September 24, 2009
Dobber Sports
2009-09-24
Fantasy Guide can be bought here. Next update: tomorrow.
Catch Jeff Angus on last night’s Illegal Curve Radio Show.
Canucks have cut Eric Walsky, Dave Scatchard, Ronald Petrovicky and a few others. They still have 38 players, which is extremely high at this point in the game. Still there – Mark Parrish and Cody Hodgson.
Blues cut Barry Tallackson
Big cuts – Ryan Ellis from Nashville. Mikael Backlund and Brett Sutter from Calgary.
Brad May has accepted a tryout with the Red Wings. Oops, I already removed him from my prediction template. Then again, I removed Fleury from it five years ago…
Check out my piece on Puck Daddy.
So far, the big lottery winner in San Jose has been Devin Setoguchi. With half of his ice time this preseason with Heatley and Thornton. The potential here is through the roof. Now I feel dumb for trading him earlier in the summer.
The Devils cut Matt Corrente, Alexander Vasyunov, Patrice Cormier, Nick Palmieri and four others. Still 32 in camp, including Halischuk, Murphy, Zharkov, Bergfors, Pikkarainen.
The Blues cut Yan Stastny.
Dobber Nation radio show tomorrow will have myself, Adam Proteau, Valtteri Filppula and Curtis Glencross (tied for NHL preseason scoring lead).
TSN is saying that the new coach of Phoenix will be Dave Tippett. An excellent coach who is a little on the defensive side, so it should help Bryzgalov. He’s usually good at bringing along one youngster per season, but we haven’t seen him work with a pile of youngsters at once.
Some big, but expected news – Wayne Gretzky has resigned as coach of Phoenix. In the long run, this probably helps the younger Coyotes. Personally, I would like to see the Great One give coaching another go. I’m sure he has learned a lot.
The Rangers have cut Bobby Sanguinetti. Still there – Michael Del Zotto. I was told by a scout in the spring that Del Zotto was ahead of Bobby S in terms of readiness. Guess he was right.
Curtis Glencross, Olli Jokinen and Mike Comrie lead the preseason in scoring. Jokinen was pointless last night, but Glencross had two goals and Comrie one (still playing with O’Sullivan).
With all of his competition dropping like flies, you would think Oskar Osala would take more of advantage. Chris Bourque (head), Eric Fehr and Tomas Fleischmann are injured, and Francois Bouchard was cut, yet Osala still comes up with goose eggs. Maybe if Semin, Knuble and Laich got hurt as well Osala would do something.
Jamie Benn scored Dallas’ only goal last night. He has three goals and four points in four games. Other top
Dallas scorers are Richards (four in three games) and Eriksson (three in three games). It’s hard to imagine Benn getting cut.
Nick Bergfors had a couple of points last night. Finally, I think he’s ready to be a full-timer this year. He should be a quality second liner in a season or two.
Cory Murphy helped his cause with a pair of assists. He should make the Devils, but his fragility may hold him back from flourishing. If he can kick the injury bug, he’s a great sleeper.
Tavares picked up an assist, but was a minus-2. He saw time with Matt Moulson. However, Bergenheim didn’t play, nor did Okposo – in the end, those two will be the linemates. More on Bergenheim in my Puck Daddy article (out this afternoon).
Max Afinogenov got into the Thrashers lineup last night. He played with Evander Kane and Tim Stapleton, and was held pointless.
Kovalchuk played with Antropov and Little, and the line was very successful – look for that line to remain.
Tyler Meyers was the star of the game last night on Leafs TV, although he wasn’t among the top three in the NHL.com Game Summary. Still, his play bodes well for making the team, but he will have to knock off Nathan Paetsch. However, Paetsch doesn’t exactly have a firm grip on a roster spot himself. Regardless, even making the team, Meyers won’t get a lot of points this year.Not fantasy worthy in that respect.
Teemu Laakso and Alexander Sulzer were minus-3 (each) last night. That has to help Cody Franson’s odds.
Patric Hornqvist had a pair of assists as he seems to be more comfortable at the NHL level. He played over 19 minutes last night. He is battling Mike Santorelli, who scored last night, for the second line job with Legwand and Erat. So far, I give the edge to Santorelli.
Steve Sullivan is dealing with a slight groin problem, but he is skating.
Phoenix winger Taylor Pyatt will be out for two-three weeks with a lower body injury. This will mean that we will see Porter on the team to start the year, and this helps Brett McLean perhaps get a longer look.
The Sharks signed Manny Malhotra to a one-year deal. He won’t match last year’s career high, I’m guessing.
I actually thought he retired four months ago…but for what it’s worth, Olaf Kolzig retired yesterday. By all accounts a good media guy, and of course a solid goaltender.
KEY CUTS (in case you missed them late yesterday here):
Jamie Arniel, BOS
Martin Skoula, Mike York, Clay Wilson, Graham Mink, Kenndal McArdle, Keaton Ellerby, Evgeni Dadonov, FLA
Jesse Joensuu, Justin DiBenedetto, Sean Bentivoglio, NYI
Luca Caputi, Eric Tangradi, Konstantin Pushkarev, Dustin Jeffrey, Wade Brookbank, Jonathan D’Aversa, Simon Despres and Brad Theissen, PIT