeing like the entire Habs fan
base like give this guy an ovation and rally around this guy as he's their guy. It's extremely cool to see. It's have to like think a little bit back to like Jaroslav Halak and the Yeah, sure. Remember when they replaced the stop signs with So, um no, it's it's so cool to see and like there's a few options here like Frederik Andersen what he's done and like Alex Lyon and we'll see what things go like the rest of this series, but he's a guy that for forever was not even like an NHL option and he's playing big games in the Stanley Cup playoffs and a bunch of different guys. Um but for me when I was ultimately deciding on who to go for on this list, it has to be Jakub Dobeš for
what he's done in Montreal. I love his fire like just chirping at players. Like I love a goalie that chirps at skaters just cuz it's like a little like over the line. Um and you know, he does that and then like guys will come in his crease and he's like get out of here. Like he kind of backs it up physically. I like that and obviously, you know, you got to be stopping pucks for that to be relevant. He gets run over by Beck Malenstyn and that looked like a concussion, but I suppose it wasn't and he gets back in there and continues to play well and I love that like he has this monstrous game and then afterwards he's asked
like, "Hey, you're kind of a cult hero now in Montreal. What are your thoughts?" And he's like, "I'm just a normal dude. I'm going to go play uh you know, Xbox when I get home, go watch Game of Thrones." Like he's just like in the moment. Uh I guess not. I don't know. I might be butchering that quote, but he's basically like, "Hey man, I'm just a normal dude." And I love I just love also that Martin St. Louis has said previously like that emotional side of Dobeš like he lets him be emotional. He doesn't get in there and go, "Listen, you got to dial it in." He's just like, "This is how he plays well if he's fired up." And I love like a coach that just lets his players be themselves. I love
the fact too that when you're talking about a guy like Dobeš, a guy like Lyon, like you look at like Dostal making his first run in the playoffs. We're now in an era where like 5 10 years ago you look at the goalies left in the playoffs at this stage, it's it's just legends. It's like the Henrik Lundqvist's and like even further back like Luongos, Quick, Tim Thomas and all those guys. Going down the list, You think about like the top I was just doing it while you guys were talking their top I don't know five, six, seven goalies right now. Hellebuyck's Vasilevskiy's not there. Shesterkin, Sorokin, Swayman, Oettinger. They're all
gone. And it's all of these guys who like I that's why I think it's true with what you said and that there's a lot of guys that could be here right now in this position for the biggest risers. I think goalies in general and underrated unsung heroes have had a huge role this post season and that I really enjoy seeing because it felt like there was a time for a while where it's like you can't do anything unless you solve the problem in net. And now we've kind of flipped the script now where like the Jets for example last year have the MVP as their goalie and they barely squeeze out of the first round. So all credit where credit's due to Dobish and all these guys that are having huge post
seasons. That's our playoff risers list. I feel pretty good about it. I'm curious to see how this might look at the end of the post season to see if I mean I'm sure all of these guys I think they've done enough so far to be deserving of this list regardless of what happens down the road maybe except for Mitch Marner. I had to get a little jab in there. But nonetheless yeah very a very fun list. I don't think we could have ever projected any of those guys entering the playoffs. So I'm curious to see yeah if we do this exercise again how that's going to look. It's been an exhilarating post season so far excited to see where it goes from here. We'll be covering it the whole rest of the way so stay tuned for that and we'll catch you
guys in the next episode.
