Eastern Edge

Russ Miller takes a look at the impact rookies of the Eastern Conference

Here we are at the halfway point of the season already. It has been a long time since I remember as many first year players having this type of impact for their respective teams as there have been this season.  The Eastern Edge looks at some first year players from the Eastern Conference that are having an impact in their inaugural campaigns.

Buy, Sell or Hold - looking at Kadri, Ladd, Voracek, Moulson and more...

In less than two weeks, this condensed season will at the mid-point. If you are still hanging on to some traditional top performers who are not giving you the returns you thought or are debating dropping one for a seemingly lesser-like who may be having a good run, this week is dedicated to you. All of the verdicts below are based on one year leagues only. Keeper league value can be a whole other kettle of fish. This article will cover a dozen players from only the Eastern Conference.

Russ Miller takes a look at the Southeast Division.

After only a dozen or so games, it is clear to this author that there are only two teams that are going to compete for the title of division winner in what has perennially been the worst division in the NHL. The Tampa Bay Lightning and Carolina Hurricanes, aka the Natural Disasters, will battle it out all season to see who will snag that third seed in the East. The rest of the teams in this division are simply disasters.

Tampa Bay has lost four in a row and are a single point behind Carolina for first in the division. The Lightning struck early and often in winning six of their first seven games, recording 37 goals for (5.28 per game) and only 15 goals against (2.14 per game).

Unfortunately, in their last four games, Tampa has scored only six goals (1.5 per game) while allowing 14 goals against (3.50 per game).  Anders Lindback and Mathieu Garon have combined for a 0.876 save percentage in the last four contests. Clearly, that's not good enough, but it doesn't all fall on the goaltenders. If you can only muster a mere 1.5 goals per contest, you aren't going to win very many games, unless you play airtight defensively.

When Brian Burke makes deadline trades, they are often smaller fish. For example, in 2007, while teams were targeting names like Peter Forsberg, Keith Tkachuk, Gary Roberts, and Todd Bertuzzi, Burke made one move – he sent goalie prospect Michael Wall to the Colorado Avalanche for Brad May. That year, Burke’s Anaheim Ducks would win the Stanley Cup.

While the number of quality players moved on this year’s trade deadline was rather disappointing, there were still a number of movements made. Below I’ll take a look at the moves made in the Eastern Conference on the actual deadline day, as well as a handful of others that happened within the week or so leading up to the deadline. Along with the actual trades being listed, I will also take a look at the fantasy impact (or potential impact) for each team that made a move.

Last week I took a look at potential players on the move from the Eastern Conference and as promised, Part 2 has arrived. While it’s virtually impossible that all of them will get moved and entirely possible that none of them get moved, below is a look at some potential movers and a quick glance at what a residual fantasy impact may be.

(for a full review of our Fantasy Hockey Trade Deadline coverage, click here)

Being only one week away from the trade deadline, it’s easy to get antsy about speculating which players might find themselves in a new home and what the residual fantasy value will be. Ryan Ma has put together a nice recap of Western Conference players and below we will take a look at players who may be on the move in the East.

It’s no surprise that the Tampa Bay Lightning are strong second half performers, as a team. More specifically, Martin St. Louis and Steven Stamkos, who are usually paired together, really pave the way for significant fantasy outputs. This year there’s something a little different going on in Tampa though. Sure, the team is poised for another strong late season push, but this time St. Louis and Stamkos are split apart. Let’s take a look at the net result.

A Potent Threat – Mikhail Grabovski - A season ago, NHL fans were introduced to the lethal synergistic line combination of Mikhail Grabovski, Clarke MacArthur, and Nikolai Kulemin. While expectations were high in 2011-12, Joffrey Lupul and Phil Kessel began to steal the spotlight. After a rocky first half of the season, the secondary scoring in Toronto is once again flourishing, thanks largely in part to the efforts of a pending unrestricted free agent – Mikhail Grabovski.