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Fantasy Hockey Friday: The Hot List

Jan 13

Posted by Chris in Fantasy | No Comments

The Hot List provides a small sampling of players putting up big numbers over the last week who are flying under the radar in Fantasy Hockey leagues and could be worth a look if you need an extra boost in your stat categories.

The Hot List:

Saku Koivu (forward): Someone on the Anaheim roster needs to score, and evidently it’s Koivu’s turn. Four goals and three assists over the last seven days including a hat trick against Dallas earlier this week. Koivu missed a big chunk of December thanks to injury, but has tallied 11 points in his last five games.

Kyle Turris (forward): The Ottawa Senators have been a big surprise this season, and the addition of Turris raised some eyebrows after he underachieved for several seasons with the Phoenix Coyotes. Since joining the Sens, however, Turris has posted eight points in 11 games – including seven assists. Turris appears to be the number two center the Sens have been coveting.

Adam Henrique (forward): Hard to believe this rookie is still available in 62 percent of Yahoo Fantasy Hockey leagues. Three goals and three assists over the last seven days, including two shorthanded goals and 12 shots on goal. Henrique now has 34 points in 40 games and is making a strong case for rookie of the year.

Marcel Goc (forward): Goc hasn’t done much this season, but he has four points in his last three games – including a power play goal against the Canucks earlier this week. Take his recent success with a grain of salt, however, as Goc had only two points in 17 games in October and November.

Francois Beauchemin (defense): Three assists in the last week, but was a plus-6 and also contributed 18 penalty minutes. If you need defensive depth, or help in the PIM category, Beauchemin might be worth a look.

Jonas Gustavsson (goalie): Four straight wins and two shutouts in the past week. Could “The Monster” finally be showing his true potential?

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NHL 2011-12 Season Preview: Anaheim Ducks

Sep 18

Posted by Eddie in Season Previews | No Comments

Offseason Losses: Andreas Lilja, Andy Sutton, Ray Emery, Todd Marchant, Jarkko Ruutu

Offseason Additions: Andrew Cogliano, Jeff Deslauriers, Kurtis Foster, Matheiu Carle

Last Season Ranking: 4th in the West

Will Corey Perry hold onto the same hardware at the NHL Awards in 2012?

Offense: Anaheim’s top line of Ryan Getzlaf, Bobby Ryan and Corey Perry is still of the deadliest in the league. Perry was the lone 50-goal scorer en route to winning the Hart Trophy as league MVP.  Ducks fans received the best news of all Thursday afternoon when Teemu Selanne announced online he was returning to the team for one more year. Earlier in the day, there was questionable speculation about him because he did not attend a team-sponsored golf outing but a video surfaced on nhl.com and the Ducks website announcing that he will be with the team when they begin the season in his home country of Finland. The Ducks return their second leading scorer as the Finnish Flash scored 31 goals and had 49 helpers last season.

They also return Rocket Richard and Hart Trophy winner in Corey Perry. Perry led the league in goals last season with 50 en route to a 98 point season. Look for power forward Ryan Getzlaf to score over 80 points should he stay healthy. He missed a chunk of the season due to injury and when he was playing he was force on the ice as he scored 76 points in 67 games. It’s pretty good going into training camp knowing what the top three lines will be. The top line will be Getzlaf, Perry and Bobby Ryan. Selanne will anchor the second line with newbie Sakiu Koivi and Jason Blake. Newbie Andew Cogliano could be on the No. 2 line but look for him to start at the third line with Kyle Palmieri and Brandon McMillian. Cogliano could be best suited for the third line because while playing in Edmonton he was getting torn up in the faceoff circle against the opposing second line center.

Defense: Cam Fowler is expected to have a good sophomore year. Top scoring defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky will see a lot of time on the power play with his ability to score. Can’t forget about Toni Lydman’s +32 rating, good for second in the league. That is impressive considering there was several minus players around him. Visnovsky and Lydman will form the top pairing and will see most of the time on special teams. Fowler will be paired on the second line with Francois Beauchemin while Luca Sbisa and newcomer Kurtis Foster are going to become the fifth and sixth defensemen.

Goaltending: It’s Jonas Hiller’s job. He missed the second half of the season due to a wicked case of vertigo and did not play after February 13. They since ran a trio of goalies in Ray Emery, Dan Ellis, and Curtis Elhinney to finish out the season. Elhinney and Emery is out and the fight for backup will come down to Ellis and newcomer Jeff Deslauriers. This is the biggest X-Factor because as much as experienced Ellis and Deslauriers are, they took a big risk in letting Emery go considering how well he played down the stretch.

Playoff Prediction: Every year they have the knock on them that they are too top heavy. They tried to add some depth further down with the addition of Cogliano. Expect them to make the playoffs and even contend for the division title should Getzlaf and Hiller stay healthy. The return of Selanne will prove to be the difference between them barely making the playoffs like last season and contending for the division title.

 

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Hockey World Blog Season Previews 2010: Toronto Maple Leafs

Sep 8

Posted by EB in Season Previews | No Comments

Key Offseason Losses: None

Key Offseason Additions: Colby Armstrong, Jerry D’Amigo, Jonas Gustavsson, Brett Lebda, Marcel Mueller, Kris Versteeg

Last Season Ranking: 15th, East

Marcel Mueller could be a sleeper pick for fantasy owners this year with his impressive resume from the German Hockey League.

Marcel Mueller could be a sleeper pick for fantasy owners this year with his impressive resume from the German Hockey League.

Offense: The Toronto Maple Leafs are a talented team on paper, young, fast and very talented. However, come game time, the team struggles to put the pucks in the net, resulting in the 5th least goals for amongst the league.

Toronto has one goal 30 goal scorer on the team, Phil Kessle. Thereafter though lies the problem, second closest in goals was Nikolai Kulemin with 16. Ouch!

Brian Burke has recognized this and has added some more young talent to the mix. Most notable are Jerry D’amigo from the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) and Marcel Mueller from the German Hockey League (DEL). D’amigo has a good resume, having a point per game production in the ECAC as well as winning a gold medal for the Men’s Junior United States team. Mueller has perhaps an even better resume with 24 goals and 32 assists in 53 games last season with Koln, all while serving 122 penalty minutes. Imagine if he stayed out of the box.

Lastly, Burke has added veteran depth in Stanley Cup winner Kris Versteeg from the Chicago Blackhawks and Colby Armstrong from the Atlanta Thrashers. Versteeg had a balanced 20 goals and 24 assists in 44 games. Armstrong had a down year with 29 points last season in comparison to 40 points the year before but should be able to at least get 25 goals if set up with play-making linesman. Both should add the much needed depth and experience to help the young team compete this year.

Defense: The Maple Leaf’s defensive is in need of some work despite having some well known and talented players. Dion Phaneuf, Thomas Kaberle, Francois Beauchemin and Luke Schenn are the top two lines with Mike Komisarek anchoring the third pairing.

Despite being known and talented players, not much needs to be said except that the Leafs allowed 263 goals last season, second worse only being beaten out by the Edmonton Oilers. Practice makes perfect and practice these guys need.

Goaltending: Jean-Sebastian Giguere and Jonas Gustavsson will split time in net this year. Gustavsson was battling an irregular heartbeat last season, but all is behind him and his focus will now be on winning games for the team. Giguere starts the season without the headaches of the Anaheim Ducks and should settle in this season with his new team. The two should have a friendly competition for game time, a competition that should play to the benefit of the team with both players trying to make a claim for the dominant goalie.

Season Outlook: It really is hard to say what one should expect from the Toronto Maple Leafs this upcoming season. On paper, the team looks to have 2 solid forward lines that finally have some goal scorers besides Phile Kessle. Defensively, the team has talent, but they just need some more practice together. As for goaltending, what is not to like with the J.G. duo fighting for the number one spot. Still though, with the added pressure of the media, always playing in front of a sell out crowd despite not having the performance to earn that honor, it will all come down to how well the team buys into the system and how well they click.  I would not expect a playoff spot this season, but I do believe the team will make it worth your while to watch them this year with all the young talent.

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Anaheim Ducks

Sep 18

Posted by Eddie in Season Previews | 1 Comment

ducks-logoThe question this team will have to answer will be “Which Anaheim Ducks will show up this season?” They can be either the team that upset the President’s Trophy-winning San Jose Sharks and took Western Conference champion Detroit Red Wings to a seventh game in the second round, or be the team that struggled for most of the regular season before the trade deadline.

General Manager Bob Murray said in an interview that “Rebuilding is not in our vocabulary right now, I don’t like that word.” Well the Ducks sure aren’t rebuilding after becoming sellers at the trade deadline last season, but they are reloading. They still have one a quality top-line combination with center Ryan Getzlaf and wingers Bobby Ryan and Corey Perry. The oldest player of the trio (Getzlaf) is only 24 years old, which means they can continue to grow and dominate opponents together.

With youth as the top line, the Ducks have an experienced supporting cast of forwards. They signed Joffrey Lupul and Saku Koivu to compliment Teemu Selanne on the second line. The Ducks have arguably one of the best two-line combinations in the league.

The Ducks will have some quality talent to replace on the blue line as defensemen Chris Pronger, Bret Hedican, and Francois Beauchemin are all gone. The 48 points Pronger scored last season will be difficult to replace, but there is youth on defense in favor of James Wisniewski and Nick Boynton. That duo is projected to headline the second defensive unit.

Further down the depth chart, look for rookie defenseman Luca Sbisa to begin the season as the sixth defenseman but should crack the second defensive unit and see time on special teams if he plays well early in the season.

One question they do have however is in goal. They hope that Jean-Sebastien Giguere can regain the form he had in previous years, when his 3.10 GAA was his highest in 10 years when he appeared in 5 games for Calgary in 1999. In that 10-year span, he never had a GAA over 2.66. A goaltending competition between him and 27-year-old Jonas Hiller is healthy for both of them, but Giguere has said he won’t be content in a backup role. If Giguere wants to start, he must let his play do the talking and not his mouth.

This is the last season for 39-year-old Selanne, and being paired with countryman Koivu should help the Ducks compete with San Jose for the division title. This team can be either hot or cold throughout the season. If the team can click on all cylinders early on, expect this team to take the division and place either second or third in the west. But if the team can’t find their groove, the Ducks can slip to a low seed or even miss the playoffs.

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Toronto Maple Leafs

Sep 8

Posted by EB in Season Previews | 4 Comments

Bran Burke's decisions to add grit and size may leave him all alone in thought depending on the teams success this year.

Bran Burke's decisions to add grit and size may leave him all alone in thought depending on the teams success this year.

The Toronto Maple Leafs look to be better this season as general manager Brian Burke intends on rebuilding the team similarly as he did the Anaheim Ducks; big and strong.

Offensively, the team added free agents Colton Orr from the New York Rangers in addition to acquiring Wayne Primeau in a trade with Calgary. Last season Primeau missed 56 regular season games as well as 6 playoff games with a broken foot, which will be a concern for the team as in the last two seasons he has only played a total of 67 games out of the 164 games possible. Orr will add the much needed enforcement to the Leafs as in the ’08-’09 season he had a respectable 193 minutes in 82 games played. This will allow defenseman Pavel Kubina, who led the team in penalty minutes last season with 94, a break from the box as his 40 points was best amongst defenseman and is much more needed than roughing it up.

Defensively the Leafs added free agents Francois Beauchemin from Anaheim and Mike Komisarek from Montreal. Once again similar to Primeau, Beauchemin missed 63 games last season with a torn ACL and will be a concern for the upcoming year. When healthy, expect him to be an average defenseman who hovers around zero in the +/- department, but will add 6’ 0” and 207lbs of clearing people out in front of the net. And similar to Orr, Komisarek will add even more enforcement as last season the defenseman put up 121 penalty minutes in 66 games. Komisarek, who stands 6’ 4” and weighs 243lbs, will also be able to assist in clearing people out from in front of the net.

With a 1 year contract, all eyes will be on Jonas "the monster" Gustavsson to be the goalie of the future.

With a 1 year contract, all eyes will be on Jonas "the Monster" Gustavsson to prove he is the goalie of the future.

The last spot to mention is that of goalie, as the team has signed Jonas “The Monster” Gustavsson. The goaltender stands 6’ 3” and weighs 192lbs, but is as agile as any goalie within the league. With all the hype surrounding the 24 year old Swedish goaltender, if it proves to be accurate, he may be the next Martin Brodeur. Last season in the Swedish league in 82 games played, he had an astonishing 1.96 goals against average and a .932 save percentage. This is nothing compared to last year’s playoffs, where he allowed 14 goals in 13 games played. That equates to a 1.03 goals against average and a .961 save percentage. In those games, the Monster recorded 5 shutouts. He has already been quoted as wanting the starting position that currently belongs to Vesa Toskala, which is to be expected as Gustavsson only signed a 1 year contract with the team. With the addition of backup goaltender Joey Macdonald, it is not farfetched that a goalie battle is going to happen. The battle between who is the question. Both Toskala and Macdonald become unrestricted free agents as Gustavsson is a restricted free agent at the end of the season.

Burke has added size in all positions, even goaltender, however with the mentality of speed is the new way to go, it will be interesting to see how everything panes out. It did work for the Anaheim Ducks; maybe it will work for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

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