DraftBuddy.com

Fantasy Baseball and Fantasy Football Draft Tools

Salary Cap Woes—Five NHL Teams Destined To Struggle in 2010-11

By Leave a Comment

With the NHL regular season quickly drawing to a close, we begin to consider how the 2010-11 season could shape up. If the current top-heavy payrolls are any indication of how teams will fare next year, these five franchises could be in for long seasons.


5. Toronto Maple Leafs

As of right now, the Toronto Maple Leafs will pay defensemen $26.3 million in 2010-11—a whopping 46 percent of the entire salary cap. While it’s all but certainty that General Manager Brian Burke will find a suitable trading partner for Tomas Kaberle this offseason, the Leafs will still be left with three to five forward signings to make, not to mention the re-signing of rookie goaltender Jonas Gustavsson.

Simply put, Burkie may not have the cap freedom to effectively operate this summer. Looking ahead to next season, even if the Leafs are in the playoff hunt down the stretch in March 2011, they may not have the cap space to acquire a needed player at the deadline.


4. New York Rangers

Any team that pays a 32-point forward over $7 million will find themselves with cap trouble. That player is the Rangers’ second-line pivot, Chris Drury, but the issues don’t end there. Former offensive-defensemen Wade Redden and Michal Rozsival will collectively chew up $11.5 million next season.

To no one’s surprise, Marc Staal is posting career-highs in a contract year and will likely get a raise to somewhere in the $4 million range next season, which will severely cripple the Rangers’ abilities to go out and acquire some secondary scoring in the offseason.

However, the Rangers have a plethora of talented (and more importantly, cheap) young prospects in Evgeny Grachev, Derek Stepan and Bobby Sanguinetti, so the Rangers may rely on their youth.


3. Montreal Canadiens

When the who’s-the-most-overpaid-player discussion comes up regarding the NHL, Scott Gomez often find himself at the top of the list. He’s a great second line center at best, yet he’s being paid like a franchise superstar. The $7.4 million he’ll get next year is a cap killer, and the $5.5 million that defenseman Roman Hamrlik will get does not lighten the burden any.

Now add that the Habs’ best player this season, Tomas Plekanec, is leaving to free agency and that goaltenders’ Jaroslav Halak and Carey Price are each restricted free agents looking for a pay increase and you begin to understand why Bob Gainey relinquished his managing duties.


2. Boston Bruins

The Bruins cap troubles stem from the six forwards who are earning $3.5 million or more next season. While Marc Savard and David Krejci are worth their moderately hefty salaries, Patrice Bergeron, Michael Ryder, Marco Sturm and Milan Lucic have not played consistently well enough to warrant their current price tags. With Phil Kessel’s departure, they also lack a pure sniper.

Another problem area is between the pipes. With the emergence of Tuuka Rask as a prominent NHL goaltender, the Bruins have to pay last year’s Vezina Trophy winner Tim Thomas $5 million per year for the next three seasons, unless they can find a trading partner for Thomas’ services.

GM Peter Chiarelli will be busy this offseason trying to re-sign restricted free agents Blake Wheeler and Daniel Paille, among others. He’ll also need to find suitable replacements for veterans Mark Recchi, Miroslav Satan and Dennis Seidenberg—all this with just over $9 million in cap space.


1. Calgary Flames

GM Darryl Sutter has set the Flames up for a world of hurt next season. With approximately $53.4 million already tied up for 2010-11, Sutter will have very little operating room this offseason. With Vesa Toskala leaving through free agency this summer, Sutter will need to seek out a backup goaltender willing to play for the league minimum, while also finding several cheap forward options to replace unrestricted free agents Chris Higgins and Craig Conroy.

Ian White, arguably the most valuable player the Flames acquired in the “Dion Phaneuf trade” is a restricted free agent, but will command a pay raise from the $850,000 he made this year. Aside from Mikael Backlund, the Flames don’t have any top tier young talent that figure to make an impact at the NHL level next season, so Sutter may end up having to deal team captain and fan favorite, Jarome Iginla, just to make ends meet.

Dear Fans of the Montreal Canadiens, re: Carey Price

By Leave a Comment

At the very end of last season, I was on your side. I thought Carey Price had an ego his game couldn’t yet match, and really doubted his desire to be a franchise goalie.

This season, I will admit, Price has not redeemed himself as I had hoped, but he is after all only 22 years old.

Goaltenders do not typically develop quickly. In fact, take a quick look at the ten goalies with the most wins this season. Kipper didn’t win a starting job until he was 28, Jimmy Howard is just now getting his first real shot at the number one job at 26, Nabokov was 25, and Bryzgalov was 27. Ryan Miller split time as a 25 year old, before being the undisputed starter at 26. Craig Anderson is getting his shot now, at 28.

Now, let’s take a look at the exceptions. Roberto Luongo jumped in with the Islanders as a 20 year old, and was absolutely shellacked. Even he wasn’t anointed as the Islanders starter right away though, and he actually had a lighter-than-usual starter’s workload in Florida at first.

In Los Angeles, Jonathan Quick split time last year as a 22 year old, and this year is the undisputed starter. Most pundits will agree though, Quick is not among the NHL’s goaltending elite, despite his lofty win status.

Jonathan Bernier meanwhile, the Kings’ future franchise goaltender, has done nothing but perform, and yet he is forced to wait in the wings and toil away in Manchester. Why, you might ask? Maybe the Kings want him to learn to actually be a professional starting goaltender before they, oh I don’t know, force him to be their professional starting goaltender.

The Vancouver Canucks haven’t moved Corey Schneider, despite the fact that he has absolutely nothing left to prove at the AHL level.

Goaltenders take time to develop, and it’s something worth doing right. The Penguins’ Marc-Andre Fleury almost became a cautionary tale, but now the whispers that he may be a bust seem to be a distant memory. Columbus is walking a fine line with Steve Mason.

Carey Price is not even close to approaching bust status yet. Last night, he stood on his head in the third period, despite the fact that his entire team folded in front of him. And when he was named the game’s third star, you booed him. For shame.

Carey Price may have some ego issues, but who wouldn’t, when you show up as a rookie and the team ships an all-star goalie out of town to let you take the conference’s first place team into the playoffs? Last night, in fact, Carey Price was one of the only Canadiens who actually deserved to be applauded!

Price was never allowed to mature the right way, and everyone is paying for it now. It still isn’t too late to fix this though. Let’s hope and pray that the Habs retain both Price and Jaroslav Halak this offseason.

Neither will get us the return we would hope for on the open market. This team isn’t built to win now anyway, even though our offseason spending seems to indicate management thinks otherwise.

Let Price play 35-40 games next season, while we wait and see if Halak is for real. I personally am not convinced. And please, don’t be so hard on the kid; he was the only reason we had a chance in last night’s game.

Stock Watch—Twin Tylers Bozak And Myers Tearing It Up

By Leave a Comment

Still fighting to the finish in your fantasy hockey league? Or maybe you are looking for some keeper prospects for next year. Here is the weekly buy and sell recommendations with a bit of help on both fronts.


Buy

Tyler Bozak, C, Toronto Maple Leafs—There is no denying the chemistry developing between Phil Kessel, Nikolai Kulemin and Bozak. While producing offensively, Bozak is also dominating in the faceoff circle (56.2 percent) and is showing he could be the long-term solution for the Leafs as their first-line center. The Leafs have a moderately favorable schedule the rest of the way so Bozak should be good for another 10 or so points.

Tyler Myers, D, Buffalo Sabres—Myers made a name for himself early this season as the towering 19 year old Calder Trophy favorite on the Sabres’ blueline, but his production hit the ever-popular rookie wall on February 1st – his 20th birthday. From February 1st through March 7th Myers had just one goal, no assists and was -5 through 11 games. Since then, he has reverted to his impressive ways, posting two goals, seven assists and a +10 rating. Scan your waiver wire—Myers is owned in just 55 percent of pools.

Alex Steen, C, St. Louis Blues—Steen ranks fifth in the NHL in points over the last month with 14, putting him ahead of superstars like Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby. Normally, I would be skeptical to see a player of Steen’s caliber producing at such a pace, but his added incentive to contribute likely has something to do with his expiring contract. While we might see Steen return back to his old, less-fantasy relevant style of play next season, he is definitely worthy of a pickup down the final stretch this year.

Jamie McBain, D, Carolina Hurricanes—Keeper alert! McBain, 22, appears to be the Hurricanes’ powerplay quarterback of the future. After three years of offensive success with the NCAA’s Wisconsin Badgers, he accumulated 40 points in 68 games with the ‘Canes’ AHL affiliate the Albany River Rats this season. He has points in each of his first four games as an NHLer, with a goal and four assists.


Sell

Niklas Backstrom, G, Minnesota Wild—Backstrom, Minnesota’s franchise player, has been struggling with a groin injury, and with the Wild soon to be out of playoff contention, look for the starting reigns to be handed to Josh Harding, so as not to risk further injury to Backstrom. Cam Ward is in a similar situation in Carolina with an ailing lower back problem. While goaltenders like the Philadelphia Flyers’ Brian Boucher and the Edmonton Oilers’ Devan Dubnyk might be more suited for the AHL, they are starting games and are more valuable at this point of the season than typical studs like Backstrom and Ward.

Marc Savard, C, Boston Bruins—Injured players like Savard, Mikael Samuelsson, and Jeff Carter are still owned in over 60 percent of leagues. Unless you’re in a keeper pool it’s time to drop players who will be out for the remainder of the season.

Alex Kovalev, RW, Ottawa Senators—Surprise, surprise—the notoriously streaky Kovalev has disappeared now that the Senators need him most. In the month of March, he has zero points and a -11 rating through 10 games, while teammates Jason Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson have picked up their respective games. Exchange him for Bozak or Steen, or Nikolai Kulemin if you’re in need of a winger.

Jay Bouwmeester, D, Calgary Flames—Though we expected Dion Phaneuf’s departure to open up offensive opportunities along the Flames’ blueline, Bouwmeester has no goals and four assists in 17 games since the trade. Instead, Calgary’s turned to Mark Giordano and Ian White to provide offense from the back-end.