Detroit signs Thomas Vanek to one-year deal
Neil Parker
2016-07-01
Breaking down the fantasy impact of Thomas Vanek signing with the Detroit Red Wings …
Fantasy Impact: Thomas Vanek signed a one-year, $2.6 million contract with the Detroit Red Wings Friday, July 1.
Detroit adds: A 10-time, 20-goal scorer with an excellent offensive resume and skillset. When motivated, Vanek is still capable of being an excellent secondary scorer at this stage of his career, and he can be especially effective with the man advantage.
Foot speed is a glaring issue, but with incentive for another payday, Vanek should take a run at 25 goals and 50 points with the Red Wings.
Fantasy Take: Enduring a clear decline over the past two seasons, and at 32, Vanek's unlikely to return to being the reliable goal scorer and offensive contributor he once was. After the Detroit power play declined significantly last year, though, he does possess the ability to help the Red Wings in that regard, which could buoy his fantasy value.
With Frans Nielsen also entering the fold, there will be some mixing and matching among the forward ranks, but Vanek wasn't brought on board to be anything other than a scorer. In fact, he's likely either going to score or find himself sitting in the press box.
With that in mind, there is definitely some inherent risk tying your wagon to Vanek's fantasy stock. But, at the same time, he's burned fantasy owners enough over the past two seasons that the price of admission should be low.
All said, Vanek's a low-end winger with bounce-back upside to target in the late rounds of drafts. Just note, there are four pretty stable wingers who will likely see more minutes than Vanek: Justin Abdelkader, Tomas Tatar, Dylan Larkin and Gustav Nyquist.
Fantasy Players Impacted: Theoretically, Vanek should help the proficiency of the Detroit power play, but likely just the No. 2 unit. And at this point, it's too early and murky to know how the depth chart will shake out in terms of even-strength linemates.
Vanek should slot somewhere in the middle of lineup, though, which projects to limit offensive opportunities for Anthony Mantha, Teemu Pulkkinen, Andreas Athanasiou and Tomas Jurco. On the flip side, Abdelkader, Tatar, Larkin and Nyquist project to play above him on the wings.
This deal likely has extremely limited fantasy impact outside of continuing to limit the potential growth and playing time of the young Detroit forwards.
Fantasy Players this helps, in order:
1. Vanek, maybe (profile, stats here)
Fantasy Players this hurts, in order:
1. Mantha (profile, stats here)
2. Athanasiou (profile, stats here)
3. Pulkkinen (profile, stats here)
4. Jurco (profile, stats here)
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He played really well during his brief stint with the Islanders. Replacing Okposo with Vanek on a cheap 1-year deal would have been better for his production.
That was a Tavares-Okposo-Vanek line, and it’s safe to speculate that Tavares and Okposo were the main drivers of offense. The fact Vanek signed with Detroit — likely knowing he was at best the fifth winger — highlights how uninterested the market was.
In hindsight, it was unrealistic to expect Vanek to produce very well with either Koivu or Granlund as a center. Tavares is better than those 2 put together.I think you would agree that a winger like Vanek needs a good set-up man in order to produce good totals. I can’t see him improving much, if at all, playing with either the rapdily declining Zetterberg or a mediocre offensive center like Neilsen Expecting anything more than 50 points would be wishful thinking, wouldn’t it?
Plus, there hasn’t been a UFA crop of wingers this good for some time, so a player with poor totals over the past few years wouldn’t be ranked too high.
As a Wild fan, I can tell you how worthless he has become. He has a few glimpses of his former self, just enough to keep you interested, but that’s it.