Loving this thread already!

Wecome to the team

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Gates Imbeau
Assistant Manager - DobberSports.com
Writer - Fantrax.com
Regular Guest - The York Report via NextSportStar.com
Email: gates@dobbersports.com
Twitter: @GM_Gates

Welcome! Glad to see someone else take a team. Looking forward to your contributions. I'd like to post a few questions. I know you have lots, but consider all of this a bit of initiation.

Joe Thornton & Patrick Marleau: As you can see I own them in the sim league defined in my sig. I'm a bit worried about them. Their fantasy relevance very much hangs in the balance because they're both north of 30 and have hit a serious decline this year. I'd hate to sell low but I also don't want to let the asset decline beyond good trade value. How do you feel about them in the next year or two?

Justin Braun: A ton of hype around the kid. Doug Wilson was on NHL Home Ice radio and said he's the best dman in the AHL this year, in addition to 9 points over 15 NHL games. Is it mostly hype or could he be the next awesome Sharks dman?

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UHL Calgary Flames
24-team H2H (roto G, A, GWG, SHP, PPP, PIM, +/, SOG, Hits, Blks, FOW, W, SV, SV%, GAA, SO)

Capped article archive

Montreal Canadiens coverage

Twitter:@DH_EricDaoust.

Thanks for the info on Couture. Good to read that it seems I've assessed him accurately, as I tend to get a bit biased with my prospects. Eric posed my next question already so I look forward to reading your take on Mr. Braun.

Thanks for the welcome guys. I hope I can live up to the lofty standards that this forum have set. And thanks to Praba and Gates for the opportunity. But now, back to the business at hand.

Thornton and Marleau. Marleau and Thornton. Boy these two have just been amazingly frustrating this season.

Thornton – I feel like he is an overrated player in fantasy hockey. He has the ability to put up a ton of assists but other than that, he does not fill up any other cats. So if you are playing in a points league, he is an awesome player to have. If you are playing in a roto league, I feel like there are so many better options. This season, he has just not been clicking with anyone. To be honest, in person, I feel like the last 10 or so games, he has been playing some amazing hockey. He is so big and so strong that he is able to push anyone off the puck and control it along the boards. But the problem is that no one around him is moving. The power play is stagnant, and having to play with Heatley almost hurts rather than helps due to the inability of Heatley to skate, pass, control the puck, backcheck, forecheck, play any defense or do much of anything else aside from shoot leaving Joe to try and do it all. The other thing about Joe is there are really two gears. There is day to day Joe, what you see is what you get. Then there is the Thornton that I like to label “angry Joe” The Thornton that shows up when he decides to play with passion is incredible to watch. But that has not been here this year yet. To be honest, I don’t think that Joe is done. Hold tight for another year because his value is pretty low right now. I think a lot of his trouble is due to the fact that………

Marleau – is just having a bad season. I can’t put my finger on it but he just seems to be invisible at times. I realize that he has 22 goals but in the past I have almost always known when Patty was on the ice. This year, not so much. It’s almost like he lost a step and turned into the invisible man. That being said, this is not the first time that it has happened to Marleau over the course of his career. Four years ago, he really took a dive but he came back the following year and just dominated. Something will happen and Marleau will wake up. And when it does, he is going to get nuclear hot for a 10 game stretch. When that happens, you will be happy that you have both Thornton and Marleau.

Braun – Not going to lie, I love this kid. He was up here for 15 days and there were a TON of people that were upset that he got sent back down. The one thing that this Sharks team is missing is a guy who can just bomb from the point. Enter Justin Braun. The thing that I like most about this kid is his uncanny ability to get pucks through traffic and on net. Boyle has a decent shot but his value is in his creativity. Same for Demers. Heatley has an awesome slap shot but he cannot be trusted at the point for the reasons I listed above. Now I cannot speak for Doug Wilsons comments but I for one am very much looking forward to the day that they are able to trust this kid enough to bring him up and put him on the point for the PP. Not sure he will get 1st line duty but I could see he and Demers making a very good pair. Basically a poor mans version of Boyle and Blake of a couple of years ago. If you are in a deep league, I would definitely pick this kid up because once he comes up, I can see him getting his fair share of PP time just posted on the point waiting to release those one-timers on net.

Hope this helps. If I did not give you the input you are looking for, let me know. I can definitely get statistical about Marleau and Thornton but these are kind of my gut reactions.

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8 Team Keeper - Year 3
G,A,+/-,PIM,PPG,PPA,SHP,GWG,SOG,FOW,FOL,BS,W,GS,GA,GAA,SV %,SHO
Start 3C, 3LW, 3RW, 5D, 3Utl, 2G
25 Man Roster, Keep All

C - Getzlaf, Tavares, J.Staal(LW), Duchene, RNH, Crosby
LW - Kovalchuk, Hall, Benn, Hartnell, E.Kane
RW - P.Kane, Seguin, Yakupov, Eberle, OV
D - Keith, E.Johnson, Carlson, Karlsson, Burns
G - Rask, Schneider, Rinne

Thanks.

Regarding Braun, I was pleasantly surprised to see that he is more of a defense-first guy by reputation. Hockeysfuture talks at length about his defensive abilities and skating in his profile page. But then I see the point totals as a pro and I start thinking there could be something great there.

__________________
UHL Calgary Flames
24-team H2H (roto G, A, GWG, SHP, PPP, PIM, +/, SOG, Hits, Blks, FOW, W, SV, SV%, GAA, SO)

Capped article archive

Montreal Canadiens coverage

Twitter:@DH_EricDaoust.

Sharks appear to be close to a deal to get their hands on a RH shooting defensemen. I will update once I hear more.

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/sharks/...g-deal-or-two/

__________________
8 Team Keeper - Year 3
G,A,+/-,PIM,PPG,PPA,SHP,GWG,SOG,FOW,FOL,BS,W,GS,GA,GAA,SV %,SHO
Start 3C, 3LW, 3RW, 5D, 3Utl, 2G
25 Man Roster, Keep All

C - Getzlaf, Tavares, J.Staal(LW), Duchene, RNH, Crosby
LW - Kovalchuk, Hall, Benn, Hartnell, E.Kane
RW - P.Kane, Seguin, Yakupov, Eberle, OV
D - Keith, E.Johnson, Carlson, Karlsson, Burns
G - Rask, Schneider, Rinne

Derek Joslin has been sent to Carolina for future considerations

Joslin has some decent offensive upside but unfortunately, he never really realized his potential at all in SJ. He was the heir apparent to Boyle a couple of years ago but has been surpassed on the depth chart by both Braun and Demers.

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/sharks/...onsiderations/

__________________
8 Team Keeper - Year 3
G,A,+/-,PIM,PPG,PPA,SHP,GWG,SOG,FOW,FOL,BS,W,GS,GA,GAA,SV %,SHO
Start 3C, 3LW, 3RW, 5D, 3Utl, 2G
25 Man Roster, Keep All

C - Getzlaf, Tavares, J.Staal(LW), Duchene, RNH, Crosby
LW - Kovalchuk, Hall, Benn, Hartnell, E.Kane
RW - P.Kane, Seguin, Yakupov, Eberle, OV
D - Keith, E.Johnson, Carlson, Karlsson, Burns
G - Rask, Schneider, Rinne

Ian White coming to the tank?

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/sharks/...ks-target-but/

__________________
8 Team Keeper - Year 3
G,A,+/-,PIM,PPG,PPA,SHP,GWG,SOG,FOW,FOL,BS,W,GS,GA,GAA,SV %,SHO
Start 3C, 3LW, 3RW, 5D, 3Utl, 2G
25 Man Roster, Keep All

C - Getzlaf, Tavares, J.Staal(LW), Duchene, RNH, Crosby
LW - Kovalchuk, Hall, Benn, Hartnell, E.Kane
RW - P.Kane, Seguin, Yakupov, Eberle, OV
D - Keith, E.Johnson, Carlson, Karlsson, Burns
G - Rask, Schneider, Rinne

It is official, White to SJ for a draft pick.

I realize that this deal is going to help out the Sharks on the back end defensively but it does nothing to address the need for a second true puck moving defensemen. I know that Vlasic was hurt last night so if this move was to replace him in the lineup, then I like it but if this deal is all that Doug Wilson has planned, then the Sharks could be in trouble.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=354423

__________________
8 Team Keeper - Year 3
G,A,+/-,PIM,PPG,PPA,SHP,GWG,SOG,FOW,FOL,BS,W,GS,GA,GAA,SV %,SHO
Start 3C, 3LW, 3RW, 5D, 3Utl, 2G
25 Man Roster, Keep All

C - Getzlaf, Tavares, J.Staal(LW), Duchene, RNH, Crosby
LW - Kovalchuk, Hall, Benn, Hartnell, E.Kane
RW - P.Kane, Seguin, Yakupov, Eberle, OV
D - Keith, E.Johnson, Carlson, Karlsson, Burns
G - Rask, Schneider, Rinne

Sorry I have not been doing a lot of posting lately but I am going to give it a shot here today to come up with something for the game tonight.

First off though, I would like to apologize for kind of going off on the DW acquisition of Ian White. I realize that it has only been 1 game, but holy cow. I think Ian White is EXACTLY what the Sharks needed. He showed an uncanny ability to jump up at just the right time without putting his team in a bad position defensively. I did not get to make it to the actual game but watching it on TV, I saw all three forwards down low cycling the puck and out of no-where I see #9 flash down into the screen. WHOA. What was that? I later discover that that my friends, is how a defensemen is supposed to jump into a play. Drop down to the face off dot while opening up for the pass and if nothing is there circle back to the point. Nicely done sir. The other thing that I noticed that I really liked was that he was not afraid to load up and let loose on a shot from the point. That is going to be something that is really going to serve both himself and this team well as we really have no one on the current roster that can do that. I have noticed over the last 2 years that when the Sharks are getting shots from the point and providing traffic in front of the net, they tend to score in bunches. They also have a tremendous ability to score individually but those point shots open up so much more room for them. And with the addition of a RH shot in White and the promotion of Justin Braun, another kid that is able to get his RH shot through traffic quite well, I think that you can look for an increase in scoring in SJ in the near future. One last thing that I hope this move does is relieve some of the pressure that has been placed upon Dan Boyle. DB is currently among the tops in the league in TOI and you can see he is laboring. He is most effective when he is able to turn it loose and skate anywhere on the ice. But with his lofty TOI numbers, he has had to scale back quite a bit in an effort to conserve energy for defense. The addition of White COULD cut down his ice time a bit but that should increase his productivity. If this happens, I can see an overall surge in scoring for the remainder of the season. So after 1 game, I will say that Ian White has shown me that he is capable of more than I was initially led to believe. My apologies on that.

I will do my best to come back a little later with a preview of the game tonight. For now, I had better get back to work. YIKES!!!

__________________
8 Team Keeper - Year 3
G,A,+/-,PIM,PPG,PPA,SHP,GWG,SOG,FOW,FOL,BS,W,GS,GA,GAA,SV %,SHO
Start 3C, 3LW, 3RW, 5D, 3Utl, 2G
25 Man Roster, Keep All

C - Getzlaf, Tavares, J.Staal(LW), Duchene, RNH, Crosby
LW - Kovalchuk, Hall, Benn, Hartnell, E.Kane
RW - P.Kane, Seguin, Yakupov, Eberle, OV
D - Keith, E.Johnson, Carlson, Karlsson, Burns
G - Rask, Schneider, Rinne