Who is Casey Mittelstadt? | Ep. 92

0:00 Speaker 1: Can you start a podcast with me? Please?

0:03 Speaker 2: I need something to do.

0:13 Speaker 1: I'll sack send it out of trouble. I can say this past.

0:19 Speaker 3: Watch tonight.

0:20 Speaker 1: Here's a chance pops right down the goalie scars. Oh my wan a move by the rookie.

0:24 Speaker 4: Two on one.

0:25 Speaker 1: Plaster not movie came with Marshaw getting to its coil dances in Pakistan, Right way, corner, faster Chester, what's that?

0:51 Speaker 5: Welcome in everyone to Bruin's Tape to tape. I will be your host tonight, Maria from Watertown. We are recording on June second, and this episode will be released on June fourth. We are going to start the first of a series of what we are going to call player profiles, and they're going to be very specific to our trade deadline acquisitions, three of which are coming up on restricted free agency status. But before we dive into that, I want to welcome in my co host, because I feel like I haven't seen you in quite some time.

1:32 Speaker 5: Caroline, Welcome in, Hi, Maria, how are you.

1:37 Speaker 2: I'm good. I'm gonna go I miss you too.

1:41 Speaker 5: That we've had a little bit of a lull, A little bit of a lull. We're waiting on some Bruins Bruins news. In the meantime, we'll make a little bit of new news or noise of our own until they break some news news.

1:58 Speaker 4: Indeed, indeed, it's hopefully a very big week for the Bruins. As you know, and as our regular listeners know, I'm a religious follower of thirty two thoughts to stay in the.

2:13 Speaker 2: Know about everything that's happening around the league.

2:17 Speaker 4: And per one of my favorite sources at Friedman from this week's podcast, that the Bruins are down to their final two candidates and Joe Saco is not one of them, and there is some speculation that possibly, possibly he will end up in Toronto to take the place of Lambert who went out to Seattle. So a little bit of shuffling around. Hopefully what we see is part of a trend of maybe some new coaches that are coming in, some fresh blood because this league certainly needs it well.

3:02 Speaker 5: That will be a big tell for me and as it, as Caroline just mentioned, the hope is that early this week now, early this week means a variety of different things to different people. I'm thinking Wednesday at the latest, even though one might refer to that as midweek But the big tell for me will be whether or not whoever is offered and accepts the job will have the flexibility and the ability to choose his or her own coaching staff, because if that's not the case, if that is not the case, I would I would have some concerns.

3:44 Speaker 2: Yep. There, I would have some concerns there.

3:49 Speaker 5: And I'm hoping that it's somebody who and I understand about wanting to work with someone who brings familiararity to the organization.

4:01 Speaker 2: But don't we have enough of that already?

4:04 Speaker 5: And I'm referring to one of the candidates whose name has been thrown around, which is Marco Stern. But again, we already have so many other former Bruins already in the house, so to speak.

4:22 Speaker 2: But I don't know. Maybe they know better than I do.

4:25 Speaker 4: Yep, exactly exactly, So we shall see. There's also been some I guess i'll call it a rumor because of course, until it's been confirmed by the organization, we have to kind of make that assumption.

4:41 Speaker 2: But there's also been talk that.

4:46 Speaker 4: Chris Kelly and the Bruins skating coach have both also been relieved if they're their responsibilities.

4:55 Speaker 5: So but again it hasn't been officially confirmed, yes, by anyone, But I think that confirmation will come when you name a head coach and that head coach names a new coaching staff right.

5:10 Speaker 2: First, open by audition, by subtraction.

5:14 Speaker 5: At this point in time, and you know, we do know that Zadan o'chara will be involved with the organization this season in some capacity. I also thought I read somewhere that perhaps Patreece Bergeron was going to have some involvement in the organization in the upcoming season.

5:39 Speaker 2: But we shall see, we shall see.

5:41 Speaker 5: In the meantime, not only are we waiting with baited breath for this announcement, we're waiting what seems to be an eternity for Game one of the Stanley Cup Finals, the start on Wednesday night. And I've seen it and I've heard it in many places on the social media, is about this is crazy that the hockey season is extending this far, at this point, It's it's crazy, and the players must be, yes, chomping at the bit to get going here.

6:18 Speaker 4: Yes, everything that I've seen online from reputable sources, you know, indicates that players certainly would prefer not to wait.

6:28 Speaker 2: This amount of time.

6:32 Speaker 4: And you know, I posed a question on social media, although apparently most folks didn't really understand my question. But I swear I remember watching, you know, religiously hockey when I was in high school and in college, you know, And this was twenty five years ago. I do not remember there being this kind of a gap at all. But then again, when you're younger, your concept of time passing is very different, you know. So I posted about pet online and everyone's like, well, they have to wait, because if there were games, I understand why they do it today.

7:15 Speaker 2: I get it, I understand. I don't remember it being like this pre COVID.

7:20 Speaker 5: Yeah, this seems like an interminably long and period of time. And the other thing is now you're going to be potentially conflicting with NBA games as well. But I will say I am so glad that the broadcasts of these games is going to be on TNT and not the ESPN PLATUF, thank god, just for a variety of reasons, none not the least of which is that the broadcasts and the intermission reports are head and shoulders so much better on TNT, so much better.

8:01 Speaker 4: Yep, I don't have to listen to Ray fer Our, oh any longer, at least for.

8:06 Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not not not a not a fan.

8:09 Speaker 5: And in case I viewers are wondering who who I'm Maria?

8:17 Speaker 4: What what for our audio listeners? Uh, it looks like you're sporting a brand new T shirt.

8:24 Speaker 5: Hi.

8:24 Speaker 2: Yeah, I got myself a little swag.

8:27 Speaker 5: I got myself a nice little Florida Panthers T shirt with our friend Brad Marshan's name on the back. Because Alice use our code, I didn't use our code, all right, So I'm pulling for our boy. I'm pulling for our boy.

8:44 Speaker 4: That's a great reminder that if you're gonna be buying some swag, whether it's over the summer for any new players or Stanley Cup champions, make sure you click the link because we are a shop affiliate, so every purchase you make through our link helps.

9:01 Speaker 5: So, yes, I helped, I helped me help us. And one other piece of NHL news today is that a couple of awards were announced by the lead and Alexander Barkov for the Florida Panthers. Center for the Florida Panthers won.

9:24 Speaker 2: The Selkie.

9:26 Speaker 5: And also won the what is called the King Clancy Award for his contributions to his sense of community. And when I started reading the story, I read that since twenty nineteen, he has been donating a set sum of money each goal and a set sum of money for each assist, and to date he has donated four hundred and twenty thousand dollars to a local children's hospital to help with cancer research. So, you know, we we can say a lot of things about the Florida Panthers.

10:08 Speaker 2: And Sam Bennett.

10:09 Speaker 5: And Sam Bennett, but Alexander Barkov is a class act. You can you can see why he's the captain of the team. You can see why he's won He's won more than one Sulky Trophy too, during the course of his career, so you know, and now he may have the opportunity to hoist back to back Stanley Cupps just to be back there. Not that I'm going to turn this into a Florida Panthers. However, any team to get back there three times in a row says something about your team, your organization, your determination. So it's not it's not an easy place, as we very well know, it is not an easy place to get to year after year after year.

11:06 Speaker 2: So we'll see whose year, it is well.

11:11 Speaker 4: And speaking of back to back champions again, the final big piece of news in the PWHL is that Minnesota won back to back championships as well.

11:22 Speaker 5: So hat tip to those ladies. Congratulations to those ladies too. They had a great, great season and a great showing for their league and a league that should grow, should grow over time.

11:37 Speaker 4: Absolutely, Congress, So let's talk about these these players.

11:43 Speaker 2: Although I think we need to take a quick break, we're going to take an ad.

11:46 Speaker 5: We're going to take a quick break to hear from our sponsor at DraftKings, and then we'll dive right in.

11:53 Speaker 6: All right, Bruins fans, if you're thinking about picking up some new gear, now's the time. I'm already planning to grab a fresh poster NEC jersey this fall. Who knows, maybe he's rocking a new letter on the front. The NHL Shop is running tons of season ending and summer sales right now, including twenty percent off fanatics gear. And here's the best part. When you shop through our link in the show notes, a portion of your purchases helps support this podcast.

12:22 Speaker 2: Same gear you'd find.

12:23 Speaker 4: At the pro Shop, but with way better perks, So stock up, save big, and help keep Bruins tape the tape rolling all year long.

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14:34 Speaker 2: Welcome back everyone.

14:35 Speaker 5: We are going to start our trade deadline acquisition player profiles with Casemiddlestat Kcmiddlestat was came to the Bruins as part of the trade of Charlie Cooyle to the Colorado Avalanche. In addition to Casemiddlestat, the Bruins got back a player named Will Zellers and a twenty twenty five second round draft pick. Now, Casey came to the Bruins with some term left on his contract. I believe he has one more year left at five point seventy five million dollars, which I think is making perhaps some people bristle a little bit in terms of, you know, some we I mean, let's face facts, You've got some serious roster rebuilding and roster reconstruction to do here, and you know, Casey Middlestat has been talked about as perhaps being a viable trade candidate if the Bruins wanted to seek something bigger and better in order to do this rebuild a little bit quicker than many of us may be anticipating.

16:05 Speaker 5: I don't think there's a lot of appetite for, you know, a three four five year rebuilt at this point. So you know, what what do you do with a player of casey mental stats, stature, He's he's young, He's he's only twenty six years old.

16:29 Speaker 2: He's a left handed center.

16:32 Speaker 5: He was drafted eighth overall in the twenty seventeen Entry Draft. He played eighty one games last season. They weren't all with the Bruins because he had time with the Avalanche. Fifteen goals, twenty five assists for a total of forty points.

16:51 Speaker 2: But the stat that I your favorite lat My, and I know he's a minus twenty nine.

17:03 Speaker 5: Yeah, and the struggle, the struggle was real for him during his games with the Bruins.

17:11 Speaker 2: I myself.

17:14 Speaker 5: Didn't see enough to excite me in.

17:19 Speaker 2: The fact that, you know, we brought this player in.

17:22 Speaker 5: Now, maybe it was more the fact that you know, you got a draft pick, you were able to move Charlie Coyle. But you're on the books for this five point seventy five million dollar salary for one more year. So I don't know, And and I know there were some you know again, Don and either Don or Cam might have made some comments about not having a shoot first mentality.

17:54 Speaker 2: But this is the same you see.

17:56 Speaker 5: The enterment group that at one point said we want quality over well your your quick to point the finger at at a player and said players seemed you know, a little bit confused by that.

18:12 Speaker 2: That comment.

18:13 Speaker 5: And you know this might also speak to hopefully when a new coach comes in, there'll be a new structure or an improved offensive structure put in that might benefit a young player like Casey middle Staff, because let's face fat, our young players have not not benefited or grown in Ruin's current structure. So your your thoughts on on on on Casey, Yeah, I think so.

18:51 Speaker 4: The I know your favorite statistic is uh the plus minus and certainly uh, I like others.

19:03 Speaker 5: I know there are others, but that's it's a it's a little bit of a scary number.

19:08 Speaker 4: Yeah, So, I mean, certainly it's a statistic that I go to one of the first ones that I go to. Either you know, there there are some fairly simple metrics out there that exist, either in a game or for a player, that I think can tell you a lot right away, right, that's what's great about them.

19:31 Speaker 2: So, like folks who are part of our discord group.

19:34 Speaker 4: Know that I have a reliance on always checking, you know, shots on goal in a game. Shots on goal isn't like you know, the end all be all that can tell you everything about a game. But if you know how a team plays and you then see how they are doing with the shots on goal. It can often tell me right away what kind of game that team is having. Right for example, in the playoffs, watching the Florida Panthers in Game five, I believe five was it where they lost for six? I don't remember now where they lost against Toronto.

20:17 Speaker 4: It may have been six. Yeah, it was six, because they were This is a team that not just smothers defensively, but they are also very aggressive offensively. And so for that game, the fact that they were kind of behind the eight ball on the shots on goal told me everything that I like confirmed everything that I was kind of experiencing watching the game, like, Okay, they're probably gonna lose this. They the same exact thing happened when they lost the one game to Carolina, right. So that's kind of like a quick and dirty stat metric.

20:52 Speaker 4: And plus minus also has a lot of value in that sense as well, because if I see a player independent of all other players have a minus twenty nine, whoa boy, what is wrong with that player? And then you look at the whole team, and when they are on a team like the Boston Bruins, where so many of those players this season were in the red for plus minus. I'm a little more forgiving of that horrible stat because all of like not all of the players, but a lot of players had really bad plus minus. So it tells me something a little different that it was more of a global issue, if you will, as opposed to you know, him being the problem, right, I mean, look at Mason lore who we will talk about this summer certainly in detail.

21:50 Speaker 4: My favorite stats to look at when I want to look a little bit more deeply into okay, is what does this player have to bring to the table that might not be quite so obvious. And my two favorite ones have been individual points percentage, So that's an IPP and then player usage. So if you follow us on substack, you've seen a couple of times I've talked about player usage and IPP.

22:21 Speaker 2: And essentially.

22:24 Speaker 4: When it comes to individual points percentage, it's looking at the team goals that occur when the player is on the ice. So if a player is on the ice for ten team goals and they had a hand in that, so they had at least a point goal or assist on six of them, then you're looking at sixty percent high IPP. So you're looking at for offensive players forwards of you know, a seventy eighty percent means that that particular player is extremely uh heavily involved in you know, the offensive.

23:06 Speaker 2: Game.

23:07 Speaker 4: So David Posternoch, for example, this past season, he had an eighty eight point three ipp right, duh.

23:15 Speaker 2: He was there saying he was our goal leader.

23:18 Speaker 4: So interestingly enough, for Casey Middlestaff, he had a sixty. So that's not terrible. And you know, I don't know, obviously the finer details and the nuances of what was happening on that Colorado team, because keep in mind he was he played about sixty games in Colorado and then twenty games in Boston, and you have to remember again those twenty games can be not necessarily a good representation of who that player is. Obviously, there's a lot that happens trade deadline.

24:02 Speaker 2: But one statistic that I like to look at that kind of evaluates both you know.

24:14 Speaker 4: What the what maybe the coaching staff thinks of a player or you know, you can draw kind of your own conclusions, is the player usage. And so this particular statistic compares a player their time on ice essentially most simply to forwards on their team defenceman on their team forwards across the league and defenseman across the league. So where do they land in terms of how frequently they're used on their actual team? So how are they contributing to the team itself? And then are they being used in a way you know similarly across other teams.

25:01 Speaker 4: You know, you can look at by their age, by their position, you know, by the divisions, you can kind of compare them to other players. And Casey Middlestat actually played a lot of tough minutes. He was used actually quite a bit. Comparing him to Charlie Coyle. If we're gonna we're gonna say, okay, we sent Charlie Coyle packing, we replaced him with Casey Middlestack.

25:30 Speaker 4: Not really a bad trade off, quite frankly, because you know, Charlie Coyle, he played eighty three games, He had seventeen goals, eighteen assists for thirty five points. Again, you you mentioned Casey Middlestat had fifteen goals, twenty five assists, forty points. And when you're looking at their player usage, Charlie Coyle was in the eighty fifth percentile of uh you know, average time on ice compared to competitors forwards and Casey Middlestet was in the seventy sixth percentile. He's also a very defensive player because he was in the fifty second percentile compared to defenseman.

26:19 Speaker 4: So he's a center, as Charlie Coyle is was, and so you would expect them to be a little bit more defensively minded.

26:27 Speaker 5: So I'll be really really curious to see younger and he is younger, and there's that, and you know again, a full a full season might yeah bring a bit more to the table from Casey m hmm, yeah, exactly.

26:50 Speaker 4: You know, he he didn't have a ton of time to learn the systems, to really get infused into the culture. He walked into a locker room as a I'd probably call him a younger veteran. I wouldn't necessarily call him a veteran player. But at twenty six, you know, he's been in the league for a while, so he's walking into this vacuum that's very stressful.

27:15 Speaker 2: I would say, I don't think that.

27:19 Speaker 4: He should be part of He shouldn't be traded just to be traded if he's going to be part if he's going to be traded between now in July first, if he were put in a package deal for someone truly hicky trade.

27:36 Speaker 5: We're talking about a hockey trade, right, right, We're not talking about we've got to dump this salary because you took this player, and you agreed to take.

27:47 Speaker 2: This player that needs there.

27:52 Speaker 5: Think wanting to have this player come back to us in return for right, Well, Charlie Coil.

28:01 Speaker 2: Yep, right, he wasn't acquired as a rental and.

28:07 Speaker 4: I if he if he wasn't already part of the team, I would say, yeah, sure, the Bruins, you know, they have all these open spaces.

28:16 Speaker 2: They should take a flyer.

28:17 Speaker 4: On him, So he might be worth taking a chance on. But he's also kind of on that on that cuss where it's like, don't flip him. You'd be stupid to just take him and flip them. But again, if you're trying to go after somebody massive, all right, I mean, okay, I'm not particularly attached because he's only been.

28:39 Speaker 2: Around for a hot second.

28:41 Speaker 5: So and and one of the Bruins ever, you know, done gone after somebody. I mean the last time they did that was the Dane o'charle. Let's let's face facts, okay, So, and I'm not sure they're in a position right now to be able. They don't appear to have that kind of flexibility right now.

29:02 Speaker 2: Do they do?

29:03 Speaker 5: They need to go out and like I don't want to say make a splash, because sometimes teams make decisions like that to get a fan base, you know, reignited.

29:16 Speaker 2: Yeah, but do you mean does it work? You know?

29:20 Speaker 5: I mean at this point, I want them to focus on identifying identifying.

29:28 Speaker 2: The right players.

29:29 Speaker 5: Well, first you have to identify what kind of system you want to play first.

29:33 Speaker 8: And foremost need we need it right, and you need a coach to help you do that right, and then go out and identify the players that you believe are going to get you there.

29:45 Speaker 5: So, yes, I'm in agreement with you. I've heard and read enough things. I mean, the fact that he was drafted eighth overall.

29:54 Speaker 2: There's got to be something there. There's got to be something there.

29:58 Speaker 5: Now, question, the million dollar question is the Boston Is the Boston Bruins organization the right organization to bring the best out of him? That's my concern for any players who are already established, you know. I mean when I say established, like right and you know, experienced, established players And I'm not talking about guys in the late thirties, right, Yeah, and you know we've seen Boston do that, but only with goaltenders. I can't think of anyone off the top of my head who came in as this diamond in the rough and Boston was able to make him shine, kind of like with Lina Soelmark or how Vegas did with Jack Eichel.

30:55 Speaker 2: You know, I mean, I could.

30:58 Speaker 4: Be wrong, and listeners certainly call it, call me out on it, but I can't think of anyone who came to Boston from another team as a player, skater player

31:12 Speaker 4: who all of a sudden became this phenom in the way that like Lenas Olmert was.

31:20 Speaker 5: Yeah, I meansies like you know, I think of like a guy like Jerome mcginlaw, but he was already he was already an established star in this league, you know, Hall of Famer in the league.

31:33 Speaker 2: So you're right, You're right. I can't I can't think of one either.

31:37 Speaker 5: So, but you know, there should be enough upside there with the right the right system, the right coaching and you know linemates too, who you know you put you you need The Bruins need to work towards putting these young players in the as best a possible scenario for them to be successful as you can at this point, at this point because of you know how tragically wrong badly the season went last year.

32:17 Speaker 2: What if you get to lose at this point, like, let's get these guys.

32:22 Speaker 5: If there is upside to young players like Casey Middlestat, then give them the resources, give them the tools, give them the guidance that they need from the beginning to bring the best out of them.

32:35 Speaker 2: Yep, exactly, Yep.

32:37 Speaker 4: So I say, I mean, I want to give it him a resounding two thumbs up. But yeah, he's worth I am intrigued enough that I would like to see.

32:52 Speaker 2: We need a bigger sample side we need for him, definitely, you know, and you know.

32:57 Speaker 5: What, we're likely going to get it because again, he's he has one more year on his deal at nearly six million dollars five point so even though the cap is going up, yes, I'm not sure that you know, there'll be teams with an appetite to want to take that take that on, unless.

33:19 Speaker 4: It is assuming assuming Elias Linholm continues whatever. You know, the momentum that he had coming at the out of the end of the Bruins season and the the World Championship.

33:35 Speaker 2: Tournament that he had which was extremely positive.

33:38 Speaker 4: If he can keep that going and he can bring that energy an effort and into the next season, I could easily see Casey Middlestat being successful as.

33:55 Speaker 2: Three C again, Charlie Coyle replacement. Fine. I think he would be fine.

34:03 Speaker 5: So that's my that's my evaluation, that's our take. I think we're in agreement. I think we're in agreement on on this particular player. So you know, again, let's let's let's hope that uh start with a new coach and new coaching staff and you know, a different approach to the He was.

34:25 Speaker 2: Better across the board than Trent Frederick. So friend, the friends of the pod.

34:30 Speaker 5: Okay, just an aside, we cannot as much as as much as I wouldn't mind seeing Connor McDavid wasis to Stanley Cup. Trent Frederick has no business, no, no business going near that trophy. I'm sorry, no, no.

34:55 Speaker 2: And on that note, indeed, and make sure you like a subscribe yep.

35:03 Speaker 4: Absolutely follow us on all the social platforms, subscribe to us on substack and any final things to say, Maria, go Panthers, God go bees,