Red Light Mosquito
It gets a
little tricky here as the two clear cut worse teams have been dealt with (sorry
gents, last dig), now we get through to tier two. Every team from here on out
has some strengths and weaknesses, and Red Light Mosquito is one of those
teams. For the past three seasons he’s been channelling his inner Calgary Flames,
being not good enough to contend, but still finishing high enough that he
doesn’t end up with a really high draft pick to seriously improve his team.
Forwards:
Now at first
glance, when looking at RLM’s forwards, you probably think to yourself,
alright, these aren’t bad at all. Lots of decent players, should be a solid
team. Unfortunately, upon further review, there are a lot of question marks.
Like Martin Havlat, will he destroy the world playing on the power house Sharks
alongside Joe Thornton? Or will he channel his inner Gaborik and blow out his
groin? Yes, it looks as though Havlat’s injury problems are behind him, but you
just never know when you’re dealing with the Sharks, they seem to be cursed
worse than the Canucks are.
Mike Richards
is another guy joining a brand new team, after the Flyers decided he’d be
better off partying in the West Coast. Again, this is a guy who is a very good
hockey player, but in my opinion, only an average fantasy player, and certainly
not a guy I would want as my 1A centre if I had any delusion of contending. Now
granted, if he reproduces his eighty point 2008 campaign, I could be eating my
words, and the Kings are definitely a team who looks like they’ll be a high
octane group, but there’s still the question of Anze Kopitar being the guy
ahead of him.
Well, I
mentioned partying, so I can’t help but bring up Patrick Kane. The 22 year old
Kane is probably the closest thing RLM has to an elite player, having put up
seventy points or better each of his first four NHL seasons. But again, if
we’re talking elite, I don’t think a point per game pace is really going to cut
it. Call me when Patty Kane throws up a hundred point season, and then you can
colour me impressed. He should be good for another 75-80 points on the year,
and will provide some consistency on the RW, but don’t expect any ‘elite’
production.
Some
consistency would be nice for Michael Cammalleri. Since coming over to
Montreal, he’s only managed 50 points as a high. Yes, you can hold onto the guy
hoping that he can replicate his season from Calgary, but you’ve got to think
that eventually the guy’s name will no longer warrant wasting a keeper spot on
him. Signing with Montreal was probably the worst career decision this guy has
ever made, but at least he’s getting paid.
Another guy
on the decline is 25 year old Paul Stastny. Two years ago, this guy was on the
top of the world with the upstart Avs, competing in the playoffs after everyone
said they would finish dead last in the league. Matt Duchene overtook him as
the top centre on the team, and Stastny last year finished with his lowest
total of his non-injured season career. The Avs did end up with super stud
winger Gabriel Landeskog but that won’t help Stastny who is now slated to line
up with David Jones and Chuck Kobasew to start the year. Yikes.
Speaking of
young dynamos, RLM also ended up with a guy who would give Luc Bourdon a
headache trying to spell his last name, Mark Scheifele. A guy who was picked by
the Jets and ended up wearing an NHL label for his draft photo because the Jets
were too indecisive to decide on the jerseys, he’s shown a lot during the
pre-season, but we need to remember that everyone “Jets” has been hyped like
the Toronto Maple Leafs. Not saying he won’t be a good player down the road,
but the Jets are not going to be a good team this year with the goaltending
they have, so Scheifele could struggle.
Now for a
guy who could be a trivia question answer for “Who was someone in the NHL who
scored 30 goals that you would’ve never thought to guess?” Nikolai Kulemin. RLM
suggested that selecting the young winger was a bit of a coup in the draft.
Considering that after this pick gems such as Zenon Konopka, Daniel Alfredsson
and Brian Gionta were selected afterwards, I would tend to agree that getting a
thirty goal scorer in the 17th round is a good steal. Now, whether
he scores thirty again after he’s traded to the Blue Jackets for more
truculence, that remains to be seen.
Scott
Hartnell returns as one of the few players who can score 40 points and still
help you win the penalty minute categories. Granted, Philly will be a lot worse
of a team, so look for Scott Hartnell to be involved in more penalties and less
scoring. Hopefully Brayden Schenn doesn’t bang his wife; otherwise they’ll have
to trade him too.
The ageless
one, Teemu Selanne is coming back for one more season. I can’t say anything bad
about Selanne as he’s one of my favourite players of all time, so I will just
hope that he plays well enough that he decides to play until he’s 50 and break
some more records. After all, Selanne playing well still won’t make RLM a
contender.
Brad Boyes
hasn’t retired yet? Oh wow. Um, the one-time forty goal will be fortunate to
score forty points this season. Granted, he could see some success on Beefalo,
as they continue to add meat to their roster, but I don’t see him being that
high on their depth chart, especially after adding guys like Gerbe and Leino to
their roster.
Derick
Brassard is an interesting player. On the one hand, he’s probably going to get
pummelled down the depth chart with Carter arriving and Ryan Johansen all but
making the roster, but he could still be a serviceable player. Since he’s
probably in the bottom three of RLM’s roster players, it wouldn’t be that
surprising if he’s dumped early on in the season onto the waiver wire. But the
young player has shown some signs of production…it could just be the “someone
has to score on a bad team” syndrome though.
Finally we
have no one’s favourite Bourque, Rene! He has both LW and RW eligibility which
means he can suck on both sides of your roster! No, just kidding, Rene Bourque
will be a decent player for RLM, he is a solid source of PIMs, and can put up a
solid -20 on your team on any given year. Let’s face it, Calgary is horrific
this year, Bourque could put up points, but it’ll be like being on the
Islanders, his plus minus will kill you. That’s what they get for spending so
much money on Jay Bouwmeester.
Defense:
I actually
really like the core that RLM has created on his roster. Obviously he was
helped immensely when Ehrhoff didn’t resign for the same price as Kevin Bieksa,
(Would you? Honestly?) as it gave him both Edler and Ehrhoff without looking
like a crazy homer. Christian Ehrhoff, he of the ten million dollar paycheck
this year, will hope to live up to lofty expectations, and quarterback
Buffalo’s powerplay. He could have a massive season this year and will help RLM
tread water in the standings. Granted, he could also flame out as karma for
spurning off the Gillfather. Who knows?
Speaking of
guys who are coming off of surgery, Alex Edler is now the undisputed number one
defenseman on the powerhouse Vancouver Canucks. He should easily crack his
career high of 42 points and I could see a 50 point season for him without
having to share the puck with any Germans on the powerplay. Well, unless you
think Marco Sturm is going to be playing on the PP, if so, help us God.
And now a
guy who doesn’t respect anyone, P.K. Subban. He had a successful rookie
campaign, putting up a solid 38 points while skating to a minus eight rating.
He also put up over 100 PIMs all from fighting with Mike Richards! Now that
Richards has moved onto LA, P.K can focus more on scoring points for a weakened
Montreal powerplay. RLM’s first round pick last year should be a fixture for
his team, as young offensive minded defensemen are a rarity.
Marek
Zidlicky hopes to rebound after a rather poor 2010 campaign where he spent half
the season injured. Minnesota could actually have a pretty decent powerplay, so
this might end up being a slick pickup for RLM. It still remains to be seen
whether Zidlicky’s breakout rookie campaign was an anomaly or if he can
recreate the magic of a 50 point season somewhere else.
Finally we
have mascot Jonathan Blum, one of those savvy, I’m in a keeper so I gotta pick
a young guy, type picks. Granted, Blum actually could end up being a good pick,
the Nashville blueline is generally pretty solid from 1-6 and all of them see
decent ice time and opportunity. Blum has the pedigree to be a guy to step up
and fill the void once Weber is traded to Vancouver. (Haw haw haw)
Goalies:
Three
question marks in net this year for RLM’s group, so it will be interesting to
see how this reads when the season is over. RLM managed to bamboozle Balls
Mahoney out of Semyon Varlamov, giving up Marty Turco in what will go down as
one of those “he must’ve been high” moments. Varlamov has definitely shown that
he has a great deal of talent but he has the “Kari Lehtonen” gene, that is,
getting injured a lot. Also going from Washington to Colorado shouldn’t be a
big of a change in the way defense is played (re:none) but the quality of
players in from of Semyon has definitely downgraded. Not to mention, he’ll have
JS Giguere breathing down his neck for playing time.
Marc-Andre
Fleury comes back for another year, looking to do whatever it takes to try and
lose his starting job to Brent Johnson. The former Stanley Cup champion is
extremely inconsistent at times, going from looking like a guy who was a smart
pick 1st overall, to a guy who looks like he belongs in an Islanders
uniform. For this to be your elite number one contender for a guy like RLM has
to be incredibly frustrating at times. Last season when RLM was making a push,
bad MA Fleury starts constantly anchored him down in the standings. Starting
the season without Sidney Crosby won’t help matters for the Pens.
Finally, RLM
made a smooth acquisition of Dwayne Roloson at the draft. The 87 year old
tender is the starting goalie for the Tampa Bay Lightning, who had a huge first
season with new GM and Coach Steve Yzerman and Guy Boucher respectively. But
the secret could be out, and it remains to be seen if Roloson can handle a full
season’s workload as number one. Look for Mathieu Garon to get quite a bit of
starts as well, as they try to keep the old man’s workload down. As a number
three goaltender, the acquisition for RLM is a calculated risk and it could end
up paying off if Tampa contends for the Southeast Division title.
Closing
Thoughts:
A strong defensive corps bodes well for the future, but RLM’s goaltending will
be the downfall in another tough luck campaign. If all his forwards have career
years, he could be a darkhorse and he definitely has the ability to beat any
team during any week if the stars align properly. I just can’t rank him any
higher with too many questions throughout the lineup.
FINAL
PREDICTION: 10th OVERALL
This Web Page Created with PageBreeze Free HTML Editor / Web Hosting