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What's your Fantasy?

January 14, 2013, 10:36 AM ET [247 Comments]
Ian Esplen
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Follow me on twitter @IanEsplen to chat hockey, sports and life in general anytime


Today's blog will focus on NHL Fantasy drafts, so in the words of Ludacris, "What's you Fantasy?"




My Team

Yesterday, we held our draft and this is the team that I will be going to battle with against 19 HB readers. What do you think?


C Pavel Datsyuk
C Ryan Kesler
LW Andy McDonald
LW Carl Hagelin
RW Jordan Eberle
RW Cal Clutterbuck
F Derek Stepan
F Adam Henrique
F Damien Brunner
D Duncan Keith
D Brent Seabrook
D Luca Sbisa
D Carl Gunnarsson
BN Andrew Shaw
BN Marcus Johansson
BN Michael Grabner
BN Matt Martin
BN Tim Erixon
G Antti Niemi
G Braden Holtby
BN Sergei Bobrovsky

Thoughts on my team?


My predictions for leading scorers
(Top-10, in no particular order)

Steven Stamkos
Evgeni Malkin
Claude Giroux
Sidney Crosby
Ilya Kovalchuk
Jordan Eberle
Mikko Koivu
Henrik Sedin
Patrick Kane
Jason Spezza


My sleepers
(Outside Yahoo's top 125)

G- Miikka Kiprusoff- Ranked 126th (22nd ranked goalie)
I feel a bit odd calling Kipper a sleeper, but he is the 22nd ranked goalie on the board and that is a joke. He'll likely play more than any other goalie and he is still pretty good. I see him getting the Flames to the playoffs.

D- Brendan Smith- Ranked 210th
He is a bit of an X-factor on the Wings blueline, but he did rack up 7 points in 14 games last season and is having a good year in the AHL. He should give fantasy owners 20-30 points and decent +/-, pim and hits.

D- Tim Erixon- Ranked 781st
The Blue Jackets are re-building and Erixon should be a big part of that. He may be the best D in the AHL and I believe he will be just as solid in the NHL. He should give owners 20-25 points without being too bad on the +/- side.

F- Damien Brunner- Ranked 847th
My pick for the Calder is rumoured to be starting on a line with Zetterberg and Datsyuk. He was leading the Swiss League in scoring ahead of a lot of real good NHLers so the offence is there. I'll say he get somewhere around 40 points.

F- Adam Henrique- Ranked 283rd
I did a bit of a double take when I saw Henrique that low. He's a very good all-around player, who will be counted on to score if the Devils want to make the playoffs. I expect an increase in offensive chances for him with the loss of Parise.

F- Andrew Shaw- Ranked 483rd
He had 23 points in 37 games last season and is the type of player that will rack up stats in all categories. I expect we will see him spend time in the Hawks top-6 and out produce a lot of players taken ahead of him. Owners should expect 30-35 points and good numbers across the board from Shaw.


My busts
(Inside Yahoo's top 100)

G- Tuukka Rask- Ranked 21st (fifth ranked goalie)
I don't think Rask is going to be a complete bust, I just don't see the lure in him. He should be solid in net, but being ranked the number five goalie is a stretch for me. At the end of the day, I suspect we see him ranked 10-15 in fantasy rankings.

D- Dustin Byfuglien- Ranked 51st
Have you seen the photos of him? They guy looks more and more out of shape each season. He may get his points, but I suspect we see a steep decline in his play and he finishes up being reserve D on a lot of fantasy teams.

D- Brian Campbell- Ranked 62nd
The Panthers goalies aren't stellar, and their D is missing Garrison and possibly Kulikov and Gudbranson for the start at least. With all that against Campbell, I suspect fantasy owners only really get assists out of him.

F- Milan Lucic- Ranked 29th
29th? Wow, is that overrating a player. I realize Lucic puts up good numbers across the board, but he has a bit of an injury history to go along with some pretty average fantasy numbers. I'm thinking he gets around 20-25 points this season.

F- Patrick Marleau- Ranked 45th
Marleau has been one of my favourite players for a long time, but at some point his production is bound to tail off. The Sharks have a couple of young guys that will pass him on the depth chart this season in terms of offence. He still a solid pick if you can get him middle-to-late, but don't jump too early on him.

F- Nail Yakupov- Ranked 78th
In all honesty, if I was the Oilers I would have him finish the year in Russia and save a year of his entry level contract. He was not as dominant as I thought he would be at the WJHC and because of that I think he will struggle at the NHL level for most of a shortened season. If he does play, look for a modest 18-22 points out of him so if he's there late take a flyer on him; just don't jump too early on the kid.


That’s a wrap.

Ian


Interested in reading more about hockey? Ian Esplen also writes for Hockey Now, covering the WHL, Junior A, and more.

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