Hedman's called upon to be the shut down Defencemen all to often playing very tough minutes. Which is a great thing for Tampa in REAL LIFE. Can't see Hedman living up to the CHARA comparison's...atleast in the short term.

I'm thinking Ellis will be a top 4 D and if not paired with Weber, could be the go to guy on the 2nd pairing. Personally...I think he's the better Fantasy asset right now and in the forseeable future.

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Team:
C - Tavares, Getzlaf, Ribeiro, (C/R)
L - Hall, Semin, Macdonald(C/L), Healtey(L/R),
R - Perry, Yakupov, Voracek, Voracek, Williams, Boyes
D - Streit, OEL, Edler, Karlsson, B. Smith, Beauchemin, Seidenberg
G - Rinne, Bryzgalov, Anderson, Bernier, Vokoun
10 Team Keeper league with Yahoo

Roster (14 Kept Players): C, C, LW, LW, RW, RW, D, D, D, D, Util, Util, G, G,

(Weighted Category Points: see below).

Skaters -
(Points: G a/o A) 6
(+/-) 3
(PIM) 1
(PPP) 5
(GWG) 5

Goaltenders
(W) 15
(GA) -10
(SV) 1
(SHO) 15

Before Chara broke out, I would guess very similar things were said about him. Not saying that Hedman will be the same, but it is a possibility.

__________________
Ultimate Dynasty League
16 Team Dynasty League H2H: G, A, P, PPP, SHP, +/-, PIM, SOG, W, L, GAA, SvPct, SHO

C: Stamkos, Getzlaf, Carter
LW: Ovechkin, Kovalchuk, Brown
RW: Iginla, Pavelski, Horton
D: Byfuglien, J.Johnson, Goligoski, Hedman, Hamonic
U: Mueller
G: Schneider, Hiller,
B: E. Johnson, S.Kostitsyn, Neil, Biron, Giguere
IR:
Prospect: Nail Yakupov, Tangradi

__________________________________________________ ___________________________
UHL Dynasty St. Louis Blues
...a bad team trying to rebuild...

Absolutely it's a possibility. I just don't see it right now. I know Hedman is still young and developing, but I just haven't seen his offensive upside. He's got boat loads of potential as an NHL Defender...but for me...I'm taking the Offensive upside of Ellis (but not sure either one would be kept in a limited keeper in my opinion).

__________________
Team:
C - Tavares, Getzlaf, Ribeiro, (C/R)
L - Hall, Semin, Macdonald(C/L), Healtey(L/R),
R - Perry, Yakupov, Voracek, Voracek, Williams, Boyes
D - Streit, OEL, Edler, Karlsson, B. Smith, Beauchemin, Seidenberg
G - Rinne, Bryzgalov, Anderson, Bernier, Vokoun
10 Team Keeper league with Yahoo

Roster (14 Kept Players): C, C, LW, LW, RW, RW, D, D, D, D, Util, Util, G, G,

(Weighted Category Points: see below).

Skaters -
(Points: G a/o A) 6
(+/-) 3
(PIM) 1
(PPP) 5
(GWG) 5

Goaltenders
(W) 15
(GA) -10
(SV) 1
(SHO) 15

True. A limited keeper is a whole other kettle of fish.

I just can't help but think with all those slow developing D men... every one never really expects the big breakout.. but when it does happen (Chara, Pronger, etc.), it's something special. Granted, for every one that does break out, there's likely countless that don't.

__________________
Ultimate Dynasty League
16 Team Dynasty League H2H: G, A, P, PPP, SHP, +/-, PIM, SOG, W, L, GAA, SvPct, SHO

C: Stamkos, Getzlaf, Carter
LW: Ovechkin, Kovalchuk, Brown
RW: Iginla, Pavelski, Horton
D: Byfuglien, J.Johnson, Goligoski, Hedman, Hamonic
U: Mueller
G: Schneider, Hiller,
B: E. Johnson, S.Kostitsyn, Neil, Biron, Giguere
IR:
Prospect: Nail Yakupov, Tangradi

__________________________________________________ ___________________________
UHL Dynasty St. Louis Blues
...a bad team trying to rebuild...

Couldn't have said that better my self Rogue!

I'd sooner see an apples to apples comparison...like Hedman vs Larsson. But come into the league with lofty ceilings...complete with similar ?'s.

__________________
Team:
C - Tavares, Getzlaf, Ribeiro, (C/R)
L - Hall, Semin, Macdonald(C/L), Healtey(L/R),
R - Perry, Yakupov, Voracek, Voracek, Williams, Boyes
D - Streit, OEL, Edler, Karlsson, B. Smith, Beauchemin, Seidenberg
G - Rinne, Bryzgalov, Anderson, Bernier, Vokoun
10 Team Keeper league with Yahoo

Roster (14 Kept Players): C, C, LW, LW, RW, RW, D, D, D, D, Util, Util, G, G,

(Weighted Category Points: see below).

Skaters -
(Points: G a/o A) 6
(+/-) 3
(PIM) 1
(PPP) 5
(GWG) 5

Goaltenders
(W) 15
(GA) -10
(SV) 1
(SHO) 15

From a fantasy standpoint, I'd go with Ellis here.

While Hedman has the potential to be a premium offensive D, he could also turn into a two-way defender that isn't as valuable in fantasy circles. Both are tremendous young players and you can't really go wrong here, but I'm going with my gut and taking Ellis. He reminds me of Dan Boyle.

__________________
macv@dobberbaseball.com
DobberBaseball Columnist- http://baseball.dobbersports.com/ind...layout=default
Detroit Red Wings coverage
Twitter- @MacVincent1

Hedman, he's better now and I believe he'll still be a much better fantasy option moving forward. I would expect him to put up slighty better numbers than Ellis, on top of being a better option in multiple categories.

I'm not very high on Ellis, and don't think he'll be the same offensive stud he was in junior, I think at best he tops out as a 40 point player, which isn't terrible.

Multi-cat league or even points only, I'd take Hedman without hesitation over Ellis.

Who knows what's happening this year with the lockout, but being as your league is points and +/- only (right??), IF Ellis is playing top 4 minutes with PP, I'd take Ellis for future....he'll likely get those minutes??

If you keep Ellis and get rid of Hedman, you may or may not lose out this year, but I think you'd come out ahead next year or the year after.

Hedman does have the possibility of breaking out huge, so I'd be tempted to keep him instead...he can't keep getting 25-ish points forever, can he? He's getting top minutes in TBay, so the points will come.

I think I've now stated that I'd keep both for different reasons??? Remind me not to write my introduction first.

End result, Ellis...but it could backfire if they don't give him #1 PP minutes, and give them to Josi or Blum(?) instead.

__________________
14 Team, 10-keeper, Second Year Keeper League - Roto
G, A, +/-, PIM, PPP, SHP, GWG, SOG, Hits, Blks, FW, W, GAA, SV%, SHO
2 C, 4 W, 2 F, 5 D, 2 Util, 2 Goalies, 2 IR, 5 Bench

C: Toews, Stepan
W: Lucic, Pacioretty, E. Kane, Briere
F: St. Louis, Landeskog
D: Pietrangelo, Faulk, Beauchemin, Barrie, Zanon
Util: Hodgson, B. Schenn
Bench: Dubinsky, Grossman, M. Foligno
G: Lundqvist, Varlamov
Bench: Hiller, Markstrom
IR Burns, Hanzal

Defending Champion

Tampa likes to roll with 4 Forwards and 1 D on the Power Play. Last Season Hedman was that D, 6.91% of the time. I'm thinking Carle will be the lead guy, if Tampa continues to go with 1 D on the PP.

I'm going with Ellis here. I think Suter's departure is a golden opportunity for Ellis. He'll get his shot at first wave PP minutes, and top 6 minutes 5-on-5.

It's hard for me to pick one. Sure, Hedman is physically imposing and has shown some flashes of being a useful fantasy d-man, but Ellis looked pretty good in limited action with Nashville a year ago. Yes, Ellis played just 11 games and saw ice time against weak competition, but he was extremely effective on the power play during his time in the OHL.

It's really a toss-up at this point. I'd lean toward Hedman, but that's only because he has done more at the NHL level at this point. He also has the edge in terms of size and physicality. Tough question.

__________________
Mike Schmidt
Follow me on Twitter: @MikeTSchmidt
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