Welcome Fake Chris Kontos from The Royal Half. Not only are we big fans of his site but he was probably our most successful blogger in last year's BB. He picked the breakouts for both Anze Kopitar and Jon Quick... not too shabby. Was he lucky or good? We'll see this year.
The Royal Half has also extended a special invitation to FHS readers to join the Brian Willsie Invitational Classic... it's a fantasy league where you try to draft the worst team possible. It will be great for you Leafs fans as you'll finally be able to own some of your favourite players.
We asked Chris nine fantasy related questions about the Kings and the NHL in general. Follow the jump to read his answers...
To see the rest of our Blogger's Breakouts click here for the main page.
Dosage Express Bad news on Okposo & Leighton... 3-way battle at Caps camp... JJ with big night... Zidlicky & Latendresse banged up... some notable cuts... Jumbo Joe gives fantasy advice
Daily Diarrhea
HEADS UP... we updated our 2010/11 Fantasy Scouting Report on Sept 21st (and we'll have another update later this week), so its some of the freshest fantasy hockey draft advice, projections & cheatsheets that you can find.
So the prognosis on Kyle Okposo's shoulder injury came back yesterday and its another blow to the Islanders as he'll need surgery and will be out 2-3 months... nothing you can do but grin & bear it.
The Islanders signed Mike Mottau to try to offset the loss of Mark Streit... in a previous lifetime Mottau was a high scoring dman but these days he's more of a two-way guy so we wouldn't expect much production.
The battle for jobs at Caps camp rages on as Mathieu Perreault had a chance to center the 1st line last night and scored in 12 minutes of action while Marcus Johansson played 16 minutes and added a PP assist. Cody Eakin has even thrown his hat into the ring with a strong camp and after scoring last night he might be worth keeping around (he has to go back to Jr. if he doesn't make the team). [more]
Big night for the Kings Jack Johnson as he had 2+1=3 and seems to be enjoying the fact that the Kings are encouraging him to use his offensive skills a little more this year... look for a big year from JJ.
Flames dman TJ Brodie had his third goal of the pre-season last night and is pushing hard to make the team (we'll just quickly mention that his goal went through the side of the net and the refs didn't notice... but hey, they all count, I guess?). Calgary already has eight dmen on one-way deals ahead of him so cracking the roster is going to be tough but maybe they'll keep him around if they send Kronwall & Staios away?
A day after saying that they weren't concerned about Mike Leighton's sore back, the Flyers now say he has a bulging disc and he'll be out for a month, at least. Since the Flyers have no idea when it comes to goalies, we should have known that they have no idea when it comes to goalie injuries.
Marek Zidlicky left last night's game after one shift due to a charley horse... the team says he's only day-to-day but he'll be re-evaluated today.
Also with the Wild, Guillaume Latendresse sat out last night's game with a hip flexor... it doesn't sound too serious so lets hope he heals up before the season starts... cause this scout is expecting big things out of him!
Slava Kozlov has signed to play in the KHL for CSKA, in case you were holding on to him and hoping for a return.
Some notable cuts:
The Preds cut Ryan Ellis, Linus Klasen and Chet Pickard... not too shocking as Ellis is sent back to Jr., Klasen is a small Euro-vet who we didn't think was ready for the NHL and Pickard needs more time in the AHL. This leaves Mark Dekanich & Anders Lindback to battle it out for the backup goalie spot, with Lindback looking like he has the edge so far.
The Blues cut TJ Hensick, sending him to the AHL... they gave the college scoring wiz a shot but he didn't show enough in camp, so he'll go down and light up the AHL (maybe that was their plan all along?)
Canucks sent Jordan Schroeder to the AHL, he's not quite ready yet especially on a top team like Vancouver but we still think this kid is going to be a good one.
The Devils cut Vladimir Zharkov, a little surprising since he played half the season in the NHL last year. He might get recalled pretty quickly though once the Devils figure out how to solve their cap puzzle.
Daily Distraction
What's distracting us today?
- If you picked up our Fantasy Prospects DB you already know about these guys (and many, many more) but any cheap bastards in keeper leagues should definitely check out these Rookies to watch in 2010-11 from Pierre LeBrun.
- Great article by Pass It To Bulis about the Thrashers signing or trading for seven black players in the last year. With Sutter's track record the past year the Thrash should really put in a call about Iggy.
- Down Goes Brown with a DGB-style preview of the Eastern Conference. For the Habs: What to watch - If you must park you car on a Montreal street during the playoffs, at least have the sense of humour to fill the trunk with unpopped popcorn kernels first.
PD: Finally, do you have any message for anyone that drafted you in the first round of their fantasy league?
JT: Good job. It's going to be a good year. Those are smart people.
Apparently, Jumbo Joe doesn't realize how deep the center position is. He should have said: "It's going to be a good year but you really should have tried picking me up in the 2nd or 3rd round. You should be picking guys like Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Kopitar, etc before me."
- Saw this over on Houses of the Hockey.... we feel embarrassed for all involved:
To see the rest of our Blogger's Breakouts click here for the main page.
Today our blogging team expert is Carlos Figueiredo from Speaking Of The Devils. Carlos is another repeat offender that we featured last year in this space and his big breakout pick, David Clarkson, was looking good until his leg broke... and as you'll see below he's still got a real affinity for Clarkson. We asked Carlos nine fantasy relevant questions about the Devils and the NHL in general. Follow the jump to read his answers...
At some point in the next hours/days/weeks FHS is going to look a lot different... you'll drop in for a visit and instead of seeing us in our bare bones state that we've been rolling with for the past few weeks, things will be spruced up as we'll be the newest blog added to SB Nation.
That's right, we're joining SBN as their fantasy hockey blog... should be a change for the better as we're looking forward to being linked up with all the great blogs that they have over there and hoping to have a lot more interaction with our readers as the SBN community & forums are an excellent place to debate & educate (each other).
It should be no hassle for our readers as the URL isn't changing so all your bookmarks should still point you right to our new home. One thing that may change is our news feed... so you may need to change your subscription once we are up and running at SBN.
So look out for the change and be patient as we work out the kinks at our new home... but we're planning on staying the same, so if you're liking us here, then we hope you'll be liking us there. As always, thanks for your support and we'll see you on the other side.
Dosage Express Lehtonen already hurt... Flyers optimistic on Leighton... Price bounces back... Eller in top 6... interesting cuts including MZA, Moller & MacLean... happy wiping BizNasty
Daily Diarrhea
HEADS UP... we updated our 2010/11 Fantasy Scouting Report on Sept 21st, so its some of the freshest fantasy hockey draft advice, projections & cheatsheets that you can find.
Uh oh, Kari Lehtonen skipped practice yesterday and won't play tonight due to a "slight" groin injury... I don't think any injury to Lehtonen should be described as "slight". The team thinks that he'll be back at practice today, we'll see about that. If you are relying on him in a fantasy league this year then we'll say a prayer for ya and make sure you have a better Plan B than the Stars do with Andrew Raycroft. [more]
The results of the MRI on Mike Leighton's back have left the Flyers encouraged... it's just a strain and the team thinks he may be able to return to the ice as early as Thursday. That's good news, I guess, but back injuries still scare us. [more]
Cristobal Huet has officially been assigned to the Swiss league and Wade Redden has reported to Hartford... say goodbye to them for a few years, at least.
Nate Gerbe had two goals for the Sabres and led the team's forwards in ice-time last night (18:19). He would seem to have a spot on the team locked up but is fighting for a role on a scoring line and he might be dueling with Drew Stafford, who had 1+2=3 last night himself... this battle is getting juicy!
Carey Price bounced back last night stopping 19 of 21 shots to pick up the win over the Panthers, so he's no longer the worst goalie in the world, according to Habs fans (for the moment). If you're willing to roll with the punches then you should be able to get Price at a discount and he'll give you serviceable numbers this year.
Lars Ellerreally stepped up for Montreal as he had a trio of helpers playing on what has to be the team's top line with Plekanec & Cammalleri. Coming into camp we weren't sure if Eller would be given a chance on a scoring line or plugged in as the #3C but it looks like Jackie Martin thinks he can help the team in the top 6... good news.
The cuts are coming fast & furious now and they're getting a lot more interesting:
We've been very pessimistic on Mats Zuccarello-Aasen coming into this year but we were still a little surprised that he the Rangers cut him yesterday... he'll have to prove that he can handle the North American game in the AHL.
The Habs sent The Great French Hope, Louis Leblanc to junior... no surprise there and we're still not buying into the hype on this kid.
LA cut Oscar Moller, Johan Fransson & Alec Martinez... Moller's the biggest surprise here as he's a pretty early cut and his stock has really fallen since making the team two years ago as a 19-year-old. There's still a number of young dmen in the mix for a roster spot as Hickey, Voynov & Muzzin are still in camp.
The Coyotes cut Brett MacLean after he had a solid camp and scored in a few pre-season games. We're a little surprised that they didn't reward his strong play in the AHL last year with a longer look but they instead decided to keep top prospects like Turris, Boedker & Tikhonov around a little longer.
The Panthers cut Michal Repik & Evgeny Dadonov... Repik is a guy who we think deserves a look but he's a victim of the numbers game in Florida. We'll see if Dadonov will stick around as he threatened in the summer that if he didn't make the NHL that he'd head back to the KHL.
To see the rest of our Blogger's Breakouts click here for the main page.
Today our blogging team expert is Aaron B from Bird Watchers Anonymous. Aaron helped us out last year when he was blogging on his own site blueland outsider and we had to have him back for an encore... and you'll see why as he knocks Question #6 out of the park. We asked Aaron nine fantasy relevant questions about the Thrashers and the NHL in general. Follow the jump to read his answers...
To see the rest of our Blogger's Breakouts click here for the main page.
Today our blogging team expert is SensChirp from the blog of the same name. Now being a Leafs fan, this scout really doesn't want anything to do with the Sens, so we're glad that this post is in his capable hands (note: I added the pictures below, mostly to amuse myself). We asked SensChirp nine fantasy relevant questions about the Senators and the NHL in general. Follow the jump to read his answers...
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