Interview with @bigheadhockey’s creator, Francis Daniels – Sharks Audio Network

Interview with @bigheadhockey’s creator, Francis Daniels – Sharks Audio Network

All right, we are now joined on the Sharks Audio Network by Francis Daniels, the man behind Big Head Hockey. What’s going on, man? How are you doing? Hey, I’m doing great right now. You know, summer’s wrapping up, but that just means the season’s starting, so pretty excited for that. A lot of fun storylines kind of digging into right now. So, having a lot of fun. Yeah, I guess before we go Sharks specific, because as I was telling you before we started recording, you know, when your they never should have let this happen video about the Sharks came out, I was just everybody was texting that to me, which was awesome. But let me ask you, since you bring up storylines, like where where are you most pulled to as we go into the start of the season? Is the potential for a three pete with Florida? Are you thinking about what, you know, Edmond can do to recover or do you, you know, does your mind take you elsewhere? like what do you most focus on? Man, you know what? Uh that’s a great question because I’m pretty interested in uh in a lot of the younger guys around the league. Like I made a video on Badard the other day. Um you know the video you talked about a second ago on the Sharks young guys, but there really are a new generation of players kind of coming in right now. And then I mean the older guys kind of are on uh you know get off the pot soon territory with you know McDavid has a couple more years of being the best and you know McKinnon has a couple more years being the best. So I’m kind of interested to see how this next group kind of starts to take over and kind of becomes the face of the league. Yeah, it will be interesting just because they’ve come up so young. I mean, when McDavid came in, he was obviously a generational talent and he was very, very young and really young captaincy, but that kind of set the stage for what we’re seeing now with all these young guys really coming in and making an impact. Um, has it surprised you the way that the youth movement has happened across the NHL? Man, a little bit. a little bit for sure because you know we saw Lafrrennier who was like he was so good and everyone thought he was gonna be I don’t know at least the next great prospect and he kind of slowed down. Kako had a similar thing. Jack Hughes you know his first year in the league was not that great. So it kind of looked like the younger guys weren’t able to keep up. Maybe it was just the game’s a little bit too fast for the younger guys but then I mean Bard wins the Calder as an 18-year-old. Celabbrini oneups him the next year. It is a little surprising actually. They kind of come out of nowhere and it’s just like, yeah, if you’re good enough, you can be good enough. Yeah, it it’s interesting because for so long everybody said that the NHL is not a developmental league, which meant if a guy was going to come in at such an, you know, young age, they had to be at a really, really high level. But I also wonder about how much of an impact and I’d like to get your thoughts on this social media has had because we go back a while ago and if somebody pulled a Michigan that was you know highlight stuff it was going to be on Sports Cent’s top 10 whatever but now I got to think that with like Tik Tok and Instagram and Twitter there are kids that are 12 13 years old seeing that probably younger that would have never had the opportunity to see some of these highle skills unless it was like directly in their circle and they see the trick plays and the you all the stuff that people are doing on sushold and they’re like okay I’m going to try that now and that just seems in terms from a skill standpoint I think that’s why we’ve seen things happen so rapidly and I I don’t think it gets talked enough but I also can’t deny that if stuff like that had been around when I was a kid like yeah if we had seen some guy do something like the Michigan you know like whatever sport it was we would have all been out there trying it but that didn’t used to happen people didn’t used to have that type of ability to see it as frequently or as often or even on demand Yeah. Yeah. It is crazy nowadays. And I mean, you look at Trevor Ziggress and he comes into the league and immediately he’s the best stick handling player. I think it is that Patrick Kane generation like a whole group of players grew up watching Patrick Kane and they got to see how stick handling can kind of be your number one trait and if you’re good enough at it, you can just be a good hockey player. So, I think it has had a big effect. It’s been pretty wild, man. just and it’s fun also because I think that you know the marketing that the NHL has done has not always been exactly what everyone hoped it would be cuz they wanted to kind of showcase more and more of these personalities and I think they finally gotten the right message out with the next Golden Generation being here and I I think that’s it’s aggressive but it’s good. I mean, you’re putting a lot of pressure on all these young stars in the midst of some other established generational talents that you mentioned were at the end, but you know, I think, you know, you want to get to where the NFL is to where even the guys that are wearing the helmets most of the time, people can look at them and know exactly what superstar they’re talking about. Yeah, exactly. I’m in all the videos I do, I try to put a little icon on top of them, but the dream is that one day you won’t have to because people will be able to recognize him. No, it’s true, man. And it feels like it’s trending that way. So, all right. I’ve I’ve gotten away from it for long enough, but I want to get into your video about the Sharks and their prospect pool and just the way that, you know, the Sharks are seemingly situated. Um, you know, not that I want to speak for you, but if you could kind of give like a, I don’t know, a brief synopsis of what you were trying to say in that video when talking about Celibbrini and Smith and Michael Misa and Sam Dickinson and so forth, a lot of these guys, just because I don’t think it’d be fair to me to try and explain your video and I hope this will, if people haven’t seen it, they need to go watch it. I mean, basically just the Sharks are really, really good in the next couple years. Like, not you know, couldn’t be simpler than that. like Celabbrini is like so good and you know I’ve got some stats here but he really is among that superstar category already at 18 uh you know mind you June birthday so he’s 18 all year long and then uh you know the whole crop around him has been unbelievable as well like really you couldn’t ask for a better supporting cast except for maybe a couple more defenseman here or there but you know maybe next year you know Keenan Verhoff he looks pretty good Ryan Lynn so there’s another year tanking and then I I think it’s just shoot for the moon, shoot for the cup. The stats that you referenced on Celibbrini, I know that in your video you started out with, I believe, chances created and you also talked about, you know, his ability to win puck battles. If you could get into those a little bit. Yeah, actually. So, I got some here. Um, I used instat for these uh these stats and these are per game stats across the whole season, but he is one of the better puck battling players. But what actually is really impressive is his transition game and playmaking game. Uh he was sixth sixth in the NHL in slot passes per game this year. Uh just ahead of Mitch Mner who signed for 12 million in Vegas and just behind Jack Hughes, you know, superstar New Jersey Devil. Uh but then the transition game, so zone entries and stick handling zone entries, which are, you know, self-created a lot of the time. Uh he was just ahead of Capriovv and point and then again behind Jack Hughes. So really, you can say he’s I mean, if you trust his stats more than anything else, which maybe you want to watch him a little bit and he looks great when you watch him, but uh top 10 transition player, top 10 playmaker at 18 years old, that’s what Conor McDavid was doing. Yeah, exactly. I mean, that’s that’s the thing like when you see those reference points to say like, yes, this is something we saw from Conor McDavid. At the same point, it almost it doesn’t seem fair. Not that it’s not a valid comparison, but it people are now putting Mlin CBrini in that air of like, well, we’re expecting you to be the next, you know, big thing. Very much in the same thing that we did with um, you know, Connor Bard, who we’ll talk about in a second here. But, you know, why do you think people maybe slept on Celibbrini? Like the thought and I’ve had people almost gaslight me about this when I’ve asked them and they’ve said, “Oh, yeah, you know, I never said that, you know, Cabbrini wasn’t going to be like Baddard.” I’m like, I kind of feel like that’s what everyone said that Bard was the generational talent, Celibbrini was going to be a star, but not to that same level. Is is that% what? 100%. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you go back and read it, like everyone said that Cabbrini was a tier below and Bard was generational talent by all accounts. You can read inner circle scout notes on him that say, “Yeah, like I would trade the last 10 first overall picks for this guy.” Cababrini was great and he was a consensus number one. wouldn’t take anyone else number one, but he was seen as an Adam Fanty. Fantelli is great, but he’s not Celabbrini. Cabbrini took that jump this year in the NHL, and he was more ready than anyone really thought. It’s been Yeah, it has been crazy. And I think that one of the things that you pointed out that was something that we actually talked to Ryan Worovski at the end of the season was the fact that Celebrini is willing to throw pucks into the slot from wherever he might be on the ice to try and make something happen. And people have said, “Okay, he can give up the puck a little bit too easily at times.” And that maybe, you know, what separates superstars is that they do take risks, but they also know when to pick their spots. You know, if a guy is consistently putting the puck into a dangerous place, I mean, is a coach going to ever tell him to stop in your opinion or should he ever stop if it’s if it’s leading to chances created and goalc scoring opportunities? You know what? There’s a time and place, right? So, there’s uh I think this is a story from I can’t remember who it was, but it was about Sydney Crosby in the 2017 finals against Nashville. And uh I think it was the game they won the they won the cup, so it was game six, I think. And Crosby was playing this reserved game and he wasn’t chucking the puck into the slot a lot. He was really trying to hold on to possession and he played it perfectly until the right moment. And you watch that and you think, man, that is perfect hockey. But then you watch Conor McDavid in the cup finals the last two years and he’ll break into the zone and chuck it into the slot and there’s chaos and then maybe it goes back the other way once in a while, but a lot of the time it ends up going into the net. So there’s a couple different ways to play the game and it really does kind of come down to the coach and how he wants the system to run. But if you can create these great chances and you’re already this good at getting it into the slot for a chance, I don’t see any coach telling him to stop anytime soon. No. And I I think that, you know, while I’m sure he’s got some plays that he wants to take back from a season ago where he lost the puck, there were a couple times in overtime where he tried to split two defenders, ended up giving up the puck and it would go back the other way either for a chance created that was pretty dangerous. And I think even one time it went back the other way for the game-winning goal uh for the opposition. But we’re also talking about an 18-year-old. Like I if you’re on a team that’s got the worst record in the NHL, that’s the time. I mean, last year and, you know, probably this year, while I don’t expect the Sharks to be a darling of the NHL, anything could happen. Obviously, I might be a little bit biased in working for the team, but if if there’s a time for him to learn, it’s right now. Take these chances now while they’re not vying for home ice advantage or something like that. Yeah. And learn from it, too. You know, like you’re going to make these chances and you’re going to kind of read what is a strong NHL defenseman going to be able to shut down? What can I kind of get away with? And you build on it. So next year maybe he does it a little bit less or maybe he does it in a different way. Tries going through the legs when he used to go for a push shot instead. So he’ll try different things and he’ll try to learn from it. The fact he’s been able to adapt so quickly, I’m just not worried. I wouldn’t ever be worried about this guy. I know that, you know, you said statistically the reference point for some of the things he was doing was a Conor McDavid. What I mean when you look at his rookie year do how much can we truly know about what kind of player he is going to be other than if he keeps that up he should be a star at the very least because I and I want to talk about you know Baddard a little bit too here because it it’s it’s so early we know so little especially with the lack of surrounding talent on all these you know young teams whether we’re talking about Chicago or San Jose it’s never just one player now the one player can be the guy that takes it to the next level but there’s so many factors that go into being that superstar in the NHL and obviously the team having success long term. Yeah. And you know, like when you’re when you’re a rookie there, there are some things that coaches can’t really game plan against you. They don’t really know how you play. So, you see uh the sophomore slump, it’s what they call it. You know, in your second year, you’re a little bit slower. People your numbers aren’t as good. But I feel like you can get a pretty decent read on a player at this point, especially when they are young enough. If they’re Andre Kuzeno coming in and scoring 40 goals, but the underlying metrics say that maybe he was getting a lot of high danger passes and shooting 30% isn’t sustainable. You can kind of make a read that he’s not going to keep that up. But nothing really points to Celibbrini being that kind of player. Baddard, there’s a couple questions if I’m being honest and I am a huge Baddard fan. I think before this season started I would have picked Baddard 10 times out of 10 over Celbrini and now I’m picking Celibbrini over Baddard. So I guess you can kind of extrapolate some things. Um and you can kind of see what they need to work on and it just seems like a lot more work is needed for Baddard to become that number one guy whereas Celabbrini it’s more about refining some aspects. The one thing I think about with Bedard and it was talked about out here in San Jose because everybody noticed how much fun Mlin Celbrini and Will Smith were having out there on the ice and eventually you know we saw Yara Slab Bascarov come up um you know he was a really fun personality Colin Graph was having fun as well and now you know adding Michael Misa to the mix and maybe some you know more young talents like a Quinton Musty, Sam Dickinson etc. that was not the same vibe at all that we got from Chicago and it was just and I know Chicago is a very very different market than San Jose but I often wondered how much the pressure was also maybe not getting to Bard but maybe how much more aware of it he was because that’s what Melbrini is about to experience this year the threat of the sophomore slump and also being on a team that again while we don’t know what’s going to happen you know people are not exactly projecting the Sharks or the Blackhawks to have you know banner years. Yeah. And you know, like you kind of look at the situations they were dropped into and you really do have to respect the fact that Bedar didn’t have the much as much help as uh Salabrini had. And when you go into a year with someone who’s your age, your roommate, and you can be friends with them all season, it seems to me like, and obviously I haven’t met the two, and I don’t know him that much, but if you score a highlight reel goal, and you know, you have a sleepover with Tofoley next weekend, you have a, you know, you’re a little happier than if you’re Connor Bard who scores a nice snapshot, but is a minus two on the night and has to be the number one face to the media and doesn’t seem like he has anyone he’s that close to, doesn’t seem like he’s working with anyone that’s building towards something huge. Like Frank Nazar near the end of the season started to look pretty good for Chicago. Um Sam Renzel as a defenseman who looks really good and I kind of like what they’re doing with their defense, but the whole team just isn’t really set up for him to succeed the way that Celbrini could kind of walk in and then work with the pieces around him. Yeah. And I mean that’s a credit to Mike Greer and the fact that he’s been able to a draft well with young guys and bring in some of the established veterans that have have been around. Um, I wanted to ask you just about Will Smith as well. And you know, him last year was kind of a slow start and then once after about the middle of January, he had a big game in Boston. It was a 10:00 a.m. start out here in the Bay Area and it was, you know, 1:00 something start back in Boston, but he’s got, you know, obviously connections to the Boston area. He had a great game two times turned defense into one goal and one assist, I believe, for him on that day. And that was kind of the launching point for him. And then from that point on, he was right there with the top producers of his draft class and just kept on roaring for the rest of the year. What do you see when you look at his game? Yeah. So, one thing I found in the video is that his shot is a little bit slower and that’s not really the end of the world. You can look at guys like Besser Patterson on Vancouver who have slower releases and they can score 40 goals or just about 40 goals in a in a good season. But for Will Smith, I think when he first came into the league, it was a little bit, you know, it was a bit of an adjustment period trying to find his shots and when he can take his shots. So, I started to see um a trend where he would almost uh I’m bringing up all these Kucks right now, you know, season ticket, whatever. Uh go out of the zone back in, you know, Ovuchetkin does the same thing, hide away on, you know, empty net situations, six on five, five on four, and he would find as much open ice as possible to load up his shot. And once he started doing that, I think he probably did that three, four times near the end of the season. Uh the goals were going in and I think he got his swagger and uh I guess it just came a lot easier as it went on. But I’m not entirely sold on Smith being 110 point player in the future yet. I think there’s still a lot of parts to his game that need a little bit of refinement before he’s there. No, for sure. And I think that he would acknowledge that as well. And you know, his defense needed some work. got better in the second half of the season, his awareness and obviously it was probably not fair to him. Every night that he would go out there, he was being compared to the other rookie in Mlin Celibbrini. And that was, you know, that’s an unfair reference point because Will Smith still had a very very high producing level for a rookie on a bad team, but you had what looked like the next generational talent in the NHL right next to him, which is that’s that’s again sports aren’t fair. They’re cruel for a reason. Um, now they’ve got Michael Misa after this year’s draft. And I know, you know, people are thinking, okay, they didn’t get the number one pick this year and of all the years to not get the number one pick. This is a good one as they end up with a very very what appears to be a very very high level player in Misa. Um, who, and I believe you mentioned this as well, a lot of people have made reference to with Mlin Celibbrini in terms of his game. Um, you know, he’s got point records that are right there with a guy named Conor McDavid who we previously mentioned. hard to ignore the production. Um, you know, just your reactions to him joining that prospect pool for the San Jose Sharks. Yeah, it’s just it’s just gross. Like that’s that’s kind of where it pushes it over the edge where you think that this team might be one of those Colorado in the early 2020s rosters where they can just score at will. Misa is so fast. He’s a transition guy who can defend. He can also snipe it. Has great hands. Has a great work ethic. It just feels like he’s the kind of guy that I don’t know. I don’t know. I maybe would have taken him first overall and like he fell to second and San Jose gets to pick him up. That’s great. Um, you know, Chicago is probably a little bit pissed about that. They probably would have used Michael Misa, but San Jose gets Misa and now that’s either your second line center, you can put him with Celabbrini. It seems like whatever weakness he’ll have or whatever problem he has, which from what I saw seems like such a sporadic list of either he can’t create that well at 101, but maybe he can in the right circumstance or maybe he doesn’t have the right work ethic or discipline, but then he can also defend. And it seems like everyone was kind of seeing something else. And it just felt to me like the flaws with him aren’t obvious enough to say he’s anything but a top end player. So just unbelievable. No, it is, you know, pretty exciting. Then the other thing that’s interesting, and I know this is one of those cute storylines that we get into when we’re a little bit close to the situation, but now he’s with his former team teammate, Enigor Chernishoff, who looks like may may have been one of the steels of the previous year’s draft in 2024, who looks like he can just, you know, score goals that people aren’t even talking about. I mean, that’s the funny thing is that they’re not talking about Turner, they’re not talking about Dickinson, they’re not talking about Musty. There are these very very elite names that if any other team had in their prospect pool would be getting a lot of run, but because there’s big names at the top, people aren’t focusing on them as much. Yeah, exactly. Trinav especially is so exciting. He’s got the biggest mystery box potential, I guess you could say, where he could be anything really, and he’s really something that San Jose doesn’t have a lot of, which is just huge size and on that winger position. Um, but then I mean like you said, Dickinson, he could be so good. he could be the number one quarterback defenseman for this unit. But then you also got Luca Kagnoni who just tore up the AHL and he was unbelievable. Uh Pride of BC, shout out. Um Quinton Musty, that’s another first round pick who seems to be developing great. So I mean, yeah, like this prospect pool is so good. You almost wonder if they are making the right steps this year. Maybe they want to sell one of these pieces to see if they can get a little playoff action. Maybe they jump the gun a little earlier than they thought. Um, one team that was a little bit scary to think about as a comparison is Toronto actually where when they added all this young talent all of a sudden and they already had NSM Codri who’s your William Ecklland and then you know Matthews is your Salabbrini by year number one of them all being together is when they made the playoffs and they looked pretty damn good. So maybe you want that early experience or maybe you don’t want to end up like Toronto, but who would want to end up like Toronto? So, I don’t know. It’s It’s funny though, just because I I often think about Toronto, you know, with so many years there until recently when they, you know, don’t get past the first round. And I also think about LA and how they’ve just been getting knocked out by the Oilers and they’ve gone through multiple coaches and things and I’m like, well, maybe the problem is going up against the greatest player in the world every year in the playoffs. That tends to not end well for I don’t know if that’s on the coach. I could be wrong. Um, and then you know, like I said, Toronto, like I again, when they lost to Montreal, that was one where I think everybody was just so stunned, but Montreal stunned everybody. Um, but yeah, I mean, that’s again, sports, it’s hard to, you know, figure out where things are going to go. And then, you know, this year I’ll probably look like I always joke I’m in sports broadcasting because I’m good at being wrong, but I’ll talk about Toronto not being able to take it all the way and then they’ll probably go to the cup final this year or something just to make me look bad. Um, you you brought up an interesting point though about the Sharks and their rebuild. Last year at the deadline, the Sharks were greater sellers than people expected, especially when the Fabian Zetterland trade went down, who was, in addition to being a good goal scorer, was a fan favorite. Mike Greer said that it was time to start building. They probably were not as active in free agency as they had hoped to be, but I understand a team in a rebuild is not where everybody wants to go. Um, what do you think of the timeline for the Sharks rebuild and when you expect them to be in that window of getting in the playoffs? You know what I mean? I did say maybe they’re shooting for it this year, but I don’t know if I really even believe that because the defensive core is not strong enough yet. And I think that’s something that needs a pretty big overhaul or at least get to the point where it’s decent. And right now it’s I would say it’s last in the league. And it’s all these offense first guys who are going to be pretty fun to watch. like it’s going to be a lot of fun this year. But I mean, if you allow three or four goals a game while you’re trying to get a rookie Ascarov into the lineup, I don’t know. Like maybe this is a little bit of difficulty and maybe that’s where the biggest problem for this rebuild kind of starts from. But I think if they can get any kind of defenseman and maybe they start shooting for one of those Noah Dobson type trades where they just get a guy who can be the staple shutdown minute munching guy and they can kind of build around him. Maybe that’s when you start to say the rebuild is finishing. But for now, it’s definitely still a work in progress. And I mean, Dickinson looks great, but to step in and be that number one guy, that’s once every couple of years for for a prospect. So, you know, don’t hold your hopes for that because that might not happen. Let me ask you about your your channel a little bit, specifically starting with the video first. Um, you know, I I always look to see what the algorithm brings up and I never had a chance to do it that time because I got texted by so many people that, you know, I was watching it before the ALGO pushed it. But that one did seem to get a lot of run. Were you surprised by how much interest there was in that video? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, so I’ve actually done a couple videos on the Sharks now and I’ve just found them such an interesting team, you know, so fun. They got Salrini. It’s so fun. Um, so I think there are a lot of Sharks fans that have been tuning in. So when I put it out, I kind of thought, okay, it will resonate with the Sharks fans. And then, you know, some other people, some Habs fans might be angry because they think Lane Hudson’s better than Celibbrini. And, you know, who knows what’s going to happen. But yeah, I was pretty shocked. It seemed like everyone loved the video. Um, it wasn’t the video I put the most effort in, if I could be frank. Uh, like some of these scouting videos I do, like they take a week or two to make, and that one took three or four days. So, I was pretty shocked. Um, I didn’t learn the lesson to just put less effort in, but I definitely learned that if you talk to the right audience, you know, I guess people will be pretty happy. So, it’s pretty cool. I mean, I love the Sharks and I their fans are so nice. So, yeah, it is. I mean, that is a nice part about the the San Jose fan base is they’re they’re very friendly, welcoming. I know people have always talked about, you know, the rivalry with Vegas or something, but I remember a couple years ago, you know, right the next year or the next fall, the fans from Vegas were trying to take pictures and Sharks fan comes down like, “Oh, let us help you. You know, you can stand over there.” And I’m like, “Yeah.” I was like, “This is a pretty good place to come and watch a game, especially if you’re opposition.” But I guess to that greater point about how interested everyone else in the league is with San Jose because I feel obviously Mlin Celibbrini and Will Smith, they bring a lot of eyeballs, but because the Sharks haven’t been in the playoffs since 2019 when they made the Western Conference Finals. Um, they’ve had a change into the guard. None of the names from that era are there anymore. Everybody’s gone. It’s a whole new generation. And I feel like there may have been some Sharks fatigue at the end there, especially because they never won at all. But now it feels like with a whole new, you know, character faces, all new guys that the rest of the league is kind of starting to become a little bit Sharks curious once again. Yeah, definitely. And, you know, the way they built that last team where they drafted Marlo early and he never became really a superstar. I not to be rude to you guys, but he was always top of the line, but you know, he wasn’t ever a top two left winger, whatever. Uh, and then they traded for Thornton, and that’s kind of when the window opened. Um, he was already 25 or 26. You guys are starting with an 18-year-old Celabbrini. And you guys are starting right out of the draft for these guys, and it’s clearly being built properly. So, if anything, it’s maybe even more exciting than before. And, uh, I’ll definitely say around the league, the Sharks are the good guys. Like, you look at how many years they, you know, they didn’t get it done in the playoffs despite having such a nice team. Everyone loved them. Uh yeah, it just seems like so much goodwill has been bought and then they have this really likable young group. I think everyone’s kind of cheering for the Sharks a little bit and uh if you’re a Sharks fan, it’s just a great time. So tell me about the the start of your channel and why you decided to start doing this. I mean, I know that you’re obviously a very passionate fan and that you know, it’s very clear how much interest and knowledge you have, but you know, that’s it it appears that there is a daunting amount of work that goes goes into your videos. And you know, I I remember when I shared that video with some of the other broadcast crew um from the Sharks, their first reaction was like, “This is really good. Like, this is well researched. Like, this is very the production values. They were all very very impressed.” And I don’t, you know, I assume you’re doing it all on your own, but like I said, that feels like a daunting amount of work. Yeah. So, well, Big Head Hockey as a as a company really, it’s it’s been going for a couple years on Twitter and then uh you know, I’ve talked to the NHL a little bit about some of their social media and then uh yeah, it’s been around. There’s uh you know, we do articles on Substack and I’ve always kind of had the dream of turning it into a YouTube channel as well. That was from the very beginning, but it was kind of about refining it. So, I spent a couple years kind of learning how to video edit first. I didn’t want to put out a bad product. And then uh really just trying to learn the game. So I’ve been really really focused on like studying as much as possible uh you know like the Jack Han uh type if you know who he is. He’s uh he’s a former Maple Leafs uh assistant coach and now he writes on Substack and uh it’s a great resource. He’s so knowledgeable. And then uh you know I talked to hockey psychology. He’s a great guy as well and uh so you know we share our thoughts, watch a lot of his videos too and uh yeah I’ve just been trying to get as knowledgeable as possible and I kind of feel like if you can put together a wellressearched product with you know good video editing and it’s got a storyline and it’s all you know comprehensive I think you can kind of get people who aren’t as interested in analytics into analytics in the right way and I think that was kind of been the purpose of Big Ed hockey and I’m pretty happy to see it starting to work out on YouTube. I I have a buddy who did a book on analytics in soccer and one of the things that he talked about was that people got so used to how concrete and easy to understand that analytics were in baseball that people have not been as not as welcoming but it’s been harder for them to understand it in something like hockey or soccer because it is a motion sport. Same thing with basketball. Um, have you found that at all to be true? Just because baseball I feel like baseball because it’s not a motion sport, it’s play stop, play, stop, play, stop as opposed to hockey where it’s just it’s it’s a non-stop. It might be a little bit harder for people to get into, but once they do and understand it, it kind of opens up things for them. 100%. And, you know, there are some advanced stats that I don’t tend to put as much stock into. So like or okay, I shouldn’t phrase it that way because expected goals really are the best advanced stat in terms of understanding what’s kind of happening, but on a day-to-day game to game even playoff series to playoff series uh kind of sample, it’s not big enough to have a proper understanding of what’s happening. And a lot of these advanced stats don’t work unless you understand what’s going on behind the, you know, under the roof. So, if a guy is matched up primarily against McDavid in a series and he has the worst expected goals on the team, I’m not going to say he was the worst defenseman on the team because the coach trusted him against McDavid. So, there’s still a layer of you got to research it and kind of see why these numbers are happening. But really, like, you know, a guy plays 36 hours of ice time a season. If you wanted to have a good understanding of, you know, the top 200 players in the league, that’d be like 10,000 hours a year. like you wouldn’t be able to watch everyone and have detailed notes on everyone. You need these really it’s a tool to kind of help you understand from a surface level and then you can use that to go in watch film and then see what’s happening. No, for sure. I mean that’s the thing is like it is it is a tool and like you said that would be trying to watch it all would be nearly impossible. Is there anyone over the the you know while you’ve had this going on that maybe you weren’t really paying attention to them but the underlying metrics made you think okay I’ve not been viewing this player in the right light. Uh you know what it was Jackson Lome in Anaheim that was one guy who I was so shocked with this year because I kept seeing his name pop up and all these topof the table stats and he was always up there and I never really understood why because before this season started he was seen as lower on the depth chart than almost everyone in Anaheim. he wasn’t really seen as a top end prospect, but then he scores 14 goals this year. And he was ahead of guys like Quinn Hughes and Evan Bousard for shots within the slot. And it’s if you’re doing that on Anaheim, you have to be doing something right. So I, you know, watched as much film as possible on him, try to figure out what’s going on. Looked at the stats and like yeah, like he’s the best defenseman in California. I’ll say it right now. Better than anyone on LA, better than anyone on San Jose. And I kind of found that out from these stats. And uh I guess you’re going to see next year if you don’t know how good he is yet, but he’s he’s a rock star. He’s so good. Have you started looking at all the McKenna hype for next year yet or is that one you’re waiting? Yeah. Yeah, actually. Okay. So, uh there’s one other guy I was kind of looking at was Nate MSY for the Sharks because I was looking at his WHL stats and he seems to me like the best defensive defenseman in the WHL, which is pretty impressive. He was an overager pick a couple years ago. bigger body, but he was uh number two in puck battle percentage, like winning percentage, uh defensive zone takeaways. Uh but then another name who kept showing up in these defensive stats was Gavin McKenna, which was crazy because we all know how good he is offensively, setting all these records, and yet he led the league in uh block shots from the slot, I think, among forwards, which is like, okay, like you know, pick a pick a skill, like be good at something, not everything. Like just come on now. So, um I I asked Cam Robinson today actually what he thought a uh he’s a great writer for the Elite Prospects. Um and he I asked him what he thought McKenna’s kind of ceiling is next year. And he said he didn’t want to put a lid on it, but if it was 60 to 70 points, it wouldn’t blow him away, but at least 50 seems like a reasonable expectation. 50 points in D1 hockey as a freshman is insane. So, McKenna is that good. But if San Jose gets in, the league is done. Florida’s out. Like San Jose is winning the rest of the Cops. It’s over. Awesome. Well, Francis, I will let you go, man, because I know you’ve got stuff to do, and I know you don’t want to spend all day talking with me, even though I could probably do that if I wanted to, but I won’t make you suffer through that. But thank you again for this chat, man. This has been phenomenal, and I hope I can bug you again soon. All right. Yeah, absolutely. It’s been a blast. Had a great time.

The man behind the content of @bigheadhockey, Francis Daniels, joined me to discuss a number of Sharks and NHL related topics as we approach the start of the new season.

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