Eastern Edge

Carolina is winless in their last 13 games (0-10-3) and have only seven points in 17 games (2-12-3) on the season, good for last place in the entire NHL. They look nothing like the team that eliminated the third seed New Jersey Devils and one seed Boston Bruins in last year’s playoffs.

Not even one full game. That’s how long Ottawa training camp standout Peter Regin stayed on the second line. It’s a story replayed in every NHL city. You’ve got to love the patience of NHL coaches who need to win if they want to stay employed. They are never far away from being the General Managers scapegoat of convenience.

Ah the exhibition season, full of promise and exciting prospects. Will those players who wowed us in September peter out and wilt under the harsh glare of the regular season lights or will they blossom into full-blown fantasy hockey studs? Now that the silly season is behind us and the regular season is all set to begin, we are about to find out.

After a much needed short sabbatical from my Eastern Edge articles (thanks Dobber!), I’m back and can’t wait for the season to finally get going. I’ve been lucky enough to participate in four Yahoo drafts already, with three more to go!!

I’ve scoured the players list in Yahoo for guys that are not ranked where I expected them to be. If guys in your pool pay attention to the Yahoo rankings, you might be able to forecast some potential steals in your draft. Conversely, there are also guys that Yahoo has ranked way too high. I’ll give you those as well.

When the Atlanta Thrashers traded for Pavel Kubina in July, I was puzzled. Didn’t they already have three offensive-minded blueliners under contract in Tobias Enstrom, Ron Hainsey and highly regarded rookie Zach Bogosian?

Every year there are players who I end up ranking so low on my one year draft lists that I know almost for a certainty that they will not be on my team.  It could be because there is so much hype on a player that someone will surely take them long before they enter my draft radar.

Don’t be afraid to grab some of these Eastern Conference under-achieving veterans from last season. Many of them were simply injured and could be seriously undervalued heading into your draft this year.

In this final installment, I’ll take a look at the last five Eastern Conference team’s top six talent and guys that might challenge for a spot this season.