In his third NHL game, the New York Ranger’s Chris Kreider scored on Ottawa’s Craig Anderson, which is impressive for a number of reasons. One, Kreider broke into the NHL in perhaps the fiercest first round playoff match this season. Two, the 31 year old Anderson has been playing like a vintage Marty Brodeur, at one point stopping 75 consecutive shots over 145:27. These were not the Rangers taking crappy shots, either. They were placing the puck well, but Anderson was like a magnet.
Anderson was serviceable this year with 33 wins, a 2.79 GAA, and a .913 SV%. DC ranked him 26th for goalies, and he finished ranked 32nd by Yahoo!’s metric, whatever that is. This postseason, however, he has stopped 167 of 179 shots for a .933 SV%, which would have ranked him third for the season for goalies with more than 20 starts. He has really elevated himself to an elite status in April, but I wouldn’t buy high on him next season. His stats this year fall in line with his career norms, and at best he’s a third goalie on your fantasy team.
Kreider is a little more intriguing. The Rangers took him in the first round (19th pick) of the 2009 NHL entry draft, and he played with Boston College through this year. This season in Beantown, the college junior scored 45 points (23 goals, 22 assists) in 44 games. He also tallied 66 PIM and a +9 rating. In 2011, he played for the U.S. team in the Ice Hockey World Championships, chock full of grizzled NHL playmakers and veterans, and scored 2 goals in 7 games. Do you draft him in the top ten rounds next season? No, of course not. Do you try to get milk out of his udder? Wrong Kreider. However, he is definitely worth a late round flyer, because if he plays for 2012-2013, he can give you 40 points.
So last time I talked prospects I mentioned that I’ve never been ice fishing before, and I probably never will be. I don’t do well in really cold weather (I’m sure living in Southern California my whole life has something to do with that). I went snowboarding in Tahoe once many many years ago and couldn’t have been more miserable. Not only did I suck at snowboarding but I didn’t pack enough warm clothes so the entire trip I was freezing my balls off. Needlees to say that was the 1st and only time I’ve gone on a snowboarding trip. Okay enough of my blabbering, lets get to some young’uns who might be able to help your team(s) this year:
Mika Zibanejad – C (Ott): I have to admit I’m not really all that thrilled with this 18 year old from Sweden. I am however extremely thrilled with this 18 year old from Sweden. Back to Mika – I don’t expect much but he is more than likely going to be the #2 Center in Ottawa. Considering he didn’t do much in his short stint with the Swedish Elite League last year this is a real long shot.
Jacob Josefson – C (NJ): So this is the start of my New Jersey Devil prospect division. For some reason they have some rookies who seem to be in the right situation to produce. First is JJ. Thanks to Travis Zajac’s injury, Josefson will (more than likely) be given the opportunity to skate with Kovalchuk on the top line. He’s a former 1st round pick so I don’t think he’ll be overmatched. And there’s always that one in a million chance he clicks with Kovy right off the bat and stays there all year…
Mattias Tedenby – LW (NJ): Josefson definatley has the better opportunity, but Tedenby is just as good a prospect. They are both swede’s so more than likely the two of them end up on the 3rd line together when Zajac comes back. But if anything happens to one of the top 6 Wingers in New Jersey (Zubrus, Clarkson, Parise, Kovy) Tedenby will be the first guy to get the call.
Adam Larsson – D (NJ): So here is the prize of the NJ rookies. Drafted just over 3 months ago Larsson is now threatening to make the Jersey roster out of preseason. (Side note: Does New Jersey know they don’t have to draft players from Sweden?) Anyway back to Larsson. The thing that makes me excited about him is that no other Defenseman on New Jersey have any offensive ability. Which means he could see significant time on the Power Play… Could be this year’s Cam Fowler.
Jeremy Morin – LW (Chi): This Morin was going to start in the AHL but it looks like he could crack the roster thanks to a concussion to Ben Smith. It’s a deep Chicago roster although Left Wing is probably their weakest spot. If Morin gets a chance he’s got real Goal scoring ability (47G in 58 OHL games in 2009).
Nino Niederreiter – LW (NYI): Yet another one of the Islander’s young guns, El Nino had a cup of coffee with the big club last year. (In fact he played in 9 games – just 1 game short of qualifying as a full year in the NHL). After being sent down, Niederreiter proceeded to treat the WHL like his personal toilet. He had 41 Goals and 29 Assists in just 55 Games. This year he’ll be thrown into the mix with the rest of the young talent on the Isle’, and if he can stay healthy (he suffered a strained groin on Friday – must have been one heck of a night!) then it looks like he’ll be skating with fellow young guns John Tavares and Matt Moulson on the top line.
Jacob Markstrom – G (Fla): Markstrom struggled last year in his first full AHL season (2.98GAA/.907SV%) but the talent is there and the Florida goaltending shituation is uglier than than this thing.
Mark Scheifele – C (WPG): Speaking of ugly, take a look at the Center depth chart in Atlant…. errrrr…. Winnipeg. It’s not good and if Scheifele keeps producing like he has been in the preseason (8 Points in 5 games) there is no doubt he’ll start (and finish) the year in Winnipeg. You should jump on this bandwagon right now, MS could be this season’s Jeff Skinner.
I’ve never been ice fishing before, but I imagine it’s just a bunch of dudes sitting around a frozen hole gettin drunk and hoping something bites. Well predicting which prospects could be a fantasy asset is alot like that. It’s more hope and luck than anything else… I’m going to focus on prospects that I think can make an impact this year, but long term keeper questions are welcome. Also I’m not going to write about some of the bigger names like Brayden Schenn and Jonathan Bernier, you already know about them. And just so I don’t get any hater comments (my 1st one was yesterday!) let me make this clear: If you’ve played less than a full season in the NHL I still consider you a prospect, so please I don’t wanna see any comments like “Hey stupid Travis Hamonic played 60 games in the NHL last year!”. I know. But he started last year in the AHL so that qualifies him as a prospect in my book.
And there were a ton of pre-season games tonight, but I had to watch my boy Kershaw against Lincecum so I have to admit I didn’t watch any of the hockey games… It won’t happen again… Now onto some potentially relevant prospects:
Travis Hamonic – D (NYI): Hey, I know this guy! Oh yeah, I mentioned him just 2 inches ago. Yes I realize he already has 62 NHL games under his belt but I set the rules and in my book he’s still a prospect. And by the way in those 62 games Harmonica had 5 Goals, 21 Assists and 103PIM’s. I’m not sure where the PIM’s came from, but bottom line Hamonic is a Mark Streit injury away from being a #1 Defenseman and seeing time on the top Power Play unit – and when you factor in Streit’s inability to stay healthy it makes Hamonic a worthy late round flier…
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – C (Edm): The 1st overall pick a few months ago was born in 1993. 1993!!! I was already having mastubatory fantasies about Cindy Crawford in 1993. Ted Nugent was still considered a young rocker. The Bills were busy losing their 4th straight Super Bowl (those of you who know me know how much that hurt!). Okay back to RNH – I think he has a chance to make the Oiler’s this year and if he does I’d put his upside at former 1st overall pick Patrick Kane’s rookie year (he too was just 18 to start the ’07-’08 season): 21 Goals, 51 Assists, 28PPP’s and 190 Shots… Okay maybe not that good, but if all goes right he could come close.
Nazem Kadri – C (Tor): So is his first name the plural of “Nazi”? Okay that was out of line… Kadri was rushed to the NHL last year IMO but that could benefit him this year. He’s kinda buried on the Toronto depth chart, but the Leaf’s are more desperate than a married man with newborn twins. They (Burke) will play whoever produces and word is Kadri could get moved to Left Wing, which means as soon as Joffrey Lupul succumbs to injury the only thing keeping Naze’m off the top line is Clarke MacArthur.
Mark Dekanich – G (CBJ): Alright I’ll admit putting M.D. on this list is more of a reason to bash Steve Mason than anything else.. I personally believe that he sucks and his last 2 years back me up: 3.04GAA and .901SV%. If Grey knew anything about hockey, he’d call that craptastic. I call it sh*t… Now back to Dekanich – He’s got the backup job locked up in cBJ and he could become the definition of lightning in a bottle. He’s still only 25 and he dominated the AHL last season: 23W, 12L, 2.02GAA, .931SV%.. Plus he’s a product of the Goalie factory aka the Nashville Predators.
