Fantasy Nhl Western Conference

As I grow older and more mature (stop snickering), I'm beginning to see the folly of a team, on Deadline Day, spending major assets for a playoff rental. Yes, D-Day is always hyped to the max, and gets fans drooling at the prospect of seeing their team get the likes of Marian Hossa, Peter Forsberg, or Mats Sundin to put their team over the top.

Like Tom Benjamin notes over at his blog, rarely does spending the farm on a short-term rental ever really help a team do big things. Last season, we saw the Isles give up lots for Ryan Smyth and the Thrashers do the same for Keith Tkachuk. Both teams fell flat on their asses in the first round, although some would argue that just getting the teams into the playoffs, and one round of lucrative playoff revenue, was the justification for screwing the team's future.

Think of building a house. A good house takes time to plan, and the foundation is laid early in the design choices one makes. You can't simply stick some Sears Aluminum siding on the outside of a stucco monstrosity and expect it to turn into a million-dollar mansion, can you?

Ask any coach of his from his checkered past, and you'll likely find out that Brad Isbister is one of the most frustrating players they have ever had the misfortune of coaching.

Blessed with great size (6'4" 222), good balance, and a blistering shot, Isbister has all the physical tools needed to be a successful power forward. It's just too bad that he seems to have none of the mental ones.

The phrase "a million dollar body and a ten cent head" is most appropriate when talking about the guy (although he is kinda pudgy), and one wonders how long he'll remain in the NHL. After the Canucks made him a healthy scratch for the third straight game, especially against a physical team like the San Jose Sharks, it's quite obvious that he isn't part of the team's plans for much longer.

The [line combination] alignment also showed that Brad Isbister has become a non-factor. For the third-straight game and 13th time this season, the winger was a healthy scratch. So, what does the future hold for a 6-foot-4, 225-pound grinder who seldom plays to his imposing size?

To describe Isbister's game, think of a big marshmallow. It's big, white, soft, and just sits there and provides little nutritional value or taste.

Isbister was given a prime opportunity to play a big role with the Canucks, a team in desperate need of both size and offensive output up front. Instead of seizing that opportunity by the throat, Isbister loafed around and put up a pathetic two goals and five assists in 30 games. All the while, Isbister rarely hit anyone, rarely broke a sweat, and spent more time hitting the local sushi buffets than working on his game.

After showing some potential with the Isles in his early days, Isbister has produced just 81 points in 224 games as he's floated between teams and between the AHL and NHL. As Isbister can't really provide much value in any facet of the game, I'd be shocked if another NHL team wants to take a chance on the guy. Good riddance to bad rubbish (I hope!).

As if two straight losses against the lowly Phoenix Coyotes wasn't bad enough for the Colorado Avalanche, the Rocky Mountain club will now be without power winger Ryan Smyth, who will be gone 6-8 weeks with a broken ankle. This is already on the heels of captain Joe Sakic's hernia surgery, which will keep him out of the lineup for just as long, if not longer.

"The fracture was discovered following additional medical tests which included an MRI exam," Avalanche head trainer Matthew Sokolowski said yesterday in a release. "We expect him to make a full recovery."

In the ultra competitive Northwest Division and Western Conference environment, the Avs are clinging to a playoff spot by a single point. The loss of Ryan Smyth will surely help the likes of Anaheim, Columbus, and St. Louis, who are all chasing the Avs.

Without a lot of top prospects in the minors, one wonders if GM Francois Giguere will be ready to make a deal or two. While Giguere stated that he expected other Avs forwards to step up during Sakic's absence, it'll be hard to fill in the gaps left by missing TWO of the team's best offensive forwards. No other player can bring Smyth's level of strength and tenacity in the trenches, save for Andrew Brunette, a Ryan Smyth-lite. If I look at the Avs now, I see a team that is liable to lose a lot of physical battles in the offensive zone.

Gentlemen, start your rumor engines.

Joe Sakic and the Colorado Avalanche got some very bad news yesterday as their beloved captain is going to be out a very long time with a nasty hernia.

Hopefully, the injury isn't so severe that it could mean the hastened end to Joe Sakic's illustrious career in the NHL. It's certainly not easy to recovery from a painful hernia, and Sakic is at that age where each passing month is a fight against father time to maintain a high level of physical ability.

"Joe's rehabilitation has not progressed as anticipated and upon further evaluation the decision has been made to perform surgery in order for him to fully recover," Avalanche team physician Andrew Parker said.

If Sakic misses the length of time prescribed, it will be the longest absence of his NHL career. Prior to the injury, which has kept him out 12 straight games, Sakic had played in 232 consecutive games.

Sakic was struggling somewhat this season putting just 22 points in 24 games (with a gross -6) and looking rather 'tired', and now we know why.

Amazingly, the Avalanche have gone 8-4-1 since their captain has been out of the lineup, as some of the other forwards have picked up the slack. Of course, this short-term trend is unlikely to continue, and the Avs could find themselves fighting for their playoff lives by the time Sakic gets back.

While I realize the Avs have some pretty good offensive depth in their lineup, Sakic is one of those rare players that makes others better. Guys like Andrew Brunette, Marek Svatos, and Ryan Smyth need Sakic to feed them the puck to be fully effective. In the long run, the loss of Sakic is likely going to create a huge ripple effect in the Western Conference and Northwest Division.

Poolies all over the continent must be scratching their heads about what to do with one 27-year old Jonathan Cheechoo, the spunky winger who piled up an amazing 56 goals just two seasons ago.

Once again, Cheechoo is off to an incredibly slow start, with just three points in his first eight games, and ZERO in the first five. Fans and fantasy league owners of Jon's must be wondering just WHO is the real Cheechoo?

SEASON  GP  G A PTS SOG SH%
03-04  81 28 19 47 175 16.0
05-06  82 56 37 93 317 17.7
06-07  76 37 32 69 250 14.8
07-08   8  2  1  3  22 9.1 

Obviously, Cheechoo's amazing 56-goal performance, like Brady Anderson's 50-home run performance over a decade ago, was a one-year fluke where the stars in the sky aligned right and everything went right for the Sharks sniper.

So, what to make of Cheechoo? Just how much can we expect from somebody with his production curve?

1. Cheechoo's shooting percentage is abnormally low. He's still getting almost three shots per game, suggesting that he's still generating scoring chances. You can expect the goals to start going in soon enough. Somebody with a past history of burying the biscuit wont' stay dry for long.

2. Cheechoo is still playing on the same line with one Joe Thornton (after a brief demotion). Getting passes from one of the league's premier playmakers ensures Cheechoo will continue to get prime scoring opportunities.

Los Angeles Kings winger and party animal (pictured, left) Michael Cammalleri was one of the league's best players that you didn't know about. Playing for a West Coast team nowhere near the playoffs, Cammalleri finished with 80 points in 81 games, good for 27th overall in the NHL point-scoring race.

His agent, Mike Gillis, seeing a big fat commission and new chrome siding for his Porsche, had his client demand $6 million per season!! This for a guy with just 220 career NHL games and only ONE very good season under his belt.

Now, I can see how they would ask for the moon, given how a guy like Markus Naslund racked in that kind of coin, and produced even less than Cammalleri. Having watched Kevin Lowe toss around $7 million for the likes of Thomas Vanek must have made Cammalleri confident that he'd score big, too!

The Kings countered with a more modest $2.8 million per season, citing the fact that Cammalleri has still not established himself as a true star. Obviously, the two sides were so far apart that no pre-arbitration agreement was going to happen.

Yesterday, the arbitrator ruled in favour of the Kings, with an award of $6.7 million over two seasons, far less than Cammalleri and his greedy agent were hoping for. Unlike the 'good old' days of NHL arbitration, the new line of arbiters seems to be heavily skewing their awards in favour of the NHL clubs, and not the players.

Unfortunately for the Kings, Cammalleri is going to be an unrestricted free agent in 2009. While the Kings will get Cammalleri at a very reasonable salary for two seasons, they may wish that they could have secured their diminutive star for a longer-term deal for an extra million or two. Knowing how Mike Gillis operates, don't expect a home-town discount any day soon.

For fantasy players, hang onto this guy! He's on an up-and-coming team with an offensive-minded coach and he's surrounded by some good talent (Frolov, Kopitar, Nagy, and Handzus). Cammalleri is a great skater and has improved at a steady rate for the past few seasons. Anything less than 65-70 points next season would be an utter shock.

Despite all of Brian Burke's huffing and puffing, he did not, in fact, match Kevin Lowe's offer sheet to chunky winger Dustin Penner. Hence, the 29-goal scorer is going to Edmonton with a fat-like-Louie Anderson $21.5mil contract over five seasons.

Desperate for an injection of offense that only a free agency syringe could provide, Lowe paid heavily for a young forward who has just 101 games of experience and one productive season under his hockey pants. Not only are the Oilers coughing up $4.3mil per season for an rather unproven commodity, they also have to give up three draft picks (a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd rounder).

I understand that Kevin Lowe wants some offense, but for that much money, and those kind of draft picks, you better be getting a star. The chances are, Penner will be a solid winger, but nowhere near the kind of assets that Lowe just pissed away. The Oilers would have been better off saving these assets for another day, rather than over-spending in a desperate attempt to get SOMETHING!

"But Jes, they need the offense just to make the playoffs!"

Right, and when they try and make improvements in the future just to make the playoffs (because they are a long way away, folks), or make other moves to strengthen their team, they'll realize that they are hamstrung because they paid so much for a 2nd-line winger.

Many Oilers fans, obviously, aren't too thrilled with having their GM pay SO MUCH for so little. Yet, despite of Lowe's fantasy GM-type moves, you'll be hard-pressed to get any game tickets in Edmonton this fall.

Although it's one year too late -- and what former NHL player is going to give up a fishing trip for this? -- the Florida Panthers will celebrate their Cinderella run to the 1996 Stanley Cup Finals this weekend. Panthers alumni like John Vanbiesbrouck, Ray Sheppard and Bill Lindsay will join the majority of the players (sans schedule-conflicted Rob Niedermayer and Robert Svehla) who led Florida to the Finals in only the third year of the franchise, before being swept away by the Colorado Avalanche. There's a golf tournament, player appearances and an exhibition game at BankAtlantic Center on Saturday that will give hockey fans something they've long dreamed about: another chance to witness the majestic skating of Terry Carkner on NHL ice.

The Panthers, who will unveil their new uniforms at Saturday's game, have dubbed the celebration "Weekend of the Rat" after the single most significant memory from the team's Stanley Cup run. The Sun Sentinel remembers the fun:

In 1995-96, they finished third in their division (41-31-10, 92 points) and fourth in the Eastern Conference in the regular season, then beat in the Bruins 4 games to 1 in a seven-game series, the Flyers 4-2 and the Penguins 4-3 before losing to the Avalanche in four games in the finals.

Right winger Scott Mellanby killed a rat in the dressing room with his stick minutes before the home opener that season, then scored two goals that night, prompting Vanbiesbrouck to declare Mellanby's feat a "Rat Trick." Throwing plastic rats on the ice after goals soon became a phenomenon.

"We accomplished some pretty lofty things with a group of guys who were considered mediocre players at the time," Lindsay said.

"Mediocre players at the time?" Has history been that kind to Johan Garpenlov and Jody Hull? Florida Panthers fans have every right to celebrate this unexpected season of meteoric success, lest they fall deeper into the depressing reality that their franchise is now known more for losing Roberto Luongo and failing to make the playoffs in the Southeast Division than plastic rodents. But for the rest of us, this weekend begs the question:

Are the Florida Panthers the most mediocre Stanley Cup finalist of the last 25 years?

Not many of you will know the name of Tomas Surovy, so it's best that you get acquainted with the Phoenix Coyotes' latest free agent signing.

Surovy, 26 years of age come next season, is an offensive-minded winger who played well in stints with the Pittsburgh Penguins, but spent last season in the Swedish Elitserien.

SEASON  TEAM   GP  G  A  PTS

03-04   PITT   47  11 12 23

05-06   PITT   53  12 13 25

06-07 LULEA HF 55  23 32 55

Now, you are probably asking yourself "Why the hell should I care about some obscure Slovak?"

Well, my peeps, Surovy just may be a great steal for you fantasy leaguers out there who are looking for bargains.

1. Surovy finished 4th in Swedish Elitserien scoring, a notoriously defensive-minded league. Remember Shawn Horcoff? He also had great success in this league (during the lockout), and then translated that into powerful NHL numbers.

2. Phoenix has so little offensive depth up front: Shane Doan, Mike York, and a bunch of scrap metal. Surovy, who is great on the Power Play, should get an incredible chance for lots of ice time in prime offensive situations.

Given Surovy's development last season, the fact he's in his prime age, and the fact that Phoenix has nobody else to provide offense, Surovy just may be the late-round steal that you are looking for. I'd certainly take the risk. You'd have to figure he's worth at least 40 points, if not more.

Back when Kristian Huselius was a member of the Florida Panthers, coach "Iron Mike" Keenan made it a point to put the Swedish sniper in his permanent doghouse. Despite Huselius' slick stick-handling skills, boyish looks, and crisp play-making abilities, his game never got off the ground during his time in Florida.

Huselius earned a fresh start in Calgary and made the most of it. Those fantasy players who saw how Kristian came out of his shell as a member of the Flames were most pleased that their investment finally paid off.

Now that Mike Keenan is the new bench boss for the Flames, is the second go-around of this relationship going to go sour, too?

SEASON TEAM GP G A PTS +/-
03-04 FLA 76 10 21 31 -6
05-06 FLA 24 5 3 8 -11
05-06 CGY 54 15 24 39 +2
06-07 CGY 81 34 43 77 +21
 

As you can see, Huselius' pre-Calgary numbers were horrible. Only after the trade did Huselius produce like he was expected to when he came over from Sweden.