March 21, 2015

steve laidlaw

2015-03-21

The Ducks' confounding goaltending situation, Palat returns, Hall getting healthy and more…

Bruce Boudreau might be the biggest thorn in the side of fantasy players. His goalie strategy is a total enigma. I never know who is going to start games for the Ducks. Not the day of and certainly not in the future. Oh sure, I projected Freddie Andersen for a 60/40 split this season and it's mostly worked out that way. But when/where/how we've reached that split has been a total mystery.

Andersen finally made his return to the crease after three straight starts from John Gibson. He won but that may not mean anything.

Just check out what Boudreau had to say after he gave Gibson the start against the Kings earlier this week:

"Don't draw anything from it," Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. "We've got our plan. We're following our plan. This is part of the plan."

Oh you have a plan do you? Care to enlighten us? We'd really like to know. The man is a damned cypher.

Sami Vatanen made his return for the Ducks and so far he's winning the battle against James Wisniewski skating 3:03 on the top power play unit versus 2:53 for Wisniewski on the second unit. We might be seeing the Ducks heading towards more of a Bruins-type scenario where the two units split time evenly. That's especially plausible with Ryan Kesler anchoring the second unit.

Pierre LeBrun had a solid profile on how well Kesler is working out for the Ducks that's worth your time.

Three-game scoring streak for Brian Gionta. 13 SOG for him in those three games too. It's tempting to grab him when he's skating 23+ minutes a night, which is crazy for a forward but I just can't suggest that you do so. There's plenty of talent on your waiver wire better than Gionta. There has to be.

Mikhail Grigorenko is back up with the Sabres. He went minus-two in just eight minutes of action. Maybe getting the crap kicked out of him by Ted Nolan is ultimately going to make him better. I tend to prefer my prospects getting lots of minutes though. That's why I'm such a big fan of Rasmus Ristolainen.

Ristolainen is skating huge minutes for the Sabres. That doesn't mean very much right now but if he's earned Nolan's trust and Nolan continues to be the head coach then he's in a favourable spot if the Sabres ever become a real team. I really believe you want to get in on the ground floor with Ristolainen, before he breaks out and is impossible to acquire. Remember, I traded Tyson Barrie for him. Granted, that was in a multi-category salary cap league but I wouldn't have done it if I didn't see huge upside.

No Mike Cammalleri or Patrik Elias for the Devils yesterday. Cammalleri was a significant loss for fantasy owners but the good news is he was just out sick. Still, a tough blow considering we're in head-to-head playoffs.

Elias was out with back spasms, which is always a tricky one. Who knows when he'll be ready to return. That's a day by day type of deal. He's been skating on the fourth line anyhow so it's no big loss.

Those two missing was no problem, at least not against the Sabres. Adam Henrique, Scott Gomez and Steve Bernier carried the load with two points apiece. For Henrique that's a four-game scoring streak.

Keith Kinkaid got a rare start for the Devils, which you would have known all about if you checked Goalie Post yesterday. Just a friendly reminder. I use Goalie Post every day to help inform my fantasy decisions

I said it before and I'll say it again, the Lightning are freaking dangerous now that Matt Carle is back. They just got Ondrej Palat back too and Palat notched a pair of assists.

Two assists for Victor Hedman as well as he continues to thrive with added power play time. Whether or not that is related to Carle’s return is something that intrigues me because I definitely want to see Hedman soaking up big power play minutes.

Colin Wilson left practice the other day and is considered day-to-day, which led to the call up of Viktor Arvidsson an intriguing prospect drafted late by the Predators last summer. He's far enough off the radar to not have a Dobber Prospects profile but he should have one. I have Arvidsson on my farm in an extremely deep league because he has some genuine scoring upside.

At 5'9" Arvidsson isn't going to do much but score, but score he can. Arvidsson went for 40 points in 50 games in the top level in Sweden last season and is tied for the rookie scoring lead in the AHL this season with 51 points in 63 games.

I'm not sure how his game will translate to the NHL but in deep leagues he's worth rolling the dice on, especially since he's only 21, which is actually young compared to the age of a lot of the relatively unknown prospects plying their trade at the AHL level.

Wilson might be fine and Arvidsson sees no playing time but if he does get into the lineup keep an eye out for him.

Solid nugget of info from Rob Vollman:

The save percentage of (non-ELC) goalies making $900,000 or less this year is .917 – roughly league average. Replacement level is high.

I've long held the belief that there are easily a 100 goalies walking the earth that could step into an NHL starting spot and hold their own for a reasonable amount of time. What Andrew Hammond has done certainly supports that but this looks like even further evidence to me.

On that line of thinking, The Hockey News gives us five backups who could find starting jobs next season. I disagree with Alex Stalock on that list. Acknowledging that it sure feels as though the Sharks will move on from Antti Niemi if he doesn't will them to the playoffs, I just don't believe in Stalock all that much.

Roberto Luongo had some hefty praise for Aleksander Barkov:

"Somebody that flies under the radar a bit is Barkov. He reminds me a lot of Pavel Datsyuk, the way he skates and handles the puck and takes away the puck from other players," Luongo told Hockey Central at Noon Friday. "I don't think he knows how good he is still."

I'm not sure I want to touch that with a 10-foot pole.

PK Subban has been fined a second time for diving this season. I think that makes him the first two-time offender, which has to give Bruin fans no end of pleasure.

Some interesting prospect stuff to examine as Hockey East released their annual awards. Jack Eichel won both Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year. He's looking to become the first freshman to win the Hobey Baker since Paul Kariya, who, in case you'd forgotten, was really good at hockey.

More intriguing to me was the All-Star teams. Flames goalie prospect Jon Gillies was named first team All-Star, while undrafted free agent Matt O'Connor was named a second team All-Star. O'Connor is getting all the press as a free agent whom any team can sign provided they meet his demands, which is intriguing but don't lose sight of the fact that teams passed him over several times. He looks good now because he comes free relative to the whole system of drafting/developing prospects but a lot of teams have better ones already in-house, like Calgary with Gillies. Big fan of Gillies as a prospect, by the way.

Justin Bourne gives us five things to know about 3-on-3 hockey.

Slick finish by Jiri Sekac:

You can follow me @SteveLaidlaw.

UPCOMING GAMES

Oct 22 - 18:10	PHI	vs	WSH
Oct 22 - 18:10	FLA	vs	MIN
Oct 22 - 18:10	N.J	vs	T.B
Oct 22 - 19:10	BUF	vs	DAL
Oct 22 - 19:10	MTL	vs	NYR
Oct 22 - 19:10	CBJ	vs	TOR
Oct 22 - 19:10	NYI	vs	DET
Oct 22 - 20:10	STL	vs	WPG
Oct 22 - 20:10	CHI	vs	VAN
Oct 22 - 20:10	SEA	vs	COL
Oct 22 - 20:10	NSH	vs	BOS
Oct 22 - 21:10	EDM	vs	CAR
Oct 22 - 21:10	UTA	vs	OTT
Oct 22 - 21:10	CGY	vs	PIT
Oct 22 - 22:10	ANA	vs	S.J
Oct 22 - 23:10	VGK	vs	L.A