Setoguchi

Fantasy Impact: Minnesota traded sniper Devin Setoguchi to a (new) division rival yesterday – the Winnipeg Jets.

The Jets Get:

Setoguchi had a decent season in Minnesota in 2013, tallying 13 goals in 48 games. However, he has yet to repeat his 31-goal performance from back in 2008-09 with the Sharks, scoring 20, 22, and 19 goals in his most recent three full seasons.

He has decent size and is a solid skater, but he doesn’t contribute a whole lot outside of offense. People expecting him to be a stud forward are continually disappointed. Setoguchi has his hot streaks and is a natural sniper, but he suffers from the offensive inconsistencies that are normal with one-dimensional scorers.

For the Jets, this is a very worthwhile gamble to make, considering the modest price (a good draft pick). Setoguchi is a natural right wing and will step in immediately into Winnipeg’s top six forward group. His cap hit is $3 million and he is a UFA next summer.

He didn’t exactly play with the big guns in Minnesota this past campaign.

Frequency	Strength	Line Combination
21.71%	EV	7 CULLEN,MATT – 10 SETOGUCHI,DEVIN – 16 ZUCKER,JASON
13.95%	EV	96 BOUCHARD,PIERRE-MARC – 7 CULLEN,MATT – 10 SETOGUCHI,DEVIN
9.5%	EV	7 CULLEN,MATT – 64 GRANLUND,MIKAEL – 10 SETOGUCHI,DEVIN

Fantasy Players Impacted:

Considering the wealth of talent (especially young talent) on the wings in Minnesota, this change of scenery is probably good for Setoguchi. He was already a second line winger, and with the emergence of Jason Zucker, Charlie Coyle, and so on, he likely would have been pushed further down the depth chart. The Jason Pominville acquisition (another natural right wing) likely sealed Setoguchi’s fate in Minnesota. He had great chemistry with Matt Cullen last season, and Cullen also left Minnesota this summer (he signed with the Preds yesterday).

This hurts the fantasy value of Michael Frolik, who the Jets also recently acquired to shore up their right side. And back in Minnesota, this opens up ice time on the second line for another forward. It also freed up some dollars for the Wild to sign Matt Cooke (three years, $2.5 million per season).

Potential scoring lines in Winnipeg:

Ladd-Little-Wheeler

Kane-Jokinen-Setoguchi (a one-way line if I have ever seen one…)

Tangradi-Burmistrov-Frolik

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And in Minnesota:

Parise-Koivu-Pominville

Heatley-Granlund-Coyle

Zucker-Brodziak-Niederreiter

Cooke-Mitchell-Rupp

Fantasy Players this helps, in order:

1. Setoguchi