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.
