Eastern Edge

(Part One)

Going stride for stride with my Western Conference counterpart, I am providing an Eastern Conference version of Ryan Ma’s Earmarked for Success. As Ryan has cautioned, please do not fret over the line combinations. We are merely separating the top-six players from the bottom-six on each team, which can be applied to potential fantasy success for the upcoming season. Top-six players obviously get the lion’s share of ice time, both at even strength and on the power play.

Last season, the New Jersey Devils shocked the hockey world when they opened the season with a 10-28-3 record. This was an organization that had won two Stanley Cups in the last 10 years and qualified for postseason contention each of the last 13 seasons. With the almighty Martin Brodeur in goal, the team seemed like a lock for at least one more playoff berth. But Brodeur struggled early on and the lack of team depth was gloriously magnified. While the team had just locked up superstar Ilya Kovalchuk to a contract Rick DiPietro can smile at, the Devils were really missing another key forward – Zach Parise.

The passion for the game of hockey is passed down through some generations of families. We’ve seen success from the Howe, Dineen, Hextall, Sutter, and of course the Geoffrion lineages. The Geoffrion family is certainly one of the most successful families to play in the NHL, from Howie Morenz to Bernie “Boom Boom” Geoffrion to Dan Geoffrion. Both Howie (7) and Boom Boom (5) have their numbers retired side-by-side in Montreal, and the two Hall of Famers share nine Stanley Cups. While Dan’s career was short-lived, he was still a heck of a hockey player and after his retirement, he moved to Nashville and raised four boys, one of which is Blake Geoffrion.

Just after the Anaheim Ducks selected Justin Schultz in the second round of the 2008 Entry Draft, the Buffalo Sabres selected Luke Adam. Their first-round selection from that draft, Tyler Ennis, would capture the Red Garrett Award (AHL Rookie of the Year) in 2009-10 and just this past season, Luke Adam would capture the award as well. With Gerbe taking the award in 2008-09, the Sabres have had a prospect win the honor in three consecutive years and four of the past 11 years (Mika Noronen in 99-00). While fantasy owners have been well educated on Ennis and Gerbe, they might not know as much about Luke Adam.

This past week I reached on twitter out to ask who you wanted to read about. The winner was 5’9” Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins. The 23-year-old rookie has impressed the hockey world most recently with his strong play in the postseason and will fight for his first Stanley Cup in a few short days.

Last season, the Sedin-Sedin-Burrows line was the most productive in the NHL with 120 points. Even fans in Toronto might not have realized that the next most productive line in the NHL was Kulemin-Grabovski-MacArthur with 110. This Toronto trio beat out some of the more famous trios such as Lucic-Krejci-Horton (107), Ryan-Getzlaf-Perry, and (105) Hartnell-Briere-Leino (91).  The leading goal scorer from this Toronto line was none other than the number 44 overall selection in the 2006 entry draft, Nikolai Kulemin.

At the start of the 2008-09 season, the number 25 overall selection of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, Patrik  Berglund, made the jump from the Swedish leagues straight to the NHL. He had just won a silver medal at the WJC before and did not fail to impress in his rookie year, scoring 21 goals and 47 points in 76 NHL games.

Love it or hate it, penalty minutes are one of the most common fantasy hockey statistics these days. If your offense is strong enough, you have the option of streaming whichever hothead is racking up misconducts and providing little to no offensive assistance throughout the year. The much more attractive option however, is to find a player who can contribute offensively, while still posting 150 or more penalty minutes. With each passing year, more and more fantasy GM’s are coming to the realization that they need a player like Hartnell, Lucic, Downie, etc. One player who fits this category is Los Angeles forward Kyle Clifford.