March 19, 2013

Dobber Sports

2013-03-19

The DobberBaseball Fantasy Guide is fully updated through Monday – tell your baseball fan friends, I promise they’ll love this guide and how thorough it is.

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Corey Perry has re-signed with the Ducks for eight years – $69 million. That’s a shade under Sidney Crosby‘s $8.7 million per year, by the way…and it’s $3 million more than Getzlaf. Two years ago Getzlaf was the darling – Perry had one of the best February/ March/ April’s in the history of the league that year, if you remember. And those three months earned him millions.

Emerson Etem scored his first career NHL goal and has four points in his last six games.

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We’re now into ‘college free agent signing’ season, as Angus noted yesterday. It seems much earlier this year, but obviously it’s because the season started so late. It’s also that time of year where the junior players who didn’t make the playoffs get called up to the AHL (and you may even see them in the NHL). Morgan Rielly, for example, has been recalled to the Toronto Marlies. And finally, some of the European teams are out of the playoffs and we’re starting to see some of those guys put pen to paper. It will be an interesting next two weeks as plenty of this news trickles in.

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Finally back to the NHL – Dmitry Orlov. He had 12 points in 22 AHL games. He was injured in December, which pretty much removed him from training camp and stuck him in the minors by the time he came back. He’s worth a pickup if you need a d-man.

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Gustav Nyquist has been sent back to the AHL. He played two games, seeing 27 minutes of ice time and picking up an assist with four shots. Good numbers, albeit in a small sample size.

With Kyle Quincey out for the next month with a cheekbone fracture, their backs are against the wall. Either go out and make a trade, which is something Ken Holland rarely does anymore… or play Ian White. So, uh, look for a trade.

I have a feeling that the ‘who will make the team full time first?’ question will be answered “both”. I’m talking about Nyquist vs. Tomas Tatar. “Both”, you ask? But, how can that be? Well, I’ll tell you – trade. Just a feeling based on nothing more than what I ate this morning, or what side I got out of the bed on, but I think one of those two blue chippers will get moved.

One of the above will be called back up – likely – because Darren Helm‘s back flared up yesterday and he left practice early.

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Good on Colin McDonald for getting out of the AHL at 28. He follows the footsteps of Matt Moulson, who I believe was 25, and PA Parenteau  (27) as the Isles AHL reclamation project. They gave Keith Aucoin a shot, but it looks like it’s not something they’ll pursue beyond this year. McDonald, meanwhile, is a former 40-goal scorer at the AHL level and the last two years he hovered around 0.72 points per game. He has 11 points in 25 games and I think he can be a solid third-line contributor next year in that 35- to 37-point range. That’s not what Moulson or Parenteau brought to the table, but although McDonald has upside for maybe 55… the Isles aren’t looking for a top sixer this time. He fits what they were looking for. I just wanted to comment on his one-way, two-year contract he signed last week.

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In The Hockey News yesterday, I looked at eight players who should be dropped, and make suggestions on who to replace them with. Dogs such as Clowe, Del Zotto, Grabovski, Jokinen, etc.

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Martin Brodeur is targeting Thursday for his return to the ice in game action.

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Florida Panthers prospect Vince Trocheck was player of the week in the final week of the OHL season and his eight points in three games were enough to give him the scoring title – 109 points. He’s ranked 83 on my Fantasy Prospects List and you can check out his full fantasy profile here. We have added about 10 new people to our writing/scouting staff over at DobberProspects and are pumping out the profile updates like you wouldn’t believe. We could still actually use another five people or so, if you have any passion or aspirations for writing or scouting, fire me an email (and if you truly have any passion at all, you can dig up my email – that’s your first test!).

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David Krejci did not suffer a break in his leg when he took a puck off what looked like just above the knee. He’s questionable for tonight’s game though and the Bruins recalled Ryan Spooner. Spooner is ranked 32 on my Fantasy Prospects List.

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With Tuomo Ruutu set to come back, Kirk Muller has said that he will not break up the top line (raise a cheer, Tlusty owners). Speculation is that Ruutu will play with Jordan and Skinner.

The Staal brothers give an update on Marc here. He’s still recovering from some facial fractures and his vision has not fully returned yet.

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Todd Bertuzzi update – he’s still hopeful of returning “this season“. So…by that I’m interpreting things as “not good”.

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Joni Pitkanen returned for the Hurricanes last night, assisting on the only goal and also adding three shots.

Dan Ellis stopped 35 of 36 shots, which was probably the best performance of a Carolina goalie since Ward went down, although I didn’t see the game. Just going by those numbers, which isn’t much, my hunch is that Ellis will start seeing more starts now. I think Muller was just waiting to see one of the two goalies seize the day.

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Brad Richards has six points in his last 16 games. Is Rick Nash doing more harm than good? Has the team just decided to look to Nash just a little too much? This is a great team, and rather than adding a great part to a great team, it’s like the team has disassembled and then reassembled around the new part and it’s not working. At all.

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Tyler Johnson – pick him up if you haven’t already. The ice time still isn’t there, but he doesn’t seem to care. Three points in his last two games now and plus-4, despite totaling about 20 minutes of ice time for TB.

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Ray Emery – how many goalies do you know go 11-0-0 to start, but can’t get starts? I know the circumstances are unique, but just saying…

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Jonathan Quick had a much-needed shutout. It was his first of the season and he’s coming off an outing in which he let in five goals. It’s always darkest…

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Tyler Toffoli with his first career NHL goal and his first career NHL assist last night – 12:18 of ice time.

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Waiver time – Matt Irwin now has points in four straight games. His plus/minus ain’t the greatest, but he’s getting power-play time for the Sharks and taking full advantage.

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Six consecutive games in which Antti Niemi has allowed three more goals. Come on – it’s time to give Alex Stalock his first career NHL start. Prediction: that happens next game and the team rallies around him and starts scoring again. This ‘five points in his last 21 games’ business has stop – right Joe Pavelski?

Scott Gomez, seven points in his last eight games, but is a minus-6 in that span. And no, I still wouldn’t pick him up. But now at least I’m paying attention.

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Pierre-Marc Bouchard has five points in his last three games. The ice time is still sub-13 minutes, but clearly he’s found his comfort zone again.

Devin Setoguchi has 13 points in his last 13 games and is plus-10 during that run.

Jason Zucker was back in the lineup for the Wild, playing just under 10 minutes.

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Andy McDonald is expected back in the lineup tonight. He practiced on a line with Berglund and Perron.

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Vancouver fan favorite, first-year man Steve Pinizzotto eight hits first two games, but was credited with…zero hits last night in 13 minutes of action.

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Whoa, look at this bench brawl between Chicago (AHL) and Rockford:

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Sergei Kostitsyn will be a healthy scratch tonight because of this play. I’m sure you’ve seen it, but for those who have not – I’m sure you’ll understand why he’ll be scratched…

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Mar 29 - 19:03 BUF vs N.J

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