Depth Sounding

The Scoring Roster (SR) comprises the top nine forwards, four defencemen and one goalie from each team. If an unfortunate injury wipes out a player on your SR, another player will have to step up to fill the void. Listed below is the top non-SR forward, defenceman and goaltender from each team, to illustrate the kind of depth each team can draw from should the unthinkable happen. I found it unproductive to rank the teams - too many close calls and too much unpredicatability - but they are very loosely in some kind of order of deepest to shallowest. (Numbers are as of Wednesday morning.)

Fylanders
MacArthur - 10
Morris - 4
Fleury - 12
Total: 26
This team some serious depth, with Lecavalier and Van Riemsdyk not even breaking the SR and Fleury ready to overtake Turco shortly.

St Jewish Blues
Gaborik - 9
Demers/Johnson - 5
Mason - 12
Total: 26
Gaborik will soon join the SR.

Mackhawks
Horcoff - 12
Markov - 3
Ward - 18
Total: 33
Deep like the Mariana Trench at forward; solid in goal.

Carmada
Benn - 10
Bogosian - 3
Mason - 21
Total: 34
Fuckin' Bogosian... lets me down every year.

Schizzarks
Langenbrunner - 9
Bieksa - 3
Backstrom - 21
Total: 33
Injuries to Parise and others have hurt this otherwise very deep team.

Wittman's Hitmen
Jokinen/Yip - 8
Tyutin - 3
Kiprusoff - 24
Total: 35
Stacked in net.

Powder Rangers
Zajac - 9
Kubina - 6
Bernier - 9
Total:  24
Only real weakness is goaltending. Seven of Bernier's nine points are from when the slot was occupied by Tim Thomas.

G-Phil's Flyers
Wheeler/Zherdev - 8
Suter - 4
Rinne - 22
Total: 34
Nobody too flashy on the depth chart but G-Phil does not need to sweat injuries.

Preydators
Setoguchi/Galiardi - 6
Ference - 2
Ellis - 20
Total: 28
Deep like Jersey Shore.

Fightin' Irish
Pominville - 4
Zidlicky - 8
Anderson - 8
So much depth on defence, T should consider shopping around Mark Streit (when is he back?) or Marek Zidlicky for some forward depth.

Winter Claassics
Smyth - 12
Hamhuis - 3
Nobody - 0
Possibly the most depth up front of any team, despite the fact DC used all his high picks on Brodeur and establishing the best top 4 defence core in the league. The lack of a backup goalie hurts.

J-kru's A-crew
Doan/Bolland - 4
Nobody - 0
Miller - 12
Total: 16
Miller will improve, but there is a real lack of scoring depth on this team.

Moilers
Hall - 9
Bouwmeester - 4
Nobody - 0
Total: 13
I still like this team, although losing Shattenkirk in a trade hurt them (more on that later).

Dicklas Lidstroms
Michalek - 8
Vlasic - 0
Niemi - 4
Marc Savard cleared for contact yesterday.

Manitoba Roos
Kovalchuk - 10
Ballard - 0
Nobody - 0
Decent depth at forward but the drop off after his top four defencemen is ten points, and there is no backup for Niittymaki.