Fantasy Hockey Ramblings – Aug 25 2014

Dobber

2014-08-25

Setoguchi is a dropsy; why Drew Shore should get a chance; no, Martin Erat will not bounce back; and more …

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Breaking – The Ottawa Senators have re-signed Craig Anderson, extending him for three more years. This comes as a surprise as not only did I figure he would want to test free agency, but I (as well as most of you) figured that the Sens would transition Robin Lehner in as the No.1. This is huge news as it not only means that Anderson will not see a dip in his starts down the stretch (for what would have been a transitional period), but he will also see a lot of starts next season. Lehner will be a backup in that 30-start range both this year and next. Lehner is only 23 and is looking at being 25 before getting into a 1A/1B situation and being 26 before becoming a starter and pushing Anderson to backup. Lehner owners in keeper leagues are looking at sitting on a bench-warmer for a couple of years minimum.

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The Fantasy Hockey Guide was last updated Thursday. Find me another fantasy guide out there with Kevin Hayes in the New York lineup with a projection. I dare ya! I also projected goals-for for every team, and the Draft List now has salary and cap information.

My first reaction to the Devin Setoguchi signing was one of deep disappointment. I own him in one of my three keeper leagues and as far as I’m concerned he’s now a dropsy. Well, I’ve had some time to think about it and now my reaction is one of deep disappointment. I own him in one of my three keeper leagues and as far as I’m concerned he’s still a dropsy. Terrible fit, and early in the season his presence will possibly keep Johnny Gaudreau in the minors. Yes, Setoguchi took the one-way contract (probably the only one he was offered). But it will be his last one-way NHL contract. When I’m sure he could have taken a training camp invite (i.e. no guaranteed money) with a team that is a better fit and maybe carve out an NHL future.

Well, with the dry spell in hockey news, it’s time once again to tap into the forum. “rack55” asks if he should trade Pavel Datsyuk straight up for Rick Nash in a league that counts your main offensive categories (including SOG). It’s a keeper league and he is pretty deep at center and needs a winger badly. Nash has dual winger eligibility.

Given that information, that’s a good deal for rack55. I’m not the biggest Nash fan, as his hype exceeds his fantasy value. But even if he has another poor year, he racks up the shots on goal like nobody’s business.

And here, “Wotan” is in trouble with his lack of RW and since Ryan Kesler is still C/RW he is wondering if he should trade Patrick Sharp (who lost RW) for him. The answer is “no”. Yes, you have too many centers and yes trading Sharp is the right move, but you can do better than Kesler. Sharp has a ton of value right now and if you shopped him around you can get a less injury-prone player.

In case you missed it last week, Rob Vollman and I released an interesting way to look at players – by comparing them to other players throughout recent NHL history and arriving at a window of projected production (highest number and lowest number). A very interesting read if you like stats, and just $4.99 in the shop.

Work will begin on the website in a test environment starting today. I have eight issues on the list and hope to have the resolved and going live by the weekend. Just minor stuff like the weird code that logged out users see at the top, etc. Just an FYI.

Also – I have cleared my site up with some of the email providers (hotmail, outlook, earthlink, etc) and now you can receive emails from my site again. For the last month or two, readers who used those emails were unable to receive emails from the site such as “registration verification” or “forgot password”. It’s all good now.

Look at this guy – he scores a goal and then slides down the ice on his head in celebration. On his head.