0:00

Today on locked on

0:03

red wings Lucas

0:05

Raymond source to

0:07

new heights again.

0:09

We continue player

0:11

evaluations on this

0:13

episode Your locked on

0:15

red wings your daily podcast on

0:18

the Detroit red wings part of

0:20

the locked on podcast network your

0:22

team every day Welcome

0:25

back to the Lockdown Red Wings podcast.

0:27

We are your hosts, Brian Fisher and

0:30

Scotty Bentley. Scotty's host over at Lockdown

0:32

Tigers as well as a sports writer

0:34

for C &G newspapers while I am

0:36

a color commentator for Oakland University, ACHA.

0:38

D1 men's hockey and Scotty. We

0:41

are going to continue our player

0:43

evaluations today, our headliner being Lucas

0:45

Raymond. But before we

0:47

get to that, I got to let the

0:50

people know that this episode is brought to

0:52

you by Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K. Turn

0:54

any TV into your Xbox, no console needed.

0:56

Head to Amazon .com/Fire TV Lockdown to

0:58

learn more. All right, Scott, let me

1:00

pop my screen back up and I'll

1:02

give a refresher to the people and

1:04

where we're at with our evaluations. This

1:07

is part two of what is hopefully

1:09

going to be a four part series.

1:11

Last time we talked was, I think, Monday about it,

1:14

because so much happened in between now and then. But

1:17

then and now, I should say, Albert

1:19

Johansson is in the above

1:22

and beyond expectations category. He

1:24

far exceeded our expectations for

1:26

him this season. Simon

1:28

Ederson is in exceeding expectations.

1:31

Larkin, Tyler Mott

1:33

and Cam Talbot, rather, are in

1:36

meeting expectations. Craig Smith is

1:38

in below and failing expectations as Vladimir Tarasenko.

1:41

Those are our categories. Each player

1:43

is Ranked based on our

1:45

of subjective arbitrary expectations for

1:47

that player on the season

1:49

I do have Twitter pulls

1:51

out that you can vote

1:53

on it that should close

1:55

Probably around three o 'clock

1:57

today by the time people are listening to

2:00

this on these players But I will

2:02

let you know where everyone sits as

2:04

as of this recording when we talk

2:06

about each player. But we want to

2:08

have like a big headliner, Scotty, with

2:10

every single episode. And the first episode

2:13

is obviously the Captain Dylan Larkin. No

2:15

better place to start. Well, in this

2:17

episode, we are going to be talking

2:19

about and headlining with Lucas Raymond. Scotty,

2:21

Lucas Raymond, 80 points. The first Red

2:23

Wing since Henrik Zetterberg to do it

2:26

in 2011. Hit that 80 point marker.

2:28

He is what, only 23, I think.

2:31

Super young still. Uh,

2:33

when you talk, when you think

2:35

about his season as a whole,

2:37

where would you evaluate his, uh,

2:39

his ranking? Yeah, you know, this

2:41

is another one where I feel

2:43

as though you could probably split

2:45

it in half and get two

2:47

different answers, right? Um, maybe not

2:50

exactly in half, but like maybe

2:52

three quarters, one quarter, right? Cree

2:54

four nations, post four nations, whatever,

2:56

whatever, like 67 % or 70

2:58

% or whatever. that

3:00

that break is that I feel

3:02

like not that I I am

3:05

blaming four nations and the tournament

3:07

specifically but just for you know

3:09

like it happens in sports you

3:11

know post all -star break there's

3:13

some people that maybe aren't playing

3:16

the same way they did before

3:18

and not that Lucas Raymond was

3:20

like terrible or like a liability

3:22

or anything but the production definitely

3:24

tailed off I mean we were

3:27

talking you know after the new

3:29

year about him being on pace

3:31

for 90 points like we were

3:33

in the calendar year of 2025

3:36

that was a thing at one

3:38

point and so while it's certainly

3:40

far from a disappointment and I

3:42

think he's probably still an exceeding

3:44

for me I don't think that

3:47

again I think it depends on

3:49

when you ask people and at

3:51

the same time you know If

3:54

you would have told me going into the

3:56

season that Raymond would be around a point

3:58

of game player, that would have been over

4:01

the expectations that I probably would have set

4:03

out for him. But

4:05

that's not, it wasn't linear either.

4:07

That's all I'm trying to say

4:09

is it was a little bit

4:11

of a, just like the

4:13

Detroit Red Wings, I guess to be fair,

4:16

a lot of streaks of hot and cold

4:18

and peaks and valleys. Yeah,

4:20

this is a tough one because you're

4:22

right that the slump post four nations

4:25

on the playoff push does kind of

4:27

With recency bias kind of sour how

4:30

to rank Lucas Raymond, but when you look

4:32

at his season as a whole, I mean,

4:34

it was another step forward, another significant step

4:36

forward as a whole, right? You know, it's

4:38

not for nothing that he's the first player

4:40

in over a decade to reach 80 points

4:42

for this team. And that he did it

4:44

at such a young age off coming off

4:46

of signing a brand new contract. And it's

4:48

not that he's not like great in clutch

4:50

time, right? We saw him last year be

4:52

like the driving force between behind their playoff

4:54

push. So while I do think the recency

4:56

bias does kind of sour

4:58

my overall, my thoughts on him. Overall,

5:00

I still think he had a fantastic

5:02

season. For me, it comes down to,

5:04

because if I want to be fair

5:06

and talk about the overall season, you

5:09

know, what was our expectation of him going

5:11

into the year? You know, I think our

5:14

expectation of him was to take another step

5:16

forward and to produce more points. I think

5:18

we probably said somewhere close to 80 points

5:20

was what we were hoping to get out

5:23

of him this year, and he got 80

5:25

points. does that mean he's meeting expectations that

5:27

still that also does still feel kind of

5:29

wrong because he was also the best player

5:32

on this team for large stretches of the

5:34

of the season I think to bring it

5:36

was your most consistent player he insider but

5:39

at Lucas Raymond was on he was by

5:41

far and away your best player so It

5:43

feels disingenuous to put him in meeting, even

5:45

though he did meet our pre -season expectations,

5:49

but also he was your best player,

5:51

so it's hard to place him in

5:53

either category. It really is. And honestly,

5:55

the listeners so far, at least, as

5:57

of recording, agree with that. 53 %

6:00

have him in meta -expectations, and 43

6:02

% have him in exceeding expectations. 3

6:04

% have him in below, 1 % has him

6:07

in failed. Again, I just assumed a misclick, because

6:09

I don't know how you could put Lucas Raymond

6:11

in failed expectations when he hit 80 points. But,

6:14

um, I don't know. It's a tough

6:16

one. I can make an argument either

6:18

way. My gut, my gut is telling

6:20

me exceeding expectations, even if

6:22

that's kind of contradictory towards what our

6:24

ex - like that, even if

6:26

that's contradictory to what our pre -season

6:28

expectations were, that he does take another

6:31

step forward. That's just what my gut's

6:33

telling me. Yeah, I'm OK with exceeding.

6:35

I even think, I mean, we can

6:37

go back and listen if we really

6:39

want to find out exactly what we

6:41

thought pre -season expectations were. But I

6:44

would venture to say that if you

6:46

would have told, at least me, going

6:48

into the season, hey, he's going to

6:50

be a point of game this year,

6:53

that I would have said, wow, that's

6:55

probably better than I'm banking on at

6:57

a minimum. Right, so

6:59

and again, this is all arbitrary. So

7:01

it's our ranking who cares you like

7:03

Lucas Ramon put him in exceeding Next up

7:05

Scotty is Andrew cop. This is a

7:07

player that is divisive amongst the fan base,

7:10

right? We all know the contract we all

7:12

know the lack of production but under

7:14

Todd McClellan up until he got injured which

7:16

is Quite like 20 games. Maybe he

7:18

saw an uptick in production. He saw an

7:21

uptick in his role. He played was

7:23

playing top six center between Debrinket and Cane.

7:25

He looked a lot better. He really did.

7:27

He looked a lot more solid. And

7:29

I think McClellan's approach to the game helped

7:31

free him up and let him play

7:33

more his style of hockey. But

7:36

is that short sample size under

7:38

McClellan enough to, you know, make

7:40

up for the 40 games or

7:42

whatever it was, 30 games, 35

7:44

games under Lalonde, where he again

7:46

was kind of an ineffective player?

7:49

Yeah, to be honest with you, I think this

7:51

is one of the more difficult ones on the

7:53

entire roster. And the

7:55

reason why is because I just

7:58

feel like at any point in

8:00

the season, you could pick a

8:02

certain day and ask that question,

8:05

and it might be a different

8:07

answer. And on top of that,

8:09

I think expectations for him are

8:11

going to be very varied. I

8:14

think they're going to be very spread across

8:17

the board. I mean

8:19

we had pretty darn low

8:21

expectations of Andrew Cop going

8:23

into the year and I

8:26

think that he found a

8:28

role to maybe get the

8:31

most out of him but

8:33

that still was not like

8:35

incredible. Like I want to

8:38

give him credit for taking a step

8:40

forward and for being I think better

8:42

than we expected but it's still a

8:44

far cry from A, what we thought

8:47

we were getting when we put pen

8:49

to paper and B, what he's being

8:51

paid. So, like, it's... I

8:53

don't know. Like, I really think that

8:56

this one, you could kind of convince

8:58

me of probably anything except the two

9:00

extremes. Yeah, I

9:02

would not put him in exceeding expectations.

9:05

For me, again, this is like between

9:07

a meeting and below, again, because our

9:09

expectations were lowered now. This is our,

9:12

what, third season with Andrew Kopp. And

9:14

our expectations at this point are slightly

9:16

lower for him. And with that

9:18

being said, I thought he kind of met

9:20

those expectations. But then again, like, part

9:23

of me still wished for more scoring,

9:25

and he really was not scoring at

9:27

a very good pace either. And again,

9:29

he's asked to play a primarily defensive

9:31

role, and that's part of why his

9:33

production is down. I don't know. I

9:36

can put him in either

9:38

way. I'm OK

9:40

with meeting. Let's let

9:42

the people decide on this one since

9:44

we're split and the people do have

9:46

him 64 % 44 votes have him

9:48

in meeting expectations So if we're torn

9:50

we can let the people be the

9:52

tiebreaker on that one He could be

9:55

in meeting expectations 25 % have him

9:57

in below 7 % have him in

9:59

exceeding, and 4 % haven't been failing, but

10:02

64 % in meetings. So we can use

10:04

that as our tiebreaker if we're ever torn.

10:06

Scotty, let's go to a quick break when

10:08

we return. We'll continue this conversation evaluating players.

10:10

Stay tuned to segment two of Lockdown Red

10:12

Wings. Did

10:17

you know your fire TV is also

10:19

an Xbox turn any TV into your

10:21

gaming and entertainment hub with fire TV

10:24

stick 4k devices? No console required Just

10:26

grab your paired controller subscribe or sign

10:28

into Xbox game pass ultimate with EA

10:30

play included and you're ready to play

10:32

dive into hundreds of premium titles from

10:35

EA Sports College football to Call of

10:37

Duty Black Ops 6 as easily as

10:39

you stream your favorite shows It's gaming

10:41

made simple and it's all on your

10:44

fire TV with 4k streaming Watch more

10:46

than 1 .5 million movies and TV

10:48

episodes from your favorite subscribed services like

10:50

Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus, Macs and

10:53

more and play high quality Xbox games

10:55

at a fraction of the cost of

10:57

a console. Already have a console, a

10:59

Fire TV stick 4K device is more

11:01

affordable and easier to travel with allowing

11:04

you to take you or your kids

11:06

games wherever you plug in. Head

11:09

to Amazon .com/Fire TV lockdown to

11:11

get started. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate

11:13

subscription and compatible controller required. Available

11:15

on select devices including the second

11:17

generation Fire TV Stick 4K, the

11:20

first and second generation of Fire

11:22

TV Stick 4K Max, and the

11:24

third generation of Fire TV Cube.

11:30

Segment two locked on Red Wings podcast. We're

11:32

continuing with our player evaluations here moving on

11:34

next up that that face looks like Elmer

11:36

Soderblum This is a fun one. I think

11:38

Scotty This is a guy who our expectations

11:40

going into the season were non -existent, right?

11:43

Like we this was a guy who really

11:45

wasn't on our radar at the radar with

11:47

this at this point with a combination of

11:49

play and injury last year He was not

11:51

in the lineup a ton in Grand Rapids

11:53

He had a short set with Detroit the

11:55

year before and then he came into Detroit

11:57

This season got the call -up after really

11:59

improving his play and he had 11 points

12:01

in 26 games played kind of playing everywhere

12:03

around the lineup This is a tough one.

12:05

Where do you rank him? Yeah,

12:08

how is this a tough one? It's

12:12

a fun one. I shouldn't say tough one.

12:14

Yeah, I was gonna say like I think

12:16

this is the maybe the easiest one on

12:18

the whole roster like legitimately I don't know

12:20

how this is anything other than above and

12:22

beyond. This is a guy that going into

12:24

the season Not only were

12:26

expectations non -existent. I think they were

12:29

below that expectations were like, okay This

12:31

guy might not even make it out

12:33

of GR ever again like he might

12:35

have just like flamed out and it

12:37

was just like a cool story Oh

12:39

my goodness. We have this giant forward

12:41

and he came up for a couple

12:43

of weeks a couple seasons ago and

12:45

like he never was able to really

12:47

figure it out like cool He was

12:49

a whatever six round pick No

12:51

one's the wiser. That's what

12:53

the expectations were. I don't think

12:55

I even planned on him playing

12:58

for the Detroit Red Wings maybe

13:00

ever again. And he

13:02

not only played for the Red Wings

13:04

this year, he was a pretty prominent

13:06

part of the middle six and really

13:08

showcased his ability, man. I give him

13:11

a ton of credit and I don't

13:13

know how this is any... legitimately,

13:15

if we were to put these in order,

13:18

I think he is the most above and

13:20

beyond expectations over anyone else on the roster.

13:23

Right. And he's above and beyond expectations this

13:25

season. And this is where, like, again, our

13:27

personal expectations are the deciding factor on these

13:29

next season. The expectation is going to be

13:31

different. Next season, we expect him to be,

13:33

for a full season, a contributing member of

13:35

the middle six. So he's going to be

13:37

judged based on that. But because our expectations

13:39

for him were literally non -existent going into

13:42

the year, the fact that he got called

13:44

up during an injury stint for, you

13:46

know, when another player got injured, and then

13:48

he made his roster spot permanent in that

13:50

span, getting most of his time in the

13:52

middle six. but also getting top -line chances

13:54

at that. I mean, I agree. How

13:56

can you not put him in above and beyond

13:59

expectations? So Elmer Soderblum was

14:01

a really fun story, especially in the middle

14:03

of a winning drought that would have marched

14:05

for the Red Wings. He was one of

14:07

the few players that was really fun to

14:09

watch in that span and using that size

14:11

to good use. And I'm excited to see

14:13

him next season as the expectations will certainly

14:15

be a lot higher going into next year.

14:18

That was a quick and easy one.

14:20

Scotty, next up, Michael Rasmussen. Oh, by

14:22

the way, just to keep consistency. 67

14:26

% of people who voted on

14:28

Elmer Soderblum said exceeding expectations. Again,

14:30

with these Twitter polls, you can

14:32

only do four options, so I

14:34

do not have above and beyond

14:36

expectations as an option. I imagine

14:38

if that was there, you'd get

14:40

a pretty heavy split between exceeding

14:42

and above and beyond. But 67

14:44

% said exceeding expectations. 33 %

14:46

said met. Nobody said below or

14:48

failing. So that goes to show

14:50

exactly how much Elmer Soderblum impressed

14:52

the fan base this season. Next

14:54

up, Scotty Michael Rasmussen. This

14:57

is a guy that I'm personally a

14:59

little bit disappointed in the season that

15:02

he had. Only 21 points in 77

15:04

games played. That's a drop in points

15:06

from last year. We had 33 and

15:09

75 games and point per game pace

15:11

drop from the year before that. We

15:13

had 29 and 56. So

15:16

almost less points in

15:18

more games than his

15:21

Career pace high that he

15:24

set two years ago where

15:26

he was on fire. So

15:28

Still a really important member

15:31

of the defensive side of

15:33

the puck for the forward

15:35

core, but I was pretty

15:38

disappointed with Michael Rasmussen's production

15:40

and overall play this season.

15:42

Yeah, yeah, and I I

15:45

think that He's tough too

15:47

for me like I

15:50

don't go into the season

15:52

expecting a lot of point

15:54

production from him, but I

15:56

do feel as though for

15:58

the role that they are

16:00

expecting out of him, that

16:03

he didn't exactly live up to

16:05

that this year either, but it's

16:07

just tough because it's so not

16:09

points based, right? Like, obviously you'd

16:11

like him to produce more and

16:13

score more points, but like that

16:15

would obviously be great, but that

16:17

is like he, When he's at

16:19

his best, he does so much

16:21

outside of that. It's

16:23

tough, but I think I

16:25

agree. I really don't... I

16:27

did not notice Michael Rasmussen

16:30

in a lot of games.

16:32

I'll put it that way.

16:34

Right. I agree. I

16:36

think, and you're right, like with Michael

16:38

Rasmussen, it's about so much more than

16:41

just points because of the role that

16:43

he's asked, but at the same time...

16:45

There is kind of a level of

16:47

expectation in regards to that category and

16:49

21 is not meeting that expectation That's

16:51

not enough points and on top of

16:53

that right like this team wasn't that

16:55

great defensively Their penalty kill was terrible

16:57

although I have I haven't checked to

16:59

see how much penalty kill time Michael

17:01

Rasmussen himself got on the season But

17:03

it's you know one of the things

17:05

that while he was one of the

17:07

better defensive forwards his team wasn't great

17:09

defensively So that's not saying a lot

17:11

either I'm pretty comfortable putting him in

17:13

below expectations personally. I'm

17:16

fine with it. All

17:18

right. And

17:21

the fan base agrees for what

17:23

it's worth 80 votes 63 %

17:25

have him as below expectations. So

17:28

the biggest chunk 15 have him

17:30

at met and 19 have him

17:32

at failed expectations. So pretty large

17:34

segment of the fan base thinks

17:36

he didn't even come close, which

17:39

I think is a little bit.

17:42

Extreme, but 63 % the vast

17:44

majority agree that it is below

17:46

expectations as well. All right, Scotty,

17:48

let's go to an early break

17:50

and then we can knock out

17:52

the last three on the other

17:54

side and send you guys into

17:56

the weekend. So stay tuned to

17:58

segment three of Lockdown Red Wings.

18:04

The Stanley Cup playoffs are here, and

18:06

if you've never been been to a

18:09

live NHL playoff game, it's unlike anything

18:11

else. The intensity, the speed, the energy

18:13

in the building, it's next level. And

18:15

thanks to game time, getting in the

18:17

door is easier and more affordable than

18:20

ever. Game time is the fastest way

18:22

to grab playoff tickets, even for those

18:24

must -see matchups. Prices actually drop as

18:26

puck drop gets closer. With last -minute

18:29

deals, you can save up to 60%.

18:31

You can save that 60 % off

18:33

by... last minute for sports, concerts, comedy,

18:35

theater, and so much more. They're all

18:37

in pricing. Shows the total cost up

18:40

front. No surprise fees at checkout. The

18:42

app even shows you with ant -

18:44

panoramic seat views so you know exactly

18:46

what you're getting before you buy. And

18:49

with Game Time Ticket coverage, you know

18:51

you're protected, whether it's cancellation protection, job

18:53

loss assurance, or their 24 -hour guarantee.

18:56

Take the guesswork out of

18:58

buying tickets with Game Time. Download

19:00

the Game Time app, create

19:02

an account, and use code LOCKDONNHL

19:05

for $20 off your first

19:07

purchase. Terms apply. Again, that's code

19:09

LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off. Download Game

19:12

Time today. Last -minute tickets.

19:14

Lowest price guaranteed. Segment

19:19

three, Lockdown Red Wings podcast. Sorry,

19:21

Scotty. We got two defensemen and

19:23

a goalie to hit up here

19:25

in segment three. Let's

19:28

lead off with Jeff Petrie,

19:30

another one that is interesting

19:32

because his play was not

19:34

worthy of where he was

19:37

being deployed. But

19:39

there wasn't what to there wasn't

19:41

much other choices for that role

19:43

and we kind of did expect

19:46

it to so how do you

19:48

rank a guy who? You

19:50

kind of expected to

19:52

not perform well and

19:55

expected to get asked

19:57

more of than he

19:59

was probably capable of

20:01

playing Yeah Honestly like

20:03

I have him around

20:06

meeting and that's because

20:10

We expected him to be a

20:12

bottom pair defenseman and a fine

20:14

ish bottom pair defensemen if the

20:16

the minutes were reflected as such

20:18

and There was a point this

20:20

season where we were Hoping that

20:22

he would come back from injury

20:24

because of what we were putting

20:26

out on the third pair. So

20:28

I'm okay with meeting that's kind

20:31

of where my head's at. Yeah,

20:33

that's the thing right like the

20:35

fan base obviously has a lot

20:37

of discontent with Jeff Petrie and

20:39

I think some of it is

20:41

some of it's warranted some of

20:43

it's not it's because of what

20:45

I just kind of laid out

20:47

right like this is a guy

20:49

that at this point of his

20:51

career is not a top four

20:54

defenseman But when you look at

20:56

the right side, he is still

20:58

your second best option. So he

21:00

was asked to do more than

21:02

he was probably capable of at

21:04

this point in his career, and

21:06

we kind of expected him to

21:08

struggle. And he did. He did

21:10

not perform like a top forward

21:12

offenceman. But again, we expected

21:15

that because the general manager, Steve

21:17

Iserman, did not do a good

21:19

enough job adding to or changing

21:21

up this defensive core, requiring Petrie

21:23

to play in a role that

21:25

he probably isn't ready for anymore.

21:27

And so, yeah, meeting our

21:30

personal expectations, he met them,

21:32

but that's because the expectation

21:34

was low, unfortunately. Right? Yeah.

21:37

So, I agree with all

21:39

that. So,

21:41

and I do feel really bad for Jeff Petrie,

21:43

too, because I think he becomes kind of

21:45

a scapegoat with the organization. because

21:47

of everything that I just said, and then because

21:49

of that injury and the surgery that he had,

21:52

he did not reach 1 ,000 games. It would

21:54

have been really nice for him to reach 1

21:56

,000 games in a winged wheel because that's his

21:58

hometown team. I feel really bad. I've always, I

22:00

say this every single time we talk about Jeff

22:02

Petrie. I really like Jeff Petrie. He had a

22:04

great career. He just got here at the Fortune

22:06

of the Wrong Time. But it

22:08

is what it is. I

22:11

just want to... mentioned

22:13

that Michael Rasmussen, by the way, because I talked

22:16

about his penalty kill wise, right? He was the

22:18

fifth most time on the ice per game on

22:20

the penalty kill out of all the forwards. So

22:23

he was behind Comfort, Mott, Larkin,

22:25

Cop. Of course, Mott was in and out

22:27

of the lineup, and Cop misses

22:29

a significant amount of time. So Rasmussen

22:31

played a penalty kill role more than

22:34

most forwards, but not the most on

22:36

the team. Scotty

22:38

next up is Ben Chirot. This is another

22:40

one where I can kind of copy paste

22:42

a lot of my comments I just said

22:45

about Jeff Petrie a guy that we know

22:47

was gonna be asked to do more than

22:49

he was capable of and For what it's

22:51

worth. I thought he handled himself amicably In

22:54

that role not like he played great or

22:56

anything But he he played exactly how I

22:58

expected him to play like it next year

23:00

if we are truly a better roster He

23:03

should not be on the top pair or

23:05

in the top four really But

23:07

he probably will be unless we go

23:10

out there and we get some fantastic

23:12

left -side defensemen to plug into the

23:14

top four. And so he

23:16

met my expectations, which was exactly what

23:18

we got out of Venturat, which is

23:21

not enough, right? Like, we didn't get

23:23

enough out of Venturat, but this is

23:25

in year three of his four -year

23:27

contract. It's also what I expected. It's

23:29

really weird what it's these guys you

23:31

don't expect a lot out of when

23:33

you're ranking them. Yeah,

23:35

no, I'm I'm locked up with

23:38

you again, man. This is one

23:40

where I They didn't get a

23:42

lot, but we also got what

23:44

we expected. I honestly, I think

23:47

we got exactly what we expected

23:49

Yeah, copy -paste from last year

23:51

right kind of the epitome of

23:53

Ben Shirat Yeah, so Kind of

23:56

it's kind of a shame that

23:58

that's the expectation for those guys,

24:00

but that's again, that's Not

24:03

a hundred percent on these players either.

24:05

That's on roster construction, too These are

24:07

guys who we have been saying since

24:10

last offseason shouldn't be playing in a

24:12

top four role that how great would

24:14

they be as your third pairing defenseman,

24:16

but Whatever hi digress we got one

24:19

more Scotty to talk about on this

24:21

episode and that's Alex Lyon a guy

24:23

who Had an up -and -down season,

24:25

but I feel like this year was

24:28

a little bit more down than up

24:30

than last season Yeah This

24:33

is I mean just kind of the

24:35

the epitome of Alex Lyon is like,

24:37

you know You ask this in January

24:40

you get a way different answer than

24:42

when you ask this in March and

24:44

you get a way different answer from

24:46

both of those than if you asked

24:49

in November like it's just it's such

24:51

a Peaks and Valley type of thing.

24:53

I honestly I think we got around

24:56

what we expected like There's wiggle room

24:58

there for sure, but I I think

25:01

going into the season, I

25:04

mean, we kind of knew that he

25:06

wasn't going to be the 1A and

25:08

going into the season, there was still

25:11

somewhat of a chance, even if it

25:13

was a Hail Mary for Billy Housseau

25:15

to come back at some point and

25:18

be relatively productive. I think

25:20

the expectations going into the year were

25:23

Hopefully the wings are in a position where they

25:25

don't have to rely on Alex Lyon as much

25:27

as they did the year prior. And

25:30

while that's probably true, injuries kind

25:32

of affect that too. I

25:35

mean, he wasn't stellar over the

25:37

course of the season in the

25:40

games he did play, but he

25:42

was capable of the bi -weekly

25:44

Alex Lyon masterclass that we've become

25:46

accustomed to as well. So I

25:48

don't know, man. I'm

25:51

kind of all over the place with

25:53

this one. I'm gonna give you my

25:55

reasoning for below expectations and it's pretty

25:57

pretty pretty quick Not that he was

26:00

terrible, but he played 14 less games

26:02

14 fewer games than he did this

26:04

season prior but his safe percentage dipped

26:06

from 904 Which was around league average

26:08

to 896 which below league average, you

26:11

know, he wasn't giving you the incredible

26:13

stretches of gold tending that

26:15

we saw last year. I think he had

26:17

one early on in the season, right, where

26:19

we were being saved by gold tending between

26:22

Camp Talbot and Alex Lyon, a ton of

26:24

it. But I feel like this year, we

26:26

got more downs than ups with Alex Lyon,

26:28

and we are kind of expecting a closer

26:31

50 -50 split. And for me, I

26:33

mean, the league average save percentage is like

26:35

902, something like that. And Camp Talbot finished

26:37

like right there. Alex Lyon with a sub

26:39

908 % of this year is just not

26:41

good enough, especially when, you know, the big

26:44

reason we said he struggled last year was

26:46

because he got ran into the ground. We

26:48

played 14 fewer games, but gave us worse

26:50

production. So I mean, I like Alex Lyon

26:52

a lot. Great personality. He seems like a

26:54

great dude. Fantastic contract that he's on. But

26:56

ultimately, I think that we were expecting the

26:58

same level of play that we got last

27:00

year. And I thought what we got was

27:02

slightly worse. So I think that

27:04

would be better below. For sure. I'm

27:07

okay with that. I think... I mean, that's

27:09

part of the reason why... I'm sorry, I'm

27:11

sorry. But that's also part of the reason

27:13

they traded for Peter Merazek, is because they

27:15

did not have confidence in the gold tending.

27:17

Right, for sure. And I think

27:20

that the point that you said

27:22

there that resonated with me the

27:24

most was just there were more

27:26

downs than ups, like you're expecting

27:28

kind of the peaks and valleys

27:30

with Lyon, but this was a

27:32

season where there were far more...

27:35

than Peaks. Agreed.

27:37

For the record, just go through

27:39

what the player rankings are so

27:41

far. Jeff Petrie is 45

27:43

% below 43 % meeting expectations, so the

27:45

fan base is pretty split in where to

27:48

put him, kind of similar to where

27:50

we were. 68 % of the fan base

27:52

things Ben Chirot met expectations though. So that's

27:54

an interesting anecdote. And when it comes to

27:56

Alex Lyon, see where they have him.

27:58

Alex is 45 % fan base

28:01

split on this one.

28:03

45 % of voters

28:05

so far him below expectations. 36 %

28:07

him at meeting and

28:10

19 % have him

28:12

at Failed expectations. So kind

28:14

of all over the

28:16

place but bulk majority below

28:19

So that's where we lie. That's

28:21

where you guys so far like

28:23

in this poll will be open until

28:25

about 3 p .m. on Friday.

28:28

But that is that is where it

28:30

is Scotty another successful episode of evaluating

28:32

the players any final thoughts. No

28:36

pistons and seven we ball

28:39

We do ball best team

28:41

in the AL Also, I'm saying

28:43

this before the Pistons game

28:45

on Thursday night, so if we lose,

28:47

then ignore that. All All

28:50

right Same time

28:52

same place your

28:54

team every day