FREE Fantasy Baseball Guide
Follow FantasyPros911 Here
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Other Articles You Might Like
18 Nov 2009 |
|
| Welcome to this week's installment of the Observation Deck. I see upwards of 10 games a week via Center Ice or in person and this notebook will contain some scouting impressions combined with some numbers when necessary. Lets get to week 7;
When you play on a blueline that already boasts stars in Brian Campbell, and Cam Barker it's easy to be overlooked. Duncan Keith is off to a sizzling start with 15 points (5 goals,10 assists) in his first 19 games. He's not the kind of player I'm trading Erik Johnson, or Drew Doughty for in a keeper format but he's yet to reach his ceiling and his year to year improvement is exciting.
Tyler Ennis made his NHL debut this past weekend when the Sabres needed a forward from Portland (AHL) after Drew Stafford suffered a hip injury. Ennis scored his first NHL goal in a win over the Flyers. He's a small forward who at 5-9, and 150 pounds looks very similar to fellow Sabres prospect Nathan Gerbe. Ennis is an exciting name to watch for those in keeper/dynasty formats. More a finisher than a playmaker, he's a really good skater with the chance to play on the Sabres second line for years to come. Kings C Andrei Loktionov is a name that should be on all keeper leaguers watch lists. He's off to a fast start at Manchester (AHL) with 14 points in his first 16 games. He'll spend the entire season as one of the AHL's youngest regulars (he's just 19 years old). He's a smallish player at 5-10, 180 but has very good speed and handles the puck well at high speed. I've seen him a couple of times already and he's standing out as being someone who has the chops to fill in right now at the NHL level the first time the Kings need an injury replacement.
In the season's first month nobody has been better on the blueline than the Kings Drew Doughty. If he continues to play at this level at both ends of the ice he'll be on the top of an awful lot of keeper/dynasty league rankings before next season. He has points in 13 of his first 22 games and currently resides 4th in scoring among NHL defensemen.
 Also still with the Kings Alexander Frolov has been fantastic since being benched for a game on October 19. In 13 contests he's scored at least a point in 7 of them and has tallied 3 multi point games. He's back to playing confidently with the puck and paying attention to his duties when he doesn't have it on his stick. The Kings are a top 10 offense so continue to roll with Frolov moving forward.One of the quieter 2009 draftees has been Atlanta's Evander Kane. Thats more a function of the fact he plays in Atlanta than anything else as he's had points in 8 of his first 17 pro games, and has flashed great finishing ability. If you're watching him hoping to buy low I get the sense your window might not last that much longer.I'd like to seem him shoot a little more but as someone who will spend his entire first NHL season at 18 years of age it's pretty hard to quibble with how strong he's been early on.
I got a few questions last week from readers asking who I thought had the inside track in the Ducks net. Thus far there's no question that Jonas Hiller appears to be the coaching staff's favorite and he's been slightly more dependable. The team is not going to be able to trade Jean- Sebastien Giguere so I'd bet we're looking at a timeshare for most of the rest of the year. Hiller does look like the guy most capable of stringing together some consistent efforts and I doubt Giguere's threats of retirement have done anything to improve his standing in the coaching staff's eyes.
The Stars Fabian Brunnstrom has become nothing more than a spot play in fantasy this season. He's a beautiful skater who flashed good hands and keen instincts one season ago. This year he seems to be struggling to find any semblance of an offensive game and there has been talk of making him a 3rd/4th liner or even making him available in trade to other teams. At this point I'd have him on my bench and wait for about ten days of decent production before I even spotted him into a forward slot.
Avalanche C Ryan O'Reilly is off to a very fast start in his rookie season. The 15 points (4 goals, 11 assists in 21 games) scored so far is very surprising as he has never been a top point producer in junior. He's a smart player who has the kind of skill set to play a third line role very effectively. If someone offers you a top forward in trade based on his early stats, pull the trigger as quickly as you can.
Blue Jackets goalie Steve Mason has really struggled to start the season. Columbus is only allowing the 23rd most shots on goal per game so weakened defensive play has not been the issue. Mason is a big goalie (6'3 190) who excels when he stays on his feet and limits what looks shooters can get at the net. When watching games and the highlights of late, he seems to be flopping more and he's being exploited. There really isn't anybody in the Jackets organization to push him for the #1 role so he'll be allowed a lot more time to try and regain his form of early 08/09.
Nashville's Patric Hornqvist is a guy that should be on your radar when you need a replacement for an injured or flu ridden forward.He plays the game like a young Tomas Holmstrom scoring from in close and crashing the net. He's a tireless forechecker, and a hard worker who plays much bigger than his size (5-11, 175). I've added him to my bench in leagues where he was on the waiver wire and you should consider doing the same.
I mentioned Coyotes C Kevin Porter in this space a couple of weeks ago and late last week he was recalled from the minors to the big club. At 23 years of age I'm sure he's about ready to show them that he can be one of their top 3 centers and he maintained roughly a point a game pace in San Antonio (AHL) over 14 games played there to start this season. He should be on your watch list now as he's probably not far from having a permanent place on one of the Coyotes top 3 lines.
If you have start/sit questions,trade questions or anything else fantasy hockey related please email me at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
with "fantasy hockey question" in the email header. I'd love to hear from you.
Set as favorite
Bookmark
Email this
Trackback(0)
Comments (0)
 Write comment
Tags: Duncan Keith Tyler Ennis Andrei Loktionov Alex Frolov Drew Doughty Evander Kane Jonas Hiller Jean-Sebastien Giguere Fabian Brunnstrom Ryan O'Reilly Steve Mason Kevin Porter Patric Hornqvist.
|
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
