Ruff on advanced stats, musings about the Swiss League, my thoughts on Subban, Bishop, Maroon and more…

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I put the Guide out Friday around 2pm and pretty much just shut down. Elvis has left the building. Needed a re-charge, spend time with the kids who I had been neglecting. But I’m back now and should have a small, unimportant update later today fixing some typos, plus a couple of minor oversights. I’ll dig into adding a column or two later in the week.

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It’s that time of year again – Football Guide is just $5.99 for six more days before it reverts to regular price. Buy it here. And of course, the big Hockey Guide was released on Friday and is available for download — buy it here.

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My thoughts on the Subban contract – what took Montreal so long? The outcome was not in doubt, the Habs had zero leverage. I made a snide remark about their leverage in the comments section the other day.

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And again touching on older news – that Patrick Maroon contract shocked me and I may have re-evaluate my projection for him. I had him getting scratched a few times in the year ahead. He’ll fill in a few times on the Getzlaf line, and also on the Kesler line. But often he’ll be in a depth role. Unlike Drance yesterday, I don’t believe he’s already hit the high-water mark in production. That could very well end up being the case if he’s buried in the numbers game, but if he’s getting $2 million bucks in the season ahead, he’s not getting scratched. So with that in mind – his production has improved with each season of his career in the OHL and AHL. His development has been steady. Drance touched upon an unsustainable shot percentage of 11%, but his AHL percentage has been: 14.2%, 14.6%, 14.6% the last three seasons. I’m thinking he can sustain the higher number. I’m not a huge Maroon fan, I’m just saying that I do not rule him out of become a really good NHL power forward.