I’m hopeful there will be more trades before the puck drops in October to add yet another pre-season fantasy twist into the equation. Each year players are traded to new teams with big contracts and either relishes the opportunity and excels in their new role. Or of course the opposite and ends up fizzling away into a miscast on the team and becomes the new whipping boy. It happens; both scenarios every year. The tricky part in fantasy is of course weighing the pros and cons of each player on their respected new team with the system that team runs and most importantly who their line-mates will likely be and how much ice time/power play time they will get.
Hopefully after reading the two part blog on these ten players you will have a better idea of where they may stand going into next season. Ultimately you can never be too prepared for the start of next fantasy season. The same goal stands when you are preparing for your fantasy draft; and that of course is to draft the best team possible and yet again win the pool and the gloating rights that go hand in hand.
Part one included: Cam Talbot, Phil Kessel, Patrick Sharp, Mike Green and Carl Soderberg.
Brandon Saad:
At just 22 years of age Brandon Saad has two Stanley Cup rings in three seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks. You couldn’t ask for much better of a start in your NHL career. With already 67 games of playoff experience, Saad was “a little shocked… after being traded and was vocal about it being his first time going through the process of being traded and that he’s “definitely excited to come to a good, young team in Columbus.… This is spot on; as Columbus has a solid foundation built around young, hardworking players, with a lot of potential moving forward. Saad will fit in well with this core of players as he is known for his strength and determination, a very hard working player.
Brandon wasn’t exactly a cheap pickup as he was moved for one of Columbus’ young and upcoming wingers Marko Dano, center Artem Anisimov and a couple of grinders Jeremy Morin and Corey Tropp. A fourth round pick in 2016 was also added by Columbus to Chicago. In return Columbus acquired center Alex Broadhurts and defenseman Michael Paliotta. Each player is somewhat close to being NHL ready, but Paliotta will be considered ready for the jump pending how good his pre-season goes.
Chicago who was battling the salary-cap got a decent return for the young winger, but in the end will likely miss what Saad brought to the Blackhawks organization in his three seasons. The Columbus Blue Jackets and Saad wasted no time signing a six year 36 million dollar contract. Not too bad considering Saad has only scored 126 points in his first 208 games, although he does bring a lot more to the table than just points. Success on a young player certainly has its worth.
Fantasy predictions for Brandon Saad would be that he continues to increase his production as he has every season thus far in his short NHL career. I’d imagine he scores 25 goals and upgrades his assists to 35 in a bigger role in Columbus playing beside the Blue Jackets franchise center Ryan Johansen. It will be interesting to see who he meshes well with and how the Jackets power play lines up. Something along the lines of:
Saad-Johansen-Foligno
The Blue Jackets will have some time to see what clicks as they also have Dubinsky, Hartnell, Atkinson and upcoming center Boone Jenner could be ready to bloom sooner than later.
TJ Oshie:
It has been a tough ride for the St. Louis Blues when they have got into the playoffs. It seems regular season they get the job done each year and look to be a threat going into the playoffs. After a third straight fizzling out in the first-round of playoffs change was coming for the Blues. I was somewhat surprised when I heard the details of the trade as I didn’t expect the Blues to move Oshie after he spent seven seasons with the Blues after being drafted by St. Louis in 2005 as the 24th overall pick.
Oshie was traded to Washington in exchange for a package centered on Troy Brouwer, a goaltending prospect Pheonix Copley and the Capitals third round pick in 2016.
Brouwer may not be as good as Oshie in the big picture; I think that could be agreed upon. But he certainly brings change to the Blues organization going into next season and adds a couple of prospects into the system. Oshie may make the Blues regret this trade since there is a very good chance he plays alongside Ovechkin and Backstrom and his production sky rockets. I’ve never been a huge Oshie fan personally, but when it comes to fantasy I put aside my love/hate for a player and the team they play for. With these surroundings Oshie just may become quite the commodity come October when everyone is picking their fantasy teams.
The Capitals have added Oshie and Justin Williams up front and you can bet this Capitals team will be just as competitive as last season if not more. Oshie adds in a high quality top six winger in his prime into the organization; look for Oshie to get back into the 60 point range again as he should get a chance beside the Great 8, Alexander Ovechkin.
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie Carlson-Niskanen
Pending how Oshie fits in Washington, you can see there is a lot of potential for success.
Ryan O’Reilly:
Well, usually I would start off by discussing the players on other ways but O’Reilly managed to get himself into some trouble recently with the Ontario Provincial Police. O’Reilly was traded to Buffalo and then signed a seven-year contract extension on July 3rd for 52.5 million. Media reports say Ryan crashed into a Tim Hortons in Lucan, Ontario. Brilliant…
O’Reilly was traded from Colorado to Buffalo in June for Mikhail Grigorenko, JT Compher and defenceman Nikita Zadorov and the 31st pick of the draft. This incident of course has Sabres fans rattled as this isn’t exactly great news for their newly signed number one center. Ryan is schedudled to appear in London, Ontario on August 20th to sort out this mess he’s got himself into.
Without question the Sabres have improved their team this season, which really wasn’t difficult as it was quite an embarrassment for their fans.
O’Reilly had an excellent 2013/14 season in Colorado for the Avalanche and produced 64 points, including 28 goals. He was a force that season and also added in 6 points in 7 playoffs games but it wasn’t enough as the Avalanche were knocked out in the first round. After a slow start last season, O’Reilly increased his production as the season went on and ended up with a 55 point campaign. Not bad, considering him and some of the Colorado offense had a slow start.
Where does that put Ryan this season? Very similar to where he was production wise last season as his line mates won’t be as talented, although his ice time and role should increase. I would expect O’Reilly to score 20 this season but only have around 35 assists giving him 55 again this season.
Avalanche’s general manager Joe Sakic felt “O’Reilly was going to be too expensive to keep on a long-term basis… so he traded the 24 year old center. It’s somewhat of a crap shoot as to who exactly O’Reilly will play with, but I could envision something along the lines of:
Kane-O’Reilly-Moulson-Ennis-Eichel
Some sort of combination of these players could combine into a lethal power play and potential Buffalo line of the future.
Milan Lucic:
It was the first time in Milan Lucic’s career that he was not laying big hits in the post season. The Bruins failed to make the playoffs after a long season of injuries and disappointment. Boston has made some very questionable trades lately and even more so this offseason as they remove both Milan Lucic and Dougie Hamilton from their roster. Years earlier it was Phil Kessel, and years to follow it was Tyler Seguin. Baffling to me how you could ever consider moving a player of that quality at that age; perhaps why Chiarelli is no longer with the Bruins organization. Mind you, I feel he has done quite well for Edmonton thus far since becoming their GM.
Milan had a below average season last year with Boston, only scoring 18 goals in 81 games and adding in 26 helpers. Even his penalty minutes were down this season, something you can always count on from Lucic when it comes to fantasy. After all, each category counts for something and it’s best to try and build your team to compete in everything to be successful. Perhaps Milan will want to show his new team what he is all about and will get back to the old Lucic we all know and love/hate.
Lucic was traded to the Los Angeles Kings from the Boston Bruins for goalie Martin Jones, defensive prospect Colin Miller and the 13th overall pick at the 2015 NHL draft.
Los Angeles will gladly welcome the hard-nosed forward into their lineup and hope that he can get back to the 60 point power forward who hits, fights and dominates in front of the net. I feel Kopitar and Garborik will play with Lucic on the left wing and he should open up some ice for the talented Kings forwards. Lucic is a warrior type player who has been quite healthy considering his style of play; having played 566 of 622 regular season games he is proven to be quite durable.
If this is the case and Lucic ends up on this line:
Lucic-Kopitar-Gaborik
Expect Milan to get back into the 55-65 point range and be very effective in fantasy, especially those who use penalty minutes in their head to head fantasy setup.
Dougie Hamilton:
What an interesting change of scenery for the young Toronto native. Hamilton who was thriving in Boston this past season putting up a career high of 42 points in 72 games and establishing himself as a top line defensemen at just 22 years of age. Dougie was traded from the Boston Bruins to the Calgary Flames and signed a six-year, 34.5 million dollar contract.
The Flames blue line is absolutely incredible and quite possibly the strongest in the entire NHL. Hamilton brings a lot to the table with his large frame and hockey intellect. Again, I feel like Seguin, Hamilton should never have been moved at his age from the Bruins and they should most certainly have explored some other avenues before opening the exit doors.
The Flames gave Boston the 15th, 42nd and 57th picks in the 2015 draft for Hamilton’s rights. This was an absolute steal for such a player at this point in his young career.
Dougie Hamilton will now be part of the Flames rock solid blue line which includes Giordano, Brodie, Russell, Wideman, Engelland and Smid. Hamilton will be playing top four minutes, possibly top line minutes; either way you should see his name popping up on the scoresheet from time to time and he will likely end up around 40-45 point again this season with the Flames.
It’s funny how things work sometimes. Hamilton was drafted by Boston because Toronto traded for Phil Kessel, which of course included Brian Burke who is now President of the Flames. Each main piece in that trade has since been traded away from their team, again; funny how that works.
Thanks again for reading.