Bruins’ Injuries Pile Up; Guest Peter Sibner from Elite Prospects | The Skate Pod, Ep. 262

Bruins’ Injuries Pile Up; Guest Peter Sibner from Elite Prospects | The Skate Pod, Ep. 262

Welcome in episode 262 of the scape podcast I’m Brian D fiz joined by Bridget PR and Scott mcclaflin Bridget and Scott we have a couple Bruins games to get to we also have a guest on the podcast today Peter simner from Elite prospects thanks to thanks to Bridget and there’s definitely some good

Conversation there regarding uh World Juniors prospects and just the landscape of of you know the amateur hockey player in general cutter go ta because that’s the hot that’s that’s the Hot Topic like you don’t know how many places I’ve seen that especially because he’s from BC so

Can hearing from some people you know what’s you know what’s funny is I was I I don’t know why but for some reason I was on the Philadelphia Flyers um roster like yesterday because uh there’s a remember Riley Riley Co Riley Cody kot for the Flyers sck enforcer he has a he

Has a he has a podcast um that just pops up my in my YouTube algorithm sometimes and they have like good guests on and Craig uh Craig baru was on and they were just talking about certain players in the Flyers roster and so I went to their

Roster and I saw jammie Jimmy Dale I’m like what when the hell did Jimmy Dale play for the go go to the Flyers and then that’s how I realized so I Googled it and that’s when I saw the breaking news um but yeah yeah I was on Twitter

When that broke and it was like just one crazy thing after another because I think that came down like I think all the night’s games had already started Monday night so everyone’s kind of already in like game coverage all the hockey people are on Twitter and all a

Sudden you get like Keith Jones is on like does a podcast appearance mid game and John toell comments after the game and says he doesn’t know gota from a hole in the wall and it’s like it was just one crazy development after another you had that same podcast guy Anthony um

Why am I blanking on his name uh Knuckles or something or crossing Broad Crossing broad um but like he says Kevin yeah Kevin Hayes’s fingerprints are all over it and Kevin Hayes the next day gets asked about it and like C says it’s [ __ ] and saying like the guy doesn’t

Have a brain and all this and it’s like oh I this has gone so many directions and like just so crazy but also for for for gothier like this was in the wake of um the the World Junior Gold Medal game where you know Sweden was get thrown

Fits at the end of the game and people are somehow saying team USA’s classless and then there’s the handshake line of of cutter go kind of looks like he was talking trash to one of the players so it was just kind of like a perfect storm of like headlines with this player

Seemed happy at the time but I yeah I guess I guess things soured we we do get into that a little bit more uh with Peter sner it is kind of an interesting conversation to talk about because of just how horribly it flamed out and like

How the bridge is all the way gone like it didn’t even exist uh it it’s one of the worst like fallouts I’ve seen and I can’t really blame him if he didn’t want to play for John Cella I’m sorry like I I don’t know how many people that are

That age want to go play for John Dell well you know sh shame on us too because like for the last year and a half we’ve been talking two years about how what are the Bruins going to do when when B Ron and crazy retire up the middle like

They don’t have any high draft picks to draft a center we we completely ignored the fact that somebody can get drafted by another team and just want to play for the Bruins right yeah just just get in their ear have someone call them on be like you don’t want to play there you

Don’t force team to trade you right you know yeah mlin celebrini coming to Boston now that is only that’s only applicable to NCAA players that are drafted not like Junior Canadian Junior players is there a difference there I I hear like people preface this with like

NC AA players like have this chance but maybe not no I think I think anyone could I mean that I think the only thing that’s different for NCA players is they could wait out the four years post draft if they played Four full years in college and then hit free agency that’s

Different but something like goate like in theory and and and we talked about a little bit with Peter like any player could just be like I don’t want to play for the team that drafted me and you know if if we see kind of player empowerment movements in other sports

You know basketball football where players have more of a say over kind of where they go and have taking on more power that way and it’s possible like that comes to hockey or maybe at least a few cases here in there and I guess you know it’s something that teams are gonna

Have to be aware of like obviously make sure you do your your homework ahead of time and make sure a player actually wants to play for you if you draft them so not not that that’s necessarily what happened here because I think you know goate said it as Bridget reference like

For a while it seemed like he was happy to be drafted by the by fers so but obviously when when sour somewhere I’m gonna I’m I I was a little bit skeptical if there was something going on for before this happened though because um he’s the kind of player that you could

Have he could have been one and done in college and I always just assumed he wanted to stick around because he thought they have a good chance of winning the national title this year with all the new prospects coming in like some of the other kids that played

For Team USA that are really good and I’m thinking oh he just wants to make like a super team when a college title and it kind of made sense to me but I was like yeah the Flyers probably could have used them I mean the Flyers need

Help uh they’re not they’re they’re not the best you I kind of thought oh you know you got this High number five overall Prospect you’re gonna You’re Gonna Want to bring him in uh get him acclimated to the pros like sooner than later and then I was like oh but he’s

Staying at BC that’s kind of odd uh and I i’ now we know that that’s probably a big factor yeah and if you if you read or or listen to like Elliot fredman’s reporting around this it it seems like something did happen at the end of last

Season and Elliott has sort of said like he he can’t quite pin down exactly what it was but seems like there was some sort of either I don’t know miscommunication or misunderstanding around whether he was going to sign or whether what they were going to offer him or

Like like Elliots have been all around like something happened at the end of last season that kind of changed things on the case guys I’m on the case I will find this out have forces the other detail that put put my mind into a pretzel was uh when I was like when I

Was re when I saw Jimmy Dale’s name on the Flyers roster I was like what the hell is what is this all about then I Google like when like when did D like did he get traded in the offseason I wasn’t paying attention and I see that

It was like literally 12 hours ago and it says um cutter go cutter gothier uh with the Team USA pictures and I so I I researched him a little bit and it says he’s born in Sweden I’m like but he was playing for like I’m so so confused he

Is Swedish born um because his dad was playing in Sweden at at the time he was born but um yeah so that’s a good story to follow it’s it’s fascinating when something goes against the Green like that also yeah also if people are now interested in Cutter goate and tune in

To watch BC games he’s been centering a line with two Bruins prospects his wings have been Oscar jelic and Andre gesso so even even more reason to watch speaking of the Bruins we do have about just over 20 minutes remaining for this episode so why don’t we jump into the opening

Shifts and Scott will start with you yeah well it’s it’s been a a tough two games for the Bruins not just because they lost to Colorado and Arizona both uh four3 losses Colorado and a shootout Arizona in in overtime so they get a point but the injury bug has

Struck and uh bridge is going to touch on this as well but I’ll start with the big one which is Lena alark uh leaving Tuesday night’s game in overtime after uh trying to make a save um on Logan Coy sort of he’s going down but at the same time reaching up and

Kind of goes into the splits a little and doesn’t get up just lays on the ice clearly in pain they had to stop play he needed help getting off he wasn’t wasn’t pushing off at all he was just being held and kind of gliding all the ways to

The bench and then needed help getting down the tunnel so doesn’t look good there’s there’s no update after the game from Jim Montgomery they’re almost there probably won’t be one on Wednesday because the ruins are completely off it’s a travel day to Las Vegas for them uh so the

Earliest will probably hear anything is Thursday’s morning skate I’m assuming there’s going to be a goalie called up it did not seem like something that you know Omar’s going to be recovered from by Thursday but obviously we’re we’re waiting word on the severity and I know you know we’re

Going to get more into what their options are what things look like if if he’s out longer term but uh you know for now all we know is that he left the ice in quite a bit of pain and uh you know Bruins might have to call someone up

Here it wasn’t great to see him not even striding on his own just like kind of being guided over and uh you you you know you you watch that one play and it’s in overtime and it’s like all right if if posn would have scored on that

Breakaway all Mark leaves the game and that that play never happens and you kind of think about like the Bruins needing to finish games early because it does put stress on your players and you know you you give yourself more time to get injured and we saw that happen in

Over time with allmark yeah Charlie Coy absolutely robbed like towards the end of regulation too yeah there was chances to end it in regulation there was chances for not to make it that far and you see what happens um very unfortunate obviously can’t predict that but you

Play more hockey you have more time that you can get injured and that one was a little bit fluky but sometimes those ones that seem like they come out of nowhere that look like a regular play those can sometimes be the worst ones uh and it looked really not good um so we

Will keep you posted on that but um first thought was like oh my God that could be the season um and then if that’s a season for him what does that mean for the Bruins is that the season for the Bruins you know you don’t it’s

Should be huge L when you have another number one goalie it shouldn’t be better position other teams to to go to my opening shift you lost three really important players over the last three days right you lose you you potentially lose a goalie for we don’t know how long

You lose Brendan Carlo who’s been probably your best defenseman this year uh he’s he we’re still waiting on an update for how long he’ll be out but he missed uh last night’s game and against Arizona and Matt Pock goes down uh which is a center and those are all three

Really important positions for you to to not have injuries start coming uh so you get one you know one goalie one defenseman one forward in the last two games all going down and and the same thing as what SC said for allmark we do not have an update on ptra and probably

Will not until Thursday once again but he felt this one was also not like a huge hit or anything like that he just braced himself and he landed on the ice with his right arm first and it just like jammed or something and he went to

The bench was in a lot of pain you could see nessen showed it um like his facial expression when the trainers were talking to him and then eventually minute or two after trying to like Shake It Off on the bench he goes down the tunnel doesn’t come back uh so those are

Those are three big big pieces that if they are long-term injuries um there’s this it’s going to put a lot of pressure on the Bruins and different players to step up so for me in recent weeks recent episodes we’ve been talking about the fourth line and there’s a lack of identity

And historically in the NHL any successful team um you have a fourth line that has some size some physicality some grit can score um and defensively reliable but I don’t the Bruins don’t really have that right now and if and you you just you can’t force something

To happen if you don’t have the Personnel so maybe you try to find an identity that caters to what you do have in the system and recently they’ve been going with um they call up yeser boquist and in the most recent game you had yeser boquist centering Johnny beer and

Danton Heinen so because the brues don’t have and and the game’s changing also but because the Bruins don’t have you know the the Mero line of old they don’t have that Personnel Loo’s not it steam’s not it well how about a fourth line identity of speed uh reliability and an opportunity to

Actually produce offense for them and I think boquist beer and Heinen could provide that um the fourth line has two goals in the last two games I know that the Colorado gam scene was in there but Johnny Beacher scores against um Colorado yeser boquist scores in transition a nice shot against the

Coyotes and I I kind of want to see them keep that threesome together for a little bit here I know Matt ptrack goes down with an injury so it might cause a ripple effect but I see that as an opportunity to to maybe potentially recall merkulov if if if they want to

Maybe kind of pound-for-pound replace what ptra might be able to bring um because I kind of want to see a fourth line form an identity and I think that I kind of like what I’m seeing with those three last night yeah I’m I’m with you like I feel like for Thursday

Probably makes more sense to just kind of plug someone back in move hen up to the third line Frederick shifts to to Center but certainly if if ptra is going to be a longer term thing and again we don’t know anything yet but he was in quite a bit of pain as well

Um yeah it could definitely be an opportunity to bring merkulov up but obviously the question there is are they G going to use him more and give him more minutes than he got during this most recent call up because it doesn’t do a whole lot of good to call him up

Throw him on the fourth line give him six seven minutes a game so yeah if they were going to plug him right into ptra spot on the third line and then still keep hiding on the fourth line I would like that um we’ll have to see if that’s

Kind of in the cards here um but yeah it’s lot of decisions coming up for the Brew ruins with with these injuries uh we should note Brandon Carlo Montgomery said he’s dayto day he’s still on the trip uh they have not called up another defenseman yet it was you know Mason

Lorai has recovered from all his dental work and was back in there Tuesday night so they have you know they they’re six for now even if Carlo misses another game or two um but yeah up front certainly if Padre misses time things change and in goal obviously all marks out

You’re calling up most likely Brennan busy although Michael DP is is also an option dph has slightly better numbers in Providence this year and has played three NHL games now the last one one was like two years ago uh when he was in Vancouver but but busy got called up for

A game earlier this year served as a backup when Jeremy swi was sick uh has not made his any NH debut yet but you’d have to imagine that ifar misses more than a few games at some point if he’s the call up he’ll make his debut because

You’re not gonna I you know I don’t think they’re gonna all a sudden turn Jeremy Swan into like a true every game Workhorse he’ll start more than 50% if all Mark misses time but it might be you know two out of every three or something like that I feel like yeah Brennan busy

Remember when he was there was one preseason game where he was lights out and I think that was probably the first time a lot of people learned who he was uh and people were like oh wow trade a goalie right now he’s great like there was like some overreaction to how well

He played in the preseason game uh I’d like to see him be the call up uh I’d like to see him and San go back and forth I think there’s probably a lot he could learn from the experience um I know he doesn’t have any NHL experience

Yet so maybe get him some uh play them against some teams that I want to look at the upcoming schedule is there any teams like you’d see as like a natural place to get a like a rookie goalie in I’m gonna try to find it but Brendan busy just throw him in Thursday

Night on the road against the defending cup chams good great idea he probably can’t even get to Vegas that fast I don’t know where where Providence is playing if they’re at home if they’re not but yeah they’re home yeah they’re home all week so kind of a far far trip but I think

There’s a direct flight from Providence to Vegas uh oh yeah some of these games uh maybe throw them in against the Canadians at home I don’t know um maybe that’s your best bet there’s is a few tough games coming up Jets ABS Knights like you said Devils uh maybe the

Canadians well but you’re gonna have to trust him to play more than just the easy games uh I I know to to get right to the point like he’s going to have to play if if Mark is indeed out for a long time which I just have a really bad

Feeling about um then he’s going to have to get into some of those games yeah and and look if if allmark is out for quite some time I mean I understand that the goalie platoon is something that a lot of people enjoy and that’s maybe their opinions on that change if the other

Part of the platoon isn’t olark um but I think we all here understand that life after olark and Boston is San and as long as olark is is as long as he’s here healthy it seems that the Bruins will be doing that 50/50 split but eventually

Swming is going to have to get used to probably a more traditional you know one a uh share of the games like most other goal the NHL have to do um so maybe it’s not a bad time for him to start to play the majority of games here to see what

Life is like after Omar and and and um have more of the workload um I do think that this injury opens up a lot of storyline for for Talking Heads around Boston um because it does threaten the the the goalie rotation that um is very polarizing

And uh so yeah I’m sure there’s going to be some people that will um inhumanely say good good I’m glad all Mark injured because now we get to see swim in the whole playoffs obviously I’m I’m being factious but nobody actually wishes harm but people will be like now I get to see

What I wanted to see all along um some people are are brutal with goalies for whatever reason it’s not just to like Tuka was a very polarizing person for we used to have callers that I used to absolutely just hit my head against the wall when they called and because it was

Just like so much hate for Tuka for no reason but um yeah it’s obviously they’re better they’re a better team with allmark healthy and available than with him out of the lineup now the question is just how much does it affect their record from now until the end of

The season if if it is you know God forbid if it is a season ending injury how much does that change how many points they’re adding like you have to think that he’s good enough like he’s good enough to to win you a few more games than you might win now um because

You know Swim’s going to be more taxed and it just been working for not just this year past year so like how how much do that affect where you end up in the standings by the end of the season is really the question yeah I mean want to slow slow

Down a little bit on season ending like not we’re not there I know but Scott it looked like a grin it looked bad well yeah but I mean like there there’s so many different levels of even if it is a Griner hit like this go who miss a month

With a groin injury and then come that would be probably that would be you know people would be happy with that that that’s not too bad or or there’s little strains where you miss two games in your back like but so but so and if but if

You don’t recover well enough then you reinjure it and then you’re or you’re in the playoffs and all of a sudden you’re not 100% you’re 80% and then they R where they were last year no I know and they’re they’re gonna they’re gonna be save like obviously they’re not goingon

To rush him back but yeah um yeah I’m just I’m not jumping to the worst case scenario I mean most teams might be done for the year most teams don’t even have well I shouldn’t say most but a lot of teams don’t even have a number one

Goalie the Bruins have two so you know as far as like nobody hears screaming season ending uh injury for the Bruins they still have a number one goalie um but to your point Bridget like I do think goal tending in general and that includes all Mark 50% of the time they

Have bailed out the Bruins a lot this year the Bruins have been out chance in a lot of games out shot in a lot of games so while they still have a number one goalie and that’s what most teams at best have um they’re going to have to sh

Up defensively in front of busy because you can’t expect the same performance out of him yeah and and Swan too like if if Swan’s playing more and being taxed more you know that the the Bruns have had the luxury of hey they just alternate goalies every night the goalie

Always fresh he’s always on top of his game he’s never 85% like they’ve had that luxury and I think that can kind of creep into the mindset of even though they know they’re giving up too many high Danger chance is too many odman rushes in particular like they there is that

Feeling of well we have like the Ultimate Security blanket and even yeah the games that busy plays like that’s one thing that’s obvious you know you’re gonna have to clean things up but even San playing more of a you know bigger workload like that should also kind of

Jolt guys into hey let’s make sure we we’re actually doing our job in front of them because you know know hey he’s he’s not going to be 100% fresh every game he’s you know if he starts three in a row he might be a little tired in that

Third game like there should be that awareness the goal tending has lifted up the rest of the team so much this season and is the biggest reason they you know have one of the best records in the league there should be sort of a a a

Mind the team wide mindset of okay now we have to lift up the goal tending like now they they need our help so you would hope that guys are kind of kind of feel that way if if allm Mark’s going to be out for a little bit and it definitely

Wasn’t an ideal situation to have Sway and sit the entire game and then come in with two2 left in overtime and try to try to go from being completely cold to to trying to steal you another Point uh so that was an ideal obviously the

Bruins end up losing that but uh in a very weird overtime poock had two chances to end it on breakaways he almost always does too you’re like okay this is it and then it’s like no okay uh oh no this is it nope all right uh didn’t end up I was

Like oh it’s gonna it’s gonna go to the shootout nope uh so just a a weird weird overtime and of course it happened at like midnight because the game started at 900 PM so some people probably woke up this morning and watched the end and were horrified by you know the the

Injuries and and you know the result that it was an overtime loss but including Scott he lost power I was going to say yeah like me because I lost power that we got hit with a random wintry mix storm and tons of wind we got yeah you’re in Northern mask you

Guys got whacked with it we we got it’s like it was like 52 degrees but like this horrible rain and flooding and down near where I live so I know people today are you know probably still dealing with some of the effects of that storm we’ve

Got gotten hit a few times this week you know what I will say though that so I I listen to the rest of the game on on the radio um because I could still do that at least and then when I watched it this morning Wednesday

Morning um because I knew the injury was coming maybe I paid a little more attention and there in the third period allar made like a very acrobatic split save and then like maybe a minute or two after that there was a play where I was like I I wouldn’t have noticed it in

Real time just watching live but I kind of thought to myself like is he getting up a little slow there and it was it was hard to tell if like because there was a whistle he was just taking his time or if he was actually maybe already dealing

With something but it’s it stood out like knowing that there was you know more serious injury coming so I kind I kind of wonder if maybe he might have tweaked something earlier thought he was fine and then you know know obviously tweaked it worse uh the second time in

Overtime I know Scott you got to get out of here soon is there anything else you want to talk about before we we send it over to our um conversation with Peter Ebner yeah I think I think we have to touch on the David poock discussion off

Off of Monday Night what was that all about ah this is insane like I can’t believe this blew up as much as it did believe it so look Pak had an off game Monday night absolutely like even during the game he just it seemed you know brick mentioned on the broadcast a

Couple times jaffy and Razer postgame said it like for whatever reason he just seems to be fighting the puck he lost it a couple times on turnovers bobbling it mishandled a couple passes it happens and then you go to the shootout and he has if you strip it of all context yes

It looks like a very lazy shootout attempt where he just moves in slow and fires five hole right at the goalie stick like but people that I would expect or hope better from calling it lazy saying like he wasn’t trying or he didn’t care he should be benched he should be suspended

By the team for a game is unbelievably embarrassing like those people should be so embarrassed today because if you David poso before Monday night was three for three this season on shootouts and penalty shots only one of them did he deak the other two what did he do he came in slow

Hit his shot and did that slingshot Snapper off the hip that we’ve talked about that everyone marveled over at how is he shooting that so hard he took the same approach on this shot and clearly what he was trying to do was hoping that the goalie Alexander gor

Yv was going to expect that slingshot move and he tried to Quick Release five hole catch him off guard it didn’t work credit to gorev he he saw her come in and Clos the five hole but it’s like like the idea that Pak doesn’t care about winning or like didn’t want to

Score there or just like threw away a shot it’s like what are we doing guys like who are we to judge the like one of the best to ever do this shootout like I’m you have you gota you gotta trust that he knew what he was doing there I don’t think

He’s the kind of player that’s like yeah I’m just gonna take this one off there’s there’s 8.7 million people in this world David pasnak is one of the top three in the world at scoring hockey goals you don’t get to that level by not enjoy scoring goals and wanting to score goals

Scott you nailed it he was trying to throw the goalie off Pace knowing at the goal he was expecting one of those you know rifles and you know had it gone in on the five hole which by the way way PE one of the most common moves in the NHL

Is like when players come like forehand backhand and just barely slide through the fiveo like a mile an hour kind of like a no move kind of so like if that puck goes in everybody’s tweeting out pasta emojis um but and and oh my God he’s so genius for for for changing up

The the the pace of his shot um but yeah Scott I want you to text me offline some of these names because I didn’t see this so I’m curious who should be embarrassed um but yeah i i i there’s a certain a certain bigname afternoon show host on a

Different sports radio station oh no he would never yeah he would never say that he’s always so levelheaded and yeah well anyway I also agree that that was that was a crazy story I can’t believe after all that that kid is done for the team in the last I mean 10 years

Really but last two years it’s like crawl back in ear holes um um all right yeah so we’re probably good to to pass this along to our interview with with uh Peter sner of elite Prospect so thank you all for listening to this portion of the podcast and enjoy the

Interview we are joined by Peter sner Peter sner is the head of Elite prospects he’s been doing that for 12 years Peter it’s great to have you with us uh we have a lot of things to talk about with you from Bruins prospects to some of the local College hockey players

Is that I are get kind of a little bit famous in town mlin celebrini I know Scott Scott wants a Be You by the way um so he’s gonna want to talk about a little bit about be I know um so Peter thank you for joining us thank you it’s a

Pleasure and I’m I’m gonna let I’m gonna let Scott go first because I know Scott we’re just coming off of world juniors and obviously that’s a big stage where you get to see so many different prospects for so many different different organizations and um if you’re a Bruins fan you’re tracking certain

People even if you’re just a hockey fan you’re you’re tracking so many different guys that you think you might see in the NHL in maybe a year or two so Scott I know you had a question to do with that well I want to start with actually the

Player who I can’t help but notice is the number one most searched player on Elite prospects right now and that is unsurprisingly cutter gotier uh Boston College sophomore Team USA star at well Juniors who was just traded from the Flyers to the Anaheim Ducks for Jamie D

Down a second round pick and whole kind of crazy circumstances around there where apparently he wasn’t going to play for the Flyers and wasn’t even talking to them so things kind of came to a head but Peter what did you make of all that and what do you what do you think when

You see a trade like this with you know a huge Prospect and a huge you know highly rated young defenseman like Dale yeah it’s I mean it’s I mean there were certainly waves right I mean he’s just coming off I thought to go back to the World Juniors

That was one of the best American world junior teams I have ever seen from a team perspective they essentially had three first line and and and cutter Gia himself I mean he struggled to score a little bit he didn’t score I think until uh well he scored that big goal against

Finland um but he was a really good player I mean he had what two goals eight assists coming off a a big win and then this happens basically the next day or at least you know on Monday the week after the Tuesday or Monday or Tuesday

After the the world juniors it was just I couldn’t believe it that said I had heard some rumors that there was one player on the US team a high draft pick that were apparently not looking to play for the team that had selected him in

The draft so I was kind of curious like who Could That Be and and you know it all became obvious here uh Monday night of course uh it’s we don’t see this a lot guys it’s it’s a pretty rare thing but to be honest I think we’re going to

See more and more of it especially the guys coming out of college with college now being such a breeding ground for Prime NHL players that it is uh you put up some good numbers in World Juniors you put up some good numbers in college and all of a sudden you have something

To negotiate with right and looking at the trade I don’t really know Drell has been injured where does he stand right now I know he can certainly be a number one defenseman for a team in the NHL we’ve only seen glimpses of what he can

Do at the NHL level I think but to be honest I think Anaheim won this uh player for player they certainly did because cutter gothier can be he can score 100 points in the NHL and the Anaheim Ducks will have maybe the most scary forward Prospect pool in the

League moving forward that said you know rough hand to play for the Flyers if the kid doesn’t want to be there they needed to make a move just like Jony said they got to make the move you know while his value is at is at an all-time high yeah

It felt like the the Flyers kind of optimized that uh that situation right it’s it’s as you mentioned it’s a tough hand for them to play and you know their comments were really interesting like they they applauded other uh GMS around the league um because you know if if

That situation got out that the player didn’t want to be there then there’s there’s less um leverage for the Flyers and and everybody on the league played it very well and um that probably goes a long way for um GM relationships and whatnot no but it was certainly I mean

Such a splash we had a funny W video with him during the World Juniors where he uh where he had to admit that he was a Pittsburgh Penguins fan growing up and and of course that one blew up right after the the trade was announced so it

Kind of funny but you know uh as college kids becomes I mean their value is going up NCAA the hockey is just getting better and better and better it is uh more common for players now to take a year or two in college even as really high draft

Picks um and you know it’s just another window another one or twoe showcase for them to put some pressure on the team that will eventually have to sign them before the window closes I mean they they can only sign them for for for so long so I think we’re going to see more

Cutter gothier situations pan out in the future we’ve already had one or two but but this was certainly the one that made the biggest waves Scott correct me if I’m wrong is that what happened with John ferachi in the offseason um yeah so his his rights expired with Arizona I don’t I don’t

Know if that was you know his decision their decision but in his case he had reached like the four years post draft and uh went to free agency Peter I I had a follow up on that because you mentioned kind of the you know sort of these college kids draft picks maybe

Trying to bet more direct where where they end up do you see that becoming kind of a trend because I know in this case Philadelphia said right after the draft you know there’s even video of it goate saying he was you know excited to be a flyer and seemed on board with

Everything but our team’s going to have to be more aware of you know who is willing to play for them who’s actually gonna be excited to be a part of their organization where yeah the kids will always say that right no one since Eric lindas has basically said I will not

Play for that team trade me right now so so the kids will always always say that but behind the scenes there’s obviously a lot going on you know you got the uh you got the financial discussion going on bonuses Etc uh signing the entry level deal but you also have the

Coaching situation right so in this case of course John torella being who he is I can imagine um there’s definitely some young kids out there that might you know be a little scared to play for him I don’t know if that factored into the decision at all if it was a money thing

If it was a you know relationship going sour thing maybe he didn’t want to play for a team that might be uh you know struggle to make the playoffs for the next few years I don’t know what went down in this particular scenario but of course this could have up opened the

Floodgates because for every drafted kid there are these discussions going on between him and his team and especially in the college situation where he’s putting up great numbers getting a big showcase um highly touted and hasn’t signed yet so so if anything I think kter gothier may have opened the door

For more players to do what he did I’m not saying that’s necessarily the case but certainly now they have an even more prominent case to point to certainly goes against like the culture of you know like you see the like some of the older generation of hockey players weighing in about how

Much they hate this yeah and I think that that one of the main reasons why they hatte it so much is that he like according to the reporting he refused to even meet with them which seems unprofessional um so I think that the if I’m right I think they flew

Some of the Flyers F uh management flew to Sweden to try to talk to him during World Juniors and that fell through so then this whole thing like became completely a like burnt bridge with everything yeah that’s what I I know um Brier and Keith Jones were there um I

Don’t know for what Reon I mean you usually get a lot of GM and other brass at a World Junior I’ve been to 10 of them pretty much and and there’s always a lot of NHL brass around the hallway so I don’t know if they were there for that

Particular reason but it certainly does make sense if you didn’t even want to meet with them and they had a taker well they they they had to play the hand they were given yeah I mean Adam Fox is probably the prime example right now across the league of of this situation

Turning into stardom for for the team that didn’t draft him uh but speaking of Adam fox in in Team USA uh Peter so Team USA wins gold for the sixth time in 20 years um I’m not the biggest math person but what’s that Scott 30% give or

Take right uh yeah right along those lines right along those lines um so just maybe your your opinion on the the international landscape at the world junior level obviously Team USA has always been a threat but you know they’re just getting better and better um and and yeah just great success for

Them and and what you you mentioned that this was their best team you think one of their best teams they they’ve showcased B yeah from a team perspective I thought it was because they had a little bit of everything right um the depth was just we’ve seen potentially more skilled

Individual players over the past few years uh more highlight re goals and whatnot but from a pure go there and win the tournament perspective I think this was one of the most impressive teams um that I can remember I remember the 93s with uh with Seth Jones and Johnny

Goodro I guess um they they had a really strong team that year um but but yeah this is this was this was a machine uh they were there to win and they pulled it off and I think they played their best game of the tournament where it mattered the most which was the

Championship game I if you’ve ever played or been to Scandinavia you know it’s a crazy Arena to play in 12,000 people all of them wearing yellow jerseys loud as hell it’s hot uh very hostile environment and they just go out there like professionals and just push

The button and win it so so I was really impressed what is for I guess I should preface this for people who might not know you’re and correct me if I’m wrong but you’re originally from Sweden live in the US now so you really are kind of

The perfect person to talk to about this but what has the reaction been like in Sweden because they’re hosting they they haven’t won in a while feels like you know this could have been their year or a team of Destiny for them ends up not happening and then the world junior the

Gold medal game really ends kind of ugly with you know some some fighting punches being thrown us is kind of giving it to the crowd a little bit what’s sort of been the Fallout over there um well I mean the the fact that we don’t win

World Juniors a lot that that’s been a topic of conversation for a long time because because we certainly had the teams to do it we felt like right I mean we’ve lost to the US couple times we we’ve lost to Canada uh fairly recently uh and of course

These guys the 04s the 05s they’ve been going up against the Americans now in the u8s uh couple years in a row so this was a bit of a rivalry Brewing here these guys have been playing each other a lot over the past couple years so I say um

In Sweden the Swedish crowd obviously very riled up there at the end but from a discussion standpoint I think the discussion now is okay we’re still not winning world juniors this was the best team we’ve had in a long time home ice and we still can’t pull it off

Well it’s a country of 10 million people obviously our talent development system is is one of the best in the world you know the the the the NHL player per capita ratio is extremely high but we gota we gota we got to take note of what the Americans are doing because it’s not

Just Canada anymore it’s definitely I’d say the Americans have the best talent development system in the world right now and and and I think in Sweden we’re looking at USA Hockey like what are they doing uh how are how are they succeeding not just breeding really good hockey

Players but also making them be able to win preparing them for the winning moment right and do you so obviously now compared to say 5 10 years ago there’s a lot more foreign players coming to play in college like in in the CA we see them

We see some really I mean will Ander was on team Sweden he plays in college over here um so do you think that maybe that if if more Swedish players or European players in general were willing to travel over to the US and play college hockey that the product might you know

They they might see a little bit of a boost there definitely and I think you know um 20 years ago going to college was that was the outlier option right that was that was what 20 21 year old players did when they didn’t really have any other good option um now it’s a

Prime viable alternative for an 18-year-old swed to go and play college uh the hockey in college is so much better now than it was I mean it was good 101 15 years ago but the product is growing um you know agents are now recommending their players to go to

College certain players are certainly better fit for that than than going to play Canadian major junor or maybe play five six seven minutes A Night in the Swedish Elite league so so I mean college has definitely it’s it’s up there at the top now as for an Avenue to make it to the

NHL and Swedish clubs teams know that Swedish players know that their agents know that and I think it’s just a matter of time before the product NCAA hockey which is basically nothing in Sweden you can’t I mean you have to go on an online IP TV stream or something like that to

Even see it I I I think that could be emphasized a little bit more too yeah I mean I think we have an international feed I’m a college hockey broadcaster we have international feeds for most of um our our streams I have no idea what it’s

Like to try to connect to them because I’m not from Sweden but I know we we stream internationally and uh there’s like a player from Russia that her parents listen in and different things like that yeah I I I watch it all the time but but you know I I really I think

The European audience um you know we’re doing at Elite prospects we’re doing what we can we’re we’re we’re heavily promoting the bean poot for instance we always travel to the bean poot and cover that you know that tournament or that event if you will extensively uh we try

To put out a lot of stories about uh Europeans playing college hockey so we’re certainly doing our part but but the product is too good to be ignored from a media perspective Peter these guys will have some specific questions probably regarding uh Bruins prospects and some local talent but before they do

I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you this question because I’ve been following Elite prospects for a while and um you know if you ask any parent in Youth Hockey they’ll tell you their kids Wayne Gretzky but uh Elite prospects has a bit of a process about you know who an elite

Prospect actually is when when internally is it that you guys what age will you find uh a player to be on your radar to even have them qualify for for Elite prospects uh website um and what goes into that for you guys internally well so it used to be at age

16 um that’s when we started adding um players back in the day but we were getting so many requests from players because really you know the elite level hockey begins at Bantam definitely in the US right that’s when you start you know that’s when you go Triple A uh

That’s when you start thinking about you know getting draft to the USHL or or the CHL so uh five years ago we made an exception and we started adding players from the age of 14 so there is a set of leagues that we cover like organically

If you will um but there’s also the option if you play hockey if you’re on a team that we cover and you don’t have a profile we will add you if you’re on a team or in a league that we don’t cover you can still get your player profile on

Elite prospects but you have to be a premium member so there’s this we have the organic coverage of 15 I don’t know 14,000 hockey leagues maybe uh so it’s um it’s a mixed bag really um like the triaa leagues in North America a lot of the good high

School leagues we will cover those organically so we will make sure we get the roster up there we will get the stats up there but we won’t update your individual like height and weight on an annual basis we we will do that basically once a year so that’s where

We’ve seen a lot of growth in in in paying subscribers now it’s it’s kids looking to take control of their profile have access to their profile and you know update height and weight and get cool looking pictures up there so but generally age 14 in North America is

When we start adding players and if you call us up and say you’re a peeeee we will probably not add you unless you took part in one of the very few peee tournaments that we cover so so we try to keep it at age 14 we probably won’t

Go lower than that and uh you guys probably had your work cut out for you a little bit the pwhl just started uh that’s a big league to be added to uh Elite prospects I’ve actually been so I’m one of the broadcasters for the Boston team and I’ve been on Elite

Prospects every single day like taking notes like clicking every player bio profile when did they play at College when did they go to the Olympics like medals like it’s really well organized for people if you’re trying to learn about players like you can just search click it’ll give you like a list yearby

Year of where they played um what and some of their like accolades like say they’re an NCAA Champion or uh silver medalist or or what have you um usually it’s all listed right there so it’s been a huge help for me going through um learning all these new teams in the pwl

And preparing for my broadcast so that’s probably been a big thing for you guys over the past I don’t know it’s only been like under two weeks yeah I mean uh they didn’t have much of a Runway to to launch the league really I mean they the teams still don’t

Really have names um and and I mean um it was tough the way everything happened right the phf folding and I know you know still moving out of of the darkness of the pandemic really with everything from sponsorships to whatnot so I’m really impressed with what they have done so far because I

Know launching a brand new brand like this it’s not easy there’s a lot of opinions there’s a lot that goes into it so at this point I think the pwhl has done a great job and this is so important for women’s hockey to have a professional level because as of right

Now when you’re 22 23 coming out of college it’s the national team and not really much else for North American players you can go to Europe and PR play in the pro league but that pro league is not really that high of a level uh you

Don’t get paid at all basically you get your accommodation paid for basically so so I think this is a massive step the pwl so far they’ve done it really really well just look at the the crowds we’ve had in you know Montreal Minnesota I

Mean it it is great uh I just hope they can keep the Mojo going here uh throughout this entire inaugural season because if they can do that the sponsors will come we have covered women’s hockey atlite prospects since 2014 so we started adding women’s statistics before anyone else ever

Thought to do it so so we’ve done our part and uh we will uh continue to improve uh with women’s hockey it’s a little more difficult because the stats aren’t as readily available online as they are for men’s hockey so it’s a little bit more of a challenge but we

Have a a staff of volunteers and paid staffers that are really really keen on women’s hockey I work with Bo marwick one of our longtime staffers he is an absolute Super Fan of women’s hockey and he has done a tremendous job making sure we’re up to speed with the pwl so so

We’re all really excited and we hope it really works out this time it seem I mean from my perspective it seems like it’s it has a lot of momentum as it is and um anyway yeah it’s been helpful uh going on and and because you know it just

Launched and there’s a lot of like cramming that I’ve had to do um so there’s one player I want to bring up we’ll switch kind of a little switch gears back a little bit to college uh and this is somebody Scott uh cares a lot about mlin celini uh so obviously

Team Canada uh be and projected to go number one uh overall in in the upcoming HL draft I just want your uh your just your opinion on what you saw from him in the tournament or I don’t know how much of a chance you’ve had to watch him play

At be uh just your thoughts on him and is he a number one overall draft pick in your mind um I mean nothing really changed that if you ask me I think you know a Canadian team that it certainly wasn’t the best Canadian team we’ve seen um

From a roster perspective uh and it also ended uh in a big disappointment for them and you know of course him coming in 17 years old not even you know not even Conor McDavid was a big player in his first world juniors um I was there

In Malmo when he made his world junior debut and he wasn’t he didn’t stand out in any material way uh I will say that mlin celebrini uh did that for Canada I mean he was probably the best player on the team and they ended up relying on

Him for for scoring goals and driving offense and I think he started on the third or fourth line so so I mean uh expectations were high but um I think he did all and more than you can expect from from a 17y year old kid Peter I wanted to Circle bit we

Talked about uh you know Swedish players maybe coming over to college and wanted to tie this to the Bruins a little bit because they’ve made a habit in recent years of drafting out of Sweden and specifically like in Middle late rounds they’ve targeted guys who were maybe

Still a year away from coming over to college and you know there was 2021 three of their first four picks were all swe there’s Fabian Isel obviously went the major Junior route Phillips vbu who’s at Providence Oscar Yelich at BC the next year you know donash melis is

Lvan but was playing in Sweden he’s at UMass now their last two picks this past year R A Sweden when did did especially starting with that 2021 draft does that kind of send up some you know an antenna for you where when you see a team kind

Of suddenly drafting all out of one spot or is it sort of just random luck of the draw that you know that maybe the board just fell that way yeah so I mean they’re they’re not the first team to do that right they’ve got I mean they’ve got uh you all remember PJ

Axelon I guess from from his playing days um and if you know him as a person you know he’s a very lovable person uh and he loves to be around the rinks and he does a you know he’s their director of European scouting I believe um he’s

Done a tremendous job um helping them make good decisions they’re not the first team to do this if you look at Detroit what they did starting basically in the early to mid 90s they had a lot of success with with late round Swedish draft picks and and and that said it’s

Harder to do that these days because you don’t get as many hidden gems anymore there’s not really a lot of Diamonds in the Rough to be found because every pro league in Europe is so heavily covered by the NHL teams these days it’s not just boots on the ground guys at the

Rink it’s it’s all the video analytics you can do all the all the games are accessible to you to watch on video so the Intel that the um NHL teams have to work with is just so much better now than it was um it could be coincidence I

Mean at any given draft you’re there with your 147th overall pick and you got to make a decision right so it’s one player or the other and and and for now the Bruins have have opted to go with swedes over other players we have had a lot of success with Swedish players being

Drafted late Henrik cederberg and I can name a lot of examples but uh I don’t think they’re looking for anything specific it’s just that that player happened to be their primary Choice over the next guy all right well do you guys have any more questions for Peter I feel like we

Got a lot of them in Scott yeah no I think I think we’re good this is great thanks a lot Peter yeah we really appreciate it thank you so much guys it’s been an honor hey guys thanks for watching the gate podcast if you want to see more of our videos visit our

Playlist not in front of a screen you can listen to us on Spotify Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast don’t forget to follow us on social media and if you enjoyed this video please don’t forget to give us a thumbs up subscribe to our Channel and leave a comment

The latest on the injuries to Linus Ullmark, Matt Poitras and Brandon Carlo and who could be called up to help. We talk to the head of Elite Prospects Peter Sibner about Bruins’ prospects, the Cutter Guathier drama and if Macklin Celebrini should still be projected as the #1 pick in the 2024 NHL Draft. Follow us on Twitter: @TheSkatePod | @bridgetteproulx | @smclaughlin9 | @briandefelice_ | Email us at skatepod@weei.com |

Leave your questions in the comments and we will answer as many as we can!

Jump to:
00:00 – Latest on Bruins’ injuries to Carlo, Poitras and Ullmark
30:04 – Interview with head of Elite Prospects Peter Sibner

Photo: Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Follow The Skate Podcast on the Audacy App or wherever you get your podcasts: https://link.chtbl.com/TheSkatePodcast

Don’t forget to subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/weeivideo

📡 LISTEN LIVE ➡️ https://www.audacy.com/weei/listen
📺WATCH LIVE ➡️ http://weei.com/watch
💻WATCH LIVE ON TWITCH ➡️ http://twitch.tv/bostonweei
Download the Audacy App today and stream your WEEI wherever you are! ➡️
https://go.audacy.com/y-listen-live-weei

FOLLOW US:
TWITTER – https://twitter.com/WEEI
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/weeisports/
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/WEEI/

Thumbnail images courtesy of Getty Images/USA Today Network.