Quietly Productive Down the Stretch
Dobber Sports
2007-03-09
Martin Gelinas is not a player that I would normally recommend for your fantasy squad. In fact, taking the season as a whole, Gelinas’ 37 points are not exactly eye-catching. Why should it be? That is a 45-point pace, which is useless in most pools.
The good part about that is – your competitors probably haven’t noticed him.
Historically, Gelinas has not exactly been a consistent fantasy asset. In his 17-year career he has reached the 50-point plateau on just four occasions and has a career high of 68 points. That being said, he is white hot right now and the Panthers are leaning heavily on him as well as his linemates Stephen Weiss and Nathan Horton.
Gelinas has 26 points in his last 28 games. That got your attention, didn’t it?
He is also a plus-14 in that span, while Weiss and Horton have faired pretty well themselves. Horton has 13 points in his last 13 games – including six multi-point efforts. Weiss has 22 in his last 22 and is finally coming into his own. Weiss probably would have done this sooner, but injuries have hampered him throughout his career.
In any event, coach Jacques Martin is using 36-year-old Gelinas and his two mates as much as possible, with the domino effect being a nice increase in Olli Jokinen’s production now that the latter is finally getting some elbowroom in the opposition zone.
Injuries, from a fantasy pool perspective: Bad timing for Marcel Hossa to sprain his knee on Monday. The Rangers youngster had 13 points in 14 games going into the contest and had been taking full advantage of the extra ice time given to him by the absences of Brendan Shanahan and Martin Straka (who made his return on Monday). It will be difficult to gauge his fantasy value for next season as a result of this setback…
Farm Report: Speaking of the Rangers, one of their prospects is my early pick to be the next Paul Stastny. Ryan Callahan is jumping up the depth chart in leaps and bounds, similar to the Colorado youngster last season. Callahan, ranked 67th in THN’s Future Watch, is an impressive training camp away from making a similar impact (that Stastny had in Colorado) on Broadway.