Thoughts on some great under-the-radar waiver pickups, interesting line combinations and more…

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Martin Brodeur announced his retirement yesterday, which I found to be quick. I say that because he stretched out his career a couple of seasons too long (the last time his SV% was above 0.908 was in 2010), and even patiently waited well into this campaign to sign with a new team in order to keep playing. So to suddenly announce his retirement out of the (St. Louis) Blue, without a “goodbye tour” or a big press conference that gets talked about for days in advance, well that’s what I didn’t see coming. And as with all fantasy hockey greats, let’s review what he’s done…

691-397-154 career record (49 of those 154 were OTL). A 2.24 career GAA. A 0.912 career SV%. But take those last five seasons off that and the numbers get better.

His best season in fantasy hockey was in 2006-07 when he went 48-23-7, 2.18 and 0.922. But his main value was in the 13 consecutive (pro-rated) seasons in which he had at least 37 wins. You just can’t buy that in fantasy hockey.

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With Okposo out for the next month and half, it looks like the Isles are keeping their second line intact. Here were the line combos last night:

So John Tavares is playing with Grabovski and Bailey, and that’s a line combo that I think will stick for awhile. Which means that Brock Nelson won’t see the light of day for now. That being said, Nelson is still a key part of the power play – and it’s Frans Nielsen who is taking Kyle Okposo‘s spot (with Tavares and Ryan Strome filling out the foursome). When those four are out, it’s Johnny Boychuk getting the nod on the point.

This obviously helps Grabovski, and you can see firsthand that Bailey is benefitting (he has points in four straight games, seven in that span).