Namestnikov, McDavid, Jagr, when to veto trades, plus more…

The first game of the day saw Andrei Vasilevskiy stop all 32 shots he faced in the Lightning’s 3-0 win over the Flyers. The shutout is Vasilevskiy’s second of the season to go with a league-leading .953 save percentage.

Vasilevskiy now has seven games this season compared to Ben Bishop’s 12. That means Vas is on pace for 30 starts while Bishop is on pace for the remainder. So if the Bolts decide that Vasilevskiy is the goalie for the future and continue the trend toward phasing him in, Bishop could very well end up with less than 50 games. Something to consider if you’re a Bishop owner.

I profiled Vladislav Namestnikov in this week’s Waiver Wire Report for Sportsnet, mainly because of the possible increased role with Steven Stamkos out for a long time. He picked up one assist on Saturday, but did so with only 10 minutes of icetime. Maybe he’s not such a shoo-in for increased icetime? Valtteri Filppula, who skated 20 minutes in this game, could be that beneficiary instead. But a closer look at the icetime in this game reveals the following:

Namestnikov: 2:38 PPTOI, 0:00 SHTOI

Filppula: 0:41 PPTOI, 5:21 SHTOI

So Namestnikov received the first-unit power-play minutes, while Filppula led the Bolts in shorthanded time on ice. So despite the Lightning win, Saturday’s game might not be the right example of what will happen going forward. As Laidlaw mentioned in this thread on the Forum, the Bolts were defending a lead and killing penalties for much of the game.

If you’ve stuck with Ondrej Palat this long, you’ll be encouraged that he scored a goal and added an assist on Saturday. The two points snap a four-game pointless drought and a five-game goalless drought. Because of his slow start, he’s now available in over 60 percent of Yahoo leagues. It’s too early to say he’s heating up, but he might be worth kicking the tires on.

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Another one from the Waiver Wire Report is Paul Byron, who scored another one on Saturday. That’s five goals in his last seven games from the speedy forward. He’s still on the top line as well, reuniting with Alexander Radulov after the Russian missed two games because of illness.

Carey Price continues to be Mr. Saturday Night. No matter the price, you need to start him that day. He’s 25-1 on Saturdays over the last three seasons. Actually, it doesn’t really matter what day you start him.

Carey Price is 1st @CanadiensMTL goalie without a regulation loss in 1st 12 GP of a season since Ken Dryden in 1972-73 (8-0-4). @EliasSports pic.twitter.com/M2Ifvbatv6

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) November 20, 2016

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John Klingberg scored on Saturday… into his own net.

That goal snapped Connor McDavid’s 10-game goalless drought. That’s something we probably won’t see for a long while again. In fact, Connor scored his first career hat trick in this game. But does it really count for three if one of them was an own goal by the other team’s player? (Kidding.)

Offseason signing Drake Caggiula played in his first regular season game, recording an assist in just under 13 minutes of icetime. He didn’t really see any time with the Oilers’ big guns, playing on a line with Matt Hendricks and Tyler Pitlick.

In the same game, Patrick Eaves found the twine yet again. These guys in my last Waiver Wire Report just keep on rolling. That’s five consecutive games with at least one goal for Eaves, who has six goals over that stretch and now nine goals on the season. Eaves received the golden ticket to line up alongside Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn for this one. Eaves is by no means a long-term option for your fantasy team for a variety of reasons, but he’s someone to use in the here and now.

Patrick Sharp returned to the Stars’ lineup after missing most of the season with a concussion. He didn’t record a point in 18:36 of icetime, playing on a line with Antoine Roussel and Radek Faska.

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And one more from the Waiver Wire Report… Anthony DeAngelo, who recorded an assist on Saturday. That’s four points and a +3 in six games, with three of those points on the power play. With the kind of offensive pedigree that he has, I’m shocked that he’s owned in only two percent of Yahoo leagues.

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In case you were worried that Jaromir Jagr would never score a goal again, the 44-year-old scored a goal and added two assists on Saturday. The goal was Jagr’s first in 14 games and just his second this season. At what point is Jagr no longer a viable fantasy option and simply just a nice story? Maybe not yet. With a 4.8 shooting percentage after consistently averaging at least 10 percent throughout his career, a minor improvement in the goal department could be near.

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Tuukka Rask barely broke a sweat on Saturday, as the Jets took only 12 shots on him all game. He and the aforementioned Price now share the league lead with 11 wins. Rask is also second in both goals-against average (1.46) and shutouts (3). His numbers had been trending in the wrong direction over the previous two seasons, but so far he has reversed that trend.

Back to that shots on goal total for the Jets. With the offensive talent that they have, this stat below is both surprising and concerning.

#nhljets record the fewest shots in a game this season (12). It's the 2nd time they have recorded 17 shots or fewer in a game this season.

— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) November 20, 2016

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On the opposite end of the shot spectrum, Anders Nilsson needed to make 46 saves to preserve a 2-1 shootout win for the Sabres over the Penguins. He might want to request some overtime pay, as he’s faced at least 40 shots in three of his five starts this season.

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I seriously wouldn’t worry about Nathan MacKinnon. He’s reached at least 20 minutes of icetime in each of his last eight games, and he now has back-to-back multipoint games after scoring the game winner and adding an assist on Saturday. That icetime might dip a little once Matt Duchene returns from his concussion. But his recent production puts him at 12 points in 17 games, which is on pace for just under 60 points.

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T.J. Oshie is expected to be out week-to-week with an upper-body injury from Friday’s game against the Red Wings. That’s a tough break, as he had just come off a four-point game against the Penguins in his previous game. The Capitals played with only nine forwards for much of the game against Detroit, so we’ll have to wait for today’s game to find out how the lines shake out in Oshie’s absence.

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If you didn’t get to watch the late game, you didn’t get to see what kind of player Vinnie Hinostroza can be. The Blackhawks’ rookie scored his first NHL goal on an impressive toe drag and added two assists, even though he was held to just ten minutes of icetime. The Hawks will need youngsters like Hinostroza, Ryan Hartman (who played on Hinostroza’s line) and Nick Schmaltz (who played with Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews) to fill the void if they are to continue as one of the NHL’s elite teams.

From players just starting their careers to players who have been around awhile, Marian Hossa scored the overtime winner to give him ten goals on the season already. That’s only three fewer goals than he scored all of last season. After a career-low 6.8 shooting percentage last season, Hossa’s SH% is up to well over 20 percent this season. Yes, that will regress. Yes, you should try to sell high. But a rebound was inevitable.

Perhaps flying under the radar, Brandon Sutter is riding a four-game goal streak, all at home. I’m not huge on Sutter as a fantasy option, but he does play on the Canucks’ first-unit power play with the Sedins. That means that 40 points should be considered a very real possibility. That also means this song has played four consecutive games at Rogers Arena (it’s Sutter’s goal song).

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All the best to Craig Cunningham, who collapsed on the ice and needed CPR during the Tucson Roadrunners’ AHL game on Saturday. Scary situation. I saw Cunningham play a number of times in the WHL as a member of the Vancouver Giants. He certainly stood out as a scorer that might one day have an NHL career.

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It’s time for an editorial comment, and I’m going to be a little wordier in my paragraphs than I have in the Ramblings thus far. Someone that I’ve recently gotten to know through this site recently contacted me about a one-for-one swap of Michael Grabner and Shayne Gostisbehere in his league. Yes, it’s the classic buy-low, sell-high deal. If you follow fantasy hockey closely, you’ll know which player is the buy low and which player is the sell high. I don’t think there’s any debate as to who won this deal, even though one player already has 11 goals and the other was a healthy scratch on Thursday.

The person contacting me wanted to know whether he as the commissioner should approve this deal. In my response, I referenced a multiplayer deal from in one of my leagues a few years ago where one side received Jonathan Quick and the other side received a clearly inferior goalie. Some harsh words were exchanged because one or two other owners thought that the deal was simply one friend helping another with nothing in return. But I allowed the deal because the side trading Quick had proposed the deal, and both teams appeared to be competing and not tanking (this was not a keeper league).

Yes, if there are activities taking place in your league that step outside of the boundaries of fair play and sportsmanship, it is your job as a commissioner to step in. But if two sides agree to a trade, then it is not your job to get in the way. Grabner won’t score 40 goals this season, as his shooting percentage is a totally unsustainable 25 percent. Ghost won’t be a healthy scratch every other game, as Dave Hakstol reinserted him into the lineup on Saturday. There’s a small chance that the deal will work out better for the Grabner side, but it is a chance. Nothing is ever 100 percent.

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Enjoy your Sunday. Follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding.

14 Comments

james 2016-11-20 at 08:35Log in to Reply

Who proposed the deal means nothing. There are slicksters out there that email trade ideas and then say something like “can you propose the deal to me, I can’t get to my PC” so that they can hide behind the “it was offered to me” defence. You have to look at deals for what they are, NOT who offered or this horseshit concept of “team need”. This is fantasy, not a real frigging team. I’m speaking of 1 year leagues, you people that play “keepers” bewilder me to no end.
- Jason Dobry 2016-11-20 at 09:10Log in to Reply
  
  Can you clarify your point? Are you saying the GM should’ve stepped in? Ian didn’t mention “team need” at all.
  
  As someone that’s helped run a league for 6 years now, I believe it’s not the GM’s job to police “bad trades.” That said, we DO have a voting system in which the GMs can collectively “strike down” bad trades, but since it needs 5/10, it would need to be a really bad trade to motivate that much backlash. Grabby for Ghost is bad, but I don’t think it would qualify. I should also mention we run an unlimited keepers, salary cap, auction-style league.
  
  Why do keeper leagues “baffle” you to no end? I mean, it’s OK if you personally don’t care for them, I’m just curious :)
  - Pyrrhus of Epirus 2016-11-20 at 11:21Log in to Reply
    
    My league has had some huge issues with trades and trade vetoes over the years. And by seasons end, every single trade that was vetoed, ended up looking like the wrong move. We want savvy GMs to be able to take advantage of weak GMs (just like the real nhl), but at the same time avoid collusion. (we run one year leagues with mostly the same guys the last 5-6 years, $100 buyin)
    
    We ended up going to a system where i as the GM, post about a pending trade in our forum and give guys 48 hrs to vote. If all 8 guys NOT involved in the trade move to veto, we veto it. We have gone from a league where a small power block of 3-4 guys controlled the trade market to a system where the only trade thats been blocked in 3 seasons involved Sid for some scrubs by a guy not invited back to the league again.
    - Ian Gooding 2016-11-20 at 14:47Log in to Reply
      
      Politics at its finest. This is why I refuse to veto a deal simply because it seems to favor one side. I want to avoid a situation where owners are voiding deals simply because a strong opponent just became stronger. If another team makes a deal to make themselves stronger, maybe you need to do the same to keep up.
  - Allan Phillips 2016-11-21 at 00:24Log in to Reply
    
    In my opinion, based on long experience, trade voting does more to ruin leagues than do bogus trades. In one league, I had two guys who did automatic veto votes just because they didn’t like the voting system. It had nothing to do with the trades themselves. I’ve heard guys overanalyze and nitpick trades to a ridiculous level, to a point where you couldn’t get a veteran-for-prospect trade through at all. Finally, every owner knows that there’s usually 10%-15% of the teams in a league that have GM’s who aren’t committed for one reason or another. Those guys never vote, so you wind up with a majority of those who voted rather than a true league majority. I am of the opinion that if you sign up for a league, you are taking on the commitment to be involved and the responsibility for running the team. That includes making trades, and I am not about to protect you from your own stupidity. Yes, that can result in knowledgeable, experienced owners taking advantage of lesser GM’s, more so in dynasty leagues, which is why I don’t like them. But you can design the league rules to limit the amount of stacking and the duration of a team, such as salary caps and limited length contracts.
- Ian Gooding 2016-11-20 at 10:36Log in to Reply
  
  I didn’t want to “ramble” on and on about the deal… but I’ll add a few more points about the deal here.
  
  1. It was a “position for position” swap (goalie and forward for goalie and forward).
  2. Although it clearly favored one team, it was not, say Crosby and Quick for a team’s fourth line winger and minor league goalie.
  3. I can’t honestly remember whether it was “league vote” or “commissioner rule” to overturn a trade. I made a number of changes to the settings a couple years ago, and I’m not sure if that was one of them. This league is in its ninth season. Although it is very competitive, this is really the only time that this scenario has come up.
  
  To me, if a deal is to be overturned, there must be some element of bad faith. For example, one member is “giving up” and wants to help their friend win by trading all their best players for the friend’s worst players. I should clarify that if it’s a keeper league, it’s okay to trade your best players for high-level prospects if you know you won’t win this season.
  
  Who offered the deal is simply one element that factors in, not the only reason you would allow a one-sided trade.
  - Instant Karma 2016-11-20 at 12:38Log in to Reply
    
    I think the OP’s point is that who offered the deal is a vapid point that shouldn’t be held in consideration at all, and I’d tend to agree.
    
    As to the bigger picture, allowing such obviously bogus trades such as the one mentioned above tends to erode the integrity of the league. Sometimes the commissioner has to be the grownup in the room.
    - Ian Gooding 2016-11-20 at 14:56Log in to Reply
      
      As the commissioner of two leagues, I’ve had to be the grownup in the room many times, not just over trades. At the same time, you also have to let your league members be grownups and make their own decisions and live with the consequences.
      
      I can tell you that as commish for my ninth season in one league and my third season in the other, the only time I’ve ever vetoed a trade is if a player is ineligible to be traded as per league rules (as is the case in my other league).
    - jeff316 2016-11-20 at 21:02Log in to Reply
      
      I’ve posted in the forum, understandably to no agreement, but I’m with you. While I don’t think the Grabner trade is bad enough to warrant a veto, I do agree that bogus trades slowly ruin leagues. Who proposed it is irrelevant.
      
      A good GM takes advantage of another GM’s circumstances or lack of knowledge.
      
      A bad GM takes advantage of another GM’s lack of experience.
      
      (I’d also argue that league votes are a bad way of doing these things, unless you’re voting on an unexpected rule change early in the season.)
      
      (Also, every league should have an expiry on trade offers, to avoid the guys that sit on trades in the off chance of an injury.)
  - jaymeek8 2016-11-22 at 00:43Log in to Reply
    
    In a 10 team keeper league we had an agreed upon deal btwn a third place team and a last place team where the last place team was giving up Corey Perry for Mikael Frolik. The team that proposed the deal was giving up Frolik for what its worth. I immediately sent the commissioner a message stating the ridiculousness of the deal and questioning the motives behind it. He decided to put it up to the league to vote on/give opinion on. Even the proposer could not believe it was accepted and the 7 other managers all disagreed with it. The manager giving up Perry did not respond to the thread or even the commissioner’s texts. The end result was the trade being vetoed. I was curious as to your opinion on this. Thank you.
- Stu Campaigne 2016-11-21 at 11:02Log in to Reply
  
  If, ten minutes into your draft, you can’t figure who the sucker is, you are the sucker.
Martin Cloutier 2016-11-20 at 09:00Log in to Reply

Radulov now has 16 pts in 17 games. Playing on 1st line alongside Galchenyuk, 1st PP, hustling on all shifts, and great passer. I was told I was drinking the Habs Kool-Aid when I said at the beginning of the season that he should be drafted as a 60 pts player with a 70 pts upside. He is on pace for 77 (69 if you considered the 2 games he missed). BTW Dobber had him at 62, with 70 upside, so kudos to him.
That Kool-Aid tastes pretty good.
- Stu Campaigne 2016-11-21 at 10:49Log in to Reply
  
  Did you seriously just humblebrag how awesome you are because you took a flier on Radulov? After 17 games? Yikes.
  - Martin Cloutier 2016-11-22 at 04:37Log in to Reply
    
    I seriously see your other reply below so I assume you didn’t have a very good week-end.
    But I wasn’t bragging, more pointing that some people who don’t see guys playing come here and ridicule others who do.

UPCOMING GAMES

Dec 27 - 19:12	DET	vs	TOR
Dec 27 - 19:12	BUF	vs	CHI
Dec 27 - 19:12	CBJ	vs	BOS
Dec 27 - 19:12	N.J	vs	CAR
Dec 27 - 20:12	DAL	vs	MIN
Dec 27 - 20:12	STL	vs	NSH
Dec 27 - 21:12	UTA	vs	COL
Dec 27 - 22:12	S.J	vs	VGK