August 07, 2010
Jeff Angus
2010-08-07
In some very unsurprising news, it sounds like Vesa Toskala is headed to Sweden to play in the SEL next season.
I’ll be away at a wedding most of today, but I’ll pop in for an hour or so to update the ramblings. Any players/teams/situations you want me to talk about? Comment below!
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Farewell to Chris Chelios, who is hanging up the skates to take a front office position in Detroit. Chelios had a similar offer with the Blackhawks, and a fairly lucrative contract to play hockey in the KHL, according to Nick Kypreos.
Teemu Selanne will be back for another season, and he wants his buddy Paul Kariya to join him in Anaheim. Kariya-Koivu-Selanne would have been the league's best line about 12 years ago.
Can they bring enough depth scoring to Anaheim's lineup? The Ducks still have a lot of work to do with their defence as well. Koivu is probably the safest of the three to own in a one-year league… Kariya looked done to me last season. Perhaps a return to the Ducks will provide the motivation for a 60+ point season.
The Wild have signed John Madden to a one-year deal. This helps Matt Cullen's fantasy value a bit, as Madden will share some of the defensive/PK responsibilities.
Why do I see a decline for Patric Hornqvist? I think the departure of Arnott hurts him a bit.
Wanted to discuss my offseason in one of my keeper leagues and to get your opinion on the moves I have made. This is a very competitive H2H league with a ton of Dobber veterans, and I finished 4th out of 12 last year (I came very close to defeating the eventual winner during the second round of our playoffs).
I wanted to improve my goaltending, so back in June; I flipped Marc-Andre Fleury and Michael Neuvirth for Roberto Luongo and Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
Fleury is a very inconsistent goalie and he doesn't get many shutouts (although Martin and Michalek will help his numbers significantly). Neuvirth has a lot of upside and is in a great situation.
With Luongo, I considered it a buy-low scenario. Vancouver is stacked for both the short and long-term at forward and defense, and the division is pretty weak (at least right now). He had a bit of an off-year in 2009-10, but I see a return to his Hart-finalist form of 2006-07.
Ekman-Larsson was a defenseman I was eyeing as well. We start six defensemen each night so there is a huge premium on finding good ones (to show how important depth is, I actually had to dress Steve Eminger during the final few weeks…)
My second major trade involved sending Quick, Neal, and Del Zotto (along with a draft pick) for Cory Schneider, Edler, Perron, and Sharp.
Once again I violated my "no Canucks" policy! I like Edler (a lot), and feel he is at worst a short-term saw-off with Del Zotto. The real value in this deal for me is Sharp, who at LW gives me a huge edge, as our league counts faceoff wins as a scoring category.
I really like Neal but you have to give to get (especially in this league).
I have no worries with regards to Steve Downie playing under a coach who isn't Rick Tocchet. The Lighting have a lot of leadership on that team in case Downie starts to slip off the tracks a bit.