First of all I want to apologize again for taking forever to release this aricle. And thanks to the rest of the PG for keeping up the good work while ive been busy. This is the first time i'm free for a while now, Ive either been swamped with mid-terms, finals, assignments, or dead sick. Anyways, here we go!

1. I usually tend to avoid players in fantasy league who are excellent defensively in real life (kesler, toews, j.staal etc) Their upside has a lower chance of being reached because they spend a lot of ice time killing penalties, taking defensive zone faceoffs etc. That's why I would always select a guy like spezza over toews. I love going after offensive players who are terrible at defence, as most of the time they wont be expected to log big minutes on the pk.

2. Teams that have a defenceman leading their team in points: ATL, EDM, OTT. The early Norris candidates seem to be Byfuglien, Lidstrom and Letang. My money is on Byfuglien...he has the weaker team (compared to DET and PIT), and doesn't have star players on his team padding his point totals.

3. When is the last time you saw someone win the art ross in December? Crosby is on pace for 140 points. I think Ovechkins upside is 120-130 max, but Crosby is the only one who can hit 150. Malkin's upside is arguably higher than Ovechkins but he's too inconsistent to ever reach it...when he's on his game there are very few players that are better.

4. Lucic is leading the bruins in scoring. Did anyone draft him over the likes of savard, Horton, seguin, krejci?

5. Top 5 point leading rookies: Skinner, Couture, Stepan, Eberle, Hall. I think the calder will likely go to one of skinner, couture or shattenkirk, unless eberle or hall have a strong second half.

6. I think if Crosby played with me and gates as his linemates tonight against the isles he would still extend his point streak to 26 games.

7. My thoughts on the wisniewski trade: The isles trade their best dman, so they can get more picks, free up cap space, and give more ice time to the younger dmen. That's what it looks like on the surface, but we all know deep down inside their tanking.

8. Who are the only true cup contedors this year? Boston, Pittsburgh, Philly, Detroit, Chicago, Vancouver. There a bunch of other teams that could win if they have a strong playoffs, but these are the only teams I see that have a strong enough lineup to win.

9. Every year there is always one surprise team that barely squeaks in and then has a strong playoff run (Edmonton, philly etc). This year, my pick would be St.Louis. Halak has the ability to win a series all by himself, and the blues are a young team with huge offensive upside. If they make it to the playoffs and get hot, they could do some serious damage.


10. Players I think that should be traded from their respective nhl teams while their value is high: Iggy, Kipper, Brodeur, Spezza. The flames need a massive rebuild, and iggy and kipper could easily bring in some top young prospects. Brodeur's value is sky high despite his terrible play. The sens need a full rebuild, and should do it around karlsson, not spezza. I think by trading spezza they could get a few young players with high upside, as well as valuable cap space.

11. Which likely to be traded 2011 UFA would bring in the most if they were traded at the deadline? Semin, Vokoun, B.Richards, Markov, or Kaberle? I'd rank them in this order: Richards, Semin, Kaberle, Vokoun, Markov. Richards is a big offensive consistent center, which gives him the nod over semin. Kaberle has a very good contract this year, and considering the return halak got and the injuries markov has had the past few years, puts them lower on the list.

12. Want to read the worst trade rumour article? I never thought I'd see anyone worse than Ecklund: http://tinyurl.com/29oklmd

13. Dean youngblood breaks down the Crosby vs Ovy race here: http://tinyurl.com/2cozsut

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XBOX 360 Gamertag: praba911

Good read, thanks Praba.

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There are 2 seasons, Hockey & Waiting for Hockey

Dynasty, 7 Teams, Pts Only
35 Skaters+3 Goalies
Start:1G,6D,12F
G: 2pt win, 2pt SO, 1pt OTL
5 changes/month
Playoffs run with 1 lineup

G: Price,Fleury,Rinne
D: Green,Phaneuf,Doughty,J.Johnson,Markov,Edler,
Ehrhoff,Carlson,Pitkanen,McBain,OEL
F:Malkin,D.Sedin,Kopitar,Perry,Datsyuk,Spezza,
Cammaleri,Carter,Iginla,Savard,Selanne,Plekanec,
Voracek,Hemsky,Burrows,C.Giroux,Backlund,Filatov,
Couture,Paajarvi,Grabner,Connolly

Gotta say, some of those defensive players are having great seasons (Toews, Kesler).

Bryce Salvador for Bobby Ryan and a 3rd

Spezza for Todd White and a 2nd or 3rd

Vokoun for Pavel Kubina and Dan Ellis

Done, done and done. Great link, I think Matthew Shepard is the new Eklund.

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12 Team H2H Semi Keeper (1 of each position + 1 rookie)

Scoring - G, A, P, PPG, PPA, SHP, GWG, +/-, FW, SOG, BLK, PIM
Goalies - W, GAA, SV%, SV, SHO

C - Malkin*, Roy, Weiss, Desharnais, Grigorenko
LW - Parise*, Hall*, Fleischmann, McDonald, S.Kostitsyn
RW - P.Kane*, Wheeler, Voracek
D - Doughty*, Wisniewski, J.Johnson, Wideman
G - Lundqvist*, Miller, Nabokov

I don't know about Byfuglien winning the Norris there Praba. Any time Lidstrom's name is in the mix he's practically a shoe-in to win it. There's a reason they call him Norris Nick. Byfuglien doesn't get near enough media coverage playing in Atlanta so while you'd think he might get the sympathy vote, far too many of the so called "experts" that do the NHL awards voting will only be thinking one thing, Lidstrom. Why? Because too many of them are idiots, and traditionalists. Lidstrom has as good a chance as anyone else of grabbing some sympathy votes just because there's a chance this could be his last season. I'd bet good money on Lidstrom winning the Norris this season.

Love your theory on defense first players. I'm very much the same way. I'll never value Toews the way so many other people do. I recognize his talent but I refuse to give him the benefit of the doubt.

I'm not sure I agree with you that the Islanders are tanking. You can argue that Wisniewski was their best defenseman based on his strong point production, but no way you can be the best defenseman with an ugly +/- like that. Mark Streit is pure offense and he managed to keep himself positive in two seasons playing for that god awful franchise. It's definitely a move thinking about the future, but they could just be a better team now for it. I haven't heard any whispers but this could also mean Streit is on his way back sometime soon, but that's pure speculation on my part.

Add Montreal circa last season to your list of teams that come out of nowhere to go on lengthy playoff runs. That Halak was the one to lead them on that run lends credence to your theory about St. Louis this season. They need to get healthy though.

I agree with your list of playoff contenders with one quibble. I'd take LA over Chicago. I know Chicago is proven but I much prefer LA for two reasons. Goaltending, and depth. Chicago lost both this summer, while LA has only boosted theirs.

Love your thoughts on players that need to get traded. Not sure about Spezza needing to be moved because I think Ottawa is a lot closer than some think. I mean they are largely unchanged from a team that made the playoffs last season. But the other guys would probably serve their teams best as trade chips.

If you want to hear a wild trade rumour/idea/speculation or whatever you want to call it, try this on for size. My buddy this past summer said the Oilers should trade the proposed Dany Heatley package for Spezza instead. Maybe adding Gagner to the mix if necessary. It's a wild idea that would clearly only fly if Spezza truly were on the market and Ottawa was desperate but at least the numbers make sense. Anyways, I only bring it up because as an Oiler fan I drool over the possibilities of Spezza playing between Hall and Eberle.

Lastly, shame on you Praba. Crosby needed you and Gates tonight, way to leave him hanging.

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Also on Twitter @SteveLaidlaw

toews and kesler are having great seasons, they are on pace for about 70 and 80 points respectively. i dont think these guys will ever surpass 85 points because of their defensive play. they have the upside to do it (i think toews has the skillset to hit 90), but it just wont happen.

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XBOX 360 Gamertag: praba911

sure i know lidstrom is a top runner for the norris again, but if byfuglien continues this pace i think he'll edge lidstrom in votes. with datsyuk out now if lidstrom steps it up then he may cement himself as the norris winner...but i'm always up for change so i'm hoping byfuglien gets it. besides, how bad would chicago feel for trading away a norris dman? haha

exactly, i love toews, great player, but he is overvalued in fantasy hockey.

obviously streit is their best dman, i meant to say wisniewski is their best active dman right now. considering they just beat the penguins...i may be wrong. but i'm sure the isles did not trade wisniewski to improve their team's record in the standings. calling it tanking may have been too harsh...perhaps "subtle tanking" is a better term for it haha.

halak is definitely the main reason i think st.louis could go far...their hopes all rest on halak since their team is pretty inexperienced. however, they have the potential to score a tonne of goals each game, but usually end up playing a more defensive game. i'd think of them as montreal last year but with a better offense and a not as good defence.

it was hard for me not to include the defending champs in the list. sure they lost a lot of depth but i dont think LA can take out any of the big guns in the west, while chicago has the ability to do that. however, the kings are one IGGY trade away from being a true cup contedor.

i personally believe ottawa needs to blow it up. as soon as they lost heatley they lost all hope at becoming a cup contender. the sens could get a lot for spezza, so its ultimately up to them if they decide to move him.

the oilers are doing great the way they are now. trading a bunch of young assets for a terrible contract would be a bad move. as great as spezza would be in edmonton, once all the young guys start going up for cotnract renewal, imagine how hard it would be with spezzas contract to deal with.

LOL, as soon as i saw crosby break the streak i thought i jinxed him. Gates where were you man, i told you crosby needed our help!

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XBOX 360 Gamertag: praba911

I don't think the Sens need to blow up, they have a lot of great guys to work around... they just need to make some tweaks.

Alffy, Spezza, Fisher, Michalek, Regin, Butler are all decent top 6'ers. Problem is, after their forward group they're pretty brutal. The Leclaire/Elliott tandem hasn't been getting it done most of the time. Kuba, Lee, Campoli are all pretty terrible. But they do have Karlsson (and Gonchar who SHOULD be better).

All in all a group with Alffy, Spezza, Fisher, Michalek, Regin, Butler, Karlsson, Gonchar isn't someone who needs to blow up I don't think. Alffy and Gonchar don't have a ton of time left so unless they can get a good return on them I think they'd be better off making some tweaks. I'll admit, I don't watch a bunch of sens game so am no expert by any means...

Those are the bad ones for sure but even the "better" ones are horrible. Roloson to Nash??? Is there even a worse fit out there for Rolie?

Salvador for Ryan and a 3rd is just plain stupid. Just goes to show- any jackass with an internet connection can start the rumour mill churning...

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Thunder Bay Fighting Emu
12 team HTH CBS league
C(3)- Malkin, Carter, Little, Huberdeau, Galchenyuk
W(6)- Perry, Nash, Yakupov, Voracek, Wheeler,Cammalleri, Okposo, Hemsky
D(4)- Green, Weber, Hedman, Vishnovsky
G(1)- Lundquist, Rask
Goal/sog heavy- daily changes- slight bonus for pims- No +/-
Keep 12.