Ben Kindel

Yeah, they're older.

Uh, I'll be interested to see how Ben Kindel does this year, 'cause he was a pleasant surprise for them.

Yeah, no Mantha, which regular season probably not good.

Playoffs, you're probably okay with losing him.

Tanner Molendyk, I'm actually a big fan of his game, but there was just, I don't know if he's gonna be more than a third pairing defenseman and I wasn't necessarily rating guys like that super high.

And, uh, so it was like, I think it was something like over 10 guys that made last year's list that didn't make it this year, but were still eligible, 'cause I had a bunch of guys like Benjamin Kindel, uh, Zebulon, Michael Misia, Ivan Demidov, Matthew Schaffer, guys like that, that went straight to the NHL and d- they obviously were no longer rookies.

But, uh, or prospects I should say.

But I think in this one it just, you know, it, it's a tough list to make.

And I know we spent a bit there to start the show on the injuries.

So obviously this little bit here is both a call to hope that Ben Kindel's okay and also an evaluation because the hype train behind Rust, Kindel, Kuzmenko through practices has been moving at lightning speed.

We're excited about it.

It looks like it's gonna work.

But it was still a nice step in the right direction after how comfortable they all looked together during three straight training camp practices.

And I even tweeted I was excited to see what those numbers were gonna look like by the end of the game.

And then of course I jinxed it because Ben Kindel got hurt, took a, like he took a puck off of the skate, like the foot ankle area, and then tried to test it as he was coming back out, said, "You know what? Not gonna do it." He's now day to day, of course, with an injury.

So I will say though, man, they were buzzing on the ice.