ubiquitous
Well this is awkward. Of course, being that this is my own
team, I would’ve liked to predict that I would come first overall, but I
figured that this would come across as cocky/arrogant, which I am, having won
the inaugural championships, squeaking into the playoffs after taking over a
team that was being run to the ground, despite having some talent. Two years
later and I have turned this team into a perennial contender, of course, having
been upset last year in the playoffs by a Yahoo stat correction, I entered the
off-season in turmoil and knew that in order to continue my championship ways,
I had to start making some bold moves. Anyway, this is weird enough as it is
writing about myself, so I’ll just start.
Forwards:
The biggest and newest addition to this team is Anze Kopitar.
Obviously in a league where goaltending is hard to come by, giving up on a
young newly established starter in Corey Crawford was a difficult decision, but
it was looking like I might not be able to keep him anyway, so I had to move
on. Kopitar has so far looked to be a great decision, lighting it up in the
first couple games of the season, but even before this happened, the idea of
him playing on the top line of a team that had newly established two top lines,
well, that’s just a great thing. He gives this team another top young centre
and sets up ubiquitous’ team for years to come.
The other elite centre I refer to is Steven Stamkos, a guy
who continues to impress every year, especially when we remember that he’s
still only 21 years old! This is a guy coming off back to back 90 point years
and he’s riding shotgun with one of the oldest skill players in the league,
Martin St. Louis. The question remains, is he ready to take that next big step
and crack the big 1-0-0. Well, I’m certain that ubiquitous hopes so, as Stamkos
remains the one of the big keeper league fish that UBI has snagged.
Speaking of big time fish, Tyler Seguin struggled through his
first year on team ubiquitous and on his Boston Bruins as Claude Julien painfully
developed him properly. Now in his second full season, and with Marc Savard
still out of commission, more will be expected of Seguin, much to ubiquitous’
delight. The young gun has the pedigree to break out in a big way, and the
thought of having three elite centreman under 25 should give other teams
nightmares going forward, if Seguin does pan out the way he looks like he will.
Rounding out the centremen is Jeff Skinner, who fortunately
brings right wing eligibility as well to the table. This guy is 19 years old
and is coming off a Calder Trophy season where he scored 30 goals to go with 63
points! To put it in perspective, that’s 21 more points than the guy who got
picked first overall in the same draft, and he wasn’t on a team that was just
going to shrug their shoulders at his ice time and let him play. He had to earn
his position. Obviously one would hope he could avoid the sophomore slump (and
play some defense, geez minus four already this week) but this is another guy
who provides elite youth on a difficult side of the wing to fill.
Oh look, another guy under 25 who is sorta good, Bobby Ryan!
Back to back 30 goal seasons has this power forward looking like a prime
candidate to break out. Of course, playing with two elite players in Getzlaf
and Perry doesn’t hurt his production, but I think he’s about prime to break
out of the shell of being the guy picked after Crosby. Could he break 40 this
year? I wouldn’t bet against it.
[I just want to interject here and say that I haven’t fully
been able to appreciate how awesome my team is, and you guys are screwed by
letting me get so many good players every single year, my keepers rule.]
Ok carrying on, Dany Heatley slams in on the right wing on
his new team, the Minnesota Wild. Now most people would assume that Heatley
leaving San Jose and going to Minnesota would decrease his value. Now I would
argue the opposite, that it actually increases his value because now he is THE
GUY, as in, he can’t expect anyone else to pick up the offensive slack. He had
a lot of talented players to play with in Atlanta, Ottawa and San Jose. In
Minnesota, it’s Mikko Koivu and that’s it. (And even he is questionable as far
as big time talent goes) So he can’t hide anymore, and that could be a great
thing for his game. I don’t think being 30 years old means that you’re done as
a player, and although I doubt he is capable of scoring 50 goals anymore,
getting back up to 40 isn’t out of the question. He could surprise a lot of
people, because when the work ethic is there, he’s one of the best in the game.
Coming in for another year as a non-keeper but nevertheless a
returnee is Simon Gagne. A guy who is playing with fellow teammate on
ubiquitous’ squad Kopitar, and Justin Williams, Gagne has had injury trouble
the past couple seasons but playing on a deep LA squad presents a ton of
opportunity for the veteran to get his career back on track. He’s too good to
only be putting up 40 points on a year and hopefully he can figure things out
soon, or he might be designated to mascot status.
Speaking of veterans who need to get back on track, Daniel
Alfredsson joins team ubiquitous after a train wreck season the previous year
which saw him injured and dropping to a career low 31 points. This is a guy who
hadn’t had a below 70 point season since 1999, back when Luc Bourdon was still
in diapers! (the owner, not the prospect) He could be a guy who bounces back
huge, especially since he’s not going to be expected to play defense anymore as
Cory Clouston is gone! He’s still lining up with an elite playmaker in Jason
Spezza, so the ceiling could be high for the talented Swede who might be on
route to his swan song in his career. He is 39 after all.
And whoa, segways ahoy, speaking of swan songs, Jaromir Jagr
is back in the NHL, and during the pre-season he looked like the Jagr of old.
Jagr’s career high in points, 149! Obviously he’s not going to get there, but
considering he’s playing with the next big thing, Claude Giroux, I don’t see
even 80 points being out of the question for Jagr, if he can remain healthy and
doesn’t get burnt out. He’s 39 years old this season and hasn’t played in the
NHL since 2008. Questions about conditioning could pop up, but he’s been
healthy for most of his career and I’m sure he wouldn’t come back from Russia
just to be happy playing well and not putting up points.
Finally, Drew Stafford and Ville Leino, Buffalo teammates,
join the wings of ubiquitous’ squad and provide some solid depth in a group
already full of talented wingers. Stafford is coming off a breakout season
where he scored 30 goals and playing on a line with Derek Roy and Nathan Gerbe
as well as seeing powerplay time, he’s got the ability to repeat his 30 goal
output of a year ago. Ville Leino playing with Brad Boyes and Tyler Ennis could
see a bump in production as well, as this deep Sabres team has a lot of talent
to pass the puck around, and it could just be a matter of time before the
inevitable Derek Roy injury. After last year, I don’t have a lot of faith in
him staying healthy.
Defense:
The greatest offense in the league is complimented by the
greatest defense in the league. Keith Yandle leads the group after breaking out
in a big way last season, scoring almost 60 points! Of course, Phoenix got a
lot worse, so his plus/minus could struggle, but on the plus side of things,
the opportunity for him to show off his offensive ability will rise playing in
front of Mike Smith. It could be another big year for the talented Yandle, as
he is INCREDIBLY underrated.
Tyler Myers also returns to an ubiquitous defense than
remains largely the same this year. After last year’s sophomore slump, Myers
seems poised to bounce back and regain his Calder Trophy winner form. (Oh look,
that’s two Calder trophy winners I have on my team) Playing on the powerplay with
Christian Ehrhoff should help his production and he should see big minutes on a
very solid Buffalo squad. (Yeah, I’m excited about Buffalo)
Jakub Kindl is on the squad this year, mostly as a fill-in
until I can find someone better. He has looked solid replacing Mike Commodore
so far, but I am not particularly hopeful that he maintains his spot in the
lineup on Detroit. A young guy with good draft pedigree, he’s probably a year
away from really making an impact, but he’ll be on everyone’s radar soon enough.
Same goes for Cody Franson, who inexplicitly was traded for
and then can’t even make a not so good Leaf team. I don’t know if it was a
result of complacency or if he actually was the worst guy out there, but he’s a
good young player who looked primed for a breakout on a new team.
Unfortunately, it looks as though he may also join Andrew Brunette on the
waiver wire for someone who is actually playing. Unlike CCF, I know my limit
and when it is time to let some fish go for when they are more in season…I
haven’t quite reached that point yet, but it’s getting close.
Jack Johnson is back for another year, picked up by
ubiquitous after he sadly was unable to keep him. The two will enjoy his
increased offensive output along with his strange method of always managing to
be on the ice when opponents score against him. Ah well, you take the good with
the bad, but I would personally make it a goal if I was JJ to try to avoid
being the team’s minus leader every year.
Finally, Erik Johnson also rejoins team ubiquitous. With
Colorado giving up two rather large pieces in order to acquire the big
defenseman, it seems logically that they have big plans and high hopes for his
future. As such, even with Colorado being as bad as they are, Johnson will get
plenty of powerplay time and should see an increase in totals, even if his
plus/minus suffers. But that’s no matter, it seems to be the Johnson way.
Hopefully for ubiquitous, Erik Johnson can finally show the world why he was
drafted number one overall by the St. Louis Blues and make them regret giving
up on him after two and a half years. He’s still very young.
Goalies:
The big fish on this team is star goaltender Pekka Rinne.
Nashville’s workhorse, Rinne was a Vezina finalist and probably would’ve won if
the media wasn’t stuck up Timmy T’s ummm…well you know. Rinne is underrated in
a big way, probably because he plays in Nashville, but he had a big time season
and will play the majority of Nashville’s games. With a great defensive team in
front of him, he should repeat the numbers he put up last year, and hopefully
garner some more attention to what could be the next great goaltender.
Tuukka Rask is back for a third season with team ubiquitous.
He again is trapped behind aging veteran Tim Thomas, who after reclaiming the
starting position from Tuukka went on to win his second Vezina trophy. To start
the season, Claude Julien named Rask 1A starter, which means, well, I don’t
know what it means. I’m hoping that it has something to do with him getting
more starts and Tim Thomas retiring. Anyway, Rask is destined to be one of the
next young goalie superstars, and it still baffles my mind that someone thought
it was a good idea to trade him to Boston for Andrew Raycroft.
Finally Craig Anderson comes onto ubiquitous’ squad in order
to anchor his goaltending stats to a reasonable level. After all, the now
Ottawa starter is incapable of playing well unless he has Ice Girls to marvel
over and over two games this season he is doing a good job proving that his
first starting gig was nothing more than a fluke. Look for him to join Cody
Franson on the waiver wire sooner rather than later.
Closing Thoughts:
Even if I don’t win this year, I’m still going to hang around
thanks to my core, which is amazing. Simply put, I’m the best and if it wasn’t
for a certain team having the top three players in fantasy, I would have zero
qualms about ranking myself number one overall in the league. I will finish
second in points though, and unfortunately because of the division setup, I’ll
probably get upset in the first round again, despite having a great team,
because well, fantasy is a fickle beast.
FINAL PREDICTION: 3rd OVERALL
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