September 11, 2014

steve laidlaw

2014-09-11

Alffie tweaks his back, Boudreau extended, Niederreiter spurns the KHL and more…

 

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Fantasy Guide (buy here) has been updated. Draft List now has sleepers. Second-year players in the Draft List have their cap hits corrected. UFA/Tryout notes, Malone added to the NYR depth chart/ projections, etc.

 

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I'd like to start off this week by bidding adieu to Mike Amato. It was a pleasure working with you the past couple of years, Mike. I really enjoyed what you brought to the site. You definitely pushed me to elevate my ramblings as direct in-house competition. You will be missed.

 

With Mike gone, you'll be seeing more of me – up to four times a week now – I hope that's a good thing. I know I'm excited, though I'm mildly concerned what four nights a week of 3,000+ word ramblings might do to me.

 

"Make me a better writer," he thought wishfully.

 

So that's the plan going forward. This should be a great season of fantasy hockey. Let's win some pools together.

 

Excited? Good. Now let’s do some ramblings.

 

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It's probably nothing but Daniel Alfredsson tweaked his back yesterday and was forced to stop skating. What I mean by nothing is that this probably won't affect Alfredsson's decision with regard to starting the season. He is still debating whether to return to the Red Wings for another season or to retire. I don't think a tweak is going to change things at this stage of the game. He still has a few weeks to test it out and see if he wants to go another round. However, this should be a friendly reminder of how worn down Alfredsson is at this stage.

The competition out West isn't getting any easier but again, it's not necessarily the power play that hurt the Ducks so I'm cool if they don't address it. I just hope they do for fantasy purposes.

 

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By the way, want to know another fun destination for Green? The Dallas Stars. They sure could use a dynamic offensive defenseman to slot alongside Jamie Benn, Jason Spezza, Tyler Seguin and Ales Hemsky on the top power play unit. The Stars finished just below the Ducks at 23rd in the league in efficiency.

 

They may not need any more help with the additions of Spezza and Hemsky but Alex Goligoski still projects as their defenseman on the top power play unit, which is definitely a problem.

 

Also worth mentioning is the fact that all these Green destinations infer that at least part of the issues with the power plays on these teams is personnel when it could easily be all coaching. So maybe Green makes no difference in either hypothetical landing spot.

 

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ESPN released their 2015 Fantasy Projections. If you take a hardcore look you can find some pretty glaring errors but I'm not expecting perfection. It's another source to compare to if you are into gathering sources.

 

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It seems as though Nino Niederreiter had an offer from a KHL team but turned it down and is close to re-signing with the Minnesota Wild. This isn't all that surprising. I couldn't imagine Niederreiter jumping ship at this point in his career and I also can't see the Wild playing too much hardball. Niederreiter had a bounce back season but it's not like he tore the world apart and could be pushing for a huge deal. Expecting a nice bridge contract here.

 

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The Rangers re-signed defenseman John Moore to a one-year deal. This is much ado about nothing. Moore was going to be signed at some point given his restricted status and doesn't really offer much upside. I had some inklings that he might have some post-hype sleeper potential but not with Ryan McDonagh establishing himself as a top dog and Dan Boyle being brought in as another capable offensive defenseman.

 

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Martin Brodeur's agent says Brodeur wants to reach 700 wins. He's 12 away so he wouldn't seemingly need to be a starter in order to reach 700 and satisfy whatever irrational obsession we humans have with round numbers. Of course, he still might have to start a hefty number of games to get to 12 considering he isn't actually that great a goaltender any more.

 

I also have to wonder if Brodeur retires once he makes it 700 or if he keeps on playing and risks winning 701 and thus finishing on a non-round number. Would he then have to press on towards 800 if he did hit 701? I'm afraid he'd have to and that that would mean a decade of Brodeur failing to let go.

 

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Adam Gretz asks whether or not Jarome Iginla can repeat last season's performance:

 

History suggests that if you’re good enough to score 30 goals when you’re 36, you’re probably good enough to do it again when you’re 37 just as long as you stay healthy.

 

I don't see any reason it's unfathomable for Iginla to go for 30 goals again. I have him for a small step back closer to 25 myself just because I'm generally pessimistic and I'm not actually that high on the Avalanche this season but I don't see Iginla flopping by any means.

 

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Craig Button released his top 30 prospect rankings for the 2015 Draft. Do with that what you will. Personally, I think it's too early to be thinking NHL Draft, even for those of you who have already found a way to tank your 2014-15 season for Connor McDavid.

 

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The over/under regular season point totals are out for those of you who enjoy gambling. I haven't taken a serious look at the figures so I won't weigh in just yet but I figured I'd let you folks know.

 

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This is what happens when the Ducks have a good power play:

 

 

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You can follow me on Twitter @SteveLaidlaw.

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