October 03, 2010
Jeff Angus
2010-10-03
Dobber: Fantasy Guide is now updated as of this evening, including the Grabner waiver fallout.
My fantasy hockey mailbag is open once again! Ask your questions all day today.
The Canucks have released Brendan Morrison from his tryout agreement. They offered him a contract but rumor has it he wanted more money. There are a few teams interested in him, Calgary being one of them.
Surprisingly, the Leafs aren’t in the mix. I guess they are happy with Tim Brent centering the third line.
Hunch: Wojtek Wolski has a big season. I have never been a fan of his (lack of consistency, laziness), but I think he has found himself a great situation to be in with the Coyotes. I have him around 70 points, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he finished higher.
The Rangers have cut Pavel Valentenko and Ryan McDonagh.
Florida has WAIVED Michael Grabner. Wow.
Ramblings up early! I’ll be updating them around 9 or 10am PST on Sunday morning. Make sure to check back.
Ian Cole has outperformed Alex Pietrangelo to date in the preseason for St. Louis. Cole is often forgotten about because of Johnson and Pietrangelo, but he has considerable amount of fantasy upside.
I’ll be hosting my regular fantasy mailbag tomorrow, so get your questions ready!
Brian Campbell is out for four to five weeks with a knee injury. This places a ton of pressure on Niklas Hjalmarsson to carry the slack behind the Seabrook-Keith pairing. I wouldn't be surprised to see Chicago split up their top two defensemen to create more balance.
Nick Leddy will probably stick for a few games, but he is still very raw defensively. Expect Brett Connelly to be recalled at some point to replace Campbell in the top six.
Jeremy Morin has also survived another round of cuts. He has impressed Chicago’s coaches and has a great shot at cracking the final roster. Would be nice to show the fans immediate returns from one of the salary dump trades the team was forced to make over the summer.
Corey Crawford beat out Hannu Toivonen for the backup gig in Chicago.
Brad Richardson will skate on LA's second line with Ponikarovsky and Stoll while Scott Parse sits out due to injury. He doesn't have much long-term upside, but could be a solid stop gap option at wing for the short term.
Blues prospect Nikita Nikitin (creative parents) has broken his wrist and is out for a few weeks.
Potential Columbus lines for their opener: Nash with Vermette and Voracek, Brassard with Filatov and Huselius, and Umberger with Pahlsson and Moreau. I made this comment a few months ago – don't be surprised to see Umberger's production drop a bit as he will play more of a defensive role with the Jackets in 2010-11.
What a surprise, Bobby Ryan has moved back to wing.
Miro Satan signed to play in Slovakia for this coming season.
Chicago has cut Beach, Connelly, and Makarov.
Buffalo has sent Zach Kassian back to Windsor. Even without Taylor Hall, the Spitfires should be an elite OHL team once again. Ryan Ellis, Jack Campbell, potentially Cam Fowler as well, and so on.