Capped: Cheap Defensemen to Avoid
Eric Daoust
2014-09-11
Five defensemen to avoid in your cap league.
One of the most important parts in winning a cap league is finding underpaid talent to fill roster spots. Obviously, the team that gets the best overall bang for the buck wins so finding players that produce well above their price tag is essential. Additionally, their reduced salaries help make it possible to keep more expensive star talent at the top of the roster without breaking your league's salary cap rules.
Even though many of these cap-friendly players will occupy depth positions on your roster, it can be very damaging if they do not produce enough. In order to win a championship you will need contributions from your entire roster. Acquiring the wrong bargains can prove costly.
Today we will look at five defensemen that own a very reasonable cap hit and may have some mild appeal in one format or another but should probably be avoided. The examples used come from the crop of players that signed new contracts this summer.
Mattias Ekholm (NSH – $1,037,500)
On the surface, there is a lot to like about Ekholm. He has the size that team loves and at 24 years of age is still very young. In addition, he has a history of offensive success in the AHL and in Europe. Unfortunately, that offensive ability did not translate to the NHL during his rookie season and there is reason to believe that if he ever becomes a point producer it will not happen anytime soon.
As of right now, Ekholm sits behind Shea Weber, Roman Josi, Seth Jones and Ryan Ellis on the power play pecking order. Barring injury it will be extremely difficult for Ekholm to unseat any of those defensemen. So that leaves fantasy owners hoping for a trade, which can be long and frustrating not to mention the lack of production you will be getting in the meantime.
It is probably better to look elsewhere. You are bound to find a journeyman that can put up numbers immediately. Use Ekholm's trade value to boost your roster elsewhere and try to find this year's Nick Holden.
John Moore (NYR – $850,500)
Moore signed his new contract yesterday which avoids a possible training camp holdout situation. While the Rangers are no doubt to get a decent young defenseman for next to nothing against the cap, this development should not fool fantasy owners into thinking he should be added. At his age he will be appealing to someone. Let that person have him.
Fantasy hockey is about production and unfortunately Moore has not been much of an offensive producer either in the NHL or prior. He has also never done much in the physical department which takes away his appeal in multi-category leagues. While he is still just 23 and has plenty of good NHL years ahead of him, the numbers simply show that he is not relevant in fantasy leagues.
Dylan Olsen (FLA – $775,000)
Olsen showed some promise with a strong stretch of games after arriving in Florida last season. Unfortunately, his play may be giving poolies some false hope. Looking into his past, aside from a few short stretches he has been a disappointment at the offensive end. Add in the arrival of Aaron Ekblad and Olsen's road to posting good scoring totals just became that much more difficult.
Meanwhile, Olsen is a great hitter even though he does not spend a lot of time in the penalty box and also does a decent job blocking shots. But those attributes are fairly common among defensemen. In the end, Olsen is a fairly replaceable piece and his apparent upside will likely turn out to be more of a tease from a fantasy perspective.
Andrej Sustr (TB – $874,125)
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