Rambling about Huberdeau, Frk, Heinen, Parenteau, Sanford and more …

***

Last Fantasy Guide update was…last night (of course!). Two updates went down yesterday.  And you can probably expect two more today, tomorrow, and one Wednesday and then I’ll do the last update Thursday. But you won’t find any other Fantasy Guide that has Yakupov on St. Louis and Huberdeau’s injury and how that impacts the team.

*

If you want, you can stay on top of all the preseason stats and line combo data. Use the Report Generator here and change the drop box to “exhibition”. You can see points, SOG (including distance from the net, PP and SH shots), TOI, line combos and advanced stats – whatever report you wish. Or if you want to look up a specific player, click any player name in any of these articles. When that player’s profile comes up, you’ll need to change his drop box (default is still set to last season) to “exhibition”.

Tell your friends! Because honestly, next week I’ll have a dozen people ask “hey Dobber, do you know where I can get line combos from the preseason?” True story!

*

Let’s talk some Jonathan Huberdeau. Those of you who bought the Guide already know who I think benefit from this injury, so now I’ll let the rest of you in on the hunch. Jonathan Marchessault. With Nick Bjugstad and Huberdeau both out, there are prime roster spots available on the power play and in the top six. And Marchessault has already shown us that he can flourish when given the chance (i.e. when Johnson and/or Stamkos and/or Palat were hurt last year at the same time). Trust this hunch! Just don’t assume it will last and he’ll be this 60-point revelation. He’ll slow (or stop completely) when the fellas get back into the lineup. But early on I can see him catch your league off guard by getting 10 or 12 points in 15 games right off the hop.

*

I had been kind of hoping that Jake Allen would work out with the Blues and not be the fragile netminder that I suspected he was. Nope. Apparently he is indeed fragile. Hurt already, as already discussed her by Ian yesterday. So Allen is a solid netminder on a top defensive team, but if he can’t stay healthy enough to get into 60 games, then he can’t ascend into a Top 5 fantasy goalie. If Allen never gets hurt, he’s Top 5 this year easily. But his Band-Aid Boy status keeps him around 10^th or even 15^th.

We don't (yet) know the extent of Allen's injury from Saturday, but the team did recall Jordan Binnington so Allen will miss at least a few days and I suspect some regular season time as well. I think an Allen injury in the first half will benefit Hutton – who will be great if it's only for seven or eight games. But an Allen injury in the second half could benefit Ville Husso owners.

*

Martin Frk had an impressive training camp for Detroit. He’s really come a long way over the past year. After an impressive final junior year (84 points in 56 games for Halifax playing with Drouin and MacKinnon), he saw the better part of two seasons in the ECHL. Then last year he stuck in the AHL and scored 27 goals in 67 games, followed by four points in four postseason games. And now this impressive camp. But of course the Red Wings are as deep as they come up front so Frk was exposed to waivers and Carolina claimed him. I see a potential Nestrasil here. Andrej Nestrasil was another prospect with modest upside for the Red Wings. He was waived and Carolina claimed him. He didn’t do much for them…until late November. Then he got 20 points in 39 games before suffering a fractured vertebrae. I can see Frk having that kind of impact – just chugging along in a depth capacity until finding some chemistry with somebody (Nestrasil was dynamite with Jordan Staal) and becoming fantasy relevant for a few weeks.

Read more on Frk here

*

Everything is coming up Millhouse for Danton Heinen of the Bruins. His prospect stock surged last season with a second strong year in college (20 goals, 48 points in 41 games). Then he played two games to end the year for Providence after turning pro – and had two assists. In rookie camp he impressed yet again and at that point he was front and center on my radar and you may have read one of my raves about him. Now he’s having a great training camp for the Bruins, but didn’t have a spot to win…until Frank Vatrano went down. So then Heinen becomes one of several prospects vying for that spot and he’s one of the favorites. Then Noah Acciari goes down. And now on Saturday, thanks to a Radko Gudas special, Austin Czarnik was injured.

So I think Heinen will win this job. Czarnik was great, but even if his injury isn’t serious and he’s back right away – something was exemplified there. He’s a small player. Not that Heinen is a giant, but he’s bigger than Czarnik. And I think those two or three inches will mean the difference.

Here was the Czarnik injury:

*

Anaheim line combos Sunday:

#1           12.8%    COGLIANO,ANDREW – KESLER,RYAN – SORENSEN,NICK

#2           12.8%    GETZLAF,RYAN – RITCHIE,NICK – SILFVERBERG,JAKOB

#3           8.8%      GETZLAF,RYAN – PERRY,COREY – RITCHIE,NICK

#4           8%          PERRY,COREY – RAYMOND,MASON – VERMETTE,ANTOINE

Jakob Silfverberg with some PP time (7:31!) and some ice time with Ryan Getzlaf. That has my spider senses tingling. He scored both Anaheim goals. Remember – his problem the last two seasons has been slow starts. Like – a sloth riding a turtle through molasses slow. His second half has seen a 50- or 60-point pace each year. So if he can get off to a quick start, then he’s having a big year.

*

The Ducks handed Nick Sorensen 4:15 of PP time, so Randy Carlyle is very interested in seeing what he can do. The Ducks need secondary scoring so all options are being explored. Sorensen played six preseason games and tallied two points.

*

Kevin Labanc and Nikolay Goldobin were in the lineup for the Sharks, but as far as ice time goes I see nothing that would indicate either making the team. They were just given enough ice time to give one more impression as to what they can do at this point in their development, but I expect both to be sent down this week or shortly after the season begins. The fact that Labanc, an elite-scoring junior player, has stuck around until now bodes well for his fantasy outlook. I expect he’ll be on this team in 2017-18 and I hope to see him light it up in the AHL.

Joonas Donskoi, who had three points in four preseason games including two last night, is looking pretty good…

*

Islanders’ line combos last night:

#1           27.7%    LADD,ANDREW – PARENTEAU,PIERRE – TAVARES,JOHN

#2           25.2%    CIZIKAS,CASEY – CLUTTERBUCK,CAL – KULEMIN,NIKOLAY

#3           20.8%    CHIMERA,JASON – LEE,ANDERS – STROME,RYAN

#4           14.5%    BAILEY,JOSH – BARZAL,MATHEW – BEAUVILLIER,ANTHONY

That’s where Parenteau is destined to start as Jack Capuano tries to rekindle the Tavares – Parenteau magic. It was Tavares’ first preseason game. For Parenteau, as you can see here in his preseason page, he has logged over 60% of the team’s available PP time. And that’s how things will be for Parenteau – but he needs to produce. What we saw two years ago with Cory Conacher (remember?) was that when Capuano really wanted a guy on that line, he’d give it a good long trial. Conacher got about 12 games if I remember correctly. So the more I think about it, the more I like Parenteau’s sleeper status.

I suspect the kids – Barzal and Beauvillier, who just played nominal minutes – were just giving one last showcase before being sent down. An impressive showing nonetheless. But I think Alan Quine and Shane Prince keep their job. And of course Brock Nelson was scratched as well, and he’s obviously in the lineup.

As an Anders Lee owner in one of my leagues, I’m hoping that Chimera doesn’t remain on that line. The 37-year-old played over his head last year.

*

It’s looking like Zach Sanford will make the Capitals, which is a bit of a shocker. But he forced the team to waive Stanislav Galiev – a player who they refused to waive last year:

"Based on his play, I don't know if he will be semi-regular," Trotz said (on Sanford). "I think he's regular the way he's played. That's good on him. That's a big compliment to him. Yeah, he can be trusted. Right now, I don't have any issues with that. When you have trust, it doesn't matter if the guy's 22 or 32. You have trust in players and they earn your trust."

Read more on Sanford here.

*

My Wednesday Ramblings I will go over my over/under picks for player projections on Bodog.