September 19, 2014

steve laidlaw

2014-09-19

Injury updates with training camps open, Kuemper's new deal, goalie rankings and more…

 

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Training camps officially opened across the league today. Hurray! With that, plenty of injury news trickled out. Boooo!

 

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin both missed the start of camp for precautionary reasons. It sounds like very minor injuries and that they won't miss any real game time but I don't like it all the same and I've got a couple of reasons.

 

For one, Crosby and Malkin are injury prone guys. Today's precautionary time off is tomorrow's nagging injury. I'm not into it.

 

For another, the Penguins have plenty of new faces at camp. Guys like Patric Hornqvist and Christian Ehrhoff. Sure, they've probably already been skating together but this is valuable time to develop chemistry working on breakouts and power play formations, etc. all under a new coach.

 

If this even leads to one or two games where things don't click quite as well as they might, then we could be looking at a point or two that guys like Hornqvist might miss out on. Maybe not a huge difference over a long season but it's there.

 

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Fortuitous news for Darcy Kuemper owners, the young netminder has signed a two-year, one-way deal. This comes just a day after Josh Harding broke his foot and the team called up Ilya Bryzgalov for a tryout.

 

Bryzgalov will still presumably tryout but with this Kuemper news he won't make the team so write him right off your draft list.

 

What's crazy about this situation is that Harding apparently broke his foot after kicking a wall in an altercation with a teammate. You can't make this stuff up.

 

It's perfect timing for Kuemper who'd been battling the Wild in contract talks for that one-way distinction, even going so far as threatening to sign in the KHL.

 

What a contrast the careers of Kuemper and Harding are when you think about it. For Harding this is just another setback in what has been a star-crossed career full of untapped potential. Kuemper on the other hand, has everything break (no pun intended) perfectly for him to have an inside track at a starting job for a team with serious playoff aspirations. And all this for a former 6th round draft choice who was no doubt an after-thought for the franchise.

 

Remember, this team was heavily committed to Niklas Backstrom as a franchise goalie until he crapped out. Harding was supposed to be next in line but he's never been able to stay healthy. Then Matt Hackett was the next guy with serious pedigree but he got shipped off to Buffalo. Now it's Kuemper's job to lose. I suppose that those are the breaks of the game (again, no pun intended).

 

 

This Wings team lost the second most man games to injury last season. You could take that to mean they'll regress and suffer less injuries providing less opportunity for Mantha to get called up. Or you could take that to mean the Wings have an injury prone roster. I'm leaning towards the latter, even if the former also proves true.

 

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In some positive injury news, it looks like Ryane Clowe has been cleared to participate in training camp. Clowe's a Band-Aid Boy so we shouldn't be overly optimistic about his prospects this season but it's a good start. After the injury-plagued season Clowe had last year you should also consider him a late-round sleeper in points-only leagues and a decent option in rotisserie leagues.

 

Clowe did have a nice post-Olympic stretch from late February to the end of March where he scored 13 points in his final 16 games before hanging it up for the season. It's a small sample size but also a decent representation of what a healthy Clowe is capable for healthy stretches of time. There's 50-point upside here.

 

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You know how Jaromir Jagr is super old and that makes him a poor bet in keeper leagues? What if it doesn't?

 

Apparently Jagr wants to play until he's 50, maybe more.

 

I love the game. What I want to tell you is I don't know if it's going to be the last year in the NHL. If I stay healthy, it's not going to be my last year in hockey. I want to play until 50, maybe more. But I want to play in the NHL if I'm good enough. I don't want to just be here just to be here.

 

I'm not sure he means that to say he wants to play in the NHL until he's 50. The KHL or maybe one of the Czech leagues would offer him options to extend his career as has been the case for some former NHL stars. But I also wouldn't rule out Jagr trying.

 

Jagr has the hockey sense that he would always be able to play as long as his body cooperates. Since he's an absolute workout fiend and possibly an actual cyborg there's a decent chance his body does just that. I wouldn't bet on it but I wouldn't bet against it either.

 

The only thing I know for sure is that I'm all for Jagr trying.

 

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The Sharks signed Justin Braun to a healthy five-year extension the other day. He'll be making just shy of $4 million annually over the course of the deal, which is pretty much par for the course for decent NHL defensemen who reach free agency. I have to admit I can't offer a great assessment of his game beyond the fact I don't see him as much of a fantasy asset. More of a second power play unit kind of guy.

 

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Paul Maurice says that the Jets need to improve defensively so that they can assess Ondrej Pavelec. I know that this is just the coach showing faith in his starter because he has no other recourse but this is just flat out false. It's true that the Jets need to improve defensively but they should know what they have in Pavelec by now and they should know that it's not good.

 

I'd wager that even if those defensive improvements come Pavelec will still be below average. That doesn't mean he's not a talented goalie. He made the NHL, that takes incredible talent but he's not good within the context of starting NHL talent, and he's definitely not good when it comes to fantasy value.

 

One of the biggest battles I'm looking forward to during training camp is the one between Jets prospects Michael Hutchinson and Connor Hellebuyck for the backup spot. Both have the chance to be decent fantasy assets simply because they play goal for Winnipeg and aren't named Pavelec.

 

Every year random rookies pop up out of nowhere to become fantasy relevant talent, why not these two?

 

It also helps that they've got talent.

 

Hutchinson is a veteran pro having bounced between the ECHL and AHL the past four seasons posting some impressive numbers. He also excelled in three NHL starts last season, winning two with a GAA of 1.64 and a save percentage of 0.943. Obviously small sample size effects are in play here but Hutchinson seems capable of league average goaltending.

 

Hellebuyck, on the other hand, is making his pro debut after tearing up college hockey at UMass-Lowell the past two years, boasting a career record of 38-12-2 with 12 shutouts, 1.60 GAA and 0.946 save percentage, racking up a ton of awards and making the US World Junior Squad (although not appearing in any games). It would be foolish to read too much into Hellebuyck's college numbers as there are some really poor teams to pad your stats against at that level but it's still gaudy stuff.

 

If neither Hutchinson nor Hellebuyck is on your radar, get them there. Hutchinson has the inside track thanks to his pro experience but if last season was any indication we might even see both of these guys.

 

In shallower leagues you'll keep these guys on the waiver wire until an injury strikes or Pavelec struggles. In deeper leagues they make decent draft and stash candidates. In keeper leagues with any depth they should definitely be owned.

 

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Looks like we've staved off the bad guys a little longer. The NHL has declined the chance to sell add space on team jerseys.

 

Gary (Bettman) and owners like the money, but they don’t want to be first out of the box with this in North America,” the person told TSN. “They’ll wait for the NBA or baseball to do it and then be second or third.

 

The story also says this could earn each team $4 million, not chump change by any stretch. So be warned, corporate logos are coming. It's only a matter of time. The NBA has been talking about doing it for years. They'll only be able to hold out for so long. The NHL says they don't want to be first so wait for the NBA to do it and then brace yourself. Or maybe brace yourself right now.

 

I know that I hate the idea, but I think it is genius on the league's part. Free money. And any negative publicity in the backlash to the announcement will really just be free publicity getting people talking about hockey.

 

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Kuemper highlight reel:

 

 

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You can follow me @SteveLaidlaw.

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