Eastern Edge

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.

In this, the second of three installments, I’ll give you my take on Eastern Conference teams top six talent and guys that might challenge for a spot this season.

With that role comes ice time and often power play opportunities, two things that are the key to fantasy success. I focused more on who should actually play in the top six and not so much on actual line combinations, so don’t read too much into where I put the six.

Following the lead of my western counterpart, I’ll give you the Eastern Conference slant on each team’s top six forwards and four defensemen and guys that might challenge them for a spot in the coming season.

Following the lead of my western counterpart, I’ll take a look at players heading into their fourth NHL season and analyze whether or not it is more likely to be magical or mysterious.