October 11, 2009

Dobber Sports

2009-10-11

Angus here – breaking news (not sure if any other sites have picked this up yet) – Daniel Sedin is out four to six weeks with a broken foot. Huge blow to the Canucks. Will be interesting to see how Henrik fairs without his brother. Expect one of Grabner or Shirokov to be called up shortly.

 

Daniel Sedin will probably not be in the lineup today with a bruised heel. Updated above.

 

Kris Versteeg – what a great player. You look at Chicago’s depth chart and you just don’t see a way for him to possibly get to 60 points barring a trade. Then he managed 12 points in the postseason …and six in four games to start this year. He is one of those guys who seems to always prevail – and that’s precisely the type of player I love to have on my team. He saw more time than Patrick Sharp yesterday.

 

With Chicago’s upcoming situation – lots of money committed for next season pushing them close to the cap, but with Keith, Kane and Toews still to sign – I have some thoughts on who will go. They will never get rid of Kane, Toews or Keith. Huet stays, unless Niemi becomes a superstar over the course of this season (he’s an RFA next summer too, by the way). Campbell is their prize free agent acquisition and so is Hossa – so they all stay. That means some of the fat needs to be trimmed from other areas. You may only see one or two players moved at the deadline to get a veteran expiring contract to help for a Cup push. The rest will be moved heading towards the draft. But I think Byfuglien is gone (99% certain), as is Versteeg (65%), Seabrook (45%) and Ladd (who is an RFA next summer and will get a big raise). They could also buyout Brent Sopel. All of those moves would cut them down to about $31 million give or take a million (didn’t pull out the ol’ calculator for the exact number, sorry). Assuming the cap stays where it is, they would have $25 million to spend. They’ll need about $8 of that to fill some holes and re-sign Niemi. Included in those holes would be Igor Makarov, who will be under the rookie salary cap. $17 million is more than enough to keep the Big 3 – but the ‘Hawks definitely have to move Byfuglien, Versteeg and one of Seabrook/Barker. They will probably need to move Ladd as well.

 

As for Patrick Sharp – I think the ‘Hawks really love what he brings to the table from an all-around perspective. Versteeg brings some of that too, so it will be one or the other who goes – but my hunch is that the Hawks would prefer to keep Sharp.

 

If Dumont fares well in practice today, he will return to the Preds lineup Monday.

 

Ryane Clowe (five games), Nathan Horton, David Krejci, David Backes and Milan Michalek (four games) are the big names without any points this season. Krejci came back to early, Michalek is off to his usual hot/cold ways and Horton and Backes will come around. Clowe is also pretty streaky.

 

Matt Carle has a four game points streak going. He has eight points in that span. He played 32 minutes last night. I still conservatively place him at 40-45 points for this season.

📢 advertisement:

 

As a fantasy owner, it’s always a big letdown when you see a game with three or fewer goals. There were three of those games yesterday, and a 2-2 (3-2 after the shootout) game to boot.

 

The only thing worse than Theodore’s 1-2-1, 2.90 and .902 numbers is Varlamov’s 1-0-0, 5.11, .857. This is Varly’s chance to seize some starts, all it takes is one strong game.

 

The contreversy in Anaheim has Hiller way out ahead: 2-1-0, 2.28 and .934 vs. Giggy at 0-0-1, 3.80 and .875

 

The Blues scratched Patrik Berglund yesterday. Generally I feel that the return from a healthy scratch means a great two or three games – and this is no exception. Berglund is hungry.

 

Cal Clutterbuck left last night’s contest with a serious looking ankle injury.

 

Leave A Comment

UPCOMING GAMES

Apr 25 - 19:04 T.B vs FLA
Apr 25 - 19:04 NYI vs CAR

Starting Goalies

Top Skater Views

  Players Team
AUSTON MATTHEWS TOR
ALEC MARTINEZ VGK
ELIAS PETTERSSON VAN
ZACH HYMAN EDM
JACK EICHEL VGK

Top Goalie Profile Views

  Players Team
THATCHER DEMKO VAN
STUART SKINNER EDM
FILIP GUSTAVSSON MIN
ILYA SAMSONOV TOR
JOEL HOFER STL

LINE COMBOS

  Frequency DET Players
25.0 LUCAS RAYMOND DYLAN LARKIN ALEX DEBRINCAT
20.3 DAVID PERRON PATRICK KANE J.T. COMPHER
15.4 CHRISTIAN FISCHER ROBBY FABBRI ANDREW COPP

DobberHockey Podcasts

FIND US ON FACEBOOK

📢 advertisement: