Gates Imbeau and Steve Laidlaw bring back the Prime Cuts Team.

Gates Imbeau and Steve Laidlaw were tasked with keeping Jeff Angus' Prime Cuts team alive. Below is Part Two of the transcript of the decision-making process. Check out Part One here. Also, check out last year's team here. 

The team so far:

Benn – Crosby – Kessel

Marleau – Dubinsky – Simmonds

Marchand – Vermette – Zuccarello

Laidlaw: So Gates, who do you have on the fourth line?

Gates: Perhaps the most obvious choice, Nick Bonino. This Duck finished only a sliver away from 50 points and also sported a stat line that consisted of 20 power-play points, 65-plus blocked shots and 575-plus faceoff wins. Basically, there was none better from a fourth line pivot this season.

Flanking Bonino are a couple of Stars. On the left, I have Antoine Roussel and on the right, Ryan Garbutt. These are the hidden gems we look for in Fantasy hockey. The pair put up a combined 61 points this season, which is gravy to poolies in rotisserie formats. Not only did both end up netting a triple-triple (digits) in SOG, PIMs and Hits, they also blocked 45 shots each. From a fourth line forward, you cannot ask for much depth than that. Fantasy aside, these two are gritty, feisty and fit the role of an energy player to the tee. 

Thoughts?

 

Shiiiiiiiit… You really knocked it out of the park on the fourth line. Bonino is a no-brainer. If you can stash a dynamic playmaker like that on your fourth line you know you have a deep roster. The Ducks power play doesn't function very well but when it does it's because of Bonino, which is saying something considering the talent on that team.

As much as I want to disagree with you for the sake of argument, this is the exact line I had.

Fine looking group of forwards we have here. Care to take the first go at the top pairing?

My top pair is quite simple: Duncan Keith and Erik Karlsson. There is no other answer.

If you want offensive output, Karlsson and Keith are your go to guys – especially Karlsson notching 70-plus points. I have no issues running with that line up.

Though, if I were to make a Fantasy/rotisserie influenced change, I would swap out Keith for Shea Weber. What Weber brings to table is irreplaceable. He rewards both the Nashville Predators as well as his Fantasy owners, just not so much the bystanders that stand in the way of his laser beam shots. With a stat-line that consisted of a combined 340-plus hits and blocked shots, 26 power-play points, as well as 23 goals, you have a very balanced weapon from the backend. 

Don’t get me wrong, Keith had a fantastic season (and will likely win the Norris), but a pairing of Weber and Karlsson is downright sexy.

Okay, so now that we've paid lip service to Weber and his immaculate beard, let's move on to the second pairing. Who do you have?

One lock for the job is Kevin Shattenkirk. To have a gem like Shattenkirk on your second pairing is an embarrassment of riches. It almost feels wrong assigning him to this pairing, but the top line in St. Louis clearly belongs to the duo of Alex Pietrangelo and Jay Bouwmeester. You want sexy? Shattenkirk delivers all kinds of sexy.

As for his partner, things become a little hazier.  There are some very appealing options, but how far are we willing to reach? On paper, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Matt Niskanen look like stellar choices, but both were given ample opportunity to eat up big minutes on the top pairing. Obviously Niskanen had the benefit of being relied upon in the extensive absence of Kris Letang, while Phoenix rolled out OEL/Zbynek just as often as Yandle/Morris. 

Due to the abundance of choices, we can easily call upon a clear cut second pairing blue liner. So let's go with a bit of a reward pick and nominate a member of the Colorado Avalanche. 

Part of me wants to select Erik Johnson, simply because of the Shattenkirk pick above, but I will sadly abstain and instead select Tyson Barrie. Here is to another young player who has stepped up big time in 2013-14.  Solid stat line despite being lined up for a combined 70%-plus ice time with the likes of Nick Holden, Nate Guenin and Andre Benoit. Nothing against the latter three, as they each bring their respective strengths, but they are not point producers. It is evident that Barrie has become a staple on this young Colorado team, and he gets my nod to round out the Top four.

Now, there are two aces in the hole that could arguably trump Barrie for his top-four spot, but I would like to hopefully stash both of them on our third pairing. I think you would agree, but before we get ahead of ourselves, what are your thoughts on Shattenkirk and Barrie?

I'm going to disagree here.

First off, Barrie was a candidate for my third pairing. He does sit fourth among Avalanche defensemen in ice time overall and at even strength but he's also a guy that Patrick Roy has sheltered with a heaping amount of offensive zone starts. You could argue that those zone starts have more to do with the no-name teammates of his that you listed above or even that it speaks to Barrie's offensive ability but I think it's because he was young and needed the sheltering. I look at some of the healthy scratches early in the year (he was even demoted once) and I ask myself if he's really a "top-four" guy.

Don't get me wrong, Barrie has a lot of promise. I've been championing him all year. He had a brilliant second half. I just don't see him on the second pairing.

I also don't have Shattenkirk on my team. Shattenkirk is a puck-moving genius. I've been in love with his game since the 2009 World Juniors. It's unfair that St. Louis gets to have him on their second pairing. He also has one of the best names in hockey. Any other year he'd be a shoo-in.

I would probably go with Niskanen myself. You can argue that he was "first pair" and quite frequently he was because of the injuries you've mentioned. But even when Letang and Paul Martin were around Niskanen was producing. I don't care that he went frigid as soon as fantasy playoffs began. I bet you didn't know that only a third of his points came from the Penguins' lethal power play. This guy was legit.

At least part of my decision-making process for this team involves asking myself who the biggest stories of the year were and Niskanen's (until recently) unrelenting scoring was definitely one of the biggest. I'd like to see that paid off.

And for the record:

	Goals	Assists	Plus/Minus	PIM	PPP	SOG	Hits	Blocks	Mins/Game
Shattenkirk	9	35	Plus-5	36	25	179	67	99	20:28
Niskanen	10	33	Plus-32	51	14	160 📢 advertisement:	122	74	21:16

 

I'd rather have had Niskanen this year. If you can't justify Niskanen there then Shattenkirk is your man but I just think Shattenkirk will have his chance to get in next year. Niskanen won't. Either way, there's one guy who trumps both and needs to get in: James Wisniewski.

Wisniewski is a guy who often flies under the radar in fantasy, mostly because he's a Certified Band-Aid Boy. Miracle of miracles he only missed six games this season, and has helped Columbus to just its second playoff berth in franchise history.

Wisnieski doesn't do the heavy lifting for the Jackets, Jack Johnson (terrifyingly) and Fedor Tyutin have those responsibilities but he does key the Blue Jackets' surprisingly decent power play, which drowned in the six games he missed going 1/15. They lost four of those six games, each by one goal. Imagine if he had played.

Wisniewski finished top-10 in defenseman scoring, well ahead of Shattenkirk and Niskanen. He broke the 50-point mark for the second time in his career. Granted, over half of his points came on the power play but so did Shattenkirk's.

On that subject, this is a silly distinction to make but I'd rather not have two power-play specialists on my second pairing, which is why I want Niskanen to pair with Wisniewski.

I considered a few others for this slot including one of your third pairing "aces" but for me it's all about Wiz and Nisk. Still riding for Shattenkirk?

To be completely honest, I did not even consider Wisniewski for the second pairing, I just automatically pegged him as the number one guy in Columbus. Nice dig. I can get behind him being nominated. Maybe Barrie can slide down to the third pairing. We will see.

 

But similar to my argument against MacKinnon, I would rather not drop a true second pairing guy in Shattenkirk for a defenseman that played more than half the season as the go-to guy (Letang was limited to 34 games). No knock on Niskanen, because he finished with a heck of a season, but due to having such a fluid second pairing option, why go for the reach? 

 

Because I don't think it's much of a reach. At the risk of boring our audience with semantics would you agree that any time Letang or Martin was in the lineup that Niskanen was on pairing two or lower? Because at least one of Letang or Martin was in the lineup for 54 games this season, which is two-thirds of the year.

 

And just so you know I'm not cheating, look at Niskanen's top pairings:

 

Freq	Line Combination
47.9%	MAATTA,O – NISKANEN,M
21%	NISKANEN,M – SCUDERI,R
11.4%	DESPRES,S – NISKANEN,M
10.5%	ENGELLAND,D – NISKANEN,M
9.2%	LETANG,K – NISKANEN,M

 

He was rarely skating with a top dog this year. Plus, recall the minutes figure from above. Niskanen skated less than a minute more per game than Shattenkirk. That's some advantage he gained by being "top pairing".

Like I said, this is about rewarding the big stories of the year. It would be one thing if Shattenkirk had continued his early season pace and cracked 60, or even 50 but he didn't. Niskanen was the better story and the better asset and I don't have to bend our "rules" much to get him in here. And remember, Bouwmeester and Pietrangelo aren't going anywhere so Shattenkirk will get his chance one of these years. Just not this one.

I do agree that Shattenkirk had a weak February and April, but Niskanen also somewhat slumped late into the season, only notching one goal and five assists in his last 18 games. 

 

A strong argument can be made on the fact that the Olli Maata/Niskanen pairing was the Pens top paring this season, not the duo of Brooks Orpik/Martin. Furthermore, when Letang was in the lineup, he shared duties with Maata (27%), Rob Scuderi or Niskanen (13%), leaving Martin/Orpik to solidify the second pairing. If you disagree with that notion, and want to pursue with Niskanen to cap off the top four, I will not push it further. Your call.

I get the last word? Oh goodie! Like I said, at least one of Letang or Martin was in the lineup for two-thirds of the season. Niskanen was fourth in even strength ice time on the Penguins behind those two and Orpik. He also sat fourth on the team in Corsi Relative Quality of Competition. I just don't think it's much of a stretch to put Niskanen on pairing two. Since he was the better story and frankly, the better fantasy own this season I'll stick with Niskanen.

Locked and loaded. So Steve give me your third pairing!

 

As I said before Barrie fits in here better. I've paired him with a similar player in Boston's rookie dynamo Torey Krug. He has slowed down in the second half, especially on the goals side of the ledger but that’s mostly because his first couple of months were absurd.

Krug is seldom used except on the Bruins’ power play but when out there he gives Boston a true power-play quarterback. His quality shooting even allowed the Bruins to move Zdeno Chara from the blue line to the front of the net where he is an eclipse. These changes have helped turn Boston's perennially disappointing power play into a top-three unit.

So not only has Krug himself been a great asset but the ripple effect of his addition has helped boost the fantasy value of many Bruins and has helped Boston become the Cup favourites. Who cares if he is Marc-Andre Bergeron 2.0? That has real value in fantasy and to the Boston Bruins.

No issues with this duo. You managed to give props to Barrie while highlighting Krug’s emergence this season. Though, if we lock in, should we fear the wrath of a certain powerful Thunder maker?  

You mean the Czech God of Lightning, Radko Gudas? Yeah, he might have something to say about this. You going to campaign on his behalf or are we just going to name him to the team out of abject fear?

It would be selfish to slot him on the third line. I am ok with living on the edge. Besides, I think we can find a way to slide him onto the Prime Cuts bench.

All right, but don't blame me when you spend the whole summer looking over your shoulder. Keep your head up, Gates!

Yeah, let's cross our fingers in hopes that Gudas’ takes his “snub” a lot better than Marty St. Louis did his!

 

*

The lineup so far:

 

Benn – Crosby – Kessel

Marleau – Dubinsky – Simmonds

Marchand – Vermette – Zuccarello

Roussel – Bonino – Garbutt

 

Keith – Karlsson

Wisniewski – Niskanen

Krug – Barrie