Puneet Sharma pens The Journey every Saturday for DobberHockey. He also writes about Chicago Blackhawks prospects for DobberProspects, and he has contributed to the Fantasy Prospects Report.
Brett MacLean has a knack for scoring goals. And since coaches need those to win games, the 22-year old Port Elgin native will no doubt find his way to the NHL one day. It’s just a question of when.
While the Carolina Hurricanes were on the receiving end of James Reimer’s first career shutout last night at Air Canada Centre, top prospect Zach Boychuk tried his darndest to single-handedly erase the donut on the scoresheet.
Recalled to the big club for the third time this season from the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers, Boychuk posted four shots on net in the 3-0 loss, showing signs of what’s to come from the swift-footed forward.
While owner Mike Ilitch made his fortune delivering HOT-N-READY® pizzas, the management of the Detroit Red Wings prefers a far slower approach with its incoming talent.
Take Tomáš Tatar for example. If the 20-year old Slovak was flying under fantasy radars at all prior to this season, you couldn’t have missed him November 30th if you visited any hockey-related website worth its salt. That’s because the night before, Tatar unleashed a staggering seven-point performance for the Grand Rapids Griffins in a 10-8 win over the Chicago Wolves in AHL action.
It’s been humbling looking back at some of the advice I’ve given. While some of it has been good – especially in Part I last week – this week I’m noticing more misses.
Looking back and re-assessing your judgment of players is a great exercise because it helps you adjust your evaluation skills. You see signs that you missed that would have told you a player was better than you thought, and you see which traits attracted you to a player like a moth to the light.
Here’s a look back (chronologically) at some more players I’ve written about in the last year, and how good my assessment was.
It’s been one year since I wrote my first column for DobberHockey. Writing – or talking -- about hockey prospects is quite often a forward-looking exercise, but you can learn a lot by looking back. It’s educational and fun to assess a team’s drafting or scouting record to see how they did. So, I thought I’d take a look at how well I’ve done giving you advice on fantasy hockey prospects.
If you like following the story of a long shot, hitch your wagon to Brendan Ranford.
One of the things you’ll sometimes hear scouts say is that a player has “good bloodlines.”
It means that a prospect is the son of a former NHLer or pro hockey player and the phrase implies that hockey talent is hereditary and passed on genetically.
The Buffalo Sabres lack size – especially in their top six – and have been looking to fix that problem through the draft and waiting patiently for some draft picks to develop.
It’s tough to figure out where Mikko Lehtonen is best suited to play. In two-plus years in the SM-Liiga, the Boston Bruins prospect scored just 18 goals and 21 assists in 106 games. Despite being a teenager in the top pro league in his native Finland, his numbers were a little weak for someone with his offensive talents.
I tried unsuccessfully this summer to get Kyle Palmieri in my keeper league. He was available cheaply, but I didn’t act quickly enough and he got tossed back into our pool of free agents and re-drafted. I was just a little disappointed that I missed out, but that disappointment has grown as he’s got off to an excellent start to his pro career. Palmieri scored his first goal in the NHL against Tampa Bay on Wednesday, November 3.
