More Training Camp Updates...

Philadelphia - after an exhibition game with Ottawa recently, the Flyers are walking wounded. Lupul and Upshall are down with left wrist injuries and R.J. Umberger broke a finger in his hand. These guys are all likely be back long before Dean McAmmond after McAmmond received a devastating hit in the same game and left the game on a stretcher. My take on the fantasy impact is as follows:

Lupul's Offense - Negative
R.J Umberger's secure roster spot - Negative
Scott Upshall's secure roster spot - Negative
Flyers Depth - Negative
Dean McAmmond's secure roster spot - Negative

Anaheim - Matthieu Schneider's broken ankle is at least two weeks from having him place his foot in a skate. Not great news for fantasy owners as Schneider will be counted on to pick up some of the offense from the indifferent Scott Niedermayer. The good news is that Schneider misses 10 games every season, and this year, it will be at the beginning of the season.

Fantasy Impact:

Schneider's contribution - Negative

Washington - recent reports have seen the Caps trying Viktor Kozlov playing with Alexander Ovechkin. Michael Nylander has been under-whelming to date, but it's hard to imagine that they would pay this much for a UFA and not play him with Ovechkin. He's a better play-maker than Kozlov but needs to show more than he has to date. That said, watch this development closely.

Fantasy Impact:

Ovechkin - Negative
Nylander - Negative
Kozlov - Positive
Caps offense - Negative

Vancouver - Young Ryan Kessler has been centering Markus Naslund and Ryan Shannon in training camp to date, and Brendan Morrison has been between Matt Cooke and Jannick Hansen. It appears that Canucks management is not sold on the Morrison-Naslund combo and are seeing if Kessler can jump-start Naslund's offense...risky!

Fantasy Impact:

Kessler's Offense - Positive
Naslund's Offense - Even
Morrison - Negative

Training Camp Updates

Toronto - the Maple Leafs are reporting that Kyle Wellwood is experiencing trouble with his surgically repaired abdomen. So much so, that it looks like he will need further surgery. Fantasy Impact: this is a huge blow to the Leafs as Wellwood was pencilled in as centering the 2nd line and being the offensive spark-plug for the PP. It will mean Matt Stajan may move up the dpeth chart, but he's not as offensively skilled as Wellwood.

Tucker - Negative
Ponikarovsky - Negative
Stajan - Positive
Leafs PP - Negative

In Pittsburgh, Petr Sykora is recovering from a broken nose. So far, Sykora had been playing with Crosby on the 1st line, which is great news if you held on to Sykora from last year. He's expected to miss 2 weeks at the most. Fantasy Impact: this likely gives Ryan Malone another chance to show that it should be him and not Sykora that deserves the shot with Crosby.

Malone - Positive
Sykora - Negative
Crosby - no impact
Pens Offense - Negative.

In Chicago, young center prospect Jonathan Toews has been sidelined for 2-3 weeks after breaking a bone in his hand. He'll likely be fine by the start of the season, but it does impact his ability to make an impression during training camp. Watch for other prospects to step up to try to fill his spot.

Toews - Negative
Chicago Offense - Negative
Jack Skille - Positive
Michael Blunden - Positive

A Crash Course On Sleepers

As training camps open you'll hear a lot of talk about this guy or that guy being sleepers. I know that we've written about this in the past, but we'll write about it again. Many people misuse the term. In our mind a sleeper is a guy who could, given the right circumstances, perform BETTER than expected. It is different than a risk pick - which we would define as a guy who, because of potential injury, attitude or a trade, could perform BETTER or WORSE than expected. So, is it possible for a top 20 scorer to be a sleeper? Absolutely. Off the top of my head there is one guy that comes to mind - Michael Nylander. Here's a guy that performed very well last year, but this year, playing with Alex Ovechkin in Washington, he could be even better.

Some pundits get it. They mine the depth charts of teams and come up with some really interesting names. Here's an interesting article I found. Rather than use the same old tired names, Sean Allen dug a little deeper. Sure there are some "standards" in here - Dainius Zubrus, Petr Sykora and Scott Hartnell - but there are also some other guys who he thinks could go from the depths of obscurity to some decent playing time in the NHL. Props to Sean for an interesting and inspiring piece. Check out the article here: http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?id=3012943&sport=nhl&ft=ss

Oh, and by the way, subscribers to the Puckjunkie Predictor will get to see our own Sleeper Projections in an article to be released in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned.

Training Camp Surprises

With training camps starting to open on Tuesday, we thought we'd list a few of our thoughts heading into the pre-season.

1. Scott Niedermayer hasn't made a decision on retirement. For a guy with supposedly so much class, this is nothing but a distraction (and arguably a detriment) to his team.
   
2. Teemu Selanne hasn't made a decision on retirement. Unlike Niedermayer, Selanne is a free agent and is entitled to do what he likes. You have to wonder if the Niedermayer decision (or lack of decision) is also impacting what he does.
   
3. Ray Emery still looking for medical clearance. This was kept very quiet throughout the off-season, but Emery still hasn't received clearance from his doctor to resume playing after his wrist surgery. Here's hoping that it's just a formality.
   
4. What's going to happen in the Leafs' crease? With Vesa Toskala and Andrew Raycroft in camp, there will be a real dogfight for "pipe time" during the pre-season. Someone better establish themselves as the undisputed #1 or it will make for a very uncomfortable October.
   
5. Are the Oilers good enough to keep from handing Brian Burke a good lottery pick? Heading into camp there are many who wonder if the Edmonton Oilers are good enough to make the playoffs. There are those who even think that the loss of Jason Smith on the backend will make them even more vulnerable. And more importantly, after losing a 2008 1st, 2nd and 3rd to Anaheim to sign Dustin Penner, they better hope they don't end up giving the Ducks the top pick in next year's draft.

Roenick un-retires to be a Shark (Wow?)

The news that Jeremy Roenick has accepted a deal to join the San Jose Sharks is great news for fans and writers of the game, but for fantasy owners, his impact days are long behind him. My take is he'll play third line center at most, behind Thornton and Marleau, and be a decent shut-down pivot but very limited offensively. If you're drafting Roenick with the hope he might rekindle some magic, you are wasting a draft choice. My advice is to avoid him altogether and instead take a real flyer on a younger player with upside.

Negative - only if you draft him.
Positive - who knows, he might see 35 points if sees a little PP time.
Positive - for what he brings to the room, and the Sharks run to the playoffs.

Does San Jose Know the Way to the Cup?

If I was building a team, any team (either in sports or the business world), I would be sure to take many pages out of Doug Wilson's book. The man is a genius. In fact, I would almost guarantee that in the next few years you will see his works in print - not as a hockey biography, but as a strategy for building an organization.


I don't know how he does it. First off he now has 19 NHLers under contract, yet has in excess of $13 million of cap space. And we're not talking about a team like Phoenix, who are actively stay at the salary cap floor. Here we have a team bursting with talent, that is positioning itself to have its pick of the litter when its opponents are looking to jetison salary. Could we be looking at another Joe Thornton-type trade? I would almost guarantee it.


In the past week alone, Wilson has also done two things that have turned heads. First, he was able to get Patrick Marleau to sign a two-year extension at, what many believe, is a bargain basement price - ensuring that the captain will be in the Bay area through the 09/10 season. Second, he signed Jeremy Roenick to a 1 year, $500k contract. To many people this is an act of folly, but let's dig a little deeper and see what we see. Wilson and Roenick have a long relationship, dating back to their days in Chicago. Wilson was the veteran leader of the Hawks and Roenick grew a lot under his mentorship. If anyone knows JR, its Wilson. If he thinks Roenick can contribute, then he can. And more importantly, if there's anyone Roenick would not want to disappoint, it's Wilson.


Add these two moves to locking up Joe Thornton and Craig Rivet through 10/11 and Milan Michalek through 13/14, and you have a team with a nucleus all signed to reasonable contracts.


Sure they are still 1 or 2 d-men short and they've lost a good chunk of their goaltending depth, but let's revisit this in November, once teams have started paring salary and Doug Wilson comes acalling.


Joe Thornton - neutral (still 2nd leading scorer in NHL)
Patrick Marleau - positive
Milan Michalek - positive
Craig Rivet - positive