SelKesler
Next up we
have SelKesler, who has the distinction of being the first team in the history
of keeper leagues to go from having the most points in one season to having the
least amount the very next season. I can’t even think of a particular sport
that has ever seen that happen before, so it was quite an accomplishment.
SelKesler made a couple ill-advised trades at the quarter point of the season
and spent the rest of the year tanking it for Ryan Nugent Hopkins. (SEGWAY
ALERT)
Forwards:
Yes,
SelKesler ended up with the 1st overall pick, selecting future Oiler
superstar Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who, much to the surprise of many pundits
(although in all honesty, considering the way the Oilers do things it’s not
really that surprising) will begin the year with the big club. This resolution
probably gave SK some relief, but in all actuality I think there isn’t much to
expect from the undersized eighteen year old in his first NHL season. He should
be a great piece for the future though.
Talking
about future, SK managed to secure a couple of very young forwards who both had
incredibly unexpected stellar rookie campaigns. Both Logan Couture and Michael
Grabner surpassed 30 goals in their Calder eligible year and created for
themselves a huge goal for this season if they are to improve on last year’s
totals. Both have the talent to do so, but the dreaded sophomore slump could
rear its ugly head for these two young snipers which would prove disastrous for
SK.
Speaking of
guys who are starting to create expectations for themselves, Patrick Marleau
followed up his 83 point season with a 73 point one. The dual eligible
centre/winger will be leaned on heavily by SK for multi-faceted production. The
Sharks are favourites to contend this year and with the departure of sniper
Dany Heatley, Marleau could see his goal totals increase from last season’s
tallies.
The player
with the most talent on SK’s team is unquestionably Alexander Semin but he
posted his lowest totals since 2007 last season, struggling at times as
Washington made a movement towards a more defensive effort in order to see
increased playoff success. It remains to be seen whether the skilled Russian is
able to rise above everything, but with fellow Russian Alex Ovechkin also
having a down year last season, both men could be on the uprise which would be
good news for SK.
Speaking of
maddenly inconsistent players, Vincent Lecavalier comes back to Tampa for
another year. He showed signs of becoming an elite player in 2006 to 2008 but
since those two 90+ seasons he has been on a steady decline and posted his
lowest totals since 2002. Having said that, he did struggle with injuries, but
no one can argue that it seems ‘Vinny’ has seen better days and is a falling
star.
The centre
corps is rounded out by Stanley Cup Champion David Krejci who, depending on who
you ask is one of the best players in the NHL (especially during the playoffs)
or just another guy on a deep Boston team. It’s hard to argue with his career
arc so far, and he looked to get stronger as the season went on. He’s
definitely a candidate for breakout star on SK’s young and hungry team.
A guy who
will look to turn things around is the enigmatic Ales Hemsky. He has been
ravaged by injuries throughout his career but when healthy, he’s a great player
surrounded by talented guys (albeit still green). He could be a guy who could
produce nicely for SK’s team, or he could end up being another veteran that has
seen better days, something that SK already has way too many of.
Like Shane
Doan for example, a guy who is the leader of his hockey team no doubt about it,
but never seems to produce the sort of fantasy numbers you’d expect from a
team’s top leader. His career high is 78 points, four seasons ago, but he’s
still a solid veteran guy who can produce points and penalty minutes. The
potential of him being traded from the only team he’s ever known though is an
intriguing one and could give his value a boost.
If anything,
Shane Doan could give Andrew Ladd and Bryan Little a heads up on what to expect
in their new home, Winnipeg. Yes, the city is hockey starved, but this is still
largely the same struggling team we saw over in Atlanta last season. Granted,
the True North Sports Entertainment group seems to have a decent idea of how to
run a sports organization, but let’s face it, they are a few years away still.
Ladd’s upside is basically Shane Doan numbers and Bryan Little is a guy who has
nice C, RW eligibility but I don’t see him reproducing his 30 goal season of a
few years ago.
Finally, we
have every Canuck fans favourite hold-out, R.J. Umberger. A sneaky 14th
round pick by SK, although he might regret passing on the guy picked right
after him, perennial 50 GOAL SCORER Patric Hornqvist. Having said that, I
suppose the idea of getting a guy who might line up with Rick Nash and Jeff
Carter to start the season is too hard to resist. It is definitely possible for
Umberger to crack 60 points this year and he could see an even larger jump if
the three of these guys stay together all year.
Defense:
Another
great segway, Columbus defenseman James Wisniewski gave us some foreshadowing
when he saluted the CBus’ mascot at Sean Avery last season. Or maybe he was
hinting at Avery’s impending ‘going down’ to the minors. Either way, I think
the Wiz will find it difficult to replicate the 50 point season he put up last
year. He’s got an eight game suspension to start the year and who knows how
many more he’ll get throughout the season. Not to mention, guys are going to be
paying attention to him this season after those numbers.
I’ll just
say right now, I really dislike SK’s defensive corps. Selecting a guy like
Andrei Markov who has Bobby Orr knees in the second round (or 12th
if you want to get picky) when there was still a lot of very good players
available, including a guy like Adam Larsson who could be a better producer was
very shortsighted, especially when you’ve got a team that is clearly not a
contender this season. Obviously hindsight is 20/20, etc… but I don’t see how a
team that finished as poorly as SK did last season can bother wasting a pick on
Andrei Markov who might not play forty games this year. In Round 14, I can see
about four or five defenseman that I’d rather pick than Markov, and that was
three rounds later! I know I’m ranting, but what else can I do in these things.
;)
Alex
Goligoski has slightly skewed stats from his time in Pittsburgh, putting up
more than half of his points on a potent Pens powerplay (whoa alliteration, my
English prof would be proud), and since Dallas has gone from contender to who
knows what, I would have to say that his numbers will probably be substantially
less this season. He does have some talent though and he could rise above the
muck that is the Dallas Stars.
Andrew
MacDonald is also on this team, I’m assuming as the mascot, because I really
don’t see any reason why one would bother icing this guy. Of course, now that I
said this, he’ll probably go out and get forty points while the Isles win the
President’s Trophy.
And finally,
we have David Rundblad, a rookie on Ottawa’s blueline. Now granted, I could
list the perils of owning any Ottawa blueliner, but I’ll refrain and simply
point out that Rundblad has an opportunity to step in because Matt Carkner got
hurt and he might not have even made the team this season. Then again, that
seems to be a bit of a theme with SK’s team. We’ll see what happens, defensemen
like to make the Calder Trophy situation interesting it seems.
Goaltenders:
I don’t even
know where to begin with goaltending. Jimmy Howard is probably the best out of
the three, but his numbers declined and the Wings lost stellar defenseman Brian
Rafalski to retirement. I’m still not convinced he’s not a system’s goaltender,
and let’s face it, when you’re being backed up by Chris Osgood, you can look a
lot better than you really are by default. The fact that SelKesler gave up
elite winger Zach Parise in a trade for this guy baffles me, as I’m sure there
are other owners who would’ve given up their left kidney for Parise. It’s just
another example of moves that don’t make any sense.
Then we have
Steve Mason, a guy who won the Calder Trophy and has stubbornly hung onto the
starting goaltending job, despite signs that he may not be very good after
players figured him out. He put up 10 shutouts in his rookie campaign and
honestly, that’s the sort of potential that can make even the most wary
investor curious. But again, I point to the fact that when a manager in essence
swaps out a proven Ilya Bryzgalov for Steve Mason, it creates some questions of
sanity. Columbus doesn’t look like they are going to be a whole lot better,
especially on the defensive side of the table, so look for another bumbling
Blue Jackets season with Mason between the pipes. I don’t know how this kid is
going to turn things around, but I suppose it’s possible?
Finally we
have Kari “Salo” Lehtonen, a guy who shrugged off his reputation of being an
injury prone guy with talent, and in the process, may have accidently shrugged
off his talent part too. He showed flashes of brilliance, but is still
inconsistent. Combine this with the fact that the Dallas Stars might have had a
black hole explosion with the departure of Brad Richards and huge ownership
issues, and I think the best days are over for Kari. As a result, owning both
Kari and Steve Mason could end up being an anchor of sorts for SK’s goalie
statistics.
Closing
Thought:
All and all,
it’s going to be another long year. SK had a great team, was perfectly set up
to be a contender for years, and he threw it all away because of a couple of
bad weeks early in last year’s season. It’s going to be a long year for SK but
on the bright side, he does have some solid youth prospects coming up through
the pipes and even though he’ll be nowhere close to contention this year, the
future could be a bit brighter. But some questionable management decisions
through last year could hurt if they rear their ugly head again this year. I
cannot rank him to finish any higher than 11th.
FINAL
PREDICTION : 11th overall
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