Comments for Not With a 10-foot Pole (West 2011) at http://hockey.dobbersports.com , comment 1 to 21 out of 20 comments http://hockey.dobbersports.com Tue, 21 May 2013 10:52:14 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/3924-not-with-a-10-foot-pole-west-2011#comment-16143 The only concern I had about Eriksson's season last year was his SOG totals dropping to an unacceptable level for such a great fantasy winger. If he plays with Ribeiro this year, who is a pass-first centerman (as opposed to Richards, who is a big shooter), you could see Eriksson's SOG totals soar to the 3 SOG/game. That's what I'm banking on. I own him, and I am not selling due to any concern of a Richards-related dropoff, this guy's too good to have that happen - future Selke winner good. - Ross10019 (Santo Manna) Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:44:12 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/3924-not-with-a-10-foot-pole-west-2011#comment-16141 I see your point, but not counting 1 game he averaged 15:30 min in the last month of the season. I would think Stajan is already below him on the depth chart so moving Langkow seems like a sign that they believe in Backlund instead of the opposite. - Bender Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:00:20 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/3924-not-with-a-10-foot-pole-west-2011#comment-16134 [b]RE: Stempniak/Backlund[/b] Stempniak played a little bit of center in PHX. With the depth at C in Calgary not saying he'll be a full-time center, but he has the ability to play center so I could see him getting a few shifts there during the season. Backlund, poolies have been saying for years that he won't get shafted and that he's the future of the Flames... a few years have gone now and we're still waiting for him to crack more than 13 mins a game. At the end of the day if they really wanted him to take a top-six role, they wouldn't have signed Jokinen to a 2-year deal. They wouldn't have given Tanguay a 5-year deal. They wouldn't have given Stajan a 4-year deal. They wouldn't have re-signed Morrison. So I mean they've consistently just chucked roadblocks in front of him to really c***block his development. So you really think that they've done all of these shrewd moves to really give him a top-six role? With young kids of the future you need to give them the time to develop properly, and not just stick them in bottom-six role and let them "develop" their defensive games... There are plenty of people like yourself that's going to take a leap of faith on him and expect the moon, I'm just going to take the high road and invest my pick on someone else. - Ryan Ma Tue, 30 Aug 2011 23:12:52 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/3924-not-with-a-10-foot-pole-west-2011#comment-16133 [b]RE: Ryan[/b] 1) Definitely could happen, but I'm not going to assume that that's exactly what's going to happen. I'd want to see if happening before I take a leap of faith on him that he's the type of player that can generate his own offense. 2) Defensively I think they're sound. Tippett has always gotten his teams through with defense. The thing for me is they've lost Fiddler and Belanger who are great at the faceoff dot. Generally speaking you control the dot you have possession and you can dictate the game. Hanzal and Turris aren't great FW centers, so you lose an defensive faceoff and you could easily be fishing the puck out of the back of your own net. Langkow should help, but losing Fiddler and Belanger hurts. I wouldn't mind taking Smith as like a filler 3rd goalie, but I wouldn't depend on him as a 2nd to carry my fantasy team. 3) Yeah I focused these article mostly on 1 year leagues, so value just for this year. Rankings change from year to year. Perry was an undervalued underrated player last season, he's a do not touch player this year. So it's more for 1-year leagues than keeper leagues. - Ryan Ma Tue, 30 Aug 2011 23:04:17 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/3924-not-with-a-10-foot-pole-west-2011#comment-16132 [b]RE: Eriksson[/b] The thing is you can't really ignore the fact that so many of his points occurred when Richards was on the ice with him. Is he capable of putting up points himself? Definitely, but the thing for me is would it be at the same clip as if he didn't have Richards? That I don't have an answer for. The only way we're going to tell is to see for ourselves this season when he doesn't have Richards with him. I mean he can certainly prove me and a lot of other doubters wrong, but I'm not willing to dive head-first and assume him to produce the same numbers with Richards as without. - Ryan Ma Tue, 30 Aug 2011 22:55:16 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/3924-not-with-a-10-foot-pole-west-2011#comment-16128 [b]RE: Perry[/b] Realistic, certainly... likely? I don't know. Honestly it was just a bit of a perfect storm for him last year, great shooting percentage. PPP was on fire, click on all cylinders. Even if he slips say 2-3 percent of his shots, you're looking at even a 5 to 10 goal drop... He isn't really a passing guy, so it's not like he's going to make it up with assists. The thing is you're in a keeper league so there's not much you can do about it now except trade him... but if you are in a 1-year league, I would be really hesitant to draft him after the big 4, and bypass the Sedins, and probably the goalies... Just too much risk involved IMO. First round picks need to pay off for you, you can't really blow that one up and expect to win. - Ryan Ma Tue, 30 Aug 2011 12:39:54 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/3924-not-with-a-10-foot-pole-west-2011#comment-16127 [b]RE: Seabrook[/b] The departure of Campbell probably hurts him to be honest... If you look at his ice-time, it's already 24:23 and 2:39 on the PP, so he really isn't going to pick up the ice-time that Campbell left behind. I don't think he's built to average 30 mins a game... What could possibly happen is that they brought in Montador and O'Donnell, to perhaps take away some of the SH time that Keith and Seabrook had. So if they save their tank from those type of situations and put them more on the PP, then you could possibly argue that he maintains status quo, but I wouldn't necessarily say that Campbell leaving is a reason for improvement... Keep in mind, I'm not saying avoid him. I'm saying 48 points is a pretty good feat, and he's going to be overvalued at the draft table. I haven't partaken on any mock drafts just yet, so I don't know what his draft ranking actually is. But I'm guess he's a bit over-rated. So I'm just trying to make that point of not to over-value what he really is. - Ryan Ma Tue, 30 Aug 2011 12:35:44 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/3924-not-with-a-10-foot-pole-west-2011#comment-16126 [b]RE: Penner[/b] One of the things that will be in Penner's favour is motivation. But I think he's one of those guys that doesn't really take it by the bull's horns. He kinda does his thing, if it works it gives him more drive, but when it doesn't, he's happy to coast through. Contract year should be in his favour, but the thing that probably is 10 times worst is the depth chart. Kopitar, Brown, Williams, Richards, Gagne are 5 quality names that should be ahead of him on the scoring front. Then you chuck a decent cavalry of Parse, Stoll and Loktionov, and it suddenly becomes even more chockers in terms of scoring. I would honestly not be surprised if he tallied just 40 points this season. - Ryan Ma Tue, 30 Aug 2011 12:30:03 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/3924-not-with-a-10-foot-pole-west-2011#comment-16125 [b]RE: Positive Comments[/b] Thanks for the positive comments. They're always greatly appreciated! - Ryan Ma Tue, 30 Aug 2011 12:26:43 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/3924-not-with-a-10-foot-pole-west-2011#comment-16123 Disagree on Backlund, no way he goes back to a 3rd/4th line role. Isn't Stempniak a winger? Feaster said he made this trade due to their depth at center, so why grab another center? - Bender Tue, 30 Aug 2011 10:16:56 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/3924-not-with-a-10-foot-pole-west-2011#comment-16122 It looks like you share the same opinions as me on most of these players. Great article! I look forward to competing against you in the Rocky Horror Roto Show! I especially share your views on Backstrom, Nash, Perry and Eriksson. - Mac Vincent Tue, 30 Aug 2011 10:10:07 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/3924-not-with-a-10-foot-pole-west-2011#comment-16121 Only 3 comments. I agree with most of the analysis. 1) Loui Eriksson - The same could be said for Richards. Also with his departure Loui could see even more responsibility. I'm not convinced that he is such a liability. 2) While I agree 100% and I am not a fan of either Smith/Labarbera, unlike Backstrom not only does Pho play a good 2 way defensive system which will help them, but they also have a decent defensive corps in front of them. I expect they may surprise some with the help of the defence essentially carrying them. 3) Also agree 100% with Bulin Wall and Dubnyk, however could be seen as a long term opportunity than a short term liability. In a keeper you can probably pick up Dubnyk for peanuts and have a decent chance to have a free starter for next year... - Ryan Lenethen Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:58:55 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/3924-not-with-a-10-foot-pole-west-2011#comment-16120 Kraftster >> I've done the math. It is on DobberHockey... but you'll have to use your powers to find out what thread it is in. Try last year's game logs. Find the games in which Eriksson played and Richards did not. Compare Eriksson's non-Richards PPG to the Eriksson's with-Richards PPG. You may not like what you find. - Pengwin7 Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:24:52 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/3924-not-with-a-10-foot-pole-west-2011#comment-16118 I'm amazed how much people are buying into the percentage of Eriksson's points coming when playing with Richards argument against him. Neal - Richards - Eriksson, as a line, played together more consistently than most other lines in the league the past couple of seasons. How does anyone expect Eriksson to get his points when he's not on the ice -- most of the times he was out there it was with Richards. In order for that argument, which we've seen for two years now, to carry any weight, someone's going to have to analyze for me Eriksson's production per time on ice with [u]and without[/u] Richards for me to take anything out of this. I've yet to see anyone do that, just assumptions that it must be because of Richards that Eriksson has put up the points that he has the past two seasons. At the end of the day, the most important point is that Loui Eriksson is absolutely capable (from a talent perspective) of registering the point totals that he has with a different center. He may very well see his production fall this year, but it will not be because he was riding Richards' coattails, it will be because he has to develop chemistry with [i]two[/i] new linemates. - Kraftster Tue, 30 Aug 2011 07:49:31 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/3924-not-with-a-10-foot-pole-west-2011#comment-16116 Great hit/miss ratio from last years column. I have to admit I mocked you after last year's column for what I thought was patting yourself on the back for a pretty dismal record from the year before. But credit where credit is due - you nailed it last year! - jacques oeuf Tue, 30 Aug 2011 06:05:51 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/3924-not-with-a-10-foot-pole-west-2011#comment-16115 Great article once again! I agree that there will be much hype on Perry this season. I have Perry in my keeper league (I'm very pleased about that :) so what should I expect in terms of point production this season? I personnally expect 90pts coming out of him given the strength of the 1st line in Anaheim. Realistic? - Christian Bergeron Tue, 30 Aug 2011 05:53:30 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/3924-not-with-a-10-foot-pole-west-2011#comment-16114 good article as usual! I would just like to note that with the departure of Campbell in Chicago, I can see Seabrook possibly repeating last year's effort or close to it. - mick Tue, 30 Aug 2011 05:50:14 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/3924-not-with-a-10-foot-pole-west-2011#comment-16113 i think penner has motivation. because he doesn't have a contract for next season. i also think his physical preparation has been a lot better this year than in previous years. but i'm not expecting more than 50 pts out of him, anything more is gravy. - gerbernomics Tue, 30 Aug 2011 05:40:48 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/3924-not-with-a-10-foot-pole-west-2011#comment-16112 This guy is one of my absolute favourites to rag on but having had to eat my hat at the hands of his one good season I must concede there is some upside here particularly with LW a startlingly thin position this year. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I'm actively going after Penner but I'd certainly consider allowing him within my Ten-Foot circle. Here's why: He's in a contract year. As you alluded to motivation is a huge issue with Penner. Even in his big season in Edmonton he only brought it for half the season. Nothing makes an athlete focus more than that big contract season though. He's been well compensated while producing very little. If he wants to remain at that level of compensation he needs to back it up. Last time he was in a contract year he scored 29 goals for a similarly stacked Ducks squad in 2006-07 while averaging only 14 minutes per contest. It isn't a stretch by any means of the imagination to say that he could post a 30-25 season. 30-25 is not a far cry from what he did last season and would certainly have value to poolies at the LW position. Again, I agree with your sentiments here and far be it for me to criticize someone else's work cuz you always do fine stuff here Ryan but that was just one thing I noticed that could flip back on you. A motivated Penner is useful Penner and let's face it, there's no telling what lengths a player will go to maximize their value in a contract year. - steve laidlaw Tue, 30 Aug 2011 05:37:47 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/3924-not-with-a-10-foot-pole-west-2011#comment-16111 I like it when I read a list of players to avoid and i have none of them:D - UKflames Tue, 30 Aug 2011 05:37:17 +0100