Pretty simple here,
Who would you rather own in a points only keeper?

Will Richards ever get back up to 70+, Will Zajac take the next step and get to 70?

I don't think Richards will get back up to 70+, just too much depth there in LA now...

Kops, Brown, Williams, Carter, Gagne, Penner and Richards, they're all 50+ pointers (so they'll steal points off each other) plus they have a defense first mentality... They'd much rather win 2-1, 1-0 games than 5-4, 6-2 ones, so their points are always going to be limited.

With that said Zajac is a pass-first playmaking type of center, he does have the scoring ability to pot 20 goals a season, but probably not much more. A lot of his points in the past have come from feeding a sniper in Parise, but now that they've lost him, I don't know if there's a replacement sniper in place... If he can secure a top-line gig next to Kovalchuk then he could have a shot at 70, but that's not a guarantee...

If you want to play it safe Richards probably is a guarantee 55 points, with an upside of maybe 65... Zajac is the boom or bust with a low of 45 and a high of 75+ if he clicks with Kovo.

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I don't believe Richards gets back to 70+. Zajac will be the top line center in NJ with Kovalchuk. It will be interesting to see how Zajac does without Parise.

I believe Zajac had the ability to keep pace wiht Richards, but it will depend on secondary scoring for the Devils. Richards will get his points, but Zajac may not if teams can focus on the top line due to a lack of secondary scoring. Richards is the safe bet.

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Players: G,A,+/-,PIM,PPP,SHP,GWG,SOG,FW,HIT
Goalies: GS,W,L,GAA,SA,SV,SV%,SHO
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3C - Malkin(RW)/Toews/Vermette(LW)/Hanzel
3LW - Parise/M.Foligno/Michalek(RW)/McDonald(C)
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D - S.Elliot/Trouba
G -Scrivens/Hackett

I won't touch making any predictions about how many points either of these two will get but I do feel safe in predicting Mike Richards will outscore Zajac this season.

Give me Richards

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STATS: F (G,A,GWG) D (G,A,+/-) G (W,GAA,SV%)

FWD - Parise, E. Staal, RNH, Oshie, Zetterberg, Roy, Brown, Stastny, Kesler, Wheeler, Okposo, Pavelski
DEF - Giordano, Fowler, Ehrhoff, E. Johnson, Bogosian, B. Smith
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I think Gotlaid hit the nail on the head here. To me Richards seems like the safe play while the wild card is Zajac. I think that Richards will fall between 55-60...but with Zajac it's hard to say. In 2009-2010 Zajac hit 69 points and everyone thought he was going to take the next step...but then the Devils had that horrible season and then this past season he couldn't stay healthy. I personally think (or would like to see) Zajac play with Elias and Henrique with Kovalchuk...with first PP line duties.

Anyway, if it were me, I'd probably snag Richards due to all the uncertainty surrounding Zajac, but I'd be looking to pick him back up in the draft if possible

My only concern about Zajac is it's injury he got last summer ''torn left Achilles tendon''. It is a pretty bad injuries and it can have an big impact on is play over a long season. So regarding this aspect I will take Richrads over Zajac.