In most cases 20 games are in the books for each team in the mighty National Hockey League which puts us at the quarter poll for the season. I sure we all have our own strategy as to when and where you take a look at your team and evaluate what you have don’t have, for me the first major look is the 20 game mark. The other being trade deadline for whatever league your in with only one question being asked, can I win? If so, I often try to make a deal to seal the prize. For now however, the conversation is about the quarter mark and what to consider doing with the players you have. Myself my goal is simple, find players on my roster that are overachieving and try to trade them for gems other owners are looking to off load. Now, of course different trains of thoughts apply to different styles of leagues and in the end this is all just an opinion, so take from it what you will.
Eric Staal:
Tuff start scoring only 3-2-5 in 13 games only to run into an injury that has seen him miss the last 2 weeks. We are talking about Eric Staal here however and there is little chance he continues to play this poorly the entire season. With Cole now healthy and waiting for help on the Canes 1st line I think a healthy Staal comes back into the lineup and starts having an impact almost immediately. His +/- may still suffer no matter what due to the team the Hurricanes seem to have this season however. You can find Staal on some wavier wires, which just blows me away, and deals for him can be had through trade. If you can get your hands on the guy do it, worst case he sits on your bench right?
Martin Havlat:
Ugly, very ugly. Part of me believes, like Staal, that Martin Havlat just can’t keep being this bad, but based on the team and the players around him on the Wild I’m not sure anything will change. Unless he gets to play on that teams top line, Havlat may be stuck in no mans land. Not only is his stats horrible he is almost a guaranteed -1 on any given night. If you have someone asking about him, or have a WW opportunity, go ahead and take it. I think any move will be an upgrade at this point.
Tomas Fleischmann
If you could get a player that has 11 points in 10 games to start a season in the NHL, would you be excited about that? Well coming off injury that’s exactly what Fleischmann has done. Yet as we speak he is only owned in 26% of all Yahoo hockey pools. He is an immediate fix to your RW or LW woes that you can more then likely find on the WW. Not to mention with Semin now hurt he is now playing on the Capitals top line, look him up.
Dustin Penner:
Holy hell, who saw him coming? I didn’t and I’m the Oiler fan. The question is with
with this guy is can he keep it up? If I’m a betting man the answer is no. Will he finally have a 30 & 30 season, maybe, but he won’t be a 82 point player by the end of the season, although I’d be pretty happy to be wrong on this one. Penner is a player I’d be looking to trade. Getting a 2 for 1 deal that address week points or finding a player like Eric Staal for him would be my move.
Alex Tangauy:
The thought of Tanguay, Lecavalier, and St. Louis had us all excited I think. The numbers just haven come all that fast however and owners of Tanguay grow impatient and frustrated, myself included. He is a keeper however. Flashes of what he can do on either top 2 lines in Tampa are starting to show and there is little chance he doesn’t ever play on one the top lines. He also sees top PP time on occasion as well. The points will come, I holding on to the guy.
Good luck with the next quarter of the season and happy hunting, there are moves to be made.
Then again, this is just another damned opinion.
