Horvat contract, Rask or Bishop, plus more…

There were sighs of relief among Canucks’ fans on Friday, as Bo Horvat was finally signed to an extension. Six years, $5.5 million per season is the new contract, which is a better alternative than the bridge contract that was previously rumored.

Horvat has seen double-digit improvement in his point totals in each of his first three seasons, from 25 to 40 to 52, which led the Canucks in scoring last season. And now he’s entering that fourth year that seems to be profitable for many players.

With what could be yet another season with substantial gains, Horvat appears to have surpassed Henrik Sedin as the Canucks’ true number one center. As valuable as Horvat is to the Canucks, he may turn out to be a better real-life player than fantasy player. That could mean he is equivalent to Jonathan Toews or Patrice Bergeron in the fantasy sense in that they have their place on fantasy teams, but they shouldn’t be your elite options.

Horvat’s potential career path as the Canucks’ future leader is especially important to remember in salary cap leagues, where his cap hit increases by $4.5 million with the new contract. But he was an RFA this offseason, so you would have had time to react.

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Be sure to grab your copy of the Dobber Draft Guide, if you haven’t done so already.

And of course, there’s the Fantasy Hockey Geek. Having point projections and preview articles is one thing, but how would you like to customize those projections to your league’s scoring and settings to determine a true rankings system for your league? That’s where the Geek comes in.

Then there’s the Dobber Hockey Pool Boxes. They’re a great way to get people involved in a simple hockey pool. Maybe your spouse? (Nah, mine won’t do it.) Maybe your kid? (Now there’s an idea.)

Lots of stuff to keep you busy here.  

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If you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed my fascination with the Joel Edmundson bidding war that is currently taking place in one of my leagues. You can read more about it there, but because I am curious about the reasons behind it I’ll take a look at his prospects to find out if there is in fact there is any sleeper potential.

With Kevin Shattenkirk now out of the picture, Alex Pietrangelo, Colton Parayko, and Jay Bouwmeester are the established top-4 option on the Blues’ blueline. Pietrangelo and Parayko should be the main power-play options, while Bouwmeester is a much better real-life option than fantasy option at this stage of his career.

Could Edmundson become that fourth defenseman for the Blues? There seems to be a very good chance that he will, since he spent 64 percent of his even-strength minutes with Parayko last season. So an increase in icetime from 17:46 last season to over 20 minutes in 2017-18 seems like a strong possibility. But that doesn’t necessarily translate to fantasy success. Remember that Erik Karlsson’s main defense partner last season was Marc Methot.

Could he be a power-play option? There’s a chance, but he did not record a single power-play point in 69 games last season, so it doesn’t appear that the Blues will likely use him that way. It’s more likely that Jake Walman is used in that role going forward, as Walman has a higher offensive upside than Edmundson.

So that leaves peripheral categories. The Blues could be a contender in the Central Division, which could mean Edmundson has strong plus-minus (more on that shortly). He also finished third on the Blues with 122 hits and fourth with 95 blocked shots. With increased icetime, the hits and blocked shots totals only stand to increase.

Should I let you in on the most likely reason for this Edmundson bidding war? Playoff stats. Edmundson scored six points (3g-3a) and a plus-12 in 11 playoff games last season. How much should we take playoff stats into account? Rick answered that in a Cage Match article during the playoffs. In that article he specifically named Edmundson.

My conclusion is that there is no reason to reach for him in a standard-sized Yahoo league. But you may be hearing more about him this season simply as an NHL defenseman.

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I have a goaltending decision to make in one of my keeper leagues: Tuukka Rask or Ben Bishop.

Rask has won at least 30 games for four consecutive seasons. He should be a strong bet for his fifth 30-win season, as Anton Khudobin won’t push Rask for many starts. The downside is Rask’s save percentage, which hasn’t improved in any season since he posted a .930 SV% in 2013-14.

Bishop is coming off a rough year in which he won just 18 games to go with a 2.54 GAA and .910 SV%, which hardly justified the high draft pick that you needed on him. The low win total was the result of what turned into a timeshare with Andrei Vasilevskiy in Tampa, followed by a brief stint as Jonathan Quick’s backup in LA. Prior to that, Bishop had won at least 35 games in his previous three seasons.

Despite the declining save percentage, Rask seems like the safer option. Aside from Zdeno Chara, the Bruins’ defense is very young. But the Stars’ defense was a disaster last season, allowing over three goals per game. Sure, Ken Hitchcock will improve things, but don’t expect a complete turnaround. Bishop could win a lot of games, but there could still also be some high-scoring games that will hurt his ratios considering that the team has been built around Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn. Don’t forget that longtime starter Kari Lehtonen is still there and could still start around 30 games.

Dallas has done a lot to improve its team this offseason. But I don’t know for sure what I’ll get from Bishop. I’d love to keep him, but I’m leaning toward Rask on this one.

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Some more notable PTOs, in case you missed them:

Scottie Upshall (Vancouver): The Canucks’ penalty killing was atrocious last season, and two of Upshall’s ten goals were shorthanded. With Brendan Gaunce likely out until November, Upshall could be given a long look, even though the Canucks already have a ton of forwards.

Alex Chiasson (Washington): Chiasson spent a third of his even-strength time with both Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan. But that didn’t translate to fantasy success (24 points in 81 games). The Capitals lost a fair number of forwards in free agency, but Chiasson will need to compete for a bottom-six spot with the likes of Jakub Vrana and Devante Smith-Pelly.

Chris Kelly (Edmonton): Hasn’t been a fantasy option in even deep leagues for a while. He would likely need an injury to one of the Oilers’ regulars in order to make the roster.

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Non-fantasy hockey related, but thumbs up to the Florida Panthers for their role in assisting their community with Hurricane Irma about to hit. The BB&T Center is being used as a command center for emergency workers and their vehicles.

If you are in Florida or anywhere that has been affected by the hurricane, stay safe. Evacuation is a difficult experience, something that my parents and grandmother and numerous friends from my hometown were faced with this summer because of the forest fires in British Columbia (thankfully they were able to return to undamaged homes).

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For more fantasy hockey information, follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding.