Prospect Avenue Ep. 16: Costantini climbing?

Prospect Avenue Ep. 16: Costantini climbing?

All right think we’re good to go welcome back everyone for another episode of the world famous Prospect Avenue podcast I am your host Chris Baker here in the bunker in lovely Hamburg New York date of recording Friday afternoon January 19th 2024 it’s been a little bit since we

Were last together thought I’d take an opportunity here on this Friday afternoon to get us caught up on the latest and greatest happenings in the world of the Sabers prospects both here in North America as well as some news and notes from across the pond over in Europe

Probably a shorter than normal podcast today um have a place that I need to be here in a little bit but I wanted to get this done before going to do that and we’re just going to jump right in but before I get to the agenda for today if

You could please for those watching on YouTube like the video and subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already for those listening Audio Only on Apple or Spotify if you could please follow the podcast leave a festar review helps get more eyes and ears engaged with what I’m

Trying to do here both with Prospect Avenue as well as the baker Fairburn hockey show that I do each week with the Athletics Matthew Fairburn talking Sabers and some NHL happenings but really appreciate all of the support that we’ve garnered to date looking forward to keeping this train rolling so

With that said want to jump right in to this week’s Sabers prospects agenda and and going to start with a prospect that haven’t talked about a ton this season but is quietly having a really good year and has also been on an interesting Journey over the past few seasons and

That’s 20120 fifth round pick Matteo costantini so costantini a St Katherine’s native played his youth hockey in the Niagara region of Ontario came over and did a a couple 16 you Seasons with the Buffalo Junior Sabers and that’s where Kevin Adams Jeremiah Crow started really getting familiar with costantini as a player and

Getting familiar with his character also did a season in 2019 2020 had a really good year um as an offensive producer especially with the junior Sabers ojhl entry and led to him being drafted in the fifth round in 2020 this was a player that was supposed to go out and

Play with the and tickton VES of the bchl that first post-draft year reported out there took part in practices and some exhibition you know scrimmages local scrimmages with some nearby teams but covid complications cancelled that season and he was transferred to the Sous City Musketeers of the USHL costantini again previously was

Widely known as an offensive commodity he gets to the USHL and that’s when you started to see him really round out the two-way part of his game taking on more defensive responsibilities didn’t put up a ton of points but really proved himself as a valuable middle of thee

Lineup player in the USHL and that provided a nice foundation for him to enter the nchc in his first year of his commitment to the University of North Dakota had a really good year with North Dakota as a freshman and then last season his second

Year as a sophomore just kind of had a hard time getting in the lineup regularly getting regular playing time and that saw um costantini go into the trans for portal where he ended up this season with Western Michigan now it’s been a really good season like

I said for ctin the reason that I wanted to talk about him this week is he’s quietly put together a 10-game point streak going back to November 24th so his last 10 games costantini has produced at least one Point picked up two goals and 11 assists in that span

And really as a result has kind of vaulted his way up the Sabers prospects points per game leaderboard and he should be really proud of what he’s doing there it’s been like I said a very interesting past couple of years seems to have found himself a nice home here to finish out

His Collegiate playing career and he’s up to 19 points through his first 20 games of the Season not included in that 10 game point streak was a hattick that costantini scored in an exhibition contest back on December 30th against us Sports opponent Western Ontario so for those watching on YouTube right now

That’s the Highlight pack that I’m talking over are the three goals that he scored in that exhibition so two plus 11 in his last 10 regular season contest had a hattrick in that exhibition he’s definitely producing some offense here while maintaining that that two-way look to his game I’ve always appreciated the way

He gets up and down the ice um chip and pucks you know he’s got good hockey sense um gets pucks deep throws area passes but he’s also a crafty playmaker makes really good tapeo tape looks as well but he’s been on that line this season with another fellow transfer into

The Broncos program that’s Sam Colangelo um also a 2020 draft pick he of the Anaheim Ducks system Colangelo was 36 overall in that 2020 draft played a couple Seasons at Northeastern and then he came into Western Michigan this year and he’s teamed up with centini to form a very uh Dynamic productive and

Hard to play against second line for the Broncos so good on centini to get it going uh we’ll see what he can do here down the stretch in the second half of the season but it’s a nice little transfer portal success story that we’re seeing here and so you know he’s been a

Vital part that line really has been a vital part to the Broncos you know hovering around the top 10 in the Collegiate rankings all season long they’re presently the number 11 team in the country currently in third place in the nchc and they have a big conference set

This weekend against Minnesota duth so we’ll see if constantini can extend that point streak to 11 and maybe 12 games after this weekend and we’ll have more to talk about with him moving forward so we’re going to do a hard shift here as we keep this agenda moving and wanted to

Um follow up on some of the players that played in the 2024 World Junior Championship two of which are going through some positional changes right now so we’ll start with Yuri Kulik we’ve seen him the past two World Juniors play Wing started his AHL career in 2022 23

As a Winger now if you go back last season played with Wing goes to the world junior Championship comes back um took him a couple games to find his footing Brandon brro gets hurt Kulik moves to Center and he’s been playing Center pretty much ever since for like the last

Calendar year I’d say at the AHL level now that February time frame last year like I mentioned last episode of this podcast on the world junior Championship debrief it was really February 1 and on when he really caught fire just took off like a rocket scoring a ton of goals for the

AMS he comes back this year from the world juniors and you know with Tyson J now being down there on the farm that’s kind of given sath eper an opportunity to reassess and retool his offensive lines and Kulik now three games back with the amirs after the world juniors

He’s playing Wing still on a line with isach rosan where he’s been playing all year he’s had he’s been kind of stapled to rosan pretty much all season but uh he’s back on Wing now at least for these first three games coming off the world juniors he’s picked up two assists in

Those first three games and what’s interesting is you know you’re kind of hoping for history to repeat itself right where you can kind of Catch Fire and just rip off a bunch of goals like he really he’s been to start the season you want to see that goal scoring production kind of stay

Where it’s been all season long if you go back to K’s last game with the AMS before leaving for the world juniors he didn’t score a goal on that last one he doesn’t have a goal in his first three games back so now for the first time this season he’s gone four straight

Games without scoring a goal for the amirs the last time in the AHL level that he went at least four games without a goal was about a year ago there was a period last season from January 18th to the 28th where he didn’t catch a goal um

So yeah he’s on this four game goal streak right now kind of interesting I’m not necessarily going to say it’s it goes into him moving positions by any means but I wanted to call out really that um you know they’re waiting for the goals to come back and if he does resume

That production it’s going to be as a Winger another positional change of note involves Matthew seavoy so seavoy who had been playing Wing in the WHL with wachi before the world junior Championship he uh was traded to musaw like I mentioned at the last episode here and he’s played a couple

Games now with the Warriors and he’s playing as a centerman so he’s back to his natural position you know he can go up and down the wing certainly most guys can but uh really effective as a centerman and he’s had some really nice games to start his stint with the

Warriors had two goals and three assists and six shots on goal in his first contest I want to say he won 80% of his draws in his Moosejaw debut and then he came out and picked up another goal on Wednesday I believe it was so now he has three goals and three

Assists in his first two games with moose J and playing as a centerman so that brings seo’s WHL season line through 13 games up to 14 goals and 16 assists he leads the Western Hockey League with 2.31 points per game seeing how mus jaw’s roster is constructed I

Would expect seavo to stick there at center for the long term um which will help him you know he’ll be more defensively responsible he really adds a ton of speed into the middle of ice there for moose jots it’s really clear what he’s bringing to them uh you know

He just looks fast regardless of what team he’s playing on he looks very fast versus that level of competition at the WHL level but regardless nice to see him get off to a nice start he took a little bit of a break he took his time getting everything settled with the move from

Wachi back east to musja so good to see him uh hit the ground running after that weakish layoff so uh staying on the theme of players that played in the world junior Championship um I’m gonna throw some voice highlights up here real quick it’s a quick package here while I transfer

Into talking about Noah aand so Ain has come back from his showing with Team SW at the world juniors where he manned their Top Line their number one power play unit was one of their better offensive producers at that tournament um he’s he’s come back and

He’s done really well here as a third line centerman for vea in the Swedish Hockey League so he has points in all three games since returning uh it’s a goal and four assists and I’ll throw osan’s goal up here for those watching on YouTube we’ll do that right now so um

Aon has a goal four assists points in all three game since returning from the world juniors he’s played uh just under like really just under 16 minutes 1550s uh in his three games back but he’s looking pretty good and if you take into account the assists that he had in

His last game prior to leaving to join team Sweden he’s now on a season long four game point streak for the Lakers in shl action so that’s good to see the idea was this season that you know osen could maybe get up around 7.75 points per game he’s not quite there yet but

Now you know hopefully bringing some confidence back getting some good matchups there in that third line role for bequa maybe that leads to more offensive production we saw him earlier in the season in October have a three-game goal streak so we know that he can do it we’re seeing it now with

Five points in his last three games and I think the Sabers are really hoping for that production to continue to ramp up as he finishes out his European career before coming over to Rochester next season his Swedish teammate Anton Wahlberg not scoring any points just yet

In his return to Malmo but it certainly isn’t due to a lack of workload so Malmo last week they had a bunch of guys out for injury they were missing a key forward due to suspension that was Lori PMI who sensus come back to the lineup but they were without six forwards last

Week I think it was five Injury One suspension and that put while ber up top on the top line for the last two games major opportunity for him and he went out and played in a career-high 25 minutes and 31 seconds in a three- nothing loss to air brro huge minutes

For a still 18-year-old kid playing in Sweden’s highest professional League getting the opportunities I think he had three shots on goal in that game wber looks really good at that level looks really comfortable even when the points AR coming he’s making an impact and U just really like the look of his

Game has kind of that power and skill and size blend he’s got a really interesting Look to Him um and not a bad skater like I said uh he can get around really well so points will come for him as he goes um Mel’s gonna need him you

Know they got PMI back on Thursday and I think it was 1850 that Wahlberg went so again it wasn’t quite 25 and a half minutes that he got in that that one game I was describing but still a pretty big uh workload for an 18-year- old kid and look they’re going

To need the points to come um Malmo got off to a pretty good start they were right in around the middle of the shl pack through the first month and a half or so of the Season then they just started dropping games left and right so they’re gonna have to claw their way

Back up and uh avoid being in that relegation round it was that relegation round last year where Wahlberg really played a big role as a 17-year-old and really put himself on the map as a potential late first round or where he was drafted in early in the second round

So I like where his game’s going walberg’s teammate in Malo a non World Junior participant but this is William Von barnow that I want to talk about real quick um he also received a similar lift in ice time so he had 1751 and then he got bumped up to 20 minutes and 26

Seconds in his last two games well above his season average of 13 minutes and 50 seconds all early in the season was putting up some points by virtue of being up on malmo’s top line with kukin in and py since moving him off that line he’s kind of

Settled back into that two-way rooll it’s like a checking line centerman he’s he’s in that third line fourth line slot right now where he’s been for the past few weeks and as a result of the reduced rooll he has a point in just one of his

Last 22 games he’s gone without a point in his last 10 so again you know they’re going to want to get some production out of Wahlberg and if they can get some secondary production out of V barnow it’ll certainly help keep them out of trouble and avoid battling uh to stay in

The shl like they had to do last season lastly we should probably discuss Lena shodin another player late round pick that we haven’t talked about a ton this season but um I mentioned after Christmas that he started scoring some goals and I was looking into his numbers especially his time on Ice numbers

Throughout the season so sh Shin’s picked up three goals in his last nine games and in September October and November so to start the season this is his first 22 games where he had zero goals he only went above 10 minutes time on Ice in six of those first 22 games of

The season so again it was you know limited limited workload next to nothing in terms of gold production calender flips into December and now he’s eclips 10 minutes time on Ice in 12 straight games I don’t think it’s any coincidence that he’s picked up three goals and two assists in

That stretch more opportunity to play more opportunity to produce points Shin’s a player that just from the ey test perspective looks good he’s responsible he competes knows his way around the defensive zone for sure and he’s got a nice little offensive um Instinct some knack to him

But hasn’t led to production and if you recall in the European preview earlier this season we put shine in that kind of Never Say Never bucket where um you know guys can pop and get themselves back on the map in that contract consideration discussion but generally you got to see

Some offensive production so now with those three goals in his last nine games and a couple assists along the way the idea is you know rogland needs more production from him hopefully he can give it to to him and I think that’s what the Sabers want to see I’m certain

That they like him as a player but the confidence to get a guy like that a contract if he indeed wants to pursue a North American Career it’s gonna have to come with some offensive production here down the stretch so really eager to see what Lena Shan could do the rest of the

Way one last note from Sweden uh on right-handed defenseman Albert Lassen lassan playing this season in hocky alens in the second division for Carl scoa he got dinged up in practice back on December 28th and just this week resumed some on Ice work now as I’m recording this Carl skoo is probably

Finishing up their game today lon’s not in the lineup presently but the idea is that he should draw back in next week lacass has been i’ would say the 45d this year for Carl scoa um get some Power Play Time three goals nine assists thus far this season another player and

That Never Say Never bucket but he’s got to start seeing a lot more offense from him because he’s certainly not going to be a shutdown Defender um you know you want to see the skating explosion getting those shots through from the point he knows his way around the power

Play You’re Gonna want to see more even strength production from him down the stretch if he’s going to get himself a look at a North American contract from the Sabers with that said we are cruising along here going at a good pace and that’s good because I don’t have a ton

More to get to but I do want to move us over to a quick Farm update hit on a couple Russians as well as a non-russian down on the farm in Rochester and just wanted to talk briefly about big defenseman Nikita novakov 28 games into his North American

Rookie season novakov looks good man um it’s a rotation to get in the lineup for him he’ll play a bunch of games and he’ll sit for one then he’ll get back in it’s not disciplinary it’s just Seth thater I believe managing the bodies that go in and out of the lineup on a

Nightly basis so novakov right now currently co-leads the americs with a plus six rating this year he’s actually the the active leader right now because he was tied with Damen giru that forward was sent to Jacksonville of the coast League just yesterday so that leaves novakov as the active leader with the

Plus six started hot this season with five assists in his first six games novakov by virtue of that hot start is currently tied for second among all AMS Defenders with 11 total helpers this season but man he’s been jumping up into the play regularly Deep In the Zone

Often times beneath the offensive zone goal line working behind the net very responsible once he moves the puck off his stick to get back to his post to get the man covering for him to rotate back down but I like the look of his game this is a prospect that Sabers fans saw

Over the summer development camp and stood out in the three Onre scrimmage by you know big guy that moves well he was attacking the play there in the three on three as you would expect but then you saw it somewhat too at the prospect’s challenge when he was out

There doing his thing um taking what was given to him jumping into the play and we talked about him a lot early in the season he and Ryan Johnson were the young guys down there on the farm they were doing their job helping this the AMS play fast and moving the puck

Quickly getting it on their stick head up scanning skating it out or at least passing it out of the Zone quickly novakov though very noticeable every time he’s out there on the ice been mostly in a bottom pair role when he does get into a lineup digging into

Novakov at least um you know watched a lot of the games but really understanding the pattern of who he’s been paired with there’s no stability there’s no comfort that you’re given having a regular defensive partner in the AMS this season so I wrote this down

I want to review this with you so they had their game on Wednesday it was a six nothing win against Lehigh Valley he was paired with Zack metah the two games before that novakov was paired with kale Cay two games before spending some time with Cay he

Was with metah two games before those games with metah he had a three-game stint with Joseph Sone and then before that he had two games with Jacob Bron Jacob brayon S recall up to Buffalo before he did the couple games with he did two games with Niko sais and then

Two games before that he spent some time two games with Chris jandric jandric mostly in the coast League this year recently dealt to Laval um so that that’s a partner that he want to have moving forward but he had one two three four five six different defensive

Partners in the last month or so and um pretty wild how they’ve been rotating guys in and out and switching up the pairs again it’s um it it keeps you from getting too comfortable one guy I love that Seth aer’s doing that it’s also wild that he’s pulling that off and

Novakov succeeding in the capacity that he is so great to see the young player um jumping right in getting acclimated to new system new culture and six new partners in the span of a month it’s really really something uh That You Don’t See too often in the world of hockey anyways

So another note from down on the farm just wanted to follow up real quick did a little um item on the last podcast about Victor neev and how he’s kind of getting more comfortable as well here a couple months into his North American rookie season and he’s kept going so

Noev had a goal and an assist late in that Wednesday victory over Lehigh Valley to extend his point streak to five games so nov’s a guy he has 12 points in 26 games this season but eight of those have come in his last eight games so mentioned it it was kind

Of good timing that we talked about it when we did uh I guess it was what 12 days ago the last podcast because he just kind of kept going the difference is is um that goal and assist that he had against Lehigh Valley it was with

The new set of linemates he was down the lineup now you know they got Kik back Jose is firmly in there um just moving some things around noev is now on at least on paper it’s their fourth line where he’s playing left wing Tyson kak’s playing Center and Alexander kov is on

The rightwing so shots on goal which we talked about are still there the production’s still coming it’s great to see because if neb and kak are down there producing on the bottom line they’re still getting production from the The Usual Suspects in the amck lineup that’s a good thing for Seth Seth

Effer to have all four lines going and those young guys there at the bottom of the the lineup sheet are doing their part so I mentioned kak and um we love our grunt workers I’m going to throw up the neev and kak goals from that Lehigh

Valley game here on the screen for those watching on YouTube but um we love kak we’ve talked about him as kind of a two-way defensive forward and I wanted to call out KAC because I like um you know the way that he scored his goal on Wednesday against Lehigh Valley you know

This is a player if you back to when he was with the Portland Winterhawks he was always out there uh guarding the opposition’s top line now he put up some nice points at the junior level I think professionally you want to see him get his share of points but it’s not going

To be his primary responsibility he’s going to be that checking line centerman and came out in that game against Lehigh Valley on Wednesday on that line with kizak kov and no noev scored a really nice goal I’m gonna throw it up on the screen here for those watching on

YouTube so I’ll describe it for those listening Audio Only Puck’s going to come to KAC he’s gonna kind of get control of it at the Blue Line skate right down the slot have a guy draped on his back get it to his forehand and score the goal with 242 left in the

Third period to put the AMS up five nothing hardworking goal something that you want to call it out when you see it because that’s going to be kind of how kak’s going to score he’s always in on the four check moving his feet likes to hit he has really good backchecking

Routes but you like to see a player like this get rewarded with a goal especially a hardworking goal like the one we saw from him on Wednesday so again just wanted to shout it out he has a lot of developing to do still if he’s gonna get

Himself in position to take that next step to challenge for a job at the NHL level but really like to see um him make plays like that and contribute to the team he’s been in and out of lineup had some injuries this year so you want to

See him get going as well and hopefully being out there with some skill players in neev and kazakov will help unlock some of that offense that he has to give and um that’s that on the farm so I think that’s it there just a couple quick notes before we end this week’s

Podcast um some of that Log Jam that’s existed all year down on the farm was eased a week ago when Kevin Adams traded Philip cederquist NHL contract to the Montreal Canadians for the purpose of really helping the Canadians AHL affiliate in Laval uh managed through a

Lot of injuries that they were having so I mentioned that they sent uh the AHL contract in jandric to Laval they also sent Cedar quis there now it wasn’t just a charity move I think this was also um Kevin Adams giving cederquist an opportunity simply and get more clarity

On what his North American future might look like there have been Whispers coming out of the Swedish press in recent weeks that cedar quis was considering a move back to the shl next season potentially with Funda and um so this move to lval will give Cedar quit the opportunity to play

More than he was in Rochester he was kind of down on the lower lines when he was getting in the lineup and you know we appreciated Cedar Quist here I mean I liked them I mean he was given opportunity at the prospect’s challenge if you recall he had a featured role on

That line with boy and Benson but you know he wasn’t going to get that same type of featured role in Rochester and it wasn’t just the guys in Rochester that he was competing against even moving forward if he was going to stay in the organization stay in North

America there’s going to be a steady influx of more Dynamic offensive-minded forward prospects coming in just a lot of bodies for Ceda Quist to cut through so he gets moved um earned a couple decent bucks here over the past couple Seasons with signing bonus money and his AHL s

I think he can certainly afford to make a good chunk of change if he was to go back to the Swedish Hockey League but like I said I think that getting this fresh start and finishing out this season where he’s gonna have opportunity to play will give him Clarity big body

63 200 plus pounds power forward just a mule beneath the goal line gets things downhill when he gets the puck Around the Net appreciated the effort but just a numbers game that he was a victim of here in Buffalo couple other quick notes on player movement coming out of the

Holiday break Joel rekovic burnson um has started the season with FPS in finland’s second division with MES he had four goals and 11 points in 22 games there went home for the holidays I think he decided to stay home for the holidays because he has since joined hastad of Sweden’s third division um

Where he had now has three assists in his first four games so he goes from finland’s second division to Sweden’s thirdd division this is a player very skilled offensively has some runways still ahead of him over the next couple of seasons to see if he can get back

Into hockey ALS venin next season or maybe even the shl has a lot of tools just needs to find himself an opportunity as a 20-year-old and uh needless to say he’s gonna have to do it right now in finland’s or excuse me Sweden’s third division and then lastly Shan cohane the

Harvard commit who was with the US shl’s Tri City storm to start the season he elected to Head West and get himself more playing time coming out of the holidays with a move to the bchl so he has joined the West Colona Warriors West Colona is uh near the top of their

Division in the bchl standings cohane has one assist in his first four games out west but more importantly he’s getting regular playing time that he wasn’t getting in Tri City so that can only help his development as he gets ready to make the move move to Harvard next season in the

Ecac that’s it I went over 30 minutes I wasn’t supposed to dang it I apologize for that I really thought this would be like 20 25 minutes but I I can’t shut up I don’t know what to tell you I apologize for that anyways again if you

Could please leave a festar rating for the Prospect Avenue podcast like this video it really helps appreciate all the support as always and I’m looking forward to seeing you here on Prospect Avenue next time

Thanks for supporting Prospect Avenue.

***

Kris Baker kicks off the week with Western Michigan centerman Matteo Costantini, who has been on a bit of a journey the last few seasons, and is now riding a bit of a heater that’s vaulted him up the Sabres prospect points per game leaderboard.

As far as a post-World Junior update, Kris offers a quick discussion on noteworthy positional changes for Jiri Kulich and Matt Savoie, before making a pit stop in Sweden to chat about Noah Ostlund and Anton Wahlberg, a long with notes on William Von Barnekow. Linus Sjodin, and Albert Lyckasen.

Some noteworthy callouts to Nikita Novikov, Viktor Neuchev (for the second episode in a row), and Tyson Kozak for their recent output on the farm in Rochester.

We bid adieu to Filip Cederqvist, and close with the location changes for Joel Ratkovic-Berndtsson and Sean Keohane

***
The video version of this podcast can be viewed on the Sabres Prospects YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El17hkNyFSM&t=685s

You can download all episodes of Prospect Avenue wherever you get your podcasts, Don’t forget to submit a 5-star rating on Apple and Spotify:

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast…

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3utInqt…

Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.in/podcasts/5d47…

TuneIn: https://tunein.com/podcasts/Sports–R…