Thoughts on the Oilers’ Dellow hiring, Niemi or Mason – and more

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Fantasy Hockey Guide – buy it here! Available for immediate download.

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Well, that was a bit of a mix-up. Stupid summer. All the vacationing going on and each of us thought the other had the ramblings coverage. Now I finally check in for some late afternoon rambling reads and I don’t see anything! So yeah, here I am on the fly. Some bonus Dobber. My regular ramblings are coming up in about four hours…but I have to keep the DobberHockey ramblings streak alive – I think it’s somewhere around 2500 consecutive days.

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This is an interesting higher – the Oilers have hired Tyler Dellow to consult with Hockey Operations. From what I know of Dellow, he’s a tell-it-like-it-is blogger with a background in law, who delved into advanced statistics early on in the process and has grown very passionate and knowledgeable about them. He paints a very realistic picture of what advanced stats are saying about a team and/or player and has a very grounded outlook. He may not allow for enough flexibility about other views, but that’s likely just a need to defend what advanced stats are saying when the old-school journalists gang up on him. Hiring him and listening to him are two different things. The Oilers have at least taken a step in the right direction.  This is a positive move – advanced stats quantify what you are already witnessing. But the difference is – a week later, can you review exactly what you witnessed? Can you combine all the games that you watched and reach a conclusion? These numbers really do a great job at telling the story.

I suspect that several American teams are already doing stuff like this and have been for a few years – it’s funny that when Canadian teams do it, it’s with much fanfare. I love hockey in Canada!

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In a minor move – the Jets signed TJ Galiardi to a one-year deal worth $750,000. It’s a two-way contract, which may push Matt Halischuk out of the mix. It also hurts the chances of Scott Kosmachuk and/or Patrice Cormier. Here is Winnipeg’s depth chart:

Andrew Ladd – Bryan Little – Blake Wheeler

Evander Kane – Mark Scheifele – Dustin Byfuglien

TJ Galiardi – Mathieu Perreault – Michael Frolik

Eric Tangradi – Eric O’Dell – Chris Thorburn

With Jim Slater and Anthony Peluso as extras and Matt Halischuk/Patrice Cormier/Scott Kosmachuk on the outside looking in.

I don’t believe Galiardi will find his mojo and this task becomes even more difficult with the fact that he gets paid a smaller salary if he’s in the minors.

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And because I don’t want to burn all my material for tonight’s ramblings, I’ll go over a couple of forum posts…

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Savvy1982 asks – Antti Niemi or Steve Mason (full keeper, activate one, and he already has Schneider).

Under these conditions I can understand not wanting a third goalie, and obviously Schneider is a lock. You have to go with Niemi here because, although I firmly believe that he will lose the starter job to Alex Stalock by late January, these rules make him the better own. Start one goalie? Well, Niemi will have some pretty great weeks in the first half of the season and will more than reward you for choosing him over Mason. Later in the season is later in the season – you can trade him in December for Mason.

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Kabonov asks us to rank Claude Giroux, Tyler Seguin and Nathan MacKinnon (keeper league, roto style, no physical categories, only points, shots, PPPts, etc)

He wants the ranking for the coming season and then the season after that. In the season ahead, I have:

Giroux 84

Seguin 77

MacKinnon 72

In the Fantasy Guide. For 2015-16, I think you can look at (for now):

MacKinnon 85

Giroux 84

Seguin 83

And beyond – that’s the order they should be ranked. Giroux is your guy this year, MacKinnon is your long-term answer, I really feel that way.

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Look for the Del Zotto breakdown article this evening, the Timonen news will come in tonight’s ramblings, and the August rankings are also forthcoming! See you in a couple of hours

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Calgary’s season in 60 seconds: