A couple of weeks ago in my Projections column, I mentioned something which was commonly known as the “magical fourth year”. This week I plan on de-bunking or confirming the myth with stats to see if there really is such a thing as the “magical fourth year”.
A few weeks ago I was asked to list my Top-10 Keeper League Goalie Prospects in the DobberForums. Since then, I’ve taken some more time to expand the list to include 50 total prospects. In this two-part series, we’ll take an in-depth look at the Top-30 prospects for fantasy keeper leagues, along with ten goalies I consider “off the grid” and ten more you shouldn’t touch with…well…how about a ten-foot pole?
Three players, three different positions, the same junior league. A trio of French-Canadian players drafted and developed by the Pittsburgh Penguins were key to their first Stanley Cup since the early 90s, and each had their own special motivation.
With the draft coming up, most people tend to focus on who is being drafted and have considerably less knowledge about who is doing the drafting. I plan to single out the decision makers on each team and see how they've done recently. We'll focus on the most recent drafts (2005-2008) only. The teams are presented in alphabetical order with four articles each to be published prior to the draft. Please note: This is not an assessment of each team's current prospects but an examination of the people currently doing the drafting and how well each of those people have done in recent drafts.
Some observations on the Stanley Cup Final series - fantasy relevant or otherwise...
Even with Game 7 looming, there is no shortage of news from around the rest of the NHL. Dany Heatley has asked the Senators for a trade, the Flyers have signed Ray Emery to be their starting goalie, the Canucks are close to signing a top Russian prospect, and the Bruins are trying to figure out how to keep their team together. Let me break it all down from a fantasy perspective.
Last year I wrote a column regarding seven dreams that I had prior to this past season, I hit exactly ZERO of them... so why not do the same thing and hopefully come up with a better hit ratio this time around? Dobber and I had a great side bet last year that if Jaromir Jagr were to sign with the Caps he’d rename Dobberhockey to Mahockey. I’ll throw down the gauntlet once again to make Dobber shake in his pants a little.
Everything from the pronunciation of his name, to his contrasting yet motivational on and off-ice personality, to his unique butterfly on the ice, is quite deceiving about this special goalie from the Czech Republic. And so after posting my Top-10 keeper league goalie prospects just a few days ago…yeahh…I’m already sliding him up a spot or two.
It figures. Spezza owners finally get an 82-game season out of him and he posts his worst points-per-game numbers since his first full NHL season. That means that there has never been a better time to acquire the Ottawa pivot then right now and ditto for his superstar linemate Dany Heatley.
With the draft coming up, most people tend to focus on who is being drafted and have considerably less knowledge about who is doing the drafting. Many of the organizations have changed over the last few years, however, I plan to single out the decision makers on each team and see how they've done recently. I'm going to focus on the most recent drafts (2005-2008) only. The teams will be listed in alphabetical order and ranked from A+ to F. The Top 15 teams are graded between an A+ to a C+, while the bottom 15 receive a C to an F. The teams are presented in alphabetical order with four articles each to be published prior to the draft. Please note: This is not an assessment of each team's current prospects but an examination of the people currently doing the drafting and how well each of those people have done in recent drafts.
