Liquid Snake
The two time
division championship winner, Liquid Snake will feel the punishment of trading
away all his draft picks in the form of having to actually participate in the
first round of the playoffs. His top end forward talent won’t be enough to
overcome his incredibly weak goaltending. Plus, no more Ovechkin!
Forwards:
Speaking of
100 point seasons, Nicklas Backstrom hopes to be better this season after
dropping from 101 points to 65 points. That’s a 36 point decrease! Backstrom
was affected by Washington’s desire to play more defence clearly, but I
wouldn’t anticipate his career low having an encore this year. The Capitals
look more focused and determined and that should go well for Backstrom. It’s
safe to say, however Ovechkin goes, that’s how Backstrom will go.
Pavel
Datsyuk is back for another year as well. One of the cogs in the trade that got
LS to give up on Alex Ovechkin, Datsyuk is one of those players who is dynamite
on the ice but a lot of his real elite ability isn’t translatable to the
fantasy hockey world. He does have a couple 97 point seasons under his belt,
but for a guy that some consider the best player in the NHL, the production
isn’t always there the way it would be for most with that title. But getting
back up above 80-85 points seems to be a certainty as long as he remains
healthy.
Phil ‘The
Thrill” Kessel can finally move on from the trade that brought him to Toronto,
all three draft picks have been made, the Bruins won the Stanley Cup without
him and he’s still stuck in Toronto. So maybe he can’t move on after all… Hmm,
anyway back to back thirty goal seasons for Kessel is basically what you can
expect coming into this year. Toronto has improved themselves this season, so I
would say an upswing on Kessel’s plus-minus would also be in order.
Steve Downie
represents a guy who puts up huge PIM totals but can also chip in some points.
He’s not your atypical goon and that makes him valuable and gives him some versatility.
Of course playing on a team that has talented players like Martin St. Louis,
Steven Stamkos and Vincent Lecavalier doesn’t hurt his cause either. If he
remains healthy and doesn’t get suspended, another 20 goal season is very
likely.
Steve Sullivan
is on almost everyone’s sleeper list because of his chance of playing with
Malkin and/or Crosby if/when he returns. Unfortunately, I think the diminutive
left winger has seen better days and I don’t really see him lasting long on LS’
roster, personally. He could prove me wrong, but if I had to bet one way or
another I’d pick the disappointment side of the argument.
Darren Helm
is another example of why your depth will suffer if you trade away all your
early draft picks. A fourth liner never has any business being on a playoff
team, unless this fourth liner has first round pedigree and is a young guy
trying to make his way up. Helm’s career high is 32 points, he doesn’t get
penalties and I don’t really understand him being there, unless you think the Red
Wings are going to play Ottawa 82 times this year.
Speaking of
guys who don’t belong, Cal Clutterbuck also joins LS’ squad of depth misfits.
All three of these picks just reek of desperation, but at least Clutterbuck can
be depended on for PIMs. He won’t be good for anything more than 30 points, if
that, but as I said, he usually leads the league in hits, and with that comes a
few penalties (maybe even boarding majors) so it could work out okay.
Finally,
David Perron hangs out on the IR, wondering if he’ll ever play hockey again. In
the meantime, he’ll serve perfect as a mascot for LS. I think his career could
be done, to be honest, it doesn’t look good for the kid, which is really sad.
Defense:
Drew Doughty
leads this team, after holding out to start the year, he managed to get a
clause that stated he gets paid his first year’s salary partially in Dunkin’
Doughnut vouchers. Obviously, Doughty is an elite talent playing on a very good
LA Kings team with a lot of elite scoring of their own, so he should put up
substantial points on the powerplay. But I don’t really think the idea of
missing most of training camp is going to help Doughty in any area of his game,
except his wallet and his paunch. It could take him a few games to get going,
but when he does he can produce with the best of them.
Kevin
Shattenkirk had a very solid rookie campaign, splitting his time between
Colorado and St. Louis. Being a pretty significant cog in the trade to acquire
Erik Johnson, clearly the Blues are high on Shattenkirk. For Shattenkirk
himself, getting out of the messy Colorado situation and into a more stable St.
Louis team does nothing but help him and his game. He’ll be a good number two
guy for Liquid Snake.
After that,
it gets kinda hazy. Joni Pitkanen has had good years, and he has had mediocre
years. The Carolina Hurricanes haven’t really done much to improve their team
on defense, and it shows. Again, this is a pick that could work out, but I
would temper my expectations to a 35 point ceiling for Joni this year.
Jason Demers
is another sleeper pick that Liquid Snake was forced to make after not keeping
draft picks. Yeah, he could be good on a very deep San Jose team, but I think
Brett Burns and Dan Boyle will be doing most of the scoring for the Sharks blue
line, and then you’ve got to contend with Douglas Murray and ME Vlasic and I
just don’t see where Demers fits in to be honest. He’s listed as playing with
Colin White to start the year, which doesn’t really bode well.
Sami Salo
brings his history of injuries to LS’ blue line. Another hail Mary pick, he
will be lucky to play 50 games this year. He does have a booming shot, but his
days of ten goals on the blue line are long gone. Again, questionable decision
making from this manager, or maybe decision making that was forced upon him.
Zach
Bogosian joins another fantasy team, looking to roll the dice on his draft
pedigree and apparent potential. Seriously though, when do we start to label
this kid a bust? I would say that this is the year where he either puts up or
he vanishes from the rosters of fantasy owners everywhere. Anything less than
30 points this year and I’m calling it, bust.
Finally, we
have Karl Alzner and yeah, I don’t even know what to say. I guess he’s young
and he could break out and he does have the draft pedigree to go with that. It
seems like the classic case of pick young guy on good team and hope something
happens. I think he’s still a bit away from doing anything majorly dynamic, but
hey, these reports are all about making me look like an idiot, right?
Goalies:
Here’s the
money shot. Goaltending is a HUGE question for LS, even after he spent three
keeper spots on his goaltenders. He’s led by the aging Miikka Kiprusoff, who
plays in front of one of the worst teams in the NHL. Now granted, Kiprusoff
could explode like he did in some previous years and put up huge numbers once
more, but I simply ask, how bad does a team have to be in front of you before
you start to see some goaltending regressions. Kipper is 35 this year, and he
consistently plays over 70 games. That’s going to catch up with your goaltender
eventually. I see a big drop for Kipper, personally.
After that,
LS has three backup goaltenders with hopes that one of them is traded or takes
over the starting job. First we have the young Cory Schneider who looks like he
will one day be a legitimate number one. But I feel as though Canucks
management is hesitant to trade Schneider after he looked so good giving Luongo
all those days off. Still, Cory will probably get 20-22 games again this season
in order to give the Canucks true number one much needed rest days.
After that
we have Jonathan Bernier, a guy who has been talked about for the past few
years and who was just finally given up on by Balls Mahoney, a true believer in
youth. What does that say? Well, to me, it says Jon Quick has a legitimate hold
on the starting position and isn’t about to give it up. Of course, as I write
this, Bernier is down 2-0 to Buffalo, so I might be a little skewed in that
regard. Either way, unless Bernier is moved to another team, I don’t really see
him getting a large number of starts for the LA Kings.
Finally, we have Devan Dubnyk, a guy who is definitely
talented but I don’t think is quite ready. Of course, he’s also got the unpleasant
position of playing behind Nikolai Khabibulin, which doesn’t help his cause. I
mean, next year, the starting job might be his, but it’s still going to be a
season of development and growth for the young Dubnyk. If Khabibulin gets
injured, it could be trial by fire and I don’t know if you guys remember the
Jeff Deslauriers experiment, but that didn’t work out well for anyone, and I
think the Oilers are trying hard to avoid it happening again.
Closing Thoughts:
FINAL PREDICTION: 5th OVERALL
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